About a week after Konoha's alliance celebration, as Konoha's caravan to Iwa was just getting underway, Konoha's spies began reporting the first signs that Suna's ninja population had finally begun fomenting unrest about the Kazekage's slow reaction to the Iwa-Konoha alliance.

Minato…

Didn't like that.

It had taken too long.

Sasori may not have been perfectly puppeteering the former kage, but he was doing well enough that it had taken weeks before the populace had really begun calling for action.

Yes, it was happening now, but every day gave Sasori more options, more opportunities.

If Konoha was going to use the madman to lure Orochimaru, then he would almost certainly need to be in no small amount of trouble; after all, the man had (as far as he was concerned) successfully puppeteered a kage of the Four Great Nations, and was no doubt still riding that high even all these months later.

…It wasn't so much that Minato regretted his actions (something had to be done, and this was Konoha's best chance to keep Suna from continuing to take advantage of their alliance); it was more that he regretted how optimistic he'd been about the timing.

Of course, he hadn't expected the Iwa-Konoha alliance at all, so it was still ultimately good news, another thorn in Sasori's side to drive the madman to more and more obvious mistakes, and ideally eventually to calling in his old mentor (preferably while Hyuuga Hizashi and his team were still scouring Wind).

But if Sasori was able to cope without Orochimaru's help—

If his coup remained undiscovered—

(And then there was the kage's former wife and her daughter, the 'true' heir to Sunakagure.

(The woman had responded appropriately last year, when she'd realized her husband had been taken over.

(She'd gone into hiding.

(So far, Sasori had been able to hide this too—everybody knew, after all, that Rasa could be a violent man, and making it seem as if the man had had an 'episode' and was allowing his wife space in response, was an easy enough sell.

(But Minato wanted her back on the throne, wanted Suna destabilized by its first female ruler, by the reality of what it had allowed to happen.

(And every week that Sasori remained unchecked was another week for him to track down the mother and daughter, slaughter them, and end their claim to his position wholly.)

Minato's students disappeared into the distance, their speed allowing them to catch up to the earlier party without issue, giving them plenty of time to represent him at the head of the caravan while also allowing for an extra day or so to re-hash Iwa's three main languages, and Minato turned back to the Administrative Building.

If Suna was finally ready to start picking up on Rasa's out of character behavior, then Minato might as well do them a favor and nudge them along.

.

Kushina would not be attending the Iwa alliance celebration, and she should have been more than a little ashamed about how relieved she was for that.

While she might be a physical powerhouse, in truth there were only three reasons she could have arguably had to attend: her position as a jinchuuriki (because Iwa, to its credit, had sent one of their own), her position as Minato's partner, and her position as the functional Clan Head of the Uzumaki line.

Well, her being a jinchuuriki was only something that was speculated about. Yes, she was powerful, but she was an Uzumaki. Yes, her chains 'felt' weird, but chains were an Uzumaki technique; maybe they all felt weird. Yes, some spies had caught her fighting the Six-Tails alongside Minato, but Uzumaki Mito had helped take down the Beasts in the first place—another plausible Uzumaki technique. Sending her there, then, would only bring more risk that her secret would finally be revealed, and Konoha would have one less card in its holster.

So nobody even thought to encourage her to go as Konoha's jinchuuriki representative; they encouraged Kakashi instead. The kid was even a little bit excited about it; was clearly more than a little happy to be flexing just how powerful he was, even in a more diplomatic setting.

And then there was her and Minato.

Despite their more-than-occasional slip-ups, her and Minato's relationship had somehow managed to still be a relative secret, so there was no reason for her to attend as his significant other. Again, her going only brought more risk.

Again, no one encouraged her to go; they encouraged Minato's students. If anything, those in the know went out of their way to hint that Kushina should not be invited—the less signs of her importance the better, because it wouldn't be the first time that a kage's significant other had been targeted.

And then…

And then there was the main reason.

The whole 'Uzumaki' thing.

A lot of people wanted her to go because of that.

Because of what Kumo and Iwa had done to Uzu.

A sort of real-life reminder of not only Konoha's claim to half the island—which was by far the largest landholding the village had—but also of Konoha's 'success' at keeping Uzu from dying out completely.

(As if that had been on purpose.)

She'd heard far too many people's opinions on how it would taunt Iwa, how it would show up Iwa, how it would be fair justice for all those Konohans who had died by Iwa's hands—

And even as they mentioned Uzu's destruction, those people, those oh-so-opinionated people, they couldn't help but forget that she'd lost so many more.

Minato had convinced her that the alliance would be a good thing, would provide much-needed stability, would allow those most overworked in Konoha (mind-walkers, sealers, combat-specialists) a respite.

She agreed.

Fully agreed, actually. It made sense.

But.

But Iwa had—

(She wondered, sometimes, how her father had died.

(Was it slow? Quick?

(How about her cousins, her friends, her family's chef who would always sneak her sweets?

(She wondered, sometimes.

(And so being allowed to stay home—

(Kushina didn't feel even a little ashamed about how quickly she'd opted out of the detachment.)

.

Sadao felt clammy. His sweat had cooled his skin, and the juxtaposition between that and the heat his body was still outputting—

Well. The kindest way to put it was that he needed a shower.

…If you'd told him even a month ago that he'd be sweating doing paperwork, that the paperwork was so important, so complex, that he wouldn't even have time to consider any personal revelations, he would have assumed he was sick. Maybe some flu or something he had no choice to work through.

(He wished it was a flu.)

It wasn't—

Even when he'd started the Hokage's assignment, he hadn't expected it to be like this. It wasn't even like he was in charge! That was ANBU Alligator, with ANBUs Deer and Muskrat assisting.

All Sadao had to do, really, was look for… inconsistencies.

Cover-ups.

Sadao, after all, had been in and out of every Department, every Bureau, every Office. At the Testing Bureau he'd been assigned as the 'outsider' to provide perspective to people who were very, very informed about their subjects and might have forgotten how much a beginner versus an intermediate-level student should know.

His job didn't threaten anybody, didn't overstay, didn't—

Didn't seem worth the effort to hide from.

And now…

Now some people really wanted to hide.

(Theft. Theft from Konoha. Sadao really, really hoped it was just greed.)

So while the ANBU worked with the police and the Finance Department and the Hokage and everybody else—

Sadao watched.

Tried, desperately, to recall exactly how everything had run the last time he'd visited the hospital, the Groundskeeping Bureau, the Childcare Bureau.

Played 'spot the difference' with months in between each 'picture'.

…ANBU Alligator said he was doing a good job.

Sadao wasn't so sure.

The thing was, the news about the fraud was spreading. Sadao didn't know if it was leaked or if that was just what was gong to happen with an investigation as broad as this, but that didn't change the reality: everybody was acting different.

Everybody knew why Sadao was here this time, and everybody knew it wasn't because of the Testing Bureau.

Sadao flipped to another page, and—

"ANBU?"

ANBU Muskrat appeared.

"This… this is different."

"How so?"

(It was so weird to hear the ANBU speak. Only Muskrat did, and they sounded different every time.)

"This form? To pay the fees for package transport? It used to have a lot more questions. I remember noticing it, because I… I meant to suggest that it should be simplified. I didn't think the information it asked for was necessary, and…"

"Did you make the suggestion?"

"…no. I didn't. I only noticed it towards the end of my rotation at Transportation and Postal Service, and I really wanted to finish working with chuunin Akimichi on rail operation before I left. It… slipped my mind."

"How different is the form?"

Muskrat took the new one from his hand, and Sadao closed his eyes.

"Um, address… package contents… name… Konoha identification… age… delivery address… content value… birth place…"

"I see what you mean about odd questions. See if you can find an older form. I'll tell everybody to be on the lookout."

And this—

This is why Sadao was sweating.

Because why would anybody need to provide their birth place to mail a package?

And why hadn't Sadao realized that sooner?

(This was not the first such realization.

(It would not be the last.)

.

"Kurenai?" Asuma spoke before he meant to, then hesitated, but by then it was too late—she'd heard him. Stopped. And now they were staring at each other in the street, her long hair draped around her shoulders beautifully, and there was nothing to do but have a conversation.

"Hey, Asuma. I wasn't expecting to see you?"

"Where did you expect me to be?"

"Iwa?"

"Oh." Kind of reasonable, actually, given his father, and his current push into diplomacy (not that she knew that), but he hadn't been selected. "Um, no. I'm… I'm trying to learn some basic privacy seals, at the moment." It wasn't going well.

"That's nice."

"How… how about you?"

"Oh, you know… um, mostly just… well, fighting. I'm headed back to the north next week."

Exactly what she wanted to be doing. That was nice. "So you got a break for the alliance celebration?"

Kurenai's hesitation was quickly hidden, but not quickly enough. He hated that she was going to lie to him, but what could he do? "Yeah, just a short one."

"That's nice."

"Yeah."

…What more was there to say? "Look, Kurenai, it's…" He really wished he was better with words. He was taking lessons, now, lessons his father had arranged for him, but they hadn't exactly been focusing on this. "Do you think, maybe, we could be friends again?"

Kurenai smiled. It was sadder than he wished it would be. "We're still friends, Asuma."

"Are we? Because we haven't exactly talked since—" Since you turned me down, he didn't say.

She understood anyway.

"I've been away… but you're right. We haven't—well, I haven't… you're right."

"Even if you don't want to date me, I'd still like to hang out and stuff, you know. We've been friends since we were Academy first years."

Kurenai smiled again. "That sounds nice. Do… do you want to hang out now?"

Asuma hesitated. "I would, but I have—work." Private lessons. "Just, let me know next time you're back?"

"Sounds good."

And yet they both still stood there.

Asuma didn't want to be the first to leave, and—

And Kurenai wasn't leaving either.

The street was mostly empty, which was something, but it still felt—weird. Liminal.

"Um. About—do—" Kurenai huffed, clearly unsure how to word something.

Asuma tried to think of something to say.

And then Kurenai straightened her shoulders. Pulled a lock of hair behind them. "When I turned you down, I did it wrong." Well, ouch. "I didn't mean—I mean, I do think—how about, if we are still single when we're jounin, how about we try dating then?"

Jounin.

If Kurenai was still going down the combat-genjutsu route, then she probably only had a few years to go. Combat-genjutsu was hard, but she'd already begun making a name for herself, and it could be very, very deadly with enough practice.

And Asuma—

Well, transferring might have slowed him down some, but he was headstrong too, could get anywhere he wanted to be.

"Jounin," Asuma agreed. "Let's try then."

Kurenai smiled, Asuma smiled back, and then she turned, waved goodbye, left.

And Asuma—

Asuma felt light as air for the rest of the day.