Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter 7: When Leaves Mingle

Crazy. That girl. Is crazy.

Minato collapsed on to his bed, still winded from his all-out run from their ANBU chasers after Kushina's little stunt. Using a hand to push away his sweat matted bangs, he attempted to steady his breathing. He was still amazed that they had actually managed to get away. Sure, they had had to hide out in some dumpsters for a while, around which Kushina had made a seal to suppress their chakra signatures, but still. Speaking of which…

The blonde hurriedly rolled off the mattress, unwilling to let the stench that lingered on his clothes and hair infect his bed. It was probably a wasted effort, from the moment of first contact, but it was worth a try.

He thumped onto the floor, and felt content to remain there for the unforeseeable future. Between his rigorous physical training yesterday and his crazy exercise today, he was pretty beat. Sucking in a deep breath, he closed his eyes, ready to pass out. Even thoughts of showering were shoved out of his mind. Blissful unconsciousness lay just ahead…

"Hewww whee, Minato! Did you miss your sensei so much that you forgot to bathe?"

Minato cracked open an eye and sighed at the figure crouched in his window. "Jiraiya-sensei."

"Yo!" The hulking man swung himself in through the open portal and landed lightly on the hardwood floor.

It was a struggle, but Minato somehow managed to raise himself onto his elbows. "Welcome back." His sensei started to make his way through his apartment, and Minato mentally began calculating how many groceries he'd be losing this time.

To his surprise, though, instead of immediately going to his kitchen (and his fridge), Jiraiya went to his bathroom. He heard the sound of running water soon after.

"I was only gone three days, Minato. Hardly enough time to work up that much a stench. What the hell were you doing while I was gone, eh kid?" the man's deep voice rumbled through the door.

"Er…I sort of had to spend some time in a dumpster today."

"…Dare I even ask?"

Steam started to waft through the open frame, making Minato tilt his head in curiosity. Was sensei going to take a shower here? Weird – he had his own place that had functional indoor plumbing, if not any food.

Aloud, he said, "I – uh… had to hide from some ANBU." The tips of his ears turned a little pink with embarrassment.

"Oh? Got into some trouble today?"

"…Maybe?" It technically wasn't him that did the crime, though he was an accomplice…even if unknowingly…

His sensei's reaction caught him off guard, however. "Thank god. I was beginning to worry you were a ninja puppet or something."

"Sensei!"

"What? You've never gotten into trouble before."

"And that's a bad thing?"

The tall man walked back into his bedroom, trailing in wisps of steam. "You're a kid, Minato. It should be impossible." He walked up to him, bent, and picked up his student by the back of his collar, like a mother dog picking up her puppy by its scruff, ignoring his squawks of protests. "Another thing kids should be? Hygienic." Jiraiya returned to the bathroom, load still in hand, and unceremoniously dropped the eleven year old into the tub under the spray of hot water, clothes and all. "Now wash."

The boy groaned, and threw his sopping wet clothes at his sensei's head in retaliation, but in the end closed the curtain and obediently began soaping up his hair. His muscles ached in protest, but the hot water that beat against him soothed some of the soreness.

Through the curtain, Minato could see Jiraiya's shadow as he plucked the wet clothes from his head and hung them on the towel rack to dry. "Now did this 'trouble' happen to involve a little red headed girl?" the sage grinned.

Minato started, and almost slipped right onto his behind. "…Maybe? Why would you think that?"

His sensei shook his head knowingly. "When a man gets in trouble, a women is almost always involved. In any case, your 'trouble' wouldn't have anything to do with the new decorations on the Hokage mountain, would it?"

"…Maybe?" It was becoming his new favorite word. Very un-incriminating. "It's not like I knew what she was going to do!"

Jiraiya roared in laughter. "I like this girl," he decided. "She's got personality. Maybe some will rub off onto you."

"Sensei…"

"Anyway, you do know there wasn't much point in running and hiding right? I mean, she wrote her name up there in big red letters. Literally. And they know where she lives."

The blonde shrugged as he scrubbed hard at his skin, willing the stench off. "It was instinct. What else are you supposed to do when a squad of ANBU are coming right at you?"

"Touché." Minato heard the door click shut, and assumed that his sensei had finally left him to shower in peace and privacy. He sighed and let his shoulders relax, letting the spray of warm water massage his aches away. As he prepared to scrub his hair for the second time – he briefly toyed with the idea of shaving it all off, it would get the smell out quicker – his thoughts wandered back to a certain red head, as they seemed to be doing a lot lately. I do hope she doesn't get into too much trouble…

"I'm home," Kushina called out as she stepped inside, stinky and sweaty but grinning like a fool.

"Kushina-sama, what in the world were you doing today?" Hisoka-baa-san exclaimed, covering her nose with a sleeve.

The girl's smile grew wider, "Well – "

"Kushina." She froze at the voice that interrupted her, and flicked her gaze toward the figure that came to the entrance hall. Her previous mischievous expression melted away, and her face became blank.

"Otou-san (1)," she said, "You're home early." It's not even midnight.

Uzumaki Kentaro sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair, a frown growing on his lips. "About an hour ago, I was called to the Hokage's office. Would you like to know why?"

She crossed her arms. "It's nice to see you again, too. Where's kaa-chan?"

Her father closed his eyes in exasperation. "Answer my question, Kushina."

Kushina pursed her lips. "I think I already know, dattebane. What's your point?"

Kentaro let out another sigh as he opened his eyes to gaze at her disapprovingly. "I thought you had grown out of these idiotic pranks, Kushina. You're a genin already."

She snorted. "I guess that just goes to show how much you know about me and my 'growth', otou-san. Now, I think I'll go ahead to the baths. I'm sure you don't want my stench rubbing off on you, dattebane." She turned on her heel and made to leave, ignoring Hisoka-baa-san's somber look.

"Kushina," her father laid a hand on her shoulder to stop her, but she jerked from his touch. His frown deepened, but he continued, "The Hokage wants to see you. He hinted if you do not go, ANBU will be here to pick you up."

She nodded. "I'll go after I clean up."

His serious eyes softened. "You need to be more careful, kiddo," he told her, and she stiffened at the nickname, "You've graduated the academy, so you're no longer considered a child by the village. Your punishments will reflect that."

"I got it already. Sorry to take you away from your work. You should get back to it." With that, she walked away, leaving her father standing there, watching her go with an unreadable expression on his face.

Stupid otou-san. Don't start pretending like you care now.

"Tell me again why we're meeting this late?" Kahoko asked, leaning against a training post as she picked at her nails. "We don't have a mission, do we? I mean, Jiraiya-sensei just got back right?"

Minato, clean and practically raw, shrugged as he lazily spun a kunai around his finger. "He didn't say."

Borome yawned and stretched from his spot on the ground. "Well, whatever it is, I'm just glad he's back. I don't know how much more I could have taken from that crazy woman."

"Oh? Was Tsunade-hime that fun?" a deep voice chuckled behind them, making the three genin whip around. "I'll be sure to let her know you said that."

"Sensei!" the three of them cried, Borome scrambling up to stand.

"Hello squirts," Jiraiya laughed. His students grinned at him, each reluctantly admitting to themselves that they had missed the big oaf.

Borome's expression, though, soon transformed into one of nervousness. "Uh, sensei…you aren't really going to tell her that we called her crazy, right?"

Kahoko sniffed. "We didn't call her that. You did."

The ash-haired boy shifted from foot to foot. "Oh come on, we're a team, right? Stick together and all that?"

He looked to Minato for help, but the blond just shrugged at him and told him solemnly, "Sorry, I got knocked in the head too many times recently and seemed to have lost some of my memory. Who are you?" Borome gazed at him, aghast, until a moment later when his teammate burst out into laughter, Kahoko and Jiraiya joining him. The latter eyed his favorite student appreciatively after he calmed down. So he had a decent sense of humor after all.

"Okay, okay, all jokes aside, I didn't call this meeting for no reason, you know," the sanin informed them. He reached into his vest and pulled out a few papers. Three to be exact. "Chunin exams are coming up, and you brats are going to be participating."

Kahoko eyed the papers speculatively. None of them were very surprised – they'd known this would be coming eventually. "Aren't you supposed to give us a choice in the matter?"

"Yeah, yeah I know lots of jonin-sensei use this opportunity to test their kids' teamwork and resolve and all that crap, but I don't care. You three have been working together a year now. If you teamwork or your resolve isn't rock solid by this point then you deserve to die in the exams anyway."

"Gee, thanks sensei," Borome remarked sarcastically, but took a sheet anyway. Jiraiya handed the other two to Kahoko and Minato. "How long do we have?"

"Day after tomorrow."

"What?!" he squawked.

"Why do you think I got hime to sub for me? You couldn't afford a break from training."

"And this couldn't wait till morning because…?" Kahoko drawled, tucking her paper into her obi.

The toad sage smirked. "Just because you guys got some training with Tsunade, doesn't mean I'm through with you. We've got a bit of catching up to do. Get ready for an all-nighter kiddos. It'll be good practice anyway."

Borome and Kahoko groaned, while Minato merely sighed and put away the kunai he had been toying with.

"Oh quit complaining and start warming up already. I want five laps around the village…on the walls."

"Hai," the kunoichi and blond responded dully, before taking off. Jiraiya's third student lingered, and sidled up to him nervously.

"Seriously, you aren't going to tell her, right?"

Jiraiya gave a deep-throated laugh and rubbed the top of Borome's head, making him stagger slightly from the force. "Don't worry brat. You might be annoying sometimes but Tsunade-hime's wrath isn't something I'd wish upon anyone. Even snake-face."

Kushina yawned as she finally scrubbed off the last stroke of red paint on the Sandaime's face. She huffed in triumph and tossed aside her bucket and sponge, ignoring the crash and feline yowl she heard from below. Flopping against one of the old geezer's eyes, she sighed and enjoyed the first few rays of sunlight that were peaking over the horizon. Her eyes began to slowly drift shut, the grips of fatigue creeping over her conscience. That's right, she mused, between the nightmare she had had the day previous and her all-nighter today, she hadn't gotten much sleep over the last couple days, had she?

"I was wondering how this got cleaned up so fast. You've been doing this all night?" a voice said from nearby, startling her enough that she almost lost her chakra grip on the statue underneath her. The red head flailed before slapping her hands behind her and pushing herself up, glaring at the figure who sat nonchalantly on their current Hokage's nose.

"Tsume! Are you trying to get me killed?!" she shouted accusatorily at her teammate. The brunette only grinned toothily at her as she stroked the small black dog in her lap.

"Mah, even you're chakra control isn't that bad."

Kushina rolled her eyes. "Gee, thanks. What are you doing here, anyway?"

The Inuzuka shrugged. "I was taking Kuromaru for a morning walk, when we noticed the funky graffiti was suddenly gone." Her grin grew. "Best prank yet, by the way."

Kushina gave a grin of her own. "Well, it wasn't just a prank, you know. I was serious, dattebane."

"Well, sensei will be glad to hear it, if it means you'll finally take training seriously."

"Bah," Kushina scoffed, "It's not that I don't take it seriously, it's just that sensei is so…boring."

Tsume threw her head back in a throaty laugh. "Haha, I guess sensei is pretty tame." They caught each other's eye and laughed together.

"So where have you been, lately, huh? You've been skipping out on our 'team strategy meetings', leaving me alone with Lord Creepy-eyes. Thanks for that." Narrowed eyes were thrown in her direction.

The red head rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "Aha, sorry Tsume. I've just…I've had a lot of things going on, recently."

She scratched under her puppy's chin, making him growl in contentment. "Heh, is pretty boy that demanding?"

Kushina jerked, a flush creeping beneath her cheeks. "Wh-what? No, I'm not talking about Namikaze!"

"Oh really? Because Mikoto-san told me she saw two people running away from a squad of ANBU last night. And you know those darn Uchiha-eyes. See everything, even the hair color of someone a hundred meters away…"

Kushina rolled her eyes. "Yes, I dragged Namikaze with me to…do some art…on the Hokage monument. Though he was a lousy accomplice. But that's not why I've been busy. I've had…family issues." Well, not exactly a lie. Mito-sama was an Uzumaki.

"We know. Sensei told us when you skipped team practice a couple days ago. I just wanted to see how you'd react." She smirked, revealing an intimidating fang. "Well, if you're done here, we can go find Sir Stick-in-the-mud and get some grub. He'd be happy with a make-up session, and might finally stop nagging me to go find you," Tsume rolled her eyes, "Why do we put up with him again?"

Kushina stood up and brushed her knees off. Stretching her arms high, she replied, "Sorry, I can't. I have a training session in a few minutes with Tsunade ba-san."

Tsume's gazed at her wide-eyed. "Tsunade-sama? You're training with her? And what the hell did you just call her?"

The red head twisted her torso until her back popped with a satisfying crack. "Mm. She said she'd help me with my chakra control and chakra chains."

The Inuzuka rubbed her nose and sniffed. "Well, you do need a lot of help with those."

"Oi."

"Alright, alright. I'll hold Mister Stiff-Butt at bay a little longer. But you owe me." A bark. "And Kuromaru. He's been helping, too."

"Thanks Tsume. I'll pay for all the yakiniku you can eat." Another bark. "And I'll make sure to get tons of doggie treats for you too, Kuromaru."

"Seriously though," Tsume said, "What's going on between you and Namikaze. You've got those fan girls rabid. And when an Inuzuka is calling someone that, you know it's bad. You should be careful."

Kushina grinned and curled a bicep. "Please, no fan girl can hold up against the Bloody Habanero."

A sly smirk appeared on Tsume's face. "So the rumors are true?"

Kushina's smile immediately fell, and she took a deep breath. "No, we're comrades. That's all there is to it." With that, she leapt away, leaving her teammate scratching behind her ninken's (2) ear with a doubtful look on her face.

Mops of red and yellow arrived at Training Ground 7 at the same time and immediately collapsed onto the grass. They shifted their heads to peer at each other, panting.

"What's up with you?" asked the red lump.

"Jiraiya-sensei came back last night," was the yellow lump's reply, "You?"

"Tsunade ba-san."

"Ah."

A pause.

"Sanin are insane," they both said simultaneously, causing them to laugh in tandem. They rolled over onto their backs and watched the clouds drift by lazily, just breathing together.

"Why don't we take a break from the jutsu today, Kushina?" Minato said.

"Mm, yeah," she breathed, tucking her hands behind her head. "I'm pretty sure my brain checked out anyway." Tsunade's training had focused more on concentration than anything else.

"Well what do you want to do instead?"

She opened one eye to peer at him, amused. "You really leaving it up to me again, dattebane?"

He sat up, his expression growing nervous. "Uh actually, I have an idea!"

Her other eye opened and both brows rose high on her forehead. "Oh you do, do you? Do share."

Minato rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh…"

Kushina pushed her hands underneath her so that she was sitting up too. "Oh, please, the suspense is killing me. Don't be mean. Share this genius idea from your genius brain."

The blond pursed his lips at her sarcasm, while his brain was, indeed, scrambling for a piece of ingenuity. "We could…uh, get something to eat?" It was the first thing to pop to mind. Probably because he was hungry.

Kushina grinned. She was enjoying this. "That we could. Would you have an idea as to where?"

Minato looked at her incredulously. "You mean, you don't want ramen?"

"I didn't say that. I'm kinda havin' fun watching you try to be decisive." She leaned a cheek on a curled hand. "Who knew the class genius could be so slow."

"Would you stop calling me that?" the boy sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I get it. If I say 'ramen' you're going to call me 'unoriginal' right?"

"I didn't say that either," Kushina's lips twitched to a smirk, giving away Minato's accuracy.

"Fine, dango?"

The red head opened her mouth.

He cut her off. "Okay, boring. Oh I know! There's a new barbecue place that just opened. Let's try that?"

Kushina tapped her chin thoughtfully, while Minato fidgeted, awaiting her verdict. Finally, she shrugged. "Sure, I could use some meat." She hopped stiffly to her feet and began brushing herself off.

After blinking exactly three times, Minato was quick to follow, not daring to voice a single thought, lest he lose his easy way out.

It was Sunday, and still fairly early in the morning, so the village was fairly quiet. Even the market streets only had a few shoppers milling idly about. The lazy atmosphere settled comfortably on the two genin, who took their time making their way to the restaurant.

"So, you've already cleaned everything up?" Minato remarked conversationally.

"Yeah," Kushina lifted her arms and linked her hands behind her head, letting her head rest on them. "Hokage jii-san made me."

"You could've had me help. I was your accomplice, even if I didn't know it."

The red head snorted. "Yeah, but you were a lousy one. You don't deserve the punishment." The way she said it made it seem like that was punishment itself.

"Hey, I helped you with your get away, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but what was the point in that? I got caught anyway."

"Because you wrote your name on it! Literally!"

"See? Your role was pointless." She teased, poking her tongue out.

Minato sighed, wondering how this became an argument in the first place, and why he was even going along with it. Uzumaki Kushina was certainly a force to be reckoned with.

By this point, they had reached the restaurant, hosting a large banner boasting its grand opening. Inside, they were met with the pleasant sounds of light conversation, laughter, and sizzling meat.

"This place seems nice," Minato commented as they waited to be seated.

"Mm," Kushina agreed, stomach growling and eyeing the food on a nearby table with longing.

The blond watched her with amusement. "Haha, for a while I thought you didn't like anything but ramen, Kushina."

She glared at him, lips twisted into a pout. "Ramen is the best, dattebane! But…variety is nice too."

Minato grinned widely.

"ALRIGHT!" Both Minato and Kushina jumped at the loud voice that suddenly broke through the door. "Barbecue here we come!" A bulky boy with long, disheveled brown hair barreled through the doors, almost knocking Minato over.

"Chouza," a calmer, slower voice sighed, and another boy ducked into the restaurant, "Calm down. We don't need to be kicked out before we even eat."

"What, you think we'll be kicked out after we eat?" A third person followed them, chuckling.

"Well, when Chouza cleans them out…" the second boy mumbled.

"Barbecue! Barbecue! Barbecue!" Chouza chanted, ignoring his teammates.

Minato and Kushina blinked, watching the scene with bemusement. Minato tried to place where he had seen them before…especially that name…

It came to him. "Ah!"

His outburst got their attention. The one with black spikey hair's eyes widened with recognition. "Oh, it's you."

Kushina eyed him curiously. "You know them, blondie?"

The other two gave their teammate similar looks. "Yeah, you know him, Shikaku?"

Shikaku sighed. "You guys know him, too."

They blinked, and turned to stare comically hard at Minato, who smiled easily and said, "I was in your class for a little bit, back at the Academy. Right before we graduated."

The blond one snapped his finger and pointed. "Right! Na…Nazekami Miwato right?"

Kushina started cracking up.

Wincing, Minato gently corrected, "Uh, close. It's Namikaze Minato."

The blond rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Oh, oops. Sorry, I'm not too good with names. I'm Yamanaka Inoichi, by the way."

Minato waved him off. "No worries. Nice to actually meet you. This is Uzumaki Kushina." He gestured to his companion, who gave them a casual two finger salute.

"I'm Akimichi Chouza!" the brunette piped up, "And I've heard of you, Kushina-san! The Bloody Red Habanero, right?"

Kushina stiffened, and smirked darkly. "Yeah, that's me. Got a problem with it?" A menacing aura began to surround her, shadows mysteriously developing over her face, making the team take a step back.

"Nope!" Chouza was quick to respond. "Not at all!"

"Good." Her smirk turned into an almost sweet smile, and the boys around her all remained edgy from the sudden switch.

The heavy pause stretched as the boys danced around what to do, before a restaurant worker came up to them. "Party of five, right?"

"Uh, sorry, we came separately," Minato corrected.

"Oh," the woman frowned, "That's too bad. We have a large table free now, but it will still be some time before a smaller table opens up."

Chouza jumped in front of the blond and cried, "Uh what Minato meant is that we arrived separately. We're together! Party of five!" causing the others to blink.

The hostess's eyebrows rose. "Oh?"

Chouza threw a pleading look over his shoulders, making his teammates sigh. Minato looked at Kushina questioningly, and she simply shrugged in response. "Sure," she said.

The woman smiled. "Well, in that case, please follow me."

Decision made, the newly formed dining group followed the hostess to a window-side booth and took their seats. Chouza immediately ordered for them, as no one else had any strong preferences for their meat. The woman turned on the grill in the middle of the table to warm up.

"Sorry about this, Minato-san, Kushina-san," Chouza said when she left, "I'm just so hungry, and this place smells so good…" he sheepishly rubbed his belly.

The red head waved him off. "No worries, I understand. And 'Kushina' is fine, by the way." She shoved Minato's shoulder, sending his head against the window ("Ow…"). "We're all comrades here right? 'Sides, you're all about to watch me eat – you won't want to call me '-san' after that, trust me."

"She's right," Minato staged whispered, earning himself another shove into the window.

"Oh ho?" Chouza huffed, leaning an elbow on the table as he appraised the girl, "You think you can out eat me, Habanero-san?"

Kushina slapped her hand on the wood, meeting the Akimichi directly in the eye. "Damn straight, dattebane."

Inoichi and Shikaku watched their little face off with a mixture of bewilderment and amusement. "She's…interesting." Shikaku drawled.

"Haha, yeah, I guess you can say she's one-of-a-kind," Minato agreed, chuckling slightly.

Inoichi shook his head. "Girls. I'll never get them."

His friend arched an eyebrow. "Even with all the girl gossip you eavesdrop on?"

The Yamanaka flushed slightly, while Minato tilted his head in confusion. "I told you, I get bored at the shop!"

His teammate put an elbow on the table and rested his cheek in his hand, the picture of indifference. "Sure, sure. Well, you won't have much time to be bored now. Man, I can't believe sensei nominated us already."

"If you don't want to participate, Shikaku, you don't have to," Inoichi pointed out.

"Actually," Minato interjected, a little hesitant, "In Konoha, you have to register as a team."

They both looked at him. "What do you mean?" the blond asked.

"You're talking about the chuunin exams right? Registration requires a three-man team."

The Nara eye the younger boy carefully. "Hm, figures. You're signing up, too, huh?"

Before he could respond, Kushina, apparently done with her posturing for their eating contest, poked him in the side. "Sign up for what?"

He rubbed his hand against his abused side. "The chuunin exams."

"Oh, you all are going to participate?" she asked, looking around the table.

"Looks like it," Shikaku grunted. "Man, so troublesome"

Kushina grinned widely. "Well, I guess we'll all see each other again there!"

Minato turned to look wide-eyed at the red-head. "Don't tell me…"

"Mm-hm! Sensei nominated my team, too. " She leaned back against the booth, tucking her arms behind her head. "I don't really get what they are, though. I mean, I know they're supposed to test us if we're ready to be chuunin or something like that, but other than that I don't know anything about them."

Minato was still staring at her. "It's weird that your sensei nominated you. I mean, you guys only just graduated, didn't you?"

Kushina glared. "What are you trying to say, huh? That we're not good enough?"

He immediately raise his hands placatingly. "No! It's just that the exams are supposed to be really dangerous—"

"Great," Shikaku grumbled.

"Oh so you do think I'm not good enough," the girl growled.

"No, I said! I just meant usually teams don't participate until they have a bit more experience—"

"So now you're saying I'm not mature enough?" The aura around her began to grow dark, and Minato scooched back, pressing himself against the wall. Was her hair… floating?

Inoichi laughed. "Uh, Minato, even I know that this is where you shut up, before you shove the foot that's in your mouth even further."

"Maa…Kushina…" he laughed half-heartedly.

"Namikaze…" Her fist clenched, eyes glinting dangerously. "You—"

"Sorry for the wait! Here's your food!" The meat sizzled enticingly as it hit the hot metal. The waitress looked around, noticing the odd expressions around the table, ranging from hungry drooling to disinterest to scared witless. "Um, is everything alright?

Minato's shoulders sagged in relief as Kushina's attention was diverted and her stomach ran up the ladder of priorities. "Nope, everything is fine ba-san! Thank you for the food!" she chirped cheerfully, to several of the boys' disbelief.

"Uh…Minato…hate to break it to you, but your friend is kind of…crazy," Inoichi whispered while Kushina was absorbed in fighting Chouza for the first piece of cooked meat.

His only response was to sigh in agreement.

"Are you sure about this?"

Hiruzen took a breath from his pipe, observing the fairly quiet village below him from atop the hokage tower. The night air was thick with humidity, but the exhaled smoke still curled carelessly in front of the aged and keen face. In the shadows, another figured slouched against the rooftop posts.

Removing the pipe, the Hokage smiled wryly. "Was this not your idea?"

The figure shrugged. "Since when have you ever listened to my suggestions?"

He gave a deep throated chuckle. "There is a first for everything, is there not?"

"I don't know. I feel like you're not treating this with the seriousness it's due."

The Sandaime Hokage's smile quickly faded, and he replaced the pipe back between his lips. "Oh I assure you, I am treating this with utmost seriousness." Releasing another smoky puff into the air, he watched as it dispersed under the moonlight. "As to your question – no I am not sure in the slightest. But it is too late now. Tomorrow we shall begin to see if we made the right decision or not."

"Oi oi, don't try to pin this on me. You're the one who made the decision, old man."

Severity gone, Hiruzen chuckled one more time. "Yes, yes." He turned and walked away from the banister, heading back into the building. As he passed, he patted his companion's shoulder. "We should get some rest. We've have an early start tomorrow."

The younger man pushed himself off the column. "Of course, chichi-ue."

(1) "Otou-san" = father

(2) "ninken" = ninja hound (or I guess puppy, in this case)

(3) "chichi-ue" = a very respectful way of saying "father"

A/N: To those who've been following this story for a while - Uh…hi? *Ducks in shame* I know it's been almost a year. I'm sorry! Junior year kicked my butt. It is summer now, but I'm working plus I'm in the middle of med school applications, so I still can't make many promises on updating schedules. But just know that I have lots of plans for this story and won't be giving it up soon.

To those who are just joining us – welcome! I say this because I KNOW my reader count shot way up after Pyroth Tenka recommended this fic on her latest chapter of Minato's: The Art of Being Dead. Which is a fic of pure awesomeness. I doubt I need to say this, but all y'all need to read it. Seriously.

Anyway, I know not much happened this chapter, but it was a necessary transition/set up chapter. Though let me tell you, writing it was like pulling teeth. Actually. It's a major reason why it took me so long to update. This chapter just did not want to be written. Well at least it's done now right? Things will be picking up, as you can probably tell, very very soon. Which is a lot more exciting to write, which probably means faster updates. Yay!

Many thanks to all those who review! If you would please find it within your kind hearts to leave me another, it'd be greatly appreciated ;)