"Where are we, 'ttebane?" Kushina gasped when she looked down at the little body beside her on the ground, out cold. "Oh! Shizune!"
"Yeah, she is definitely OUT," Naruto remarked, hands on hips and looking quite at home in this new, beautiful place to the redhead. Naruto, on the other hand already felt a squeezing in her gut that told her she needed to be careful. "Oh! I uh, took us to Mount Myoboku."
Kushina's efforts at waking poor little Shizune were rewarded but her next demand to be returned to the village died on her lips as soon as she registered Naruto's words. "WE'RE IN TOADLAND?!" She squealed and wiggled around in a circle.
Surprised, Naruto and the now conscious but pale Shizune stared at her and then at each other. And then at Kushina again.
Naruto was spiraling. First, she'd looked into the hateful eyes of Neji's vicious, lying doppelganger, and then she'd seen Sasuke's immediately after. "Uh, yeah," she answered shakily. "Toadland."
"I've ALWAYS wanted to see, ttebane," Kushina grinned, repressing another squeal. "That snooty Namikaze talks about it all the time. He and his big-time sage training."
"I didn't know Tou— uh, Nii-san's been doing sage training," Naruto commented, now feeling the bubbling panic climbing higher. OH, dear gods. She'd almost outed herself; she needed to get her shit together! Her very sharp mother had whirled around on her little mistake and was now pale and staring at her, also beginning to breathe a little harder. Naruto averted her eyes.
"Oh," Kushina uttered, looking away and trying to get what Naruto had almost said out of her head. But it was out there, wasn't it? Oh, Kami! Or maybe she was about to say something about her father: JIRAIYA, not Minato. Oh, gods, oh gods, oh gods, the Sage, Amaterasu, the Ramen Guy, and… Inari-sama or whoever. "Uh, yeah! He um… Oh. Well, he got super busy with missions and stuff."
'Stuff' meaning the arrival of a tiny blonde that looked like a perfect blend of the two of them, which happily took up the time he'd previously been using to go to Toadland and train to be a sage.
Kushina thought she might pass out. Instead, her eyes went wide. "SHIT! Miko-chan!"
"M- Miko-chan?" Shizune asked (for Naruto, too.) It felt like she was missing something.
"My friend, Uchiha Mikoto," Kushina replied, twisting her hands and frowning more and more, thinking of what happened in front of the Senju Compound. "Those damn Uchihas, you know."
"Kushina," Naruto addressed her, looking uncharacteristically serious. "What was going on at the Senju Compound?" She noticed that question made Shizune suck in a breath - and that she was holding it. "One of those Uchiha cops asked me about the death of Councillor ShitForBrains."
Kushina's expression dropped before she howled with laughter and then rubbed her stomach. "My tummy's burning."
Naruto rubbed her neck, pulling a face as she ground her teeth. She doesn't remember. But how adorable was that? Her mother calling her seal or stomach a tummy? Naru was still sick with worry, though. "Maybe you've got gas," she said without thinking. Jiraiya used to talk about gas a lot.
He used to have gas a lot.
Thinking about her gassy old man godfather-turned-not-so-old-adoptive-father, her eyes watered up, and she quietly whimpered to herself as her mother was bent down and listening to something Shizune was whispering to her. "Can we please talk about the elephant in the room?"
*POOF*
"Oh, it's you," Gamabunta said before turning his tipsy attention to Kushina and Shizune. He made a face that would have otherwise been hilarious as he stared at Kushina with his mouth opening and closing before turning to Naruto and then looking back at Kushina again.
"Hiya," Kushina waved. "Gamabunta-san, right?!" Minato talked about this big boy a lot!
"Oh, hell no. I am not dealing with this," he said and then poofed out again.
Naruto fisted her hands, lunging forward in exasperation, before pulling at her hair. She paced around while Shizune and Kushina talked about the toad chief. "Oh, man. –Seriously, Kushina-nee, I need you to…"
*POOF*
"Why, hello there, Naruto-chan," Pa said amicably. "Bunta-kun said you arrived with someone… interesting." That was not the word he used, and Pa wouldn't say that word. He stared at Kushina in shock, though, before clearing his throat a few times.
"Uh. Where are my manners?" Naruto asked for probably the first time ever. "Um. Uzumaki Kushina and Kato Shizune, this is Pa - um, Lord Fukakasu, I mean. Lord Fukasaku is one of the great sages of the toad's homeworld. Pa, this is um. …Yeah. Kushina-nee and Shizune-chan." Pa stared at her, already guessing or knowing. Naruto closed her eyes and ever-so-slightly bobbed her head. That's my kaa-chan; the one who was immediately attacked and then killed less than an hour after my birth.
"Pleased to meet your acquaintance," Pa said magnanimously, turning to the newcomers. He turned to his youngest, time-traveling summoner with a stern look on his face. "I was not aware you could reverse summon, Naruto."
"Oh, um." She wasn't supposed to know how, was she?
Jiraiya had taught Naruto, in theory, how to reverse-summon herself when the Akatsuki were running around hunting her, wanting his secret goddaughter or whatever to have a way to get far away from them just in case they got separated, which they often did. Jiraiya said that it was normally impolite to use the reverse jutsu because the toads liked to feel needed - and wanted to personally help their summoners out. Plus it was their home and it wasn't right to go barging in.
And that if the Akatsuki saw the jutsu, they might know exactly where I was. Shit. "I'm sorry to intrude. Dad taught me."
Pa tilted his head and almost gave the game away, "Which…" Naruto winced in very pained exasperation while Pa tried to take his eyes off Naruto's future mother, wondering if Minato or Jiraiya had taught her the technique. "Of course. Makes sense," he amended. "Lovely to meet you two. Now what are you doing here?" And why did you bring outsiders?
For Naruto, panic always crept up on her slowly, insidiously, rather than how it might come out of the blue and hit some people like a punch to the throat. That panic was crawling dangerously close to the edge of anything she could reign in right now; the tension felt like it was strangling her. You think that's weird or unlikely? Well try to imagine what it's like to be attacked and hunted from before you even managed to be put in a freakin' diaper, and then fucking try AGAIN, she thought to no one furiously. "Dad… I- I think Jiraiya's in trouble!" She caught her mother's eye. "What is HAPPENING?!"
Grimacing, Kushina ran her hands down her hair. "I only know what they said when the UMP wanted to search the compound."
Naruto waited, stepping forward slightly again and again but Kushina was flushed and looked uncomfortable.
"Oh, fine," Kushina gave up, throwing up her hands, too. She was on Naruto, Minato, The Perv, and the toad's turf now. "They're saying the Sannin murdered Lord Danzo!"
"Oh," Naruto mumbled, wrapping her ponytail around her wrist and yanking on it a few times. She paced for a while while the others stared at her. "Is it true?"
"I have no idea."
"If they wanted to search the Senju Compound, that means Tsunade was involved, though, doesn't it?"
Shizune's lips pursed. "Aunty doesn't want anything to do with the village!"
"Exactly," Naruto quietly agreed as Kushina tried to "reason with" Shizune. She didn't get why Kushina was making excuses for Slug Sannin; Tsunade's bad attitude was what it was. But Tsunade was also Konoha Royalty and there was no way Naruto could imagine the Uchiha cops being sent to the oh-so-revered Senju Compound unless she was somehow involved.
I should've checked out Jiraiya's house, Naruto realized, her mind spinning into different possibilities. I NEED to check Jiraiya's - our - house.
Oh, God. Danzo's younger now, and supposedly, Sasuke had a fairly rough time with him. Obito had mentioned something about it - or she guessed that she had seen a little of the end of Sasuke and Danzo's fight through Obito's memories during the war. Honestly, she sometimes wondered if any of that had been real but she had seen too much for it not to be, surely. God knows that Kakashi-sensei wouldn't have outright told her what had happened to his father; that info came from Obito via her father when the boys were young and on his team. -Through Obito's memories.
Kakashi-sensei was not an easily accessible or open man.
What if Danzo hurt Ero-Otou?
Plus, remember what happened to Kakashi's father, Naruto began to think again, recalling that Sakumo had committed suicide after a mission gone wrong. In the previous timeline, people supposedly blamed Hatake Sakumo for starting the Third War.
"At least my father didn't start the Third Shinobi War."
Gods that Hyuuga Nagisa was a bitch! Whether it was the right or wrong thing for her to consider, in the back of her mind somewhere, Naruto hoped that the two of them would be able to compete in the Finals of the Chunin Exams so she could utterly humiliate her.
Far more importantly, Jiraiya wouldn't do what Sakumo did. Naruto was positive of that - or she hoped she was sure. Maybe I'm only hoping?
Because of everything that happened in her Before, to keep them safe and on the straight and narrow, Jiraiya had been almost constantly following Sakumo and/or Orochimaru (or having toads do it for him) –until the whole thing went down with her being held by the Sandaime. What if… What if he'd been sent out on THAT mission instead of Sakumo-sensei?
Her throat was beginning to constrict and it was hard to breathe.
It was all her fault! Had Naruto taken care of everything as The Child of Prophecy was supposed to: had she whooped and broken Sasuke's stupid, revenge-obsessed ass, she wouldn't have been sent to the past to try again.
And then what did she do? What other stupid move did she have up her sleeve?! –She shared all those memories, through Kurama, with her mentor. So now Jiraiya remembered things he hadn't even experienced yet.
Jiraiya the Gallant, the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku, had more missions than anyone in Konoha's history in her day. And that incredible number did not include his spy work. He trained her, he trained her father… He was the most loyal Konoha nin there had ever been! Hell, he even threatened Tsunade, the love of his life, with death, if she'd turned traitor on Konoha.
Was it getting dark out here?
Naruto couldn't breathe.
"Naruto?!" Kushina called, worried. Hyperventilating, Naruto had fallen to her knees and wasn't responding to her earlier words. The little blonde fell on her face, spasming, and Kushina went into full medic mode, Shizune by her side.
"Kit," Kurama sighed, trying to be patient as his brat pulled at his gorgeous fur, sniffling into it. "I'm sure The Pervert's okay." He wrapped his tails around her.
It took a while for Naruto to get her wits about her - and to breathe. "He HAS to be, Kurama! And… Uchiha Mikoto?" Naruto almost whined, shaking her head in disbelief.
"'Sasuke-teme's' mother," Kurama replied with a huff. "Mikoto was around your mother a lot. I must have been utterly buried in hatred not to realize their relationship before. They do look a lot alike."
Naruto laughed bitterly. "I wonder if Sasuke knew. –That our mothers were friends."
"He didn't care, Kit. Whether he knew or not, he didn't care."
Naruto bit back tears, knowing it was true. She opened her eyes to see her mother's grayish-violet ones gazing at her worriedly. "Sorry."
"That's alright, sweetie." Kushina helped Naruto sit up. "How are you feeling?"
Naruto chuckled, pulling her hair out of her ponytail holder. She sat for a while before she admitted the truth. "I'm scared."
"I'm sorry, Naruto," Kushina said after she was sure Naruto was 100%, physically anyway. "We've got to get back to Konoha; I'm going to be in so much trouble!"
Naruto wasn't really giving them a tour, she was simply continuing to walk and eventually found herself in front of Ma and Pa's house. She sucked in a breath, not cognizant of her mother's pleas. "Please wait here." She jogged to their door, knocked, and then disappeared behind it when Ma let her in. Kushina ogled the seals that suddenly went up. They were ancient, and something she'd never seen before.
Were the seals made of toads?!
No.
Were they made of musical notes?!
How wonderful! "Did you see it, Shizune?" What was that?
Shizune blinked at her. "See what, nee-chan?"
.
"Would you mind checking on Jiraiya?" Naruto asked Ma once it was safe to talk. "I… He and the other Sannins, I guess, have been charged with murdering Shimura Danzo."
"Hmph! Good for them," Ma strongly replied with a nod.
"Exactly," Naruto agreed, wondering if it was true. She thought she was going to have to kill Danzo! Nodding at her latest decision, the little blonde decided to knock out the first ROOT nin she sensed to check his or her tongue. Hopefully, the seal would be gone - but had Danzo used those seals yet? Oh, it was so frustrating to not know so much. "One of my teammates for the Chunin Exams said Jiraiya started the Third Shinobi War."
Ma's eyes went wide, her movements going utterly still. "I will check on Jiraiya-boy, and I'll take Pa with me when I do it."
Naruto sighed in relief, the sound coming out almost as a whimper or whine. "THANK you. Thank you so much! Please ask him what I can do. And don't let him say 'nothing!'"
Later, back in Konoha –
Arrested for kidnapping Konoha's jinchuuriki, Naruto groaned. "Dude, I brought her back! And I can't believe you outed Kushina-nee's status to me like that!"
And this fucker, Kushina's Jonin teammate, looks especially like Itachi today.
What now?! Would a scarred Obito or Zetsu show up and dangle a bowl of ramen in front of her, then eat it just to hurt her?
Would Killer-B's doppelganger show up next and rap well at her?
As a matter of fact, he soon would.
Naruto just wanted Jiraiya. He had to be okay!
Across from her, Uchiha Fugaku did not appreciate being called 'dude' or having his words thrown back at him. "The village went into a Code Red, Stage 2, because of your actions."
"You guys were swarming her compound, man," she replied easily - or she hoped it looked that way - linking her hands behind her head. "And what's this shit about a third war?"
Fugaku's eyes slowly spun red and Naruto raised an eyebrow - and then, very subtly, also raised her middle finger, wanting his brain to retain that image for all time. This guy! "Seriously."
The Uchiha sighed, crossing his arms over his chest and closing his eyes, and leaned back in his chair. Uzumakis were the worst. "War is only a rumor."
Naruto smirked at him, making the cop bristle. "C'mon now. The best we've had is an uneasy cease-fire for all these years, ne? And my new, VERY temporary teammate for the Chunin Exams, Hyuuga Nagisa–" Fugaku grimaced, looking ill at ease with the mere mention of the Genin, which was infinitely interesting "-said my father started the Third Shinobi War. What am I supposed to think?"
Fugaku closed his eyes. Hyuuga Nagisa was a holy terror, an absolute brat, and utterly unbearable. He took back everything he thought about the Uzumakis: Nagisa was worse.
His occasional teammate outside the village, Hyuuga Hizashi, had been branded with the caged bird seal for being born second, only minutes after his twin brother - who remained unsealed. Nagisa was their father's third child and had a kilometer-wide superiority complex. The third child was also inexplicably left unsealed and looked down on the branch members of her (his? –Fugaku wasn't sure of Nagisa's sex and had never had a reason to ask) clan.
It was especially problematic because Hizashi, for some unknown reason, loved his little sibling. He was also very talented, more so than his twin Hiashi, in his opinion. Not that he'd ever say that. Hizashi was also incredibly popular among Branch members. From what he'd heard, he led them behind the scenes.
Hizashi's sister was so horrible, though, that both brothers feared that she'd bring about a civil war within their clan when the Branch members would finally strike out against her abuse. "I'm sorry you suffered the misfortune of her presence." Surprised, Naruto let out an accidental squeak of laughter and blushed, scratching her head: a mannerism Fugaku had noticed she shared with her older brother. "...Is that why you kidnapped the jinchuuriki?"
"Stop calling Kushina 'the jinchuuriki.' And I did NOT kidnap her; I rescued her," Naruto said, in disbelief over this bullshit. "So you're welcome for that. "
Fugaku gave her a droll look. "You and Nagisa belong together."
Say that again and I'll whack you before your son gets his big shot, Naruto thought angrily. – Sarcastically, of course. "YOU and Nagisa belong together," she said, internally lamenting her not-so-sick burn. "You butthole ."
There. That was better.
Fugaku rolled his eyes and left the room.
She was released the next day. The first place she went to was her and Jiraiya's new place, but there was police tape surrounding it. She darted away before anyone saw her. No one had bothered the seals on the actual house and she could imagine that people were appropriately fearful of what he/they might have inside their home.
She then ran into Kakashi, who bitched at her, cursing up a storm about how he'd had to suffer Nagisa's "nightmare presence" all by his lonesome. He was totally not being cool or taking a breath to let her say anything - before she noticed a presence following them toward the Nara Forest.
"Hey, Kashi," she whispered, nearly forced to tackle him because chibi Kakashi was scared of girls (she was pretty sure) and moving away from her. Finally, though, Kakashi smelled the guy. "Help me attack this weirdo behind us."
Kakashi hummed, his lips twisting behind his mask as he watched her. "Okay; on 3."
On a silent "three" they both launched themselves backward and bonked, then began thrashing the guy, Naruto growling when she had to eventually pull Kakashi off of him. "Calm down, you feral weirdo! He isn't even fighting back much!" Once their follower was all hogtied up, she turned a furious gaze on the ROOT nin upon flipping him back over. He was wearing a uniform very much like Sai's old one, although he had a mesh shirt over his belly, down his britches, so she wasn't forced to think so much about manscaping as she used to when Sai was around. "Open your mouth!"
The unknown, lazy-looking, brown-haired nin sucked in his lips and bit them harshly, slowly shaking his head. Kakashi began looking around (and smelling the air) nervously.
"Please?" Naruto asked cutely, swinging sideways and clutching her fingers against her cheek, smiling sweetly. Kakashi made a gagging noise. "How old are you, anyway?"
"...I don't know," the nin admitted and then sucked in his lips again.
"Oh, he's Danzo's alright, I bet." The nin scowled at her.
Kakashi hummed. "Let's drag him to my dad."
"Okay."
They did, neither bothering to pick the guy up, just two Genins dragging an older nin through the back of the village.
"Ah. Who's this?" Sakumo asked in a friendly manner as he hung up sheets on the line, almost as if Kakashi did this kind of thing daily. Which he might. Naruto didn't know. She did know that laundry was Kakashi's chore: that lazy jerk.
"I think this one's Danzo's," Naruto said. There! That got a reaction! Sakumo grumbled and knelt down, moving the guy this way and that, inspecting their ties before beginning to ask the unknown guy questions. His first question was to his son, though.
"This how you're going to tie up Nagisa-kun, Kashi?" he asked. Sakumo looked up and gave Naruto a false grin, his eyes creasing into crescents. "You two are going to need to add ninja wire. Or simply use the wire rather than rope." Kakashi nodded and Naruto tried not to laugh. Nagisa must be truly horrible to have all these elite ninjas hating on her. "Why do you suspect Danzo, Naruto?"
Naruto hummed. "He's a bastard and steals children. Oh! -THIS guy," she smiled, realizing he was talking about their prisoner. Sakumo had gone uber-pale. "His clothes. I just want to see inside his mouth."
Sakumo sighed. "May I ask why?"
"He might have a seal on his tongue."
Sakumo hummed and, after looking and sniffing around, he picked the guy up and gently tossed him into his root cellar. The kids followed him inside. –Inside the house, not the cellar. His son wasn't allowed in there. "Kakashi, don't say anything about this to ANYONE but go meet with your sensei."
"That…" Girl? Guy? Kakashi didn't know and didn't want to know; "That Hyuuga will be there!"
"Yes, son," Sakumo replied patiently. "As will your sensei. And I'd like to speak with Naruto-chan in private." Kakashi scowled but eventually bobbed his head, leaving the door with a slam that was too hard and making him sweatdrop. "Now, Naruto…"
"I won't say anything, either." She swallowed thickly. "I got arrested for kidnapping Kushina-nee when I was just protecting her from goin' nuts on those Uchihas," she word-vomited. "I was detained all night! But did Kakashi tell you what that moron, Nagisa, said about my father?"
Sakumo heaved out a sigh and went to go make tea. "He did."
"Well, it's a lie!"
Sakumo hummed, his back still toward her. "I'm sure it is." He let out a little laugh when she sucked in a pathetic little breath. "Jiraiya's the most loyal shinobi I've ever worked with. Well... Maa, him and a few others." He turned around, waiting for the kettle to heat, and felt a tug at his heart as Naruto tried desperately not to cry.
Naruto worked her lips and fingers. "What if he's being set up?" she asked in a small voice.
Sakumo looked away. "Do you know anything about that?"
"...No," Naruto admitted sadly, twisting her hands.
Sakumo sighed again, turning back to the stove. "And this shinobi in my root cellar?"
"He was following Kakashi and me."
Sakumo went completely still.
"And um, the cop wouldn't tell me if there's gonna be another war."
Sakumo hummed, pouring hot water for the tea, although after Naruto left, he was planning to put booze in his. "Those things don't happen overnight."
"Yes, they do," Naruto whispered, staring straight ahead of her. "Either that or they take years: years in the making and planning, making them all the more destructive" When she looked up, she realized that she'd said all of that out loud.
Fuck, she was tired and not doing well, huh?
"Anything you'd like to share with me about all that?" Sakumo asked.
Naruto stared at him, rolling her tongue against or biting the inside of her cheek for some time, until she felt she couldn't put off an answer any longer. "I wish I could," she said uncomfortably. "But… Do you know about Danzo? If he was killed by my father or the other Sannin?"
Sakumo narrowed his gaze slightly at the girl, inhaling deeply through his sensitive nose again, but he couldn't detect anything about her that was in any way dishonest. Instead, what he could sense most was that Naruto was deeply afraid and anxious. "I don't."
"Hmm. Maybe that guy in your basement will know something," the blonde murmured.
"Maybe," Sakumo agreed, watching as Naruto sucked down her very hot tea, then ran over to the sink to scrub out her cup.
"Thank you," she said in a hushed tone, bowing, and running out of his house.
Sakumo blew out a long breath before grabbing his tanto and heading to the root cellar. He hopped down inside it, his blade lighting up with chakra as he turned to seal it from the inside again. It wouldn't do to have Kakashi or anyone else finding him in here; to see what he was doing. "Maa, here's how it's gonna go," he told the unknown nin darkly, his dark gray eyes blazing in the white lightning now surrounding him. "You're gonna tell me who you are, why you were following my pups, and then you're going to tell me everything you know about Danzo. And… what Sarutobi knows about what Danzo's been up to."
