It was difficult to tell how much Naruto's and my argument swayed the Hokage's stance towards the Uchiha. He never told us to avoid going to Sasuke's again, and humored Naruto's enthusiastic stories about our latest training mishaps. But his visits also became more frequent. Considering we had only seen him for a total of six times before we entered the Academy, three outings in two months were a sharp change in direction.

Obviously, I couldn't ask him directly about things that should be over a normal six-year-old's head. But even the people I could ask refused to speak about it.

In this, Itachi and Shisui treated me like the child I looked to be. Shisui stayed tight-lipped, somehow dodging my questions in a way that left me oblivious to it until long afterwards. The one time I tried to insist, Itachi had placed his hand on my head and said, "Nothing you should be concerned about."

I was forced to drop the issue.

Resigning myself to ignorance was torture. It was stressful, sitting in the dark when it came to the lives of actual people. People I've met, talked to, touched.

Mikoto, who was always ready with a snack and a gentle reprimand on how to behave; Shisui, who teased and prodded and laughed us into improving every day. And, of course, Itachi. Itachi, who I still couldn't help but see as a kid, who had stress lines on his face and a gaze far older than his years.

A situation that I could relate to with a desperation that ached.

And that was why I couldn't ask. Because as much as I cared about Itachi, I knew enough to see how much he closed himself off from even the closest people in his life, barring perhaps Shisui. I was in no position to ask him to confide in me.

So I stayed quiet. We kept training at Sasuke's, and no more was said about the matter. Shisui stayed his cheerful, dramatic self, while Itachi disappeared into his work. Whatever issues the adults had stayed within the walls of the clan council room, wherever that was. Shikamaru and Sasuke never quite got over their fight, but neither did they do anything more than ignore each other at our little hangout spot.

Slowly, for lack of any further cause of alarm or stress, I began to relax. I even began to hope. No news had to be good news.

Right?

The days were edging into late summer when I finally got around to asking about Naruto and my little…trick.

"Hey, Shisui," I said, pausing in our kunai-throwing practice. Shisui hummed, never looking away from the senbon balanced on his nose. "Have you ever heard of glowing hands?"

That got his attention, even if all he did was break eye contact with his senbon. "What kind of glowing hands? Floating hands? Hands on fire? Lightning hands? Lots of jutsu can cause or create glowing hands."

He was definitely using chakra on that senbon. No way he could keep it balanced with his jaw moving that much.

I wiped the sweat off my forehead, grimacing at the little strands of hair sticking to my face. Summer might be on its way out, but by the gods it was not going out without a fight. The humidity brought back days in a thick skirt and cotton blouse, darting from covered court to classroom, as if the concrete walls could save me from the heat of the sun.

Three consecutive thuds pulled me from the faded memory. Sasuke crowed; he must have hit bullseye. Thrice.

I shook my head. "Like… hands that glow when you hold hands," I said, spreading my fingers. "But not when you let go."

Shisui sat up, frowning. The senbon fell down; he caught it in his teeth, then put it back in his pocket.

"Where'd you see something like that?" he asked.

"We did it!" Naruto dropped his kunai and ran over. "Here, see?" He grabbed my hand and held it out, bouncing in anticipation.

I had to take a second to concentrate. Naruto still didn't understand how it worked, even after we tried practicing. But now that I knew what to look for, I was able to tease that flowing warmth in my veins towards my palm. Naruto's own sunshine warmth seemed to naturally respond, blending into mine with ease.

A soft blue glow shimmered around our fingers.

Shisui frowned, an uncharacteristically serious look on his face. Something flickered, like a feather swiping at my nose.

That was the first time I saw the Sharingan.

The solid black of Shisui's eyes split into the iconic triple tomoe, spinning queasily in a pool of red. The sight was so startling, so outside of what should be natural that I lost my grip on the chakra Naruto and I were weaving. The light on our fingers winked out.

Shisui blinked. "Oh, sorry." His eyes creased as he smiled. "Did I startle you?"

He didn't look away. And he didn't turn off his Sharingan.

"What's that?" Naruto leaned forward, jaw dropped. Shisui let him stare, indulging his curiosity with amusement. "What's up with your eyes, -ttebayo?"

"That's the Sharingan, idiot," Sasuke said, abandoning his own training to join us.

"What's it do?" Distracted, Naruto turned towards him, dropping my hand.

"Haven't you been listening in class?!"

Shisui raised an eyebrow at me. Taking the implied permission, I left Sasuke to explain their kekkai genkai to my brother. The extra pupils in Shisui's eyes only got weirder as I stepped closer, especially with their slow spiral around the main one. I was close enough to see the ridges in his scarlet iris, and the minute contractions in the muscle as the tomoe moved. It was kind of like passing by a car accident—goosebumps rose on my arms, but I couldn't look away.

A bop on my nose startled me out of my morbid fascination. I snorted, blinking. Shisui grinned at me.

"You know," he said, resting his arms on his knees, "Not a lot of people are as willing to look an Uchiha in the eye."

I squinted at him. I could sort of see the reason, considering how the Sharingan's bizarre spinning made the earth want to roil under my feet. But surely someone who can gut a person with a small knife could stand a pair of weird eyes, right?

"Why?"

"Well, we can cast genjutsu with them," he pointed out. "Strong ones, too."

I settled next to Shisui. I'd been standing for two hours, okay? Muscles I didn't know existed ached in my arms and legs. "Okay, but everyone? Even ninja? I mean, you guys aren't the only ones with weird eyes—wait, sorry—"

He snickered at my dismay. "Genjutsu users already tend to get a bad rep," he explained. "The art is founded on deception and subtlety, taking in people's weak points at a glance and manipulating them. A whole clan that can cast them through eye contact alone…" He twiddled his fingers at me.

I swatted his hand away, nose wrinkling. "But can't you say the same thing about, uh, the Yamanaka?"

"Sure, the Yamanaka have their own problems. But remember, their specialty is psychology." He gestured at the clan houses around us. "A flower-shop owner is less intimidating than a police officer."

I bit my lip, frowning at the wooden paneling underneath me. Frustration bubbled, a familiar bitter taste in the back of my mouth.

"That's so stupid." I kicked at the dirt. "It's just a legend. At least it's obvious if you're gonna get genjutsu'd by the Sharingan. You just have to look away if they're turned on."

That made him smile. He ruffled my hair again, loosening my ponytail in the process. I squawked, slapping my hands over my head.

"Fear rarely makes sense. The point is not to let it get to you." He tapped me on the chest. "Yours, or others'."

His gaze was warm and fond, bloodred eyes stark against his pale skin.

"Remember that, okay?"

I stared at him.

What did he mean by that? Was he still talking about the Uchiha and the village? Had we been talking about the Uchiha and the village in the first place? Was this ninja life advice or jinchuriki sibling advice?

Or maybe it was all of them. Fucking ninja.

Still, my heart fluttered. You didn't give advice to people you didn't give a shit about. Apparently, that was now enough to make me all gooey on the inside. I was turning into a filthy, unforgivable sap and I knew it.

"Hey, hey, Shisui! Sasuke says you can copy any jutsu! That's way too cool, dattebayo!"

"Well, not just any jutsu—"

The shoji door slid open, breaking off our impromptu Sharingan lesson. Mikoto slipped outside, a small frown on her face. "Shisui?"

"Ah, Mikoto-sama, perfect timing." He turned to face her. Her lips thinned as she took him in, red-eyed and surrounded by inquisitive children.

"I felt you activate your Sharingan," she said. Unspoken was the question: why?

"The twins had a question about chakra. I was about to ask for your opinion, actually." He crooked his fingers at Naruto and me. "What do you think of this?"

Taking his cue, I took Naruto's hand and activated our little light show. Mikoto's eyebrows shot up.

"It stops when we let go," I explained, waving our joined hands. The chakra left a ghostly afterimage in the air, like staring at a light source for too long, then looking away. "We couldn't figure out why, so we asked Shisui."

Mikoto's eyes were already red and whirling, as she knelt to our level for a closer look. "Hm. They seem to be blending their chakra together, somehow."

"You have it too!" Naruto jerked us forward, trying to peer into her eyes. I yelped, struggling to keep a hold on the delicate balance needed to make the light without burning either of us. The light sputtered, then settled.

Mikoto gently pushed him back. "It's rude to stare at people's kekkai genkai, Naruto-kun," she said, her Sharingan flickering off.

"Shisui let me," Naruto pointed out.

I prodded him with my free hand. "Shisui-senpai."

"Shisui-senpai," he repeated carelessly. I sighed.

Shisui's eyes danced. If it weren't for Mikoto's presence, he would be cackling at me already. Because at this point, I had all but given up remembering to use honorifics for the people I had begun thinking of as friends. And, of course, it had quickly bled into Naruto.

Every Uchiha I knew had turned it into an inside joke. Yeah, even Kiku. For a stick-in-the-ass clan with a reputation to uphold, they sure liked having little in-jokes they could share secretive smiles about behind other people's backs. Assholes, the lot of them.

"That's because I'm awesome," Shisui said, blinking his Sharingan away. "But Mikoto-sama's right. You should ask permission before taking a look, especially if it's a doujutsu." He poked at Naruto's cheek, bending the thin, black lines there. "How would you feel if someone stared at you because of your whiskers?"

I tugged on Naruto's hand. "Like when people stare at us when they think we're not looking."

His scowl deepened, then fell. "Okay. Sorry," he added, without needing me to prompt him. My chest swelled with pride, which was ridiculous. I wanted to kick myself.

Mikoto smiled. "You're forgiven. Now, as for your trick…" She turned to Shisui, tapping her finger on her knee as she thought. "I'll call on Keita and Kouta. It might have something to do with their being twins. Still, it would be best to take them to the hospital for a check-up."

"What's a hos-pital?" Naruto asked.

Mikoto paused. "You've never been to a hospital?" she said at last, her voice cool.

Granted, it had taken me a moment to place the word too. "We've never had to," I explained with a shrug.

After all, who needed a hospital if cuts, scratches, and bruises disappeared pretty much overnight? The biggest injury we had gotten so far was the time Naruto sprained his ankle. He'd only needed ice packs for a couple of days before he was bouncing all over the walls again. The worst part had been keeping him in one place.

"Not even for vaccines?"

When I blinked at Mikoto, confused, Shisui took over. "Have you ever had an injection before? You know, where someone pokes you with a needle full of medicine?"

He had to mime taking a syringe to the shoulder before I understood. "I don't know," I said truthfully. "I think they did in the orphanage? I don't remember." The more time passed, the more my earliest days faded from memory. Good riddance, honestly. Who wanted to remember being a baby?

"Definitely the hospital," Mikoto decided.

Sasuke, who had been standing by this whole time, kicked at a pebble by his foot. "It's just chakra," he said sullenly.

"You're just jealous you can't do it," Naruto shot back.

For once, Sasuke didn't puff up at the challenge. He shoved his hand in Naruto's face. The same, bright blue glow wafted off his fingers like tiny flames.

"That's kid stuff," he scoffed, basking in Naruto's sputtered dismay. My brother yanked his hand from mine, extinguishing our light with a puff of smoke.

"Why can't I do that?" he demanded. He waved his hand, as if the flailing would draw the light out of his pores.

His hand stayed stubbornly normal. He gave it an affronted look.

Mikoto hid her smile behind long, dainty fingers. "Sasuke has been training since he was four. With a bit of practice, I'm sure you can do it too, Naruto-kun."

"I'll teach you," Shisui promised. "After your check-up."

Their reassurance wiped the frustration from my brother's face as easily as a wet rag over a chalkboard.

"Hell yeah! I'll definitely get it down, dattebayo!" He shoved his glow-less hand at Sasuke's face. "Just you wait, I'm gonna learn so fast, I'll be doing it with two hands! Nyeh!"

With a blank face Itachi would have been proud of, Sasuke raised his other hand. And set it alight.

Naruto yelled.

Shisui and I bent our heads together, snickering. Mikoto rose to her feet, her own amusement shining through in the tilt to her lips.

"Shisui-kun, I hate to impose…" she began, gesturing between Naruto and me.

Shisui snapped to attention. A bright smile burst across his face, an excitement so sudden and new that I jumped back with a squeak. "Oh, I'd be delighted to! It's about time I visited, anyway."

"What's gotten into you?" I asked, edging away from his sunny grin. I had never seen him so giddy before.

"Maa, don't be mean, Minako-chan!" Before I could even think about dodging, his hand was on my head. My ponytail fell apart around his wriggly fingers.

"Shisui!" I yelled. He cackled, pulling away from my retaliatory swipe.

"You'll see what I mean. Oh man, I can't wait for you to meet Yua-san." He sagged with a dreamy sigh.

I gaped at the alien creature before me.

"Yua who?"

"I can't believe you have the balls to show up here again," a low voice drawled.

Naruto and I gawked at the small, mouse-haired woman, fearlessly bearing down on Shisui. Uchiha Shisui, Shunshin no freaking Shisui, a whole head taller than her and shrinking in the face of her scowl. He raised his hands in surrender, pressing back against the hallway wall.

"Yua-san," he stammered, his smile shaky. "You're looking lovely today!"

She raised an eyebrow. She lowered her gaze, somehow encompassing her wrinkled gray uniform and haphazard bun in one look, then stared at him.

A blush—a blush!—bloomed on Shisui's cheeks. "You do!" he insisted, with admirable obstinacy.

Her eyeroll could have encompassed the Hokage monument. "You're not broken, bleeding, or dying," she snapped. "So stop wasting space people actually need, and get out of here!"

A passing medic didn't even look up from his clipboard as he stepped around the two. At the end of the corridor, two more iryou-nin wearing the same uniform giggled, peeking from around the corner. No one else was around to witness the scene.

If there was space they couldn't afford to waste, it certainly wasn't here.

"I'm not here for me," Shisui said hurriedly. "I'm just accompanying these kids for a check-up. Right, Naruto-kun? Minako-chan?"

The iryou-nin followed his pleading look, facing us at last. She had round brown eyes, accentuated by her short eyebrows. Her lips were full and pursed, with a twist to the corner that gave her a constant secretive smile. The only thing stopping her from blending into a crowd was the wicked burn along the side of her face, just barely missing her right eye.

Naruto tensed as her gaze landed on us. I didn't know what we were expecting, but it wasn't for her to shoot Shisui a baffled look.

"Since when did Uchiha come in red, yellow, and missing the constipated look?"

Shisui choked on a laugh. "No, they're not—we're not—"

"No, you're right. My bad." She waved her hand, stepping back. "They're too pretty to be related to you."

She winked at Naruto and me. All three of us gaped at her.

"My name's Tanaka Yua," she said, bending down to put herself at eye level with me. It wasn't very far. She was built bony too, so it was difficult to tell how old she was. "What's yours?"

Naruto recovered first. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I'm gonna be a ninja someday, dattebayo!"

"Of course you are." Before anyone could comment on the surprisingly bitter statement, she turned to me. "And is this your sister?"

Still stunned, it took me a second to reply. "I'm Minako," I said, my brain looping pretty, pretty, pretty in the background.

I couldn't tear my mind away from it. Me? Pretty? I had half a mind to call her a liar. Six years in this life, and the only one who had judged this heart-shaped, black-lined face as pretty was me.

It was one thing to look in a mirror and call that face pretty. It was another to associate me with pretty, and I hadn't realized the difference until now.

Warmth suffused my cheeks. I pressed my hand to my lips, trying to hide a bashful, preening smile.

"Nice to meet you, Naruto-kun, Minako-chan." Yua tilted her head, studying us with a professional eye. "Now, you two look perfectly healthy to me. How'd you end up all the way here?"

Shisui seemed to find his voice. "Are you ignoring me?" he squeaked.

"Yes."

Naruto burst into surprised laughter. I was more surprised by Shisui looking torn at her answer, so I only managed a few guilty giggles.

"If this is about the roses, I—"

"Rose petals!" She whirled on him, pointer finger raised and ready to stab. His hands shot up all over again. "Rose petals, all over the lobby! In a hospital! Do you know how long it took to clean that up? Do you know how long I had to make up for the mess you made?"

"Is that why the receptionist wouldn't stop giggling?" I blurted.

The lady at the desk had taken one look at Shisui before collapsing in a fit of laughter. She then waved us in, without bothering to ask why. I don't think she even saw Naruto and I follow him inside.

Yua pressed her hand to her face and sighed deeply. To my utter delight, Shisui ducked his head, his blush as strong as ever. He scratched a spot under his jaw, unable to look her in the eye.

"Okay, I'll admit I didn't quite think that through—"

"Oh, really?" Yua asked, her smile saccharine sweet.

"You wouldn't believe me," he said, shoulders hunching defensively. "So I thought if I did something grand and romantic, you'd change your mind."

Yua stiffened. With her back turned to us, only Naruto and I could see the red crawling up her nape.

Another burst of giggles. Yua and Shisui's heads snapped up, towards the medics at the end of the corridor. Discovered, the two kunoichi stopped trying to hide. One of them leaned against the wall, wheezing for air.

"Put the poor guy out of his misery already, Tanaka!" the other called, flapping a hand in their direction. "This is a hospital, we don't need any broken hearts around here!"

Shisui opened his mouth. Yua beat him to it, kicking her clinic door open. "Get in."

"But you just—"

"In!" She yanked him by the arm, while Naruto and I scurried after. At this point, even Naruto and I were laughing—Naruto at Shisui, me at the cuteness unfolding before me.

The clinic was small. A short hallway opened up to a wooden desk that continued along the wall to the left. Above and behind it were cabinets with glass doors, labeled jars filling the shelves. To the right was an examination cot, with more cabinets built underneath it. A window opened up to a view of the courtyard outside and the colorful garden surrounding it.

Yua pointed at the chair before the desk. "Sit!"

Shisui sat.

Naruto laughed harder. Shisui gave him a wounded look, even as humor tugged at his lips. If there was one person I could count on to see the funny side of things, it was Shisui.

"You two can go up here." Yua pulled on a particularly large door under the cot, revealing a small set of steps for us to climb. We scrambled up, settling on top with our legs hanging off the sides. Naruto's swinging feet thump-thumped against the cabinets. I had to nudge him to stop.

"'Sit,'" he mumbled, still giggling to himself. "And he sat! Nee-chan, you're so cool," he said, beaming at Yua. "You bossed him around, just like that! I wanna do it too!"

"I'm being betrayed," Shisui told the ceiling mournfully.

Her lips twitched. She did not look at Shisui. "Maybe if you're good, I'll teach you. So," she said, propping her hands on her hips. Back to business. "What seems to be the problem?"

I held out my hand; Naruto smacked it, linking our fingers together. The now-familiar blue glow slipped over our skin.

She raised a skeptical eyebrow, so I said, "We can't do it if we let go."

"Huh." She pressed her lips together, looking thoughtful now. "Why'd you bring them to me?" she asked, absentminded enough that she actually turned to face Shisui. "You know this isn't my area."

"They also need a general checkup." Shisui leaned back, relaxing into his seat. He crossed his outstretched legs at the ankles. "Maybe a check on their vaccines."

She scowled. Elbow in one hand, she rubbed her cheek with the other, right at the spot where her burn tugged at her lip. "You know I don't have access to records."

"But you can do the examinations, right?"

She shook her head. Her foot tapped a jittery rhythm on the floor. "Even still. I'm just an apprentice. You should have gone to someone else—"

"Hey." Shisui abandoned his sprawl. He leaned forward to gaze up at her. "You're doing it again."

Yua stared at him. Something seemed to travel between their locked eyes, a meaning behind the words that I couldn't read.

"I just wanted the kids to meet a friendly face, that's all." His voice was gentle. "No need to worry."

She closed her eyes, then dug her fingers into her forehead. "I hate you so much," she muttered. "Alright, fine. It's your funeral."

She turned back to us. Only I saw the soft look Shisui gave her behind her back.

"Thanks, Yua-san," he said.

The examination was both familiar and strange. I went through the motions, letting her check over me with a hand that glowed green, breathing when asked and raising this arm or that. Many of the doctors' instruments I knew never showed up, useless in the face of a diagnostic jutsu. She did have a kind of hammer for our knees—which of course, amused Naruto to bits—and a thin flashlight for our eyes and ears.

She stayed kind but professional the whole time, never flinching at the markings on Naruto's face or around my eyes. Her touch was firm, but gentle. She even took a few more potshots at Shisui, because it never failed to make Naruto laugh. Instead of his usual drama, though, Shisui curled in on himself, embarrassment in every wince and sheepish grin.

By the end of the exam, I was practically vibrating with questions.

"So far, so good," Yua said at last. "You two are in pitch perfect health. Maybe a mild case of malnutrition, but that's easy enough to fix if you eat. Your. Vegetables." She poked Naruto in the stomach, drawing out a giggle.

"But they're so icky!" he said, pushing her hand away. "They don't taste like anything, dattebayo—ow!"

I pulled my elbow from his side. "We will, Yua-sensei!" I chirped.

She shot me an amused look. "Not a sensei yet. But I'll hold you to that. Now, stay here while I go get someone for your chakra puzzle. You better not touch anything," she added, whirling on Shisui for the first time since she started. "I remember the last time!"

"I was high on Death's Row!" he protested. "I had no idea I was even in a room!"

"Death's Row?" I repeated, curious.

"Poison," Yua said, waving her hand dismissively. There was a story behind that, and I was going to get it, so help me. "Stay," she repeated, before darting out the room.

Naruto went straight for the jugular. "Is she your girlfriend, Shisui?"

I cackled as said jounin turned a shade of red worthy of the Sharingan. He glared at me. His horrid blush and the way he glanced towards the half-open door killed any intimidation it was worth.

"Not you too," he groaned. "I get enough shi—ah, ribbing from Akiko."

"I can't help it! You're acting so cute, dattebana!" Whoever Akiko was.

Shisui's incredulous look all but screamed look who's talking. "No she isn't," he said to Naruto, valiantly ignoring my uncontrollable fit of giggles. "I'd like her to be, though."

His wistful smile pulled an audible "squee!" from my lips.

He squeezed his eyes shut, as if to wish me away. Ha! Sucks to be him, because the one thing that never failed to entertain me was teasing friends to hell and back. That, at least, was something I could still do, whether I was an adult or a child. I was going to make him regret ever bringing me here, and I was going to relish it.

Now it was Naruto's turn to nudge me with an elbow. "Stop being weird," he said, squinting. Even if we were twins, he could still be mystified by my behavior.

"But it's so cute! And funny!"

In the end, he opted to follow Shisui's example and ignored me. He gave the jounin a sagely nod.

"She's really nice, dattebayo. She didn't glare at me and Minako, and she made me laugh. I like her," he decided.

"She is, isn't she?" Shisui glowed with his sunny smile. "I'm glad."

He really cares about her, I realized.

My heart melted into a sugary puddle.

"How'd you meet her?" I pulled my feet up so I could sit cross-legged on the cot, ready for story time. Both because I wanted to know, and because I wanted to see more of this head-over-heels version of Shisui. And who wouldn't want to give their friend a chance to gush about their crush?

"Ah, well…" He rubbed that corner of his jaw again, back to bashful. "It was my first solo mission as a jounin. Let's just say I, uh, messed up and had to hide from the people chasing me down. She helped me out, and we've been friends ever since!"

I narrowed my eyes at him. That had absolutely zero relevant details. C'mon Shisui, gimme something to work with here!

The door interrupted any further story time. Dammit.

"This way, Eiichi-sensei." Yua swept back inside, regal as a queen and just as distant. Her sly approachability was gone, replaced by a flat look. The only sign of the girl I had met earlier was the little tick in her jaw when she glanced at Shisui.

Behind her entered what could only be a Hyuuga, his signature milky-white eyes stark against the deep bruising underneath. Despite his haggard appearance, the gaze that landed on Naruto and me stayed sharp.

I bit down a gasp. That was what was so strange about meeting Yua. Every adult I'd ever met flinched upon meeting us. From Hiro-sensei's pause to Mikoto's white face, every one of them had given Naruto and me an assessing glance, a moment of recognition before fear, distaste, or cold disinterest took over.

Not Yua. She hadn't taken our measure and decided how to act from there. She had glanced at two kids before turning back to Shisui without a blink.

The girl in question settled within the L formed by her desk. She set the tray in her hands on the counter, then leaned her hip against the edge. She shot Naruto a thin smile, but said nothing else.

The Hyuuga dipped his head towards Shisui, a faint line between his brows. "Uchiha-kun."

Shisui's expression had returned to the cheeky grin I was more familiar with. He wore it like Mikoto wore her porcelain smile, and Itachi his cold, blank face. "Hyuuga-sensei," he greeted in return.

"I wasn't aware the Uchiha had adopted recently. Uzumaki Minako and Naruto, isn't it?" he said, addressing us. Well, at least he wasn't talking over our heads.

"That's me, dattebayo!" Naruto puffed up his chest.

"Oh, it's not clan business." Shisui waved off the mild accusation with a near-insulting ease. There was something admirable at seeing a sixteen-year-old face down someone who had to be close to twice his age. "They're Academy students. They had a question about their chakra, so I'm helping them get an answer with my connections as a jounin."

If anything, the Hyuuga's frown only deepened. Shisui shook his head, lips pressed together, before nodding towards me.

For the fourth time that day, I launched into an explanation of our new trick, light show included. Because this was a doctor, I gave a more detailed explanation of how we discovered it, what it felt like, and how we tried to practice with it. Unlike everyone else, however, the Hyuuga didn't seem to find our chakra hands strange at all.

"A moment." He raised two fingers to chest height. I jumped as the veins around his temples throbbed to life. The spasm in his eyes was enough to distinguish the faintest shape of a pupil, before I remembered Mikoto's words and quickly looked at my brother.

Who was staring, of course.

I squeezed his hand. He broke eye contact with a hiss, then pouted at me.

"Do you still live in the orphanage?" the Hyuuga asked, ignoring our silent conversation. We shook our heads, Naruto making a face. "Alright. Do you share a room? Do you sleep in the same bed?"

"Yeah," I said, surprised.

"Is that important?" Shisui asked.

"Yes." Hyuuga-sensei straightened. He turned to face Shisui in what could only be a courtesy, considering the guy had 360-degree vision. "Their situation is rare, but not unheard of. Twins have a naturally lower resistance to each other's chakra from exposure in the womb. Their bodies acclimate to it as they grow."

He gestured towards our joined hands. "The reason it's so rare is that few physically stay attached long enough for their chakra coils to mature and the resistance to lower this far. What you see is, essentially, the twins serving as two sources for a single jutsu."

For the first time in a long while, I had to pause and pick apart everything he said. Those were a lot of new words, some of which I hadn't heard outside of reading them in books. I think I got the gist…

"What's all that mean?" Naruto looked to me, brow wrinkled in confusion. I opened my mouth, closed it, then shot a pointed look at Shisui.

To my surprise, it was the Hyuuga who answered. "It means your body is so used to your twin's chakra that, to some extent, it sees her chakra as your own. The same goes with her body, and your chakra." Even as he kept the words simple, he didn't change his tone to baby talk, which was a relief.

Huh. Maybe shinobi were just used to treating children like adults.

"So… we can share chakra?" Naruto asked, his eyes wide. "Can we do jutsu together too?"

"Perhaps." The Hyuuga sounded doubtful. "It's more useful for chakra transfusions—sharing your chakra when the other is low."

"What happens if the twins have special circumstances?" Shisui asked, his tone light but curious. "Like a kekkai genkai, or…" He trailed off.

"Ah."

I looked up at the Hyuuga's pause. The man had cocked his head, as if looking somewhere distant. Shisui stayed in his seat, fingers tapping idly on the desk. Yua was studying her nails with an intensity they didn't deserve. Her body all but screamed not listening!

Her reaction was so odd, it almost distracted me from Hyuuga-sensei's answer.

"It depends on the case. As far as I have seen, special circumstances don't seem to have any adverse effects." His back was turned to me, so I couldn't see his expression at all. "It may even be beneficial, like building an immunity of sorts. Only time will tell."

"I see." Shisui's eyes flickered to me, then away, so fast that I could almost believe I had imagined it.

That's when it hit me.

I fought to keep my confused expression, wrinkling my nose to hide my shock. Special circumstances—did they mean Naruto's, er, guest? So if Naruto and I kept sharing chakra, I could build up an immunity to the Kyuubi's?

The question was, how much? I had to struggle to recall specific incidents in the anime that weren't the usual, big pillar events. The later it happened in canon, the less I knew about it. I did know that one day, Naruto wouldn't be able to control the bijuu's chakra. If I built up an immunity, would I be able to help him then?

The Hyuuga deactivated his Byakugan, drawing me out of my thoughts. "As for their vaccines," he said, "I've checked the records. They're a little behind, but nothing concerning. Tanaka-san can administer those in my stead."

On cue, Yua came to life. She grabbed the tray from the desk and pulled a small, steel table on wheels from underneath it. I eyed the cotton buds, tiny, labeled bottles, and large needles—oh yikes.

I could handle syringes. I was used enough to blood tests and injections in my previous life. But for fuck's sake, I'd never seen one that big.

Don't tell me they handcraft syringes here. Oh god, they do, don't they?

"You'll be acting as witness, then?" the Hyuuga asked Shisui. Shisui nodded, leaping to his feet with a huff.

"Witness?" I repeated. Now that was a word I'd never heard in a hospital setting before.

"It's a Konoha thing." Yua smiled wryly at me, speaking for the first time since she had entered with the other iryou-nin. "If a shinobi needs help from an iryou-nin, a teammate, family member, or friend has to be there, if possible. So if the iryou-nin does something wrong, someone knows who did it. And if the injured shinobi gets scared, they won't hit the iryou-nin, because their friend is there to tell them it's safe."

"Ohhh." My jaw dropped. A witness as a trusted third party, to keep both patient and iryou-nin safe from each other. And, honestly? It made a terrifying amount of sense.

From someone who had been trained to trust people in white rooms waving prescriptions around, the idea of being in danger in a hospital was almost alien to me. Only a paranoid shinobi would think of such a system. It also spoke volumes about the level of paranoia these people had. And it whispered ominously about the vast amount of reasons they had to reach that level of paranoia.

I eyed the tray with a whole new level of appreciation. A lower one.

Shisui chuckled, joining us by the cot. "Don't worry, Minako-chan. That's what I'm here for. And besides, I trust Yua-san with my life."

"I shall leave you to it, then." Hyuuga-sensei walked to the door. "Tanaka-san, if you need anything, I'll be in the next room."

The words sounded comforting. But Yua hunched over, her lips thinning. "Hai, sensei."

I glanced between her and the door. Shisui slipped closer, the whisper of his pants against the cot loud in the silence left behind. He didn't touch her, but I was starting to learn that the sound of movement alone was a language to shinobi in and of itself.

Wordlessly, she handed him the first bottle. It was barely the size of his thumb, with a rubber-covered hole in the steel cap. He held it up to the light, flashed red eyes at the label, and even sniffed the seal.

"Do you even know what you're doing with that?" I blurted.

Shisui shot me an offended look. Yua chuckled. At the very least, it eased the tension in her shoulders.

"So mean, Minako-chan," he whined, closer to his usual dramatic self. "I'm a jounin, you know! You should treat me with more respect!"

Usually, this was where I'd take the chance to rib him further. But it felt wrong to do it in front of someone he so obviously wanted to impress. Taking one for the team, I reined myself in.

"I was just curious." I pouted. He squinted at me, wary. I had to bite down a cheeky grin.

Note to self: keeping him on his toes is entertaining, too.

"A witness is pretty much just someone to make the patient and iryou-nin feel better," he explained, still eyeing me with suspicion. "It's rare for someone to catch, say, a poison they know in the bottle, since everyone's experience is so different. I just have to make sure I can answer questions if something does go wrong."

"Which is very comforting for the patient in question to hear," Yua drawled. She took the bottle back, readying the syringe. Naruto's sleeve was already rolled up, his arm at the ready.

It was only when she held the needle over his skin that he caught on. That was a fun experience.

To be fair, he did way better than I did the first time I was his age. He didn't hold my hand; he stared down the needle like it was a snake and he was going to kick its ass. His lip wobbled, and his grip on the cot covers made the cloth creak. But he didn't cry.

"What a brave kid," Yua said, ruffling his hair. "I've had adults in here more skittish than you."

Naruto beamed through swimming eyes. "Ha! I told you so!"

Yay, now it was my turn!

Bottle to Shisui, alcohol swab to my exposed arm. I drilled a hole into the wall over Yua's shoulder with my eyes as she readied the needle.

"So," Shisui said. "There's this café I discovered just last week…"

Yua flinched. I stared at him in horror. Could he do this another time when I didn't have a syringe an inch from my skin?

With a growl, she pointed the needle at him. "Uchiha." She pointed at herself. "Clanless nobody from The Middle of Bumfuck Nowhere, Water." She huffed, turning back to me. "It's not happening. Alright?"

She all but stabbed the needle into my arm. I was not ashamed of the squeak that followed.

Naruto snickered at me. Which—et tu?

Shisui was not as amused. "Who told you that?"

"No one. Don't be stupid, Uchiha." She wouldn't look him in the eye. "I have enough to worry about. Go bother someone else."

Shisui clamped a hand on her shoulder. Her head snapped up. There was no sunny smile, no silly jokes, no shy embarrassment. He pinned her in place with intense eyes, black as pitch and burning with a fire that outshone their depths.

"My clan has no say in what I do," he said fiercely. "Who I care for is my business, not theirs."

She stared at him.

Naruto opened his mouth. I slapped a hand over it and silently begged for forgiveness, because this was the one time opening it would be a terrible idea, and it was the only way to guarantee he wouldn't. He grunted, but mercifully took the hint.

Yua took a deep breath, then shook her head. She turned towards us, slamming the gates shut on their conversation. I yanked my hand off Naruto so fast I almost punched myself in the hip.

"You might get a low fever from the vaccines, or maybe the sniffles. That's normal. If it gets worse, find someone to take you to the hospital. Okay?"

I glanced between her and Shisui. I bit my lip. He looked like he wanted to say more, but didn't. A tick in his jaw was the only sign of whatever he was thinking.

He waved me on.

"Okay," I said, reluctantly. For lack of anything better to do, I slid off the cot, Naruto half a second behind me. "Um…" One more embarrassed peek at Shisui. "What about the payment?" I asked. I had brought all the cash I could spare from this month's allowance, but no one had mentioned any fees.

"You're Academy students, right? They'll foot the bill. Can't have future ninja getting sick, and all." Yua spared us a smile, sharp and brittle. She ushered us to the door. "Now go on, get. I have other patients I need to work with."

The hallway outside was empty, distant footsteps calling out her lie. Shisui dawdled by the entrance. "Yua-san—"

"Shisui." She cut him off. I couldn't see her expression without peering around Shisui's knees. "Just… go."

He frowned, but stepped back, letting her slam the door in his face.

"Shisui," I said.

"Mm?"

We were walking down the road from the hospital. I slumped over his shoulder, his strong arms hooked under my knees to keep me from sliding off his back. Naruto scrambled along beside us, his fist crumpling the hem of Shisui's shirt.

"How long has Yua-san been in Konoha?"

That got me a look, out of the corner of his eye. "Three years. Why?"

"Nothing. Just curious."

He raised an eyebrow, calling me out on my bullshit. I stuck my tongue out, just barely missing his cheek. He snorted.

"Did we do something wrong?" Naruto asked. Shisui walked at his pace, so it wasn't hard for him to keep up. "She seemed really down, at the end."

"Nah. She just worries about a lot of stuff. It's not easy, joining a Hidden Village." He adjusted his hold, making me bounce.

I patted the dark curls within easy reach. "I hope she changes her mind someday," I said.

Shisui had been so different around her. Sure, he was exuberant on a good day, but the little shyness and embarrassment he showed around her felt…sincere. An openness he didn't dare outside that little clinic. I wanted that for Shisui. And, from the looks of it, so did Yua, even if she tried to hide it.

"I hope so too," Shisui said, voice soft.

I leaned my cheek against his shoulder. His melancholy was making me itch to do something. Shisui had put a lot of thought into the hospital visit, for Naruto's and my sake. I wanted to cheer him up. Pay him back, somehow.

Three years. The last piece of the puzzle. Because if Yua had only been in Konoha for the past three years, it meant she had completely missed the Kyuubi attack. People were banned from talking about what happened to it, so she wouldn't have known who we were.

Shisui wanted to give us a good hospital experience with a friendly face, and went through all the effort of getting it. Never mind that it gave him an in to talk to Yua; that was just ninja efficiency at work. What was the saying? One senbon, a thousand nin?

Either way, it was something I wanted to thank him for. The question was, how?

"You two will be fine from here, right?" he asked, stopping at a familiar intersection. One road led directly to the Academy, while the other led to Hashirama street. In the corner was a small grocery store, wilting flowers arrayed around the front.

"Yep." It would only take a few left turns, a shortcut through a park, and a sidestreet to get home from here.

Home.

He shifted, readying to put me down.

"Do you wanna come over?" I blurted. He turned his head, enough for me to catch one, startled eye. "As a thank you! For bringing us to the hospital," I explained, warming up to the idea. "I'm sure we have some snacks left in the fridge…"

Naruto's face lit up. "Yeah, yeah! Come over! We've never had someone visit before," he said, tugging on Shisui's shirt. "Minako can make pancakes! Then it'll be a party, dattebayo!"

"Pan-keiki?"

I buried my flush into his shoulder. "I tried to make a cake for our last birthday," I mumbled. "But we only have a stove and a pan. It turned out okay, so… I called it a pancake."

Putting together flour and eggs was cheaper than trying to haggle for a cake slice. They turned out more like crepes, thin and chewy, but that was easily resolved by dumping chocolate bits on top. It made for quite a mess over our sticky, newly-six-year-old fingers, but eh. Worth it.

Shisui's chuckle rumbled against my torso.

Wait, ack, six years old! Why would a teenager like Shisui want to spend his afternoon with a bunch of six-year-olds? He'd already fulfilled his babysitting duty for the day. I was trying to thank him, not make his day longer!

"It's okay if you're too busy," I said, giving him an out. "We can try another time…"

"I really do have to see the Hokage—"

"Aww." Naruto sagged. I sagged.

"—but I can come over afterward, sure."

"YES!" Naruto threw his hands up with a yell.

"You mean it?" I craned my neck, trying to catch a glimpse of Shisui's face without eating hair. "You're not saying that just to be nice, are you?"

He twisted, getting his arms around me and swinging me to face him. "Of course I mean it," he said, amusement bringing back a hint of that beautiful, beautiful, sunny smile. "Have I ever lied to you, Minako-chan?"

Plenty of times, probably. Without me even noticing. Still, his reassurance did what it was supposed to. I laughed and threw my arms around him. "Yay!"

He seemed surprised, but happy, squeezing back just as hard.

I melted. The warmth I felt from his back enveloped me through his arms. My face was buried in his silly Uchiha neckline, surrounded by the scent of smoke, sweat, and steel. His strength was a comfort, holding me up without a hitch.

Oh man, I did not get enough hugs in this life. Naruto was, thank ever-loving fuck, as touchy-feely as I was. We all but transformed into a pair of octopi most nights. But if the hug with Mikoto and now Shisui was any indication, I couldn't rely on just Naruto for my cuddles. Variety was the spice of life and all that jazz.

More hugs. More physical affection from people I could trust. Watch me climb Kakashi like a tree if I had to. I was six, I could think like that and it wouldn't be weird!

"Oi, me too!" Naruto whined. And because Shisui was the best, he put me down and spun my brother around in a back-cracking embrace. I knew because I heard it. Naruto didn't even care. He had to be deafening Shisui with his delight.

"Alright, I'll see you two later." The hugs must have cheered Shisui up a bit too, because he shot us a wink—

"Be back in a flash!"

—and disappeared.

"C'mon, Minako! We have to buy food! And clean up the house!" Naruto dragged me forward, running down the streets for all our knobbly knees were worth. "That's what you do when you have a guest, right? You have to make everything pretty!"

Laughing, I dug my heels in. "Yeah, but you're going the wrong way! The bakery's this way, silly."

"Right!" He made a sharp turn, almost taking out a flowerpot in the process. An old lady squawked from the grocery door.

We fled. Ignoring the swearing was just habit at this point.

A/N: I think we can all agree that life has gone to hell in a handbasket the past few months. So while I may not be able to promise an exact update date, I can promise this and the next chapter will be full of nothing but fluff. For your sake, and mine, and the kids in this story who just wanna have fun.

Take care, all. And whatever country you're protesting in, remember to keep your masks on and your personal space wide. Cheers.

As usual, notes over in my writing blog!