[A/N: I'm getting so many new favorites and follows on this story! It makes me really happy that it's so popular. I'm very very sorry it's been so long since an update; school has been very busy.

Remember: the two plot-lines are not exactly simultaneous, so a timeskip in one doesn't necessarily mean a skip in the other.]

XXII.

"Yumi!" Iruka called out the open window from the science classroom he had been scavenging. "I found some things for your garden!"

There was no reaction for a few seconds and Iruka worried she might have forgotten the new name she had (quite reluctantly) chosen, but soon one of the new gardeners broke away from the garden-in-progress and ran towards the building.

As Yumi was the leader of the group of children Iruka and Hana had discovered a few days ago, Iruka was most focused on acclimating her to the new environment, hoping that with her example it would be easier for the younger children to adjust. The first thing he had done was try to convince her to wear clothes that looked less like an assassin's uniform—she refused to accept the fluffy jacket and cargo pants that Hana offered her, but did eventually agree to take some of the more sedate clothing belonging to the Uchiha.

When Iruka had explained the idea of gardening to her she had been fascinated, and tended the seeds she had planted almost obsessively—Iruka and Hana had some difficulty convincing her to let the other children help. After the first day she relented, and some of the Academy students joined her along with any of her young cohort who seemed to be interested. Many of them declined, although some of those would watch at times. A few, however, still refused any effort even to make them go outside apart from walking between the hospital and the Academy for meals.

"You called me, Commander?"

Iruka jumped as he heard Yumi's voice from the window; he had been watching the door to his office, forgetting that Yumi might choose to take a more direct route.

"I told you, I'm just a teacher," Iruka reminded her (again) but without much hope that it would stick.

"You command us now," Yumi said as insistently as she always did, slipping down from the windowsill to stand at attention next to the desk Iruka had been rummaging through. "What are your orders?"

Iruka was almost glad Itachi wasn't here now, as Yumi would probably have attached herself to him instead and that would have caused all kinds of problems with the Hyuuga.

"I found some more seeds," Iruka said, holding up a small box and rustling the seed packets inside. "Also, Hana was here earlier and she says we can go get some of the extra gardening tools the Inuzuka left behind in their compound," he explained.

Yumi's eyes lit up as she snatched the box of seeds away. "Gardening tools? Especially for gardening?"

"Uh, yeah. It's…it's really nothing exciting, just a bunch of shovels and stuff…"

"Shovels?"

Iruka clenched his teeth to keep his jaw from dropping. She's never seen a shovel. Did she spend her whole life in that bunker? "They make digging easier," he told her briefly. "Come on, let's go— and not out of the window," he said firmly, leading her towards the door of the classroom.

…

It was surreal walking through the deserted streets of Konoha. No matter how many times Iruka had to travel around the village to collect things that their little enclave of children could use, it never felt any less wrong.

Yumi did not appear to be disturbed by the smotheringly hushed atmosphere around them. Iruka could understand this, as presumably she had never experienced city streets, crowded or not. At this point it was probably better for her this way, as the bustling streets of Konoha under normal conditions could prove overwhelming.

"The Inuzuka place is this way," Iruka said, leading the way past a park and down an alley to the tucked-away section of the village where the Inuzuka had built their estate. It was not as grand as that of the Hyuuga or Uchiha, but it was rustically homey and Iruka had always liked having an excuse to visit on Academy business.

Today it was chillingly still and silent, with no dogs barking or children chasing each other about. A couple of leaves blowing through the courtyard were the only movement as Iruka and Yumi passed through the gate.

Iruka forced himself away from those depressing thoughts. "There's the shed where the stuff is," he said, pointing at a small, squat building sitting next to the Inuzuka's own garden, which was by this point shriveled and dying. Yumi looked down at the withered plants pityingly as they passed.

The only ways of entry into the building were through the electric door in the front or a small window on one side. There was no way any wheelbarrows or sacks of potting soil would make it through that window, so Iruka took out the door opener Hana had given him and pressed the button, hoping it hadn't run out of batteries since the Inuzuka had abandoned their home.

Yumi watched with interest as the door groaned upwards, then grated to a halt after less than two feet. "Is that how it works?" she asked.

"To an extent…" Iruka replied as he pressed the button again with no reaction. "Hana said the door was kind of broken—I guess she wasn't kidding. Let's just go in and see how much we can get out through there."

Yumi nodded curtly. Then, before Iruka could stop her, she darted forward and made a diving slide through the opening. Iruka was expecting to hear a crash as she collided with a pile of shovels or something sharper, but was not in the least disappointed when this failed to happen. "It's safe, Commander Umino!" Yumi announced a second later.

"I told you, it's Iruka-sensei," Iruka corrected her resignedly as he crawled under the door to join her, feeling embarrassed at how much more skillfully his self-declared subordinate had managed it. After tripping over a few flowerpots, he found a lightswitch on the wall. "Behold!" he declared playfully, gesturing around the dusty shed. "A gardener's paradise."

Yumi stared around in awe at the (to Iruka) completely mundane objects surrounding her. Much of the floorspace by the door was taken up by a tangle of planting frames, stacks of flowerpots, and several bags of potting soil and fertilizer. Further back was a rack of trowels and shovels, a wheelbarrow, and a turning shelf full of seed packets. In one of the back corners was a heap of other miscellaneous gardening equipment.

Iruka pushed some of the planting frames aside and made his way to the back of the shed to pick up a large metal watering can. After turning it over and shaking it to dislodge any spiders that might have made their home inside, he handed it to Yumi. "You can fill this up with stuff to carry," he suggested. "I'll go put some shovels through the gap."

Yumi beamed as she took the watering can and began stuffing handfuls of seed packets inside. "This will be the best garden in Konoha, Commander Iruka—Commander Iruka?" she finished uncertainly as Iruka tripped over a rake and hit the floor.

Iruka groaned slightly as he picked himself up, but smiled confidently at Yumi all the same. "That sounds great," he said as he brushed spilled potting soil off his pants. "Let's go back and work on it."

…

Itachi discovered on the day after his separation from Kabuto that he had made a terrible miscalculation: Kabuto had been carrying all the water. Apart from the few ounces he had left in his flask, there was nothing to relieve him from the desert dryness.

Suna was still at least a week away, and there were no closer towns where he could obtain supplies. Itachi travelled as quickly as he could starting at sunset that evening but even he couldn't make such a distance in one night. If he drove himself to his limits he might make it in three, but without water that would practically be suicidal.

Where's Kakashi when I need him? he thought irritably (and somewhat irrationally) as he made a shelter from the sun to spend the next day in. There were no rocks to offer shade this time so he put together a small lean-to with his blanket and a few sticks he found. Of course with my luck he's probably lost in the desert as well, if he's even still here…

Setting a few perimeter warning seals, Itachi curled up under the lean-to and did his best to sleep.

…

"Itachi, drink your tea before it gets cold," Uchiha Mikoto chided gently before taking a sip from her own cup of green tea.

Itachi looked down at the tea, feeling vaguely sick. This would be the last chance he would have to drink his mother's tea—it would be insulting not to drink it, but he could barely make himself pick up the cup.

"Nii-san, Nii-san!"

Itachi set down the cup as Sasuke barreled into the room. "What is it?" he asked, smiling at his little brother even as he felt like crying with remorse over what he was about to do.

"I got a cool new boardgame today, can you play it with me?"

Itachi hesitated momentarily but Mikoto filled the gap. "Oh, that sounds like fun! Don't you think so, Itachi? It's been so long since we did something with just the three of us."

Faces with his mother's eagerly smiling face, Itachi could only nod.

"I'll go get it!" Sasuke announced, running out of the room again. A few seconds later the door to his bedroom slammed.

Itachi snapped awake simultaneously with the door slamming in his dream. For a few seconds he stared up at the sandy blanket that served as the roof of his shelter, wondering disorientedly what had happened before realizing that one of the perimeter warning seals had just been triggered.

Sitting up with a jerk, Itachi turned to where he had left his pack and met the blue eyes of someone else kneeling on the other side of it.

[A/N: Guess who? Also, if anyone remembers from Turning Points, that is the same shed from Chapters 27 and 28. I love to be consistent with really random stuff, like Naruto's ramen furniture.]