A/N: I think once a month should just be considered my new normal, and I should just stop feeling bad for being late. Clearly that's all my brain wants now. Anyway, here's the chapter! My sister drew some fanart for it too, but unfortunately I can't really upload that to this site, so it's only on my Tumblr or on AO3 right now.

As always, thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy!

"Ooh~? Back so soon, Kabuto-kun?"

"Orochimaru-sama. Team 7 has returned to the village. It… appears as though your seal is missing."

"What."

"I haven't yet tried to contact them directly, but even from a distance, I've seen no sign of it on either of them, the Uchiha or the girl. Mitarashi has also been unusually busy, speaking with either Jiraiya or Inoichi every time I've checked in on her."

The snake's fingers still, then curl around the armrest. "I see. Leave Anko for now then. Make contact with the children - they're young, and may know some of what happened. Find out."

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama."

"I suppose Hatake is back as well?"

"...I wouldn't know, Orochimaru-sama. I haven't seen him, nor has anyone mentioned him. If he is, he's laying low. Should I look?"

"No. Figure out what happened with the genin first, but make certain the men know to expect him to show up. I'll not take chances."

"Understood."

"Pfft-!"

"If you-"

"Pff- ehehehe-"

"If you don't-"

"T-teme, teme, it's- ahahaha-"

"Are you done?"

Natsu yanks the last ribbon out of his hair, glaring at his teammates. "I will tie you up with these ribbons and light you on fire-"

Naruto rolls over again, muffling his laughter into the carpet.

Mebuki snaps another picture with her camera.

"Oi!" Natsu snaps, making to lunge at her. Sasuke intercepts him smoothly, looking absolutely unnatural in Natsu's opinion, with his hair pressed flat, clad in lilac and sky-blue robes.

They'd look good on just about anyone else, Natsu's pretty sure, but the colors do not flatter the Uchiha well.

He groans.

"I hate you both," Natsu protests vaguely, burying his face in Sasuke's shoulder so he doesn't have to look at the eyesore anymore. "Why would you do this."

Naruto hasn't stopped laughing since Natsu first came out of the bathroom, dragged unwillingly by Mebuki into the living room so she could get her pictures.

Sasuke smirks. "Vengeance."

Natsu groans again, turning sharply away from the Uchiha to drag Naruto off the floor. "I should kick you both out. You've clearly overstayed your welcome."

"Don't be like that Natsu!" Naruto protests, still giggling. "It looks really good on you!"

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Natsu snaps, grinding his knuckles into Naruto's head.

"The ribbons were a little ridiculous," Sasuke chimes in, and Mebuki giggles.

"I may have gotten a bit carried away… but the qipao really does suit you! You should keep it! Ne, Sakura?"

"I never really thought about wearing orange… Naruto's always so much of an eye-sore, but it really is pretty…"

"What- noooooooo Sakura, not you tooooooo-"

Mebuki claps her hands. "Then it's agreed! You boys want to spend the night? Don't feel like you have to, but we've got the space!"

Naruto and Sasuke trade smirks, and Natsu despairs.

…how many outfits did Sasuke buy again? Natsu hadn't paid attention, but that bag is a little big for just one, isn't it?

…somehow Natsu feels distinctly plotted against.

He'd better talk fast.

Papa walks with her to the Haruno home, his hand a constant weight on her shoulder. It feels like a restraint, a reprimand, for all that it's just a gentle touch, and Ino bites her tongue against the guilt.

Papa didn't tell Hokage-sama what she did.

Ino knows that means he as good as lied to their Hokage to keep her out of trouble and- and Ino didn't-

Now, if people find out, it won't be just Ino getting in trouble and she didn't think it would end up like this but now-

What if they find out that she pushed Shikamaru to look into things? Would that be enough for them to realize what she did, get her and papa and the Harunos into trouble?

Did she… make a mistake?

She almost doesn't want to go, doesn't want to see the family she put in such a bad position so soon, but-

This might be the only time she has to really see if Sakura-chan's okay, papa and Haruno-san can say Natsu's a good person all they want but Ino needs to see it so everything else can wait-

But that doesn't make the tension go away, when they arrive and papa knocks sharply on the door.

No one answers.

After a minute of anxious waiting, Ino turns to her dad. "Are they not home?" she asks, and papa frowns.

"They know we're coming, so they should be."

He knocks again, louder, and there's a sudden crash before the door's wrenched open by-

"NARUTO?!" Ino can't help but shout, pointing at the unexpected blond in his eye-searing orange… kimono?

Ino drops her arm, surprised, and suddenly feeling quite underdressed in her normal day clothes.

"I'm sorry-"

"Um, what-"

Naruto and Ino start speaking at the same time, and when Naruto trails off Ino speaks over him. "What're you wearing?"

Naruto blinks, surprised. "Oh, this? We went shopping to replace all our stuff yesterday, an' Sasuke an' I bought some ridiculous outfits t'make Natsu mad, an' Haruno-san said she was havin' a dinner party today so since they're fancy-clothes we decided to wear em - but Natsu's tryin' to burn down the house cause he doesn't wanna do it again, so it's kinda a mess- y'guys are a little early, might be safer to hide in the kitchen with Kizashi-san until we get Natsu t'stop fightin', 'ttebayo."

Ino jerks to face her dad, worried, but papa just laughs. "We'll take your advice then, Naruto-kun. Do let me know if you need any help."

Naruto laughs. "Nah, the jerk's got everything handled! Y'know where the kitchen is?"

At papa's nod, Naruto waves them in and then runs off deeper into the house, leaving Ino to awkwardly slip her sandals off in the hallway.

"If he's burning down the house, is it really okay?" she asks quietly, glancing down the hall, and papa just smiles a bit.

"Ah, Natsu-kun wouldn't actually do that, so I'm sure Naruto-kun was exaggerating a little bit. We can go peek our heads in if you'd like."

Ino nods sharply, and then quickly takes the lead towards the living room before papa can change his mind.

She's not quite sure what she expected, but the living room actually being on fire… wasn't it.

Ino can't even see what's going on for a minute, the bright glare of the flames blinding her, though by the time her eyes adjust she almost wishes they hadn't.

Naruto's clinging to one of Sakura's arms, legs wrapped around her waist, as Sasuke-kun pins the other down, Mebuki-san tying a bright orange ribbon into her hair-

Sakura whines, the ribbon lighting on fire, the edges burning and curling, only for Mebuki-san to immediately clench it in her fist.

"It's only one ribbon Natsu, I promise!" She protests, tying it up again, and- Natsu groans.

"You guys are eeeevil," sh- they? Whine again, and Ino shifts uncomfortably to look back at papa.

"What-?" she begins to ask, only for all the attention to snap to her.

Ino catches a glimpse of Mebuki-san hastily finishing with the ribbon as Natsu's focus shifts to her.

"Oh! You guys are already here? Since when?" Natsu asks, and Ino nearly answers, before Naruto cuts across.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you but noooooooo Natsu was too busy fighting over a ribbon- even teme's wearing a ribbon! Whaddya have against 'em anyway?"

Ino jerks her gaze back to Sasuke, ignoring the ensuing argument, and-

Naruto's right. Sasuke-kun's hair isn't really long enough to tie back, but he still has a red and white ribbon braided through it, that curled back around the top of his head in an elaborate style.

When she looks back to the arguing duo, Naruto doesn't have any ribbons of his own, but his hair is pulled back from his face with a bright orange strip of cloth acting much like a headband, the ends trailing down his back.

Sakura- Natsu's hair is half pulled up into a high tail, tied back with a ribbon in a much softer shade of orange than Naruto's, wearing an orange kimono of the same orange creme with delicate white flowers decorating the hems.

It's cute.

It's less cute when Sakura crosses her arms, scowling at Naruto and Sasuke-kun. "I don't have anything against ribbons! I just don't understand why my hair's gotta be in some weird style! It was fine the way it was!"

Mebuki-san wraps her into a hug. "Everyone else decided to dress up, so obviously Natsu does as well! But if you really don't like the style, we can pick a different one."

"It's… fine." Natsu says, shifting a little until Mebuki-san lets him go. The singed edges of the ribbon flutter as he walks over.

Somehow Ino doesn't expect him to talk to her though, leaning up into her space with a wide grin and eyes glinting mischievously. "So you're Sakura-chan's rival! She talks about you sometimes! Ne, Ino-chan right? I've got a question for you!"

Mebuki-san brushes down her own kimono, colored in soft pinks and whites, smiling at them. "I'm going to go help Kizashi with dinner, it should be done soon!"

"Sure?" Ino offers in response to Natsu as Mebuki-san leaves, and Natsu's grin widens.

It looks so unnatural on Sakura-chan's gentle face.

"Do you take off your clothes in public a lot?"

Ino slaps him.

She doesn't even process it really, until she hears the resounding smack and sees her friend flinch backwards and out of range from her follow-up punch.

The interloper in her friend's body just laughs.

"Ahaha, good! That's a no isn't it? Cause I've already got one stripper-pervert for a rival, I don't need two!" he crows, grin quickly replacing the momentary surprise on his face, and Ino raises her fist to punch him again.

He dances out of range, then brushes aside her arm to move in closer, considering. "So, what's it like being normal rivals then, if you're not a pervert? I've never really known, so you gotta tell me! Wha- no, Sakura-chan- I'll explain later- just lemme ask!"

He glances back at Ino, expectant, and she's so confused no one said-

Then Naruto interrupts.

"I dunno, wasn't there that whole thing where Ino tried to steal Sasuke's underwear that one time? That's still a pervert thing, right?"

"...what."

Ino panics. Why does he even know about that?! We never said anything to him!

"It's not what it sounds like papa! It was just- um-"

"Wait so Ino-chan really is a pervert rival then?" Natsu asks, as Sasuke-kun scoffs.

"I'm leaving."

"Wait teme, no way, you can't leave me here alone!"

"An underwear thief?" Natsu mutters, a little disbelieving, and Ino quails.

"It seems like we have quite a bit to talk about when we get home, flower." papa chides.

…perhaps dinner really was a bad idea, Ino admits, if only to herself.

She's going to be grounded for months at this rate.

Inoichi is two seconds away from asking for some alcohol to go with dinner, and they've barely started serving it.

Perhaps he should have had more of a presence in his daughter's school life, if the conversation is anything to go by. In the wake of the massacre he was so busy though, him and most of the upper level shinobi, working double-time to fill in the gaps the military police used to cover and all the nasty issues that came from a village losing an entire clan in a single night. Civilian panic, enemy infiltration, the hungry vultures circling Konoha and looking for weaknesses-

Inoichi almost doesn't remember what it was like to have a light work load anymore, because the lack of manpower never really went away. They just got better at managing it.

There's been talk, he knows, of relaxing the Academy standards in order to get their numbers increased. Most everyone with sense shut it down, of course, but it doesn't change the fact that a clan of over four hundred people is not something easily replaced.

Even though over half of those were civilians, it doesn't make up for the hundred good shinobi they lost.

There are quite a few days where he wishes he'd pushed harder for the teenage ANBU to receive mandatory therapy with a Yamanaka. ANBU does have their own therapist, he knows, someone with a high enough clearance level to work with them, to notice any serious issues and address them.

But the ANBU therapist isn't a Yamanaka, and perhaps Inoichi is biased but he's fairly sure one of his men could have caught the psychosis before Itachi snapped.

"Inoichi-san?" Mebuki offers the pot of tea she's holding like an offering, and Inoichi smiles.

"Ah, my apologies, just thinking about work. Thank you," he adds as she fills his cup, and then he glances across the table. "Everything looks delicious. Thank you for having us."

Mebuki laughs. "Oh it's no trouble! I'm glad you could make it!"

The table dissolves into gentle chatter as they eat, Team 7 bickering amongst themselves as the Haruno parents add their own thoughts here and there.

Ino plays nervously with her fork more than she eats, constantly glancing at Natsu.

Inoichi's not quite certain what to say to her. He's long since grown accustomed to Natsu, to the boy's strange quirks and body language, and the way it all clashes against Sakura's delicate form. Wearing half-sleeves the way he is, Inoichi's pretty sure Ino hasn't even realized there's scars now.

Inoichi wishes he had a solution, to return Natsu to where he belongs, for Ino's own peace of mind as much as his desire to lighten his workload again. But sitting at the table, watching everyone interact, he knows at this point that it's not going to be so easy. At least, not if he wants to keep the jinchuuriki and their last Uchiha from defecting from the village to follow him.

Probably not something he should tell Hokage-sama, if he doesn't want everything to blow up again.

It's a concerning situation of course, but locking Natsu away will only cause more problems, especially at this point.

I… am in so much trouble.

"So! Ino-chan!" Natsu suddenly speaks up, roping Inoichi's daughter into the conversation. "We're kinda stuck being bored for the next few days cause our sensei's doin' stuff without us. We were thinkin' of trainin' on our own, but then Jiraiya gave us that stupid lecture about what happened last time we decided t'do somethin' unsupervised, so you wanna ask your sensei if we can join you guys?"

"What-? Um- yes!" Inoichi pretends not to notice his daughter's quick glance at him. She probably wants to drag them into meeting Shikamaru, accidentally revealing the secret to the Nara, but.

Well, Inoichi's pretty sure Shikaku's kid has already figured it out, and it seems like a good way to keep Team 7 from poking around any more foreign shinobi, which will hopefully keep them safe.

…Inoichi isn't going to count on that of course, but it does seem the best option.

Though he may need to swing by Shikaku's place and make sure his son knows not to say anything about Natsu. The kid's smart, but some things should be emphasized aloud.

Ino eagerly participates in the conversation after that though, asking about training and their sensei and the missions they've taken-

Ah. Inoichi's going to have to actually pay attention, isn't he?

None of those kids would know confidentiality if it bit them in the ass.

Working even on his evenings off is really becoming far too common.

Natsu misses his guild like a limb. Like a constant sense of something missing and then he tries to move it and it doesn't-

It's not really like he minded the qipao, though he's still annoyed that it doesn't look cool. Cute isn't his style! That's Lucy's job! But really-

Really he just hated how much he'd expected Happy to show up with a camera, cackling about blackmail.

Hated how easily he could picture Erza dragging them all dress-shopping, under some vague pretense of a mission, the way she'd force Gray into a dress while Lucy used her fancy magic tools to change the colors of everything until it was perfect-

It was just-

The exact sort of insanity he expects from everyone back home, and it's stupid how wrong it feels to do that sort of thing without them.

Erza and Mikki would be terrifying together, he muses, and can't quite help laughing at the image of Erza berating Mikki for taking too long on her order, as Lucy and Mira compare styles with their fancy girl-talk that Natsu never understands no matter how much he tries.

He wonders vaguely if Mikki could make a dress that could hide a sword. Erza would love something like that, even though she uses her Requip she'd think it was so cool and maybe he could bribe her with it the next time he ̶b̶l̶o̶w̶s̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶u̶i̶l̶d̶ ̶h̶a̶l̶l̶ fights with Gray.

Could he make an outfit for Happy…? Wendy and Charla made Charla's outfit themselves, didn't they…? Hmm…

Natsu toys with the idea, thoughts meandering as he wonders if it's even possible to take anything back with him to his world when he doesn't have a body here.

Sakura's parents chat casually inside, as Sakura-chan herself muses quietly about Ino and how much she hadn't realized she'd missed her friend, and Natsu's almost asleep, there on the rooftop, when the explosion trembles the building.

He scurries to his feet, nearly tumbling off the roof at a second explosion, a bit closer, and catches sight of a massive plume of smoke drifting above the nearest wall of the village. Cursing, he dives off the roof and catches the sill of their window, pulling himself in and grabbing his gear.

He nearly runs into Mebuki-san as he darts out of the room, and she pushes him along.

"Naruto and Sasuke were meeting up in the Uchiha district, right? You should catch up with them, stick together. Your father and I will make sure the others on the street get to the bunkers."

Natsu nods, jerking on his sandals and running out the door.

"Should we catch Naruto or Sasuke first?" he asks Sakura, and turns immediately when she says Naruto.

"The explosions were closer to Naruto's home than Sasuke-kun's, and he lives closer anyway- better to travel together, especially since his clones can find Kakashi-sensei and see what's going on!" she explains as he runs, and Natsu grunts.

Sounds good to him.

He picks up the pace, tearing down the streets towards the blond's apartments, and nearly collides with his teammate halfway there.

"Natsu! Where's the jerk?!"

Natsu shakes his head. "Came for you first, you were closer. He's home right? We weren't meeting Ino-chan's team til later…"

Naruto nods. "Yeah, should be. But you know the guy, if he heard the explosions he'll probably run off and do something stupid, so we need to get there quick."

Natsu nods, then takes off, carefully forwarding Sakura-chan's words. "You should make some clones, send them to find Kakashi-sensei and Jiraiya, and keep an eye on the other streets, just in case we miss Sasuke."

"Right!" Naruto brings his hands together, dozens of copies spawning and then breaking off in different directions.

They make it to the Uchiha compound in record time.

"If Sasuke-kun waited for us, he'd be near the gates, right?" Sakura-chan asks nervously, and Natsu grimaces.

"Probably. Let's go make sure though."

They don't have to go far to catch the signs of a fight. No blood, but a couple kunai left on the street, the walls freshly scorched-

Natsu takes a deep breath through his nose as Naruto scrambles to make more clones, sending them through the entire compound.

"Two attackers," Natsu growls, nose scrunching, "and they both smell foul."

"Of course that jerk's in trouble. Whaddu we do?" Naruto hops in place, concerned.

"We go after him of course. Send some more clones to tell Kakashi-sensei what happened-" at a prompt from Sakura, he adds, "and Inoichi too. I'll see how far I can track them!"

Naruto nods, the air filling with smoke, and they're off again.