A/N: I'll dispense with the apologies. Life stuff effectively killed me for quite a long time.

But I'm back now, and having crawled my way out of the grave, it's time to continue the story of the boy of black and white. I can't guarantee consistent updates, but I'll do my damnedest.

Chapter 26: Reunion

Naruto Uzumaki felt a chill roll up his spine as he stared into the same blood-red eyes he'd seen wielded by Sasuke and Eiji. There was a terrifying indifference to them, as if this man had long forgotten what it was like to care about another human being. The little of this man that Naruto could see bore a striking resemblance to both of the boys Naruto had grown up with. Mostly Sasuke (the Sharingan, the sharpness of his features, the coloring, the build), but there were aspects of Eiji in him too.

The red-eyed man was very tall, but an even larger man walked out from behind him. He had light blue skin, markings on his face that eerily resembled gills, and a massive blade (though it looked more like a bludgeon to Naruto) wrapped in bandages strapped to his back. One would have to be freakishly physically powerful to wield that monster of a weapon.

The blue-skinned man grinning as he raised an eyebrow, almost in disbelief. "Heh. Weird to think of this runt carryin' the Nine-Tails, huh? All that power in such a dinky little package."

How in the world did this gravelly-voiced man and his companion know about the Nine-Tails?

"Naruto Uzumaki, you're coming with us." The red-eyed man commanded in a deep but surprisingly soft and breathy voice. In spite of its depth, it was soft and light, but it was incredibly hypnotizing.

There was a brief pause as Naruto began to slowly put two and two together.

This man had the Sharingan, knew Naruto's name and that he possessed the Nine-Tailed Fox within him. Sasuke looked like a miniaturized, pre-teen version of this man with slightly spikier hair and, and Eiji looked like an even more miniaturized version of this man, diluted with about 50% Hyuuga. By his own admission, Naruto was not a distinctly intelligent individual, but even he could figure this out, even if only by process of elimination. This person that was more walking death than man could be no one else but Eiji's father and Sasuke's brother. To think that the closest thing he'd ever had to a mother, Himawari Hyuuga, having once loved this man enough to create Eiji was just unthinkable in so many ways.

The clan-killer Itachi Uchiha, well-known irredeemable monstrosity of a human being, flashed his blood-red eyes. "Why don't we take a walk?" He suggested, smooth voice positively laden with compulsion.

Naruto exited the room slowly, but resisted each step. He fought every single movement with all his might. He could feel a part of himself, perhaps the Nine-Tailed Fox, fighting deep inside him, but it was too deep and its seal was too strong for the resistance to make any real difference.

The taller man with the massive sword looked down at Itachi. "Itachi, it'll be a pain in the ass if he fights every step like this. How 'bout I just, I dunno, lop off a leg or somethin', just in case?"

Both taller men looked down at Naruto, who stared back at them, mouth hanging open in fear.

Itachi remained silent, blinking slowly.

Taking that as permission to move forward with his idea, the giant blue man reached over his right shoulder for the grip of his blade and slowly walked towards Naruto. "Heh, right. Kid, I ain't gonna lie to ya: this is gonna hurt like hell." The blue man said, mocking the agony Naruto was sure to feel.

Just then, Itachi froze up, and his partner noticed. Itachi stood perfectly still. "It's been a long time, Sasuke."

The blue-skinned man stopped moving forward and looked behind him. Naruto looked past the two (relatively) massive figures.

He had never been this grateful to see Sasuke Uchiha before, and he doubted he ever would be again.

"Itachi." Sasuke mumbled, face white as chalk and blank as an untouched chalkboard as he confirmed what Naruto had been thinking this whole time. His comparably vastly inferior Sharingan swirled to life, as if Naruto needed any more confirmation for his ideas.

The large blue-skinned man grinned. Naruto saw that his teeth were almost all disturbingly sharp. "Heh, hey, Itachi, that runt behind us looks a lot like you."

"He's my younger brother." Itachi deadpanned, almost dismissively.

Sasuke curled his trembling digits into fists. "I hope you're ready to die."

Naruto remembered all those times Sasuke went on and on about restoring his clan by killing "a certain someone," and how every time he'd said that around Himawari, she would escort Sasuke off to another room and talk to him about something. The very reason Sasuke trained so hard, socially isolated himself, and worked himself to the bone on a daily basis was standing right here.

Itachi turned to face his younger brother, saying nothing.

Sasuke also said nothing. Instead, he chose to gather a highly-concentrated ball of lightning chakra in his left hand, a chidori, and sprint towards Itachi at blinding speeds, roaring with rage.

Just before Sasuke blew Itachi's torso to bits, Itachi moved faster than Naruto's eyes could track, and the wall to Naruto's right suddenly exploded. When the smoke cleared, Naruto saw that Itachi had just done something he had previously thought impossible. Itachi had grabbed Sasuke's hand and redirected his chidori in a different direction, exerting roughly the same amount of effort that a normal person would exert in swatting away a fly or putting out a cigarette. Naruto shook his head, bringing himself back to the real world. He couldn't just stand here while these two made a fool of one of his closest friends. He brought his hands together and reached deep within himself, for the same power inside him that had been fighting against Itachi with such fury. Naruto growled, his canines growing longer and sharper as his pupils turned into slits, his fingernails grew into claws, and red-orange chakra began to swirl around him. The chakra only swirled more intensely when Itachi broke Sasuke's wrist. "Ya want me?! Fine! Come and get me!"

The blue-skinned man's grin widened. "If you insist."

He swung his sword through Naruto's orange chakra cloak, and it immediately disappeared, along with all of the physical changes that came along with usage of the Nine-Tails' chakra. He tried to summon more, and nothing happened. What was happening?

The blue-skinned man rested his wrapped blade on his shoulder. "Sorry, kid, you're all outta luck. Sharkskin eats chakra, and it's telling me that it really likes the taste of yours. This ain't gonna be fun for ya. "The wielder of Sharkskin brought his blade up, clearly relishing in Naruto's being on the verge of panicking. As he brought it down, Naruto shut his eyes tight, his last thought being of his adoptive family. Instead of feeling what was most definitely going to be absurd levels of pain, he heard the distinctive sound of metal clanking on metal. Upon opening his eyes, he saw a large toad with armored arms and legs standing directly in front of him, and felt a hand on his right shoulder.

Naruto looked behind him, and nearly cried with relief.

Jiraiya of the Sannin patted Naruto on the shoulder with an almost disappointed look on his face as he looked between Naruto and Sasuke's two attackers. "Heh. Itachi, Kisame, you two don't really know me at all, do you?"

Itachi and the shark-man apparently named Kisame were silent.

Naruto, however, was not.

"AHPERVYSAGEIT'SSOGOODTOSEEYOUITHOUGHTIWASGONNADIE!" Naruto screamed, wrapping his arms around Jiraiya's torso from the back.

Jiraiya exhaled in exasperation, ruffling Naruto's hair. "Kid, I really wish you wouldn't call me that in public."

And just like that, Naruto's mood went sour. He threw his arms up in the air. "Are you kidding me?! We've got worse things to worry about than what these guys think of you! Get with it, Pervy Sage!"

Jiraiya threw his hands up in the air too, bending down to look Naruto right in the eyes. "Didn't I JUST ask you not to call me that?! Why in the world should I teach a kid that can't even listen to me?!"

Kisame chuckled. "Whatever it is the little shit calls ya, Jiraiya, I gotta say, I'm more than a little disappointed. A sleazy old man that acts like his student when he doesn't get what he wants? Almost impossible to believe that you're one of the Sannin, but hey, when I found out that a guy like Itachi had a kid, I stopped makin' assumptions about anything."

Naruto felt like he'd been punched in the face by an invisible opponent. He turned to Jiraiya, questions flying through his mind. "What?! These guys know you already?!"

Jiraiya crouched down and placed his hand on Naruto's head, ruffling his hair again as he leaned towards Naruto's ear. "I'll explain in a bit, just keep quiet for now."

Naruto did his best to calm himself as his sensei stood back up and straightened his haori as he focused on Itachi. "You think I couldn't tell that young woman was under the influence of a Sharingan's hypnosis genjutsu from the start? I don't fall for feminine wiles, women fall for me, dammit, and what kind of coward would use an innocent woman to get a child's only real protection away from him?"

Naruto was incredibly confused. He was going to ask a question when he decided that listening, the way Eiji and Sasuke did, might actually get him farther.

Itachi remained unsettlingly motionless. "Well, that explains how Kakashi knew about the Nine-Tailed Fox being the Akatsuki's goal."

Naruto inhaled sharply. That explained a lot already.

The toad in front of Naruto disappeared as Naruto backed up behind Jiraiya.

Jiraiya tilted his head down as any and every drop of his typical joviality disappeared. "There's no way you're getting Naruto."

Itachi did not respond. Kisame merely grinned ever wider, gripping his sword with both hands and preparing to strike.

"Actually, this is pretty convenient. I can take you both out in the same fight."

"No! I'm, the only one, that can kill him." Sasuke huffed, slowly and shakily rising to his feet.

Itachi kept his eyes trained on Jiraiya, but he was clearly addressing Sasuke. "Leave. You don't interest me at the moment."

That set Sasuke off. He sprinted forward, shouting a series of expletives in his older brother's direction. As if to further his point, Itachi flicked Sasuke in the forehead with enough force to send him all the way down the hallway, past Jiraiya and Naruto, and into a wall. Sasuke made a few attempts to rise up, but only managed to sit up straight.

Both Jiraiya and Naruto attempted to run forward to help, but Kisame blocked them with Sharkskin. "You heard the runt. This is their fight."

Naruto grit his teeth and could only watch as Itachi beat the ever-living crap out of one of his closest friends and adoptive brother with no visible effort. Sasuke, the prodigy, the best of the rookie twelve, had given it everything he had, and it wasn't even close to enough. Sasuke fell to the floor before Itachi picked him up and whispered something in his ear. Seconds later, Sasuke began to scream like Naruto had only ever heard once, when they had both been little and Sasuke had been waking up from a nightmare.

Suddenly, the screaming stopped, and Sasuke went limp.

Naruto couldn't hold his rage in anymore. He bolted past Sharkskin, roaring at Itachi, before he noticed the floor, walls, and ceiling were all rapidly turning into some kind of pink fleshy substance. "Wh-what the heck is this stuff?"

Naruto looked back to Jiraiya and saw him crouched on the ground, palms on the floor, with a snide grin on his face. "Ninja Art: Toad Mouth Trap! You've both just been swallowed by the Mountain Toad. Welcome, my friends, to the belly of the beast. Quite literally, in fact. He has a very sensitive digestive tract, mind you, be careful not to upset him."

Naruto looked around anxiously. "Whoa, I'm not likin' this at all..."

Jiraiya, once again uncharacteristically serious, stared at Naruto. "Naruto, I need you to stay still, stay calm, and trust me."

Itachi turned back to Kisame. "Kisame, come."

Kisame struggled to remove his feet and blade from the fleshy floor. "Easier said than done!" He grunted, finally ripping his sword from the floor.

Both rogue shinobi bolted down what used to be the hallway at breakneck speed, turning the corner and seemingly disappearing.

Jiraiya grinned. "It's useless! A ninja hasn't been born that can survive this powerful stomach!"

Naruto did as he was told, for once, and stood completely still. He stayed in place until he heard an explosion down the hallway and felt his surroundings rumble.

Moments later, Jiraiya flew by him, and Naruto decided it was probably safe to follow him. "Hey! Pervy Sage! What was that? What the hell happened?!"

Jiraiya didn't respond. When Naruto turned the corner closest to the exit, he saw it for himself: a hole had been blown wide open at the end of the hallway by something that left black flames behind.

"They both got away..." Naruto mumbled, blue eyes wide.

Naruto cautiously approached the black flames. "What is this stuff anyway, some kinda black fire-GACK-"

Naruto was yanked away from it by his collar. "Stay away from it! If it has the power to burn something that can breathe fire, it's some strong stuff. Stay clear, let me seal it away."

Jiraiya rolled a scroll out on the ground, wrote something long and complicated that Naruto didn't understand down on it, and then slammed his palm down on the ground.

Chakra the color of red bricks came out of the scroll, swallowed up the fire, brought it back to the scroll, and sealed it away.

Jiraiya rolled up the scroll, tied it up, placed it inside his jacket, and then turned to Naruto, placing his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Now, for Sasuke. Come."

Naruto nodded in agreement and ran over to Sasuke as the flesh covering the wall, for lack of a better term, receded and "spat" him back out. Naruto caught him and Jiraiya carefully picked him up. "Teaching you that new jutsu can wait, we need to get back to the Infirmary. Sasuke needs immediate medical attention and I need to have a chat with Eiji's mother. Now."

Naruto looked taken aback, to say the least. "Auntie Hima? Why?"

"I'm thinking she might know what jutsu Itachi was using just now."

Naruto looked up at Jiraiya, obviously desperate for something resembling a clear answer. "He's gonna be okay though, right?"

Jiraiya grimaced, lifting Sasuke up surprisingly gently. "Physically, yes, but I'm concerned about what Itachi might have done to the boy's mind. If it's the jutsu I'm thinking of, then he'll need to spend a few months in the psych ward, at least. I'll confirm my suspicions with Eiji's mother later."

Hinata Hyuuga sat across from Eiji and Sasuke, who were placed next to each other in adjacent twin-sized beds in the same hospital room. It had begun to rain recently, and as calming as she felt the sound of the rain was (particularly now, in wake of the attempted invasion of Konoha), she hoped the rain itself didn't interfere with Lord Jiraiya and Naruto's mission to locate Tsunade. As a result of this concern, Hinata had been uncharacteristically restless for the past forty minutes, having long since grown bored with kicking her legs off the edge of the armchair in the corner of the hospital room. She was normally a calm, rational girl, not unlike a pond within a zen garden, but this...
Hinata looked up at her older sister (who was standing next to Hinata's armchair with her arms crossed, tapping her foot) with an expression communicating muffled, muted desperation. "Hima, is Ms. Mitarashi going to show up soon?"

Himawari activated her Byakugan to maximize the range, and Hinata watched her elder sister channel every last bit of her power into her eyes in order to maximize their range.

Moments later, Himawari turned her head towards the door, just before it opened to reveal Anko.

Well, that was some good timing, to say the least. Hinata exhaled in relief, the tightness in her chest relaxing significantly. Before the latter could get a word out, Himawari was in Anko's face. "You said you'd be here an hour ago!"

Anko grimaced at Himawari. "I was on the outskirts of the Land of Fire acquiring the requisite ink for this jutsu, and I needed to conserve as much chakra as I possibly could, so I couldn't just shunshin several hundred miles. I got here as fast as I could for the kid. Trust me, no one wants for him to just wake up and lose his mind."

Himawari huffed in frustration. As far as Hinata could could tell, there was nothing her older sister could do or say to reasonably refute that.

Anko opened up her coat, revealing dozens of concealed kunai, and began forming a large concentric circle around Eiji's hospital bed with the small blades, with the tips of said blades pointing towards Eiji. Anko tossed every second blade to Himawari, who in turn formed a smaller circle within the one Anko was creating. Out of curiosity, Hinata activated her Byakugan, and discovered that each kunai contained a small portion of the chakra of whichever kunoichi had placed it.

Moments later, both circles were complete. Anko stood up and directed Himawari towards Eiji's bed. "Alright, Honkers, get his hospital gown off down to the waist and hold him up straight."

Hinata's eyebrows shot up that someone would have the gall to refer to her older sister as "Honkers," but Himawari, bafflingly, didn't appear to be phased at all, instead simply doing as instructed and lowering Eiji's hospital gown down to his waist and propping him up with some pillows. Just as Himawari finished, Anko walked over to the opposite side of the bed with a small portable calligraphy set. Anko removed the lid from the small container for the ink, pricked her right index finger with a spare kunai, and after mixing it in thoroughly with the ink, she began to write.

"Your calligraphy is pretty good." Himawari observed, sounding almost surprised.

Anko scowled resentfully, not looking away from her work, or even slowing down. "Just because I didn't receive a private education at the Hyuuga Estate doesn't mean I'm stupid. Konoha's orphanage had some great teachers."

Himawari raised an eyebrow as she cocked her head to the side. "Had? What happened?"

Anko let out a humorless chuckle. "The orphanage took a lotta hits during the invasion, I'll tell ya later."

Hinata remembered hearing her parents having a rather heated discussion about about that. Himawari, unsurprisingly, hadn't left the hospital since Eiji, and later Sasuke, had been admitted, and given that the local newspaper had been out of print since the invasion, she had been out of the information loop as well.

A few minutes later, Anko exhaled a low-powered wind jutsu to rapidly dry all of the writing covering Eiji's torso before looking up to Himawari, expression uncharacteristically serious. "Look, I'm not gonna sugarcoat this: this jutsu hurts. A lot. We've both been stabbed, burned, electrocuted, concussed, blown up, and tons of other shit over the years, but this jutsu is literally us having to suppress the chakra of a man as evil as Orochimaru into a spot the size of the kid's palm. If it wakes him up, and it might, because it woke me up, he's gonna be REALLY confused."

Himawari focused on her son, expression scrunched up in concern. She exhaled shakily, clearly enormously stressed by the current situation. "We need to be ready for him to attack us, then. When the scouts found him near Hiruzen's body, he was surrounded by three large creatures that match the description of the personal summons of one of Orochimaru's henchmen, and the effects of the mark were only fading after he'd fainted."
Himawari looked over to Hinata. "Hinata, you know I love you, but I think you need to leave the room for a few minutes, until we know Eiji's psychologically stable. For your own safety."

Hinata looked at the floor, disappointed, but still understanding of the situation. Hinata had hoped to watch the procedure, as she'd always found fuinjutsu and medical ninjutsu fascinating, and this could technically qualify as both, but her elder sister was right. The risks were too great. Of course, she could watch through the wall, but there would be a certain amount of interference and visual "white noise" from having to look through a surface.

Then, upon realizing something, the pint-sized Hyuuga girl quickly looked back up at her older sister, large eyes open wide. "Wait, what about Sasuke?"

In spite of the circumstances, Himawari smiled, albeit tiredly. "Good timing, actually. Thank you for the reminder."

Himawari motioned with her head towards the door. "If you don't mind, could you go get the nurse that's been waiting in the hallway for an hour for Anko to show up? She's supposed to have a gurney ready for Sasuke. And please stay outside until one of us tells you that it's okay to come back in."

Hinata stood up, nodding. "Okay." She agreed, quietly. Hinata walked over to the door and opened it quietly, stepping through it as she turned her head to the right.

She saw no nurse with a gurney.

Looking to the left, though, she spotted exactly what she was looking for: a younger woman in the garb of a low-ranking medical ninja leaning up against a wall, next to a gurney about Sasuke's size, and reading a book that Hinata's Byakugan informed her was written by various members of the Yamanaka Clan about the basic principles of medical ninjutsu and the treatment of various poisons and toxins. Hinata meekly approached the nurse, unsure of how exactly to inform her that Anko had been an hour late.
Before Hinata could come up with anything she considered satisfactory, the nurse closed her book, sealed it away into a previously unseen scroll that had been strapped to her lower back, and turned to Hinata with a mildly disappointed expression.

Hinata felt herself turn red and began stuttering apologetically.

The nurse raised an eyebrow. "Was Ms. Mitarashi late again?"

Hinata clammed up and nodded quickly, nervously.

The nurse sighed in exasperation, grabbing the gurney, heading towards the room. "Yeah, don't worry, you're fine, this isn't new. Mind getting the door for me?"

Hinata shuffled quickly and nervously back towards the door to the room and pulled it open for the nurse, who smiled at Hinata and rubbed the top of her head on her way in. "Be right back."

Hinata decided it would be more efficient for her to simply keep the door open for the nurse. Sure enough, moments later, the nurse came out, with Sasuke on the gurney. She gently let the door close while the nurse rolled Sasuke back to her original waiting spot, and because the nurse seemed friendly enough for Hinata to overcome her meekness and ask a question that suddenly seemed important now that Sasuke and Eiji were probably about to wake up and Hinata's sister and her companion were about to attempt contain the chakra of one of the Sannin.

"Miss? Um, you wouldn't happen to know how thick these walls are, would you? Are they reinforced?"

The nurse looked around at the walls, seemingly probing her own memory. "I'm not sure, but I want to say that my parents told me about how the Second Hokage had the hospital thoroughly reinforced in case of war. Either way, don't worry, sweetie, I think we'll be okay. That's your older sister in there. She's a legend, you know that."
Hinata permitted herself a small smile. "Well, that's good-"

Hinata practically jumped out of her skin as she heard Eiji scream from inside the room in a way that would best be described as unholy. Purple lights emanated from underneath the doorway. Hinata heard the distinctive sounds of several kunai thunking themselves into the door, accompanied by both women in the room cursing each other out. Hinata learned several new swear words in the process.

Then the floor began to shake.

The nurse's expression changed rapidly from one of confidence to one of near-panic. "Uhhh, change of plans: let's go to a different floor."

The nurse then grabbed Hinata by the hand and swiftly led her away and towards the nearest staircase, with Hinata's worried expression remaining trained on the locked door.

Himawari had just closed her eyes when she heard a knock on the hospital room's door. She mumbled a few curses under her breath and unsteadily rose to her feet from the armchair she had settled in, opening her eyes to the hospital room, darkened by the setting sun, containing her son and, for all intents and purposes, adopted son. As she stumbled over to the door, switching on a faint light on her way over to it, and then began to open it, she cursed whoever was behind-

Jiraiya of the Sannin looked at her with a tired smile. "Hey, Himawari."

Oh. She rubbed her eyes, ill-intended feelings fading rapidly. "Hey, Jiraiya. The boys are doing okay. The medical corps fixed up nearly everything wrong with Sasuke that we know of, and even though the sealing process was a bit, violent, we still sealed the curse mark on Eiji's manubrium. Some chakra may leak out, but it shouldn't do anything more than lead to some behavioral problems, and we can hire a therapist if that happens."

Jiraiya looked behind Himawari. "Can I come in?"

Himawari, exhausted, had to think about that question for a moment. "Oh, oh yeah, sure."

Jiraiya walked in and sat down in the other chair, setting his giant scroll down beside it. "Got Naruto home a little while ago. Probably eating dinner or studying something right now. As you know, we were attacked by Itachi and that shark-lookin' companion of his, intelligence suggests his name's Kisame Hoshigake; I called him that when we were there and he didn't try to correct me so it was probably him."

Her stomach churned at the mention of Eiji's father and Sasuke's brother. She did her best to not let it show. "Was the shark guy blue? Speak like a thug from Tanzaku?"

Jiraiya snapped his fingers. "That's the one."

Himawari chuckled humorlessly. "Called me 'sugartits' the last time I ran into him."

"Itachi managed to escape the Toad Mouth Trap with a jutsu I've never seen before. Blasted right through it and made a hole in the wall of the building. Itachi didn't name the jutsu." Jiraiya explained, removing a small scroll from the inside of his haori, clearly struggling to refrain from commenting on Kisame's nickname for Himawari.

Himawari's large, round eyes widened. That woke her up. "Was there any black fire around the edges of the hole the jutsu created?"

Jiraiya nodded. "Yeah, actually. I sealed it away in this scroll and I was hoping you could tell me what the stuff was, given that you used to, erhm, know Itachi."

She would have preferred if he hadn't danced around it. Itachi had been an extremely important part of her life, and now he was suddenly back in it. Himawari nodded, exhaling shakily. "Yeah, that's one of the abilities of his Mangekyo, the one in his right eye. Amaterasu. He used to just be able to burn things with it, but detonating things with it and burning through a Toad Stomach is new."

Jiraiya leaned over, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands as he looked at Eiji and Sasuke. "It's been a decade or so, I wouldn't be surprised if he figured out some new things to do with it. from the stuff I've read and the Uchiha I've talked to, Mangekyo Sharingan jutsu are something else."

That made an unfortunate amount of sense. Eiji got his inventiveness from somewhere.

Himawari closed her eyes, rubbing the tears out of them. "He can't use them too often, places too much of a strain on his eyes, probably damages them. We talked about him getting glasses or contacts or something; kinda glad we didn't now. Anyways, he, uh, he only uses jutsu like that when he has to."

Jiraiya sat up, expression turning grim. "That reminds me, there's something else that I came over for besides, uh, this." He held up the small scroll for a moment before putting it away in his haori. "I think I know why Sasuke's been unconscious for so long."

Himawari could feel where this was going. "Itachi looked at Sasuke, and then Sasuke started screaming, correct?"

Jiraiya nodded. "He passed out a few seconds later."

Himawari felt the blood rushing to her face as she teared up again. Only with her three boys and her little sisters did she fail to keep her emotions in check like this. "That's Tsukuyomi. It's, uh, it's difficult to describe exactly what it is, but it's a Mangekyo genjutsu that Itachi has in his left eye. He used it to torture people for information, and probably still does. Every second spent under its influence feels like one day. He triggers it by making mutual eye contact."

Jiraiya was not an easily startled or frightened man, but that appeared to have shaken him somewhat. "Oh man. What do you think he showed the kid?"

Himawari closed her eyes again. "I...can't think about that right now, but I'll arrange for both him and Eiji to start meeting with a therapist soon."

Eiji would probably open up relatively quickly, assuming she found a good psychologist, but Sasuke would take time.

Himawari put her head in her hands, her words muffled. "Fuck, I should have done this earlier."

Jiraiya picked up his chair and moved it closer to Himawari, setting it back down and putting his arm around her shoulder, gripping her shoulder. "Hima, we can't dwell on what we've done wrong, the mistakes we've made. I can't count how many times I've screwed up, and I won't lie to you: all those mistakes eat away at me on bad days. You can't let that happen to you, and honestly, you haven't made a whole lot of mistakes to dwell on."

Himawari slowly lowered her hands and raised her head to look at Jiraiya. "You think so?"

Jiraiya grinned. "Ha! Sweetie, if I'd been in charge of those three, they'd all be a bunch of little degenerates by now. You're raising a bunch of saints compared to the sinners I would've produced."

In an incredibly bizarre way, that made her feel better. She smiled and laughed through her tears, hugging Jiraiya and putting her face in his shoulder. "Heh heh, thanks, y'old pervert."

He smiled and patted her shoulder. "Jiraiya the Gallant never fails a woman in need."

They sat for a few minutes, Himawari resting her head on Jiraiya's shoulder. She greatly appreciated this after the past several days. Normally, she would be wary of someone like Jiraiya doing this, but Jiraiya was more of a goofy uncle or grandfather figure to her. She'd call him a substitute paternal figure if Minato hadn't been that for her already. Her biological father was just out of the question.

The sun eventually set, and around when it did, Jiraiya stood up and strapped his massive scroll back to his lower back. "I'll stop by your place on my way back to my hotel. I imagine you're gonna stay here for the night?"

Himawari nodded tiredly, wiping her face again. "Yeah. If you could tell Naruto where I am and how Eiji and Sasuke are doing, I'd really appreciate it."

Jiraiya snapped is fingers on one hand into a thumbs-up. "Got it. Get some sleep. And remember, these are some tough kids. They'll be okay, especially once Naruto and I drag Tsunade out of whatever gambling den she's holed up in to work on the boys and offer her the Hokage's office."

Himawari wasn't surprised by the second half of that statement. Jiraiya certainly wouldn't ever take that position. "Keep me updated."

Jiraiya nodded wordlessly and turned around to leave, walking towards the nearest elevator.

Himawari, meanwhile, reentered Eiji and Sasuke's hospital room, plopping herself down into the armchair she'd been occupying before falling asleep in less than a minute.