For one long, agonizing moment, Tsunade considers just. Turning around. Walking right back out those damn gates, off to the nearest gambling den, and just. Getting herself roaringly drunk.
It's so tempting. She doesn't even have the damn hat yet, and already she's dealing with fucking- treason, compromised security, a jinchurikki who is one bad move away from having the entire damn city on high alert, and Natsu fucking Dragneel.
The fact that the last one could technically count as the other three put together would be amusing, if it were literally anyone else who had to deal with the damn mess.
She just got here! She hasn't been officially nominated or inaugurated yet! Technically she can just leave! Dump the whole damn mess on Jiraiya's head and watch from a distance!
But-
Fuck.
She can't do that to the kid.
Naruto looks up at her as she ruffles his hair. This close, touching him, she can feel the prickly static of his chakra, just shy of painful. He's not flaring, none of the kyuubi's corrosive spikes, but-
In any other situation, the amount of control he's managing would be impressive.
Hell, maybe it's impressive now, to other people, Tsunade wouldn't know. She just-
If it were her, in that position… no one would have gotten mad at her for spiking her chakra, screaming her fury and kicking someone's face in.
Maybe there's just something heartbreaking about knowing that the kid is holding himself together more out of fear than any normal sense of restraint or even temper.
He leans into her hand, covering his face while he takes a deep breath. Tsunade doesn't let the discomfort show. He shouldn't have to force himself even further, and it's not hurting.
"Kid," she starts, waits until Naruto pulls down his hands and looks back up to her again. There's the bare remnants of a tear smeared across his cheek, but-
Well. It would be impressive if it weren't so heartbreaking, heh.
Tsunade ruffles his hair again, a little more violently this time, waits for him to yelp and flail and (fail to) throw her hand off. "Baa-san, what-"
"I'm just gonna remind you that T is torture and interrogation. If it were just the torture department we'd just call it the damn torture department, but a lot more goes on down there than that. I hadn't heard anything about an Uzumaki, but if she was picked up during the invasion, it's standard procedure to hold people for a period of time, usually long enough for medical and chakra tests to be done to make sure they're actually who they say they are and not an imposter, and usually there's some questions like what are you doing in konoha, stuff like that to make sure they're not a spy being paid off by someone." She turns the gesture into a proper noogie, dragging Naruto in, "So don't go off freaking out about whatever's happening. Whoever they are, they're probably fine, just bored out of their minds waiting for a damn ass to fill the Hokage's seat and finally mark down whether they're clear to leave or not. People like that need the Hokage's authority to be allowed to live in the village, and no Hokage means no paperwork means they get stuck in limbo for a while. If Yamanaka was comfortable enough with them to get piss drunk in front of them, I don't think they were getting tortured at all. Okay?"
Naruto relaxes slightly, smile still clearly forced but body not as tense as he looks back up at her. "Y-yeah, thanks… can I-?"
Tsunade grimaces, steps away and cracks her knuckles. She doesn't look at him. "Sorry, kid. Standard op in this kind of mess really is to keep them on lockdown until shit's settled in and the new Hokage can be properly briefed on the situation and approve it. Probably why your sensei didn't tell you, cause he knew no one would let you see them and didn't want you stuck agonizing over it. If you were anyone else, an exception could probably be made by the head of T , but… if we tried doing that here, and the Council caught wind of it… they'd have all our asses for it. I'll do my best to get this shit cleaned up as fast as possible, but there's nothing we can do here."
Tsunade doesn't breathe a sigh of relief when she catches Shizune and Jiraiya's chakra closing in, but it's a close thing. Perfect. No more being forced to watch Yamanaki Inoichi awkwardly attempt to pretend he's just part of the wallpaper.
"But can't you-!?"
"Ah! Shizune, perfect timing. Hatake's a fucking moron who went and put himself into a chakra exhaustion-induced coma right after I pulled his ass out of one, and I don't have time to deal with that. Make sure he doesn't kill himself, won't you?"
"Yes, Tsunade-shisho. I spoke to the Elders, and Danzo-sama," she says as her hands begin to glow. She begins to check him over, before frowning down at Hatake's heart.
Huh. That's right, she's never actually seen a Hatake before, medically. Read the reports, but that's nothing like actually feeling the way their bodies are structured differently to accommodate their thick, heavy chakra. Heh. Lucky her she doesn't have to do actual work on the damn thing. Shizune continues after just a moment's hesitation though, "they're awaiting you in the Tower, and while they all seemed a little displeased at your presence, save for Danzo they also seemed somewhat happy? I got some strange mixed signals, there. Might be more that they're happy you're in the village and not so happy at the idea of you taking over, so good luck with that. Jiraiya crashed our meeting though, so you're going to have to go soothe some feathers. Sorry for the trouble."
Tsunade sighs, waves away the apology. "Out of everyone in this room, you're the last one I want to hear an apology from, Shizune. Alright. Here's what we're doing. Brats!" She'll be honest, it's a little satisfying the way all three genin immediately turn to look at her. Tsunade can admit that power has its perks. "I am going to the administration tower, and I'll be taking Inoichi and Jiraiya with me. You three, are going to stay here with your sensei until I'm back. If he wakes up, have him walk you through how to secure a room before you start asking questions, but you are not leaving. Am I making myself clear?"
She waits, glaring, until she gets a trio of agreements, and then promptly drags Jiraiya and Inoichi out the door, ignoring their ungainly yelps as she stomps through the hospital.
Sensei seriously went and died and left her with a giant clusterfuck of an explosion tag to defuse, didn't he?
She'll have to spit on his grave once they finish the funeral.
Fuck. Does she need to help with funeral preparations? Surely they've finished everything, and were just waiting until the most urgent repairs were done so that everyone could attend, she doesn't actually need to do anything, right?
They'll probably make her give a speech. Maybe she'll make it all flowery and sappy and talk about how much she wishes they'd been able to speak again before he died, just to see how many people realize that she really wants him back so she can kick his face in herself. What a mess.
She hasn't even been back one day. She wasn't even able to find the hospital administration to punt them through their code-failing walls yet-!
Well.
Something to look forward to, then.
It's a nostalgic feeling, the numbness in his arm as Tsunade drags him along with her ground-eating lope, constantly bumping shoulders with the other poor sod being dragged alongside him.
Usually the hair he keeps seeing in his peripheral is black, instead of blond, but-
It's probably a good thing, this time.
Whether the nostalgia itself is the good kind or the bad kind is hard to say, but-
There's something… relieving, gratifying, about how normal it still feels.
Proof, maybe, that some things haven't changed. He's been getting a lot of that, travelling with Tsunade, but every time, it's like a punch to the gut- solid, firm, uncoiling some sort of tension he hadn't even been aware of-
Ooh, I could do something with tha-
Jiraiya rocks back with a yelp as Tsunade lets go of his arm, only to drive an elbow into his ribs.
"Jiraiya."
"Ahahahaha, Hime please, it was a figurative-"
She stops. "What-? No, I don't even want to know, I'm sure I would lose braincells just hearing it. I need those reports you mentioned earlier, you said you had some official paperwork drafted up already?"
"I- yes but it was only-"
"I am about to have the most annoying meeting of my life, and if you don't stop wasting time right now and hand me those damned reports, I am going to beat you to death with your own head."
Jiraiya scrambles, flipping through his storage seals. "You can't beat me to death with my own head, I'd already be-"
Tsunade meets his eyes as he hands over the stack of papers, then very pointedly drags her gaze down. Her gaze hits the papers, and she swipes them away, already flipping through them as she stomps down the street.
That.
That right there is the problem.
The- the timing! The implications! She could have asked for the reports whenever, but she waits until right then, like a mindreader, and then-! That pointed gaze! Sure, maybe she was just slowly turning to look at the papers in his hand, but any man would interpret that sort of look differently! There's no need to move that slowly just to look at some papers! But-!
Mixed signal after mixed signal! And she gets mad at him for not reading the room-!
Inoichi leans in, muttering just barely audible, "I'm pretty sure she was threatening to use some sort of jutsu to keep you alive as a decapitated head until she'd sufficiently pulverized the rest of your body with it, Jiraiya-sama. Please stop making such wild theories, or she's probably going to demolish the street and we only just got it repaired."
"Don't be ridiculous, you can't keep a man alive in that state- huh. Is Danzo waiting outside for us?" Jiraiya stops, peering over the edge of the roof, and-
Yep. Shimura Danzo, in the flesh.
Tsunade stops when he does, lets out a soft huh, then goes right back to reading through the reports.
It's-
There's something… warm, at the thought that Tsunade is waiting for him, trusting him, taking his lead here-
She's still willing to stop when he stops, even though she was the one leading the march, and-
Jiraiya's not going to cry over it, he has an image to uphold!
̶H̶e̶ ̶k̶e̶e̶p̶s̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶e̶c̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶g̶o̶ ̶s̶o̶u̶t̶h̶,̶ ̶t̶u̶r̶n̶ ̶s̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶t̶i̶m̶e̶,̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶O̶r̶o̶c̶h̶i̶m̶a̶r̶u̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶d̶o̶e̶s̶n̶'̶t̶,̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶n̶'̶t̶,̶ ̶i̶t̶-̶
Tsunade flips another page, and Jiraiya wonders, because he already summarized the contents of all the reports he'd been drafting up while hunting her down, is she looking for something specific? But she could just ask-
Inoichi sighs. "He's probably there because- well. You did rather publicly break open the door to the interrogation room, which means everyone got an eyeful of… well. I'm sure Danzo-sama has already received reports about it, in the time it took Shizune-san to come and take over at the hospital."
Jiraiya winces. "Yeah, that'd do it. Hime-"
"It's fine." She waves him off, reports disappearing with a flourish as she hops off the roof with all the grace of a regal lion, hair fluttering behind her.
He could write poems about that.
In fact-
"Jiraiya!"
Oh that golden hair
Fluttering gracefully now
̶S̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶r̶a̶t̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶
̶H̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶o̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶d̶e̶s̶t̶r̶u̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶
̶D̶a̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶c̶r̶u̶m̶b̶l̶e̶d̶ ̶e̶a̶r̶t̶h̶
̶F̶e̶a̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶f̶a̶l̶l̶s̶ ̶e̶a̶r̶t̶h̶ ̶b̶r̶e̶a̶k̶s̶
A lone strand cuts stone
"...the byakugan has had a lot more issues with theft than the sharingan, and that's because of the chakra drain. Something about how the sharingan operates makes it require much more chakra when transplanted outside of the clan, to the point that pretty much anyone who tried to use it would die of chakra exhaustion in short order," the new doctor explains as she examines Kakashi-sensei, "But the Hatake clan has rather unique chakra - their chakra is exceptionally dense, thick and heavy in a way almost incomprehensible to most shinobi. Kakashi-san's thick chakra is used much more slowly by the sharingan than other peoples', so he can actually wield his eye in battle. But the eye is still constantly drawing chakra from him, even when it's not in use. Which means, when he does end up using too much chakra, it takes a lot longer for him to stabilize than other shinobi, as well, because the sharingan is still eating up his chakra, and sometimes, in acute cases, he might need a doctor to externally help support his body until his chakra stores can level out. He's not in danger of dying or anything, it isn't that severe, but he might be out for a couple of hours, maybe a day or so."
Natsu groans. "That'll take forever, ugh. If you're already doin' stuff to keep him stabilized, can't we just give him a bunch of chakra so he wakes up faster?"
The doctor lady sighs, eyes rolling up to the ceiling as Naruto tries to elbow him. Natsu elbows back. "Didn't I just say that Hatake clan chakra is different from most peoples'? When he's conscious, sure, he can properly integrate external chakra into his system, but like this… even soldier pills won't work for him. I know Tsunade-sama had some old notes on a project for modified soldier pills designed to work with Hatake chakra so that in cases where he was too disoriented to properly filter external chakra he'd still have options, but I don't know that she ever finished it… or where it is, probably buried under all the sake bottles…" she trails off with a mutter, a dark look entering her eyes even as her hands stay steady on Kakashi's chest and head.
"So we just have to wait?!"
"I'm afraid so, kunoichi-san."
Natsu scowls, turning away with a huff. "Right, come on then." Natsu grabs Naruto and Sasuke's hands, dragging them to the doors.
Naruto yelps, eyes locked on-
Oh shit is that pork?
Natsu turns, he hasn't had spit-roasted pig in so long-
Naruto body slams him out the door, kicking it shut behind him. "Absolutely not don't eat the demon pig but also didn't Baa-san say we were supposed to stay in the room-?"
"Really?" Sasuke scoffs, and Natsu turns to him but-
"...which of us were you talking to?"
Sasuke's glare is one step shy of lighting something on fire. "Both of you."
"Don't even, you deserve it. You can't eat someone's pet!"
"Wha-?! Sakura-chan! Pigs aren't pets, they're food!"
"She had a necklace!"
"Okay, and?!"
A sense of a door slamming, and Natsu huffs. "Fine, okay, sheesh, I won't eat the pig. We'll have to go hunt one down later though, now I'm hungry."
"Please stop saying stuff like that where Tonton can hear you." Naruto whispers, and Natsu laughs.
"Yeah, alright, we can talk about it on the way then. Oi, Sasuke, no leaving the group!"
"I'm not going on your little fieldtrip to Ichiraku's, or wherever else you're headed."
"I was thinking we break into T , actually." Natsu grabs his team's hands again, dragging them back to the hospital exit.
"I- mean, I want to," Naruto starts, fingers clenched tight around Natsu's own, "But… would we put him- them- would they be in trouble? If we did…"
Natsu shrugs, ignoring Sasuke's kick in retaliation, "Eh, probably not. I'm not good with fancy double-speak, but even I could tell Onee-san was putting weird emphasis on everything she was saying, so it's basically permission, isn't it?"
"Could you really? Or did Sakura-chan do all the work?" Sasuke grouses, and Natsu hmphs.
"I don't have to answer to this slander."
"I'm pretty sure it's only slander if it's untrue."
"Character assassination then!"
"That's not-"
"ANYWAY, we should hurry up and get over there before Jiraiya remembers we can't be trusted to behave and calls ANBU on our asses!"
"This is how we got put on house arrest…" Sakura-chan grumbles, and Natsu laughs.
"If you don't get arrested at least once a month, are you really having enough fun?"
"Not everyone needs to be a delinquent to have fun, idiot-"
"You are going to give my parents grey hairs!"
"I dunno, I think it's more fun if you stay out of jail actually…"
Natsu laughs again at the chorus of disagreements, dragging his team through the streets- maybe somewhat different, since the invasion, but not different enough for him to forget where-
Huh, that's a familiar scent, who…
Aha! Wait that's the door!
And now, the best way to deal with a lock…
Well.
A little bit of arson always makes the day better~!
"ABSOLUTELY NOT!"
Iruka tears his eyes away from the doors for the sixth time. Administration has been nearly overrun, the mission desk a nonstop rush as orders for more and more repairs come in now that the largest problems are fixed and they're accepting commissions again. Then the information handling and trying to go through the Archives because of the breech, and then Danzo-sama's additional requests for certain reports and records and-
He's on shift for another two hours.
Naruto's finally back in the village, and he can't even go check on the kid, keeps hoping maybe Team 7 will come in for a quick repair job, but-
If he keeps checking the door, someone's going to start asking him why.
Iruka turns back to his desk, a mission report from Jonin Team Sei regarding a followup on one of Jiraiya's leads that he left with Administration before he went searching for Senju Tsunade-sama.
He's been trying to get through it for twenty minutes now.
Words swim before his eyes. It's not-
Iruka's pretty good at admin work, he'd say he specializes in it even, but the ins and outs of the various merchant guilds and the political structures surrounding them…
And none of their regular merchant teams are in the village, all running jobs for various supplies and keeping deals and trade running while they rebuild-
"Did the village emergency reinstate Kizashi?" he groans into his scroll, "Or is he just working with us as a civilian? I saw his signature on Tine's report…"
Shuffling paper, before his deskmate answers, "The emergency reinstatement for retired forces has ended for those who were ranked genin, yesterday it looks like. He hasn't submitted his formal leave paperwork though, so he technically has clearance if that's what you're asking."
Iruka scoops up the scroll, as well as the two others from the job. "Yeah, that's fine by me. What's his address, I'll swing by and get his review, probably bring his re-resignation back with me…"
It's only as he's standing at the door, Kizashi right in front of him, that Iruka finally remembers that Haruno Kizashi is in fact Sakura-chan's father, and not just one of his regular contacts for questions regarding merchant trends and other non-classified tasks that might fall under that.
It's bad form, but Iruka gently pushes work aside in his mind, offering a smile. "I don't suppose you've seen Natsu or Naruto, have you?"
"Umino-sensei. Here for work, or a social call?" Kizashi says with a laugh as he lets him in, eyes trailing from the reports back to Iruka's face, "You just missed my wife, but I can probably manage a cup of tea, if you'd like. Natsu's out as well, though I expect we'll see him turning up again soon."
Iruka laughs. "Yeah, mostly for work. I know you're good with merchant talk, and I'm a bit swamped trying to figure out this whole mess. They said you hadn't resubmitted your resignation yet?"
Kizashi waves him to a chair, and sticks a cup of water in the microwave. Iruka carefully doesn't make a face. "Oh, no I haven't. I'm sure Natsu's out somewhere getting into trouble. Figured I'd need the clearance to visit him in his cell, later. So I'm holding onto it for a bit, while the grace period is up."
"Wha- prison?! Why-?"
Kizashi laughs. "No, no, that's mostly a joke! He had some sort of unpleasant flashback earlier this morning, and we haven't seen him since. I was going to hand in my notice today, have it all written up and signed and everything, but when that happened, well. Better safe than sorry, I figure. Now, what's this about a merchant report?"
Iruka would protest the changing of subject, but-
Kizashi pushes forward the tea with a smile, and he takes the hint.
"As you say, this does seem to be a straightforward solution." Tsunade quirks an eyebrow at Danzo's grudging words.
"I understand the concerns you might have," she starts, "because I've been absent from this village for some time, and I know there are many unsavory rumors regarding my departure." Tsunade smiles. If Danzo reads it as pointed, all the better. "However… Konoha is my home, always has been, even when I was parted from her. Hearing about Orochimaru's assault… even if I'm not instated, my aid to the village is unconditional. I already stopped by the hospital briefly, and hope to return to continue my rounds there. But that, in turn, is why I am putting my name in for consideration as the Godaime. In my rounds, I noticed that many of the policies and standards I worked hard to pass into law previously are not being followed, and the hospital is not running well. Not even half as well as it should be. I feel as though perhaps some people decided to care less about our patients and more about passing people back into the field, and I won't be able to fix that from the hospital. The care of our shinobi, our people, should always be this office's first priority, and somewhere along the way someone seems to have forgotten. I would like to remind people that a village is only as strong as its weakest link, and that making that weakest link the provision of medical care is a deadly mistake. I hope you understand."
Koharu nods slowly. "Yes, I… understand. I believe the hospital was renovated after the Kyuubi's attack, but… with all the chaos, perhaps some standards were permitted to slip, and I understand why you might feel the need to take your grievances all the way to the top. But… I am not sure where this leads you to thinking you have any right to claim leadership over this village, when you have been absent for so long? Perhaps these mistakes may have even been avoided, had you been here-"
"It's not just about the hospital itself. It's about the doctors, and the medical issues this office has allowed to continue unhindered, and a dozen other things." Tsunade leans forward, sharp grin carving her face, "It's about how poorly Konoha has handled an invasion, to the point that some of our highest ranked shinobi are working themselves to the bone so badly they are letting confidential information slip in an unsecured hospital room. The invasion was literally over two weeks ago at this point. Why are our most critical staff still so overworked? Where are the ANBU who usually fill in for these roles once the emergency is passed, where are the specialist squads?"
"ANBU was reduced-"
The teaset rattles as Tsunade's hand crashes into the table. "Yeah, and no replacement was ever instated for the Police Force, duties split between a civilian garrison and our ANBU, who, as you say, were already reduced in number. Funny, how that leads to a village having the worst recovery response time I have ever seen in my life. We should be back to business as usual by now! Konoha looks weak, to the entire world, and you all are sitting pretty, acting like there's nothing wrong! The entire point of ANBU is that they have the Hokage's own confidence, and high enough clearance to handle just about any information, and can therefore fill in any role as necessary in this village in at least some capacity, to spare our most irreplaceable shinobi from making mistakes as a result of being overworked! Do I need to remind you about what overworking someone does to their brain or how it's basically throwing a kunai at your own foot?"
Even Danzo flinches with that one, and Tsunade sits back, satisfied. "Personally, I don't think making Danzo-sama Hokage will fix anything, when he has remained so blind to these issues all this time, though if you were considering someone like Nara Shikaku-sama, or another senior shinobi, I might accept it. I will publicly speak out against him, however, if Danzo-sama is selected. Please consider this when you next speak to the Daimyo."
Flinch turns to fury, as Danzo's lone eye sparks with contempt. "And what of all the secrets your precious sensei kept, secrets which, if my findings are correct, significantly compromised the safety of this village on multiple occasions."
Tsunade doesn't sigh, even though she'd like to. How to handle this… "If you're speaking about the unique manifestation of Haruno Sakura's kekkei genkai, that would be because sensei is an idiot- if he'd made sure the hospital staff was properly trained, there wouldn't have been an issue."
"You claim it as a bloodline, but my research-"
"I claim nothing." Tsunade interjects firmly. "While I haven't been able to access the Haruno family's initial registrar, yet, I am good at my job. A job which includes no small amount of medical skill and awareness. Haruno Sakura has a bloodline that allows her to manifest mental avatars with unique personality and complexity. Given proper tools and training, she could likely become a perfect undercover ops specialist, being able to literally craft faces that would hold up to any degree of study. Right now, however, she is an untrained genin who spent her whole childhood under the impression that everyone had an inner voice that would hold entire conversations with her and regularly interject with thoughts about what she's going through. That she was friends with a Yamanaka her entire childhood and no one noticed how odd her "Inner" was, and that no medical report has ever properly flagged her family as carrying a kekkei genkai's genetic code- of course shit hits the fan. You can't ignore something like this and then magically expect a fucking kid to be able to handle it! She should have had training years ago! Why are her family records nowhere to be found?"
Tsunade stares at Danzo as she asks. ROOT was something of an open secret, before it was disbanded. If there's anyone who would benefit from keeping a highly valuable kekkei genkai secret…
Though perhaps she's giving him too much credit. The surprise that crests the very corner of his eye before he turns aside… perhaps even he somehow failed to realize?
But then… Haruno Kizashi was a shinobi. Tsunade remembers him, barely. Might have patched him together once, during the war, or maybe just sometime as a genin before he resigned. Someone had to have had records, once.
If not Danzo… hmm.
Koharu looks between them, Homura's eyes sharp beside her. "It seems… something has happened here, that we were not informed of? Perhaps… one of you might fill us in-"
A knock at the door interrupts, a muffled voice coming from the other side, "Apologies, Elders, we have an urgent issue that needs to be addressed regarding the Daimyo-"
Rapid footsteps, the door bursting open as Tsunade stands-
"Sorry, but someone just broke into T -!"
"Fuck-" Inoichi curses from behind her, Jiraiya already flying out the window. Tsunade stares at the two shinobi in the doorway, one with his face buried into a pile of scrolls, quite possibly crying, and the other… former ANBU, she's pretty sure… Genma, maybe?
Tsunade sighs. "Go catch up with Jiraiya, give him the rundown on the situation, though if I'm reading Inoichi and the desk chunin's reactions right, it's a non-urgent breakin. Chunin, sit down and give us the rundown. An issue involving the Daimyo can't be left to wait. Inoichi, you're not going anywhere. I may protest your overwork on principle, but it's still your fault those brats even knew there was someone in T worth breaking in to visit, so you get to explain your fuckup. Any issues?"
Danzo clearly has many, looking rather like he's swallowed ten lemons at once, but possibly-Genma is already out after Jiraiya, and the chunin sits down with nervous glances.
…at least it's pretty much guaranteed that Tsunade's getting that hat, now.
Upsides.
Theoretically.
T is just as much of an unpleasant maze as it was the last time, and Natsu still kind of wants to just light everything on fire, just on principle. It's disorienting, the way smells seem to just vanish, some combination of seals maybe, or just a really really good cleaning crew. Either way, attempting to find someone related to Naruto just by smell is a completely impossible task.
Luckily…
Hyuuga Hinata pokes her fingers together, veins bulging on her face as she ducks her head further into her jacket. Sasuke walks next to her, his own eyes spinning. Natsu can't say he really understands what they're both looking at, he just lights whatever Sasuke tells him to on fire, and Hinata leads them forward.
It works out pretty well.
Sure, Sakura-chan's stone-cold silence is a little uncalled for, but she'll get over it!
…hopefully.
"Hey, are there rules against 4-man teams here? Cause I haven't seen any, but I think I kinda want to keep Hinata-chan," Natsu jokes, elbowing her with a grin as she stops in front of another blank, indistinguishable door.
She flinches deeper into her coat.
Aw shit. "Sorry, sorry, it's cool, you don't have to! Your team is probably awesome too, if they have someone like you with them, I think we all just work well together! This the room?"
"Y-yes- u-um, th-the red-hair g-girl is…" Hinata's words trail off into an indistinguishable mumble. Naruto shifts, uncomfortable. Natsu elbows him. "Hey. We'll wait out here and make sure no one messes with you, yeah? Just holler if you need help with anything."
Naruto looks at them, then sharply away. "But… what if she doesn't… I- I've never had- I don't-"
Hinata jolts, letting out a soft eep, and Naruto cuts off. She eeps again when everyone looks at her. "T-the… th-the girl… she s-said… to stop l-lurking and c-come inside a-already…"
Natsu laughs, pushing Naruto forward. "You hear that? Hurry up and go say hi!"
Sasuke slides open the door and Natsu pushes Naruto in, slamming the door closed behind him. "Let us know if anything goes wrong, yeah Hinata?"
She meeps again, even softer, and Natsu laughs as he plops to the floor, grabbing Sasuke's sleeve and dragging him down with him. "Now! Let's talk about how much of an idiot you are, and why I'm going to beat your face in, yeah?"
"A kid?"
Naruto freezes as the door slams shut behind him, staring. He's only seen a couple pictures of his mom, but-
Her hair's so red. Somehow, even though Hinata said it was, he didn't really believe-
She doesn't really look like his mom, not at all, but her hair is-
Naruto's never really hated his appearance before, but for a single, agonizing moment, he hates that-
That he can't share that with them-
"Wha- oh by the fucking Kami is this some newfangled technique? Send a kid in to cry at me, see if I suddenly act like a fucking psycho? I KEEP TELLING YOU, I DIDN'T KNOW I WAS WORKING FOR OROCHIMARU, ASSHOLES!" She screams the last part at the ceiling, and Naruto chokes, stumbling forward. Focuses on that, because he has to say something, but he can't think-
She doesn't look anything like his mom, and yet her hair is the same color-
"T-that's why you're here? Because you were helping with the invasion…?" he trails off as he asks, regretting the question even as it leaves his lips, watching those red eyes land on him, seething with fury.
He flinches from it-
"Like I keep saying, we were told by a Konoha-FUCKING-ANBU to guard the wall. How the fuck was I supposed to know it was a kami-damned traitor?! I don't know anything about a fucking kidnapping attempt, I haven't done shit, but that silver-fuckface asshole already killed my teammates, and now no one will let me fucking go!"
Kakashi-sensei- what- Naruto shakes his head, anger and confusion and-
It was an invasion, if sensei thought they were enemies-
But they weren't, shouldn't he have known-
But he didn't even tell Naruto-
"Fuck, kid, are you fucking panicking, what the fuck is wrong with you-"
Naruto flinches, bites back more tears. This isn't- this isn't the conversation he wants to have-
No. He doesn't want to have the conversation like this, so change the conversation, 'ttebayo!
He slaps his cheeks, drags his eyes up, up-
Back to that hair. Takes a deep breath.
"I- I'm not supposed to be here. We broke in- my team, n'me, n'Hinata I guess, though she didn't- Anyway! We broke in. Cause they said- an Uzumaki-" Naruto takes another deep breath, drags his gaze back down to her eyes- "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! M-my mom was Uzumaki Kushina! And your hair looks just like hers-!"
Karin stares at the kid, all blond hair and blue eyes and enough chakra to blind her, an unignorable beacon of writhing, pure energy-
And realizes.
That fucking silver bastard was so shocked when he recognized her-
And that fucking blond bastard, constantly swearing that Konoha had no intention of using her abilities, and that they wanted to offer her probationary citizenship if only she would cooperate-
That shit-fucking-stain village.
If their precious jinchurikki is already ignoring laws and breaking into high security cells-
They were telling the truth. Of course they don't care about her healing. They just want someone to better tie their little weapon's loyalty down with, cause he's already half-way to fucked off.
Uzumaki Kushina. It's a name she's heard in passing, once or twice, though she doesn't know much about the woman.
Or anything about her possible kids.
Uzumaki Naruto stares at her with something like hope, and something like fear, and something like resignation, emotions churning, bleeding through his chakra, wearing his heart on his sleeve even as he sinks into himself, like he already knows he isn't good enough for her, like he already expects her to turn him aside-
Fuck.
Fuck, what does she do? Play into Konoha's sick little game? Grab the kid and run? Run herself?
It was just her and her mom for the longest time, and then it was just her, Karin, alone by herself-
She doesn't know- but, as resignation grows and hope shrinks, she can't say nothing so-
"Karin." She swallows, throat dry and painful as Naruto's gaze snaps back to hers, "It's- I'm… Uzumaki Karin. My mom was Uzumaki Sakimu. It's-"
A powerful chakra signature closes in, and she watches the three outside sharpen in alarm shortly after.
Naruto asks something, words drowned out as Karin focuses, trying to divine what's happening-
The door slams open, Jiraiya of the Sannin standing in the entrance, arms crossed.
Karin's not sure whether she's pissed off or relieved.
Maybe both. Hell, who says she has to pick, anyway?!
Definitely both.
Fuck Konoha.
A/N: last one for now! once more copying AN from ao3:
yes the haiku is meant to be Like That. i took forever to think up an ending line i actually liked, and i was like. you know what. pretend the haiku is in jiraiya's notebook, they're all his scratched out thoughts! huzzah!
i considered actually putting in the effort to use my (somewhat limited) japanese skills to actually make it a proper haiku, since kanji can often have multiple meanings and stuff, I'm pretty sure I could get something even more poetic than what I can manage in english if i really looked but i'd need a solid three hours or so to pull that off, and i'm not staying up til 3 am again tonight XD
maybe i'll have some fun with it later.
I DID try and find a nice name for karin's mom, since she's unnamed in the manga.
Sakimu - 咲夢 - first kanji meaning to bloom, to blossom, to flourish, second meaning dream, vision, illusion
admittedly i dont know a lot about how radicals work, but at least to my english-speaking ass, the translations of the kanji felt like a fitting sort of vibe for a character who heals people with her body, and dies because of it? i dunno like. i am too brain mush to explain the thought process behind it but i liked it