AN: Re-written as of June 14th 2024

Once more I have surprised myself with how quickly I was able to get this ready to go up. I actually had to wait since it had only be two days since the last chapter had gone up. Decided I'd post it on Thursday rather than waiting for a full week, since I'm usually busy on the weekends. But that gave me some time to catch up on re-writing the portions that were lost! I'm going to say the next one will probably go up early-ish april.

Hope you enjoy this chapter~


Chapter XVII: Not so Simple


Do you think he has to die?

The question almost caused Masato, who was pretending to be sleepy at the moment, to jerk in shock. Still as much as he hadn't expected it, he knew who Makiko meant. Hatake Sakumo. Kakashi's father. Why do you ask?

There was a drawn out silence, in which Makiko turned over in the futon they'd been put in for a nap to look at the ceiling of the Hatake's spare bedroom. Well… I know he died when Kakashi-sensei was quite young… do you think Kakashi-sensei's … character… needs Sakumo to die?

That was a dark train of thought. He turned over on his side to look at her. I don't know… I never really dug into it when I saw the records stated Sakumo's death as suicide. And he hadn't, it just felt wrong to dig into something so personal for curiosity. A curiosity that had started when he'd wondered where the rest of the Hatake clan had gone. He'd discovered that there was actually a decent amount of Hatake blood still about the village, and instead the members had all chosen to take on the last names of their spouses when they got married. A trend that he'd traced back to the same year as Hatake Sakumo's suicide.

I didn't really either… but now I kind of wish I had. Makiko thought at him, rolling onto her side as well now. They looked at each other for a moment before she closed her eyes. What if Kakashi-sensei doesn't learn our golden shinobi rule if his father doesn't die? Or if Obito doesn't get crushed under that rock? Or To- Ni-san and Kushina don't die.

Masato allowed himself to frown, and took his sister's hands. None of them has to die. If Kakashi doesn't learn, then we'll find a way to teach it to him.

But he was actually worried that if they tried to prevent those deaths someone else would die. Something else would happen to Kakashi. That they couldn't improve the childhood he had. That any of them had had. That they couldn't do enough to stop the strange force from driving this world down an already tread path.

And then there was the worry that anything they did now could mean someone they knew wouldn't be born.

These aren't the same people we knew, Makiko's voice came to him softly, a hint of sorrow. Even the ones who look it. This is a different reality altogether… some of the people we knew might not end up being born here anyway… regardless of what we do.

She had a good point. Even if the history was mostly the same, they had been told that personalities could vary even under a near identical history. Because these people where their own individuals. But thinking of it that way made it hard for him to connect with this village. As well as making him feel guilty of the connections he had made with some individuals. This Minato wasn't the one who would become his father, even if he had a child named Naruto down the line.

Do you regret agreeing to this? He found himself asking his sister.

Her eyes snapped open and she glared at him. Have you forgotten what's at stake?

He looked away for a moment. Her reality. His reality. Both of them would end because of a hole caused by the ending of this one ending. Three worlds filled with people. Villages. Families.

Makiko reached over and pinched his arm. It's bigger than that.

Bigger?

You know what happens when you rip cloth and don't fix it… that could happen here too. One hole could cause the entire thing to unravel.

Masato felt for a moment as if he would choke. Not just one world like in his life. Not three worlds. All of them. All of them currently rested on his and Makiko's shoulders.

Did he regret taking this on?

No


"Umino-sensei," Minato greeted his old academy instructor politely as he entered the faculty room. The short, Brown haired woman was the only one present at current.

She stood, pushing some strands of her straight brown hair back out of her face, allowing him to more clearly see her dark brown eyes. "You don't need to call me sensei anymore you know, Minato-san." then she held out a scroll to him. "Here."

He took the scroll from her. "Sorry Shiraji-san, habit," the boy defended with a bit of a laugh, before he opened the scroll to look at it. He found himself looking at a group of three academy students, a time period, and a mission. He unrolled the scroll to find two more groups of three with a mission listed under each.

"They're all excelling in the respected periods they are scheduled for," Umino Shiraji explained simply. "But they are still students, so we expect them back at the academy in time for their next class." He nodded in understanding of her words, knowing that meant that if it looked like they weren't going to finish the mission in time he was going to have to do it himself. "They are being graded on this, so you'll have to write up a report to give to their home room teacher along with the official mission report. What little money these missions are worth is yours."

They weren't paying these kids for the missions? Well he supposed if they were getting marked on it… still it sat a little wrong with him.

"Be sure to drop the reports off when you arrive to select your subordinates for the day, and your official reports are handed in first thing in the morning at the mission desk." Shiraji went on, her voice no nonsense. She'd been like that in the last few months of his time of the academy, though in the beginning she'd been very friendly and patiently explained things as many times as a student needed. He knew here current attitude was simply because she knew he didn't need that kind of treatment. He was a genin already.

But he was curious about what she'd said. "So I'm to pick which students I take when I arrive in the morning… how early do I need to arrive to have the pick of the lot?" He was curious, as there was no other teachers in the room. He assumed each one had a scroll or two like this one, that they gave to whomever would be supervising the students within it.

She laughed., something he hadn't heard in quite some time. "You're more than early enough now, Minato-san. Today we were told to give you a specific group of students. Tomorrow you'll get some of Katsura-san's students. After that it'll be up to you to select them." She shrugged then, and held out another scroll to him. "Here's a list of all the students in the program right now. Some of them have already been sorted into what will probably be their cells on graduation." He took this scroll from her graciously, but decided he'd look at it later. "Most of the genin and chūnin doing this tend to wander in around half past, to quarter to eight. So as long as you're earlier than that you'll have plenty of choices."

He smiled at the woman, genuinely thankful for her advice. That meant he could afford to come a little later on, which meant his little siblings could sleep a little longer in the mornings. "Where do I pick up my charges from?" He inquired. He'd need to know that before he left.

"There's a designated spot for each class in front of the academy. My class is by the swing," Shiraji answered him and then gestured to the scroll. "You'll find the meeting spots for the other classes there."

"Understood, thank you," he gave her a slight bow in thanks.

"I probably don't need to tell you this, but make sure you're there at least five minutes early," the Umino lady imparted to him, before she left the faculty room. He walked out after her and closed the door.

He glanced at the first scroll again and confirmed that he had about fourty five minutes left before he had to meet them. He also saw he had two hours after his second group, which would allow him to easily have lunch with his siblings and the Hatake, which was a relief. Sakumo had gone ahead and said to his siblings that they might see him at lunch time when they'd kicked up a fuss this morning as he was leaving to head to the academy.

However he wasn't going to have a lot of time this evening, between the reports, reading up on the students he might have tomorrow, and getting at least three people or families aside from the Hatake to sign on to a Nin-kamon (Ninja Kamon). A contract to agree to look after each others children in shinobi families, should the primary caretaker be away on a mission. He needed that done for the end of tomorrow, as Sakumo would be leaving on a mission, and his father likely wouldn't be back yet. If he didn't have it done by then then he'd have a hard time of it without having the Hatake in his corner to help out if he needed to convince someone.

Not that he wanted anyone he had to convince, but he didn't have much of an option. Before he left the village on missions again he had to have a valid Nin-Kamon drawn up, and to be valid it needed five 'families' on it. If he didn't have a valid one then the police force would decide upon one and he'd have no control of who was on it… something he didn't want at all. No shinobi really did… they wanted to choose who cared for their children, people they could really trust. Shinobi parents were, he'd been told several times, more paranoid than other parents. Even though they gave their children weapons to practice with.

Today was going to be a long day.

But at least he'd been able to spend all of yesterday just getting to know the twins.


Minato looked at the box that Minori-san was holding out to him curiously, though he accepted it graciously.

"It's Ohagi. I heard from a little bird you promised they could try some," The woman explained with a smile. "Homemade is always better than something you can get in a shop, don't you think?" Her smile was a little … threatening now. Warning him not to contest her words.

He smiled genuinely back at her. He truthfully enjoyed her cooking a good deal… but the warning look at an origin he knew. There were a few things he hadn't been fond of… but he'd not outright told her, instead trying to pretend to eat the food, and dispose of it later.

She'd somehow found out… and had been rather cross with him. It would have been easier to just tell her it was something he was not fond of… especially when she caught him with store bought versions… which were not actually his, but nothing he said would convince her he was only holding them for his friend who had bought more food than he could carry.

"Thank you Minori-san," the boy said politely before his eyes moved to Sakumo and what he was laden with. Realizing it was likely meals for them he stepped aside for them to come in. "Please come in… would you like some tea?"

"Yes, thank you," the Hatake woman replied as she stepped into his home and removed her shoes, sliding into one of his extra pairs of slippers for guests. "And I'll use your kitchen to warm up some lunch."

He knew better than to protest that idea. "Alright, I'll just go get Maki and Masato. They were having a nap, but they should be awake again by now."

He'd just about gone to make lunch himself before the arrival of the Hatake, knowing his siblings would probably be hungry when they woke.

He heard a door open upstairs, and almost laughed. He'd gotten pretty good at predicting how long the little twins would nap for already.

As he expected they both stood at the top of the stairs when he turned to them, holding hands and rubbing their eyes with their free hands.

"Ni-san," they said together, before Masato finished

"Hungry."

Minori had already moved into the kitchen, and Sakumo followed after now with a bit of a chuckle at the cute sight he'd witnessed. At least that's what Minato thought it was over. He certainly thought it was a cute image.

The older brother moved up the stairs, and the toddlers let go of each other's hands to hold his instead as he led them down the stairs. "Lets go wash our hands, and then Minori-san will have lunch ready for us." He told them. They'd met Minori the night before when she'd insisted on cooking dinner for them after Sakumo had returned home and told her what had occurred… as much as he could share anyway.

"Minori-san here?" Makiko spoke up, seeming quite interested and trying to peek in to the kitchen as they passed by to go to the bathroom.

"She is. And she even brought us Ohagi for after lunch," He told her with a smile. Both twins' faces lit up, a sparkle in their eyes. They tugged at his hands enthusiastically.

"Hurry up Ni-san!"


"So."

"So?" the Hokage returned the word with a raised eyebrow. He scowled at the man in mild annoyance.

"So are you going to tell me what's happened with my little subordinate and his mini-charges?" The white haired man asked flatly, conveying with his eyes that he wasn't going to accept a non answer. Not that he could force the Hokage to tell him anything. What he could do was find out for himself. Because as much as he couldn't make Hiruzen speak if he didn't want to, he could get Minato to talk. And he was confident enough he could persuade Inokai as well.

It seemed that wouldn't be necessary however.

"The Namikaze clan has been re-registered as active," The brunette man told him without preamble as he leaned back in his chair. "And I've taken Minato off your team for six weeks."

Wait. "Hey now, you can't just do that without telling me." Jiraiya hissed… but actually he could.

Hiruzen snorted. "I did."

Jiraiya sighed before he crossed his arms. "For a month and a half?" Meaning it wasn't permanent

"I can't afford to take a genin of such talent off of our C ranked missions for longer than that," was the casual response of the man.

Sometimes Jiriaya was struck with the thought that Hiruzen was more candid with him than he should be, being Hokage and all. Because he was one of his students he assumed… Still, at times like this he was quite grateful for it. "You're putting him on D-ranks for a month… how the hell is he supposed to feed three mouths on D-ranks?"

The Sandaime smiled at him. "How is he supposed to provide for them on a genin's cut of C-ranks? The Namikaze funds won't last long… children are expensive."

Again Jiraiya narrowed his eyes at the man. They were expensive, making putting the boy on D-ranks even more ridiculously stupid.

So there was another purpose to it.

"Minato will be supervising Academy students on D-ranked missions. The pay will be nearly that of his normal C-rank cut, since he won't have to split it among two other genin." The Hokage explained it rather simply, as if that was all there was to it. But Jiraiya knew better. This accomplished several things.

Keeping Minato in the village with his new siblings so that they could encourage a strong bond between them, just in case it turned out they actually were being raised as spies before. However it also meant that the village was saving money on D-ranks. A large portion of the villages cut from missions was set aside to pay the Jōnin who took their little squads on paltry D-ranked and supplement C-ranked missions, to ensure the Jounin was always paid enough to meet their financial needs… not a cent more however.

Having academy students do the D ranked missions meant not having to pay them should it be made part of their mark. None of the Shinobi parents would complain about that… though civilian parents of academy students might have some issue with it. Likely they wouldn't be the kids taking these missions however, as it was bound to be limited to students doing well enough in their classes they could afford to miss some of them. Clan kids for the most part.

This meant the money the village usually had to set aside for Jōnin with a genin squad could be used elsewhere.

It also gave practical experience to the academy brats, and leadership experience to the genin.

Minato couldn't raise his little siblings, and provide for himself on a genin's income.

Chūnin. The Hokage was looking at Minato as a promotion candidate to fill out the ranks of Chūnin before a war started.

"He hasn't even been a genin for a year yet," the Jōnin said softly. He was concerned. The Namikaze had just been acquainted with death in the field… in the form of his own mother. Plus he now had a little brother and sister to be worried about. He just didn't have the kind of shinobi experience that most had before they were promoted to Chūnin. With the added stress from recent events his mental well being could very well suffer if they pushed him further along in his career path too soon.

"You said yourself that he was already as skilled as some of our Chūnin, just last month," The Hokage reminded him.

Another heavy sigh. There was very little he could do about this. Minato would probably be furious with him if he got in the way of him being promoted. He needed the money after all.

"I know," he answered lowly, "But that doesn't mean he can't break." He was still only ten years old.

Sure he himself had become a genin at six… but those had been different times.

Well…. not so different anymore.


Ohagi wasn't her dessert of choice. There were other sweet things she preferred, traditional or not. She'd tried a lot of different sweet treats thanks to her friends all having a different taste. Different dango and mochi. Anmitsu. Different Daifuku.. Yokan. Ice cream, crepes, cakes, cotton candy. And more of course.

However she never really had a favourite sweet treat. Ramen was the greatest food on the planet… all of those sugary concoctions couldn't compare in her mind.

The Ohagi Minori-san made for them were better than she could possibly imagine. She couldn't remember ever tasting something so good.

If she could have gotten away with it, Makiko would have just stuffed her face with a dozen of them. But of course she wasn't able to do that. She'd get in trouble for that for sure. So yesterday she'd contented herself with just the one amazing morsel she'd been given.

It was only after that she realized that it tasting so good was more to do with the terrible tasting food she'd had to live off of for such a long time now, than because she actually now suddenly loved Ohagi more than anything else. All the food they'd had since they got to Konoha had been impossibly good tasting to her taste-buds. She'd just barely noticed while trying to focus on using chopsticks. She didn't need chopsticks to eat the Ohagi… granted that was only because she glowered when Minato had tried to feed it to her and finally just said they could wash her hands after and let her eat it like that.

The reason why she was able to realize this?

Whatever this amazing Daifuku creation now in her hands was. She had never before tasted a dessert that was the perfect balance of savory and sweet for her. It was always a little too savory to feel like a dessert, or a little too sweet for her personal taste. Not that she hadn't liked the sweet. It just didn't do anything magical for her. A lot of her friends said they all had a dessert that was just simply magic to their taste-buds.

This was her magic.

"Do you not like it, Makiko-chan?" Minori-sans voice inquired softly, and she realized she'd been staring at the daifuku after her first bite. Just staring at it.

It didn't really look different from a typical daifuku… but the taste was amazing.

She looked at the woman with big round eyes and a huge smile. "I love it!"

The woman beamed back at her, and next to her Minato laughed easily. "I'm glad you do, it's my own personal shio daifuku take."

Shio daifuku? So it was a salted daifuku? That couldn't' be all there was to it. She looked back at it, wondering if she could learn to make it, because damn, this was her second favourite food ever, after ramen of course.

"Sooo good!" Masato took this moment to add his own two cents in. He seemed to be quite enjoying the treat as well.

Sakumo chuckled "Perhaps you should try and get Minori to give you the recipe, eh Minato?" His voice seemed a little teasing.

She looked to Minori again with those huge eyes only a child could pull off. The ones that most adults had a hard time resisting that just said 'please, oh please won't you?'

The woman looked to Minato with a now teasing smile of her own. "I suppose I can think of something you can do for me to earn that recipe."

"Anything!" Minato replied without missing a beat.

"You probably shouldn't have said that," Sakumo piped up immediately following. Makiko looked to her brother to see him now looking warily at Minori, who's sweet smile held some sort of promise.

Shinobi moms were always scary it seemed. Perhaps you just had to be in order to raise a shinobi child who was likely to be off training with pointy objects at a tender age, or experimenting with jutsu they'd learned. Causing explosions and nicking themselves up.

Actually it wasn't a perhaps at all. She would have gone insane with worry if she hadn't of been a little… frightening in her methods of dealing with her own children from time to time. They needed a firm hand sometimes so that they didn't go out and blow themselves up… shinobi kids. Honestly.

I think we were worse than most. Masato interjected into her thoughts before he went back to happily eating his Daifuku.

Your point? She inquired before taking a glorious mouthful of the best treat she'd ever had. This would be the food to look forward to until she could finally properly enjoy a bowl of ramen. Or just when she felt like something on the sweet side.

Nothing. Just pointing it out. If she could get away with it right now, she would have probably rolled her eyes. He wasn't wrong though. She probably had been worse than a lot of her peers were. But she hadn't had parents to tell her differently, so that just served to support the theory that Shinobi moms had to be scary to their kids.

She didn't really want to think about it anymore though. Not when she had the wonder that was Shio Daifuku in her hand.


He'd barely made it back to Sakumo's home on the Hatake estate before they'd started eating lunch. Immediately his brother and sister had flung themselves at him, which he hadn't expected and he had fallen over with them on top of him. Sakumo and Minori had both had a good laugh at him as he'd struggled for a moment to get up without having to push the two toddlers off of him. It ended up with him having one hanging from each arm as he tried to get himself inside.

Finally Sakumo had cleared his throat and told them they needed to wash up before lunch, which they couldn't do hanging from their brother. He'd lowered his arms so that they didn't fall when they let go of him, and then the three of them went to wash their hands.

Lunch had been good, as expected. Minori was an excellent cook.

Afterwards she'd brought out her Shio Daifuku. He liked them, but it wasn't his favourite of the sweets she'd given him before. In fact he preferred the Ohagi they'd had yesterday. But Masato and Makiko had seemed so excited to try something new.

And then Makiko had stared at it once she'd taken a bite.

He'd been worried she'd spit it out and call it yucky, incurring Minori's wrath. Which would naturally fall on him rather than the little girl. But instead she declared she loved it. Quite a lot it would seem with how she savored every bite, her eyes filled with such joy that he almost forgot that she'd had such a hard time in her short life so far.

And then he'd gotten roped into agreeing to do some unknown task in order to learn the recipe. Or tasks, more like it. He inwardly groaned… but in the end he thought it would be worth it. It was the first time he'd seen both his brother and sister so blissfully happy since he'd met them.

Unfortunately he didn't have the time to enjoy it for long. Sakumo cleared his throat again and reminded him of the time. In a hurry he'd had to leave to grab his third team of the day and take them on their mission.

Thankfully he'd gotten to the academy in time. Barely. He'd have to be more careful in the future.

In contrast to his first two groups however, these kids didn't even bother pretending to like him. They were mostly younger than the other kids had been too. The first group, all boys, had been an eight year old, and two nine year olds. Being that they were in Shiraji-san's class, and he didn't recognize them, they must have started their first academy year when he graduated in the spring. However it would be naïve of him to think they had a year and half left in their academy career… these were the kids doing well enough in a class they could miss it. They could graduate in one like he had.

Genin were getting younger again. It was a little bit of a worrying trend, but not something he could personally do anything about.

His second group of the day had been a Hyuga girl, and two Aburame boys. All only seven years old. However they were fairly talented, and listened well to instructions, even if they sometimes shot him an annoyed look like 'your not that much older than me, stop bossing me around'.

The last group however had him shocked. Sure he'd read it in the scroll, but reading it and seeing it were two different matters.

The first problem with them was that they had just been grouped together because everyone else they'd been with had complained vehemently about it. This wasn't their finalized cell according to the scroll.

Second was that they were all clan kids, and it was noted they were too prideful for their own good.

The first one wasn't really an issue compared to the other two. She was a brunette Inuzuka with purple face paint, who glowered at him simply because she could smell a Hatake off of him or something. It was well known that as kids the Inuzuka and the Hatake didn't get along, but they were quite friendly with each other once they got over their childish 'my ninken using family is better than yours' idea. However she and her dog Kuromaru had calmed down once they'd established that he wasn't a Hatake.

Yes, Inuzuka Tsume was the least of his problems in this group. For starters she was the oldest of the three, being eight.

The second one was a lighter haired than normal Uchiha, and initially Minato thought they could wind up being the most challenging one he had to deal with, simply being an Uchiha. The few he'd come across in the academy had always acted better than the other students, and when someone bested them they would fall back on 'well you'll never beat me when I get my sharingan!'

the six year old Uchiha Kotome wasn't quite what he'd been expecting. She didn't seem to mind Tsume at all in fact, aside from when she was loud, which clearly annoyed her. But she didn't once tell her to shut up, or glare at her, just suffered through it with a sigh, or winding her fingers through her dark brown Ponytail in nerves.

However she didn't seem to really like him. And it did have to do with the Sharingan, just not in the way he'd expected. She'd snapped at him that she wasn't all about her eyes so stop looking at them. How could he be polite and look at her without looking at her eyes though… a tough one. Added on top of the fact that he had to give her instructions three or four times before she would listen, because she was too busy complaining about him judging her for her eyes… well..

The biggest problem however turned out to be the smallest of the lot. Four year old Shimura Kawazo. The problem being that he hardly spoke, but when he did it always managed to set one of the girls off. When he wasn't annoying them he was staring. Analytically. It looked quite strange on his round face. His cropped black hair did nothing to make him look more imposing either, only making the baby fat more obvious.

When he wasn't saying something about how he expected more from someone of one of the big clans, he was reciting the Shinobi laws when they did something that in his eyes went against them.

And he was four. For all that he seemed to have superb motor control for a four year old, and clearly was intelligent enough to already be excelling in his classes, he was just too much smaller than the two girls for him to let them try and beat on him. So he spent the majority of the mission letting them take out their annoyance at the boy on himself instead.

Kawazo told him he should punish them. Even went so far as to say that if they couldn't control their emotions they shouldn't ever be shinobi anyway and it was better they went back to their clans and waited to be old enough to pop out actual useful clan members to be of service to the village.

That had crossed a line, and Minato almost didn't want to stop the girls from getting to him. He was barely able to redirect their frustrated energy into completing the mission so that they wouldn't be marked with a failure. Tsume had groaned that one more of those and she'd be out of this program, and her parents wouldn't let her hear the end of it. So she'd yanked Kotome along with her to finish things up, leaving him to try and tell the boy that he'd gone too far.

Kawazo didn't understand.

He'd tried explaining that they were still young, and not shinobi yet. That this was the time that they were learning how to be shinobi, so they couldn't be expected to be able to lock away their emotions all the time. Before entering the academy they'd just been kids whose parents had taught them a thing or two.

Which had prompted the boy to say that their parents clearly missed an important lesson…which wasn't their fault and he felt bad for them having to make up for their parents mistake.

He didn't know what else he could try after that.

Exhausted Minato had dropped them off at the academy on time and trudged home to have a much needed shower before he went to pick up his brother and sister. After all, he didn't want them to see him like this, and a shower would put him in at least a marginally better mood.

Only Sakumo had been there, with a list of names he could try for his Nin-Kamon, and an offer of assistance to get that sorted. As well as writing up his reports. He really wanted to tell him to go away, but Sakumo insisted, saying that the sooner that was done the sooner he could just enjoy the company of his brother and sister for the rest of the day.

He tried not to grumble as he went inside to do so, since the man had a point. Thankfully with Sakumo's well timed advice he didn't get stuck on any of the reports and was able to finish them in quick order.

Now they were off to find people willing to sign a Nin-Kamon with a ten year old genin...

"What are these Kato like?" he found himself asking, since he wasn't really familiar with the name.

"Very small clan," Sakumo supplied as they walked. "Dan and his sister Kim are the last of them technically speaking. Kim's married though, so they were recently re-registered as active." Not unlike the Namikaze in a sense then. A clan that probably would be overlooked by most.

"And you think they'll agree?" Why would they, even if their clans were both small?

"Actually they approached my wife about a Nin-Kamon last week. Since they're already looking for one that's half the battle," his brother-figure explained with a bit of a grin.

He might be right… but still. They wouldn't see him as being able to take care of a baby on his own with two toddlers he was already responsible for…

Sakumo gave him a light rap on the back of his head. "You know it doesn't usually fall on just one party to take care of the kids at once Minato. It's a group effort."

A group effort. That was very like what Konoha often preached. Teamwork.

"That's why they won't accept Nin-Kamon without at least five families signed on," he murmured, because that seemed like it was certainly the case. "But even if the Kato's agree, I still need three more Sakumo…" the boy went on a little dejectedly. He looked at the list he was given again.

Next on the list was Morino… that was a name he did know. Not really a clan... a case of a Shinobi deciding on surname for themselves, likely in hopes of making a clan. However there was only two of them. A father and his infant son. The mother died in childbirth. Something he only knew because he'd over heard a chunin complaining that 'Morino-Taicho has been even more of an oni than usual since his wife died in childbirth'.

Morino was in T&I under Inokai. That in and of itself made him reluctant to consider them.

Yuhi. A name he connected to Shinku. A shinobi who was apparently from two different clans but chose not to be a part of either… at least that was the rumor. He came in as a guest instructor at the Academy sometimes, but mainly he instructed the genin corps from what he heard about the man. He'd not had a problem with him the few times he had met him though. He seemed genuinely interested in their safety, which sometimes felt like it was saying a lot.

Due to his normal line of work he wouldn't be going far from the village very often, so that could be a good bet… he'd prefer to get to know the man better however.

Might Duy.

His eyebrows furrowed. He'd heard about him… He was still a genin despite being… twenty? He wasn't exactly certain of the man's age. But failing to get promoted he might be a safe bet in a similar manner to Shinku… that he wouldn't go far out of the village often.

How well he could handle children was questionable at best however.

Another rap to the back of his head. "I hope you aren't judging any of them by their names and rumors you might have heard about them alone," Sakumo admonished him.

He grimaced. "Sorry… It's just… they're all the family I've got…" he murmured lowly, and then looked at Sakumo apologetically. "I mean… the only blood family!"

Sakumo gave him a knowing and accepting smile. "I get it kid. You want to be sure they're in good hands when you can't be with them. We're all like that," he assured him. Minato didn't doubt it at all. "But You won't know if you can trust them or not without talking to them. Get to know them before you decide they aren't fit to watch the twins."

He could only nod.

"Besides, I think you'll find all of them better than what certain Individuals tried to suggest to Sandaime-sama," Sakumo added. "I can vouch for them to… their good folks, regardless of their occupations."

Minato stiffened. Just who had been suggested? Did he want to know.

"Shimura was on the list of suggestions," Sakumo said darkly.

He shuddered. After dealing with Kawazo today, he definitely didn't want a clan who turned such a young child into that, to have anything to do with Masato and Makiko.

"Alright, I'll give them a chance."


"I was beginning to think we might not be able to come here again," Makiko murmured as she looked around their mindscape, without that wall that had divided them last time. It looked much better than it had then. Not that it was ever much to look at. At least the sky was blue, and the water that spread out to the horizon was clear as glass. "At least, not together."

"I guess," Masato responded, but he didn't really seem that… relieved. "Ni-san sure came back late today…"

She frowned as she fixed her gaze on the boy. "Masato, he's a Shinobi. He's got to do missions to make money."

"I know, I know," Masato defended, hands raised. "It's just, I heard them say he'd be in the village for the next month, so I kind of expected he'd be back earlier… he's more than skilled enough to handle D-rank missions without much of a fuss, don't you think?"

She frowned, and looked down at the water and their reflections. Reflections that showed the little toddlers they now were, and not who they used to be as she sort of dreaded it might. "I don't know. He's only what… ten? Eleven?" It was hard to place Minato's age.

"Ten I think. Kakashi was born in September, but he's not around yet. Pretty sure he was about fourteen years older than us." Masato provided. She thought about it and nodded in agreement. It sounded right.

"So he's ten… How long do you really think he's been a genin for? How skilled could he be yet, so early in his career?" It wasn't that she didn't want to believe that Minato was talented. She just knew that even the most talented kids couldn't do much in their first year or so of being Shinobi, not usually.

"I believe he is," Masato said firmly. "I wasn't feverish like you were on the last leg to Konoha. I saw how hard Ero-sennin was pushing them, and Minato just soldiered through it. If nothing else he's got great stamina and emotional control when it counts."

The fever.

They hadn't really talked about that yet.

"Alright. You're right," she agreed softly. Then she looked around again, and tried to will up something to sit on. To her surprise a familiar couch appeared. One she as Naruko had sat on with Naruto frequently when they were still in their own worlds. She stared at it for a moment, feeling the nostalgia. Missing her home. Missing when things had been… somehow simpler. For all their Hokage responsibilities.

Then she took a seat, and Masato didn't need to be asked to come sit with her. Their legs didn't touch the water, kicking in the air just off the edge of the seat. It was so big now… or rather, they were so much smaller, compared to then.

"What do you think that fever is," she finally asked after a long drawn out silence.

"I don't know for certain…. could be a few different things," Masato answered.

She thought so too. "Like the bodies not liking these souls in them."

He looked at her sharply and then sighed. "Maybe… but I don't think that's it. We didn't have such strange fevers before… I think it's got to do somehow with whatever is trying to pull us into the light and out of this world."

It was the first time either of them had put what the 'light' was doing into words. She grimaced. But he was probably right. "Is it trying to make us give in with the fevers, I wonder. Or maybe it's because Makiko and Masato only died recently… maybe when they died that's when it started."

It was Masato's turn to grimace. "It might be close to that second one…An… idea… kind of struck me when we were separated."

That didn't sound good. She looked at him with trepidation.

"Haven't you ever thought it was a little strange how close our histories are, with some pretty big character differences?" Masato inquired lowly, looking up at the blue sky to the left of them. There was nothing there that she could see, but he very much seemed to be looking at a specific spot.

Why their histories were so similar. Despite Pain not being Nagato but his younger sister Nanako. Someone that either wasn't in Naruto's world, or had died quite young and was unknown. Where the Naruto born was a girl.

Even with some of the big differences they did have, most major events had been pretty close to the same. In their young lives at least. Even later on though they faced seemingly the same Otsutsuki later on. Their kids had very similar adventures, even though they themselves were almost nothing at all alike. Even at the end when for the most part the only things that hadn't changed were who their enemies were… she and Naruto had ended up dying in the same way.

There was some sort of implication there that she hadn't wanted to consider before.

"Somethings trying to keep the threads moving along an already tread course," she whispered, a knot of dread in her stomach.

That meant Sakumo's suicide and Kakashi's suffering. Obito falling into Madara's hands. The Kyuubi attack on the village… Minato and Kushina's deaths. The Uchiha unrest that would lead to Danzo stealing one of Shisui's eyes, and the later dying. Itachi having to kill his clan but not being able to kill Sasuke. Everything that had happened before they'd become genin that had set up the fourth shinobi world war… Kaguya's freedom.

"You know… I don't think I'm ever going to agree to do something for those Otsutsuki again," she spoke with bravado she didn't feel. "They made it sound like it would be… not easy… but straightforward in a way."

Masato laughed, though it was clear he was feeling just like she was. "Clearly it's not so simple."


Word count: 7302


To the Reviewers:

Riku Uzumaki : I thought it was pretty fitting, and I'd just never seen a take of Namikaze being from Uzushio. I thought the name fit pretty well with the village as another clan that could have been there.
What do you get when you mix the red hot habanero and a double dose of the #1 unpredictable ninja? ;)

KaixDecayx : you're reviews always make my day. Thank you for the touching praise
That would be something interesting for them to bond over :)