.

Mary Mary quite contrary,

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockle shells,

And pretty maids all in a row.

Haruko sits at the table, swinging her legs and humming to herself, with her spindly fingers wrapped around the cup as mint-stained steam wafts against her chin and tickles her nose.

Kushina and Minato are in the living room, with Minato settled on the floor and Kushina on the couch. A frightening array of papers is laid out on the table between them. The skeleton of the seal is scrawled out all over the sheets, half in Minato's atrocious chicken-scratch and half in Kushina's elegant cursive. They've been there for hours now.

The whole time, Gai has been stuck pouting in Kakashi's room. He's been there since he got home. Haruko's grateful he's in there, not out here, witnessing all of this. He's better off being kept from this entirely, even if it leads to a rare sight: Sulky Gai.

She'll make it up to him with sweets as soon as it's safe for them to leave the house, again.

"Minato, we've been here hours and we're not getting anywhere," Kushina says, her lips pursed in a frown. "I… think we need to get Jiraiya."

"We've only been trying for two hours. We can at least—"

"No." She picks up one of the papers and shoves it in his face. "Look at these fail-safes. If we make any wrong steps in the counterseal…"

He plucks the paper out of her hands.

Minato rakes a hand through the rat's nest on his head as he reads it, somehow making it even messier than before. He still hasn't taken a nap. "Kami," he says. He shakes his head, sighing. "Yeah. Even just as a second set of eyes… we can't take any chances."

Haruko hops off of the chair, cup in hand. She wanders over to drop down on the ground beside Minato. Unfortunately, the work on the page is Minato's so Haruko can't quite make it out at first glance. Gai has better handwriting than him, and that's saying something.

She takes the paper from Minato's hands and replaces it with her tea. After a glance, she tilts her head. "Oh. Yes, this is rather nasty, isn't it?"

Minato blinks. "You can read that?"

"Somewhat." Haruko hums. "Paralysis, temporary amnesia, electric shocks," she lists off. She clicks her tongue. "And Danzo will know if it triggers."

Kushina stiffens. "What makes you say that?"

Haruko leans over and presses her mouth to the lip of the mug. Minato, after a second, obliges the silent request and tips the cup so she can take a sip.

In turn, Minato glances back at the paper. His eyes rove over it again, a couple of times, and then he makes a noise in the back of his throat. "No, Kushina, I think she's right. Triggering one of the fail-safes routes chakra to a source. I assumed the source was the main seal—some kind of contained circuit. But I never actually found other pieces of that route. I thought maybe I just made a mistake in unravelling that section of the seal—"

"Except there aren't other pieces of the route to find because the route isn't completed in this part of the seal, but instead are in a partner seal. So it could theoretically provide a remote alert," Kushina mumbles, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Great."

"Takesies backsies," Haruko says.

Minato raises an eyebrow but obliges when Haruko takes her mug and replaces it with the page.

"How did you know that?" Minato asks her.

"Takesies backsies is universal—"

"The fuinjutsu."

Haruko sways back and forth, a mouthful of tea swishing around in cheeks as she hums.

"Fuinjutsu theory and complex genjutsu theory have more similarities than you might think," Haruko says. She takes another sip. "It's just a series of inputs and outputs cobbled together to create a serviceable system. The rest is there to patch up holes." It's like computer code, not that they'll understand that reference. A string of symbols and clauses weaved together like a quilt, where one missed square is enough to let in cold air and make the quilt moot.

Fuinjutsu and genjutsu theory are just kind of like two separate coding languages.

She taps the symbols indicating the source. "This is pretty similar to how genjutsu theory looks if you've wired it to alert you when the target has broken the genjutsu. Except that your nervous system is the source, not another seal, so the chakra zaps your brain and alerts you when it's broken."

"Could he have done that with these?" Kushina asks, frowning.

"Unlikely," Minato says. "He would need to have distinct partner seals for each of his agents, otherwise he'd have no way of knowing whose seal was triggered."

Both of them turn to Haruko.

If this is the case then she's never heard of it before. Not that she can say anything either way.

Minato sighs. "I'll get Jiraiya."

.

.

"So, this is her."

"Uh-huh. Haruko, this is my teacher Jiraiya."

The man who appeared beside Minato in a puff of smoke is simultaneously nothing and exactly like how she'd imagined a spymaster would look like. The posture of a snake in jester's garb. Soft features, fluid like water, able to freeze or evaporate at the turn of a dial.

Haruko tilts her head. "I like your hair," she says. "What shampoo do you use?"

Jiraiya squints. He turns to Minato. "Seriously?"

Kushina scoffs from inside the kitchen where she's preparing herself a snack.

"It smells quite lovely—coconut, right?"

Minato's face scrunches up like he's in pain. "Haruko."

"I'm being nice."

"Let's just get on with business," Jiraiya says. "If this is moving how you think it is, I'm going to have preparations to make."

"Alright. This is what—"

Jiraiya wiggles a finger at him. "Ah-ah-ah. You and your beautiful wife are going to go and sleep while I get this done."

Kushina pokes her head out of the kitchen, cheeks full. "We are?"

"You are," he says. "If a kid who isn't even trained in fuinjutsu is catching you up, it's time for you to take a break. Go and nap for a couple of hours, then come back."

Minato opens his mouth.

"That's an order."

And at that, Minato withers, sighing. "Fine."

.

.

Two hours later, on the dot, Minato emerges from the bedroom, a comb in hand and his toothbrush stuck in his mouth. "Howzzit goin'?" he asks.

Jiraiya pulls a face. "I raised you with better manners than that."

"Uh-huh."

"Was that sass?"

Minato disappears back into the bedroom.

Jiraiya gives an aggrieved sigh.

From her spot at the kitchen table, comfortably removed from the situation, Haruko watches as a few minutes later Minato wanders back out of his room with Kushina in tow this time. Kushina hadn't looked too rough a few hours ago but Minato's fatigue had worn its way into every crevice of his form. Even with only a nap, though, most of that was smoothed out. Calling him good as new was a stretch—more he was like a banged-up truck being taken through the car wash. The surface level grit and grime were washed away. The actual dings and dents still needed a proper night's sleep to bang out, though.

Haruko slips off her seat and heads further into the kitchen, rifling through the cabinets in search of the rice cooker.

"Any progress?" Kushina asks.

"Enough, I think."

The rice maker appears to Haruko, hidden behind a mess of pots and pans shoved into the cupboard beside the stove, and she elbows everything out of the way to grab at it.

She sets it on the counter. Curious at the quiet that's fallen over the living room, she leans over to peer past the wall between the kitchen and the living room.

Minato is settled down on the couch beside Jiraiya. His gaze is locked on the work Jiraiya's done. She watched Jiraiya work for a bit, but when she realized he wasn't going to entertain her Haruko ended up back at the kitchen table to read, only sparing him a glance every once in a while to keep tabs on his progress.

Originally she planned to visit with Gai, but she could hear him snoring the second she got near his room, so she decided to let him rest.

Most of what Jiraiya's done is corrections scribbled over Kushina and Minato's work; Haruko wonders if it was just the most efficient way to work through the seal or if seeing through correction is Jiraiya's teaching habits shining through. The rest of Jiraiya's theory is written in scrunched up scrawl to fit on the stack of papers Minato and Kushina had left out, the writing small and straining against the confines of pages unprepared to handle Jiraiya's genius.

Jiraiya rifles through his own work. "Here," he says, pulling out a sheet with a properly formed seal written on it. "See what you think."

With wide eyes, Minato takes the paper. "I didn't think you'd get it done that fast."

"Oi! Have some faith, kid."

Minato grabs the rest of Jiraiya's work and starts to parse through it. Absently, he says, "I knew you'd be able to do it, I just didn't think you'd do it in two hours."

"You and Kushina did most of the legwork, honestly. I just had to work out some of the kinks and reorganize it."

"How'd you work around the alert system?" Kushina asks.

Jiraiya's expression clouds. "I couldn't."

Minato stiffens.

Haruko goes back to her mission of making rice, knowing that Minato probably hasn't had a proper meal since he left for the front lines. And while she can't give him that, she can make rice and probably cook vegetables without burning them, as long as she doesn't get fancy with them.

Well. Hopefully.

Kushina says, "So you mean—"

"Look," Jiraiya says, voice sharp. "I mean it. Look at me, Minato."

Unable to help herself, Haruko steals another peek into the living room.

"If you move forward with this, there's no going back, alright? I need you to understand that. The second you put the counter-seal into action, Danzo is going to know. There's no way to counteract the seal in a way that won't trigger his alert system. And he knows that you've been looking into him. He's going to target you and he's going to start moving against you. I don't know how he's going to do it, but he will. And it's not going to be pretty."

"I can't…" Minato works his jaw. When he speaks again, his voice is soft, so much so that the rest of what he says is lost to Haruko.

But she can hear Jiraiya just fine.

"Tell me right now, then, that you understand," he says.

Slowly, Minato's gaze breaks off from Jiraiya and land on Haruko. "I understand."

Jiraiya follows his line of sight. He sighs. "Alright. Let's go over all this, then."

Haruko shrinks back into the kitchen. She hugs the rice bag to her chest, staring off out the window, right at the little plant bathing in the sun.

She measures out a few cups of rice and then pours in the water, humming to herself.

Thankfully, Kushina is a functional adult who actually cooks for herself and the fridge is well stocked.

She sets the pan to heat up with the oil on it, tosses on some garlic for good measure then gets to cutting up her vegetables.

She ends up with a bowl of carrots, broccoli, bok choy, and daikon. She throws in a few bean sprouts at the last minute, too. That should be fine. All she really needs is functionality—she doubts people expect much more than that from her in the kitchen. And even that is probably a bit too much, but she can at least give it a shot.

Haruko shuffles the vegetables around with a wooden spoon, listening to the sizzle of the garlic and vegetables.

Before Jiraiya's spiel, she never put much thought into where this would go after the seal was gone. How Danzo might react, who he might lash out at.

She doesn't worry about Minato. Besides the fact that he's a grown boy who can take care of himself, he got himself into this. And Haruko appreciates that he did. If he hadn't, she'd be dead right now, having stuck a knife into Konoha's back. Or worse. But he meddled of his own volition—he jumped into this mess headfirst. The fallout is his responsibility.

Not that a single bone in her body doubts that he can shoulder that responsibility well, or that he knew full well he would have to once he stuck his nose into ROOT.

But she worries for those who might get caught in the crossfire. Rin, Kakashi, and Obito, the fastest way to Minato's heart. Maybe their families, too. Kushina, who is also fully capable of caring for herself, mind, but is also the most obvious target to get to Minato.

She worries about the fact that Gai is going to have an even larger target stuck on his back. His teammates, too, and his sensei. She wouldn't put anything past Danzo. If he thinks it'll make a point and he can get away with it, he will.

That type of attitude from Danzo is exactly what got her into this situation after all, isn't it? He plays dirty. He manipulates, strikes at weak points. Twists arms. He's a coward, just like her, and she knows that in his shoes, the last person she'd target is the person who has already proven competent enough to cause him problems.

"What the—oh, Kami, those are burnt!"

Haruko blinks.

The smell of scorched oil and crispy vegetables reaches her nose just as Kushina rushes over and flips off the stove.

"Oh," Haruko says. "Woops."

Kushina waves a hand to clear the smoke, pinching her nose. "Oh, jeez. If you were hungry, you could have just asked me to make you a snack, or something."

"It's not for me. I made it for you guys. Mainly Minato. He hasn't eaten all day. But there's enough for everybody, I think." Haruko pokes a particularly black piece of broccoli. "I wonder if the rice will cover up the burnt taste."

Well, she knows it won't—she's eaten enough burned food to know that.

But she can't see Minato being too picky, given the circumstances. Beggars can't be choosers and she can bet his stomach has been on its knees crying since he got home.

Kushina reaches for Haruko and pulls her into a hug. Her grip is tight like she's squeezing a stuffed animal to her chest, and Haruko freezes.

"Oh, I—"

"You're a good kid. You know that?" Kushina mumbles, carding one of her hands through Haruko's hair. "I'm sorry you're in this situation. You don't deserve it."

"Oh."

Kushina pulls back, a fire in her eyes. "You know that, right?"

"What?"

"That you don't deserve to be going through all of this. It's not your fault."

Haruko wiggles a bit. Enough that she can free her arm and stick the wooden spoon back on the counter. "That's kind of stupid. Of course, it's partially my fault—"

"It's not."

"And why not?"

"You're a child! You didn't know what you were getting into."

If only Kushina knew.

Haruko smiles. "That's nice of you to say."

"Haruko—"

She detaches herself from Kushina's grip and heads back towards the counter. "Would you like a bowl of this, too?" she asks. Careful of the hot lid, she opens up the rice cooker with a towel-wrapped hand. "I know you ate earlier, but I'm used to cooking for Gai and myself, so there's a fair amount."

Kushina stares at her.

The sticky smell of freshly-cooked rice wafts into the air, taking the edge off of the sharp burnt stench from the vegetables. The air is warm and wet as it rises from the pot and Haruko feels it brush against her arm. It takes a surprising amount of willpower to not step away from it.

"No," Kushina mumbles. "No, I'm fine. Thanks."

"Okay."

Kushina rubs a hand down her face, the lines around her mouth stark, like she's ready to say something, but she just shakes her head and goes back into the living room.

Haruko preps a bowl for Minato, a bowl for Jiraiya, and a bowl for Gai when he wakes up.

She carries them into the living room and whatever hushed conversation had been going on comes to an abrupt halt.

"How very subtle," Haruko says. "Definitely weren't just having an important, hush-hush chat, hmm?"

Minato gives her a tight smile. "Nope."

"Cute."

With her foot, Haruko pushes aside some of the papers scattered over the table to clear space for the bowls.

"Get your—seriously? You're putting your bare foot on my work?" Jiraiya says. "Put some slippers on, you heathen."

"Do you want food, or not?"

"Dunno. Did you stick your foot in my rice, too?"

She pauses. She lifts her foot and feels the paper stick to her big toe. It feels slightly damp like she'd stepped in dried up fruit juice. She shakes away the page and angles her foot to catch sight of the ink smudge on her toe.

Jiraiya makes an affronted sound.

"No, my feet haven't gone into your food," Haruko says, balanced on one foot as she sets down the bowls, "but it can if you want. It'll just cost you an additional kink fee."

The noise cuts off as Jiraiya chokes. She earns a startled laugh from Minato, though.

With her hands-free, Haruko rubs the ink off her toe with her thumb—as long as she won't track ink on their floors as she walks around, she doesn't really care if it's there.

Jiraiya pokes around the bowl with his chopsticks. "What did you do to these poor vegetables?"

"Burned them."

Minato picks up a piece of sliced carrot and wiggles it around. He sticks it in his mouth, pauses, and shrugs. "It's not bad."

"You'll eat anything," Kushina says. "You ate that potato chip once after it'd been on the ground an entire night."

"We have clean floors."

Jiraiya scrunches up his nose. "That's disgusting."

"We have clean floors!"

"What's wrong with eating a chip off the floor?" Haruko asks.

"Kami, no wonder you like her," Jiraiya mutters. He shoves a chunk of rice into his mouth and rolls his eyes. "But this ain't the worst thing I've eaten. Thanks, kid."

Haruko heads back into the kitchen. The sounds of the discourse in the living room fade off, and she ends up back at the table, alone with her now empty mug of tea.

Her gaze falls to the little plant basking on the window sill. A breeze rolls over it and the stem, no thicker than her pinky, no longer than her hand, wriggles in the wind, like a puppet whose strings are being jostled.

She wanders over to the window and yanks it open—the frame gives with a creak after she jiggles it. The pot is covered in grime. Haruko pulls it inside, holding it like it's made of glass, and sets it on the inside of the sill, closing the window again.

It can get its sun here, safe from the wind.

"Haruko?"

"Hmm?"

"We're ready to start working on your seal," Minato says.

Haruko turns away from the window to face him. He's leant against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. There's no smile on his face, but his expression is soft and careful, a whisper of concern woven into it.

"Are you?" she asks.

"Well," he says, "as long as you are, too."

"I suppose I am."

His brows knit together. "Do you?"

"Careful, now. You're starting to steal my lines."

"I just… Haruko, if you aren't ready, we don't have to do it right now."

"I think we do. There's no more time to wait."

"We don't," he says. "You have to be sure, alright? Because once we do this—"

"There's no going back." Haruko taps her ear. "I heard what Jiraiya said."

Minato nods, slowly. "Humor me."

Haruko tilts her head, considering him. She swallows down the urge to make a quip and settles at the table. Minato sits across from her.

"I know that you heard Jiraiya and all, but I've got a bit of a different angle. He was—is—concerned about me, but I'm… concerned about you."

She opens her mouth but Minato holds up a hand.

"It was one thing when we just thought it'd be as simple as taking off the seal from you. But now that we know that it's going to be more complicated…" Minato shakes his head. "Like Jiraiya said, once we counter the seal, Danzo is going to know. There's no way to get rid of it without triggering the alert. So, once we trigger it, we'll have to immediately move forward with everything. I need to get the information out of you so that I can hand it off to Lord Hokage. And then Lord Hokage needs to decide what to do with it. Ideally, he'll take Danzo to trial. At which point you'll have to tell all of this again."

"Okay."

Minato raises an eyebrow. "Okay?"

"Yeah," she says. She nods, her bangs, having grown a bit too long, now, brushing against her eyelashes. "Okay."

He places his hand flat against the table. Then, he reaches forward and settles it on Haruko's forearm, featherlight. "You're allowed to say 'no'."

"With all due respect," Haruko answers, "I'm not, anymore."

"Of course you are. This counterseal? It will work on any of these seals, we think. Or could easily be reconfigured to suit another seal. We could find a different ROOT agent—we know of at least three who also partook in suspicious activity during the war, and we could probably find one that would testify that Danzo is planning to commit treason." He squeezes her arm. "I don't have to know all the details to know you've given up enough for the village, already," he says softly. "You've more than done your duty."

She laughs, the sound like a fork striking a shard of glass. "This isn't about my duty, silly." She lifts his hand off her arm, but only so she can weave her fingers through his, smiling. "Danzo turned me into everything Dad raised me not to be. And I let him. Frankly, this is a bit too personal to be just about my duty, though that's still part of it. It was like you said—we're not here to check him, we're here to end him. That's a mutual sentiment."

And she can see the shift in Minato's demeanour. The way the soft lines in him sharpen, his expression clears into something more neutral, and he pulls his hand back. When he realizes he's not the only storm brewing over the horizon, ready to shred trees with lightning and shatter ears with thunder, flood the fields with torrential rainfalls and tear apart mountains with a whip of wind.

"Danzo made me hesitate enough. I've spent months doing it, waiting and waiting and waiting. I won't let him, this time. I won't do it." She shrugs. "I can't."

"Okay," he says. "I believe you."

She smiles. "Okay."

Haruko stands up and smooths out her skirt, watching Minato.

He lets out a long breath, then returns her smile. The chair squeaks as he pushes it back and stands up. One of his hands rests on top of her head. "We'll get you through this, alright? All of us," he murmurs. "Even Jiraiya, no matter what he wants you to think, will do everything he can to help."

"I know."

"Good."

Minato's hand migrates down to right between her shoulder blades and he ushers her towards the living room.

Jiraiya and Kushina look up at them.

"We ready to kick things off, then?" Jiraiya asks.

"Yep," Haruko says, popping the 'p'.

Kushina knits her brows together. "You sure?"

Minato settles down on the couch beside her and a silent conversation passes between the two of them. Whatever happens, it elicits a nod from Kushina and she directs a bright, overzealous smile at Haruko.

Jiraiya gestures to the floor in front of him, where he's sat cross-legged. Haruko obliges.

"This might sting a bit," Jiraiya says, starting to dig through a cloth bag bundled up by his knee. "But you can't fidget. Even though it stings and is probably gonna taste like ass to have ink on your tongue."

"I can manage."

He pauses. Something odd crosses his face, and he says, "Yeah, yeah. I figured you can." He clears his throat. "Okay. I'm ready. You ready, kid?"

Haruko slips her hair back into a ponytail. It almost surprises her when her hair doesn't immediately slip from her fingers, long enough now to properly go into a ponytail. It's grown to brush against her collarbone, now.

She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and nods.

"Alright. Here goes."

A/N: Hahahahahah... hahaha. Wow. A. Whole year. Since I updated this fic. Oof.

I have no idea what happened with that, but, uh. It happened. I've had a doc made for this chapter for months. I think it just fell between the cracks, with how many other fics I've got going on and some other original projects I jumped into last year. Well. Better late than never, hopefully?

I love you guys so much, and for any of you who've stuck it out with this fic, thank you!