Jikan to Kūkan no Chi o Seifuku

Authors Note: Please Read. We spent hours a day working out the plot for this story, and the past few days drafting this and then writing it. A lot of effort went into this, JUST so you people can read this. Please review.

Chapter One/Prologue Part One

"How did you do it, Minato…?" Kushina sighed, sitting at the desk of the Hokage, the hat on the desk in front of her. She rubs her temples, fighting off a head ache as she glances over at the cradle moved to be besides the desk, seeing her newborn son, Naruto, sound asleep.

"I never wanted this life for you, Naruto- your father took it out of my hands." She frowns slightly as she looks at him, curled up in the cradle before stepping closer to him and moving the blanket aside to see the seal. "And the villagers… they'll never treat you like the hero I know you are." Sighing once more, she moves to sit before hearing a knocking on the door.

"Lady Hokage?" A stoic voice comes from outside of the door, that of an ANBU.

"Come in." Kushina says after a moment of hesitation at being addressed into a manner so similar as to that of her late husband, Minato, before sitting back down and donning the Hokage's hat, waiting for the ANBU to come in.

Opening the door and walking in, the neko masked ANBU kneels in front of the desk, addressing Kushina in a solemn voice. "The council has been called- the Elders are expecting you to arrive with all haste. I've been tasked with caring for your son while you are in the meeting."

Kushina frowns deeply for a moment before recomposing herself, recalling what Minato would say about always showing a firm front as Hokage. "Thank you, Neko. What chamber is the meeting being held in?" She stands, walking around the desk and to the ANBU's side.

"The council has requested for the meeting to be held in chamber number five, Lady Hokage." Neko replies, rising to her feet and bowing to Kushina before moving over to the cradle and picking up the young Naruto Uzumaki, who is still asleep, before disappearing in a shunshin(1) to the ANBU headquarters.

Cursing aloud, Kushina begins to make her way through the Hokage mansion and off of the main hall, walking down the E-Wing to chamber five. 'Minato, what have you left me?' Kushina thinks to herself as she walks, 'Our son will have to bear the hate of the villagers just like I did, but he won't have you to guide him.' Frowning deeply, she composes herself before opening the doors to chamber five, stepping in.

"We've been awaiting you, Kushina." Danzo Shimura, the Leaf Elder, states as Kushina enters the chamber, eyes closed and hands clasped together, facing the doorway.

Kushina, gritting her teeth slightly, takes a deep breath before replying, "It's Lady Hokage to you, Danzo. Though it's not official in the eyes of the village yet, I am still your superior and should be addressed as such."

Danzo, inclining his head slightly, responds, "As you wish, Lady Hokage."

Shikaku yawns slightly before speaking, "Lady Hokage, if you'll take your seat, there's much to discuss in terms of damages and the repercussions of the attack."

Nodding, Kushina moves over to the Hokage's seat, sitting and folding her hands together, resting her head on them and looking out over the council members. "Thank you, Shikaku- there is a lot to discuss, but also in the way of the orphans. We lost many great shinobi to the attack, and a lot of them had children that are now alone, and the families that are in tact have had their homes and businesses destroyed. It will take a lot to recover from this attack." She says, her voice slightly sullen but easily heard throughout the chamber.

"Lady Hokage, if I may, what happened to cause the Kyuubi to be released from your seal?" Hiashi speaks up, his posture straight and his voice even and stoic as usual.

Thinking for a moment before replying, Kushina takes a deep breath. "The seals holding back the Kyuubi were weakened, and while trying to recover Minato and I were ambushed by a man wearing a black cloak, with his face covered by a mask with half circles on it revolving around the single eye hole. He took my newborn son and while Minato pursued him, he came back and took advantage of my weakened state, ripping the Kyuubi from my seal and releasing it..."

Kushina stands atop the Hokage Monument, looking out over the village and addressing them as she speaks, "And our Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, sacrificed his own soul as the price to pay to seal the Kyuubi into my son, Naruto." Kushina speaks firmly, her voice magnified via a sound enhancement jutsu, "And he is not a demon, but the hero who holds the Kyuubi back from wreaking havoc upon our village once more." She finishes, her voice that of steel, hoping to convince the villagers of Naruto's innocence and remind them of the burden that he carries to ensure their safety.

One Year Later

"Hey, is this about over Shikaku?" Tsume Inuzuka leans over, asking Shikaku Nara in the seat next to her as she stretches with a slight yawn. "I have pups to get back to."

"Troublesome…" Shikaku mutters, lifting his head off of his arms slightly.

"She has a point, you know." Chimes in Inoichi Yamanaka, "Some of us do have clan members to get back to."

Yawning with a shrug, Shikaku speaks again, "Of course, of course. The last order of business we have to discuss is a request from the Civilian Council for more funding for the academy."

Quirking her eyebrow and speaking for the first time in the meeting, Kushina starts, "And what, may I ask, is this additional funding going towards? As far as I'm aware, the academy has a stipend which covers weaponry and damages expenses. Besides that, what could be needed?" She finishes, looking over the council, eyes moving between the Civilian half and the Shinobi half, "For that matter, since when have you had a say in the matter of how the academy is managed?"

"Lady Hokage, you gave us oversight for the minors, and orphans in particular after the attack last year. These are children, after all, who either lost family or home to the Kyuubi, and these are children who will be attending the academy. By extension, we should have control over the academy and the current curriculum." Finishes the representative of the Civilians, Hiro Mitakashi.

Slitting her eyes slightly and gripping her hands tighter together, her chin rested on them as she directs the glare towards the Civilian who had spoken. "And how, exactly, do you figure that?" She speaks, a hint of anger in her voice, as if offended by his very statement.

"As we've oversight regarding the orphans of the Kyuubi attack and the minors in general, like I just stated, we should have control over the academy that they go into, and what they are taught while they're there- after all, they're all children." Hiro replies again, his tone steady as he meets Kushina's glare.

"You do have oversight over the minors, that's true. However, as these academy students will be trained to be in the active shinobi roosters either immediately after graduating, or in a time of duress or war, so they, and the academy they're taught in, as well as what they are taught, falls directly under my jurisdiction. Although, I am curious as to what you could need the funding for, since the damages and the weaponry costs, along with the textbooks, are already covered." Kushina states calmly, her eyes still in a slight glare as she addresses the council as a whole, but her glare focused on Hiro.

"The Civilian Council believes that flower arrangement would be a suitable course to insert into the academy's curriculum for the Shinobi, both male and female. It would allow them a cover for missions outside of the village, we believe, such as espionage." Hiro states once more, his voice a bit more like silk now.

"Hmm. That is a possibility, however, for most shinobi that will go into active duty, far too few of them would be in a situation where that particular skill could come in handy. Most espionage missions would require a shinobi to be in a position to information well. A floral shop would not be the place for such information to be shared, after all. But, I think a course about herbology would come in handy because the information gleaned from it would allow for better, more efficient use of poison." Kushina says after a moment, truly considering the proposal from the Civilian council.

"Neko!" Kushina calls while she beckons the ANBU over with a wave of her hand. "Bring me a copy of the academy's current curriculum."

Nodding, Neko disappears from the chamber in a shunshin, returning a few moments later with a thin folder in hand, labelled 'Konoha Shinobi Academy', and holds it out to Kushina after bowing slightly. "The files, Hokage-sama."

"Thank you, Neko." Kushina dismisses as she accepts the files, opening the folder and spreading out a few files, 'hmm'ing as she reads. "Mitakashi, is it?" She asks, and continues after receiving a nod from the councilmen. "This curriculum is composed of history lessons, with minimal sparring, training, or chakra control lessons. Why is that?" Kushina asks, her voice neutral but her eyes a bit inflamed with frustration.

"The council feels, Hokage-sama, that more intelligent shinobi would be of use to us than shinobi who fight well, because tactics are often what win the day." Hiro replies smoothly and quickly.

"While that is true, Mitakashi-san, it's important to have shinobi, the vast majority of them, that are skilled in combat. A shinobi's life who lacks skills is a short one, and no matter how smart they are, knowing that the Shodaime Hokage used Wood Release wouldn't help anyone if there was a knife being held to their throat." Kushina replies steadily. "This curriculum will never work. Shikaku, stay after the meetin-" Kushina cuts off, tensing as she feels two strong spikes of chakra. 'What was that?!' She thinks for a moment before realizing that she stopped speaking mid-sentence and was getting odd looks from all around the council. Kushina discretely looks over to one of the corners of chamber five, motioning with a simple finger gesture for Neko to come to her.

Shunshining to her side, the cat masked ANBU awaits her orders. Kushina whispers "Neko, I just felt chakra spikes on the outskirts of the village- their chakra.. something is odd about it. I want you to take your team and a heavy assault team to the North gate and travel fifteen klicks North East to see what's going on." Kushina whispers then pauses, thinking'It has to be from outside of the village, and for me to feel it from here, in the council chamber… it's too strong.', before she dismissed Neko.

Nodding, Neko shunshins out of the room as Kushina motions for the other ANBU, who shunshins to her awaits his orders. "Tori, I want you to go alert sealing team six, and tell them to follow behind Neko's squads to the area of the disturbance and set up a barrier around the area. I don't want anyone unauthorized getting in or out of there without my say so." Bowing slightly, Tori disappears in a shunshin before Kushina turns back to the council, addressing them, "The council is dismissed." Standing, she leaves the room, immediately shunshining to her office and sitting down, awaiting Neko's report.

'Why did that chakra feel so.. unique?' Kushina wonders idly as she looks down at her desk, opening a scroll and grumbling slightly. 'Probably all the damn paperwork I have to do around here.' She muses as she reaches for her ink well, going through the scrolls.

With Neko

Neko, having shunshined outside of the council room, rolls up the sleeve on her ANBU standard issue uniform, revealing a small seal and pressing two fingers to it, pumping some of her chakra into it and focusing on the North gate, sending a signal to the special operations and Hokage Guard squads under her command to meet at the appointed gate before shunshining to the North gate, waiting as the rest of the ANBU reach the rendezvous point.

"Lady Hokage has appointed us the task of investigating chakra spikes on the outskirts of the village, past the barrier. We're to head fifteen klicks to the North East." Her second in command, Shiru, nods and turns to the platoon directly under her control, relaying the information before the ANBU move out, travelling through the dense forest and jumping tree from tree to the North East.

Neko, travelling quietly and efficiently as per her training, muses, 'Kushina-sama seemed worried… It's unlike her to call for ANBU in such a discrete manner.' She continues to travel with her squads, caught up in her thoughts to a small extent before stumbling on a branch as she finally senses the chakra spikes they were to investigate.

Pumping chakra into her feet to stick to the tree, the squads stop behind her as she takes in the scene before her.

In the middle of the clearing, there stands a man wearing a black cloak with red armor peaking out from under it, a pale orange mask on his face and his stance rigid, a single visible sharingan eye spinning violently as he lashes out once more with a kunai, down towards a woman who is kneeling on the ground, holding her sides in pain from when the man kicked her across the clearing. Seeing this, Neko recognizes the man as the masked man Kushina had informed the higher ranks of the Shinobi Corps about after the Kyuubi attack, and she shunshins down to the woman and unsheathes her tanto, quickly blocking the man's finishing blow before her assault team rushes down after seeing her move to block the attack, all of them surrounding the man in a circle and drawing their respective katana before rushing forward and striking out against him. The man dodges to the sides, ducking and weaving under the string of assaults before back flipping over the ANBU

Landing outside of the circle of ANBU, he mutters, "Katon: Yake Hahen(2)," and quickly performs the hand seals tiger-snake-tiger-dragon before pumping the chakra into his feet and kicking up dirt from the ground as a wave of fire shoots up in the form of a dragon from the dirt towards the ANBU.

"Suiton: Suijinchū (3)!" Three of the ANBU members call out as they perform the hand seals tiger-snake-rat-snake-tiger before blowing a torrent of water out towards the wave, forming a protective wall and a thick curtain of steam as the other ANBU look to Neko who holds a Half Right Tiger(4) seal before they execute assault plan three, the remaining six ANBU moving into three man groupings, with one man in each group boosting the others over the wall of water and through the steam to engage the man before he can get away.

After being boosted over, Neko dashes through the team and straight into a shinobi.

(1) Shunshin: Body Flicker

(2) Katon: Yake Hahen is a technique that translates to "Fire Release: Burned Shards", and chakra is moulded through handseals and then expelled out from the feet in a manner similar to water walking, and when used forms a fire dragon made of the earth kicked up along with Katon chakra.

(3) Suiton: Suijinchū is a technique that translates to "Water Release: Water Formation Pillar", and it kneads chakra into water inside of the user before being expelled out through the mouth. Similar in seals and effect to Water Release: Water Formation Wall.

(4) The basic ANBU communication seals are: Half Right Tiger, representing the number 3; Half Right Ox, representing the number 2; and Half Right Horse representing the number 1.

AN: Thank you for reading Part One of the prolouge.