Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He didn’t want to be the one to tell Genma, but it was his job. Naruto brushed the tears from his face as he limped out of the tent and towards what they were calling the mess hall.

“Yamato, Genma inside?”

The wood user nodded, his daily ration in his hand. “I can-“

Naruto just shook his head and moved into the tent. There were only a handful of shinobi inside. “Genma?” The senbon user bolted from the table and rushed over. Shiranu was best medic they had left. Only then did Naruto realize that he hadn’t cleaned upon his return. Oh well, this really wasn’t the time for it anyway.

“Naruto? You’re hurt, let me-“ Genma reached out to help the blonde sit, but was stopped by the look in Naruto’s eyes.

“I’m sorry, Genma. I couldn’t- I tried.” Naruto just closed his eyes as his friend ran past him and out towards the other tent. Naruto entered in time to see Genma resting his forehead against Kakashi’s, his hands in the silver hair. He closed his eyes, tears running down his cheeks as he did his best to give the man a moment to say goodbye to his lover. At least he was able to bring Kakashi’s body back, they hadn’t always been able to do that.

Looking up at the sky he wished he could see the clouds, the stars, the sun anything but the grey black they were surrounded with day and night. He watched the movement in camp. There weren’t that many people left. The years hadn’t been kind to them, between the constant attacks by Zetsu and inability to grow crops. They were dying. When they had defeated Madara, they had hope that the war was finally over and while it would take time to recover, they could recover. Then Zetsu returned. It was relentless in it’s focus to bring back, mother, Kaguya. Zetsu had attacked every living thing in it’s path to the point that it even killed off the wildlife and plants. The allied forces held out as best they could, but they were down to at best a couple hundred of survivors, shinobi and civilians alike scattered in pockets across the land.

The cry of a baby brought a sad smile to his face. Shikadai. The child born from one of his friends. Another orphan. Shikamaru and Temari had found themselves unexpectedly pregnant. It wasn’t something they had planned, not while fighting on the battlefield. When Temari had been too far along to fight actively, they had switched jobs. Temari had become one of their main strategists, Shikamaru stayed behind and protected both them and their camp. Yoshino was right beside them.

It had been an attack on the camp. Another ambush. Everyone had fought hard, the loses were immense and when the dust had cleared it was obvious that Shikamaru had died trying to protect his wife and their unborn child. An Iwa shinobi who found them, had cut the unborn babe from Temari’s body shortly after the fight, giving the babe the best chance of survival he could hope for. Yoshino was doing her best to raise her grandson. Shikadai’s cry brought into focus that all of Naruto’s friends were gone and had been for a while now, and he just lost his sensei. One of his last precious people.

“Naruto, Baki is calling for a meeting.” Yamato called his former student over, his voice shaky. He would have to make sure to give the wood user time to grieve, Kakashi’s lost was going to be felt in more way then just emotional.

Naruto walked into what they were calling the war tent, Yamato right behind him. The blonde looked around at who was gathered. Mei Terumi was in a chair still recovering from losing a leg a couple of weeks ago. Yoshino Nara was beside her with a bassinet at her feet. Ibiki stood beside Sasuke looking at the files on the table. Genma just stared into space eyes rimmed with red. “Baki,” the sand shinobi was at the head of the table.

“Naruto, it’s time.” Baki, looked at the other shinobi in the tent. Naruto shook his head.

Genma spoke up, his voice wavering, “It’s the only way we can survive. We made this plan. It’s the best our minds could come up with. I’m not saying that Nara-San and myself are idiots, but Shikamaru and Kakashi were geniuses, and when you put all of us together, well there’s no questioning the plan.” He took the time to wipe the tears from his eyes. “Zestu has us against the wall. Kakashi’s death proved what we all know but don’t want to admit. That we are losing this battle. We need you and Sasuke to go and fix this.”

“Genma, what if we make things worse.” Naruto met Sasuke’s eyes across the table. This had been something that the two of them had talked about ever since Shikamaru had come up with the idea of using the power of the Sage of the Six path to travel back in time.

Yoshino was the one to speak up this time, “I don’t think you can make it that much worse. Naruto, I know what we’re asking of you and Sasuke. I have just as much to risk as the rest of you, I’m risking Shikadai’s life in this as well and right now I know without a doubt that both Shikamaru and Temari would without a doubt put Shikadai’s life in your hands.”

“Come on dobe, we can do this.” Sasuke watched his best friend struggle with the idea. Naruto wore his heart on his sleeve. Every death, every loss hurt him and there were days when Sasuke was sure Naruto was going to bleed to death with those they had been forced to leave on the battle field. Watching the blonde struggle through the loss of all of those he knew, it had been hard not to step in and help. The loss of Iruka, Sakura and Gaara last year had been especially hard on him. He didn’t think the blonde was going to recover when Shikamaru died, now to lose Kakashi- Sasuke didn’t let himself think about his teacher too much, or he would be crying as well.

Naruto sighed.

/THE UCHIHA IS RIGHT KIT. IT’S TIME. WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME, OUT OF CHAKRA.\ Kurama’s voice was rough with exhaustion.

“Alright, but give me a couple of hours,” when Sasuke would have argued Ibiki put a hand on his arm and nodded.

Everyone in the room watched as Naruto left the tent.

“He won’t back out will he?” Mei wasn’t questioning his determination so much as she knew how much the blonde hated the idea of giving up.

Yamato moved over to pick up Shikadai and nuzzle the infant’s head, “no, he’s going to go and say his goodbyes. He knows that without him and Sasuke here, our death will come all the sooner.”

“The moron is likely trying to set up some sort of protection for the rest of you.” Sasuke was pissed that there was no way he could do the same.

His predictions came true when Naruto returned three hours later with a hand full of scrolls. He set them in piles on the table. His eyes were red rimmed and his voice was quiet and rough and deep. “Sasuke, I’d like to put a storage seal on you. Have you carry these with you when we go.”

“Why? What are they?” Sasuke was already peeling off his vest and shirt to bare his upper body. He didn’t know how big of an area Naruto needed but he would do it regardless.

“These are copies of all the information I have on fuinjutsu. The theory, how to’s and a number of different seals. It includes everything we know on Orochimaru’s cursed seal of heaven, the Hyuga’s caged bird seal, the seals used on each jinchuriki as well as everything I know about the Biju. I also have scrolls on everything Obito told us, you know Shikamaru’s plans to help us get into the village and all the various point we talked about trying to change depending on when in time we arrived and who we ran into.” He started inking the seals on Sasuke’s arm and then went and did the same thing to the other arm and finally one on his chest. “Alright. Let’s give it a try.” He handed Sasuke a kunai. “Channel some chakra into the seal, not a lot.”

The group watched the way the seals glowed and Sasuke pushed the kunai against the seal having it disappear. The seal closed. Channeling chakra into it again, Sasuke was able to reach inside and pull the kunai out.

“Naruto?” Ibiki’s question brought nods all around.

Naruto summoned a couple of clones and they started coping the storage seals on everyone’s arms. “They can’t hold much. Sasuke I would recommend your katana in one and the scrolls in another and the third for your other weapons. I’ve worked the matrixes so that the seals won’t open when you die, so there’s no worry about Zetsu killing you to get at whatever you have inside.”

“We’ll be together dobe.” Sasuke didn’t want to think about why Naruto was planning like this.

The smile was bitter sweet. “I know that’s the plan, but as Shikamaru always said, we need a back up for our back ups.” Looking over at Yoshino, Naruto gestured to the other set of scrolls. “This is the same type of information. Keep it safe. Copy it. Learn from it. Maybe someone here will be better at fuinjutsu then I am.” His smile was sad and small, “I changed the security seals around the camp. They’re keyed to Ibiki and Baki but will be powered by the land and there’s instruction on how to change it if you need to.”

The original plan was to use the cave at the back of the camp, but Kurama had vetoed that as he was worried the chakra blast from activating the seals would cause the cave to collapse. Instead they walked towards the clearing on the far side of the camp. No one came with them. Naruto was adamant, he didn’t want to risk injuring what comrades they had left.

Naruto had Sasuke unroll the seal and set it in the middle of the clearing as he wrote out the rest of the formula on the ground around it, he needed his blood for that one. Sasuke stood back to watch his friend complete the complex matrix. No one would have ever believed that the dead last from their academy days would be this smart, this ingenious in something as complex and obscure as fuinjutsu, but no one could deny he had become a seal master over the years. The movements Naruto made were like a dance, elegant and graceful. Each one deliberate as the strokes on the ground communicated what it was they were trying to do. Sasuke was entranced, he watched the way Naruto’s jacket flared just slightly to show what was left of the muscled body beneath, although if he were being truthful, it wasn’t as bulky as it should be. Food supplies had been scarce for months now and everyone was existing on less then the ideal diet.

“Last chance.” Naruto looked up at his best friend. He had one line left, one more mark to make and then, if everything went according to plan, they would be traveling back to the their past to stop all of this before it could begin.

“Don’t even think about it, dobe. We’re doing this.” Sasuke knew that he didn’t have the energy to fight Naruto too hard on this. He prayed the blonde would follow through with the plan. Sasuke took a deliberate step onto the seal, keeping his gaze on his best friend.

“I’m not going to fight you.” Naruto let out a tired sigh. He wanted to, but he just didn’t have the energy and if he was honest with himself, the plan was a solid one. He stepped inside the seal work and looked at the raven haired shinobi. “Store your katana and weapons. I don’t want to get stabbed on the journey.” He closed the link and started to infuse the giant seal with chakra.

Chapter Text

He knew they were there. His team had them surrounded. They generally weren’t sent out anymore, especially not on assassination assignments, but he had asked for this one specifically. The target was a former Leaf shinobi who sold information to Iwa and the Leaf wanted him gone. If there was one thing that Shikaku hated most, it was a traitor. They had finished their assignment and were on their way back when another team of Iwa nin found them. The three of them had agreed to take out what enemy they could, to be proactive. It would be less troublesome that way. He sent his shadows out to capture the enemy closest to him, trusting his team to watch his back. The confrontation was almost anticlimactic. The Iwa ninja might have out numbered them, but the Ino-Shika-Cho trio were stronger.

“Cho-“ Shikaku didn’t even need to finish speaking his friend’s name before Chouza was there catching Inoichi’s body. Shikaku using his shadows to toss Inoichi’s body out of the line of fire. The Yamanaka’s mind transfer technique took a toll. Inoichi had been practicing to be able to use it without leaving his body vulnerable. However, taking over five men at a time was pushing his own limits, especially after the fight they had just been in.

Chouza used his own family’s technique to expand his hands alone, knocking two enemy shinobi into the trees beside them, knowing that Shikaku would use his shadows to end them.

“Three left, they’re across the clearing.” Inoichi’s voice was weak but his own. The blonde gained his feet and patted Chouza on the back as he quickly came back to himself. He sealed the bodies once Shikaku had finished with them.

They had some cover and were waiting for Shikaku to come up with yet another plan of attack.

Shikaku’s hand came up. Something was off. “The animals.” It was said more to himself than his team mates, but they heard him regardless.

It was then that the other two zeroed in on what was wrong. All sound had stopped. There were no birds, no bugs. They were good enough that most birds didn’t take flight when they approached.

“Iwa?” Chouza had never seen anything like this before.

Shikaku started to shake his head when it felt like all the air in the area had been sucked out. The pressure forced him to the ground. He pressed himself down to the ground praying that there was air there. Looking to the side he could see that Inoichi and Chouza were in the same position. Chouza having released his expansion jutsu in hopes of reducing the pressure on his chest.

There was large explosion as the air burst back into the clearing and two men appeared in the middle of the area. They were standing in the middle of a large seal, the symbols were intricate and unfamiliar not to mention the fact that they glowed a brilliant blue. The two men looked like exact opposites, one blonde and one dark. Both were dressed in standard well-worn shinobi blues.

Shikaku had no idea who they were. They wore no headband, but both looked like they had been fighting a war for years. He watched as the glowing symbols started to fade and seemingly took the blonde’s energy with it as he collapsed to his knees.

“Shikaku?” Chouza’s voice shook. Inoichi was staring at the dark haired man.

“Fuck,” a quick glance at the dark haired man’s face was all he needed to confirm that other man was an Uchiha, the sharingan was active and he had trapped Inoichi in a genjutsu. Shikaku would have said something to let the men know they meant them no harm except the remaining Iwa decided that it was prime time to attack. Shikaku barely had time to defend himself. The claws raked down his face. He knew right away that the claws had been poisoned, he didn’t have long to end this and remove the poison if he wanted to save the lives of his team and the strange men in the clearing. He thrust his kunai up hard into the Iwa’s chest. Pushing the body away he spun checking for the man’s companions only to see Chouza smash the two remaining shinobi together in his enlarged hands.

“Sasuke let them go. Let me help.” The strange voice was weak but held undertones of a strong will.

Shikaku turned back to the pair. His breath caught as he finally got a good look at the blonde of the pair. He could Minato’s brother. “Who are you?” The pair had yet to take a step outside of the circle they had been in. He wondered if they could, if the seal held them in.

“Hai, Shikaku-San I don’t know if you’re going to believe us.” The blonde spoke. He coughed. Looking at his partner, he hit the Uchiha’s shoulder. “Teme! Let him go. Sasuke.”

The Uchiha blinked, releasing Inoichi. “I didn’t torture him or anything.”

“Shikaku, come here please.”

Shikaku had no idea why he did what the blonde asked without question, but he did. Even as he moved as close to the edge of the circle as he could, he couldn’t bring himself to step inside. He felt the tingle of power on his skin just from being close, he didn’t want to cross that line. He tried to figure out how the pair knew his name, seemed to know them.

The blonde reached out a hand and placed it centimetres from Shikaku’s face, still within the circle. “I don’t have much energy left, but..”

“Dobe, don’t do that.”

“Shut up teme. If I don’t do it now, he’ll never make it back to the village.” The blonde looked so shaky but he didn’t stop healing Shikaku’s face. “Think Sasuke. This was one of Shika’s contingencies, and if the Ino-Shika-Cho trio is here then that’s proof that the seal worked.”

“What?” Chouza stood behind his team mate. Shika? Who were they talking about?

“Can you give us your names?” Inoichi watched the way the blonde moved his hand as if to better cradle Shikaku’s face all without touching it. The genjutsu hadn’t been pleasant but it hadn’t harmed him either, and what it had shown him was confusing. The glow of chakra was unfamiliar, it wasn’t the green of healing used by a medic, but gold. “You seem to know us.”

“Sasuke, please. You’ll need their help.” The blonde ignored the question, he sounded so tired.

“You’re friend is weakening.” Inoichi brought the Uchiha’s attention back to his companion.

Sasuke took a really good look at Naruto. His hand near the Nara’s face, his chakra almost gone. “What the hell, dobe.”

Naruto’s hand dropped listlessly to his side, his focus solely on Shikaku. “I’m sorry I couldn’t heal you further. You’ll have scars.” As soon as he stopped healing the Nara, he collapsed to the ground.

The dark haired man knelt as well. “Fuck, Naruto! You dumbass, you always over do it.” Sasuke reached to pull his friend close to his chest. It scared him how shaky and thin Naruto was. Sure food had been scarce and they had all learned to live on less and less food but to have loss so much weight and muscle mass. Fuck, the Biju inside of him. Why hadn’t it occurred to any of them? The moron had to be slowly starving to death, but he never said a word. Sasuke held Naruto close. “Rest moron, rest and we can finish this.” He whispered the words into the blonde’s hair. He closed his eyes trying to hold his emotions at bay. He couldn’t let the other know how precarious their situation really was.

It hurt Chouza to watch them together, it reminded him of how he was with Inoichi and Shikaku. That type of closeness only came with time and trust and living through the hell of war. If these two weren’t on the same genin team or childhood friends, he’d stop eating BBQ.

Naruto looked at the seal and then the men around them. “Inoichi there isn’t much time. Search my memories quickly, the three of you are going to need to help Sasuke make it into the village and stop what’s to come.”

“And you know we’re in time because how?” Sasuke tried to ignore Naruto’s previous command to the Yamanaka clan head.

“The scars teme. They were old and faded when we were childr-“ Naruto went stiff in Sasuke’s arms.

The Uchiha glared at the blonde outside the circle. “What did you do?”

Shikaku touched his face gently and blinked. He wiped away the residual blood. He didn’t feel tired the way he usually felt after being treated by a medic, he hadn’t felt the poison be removed, but he could tell that it had been. “Inoichi is searching the blonde’s mind like he asked, he won’t hurt him. It’s obvious that you are an Uchiha, but who’s your friend?” He had overheard the blonde’s name but he wanted more. He wanted proof and to give his team mate the time needed to get it. Shikaku could tell when Inoichi came back to himself. He looked over at the mind walker to see his team mate pale and shaking his head. He hadn’t been in there long maybe five or seven minutes.

Naruto took a deep shuddering breath. “Sasuke. You need to finish the mission.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Promise me. Promise me that you will finish the mission. You’ll stick around and protect us, protect your family.”

“Dobe, you’ll be there to help me.”

Naruto sighed and closed his eyes. “Promise me.”

“I promise dobe. Now take down the seal and let’s head back to the village.”

Naruto looked at Shikaku and the Nara knew this was going to end badly. He shoved weakly at his sleeves baring his forearms. A small burst of chakra raced down the blonde’s arms opening seals that must have been inked into his skin. Scrolls, weapons and bags popped out and onto the ground. He met and held Shikaku’s gaze. “Keep them safe, please.” The blonde gave a small smile and his hands flew through the signs. The symbols on the seal around the pair started to glow again as they slowly unraveled. The more symbols disappeared, the weaker the blonde looked.

“Chouza!” Shikaku yelled as he jumped towards the blonde, his hands already glowing green as he reached for the blonde.

“What the FUCK, NARUTO!!” Sasuke pulled the blonde closer to his chest.

“It’s okay Sasuke. I used too much chakra getting us here. They’re all gone.” The Konoha trio had no idea what they were talking about, but the pain was evident on the blonde’s face as tears flowed freely down his face. Shikaku was doing his best to memorize everything that was being said, every nuisance as he and Chouza were trying to heal the blonde. “You’ll be okay. You’re strong.”

Shikaku was on the verge of panicking. The blonde’s chakra was disappearing rapidly, he’d never seen anything like it before. No sooner had the chakra faded then the blonde’s body started to crumble to dust.

“No, NO!” He screamed, his eye flashed red, “You don’t get to leave me.” Sasuke tried to hold on to the blonde as his body kept disintegrating. “how am I-“ Sasuke couldn’t finish. His friend disappeared completely. There was nothing left, no body, no ash. It was like he had been absorbed back into the universe. The Uchiha collapsed completely onto the ground, his head in his hands, kneeling on the grass.

Shikaku left a healing hand resting on the Uchiha turning back to Inoichi. “Report.”

Chouza could see Inoichi struggling to sort out his thoughts so he stepped up. “The area is secure. I’ve sealed the enemy in my last interrogation scroll and they’re ready to take back to the village.”

Shikaku nodded and focused on Inoichi. “Inoichi?”

“I- Fuck. Damn it Shikaku, I’m not sure what the hell these two have gone through, not all of it, what it is that I just learned.” Inoichi was still trying to wrap his mind around the concept that these two were from the future, that they were friends of his daughter, Ino who is barely three years old. That the blonde who just disappeared was Minato’s son, the boy currently living in the orphanage because Sarutobi refused to let anyone raise him. That the world had ended and everyone he knew was dead or dying.

Shikaku looked around at the scrolls and items on the ground, the damage; proof of a fight in the area. He was glad that they had finished their original mission and were on their way back when they were ambushed and ran into these two. “We better get a move on. Uchiha? Can you tell if there’s anything left of the seal? Is it safe? We’ll take you with us.” He couldn’t see the seal that had surrounded the pair, couldn’t feel it either but then he wasn’t a seal master. He didn’t want to leave anything behind if he could help it.

Sasuke stood on shaking legs, he was holding on to the Uchiha mask of indifference but the pain in his eyes let everyone know just how affected he was.

“Chouza grab the Uchiha, Inoichi get the interrogation scrolls and I’ll clean up.” Shikaku stood by the Uchiha waiting until his team mate had the man before destroying the very ground the seal appeared on. Once he was finished, the Nara moved to follow Chouza towards the camp they had picked out, bringing up the rear and making sure that they weren’t being followed

The group was silent as they moved through the trees. Shikaku was trying to figure out what it was that he had learned. “We’ll camp at the hilltop cave.”

“We’re on time for the mission.” Chouza shifted the man on his back. The Uchiha was unconscious, suffering from chakra exhaustion and whatever else brought them here.

“I know Chouza, but I’m not taking him into the village without some explanation.” Shikaku needed a moment to really think things through and they had at least a four day window before the Hokage would become concerned. “Inoichi?”

“I’m good.” Inoichi knew what his best friend was asking, but he wasn’t going to say anything until they stopped at the camp. They were sure to arrive at the cave in a couple of hours and were still a good day away from Konoha.

Chapter Text

Shikaku checked the cave and then moved aside to give Chouza room to lay the Uchiha down. He gathered wood for a fire, set a snare in hopes of catching something for that night’s meal and refilled their canteens at the small stream near by. When he was back at the cave, the Nara used the time setting up the camp to organize his thoughts. Chouza was outside making his rounds, checking that that he didn’t miss anything while stuck in his head and likely checking on the snare. It was the way they always worked.

Inoichi set up seals at the cave opening, sealing them in as soon as their third came back. “Shikaku do you want to start?” He knew how his friend worked.

Shikaku sat, his back against the cave wall. Inoichi was to his right and Chouza across the fire from him. To his left lay the Uchiha facing the fire, eyes closed. Chouza was cooking their meal. It was a calculated risk, Shikaku had seen how thin both men were. If the Uchiha was trying to fake unconsciousness, it was possible to fake him out using his stomach to do so. Nothing he was going to say would surprise the stranger.

“The dojutsu is unmistakable. The question is who is this Uchiha in relation to Fugaku? Who was his companion? If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was Minato’s brother or Minato reborn.” He noticed the way Inoichi flinched, but continued on. “The other thing to contemplate is the seals that surrounded the two. I have never seen seals that complex or that large.”

“And you won’t, the dobe created it, rediscovered parts of it, made it up, or however you want it say it. Took him forever too.” The man lying down slowly sat up. “May I have some water, please.”

Chouza handed the dark haired man his canteen and bowl of food.

Sasuke looked at the food and handed it back right away. “Maybe dish me out half of that. Food has been scarce and we’ve been on strict rations for so long- “ Sasuke didn’t want to give too much away, but he knew that he couldn’t do this alone. Hell, he hadn’t planned to do it alone to begin with but without Naruto, he really didn’t have much of a choice.

Chouza handed back the altered meal size and watched as the young man slowly started to eat. If he was that starved he would do his best to feed the man small frequent meals. Recipes for strength building foods already flipping through his head.

“What do you want to know?” He didn’t want to be here. He just wanted to curl and cry. In all of their scenarios one of them disappearing or not making it past the original jump wasn’t thought of, although Naruto must have had some inkling. It would explain why he had made sure that not only Sasuke but also everyone they left behind had copies of the scrolls. “Bastard.” He closed his eyes and focused on calming down, the sharingan was draining what was left of his chakra. He just hoped to hell that when he lost it out in the field the trio didn’t see the Rinnegan. That was the last thing he needed right now.

Shikaku sighed and turned slightly to face him. “Your name?”

“Sasuke Uchiha.”

“Date of birth?”

“July 23.”

“Son of a ...” Shikaku straightened. Sure he wasn’t exactly best friends with Fugaku, but with all of the clan heads having children in the same year, he knew their birthdates as well as their names. Fugaku and Kushina had been on the same genin team, Mikoto and Kushina were close friends and they had petitioned to look after Naruto when Minato and Kushina died, just like he and Yoshino did. His eye sought out Inoichi’s who just nodded. “Your parents?” He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know, but he had to ask.

“Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha, but I think you knew that, or at least guessed it.” Sasuke sighed.

“Your friend?”

Sasuke sighed as the tears threatened to come again. This time he couldn’t stop them from falling or the lump in his throat, “Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze the son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki. He was the last known jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, born October 10 and my best friend.”

“Fuck. How?” Shikaku wanted answers from Sasuke before he verified everything with Inoichi.

Sasuke shifted so he was leaning against the cave wall. He was so tired. He hated talking, hated having to explain himself, but Naruto was right. He was going to need their help and to get that he was going to have to start at the beginning. “I don’t know how much Inoichi was able to get from Naruto before the idiot died on us and I don’t know much to tell you without totally fucking this up; but he was right. I’m going to need your help. I can’t deal with this on my own, hell our whole plan was for us to do this together. He’s the one with golden tongue, I was coming to protect his back because he’s too trusting, too naive. I didn’t expect him to die on me.” He sipped on his water having eaten only a couple bites of the food before putting it aside. “Basically in the future the world goes to hell. Literally. It’s a war that lasts for just over a year. We manage to unite all the Hidden Villages to battle and defeat our main opponent. At the end of the first year just when it looks like we have a hope in things going back to normal, our enemy decided to stop playing with us. We switched from fighting a war to fighting to survive, it doesn’t do a lot of good. They like to play with their prey so since then we’ve spent over four years in a vicious game of cat and mouse. Before we jumped there weren’t many people left. We’re scattered through the lands. Hiding in small pockets just trying to survive. Being part of a clan or village means nothing now. Last year we had a couple of our brightest come up with a plan based on seals that Naruto could use in conjunction with my dojutsu. The plan was for the two of us to come back here and stop things before they happened.”

“Let me get this straight.” Chouza was trying to wrap his head around the theories that his team mates seemed to already be accepting. “You’re suggesting that you’re the same Sasuke Uchiha that we just left in village? The Sasuke that just turned three? You’re from the future to stop some massive war that wipes us all from the planet?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Sasuke leaned his head back and closed his eyes. He was getting tired, between the energy used to get them here and the food he was so tired. He wasn’t going to touch the emotional toll, he needed to lock that down fast. “The meal was very good. Thank you Chouza.”

Shikaku had to give Sasuke credit. He had given them enough detail to intrigue them as to why they were there. He couldn’t deny that they appeared out of nowhere surrounded by sophisticated seals. He still had more questions, but if he was telling the truth, then he had to be careful in what he was asking. Too much information was just as dangerous as too little. “Alright, if we take your introduction as fact, and I will be questioning you further later, do you know events you want to change first?”

Sasuke thought about that. They had list of things from the last three generations, including his own, of major events that the pair of them were to change or influence depending on when in time they landed. “I take it from Chouza’s statement that all the clan heads have children about the same age at the moment? That Minato and Kushina have died?”

Shikaku nodded. “The Sasuke Uchiha in the village just turned three.”

“Shit,” Sasuke sighed he had hoped that they could have saved Naruto’s parents. “What can you tell me about Hizashi Hyuga?”

Shikaku eyed the young man. “He’s part of the Hyuga clan, a member of the branch family and has a son Neji.”

“There may be time, the first event has to do with the Hyuga clan.” Sasuke’s eyes were already closed.

“Look you’re exhausted both physically and emotionally, why don’t you sleep, we’ll take watch and in the morning we can come up with a plan to get you into the village safely, who else we’ll need to tell and what the fuck we can actually do.” Shikaku was almost certain that Sasuke was a real Uchiha, but time travel? That was a bit of a stretch. The thing was he just couldn’t wrap his mind around what the Naruto guy had done. Those seals were the real thing, not to mention how much he really had looked like Minato. He was scared to think what information Inoichi held, but he could see the toll staying awake was taking on the Uchiha.

Chapter Text

The three men left the cave, Inoichi setting up a secondary set of privacy seals to keep what they were going to be talking about separate from both the outside and the Uchiha inside while still being able to keep watch on both.

“Shikaku, what I read in the blonde’s mind was frightening, truly frightening. I could feel traces of the Kyuubi, not only that but other forms of chakra as well. I don’t understand how the kid could hold that much foreign chakra in his system without going mad but he did. There were traces of Minato’s seal work there, like an echo. The things he showed me. It is horrific. The devastation, pain and heartbreak.” Chouza’s hand on his back reminded the blonde mind walker to breathe and try to get his thoughts in order. “He showed me the inside of the flower shop. He had memories of feeding the deer, of talking with the Hokage and us. Of being with Tsunade and Jiraya. Things that couldn’t be made up because no one would have that type of information unless they lived it or had walked our minds and even then some of the stuff wouldn’t be there. Then he showed me the war, the deaths, the destruction, the plan that they made. If we can help them, help him stop this we need to.”

“Who came up with the plan Inoichi? Who are they relying on as their strategist?” The Uchiha had said that a couple of their brightest minds came up with the plan, if he knew who they were it would explain so much. Even if he didn’t know them personally, he was familiar with most of the strategist in the village and the ones they went against if hidden villages were working together like he said. It would explain how time travel became a reality.

Inoichi wasn’t sure if he should say, but in the end he couldn’t lie. He also knew the one name guaranteed to get both Chouza and Shikaku on board, “Shikamaru.” He took a shuddering breath he didn’t want to hurt his friends but there was no other way to get his friends to understand just how important this mission was to their survival, “Shikamaru and a couple of others came up with the plan right before they died.” Naruto had carefully guided the Yamanaka through his mind. He was rushed through events so fast to leave only the barest of impressions, blurring the details. It was as if Naruto didn’t want him to focus on certain things or people. Inoichi was sure the blonde wanted to show him enough to ensure that they would trust that Sasuke Uchiha was who he said he was and to help him finish his mission and not get bogged down with the details of who had died and how.

Shikaku froze. He hadn’t really thought it through when Sasuke had said there weren’t many people left.

“I. In their time, we’ve been gone for a while, although I guess Chouza was the last of us to die. Out of all the clan children, ours included, well they’re all gone. Everyone but those two, or I guess Sasuke now. Their camp had maybe fifty people left, civilians and shinobi from all of the nations. The impression I got was that they believed there were may be a couple hundred humans left alive on the planet. In total. They were hiding in caves, clans meant nothing anymore, survival was what mattered.”

“Wait.” Chouza looked back to the cave opening, “so he wasn’t kidding when he said the world went to hell.” A couple hundred people left in the world? Chouza couldn’t wrap his mind around it. The Akimichi clan had about a hundred members, as did the Nara and Yamanaka clans; that the total of those three clans could be the grand total of world boggled the mind.

“No, he wasn’t. They were starving to death and being picked off one by one by an enemy that was more skilled at ambush and infiltration then they were. They were dying and they knew it.” Inoichi had fought in what they were calling the third shinobi war and he remembered the stories from his father of what the second shinobi war had been like. They had both been Hidden village against Hidden village; nothing was as bad as what he had seen in the blonde’s mind, especially as it seemed like all five nations had been working together. He didn’t want to see what could cause so much strife and if he could help prevent it then by the gods he would.

“Damn it. We’ll need to get him into the village without tipping off Fugaku and find out what he’s willing to share. I almost don’t want to know too much. Scared we’ll fuck it up even more.” Shikaku sighed, “I can only hope Sasuke has a plan of sort as to where to begin.” He moved to head back inside the cave when Chouza stopped him.

“Let me see your face.” Chouza examined the claw marks.

“I swear they were poisoned when I was hit. I could feel the sting. When Naruto put his hand near my face I could feel the wound healing. It didn’t feel like a medic doing the work if you know what I mean.” He let Chouza move his head from side to side and use his chakra to examine the wound.

“Explain?” Inoichi was curious how it felt different.

“You know how healing chakra from a medic often leaves you feeling tired as well right, because their chakra is sort of working against yours to force a healing. Not to mention they have to actually touch you. When Naruto put his hand up near my head to pull out the poison, I didn’t feel a thing. I mean, I could feel my chakra responding, but it didn’t fight him and I didn’t feel any pull on the wound, the poison leaving or feel tired.”

“Well I can’t detect any poison left behind and these already look like they’re about three weeks old.” Chouza stepped back and away from his team mate. “I don’t know if you guys noticed, but Naruto’s chakra was glowing gold.”

Neither man said a word as they walked back into the cave.

“You guys sleep, I’ll take watch.” Shikaku trailed behind, his mind already working the puzzle.

Chapter Text

Shikaku made himself comfortable as he watched his team mates bunk down for the night. He pulled out a small notebook and took a second to calm his mind. Opening to a blank page he started to copy down the seal symbols that had surrounded the pair when they arrived and marked which ones faded first. He wrote out what he saw, heard. He had an eidetic memory and that certainly helped but he always liked tho have the facts written down then he could turn them around and rearrange them to work them into different patterns and compare them to what others saw. It took him an hour to realize that the Uchiha was awake and watching him, the man hadn’t moved or made a sound. “Do you have a plan?”

Sasuke slowly rolled over and sat up. He laughed, “honestly, we had about fifteen plans all depending on where we popped up and when we made it back and who we happened to meet up with. Your team wasn’t one of them but then dealing with Naruto also meant dealing with the unexpected.”

“You mentioned the Hyuga.”

“Yeah I’ll have to check my notes, but soon there’s an event that will happen. If I can stop it I would like to.”

Shikaku watched the other man from across the banked fire. “The scrolls your friend tossed on the ground?”

“Naruto,” Sasuke stopped himself, he wouldn’t let himself grieve not yet but he wanted him to be acknowledged. “he’d want someone else to study the scrolls to use the knowledge inside, to help me succeed. The Yamanaka told you what he learned from Naruto’s mind?” He waited for Shikaku to nod. “Do you believe him?”

“I do. Not just because I’ve never known anyone to be able to fool the Yamanaka mind walk jutsu, but because of other things. The way you look, your eyes, mannerisms, the little tells. All the small things that let me know you both had been fighting a long hard battle and were losing, that this was your last hope. The seals were reminiscent of ones I have only read about in scrolls from Uzushiogakure. They were the only ones I know who could create seals like that no one here can reproduce them.” Shikaku took a second to think about the loss of one of the Leaf’s strongest allies. “You are an Uchiha and definitely a high ranking shinobi, but there are only a few in the corps and all are known to me. Your friend, Naruto, is certainly a mix of Minato and Kushina and his chakra proved that.”

“Huh, I guess he was right. Shika-, Naruto considered Shika one of his best friends, someone who stayed with him through all of his ups and downs. He’s the one who came up with the majority of our plans. In a way I’m glad,” Sasuke didn’t finish. He didn’t want to upset that man talking about how his son was dead, and he didn’t want to influence him too much.

Shikaku changed the topic, at least a little. “Are you going to want to see your family? Talk to the Hokage about this?”

Sasuke sighed and covered his eyes with his arm. His parents were still alive, and the clan was whole but the coup was still a real possibility. The Hokage was there but with Danzo a threat he’d need to do some undercover work. “Damn it.” He shook his head. “Not yet, at least I don’t think so.”

“Alright, let’s go back to the scrolls Naruto tossed out?” Shikaku was trying to piece together a plan.

“What’s your roll in the village at the moment? Inoichi’s? And Chouza’s?” Sasuke couldn’t remember what everyone’s parents were doing when he was a child. He’d been too self absorbed. Hell at this age he was just too damn young. Naruto had known Shikaku and the Nara clan well enough and Kakashi, Ibiki, and Yoshino had filled in a lot of blanks about the rest of the village.

“All of us are jonin although both Inoichi and I will be focusing on other career aspects when we get back. Inoichi is moving over to T&I and heading up interrogation full time while I take over as Jonin Commander.” Shikaku watched as Sasuke nodded.

“Chouza a jonin instructor?”

“No.”

“Hnn.”

Shikaku took that as an announcement towards the future which would have surprised him if it didn’t fit his friend so well. Chouza would be a perfect fit to teach chunin and jonin how to be sensei’s. He’d already had a genin team.

“The scrolls, can I trust you to hold on to them and not read them yet. To keep them safe and hidden for the time being.”

“For how long Sasuke?”

“I need time to recover, time to get my strength back and figure out exactly when and where I am and what I need to affect.”

“Sleep. Let me think on it some more and I’ll have a plan for morning.” Shikaku watched as the Uchiha fell directly to sleep. Combat naps. The dark haired man would sleep for ten maybe fifteen minutes before waking silently and checking his surrounding before dropping off again. That more than anything help cement the pair’s story. No one slept like that except war vets.

Dawn crept slowly into the cave. Shikaku knew that Inoichi and Chouza would have something to say about him not waking them for watch shifts last night but he needed the time to think. Inoichi could use the time to sleep and recover from what he had seen in Naruto’s mind. He knew the images had disturbed his friend more than he let on. Chouza had done a lot of heavy hitting yesterday in the melee and would use the time to regain his chakra, beside Shikaku was going to need him to carry Sasuke. The Uchiha was too weak to travel on his own.

He had the beginnings of a plan.

When everyone was awake he watched the way Sasuke drank a couple of mouthfuls of water and ate a handful of berries. That was going to need to be addressed along with his chakra depletion.

“Alright this is what I came up with. Sasuke when we’re closer to the village we’re going to put you in stasis and store you in one of the interrogation scrolls. You’ll be good for the couple of hours it’ll take us to get you into the village without question and somewhere safe. Once inside we’ll report our mission, minus everything about Naruto and Sasuke. The three of us should be given the standard forty-eight hours of leave to recover. Chouza, there’s the old summer cabin that borders Nara’s land. We can put Sasuke there to recover. It’s up to you if you want to involve Rei. I will only be telling Yoshino that we have a high profile guest who needs to remain in hiding at the cabin. She’s too well trained to not notice something and I’d rather her not get too curious. With her on my side, I can keep the others out.” Shikaku laid out his plan and waited to see if his team mates could spot a flaw.

“That works. It would also give me a reason to get Rei’s help in cooking meals. She’s better at this then I am.” Chouza was glad he didn’t have to lie to his wife. She wasn’t a shinobi but she was a smart and caring woman and had spent years as a village midwife.

“If we say that the person inside is helping on a sensitive issue for T&I then that would make sure no one says anything for village protection.” Inoichi knew that using that line would have both the Akimichi and Nara clans ready to help out their clan heads. “Having Yoshino aware would be helpful, she has the training to make sure we don’t miss anything.”

Sasuke smirked, “just make sure they know that I’m not a prisoner.”

Shikaku nodded. “When we get back into the village I’ll transfer those scrolls into a smaller storage scroll, one with a blood key and keep it on my person at all times.”

Sasuke nodded. “When do you want me to play dead?”

“You have a couple of hours yet. However I will have Chouza carry you now.”

Thirty kilometres outside of the village Shikaku rolled out the last interrogation scroll they had. Sasuke sighed as moved towards it. He was putting his life in these men’s hands and was praying that he wasn’t making a mistake. He wasn’t Naruto. He didn’t trust as openly. He was going with Naruto’s gut and trusting that the Ino-Shika-Cho trio here and now was as trustworthy as Naruto believed they were. If not, well then he’d be joining his best friend sooner then he thought and be making his apologizes for failing his mission for quite a while.

Chapter Text

“I didn’t think he do it.” Chouza watched the way Shikaku rolled the scroll up carefully and put it to the side. The storage scroll with items he had been given was placed beside it. All the other scrolls that contained the Iwa shinobi they were bringing back for interrogation were placed under a different tree.

“Chouza, I know that this is going to be a strain on you, but can you carry the enemy back to the village.” Shikaku shuffled back towards the Uchiha. “I don’t want to mix these up by mistake. Inoichi and I can split your pack.”

“You’re taking this seriously,” Inoichi could see just how careful Shikaku was being here.

Shikaku nodded. “He’s putting his life in our hands. I think he half expects us to betray him. I don’t want to do that. Ino- if something happens when we get back and they demand that I go to the hospital or something, you get this scroll and take to the cottage. Take it somewhere he can be safe. Got it.”

“I swear I will.” Inoichi wouldn’t let his team mate down. Later when they were back in the village and safe from prying eyes, he’d corner the Nara and find out what Sasuke had told him during the night.

The last leg of the trip home was slower then Shikaku wanted it to be, but they were careful not to leave a trail, not expending too much energy. When the gates came into sight he let out a small sigh, but didn’t relax until he was walking up the stairs to hand in his report. Chouza was on his way to T&I to hand the foreign nin.

“Shikaku, you’re injured.” Sarutobi could only gape at the wound on his new Jonin Commander’s face.

“Yes sir. Our mission was successful. Chouza is taking the captives to T&I as we speak. The injury is why we were late coming home.” Shikaku stood at attention, Inoichi beside him.

“Do you need to see a doctor?”

“I’ll go when I’m finished here sir. Aside from this, there were no injuries, just slight exhaustion.” Shikaku continued giving the rest of report, everything he said was collaborated with his written report already sitting on the Hokage’s desk.

“Alright, you’re both dismissed. I don’t want to see you until Monday.” Hokage waved them off. Seeing as how it was Thursday, that gave them an extra day to recover.

Inoichi and Shikaku walked slowly back through the village. “I’m going to head home.” Inoichi touched his friend’s shoulder {If I don’t go home to see Ino and Kyoko it will seem strange. I’ll try to come by tonight or tomorrow, don’t wait for me.}

Shikaku nodded and let his friend slip out of his mind seamlessly. Walking through the Nara clan gates he felt the comfort of the shadows around him. Once at his front door he prayed his wife would understand.

“Yoshino, I’m back.”

His wife of five years came out of the study, her eyes zeroed in on his face before cataloging every other aspect of his being. “What’s going on?”

He smiled and when she was close enough, opened his arms to pull her into his chest. “I’m fine. We’re all fine.”

“Shikaku, you haven’t lied to me since you had to tell me we were denied the right to adopt Naruto. What’s going on?”

“I can’t tell you everything, not yet.” He kissed her, “what I can tell you is that I have someone we need to put into hiding at the Akimichi summer cottage. I need to keep them secret and safe.”

“Who knows?” Yoshino had not only been a top shinobi but had been ANBU at one point in her career before a traitor and injury had forced her into retirement.

“Inoichi and Chouza know who, you know that they’re there here. Rei might, I’m not sure what Chouza will say just yet.”

“Kyoko?” Yoshino liked Inoichi’s wife. She couldn’t deny the woman loved Inoichi fully and did what she could to support him, but Kyoko wasn’t a shinobi. She ran the family flower store well and gathered gossip naturally, but she talked way too much.

Shikaku shook his head.

“Well if Chouza isn’t comfortable having your guest over there, we could always use Shoto’s cottage.” Shoto Nara had lived right on the edge of the Nara woods and the village, he had been killed during the nine-tails attack. Yoshino had gone and helped to clean it out, but no one had been willing to live out there yet.

“Too far away from us at the moment.” Shikaku had thought about it, but Shoto’s home was a good kilometre and a half away from his own while Chouza’s summer cottage was less then a couple of hundred meters through the woods and between both his home and Chouza’s. He was still too worried about Sasuke’s health to be too far away.

Yoshino let Shikaku pull away as Shikamaru toddled into the room. She watched him pick up their son, the look on his face was odd. He had always been a hands on father, but this was something different, there was a look of saddened pride on his face.

“Let’s teach you shoji.” He headed towards the study, Yoshino didn’t mention the fact that teaching their three year old shoji was near impossible. Her husband had something riding him and the best she could do was support him.

Chapter Text

“Yoshino?” Inoichi stood at their door. He looked just as exhausted and just as troubled as Shikaku.

Yoshino motioned the blonde inside. “He’s in the study teaching Shikamaru shoji.” She waited to see how Inoichi would react to that news.

“Good.” Inoichi started down the hall. Opening the door to the study Inoichi moved to the side as Shikamaru ran out. “We waiting for Chouza?”

“Sort of, I want to make sure that he’s okay with us the summer cottage. Give them time to clean it up, you know how Rei is. If he’s uncomfortable with the idea now that we’re home, we should hear about it soon. If not Yoshino mentioned that Shoto’s house was vacant. It’s a little further then what I’m comfortable with. The kid’s going to go through hell. He’s been through hell for so long, came back in time, and watched his friend disappear in front of him. Now he needs to reacquaint himself with his past, regain his strength and his health, figure out what to tell us and what not, and deal with the loss of everything familiar. Something tell me PTSD is going to be a constant companion. I want to be close enough to help and yet still give him some privacy.”

“Which is why my place wasn’t mentioned.” Inoichi lived in the middle of town and there was no way to hide anyone. “You told Yoshino.” It wasn’t a question and Yoshino had been ANBU, having her know would be a benefit to them. “Why don’t we go and meet Chouza half way?”

The pair left the house and walked the path through the Nara woods towards the Akimichi compound but stayed on the Nara side of the woods. Chouza met them right at the edge.

“I talked with Rei and she’s cleaning the summer cottage now.” Chouza lead his team back towards his yard. “She also agree to create some meals, stuff that will help him gain back his strength.”

The men came up upon the cottage and Shikaku analyzed the lay out. The Akimichi clan house was an H shape. The front courtyard open to the rest of the clan to allow them to come and see Chouza whenever they needed to and to be used for clan functions. The back half of the house faced the Nara woods. It allowed for the family to have some privacy and, if Chouza utilized the summer cottage, to keep an eye on the occupants while keeping the clan safe. Their guest would be able to stay out of sight of everyone and yet still be watched.

Rei opened the cottage door. “I just finished. There’s fresh bedding and the rooms are aired out. I’ll go back inside and finish making those meals we talked about.” She leaned up to kiss her husband’s cheek. “Let me know where you want me to help out next.” She walked back into the main house.

The three men sat on the floor inside the cottage.

“Are we in agreement about this?” Chouza wanted to make sure that everything was laid out clearly.

“Are you suggesting that we just leave the guy inside the scroll indefinitely? Chouza that’s cruel and inhumane.”

“If the guy is who he says he is, can we afford to ignore it?” Shikaku had contemplated a number of different scenarios and none them ended pleasantly. He pulled out the scroll and unrolled it, pushing his chakra through and watching as the foreign Uchiha popped into the middle of the room.

He looked at the trio in front of him, “Hn.” Sasuke was exhausted and could barely stand, “I almost expected you guys to leave me in there or kill me.”

Shikaku helped the man move to the couch. “I’ll be honest, it was brought up, however we’re just don’t want to deal with the fall out if you’re right about everything you’ve told us so far.”

Sasuke smiled. Now he knew where Shikamaru got his honesty streak, it was one more way in which Naruto had been right. He was glad they told him the truth, it would have pissed him off if they had tried to lie. “Thank you.”

Shikaku just shook his head.

Inoichi brought a glass of water from the kitchen. “Here, drink this. Slowly. Chouza has arranged to bring you a couple of meals each week. It’ll be soups and light stews for the next little while.”

“Food to get me back up to strength.” Sasuke bowed towards Chouza. “Thank you.”

Shikaku pulled out the other scrolls. The ones left behind by his partner. “Do you want to keep these?”

“No, Naruto may be an airhead at the best of times but he generally knew what he was doing. Besides he was right, someone here needs to know these things and you guys are really the best bet there is.” Sasuke shuffled four scrolls off to one side. “These are about the future. I think you should wait to read these for the time being.” He moved another couple closer to the Nara, “These you could likely read. Not sure how good your fuinjutsu is but it should explain things as we knew them. They’re theory, leave the rest for now.”

“What can you tell us and how can we help?” Shikaku nodded as Chouza stood and left. He would be back soon with food.

Sasuke sighed this was why he needed Naruto. The guy knew how to talk to people. He sighed long and hard. “There’s two maybe three things that will have to be addressed rather quickly and almost simultaneously. The problem of course is who we’re dealing with.”

“Can you give us a hint? When things happen? Are they with this village? Part of a clan?” Inoichi knew that Shikaku would want to start planning and honestly so did he. The images he saw in the Blonde’s mind were going to haunt him for a long time yet. He already had plans to write out everything he remembered. Not that he would share it with anyone yet.

“I brought soup, sake, tea and snacks.” Chouza carried an over ladened tray inside. At the look on Sasuke’s face he continued. “What ever you can’t eat now can go into the fridge and you should be able to reheat it whenever you’re hungry. I would like to see you eat what you can tonight. Many smaller meals would be better then trying to eat a lot in one sitting.” Chouza ladled out a small serving of soup into a cup and poured the tea. “My wife and I will bring fresh meals every couple of days.”

Sasuke bowed and took a sip of the soup. Rei Akimichi had always been a fantastic cook and she taught her son well. Before they lost Choji, he had passed on his families recipes. The home cooked meals were often the only source of comfort left to the survivors. “I miss this.” The words were whispered into the bowl. He could see the questions in eyes of Shikaku and Inoichi. He wouldn’t make them wait.

“There will be a kidnapping soon and it doesn’t end well. If we can advert it we should.” Sasuke sipped some more of the broth. “My own clan is feeling ostracized and persecuted. If this doesn’t change it will spell disaster for the village. The last is the one that will be the hardest to bring down and do it right. There is someone close to the Hokage that is operating a shadow government. He’s pulling a lot of strings behind the scenes and we were never sure if he was involved in kidnapping but he was certainly responsible for a lot of the tension with the Uchiha. We have a couple of months maybe as much as a year before some of the events depending on when we actually are. As for the rest well the ground work is likely already been laid. It will take time to destroy it without causing more harm. ”

“That’s-“ Chouza sat with his own cup of tea. He thought about his own son, Choji and what he wouldn’t do to keep him safe.

Shikaku sealed the scrolls Sasuke had suggested he hold onto before reading and pocketed the others. “Sasuke, why don’t you rest. Chouza, can we count on you to help keep Sasuke fed. I should have asked before but are you injured at all?”

Sasuke shook his head. “No injuries just exhaustion. I’m going to set up some wards and seals around the place. I just...”

Inoichi waved him off, but they could all see how tense Chouza was. “We understand. We’ve all lived through a war and understand how it is living under combat situations and in an area where you are without comrades. If we’re going to come over we’ll flare our chakra and then knock on the door. We’re not going to barge in unannounced.”

“That’s acceptable. I’ll try to keep everything to the interior so there’s no danger to any of the children that play in the area.” He remembered coming over here once or twice before his academy days and the massacre for clan functions and how all of the clan children had played in the yard mostly unsupervised.

Chouza breathed a sigh of relief. “As long as the children aren’t put in danger.”

“I’ll have some of the Nara deer released in the woods nearby. They won’t come onto Akimichi land, but they will most likely be visible and that will deter a lot of people.” Shikaku watched as Sasuke struggled to stay awake. The man might not be injured but he was exhausted. “Alright let’s call it a night.”

“I’ll be by daily to drop off food and check if you need something, likely around mid morning. The meals should be enough to last the day. If you want more or something different just let me know. There is food in the kitchen that you’re welcome to.” Chouza stood and moved the broth and snacks to the fridge.

“We’ll come back in say three days to talk and see how you’re doing. That should give you enough time to recover the majority of your chakra.” Inoichi waited with Shikaku by the door. Once Chouza joined them the trio left the cottage.

The silence was welcome. As tired as he was, the first order of business was to set up his seals. He pulled out six different sets of seals. Half of them he set up just inside the cottage and the others he focused inside the bedroom he had chosen. He did set up proximity wards at six meters outside the cottage and then again at two meters away from the door. The wards wouldn’t hurt anyone who passed through them, but it would give Sasuke a heads up that someone was around. It was the seals inside that would cause harm. Once he was satisfied with his work he let himself settle into bed and sleep.

Chapter Text

The men walked back to Shikaku’s home, where they convened in his study. “Well I think one of things that we can do is try to make the Uchihas feel more welcome in the village. If we can make them feel like they’re part of the village may be that will help slow things down.” Shikaku looked over at his friends. “Spread the word amongst our clans. The Uchiha are a part of us. If we see an injustice against them we need to speak up and stand with them.”

“That’s simple enough to do without making them feel like we’re up to something.” Inoichi didn’t want to piss off the Uchiha and put a target on their own back at the same time.

“Do you know who he was implicating? The one close to the Hokage?” Chouza knew that Shikaku worked closer with Lord Sarutobi then any of them.

“Yeah, I think I do and if I’m right then we’re going to have to be damn careful.” Shikaku stroked his goatee. He had four names floating around in head as possibilities but without proof he wasn’t going to say anything. Two of whom had already tried to assassinate the Hokage while the others were just the dregs of society who happened to have political clout.

Inoichi cocked his head to one side. “Can we leave them be? Is that a rock we really want to turn over?”

“No, if it’s one of the men I think it is this has been a long time coming, and if Sasuke knows a way we can get proof then we need to.” He hoped Sasuke had a way of getting the proof. Shikaku set up his shoji board. “I also think that when he’s in better health that we should bring in Fugaku. We’ll need to have Sasuke able to move around the village and if he’s got the head of not only Uchiha clan but also the Chief of Police on his side all the better.”

“Will he go for it?”

“Not likely,” Inoichi smiled, “he’s a Uchiha through and through. I do have a question. What do we do about Naruto? And by that I mean the Naruto in our time.”

Shikaku’s hand jerked before he moved his king forward one space. The refusal to be allowed to adopt him had hurt deeply. Minato had been his best friend outside of the men in front of him. “He’s at one of the village orphanages. I know we can’t do much since we’re bound by the gag order, but I will be searching him out and keeping an eye on him. A much closer eye. I’m also going to ask any of Minato and Kushina’s friends for help with that. It might be a good way to get the Uchiha clan involved again. Fugaku and Mikoto were close to Kushina.” He looked towards the two scroll Sasuke said he could read. “If he really will be a fuinjutsu master, then someone will need to understand the theory and be able to teach him.”

“What’s the plan Shikaku?” Chouza knew that like everything they did, their team worked best with one of Shikaku’s plans.

“Inoichi take the rest of today to write down everything you remember form Naruto’s memories, no matter how small. Feelings, impressions, all of it not just the facts although I want those to. Chouza same thing. Write what you noticed from the moment Inoichi let us know where the Iwa nin hiding. You are often the one to pick up on other things that we over look. I’ll do the same. I’m also going to study the scrolls, see what I can glean from them.” Shikaku moved another piece on his board.

“Chouza you’ll let us know how we can help with regards to the food and looking after Sasuke and the cottage?”

“As long as he keeps his word about keeping the protective seals inside the house, things should be good. Choji and a couple of the other kids have been using the back yard as a safe place to explore.”

“He’ll keep his word.” Shikaku looked out the widow.

“How can you be so sure?” Chouza was still unsure that the Uchiha was exactly who he said he was.

“Because your son is one of his friends and he treasured those relationships.” Inoichi could understand why Chouza was leery. Honestly it was how their team worked. Inoichi would have images and memories from his mind walking, Shikaku would be deducing information from all the little clues and it would be Chouza who would keep that all grounded and in the here and now. The one to question and make sure that what they knew was factual and that his team mates hadn’t been taken in.

“You saw...” Chouza didn’t really want to know, but he had to ask.

“Choji shared family recipes, the broth you brought out, was the last meal they had with their group even though all of our children had already passed on.” Inoichi wanted to cry for all the pain those two had been put through. How Naruto had managed to cram twenty years worth of memories into seven minutes was amazing, but he did.

They talked about the logistics of how things were going to work over the next couple of days before they all went their separate ways.

****

Sasuke slept. He actually slept, not the full night but not the combat naps he’d been getting by on for far too long. Pulling himself from the bedroom, he walked to kitchen and put the kettle on to heat. He marvelled at the thought of hot tea with sugar. The only tea the camp had had for months was whatever herbs and berries they could forge in the area. A dangerous proposition given that searching for food while fighting was near impossible.

Sipping his tea he looked out at the Akimichi clan house. He had only been here a couple of times as a child for clan functions and a couple when they had been in the academy. He hadn’t been that close to Choji when he had been a kid and when that had changed Konoha was gone and not long after that so was Choji. The kind hearted shinobi was the only one of his classmates he watched die. Sasuke wasn’t sure if he had it easier then Naruto had. His best friend had been on the field too far away and unable to help when most of their friends died. Iruka had taken a kunai in the back to save Naruto yet again. Both Sakura and Hinata had died in the blonde’s arms. Then, just before the jump, he had watched Kakashi be cut down. Sasuke knew he wouldn’t have been strong enough to survive with a smile on his face the way Naruto had.

Looking out the window he watched as a couple of the Akimichi children run around the corner of the house. It brought back memories of his childhood and playing with his cousins. “You had to leave me.” He slid down the wall, “why? Why did you leave me?” His breathe came in gasps as he let himself grieve for his best friend and all that he left behind. “Nar-to. How! What now!” The tears fell and Sasuke let himself break apart. How could he do this alone? He let his emotions take over as his grief overwhelmed him. Curled up on the floor, Sasuke wasn’t sure how long he laid there. He knew it was hours because of the position of the sun. He was exhausted and he just didn’t care.

***

Chapter Text

Shikaku sat in his study the next day reading the scroll.

“Anything you can tell me?” Yoshino brought her husband a cup a tea, after putting Shikamaru down for a nap.

“What do you know about fuinjutsu?”

“Sealing? I know that Minato was pretty good at it, but in reality Kushina was better. It wasn’t something that we learned a lot of in the academy. After the fall of Uzushiogakure there just weren’t that many people who knew and understood it. I think Master Jiraya knows the most now. Why?”

Shikaku threw her one of the scrolls, “I was given these. It’s theory on fuinjutsu, can’t say that it’s written the same way that a lot of academy texts are. I’m curious to see what you think about this.”

“Alright, I’m game.” Yoshino sat down and started reading the scroll.

Shikaku read through the second scroll once again. He was intrigued with how it was written, focusing more on that then what it actually said this time around. It was a puzzle. It was obvious whoever wrote these scrolls was a genius. They had an understanding of fuinjutsu that was staggering in it’s elegance and complexity. It was therefore confusing why the instruction of how to use such a powerful jutsu was written in such a simplistic manner.

“This is- wow. Shikaku, this really takes fuinjutsu and explains it in a way that anyone could use it.” Yoshino was impressed.

Shikaku nodded. “It makes me wonder if the author had a specific person in mind to teach this to or if they wanted to make sure that whoever had these scrolls could teach anyone.”

“How’s your friend?”

“Recovering, I hope.” Shikaku hoped that Sasuke was recovering, “mostly they’re dealing with chakra exhaustion and starvation.”

“Starvation? What the hell happened?”

Shikaku eyed his wife. “Let’s just say that where they were food was in scarce supply. Chouza and Rei are looking after them.”

“You going to check on them today?” Yoshino reached over the table for the other scroll and when Shikaku didn’t deny her, she opened it up to read.

“No I told them that we’d give them a couple of day to rest. Let them recover.” Shikaku knew that Chouza would stop by daily and chances were Inoichi would as well.

Inoichi spent the morning writing out everything he remembered from the blonde’s mind. No, not the blonde, Naruto. He needed to call him Naruto. He couldn’t dishonour the man’s memory by doing less then calling him by his actual name. Minato’s son, his daughter’s friend, and saviour of their future world. He got up and paced. It was a lot to take in. He walked down the hall to his daughter’s room, he took in all the little girl things. Ino was out with his wife at the flower shop. He wanted to check in on the new comer. Seeing as how he had lost his friend, Inoichi was sure that the man was hurting. He’d worked with enough Uchiha over the years to know that they had a tendency to bottle everything up inside. That did more damage then anything else. He made a note to go by the next day. He didn’t work at T&I for nothing, but he had promised the man three days. Sitting back at his desk, Inoichi went back to writing out his memories adding to it, the images from Sasuke’s genjutsu.

****

The Ino-Shika-Cho trio was called into the Hokage’s office the next day, technically they still had one day left before they were called back to work, but the Hokage could do as he wanted since none of them were too badly injured.

“Shikaku, the reports from the hospital say that the injury you sustained is remarkably well healed.”

“Sir?”

“Just a comment Shikaku. Ino-Shika-Cho, I would like your team to retire from active duty. That doesn’t mean I won’t call on your skills as a team when Konoha needs your skills elsewhere.” Lord Sarutobi was proud of this team. They were the epitome of the will of fire. “Shikaku it’s time for you to step up and take your place as Jonin Commander full time. Saizo is ready to step down.” Hiruzen knew the current jonin commander was looking at moving over to help refine the cryptology department and that would be a better fit for the man. “Inoichi, the same goes for you. We need your help leading T&I. Sajin Hirako is waiting for you so he can retire. Chouza, I am promoting you to Jonin instructor. Your skills will be essential to making sure that our jonin are ready to guide the new leaves of Konoha.” Aside from Chouza’s promotion from Jonin sensei to Jonin instructor, these were jobs that both Shikaku and Inoichi did already albeit on a more part time, freelance basis.

“Thank you sir, we honoured of your faith in us.” Inoichi spoke up, he was the one who could turn a pretty phrase.

Sarutobi gave the three of them further instruction on their new more permanent roles before dismissing them. The ANBU at the door ready to lead them to their new offices.

“Let’s met at my place after our day is done and we can talk about how this changes our team dynamics.” Chouza knew that there would be minimal changes in the grand scheme of things and that the others would want to talk to Sasuke as well, even though it hadn’t quite been the three days they had promised him.

Inoichi headed off towards the T&I building while Chouza and Shikaku merely walked down a couple of door.

“The current Jonin Commander is waiting for you in his office Nara-San.” The ANBU pointed down the hall, he continued on opening a door further on. “This is your office Akimichi-San.”

The office was small but bright. It had a desk and a couple fo chairs nothing too fancy. Being a jonin instructor was really a misnomer. What Chouza needed to do was evaluate all the current shinobi of the leaf and help, what was the phrase Lord Third used. He needed to encourage those jonin who had the skill and talent to help teach and guide the next generation of shinobi whether they wanted to or not. Most of his time would be spent out in the field or one of the training grounds assessing the skills of his fellow shinobi. He would also the be the one to take over should one of the instructors get assigned a long term mission or get killed. Chouza sat at his desk and looked over the note of his predecessor.

***

“It’s about damn time you came and took up your position.” Saizo sat behind the desk and watched the Nara walk in. He’d been trying to get the Nara genius to take over full time for the last couple of years. Shikaku kept saying he wasn’t ready yet, that he wanted to take on more missions, learn more techniques, spend more time with his team mates.

“Troublesome.” Shikaku closed the door and walked further in.

Saizo Tao laughed, he had been the Jonin Commander for the last decade. “Well troublesome it might be, get your lazy Nara ass over here and let me give you the run down of what you need to know so I can go and straighten out cryptology.”

***

Inoichi was familiar with the T&I building as most Yamanaka’s who were proficient in mind walking were often called upon to help with interrogating suspects. He knocked on the door before entering. “Sajin? You here?”

“Inoichi, so you’re finally assigned here, it’s about damn time.” Sajin rifled through the files on his desk. “I have about eight or nine files here that I could use your help on, or least get your take on things.”

Chapter Text

Inoichi met Shikaku at the gates of the Akimichi clan lands at the end of the day. “You had the same idea as I did eh?” Inoichi held up a bottle of sake.

Shikaku strokes his little goatee, his other hand holding a bottle of plum wine, “I want to check up on our guest. I guess I’m worried about leaving him too much on his own with too many of his own thoughts and without a reminder of why he’s here.”

Inoichi nodded, “to remind him of his promise to continue his mission. Yeah, I had the same thoughts.”

The pair walked towards the cottage, flaring their chakra as they went, it would notify not only the man inside, but Chouza as well. “Knock, knock.” Inoichi called out as he leaned against the rail.

The door opened and Sasuke stood hidden in the shadows. “I thought you said three days?”

“It’s been two and that’s close enough.” Shikaku lifted the bottle of liquor, “you wanna let us in?”

Sasuke stepped back, “if you’re going to share, you’re welcome inside.”

Inoichi and Shikaku walked inside, closing the door behind them. Sasuke was already heading towards the kitchen knowing that the pair would follow.

Glasses made it to the table as did a bowl of crackers and fruit.

“How are you feeling?” Inoichi had no problem starting the conversation, “and by that I mean physically and mentally.” He was hoping the Uchiha would be honest with them without him having to pull out his T&I tricks.

Sasuke accepted the glass of sake and thought about his answer. How did he feel? “Well the food has been good. Eating regular meals again has been a challenge.” He took his time answering, knowing that this wasn’t really what they wanted but it was the only way he could do this.

“Are you sleeping?” Inoichi figured he’d better ask specific questions instead of generalizations.

“In spurts. I don’t think I’ve slept through the night since I was a kid unless I was hospitalized and drugged, although last night I did get about four hours straight.”

“Yeah that doesn’t really count, but it’s a damn sight better then the ten minute combat naps you were getting by with when we first met.” Shikaku gave a small smile. “How’s your chakra levels?”

“Please don’t say better then they have been in years,” Inoichi looked so worried.

Sasuke smirked, the look on Inoichi’s face and the tone of voice was same one that Ino used many time on her team mates or Naruto when they did something outside of mission parameters. “It’s coming back. I’m not back to normal yet but neither am I at death’s door.”

Shikaku got up to answer the door before Chouza could knock. “I figured you’d both be here yesterday honestly so when I saw you come in today I thought I’d join in to see where I could help.” The Akimichi clan head put the tray of appetizers on the table and sat down.

Sasuke pushed an empty glass and the bottle of plum wine closer to Chouza as the man wasn’t a fan of sake.

“Sasuke,” Shikaku started, “I wanted to give you more time to heal and recover, but at the same time I don’t want you to wallow in memories and feel alone. I’m not sure just how time sensitive everything is and how much you want us to know.”

“And that’s my biggest issue.” Sasuke let out a deep breath, “I’m still not exactly sure where I am and I’m not sure that the date is really going to help me much.” He need help from these three men to complete his mission. If he wanted their trust, then he was going to have to trust them in return. Damn it. This was really more Naruto’s area then his. Opening his shirt, he revealed the seal Naruto had inked under his right collar bone.

“SHIT! It wasn’t just the blo- Naruto who had the seals inked on his skin,” Inoichi was amazed, the intricacies of the matrix that made up the seal was, well it was beautiful. He wanted to reached out and examine them.

The seal flared as Sasuke pulled out a scroll and then faded to be almost invisible. “No, Naruto gave them to anyone who wanted one.” The smile was a little a sad, “still don’t know how the moron was able to draw anything so delicate when his handwriting was so horrible and illegible.” He shook his head, “anyway I’m sure we talked about some of this on our way into the village. We must of for Shikaku to verify who I was and what I was after, but I’m going to ask after a couple of names and right now I just want you to tell me if they are alive or dead. Later I might ask for specifics.” He unrolled the scroll and started at the top and the most obvious. “I can’t go into reasons as to why I’m asking after these people in particular, but I’m going to keep it to Konoha names. Please just trust me on this.”

The Ino-Shika-Cho looked at each other before Chouza nodded. He would be the spokesperson for the group while Inoichi and Shikaku gathered information and observed. They would compare notes later.

“Hashirama Senju.”

“Dead.”

“Mito Uzumaki.”

“Dead.”

“Tobirama Senju.”

“Dead.”

“Madara Uchiha.”

“Dead.”

“Minato Namikaze.”

“Dead.”

“Kushina Uzumaki.”

“Dead.”

“Sakumoto Hatake.”

“Dead.”

“Obito Uchiha.”

“Dead.”

“Rin Norhara.”

“Dead.”

“Hiashi Hyuga.”

“Alive.’

“Hizashi Hyuga.”

“Alive”

“Might Dai.”

“Dead.”

“Am I correct in understanding that Hiashi Hyuga, Hizashi Hyuga, Minato Namikaze, Fugaku Uchiha, Tumse Inuzunka, Shibi Aburame, and you three all have children bordering on the same age?”

Chouza looked over at his friends, “well, Hizashi’s son is a year of two older but yes.”

“That leaves Lee and TenTen and Sakura.” He mumbled to himself as he made notes on his scroll, “alright next set. Kakashi Hatake, is he still in ANBU?”

Chouza froze and looked over at Shikaku.

“Fuck me, how the hell? Never mind. Future shit.” Shikaku wiped a hand down his face, as he nodded.

“What the hell are they thinking putting Hatake back in ANBU? Minato fought to get him out of there for a reason Shikaku.” Chouza wasn’t impressed, he knew just how precarious Kakashi’s mind was. He was going to have a major talk with his best friend over Kakashi being back in ANBU.

Sasuke winced, “it’s not Shikaku’s decision as I’m sure you know. What about Yamato? He might be going by Tenzo or Kinoe? Is he in the village?”

“I don’t know any of those names,” again Chouza had to look to his team mates.

Shikaku sighed and leaned back, “Tenzo, yeah, he’s in the village working under Kakashi.”

“In ANBU?”

“In ANBU.”

“That’s good. They need to stay together.” Sasuke moved further down the list. “They help one another heal in more ways then you know. Guy and Kakashi still have their rivalry right?” The smiles on the trio’s faces let him know that the challenges were still outrageous. “So next group; I have another list of names, I’d like to know their ranks if you feel comfortable giving me that information.”

Shikaku looked Sasuke in the eye for a minutes before speaking up, “give me the list of names first please.”

Sasuke stared at his list. These men and women were friends, gone now along with everything else that was familiar to him. Taking a steadying breath he started, “Genma Shiranui, Raidou Namiashi, Iwashi Tamaki, Ebisu, Might Guy, Ibiki Morino, Anko Mitarashi, Kurenai Yuhei, Hayate Gekko, Yugao Uzuki, Asuma Sarutobi, Izumo Kamizuke, Kotetsu Haagen, Iruka Umino, and Teuchi Ukai.”

“I’m familiar with all the names except the last one.” Inoichi interrupted to give his team mate a moment to think about what he wanted to say.

“Teuchi Ukai runs Ichiraku Ramen.” Sasuke knew asking after a civilian would be telling but it was a start.

“He’s been open about five, maybe six years now. The food is really good and his reputation is even better. He runs the stand with his wife and their daughter. I’ve seen them both at the stand.” Chouza knew most of the food stands in the village and not just because he loved to eat. As head of the Akimichi clan he also took on the responsibility for making sure that food stands and restaurants were sanitary and followed heath codes set out by the village. They didn’t want complaints of price gouging or the selling of spoiled food. Teuchi had often given meals to orphans at no cost. He had come to Chouza about an idea of a coupon system where anyone could prepay for a meal, then redeem the coupon at a later date. Chouza liked the idea of the coupons he was trying to coordinate with the different clans to see if they would buy a number of them to have on hand. He looked over at the newcomer. Maybe if he talked to Fugako to see about the police force handing out the meal coupons to some of the orphans on the street when they see good behaviour. Positive reinforcement went a long way to stopping crime and if the orphans started seeing the police force as people they could trust, then they would be notified if something went wrong. It was a win-win situation add in the more positive interactions with the Uchiha and they couldn’t really fail.

Shikaku made a note of all the names Sasuke asked about and the ones he didn’t know personally. It was possible that the shinobi singled out had some significance to the Uchiha personally or the village itself. As for the first group, it hadn’t escaped his notice that Sasuke flinched when he had been told that both Madara and Obito Uchiha were dead, but it didn’t look like someone who was mourning family. “Why these shinobi? There are others that are stronger, faster, and could still be alive in your time?” Not to mention that most of them were barely chunin, and aside from one or two being clan children nothing about them really stood out. They were all a bunch of teenagers or early twenty year olds. The fact that three were the former Hokage’s elite bodyguard detail also wasn’t going to be mentioned. He’d wait to see just what it was Sasuke wanted to know about these men. After all there was nothing in there rank that revealed their experience.

Sasuke shrugged. “These are the ones that I am asking after.” He still didn’t want to let too much out. These were the ones that were their senseis, their teachers, their comrades on the battlefield, their friends in survival. He might be able to guide them, Genma mentioned how Hayate refused to go to the hospital when he first came down with a cough after a mission gone wrong and how he and Raidou could have learned more about poisons earlier.

Inoichi nodded at Shikaku who just shrugged and tilted his head back. “Alright, so...” they spent hour going back and forth over who held what rank in the village and how old they currently were, while Sasuke made notes.

Chouza finally stood and stretched, “Sasuke do you mind if I make a meal?”

Sasuke just waved a hand towards the kitchen. It blew his mind that men he looked up to, who had taught him so much were the same age as him now if not a year or two younger.

Chouza wanted to check and see just how much food was left, how much the young Uchiha had eaten. Opening the fridge he was pleasantly surprised to see that while there was still a lot of food left, there was evidence of someone eating and eating well. He pulled out ingredients for another meal.

“What’s the situation with between us and Kumogakure?” It was the piece of information he needed before formulating a plan.

“Well I wouldn’t say that we’re at war, but we’re not exactly friendly either. There’s plans for a peace treaty in the works, but that’s not scheduled for another couple of months.” Shikaku was part of the team writing up the peace treaty, Lord Third also wanted him there in case there was foul play.

“How many months is a couple?” Sasuke knew that this was the first big thing they could change. If they could keep Neji’s father alive all the better.

“We’ve barely started the process,” Shikaku wasn’t quite sure what it was that Sasuke wanted.

“It’s July 30, so your birthday just past and your counterpart just turned three.” Inoichi knew he had said that dates didn’t mean a lot but obviously something was going on and he needed to know for a frame of reference.

“Okay so we have about five months.” Sasuke pulled over another scroll and opened it.

Shikaku and Inoichi didn’t even try to read the scrolls he laid out on the table. Chouza sat back down waiting while their meal cooked.

“Sasuke, I know you don’t want to give too much away, but I think we need to know what’s going to happen in order to help you out.” Chouza’s quiet steady voice was the subtle push Sasuke needed.

“Okay, you have to remember that I have no actual memory of the event. I’m going by the memories of those who were there for the aftermath.” The three men nodded. “In my time Kumogakure came to the Leaf to broker a peace treaty. It was more of a sham than anything else. It was to be signed in December. During their stay some of the Kumogakure ninja took it upon themselves to kidnap Hinata Hyuga in order to get access to the Byakugan. Konoha dispatched the ANBU and every other shinobi in order to find her. In the end we did find her safe and the Kumogakure ninja was killed. The issue came after when the Rikage denied all knowledge of the kidnapping and demanding the death of Hiashi Hyuga as compensation for the death of their envoy as per stipulation of the treaty. The Leaf wanted to keep the peace as tentative as it was and an agreement was made. In the end Hizashi Hyuga took his brother’s place and as the cursed seal would keep the Byakugan safe it was the best choice at the time. It left some bad feeling between to two villages and within the Leaf and the Hyuga clan itself. If we can either prevent Hinata’s kidnapping or bring the perpetrator in alive that would be the ideal outcome.”

Inoichi let out a low whistle. That was one hell of a secret to hold in and it was only one of many.

“Do you have a plan with how to deal with it?”

“No, it was something our team talked about, but honestly there were just too many variables to make a solid plan. I have some ideas that we threw around but it they were based on where, when and who we came in contact with.”

Shikaku stroked his goatee before speaking again, “Sasuke will you let me think on this for a day or so? I want to make sure that go through all aspects before presenting you with a plan.”

“That works, I’d rather see what you come up with the go with my plan which is essentially no plan at all.”

“Okay, I’ll think on it and get back to you this week.” Shikaku didn’t want to mess this up, not if it meant the death of one of his friends. Hizashi was a taciturn man, proud of his clan but he was a damn good shinobi. “Now onto something completely different. I read the scrolls on fuinjutsu and had my wife read them as well.”

“What did you think?” Sasuke had tried for years to get a handle on fuinjutsu but aside from creating slightly altered exploding tags he couldn’t understand the process. He could barely read what a seal was meant for.

“I’m really interested in who wrote the scroll.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can tell whoever wrote them was an absolute genius with fuinjutsu. The information in those scrolls is overwhelming in it’s complexity and elegance. They must have been a sealing master with the amount of information they knew.” Shikaku watched Sasuke closely, if the Uchiha wrote the scrolls he was hiding it. “They are written in such a simplified way that they could be used for academy instruction. It’s basic without being patronizing.”

“You mean you could take these scrolls and teach an academy class of pre-genin what fuinjutsu was and they’d get the basics of it?” At Shikaku’s nod Sasuke started to laugh, “damn it Naruto. He was dead last in school you know. Hated and ignored by everyone and no one thought he could do anything. Hell we were just months away from graduation when Shika and our teacher figured out that he didn’t know how to read. The only thing that saved him was his determination to be better and that he was so damn likeable. Going on missions with him, half the time he talked our enemies into surrender and then befriended them.” Sasuke just shook his head as he let himself get lost in his memories. “Sensei swore it was a kekkei genkai of his even though we knew it wasn’t.” The smile on his face softened all of his features. “He just had to learn by doing, figures he’d write out instructions the way he learned best.” There were a couple of tears running down his cheeks and the look in his eyes was hard to hold. There was a saying that true deep emotions could be seen in the eyes of an Uchiha and the Ino-Shika-Cho could see that to be true. Although if Shikaku really thought on it he was sure his face would look much the same if he were to talk about one of his team mates so soon after their death.

“Who taught him fuinjutsu?” Inoichi itched to comforted the young man but wasn’t sure how.

Sasuke swiped at his face, “He had a sensei who taught him some of the basics but the man died early in their relationship. I never had a chance to meet him. Later Naruto found some scrolls but by then we were at war. He was also gifted some scrolls that had been stolen from Uzushio. But he was mostly self taught. In the last minutes of the war we found a teacher we never expected and we both learned a lot. He was almost a Master by then and just needed reassurance that he was on the right path.” Sasuke rubbed the seal Naruto had inked over his chest before the jump. “The seals he inked on us he created himself at the last minute just before we left. They’re storage seals but with the side benefit of being virtually invisible, add to that they stay sealed after death. I’m sure he took inspiration from the Hyuga’s caged bird seal and tweaked it to suit his needs.” Sasuke rubbed his hand behind his ear unconsciously touching the seal Naruto had placed there to protect his eyes. The sharingan and rinnegan could still be removed, but unless he released the seal they would be completely useless, with Danzo still here it put his mind at ease. It was something that he wanted to be able to offer to his clan and the Hyuga instead of the caged bird. “So did you know how to use fuinjutsu before?”

Chouza brought over the meal he had made and was pleased to see Sasuke dish out a more reasonable sized portion. “We all learned the basics at the academy. How to create your own storage seals and tweak the explosion tags but at that time Uzushio was still thriving and had fuinjutsu masters. A couple of times a year there would be classes offered either here or there, like a short apprenticeship and those who were interested. It’s a skill like taijutsu and genjutsu and those who are truly adept are few.”

“And those who don’t use the skills forget them. We have a couple skilled craftsmen in the village who use fuinjutsu for different items most of them for sale to shinobi who are either too busy or not skilled enough to create and individualize seals.” Inoichi was thinking of the weapons smith on eighth street, they had some phenomenal weapons scrolls. They were beautiful but not something that worked with his fighting style. “I can use fuinjutsu in as much as I take apart the mental seals and blocks in my day job.”

“Right T&I,” Sasuke never thought about how close the Yamanaka’s mind jutsu was to seals.

“Shikaku and I really just know the basics although on my part it’s more because it’s just not a skill that I excel at.” Chouza knew Shikaku was more on the lazy side.

“Yeah not really my thing. At least not past the basics but I can think of a couple of shinobi who we might want to make sure get those scrolls and see what they can do with them.” Shikaku had to rely on his training to calm himself. To hear about Naruto’s life so casually hurt especially when he knew that he could have made it better had he been allowed to adopt the tyke. “I’m assuming we can talk about that later too. The scrolls themselves are a wonder. The seals he put on your body, how much can they actually hold?”

Sasuke laughed and the conversation turned towards the more mundane and practical side of fuinjutsu.

Chapter Text

Inoichi came back the next day just to check on him, while Chouza showed up the day after. The pattern repeated, while Shikaku stayed away. Inoichi stopped by the Nara house on his way to see Sasuke.

“He’s playing shoji.”

“Against who?” Sasuke remembered what challenge it was to play against Shikamaru he had no idea who would be able to play against the strategist’s father.

Inoichi smiled and encouraged Sasuke to sit out on the porch in the late evening sun. How did he explain his best friend? He went back to the memories given to him from Naruto. “Shikaku is much like the Shika of your time. When he has a problem that he needs to figure out he plays shoji. He uses the pieces to represent different aspects of the problem and it lets him move them around in his mind, to work out a solution. Right now Yoshino might be the only one with enough skills to play against him if he wants a partner otherwise he’ll play himself. He’s teaching his Shikamaru though.”

“You know I never asked before, never had the interest or the chance but how does the mind walk jutsu work for you? What did you see?” Sasuke wasn’t sure he wanted to know but at the same time he needed to know what it was that Inoichi was privy too.

Inoichi leaned forward and pulled his long blonde hair over his shoulder to run his fingers through it. “Generally when I enter someone’s mind, I’m in control over where I go and what I see, but that’s because I’m searching for information on criminal activity or a weakness that we can use to against a village foe. What Naruto did was different. First because he was in control, even as weak as he was he had complete control over where I went and what I saw. The first thing he did was make sure that I saw images of areas and conversations that would prove you were both who you said you were. Things like the inside of my flower shop, the jonin commander’s office. Naruto feeding the Nara deer. The two of you with a two others in front of Lord Third, on missions with our children, although their faces were blurred. Things like that. Then it changed. There was the destruction of the village. The death of a red haired boy. Training with the toads. Men in black cloaks with red clouds. Reanimated corpses and white beings. The Jubi underneath a red moon and the infinite Tsukuyomi. The weeks where you all thought you won and little bit of relief that became devastation when the white beings came back stronger. The groups of people and friends being picked off one by one. The loss of friends and not being able to stop it or help. Food supplies running short. Allies turning on one another. The look in the eyes of those around the table before you both left. They knew they were going to die and do so shortly.” Inoichi couldn’t look at Sasuke. His own emotions were to close to the surface. “He may have tried to spare me by blurring the features of the faces, but I’m pretty sure I know who was gone and some of who was left behind.”

“Did you? You haven’t said anything?” Sasuke tipped his head back to stare at the stars.

“I know that Shikaku and I were long gone before the final push and that as strong as our children were, they too were gone. I recognized Ibiki by the tone of his voice. Yoshino, I recognized by the eyes, Shikamaru has his mother’s eyes. She was holding a baby.” He didn’t mention that there was a third person there that felt familiar although Inoichi had faced him as an enemy not an ally like Sasuke and Naruto knew him as.

“I would like to think they survived and lived happily ever after, but even as a child I never believed in fairy tales. Naruto gave them the same types of scrolls. He made four sets, one for each of us in case we got separated and two for those left behind, for them to copy and learn from. He also created the seals that went around our camp to help protect it. Generally it ran off of his chakra. He was a powerhouse, even without the buji. However, with us gone, he keyed it to a couple of the strongest shinobi that were left with the land powering it through nature chakra. I think it was one reason why he didn’t want to do this. He knew that if we jumped-” The lump in his throat made it difficult to talk.

“That if you jumped there was a really good chance that he would die?”

Sasuke shook his head, “nah that’s not Naruto. He knew that if we jumped there was almost no chance for those we left behind to survive. Shika had tried to convince him to go earlier. If we did he might have had the strength to survive and then I wouldn’t be doing this alone.”

“Sasuke, you can’t know this.” Inoichi didn’t want the young man to start second guessing fate. “There’s a reason time jumping isn’t something that we do. Don’t start second guessing yourself now. You know shinobi are a practical pragmatic lot. We don’t have many religions, that’s not to say there aren’t any, generally we look at honouring our ancestors and believe that there is some truth to concept of fate. Your friend, Naruto, was he the type who complained every time life threw an obstacles at him? Would he whine and bemoan fate?” Inoichi already knew the answer but he needed Sasuke to see it.

The raven haired man let out a laugh, a honest laugh as he thought about his best friend, “hell we’d be lucky if he even recognized them as obstacles and not just assume that everyone’s life was the same. He would take each stumbling block as a challenge to get better, stronger, faster.”

“There’s your answer.”

“You’ve given me a lot to think about.” The Uchiha stared at the stars thinking of his friends and those he had left behind.

Inoichi was loathe to interrupt the man’s thoughts, but there was something he felt he needed to say, “Sasuke, I know that this new life is going to be difficult and there will be a lot that you will have to keep hidden, keep secret from everyone else. Please know that you will be able to talk to me. I may not have the same memories, but I do hold some of them and I will keep them safe for you.”

******

It took Shikaku a week to figure out a plan that he was happy with, he just hoped that Sasuke would go for it. He let his friends know and bought Ichiraku so Chouza wouldn’t have to cook.

“Inoichi, how are things going?” Shikaku met the blonde on the street out in front of the Akimichi gates.

“Sajin has a couple fo really interesting files for me so I’m enjoying myself. There’s also a couple new kids in the building, he wants me to train them and see how they do especially since I’ll be taking over full time now instead of the odd shift here and there. What about dealing with Saizo Tao?”

“Yeah, I swear he’s as lazy as I am; either that or he’s just vindictive. Some of the files I had been working on during my last shift were still on my desk.” At Inoichi’s shrug Shikaku elaborated, “the last shift I worked was four months ago.”

Inoichi laughed, “well that would be problematic. I stopped by multiple times this last week, trying to get a handle on Sasuke’s mental health. The last thing we need is Sasuke going into a depression and becoming suicidal. We had some good discussions. Can’t say that he’s the most stable shinobi I’ve talked to but he’s also not the worst. I told him that I’d be willing to talk to him about his memories if and when he needed it.” At Shikaku’s shocked expression Inoichi continued, “he needs to keep those memories and be willing to talk about them until he’s able to let go. That was his life, his friends, his family, we can’t expect him to just forget about them instantaneously and it will only get worse when we reintroduce him to his clan like I know you are going to propose.”

Shikaku stopped, “is that the wrong move? Should we wait?” He never had an issue with second guessing himself before, but he wasn’t infallible.

“No I think it’s the right move, it just means we need to be aware of what else can happen.”

Chouza was already on the porch with Sasuke when Inoichi and Shikaku arrived. “Ichiraku’s ramen? Awesome.”

“Let’s eat first then we’ll talk.” Shikaku waited until the last of the dishes had been cleared before he spoke again. “So I spent the week thinking about the information you gave us. It’s a lot and at the same time very vague on details. We know that Kumo is sending a contingency to work on the peace treaty. What we need to do is find a way to keep the children safe. I’d suggest an inter-clan arrangement but we don’t have enough time to build up the trust the way I want. What we can likely do is get the police force involved and have the patrols increased. To do that I’d like to bring your father into this. I know that will be hard, but maybe having him involved will help not only stop the incident involving the Hyuga’s but then we can work with Uchiha to get them more involved in the village.”

Sasuke froze at the mention of his father.

“I actually have a side project that I’ve been meaning to talk to Fugaku about. It could be a means to get him here and then we can see about everything else.” Chouza had talked to the Hokage about his coupon idea and it had been approved on a trail basis so the Akimichi clan had talked to ten different food stalls and restaurants and created and paid for sixty coupons.

“So when do you want to do this?”

Shikaku didn’t want to give the time traveler to much time to panic, “why don’t I go and find him now and bring him back. We can do this right away.”

It ended up with Inoichi going to find Fugaku, Chouza fixing a plate of finger food and grabbing a couple bottle of sake. Shikaku took Sasuke out to see the deer.

“The Nara deer are special, they relate to us differently then common deer, although we have those too. Nara deer are sensitive to chakra and can watch our land and let us know who comes on it. Our history tells us that the first Nara shared their chakra with the deer so they would live and grow stronger. Now the Nara deer are loyal and will protect our lands.” He held his hand out flat to the deer and waited for the nearest buck to come closer to scent him.

Sasuke stood by Shikaku’s side and waited quietly as the deer slowly started to come out the woods. “So what,” he spoke in a near whisper, “you use them as what spies?”

“Now there’s an idea.” Shikaku let lose a smile, “they do keep watch and let us know if anyone other than a Nara enters our forest. Our chakra network is unique and anyone who marries into the clan gets introduced to the deer. They recognize us by smell and feel of our chakra. The Akimichi clan have been close partners with us for generations. Hold out your hand and let them get used to you.”

Sasuke wondered if Nara deer would remember him from before or if this was going to be the first time he met them again. He held out his hand and waited, his mind going back to his genin days and hanging out with Naruto, Choji and Shikamaru. He had been amazed at how quiet Naruto could be, but then he found out that the blonde had spent a lot of time at Shikamaru’s growing up and the trio had camped out many nights in the woods. Naruto had actually spent many nights there before knowing he had been on Nara land, the deer liked him despite the fox inside.

“We should start calling me Kei. This timeline already has a Sasuke Uchiha and I don’t want to cause undo confusion or pain.” Sasuke let the buck lip at his palm a little more before moving back towards the cottage, Shikaku behind him. “We had planned for Naruto to go by Haru Uzumaki a cousin that was pro-ported to have perished at birth just after the fall of Uzushio and I was going to be Kei Uchiha. Lucky both names are also nicknames for our original ones which still works.” He stayed on the porch but moved to the far side, hidden from sight. This was harder then he thought it would be. He never realized how much of his identity had been tied to being the last of the Uchiha, now he was just another in a large clan and not the clan head’s second son either. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

“Are either of them real?” Shikaku wondered if there was a chance to find and save them if they were.

“Well we had heard rumours of a couple of Uzumaki around this time but they never came to the Leaf that we knew of. I know in our time, Naruto and I both ran into two separate Uzumaki orphans so if we can find them and bring them in before their parents die that would be better, but neither were named Haru. As for Kei Uchiha, we were thinking a possible bastard child born outside of the village. I know that there were a couple fo Uchiha’s that had been in Uzushio when it was attacked so the possibility is there. We’ll have to see what fath- Fugaku is okay with.” Damn but his stomach was in knots again, he’d never addressed his father by his first name before. How the hell was the man going to take this. “I’m guessing you’re gong to want us inside for this right. Less witnesses.”

Shikaku laughed and threw and arm around the dark haired man, “I didn’t know there was this much snark underneath the Uchiha cool.” He guided the still healing man inside.

“Yeah I think I might be a special case.” Sasuke figured it was exposure to Naruto that had eventually pulled the stick out of his ass. That or the constant hits by Sakura. The feel of his father’s chakra had him buttoning his own down tighter and tighter. He was glad Chouza had given him some new clothes, he was already dressed in dark colours, ready to fade into the corner until they called him.

Chapter Text

“Shikaku, Chouza,” Fugaku walked into the cottage, he was already on edge. For Inoichi to ask him to join the Ino-Shika-Cho for a drink that had nothing to with official channels made him extremely nervous. Then there was a strange shinobi in the corner.

“Fugaku we will get to the gentleman in the corner in a moment. First I want your opinion on something before I bring it to your attention in an official capacity.” Chouza went on to explain his idea regarding the coupon program he was thinking of and how he like to get the police involved in helping, how their presence and appearance would change with this.

“It could work.” Fugaku tried to look at it from different angles. “I think it might be a better idea if we were able to hand out the coupons for other reason as well. Things like helping a senior, picking up garbage, or even if the child just looks hungry. I don’t want kids to feel like they have to do something to earn the coupon, that could end up causing false reports and the like, but if they knew that they could come to us and ask for one. We could also see about setting up something akin to the D rank missions at the police station. The orphans can come and help with menial tasks and we pay them. Let me talk to Junpei and Kekio about this and see what they comes up with and then we can all go to the Hokage about it.”

Chouza agreed, it wasn’t a flat out refusal and Fugaku had brought up some good ideas. Better to have the issues brought forth and solutions in mind now then having to figure out how to solve them on the fly.

It hadn’t taken long, maybe a half hour, but Shikaku poured him a healthy shot of sake so he knew that the meeting hadn’t gotten to worrying part yet.

“Alright,” Fugaku looked at the man in corner. He was quiet and kept his head down.

“I need you to listen before asking questions.” Shikaku still wasn’t sure how to explain this without it being an absolute shit show. He decided to go with straight forward approach. “Last week the three of us were sent out on a mission. On our way home we ran into a squad of Iwa shinobi. We were about half way through a battle with the squad when the world around went crazy.” Shikaku tilted his head back no longer even looking at Fugaku, “there was a pressure like all the air had been sucked out of the area and then it was forced back. Blew a number of the trees in the area flat. Right in the middle were two ninja. They were in a sealing circle and looked like hell. The remaining Iwa nin attacked and Chouza and I took care of them, it’s where I was injured. The two in shinobi middle of the circle were physically opposite of each other, one was blonde and one was a raven. The blonde healed me to the point you see now.”

“It looks almost a month old, if not older.” Fugaku hadn’t seen the Nara clan head for a couple of months now. If he had indeed just received the injury across his face, then whoever had preformed the healing was indeed talented.

“Inoichi searched his mind as the tale they told was fantastic. Unfortunately, when they took down the seal, the blonde died and the raven was severely weakened.” Shikaku watched as Fugaku drummed his fingers on the table top. He could guess what the Uchiha was thinking. The Hokage hadn’t informed him of any strange shinobi in the village which he would have as head of the police force. “We’ve kept him here as we were trying to figure out what to do with the information the pair have given us. Right now we have about five months to stop something catastrophic and the only plan I can come up will involve having your cooperation.”

Fugaku got his back up at that, “so you couldn’t have been bothered to inform me of a foreign shinobi in village at all? Damn that Sarutobi!”

“Whoa, Fugaku, that’s not- no! wait.” Inoichi hated trying to play peace maker between the two men. Shikaku had a tendency to be too blunt with fellow clan heads and Fugaku took offence way too easily and that didn’t take into consideration the relationship both men had with Sasuke’s deceased best friend. “Yes we would have told you, it was a question of when and Sarutobi doesn’t know.”

That had the head of the Uchiha stopping mid tirade. Sure the Shikaku was known for playing fast and lose with protocols and regulations when he wanted something, especially since he had been promoted to jonin commander but Chouza Akimichi was as straight an arrow as they came. “Chouza?”

“I know, but trust me Fugaku it will make sense.” Chouza nodded trying to give all the reassurance he could without giving anything away.

“So what is so freaking top secret that you’re keeping it from the Hokage? Who’s invading? Turning traitor?” It was the only thing he could think of that would have these three fiercely loyal clans forgoing procedure.

“It starts with Kumo going against the Hyuga inside the village and cumulates in the end of world as we know it.” It was the first time Sasuke had spoken up for the first time since his father arrived. He hadn’t thought that seeing the man would have affected him so much but it had, it hurt, he so wanted his father’s approval still.

“Just who are you and what the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m the raven they picked up. It’s taken me a couple of days to get my chakra levels back up and to recover at least a little from the death of my team mate.”

Fugaku just stared and waited for further explanation. When nothing more was offered he asked, “and why should they trust what you say and not turn you over to the Hokage and the Police right away? What type of proof could you give them that would have these loyal shinobi ignoring their training?” He was furious, what the hell were they trying to pull? Had the infamous Ino-Shika-Cho been tricked by some foreign shinobi?

“I don’t know anyone who can fool the Yamanaka’s mind walk jutsu?”

“Inoichi searched your memories?” Fugaku was a little more relaxed, if this stranger actually had his memories examined by Inoichi then there was a strong chance that they were dealing with something extraordinary. Inoichi hadn’t been working with T&I division head for years for nothing.

“No, he search my best friend’s memories.” He wasn’t going to lie.

Fugaku glared at Shikaku and Chouza, “what the hell. You only interrogated one man out of the pair? Are you slipping?”

“There were extenuating circumstances,” Shikaku looked over at Sasuke who just shrugged.

“Listen give the trio a pass on this at least. If Inoichi wants to let you know what he saw that’s between you and Inoichi. As for me well this is at least partly why they gave me a pass.” Sasuke let the sharingan show in his left eye. “I tried to put Inoichi in a genjutsu and unintentionally showed him a couple of memories through the genjutsu, not the same as him using his jutsu on me but the results are similar.”

“You’re an Uchiha? Who the hell are you? I’m head of the Uchiha clan and know every Uchiha in Konoha, and I don’t know you?” Fugaku paled, his mind spinning trying to figure out who had fathered a bastard child.

“It’s not what you’re thinking,” Shikaku’s comment was quiet but spoke to his main concern.

“If it’s not what I’m thinking, then what the hell is it?”

“It’s the result of a power hungry goddess and her asshole offspring and five years of a constant battle for survival where the only glimmer of hope we had was in plan hatched from a chance comment and the luck surrounding an unpredictable jinchuriki who had been the pariah of the village.” Sasuke didn’t know how to stop what was coming out of his mouth as his memories overtook him. “We had no hope except the smile on his face and even though we all knew that coming here meant sentencing everyone left behind to die. We knew we had to do it. I know he spent the last hours doing what he could, wasting energy he couldn’t afford to protect those people for a couple of more hours, a couple of more days. He went to talk them, to smile, to give them that little bit of hope. I stayed where I was, that’s not the type of person I am, maybe I was too much of a coward to face them one last time. Maybe I wanted to remember them the way they were, but I’ll be damn if I’m going to fail my mission, the mission he died for because I can’t convince you of who I am.” Sasuke took a deep breathe before forging on. “My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I was born July 23, you are my father and I’ve come from the future to make sure that what we went through doesn’t happen again.” His voice rang with passion.

Fugaku and Shikaku were stunned into silence, during his speech Sasuke had tossed his head, clearing his hair enough to showcase both of his eyes. His left showed the sharingan that held a doubled six pointed star while the right was the purple rinnegan with six black tomoe. The way Inoichi was sitting allowed him to see only the side with the sharingan and Chouza had been behind Sasuke at the time and therefore didn’t see his eyes at all.

“The Mangekyo,” words were whispered as Fugaku reached for his sake and slammed back the drink before pouring another. He wasn’t going to utter the word ‘rinnegan’ aloud and bring down untold curses. The Mangekyo was bad enough. “Who,” he had to swallow around a lump in his throat, “who did you come back with?” He was scared to learn who this version of his son consider his best friend.

“Naruto Uzumaki the last jinchuriki of the nine tails.” Sasuke ran a hand over his face, and when his eyes came into focus again they were the dark chocolate brown indicative of all Uchiha.

“Kushina’s boy?” Fugaku was honestly surprised, Kushina had been on his genin team. When his first genin team had fallen apart, he had been transferred to second, one where they had just lost a member to a career ending injury. Fugaku had been older but Kushina and Senna had welcome him in. Kushina had become a dear friend and the one to encourage him to chase after Mikoto. When Minato had proposed the first stop the couple had made had been to see Fugaku and Mikoto. Minato and Kushina had been the type of people who had welcomed everyone into their lives, making them feel like family. When the pair died during the Kyuubi attack, Fugaku knew that they hadn’t been the only couple who had asked for and been denied custody of Naruto by Hiruzen Sarutobi.

“He went through hell in my time line, we both did. It took me way too long to get my head out of my ass. I tried to killed him too many times just to prove a point. Instead of turning on me the blasted moron just accepted me as I was and helped me be a better person when I wasn’t looking. I. He was my team mate who became my best friend.”

“You’re my son. You’re really my son, from the future.” It boggled his mind, the Uchiha clan head couldn’t explain why he believed the young man but he did. Maybe it was the pain etched into his face. So blatantly obvious, or it could be that looking at his Fugaku saw his brother. The tale he told was so fantastic, that it couldn’t be believed, but the fact that both Shikaku and Inoichi were taking it as fact had him giving it a second thought. Fugaku was planning on cornering Shikaku and Inoichi after this. Chouza was way to soft and as the head of Police there was something deeper at play. He wanted more details; he needed to know what Inoichi had found when he had searched the other guy’s mind. He wasn’t quite ready to agree to giving him free reign in the village, but he couldn’t deny that the man in front of him was an Uchiha, no one else could hold the dojutsu of both the sharingan and the rinnegan. The rinnegan. Damn, that was a dojutsu of legend, what this man had gone through to possess it would have been a trial. His son, what had his son been through?

“The plan was for me to go by Kei Uchiha and possibly be considered Takio’s child.”

Fugaku thought about what he knew of his cousin Takio, “He left almost two decades ago to Uzushiogakure and we haven’t heard back from him. We assumed that he died when the Hidden Eddy Village fell.”

Sasuke nodded, “he did, or shortly before. We were able to get into secret vaults of Uzushio before things really went to shit for us. We found scrolls on sealing but we also found proof that Takio Uchiha, Mei Aburame, and Akaashi Meko had all died with honour and buried with distinction in the royal cemetery. Maki Uzumaki, the last of the royal line of the Uzumaki’s took care to destroy the Uchiha eyes and that they set free the Aburame hive as per traditions told to them by Kushina in a letter. At least that is what is written in the archive. Our plan was we were going to say that Takio had fallen for Maki Uzumaki and had died before letting you as clan head know about his child. Maki had sent me out of the village before it came under attack with a care taker and another child and we hid. They died recently and I came back to the village of my father”

“So what do you need me for?” Fugaku could see that there was the beginnings a a solid plan there and that they really didn’t need him involved at all.

“The plan also called for Naruto and I to be here together. He’s not and I can’t do this alone, he made me promise not to try. Shikaku suggested we bring you in, although I’m not sure what else he has in mind.” Sasuke looked over at the Nara patriarch and waited to see what the man was going to say.

“Troublesome,” Shikaku knew that his relationship with Fugaku was strained from their shared grief over the loss of their friend. As close as Shikaku was to Inoichi and Chouza, his best friend had been Minato. Fugaku and Kushina had been genin team mates but Minato had welcomed the Uchiha into his close circle of friends with open arms. Yoshino, Mikoto and Kushina had formed close bonds being high ranking kunoichi of the same age, when they all became pregnant at the same time it had only brought them all the closer. Kushina had tried to welcome Rei Akimichi, Kyoko Yamanaka, Tsume Inuzaka, Yuna Hyuga and Tohru Abrume but the not all of the clans had welcomed the enthusiastic red head into their lives. Fugaku had tried to encourage the clans to allow their children to play together, Shikaku had gone the other way in his grief and pulled into himself. “Look I know we reacted differently when Minato and Kushina died but I’m doing this because of what I saw when these two arrived and what I know.”

Inoichi took a bracing breath, what he was going to propose a little unusual. He generally didn’t let others see what he witnessed during his mind walk jutsu they just took his word. To let others see what he had been privy too on his mind walk was tiring and often painful, but maybe in this case he should. Maybe he should let not only Shikaku, but Fugaku and Chouza see what he had seen. “I have an idea but I don’t know if it’ll affect you or even if you to take part.”

The four men watched the worry cross Inoichi’s face.

“What do you mean?” Chouza had never seen Inoichi this worried before.

“What I’m proposing is that I let you all see what I was shown. Sasuke, I would include you as well. That way you know what we know.”

“Inoichi, what has you concerned?” While Sasuke wanted to prove himself he didn’t want to cause any undue harm or injury.

“Well I’ve never actively shown someone what I saw during my mind walk, not since my academy days and as Shikaku and Chouza, I’m sure remember, it can be uncomfortable as I can’t stop it mid way. I will be showing you what I was shown.”

Sasuke grimaced, “if that’s the case then I will bow out. It should be easier with three men to show instead of four and when your done, provided no one is feeling too nauseous or off centred I would be willing to use my sharingan to do something similar from my point of view.”

Inoichi moved the group into the living room, “Sasuke. If you don’t want to see it might be best if you left the room.”

“Sure.” Sasuke was still reeling from seeing his father again, left the four men and went to sit on the front porch. He had taken a liking to one particular corner, it kept him in the shadows while allowing him to view the yard. To see trees so green and growing, the Nara deer wandering freely, the sound of birds, watching children play; all of it a visceral reminder that he was back in his own past. Leaning against the outer wall, Sasuke tried to quiet his mind and center himself. If his father was anything like he was, like Itachi and Obito had been, then he would want to talk with Shikaku and Inoichi without the possibility of outside influence. Of course he would then want to talk with him, to check out his sharingan and the rinnegan. He had to be careful what he said. Sasuke prepared himself to wait for as he didn’t expect this to be over quickly.

Chapter Text

“Before we do this, I want more information.” Fugaku stared at Shikaku and waited. “What is going on?”

“It’s pretty much just like I said, Fuga. We had finished our missions and eliminated our target and were on our way back when we were ambushed. During the ambush there was this explosion and two men appeared in the middle of a seal. By appearance alone you knew they were shinobi and had been through hell recently. We were immediately put upon by the Iwa nin and needed to focus on them. Chouza and I took them out as Inoichi was under a genjutsu.”

“Shit.” Fugaku stared at Inoichi. He knew that the blonde was almost immune to all aspects of the sharingan except the more terrifying and invasive means. He had tried at Inoichi’s request in case he had to ever walk the mind of an Uchiha. The Yamanaka wanted to make sure he could get around being showed a genjutsu of the completed job. What they found out was the mind walker could be caught but it ended up being extremely painful for both sides. To get around the pain the Uchiha would most likely need to use higher level techniques, but these wold show in the design of the dojutsu. Seeing Inoichi shrug Fugaku cursed again in frustration. “Shit.“

“The blonde could be Minato’s brother and aside from the Sasuke looking like an Uchiha the sharingan was a dead give away.”

Fugaku tilted his head to look over at Inoichi, “but if Inoichi was put into a genjutsu can we trust his results from his mind walk jutsu?” He wasn’t trying to be offensive but as head of the police force it was his job to ask the tough questions.

Inoichi just smiled and put a hand on Chouza’s arm to calm him. He knew that Fugaku wanted to be sure, “how many times have you tried to influence my mind walk growing up? You know how difficult it is to put me under a genjutsu, it takes damn near everything you’ve got and it’s never a smooth transition. He was damn near dead from starvation and chakra exhaustion, the genjutsu was weak, but I wanted to see what he was going to try. You can learn a lot from an enemy by where they try to send you during a genjutsu. The only thing that happened was Sasuke unintentionally showing me different aspects of his life that corroborated what Naruto showed me.”

Fugaku thought it through and nodded before looking back over at Shikaku to continue.

“The seals gave them away in some ways. Remember the scrolls Kushina had from Mito-sama after the fall of Uzushiogakure? I don’t know if she ever showed them to you, but I saw them. Hell I tried to understand them as Minato was trying to learn fuinjutsu to prefect his flying raijin and Kushina was using the scrolls as way of explaining how some of the more complex seals worked, why certain matrixes worked together while others didn’t.”

Fugaku nodded, he had used the sharingan on the scrolls with the thought that he could copy and use them but with many clan techniques there was something that made it near impossible for him to do more then the basics. Still he had plans to write the scrolls down and pass them on to Naruto when the boy was old enough. The boy needed something from his parents and since the apartment that Minato and Kushina had shared had been destroyed in the Demon Fox’s rampage, if they had taken anything out to the Uzumaki compound, it was lost as the blood seal kept it closed.

“I’ve copied them down as well as the order in which they faded as there might be a key there.” Shikaku pulled out the file he had been working on, the seal recreated with numbers by each of the symbols. Fugaku flipped the page to see the pencil drawing of the blonde that Shikaku had made, “I had been hit by one of the Iwa nin and Naruto called me over after he forced his partner to let Ino out of the genjutsu. They called each other ‘dobe’ and ‘teme’, but the terms had affection in them. His hand never crossed the barrier and it glowed gold as he pulled out the poison. He called us by our first names and mentioned that the scars were older, so I took it to mean that my facial scars were familiar. Naruto asked Inoichi to search his mind, that they were running out of time and made Sasuke promise to continue on with the mission. Inoichi searched his mind and then Naruto opened some of the seals he had on his person leaving behind his possessions before taking down the large seal they were inside of. As the symbols disappeared so did his strength. Chouza and I did what we could but he was hemorrhaging chakra. He faded right in front of our eyes.” At the look on Fugaku face Shikaku expanded, “I mean he literally faded into nothing, no ash, no remains.” Shikaku reached out and traced the page, he let his fingertips drift over the sketch he had made of Naruto, “Sasuke took Naruto’s death hard. Really hard. We brought him back to our secondary campsite for the night and to hear a little more. We brought him into the village in an interrogation scroll and left him here to recover. It would be interesting to have you read the scrolls on fuinjutsu.”

“Alright, Inoichi if you’re still willing I would like to see what you saw.” Fugaku took a deep breath and waited.

Inoichi looked over at his team mates and waited until they nodded before he began.

***

The sound of a thud had Sasuke rushing inside to find Inoichi on the floor.

“Inoichi, hey take it easy.” He eased the blonde back onto a chair before looking over at the other three men. They all looked shaky but conscious. “I’ll be right back, don’t move.” Rushing into the kitchen Sasuke put on the kettle for tea but filled four glasses of water right away. Moving back into the living room he put the tray on the coffee table before helping Inoichi drink, “slowly, just take it slowly. Can I do anything else?”

Inoichi shook his head, both hands cradling the glass of water, “no it turns out that Naruto left more in my mind, Shikaku and Fugaku caught that,”

“And that took a lot more out of you.” Sasuke moved back into the kitchen to make tea and pull out the plate of food that Chouza seemed to always have prepped in his fridge. “Chouza, Shikaku how are you feeling? Fuga..” he wasn’t able to finish asking after his father as Fugaku pulled him into his arms.

Tears were streaming down his face, “how could we have done that to you and Itachi? I’m so proud of what you have done, of who you have become.” The images that Inoichi had shown them shocked him and he knew that he would need to take his time to really sort through each and every image that he had seen. Still there was no question that this was his son. His son from the future. The son that he had failed because of his clan’s pride. He wouldn’t let that happen to either of them this time around. He was sure that Shikaku hadn’t missed some of the cues regarding the Uchiha clan. They would talk later.

“Kei, if you accept that I am who I say I am we might as well get used to calling me Kei Uchiha.” He made sure that his father was sitting again, “Shikaku? Chouza?”

“We’re good Kei,” Chouza made sure that he used the new name. “It’s going to take us a couple of days to get used to what we saw,” looking over at Shikaku and Inoichi he grinned, “although Shikaku likely had a good idea of what we were going to see, and Inoichi will just need time to recover his chakra.”

“We’ll take today to sort through everything and then come back tomorrow to go over the plan that Shikaku has started.” Inoichi’s voice was slower but strong and unwavering.

“Plan for what?” Fugaku wasn’t sure how many other surprises they had.

“There are a number of events that I would like to alter, if I can do that then I can hope to alter if not stop what we went through.” Sasuke, no Kei. He needed to think of himself as Kei Uchiha, because now he had hope of succeeding.

Watching the men leave Kei looked up at the sky and the single cloud that passed across the sun. He smiled, “Shika, Naru, I did it. I’m here and I’m going forward with the mission. I won’t fail. I’ll do everything I can to protect our friends and those we hold dear. I won’t let Zetsu get a foot hold on our people and I’ll do what I can to find Obito and bring him back.”

By quiet agreement Inoichi went with Chouza to sit and relax while Fugaku went with Shikaku.

Chapter Text

Yoshino spied her husband coming through the woods, her heart sped up when she saw who was with him. She debated taking a third teacup over to Shikaku’s study but decided to wait and see just what the men were planning. If Shikaku wanted her involved she would join them, but for now she would let the two men talk.

“Yoshino, we’ll be in my study.” Shikaku walked towards the back of the house, Fugaku followed nodding as he passed.

Shikaku didn’t waste any time, “sit and let me know what you think?” He wanted Fugaku’s take on everything he had heard in the last couple of hours and it had been a lot.

“How did we let it get to this? What else do you know?”

“First do you believe him?” Shikaku wasn’t going to do anything else until he knew that Fugaku had their backs.

Fugaku stood and walked to the open screens looking out to the woods beyond. “I don’t know if you caught it, but there were so many little tells that only someone who had been inside the compound could know. I’m not talking about about someone who had come to visit, but someone who knew our clan inside out, it would have been something that I or Mikoto would have taught both of my sons.”

Shikaku nodded, Inoichi had said the same thing about the things Naruto had shown him, how Naruto had known the hidden secrets of the Yamanaka and Nara clan houses. “And the eyes?”

“Hnn, yeah I guess the eyes are a dead give away.” It struck Fugaku again that Kei would need something stronger then the standard sharingan to pull Inoichi into a genjutsu. The Mangekyo would do it with relative ease, but the Rinnegan would be the dojutsu to fool everyone without them even suspecting a thing. “Aside from Kakashi I’ve never seen anyone who’s been able to handle the chakra drain of a sharingan. Beside if the user isn’t an Uchiha the sharingan doesn’t shut off.”

“Which would be why Hatake had his covered all the time,” Shikaku figured that was the reason but it was nice to have his theories confirmed.

“Yeah and the Rinnegan is a thing of legend dating back to almost the beginning of time. We know it can happen but all we have are the legends. Shikaku, I ask that you keep the rinnegan a secret, even from Inoichi and Chouza for the moment. As for Kei obviously we need to help him.”

“Yeah and he’s not the only one.” The silence stretched for a couple of minutes as they both reflected on the past.

Fugaku stared up at the Hokage mountain, “do you think we can get Sarutobi to loosen his decree on young Naruto?”

“I have an idea of how we may be able to help both Naruto and Kei, but it all depends on how things go in the next little while and what Kei plans to do when the three events he mentioned are taken care of.”

“Three events?”

“Right so let me explain the first event coming up in about five months.” Shikaku went on to explain what he knew about the Hyuga affair as told to him by Kei, and then he gave him the scrolls on fuinjutsu just to see what he thought of them. He remembered that fuinjutsu hadn’t been Fugaku’s strong point at the academy and smirked as he could see the instructions making sense the more he read. Naruto really knew what he was doing when he wrote those out. He couldn’t wait to tell the Uchiha just who it was that wrote those and why.

“Have you had Yoshino look at these?” Fugaku knew what Yoshino’s previous rank had been, his wife had held the same before retiring to have children and stay home.

“Yeah and she was intrigued. She has no idea who wrote them or who we have in the cottage on Akimichi land and I’m not about to tell her yet. Not unless something drastically changes. Neither Rei nor Kyoko know either, although Rei knows there’s a high profile person of interest in the cabin and both clans know to keep clear of it. She’s been helping with meals.”

“Aright that works for me. I take it you have a plan for this thing with the Hyuga’s?” Fugaku unrolled the first scroll and made himself comfortable.

“Yeah and I’ll pose it tomorrow. For now read those two and we’ll talk.” Shikaku wasn’t sure how Fugaku was going to handle it. Dealing with Kei on a regular basis because he knew that the clan head would be involved daily in the new shinobi’s life. How would he handle dealing with both the Shikamaru who was three and one who was close to twenty and hell bent on saving the world.

The next morning had the five men meeting again. Fugaku was floored to find out just what it was they were planning to stop and what they had yet to plan for. Shikaku had told him last night about young Hinata’s future kidnapping but to here just what the impact was. Just what type of hell had these kids been living all their lives?

Shikaku had a pretty well thought out plan that required minimal changes to village security, things that would only make life safer. The biggest issue was introducing Kei to the village.

“The easiest would be for him to approach the village from the outside and request entrance as an Uchiha. You’d have to go in front of the Hokage and the head of T&I, but once you’re cleared you can even join the village instead of being just a visitor.” Shikaku smirked.

Kei looked over at his clan head, “you would be okay agreeing that I was Takio’s child?”

“For this, I think Takio would forgive me.” Fugaku watched his son. No his cousin. “The one that will be hard to fool is Mikoto.” He looked over at Shikaku. “What have you told Yoshino?”

“Just that there is someone we are keeping an eye on at the cottage. I know that she’s ex-ANBU but I don’t want to put her in the line of fire either.” Shikaku knew that if his wife ever heard him talk about her like this, he’d get his ass handed to him. She was more then capable of protecting herself.

Fugaku looked over at Kei, after all he was the one who was going to be denied his mother.

Kei gave a short nod, “if it means that I can stop some of the things that I know are coming then it’s worth it. Sasuke will get her attention, and I will see my ‘cousins’ grow up whole and healthy. However, if we need to re-evaluate who gets told what, well we can talk about it. I just don’t want to any of us letting someone know on the fly. I’m not infallible.” He watched the way Shikaku looked at Fugaku and then at his team mates. “Also, I’d like to see about adopting Naruto. Not right now obviously, but soon. I know that you both may have a closer relationship with this Naruto, but I owe him. I owe him a lot.”

“Kei, I know you likely don’t want to bring this up just yet, but you had mentioned a couple of events that you wanted stopped. I don’t think that they are things we can work on one at a time. I have a plan for dealing with the possible Hyuga kidnapping. I’m not saying it’s infallible but it’s definitely something solid.” Shikaku knew just what position Hizashi held in village, even though he was part of the branch family Hizashi was one of the best ANBU operatives in the Leaf and while some ANBU like Kakashi were known on purpose others welcomed the anonymity. In the Hyuga clan only Hiashi knew of his brother’s involvement, as for anyone else in the village the Hokage, himself and the ANBU commander were the only ones who knew the names of the ANBU operatives.

Kei could see how Shikaku was struggling not to mention the potential Uchiha coup, that he wanted Kei to be the one to bring it up, “alright,” turning to the Uchiha clan head, he knew he needed to give a little background information and not assume that the four men had talked about this. “When we first tossed around the idea of time travel everyone still alive wrote out what they could remember about their villages history, clans, personal life and major events, even minor things. Things they thought lead up to the war and what should be changed. We needed details. We also wanted a list of people we could trust with this information. One our war commanders, Ba... he was the one who insisted on included the small moments in our personal lives. He liked to say that it is often the small moments that make the biggest changes in history.” He tried to keep names out of current conversations at least for now as he sat reminiscing about the conversations with men long gone. He didn’t know what the Leaf’s relationship with the Sand was or what role Baki had in the Sand but he didn’t want to jeopardize anything. Before they left Baki had been a pillar of strength for Naruto, he prayed he had the chance to make sure that the man could do the same for Gaara. “Like you saw in Inoichi’s mind walk of Naruto’s memories, after our defeat of Madara Uchiha we had a chance to breathe. A chance to heal and recover if only slightly. Then came Kaguya’s bastard of a son and it was all out guerrilla warfare where clan or village didn’t matter, survival did. That’s when the idea of time travel was tossed around. It was a joke at first. Something tossed about as our friends lay dying, what would we change if we could. But then Naruto started playing with the seals and Shika started planning and everyone gave us a list of things to think about and alter. Yes, we were aiming for Konoha but that was because we were the ones going and we knew it best. Running into the Ino-Shika-Cho was really the best outcome given the time we landed in. So the Hyuga kidnapping, if we can stop it all the better, we could really use Hizashi’s strength. Plus his death lead to some really bad feeling within the clan and the village. The second item I brought up was the Uchiha coup.” He was watching his father closely and saw the small tick, “the coup isn’t completely misplaced, but listening to the darkness whispering ill intent can only lead to our down fall. Yes, some of this has been brewing since Lord Second, however, we can over come it if we are willing to let go some of our pride.”

Inoichi held his breathe, one simple didn’t tell a Uchiha to let go of their pride not unless you wanted to spend the next lifetime in a genjutsu thinking you were a rock. He could see Fugaku tense and then Kei spoke again.

“In my time we found out that Minato knew the Uchiha were unhappy and was working towards a plan to bring them back into the fold of the village, a damn good plan, and then he and Kushina were killed. Lord Third, when he came back into power listened to those same whispers from the darkness, and no that’s not a dig at the Naras. Before you ask, we believe that Sarutobi had an idea of what Minato had planned, but it wouldn’t have worked with him. It needed Minato’s personality and charisma to pull it off.”

“Who is it?” Shikaku wanted to know the man’s name, “who is working both sides? Because that is what you’re insinuating isn’t it?” He was hoping that learning who was behind the whispers would take Fugaku’s mind off of the way Kei was telling him to let go of his pride.

“Danzo Shimura.” The Warhawk, one of Lord Third’s best friends, the man was known to all of them, “he set things up so Itachi and one other slaughtered the entire clan except me as per Itachi’s demands. Danzo stole numerous sharingan and kept ROOT going, undermining everything Minato had worked for. He kept kidnapping or abducting children both civilian and clan, anyone he could get away with, and he got away with a lot. He had even tried to have Sarutobi assassinated numerous times and all he received was a slap to the wrist.”

“How did it end?” Chouza didn’t remember seeing how Danzo had met his end in Inoichi’s memories.

“It ended with me betraying the village, going rogue and killing the man myself as well as trying to kill Naruto and many of the other Kages.” Kei wasn’t going to hold back, he needed to make sure that Fugaku understood the full ramifications of what was being planned. The coup wasn’t going to get the results they wanted, there was another way, but it required patience, asking for help from the other clans and these men here were the key to that. “That’s something I don’t want to repeat. I’m not sure if Danzo had a hand in Hyuga kidnapping, there was no one left to tell us. The remaining Iwa shinobi were too young or just foot soliders and so would have no knowledge of any decisions their Kage made at the time. The former ROOT members who were left hadn’t been part of that operation.”

“So you fear that Danzo is up to no good here as well?” Chouza didn’t know what ROOT was but he didn’t like the sound of it, and if the look on his team mate’s faces were anything to go by it was bad news all around.

Kei realized that he had the head of T&I, the Jonin Commander and the head of the Police Force in the room with him. “I don’t know what type of evidence we can get on him this time around. I’m sure that ROOT is still up and going. Tenzo would be one to talk to. We knew that Danzo had been taking orphans and even had some clan children in his program, either ones he had kidnapped, forced or tricked. If we can get the Uchiha clan to forgo the coup and remain loyal to the Leaf that will put a kink in his plans.”

“Let’s focus on your back story for entry into the village. I’m sure that as the Head of the Uchiha Clan and the Police Force you’re going to want to keep a close eye on the newest member of the village?” Shikaku sent a look over at Fugaku, who nodded.

“How do you plan on getting me out of the village?” Kei hoped it wasn’t in an interrogation scroll but chances were that was exactly what was going to happen.

“Interrogation scroll,” Shikaku was apologetic as he suggested the method.

“I have a training patrol early next week with some regular jonin. If you can be outside before then, my team can be the one to to find you. It might be more believable to you approach other Uchiha or for us to find you and question you outside of the village and bring you in.”

“That actual works.” Chouza smiled, “how will we get him out?”

“I have an unorthodox idea.” Shikaku stroked his goatee, “we can let one of the deer take the scroll out, we can put a timer on it and have it open outside the gates, you can store the scroll inside one of your seals.”

“Yeah alright,” Kei was tired. He’d done more talking today then he had in a while and it was wearying especially since he was still recovering.

Inoichi and Chouza stood ready to leave. Fugaku looked like he wanted to stay and talk but Inoichi put a hand on his shoulder.

“Rest,” Shikaku stood, signally that they were finished. “We’ll be in contact.”

Chapter Text

The men followed Shikaku back his house.

“I was hoping to talk to Kei some more,” Fugaku wanted to know why Shikaku rushed him out of there.

“He’s still exhausted.” Inoichi was worried about the man’s mental health. “Talking about his past tears him up. Every time. You can tell just by looking at him.”

“It’s not that I want to keep you from talking to him,” Shikaku figured he’d better make himself clear to avoid a misunderstanding with Fugaku. “I want to make sure that he’s strong enough to handle it. He was literally suffering form starvation and chakra exhaustion only a few weeks ago, that’s not something you recover from over night.”

The Uchiha head just nodded. Worried about the health of his son, cousin, and glad that the Ino-Shika-Cho trio was taking his health and well being to seriously.

****

His second trip in an interrogation scroll was just as nerve racking as the first. He kept waiting for them to betray him. Having a buck stand over him as he was released from suspended animation was something else. “Alright big guy lets pack this up and set up a travel camp.” He rested his hand on the buck’s neck.

The emotional upheaval of the last week was catching up to him. He was so tired and even though his chakra was almost back to normal, he still felt like he’d been put through the ringer. Walking away from the village, felt hard. Harder than it was the first time when he’d been full of self righteous anger. He’d been so sure of himself, hell bent on killing Itachi to get his revenge for the death of his clan. Man, he had been so full of himself. Kakashi had done his best to guide him. How the hell Naruto had not only stood by him but kept believing in him all those years, he would never know.

Kei forced himself to move further on, he didn’t want to be caught too close to the border or the gates. Looking around he decided to climb a tree and rest there. He didn’t like sleeping on the ground when he was alone. He did eat, rations from his bag. He wasn’t going to undo all the hard work that Chouza had done to ensure that he was healthy, well healthier then he had been when he arrived. Shikaku had said that Fugaku was leaving the day after the buck took him out. Kei estimated that it would take maybe four days before Fugaku found him. He had told Shikaku that the longer his was out in the woods the more believable their story. Kei leaned against the trunk and went over his cover story one more time. He could only be thankful that there was no one in this time line who knew him as well as those from his own. Of course he was still acting unlike any Uchiha he knew, overly emotional and talkative, but he had made a promise to Naruto that he would finish the mission. Maybe he was channeling Naruto’s spirit.

The days and nights passed pleasantly, he was comfortable with his own company. He made sure that he didn’t stay in the same tree but moved from time to time. He could very easily stay out in the forest and pass the rest of his day if wasn’t for Haru and his promise.

“Hey, would you mind coming down?”

Kei looked towards the ground. There were four men around the tree, they didn’t have their weapons out but their stance was on guard. Jumping down he kept his hands at his sides. The only weapon he had visible was his katana and he kept that sheathed on his back. “Not going to cause and problem here. I’m just camping out until I can make it to Konoha. It’s been a long journey.”

“What business do you have in Konoha?” The man asking was dressed as a shinobi but had a Konoha police badge on his vest.

“I’m looking for possible family connection.”

The men all shared a look, “we’re heading back now, why don’t you join us?”

Kei looked at the shinobi who had become spokesperson for the group. “Sure, I’ll follow you to the main gates.”

The group took off towards the main gates at walking speed. The group’s spokesman traveling beside Kei while the other three were in a triangular formation behind them.

“You’re tense, don’t worry they’re just making sure that there’s nothing else amiss out here.”

“That’s fine, as long as they don’t suddenly decide there’s something amiss with me.” Kei forced himself not to look back.

“Can I ask your name and where you’re from?”

“Kei, and I’ve been traveling for quite a while now.” Kei didn’t want to volunteer everything to the first shinobi who asked, he figured that if he was a little suspicious that would be alright. He’d make sure to tell the Hokage, but he was different.

“Fair enough, Kei. I’m Tatsuya one of Konoha’s police force, and these are my comrades.” The officer indicated the men behind them, “we’re on patrol for the village.”

The gates appeared and Kei could have cried, it was the first time he’d seen them since they fell to the Kaguya’s attack during the fourth war. When he’d been a genin it had been the same two Chunin manning the gates day in and day out. He remembered Naruto asking them if they were being punished or something since they never seemed to go on mission, but both had just laughed. Kakashi had told the team that Kotetsu and Izumo, that had been their names, were well trusted by the Hokage to watch the gates that they’d understand when they were older. Kei didn’t know who the men were that were on gate duty now but he wouldn’t make the mistake that they were nobodies.

He nodded respectfully, “good day, I’d like to see about gaining admission to the village.” He ignored the four men around him.

“Uh, sure.” The gate guard looked towards the team who brought the stranger in.

“We just found him outside the village boundaries and offered to escort him to the gates, nothing nefarious. See you later Kei.”

“Thank you Tatsuya, and team.” Kei nodded to the men who had brought him home, again before they continued on their patrol.

Kei turned back to the gate guards and filled in the required paperwork. He knew that the last name he put down would cause a ruckus but that was part of Shikaku’s plan. The gate guards were either really good or hadn’t read it as they didn’t blink at it. “You’re free to wander the market and main streets, someone will come and find you when the Hokage has time to meet with you about you admission.” Kei was handed a small map that included a highlighted areas of where he could go to eat or rent a room for the night. “We ask that you keep your weapon sheathed and not engage in any violence.”

Kei nodded, he’d keep his head down. Walking into the village he moved slowly, trying to not let his emotions take over. This was a village he was mostly familiar with, the village of his childhood. Sitting on a bench, he watched the people walk by, this is what he was here for. He watched as children ran by uncaring of a stranger in their midst. Sure there were shinobi around and he could feel ANBU in the area but he still had the potential for causing a lot of harm before they could stop him. Naruto was right, he needed to protect this innocence.

The rush of air at his side announced the arrival of a masked ANBU. “If you would come with me.”

Kei stood and followed man as the walked to the Hokage tower. Inside the building he followed an ANBU up the stairs and to the Hokage’s office.

“Good day,” Hiruzen Sarutobi still looked old, but he didn’t look as tired as Kei remembered.

Kei walked forward but stayed a fair step back from the man’s desk. “Lord Hokage.” He bowed.

“I’m told that you are looking for admission to the village, can I ask why Konoha?” The old man picked up his pipe from the desk and waited to hear Kei’s tale.

Kei started with information provided by both Shikaku and Naruto, using points that both men knew would help his case. He waited until it seemed like the old man was willing to admit him, before hitting him with the cover story Shikaku had helped him come up with.

Kei didn’t like telling a sob story, but Naruto knew how to work the old man and he was the one who had made sure that Sasuke had all the information. “I always knew where my father was from, we choose to stay in my mother’s village as she was needed there. My father was killed in aiding the defense of our village, just before it was destroyed. I was taken out of the village by a distant cousin of my mother’s along with another child, because of our heritage. We stayed away from many of the larger villages because our care taker was afraid of repercussions of who we were. We were being hunted. Haru, did his best to continue our training and ensure that we could protect ourselves. When I developed a kekkei genkai we did some research to figure out what I could do with it without putting us at risk. I only came here after the death of Haru and Yuki.” Haru wasn’t the name of the care taker he and Shikaku had originally agreed upon, but he figured if he used Haru, the name Naruto was going to use then that would be an easy way of talking about his friend without worrying too much about who would over hear. He could reminisce about his deceased caretaker and no one would think it strange as opposed to him talking about a name that no one knew.

“Kekkei genkai?” The story wasn’t anything completely unusual but if the man in front of him did have a clan kekkei genkai then there might be ground for letting him in the village, “which village did your mother call home? Do you know your parent’s names?”

“I was born in Uzushiogakure. My mother was Maki Uzumaki and my father was Takio Uchiha. There was just Haru, Yuki and I.” Kei could see the pain cross the face of Sarutobi at the fall of Konoha’s sister village, then shock at his parents’s names. Maki Uzumaki was the youngest of the Uzumaki royal line and a close relative of Kushina Uzumaki. Takio Uchiha would have been reported as missing with the fall of Uzushio as Fugaku would have requested information on a missing clan member. “Yuki was a sickly child who died after a long battle with her illness a couple of years ago. Haru was an elderly Uzumaki shinobi who died only six month ago in an attack against bandits.”

There was a slight flare of chakra from the corner and Sarutobi, who nodded. Two ANBU made themselves visible and stood beside the Hokage’s desk. “Can you show us the kekkei genkai?”

Kei looked over at the ANBU. He was glad that the Uchiha that were present weren’t ones he remembered from his childhood.

“It’s alright, they’re just going to verify that it’s the same kekkei genkai.” Sarutobi knew the ANBU would make sure that if Kei did have the sharingan that he didn’t use it against him. It was the reason the second Uchiha ANBU stayed in the shadows, just in case.

Kei nodded looked between the two men. Activating the sharingan wasn’t difficult, casting the genjutsu to make the men believe that it was in both eyes without alarming the other ANBU was the real challenge. The next five minutes were going to be telling.

Sarutobi leaned back in his chair. “That is most interesting. Raven can you call Fugaku in, this is going to be something that he’s going to want to know.” The ANBU nodded and disappeared. He knew that originally Fugaku was slated to go along on the patrols outside on the village as a way to gauge how the Police and village shinobi were cooperating but something changed and he had stayed behind. “Mouse if you would ask Inoichi and Shikaku to join us please.”

Chapter Text

Fugaku had been waiting for the call. He had talked to Shikaku yesterday and changed his plans. Since they weren’t sure which team was going to find Kei, he didn’t want to leave the man sitting in the Hokage’s office for most of the day while someone came out to find him. It was a much better use of his time to be in his office dealing with the budget, his overdue paperwork, and plans to get the clan to abandon their thoughts of revolt. Unfortunately he’d only been able to reduce the amount of paperwork sitting on his desk as the budget still refused to magically expand to afford everything and he had no real idea how to get the elder to stop their madness. The appearance of an ANBU in his office would have been surprising if he hadn’t been expecting it.

“Raven?”

“I apologize Fugaku-sama but someone has arrived in the village with the sharingan. He claims to be Takio’s son. The Hokage would like to have you present in his office.” Raven was nervous, Takio was his uncle and had disappeared years ago.

“Let’s go.” Fugaku followed Raven to the Hokage tower.

“My lord?” The room had more then just Kei and couple of ANBU present. Inoichi and Shikaku were there as well. Mouse and Raven took up positions on either side of the Hokage’s office.

“Fugaku Uchiha, this is Kei, he is seeking admission into the village. It appears that he was born in Uzushio to Maki Uzumaki and Takio Uchiha. He has shown both Raven and I his sharingan.” Sarutobi knew that it was a bit of a risk letting these three men know of Kei’s parentage, but he was also aware that Fugaku would outright ask, Inoichi would likely see it in his mind walk, and Shikaku would either figure it out on his own or Inoichi would share it.

“Takio did travel to Uzushio and we haven’t heard from him since. I filed a report listing him as missing when he didn’t return after he missed his last check in date. We assumed that he perished when the village fell. We knew nothing of a marriage or of a child.” Fugaku kept his gaze on Kei, “Hokage I assume since Inoichi is here that you were going to ask for a mind walk?”

The next twenty minutes had Inoichi inside Kei’s mind, that wasn’t something they could fake. Inoichi was careful where to tread. When he came out he kept his head down and sat beside Shikaku like he normally would after reading someone. Raven took Kei down the hall for tea as being read often left one feeling out of sorts. The Uchiha ANBU would be able to hold his own if there was a problem, at least that was the idea. It gave the rest of the room a chance to talk about what Inoichi saw.

“He’s really an Uchiha. His memories of Uzushio are fractured as they would be if he left when he was a child. He’s had some really good training on taijutsu, ninjutsu, and kenjutsu and should be a capable shinobi. There’s memories of how he gained his sharingan, he’s had it for a couple of years and has taught himself how to use it, but could likely use some guidance. I sense no deception in him, but a determination to do better and protect those he couldn’t before. There’s something else,” Inoichi sat back and looked at the room. “He has seals inked on his body. There are some behind his ear to protect his eyes. If he did them it might be something to talk to him about for the other Uchiha’s and for the Hyuga as opposed to the cursed seal. They are very interesting.”

“Fuinjutsu? That would be something as the only person in the village who is adept at it is Master Jiraya.” Shikaku was shocked, this wasn’t something they had talked about, but was likely something that Inoichi saw, or Kei had shared that they thought would work in their favour especially with the other part of the plan they were aiming for, “it also calls into fact that he is Naruto’s last relation. Maki Uzumaki was Kushina older cousin, their mothers were twins.”

No one questioned Shikaku’s memory, and with as close as Shikaku and Minato were there were bound to be little facts that he knew that others didn’t.

Fugaku nodded, “I remember Kushina worrying about carrying twins when she was pregnant since they ran in her family.”

“So Kei carries Uzumaki and Uchiha blood, are you suggesting that he adopt and care for Naruto?” Sarutobi wasn’t sure that he wanted the jinchuriki raised by an unknown shinobi. He did need a better solution for Naruto, he wasn’t happy with how the council had forced him to abandon Minato’s child. Sarutobi understood the way they didn’t want any one clan to raise the jinchuriki as to would too tempting to see the child as a tool and use him as such. In the end he was denied everything and left on his own.

“Not right away. Right now we need to make sure of his loyalty to the village” Shikaku knew that Sarutobi hadn’t expected this to be the outcome of an admissions request. “The idea of Naruto having family can wait for the moment.”

Sarutobi didn’t want to try and figure out what to do with a foreign shinobi who had a clan technique, let alone what the man would do if he requested guardianship of their jinchuriki and access to clan lands. “The name he put on his application was Kei Uzumaki-Uchiha. Inko sent along all copies of his application form just in case he was a fraud and we wanted to avoid a backlash.”

“Are you suggesting that he hide one of his family names? Use only one?” Inoichi wasn’t sure exactly what Shikaku and Kei were trying to do except reinforce a connection between Kei and Naruto for later on.

“Having a living Uzumaki in the village may put a target on his back.” At Shikaku’s raised eyebrow, Sarutobi corrected himself, “having a living capable Uzumaki shinobi in the village may put a target on his back. He might be better off as an Uchiha.” Smoking his pipe he gave it a bit of thought, before coming up with the idea to pass it off to the Uchiha. “Fugaku can we rely on the Uchiha clan to house and look after Kei for now? We’ll give him the standard probation period to get used to the village before we start giving him missions. I don’t want him followed that closely per say but if you could keep a weathered eye on him I would appreciate it. I’ll leave it to your discretion as to when you feel he’s safe to interact with the general population of the village.” It wasn’t mentioned that anyone who asked to be part of the village was watched not only by the other village shinobi but also by ANBU for any shady business the new shinobi might try.

“Of course Lord Hokage. I will need to talk to Mikoto to see if she would be okay housing the man in our home, otherwise, I’m sure that Junpei would be able to house him for a while.” Fugaku was hoping that Junpei would agree to housing Kei, he didn’t want to put the time traveler under more stress then necessary. He would still be close enough to over see his younger self grow.

“If we are going to suggest that he hide part of his heritage, you might want to explain the reasons to him, Lord Hokage.” Shikaku didn’t want Sarutobi to ignore Naruto forever, “and to give him a time line as to when he can acknowledge his clan. If he is in fact the last of the Uzumaki line, he is Kushina’s heir and legal clan head; not to mention that would also make him the Diamyo of the Land of Eddies which still exists as long as there is an Uzumaki of legal age left alive.”

Hiruzen puffed harder on his pipe. Leave it to Shikaku to bring up clan politics and a hornets nest others didn’t want to tackle. Looking across his office, his eyes rested on the image of Minato. The bright young man who had taken over the office from him, and had started so many wonderful things before his life was cut tragically short. Was this new young man a distant cousin of his late wife? A cousin of their orphaned child? Would Kei be a good caretaker for the energetic blonde?

“We would need to prove his heritage to the council. Since he doesn’t have the trademark Uzumaki red hair, or paperwork. We’d need to find some other means to satisfy everyone beyond a shadow of a doubt. Regardless, this isn’t something that we will tackle right away. I will talk to him about his surname.”

Kei expressed his preference for not using a surname at all, but did finally agree to use the Uchiha name when he had to. He explained that he generally didn’t offer either name in order to keep their little family safe. Kei did ask for the reasons behind it and a time line, but ultimately agreed. The idea of being kept away form Kushina’s legacy for the time being was also met with understanding. Kei would have a guard in one form or another for the next couple of months with weekly updates as to his activity. It made sense and he was glad to see that two of his guards were Fugaku and Shikaku, while the others were likely the Uchiha he was staying with and at least one ANBU.

****

“Thank you for taking me in,” Kei bowed at the tall Uchiha and hoped that Fugaku wasn’t wanting this man read into his history as well. He hadn’t had a chance to check with any either Shikaku or Fugaku as to who knew what and it looked like it was going to be a little longer before they could talk.

“Junpei Uchiha, you might as well call me Junpei otherwise this will get really confusing.” He lead the way to the kitchen for both his new room mate and his boss.

Kei figured that Junpei was in his late twenties, he had the typical dark colouring of the Uchiha. His hair was short on the side and shaggy on the top, it reminded him of his cousin Shisui. “Thank you, I’m Kei.”

Junpei lead the way to the kitchen. “Just so you are aware, Fugaku, explained your back ground.”

Kei felt his jaw drop as his eyes sought out the clan head’s. Surely the man hadn’t let out the entire story without telling them first.

“I know that hiding part of your heritage can be stressful,” Fugaku shook his head and figured he’d better explain before Kei skewered him.

“It’s nothing new. Uzumaki’s have been hunted ever since the fall of Uzushio so we just never used last names.” Kei breathed a sigh of relief. Hiding his non-existent Uzumaki heritage was easier then having yet another person know he was from the future. There were already too many people who knew for his peace of mind.

Junpei set the sake bottle on the table. “Are you staying sir?”

“No, I just wanted to make sure that Kei settled in and that you were okay with things. I know that the Hokage asked this, but you still have a say.”

Junpei knew that this was one reason why he would follow Fugaku. His clan leader might be stern, but he cared for each of his clan member. “I’m sure that Kei and I will get along fine.”

“Alright, there is also Boar and Shikaku who will come and help guide Kei around the village,” Fugaku turned his attention from his subordinate to Kei, “but for the next couple of days I’m going to ask that you stay on the Uchiha clan grounds if you’re going to walk around without an escort. As for training, we have a training ground here within the clan compound that you’ll be able to use starting tomorrow afternoon. Shikaku has volunteered one of the training grounds at the Nara clan lands as well. Junpei you have the rest of the week off.”

“I have a small yard, I meditate and practice my katas out there. You’re welcome to use it.” Junpei didn’t know what it was about the newest shinobi but he liked the guy.

Kei bowed his head, “thank you.”

Fugaku left soon after and two men took the rest of the day to get used to one another and for Junpei to show his new house mate around.

Chapter Text

Junpei wasn’t sure what to really think about Kei Uzumaki-Uchiha. On the one hand he was the typical Uchiha. Self-contained and a perfectionist in his kenjutsu katas even using the wooden practice sword. Completely opposite to that was this streak of unpredictability that appeared in his taijutsu katas. That had to be from his Uzumaki side because it sure wasn’t the Uchiha clan taijutsu that he was using. Junpei watched on with interest. The forms Kei seemed to use varied between Uchiha and Uzumaki styles, but it seemed like his house guest could use various other styles as well. Watching him meditate was something else completely. Junpei could almost see the way Kei’s chakra cycled through his body it was almost like the man was at war with himself. Using his own sharingan would be useless and Junpei was tempted to call in one of his Hyuga contacts, but he didn’t want to piss off his house guest or his boss. So he watched and was amazed at how both in tune and at odds Kei seemed with himself.

“Well he definitely is an Uchiha,” Junpei mumbled, he had been leaning against his porch as he analyzed every move the man made to see if he could incorporate some of them into his own training.

What worried him most was how weak Kei appear. Watching as closely as he did he could see how Kei could barley finish one set of katas without needing a rest. There were a couple of reasons why that would be the case and all of them implied a painful history. There was no way that Junpei could find out without straight out asking and he just wasn’t sure if he wanted to offend his new house mate by asking, so for the time being he could only make assumptions.

It was obvious the man hadn’t always been weakened. His movements suggested someone who was a skilled shinobi, someone well acquainted with battle. Remembering what he knew of Kei’s back ground, Junpei realized he was watching an elite shinobi train. Kei had to be one of the elite, having the Uzumaki and Uchiha name and being alone otherwise he’d be dead. He leaned against the porch and watched, memorized, enamoured with the way Kei moved. Even when it was obvious he was not at top form, Kei moved with a fluid grace that Junpei didn’t want to ever be pitted against in a fight for his life.

As the days passed, Junpei could tell the man was getting healthier. When Kei first became his roommate he’d do one set of forms, rest for twenty minutes before going through his second sets. Now two weeks later he could work through three sets before needing a break. Junpei was also impressed with the way the man worked with the other clan heads, he almost took notes to hand out to his co-workers. Both Inoichi Yamanaka and Shikaku Nara had been over multiple times and it was the most relaxed he had seen his new room mate. Kei welcomed the two with a smile on his face. They often sat outside, Shikaku would bring his shoji board and Inoichi would just talk for hours. Junpei could only watch in awe at the ease Kei interacted with the clan heads.

****

Kei had to meet with the Uchiha clan elders seeing as how he hadn’t grown up in the village. To be honest, Kei had no memories of the clan elders. He had nothing to with them when he had been a child. All he remembered was the disquiet around the kitchen table whenever his father had to deal with them. Now it was partly up to him to change their opinions, or at least the start of change.

Fugaku and Mikoto arrived at Junpei’s home to meet the pair before the clan meeting.

“Kei, this is my wife, Mikoto.” Fugaku introduced his wife for the first time to Kei. It had been one hell of a couple of days, telling his wife everything he could about Kei, using the cover story that Shikaku and Kei had come up with.

Kei bowed, “thank you for allowing me on to clan land, Uchiha-sama.”

“Please call me Mikoto. My husband has told me that you are Takio’s son. I’m glad that you have made it back to the clan. I hope that Junpei has been making you welcome?”

“Thank you.” Kei smiled, she was more beautiful then he remembered. “Junpei has been a most patient host.”

The foursome walked to the main clan hall, Junpei explaining the protocols that went with a clan meeting. The room had a large rectangular table sitting in the middle with twelve people aside from the four of them sitting side by side. A large mural of the Uchiha fan on one wall and a set of bamboo screens on another. Kei knew that the decorative urns that graced the third side hide the entrance to the underground bunker where the Uchiha stone had been hidden. It was that stone that he needed to destroy, especially since both Madara and Zetsu had altered the message. He wasn’t sure who knew of it’s existence, but he would talk with Fugaku soon about destroy the thing for good instead of letting it twist this and future generations.

Sitting around the table, with the clan symbol at his back, Kei wasn’t sure what was going to happen next. He was sure that if he wasn’t here they would be talking about the coup, instead he was first up.

“I’m sure that most of you are aware of the new shinobi that arrived in our village last week. This is Kei Uchiha. He says that his father is Takio Uchiha and I have no cause to doubt him.” Fugaku stood with Mikoto on his right while Kei was on his left and Junpei on Kei’s left.

“What proof was given that he’s an Uchiha?” An elder asked.

“He has given a blood sample which matches to Takio Uchiha and his chakra pathways show the same fluctuations that other Uchiha’s do. He also has the sharingan and showed it to no less then three Uchihas.” Fugaku wanted to make sure that Kei had the clan’s support without giving too much away, but he wasn’t going to volunteer too much.

“We were told that Takio was last seen in Uzushio?” The elder who asked was Akio, Takio’s younger brother and aside from Akio’s son Yori, he was the last direct remaining family member. When Takio failed to return home after the fall of Uzushiogakure, Akio had asked Fugaku to list him as missing. The clan head had assured him that he would and the Takio would not be seen as an Uchiha who had forsaken their village or their clan.

Fugaku looked at Kei to answer.

Kei stepped forward and addressed the elders, but took the time to look at Akio. “Uzushiogakure was where Takio Uchiha died as an honourable shinobi protecting the Uzumaki royal line to the last. According to Haru Uzumaki, who helped raise me, they made sure to destroy his eyes. We were able to bury him properly among the Uzumaki royal line even though the village was under attack.” The elders looked both saddened to hear about the death of a family member and glad to hear that everything had been done to protect the clan’s kekkei genkai. “They did the same for his team mates. The Aburame hive was released into the woods near the cemetery before his burial. My mother died soon after and was laid to rest beside my father. We left the village before it fell completely so I am unaware of what happened afterwards.” Kei looked over at Fugaku.

Fugaku nodded. The information the pair had about the death of Takio Uchiha and Mei Aburame was recorded fact. That information had been written down and left in Uzushio for the next generation to find. It had just taken someone of Uzumaki blood to know where to look, and no one had a reason to look in years. Regardless each clan worried about their kekkei genkai and he would make sure to put the Aburame’s mind at ease.

Kei spoke up before Fugaku could, “I’d like to talk to the Aburame clan. To set their mind at ease about their missing clansman. The same with the family of the third member of my father’s team. It’s only right.”

“I’ll make sure that it happens,” Fugaku couldn’t say that he was surprised. After seeing their memories it was definitively something that either man would do. The fact that these acts would only serve to make the Uchiha think about their connection to the village, hopefully it wasn’t too little too late. “As a clan with an unique kekkei genkai we need to stand together.”

The comment shocked a few of the elders, but couple of the others nodded commenting to themselves that they would appreciate the same consideration.

“Do we know who his mother is?” One of the elders asked Fugaku instead of Kei. She wanted the conversation back on this strange Uchiha to find a way to control him and thus control the coup she wanted to happen.

“We do,” Fugaku wasn’t going to give anymore information then necessary right now.

“Well?” The woman who asked was the Uchiha matchmaker. She liked to have all information possible about every member of the clan. She wasn’t as brash or as impatient as some of the other elders, but she did demand respect. Her sister had been the one to ask after his mother first.

Fugaku looked a Kei and gave a small nod, Kei sighed but met the woman’s eyes as he gave her his answer. He had good memories of the elderly woman as someone who always had a sweet in her pocket for any of the kids who interacted with her. “My mother was Maki Uzumaki, the youngest of the Royal line. I remember my caretaker telling me that my mother’s favorite cousin had come to the Leaf.”

“Do you know their name?” Again it was the same woman who had demanded to know who his mother was.

“I do, although I was told to keep their name secret to protect them. I have since learned that their legacy is still in the village and I will protect it as an Uzumaki is sworn to do.”

The matchmaker looked him up and down before addressing Fugaku again, “does the Hokage know?”

“Yes, and he has no problem with Kei’s priorities as they mesh with ours.” The conversation flowed around them. Having the Uzumaki bloodline mixed with Uchiha was something that many clans had feared as it had been rumours down that it was an Uchiha that had released and controlled the Kyuubi, causing the death of Minato Namikaze and his wife. It was one of the many bones of contention within the Uchiha clan. They felt they were being blamed unfairly for the release of the demon fox.

“An Uzumaki?!” The screech was from the first elder that Fugaku had ignored.

“Hmm, this has potential. I will need to think on it and talk to you young man before I make any decisions.” The matchmaker nodded as if she had come to some internal agreement closing her eyes and shutting out the rest of the council.

Kei let a smile ghost over his face, he was going to enjoy talking to this woman again.

“Why wait until now to come to the Leaf?”

Kei knew that they wouldn’t ask him to present his sharingan and he didn’t take offense to them wanting further proof as to why he approached them, but he did make note of who it was that questioned the clan head. Chances were they were the ones that were pushing their own agenda for the coup against the village. He told them a shorten version of the tale he told the Hokage, that he was alone now and in search of family connections.

“Kei approached the village and was found by Tatsuya Uchiha and his team when they were on patrol around the village. He was brought before the Hokage and allowed Inoichi Yamanaka to walk his mind. Both Raven and Ferret were present and Kei did not attempt to use his eyes to fool the Hokage or Inoichi.”

The elders nodded. Kei was asked about what he wanted from the clan.

“Honestly,” Kei didn’t want to push too far but he wanted to get things started. “I enjoy the visits with both Yamanaka-sama and Nara-sama. I would like the opportunity to train with my weapons but I understand that I will need training partners for that. I would like to walk through the village and see more of it and the other clans that make Konoha stronger together.”

At the mention of the other clans many of the elders looked slightly confused so Kei continued. “Nara-sama was assigned one of my guides during my probation, and Yamanaka-sama has been assessing my skill level and knowledgeable fuinjutsu. They have both asked me to join them for some training but as I haven’t left the compound yet I haven’t been able to join them. We have been able to talk about the village and it’s history. I have told them what I know about fuinjutsu although I was a poor student.”

“Fuinjutsu?”

“Yes, I’m told that my parents were worried about the potential theft of my eyes since I was a child and used a seal my mother created to protect them. Haru had always been my main caretaker and was a sealing master and he knew the seals my parents had been talking about. He decided to wait until I was older and gave me the choice if I wanted them. I’ve had them for the last decade without any issues.” Kei hadn’t even told Fugaku about all the seal could do, he wasn’t even sure if he had mentioned them although he was pretty confident they had come up when Inoichi had let the group see what Haru had shown the man and almost felt bad springing it upon the clan head. “The seal I have doesn’t stop the use of my eyes or the sharingan from evolving, but it does make sure that unless I release the seal the eyes will implode if they are removed.” He had released the seal on his eyes for the trip through time and space and now that his chakra levels were back up he was able to finally hide the rinnegan from others.

He could tell that he had pretty much blown their minds with that idea.

Mikoto was the one to ask the question on everyone’s mind, “do you know how to recreate the seal? Can you put in on people who have not yet awakened the sharingan?”

Kei smiled, it was one of the things that Naruto had written into the seal when they planned to come back. He wanted a seal that would protect the Uchiha eyes from Danzo and yet be able to be awakened and evolve naturally and with minimal changes protect the Hyuga’s eyes as well.

“Well both Yamanaka-sama and Nara-sama have a better understanding of fuinjutsu then I ever did. I would rather trust either of them with recreating the seal on my eyes then myself. Unless the you know of a seal master in the village?” Kei wasn’t lying there, if he couldn’t have Haru here to redo the seals then either Shikaku or Inoichi were the next best option. Although according to Haru, Jiraya was also an excellent option if he was close enough to the village to come and take a look at the seal design. The added bonus was if they took the bait it would force them to interact with another clan.

“Of course, Inoichi uses fuinjutsu daily at T&I,” a voice from the far side spoke up.

“Oh Shikaku is a genius when it comes this type of stuff. Fugaku-sama, I assume that you will be doing more research on the seal?” One of the clan members sounded excited.

“How else does it affect the person who has the seal?”

Kei smiled at that one. A carefully worded question to inquire about any side affects.

“The seal I have is completely within my own control and doesn’t limit my growth. If an eye is removed without me releasing the seal, the eyes will implode. They will do the same thing after my death guaranteeing no one will take my eyes without my permission.”

The rest of the elders nodded.

Fugaku smiled. The meeting went on for another hour. The questions were mostly harmless and in the end he was granted full clan privileges, barring an incident in the village and opposition from the Hokage, Kei could look at being free from scrutiny at the end of the week. He hoped that if they could disrupt the Hyuga affair then shortly afterwards he could see about petitioning for access of the Uzumaki clan and Naruto.

The other outcome of the clan meeting was with Takio’s brother and nephew. Kei felt bad lying about being Takio’s son, but he stood firm with the outcome he needed to see. He could get a lot of mileage out of the fact that he would have been five when Uzushiogakure fell and therefore, didn’t have much of a memory of Takio.

Chapter Text

Fugaku hadn’t invited Kei to the main house and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to just yet. He didn’t know if it would be harder or easier on the man to see his younger self yet or not. Of course holding off his wife was just as difficult. Instead he watched as Kei and Junpei headed into town for a drink while he walked towards the Nara compound and asked to meet Shikaku.

“Fugaku, how are things going? Kei settling in alright?” Shikaku was glad that he was able to talk to his wife a little more freely about Kei and gain her help in dealing all the issues that Kei was bringing with him. Her mind was just as sharp as his was and this was just too much to keep hidden from her.

Fugaku walked in behind the Nara and sat in his study. Yoshino walked in a few minutes later with tea and he decided to go for broke. “Yoshino-San will you join us for this discussion.”

If she was surprised, she didn’t show it, but sat beside her husband.

Fugaku rubbed a hand across his face. “Kei mentioned that you had read the scrolls he had on fuinjutsu?”

Both Shikaku and Yoshino nodded which made him feel remarkably better as both Naras were incredible smart.

“Excellent, because Kei let something slip at the clan meeting. Something he says that I would assume you know by way of Inoichi’s interrogation.” He watched Shikaku closely to see how the Nara reacted. Shikaku just nodded so Fugaku continued. “Kei mentioned that he had seals put on to protect his eyes from thievery.”

“Really?” Yoshino sounded excited. “Did he say when he had the seals put on? I’m sorry Fugaku but I don’t know how your kekkei genkai works.”

“That would be something we can talk about in detail with Kei.” Shikaku knew that it was likely Naruto who had put the seal on Kei, but that wasn’t what Fugaku was asking. “You want to know if we can reproduce it. I can tell you that I refuse to to do anything without taking a closer look at the seal that Kei has and those scrolls again. I don’t want to do anything that would put any Uchiha eyes at risk.”

That set his mind at ease as Fugaku had denied the elders access to Kei’s seals at the moment under the excuse that he wanted to have them studied further before letting anyone else look at them in case they were specific to Kei and Kei alone. He was afraid that some of the elders were looking at the seals as a way of controlling who was able to get the sharingan and who couldn’t. If that was the case then it wouldn’t be any better then the Hyuga’s caged bird seal.

The three of them talked about the theory behind such seals for over an hour. Yoshino knew that her husband wanted to talk to Fugaku privately but she had an idea that she wanted to voice first. “Shikaku, I’ll leave you two to talk but when you look at the seal, can you also think about it’s potential to replace the Hyuga’s caged bird seal?”

Fugaku sucked in a breath, as much as the Uchihas and Hyugas didn’t get along, if the seal Kei mentioned could help protect the Hyuga’s Byakugan then he would see that it was done. Part of the dispute between the Uchiha’s and the Hyuga’s was the way the Hyuga’s treated the branch family. He was just glad that Yoshino had brought it up and he didn’t have to. He couldn’t deny that he had been thinking the same thing. He had also been concerned over some of the older, more conservative Uchiha elders trying to use the idea of this seal like the Hyuga’s used their caged bird seal. He didn’t want that to happen and he couldn’t see Kei allowing it either.

He didn’t see Yoshino leave, but Shikaku let the impact of Yoshino’s words register. It had been something he’d been thinking about ever since he had first seen the storage seals inked on both Kei and Naruto’s bodies, when Inoichi had confirmed that Naruto had created a seal to protect his best friend.

“You know I didn’t think the day would come when you would ever be this comfortable in my study.” Shikaku grinned at the way the Uchiha clan head relaxed.

Shaking his head Fugaku had to agree with that. Before Kei’s arrival he wouldn’t have come to the Nara’s for something like this, he would have tried to solve it with just the Uchiha clan or tried to force the Nara to come to the Police station. “You know this may actually work for more than just protecting kekkei genkai for two clans. One of the members backed Kei when he said that you were a better fuinjutsu student.”

“I’d be interested in hearing you’re take on the fuinjutsu scrolls that Kei gave us.” Shikaku and Yoshino had already been practicing the basics taught in the scrolls. He grabbed a scroll off his desk and handed it over again. This time Fugaku really read through it.

“I just can’t get over how it’s worded.”

Shikaku grinned.

*****

Walking through the village was an interesting experience. It was a combination of familiarity and newness that often flittered across his face. He didn’t want to think about the emotions that bombarded him too deeply. He knew that he’d break down if he did. Kei was just glad that he cleared the clan meeting. Sure he still had Junpei with him, but right now he was there as a friend and someone to guide him through streets that were supposed to be unknown to him.

So many of the building were familiar. Junpei was doing a good job of pointing out where important buildings were. The big clan compounds were obvious as they often had gates and stanchions with their clan symbols on them. Shikaku had let it slip how he had forced the Hokage to acknowledge Kei as the last Uzumaki of age and therefore clan head. He would have the ability to rebuild the Uzumaki clan. Oh how Haru would laugh at that. His whole ‘revenge on the Leaf’ and ‘let me rebuild the Uchiha clan’ and here he received limited permission from the Hokage to eventually do it again. Granted his own family was still alive and it was his best friend’s clan he was rebuilding but the idea was the same. Karma definitely was a fickle bitch.

“Junpei, where is the Uzumaki clan compound?” Kei couldn’t remember seeing it growing up. Haru had lived in the orphanage until he was four. Ignored, abused and often times unfed. Then he spent about eighteen months on the streets trying to fend for himself. Haru had said it had been one of his animal helpers who had found him dirty and beaten in an alley. It had to have been an ANBU who had brought Haru to the Hokage in that condition. That had been the turning point, Sarutobi set Haru up in an apartment, of course he had then left him alone and pretty much ignored him except for the bimonthly meetings at the tower. It was still woefully neglectful. He wondered why Haru had never been able to use his family’s compound? Did the dobe even know about it?

The question almost stopped Junpei in his tracks. “You know I’m not sure. The last Uzumaki lived in town amongst the rest of us. It was have been before the fall of Uzushiogakure when you mother’s cousin was a child when we had a large entourage come to meet with the Hokage. I don’t know where they stayed. I know that whenever we have foreign dignitaries in the village there is a set compound for them to stay in, but I don’t believe that the Uzumaki’s were ever housed there.”

Chapter Text

The next couple days Kei walked the village alone. He tried to be out when Junpei first came back from his shifts in order to give the man a chance to decompress and have some privacy. Shikaku had given him permission to enter the clan compound at any time and there were many mornings when the Nara clan head would wake to find the time traveler meditating in his courtyard.

“Yoshino has breakfast ready,” Shikaku smiled as he took in the picture that Kei made. That the Uchiha was sitting quietly wasn’t a surprise, that the Nara deer were congregated behind him was. Reaching out, he could feel how calm Kei’s chakra was. It had smoothed and regulated since he first arrived.

“Thank you,” Kei sat at the table. It was the first time that he had been in the vicinity of one of his former classmates. Shikamaru was a cute toddler.

“It’s nice to finally met you.” Yoshino set the food on the table and sat beside her son and across from their guest. She had seen the man in the courtyard many mornings but had let her husband approach him. He was someone Shikaku had talked about, but hadn’t met yet.

“You’re an Uchiha.” Shikamaru spoke up as he ate his breakfast.

“That I am.” Kei’s smile was small and tight, but it was there.

Shikaku was glad to see that the portion Kei took for himself more in line for a grown man then when they first met. He’d have to let Chouza know as the man was still worried about Kei’s health. “After breakfast, I’ll show you the training grounds.”

Kei understood the underlying message. It would give the pair a chance to talk without fear of being overheard. Shikaku had been by a number of times while he was at Junpei’s home but the Uchiha officer had been somewhere in the house and conversation needed to stay innocuous.

“Thank you for allowing me access to your clan compound. The trees and deer are really calming.” Kei looked out onto the paddock. He was thankful they hadn’t lingered over breakfast and that Shikamaru, for all his laziness, had disappeared soon after he had eaten.

“I’m glad. Just like I’m glad that you’re eating better and looking healthier. More like a good fighting weight.” Shikaku smiled into the trees and the deer he could see there. He knew that Kei was still a long way from being healthy, but it was a step in the right direction. “I hear that you mentioned your seal at the Uchiha clan meeting.”

“Yeah, Haru put it on as soon as he created it so that my eyes couldn’t get stolen.” He didn’t want to go into the whole rinnegan and Madara issue right now and Shikaku already knew about Danzo. “I figured if they knew that there was a way to protect their eyes, that maybe we can protect the clan it might stop some of the mutterings. I also had hopes that if we can put a stop to some things early on and put the word out there maybe include the Hyuga as well it will show we still value the Leaf and stop the stupid cursed bird seal too. That one really pissed Haru off.”

“Can I see the seal you have?”

Kei tipped his head to the side and pulsed his chakra into the flesh behind his right ear.

Shikaku looked closely at the seal as he asked the questions the bombarded his mind. “When did you get it?”

“Haru put it on shortly after we started the war.”

“So you already had your sharingan?”

“Yeah, but it did evolve again after I received the seal so we know that the seal won’t affect any changes to the sharingan.”

“Alright, but what about those who haven’t awaken the dojutsu yet?”

Kei sat down and pulled a scroll out of his left bicep. “This is how he wrote the seal.” Kei pointed to the instructions written below the seal design. “He left spots for growth and where to change it for other dojutsus or kekkei genkai.”

“He really did write things for ease of use didn’t he.” Shikaku still couldn’t get over how the seals were written. It was so relatable and using simple language.

“Well he wrote it the way he would need it explained to him, likely because he didn’t know any other way.” Kei gave a watery laugh, “if he was here there’d be a lot of hand gestures and sounds instead of words.” When Shikaku looked slightly confused Kei smiled expanded, “you know things like; ‘it needs to whoosh before the bang.’ It used to drive me crazy because it didn’t make sense.”

“He talks like a toddler.” Shikaku mentally amended that to any civilian toddler, because none of the clan children he had met expressed themselves that way. Maybe they were expecting too much from their children.

“Yeah that fits.” Kei looked up to the sky as his smile got bigger. He went over other aspects of the seal that he thought would be of interest to Shikaku.

“I don’t know if I want to experiment on clan members. If those Uchiha who already have the sharingan would like the seal I’d feel more comfortable placing this on them then on young children without having another seal master look at it. It’s not that I don’t trust Haru’s work, but-”

“No I get it.” Kei interrupted, “you’re being cautious around the children and their potential kekkei genkai growth and that can only be seen in a good light with the rest of the clan.”

Shikaku was glad that Kei understood where he was coming from and wasn’t going to take offence to Shikaku not trusting Haru’s seal work without a second opinion. He just wasn’t sure who the hell to talk to except Jiraya, and he wasn’t sure where the man was or if he could have him called back. Shikaku examined the scroll again. It was strange how only the one section they were talking about was clearly visible while the rest of the scroll was blurred. Almost like some type of code to protect the rest of the information. He needed his suspicions confirmed, “Kei is there some sort of protection seal that makes the rest of the scroll unreadable?”

“Yeah it’s to control what I let you guys read and what you might not be ready for yet.”

“So out of curiosity, you’ll be going on missions outside of the village soon if you pass your assessment, if the worse was to happen and you were die, how would I gain access to the information?”

“You wouldn’t, at least not through these scrolls.” Kei’s answer shook Shikaku to his core. He didn’t want to loose all the information in the scrolls. “Mine are sealed and I keep them on me. If I die, they stay sealed and ‘die’ with me. The ones Haru gave you are likely unlocked. Those are the ones that I asked you not read right now. I would hope that you would only read them upon my death.”

He’d almost forgotten about the second set of scrolls locked in his study within a blood seal. That at least made Shikaku feel a little better. “Alright let’s move on from seals to taijutsu. I want to see what type of moves you have. I heard through Fugaku that Junpei is of the opinion you’re not using just the Uchiha style and that you actually know many others.”

Kei smiled and got into position. The spar short and fierce, and at the end both men were smiling.

Shikaku huffed, he was out of breathe, “that was fun.” He stretched his arms over his head to help him cool down. “I can see why Junpei was enthralled watching you.”

“Junpei?” While Kei could understand why it was Junpei after all he was the only one Kei had been around for the last couple of week, it didn’t explain what he did that was so exciting.

“Your fighting style,” Shikaku could see the confusion on Kei’s face, “I have an idea for your assessment. It will possibly piss Sarutobi off, but on the other hand it will make sure that when you go to approach Naruto you will have a reason to do so.”

“I’m listening.”

Shikaku outlined his idea and Kei had to admit it was devious and something that he would do, hell almost any of the their group except Naruto, Choji and Lee would would do it because those three were the worst liars.

Kei remembered his chunin exams and using his sharingan to study Lee’s primary lotus, Neji’s eight trigrams, Kiba’s Inazuka style even Hinata’s gentle fist years later. He understood how Kakashi became the man of a thousand jutsus as fighting with his sharingan made it easy to copy different moves. It was only the rigidity of the Uchiha pride that often forced them to use only clan techniques, even if they had the other ones stored in their memories. Being an orphan set on revenge and destruction had a way of changing that, and war solidified that path. He had done everything he could, learned everything there was to become stronger. To kill Itachi, to avenge his clan. Before that would have been a point of shame, the fact that the Uchiha style of taijutsu was buried under all the others, barely noticeable, but now it lent credence to his story and in a way was a tangible reminder of those he left behind, of his other life.

He didn’t really smile so much as change expression from impassive to, well if he was going to be honest, almost snarky. Shikaku wasn’t quite sure how to take Kei at times. He wasn’t like any Uchiha he knew, which made sense but still the man often threw him for a loop when trying to factor in reactions because he didn’t behave the way he expected.

“I was taught the Uchiha method or at least the basics from the time I could walk. They were a part of our everyday routine. The fact that my clan died when I was young didn’t change that. I continued on with the lessons with an almost fanatical passion. Then I had other teachers, and I learned what worked, what I was comfortable with and adapted it into my own style. According to the history books the academy teaches a very bastardized blended version of the Uchiha and Senju techniques from the founding of the village. The problem is while it works on the basics it really doesn’t do anything for teaching taijutsu beyond that. The academy relays on clans to teach their children their style and pretty much leaves it at that.”

“So what’s the issue?” Shikaku had been much the same. His father had been teaching him clan secrets and techniques since he was small, just like he was already starting to do with Shikamaru. He noticed that while the taijutsu taught at the academy was indeed the base, it didn’t go far enough or work them hard enough and he learned more at home from other clan members.

“How many civilian kids graduated from your class? How many non-clan kids?” Kei’s question brought the issue to the forefront.

“Maybe two civilian kids; they became medics and I think there were about seven from non-clan but their parents were shinobi.”

“Right and are all nine still alive? Could they have benefited from better taijutsu and hand to hand skills? There are too many secrets amongst the clans. I’m not saying share everything. That’s not feasible and it won’t work. I can’t use your shadow jutsu, but if I know basics behind your taijutsu then mine becomes stronger.”

“Why the focus on this?”

Kei’s smile was almost sad, “your children. If there’s one thing I know is that a parent would do almost anything to see their child do better, be better, live longer then them. If we can help the clans realize that working together will help their children live longer, help Shikamaru live longer wouldn’t you share what you could?”

“Fuck but you’re a sneaky bastard.” Shikaku could see how that would work. He took a couple of minutes to really think of how they could implement the idea and not make it seem like it was Kei’s idea. “If we have either off duty or retired shinobi rotate through the academy to help with weapons and jutsu class then that would take the pressure off of the teachers. Maybe having them work in tandem. Different ranks and different clans. They could watch for weaknesses, we could see if there were students who would benefit from being taken on as apprentices or which children could work together as potential teammates later on, and which clans could work more closely together like the Ino-Shika-Cho.”

“You’d have to make sure that those who are at the academy wish to be there.” Kei watched the way Shikaku’s brain took the idea and ran with it. It was much like watching Shikamaru think. Fun.

“Do you know what my mission is going to be?” Kei knew that as Jonin commander, Shikaku had a lot of say in who received which missions.

“Not that I can tell you,” Lord Third had actually hand picked the mission and team for Kei’s first foray out of the village as a Leaf shinobi. “You know you do have to pass the evaluation test at the end of the week before you can go out on missions?”

“I thought that was what this was all about?” Kei had been told that he would be evaluated by at least three shinobi before he could go on missions.

Shikaku laughed, “no this is just a friendly spar, the evaluations are being set up as an almost formal evaluation.”

Chapter Text

Kei figured he was ready for the evaluation when he woke on Friday morning.

“You sure you’re recovered enough?” Junpei’s question startled Kei.

“What do you mean, recovered enough?”

Junpei apologized, “sorry, it’s just that I’ve been watching you practice. It seems to me that you were exhausted just going through the forms. You’ve gotten stronger over the last couple of weeks and I know you can do well on the evaluation. I just don’t want you to push yourself too hard. I don’t know what exactly you went through before coming here but I can tell that you this weakness isn’t something that is normal for you. Give yourself the proper time you need to heal or things will only get worse.”

That surprised Kei, he hadn’t thought Junpei had been watching him that closely. “I didn’t realize my weakness was that apparent.”

“Only to someone watching closely.” Junpei was quick to assure him, “and after living with you I’ve noticed a lot about you.” He figured that this was his one chance to satisfy his curiosity about Kei life before arriving in Konoha. “It’s obvious that you have seen some major battles. Your katas are so precise they’re beautiful to watch, but you were tiring between sets. You eat smaller portions then most men. I’ve only seen that type of behaviour in men who had been held in captivity for long periods of time.”

Kei closed down. Junpei had seen more then he realized and he wasn’t sure what to actually tell him without revealing the whole truth. “To be honest, you’re not completely wrong, I was on the verge of death before coming here. My life before coming to Konoha isn’t something I’m ready to talk about.”

Junpei cursed, “Kei,” fuck how did he apologize for bringing back all of the memories, “I’m...”

Kei smiled he knew it was likely a sad smile, but there wasn’t much he could do about that. “I’m fine, there’s something I have to do, that I promised my friends I would finish, I can’t fail.” He moved ahead of the Uchiha towards the examination grounds. He wouldn’t fail, there were too many people counting on him.

***

“So you believe that these three would be a good match for the young Uchiha?” Hiruzen looked over the suggestions handed to him by both the Shikaku and Fugaku. “Fugaku, why did you suggest a two stage examination?” Sarutobi had been intrigued by the suggestion and agreed to it, but wanted to understand the thoughts behind it.

“Having him fight only Uchiha would be interesting but ultimately unhelpful. He carries the Uchiha bloodline, whatever forms he doesn’t know, we can teach him. He has had a teacher, Haru Uzumaki, has battled others in his life before coming to the Leaf and I am interested in seeing how those experiences have altered what base style he has. Anyone who has a sharingan almost automatically records the fights they are in and adopts those styles, I want to see him fight before we get to him too much.”

Sarutobi nodded, “a sound plan, I like your idea of having Kakashi be one of the men to challenge Kei Uchiha.”

Fugaku knew just how strong Kakashi was, he also knew who the silver haired ANBU was to Kei, and having them face each other during this trial would be expected, “He is one of the strongest shinobi the Leaf has. He also has a working sharingan so it would almost like fighting against an Uchiha but with a different base technique.”

Shikaku yawned as he listened to Fugaku explain, “Hn, we were also thinking Souske Gekko as a second opponent. Junpei mentioned that Kei was using a wooden tanto, and Souske is a master at kenjutsu.”

Fugaku stood at the rim of the arena playing back the conversation he had with the Hokage earlier in the week. He waited for Kei to realize just who his first opponent was. He hoped Kei wasn’t going to be too upset with him, or sent into to deep of a flashback. Both of which were possible.

“Fugaku, dear, come and sit down.” Mikoto patted the seat beside her. She knew that her husband had taken the appearance of the Kei Uchiha as a shock and that he had invested a lot of his time into making sure that he really was an Uchiha and felt welcome in the clan. Holding his hand when he sat down she leaned against him. “It’s almost as if you’re watching one of our son’s compete.”

Fugaku flinched, “Mikoto?”

“Don’t, it’s sweet. Poor Kei has no one, he hasn’t connected with his uncle and Yori has been busy with his duties. This way I get to see how you are going to be with Itachi and Sasuke when they go through their own chunin exams.” Mikoto had been worried that Fugaku would revert to the cold facade of the Uchiha clan for their son’s exams but seeing this warmed her heart. “Ever since I met Kei, I just want to mother him, to make sure that he’s alright. I’m glad to see that you feel the same.”

Fugaku relaxed, he could write it off as a clan connection and possible guilt over not doing more to search for Takio.

Chapter Text

Kei entered the arena. In his time it was where the individual matches for the chunin exams were held. He never realized that they used it for other things but it made sense. Why have this huge arena if you’re only going to use it once every couple of years? By using it to assess new shinobi joining the village it was a good place to have guards stations in case something went out of control. It would also be a great spot to assess those shinobi who wanted to go from chunin to jonin or join ANBU and as unless you had access you didn’t know what was going on. The barriers around the arena were strong enough to keep the civilians and lesser shinobi ignorant of anything going on and any of the stronger shinobi or those with extreme chakra sensitivity would ignore it.

A man Kei didn’t know stood in the centre of the ring.

Kei walked closer, he assumed the man was going to be the proctor of the fight assessment. A quick glance along the walls showed that the Hokage was there as well as most of the clan heads. He clenched his teeth as he recognized Danzo and the old biddies that were on the council. He also saw faces of those he had left behind and needed a second to centre himself. Ibiki was off to one side while both Genma and Raidou where amongst the guards for the clan heads. He really didn’t want to look around for other familiar faces, he’d have time enough for that after he became an official member of the Leaf. It still messed with his mind that men he looked up to during the war were his age or younger here. There were ANBU and ROOT operatives everywhere, some he recognized by their chakra signatures and others he didn’t. Fuck, that likely meant he’d have to fight Kakashi. He took a deep breath and tried to relax as much as possible.

A swirl of leaves and the infamous copy nin appeared before the pair in the centre of the arena. He looked to be about the same age as Kei which meant he was pretty much at his prime physically although without the full knowledge of just what he could do with the sharingan. Kei smiled as he met the eyes of the silver haired ninja. He would not let them know just how shaken he was. Kakashi had ceased being his sensei long ago when he fled the village, he was however, a leader of their defunct village of survivors and Kei valued his skills and advice. It was Kakashi’s who had taught him the chidori, the weapon he had used to try and kill Haru multiple times, and it was Kakashi’s death that spurned the two of them to jump. He had come to respect his Kakashi and his death had hit him hard. Kei shook out his shoulders, his eyes closed as he focused on being here and not in the future with Kakashi’s corpse begging for forgiveness.

“I’ll not fail you. I will protect you.” His whispered mantra calming him enough to be able to look at his future teacher without letting on what he knew. He could only hope that any hesitation on his part would be seen as wariness and respect due to Kakashi’s reputation outside the village.

“Alright, this is the first of two assessment matches for Kei Uchiha-Uzuma.. Sorry, Kei Uchiha.” The proctor was reading off of a card and stumbled over the name. Kei smirked as both the proctor and Kakashi paled. “The match will be ten minutes in length or until knock out. No lethal jutsus please. Taijutsu and ninjutsu only. As both of you have the sharingan, so genjutsu would be pointless, it has been requested that you not use it.”

Kei’s smirk deepened. “Understood.”

Kakashi just nodded and took a battle ready stance.

Kei’s smile grew, figuring he’d take a page out of Naruto’s play book, he held out his hand. The unknown proctor gasped in surprise and Kakashi recognized the universal sign of friendship, he took a step forward in order to return it.

“I hope to learn a lot from you.” Kei bowed and took a step back.

Kakashi had no idea what to think of this guy. Normally he’d wait to see what type of moves his opponent had before making one of his own, but seeing as this was an assessment and not a battle Kakashi attacked first.

The taijutsu was fast and fierce. Sarutobi watched it with interest, although the murmurs around him didn’t go unnoticed.

“Hatake is starting with the Uchiha style, is that wise?”

“What style is the new comer using?”

“Isn’t that the Uzumaki style? Where did he learn that?”

“Isn’t he supposed to be an Uchiha?”

Down on the arena floor, the movement gained speed. Neither man had yet to get a clean hit in. Each one countered expertly.

Kei’s movements were like watching the water flow and ebb. He ducked under Kakashi for a leg sweep only to spring around behind the man for a hit to the back. While neither were potentially lethal hits they were clean hits, and the fact that he could move like that was something that Kei knew would impress the crowd watching.

Kakashi knew he was in trouble if he continued to rely on taijutsu alone, the Uchiha style was no match against the Uzumaki style and he didn’t know enough of the Hyuga style or any of the Uzumaki style to counter. What he did know was that if Kei had been wearing the traditional Uzumaki kimono top or had longer hair that he be in a lot more trouble, if the stories Kushina had told him were to be believed. He brought his hands together to throw up a quick earth wall to give himself a little bit of breathing room.

A river of water rushed around the barrier and almost swallowed Kakashi up.

The copy nin barely had time to cast a substitution before a bolt of lighting crashed into the place he had been standing.

Kakashi used an earth wall jutsu trying to trap the new comer in a corner.

Kei jumped over top, racing along the walls, throwing shadow shiruken as he went.

Kakashi called upon a water spout to counter the Uchiha fire ball.

From the stands Shikaku grinned, it was a battle that went from taijutsu to ninjutsu and back again without break and without any seams. The speed was amazing, there were moments where Shikaku could barely see the individual movements and not just the blur of bodies. He knew that a couple of the chunin that were here to watch would only be able to see the moves and not the hand signs the pair moved so fast.

Yoshino leaned closer, Shikamaru holding tight to the railing, “my god but he’s wonderful. It like a beautiful dance”

{He’s going to be exhausted tonight.} Inoichi sent the thought to his team mate’s mind as stood beside Shikaku. His foot touching Shikaku’s providing the link he needed to communicate without words.

{Yeah, and he’ll be pissed that he’s so weak.} Shikaku couldn’t believe the fight he was seeing. Kakashi was doing a good job, but it was obvious that Kei was slowly out matching Kakashi. A glance at the other clan heads confirmed that Hiashi was using his Bakyugan to watch and many Uchiha had their sharingan recording the match. The chatter going around about the Uzumaki style of fighting was exactly what he wanted.

Inoichi focused in on the way Kei held his hand, there was something…{Shikaku, we should prepare for some type of flashback from Kei.} Inoichi couldn’t remember if it was from Haru or Kei but he knew that Kakashi was a major influence in their lives and while this assessment was a great opportunity for the pair to meet officially, it was sure to bring a lot of trauma to the surface.

Shikaku stroked his goatee, his eyes on the combatants down in the arena and nodded.

The sound of the whistle had both men halting.

“Good fight,” Kei was breathing heavily but he still reached out to match the sign of friendship and reconciliation at the end of the match.

Kakashi gave an eye smile, “yes. Yes it was and I look forward to sparing with you again.”

The proctor took the field and handed Kei a ration bar and canteen. “I know it seems unfair, but Souske Gekko is here to test your kenjutsu skills. I can’t give you any time to recover.”

Kei handed back the canteen, “but isn’t that the point. It’s not like you get a break when you’re in war. Thank you for the water and ration bar. I’m ready.” He gave the proctor a small bow.

Kei stepped back and waited for his next opponent. This one would easier he had no memory of a Souske Gekko, so he let his emotions settles and his heart rate slow.

Souske Gekko had been watching from the sideline and was impressed with new comer. Not many people could match Kakashi in a taijutsu spar. “Do you need someone to get your weapon?”

He smirked and pulled his arms out of the tight kimono style top he’d been wearing for his fight with Kakashi, allowing it to sit loose at his waist. It left him in a sleeveless mesh under shirt with his arms bared, exposing the multiple seals Haru had inked on his skin. Using his left hand he pulsed his chakra to reveal the seal he had there and pulled out his tanto. He figured it was a cheap trick but with this many clan heads and Danzo present he wanted them to know that he had more to offer then just a sword arm and the sharingan, that he was part of the Uzumaki legacy from his best friend and he would honour that. If the gasp from his opponent and the proctor were anything to go by, he’d succeeded in surprising at least some people. Working storage seals on people were rare enough when Naruto first offered them before the jump, let alone in this time. He let his sleeve fall down before facing Souske fully.

“At your will,” Kei bowed to his opponent and stood with his sword at his hip still in it’s sheath, seemingly held there by his will alone.

Souske returned the bow before waiting for the proctor to signal the beginning of the match.

With the whistle Souske attacked, he went at this like he would with his son. His intent was not to kill but to challenge and teach and learn.

Kei’s face underwent a drastic change in emotion at the first strike. Feeling his opponent’s intent telegraphed in his move. Kei remembered Hayate Gekko coming to the academy to showcase what kenjutsu was and what they could learn with it, if this was Hayate’s father, then the man truly was a master.

“A true challenge to showcase skills?” Kei’s question was more of a comment. Where as his spar with Kakashi felt more like a fight between friends, trying to exploit any weaknesses found, this was more like a test from a teacher to his student. Within the first three strikes, Kei could tell that Souske wanted make this more of a demonstration of skills. A chance for him to really show off. He moved into an attack formation again utilizing the Uzumaki forms where both the sword and sheath were vital components of battle.

Kei dipped and spun, his arms out wide as he twirled away from Souske’s attack. The rotation of his spin flared his shirt like some deadly razor edged spinning top his opponent needed to flee from.

It was something that not many swordsmen did anymore, and watching the newest member of the Leaf use both aspects of his weapon was breath taking. When Souske’s attack seemed to focus on his sword hand, Kei surprised everyone watching by vaulting over the man and switching his sword to his other hand.

“Ambidextrous, eh?” Souske

Kei just smiled and kept moving. The movements were freeing, reminding him of when Haru had been given the scrolls detailing the Uzumaki fighting styles during the initial phase of war. The knuckle head had never before had anything concrete of his clan. Kei had learned the kenjutsu style because having one more style in his arsenal was just smart and seeing the way his best friend lit up when he offered to learn well, that was personal. It was another way to keep the Uzumaki clan alive. It’s the same reason he had taught Haru the Uchiha clan taijutsu style. He wanted it to live on. It had been the best way the two of them had of sharing themselves. Of course it didn’t hurt that the Uzumaki style was very much like the water they lived by, ever changing and flowing and much easier in a lot of ways then the rigid Uchiha style.

Lifting his sheath in flourish he left himself open to see what Souske would do next. When Souske attacked, Kei spun into the attack. Something that was counter intuitive and used his tanto to block Souske’s blade and his sheath to deliver what could be a killing blow, before flowing out of the way.

At the whistle Kei sheathed his sword and bowed again.

Souske returned the gesture, and lead the way out of the arena and up to where Lord Third was watching as he had been asked. “I’m not sure if Gura mentioned your opponents by name, but the one you fought earlier was Kakashi Hatake and I’m Souske Gekko, and I would love to see more of that Uzumaki style. There’s no one around here who knows it anymore.” Standing out of sight of the spectators, he gave the new comer a moment to reseal his sword and get dressed. Souske knew the man in front of him was something special and damn if he didn’t want to get him in the dojo to spar again.

“I’ll be sure to look you up, I don’t believe in keeping clan techniques solely within the clan, especially when the clan is in danger of fading out. Someone needs to know our history.”

Kei smiled as he caught Sarutobi watching him. This was the man who Haru called Jiji, and the rest of the shinobi world considered the God of Shinobi for his ability to use all five elements, the Leaf knew him as the Professor for his love of learning. He would hold his opinion at the moment and see what the man did next. “Clan secrets do no one any good if there’s no one left alive to use them. The Uzumaki were known for our willingness to welcome others into our clan, and to teach any who were willing to learn.”

“That would of course imply that there were still Uzumaki’s left alive in the world,” the voice beside Sarutobi piped up and Kei had to struggle not to kill Danzo on the spot. Especially since he wasn’t supposed to know who the man was. The the only saving grace was that Kei could see both of his eyes and his arm was not yet wrapped in bandages, at least as far as he could see. Kei hoped that the old Warhawk had yet to begin harvesting Uchiha eyes.

“Yes, I guess it does,” Kei’s face was blank but his eyes held a glimmer or mischief. “However, I have heard of a few scattered through out the lands but have never been able to find them. I had hoped that once I found a place to settle that I would be able to bring the few remaining Uzumaki’s back together.”

“That would be something to see. The Uzumaki’s were a formidable clan. Having them back inside the Leaf would redeem us for our failure to honour our alliance agreement.” Hiashi Hyuga had been disappointed when his clan had not allowed him to befriend Kushina Uzumaki, the girl he had admired from afar during his academy day, because of her jinchuriki status. He had known how his brother had felt towards the red head and forcing Hizashi into an arranged loveless marriage had broken the brother’s relationship in many ways. The fact that she had married and been happy with Minato was something that both Hyuga brothers took solace in.

Sarutobi didn’t want to revisit his greatest failures out here in front of everyone, his eyes looked out over the village skyline, unconsciously searching for the rooftop of the orphanage and the last Uzumaki of the village who lived inside. “That was a very impressive display of skills and something tells me that you have more that you didn’t showcase.”

“I don’t know any shinobi that willingly exposes all of their strengths.” Kei was following the Hokage as he made his way back to his office.

Hiruzen sat behind his desk. There were only five people who had followed them inside the office. The three council members, the head of the Konoha Police and his Jonin Commander. Hiruzen looked around and realized that the people in the room were the ones he’d trust the most with this new shinobi of the Leaf.

“Where did you learn those skills boy?”

“And you are?” Kei knew who almost everyone in the room was, but as he technically hadn’t been introduced, he’d play dumb.

“Danzo Shimura, I’m one of the council members for the Leaf.” Danzo pulled himself a little straighter, “I’d like to know where you learned that style of fighting.”

Kei tilted his head and looked at Sarutobi. “Sir?” His gaze flicked over to Shikaku, standing just off to the left of the Hokage.

Sarutobi nodded and pulled out his pipe. He wanted to see how Kei would react. His first impression was good, the man wouldn’t answer just anyone.

“I learned from my mother and cousin.”

“Your mother?” Danzo sounded confused, “but I was told you were an Uchiha?”

“I am.”

When it looked like Danzo was going to continue, the old woman beside the Hokage spoke up. “It looked like your tanto was stored inside a seal on your skin, was it not?”

“Yes.” Kei wasn’t going to give them any more information then he had to and he sure as hell wasn’t going to show them.

“If I asked, would you teach me how use them?” Sarutobi puffed slowly on his pipe.

Kei looked at the Hokage and could see the man that Haru admired, the one who had done good for the village before darkness had spread. He needed to make sure that he didn’t let his knowledge of the future cloud too much of his judgement. “I wasn’t the best student but I would do my best to explain what I know.” Out of all the seals on his own skin Kei had inked three himself under Haru guidance. He was by no means the sealing master Haru was, but he was a student and maybe the only one they had left here.

Sarutobi nodded, he watched the way Kei held himself, “I was impressed with your skills and the way you fought. Fugaku has said that you have passed his checks and both Shikaku and Inoichi have said that you are fit to go on missions, so I would like to welcome you to the Leaf. I’d say you’re skills are that of a jonin.” He motioned to the jonin uniform on corner of his desk. “That is yours.”

“Thank you sir.” Kei bowed and ignored the mutterings from the other elders.

“Shikaku, Fugaku, if you would escort him back home. I’m sure the poor man is exhausted, you can put him on rotation for missions in three days.” Sarutobi watched as Shikaku took his newest jonin out of his office. Now he just had to deal with Homura, Koharu and Danzo.

“He never did answer who taught him the Uzumaki form?” Danzo wanted his hands on the newbie, if his pedigree was what he thought it was, then this Kei would be better then any Uchiha currently in the village.

“No he didn’t, but I know and that is all that matters.” Hiruzen wasn’t completely blind to the faults of his friend. He just didn’t know how to stop him.

Homura pushed up his glasses, “I haven’t seen the Uzumaki style of fighting in so long, I’d forgotten how graceful and strong it was.”

“Is he really an Uzumaki? Does he know about the monster?” Koharu’s question brought into focus another concern for Sarutobi and the reason why young Naruto was so ostracized.

Chapter Text

They met Inoichi at the base of the tower when Shikaku guided Kei outside. Shikaku was debating as to whether to take the man back to Junpei’s or the Akimichi’s cottage when Mikoto flagged him down.

“Shikaku will you and Kei join us for a meal.” Mikoto was calm and regal, a perfect counter point to Fugaku and his almost obsessive need to follow the rules.

Shikaku looked to his left and his wife holding their son. He didn’t want to screw this up. They needed the clans to work together. Looking at Kei he knew that the man desperately wanted his clan to survive, even if he didn’t say it out loud; and the best way for that to happen was for him as clan head to be seen with the Uchihas. Sure he could pass off some things as him being lazy but with Yoshino there, she was sure to give him an earful later if he did.

Inoichi caught his eye, it was the only warning he received. Shikaku understood that Ino thought Kei was nearing the end of his rope and they would need to be careful. Shikaku was stuck between a rock and hard place here and wasn’t sure which way to go. It was a first for him.

“Mikoto, we would love to join you.” Yoshino stepped in right away and helped to cover when he began to over think. She looked at the man who had just put on such a wonderful display of skills from a clan that was thought to be gone and knew there was more to him then her husband was letting on. “Would you mind if Shikamaru and I help you with the cooking, while Shikaku and Fugaku take Kei to clean up and finish their discussion.” It wasn’t often her husband was so indecisive, they were starting to garner a crowd and it was making her husband uncomfortable.

Shikaku let out a deep sigh, he prayed that he and Fugaku could mitigate any damage that would happen when Kei blew, because he would it was just a case of when.

Mikoto caught her husband’s eye as he nodded his agreement, “that would be wonderful. I don’t think our children spend enough time together.”

“Inoichi, we’ll catch up with you later if that’s okay with you?” Fugaku hoped the Yamanaka wouldn’t take offence, but he didn’t think that the Uchiha could handle two clan heads at one meeting.

“Of course. You know where to find me.” Inoichi gave his team mate a quick sign as he walked off. Both men would know that he’d be at the flower shop. Close enough to be on hand if they needed him.

The six of them walked off together, as Kei was still staying with Junpei. The three men walked behind the women almost as if they were the rear guard. Kei was in the middle as each clan head talked to him about nothing in particular. The chatter was to keep him focused on standing upright and moving forward. He knew they were still being watched by both ANBU and ROOT. He couldn’t be seen as weak not now, if he was he would fail and that wasn’t an option.

Shikaku could tell that Kei was getting lost in his head. It was likely the fight that put him back in the past. Inoichi would likely say the guy had slipped into a PTSD flashback. If they didn’t deal with it quickly, Shikaku was pretty sure that the smallest things was going to get the village levelled. He knew the assessment hadn’t come close to showing what Kei was capable of. A look over at Fugaku and it seemed that the Uchiha already grasped the situation.

Both men were trying to think of a way to bring Kei back into the present without alerting both their wives and their tails. Shikamaru took the issue out of their hands. The toddler had slipped from his mother’s hold and stopping in the middle of the street held his arms up to tired man.

“Up! Up!”

They stopped in the middle of the street. Shikaku and Fugaku watching as the young Nara heir, in all his innocence, shocked Kei back into the here and now.

“You want up do you?” Kei lifted the toddler into his arm and was almost shocked at the way Shika nestled against his chest. “You always were lazy about walking. Never wanted to do more then you had to.” He whispered as he rubbed the Nara’s back. “Damn but I miss you guys.”

“Kei?” Shikaku didn’t want to scare the man, but he couldn’t risk anyone else overhearing what was being said. Mikoto and Yoshino were already within earshot. He was sure they would ask about it when they were somewhere safe.

“Shit.” Kei looked around. They were still standing in the middle of the street and were starting to garner a lot of attention. “Yeah, ok. Let’s go.”

There was a small flare of chakra that Shikaku returned, “just letting them know you’re okay.” He explained. The gentle hand on Kei’s back had the group moving again towards the Uchiha compound.

“Junpei is covering the Police station so he’s not home at the moment.” Fugaku stopped at the crossroads deep inside the Uchiha compound. “Mikoto?”

“Yes, Yoshino and I will go back to the house. I’m sure Shikamaru would enjoy a visit with Sasuke and Itachi.” Mikoto watched the way the young Nara was resting against Kei. The way Kei seemed to relax while holding him. He was almost loathe to give over the toddler to his mother.

“Kei,” the look on his face at the mention of the two younger Uchiha’s had Fugaku stalling for time, “Mikoto we’ll be back in a couple of hours.” He lead the way to home Kei was sharing with Junpei. Once at the house Fugaku stepped back as Kei set up layers upon layers of wards.

“Shit, okay Kei, take it back a notch.” Shikaku moved into Kei’s line of sight. “We may be on Uchiha land, but the ANBU and ROOT are still watching, you put up too strong of wards and they’re going to want to know what you’re hiding. You’re safe here, we’re not going to let anything happen to you. I need you to take a deep breath and feel my chakra.” Shikaku took Kei’s hand and put it on his chest, allowing the other man to feel each rise and fall, each fluctuation of his chakra. He hadn’t had to talk anyone down from a panic attack for years when he watched Inoichi do it for a cousin out in the field.

Kei stared at his hand as he forced his breathing to slow and his mind to quiet. He listened to the way Shikaku just rambled on. He wasn’t hearing the words, they weren’t registering, it was the tone that he focused on. That and the way that both Shikaku and Fugaku’s chakra flowed effortlessly around him. It was oddly comforting.

Fugaku was taking notes as Shikaku seemed to expertly talk Kei down from his panic attack.

As Kei calmed the chakra levels lowered and the outer layers of the wards unwrapped until there was but a couple layers. Enough to keep Kei feeling safe and not draw unwanted attention to him from the ANBU or ROOT just yet.

Kei sank to knees. As the voices in his mind quieted it was like they took his energy. He really didn’t want to go to the main house for lunch where he was going take another emotional hit in the form of seeing himself and his brother in their younger forms. However, there was no getting around it, not if they wanted to keep the Uchiha clan from revolting.

“Go and take a shower. Fugaku told them we’d take a couple of hours, so you have some time to mediate and centre yourself. As much as we’d like to talk and discuss your assessment fight, right now you need to take care of you. We’re going to sit over here and wait until it’s time to go. We’ll watch your back.”

Kei took his advice and walked out of the room, as Fugaku and Shikaku sat with porch door open to small courtyard.

“What do you think set off the panic attack?” Fugaku dealt mostly with paperwork now at the Police station, it was rare that he was out on the streets anymore. Where Shikaku had just been pulled off the fully active roster and still dealt with active jonin all the time.

“Kakashi. Us. The fight. Take your pick. He’s still recovering and this most likely brought everything back. I’m just glad that he held back as much as he did, I wasn’t sure he would be able to spar anymore after years of warfare. The fact he used almost exclusively, the Uzumaki style of fighting, then to be cornered by the council likely didn’t help.” Shikaku stared out at the sun slowly setting behind the clouds. He wished he picked up a different habit then shoji, maybe he’d talk to Kei about bringing in a board. It might help the time traveler focus on something else. “He’ll likely have more of them now that’s he’s recovering.” At Fugaku’s confused expression Shikaku expanded. “When he first arrived, he was basically on the verge of death, add to the that trying to deal with the fact that he was here by himself. Now he’s been eating regularly and his chakra levels have stabilized, so his mind is able to think about what he went through and what happens next. I also don’t think he’s really had a chance to grieve, not for Haru and not for those he left behind. We also need to keep in mind that he’d been in the midst of a war and fighting guerrilla style fighting for years so the concept of sparing instead of fighting for one’s life is something that he may have trouble with.”

Fugaku looked towards the hallway where Kei disappeared just minutes before and knew that he’d never truly understand the full impact of just what his son had been through. “How do I help him? Do I leave him here with Junpei? Do we need to read Junpei into this?”

“It’s going to be sticky enough with both of our wives. I know that Yoshino already suspects there’s something more with Kei then what I’ve told her, and Mikoto’s just as smart.”

Fugaku laughed at that, “yeah, she’ll be picking this apart later and asking me what the hell is going on. I don’t know what I’m going to tell her.”

Kei chose that moment to walk out into the room. “Right now you don’t tell either of them anything. There’s already too many people who know what’s going on for my peace of mind.” Kei was using a small towel to dry his hair, he had low slung shinobi pants as the only clothing.

“How come the seal on your chest is visible but the ones are your arms aren’t?” Shikaku tried not to stare at the seal. He wanted a closer look, but figured it would be a little creepy asking look closer at someone’s chest.

Kei sat down letting the towel hang around his neck. “I guess because it’s missing part of the matrix that let’s it fade away. The one on my chest is one of the first ones that Haru did, at least on someone else. I mean Haru had them all over his own body. Some were larger or smaller, or had specific uses that he wrote into the matrices. He refused to put anything on anybody else without first trying it on himself. Of course the dobe was so overpowered that that didn’t always make sense. It would be like asking an Inuzuka find the least amount of scent you can use to track someone and then complain because regular shinobi didn’t have the same sense of smell.” Kei traced his fingers over his inner forearm. “It took a friend of ours to point out to him that we all needed to be able to use the seals, not just him. That we were willing to be used as test subjects for his seals because we trusted him that much. Each one of us left alive had multiple seals. Some of them were tests and not all of them preform as expected. Only one backfired on us. The result was one of our strongest, lost a leg just below the knee. No one of blamed him, she was the one who exceeded his parameters for the seal. We also learned how to create them so I have multiple seals, they’re placed there by Haru, myself and two others.”

“One of these days I would love to draw out each of your seals and have you tell me what was planned for each of them.” Shikaku’s eyes traced over the three seals he could see.

When he was ready for that, he would reproduce all seals that he had inked on himself as well as the seals he had memorized of the friends he had left behind. After all their years together, Kei had Haru’s image burned into his memory even without the use of the sharingan. “Yeah, okay, but let’s get through supper first?” Kei pulled a shirt over his head.

Fugaku stood, “and on that note, we better head over before Mikoto send’s someone out for my head.

Chapter Text

“Oto-san!” the sight of the youngest Uchiha heir running up the path had Kei stumbling in his step.

Shikaku used his shadows to help stabilize the man.

Fugaku stopped to lift the child into his arms, “Sasuke does your mother or Aniki know where you are?”

The young child just shrugged his shoulders and Fugaku shook his head. Sasuke kept staring at the dark haired man behind the Nara Clan head.

“Oto-San!” Kei watched as a taller boy about eight came up the path from where Sasuke had run. He had Shikamaru with him.

“Oh Itachi-kun are you on babysitting duty?” Shikaku took a step in front of Kei trying to give the man a couple of minutes to process the sight of his younger self and brother.

“Yes Nara-Sama.” Itachi gave a small smile.

“And Sasuke-kun ran off on you.” Shikaku smiled back. He didn’t expect an answer as Itachi was the epitome of proper behaviour, “Shikamaru are you listening to Itachi-kun?”

“Yes Oto-san.” Shikamaru looked so serious as he nodded but instead of going to his father he went to the man standing behind him with his eyes closed, breathing deeply. “Kei? Up?” When Kei didn’t respond, Shikamaru tugged on his pants, “Kei?”

“Such a drag, eh?” Kei lifted the young Nara onto his hip, “you’re too smart for your own good, you know that right Shikamaru-kun?”

Shikaku just held out his hand for Itachi, “well Itachi-kun would you lead the way to the house, I’m sure your mother is waiting for us.”

Itachi took the Nara clan leader’s hand and started back down the path, “I can lead you Nara-sama, right father.”

“Then lead the way son.” Fugaku made sure that Kei was in between himself and Shikaku, not that he thought the man would flee with Shikaku’s son in his arms but it was better to be safe then sorry.

The sight of the house had Kei breathing heavily, he hadn’t been back in years, even before the time jump. The feeling of a small hand patting his chest had him looking down at the small Nara in his arms.

“Welcome,” Mikoto had the table ladened with food. “Sit and make yourself comfortable.”

Kei put Shikamaru on his feet but the toddler refused to let go of his hand, pulling him towards the far side of the table. Fugaku and Mikoto were on one side with Sasuke and Itachi beside them, across from the kids were Shikaku and Yoshino. That left Kei and Shikamaru on the last side, the benefit was Shikamaru was close to his mother and Kei was next to Itachi. Kei wasn’t sure how he’d manage to handle it looking across the table at his parents. He kept his hands beneath the table so as to hide the shaking.

“Is the food not to your liking?” Mikoto asked as Kei had yet to touch a thing on his plate.

Kei couldn’t hear her. He was once again inside his head, his memories trying to overwhelm him. This time he was fighting it. Shikamaru climbed into his lap and laid his head on his chest. The toddler kept picking at his food and every couple of bites would push an item to Kei's lips and force him to eat it.

It was an extremely strange sight, for a child to feed a stranger. Generally not something that would be done in the presence of company or at all really, especially since Kei wasn’t a blood relative to Shikamaru. Yoshino watched the way Kei was shaking and recognized the signs of someone fighting off PTSD.

Mikoto was going to ask again when Fugaku put his hand on her her thigh.

Shikaku just watched the way his son seemed to help calm the man. Yoshino flashed a couple of hand signs. ‘Were the boys safe? Was Kei alright? How could they help?’ In the end Shikaku just shook his head and gestured towards the kids.

Itachi was leaning on his other side. Not quite touching but close, the young Uchiha prodigy was reaching out with his chakra to soothe the new comer.

Fugaku rose quietly and came back with a bottle of plum wine. Mikoto frowned as she didn’t approve of alcohol during the day especially with the children at the table, but looking at Kei she supposed this time it was warranted.

When the glass appeared in front of him, Kei looked up and met his father’s understanding eyes. He downed the drink in one go before looking over at Mikoto. “I apologize for my behaviour. It seems that I’m not that hungry after all.” He carefully placed Shikamaru to the side, stood and left the room.

Mikoto knew that there was something else at work here as no one who had fought the way Kei had done that afternoon, wouldn’t be hungry. He would need to replace the calories he had burnt. Her worried eye’s sought out her husband, “Fuga?”

“I got him,” Shikaku was the one to stand. When Shikamaru made to follow him, he just shook his head, “not right now son.” He caught Fugaku’s eye as he grabbed the bottle of plum wine and left, with a small shake of his head.

The head of the Uchiha clan sighed, he got the message. He wasn’t to say anything, at least not yet. Maybe he’d give a bastardized version, something that would satisfy the mothering instincts of both women without giving away Kei’s secret.

He didn’t really want to do this in front of the boys, but at the same time if he sent them outside, there was a good chance they would take off after Shikaku and Kei. “Look, I don’t everything that Kei has been through. Since he’s been in the village I’ve had him stay with Junpei. The Hokage has asked that we watch him. Not just because he’s a stranger to the village claiming blood ties to two prominent clans, but because of his strength. He could be an asset and I know that both Shikaku and Inoichi have been over to talk to him multiple times. We don’t believe he’s dangerous to the children. He has, however, been through hell in more ways then I can understand. Kei just recently lost his friend and mentor, Haru, who he was traveling with and is taking their death really hard. They had been searching for a safe place to stay, scared to trust because of what happened to Uzushio and the way they had been hunted because of their relation to the fallen village. He’s been alone for awhile.”

“Then suddenly coming into a village is going to affect him in ways he’s not going to understand.” Mikoto’s heart broke for the man. Her gaze shifted towards the door, it wasn’t that she didn’t trust her husband but there was something about the young man that called to her. He was very much a wounded soul and needed the love and protection of a family. He was blood through the clan, and damn it she would make room for him. She always wanted more children.

“He seems to do alright with Shikamaru-kun?” Itachi spoke up carefully. He noticed that his father had changed in the last couple of weeks, he had been more open, more warm then in the past but that didn’t mean he would welcome him speaking out of turn. Seeing his father’s nod let him know that this time he chose correctly.

“Yes and that’s the second time he’s done such a good job at calming him down.” Fugaku looked at the young Nara heir. “Tell me Shikamaru-kun, why did you climb in Kei’s lap?”

“He looked lonely and,” the toddler looked over at his mother for permission to continue. “His chakra feels different. It’s all warm and tickly, I like it.”

Mikoto pinned both of her sons without thought, “Itachi can you tell us why you reached out to Kei?”

“It was something that sensei said about how teams are supposed to work. How we’re only as strong as our weakest link and how we are each weak in different ways. How you need to protect those that are injured, I guess I just moved instinctively,” Itachi was choosing his words carefully. The boy was a prodigy and already on the fast track to become a chunin if the clan desired to push the issue, “I agree with what Shikamaru-kun said about his chakra. There is something different about it. He almost feels like family.” Itachi almost flinched at his last comment, as Kei was an Uchiha.

Fugaku was watching his youngest closely, “Sasuke?”

“Why does he feel so sad?”

“What do you mean son?” Mikoto tried to get him to explain further.

“When he looks at you, it’s like he wants to cry but can’t so instead you’re the one crying.” Sasuke was trying not to shrink back. He knew that as an Uchiha he wasn’t supposed to show emotion, but the stranger was different. “He needs us.” It was really that simple.

Mikoto braced herself. She was ready to offer whatever excuses she could think of to explain away Fugaku’s coldness to the visiting Nara.

“How can we help him, Sasuke?” Fugaku had seen what his coldness had done to son in Kei’s time and he didn’t want that to be his legacy. He reached out to pull his son into his lap, ignoring both Yoshino Nara’s presences and Mikoto’s gasp. He knew he had shocked his wife and his son. He’d have to do some explaining later.

“I don’t know, Oto-San but I think we have to.” Sasuke wasn’t used to being in his father’s arms, but this was the second time he had done something like this today and he liked it. Normally it was either his mother or Itachi who offered comfort, but he wasn’t going to turn it down. It felt good, like his father needed to hold him as much as he needed to be held. Sasuke nestled into his fathers embrace.

Chapter Text

Shikaku found Kei in the genkan, his breathing harsh and fast. “Shit but we’re just hitting you with one thing after another today aren’t we.” Shikaku took a moment, he knew that Kei would likely need a chance to blow off some steam or break down and that needed to be private. He knew that transporting out of the house would alert the others but hopefully Fugaku would understand and make his excuses. “I’m taking you out of here, let’s go somewhere quiet.” He moved them deep into the Nara woods. It was somewhere Kei could break down and scream or beat the crap out of a couple fo trees without being watched. No ANBU dared to come this deep into the Nara woods. “We’re alone now, you can let go Kei.”

The sound might have started as a moan but it ended as a howl, animalistic in it’s pain. It sounded as if his very soul was being torn from his body. Kei collapsed to the ground unable to stand any longer. How was he supposed to handle this? Being alone in the past was one thing, but having to interact with parents he didn’t know, and to see himself as a three year old? He just wanted to go back to what was, to see his friends and all that was familiar. Even if it meant dying. Even if meant being covered in their blood, at least he knew how to handle that. This. This happy family, smiling children. He had no idea what do with this.

If you can’t handle seeing your family for meal, what the hell makes you think you’ll be able to have a young Naruto around all the time. What makes you think you’ll do any better then where he’s at now? Why not just start the fourth war yourself and set the Infinite Tsukuyomi upon them earlier? Let them live their lives in a dream.

Kei gripped both sides of his head as the voice listed failure after failure, all the ways he had disappointed his friends.

“Kei?” Shikaku approached carefully, he didn’t want to disrupt the man’s grief but he needed to remind him that he wasn’t alone.

At the touch of a hand on his shoulder Kei latched on. He spun, wrapping arms around the waist of the man in front of him and cried. It wasn’t something he ever would have done growing up or before the war but after- After the war it had been Naruto who broken down in front of him. The sheer numbers of friends and comrades that they had lost had been too much on the jinchuriki who shouldered every death like a physical blow, a personal failure. With Naruto’s tears came the permission for everyone else to cry, and cry they did. Their friends had cried over the loss of home and family. Kei had finally given himself allowance to cry when he saw Kakashi break down as well. Genma and Yamato on either side, all three supporting each other in their grief. He stood there tears on his face, alone, when Naruto had pulled him in for a hug. That human contact, that release of pent up emotions had been what everyone needed. Then the war started up again there was no time to cry, not in the same way, they were too busy trying to survive.

Here though, it hit him all at once as he watched his younger self still full of love, wonder and awe. He could see the way both his mother and Itachi were posed ready to intercede between Fugaku and chibi Sasuke. He could also see that Fugaku was willing to try to change how he interacted with both of his children. That could have been him, it will be him, but not. He didn’t even want to try and wrap his mind around the jealousy he was feeling. Having Shikamaru in his arms had been a strange experience. Shikadai had been the only child- infant, he’d ever been around and even then he tried to limit how often he held the youngest Nara before so this had been a new experience and it just had to be one of his friends. “Shika, I don’t know how to handle this.”

Shikaku wasn’t sure if Kei was talking to him or his son in either time line. In the end it didn’t matter. “I don’t think there’s a set plan for those who travel in time.” Shikaku just wrapped the man in his arms and held him tight, “Kei, you don’t have do this completely alone.” He let the man continue to cry and waited until he felt comfortable to head back. He just wasn’t sure where to take him when Kei was ready to leave? Going back to Fugaku’s would mean facing the children again, but he wasn’t about to shunshin into Junpei’s back yard in case the man was home.

***

When young Itachi had knocked on his door and asked if he could come to the Uchiha compound he had expected the worst. What he found wasn’t quite as bad as his worst fears but it was close.

“Fugaku?” Inoichi was glad that the elder Uchiha had meet him at the front door.

“Inoichi, thank you for coming.”

“Sure,” Inoichi didn’t make any attempt to go inside. “How can I help?”

“Kei had trouble at supper. Shikaku took him out of here, I don’t know where they went. I was hoping that maybe you could go and check on them. We’ve hit Kei with a number of things that are sure to overwhelm him.” He had to swallow his pride to ask for help, but Kei not only needed it, he deserved it. Fugaku swore he would work to be a better husband and father then the man in Kei’s memory. He would do what was needed to support Kei as well.

Inoichi snorted at that, overwhelm him; they were lucky if the poor man didn’t go from one panic attack straight into another. “I’ll go see what I can do.”

It didn’t take much to to find out where Shikaku had taken the new Uchiha. A quick flare of his chakra was all it took to pin point his exact location.

“At least this deep in the Nara woods they aren’t likely to be interrupted.” His muttering was to himself and half in jest at least until he heard the wails. Moving a little faster he flared his chakra again so that Kei would recognize him before walking slowly in their line of sight.

“Kei, Shikaku.” Inoichi kept his voice even, his hands at his sides and his posture as unthreatening as possible.

“Ino, how have you been?”

Neither man was going to bring up the fact that Kei was gripping Shikaku’s haori with both hands and resting his head in the middle of Shikaku’s chest. For his part Shikaku kept a hand on the back of Kei’s head, not quite running his fingers through the man’s hair but just resting there either.

Inoichi moved closer, his steps loud. “Fine, I was setting us a number of displays for the store.” Inoichi had been using both bush clovers and sakura blossoms as Kei and his predicament had been in his mind, however, there was no way he was going to mention the names of the flowers. Reaching out he coated his hand with healing chakra and let it rest on the man’s back just below his shoulders. He tried to pulse the chakra in time with his breathing to encourage Kei to slow his. “I hope to have a run on potted plants.”

The two team mates kept up the dialogue of inane conversation, keeping the tone even. It took almost an hour before Kei was able to let go of Shikaku.

“Sorry,” his voice was hoarse, his emotions still all over the board.

“Kei, take it easy. You’ve done nothing to apologize for. Now we’re going to talk. The question is do you want Shikaku to stay or leave?” Inoichi didn’t mind have his team mate there but it all depended on what Kei was comfortable with.

Shikaku could see Kei wavering and took the decision out of his hands. “Kei, I’m going to leave you with Inoichi. I’ll go back to Fugaku and make sure that Yoshino and Mikoto understand whatever I can tell them.” He thought about what would happen after and made an executive decision. “I think it might be for the best if you went back to the house on Akimichi land for the next couple of days. Not because we’re worried about what you might do but-“

Inoichi took over, “but because we want to make sure that you have a safe space to be yourself especially now. Since you don’t want Junpei to know what’s going on, and that’s your right, we think that you having a place to be able to relax without worrying about who’s around would do you a lot of good. I’ll help you set up some more village safe wards at the house and let you set up more intensive ones inside it.”

“And I’ll talk to Fugaku about finding you some place else to stay. Not sure if it needs to be on Uchiha land or not, but if we can find you someplace without a room mate where you can feel comfortable that would be ideal.”

Kei took it, he understood what they were saying as well as what they weren’t. They were right he needed someplace where he could feel safe and Junpei’s was not place for that. The little cottage where he had spent his first weeks back in the village would definitely be perfect. He’d embedded enough wards there to let him feel at least somewhat safe.

Chapter Text

Shikaku sighed and ran a hand down his face, wiping away tears he didn’t know were there. If it had been anyone else, any other situation he would be worried about how Kei was affecting his emotions, he wasn’t a sensor like Inoichi. Seeing what he had of the life Kei and Haru had left behind had him perhaps more emotionally invested in Kei’s well-being then he otherwise might be. He slowed his pace before he left the Nara forest completely. Steeling himself for the questions he knew were going to come he flared his chakra once more calling the ANBU tails to him. “Kei’s having a flashback, Inoichi is dealing with it so I would strongly suggest that you back off. If you feel that he’s still a threat, you can stay back and watch but give them space. Talk to either myself, Fugaku or Inoichi before taking action.”

“Understood,” Boar signalled to Raven “go and watch at a distance, give aid if Yamanaka-Sama requires it but otherwise stand guard. The rest of you are dismissed. Nara-Sama, I will join Raven and then report this to the Hokage,” before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

Shikaku just nodded even though there was no one there to see it. “Well that’s one job done now to see how Fugaku has things handled,” and with that the Nara clan head took to the roof tops to get to the front of the Uchiha compound. He walked through the grounds without question, and marvelled at the small change. The Uchiha walking around the compound already used to seeing him come and go with his frequent visits with Kei, where months ago he would have been met with suspicion and scorn. He smiled a little, now he just needed to get them comfortable off the compound and he had an idea for that.

“Shikaku,” Fugaku met him at the door and welcomed him back into the main house and out onto the back porch.

There was worry in his eyes, Shikaku winced. He didn’t want to be in the man’s shoes. He knew the man had to be torn between comforting Kei and wanting to shelter Sasuke and Itachi, hell he was. A hand on the Police Chief’s shoulder was all the support he could give at the moment.

Shikaku wasn’t surprised to see his wife and Mikoto with their heads together, what was more surprising was seeing his lazy son working with the two Uchiha heirs on their taijutsu. Itachi really was a prodigy and had a way of reinforcing the most basic skills without it feeling like work.

Yoshino could see where her husband’s attention was, “Shikamaru doesn’t even realize how hard he’s been working. Itachi is really good. He’s challenged Sasuke to a competition as the boy seems to want to prove himself to his older brother, while showing Shikamaru a few tricks that will cut down on the number of steps he will have to learn.”

That earned a laugh. “Fugaku, Mikoto if he doesn’t go into the Academy to teach that will be a shame. I know he’s been tagged to go into ANBU, but I think that’s mistake. He has a knack for knowing how to reach a child and teach at their level.”

He looked at Yoshino who had been ANBU and Mikoto who had been an elite jonin, the women would know what a career like that could do to the gentle soul that was Itachi especially at such a young age. They also knew what it did to Kakashi and the regret that it had been required because of war.

Mikoto was the first to bring up their missing guest, “Shikaku what about Kei?”

The Nara sighed, “it’s complicated, Fugaku where can we-?” He didn’t need to say any more.

“Itachi keep an eye on things here please.” Fugaku made a subtle hand sign and his eldest son nodded before the four adults moved into the study where Fugaku activated his silencing wards. He was tempted to pull out another bottle of wine, but he knew that he wanted a clear head for whatever Shikaku was going to bring to the table.

“The first thing I want to know is what happened after I left?” The others watched the way Shikaku sat, and knew that he was planning something. They had all dealt with him as team leader and how his mind worked, solving problems before they were even noticed. Giving him the answer to the questions he asked no matter how strange, might just resolve this without having to take Kei into T&I and no one here wanted that.

Mikoto looked to her husband before she began, the fact that he was relaxed showed the faith he had in the Nara. “I asked Fugaku for an explanation. Not because I was offended you guys ran off but because I was worried I had done something to upset him. It was Itachi who mentioned that Shikamaru had calmed him down twice. Fugaku asked how the boys felt about Kei. Both Shikamaru and Itachi mentioned that his chakra felt warm and familiar and Sasuke thought he felt sad.”

“Shikaku, all Fugaku said was that he’s been through a lot.” Yoshino raised an eyebrow as she looked at her husband. She wasn’t going to ask if Kei was the person he had stashed away earlier, at least not here.

Shikaku sighed, “this is so troublesome. Look it’s not that I don’t trust any of you, or that you don’t have the clearance or ability to handle anything that comes your way. This is just a little more involved than what would normally happen when a shinobi returns or joins the village. What I can tell you is that shortly before he sought refuge with Konoha, his long time companion and mentor Haru died in his arms. He may think he’s over it but he’s not. He’s also not over the death of his village, even though it’s been a long time. He and Haru had been part of a small group who had been living as if they were in the midst of a war and in many ways with the way they were hunted, they were. For an Uchiha, he’s been quite relaxed about having Inoichi in his mind to help him cope. Maybe it’s the Uzumaki in him, who knows. IF I get the okay to let you guys know more I will, but until then please just be patient with him and know that he really does have the best interest of Konoha at heart.”

Fugaku looked out the window just in time to see his sons and Shikamaru throwing practice kunai at the training target they had set up in the yard. It had only been a couple of weeks but he was trying to make changes. He didn’t want to be the father of Kei’s past. He knew what his boys could do if given encouragement. He wanted them to have a future.

“Shikaku, Yoshino. I could use your help with something.” Fugaku bowed his head, he knew that Shikaku already knew about the coup and had given him some suggestions to try to stop it from within but he needed more. Mikoto was against the coup and if she knew there was someone she could go to for help, she might feel better. “The elders are pushing to take action against the village. They feel the number of sanctions against the Uchiha are unfair and they want to push back. Right now it’s just talk but I’m afraid of what it might morph into.”

Mikoto and Yoshino were both shocked not only at what Fugaku was saying but that he would ask for help.

Shikaku kept his surprise from showing. He needed to approach this carefully, “Fugaku, how can the Nara help? We can’t do much against the sanctions put forth by the village, at least not yet but we can help to make sure that you’re not alone.”

Mikoto sighed and her shoulders visibly relaxed. She was afraid when her husband mentioned the coup was that the Nara clan heads would demand they take this straight to the Hokage. That would mean death for the entire clan.

Yoshino tilted her head as she thought through all the interactions she had seen out on the streets between Uchiha and other villagers. It was there the subtle harassment and ostracizing of any Uchiha who shopped at stores that weren’t Uchiha or clan owned. It reminded her of how young Naruto was treated although not as violent, since the young Uzumaki was alone and the Uchiha still had the power of the Police force and the clan behind them. “We can spread the word easily enough to the Yamanaka and the Akimichi clans with little problem or explanation. Even the Aburame clan would be easily enough get them to support you. Even if all it is, is standing up against discrimination when your out in the village.”

“Hmmm,” Shikaku had his fingers steepled together, a sure sign he was thinking things over, “do you think the idea for the coup came from inside? From anger over the sanctions?”

“What do you-?” Mikoto didn’t finish the question as the implication hit her. “Were we being set up?”

Fugaku rubbed a hand over his face, “I don’t know, I just don’t know. I have my suspicions but I also know that many of the complaints brought forward are legitimate. We had a meeting of the clan elders a couple of weeks ago and if it hadn’t been for the need to introduce Kei, I know there would have been demands for more concrete action. We will be having another meeting in a couple of weeks and I’d like to be able to put forth some advancements to have them stop and think. Right now not all of our elders are convinced that going against the village is the way to go, but I need a plan and I’m afraid that I just can’t think of one that will work.”

Shikaku nodded, he knew that he could be an ass and rub it in, but that would just reinforce the idea that the Uchiha’s weren’t valued. “I have a couple of ideas but they aren’t going to change things right away and they will require me to talk to a couple of other people. If you can give me a couple of days to firm things up I’ll come and talk to you at your office.”

“Thank you.” Fugaku, “I’m going to talk to Itachi as well, I know that there has been pressure for him to join the ANBU, but the more that I think about it the more I think he should stay where he is. It doesn’t matter that it would bring a lot of prestige to the clan if he were to join ANBU, I want what’s best for him. I can’t continue to bend to the pressures of the clan and ignore the duties I have as his father.”

“It’s a hard balance being a clan head and being a father. I too struggle to make sure that I strike the right balance between what is right for my family and what is right for the clan.” Shikaku could only encourage Fugaku to continue on the path he was on.

Chapter Text

Kei spent a couple of days in the cottage seeing only Inoichi before being sent out on a simple delivery mission with a couple of shinobi that he didn’t know. Inoichi assured him that they were trustworthy and honestly with a C rank mission, he figured out pretty quickly why they sent the three of them. This was likely just another part of his assessment, although maybe an unintentional one. Kei was sure that one of the jonin with them worked with Inoichi at T&I and would report back to the Yamanaka about his mental health. He scoffed to himself, he’d do better on a mission then he would in the village where he had a higher chance of running into people he knew. Missions were easy. Living in a village amongst family; not so much.

With their return Kei made sure to acknowledge the gate guards to the surprise of his current team mates. “If it’s okay with you,” Kei addressed the others, “I’ll take care of this mission report.” He headed off towards the jonin station where he sat off by himself to do his write up as Iruka sensei had taught him all those years ago.

“Uchiha-San.”

Kei glanced up at the name, he wasn’t sure how many Uchiha’s were actually in the jonin station. Seeing the man he had fought against in the assessment he searched his mind for the name. “Gekko-San, how are you?”

Souske Gekko took the greeting for an invitation and sat down beside the village’s newest jonin. “Call me Souske.”

“Kei, there’s too many Uchiha for you to continue with last names.”

Souske smiled, “I hear you’ve just gotten back from your first mission. Things go alright?”

Kei laughed, “yeah it was a milk run, but I suppose the Hokage and powers that be will keep sending me on these as a way to finalize my assessment.”

Souske nodded, so the man was smart enough to realize that he was still under watch. “Do you have time for a spar? I would love to watch more of your fighting style.”

“That would be interesting, where would you suggest?” Kei knew that Inoichi and Shikaku wanted him out of Junpei’s house and he understood why, but he wasn’t sure if it would be better if he was an Uchiha out in the village, or inside the clan’s compound where he could have a steady stream of outsiders inside. Right now he didn’t feel comfortable inviting people over to Junpei’s house, not that he knew many people, so something like this invitation to spar could only be issued here as Kei was sure Souske would not have ventured uninvited into the Uchiha clan lands. Could he be a bridge? Kei was still unsure.

“Why not tomorrow morning at training ground number four. It’s generally quiet and has enough room for sword practice.” When Kei nodded in agreement, Souske started getting excited. He really did want to see the new jonin’s style again. “You know where it is? Would you mind if I brought my son?”

Kei just nodded again, “I’m pretty sure I can find it. I can always double check the location with Fugaku and sure bring your son.”

“Double check with me about what?”

Kei looked up towards the doorway where Fugaku and Shikaku were standing. “Souske here just invited me to a sparring session and he wanted to make sure I knew where training ground four was.”

“We’ll walk past it on our way back to the Uchiha compound if your done here?” Fugaku’s comment came out more like a suggestion and less like an order.

Kei had to hand it to the man, once faced with the absolute destruction of his family and clan, Fugaku threw himself completely into changing the future’s outcome. “I just need to hand this into the mission desk.”

The walk back had Kei a little lost in thought. He’d been in the village for six weeks now with two of those having him hiding from everyone and recovering from almost complete chakra exhaustion. Four weeks he’d been walking amongst the people, reliving his past and trying to change his future. It wasn’t until the trio turned left at the main market that Kei realized they weren’t going directly back to Uchiha land. “Where we going?”

“Hhhn,” Shikaku sighed, “we have some things to talk about and some guests coming over. We thought that Nara land would be most neutral.”

Kei took in the slight tension of Fugaku’s shoulder and followed. Spreading out his senses he could tell that his ANBU tail had backed off even further. The main house came into view and Kei braced himself to see Shikamaru again.

“Yoshino took Shikamaru over to visit with Mikoto and the boys,” Fugaku wasn’t sure whether or not having the women become close friends was going to be a good idea for Kei’s secret, but it could only improve clan relations.

“Right.” Kei followed the pair into Shikaku’s study and waited for him to put up the privacy seals.

“Troublesome. We need to talk about your PTSD attack the other day. Inoichi had asked me to give you some space afterwards and then you had the mission.” Shikaku watched Kei’s reactions before continuing. “The children all think that your chakra feels familiar to them and Sasuke said that you felt sad. I believe that Shikamaru said something similar as well after he first met you. It’s possible that the children will react differently to you then the adults if only because you spent more time with them.”

Kei closed his eyes. “I really didn’t.” He hated how much of a failure he had been in his own past. “Like you saw in Haru’s memories I pretty much abandoned the village by the time I was twelve and even before then I spent as little time with my classmates as I could since they couldn’t help me get stronger in my bid to kill my brother and avenge my clan. Even during the war I kept them all at arms length, by the time I realized my mistake. Well, most of them were gone. Haru was the one who created bonds.”

The two clan leaders noticed how detached Kei seemed as he talked about killing his brother and leaving the village behind. That detachment was worrisome as it could signify a shinobi ready to snap, but one look in his eyes and they knew Kei was doing his best to keep from falling apart.

“Then maybe it’s Haru and the residual chakra from the jump that they feel. You’re not a robot, nor are you some unfeeling monster, Kei. We’re all changing how things are going to happen. It won’t be the same, and neither are you.” Fugaku did his best to reassure his time traveling son. “You’re already reminding me of Kushina. Quiet when she was on a mission, but volatile when she was home. You may not be as loud or as active, but your chakra is. Your cousin Shisui is a lot like you.”

Kei’s head popped up. He’d almost forgotten about his brother’s best friend. The comparison to Shisui did more to calm his mind then comparing him to Kushina and Haru.

“The kids will continue to be who they are and they all want to be around you more. We have asked them to come to us if you have trouble again, although I have included Inoichi in the list of adults they can talk to, but no one else; not even ANBU. They understand that it is a clan issue and they will need to talk their clan head before talking to outsiders about it. Unfortunately all three of them are prodigies in their own right and more than likely understand that something else is going on. They are however, willing to follow along. So too are Mikoto and Yoshino. They have both said that they will wait for us to explain further WHEN we can.” Even at home Shikaku acted like the jonin commander he was, “that doesn’t mean any of us can let our guards down around them, but both of them will follow our leads for now.” He moved one of the shoji pieces on the small board by his side, “the next item we need to tackle is whether you stay on Uchiha land or if you move off and into the village proper.”

Fugaku took the moment to speak up, “for the moment I think it would actually be more beneficial if he stays on Uchiha land. There is an empty house just one street off of the main entrance. Kei, you wouldn’t be stared at or bothered by those who just want to gawk, however, it’s just deep enough into Clan land that anyone else coming to visit will be noticed if they want to be, but close enough to the edge that you can also get in and out with minimal eyes on you. Those around the house include some of my best officers, a retired ANBU and a medic.”

“So if I invite Shikaku and Yoshino over for supper the word will get around, but if I need privacy, I could possibly sneak someone in, or at least have them turn a blind eye?” Kei liked that idea, it was a way for the clan to get used to seeing others in their territory.

“Exactly. The main house is three blocks away and the Clan meeting house is four blocks further in. All of the elders live on the far side of the clan building so you would be away from their prying eyes.” Fugaku smiled, Shikaku wasn’t the only one who could plan.

This was one case where the the design of the clan compound worked in their favour. The main road leading into the Uchiha compound lead to the clan head’s house. Behind it, in the middle of the compound was the clan meeting house, used for everything from general meeting of clan business to family weddings, the meeting house was often empty. During the founding of the village the clan meeting house was where the Uchiha kept weapons and gathered while the head family house was where the children and vulnerable were gathered to be protected. Surrounding the meeting house was the homes of the clan elders.

“l plan on expanding the police force to include anyone would like to join, not just Uchiha. I have asked for the files of shinobi that may be interested. Those that are no longer able to be of service as active shinobi but are still too young and healthy to fully retire. They would be perfect for the police force, something that has been solely a Uchiha job until now.” The Police Headquarters was halfway between the Uchiha compound and the village Centre with six sub stations spaced throughout the village. At Shikaku’s look Fugaku explained further, “it was something that I overheard at the Jonin standby office the other day. A couple of jonin were talking about a comrade who had been injured but was now unable to come back to work as their injuries were too limiting for active duty, but they weren’t interested in teaching. The majority of the police force is just above chunin level.”

“You will have trouble with both the Clan and Hokage’s council over that, but I think it will be well worth it. Better if you can get a couple of candidates in place before the next meeting.” Shikaku moved another piece on his board before turning to Kei. “With regards to the information on ROOT you gave us, I’ve had Inoichi help me go through the files we have access to within T&I and ANBU. I don’t have anything all that incriminating against Danzo, however, we’ve only just started looking and will continue search not only our current records but the archives as well. You’ve given us enough dates, names and events to look into that I’m confident we can find something to lead back to him, if only to find more records.” He wanted to make sure the Kei knew he wasn’t ignoring the issues he had brought up when he had first arrived. He looked up at the clock, “we have a couple of people joining us in about a half an hour. It’s part of the next step to stop those events you had told us about.”

Kei watched the board as Shikaku moved pieces around on both sides, it was something that both Shika and Baki had done when planning out their strategies. Kakashi had said that Baki was the only one aside from Yoshino that would be able to give Shikamaru a run for his money in a shoji match, they’d just never had the time to play for fun. All of their games were actually battle strategies played out on the board. It was reassuring to see that Shikamaru had learned the habit from his father and not out in the midst of war.

“I trust you and Inoichi to do what you can with Danzo. I’m not sure if Yamato or Tenzo has his seal removed yet and can talk or if that’s something that needs to be addressed. Again we can work on that when you feel it’s right and have the information you need. The former ROOT member will only be more suspicious if we suddenly start asking without documents supporting it. Most of ROOT is made up of the lost and unwanted but there are enough clan children that going through your registry is something to be considered.” He reached over and took a pawn from the side of the board. “As for Mikoto and Yoshino, I know it will make your personal lives more difficult and if it will help I can talk to them myself, but I think for now I need them kept in the dark. At least until,” he wanted to say Danzo was dealt with, but the coup was also something major so in the end he said nothing.

Both men understood. They knew that their wives, for as strong as they were, wouldn’t be able to stop themselves from trying to mother the lonely man in front them. They knew because it was taking everything in them to stop from trying show affection that shouldn’t be there, from trying not to treat Kei like a long lost son and there were times that they failed miserably.

“They’ve entered clan lands. I’m going to go and put water on for tea, because they’ll expect it. Fugaku, can I ask you to show them into the study.” Shikaku stood.

Kei took a moment to reach out his senses. The Hyuga twins. Well at least he knew what to expect. A hand on his shoulder as Fugaku walked past gave him a moments pause, but he was sure it was meant as encouragement. He took the time he had to gather his chakra and meditate.

“I can honestly say that I didn’t expect to see you so comfortable in the Nara household. Uchiha-sama.” Kei didn’t know which one of the twins was speaking but he assumed it was Hizashi, Neji’s father. His experience with Hiashi was that the man would rather die then talk to an Uchiha, of course he’d had a lot do to with that opinion.

“Shikaku and I have had a lot of business lately and what we will be talking about today concerns me as well. Yoshino and Shikamaru are at my home visiting with Mikoto and my sons.”

“Is that wise?” The voice was slightly more, Kei wanted to say stuck up, but reserved was likely a better choice. That was the voice he knew from his timeline, the voice that told Hinata she was useless as a clan heiress. Of course Hiashi had changed his tune before his daughter’s death, but the superior tone had remained. He was glad he wasn’t in their line of sight just yet.

“I think that encouraging our children to learn to work together early is of great use. When they become the heads of their clans they will need to be able to talk to and work with each other. It will make it easier if they are already friends.” He tried to word it in a way that wasn’t confrontational. He and Hiashi had never seen eye to eye on things, both had tried too hard to be the best. Entering Shikaku’s study he stepped to the side to let the Hyuga twins see the jonin they had watched at the assessment. “Kei Uchiha, I would like to introduce you to Hiashi Hyuga-sama the Hyuga clan head and his brother, Hizashi Hyuga-San.”

Kei stood and bowed, “It’s an honour to meet you both. Please be seated, Shikaku should be here shortly.”

“I’m here.” Shikaku walked into his study with a tray of tea and sweet cakes that Yoshino had left for him when he told her who he had invited to talk to Kei.

“Yes and again the question is, why are we?” Hiashi wasn’t going to pull his punches. He respected the position both Shikaku and Fugaku held in the village, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be seen in public with them.

“Well, you’re here because you were intrigued at his assessment. Both of you watched the entire thing with your Byakugan activated, and I know how draining that is.” Shikaku poured the tea, “the other reason is that Kei here has something that may interest you, I know that when Fugaku found out, his first stop was to come and question me about the validity of his claim.” He poured the tea, but didn’t explain any further. As the silence grew so did the tension as the Hyuga twins were still in the dark as to why they were there.

Kei huffed out a breath, “fuck, but are you an asshole on purpose or do you just like making things as complicated as possible?”

Shikaku hid his expression behind his tea and shrugged.

“What the Nara is trying to say is that as I grew up in Uzushio, when we came under attack and I was sent away with my mentor as my caretaker. Haru continued with my lessons in fuinjutsu and the shinobi arts. As an Uchiha my parents were worried about the theft of my eyes. I have a seal my mother created placed behind my ears. Unless I release the seal, my eyes implode if anyone attempts to take them. It has not hampered the development of my eyes but for all that I have Uzumaki blood, I’m not that skilled at fuinjutsu. Not enough to trust myself to ink someone else with the seal.” Kei figured that with the number of times he and Haru had been injured together and bleed all over each other that it counted as having Uzumaki blood. Hell, he was pretty sure that Sakura had given each of them a transfusion or two during the war.

“Excuse me, and Uchiha and an Uzumaki? Does the Hokage know?” The twins were looking at each other, communicating in quick glances. They had not heard the proctors aborted announcement of his name.

Kei nodded, “he does but asked that I not reveal my Uzumaki bloodline publicly just yet.” He gave a careless shrug as if to say he didn’t care when everyone there knew that he cared too much. “I’m not sure of the full reason but I was promised an explanation when my probation was done.”

The four men looked at each other with Shikaku giving the slightest of nods. Kei had yet to meet the village jinchuriki and his last remaining family member in the village, although his comments lead other to understand that he suspected.

They were both extremely interested. Hating the way the elders lorded the caged bird seal over the branch family, especially since all Hyuga eyes were at risk. Neither man liked the use of the brand as a constant threat to force obedience. Maybe there was another way and tradition be damned. “Please, explain.”

Kei tilted his head to the side as he moved his hair and exposed the side of his head. Pushing a little chakra into the seal exposed the seal itself and he let his sharingan flare before switching it to the mangekyo and then closing the eye completely. He saw both Fugaku and Shikaku nod and opened his eye again to reveal the rinnegan.

“Is that….” Hiashi was well versed in the legends of the different doujutsus in the village.

“The rinnegan, yeah.” Fugaku shook his head, still amazed that he could see the legendary doujutsu in his lifetime let alone that it was something his own son held. “It still gives me chills to see it. No one else knows about it except us here. We’d like to keep it that way.”

“The Hokage,” when Shikaku shook his head the Hyuga twins nodded, they both knew what it was like to have clan secrets from everyone.

Hiazshi looked to his brother before speaking, “why show us this?”

Kei gave them a half truth, things that Haru and the Hiashi of his time had let slip before Hiashi sacrificed himself in order for a team to make it back safely. “I know of your clan’s seal. Its origins and how it works. It’s actually based on an old Uzumaki seal matrix, I wanted to give you an option, a way to protect the Bakuygan without forcing compliance or having half of your family live in fear.” He left the sentence hanging open, allowing the two men to come to their own conclusions.

“It would be an interesting concept,” Hiashi leaned forward, his presence intimidating to weaker man. “How do you see it benefiting the Hyuga clan? What would you want for it?” He didn’t want to make any assumptions. His daughter’s third birthday was coming up and the next round of branch family members to be branded included his nephew.

“It would replace the seal you use. That’s the only thing I would require for you to be able to use it, is for you not to ever use the caged bird seal again. My skill with fuinjutsu is limited and if you are interested I would ask that you help Fugaku and Shikaku with this. We are looking at using the same seal on the Uchiha in order to protect the sharingan.” Kei pushed up his sleeve and pulled out a scroll from the seal in his arm. His fingers lingered over the scroll, “my parents designed the seal to be placed upon me even before my sharingan awakened. With my father having been from the Leaf, he was familiar with the Hyuga and talked of your clan to my mother. My mother was a funijutsu master and knew the history behind the Hyuga seal, where it came from.” Kei marvelled at how natural it felt to lie about his family, he wondered how long it would take for him to actually start believing his own lies. ‘Haru, you dumbass, you knew this was going to happen didn’t you? You knew that I would channel your talk-no jutsu bullshit. I only hope I can pull it off as well as you, dobe.’ He opened the scroll keeping only the sections about the seal for both the Uchiha and Hyuga readable, while the rest of the scroll was blurred.

Hiashi watched closely and then asked the question that the clan head had assumed when they heard the name here. “Any relation to Kushina Uzumaki?”

“She was my cousin, second or third I never know how that works and honestly, the Uzumaki clan doesn’t really count things that way. Family is family and if you’re an Uzumaki you’re family. She was the next in line as royalty and barring her having any children, I would be further down the line. I was raised in Uzushiogakure until just after the invasion when I lost both of my parents, I was sent out of the village and into hiding.”

The four men all immediately thought about the young child in the orphanage, the one who had been denied a family from the number of clans that wanted to adopt him, some for more nefarious reasons then others. It was apparent that the newest jonin’s view on family would welcome young Naruto, provided he didn’t have a problem with him being a jinchuriki. The fact that he was Uzushio royalty was something none of them had known.

Fugaku pushed the scroll closer to Hiashi, as he looked at the Hyuga clan head, “I want your opinion on this, not to doubt anything you say Kei, but I know and trust the Hyuga and while I may not agree with how they use seals I know them.”

Hiashi raised an eyebrow at the comment. One of the biggest issues between the Uchiha and the Hyuga was the use of the caged bird seal. While Hiashi didn’t completely agree with it, it was something that had been done by the main family towards the branch family since the beginning of the clan before they joined the Leaf village. Having to watch his brother be branded almost killed him and when Hizashi came to him after passing his jonin exams asking to join ANBU, Hiashi couldn’t say no. His brother had already given up everything for the clan. He knew the request was his brother’s way of dealing with Kushina getting married to someone else and being forced into an arranged marriage himself. Having a sealed Hyuga as an ANBU could be seen as a problem but Hiashi refused to let be one.

Hiashi examined the seal in front of him. “The seal is extremely interesting. It will do as you say Uchiha-San, if I were alive, I could donate my eyes for say a transplant. If they were forcefully removed while I was alive they would implode. There looks to be a hidden key here to allow for them to removed after death for a transplant, but again if you don’t have the key they will implode. It does not allow for the control that the caged bird seal has and there is nowhere that I can see where it can be added without nullifying the seal as a whole.” He passed the scroll over to his brother and looked up at Fugaku, “have you looked at it?”

“Yes and I also like the fact that one part of the matrix allows for growth so we can use this on our children those that aren’t born with the doujutus but develop it through circumstances and allows it to continue to grow.” Fugaku looked over at Kei who was just sitting there allowing them to discuss the seals he had provided as if he wasn’t in the room, “are you sure you don’t want to be the one to help ink them on?”

Kei shook his head and sipped his tea, “no I’m really not the best at fuinjutsu, it’s the reason I showed the scrolls to Shikaku and Inoichi as they use fuinjutsu daily.” Kei made a mental note to see about traveling to Uzushio to find what scrolls remained. He remembered areas that only Haru could open due to the seal requiring proof of blood, but if he could gather the rest of the relics until he had custody of this times Naruto, that would be enough.

“I’d rather not put the seal on anyone who hasn’t already awoken their doujutsu and if possible I’d like to have Jiraya look at this. I’m not a seal master and neither is Inoichi. It’s not that we don’t trust the work, but we don’t want to make mistakes here. It’s too important.” Shikaku laid out his argument.

“That’s not a problem, I would really like to hear Jiraya’s take on the seals. I understand he actually visited Uzushio a number of times before it fell.” Kei hoped that Jiraya’s endorsement of the seal would help with the Hyuga accepting it.

“This is something that I need to think upon and discuss with the elders. I cannot let my personal preferences dictate choices made for the clan.” Hiashi looked at his brother and held out hope that perhaps his nephew would be the first without the caged bird seal.

“Here,” Kei pulled the scroll back, he pulled a second blank scroll from a pocket. Opening the blank scroll, his hands flew through a number of signs before placing one finger on the scroll with the seal and the other on the blank one. As his finger traced the line of seal it copied itself onto the blank scroll and handed the copied section over to the Hyuga clan head

“What the hell?” Fugaku couldn’t contain his amazement, he’d never seen a technique like that.

Kei laughed, “it’s a cheat Haru taught me. Basically it allows me to copy anything that I run my finger over. I hope you’re not offended but the copy I gave you will be readable but you won’t be able to replicate it or use it. This is strictly a readable copy.” Kei pulled out all the tact and persuasion he had ever been taught and yet had never used in his previous life, “I’m not trying to be insulting but I’d rather not have this seal out in the village yet without you’re assurance that it’s not going to be misused.”

Hiashi just nodded. He could understand that, one didn’t often gift clan secrets without some sort of assurance that it wouldn’t be used in some way it was never intended to be. “Of course.”

Fugaku took a chance he still remembered what else Kei wanted to change and December was only a few short months away. If he could have a better relationship with the Hyuga then maybe young Hinata’s kidnapping would turn out differently as well. “Hiashi, there is another matter I would like broach here before bringing it to the attention of the council or my clan.” He knew that the Hyuga’s were one of the first to have seen the sharingan eyes on the Kuuybi the night Minato and Kushina died, their testimony helped validate the sanctions being held against the Uchiha.

Hiashi looked up from the scroll, he noticed the tension in Fugaku’s shoulders and was braced for some sort of request to help lift the rules the Hokage had placed around the Uchiha.

“I was at the jonin station the other day and over heard two shinobi talk about an injured comrade, one who will most likely never be able to return to active duty again. I am sorry if I overstepped, but I looked into it and realized it was possible they were talking about Toshiro Hyuga. While their injury is career ending for a shinobi I would like to propose the idea of them joining the Konoha police force. I realize that until now it has been made up of only Uchiha clan members but I would like to change that. I want to petition the other clans to see if there are shinobi who are still active and able and would like to join. We do have a training program, as a police officer is slightly different then a shinobi but I think that diversifying the force can only benefit the village.”

Hiashi looked at the man who had been nothing but a thorn in his side for years and wondered just what had happened. “Have you approached other clans about this?” Hiashi knew that if Fugaku had come to the council meeting with the idea and no one interested he would have been laughed at out right, but by having a couple of interested parties, the council would have to take a look at the idea.

Shikaku sighed, Fugaku wasn’t normally impulsive but seeing how things had gone the last week, he couldn’t blame the man. He was just glad the Nara had a clan meeting tonight as did the Yamanaka’s so he could cover his ass. “Fugaku has broached the topic to both myself and Inoichi. We are both taking it to our clans to discuss tonight. I know of at least three Nara members that would benefit from something like this. They are strong and intelligent but unable to leave the village for one reason or another and shift work at the police force may help them.”

“It would be something to think about.” Hizashi could see the wheels in his brothers head turn. “Would that mean you would have more Uchiha serve in the village shinobi corps?”

“Yes, it had been something that hasn’t been an option previously. If we were allowed I’m sure more Uchiha would gladly stay in the village corps for longer then the allotted five years.”

The men at the table were shocked by what Fugaku revealed, Shikaku was the one who recovered first. “Fugaku, can you expand more on what you just said. What do you mean by the allotted five years? Allowed by who?”

“The Hokage,” Fugaku was just starting to understand where some of the village antagonism came from. “It started late in Lord Second’s reign, as reparations for Madara’s betrayal, the Uchiha clan was not trusted in many positions. Lord Second couldn’t deny our right to be shinobi out right and the police force had already been created, but he changed it to have it become more of a place where we could be watched. By allowing us to work with others for five years after graduation we were supposed to forge bonds without the chance of betraying the village outside. The council got ahold of the directive and demanded that no one join the police force except Uchiha, forcing us to fire the members we had that weren’t clan members. What was worse was that we were under a gag order and weren’t allowed to explain. In reality only the clan elders know about it. It only heightens the fear and anger felt towards and by the clan.”

“Fuck me, will that man ever stop.” Kei ran a hand down his face, muttering quietly before gathering himself.

“So you are defying the gag order by telling us,” Hiashi looked at Fugaku with new eyes. The Uchiha clan head had just handed him something that could guarantee the demise of the Uchiha clan.

Chapter Text

Danzo tapped his fingers on the top of his desk as he thought about the newest jonin to join Konoha. The fact that he didn’t fully confirm or deny to being a Uzumaki on top of having Uchiha blood pissed him off. There was no denying the man had seals inked on his skin, something that had only rarely been seen on the most accomplished seal masters in Uzushio before it’s destruction. It had been one of the reasons it had they had been destroyed. They refused to give him their secrets and he had found no way to force them. His eyes unconsciously roamed over to the cabinet where he had the scrolls stored, the only scrolls he had been able to steal before the Kiri nin had destroyed the entire village of Uzumaki clan. The problem was he couldn’t read any of the scroll, none of it many any sense. One needed to be a funijutsu master to fully understand them. He hadn’t been able to turn Jiraya and even after manipulating Orochimaru into helping, the Snake Sannin had aided his cause only under the belief that it was sanctioned by the Hokage. It had taken Danzo years to get his hands on an incapacitated Hyuga branch member, one he could examine to his heart’s content, but it had only allowed him to pervert the Hyuga’s caged bird seal, and turn it into the tongue seal he used on all his ROOT operatives.

If he could get his hands on this Kei Uchiha then he would have access to someone who not only had the sharingan but also could use funijutsu. The possibilities would be almost endless.

“Cho,” the faceless mask appeared at his desk side silently waiting for orders. “Take your squad and watch our newest jonin. I want a report on where he goes, what he does and who he talks to.” Danzo kept his expression as neutral as possible. He had worked so hard to get Konoha where it should be despite what Sarutobi did as Hokage. Would he rather be Hokage himself, yes, but he had to admit that he was better suited to work behind the scenes. He had his pawns in place.

The first step had been to make sure that Uzushio didn’t receive any help from Konoha when Kiri had been ready to attack. His ROOT agents had brought down the barrier from the inside. His agents had gone through the buildings to take what scrolls they could all the while helping Kiri destroy Uzushio. With Uzushio gone one of Konoha’s strongest allies was also gone. He wasn’t the best at funijutsu and as soon as he managed to learn the secrets hidden in their scrolls, he would use that knowledge to turn Konoha into the village he knew it could be. For that he needed Kei Uchiha.

He had been pissed when Hiruzen had overlooked him as his successor. He didn’t like he way Minato Namikaze had planned to change things. Too many things, and he had plans to alter things even more. Things like raising the age for the academy, not letting children become chunin until thirteen or jonin until sixteen. Including clan teaching and medical training at the academy. Mandatory psychological treatment for all shinobi regardless of rank and without major consequence. Using the funds raised by missions to help pay for social reforms instead of strengthening their defences. Danzo just continued to sneer at the filing cabinet where his file on Minato was. Sure the Yellow Flash had been an excellent shinobi out on the battle field but in office he would have been too weak. Leaking just who the village jinchuriki was to the highest bidder had been his second step to taking control of Leaf and molding it into the village of his vision. Shimura hadn’t known at the time what that information leak would have done, but the loss of Kushina, Minato and Biwako Sarutobi had only furthered his goal.

With Kushina’s death the blasted nine tails had been released and there had been many deaths and a lot of destruction. Danzo had used the confusion it created to gather information, steal children and clan secrets and sow discontent. He knew that Hiruzen would be reinstated at least temporarily because of Minato’s death, but had assumed that he would assign another successor quickly. The bastard hadn’t. He was weakened though, as Biwako had been one of Hiruzen’s unofficial advisors and a smart one at that being that she was a Yamanaka by birth. He’d had to be careful around her, but with her death, Hiruzen was easier to manipulate. Of course he hadn’t anticipated the strength that Kushina had, her ability to create a barrier strong enough to hold in a rampaging biju and to create her chakra chains to contain the beast all after giving birth and while dying was quite impressive. She had been easily the strongest and most underestimated shinobi in the village. The fact that Minato had corralled the monstrous thing and sealed it inside of his infant son was also unpredicted. The only way Danzo had been able to control the situation was to leak the brat’s jinchuriki status and make sure no clan was able to foster him. He was quite happy with the results so far. The blonde brat was being ostracized by his care takers at the orphanage, he expected the brat to be kicked out onto the streets within the next year or two and Danzo hoped that soon he would feel alone enough, that when he was approached to join ROOT he would do so willingly. For now though he had to find a way to sow more seeds of distrust between the Uchiha and the other clans.

Chapter Text

Training ground four was the perfect space to hold kenjutsu practice. The trees ran in a rough ring around the outside of the grounds while the interior had a variety of surfaces. There was soft grass and sand and gravel as well as fallen logs and small boulders. It rose and fell in gentle dips with only a few steep rises.

“I can see why you chose these grounds to spar. The perfect place for sword play.” Kei wished Kakashi had taken him here to practice when he had first learned to use his tanto. Of course, he’d only lasted a week before he left the village the first time round, and Kakashi still needed to teach Naruto and Sakura.

“Not many people know about it honestly. Training grounds one to five are generally reserved for specialty weapons. If a genin has a gained an apprenticeship it would be here that they’d come to train. Once they at Chunin level or above generally they go other training grounds or clan lands to train.” Souske wasn’t afraid to explain how things worked.

“Dad says it’s because once they’re at Chunin level they really shouldn’t need someone to help them train anymore but a sparring partner.” The young boy at Souske’s side could only be his son. “Dad’s training me but we do most of it at home to allow others access to the training grounds.”

“Kei Uchiha, this is my son Hayate. He’s in his second year at the academy, and they allow for clan techniques to be taught. Being that I am a sword master, I am teaching him what I can.”

Kei could see Hayate preen under his father’s praise. “Well I hope to show you something new. Learning more styles can only benefit your skills.

Souske and Kei set out some ground rules both for themselves and for Hayate before starting their sparring session.

Anyone coming upon the training grounds would hear nothing but the sound of swords clashing. Souske and Kei danced across the ground trading blows. Hayate watched, his eyes glued to the new comer. His father had said the new jonin fought with a style that had been lost and Hayate wanted to learn it. Watching him closely he could see at least three places where his father would have lost the fight had this been for real. He knew that guy had been introduced as an Uchiha but he didn’t fight like any Uchiha he knew. In fact he didn’t know of any Uchiha who fought with a tanto. Just when he thought his father had lost, his dad caught the tip of his wakizashi on Kei’s guard and flipped his out of his hands. Kei just smiled as his sword soared out his hands. Hayate watched as the stranger pressed a hand to his forearm and pulled out another tanto. How the hell did he do that? Looking behind him he saw the old sword on the ground even as he watched Kei fight his father with the new one, plus the ito braided around the hilt was a different colour. This one was a dark blood red, almost black while the other had been closer to a midnight blue.

“Now that’s cheating,” Souske’s voice rang out when he saw the second blade, but that really didn’t stop the spar.

Kei smiled, “if it’s cheating then stop me.”

The men went on for another ten minutes before Souske called it.

“How’d you do that? Where’d you get your swords?” Hayate had at least hundred more questions but he didn’t want to scare the man off.

Kei looked at his blade with a sad smile before handing it over to the teenager. “Give it a try.”

Hayate used it to run through the basic warm up exercises his father demanded he do every time. “It’s different.”

“What do you use?” Kei asked pleased that Souske let his son answer.

“I have a wakizashi like dad. I know the tanto is shorter and lighter, but your’s feels,” Hayate paused and moved through the first kata again. “It feels like it’s gaining energy with every move I make.”

“That’s because it is. Both of my blades have seals etched into the blade at the time of forging that allow them to gather chakra from the world around them with every non combative stroke.”

Souske’s jaw just about hit the ground. “Wait, you’re telling me that every time those blades swing through the air and don’t hit something they’re gaining energy?” At Kei’s nod the older man cursed. “No wonder you were able to keep going and not get tired.”

Kei let his grin take on an evil glint. With the blades keyed into his chakra signature the energy they gained would flow back into him helping him keep his stamina up, it had been TenTen’s idea, but Haru had made it real. “I can reflect the chakra in a hit as well.”

“Yep I really would have been dead in a real fight.” Souske just shook his head.

“As for fighting styles this time I was using an older Uchiha style.” Kei smiled as he talked to the pair. “I actually know quite a few different styles. It’s different with the Uzumaki style of fighting.”

“Uzuzmaki?” His son was curious now.

“It’s nice to have it confirmed. I’m sorry for your loss.” Souske bowed and Hayate followed suit.

Kei was flabbergasted, he could tell that these two men were honestly saddened by his loss. “I, umm, well thank you.”

“Mito-sama used katanas when she fought and watching her spar with Tobirama-sama was amazing.”

“Tobirama-Sama?” Kei had never heard these tales.

Souske grinned as thought back to his own childhood. “Oh yes, she would spar in taijutsu with her husband, Hashirama, but it was Tobirama who was the best swordsmen. She was a big believer in clans working together and could easily talk to them.”

“Umm, Uchiha-san, how did you get the second tanto?” Hayate was a little nervous. The fact that the man had let him hold his weapon was amazing, that generally wasn’t done. A shinobi’s weapon was a private thing. The fact that he was a Uchiha, the proudest clan in the village was mind blowing.

Kei smiled, he knew that Haru would be laughing his ass off at his predicament the way he was acting just like the blonde knucklehead. “Seals.” Kei pushed up his sleeves and showed the father and son pair the seals on his arms. Pushing a little bit of chakra into the first seal they watched it glow and Kei pull out a dozen shiruken, kunai and senbon each and a katana. The second seal held a pair of trench knives, a kusarigama with a spiked weight, a pair of bladed tonfa and a naginata.

Souske looked up at the new jonin with a raised eyebrow and just shook his head when Kei nodded and his smile grew. “They really have no idea do they.”

“Dad?” Hayate was confused at his fathers reaction.

“Kei, how many fighting styles do you know?” Souske knew it was a risk to ask.

Kei flared his chakra slightly, just enough to confirm that he still had his ANBU guards, recognizing the chakra of both Kakashi and Tenzo. Maybe it was the familiarity of those two that had him speaking out. “I know at least six styles in completion by heart and maybe another four or five that we cobbled pieces together on the run. Uzushio had fifteen major fighting styles each one just different enough from the other to be confusing. I only learned three of them and the two major Uchiha styles. When we were on the run we met up with other shinobi who were in hiding and well, with the sharingan I can copy styles easily. That doesn’t mean I’m proficient at them but that I know their basic mechanics. It took weeks to get them down and Haru had an instinctual knowledge of where to tweak things so they would work for us.”

Souske just shook his head. “Amazing. I know that I go in and consult at the academy especially come third year as kenjutsu isn’t something that is taught there but if a genin is interested they can approach their jonin-sensei to ask for instruction. It would be wonderful to have you teach some of the Uzumaki katas at the Academy and if not there then even if you would be willing to show me personally, I would be grateful.”

“I’ll think about it.” Kei stood and stretched. “It’s not that I don’t want to. I’d rather pass on clan techniques then see them die out and fade from existence but, I’m not sure what the Hokage will allow me to do or what my new position in the village will be.”

“Alright,” Souske gave a small nod, he understood the protocols and knew that Kei was likely still under certain restrictions.

Chapter Text

Hiashi sat in his study staring at the scroll given to him by the new Uchiha. In truth he wasn’t looking at it but thinking back to his academy days and a red haired girl who was new to the village declaring her goal to be the next Hokage to the class who was laughing at her bright red hair.

“Excuse me Hyuga-sama,” Hizashi stood at the door and waited for permission to enter.

“Hizashi, close the door please.” The clan head motioned to the seat across the table from him. With the door closed the brothers could relax their roles a little more then they would in front of the rest of the clan. When his twin sat, Hiashi let himself settle into a more comfortable posture. “Tell me what you think of the meeting. Not what the clan wants you to think, but what you think.”

Hizashi took a moment to gather his thoughts, it wasn’t often that his brother asked his true opinion. “Kei Uchiha’s assessment fight was reminiscent of the way Mito-sama used to train Kushina when she first came to Konoha. Do you remember when they dressed in their kimono tops and fought with their hair whipping around? They were like water crashing over rocks, uncontrollable and powerful. Just when you thought they were cornered because of the length of their hair or their kimono sleeve, they would use that as a weapon.”

“It was watching those fights that helped us refine our own techniques.” Hizashi remembered going to watch Mito-sama practice with both Hashirama-sama and Tobirama-sama. Hashirama-sama had the excessive amounts of chakra and mokuton release, while Mito-sama was able to match him with her taijutsu and chakra chains. Watching the pair of them laugh while they fought was something else. While Tobirama-sama would spar with his sister-in-law in kenjutsu. The way they would fly at each other with blades was awe inspiring. “Mito-sama was the only one who could talk to our father without making him feel like she was looking down on the clan.”

“I’d forgotten about that.” Hiashi poured the tea and refreshed his brother’s cup. He took a sip of his tea as he thought about how the three Uzumaki were alike. “Kei Uchiha seems to be a little different then Fugaku. It may be the fact that he grew up outside of the village, but he reminds me of a blend of between Kushina and Mikoto.”

Hizashi contemplated his tea for moment before nodding. He could see it. The two women had been best friends in the academy and caused more drama and pranks then anyone else and they had gotten away them simply for the fact no one had the believed two kunoichi would do something like that.

Both men thought back to their relationships with Mikoto and Kushina when they had been in the Academy. Hizashi had sat beside the red haired girl through their entire time at the academy. His crush on Kushina known only to his twin. Hiashi had been with Mikoto and Hiruzen’s son Ryu Sarutobi, and had born witness to the many time Kushina had come to visit her friend.

“Hiashi, did you ever talk to Mito-sama or Hashirama-sama about fuinjutsu?” This was a touchy subject as talk of fuinjutsu could have the elders thinking that the branch family was reaching above their station.

“A little, but father was ever with me and I made sure to stay away from anything that could be inflammatory. Mito-sama offered to give me lessons. I wasn’t able to take her up on it.” Hiashi had always wondered if his father had gone back and told the pair not to teach them anything. Now he wished he had pushed harder to learn more than the basics. “We have lost too much when Uzushio fell, the chance to learn the true art of sealing from the masters who created the art, not this bastardized version they all use any more. Did you know about the Uchiha being kept inside the village?”

As an ANBU agent, Hizashi had the unique position of being privy to a lot of knowledge. No one thinks about the guards especially when said guards aren’t visible. “If there was such an order regarding their containment, it was in place before I was ever put on guard detail. There has been no mention of such a ruling in all the time I have been there.”

“Hmm,” Hiashi sat back, his tea cup in hand. It would make sense, if this had been going on since the time of Lord Second, then there would be no need to continue to talk about it. “What do you think about it?”

“Well in the beginning it might have been necessary but now it does nothing but sow seeds of discontent among the Uchiha and antagonism in the rest of the village.” Hizashi knew that each clan was valued within the village, and some members were more personable then others.

The Hyugas were known for their Byakugan and subjecting the branch family. The Uchiha had the Sharingan and police force. The Nara were the village strategists and took care of the deer. The Yamanaka’s had their mind walk jutsus, psychological training and flower shops. Akimichi’s looked after the health and safety of the restaurants and food vendors in the village, helped with the creation of food and solider pills and were able to expand their bodies to close to ten times their size. The Aburame had a symbiotic relationship with a number of different insects and had them help with toxic and medicinal aspects. Other clans had similar traits all in varying sizes and strengths.

“I remember Minato had plans to change a lot of things including our clan if he could talk the elders into it and I believe that he could have. He was the type of man who had been able to talk almost anyone into anything. We weren’t the only ones either, I believe that the Uchiha were on his list too.” Hizashi remembered that there were a number of things the young Hokage had wanted to change. His death had put a stop to many of them. Many of the plans that had been laid out and started, had suddenly either stopped or disappeared. He had a good idea who was behind it all but no proof.

“We lost not only our Hokage, but a good friend and ally that day.” Hiashi’s mind went to day the Nine tailed demon attacked the village. The Hyuga twins knew what the appearance of the Kyuubi meant, and they grieved for the death of Kushina and Minato. They had no idea what it meant for their child, but when the Kyuubi was drawn away from town and then disappeared they had an idea and prayed they were wrong.

There had been death and destruction during the rampage although not as many as and not as bad as it could have been. The rumours of how Minato had drawn the Kyuubi away ran rampant through town. Both men suspected that the rumours of Kyuubi having the sharingan was nothing more then a way for the council to control the Uchiha, but once more they had no proof, no way to back Fugaku and honestly there was no real reason for them to interfere since there was no love loss between to the two clans. It was in fact three Hyuga returning from a mission that spotted red eyes on the demon and swore to the council that they were sharingan eyes. It was during the clean up of the village that everything started to sink in. The attack had affected the entire village although it hit the west side the hardest, the fact that it was the civilian side only compounded the tragedy. Almost three hundred and ninety civilians, a hundred and twelve shinobi and seventy members of the police force were killed in the attack. The days and weeks after were spent clearing debris and searching for survivors. The number of orphans was close to that of the second war.

Hizashi had watched the way Minato’s guards went back into circulation, he had let his brother know that two of them asked to be kept on as tokubetsu jonin while the other two went back into ANBU. He had talked to his brother about why and understood that it was likely to keep watch over both Kakashi, who had now lost his sensei and the last family he had known, and to watch over who they suspected was Minato’s child.

“So I guess the next question comes what do we do with information Fugaku gave us?” Hizashi held his breathe. The idea that the new jonin, Kei Uchiha, had access to a seal that would protect their eyes and not subjugate half the clan gave him hope for his son.

“I agree with Shikaku, we should have Jiraya-sama take a look at the seal as well. As for having Toshiro join the police force, I think it would be a good idea if he is agreeable.” Hiashi thought about his clan member. Toshiro had been injured during a rock fall, and had crushed his right hip and thigh. He was able to walk and run for short distances but would always have a limp and weakness on that side. It was enough that if he remained on active duty Toshiro would only be able to accept D or short term C rank missions. The problem was taking those missions wouldn’t pay enough to survive, and man would eventually grow bitter at feeling useless.

Chapter Text

Kei sat in cottage after his spar with Souske and tried to meditate. The spar had gone a long way to releasing some of the tension he didn’t even know he had. He was so used to fighting every day for everything that having day of inactivity was grating on his nerves. Kei wasn’t sure how to explain that to Shikaku, maybe it was something that he would just have to get used to. Perhaps he’d talk to Inoichi about it, the Yamanaka seemed to understand more then anyone else at the moment. He was able to handle seeing the Hyuga twins but honestly he never met Neji’s father and he’d had little interaction with Hiashi, especially after Hinata died. Right now he needed to be able to face both his brother and his Chibi self without relying on Chibi Shikamaru to keep him calm. This was so much harder mentally then he ever thought it would be. Looking at the scrolls in front of him, all Kei wanted to do was bash his head against a wall. He hated politics when he was a kid and after finding out what political ambitions had forced Itachi to do, Kei had hated them all the more. During the war, watching his sensei and Haru fight against the hate and bigotry for inches of respect hadn’t changed his mind. He could see why Lady Tsunade had cursed up a blue streak and drank heavily when she had taken the hat and why Kakashi had ran away so often. Sakura had told stories of how policies Tsunade had started in the hospital under Sarutobi, before she left the village had been abandoned and tossed away when she left. That’s to say nothing of what Minato had planned. Especially after Naruto started leading their little band of misfits, Sakura would encourage him with stories of his father’s political plans that meshed with his own ideas. Ideas that he was now struggling to remember and so he could bring them back.

It was the next day that there was a knock on Kei’s door.

“Sorry,” Junpei wasn’t sure why Kei was no longer staying with him. He wasn’t sure if he had offended the newest Uchiha or what had happened. It had surprised him when Nara-sama had told him that Kei was staying on Akimichi lands.

“Shit, I’m sorry Junpei. I never meant to just up and leave. That was really rude of me.” Kei normally would never have thought of apologizing, again he could feel himself channeling Haru. “After the meal I had with Uchiha-sama and his family, I’m afraid that I reacted poorly. Nara-sama suggested that I find someplace by myself to limit collateral damage.”

Junpei couldn’t say he was overly surprised. He had suspected that Kei was dealing with some form of battle fatigue or PTSD, after all the man was a shinobi who had been on the run and hunted for a great deal of his life. “Fugaku-Sama is okay with you staying on Akimichi land?”

“It’s a temporary measure, Fugaku-sama is arranging for a place for me on Uchiha land,” Kei didn’t want to leave Junpei on bad terms, the Uchiha police officer had been more then hospitable and had made his stay comfortable.

“Well hopefully he finds you something fast.” He tilted his head as he remembered the reason he was at Kei’s door in the first place, “that might actually be the reason you were summoned to the Hokage’s office. I had the ANBU at the door looking for you. I told them that I would pass on the message.”

“Well I better go and see what they want, eh?” Kei walked out the door and lead Junpei through the woods of Nara and land, off the Akimichi land and into the village proper.

*****

The meeting with Hokage went relatively smoothly, they had an hour alone with Hokage without interference of the council members. Fugaku explained that he felt Kei had earned his freedom from a babysitter. Well at least from an everyday babysitter. He’d likely still have the ANBU watching him off and on for a while yet, to say nothing of the ROOT. Shikaku and Inoichi were both there letting the Hokage know that Kei was making bonds with other clans and so was Fugaku. The leader of the Uchiha clan used the time they had to propose expanding the police force.

“That’s a novel idea, can I ask why you’re bringing it to me instead of presenting it at the next council meeting?” Hiruzen puffed on his pipe as he examined the file Fugaku had presented him. There were six shinobi that, due to injury, had been forced to retire from active service, but according to Fugaku’s suggestion, they would all be able to help out with the Konoha Police force.

“I know how most of the council view’s the Uchiha, even more so in light of what they believe happened three years ago. I also know our restrictions. I thought that if I had a well thought out plan, along with some suggestions as to who could fit into the positions needed and why I would be more likely to be heard. I have had a number of Uchiha who would like to continue their career as shinobi even going on to be jonin sensei and leading the next generation.”

Sarutobi flinched at the honesty Fugaku exemplified in front of the other clan leaders. He knew of the discrimination and rumours surrounding the Uchiha but had forgotten about the restrictions pertaining to the police force. He could, however, see how including other clans into the force would help foster good relations.

“Hmmm, on the situation surrounding Kei Uchiha. I agree that he no longer needs to have a daily babysitter. If both the Jonin Commander and the head of T&I don’t see him as a threat, then I will agree and grant him access to all that those of the rank of Jonin have. Kei Uchiha.”

As the old man made his way in front of his desk, Kei approached the Hokage, kneeling before him to take his final oath.

“As a new Jonin of the Leaf, I ask that you help look after our village. To protect our young shoots and those unable to protect themselves. To tread with honour and fulfill the missions given to you with integrity and know that with each mission you represent our village.”

“I will do as my Hokage asks to the best of my ability.” Kei knew that while he was making this promise to Sarutobi, he was also keeping the one he had made to his Hokage, the one who had sent him back here to right the wrongs and make sure that everyone lived.

“Kei Uchiha-Uzumaki, I know that I have asked you to hide half of your linage and I ask that you be a little more patient.”

Kei nodded and rose. He wasn’t going to mention the spike in chakra from the Hokage’s ANBU detail if he wasn’t. “I will. Will you give me a time line to when I can get see Kushina’s son?”

Hiruzen sighed, “I can’t give you a firm timeline just yet.” He held up his hand to forestall Kei’s comments, glad that his council was not here at the moment. “I want you to have time to settle in to the village, to get used to how things work here. I would like you to form more bonds with other jonin and the village. Yes, I know that you meeting Kushina’s son would also form a bond but I worry that it might have you go too far in the other direction.”

“Alright, so long as he is unharmed and safe I will continue to follow your suggestion,” Kei phrasing let the Hokage know that he wouldn’t be fooled for long.

“Thank you.” The Hokage turned to his jonin commander. “Shikaku I trust you will see that he has the proper access when you leave. I know that he has already been on a couple of low B and C missions but he’s now cleared for anything.”

“Yes sir.” Shikaku wasn’t sure why Sarutobi was so tense, but he was sure Kei had something to do with it.

“Very good. Now Fugaku as to you proposal of having others join the Police force. I have to say that I’m very intrigued and I like the thought you have put into this. The fact that you have four of the major clans represented is to your credit. Can I ask why only these clans?”

“Well this is something that I have been thinking about for a while, but have had no way of implementing. With Kei here, he has given me a chance to interact with Shikaku and Inoichi in a different setting. Asking their input, casually gave me the courage to approach Hyuga-sama. You, understand that the shinobi I am suggesting are based on their suggestions and as they have not been approached about it they may still choose to decline. I wanted to put forth a scenario based on what I know of their skill set and where I could use them in the force.”

“So your choice of Akio Nara was based on what criteria?”

“In talking to Shikaku, I mentioned that I could use someone who was good at putting together the odd angles of a puzzle. To try and see where we might need to look, to stop something in advance. He suggested Akio Nara as the Chunin had recently lost his wife and needed to stay closer to home in order to raise his children. A job on the force would allow him to do so while still giving him the challenge that most Nara need to stave off boredom.” Fugaku went through his logic for choosing each candidate and where they could be utilized, he also gave suggestions for expanding, bringing in an Inuzuka or Aburame and using their clan techniques to the fullest.

“You have put forth a very compelling case. I encourage you to do so at the next council meeting. I see no problem with lifting the restrictions on the Uchiha and expanding the Police force. I am happy to see the clans getting along so well. It shows a strong village.”

The knock on the door came right at the end of their discussion and had Danzo unprepared to see the three clan heads together with the newest shinobi.

“Ah, Danzo; Kei Uchiha has just joined the ranks of our active jonin, unhindered by restrictions. He will be eligible for more complex missions at the end of the week. Fugaku, I will add you to the agenda at the next council meeting.” It wasn’t quite a dismissal, but the men took it as such and left to make sure that Kei had a place to live.

“The house should be clean, built I’m not sure what you need for furniture or appliances.” Fugaku lead the way to the small house that was exactly where he had said it would be. Just inside the Uchiha compound. Close enough to the wall to allow for the others to sneak in and out without too much disruption, but far enough away that there were no nosy neighbours.

“I’m sure if we put the word out, we could find what ever you are missing without you needing to buy new, unless you wanted to.” Inoichi smiled at the thought. He knew that the both the Nara and the Yamanaka never threw things out although for entirely different reasons. The Yamanaka’s were sentimental as a clan, while the Nara were just too lazy to bother.

Kei could care less if he slept on the floor, he’d lived through worse. Right now it was taking everything in him not go back into that room and kill the bastard. Danzo both of his eyes visible, but there had been a subtle pulse in chakra emanating from his arm, hidden from sight by the robe sleeve. Kei wasn’t sure whose eye the old Warhawk had stolen first, but he had an idea. “Fugaku, do you have a list of Uchiha who have died in the last five years?”

“We do, we also have a list of those whose eyes we have not recovered, or were not destroyed in the field, and before you ask I will check the list to see who verified those in field deaths.”

“Thank you.”

“What are you thinking Kei?” Shikaku wanted to find a way to stop Danzo but he didn’t want to tip their hand just yet. They had no proof except Kei’s word.

“How long has Danzo’s arm been wrapped?” He hadn’t seen it wrapped the last time he had run across the bastard.

“His arm? Not long, maybe a couple of weeks at most I believe, why?”

“In my time he had both an entire arm wrapped and his right eye to protect the fact that they held a number of implanted eyes. Right now I want to know who is missing to see what skills they had.”

Fugaku explained further, “any Uchiha teammate is coached that if the Uchiha dies in the field they are to bring the bodies back to the clan and if they can’t then at least bring the eyes back to the clan. It’s one of the reasons all active Uchiha carry stasis scroll, to aid in bringing their own bodies home. If that isn’t possible then they are to be destroyed and the body burned. The sharingan is unique in that it can manifest in multiple ways. My sharingan is different than my cousin’s is. It is for that reason we keep of a record of who awakens their sharingan and when, also when and how the eyes are destroyed. The Hyuga have a similar rule.”

Inoichi was shocked. That was a lot more in depth then he realized.

Shikaku just nodded, “I believe the Aburame have something similar for the care and release of their kikaichu, like the Inuzuka do for the ninken.”

“I guess that makes sense I just never really thought of it.” Inoichi pulled his long hair over his shoulder to play with. He’d have to make sure that he had notes on this for the future.

“Here we are.” Fugaku gestured to a small house set in the middle of a yard. The fence was waist high and in good repair. He lead the way inside. “It looks like Mikoto came by to clean.” There was furniture and dishes all he needed was to go grocery shopping.

The house had the main living areas on the main floor and the bedrooms on the upper. Kei let his hands trail along the wooden walls. “I’ll be able to embed the seals in this and keep them hidden. I’ll bury some out in the yard as well, much like I did at the cottage.” The yard would have layers of wards and alarms while the house itself would have the privacy and security seals. He watched the three men leave, most likely to go and plan while he got settled. It was funny, now that he was here and they knew and believed him, they did a lot of the work and he was mostly support, a role not that different from the one he had originally planned to take had Haru survived. Inside, Kei took his time drawing seals on the walls, he placed them near the floor so as to be easily over looked. Once he was finished he made his way out of the compound in order to purchase the necessities. Fugaku had forwarded him some funds on behalf of the clan. He wasn’t going to go crazy, at least not until he had taken a couple of missions, but he had enough to purchase some food.

Walking back to the compound he dodged civilians and shinobi alike, but it was watching the children run the streets that gave him a moments pause. The blonde boy must have been nine or ten, much older than Naruto here in this timeline, but the bright blonde hair was a sharp reminder of what he still needed to do. He needed to check in on his best friend. He’d seen his brother, himself, his parents, even that lazy brainiac Shikamaru but he was missing Naruto and Sakura. He wasn’t sure how he’d manage to look in on the pinkette seeing as how she was a civilian and still basically a toddler. As for Naruto, the knucklehead should still be in the orphanage for now and to have him go there would raise more questions then he had the patience to answer.

“Kei-San?”

Kei looked away from the children to see who had called him. His circle of acquaintances was small at the moment. Seeing the Akimichi in front of him he realized that Chouza had been the one to call his name.

“Hai, Akimichi-San, how are you?” Kei couldn’t remember how he was to have met clan head, but he was sure the man would say something.

“It’s nice to see you out and about. Inoichi was worried about you. May I introduce you to my wife Rei and my son Choji.”

Well shit, Kei looked to Chouza’s wife first, the woman who had unknowingly helped him survive with her cooking during his first weeks back into Konoha. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Akimichi-San,” looking over he saw Choji as he never had before. “Choji-kun,” the strongest member of the Ino-Shika-Cho team was a cute chubby faced toddler whose body didn’t show the strength he was inside. It wasn’t as hard to see him as it had been to see Itachi. Maybe he was getting a handle on things or maybe it was just waiting to bite him in the ass. No, he wasn’t Haru who had a way of turning everything his way, this was going to come back to bite him on the ass and it was going to be bad because that was the type of luck he had.

“How are you acclimating to Konoha?” Chouza hadn’t been able to see the time traveler for a about a week or two now and he was worried.

Kei smiled, he supposed kindness must also be an Akimichi trait, “I’m doing fine. Fugaku-San has helped me get my own place on clan lands and I’m available for missions starting the end of the week.”

“Well I’m sure that is a relief. I know how much an active shinobi dislikes being stuck in the village for no real reason.” Rei’s voice held an edge of sarcastic humour in it.

Seeing them out and about reminded Kei that they still hadn’t gone and talked to the Aburame clan in person. He’d have to talk to both Shikaku and Fugaku later, but for now he wanted to get his groceries and go back home, or at least his newest home. He wasn’t sure if house on the Uchiha compound was going to be a place that he’d be able to keep Naruto or if he’d have to leave for somewhere else in the village and honestly if didn’t matter. What mattered was that his best friend was safe from harm and in a loving home.

Before the week was out Kei was up for his rotations of missions. Ironically his first mission without an ANBU guard was with Hizashi Hyuga. Kei hoped that this would be a prime time to foster better relations with the man. After all there was nothing like bonding in the Land of Storms chasing a lead to a smuggling ring.

Chapter Text

Fuagku was glad that Mikoto had come with him to visit the Aburame clan. They’d put this off way too long and he knew it had been bothering Kei. If he could finish this and let Kei know when he returned that at least this was done. Maybe it would be one things to help Kei sleep at night.

“Uchiha-sama, how can I be of assistance?” Shibi Aburame sat quietly, he wasn’t sure what the head of the Uchiha clan, the chief of police was doing asking for an audience but he was pretty sure it wasn’t because someone in his clan had broken the law. If that was the case he was sure Fugaku would be more professional and not bring his wife to talk to him about a law breaker.

“Abrurame-sama, I’m sure you are aware of the new shinobi in town. His name is Kei Uchiha and he is the son of Takio Uchiha who went missing a number of years ago. The last known report form Takio and his team was that they were in Uzushio. I’m sure you remember that Mei Aburame, was part of that team. When Uzushio fell Takio fell protecting his family. Mei Aburame stayed by his side along with their other team mate Akaashi Meko. Kei was young when he fled Uzushio, but his caretaker Haru knew of the pacts our clans made with their team mates. Kei wanted to make sure that you knew they had been buried according to clan tradition as much as possible. That being the hive was set free into the woods nearby and Mei’s body was cremated as your clan requires.”

Shibi closed his eyes in sorrow. He had long thought that Mei was dead, but it was good to hear that their customs had been followed. “Mei has no immediate family left alive, they had all passed before she had gone missing. Regardless I am glad to hear that our customs have been followed.”

“I’m told she died well protecting the Uzumaki royal line and fighting to the end.” Fugaku knew that no one wanted to hear of the death of a clansman no matter how well they fought. He bowed low, Mikoto following his lead. “I am sorry that I am so late in bringing you this news. Kei let us know of their fate when he let us know about the death of his father. He has been in the village a number of weeks now and we are only just coming around to talk to you about it. I have report the death Takio’s team to the Hokage, using Kei’s word as testimony and stating that there were records in the Hidden Eddies of their passing and how they were buried.”

Shibi bowed, “thank you for bringing us the news. Mei’s death is indeed disturbing to hear about, but a delay would not change anything.”

Mikoto smiled, “I think you should meet him Aburame-sama. Kei has a refreshing view on life and exposing him to the clans can only help him acclimate to the village. He is still getting used to living among people instead of on his own, but has mentioned he’d like to get to know the village more. I also would enjoy having you son come over to play with ours. Sasuke has little interaction except with his brother and Itachi has been busy as of late. We have been lucky in that Shikaku and Yoshino have been visitors and bring young Shikamaru with them, but I think Shino would be a fine addition.”

“That is something to think about. I will need to talk to my wife about a visit.”

“Of course. Our main reason for the visit today was to inform you of Mei. We thank you for your time.” Fugaku rose from his spot and escorted his wife back home, confident that they had least made a semi-positive impression.

Fugaku and Mikoto left the Aburame compound and with a lighter heart and went in search of the Meko family to let know the same thing. They found two shinobi siblings. Akaashi’s parents had passed long before Akaashi had, but his sibling were thankful to hear of his honorable death.

“At least we have something positive to tell Kei when he comes back.” Mikoto told her husband on their walk back through the village.

Fugaku smiled and nodded, “anything positive I could give him,” he trailed off. How could he convey how much he wanted to give Kei the world after all he had been through.

“You want to spoil him,” Mikoto hit the nail on the head, “I don’t remember you and Takio being that close?”

Damn she was smart, of course that was one of the main reasons he married her. Her beauty and strength and the fact that he loved her beyond reason were the others. “We weren’t and maybe that’s why I feel so guilty. I didn’t do enough as clan head to look out for him, to think that there might be an Uchiha child in the world that needed us. How much has Kei suffered alone when he could have had the clan behind him? What if that had been Itachi? Or Sasuke? Or Shisui? Even with the death of Obito? Did we do enough to make sure that he felt included in the clan? We’ve made so many mistakes Mikoto, we’re on the edge here and I don’t want to lead us over the side and down a path that will adversely affect our children.” He looking around the village and seeing the people looking at them, some with barely contained shocked and others with veiled distain. The Uchiha had a lot of work to do in the public relations department. Well no time like the present. He stopped at small food stall, “Mikoto, would like anything?”

His wife proved herself yet again a chose a skewer of Yakitori for the both of them. “Oh these look delicious.” she waited for Fugaku to pay for them as she praised the shop owner. “Fugaku we need to bring the boys here, I’m sure they’d love them.”

They slowly made their way back to the clan compound while stopping at various shops and stalls. It was as if the stop for the grilled chicken skewers was a signal between the two that they were going to stop at every stall they could to improve the Uchiha reputation on the way back to the compound. The fact that they saw a number of different Uchiha police members on their route, take notice. Some seemed the understand their clan leader’s intentions and began to smile. It was a small action but it would help. Fugaku knew that their actions would reported back to the rest of the clan and that many of his subordinates would follow suit.

Chapter Text

Hizashi had to admit that working with Kei was pretty easy. The man didn’t feel the need to fill every moment with the sound of his voice. Traveling was silent, he had plans to talk to the man about the seal once they set up camp, they had two nights before they got to the spot to meet their contact. All that changed as soon as they stopped for the night the first night. There was spring and Kei stripped down to have a quick wash, the man had seals covering a lot of his chest.

“Kei-San if I may ask a question about your seals?” Hizashi didn’t want to offended the man, but damn he’d never seen seals inked into skin before. Not like this.

“Sure but like I told you and your brother, I’m no expert, most of these were done by Haru,” Kei’s finger traced the one over his heart slowly, his eyes misting at memories of a blonde dumbass laughing as he wielded the brush. “I know the basics and for all that it’s in my blood I still can’t seem to grasp it fully. I needed more time to learn, time I wasted.”

Hizashi understood the pain of lost time and he wouldn’t push, “would you explain what you can? I am no prodigy but I do enjoy learning a new skill.” He hoped that by listening that maybe he could lighten the man’s load. He didn’t know what it was about Kei, but something about the Uchiha made him more approachable then any of the others, maybe it was the vulnerability that he let show through, or the air of broken innocence that he wanted to protect like he wanted to protect his son, Neji.

“Well I can try, but instead of teaching you I can give the scrolls that I was taught from, that might be easier, at least then we can start from the same point.” Kei pulled fuinjutsu scroll from his arm highlighting the beginning text. “Start with this while I check the perimeter again.”

“Very well, then I will start on our meal.” Hizashi set the scroll aside so as not to destroy it. As the meal cooked, he took his time reading.

“How are you finding it?” Kei walked back into camp with his canteen in hand, “by the way, I found some fresh water.”

“That will be good, my canteen is almost empty.” Hizashi let Kei refill his water skin, before looking down at the scroll he was reading. “As for the scroll, I am really intrigued. It is written in such a way that even my son should be able to understand it.”

“Yeah that’s how he wrote it. Haru had trouble learning himself so when he found out that he had a knack for funijutsu he wanted to make sure that he passed on his skills. He taught the same way he learned. Even with this simplistic way of learning I still had trouble grasping all the concepts, or I should say, putting them into practice.”

“Well I do need to say the concepts are well laid out.”

“I meant to ask, how does your brother and the clan feel about you learning more about funijutsu?” Kei knew from his Haru that Hiashi had never been in support of the caged bird seal but because of his role as clan head he had to follow what the elders wanted and he had been trying to find a way to change things. Change like a river was often slow to alter their course but it could be done, however war and the end of the world had demanded more of his attention. What Kei didn’t know was if this Hiashi felt the same now or if if the future Hiashi had changed his opinions after the death of his twin.

“Well I know how my brother feels, as for the clan that is something we are trying to change.” Hizashi understood why Kei was so worried. The Hyuga clan was a formidable foe and not one that a single Uchiha wanted to go against or even clan versus clan lest it rip the village apart. “I will take what I learn and keep it to myself although I may speak to Hiashi about it if it is something that may benefit the clan if I may.”

“Just give me some warning so I know if I need to worry about facing the elders for corrupting a branch member.” Kei wasn’t quite sure if he was joking or not but the rest of the night was spent discussing different aspects of the funijutsu scrolls so he counted it as a win.

The mission was completed without any issues. Their contact had all the information they needed and more. The smuggling ring was going to be a problem but with the new information they had, they could stop it. The journey back was supposed to be at a more sedate pace. It wasn’t that they took their time, but Kei really enjoyed Hizashi and it just reinforced his determination that he would make sure that the Cloud wouldn’t get their hands on Hinata or Hizashi. Hizashi was a competent shinobi and it would be a damn shame to lose him, beside Neji needed his father. It was as they were traveling back home through the Grass and small child in a purple shirt brought forth a memory, one from his long distant past. Karin. She had died in the first days after they had thought they had won. She had worked hard beside Sakura to save as many people as possible and even though no one had used her kekkei genkai, she had still died of chakra exhaustion right beneath their noses. Now he needed to figure out a way to convince Hizashi to search Kusagakure for a small red headed girl and her mother because if Chibi Sasuke and Naruto were three then she’d be about the same age. He honestly never really paid much attention to the things she had prattled on about, that had all been Jugo and Sakura.

“Hizashi, do you mind if we make a small stop at the next town?” Kei waited to see what older shinobi would say, as Hizashi was team leader on this mission.

“Any particular reason?”

Kei figured he’d go for a bit of the truth, “you know that my mother was an Uzumaki?” He watched as Hizashi acknowledged the comment with little surprise, “even though I keep my name hidden, I do try to see if there are any other Uzumaki’s out there. I refuse to believe that I’m the only one that made it out alive. Now that I’ve found a home with Konoha, if I’m careful and spread the word, then anyone that may need to know might find me back in the village.”

“As long as it doesn’t put us in danger or waylay us too much, I have no problem. You do know that I will add it to my report?” Hizashi wanted to make sure that Kei knew if he changed his mind and they didn’t stop it wouldn’t be reported. He wasn’t sure how much Kei wanted the Hokage to know, but he couldn’t fault the man for looking for his family.

“That’s okay, this should be a quick stop. As for the Hokage, I will speak with him myself.” Kei was pretty sure the herbalist that took care of Karin while her mother worked in the hospital was in a small town near by.

The village was a fair size, and seeing as how they had entered early morning, there weren’t many people on the streets. Kei was glad the Hizashi was following his suggestion and walking slightly behind him. Kei wanted to keep his eyes as hidden as possible and instead had used a minor seal that he really didn’t understand to dye his hair the Uzumaki red. He wanted the attention on him not his team mate. He knew that even if they were in the wrong city, just having another red head walk through the streets would get back to the right people and, well to be honest to the wrong people as well, but he could handle that. He just needed Karin’s mother to know that she wasn’t alone, that there was someone out there who was looking for her.

The herbalist was open and the man took one look at Kei and sent his young assistant outside. “How may I be of assistance Shinobi-San?”

“I am on my way back home and would like to restock my pack.” Kei listed off a number of basic supplies that every shinobi carried.

As the herbalist grabbed the items off the shelf, Kei turned and chatted to Hizashi without using the Hyuga’s name, but allowing the other man to use his as they had planned.

“I am glad you have everything.” Kei pulled out his coin and paid, “I don’t like going back without a fully stocked kit.”

“Not many shinobi do, sir.” The herbalist nodded, then glancing up at his hair seemed to be willing to take a chance. “If I may Shinobi-San, what is your name?”

“Kei Uzumaki,” he didn’t get say anything else as there was a gasp from a woman in the doorway.

Hizashi froze for a moment. The woman was roughly 160 centimeters with a slim build. Her bright red hair was lifeless and reached her shoulders in an uneven cut. It was the red-brown eyes that gave him the most concern, for they held an edge of fanatical hope. Eyes that prayed what Kei was saying was true and not just another lie.

“I didn’t think anyone else made it out?” The woman in the doorway looked beyond tired. She couldn’t have been more then twenty and yet each of those years seemed to weigh her down. “Mom said we were the last.”

“Your mother?” Kei hadn’t known Karin’s grandmother had made it out as well.

“She died just six month ago. She’d been taking care of my daughter.”

Hizashi spoke up for the first time, “you have a daughter?” As much as he hated to admit it, Hizashi had a soft spot for children at risk.

“Yes, Karin, she’s two.”

“I need to ask, are you okay here? Are you safe?” The look he sent the herbalist was deadly.

The woman wiped her eyes as she looked at the man standing in front of her. Another red head. Uzumaki red at that. She couldn’t speak.

It was the herbalist that spoke up. “No, she’s not. The village elders are working her to death in the hospital. They’re holding her daughter as collateral to make sure that she works. You’re from Konoha aren’t you? Can you take her out of here?”

“If we do what will happen to you? They’re not going to just let her go?” Hizashi wasn’t sure how they were going to sneak them out pass the guards.

Kei looked over at Karin’s mother. She was tired and weary but he could see the spine steel that Karin had, that Naruto had. It had to be a Uzumaki trait to never give up no matter what life threw in their way. It was the reason why Uzushio fell the way it did. Every shinobi fought to the bitter end.

“May I ask your name?”

“Oh my goodness, I’m Nyoko Uzumaki. My mother, Oki Uzumaki, left when Uzushio fell, I was too young to remember much. My father Yori Uzumaki was a gate guard and I’m told perished before she left.”

Kei nodded he had a scroll of the names of the dead back in Konoha and could look them up, the good thing was that Nyoko didn’t know anything about him or his supposed parentage so there would be no need to worry about his back story. Not that he would use that as a reason to leave them there.

“Is there anything that you need from your home?” Hizashi knew that if they were going to do this they needed to move fast.

“My daughter Karin is there, Tomoe-san’s wife watches her while I’m here. There’s also a couple of small things of my mother’s that I would like to take.” Nyoko knew if they left, they would need to leave almost everything behind.

Kei nodded. “I have a storage scroll in which we can place everything, but you will need to travel light. The question is do you trust me Nyoko?” The woman nodded. “I want you to go home and pack the items of importance to you. Including clothes for two days only for you and Karin. Pack your traveling cloaks, but don’t wear it. Let Karin know that a friend of yours, Kei, will come and get her for a secret trip. Come back here where my friend will meet you.” Kei pointed to Hizashi, “He will guide out of the village safely. I will get Karin and meet you both outside of the village but you need to trust us.”

Nyoko nodded and headed out the back of the store with the promise to return in ten minutes.

“Kei, I hope you have a plan.” Hizashi wasn’t completely happy with the idea of taking two civilians with them on journey back to the Leaf. It was going to add days to their journey plus untold danger. They weren’t equipped for this.

“Surprisingly, I do.” Kei handed a seal to Hizashi, “I’ll put the store owner under a genjutsu just as you and Nyoko leave so he forgets all of us being here. The seal will transform Nyoko in looking like me. Know that as the two of you leave the village, you might be followed for a ways. Five kilometers outside of the village proper I want you to activate this seal,” he passed the Hyuga a second piece of paper. “Just a small burst of chakra, enough to activate your byakugan and the seal will confuse any following and hide your trail.”

Hizashi took the seals and pocketed them. “How are you going to get the girl out?”

The smile on Kei’s face was almost feral, “after you’re gone and I’ve got the herbalist handled, I’ll go and genjutsu the wife as well. I’d rather not have them pay the ultimate price for us taking the pair. I’m going to put the girl to sleep and take her out here in a stasis scroll. I will meet you at the lake we passed fifteen kilometers south east of here. Once I join you, we can actually put Nyoko in the stasis scroll with her daughter and travel faster.”

Hizashi couldn’t believe Kei was actually thinking about putting a child and a civilian in a stasis scroll, but if anyone could survive it, it would be an Uzumaki. Only a shinobi or an Uzumaki would have the chakra reserves to survive a journey in stasis scroll.

Nyoko came back quickly. Moving them out of sight of them herbalist Hizashi gave her the first seal. It amazed him to watch her turn into a visual carbon copy of Kei, red hair and all.

Kei moved and let his eyes capture the shop owner. The genjutsu wasn’t going to be pleasant. Behind his back he signaled Hizashi to leave.

Once the door closed Kei upped the ante on the genjutsu and locked the door to the store. He tied up the Herbalist and then used a kunai he found behind the counter to injure the man just enough to make it look like he had put up a fight. Opening the till he pull out a couple of the bills but not all before casting a henge on himself to look like Nyoko and taking off for their home and little Karin.

Luckily dealing with the wife went easier. Kei was able to put Karin to sleep before putting the wife under a genjutsu and tying her up. He hit her once and messed up the house. Karin was put into the scroll and Kei removed his seal letting his hair turn back to it’s natural black and removed his hitai-ate from around his forehead and tied to his belt. He walked out of the house and towards the back of the village where he walked out with another shinobi parting ways six kilometers out. Kei doubled his speed in order to meet up with Hizashi but he was able to do it.

“Any issues?” Hizashi had used his dojutsu to make sure that it was actually Kei.

“No,” He wasn’t going to mention what he did to make sure they weren’t going to be followed and that the herbalist and his wife would live. He was a shinobi, they all did things they regretted. “You?” Hizashi shook his head. Kei walked up behind Nyoko and placed a seal to the back of her neck catching her as she fell unconscious. Spreading a second stasis scroll he set her inside and sealed it before storing it in seal on his chest.

“Is that the best place for her to be?”

“Did you want to carry her?” When Hizashi said nothing, Kei set another confusion seal at their feet and started off for Konoha.

“Nyoko-San will most likely need to be hospitalized for a while. She is quite malnourished and is suffering from chakra exhaustion.”

“Hnn. The daughter was much the same.”

Hizashi watched the way Kei moved, “the Herbalist wasn’t much better.”

“Well, he wasn’t starving, I think Nyoko-San’s issue is from over work. The elders overuse her kekkei genkai.”

“Hmm. You just moved into you own house on the Uchiha land did you not?”

“Um hm.”

“Not quite the place for a single mother and her child.”

“No, not really.” It seemed that he was going to have to talk to Sarutobi about his Uzumaki lineage sooner rather then later and maybe see about finding out about that Uzumaki clan compound. If he got it spruced up maybe he could see about meeting with Naruto soon.

Hizashi wasn’t sure why he was speaking up except he’d seen the look in Kei’s eyes. It was that of man with a great debt to pay. “Would you mind if I spoke with my brother when we get back? Maybe having her stay with us for a while might give her some place safe to stay.”

Kei’s first instinct was to object. Why the hell would the Hyuga want to have the Uzumaki under their roof, but then he thought about it. He and Hizashi were starting to get along, especially on this trip. He knew he likely wasn’t supposed to know about it but Hizashi had been one of his ANBU guards and with them thinking about the use of the seals instead of the caged bird seal, well having the Uzumaki within sight might just be the catalyst the elders needed to make the change. Plus it would give him the excuse he needed to go and visit and have those closer bonds with he Hyuga particularly with the December deadline looming closer. The Hyuga were also paranoid enough that no one would be able to get in to the compound and harm Nyoko or Karin. No one like Danzo. Kei smiled at that thought.

“You’ll keep them safe for me until I can do so?”

“Of course, if my brother agrees,” Hizashi bowed, “although I think that Fugaku might resent the implication that the Uchiha would be unable to do so.”

“Oh I don’t doubt the Uchiha could keep them safe, however, I also know that Hyuga are just as paranoid as the Uchiha are. If I am with Uchiha then that’s where my enemies will expect my family to be. They will not expect them to be with you.”

Hizashi shook his head. “You have been spending too much time around Shikaku. You talk too much like the Nara commander.”

Kei laughed at that and continued to run.

It wasn’t until the gates appeared on the horizon that the Kei started to slow. He looked over at Hizashi. “How do you want to do this?”

Hizashi just raised an eyebrow? “You’re asking me now?”

Kei shrugged. “You are the team leader.”

Hizashi shook his head. “Do you want them to go to the hospital and be registered there or to see if I can take them to the clan compound and have them look at by the medic we have for the main house?”

Kei was unsure as to which would be the best for them. “I don’t want to hide anything from the Hokage despite what it may seem. However, I worry. I believe I know what kekkei genkai my cousins hold and I don’t want it exploited.”

Hizashi looked sharply at Kei, “is there someone who has threatened you?” If someone had been intimidating the new jonin, well he didn’t think it would go over well. If there was one person who would dare make a move without the Hokage’s approval, Hizashi knew who exactly who it would be.

“I’ve been followed by more then ANBU,” he winked at Hizashi, “it’s not something I would like to have my cousins put through. If they were to be put under ANBU guard though that may go a long way.”

The sigh was long and Hizashi just shook his head, not confirming or denying anything.

Kei smirked a little but continued on, “Uzumaki’s are generally sensors and memorize chakra signatures quickly. Your eyes see the chakra coils like a reflection of a shinobi’s image that even genjutsu’s have trouble covering over and we see them like a fingerprint finely detailed and unique to everyone. Our best sensors often can tell who’s who about a kilometer away.”

At least that’s how Karin always described it. He remembered watching Haru listen at her description of being a sensor and then face palm when the blonde had been shocked to realize what he’d been noticing all along. If Kei thought about it, it made sense, no one had taken the time to teach him. Haru hadn’t even learned to read until just before he graduated from the academy and even then it had been hit or miss. His writing had only improved when he found out that the neater his calligraphy the better his fuinjutsu and for that he had Kurama to thank as no else had the patience to teach him or to deal with his embarrassment. Then to find out that Haru had been a sensor all along. Kakashi had said that Haru had always known where his ANBU watchers were when he had been a child and even when he had taken over as their jonin sensei Haru had been the one to know when he had been sitting in a tree and watching the three of them or moping at the memorial stone.

Kei would also have to talk to both Nyoko and Karin about why he felt different from them.

“I will talk to the Hokage about bringing them in to village and ask for refugee status for them and hope that I can have them stay with your clan. Especially with the Uchiha trying to change their reputation if you will, Fugaku is allowing more village shinobi into the clan compound and it might be more dangerous for them on Uchiha grounds. If you have a medic that can help them recover and if you will allow me to visit I would be in your debt.”

Hizashi said nothing but he continued to think about what he had just learned. If all Uzumaki’s were that capable of being sensors it would be another reason as to why they were targeted.

Chapter Text

Sarutobi was surprised when Kei Uchiha asked for an audience after his first mission without a guard. Granted he had gone with Hizashi Hyuga, but Hizashi had been the only other jonin available to go and hadn’t been assigned as a guard, at least not officially. The mission report said the pair had no problem and they had returned in good time. The information they brought back was being carefully curated. Hizashi’s report mentioned a they had made a small stop in a village in the Grass to replenish supplies but that wasn’t unheard of. He’d just have to wait to see what the his newest jonin wanted. Looking at the request on the other side of his desk from Danzo asking for Kei to join his ROOT project had Hiruzen troubled. He had hoped that his friend had gotten the message and stopped his behind the scenes interference.

Kei arrived right on time.

“Kei how can I help you? I had the mission desk bring me up you mission report. It looks like everything went alright.”

“Yes sir. Hizashi was an excellent partner. I would work with him any day.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“We did stop at a village in the Grass at my request. I told Hizashi I would explain my reason to you.”

“Was it not just to restock supplies?”

”Not initially sir. In my wandering I had heard rumors of other Uzumaki’s and I wanted to put the word out there that there was someone looking for who ever was left.”

Sarutobi was intrigued. He had never even heard a whiff of rumours of an Uzumaki surviving and yet here stood a jonin of Uzumaki blood. “As long as you don’t put your missions or your team at risk, I have no problem with you stopping to look for family. However the mission does come first. I would hope that any Uzumaki’s you found would feel safe in making their way here to Konoha knowing that we were Uzushio’s sister village for all that we were unable to help in their time of need. It is one of my greatest regrets.”

“I understand sir. I am glad that you feel that way as we found a cousin and her daughter.” Kei waited to see what the Hokage would say.

“I didn’t hear about anyone asking for refugee status or coming in with you? Are they coming later?”

“May we speak privately?” Kei didn’t want any more information getting any further.

Intrigued Sarutobi signaled his ANBU to leave and flashed through a set of three hand signs as a level four privacy seal went up around his office.

“Alright you have your privacy.” He would see what the young Uzumaki wanted.

“My family, would they be welcome if they did come? They have a unique kekkei genkai and have been abused by the Grass. They would not want to let them go without a fight. If I brought them here would they be safe?” Kei rubbed his chest. Seeing Karin again had been hard but strangely helpful. Of course knowing his luck it would hit later.

“We had a treaty with Uzushio to protect each other to the last. We failed and Uzushio fell, that you are here now is to your credit not ours. The Konoha will stand by it’s promise” Sarutobi looked over Kei’s shoulder at Hashirama’s portrait. The first Hokage was the first to take an Uzumaki Princess as a wife and the one to broker the treaty with the Island nation. Just because he was the one to have it crumble apart during his reign didn’t mean he couldn’t do something to redeem himself.

Kei wanted to plant suspicion without being too obvious. “Even being new here I have heard the whispers of children, both orphans and from clans, who have gone missing. If I were to bring them into the village I don’t want others to know they are here just yet. I won’t put them at risk when they are unable to protect themselves.”

“Missing children? Surely not.” Hiruzen was deeply troubled, for Kei to have heard the rumors meant that Danzo was getting bolder. He had been told to disband the secret army, and to continue and take clan children? His ROOT program needed to be stopped. Danzo needed to be stopped. “If you could get them away safely, where would you have them stay? We are a shinobi village and secrets never stay secrets for long, and if they were mistreated, then they may need medical attention.” It went unsaid that Konoha would stand against the Grass if there was any trouble.

“I’m not sure.” Kei didn’t let on that he had both Uzumaki women on his person right at that moment. “I’d like to take a look at the Uzumaki compound and see what state it is in. Haru had mentioned visiting it with my mother when they came to see Kushina as a child. I don’t even know if it still stands. I hope to be able to bring more family back into to the fold eventually.” He left the comment there, not hinting at young Naruto, nor was he excluding the possibility of finding other family. If he remembered correctly the leader of the Akatsuki was an Uzumaki as well. Maybe he could get to him too. Kei almost laughed at his thoughts, he really was channeling Haru, the do-gooder.

The Hokage took a moment to pack his pipe, as he thought about the the Uzumaki compound. He tried to access it after Kyuubi attack. It seemed that Kushina sealed it and he wasn’t sure who could open it. They were lucky that the seals had only stunned those without access and not killed them. He was pretty sure there were a number of things left behind by Minato and Kushina, things that might be considered sensitive to the village, heirlooms to Naruto. However he had never been able to get in there and hadn’t had the heart to ask Kakashi to go back right after he had lost his family yet again. “I’d love to give you the keys to the Uzumaki compound however, I do have some concerns because of who lived there before.”

Kei tilted his head to the side, “can you elaborate?”

Sarutobi chose his words carefully, “the last Uzumaki was a wonderful person and powerful shinobi, her partner was much the same and held a position of power within the village. I am unsure what information they left in their home as we have been unable to gain access.”

“I understand. Kushina likely sealed their home for family only, is it a blood seal?” if it was a blood seal then Kei was unsure if he would be able to enter without Naruto, if it was a family seal he might just be lucky.

“I don’t know, we don’t have anyone proficient enough in seals to check it out and I’m not sure that I can ask their last family member to check it out.”

“There’s another Uzumaki in the village aside from Kushina’s child?” Kei was hoping to remind the Hokage that he knew about Naruto and was staying away on purpose.

Hiruzen sighed, he realized he really hadn’t spoken much to this young man, “no not her biological son, but one they had all but adopted. He’s hurting right now and I’m not sure if having him enter the home he spent so much time in will do him good or not. I have called back one of my students for help. He’s quite proficient at seals, but he has been on a long term mission for the village. He should be arriving soon.”

Kakashi. Jiraya. Kei kept the anger and sarcasm out of his voice “I understand. I understand that you still don’t quite trust me, with village secrets. I know who Kushina married. It’s a matter of public record and Minato Namikaze had quite the reputation both as a shinobi and as a Hokage. If you’d like you can have someone with me go through the house. My concern is that someone will try to hide away items that are also young Naruto’s heritage.”

“This is something that I must think on some more. For now let us wait until your family shows up. The Leaf will protect them, the vows we made between Uzushio and Konoha still stand whether we are a thousand strong or a handful.” Sarutobi held out his hand in hopes that Kei would understand the meaning behind it. He did not want to make an enemy of this shinobi even if he had sworn loyalty to the Leaf it was tentative at best.

Kei nodded and shook the old man’s hand before leaving. He needed to get to Hizashi and Shikaku now. They had some serious planning to do. He would need to find out if Hiashi was alright hosting his cousins for a short time, if Shikaku could get Kakashi into the Uzumaki compound and what was hidden there before Hiruzen had the scarecrow go in and ‘sanitize it’. There may be information there on Danzo and all of his schemes.

Walking down the street he bumped into a small preteen. The happuri on his head told Kei who it was that he had met. There was only one shinobi in the village that he knew who ever wore his headband that way. As much as he wanted to check his gear he knew he was being watched. Tenzo was never clumsy. Now he really needed to met with Shikaku. His mind was reeling with thoughts and plans as he rubbed the spot over his chest where the scroll holding, Karin and her mother still sat, they had a little time left. He made a quick stop at a street vendor before he continued on to the Nara compound as he had planned, after all he went there often enough that it wouldn’t be a surprise even with the extra eyes on him.

Knocking on the main door he waited and was glad to see Yoshino open it. “Kei it is nice to see you again. Shikaku is expecting you.”

“Nara-sama, you’ll need to start charging me rent soon.” He handed her the small bag of fresh pastries as a thank you for all the trouble he’d been lately.

The smirk on her face reminded him of the way Lady Tsunade often looked at Haru. “You’re going to get both yourself and my husband into trouble aren’t you?”

“The possibilities are there ma’am, as long as he doesn’t find it too troublesome.”

Yoshino just shook her head as she headed back into the kitchen, leaving Kei on his own. The walk to the study was familiar and comforting. “Well do you have the shogi board set up?”

“It’s been troublesome, but yes.” Shikaku leaned back looking over at the board beside his desk, the pieces seemingly in random places.

Kei flashed through hand signs that Shikaku had never seen. There was no glow, no outward signal that a privacy seal had been raised.

“What was that?” The only way Shikaku knew Kei had done something was that he had watched the man run through the hand signs, no one did hand signs for no reason.

“A level six privacy seal.”

“Level six?” Shikaku was flabbergasted, “I didn’t know there was anything above a level four.”

“Let’s just say that right now Yoshino won’t be able to even walk into the room, and anyone watching the room will just hear a bunch of conflicting meanness phrases. I can teach you the level five but the level six takes a lot of chakra.”

“So what’s happened that warrants a privacy seal versus the wards you’ve previously set around the property?” Shikaku started to up his plans. A privacy seal of this caliber generally was a precursor to war and not where they were prior to Kei arriving.

“Okay so I went on a mission with Hizashi. He asked about fuinjutsu and I gave him the beginner scroll I had and we worked through it. He picked it up pretty quickly.”

The look on Shikaku’s face was a cross between shocked and worried, before settling on resigned. There would be no way they could tell Kei what to do and what not to do. “Well the good thing there is that Hiashi is okay with that, so long as Hizashi doesn’t flaunt it, which we know he won’t. Just don’t push your luck too far there.”

“Yeah, I so don’t want to be pulled in front of the Hyuga council for perverting the branch family.” Kei reached out and picked up one of the tiles Shikaku had on the edge of the board. When he noticed the way his hands were shaking he carefully put the tile back. Shit, he ran a hand down his face before letting it settle over his heart. “The other thing we did was, on our way back we stopped in the Grass, I wanted to pass on that there are Uzumaki still alive and in Konoha because we found out too late in our time that there had been Uzumaki’s that had made it out and had been take advantage of.”

“Fuck me!” Shikaku pulled at his ponytail to find out that Kushina had family out there somewhere alone. “Why didn’t they come to Konoha for help?”

“With Danzo operating here?” Kei just raised an eyebrow.

“He’s really screwed us over hasn’t he?”

“Yeah, I’m not sure if it was just him or Kiri and Kumo as well, that were involved in Uzushiogakure’s fall.” Kei sighed, “I told the Hokage that I had met a cousin and her daughter and that I was nervous about bringing them back because of rumors of children going missing. I even dropped the fact that it wasn’t just orphans but clan kids as well.”

Shikaku laughed at that, “you are really stirring the pot with that.”

“Well I wanted him to know that Danzo is getting bolder.”

“So when are the Uzumaki’s coming?” Shikaku was naive enough to believe that Kei had left them in the Grass

Kei just tapped the spot over his heart.

Shikaku sighed, “you didn’t?” When Kei shrugged, the Nara just shook his head, “troublesome, so where do you want them to go?”

“I’d say with me except that I’m now in a small house and being watched so that won’t work. With the Uchiha’s trying to open up to the village even having them stay with some one else in the clan won’t be that conducive. Both you and Inoichi are too, open and watched, if you will, thankfully Hizashi has offered to take them in if he gets approval from Hiashi.”

“That will work. The Hyuga clan has their own healers and they can stay in one of the more secluded family homes. If you visit it can be for fuinjutsu lessons or to talk to the elders about the caged bird seal and therefore still relevant.”

“Exactly. The other things was I brought up the Uzumaki compound to Sarutobi and he mentioned that he had tried to get in after the nine-tails attack. He said it was sealed. I’m guessing that it is either a blood or more likely a family seal. Now that I have brought it to his attention again there’s a good a chance he’s going to want to try and get in to try and sanitize the place to make sure that Minato and Kushina haven’t left anything of importance out. At least two of the guards on duty there were also ROOT plants, which means that Danzo will likely try as well.”

“Hmmm,” Shikaku stroked his goatee as thought about the implications that Minato had stored documents of political significance at his home office. “There’s a good chance that Minato actually did that. With Kushina being better at seals, the documents would have been safer there than at the Hokage tower. Naruto and Kakashi would be the obvious choice for who could get in as it was well known that Kakashi was pretty much living there with them near the end. Hell, Kushina had made noises about adopting Kakashi informally because she knew that for all Kakashi had issues with his father at the end, he didn’t want to lose the Hatake name. They may approach Kakashi as Naruto’s too young and the council is still trying to keep him isolated.” Nothing like isolating an orphan to keep him malleable and in their control.

Kei smirked, “what about Minato’s guard detail? I know that Genma and Raidou had tried to adopt Naruto and had been turned down brutally, as well as being admonished for their relationship.”

“Your right, Minato would trust those three as well. Raidou was the only to know the code to the back office at the Hokage tower for the longest time. It was the inside joke at the jonin standby station.”

“Sarutobi also implied that he had asked someone else to come back, from the clues he dropped, I’m guessing it’s Jiraya. He not only knows seals but he would most likely also be someone who had access to the compound as he was supposed to be Naruto’s godfather before he was shoved out of the village and told he was a bad influence.”

“Fuck, Danzo.”

“Actually I think this one is on Sarutobi himself,” Kei knew that there was a lot they could lay at Danzo’s feet but eventually the shit would spread to Sarutobi as well and Shikaku would have to recognize the fact that Hiruzen was just too old to do the job properly anymore.

“Well the good thing with that is Jiraya isn’t actually as stupid as he makes himself look.”

Kei laughed, truly laughed, “well damn if the knucklehead didn’t do same fucking thing all through life. Haru was always smarter then everyone thought he was. I mean sure, he couldn’t read or write until he nearly graduated the academy but the guy wore the brightest orange jumpsuit known to man and was still able to sneak into the ANBU barracks to steal every pair of boxers he could find, and string them like a party banner across the Hokage monument without being caught in broad daylight.”

That sounded like something Jiraya would have done. “I also have news for you about Naruto. My cousin Emiko has started volunteering at the orphanage, and while she has yet to be able to work with young Naruto, she has seen him. He is fine at the moment.”

Kei let himself relax a little, Naruto was safe and they had options.

Shikaku let himself smile as his friend relaxed, “yes we have a little time as of yet. You have made the first in roads into stopping the Uchiha coup. Things have changed, subtle though they may be. Fugaku and Mikoto have been seen more often in the village buying items from vendors outside of the clan compound and that has had an ripple affect. Other Uchiha both, Police officers and regular Uchiha, have done the same and regular shinobi have taken notice. Complaints against the Uchiha have taken a drastic down turn. In response the Uchiha have also renewed many of their friendships with old team mates outside of the clan. It can only lead to positive interactions.” Shikaku looked over at his board and the pieces he had moved. “You have started talks with Hiashi Hyuga about the branch family and the seals. Luckily Hiashi doesn’t feel the same way the elders do about them, and you have forged a working relationship with Hizashi, his treasure twin.”

“Treasured twin? Really?” Kei knew that Hiashi did honor his brother but he wasn’t going to give that one to Shikaku without some hassling. The man was fast becoming one of his best friends, he could see why Haru really did rely on Shika so much.

The smirk only grew as a deer ran pass the open garden doors of his study. “Do you mind letting the dome of silence down to see who wants in?”

Kei rolled his eyes but lowered the privacy seal. Fugaku and Inoichi were at the door.

“What the hell was that?” Inoichi made his way inside the room going straight for the bookshelf and a bottle of sake. “Yoshino said the two of you were in here. I tried to get in but I was stopped about a ten meters before the door. I couldn’t hear anything from inside and when I tried to search for you I couldn’t even feel your chakra. Hell, if I didn’t know the room was here I wouldn’t be able to find it.”

Kei just smiled and flew through the hand signs again.

“Shit, warn a guy next time.” Inoichi reached out, locking his knees so he wouldn’t fall to the floor.

“What do you mean?” Shikaku queried.

“Whatever Kei did was like spinning me around blind folded.”

Shikaku laughed at that, Inoichi was notorious for getting motion sick when he couldn’t see. It seemed counter intuitive since his kekkei genkai dealt with mind transfer.

“Well I can’t see anything outside the room.” Fugaku sat beside Kei. “Kei, I wanted you to know that Mikoto and I went to talk to both the Aburame clan and to Akaashi Meko’s siblings. Both were glad to hear of their family.”

“Thank you. I will still search them out later,” Kei was glad that Fugaku had remembered his wish to let the Aburame clan know what happened to their lost family member.

“So back to what the hell Kei did here?” Inoichi wanted to know just what was going on.

“I erected a level six privacy seal.”

Inoichi spit out the sake he’d just swallowed, “level six? There’s a level six?” He looked over at Shikaku in shock, “I get nauseous when the Hokage puts up the level four seal. I didn’t know there was a level six.”

Shikaku tossed his friend a cloth to wipe up his mess, “yeah, neither did I so I guess we learned something today.”

“Glad your ANBU guards are gone.” Fugaku just shook his head at the surprises that Kei kept bringing to them.

“Yeah, the poor ROOT guards outside are likely scratching their heads though.” Kei smiled.

“Well as long as it’s only the ROOT guards that’s fine by me.” Shikaku looked at the others gathered. “Okay what else do we need worry about?” He wasn’t going to ask why Kei wanted to use a privacy seal instead the wards they had been using. He figured he’d find out soon enough.

“Funny you should say that?” Kei sat up a little straighter. “So I’ve already told Shikaku, but on my last mission I met another couple of Uzumaki in the Grass.”

“Well so long as you didn’t bring them back illegally we’re fine.” Inoichi wasn’t even looking at the group, just pouring himself another drink.

Kei smirked and waited until the blonde took a sip before saying. “I brought them back illegally.”

The spray of sake across the table was worth the waste of alcohol.

“Fuck, you’re a bastard, Uchiha.” As the blonde chocked on his drink again.

Fugaku sat there quietly thinking. “What was the situation.” When the other men looked at him, he knew that Kei wouldn’t have brought them into the Leaf without a good reason. If they were safe in the village he had found them in they would still be there with the knowledge that Kei was here should they need him.

“The Grass was abusing their kekkei genkai. Nyoko was near chakra exhaustion and malnourished, her daughter is in a similar state. They hadn’t started to use her yet, but you could see that they were grooming her to get ready to take over her mother position.” Kei was trying to hold of his anger. “Nyoko’s mother recently died. Six months ago, I’m guessing due to chakra exhaustion but she didn’t say. I didn’t ask.”

“What’s her kekkei genkai?” Shikaku wanted to know just what type of kekkei genkai might just make it into the village as he’d spent a lot of time with both Mito Uzumaki and Kushina Uzumaki talking about the different kekkei genkai that had been in their village before it’s fall. What the world had lost.

“Well she didn’t tell me but I could see bite marks on her arms. In my time Karin was not only a very strong sensor but also could heal others using a chakra transfer technique that required the injured to bite her. Her mother looks to be the same.”

“Kei,” Fugaku wanted to reach out to calm the man. The amount killing intent coming off the time traveler was scary. “What was she to you?”

“Karin, when I left the Leaf, Orochimaru trained me to be stronger to do want I thought I needed to do to. He had already taken in Karin and Suigetsu Houzki, and Jugo, they just became a part of the team that I lead. I don’t know that I felt anything for her as aside from the fact that she was a tool. I used her just like these guys did, just not this bad or to this point.”

Inoichi bumped Kei’s shoulder with his own. The little nod between the two was all Kei needed to know that the mind walker would find him soon to talk. Ino knew that Karin had been closer and that this was hard no matter how much he was trying to pretend it wasn’t.

Shikaku sighed, “a healing kekkei genkai, damn it, that would definitely be one that Danzo would want to get his hands on. If Hiashi is okay with them staying on Hyuga land until they are healthier and you get access to Uzumaki land, then that might be the best solution. Speaking of the Uzumaki lands, the Hokage was saying that it’s sealed and no one has accessed it since the night Kushina and Minato died. We were guessing that Kakashi and likely Genma, Raidou and Iwashi likely also had access, what do you think?”

“That makes sense. I mean Minato had made Kakashi, Kushina’s main guard during her pregnancy. Genma was the one who often stopped by with the weekly groceries since Minato was stopped by everyone whenever he went out and Kushina was often too tired to shop. Hell I think half the time Genma did the cooking too, near the end of her pregnancy since he was the only one of the three that could actually cook. I know that Minato had sent Iwashi back to their home to grab a couple of documents he’d forgotten before a council meeting. What has you concerned?” Inoichi pulled his ponytail over his shoulder to play with the ends.

Kei watched the interplay between Inoichi and Shikaku. Inoichi had a couple of interesting tells, ones that he’d passed on to his daughter. While Shikaku was way too much like his son, stoned face and it seemed impossible to read, unless you knew the other one.

“I’m going to go ask Genma or Raidou to go to the Uzumaki compound, open it and search for documents pertaining to Danzo or anything Sarutobi might want to hide or sweep under the rug. Hell I’m sure they know of places they could lock family heirlooms away for Naruto that Danzo’s cleaning crew wouldn’t find.”

“I can give you a couple of sealing scrolls to pass on to them if you want.” Kei was just glad that someone else was going to help.

Fugaku looked over at the trio. “You’re not going to ask Kakashi?”

Shikaku shook his head, “he’s still grieving too hard and blaming himself for their deaths. Hell, half the missions he takes are suicide missions that no one expects him to return from.”

“Then why are we giving them to him?” Fugaku knew how important Kakashi was to the village as a whole, he couldn’t understand why no one was trying to help the man.

“Because they’re bounty missions that he takes, we have no control over those, he’d just goes off by himself. As to why he doesn’t get help, well for the first year it was because he’d been genjutsuing the shinobi in charge into believing that he was doing fine, at least until an Uchiha took over the administration for the mental health and we got a couple of the Yamanaka inside. Now he’s just a walking time bomb waiting to go off It’s more a case of waiting to see how big of a blast radius is and who he’ll take with him.”

“He won’t take anyone with him. We need him in one piece. I need him.” Kei was started drumming his fingers on the small table as he was trying to think how he could help the best way possible he could help. He leaned against the shogi board.

“Kei what do you need?” Shikaku looked at the young man.

“Honestly, I could use Haru here to kick my ass, I’m trying to act like him. I’m not sure I’m suited to this role. I’ve always been the cold and stoic Uchiha who hardly said a word. Now I’m cracking jokes and interacting with people. He was the one with the talk-no jutsu, the one everyone flocked to, like the ray of sunshine he was. I was the one with dark brooding eyes that just fucking intimidated people into doing what he wanted.” He speared both hands into hair and closed his eyes. He hadn’t planned to go off on how he missed his best friend and he felt like he was failing miserably. Meeting Nyoko and Karin really threw him for a loop and reminded how he wasn’t Haru.

Inoichi looked at the other two men, saw the way Shikaku kept flicking his fingers like he was ready to say something but unsure what, and the way Fugaku bit his lip like he was ready to jump in to help, but again it was his son, how did one help a son that was already three quarters grown and didn’t know how to react to having a father.

“Kei. Kei, I’m going to reach out and take your hand.” Inoichi spoke slowly and evenly. Placing Kei’s hand on his own chest right below his throat Ino kept his voice slow and even. He put his own hand on Kei’s chest to feel his heart rate. “I want you to follow my breathing and listen to my voice. Haru choose you for this because you are his best friend and he knew that you were the best one for the job. As his best friend, you knew him best. You knew exactly how he would react in each and every situation. I know it hurts being left alone and that you miss him, but remember that you’re not alone here either.” Inoichi could feel the Uchiha’s heart rate start to slow down.

Shikaku poured a dish of sake and slid it across the table. “Kei, we’ve got this. Trust us, okay.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Kei reached for the drink and tossed it back. “Okay, sorry about that. Back on track. Would it be better to call Hizashi and Hiashi here or for me to go there to talk to them regarding Nyoko and Karin.”

“Likely better for you to go there, if you can do it without ROOT noticing all the better.” Shikaku hated to put more on the man’s shoulder’s but if the two Uzumaki women were in stasis scrolls like he suspected then the sooner they were out of there the better.

Kei made the hand signs and a shadow clone appeared. “I’ll go and leave the clone here,” he dug into his pocket for the message Tenzo had gave him before suppressing his chakra and slipping through the seal.

“How the fuck did he slip through the seal without letting it down?” Inoichi whined.

Fugaku just laughed. “My god but I wish I could have met Haru. Kei what was the paper there?”

“Right, just after I left the Hokage’s office, I was heading here anyway when someone bumped into me. Given that it was a shinobi they shouldn’t have bumped into me in the first place. Secondly the shinobi was wearing a happuri and I don’t know many who wear that in the village. Thirdly his chakra was way too familiar to me, aside from him being one who has been following me for ANBU, it gave me time to make sure that yes it is the Yamato, or I guess Tenzo, I remember. Anyway, he snuck a message in my leg wrappings, likely knowing that if I felt someone trying to get into my weapons pouch I’d react a little differently.” The clone unrolled the scrapped of paper. The warning was clear and really unnecessary but kinda of cute if he thought about it.

‘He’s watching, be careful’

“Well I can only hope he means Danzo and not the Hokage,” the clone smiled at that.

Shikaku tapped his fingers, Tenzo wasn’t one of his men and as such he had no way of calling him in to talk to him. That didn’t mean he didn’t know the man’s story of his skills. “Do you trust him?”

“Tenzo? Likely more so then some of the other jonin on your roster at the moment. I know his skill set and I know his limits. I have no problem with him at my back. Of course the man doesn’t know me from a tree at the moment.” He smiled at his own little joke.

Fugaku took hold of the paper, staring down at the word. Threats made by a man against his family yet again. Just when would the Uchiha be free of the the scum that Danzo kept sending. “I searched the archives. There are only two Uchiha that have not had their eyes destroyed by family. Kagami Uchiha who was ambushed on his way home from Uzushio after a diplomatic mission and Kizio Uchiha who was killed by enemy shinoibi, Kizio’s team reported watching her go over a cliff and fall to her death.”

“Fugaku,” Shikaku spoke with determination, he hadn’t watched his team mate talk one Uchiha talk down from a panic attack only to lose the Clan head to his anger and despair. He could see the sharingan spinning from where he was sitting. “Fugaku, Kei is here and has told us the truth. We know. We know and we believe you. We won’t let him get away with this, but if we move too quickly, the Uchiha WILL be blamed and we don’t want your clan to suffer any more. Let us help you. Kei is strong. He’s your son after all, and he will help us get it right this time, and we will work together to make sure nothing like what he went through happens to this village.” He must said the right things because Fugaku set the note down and slowly closed his eyes.

“Your right. Things are changing, I just have to be patient.” Fugaku rubbed his eyes.

Chapter Text

Kei slowed his breathing as he made his way out of the main house. It would be shorter to go across the village to the Hyuga compound as they were almost directly across from the Nara’s, but that meant going through the middle of town and untold shinobi. If he slipped through the forest and just outside of the village walls it would be longer, but he had a less likely chance of being seen. He could use Itachi’s version of kamui, he just didn’t like to rely on his eyes too much as he knew the more he used them more damage they took. The appearance of the Nara deer lead him to believe that the forest path was the best choice. They would hide his scent and wouldn’t let anyone else in the forest as long as it was Nara forest.

Kei ran with the deer, keeping his chakra as low as possible as he followed them through the trees and towards the walls. The waterfall of chakra allowed for only one deer at time to pass through the small opening in the wall. Kei looked at the seals and beamed, it was one of the many that Haru at taught him first, one of the few that he had actually understood. One of the few that he could get past without blowing up. He let a sliver of chakra flow into the seal on his wrist before walking through the wall and out into the forest beyond. The Nara deer surrounded him.

“Are you going to guide me still?” Kei let his hand rest on the haunches of a stag. The stag looked at him and shook it’s head. If Kei didn’t know any better, he’d say the stag was there to make sure he didn’t break down again. Honestly Kei wouldn’t put it past Shikaku to send one of the Nara deer to do just the. “Very well my friend lead the way.” He kept the seal active until he was well away from the wall and then he dropped it, but kept his chakra suppressed. Once he was close enough to the entrance of the village he angled further into the woods. Hiding from the gate until he cross the river. In all honesty the run took just over three hours, not bad for trying to keep things quiet. Of course now came the hard part. Just how the hell he was going to get into the Hyuga compound. He couldn’t exactly jump the walls without raising the alarm and with the Inuzuka right next door the last thing he wanted was a bunch of angry ninken on his scent. If he went around the far side, well that was close to the base of the mountain. There was a hotel and an onsen there, maybe he could sneak in there. Tilting his head to the side as he thought about it, he decided that Jiraya hadn’t been in the village recently, so the onsen wouldn’t be on guard against peeping perverts. He could then walk out and just knock on the Hyuga front door, hopefully before anyone from ROOT saw him.

***

“Uchiha-San, please come in.”

Kei was ushered inside the front gates and into a small reception hall. He had to smile. It was a smart set-up. It let the Hyuga welcome their guest immediately in comfort and yet it still kept them isolated. They were kept away from both the entirety of the Hyuga family and the prying eyes of anyone who was watching the front gates. If they were to be turned away, they could be refused from here without anyone being the wiser, while anyone watching the front gates wouldn’t know who they had met with.

“May I ask who you are looking for?” The Hyuga who let him in was looking at him with a very bland expression.

“I’d like to talk to either Hyuga-sama or his brother Hizashi-San if possible. I understand that you’ll need to check. I’ll wait.” Kei sat down and prepared to wait for a while. He was surprised when Hizashi walked into the reception hall almost immediately to escort him to the main house.

“Uchiha-San, it is a pleasure to meet you again. Please follow me so that I may introduce to the head of our clan. Hyuga-sama was much intrigued by the display you put on at your assessment a couple of weeks ago.”

Kei bowed as he followed the younger Hyuga twin. “It is a honor to know that such high ranking shinobi came to watch a man like me fight. Konoha truly is a village of strong men.”

Hizashi tossed him a look over his shoulder. Kei swore it would have been sarcastic if the Hyuga had an emotion he was willing to share, but for now he knew that he was almost pushing the boundaries. A knock on the door in front of them granted them access to the inner sanctum where Hiashi Hyuga sat behind the sliding shoji screens.

“Hyuga-sama, may I present Kei Uchiha. Recently returned from Uzushio and newly minted jonin of the Leaf. He was my partner on my last mission.”

Kei almost rolled his eyes at the introduction as no one was around and he’d met both men last week at Shikaku’s.

Hiashi gestured to a spot across from him, while Hizashi took a position near the door like a servant. Kei had to admit, it pissed him off. He’d gotten used to talking to Hizashi like an equal, to see him act like some mindless robot or second-class citizen, well he could understand why Neji had a real problem during the Chunin exams.

“Would you like some tea?” Hiashi looked like he was going to send Hizashi out to pick the leaves himself.

“No thank you. I just wanted a chance to…” Kei never got a chance to go any further as Hiashi held up a hand to stop him.

Hiashi went through the hand signs for a silencing seal and Kei waited for it settle and Hiashi to speak first.

“Thank you for working with Hizashi.”

Kei just raised an eyebrow at that. Was there some sort of prejudice against the branch family that he had been unaware of or was this because of the funijutsu scroll that he had shared?

“Not everyone is willing to share skills, to teach others.” Hiashi gave a small nod and Hizashi moved closer to join them.

“A question first if I may.” Kei tilted his head to look out the window to inner courtyard and the training grounds beyond. “The privacy seal, who taught you that?”

Hiashi barely moved from where he was sitting on his knees, his seiza form a picture of perfection. His haori, an olive green over crisp white. “It was taught to my father by Mito Uzumaki. All jonin are taught level one as a means of discussing missions and clan heads are taught either level two or level three. That way not all clans can ‘listen in’ on the other clans.”

Kei nodded, “so I were to teach you something that the other clans don’t have? I mean I did promise to teach it to Shikaku and Fugaku but I think I can expand it to include you as well.”

“What are you thinking?” Hiashi’s voice was quiet but it held a note of interest.

Instead of speaking up, Kei overwrote the privacy seal with a level six. It didn’t evoke the same ‘oh shit’ spit take response as it did from Inoichi, but more the quiet eyebrow raising ‘what the hell’ like it did from Shikaku. “The Uzumaki actually have privacy seals up to level eight. The Hokage knows and uses level four. That was level six. I can teach you level five, level six I can use but can’t teach you. Level seven requires a seal master and level eight was only able to be used by the Uzukage, and unfortunately it will likely be decades before we will see someone who can master seals like that again.”

“Amazing,” Hiashi, “I’m surprised that you didn’t have this up during our previous conversations considering their delicate nature.”

Kei let a smirk move slowly across his lips. “You would think that, however there are other ways to make sure that the information we were talking about remains confidential. For instance, Shikaku let me embed the land with a number of heavy duty wards. They’re still there ready to use, inactive but deadly.”

Hiashi just nodded, a shinobi of Kei caliber didn’t survive as long as they did by being complacent. “Now Hizashi says that you have met family on your last mission and are looking for a place for them to heal.”

“Yes, they are a mother and daughter who have a healing kekkei genkai and had been treated poorly by the village they had sought asylum from. I was hoping that you would be willing to house them until they grow stronger and I could find a way to gain access to the Uzumaki compound where they would be safe.”

“Any reason as to why they wouldn’t be safe with you?” Hiashi wanted to understand just what Kei was asking.

“Fugaku is trying to make sure that Uchiha is seen in a clearer light. The clan is tense right now and just starting to open up to the rest of the village after a number of year hiding away. I don’t want to cause friction or have them take a step back just because my cousin maybe targeted by a madman from inside the village. That is something that may happen and I do not want to hide from you. Danzo and his ROOT operatives would love to get their hands on an Uzumaki and I refuse to let them.” The intensity of Kei’s eyes could have pushed both men back, “I refuse to put anyone at risk of his conniving ways. So help me, if I could walk into his home and get rid of him I would, but I want to expose him for the evil he has done.” He had to stop himself before he really got going, shit but he really was channeling Haru today. “Look just know I’m not a Danzo fan and if you ever need help. No questions asked, just call.”

Hiashi narrowed his eyes and looked closer at the man across from him. “What if we decline to take your cousins,”

Kei dropped all signs of formality and talked to the clan as an equal, “Hiashi, I enjoyed talking to Hizashi, he’s a smart man and I think I’d like to count him as friend. I don’t have many of those. If you can’t help that’s fine. You need to put the welfare of your clan first, but I need an answer fast. They have been in a stasis seal for two days now and their chakra was weak to being with. If you say no, I will take them outside of the village and release them and bring them in myself. I will find a place for them to stay. One way or another they will be safe. Regardless I will help you should you ever need it. Danzo needs to leave our clans alone.”

Hizashi tapped the floor twice but said nothing.

“Very well, we will take your cousins in, but until you gain access to the Uzumaki lands or they decide that they want to walk the village unescorted I will not grant you access again after today. They will stay hidden completely within our clan grounds.”

Kei figured that it might be his best offer. “Let me bring them out and see what they say. Do you have someone with medical training who will be able to look after them?”

Hizashi smiled, “our sister is a nurse.”

Kei smiled at that, he hadn’t even known there was a sister. She must have died some where around Hinata’s kidnapping. “Very well.” He pulled his shirt to the side and released the scrolls. The amount of chakra needed to let Nyoko and Karin out was minimal. Both lay on the floor unconscious still under the sleep seal. Kei woke Nyoko first.

“Kei-San? What? Where?” The disorientation was to be expected.

“Nyoko, it’s okay,” Kei did his best to be reassuring, “do you remember my partner? This is Hizashi Hyuga.”

Hizashi bowed. “It’s a pleasure to meet you again.”

Nyoko barely looked at the man, her eye’s darting around the room, “umm, yes, but Karin why’s she so still.” She didn’t have the ability to move, why couldn’t she get to her daughter. “Kei, why is she so pale?”

“She’s asleep. I promise Nyoko, Karin is fine.” He moved the sleeping child’s form into Nyoko’s arms. His hand ghosting over Karin’s hair. “The two of you have been in a stasis scroll. You’re so weak because you’ve been so drained of chakra for such a long time. Karin is still asleep because I haven’t awaken her yet. Yes, the Uzumaki have enormous stores but even we have our limits. As for myself, I’m a half breed. Half Uzumaki and half Uchiha.”

Brushing a hand over her daughter’s hair head she finally gave the other men in the room her attention, “I’m sorry, I missed your name.” The smile she bestowed on the twins was blinding and better then anything Kei could have said.

Hiashi was the first to break, “that’s alright we are both fathers ourselves and understand the need to look out for your child first. I am Hizashi’s twin brother Hiashi and leader of the Hyuga clan.”

Nyoko bowed as much as could sitting with her daughter in her lap. “It is an honor to met men from such an esteemed clan.”

“Nyoko, I brought you and Karin to Konoha, however, the situation isn’t quite as ideal as I would like it to be. I know that you are weak and in need of rest.” Kei could see the life fade from her eyes as she steeled herself, ready to do what it took to make sure that her daughter survived. In his mind he was sure she was waiting for him to tell her that she would be working at the Konoha hospital and with Konoha easily ten times the size of the Grass she’d be dead before the week was out.

“Nyoko, stop. Kei would never ask that of you. I would never allow him to ask that of you.” Hizashi reached forward to put his hands on her shoulders. Her breathing evened out a bit as she reached up and held on to Hizashi’s hand. Needing that bit of human touch to keep her grounded.

Kei grimaced, “I’m sorry Nyoko, it wasn’t my intention to scare you. No, you won’t be asked to work in the hospital. Not by me. What I am trying to say is that I brought you and Karin into the Leaf secretly. There are threats here to the Uzumaki and I am unable to ensure your safety. To make sure that you are not forced to be at the hospital; the solution we came up with is for you to stay with the Hyuga clan, hidden away here. They would look after you while I work to see if I can open the Uzumaki compound.”

Hiashi gave her a soft smile, one he hadn’t used on anyone since his wife had passed, “you be trading one cage for another I’m afraid.”

Nyoko let her mind settle and took in what she could of her surroundings. She had the time to rest and heal without the fear of reprisals even if she didn’t have the reserves of full strength at the moment. She could feel the seal on Hizashi, she might not know why it was there but it had it’s base in an Uzumaki matrix. The feeling of the privacy seal reminded her of her mother and almost brought her to tears. Hiashi felt torn, and Hizashi felt protective. Kei felt, she worried, he felt different. Opening her eyes again, Nyoko looked at the Hyuga clan leader, her eyes full of determination. “Will you force me or my daughter to wear a seal like your brother?”

Hiashi startled, unsure how she knew about them, but answered truthfully, “no you aren’t Hyuga.”

“You aren’t Uzumaki, so I am unclear how you got the seal. It doesn’t matter at this point, as long as I have your word that I won’t be forced to wear it or to place it upon someone else?”

Hiashi raise a eyebrow, “for that you have my word.”

Nyoko looked at Kei who nodded before she asked her next question, “will you force me use my kekkei genkai to heal your wounded?”

Hiashi looked the woman in the eyes and was reminded of another red head who demanded respect and straight answers, “Nyoko you will be treated with respect and honor, you just will not be free to come and go as you please. Our sister will help look after you until your chakra reserves rise and then you will have access to a training field, other then that you will be restricted to one area and that area alone until Kei has succeeded or deemed it time to bring you to Konoha.”

Nyoko nodded. “Then I accept as long as I may talk to Kei alone.”

“We will leave you,” Hiashi stood and waited for Kei to take down the privacy seal before leaving with Hizashi. Nyoko surprised the pair by giving Karin to Hizashi to take to their new quarters, she would wake her daughter there.

Kei put the seal back up quickly knowing that the conversation to follow was going to be touchy.

“You don’t have the Uzumaki chakra reserves to even be an Uzumaki by blood, so who are you? How do you know so much about our family?” Nyoko wasn’t sure how this was going to go, she wasn’t a shinobi. If he killed her here, well at least her daughter was safe.

“Shit,” Kei hadn’t expected her to corner him like this. “They’re not going to give us as much time as I would like and since I can’t come back-” He trailed off his mind going over things fast before landing on a single thought. “I don’t have the time to show you through a genjutsu.”

“We can try using a shared information scroll if you have one, but first give me your story.” She wanted to hear what he was going to say while looking at him, not just read what he was going to write in scroll that would automatically share the information with her.

“Alright short version and you’ll have to take some of it on faith at the moment. I’m from about ten years in the future. Sent back after Kaguya, the Rabbit Goddess and her son Zetsu pretty much decimated the entire planet. I was supposed to be here with my best friend, Haru, an Uzumaki. Something went wrong, he used too much energy powering the seal, protecting those we left behind, I don’t know, so instead I’m here pretending to be a half blood in order to stop things from getting to that point.” Kei pulled his shirt half off trying to get to the other seals Haru had inked onto him in the years they had been together. He was sure he knew which scroll it was in. “The only ones who know the full story here are Shikaku Nara, Chouza Akimichi, Inoichi Yamanaka who found us when we first showed up and when Haru died; and Fugaku Uchiha.”

Nyoko stared at the man in front of her. His chest half bare, the scars and marks told the tale of a life of a shinobi, but the seals told the life of an Uzumaki. It was the way his chakra flared and fluctuated that brought a tear to her eye. Like a leaf caught in a current twisting, unable to go where it wanted to that she could finally feel the few drops of Uzumaki chakra that refused to blend in seamlessly with his overwhelming Uchiha chakra. Those threads fought their way to the surface. “This Haru, he shared his chakra with you?”

Kei looked her straight in the eyes. He wasn’t going to lie to her, “with the number of times I tried to hurt him when we were children, I’m surprised we don’t share blood types by now.” He rubbed the scar over his right lung where Haru put his fist through his chest missing his heart by quite a bit more then Kei had missed Haru’s.

The pain in Kei’s voice and the tears in his eye weren’t something a man like him would fake. He was hurting and whoever this Haru was, Kei loved him.

“Alright, I’ll trust you for now. If I have questions I’m sure that Hiashi will allow me to talk to one of these other men?”

“It’s possible, they’re all clan heads and respected men in their own right. Shikaku Nara is also the jonin commander, and Inoichi Yamanaka is the head of T&I or Torture and Interrogations while Fugaku Uchiha is the head of the Konoha Police force.”

“If you’re trying to get into the Uzumaki compound and it’s blood sealed you’re going to need Uzumaki blood. Will the Stasis seal work for sealing fresh blood?” At Kei’s nod Nyoko held out her hand and he passed her a kunai watching as she sliced her leg and let the blood drip onto the seal. “I’m sure we’ve held them up long enough.” Nyoko lifted her sleeve and bit her own upper arm to have her leg heal.

“Nyoko.” Kei helped her stand. “Thank you.” He gathered the stasis scrolls and stored them away, passing her the information scroll he had for her before releasing the privacy seal. Hiashi was right outside the door.

“Hiashi I thank you for your patience.” He kept Nyoko from exiting the room. “I would offer you the access to the privacy seals but it seems that I am going to be summoned to the Hokage again.” The hawk flew above the compound. “Perhaps I have pushed my luck too far lately.”

“That’s not one of the Hokage’s hawks,” Hiashi eyed the red tag on the bird’s leg.

Kei just smiled as he walked away from the main house. “I know. Please keep an eye on them and if you would let Shikaku know that I’ve been summoned. The seal should pop itself once I’m far enough away from it, if not the one inside can help.”

He walked outside of the Hyuga compound before allowing the hawk to land on his arm. He ignored the way the talons dug into his arm. He took off the mini scroll and made his way to the Hokage’s office.

Chapter Text

The Hokage’s office had five people inside and it took everything Kei had not to kill Danzo on sight.

“Kei, thank you for coming. I’m not sure if you were properly introduced to my council members the last time. This is Homura Mitokado, Koharu Utatane, and Danzo Shimura and Jiraya of the Sannin.”

Danzo spoke up before Kei could say anything. “You didn’t acknowledge the messenger hawk right away.”

Kei wanted to raise an eyebrow instead he gave a simple answer. “I answered the hawk as soon as it was safe to do so. I didn’t know what the message may hold and therefore made sure I was alone before opening it so no one could read the message.”

Kei could see the Hokage smile at that, knowing full well that his answer was designed to find out who wanted to track his movements. “Kei, I know that you were just here, but as Jiraya just arrived I wanted to make sure that you were able to spend some time together. He is one of the few who spent a lot of time in Uzushio before the fall.”

Jiraya nodded in his direction, his smile and mannerisms so reminiscent of Haru. “I loved walking the streets. The central marketplace was one of my favorite places, especially seeing as you could watch the vendors off load their wares from port, set up their stalls and after the noon bell rang; watch the children rush out of the academy.”

Kei smiled watching as Jiraya stared out the window. He understood why there was a rush to have him back in the Hokage’s office the same day he had been pushing to open the Uzumaki compound. Hiruzen had likely summoned Jiraya as soon as he had arrived but with his network of spies, it was hard to tell where the Sannin had been. He had hoped the toad sage had been able to make his way safely without disrupting his contacts. For as goofy as he came across; the perverted, drunken writer was a damn good cover and the man had a top notch spy network. Now, he was back here and trying to verify that Kei was actually an Uzumaki as Danzo was likely trying to force his hand at either handing Kei over to the ROOT or letting the ROOT into the Uzumaki compound.

“I’m sure the Hokage told you that I left Uzushio when I was a child so I can’t even pretend to remember all the details, however I will agree that the central marketplace was favorite as that is where Haru would often buy me a trinket or new book. The artisans and their stalls were amazing. It was on our way home from visiting my mother’s place of work, and yes the children did often run through there from the academy. But I think you might be a little confused, as watching the vendors unload their stock and set of their stalls is something more in line with the eastern marketplace, just outside the lower level. That’s where the fresh food stalls were since there were no civilians allowed to set up permanent stalls in Uzushio.” Kei raised an eyebrow and looked Jiraya straight in the eye. He was working off old maps they had found in the underground vaults when they took refuge in Uzushio. He and Haru had poured over what the village must had looked like in it glory days, dreamed of making it so once again. That Jiraya had been there and never told Haru, hurt. This was the man that was Naruto’s godfather, who was supposed to care and raise Naruto. Sure Kakashi had promised Minato he’d look after the baby, but Kakashi was a traumatized teen who had no idea what he was doing. Jiraya was a grown man, traumatized in his own way, sure, but a grown man none the less.

“Hmmm,” The toad sage scrutinized Kei for a minute before tossing his head back and laughing, “you have it right. The memory you have is sharp and clear. We’ll need to talk, Kei; I have missed talking about Uzushio and it’s red-orange beauty.”

There was an underlying message there that Kei was sure he was missing, however he had something much more important then the history of Uzushio to talk to the pervert about. “I’m told that you’re a seal master. As such you should be able to understand the base matrix for this.” Kei opened a scroll and showed Jiraya the base matrix for the the ROOT silencing seal. With his back mostly to Danzo, the only other person who could see were Tenzo, who was hiding in the corner as ANBU; the other elders who were looking at an angle wouldn’t be able to see he seal clearly.

“Well that’s…”

“It’s something that I’m helping Shikaku with,” Kei met Jiraya’s eyes and then flicked them meaningfully over towards where Tenzo stood. Even if Jiraya didn’t know that Tenzo was on guard duty, he was sure to know about the man.

“Interesting. Would you mind I were to talk to him about it later?”

“I think we’d appreciate your input on it.” Kei rolled up the scroll and stuffed it away into his sleeve, hiding it in an inner seal before turning to face the other council members.

“I would like to know why you were at the Hyuga compound tonight, Kei-san?” Danzo stood in the middle of the room.

“Am I still being followed by the ANBU? I thought that I no longer had guards watching me?”

“Do you have something to hide?” Danzo’s voice quieted down almost as if he was assured that he had won some sort of point.

Homura picked up on Kei’s evasion, “only the guilty refuse to answer a question.”

Kei looked over at her with an almost sneer on his face. “Oh I have no problem answering the question I just like to make sure that I know who has access to the information I provide.”

Sarutobi held up a hand to forestall the sputter that was already coming out of both Homura’s and Kohura’s mouths at the moment. “Now the three of you are here as you are all council members. Kei is right in assuming that he is no longer watched when he is either in the village or out on missions. The fact that he was at the Hyuga residence tonight is his reason alone. As to who is listening, we are.”

Kei bowed towards the Hokage, he’d likely pushed enough. “I stopped by because I wanted to thank Hizashi again for not only indulging me in stopping at the Grass on the way back, but letting him know that I had talked to you about it. I didn’t want him to stress about it.”

“He’s a branch member.”

Kei wasn’t sure which of the two elders had made the comment since it had been said under their breath, but it still pissed him off, focusing on the Sannin seemed his better bet. “How long are you in the village for? Would it be possible to go back to the house I’m renting to talk? I’d like to discuss some other funijutsu basics in a less formal setting.”

Jiraya could see the way Danzo and the other old biddies were going to try and interfere. Looking at his sensei he could see the old man give a subtle nod, “Ya know I think that would be a wonderful idea. I have many theories that I would love to talk to you about. It’s been years since I’ve someone able to talk seals.” Jiraya threw his arms round Kei’s shoulder and walked him out the door. “Having another Uzumaki in the village will be a wonder.”

Kei was getting tired of all of the political bullshit. He was getting jittery and just wanted to hit somebody. That of course was what he would do. Haru would talk everyone around to his way of thinking.

Outside of the tower proper Jiraya stayed close, “so where is you want to talk?”

“Shikaku’s, I trust he knows who you are and honestly, chances are Fugaku is there with Inoichi for the next little while.”

That kinda of shocked Jiraya as the last he knew Fugaku wasn’t on the best of terms with any of the other clans in the village. Of course just to prove him wrong, the pair had no sooner walked on Nara land then young Shikamaru came running down the road. “Kei-nii, Kei-nii, otou-san told me show you and our guest the way.” He stood in the middle of the road with his arms up, waiting to be lifted onto Kei’s shoulders.

“Are you sure?” Kei breathed a sigh of relief, if Shikaku knew he was coming with a guest then, either one of the ANBU gave him the head’s up, or his chakra was a little out of control.

“Yeah, I wasn’t to say it was troublesome either.” The pout on Shikamaru’s face was too cute.

Kei couldn’t help but laugh. “Alright I guess having a guide like you is important. Let’s go Jiraya, we have the Nara heir to lead the way.”

“I can’t lead the way if you’re carrying me Kei-nii,” the comment had such sarcasm that even Jiraya laughed. Kei refused to put the tyke down, but continued to walk towards the main house, listening as Shikamaru told him what he’d learned from Itachi while Kei had been gone on his mission.

Jiraya was amazed, he’d never seen openness like that between people who weren’t family.

Kei could see Jiraya trying to categorize the relationship he had with Shikamaru, and so he decided to push his buttons one step further. He could see Yoshino in the window and flashed her a small hand sign. He was so lucky the woman loved a good joke. He opened the front door of the clan house without knocking. “Hi honey I’m home.” His voice echoed down the hall.

“That’s great, dear, I’m in the study,” Shikaku’s voice echoed back.

Opening the study door with Jiraya right behind him. “I didn’t bring supper, but I brought him,” he pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the white haired man in olive green shinobi wear with a dark red vest over top.

Shikaku hadn’t been alone, as Kei had implied both Inoichi and Fugaku were already there, “I thought the gate guard were bullshitting me when they said you were back in the village. What has you coming back here?” Shikaku pulled out the sake and poured a dish as he waited for the two new comers to sit down.

Kei sat Shikamaru down and watched the boy run out the door, closing it behind him.

“I received a message a couple of months ago from Sensei about a half blood Uzumaki-Uchiha mix. He asked me to check it out. It took me a bit but I made it to Uzushio and was able to confirm that Takio Uchiha was buried amongst the Royal Uzumaki. Not just anyone gets that privilege. I wasn’t able to find any books or scrolls to confirm Kei’s linage, I don’t have the bloodlines for that. Sorry Kei, I realize that I’m sitting here discussing whether or not you are who you say you are right in front of you. I don’t mean to be disrespectful.” Jiraya bowed to the raven haired man.

“It’s alright.” Kei tried not smirk, “if I was Sarutobi, I’d do the same thing. Especially since I just asked about opening the Uzumaki compound.”

Jiraya downed the dish of sake, “yeah that would make sensei nervous.”

“He’s not the only one. Kei’s still being followed by Danzo’s goons. ROOT is a serious issue for the village.”

“Didn’t sensei have Danzo disband that?”

Inoichi coughed into his hand, “bullshit.”

“Right,” Jiraya sighed and leaned back, “this is Orochimaru all over. What can I do to help?”

“Actually,” Shikaku pulled some scrolls out of a drawer and passed them to Kei first. “We need you to look at these first. Kei has a seal that protects his sharingan and if you can help replicate it the Uchiha might want to use it on their shinobi. It would work against the theft of their eyes. If things go well we may even be able to get the Hyuga to replace the caged bird seal with this.”

Kei figured he’d show off a little, hell he deserved it and so did both Haru and Naruto. Opening a blank scroll and the scroll Shikaku tossed him, he used the transfer seal to copy the information from Shikaku’s scroll onto the blank one before tossing Shikaku, his scroll back and handed the new to a slack jawed Jiraya. “Read this and tell us what you think.”

“How,” Jiraya took the scroll and then shook his head focusing instead on the contents. He soon got lost in the text. “My god, who wrote this. It’s so, well so understandable.” He went on to mutter. “Shikaku, who’s teach fuinjutsu at the academy? This is amazing, I mean Mito-sama was the one who taught me and she worked with Kushina. Mito-sama had brought a lot of scrolls from home. When Minato showed some interest, well, he was only able meet with Mito-sama a handful of times before she became forced to focus Kushina’s training on what she needed know as a jinchuriki, seeing as she knew her time was coming to an end. I was told to take Minato under my wing. That way I could still teach him, but also distract him from what was going on with Kushina and her becoming the new jinchuriki. By the time she was ready to try again it was like she needed to start at the beginning again.”

“Being on her team at that time was hell. She’d gone from one hell of a fighter to someone who couldn’t handle her own chakra.” Fugaku smiled as he reminisced on the days of training as a genin. “Man she hated it so much.” He wondered if talking about Haru’s family would help Kei or not. May be he’d talk to him about it later.

Shikaku decided now would be the perfect time to interject. “That would make sense, the way she had control over her chakra before then needing to get used to balancing it with the Kyuubi’s. It would be very much like having to relearn how to use not only your chakra but also someone else’s.” Shikaku couldn’t imagine how she had managed as well she did without Mito-sama.

Kei thought back to the number of times Haru had fought to do simple things, it hadn’t been until they had sought refuge in Uzushio and found scrolls on chakra exercises specific to the Uzumaki large reserves that Kakashi had Haru practice them. Even with Haru totally in sync with Kurama the change had been phenomenal. “Did Kushina receive the Uzumaki chakra training?”

The other men looked at him in confusion.

Kei explained, “All Uzumaki have a larger then average chakra reserve. Those of the royal line, have double that of regular Uzumaki, it is for that reason they are chosen to be jinchuriki. They are the only who can handle the corrosive nature of Biju chakra.”

“Wait,” Jiraya was willing to overlook the fact that Kei was a new jonin to Konoha who now knew that Kushina was jinchuriki, however, since he has proven he knew more about Uzushio he even Jiraya could remember clearly, something that was a little suspect, then there was a good chance that the information wasn’t as hidden in Uzushio as it was here. “Are you telling me that Kushina was royalty?”

“Yes. Uzushiogakure is not only the hidden village but also the seat of our Diyamo. Mito-sama’s father was both our Diyamo and our Uzukage. Mito-sama was Kushina’s paternal aunt. The role of Uzukage is a hereditary position, and the next in line was Kushina’s father. He was an amazing man. My mother, Maki Uzumaki was a younger cousin to the Uzukage and I was told took on many of the administration roles to help out. As a side branch we don’t have the strength to become the honored jinchuriki, but to do keep the legends and records.”

Jiraya nodded, knowledge holders were well known in Uzushio. It brought home once again the lineage that his young godson held and that was being kept from him. “Shikaku? The boy?”

“He’s doing fine for now. I have a cousin who’s sort of looking in on him. Not that we’re allowed near him.” Shikaku toyed with a couple of pieces on his board before flicking a finger toward Inoichi. His best friend sighed but reached out toward Kei. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been planning to make the move anyway.

Inoichi leaned closer to Kei, bumping his shoulder. “We have a similar role in the Yamanakas. Someone to keep track of what we do and what we can do.”

Kei just nodded. He didn’t flinch when Ino’s fingers pushed aside his weapon’s pouch allowing his hand to touch his hip. {Shikaku doesn’t want Jiraya to know who you are aside from Kei Uzumaki-Uchiha.}

Ino almost blew it when Kei rolled his eyes. Leave it to an Uchiha to put a full conversation in a single action.

“Look, to get back on track here. I asked the Hokage for access to the Uzumaki compound and was denied due to the possibility that Minato had left something behind at the compound that may be sensitive to the village. Frankly I don’t care. What I worry about is Danzo. The man is scum. You understood the seal that I showed you correct?”

“Yeah it was a silencing seal, one that we use frequently around the village, hell there’s a fantastic weapon’s smith that puts them on tags, but the one you showed me has been altered it’s keyed to a person. What was that about?” Jiraya wasn’t as stupid as everyone thought he was. “That was a seal to put on a person and control them, you could see where the matrix was left open.” He looked straight at Shikaku, wanted to know who was responsible and why it was a new jonin that had brought it to his attention.

Shikaku sighed, “we believe that it’s Danzo.”

While Shikaku was dealing with Jiraya, Kei tried to talk with Inoichi, he didn’t have much practice with the mind transfer, hadn’t like Ino poking around in his mind. Too much trauma from his childhood and the shit that Itachi had done to him. {Inoichi? Who is in charge of ANBU?}

{The current ANBU commander is Monkey,} at Kei’s raised eyebrow Inoichi continued, {generally they wear a white cloak compared the regular black or cloakless ANBU uniform.}

Kei gave a subtle nod, {does Shikaku have any meeting with them or any way to co-ordinate missions? We need to get to Tenzo, he wears the seal that Danzo put on from ROOT, the one that I showed Jiraya.}

Inoichi sighed, if he was Shikaku he’d say it was troublesome, instead it was working to be a headache. Fuck! How did they allow Danzo to get his hands on so many aspects of Konoha? “Shikaku? Jiraya? I have perhaps an unorthodox suggestion. One of the things we want to have Jiraya to take a look at the seal matrix that Kei has in regard to the Uchiha eyes. It would show that your are all looking at working together and trying to help the Uchiha protect that which is most valuable. Jiraya, I know we haven’t even talked to you about that seal yet so just wait. The other thing we need to do is to protect the Uzumaki compound. Jiraya am I right in assuming that you just arrived in the village when the Hokage called Kei in for you test his knowledge of Uzushio?”

“Yeah, I had barely walked through the gates when I had been rushed to his office.” Jiraya scratched the back of his head. “I haven’t even checked to see if my stuff is still here. I’ve been gone for so long.”

Standard procedure was any shinobi who was gone for longer then a year had their apartment cleared out and their things put in storage unless they had someone looking after it. Jiraya had been gone for almost four years, with only the occasional day trip back in the village to relay information.

Shikaku let his fingers play with shoji piece, he had an idea as to where his friend was going. “Right. Jiraya were you ever at the Uzumaki compound?”

“Yeah, frequently. Hell that’s where I spent a lot of my down time. They had a room for me there. I mean, Minato was someone you just gravitated around and Kushina could make a cave into a home and it wasn’t just me.”

Shikaku stroked his goatee as Jiraya reminded them of the friends they lost. “That’s why we need you to be a big distraction in the village.”

“Who do you think would have the best chance of getting into the compound and securing it against Danzo.” Jiraya was curious as to what the jonin commander was thinking.

Shikaku could feel the plan forming before his eyes. “We get Kakashi, Genma, and Raidou to go over to the compound and secure it for Kei and for Naruto and any other Uzumaki that walks through our gates. That way we have somewhere safe for them to go.”

“You’re not including Iwashi?” Ino was curious.

Shikaku shook his head, “he just left on a mission.”

“We have to make sure that whatever we do with Jiraya it’s big enough to take the focus off of the Uzumaki compound.” Kei didn’t want to have their plans derailed because Kakashi stood out too much.

“I think if we get Fugaku to have some of the clan Elders meet at the clan house to talk about the seal Kei brought forward for the doujutsu. Jiraya and Kei and I can make a scene talking about funijutsu at the Akimichi BBQ place before moving to the Uchiha compound. The fact that three of us will be walking into the Uchiha compound without a guard. That alone is enough to make waves.” Shikaku knew they’d have to talk about the seal out loud at the shinobi bar, introducing the concept there would spread the rumours fast and that was the best way to get the attention he wanted.

“Okay. I’m game and I’m sure if we tell Kakashi why we want him to be quiet as he goes back to the Uzumaki compound he’ll follow. It’ll be hard for him, but he won’t be alone. Genma and Raidou were like older brothers to him as well.” Inoichi knew that as much as Kakashi tried to hold himself apart over the years, that those two only allowed so much before they interfered and checked on him. Personally. Iwashi was much more subtle in his ways.

Jiraya looked at Shikaku, “I’m assuming you have a plan.”

“I do.”

He shook his head, “I’m almost afraid to ask.” The sigh was almost silent, “who’s going to go and talk to Kakashi and when are we going?”

“No time like the present. I’ll go and talk to him and if you give me a couple of hours before you start your shenanigans I should be able to at least have met up with the other two.” Shikaku stood up.

“I’d actually start off with them, as Tenzo was on duty at the Hokage’s office and he might want to talk to Kakashi when he’s done.” Kei spoke up.

“Aside from that fancy scroll there, do you have any other sealing supplies?” Jiraya really wanted another look at the seals and a chance to talk funijutsu with someone other then Orochimaru.

“I do, let’s go. If we’re lucky we can hit the Akimichi BBQ just as the busy time hits.” Kei stood and so did Jiraya and Inoichi.

Shikaku watched them walk away. “Well I have to say, Kei has one hell of a back bone. Maybe it’s because he knows what can happen.”

Fugaku was once again thankful that Kei and Haru had run into the Ino-Shika-Cho when came back. Shikaku had a way of making someone feeling secure and with his intelligence there was very little left to chance.

Chapter Text

The BBQ joint was the same as it had been the last time he had been in the village and it warmed Jiraya’s heart. The food was amazing and there were just enough of the right shinobi to make the scene they were about to create interesting. Every major clan was here. Jiraya sat with his food and chatting to Kei. At first they talked about Uzushio and what Jiraya remembered from his infrequent visits. The time gave Jiraya a chance to settle his nerves. He’d been sure there had been something off about Kei’s answer on how the streets of Uzushio had been laid out, but he couldn’t figure it out. It was a detail, a small detail that was off, but Jiraya was missing something. He couldn’t deny that the he longer he talked to Kei, the more at ease he felt, but that didn’t negate his gut feelings. He hadn’t stayed alive as Konoha’s spymaster for as long as he had by ignoring his gut feeling. He’d keep watch and if it got worse he’d talk to someone about it, but for now he’d keep his suspicions to himself.

Jiraya waited until the waiter, a loud and talkative Akimichi, came by to remove the plates. “Kei talk to me about those seals I heard so much about. The ones you showed off during your assessment.” His voice was a little too loud and his hand gestures were wider then normal.

Kei spread out his sealing papers across the entire table, something he never would have done normally. “Well I’m not proficient at creating new seals, but I know a number of them and can recreate them.” He wasn’t going to elaborate on how every time he used a seal, he felt like Haru was standing right behind him. Guiding him. It was both comfort and pain. When he was trying to create one, well that was when he had Haru breathing down his neck, admonishing him for every little mistake, and laughing like a loon when things went right. The only time the dobe was ever better then him and damn it, he didn’t need that type of mental trauma tripping up when he was already so damaged.

“Well, let’s see what you’ve got.” Jiraya’s voice boomed and the shinobi at the nearby tables stopped pretending they weren’t listening in.

**

Shikaku moved through the village fairly quickly. He wasn’t exactly sure where Kakashi was, the man was well known for hiding in plain sight and not being found until he wanted to be. Thinking on it, Shikaku decided that the best bet would be to go after either Genma or Raidou, since Iwashi was out of the village on a mission. He was positive one of the two men should be at home. He kept to the shadows, not quite hiding but not walking in the light either. He was glad when Genma opened the door.

“Hey long time no see, come in.”

“Genma, is Raidou here?” Shikaku closed the door and followed Genma into the small house north of the Aburame clan grounds where a lot of clanless shinobi had found housing .

“Raidou, pull out another cup.” Genma led the way to the main room where Raidou was making a pot of tea.

“Hey, Shi-“

Shikaku flashed a couple of hand signs before Raidou could finish his name.

“-it, well it’s been a while since you’ve been here. Glad to see you.” Raidou finished talking without it seemingly to break the flow.

Genma moved to window and pulsed his chakra into the wall, before closing the summer sheers. They didn’t block anything, just muted them and made the shadows deeper. “Okay we’re good.” When Shikaku raised an eyebrow in question, he pulled a senbon out his pocket and popped in his mouth. “It’s something Kushina helped us set up. There are seals through out the house since we bought the place. Anyone looking in will see only figures moving around and if they’re trying to eavesdrop, well they’ll get confused. No two people will hear the same thing.”

Shikaku smirked at that. Leave it to Kushina to make sure that everyone in their circle was safe.

“Yeah, don’t get too excited. It’s got a short life span and needs our chakra to run it, so if you need to say something do it fast.” Raidou knew he had cut Genma short. His partner could go on forever on how Kushina made sure they had a way of keeping their private life private.

“Right, can I get one or both of you to break into the Uzumaki compound and make sure that anything that Kushina or Minato left behind is either hidden or stored.” He pulled out a couple of storage scrolls that Kei had given him. “I’m sure that you’ve heard of our newest jonin. Kei Uchiha-Uzumaki. Right now the Hokage is asking him to hide the fact that he’s half Uzumaki. Fugaku has accepted him as an Uchiha. I know him pretty well and like the kid. He’s asked for the right to use the compound. Sarutobi is trying to delay it under the pretense that Minato might have left sensitive documents inside. He tried to say that no one could get in. Forgetting the fact that Kei is half Uzumaki and if it’s blood sealed, he could most likely gain access.”

Genma stared at the man he’d played shoji against more times then he could count. Not that he’d ever won, but he knew how this man thought. “Shikaku, what else is going on? If that was it, you wouldn’t be asking this of us under the cover of a privacy seal.”

“I have reason to believe that someone who isn’t ….” Shit how did he say this without sounding like a traitor waiting to strike.

Raidou looked between two of the men he admired most in the village and spoke first, “someone who won’t put Naruto and Konoha first?”

“Yeah I guess that’s one way to phrase it. I’m afraid of who Sarutobi will send in under the guise of making the place secure for a relative outsider.”

“And since we knew Kushina and Minato, who better then us to go and do this.” Genma looked and Raidou and nodded. “Okay we’re in. When do you want us to go?”

“Honestly, the sooner the better. I have someone causing a scene downtown to draw attention away from everywhere else. It would be better if you could grab Kakashi and Iwashi as well, but Iwashi is out of the village on a mission and won’t be back for at least a week. Kakashi? Well I don’t know where to find him on the best of days.”

“I think if we go to the house he’ll show up.” Raidou smiled. “So what are these?” He held up the scrolls. They looked different from normal storage scrolls, having a slightly darker colour to the parchment.

“Kei passed on some storage scrolls.” He laid out two scrolls, “They’re larger then any of the ones we have access to by about five times. Each scroll contains five more for twelve total. They will start glowing red as they get full. When they hit a bright cherry red they’re full. Kei said that he wants the two of you to keep and hide the scrolls when you’re done. They can be blood sealed and personally I’d prefer that, but not the two of you on one if you get my meaning.” Shikaku tapped a finger against the table as he explained.

“So like me and Kakashi or Genma and you.” Raidou understood the reasoning behind it, he just didn’t like the implications.

“Exactly.” Shikaku watched as Genma pocketed one of the scrolls passing the other to his partner. He pointed to one of the remain scrolls on the counter. “This one has a small vial of blood inside, just in case the compound is blood sealed.”

“Uzumaki blood. I hope Kei has enough Uzumaki blood running through his veins being a half blood and all?” Genma’s quipped.

Shikaku was ready to comment back when a small alarm went off.

“Two minute warning.” Raidou, “we’ll go right away, we’ll take the back way into both the Nara forest and the compound when we’re done so don’t kill us when we show up late tonight.”

Shikaku just nodded, “I’ll leave a deer to guide you in, if I’m not at the clan compound, I’ll be at the Uchiha compound and will be back shortly. Just go to the main house and Yoshino will show in to the study, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“I don’t like the ice cream at Shin’s and there’s no way you can make it back in time without it melting.” Genma’s conversation was so random that Shikaku just about asked what the fuck he was talking about.

Raidou picked up the last two scrolls off the counter, “well fine if you’re going to be an ass about it, you’ll have to come with me and we’ll just have to walk to the other side of the fucking village to get your lame assed ice cream.” Raidou used his hand signs to let the Nara clan head know they were heading out right away. “Hey sorry to cut the visit short. I’m really sorry about everything and sorry that we couldn’t help you at all. I wish you the best but as you can see I have my hands full.”

Shikaku paused for a moment. He hadn’t warned them of who they would be against. Should he tell them? Technically it was treason if he spread unsubstantiated rumors against a village council member, on the other hand had Kei’s memories. The word of a time traveler. In the end Shikaku decided that he couldn’t put these men at risk, and when he thought of it, not much about Danzo inspired trust. When Kei had first asked about different shinobi in the village very few name elicited an emotional response. Genma Shiranui’s was one and it was one of relief to know that he was alive. He needed to give them as much warning as he could. Especially with ROOT out there. They fought dirty, and he didn’t want to be responsible for having to tell Kei that one of these two were gone. Tapping Genma on the shoulder, he was careful to sign behind Raidou’s back.

‘You’re up against Danzo and ROOT. Watch your back.’

The only thing that let Shikaku know that Genma understood him was the slight tightening of his teeth against the senbon.

“I need a double scoop, and if we don’t hurry I’m going to ask for a triple and you’re going to pay.” Genma grabbed Raidou’s hand and led him down the walk and away from the house.

Shikaku waited until they were out of sight before erasing his chakra from the room and using the transportation jutsu to appear in an alley in the marketplace. He had to place his trust in the pair that just left. For now, he headed towards the BBQ joint to see just what Jiraya and Kei were doing.

Chapter Text

The crowd around the pair was even larger then he had thought possible. Jiraya had chosen one of the few tables that was open to the street, allowing more shinobi to see and hear the conversation then just those inside the restaurant. Jiraya and Kei had the table covered with sealing paper. Walking closer, Shikaku could hear Kei explain the basics of sealing exactly like the scrolls his friend Haru had written.

“You can’t just take ideas and add sealing matrices to them like one would do to create new jutsu by adding chakra. Funijutsu relies on some basic principles.” Kei was talking to Jiraya like he was a first year sealing student, “well you can, but you need to pretty much have mastered the fundamentals of sealing before attempting something like that. The good thing is that the basics are fairly simple and much like learning the alphabet, once you understand them and have them mastered, the rest is fairly intuitive .”

Fugaku pointed to a number of symbols on the paper in front of them, “so much like the letters in a word, once I understood the basics, combining the correct building block would create a word or seal while using the wrong ones would have something that malfunctions?”

Kei smiled, “exactly, the only problem is that without proper guidance that malfunction could potentially blow you up where as mixing up the wrong letters will only give you a word that no one can read. If we keep with that analogy we’re more likely to want someone who knows the alphabet and how to spell to help create new words or seals in this case.”

“What is it that seals can do that jutsu’s can’t?” The question was posed by one of the Uchiha elders but Kei could see others were just as curious.

“Well, I can do damn near anything with them and I’m not that talented. There are privacy seals, protection seals, reinforcement seals, storage seals just to name a few. You need to think creatively on how to use them. I’m sure you all remember that Uzushio had a barrier seal that surrounded the entire Island and one that surround the village itself; it would still be standing here if it hadn’t been brought down from the inside. Hell, the seals are still there, just dormant. If I wanted to I could alter the barrier seal to block everyone from going in or out unless they had access to my blood.” That statement had a number of shinobi whispering amongst themselves. Kei understood, such a bold statement without anything to back it up was just prideful boasting. They wanted to see proof.

Jiraya did his best to keep up, but truth be told, what Kei was telling him was blowing his mind. “You understand that a lot of this information is almost too fanatically for us to believe without proof. It’s been too long since we’ve had a funijutsu master. Right now I’m the closest there is and everything I know has been learned second hand years ago.”

“Hmmm,’ A wink over at Fugaku let the Uchiha head he was going to cause another disturbance. ‘Haru, this is for you. This is to make sure that the you of this world grows up loved and protected. I will make sure of it.’ Kei rolled up his sleeve and pushed chakra into his right arm letting the multitude of seals light up. He had six on his forearm alone. Opening the seal he had shown Souske Gekko, and dropping the weapons he had inside on the table. “These are my storage seals. I also have a variety of seals on each of my weapons. I explained a couple of them to Souske Gekko and his son when we had our sparring session. The one on my tanto is used to gather nature chakra with each swing. In a fight I can release that chakra against an enemy or use it to replenish my own. The seals on my shuriken each hold a different poison, the trench knives help me store opposing chakra natures.” Watching the faces around him boggle, “as for the seals on my skin, there’s still room inside them for more weapons, but I don’t like to fill a seal to capacity. It put’s too much strain on the seal matrix itself and it makes it difficult to retrieve the item you want when you open it and not just have the seal expel everything at once.” Thinking about TenTen and her wonderful scrolls of weapons that would rain down upon their enemies, he smiled. “Although that can be fun too if used correctly.”

“If I may ask, what are the parameters for those seals?” Hiashi eyed the raven. He had an idea as to why they were doing this here in the open and decided to help Kei with his little ploy.

“Well each seal is different and it depends on how the matrix is written. That’s part of the whole knowing the basics of funijutsu and which parts go together. The smallest one I have here holds about three kilos of fresh food and will keep it fresh for about three months. I have three that mid sized and hold at max ten kilos each. The largest I have I can store ninety kilos but for no longer then two months otherwise it’s a big drain on my chakra. I used to use to hold bodies to take to in for collection.”

“You didn’t use stasis scrolls?” Fugaku asked.

“Well yeah, but I only ever had three stasis scrolls and sometimes you needed the extra room.”

“All that extra weight…” Jiraya use shook his head, having all those seals filled would almost double a shinobi’s weight.

“That’s the best part of the seals. This part of the matrix reduced the weight so it only adds a tenth of the weight. I wasn’t the best funijutsu student so I don’t understand that part. I really wish my mentor had survived longer. Haru knew that stuff inside out; backwards and forwards. He was the one to create seals on the fly and have them work. I’m the one who is barely at a passing grade. That being the case, I’m still leagues above you all since Jiraya here is the only who even works with seals on regular basis.”

Jiraya openly laughed at himself, showing that there was no hard feeling for being called out like that, “you’re not wrong there Kei, your not wrong. I wanted to travel to Uzushio and learn from the masters there but put it off thinking I had all the time in the world. When it fell I tried to learn from Mito-sama, but we were both grieving and had other duties to attend to. Now there’s just too many memories to go alone.” His words took the sting out of what Kei had said. The Sannin looked across the crowd and spied Shikaku, “hey, Shikaku come on over and help us figure out this other seal that Kei has. It supposed to protect the Uchiha eyes against unwanted theft. If it works as he says it does it, that would be something the Hyuga could use as well with minor changes.”

The ripple of amazement through the crowd was exactly what Shikaku had wanted. Kei could feel not only the ANBU off duty among the crowd but also the ROOT. He knew all of this would be getting back to both Sarutobi and Danzo. In fact if he wasn’t mistaken Danzo was on the edge of the crowd, hidden by the shadows watching and waiting.

Shikaku moved closer and looked at the seals on the table. The only ones open to public eye were harmless storage seals, the other pages had a haze over them that made it impossible to read. Shikaku saw the way Jiraya moved his fingers on the table, a defunct signaling system left over from the third war and one the Sannin knew the Nara genius would pick up.

“Troublesome.” Shikaku watched the way Kei tapped on the paper with a toothpick. He was on edge and ready to break if they didn’t get out him of there. Shikaku carefully laid a hand on the Uchiha’s shoulder, and took the toothpick out of Kei’s hand, “why don’t we move this someplace where we’d have the room to experiment with some of these seals. Fugaku, can we use the Uchiha compound? If I remember right you have a large protected training ground for those practicing their fire jutsu in case things get out of control? That would be a perfect spot to minimize any damage these seal may cause as we’re not that proficient with them. Kei, you will let us experiment with these ones? Won’t you?” He barely waited for the jonin to nod before turning to another clan head, “Hiashi, we could use your help here as well. Both of you and Hizashi would be helpful with your byakugan to analyze how they actually work.”

Fugaku nodded, “Of course Shikaku. Hiashi, why don’t you bring Neji and Hinata over as well. Itachi is trying his hand at teaching. Both Sasuke and Shikamaru have been his Guinea pigs lately. We’re trying to show him that perhaps a career as an Academy teacher would suit him better. Having him work with children other then his younger brother and Shikamaru would be most helpful.”

Hiashi nodded, “I think that would be a good idea. Hinata would benefit from training with someone from outside the clan.”

Shikaku laughed, “well Itachi is the one to do it. He has Shikamaru eager to train.” He moved Kei out of his chair and closer to Fugaku, knowing the Uchiha head would watch out for his time traveling son.

The shinobi watching the importuning luncheon were gobsmacked. They had just been witness to what could only be called an impromptu funijutsu class lead by none other then Konoha’s spymaster and someone who must be the last of the Uzumaki clan. That was was before a couple of the other clan heads stepped in to talk seals. Funijutsu was such a lost art that anyone who held any knowledge was honoured as an almost legend. Then to hear that three different clan heads, clans that have had disagreements in the past, would be training together and letting their heirs train together was almost as mind blowing as the seals shown to the public. The rumours that would spring from this lunch alone would be worth all hassle.

The fact that Danzo himself had been bombarded with questions from shinobi asking if he understood the seals the newcomer had shown was definitely worth it. Inoichi stood in the corner and watched as the old war hawk became frustrated as he was surrounded by others who wanted to know what he thought of the seals. He couldn’t wait to tell Shikaku just how pissed off the interfering bastard was. The small signal he got from Mori Akimichi had him smiling even more. Chouza’s clan mates were smart enough to know why such a meeting had been held at their restaurant. Oh they might not know all the details, but they understand that when a Nara suggested a meeting with that type of impact, details would be needed later. They would serve food and drinks at reduced prices for the rest of the day, making sure to serve their customers promptly and take note of all conversations good and bad over the next couple of days. Reports would be made to Mori who would talk to Choza who would talk to Shikaku. It wouldn’t be long until they were told which way to sway the public. Such was that nature of the relationship between the Nara and the Akimichi.

Chapter Text

Genma and Raidou kept up the banter until they had reached the sweets shop near the edge of the market place. The Uzumaki compound was only a couple of blocks away, hidden by one of the training grounds.

“Do we try to find Kakashi?” Raidou kept his voice barely above a whisper.

“Nah.” Genma was glad they had both mastered the art of talking without moving their lips, there were too many shinobi around who could lip read. It gave credence to Kakashi and his habit of wearing a mask. Walking into the training the field they moved amongst the trees and transported to the compound boarder. A quick flash of chakra let them both inside the perimeter. The standing stone just inside showcased the second level of security Kushina had set up for her family.

“Well chakra or blood?” Raidou asked his lover.

A hand on his shoulder had him sighing in relief. He had hoped that just their presence at the gate would be enough to draw Kakashi out. He was glad to be proven right. “Here! Chakra. At the door, that will likely be blood although I’m not sure that ours will be enough.”

“Kakashi,” the relief in Genma’s voice was palatable. “If it comes to that, we’ve got it covered. You going to tell us who your friend is?” Genma hadn’t turned around, but he knew that there was someone else behind the scarecrow.

“Ah, I guess you haven’t met him officially. Genma, Raidou; let me introduce you to Tenzo officially. He’s my little Kohai and formally of ROOT.”

“Kashi,” the warning whine in Raidou’s voice let the former ANBU captain know that the men weren’t about to put up with any bull shit from him.

“He’s good, Danzo doesn’t have his claws in him anymore. He recognized the seal that Jiraya and the new jonin Kei were talking about and since they’re gathering quite the crowd downtown right now with Fugaku, Shikaku and Hiashi; chances are it’s to make sure that we can come in here and do what, exactly?” Kakashi had a pretty good idea that Genma and Raidou were sent there by Shikaku, the question was why not him? It was a shock when he felt the warning tug on his chakra letting him know that someone had opened the outer wards of the Uzumaki compound. It had been Tenzo’s luck that the two of them had been out training when it happened.

“Shikaku suggested that we make the place welcome for the next generation of Uzumaki.” Genma smiled as he rolled the senbon around his mouth. “We also need to make sure that Danzo and his like don’t get in first and take over any of Minato and Kushina’s stuff.” Seeing the pout make it’s way into Kakashi’s one visible eye, Genma used the chance to remind him that he had a family. Even if they had been denied the right to adopt both him and Naruto. It didn’t stop the fact that both Raidou and Genma loved him like older siblings. “You’d know this and more if you came home where you belong and where Shikaku could find you. Now come on we’re wasting time, brat.”

Given half a chance Genma would have a dozen kids and Raidou knew it, he sighed as he tried to reign in his lover. “Genma, don’t push.”

The front door required blood to open, luckily not Uzumaki blood. Kakashi’s worked. The three men needed a moment to compose themselves once inside. The memories were almost too much. The seals on the house kept it clean and looking like the owners would be back any second.

“Fuck me!” Genma turned his face into Raidou’s chest and took a shuddering breath. Raidou just closed his eyes and held his lover close. As Kakashi tried to walk by, both men pulled the silver haired man in for a hug. “Don’t pretend this doesn’t hurt. It’s okay Kakashi. We know how much they loved you.”

The three men looked like a unit and Tenzo had to smile. Here were two men who didn’t seem to let his Captain get away with anything, but accepted him for him. He wanted to learn more about these men.

Raidou and Kakashi took the upper floors while Genma and Tenzo took the lower floors.

The first door Genma opened appeared to be a study. “Jackpot.” He tossed a scroll to Tenzo. “We’re putting everything inside. I don’t want to leave anything for Sarutobi or Danzo. I’m told the scrolls will change color when they get close being full and they can hold a lot; so start filling. We’ll sort this later.” Genma started tossing books and scrolls into the storage scroll.

Tenzo watched the other shinobi for a while. He knew who the man was. Genma had a reputation as a top notch assassin hidden amongst the other jonin. Then there was the fact he had seen the man look in on Kakashi numerous times, whether he was recovering in the hospital or just at home relaxing between missions.

“Ya know you can talk to me. I won’t bite.” Genma winked an the young man as he continued to load scrolls and books into the storage scroll. “Damn but Minato was such a bookworm.”

“You’ve known, Kakashi Senpai for quite a while, haven’t you?” Tenzo wasn’t sure quite what he wanted to ask.

Genma’s smile grew at the question, “oh, you want stories about what Kakashi was like when he was a little Chibi brat?”

“No, I just.” Tenzo turned back to the desk he was clearing out, “he’s different with you and Raidou-San then he is with anyone else.”

“Tenzo, the reason he’s different with us is because of the couple who lived here. Kushina and Minato. There was no way to be in their presence and not be affected. You know that Kakashi was Minato’s student? That Raidou and I were part of his guard detail later on?”

Tenzo nodded, Kakashi had told the mokuton user all about his sensei and his genin team in an attempt to hold him at arms length.

“Well Minato was really quite lost when he was first given a team. Rin was so star struck by how brilliant Kakashi was at his age, even though she was crushing over Obito. And Obito, he was a cute kid, so unlike any Uchiha. He tried so hard to be better than Kakashi and earn Rin’s respect that he didn’t realize that he already had both that and her love. Kakashi was so young and talented but awkward with no real understanding of social skills. Minato, himself was an airhead of a prodigy, had no idea how to deal with them. It was Kushina who helped. Sure I worked as his guard when he was Hokage, but I was Kushina’s guard first.” Genma watched from the corner of his eye as Tenzo diligently searched for hidden compartments in the desk. “Rin was from a small clan, much like me and that meant there wasn’t much support for her at home. Kushina changed that for the entirety of Team seven. Even though she was only dating Minato at the time, she made sure that everyone was welcome in her home and later the apartment they lived in before being allowed to come here. Sure Obito was an Uchiha, but he lived on the outskirts of the clan with his grandmother and funds were often tight. It was Kushina, who made sure that he had enough to eat and was able to take some home for his grandmother without damaging her pride. It wasn’t that Fugaku ostracized them outright, but there definitely was some clan bullshit going on there. I don’t think they actually were too welcomed at clan functions. I know that Kushina often went over to visit and help out. Then there was you senpai. Kakashi was living on his own and dealing with the trauma of his father’s recent suicide and being the last of his line. Minato saw way too much of himself in your former captain. Both prodigies and without many friends or coping skills.” Thinking about realistically Genma wondered why more shinobi didn’t just snap and go postal from lack of mental care. “When Minato and Kushina were dating, many of those dates included Kakashi and letting him know that he was wanted for something more then his shinobi skills. When Rin and then Obito died, Minato was being groomed as Hokage and Kakashi moved into this house with them under the guise of watching over Kushina.”

“He was trying to figure out a way of adopting him without Kakashi losing the Hatake name.” Genma looked at the picture on the shelf, it was of the six of them out in the back yard. Better times, happier times. “It almost broke us when we lost them on the night of Naruto’s birth. Then to be denied the right to raise Naruto was devastating. It was almost as bad when we were told to about the gag order and to stay away from him completely. When we tried to help Kakashi, Raidou and I were told we were interfering in the career of a capable shinobi. We didn’t even know he went back into ANBU until after the fact. I swear if Raidou hadn’t been with me, I would have been written up for insubordination if not murder. Iwashi was the one to point out that even if we can’t have Kakashi with us all the time, we can still stop by and look out for him as friends.”

“I’m glad. He’s different with you and Raidou-San than he is with me or Guy.” Tenzo had found two secret drawers and emptied them and moved to shelves behind it.

“I should hope so. You are Kakashi’s friends, where as the rest of us are more like older brothers to the guy.” Genma tried to focus on what he was putting into the scrolls. Nothing was jumping out at him as sensitive to the Village, but he did recognize many of Minato’s personal journals where he jotted down ideas on different jutsus. Regardless they were items he wanted to keep away from Danzo. To keep them safe for Naruto.

Raidou walked into the room. “I think Kakashi and I found what Shikaku was worried about. There was a sealed drawer in the room they had set aside for Kakashi. He noticed the pictures on the dresser and surmised that something was inside. Kushina also had a number of Uzumaki artifacts in their bedroom. We’ve also cleared out the bedrooms.”

Genma nodded, as he took control. Looking around the room he smirked at the bare shelves, it would look suspicious, he’d have to see about restocking it, “alright, so we have the study and bedrooms done that leaves the bathrooms, kitchen and living room to check.”

“I do believe there is a dojo as well.” Kakashi spoke up as he entered the room. “These scrolls are amazing. Where did you get them from? There were an extra four inside of mine.” He held up the empty scrolls. “Even with everything we put in the scrolls, it seems like we have yet to fill one completely, at least neither mine nor the one Raidou had glowed red like Shikaku had warned. Did you fill yours?”

Tenzo shook his head, but Genma smiled, “mine started to glow a light pink so I think it was getting close. However I did empty half the study.”

“Yeah we all know what a couple of book worms both Minato and Kushina were.” Raidou joked before the men left to check out the rest of the house.

Cookbooks were removed from the kitchen. Jewelry, perfume and cologne were taken from the bathroom. The living room had more books, photo albums and items from Uzushio. The dojo had a lot of training weapons and couple of heirlooms pieces that Tenzo was sure were from Uzushio. It took another couple of hours for the four of them to clear the house to Genma’s satisfaction.

“Alright all scrolls on the ground.” They met in front of the house as Genma removed the scrolls and set them at his feet. Watching as the others set theirs down as well. There were twelve in total. “Okay we’re each going to take three scrolls and add a blood seal to them. Once that’s done we’ll start with Rai, you add your blood to one of mine, Tenzo’s and ‘Kashi’s.” He looked at his lover, “I know what Shikaku said, trust me.” Genma took the three completely sealed scrolls he had and put them in three separate piles and tied a coloured ribbon to them. “Alright. Kakashi, same deal. Add some of your blood to one of mine, Tenzo’s and Rai’s scroll.” Genma took more ribbons out and handed a different colour to the others. He continued on until all the scrolls were double sealed and each of the piles had two scrolls with different blood seal combinations and ribbon set. “Alright so each of us will have two scrolls to hold onto. With the nature of the things there are only six possible combinations of blood seals. Knowing who is likely after all of this information I’m not comfortable having any seals needing either mine or Raidou’s blood in our home. Kakashi, how do you feel leaving some of them with Shikaku and Fugaku? Or Kei Uchiha-Uzumaki?”

“Not Jiraya?” Tenzo interjected, “I hear he’s in the village.”

“Jiraya will likely be leaving soon do to the nature of his work for the Hokage.” Raidou explained.

“I have no problem with Shikaku,” Kakashi titled his head to the side, “or even Fugaku.” The Uchiha head and his wife had not only been close friends of both Minato and Kushina, but had been quite understanding when he came home with Obitio’s sharingan. Both he and Rin had needed to go before the elders to explain what had happened. When they had demanded to see the scar, that had meant taking down his mask. Fugaku had assured Kakashi that if he could show his face to only himself or Mikoto and the clan doctor that was all that would be needed. His privacy would be respected. Mikoto had come by later to teach him what she could of how the sharingan worked and to help him with chakra exercises to make sure that he didn’t die when using it. It was his own fault that he couldn’t bare to walk past Obito’s old house to get the extra training. “As for this Kei, I barely met the guy. I mean I fought against him for his assessment and that was, well interesting, but otherwise I haven’t seen him or talked to him or anything.”

“He spends a lot of time with Shikaku and Fugaku.” Tenzo offered up, “His last mission was with Hiashi and I hear that went well enough that he visited the Hyuga compound.”

“Can I decide after talking with Shikaku?” Kakashi wasn’t about to let some new comer take his sensei’s life work, it didn’t matter if the guy was family or not.

“That’s five of us potentially, Genma who are you thinking of for the other one?” Raidou knew his partner was up to something with the way his eyes twinkled.

“I was thinking Naruto’s little Gama-Chan. He never let’s that thing out of his sight. Or hell, we can leave the rest with Shikaku if he’s cool with it, I just don’t want us getting targeted either. I will ask that we each leave a vial of blood at Shikaku’s so he can open the scrolls if it becomes necessary.” Genma’s suggestion had them all thinking.

“We need to talk to Nara-sama first.” Tenzo spoke up trying to ease what residual tension was left from digging into a painful past.

Once the others agreed, Genma sent Tenzo back into town for supplies while the rest of them went through each room and erased their chakra signatures. When Tenzo came back Genma set the books he brought back in study and living room before closing the house up again and leading the group through the forest towards the Nara woods.

Chapter Text

The Uchiha training ground were expansive. Kei walked off to a back corner as he realized just what the hell was happening. He needed to get away from everyone to protect them from the fallout. Shikaku found him with his head against a tree, shoulders shaking.

“Kei, how are you holding up?”

“Fuck man, I swear I feel like I’m one step from falling apart. I keep waiting for someone else to call me on my bullshit. Like how can I keep this up? I see Fugaku over there and I know he’s my father but at the same time he’s a stranger to me. I brought Nyoko Uzumaki here with her daughter. Karin was part of my team, but I treated her like shit and frankly if she wasn’t an Uzumaki I likely would left her to die a terrible death here. Hell, I almost forgot all about her anyway.

“Nyoko knows I’m a fake. Shikaku; she looked right through me and knew right away I was not an Uzumaki and yet she gave me a vial of her blood with the hope that it could aid in my bid to open the Uzumaki compound then she helped pull what was left of Haru in me to the surface as well. She doesn’t know me. All she knows is that I took her away from Kusa. She had the opportunity to tell Hiashi my secret instead she listened to my story and backed me up.”

“Kei?” Shikaku tried to calm the panic attack that was building. He wanted to reach out and pull the young man into a hug. If anyone needed a hug it was Kei, but he was so skittish when it came to being touched.

“I’m serious Shikaku, I’m a complete asshole at the best of times. You don’t know how many times I hurt this village. Hurt him. How many times I tried to kill him. How many innocent people I did kill in my bid for vengeance and power and yet I’m here trying to save everything. Why? Why are you helping me? Why are you trusting me with this?”

Shikaku hated to do it, but knew he had to play dirty, “because Haru trusted you and that’s reason enough for me.”

Kei’s shoulder’s slumped, to anyone else he looked absolutely defeated, but Shikaku knew that inside he was reassured that someone here had that kind of faith in him. Shikaku was willing to give him a minute to compose himself before leading him back to where they had left Fugaku and Jiraya.

Fugaku tried to keep Jiraya busy but there was only so much to distract the spy master and honestly he was worried about Kei as well. He knew that Kei was feeling guilty about a number of things and he wanted to help.

“Fugaku,” Jiraya tried to keep his voice down, “Kei, he’s kin to you correct? You’ve done the blood test?”

Fugaku almost laughed in his face. He knew that they weren’t planning to tell Jiraya that Kei was from the future, at least not yet and maybe not ever. Kei said there were a couple of event that pertained to the Sannin, but if they could forestall a couple other events then the spymaster might never need to know. “Yeah we did the blood test, and checked his sharingan against the one recorded for his father. He’s family.”

He’d never heard of an Uchiha marrying an Uzumaki, but he had to admit that this last trip to prove Kei’s parentage hadn’t been as successful or as satisfying as he had hoped. Between the ruins and his inability to gain access to certain places, it frustrated him. It hadn’t been like his previous trips to Uzushio had been to check that Kushina would be a good jinchuriki a year or two before she made the journey to Konoha; or the couple of fleeting trips after to strengthen his spy network. “What about the Uzumaki side? There’s no way to test that side is there?” Jiraya didn’t know what it was about the man, but there was something there, he wasn’t sure if it made him want to trust him or just keep him close because he had such an interesting scroll on sealing but damn the kid was an enigma. He kept an eye on the way Shikaku seemed to have cornered Kei. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say the Nara clan head was talking the kid down from a panic attack. It wasn’t that he wanted to prove the kid a fake, he didn’t, but his first duty was to protect the village.

“Trust us Jiraya, Kei is an Uchiha. He’s battle tested and like many of us, dealing with the fallout of those battles.” Fugaku prayed that letting Jiraya know this much wouldn’t weaken their position here.

“We all have our burdens to bare.” Jiraya was going to say something more, but was distracted by Itachi leading the Hyuga twins to their location.

“Father, I have brought Hyuga-sama and his honoured brother like you requested.” The young boy bowed. Itachi set down the basket he was carrying as he looked around excitedly.

“Thank you Itachi.” Fugaku smiled at his son, “you have done well.”

Itachi bowed, “may I father?” He looked over at Kei and Fugaku nodded. That might be just what Kei needed right now or it might push him over the edge.

Itachi ran over to where Kei and Shikaku were standing. The Uchiha heir wrapped his arms around Kei’s waist from the side, his face nestled into Kei’s hip. Kei automatically settled a hand on the young genin’s head as if to protect him from any outside source. Fugaku smiled, he could see the way Itachi’s presence had seemed to calm Kei almost instantly. Kei bent down to talk to Itachi at eye level. The conversation was too quiet to be overheard, but it was enough for Kei to come back to himself and focus on what was going on around him. Guiding the young heir back towards his father, Kei wore a smile, one that reached his eyes for the first time in a long time.

Itachi’s words came out in verbal waterfall. “Kei! Kei! Can I show you what I’ve been teaching Sasuke and Shikamaru. I did what you suggested. I started with some basic exercises to help build their strength and stamina.”

Kei slowed, his head tilted downward to listen to the clan heir talk. He had made a passing suggestion one visit about how at even three years old both Sasuke and Shikamaru could increase their basic stamina to help with eventual clan jutsu. The problem was Sasuke tried to do too much and Shikamaru was just too lazy.

Hiashi and Hizashi watched from the side lines fully aware that they were missing some vital piece of information just like they knew the relationship between Kei and Itachi was more then that of long lost cousins. Hizashi had known that the Uchiha prodigy was earmarked to take the chunin exams within the next couple of years, with eyes on the jonin exams not long after that. If Fugaku really was looking to alter his course towards teaching there must be a reason.

Shikaku approached the Hyuga twins. “Hiashi, Hizashi thank you for coming.” He didn’t even register the lack of honorifics with either man.

“We stopped by the main house first. Sasuke-kun and Shikamaru-kun were taking a break. Mikoto-San took Neji and Hinata-kun inside while Itachi-kun lead us here.” Hizashi was careful how he answered.

Hiashi listened in, but carefully watched the way Kei interacted with everyone. If the rumors were true, then he was the catalyst behind the Uchiha become more accepted in the village. If he could do that with the stubborn Uchiha, then he could only pray that he would do the same for the rest of the village. Deep in his heart, there was a small kernel of hope that he could lead the Hyuga out of the era of oppressiveness and into a more modern frame of mind. He let himself pray that the seals Kei had for the Uchiha would work just as well for the Hyuga.

“Itachi, thank you for bringing Hyuga-sama to meet with us, but I think you should head back to the main house. Your brother and the other heirs are waiting for you.”

Itachi bowed, “yes father.” He turned and bowed to the others, “I will return when Mother has supper ready, she packed a bunch of food for you eat during your talk.” He gestured to the basket he had left at his father’s feet.

Fugaku waited for his son to disappear from sight before turning to the others, “Shikaku? Kei?”

“Right, time to get to work.” Kei settled on the ground, he pulled out the scroll with the dojutsu seal for them to all look at again. “I know that Fugaku and Shikaku would feel better if Jiraya had a closer look at it and honestly, so would I. Haru was the real seal master. I understand the different aspects of the seal, and can let you know what he was thinking when he put them in, but both Shikaku and Jiraya are better at seals then I am.”

Hiashi looked startled by the honest lack of ego. He had originally thought it was all an act, but now he could see just how sincere Kei was being. “Why? Why give us this and have others take your work apart only for them to put it on others? Do you want money? Recognition?”

Kei snorted, “if I were to meet Haru in the afterlife and he found out that I didn’t do all that I could to help my family and any one else in the Leaf, he’d kick my ass back down here to fix it. There’s no way I could dare face him without doing all I could to help.”

Shikaku laid a hand on Kei’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. He wished the blonde had been able to stick around longer as well, but honestly he knew that it was better for Kei to be here alone. Had Haru survived, Kei would have slipped into the background. Without him, Kei was forced to step outside of his comfort zone and grow. It was that pattern of growth that made for a better shinobi.

“Explain this to me. Why did you choose to use a wind seal as your base?” Hizashi looked closer at the seal now that there was no one who would complain about his interest being above his station for a branch member.

“Well this is a copy of the seal that I have on me and is focused around the Uchiha. For the majority of us, our primary chakra nature is fire. Technically water is the opposite and would be best suited to hide or calm the chakra needed to activate the sharingan. I, however, have lightening as my primary and therefore, wind is my weakest nature. With my seal, changing the matrix here and here should be the only difference we need to compensate.” Kei pointed out the other spots where the matrices were based on chakra natures. “We may need to make small changes to make it work for the other Uchiha. Haru and I speculated that Uchiha eyes are pretty useless to anyone outside of the Clan until we awaken the sharingan. By then most of them know what their primary chakra nature is and we can see about tailoring the seal accordingly.”

“That’s a lot of tailoring.” Shikaku rubbed his chin as he realized just how desperately Haru and Kei had wanted to protect the Uchiha and the lengthens they were willing to go.

“Not really, I mean technically I could just take my seal here and put it on Shisui and it would work.”

“Shisui?” Fugaku looked at Kei and wondered how his cousin’s boy Shisui fit into this. The boy had just earned the moniker Shisui of the body flicker for his impressive use of the technique and his speed. He knew the youth was listed to take the next round of chunin exams and was close to Itachi, but he didn’t realize that Kei had met him yet.

Kei smiled, he had some fond memories of his carefree cousin. “Shisui is also lightening natured. I would make a couple adjustments because Haru had tailored this seal to me exactly, but it could be done. It’s more a case of knowing who has what primary and secondary natures and working to alter that.”

“So you would need to know both primary and secondary natures?” Hiashi let his fingers tap his knee, “what would happen for the Hyuga? We are born with our doujutsu visible and unlike the Uchiha if the eyes of a child’s were to be removed they would learn our clan’s secrets.”

Kei nodded, this was the tricky part and he didn’t know how to broach it. Haru had made a seal for the Hyuga because of everything that Hinata and Neji had gone through as children. The problem had been there had been no Hyuga alive when he created it, there was no way to know if it worked. They still had a couple of weeks until December and the Kumo attack. He hoped that his relationship with the Hyuga twins right now was good enough to broach the sensitive topic.

“I’m going to ask something and I hope it won’t offend you. I’ll do my best to explain myself as well.” Kei looked at Hiashi as he asked, “I’d like to study the caged bird seal you use and have you explain what you believe it does. I’m not sure how difficult it would be to remove it without harm and that is my first priority. I can’t simply put anther seal on top of that one. The first one would need to be removed and there would need to be a period of rest before a second seal could be placed.” Seeing Hiashi tilt his head slightly, Kei expanded. “The caged bird seal is woven into a person’s chakra system and removing that is akin to major surgery. It would also be why if we do this with the Hyuga branch family, I would Ike to work slowly, one or two at a time. They would need time to recover before a different seal was introduced in order to minimize any health problems. Having my cousin, Nyoko, present would be beneficial as would locating Tsunade Senju, her skills would increase the chances of success drastically. I’m also not sure who inside the Hyuga clan puts on the seals and how often they do so. I would need to work slower with the Hyuga then with the Uchiha as I’m not as familiar with your chakra systems and I don’t want to do more damage.”

Kei made sure to look at Fugaku at the same time, “there’s also a couple of ways we can go about putting on the new seals that you as clan heads need to think about. The first is having each seal tailored to the individual. It’s more time consuming and intensive, and it would also mean that we’d only be putting seals on adults as I don’t want risk messing with an undeveloped doujutsu. That includes the Hyugas. I’d need to do a lot more research into how to place one onto an Uchiha as our eyes change and evolve over time. The second option, and one that I prefer, is that we put a simpler blanket seal on everyone starting with the most vulnerable and slowly work our way through the clans to tailoring the seals as they develop their final doujutsu.”

Fugaku couldn’t believe that his was his son, “that second option sounds almost like you are doing a lot of work twice, but it also gives our children the most protection and I think we both agree that’s a priority for us. As long as it doesn’t put too much stress on you.”

Hizashi had been watching the new jonin carefully. He had really liked working with Kei and was impressed with how frank he was in disclosing just what he could and couldn’t do. The man seemed to have almost no ego when came to certain aspects of his skills. It wasn’t that he was dismissive of his skills. He wasn’t. It was more that he was brutally honest about where he stood and he saw no reason to boast or prove himself to others. “Brother, even if this is something that we cannot do right away, giving them the information will only better our chances in the future. I’m willing to go first when the time comes. If the clan knows that I, as your twin, am willing to do this, then they will to. I know you, you won’t force anyone to take a second seal, but first we need to prove to the elders that this is a viable option and have them okay the removal of the caged bird seal.”

Hiashi stood and paced. He didn’t like the shackles that the elders have always placed on him. Finding a legitimate reason to get rid of the caged bird seal was the first step especially if he could go to them with proof that the seal would protect the Uchiha eyes. Having Shikaku, Jiraya and Kei help to create a new seal would be measure of prestige. He hoped it might also bridge some of the resentment admits the clan Turning back around Hiashi met his brother’s eye and the moment of quiet communication between the two didn’t go unnoticed. Hiashi gave a nod, “when the time comes it won’t only be the branch family getting these seals.”.

“May I borrow a brush and paper?”

Kei passed the materials onto Hiashi, he thought it telling that Hiashi hadn’t specified for sealing paper.

“The seal is very deceptive.” Hiashi spent the next hour copying out the seal and describing every bit of it in detail.

Jiraya and Shikaku asked for clarification on certain parts. The discussion was most enlightening. Kei smiled and then laughed, this type of situation would be something that Haru would cherish. He loved the open discussion of funijutsu and had often commented on how he wished he could have talked to Pervy Sage about seals and flexibility of Shika’s mind was always something to admire. Shikaku was the same and Jiraya was right up here.

Fugaku hated to admit how out of his depth he was. Funijutsu was not a skill he excelled at, the situation reminded him too much of the academy and the many times he competed with Shikaku, just to be shown that he didn’t actually understand. When he joined his second genin team, he was with Kushina; a prodigy five, six years his junior who proved to be even better at funijutsu in all of her brash behaviors. Of course Minato and Kushina ended up being the villages best funijutsu experts before either of them reached the age of twenty. All he could do now was listen to the conversation and try to take notes. He hoped that by paying attention he might just ask the right question to stimulation more discussion, but right now all he could see was his son. He needed to be a better father, not that he could really parent Kei, but he wanted to do something. Sidling up beside the time traveler he asked quietly, “Kei?”

“Sorry, it just this is the type of discussions Haru lived for. Open discussion of seals between intelligent people, of course adding Haru to the mix would be entertaining as the man was completely unpredictable.”

The group spent hours picking apart the two seals in front of them. Hiashi and Jiraya drew out what they were thinking, while the others added their points. Kei took a step back and just listened. He needed to see where they were skill wise and he couldn’t do that if he interjected all the time.

“Alright, let’s call it a day.” Fugaku could see the exhaustion on faces of his friends that was slowly edging into frustration. “I’m sure Mikoto has a meal ready for us to enjoy.”

Shikaku stretched, his gaze towards the sky.

“Fugaku you just might have the best idea there. We’ve done a hell of a lot of ground work,” Jiraya slapped the Uchiha clan head on the back. “I still don’t want to place this on anyone yet. I think we’re close but it’s up to you Fugaku, they’re your people.”

“Kei?” Fugaku wouldn’t do anything until Kei said he thought they were ready.

“I think Jiraya is right. We need a little more time to work on it. I don’t want us to rush this.” Kei thought they were pretty close but he wanted to make sure that more than him could replicate the seal correctly. “We’re also going to want to know who is going to ink these seal aside from me.” It gave them all another point to ponder.

Gathering up their notes, the men continued bits of their discussion. Hiashi stood at Kei’s side, his hands clasped behind his back. “Our guest is doing well.” The Hyuga clan head kept his eyes forward and his voice low. “My sister says that with a few days of rest their recovery will be complete.”

“I thank you again for that.” Kei smiled, “as long as they’re safe.”

The path to the main Uchiha house from the training ground lead right through the main clan compound. Many of the Uchiha stopped to watch as their clan head walked side by side with not only Jiraya of the Sannin, but also the Hyuga clan head and his twin. The double takes would have had Haru laughing. How many times had he called both clans stuck up.

“Kei-nii,” the excited call from three different children had all of the adults lightening up. Both the Uchiha and the Nara children surrounded Kei like a moth to flames. “Come and see what we’ve been working on. Please!”

Kei decided that he’d better spend some time with the kids, “sure.”

Fugaku smiled. “Go ahead, we’ll be inside.” He wanted to give Kei time with his younger self. He showed the other clan heads inside where he knew his wife had tea waiting.

Chapter Text

Itachi lead Kei to the backyard where he was leading the training session for clan heirs. “We haven’t done much, but it’s still exciting.”

“Of course it is.” Kei was trying his best to be encouraging. “Let me see what you’ve learned.”

“Me first.” Sasuke stood in front of the tall man and focused on what his brother had taught him.

Shikamaru was right behind and just as excited.

Neji watched carefully, he was often overlooked and therefore had been able to gather information on the clan heirs he was meeting. It was his duty to protect Hinata. What confused him was the dichotomy between what he had known previously about the Uchiha and Nara heirs and what he had seen with his own eyes. Sasuke Uchiha was reported to be obsessed with his older brother, Itachi Uchiha a standoffish prodigy. It was true to a point, but when Itachi brought up Kei, Sasuke’s demeanor changed. Sasuke’s urge to please shifted from his brother to this other person Kei.

Neji had been told that Shikamaru Nara was very much like his father, extremely smart but too lazy to practice even the most basic of skills. However upon arriving at that Uchiha compound all three children were in the backyard practicing and playing like other children he had seen at the academy. They had welcomed Hinata and him without question and seamlessly worked them into the lesson they were working on. It was simple stamina exercises, precursors to chakra control, but even Neji could see the benefit of practicing the different exercises. Watching how the three reacted to their fathers and the newcomer was interesting. None of the children changed their attitude and none of the clan heads looked upset over their friendship with the jonin, if anything they seemed pleased. Kei Uchiha was something else. He passed on his knowledge freely regardless of clan, and he was so patient with Hinata, drawing her out of her shell. Looking over at his father and Uncle, Neji understood that he was to learn all that he could from the man.

“Kei-San thank you for helping us.” Neji bowed and Hinata unsure of what was going on, followed her older cousins example.

“Hey none of that, little Hyuga. If I can help my cousins and their future classmates get stronger then I will.” Shikamaru stepped up and took his hand. Kei didn’t even realize he was shaking until then. A few deep breaths slowed the panic as he talked to his dead comrade. “The exercises I showed Itachi aren’t clan specific so anyone can learn them. They are also beneficial for anyone to learn and the earlier the better.”

Neji bowed again and turned to Itachi who was standing there waiting. “We will practice diligently.”

Kei couldn’t help but laugh. Neji at five still had that stick up his ass, hopefully they could take it out sooner. “Alright, let’s go see what Mikoto-San has for tea!” Watching an excited Sasuke drag Hinata by the hand inside the main house was worth it. Mikoto would be both impressed by her manners and horrified by how shy the girl was, although she wasn’t as bad now as she the future Hinata but that was what he was here to stop, to prevent. Kei was pretty sure that the kidnapping and the death of her Uncle cause a lot of changes for both Hinata and Neji. He almost wished his mother knew the truth so he could get her help in training. His parents were a true pair who complimented each other’s skill set, she was strong in places where his father wasn’t. It was something for him to think about as he followed the children inside.

***

Mikoto had watched through the kitchen widow as Itachi lead Sasuke and three clan heirs in stamina exercises. They weren’t the basic ones taught at the academy nor were they clan specific ones, if anything they reminded her of the exercises she had caught Kushina doing to keep herself centered and her chakra under control. Again not anything harmful to the children outside but it took her a minute to wonder just where Itachi had learned it. It wasn’t until she thought about where her husband had been spending his time until she realized that the answer was staring her in the face. Fugaku and Shikaku have been thick as thieves lately and while Shikaku is a genius it was most likely the new jonin, Kei Uchiha who taught them the exercises. Kei Uchiha-Uzumaki, who for some reason has been avoiding both her and Yoshino as much as possible since that first disastrous meal. She kept watching the children as injuries could still happen. It was nice to see Sasuke interacting with other children aside from Itachi and Shisui. To see Shikamaru excited and energetic. She didn’t know much about the Hyuga heirs but she could tell that it wouldn’t take long for them to join in and fall under the spell the Kei was trying to weave here.

Maybe she’d talk to Fugaku tonight, if this was actually part of what he and Shikaku wanted to do, to bring all the clan children together, then she see about doing her part as well. She’d start with Yoshino and work her way through the rest of the clan wives. There were tea ceremonies and visits and all the other stuff she generally avoided as an active shinobi. She’d have to tailor how she went at this depending on which clan she was approaching, maybe her teaming up with Yoshino wasn’t a bad idea. After all they wanted to change the Uchiha image didn’t they and who better for who to be seen with then the head of the Nara clan, especially if her husband was seen with Shikaku? Although that might be too much, maybe she should go in a different direction, maybe she lean toward Tsume Inuzuka or Chika Aburame, it was something for her to think about.

“Kei!” The excited cries from the children outside had her smiling. There really was something about the newcomer that her wanting to gather him up and give him all the love she could. He just looked so broken that she couldn’t fault her husband from doting on him. He helped the elders see reason. He had an enormous impact on Fugaku, brought forth the loving and supportive husband and father, something that she didn’t want to change, understand maybe, but not change.

She watched closely as Kei spent time with each one of the children correcting their forms and praising their skills. When she saw them head towards her, she started the water for tea. The men should be ready their tea as well, provided they weren’t too deep into their discussion.

“Excuse me Uchiha-San, may I help?” Kei stood in the doorway.

She really couldn’t get over his mannerisms, “I do believe I told you to call me Mikoto.” She softened the harsh words with a smile as she handed him the tray of sweets, “take this into the study I’ll bring tea as soon as I make sure that Itachi has the kids under control.” She left the men to their discussions and while she offered to make supper for them, they all dispersed after a couple of hours.

That night she told her ideas to Fugaku.

“I like the idea of you not only working with Yoshino but also with Chika Aburame. She is an excellent shinobi. Kyoko for all that she’s been with Inoichi for years and supports him, doesn’t even want to understand how the shinobi world works. Rei at least tries and supports the Akimichi Clan.” Fugaku remembered the upheaval Inoichi caused when he married a civilian, bucking the clan to do so. Chouza’s marriage had been arranged and Rei was also not a shinobi, she was however, a dedicated midwife who cut back working to help with clan duties and the birth of their son. He went through the other clan head wives. It was a pity, in more ways then one, that both Hyuga wives died in child birth. Although if he was being brutally honest, Hiashi and Hizashi were better off without them as they had been truly loveless arranged marriages.

Mikoto smiled, “it shows that we are indeed a part of the village. I was watching the children today and was thinking if you and Shikaku were trying to start a training session for all of the clan heirs or what was going on? Have you watched what Itachi is teaching them? The exercises he’s using aren’t clan specific but very reminiscent of the types of things that Kushina would do.” Mikoto didn’t fully understand why her friend was on her mind so much, she chalked it up to watching Kei’s fight and all the Uzumaki style he had used. “Maybe considering that Kushina used them they may actually be part of the Uzumaki clan.” She was so focused on her memories of her friend that she didn’t see the way her husband paled.

“Why don’t we focus on improving Uchiha clan relations first. If I can entrust you with that at the moment. I’ll let Itachi work on building relations with the clan heirs and if he brings in the other clans then we’ll deal with it as it comes. As for me I’m just supporting Kei the best way I can and make sure that he has our support against the council, the clan elders or anyone else.” He knew that she would be subtle in how she approached the other wives.

Chapter Text

Shikaku made it home alone, not something that he thought would be difficult, but surprisingly was. His son had run off to play with Sasuke. The Hyuga twins and Jiraya had wanted to join him for further discussion. Kei was eager to be alone. Unfortunately it was Kei who Shikaku was worried about. It had been troublesome, but Shikaku sent Jiraya to visit Souske Gekko, an old friend of his and Sakumo Hatake. Kei had said something to the Hyuga twins to have them looking something up in the clan archives for the next meet up. Now his biggest worry was whether of not Genma’s team had made it safely in and out of the Uzumaki compound and how Kei was going to handle the night. “One thing at a time Nara.”

The clan compound was quiet, so at least the ANBU hadn’t come by because Genma and his team had failed. Shikaku entered the main house to see Yoshino smiling.

“Oh husband dear, I’m so sorry to bother you when you just returned home. I know that you are most likely tired, but our game is waiting in the study.” She gave him a saucy wink, “I have tea waiting for you.” She turned with a flounce and walked back into the house.

“Troublesome woman.” Watching his wife walk away he longed for the ability to go after her and enjoy the game she offered, instead he headed for the study and what awaited him there.

He sighed as he entered the dark room. The small flare of chakra from Genma was all he needed to know who was in the room before he activated the new silencing seals. “Raidou will you light the lamp please.” Sitting down he was glad that the men had closed the doors and windows behind them. “How did things go?”

“Surprisingly well. Kakashi and his kohai, Tenzo, arrived right as we were talking about how we would open the gates.” Genma winked over his shoulder at the aforementioned men before turning and smiling at the clan leader as he took the lead in explains what they did and how they split up the rooms to recover items left behind by Minato and Kushina. “I know you said that you didn’t want the scrolls sealed with the blood of Raidou and I on the same scroll but we did. It’s two scrolls. The way we look at it, the four of us or really three take one scroll each that doesn’t have our blood type. Raidou and I will take one with Tenzo and Kakashi’s seal, Kakashi will take one with Raidou and Tenzo’s seal, and so forth. The ones with mine and Raidou’s will be held by you and Fugaku Uchiha.” Genma watched the way Shikaku reacted and knew that he wouldn’t be reprimanded for his decision. “We were thinking that not only you and Fugaku could take some, but also maybe Inoichi and Kei? Although Kakashi wanted to talk to Kei first before giving his okay.” The sable haired assassin smirked as he threw his friend under the bus.

Shikaku looked at his shoji board and moved a piece as he thought about what Genma said. Spreading the scrolls around to more people would actually be a better idea. “It’s a good plan. Did you find anything of great importance?”

“Raidou did.”

“I didn’t seal the scroll, I figured you’d want to take a look first.” Raidou put them on the table. “They were sealed in a drawer in a room meant for Kakashi. He noticed that picture wasn’t quite right and thought it strange and when we opened the drawer there was a small seal in the far back corner. Kakashi used some blood and chakra to open it and these scrolls popped out.”

Shikaku held the scrolls carefully before looking at the one man in the room who had the most right to open the scrolls. “Kakashi, do I have your permission to open these?”

“You suspect that they are Minato and Kushina’s wills?” Kakashi’s lone eye stayed focused on the scrolls in Shikaku’s hands. He didn’t want to admit how much being in that house hurt. There had been a time when he had been welcomed there with open arms. They had made a room for him, had asked him to move in, not as Minato’s student but as family. Kushina and Minato cooking meals together, while he sat at the table listening to them plan a future with their son. Now they were both gone and he wasn’t allowed near their son and had to spy on him from a distance. He had to trust someone and honestly Shikaku was the best bet. “Open them Shikaku.”

Shikaku opened the first scroll revealing a number of legal documents, once of which was indeed the last will and testament of Kushina Uzumaki. He scanned it quickly, “Oh Kushina, what a delightful troublesome woman you are. The council and Sarutobi are going to be in for a surprise. It names Naruto’s godparents as Jiraya and Tsunade and states that should anything happen to Kushina and Minato that Mikoto and Fugaku should have custody of him and you.” The smile on his face was almost feral in it’s glee. He looked Kakashi right in the face. “You are to be in charge of the estate and make sure that there is no misappropriation of funds, since it is well known that the Uchiha elders are not all that fond of you.”

“Why would Mikoto and Fugaku need to look after me?” Kakashi was stunned. It didn’t make sense.

Shikaku shuffled through the other papers, “well appears they have adoption papers here for you. They just need your signature and to be filed to be legally binding.”

Genma and Raidou shuffled closer to the younger man. Tenzo moved to stand behind his former captain, there for support should he need it.

Shikaku opened the next scroll. If that was what Kushina had hidden, he knew that Minato’s would be no less surprising. His former best friend didn’t disappoint him. “Minato repeated Kushina’s wishes with regards to Naruto’s care and listing Kakashi as executor of the estate. He also named a successor for the Hokage hat, he named Tsunade Senju. Honestly, that’s not a bad suggestion if we can get her here.” Again he switched documents reading from what appeared to be a letter, “He asks that Naruto be recognized as the jinchuriki and be honoured like Mito-sama, however he does acknowledge that he fears what Danzo will do. He also speaks about files that he had on what Danzo was up to. We need to make sure that have those.” Shikaku thought back to some of the first conversations he and Inoichi had with Kei and how Danzo had been behind all that was wrong with the Leaf, not that Sarutobi was innocent, but he wasn’t totally to blame either. Perhaps if they could get Tsunade to take the hat, things would turn out alright. He sat back and stroked his goatee, his mind reeling as he thought of what Minato might have wanted. At the time Tsunade was the best choice for the next Hokage, but now he wasn’t so sure. Sure she was the last Senju and it was her grandfather that founded the Village, but since she left the village after the death of her fiancé Dan, she hadn’t been back. He wondered if there was anyone else who could do the job? Orochimaru was smart enough but considered a missing nin and lacked the trust of the village. Jiraya was another option, but his personality was such that even now he was too hard to pin down when decisions needed to be made. Besides he was the villages spymaster as as such, they needed him out on the road searching out those pieces of information. Kakashi’s father would have been ideal perhaps a better choice than Tsunade, if he had survived. Sakumo’s death left a hole that had been felt by more then just his son. There was of course, himself, Inoichi and Chouza as well as some of the other clan heads and older jonin who had the experience, but he knew none of them actually wanted the job. Then there was the current council members. He knew that Danzo wanted the job, he was the scariest choice and the others were almost as bad. Maybe Tsunade wasn’t so bad after all. He passed the will to Kakashi to let him read it, watching as Genma read over his shoulder.

“Shikaku,” Kakashi’s voice took on a dark edge. “We can’t let Danzo get his hands on Naruto. His life right now bad enough.” He trailed off as he looked down at the table his focus on something other then those in the room. The sound of someone clearing their throat snapped Kakashi back to himself, “I don’t want him to suffer anymore then he already has if I can help it.”

“If I can’t protect him, Kei will.” Shikaku wanted to let the group know that Kei had his support, and that Kei would support Naruto. He watched as Kakashi took the adoption papers and held them tight.

“Just who is this Kei Uchiha?” Raidou had only seen the entrance fight between Kei, Kakashi and Souske Gekko; he hadn’t had a chance to meet the man yet. “How is he going to protect Naruto?”

Shikaku smiled he was sure that there was no way Kei would do anything that would put Naruto at risk. Sure he had asked a distant cousin, Emiko Nara, to help them out and work at the orphanage. Emiko was married with a family and a retired jonin with a brilliant mind and motherly nature, she was a good choice to watch over and protect the little guy. It really should have been no surprise when she reported back that there was a shadow in his room that no light could penetrate and that seemed to protect the toddler whenever he was feeling sad or alone. It was almost as if he had a secret friend in the shadows. Emiko, had assumed it had been Shikaku because of their Shadow jutsu. The Nara head knew it was Kei who had created the shadow as the chakra signature left behind, small though it was matched the time traveler’s nature. Shikaku had thought to forbid Kei from approaching Naruto when he had first found out about it, but the more he thought about it the more he realized what a fools errand THAT was. He’d have better luck stopping the leaves from turning green in the forest than he did stopping Kei from protecting a younger version of his best friend. Shikaku had seen how the pair would bend the threads of time for a chance to change the future. He had watched the way Kei continued to honor Haru’s wishes to change the future.

Shikaku made sure to looked everyone in the eye, “Kei would rather die then see Naruto harmed.” The pure conviction in his voice had Raidou relaxing minutely, Genma and Kakashi were still on edge, but then he expected that.

“Sir, if I may, can we arrange to meet this Kei Uchiha? We’ve seen him in passing and watched him fight. I know that Kakashi fought him during his evaluation exam but they didn’t speak and that was a short and watched interaction.” Genma wanted to learn more about this mysterious man.

Shikaku nodded, “I’ll see if I can arrange it.” Honestly if he wasn’t so worried about Kei’s mental state, he’d relish the chance to see Kei interact with men he had at one time held in high respect. “It’s getting late tonight. If you are in agreement, you can each take your scrolls home and hide them. I’ll keep the ones left over. If I can get Kei to agree to meet you, I’ll send a message.”

The men agreed and left the sealed scrolls and the wills. Shikaku took the vials of their blood and let them know that he would have Chouza keep it safe inside a stasis scroll. One more layer of protection.

He knocked on the Akimichi door after his study cleared out for the first time in weeks.

“Shikaku?” Chouza was used to only seeing glimpses of his friends between missions, it didn’t mean that the three of them didn’t keep tabs on each other. They had ways of communicating. Ways that Shikaku had started to prefect back when they were still in the academy. Secret messages and meetings all things a shinobi needed to prefect. He knew if he needed them his friends would be there for him. He ushered the shadow user out onto the back porch where there was less chance of them being disturbed. “How is our friend?”

Shikaku clasped the larger man on the shoulder. There was very little that could get past Chouza, it was the reason they relied on his compassion to keep their team on the level. “He’s fine. Fugaku has him set up in an apartment on Uchiha lands. Inoichi and I have been trying to keep him as stable as possible but surprisingly it’s the kids that having been helping him the most.”

“That’s great. I’ve heard word of him from other clan members but haven’t seen him since he left the summer house. Mori Akimichi at the BBQ stall is gathering information. I should have a preliminary report for you by weeks end and then you can let me know which direction you want us go. ”

“Chouza I have a favour to ask.” Shikaku held out the scroll. “It’s a stasis scroll, it should last about nineteen months all told. I need you to hide it.” He reluctantly handed over a second list on it were a list of eight names. “I may be overthinking this, but if something happens to me, only these people can ask for the scroll. If the nineteen months ends before I ask for it, you must reseal it. In the worst case scenario and all these men die, pass on the instructions to your brother to keep resealing the scroll until Shikamaru makes Chunin and Naruto is older.”

“Shikaku you’re scaring me.” Chouza knew that Shikaku liked to plan for all eventualities, but this was going a little too far even for him. “what is going on that you’re planning for your death?”

“Like I said, I’m likely overthinking things. It’s all so troublesome.” He tapped his fingers on the polished wood planks. “Taking on the role of jonin commander has me seeing all sorts of plots and counter plots.”

Chouza tapped the corresponding code back to his friend even as he responded, “well that’s why you came to visit isn’t it. When work get’s to be too much you and Inoichi both fall back into the same habits. Our team has been around since we were children, it’s where we get our strength from.”

“Ino-Shika-Cho forever.” Shikaku got up, ready to leave. He had delivered his message and was calmed in return

Chouza watched Shikaku walk away and while he was worried, he knew that tomorrow he would search out not only Inoichi to check in with him but also Kei. Maybe it was time to have Choji meet up with the new Uchiha as well. He could no longer hide his head in the sand, he needed to face the fact that all of their children were going to be involved.

Chapter Text

Kei didn’t even try to go to bed. He wasted a couple of hours making himself tea and copying out the scrolls for Jiraya. When he was finished and sure that there was no one lurking around his house, he headed for the memorial stone.

Walking through the cemetery, Kei knelt in front of the large shinobi memorial. Touching the ground he placed a small privacy seal. He spoke quietly. “Haru, what am I doing? I found Karin and her mother is still alive. I almost forgot about her. What type of person am I that I would forget about a team mate like that? We came back here to change things and since I lost you I’ve been so focused on staying sane and not losing mini you that I forgot other things. Shikaku and Fugaku have been helping a lot.” He laughed at that. “Yeah, can imaging that, Fugaku. Fuck Haru. I. Little Shikamaru crawls into my lap sometimes or takes my hand and the look he gives me.” He took a deep breath, “I’d like to say that it’s just like our Shika, but that would just be creepy. Itachi does something similar; and little Sasuke? I mean how strange is it that I see all of them and I’m so conflicted. I want to run away so far and yet I just want to hold them close and protect them. It’s like every time I’m on edge. Right when I’m ready to break, to just leave, one of them is right there, right beside me with their big eyes. How can I leave them when they’re so small?” He bowed, his head to the grass. The moonlight glinting off the white stone caught his eye as he raised his head, “Hinata and Neji joined us today. Neji still has a stick up his ass, but it’s not as bad as our Neji was. Of course Hizashi is still alive so that could be part of it. Man is he something. Didn’t know that Neji’s dad was ANBU, but then we really didn’t talk to Neji about his dad. Neji doesn’t have the seal yet either. We only have a couple of weeks before the kidnapping and I’m worried. I’ve been relying on Shikaku and Fugaku a lot. I don’t know if you’re watching over me here or watching over them there. Hell knowing you you’re likely doing both and laughing the entire way, but something tells me, my luck’s about to run out. Please, Haru. Just. Damn it. I don’t even know what I need or want except I wish you were still with me.” Kei let his fingers trace over the names of Minato and Kushina. Not the one he was talking to, but as close as he was going to get in this time line. He burst the bubble just in time. “Fuck. I’m turning into that blasted scarecrow. I promise I won’t spend my life here.”

He shook his head as he passed Kakashi on the path, “the way is empty for you Hatake. Don’t spend so much time talking to the dead that you forget to speak to the living.” Kei didn’t even let the hypocrisy of the comment bother him. It was well known that Kakashi spent more time here than any other shinobi. Kei tried to keep his visits to when he was overwhelmed by the memories, Kakashi was out of guilt. He didn’t wait around, Kei just headed back home. He didn’t realize that his comment had shocked the jonin into standing still.

***

November brought cool weather and more diplomatic and trade missions to the Leaf. All clan children had been meeting at the Uchiha compound to work together. Sure it was generally Itachi teaching them, but they were still young and generally working on simple skills. What it did do was foster friendship and trust between the children. Ino Yamanka, Choji Akimichi and Shino Aburame had joined the group quickly, with Kiba Inuzuka being the last hold out. That had been more on Tsume’s part. The brash clan head was not a fan of either the Uchiha or the Hyuga. It had taken Shibi Aburame and Chouza to talk her around.

Kei had yet to gain full access to the Uzumaki compound, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. Sarutobi asked him to join them when he council tried to enter the compound and failed. They hadn’t even been able to find the place without Kei lending a hand, despite the fact that they had all been there before multiple times. The wards casting a fog of forgetfulness and confusion. When Kei had finally been asked to help them enter, he pulsed his chakra to let them onto the compound proper. Following behind, he watched what they were doing. The house was nothing more than a shadow surrounded by a dark haze. When they had finally found the house it was only to learn that it was blood sealed, and that Kei couldn’t let them in. Well that had been a different story. Kei was interrogated on the spot.

“How can you claim to be a relative of Kushina Uzumaki if she didn’t have your blood type registered within her house seal?” Danzo’s voice echoed across the yard.

Kei thought he must have felt fairly confident in his accusations to put them out there himself instead of having one of the other councillors speak for him. Standing with his hands at his side, Kei was glad that the view from there still allowed him to see the reliefs of the previous Hokages. It was the depiction of Minato that allowed him to keep his temper in check and had him directing his answer to Sarutobi directly. “Hokage-sama, I was allowed access onto the Uzumaki compound because my chakra is recognized as Uzumaki chakra. The house itself is blood sealed by Kushina and Minato and will allow only those THEY deemed trustworthy to enter. I would assume that your previous Hokage Minato had an advisor? Didn’t Kushina have a close friend? The people they had asked to be Naruto’s godparents and guardians would be close friends, right? Would not these people have access? If you do not remember, I was in Uzushio when it fell and have been on the run since. This is my first time in Konoha. I have never met Kushina and had no way to know if Kushina was alive or dead before now.”

Sarutobi nodded. Kei’s words did make sense, and really Danzo should have thought of that. Hell they all should have. “We actually should have had Kakashi come out. He likely could have opened everything.”

“Kakashi?” Kei feigned ignorance.

“Kakashi Hatake,” Homura Mitokado spoke up before anyone could stop him, “you fought him at your assessment, he is not only Minato’s last living student but also someone they were trying to adopt.”

“Oh so he would be an elder brother to my nephew? That’s good to know. I’m glad that my cousin’s son hasn’t been abandoned by the village entirely.” Kei knew Naruto was in the orphanage. It wasn’t a secret, but the standing order to stay away from him was. It was a dig at the council and Kei knew it.

Sarutobi sighed, he could play this two way and neither was going to go well. He decided to go for the truth. “Honestly, we have failed in Minato’s wishes.”

“Hiruzen.” Danzo growled.

Hiruzen just shook his head, Kei Uchiha-Uzumaki was stronger then he appeared and had done more for the village then he had. He had seen the reports. He knew where the Uchiha had been mere months ago and now they were working willingly with other clans. The Hyuga once the first ones to call for the suppression of the Uchiha, was now willingly supporting them. It wasn’t because of anything he had done, nor because of anything he suspected Danzo had in place. No, the change had come from Kei. Sarutobi wasn’t sure what the young man had done, but so far it was a positive change and he was hoping for more of the same through out the village itself. He wasn’t as blind as some would have him believe. He could see the sour faces of his council as he spoke. “Minato and Kushina were both well known shinobi and each had entries in the bingo books outside of the village. When Naruto was a babe there had been attempts on his life. At the time I had thought that to keep him safe, the further we kept him from those his parents had associated with, the safer he would be. A fool’s hope. It stopped the assassination attempts for a while, but now I’m not so sure that that wasn’t the plan in the first place. To isolate him.” The loss of Minato and Kushina and Sakumo a couple of years before. Their strongest shinobi all with flee on sight orders gone in the blink of an eye.

Kei was stunned. Growing up Haru had never mentioned the assassination attempts when he was an infant, only about Danzo’s manipulations. Just how feasible was it that Naruto never knew, never learned of the outside attempts on his life? After all it was entirely possible that the old man had started with the best intentions and then just became lazy or was manipulated as time went on. It was something else to ponder.

“Has this Kakashi entered the property before?” Kei asked, he didn’t want have Genma’s name enter the fray if he could avoid it. Let them focus on one person, it was easier to track the enemy that way.

“We can call him here and and ask.” Sarutobi, flicked his hand and soon a swirl of leaves appeared. Kakashi, walked in from the edge of the compound and knelt, head bowed ready to serve the Hokage. “Hatake, I have a question to ask. We tried to enter Minato and Kushina’s home and came across some complications. As you can see Kei Uchiha was able to get us into the compound proper but not into the house itself. His theory is that he is Uzumaki and therefore able to access the compound but that Minato and Kushina had never met him and so did not key him into the house. He suggested that someone they trusted would be able to access both. You were Minato’s student and informally adopted by them. What are your thoughts?”

Kakashi didn’t raise his head. He had seen the lurking shadows around the house, a sign that Kushina’s wards didn’t recognize the chakra of the people standing in the yard. He answered slowly, “His theory makes sense. Why are you looking at gaining access to the Uzumaki compound now sir? Is there something in particular that you are looking for?”

The Hokage realized that no one had told Kakashi, Kei was looking at moving into the Uzumaki compound. It was a potential minefield and could be seen as something akin to forcing Kakashi to move back into the Hatake compound. It could also be a positive if managed carefully. “Kei asked for permission to use the compound as the last Uzumaki. We want to go through the property and make sure that Minato didn’t leave any sensitive document out. Can you get into the house?”

Kakashi knew that he couldn’t avoid answering a direct question. “I was here, the night of the attack and I was looking for them both- and for Naruto.” He sighed, might as well get it over with. “I can enter the compound and the house.”

They had all seen him walk through the compound barriers without a problem, but know that he could enter the house was a relief.

Sarutobi took it one step further, “how do you feel about Kei taking over the Uzumaki compound.”

“It should be used. Kushina would want her family to be there.” Kakashi took a chance that Shikaku was a good judge of character. Hopefully he’d have his chance to talk to the man personally soon, “if he is willing to foster Naruto, then her son should be raised there.” Kakashi figured that way he would be able to stick around and watch. Either Kei would let him be apart of the family because of Shikaku or because of Kushina, but either way he’d have a chance to keep his promise.

The Hokage tapped his pipe against his lips as he watched Kakashi. He knew what Danzo wanted and what the council wanted. He was also aware of what he wanted to do. That wasn’t to say the three were completely independent of each other. In fact he was sure that they overlapped in many ways. Just like he was sure they diverged in just as many. He had a feeling that the Council wanted to have control over certain aspects of the Uzumaki compound. What Danzo wanted was likely something else completely. Danzo wanted Naruto and the power he represented. Hiruzen was sure that Danzo thought there was scrolls or something else of value hidden inside the house. Scrolls from Uzushio, from Kushina. That was something that Sarutobi didn’t want to let him have. It didn’t matter that he believed Danzo was running missions without his approval, right now he didn’t have the proof and he was willing to turn a blind eye. If he hurt Naruto, however, thing would change. “Kakashi. I think that having you walk through the house with us would be most beneficial. Would you be agreeable to that? I’ll have an ANBU team join us.”

“Of course sir. I am at your disposal.” Kakashi didn’t think that he’d be able to go alone. He sure as hell hoped that the Hokage didn’t think to send any of Genma’s team or Tenzo. It would be a hell of a lot better if he went with a completely new team, because that way he’d be able to give a good report to Shikaku.

The Hokage called forth a team of ANBU. Beside Kakashi there was Owl, Cat, Falcon, Spider, and Monkey. Kakashi wasn’t sure if the Hokage was hoping to stack the deck in his favour or not. Monkey was the captain of ANBU, while he was sure that Falcon was a hidden ROOT agent. Tenzo was there as Cat. Spider was an Aburame and excellent at infiltrating anything and Owl was an enigmatic whose identity was unknown but was loyal to his Hyuga clan first and likely before the Village. Kakashi just gave a quiet nod and stood before the main gates of the compound proper, the Hokage and his council inside with Kei. He’d place his trust in Shikaku, and the knowledge that if anything happened to him, Cat could get the word out.

He looked up at the set of pillars barely visible amongst the trees. With an unused park on one side and villages largest hot springs on the other it was very easy to over look.

“It’s been here the entire time?” Monkey was honestly surprised. He’d been in ANBU when Minato was Hokage, but the man was guarded when it came to letting anyone close to his family. Kushina was just as paranoid. With the fall of Uzushio, the third war, their entries in the bingo book, Kushina wanted to make sure that there was somewhere they could let down their guard even if it was only for a moment.

Kakashi just stood there. He hadn’t come back here in three years and yet here he was for the second time in under a week. If the men he saw for his last psyche eval could see him now? Shit. Who was he kidding, they’d still lock him up for being unstable just from the nightmare of this alone. He didn’t say anything just pulsed his chakra into the pillar and grounds lit up. He walked straight past the Hokage and towards the house, glad to have Cat by his side.

“Kakashi we’ll leave it to you and your team to clear first.”

Kakashi could see Danzo gritting his teeth, he knew the man wanted to go in first. Most likely why there were two ROOT agents by his side. He gave the Hokage a quick bow before walking to the front door. Using his kunai he sliced his palm and placed it against the door watching it soak into the hidden seal, flare once and disappear with an audible click as the door unlocked.

“Kakashi?” Monkey watched the way the jonin was acting. The pain etched on his face was real and there was a real fear of Hatake breaking. He knew that was something Sarutobi worried about, something he was hopefully here to prevent.

“Yeah, just looking out for black cats. They can be most troubling.” The quip wasn’t surprising, after all Kakashi was known for his evasion tactics.

“If you say so Senpai,” Cat muttered and walked passed.

The group walked into the house, “Stay together. There’s no telling what types of traps MInato and Kushina setup.” Monkey followed behind Kakashi as if afraid someone was going to jump out at anytime.

Kakashi lead them through the house as if he had never been there. Walking into rooms and searching closets. Trying to look like he hadn’t been inside for years.

Tenzo wanted to provide his opinion on how the other ANBU acted during the search. He wasn’t sure why the captain had them stay together, but it made his job easier so he wasn’t going to complain. Of course if they did split up he was sure that Kakashi would find a reason to have them in two groups only and he would still be able to do his job.

“How long were they in this house?” Falcon’s question broke the silence.

Kakashi sighed, “Kushina had rights to the house since the fall of Uzushio but there were some- issues about letting them move in. They finally received approval about two months before they-,” before they what, died, sacrificed themselves, were murdered, were forgotten by all of you. Kakashi just grit his teeth and kept walking.

Falcon stopped before the bookshelf. “They were here for that long and they left nothing behind? There’s nothing on the shelves? Where are all of Minato’s books? His scrolls? They travelled all over right?” The few books that were there were on the history of the Leaf and basic protocol and weapon care. They seemed to be new, almost like Minato had bought a new copy for the house while his originals were elsewhere. The Hokage’s office maybe? Falcon would need to ask what happened to those items after the Fourth’s death.

Kakashi stopped, he really didn’t like what his comrade was implying. “Falcon have you really thought about it?” He took a step back and as much as he wanted to stop talking. It hurt to be in the house earlier in the week and seeing how everything had remained the same, but at least he had Genma and Raidou. It was as if, at any moment Kushina-nii or Minato-sensei could walk through that door, it hurt. It hurt so much that he just wanted to curl up and cry. He wanted his family back; and as stupid as it sounded he wanted to be with Genma and Raidou where he knew he was safe and loved. Instead he let his mouth continue to run away before he could stop it. “You were in ANBU and had been on the Hokage’s guard detail when Minato-sensei was Hokage. You know the hours he worked. Then there was the fact that Kushina-nii was pregnant. Just when would they have had the time to move anything but the basics over? The doctor forbid her from using any jutsu at that stage in her pregnancy for fear of weakening the seal, so everything had to be moved by Minato-sensei or me. She was so tired and she hated being reminded that she couldn’t do the things she normally did. Not because she blamed the baby, but because she hated being seen as weak. Minato-sensei wouldn’t even let me help move thing into here because he knew that as soon as I did, Kushina-nii would overdo it and it would be bad for the baby. The council was already making sure that Kushina knew the burden she was placing on the Village because she was pregnant. They were taking all the joy of being a first time mother out of the experience.” Kakashi tried to keep the anger out his voice. “Minato had made plans to hire a genin team to help me move everything in after Naruto was born.”

Cat moved, it was subtle just a step, but it put him within Kakashi’s field of vision and that was enough to pull the scarecrow back from the brink.

“Honestly Falcon, how are you one of the village’s elite shinobi if you can’t reason things like this out for yourself?” Monkey spoke up, exasperated with the stupidity that Falcon had showed that night. The number of times the ANBU member had asked ridiculous questions or had made stupid remarks throughout their career had often left the Monkey wondering how Falcon had ever passed the ANBU entrance exams.

Owl moved to stand in front of Kakashi hoping to give him a moment to compose himself. “Monkey, why don’t we split up and search the house? I’m sure Lord Hokage will want to do a quick walk through before going home tonight and we still have Kei Uchiha out there with him.” He watched Falcon and contemplated if he was one of Danzo’s lackeys.

“With how proficient Kushina-San and Minato were in funijutsu we’ll split into two teams only. Since they hadn’t fully moved in, there is a lower chance of traps. Kakashi, I’m going to be relying on you to spot any traps left behind. Spider and I will be your support. Owl, Falcon and Cat; you three take the upstairs. Owl will you use your byakugan to check for anything suspicious? I shouldn’t have to remind you to take note of what is left, what traps you encounter and how you disable them. We’ll reconvene in an hour before we check out the outlying buildings.

Kakashi headed towards the back hall. Cat watched his friend walk off and prayed that he would be okay.

When the hour was up, Kakashi couldn’t bare it anymore. He barely listened to what Monkey reported to the Hokage. He couldn’t bare to watch Danzo enter the house, he would trust Cat to watch him.

“I’ve got him.”

The whispered words and hand on his shoulder took the weight from his shoulder. It wasn’t until the shinobi had moved past him that Kakashi realized it had Kei Uchiha. Spinning quickly he watched the new Jonin walk into the house right behind Danzo. Cat and Owl were no where to be seen, in fact he was the only one in the yard. The rest must have followed the Hokage and the Council inside. Well it was their problem now. He walked off towards his apartment and the comfort of his ninken.

Chapter Text

Tenzo leaned against the shower and let the water beat down upon his head. What the hell were they thinking? Even he knew that that having Kakashi go back to the house twice in the same week was just asking for him to have a mental break down. He wanted to go and make sure that his captain was alright, that he talked to someone but knew that if he reported it not only would Kakashi be pissed off, Danzo would have a hay day and see about having him removed.

Crawling into bed the former ROOT member thought about other jonin and ANBU he could talk to. Shikaku Nara seemed to care if the meeting that night was a true reflection of the man, as did the other two jonin they cleared the house with the first time. The problem was he didn’t know them well enough to approach them on his own. He didn’t know if they hung out at the jonin standby station, but he never did. He would need to change that. If he remembered correctly there were some joint exercises planned between the ANBU and Konoha Police. Fugaku Uchiha and Shikaku Nara were pretty close recently. If he could be part of the exercises and talk to Fugaku, there might be a way to make sure that Kakashi was looked after. It was a circular route for something that should be straight forward, but unless he ran into one of them on a mission or in town or somewhere else he just didn’t see a way to get his message across without raising more suspicion. He’d make sure that he had a note ready and on him just in case a miracle did happen and he ran into someone.

*****

Fugaku really wanted to go to the next council meeting. Shikaku had said that they were going to have the ANBU report on what was found at the Uzumaki compound and do his best to force them to allow Kei access to the Uzumaki compound. The problem was the Clan elders demanded that they have a clan meeting at the same time and they couldn’t be swayed to move the date. He was glad Mikoto was willing to go to the council meeting in his stead. He knew that he could count on her to do what was best for the clan. At least he was fairly certain that at the council meeting, he could trust Inoichi and Shikaku to keep her from killing the morons. He was having problems with that at clan meetings. Mainly because he wanted to do the same.

“Do you know what they want?” Mikoto wrapped her arms around her husband’s waist.

Fugaku relaxed into her embrace. “If I knew what they wanted, I’d find a way to pacify them without feeling like I’m putting the clan at risk.”

“I wish there was a way to at least put others on the clan council. It’s gets to be tiresome see the same dried up old biddies. We need new blood to think about the clan and the direction it can go. How it can help the village. Not focusing on how they think we’re better then everyone else.” Clan elders were elected, but you couldn’t just remove one. The only way to leave the council was to retire of your own accord or die. Fugaku still remembered his thrice great aunt had been a council elder up until her death at ninety-seven and she’d had full blown dementia. The clan council was one of the many things he wanted to change, but he needed to get rid of thoughts of a rebellion first.

“Mikoto, I need you back Kei’s bid to open the Uzumaki compound.”

“You’re hiding something from me. I know you too well. I know he’s a big part of the reason you’ve changed your attitude towards the boys.” Mikoto rested her cheek against her husband’s back. “Yoshino agrees with me. She’s been seeing similar changes in Shikaku. I’m not complaining, in fact I love the changes. I don’t care what the elders say, you are an amazing father and husband and the best choice we have for Clan leader because of who you are.” The heartfelt words were easier to say with her head against her husband’s back it also gave her the leeway to soften the emotional moment with a bit of sarcasm, “ besides, you know it’s stupid to think that we can’t handle the danger.”

Fugaku cradled her hands against his stomach. Her strength was one of the things he loved most about her. She was still one of the most dangerous Kunochi he knew. It didn’t matter that she had been retired for years in order to raise their children. He knew that she still trained diligently in order to make sure that she could protect those children, because if the village was ever attacked again he would be called to the front line and she would be all that stood between their children, the clan and danger. “The choice isn’t mine.”

“I understand and that’s the only reason why neither of us are pushing too hard. We will follow you and Shikaku, in this.”

“Thank you.” Fugaku relaxed knowing that he had her unwavering support. “If the council knows that the Uchiha clan will stand with the other clans in backing Kei, they will have less success in forcing him to do what they want. Hopefully that will protect both Kei and, in the long run, Naruto.”

“He wants to take on Naruto? He knows about him? About Kushina?” Mikoto pulled back and moved to face her husband, her face a mix of hope and fear. She remembered meeting Kushina as part of Fugaku’s second genin team. His first having fallen apart within it’s first year. The young, red head had something to prove, but she was brilliant, kind and generous. She was deadly on the battle field no matter how much of a loud mouth she seemed to be in town. When Kushina had introduced to them to her boyfriend, an air head of a blonde. Minato was someone Fugaku could confide in while the two women had bonded fast. Mikoto had finally met someone she could go toe to toe with, someone to match her in skills. Kushina had been strong and not afraid to fight. Damn, but she missed her best friend.

“Yeah he knows. He also knows what the boy is and doesn’t care.”

The smile on Mikoto’s face just got bigger.

“Look, you better head off to the council meeting and I’ll go see what I can do with the clan elders.”

“Hey, I’ll leave my weapons pouch at home if you will,” Mikoto’s sarcastic comment had Fugaku smiling.

Chapter Text

Danzo was livid. Nothing had been going well since early summer. It had been little things at first. Missions that had been derailed for no understandable reason. Spies that he sent out to gather information that they was either indecipherable or made no sense. The fact that new seals had suddenly popped up not only around Sarutobi’s office but also around the Uchiha, Hyuga, Yamanaka and the Nara main houses were frustrating. He had no way to break into those. No way to listen in and observe what was going on. The work he’d done to undermine the Uchiha’s reputation was being turned around, by the Fugaku’s wife no less, that really pissed him off. Mikoto, that bitch, needed to go. Some how. He kicked his chair across the room. Pacing his underground office, alone trying to figure out where the leak was. How and when someone had been tipped off to what he was doing. He knew there was no real evidence of his operations as he was in control of all of that. Now this precarious situation. He was unable to take control of the new jonin. An Uzumaki-Uchiha, one with the sharingan. One who he had tailed but got nothing, NOTHING on. Danzo was sure that this Uchiha bastard was the one who passed on the new seals and now he had the audacity to want custody of the demon container; and the Uzumaki compound. Hiruzen was actually thinking about letting this guy adopt the brat. He couldn’t let that happen. He was just getting Hiruzen to come around to his way of thinking. If he could get the Village to ostracize the jinchuriki a little more, he would be ripe for the ROOT program in another year or two.

When Danzo found out that Hiruzen would be inspecting the Uzumaki compound before the the council meeting, he had made sure the he was included. He had been the one to assign the ANBU to walk through the compound first as a way of inserting his ROOT members. He had been surprised that Sarutobi had wanted to actually be present for the walk through. The fact that Kei Uchiha and the other two useless council members; Mitokado and Utatane were there as well waiting for the outcome had been an obstacle. He assumed that Mitokado and Utatane were there to satisfy their morbid curiosity especially since they didn’t join in the walk through afterwards. The problem was that Kei Uchiha and Sarutobi had stuck by his side as he went around the house after it had been cleared. He had to rely on what Falcon had seen. So when Falcon was able to give his report on his search of the Uzumaki compound, he was only able to tell him that the place was empty except for some books on general history, the kind that any academy student would have had during their time at school. Falcon had assured him that the books were of the right age and type to have been held by the late Hokage except for the lack of notations, so it’s possible they belonged to that bitch, Kushina. Falcon’s report also mentioned that Kakashi was still loyal to the Fourth, possibly even emotionally compromised at that point. Not that he could prove it and have the last Hatake suspended for instability. Just to make things worse only Kei Uchiha and Kakashi were able to enter the compound while the latter was the only one able to open the seal on the house. At least at the moment.

The inspection was supposed to determine if anything had been left behind by the Fourth and whether it would be safe for Kei Uchiha to use. Shikaku Nara reminded them that technically they really didn’t have the right deny him access. The entire compound belonged to Uzushio and was to be made available for any visiting dignitaries. Since the fall Uzushiogakure, Kushina was the last survivor. When she had petitioned the council for the right to move into the compound with Minato, Danzo had been against it. After everything he had done to make sure that Uzushio would be no more, he wanted to search for sealing scrolls. He had lost that bid. He had hoped to be able to take his time and search the house after the Kyuubi attack, only to be blocked by the seals. Within three weeks the house faded into the background as the seals camouflage the compound, waiting for the next Uzumaki to come.

To find out that the Uchiha are now coming out of their compound, and connecting with the Village as a whole was setting a lot of his plans back. The Uchiha stood in the way of his bid for control. Now they had the support of the Nara and the Yamanaka Clan and with them came the Akimichi Clan. The fact that the Hyuga Clan was also supporting Kei Uchiha’s bid to open the Uzumaki compound was forcing Sarutobi to take a deeper look into the documents and conversations coming from Kei and make a decision. Danzo had a feeling that he was going to loose his bid to restrict the Uzumaki compound. He needed to figure out a way to get his claws into Kei Uchiha. He needed to make a plan, he hadn’t been the power behind the Hokage for the last decade trying to make the Leaf the best it could be by giving up easily. He’d find a way. He’d just have to think outside of the box to make things happen.

Chapter Text

Fugaku was exhausted. He had spent the last three hours debating with the older generation as to why the Uchiha needed to take a step back from their bid of trying to take over the Village. Some of them were able to see how they were less isolated now but they wanted a more immediate solution. They wanted him to rush through seals that Kei brought up in order to put them on as many Uchiha as possible. He told them that he was working with Kei, Jiraya and Shikaku in order to make sure that the seals worked properly. He kept stressing the need to be patient. Walking into his house, he was hoping for some good news. The Village council meeting had finished an hour before the Clan meeting did.

“Mikoto?” He didn’t want to call too loudly as the boys were likely almost asleep. His niece had been the one to stay with them. Mikoto didn’t care that Itachi was a genin, in her mind he was still under ten and therefore unable to spend the night alone. Her thought was another set of eyes was always better. Now he needed to find out where she was? The kitchen and living room were empty. A quick trip upstairs showed that not only was she not there but Sasuke was sound asleep and Itachi was lying in bed reading. “Itachi, how’d the night go?”

“Fine. Yuki stayed and played card games with us. She left when Mother came home. Sasuke was already asleep and I came up then.” Itachi really liked the way his father had changed this last couple of weeks.

Fugaku smiled as he left the room, “alright, don’t stay up too much longer.” One of the last places for him to look was the study and then maybe the courtyard just outside. Realistically he could have checked the entire ground floor before going upstairs, but he wanted to check on the boys and there was a chance that Itachi was still awake. Spying the clan books on the shelf in front him, he promised himself that he would take the time to work with Itachi and Sasuke in the morning. Spying his wife sitting on the edge of the decking in the evening light he moved closer. Instead of sitting beside her, he chose to sit behind her, his arm embracing her and holding her close. “How did it go?” He kissed the side of her neck as she settled into his arms.

“I want to talk to Kei soon.” Her voice was quiet, contemplative.

Fugaku tried not to flinch. He was sure that he did something to let her know that her request startled him, but there really was no way around it. “Why?”

“Fuga, he- I- It’s just.” She huffed out a breath before trying again. “He’s so alone. The look on his face was like that of a deer standing before a pack of hungry wolves. He’s waiting to be turned down, betrayed. I want him with us, to protect him. He reminds me so much of Shisui or Obito, just so lost where the clan doesn’t know how to deal with them. I want to make sure that he gets the love and attention that they never did. If he let me, I’d adopt him.” She still felt bad for how ostracized Obito had been for not being a full blood Uchiha. Shisui was in a similar situation, the fact that he was best friends with Itachi and still had his aunt to support him, eased some of that.

Fugaku just sighed and held her closer. Of course she would want to adopt him.

Mikoto continued on, “Yoshino and I talked. We both know that there’s something suspicious going on with him, that you are all hiding something from us; but we also agree that there most likely a good reason as to why you’re keeping it quiet. Neither of us questions Shikaku’s strategies, just remember that we’re both capable shinobi, loyal to the Leaf.”

“I love you. I know that I don’t tell you that enough. You’re strong and intelligent and fully capable of kicking my ass when I need it. You’ve done more to raise those two boys into amazing men then I have up to now and I don’t want you think that I don’t see it.” He looked out over the inner compound. “What we’ve kept quiet, has been done so because Kei has asked it of us.”

“Then we’ll support him the best way we can.” Mikoto thought to the way the council meeting went. “As usually the first part was pretty dull and straight forward. The budget portion talked about general road maintenance and a request to renovate the civilian trade school as it getting up there in age and some of the room are really showing their age. There was also a request put forth for a new roof on the shinobi academy and to replace some of the training equipment. Danzo tried to counter that there wasn’t enough money in the budget and we would need to pick one over the other.”

Fugaku could hear the smile in her voice and sighed. “What did you do?”

“I simply suggested that we focus on the trade school with a caveat. Since the students at the trade school are older and often have trouble with the lack of experience, and the school will be under renovation for a couple of weeks; we simply use the students and teachers as the labor force to fix the roof of the academy and do any other repairs or maintain certain checks that were needed. The students can use this as both on the job training and school experience. The teachers can make sure that their lessons are more then just pen and paper. Even some of the equipment that the academy is in need of are things that the trade school can create. I proposed that this could even become a long term joint project, with the academy head master writing each trade school student a reference on their work. The trade school can make the academy new targets and wooden dummies as simple beginner projects instead of the Village buying them. This would, perhaps instill a sense of cooperation between the civilians and the shinobi in the future as well as help with the budget.”

Fugaku just laughed, of course his wife had suggested a cooperative project. “What did Sarutobi and the others have to say?”

“Well Shikaku looked shocked for all of thirty seconds before looking at Shibi Aburame and asking why they hadn’t thought of that before. Shibi even suggested that instead of relying on just the teachers, they had a number of apprentices that still owed hours to the village in order to pay back loans and the like. It would a great way to use them. The equipment like targets and training dummies, that the Academy needs to replace are things that can be done as projects all year round for the Trade School. They could look at talking to the art school about making sealing paper or brushes. Hiashi was the one to point out that with the money they would save on labor, as student were paid at a fraction of the cost of a full crew, there should now be enough money for the supplies for both projects and some of the other equipment. Tsume even suggested that we increase the wages as incentive for a good job and that we could set aside a percentage of the money raised from missions towards the schools. It really pissed Danzo off. We were working together and that was on the civilian front, we hadn’t even gotten to talk about opening the Uzumaki compound yet and Kei. The Hokage had reported that he had asked an ANBU team to go and search the compound, Kakashi lead it and that once cleared, the Hokage and his advisors went with them for a walk through earlier this week, before the council meeting.”

When Fugaku raised an eyebrow she just shrugged, “none of the clan heads had been informed about the possibility of opening the Uzumaki compound, nor were they consulted about it. The Hokage was also very vague as to why he felt the need to have the ANBU do a walk through before he and the elders went through. I mean, it made sense to me that Minato or Kushina might lay traps in their home and that someone wanted to see if there was something that needed to be hidden. I was about to raise a fuss when Inoichi caught my attention and shook his head. I just followed his lead.”

“We’ll need to be careful around Danzo. The fact that we are taking an active role in making the Village stronger as a whole and not focusing on our clan alone is sure to put him on guard. Add in us working with the Nara and the Hyuga and Danzo’s going to be paranoid.” Fugaku made a mental note to talk to Junpei in the morning. They’d make sure that the force kept their eyes out for any interference from Danzo’s ROOT or anything else suspicious. Maybe increase patrols around clan compounds as a way to be available for any trouble. Increasing their visibility would also be a step in the right direction. “Anyone else raise an issue with Kei taking over the Uzumaki compound?”

Mikoto laughed, as she leaned back into her husband’s embrace. “We actually got help on that from an unexpected corner. Araki Nao, the head of the village merchant guild asked why Kei, an Uchiha, wanted in. I think it was Utatane, who had to explain that his full name was Uchiha-Uzumaki, Araki looked at the Hokage and asked why he was being barred in the first place. Sarutobi talked about making sure that Kei was actually an Uchiha-Uzumaki and I swear Fugaku; Araki almost had a stroke. He went off about how we had never questioned the validity of any Uzumaki who had ever come to the village especially since he had already proved his Uchiha blood. Either the compound would accept him or not. Kei just stood there quietly while the Hokage tried to justify why they searched the compound with Kei there. I mean the clan heads all knew or suspected it was because he wanted to make sure that Minato hadn’t left anything behind or that Danzo was going to sneak in to steal anything Kushina had left behind from Uzushiogakure, but no one said it out loud.” She sighed, “it’s too bad we didn’t have a way to get into the compound ahead of them to clear it out.”

“Mikoto, that could be seen as treason.” Fugaku knew the smile could be heard in his voice, he almost shook his head at how Mikoto’s thought process mirrored Shikaku’s.

She slapped at his hands, “oh fuck off, you know that Danzo is behind the delay in letting Kei gaining access to the Uzumaki home because the next step is him asking for guardianship of Naruto, and Danzo would love nothing better then to get his dirty little hands on Kushina’s boy.” She hadn’t been fooled by the slick attitude Danzo presented when he came to the Uchiha clan a couple of years ago asking if any of their younger members wanted to join his new ROOT academy. The subtle threats had only made her stand against him firmer. It also might have been the start of a more vicious slander campaign against the Uchiha that started in the village. “Anyway Shikaku asked to read the ANBU report. Basically it said that the house was empty and added in Kakashi’s report of how Council hadn’t wanted to given Minato and Kushina permission to move in until fairly late in her pregnancy at which point Minato had made a plan to make it a genin mission to complete the move after Naruto’s birth. That had Danzo souring. I’m sure he realized that any scrolls he wanted had been destroyed in the nine tails attack. The council was impressed that while Kei could get onto the ground with his Uzumaki chakra alone, he wasn’t able to enter the house. Kakashi could and because of the blood seal he would have to be the one to alter it.”

“That’s going to piss Danzo off more. If it was another shinobi he might have found some leverage to sway or threaten them to allow Danzo access as well without Kei’s knowledge.”

“But Kakashi won’t listen to Danzo?” Mikoto knew there was bad blood there but wasn’t sure why aside from the old war hawk being one of the loudest voices keeping the Minato’s last surviving student from looking in on Naruto.

“I’m not sure of the entire story, but I know there is one.” Fugaku lifted his wife to set her on his lap. “Did the Uzumaki compound get opened?”

“Sarutobi took the ANBU reports and our concerns and said that he’d give his decision tomorrow, but it sounded positive. Now, how about our own bunch of trouble makers?”

“Well it was a lot less interesting and a lot more repetitive. They were asking after three things: Why wasn’t I forcing Itachi to take on more missions and study for the chunin exams? When was Kei Uchiha going to join the council and support their plan to overthrow the Hokage, although not in so many words. Lastly they want to know why we’re taking our time in placing the seals Kei showed us on Uchiha eyes.”

She had no doubt that Fugaku would protect their eldest from the pressures of becoming a chunin so young. She knew he was above most of his classmates, but he was such a kind and gentle soul that she feared what would happen if he was forced into battle. He was doing so much better teaching. She had faith that whatever mysterious changes her husband had undergone, he was now the family man she knew he could be. He would protect both children. “Please tell me you go them to understand that we need to be patient. The whole idea of you bringing in Shikaku was because he’s got a better handle on funijutsu then anyone else in the village.”

“Yeah, it’s one of the reasons the Hokage brought Jiraya back. The other was to double check that Kei actually truly had Uzumaki blood. The fact that Shikaku tagged him to come and help look over the seals as soon as we could was all because the elders wanted to make sure the seals were as safe as possible.” He was frustrated just thinking about the arguments again. “It was a lesson in endurance. The pointless discussions and listening to them talk themselves in circles using their points of logic in illogical places. It truly boggles the mind.”

“How do you not bean them or genjutsu them into head butting the wall?” Mikoto had very little patience for stupidity, which is why she rarely gave the conversations all of her attention when she attended the Clan meetings.

“I’d have to say at this moment, it’s just years of practice and knowing that if I did; they’d win. I’m fairly confident that they’re willing to wait at least for a little while. I stressed how we don’t want to put on these seals only to find out that those with them will never be able to have them grow and advance. That at least got through to them. The knowledge that Jiraya, Shikaku and even Hiashi were helping Kei and I gave them the proof that they needed we were taking it seriously.”

Mikoto turned sideways and leaned against her husband. “Well for now everyone is satisfied and we have some time to breathe. You just make sure that Kei has what he needs and I’ll do what I can keep the elders pacified and improve our image with the rest of the village. ” She let her mind roll through the numerous ways she could gather support behind the scenes. Just seeing the stress from dealing with those out dated crows fade from her husband’s shoulders strengthen her resolve.

Fugaku gathered his wife tight to his chest as he stood and made his way to their bedroom. “Enough plotting and planning. We can work on that tomorrow. Right now I want to enjoy the rest of the evening with my beautiful and intelligent wife.” Her giggle was worth everything and he vowed to do better. To make sure she never doubted how much he valued her and their children.

Chapter Text

Hiashi sat in his study contemplating the council meeting. He still wasn’t completely sure why he backed the Uchiha clan so emphatically when they supported the reopening of the Uzumaki compound, except there had been something in way Kei looked, as he was waiting for the Hyuga to go back on their word and leave the Uchiha alone to fight the council. It would be something that the elders would approve of, but he just couldn’t do it, not after watching the way Kei treated his twin and listening to how Nyoko had been treated in their other village. Kei was working to help free the branch family and for the first time it felt like a such a positive decision. Besides he liked working with Shikaku and Fugaku, they were fast becoming good friends instead of the egotistical assholes he had believed them to be.

“Hiashi-sama? May I enter?”

The clam sound of his twin’s voice was relief that there wasn’t another problem within the clan to deal with. “Enter.”

Hizashi walked in and sat quietly waiting for his brother to let him know that it was safe to talk or that he needed to keep up the branch family face.

“You may speak freely.” Hiashi really wanted to find out what was on his brother’s mind. He waited a beat before addressing Hizashi, “tell me, honestly, what did you see in that meeting? How do you think it went?” The Hyuga weren’t the only clan to have prominent members in ANBU but they generally weren’t the ones guarding council meetings.

“I know that it was surprising, but I’m glad that you supported Kei Uchiha’s bid to open the Uzumaki compound.” Hizashi understood that his brother wanted to know if he had seen anything different. Most often the clan head needed to focus on the speaker and wasn’t able to gauge the reactions from other clan heads.

“Do you think it’s him personally or just his influence that has changed the attitudes of the Uchiha?” Hiashi knew that his own thinking had changed after watching the way the new found Uchiha interacted with the younger generation. It was certainly different than anything he had seen before form the other Uchiha or even from his own clan. He was treating them with respect, as valued members of the village, qualified shinobi something that neither clan had done. It was silly really. If the elders wanted respect then they should be able to show it, the problem was they didn’t and then they wondered why the younger generation was rebelling.

Hizashi just watched his brother work through his thoughts.

“Mikoto brought forth some really solid and simple solutions to village problems at the council meeting. The fact that she came instead of Fugaku; well at first I thought he was trying to slight the village but understanding that he was dealing with Clan elders and entrusted his wife to represent the clan showed a forward thinking that we’re lacking. I had pegged Fugaku as a man more rigid then the Hokage mountains, but he was willing to stop and listen to his youngest son. That has made me rethink not only how I view him but also a lot of of our own practices. When was the last time we really taught our children? One on one, without it being a lecture? Have you had a conversation with Hinata recently, because I know I haven’t been near Neji in weeks unless it was to correct him on something. I can’t remember the last time I talked to Hinata as her Uncle. I wonder what she thinks of me? Would she run to me when she learns something new or hold it to herself for fear of reprisal?”

Both men were remembering the scene earlier where Sasuke had run to Fugaku to show how he had improved a simple stamina exercise and even though the movements were choppy, the Clan head had taken the time to make the corrections slowly and patiently. Neither Uchiha had cared that other clan heads or heirs were there and that Sasuke could be seen as weak for not showing perfect form, Fugaku knew that his son was learning and worked with him. Itachi had looked on with pride as a teacher and Kei had something more complex flitter across his face before hiding it.

“Honestly I think Kei is the catalyst for a lot of the changes and not just to the Uchiha. Shikaku and Inoichi have changed a lot too.” At Hiashi’s raised eyebrow Hizashi continued, “the Nara isn’t as…..lazy in the office. I mean the man was always more intelligent then he seemed but now it’s as if his laziness is front to those who aren’t looking. He’s more active on certain files then on others, more selective on who he sends out in pairs, more attentive when listening to reports. I’m not sure if he’s searching for something but I’ve been trying to find a way to approach him about it.”

Hiashi nodded. He was glad that he had followed his instincts and allowed his brother to join ANBU, glad that Hizashi still felt free to talk to him like this. He needed someone he could trust to listen to his concerns. The elders would only twist his words and hold them over him. “Do you want me to ask to meet him?” A meeting between between clan heads would allow Hizashi the chance to approach without being in ANBU gear.

“That would be most helpful.” Hizashi knew that it would be taken care of by the next day. His brother was good that way. This time, though, the conversation would be different. They wouldn’t focus on Kei and the funijutsu as interesting as it was.

Hizashi stood suddenly almost surprising Hiashi if he had sensed the approaching chakra signature. The knock came but a moment later.

“Come.”

Nyoko opened the door and bowed.

“Please sit and join us.” Hiashi gestured to the cushion his twin had just vacated.

“Thank you.” The Uzumaki knelt and bowed again. “I don’t want to intrude, but I wanted to let you know that my daughter and I are much recovered from our ordeal and I was wondering if there was a way for us to help your sister?”

Hiashi gave her a quick look over, “there is absolutely no need for you to work as repayment. I promised your cousin that you would be able to rest until you are fully recovered. If I may?” He waited for her nod before activating his Byakugan. Her system was healing but she still needed time. “I’m sure my sister has mentioned but you’re not at 100% yet. I promised your cousin that I would take care of you, give you a place to heal and hide until such time as you are safe to walk in the open.” There was something in her eyes that reminded him of Kei at the Council meeting, just waiting to be betrayed. He didn’t want to be the cause of that look. Think about her being an Uzumaki brought to mind another idea. He looked towards his brother, hope had suddenly come and he wanted to make use of the situation. “I have a proposal for you, perhaps a little unorthodox. I have some scrolls on funijutsu that are new to us. I would appreciate you looking them over and telling us what you think of them. I would welcome your frank input on it.”

Hizashi tilted his head slightly, was his brother proposing what it sounded like? Were they going to actually research the caged bird seal and see how it could be safely removed? He didn’t think Hiashi had talked to the elders yet, but he supposed it would be better to have all the answers ahead of time.

“Of course, whenever you have time.” Nyoko bowed again and left to go back to her daughter. She was glad that the clan had turned down her offer to help with the injured. As much as she wanted to aid the clan that was helping her and Karin hide she really wasn’t a well trained medic and only had her clan’s kekkei genkai to aid her.

****

Kei waited just outside the Hokage’s office. It had been two days since the walk through and council meeting and now he was just waiting for an answer to the question of whether he’d be able to open the Uzumaki compound. It was the first step in his bid to gain custody of Naruto. It was a special kind of hell only being able to watch his best friend from a distance. He could tell that the orphanage matron was already treating him poorly. He received less food and his blankets were threadbare. It was so obvious, that even at the young age of three, many of the other children have already picked up that Naruto was free game for bullying. He wanted the ball of sunshine out of that place and under his protection.

“You may go in now,” the secretary motioned Kei into the Hokage’s office. It was the was the same woman who had made Haru’s life hell when he had been growing up. Kei couldn’t bring himself to smile, but he was at least polite enough to nod. Haru had always said that the woman had just been acting on what she believed about him from the rumor mill. Not any different then the vast number of other civilians. That still didn’t make it right.

Kei bowed when he entered the office, the door closed behind him. “Hokage-sama. How may I serve Konoha?” He hoped that his meeting would give him permission to enter the Uzumaki compound, but he could also be called in for a mission.

Sarutobi lit his pipe and studied his newest jonin. The man was a surprise. His presence, his influence had been the turning point for the Uchiha clan, who had once again become honored members of the village. His skills in funijutsu was also a boon and maybe, if the rumours he had heard about a seal to protect the Uchiha eyes was true, he could guide the Uchiha-Uzumaki to talk to the Hyuga. A quick glance at the portraits on the wall across from his desk and he could admit a resemblance, at least personality wise, to Tobirama. He wasn’t the most charismatic Hokage’s they’d had to date, but his static nature and radiating calm gave everyone around him the sense that things would be alright; even in the midst of battle. “I wanted to check in with you again and see how you are settling in?”

“Fine sir.”

“Good, good.” He puffed on his pipe, “You were there when we asked through the compound and again at the council meeting earlier this week. We discussed your claim to the Uzumaki compound. I hope you understand why we have some reservations about letting just anyone inside. You know just who was in that house before you and why we have concerns.” Sarutobi held up his hand to delay the comments he was sure were coming. “I know that you are a Leaf shinobi, but you are still new as opposed to someone who had been raised in the village.”

“Yes sir.”

“I know that some of my council has concerns about your plans, however, you have been upfront with me. Opening the Uzumaki compound just makes sense as you are looking at adopting your young cousin. Do you know if there are any other Uzumaki’s alive?”

“I’ve heard rumors sir. I haven’t searched any out. I thought opening the compound and slowly searching for family, spreading the fact that we’re back and alive during missions would be a good start. I wasn’t planning on doing anything that would compromise a mission. However, if I stopped at a village on my way home or something like that I could spread the word that Uzumaki’s were back.”

“That’s acceptable, as long as it doesn’t impact the missions that you are on. I would also ask that you let any mission partners know.” The Hokage sighed. He really hadn’t wanted the hat again after Minato died. He knew that he was letting Minato down with how he was letting the council dictate the treatment of Naruto. It was so hard to look at the boy. All he saw was death in the boy’s presence. With Naruto’s birth came the death of his wife, his successor, the last full blooded Uzumaki and more destruction then the village had seen outside of a war. He really tried not to blame the innocent child but somehow it always felt like Naruto’s fault.

“Sir?” Kei wasn’t sure what was going through the Hokage’s mind but the man had a faraway look on his face and tears in his eyes.

Taking a deep breath Hiruzen looked away from Minato’s portrait and towards the Uzumaki standing in front of him. “Sorry it’s too easy to get lost in one’s memories at my age. You have our approval for opening the Uzumaki compound. I have asked Shikaku to introduce you to Kakashi Hatake formally. You met during the walk through, and right now he is the only one with the ability to open the house itself. He would be the one able to alter the entry seals. As for your petition to adopt Naruto that’s going to take more time. I have decided that you can visit him, so that he knows who you are.”

“What type of visitation?” Kei wanted to know if he had stay at the orphanage or could take him away from all of that hate.

“It would be a day pass thing. You need to let the Matron know that you are taking him out and stay in the village. He does need to be back at the orphanage for bedtime; at least for now.” He didn’t want to bring up the last stipulation, but he’d rather have the Uchiha-Uzumaki know then be surprised by it. “The last thing is that all visitations will be monitored. You can’t see him alone. The council wanted to have ANBU watching, but I think that might be too stressful for the young boy. I’m allowing you to choose who you take, but they must be chunin or above.”

Kei tried not let his excitement show, “that’s fine, I just want him to know he wasn’t alone.” Even the idea of having a guard again would work in his favour.

Chapter Text

Kakashi leaned against the wall in Shikaku’s office. “So when’s this Uzumaki coming?”

Shikaku didn’t bother keeping the smirk from his face. “So you don’t mind making other people wait, but as soon as someone’s late coming to see you its a different story?”

Kakashi just shrugged and shoved his hands deeper into his pockets.

Shikaku didn’t let the smirk appear on his face as he explained. “He’s talking to the Hokage about the compound. Apparently he’s been given permission to live there. In order for him to do that you need to let him in the house and change the seals there.”

“What about..” the ANBU captain couldn’t bring himself to mention the name of his sensei’s son.

“Naruto? Not yet.” Shikaku used hand signs to let Kakashi know that any further questions and comments needed to be asked elsewhere. “Come on we’ll see if we can meet up with him.” Shikaku grabbed his deer skin vest as he left the office, Kakashi in tow.

They were lucky enough to meet Kei in the main lobby. Shikaku knew that both Kakashi and Kei would have preferred to have this meeting somewhere more private, but the main lobby of the administration building actually worked for what Shikaku had in mind. He wanted the gossiping old biddies to take note that Kei and Kakashi were going to be working together, and there was no one more prone to gossip then their fellow shinobi.

“Uchiha-San, come and meet Kakashi Hatake officially. I know that you fought against him in your assessment test, but that wasn’t the place to have a conversation. I’ve been trying to arrange a meeting between the two of you since then, unfortunately your schedules haven’t meshed until now.” Shikaku raised his voice just slightly over normal volume and watched as heads zeroed in on them.

Kei could see the intent behind the strategist’s words. Hanging around the main doors were a couple of notorious gossip mongers. It wouldn’t take long before the rumours made their rounds and depending on who told the tale, Kakashi and Kei would either be one of the most feared pair in the village or people would take comfort in their strength. “Hatake-San, I’ve heard a lot about you and I really enjoyed our spar. I would love the opportunity to spar again and this time actually put some more effort into it. I doubt the village is ready for us to go all out just yet.”

Kakashi could see the shock on the faces of the shinobi pretending not to watch. They had all been to the exhibition fight and if they didn’t realize that none of the participants had used their full strength then that was on them and they needed to retire, like now. “Of course Uchiha-San or would you prefer Uzumaki-San, personally I think Uchiha-Uzumaki-San is just too...”

“Call me Kei, please I rarely use either of my last names and I have been spending a lot of time with many other Uchiha. It would just be- troublesome.” He gave a wink to Shikaku for using his catch phrase.

“Ah, yes. I’ve seen your page in the bingo book. Some of them don’t list a surname.” Shikaku interjected, rolling his eyes at his new friend.

“Kakashi then, as I..” He didn’t go any further. How was he to explain the pain he felt from hearing his surname, the pain left at his father’s suicide? The stigma of his father wasn’t something that he shared with anyone.

“Now that you’ve been properly introduced, let’s go to the Uzumaki compound and see about getting Kei moved in?” Although it was posed as a question, both men knew it for the order it was.

Kei just nodded. He remembered how his Kakashi was about being called Hatake, it didn’t a genius to figure out that the Kakashi in this time would be just as raw especially as it was more recent here. “So you were Minato’s student? Were you there when Kushina set the seals?”

Shikaku was glad that Kei didn’t push the issue and Kakashi didn’t start brooding. The walk to the compound was quick and the conversation light. The trio entered the compound easily and reset the seals immediately after. Kakashi was relieved when Kei insisted that Shikaku be included in the new seals and that he remain. At least he wouldn’t have to lie about removing his chakra signature. Walking closer to the house the conversation turned towards what really was at stake. He didn’t even mind the request to teach Kei how to add people.

“Kakashi I want to thank you again for agreeing to come in and clear the house first and then going through it again before the council meeting. I know that must have been hard for you. However, I know that there is a threat here in the village and I need to protect my cousin, nephew however you want to label Kushina’s son.”

“Why is it that you are now just coming to Konoha? Naruto is three.” Kakashi heard the rumors but he wanted to hear what it was that Kei had to say for himself.

Kei explained the back story he and Shikaku had come up with when he first had to go in front of the Hokage. He expanded it a little more. When he got to Naruto, Kei talked about how much family meant to him. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve looked in on him. I wasn’t publicly allowed near him because they were sacred of what I might do. They dind’t want to risk me taking him somewhere. I know that he’s a jinchuriki, after all, only an Uzumaki would have the chakra reserves to hold the nine tails and there would be no one else that Kushina would trust with such a responsibility then her own son. It just hurts me that he had to loose both of them in the process. The fact that he was kept away from you and Minato’s guard detail for all this time is another sore spot.“ He remembered sitting around the fire listening as those guards told Haru all about working with Minato and how much they wished they could do more. The times they risked insubordination just to look in on him. He would ensure those four men would get the chance this time around. “I’ve been granted visitation rights, day pass only right now, although Sarutobi knows that I want to adopt him. I fully intend to use that situation to make sure that you are all included in that process.” He gave a small smile, “after all the council can’t complain that I’m a threat or trying to remove him from the village if I have you and several other loyal, high ranking Konoha shinobi watching over us.”

Kakashi smiled. He might just get along with Kei.

“Good plan.” Shikaku hadn’t even thought about having Kakashi, Genma and the team supervise Kei’s visits with Naruto. It sure would be a good way for the others to develop the relationship they had always wanted with the tyke.

“Do you want to be included when Shikaku and I go through the scrolls you found?” Kei was pretty sure that Kakashi would turn them down, after all there was only so much trauma the copy-nin was willing to put up with.

Kakashi shook his head but didn’t say a word as he gave Kei the means to add others to the house seal. He left before entering the house again. Neither man could fault him for it.

Kei watched him leave, “Shikaku?”

The sigh wasn’t unexpected, “yeah, I know. Ino will make sure to talk to him. I guess Tenzo managed to corner him to talk about Kakashi.”

Kei laughed, of course Tenzo would be worried about his friend, nothing had changed there. “That makes sense those two are close. Tenzo is the one who seems more emotionally mature even if Danzo had tried to train it out of him. Kakashi is just-“ he tried to search for the right phrase.

“Emotionally constipated?” Shikaku said it almost in jest except it was accurate. “Yeah, I can see it. I’m glad that he has someone who cares. We were actually planning on ambushing him soon just to check on him. It’s reassuring that Kakashi has friends that understand him.” He thought about getting Gai to handout another of their strange challenges.

Kei nodded, “please keep an eye on him. He’s fairly vulnerable right now.”

The pair were moving around the house, making a list of what would be needed to make this empty house a home. “If he’s agreeable, I’d like to open the compound to allow Kakashi to live here. I won’t suggest it right away but the Uzumaki’s are such small clan right now and the compound was meant to hold family.” And he knew just how bare and lonely Kakashi’s apartment was.

It was Shikaku’s turn to laugh. “You’re going to adopt the lot of them aren’t you?”

“Won’t really be adopting just a gathering of those who were meant to be close to Naruto.” Kei looked out the window and over the empty compound. There were a couple of small houses, empty and just waiting for someone to move in. Maybe Genma and Raidou could move out here as well, it would give them the freedom to be who they really are instead of always on guard. The layout really reminded him of the way Uzushio had been set up. Granted he had seen it when it was nothing more then ruins and they were hiding from an insane goddess, but it was the similar. It reminded him that he needed to go back to Uzushio and make sure that he had possession of the scrolls on sealing and history in order to teach Naruto and Karin sooner rather than later. “I’m going to prep the house and move in this week. Then I’m heading out of the village, there is something I want to do before I bring Naruto here even for a visit, if I’m allowed.”

“I’ll make sure there’s a mission for you when you’re ready.” Shikaku understood that Kei had things he needed to accomplish in order to make this world safe for the next generation, so it didn’t turn out like his had.

Chapter Text

Kei knew he was cutting it close, but he fully intended to be back in time to watch over the village and the Hyugas when Kumo sent their envoy for the peace treaty. Maybe they could actually broker a real peace treaty. He stopped by Shikaku’s office to ask for a mission to the east so he could make a stop at the land of Whirlpool and check out the Uzushio ruins. He wanted to see what he could find.

Shikaku was only too happy to accommodate him. He didn’t know what the Uchiha had in mind but if he needed a mission to the east, he wasn’t going to stop him.

Kei made sure to deliver the message to the Village of Hot Water first before making the trip to the land of Whirlpools. He figured that the message for the Land of Hot Water was just a general notice that Kumo was expected in the Hidden Leaf for peace talks. They just didn’t want another village to worry about the size of a foreign power walking through their lands. The last thing the Leaf needed was for Hot Water to assume that the Land of Lightening was going to invade and either join forces or try to stop them. Kei really hoped the Diamyo of Hot Water would stay quietly at home. Last time they had promised to side with the Leaf, but they became inconsistent and untrustworthy before the fourth war.

His official mission finished, Kei travelled further the land of Whirlpools and Uzushio specifically. Walking among the ruins Kei felt his heart weep. He at least had the mementos from his clan, he could walk through the compound strange though it was to see people in it again. Haru had none of that, hell for most of his life he didn’t even know he was part of a clan. Even if he had taken the Naruto of this time to visit there was nothing left. He would do a better job of making sure that Naruto knew of the strength of the Uzumaki and protect what legacy he could from the Leaf. Making his way to what had once been the Uzikage’s office, Kei searched for the key that Haru had told him about, the one that help him open the underground archives. Everywhere he looked he could see destruction. He was just thankful that he wasn’t tripping over the bones of the fallen.

The underground library was larger then he remembered, of course it could be that by the time he was able to see the library for himself their little group of survivors had been forced to burn many of the scrolls and shelves to survive. An empty room always looks smaller. Kei unsealed the biggest storage scroll he had and started loading the scrolls and books into it. He had to admit, he lost himself in making sure that he recovered everything for Naruto, for Nyoko, for Karin and for whoever else joined their little clan. He searched every room in every building he could find. He found some rooms with hidden seals mostly in homes he assumed belong to high ranking shinobi. The most surprising were the bookcases in the academy classrooms and the last cell of their prison block. The files he found there were going to take years to read and sort through.

Figuring he’d found everything he could at the moment, he headed back home. Thankful the trip was devoid of issue, Kei let a small smile cross his lips when he re-entered the trees of the Land of Fire. They were like a balm to his soul and he was loathe to relinquish the feeling just because of the many eyes on his back. Danzo and his ROOT. He was honestly surprised that they waited until he was back within Konoha’s boarders before picking up his trail. Ignoring them, Kei headed straight for the mission desk.

“Next shinobi please,” the shinobi at the mission desk wasn’t Iruka, but another man that Kei remembered as manning the desk before.

“Good day. Kei Uchiha returning with messenger mission to the Land of Hot Water.” Kei laid the hand written report down.

“Thank you Uchiha-San. I see that you have your report filled out.” The shinobi at the desk skimmed through the report. “Anything of note that needs to be reported or amended?”

“No the mission went as predicted.”

“You were expected back three days ago. Any reason for the delay?”

Kei knew this would be a potential problem, he was thankful that he’d talked to the Hokage about it before. “I stopped at a couple of villages on my way home to look for any remaining relatives. I talked to the Hokage about it and he said that it was okay as long as I didn’t endanger my mission or team mates.”

“Alright, you’re still within the allowable time frame.” He made a note and set the report to the side. “Thank you for your service. According to the schedule you have a couple of days off.”

Kei gave a quick bow and left. He needed time to at least organize the scrolls, his move to the Uzumaki compound now complete, he would have room to lay everything out. With only Shikaku and Kakashi able to enter at the moment they should be safe.

The layout of the main house amazed him. It had a warm feeling despite having been empty for years. It was so reminiscent of the many newer homes he had been in. The main floor with it’s main living areas and very few wall. Upstairs there were bedrooms and bathrooms as well as two suites. Uzumaki’s really did encourage family style living. If Minato and Kushina took the largest bedroom, that left the nursery right beside them and two suites for either an already formed couple like Genma and Raidou or someone like Jiraya or Tsunade, as Kakashi’s room already had the Hatake clan symbol painted on a wall. The outlier buildings were likely for other families. Kei was hoping that he could have Nyoko and Karin stay in one of the suites. He would give Kakashi the option of a room in the house or on the grounds. Genma and Raidou would likely prefer one of the buildings on the grounds. He was glad that there was minimal baby furniture in the house, although one room was painted a pale blue with a beautiful mural on one wall. He sat at the desk in the study and laughed at himself. He had spent years in an apartment on clan land only meters from the spot his parents had died, ran from home and village, and lived constantly out of his shinobi pack and here he was considering paint colors. Fate really did like to kick people in the teeth.

“Talk about getting ahead of yourself. This is my first night here. I’m not asking anyone to move in until things are a little more settled.” Opening his scrolls he put everything in pile on the floor. Using a scrap of paper he labeled the different shelves and started to work through the scrolls. Personal journals on one shelf, mission reports on another, and on it went. The simple repetition calming his fractured mind in a strange way.

The small flare of chakra gave him notice that someone had entered the compound.

“Kei? You in here?” Shikaku’s voice called out front he front door.

“Study,” Kei waited for his friend to enter the room. He figured that Shikaku would come looking for him sooner or later.

“How did the mission go?”

Kei just raised an eyebrow. Shikaku was jonin commander, he should have seen the mission report within hours of Kei handing it in.

“Injuries?” Shikaku.

Kei just shrugged, he was here wasn’t he?

Shikaku just sighed, his friends were so, so, so troublesome. He laughed at himself, he knew full well that he used that term way too often. “What’s the plan for Kumo?”

“Has the delegation arrived yet?” Kei figured he better make sure he key in a couple of other people to the house. There was no safer place to make plans then the Uzumaki compound with all its silencing seals and protection wards. Of course he’d make sure that Kakashi was alright with them as well.

“Not yet but we’ve had word that they’re on their way. We have maybe a week or two.” Shikaku took a good look at his friend.

“Tea?” Kei stood and made his to the kitchen.

Shikaku just shook his head. “So just what the hell are you doing?” He moved around the room, not touching anything. From what Genma had told him they had completely emptied the room except for some second hand text books and general history books that they had placed there to stop suspicion from arising.

“You know that mission you gave me the other day? The one out by the Land of Hot Water?” Kei handed over a cup of tea. “I mentioned that I would be doing a side trip?” When Shikaku nodded he continued, “well I made a side stop at Uzushiogakure.” He could feel his heart start to race, “the-the,” he needed to calm down, he slammed his hands agains the counter. “SHIT!” Kei took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. “The last time we were there, we had taken shelter amongst the ruins. It was isolated, but the seals were still workable and Haru, he- Well, he could activate them and help keep us hidden. It didn’t last long but we were there for a couple of weeks. We knew from before that using chakra was a sure way for Zetsu to find us. If we wanted food, we fished or set traps old school style. To cook we used matches and wood. Uzushio doesn’t have a lot of wood left, so we had to burn the scrolls. It broke Haru’s heart to know that all that information and history had been there the entire time and he’d never known.”

“So you went to gather it up and keep it safe.”

“It looks like it had been looted already, likely right after the fall, but at least there were no bodies lying around. There were more scroll hidden so I grab what I could. I should likely plan another trip back to do another look, but I think I got most of it. Anyway, Naruto needs to know where he comes from. The things Haru did, what he was capable of doing when he had been never been encouraged, never given support, never given a chance.” Kei blinked, forcing the tears away.

“Hey, we’ll make sure that doesn’t happen. You’re already changing things for the better. We know who to watch out for and we won’t let Naruto fall through the cracks again. Even if you can’t be with him now, I’ve got eyes on him. Inoichi, Fugaku and even Hiashi, will help us, we won’t fail him.” He was remembering his friend Minato and knew that if Shikamaru had been left alone that Minato and Kushina would do everything they could to make sure that he was safe, and cared for and loved. He could do the same for Naruto, it shamed him that it took Kei traveling through time to remind him of his duty to his friends. He watched Kei as took a minute to regain his composure.

“Now to change the topic. Kumo will be here soon. I know what type of plan I have, but what would you like to do?”

What Kei really wanted to do was have Haru back, but that wasn’t going to happen. He needed to stop that vein of thinking. Looking over at Shikaku and the concern on his face he needed to remind himself that he wasn’t alone here, he had people he could rely on and trust.

“I want to see if Hiashi will let me in the Hyuga compound. I’d like to talk to Nyoko and see what her take on the Hyuga clan is and hopefully imply that she should keep her eyes open. Hell, I’d like to do that for Hizashi as well. Not for the security of the village but to watch the clan grounds without putting too many people in the know.”

“Why do you need to see if Hiashi will let you inside the compound?” Shikaku was confused, had something changed in the relationship between the Hyuga clan head and Kei that he didn’t know of?

“With Nyoko and Karin staying there, he had asked that I refrain from visiting to keep them safer.”

Shikaku nodded, “that makes sense.” He stroked a hand over his goatee, “what type things or questions did you want to ask?”

“It’s more that I want to see what skills Nyoko has. Could she keep an eye out either through seals or other means to watch for foreign chakra along the walls? I also just want to see how she’s fairing. I mean I know that Hiashi has passed on that she’s healing well, but I still want to check in and let her know that I haven’t forgotten about her. As for talking to Hizashi, well I’m not completely sure how to bring it up that we need them to keep their guard up without putting either the clan or the village on high alert. I’m not sure if we should completely block that chance of a kidnapping or to try and capture the culprit. I mean if we capture them then the peace treaty will fall through and we will have Kumo as someone who we can’t trust and will lose them as a potential ally.”

“Where as if we stop the possibility of a kidnapping then Kumo knows we are strong and haven’t let down our guard. They could see that as a good thing or might see us as being paranoid.” Shikaku sat back, staring at the ceiling as his mind swirled with possible outcomes. “If we go on the premise that Kumo is only after a dojutsu then we should also give Fugaku a heads up. If they’re after any potential kekkei genkai it would also be ideal to mention it to Ino, Chouza and maybe even Shibi Aburame as they also quite unique clan jutsu.”

“I’m pretty sure they’re after the visual dojutsu only but, it might be beneficial if we let Fugaku know and maybe he can arrange for a higher police presence in the clan areas. It could help with the Uchiha image, especially if we start now and continue on after Kumo is gone. That way it doesn’t look like we don’t trust them, I mean we can give them the benefit of the doubt. Hinata’s kidnapping might have been a crime of opportunity, hell for all I know it could have been something cooked up by the advisor as a way to impress the Riakage. By continuing the patrols after Kumo is gone, the clans will get used to the idea of the Uchiha wanting to make sure everyone is safe and not trying to corral them or spy on them.”

“That will take some finessing, but the idea of a higher police presence is a good idea. Again that will help change the Uchiha’s public image. I know that Fugaku has already increased the visibility of the force in the civilian sector and they are making great strides in their image. I have a meeting tomorrow with the Hokage and I plan to ask him about letting non-Uchiha on the force again. Ever since Fugaku broached the idea and I brought it up at the Nara clan meeting, I’ve had a number of clan members who have expressed interest for one reason or another.” Shikaku thought over the plan they had. It was really a lot looser then he wanted, but he completely understood that something like this had to be flexible as there were a lot of unknown variables. “I’m willing to go and talk to Hiashi as he’s actually just sent around a request for me to join him for tea. I can use the time to give both of them a bit of a warning as I’m sure Hizashi will be there and to talk to Nyoko, or at least pass on a message.”

Kei relaxed a little knowing he had the support he needed, “Nyoko may ask you a couple of probing questions and I told her that you were one of the people who knew my full story so keep that in mind. I will talk to Fugaku as I should spend some time at the Uchiha compound as well.” He wanted to keep up the friendship that had started with Junpei and this was a way to do it. “Hell I might even suggest the idea of the patrols and see about joining one. If I say I’m trying to get to know my clan it can be excused as I’m not police force.” Kei figured that he could go out with Junpei or his younger cousin Yori, whom he was told loved being a police officer. Of course he would also need to watch what he said so as not to trap himself in a lie later on.

Shikaku nodded, that actually might be the best plan. Kei could be on patrol when the delegation was in the village, if he was the one who caught the intruder he could use his discretion to figure out which way to go. Maybe….”you know, when you talk to Fugaku, perhaps you could have him talk to the Hokage about having some non-Uchiha join the patrols as they would know what is normal surrounding their clan lands as a trial to see how things work.”

“I can do that.” Kei watched the way Shikaku’s eyes trailed across the now full book shelves. The man really was just like his son. If Shika wasn’t napping and clouding watching he was strategizing using Shoji or reading. “You know once this thing with Kumo is settled I could use your help going through all these scrolls.”

“Troublesome,” Shikaku smiled as he said it.

Chapter Text

Shikaku wanted to go straight to the Hokage. He wanted to work out a way for the Police to capitalize on the number of shinobi who had either retired early or been forced out for whatever reason. He wanted to be able to give Fugaku and Kei the go ahead to break the prejudice surrounding the Uchiha police force. What he did instead was to go home and see his wife and son.

Yoshino waited downstairs in the study as Shikaku put their son to bed. It was something that he had only started doing after that mysterious mission where he had been injured. She’s pretty sure that Kei was who had been hiding on Akimichi land. She wasn’t fool enough to believe that a strange shinobi who happened to be part Uchiha and part Uzumaki just happened to arrive in the village about the same time as Shikaku’s secret friend disappears. Rei Akimichi and her had talked, at least a little. Rei wanting reassurance that whoever was hiding in the cottage was safe. Yoshino wouldn’t betray her husband. She had been ANBU for only two years, but had been a shinobi all her life. Her husband had never been her jonin commander, but she trusted him with her life. If she needed to know, he would tell her. Hell, she was pretty sure that he would tell her even if she didn’t need to know.

“Yoshino?” Shikaku entered his study with a tray of tea. He set the tray on the table just behind her. “I could use your insight.” Shikaku tried his best to outline his plan to talk to the Hokage and to the Hyuga. He was hoping that she would point out some flaw or some aspect that he was missing. Instead she helped him fine tune it.

He reached out and pulled her close, kissing her softly. “Thank you. Thank you, for trusting me and not pushing for answers that I couldn’t give.”

Yoshino snuggled into his chest, relaxing in his embrace. “Thank you for trusting me as much as you do. I know that choices aren’t always yours and you walk a fine line, but know that I see that and understand.” She stood up and offered her hand. “Now come to bed, tomorrow will be soon enough to deal with all of this.”

***

Kei waited until the next morning to talk to Fugaku. He made sure that he went to the police station to meet with him.

“Kei, how are you doing?” Fugaku watched as the time traveler shut the door of his office. He hadn’t seen the young man in a couple of days what with missions and clan duties.

“Good,” Kei sat on the chair in front of Fugaku’s desk. “I was talking to Shikaku last night. I believe that he’s going to talk to the Hokage today about expanding the Police force.” He watched as Fugaku pulled out a file.

“That will be great. I know that Shikaku said that he had a number of Nara shinobi who had showed interest.” Fugaku watched Kei closely, he was still tense so there must something other then Shikaku talking to the Hokage that worried him. “There’s something coming up soon isn’t there?”

“Yeah, I’m hoping that if Shikaku can get the go ahead, then I can perhaps join a patrol around the village. Maybe with Junpei or Yori as a way to elevate suspicion.” Kei honestly missed the calm nature that Junpei exuded, and it would be strange for him not to try and get to know Yori better if he was supposed to be his cousin. Yori was someone he couldn’t place from his childhood, although that could be because if it hadn’t involved Itachi, Shisui or his mother he hadn’t cared. He wold change that and get to know as many clan members as he could.

“That would work. I know that Junpei had been asking after you and Yori has mentioned that he would like the chance meet with you. To get to know you better.”

***

Shikaku was glad that his talk with the Hokage had been not only quick, but favorable. Sarutobi said that he would let Fugaku know later that day, now he was onto his next stop. He sighed as he halted in front of the Hyuga compound gates.

“Shikaku,” Hiashi knelt on the other side of the table as the other clan head took a seat inside the receiving hall.

“Hiashi,” Shikaku nodded in Hizashi’s direction. “I came here on behalf of a mutual friend.”

Hiashi understood the message and activated the silencing wards around the room, “how is Kei?”

Shikaku smiled, “troublesome. He asked me to check on his cousin and talk to her if you would allow it.”

Hiashi nodded and gestured to his brother, “both she and her daughter are doing fine. I know that he wanted to talk to her some more, but I rushed him out of the compound as Danzo had sent a summons.”

Shikaku mentally went through a number of different plans, but all of them hinged on how the Uzumaki would act with him. “The other point I wanted to bring up is that the Hokage has agreed to allow other shinobi to help the Police Force, at least on a trial basis. Kei is planning on taking a patrol, likely with a cousin or two in order to get to know them better.” Hiashi nodded, they had already talked about this and he had agreed with it. “The reason I bring it up is that Fugaku is wanting to send patrols around the different clan compounds. He didn’t want to surprise you when someone other then your Hyuga guards walked around the perimeter.”

“That is very thoughtful of him. I’ll make sure to warn them.” Shikaku was right, his clan would react first in order to protect the family.

Shikaku nodded, “after I leave here I will be talking to the Aburame and Inuzuka clans as well to give them the same warning. The Yamanaka and Akimichi clans are already aware.”

Hizashi was glad that Shikaku had mentioned going to the other clans. He didn’t think his brother’s pride would take the insinuation that the Hyuga weren’t capable of protecting their own. He dared to speak up without looking at his brother, “what if we supply a couple of clansmen to aid in these patrols right away?”

Shikaku smiled, “if you could that would be fantastic. The Uchiha are gaining back some of the villages trust, but it if they see the clans working together it would be better.”

“There’s something else going on that you’re trying to stop.” Hiashi looked over at the other clan head. Shikaku was intelligent and crafty. There was something else up his sleeve.

The sigh was heavy and not entirely unexpected. “There’s been rumors. Someone wants to abduct a clan child.”

“Kumo?” Hizashi was ready to get rid of the threat to his niece or son.

“Actually that’s were we’re having problems. From what we’ve heard I can’t be entirely sure that Kumo is behind it.”

Hiashi watched as Shikaku rubbed a hand down his face. His mind reeling with the news, “if not Kumo then who?”

“It may be Kumo, someone else or a combination of the two. All I know is that if there is a way I can help protect the kings of our generation then I will. I don’t want to send out the ANBU because I would need permission and a reason and I don’t have the proof I need for that.”

Hiashi tilted his head as he contemplated just what it was the Nara genius was and wasn’t saying. There was either a possible threat to the village or a possible traitor in village. Either way, Hiashi would do what he could to protect both his clan and the others. His gaze rested on a photo almost hidden behind the clan scroll; a photo of his academy graduation. How many had been lost since then? Had they done all they could to protect the next generation? Kushina and Minato just happened to be the ones out of those gone that meant the most to him. He nodded slowly, “using the police force would be the best alternative and if Fugaku can add in other shinobi with other kekkei genkai it would be additional support.”

Hizashi was glad that his brother had agreed. If what Shikaku was saying was true then he wouldn’t have enough time to persuade Hiashi to change his mind and he’d never disagree with him in front of anyone else, clan members or not.

Shikaku felt his shoulders relax a little. That was the biggest hurdle and now onto another sensitive issue. “I have one more request.”

Hiashi just raised an eyebrow. His friend wanted something other then the clan’s cooperation with the Uchiha police force?

“Kei had asked if I would come and talk to Uzumaki-San alone.” Shikaku almost held up his hand to stop the interruption until he realized that Hiashi wouldn’t dare interrupt as it was beneath him. “It’s not that he fears her mistreatment under your care, it’s more that he wants to reassure her that there are other who know of her existence and that he is working towards gaining her freedom here in the village.”

Hizashi left the room. Hiashi let a small smile grace his face. “She had been resting and playing with her daughter. She had also approached our sister multiple times to ask if there is a way she could help and pay the clan back for their aid. It is apparent that she is not used to sitting still. Her daughter is quite the bundle of energy and I look forward to the day when I can officially introduce her to Hinata. I think both of them would benefit from the friendship that would follow.”

Shikaku hadn’t even thought about having Karin interact with the other clan heirs.

The woman who walked in the room ahead of Hizashi was like a toned down version of Kushina. Her violet eyes and face shape had the unmistakable stamp of an Uzumaki and although thin it showed the glow of new found health. Her hair showed similar signs of long term malnourishment in how dull and brittle looking the strands were despite the bright tomato red coloration. Everything he saw told Shikaku that this was a woman who had suffered malnourishment and mistreatment for years.

“Greetings.” Her voice was melodic and softer then Kushina’s on a good day.

“Uzumaki-San, I am Shikaku Nara and I come on behalf of Kei Uzumaki.” He bowed.

“Please just Nyoko, I’m not used to all this formality.” It was in her smile that Shikaku could see the rebel that Kushina was. Man she was likely giving Hiashi issues if she thought the honorific was overly formal.

“Very well, would you feel comfortable without Hiashi and Hizashi in the room?” Hiashi raised an eyebrow at the comment that was more of a request. He knew that the twins would be cornering him later. Shikaku hoped that they wouldn’t give her too hard of a time about it.

When she nodded, Hiashi and Hizashi left quietly once Nyoko assured them that she would be fine. Her gaze was direct once the room was clear. “Kei had mentioned that you were one of the ones that knew his story?”

It really wasn’t a question, but Shikaku answered none the less. “Tell me what you know and I’ll fill in what blanks I can.”

“He didn’t have much time to tell me a lot, but I can guess some of what happened.” The intelligence in her eyes was almost frightening.

It turned out that Nyoko was using stories and tales told to her by her mother to make sense of what Kei told her. She was frighteningly accurate about where Kei came from. Shikaku was once again faced with the image of Kushina. She had been overshadowed by Minato’s genius and charisma, but that woman had been more intelligent then most wanted to admit.

“Is this intuitive acumen something that is common among the Uzumaki clan?” Shikaku wanted to brace himself for the type of child that Naruto would become. Would he be book smart like his father or uncannily accurate and unpredictable like his mother.

Nyoko just smiled, “sort of, I mean from what my mother told me we’re all pretty much the same, intelligent in a different way and often underestimated, even by our own. I take it you knew an Uzumaki or two?”

“Just one, your cousin Kushina. We could never understand how she would arrive at her answers and if you asked it became a convoluted explanation that she even got lost in. Her husband was the opposite but they worked well together. They’ve been gone three years now and I still miss them like it was yesterday.” His smile was bitter sweet, “you’ll find that most of the clan heads, held Kushina in high regard.” He would have to tell her about how the village treated Naruto since the death of his parents.

“I wish I had known her.” Nyoko was faced again with the knowledge that her once proud and bountiful clan was now down to three and half members. “So now that we’ve established that I know where or when Kei came from and that he has a plan of some sorts, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about.

Shikaku went over the plan he and Kei had for the upcoming days and how she may be able to help out.

“I want to help, but I’m not that skilled at seals. I mean I know the theoretical because my mother helped to teach me, but I was never able to recreate them the way my mother and her family was able to. I know part of it was my mother’s fear of us being sought out for the wrong reasons. It’s the main reason she stopped teaching me and asking me to stop practicing when I got married. She didn't trust my husband, and she was right not to. He was the one to betray us to Kumo for our healing technique. He left before Karin was born and died not long after.”

“If I may ask, are you sure that he’s dead?” Shikaku was horrified, to hear this woman’s husband was the one to help enslave her. He couldn’t imagine ever wanting to betray Yoshino that way. It made him want to search the bastard out and make sure that he would never do that again.

“He came into the hospital I was forced to work in. Unfortunately he died before I was forced to heal him.” The sly smile showed she wasn’t actually all that sad.

“Well that saves us some time. I know Kei would be after him as well.” Shikaku took a couple of moments to rework the plan. “Do you know who Hinata is? Hiashi’s daughter? Or Neji? Hizashi’s son?” When Nyoko nodded he continued. “What Kei believes is going to happen is that there is the potential for an abduction of a child for a dojutsu theft.”

Her hand flew to her mouth to try and suppress her dismay. “I. I can’t. I can’t imagine.” She remembered teaching Karin to hide whenever she was gone.

“All I can ask is that you also keep your eyes open and ask for Hiashi or Hizashi if you see anything out of the norm. You’ve been here long enough to understand the gist of how the Hyuga work and you’re perceptive especially as you spotted Kei’s- let call it unique truth right away. If cornered I’m sure you could pass it off as an unknown Uzumaki skill.”

“That would work.” Nyoko found that she really liked how this man thought, he reminded her of her mother’s stories of her own father. “Do you know when I’ll be able to see Kei again? Was he able to get into the Uzumaki compound?” She hoped that the seals Kushina had placed around the home recognized Kei’s intent and love for the Uzumaki he once knew.

“Yes we got in and we didn’t even need your blood to do so. As for when you can see Kei again, I think he’s waiting a little while yet. He was just granted the rights to live at the compound and I know that he wants to make sure things go smoothly for the next little while before bringing you there. We’re all concerned about your safety and right now the safest place for you is here, even with the threat we believe may be coming.”

Nyoko smiled and relaxed a little. She hadn’t been forgotten and if could trust the look in this man’s eyes, then she knew there were more people then just Kei looking out for her. She couldn’t complain about her stay at the Hyuga compound. Hiashi’s sister Tomi was a good nurse and did her best to make sure that both she and Karin were well taken care of. Spending more time here wasn’t going to be that big of a hardship.

Chapter Text

Kei walked around the village not sure if he wanted to do this alone or not. His partner on the patrol was a fifth or sixth cousin. Someone he couldn’t remember from before. Joben was a competent officer, he didn’t try to engage Kei in conversation beyond verifying which section of the village they had for patrol. It was the small spike in lightening chakra that clued Kei into who was just beyond the wall, and he was expecting it.

“You feel that?” Kei automatically suppressed his chakra and tilted his head to hear better.

Joben followed Kei’s lead in suppressing his own chakra but didn’t say anything, instead he shook his head and used hand signals to ask for clarification. As they stood on top of the village wall, he could see a group of shinobi hidden amongst the trees. He looked towards Kei’s for their next move.

Kei just nodded and asked him to go and get back up. As Joben moved silently back to a closer muster point. Kei made his way over the wall and hid in the trees, watching the trio below him. He really shouldn’t be surprised that Danzo had his hands in this as well. He could hear the two ROOT members were trying to persuade one of the Kumo representatives that they could easily get into the Hyuga compound to steal away the young heiress and gain the Byakugan. He supposed that they could be considered intimidating, if wasn’t for the fact that the Kumo shinobi seemed to be interested. Highly interested. Kei wasn’t sure exactly who was here as representatives for the peace talks, but he was glad that neither A or Bee were in sight. It showed that Kumo only took advantage of a situation that was pretty much handed to them on a plate. He was debating how to take care of these three, sure Joben was supposed to return with back up, but he really didn’t want to wait. If he jumped straight into a fight they could either gang up on him or run off and he definitely wanted to contain both parties. It wasn’t that he really cared whether or not Kumo was put in a bad light, but he really wanted something to pin on Danzo. He had been recording everything with his sharingan, he had hopes that Shikaku or Inoichi could use his memories as added proof. The silent way it was then. Carefully he aimed three senbon laced with a heavy sedative at the shinobi below, using his sharingan and his experience from the fourth war to make sure all three needles hit their intended targets. Once on the ground he sealed all three bodies in separate sealing scrolls. He would take them to Shikaku first before going to the Hokage. Hopefully they could make a plan were Danzo was exposed before he could do more damage. Kei gathered the scrolls giving away the secrets of Konoha and made his way home. He would have to figure out a way to send a message to the Nara. It would be difficult and a pain. He could understand why ‘Troublesome’ was Shikaku’s favorite catch phrase, it really did sum up a lot things fairly easily.

“Kei!” A figure down the street waved at him

“Junpei!”

“Kei, Joben said you needed some help.” Junpei was glad to see the young Uchiha safe and in one piece, they hadn’t had a chance to get together for a while.

“Yeah, we found three suspicious shinobi just outside the village walls. I don’t really want to take them to the Hokage just yet. I rather talk to Fugaku first.” Kei looked over at the two other men with his former roommate. “Who’s your partner?”

“He’s one of the new officers we are training. That’s not to say that they are untrained, just -“ Junpei tried to back pedal as he realized that he was talking about the proud Aburame being in need of more training.

“You are correct,” the unknown officer spoke up. “It has been many years since I have done more then train to protect my clan. I cannot hope to protect the village on my own as I am now.”

The frank honesty and humility of the statement was so reminiscent of the Aburame he once knew, that Kei knew it must be a clan trait. It amazed him that they hadn’t been targeted more, then he remembered ROOT and the rumours of the lost Aburame clan secret.

“Kei Uchiha, this is Neko Aburame, one of seven new officers for the Konoha Police Force; as you can see we were able to hire more members from outside the clan.” Junpei clasped his partner on the shoulder.

Kei smiled and gave a nod, “Neko, welcome.” Turning his attention back to Junpei, Kei answered the first question, “actually I am looking to inform Fugaku on what I found.”

“He should be at headquarters, we were just on our way back to report in,” Junpei was being helpful and Kei took full advantage of it.

Kei pulled out a piece a paper and wrote a quick note on it. Nothing that would be incriminating or express the true reason for his request. “Can you pass this on to him when you go back? And if possible don’t mention that we saw anyone outside the village wall? I’d rather not implicate anyone falsely without talking to all parties involved. We know how rumors can affect things.” The subtle hint to what the Uchiha had recently been through as a clan would ensure that both Joben and Junpei would keep quiet, the Aburame we’re quiet as a rule, but they were also highly intelligent and Kei hoped that Neko would follow Junpei’s rule on this. “Joben can you finish our patrol without me?”

The quiet Uchiha nodded.

“Sure, we better get going.” Junpei lead the way to the left and the main headquarters. “Joben we’ll meet up with you as soon as we hand in this note.” Junpei called out as they parted ways.

Once they were out of sight of Neko turned to his superior, “why are we going back to Headquarters? We just left there and given the time Uchiha-Sama has likely headed for home.”

“Kei has done so much for the Uchiha and the village and yet he doesn’t ask for much of anything in return, not even recognition.” He was thinking about the way the villagers had been slowly changing their opinions of the Uchiha. The simple fact that Neko Aburame was on the Police force was because of Kei. “If he asks for a favor then I will make sure that I do everything I can to see it done.” Junpei knew that there was more to Kei Uchiha then what he knew, but if Fugaku wanted him to know he’d be included in the discussions. Right now it was above his pay grade, and instead of questioning it, he would put his trust in his clan head. If Fugaku had gone home for the evening then he would go to the clan house. Fugaku wasn’t the type of leader to punish one of his officers if they had a legitimate concern after hours.

Once the others were out of sight, Kei headed straight to the Nara compound. His walk through the Nara lands was unremarkable even given that it was night time, a fact that only hit him when he reached the main house. He was making changes, they were slow, but he could see it just like ripples in a pond.

“Kei?” Yoshino opened the door to the man that was slowly becoming her husband’s best friend. He reminded her in many ways of Minato, and in others of Fugaku when the trio were younger.

“Is Shikaku here?”

“No he’s at the office, it he should be home in an hour or two,” Yoshino watched Kei’s face. There was something there, something that had him on edge. “Look Kei, why don’t I go get him. Where will you be?” She wasn’t sure why exactly she offered except that the air had a feeling of imminent danger reminiscent of her ANBU days.

“I’ll be on Uzumaki land.” Kei didn’t question it but turned and left.

He would love to say that the night was fraught with tension, but Shikaku knew it was all in his head. He was reading through past mission reports trying to tease out bits of information that even his shinobi didn’t realize was there. Kei had told him that he suspected the Hyuga kidnapping happening within a three day span. Tonight was the first night. Fugaku had sent out multi-clan patrol and nothing had been reported yet. Shikaku perked up as he heard the sound of rushing feet, not quite running but not a simple gait either. Nothing good came from rushing steps especially in between shifts. Marking his spot in file he had been reading he closed it up just as the knock on his door came.

“Yoshino?” His surprise was immediate and he quickly scanned her form to search any injuries. He was out of his seat before she even opened her mouth.

“It’s Kei, he came looking for you and ‘Ku he has something riding him, I’m worried. He said he’d be at the Uzumaki compound.”

Shikaku reached for her hand, his mind already searching his mental record of the schedules of the other two men who might be able to help in this situation. “Come on let’s go and get Inoichi and then the two of us will check on him.” He didn’t want to worry her more then she already was, but he needed her calm. They were being watched too closely. He was glad that his team mate’s office was only a couple of doors down and that he was in the habit of finishing off the day with reports instead of being buried at T&I.

“Ino, got a minute?” He let his shadow reach out to his oldest friend, knowing that the Yamanka would reach out with his own jutsu. “Yoshino’s worried about Kei.”

Inoichi just nodded and stood. “Sure we can go and check it out.” He turned to Yoshino, internally apologizing for what he was about to say. “I’m sure that if it will calm Yoshino’s nerves about the young man we can go and check it out.” The implication clear that he thought she was over reacting and that Shikaku was humoring his wife.

Yoshino, for her part picked up on the plan quickly, her demeanor changed from ex-ANBU to simpering house wife and new mother. Wringing her hands to complete the act, “what if he was hurt? Shikaku, he’s alone?” She didn’t know who could be listening in, but she trusted her husband and his team more then just about anyone else.

“Go back to the compound, sweetheart. I’ll be home soon.” Shikaku tried not to sound too condescending. The wink she gave him promised there would be questions later.

She watched as the two men walked slowly off together while she headed back to the compound. She knew that they would look out for Kei and figure out what had happened. Kei hadn’t come looking for Shikaku on a whim, the Uchiha had needed his help. Regardless she set the wards and pulled out her tanto standing guard until her mate came home, glad that Shikamaru was spending the night safe with his Uncles.

Chapter Text

It was at the gates of the Uzumaki compound that Shikaku and Inoichi ran into Fugaku. They walked into the compound in silence that continued until they reached the door. He was glad that all of them had been keyed to compound.

“Kei?” Inoichi called out as they shut the door behind them.

“Over here.”

The three men walked into the study to see Kei bent over three sealing scrolls on the desk.

“Kei?” Fugaku wasn’t sure what was going on but he didn’t want to startle the man.

Kei didn’t look up. He had just gotten his anger mostly under control and he knew that the upcoming conversation wasn’t going to be pretty. “So good news, I ran into some of the new patrols and they look good.”

“Kei,” Shikaku wasn’t sure what else he was going to say, but this wasn’t why the time traveler had gone to the Nara lands and definitely not why his wife was worried over his health.

“Yeah, I also ran found the Kumo shinobi. He’s just an extra, a guard, not the ambassador, but he was talking to a couple of Danzo’s ROOT agents. They were explaining a way into the Hyuga compound which was….” Yeah this conversation wasn’t doing anything to keep his anger in check. Kei closed his eyes, he didn’t want to imagine little Hinata or Neji in the hands of someone who wanted their eyes, “I don’t know if the Kumo shinobi even questioned why the information was being offered to him, but he was damn near taking notes. I hit them all with a knock out drug and brought them back here. I. I.” Kei’s shoulders dropped and voice took on a brittle edge. “I don’t want Danzo to get away with this, but I don’t want to show our hand too soon. He’s such a slippery asshole. If we wait, he could claim we planted the evidence and then things would be worse because he would be on guard and out for our blood. I also don’t want to implicate the Kumo shinobi as this really seemed like the guy was approached by ROOT and he’s just making the most of the opportunity provided for him.”

“When did this happen?” Shikaku was already planning. “Did they see you?”

“Don’t think they saw me, but I can’t be a hundred percent certain, and they’ve been in the stasis scroll for ten minutes. I needed to find you all first.”

Shikaku tapped his fingers on his knee, his mind running through all the information they had and ways to proceed.

“We can call and emergency meeting of the clan heads, and include the Kumo ambassador. If we broach the topic of stealing a dojutsu first and give the man a chance to explain.” Fugaku was trying to think of a way to get the best results. It was just past nine o’clock, not too late to call such a meeting, but the timing would certainly be unusual “We still want peace and we are trying to do this as quietly as possible, but we need to include the clan heads because of Danzo. He doesn’t need to be there for that.” The fact that it wasn’t a regularly scheduled meeting time would benefit them for that at least.

“That would work.” Shikaku smiled as Fugaku’s plan pretty much mirrored what he was thinking. The biggest challenge would be having Hiashi not react with his pride first. He looked over at his best friend and team mate. “Ino how much information can you get from an unconscious body?”

Inoichi raised an eyebrow, “a fair bit, but you know that it wouldn’t be admissible in a council meeting as it’s not endorsed.” For that to happen he would have to be in T&I where everything was sanctioned and recorded. He looked out the window as something else crossed his mind, “it also depends on whether you want them to know I was in their minds searching for information.”

Shikaku just nodded and kept tapping on his knee, “I don’t need for this to be a full interrogation, I just want to see if they have some information that matches with the files I have or which ones I need to search for. I also need them to be unaware for the moment.”

“You found something.” It wasn’t a question, Kei knew that tone. Shikamaru often had the same one especially when he had a plan in the works. The type of plan that was often blown sideways whenever Naruto had been involved.

“If you want them to spill without completely destroying their mind you’ll have to break the silencing seal on their tongue. Inoichi, have you ever interrogated or mind walked a ROOT agent before?” Kei’s question was a valid one.

“No, I wanted to ask Tenzo but I didn’t want him to feel like he was a suspect, especially as he helped Kakashi thwart an assassination attempt on the Hokage.”

Kei pulled out a scroll and scanned the contents. He withdrew two smaller scroll before handing them to the Yamanaka. “These should help. They go on over Broca’s area of the brain, so that’s the left side about six centimeter behind the temple. It can go right over the hair, so no worries about shaving heads to get contact with the skin, the hand signs are there. You’re more water nature then anything else right?” Kei could see the Yamanaka clan head nodding slowly, likely trying to remember when or how he’d given himself away. Kei just smirked, Ino had taken after her dad, “the good thing is that these seals are more like a set of tools then any other. You need to visualize the tongue seal washing away. Like rinsing soap out of your hair. The scroll with the yellow ribbon has more of a temporary effect last only a couple of hours. The best part, for us, is that the shinobi with the seal can’t speak about what happened to them afterwards. Even if they realize that they gave out information, due to the nature of Danzo’s seal, they are forced to keep silent about it. The scroll with the red ribbon creates a permanent removal, it gives the best results in destroying the seal and making sure that the one with the seal is relatively unharmed as any seal removal can be painful. You just need to wait ten minutes in between uses. If we’re careful we might be able to use that seal for the entire ROOT forces.”

“So they’re not a one time use thing?” Inoichi was relieved. If it worked as Kei said it would, and he had no reason to doubt him, then they could potentially help anyone from ROOT. The way Tenzo had broken his seal had almost cost the young shinobi his life. “Kei did you create this seal?” It wasn’t really all that important, but he was curious.

“Not really. I mean Haru came up with the concept and we worked on it together, it was kind of a group lesson.” Kei remembered sitting around the camp, no fire as they didn’t want to alert Zetsu’s clones. Yamato had brought up how his own seal had been broken and challenged the group to use what they had, think outside the box. And find a better way. Shino had come up with the base matrix, while he and Ino had only added to it before Naruto had joined everything together. The next day would have Ino dying in Haru’s arms and Shino listed as missing.

One look at Kei’s face and they knew that there were some intense memories associated with it. Inoichi looked over at his teammate, Shikaku’s face was thoughtful and Ino was pretty sure he knew what his best friend was thinking. He gave a quick nod and took the ROOT scrolls first and while he wanted to do this in the comfort and safety of the T&I rooms, Kei pointed him towards a small back room. Shikaku sent a clone to his own office to gather up the files he had as he examined the seals that Kei had shown them.

“How long do you think this will take?” Fugaku didn’t want to rush anyone, but he wanted to know when to go and get the clan heads.

“Ino should only need about an hour.” Shikaku wasn’t even looking at them any more, but was flipping through the files in front of him. “As for me, I’m more looking for confirmation.”

Fugaku took that as permission to take Kei outside. His son was at his breaking point.

“Kei, you’ve done a lot of amazing work. Don’t push yourself too hard and remember that we are here with you.”

Fugaku put his hand on Kei’s shoulder as a way to keep him grounded. It surprised them both when Kei leaned into the older man and rested his head against Fugaku’s chest. Fugaku did something then that he never would have before Kei’s arrival. He wrapped his arms around the man and pulled him in close. It was a hug of comfort to his son who had grown up alone, who had watched his world disappear and his best friend die. It was a reminder that he still had family and had already changed things for the better.

“Kei since you have the compound open are you going to petition for Naruto to come and live with you?”

Kei looked at his father, honestly surprised about the changes, but glad that his counterpart would enjoy a healthier relationship with the man. “Naruto? I’m- Shit- I’m not sure. I mean I want a better life for him and since I’m taking the Uzumaki name that’s the best bet I’m just not sure if I can handle having him around me and not,” He couldn’t finish but he knew the other man understood. Kei was afraid of hurting the young boy, of making his life worse then it already was.

“Kei, you’ve shown an amazing resilience that does honor to the Uzumaki name. Naruto is the same and he will do nothing but grow under your care.” Fugaku could already see how the young boy could surprise all of them with just a little bit of care and attention. “Regardless of what happens, remember you are not alone. We’ll all be here for you.”

Kei nodded looking out at the empty compound. He could already see Naruto and Karin playing in courtyard, training and becoming the shinobi he knew they could be. Having his father’s faith in him, having him proud of what he had done and could do was, well it brought a whole new sort of emotions to the forefront. They stood in a comfortable silence.

Ino walked out of the back room on shaky legs. Knowing that what he found would give Shikaku a direction to focus his investigation in. With the way he was feeling, he was glad that he hadn’t tried to use either of the seals, they notoriously used more energy then any of his shifts at T&I did.

“Ino?” Shikaku watched his best friend stumble like he’d been drinking.

“Damn but I need a coffee before the clan meeting. I know which way to go to help make our point.”

The smile that crossed both men’s faces was almost feral. “Let’s grab the other two, get those files and call that meeting.”

Chapter Text

Kei watched as the conference room filled up with clan heads. Some of these shinobi he had no memory of, they were likely members of some of the smaller clans. The last one to enter was Hiruzen Sarutobi himself with the Kumo representative, Botan Tanaka.

“Nara-San, can you explain why you called this meeting?” Hiruzen was trying to understand what was going on without showing Kumo any possible discord amongst the clans. An emergency meeting of the clan heads was almost never called, and absolutely not in front of a foreigner.

“Something happened tonight that required immediate action. Tanaka-san is here because it involves them. We have a couple of questions for the Kumo representative for clarification.” At the nod he gestured for Fugaku to take over.

Sarutobi was unsure what the head of the police could possibly question the visiting ambassador about, sure Fugaku was a shinobi but he had distanced himself from that lifestyle. “Please keep in mind that we are in favor of the peace talks and would not want to do anything to damage them. Tanaka-San, I am unclear what it is they have questions about, but as long as the questions aren’t too impertinent, and are willing to explain themselves will you answer?”

“As long as there is no offense given.” The man gave a Buick nod in the Hokage’s direction.

“As everyone is aware, the Uchiha police has been patrolling the village with the help of various other clans. This has been a worthwhile endeavor and something I’d like to see continue after our trial period has finished.” Fugaku knew that this was superfluous information, but it set the ground work. Turning to address the Kumo party, “Kumo came here to sign what will eventually be a peace treaty between our two nations, is that correct?” Fugaku was trying not to sound like an investigation officer.

“Yes, that’s the plan. We know that there are hard feeling on both side, but are looking to start to bridge that distance.”

Fugaku nodded, “did you give instructions to any of your party to spy on, or infiltrate any of the clan compounds?”

There were bursts of outrage from all around the room.

“NO! What are you trying to insinuate? Sarutobi? What is going on here?’ The confusion and anger from Botan was clear on his face.

“I apologize. I am not accusing you of anything, I’m just trying to make sure that I understand Kumo’s goals.” Fugaku turned his attention away from Kumo and towards the other clan heads, “while on patrol Kei Uchiha and his partner, Joben Uchiha, came across something strange. According to their report they saw two faceless ANBU meeting with one of the foreign shinobi, discussing how to enter one of the clan compounds and abduct a clan child.”

Again the outrage around the room was palpable.

Hiruzen held up his hands, “Uchiha-San that is a very serious accusation. Do you have any proof to back it up?”

Kei stepped forward and laid the stasis scrolls on the table. “I was the one to come across the group of shinobi and as I wasn’t sure what was going on; I sent Joben Uchiha to go and get back up while worked on a plan to capture the parties in question. Although I recorded the entire incident with my sharingan, I thought sealing them for questioning would be the best idea. I went directly to Fugaku to give my report. He was already with Nara-San and Yamanaka-San and so I included them in my report.”

Shikaku spoke up next. “We opened the scrolls only so as to identify who was inside. There is one who is was not from Konoha. We did not question them, however, Yamanaka-San is here and is able to do so if we so desire.”

Botan knew that there was the potential for the next hour or two to be a complete shit show. If it was one of his team and depending on what his man said, they might all die here. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he opted for honesty since it didn’t look like they were going to blame them without at least listening to their side. “I have one guard missing. He is, well to be blunt he is of a notable family, but has struggled to get out from under his father’s shadow.”

Fugaku raised his hand slightly, “we are not asking to reveal village politics. Would you be alright with us releasing him and asking him some questions?”

Botan relaxed a little understanding that he wasn’t going to be forced to reveal sensitive information about clan politics to the other village. He looked at Sarutobi and nodded.

Seeing his guard Ito, released from inside the scroll, had Botan sighing.

“The sedative should wear off momentarily.” Kei spoke up from the background.

A slight movement proved the Konoha shinobi correct, Botan was ready check for a genjutsu when Ito flashed hand signals. The hand signs used in Kumo were just different enough that the other villages would have trouble being fluent. Ito apologized and asked Botan not to tell his sister. Something no else would know.

“Ito you will cooperate with questioning or risk being declared a missing nin here and now.”

“Hai,” the guard, Ito paled and bowed, waiting for his first question. The next twenty minutes had the Kumo guard talking about how he had been walking around the village to try and see how tight the security was without actually trying to break in anywhere. Ito reported how impressed he was with the way the clans worked together, utilizing the different clan strengths to aid in security. When it came to talk about his meeting with the ROOT ANBU, the guard repeated how he was approached first and told that if he wanted to he could get help breaking into a clan compound with a dojutsu and that they would even aid his escape with a clan child.

“Which clan?” Hiashi was livid. The only clans in the village with a dojutsu were the Hyuga and the Uchiha, and Fugaku didn’t look like it was his clan who had been targeted.

A nod from his superior had the guard sighing before speaking. “Honestly I’m not sure. I wasn’t sure that they would actually follow through, hell I wasn’t sure that they wouldn’t turn on me the moment I agreed. They made it sound like even if I refused, they would still go through with it and frame us.”

The Kumo guard’s words rang with truth, but Sarutobi looked over at both the Hyuga and Yamanaka clan heads, trusting that they would have been assessing the words and body language to discern any falsehoods. The subtle nods had him sighing deeply. While he didn’t want the peace talks to fall through because of deception, he also didn’t want to believe that someone inside the village would sabotage the talks like that. “Uchiha-San do you have the other men?”

“Right here Hokage-sama.” Fugaku indicated the other two stasis scrolls. He made a quick hand sign that the hidden ANBU could see; warning them to be on guard in case things didn’t go their way. He opened one scroll.

Shikaku held his breath if things went well then these ROOT agents should be the lynch pin in Danzo’s downfall.

Sarutobi started when he saw the mask of the first person revealed to be inside the scroll. Oh how he wanted to curse and pound his fists. Danzo had gone too far. He had told Hiruzen that he had disbanded his ROOT program six months ago and yet here stood proof that it was still in operation. “Do you know who I am?”

“Yes Hokage-sama.”

“Good, can you explain to me why you approached the Kumo guard and what the offer was?”

“We were instructed to meet with any of the Kum- …..mmmmm.” The ROOT agent couldn’t finished the sentence.

Shikaku was glad the seal stopped working at that point. Sure it was a pain in their ass right at the second, but Hiruzen already knew that Danzo sealed his operatives. To have one suddenly be able to speak freely would raise more red flags then they wanted to at the moment.

Sarutobi drummed his fingers on the table top before turning to the Kumo ambassador. “Tanaka-San I’m going to have to ask you to leave the rest of this meeting for the clan heads. I will ask your guard to go in to make a formal statement to both our police force and T&I.” He held up a hand to forestall any interruptions. “The police will make sure that nothing happens to your man. You can even be present for the questioning,” Hiruzen looked over at the ANBU guard that appeared at the mention of taking the guard in for questioning. “Bear make sure that none of the questions extend pass what has occurred. We are working towards peace and as a show of good faith we will NOT be asking questions regarding the inner working of Kumo like we would if we were at war.”

“Understood Hokage-sama,” the ANBU agent bowed and gestured for the two men towards the door.

Fugaku stepped outside for a moment to give further instructions to Junpei who was standing guard outside with another ANBU.

Once the room was clear Sarutobi’s demeanor hardened. “Who is in the other scroll?”

“Another shinobi with the same type of mask, Hokage-sama. Neither man had been questioned sir, we felt it more important to warn the clan heads and identify what was going on.” Shikaku offered a quick explanation that the others picked up on. He opened the scroll letting everyone see who was inside. Shikaku watched as Hawk, Owl and Rabbit appeared. Their presence made known in case the ROOT agents decided to do something stupid. He wasn’t looking forward to suggesting Hiruzen and Monkey take a closer look at their ranks.

“Yamanaka-San if I may ask for your help in T&I to get the answers we need to find out just what is going on? Go with protocol 42 please.”

Inoichi understood and grabbed the now empty scrolls; with a glance towards the ANBU agents he led the way to T&I, the ROOT agent released from the scroll was cuffed in chakra suppressing handcuffs and marched out of the room. He was glad Kei had given him a seal to use on both men to prevent suicide.

“Hokage-sama, do you know who is behind this?” Tsume Inuzuka was the one to ask the question everyone else was thinking.

“I believe so.” Sarutobi seemed so frail.

Kei almost felt bad for the old man, he looked like he had aged a decade in the last five minutes. Then he remembered Naruto’s old apartment, full of mold and broken furniture because of the civilians breaking in. He remembered how his clan had been sacrificed and his brother made the scapegoat because it was easier then to stand up to his friend.

“Sir?” Tsume wasn’t going to let it go.

“This will need some careful handling.” Hiashi sat up straighter at the comment and Hiruzen was quick to clarify, “I will not sweep this under the rug, they’ve gone too far in trying to interrupt the peace talks. We need to make sure that things with Kumo go as planned and that might mean a trip there to pacify any anger over questioning their guard.” If this wasn’t handled right it could be a complete political nightmare. Not only would it mean the peace talks would be over, but it could also mean civil war. Hiruzen watched as Hiashi and Fugaku talked quietly. Six months ago they would have been snarling and accusing each other of being the master mind behind all of this. He was too old for this. “I would like to dismiss this meeting for the time being. I’m asking that nothing mentioned here is spoken about outside this room. Shikaku, Hiashi I would like to discuss our next steps once Inoichi comes back with whatever information he can get from the others. I would like to have Fugaku join us after his questioning of the Kumo guard.”

The remaining clan heads talked amongst themselves, using what information each man had about the shinobi they believed was behind it all.

“Where are the ROOT agents coming from?” Shibi Aburame’s question was quietly voiced but cut through all other conversations. The silence was almost heartbreaking as each clan head thought about which members had been listed as MIA in recent years and fearing the worst.

Chouza waited but Sarutobi didn’t say anything else and he could see Shikaku had his mind already on the questioning and taking down who was behind this. Kei didn’t make a move either, although the time traveler could be forgiven as he wasn’t technically supposed to be there. Sighing with a small upturn of his lips, Chouza took the next step. This was why he was here, aside from the obvious, he caught the little things and kept his team mates grounded. “I would like to propose that each of us go back to our compounds and physically check on each member that is in the village. We will have to trust that those outside of the village on missions are safe. We can ask about their thoughts of the joint patrols with the police force as a reason to check on them. I don’t think Fugaku is looking to have active shinobi join, but we can ask their opinion, or ask those older members for any suggestions. Let the children know that we support this and that they can go to them for help. It will give us an obscure reason to not only check on our people and make sure that they are safe and all accounted for, but also for this meeting.” He looked over at Shikaku, “If I’m understanding the situation correctly, the one believed to behind all of this is someone of high rank within our own village, if that’s the case then they will surely hear about this meeting and will go looking for an answer as to why we held it.”

Shikaku nodded, thankful that Chouza was right there to spot the holes in their plan. “Exactly. I would like to propose that we use the non-Uchiha members of the patrols to go and ask the civilians the same questions while checking on them at the same time. This doesn’t mean that we don’t trust the Uchiha, but it will support the idea that we are impartial and reinforce our reason for this meeting. ”

The other clan heads nodded, however they felt about supporting the Uchiha, it would give them a good cover.

Shibi Aburame motioned, “do you have a timeline in mind?”

“Both men like to work quickly and it feels like the Kumo was just a convenience so I feel that Fugaku will have his answers likely before Ino. Depending on what is found and we may be able to meet again before the week is out.” Shikaku was watching the Hokage who was nodding his head in agreement.

That seemed to appease the others and the Hokage knew that if he didn’t have something for them by the end of the week, the clans could very well band to together and have him removed.

Kei stood on the side lines and watched the others leave the room, it didn’t escape his notice that Tsume Inuzuka gave a semi-discreet sniff in passing, most likely to memorize his scent. Shibi Aburame stopped in front of him saying nothing. Kei quirked his lips in a half smile as he held out his hand. Shibi tilted his head.

“You wish to allow your kikaichu to know my chakra to see if it matches the chakra that you noticed around your compound walls correct?”

The only way Kei knew the Aburame clan head was surprised was by the buzzing of the insects. “You are correct. We were told that the police force would patrol around clan compounds. I increased our own security measures and noticed a number of different shinobi had been close by.”

Kei nodded, “I was one of the many patrols out last night, including one of your clansmen Neko Aburame. While I walked the perimeter of the walls at no time did I attempt to enter any of the clan grounds with the exception of the Nara forest for which I had permission.”

“Thank you.” Shibi pulled his kikaichu back, he would memorize the chakra signature later.

Shikaku smiled in amusement at how easily Kei anticipated the other clan heads curiosity. He let Tsume sniff him without question or irritation and not only anticipated Shibi’s need to know his chakra signature but explained why his was around the Aburame compound.

“Hokage, Nara-San, I will take my leave unless you have any further questions for me?” Kei bowed. He would trust Shikaku to handle this and create the case they needed to remove Danzo.

The Hokage dismissed the new Uchiha and Shikaku signaled Chouza to keep an eye on the time traveler. The man had been pushing himself extremely hard the last couple of weeks and he feared a complete breakdown if he didn’t get any rest.

Chapter Text

Chouza had been waiting for something like this. He knew that Shikaku had taking an intense likely to Kei. He was almost obsessed with the other man. Even Chouza had to admit Kei was a definite change of pace amongst the village shinobi. Maybe it was because he had future knowledge but he thought it was because, as much as the man didn’t want to admit it, he was honestly acting in a way similar to Minato. He was friendly and outgoing in a way that most Uchiha weren’t and yet he still had that quiet dignity that was characteristic of his clan. Chouza found Kei just outside of the Hokage tower almost like he wasn’t sure where he should go.

“Kei, just the man I was looking. Come with me.” Chouza wrapped an arm around the man’s shoulder and started off towards the Akimichi compound.

Kei just followed. Honestly he was glad he didn’t have to think right now.

The Akimichi compound was warm and welcoming. Chouza went straight to the his own home, he knew that at this time of day, his wife was out with the other women training. Rei might be a trained mid-wife, but she still trained with the rest of the clan kunoichi in order to protect her son. As for Choji should be with his sister. Leaving Kei at the table as he went to the kitchen to pull out whatever snacks his wife had already on hand.

“Chouza will there every come a time when you are not trying to fatten me up with your delicious food?” It was said with good humour and had the larger man blushing.

“Sorry, I keep remembering how we found you and since then, you’ve become my friend,” the large man shrugged, “I worry.”

“It’s-“ Kei paused wanting to make sure of how he really felt. “It’s nice to know that someone cares, that it’s not a familial obligation.”

Chouza was honoured, “Kei the only obligation any of us feel is to make sure that we don’t fail you.” He moved on, “now tell me about how the Uzumaki compound if shaping up? Have you completely moved in?”

Talk revolved around how Kei saw the village, some were memories, but they had softer edges not as painful. Chouza asked about his plans for adopting Naruto, and for all that he was fairly comfortable around Shikamaru and even Itachi and his own doppelgänger, he was scared to reach out for his best friend. The conversation was calming and very helpful to keep Kei grounded and away from another panic attack. They moved out onto the engawa to share a drink and enjoy the remaining sunlight. Kei wasn’t even surprised when Chouza’s wife brought Choji home and the three year old did exactly as Shikamaru would. He crawled right in Kei’s lap and made himself comfortable.

“Just what am I going to do with you guys? The group of you are enough to bring me to my knees with your casual acceptance and love.” Choji nestled himself deeper into Kei’s arms as the Uchiha spoke quietly into the crown of his head. “I haven’t even met the others, will they be like this too?”

Chouza just let the man be. He was a little surprised by his son’s actions, Choji was normally so shy and timid, he wasn’t even sure if his son would ever be comfortable around anyone who wasn’t family. Yet there he was sitting in Kei’s lap, a man he’d only met once before, like he’d been there a million times before. The best part was how much more at peace Kei looked. The large man sat against the pillar and contemplated just what they need to do to ensure Kei survived the up coming years. There was no doubt in his mind that they would get out of the current predicament in one piece. No, the main issue was going to be Kei adopting Naruto and surviving that. He thought about which village shinobi aside from those already involved, would be able to help Kei the most. Six names popped into mind. The first was actually Souske Gekko. The two had given a good show at Kei’s demonstration fight and he had heard that they had been training together off and on. Minato’s guards were on the list they had all been devastated with Kushina’s and Minato’s death, they would also be extremely interested in keeping Naruto safe and happy. The last was Kakashi, the connection between the two would be amazing so long as neither triggered the other in a PTSD flashback. Of course that could actually work in their favour as the two might help each other through all the trauma they’ve been through, add in little Naruto and three might just form a stable family unit eventually.

“Chouza?” The voice from inside had the clan head leaving Kei to his whispered conversation with his son.

Rei was standing int he doorway, her eyes focused on the stranger holding their shy son. “Chouza who is that?”

Chouza glanced over at his new found friend. “That is Kei Uzumaki-Uchiha, he’s new to the village but already very popular. He spends a lot of time of Shikaku and Fugaku.” Knowing where his wife’s concerns were he wrapped his arms around her and smiled. “He’s recently lost the last of his family and of course being an Uzumaki the loss of his village is still a sore spot. Shikaku says that both Shikamaru and Fugaku’s boys are drawn to him.”

“There must be something about him, I mean look at Choji. He still doesn’t sit that close Inoichi or Shikaku. He looks…” She wanted to say that he looks like he had been severely ill recently, but that might imply she thought he was the shinobi she had helped feed a couple of months ago. If she thought about it someone who had recently lost that many people wouldn’t necessarily be taking good care of themselves. She scrutinized Kei again and saw that while he seemed thin with the remnants of dark circles under his eyes he didn’t look sick. She could tell he was strong for while she wasn’t a shinobi she was a mid-wife and the wife of one of the famed Ino-Shika-Cho. “Where’s he straying?”

Chouza smiled, he knew that Rei was thinking about what meals she could cook up that he could take home. “If I remember correctly he’s moved into the Uzumaki compound.”

“So he’s living alone.” Rei leaned into Chouza a moment longer, soaking up the love and care of her husband, before turning towards the kitchen. “I’ll go make something that he can take back then.”

“Thank you love. I’m going to go and start talking to the clan about some of those initiatives that were mentioned at the last meeting of the clan heads.” He had a feeling that there was nothing to worry about, but since he was the one to suggest talking to the clan as a way to do a head count, he’d better get started.

Chapter Text

Kakashi didn’t know what the hell was going on, but uncovering ROOT was going to put Danzo on the war path. He needed to talk to Shikaku and find out how much they really knew and what their plans were. He searched for Shikaku’s chakra and followed it to the Nara compound. When Shikaku looked unsurprised at him appearing unannounced at the clan gates, Kakashi filed it away. He was slightly more surprised to see the ANBU Commander, Monkey sitting at a table in the Nara’s study.

“Kakashi, I was about to call you.” Monkey was looking at some file open on Shikaku’s desk.

“Sir.” Kakashi could feel the wards around the house, they were a lot stronger then the last time he had been here. It reminded him of…no he needed to focus on now and not the past. Regardless of what he felt, Kakashi knew that no one was going to be able to listening in any time soon, not while those babies were active. It was most likely the reason they were having this meeting at the Nara compound instead of inside the Jonin Commander’s office at the Hokage tower.

“We have a mission for you. We’re starting an investigation into Councillor Danzo Shimura, his personal life and what he’s doing as a council member.” Monkey wondered if it was a good idea to retire. The ramifications of what they were doing boggled his mind. He didn’t know how Shikaku remained so calm in face of the potential fallout. He was frustrated that they were actually investigating those closest to the Hokage in secret, he wondered if Shikaku was planning on adding the other councillors to his hit list, would include the Hokage as well? Was the Nara planning a coup?

“Look Kakashi this is going to be a mess and it’ll be even worse if word gets out. Right now Monkey and I are doing this alone. The Hokage knows we are looking into him and Inoichi is our decoy looking into some of his activities in a more surface investigation. I need a team of shinobi we can trust to not be a part of this, because something tells me that asshole has his claws in ANBU as well.” Shikaku was taking control and Monkey just nodded. This was going to need to be a joint mission.

“Why me?”

Shikaku’s grin had a shiver running down Kakashi’s spine, not that he’d let on. “Let’s just say you’re one of the few men I trust with this, and not just because of your mission record.”

Yeah, like that wasn’t vague in an ominous way. Kakashi just shrugged, “I assume you want to put together a team. I’d rather pick my own if you don’t mind, especially for something this dangerous.” The Shikaku nodded while Monkey seemed a little more hesitant. He only confirmed Kakashi’s thoughts, “are there any restrictions on who can be part of the team?”

That piqued Shikaku’s interest even more. “Who do you have in mind? How many?”

Monkey wanted to protest, the idea of having regular shinobi involved in this was almost absurd, he wanted his ANBU involved. It pissed him off when Shikaku implied that his ANBU had been compromised but he couldn’t deny the possibility. However, he was curious about who Kakashi would trust, and figured he’d wait until after Kakashi gave the names of who he was thinking of before speaking up.

The silver haired shrugged. He could think of five shinobi that he could almost guarantee weren’t apart of Danzo’s schemes. “What is it you want us to do?” At Shikaku’s raised eyebrow he elaborated. “The names would change depending on what you need done.”

Shikaku rubbed at his goatee, “right now it’s basic information gathering, but that doesn’t mean that this will be easy or safe.”

“In that case the only two I’d want would be Tenzo and Genma. Both are discrete and have the sort of skills we may need, plus they are the only other one I trust who are familiar with the situation we may find ourselves in.”

“Familiar with it?” Monkey was intrigued now. “Explain please.”

“Sir you are aware that both Tenzo and myself had been apart of that organization in the past before coming to ANBU? Although Tenzo was there for a longer period of time, it was Genma who made sure that we were….fine…. after our hospital stay?” He wasn’t sure how to categorize the in depth deprogramming and rehabilitation they had both gone through.

Both men pieced the information together. It was known Danzo often chose malleable ANBU officers to turn. Tenzo, unfortunately grew up in ROOT and had remained a part of the organization for far too long before Kakashi got him out. Their stay in T&I medical was known to few, Genma was listed as Kakashi’s next of kin and agreed to take on partial responsibility for the rehabilitation of the two youngsters. Knowing this Monkey wasn’t sure why Shikaku was so sure that Kakashi was trusted worthy. Yes his track record as both as a village jonin and as Hound were remarkable but the fact that he used to be a part of ROOT was suspect. The glee in the jonin commander’s eyes at the other two names Kakashi put forth almost had the ANBU head looking over his shoulder.

Kakashi had another reason for requesting Genma, aside from his skills. Since helping to clear the Uzumaki compound, the assassin had reminded him that he wasn’t alone, beside he was sure he’d never hear the end of it if he didn’t have one of them help.

“That is acceptable.” Shikaku was already factoring in both Genma and Kakashi’s intelligence as well as Tenzo’s unique familiarity with the organization.

“Any objection to including Owl?” He expected Shikaku to object and when neither man did Monkey just sighed in defeat. Obviously Shikaku knew something that no one else did. With a slight shake of his head, Monkey sent a burst of chakra through his tattoo calling Tenzo and Owl. He would have Owl contact Genma.

The smirk on Shikaku’s face was matched the glee in his eyes and was all more terrifying for it being visible. “Alright so these are the files where we have been able to prove Danzo had some type of interference. There may be more depending on what Inoichi finds. We’ll relay that later, right now the more information you can help us gather to create a case the better.”

Once all the players arrived, Shikaku asked Monkey to stay and plans started to form. They would make their move the next night.

Chapter Text

Fugaku washed his hands and walked away from the interrogation room. He met Inoichi in the hallway.

“This way,” the blonde quirked an eyebrow as he lead the way to a small office, he shuffled a number of files off of a chair before sitting down. “I want to compare notes and decide just where we need to combine our investigation.”

Fugaku nodded but refrained for speaking when there was a knock on the door. Bear and Rabbit entered.

“We were sent by Nara-san to help in the- discussion?” Rabbit often had trouble understanding Nara-san’s double speak and underlying messages, but they eventually got there. They much preferred Yamanaka’s straight forward speech.

“Pull up a chair this is going to take a while.” Inoichi tapped a pen onto the blank paper on his desk. “Ok Fugaku, I want to start with what Kumo told us.”

Fugaku looked up at the roof, “well to begin with the Kumo ambassador was right. The guard is an idiot who only wants to advance no matter what it costs his village.”

Inoichi pinched the bridge of his nose. He could name about four shinobi on their force who were of the same mindset. Shinobi like them were most likely why Danzo had his claws in so many pies right now.

“I know,” Fugaku could understand Ino’s frustration. “The bright spot in all this is that the Kumo ambassador is pissed and willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that these peace talks go through, short of completely throwing the guard to us.” It took him almost half an hour to go over everything he had learned from the guard. Fugaku wanted to wash his hands again. No blood had been spilled during the questioning but what he learned made him feel dirty none the less. He hated men like that and if he had been successful he couldn’t imagine the state the young Hyuga heir would have been in when she arrived at Kumogakure. “I would like his statement given to the ambassador, in a show of good faith.” Fugaku’s smile was malicious, the ambassador had been behind the two way glass and heard everything, but a formal report made it more real, legal. It was also a good sign that shinobi watching the ambassador reported how angry and disgusted he was with what he heard from his own man. Fugaku didn’t think the guard’s influential father was going to be able to get him out of trouble this time.

“Yeah, I get it. They can take the slime back to Kumo. Bear make sure that while the rest of the party is watched a little closer, that our ANBU aren’t overly zealous with their duties.” Bear just nodded as Inoichi continued, “I’m going to ‘request’ that that particular guard be confined to their quarters for the remainder of their stay. Any foreseeable issues on their end?”

This time it was Rabbit who spoke up, “no there shouldn’t be. They have a couple of other guards that can fill his place and if we don’t go overboard on watching the others that should ease tension for the remaining time that they are here.”

“Well at least that’s covered.” Inoichi moved a couple of files around on his desk and took a drink of cold coffee to wash the taste out of his mouth, glad he hadn’t needed to walk that particular mind. “Now about the the other two,” Inoichi rubbed at his forehead. He wished he could have used the seals Kei had given him, but as he had been watched, and he didn’t want to pull out something new. He’d have to figure out a way to introduce them later. “I’m not sure what Bear observed from the questioning, but both men not only had some sort of silencing seals on their tongues but also had multiple layers of mental protection. Some were better than others and they were definitely created with the intention of blocking a Yamanaka. Luckily I don’t give up. I found a number of code words and memories of an underground training complex.” He unfolded a hand drawn floor plan of the underground complex he saw. There were plenty of blank spaces, but it was still impressive. From Kei, he knew that complex was under the Hokage mountain and housed ROOT. “I want to say that the training center is close by, but that’s going by the thoughts of a skilled shinobi.”

“If you got a sense of direction and distance, we should be able to figure it out.” Bear had watched Inoichi work and while searching a prisoner’s mind often had the blonde standing still for hours at a time, Bear always believed he could see some of what had been hidden flash across Inoichi’s face. This time was different, there had been nothing to give away any thoughts.

It didn’t sound like Inoichi had used the seals Kei had given him on the ROOT agents. He could guess as to why. “Inoichi? I wonder if you have thought about talking to Kei about some help?”

“Why would the head of interrogation need help from him? Isn’t he new to the village?” Bear didn’t want to add that he was Uchiha and therefore couldn’t be trusted. Although that was being unfair, Bear couldn’t help but hold onto his feeling on animosity, no matter how the feeling among the village had changed.

Fugaku smiled, “he is new, but he is also part Uzumaki and his knowledge of seals are seemingly bred into their bones from birth.”

That shocked both ANBU agents. They hadn’t been aware of the dual heritage Kei was claiming.

“Is that?” Rabbit spoke with shock, “is that confirmed?”

Inoichi nodded as he rubbed the back of his neck as he contemplated the seals he had copied from the ROOT prisoners. He’d wait until the ANBU left before comparing it to Tenzo’s seal. He answered without looking up, “yeah, he’s confirmed it through multiple different tests that he’s half Uchiha and half Uzumaki. I’ll talk to him later about the seals, maybe bring in Hiashi and Shikaku to help look at this seal before I bring Kei in.” He gave a sheepish shrug toward the Uchiha head, hoping the man would understand, “I’m not going to bring in a relative stranger right away, although he has been in the village for a number of months now. I’ll exhaust all other avenues first. I’m not some rookie at this job.”

“Sorry sir,” Bear realize that his comment could be considered insubordination. “It wasn’t my intention to question your work ethics.”

Inoichi waved him off, “no problem. It’s good policy to make sure that we don’t put the village at risk while not overlooking any possible solutions. Hell, that’s the entire reason we’re looking at Danzo.”

The group discussed what else they had learned for the information gleaned from the ROOT agents before calling it a night. The information would be passed on to Shikaku in the morning. It wasn’t going to be pretty, he just hoped that no one slipped Hiashi the report that his clan had been targeted or there would be a whole bunch of other complications.

Chapter Text

Kei walked around the Uzumaki compound. For all that it reminded him of the house he grew up in, this one held so much more warmth even after being empty for the last three years. He moved into the study. It had taken him days to return most of the books to the shelves. He was glad that Kakashi had been okay with him having access to everything that had been removed. The variety of family photos were spread through out the room. Kushina and Minato’s wedding photo was in a place of honor right behind the desk. Their academy photos had a shelf to themselves. Minato, Yui Uchiha and Asahi Nori with Jiraya as they’re Jonin Sensei. Kushina’s team was just as interesting Jomei Ishii and Senna Aburame with Hisano Akimichi as their sensei, then the second one where Fugaku replaced Ishii. Then there was the class photo with Hizashi and Hiashi on either side of Kushina like bodyguards. Kei didn’t know the twins had been that close to Haru’s mother. The one picture that hurt Kei the most was of Kushina and his mother. His mother was smiling while it looked like Kushina was laughing, they were standing together with a young Kakashi and Itachi between them. Both women were heavily pregnant. He and Haru, close even before birth. What would it have been like to have Haru as a childhood friend instead of school rival? Kei braced his arms against the shelf. “Damn it to hell and back. Why the fuck aren’t you here? They’d be so proud of you. No matter what this rotten village put you through, you never stopped smiling, never stopped moving forward.” The tears rolled down his face. “I’m so tired Haru. I can hardly face any of our friends. I’m such a coward because I haven’t gone to see you, at least not while you were awake. I’m scared that I’ll fail you.” He let the grief and panic run through him. He knew that Shikaku and Inoichi were gearing up to take down Danzo, but he honestly just didn’t feel the need to be as involved this time around. Maybe because everyone was still here and the only eye unaccounted for was his Uncle Kagami. He would leave that in his father’s hands. He just couldn’t drum up the energy to be as bloodthirsty this time. Maybe that’s why the Chibi versions of his friends all flocked to him. They knew he had lost his edge. Kei collapsed into the chair, he prayed that those in the pictures would watch his back not only from the shelf but also from the afterlife.

Fugaku walked through the Uzumaki compound gates. He hadn’t been inside since before the nine tails attack. It brought back so many memories, some of them more painful then others. The door opened before he reached it. He smiled at the son that had done so much and with so little from him.

“Kei.”

“Fugaku,” Kei opened the door further to allow the man inside.

“I know your reasoning behind opening the compound here and I stand behind you, but I want you to know that you will always be welcome with us.” It wasn’t what he had planned to say, but he wanted to make sure the Kei knew he was welcome and wanted no matter what the outcome. The startled look on his face reinforced the idea that he had made the right decision.

“Hnnn,” Kei was shocked, had thing really changed that much that his fath-; that Fugaku would be so open.

Fugaku cleared his throat. “I wanted to talk to you about the things you wanted to change.”

“Danzo?”

“Not yet, Shikaku and Inoichi are still trying to gather enough evidence to make sure they have an airtight case. They don’t want him to escape.”

“Yeah that would be bad all around.” Kei sat down at the desk in the study, Fugaku sat across from him watching as Kei pulled a scroll out of one of the many storage seals on his arm. Unrolling it, Kei spread it open for Fugaku to see. “Stopping the coup and the Hyuga incident were two of the big ones. Knowing that Danzo will be next is a definite positive. The other events are more, -well they’re just different and out of the village. Other nations are involved. It’s possible that we can use Jiraya to help with one. Another, honestly, I’m unclear right now as I don’t have the skills necessary to give aid and I’m unsure of the relationship Konoha has with those in need. The other things are, well they’re able to wait a bit.

“How can I help? What do you need?” Fugaku was at a loss as to what skill Kei could possibly be missing.

“I need to be able to be in like four places at once and I need a real seal master. Jiraya’s good, but honestly I need someone better. I need a true Uzumaki seal master.”

That surprised Fugaku, Jiraya had been taught by Mito and was considered the most adapt at seals. “Can I ask why?”

Kei stared at the scroll. How much was he willing to trust these men, because he knew that as soon as the bullshit with Danzo was under control Shikaku and Inoichi would be asking the same thing.

“How’s our relationship with Suna?”

“Suna?” Fugaku was confused at the switch in topics, “it’s fine I guess. I mean we’re technically allies but that hasn’t been put to the test since the fall of Uzushio. Unless there’s more going on then the public knows, the Uchiha have been kept; not so much in the dark as just out of the general flow of knowledge when it comes to what’s going on politically.”

Kei nodded, “this maybe something that the others can help, since both Shikaku and Inoichi have positions that require them to know what’s up.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know but maybe we can…if we went….I’m just not sure.” Maybe he should try to bring Obito home sooner. He honestly couldn’t remember when the real Madara had died, Obito had been secluded for a while by then, even so bringing him home sooner could only benefit Konoha.

“Kei, what is it?” The air had gotten thicker and heavier. Whatever Kei was holding back was going to be difficult.

“I. Shit. Okay, so listen up. There is a trio in Ame who are strong they’ve start a peacekeeping group called the Akatsuki, or at least they will, but they are vulnerable to manipulation. They are known to Jiraya although he was made to think that they are dead, and if I can get him to talk to them sooner rather then later he can perhaps keep them on the right path.”

“If they’re at risk why didn’t Jiraya bring them back here?”

“More then likely because of timing and something Danzo said or insinuated if I remember correctly. Fuck, I think he’s the reason both Lady Tsunade and Orochimaru left the village as well.” Kei moved over to the window to gaze up at the sky. He really didn’t want to tackle the mess that surrounded Orochimaru but it was something else that really did need to be corrected before things went too far.

Fugaku sucked in a breath. How many times had Danzo hurt their village in his quest for power, “and Suna?” He wasn’t sure he really wanted to know but if Kei was willing to talk he was going to listen and support him where he could.

“Suna is a little different and yet- not. Damn it.” He took a harsh breath and dove in. “The Kazekage’s youngest son is like Naruto. Same blasted age as well.”

“You mean?”

“Yeah. He’s a jinchuricki and treated pretty much the same way even though he has family alive. The seal itself is wrong. It’s driving both the child and their inhabitant insane.”

“How are they able to keep a tailed beast inside in child? Normally clans have trouble with the lack of chakra to resist the corrosive chakra of the beast themselves.” At least that was the way Kushina had explained it.

Kei shook his head, “that was the whole reason Uzumaki’s were often used. Now that I think about it, Haru didn’t say much about his friend’s family, but it really wouldn’t surprise me to know there was Uzumaki blood on his mother’s side somewhere.”

“And that’s what you need a real seal master for.” Fugaku moved to stand by Kei. Jiraya was good enough to tweak a jinchuriki’s seal to make sure it hadn’t loosened, but to recreate one from scratch, Fugaku wasn’t sure Jiraya had those skills. “I understand your concerns now.” He looked over Kei’s shoulder and saw his team picture with Kushina. Boy, did he have stories for Naruto when he was a little older. He wondered where all of her funijutsu notes were? Minato’s journals? He knew damn well that both of them kept notes on different jutsu’s and seals they had worked on. He wondered if the seal on Naruto would work for Suna? “Have you found Kushina or Minato’s seal notes?”

Kei shook his head, “not yet but then I’m not sure if they were something that Sarutobi had locked up, or if I just haven’t found them yet in the pile of books that Genma and tram secured.” He knew from overhearing conversations between Tsunade and Kakashi that behind each Hokage portrait was a small safe. The notes might be there in which case he needed Sarutobi to agree to release them, or find Tsunade faster.

“Okay,” Fugaku filed that information away for the moment. “What else?”

Kei sighed, both events were things that needed to be dealt with if possible. However both events were beyond what he could handle on his own and Fugaku just didn’t have the correct skill set. There was however something Fugaku could help with. “There is at least one thing that I think you’ll be able to help with, if you believe me.”

Fugaku’s attention swung back to Kei, “I’ll help wherever I can.”

“I know this is going to be hard, and I don’t remember what Inoichi showed you way back when he showed Haru’s memories to you, but there was someone who had fought against us in the beginning. He had been lied to and twisted until he was almost unrecognizable. It took both Haru and Kakashi to bring the man back into the light.”

Fugaku couldn’t remember anyone like who was described. He did remember seeing that Haru could talk any opponent into being a friend, but someone that Kakashi connected with as well. No one came to mind.

“Obito Uchiha. I know that Obito wasn’t often welcomed in the clan, and stayed on the outskirts if only because the clan agreed to help look after his grandmother.”

Obito? Kakashi’s genin team mate who died after passing on his clan’s dojutsu. “Are you sure? Isn’t he dead? I mean Kakashi reported…did he lie?”

“No, Kakashi didn’t lie. He saw Obito buried under boulders and rubble, the cave collapsed further after he and Rin left. What no one knew was that a being of malice was there to pull Obito out before he was completely crushed. Zetsu, it’s pure evil. Obito has spent the intervening years under ground, being manipulated and groomed to hate everyone.” He could see the disbelief and confusion on Fugaku’s face. “From what I know, after his last battle with Hashirama, Madara used izanagi to survive the fight. While Hashirama was injured it wasn’t a fatal fight for him, he thought Madara was dead and he had won. Madara did manage to get ahold of some of Hashirama’s cells. He used the Senju DNA and his wood release to modify his own healing abilities and give him a unique facet of the mokuton. He was never able to use it like Hashirama had but it did aid in boosting his healing factor. He survived with help from Zetsu who hooked him up to the dormant Gedo statue. I believe he’s still alive at the moment, although I could be wrong there. What I do know is that Madara needs Obito to be isolated and hate the village in order for his own plan to destroy the leaf completely to succeed. Zetsu and Madara were even able to implant some of Hashirama’s cell into Obito. I’m really not sure how he did that and frankly I really don’t want to know. It worked even better on Obito then on Madara since Obito’s mother was part Senju. Recessive genes and all.”

Fugaku held up a hand. “Wait. Obito’s mother was clanless, that’s what the issue was between my father and his.”

“Not really, I mean yes it plays into it. She did however have Senju blood. Grandfather really didn’t want to acknowledge the marriage any more then Tobirama did. By the time Obito’s parents died, the only one who was willing to raise him was his paternal grandmother. You had taken over the clan just as he was in the academy and from what Obito said, his grandmother kept him away from any clan events for fear of retaliation.”

Fugaku sighed, it wasn’t the first time he was faced with the results of his father’s iron fist, trying to prove himself different from Madara. He was pretty sure that some of that mentality was also fueling the talks of rebellion among the elders with their left over frustration. It also highlighted his own unwillingness to really make any changes. “Okay, I’ll make sure to correct the clan book, that should never have happened. Now what’s this about Obito being alive.” He remembered Kakashi’s report and how devastated both he and Rin had been. When he had been forced to bring Kakashi in front of the clan to explain why a Hatake had a sharingan, he had been shocked at just how consumed with quilt the young jonin had been.

“Well it’s a twisted story. I don’t know if Madara had Obito picked out spefically or just used whichever Uchiha he could get his hands on, but when Obito was buried in the cave in, Madara and Zetsu rescued him. Obito was kept under ground in a cave, had Hashirama’s cells transplanted into his body and more or less used as a fucking experiment. He was always under watch, always listening to anti-Konoha ideals, how his teammates abandoned him and that the Uchiha should rule all. Honestly it didn’t sound much different then the rhetoric the elders were spouting in order to bring about the coup. According to what I know, Obito managed to stay positive for a long time. The turning point was the one time Obito broke free, just in time to watch Rin die. It was a set-up of course.”

“Shit.” Fugaku knew the story behind her death. One of the shinobi with Kakashi and Rin on that mission, held a grudge against him and hadn’t been shy in telling the tale. He had been the one to start calling Kakashi ‘friend killer’. It was one more disparaging names add to the many he already had. “What can we do?”

“We need to find him and bring him home.” Kei looked at the clan head, “either that or we need to kill him.”

“Kill?” Fugaku was glad no one else was here. Eliminating a shinobi of the village, even one who had been captured and held against his will, wasn’t something that many would contemplate. The fact that Kei had seen the end of his clan and was still willing to say something like that, surely must mean that Obito’s role was pivotal to the changes he wanted to make. “Do you have a plan?”

“Right now, no.” It frustrated Kei. He wanted to save Obito because he knew that Haru would want it and ultimately it would take a weapon out of Madara’s hand.

“So we have the missing Obito, then Ame and Suna. Is there anything else?”

“Naruto.” The name was whispered.

“Naruto?”

“Yeah I need to get Sarutobi to agree to let me adopt him. He needs more then the orphanage will give him and while I may suck at being family, I owe him. Right now I have permission to bring him out of the orphanage during the day, so long as I’m not alone. I told Shikaku. Our thoughts including having Kakashi help, even hinted that adding in Minato’s guards would be a good way to allow them to see him.”

“That sounds like a step in the right direction,” Fugaku was surprised to see the tension hadn’t left Kei’s face. “What concerns do you have.”

“I already told Kakashi that I would like his help, but I’m not going to push too hard. I just need to work up the nerve to do more then look in on him occasionally while he sleeps. I know Shikaku has a cousin working there to help but I can’t rely on everyone else constantly.”

Fugaku laughed, it sounded so much like him. Scared to actually be the father he wanted to be and not bow to the pressures of the elders. It had taken Kei kicking his ass to make a change. He would gladly do the same for Kei. “The first step is the hardest. Might I suggest you arrange your first visitation to be held at the Uchiha house. With Sasuke and Itachi there, Naruto can start forming those bonds you want. Mikoto will be present as well to help guide you and answer any questions you may have.”

“That might actually work,” Kei really did want Naruto and his chibi self to become the friends. Spending more time with his mother would be hard, but then what hadn’t been difficult for him since his return. It had been months now and he still suffered from the occasional panic attack, shit, just look at what had happened earlier in the day. “If you think Mikoto would agree, I’ll see about bringing him over this week. I’d like to do it tomorrow but I don’t know what hoops I’ll need to jump through for that.”

“I’ll talk to Mikoto tonight, as for the others, Genma, Raidou and Iwashi, I can try to connect with them to introduce you officially, although to be honest either Shikaku or Inoichi are more known to them. The other question is do you approach who you want to ‘babysit’ the visit or do they volunteer?” Fugaku wasn’t sure just which Sarutobi was looking at arranging those shinobi who would be present when Kei had Naruto. Would Danzo try to stick his head into it as well? What about the other clans who blamed Naruto for the destruction that night? So many variables, but it was doable. He would need help to make this a success and he would accept nothing less then a success.

“If you think we can get by with just the Uchiha clan for the first meeting or so, I’d rather do that.” Kei wasn’t sure if that was to make himself more comfortable or Naruto, but at least he wouldn’t be keying unnecessary shinobi into the Uzumaki compound.

Chapter Text

The next couple of days were fraught with tension. The Kumo ambassador was stiff and almost overly formal during the rest of the peace talks. Intellectually they understood the extra guards and didn’t begrudge them the precaution but it was wearing.

Sarutobi was tired; between working out the details of the peace talks and keeping abreast of the investigation into his old friend, the work had tripled. Looking at the portraits of the past Hokage’s Hiruzen sighed, he had really let all of them down. Now it was important to do the job he had been entrusted with, properly. Pushing the Danzo investigation file into a hidden compartment in his desk drawer, Hiruzen tried to focus on the village budget. Danzo’s appearance at his office door without an appointment or even a knock on the door was just one more weight added to his shoulders. If he was being honest with himself, Hiruzen had been waiting for his old friend to show up. That he did was almost a relief, now he just needed to see if Danzo would implicate himself in his speech. A quick hand sign under his desk activated the recording device he had recently hidden in the room.

“Hiruzen, what is the meaning of the clan heads getting together the other night? There was no meeting scheduled? What was so important to have them gather without informing the rest of the council?”

Sarutobi sighed. His tone of voice and manner of speaking were intangibles when reporting what Danzo said, especially when the words could be interpreted as ones of concern. “I thought it would be interesting to get the opinion of the clan heads on Uchiha-san’s project. I wanted their thoughts before the clans were influenced by their members. I have tasked them to talk to each clan member and find out how they feel about the concept of a blended police force.”

Danzo smirked, “they could lie and just say what they wish to happen.”

“Yes, they could,” the Hokage knew that could be an issue, “I also tasked them with the yearly census. I know it’s early and that it is generally done in the new year, but I thought by combining the two, it would eliminate their complaining about going out twice in a short period of time and that we would likely get a more honest response as they know we randomly pick files to verify.” Sarutobi prayed that the clan heads would forgive his implications while having Danzo pick up on how he was using both the questions regarding the police force and the census to get more money for the village.

“You are expecting the clan heads to stack the odds in their favor?” Danzo knew that Sarutobi often used the information gained from he census to use as leverage against the clans, but this was even better. “The Uchiha have been gaining popularity in the village lately, are you expecting the other clans to support this joint program with them or not?”

“Hmmm, it really could go either way, the reason I held this meeting without the council was to ensure the clans that there would be no repercussions with their answers, it made the whole thing feel a little less official.” Sarutobi could see that Danzo was gearing up to argue some more and he really didn’t want to have to deal with it. With an inward apology to the newest jonin, he prompted, “I have given Kei Uchiha full access to the Uzumaki compound. He has made mention that he knows of a couple of surviving Uzumaki who may be willing to relocate.”

“Really, he has confirmation that there were survivors? Why didn’t they come before?”

Hiruzen leaned back in his chair, his gaze landed on the pictures of the past Hokage. “He says that he’s left word for a cousin he heard about, but they have yet to come to the village. He wasn’t sure if they even would.”

“Interesting.” Danzo moved closer to the window. “You will share the census data with the council?” It sounded much more like a demand then a request.

The door swung open and Sarutobi’s secretary walked in, “excuse me sir, you asked me to remind you about your appointment with the merchant’s guild. You have ten minutes.”

“Thank you Tomi, can you make sure the conference room is set up, water and tea please.”

“Yes sir.”

“Sorry, Danzo.” Hiruzen waited to see just what Danzo would do.

The Warhawk bowed, “of course Hokage-sama, thank you for taking the time to speak with me. I will await the next council meeting.” Danzo walked out of the room scowling at the young woman on his way.

Tomi waited a minute before closing the door and leaving Hiruzen alone.

“Raven,” he called out to the only ANBU agent in the room, “please make sure that you let Monkey know what transpired here, and perhaps let Choza Akimichi know to pass out the census information to the rest of the clan heads.” Hiruzen hated asking such menial tasks of his ANBU, but he didn’t want to be caught in a lie with them investigating his old friend. Walking out of his office and towards the conference room, Sarutobi realized that he would need to conduct a thorough investigation of the ANBU corps. He was not looking forward to that. Just how corrupt were his forces.

*****

Shikaku looked across the table at Fugaku and his wife.

“I’m sorry for adding one more thing to your plate, but I don’t know these men like you do.” Fugaku bowed, his head almost touching the table.

Yoshino was the one to break the awkward silence. “So if I can ask, why are you looking for an introduction to Shiranui, Tatami, and Namaishi specifically?”

“It’s for Kei. You know how he’s just been granted permission to bring Naruto out for day visits. Sarutobi has limited him to only two a week and has told him that he needs to be supervised. Kei’s mentioned that he already talked to Kakashi, but I thought if I could get those close to Minato and Kushina to volunteer to supervise it would give Kei another connection to the village and a way for others to see Naruto through the gag order. I just don’t have the connections without making it look like that’s exactly what I’m doing. I don’t want to overwhelm the tyke either.” Fugaku didn’t want to admit how much more this scared him then admitting the plans for the coup did. He didn’t want to fail his son.

Mikoto reached over and laid her hand on her husband’s thigh. “We want to check on Kakashi as well, to see what he thinks about all of this, but we weren’t sure how he would deal with it.”

Yoshino watched the way her husband tapped his fingers on the table, he was thinking something. “Shikaku, before you get too deep in thought, I have an idea. Why don’t Mikoto and I take control of this. I’m sure that between the two of us we can get the volunteers we need, after all I still have contacts among the active ranks and can get the word out. We’ll make sure that those that volunteer are actually shinobi that the Hokage would approve of, and if we include not only the previous guards but those shinobi with children we can spin it that we are trying to have Naruto form bonds to the village, and not make it seem like both Kei and Naruto are under watch. Having other children is sure to help Naruto feel more comfortable.”

Shikaku smiled as he stroked his goatee, glad that his wife was just as sharp as ever. Having the two women take this on could be seen as maternal instinct and would definitely be less suspicious then having either Fugaku or himself talk to these men, even if they had the time to do it. “I was with Kei when he let Kakashi know about the visitations. Personally I wanted to give him the chance to process it before asking for his help. Let’s talk to him last.”

“It might be easier on Kakashi if he’s with someone else for the first couple of visits.” Mikoto knew how hard she had tried to help Hatake understand how to use the eye that Obito had gifted him. She saw how he distanced himself from everyone, of course she hadn’t been deaf to the words and names that followed him around especially after Rin’s unfortunate death.

“I agree, that’s why I suggested the Uchiha compound with Mikoto and the children there for the first couple of visits. It is a familiar atmosphere for Kei and the boys will give Naruto a chance to play with others his age.” Fugaku explained.

“If we’re looking at a schedule then after using the Uchiha as chaperone’s, we can place Iwashi, Genma or Raidou with Kei before including Kakashi. It might even be beneficial if we have one them start things out, so they can let Hatake know what to expect.” Yoshino drummed her fingers on the table top.

“I agree, although I will let you know that both Kakashi and Shiranui are out on a mission that may take some time. The only names I would include would be Hizashi Hyuga and Souske Gekko as Kei is comfortable with both men, and perhaps Shibi Aburame as he has a calming nature. I also know that Chouza would likely be willing to help. Otherwise I’m willing to leave it up to the two of you.” Shikaku nodded before leaning over to give Yoshino a kiss on the cheek. He gave a quick nod to Fugaku and Mikoto.

Yoshino blushed at the sign of affection from her normally reserved husband. “Are there any other restrictions or limits Kei has on the visitations?”

Fugaku watched as Shikaku walked off towards his study. He knew the man already had a lot on his plate. He would take a page out his book. “Mikoto, you know as much about that as I do. I’ll head back to the office. Thank you both for helping out so.” Fugaku copied Shikaku and gave his wife a kiss, “I’ll see you at home.”

Yoshino watched him leave. “I’m not sure what has gotten into our husbands but I like it.”

Mikoto nodded, “has Shikaku changed how he treats Shikamaru as well?”

Yoshino just sighed. “Yeah, all for the better though. I have a feeling that Kei is the reason behind it all. I haven’t talked to Kyoko, but I know that Rei has noticed a change in Chouza, although to be honest Chouza was already more of a hands on father and husband then either of ours were.”

“I don’t know what Kei has said to them, but I like it. Now if only he didn’t look so lost I think I’d be happier about it.”

“I think we can help with that. Mikoto, I think I have an idea. We’ll arrange the for the first couple of meeting to be on Uchiha land, and if we ask the Uchiha he was staying with to be his guard.”

Mikoto nodded, “Junpei. He’s one of Fugaku’s most trusted officers. I also know that he would welcome a chance to help Kei out.”

“Who do we approach first?” Yoshino was eager to start. She wanted to do something to show Kei how much she appreciated him.

Mikoto tapped her finger to her lips. “Actually I think I might stop by and talk to Kei first. I don’t want to surprise him with this either.”

“Yeah that wouldn’t be good.”

“I was going to take my boys and go over today. Instead why don’t we go together, you might pick something else up that I miss and we can finalize a plan with Kei’s input.” Mikoto was glad that Yoshino was on the same page as her.

Chapter Text

Kakashi let Tenzo lead the way to the underground tunnels. Surprisingly he still had valid access.

“So either Danzo never thought you’d be able to use it, or he’s arrogant enough to think you wouldn’t dare use it.” Genma rolled the senbon around his mouth. “How’s that seal treating you?”

“Fine,” Tenzo answered quickly, but at Genma’s raised eyebrow he reassured them, “really I’m okay, just don’t want to spend more time here then I need to.”

Kakashi rested his hand on Tenzo’s shoulder in support. The two of them had used raw chakra to try and burn off Tenzo tongue seal. They weren’t able to get it all off and had needed to stop before he lost his tongue completely. The backlash had been horrific. Kakashi had been scared that he had killed another of his friends. Tenzo still couldn’t talk about his time in ROOT and there were times like this where his seal pained him. If Danzo wanted to be sadistic, he could still activate the punishment array.

Their chakra suppressed to nothing, the four shinobi slunk through the halls. Genma could see the shudders Owl tried to suppress as they walked past different closed doors. As much as he wanted to investigate every nook and cranny, they were aiming for the offices and storage vault where Danzo kept his records. Genma ground his teeth, he knew how much Tenzo wanted to free those stuck in the cages. However, until they could neutralize the obedience seal, it was safer to leave them where they were.

The four of them were crawling along the ceiling right against the edges where the shadows were the deepest. It wasn’t like there was a lot lighting anyway. Genma tried not to be surprised at how large this area was or the number of rooms they passed.

Tenzo gave the signal to stop, as he searched the surrounding area for guards. Once he deemed it clear, Tenzo jumped down to the floor and moved to the door. Instead of chakra he pulled out a physical lock pick set and went about breaking in. He knew that chakra would leave a record, so while manually opening the door would take longer, it let them enter silently.

Owl closed the door behind him, as he turned around, Kakashi and Tenzo were almost frozen in the middle of the room. Genma was a little slower, and likely as shocked as he was. Shikaku had given them a bunch of mimic scrolls in order to copy as much information as possible, but he hadn’t expected a room as expansive of this one. The room was some type of office, the desk and shelves attested to that.

“Danzo’s” The assassin kept his voice barely above a whisper.

Tenzo nodded, his entire body tense.

They would definitely be dealing with the fallout from the memories from both of them. Genma sighed and signaled he would take the cabinets on the left with Owl, while the other two took the ones on the right. They would leave the desk alone for now as it was most likely heavily guarded.

The top drawer held a wealth of folders. The names were meaningless to him so Genma assumed that they were encoded, much like many of his missions. That didn’t stop him from pulling random files and copying them. The way he figured it, the more information he gave Shikaku to work with the better it was. Four files caught his attention. Fang, Spiral, Eye, and Lizard. There wasn’t time for him to read them as he copied them, but he did glean enough to know the subject matter. Sakumo Hatake, Uzushiogakure, Uchiha, and Hanzo. Whatever information was in these files needed to read in detail and by someone more intelligent then him. Putting the last file away quietly, he turned to the others.

Tenzo was sliding a scroll inside his armor, Kakashi though was frozen. Genma flashed the signal to finish up, and as Tenzo was closer, he was the one to tap Kakashi on the shoulder. Kakashi fumbled the file as he closed it. It was so unlike him to be clumsy.

Kakashi signaled back that he was fine as he quickly fixed the file and put his scroll away.

Tenzo looked at Owl who did a final sweep making sure that everything was back in place as they left the room. The trip back out of the tunnels was just as nerve racking.

Genma demanded they keep up the chakra suppression even outside the area. He could see the way Tenzo and Kakashi were both on edge. He wasn’t sure where to take them. Both Kakashi and Tenzo lived in the ANBU barracks which left no room for privacy. His apartment with Raidou had more room, but lacked the safety they needed right now.

“Nara compound?” Kakashi’s voice.

“Let’s not take the direct route,” they split up and took a random pattern across the village, stopping periodically so they weren’t so oblivious.

Tenzo was the first to arrive, he knocked at the study door and waited for Shikaku to open it.

“Come in,” after opening the door, the jonin commander turned and walked back to his desk. He gestured for Tenzo to sit before offering him a drink. Tenzo was glad that is wasn’t plain water. The other three joined him quickly.

Genma pulled out the scroll from under his armour. “I don’t know if you’ve been down there, but it’s a whole compound. I would have been lost if it wasn’t for Tenzo. The number of rooms there…”

“Nara-sama we need to make sure this is stopped.” No one expected to hear such a vehement statement from the ANBU, especially as he was a known Hyuga.

Shikaku turned towards Tenzo, “would you be willing to draw me a map and add the details you remember?”

“I can’t guarantee that there hasn’t been any changes.” Tenzo hadn’t thought his knowledge of Danzo’s ROOT compound would ever be useful.

Shikaku just waved that concern away. “If the rest of you can do the same it would be helpful. Add in any feelings or concerns you encountered.”

“Nara-sama, what is the plan for those inside?” Tenzo the took a chance to ask. He wasn’t use to being able to question his superiors, his seal had only been gone a short while.

Shikaku made sure to look Tenzo in the eye so he knew he was serious. “If we can get them out safely and get rid of the seal, we’ll do what we can to rehabilitate them.”

They spent a little more time going over what they had seen. He waited until Owl left before mentioning Fugaku’s request.

“Kakashi, Genma; one more thing. Mikoto and Yoshino will be searching you out, along with a couple of others. You know that Kei has been giving permission to take Naruto out of the orphanage for short periods of time. The caveat is that he needs to be supervised by a loyal shinobi. They want to ask for volunteers from those closest to Minato; it would give us all a work around the Hokage’s gag order on the boy.”

“I bet Mikoto will be happy with that,” Genma voice held a smile in it. “I remember trying to watch over her and Kushina. You never knew just what type of trouble they would cause.” The memories that came up had the men smiling.

Kakashi was thankful that Shikaku was at least giving him a warning. He hadn’t really believed Kei when he had mentioned it previously. “When is she going to get in touch?”

“We thought it would be best if we could find a more natural way for her to approach you. If she comes right out and asks you to volunteer, it will be too obvious. We don’t want Danzo and the council to see it as insubordination. The first couple of visits will be overseen by the Uchiha clan. That makes sense as Kei is a part of that clan. They are also trying to help socialize Naruto with some of the other clan heirs.”

Genma smiled at the thought and planning involved, “so having the clan heirs know who Naruto is and care about him will force others to either acknowledge him or treat him better. Clever.”

Shikaku nodded, he knew that his own wife was contributing to plan for Kei and Naruto to reunite. He had a feeling that the idea had first been brought up with Kei, Fugaku and Mikoto only needed his aid in figuring out how to connect with the the men in question. “The basic idea is for Kakashi to go to the Uchiha to ask for help with his sharingan. If one of your training sessions happens to take place at the same time as one of Kei and Naruto’s visitation then all the better. Genma if we can have you and Raidou volunteer as a more skeptical pair then maybe we can keep some of this more manageable.”

“And of course not all of the Clan heads will be receptive to Kei taking custody of Naruto and that will only help our cause.” Genma moved his senbon around his mouth as he examined the plan for all the sides he could see. He would never be the genius Shikaku was, but he was an experienced assassin who need to revamp his mission plans and think on his feet more times then he could count. “I think we will reserve the right to either support Kei or not depending on what we see during these visits.”

Shikaku nodded at that, “as long as you come to me or Fugaku with your concerns before voicing them to the Hokage.”

“There’s something you’re not saying isn’t there?” Kakashi knew the two clan heads were strong supporters of Kei, but he had a feeling that they knew something about the Uchiha-Uzumaki no one else did.

“We do want your honest opinion, so don’t think we’ll dismiss your concerns out of hand, but yes.”

Kakashi watched the Nara leader for a minute before nodding. “Anything else sir?”

Shikaku shook his head, “not at the moment. Kakashi, if you could approach the Uchiha sooner rather then later that will lead more credence to our plan. The rest of you will need to wait on it. As for our mission regarding Danzo we’ll keep in touch.” He watched the three men disappear and felt pretty good about the outcome. Now he just needed to go through these files and find enough evidence to convict Danzo.

Chapter Text

Danzo paced his underground office. Checking on files and shelves. Something was off. There was no stray chakra and none of his traps had been tripped, but his office felt….violated. Going through his files, everything seemed to be in place.

“Sir,” the agent stood at the door. He had been asked to go through the logs to check for unusual behaviour.

“Well? What did you find?” Danzo snapped. His temper shorter then normal.

“Nothing sir. All doors were accessed by ROOT agents using current codes and no alarms were tripped anywhere in the compound.”

Danzo fumed. He sat at his desk. He knew that he wasn’t imagining the difference in his office. The problem was the file sitting there was proof that nothing had been touched. It was his file on Kei Uzumaki-Uchiha. He couldn’t find out where the bastard was before coming here. First he had his hands in mending the bonds between the Uchiha and the village, he was sure to have been apart of the failed Hyuga kidnapping and now he was going to get his hands on the demon weapon. He was sure that Hiruzen was going to let that happen, most of the clan heads were already questioning why it was taking so long. He really needed a plan to deal with that, that man. This was exactly why he helped eradicate Uzushigakure in the first place.

“Dismissed,” Danzo waved a hand at the ROOT guard who had been waiting for his next order. Once the door closed he scanned the room for listening devices before setting another round of security and privacy seals. He scanned the room one last time before heading out to the ROOT training grounds. He needed to find someone who could take on Kei Uzumaki-Uchiha.

*****

Shikaku walked through the compound to the meeting house, he wasn’t jonin commander, today he was clan head. Most clans had a room or building that was set aside for clan meetings with conference rooms, file rooms, the clan library and the administration workers to handle it all. The Nara clan had their meeting house near the main gates. It was a short walk, but an important way to separate clan business from daily life. A physical reminder for the Nara to separate thoughts and not overthink things. Entering the room he greeted the members of his clan that worked there before heading to his office. The young man at the desk outside would let him know who needed to talk to him and what other disputes he would need to look over. He sighed as he looked over the notes his assistant had left for him. The first and easiest to handle; they were the reports on different clan member’s lives. There were three marriage requests, all three were to members outside of the clan but part of the village, he would need to talk to them an see what their plans were, where they planned to live. The Nara had no problem letting clan members live outside of the compound or bringing new partners to live inside, but he liked to keep track and, like an overprotective father at time, guide his family to and from certain situations. He made his notes. The next were the notices about who was expecting and when. It wasn’t like he was there for every new Nara’s birth, but he wanted to acknowledge the new life and tried to make sure that he did so within days of the birth. Life however, like to surprise people and babies came when they wanted to, regardless of the due date. Death was the same and another situation Shikaku kept in mind. As Jonin commander now he knew when his shinobi went out and when they didn’t make it back. He was the one to tell the families, and clan heads, about their loss. As clan head himself, he knew that his clan was more than just the shinobi. He had civilians as well and the hospital notified him of anyone who died in their care. Lives were to be honored. The Nara clan was lucky in that there were more births then deaths at the moment and the clan was growing, all be it slowly. The next set of reports were regarding the Nara Deer and their well being. He made notes to move one herd to a different pasture.

The reports from other areas of the clan gave him a general feel for how things were going. It didn’t negate the need for him to actually go out and talk to the clan which was something he would do in the afternoon. He liked being a clan head that actually knew his clan members. There were just over 130 members and he could proudly say that he knew the names of all but the newest of the clan members. The last report had him rising quickly and leaving the meeting house with a quick, “I need to check on something,” thrown over his shoulder to his baffled assistant.

Emiko had been home with a broken ankle for the last three weeks. How had this gotten passed him? He walked through the clan grounds at a faster pace then normal while still greeting anyone who called out to him. Three weeks of Naruto being at the orphanage without eyes on him. He knew that Kei had been out for the village for just over a month with back to back delivery missions. He needed to talk to Emiko and find someway to get eyes on Naruto.

Chapter Text

Shikaku was pissed. He stormed the halls of the Hokage tower to his office, slamming the door closed behind him. Two minutes later he knew he needed to be somewhere else. Heading down the hall to Chouza’s office in hopes of someone to calm him, but the Akimichi wasn’t there. Ino it was then. Shikaku stalked into T&I grabbed Inoichi by the wrist and left the building. Outside he stood for a second, ignoring Inoichi and sputtering. “Where’s Chouza?”

The demand startled Inoichi, “if he’s not in his office then he’s likely at the compound. I haven’t heard of any Jonin sensei needing a replacement so unless he is doing spot checks, he’
s likely at home dealing with clan business.

Shikaku turned and headed in that direction, letting go on Inoichi’s wrist long enough for both of them to jump to the roof top and start running.

Inoichi had never seen his friend this angry and knowing he was looking for Chouza meant that he knew just how on edge he was. Luckily Chouza was just leaving his house when Shikaku and Inoichi walked though the compound.

“Chouza, the summer house. Now!” Shikaku’s tone brokered no argument.

Ino-Shika-Cho was a formidable team because of how well the three men worked together, leadership was shared. Right now, however, Shikaku was leading them and they were there to reign him in if need be.

Once the door was shut and Shikaku activated the seals Kei had set up, he collapsed.

“Shikaku, what’s going on? You’re starting to scare me a bit.” Inoichi knelt in front of one of his best friends.

“Take a deep breath,” Chouza gently pushed the blonde out of the way. Inoichi was always concerned with getting to the root of the problem fast, this situation needed Shikaku to calm down and distance himself first before he did something he would regret later.

The breath he took wasn’t nearly as deep and as full as should be. Chouza announced each move before he made them. “I’m going to take your right hand and place on my chest. I want you to close your eyes and follow my breathing.” He did exactly as he said he would. A quick look and nod at Inoichi had the other man moving around behind. “Ino is going to take your ponytail out.” Inoichi did exactly as Chouza said. The ponytail was tight. Much tighter then normal, a sure sign that Shikaku had gotten upset, pulled the tail apart himself and rewound it tighter as his emotions took over. Starting at his forehead, Inoichi threaded his finger through the dark hair and gently scratched over his scalp. The fact that they could visibly see their friend relaxing gave a hint at just how horrid this would be.

It took a good twenty minutes of Shikaku just breathing before he was ready to speak.

“Sorry, I just got so…Pissed.” He took the cup of tea Chouza offered, “I was at the clan house today, going over the reports and found one that had been misfiled or missed. Anyway. Emiko, the cousin of mine that was working at the orphanage to keep an eye on Naruto, well she broke her ankle a couple of weeks ago and has been home on bed rest. Kei has also been out of the village on back to back missions and I know he hasn’t been able to keep watch like he sometimes does.” So far neither of his team mates saw a big issue. It wan’t ideal but it wasn’t the worst of issues. “I went to the orphanage to check on him when I was told he was missing. Naruto, a three year old boy, has been missing from the orphanage assigned to watch over him for two and half weeks.” That had both men almost rising from their seats. It wasn’t just that he was the jinchuriki, but a small defenseless child. “I went to the Hokage to see what we should do about it and fucking Sarutobi told me to leave it be. He knew Naruto was missing and had someone looking for him. When I asked who, he said it wasn’t any of my concern. I honestly don’t know if Danzo has him, if Sarutobi knows where he is, or if he just doesn’t want to deal with it. All I know is that if it was one of our children there would be a village wide alert. If Minato or Kushina were alive there would be no stone unturned never mind the fact it wouldn’t be an issue in the first place.”

Inoichi now understood why his friend was so out of sorts. “Shit! I don’t want to think about how Kei is going to react. Is he back yet?”

Shikaku just raised an eyebrow. “Do you think the village would be as calm as it is if he was back?”

“What’s your plan?” Chouza’s leg was bouncing a sure sign he was upset, but he knew his friends, there would always be at least the seeds of a plan.

“My first instinct is to call in Kakashi and his ninken.” Shikaku stroked his goatee.

Inoichi shook his head, “that might end just as badly as Kei. Besides he’s on a courier run right now.”

“Yeah. My other idea is asking Shibi for help. Have his bugs search out Naruto’s chakra.”

Chouza hummed. “You know that might work faster.”

Shikaku looked at Inoichi for the final go ahead. “Alright, do either or you want to come with me? Fucking Hell! I need to tell Fugaku as well.”

In the end Chouza went with him as Inoichi went back to the office to see what he could see find on Danzo’s movements in the last couple of weeks and remind the Hokage of the other Uzumaki in the village.

“Do you want me to talk to Shibi?” Chouza knew that the other clan head often kept to himself but he had also been a good friend of Minato’s. He could also see how agitated Shikaku still was.

The Aburame compound was coming into sight. Shikaku sighed, he had hoped to calm down a little more before talking to Shibi. “No, I’ll tell him.”

Luckily they were able to secure Shibi’s help right away.

“Do you need a reference sample?” Shikaku knew that the Aburame kikaichu relied on past exposure for tracking.

“I have one,” Shibi didn’t say anything else but both men understood. Sarutobi might have put a no-contact order on Naruto, but many of Minato and Kushina’s friends found ways to subtly work around the clause.

“Ok. He’s been missing for almost three weeks now.”

“Shikaku, I will inform you of what I have found when my insects return.”

“In that case,” Chouza interjected, “we’ll leave you to it. Thank you for helping out.”

They left the compound and Chouza watched his friend walk in a daze, Shikaku was working on a plan. They needed to know why Naruto left the orphanage and asking the Hokage wasn’t going to get them the answers they wanted.

“Shikaku, let’s go and talk to Fugaku.” Chouza knew the relationship between the two men had improved drastically because of Kei.

“Shit,” Shikaku changed direction towards the police station.

***

Fugaku watched the front door open. The sight of Shikaku and Chouza walking in was something that still had many of his officers turning quiet.

“Fugaku!” Shikaku raised his hand to get his attention, “you got a minute?”

“Sure, come on back. Chouza can I offer you some tea?”

“No, but thank you.” Chouza followed Shikaku into the office.

Fugaku closed the door, but gave a final look out at his men. He was sure that a couple of them had taken offense to Shikaku’s lack of honorifics but the fact was, he had done the same. It was that familiarity and lack of reaction that moved these men from adversarial clan heads to allies.

“Now gentlemen, how can I be of service?” Fugaku sat back down behind his desk.

“I,” Shikaku started but then began to stutter again.

Chouza took over. “Shikaku just found out some disturbing news. It has him on edge.” Fugaku straightened up, his attention on Shikaku.

“Naruto is missing. I know that I said I had a cousin looking out for him, but she was injured and stuck at home.” Shikaku was getting angry all over again. He got up to pace the small office. “I went to Sarutobi about it and he told me not to worry.”

“And Kei?” Fugaku tensed. Naruto was so young, was he okay? How could Sarutobi not be concerned? Did he need to send out patrols to look for the jinchuriki?

“Kei’s out of the village, he’s been on continual missions lately, so we haven’t had a chance to tell him.” Chouza responded to Fugaku’s inquiry.

“Shit.” Fugaku collapsed back into his chair. He couldn’t imagine a worse scenario. “Did Sarutobi forget everything he saw at the assessment fight?” Ho looked out his office window at the officers on shift at the moment. “Do you want me to send out patrols to search for him?”

It was the first time since entering his office that Shikaku started to smile, “actually, Shibi is on the search.”

“Shibi? How is he searching for Naruto?” Fugaku knew that the Aburame clan were excellent trackers, he wasn’t sure exactly how their insects worked only that they relied on chakra.

“Apparently Shibi wasn’t happy with the no-contact order and kept watch over Naruto since Minato’s death was confirmed.”

Fugaku relaxed even further, “Shibi should be able to track him down fast.” The smile on his face had an almost feral feel to it.

Chapter Text

****

Inoichi was trying his best not to beat Sarutobi’s head against his desk. The village generally didn’t take well to attacks on one’s Hokage. He closed his eyes and breathed deep, he understood why Shikaku was so pissed he walked away, if it wasn’t for the sake of the village he would too. Whatever he did, he needed to keep his senses, he really didn’t want to antagonize the ANBU.

“Sir, Kei Uchiha-Uzamaki is due back any day. You have given him permission to take Naruto out of the orphanage in preparation for adopting him.”

Hiruzen hummed and waved a hand dismissively. He hadn’t forgotten about it, but prior to Shikaku and Inoichi bringing it up, it really hadn’t seemed important.

Watching the way Sarutobi seemed so indifferent, Inoichi had an idea as to what was going on. He really didn’t want to believe that Danzo would stoop so low as to put the Hokage under an genjutsu. He would never suspect it of the councilor, if not for Kei’s memories. He so didn’t have time to investigate this properly right now. He gave a couple of hand signs to Raven. The Uchiha could check for a genjustu and if necessary break it quickly.

In a flurry of movements, the ANBU surrounded the Hokage, with Raven in front. His eyes swirling the red and black of an active sharingan. As the Hokage shuddered, his knees buckled and he began to fall, only to be caught and gently laid down by those at his side. Green glowing hands rested on the Hokage’s head. It was a tense couple of minutes before Hawk pulled his hands back.

“What’s is going on?” Hiruzen sat up slowly. His guard was around him but he was feeling foggy.

“What is the last thing you remember sir? Clearly remember?” Raven helped the Hokage stand and move over to his desk.

Raven quickly used his sharingan to see if either of his fellow ANBU member were also under a genjutsu. They were clear, and he would make sure to apologize to them both after their shift for using his eye on them, something he had hoped to never do.

Sarutobi took a sip of the glass of water handed to him. “I remember I had a meeting with Araki Nao of the Merchant’s Guild, and I was preparing documents to help with the influx of new merchants. Then there was a meeting with…” Sarutobi stopped, “I think it was the council.”

“Was it all of the three of them?” Inoichi asked carefully. He didn’t want to put words in the Hokage’s mouth.

“You know, I’m not sure. If we need to know, I’m sure we can ask my secretary.” He looked over at his guard, “what’s with all the questions?”

Raven sighed, how could they have missed this? All of them? Had they become so complacent during peace that they failed to notice when their own Hokage, someone they guarded day in and day out, changed? He wasn’t looking forward to the interview he was sure was going to come their way from T&I. “Sir, I regret to inform you, but the meeting you had with Araki Nao of the Merchant’s Guild was just over two weeks ago. What do you remember of the meeting since?”

“What did I have?” Hiruzen didn’t like where this was going, “I hate to say it, but I can’t really remember. Most of my days are fairly monotonous. I read over reports and mission requests. I don’t always have meetings or visitors.”

Inoichi looked to the ANBU in the room, “Hawk how is he?”

“He’s suffering from minor chakra exhaustion. Even though he wasn’t doing anything overly strenuous, his body was still fighting the genjutsu unconsciously.”

The head of T&I just nodded. “Raven can you go and request the Hokage’s calendar? We’ll need to check who he was meeting with and chat with them, as well I want either myself or Shikaku to over any missions or mission reports approved by the Hokage’s office in the last four weeks.” At Sarutobi’s wince, Inoichi explained, “I want to make sure that we have a fair comparison.”

The calendar came back quickly. Flipping through the book Inoichi couldn’t immediately see anything to worry about.

“Do as you must Inoichi, but I do request that it’s not just you or Shikaku who look over things.”

“Would you approve of Hiashi Hyuga and Fugaku Uchiha helping then? I want to have someone who can notice some of the smaller, subtler tells that genjutsu leaves behind.”

Sarutobi nodded, he really didn’t want anyone to know how easily he had been compromised, Inoichi and Shikaku would have to be in the loop as his head strategist and the head of T&I. Hiashi and Fugaku already had their hands busy with clan business, but Inoichi was right in that their dojutsu’s would be helpful in getting to the bottom of everything.

“Sir, do you remember talking to Shikaku earlier?” Inoichi was curious how evolved the genjustu was.

“I think so. Yes I’m certain he came by only a couple of hours ago. I can’t remember much of what he talked about. It didn’t seem all that important.”

Inoichi sighed and closed his eyes. “Sir, Shikaku came to inform you that Naruto Uzumaki has been missing from the orphanage for the last couple of weeks. You told him that Naruto would return when he was ready.” Inoichi watched as Hiruzen’s face paled. It was so bad that Cat moved in behind in case he was needed and Inoichi gave an abridged version of the events.

He turned to the ANBU in the room. “Raven would you be so kind as to inform Fugaku what has occurred here. I would prefer if you waited until after your shift for that. Hawk how are the Hokage’s vitals? Anything we need to keep an eye on in the next couple of days?” It was understood that the Hokage being put under a genjutsu was going to be kept under wraps.

“As long he gets some rest, and eats regularly he should be fine.” Among the ANBU, Hawk’s medical opinion was generally considered better then any doctor in the Hospital.

“Cat, which other ANBU have been on rotation for the last four weeks?” Inoichi needed to know who else had potentially witnessed Danzo’s manipulation.

“It’s been a regular schedule, sir.” Cat stood at attention. They knew what Danzo was capable of, and the fact that this had happened during his rotation left them wary. “There was just myself, Hawk, Bear, Squirrel, Eagle and Raven.” Two ANBU on twelve hour shifts rotating partners every third shift.

“To your knowledge has this happened before?” Inoichi watched the way Sarutobi just sat there. He was likely still in shock, Inoichi could only hope that this was the first time that Danzo had dared to genjutsu the Hokage.

“No sir.”

“I don’t have to tell you to keep what you saw to yourself, do I?” Inoichi didn’t want to step over any boundaries but they needed to keep this quiet and he needed the ANBU’s cooperation. Turning back to the Hokage, Inoichi took control. “Sir, I’m going to cancel your other appointments for today and possibly tomorrow. I would like for you to join me in my office for a cup of tea. Cat, I’d like to find Bear, Squirrel and Eagle and have them come find me or Shikaku ASAP. I’ll watch over him. Raven, Cat and Hawk you can come with me to continue your duty.”

Inoichi lead the way to Shikaku’s office, as it was on the same floor and no one would be around to see them. Once inside, he closed the door and activated the privacy seals. It would notify Shikaku, but maybe between them, they could figure out want Danzo’s plans were.

Chapter Text

Shikaku was pissed. He didn’t want to go back to the office in case he ran into Sarutobi. He was afraid that if he saw the Hokage, his anger would get the better of him. The fact that his office seals had been activated, meant that Inoichi had needed a safe place within the Hokage tower and his office was the closest. If he had activated his seals, then chances were Inoichi needed him as well.

“Chouza, I think it best to leave this to Shibi and the Police for now. Fugaku, I’m sure your officers will notify you if they see Naruto on the street somewhere.” Fugaku had told a select number of officers in the station only that Naruto had slipped away from his caretakers and they were to bring the toddler to the police station first instead of the orphanage and were not to advertise who they were looking for or why. Many of them had a soft spot for the blonde tyke. They understood the discrimination the boy was put through and tried help where they could. On top of that, Shikaku knew that many of the Uchiha genuinely liked Kei and if they could help him at all, they would. When Fugaku nodded, Shikaku rose from his seat. “I’ve been called to the Hokage office,” he walked out of the police station breathing slowly. He wasn’t going to dawdle on his way to the office, but he wasn’t going to take to running the rooftops either. No sense drawing unwanted attention to himself. He climbed the stairs, nodding to the shinobi he passed. The hallway to his office was quiet. He flared his chakra three times before opening his door. Seeing Sarutobi sitting in the room almost had him turning around and leaving.

“Shikaku! Shikaku, there were extenuating circumstances for earlier.”

The urgency in Inoichi’s voice had him reopening his door and stepping inside. His bow was there just not as deep as it shouldn’t be.

“This pains me greatly, but it appears that I was compromised earlier.” Sarutobi’s voice wobbled. No one liked to admit weakness, and something like this was potentially career ending but no one wanted to put the entire village at risk.

“When?” The command was barked like he was talking to one of his jonin.

Inoichi and Sarutobi related everything they knew as Shikaku moved a shoji board off of the shelf and onto the desk in front of him. Pieces moved to seemingly random spots on the board. The Nara head continued to move pieces even after both men stopped talking. “The ANBu in the room?”

The ANBU in the room made themselves visible, as Inoichi continued explaining. “There’s a standard rotation of six members, these three were there today, Cat will inform the others to come find either of us as soon as possible, Raven is to go and talk to Fugaku after his shift, as it looks like it was a sharingan that cast the genjutsu, I thought it best to have the Uchiha clan head informed.

Shikaku was silent moving pieces and gazing out his window, it wasn’t until he started muttering to himself that Inoichi cleared his throat.

“Sorry. Thank you for explaining.” Shikaku looked at the board as his hand paused over a game piece. He tilted his head slightly to one side before leaving the piece where it was. “Sir, I’m going to speak frankly and this is without malice.”

Sarutobi nodded. He knew that he was lucky it had been Shikaku who he had spoken to and Inoichi who had caught the issue. He knew he could trust these two with the wellbeing of the village.

“Do you know where Lady Tsunade is?”

Sarutobi winced inwardly. He knew what they wanted. “Yes, she’s still in fire country. You’re thinking about asking her to come back as my replacement.”

“It’s a consideration. To be honest you had retired once already and only stepped in when Minato died. I’m not saying that you have nothing left to give, but we need someone who still has the energy and will do to this job. I believe that Danzo is behind this latest attack on the village,” they were all aware of the assassination attempts made on Sarutobi’s life during both this reign and his original term as Hokage. “Danzo is using the years of friendship as a way of getting to you. I have looked at it and while there are many good shinobi in the village, none of them are strong enough to handle what it takes to be the Hokage.” Shikaku could see the questions in Hiruzen’s eyes, “no I wasn’t planning a coup d’teat, it was more that since the Uchiha plight was brought forward that I was thinking of who would take your place. Both Dan Kato and Sakumo Hatake would have been at the top of my list, had the both still been alive.”

Sarutobi couldn’t deny that he had at one time considered both men for his replacement. Dan had died before he could even approach him, then Sakumo had committed suicide, when Minato had become the hero of the third shinobi war, his choice had become clear. Thinking over the men under his command, he had to admit that Shikaku was correct. The only men strong enough to deal with both the pressure and duties were other clan heads, all of which had their own issues. Tsunade had the familial connection to the village to be welcomed by the more conservative villagers, while having been out of the village for the last decade would guarantee she didn’t have the same biases any one else did. Being a medic she would be open to new ideas and not be afraid to remove those parts of the village that were diseased.

“I can send a message to Jiraya to find her. I’m almost positive that he keeps tabs on her. If I send a missive to her directly, not only will it seem suspicious but there’s a really good chance she’ll throw it out without reading it.”

“Now we just have to deal with Danzo. To be frank I’m afraid he’ll try something like this again.” Inoichi was happy about that. They had been searching the files for weeks with very little to show for it.

Shikaku opened his bottom drawer to pull out one of the scrolls Haru had left him. He skimmed it until he found the spot he needed. “I think I have a solution for that problem. There is a seal here that will glow when a genjutsu is cast. It gives a small burst of chakra to disrupt the victim’s system. The best part is that this is a multi use seal.”

“Who wrote the seal?” Sarutobi was intrigued. The last time he had heard of such a seal had been when Mito-Hime had lead a course at the academy.

“One of the jonin found a number of Uzumaki scrolls on their last mission and brought them to me as they had been sealed. This was one I was able to open, but I haven’t had time to examine it fully yet.” The lie came surprisingly easy to Shikaku, have to think about why that was later.

Sarutobi’s eye focused on the scroll, “Shikaku, you have someone looking for Naruto right?”

“Yes sir.” Shikaku thought about being petty, but the Hokage looked double his age, he was hunched over, pale and shaky. Still he wasn’t going to say who, just in case someone wanted to revenge for defying the gag order.

Those two words had the Hokage breathing a sigh of relief and nodding even though his appearance remained unchanged.

“Sir, now more then ever we need to find proof to persecute Danzo.” Inoichi focused on the main problem. The investigation had been limited to files and missions that they had access too. They hadn’t been allowed to dig too deep as Sarutobi really didn’t believe that his friend could be so reprehensible. Nothing like hitting a man when he was down, but both they were shinobi and shinobi fought dirty.

Sarutobi nodded again and began to speak of the darkest in the village, of things he had wanted to ignore and had in order to sleep at night. He directed the two men to a number of new files and gave them permission to investigate however they saw fit.

Chapter Text

As soon as Shikaku left, Shibi asked for help among the most trusted of his clan to help search the village. The change in Shikaku hadn’t gone unnoticed and it unnerved Shibi, not because he was suddenly spending more time with Fugaku then with Inoichi and Chouza, but because the change was so sudden and came from almost nowhere. He had even sent a few of his kikaichu to check that Shikaku hadn’t been compromised, when they came back with nothing he was at once both relieved and even more curious.

The main reason he agreed to help with the search for Naruto was because the change in Shikaku seemed positive and because of his own ties to Minato. He had been on the Yellow Flash’s ANBU team before he became Hokage and respected him after he was appointed to office. He owed it to his friend to find the young jinchuricki.

Once everyone was off to their assigned search area, Shibi walked the back streets of the village. The grid Shibi walked was in one of the poorest areas of the village. He used his hive to aid in his search. He hadn’t lied to Shikaku when he said that he had been keeping an eye on Minato’s son. He had tagged Naruto with a female kikaichu when he realized that Sarutobi was going to place the babe in the orphanage just after his birth, instead of finding someone who was willing to take him in. Shibi had replaced the insect regularly, making sure that the Kyuubi wasn’t disturbed by the chakra his kikaichu needed. Shibi let the rest of his hive out to search for the female hidden on young Naruto. Looking to the sky, he could see clouds of insects. He had never sent out this many of his kikaichu while in the village. None of them had. The kikaichu were everywhere, hidden amongst the other insects. He hoped they wouldn’t attract too much attention. His kikaichu had found a number of inconsistencies in the village. Things he would need to consult with Shikaku about, after they found the missing boy.

As his insects came back, he knew where to go. He changed directions quickly, he had the toddler’s location now. He went down one alley, then another and another, towards an abandoned shack. Inside under a torn and dirty cloth was the little boy, shaking either from fear or the cold. Shibi approached carefully. The blonde was so small, smaller even then his son, who was the same age.

“Naruto,” Shibi’s voice was naturally quiet, but even still he didn’t want to scare the poor boy, “it’s alright, I came to make sure that you were safe. Are you hurt?” He reached down for the tyke, noticing every scratch, bruise and cut even as some of them were slowly fading in front of his eyes. Shibi knew the powers of the Kyuubi, he’d seen how Kushina had dealt with injuries, but to know that the boy had been missing for a couple of weeks and still had injuries told him that either he had been on the brink of death or that he had been injured more recently. Naruto stared at him with an almost vacant gaze. He was most likely tired, hungry and scared. Shibi cursed the mindless prejudice of the village civilians. He picked up the child and cradled him to his chest, his kikaichu almost hummed as they swarmed his body. He knew better then to take the injured boy to the hospital, too many civilians worked there. He would take him back to the Aburame compound. There were a couple of medics within his clan that may be able to help until he figured out a better place for the little guy. Besides once he set the kikaichu to guard, no one could enter the compound. His hive calling all clan members back to the safety of the clan compound. He went straight to the main house. His wife, Tohru, put her hand to her mouth when she saw the small bundle in her husband’s arms.

“Shibi?”

“The spare room. I won’t leave him alone this time.”

Tohru opened the bedroom door and quickly went to the closet to pull out the spare futon. Watching her husband place the small body on the futon she almost cried, how could people be so cruel. Pulling the blanket up over the toddler’s shoulders, she smoothed back his hair from his forehead, but to blame a child for events beyond their control made her angry. She was a shinobi so she understood the complexity of the rules surrounding the shinobi world, and as the wife of the Clan head, she understand just how to play the social game. She had noticed the closeness between the Nara and the Uchiha, and then there was the village’s newest jonin visiting the Hyuga. She had talked with Shibi about the changes among the clans, to get his take and wondered if the new Jonin was what had prompted the note from Yoshino Nara asking her to tea. Shibi had his kikaichu out and surrounding the young blonde, Tohru smiled a little before leaving to fix a tray in case he awoke hungry. Setting the tray on the low side table, Tohru knelt down.

“Shibi?” Tohru wasn’t sure what it was that she wanted to ask.

“He is- fine,” the hesitation was there and Shibi watched his wife stiffen, so he continued, “there is no injury that I can detect from his time away from the orphanage.” He wasn't going to mention those being healed by the demon inside the boy. It had been something of a secret for Kushina and he would keep it for her son. All visible injuries had faded before the pair had reached the clan lands. If there was anything else, they weren’t anywhere visible. “He is dehydrated, which we can help with, the malnutrition has not reached the point of where it can not be reversed.” He was sure that the only reason there the malnutrition had progressed further was because he was the jinchuriki. It reminded him of when the whole academy student body had come down with jona fever, a highly contagious but relatively harmless illness. He and Kushina had been the only two not sick. His had contracted jona fever before entering the a academy and therefore immune while he remembered Kushina confiding that as a jinchuricki she never got sick. It had been the two of them for a week. Kushina a first year and he a third year student, that had spent the week sanitizing every classroom while the medical staff worked to ensure their classmates stayed hydrated and healthy. He needed to send a message to Shikaku that he had the boy, but right now he wanted to stay by his side, to honor the friendship he had with Minato and Kushina. He settled for sending out one of his kikaichu in hopes the Nara head would understand.

Chapter Text

Kei crouched in the tree to catch his breath. This was his fourth mission in a row and he’d been out of the village for over a month. Delivery missions sucked. They were boring and monotonous. Granted he was well suited for that style of mission because of his multitude of storage seals. Thanks to Souske’s enthusiasm, the Hokage was utilizing his seals to increase the security on the missions. He had to admit the man knew how to work things to his favor. Kei stood up and stretched before continuing on. The village was only a couple of kilometers away and he was hoping that he’d finally have a few days off in order to finally have Naruto over. He had to hope that he wouldn’t have a panic attack, of course that was another reason why Mikoto and the boys were going to be present. He laughed to himself. Here he was using his Chibi self as a buffer between himself and Chibi Naruto. He didn’t know which one of the children scared him more, but he swore he could hear Haru cackling from the other side.

The trees thinned and Kei jumped down to the ground, following the path to the village gates. His paced slowed. He still wasn’t sure what his standing was in the village and he didn’t want to startle the gate guards. Seeing Neko Aburame chatting with the two gate guards had him stopping a meter before the gate. As much as he wanted to go home and hide and recover he knew how fragile the Uchiha’s reputation still was in the village and of course if he was able to adopt Naruto he would need that extra level of protection.

“Aburame-San, how are you?”

The guards, chunin by the look of their vests, looked between Kei and Neko Aburame. Waiting to see how the quiet man was going to react.

“I am fine, thank you Uchiha-San. It’s nice to see you again,” Neko turned to face Kei completely.

With Neko facing him, Kei could see the police badge on his other arm. “You’re still with the police force?” There was a subtle nod from Neko and Kei let a smile grace his face, “I’m glad, I’m sure they can use a shinobi with your talents.”

As part of the police force, Neko knew about Naruto’s disappearance, Fugaku had asked for his help in searching the back streets. That he’d been found a couple of days ago, and by his own clan head, was a relief. He did not want to be the one to let the man in front of him know they had lost his cousin. He would leave it up to Uchiha-sama to explain everything.

“Really?” The gate chunin slapped a hand over his mouth, he hadn’t meant to speak out, but he couldn’t believe an Uchiha would support a clan other then his own.

Kei’s head swung towards the voice. Tilting it slightly to see if the guy was against the Aburame or the police force. From the corner of his eye he could see the aborted movement of Neko’s hand. “I know that I’m new to the village, but I do know the strength of the different clans in the village. With both clan’s kekkei genkai it can be nothing but beneficial having the Aburame and Uchiha working together. I shouldn’t have to tell you about their talents.” He raised an eyebrow.

“Yes sir,” the chunin had the good graces to blush and nod. “I’ll, umm, I’ll mark you as returned sir.”

Kei nodded and gave the Aburame a small smile before turning and heading towards the mission room to hand in his report.

“Thank you for your service,” the chunin manning the mission desk read over his report before stamping it. Reports would be tallied and funds would be added to the appropriate bank account at the end of each work week. Kei didn’t know how it worked for ANBU but he assumed there was some work around for them to be paid while keeping their anonymity. It would be completely redundant for them to wear masks to hide their identity only for some low level accounting clerk to know who was who for payroll. “You will be off the schedule for the next week. There is a request for you to meet with the Hokage tomorrow at 10am, and the jonin commander has requested that you check in with him as soon as you can, provided you are not injured.”

“Thank you,” Kei gave a small bow and left. Now that he had some time off, he supposed he should check in with Mikoto and Junpei to see if one of them would be available within the next couple of days for a visit with Naruto. Maybe even give the orphanage a heads up as to what his plans were. He walked down the hall towards Shikaku’s office.

Kei knew something had gone wrong when Shikaku’s first reaction to seeing him was to curse and put his head in his hands.

Kei tensed, “Shikaku? What..” at least a dozen different scenarios ran through his head.

“Sorry, let’s go for a walk.” Shikaku wasn’t sure how to tell Kei about the latest revelations but he knew hiding it would be a big mistake. He quickly closed the file he had been working on and lead the way out of the tower. The pair walked through the village, out towards the Aburame clan compound.

The didn’t approach the main gates to the Aburame clan, but a hidden side gate that was simple and unmanned, there was a small circle on the right hand side. Shikaku placed his hand inside the circle, pulsed his chakra and waited. Kei was confused, he had no idea as to why they there and not approaching form the front. He had wanted to come here for a while to express his condolences about Mei Aburame in order to keep his cover. He knew that Fugaku had already passed on the information regard her death, he had no idea why they were here or why Shikaku was still so tense.

“Shikaku?”

“Yeah, yeah just- Shit. Just give me a minute and I’ll explain.” Shikaku waited, praying for inspiration on how to handle the coming couple of hours.

The door to the compound opened to show clan head Shibi Aburame. “Shikaku,”

“Shibi, I’m not sure if you have officially met him or not, but this is Kei Uzumaki-Uchiha.”

Kei bowed, “Aburame-San please forgive me for not coming earlier to tell you in person about your clansman, Mei Aburame who was a part of my father’s team before the fall of Uzushio.” Kei bowed again after he spoke. He was fairly certain that this wasn’t the reason Shikaku brought him here, but it was important to say it anyway.

“Thank you Uzumaki-Uchiha-San, Fugaku-San was kind enough to come by earlier to let us know of her fate.” Shibi watched how the new jonin looked towards Shikaku for cues.

“Shibi, if we may go somewhere to talk?” The lines around Shikaku’s eyes spoke of sleepless nights.

“This way,” Shibi lead the two men away from the gate and off to the left, deeper into the compound, towards a specific building. The sound of childish voices could be heard on the far side of the building. Once the three men were settled in one of the meeting rooms, Shibi took a quick look outside, then motioned to Shikaku and Kei toward the table on the other side of the room.

“So troublesome,” Shikaku sighed, “alright first things first. Shibi, we’re still trying to keep Kei’s relation as an Uzumaki quiet, so please address him as Kei.” He looked over at the other man to see Kei nodding to back him up. “Secondly Kei, I have some disturbing news to tell you and I want you to listen to the end.”

“Son of a… Shikaku, you know that phrase never has the desired affect, what the hell happened that has you worried I might revolt?” Kei was already on edge because of lack of real rest and now this?

“Alright, so three weeks ago the Nara that was inside the orphanage fell and was put on medical leave. I didn’t receive the report until early this week. When I went to investigate, I found that Naruto had been missing from the orphanage, he was last seen about a day or two after my insider broke their foot. I went to Sarutobi about it and he wasn’t concerned, which-” Shikaku let out a large sigh, “well, I left before I did something stupid.” Shikaku ran a hand down his face. “I grabbed Ino and Chouza as I left and told them about it. While Ino went back to the Hokage; Chouza and I debated the best way to search for Naruto and decided that asking Shibi to help might get us results the fastest without letting certain parties know that something is wrong. We also talked to Fugaku who asked select members of the police force to help out. Not everyone on the force was told but the ones who were had specific skills and were trusted by Fugaku.”

That was news to Shibi. He knew that Neko had been asked as the young man kept Shibi appraised to how work on the police force was going. Neko was newly widowed with two young children at home and while the man’s sisters could help look after the kids part of the time, having him be out of the village for days on end while on mission wouldn’t work for them. The police force was the perfect middle ground. Neko could use his skills and help protect the village and still be home to raise his children. That Fugaku thought enough of his skills to assign him such an important task was all the validation Shibi needed that he had made the right choice, when he agreed to let Neko join the police force.

“Luckily Shibi was already keeping an eye on the boy and was able to find him fairly fast. Shibi brought him here and has been looking after him ever since.”

“He’s safe,” Kei had continued tensing up the longer Shikaku talked. Finding out that his best friend was safe within a clan compound after being out on the streets for weeks was a huge reliefs. Like a weight being cut free, Kei collapsed, his head hitting the table in front of him and just breathed, “he’s safe. Naru…”

Shibi was inwardly shocked by how much emotion the Uchiha jonin was expressing regarding the village jinchuricki. This would be why Shikaku brought him here. “I found Naruto seven hours and thirty-four minutes after Shikaku asked for my help. He was in a back alley way. Physically there were no major injuries. There were healing bruises and evidence of other injuries already well healed. I believe…” Shibi never assumed, that only ever lead to mistakes and misconceptions, but he wasn’t sure how familiar the other two were with the healing properties granted a jinchuriki.

Kei understood the implication and answered, “those injuries were likely healed by the nine tails he holds. It’s a common by-product of being a jinchuriki.” Kei stared up at the ceiling. Three weeks. His best friend had been alone, vulnerable for three weeks. It was a far sight better then the over four months in his time line, but he had hoped to avoid it altogether. The fact that Shibi Aburame had been keeping track of him all this time and had even taking care of him since he’d been found was heart warming and showed that Shino followed his father’s example. “We’ll likely never know just how injured he was out there.” Kei stood and bowed deeply, “Aburame-San, I thank you most sincerely for finding and caring for my young cousin.” Kei hoped that neither man spotted his shaking hands. He knew that he was on the verge of another panic attack. He almost failed, it scared him so much. The formal thank you was something that Sakura was good at, she was the diplomatic one on the team. Naruto was the heart, Kakashi the brains, Sakura the soul and him the muscle. He needed to tread carefully and say screw it to the Uchiha pride if he wanted this to work.

“Kei?” Shikaku didn’t expect this from the troubled man.

Shibi just nodded in acknowledgement before standing. “If you would like to follow me, we can go and look in on him.”

Shikaku stood as well, “anything else to worry about?”

Shibi understood what Shikaku had been asking, “when I found him, he was dehydrated and underweight. I believe that he’s smaller then most children his age, but his spirit and attitude are positive. He was shy at first, but I believe that my son’s calm demeanor has helped.” He led the way towards an outdoor training area. There out on the grass was Shino and Naruto playing with a ball. Shino looked completely done with the hyperactive blonde. Kei smiled, glad somethings never changed.

“He looks like he’s a little much for that one.” Kei didn’t want to drop Shino’s name as he wasn’t supposed to know who he was.

“My son.” Shibi watched the pair play. Shino was such a shy and withdrawn child and Naruto was very much a child of his parents. Bright, sunny, loud, and unfailingly friendly.

Shikaku laughed out loud when he saw Naruto pick up a bug and run it over to Shino, to shove into his face. The Aburame heir recoiled back but took the bug from his new friend.

“Shino, Naruto can you come here for a minute. I have a couple of guests to introduce you to.”

Naruto stiffened and suddenly trailed behind Shino, almost like he was trying to hide. His eyes held a wariness that hadn’t been there moments ago.

“Father,” Shino bowed and waited to be introduced.

“Umm, Arum- Aburame-san” Naruto faltered with title, he’d never had to address anyone before. Shino’s dad had been kind, if quiet, while he had been here, but he didn’t know the other two and wasn’t sure if they would swear at him, hit him or ignore him.

Shibi nodded, then gestured to the two men beside him. “This is Nara-san, his son Shikamaru is the same age as you, and this is-“ Shibi looked over at Shikaku only now coming to the realization of not knowing how to introduce the other man.

Kei knelt down and made the decision for him, “my name is Kei, I don’t use my last name.”

“You don’t?” Naruto’s natural curiosity had him speaking out, despite being unsure of his place.

Shino tilted his head to one side, “do I address you as Kei-San?”

“Just Kei, thank you for asking Shino.” Kei smiled, “actually Naruto, I’ve been trying to come and visit you.”

“You have?” Naruto tilted his head to one side, no one ever wanted to visit him. “Why?”

Kei’s smile grew. “Part of it is due to that last name I don’t use. I have two last names, one is from my father- Uchiha.”

“Like the police officers? They’re awesome.” Naruto looked at the man in awe.

“Yes, like the police officers.” Kei let out a soft chuckle, he couldn’t wait to let Fugaku know Naruto thought his officers were awesome.

“Excuse me, Kei-sa-, Kei but you said you had two last names. What is the other one?” Shino spoke before he really thought about the fact the conversation wasn’t really directed at him.

“My other last name comes from my mother. Her name was Uzumaki.”

“Uzumaki? Like me?” Naruto’s eyes were wide and his mouth agape.

“Yes, like you. My mother and yours were cousins.”

“Like for real? I had a mom?”

Shikaku wanted to cry. How could Sarutobi think that denying a child the right to know his parents was ever a good idea. “Yes, you did. Your mother came to the village as a child, she went to the academy here.”

“Naruto,” Kei didn’t get too much further, as his arms were suddenly full of an energetic blonde.

“I have family? Can I call you Nii-San? I always wanted a nii-san. I have the animal helpers but I got one of them in trouble when I tried to say thank you. I told Jiji I was sorry but he said they are secret.” There was a lot more mumbling into Kei’s shoulder. Even though his voice was loud, Naruto’s tears were quite.

Kei’s breath shuddered at how tightly he was being held. Naruto was touch starved. “Naruto, why were you on the streets? Weren’t you supposed to be in the orphanage?”

Naruto pulled back a little and stared at his feet. “I don’t like it there. I know I’m ‘posed to be grea…happy that I have a home, but-“ he didn’t want to complain too much. He was hoping that maybe his Nii-San would adopt him.

“It’s okay you can tell me anything.” Kei prompted.

Naruto sighed, he didn’t like lying and he wasn’t very good at it anyway. He hoped that they would believe him. “My room is always cold and I’ve asked lots of times for another blanket, but they always say no. For a long time I could only eat at night time after everyone had gone to bed, but then Oba-San came and I could eat in the morning too. She helped me a lot. When the other kids were laughing at me, she stopped them. It was nice. Then she stopped coming. The others said she got tired of me, but I didn’t think so. I know she has no kids so I thought if maybe I went to look for her, maybe I could help her out.”

Kei smiled but it was hard, “that was very thoughtful Naruto. Did you find her? Your Oba-San?”

Naruto shook his head. “No the village is way, way, WAY big and I got lost, then well when no one came looking for me, I thought maybe it might be better to stay away from the orphanage.”

“Oh Naruto,” Kei pulled him back into a full body hug. “I need to talk to the Hokage, but I’m hoping to see if I can have you live with me.”

Naruto looked like he wanted to vibrate out of his skin with excitement.

Shikaku hated to put a damper on things but he needed to talk to Kei about the other things that had gone on while he had been away. “Naruto can I get you and Shino to go and play some more? I need to talk to your Nii-San for a bit.”

Shino waited patiently for Naruto to join him. His new friend kept looking over his shoulder as if to check and see that he hadn’t been abandoned.

Kei stayed on his knees. If he was honest with himself, he didn’t think he could stand even if he wanted to. “He’s so small, I forgot…”

Shibi watched the emotions play across the face of the man in front of him. Kei looked like he was on the verge of tears, or even a breakdown. Even Shikaku was acting overly protective, something the bug user had only seen him do with his team mates.

Shikaku grasped Kei by the shoulder and helped him up. “Shibi, can we go back to the room to talk?”

Shibi lead the pair back into the room they had just left, he kept the screen door slightly ajar so Kei could see Naruto running around.

“Kei, can you put up a privacy seal?” Shikaku watched as Kei pulled out a set of seals and set them up around the room. He watched Shibi carefully as they activated, remembering how both Chouza and Inoichi reacted to the stronger seals. Shibi didn’t react at all, a quick glance at Kei and Shikaku realized that there would be no way Kei would place his strongest seals up when Naruto’s safety was still an unknown. Shikaku just shrugged, as long as the boys didn’t hear anything that was going on, he wasn’t going to raise a fuss.

Kei kept his eyes on the doorway where he could see Naruto and Shino examining a bug on the ground.

“Kei, there’s something else I need to tell you about Naruto’s disappearance.” Shikaku

“Please tell me this has something to do with Sarutobi’s disregard for his welfare?” Kei was trying his best to be calm. What he really wanted to do was storm the Hokage tower and skewer Sarutobi like he once did Danzo. Of course if he did that, then he’d be able to get rid of Danzo and two old biddies who stuck their noses into everything. “Shikaku,” he didn’t know what he was going to ask, but Shikaku must have understood.

“After. Let me go over this first.” Shikaku could see just how tense Kei was, “I’m going to start from the beginning. Like I mentioned, as the beginning of this week I noticed the Nara I had in the orphanage was out sick. I went to Sarutobi and he didn’t seem to care, instead of questioning it, I left. I went to Ino and Chouza first, then Shibi and Fugaku in order to look for Naruto. It was Inoichi who went back to the Hokage. I was called back in soon after. It seems that Sarutobi had been placed under a genjutsu.” He already had his hand out to stop Kei from taking off. “Raven broke him out of it and has him under watch. I gave him one of the genjutsu warning seals.”

“Son of a…” Kei stood up and started to pace. Just when would this end. Had Sarutobi been under a genjutsu in the past? Was it Danzo’s doing? Had he changed too much? “I know he lived on the streets, but I can’t remember when…Danzo has at least one…Could it be ROOT?” Kei kept muttering to himself.

“Kei, it’s okay.” Shikaku got right into his face. Dealing with Kei took a lot of energy. He needed to calm Kei down before he let information slip in front of Shibi. The Aburame clan head was extremely smart and would likely pick up on any odd comment, of course he could likely count on Shibi to keep everything to himself. Although if he was honest with himself, Shikaku was more worried about Kei’s mental health then he was about someone else knowing the secret.

“Every time,” Kei went to the door to watch Naruto play with his new friend. “Everything always seems so stacked against you, against us. How? Just how did you ever function? How were you the normal one?” Kei knew he was going to leave this place and go blow something up. He needed to vent the anger he felt before he took it out on everyone around him, but first- Kei turned to face Shibi and bowed deeply. “Aburame-sama, I thank you for looking after my little cousin. I fear just what would have happened to him without your assistance.”

If Shibi was surprised he didn’t show it. Shikaku was even expecting something like this from the Uchiha. He didn’t stop there, and Kei’s next request surprised both men enough for it to show on their faces.

“I have a request, well two Aburame-sama. I would like your assurance that you will continue to track and monitor Naruto. I’m not infallible and would like to be assured of his health and safety. The second request is that he stays here with you until I can get permission from the Hokage to have him move in with me.”

Shibi just nodded, not sure just what to say. To know that he was that trusted, it was humbling.

Kei turned to Shikaku, “we need to go and talk to the Hokage. There are certain things we need to straighten out and fast.” taking down the privacy seals, Kei made his way to the training ground, “Nar- Naru- ahem, Naruto,” it took a couple of tries for his voice to be above a whisper and for it to be heard over whatever it was the boys were doing.

“Kei-nii!” The excited yell and bright smile were all that Kei needed to go on. Naruto launched himself into the air with an innocence that was hard to believe after all the young boy had been through.

Kei held him tight, “hey, I wanted to talk to you before I left. You understand that I can’t take you with me at the moment right?” He waited for Naruto to nod, “do you mind staying here with Aburame-San and Shino for a couple of more days?”

“I don’t have to go back to the orphanage?” The innocent question had Kei tensing, he knew just how bad the orphanage had been before Shikaku had someone look in on him.

“Not right now.” Kei rested his hands on the thin shoulders, “I would like to promise that you never have to go back there, but I refuse to lie to you. I need to talk to the Hokage first and there are a lot of things we need to agree on. He may ask that you go back to the orphanage for a short period of time. I will promise you that I will do everything I can to have you stay with me. If you do go back to the orphanage I WILL come and visit you as often as I can. Do you understand?”

Naruto tilted his head first one way then the next before nodding, “I can stay here with my new friend Shino while you talk to the Hokage.” Kei noticed he didn’t call Sarutobi, Jiji and even though it was an insulting name, Kei was glad Naruto didn’t have that connection. “I may have to go back to the orphanage, but you’ll still visit.”

“That’s right. Make sure you listen to Aburame-Sama and his wife okay.”

“I’ll be good.”

“I know you will.” Kei ruffled Naruto’s hair and the smile on his face just got bigger.

“He will be safe with us.” Shibi’s quiet reassurance was just what Kei needed before he left to kick a hornet’s nest.

“If something happens and I can’t come, I’ll send Neko Aburame with a note.”

Chapter Text

Hiruzen looked over the mountain of files Inoichi had given him. How? How had he let so many things get past him? Yes, he knew that Danzo had been upset when Tobirama-Sensei had named him his successor. He had innocently thought, that after all these years, Danzo had come to terms with it. That he enjoyed his work as one of Hiruzen’s councilors, and as his envoy with the Diamyo, instead he was looking at evidence of Danzo undermining everything that he had tried to put into place. Hiruzen remembered how he had asked Minato to keep those three on for their experience, not knowing just how much of a handicap he had given his successor. Now thanks to Danzo’s interference, Minato and Kushina’s son had been put at risk.

“Sir,” Hawk entered the office and knelt.

“Report.” Sarutobi looked up from the files. His ANBU guard were there to protect him and honestly after how he had been compromised he was glad that they were still willing to stand by him. At least when they went to report to Shikaku or Inoichi he was aware of it.

“Sir, the mission desk has sent word that Kei Uchiha has returned from his missions. He met up with the jonin commander, before going out into the village. ”

Sarutobi closed his eyes glad that Naruto had been found a couple of days ago. “Hawk please continue to stand guard outside.” He would wait for Kei Uchiha to come and talk to him and he would accept his fate. Hiruzen let out a small laugh, glad that one of the first things he had done after finding himself free of the unknown genjutsu was to make sure his affairs were in order.

“Yes sir.”

“Cat, Raven when Kei Uchiha comes, don’t do anything unless I signal.”

“Yes, sir.”

Sarutobi sighed before turning his attention back to his desk. Now that young Naruto was safe, he could focus on righting so many of the wrong he had let go on for too long. There were files that detailed plans of his own assassination- multiple times, and only one had he known about. Danzo had ordered the assassination of other diplomats and high ranking shinobi both outside of Konoha and inside. He had sold information regarding Kushina’s jinchuriki status to the highest bidder leading to her kidnapping attempt when she was a child and had likely impacted many of her missions later in life. He opened another file and closed his eyes in despair. Orochimaru. His own student. He had abandoned, no, not abandoned, he had actively walked away from his student at the first hint of a problem, because of Danzo’s say so. Sarutobi looked from the file in his hand to the one open on his desk. It wasn’t just Orochimaru, but also Jiraya, Tsunade, Sakumo Hatake, Minato among others. He was ashamed of himself. The next file just added to it. ROOT. The program he had demanded Danzo shut down had just moved underground and the number of children he was taking; Hiruzen wanted to be sick. How could his friend have done such horrible things? Had he been blind to his failings all along or did they develop through the years? Was he even still a friend?

Sarutobi pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. The laws Danzo had broken were stacking up against him. It wasn’t just Dojutsu theft, now Sarutobi worried about what Danzo had said and did in the Daimyo’s court. Had he used genjutsu on the Daimyo? Just what had he said at court in how he represented Konoha? He’d need to see about sending someone there to figure that out. Maybe Inoichi would have a suggestion, he’d ask Shikaku but, well Shikaku was right to ask after Tsunade. Danzo had made sure that there the options for a successor were limited to almost nothing. After all who else could be trusted to run the village and not fall prey to Danzo’s manipulations, without being Danzo himself. The Daimyo would only accept those shinobi with the rank of Jonin who had an exemplary career. Right now, that limits his choices to his council, none of which he trusted with a cup of tea now, let alone with the village; the seven major clan heads, all of which had other priorities and would therefore be disqualified; there were a couple of his ANBU, who were ANBU for a reason thank you very much; Jiraya, a perverted but excellent spymaster; Tsunade, a traumatized medic with the pedigree for the job; and Orochimaru, who had been considered rogue thanks to Danzo. Tsunade really was the best pick of the bunch. Reaching into his desk, he pulled out a pen and paper and started to write a letter he should have sent a couple of years ago. He’d get one of his summons to deliver it, at least then he’d be sure that Tsunade would get it and she had a soft spot for animals, summons or not.

The knock on the door two hours later wasn’t a surprise, Hawk entered to announce his guests, “Hokage-sama? The jonin commander is here with Kei U-U-Uchiha?”

Sarutobi sighed heavily. He would love to ignore the men, he wanted to run, to hide, but he was Hokage and would never disgrace either man that way. He just hoped that Kei would be forgiving in his incompetence. “Send them in.”

Hawk opened the door to let the two men before walking back out to guard the room from the outside.

“Kei, I’m glad to hear that your missions were concluded successfully.” The Hokage took a breath before continuing. “I can only assume that as you are here with Shikaku, he has let you know all that has transpired while you were gone?”

“Yes sir, and while I do admit that there were urges to, well make you see the error of your ways.” Kei noticed the way Cat reacted ready to protect his Hokage, even Shikaku tensed unsure what he would do. “However, I have no wish to be at odds with Konoha.”

“Stand down.” Sarutobi took a breath, he didn’t for a moment believe he was forgiven, but he wasn’t dead and that was a positive sign. “I will let you know that I sent a letter to both Tsunade and Jiraya. I had Enma take them. She’ll be less likely to burn it if it comes from him.”

A second knock and the addition of Inoichi had Sarutobi relaxing a little more. Between Shikaku and Inoichi there was likely a solution, something he may rightfully be kept in the dark about.

“Shikaku, Kei.” Inoichi greeted his friends. “I have the beginning of a plan and would love your input on it.” Inoichi explained how they would keep Sarutobi in power with Raven, Cat and Owl watching over him in shifts. Tsunade would be sought out as his replacement. The investigation surrounding Danzo was to be ongoing until it was airtight. “We’re really close.”

Shikaku stroked his goatee as he took in all sides of Inoichi’s plan. Kei was the one to speak up. “The only weak point I can see is Naruto. I refuse to put him back into the orphanage where he is at risk. I mean, look at what happened. Naruto’s one ally within the orphanage breaks a foot and within a day Naruto is out on the streets injured and alone and either no one noticed or no one cared. If it wasn’t for Shikaku looking for him and a friend finding him, I fear what would have happened to him or how long it would be until he was found.” Kei looked over at Sarutobi, his eyes were hard, “Until Danzo is gone, Naruto will stay where he is. I will train him and make sure that he knows he has family and yes that means that I will be telling him about not only his parents but also about the Kyuubi. Your plan to hide everything from him and keep him ignorant was one of Danzo’s. It was his way of isolating him so he would more malleable to be taken in by ROOT.”

Sarutobi paled even further. He hadn’t really considered what it was that Danzo had wanted with Naruto.

“I refuse to let my family be a pawn for that cursed organization. I will make sure that he is surrounded by those who love him.”

“I understand and to add a level of protection, I don’t want to know where he is. I understand that you don’t trust me after I’ve let you down, all I can ask is that you don’t hold Tsunade responsible for my mistakes. I know that you’ve already been granted access to the Uzumaki compound completely, but I will also be releasing all of Minato and Kushina’s belongings and accounts to you.”

Kei couldn’t take anymore. He was already at his breaking point just seeing Naruto and now to deal with all of this bullshit. He needed out of there before he did something really stupid like hit the Hokage.

“Go to the Nara forest,” Shikaku whispered just loud enough for Kei to hear as the man left. He and Inoichi would finish up the final details.

Kei didn’t care if leaving without the Hokage’s approval was verging on insubordination, he’d fought the Kages before and hadn’t died. The only thing really holding him back this time was that he didn’t want Naruto labelled a rogue and forced out of the village.

****

Kei headed to the Nara forest, Shikaku was right, it would be quieter there and he could let go a little knowing he wouldn’t hurt an innocent. He bypassed the compound gates and went over the wall. He’d been there so often that the seals on the wall didn’t register him as an outsider. It eased a hole in his heart, however unconsciously, to know that Shikaku considered him the equivalent of family. Once he was inside the forest Kei stood and waited. He knew that the Nara deer would come to see who was here. A part of the herd encircled Kei. He was deep within the forest and had never been this far without Shikaku. He waited for the stag to approach.

“I request asylum. I need someplace to regroup. It might mean destroying part of the forest, but I’d rather my targets be trees then innocents. Can you help keep me from hurting others?” Kei subconsciously was hoping for some type sign, but was honestly surprised when the stag approached and head butted him in the chest. “Thank you.” He felt slightly stupid talking to the deer but he knew better then to dismiss the animals as unintelligent. If his time with Aoda had taught him anything it was to never underestimate an animal’s intelligence, summons or not. Sure the Nara deer weren’t summons but they were special.

He moved a little ways away and started running through his katas.
Naruto was safe.
Naruto was safe.
Naruto was safe.

He kept repeated the phrase like a mantra as he moved through each position. His movements were measured and exact. His chakra controlled, his breathing even. Starting on the second set, he put a little more force into each movement, a little more chakra leaked out. With each subsequent set his emotions took over, his movements became a little less precise and held a little more strength until his chakra was flowing wildly and trees were showing the impact.

Shikaku walked slowly back to the compound. His brain hurt. The hours he had gone over the plan with Inoichi and Sarutobi, fine tuning and refining it. He almost regretted not leaving with Kei earlier. The signal from the Nara guard just inside the compound was enough to know that Kei was in the forest somewhere. He hesitated going to look for him. All he wanted was to go home, see Yoshino and maybe have a drink or twelve. He sighed heavily. It would be better if Kei was with him for that drink.

He walked into the trees only to spy a fawn among the trees. “So little one are you here to lead me to our friend?”

The fawn turned and lead the way deeper into the woods. He was about three hundred meters in when the first signs of destruction appeared. It was little things at first, a lot of leaves on the ground and bark peeled off. At four hundred meters there were more downed branches then could be explained by old trees and rough weather that they hadn’t had. At five hundred meters there were what he could only describe as holes in the trunks of the older trees while the smaller ones were just gone. Shikaku was glad that Kei had moved this far into forest to keep the everyone else safe. It was closer to seven hundred meters from the edge when the true destruction became apparent. It looked like a major explosion had happened. Large trees were completely uproots, rocks blasted from the earth. At the epicenter there was a large hole about five meters in diameter and two meters deep. Kei was in the center on his knees, his head bowed.

“Kei?!” Shikaku was afraid for his friend, he slid down the side to reach the downed man. He prayed Kei had no serious injuries. Shikaku cursed himself, he really needed to improve his healing skills. “Are you hurt?”

“Nah,” Kei was breathing hard, his eyes remained on the ground in front of him, “just tired. So-damn-tired.”

Shikaku was sure he wasn’t meant to hear that last comment. He helped Kei up so he could check him over, it wasn’t that he didn’t trust Kei’s assessment of his own well being, but he knew how often shinobi dismissed injuries as unimportant when they were really life threatening. He was just as guilty of it as anyone else.

Kei’s mind cleared and his heart rate slowed. He finally took a look around. Rubbing the back of his head he apologized, “I’m sorry for what I’ve done to your forest.”

Shikaku laughed, “s’ok I’m sure we needed to thin some of this out anyway; beside you haven’t hurt anyone or damaged any property.”

“Yeah, your deer lead me here.”

“They did?” Shikaku looked toward the tree line and spotted a stag. When he thought about it, they were almost dead center of the Nara forest. While the residual chakra would be felt, no one would be able to see the type of destruction Kei was capable of unless he lead them there. Curious Shikaku wondered what type of jutsu’s Kei had used, “so out of curiosity, which jutsu or elemental form were you using?”

“Huh? Oh no jutsu, I was just going through my katas. I was just trying to channel my anger away, unfortunately with every set of katas, my chakra and movements became a little wilder as my emotions got a little more out of control.”

Shikaku tried to keep his composure. Kei had done this much damage with just practice moves? He didn’t want to see what would happen if he used either his sharingan or his elemental chakra. Kei was scary strong and Shikaku was glad he was on their side. He might just bring Sarutobi out here to see just how narrowly he avoided having the whole of the village destroyed because of Danzo.

“Kei, come back to the house. I have a nice bottle of sake we can share and Yoshino should have supper ready.” He didn’t mention Shikamaru being nearby to help calm his nerves as that might be the wrong avenue to take. He’d have to wait and see how his friend reacts and pivot as needed.

“Yeah, okay.” Kei followed Shikaku. He always did things by himself, had a need to prove he could do it alone as the last loyal Uchiha. Haru would have been all over him to remind him he had a team he could rely on. Sure it wasn’t his team seven, but maybe that difference was a good thing.

Inoichi shook his head as he stood at the edge of the disaster zone. The amount of damage done was more on par for a battle between squads of jonin, not the result of one man going through training katas and letting his emotions get the better of him. The thought of watching Kei fight for real would be amazing and terrifying at the same time. What had Kei and Haru been like back in their time? How strong had their opponent been to drive them to the brink of extinction? Inoichi thought back to watching Minato on the field during the third war. The way he would use his speed to go from one enemy to the next had been awe inspiring. Often Minato had been three or four enemies away before the first one even fell. He wasn’t even going to get started on Kushina. Inoichi’s gaze drifted back toward the Nara compound. He knew that Shikaku had calmed Kei down and looking at this he was glad that it had worked. He wasn’t so naive as to believe Kei had forgiven the Hokage, nor had he forgiven the village. Inoichi felt like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop, and if it landed on the wrong side, Kei would raze the village to the ground, and be justified in doing so.

Shikaku knew he had been a bastard, but he wanted Sarutobi to see just what his negligence and apathy towards Naruto had done. He wanted to remind Sarutobi of the promises he had made the night Minato and Kushina had died. The promises he not only failed to uphold but had forcefully denied anyone else from keeping. The look on Hiruzen’s face at the amount of destruction one man could create, almost made Shikaku fear Sarutobi might have a heart attack. If he had been a little more sympathetic he would have warned the man, but honestly he didn’t care anymore, not after everything he learned. Of course he knew the Hokage was still on tenterhooks around Kei. The old man now knew that Kei was more powerful than anyone else in the village. For himself, it was reassuring to know they had someone on their side to help fight against Danzo, because Shikaku knew that bastard was going to fight dirty.

Chapter Text

Kei walked the Uzumaki clan lands, he had spent the last couple of days with Shikaku. He understood his friend’s fear of his retribution towards the village, but it was good to be alone. To be home. That thought shook him. Since when had he decided that the Uzumaki compound was home? Because it was. Even though he had barely been there, the Uzumaki compound was more home to him then the Uchiha compound ever was. This place was amazingly laid out. When you first walked through the gates you were greeted by the main house. This was the one where they had found everything left behind by Minato and Kushina. Behind the main house were a dozen smaller homes all facing a large open area with a beautifully designed pond. Beyond the clearing, opposite the main house, was a large dojo and just behind that was a training area. There were a couple of miscellaneous building he still hadn’t had a chance to examine in depth. Looking through one of them, he could see a weapons store room that would have TenTen salivating. There was a shimmer in the background. Walking closer he could make out the edges. He didn’t dare go any closer, he’d knew a seal barrier when he saw one. The only one he trusted to break it was Haru, although in this place Nyoko might be able to help or maybe Kakashi. He wait to ask when it was safe to bring her and Karin here.

Kei sat on the engawa, he could see how the compound had been used to house a delegation of visitors instead of being a permanent residence and yet the potential was there. After all Mito Uzumaki had married Hashirama Senju and would have stayed at either the Hokage residence if they had one back then, or at the Senju clan compound. From what Kei could remember, listening to Kakashi and Genma relate stories to Haru, when Kushina had first come to Konoha, she’d been assigned an apartment. When she had married Minato they had a small house that had been destroyed during the nine tails attack, since the council hadn’t allowed them to use the Uzumaki compound. He would bring little Naruto here and with Nyoko and Karin they would being rebuilding the Uzumaki clan. Of course others would be allowed in. Kakashi, Yamato, Genma and Raidou, and if he could find him, Sai.

“Damnit. Haru, there’s still so much to do. It’s so hard to not just rampage through this village and kill those bastards for what they’ve done to you. It’s hard to pretend, to smile and act like there is nothing wrong. Haru. I’m tired, so very tired.” Kei closed his eyes and just tried to breathe. He needed to center himself if he wanted Naruto to have any sort of normal childhood. He wanted this Naruto to have those bonds, to make friends.

****

Kakashi sat in his tree in the middle of town. He had been trying to wrap his mind around everything that had happened in the last number of months. First there was a new found shinobi, one of Uzumaki AND Uchiha blood. Not something he ever thought would happen. Then there was the unrest within the Uchiha clan, something he hadn’t noticed was an issue until after it had been resolved and the village breathed a sigh of relief. He also heard rumours of an attempted kidnapping of the Hyuga heiress and the negotiations with Kumo taking a weird turn. The opening of the Uzumaki compound had brought back so many memories both good and bad. He wasn’t sure what to do about that. Kakashi was also torn about what to think about Kei. On the surface he seemed to be carefree and friendly but what was underneath the underneath? If he was being honest with himself, the whole situation surrounding Kei brought up more questions then he was willing to handle. Then there was the investigation into Danzo. It wasn’t that he was a Danzo fan. Quite the opposite. For what he did to Tenzo alone, Kakashi would like to see him dead, but then there was the way the old war hawk manipulated the situation and put Kakashi in an impossible situation, one that required him to assassinate the Hokage. Thankfully Sarutobi had seen what was going on and stopped him, still Danzo held that over his head for years now.

The sound of someone landing the tree branch beside him, shook him out his thoughts.

“Senpai?”

Kakashi tried for a lazy drawl, “ah Tenzo.”

“Senpai, I have a question regarding the files we found. Do you know if Nara-sama has read them?” He didn’t specify which files, there was no telling who could be listening.

“Mmm, an interesting question,” Kakashi pocketed the book in his hand. He wasn’t reading it anyway, too many questions on his mind. “Why don’t we go and find out?” He took off towards the Nara compound. He had more questions on his mind then just the documents. He slowed down enough for Tenzo to walk along side him. Not wanting to go through the main gate, visible to all, Kakashi lead them to the side entrance. He nodded to the Nara manning the small door in the wall, glad that Shikaku had given him a clan token, giving him a free pass onto clan lands. They ran towards the forest, taking to the tree as soon as possible.

“Senpai?” Tenzo didn’t often question Kakashi, but he had never traversed this particular portion of the Nara forest. In fact they were told in ANBU to avoid it as the Deer there were special and protected the Nara. Shikaku was one of the few men in the village he held in respect.

“Mmm,” Kakashi didn’t like this part of the forest, it felt like there were too many eyes upon him and none of them were human. “Shikaku’s house is just on the other side of the woods.” Traveling by trees was the not only the quickest way, but also the best way to make sure that their movements were obscured. Walking through the front door would only raise questions no matter how friendly the clan was. Someone was always watching.

Tenzo kept scanning their surroundings, the absences of trees off in the distance was odd. It was odd enough to have him alter their course. “Senpai? There’s a large portion of the Nara forest missing. I want to investigate it a little more. I’m not sure if it’s something that Nara-sama needs to be aware of.”

Tenzo’s logic was sound. It was a matter of minutes before they came into closer view of the mysterious absences of trees.

“What the….” The mass destruction of the area had both men skidding to a stop.

“This was recent enough,” Tenzo laid his hands against the nearest damaged tree, “not more then a week ago. There’s no one in the area now though.” The trees provided Tenzo with so much more information but he wasn’t all that certain how to process and explain the nebulous images he was getting.

Kakashi could only nod. Shikaku would be the one with the answers to this and the Danzo situation. They were heading there anyway. The pair continued on their way, exiting the forest and onto a lane not far from the main Nara house. Yoshino Nara opened the door before they actually reached the house.

“He’s in the study. Down the hall, second door on the left.” She turned and walked back into the kitchen. “I’ll be bringing tea in a bit.”

Kakashi knocked quietly on the afore mentioned door. The fact that there were three different shogi boards all in the midst different games really wasn’t surprising. The fact that Shikaku was kneeling at a paper strewn table with Fugaku and Hiashi, was.

“Kakashi,” Shikaku didn’t look entirely surprised to see him. “Come and join us.”

Kakashi was too surprised at seeing the clan heads sitting peacefully together to do anything but obey the order.

“Do you have anymore information?”

Kakashi blinked and shook his head. “If I may, a question about your forest?”

Fugaku smiled, “you’ve seen Kei’s ire then?”

“Kei?” Kakashi voice squeaked.

Shikaku sighed, “you’ve both missed the recent upheaval in the village. So was Kei. While you were away on your last mission, Naruto left the orphanage. On his own.”

Tenzo jumped forward to support Kakashi as his knees buckled. “Senpai?”

“How? Where?” Kakashi couldn’t even m a better question. He couldn’t loose his sensei’s son, not now, not when he’d been too scared to do more then look in on the blonde from afar. “His guard?”

“Actually it seemed that they were pulled back. Naruto just walked out and didn’t go back. He was found safe and is currently staying with a friend.” No matter how much Shikaku trusted the last Hatake, Kei wanted to protect Naruto.

“He’s safe, really?” Kakashi was almost shaking in rage and fear. How could the village do this to his sensei’s son?

Fugaku took pity on the jonin. “Kakashi, trust me. He’s safe. We’ve kept his location a secret, but he’s fine. A clan is protecting him and treating him well.”

“Kei had a much similar reaction. He took his anger and fear out on my forest.” Shikaku finished, watching as Kakashi’s jaw drop.

It took a minute for the words to register. Kakashi headed out a sigh of relief. He was still shaky, but was slowly regaining his composure.

“So Kei did the damage,” Tenzo wanted to save his captain a couple of seconds to come back to himself.

Shikaku ran his eyes over the closest shogi boards, “yeah and he did that using only practice katas.” He let the shock of that statement settle in before continuing. “So back to Danzo.” He pulled a seemingly random piece of paper from the table.

The knock on the door had the perfect timing as Yoshino entered with a tray of tea and snacks.

Kakashi and Tenzo knelt around the table and conversation turned to the investigation and how they were going to put everything together.

“Being honest, we have a lot information that can be seen as circumstantial evidence.” Hiashi could see how the councilman could twist official orders to work in his version of the village.

“And therein is our dilemma. Danzo has been Konoha’s representative in the Daimyo’s court.” Shikaku knew there was a possibility of Danzo getting away from being charged legally. Even his latest infraction in casting the Hokage under a genjutsu would likely come back as Uchiha unrest. He wasn’t even sure if any prison would be able to hold the old war hawk safely. “The Hokage is going over the files he has, I’m hopeful that he will help us finding the information needed to get the charges to stick.”

Tenzo could see the frustration rimmed with despair in the eyes of those at the table. “I have perhaps a stupid idea.”

****

Fugaku sat outside the house and gazed up at the stars. The amount of work he, Shikaku, Inoichi and Hiashi had been putting in to legally contain Danzo was exhausting. The number of twists, turns and false leads was frustrating. Finding out the bastard had somehow replicated a genjutsu subtle enough to raise any alarms and worthy of needing an Uchiha to break it was enough to have him contemplating just outright murdering the bastard, after all it’s not like Danzo’s hands were clean.

“Fuuu-,” the way Mikoto stretched out that single syllable had him wincing. His wife knew him too well.

“I haven’t-,” Fugaku stopped himself there. No sense admitting to something he hadn’t even fully planned yet, just in case someone beat him to it.

“I know you haven’t and I know you won’t, I just want to remind you why it would be a bad idea to continue on that path. After all we barely stopped the coup.”

Fugaku reached up to pull his wife down beside him. He remembered a time when he would have tumbled her into his lap, but now as a clan head he needed to be a little more circumspect. The sparkle in her eye, let him know she was remembering too.

“When is Kei going to move into the Uzumaki compound full time?” Mikoto knew that he moved between the compound and the house on Uchiha land.

“It might be a bit.” Junpei had let Fugaku know that the last couple of days Kei had spent off clan lands. “There’s a couple of mitigating factors that have him being going back and forth right now. Hopefully we can get a handle on that soon for him.”

“Does one of those factors have to do with why you were looking so murderous lately?”

Fugaku just winked, “maybe.”

Mikoto giggled, “tell me where I can help, and just so you know, I’m not going to help with an alibi or hiding a body unless I have all the details. And I mean ALL the details.”

The unholy glee in her voice reminded him of Yoshino’s when she brought tea for them earlier. Of when Mikoto and Kushina would run wild in the village. Fugaku thought it over for barely a second before talking over the plans they had made. He knew that Shikaku would be running everything by Yoshino tonight. It never ceased to amaze him just how differently both he and his wife approached the same situation. It wasn't that one was better then the other, so much as it was just different.

Chapter Text

Kei was getting twitchy. It had been a couple of weeks since Naruto’s adventure on the streets as he called it, and while he wanted his best friend with him, he knew he needed to make sure that Konoha was safe first. He knew that Fugaku and Shikaku were working hard on finding a way to take the bastard out legally, but the longer things went on the more unlikely he thought it would be. He was pretty confident that he could sneak in and do the job with no one being the wiser. Unfortunately, the Hokage and a number of his friends, would look in his direction if anything ever actually happened.

If there was one silver linking in everything it was that having Naruto at Shibi’s not only gave a layer of protection that was previously lacking but now he was able to visit Naruto in a controlled area in order to help them get used to each other. It was actually a better set up then what he had originally planned. Walking through the village he took the back roads and side streets, creating a clone every few intersections to throw off the ROOT that were tracking him. The last thing he wanted was to lead them to Shibi. Sarutobi had given him permission to not only keep Naruto hidden but to visit him and allow the boy to get used to his presence. Little did the old man know Kei was the one who needed more time.

Spying one of the Uchiha walking the village on patrol reminded him to go and talk to Mikoto about training with the children. She would most likely be familiar with chakra exercises Naruto would need as an Uzumaki.

Kei waited at the side entrance of the Aburame clan to be let in. Shibi’s wife, Tohru Aburame was the one to let him in. So far Shibi, Tohru and Neko had been the only ones to let him in. He could understand trying to keep his appearance a secret, after all the more people who knew the more likely it was that Naruto’s location would be leaked.

“Kei-San,” Tohru started to bow when Kei reached a hand out to stop her.

“Please no formalities, you and Shibi-San have done so much for me already, I don’t know how I’m ever going to repay you as it is.”

Tohru’s smile was kind and gentle and reminded him of his Shino, not that many had ever seen him smile, hidden behind his cloak as he had been. “You have brought to our attention, many things that need to be changed,” she lead the way to the same courtyard Naruto and Shino had been playing in before. “You have also given Neko back his pride and he speaks highly of you.” She left him alone before he could reply.

Kei saw Shibi off to the side watching the children play.

“KEI-NII,” the shout barely gave him time to brace for the launch of the little blonde body.

“Naruto,” Kei pulled him in close, both of them needed the connection, “you need to remember to be respectful of those around you. Not everyone can handle loud noises.”

Naruto cocked his head to the side. “Wha?”

Kei sat down, keeping the young boy in his lap. His eyes roamed over the area and motioned Shino closer. He waited for the young Aburame heir to sit down. “Naruto do you remember that Shino’s family are care takers of little bugs?”

“Yeah, Shino said they live inside him and they’re super cool. Shino said that they were how his dad found me.”

“That’s right but did you remember that the bugs are sensitive to sound?” He could see that Naruto was thinking hard. “That means that loud noises scare their bugs and that can make it uncomfortable for both the kikaichu and for Shino and his family.”

Naruto’s eyes popped open wide and he turned to his new friend, grasping his hands. Trying hard to whisper as he apologized, “I’m so sorry Shino, did I hurt you or your bugs?”

“I am fine Naruto, my bugs are starting to get used to you.” Shino blushed at the touch.

Kei smiled, there was Naruto and his ability to befriend everyone. “Naruto’s chakra is also stronger and little rougher then what you find anywhere else so it does take a bit to get used to.” Movement caught his eye and he saw Shibi standing in the shadows, “Shino can you describe what Naruto feels like to you?”

Shino looked over his shoulder at his father you gave a subtle nod, “well most of the time he reminds me of lying on the hill in the sun, other times it is like standing a little too close to the campfire.”

Shibi thought about his son’s answer and had to agree.

“I like being in the sun, it’s nice and warm and if I fall asleep I don’t need to worry about being cold, but I’ve never been near a campfire. Are they really warm? Can I use one in winter to stay warm?”

Kei’s heart broke and as he met Shibi’s gaze, even behind the sunglasses he could tell the clan head felt the same. No child should struggle to feel warm.

“Ya know, when everything is settled we can have a campfire in the backyard of our house and you can see for yourself what it’s like.”

There was the barest flicker of foreign chakra coming from the young boy, but it was enough for both Kei and Shibi to straighten. The glow overhead from the agitated kikaichu was subtle enough that the boys didn’t notice, it made Kei glad he had asked Shibi to watch Naruto. It also reminded him that he would need to talk to Kurama sooner rather then later.

Naruto shifted in Kei’s arms, moving closer and closer. He couldn’t resist the idea of holding his best friend close. At this point he wasn’t sure who needed it more, Naruto or him.

“Kei-nii,” the voice was really timid. Naruto wouldn’t meet his eyes but his fingers were plucking at his shirt. “Kei-in, when can I come and live with you?”

Kei squeezed him tighter. “Soon I hope. The Hokage is working to hard to make sure that you can stay forever. I’ll still have to leave on missions, but I will always do my best to come back to you.”

Naruto nodded and tucked in closer.

“So what have you and Shino been playing since the last time I saw you?”

The question immediately had Naruto brightening as he pulled back and described in detail all the adventures he had had with Shino around the compound.

Chapter Text

Danzo knew that he was paranoid, after all he hadn’t gotten where he was by being careless. He activated the third set of seals in his office, before sitting behind his desk. He drummed his fingers upon the polished surface. Three weeks now. It had been three weeks since he last felt alone in his office. Every security reel had been combed through but there was nothing, no unknown chakra or access had been logged. He kept tapping on his desk, his eyes searching out the high spots of his office. He had double and triple checked all of his files and nothing was out of place or missing. None of the traps on his desk drawers had been tripped. Even little things like the dust on the counter hadn’t been disturbed. However, the entire room had a feel of someone having been there, even weeks later. He’d checked the room for recording devices, genjutsu and other tracking devices but came up empty handed. He had been waiting for Hiruzen to storm the place, after all he was pretty sure he had felt the genjutsu break, but so far nothing.

“Sir,” there was a knock on the door.

“Come.”

“Sir, the recruits are in the main training ground.”

The ROOT agent’s voice showed had no inflection, and it was that blankness that matched the mask that helped Danzo regain his composure as he walked to the training grounds, the agent behind him. The last thing he needed was for his emotions to take over. Watching the recruits fight he made mental notes of where to focus their training. It was seeing one the trainees attack from behind that gave him the kernel of an idea. He’d need to think on it a little more, but he might just have a way to hit Kei Uchiha-Uzumaki where it would hurt the most.

“Bring out RK-32 and SU-24, we’ll have them show me what they have learned.” His smile was small, more of an upturn of his lips, but it was enough to have the ROOT agent beside him rushing to complete the order. It was only the fact that the upcoming death was going to be on his orders was all that kept him from leaping into the training ground and kill both trainees.

*****

Kei stood at the gates as he watched Jiraya and Kakashi leave. Jiraya had been the one to escort the Kumo delegation home, and then had continued on his own journey. He’d come back as soon as he’d received the message from Sarutobi and had agreed to help find Tsunade. Kei was pretty sure the toad sage had always known where she was, but had been shielding her in her grief.

The pair were supposed to leave at dawn, but Kakashi had been a couple of hours late. Kei had honestly thought his nasty habit of being perpetually late hadn’t started until he had become a jonin sensei. Maybe it was Obito’s ‘death’ that started the whole trend. Kei just shook his head, well it wasn’t his problem right now. Kei remembered hearing the tale of how Haru had won Tsunade over and secured her agreement to return, he just hoped it would work with Kakashi in the blonde’s stead.

Nodding to the gate guards, Kei headed back towards the center of town. His first stop was a coffee shop, he’d take Fugaku a hot coffee, the man lived on the stuff after all. Entering the police station, the only man he knew was Junpei, who appeared to be asleep at his desk.

“Are you on shift or just too tired to go home?”

Junpei jumped at the voice, “Kei!”

“Sorry man, I just stopped by on my way home.”

“No, it’s okay, I’ve been too focused on this report for the Captain.” Junpei sighed as he stretched his neck.

“I’ve got an extra coffee, black?”

“Please, I’d offer you my first born but I don’t have one.”

Kei laughed, “that’s okay I think I’ve gathered enough children of my own.”

Junpei was startled for a moment before he caught on to Kei’s meaning, “oh the clan heirs!” he started laughing, “I guess you have, at that.”

“Fugaku here?”

“Nah, he said he was going out of town for clan business. I’m not sure how long he was planning to be gone,” Junpei practically inhaled the coffee. “Did you need him in particular or is there something I can help with?”

Kei smiled, “no, just wanted to say hello.” He wasn’t sure what Fugaku was looking for, but maybe if he asked Mikoto she would give him a clue.

Junpei nodded and watched as his friend left.

****

Days passed until Kei was finally able to arrange a training session with Mikoto and the kids. Kei walked towards the furthest most training ground on Uchiha land with Naruto following closely, looking at everything around him in amazement. He kept Naruto close while still letting the boy express his enjoyment. The chances were high that his excursion onto the village streets had been as much freedom as he’d ever been allowed.

“Kei-nii, why are we here?”

“I thought it would be a great place to just play.”

“But isn’t this a place for ninja to train?”

Kei laughed, “yes it is a training ground, I booked for us, so we won’t be interrupted and we can do what we want.”

Naruto relaxed. The last thing he wanted was to cause his cousin trouble especially as he was hoping to live with him. He didn’t want his cousin to know what the villagers called him. He was afraid if Kei-nii knew that he wouldn’t want him anymore. His feelings and fears must have been plain on his face as Kei knelt in front of him.

“Naruto,” Kei held the young boy by his shoulders, “it’s okay. I brought you here because I wanted somewhere quite. I know how the villagers see you and I am not ashamed of you or afraid of you. I just want you to have some fun.”

Naruto nodded, “who do I play with?”

Kei smiled, “well how about me for now?”

Tenzo hid himself within a tree. He was surprised when Shikaku had assigned him as Naruto’s guard, he wasn’t doubting Kei’s strength, but every shinobi could benefit from someone watching their backs. Tenzo didn’t want to tell Kakashi that someone had snatched, or worse, killed Kei or Naruto because they were alone. He watched Kei and Naruto were just below him in one of the more secluded training grounds. They didn’t look to be training so much as play around. He wasn’t sure just what it was that Kei was trying to teach the young boy or if they were really just playing around. The sound of laughter was a welcome noise and answered the fleeting question of why they didn’t go to one of the playgrounds in the village. With the way that Naruto was still harassed and bullied it would make sense for the overprotective Kei to let Naruto explore where he would be comfortable. Tenzo extended his senses, while keeping his own chakra as tightly coiled as he could. There was a signature was a lot further out, with a small buzzing sort of background noise. It took him only seconds to recognize the seal put upon all ROOT agents.

Chapter Text

Shikaku was stuck in his office working late yet again. He wanted to say that since taking over as Jonin Commander his work load had actually doubled, but Sanzo had never been one to allow for slackers in the office. The fact was it hadn’t, at least not until recently. Sure Kei had brought his own work load, but the rest was really just changing the type of work from being out on missions to being behind a desk. As lazy as he was, he hated being at a desk and that perspective made all the difference. Too much sitting still. Flipping through another file one name popped out. Heaving a loud sigh, Shikaku knew exactly where he would blame the perceived extra load to be coming from. Fucking Danzo. He pulled out corresponding reports in order to verify it’s accuracy. He was making a list of the shinobi mentioned in the files in case they were the issue or ROOT or whatever. Honestly it was giving him a headache and he just wanted to go home and spend time teaching Shikamaru shogi. He pointedly ignored the reason behind why he teaching Shikamaru shogi at this age.

Inoichi resisted pounding his head against his desk. He wondered if Shikaku was still in his office. If he felt this horrid then it was only fair to spread the joy, after all misery loves company. He packed up his stuff, gathered the files that had him concerned and headed off towards the Hokage tower and the Jonin Commanders office.

Walking into Shikaku’s office, Ino could only smile at the curse that his best friend let out at the sight of the files in his arms. “Yeah, these are the ones I’m concerned about. Something’s just….well something is bothering me about the information in them. The problem is this is just a small sample, there are way too many for my peace of mind, but these ones we have a personal connection to. I was hoping our familiarity with them would help pin point just where they’ve been messed with and how.”

Shikaku watched as Ino took a seat realizing that there was a good chance neither of them would be able to head home before well after supper.

The pair settled down to compare notes and files. A knock at the door and subtle flair of chakra set both men to thinking that they just might be spending the night in the office.

“Come,” Shikaku tried not to sound put out as Monkey entered.

“I come bearing gifts, if that makes things easier.” The bag of take out food in one hand almost had the pair forgiving the fact that there were files in his other. “I stopped at the BBQ joint by the academy.”

“Right, well come in sit down and let’s get some of this figured out.” Shikaku set the privacy seals without the barrier in order to keep things as quiet as possible.

The next morning there was a toad sitting on his desk when Shikaku came in late, Inoichi right behind him.

“Good news?” Ino wanted to retrieve the files they had left in Shikaku’s office overnight.

“Let’s hope so.” Shikaku opened the message scroll, “well it looks like Jiraya and Kakashi have located Tsunade. It sounds like they were able to convince her to come back if only because she wanted to make sure the Kei was actually an Uzumaki.” He continued reading only to laugh at the final line. “I guess Jiraya paid off her gambling debt and tricked her into signing a contract that said she agreed to come back to the village. They should be here within the week.”

“Oh, I bet Jiraya paid for that one,” Inoichi knew how legendary her temper was, especially when it came to her perverted team mate.

“Well at least she’s coming back and hopefully that means we can convince her to take the hat. The question now is do we let Sarutobi know now or when she appears at the gate?”

Inoichi really didn’t feel like he was being insubordinate nor petty in giving his opinion. “I say wait until she’s at the gate. Of course that’s providing Jiraya didn’t send a message to his sensei or that Enma didn’t provide a report.”

“I feel the same.” Shikaku took a sip of still hot tea.

Inoichi cast a calculating look towards his friend.

“What’s that look for?” Shikaku didn’t seem bothered by the glare, but he’d rather deal with the Yamanaka curiosity then deal with the fallout.

“Kakashi’s team?” Inoichi knew that those on Team Ro were some of the few that Shikaku had cleared and therefore ones that Monkey assigned to the most at risk assignments. However, because Kakashi had gained Danzo’s attention there was also the chance that they would be targeted by the bastard first. Of course he needed to add himself, Ino, Kei and their families to the list.

“Ahh-“ Monkey now understood the curiosity was in regards to keeping them safe. “I assigned them to Naruto’s guard detail, or I should say I assigned missions to the other ANBU guards so they would be the only ones available.”

“You’re worried about repercussions from Danzo.”

Shikaku nodded. “Now as to those files-“ Shikaku unsealed the hidden drawer in his desk and pulled out the few files they hid there the night before.

“Monkey, Shikaku how do you feel after the assessment of the ANBU?” Ino allowed the change of topics knowing that Shikaku kept some things close to his chest in order to limit surprises. Well, as long as his friend knew that he could relied on others as well he wouldn’t push.

Monkey wanted to fidget but remained still as he thought about the ANBU under him, it distressed him that there were at least four members that he had doubts about and that aside from six that he could vouch for the other fifteen were questionable. He really didn’t like the fact that he couldn’t trust the majority of his force without thought.

Shikaku thought over the list of names Monkey had supplied of ANBU who had questionable or inconsistent reports. “I have to agree with them in general, but let’s go through any missions they’ve been on recently and compare notes.” The two divided the work load and got down to business.

***

For the second day in a row, Kei took Naruto to one of the more secluded training grounds in order to allow them some time to play around and run without having to ignore the cat calls from the civilians with the bonus they could spend the entire day here without being bothered. He could feel Tenzo already in the trees and kept the smile to himself. The wood user was the perfect guard, he would never let anyone hurt Naruto.

“Are we really going to train like real ninja?” Naruto wanted to run and explore. He’d never been allowed on the training grounds before yesterday.

“That we are. I know you want to do some really cool things, but the first steps can get kind of boring.” Kei hoped that Mikoto showed up with the boys like she said she was going to. He still nervous being alone with Naruto.

“If they’re boring why do we have to do them?”

Kei just smiled, it was a such a Naruto comment, always wanting to skip to the prep work. “Well the boring stuff makes sure that we don’t get hurt. It’s like making sure you have your sandals on before leaving the house. Running on bare feet can hurt.”

Naruto scratched at his cheek, “I guess. But what if an enemy stole your shoes and you have to run after them barefoot.”

Kei couldn’t help but laugh. “Let’s just try these first before you completely ignore them.”

It wasn’t more then an hour later when Tenzo felt a group approaching the training ground. It took Tenzo barely a minute to recognize them as Uchiha. He watched as Mikoto, the clan head’s wife and her two son and a third Uchiha he was familiar with. Tenzo had worked with Shushi on a couple of missions and had heard about his cousin Itachi and brother Sasuke. A quick pulse of his chakra to alert his fellow shinobi had not only Shushi flaring his back, but Mikoto and Kei as well. So much for going undetected by Kei. At least the two youngest were still unaware.

“Kei-San!” The voice from the side had Kei slowing down. “Kei-San we’re here to train with you.” Through the trees ran Itachi and another Uchiha with Sasuke trailing behind. Naruto moved in behind Kei’s leg as if to hide from the on coming kids.

“Really, well that will be fun. Where’s your mother?” Kei remembered running wild behind his brother as a child, his parents not worrying about his where about, however since the coup was stopped, Mikoto was a little more vigilant, Likely worried about push back from the die hards.

“Oka-San said she’d join us shortly.” Itachi stood in front of Kei. “Oh! Kei-San this is our cousin Shisui. He’s only a year older then me.”

“Nice to meet you Shisui-kun. Sasuke-kun how are you?” Shisui bowed in greeting, but remained quiet.

Sasuke’s eyes never left Naruto, “I’m good Kei-San.”

Kei reached behind him to put his hand on Naruto’s head to encourage him to come out. “Naruto, these are a couple of my cousins on my father’s side. Sasuke is the same age as you, Itachi is Sasuke’s older brother and Shisui is an older cousin to both of them.”

Naruto slowly moved out from behind Kei, he tipped his head to the side as he looked up at his Nii-San. “Does that mean they are my cousins too?”

Kei knelt down, a smile on his face, “not really. Our mothers were cousins. These three are related to my father. However just because they’re not related doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, right?”

Sasuke looked to his brother before approaching the blonde boy. “My name is Sasuke Uchiha and I love tomatoes. I want to be a strong shinobi like my brother and Kei-San when I grow up.”

Naruto stood tall beside the kneeling Kei. His little hand fisted in Kei’s sleeve. “I’m Naruto Uzu-Uzumaki and I love Ramen. I-“ the young boy froze, he wasn’t sure what he wanted when he grew up.

Sasuke could see how scared the other boy was and he wanted to help, “My Oka-San says that we don’t have to have a goal yet. That our goals can change.” He took a breath and reached out to Naruto. “Wanna be friends?”

Naruto blushed a deep red before nodding. He really wanted more friends. Shino was awesome, but he knew he was too loud for the bug user.

“Well, I’m not going to argue with your mother.” Kei stood again, his smile was warm. This was his goal. Actually this was better then his goal as Sasuke and Naruto were meeting as equals. “Let’s continue on and we can start with some warm ups before she gets here.” Kei lead the small group toward the center of the training grounds. He started the four children on stretches. He had the idea of using the same general stamina training that he had encouraged Itachi to teach Sasuke and Shikamaru.

“Where would you like to start Kei-san.” Itachi remembered how Kei had given him some instruction on how to train with his brother. Exercises that would help them get stronger without hindering their chakra growth.

“Why don’t we start with the same stretching exercises you do with Shikamaru and Neji.” Kei turned his attention to his chibi self, “Sasuke can you help Naruto? I know this is old hat to you, but Naruto hasn’t been able to exercise like you have.”

“Yes Kei-San.” Sasuke grabbed Naruto’s hand and pulled him a couple of feet away.

Kei watched as both Itachi and Shisui worked on the same stretches the other two were doing. Sasuke was really taking his time in showing Naruto the correct way to stretch. Standing to the side, Kei copied the children. He exaggerated each movement, slow and steady. He took the time to watch each of the others to see how they were doing. “Alright, Sasuke, Naruto are you ready to start on your katas?”

The boys nodded eagerly.

“Sasuke have you done them before?” Kei didn’t want to take over something that little chibi-can had been learning from someone else.

Sasuke shook his head, “not yet.”

“Alright, Itachi, Shisui would you be willing to help out? If you can face Sasuke and Naruto and show them how each move is done.” Kei wasn’t sure exactly what rank the 14 year old Shisui had, but he suspected the talented Uchiha was a chunin for sure and possibly Jonin and likely earmarked for ANBU. Kei cursed the fact that ninja villages were forced to make soldiers out of talented children.

The passage of time didn’t register on the group, until Mikoto called out to them. “Boys, I brought some drinks and snacks, come make sure that you rehydrate.”

“Yes, Oka-San,” Itachi and Sasuke called out heading towards the edge of the training grounds, where Shisui helped his aunt lay out a blanket and small picnic. Naruto rushed over to his cousin and the security he found there.

Mikoto glanced around the training grounds. She couldn’t see the shinobi who flared their chakra as she entered, but Shushi and Kei looked calm so she would follow their lead. Shisui gave her the barest of nods and a wink. She had been inactive long enough that she was unfamiliar with many of the shinobi in the village. “Kei I hope that I’m not too late?” Seeing how relaxed Kei was reassured her that the hidden shinobi wasn’t a threat and that helped her relax even more.

“Mikoto-San, I’m just glad you were able to come.” Kei reached behind him for the little boy who was now hiding. “Naruto?” Feeling the blonde clutch tighter to his pant legs, Kei turned and knelt down. “Naruto, this is Sasuke and Itachi’s mother. Her name Mikoto-San.”

Mikoto smiled at the blonde boy who looked so much like his parents, her friends. “Naruto it’s nice to meet you.”

Naruto nodded. Sasuke moved closer to his new friend trying to show that his mother wasn’t scary.

“They’re just going to talk for a while.” Sasuke sent glare towards his brother and cousin who were snickering at him. It’s affect diminished due to his age. Looking back at the blonde Sasuke stated firmly. “Let’s go play before we need to start again.”

The look on Sasuke’s face when Naruto gave him a blinding smile had Mikoto hiding a laugh, but it almost broke Kei’s heart. Here was the relationship they were supposed to have, not the farce of friendship he had mangled in his time.

“Kei?” Mikoto took a step forward but stopped when dark haired man shook himself out of his dark thoughts.

“I’m good.” He stretched his arms over his head. The hands signs almost ignored in the action. “So, Itachi,” Kei turned his gaze onto the older sibling now that he’d given his message to both Mikoto and Tenzo. “If you were going to use this as a training opportunity, what do you think we should do?”

Itachi watched the way Sasuke and Naruto ran through the training ground. There was something like wonder on his face. He hadn’t seen his brother laugh like that in a long while. Looking back at the man that had such a huge impact on their family in such a short time he just shrugged.

Kei winked a Mikoto, “well why don’t you go and join in for a while. After all it’s hard to play tag with only two people. Shisui, you two. It will give you a chance to see how Naruto moves and allow him to become more familiar with you.”

Itachi looked like he wanted to argue. Playing tag wasn’t something that a clan heir and a shinobi ready for the chunin exams should be doing. Shisui ran off to immediately join in. The smile from his mother had him thinking that perhaps Kei-San knew more then he was letting on.

Mikoto followed Kei over to a tree on the edge of the training grounds. “You know I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sasuke just play before. Even with Itachi.”

Kei smiled, “sometimes the simplest interactions have more benefits then we think. They think they’re just running and playing a childish game, they don’t see that it’s a prelude to training.” Kei remembered how Haru had justified many of the same childish games when they were older. “Running helps build their stamina. Tag helps with critical thinking on the fly. Where do I run? What will the others do? Can I successfully evade by doing X? I had a friend who could sneak into a camp full of paranoid battle hardened shinobi just to steal everyone’s shoes- on or off their feet, without getting caught.” Kei couldn’t help but smile remembering the last prank Haru had done. They were hiding from Kaguya, but planting a surprise ration in everyone’s weapons pouch had brought smiles to dark faces and lifted everyone’s spirits, at least for a little while.

“That sounds… well to be honest that sounds like something a friend of mine would have done.” Mikoto turned her eyes to follow Naruto, a sad smile gracing her lips.

‘Kushina,’ Kei shared the smile as he wondered just how alike the pair really was.

“Our friend?” The words were whispered, but Kei heard them.

“Guard, he’ll never be without them until he can protect himself, even then he’ll still be watched.”

Once again Mikoto thought about Naruto’s mother, Kushina had ANBU guards up until she made Chunin when they only checked on her when she had been in the village. She remembered how relieved she had been to finally be done with them at least until Minato became Hokage, when she was forced to welcome them back.

“Well, what say you we join in the fun?” Mikoto grinned.

Kei swept his arm out in an exaggerated motion for her to lead the way.

“Alright kiddos who’s it?” Mikoto ran right into the game with Kei close behind.

In the tree above the spot Kei and Mikoto had been chatting, Tenzo just shook his head. So much for hiding from his targets. At least Kei had an idea as to why he was there, and one that Mikoto could accept without cornering Itachi. Kei’s story about his friend reminded the wood user of many of the challenges between Guy and Kakashi. Now to keep his eyes open and do his job.

Chapter Text

Danzo looked down at the files on his desk. Plans that had to be scrapped because of interference. There were too many. Now the backlash of Sarutobi breaking out of the genjutsu had given him a headache for the past week. One that he couldn’t get rid of. He’d been waiting for Hiruzen to come storm into his home and demand answers. The fact that he hadn’t had Danzo more paranoid then ever. He had sent one of his sleeper agents to the Hokage’s office to see what was going on. The tool had been sent back with word that the ANBU guard was NOT going to be rotating anytime soon and that he wasn’t accepting any appointments for private meetings. The fact that Sarutobi was still Hokage meant that whoever helped his old team mate break free was holding all the cards. Damnit. That was his job. That’s why he’d been playing the long game in being the shadow moving pieces behind the Hokage.

How much did they know?

Who broke the genjutsu?

What was their plan now?

Would they allow Hiruzen to continue or would they be the ones to pull the strings?

Fists slammed down on his desk. He was the one who was supposed to be in control. He wanted to scream in frustration, but that would be showing too much emotion. Not something he did. Leaving the room Danzo started down the hall towards the training ground.

“Sir,” a ROOT agent stopped him with a stack of papers. “The Hokage has given Kei Uchiha access to both the Uzumaki compound as well as the bank account and boxed items held in trust from Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki.”

Danzo reacted without thought. The kunia was shoved into the neck of agent delivering the message. The body fell to the floor, blood covering the walkway and the fluttering papers. Stepping over the body, Danzo headed towards the exit, no longer able to hide his emotions. This was the last straw. He had been slowly siphoning funds from accounts held in trust. It had taken him longer to be able to break into the previous Hokage’s account, but that didn’t mean his treachery wouldn’t be found out. The only reason he could see for being left alone this past week was that Hiruzen and his lackeys were trying to build a legal case against him. If he had time he would flee to the Diamyo’s court and hide until he could start over again. Of course the idea of hiding pissed him off just as much, but a shinobi used whatever tools were at their disposal to get the job done. What he really needed to do was get rid of Kei Uzumaki-Uchiha and jinchuricki brat.

“H189!” He called to one of the agents near the entrance. He was glad he had refrained from giving successful candidates names after working so hard to disassociate them from any emotions. He had made the mistake of giving N77 the name ‘Cho’, it was easier for them to deny any alliance to clan names if they didn’t have any. “I need you to find where Kei Uchiha is and report back to me.” The plan that was forming in his mind was nebulous and probably more reckless then his regular plans, but like a mosquito buzzing around your head, he wanted this irritant gone and gone now.

***

Mikoto insisted that Kei sit back for bit and watch. Her reasoning that she wanted to be familiar with just Naruto’s chakra in case the Uchiha were ever called upon to ‘help’ out with him, and his own Uzumaki chakra was confusing her, was bullshit. She had been a top jonin, and ANBU (something that had surprised him to learn). She could pin point any number of chakra signals easily. Just because she had retired didn’t mean she had become lazy. Fugaku had confided that she was still sought out by her former ANBU comrades to spar as she fought with an unpredictability that was unique and that he attributed to her time with Kushina, where the pair often fought back to back. After the third great shinobi war Fugaku, himself had stepped back to take over the police force and become clan head upon his father’s death. They had found out that she was pregnant just at the end of the war and Mikoto had retired to raise her son and help with leading the clan.

A squeal of laughter brought Kei away from the revelations of things he didn’t know about his parents in his past time line to watch Naruto and Sasuke charge through the bushes to evade Itachi chasing them. Once in the open the boys split up, Itachi took off after his brother while Mikoto ran after Naruto, her hands making grabby motions and earning another burst of laughter from the blonde. Shisui leaned against a tree laughing, something Kei was sure he regretted when Itachi made a quick turn to tag him.

When the attack came Kei was rising towards the shinobi that jumped down into the middle of the field. It took a bare second for it to register the newcomer as Tenzo, but that was all the time that was needed for ROOT to attack Naruto with a barrage of flying weapons. Mikoto pulled the boy to her chest and rolled, giving the new comers access to attack her back. Kei watched the number of weapons pierce her back and lost it. He didn’t hear Itachi’s or Sasuke scream at the same time.

“MOTHER!” His eyes flared and in a breath he was across the field fighting the intruders bare handed. He wanted their blood. The Chidori chirped to life as it plunged into the chest of the first assailant. His Mangekyo flaring as black flames consumed the body. He didn’t seem to register that Yamato had ensnared another cloaked figure in his wood release or that Itachi capture another in genjutsu and Suishi was down, his body covering Sasuke. Kei sole focus was on Danzo as he walked out of the trees with more ROOT guards.

“A Kei Uzumaki-Uchiha, emotions really are the downfall of the Uchiha.” Danzo was beginning to regret his decision to attack, but he couldn’t go back now.

Yamato flared chakra into is ANBU tattoo calling all active members to the area. All he could do was watch as Kei fought five highly capable shinobi alone. That he seemed to be winning was not really surprising, but Yamato needed to help. He had seen Shisui fall under the onslaught as he stood in front of his younger cousins.

“Itachi.” Tenzo needed to call the young genin’s name a number of times before he got his attention. “Genjutsu this one please.” He waited until he felt the shinobi wrapped in his mokuton slump before sectioning off the wood and leaving him bound in a genjutsu. “When it’s clear grab Sasuke and run to your mother’s side.” Tenzo could feel Itachi wanting to protest without even looking at him. “I’ll provide a path.”

The Uchiha matriarch wasn’t moving and Naruto was sobbing quietly in her grasp. He could feel the fluctuating chakra and knew the seal on the boy was being tested. He needed to be there to help contain the demon if it broke free of the Yondaime’s seal. Spotting his chance, Tenzo motioned for the brothers to run as he carried Shisui’s body as carefully as he could and threw up a wooden shield sheltering Uchiha. As much as he wanted to rush and backup Kei, he need to keep Naruto calm, and make sure that neither Uchiha died.

Itachi sat Sasuke beside their mother. She wasn’t moving and he was scared, he could feel the tears flowing down his face and didn’t care that he was crying in front of another shinobi.

Tenzo “Itachi, you know first aid correct?” The Uchiha heir nodded, “I need you to wrap Shisui’s head. Then make sure that your mother remains breathing. Do not pull any of the weapons out. We’ll wait for the medic.” Tenzo waited for Itachi to start before he turned his attention to the tear streaked blonde.

“Naruto, I need to you stay still and breathe with me. We need to be calm so Mikoto-sama doesn’t get hurt any further ok?” Tenzo had no idea if that would work or not, but right now it was their best bet. From the small opening of the cover he’d created, he let his eyes scanning the rest of the training ground, he was now able to see where the other ROOT agents were. The way they were sneaking around to try and get behind Kei, had him wondering how he could help and not be int he way. Sending his mokuton to trip them when possible, he kept one eye on the fight and the other on the young jinchuriki.

Tenzo waited until Itachi moved on to help his mother before he altered the shield surrounding them to become a thicker three quarter dome, with the opening just in front of him so he could still protect and attack if need be. “Stay here and stay quiet. If anyone approaches I’ll handle them.” Tenzo kept his eyes on the fight, but he knew that Itachi was listening. “I’ve called for help, they’ll be here soon.”

Chapter Text

Shikaku would forever be glad that both Fugaku and Inoichi as well as Monkey and Genma were in his study going over the next steps in the investigation when the call came in.

Monkey went still, his attention wavering from the conversation.

“It’s Cat. He’s in trouble and calling everyone in.” Monkey said when he realized the others were watching him closely. He must of flinched with the strength of the call.

The five men left in a flurry of leaves to answer the call. They did not expect to arrive at an oft unused training field to see a wooden dome of about a meter in diameter at one end of the field, an ANBU agent fighting in front of it to stop any from approaching. Kei was fighting four ROOT members while trying to get to Danzo, all the while yelling about hurting his family. He wouldn’t be pleased about letting that slip once he got his emotions under control.

Shikaku took control immediately. “Monkey, Genma go help Kei. Fugaku, check out the dome. Ino stay here in case we need to help out else where.”

Other ANBU began to show and once they saw their commander fighting Danzo, they went to help. Shikaku took note of which masks were there and which side they chose to help.

Danzo snarled, a hand sign formed and from the glint in his eye, Shikaku knew a something unpleasant was coming. He didn’t expect three of the ANBU present to turn and start fighting their comrades. He could see Tenzo grit his teeth as he tried to fight the compulsion that Danzo must have triggered.

“Fu,” Shikaku had never shortened the man’s name before, “Tenzo.”

The Uchiha head didn’t even turn to acknowledge the command as Tenzo slumped forward. However with Tenzo out his mokuton lost the majority of it’s strength and the next attack had the wooden dome shattering apart, and revealing to those present what he had been hiding.

Fugaku’s wife was on the ground. From what was visible, her back was studded with senbon, little Naruto’s body peaked from underneath her. Shisui’s body unmoving on the ground. Itachi was at his mother’s head, and he had streaks of blood running down his face. Sasuke clutched at his big brother, his face reflecting the fear the little boy must be experiencing as he cried quietly.

Shikaku flared his shadows, taking control of as many attacking men as he could, waiting for Fugaku to turn his eyes on them. A whirling ANBU rushed through those frozen, hands a blur as they hit tenketsu points paralyzing the frozen shinobi where they stood. Fast behind him were other ANBU doing their best to restrain their compatriots while they were incapacitated.

Soon it was just Kei and Danzo in a taijutsu fight. The glee on Danzo’s face gave rise to the thought that he had yet another card to play.

Sarutobi arrived with his guard in time to watch his old friend push his sleeve off of his shoulder to expose an implanted sharingan eye. The curses from ANBU was loud amongst the fight.

“No more, once was enough you bastard.” Kei pulled his tanto from his forearm. Twirling in a circle, he brought the sword upwards, as to cut the old war hawk up the middle. The swing seemed wild to those watching, as Danzo stepped back out of the blades way, his head jerking back at the last minute. It wasn’t until Kei took another step back that the onlookers could see the blade had sliced Danzo’s lower jaw and tongue in half, going through his upper lip and the tip of his nose.

“This ends HERE!” The tanto swung in a downward arc, severing Danzo’s right arm at the shoulder. As it fell to the ground Kei dropped his weapon and plunged his hand into the councillors chest. It was violent and some would say overkill, but Kei pulled the rotten heart from the man’s chest and watched as he fell before destroying the organ in his hand with fire.

No one moved as Kei stood over the downed body of a village elder.

It wasn’t until Naruto sobbed his name that Kei moved, tossing the still organ to the side and rushing over to the Uchiha family and little Naruto. He forgot about how corrosive Kurama’s chakra was at this stage.

Rabbit already in healer mode moved to Shisui’s form, their hands glowed green. Another ANBU agent approached and picked up the teen after a quick nod from Rabbit as the they shifted over to look at the down matriarch.

A flare of corrosive chakra had many on the field tensing for another battle. Kei remembered Sakura talking about the burns she suffered when Haru had let one tail appear. He didn’t want that for Naruto or his mother. Kei crashed to his knees by the family and slowly ran his fingers through the blonde hair, ignoring the beginning of flickers of red chakra. “Can I move him?” He asked the medics, at their nod he slowly slid Naruto out from underneath Mikoto and into his arms, ignoring the burning sensation.

Kei looked around for a specific mask, “Owl, please? You’re the only one I trust right now.” He knew that it was a risk asking for Hizashi’s sister to help, but right now he needed someone he trusted to help his mother. He remembered Choji talking about how long the chakra burns on his hand took to heal. If anyone could ease those burns on both Mikoto and Naruto, it would be Hiashi’s sister.

In a swirl of leaves Owl returned with a Hyuga woman in tow.

“Please,” Kei begged, “can you help her?.”

Fugaku moved to hold his children out of the way, while the Hyuga knelt beside Rabbit to start the healing process before they moved Mikoto off the field. The senbon weren’t removed, they had no way of knowing if any vital areas he been hit. Hiashi’s sister turned her healing to Naruto’s little form.

The surrounding shinobi watched in awe as the Uchiha clan head held his children with care, all the while giving a Hyuga leave to treat his wife. The fact that two clans had been at odds mere months ago was now apparently a thing of the past in truth.

“Uchiha-san, I can’t do much for him right now, I think his abilities will be more helpful. That and rest.” She didn’t want to bring up the nine tails. “He would like benefit from a once over at the hospital.”

“No. No hospital.” Kei demanded, “they’ve never taken proper care of him.” The sobs wracking Naruto’s little body were immense. Mikoto’s blood was on his face, and despite her best efforts to protect him from harm, Naruto had at least three senbon embedded in his right shoulder.

Kei pulled them out gently, as he cradled the boy close. “Naruto,” resting his forehead against the little boy’s, the corrosive chakra licked at his skin, the burns hurt, but he wasn’t going to let the little boy know that. He lowered his voice to a mere breath of words, unheard by any but the child in his arms. He knew his eyes were changing between the sharingan, mangekyo and rinnegan, but he couldn’t control it just then, “Kurama, I’m sorry. I can’t control my eyes right now. You’re safe both of you. I know I’m one of those damn Uchiha’s and I’ll explain soon, I promise, but right now you need to clam down, you don’t want them to tighten the seal any more. Please Kurama, heal him, please.” Kei closed his eyes to focus on his own breathing, taking long slow breaths and preying that Naruto would copy him and clam down both himself and his tenant. Kurama’s chakra flared and then sunk back to leave the blonde drained of strength.

“Kei?” Inoichi’s voice held an element of concern as he pointed to Danzo’s severed arm that seemed to grow and reach for the body of the downed man.

Kei moved fast, setting Naruto down and rushing over to the appendage. He plucked out the sharingan eye. He was sure that it had belonged to his great-uncle Kagami, but would check later to make sure. Activating his mangekyo, he let the Amaterasu flames consume the pale limb, he kicked the heart he had dropped into the flames and watched as the ashes disappeared. He didn’t want to deal with Zetsu right now. Kei looked over at Sarutobi before speaking, “you might want to have his body sealed. I don’t know what other tricks he has that can be operated from beyond death.”

That seemed to break the spell over the rest of the group. ANBU approached the body and a sealing scrolls was removed. Others went to help Rabbit and the Hyuga medic take Mikoto to take the hospital.

“Kei, we need to get the children to safety. Do you trust me?” Shikaku could see that Kei was already on edge. He didn’t want to push too hard right now. At Kei’s nod Shikaku motioned for Genma to take the three children to his house, and brief his wife. He would stand guard while Yoshino gave the children the reprieve from being in the spotlight they needed, and put the clan on alert.

“Sir?” Badger’s voice was strained as they had been immobilized by the Hyuga. A quick chop to the back of the neck had the ANBU agent collapsing to the ground.

Shikaku and Owl had a quick conversation and realized that when Kei had struck Danzo in the face with his tanto, splitting the man’s tongue, it had neutralized the seal that all ROOT agents had.

The arrival of Sparrow to the Hokage’s location notified those gathered that when Danzo had activated the seal causing the ANBU sleeper agents to attack, that it also affected those across the village. There had been a number of minor fights as all of his agents had been activated. When Kei broke the master seal, it had also released them all from his control. Both the police and other shinobi where in the process of containing those affected until they could be checked over and cleared.

“Inoichi, do what you need to in order to uncover everything he had done,” Hiruzen couldn’t even use his friend’s name anymore. Seeing just how devious the man had been forced him to face his own failures. “Monkey, you and Shikaku are in charge. I’ll inform the Daimyo of his betrayal and my search for a new successor.” Sarutobi headed back to the tower with two ANBU in tow.

Fugaku released Tenzo and waited.

“Thank you sir. I was having trouble fighting the command.” Tenzo stood, ready to receive orders.

Shikaku looked the young man over, “how long have you been without a seal?”

“A friend helped me burn part of it off last year.”

“Part of it? A friend?” Shikaku waited for a name.

“Hound sir.” Tenzo could only hope that he wasn’t signing his own and Kakashi’s death warrant. “It was extremely painful and Hound was afraid he’d have to remove my tongue which really wasn’t a better option then remaining sealed.”

“Alright, we can ask for a full explanation later. Just so you know we have a counter to it now for a full removal even if the bastard is dead, you never know. However, for the time being I would like you to join the others at T&I. We want to make sure that there’s no hidden commands that could be activated even though the bastard is dead.” Shikaku had a feeling that Kei knew who Hound was. Looking over the field at the remaining ANBU and regular jonin. Some were staring confused at those who were confined by either genjutsu or blocked tenketsu points. He was thankful once again for Kei’s return and willingness to help them.

Tenzo nodded and handed over his own chakra suppression cuffs to be used to restrain himself. A wry smile upon his face.

Monkey turned to Shikaku and he knew the man was looking to how to proceed. “ANBU please transport the confined to the T&I. Until we get those seals off no one is being released. After that help the police force gather the others in town. I’ll be there shortly.”

The training field quickly cleared as Inoichi and Fugaku walked towards Shikaku. Taking pity on his new friend, Shikaku looked towards the Uchiha head, “Fugaku, I sent the kids to my house, Yoshino will guard them as will the clan. Do you want to go and talk to them first, or see to Mikoto?”

There was no judgement in Shikaku’s eyes, so Fugaku followed his heart first. “Mikoto will be surrounded by med-nins and doctors for the next little while, as will Shisui. I’ll go and reassure the boys and then meet you back in town.” He was sure the only reason he knew that he could see his kids was because of the new found trust and friendship he had with the men in front of him. If they had honestly needed him, they would ask instead of allowing him to see to his family first.

“Monkey,” Shikaku turned to the ANBU commander, “do you have someone who can watch this field? I would prefer an Uchiha or someone who might be able to spot any changes in the land itself. Kei will you come with us to T&I and deal with those with a seal?”

Kei was torn, he really wanted to check on Naruto.

“Kei, I’ll make sure Naruto is safe. Genma is with him and I’m sure he can stay with him until you return.” Fugaku had seen the indecision and offered a way to help.

“Thanks,” Kei left with Shikaku and Inoichi.

Monkey flared his chakra and passed on the instruction before leaving the field to see what damage was done in town.

Chapter Text

Yoshino hadn’t been armed at home since the night of the nine tails attack, yet here she was in her own living room, a weapons pouch tied to her leg. When Genma had shown up with three children in various states of anguish and blood on two of them, she had put the clan on high alert,grabbed her weapons and gathered Shikamaru in the central most room in the house.

Itachi held Sasuke tight on his lap, while Naruto sat a little apart, his arms wrapped around his knees. Genma gave a smile as he sat between the Naruto and Uchiha children. Shikamaru was more familiar to Sasuke and Itachi, but chose to sit beside the small blonde. Yoshino was proud of her son, going to one with minimal support.

She could see the deer loose in the yard and the subtle flare of chakra on the roof was a comfort to her even if it had Genma and Itachi flinching a little. “That’s Shiro, a jonin and Shikaku’s cousin, he’s keeping watch for us.” The comment had the Uchiha boys relaxing a little more. “Genma, can you tell me what happened?” She gave a small nod towards the boys hoping that the elite shinobi would keep the information more child friendly.

“Danzo.” Yoshino tilted her head to the side as Genma elaborated with what he knew, “Kei, Mikoto and the kids were at training field 22 when they were attacked by him and his ROOT operatives.”

While training ground 22 was the closest to the Uchiha compound, it was still one of the most remote ones and not frequently used. The fact that Mikoto wasn’t present explained why the two Uchiha heirs were with her. Unlike her, Mikoto retired to raise a family, while she had been sidelined due to injury. Mikoto wouldn’t let her children out of her sight after an attack unless it was for their safety as the fighting continued or she had been injured in the attack; which explained why the children were brought somewhere secure. There were no alarms blaring across the village so a village wide attack was out of the question, at least at the moment. Taking the chance that they were safe, Yoshino grabbed a wet washcloth.

“Itachi,” she approach the young boy only to have him flinch away. “I just want to wash your face sweetie.” She tried again and Itachi’s hand flew out to hold her wrist away from his face.

“Itachi! Close your eyes!” Genma’s voice was sharp and blunt, more like a barked order, something Yoshino wouldn’t have used on the boy. When the dark haired boy looked at him, Genma tapped his own face right beside his eyes and said more gently, “breathe, kid.”

As Itachi closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths, Yoshino left him alone and moved on to Naruto.

“Naruto can you take off your jacket please,” she was surprised that Kei had ignored what was obviously a bleeding wound in a small child, jinchuriki or not. The little boy moved enough to take off his jacket. Her breath caught in her throat as the movement exposed his t-shirt burnt and burns on his arms and chest. She tossed the clothes to the floor, “Shikamaru the laundry should be in the hallway, can you find a shirt that Naruto can use?”

Shikamaru rushed out of the room and back quickly. Yoshino removed the fabric to expose, what she prayed, was a small bleeding wound and minimal burns. She didn’t expect to see burns all over his arms and senbon almost completely embedded in the blonde’s shoulder. She looked up at Genma and the pair winced before Genma reached over and did his best to carefully pull the senbon out.

“I’m sure I saw Kei remove a couple, this one must have slipped by him.” Genma rubbed his hand up and down the blonde’s back. The hiss of knitting flesh was loud in the quiet room. “I don’t know if there’s anything we can do for the burns. Kei didn’t want him to go to the hospital.”

A gasp had the pair looking over at the Uchiha boys. Sasuke looked on the verge of tears as he looked over at the injuries Naruto suffered.

Yoshino took a breath before wiping away the residual blood. Already knowing what she would find when the skin was clean. No mark remained, although the boy was still whimpering, she wasn’t sure if it was from pain or just the fear that clung to them. “Naruto?” She kept her voice gentle, “will you let me wrap your arms?” She ran her fingers through his hair, when he nodded she loosely wrapped both arms up to his elbows, before slipping on the shirt her son handed her.

Once dressed Naruto returned his face into his knees. Genma pulled the throw off the back of the couch and draped it over Naruto’s form. Shock was going to be their next issue with the mount of burns and the trauma the jinchuriki had just been through.

Yoshino moved to other two. “Itachi, can I wash your face now?” Washing the blood away seemed to relax the older Uchiha in a strange way.

The older boy nodded as Sasuke tugged at her sleeve. His eyes flashed over towards Naruto. “Both Naruto and your brother will be fine. They just need time to recover.” A knock at the door had everyone’s head turning.

Genma moved into the rooms doorway, the senbon in his mouth now out and in his hand ready to face the unknown.

The children huddled deeper into the couch with Itachi, his eyes red with the sharingan spinning.

“Stand down. There’s been no chakra fluctuations nor warning from the deer, whoever’s at the door is a friend.”

Genma knew that his heightened emotions were what had him on guard, taking a moment to really think about it he knew that Yoshino was correct. The whole thing with Danzo must have had more rattled then he wanted to admit, if he was ignoring years of assassination instincts. He stood to the side far enough to allow her to answer the door, while still protecting the children.

“Fugaku!” Yoshino showed the Uchiha clan head inside.

Itachi and Sasuke ran to their father, as he knelt with his arms wide to hold them close.

“Boys,” there were tears on his face as relished the feeling of his sons alive and well. Glancing up at Kushina’s boy sitting alone on the, he knew that he couldn’t leave the boy alone. “Naruto, come here son.” He shifted his own boys to make room for Naruto. “Mikoto will be okay. She protected you for a number of reason, but know that no matter what happens you are not to blame.”

Naruto seemed to shrink away, wiping his face with his sleeve. He had yet to move from the couch. Genma moved back to the couch to pull the boy close. He hoped that Fugaku wouldn’t get angry at Kushina’s boy for not moving.

Fugaku moved to the couch with the boys in his arms. He held the boys close, Naruto was sat beside Genma with Shikamaru on the other side.

“Is mom really okay? What about Shisui?” Sasuke quietly asked.

“I’m sure they’re both fine. They’re at the hospital, I haven’t gone to see them yet. You boys were more important, and Naruto that includes you.” Fugaku did what he could to reassure his boys, “Naruto, just so you know Kei would be here but Shikaku and the Hokage needed his help in town. He’ll be back soon.”

“Are you sure?” Naruto’s voice was so very quiet.

Genma was the one to reassure the boy, “Naruto, I know that I’m a stranger to you, but the one thing I know for sure is that Kei would do anything to make sure that you’re safe.” Naruto leaned slightly into Genma’s side and senbon user took that as a win. He wrapped an arm around the little boy and pulled him in tighter. “It’s going to be a while before we get any news, why don’t you rest. Uchiha-sama, you might want to check Itachi, his eyes were bleeding earlier.”

Itachi looked at his father, as he was given a number of instructions.

“Well, son it looks like you awoke the mangekyo. We will be doing some training, but I don’t want you to let anyone know for now. I don’t want the elders to put more pressure on you.” Fugaku turned to look at his youngest son, “and how are you doing Sasuke? That must have been scary to watch.” He was just glad that when he had Sasuke go through the same chakra exercises, his eyes remained the same. There was no way that he wished for the burden of the sharingan to be given to Sasuke at this age. “You’re safe and healthy and that’s all I need. Nara-sama may I request that the boys remain here for now?” Fugaku knew that he was needed in the village and as much as he hated to admit it, he would have to leave the boys in someone else’s care.

Yoshino smiled gently at the children. “Of course. If I may Fugaku, are we still on high alert?”

Fugaku sent a couple of signs towards the two more experienced shinobi while answering the woman. “Not under a direct attack, but I’d ask that you stay vigilant just because of who was involved.”

Genma took the message and ran with it. His voice taking on the more carefree tone he was known for, “Nara-sama, why don’t we have a bit of a picnic in the room here. I can go and gather some pillows and blankets for a sleep over.”

“That would be perfect. I’ll go and fix something simple for dinner. The extra pillows and blankets are in the hall closet.”

Genma and Yoshino left the room while Fugaku was still there. It gave the Uchiha a chance to hold his boys tight. If it hadn’t been for Kei, neither of his boys would be willing to be this close to him. He needed to go back. To go back and help end this horrible nightmare and help make Konoha the village it was before Danzo got his claws into it.

“Dad, do you have to go?” Sasuke’s voice trembled with fear and uncertainty, but it was a question his youngest wouldn’t dare have asked before Kei’s arrival.

Fugaku rubbed his youngest son’s back. “Yes, I have to go back and help Kei and the others. Yoshino and Genma will stay with you and keep you safe. When everything is done, we can go and see your mother and cousin.” He looked over at Itachi, “I need the three of you to stay strong and help Yoshino while I’m gone.”

“We will.” Itachi promised. The young boy jumped up when Genma re-entered the room with his arms full of blankets. “I can take those Genma-san.”

Genma handed off the pile of blankets and went back for the pillows.

Yoshino came in with a tray full finger foods and helped the boys create a cozy nest of blankets and pillows. A sad smile crossed her face, the children were too quiet, too subdued. Right now the children wanted safety and warmth. She wanted to do this again and have the house filled with laughter and smiles. It would happen.

Fugaku got up and left, knowing his children were safe. Now to finish off Danzo army and stop his plans.

Chapter Text

Kei ran quickly through the village streets. He was glad that there didn’t seem to be a lot of damage. Once at the T&I building he was met by Boar and a man introduced as Sajin Hirako, the shinobi who ran T&I before Inoichi took over.

“We’re waiting for the other two.” Sajin was not someone he remembered, although he had heard the stories from Inoichi more recently, when the mind walker came over to talk and make sure that he was handling his knew circumstances well.

Kei took the time to breathe and try to center himself. His emotions were really all over the place and he knew his chakra reflected that. If he was going to be involved in removing the bastard’s seals he needed to be calm and in control of himself. He didn’t want to cause anyone any more harm.

“Kei?” The calm inquiry and soothing chakra that came from behind him and was reassuring.

“I’m good Shikaku,” Kei opened his eyes and followed his friends inside.

Inoichi and Sajin lead the way deep inside to the bowels of T&I where those affected by the seal were being kept.

The number of people in the cells was disturbing. It was more then Kei had even thought possible. Inoichi lead the men to the cell closest to the door. Kei recognized Tenzo inside as well as one of the Academy teachers and three other high ranking shinobi. Gazing into the other holding cells he guess there must be fifteen people inside, men and women, shinobi and civilian. Not seeing any children Kei knew they hadn’t found the ROOT training grounds yet.

“Most of these shinobi gave up quietly as soon as the master seal was disabled.”

Kei caught the implication, these were sleeper agents, ones who -aside from Tenzo, hadn’t even known they were sealed. Kei moved over to a near-by desk and pulled out sealing paper and ink from the storage seal on his arm. “The counter seals need to be placed on their tongues, I only need a small amount of chakra to activate it, but it will need to be a steady and constant force. If I push too much into the seal it will do more damage then any of us want to deal with.”

The implication that making a mistake while applying the counter seal could cause the death of those they were trying to save weighed heavily on the men.

Once again Shikaku took control. “Alright, Kei are you okay to handle that? Sajin, if you could back him up. Inoichi, I know you have the control, but we might need your mind jutsu to see if there’s anything left to worry about.”

“I want to start with Tenzo as his seal is fractured.” Kei stepped up to the cell and looked at the wood user, “is that okay with you?”

“If I can live without this seal, I’ll take any risk.” Tenzo stood by the cell bars, quietly waiting for his judgement.

A wild smirk raced across Kei’s face. “Aye, aye Captain.” Kei held out a small piece of paper for the wood user to inspect. “Stick out your tongue, and please don’t bite my fingers.” Kei held the paper, seal side down on the top of Tenzo’s tongue, then slowly started to infuse it with a small amount of chakra and held it for a prolonged amount of time. This was one seal that needed finesse, not brute strength to work.

Inoichi watched the beads of sweat stream down Tenzo’s face. A minute passed and Tenzo’s legs began to buckle, the pain radiated across his face but he didn’t bite down. There were too many variables for Inoichi to intervene, he’d just have to wait until Tenzo was free before asking any questions.

****

Fugaku scoured the streets checking on his men. The police were doing their best to reassure the general public while still checking on those who had caused problems.

“Sir,” Junpei found his captain and tried to get some answers. “What’s going on? Several shinobi just started fighting amongst themselves and the public for no apparent reason.”

“Yeah we can lay that one at Danzo’s feet, but I think we’ll keep that to ourselves for the time being or at least until I hear from the Jonin Commander.” Fugaku could see the questions in Junpei’s eyes and remembered that the man had no idea of the shit that Danzo had done. That the men he had taken into custody had seals on them that controlled their movements. He hoped that he would be able to explain later. “Look, just know that they were not thinking straight. Our focus now needs to be on the public and making sure they are safe.”

Junpei knew there was story there somewhere, but he would wait until everyone was safe to ask for a more in depth explanation. “Well, I have most of the force going through the village street by street, door by door to check on everyone. We haven’t gone to the clan compounds as of yet, we wanted to check on the most vulnerable.”

“Good work. I will go and talk to the clans personally and have them check on their members.” Fugaku got in contact with his other officers and noted how much of the village had been cleared, he instructed the men to continue to check on each citizen individually. He talked to the clan heads himself, unless someone asked for help, he had to trust the clan heads to take care of themselves.

***

Kei had destroyed the seals of the fifteen shinobi in custody and Inoichi had walked each and every mind. Now he was just tired. Finding out that some of them had taken on missions for Danzo that they didn’t consciously remember, let him know just how strong those seals were. He also knew that this wasn’t the end. He looking forward to the paperwork on this investigation.

“Ino, you need to rest.” Shikaku passed his oldest friend a cloth to stem the nose bled.

“We still have the ROOT agents to deprogram and we haven’t search the underground compound,” Kei pushed himself on, destroying the seals on the shinobi in the holding cells and double checking that there was no trace of the seals left had pretty much exhausted him. Regardless, Kei went back to check on Tenzo to make sure that there was no trace left of the seal.

“Those ROOT bastards are in the next room. We were afraid that they would attack these shinobi.” Sajin was exhausted but doing his best not to show it.

“Inoichi.” Kei stretched his neck from side to side to alleviate some of the tension, “let’s leave the ROOT in the next room for now. Tenzo, would you be willing to lead us through Danzo’s compound? We can check for survivors and uncover just what he had been up to.”

“I hope you all understand, but we’re going to have you stay here for the night.” When one of the shinobi detained looked like he was about to complain, Shikaku explained further. “Think of your family, your friends. The last thing we want is for something to trigger another seal and for you to attack them. When everything is over, we’ll let you go and as far as the rest of the village will know, you were all helping us with the case. This will not be held against you.”

Sajin looked like he might want to dispute that part, but he wasn’t going to argue with Shikaku right now, especially since they weren’t finished and technically it wasn’t his job anymore. He let Tenzo out and gestured for the wood user to lead the way.

The fact that the main access to the underground area was underneath the Hokage mountain was a surprise. Tenzo was just glad that his access was still valid.

“I don’t know if Danzo was stupid or just over confident given the fact that your access was never revoked.” Shikaku could only shake his head in amazement.

Kei stopped at the access point and examined the seal. If he was reading this right, smashing right through it would close pathways further on. However, if he overpowered it like a power surge that might work. “Shikaku, take a look and let me know what you see?”

“Tenzo, if I overwhelm the seal with yin chakra how do you think it will react?”

“Honestly, I don’t know.”

“Yeah, alright. Shikaku, we can think on it and deal with it later. For now let’s go and take a look.” Kei followed right behind Tenzo. “Can you tell us what you know of the rooms down here.”

The sigh from Tenzo was full and almost sad. “The first number of rooms are storage. It’s not until we get past the first fork and around the first set of training grounds that the dorms start. Trainees are kept two to a room. Danzo wanted them to form close bonds so that when they faced each other in the final exam the last one standing would be forced to erase all emotions.”

“The fucking bastard,” Sajin wasn’t one to mince his words or his thoughts.

The group was silent as they walked the halls. Each room was checked, and the group noted their contents. There were multiple crates of both weapons and armour as well as rations and clothing. The tracking numbers reminded Shikaku of those on the supply orders that came across his desk for both ANBU and regular shinobi. He’d have to get someone to check not only the accounts to see where the money came from but also the regular supply warehouse to do a full inventory of what they already had on hand,

Tenzo had been correct, it wasn’t until they reached the far side of the training grounds that they ran into ROOT trainees locked in their dorm rooms. Many of them weren’t more then children. Kei almost wished the Hyuga twins were there to block all their tenketsu points. He really didn’t want to have to hurt anyone. Was he going to need to genjutsu the lot of them in order to keep everyone safe?

“Sir,” Tenzo had an idea as to why Kei Uchiha looked so troubled, “many of these trainees don’t have the full seal and as they haven’t gone through the final exam, they may be willing to submit in order to be free.”

It sounded odd to Shikaku, Inoichi and Sajin, but Kei knew exactly what Tenzo was implying.

Kei nodded, “alright let’s take a look at them.”

Two by two Kei examined the trainees, removing what seals he could see. It was a painful process but they would be free soon enough. There would still be more work to do to make sure that they would be able to fit in with the rest of the village, but at least they were no longer under Danzo’s control. They all had the same tongue seal as the other ROOT members, it was just unfinished and as Haru always said an incomplete seal is a broken seal, and a broken seal can be destroyed more easily.

“They should be clear now, but I wouldn’t mind one of you double checking. I know that Inoichi is almost at the end of his chakra reserves, so that can likely wait until tomorrow. Most of them are going to need a little more time to recover from the seal removal.” He looked over at Shikaku. “If you’re worried about room or placing them in the cells, I’m sure that we can sedate them, that should give Inoichi enough time to recover and check them over. Hell, we can likely pull a cousin or two of his to help out.”

Shikaku pressed his fingertips together as he ran through plan after plan. “Sajin can I ask you to go and get Fugaku as well as a couple of others that are trustworthy to go through this place.”

Sajin huffed he wasn’t some errand boy, but in looking at it from Shikaku’s perspective, he was the only one who could go. Inoichi was just too worn out at the moment, Kei was needed to break the seals, Tenzo was most likely trustworthy right now but if he wasn’t then Shikaku was needed to hold him. He really was the only one able to go.

“I’m grabbing a Hyuga or two if I can find them.” Sajin growled.

“That would be very beneficial, whoever you find that you trust.” Shikaku turned his attention to Tenzo. “Let’s gather all the trainees into that last training ground. We can do an assessment of how they are there.” He didn’t want to think about the chakra exhaustion or other trauma that they may be suffering from. Damn it! It was like when they first found Kei all over again. Angsty asshole.

Kei went ahead and laid down some basic perimeter seals, while Tenzo led the traumatized youths to the arena. Shikaku and Inoichi talked to each one, from the youngest child of three to the oldest at thirteen. Children from Kohona, Suna, Iwa and Kiri. Some had been orphaned, some kidnapped and others still promised a better life to help their family. Some were from clans, his own included, while others were civilians, some had been there for years and others only weeks.

“This is a fucking nightmare and that’s without the issue of the seals.” Inoichi pinched the bridge of his nose, he was glad the nose bleed had stopped. Of course he was going to be plagued with dehydration and a migraine from hell from overusing his talents later.

Chapter Text

He didn’t know how either Jiraya or Tsunade were still alive with the amount of sake they drank everyday. Kakashi swore he could feel his liver wincing just watching them. How could Shizune just sit there so calmly drinking tea, and watch the train wreck that was happening. For three days he’d been sitting at the same table watching the pair of them drink and argue and debate. Jiraya had been giving her the reasons as to why she should return to Konoha, while Tsunade was arguing as to why there was no way in hell she was returning and listing all the ways Jiraya could shove it up his….

“Alright, you two, please.” Kakashi almost felt like an academy teacher trying to handle cranky toddlers. His plea actually garnered their attention. “I honestly don’t care if you come back to Konoha just to spit in Sarutobi’s face or if you come back in order to plaster this pervert’s face as a warning in all the bath houses. I just want you to agree to return so that I can check on what other type of shit has happened back in the village.” Kakashi started to mumble more to himself then the others, “everything single time I leave the village for long periods of time lately, either that damn Uchiha stirs up something else or Naruto gets into trouble and I’m not there to stop it.”

“What do you mean that damn Uchiha? And what’s this about Naruto?” Tsunade had her curiosity peaked. The Kakashi she remembered only got that worked up over one Uchiha, and that one was dead.

Jiraya’s sighed, he remembered how shaken he had been when Shikaku told him of Naruto’s disappearance. Sensei’s neglect of his godson was unforgivable, it was the main reason he had a greed to try and convince Tsunade to come back. “Sensei has done a shit job of looking after Kushina’s boy; as for the Uchiha he’s an Uzushio refugee.”

Tsunade growled, “explain.”

“Kei Uchiha-Uzumaki. His father was Takio Uzumaki and his mother Maki Uzumaki. One of Fugaku’s men found him outside of the village walls a couple of months ago. Inoichi walked his mind and found out that he escaped from Uzushio just before it fell. I read some of the scrolls he has on funijutsu and, son of a bitch but I wish I had those suckers before I took my sage training.”

“An Uzumaki? Why the hell didn’t you open with the fact that there’s another Uzumaki alive and in the village you asshole!” Tsunade ran through the Uzumaki family tree in her mind. Her grandmother Mito was the middle child of three and the one who had left for a political marriage in Konoha. Mito’s Kaito had been Uzukage, and Kushina had been his granddaughter. Her Aunt Himari was the only one to have multiple children, Maki must be one of her children or grandchildren making her a cousin to Tsunade.

Jiraya scratched at his cheek, “I didn’t? I couldn’t have sworn I mentioned it.”

A vein in Tsunade’s forehead throbbed, she was definitely going to plaster posters of Jiraya’s face all across the village.

Kakashi sighed and buried his face in his hands. He couldn’t believe Jiraya’s idiocy.

Tsunade turned he irate gaze onto Kakashi, “and what’s your excuse?”

Kakashi’s head popped, “I did, however, the two of you decided to have a drinking contest instead.” He knew he was courting a hit with his response, but he was so done with their adolescent reactions to each other.

Tsunade slapped Kakashi across the top of his head, then punched Jiraya on principle alone. She pulsed her fingers to her forehead in order to sober up. “I want the whole story now.”

Kakashi just sighed and started in on the story as he knew it. Kei’s arrival at the village, his story to the Hokage, his assessment fight, the way he got involved with Kumo and their attempted kidnapping of the Hyuga heir, his proposed seal to safeguard village dojutsu, how he was seeking custody of Naruto and lastly how the Hokage had been caught in a genjutsu while Naruto had been alone on the streets. He couldn’t help his own voice tensing in anger. Kei was doing what no one else had tried to. To protect the Yondaime Hokage’s legacy, the last of the Uzumaki royal line. To challenge Danzo and his manipulation of Sarutobi and the village.

Tsunade sat at the table fuming, her face contorting in rage over the injustices she was hearing. Had she been so deaf to anything regarding her returning to take that thrice blasted hat that she had ignored what he was actually saying? A look at her former team mate let her know that maybe she had, but that he had always fallen back on old arguments instead of trying to get her to hear what had actually been going on. The Hatake brat looked just as tired, too bad the kid had many of the same tells as his father. They should have likely headed out days ago. Tsunade turned to her almost niece.

Shizune filled the extra tea cup with some of the left over sake before getting up to order more tea and some finger food. “I’ll pack our bags after we eat.”

****

Mikoto awoke to pain. It took a long time for her to push past it to hear the voices around her. She was lying on her side, a position she didn’t like, and it felt like she was tied down. If it wasn’t for the fact she knew she’d been inactive for so long, she’d swear she’d been captured.

“Uchiha-sama, just relax.” The murmured voices became clearer. “You’re in Konoha hospital. You’re safe.”

“Chi-chil-“ she needed to focus hard to get the words out, “children?”

It was obvious that the nurse understood the request. “There was only you.”

The subtle shifting of air announced the presence of ANBU, “the traitor has been dealt with. There are no other major injuries.” Message delivered the masked shinobi stood as a sentinel in the corner. It may be that the village was safe but the fact that the ANBU didn’t disappear showed that there was still a danger.

The doctor knelt down to be in Mikoto’s field of view. “The injuries were to your back, however, you also have chakra burns on your chest. I’ll be taking you to our ICU to deal with the injuries. You will be going through a multitude of treatments and I’m sorry to say they will most likely be very painful. Please try your best not to move.” He looked over at the ANBU in the corner of the hospital room. This was the first time since clan matriarch had been brought in at the beginning of his shift, that someone else had come to give information. That meant that either a new danger had just been uncovered or that the issue that had spawned this attack had only just been resolved.

“Doctor, the labs have returned with the latest results.” His nurse’s voice was grim.

Looking at the reports the doctor called orders for more antidotes before moving her into the intensive care unit. The fact was his patient had been riddled with senbon and shiruken all of which had been seemingly tipped with different poisons. It wasn’t the first time that he had wished for Tsunade-hime had remained at the hospital.

Sparrow stood quietly and watched over the injured clan leader. They didn’t understand exactly what was going on in the village, but when they were asked to go and watch over an injury clan leader’s wife, they went. Passing along a simple message seemed to make all the difference in her treatment.

Chapter Text

Inoichi was in his office on the main floor of the T&I building. Shikaku had forced him to lay down on the couch he had there with a cold cloth on his forehead. The Nara was being a worry wort, he hadn’t actually fainted, at least not completely. He had just blacked out for a few seconds.

“Stop bitching.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Inoichi snarked back.

Shikaku laughed, “no but you were thinking it, and quite loudly as well.”

“Shut up.” Inoichi closed his eyes under the cloth. “Why am I friends with you again?”

“Hell if I know.” Shikaku sighed as he poured himself another tea wishing it was something stronger. “Kei how are you doing?”

Kei was sitting in the chair normally set aside for visitors. His head was tipped back, resting against the back of the chair and his feet resting on the arm of the couch Inoichi was resting on. “I’m good.” He raised his tea cup without opening his eyes. He really wanted out of there so he could check on Naruto, but he was just so drained.

There was a perfunctory knock on the door before Sajin walked in. He wasn’t alone, both Hiashi and Fugaku were with him. The three looked weary.

“Did we miss anything?” Shikaku wanted to make sure that the information given to them by Tenzo had been accurate with no hidden traps. No matter what Kei believed, Tenzo had been under Danzo’s control for years.

“We found a couple of more trainee; they had been hiding in a closet. Nothing nefarious, just a couple of scared children.” Fugaku reported. “We’ve had them all checked over by a medic and given a meal. They’ve been told that they’re staying put for the next little bit.”

Hiashi was quiet as he sat in the chair beside Kei, “how did it get to this?”

Shikaku just sighed louder and shook his head. “Look let’s call a day for now. Fugaku, head on out to the hospital and check in on Mikoto. Don’t worry about the boys. They can spend the night at my place. Kei you can come home with me to check on Naruto. I need to go and update Chouza.”

Inoichi visibly winced, “remember to break it down for him, he’s going to need to explain it all to the Diamyo.”

“Son of a…”. Shikaku dropped his head to his desk and groaned, “I’d do better helping him draft that letter, at least Chouza can pretty it up.”

***

Fugaku walked into the hospital hours after his family had been attacked. The nurses at the front desk directed him upstairs. The nurse at the ICU unit showed him to the waiting room. Fugaku sat down in the waiting room and tried to relax, the nurse hadn’t known anything, but said she would let the doctor know he was there.

“I have tea,” the paper cup was held out.

Fugaku was slightly surprised to see Hiashi Hyuga standing in front of him. He had left the man in Shikaku’s office almost an hour ago. “Thank you.”

Hiashi sat down beside him. “Any word?”

“No, the nurse said that they’re still checking her injuries. I guess they’re checking to see if she needs surgery.” The tea was bad, but he wasn’t expecting gourmet at the hospital.

“You’ve seen the boys?” Hiashi wanted to offer a safe space for the children but he had the Uzumaki women there.

Fugaku leaned over, elbows on his knees and his head resting against his clasped hands holding the cold tea. “I.” he cleared his throat, “I went to see them before checking in on the village. When Shikaku gave the all clear at the training grounds, I had to make sure that they were unharmed.” Fugaku didn’t want to think about how he would react if the boys had been injured as well as Mikoto.

Hiashi wasn’t going to judge. The balance between being a father and a clan leader was a delicate one, and he didn’t have the added burden of being the head of police. Checking on the children first showed Hiashi that Fugaku valued his family, that he went to help subdue the ROOT agents before checking on his wife’s condition in the hospital either showed Fugaku’s faith in their healers or the guilt he felt for looking in on his children. Hiashi had a feeling that Kei was responsible for his change in behaviour.

The pair sat in silence before Fugaku brought up the situation they were in, “so many things have changed lately. I mean six months ago would you be here sitting with me as I wait word on my wife’s condition after she’d been attacked by a village elder.”

Hiashi let a small smile cross his face, “honestly, I didn’t think there would ever be a chance of anything ever happening where I would be willing to talk to you, no matter what the situation.” The Hyuga leader looked across the hall at the door leading into the surgery. He’d lost his sister-in-law in that room four years ago. Now he prayed for his rival’s wife to survive. “I want you to know that if there is anything that the Hyuga can do to help, we will.”

The offer was such a shock, that Fugaku almost missed his name being called by the nurse. Hiashi flagged the woman down and when Fugaku still didn’t react, Hiashi gripped the other man’s shoulder. “Fugaku come, let’s see what the doctor has to say.” He lead the man into small conference room down the hall.

“Uchiha-sama.” The doctor was a little nervous talking too the two most somber clan leaders in the village. “The injuries your wife sustained were severe. It was in her good fortune that the medics who treated her at the scene were as skilled as they were. She had received a total of four shuriken hits, one kunai and fifteen senbon hits. The majority of the injuries needing only a stitch or two. The issue comes with fact that many of them were poisoned and with different poisons. Also she suffered some severe chakra burns on her chest and upper arms.”

With each word, Fugaku both seemed to relax and then tense. “So she’s going to live?”

The doctor nodded. “We’ve got her on an intense regiment of antidotes, antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, as well as chakra therapy. As for her recovery, we’re not sure what the final prognosis will be,” the list of poisons included a neurotoxin and a couple of rare animal venoms. “Unfortunately there is nothing we can do until we had flushed all the toxins from her. We don’t know how she will be affected by this, but that is a step we can deal with when we get there. As for the chakra burns, there isn’t much we can do for that except supplement her chakra and keep the skin moisturized. She has woken up twice and was coherent enough to ask about the children. I’m not sure how much she has retained of our answers. You need to be patient both with her now and during her recovery.”

“As long as she is alive, we can deal with this together.”

“I know that Mikoto-Sama had retired as a shinobi, but she was still a vital part of the Uchiha clan and leader for the clan’s defense. Will she still be able to carry out those duties?” Hiashi wasn’t trying to be an asshole, he didn’t even know why he was still here except for the fact that no one should ever be alone when dealing with something like this. He had a strong feeling that Fugaku didn’t care about whether Mikoto could walk again or not, however as clan head, the elders would make their lives a living hell and the couple would come to resent each other and the clan. The village was just getting over their resentment of the Uchiha clan, he didn’t know the whole story but having the head of the clan at odds with the clan elders would only set everything back and cause more village wide issues. If it wasn’t for Kei Uchiha-Uzamaki presences he was sure that not only would he not be here, but he’d actually rejoice in Mikoto’s injury and that’s not the type of person he wanted to be.

The Doctor took a few seconds to choose the right words. “She should be mobile, as to if she can still move as a shinobi, retired or not, that will depend on how she recovers from the poisons and how hard she works with her physiotherapy.”

“Thank you. Please continue to care for my wife.” Fugaku gave the doctor a shallow bow, “one more question Doctor, do you know anything about my nephew, Shushi Uchiha? He would have been brought in at the same time.”

“I don’t, but you can inquire at the nurses station about him.”

“Can I see Mikoto?” Fugaku knew that it was going to be a long road to recovery, but they would do it. He would check on young Shushi after he’d seen Mikoto.

“She should be out of recovery and into a regular room soon, I’ll send a nurse out to show you to her room. If you have any other questions I’ll be around.”

Fugaku bowed to the doctor as he left, something that was unheard of from proud man, “I thank you for your efforts.”

Hiashi remained quiet as Fugaku recovered from what he’d just heard. When the knock on the door came, as Fugaku didn’t move, Hiashi opened it.

“Hiashi?”

The confusion in Shikaku’s voice was understandable, Hiashi didn’t take any offense to it. It wasn’t like he and Fugaku were close friends, sure they were cordial to each other as of late, still the idea that Fugaku would let someone like Hiashi see him when he was this vulnerable would be a shock to anyone.

Shikaku walked into the room, Fugaku didn’t even look up from where he was staring at his hands. “I wanted to check on Mikoto before briefing the Hokage on everything. I will be calling a clan meeting as well, I’m not letting anyone try to hide this under the rug or suggest that we hide something. I also want to see if we need to investigate the other elders.”

Hiashi sat down and at Shikaku’s raised eyebrow, Hiashi sighed. “The doctor just left. It sounds like Mikoto will recover from the physical wounds, the problem is the number of different poisons that were used. It sounds like she’ll be on a lot of medications now to counter that.” He gave a pointed look at the Nara, “she also suffered from chakra burns.”

“Troublesome,” Shikaku sighed, he knew exactly where those burns came from, “they will take quite a while to heal.” Shikaku tapped his fingers on his knee, “Hiashi, about the burns, maybe we should keep quiet about them.”

“Of course. The last thing we need is to have young Naruto blamed for something beyond his control.”

Shikaku sighed, “Fugaku, we’ll be here to help. The injury Yoshino suffered years ago isn’t the same, but we both have practice with how long and painful recovery can be.”

“Hn,” the entry of the nurse escorting Fugaku to his wife’s room prevented him from responding with more.

Shikaku snickered at the door, “who would have thought the three of us would be this close.” He didn’t look at the other man, but could tell that Hiashi had tensed at the comment. “I mean it wasn’t long again that the Uchiha were on the edge of imploding, and you were closed in the Hyuga compound ignoring everyone. Now both of us have members of our clans who have joined the police force and we are intertwined with the Uchiha. Personally, I blame Kei. Ever since he joined the village, he’s brought the hidden shadows into the light.” Shikaku leaned back and stared at the ceiling. “He reminds me so much of Minato and Kushina. The two of them both brilliant and idiotic, loud and quiet, a whirlwind of energy and absolute stillness. They worked together so well that they shone lights into the corners. It’s something that’s been missing, that little but of sunshine that brightened everyone’s day.” He was sure that in their time line Kei and Haru were much the same.

“You think Kei brings it back?” Hiashi couldn’t deny the effect that Minato and Kushina had on those around them. Minato the airhead genius with a gentle soul, a kind heart and nerves of steel to do what needed to be done without a second thought without being cruel. Kushina who was rough and loud and unapologetic in everything she did; whether it was her pranks, fighting style or the way she loved those around her. Was Kei the same? Hiashi shook his head, no he couldn’t say that Kei was a genius and he really wasn’t loud, but maybe he was similar in some ways. Minato and Kushina were like the summer sun blindingly bright while Kei was more muted, more like the dawn on an overcast day. He definitely fought for those he cared for whether it be people or ideals. He may not have Minato’s quiet charm or Kushina’s bright charisma but he had a way of making you believe that things could get better.

“Hiashi, I’m betting on it.” Shikaku smiled, “are you sticking around? I need to meet with Chouza and find out just how much damage that bastard actually did to the village. I’m pretty sure he’s going to call a meeting of the clans, preferably today. I know Fugaku will want to spend as much time as he can between here and the kids, but I’m going to need him at that meeting.”

“You go start that, I’ll go and talk to the nurses about Shisui and wait until he comes out, then we’ll meet you at the tower. He’s not going to want to stay for long so we need to keep this meeting as short as possible.”

Shikaku just nodded as he left, it wasn’t like he wanted to spend a lot of time debating the political ramifications of Danzo’s actions.

Chapter Text

As Shikaku entered the Hokage tower Monkey joined him. At the top of the stairs there was one of Fugaku’s officers waiting with one of the guards. Shikaku wasn’t sure where the Hokage was, but the officer he recognized. “You’re the Uchiha that Kei bunked with for a couple of weeks.”

“Yes sir, Junpei Uchiha, sir. I’m Uchiha-sama’s vice captain.”

Shikaku nodded before turning to the ANBU guarding the door. “Raven is he in?”

“Yes sir.” The broad shouldered man knocked on the door behind him before opening it to allow the three shinobi entrance.

Hiruzen was sitting at his desk looking considerably older then he had the day before. “Shikaku, how? Why?”

“I don’t know sir, all we can do is to repair the damage he’s done.”

“The last missive I received, Jiraya said that they had been successful and were returning within the week.”

“Alright sir, then call a meeting of the clan leaders and we can at least explain what happened today. Let’s prepared them for Tsunade’s arrival. It’ll make things easier on the village with all the surprises that have happened lately.”

Sarutobi sighed and nodded, “the sooner the better, Raven can you go and notify the clan heads.”

“Fugaku Uchiha and Hiashi Hyuga are at the hospital,” Shikaku stated, “Junpei, unless Fugaku says differently, I’m going to assume that you will be remaining as liaison for the Police force.”

Junpei nodded.

It took just over an hour for the clan heads to be gathered. Shikaku arranged for tea to be available. He wished he could have something stronger but that would have to wait until he got home and was able to check on everyone. Watching as Tsume and Shibi sat in their regular spots, he could see the surprise on their faces as Fugaku walked in with Hiashi right behind him, his bearing almost protective of the Uchiha. When they sat side by side, Tsume actually stuttered. Sparrow and Bear were closer to the Hokage then normal, while Raven was directly behind him.

Shikaku stood at the end of the table. He did a mental roll call as his eye took in every person at the table starting at his left. Monkey, was in one of the three seats reserved for guests. Kaede Sato, the Academy Head Mistress. Masako Yamada, the rep for the smaller clans. Chouza moved from his regular seat, to sit at the right hand of the Hokage. Fugaku was technically in his seat and Hiashi was in the Yamanaka seat with Inoichi in the Hyuga seat. The Hokage was at the head of the table and sitting in the chair to his right was his son instead of Danzo. Akita Noa, the representative for the Merchant Guild took a quick look at the room and moved to sit beside the young Sarutobi. The Inuzuka and Aburame clan heads took their normal seats although Tsume was whispering to her former genin team mate and it was an actual whisper. Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado were forced out of their normal chairs right beside the Hokage and they didn’t look happy about it. Chiko Watanabe of the Civilian council was in the last regular seat. Junpei Uchiha was on his left and in another seat for visitors.

Sarutobi didn’t even look up from staring at his hands, so Shikaku swung his gaze to his best friend, meeting Chouza’s gaze, Shikaku stood. “Alright, looks like everyone is here.” He held up a hand as Utatane started to interject. “I know Danzo Shimura isn’t here and I will explain.” Pouring himself a cup of tea as he made a quick decision as to how far back he was going to go. “At our last meeting Kei Uchiha-Uzumaki requested not only access to the Uzumaki compound but also custody of Naruto Uzumaki. This wasn’t the first time his request came up in our agenda but it was the latest one and the one where we agreed to his requests and removed all but the most minimal of restrictions. Shortly after, Kei was sent on a mission lasting a couple of weeks. It was during his absence Naruto went missing from the orphanage.”

“So he was trying to trick us and kidnapped the demon.” Mitokado voice was shrill and unwelcome.

“No, actually,” Shikaku continued giving the Hokage an almost apologetic smile, “it seems that Naruto ran away from the cruel treatment he had been receiving at the hands of the orphanage staff and had gone looking for one of my kin, who had been kind to the boy but was off on medical leave at that time.” Shikaku looked at his own notes for a full investigation into the orphanage and how the children were treated.

“Has he been found? Is he safe?” Tsume leaned forward and looked ready to run out of the room to start searching, the trail would be cold but she was confident the Inuzuka nin-hound could track him. Her questions drowning out comments about how ungrateful the little boy was for everything the orphanage had done for him.

Shikaku nodded and watched her calm down. “He was found shortly after we became aware of his disappearance and he’s safe and being well looked after.”

Shibi took the chance to interrupt, especially as he had been housing the young boy as of late and had grown quite fond of the loud blonde. “Why were we not informed at that time?”

“The reason it wasn’t mentioned was because of the circumstances surrounding this disappearance. We’d been investigating the disappearance of a number of children. When we came to inform the Hokage it was found that he, himself had been…. attacked,” he tried to use a broad term but the Hokage gave him a sad smile and a nod. “He was placed under a genjutsu, one that needed an Uchiha to release. It has been speculated that the attack on the Hokage was to have us back off or to hide Naruto’s disappearance.” Noticing how many of the people present were looking at Fugaku, Shikaku knew he needed to continue. “The genjutsu was broken and it wasn’t an Uchiha who placed it on him. The Hokage and the investigating team had a few suspicions as to who executed the attack, but we were looking for evidence to bring before the council. As I said earlier, Naruto has been found and is staying somewhere safe. More relevant to this meeting is that a couple of hours ago Mikoto Uchiha, her two children and a nephew as well as Naruto Uzumaki and Kei Uzumaki-Uchiha were attacked within the village walls. We were notified about the attack by Naruto’s ANBU guard. The perpetrator was Danzo Shimura and his ROOT operatives.”

“Wasn’t ROOT disbanded?” The question came from Masako Yamada.

“No, it seems Danzo only took his ROOT operation underground. It was there that Danzo refined a silencing seal that seems to have been placed on all of those in ROOT.” Shikaku took another sip of his tea, he hated explanations like this, ones that hits only some major points without context, but he didn’t want to go into the details when they still hadn’t uncovered everything. “Mikoto Uchiha and Shisui Uchiha were injured and removed to the hospital. Naruto Uzumaki was also injured but treated on site and removed with the Uchiha children to the safety of a clan. The Hokage and his ANBU guard as well as many shinobi were present when Danzo activated seals that controlled a number of shinobi and civilians across the village, hence the commotion earlier today. Many of these people had no idea of what they were doing and no control over there actions. Once Danzo died the seals failed. It is thanks to the Uchiha and the police force that there were not more injuries in the village proper.”

Homura and Koharu tried to come to Danzo’s defense after all only an Uchiha could cast a genjutsu strong enough to enrapture the Hokage.

“In addition, it turns out that Danzo was the not only responsible for his team mate, Kagami Uchiha’s death, but he stole Kagami Uchiha’s eyes. He had one implanted in his right arm, which looked to be prepared to take many more eyes. During his attack he tried to use them against Kei Uzumaki-Uchiha after he had his ROOT attack the Uchiha Matriarch. After Danzo had been dealt with and with the help of an insider, we found the underground compound that held a number of children who had been held against their will to train for his ROOT army. We have files on the seals he used to force compliance, his plans to eradicate the Uchiha clan so he could harvest their eyes, detailed documents that proved he sold information on Kushina Uzumaki both her status as jinchuricki and the location of the safe house they were using during her delivery. There are files on how he sabotaged a number of Konoha missions resulting in the death of a number of our most valued shinobi and how his deals extended the third war. I am not the only one who has read these files.”

“Shikaku, do we know who these children are? How are they doing?” Chouza voiced the concern of many.

Shikaku sighed, “we are trying to figure out just who these children are, they were all poorly treated and traumatized to some degree. Right now they’ve been given a basic medical check up and Inoichi has offered his clan’s help in dealing with mental trauma and deprogramming. We are trying to match the records we’ve found with the children now in our custody.” Shikaku was glad when the other clan heads also offered to help where they could whether it was in helping rehabilitate the children or to go through the tunnels to see what had been left behind.

“Fugaku, how is Mikoto? The children?” Kaede Sato’s inquiry was sincere, she had been one of Mikoto’s friends during their academy days.

“Mikoto is still in serious condition at the hospital with a back injury, my nephew is also in hospital with a concussion but he should be released tomorrow barring any complications, the other boys are scared but fine.”

“That includes Naruto?” Shibi’s quiet concern cut through the loud voices of outrage.

“He’s fine, Genma’s with him.” Fugaku responded. Shibi nodded he was glad that someone who would actually care for the blonde tyke was with him.

“Junpei, if you could let the council know what the police force has found?” Shikaku passed the baton so to speak to let Junpei explain what the police force did.

Junpei was still reeling about the attack on the Mikoto-sama and the children. “Oh. Umm. We received numerous calls about shinobi and civilians acting out of character, some resulting in violent confrontations with other shinobi. Many of our officers worked to break up these altercations and detain the attacking party. According to reports they stopped as suddenly as they started. Many of those who started the attacks had no idea what had just transpired. I order our men to go door to door through out the village to check on everyone. When Uchiha-sama joined us he went to each clan compound asking for each clan member to be checked up on and if assistance was needed. Anyone that had been affected was brought to the police station as a precaution. We have asked for them for patience while we make sure that there are no lingering affects.”

Shikaku nodded, “we’ll have someone familiar with seals go by and check on them.”

“As distressing as all of this is, what is it that you are proposing to do now? What does this means for Konoha now? I’m sorry Sarutobi-Sama but if you have already been compromised, how are we to know that it won’t happen again?” Like everyone else at the table, Chiko Watanabe was shaken by what she’d just heard, it did help explain some of what she had seen in the streets today. Now she wanted answers, a plan to go forward.

Sarutobi knew that this meeting would be when he stepped down. “I sent Jiraya to bring Tsunade Senju back to the village the week before all of this went down, they should be returning soon. I will be asking her to take over the hat, and have sent a missive about me stepping down to the Daimyo. The fact that she hasn’t been in the village in the last decade is to her benefit in this case.” Sarutobi continued. “I will remain as a figurehead until her return, all official day to day work will be overseen by Chouza Akimichi, until Tsunade can take over. I would ask that as part of the village, that you as clan leaders support and help Chouza anyway you can.” Many of the clan heads seemed to take a minute to think about his suggestion and they must have agreed as Chouza was a kind hearted man, he was also diplomatic and wouldn’t be easily deceived. “Sajin Hirako the previous head of T&I and Michie Tanaka in cryptology are leading a special investigation unit to deal with the number of files that have been found in Danzo’s home and office. I have also opened myself to the investigation. As Hokage, I have failed this village by letting myself be swayed by a friend and was blind to the darkness he encouraged. This is also to let the council know that Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado will also be placed under investigation.” He ignored their sputtering. “If anyone on the investigation team finds something suspicious or connected to any of Danzo Shimura’s plans I have given them permission to look into it. I am asking everyone at this table to help support the investigation team as well as be patient with the Chouza Akimichi as he takes over temporarily.”

“So we’re not even going to give Danzo the benefit of the doubt? How are you so sure that he is the one behind all of this? Danzo Shimura is, or was, a highly decorated shinobi.” Utatane tried to shift some of the blame away from Danzo in order to maybe save herself from the investigation.

Hiashi had to put his hand out to hold Fugaku’s sputter form back, “did you not hear the part where Danzo had implanted an eye, a stolen clan dojutsu into his arm? His arm!”

“Well there is Friend Killer Hatake.”

Hiashi didn’t know how stupid Koharu was to not only bring up Kakashi but to call him by that cursed name, he could only be glad that the man was not in the room at the moment. “Kakashi Hatake, had permission from not only from his team mate but also from the Uchiha clan to have Obito Uchiha’s eye, one that was implanted in his EYE SOCKET. The dojutsu’s of both the Hyuga and the Uchiha clans have chakra signatures that can be traced back to the person born with them. When I use my byakugan to look at Hatake, I can see the faint traces of Uchiha chakra, even from underneath the seal on his hitai-ate; and before you ask as to why I didn’t notice anything around councilor Shimura, it’s because looking at someone with our byakugan activated without permission is rude and invasive to us. I was approached by both Hatake and Uchiha-sama to check the performance of the suppression seal. Danzo also attacked not only Mikoto-sama but also her children and the village jinchuriki. Are you suggesting that a retired jonin and three children under the age of ten, as remarkable as they are, were that much of a threat to Danzo that he needed to attack with a number of trained ROOT? ROOT, that Danzo himself swore he had disbanded in this very room two years ago? That’s not including all the information found in his office that has come to light. The friends and family we have lost to his ambitions.”

Utatane knew she had made a mistake focusing on attacking the Uchiha as the reason Danzo was brought down.

The rest of the clans were just surprised with how vehemently Hiashi spoke, the man was normally silent and judgmental, now he was sitting beside the Uchiha and giving them the Hyuga clan’s support.

“Aside from Mikoto and the children, were there any other injuries?” Chouza wanted the conversation to get back on track.

Junpei jumped in, “in civilian sector any injuries were fairly minor- lacerations, sprains, bruises, and I believe a concussion. They have been treated by a medic. Among the shinobi ranks, there were no serious injuries although a number of people visited the hospital later to deal with smaller lacerations, sprains and pulled muscles. I believe the most serious injury was to one of our officers, who was attacked with a sword resulting in a large wound that needed stitches and a broken forearm. We had very little opposition from those affected once the control seal was destroyed.”

Chapter Text

Kei walked through the Nara compound on automatic pilot. He was physically tired and mentally exhausted. So many seals to remove. He had no clue how his friends were going to be able to handle the council meeting they had to go to tonight. He was in no shape to verbally spar with many of those people, he’d let too much slip and likely kill some of them on spot for being stupid. It was too much like last time and the way he had killed Danzo. That was likely the main reason he was told to leave. Letting his mind wander, he thought back to the ROOT agents, knowing that Tenzo was free was a relief, and he thought he saw Sai in the underground cavern. He’d go back and check when everything was cleared and he could actually form a sentence or two.

“Kei,” Yoshino called from the door. She had been watching the path from the main gates hoping to see her husband. Seeing Kei instead brought forth the feeling that thing were finally turning around. However, he didn’t look like himself. Something had happened. Kei looked as if he was completely exhausted, stumbling up the walk way. “Kei come inside, Naruto’s inside with Shikamaru, Sasuke and Itachi.” She was hoping to get him inside and sitting down where he could rest, maybe even convince the poor man to take a nap.

Kei followed Yoshino woodenly. He had barely made it into the living room before Naruto launched himself off the couch and plowed into Kei. If it hadn’t been for Genma standing right there he was sure he would have toppled over.

“Kei-nii!” Naruto’s little arms were wrapped tightly around him with his face buried into Kei’s stomach.

“Hey,” Kei’s arms wrapped around the boy, “come on, let’s go sit down before I fall down.”

Naruto shook his head as his grip tightened.

Kei tipped his head back and took a couple of seconds before heaving a deep sigh. “Naruto,” his voice was gentle and calm but the blonde shook his head harder. A smile crept across Kei’s face. He would deny it until the end of time but Kei relished the feeling of being missed, of Naruto relying on only him. His own arms went around the little body lifting him up into his arms. “Come on let’s go and sit down.” Kei moved carefully over to the couch.

Naruto stayed on Kei’s lap, nestled against his chest. Kei wrapped his arms around him and and rested his cheek upon the blonde hair. His eyes closed and he listened to heart beat, the warmth of the body, alive and breathing. Safe. His friend was safe. He wanted nothing more then to stay here just like this.

“Kei, are you alright?” Yoshino’s voice was just as gentle as it had been when she talked to both Itachi and Naruto.

“I’m not hurt, just….” He sighed, cracking his eyes open. Genma was still on full alert and Yoshino was in a set of shinobi blues with and armed, something he’d never seen. “Yoshino, I’m pretty sure that the village alert is over, Shikaku is at the Hokage tower. They’ve called a meeting of the clan heads, going over everything that has happened so far.” Kei sat up straighter, while keeping Naruto safe in his arms. “Itachi, Sasuke how are you boys feeling?”

“Is mom okay?” Sasuke voice wobbled as he tried to hold back his tears.

“I don’t know Sasuke, I haven’t gone to the hospital. After you were all brought back here, I stayed to help make sure the rest of the village was safe. I just got finished and honestly, I wanted to come here and check on all of you. I know that your father has gone to the hospital to check on her and Shisui. When the meeting is over, I’m sure that he’ll come here so you can visit her.” He could see both Itachi and Sasuke relax a little. “I’m sure he’ll be here as soon as he can.”

“I will go and check on the alert status,” Genma was worried about the Hokage and his friends. With a nod from Kei and Yoshino, the assassin left right away.

Kei pulled back far enough to really look over the little blonde. He carefully lifted both arms, “how do they feel?”

Naruto just shrugged and bit his lip.

“I bet it hurts, a kind of burning tingling feeling right?” Kei waited for the boy to nod, “unfortunately there isn’t a lot that we can do but keep them wrapped and wait.” Kei gave a gentle smile as he pulled the boy back in close. Maybe he could find some time to talk to Kurama and ask for the fox’s help.

Yoshino smiled as she left the room, the smells soon wafting through the house explained where she went. She called them all to the kitchen to sit down and eat. When Naruto refused to get off his lap, Kei just indulged him. He was just glad Naruto was willing to feed himself.

Kei was able to take Naruto out onto the engawa for a bit of privacy after Genma returned giving the all clear.

“Naruto do you remember anything about what happened on the training field?”

Naruto sat with his knees pulled tight to his chest. He was tracing patterns on the wood, but refused to look at Kei. “Yeah,” his voice was barely above a whisper.

“Can you tell me what you remember? Sometimes talking about things that scare you is a good way to learn to overcome that fear.”

“Huh?”

Kei tried not to smile, he’d forgotten that he needed to simplify ideas so that Naruto would understand them. “Talking about things that scare you can make you feel better, then they’re not so scary the next time.”

“But what if I tell you what happened and you don’t want to be around me anymore?”

“Naruto, there is nothing you can ever tell me that will have me leaving you.” Kei could see that Naruto didn’t believe him. It was so sad that he had so little self esteem at this age. “Would it be easier for me to tell you what I saw first?”

Naruto just nodded.

“Alright,” Kei pulled Naruto close, “I’m just going to talk and I want you to listen. It may sound strange but I need you to trust me on this. You too Kurama.” Naruto looked like he was going to say something, but Kei held out his hand to stop him. “We were at the training grounds with Sasuke, Itachi and their cousin Shisui as well and Mikoto-Sama. You were all playing tag when we were attacked. Shisui was closer to Sasuke and so protected him and Mikoto-sama grabbed you to keep you safe.”

“She got hurt,” Naruto whimpered.

“Yes she did. That wasn’t your fault. If she wasn’t there you would have been severely hurt. It was their fault for attacking you. There was another thing that happened during that attack.” Kei wasn’t sure if Naruto knew about his tenant. He took a breath and prayed that he wasn’t biting off more then he could chew. “You are someone very special, that’s also why you were targeted. There was someone else there, someone who could be a friend. They’re kind of a secret, but their name is Kurama.”

“Kurama?” Naruto tilted his head to the side as he contemplated what he was being told.

“You don’t know him yet, but I’m sure you’ll get to meet him when you’re a little older. I know that he’s not a big fan of Uchiha’s because of our eyes, but I don’t want to hurt him. Kurama will come to mean a lot to you. I’m willing to talk to him whenever he wants. But that’s for another time. When you got hurt and were pinned under Mikoto-sama, your chakra went a little wild. That chakra burned Mikoto and you. We might be able to ask Kurama to help with the healing, but we might just have to wait for your body to heal on it’s own.”

Naruto looked down at his wrapped arms. The pain was a constant throbbing. He didn’t know if he believed Kei-nii about it not being his fault. He was scared that Sasuke and Itachi would blame him. Sasuke had been so nice and wanted to be his friend, would he hate him now?

“Naruto,” Kei ran his finger through the blonde hair, “it’s okay. I’m still here and I’m not going anywhere.” As comfortable as he was at the Nara home, he wanted to get away from all the people. Reaching out his chakra he could feel a little bit of turbulence within his young friend, he wasn’t a sensor but it seemed like Kurama had been listening, after all he hadn’t officially met Naruto yet. Maybe they could work on that. Haru had been an insane powerhouse when the two of them had been in sync, how much more over powered would he be if that friendship occurred earlier.

“Kei, Naruto?” Shikaku appeared in the door behind them.

“Come on buddy, let’s go see what Shikaku has to say, then maybe we can go home.” Kei stood up and held his hand out for Naruto. Instead of holding his hand, Naruto reached his arms up like he’d seen children at the orphanage do in order to picked up. It had never worked for him but Kei-nii was different. Kei smiled and lifted the boy into his arms and settled him on his hip. “I got you.” The words were almost whispered into his hair but Naruto heard it and nestled his head closer to Kei-nii’s neck.

Shikaku couldn’t do anything but smile as he watch Kei with the young Uzumaki. This is what Minato and Kushina would have wanted. Someone who could see their child for the person he was and not the burden he carried. Thinking back to the traumatized shinobi his team had found month ago, the one who was scared to approach this same child for fear of not being able to see passed his deceased friend. Now he looked and acted like a regular big brother. “I won’t hold you for long, but come have a cup of tea.”

True to his word Shikaku was brief. Knowing that Chouza was going to be acting Hokage and that Tsunade was on her way back to the village, took a weight off of Kei’s shoulders.

Chapter Text

Kei stopped at the gate and set Naruto on his feet. “Naruto this is the entrance to our new home. No one can come in here unless we say it’s okay.”

“If you just came here, who lived here before?” Naruto was confused.

The question was minefield for the blonde. Kei answered with a combination of truth and evasion, “one of my cousins lived here with her husband. It was closed when they died, the wards kept it safe from anyone moving in. No one’s been inside since I was allowed to re-open it in anticipation of bring you here.”

“What about friends?” Naruto wasn’t sure if he had friends, at least not anymore.

Kei smiled gently, “if you they’re someone you want over they can walk in with us. If they are someone you trust then we can add them to the wards. There are a couple of my friends that have access to the compound.” Naruto tilted his head to one side, the action had Kei continuing. “For example, Genma who was with you today at the Nara house. Shikaku Nara, Fugaku Uchiha and couple of others.” Naruto seemed to pull into himself a little causing Kei to rest his hand gently on the blonde hair. “Naruto, if at anytime someone makes you uncomfortable, I can remove them. This is your house too and I want you to feel safe.” Kei was pretty sure that he would need to repeat that concept a couple of time before Naruto believed him. Kei pricked Naruto’s finger for the few drops of blood he needed to fine tune the wards, assuring him that Naruto could come and go whenever he wanted.

The pair took the rest of the day to look around the house and for Naruto to choose a bedroom. Kei picked up Ichiraku Ramen for super as a celebration of Naruto moving in. It wasn’t a perfect night, but it was at least comfortable. Kei stood in the open door and watched Naruto sleep. He was sure the calming hum of the compound would help keep Naruto asleep during the night. He looked so peaceful. Kei was still amazed at the way the compound reacted to their presence, almost as if it was alive. Moving into the study Kei started a list of things he would need to pick up to keep Naruto safe and comfortable. He’d have to talk to Nyoko to see if she felt safe moving in. Having her and Karin here would give Naruto another family member to rely on.

The pulsing of the wards during breakfast the next morning alerted both Kei and Naruto that something was up. “What’s that Kei-nii?”

“It’s the wards around the house letting us know that someone would like to come in and talk to us. Should we go and see who it is?” Kei held out his hand and the pair went to the front gate. He wasn’t surprised to see Shikaku there, although the man was able to walk through the wards, Hiashi Hyuga wasn’t. “This is Shikaku Nara, Shikamaru’s father and Hiashi Hyuga HInata’s father and Neji’s uncle. Should we let them in?” He waited and let Naruto decide, if he didn’t want them in, then he would take the boy outside the wards to talk to them.

“Are they your friends Nii-San?” He remembered the men from the day before.

“They are.”

“Then you should be able to have your friends come visit as well.”

“Ok,” Kei opened the wards and let the pair in. “Come let’s go inside and have some tea.”

“How’s he doing?” Shikaku watched as Naruto explored the grounds just outside the house. “Yoshino told me about his arms.”

“Yeah, I’m sure they’re quite sore. Right now I’m more concerned about his mental state.” Kei stared into his tea. Was he really cut out to be a parent?

Shikaku punched Kei’s shoulder. “Don’t think too hard.”

“Kei, since Danzo is gone, do you think it’s safe for Nyoko to come out of hiding?”

“I was thinking about it, not sure if we want them to walk through the gates or just appear?”

Hiashi thought back to the conversation he had with the spirited Uzumaki. “I believe that Uzumaki-San is in agreement with the idea of them seeking entrance to the village on their own. That way you won’t come under suspicion of trying to hide something from the council.”

“Well she’s not wrong, if she just showed up there’s bound to be someone to complain. If she walks in on her own searching for family then no one can dispute her claim, not with the agreement Konoha had with Uzushio. You are an Uzumaki and making a name for yourself so it’s only natural that they’d look for family now.”

Kei looked out the window, watching as Naruto crouched to examine something on the ground. “How are we planning to get them out of the walls first? While they may be Uzumaki’s they’re still civilians. I don’t think that transporting them in a storage scroll again is going to be as easy as it was for me.” They were pretty lucky to get away with that the first time and he didn’t want to risk it again.

Shikaku snorted at that. He was pretty sure that it hadn’t been as easy for Kei as he made it seem. The guy had been sure that he’d be betrayed and left in the scroll indefinitely the first time he was put in one, let alone volunteering a second go.

Hiashi raised an eyebrow slightly, he didn’t understand Shikaku’s humor. “I believe that I have a solution. There is a way to get outside of the wall either through the Hyuga compound or the Nara forest. We can physically disguise them until they are outside and past the guards and then guide them back.”

Shikaku rubbed at his goatee, “using the forest would be the easiest as Nyoko’s daughter is still quite young. We can also use the deer as guides. I don’t want to suggest a henge as a way to get from the Hyuga to the forest, maybe something more of a practical disguise. I can ask Inoichi what he’d suggest. The man has a way of hiding the colour of his hair that is temporary and that will be the biggest stumbling block.”

Hiashi nodded quirked an eyebrow, “I will let the Hyuga on barrier duty know,” and left to talk to Inoichi with the promise that he would send word when the Uzumaki women left Konoha.

Shikaku smirked at the way Hiashi implied that he would ask a member of the barrier guards to with hold information. He was such a sneaky bastard. “What’s the next step for you?” Shikaku desperately wanted to ask how he was doing, but with information on Mikoto still scarce he figured that Kei would be on edge.

“I’d like to visit the hospital, but otherwise I think staying here and helping Naruto heal will be the most beneficial.” Kei’s eyes stayed on young Naruto as he moved his arms carefully. “I need to tell him about his tenant and what it means for him.”

“Do you want help with that?”

“No, it will take some time and care, but it’s something I must do alone.”

“Just remember that you’re not truly alone.” Shikaku moved outside and knelt by the boy, “Naruto, Hiashi Hyuga has already left and I’m leaving as well. I wanted to remind you that my son, Shikamaru would like to visit you again. I know my wife, Yoshino would love to have you over again. I want to make sure that you know that you are ALWAYS welcome at the Nara home.”

Naruto tilted his head slightly, why was this man talking to him? Adults normally ignored him. Plus he didn’t think he knew a Shikamaru? Tilting his head to the other side he let his eyes look over the face of the man in front of him. Maybe….yes it was possible that the boy who sat beside him on couch was the Shikamaru he was talking about. He had the same pineapple hair and they felt, well, they had the same floaty feeling.

***

It took two days before Mikoto was moved from the ICU to a regular room. She had been reacting well to the treatments for the poisons, it was the burns from the corrosive chakra that had been giving them trouble.

Fugaku straightened the blankets and brushed the hair back from Mikoto’s face. Her eye’s sparkled at his gentleness. This was the man she had fallen in love with. “Fu.”

“Shh,” Fugaku leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Just relax. I’ll bring the boys around later today. They’re spending the morning with Shikamaru, the Nara boy.”

She smiled at that. “And Naruto?”

“I haven’t seen him since that first day, but Shikaku said he’s with Kei and doing fine.”

“Fugaku, I have questions about Kei.” She looked pensive, “I know that he has secrets, some of which you are privy to. I just… he said something when we were attacked that have me thinking.”

“Let’s leave it for now, it will likely be something that will require others to be present.”

Mikoto, smiled at him, “I’ll wait, you just focus on the boys and the village.”

He leaned down to kiss her again, “and you focus on healing, we need you too and that’s more important to me.” He understood the twinkle in her eye, the underlying message, he wasn’t going to let the clan elders interfere in their family.

****
Ch 79

Hizashi used a recon mission with Inoichi as a way of taking Nyoko and Karin outside of the leaf far enough away that the ANBU on guard duty wouldn’t be suspicious of them but in a safe enough spot that he felt confident enough leaving them on their own.

“How did the mission go?” Shikaku sat at his desk flipping through the report.

“Well.”

Shikaku raised an eyebrow, he knew the Hyuga was quiet but this was almost Uchiha level of conversation. “And the delivery?”

Hizashi raised an eyebrow in return, “the delivery was made nine hours ago.”

“Was there something about the delivery that has you concerned,” Shikaku was glad that Inoichi was the one who had gone with him, the Yamanaka’s calm personality would definitely have been welcome on this trip. Taking a stab in the dark Shikaku continued, “or are you concerned about how the package will be received once it arrives?”

Hizashi was about to respond with something that could have been misconstrued as insubordination when there was a knock on the door.

“Enter.”

“Nara-sama you are needed at the front gate.” Sparrow fidgeted under the Nara’s stern gaze.

“Very well, Hyuga-San you are dismissed. I will contact you or your partner if I have any further question. Thank you for your hard work.” Shikaku grabbed his vest as he rounded his desk, “Sparrow lead the way.”

Thankfully there was no one other then the gate guards and Sparrow’s partner at the gate when he arrived. Just enough people for their arrival to be noticed and word to spread at shift change and yet not so many that he needed to worry further about their safety.

“Nara-sama, these two are looking for family and are requesting asylum with the village.”

Shikaku looked toward the desk just inside the gate. The figure had a heavy linen cloak covering them form head to toe. The hood revealed a delicate looking woman, the fringes of blood red hair barely visible under the fabric. In her arms was a small child, their head resting on the woman’s shoulder the same style of cloak wrapped the child so that only an arm could be seen.

“I understand that things are a little uncertain at the moment, but this is not something that should be brought to my attention at the moment.” Shikaku turned to the figure, “I apologize as to how that sounds, but I’m unsure as to why you called me here.”

The figure just nodded.

“Sir,” this time it was Sparrow who spoke up, “They are claiming to be Uzumaki and are looking for Kushina Uzumaki.”

Shikaku let his eyes widen in shock momentarily. “I understand.” Turning to the woman in front of him, he did his best to hide his smile. “Again I apologize for any confusion here. I regret to inform you that Kushina Uzumaki passed away three years ago.”

“Then there is no Uzumaki within the village? I know that Uzushio fell just before I was born, but I was raised on tales of Uzushio and Konoha being sister villages and of Mito-hime and her kin coming here.”

“You’re not wrong, we would gladly offer you a safe place to stay. If I can ask, why wait until now to come to us?”

“The village my mother settled in turned on us. We were kept locked away and abused for our talents. This was the first I was able to escape. I didn’t want my daughter to be trapped like my mother and I had been.”

Shikaku calculated just how much longer they would need to stay there for the rumors to begin. “Your mother?”

“She passed away recently, there’s only my daughter and myself left.”

“My condolences.” The woman gave him a nod, “while Kushina Uzumaki has passed away, recently another Uzumaki has returned to the village. Kei Uzumaki.” Shikaku tried not to grin as he saw the gate guards startle at that piece of information. “Why don’t we make our way inside. I can help you start the paperwork and maybe introduce you to a new cousin.”

“Thank you sir, we have travelled quite a distance for the hope of a new start.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t introduce myself, Shikaku Nara.”

“Nyoko Uzumaki, and this is my daughter Karin.” She gestured to the sleeping child.

Turning to the gate guards and ANBU still around Shikaku gave them orders, “If Uzumaki-san was being held against their will then there are chances of someone coming after them. Sparrow go and erase their trail if you can, watch for anyone coming this way.”

“Yes sir,” Sparrow took off towards the forest path while their partner followed at and angled route.

“This way ma’am.” Shikaku lead the way toward the Hokage tower. He would take her to see Chouza and Sarutobi and start the paperwork, then walk her over to the Uzumaki compound.

***

Nyoko was pleasantly surprised to find out that there were minimal questions regarding her being admitted into the village. She was given permanent residency almost immediately as there had been no doubt that she was in fact an Uzumaki. Thank goodness for treaties between the villages that ensured her safety now. When Shikaku brought up Kei, she could tell that the Hokage was willing to do anything to please the man. She had also been introduced to a large man who was to be acting Hokage.

Shikaku was good enough to walk her towards the compound. He had even offered to carry Karin who had fallen asleep on the walk inside the village.

“Kei,” Shikaku lead her through the clan gates and into the house. “Company.”

Kei poked his head out of the hallway. “Nyoko, you made it here faster then I expected.”

“Hizashi was quiet diligent in the directions he gave me.”

“Karin looks tired, come on I have two rooms cleared out and ready for you. Why don’t you put her down and rest yourself if you want.”

Nyoko swore she hadn’t been tired, the walk had been long but it wasn’t hard. However, as soon as she laid Karin down on the bed she couldn’t help but join her. Pulling a blanket up, the two fell asleep to the warm thrum of Uzumaki chakra that seemed to resonate in the house.

Shikaku sat in the study waiting for Kei to return. “Nyoko decided on a nap?”

Kei smiled, “it’s the house.” At Shikaku’s raised brow he explained further, “there’s something in the seals of the house that creates a chakra hum of some sort. I swear it almost knows when you need to rest and acts accordingly.

Shikaku thoughtfully stroked his goatee, “you know I think I remember something about that.” he couldn’t remember if it was his father or Kushina or someone else who told him about it. Hell it might have even been in a book he read. “I believe it’s something about how the Uzumaki delegation built the compound when they first came to Konoha.” The sigh was soft, “the world lost a lot more then funijutsu knowledge when Uzushiogakure was destroyed.” He ran his hand across the wall, a smirk crossing his face, “it makes sense. Minato often said that the compound was alive. I always thought he was talking about how alive it felt because everyone gathered around the pair of them, with that many friends surrounding you of course the house would feel alive. I guess he meant literally.”

Kei lead the way to kitchen, “I know I have felt more comfortable here then anywhere else with or without the protection seals. I guess it’s one of the reason I would like Kakashi, Genma and Raidou to move in. They deserve peace as well.” He turned to the sink, trying to hide the blush that was on his face at his unusual expression of emotion.

Shikaku let the change of topic go, “I’ve heard that Mikoto is going home today.”

“Really, she was in the hospital barely a week, is she well enough to go home?” Kei had been worried, but hadn’t been able to go to the hospital as Naruto had needed him more. The week spent here at the compound ensuring the young jinchuriki felt safe and was able to heal had been worth it. Even Kurama had calmed down and aided in the healing.

“Fugaku said that she was doing well. She still has some burns on her upper chest and shoulders, but otherwise she has recovered well from the poisons. She will need physiotherapy but she should recover fully.”

“Good.” Kei tried not to melt at the knowledge that his family was safe. “We’ll go and visit later.”

***

Itachi rubbed his hands on his legs. He was nervous. “Father, may I talk to you?” Itachi’s voice was a little shy.

Fugaku looked up from what he was doing. With Mikoto in the hospital the cooking fell onto him and his subpar skills. “Can you wait until I finish getting supper on the table? I want to be able to give you my full attention.”

“Yes sir,” Itachi nodded and went back to sit at the table.

Sasuke sat beside him as Fugaku set the rice and chicken on the table. Fugaku dished out a portion for Sasuke before gesturing for Itachi to fill his own plate. “Now Itachi, what was it that you wanted to talk about?”

“Um, Kei Uchiha.”

“What about Kei?”

“Well he said something at the training ground. Something that I didn’t tell anyone else.” Itachi couldn’t forget it, his sharingan wouldn’t let him. It recorded everything with pin point accuracy to be replayed time and again.

Fugaku had a feeling that Itachi was going to reveal something that Kei would want to keep hidden. “I know that your mother had something that she would also like to talk about. Would it be alright to wait until she comes home tomorrow to talk about it?” He didn’t want to ignore his son, but he really only wanted to go through it all once. Maybe he’d see about getting Kei to come over and maybe bring Naruto to help keep Sasuke occupied.

Itachi’s watched his father closely. He hadn’t dismissed him out of hand or asked him not to speak of it, but he had asked him to wait. Itachi nodded, he would wait, he’d held this inside for a week already another day or two wasn’t going to matter. He almost relaxed knowing that his father was willing to listen to him. He knew that Kei’s appearance had been the catalyst for a lot of changes in the village, his father’s attitude was one of them. Of course if what he had overheard in the training ground was accurate then maybe there had been good reason. “Yes sir, I can wait.”

Chapter Text

Kakashi and Jiraya just happen to approach the Konoha gates with Tsunade and Shizune two days after the newest Uzumaki’s asked for asylum and five days after Danzo’s attack.

“Hatake?” Tsunade wouldn’t have missed the tension in the guards as they approached the gate even if she had been blind drunk. Kakashi went from exasperated with the bickering between her and Jiraya to outright hyper vigilant. Even Jiraya seemed to notice the change as his demeanor switched back that of an active shinobi and not his womanizing writer persona.

“Tsunade-sama, if you would…” he didn’t get a chance to finish.

Tsunade held out a hand, “no we will still enter together and figure out what has changed so much since you left. Stay on guard. You may have searched me out as the future Hokage, but right now I’m still and active shinobi.” The medic cracked her knuckles as she strode forward doing her best to keep the attention on her. Kakashi as a former ANBU would watch from the side.

Nothing seemed directly out of place. Kakashi gave a slight nod as he recognized the gate guards as the same pair that had been there when he left. The streets looked the same, although the feeling was a little off. Going straight to the Hokage tower, he hoped that someone there would have the answers he wanted.

“Tsuna…” Sarutobi looked up at his former student. “Jiraya, thank you for coming.” Finally after the week he’d had Hiruzen felt like there was finally a light at the end of the tunnel.

“Sir, what happened while we were gone?” Hatake prayed to whoever was listening that everyone was safe.

Sarutobi sighed and leaned back in his chair. ”Raven, would you ask Chouza to join us and send for tea please, I think this conversation would be better held in one of the conference rooms.”

The conference room they went to was comfortable, more like a living room then a board room. Tea and snacks were brought in.

Chouza entered right behind with a couple of bottle of sake. When Hiruzen looked at the clan leader, he just shrugged, “for later sir.” Chouza gave a nod to the Sannin before leaving them to talk.

Hiruzen used the time he took pouring tea to figure out where to start. “I’m not sure just what Kakashi has told you but I’m going to go back a couple of months. A shinobi asked for admittance and in talking to him, we found out that he was Uchiha-Uzumaki born just before the fall of Uzushio. Fugaku had records of a cousin, Takio Uchiha, being in Uzushio at that time, and the name he gave as his mother was also someone that we knew as Kushina’s cousin. His name is Kei Uchiha-Uzumaki and his assessment test was phenomenal.” Most of this was new to Tsunade, but both Kakashi and Jiraya had met Kei. “There has also been some changes through out the village. The Uchiha, had been feeling a lot of isolation from rumors spread after the Kyuubi attack. Fugaku brought forth an idea to hire shinobi from different clans for the police force. This brought up the fact that the Uchiha were still under restrictions keeping them from taking missions outside of the villages and relegating them to the police force or merchant roles. Council is reviewing that policy so it can be changed. We began peace talks with Kumo only for one of their members to attempt a kidnapping of Hiashi Hyuga’s daughter.”

Hiruzen didn’t even flinch when Tsunade finished her tea and refilled her cup with sake. Honestly if he wasn’t supposed to be in office, he’d join her.

“Kei happened to be on patrol with one of the new police officers and they helped rescue young Hinata. He has also asked for custody of Naruto and access to the Uzumaki compound and it’s been granted. The clans have been working together in a way they haven’t since the founding of the village. It isn’t uncommon to see the clans heads together wither working or conversing. Jiraya was here when Kei gave a funijutsu lesson in public to create a seal that would protect the Uchiha eyes, and perhaps replace the caged bird seal. I’ve heard rumors that the elders of both the Uchiha and Hyuga were being forced to rethink their stance on things within the clans.”

“That was interesting, Kei has some interesting ideas regarding funijutsu, I hope to be able to talk to him again.” Jiraya was trying to keep his excitement under wraps. He knew that he would be seeking Kei out to see how far he had gotten regarding the Uchiha eye seal.

Hiruzen took a drink of his tea, he knew that he had left things out or simplified events, it was more like he was telling parts of a story; but he didn’t have the time to go over things in depth. He didn’t want to sway her one way of the other on events that she may need to cast judgement on later when she wore the hat. Besides, he was fairly certain that all the files would still be on the desk when took over. “The reason Jiraya and Kakashi searched you out was because there was a serious security breach. I was put under a genjutsu. It happened to coincide with the time that Naruto ran away from the orphanage because of poor treatment. Kei was out on a mission at that time, and I know the only bright spot was the fact that Naruto had been found quickly. He’s has been staying with one of the village clans until recently. In the aftermath it was decided that I would have an Uchiha in my guard at all times to prevent further issues and that Choza Achimichi would have governing authority for the interim. We figured out that Danzo was involved and put an investigation team on Danzo. This week while Kei and Naruto were training with Mikoto Uchiha and her two children, Danzo and his ROOT soldiers attacked. Mikoto has only recently been released from the hospital after her injuries healed sufficiently enough. Kei was the one to kill Danzo. It appears that among his crimes was continuing ROOT, after telling the council it had been disbanded. There is also evidence of human experimentation and dojutsu theft, grave robbing and attempting to overthrow my role as Hokage with sleeper agents as well as brainwashed operatives. His underground ROOT training ground has been found and many of those within have had their control seals removed and are in the process of deprogramming.”

“Tenzo?” The name was whispered as Kakashi thought about his friend.

“I believe that Tenzo was one of the agents unsealed and cleared.” Hiruzen couldn’t believe how much had gone on in the last couple of months. “A positive is that we had an Uzumaki mother and daughter ask for asylum in the village, seeing as Kusagakure was abusing their Uzumaki kekkei genkai almost to the point of death.”

Tsunade was overwhelmed, shocked by all that her sensei had let happen to the village her grandfather had built. She didn’t want to focus on that part now, so instead she grasped at the chance of more found family. “Where are they now?” Tsunade had grieved with Kushina when they had heard the Uzushio had fallen. They had waited for months, to hear from anyone who had escaped; and each day that went by with no one at the gates only fueled their despair. As the years passed they gave up hope and then night three years ago when suddenly Tsunade and Kushina’s baby were the last ones left.

“They have been taken in by Kei and are safe at the Uzumaki compound.” Sarutobi looked directly at his former student, “Tsunade, they would perhaps do well if you were to examine them.”

Tsunade looked at her Hokage and realized just how old he was. He had been old when he retired the first time. When he took the hat back up after Minato’s death, well everyone could see the toll it had taken to bury his successor. He had lost a lot with Minato’s death, they all had.

“Tsunade the main reason you were called back was to take over the hat. The clan heads have lost their faith in me, and for good reason, being compromised is inexcusable.”

“Sensei?” Jiraya wasn’t sure just what he wanted from his old teacher.

“I’m too old for this job, it was the reason I passed things on to Minato. Tsunade you are honestly the only one who could take the job. Jiraya; you have your spy network that we need to keep active. The couple of shinobi in the village that could do the job already have complex duties that they are better suited for.”

“Speaking of which, if you have handed over temporary leadership over to the Ackimichi why didn’t he stay?” He was worried that his Sensei had been turned into nothing more then a figurehead and put under something akin to house arrest.

“Chouza left us to talk, he likely didn’t want it to seem like monitoring everything I do. There’s a lot going on in the village, I’m sure he’s gone to help the others. Hiashi Hyuga is working with Shikaku Nara and Sajin Hirako dealing with the rest of the Danzo investigation, going back decades of reports and piles of files that they found amongst the underground training grounds. I have asked to be kept out of it to ensure that there are no accusations of favoritism even if Danzo is dead.”

It made sense. Even with Danzo’s guilt in the attack on Mikoto Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki being confirmed, there were still a lot of other allegations raised against him. It was also well known that Danzo was one of Hiruzen’s closest friends, then there was the possibility of Hiruzen being implicated in the some of Danzo’s dealings.

“So how will this work?” Tsunade had pretty much resigned herself to become the next Hokage. As much as she would like to drink herself into oblivion, she knew that it wasn’t the time. Normally the present Hokage would appoint a successor and that was it, but with the cloud that Sarutobi was under chances were there would need to be a different method followed.

The relief on Sarutobi’s face was visibly more relaxed as he realized that Tsunade was going to take the hat. “I need to notify Shikaku that you’ve agreed and he will put it before the clan heads to get their vote.”

“I’ll let my name stand,” she stood up, grabbing one of the bottles of sake as she headed for the door.

“Where are you going Hime?” Jiraya wanted to join her for a drink or even a bottle or two, he didn’t want her to be alone after hearing all of this, hell he didn’t want to be alone after what he’d heard.

“The Uzumaki compound tonight. I think I need to meet this Kei Uzumaki-Uchiha and the other cousins of mine. Tomorrow will be soon enough to terrorize the hospital staff before I take over the hat.” She beckoned for Shizune to follow suit she left the tower.

Chapter Text

Kei felt the wards buzz and open. The feel of the chakra was familiar if a bit of a shock, a quick look to make sure that Naruto and the others were safe inside, before going outside to see the figure from his future past walking on to the grounds.

“So you must be the Uzumaki, Sarutobi told me about.”

Kei didn’t have the same emotional attachment to Tsunade that Haru had, but she was someone he had respected. Bowing his head he introduced himself, “Kei Uchiha-Uzumaki, welcome Lady Tsunade.”

“Hhn,” The Sannin medic looked Kei over, “well it seems that the Uchiha genes are stronger then the Uzumaki ones. Are the others the same?”

“The others?” Kei was momentarily confused, “do you mean the other Uzumaki? Naruto looks a lot like his father while Nyoko and her daughter look more like Kushina.”

“Well, where are they?” Tsunade wasn’t sure she was ready to meet Kushina’s boy, but she’d made up her mind and damn it he was family. She had failed her niece and her memory by not coming back, and she sure wasn’t doing Dan’s niece any favors dragging her around from town to town. Of course Jiraya hadn’t been much better. It had taken this stranger coming into the village to bring the wrongs and their short comings to light.

“Naruto and Karin are playing out back and I believe Nyoko is having some tea while watching them. Come in and I’ll introduce you.” Kei smiled more to himself, she really hadn’t changed much. Frankly, he was surprised that Kakashi and Jiraya had been able to convince her to come back, as it had been Haru’s talk-no-jutsu that had worked before. The rumor was their mission had been to bring her back so Sarutobi could talk her into taking the hat. He hoped that she would, she did a good job last time and there really wasn’t anyone else.

Leading the way out back, Kei had to smile at the way Naruto and Karin were playing. Nyoko was looking relaxed and happy. She willingly showered Naruto with affection and he was soaking it up. Karin mimicked her mother, and gave Naruto someone to interact with without fear. Both Nyoko and Karin were still a little on the thin side, but then they were well recovering from chakra exhaustion and abuse.

“That’s,” Tsunade stop to watch the children play. In another light it could have been Minato and Kushina running around. They looked happy, but underneath that happiness there was an awareness that pain and abandonment could happen at any time. “Kakashi wasn’t lying. Sarutobi really did abandon him didn’t he?”

“Do you really want me to answer that? Naruto’s apartment is still there, you can go visit and breathe in all the mold and see the dump he’d been living in until recently. The old man had thrown him in there and forgotten about him, with the exception of the pitiful allowance he gave every month. He doesn’t even have Danzo’s genjutsu to blame for that.” Kei had to be careful, he was getting pissed off again and that’s not what Naruto needed right. “We can talk about that later if you want. Nyoko, I’d like to introduce you to someone.” He gestured to Tsunade standing behind him, “Lady Tsunade Senju. She’s also Mito Uzumaki’s granddaughter, one of the legendary Sannin and an exceptional front line medic. However, if she makes you or Karin nervous I will removed her access to the compound.”

Nyoko stood for the introduction and blushed at the way Kei worded the introduction. He had been nothing but diligent in making sure she was comfortable and felt safe. “Nyoko Uzumaki,” she bowed.

Tsunade wanted to be pissed at the introduction and the way Kei was willing to block her from the Uzumaki compound, but taking a closer look at Nyoko she could see how thin she was, even her chakra felt shaky. Tsunade just nodded and sat beside the other woman while Kei stood in the background.

“Sit and relax. There’s gong to be enough pomp and circumstance later on.” She looked out at the children. “Have you been treated well since you’ve been in the village?”

Nyoko smiled, “well I’ve only been in the village a short while, but Kei has made sure that both my daughter and I have felt safe and protected.”

“Hey old lady, who are you?” Naruto voice was as bouncy as he was.

Tsunade blinked before growling, “who the hell are you calling old?”

“Naruto that was a little rude, however, it’s not like we know your name?” Karin was trying to be the voice of reason, even if she did think Naruto had been rude.

Tsunade laughed at that, “well I guess you’re correct, you don’t know my name yet, however, that doesn’t mean you can call me old.” She was tempted to flick the little blonde on the forehead, but she didn’t want to worry about being attacked from behind. “I’m Tsunade Senju. I’m your Great Aunt, Naruto. Karin, I believe I’m distant cousin of yours.”

“You mean,” Naruto’s voice quieted down, almost as if he was afraid to voice his thoughts, “you mean, you’re family?”

Kei took a step forward to comfort him, but Tsunade beat him to it, “yes Naruto, I’m family.” She pulled him onto her lap and held him close as he cried. “You can call me Baa-Chan.” She looked over at Karin and gave the young girl a gentle smile, “that goes for you as well.”

The rest of the night had the small Uzumaki family spending time together talking. Karin was asleep curled up against her mother. Naruto fell asleep with his head on Tsunade’s lap, her fingers running through his hair. Kei wasn’t sure how she had managed to give both Karin and Nyoko the medical exam she did without moving him.

The three adults talked about what it meant to be an Uzumaki and how it had affected them all differently. Tsunade talked of the weight of her Grandmother’s legacy. Nyoko talked of betrayal, her husband selling her and their daughter into slavery for a few coins, of trying to survive while keeping her daughter safe. Kei gave Naruto’s story of smiling in the face of hatred.

“He humbles me with the way he continues on in the face of the bigotry and violence aimed his way. He really is sunshine personified.” Looking at Tsunade, Kei sent her a sly look, “he has honestly embodied will of fire your grandfather based the village on. I want more for him. I want him to know joy and happiness, safety and the bonds of friendship.”

“We’ll make sure he gets it, that they both do.” Tsunade was already planning on how to support him and the get the village to acknowledge the sacrifice his parents had made. That night in bed she made another promise; to protect young Naruto from the council elders and anyone else who attacked him. While physically knocking a number of heads together would be satisfying, she was sure that would be frowned upon, or at least that was what Sensei always told her in the past.

Kei was at the kitchen counter making tea when Tsunade walked out from the room she had stayed in the night before. “Sleep alright?”

Tsunade snorted, “its the Uzumaki compound, of course I slept fine.” She accepted a cup of tea, “you know about the way the compound resonates a calming chakra whenever someone has been inside for longer then a day?”

“Well sort of, I mean I know I feel better when I am inside. Kushina had left some scrolls behind, she called them comfort and healing seals.” He side eyed her as he brought up the next topic. “She also mentioned who it was they had planned on inviting to live here.”

“You found their wills.” It wasn’t a question. Tsunade looked out the window at the other buildings on the grounds, “yeah, Dan and I had picked out a house. When he died, I just. I had to leave the village. It meant that I was abandoning everyone else, but well my heart hurt too much to focus.”

“It’s still there or I guess you could choose another one if you want.”

“Not at this time, don’t know if I said it last night, but I will be taking the Hat. I don’t want this to be the new Hokage residence. It would destroy the peace here.”

Kei just nodded, he was glad that she could see it. “I might offer a place to a couple of others, those close to Kushina and Minato,” and those who wanted to be near Naruto and would support him.

“You should, this place needs people.” Tsunade held out her cup for Kei to top up her tea.

Kei filled the cup and smiled, it seemed like they had reached an agreement with really saying anything, “I’ll have a room saved and make sure to keep the sake in the cupboard for those days you need to vent; just keep in mind that I’m more scared of what Shizune will do to me if I go against her orders too often.”

Tsunade’s laugh boomed through the room, “I’ll keep you to that.”

Chapter Text

Fugaku faltered at the door in front of him.

“Fugaku, it will be alright. I’m sure that if we ask Kei, we can include some others in the explanation of everything.” Shikaku was trying to reassure the Uchiha head that there was a possibility of Kei allowing his mother to know his secret. He had watched both Kei and Fugaku these last months and could see the toll hiding everything was taking on both of them.

“Fugaku, Shikaku, come in.” Kei stepped back to allow the two clan heads to enter.

Kei lead the way to the kitchen, making tea, “how are Mikoto, and the boys? I’ve been meaning to visit”

“Mikoto is at home now, she will need to take it easy for a while, and the boys are doing…” he thought back to last night and the nightmares Sasuke had. “We’re…well; we’re getting there. I actually came to see if you would mind a family visit?”

Kei had been expecting the request, but it still surprised him.

Fugaku continued, “I suspect that both Itachi and Mikoto have questions, and I’d rather they ask them in private.”

“I have actually come with the same request. I think it may be time to expand who knows about the future. I’m not talking about opening it to village, but more of a select few.”

Kei thought about it, if Tsunade was going to take the hat, he’d rather let her know exactly what was going on; especially now that Danzo was dead. If he was willing to talk to them, then maybe it was time to get help from others.

“If we’re going to do this, we need to decide who we’re actually going to tell and if I’m going to hold anything back.” Kei looked out into the yard where Naruto and Karin where playing, while Nyoko was tending the garden nearby. “I really don’t want to say too much to the kids, they deserve to find their own way.” He wouldn’t pressure Naruto to be anyone but himself, and if that meant he wasn’t the holder of the Sage’s power then they would find another way to defeat the Rabbit Goddess. Of course he also planned to stop everything before it got that far.

Shikaku thought he understood Kei’s concerns. Shikaku followed Kei’s gaze out the window. “I’m sure we can limit what we tell the children, but I think that we need others in the know, to make sure that we have help where we need it.”

Kei looked back over at Fugaku, his father had done so much for him and worked so hard to change, “alright, I guess we could make a list of who we tell.”

Shikaku sat down, “I think that Mikoto should learn the whole truth, her cooperation would help Fugaku in dealing with the clan,” he didn’t mention how much it would also help Kei to have his mother dote on him, after she yelled at him for keeping it a secret of course. “Tsunade may be another one that should hear the whole thing.”

Fugaku nodded in agreement, “perhaps Jiraya and Kakashi Hatake as well.” He paused before making his next suggestion, “Itachi has questions. I’m not sure I want him to learn everything, but maybe we can answer his questions at a later time. He can help keep the children occupied while we talk to the others and then we can talk to him another day.”

“Yeah that would work, we could also talk to Naruto, Karin and Sasuke after Itachi of course.” Kei knew that he’d likely tell Naruto a little more, but slowly.

“Perhaps we could include one more in Nyoko. She’s living here and well- she did take a lot on faith when she was stashed in the Hyuga compound.” Shikaku thought about it, “if we have Ino and Chouza come over when we talk that might help put them at ease. It will mean that eight people know everything, with the four children knowing at least something.”

“What about Yoshino?” Kei was curious as to why Shikaku hadn’t suggested his own wife.

“Telling Yoshino would make my life easier, but it really doesn’t help us with anything strategically.”

“Shikaku, Yoshino IS your sounding board and there is really no strategic reason for us telling Mikoto.” Kei remembered from talking with both versions of the Ino-Shika-Cho that Inoichi’s wife was more the village gossip then a helpful shinobi, and while Chouza’s wife was extremely supportive, her main job was as a midwife.

Fugaku nodded, “so we add Yoshino into the conversations.”

“Alright, so when do we do this?” Kei was starting to get nervous.

Shikaku steepled his fingers together, “let’s not take too long. I know that you have the strongest wards in and around the house here, so why not tomorrow night? We can see if Itachi can watch over the children at the Uchiha compound, maybe make it a sleep over. I can ask Tenzo to watch over them, this isn’t a dig at the Uchiha, but Naruto has almost always had an ANBU watch dog.” The wood user’s chakra would be familiar to the young boy and it would also prove to Tenzo that the village still trusted him.

“Alright, until tomorrow then.” Kei wasn’t sure if he was looking forward to the relief of letting others know, or nervous for fear of not being believed.

***

Kei woke long before the dawn and sat to mediate in the office. The window was open and the soft breeze brought the scent of the trees so fresh and green to his mind. Pictures of a pregnant Kushina caught his eye. “Haru, I haven’t even finished half of what we wanted to do and already I’m faltering. I really should not have been the one to survive.”

Naruto found his new caretaker sitting alone. He tilted his head to the side as he thought over the changes in his life. The orphanage hadn’t been too bad, but since being here Naruto had been able to eat as much as he wanted, even the vegetables tasted good. His bed was soft and warm and the blankets smelled clean. He knew that his life was better and he felt safer. He still didn’t understand why the people in the village hated him, what he did know was that since Kei-nii had taken him in, no one threw stuff at him, hit him or yelled. Naruto could see that Kei-nii was sad and he wasn’t sure what he could do to help.

“Kei-nii?” The young voice was shaky as if afraid of scaring someone.

“Naruto what are you doing up so early?” Kei’s face transformed from blank to one of concern.

“I had to pee.” Naruto answered honestly.

That brought a smile to Kei’s face, “well, should we go back to bed?”

“Kei-nii, why are you so sad?”

The question startled Kei, “you are very perceptive,” Kei picked the little boy up and held him tight, “I am missing my old friends.”

Naruto patted his cheek, “why don’t you invite them here? If I can invite my friends over, you should be able to see your friends when you want to too.”

Kei smiled, “unfortunately I cannot, I’m afraid they have all passed away.”

Naruto’s brow creased, did that mean Kei was alone? “Well,” Naruto put his hands on either side of Kei’s face and looked into his eyes, “you have new friends right? Can they come and help you not be sad?”

Kei walked Naruto back to his bedroom. “I’m sure they can.” Kei carefully laid Naruto on his bed, tucking the blankets around him, “maybe I should talk to them in the morning eh?”

“Yes,” Naruto yawned, his eyes drooping closed as tried to fight off sleep, “but if they’re mean to you, I will kick them for you.”

Kei couldn’t hold in his laughter, “I don’t think it will come to that, but I’ll remember.” Kei closed the door and went back to the office. This time instead of melancholy contemplation, Kei focused on the list of things he had completed and what it was he wanted to tell those who were coming that day. At the last minute he sent out another note, now all he had to do was wait and instead of moping inside he went out to the yard to train.

Chapter Text

Lunch at the Uzumaki compound was a loud affair. Naruto and Karin were comparing whether udon or ramen were better. Nyoko just smiled as she served curry and rice.

“Naruto, Karin, would it be alright if you two went to visit Itachi and Sasuke at the Uchiha compound this afternoon?” Kei interrupted.

Naruto looked down at the table, his voice soft, “will Sasuke and Itachi want me to come over?” He was still thinking about how his chakra had injured their mother.

“It will be fine, I know that there are many things that you and Sasuke have in common. You will be entering the academy together in a couple of years.”

“He’s your cousin isn’t he Kei-nii? Doesn’t that make him Naruto’s cousin as well?” Karin’s innocent question took the attention off of Naruto.

“Not by blood,” Kei didn’t want to force Naruto. “The reason I would like you to go and visit Sasuke and Itachi is that I need to talk to a number of people, Fugaku and Mikoto included, but I would like you to be somewhere safe as this conversation isn’t one I want you to overhear.”

Naruto’s head dropped even further. Kei understood immediately that Naruto was afraid of being cast aside again. He knelt in front of the blonde boy. “Naruto, look at me. I promise that the reason I don’t want you to hear what I need to talk about has to do with me. I will tell you some of it later, but I need to explain to others as well and I’m sure they will have questions. A lot of it will be confusing and WHEN I explain this to you later, I want to make sure the I have the time to do so correctly.”

“So you’re not going to leave me?” If at all possible Naruto’s voice was quieter.

Kei pulled the blonde into his arms, “no, Naruto you are stuck with me until YOU want to leave.”

Naruto relished how tight he was being held, the subtle scent of wet earth and fresh grass clinging to Kei-nii had such a calming effect on him. “The people coming here to talk, they’re your friends right?”

Kei smiled, “yes they are, and I’m taking your advice to invite them here and talk to them about why I’ve been sad.”

“And no one will be mean to you?”

Kei pulled Naruto in tight again, “no one will be mean to either of us.”

“Oh- ok, if you think it will be okay.”

“Naruto,” Karin was still sensitive to how insecure Naruto was, “I’ll be there too, so if they’re mean to you I can beat them up for you.”

Everyone smiled at that, and it had Naruto blushing, “that’s okay Karin, I’m going to be a strong shinobi like Kei-nii, I can’t have you fighting for me. If they’re mean to me then you and I will have to fight together.”

Kei couldn’t hold it in anymore and burst out laughing, “Naruto there’s no need to take it that far, I’m sure that Sasuke and Itachi will both be nice to the two of you.” He stood and held out his hands, “now why don’t we walk over to the Uchiha compound.”

Nyoko stayed behind to greet anyone who showed up early, and truth be told Kei was now feeling a little over protective of Naruto, he knew what an asshole he had been to his best friend when they were kids.

**

Fugaku had finished putting lunch on the table, Mikoto might have returned home, but she was still sore and he’d be damned if he caused her more pain by expecting her to do the things she did before being hurt. He had talked to her the night before about going to talk to Kei, now he just needed to talk to the boys. “I made some plans for today without consulting any of you and for that I apologize. Shisui will be coming over shortly as will three other clan children. Itachi, I would ask that you and Sasuke act as hosts when they come. Your mother and I will be going over to the Uzumaki compound for a meeting.”

Itachi bowed, “of course father, may I ask who we will be entertaining?”

“Right now it’s Naruto and Karin Uzumaki but there’s a good chance that Shikamaru Nara will be joining as well.”

“Is there Uzumaki clan in Konoha?” Sasuke remembered Naruto from when the scary guy attacked, and he was pretty sure that Shikamaru was the name of the boy who’s house they stayed at after that attack.

Mikoto’s reply was subdued, “Uzumaki is an old and honoured clan name from the Uzushiogakure, unfortunately the village was destroyed during the second shinobi war and the Uzumaki’s are now down to only a few members.”

“Naruto was born in Konoha and from what I’ve heard, Karin has only recently arrived. Both of them are your age Sasuke and will start the academy with you. Shikamaru may come or he may stay with other family members.” Fugaku looked at his youngest son, “Sasuke, I know that Naruto doesn’t have many friends. You were barely introduced before everything happened and he’s likely really nervous to come here, but I’m sure that you’ll be great friends. Itachi, I’d like to you watch Shisui to make sure he’s not overworking himself.”

It wasn’t long before there was a knock at the door. Sasuke watched as the blonde boy almost hid behind Kei-san’s leg, a red-headed girl was beside them. He watched the girl reach out to hold the blonde’s hand.

Sasuke looked up at his father before turning to their guest. “Hi, I’m Sasuke, do you want to go play?”

“I’m Naruto Uzumaki and this is my cousin Karin Uzumaki. Can she come too?” The blonde boy was holding tight to the girl.

“Yes, let’s go out back, with three of us we can play tag or hide and seek.” The two children followed Sasuke outside.

“I’ll watch them father, Kei-San.” Itachi gave a a quick bow and followed the other three. He knew that Shisui would walk right in when he arrived and he would hear someone knocking if the Nara came over.

Kei took a deep breath before looking at Fugaku and Mikoto. “I’m happy to see that you are healing well Mikoto-San.”

She smiled, “we better head out, it takes me longer than I want to walk anywhere at the moment.”

She wasn’t wrong. The walk over to the Uzumaki compound was done at a very slow pace, but Kei refused to rush or comment. It was quite frankly a miracle that Mikoto was up and walking as quickly as she was after her injury. They arrived at the gates just in time to meet Inoichi and Chouza.

“Kei, Fugaku,” Inoichi nodded, “Mikoto, I’m glad to see you up and around.”

Chouza nodded in agreement, his hands full of snacks his wife had prepared. “Shikaku and Yoshino were heading to your place to drop off Shikamaru. He wanted to give the boys a chance to interact privately after everything that has happened.”

The others just nodded.

“Well in that case let’s go inside and wait for everyone else.” Kei lead the way, “Mikoto is there anything you need to make you more comfortable?” Kei was hoping that his comment wasn’t going to be taken as an insult to her strength as a shinobi but as concern over her healing.

“If I could use a hard backed chair for now, that will be enough.” Kei retrieved a kitchen chair and brought it into the living area. “Thank you Kei-San.”

Chouza set the tray of food on the table and joined everyone else in the living room. Conversation was light, revolving around Chouza’s son and Inoichi’s daughter as they waited for the others. It wasn’t long before Tsunade, Shikaku and Yoshino arrived, the conversation became a little more lively as they waited for Jiraya. There was an underlying tension in the room as they waited. The opening of the door was enough to almost relax the atmosphere, however it ramped up when the Hyuga twins walked in dragging a sulking Kakashi behind them.

“We found Hatake reading just outside the gate and so brought him in.” Hiashi wasn’t impressed with Hatake’s habit of being late for everything, it was disrespectful and annoying.

“Come in and sit down, we’re just waiting for-“

“Sorry I’m late,” Jiraya walked in and took a seat beside Tsunade, setting the couple of bottle of sake on the table in front of them.

“Thank you for that, we’ll likely need the drink after this.” Kei was nervous but a small nod from both Fugaku and Shikaku had him activating his strongest privacy seals and going on. “So what I’m going to tell you can’t leave this room, and if you could I would like you to hold the questions for later. It’s not going to be an easy tale to hear.”

“This isn’t an easy tale for him to tell either.” Shikaku’s comment and the way he held his wife’s hand indicated just how emotional this was going to be.

Shikaku’s support help Kei decide just how to tell this tale. “My name is actually Sasuke Uchiha, I was born July 30 to Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha as the second child of the clan head. I worshipped my brother, Itachi. I wanted to be just like him. However, I was neither a genius nor a prodigy. There were many things that happened during my life that shaped who I became.” Kei so wanted to get up and pace, but instead clasped his hands between his knees and kept his gaze towards the middle of the room, staring at nothing. “Mere months after I was born, there was an attack on the village. The Kyuubi got lose.” Everyone in the room knew what that meant and took a second to remember their dear friends. “A jinchuriki’s seal weakens during childbirth and someone took advantage of this weakness. The Kyuubi killed both the Hokage and his wife just after the birth of their son and right as they managed to seal the biju into the infant. Rumors soon spread that the Kyuubi had been seen with a sharingan eye and that the Uchiha were the ones who controlled the nine tail and engineered the destruction of the village. This resulted in more suspicion and mistrust being spread against the Uchiha. Sarutobi was convinced, by Danzo, to force the Uchiha to move their compound from where it had traditionally been to the lands just outside the prison grounds and on the edge of the village.”

Both Mikoto and Fugaku hissed, the talk of moving their compound was still a fresh wound for the Uchiha clan. Something they had just barely avoided thanks to Kei.

“When I turned three, there was a big scandal in the village. One that had the village on lock down and restricted my movements for years. From what I learned later, Kumo had sent a delegation to Konoha to broker a peace treaty. On the final day, their representative broke into the Hyuga compound and kidnapped Hinata Hyuga. They made it outside of the village before they were intercepted. During Hinata’s rescue Hiashi killed the representative. Kumo retaliated by stating a breach of the new peace treaty and demanded Hiashi’s head in recompense. Hizashi volunteered and died in his stead. The switch was to be kept a village secret.”

Hiashi reached a hand out to his brother, gripping his arm tight. Poor Hinata, how terrifying for his poor daughter. Hizashi was his right hand, how would he run the clan without his twin to rely on? Neji? How would poor Neji react to the death of his father?

“The village had another secret in Naruto Uzumaki. After the death of his parents, Sarutobi placed him in the village orphanage. He made the events surrounding Naruto’s birth and his status a SS-rank secret. However, his status as a jinchuricki was leaked by Danzo. Naruto was ostracized and bullied for it. Sarutobi overlooked the poor treatment and the abuse that Naruto suffered at the orphanage. At three he was placed in his own apartment in the red light district with no one to look after him. We were told the move was made when one of his ANBU guards stopped a fourth assassination attempt by the orphanage staff. None of his parent’s friends were allowed to contact him. This left him at the mercy of the village that hated his very existence. Naruto was barred from shops, overcharged, beaten, yelled at, and ignored. It was a recipe for disaster. Again the Uchiha were blamed for the leak.”

There was shame, shock and anger on the faces of those listening. Retribution would come for those bigoted fools.

Kei continued, his voice becoming more and more monotone, as if he was trying to protect himself from the emotional toll of the story, “the Uchiha revolted in the only way they thought they could. They were planning a coup. When Itachi was eleven he was encouraged by the clan to join ANBU so they would have insight in what the Hokage was planning. Shortly after he was asked by the Hokage to start spying on the clan. Itachi loved the village and knew that the clan’s plans would fail, resulting in a multitude of deaths on both sides. When I was six and in my first year at the academy, Itachi was given an impossible choice. He could die with his clan during the coup or save the village by killing the entire clan with the exception of me. He chose the village and with the help of Madara’s rogue Uchiha, slaughtered the entire clan in one day and put me through tsukyomi and left the village. Sarutobi found out about everything after the fact, he had Itachi flee and join the Akatsuki, an organization of S ranked missing nin in order to send information back to the Leaf. I was left to live on clan lands among the ghosts of my family.”

Shikaku suppressed a shudder as he caught a glimpse of Kei’s face, a face devoid of emotion, except his eyes. There were lifetimes of pain in his eyes.

“My academy class held all the major clan heirs, Hinata Hyuga, Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka, Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka, Choji Akimichi and Naruto Uzumaki. The Rookie Nine. The only reason I graduated top of class was because Shikamaru was too lazy to apply himself and Shino wanted to stay out of the lime light. Naruto had failed the exam three times. His entire academic career had been sabotaged and in a last ditch effort to graduate, he was tricked by a traitorous teacher into stealing the forbidden scroll of jutsu from the Hokage’s office. Our teacher, Iruka Umino, tried to stop him and was injured in the attempt. That was when Naruto learned of his jinchuricki status and what would become his signature jutsu, the Kage Bunshin no jutsu.”

Choza poured Kei another cup of tea. “Kage Bunshin at that age?”

“Thank you,” Kei smiled as he took a drink. The smile broadened and chased away some of the sadness as his mind filled with memories of his friend, “with his chakra reserves Naruto could create hundreds of solid shadow clones. It only got more insane as he got older or when he tapped into the Kyuubi’s chakra.” He could remember the number of times Naruto spammed the battle field with thousands of his clones. He was sure that if he’d had a way, Naruto would have kept everyone off the battlefield and fought by himself. “I was put on the cursed Team Seven with Naruto and the top female civilian, Sakura Haruno. Kakashi was our jonin sensei. Of course Kakashi was too traumatized to do much teaching, though that isn’t all his fault. He had two traumatized preteens and a fan girl to deal with on top of his own issues.”

Inoichi muttered about the lack of mental health care among shinobi into his tea cup. It had been a sore spot that the program he, Dan Kato and Tsunade had pioneered had been shut down within a year of Dan’s death and Tsunade leaving the village.

Kei continued, the joy of his memories fading with the content he was retelling, “that year the Chunin exams were being held in Konoha. We had barely completed the required number of missions in order for Kakashi to recommend us to take the exam. In fact all the teams of our year were recommended. I’m pretty sure most of the Jonin sensei thought it would be a safe way to knock us all down a peg or two. It was during these exams that two other significant events happened. The first is that Naruto met Gaara. Gaara is Suna’s jinchuricki, who is dealing with a faulty seal that is torturing both Gaara and the biju inside him. The other event was the appearance of Orochimaru. He disguised himself and entered the second stage of the exams where he attacked our team. He was searching for the perfect body to transfer his soul into and a way to study the sharingan, Itachi was his first choice, I was his second. We were attacked in the Forest of Death and the snake bastard gave me a cursed seal then put a five prong seal on top of Naruto’s eight prong seal. Not really a good combination. Of course all of this was hushed up by Sarutobi.”

Both Jiraya and Tsunade tried to interrupt in protest. Their former team mate would never do something like that. Would he?

Kei ignored them, “Orochimaru had convinced the Kazekage into staging an invasion against Konoha. I’m not sure when he murdered the Kazekage and started to impersonate him, but it was during the individual matches that he launched his attack on Konoha. The Sand and Sound villages attacked, Orochimaru fought Sarutobi using Edo Tensi. The result was Sarutobi’s death and Orochimaru fleeing. Gaara let the Ichibi lose. Naruto, Sakura and I went after Gaara. It was Naruto who stopped him. I later took off to join Orochimaru, the cursed seal convincing me that joining him was the only way to gain power and enact my revenge against Itachi. Naruto and the other Rookies came after me, but when we met up, I tried to kill him. I’m not sure if I was declared missing nin at that point or just missing.” He ignored the pained sound coming from Fugaku and Mikoto.

Kei looked over at Jiraya and Tsunade. Hearing how your team mate killed your sensei wasn’t easy. Kei knew learning the identity of the Akatsuki would be another blow to Jiraya, but he couldn’t pull his punches here so he continued.

“Shortly after this, the villages got word that the Akatsuki were looking for jinchuriki. This is the same group Itachi joined and were founded by Jiraya’s former students. They had a plan to bring about world peace. They wanted to capture all the Biju and contain them into the Juubi husk. Naruto was training with the toads when they attacked Konoha and pretty much decimated it. Lady Katsuyu estimated that we lost about a third of the civilians and half of the shinobi forces. Shikamaru told me later that Naruto went on a rampage and then managed to reign himself in and even convinced the leader of the Akatsuki to revived the dead.”

Tsunade paled and leaned against Jiraya for support. For her to send out Lady Katsuyu en mass like that meant that the causalities from the invasion were high. Half their forces and a third of the civilians, had things not turned around, Konoha would be seen as weak.

“I wasn’t there for it, but I was told a lot of other shit went down that brought about the beginning of the fourth shinobi war. All of the hidden villages against the Akatsuki. The only jinchurikis left alive by then were; Killer B with the eight tails and Naruto. Orchimaru and a subordinate, started using Edo Tensi on mass. It brought back the dead to fight against us, including the real Madara Uchiha. It didn’t help that there was a being called Zetsu who could split into two halves, white and black.”

Shikaku glanced at Inoichi. This was in more detail then Kei had told them previously. If Inoichi had seen this in his mind walk of Haru it was no wonder his friend stayed close to Kei, offering the chance to reminisce about those he had lost. He knew that sometimes talking about the past was a great comfort, and Inoichi would be good for that.

Kei continued, “black Zetsu was more the brains, the manifestation of Kaguya’s hate while white Zetsu could clone itself into anyone right down to their chakra paths. We had no defense against them. Madara managed to put almost all of us in his infinite tsukyomi before he was himself betrayed. The Rabbit Goddess Kaguya appeared and in the fight, killed both myself and Naruto. We were brought back to life by the Sage of the Six Paths and defeated her after years of war. There was a heavy cost to our semi-victory. At the end there were damn near no one left, almost no animals or plant life. We had maybe a handful of civilians and a couple of hundred shinobi world wide. Zetsu was still after us, so we ran. Hideout to hideout. Each move had us losing more and more people. Our final stand was in Uzushio. We were hunkered down with the remaining 120 souls in the world. Waiting for death, between Zetsu picking us off and starvation, there wasn’t much hope left. We’d lost all of our age mates and most of our precious people. Kakashi had been killed the day before. He had been our Kage of sort. There was no village, but he gave us guidance. Our brightest minds had come up with a plan, it was wild and reckless and based on Naruto’s unpredictability and luck. Naruto had been reluctant, I think that Kakashi’s death was the turning point for him to agree.”

Kakashi had trouble hearing the tale. It wasn’t that long ago that he had been barred from interacting with his Sensei’s son, to hear that he had been their Jonin Sensei and then that he had died, a kage no less. It was a shock.

Kei knew that he was glossing over many events but these memories were painful and reminded him of how unsuited he was for this mission and how alone he really was. “We created a seal using my Mangekyo sharingan, the Biju and Naruto’s chakra to send the two of us into the past. To stop everything before it began.” The way Fugaku’s eye darted to his, let Kei know that his father understood he was really talking about the rinnegan, but he wasn’t bringing the legendary eye into this conversation. It wasn’t something he wanted to rely on. “We arrived almost a year ago and were found immediately by the Ino-Shika-Cho. However, there was a cost to pay for coming back too. We were both on the verge of starvation before we left, the lack of supplies affected everyone. Naruto was in a bad way. He had been relying on the strength of the Kyuubi and going without food so that everyone else could have a mouthful more. He survived long enough to know that seal had worked and we were back in the past, that there was a chance for us to do this right.”

Kei looked like he was about to break. Inoichi refilled Kei’s cup of herbal tea and sat beside him talking softly about the positive memories he had seen in Naruto’s memories. He knew that Kei would be focusing on his failures and his friend.

Shikaku took over, “our team had just been in a fight with Iwa. It was Naruto that healed my wounds, Ino had searched Naruto’s mind and we verified his story. After Naruto faded, we took Kei with us to our camp. He’s the shinobi we had stay in Chouza’s summer cottage for a time. It took some convincing but we brought in Fugaku. When he was healthier we snuck Kei outside of the village walls to be ‘found’ and brought back inside as a child of Uzumaki and Uchiha blood. We created a backstory that was based on some truth and able to get him want he wanted, custody of Naruto and a way to stop things that were coming.”

“Takio Uchiha and his team really are buried in Uzushigakure beside the royal family. All clan protocols were followed according to the scrolls we found in my time.” Kei interjected.

The clan heads gave a slight nod, surprised that this was a point Kei wanted to make clear.

“What was the first thing you changed?” Jiraya knew it was nigh impossible to fool a Yamanaka mind scan. He wasn’t sure if he believed everything, but it did answer many of the questions he had regarding the newcomer.

“The first step was the isolation of the Uchiha, we needed the village clans to realize that they were stronger together then pitted against one another.” Shikaku remembered the list Kei had given him. “After that it was stopping Hizashi’s death.”

The Hyuga twins were shocked. The relationship between the Hyuga and the Uchihia had never been good. To hear that stopping Hizashi’s death was such an important step had both men vowing to re-evaluate their clan’s relationships with other int he village.

“Neji and Hinata were never the same after his death. Neji became bitter and cruel, and Hinata struggled with her self esteem and confidence so much, Hanabi was named heir.” Kei had never been all that close to either Hyuga, but he remembered how worried Naruto had been. “Danzo was another big point. That bastard had his hands in way too many things and I didn’t end him soon enough in either time.” The thought of killing Danzo for a second time, brought up his mother and how she’d been injured. Mikoto still hadn’t said anything and it was really starting to worry him.

The Uchiha matriarch couldn’t stop staring at the man across from her. Her son. This was her Sasuke. Once that thought settled in her mind she couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen it before. He had her face shape, Fu’s eyes. Even his mannerisms were the same, the way he watched Itachi and her Sasuke with something akin to wistfulness. “Why didn’t I see it before, Kei, my Sasuke, how could I not have known?” Tears fell and she reached her arms out. Kei moved closer in order to not aggravate her injuries, almost falling into his mother’s arms. Mikoto pulled him close, “Oh what pain you’ve been through.”

Fugaku wrapped his arms around the two of them. Not ashamed of the tears on his face.

Everyone moved into the kitchen in order to give the family a chance to reconnect and themselves a moment to understand everything that had just been said.

Chapter Text

“Do we believe everything he just said?” Tsunade held up a hand in Inoichi’s direction. “Look, I get it that you three checked his information, but this is a lot. I mean time travel?” She didn’t want to bring up Orochimaru. Had he really turned against the village?

Jiraya stroked his chin, that small nagging feeling in the back of his mind of something being just not right when he first met Kei now disappeared. Time travel. “Well, when you look at it; Minato’s flying raijin was a space-time jutsu and we both remember Tobirama-sama fiddling with different time jutsu. If Kei and his group spent some time in Uzushio with an Uzumaki able to access the blood seals, we don’t know what they’d be able to learn.”

Shikaku pulled Yoshino into his side, screw propriety and keeping their emotions hidden, Shikaku needed the comfort of his wife. He had heard most of this before, but watching Kei recite his life like it didn’t matter, hurt. He hurt for his friend.

“I think that Kei’s story is the only thing that explains the way his chakra feels.” Nyoko kept her gaze out the window, she didn’t really know these people and didn’t have their history together. She was only out here with them in order to give Kei and his parents a moment to connect. She had wanted to let the Konoha nin talk things out.

“What do you mean by that?” It was Yoshino’s first time meeting Nyoko and while she was physically similar to Kushina, Yoshino wanted to get to know the new Uzumaki for her own sake. She was sure there was going to be some who wanted to use the newcomer for nefarious reason and Yoshino wanted to give the woman a solid friend, especially with how close Kei and Shikaku were.

Nyoko remembered the way Kei had come to get her and Karin and how desperately wounded he felt. “When he found us in the land of grass, I knew that he was lying about being half Uzumaki. His chakra wasn’t thick enough, dense enough; however that didn’t mean he was lying completely. I knew that he had some shared blood with us Uzumaki but I wasn’t sure how. I just know that he didn’t feel like he was lying to hurt us, more like trying to protect something.”

“Why didn’t you call him on it then?” Hizashi asked quietly. He knew she could have made a scene and they would have been apprehended for interfering in village affairs.

Nyoko’s smile was grim, “honestly, because we couldn’t do any worse. I knew the village head was going to start using Karin to help in the hospital and that if they did, we’d both be dead soon. Konoha was supposed to be our sister village and I guess- well I had hoped, that the time spent traveling would allow me to regain some of my strength and that once here I could at least try and negotiate for Karin’s life.”

“It was that bad?” Chouza spoke up, the woman in front of him reminded him of Kei when he’d been found, starved, exhausted, with eyes that saw their own death mere moments away and yet were still willing to fight.

“I’m glad you found a better result.” Shikaku pulled back a little while still keeping Yoshino at his side, “Kei must have said something about his situation, after all you asked me some pointed questions.”

Nyoko lips turned up at one corner in a grin that reminded all who were there of Kushina when she had some crazy plan. “Kei pretty much let me know that he had travelled back in time. I trusted him because of the tales my mother told me about the seal masters who had lived and taught in Uzushio. There is a memory seal that lets a pair share memories, I would guess that it’s similar to Yamanaka’s mind transfer but it uses our chakra. Kei had only a drop of Uzumaki blood, but that drop told me that he had been close to an Uzumaki that considered him family and that was enough for me.”

Fugaku called the others back. They had moved Mikoto’s chair right beside the couch as Mikoto refused to let go of her son and Kei wasn’t going to put any more strain on her healing injuries.

“I have a question,” Hiashi spoke up for the first time, “it’s not that I don’t appreciate what you’ve done for us. Your story here does explain a lot of the little inconsistencies that we have noticed. However, it seems like you have been able to handle pretty much everything that you came back here to stop with the help of those who were already in the know. My question is why tell us at all? Why now?”

“Honestly, it feels like I’m barely hanging on most days.” Kei looked the Hyuga right in the eye, he wasn’t trying to make excuses but they needed to know he was struggling and needed their help. He wanted to laugh. If only Haru could see him now. There was no trace of the egotistical emo avenger anymore, now he was a pseudo parent with more trauma then the emergency ward at the hospital. Well, if he was going to channel Haru he wasn’t going to half ass it. “No, I told you because I need your help. I can’t do this alone. Hell, I was sent here more to be back up then the main act. Haru made sure to ask the Ino-Shika-Cho for help, to make me promise to accept their help when we arrived. I’m sure he knew what was going to happen to him. They have helped both in my mission and helping me acclimate to this time. We have made changes, not a lot, but the ones we did have left a large impact. I mean, not only are the Uchiha alive, but the police force is active and working with other clans as well. Talk about a coup has stopped Hizashi is here and supporting his clan. Sarutobi realizes he needs to step down before he dies and Lady Tsunade is here almost a decade early. The biggest, of course, is that Danzo is dead. Are there still things I’d like to change, of course, but I can’t do it alone.”

“So where can we help?” Fugaku was standing behind Mikoto and Kei.

Kei pulled his sleeve up to access one of his seals. It was the first time a couple of them had seen Kei use the seals inked on his body. The scroll he pulled out was around 25 cm long and 10 cm in diameter. As he laid it on the table in front of him and opened it, the symbols and words were blurred to all around him. Kei ran a finger down the parchment, mumbling to himself. “I just don’t have all the information as to where they are.” Kei spoke louder the more frustrated he got. “There are maybe a handful of things we can try and change, I just…”

“Kei,” Shikaku’s voice was on the sharp side, but it seemed to be what Kei needed to snap him out of his thoughts, “Kei, just let us know what you’re thinking.”

Kei was once again relieved to have Shikaku supporting him. “There are others to stop. Whether we kill them or not depends on, shit, it depends on many things. The first is Madara Uchiha.” Kei ignored the gasps of those around him. “From what we learned in my time; after Madara and Hashirama fought the last time it was assumed Madara died, and well, he didn’t.” Kei couldn’t blame them for being confused, “Izanagi.”

Fugaku and Mikoto cursed. Kei just nodded and let Fugaku explain. “It’s a clan secret.”

Everyone else just nodded, they were all from clans and understood that some clan secrets remained just that, clan secrets. They were surprised when Fugaku continued to explain.

“Izanagi is a Mangekyo Sharingan ability. I don’t know of any recorded use of it since before the warring state period. It requires the fulfillment of certain conditions which allows the wielder to rewrite a moment in time at the expense of the sharingan. The clan has forbidden it’s use and the teaching of it.” Fugaku almost spit out the explanation.

“It was how he escaped. He managed to steal some of Hashirama’s cells and utilize his kekkei genkai to stay alive, aging slowly. He was stuck underground listening to Zetsu’s twisted plan. A number of years later they managed to entrap another Uchiha and basically brain wash and manipulate him into following Zetsu’s rhetoric. I’m not sure about the timing, but there was something about Madara dying for real when I, Sasuke, turned three. I want to say that he doesn’t come back until Edo Tensi was used during the war but I’m not positive. If he is dead then we want him to stay that way. We tried to reason with him and it was impossible. He cannot be redeemed. We also need to deal with the other Uchiha, the one who has been brain washed in believing everything Zetsu says.”

“Who is Zetsu, the memories I read were confusing.” Inoichi understood why Kei was being careful in how he portrayed Obito. “And while you said he was the manifestation of hate what does that mean?”

Kei could understand the confusion. He had lived it, had met Zetsu and he still didn’t understand what it was. “When Haru and I died on the battlefield, we were- I guess transported to a spirit plane would be the best description. I really didn’t understand it, but Haru later told me it reminded him of the mind space where he met Ku- “ crap Kei wasn’t about to give out Kurama’s name, not without the nine tails permission. “The Kyuubi.”

Shikaku noticed the pause, a quick glance around the room showed that Inoichi and Fugaku also noticed the pause. They weren’t going to say anything so maybe they could ask him about it later. Shikaku was pretty sure that it wasn’t the first time Kei hesitated when talking about any of the Biju.

“Anyway, when we were there we met Hagoromo the Rikudo Sannin. He told us of his past. That the nine Biju were pulled from his mother and put into him as the first jinchuricki, while his twin Hamura went on to father the Shinobi on the moon. Zetsu is their younger brother. He’s not human and essentially the manifestation of his mother’s hate and anger at the human world. Zetsu wants to bring her back and end us. I’m not really sure of the process, except that Zetsu is able to create a clone of some type with mokuton, we called it white Zetsu. They were able to create an almost infinite number of these white clones who were then able to replicate any shinobi right down to their chakra pathways. It was how we lost so many shinobi in such a short period of time. Hagoromo gave us a lot of information, information we used to fight. I honestly don’t know if Zetsu can be killed the traditional way or if we need to seal it inside something. I do know that it can’t be rehabilitated.”

“Surely the Byakugan could see the difference.” Hiashi knew the abilities of his clan’s doujutsu and it’s ability to see chakra paths and how they differ from person to person.

Kei shook his head, “the only one’s who could tell the difference between a white Zetsu clone and the the person they were cloning were the jinchuricki. Even then it was the biju inside of them that could tell the difference first. Haru and his clones saved us more times then we could count. He said it was the biju’s ability to sense negative emotions and his use of senjutsu that tipped him off.”

“So hate personified, just like you said,” Shikaku stroked his goatee as he thought over what he’d just heard, “that sounds overwhelmingly troublesome.”

Kei couldn’t help but smile a little at the Nara’s catch phrase, it was so much like Shika.

Fugaku was tense, Madara was why the Uchiha weren’t trusted, his attack and betrayal was why Tobirama didn’t trust the Uchiha and that sentiment continued until now. “So if I’m understanding we have Madara Uchiha who may or may not be dead, Zetsu the child of the Rabbit Goddess that can’t die and this other unnamed Uchiha?” Fugaku wondered if this unnamed Uchiha was young Obito.

Kei took a breath, “One thing I think you need to know about the other Uchiha, he did switch sides and became one of our most ardent warriors in my time. It’s important to know that he has a control seal on his heart, one that continually manipulates his thoughts and to some extent controls his actions. He spent almost a year healing from a horrendous injury that should have taken his life and it was during that time Madara implanted the control seal. According to him, Madara and Zetsu were constantly trying to break his spirit and his loyalty to the village. That only happened when he watched one of his friends die at the hands of another.”

“Shit, to see friends kill one another, I mean it was war and we saw so much death and betrayal, but what could have caused that?” Hiashi was already shocked.

“You’re stalling, what is it that you don’t want to say?” Tsunade called the time traveler on his bluff.

“The rogue Uchiha is known to all of you.” Kei did his best not to look at Kakashi, “it’s Obito Uchiha. The Kannabi Bridge mission was sabotaged right from the start. Danzo had a hand in it. Not sure if was meant to kill Minato, his team, capture one of them or sow mistrust and despair but it worked. Zetsu pulled him out of the rock pile and brought him to Madara. They helped heal the crush injuries, they also put a seal of hate on his heart and started manipulating him into the belief that the village was nothing but lies. He actually fought against it and was still trying to come back when he was able to conveniently able to escape.”

“No,” Kakashi’s words were whispered, he remembered what Kei had said about a friend killing a friend. Hell it was one of his monikers, ‘friend killer’ Hatake.

Hiashi flinched. Not because of any undisclosed feeling towards Obito, but because of what he’d just said. Kakashi didn’t deserve his harsh words.

Kei looked right at his former-future sensei. “During the mission from Iwa, Obito arrived on the field just in time to see Kakashi’s chidori kill Rin.” Kei’s expression was tense, “in one of his many ramblings, Zetsu bragged about how they had manufactured the whole incident. Planting the Ichibi into Rin with a faulty seal, leading the Kiri shinobi to her trail, even delaying the help Kakashi had sent for. In Zetsu’s mind, if the seal didn’t fail on their run home, then it would have by the time Rin arrived in Konoha. Either way he won, releasing the Sanbi, destroying Konoha or at least the last thread holding Obito back. It was more a matter of how much collateral damage. Obito was always supposed to see Rin die, it guaranteed he would chose their side.”

Jiraya sat beside Kakashi, a hand on his shoulder in comfort.

“Obito can be redeemed. Naruto did it before.” Kei honestly didn’t care either way about Obito, but he wasn’t facing Naruto in the after life only to say he didn’t try. “I’m not Naruto and I don’t have his charisma, however I can show him the future and how bleak it will be if he continues on this path. He does have a cursed seal on his heart that will need to be removed, preferably without killing him. In my time Obito forced Kakashi to destroy the seal and his heart using the chidori. Again.”

“Shit,” Kakashi let his head fall into his hands as he stared at the floor. He killed his team mates, he really was cursed to be alone.

“When did you find out that Obito was the rogue Uchiha?” Mikoto remembered the kind hearted boy, a distant cousin and outcast from the clan.

“I figured it out shortly after the war officially started, I was a rogue nin myself by then and working with Orochimaru. Kakashi found out in the midst of battle, a couple of days before Obito died protecting Kakashi, Naruto and myself.”

“So the main issue with Obito is the seal on his heart and what else?” Inoichi wanted to get as much information as possible to see how they could help.

“I don’t know where he is and if we can separate him from Zetsu, but that would be best that we do. Obito is not only a damn strong fighter but resourceful and innovative in creating battle plans. We could use his help in fighting Zetsu.” Kei didn’t want to mention that it was Obito who killed Minato and Kushina. He’d tell Inoichi and likely Shikaku, if only because the man was too damn smart, if they managed to turn him to their side. The fewer who knew the better.

“What do you mean separate him from Zetsu?” Shikaku had his hands steepled together as he tried to formulate a plan.

Kei let out a sigh, “from what we understood, it was all part of Zetsu’s plan. Zetsu has been working on this for generations. He needs the rinnegan a dojutsu of legend in order to bring back his mother, Kagyua. We believe that it manipulated Madara and together they conspired to manipulate Obito. I’m sure you’re aware of how Obito ‘died’. He was crushed under a rock fall, and gave his sharingan to Kakashi as a gift for achieving the rank of jonin. Zetsu and Madara grafted both Hashirama Senju and Zetsu’s own cells onto Obito in order to aid in his healing and in controlling him. It made him the perfect puppet once he finally gave in.”

“If Zetsu is part of what’s keeping Obito whole, how can we separate them?” Shikaku need more information if he was going to help formulate a plan.

“I know that Zetsu can use Hashirama’s cells to control and spy on Obito. It happened frequently when we tried to free Obito.”

“But why Obito?” Mikoto couldn’t fathom why the unpopular, slightly clumsy Uchiha with the person Kei was describing.

“It’s all about the rinnegan. This is all Uchiha Clan lore,” Kei looked at those around him, personally he didn’t care if they knew Uchiha clan secrets, but then he’d spent more time without a clan then with one. Clan secrets could help save lives and stop wars.

It didn’t take Fugaku long to make a decision. “Let me Kei. There are too many secrets within the clans as it is. The Sharingan is unlocked when an Uchiha witnesses a moment of extreme emotional trauma. The next step is the Mangekyo, which results when an Uchiha witnesses the traumatic death of a loved one. The Eternal Mangekyo can only appear through transplanting the eyes of a relative into yourself. The catch is that both must already have the Mangekyo.” He let that thought sit for a minute. To take a family member’s eyes, which most likely meant that one of them had died. “The Rinnegan is the ultimate dojutsu. There are other requirements then just having the Mangekyo but that is the main one.”

Hiashi realized that Fugaku was willing to bare the Uchiha secrets, but was still keeping pieces hidden in order to protect the other clans. Hizashi gave him a little nudge. In his typical calm and almost bored tone, Hiashi added, “one of the other requirements is the blood line. Our history tells us that there needs to be a blood link to the Otsutsuki as well as the Uchiha.”

“And that’s the reason they used Obito.” Fugaku gave a slight nod towards Hiashi in thanks. “Obito was an outcast among the Uchiha, because of his parents. His father was Kyosuke Uchiha, who died when he was a child, and his mother was Aoi Senju who died in childbirth. They were unmarried and virtually disowned by both clans. Most of this was kept from him as he was raised by his paternal grandmother and an Uncle.”

“So the perfect model to create a Rinnegan.” Shikaku sighed. “You’re right if we can we need to bring Obito to our side. I’m going to trust that there’s a way to keep him safe from Zetsu if we can change his mind.”

Kei just shrugged. Once free of the cursed seal, Obito’s will power rivaled that of Naruto.

“You mentioned Orochimaru, what about him, Can we bring him back to the fold?” Jiraya was almost desperate to save his friend. He could see the defeat in Tsunade’s eyes.

Kei almost welcomed the topic shift. “I really don’t think so. The amount of experimentation he has done on children. For a time he joined the Akatsuki and hunted the jinchuriki. I don’t know if he has formed the Sound Village yet or not, but both he and Kabuto are too focused on isolating kekkei genkai no matter what the cost. We can’t have him playing around with Edo Tensai or any of Tobirama’s other jutsus.”

“Tobirama-sama did experiment with dangerous ideas.” Tsunade heaved a heavy sigh. She didn’t want to believe it, but Orochimaru had started to change during the second war. Little things like the way he watched as someone died, or stepping over an injured comrade instead of helping. His callous nature and willingness to go through a comrade on the battlefield. The fact that it didn’t stop when they were at home really made Tsunade disconcerted.

“Orochimaru had a number of hideouts, I remember the location of a couple of them.”

“I’ll bring a map next time.” Shikaku stroked his chin, “are there any other pressing questions we need to have answered today?” It was still early, but he was sure that Mikoto and Fugaku would like to spend some time with Kei. When no one said anything, Shikaku stood, “I think we all need to go back home and think over what we’ve learned. I will caution you to speak only under privacy seals and with each other. Obviously we can’t let anyone else know. Kei, may we meet again in two days? I’m sure there will be more questions by then.”

“Plus you’ll likely have the beginnings of a plan, am I right?” Inoichi was enormously proud of how his friend and teammate managed to come up with the most effective plans.

Shikaku sighed at his friend’s bragging. “Jiraya,” Shikaku nodded his head towards Tsunade.

Kei thought he understood Shikaku’s implication towards Jiraya and interjected. “Actually, I’m not sure if you know or not, but it seemed that Minato and Kushina had left provisions for a number of people in their will. I have a copy of it, but haven’t registered it with the Hokage office. There are a number of empty building on the land here and they wanted to make sure that you knew, you were welcome to them. I want to honor those wishes and make sure that Lady Tsunade and Jiraya as well as Kakashi and Minato’s guards know that they have a place here when and if they want it.”

“Kushina always did want to fill the compound with family.” Jiraya let a wry smile cross.

“Unfortunately as Hokage, I will have to live somewhere that is easily accessible to ANBU and others. I donated the Senju land and the buildings to the survivors of the third shinobi war. As much as I would love to live here at the Uzumaki compound, I don’t want to this place to be overrun with bureaucrats.” Tsunade remembered how many meetings and over night guests were billeted at the main house of the Senju compound when her Grandfather and Grand-Uncle were Hokage.

“Nyoko, you and Karin are staying here correct?” Shikaku asked, even though he already knew.

“Yes, Kei has been quite welcoming. As Karin and Naruto are about the same age, I believe it would be beneficial for the them to stay close together.” Nyoko was glad that Kei had been so welcoming. He had offered to let them have their own building, but she actually felt safer within the main building. Kei was there to protect them if need be and she was there to aid him in whatever method she could.

“Kakashi, I know that you had a room here when Minato and Kushina were alive. If you don’t want to reclaim it, maybe one of the other buildings might suit you better. It would be quieter and there would be less disturbances from others.”

Inoichi watched the silver haired jonin closely, hoping he would accept. The clan head understood why the village housed the jonin together, but with different jonin coming and going at all hours for different missions, no one every got enough rest. The problem was how small the apartments were and how thin the walls were. Every sound was heard in the next apartment, causing sleepless nights for almost everyone. Kakashi just shrugged, Inoichi was sure he was overwhelmed, after all he just learned that his former team mate was still alive and plotting against the leaf.

Shikaku smiled, it sounded like Kei was still alright with Namiashi and Shiranui living here. It would do the pair a world of good to live where they wouldn’t be under constant scrutiny. Talking to them about it was going to be a task for another day, for now Shikaku ushered everyone else outside. Jiraya would watch over Tsunade and Inoichi would watch over Kakashi. Nyoko would look out for Kei, of course that was provided Mikoto’s let Kei go.

Chapter Text

“Kei, how can you-? Why didn’t you-?” Mikoto couldn’t finish any of her questions as she broke down. “Oh my sweet boy, what did we do to you?” The tears flowed freely as she gently cradled Kei’s face in her hands.

“Please, be careful of your injuries,” Kei moved closer, once again kneeling on the floor at her feet.

Fugaku watched, he could see his beloved wife in the shape of Kei’s jaw and eyes, even the way he tilted his head to the side was the same as Mikoto’s. He let the two have their time. He wouldn’t deny his wife the comfort of holding her son.

“Miko, it’s been a long day and we’ve learned a lot of information.” Fugaku stood and ran his hand over her hair. He didn’t want to deny her anything, but he was pretty sure that all three of them were on the verge of an emotional breakdown. “We can come back, Kei’s not going anywhere.”

Kei watched them leave, feeling both relief and regret. He was emotionally drained and ready to just sit in the corner and scream. He didn’t even have the energy to move.

Nyoko had seen everyone out. She was impressed with the way Shikaku and Inoichi made sure that everyone had someone to lean on. She had stayed in the kitchen, cleaning what dishes had been used and creating a simple dinner. Closing the door behind the Uchiha clan head and his wife, she leaned against it for a brief moment. They were alone, just her and Kei. A glance back towards the living room had her worried about what shape he would be in. She brought a glass of water and a blanket to couch where Kei was sitting. Draping the blanket around his shoulders, she sat beside him. “Tell me about Naruto,” her question startled Kei, but she knew his mind was on the past and she hoped to focus his thoughts on something positive.

“Well he was,” Kei faltered, where did he start to tell her about her family.

Nyoko’s hand rested on his, “tell me how you met?”

He glanced into her eyes and realized that she wanted to hear about his friend, not the hero or her family.

“He was loud. God but he was so loud. We were in the academy together and-” Kei talked. He told her about the orange loving, loud mouth who couldn’t read and never had enough food to eat. About the pranks he pulled, how he was never caught and how wide his grin was. He even told her about the kiss. Tears rolled down his face, “I miss him. I miss how he made me a better person without even trying. He never gave up on me, never lost faith in me, even when I lost it in myself.”

“What about this Naruto?” Nyoko believed she knew the answer but she wanted Kei to say it out loud.

“I want so much more for him. I mean, my friend saved the world, but the cost…the cost was too high. We lost too much. I want this Naruto to know he is loved, that his parents loved him and didn’t want to leave him. I know that he’ll befriend Kurama again, because that’s just who he is, but I also want him to have the relationship he was supposed to have with Kakashi and Genma and Raidou and the rest of his parent’s friends. I’m hoping that Sasuke, this Sasuke will still be his friend and that with the clan still alive, that Itachi will also be there to help and guide the two of them.” Kei leaned his head back and closed his eyes, “most of all I just want him safe.”

Nyoko smiled as she leaned against him, “he will be because you’ll make sure of it. Don’t forget, you have family now and friends who will help. Plus, I don’t think Karin will let anything happen to Naruto now.” Kei seemed to sag a little. “Let’s get you to bed. It’s been a trying day and I know that there are more to come.”

Kei shuffled off to bed, Nyoko tucking the blanket around his shoulders like she would her own daughter. A glass of water was left at the bedside as she dimmed the lights and closed the door. She was glad that Fugaku would have someone bring the kids back. Kei was in no shape to leave the compound and she really didn’t want to leave him alone even for the short amount of time it would take for her to go and get them.

Nyoko knew that he was grieving for all that he had lost and was forced to confront. His tale was going to be hard to hide, it affected too many people and the emotional damage was going to be evident. As she tided the living room she thought over what she had heard. What she told the others was true, she believed Kei and his story, she had too much experience with the fickleness of seals to underestimate them. The changes that he had made were huge and the fact that he had taken a lot of this on himself had her wanting to take care of him. Of course she would need to get in line behind Mikoto, even Shikaku and his wife looked like they wanted to protect Kei from the world. There had been too little care in his life.

*****

Jiraya was walking with both Tsunade and Kakashi back towards the village center. The Ino-Shika-Cho had gone with the Hyuga twins. He wasn’t sure how to deal with all that he learned and help his team mate and his student’s student. The sight of Raidou Namiashi standing outside of a food stall was almost a miracle.

“Namiashi!”

Raidou turned, he saw Jiraya with Tsunade and Kakashi and all three looked like they had just watched someone die. They were that devastated. “Jiraya, Lady Tsunade, Kakashi,” there was real concern in his voice.

“I was wondering if you can watch over Kakashi here for the next day or two.”

“I’m fine.” Kakashi voice was steady but his hands fumbled as he tried to pull out his little orange book.

Jiraya carefully laid a hand on his shoulder, stopping his movements, “all I’m saying is that none of us need to be alone with our thoughts after everything we’ve talked about.” He used the bastardized hands signs from the third war to send Raidou a message. Classified info, keep him safe, possible risk of self harm.

The two Sannin stayed put as Raidou walked Kakashi back towards the Jonin barracks.

“Will he be ok?” Kakashi was someone she had lost track of when she left the village. Sakumo had been a good friend and mentor to them.

“Genma and Raidou will look after him. Right now I would like to get us somewhere we can talk.” Jiraya was still trying to wrap his head around everything he’d heard. Looking at his team mate he could see the same shock in her eyes that he was sure was in his. There was no way they could sit in public and talk. “Come on, let’s go to my place. I still have the privacy seals that Minato and Kushina helped me put up.”

Jiraya let Tsunade sit at the table, as he walked to the nearest wall and activated his set privacy seals. This wasn’t a risky conversation yet, but he knew how Tsunade worked. He wanted to be ready. He grabbed a couple of bottles of sake and a bowl of nuts on his way back to join her.

“Do you believe him?” Tsunade was staring at the table as she nursed another cup of sake.

Jiraya leaned in his chair as he contemplated her question. “Well it does explain a lot of the little inconsistencies I’ve noticed.”

“Yeah like what?”

“How he acts around town. How both Fugaku and the Ino-Shika-Cho look at him.” Tsunade just quirked an eyebrow before Jiraya started explaining. “Fugaku has this look like he’s scared that Kei will disappeared as soon as he looks away. Chouza watches him like a concerned parent and Shikaku has sought him out a number of times to discuss plans that he has made. There’s also the way Kei watches people around the village. Like they’re ghosts and he’s not sure if he wants to talk to them or run away. Apparently Inoichi has helped him deal with a couple of panic attacks. Prior to learning about the time travel, I would have chalked a lot of it up to writer’s imagination or a really bad case of PTSD.”

“So all of them have become protective parents,” Tsunade gazed into her empty cup.

Jiraya swirled his drink, “that doesn’t even take into account the changes those four have made in their own actions. They have changed how they treat their families, their clans and even other clan heads. It’s been amazing to see them cooperating so easily.”

Tsunade nodded. “Changes like that don’t happen overnight without there being a damn good reason for it.” She finished her drink and when the bottle she grabbed proved to be empty, she went into the kitchen to find another. “So we’re going to accept what he told us as truth?” She really wanted to argue that Orochimaru could be redeemed, but in truth she knew the window for that to happen had passed long ago. She hoped that Jiraya understood that as well.

“I’m going to go with yes. Between Shikaku’s intellect, Choza’s instincts and Inoichi’s jutsu, I just don’t think someone can fool all of them so completely.” He had spent years chasing after Orochimaru even knowing that there was no way to bring him safely back to the village.

Five empty bottles of sake sat in the middle of the table. Tsunade looked worn out. Jiraya made a pot of tea and brought it over along with a pitcher of water. Hangovers had only been harder to deal with as he’d gotten older. “Tsuna, why don’t you spend the night.” Jiraya’s hands went up in surrender, “it’s not what you think. It’s just getting late, we’re both tired and have had a major shock. I have a spare bedroom and more tea for the morning.”

Morning saw Tsunade nursing a cup of tea while Jiraya sat at the table fiddling with a bunch of papers. She was fairly certain that he hadn’t slept last night. Tapping her index finger against her lips, Tsunade thought about Jiraya’s place. The house was a fair sized, with three bedrooms and an office, even the living area while not overly large had an open feel to it. It was in a secluded area with a beautiful view while still being close to the main roads of the village, however it felt abandoned and sad; the complete opposite of the Uzumaki compound. “What do you think of Kei’s opening the Uzumaki compound.”

Jiraya looked up from the papers he was studying. “Well Kushina always did like having people around.” Jiraya reset the privacy seals, he stopped and let his eyes linger on a framed picture of Minato and Kushina, they were dirty and ruffled having just come back from the front lines of the third war, searching each other out before getting clean. The joy and love in their eyes was obvious and likely the reason someone had snapped the candid picture. He knew it was the reason he had it framed and in his home. “Back then I know I was approached about taking one of the houses on the land.” Jiraya looked over at the next photo he had on his wall. Minato and Kushina’s wedding photo. “I know they also had a room for Kakashi and that he spent more time there then in the apartment he still has.”

“Do you know who else Kei is thinking about inviting to live there?” She wanted to see who Kei considered family, who he would feel safe with not only Naruto but also his secret.

Jiraya watched his team mate, she was trying to hide her interest. “Well there’s the two Uzumaki he found, Kakashi and likely Shiranui and Namiashi and of course us, but other then that I’m not sure.”

“Will you take him up on it?”

“Likely. This place is too lonely. I mean it’s not like I’m here a lot anyway at least at the Uzumaki compound I can relax a little more. I really think you should see about taking a spot there too. I mean, I understand your concerns for keeping the pressures of being Hokage away from there, but using it as an refuge might be what you need. It would be somewhere you could go to get away from the pressure of the job and yet still be safe and accessible if the need arose.” He held up his hand, knowing that she would lodge a protest. “Hime, I know that Senju land has been repurposed. Sensei uses the Sarutobi clan home as the Hokage’s residence. There aren’t many homes that would qualify. You’d need somewhere fairly large and easily defensible. Then there’s the question of which clan is nearby. It won’t be easy. I’d like to offer you this place. There’s no connections to any major clan, showing that you’re not trying to curry favour or giving preference. It’s large enough for informal meetings, the privacy seals are still active and it wouldn’t take much for you to turn this place into something more suitable for you.”

JIraya wasn’t going to push. Pulling out the scrolls he and Shikaku had been working, he figured he’d get her another way.

Tsunade just hummed. She would let the thought percolate. “What are you working on?”

“A seal to protect the Uchiha eyes. Kei used the seal he has as a basis. It’s similar to the Hyuga caged bird seal but vastly different as well. Come take a look.”

“I’m no seal master.”

“No but you have a wonderfully …” he wriggled his eyebrows.

“Jiraaaya!” Tsunade gave a warning growl.

“I was going to say an analytical and flexible mind. Really Hime.” He held out a scroll on sealing theory that Kei had given him, happy that he’d managed to get her smile.

She sat down next to him as he pushed over the papers and explained what Kei and Shikaku were trying to do.

Chapter Text

Genma hadn’t bothered to look up when the apartment door opened, “I started supper so no complaints.” He knew that Raidou often complained about when he cooked. Genma liked things a little spicier then his partner.

“That’s fine. Is there enough for three?”

Genma looked up and noticed Hatake standing in front of Raidou. “Kashi, you joining us are you?”

“Yeah,” the jonin’s response was quieter then normal. Genma eyed his partner, waiting for answers.

“Met Jiraya and Tsunade in the village, Kakashi was with them.” Raidou flashed some hand signs. “Jiraya asked if Kakashi could bunk with us for a couple of days.”

Genma just sighed, regardless of what Jiraya had asked, he knew Kakashi and he looked to be suffering from emotional overload. That meant forcing him to accept food and comfort, instead of his usual ‘hide and ignore’ tactics. “We can do that.” He wasn’t going to ask any questions right now, but he would watch over his friend the way they did right after the death of Obito, Rin, Minato and Kushina, only closer this time.

Kakashi sat at the table, his plate empty and having no recollection of actually eating, but since his mask was down round his neck he must have. Genma and Raidou were two of the three people still alive that knew his face. “Thank you.”

Genma waited for the snark, a flippant comment that his young friend always added. When it didn’t come he stood and went to the wall to activate the seals, “alright, Kakashi, you have two minutes. Talk.”

Kakashi looked up at two of the men who helped to make sure he was functionally stable. He couldn’t tell Kei’s tale, but, “I was with the Sannin and the Ino-Shika-Cho where we learned some disturbing news regarding the new Uzumaki. It will take time for me to fully understand and comprehend what we were told. I guess Jiraya is worried because of that. He doesn’t want me to do anything stupid.”

“Any danger to the village?” Genma wasn’t sure if it was related to the mission they did at the Uzumaki compound.

Kakashi shook his head, “no, at least I don’t;t believe so. It’s more just wrapping my mind about what they told me…us.”

“In that case, you will stay with us so we can assure him that we have curtailed your reckless nature.” Raidou watched Kakashi carefully trying to see if he was hiding anything else.

Genma clicked his senbon against his teeth, “at least not anything more idiotic then usual,” he cuffed Kakashi on the back of his head as he walked past and into the kitchen to finish putting the leftovers away. “Anyone aside from the Sannin and Ino-Shika-Cho there?” He was already planning on finding Shikaku to get a better sense of what it was that they were up against, because there was no way in hell he was letting Kakashi handle whatever it was alone if they were being asked to keep an eye on him.

“Genma, I’m not a traumatized teen anymore. You don’t have to coddle me.”

“No, what you are is a traumatized barely functioning adult and I will coddle you whenever I feel like you need it and there is nothing you can do about it.” Genma ignored the finger Kakashi flipped him and continued to dish out dessert

Raidou just shook his head knowing the two of them would go on all night, he was just glad that other members of their little family weren’t here. “Ok back to the main issue. Kakashi if you’re not with the two of us, you stay with either Gai or Tenzo, I’ll give them a heads up as well. If you feel off in any way, you need to promise us that you will ask for help.”

Their time was almost up. Kakashi looked at the two men who helped to ensure he was stable after the death of Minato and Kushina. Men who were barely older then him, who had also lost their mentor and friend the same night. He wouldn’t put them at risk. “I promise,” Kakashi caught Raidou’s eye and the shake of his head, “on Minato’s memory, I promise.”

Genma poked him in the chest with a spoon. “You better brat.” He sat in the chair and ignored the snickering from his partner.

****

Hiashi waited until they had separated from the others before speaking, “where?”

Shikaku wasn’t going to even pretend to misunderstand. “My place. Might as well take advantage of the fact that the house is empty and I have access to Kei’s wards.”

Nothing else was said until they were all sitting around the kitchen table with tea and snacks in the middle and the wards up.

“Chouza are you going to talk to Rei about this?” Inoichi already knew that he wasn’t going to say anything to his wife, he loved her but she really didn’t understand what it meant to be a shinobi.

“I had asked Rei if she wanted to come and she thought it would be better if she didn’t. She knows there’s more to Kei then what she’s been told, but I think ignorance is bliss in this instance.”

Hiashi turned to his brother, “you worked with Kei on a couple of mission, does Kei being a time traveler make sense?” He knew that he was potentially calling the other clan heads with him liars, but that wasn’t the point.

“Actually, if I think about it, it makes so much more sense. The fact that he knew exactly where to go to find Nyoko Uzumaki and her daughter, the way Fugaku acts around him, even Inoichi treating him like a wound solider still in the midst of a major recovery.” Inoichi nodded at the comment.

“Can you tell me more about the mission finding Nyoko Uzumaki? I know that the report was likely altered, but I’d like to know what happened from your perspective.” Shikaku sat with his fingers steepled together.

Hizashi took a minute to gather his thoughts before relaying what had happened from his perspective. He included his thoughts as to what Kei’s real purpose had been, “it was almost like he knew they were there. Maybe even in that particular shop. We had passed by maybe a half dozen other towns and villages and he didn’t ask to stop at them. He used a seal to color his hair bright red, and walked in front of me. At first I thought he was trying to insinuate that I wasn’t good enough, but then I realized that he was making himself the bigger target. Even when we came back, he was the one to hand in the report, again taking all the attention.”

“That could be seen as him not having faith in a Hyuga.” Hiashi tapped one finger against his leg, the only evidence of his emotions.

Hizashi shook his head, “no, all the conversations I had with the man showed me that he respected the Hyuga. He asked about the caged bird seal, but I think that was to let us know that he was working to get rid of it.” He couldn’t control the shiver that went down his spine.

“Hizashi?”his bother called his name quietly.

“I was just thinking that without Kei-San, I would be dead, Hinata-sama would be a traumatized child and my son would be bitter, filled with anger and hate at the clan and the world.”

The other men quieted at Hizashi’s words, remembering the attack on the Hyuga at the end of the year. It reminded them of the other deaths Kei talked about. The friends and comrades lost, missions sabotaged, and the needless extension of the third war. The loss of one of the founding clans was huge and not something any of them thought the village could recover from.

Shikaku let his eyes rest on the box in the corner under his shogi board. The scrolls inside from the Uzumaki compound that he hadn’t returned. Ones he hadn’t gone through and cleared. “Hiashi, you should know that when we first suggested Kei move into the Uzumaki compound, I had a team go through the house. Just in case Minato left some things behind.”

The other’s listened intently.

“We knew that Danzo would convince Hiruzen to let him send in a team, hell I’m sure we all knew that he’d tried to sneak in right after their deaths.”

“This was the conversation we had about keeping a vile of your blood wasn’t it?” Chouza was relieved to learn there had been a legitimate reason behind the request, and not his friend contemplating his own death. “What did you find?”

“Sorry about worrying you. Anyway there were a lot of files. We found both Minato and Kushina’s wills and bequests, but then we also found a lot more. There were Mito-Sama’s journals, documents and artifacts from Uzushio. Minato’s books on funijutsu and the jutsu’s he was trying to create and perfect. There were also many scrolls on irregularities that he found through out the village, accounts and missions he wanted to look into. He had files on Danzo and was looking into a way to charge him legally.”

“Where are they now?” Hiashi couldn’t stop his suspicious nature.

“Some of them I’ve given back to Kei. Some of them are still here.” Shikaku could see the interest in Hiashi’s eyes no matter how hard he tried to suppress it. “I’ll get your help reading and sorting through them later.”

“Danzo really was a poison in the village.” The venom in Chouza’s voice would have shocked them, if they hadn’t been thinking the same thing.

“We owe Kei so much.” Inoichi whispered words were heartfelt.

“Although if he’s not really an Uzumaki, how good at funijutsu is he?” Hiashi was curious now, he wanted a way to protect his clan, protect his treasured twin and the next generation.

“He’s not.” Shikaku let out a laugh as he poured more drinks for the men around him, “Kei fully admits to being hopeless with seals. At least that’s how he sees it. Honestly with his sharingan he has likely memorized more seals then anyone else around, and now with Jiraya and Nyoko’s knowledge we can perhaps decipher Haru’s research notes.”

Chapter Text

Fugaku was glad that they had told Mikoto about Kei. Kei needed the chance to reconnect with his mother. After everything he’d been through, Kei deserved so much more then he could give him, and it also felt like cheating to treat Itachi and Sasuke better, but damn it he didn’t want to fail when he could do better.

“Fugaku?” Mikoto walked into the study closing the door behind her. She started to pace slowly and quietly around the room. Stopping from time to time to look at the mementos Fugaku had displayed. Pictures of the boys and other family members.

“The seals are up,” he’d had a feeling that his wife would come to talk, hell he would have been surprised if she didn’t.

“I can’t believe it. I mean he’s our son. Our son from the future.” Mikoto’s voice was distracted, as she was lost in her thoughts.

“Mikoto?”

“He’s why you changed.” Mikoto remembered the night Fugaku had been called to meet with Shikaku all those months this ago and how over night he had changed how he treated both Itachi and Sasuke. How he stopped fighting the other clans over every little thing.

“He is.” Fugaku smiled, he pulled her in close, “It hurts that without his influence, I would focus on pushing our sons until they break and leading our clan to destruction. Mikoto, I don’t want to fail him.”

“Now that we know what can happen, we can prevent it. I believe in you. Do you know how can we help him? I want him to be with us. Hell I want to rub his existence into the faces of the stubborn asses that are our elders. To prove that we did make the right decision in stopping that damn coup.” The smirk on her face when Fugaku gave a sharp inhale was mischievous.

“Mikoto, we can’t do that!” Fugaku admonished, “if we let it be known Kei is Uchiha blood alone then he would loose his right to raise Naruto. There are too many people who still don’t trust the jinchuricki around our Sharingan. Naruto needs Kei more then we need to acknowledge him. We can help from the sidelines.”

Mikoto seemed to deflate a little, “I know. The last thing we need is everyone finding out that time travel is possible, but damn it I’m so proud of him, of what he’s done on his own even though he’s not from our time, and I wouldn’t want to deny Naruto a guardian who loves and cares for him.”

Fugaku tried not to laugh at her reaction, it was something that reminded him when she would get together with Kushina. Oh how those memories were bitter sweet. Minato was a wonderful Hokage, and an even better friend. He tried so hard to help the clans get along. Fugaku hadn’t given the man enough credit when he was alive, regardless of how close their wives were. Kushina was vibrant and strong and worked hard to change people’s perception of her. Of course whenever Kushina and Mikoto got together there was bound to be hijinks.

“Why don’t you go and talk to him some more tomorrow. Maybe after lunch? I’m sure that Kei would like the chance to talk some more.”

“After lunch?” Mikoto wanted to go now, to spend days with him, to learn everything that she had missed.

“Mikoto? Dragging up his memories is painful for him. Inoichi mentioned that he often has panic attacks and I bet everything he brought up tonight was likely to bring one on. Naruto is also going to need some time with him. They’re both so troubled and in pain.” Fugaku knew that Kei trusted Inoichi and Shikaku more then him, but honestly after hearing everything they had done for the man he didn’t blame him. Naruto was also just starting to trust Kei and that was something the boy needed. He could see how much they needed each other. He gazed towards the ceiling and the bedroom above him where Naruto and Sasuke were hopefully asleep. He prayed that little Naruto would be able to form bonds with Sasuke, that they could rely on each other here as they did in Kei’s time.

Mikoto walked away and Fugaku was worried that he’d upset her. He could hear her careful gait climb the stairs and walking from room to room. He wanted her to rest and recover, but he could understand her mindset. It wasn’t long ago that he had been doing the same thing, checking and double checking to compare things he knew against changes Kei told him about. Tomorrow he would talk to Itachi; he wanted to know just what his eldest’s concerns were so he could plan for the worst.

Morning saw Mikoto cooking up a feast. Itachi and Sasuke were confused when she pulled them both into a hug that lasted longer then usual, however it paled in comparison to Naruto’s reaction. The blonde froze, even his chakra quieted while the Uchiha matriarch held him close. “Naruto, you are always welcome here.”

Naruto nodded slowly before diving to the far end of the table beside Karin to eat.

Fugaku could see just how scared and touch starved the boy was, “Nyoko will be here after breakfast to pick the two of you up.”

*****

It was lunchtime when Nyoko and Karin came back into the main house. “Kaa-san why are we cleaning the other houses?”

“Kei-san has a plan to let others live here. I don’t know who or if they will actually move in, but I want to make sure that the houses are ready for people.”

Karin tilted her head to the side as she thought about others coming to live here. Here they were safe and no one came to take her mom away to work at the hospital. How would it be with more people? “Kaa-san would…would it be safe? No one will take you away will they? What about Naruto?”

Nyoko knelt down, her hands resting on her daughter’s shoulders. “Karin, Kei-san promised that we would always be safe. I don’t know if you remember, but Lady Tsunade said that I would never have to help out at a hospital if I didn’t want to. In fact, she’s willing to keep our skills a secret. Kei-san told me that I didn’t need to worry about finding work outside of the compound unless I want to. He has promised that the people he’s thinking about asking to live here are shinobi who also helped to protect Naruto when it was against the law. If someone who comes here makes you feel unsafe, promise me that you’ll tell me or Kei-san.”

Karin wasn’t sure she wanted to bother Kei-nii, her mother must have seen something in her face.

“Karin, your safety comes first so promise me that you’ll talk to me if something makes you feel off.”

“I promise.” Karin figured she’d talk to Naruto as well, maybe if both of them felt off then she’d talk to Kei-nii about it. Speaking of her cousin… “Kaa-san where is Naruto?”

“The last I saw he was sticking close to Kei-san.”

“Is Kei-nii sick?”

“No, but the meeting the other night was quite hard on him.”

Karin wondered how a meeting could be hard, but Kaa-san wouldn’t lie to her. She’d leave Kei-nii to Naruto knowing that the blonde would do anything for his protector.

“Karin there’s something else I’d like to tell you about. Do you remember Obachan talking about Uzumaki chakra and the Biju?”

Karin was silent for while before she tilted her head sideways, “do you mean Naruto is a jinchuriki?” When her mother raised an eyebrow Karin continued, “well nobody at the Hyuga compound wanted to talk about Naruto. Then there’s the fact his chakra feels….well like two different types. One is cool and feels like a fresh breeze, while the other feels hot and angry.”

Nyoko pulled Karin in for a hug. “You’re so smart my little light. Yes, Naruto is a jinchuriki and he hasn’t been treated the best by the village. Kei is trying to change that.”

“But Naruto is so sweet. I mean he is kinda hyper but…” Karin smiled, Naruto always brought a smile to her face. His energy helped her forget how hard things had been and he always made her laugh.

“Well as long as him being a jinchuriki doesn’t bother you.”

Karin promised herself that she would help protect Naruto too, he was sometimes too dumb to know when someone was being mean to him.

Naruto peeked through the doorway. Nyoko had walked both Karin and him back home from the Uchiha compound that morning. She had nudged him in the direction of the main house saying that Kei-nii was likely still asleep and that the meeting last night had been hard on him. She took Karin over to one of the other houses on the grounds telling the blonde that they would be cleaning it and getting it ready for others to move in.

Naruto walked carefully into the house. Kei wasn’t in any of the main rooms. Naruto walked towards Kei’s bedroom and knocked gently on the door. The sound of Kei’s sobs had Naruto panicking, as he opened the door and he ran over to him. “Kei-nii, Kei-nii,” he crawled onto the bed his body curling around Kei’s head, running his hands through the dark hair. “I’m here, Kei-nii, I’m not leaving.” He relished the feel of arms wrapping around him, holding him tight. Naruto was curious as to what had happened. He wanted to ask but he would wait and stay there until Kei-nii was ready.

Chapter Text

Kei was glad to be left alone for the next couple of days. Explaining everything had been hard. Naruto had stayed close. He had sat quietly by his side, bringing him tea and snacks. He was sure he was worrying the young boy, but right at that moment he didn’t have the energy to leave his bed, let alone comfort a child. He laid in his bed wallowing in his own dark thoughts. It was the first time in a while that he hadn’t had Naruto glued to his side. “What the hell…” Kei was being blinded by a stay sun beam. He tried rolling over but didn’t help, the blasted sun light was being reflected off of a mirror and into his face. Throwing the blankets off and storming to the window he wanted to yank the curtains closed and hide away. The sound of laughter drew his eyes outside. There in the yard was Naruto. The blonde was crouching down, arms around his knees as he watched what Kei assumed, was a bug crawling on the ground. He was smiling and laughing. “Son of a…” Kei banged his head on the wall beside the window. What the hell was he doing? Naruto had just moved in, he was unsure of his place and most likely waiting for the other shoe to drop and for him to be thrown out. The last thing he needed was a guardian who was too wrapped in self pity to care for him properly.

“Naruto!” Kei walked outside, freshly showered and dressed in clean clothes. Crouching as the hyper-active blonde came bounding over.

“Kei-nii!” there was no hesitation, Naruto threw himself into Kei’s arms.

“I’m sorry Naruto,” Kei leaned back and shook his head at Naruto’s confused expression. “Naruto, I’m sorry for leaving you alone.”

“But Kei-nii you didn’t leave me alone.”

Kei interrupted before the child could continue, “I know you weren’t alone and that Nyoko and Karin will always be there for you, but I made YOU a promise,” he emphasized by poking Naruto in the chest, “I promised you that I would always be with you. I may have been in the house, but there was no way I was there for you. Yes, I was overwhelmed with what happened, but that doesn’t excuse not being there for you.”

Naruto tilted his head to the side, he wasn’t really sure what Kei-nii was trying to say, except that he was upset with himself and not Naruto. Naruto shrugged his shoulders, it didn’t really matter because he was back just like Nyoko had said. Beside, he was still safe and that was important.

“Okay,” Naruto shuffled his feet a little, his fingers pulling at the bottom of his shirt. “Can you tell me now?”

Kei didn’t need to ask what he wanted to know, the sigh that slipped from his lips was heavy. “I can tell you part of it. However, there is some that I will need permission to tell you and some that will need to wait until you are a little older. I’m not just saying that to get out of telling you, I want you to be able to fully understand it.”

Naruto nodded at that. Kei-nii hadn’t said he wouldn’t tell him, just not yet

Kei lead the way into the house and right into the study. Turning the warding seals on, he sat Naruto on the couch and sat beside him. “I do have a question for you, has your stomach been alright?”

“My stomach?” Naruto pressed a hand into his stomach, “I haven’t eat anything to make me sick, not since coming to live with you.”

Kei almost laughed, he’d forgotten how they’d had to teach Haru what expiration dates were. “I’m glad about that.”

“Do you mean the hot feeling?”

“That’s right.”

“No,” Naruto looked down at his hands, he didn’t want to feel that hot feeling ever again. He hurt people with it.

“Naruto, it’s okay. I want to talk to you about that. This will require a bit of a story.” Kei was trying to figure out how to explain Kurama without telling him about his parents or getting Kurama upset. “Right now I just want you to listen. Things might not make sense but let me explain first and then I can go over anything you don’t understand. Is that ok?”

Naruto relaxed a little. Kei-nii had always taken the time to make sure he understood everything.

“A long long time ago there were nine powerful beings that ran free around world, they were called Biju. When the village was first formed the first Hokage, Hashirama, had captured one of the Biju and put it in a seal. He also helped capture the others and gave them to the leaders of the other hidden villages, in seals.”

“That wasn’t very nice.” Naruto immediately forgot that Kei had asked him to listen first. “Did Hashimashi even ask first? Even I know you don’t just take things that aren’t yours.”

Kei smiled, “No Hashirama didn’t ask.” He wasn’t going to mention the butchering of the Hokage’s name. “In fact I don’t think he realized that the beings he sealed had names and personalities.”

“Do you know their names? What did they look like?” Naruto’s curiosity was peaked.

“They all look like different animals and they each have a different number of tails. There is one that resembles a Tanuki that has one tail, a large monkey with four tails and a large bug that has seven tails.” He was waiting for Kurama to react.

“I wish I could meet them.” Naruto almost looked sad, “they sound lonely stuck inside seals.”

“I’m sure they are. Back to my tale. Hashirama kept one of those powerful beings for Konoha, because of the amount of chakra the Biju had it needed a special type of seal. It could be a scroll or object so in the end it was sealed inside a person.”

“That was mean. First he didn’t ask the Biju, did he ask the people if they wanted to be seals?” He scratched at the back of his head before asking, “how did they seal it inside a person? Did they have someone swallow a scroll? No, you said it couldn’t be in a scroll.”

“It was kind of mean, regardless, the person Hashirama had the Biju sealed into was his own wife, Mito. No, it was like swallowing a scroll, but they turn the person into a seal using a special type of jutsu called funijutsu. She held the Biju inside of her for many many years.” Kei watched as Naruto unconsciously wrapped an arm around his stomach. “Eventually they needed someone else to hold the Biju.”

“They did? Why?”

“Well Mito was getting pretty old and they knew that if they didn’t want the Biju to escape they would need to transfer the seal and the Biju to someone else. Does that make sense to you?”

“So she was going to die and they wanted to keep the Biju so someone else had to be the seal.”

“That’s right but they can’t have just anyone be a seal. In the past they learned that only one clan to do the job. They were special, their chakra was denser and they had a lot more then most people. They were also more resistant to the affects of corrosive chakra.”

“Did. Did they find someone?” Naruto wasn’t sure if he wanted them to find someone or if he wanted the Biju to be free.

“They did. She was Mito’s grand-niece and from the same clan. The Uzumaki clan.”

“Uzumaki! That’s my name! No one told me I was from a clan! Is she still alive? What about others from the clan?”

Kei pulled him in closer to his side. “I know they didn’t. Unfortunately Mito’s replacement died a couple of years ago. We can talk about who they were and how they are related to you and your part in the Uzumaki clan later. The story I want to tell you is that of Biju. Now honestly I don’t know the Biju’s full story, but I do know part of it.” Kei ruffled his hair before starting up again. “The Biju held for Konoha was the eldest of the group. They were also the most powerful of the Biju and known as the Kyuubi; a nine tailed fox. They have spent over a hundred years locked up inside first Mito and then the other Uzumaki.”

“It sounds really lonely. Does he have a name? Do you think I could be friends with them?”

Kei wanted to be shocked but he really wasn’t. It seemed that Naruto was Naruto no matter what time he was in. “Can I ask why you think they’d be lonely?”

“Well before you came, I was called monster, pushed off to the side and ignored. It was lonely and all I wanted was a friend. If they’ve been locked up for so long then they didn’t have anyone to talk to or rely on so maybe we can be friends.” Naruto paused as if thinking, “but how can I be friends with them if they’re locked away? Oh wait, you said the last Uzumaki died, does that mean they’re free somewhere?” If the Biju was free then he wasn’t going to chase them, they deserved a chance to not be stuck inside somebody.

Kei cheered inwardly, without his education being sabotaged Naruto really was intelligent. “Do you remember us talking about chakra?”

Naruto nodded, “it’s the stuff inside of us that we use to do cool jutsus, but the only thing you’ve taught me is to move a leaf around my body.”

“You have a lot more chakra then anyone your age and will need more training. You still want to be a ninja right?”

“Yes, cause then I can protect everyone, just like you do, Kei-nii.”

Kei laughed, “you remember that I said Uzumaki’s have more chakra then anyone else and that it’s really dense chakra? Right now, the only one capable of hosting a Biju is you. Your chakra is strong enough to protect you from the Biju’s corrosive chakra, however, when you were attacked and Mikoto-sama was hurt, it was the Biju’s chakra that lashed out, not yours.”

Naruto clutched at his stomach. He held the Biju? The oldest of them all?

“You’re right, he’s sealed inside of you,” Kei could feel Kurama’s chakra fluctuating, “I know that being sealed is something that feels cruel, but if anyone can gain their trust it’s going to be you.”

“Really?” Naruto perked up a little.

“Of course. I have faith in you. You are going to be amazing. You’ll need to be persistent he can be stubborn.”

“Can I talk to him?”

“I’m sure that you can, but that will take time and training.” Kei reached out and ruffled Naruto’s hair earning a grin. “Right now I would like to have permission to use my eye on you.” Kei had told the young boy about the sharingan in order to help understand the Uchiha. As soon as Naruto nodded Kei struck. There was no sense in giving Kurama more time to panic.

The mindscape brought a feeling of nostalgia, even though he’d never been there. Haru had described it so well. The large gates and sewer like surroundings, hid a very angry beast. The swells of water at his feet reflected the emotions of the Kyuubi.

“UCHIHA!!!” The scream reverberated in his head, the corrosive chakra slammed up against the gates. The seal glowed as it’s strength was tested. Kei could only hope that Naruto was unaffected by Kurama’s temper tantrum.

“Kurama, it’s been a long time.”

“HOW THE HELL….” The large snout pushed harder at the gate. “WHY?”

“I know that the seal is tight right now and that you’ve been sleeping, but I do need you to listen. I know that you’re not going to believe me and that’s fine, but I want you know regardless.” Although Kei was looking the nine tails in the face he didn’t try to meet the Biju’s eyes. He knew that would infuriate the beast even more then he already was. He almost laughed at his own thoughts of a calmer but sarcastic Kurama compared to this one, but then this one really hasn’t spent a lot of time with Naruto. They would get there.

“SPEAK AND THEN LEAVE AND NEVER! COME! BACK!!” Kurama didn’t even want to do that, but he had been listening and the Uchiha knew too much, he knew things that no one left alive should know.

“Kaguya Otsutsuki’s third son Zetsu is working to bring her back to this plan. That includes pulling you and your siblings out of your current jinchuriki and putting you into the Gedo Statue in order to bring back the God Tree.” Kei knew he had struck a cord. The water around his feet calmed quickly and while Kurama still radiated hostility the pressure had diminished. “I watched her do it. We fought her and managed to seal her away, however Zetsu is a sneaky bitch and he ended the world.”

“BULLSHIT!”

“Yeah, I know how it sounds. I’m here so how can the world end. It’s actually thanks to you and your jinchuricki. Naruto was my best friend, he fought to befriend everyone.” The laugh that escaped surprised him, “even an emo-avenger and 1000 year old beast of anger and destruction fell under his spell. I know that you have no love of the Uchiha and honestly having to fight against a reanimated Madara I can say that is one Uchiha that should have died earlier.”

“HE IS DEAD.”

“No, or well, maybe he is. His corpse is hooked up to the Gedo Statue and he has Zetsu tending to him.”

“HOW DO YOU KNOW?” The Kyuubi wasn’t sure what he really wanted the man to explain, but he remembered the tales of Kaguya that his father had told. They had been the cause of all of his nightmares until the Senju bastard shoved him in the Uzumaki.

“You gave Naruto your name yourself. The two of you become unstoppable. You protected him and he protected you. The way the two of you switch between each other was seamless and a thing of beauty. You even helped use your chakra cloak on my susanoo.” Kei’s voice faded as the memories swamped him with emotions.

Kurama watched the Uchiha for trickery, but all he saw was pain and raw grief.

“You gave us, not only strategies and battle plans but a level of protection against her attacks. You interacted with many of Naruto’s friends and gave us permission to use your name. I apologize for using it here, you don’t know me and haven’t given me your permission. As for how I know that Kaguya is coming, well I’m from about fifteen years in the future. I even met your father. Naruto and I. We spent time with him training and learning and trying to overcome the many issues we had. He said that we were the reincarnations of his sons. Ausura and Indra. I’m Indra of course, but please believe me when I tell you that I have learned from his lesson.”

“WHAT DO YOU WANT?”

“Right now if you could take it easier on Naruto until he learns to come here and talk to you himself that would be a big help. Otherwise, just listen and observe. I know that you can but that you rarely did when he was this small. If you start now then you will be able to see that I’m telling you the truth. I can’t let them know that I can talk to you or they will tighten the seal more and Naruto will be in an even more precarious situation. I guess you should also talk to your siblings. I know that Shukaku’s seal is really fucked and it’s driving both him and his jinchuriki insane. Isobu is under a genjutsu, one placed by a brainwashed Uchiha. There are other things going on but if I manage to stop them then they won’t be a problem.” Kei let the rinnegan flash off to the side, so Kurama knew he had it, before leaving.

He slumped over in his seat. Fuck but that took a lot out of him. He didn’t expect Kurama to believe him right away, but he knew the paranoid bastard would be paying more attention from now on and that was really the best solution for now. The fox would pull him back in if wanted to.

“Kei-nii? Are you ok?” Naruto was worried.

“Sorry buddy, I didn’t mean to scare you. I needed to talk to him and I knew that is was going to be hard.”

“Was he mean?” Naruto was scared that if the Biju in his seal was mean then Kei would leave him.

“No. He was angry, but then he will be for a while. I just wanted to give him something to think about. How about you? Our talk didn’t hurt you did it?”

“No, I mean my stomach felt funny, like when I fall from a big height, but it didn’t hurt like the other time.” Naruto fiddled with the hem of his shirt. “Umm, Kei-nii, was this the stuff you needed to talk to your friends about. You know, when I went to Sasuke’s place.” The villagers already called him names and glared at him, but that had happened less and less when he was with Kei-nii. If Kei-nii’s friends knew would they start being mean? Did they hate him for holding the biju?

Kei pulled the little boy onto his lap and held him tight. “Sort of. There was a lot more information that I will tell you later.” He could see Naruto pull into himself, “Naruto, you should know that my friends already knew that you were jinchuriki and just who is inside your seal. They don’t fear you. If you think they look at you different it’s because they know who you are and had been forbidden from helping. In almost every village, the identity of the jinchuriki is kept secret Danzo, the man who attacked you and Sasuke at the training field, he convinced the Hokage that it would be dangerous for any of the clans to help you. He’s also the one who let your secret out to the general public. My friends don’t care, they’re sad and angry that they have been able to help you.”

“Ok, Kei-nii. I trust you.” Naruto wasn’t really sure Kei was telling him the whole truth, but it felt right. He nestled in closer to the older man. Right now he felt safe and protected and warm and so many things he didn’t know, but he didn’t want it to stop.

Kei pulled a blanket over the two of them. It wasn’t the most comfortable position but he really didn’t care. Naruto was safe, he’d talked to Kurama and the clans knew the whole situation. It had been emotionally draining just to talk about the jinchuriki. He still had to tell Naruto about his parents and that was going to be another emotional charged conversation. Now he just wanted to rest.

Chapter Text

Tsunade looked out the office window. She was to be installed as the next Hokage soon and she still wasn’t sure she was ready for it. Currently she was waiting for Sarutobi. She had been in meetings with Chouza for hours to go over what reports and policies were currently being worked on. Sensei wasn’t going to be happy with her, but there were a number of things she wanted to change.

“Lady Tsunade, was there anything else you wanted to cover?”

“I must commend you Chouza for doing such a wonderful job.” Tsunade swirled the tea she had in her cups wishing it was sake. “Danzo hurt a lot of people and it will take a long time to overcome that mistrust.”

“Having you here will be a start, milady.” Chouza was glad she decided to take over the Hokage position. This last little while he found that he could do the job and had actually enjoyed it. However, it had been a strain being away from his family. The inability to talk things out with his team mates had also been hard to get used to

“I’d like to make a request of you.”

Chouza waited for her to continue.

“For the next couple of months, would you consent to being one of my advisors? I may end up making the request permanent later, but since you’ve done such a fantastic job, I’d be remiss in not taking advantage of that.”

Chouza nodded, hiding a small smile as he left the room. She was a sneaky one. She would keep the village on their toes. Chouza strode down the hall, he couldn’t wait to tell Shikaku and Inoichi about this. He slowed at the corner before heading downstairs instead, maybe having her surprise the two of them would be good pay back for all the years of putting up with their shenanigans.

Tsunade muttered to herself as she settled in the small sitting area in the office, “well the changes I want to make are going to piss people off.” The sound of the door opening had her raising her head.

“Tsuna, I’m glad you came.”

She had seen her old sensei a number of times since coming back to the village, but looking at him now, she could see just how much he had aged. “I know it was selfish that I left, but I believe it was what I needed. Thank you for not labeling me as rogue.”

Sarutobi sat down on a chair across his former student. “Actually, it was Minato who refused to call you back, he had you labeled as being on a learning sabbatical. Jiraya convinced me to extend the time frame. He was convinced you’d be back soon.” He smiled as he remembered the many conversations he’d had with Jiraya when the spy master had spotted Tsunade in his travels and how he had been sure she would return any day.

“Well I guess I’ll have to thank the moron later,” she sighed as she leaned back. “Seriously Sensei, how long were you going to wait? It didn’t have to be me, Chouza has been doing a fantastic job.”

Sarutobi took a pull from his pipe, “anyone but Danzo.” Hs sounded defeated, “I trusted him. Even knowing he was doing things behind my back, I trusted him Tsunade.”

The blonde closed her eyes, “it’s like Orochimaru. The way he changed slowly until there was nothing familiar left of him. I know that Jiraya held out hope the longest, but I’m sure he knows that nothing will come of it.”

“I wish I had been as insightful. He had me fooled.” Hiruzen needed to be honest with himself and his successor. “The genjutsu, it still has me worried. I know that Fugaku broke it and that there is no residual trace of it, but I find myself second guessing all my decisions. I’ve even gone so far as to go to removing myself from major decisions.”

The silence stretched between them. She couldn’t say if it was a comfortable silence or not, but they were both lost in their thoughts of friends turned traitor.

“I want to put the hospital policies I created back into place. I also want to look at what Minato wanted to do with the other clans. We were too close to having them complete implode. They’re working together now, but I want to make sure that we keep that momentum and show them that we will support them.”

“That’s fine. A new Hokage should forge their own path and not hold too tightly to the past.”

Tsunade began to worry. If they didn’t find a new purpose for Sarutobi he would fade away during his retirement. “Sensei, how about after taking some time to reconnect with Asuma and Sumi before going back to the academy? Not to teach genin, but to mentor the teachers. They could use your wisdom in teaching the next generation.” She would make sure to keep an eye on her old sensei as well as letting Asuma and his guard know what to watch out for, however the smile that reached his eyes let her know that maybe it wouldn’t be too bad.

The knock on the door was perfect timing.

Chapter Text

Jiraya made his way towards the Uzumaki compound. The guilt was weighing him down with every step. Minato and Kushina had asked him to be Naruto’s godfather and he had abandoned the tyke. It wasn’t until Kakashi appeared that it was really shoved into his face. It hadn’t just been little Naruto he had abandoned, but Kakashi as well. He had planned to come home to work with Sensei to figure out a better plan but missions kept getting in the way. Of course keeping the status quo was always easier and before he knew it, years had passed by. Then to learn about Kei. He needed to make it up to the two of them, especially since he now knew just what his cowardice could lead to. He would work with Kakashi, Kei and Naruto provided they were okay with him being around. The gate to the Uzumaki compound lay ahead of him before he knew it. Time for truth. Would his chakra still be recognized and allow him to pass, or had he been removed. Either way he vowed he work to regain their trust. He reached his hand out to the touchstone in gate. It flared and he smiled. Taking a small step inside, Jiraya still flared his chakra. Just because he was allowed onto the compound didn’t mean he was trusted.

“Jiraya?” Kei’s voice called from the path in front. “You could have come up to the house.”

“I wanted to make sure of my welcome.”

Kei paused, had there been anything in the conversation with everyone that would cause the man to doubt his welcome? He wasn’t sure but he couldn’t control how Jiraya felt. Shrugging he just turned and lead the way to the house.

“So was there was a reason you stopped by?” Kei set out some tea.

Jiraya stood to the side of the living room doors, focused on watching Naruto and Karin play in the yard. “I guess I wanted to get to know Naruto. Minato trusted me with him and I failed. I don’t want to keep being a failure for him.”

“Jiraya, I didn’t tell you everything to make you feel guilty, I just wanted to explain what our life was like. Haru was amazing, but I know Naruto can do better. He needs a home, someone who cares, and someone to guide him. He needs more then just me.”

“I want to help if you’ll let me, if he’ll let me.”

Kei was a little shocked, the Jiraya he had heard about, had never been this aware or this repentant. Of course he didn’t know the man’s mind prior just Haru’s stories of their travels. “I could use the help, just remember, he’s not Minato. Naruto is brilliant in his own way and learns best by doing not lectures.” Kei watched the spymaster turn and sit down. “I haven’t told him everything, but I will. He knows about being a jinchuriki and that there are others like him out there. He knows a little about Konoha’s past jinchuriki and that they’re from the same clan, but I haven’t told him his relationship to them other then that. He also knows that I have more to tell him and that I will when he’s ready.”

Jiraya listened, “well I’ll do my best to aid where I can.”

Kei sighed. He was really starting to become Haru in so many ways. “Have you given thought to…” he couldn’t finished the sentence. He wasn’t actually sure if he was talking about the man moving in or the bomb shell he’d dropped on the man and the other clan heads.

“Actually yeah.” Jiraya leaned his head back against the couch. “I’ve spent these last couple of nights talking things over with Tsunade. I’ve made sure that we took precautions, so we’ve used my house as Kushina set up the wards there. We even invited a couple of others to join.” Jiraya held out his hands to stop any interruptions. “It’s a lot to wrap our heads around, and with Hime taking the hat this month she wanted to make sure that she understood things. However, I also want to talk to you about your invite to live here. Tsunade is going to take over my house. It’s far enough away from the various clan lands that she can’t be accused of favoritism, but still within the shinobi section. I have wards and seals to keep it secure, plus it’s large enough for her to host political gathering and have ANBU guards without feeling like everyone is on top of each other. That means that I’m in need of living quarters. It’s not that I’m in the village all the time, I still have my network to maintain, but I would like to find a place I don’t have to worry about being sold out from under me.”

“Well, I did offer a place here. I’d suggest one of the houses at the back of the compound if you want to keep a. Low profile when you’re here. I want to approach Namiashi and Shiranui and Tatami to see if they would be interested, but I have no reason at the moment, as we haven’t met here. I’d also like to invite Kakashi, but I’m not sure how he’d take it. So far Nyoko and her daughter have asked for the rooms in the main house. I’m not sure who else in the village could use the safety of living on clan grounds. I mean I’m not looking at opening the grounds up to just anyone, but I know that there are a few shinobi that could use a safe...” he stopped to correct himself, “a safer space to live.”

“I think I understand what you’re looking at, however, you should think about your own safety as well. Here you can be yourself and not hold so tight to your disguise. Inviting others in, no matter how altruistic, will mean that you either need to keep yourself in check or let them in on the secret.” Jiraya leaned forward, his fingers interlaced between his knees. “If you’re planning on telling Naruto the truth, that will also force him to keep quiet about this in his own home.”

“Shit,” Kei scrubbed a hand through his hair, he hadn’t thought that far ahead. Maybe he was trying to be too much like Haru.

Jiraya could see how Kei was chastising himself over the almost mistake. “Let’s look at who knows. Right now they’re mostly clan heads and the best place for them is to remain on their own clan lands. Kakashi, Tsunade and I are the only ones who are homeless. I mean Hime was wandering the gambling halls, I may have had a home, but I also wandered the lands. Sure Kakashi has an apartment, but I know that a cardboard box has more personality then his apartment.”

Kei just shook his head. He really shouldn’t try too hard to be Haru. Haru would want to save everyone and he was unconventional enough that he would be able to pull it off. Kei however, wasn’t Haru. He didn’t have his charisma or talk-no-jutsu and sure as hell didn’t have his patience or the stamina to deal with all the emotional trauma continuously.

“Kei,” Jiraya, “I’m not telling you what to do or saying it’s a horrible idea, I’m just familiar with a number of Uchiha and they seem to value their privacy more then almost anyone else I know except a Hyuga.”

Running feet interrupted the two men.”Kei-nii, old guy!” Naruto and Karin skidded to a stop inside the living room.

Kei figured that now was as good as ever to explain some things. He sighed, “Naruto, Karin, you both know that there are other houses on the compound.” The two kids nodded.

“I was helping Okasan clean them this week.” Karin spoke up.

“I heard that you were a big help for that. Thank you Karin.” Kei wanted Karin to understand that she was valued for more then just her healing skills. “I was hoping that I could offer the homes to other people who need them. One of those people is Jiraya here. I’d like to be able to offer him use of one the houses.”

“Does he not have a home?” Naruto might have only been on the streets for a week or so but he still remembered how hard it was to feel safe enough to sleep.

“Actually, it’s a little complicated.” Jiraya stayed sitting, but looked directly at the two children. “My job is secret so I’m trusting you to keep it safe.” Both children nodded seriously. Jiraya smiled to himself, his roll as spymaster was another of Konoha’s worst kept secrets and learning about Danzo’s betrayal he now knew where to lay the blame. However, as opposed to young Naruto, he’d been able to make the open secret work for him. The pervy, drunk writer with delusions of being a spy master was a mask he had created out of necessity. “I travel from village to village, talking to a lot of people and listening to others in order to learn anything I can to help protect our village. Lady Tsunade, who was on my genin team, has just accepted the job as the hat, so I am gifting her my house.”

Naruto wasn’t sure what a hat had to do with with guy not having a home, he hoped Kei-nii would explain it again for him, as his eyes searched to man who was fast becoming the most important person in Naruto’s life.

Kei chuckled. “What he means is Lady Tsunade will become the next Hokage. She is part of the Senju clan, but her clan lands were given to other people when Lady Tsunade originally left the village. Sarutobi lives on his clan lands and that’s where he has held a lot of Hokage meetings not suited to being at the tower. Lady Tsunade can not move in with him, so she needs a new place to live. Does that make sense so far?” Kei wanted to make sure that Naruto understood before continuing.

“So the old lady taking the hat means that she will be the next Hokage.” Naruto nodded, “okay. It makes sense that the old lady can’t live with the old Hokage.” Naruto was glad that Kei-nii restated things and that he didn’t get angry when Naruto didnt understand things the first time. He took his time answering each question. “It’s nice that the old guy here is giving up his home to live here, but why doesn’t the old lady just live here instead? Or are you worried that all the meetings and guards and extra people will be too much?”

Jiraya reached out to ruffle his hair. “You’re pretty smart kid. The reason Lady Tsunade can’t live here is sort of because of you.” Jiraya hurried to continue on as he realized just what he said, “It’s not for the reason you’re thinking. Kei said that you know that you are a jinchuriki, right?”

Naruto nodded slowly waiting for the name calling or the slap of a hand.

“Jinchuriki’s are supposed to be a village’s greatest secret and to be protected at all costs. Unfortunately someone made a mistake with you and let the secret out. They also failed to explain what it means to be a jinchuriki correctly. A lot of people have forgotten the true meaning of a jinchuricki because they focused on their anger and grief of what the biju did when trying to escape. They don’t remember or understand that you are you and not what is sealed inside of you. You and the biju you hold are precious to the village,” Jiraya stated, focusing more on how Minato had treated Kushina and how they were treated in the village. He wasn’t sure if Kei’s Naruto had the same connections but if Kei’s resolve proved anything, he wanted that for this Naruto and he knew Tsunade would do the same. “Lady Tsunade won’t live here because she doesn’t want to put you at risk. There would be too many unfamiliar people coming and going, too many guards around all the time and she wants to make sure that your home is safe and comfortable for both you and Karin. That you can focus on being a child and not watched every second of the day.”

“So because Mom and I live here with Naruto, Lady Tsunade won’t.” Karin tilted her head to one side, voicing the unspoken words that Naruto might miss, “the Hokage has to be able to host special events and dinners, and that means a lot of different guests. Some of those guests may be dangerous.” Karin watched as Kei nodded for her to continue. “That would mean that it’d be a bad idea for any body to live in the same house not just because Naruto is a Jinchuriki. They might also target me and mom because of what we can do.” She still had nightmares about Kusa, scared that they might come to get her mom back.

“That’s right and then there’s all the guards that are needed to protect the Hokage and the guards that other political figures bring.” Kei added.

“That would be a lot of people and I guess a lot of rules too, huh?” Naruto looked off towards the kitchen and the snack cupboard Nyoko said he could go into at any time.

“Yes,” Jiraya sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. “There are a lot of rules, and a lot of guards, and a lot of strange people coming and going, and even villagers coming to meet with the Hokage. Lady Tsunade used to come here when she was younger. It was quiet and peaceful and a place she could be herself and relax. She doesn’t want that to change. She wants to be able to come here and relax and there’s no way she can do that if this place becomes the next Hokage residence.”

Naruto confidently met Jiraya’s gaze, “so you’re giving her your house because it’s just a house, and you’re going to move here because it will be a home.” Naruto turned to Kei, “that’s why you want to have a place ready for her too, some place where she can rest when it gets too much and she needs a break.”

Kei smiled, “you got it. There are eight different houses on the property, not including the main house here.”

“Well Nyoko and Karin have rooms with us,” Naruto looked back outside and studied the grounds, “I don’t want them to move out. Can we show him the other houses to see if there’s one that he’d like?”

“I think we can,” Kei smiled at both Naruto and Karin. “There is one thing that I need to ask you two? Are you okay with him living here? I may invite other people to come and stay here, but you both have the right to say yes or no.”

Naruto studied Jiraya again, “well he seems ok for an old guy.” He looked over at Kei again, “Does he have a name?”

Jiraya’s face fell for a moment before it lit up and he jumped up to strike a pose, “I am Jiraya the great toad sage of Mount Myoboku.”

Kei tried not to smile, it had been too long since he’d heard that phrase.

“Sooooo,” Naruto began, his left hand on his chin as if thinking deeply, “is your name Jiraya, toad sage or Mount Myoboku?”

Jiraya deflated.

Kei couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing, a deep belly laugh that took time for him to get under control. “Damn it Nar..naruto. Don’t ever change.” He wheezed out.

Kei’s laughter broke through Jiraya pout. “His name is Jiraya. He and Lady Tsunade were both students of Sarutobi. Mount Myoboku is where he was trained by the toads to become a sage, a shinobi who can use senjutsu.”

The look on both Karin and Naruto’s faces was priceless. It was like they couldn’t comprehend how toads could teach?

Kei waved their confusion off, “don’t worry about, either of us can explain later.” He stood up and beckoned the children to join him, “come, let’s show Jiraya the different houses.”

Jiraya expressed an interest in one of the homes near the far back edge of the compound. It was a small two bedroom with an office for him to continue with his writing. Kei helped him set up a separate set of wards, ones that would allow Jiraya to meet with some of his operatives without disturbing anyone and at the same time, not giving anything away. He also suggested another building close by for Tsunade, but they would wait for her to make the final decision.

Kei spent some time finalizing things with Nyoko. She would become head of the household and continue to cook for the four of them as well as some of the cleaning and laundry. Kei insisted that he and Naruto be in charge of their own room and laundry, and that they would all help with general cleaning and yard work. Kei knew that having Naruto in charge of his own space would help in him learning necessary life skills but he would also be able to take pride in a space that was just his, somewhere he was safe and had control over who entered. As for himself, it was safer if he cleaned his own room and there was no way Nyoko was doing his laundry. She offered to cook at least one meal for Jiraya when he was here; whether he ate with them or at his place was up to him. He wanted to teach Naruto how to cook, again a skill his Haru had been fantastic at. Kei also insisted that Nyoko let him know if the chores became too much. He also reminded her that if there was anything else she wanted to do to let him know. He was pretty sure that the hospital would be off limits but he would rule out her working somewhere else in the village. Cohuza’s wife was a midwife and there were the orphanages, as soon as they were inspected and the bigot’s let go, but that was a conversation for later when she felt safer.

Fugaku sent word that Mikoto and Itachi wanted to visit and that they’d bring Sasuke as well. Kei honestly wasn’t sure how things were gong to go. It had been almost two weeks since his big reveal. Honestly he was surprised they didn’t come back the next day, He hoped that he could handle the visit.

Chapter Text

Sasuke sat at the table waiting for the rest of his family. They were going to visit Kei-san. He really liked Kei-san, he encouraged nii-san to teach him. Of course then Shikamaru and Ino and Hinata and Neji joined in. He still didn’t like sharing nii-san, but seeing how happy he was, Sasuke couldn’t fight against it, and he did have friends to play with when nii-san and Shisui were too busy to play. Crossing his arms over his chest, Sasuke sighed, maybe he wasn’t as upset about sharing his brother as he thought.

Mikoto walked slowly into the room, not really surprised to see her youngest waiting. “Sasuke I hope that you’ll be okay playing with Naruto while the rest of us talk to Kei-san.” She wasn’t sure if Karin would be there or not but she knew that they would need to keep Naruto busy.

Sasuke nodded and looked back down at the table. “I don’t mind, I mean he’s a little loud. He’s Kei-san’s cousin right?” if he was honest he was more comfortable with Shikamaru then Naruto, “and the last time I saw was when,-” he stopped. Naruto was hurt just like his mother and he had done nothing. He had been so scared, so worried about his own family that he hadn’t even been able to talk to him to see if he’d been hurt. “Well the last time he was so quiet.” He looked back up at his mother, “Is?” Sasuke glanced away again, not sure if he wanted to ask or if he really understood what he wanted to know.

“Go head Sasuke,” Mikoto sat beside her youngest and lean in, almost like they were sharing a secret.

“Naruto. Is he ok?”

Mikoto’s raised an eyebrow at the question.

“I mean after…after that attack,” he still wasn’t sure what to call it. “You protected him while Itachi was protecting me and Shisui. Then there was the other guy, the one that Itachi and Shisui knew.”

“Yes he’s an ANBU they have worked together before, I believe his name Cat.”

Sasuke just nodded, “but when we were at Nara-sama’s they didn’t take him to the hospital even though he’d been hurt. I saw his arms and chest. He was by weapons and burned bad, like you mom.”

Mikoto struggled to find the words to explain what had happened that day. Fugaku told her that a number of ANBU and other jonin had arrived at the training ground to help out once Cat had called for aid. Shikaku and Inoichi had been there and they had taken control of the area. Apparently Genma had been the one tasked with getting Itachi, Sasuke and Naruto to the safety of the Nara clan house. She knew that Yoshino would have tried her best to reassure the children and that Genma had stayed the night to help her out. Fugaku had taken pains to ensure that their three boys understood that the attack wasn’t their fault. Itachi may be a genin and Shisui had just made chunin but they were still children. It amazed her that even after all he’d seen that day, Sasuke was concerned about Naruto. “Naruto’s special. He’s from a clan that has special abilities. It allows him to heal faster then anyone else. Often going to the hospital causes more harm for the Uzumaki.”

“But will he be angry at us? I stayed with Itachi and…”

“Sasuke, we were attacked out of the blue from within the village. We were supposed to be safe. You saw Shisui fall, then Naruto and I were hurt. That’s enough for anyone to freeze and focus on themselves. Naruto isn’t going to blame you.” She smiled and stretched a little, relieving the slight ache in her back. She could hear Itachi and Fugaku coming in from the back yard. “What I do know is that Naruto doesn’t have many friends and he could really use some.”

“I can do that.” Sasuke smiled and with it came a light that was missing at the beginning of the conversation.

“Mikoto? Sasuke?” Fugaku stood at the rooms entry waiting for his wife and youngest son, “ are you ready to go?”

“Ototo, come walk with me,” Itachi held out his hand.

Sasuke rounded the table and put his hand in Itachi’s. Mikoto took longer to make it to the door.

Fugaku reached for her arm for support. The boys walked ahead allowing Fugaku to talk to his wife. “Is Sasuke alright?”

Mikoto once again marveled at the changes in her husband. She had always known that Fugaku was a caring man, but the weight of being the heir to the clan had caused issues when they were betrothed and later when he took up the mantle of Clan head it almost buried his caring nature. The clan elders kept asking for more and more from him. It had taken Kei forcing him to see the result of his actions to have him change his behaviour. He would never have asked after Sasuke before Kei’s intervention, in fact she was sure that he wouldn’t even acknowledge their youngest at all as he wasn’t the same type of prodigy like Itachi. Sasuke was kind and more outgoing then any other Uchiha, except perhaps Shisui. She had a lot to thank Kei for, not least was getting the man she fell in live back into her life.

She leaned a little more into her husband, “I love you.” She almost giggled as she watched the blush cross Fu’s face. “He’s worried that Naruto might be angry. Naruto was injured in Danzo’s attack but hadn’t been taken to the hospital.”

Fugaku could understand as he and Sasuke had focused on Mikoto’s and Shisui’s healing and training Itachi. Sasuke hadn’t left the compound for much more then quick visits to the hospital. “I’m sure Naruto isn’t angry,” there was a smile on his face as he thought about the friendship that he hoped Naruto and Sasuke would form.

“How’s Itachi’s training going?”

“Well. I’ve been taking him to work with me in the mornings and then we go on patrol where we can stop at the forest by the Nara lands and practice his magenkyou. He’s doing well.” Fugaku had come up with the elaborate plan in order to protect his eldest from the prying eyes of the Uchiha elders. It really hadn’t been that long since the clan wanted to overthrow the Hokage’s office and Fugaku was determined to keep his clan safe and alive. “How are you feeling?”

Mikoto took a minute to actually assess how she was doing. She knew his concern was sincere. “Lady Tsunade took the time to see me yesterday. Things are going well and I’ll be finishing physiotherapy in the next couple of days. I should be able to restart my shinobi training in a couple of weeks.”

Fugaku breathed a sigh of relief at her announcement. He knew how frustrated she’d been at being forced to stop training. Mikoto may have retired, but his wife was still a formidable shinobi, in charge of making sure that the Uchiha who not on active duty retained their skill. They would be last line of defense for the clan and she took that job seriously.

The gate of the Uzumaki compound was open, allowing the Uchiha family to walk right in.

“Kei?” Fugaku flared his chakra as a warning.

Kei opened the front door and welcomed everyone in. It was a tense couple of minutes as everyone seated themselves in the living room.

Nyoko brought in tea and sweets before joining the group.

“Naruto, Karin, Sasuke do you want to stay here or go outside to play?”

Naruto looked at the other two, he knew Karin would follow his lead, the variable would be Sasuke. Seeing Kei-nii’s small nod Naruto forged through. “Sasuke, would you like to come outside and play with us. We can play in the trees?”

Sasuke looked to his father for approval. He knew that his parents wanted to talk to Kei about adult stuff, but he was nervous about being around Naruto. “Okay,” his voice was quiet with nervousness.

Karin just grinned, she really wanted to run outside the weather was perfect today, “great, let’s go.” She grabbed Sasuke’s hand and beckoned to Naruto to follow as she ran outside.

Naruto followed but paused at the garden door to look back at Kei.

“Go, have fun.” Kei smiled as Naruto ran off. “He was so worried about Sasuke coming over today.”

“Him too? Sasuke was worried as well.” Fugaku grinned across the table.

“What was Naruto worried about?” Mikoto asked gently.

Kei met her eyes, “he was worried that you and the rest of your family would blame him for hurting you during Danzo’s attack.”

Everyone face showed shock at the fact that the young boy blamed himself for something so far beyond his control.

“And Sasuke?” Nyoko asked in return.

Mikoto smiled, “he’s worried that Naruto was mad because after Danzo’s attack he was too focused on our immediate family to make sure that he was okay.”

Kei smiled again, “so Naruto worried that you blamed him and Sasuke was worried because he didn’t put Naruto first.” It was a cute premise. Smiling to himself, he thought back to his first days at the academy and how Naruto was the only one to not fawn all over him. He turned to Itachi. “I hear you had a couple of question Itachi, however would you mind if I talk to your parents first?”

Itachi nodded and went to the door, “I’ll go and watch over Sasuke and the others.”

“Thank you son, “ Fugaku was glad his eldest would give them a couple of minutes.

Nyoko left as well, giving the room to the time traveler and his parents. She activated the privacy seals as she left.

“Any idea what Itachi was wondering about?”

“I think it might be something you said that may have let your secret out. What do you want to do?” Fugaku hadn’t been there but he could see Kei losing his composure during an attack like that.

“If he did somehow figure things out, how do you want to approach it?” Kei asked.

Mikoto raised an eyebrow, “what do you mean?”

“Regardless of his rank or that he’s a prodigy, Itachi is still a minor and your son. Do you want him to know that I’m from the future? He is a genius and may figure it out eventually, but he is still young.”

Fugaku knew Kei would follow their requests. “I don’t want to stress him out or really burden him with a secret as big as you are.” He ran his hand over his face, “that said I don’t want to lie to him.”

Mikoto poked fun at her husband, “so you can’t make a decision, eh?” She gave it a minute before adding with a laugh, “honestly I’m of the same mind. More for the fact that I don’t want Itachi to change how he sees you or Sasuke.”

“How about if we keep my true identity out of it. If he asks about the future we can hint at the rinnegan, but if he asks about our relationship?” The idea of the rinnegan was a good one, Kei wasn’t sure if they could use it a blanket excuse. He looked out to the grounds in time to see the three children crouched together examining something in Naruto’s hands. It gave him an idea. “I think I have a plan,” Kei laid out his thoughts.

Fugaku called Itachi in and offered him a seat.

“So I hear that you had a couple of questions for me?” Kei asked.

Itachi nodded. “I, actually it was regarding that day.” He swallowed nervously, he was a genin questioning a full jonin. “You called out when you attacked and it bothered me.”

Kei leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table, fingers steepled together. He smiled waiting to see what his prodigy of a brother came up with. “Go on.”

“You got really angry when we were attacked. You called out ‘Mother’ when..when” Itachi had a hard time saying it.

“When Mikoto grabbed Naruto to protect him and ended up getting hurt.” Kei nodded, “you were a big help in getting your cousin to safety. The ANBU that was on duty and jumped in to try and stop things said that having you help watch over everyone let him focus on other threats. You also kept Sasuke calm and that was important.”

Itachi blushed at the compliments, “th..th..thank you,” he didn’t like how he stuttered, “but my question is why did you call out ‘Mother’?”

Kei looked into Itachi’s eyes, “I already talked to your parents about this and they gave me the ok to tell you. What I’m going to show you is a secret not only from the rest of the village but also from the rest of the clan.”

Itachi wondered just what it was that Kei was going to tell him. He looked over at his parents, they both gave him a nod.

“Itachi, we’re not telling you these things lightly.” Mikoto’s drew her eldest son’s attention, “this is a secret that you will need to make sure you keep from everyone. Even if you want to talk to us, we need to be in a safe area for that.”

“We’re not trying to scare you,” Kei gentled his tone, “you know our clan dojutsu.”

Itachi’s nodded. “I awoke my mangekyo.”

“There is are more steps above mangekyo, but special conditions need to be met.”

“Really?”

Kei grinned, “yes, really. Don’t be too quick to try and meet them. I’ll let your parents tell you about them later. For know you need to know” Kei showed his sharingan, then rotated to his mangekyo and then his eternal mangekyo. “Each Uchiha has a unique skill associated with their mangekyo as well as how it is reflected in our eyes.”

“What do you mean reflected in our eyes?”

Fugaku took that question, “the design is different for each ability, although related abilities have related designs.”

“I have the last step in the sharingan evolution, the rinnegan.” Kei moved the hair away from his forehead to show off his rinnegan eye. Itachi leaned back in his chair. The rinnegan was the dojutsu of legend. “I know that I was angry, and that I released my dojutsu unconsciously. I’m told that the rinnegan can not only distort perception, but it can also draw on collective memories. It is possible that what you heard was you’re own desire. I will admit to yelling about protecting my family, but I am a Uchiha.” Kei rubbed a hand over his face, effectively shutting off the rinnegan. “I also lost my family in an attack by a comrade.”

Itachi thought about what Kei was and wan’t saying. What Itachi knew about the rinnegan, a dojutsu of legend, was limited, mostly because there really wasn’t a lot of information available for a genin like him. Had he heard what he wanted to hear? Thinking back to the attack, Shisui had been injured and Sasuke was scared. Seeing his mother protecting the village jinchuriki, Itachi remembered feeling helpless and wishing there was something he could do or someone to protect them. Knowing that Kei had been through this before gave him a another aspect to consider.

Knowing that Itachi’s was doubting himself, Kei pushed it a step further, “It was also during this time that you awoke your mangekyo. That puts additional strain on your body, chakra system and mental state. I don’t want to say that you lied about what you heard, but it could have been mistaken.”

Itachi sat quietly going through his memories. He had to admit that his own emotions had been heightened, he could have been projecting.

Mikoto could see how her eldest was struggling with what he’d heard from Kei. “Itachi, I know that I heard your voice, your’s and Sasuke’s when I was hurt.”

“So it’s possible it was me. That make’s sense, just like it’s possible Kei-san called out because his memories were overlapping the scene in front of him.” Itachi felt the confusion leave him. The sharingan was supposed to record a perfect memory, but those memories during evolution could be suspect.

“Why don’t you go and watch the others for a bit. Regardless of whether you were the one to call out, or me or even Sasuke, the most important thing is that Danzo can never hurt this village again.” Kei gave a small smile, “don’t think on it too hard.”

Fugaku reached out to Itachi, “son, we can talk about it again later. Come on let’s go watch your brother, Naruto and Karin.”

Itachi nodded and walked towards the door with his father.

Kei offered Mikoto a hand for balance. “Think he will be satisfied with those answers?”

Mikoto smiled up at Kei, she hadn’t considered using Kei’s past trauma as a reason, of course adding Sasuke into the mix was a twist of the truth. “It’ll be fine. Let’s go and make sure that Karin hasn’t gotten fed up with the boys.”

Outside Naruto and Sasuke were running around the yard and both were giggling and had large smiles on their faces. Karin’s voice could be heard calling out to the boys as she chased them around the yard. Karin managed to tag Sasuke, “you’re it.” She called out.

Sasuke started to run after Naruto when he spotted his feather and stopped, “Father,” he gave a small bow.

Fugaku laughed, “go play Sasuke,” he side eyed his eldest son, the raw emotion there brought out a playfulness that had been missing while Itachi had been younger. “However this time, Itachi is it.” He pushed Itachi off of the deck and onto the grass.

Sasuke squealed with joy and took off running, grabbing for Naruto and Karin as he went by.

Itachi gave a dry look over at his father who just smiled, before sighing and running after his brother. It only took minutes for the stoic attitude to fade into child like glee.

Mikoto leaned against her husband. “It’s been too long since I’ve seen Itachi act his age. I only wish…” she trailed off but her gaze rested on Kei. She had initially wanted to talk to Kei about moving back onto Uchiha land, where she could talk to him more, spend more time with him. However, watching him with Naruto had her changing her mind. He looked at Kei as the only one who could provide him safety. Naruto was flourishing something she wished she could have done for her best friend.

“I know, I wish things were different as well.” Fugaku gave her a one armed hug. He was aware of her inner turmoil. She wanted her sons with her, but she knew that she couldn’t corral Kei without his agreement, too much was at stake. “He’ll be fine. We aren’t the only ones to support him.”

Chapter Text

Naruto listened as Nyoko asked if they wanted to stay inside or play outside. She explained that Kei was going to talk to Mikoto and Fugaku Uchiha. Naruto remembered that they were two of Kei’s friends, and important to them. Naruto wrapped his arms around his stomach. Fugaku had been over a number of times before and had been friendly enough to him, but now Naruto was scared. He was responsible for Mikoto’s injury. There was no way that he could stay inside and just wait for them to yell at him or hit him or even worse blame Kei for what he did. The only option was to go outside. Maybe he could convince Karin to help him find a way to apologize. He was lucky that Karin was there to help him.

Kei gave Naruto a small nod. He wanted to run away so bad but he didn’t want to disappoint Kei. He took a breath, “Sasuke do you want to come outside with us? We can play in the trees.”

Sasuke nodded but didn’t say anything.

Karin grabbed their hands as she lead the way outside, “ok, let’s go.”

The grounds were surrounded by tall trees that helped him feel safe and calm. It was also where he and Karin played ninja.

“What are we going to play?” Karin asked.

Naruto mumbled, “what about tag?”

Sasuke looked at the blonde boy who refused to meet his eyes. Itachi-nii said that it was better to confront your problems instead of ignoring them. So if he wanted to know if Naruto was mad at him he needed to ask. Kei-san was teaching Itachi-nii to teach him and Naruto was Kei cousin so he wanted to be friends with Naruto so Kei didn’t stop teaching them. He took a deep breath. “I have a question first.”

Naruto flinched was afraid of what Sasuke was going to say, but he refused to turn away. Kei had told him that true ninjas never ran away

“Are you mad at us?” Sasuke held his breath after asking the question, looking right at the blonde boy.

The question wasn’t what he was expecting. Naruto’s gaze shot up and he looked at Sasuke. “Mad? At you?”

“Yeah, cause- like you came to play and train with me and Itachi-nii and Shisui-nii and mom and then that guy attacked and that man hurt you and mom and Shisui-nii and I couldn’t help. Even when we were at Nara-San and slept in the living room. You stayed with that other guy and I….” Sasuke stopped. He was just rambling now and didn’t even really know what he was asking.

“I wasn’t mad.” Naruto’s voice was almost a whimper. “I thought that you would be mad at me.” He dared to look up and saw the same confused look on Sasuke’s face that had likely been on his own just moments ago. “That guy, he attacked your family because of me.” He wasn’t brave enough to tell Sasuke about what was sealed inside of him yet. He wanted to make sure Sasuke would remain his friend first. A quick look over at Karin and Naruto vowed to tell her first, her and Oba-San first. “I hurt your mom when she was only trying to help.”

Sasuke thought about it. His mom had been hurt and she was still recovering, but he was sure it was more because of her back then any burns. “Mom is hurt, but she is shinobi.” He remembered his parents telling him that being a shinobi means protecting those precious to you, and that getting hurt was part of the job. He didn’t like it that Shisui and his mom were hurt, but they had protected them. “I’m not mad, well not at you. I’m mad at the weird guy that came to hurt us, but you didn’t ask him to and you were hurt too, so…”

“That’s great,” Karin interjected. “Neither of you are mad at each other, does that mean you can be friends?”

The two boys stared at each other before Sasuke nodded and Naruto’s smile was as bright as the sun.

“Yes, friends!” He stuck out his hand using only two fingers, at Sasuke’s confused look he explained, “Kei-nii said this was the ninja way of promising to be friendly. It’s called the sign of recollection.” He rubbed the back of his head with his other hand.

“It’s the sign of reconciliation.” Karin corrected politely.

Sasuke grinned and returned the gesture. “That works, we’re going to be ninja after all.”

Karin laughed, “ok, let’s go and play tag. Naruto you’re it.” She shouted as she ran off.

Naruto laughed and ran after the two of them. Maybe he had just made a friend. He couldn’t wait until he could tell Kei-nii that he had a friend.

Itachi joined the game and Sasuke came running at him and grabbed his hand. They ran together laughing and dodging. The smile on Sasuke’s face warmed Naruto’s heart.

Kei watched on smiling. Had he ever played like this? Had he ever been this carefree? There might have been a day or two with Itachi and Shisui in the compound, but then the massacre happened and he isolated himself.

Footsteps behind him, announced newcomers. Jiraya and Inoichi stood with Kei and Uchiha heads on the edge of the engawa watching the children.

“That’s a wonderful sight,” Inoichi knew where Kei’s mind was likely at. He needed to get him to focus on the present. “We should get the other children over here for training or a chance to relax and just be children. They don’t have enough of that as clan heirs.”

“Well I just finished helping Tsunade move the last couple of boxes into my place,” Jiraya had never been one for holding on to things. There were a couple of things that he had from his mom but otherwise the only things he wanted to keep were the first copies of his two published books and a handful of photos. He had helped Tsunade move furniture around and shuffled boxes from the Senju clan vault into the house. He knew that she and Shizune would spend the next little bit unpacking and making the house a home.

“Did you get your stuff moved into the house you picked?” Kei didn’t want to pressure the man, but if he could get the man to actually interact with Naruto, maybe their relationship would start earlier. He could maybe take a step back and…

“You’re still needed.” Inoichi whispered into Kei’s ear. He wanted to remind Kei that he was needed in this time regardless of how painful it was.

Kei wasn’t sure if he was relieved or anxious that Ino could read him so well.

Jiraya looked to the house he had picked in the far left corner of the compound. It was private enough that he could have his contacts come talk to him and also backed onto the yard the children were playing in. “Tsunade gave me a little time off to settle in before I need to go back and work my network.” Maybe he could spend some of that time with Naruto.

“Kei-nii! Kei-nii! Guess what?” Naruto ran up to Kei, he was practically shining with excitement.

“What Naruto?” Kei knelt down to give Naruto his full attention.

“Sasuke doesn’t hate me and he said he’d be my friend.”

Sasuke blushed as Karin laughed.

“Well I guess that means we’ll need to make sure to invite him over to play again, right?” Kei offered and both Naruto and Sasuke nodded. “Naruto, you know that Itachi was helping Sasuke and Shikamaru learn things that will help when they go to the academy. It’s possible he can help you a bit too.”

Naruto looked over at Sasuke’s older brother. He was kind of scary but he looked at Sasuke with kind eyes. “Ok.”

Kei relaxed. This ball of sunshine was the whole reason he was here. He was almost finished his self-imposed mission. The biggest part was that Naruto and his family were safe.

Chapter Text

Tsunade had completely moved into Jiraya’s old place but had spent a couple of days at the Uzumaki compound before her inauguration ceremony to help Kei explain Naruto’s heritage to the boy. She had told stories and showed pictures of her grandmother. Jiraya had been there to help her talk about Minato and Kushina. Kei had wanted to ask Kakashi over, but they were worried about overwhelming his just yet. Watching Naruto place the left over mementos and pictures of his parents around his room was somehow healing for her and Jiraya as well. She made a vow to herself to spend time with blonde and tell him more stories. She wanted to keep that breath taking smile on his face.

Standing before the assembled village she started her inauguration speech. “This village started with the hopes and ideals of my Grandfather and his best friend Madara Uchiha. They dreamed of a place where children were safe to be children and protected from the horrors of war. Slowly the village grew and with that growth came the clans. While it is true that Madara turned his back on the village, the rest of the Uchiha clan remained loyal. Everyone whether you’re from a small clan, a large clan, or a civilian, are integral to our village and it’s survival. I intend to work with the clans and various council groups to renew our relationships and make them stronger. I took the hat as a way to honor my family both past and present.” She sent a smile towards Naruto and Kei. She touched on the need to make reforms and changes. “Change is never easy, but it is what helps us grow. I am asking for your help in keeping Konoha strong.”

The crowds cheered, if anything Tsunade was a charismatic speaker. She was thankful that Jiraya helped writing her speech. He might push the pervert angle a little hard, but he was an amazing writer. Heading back to her office, Tsunade almost couldn’t wait to talk to the different division heads about the changes she wanted to make. But first, “Shizune can you prepare some tea. I fully expect sensei’s council to show up any minute to complain about my speech.”

It took three minutes for them to to storm the office. The fact that they didn’t even knock set her temper on edge.

“Tsunie you need to stop these ridiculous claims that there will be changes.” Homura Mitokado leaned right into Tsunade’s face, using his cane to emphasis his comment.

“First off, my name is Lady Tsunade. I AM the Hokage and you WILL address me the respect I deserve.” While Tsunade did raise her voice, it remained even. She remained seated but raised her hand to forestall the interruptions she were coming. “I have already started the paperwork for your retirement. There will be a small severance allowance as you have served the village for a long time. Now I’ve talked to Sarutobi and we agreed to have you sign a non-disclosure agreement, failure to uphold the contents will result in you being labelled rogue and executed. I will have my own council.” She signaled to her ANBU, “please escort these two out of the tower.” Watching the old crones escorted out of the building relieved a huge weight off her shoulders. Now she could start the improvements necessary to make a better village. She flipped open the file on her desk to reveal the list of things she wanted to change. She had but a moment’s reprieve before there was another interruption, “at least they knocked.” She grumbled. “Come in.”

Jiraya walked in with a smile on his face. “Hime, you finally did it, didn’t you?” He smiled at her as he took the chair in front of her desk, “you got rid of Sensei’s interfering council.”

She nodded, “Jiraya.” She tried to admonish him for his comments, but she honestly felt the same. Nodding to her ANBU guard, she dismissed them all. “You can stand guard outside the room, Jiraya will be here with me. We’ll be putting up a concealment barrier for our discussion.”

Jiraya watched as the three ANBU left and silencing seal activated, “what do you need to discuss that requires the seal?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure that it does, but I wanted to err on the side of caution. Jiraya; I need your help finding a worthy council. I would ask you if it wasn’t for the fact that I need you to continue to be our spymaster and that means you need to be out of the village working your contacts. You’ve done good work out there and I’ll be counting on you to continue.” She sat behind her desk, swirling cold tea in her cup. “I was thinking of keeping Chouza on as he’s done a great job governing when Sensei was compromised.”

Jiraya hummed, “yeah, he’d be great. He’s a respected clan leader, calm and intelligent. He’d be a good sounding board for you.” He had sat down with Chouza and Shikaku when he first found out about the genjutsu Sensei had been put under. They had him go over many of the reports Sensei had approved of lately to make sure they hadn’t been compromised. He had been impressed with how Chouza had handled things. He had approached everything with calm and insightful way. “He’d need to be able to balance advisor work with being a clan leader. I also know that he’s been working as a jonin instructor, but there are others that we can ask to fill that role. I think he’d be better suited as your advisor.”

Tsunade nodded as she tapped her finger on the desk. “I was also thinking about asking Kei.”

“No. First off, I don’t think Kei would accept, and if I’m honest, I don’t think you should offer it to him. After listening to everything he’s been through, I would rather he spend his time being with Naruto and healing.”

Tsunade sighed, “you’re right. The man has been through enough. The fact that he’s done so much to protect us-“

“We can’t rely on him forever. Chouza should be your first choice and while I’d also like to suggest Shikaku and Inoichi, there would whispers of favoritism with them being part of the Ino-Shika-Cho. Then there’s also the fact that they are clan leaders and have other jobs within the village that they are better suited for. With them as jonin commander and head of T&I you can still pull them in for advice on all sorts of village matters.” Jiraya grabbed the sake bottle and poured them both a drink. “How many are you thinking of asking?

“I was thinking two maybe three.”

The two of them brought up the names of different shinobi or villagers and what the merits of having them on council would be. Everyone from Mikoto Uchiha to Hizashi Hyuga to Keiji Inuzuka. A knock on the door had Shizune showing up with a light meal and more tea.

Tsunade was glad for Jiraya’s help. She wanted to show Kei that she would work hard to create a better village then the one Kei had left.

Chapter Text

Fugaku sat in his office at the station as he studied the files in front of him. They were awfully thin, but that was often the nature of M.I.A. files especially during war.

“Can I interrupt?” Shikaku stood in the doorway.

“Shikaku, come in.”

Shikaku walked over the threshold and felt the silencing seals slip into place. A quick glance through the office window showed the various officers focusing on their work. “How?”

Fugaku snickered, “actually it’s Kei’s silencing seal, I just had him help me tweak it. It protects us inside here, blurring our mouths and sounds while allowing visuals from both ways.”

“So hiding in plain sight. Smart.” Shikaku took a seat, “so how are things going?”

“Actually pretty well. Mikoto’s healing well, the boys are doing good, the clan is on an even footing. I finally have time to look into something for Kei. He asked me for help a while ago, so I’m doing a little research.”

“Anything I can help with?”

Fugaku looked at Shikaku. The Nara was the jonin commander, in charge of how missions were rated and which shinobi went on which missions. He had access to the shinobi files and mission scrolls. All Fugaku had were police files and in Obitio’s case, clan notes. “Possibly. Kei asked for information about Obito Uchiha, Suna, and the Rain.”

“Ok,” Shikaku leaned forward a little more, resting his forearms upon his legs so that his finger match tip to tip in a box-like shape. “Tell me more.”

Fugaku started with Obito, he thought that between the public war reports and the clan notes regarding Hatake receiving his eye that there would be more concrete information.

“So what is it that you need to find out about Obito?” Shikaku was pretty sure that Fugaku had covered everything on the lost Uchiha.

“Where he is currently.”

“What?” Shikaku was shocked. “Where he is currently? Wasn’t he reported K.I.A by Kakashi and Rin? Did they lie? Did Hatake coerce his team mate?”

Fugaku shook his head, “not according to Kei. The story he told was fantastic but actually plausible if we believe his tale of how his world ended.” Fugaku retold the story of Obito and how Kakashi found his team mate and how Haru had worked his magic to have the lost Uchiha join his side only for Obito to die again.

“Okay and Suna?” Shikaku wasn’t sure if he could add anything more, but if he could help Fugaku and Kei, he would.

“Suna has a jinchuricki with a bad seal. I know that Kei was hoping to help improve Jiraya’s seal work so he could aid in fixing it. That means understanding where we are in turns of the political landscape without the fear that we’re trying to steal their jinchuricki. Appearantly Suna’s jinchuriki and Haru were best friends and that the young man becomes a leader you and your son both follow in the fourth war.

Wow, Shikaku wanted to meet the Suna jinchuriki just to see what type of strategist he needed. “Alright, so we can lay some diplomatic groundwork, help Jiraya correct a jinchuricki’s seal, and then leave that to him. So what about the Rain?”

Fugaku took a drink of cold tea, wishing it was hot or something stronger. Much stronger. “Unfortunately that has to do with Jiraya again. Former students he trained at the end of the second shinobi war. According to Kei, he was told they were dead, while they were manipulated by Hanzo of the Salamander and Danzo into turning their peaceful organization into something darker.”

“So where can I help? Honestly.” Shikaku wasn’t sure if Fugaku actually wanted his help on intel gathering or if he just needed someone to talk to and bounce thoughts off of.

Fugaku looked across his desk at a man he had once given little thought to other then to acknowledge as another clan leader whose apathy was aiding in the Uchiha being pushed out of the village. Now he saw a friend, someone who he could trust and turn to for help without feeling belittled. “I need more information and help finding a solution. The Uchiha were excluded from many political talks so the only notes I have regarding Suna’s situation is full of anger that we weren’t included or able to speak. The information on the Rain would likely fall under Jiraya’s mission records and therefore sealed from the general public until the Hokage clears it, if ever. As for Obito I have the clan notes on him and the hearing we held when Hatake came back with his eye. Kei wasn’t positive but there’s room here for Danzo to be involved, likely in all three cases to some extent and I don’t have access to his files. I need help in figuring out where to go from here.”

“Troublesome,” Shikaku commented, speaking out loud to give Fugaku some context he ran through his thought process. “We can’t just tell Jiraya the kids he trained are still alive, at least not without getting more details on what is going on in Ame if Danzo was involved. The last thing we need is to send him in blind. Suna is much the same we will need to lay some diplomatic groundwork for them to be able to trust a little more before we go in to deal with their jinchuricki. There could be a way we do it without them knowing, but that would require stealth and knowing just who the jinchuricki is, and if we’re found out it could mean war.”

Fugaku nodded, “I’d rather be more open about this, more like a ‘hey we have a similar issue let us help each other and we can learn together’ then a ‘ we know you have a problem, let us fix it for you’ at least then they’re more likely to become allies naturally.”

Shikaku agreed, it would take more time and be a more prudent path. Danzo weaved a lot of tangled little threads, they would need to tease them apart for more information. He looked passed Fugaku and into the police station with a smirk, “If we bring in Hiashi and maybe Sajin and Saizo we can set this up as clearing Danzo’s files. I’ll have the archives for everything we have on Obito’s last mission. Once we have enough information, I can work up mission briefs for Suna and the Rain. I know that you’ve got access to the more public records as well as any police reports. Let’s take this to Lady Tsunade and see what kind of backing we can get from the Hokage’s office without pulling in Jiraya or Kei just yet.” Shikaku rose to leave stopping when Fugaku called out to him.

“Shikaku. Thank you. Standing by us, helping Kei and believing in him.”

“Konoha is stronger together.” The Nara gave a smile and left the police station. Seeing one of his clan’s men smiling and laughing with their Uchiha co-worker made him proud of the changes that had been made and reinforced his reasons for helping. Had he ignored the pair in the woods, there would be no Uchiha and the village would be consumed with rot from the inside.

*****

At Shikaku’s urging one of her first acts as Hokage had been to reach out to both Suna and the Rain to expand trade and ensure peace.

She had been there when Jiraya had been yelled at and hit and then hugged by the Ame duo. She watched him mourn when he learned of Yahiko’s death. Watched him explain to Nagato what he knew of his Uzumaki heritage. They had asked Kei to explained how he had the Rinnegan had been implanted as a child and what the plan for those eyes had been. Nagato’s request to remove them immediately, wasn’t a surprise. The fact that it had also aided in his returning health was something she hadn’t expected. Watching her teammate smile with joy made her glad she had followed Fugaku and Shikaku’s suggestion that they wait to tell Jiraya until they had all the information possible. She didn’t want to lose another teammate.

Tsunade was glad when Nagato agreed to broadening diplomatic relations. It promised good things for both villages.

Tsunade remembered Kei’s conversation with Naruto back when they were first explained his jinchuriki status. Naruto knew there were others in the world like him and that they had likely grown up in similar situations. Jinchuricki were often lonely and feared. Villages wanting the power of the tailed beasts for their villages but then fearing the people with them sealed inside as if they were one step from psychotic murderers. Not wanting to disappoint his guardian and on Kei’s recommendation, Naruto went on the next diplomatic mission to Suna. Rasa had been a bit harder to convince that Konoha wanted peace and was offering a way to share the mission load without being disparaging. She was sure that having Naruto visit had helped to change his mind if for no other reason then for fear of a ball of sunshine in full control of his biju. Jiraya offering to work with their sealing master Chiyo and leave all his notes behind also helped. Gaara followed Naruto around like a lost puppy, completely devoted to the little blonde. Naruto had made it his mission to ensure that Gaara had friends and knew he was loved.

Tales of the end of the bloody mist was something she only learned about through Jiraya’s network. She hadn’t even known there was a potential problem. She only learned of what they had avoided when she had talked to Kei. Apparently the tailed beasts could talk to each other even across vast distances and once Naruto befriended the Kyuubi, and Gaara the Ichibi, is seemed the tailed beasts would also do anything for the blonde ball of sunshine and their siblings. Tsunade didn’t want to think about what could happen if Naruto had been a different kind of child, one with vengeance and revenge. She was sure the other jinchuricki wold follow him and there wouldn’t be anything they could do to stop him.

She looked at the files on the desk, the three boards covered in notes and pictures and mission numbers of cases being worked on. There was a small stack of boxes in the corner all stamped with solved on them. Shikaku and Fugaku had asked for access to mission reports, Danzo’s files and personnel to help resolve Danzo’s influence. They had identified a number of missing children both dead and alive and given them back their names. They had re-examined many failed missions and found ROOT had been involved. It had hurt to know that the mission leading to Dan’s death had been orchestrated by Danzo because he had been a candidate for the hat. They had lost too many promising shinobi because of Danzo’s greed and lust for power, but now that information was bringing closure.

Saizo walked into the room, files in hand, “Hokage-sama how can I help you?”

Lady’s Tsunade kept her gaze on the board in front of her. Pictures of a genin team in the middle. She didn’t know who they were or what the case was about, but she knew the groups research this wouldn’t stop until answers were found. “I just wanted to thank you again for the hard work. I know we pulled Sajin out of retirement and you away from cryptology but you have made a huge difference in the village.”

Saizo looked at the case they were currently working on. They were a small team of eight and were handling years of mishandled reports. It was depressing work. “We do what we can Hokage-sama.”

“With each case you clear, the air gets a little lighter. I know it’s dark and you mostly see the twisted manipulating under handed aspects, but to the families it’s finally bringing light and calm to issues no else believed or even knew were there.”

“Danzo hasn’t been involved in all of the files. Some he just used the information to work in his favor.” Saizo was thinking about the genin on board in front of them. They had just uncovered proof that they were legitimate K.I.A. and that Danzo had the file because he had wanted to recruit one of them but never had the chance. “Yeah it’s dark and depressing but this kind of mental gymnastics to see connections is what I enjoy.”

Tsunade nodded, “please keep up the good work. I will come back again and talk to the rest of your team to make sure they all know how much we appreciate them.”

Saizo watched her leave. When Shikaku had first approached him about working some cold cases he almost laughed in his face. Hearing they may involve the former councilmen and his underground army changed his mind. Danzo had been a thorn in his side during his tenure as Jonin commander. He figured he would finally have the chance to find out what the bastard had been up to. The sheer amount of files had been daunting but they were working through them. As Inoichi said, once you expose the rot and destroy it, growth is almost guaranteed. It may take a while and it can be a painful process but it will happen.

Finding Obito had been the hardest mission. With a team of four Uchiha and Kakashi, Madara’s lair was infiltrated. The Madara Uchiha was still hooked up to the Gedo statue and looking every bit like the ancient relic he was. The fight had been short, simply severing him from the Gedo statue had drained all the chakra the traitor had. Obitio had been heavily bandaged and combative. Kakashi had been there to talk him down. Three Uchiha, including Shisui had been seriously injured fighting the plant beings that screamed of wanting to bring back mother. Fugaku used amaterasu to put an end to both Madara and the statue. Zetsu had been tossed into the flames as well. All that remained was to make sure that the flames burned the three to less then ash. The Konoha team had just let themselves relax a little when Obito’s right side started to move and take on a life of it’s own as if from some horror movie. With only the briefest of glances at Kakashi, Obito threw himself into what was left of the black flames. They flared up, engulfing Obito immediately. It had almost killed Kakashi to lose his team mate for a second time.

****

Kei let the surreality of the situation surround him as he stood at the academy gates surrounded by his friends and family waiting for school to be let out. They had a party planned for later. The Uzumaki compound was bustling with life now.

Jiraya still had his house there, he was often joined by Nagato and Konan when they came to visit like they were now.

Tsunade didn’t often spend the night, but was a frequent visitor all the same. She’d often have Naruto or Karin sleep over when she came. Spending hours teaching them about their Uzumaki heritage and helping them learn sealing and other Uzumaki clan secrets.

Kakashi moved into his own place not long after they failed to bring Obito back, having been removed from ANBU again. After learning of Obito’s sacrifice, Tenzo asked for a leave of absence and moved in with his former captain to help to ensure one of Konoha’s best did not get lost in his grief. Both men finding a true home away from the sterile atmosphere of the jonin apartments and using the time to really heal.

Genma and Raidou took the building beside Kakashi and Tenzo, able to finally live their own lives without censor and watch over their friends.

Nyoko and Karin stayed in the main building and helped look after the entire complex. They made the house a home. Nyoko felt confident enough to walk openly in the village. Karin had joined the academy along side Naruto with dreams of being a front line medic like Lady Tsunade. They became family to Kei and Naruto, comforting each other when their trauma took over.

The Uzumaki compound hosted many visitors. Guy came often, both to spend time with his former team mate and to challenge his greatest rival. Fugaku and Mikoto visited with their sons to talk and watch the children have a chance to actually be children. Shikaku, Inoichi, Chouza came together and separately. Hiashi and Hizashi often showed up on Kei’s doorstep to talk. Personally Kei thought that Hizashi was sweet on Nyoko, although they did ask for help in dismantling the caged bird seal. No one was turned away. The relationships between Naruto and the residents of the Uzumaki compound were the type that Kei was sure Minato and Kushina had hoped for all those years ago. The type he knew Haru had longed for growing up and finding during the war. The fact that he was dragged along for the ride didn’t surprise him at all. Naruto was going to make sure that Kei was sociable no matter what time line he was in.

The sound of doors opening had all eyes focusing on the children coming out. It was no surprise to see the clan heirs with a hitai-ate in hand, there were also the rehabilitated ROOT children, and a handful of civilians, Sakura included. Of course Naruto was in the middle of them all. The warm personality that pulled them close and created bonds of friendship hadn’t changed.

“Kei-nii! Kei-nii! I did it! Sensei even let me use the shadow clone jutsu.” Naruto ran right to him and wrapped his arms around the dark haired time traveler.

Kei held him close, “I knew you would. You studied hard and practiced constantly. Now are you ready to go and celebrate with everyone?” Jiraya, Nagato and Konan were setting up the food for the party that was waiting to happen.

Naruto nodded, “we get our team assignments on Monday. I’m kinda scared,” his voice lowering to a whisper, “can we go and tell mom and dad and Haru later?”

Kei smiled, his arm still wrapped around the blonde power house. “Of course.” Pride was in his voice. He had told Naruto some of the story, about his genin teammate and how much Haru had meant to him, but not about time travel, not yet. He had wanted to honor Haru and the rest of the survivors, but hadn’t wanted to burden Naruto with a legacy that wasn’t needed. At least not in the same way. “We can go tonight and then again when you find out who’s on your team.” He wasn’t sure if he was hoping for the same team dynamics or not. Regardless, this Naruto would forge his own path with bonds of friendship among his peers and a relationship with Kurama that was already strong. They were both surrounded by an extended family that loved and supported them, as well as a village that now understood what a jinchuricki was.

Kei looked up at the sky. A bright blue with just a few clouds, the sun warming him from the inside out. “Haru, I did it. The mission is done and I survived.” He could feel tears building and knew that when he went to the memorial stone with Naruto later, they would have the chance to fall.

“Kei-nii, let’s go. They’re waiting for us.” Naruto tugged on his hand.

Kei’s smile grew, “alright, let’s go.” He followed as Naruto pulled him through the crowds and towards home. The rookie nine and their parents following behind. Something never changed. Naruto would lead them into the future.