Please leave a comment or PM if you have any questions, suggestions, concerns, or just compliments. For the sake of this work, the elemental balance will go earth}lightning}water}fire}wind. Thanks to SmallFountainPen for betaing chapters 57-73. Thanks to SoaringJe for betaing beginning with chapter 116.
It wasn't ideal (what was), but at least he got to spend time with Kohana this way.
…Admittedly, there was a reason it had been so easy to nab this job.
"No changes?" Kohana confirmed.
"Yep," Inoichi said. He stood, dusting his knees as they continued down the passageway. There hadn't been any changes in any of the likely-seals, not in the dozen years since—well, since—but living so close to the ruins meant it was very, very important that Konoha kept apprised of their current conditions.
Especially, unfortunately, because Uzu had made it a habit to hide seals in art, and make art look like seals, and generally obfuscate everything about themselves as much as possible.
Understandable.
Reasonable.
Very, very annoying.
Usually this job was done by a Uchiha with a sharingan—or, failing that, a Hyuuga—but nobody actually wanted the job and it had to be performed by a jounin (just in case), so there hadn't been all that many questions when Inoichi had found the mission and volunteered.
"I was thinking," Kohana started, "about hiring some civilians to start fishing in Yamanaka waters. Nobody's really taking advantage of our coastline, and some additional income wouldn't hurt."
Inoichi hummed, agreeing. "You should mention that to the Akimichi; I think they were considering trying to make fisheries."
"Really? Why?"
"You know the Akimichi. If they can make better-than-wild fish, then they want to try."
"Well, it wouldn't hurt," Kohana said. "We could always use more food."
Which was true enough, Inoichi supposed. He swallowed, glancing at yet another unchanged seal. Or piece of art. "Did—have you considered what meal you want to serve at our wedding?" Because it had taken time, and more than a few tough discussions, but they were happy, now, were talking about all sorts of dreams for the future, now, and that meant it was time, once more, to consider the wedding.
Kohana hesitated, and Inoichi's eyes flashed to hers. "It's—shouldn't we wait? Until you're less busy? It's just—you've had… more days with headaches than not, recently."
Which. Was true enough, actually. He had one now, even. Between T&I, immigration, and judicial duties, every single mindwalker in the clan was exhausted, and he was no exception. But…
"I don't think that's going to change any time soon, to be honest," Inoichi admitted. "Kohana and Uzu are only growing, and even if we find a way to get the other Great Nations to calm down, they'll definitely still send spies and such our way."
"Rento's working on that," Kohana said, but her voice didn't sound all that convinced. "It's just—I'm not worried about the danger of being with you, because let's face it, being Sakura's sister is more than dangerous enough on its own; but then if I'm going to be with you, then I actually want to be with you, you know? And not just—like, this is nice, but the last three times you were able to spend time with me, you winced every time I spoke."
Inoichi winced. "I did want to talk to you, though—"
"I know that! I just—if you're this busy before we add marriage and children into the equation…"
"Rento's working on something, you said?"
"Yes," Kohana agreed. "He mentioned it in his last letter—a seal that makes it impossible to say what you think is a lie. I don't really know the details, but he seemed hopeful. He also said it wouldn't be a quick solution, though."
"That'd be nice," Inoichi admitted. They ducked into another corridor, and he waved some cobwebs out of the way, squinting to make out the particulars of a particularly intricate piece of artwork that may or may not be a seal. Unchanged. "I… you're right, I have been working a lot, recently. I'll talk to the Hokage, okay? Every other hidden village doesn't have Yamanaka, so there may be other ways around what we currently use mind walkers for."
"I don't mean to take you away from your work," Kohana emphasized. "I just… well, I love you, and I don't want our days to be watching you in pain if I see you at all."
"No, no, you're right," Inoichi said. "More to the point, our mindwalker clansmen—who I have a duty to—are also suffering. I… should have already noticed that my current workload, and theirs, was untenable."
"Oh, and sushi."
"What?"
"For the wedding. Sushi's amazing. We should serve that."
"Of course," Inoichi said. He smiled, kissed her. "All the sushi in the world."
.
Kosei craned his neck to see around another corner in the Akimichi compound. He hadn't been here before. He hadn't actually been in any clan lands before except Kaede's, and even that was rare because the other Yamanaka kids didn't like playing with a civilian like him.
(He didn't like that, but he did like that they treated him as a civilian. His parents still wouldn't let him drop out, though, so…)
At the end of an alley he saw Akimichi Michita cleaning out…
"What is that?" he asked.
Kaede paused, leaning back to get a look. "Oh. You know how Michita was yelling in class the other day? Like, really loud?" Yelling was one word for it. Screeching was another. The results from the latest exam had come out, and Michita had done significantly worse than both his teammates, had slackened off to play games instead and gotten the expected results, and he… hadn't taken it well. "Well, he hurt the Inuzuka kids' ears, and his mom had an Inuzuka teammate so he didn't even get normal punished. She's making him make fertilizer, you know, to teach him that senses should be respected."
Kosei grimaced. Considered, not for the first time, asking why Kaede didn't have Ino-Shika-Cho teammates like most other Yamanakas did.
Didn't.
Anyway, they were nearly there; they were certainly edging past the housing and into the rows of greenhouses.
"I think Aki's your best bet," Kaede said, "but I don't know if she's in today. If she is, she'll be here."
Itoku, following both of them, hopped to see between the two. "Why do the Akimichi grow plants in stacks?"
"More efficient," a woman said. She was short, stout, sunbaked, and had the kind of hair that would point every which way if it were any shorter.
"Efficient?" Kosei asked.
The woman grinned. "You can get more plants harvested in less space, and this is where we breed plants to make them better, so we need that efficiency."
"Hello, Aki!" Kaede said.
"Hello. I understand you're looking for me?"
"Not me! Kosei is."
Kosei no longer wanted to be looking for her. Looking for her meant he had to talk to her, explain things to her, and she was a stranger.
Kosei had enough problems when he had to present to his class.
"Yes," he forced out, then. "Um."
Itoku leaned between them. He'd been happier, lately, more confident, and he smiled at Akimichi Aki without hesitation. "Kosei wants to know if there's any way to be a ninja and a farmer at the same time, so he can do what he wants and his parents will be happy too."
"Parents not a fan of you being a ninja?" the woman asked.
Kosei swallowed. "Um. No, that's me, actually. They want… they think it's more secure."
The woman snorted. "Funny how times change. Well, sure. There's a lot of supply logistics, but there's not much farming there. There's research, too, but we're the only ones that really farm for research, and we don't go through Konoha.
"Your best bet is probably seal corps, honestly. They take part-timers, so you can work there some days for the stability or whatever and then do what you want the rest of the time."
Kosei blinked. He wasn't remotely interested in drawing the same exact symbols for hours on end, but it was good income, and there wasn't any danger. If he could do it part-time…
"Do what you don't want to do, so you can do what you do want to do," Itoku advised, and Kosei really, really wanted to know what had changed his friend's mood so radically.
Still…
Not a bad idea.
"I'll ask my Sensei, thanks," Kosei said.
Akimichi Aki nodded, waved them off.
"She was nice," Kosei told Kaede as they left. "And she came like, immediately when you asked."
"I didn't ask."
"What?"
"She's ninja. I didn't ask. I just came here and hoped she was working here today, and she showed up."
"Cool," Itoku said, and really—what was going on with him?
.
When Konoha was formed there were a great many monsters still roaming the lands freely. The greatest, of course, were the chakra beasts, but there were also tigers twice the size as normal, snakes that could swallow humans whole, lizards whose bite would kill you even if you escaped…
So. Konoha had to decide what to do about all of that.
In the end, Konoha began taking missions to stop the monsters who ravaged villages and killed adults and children alike. But these beasts, they were powerful, they were deadly—Konoha didn't want them to just go to waste.
A huge swath of land (several times larger than the size of Konoha) was walled off just outside Konoha's training fields, and—when possible—each deadly animal Konoha-nin found was dumped there.
(The land was chosen because it already had a reputation for being deadly—for being a Forest of Death—and after Konoha's founding the name became increasingly accurate.)
Now mammals and reptiles and even insects dominated the land, attempting to kill each other and anybody foolhardy enough to enter their territory.
(It was, genuinely, a great shock to everybody involved that the biodiversity did not decrease over time—despite their best efforts, most beasts were unsuccessful in eradicating even one other species.)
Now, nearly fifty years after Konoha's founding, there was the first hunt within the Forest of Death that wasn't for even a single one of the monsters that called the forest their home.
The hunt was for something different.
"There," Inuzuka Kinoko said, gesturing to… a clump of leaves. Her ninken (Shikaku hadn't caught the name and wasn't going to admit it) agreed, nosing determinedly at the ground.
Aburame Uta nodded at his gesture, forming a jutsu (carefully crafted, made for gentle work rather than the far more common battle-techniques) and carefully pulling apart the earth below.
The bones weren't buried that deeply, thankfully.
Unfortunately, they were only bones.
Shikaku quickly sealed the skeleton of the almost-certainly-failed-spy and nodded to Kinoko to continue the hunt.
For years Konoha had relied on the Forest to deter unwelcome visitors and, failing that, kill them outright, but now the Hokage wanted to know who, exactly, was attempting to slip past the city's defenses, and Shikaku's… understanding… of the situation leading to this meant that he'd been assigned to lead the mission.
The Forest was loud, dangerous (they'd already killed so many), and unending, and Shikaku hadn't had a good nap in a week.
It had to be done.
Still, Shikaku found himself hoping to eventually find a living idiot. It would be… interesting, to learn more about their enemies' plans.
.
Aburame Bokuso sat in the middle of the training field.
Grassland stretched from every direction, faintly singing with his kikaichu, and he waited.
Beside him the medical team played cards: it was important to stay alert, but they would respond to him, not the world at large.
This was the third attempt.
Two Konoha-nin, two terminally-ill shinobi, had already given their lives to the cause.
It was a hard thing, a difficult thing, to continue forward.
Bokuso believed the sacrifices to be worth it.
The grassland wasn't silent: Bokuso could hear the birds and insects, the rustle as the wind passed by, the idle chatter of the medics.
He could not hear the one thing he wished to.
The one noise he needed to.
He continued to wait.
Hours passed.
The medics moved from one card game to another, and then to a dexterity game.
Bokuso waited.
His insects waited.
They would wait for five days, as they had for the last two attempts.
The medical team would change out every twelve hours, but he would stay: his duty required him to.
Night began to fall.
And then Bokuso's head snapped nearly one hundred and eighty degrees, and then Bokuso was standing in one swift movement, and then Bokuso was running, faintly aware of the medic team just behind him.
And there—
There was Yuuhi Aoto, sitting comfortably with a lemur sitting on his shoulder.
He smiled as Bokuso came to a stop uncomfortably close to him.
"Success!" he shouted, his dentures firmly in place and unharmed. "This is Aye-Aye, the lemur who would like to talk with you about creating a summoning contract." Aoto's smile sharpened, the wrinkles around his eyes tightening together. "She says they can smell summons."
.
Taida sighed, pulling whiskey out of his bottom drawer. His office door swung closed behind Jiraiya. His boss was being assigned to the Capital and had once again asked Taida to pick up the slack in his absence.
How long had it been since Jiraiya had actually felt like his boss?
Jiraiya was smarter than him, was far more capable of forming and maintaining his information network—
But every year he became ever more reliant on Taida to take and consolidate the information, ever less willing to analyze anything himself.
Assuming it was about anything but Orochimaru, of course.
.
Anko wasn't crying. Her opponent just hit really hard, that was all.
At least no one noticed; Sensei was wrapping up for the day, calling out instructions about D-ranks, and Anko—
Anko glared at her opponent.
The Hyuuga girl didn't even notice.
It was just so unfair sometimes. Anko had to scrape and fight for everything, had to practice with the other non-clan kids, and meanwhile the Hyuuga were walking around flaunting actual tattoo seals on almost every forehead.
It just wasn't fair.
And Anko—
She wasn't good at sealing, was the thing.
Wasn't neat enough, or whatever, and couldn't really afford the extra paper to practice outside of class.
(Not like the stupid Hyuuga.)
If she had any say in it, she'd be covered head-to-toe in tattoos, exactly like the criminals her parents always warned her about. She'd be cool, be colorful, shout 'danger!' with every inch of her body.
She wasn't cool like that, though.
Wasn't rich enough, or smart enough.
She lost more spars than she won, and she struggled to pay attention in every class, and she had loads of friends but not one best friend, and—
But Kumiko liked her.
She was a clan kid and everything, but she still looked up to Anko, still thought it was really cool that Anko knew all sorts of big words, even knew how to write most of them.
The clan kids in her class might not notice her, but Anko's mentee made her feel smart, like the big sister all over again.
Anko liked that.
It would be awful, when Kumiko realized Anko wasn't actually very good.
The class was let out, and Anko watched as all the clan kids clustered together—the Yamanaka kids, Akimichi kids, and Nara kids heading off in one direction; the Uchiha in another.
The Hyuuga girl ran to catch up to her older brother, jumping on his back and laughing as they both fell down, their massive seals prominent on their foreheads.
It wasn't fair.
.
Minato frowned as he signed the guilty verdict.
Most crimes—most crimes unrelated to one's position in the military, anyway—were adjudicated by the courts, but some weren't.
In some cases the victims were young, and the crimes were deplorable, and it was more important to hide as much as possible from the private eye than to allow for the relative fairness and efficiency of the courts to do its work.
The police even had a special unit for such crimes, although the unit also worked on other crimes involving child-victims and even sometimes adults to further obfuscate their investigations.
A limited, known, number of people in the know.
A minimization of the damage.
But there was still damage.
This man had three victims, his own children, before he was caught, and Minato—
Sometimes death was too easy, but it was the cheapest option.
He had just sealed the verdict back into the scroll—to be delivered to the jail immediately—when ANBU Cassowary, one of the newer recruits, landed in front of him.
Minato blinked, glancing at the scroll the ANBU was holding.
"Two members of Iwa's secret service just dropped this off at the location," ANBU Cassowary said, their voice deadened by the seals in the mask. "All procedures were properly followed."
Minato took the seal.
The location—unnamed by anyone, only ever explained by coordinates—allowed for communication between Iwa and Konoha even during wartime. Two other locations (also, of course, called 'the location') allowed the same for Suna and Kumo too, and there had even been a fifth for Kiri before… well, before.
For it to be used, though…
Minato read the scroll.
And then Minato stood.
Read the scroll again.
Laughed.
"Well, I suppose we'll have to see if they're serious," Minato said, and stood. It was time to prepare.