It was almost the end of January when Sakura and the rest of chinmoku were called in front of the Hokage.

"He requested you directly," the Hokage (already so old looking, though in reality, Sakura knew he was relatively young—about as old as Sakura's parents, though his already graying hair disputed that) explained, "so you must have made quite an impression on him."

"I am glad to hear it," Sensei said. "Our relationship with the Daimyo is quite important."

"Yes. It should be noted, however, that he has merely explained that he wants you to 'deliver' something to us."

"Oh?"

"You will leave at the end of the day. This isn't a typical mission to the Capital, so your primary goal is to get there quickly and clean up once you arrive. If necessary, you are given leave to purchase whatever you need in the Capital."

"Understood."

The Sandaime Hokage's eyes swept across their team.

"I do not know what he is sending you for, and I do not know why he won't say it. Keep watch, all of you."

"Yes, Hokage," Chinmoku chanted.

They were dismissed.

Sakura raced home. She was about half an hour away from getting the storage seal she was currently working on to function—it would be her fifth overall, and the second that would be reusable (the first had been given over to Konoha as a sign that she'd mastered the basics of fuinjutsu) and having it ready to go by the time they left would significantly ease the journey—far too great an advantage to ignore.

Sakura wasn't exactly good at seals. She wasn't bad either—would have been forced to go down a non-Research path if she was—but it still wasn't something she tended to enjoy; it was a chore, something that had to be done.

She worked in her backyard. (Most of her work was in her backyard, now; she kept her books of ideas in her room, but whenever she tried to build something she'd work outside, letting the nature around her work its calming magic any time—every time—the invention didn't work exactly as she intended.)

"Hello?" A voice called out.

"In the backyard!" She yelled back.

"Oh, hello," Ikue said. Sakura's so-far-only sister-in-law was in her mid-twenties now. She worked in the Yamanaka library and always looked just a little bit anxious. She and Sakura weren't close, exactly—she was closest to Himari, because Himari helped babysit her and her neighbors' kids—but Sakura quite liked her. She was very straightforward, and (despite the general values of the Yamanaka) Sakura appreciated that.

"Hi, Ikue. How are you?"

"Good, good. But Rento got into a fight in school and I was wondering if I could borrow some ice?"

Sakura smiled. "There's some in the ice box."

"Great."

"He got into a fight?"

"Won't tell me why, either. I suppose Ren will get it out of him. He's quite good at that."

"He's six now, right?"

"Six and a half. You can't forgive the half."

"Forgive my foolishness."

Ikue rolled her eyes. "I've had to forgive mine often enough. I really wish he would stop growing up. And Yoriko's in school too, now, and… I don't want twelve children, Sakura."

"No?" Sakura began helping her pack up the ice, enough to last for the rest of the week.

"I never wanted twelve children. The idea of having to—no, twelve is too many."

"But two is too few?"

"I wouldn't mind another, I'll admit. But Ren doesn't want to bring another child in when we're so close to war."

"Who knows how close we are," Sakura said. "It might be next week or next decade. There've been false alarms before."

"Yes, yes, but… he still doesn't want to. And I can't convince him to risk it."

"I'm sorry."

"Do you want children?"

"I—yes. Eventually."

Ikue laughed. "Well, I'd hope not now, considering you're not yet a teen."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Not at nineteen, either." That, admittedly, was a slight jab. It got annoying when everything was always brought back to your age. "But… I like the idea of raising my own children. Here—let me carry it."

"Thank you. Do you have a boyfriend yet, then, to help you get to your goal?"

"No," Sakura said. "I'm not that motivated. Plus… I don't really want to yet. I mean, I know all the other girls are going mad about being kissed and kissing but… eh. No interest. Maybe later."

"To each their own," Ikue said. "And there is no rush—your mother had you when she was in her 30s, right?"

"32," Sakura said. They arrived at Ikue's kitchen and waved at Himari—she was leading the returning Academy children in a round of calisthenics while the younger children tried to keep up.

"So, you've got well over twenty years. No rush."

"No—" then, looking at the clock, "—not for that, anyway. Sorry, I need to get back. I have a mission this evening."

"Well, thanks for your help."

"You're welcome." Sakura dashed out of the house, bopped her niece, nephew, and youngest sister on their noses, and returned to her backyard to finally finish the seal.

Chinmoku had planned to meet up in front of the Yamanaka compound half an hour before the deadline—enough time to check each other over and still arrive early.

Juro arrived forty-five minutes before and proceeded to spend the next twenty-five to beg Sakura to make him a storage seal. It took her well over forty hours to make one, however, and they were hours she could spend doing nothing else but concentrating on the seal, and a single error—in ink or chakra—made all past work meaningless, so she wasn't exactly eager.

"Alright," Juro finally said. "It's ten minutes to go and Shin's still not here. Let's go hunting." They hefted their packs and turned away from the main road.

Shin, thankfully, was not all the way back at his house in the back half of the Nara compound. He was, actually, just outside the compound's gate.

And he was in the middle of an argument.

"—you self-absorbed, egomaniacal, ass!"

"I'm the ass? ME? Which one of us was allowed to start school early despite average—average—Nara intelligence?!"

"What does that have to do with anything!"

It was Nara Taro.

Great.

Taro… was hard to get along with. Actually, all of his genin team—the zatsuon—weren't the easiest. Inohina Yamanaka was a consummate gossip, Arata Akimichi constantly whined about not wanting to be a ninja but refused to quit when his parents gave him the option (they said he had to have another career in mind, and he didn't want to do anything), and Taro…

Taro was a bit of an ass.

He was very, very (academically) smart. Not as smart as Sakura, not overall, but definitely outscoring Shin in just about every test they had ever taken. Unlike in her own genin team, however, where neither of her teammates cared particularly much that she was notably younger and smarter than them both, zatsuon was a far more contentious group. Due to all of their personalities and personal foibles Taro, Arata, and Inohina got along as well as water and vinegar, and that, as well as neither of Taro's partners putting much (if any) energy into school, had left the Nara with a bit of a superiority complex.

Which had apparently, when the chinmoku weren't paying attention, caused his opinion of Shin to sour. A lot.

"You get everything! Everything! Good teammates! A role at the Spring Session! A better sensei! Respect from the elders—"

"I didn't ask for any of that! I didn't even get a say in any of it!"

"So? You don't deserve it! Not as much as me!"

"Shin?" Sakura said, butting in. "We have to go."

Taro scoffed.

Sakura felt the overwhelming urge to mimic the sound. Instead, she turned snide. "You can play with the donkey some more when we get back."

"Did you just call me—you did!"

Shin smiled. "Sounds good. I'm not a big fan of hooved animals, anyway."

"We really do need to go if we want to get to the Capital by early morning," Juro said.

"The Capital!"

Sakura frowned. Taro had always been a bit snobbish, but there was no reason for him to suddenly attack Shin—he certainly hadn't before. "Yes. Shall we?"

Chinmoku left. Taro, after a few seconds standing in place, disappeared back into the compound.

"Any idea—" Sakura began.

"Taro's petition to leave his genin team to start an apprenticeship was denied. He apparently needs 'more experience acting as a team.'"

"So he took it out on you?"

"On everyone. He's been suspended."

"Geez."

"Yeah. He didn't take that well either."

They approached the main gate.

.

The Capital hadn't changed.

This wasn't surprising.

It was colder, of course, and less green, but that was about it.

Sakura and the rest of Team 18 had changed into formalwear and made their way into the palace within the half hour, and most of that was spent getting past the samurai.

"Ah, hello, hello!" The Daimyo said. Sakura had only met him in person once, and relatively briefly, but Shin's description of the man held true. He was old (compared to the Hokage, anyway), flat-faced, and more fascinated by the overt power of ninja than anything else they brought to the table.

He was also constantly surrounded by so many advisors it was hard to believe that all of them were actually necessary.

"Daimyo," Sensei said. He and chinmoku bowed deeply, all the way to the ground.

The Daimyo let them stay there for several seconds before waving them up. He was, after all, the Daimyo.

"Now, I'm sure your wondering why I brought you here. It's unfortunate that you couldn't be told in the letter, but, well, best to be safe, right?"

"Of course, Daimyo."

The man turned to his right, gesturing wildly at… someone. "Bring her forward!"

A young girl—eight-ish?—was led into the room. She had long, dark red hair (from Uzu, most likely), and was dressed like an Academy student.

"This is Uzumaki Kushina." Sakura felt her Sensei react, but he remained as still and calm as always. She was tempted to use her chakra sense but doing that here would be the height of rudeness—and probably not good for her general health.

Kushina Uzumaki… well, Uzumaki was one of Uzu's major clans, so Sakura already knew that name (thanks to Mito it tended to be the one everyone in the Academy remembered first.) Besides that…

Besides that…

Sakura knew that name.

Still, if it was a name from Arden—which it probably was—it was best to put that to rest. She still hadn't sorted through most of the memories Arden had left, and there were too many to get through to assume she'd learn the meaning of the little girl's name any time soon.

She hoped the girl wasn't evil.

"…hi."

"She's quite shy."

"I'm not!" Uzumaki snapped. The advisors murmured—you never contradicted the Daimyo, at least not directly. Sensei was quick to redirect the conversation.

"It is always a pleasure to aid a resident of Uzugakure."

"Yes, yes. The benefits Uzukagure and its people have brought to the Land of Fire cannot be understated, and it brings me great pleasure that the Land of Fire has similarly benefited the Land of Waves. Miss Uzumaki here hopes to continue our ties by studying directly under Uzumaki Mito."

Sensei made a noise of comprehension. "It is always good to maintain relationships with allies."

"Yes, yes it is, isn't it?"

Uzumaki didn't look happy about being ignored, but she'd noticed the advisors' reactions—she stayed quiet.

More talking followed—canned phrases that were meant to do nothing but show respect and propriety. It took nearly an hour for that stage of visiting the Daimyo to end, and then they were finally allowed to leave—with Kushina and her luggage in tow.

"You look my age," Kushina said, sidling up to Sakura as Juro and Sensei strapped the luggage to their backs. Shin stood a bit ahead, rewrapping the bandages he kept looped around his arms.

"I'm ten."

"Eight. Are you not still in the Academy?"

"I started school early."

"Oh."

Sakura said nothing, but she watched the redhead twitch. She was nervous, clearly, and not exactly thrilled about being in Fire Country.

Sakura wondered why.

"Do you think I can graduate early?"

"You shouldn't. The more time you have to get to know those around you the better. But I thought you were going the apprenticeship route?"

"Kind of. I don't want to talk about it. You do teams, right?"

"Yeah, we're team 18. I'm Yamanaka Sakura, that's Akimichi Juro, and that's Nara Shin. Our Sensei is Sensei Mitokado Supaku."

"Are you strong?"

"Not really. I'm more… on the mental side of things."

Kushina didn't seem to find the 'mental side' all that interesting. "How about your team?"

"The same."

Kushina groaned. "You can use chakra and you're specializing in brainy stuff?"

Sakura smirked. "Guess you're headed frontline yourself."

"Hopefully. We'll see."

That… well, Kushina certainly hadn't been trained to hide information.

"Let's go," Sensei called out.

"I'm taking front. You'll be in the middle, flanked by Juro and Sensei. Shin will be in the back. Got it?"

"Yeah."

They took off.

With Team 18 having run through the night, and Kushina not nearly as trained, it didn't take long for them to stop for a meal and rest.

"There's no rush," Sensei said. "No one knows you're here, so you're not in any significant danger."

Sakura wanted to know why Kushina'd be in danger otherwise, but Sensei clearly wouldn't answer.

Kushina, on the other hand, was more interested in information gathering.

"What's the Academy like?"

Shin answered that one. "Long. Boring. Interesting sometimes. Lots of other people."

Kushina rolled her eyes. "Is there anyone good though?"

"Your age?" Juro said. He thought for a second. "There's a kid named… um, Minato, I think. He should be about your age, give or take a year or two."

"I haven't heard of him," Sakura said.

"He's an orphan," Juro said. "Yasuo mentioned him when we were catching up in the hospital last month. Quite the talent, apparently—top of his class. Very smart but also really, really good at the physical stuff, including chakra."

"Hmm," Kushina said, and then they were off again.

By the time they arrived back in Konoha, Sakura felt fairly certain that, despite Kushina attempting to give nothing personal away, the girl was an only child, grew up wealthy, would have been top of her class if not for being constantly distracted, had an annoying speech impediment that she'd dealt with by turning it into the be beginning of a phrase ('dattebayo'), that she both didn't particularly want to be in Konoha and didn't particularly not want to be in Konoha, that both of her parents worked a lot, and that she was to be the next jinchuuriki.

Sakura kept the last revelation to herself.

They debriefed at the Hokage's office, where they left Kushina to wait for Miko's arrival. The Hokage, at least, didn't seem displeased by the turn of events, so Sakura hoped the whole 'not knowing in advance' thing wasn't the slight it felt like.

Now that that particular mission was over, however, she was happy to get back to her real life. Diplomacy was not her thing.