Title: Broken
Category: Anime/Manga » Naruto
Author: Morgan K'Treva
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T
Genre: Angst/Humor
Published: 10-03-15, Updated: 11-05-16
Chapters: 25, Words: 30,004

Chapter 1: Chapter 1

"Let me go!" Naruto yells as he tries to fight off the white Zutsu, the boiling red chakra I'm pushing to the surface no longer bothering him as I desperately try to get them to let go. In a moment we switch and I try to throw my strength against their hold, but it only tightens as one presses a slip of paper to my forehead, and I roar as I find myself suddenly back within the cage that had held me for so long, the door- open for the last five years chained shut, and my limbs bound and staked to the floor like they had been in Kushina's seal.

I can feel Naruto's struggles weakening in the plant man's arms as the chakra that he had been able to reach all his life - the chakra that had been all but his for the last five years was abruptly bound. I roar and pull at to seals imprisoning me, managing to strain the temporary seal for a moment but unable to snap it. I can feel Naruto slipping into unconsciousness, his body going limp in shock in the plant men's arms. Darkness sweeps over the cage, and I keep straining, trying desperately to free myself of the seal. After some amount of time that I can't count, I rush gasping into Naruto's body as the seal is abruptly snapped, and immediately start squirming frantically, trying to get away from anything - but the chains hold tight, and a man laughs as he stands before me.

"The great Kyuubi, brought low by a mere human," Tobi says darkly before turning and striding backwards. I gasp, but before I can struggle, Naruto pulls me down into the seal with him.

"Kurama," he greets me, his face in the same, serious expression he has worn for the past four years. I want to leave, to go back to the body I share with him and struggle even though -

"Kurama, It's no use. I saw the seal. Neither of us can do anything."

- I know it's useless. "Naruto -"

He stops me with an up held hand, an odd smile playing on his face, and I stop, if only to stare at a sight I haven't seen in four years.

"Don't," he says simply, and I sigh before settling down, and letting him walk towards me. His explanation almost seems slow, but I can already feel an outside force pulling a the seal, unraveling it, taking apart everything that keeps me to this body. In the end, it comes down to two things, the time space fuuinjutsu I had made him study, and chakra.

"What," I breathe, not feeling anything, not seeing or hearing or smelling and thing but Naruto.

"There's only enough chakra as far as I can tell-" he explains, "- to send back one mind, even with the entire ten-tails."

"No," I back away from him, my eyes wide, my stomach roiling as the urge to throw up nearly overwhelms me. "No no no. Naruto-"

"I can't go back, by the time I'm old enough to truly do anything most of the world will be set in it's path," he says, coming closer as I cover my mouth with my hands.

"No," I repeat like a broken recording, blinking back tears before suddenly my temper rises. "No! I won't let you-"

His arms go around me, one tangling in my hair, and the other laying flat against my shoulder blade, his chakra imprinting the seal upon mine through my yukata. The seal is complete before I can protest farther, and his other hand is tangling into my orange hair now as I clutch at him.

"I could bring you back with me if you die," I gasp through the tears. "It was a deal we made with the Shinagami, after we realized that we wouldn't be able to see our father again - our Jinchuuriki belong to us, their souls merge with ours, so we would only be one mind -"

"I have to be alive for the seal to work, Kurama," Naruto says gently, and with far more maturity than he should have, being some uncountable amount of years younger than me.

My chakra is being yanked out now, bit by bit, and I cling to Naruto, releasing my tenuous hold of my form and reverting back into a giant fox and wrapping everything I have around Naruto as he starts to cry out from the pain of extration, trying to stay with him, or leave him - leave him something.

I'm down to my last wisp of chakra, merely a kit on Naruto's lap as he pushes the pain away for a moment, giving me a trembling smile. "Goodbye, Kurama."

Then I'm gone and in the statue and I'm not me - eight times my power fighting against me, trying to subsume me, but I grit my teeth and hold on, Naruto's seal burning and drawing all of the chakra from around us and I'm screaming because a part of my soul was just cut off from me and then his seal is done and it sends out a huge explosion and-

I hear the constant beep of the heart monitor.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

The clock ticking in the background.

Beeptick tickbeeptick. Beeptick tickbeeptick. Beeptick tickbeeptick. Beeptick tickbeeptick.

Foot steps.

Beepchick tickchicktick. Chicktick chickbeeptick. Beepchick tickchicktick. Chicktick cickbeeptick.

They fade, and I sleep.

I open my eyes with a gasp, my reality coming to me in a moment. I instantly gather any chakra I can feel and shap it in a move that had been pounded into instinct in five years and flow gasping into the frail body. I gasp, my eyes flying open as I frantically search for him - for Naruto. A wail breaks me frantic movement, and I turn slowly to look at the baby I had ignored in my panicking. His hair is a bright, sunny yellow, and there are the three scars on his cheeks.

"Naruto?" I whisper, reaching out for him, afraid of any reaction. The small, red face scrunches before he lets out an unintelligible sound, half way between a giggle and a grumble.

Chapter 2: Chapter 2

I draw in a shaky breath as I slowly brush a hand over the baby's hair before I step back and leave. The clone I had made curled up around him, barely fitting in the crib despite his transformation to keep people from being suspicious (age five with his hair cut short to shoulder length, a shade of bright Uzumaki red (infinantly more red than my dark orange), the dark strands before his ears a deep mahogany (a few shades darker than mine), and his light yukata a navy blue that contrasts) as he wrapped an arm around Naruto. I turn, and with one last glance back from the door, I take off to the Uzumaki Mask Temple. I ignore the chaos of the village around me, focused on getting to the Temple. When I get there, I take a moment to appreciate it as it is now; the pillars still brightly painted and unbroken, the roof standing prong above the airy space, and the nine masks of the bijuu in the first three rows.

I carefully grasp the Shinagami's mask and touch it to my face, the eye holes oppressive after after the war - restricting my vision and eliminating the touches of wind on my face. He comes to me in his traditional large white robes, his bushy white hair, and his dark skin. I give him a smile of teeth and fangs as the mask is slid to my lap, perfectly composed in my seiza, and he nods to me, condensing down into what many would consider to be a normal working man, the white kimono gone, and a simple white long sleeve shirt and pair of pants in it's place.

"I assume you wanted something?" he asks softly, his hands cupping to wrap around a tea cup as one appears between.

"Yes," I reply, letting my posture slide as I take the cup he passes me and let it warm my hands. I hum in appreciation when I realize that it's Darjeeling, my favorite. I take a sip before I speak to my old friend again. "That soul you swallowed tonight - I'm claiming him as my jinchuuriki."

"Are you sure?" Shinagami asks in reply, and I nod.

"He'll be good for my littlest one. Seals may be instinctive, but he should see many styles before he makes his own," I say and take a sip of my tea. Shinagami frowns (frowns like he is emotionless, simply copying the motion because he was told to fit in) before turning to the side and pressing a hand to his stomach. He coughs for a moment before a soul slides out of his mouth (slide wasn't the right word, but souls are what makes the energy of everything, and the word doesn't describe the thing either) and floats (again, not the right word- it danced, it cartwheeled, it ran, it did a double hand spring off of thin air) and into my body (making me complete in a way that I haven't been in over nineteen years, with all of my chakra and all of those who I've been sealed into, been part of).

I gasp and throw my head back, letting Minato's knowledge come to me, letting us mingle as jinchuuriki and bijuu did. Memories of Mito bubble up, and the souls that are mine by right stir, troubled by the disturbance. The newest of my almost unwilling collection settles down then, sleeping with the other two. I take a deep breath and let my chin tilt back down to look at Shinagami. "Thank you."

"You have nothing to thank me for," Shinagami replies, taking a sip of his tea. "He is yours by right. And it would be nice if you called me up more often. I've delegated everything off in the years since you last visited, and my secretary's getting annoyed at me because I still stay in my office, which means she has to stay too, even though I won't have to sign anything unless the system needs a complete over hall."

I smile behind my raised tea cup. "I'll come and visit."

Shinagami raises his cup as I settle the mask back into it's place on the wall and let go.

I quickly walk to my mask to trace my fingers over the face before I exit the temple and leap onto the nearest tree, bounding away and searching. All around me is excess chakra that I have left behind while that Sharingan bastard was controlling me, and now I start to do something I haven't been able to do since I was trapped in Mito, I gather all of that excess chakra and I reabsorb it into myself, controlling and tempering the boiling, acidic chakra and letting it join the calm pool of my current chakra. I pull it out of the trees, of the dirt, of the animals, of the humans I walk past on my way back to the hospital.

I slip in with a group of other worried parents asking about their toddlers and infants and children and am taken straight back to the room I woke up in. My clone is still curled protectively around Naruto, and he looks up as I enter the room in the rush of parents and walk straight to him.

"I healed some of the children who wouldn't have made it," he tells me quietly as he shifts in the crib to sit with his back to the short end, Naruto cradled and supported in his lap, and I nod and embrace the clone (weird as it its) to keep up my appearance of a worried parent. Naruto, woken up by the clone's movement, cries, and I quickly grab one of the bottles a harried looking nurse is passing out. and bring it back to the crib, letting the clone's small hand take it and start to feed Naruto.

"I think I'll be a medic then," I whisper into the clone's ear as I wrap my arms around him again and stare down at Naruto over his shoulder. He looks - well, pretty much like any other newborn that I've ever seen, his face still puffy, his skull kind of elongated, eyes tightly closed, limbs held in the fetal position, and mouth sucking eagerly on the warm milk bottle. "After what happened, they can certainly use one."

Another harried looking nurse enters the room and scans it (most likely looking for Naruto), a look of confusion appearing on her face when she doesn't see any babies without caretakers, and she scans the room twice more frantically before turning on her heeling and practically running out the door. I trade glances with my clone before he smirks.

"Better get to making that backstory, sensei," he tells me as he turns back to Naruto to watch him gulp down the last of the milk bottle.

Alright, I forgot this the first time. Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. You know it, I don't own it. That being said, I hope you like it. -Morgan

Chapter 3: Chapter 3

I make up my story in the few hours we have before they start sending people off to different places so they can find out who is missing, or dead, and paint the Uzumaki seal on Naruto at the same time. I smile fondly at Naruto as he giggles under my brush strokes, glad that the birthright that had been denied to him last time would not be withheld this time as I blow on the ink to dry it.

I am one of the rarest of sealers, a master, even among the Uzumaki with their mastery of seals, and I was tired, scared of fighting. My sister and I had been out on a journey to mourn my father's death when Uzushiho was attacked. When I heard that the village had fallen, I was scared. We became nomads, and joined a merchant caravan as protection. I was quite good at it too. I'd planned to stay like that all my life, but my sister, my lovely sister, didn't want that life for her children. She begged me whan she died from an arrow to the back to bring her children to Konoha so that they would have a stable home, so they wouldn't loose sight of what made them Uzumaki. So I came. I won't fight for you, my village is dead. I won't seal for you, my village is dust. But I will gave you my children. Don't abuse my trust.

Quickest way to avoid being suspicious; request a meeting with the leader of the fine village you find yourself in.

My eyes dart around the Hokage's office, drinking in the familiarity of the room that had barely changed overly much since it had been created. Before me, Hiruzen signs a few forms after reading them over, most likely hoping to put me off guard. It doesn't work, instead reminding me of the many peaceful days I had spent lounging in the office of an Uzumaki clan leader as the signed papers to keep their clan running.

I work over my alibi a bit more as the papers rustling send me even deeper into a almost trance like state. I send any amendments to the alibi I make to my clone immediately. Finally, the Hokage looks up with a tired expression on his face when he's completed a pile of paperwork. He rings a bell, and a secretary comes in to take it away as he regards me and smokes on his pipe.

"They're telling me that you claim to be an Uzumaki, Kurama," he says once the secretary is gone, and the door closed. "That those children are your sister's, and that she is dead."

"Yes," I say, turning to look longingly at the door, where I'd been forced to leave the clone with Naruto. "She died two weeks ago. I've been looking after Ryou and Naruto since they were born though. She never brought home a man. Always said she didn't need one as long as I'm around."

Sarutobi's eyes linger on my hair as I cast another glance at the door, paranoid at being apart from my clone - now named Ryou - and Naruto. Then he sighs. "Uzushiho has long been a friend to Konoha, and what kind of friends would we be if we refused you. We will need help though, and to evaluate you-"

"I'll save you the trouble-" I tell him. "I am not loyal to Konoha in any way you need a ninja to be. I am loyal to my village, and my nephews. So long as my nephews are safe here, I will help, but you're not my family, you're not my village."

Hiruzen looks up, most likely startled at my dangerous declaration before his face softens. "I understand. I will be asking for any help you will offer then, because we need as much of it as we can get right now. You can stay at the Uzushiho embassy. The utilities aren't on, but it's still intact, which is better than most of the village can say."

I nod to the Hokage and he waves a hand for the ANBU to open the door, Ryou slamming into me as soon as I'm out of the room. One arm wraps around my leg, while the other one carefully cradles Naruto to his chest as he scans the room.

"I don't feel strong enough," he mummers as he allows me to lift Naruto up. "Especially around Naruto."

"I don't feel strong enough," I murmur back to him as I crouch to allow him to climb onto my back and tie himself on so that he doesn't fall off before I pass him Naruto. Then I walk out of the Hokage's Tower and leap up onto the roofs, running towards the Uzushiho embassy. I squat, and Ryou scrambles to pull himself out of the ropes, and quickly slides off my back.

"I'll make this place inhabitable," he promises as I stand and turn back to the village. I give the clone a weary smile before I start back towards the village, pausing only change out of the orange yukata and into a set if Konoha Jonin standard wear, minus the flak jacket before I fly across the roof tops again and search for collapsed buildings.

A week later . . .

I walk calmly into the Hokage's office despite my inner panic and sit down when Hiruzen motions for me to. Over the past week, I've saved many lives, some of which I'm sure had not when I stayed within my seal the first time. Hiruzen trusts me much more now, enough to tell me about Kushina, and her son. Not that she was a Jinchuriki, but that she was pregnant, and that they couldn't find Naruto. I nod, and act concerned, but I honestly can't regret taking him. Now, I wait as Hiruzen signs another paper before sighing.

"We don't have enough room for all of the orphans," he says, looking over another paper and signing it. "Some of the lesser clans are willing to take in a few children, but none are willing to take enough to make a difference, and out orphanages are overflowing. I'm hoping that you might be willing to take many of them."

"Me?" I ask. "But I'm new to the village!"

"You're new to the village yes, but you are from Uzushiho, a village that was allied with us before it was created," Hiruzen replies as he continues to read and sign papers. "The fact that the seals on the compound let you in tell me this at least."

"You knew about those?" I ask in surprise.

"Yes," Hiruzen replies, looking us with a slight smile. "I am the Hokage after all. I found out after Kushina requested some genin teams to help her clean it up. None of the could enter, and Kushina couldn't do all of the upkeep herself, so she had to move out. I found the seals after when I was looking through the protections that had been put on the compound, but I don't know how they work, and neither did Kushina, so we were never able to do anything about cleaning the compound or the upkeep. I was hoping that since you were a shinobi when Uzushiho fell, you would know what you could do."

"I do," I say, my mind whirling as I think. "But you truly want me to take them in?"

"Yes," Hiruzen replies. "In fact, here."

He shoves a big pile of paperwork at me. "These are our files on all of the orphans. Please take as many as you can. There is paperwork in each folder for adoption, or guardianship, which ever is more convenient. If you need any help, just ask. I will be providing the same amount of money as I normally would to the orphanage to you for each child you take on."

"Alright," I say, overwhelmed as I mindlessly send the paperwork into my pocket dimension. "I should probably meet the children before I decide though, and I'll have to adopt them."

"Alright," Hiruzen says. "Monkey! Take Kurama here to meet all of the orphaned children. They're in shelter number 122."

The ANBU materializes out of the shadows, and with a nod to Sarutobi, we walk out. I pause by Ryou to tell him to take Naruto home before Monkey leads me towards one of the small houses set into the Hokage mountain at a run. We land in front of it, and with a nod, Monkey leaves me. I cautiously open the door, and a loud burst of yelling, screaming, laughing, and crying comes out, making me wince and close it before I cautiously open it again. "Hello?"

A harried looking chunin hurries up to me. "Hello. Are you looking for your child?"

"Um, no," I reply self consciously, tugging at the ends of my black sleeves. "Hokage-sama sent me here to take as many of the orphans as I think I can."

The chunin's eyes widen and he smiles in relief. "Thank god. We have so many children here. How many do you think you can take?"

I look around at all of the children, who are boisterously playing with each other, the older ones chatting, or reading.

"I can most likely take all but the older civilian children," I say absentmindedly, and look back to the chunin to catch him staring at me. "What?"

"That's around a hundred children," the chunin says, and I smile.

"Good. They'll take a long time to seal, but it'll be a good start towards rebuilding," I state, and the chunin stares at me as I sit down promptly on the floor and w\pull out the stack of papers. "Alright, first up is Akiyama Etsuko, child of two clanless ninja, age 6, in the Academy. I'll take her."

I look up at the chunin, who is still staring at me. "Could you bring her to me please?"

I hope you like this chapter! - Morgan

Chapter 4: Chapter 4

In the end, I only manage to take custody of twenty five children in the time before they had to go to bed, because of how long the sealing and paperwork took. The harried chunin had introduced himself as Nakamura Riku somewhere around the fifth child, and when I had introduced myself in turn, his eyes had widened for a moment before he muttered, "I should have known."

All of the children that I'd managed to seal and sign on custody of came with me back to the Uzumaki Embassy, where I immediately realize that I'm going to have to get a bigger space if I want to take are of more children, because even with the hildren that had wanted to sleep together, every bed in the house is full. I grumble to myself as I curl up with Ryou(my clone) and Naruto, but make note of it. Luckily, I hadn't gotten any children too young to go to the Academy yet, so I didn't need any one to watch out for kids other then Naruto yet.

I wake up in the morning on my side, with Ryou tucked into me as a half curled ball, and Naruto safely in his arms. I blink blindly at the bright red that fills my vision, and the pain that I can feel within my soul (my broken broken soul with a piece missing gone lost chopped off lacking wanting and hurting hurting hurting), for a moment before I remember - Naruto (who is gone gone gone my soul ripped from me by the flow of time itself) had sent back in time to save him - to save the world. I remember the pain that had come with the forced separation (after five years of no secrets and being so close that at times I couldn't tell where he ended and I began), and the extraction (the methodical tearing apart of threads that had come to define me). I close my eyes and take a deep breath, my face pressed into Ryou's hair, and my hearing sharp suddenly as I listen for hearts beating, and it find them.

Ryou stirs, and my breath shutters as I dampen my awareness of my hearing and draw it back to just above human levels.

"Uncle?" Ryou asks quietly, hiss arms tightening slightly around Naruto. "What is it?"

"I forgot again," I find myself saying, like I do every morning. Even I can hear the way my voice sounds to lost as I ask, "Why do I always forget?"

"Because it hurts," Ryou replies, like every morning, and I am reminded of how glad I am that I'd learned that not all shadow clones had to be direct copies. After my talk with Shinagami, I had remade Ryou and taken away the memories that made me broken, and mad ehis base form the one he wears now instead of a henge thrown over my image. I sigh as I sit up, and look across my room through what most would find to be dark, at the door. After a moment I slide off the bed and stand, turning to tuck the blankets back around Ryou and Naruto again.

Then I move lightly across the room, shedding my clothes and throwing them into the laundry basket, to the wardrobe and grab one of the standard Konoha ninja uniforms and pull it on, still a little uncomfortable in the pants, but used to the now after a week.

"Where are you going?" calls Ryou as he sits up, his arms carefully supporting Naruto as he begins to wake up.

"I have to make breakfast," I reply as I open the door. "Come out when you're ready."

Ryou make a sound of acknowledgement from behind me as I sliently shut the door and pad towards the kitchen. I flick on the lights, and open the fridge, staring silently for a moment at the food in it that Hiruzen had had one of the ANBU deliver to me before I take out the milk and eggs. I set the milk on the table and the eggs on the counter next to the stove, and after taking a moment to feel utterly lost, I grab two of pans on the rack hanging over the island and set them down on the stove. The frankly enormous pot I place on the back left burner of the stove, and the frying pan I place on the right side of the stove.

I move as if in dream, moving in half remembered steps glimpsed in the early mornings, putting fourteen eggs into the pot, and covering them with water before I let them heat up to a boil. On the right, I crack fourteen more eggs into the frying pan and use a fork to whisk them together and adding a pinch of salt before I turn on the burner and slowly stir the eggs. About half way through, the pot on the left starts to boil, and I quickly cover it and move it to the back burner to cool, setting the timer for 10 minutes. I finish the scrambled eggs and put them on the table just a one of the elder children I adopted yesterday started wandering in.

I pull a stack of plates out from under one of the counter and set them out of the large tables as more of the children wander in and start taking plates and eggs. I start some bacon on the fry pan from the supplies in fridge, and quickly toast some bread using a track Naruto had taught me, setting the slices on the metal bits meant to elevate the pans and pots above the fire. I set the last piece of bacon on one of the plate on the table as the last of the kids I had brought into my care wandered in, Ryou holding Naruto close behind him. I silently hand Ryou the bottle of milk I had made some time during the frantic cooking of the bacon and toast, and he smiles at me as we sit down at the table with the children. I take a moment to look proudly over the sea of reds that now dominate the table, the kids talking and eating together, as they compared their hair.

Eventually, when all of the food is done, I clap my hands, a few times, and the chatter dies down, the kids turning to look at me.

"Good morning," I say, and they all repeat the words back to me. "Now, I know that most of you are in the academy, and I know that this means you are on clean up duty."

I pause as most of them nod. "Well, I'm sorry, but that doesn't stop now. I'll be taking you to your teacher t continue clean up."

I pause for the groan from the kids who were Academy students, before I continue. For those of you who aren't in the Academy yet, you will be coming with me. I have some errands I need to do, and at the end, we're going back to pick up more kids from the shelter."

I smile as the younger kids, and a few of the older kids cheer at the announcement.

"You all have half an hour before we have to go, so spend it wisely. Don't forget to make your beds, if you haven't already," I say, and when all of the kids nod, I smile at them again. "Off you go!"

There's a little cheer, and the kids all stream out of the kitchen talking, and when they're all gone, I slump.

"You did well," Ryou offers as he gently takes the bottle away from Naruto, and offers his hand palm out.

"Thank you," I reply, putting my hand on his and letting the clone draw from my near infinite stores to replenish his own. Ryuo merely smiles, and after around ten minuets, the pull slowly tapers off, and Ryou pulls back, watching as the symbol on his wrist slowly faded. Then he silently handed me Naruto, and went about cleanin the table up, taking all of the egg shells from the hard boiled egg and putting them in a bowl as he gathered up the plates, glasses and silver ware and stacked them on one side of the counter before he pulled over the step stool from the corner and started washing them slowly and methodically. By the time the thirty minutes I had given the kids are up, all of the things we had used were sitting on the drying rack, and Ryou is sitting by me as I just stare at Naruto as he sleeps. I sigh and hand Nartuo back to Ryou and stand.

Before I can do anything though, the door opens and the children are herded in by the eldest child I'd adopted, Aihara Gennai.

I quickly count them up, and reach twenty five just as Gennai comes up to me with a smile.

"Thank you," he says, holding his arms out for a hug, and I blink uncertainly for a moment before I kneel down and hug him, then each of the other kids as they come forward, each saying "thank you".

"Alright, are you ready to go?" I ask once everyone, including Ryou had hugged me, and they all nod, their faces determined. We walk out of the house, past the gates, and towards the Academy. As we walk, I contemplate where I could get more room, and my eyes fall to the Senju compound that is right next to the Uzumaki compound. While not up kept by seals like the Uzumaki clan's embassy, the Senju Compound was kept by regular rotations of genin. An idea slowly starts to form in my mind, and I grimace as my hand comes up to my chest to grasp the necklace Naruto had always worn, and as I in Naruto's body had in turn, only to be met with air.

Still, I think as I throw a glance at the compound that is now behind us. It would be perfect.

After taking five minutes longer than necessary due to the realization halfway up a pile of rubble that the kids couldn't exactly take the routes that I'm used to taking, and several detours to get around all the blocked streets, we arrive at the Academy. All of the students that are students run up to me and cluster around my legs, each making sure that they hugged me before they leave and run to join their classes. I'm left, slightly frazzled, with seven kids other than Ryou, who stands quietly beside me carrying Naruto and a bag with supplies.

"Alright, now we're going to see the Hokage," I say as the group draws closer, and one of the smallest girls hesitantly reaches a hand out to me. I grasp it softly, and am rewarded with a brilliant smile as a boy grabs onto my other hand, and like that, we walk to the Hokage's office and wait in the seating room until he can see me. the two who had grabbed onto me hands don't let go, but I don't mind as I lean forward to tell them stories about history, ones that I had lived through as the listen rapt attention.

I hope you like this chapter! - Morgan

Chapter 5: Chapter 5

I'm ready to pull my hair out with frustration by the time I'm done with all the paperwork, especially because of my clone's memories of the Senju clan compound paperwork (thirty three pages filed in triplicate), but I did manage to adopt, and apply the seal to all of the remaining orphans I had decided on, and I blink wearily as I look up to find the twenty eight younger ones playing with some of the older ones, or sleeping in their cribs.

Riku takes the last sheet of paperwork sympathetically as I stare at the kids, blinking as I realize that some of the kids who had been given the seal in the morning are already being affected, their hair turning into the myriad of reds that Uzumakis are famous for. I groan and rub my eyes, my mind drifting back to what had happened the last time I had brought myself to be part of the Uzumaki clan, the memory of the smell and sound of waves, and the kind red haired girl who had proclaimed herself to be my sister, and promptly started taking care of me. There's a hint of bittersweet to the memory as well, because that time was one where I had returned after they thought I had sacrificed myself for the clan that I had long protected, and there were mutterings from those who remembered about how similar I was to myself.

The seal too swims before my eyes, constantly changing its form from its true form, to its compressed form, to its meaning. The words whispered behind my eyes, the part that pulled red into hair, the part that identified one as an Uzumaki to any seals that wanted to know, and the part that subtly stopped you from killing anyone with the same seal.

I blink and shake myself back to the present as I stand and stretch.

"Alright everyone, I'm done," I call, and promptly regret it when I'm immediately dog piled upon by fifty kids. Ryou stands to the side with Naruto laughing as I struggle under the combined weight of almost half of the children I've adopted. I eventually manage to shove them all off of me. I eventually manage to get them all arranged in some semblance of a formation - falling back on the knowledge I have of the armies that daimyos have, and my ever growing fountain of knowledge about children to get them to fall into an approximately rectangular formation through bribes of candy, and implying that it's a game.

When I have some semblance of order, I start them walking down the hill in their rows, led by the older kids I had adopted yesterday. The youngest kids - the four year olds are each next to one of the twelve or eleven year olds, holding their hand. Ryou walks calmly at the front, the sheet I gave him on where to place every one in his pocket.

I smile and watch them as they leave before I turn to the nineteen kids sleeping in various cribs and small beds throughout the room. I sigh as I contemplate my options before I turn to Riku who is watching my in amusement. Before turning back to all of the kids who had decided to be civilians, an idea forming in my mind.

"Excuse me," I call to the older kids, who are chatting or reading, and they look up. "Would any of you mind helping me carry the kids back to my house? I need help with eighteen of them."

The seventeen and eighteen year olds exchange glances before a bunch step up, one or two at a time, and I smile at them. I direct each one to one of the cots, and pick up the only one year old myself.

"Alright, I'm going this way," I say to the gathered teens and I turn. With a nod to Riku, I walk out of the cave and start towards the Uzumaki Embassy,where the smallest children would be sleeping. By the time we get there, Ryou is directing the last of the kids into their rooms in the Senju compound, and hurries out to help me, still carrying Naruto. With his help, I direct each of the kids who had helped me to a room, putting the youngest children near me, and the older children farther away. When that's done, I give each of them one of the extra cookies I had made and send them back to the shelter.

I carefully set the sleeping child - Tsubasa down in the crib in my room before I groan, stretch, and throw myself onto my bed.

"You alright?" Ryou asks, walking in with Naruto, and I shoot a look at the quiet baby.

"Sort of," I say finally as I sit up. "I'm really bored though, and I'm thinking about making meat clones. I may be able to protect myself, but I'd feel better if something like a papercut doesn't do the equivalent of killing me for a while, especially because I have Naruto to watch over now."

"Just for yourself?" Ryou asks me, gently rocking Naruto as he sits down next to me.

"No," I say, reaching out and carefully taking Naruto. "I'm planning one for you, and for - for chain, seals, Obito slapper, blondie, and Shukaku's priest."

"For me?" Ryou asks, his eyes wide as he watches me rock Naruto. "You realize what that will mean right? I'm not going to be -"

"I know. You're not going to be a clone any more," I say, looking up. "You're going to be what amounts to a Jinchuriki without the consciousness of a bijuu. Kind of like that monk kid would have been."

Ryou eyes me warily for a moment before he sighs.

"What materials are you planning to use?" he asks.

"I was planning to go and exterminate a bandit camp," I say cheerfully. "After all, this is basically like all those times we went and joined the Uzumaki clan, a long term investment. Might as well plan for the long term."

"Alright," Ryou says after a moment, glancing down at Naruto, then at the crib with Tsubasa in the corner. "Leave me another one of you, but alright."

Since we're both just shadow clones with out a flesh body between us, there is no such thing as original, but eventually the one I have consciousness in manages to win the rock paper scissors game, and with a grin at the disgruntled Kurama on the bed, I dart out of the window and into the night.

Chapter 6: Chapter 6

It takes me (a.k.a. the clone you're watching) a day to find the worst bandits in the area, and I promptly unleash my fury upon them. When I'm done, I round up the five young bandits I'd kept alive, and all off the frightened slaves that the bandits had kept, male and female alike watching me with wary eyes. I tell all of the slaves that they are now free, and that they could come with me back to my home if they chose to.

Several of them broke down crying at that, and each of them are immediately surrounded by other former slaves comforting them. In the end, only about five of the slaves want to leave, and I happily give them supplies taken from the bandit's tents. By the time they had decided that, I'd already finished the meat clone technique, and ti makes me feel much more secure. I think some of the former slaves notice the absence of the one bandit from the string of them, but most of them are more intent of making sure they show me the proper respect, even though I've repeatedly assured them that I won't kill them just for that. The four extra bandits I'll need for my . . . Jinchriki? Soul Parts? - what evers are sealed away along with all of the usable supplies from the camp.

It takes all of us three days to get back to Konoha, because of the freed slaves (fifteen over all in the end), and I get them through the village and int the Senju compound without much trouble. The kids (all hundred of them) meet me in the Senju's courtyard after a merge with the clone I left with the children (or is it the clone I sent to get bodies), and I quickly explain to them what had happened to the bewildered and shocked humans behind me. I warn them to be careful because some of the former slaves might not like to be touched before I set them free to meet the former slaves.

I escape the confusion and grab Ryou in the process, giving him just long enough to hand Naruto over to one of the older children (Mita Haruko, I think) before we go back to the deserted Uzumaki Embassy. Ryou watches me unseal the four bandits, and after a moment he places a hand over the eyes of the one closest to him. I can feel his chakra moving, and before my eyes the bandit morphs into Ryou, eyes closed and breathing regular. The shadow clone Ryou looks up and gives me a small smile, and I nod encouragingly. That's all it takes for him to take a deep breath them dissolve into smoke. His clothes fall to the ground when the physical form supporting them is gone. The smoke doesn't dissipate, instead it moves to cover the breathing clone before me. I wait a moment as the smoke sinks into the clone's skin before he flies up right, gasping. Ryou coughs, and I quickly scramble over to him and offer him a cup of water.

He takes it and gulps it down in a moment, turning to cough when he was done before turning and resting his forehead on my shoulder. "I forgot how bad that feels."

"Well, there have to be some drawbacks, or everyone would use this," I reply, gently smoothing Ryou's hair back with one hand, my other arm holding him tight to my chest. "How does it feel to be an individual?"

"Terrible," Ryou wrinkles his nose. "I won't be able to heal nearly as quick, and I can already feel the bugs trying to attack me."

"That's life," I laugh before I turn to the last three bandits as the lie there. "Go back to the kids, you should meet the people I brought back. They're quite nice."

"I know they are," Ryou says, pushing away and pulling off the bandit's now ill-fitting clothes, and pulling his abandoned ones on. "No matter what you say to them, you are quite the Uzumaki. If they weren't nice, you wouldn't have been able to stand them."

"Ha ha," I grumble, my hands already covering one of the bandit's eyes. I can feel Ryou linger for a moment, watching me as my chakra moves, changing the bandit into a form I remember wearing for fifty five years. When I open my eyes to look down on the sleeping form of Uzumaki Mito in her prime, I manage a small smile before I use a small jutsu to pull more water into the cup I had given Ryou. Then I quickly pull the bandit's clothes off of Mito and carefully dress her in a copy of her favorite clothes that I had made some time while in the seal. I quickly do the same for Kushina and Minato. I look between the three sleeping forms on my floor, and honestly it isn't a hard choice to decide who to awaken first.

I settle down with Minato's head in my lap and take a deep breath, sighing it out as I search for the part of myself that is Minato, that comes from him, and I encourage it to all clump together until I have a solid package of chakra and thoughts that are only Minato, and I wave a hand over his body, letting the chakra sink in. Blue eyes blink open, and Minato flies upright with a gasp, coughing a second later. I wrap one of his hands around the cup and he drinks it quickly, his coughing slowly subsiding between the gulps of water until he sinks back to the ground in exhaustion, his eyes fluttering shut for a moment.

"What happened?" he asks after a minute, his voice hoarse. "Shinagami-sama?"

"No," I reply, moving so that I'm sitting again. "I'm . . . Kurama. Uzumaki Kurama by one name. I brought you back."

"Uzumaki, as in the clan that was from Uzushiho?"

"Yes."

"The last thing I remember is . . ." Minato trails off for a moment before bolting upright. "Naruto!"

"Calm down," I say, pushing him down, but he fights against me.

"Where is he?" Minato asks frantically, trying to push me off him.

"Naruto is fine," I say in exasperation, and his struggles die off. "You on the other hand -"

"I'm dead," Minato says, a sense of finality in his tone.

"Not really," I reply, and his eyes shoot open again. "You remember sealing part of the Kyuubi's chakra into Naruto?"

"Yes," he replies hesitantly, but he has the sense not to try to get up. "Well, for a slight moment, you were Kyuubi's Jinchuriki, with all the gifts and horrors that come with that honor. You've studied seals right?"

"Yes," Minato says hesitantly, and I slowly stop pushing to keep him down.

"Do you know what happens to a Jinchuriki's soul, when they loose their bijuu?" I ask, folding my hands in my lap.

"Well, usually, the seal drags the Jinchuriki's soul out with the bijuu. The Uzumaki manage to get around that because they have such strong souls, and can fight their way free," Minato says, a lit to his tone that lets me know that he's quoting someone else.

"That's not entirely true," I say. "You see, it's not the seal that drags the Jinchuriki's soul out, it's the Shinagami. W- the bijuu asked him long ago that if w- they were ever sealed, that they could become one with those they are sealed in," I say. "That Uzumaki survive because they are strong enough to stand the severe chakra depletion that happens when the bijuu and it's chakra are taken away, and because they are the best at keeping some of the chakra that will allow them to join totally once they die. There's also the fact that I- that the Kyuubi has interbred with them without their knowledge many times."

"You're the Kyuubi, aren't you?" Minato asks after a moment, his blue eyes trained on my face, and I nod hesitantly. "So I'm a part of you now."

I nod again, and he brings his hands up to his face to rub his eyes with a groan, before he gasps and tries to sit up again.

"What about Kushina?" he asks, looking at the still form of his wife beside him.

"I have to bring her back too, but she's fine," I say. Tears come to his eyes, but he smiles as he fingers a lock of her hair. I look away for a moment before I turn back, and pull him to his feet. He sways unsteadily for a moment, leaning on me for support. "Come on. This is your first time doing this, so you should sleep."

"Doing what?" he asks, yawning.

"Making a fully accurate clone," I say with a slight smile as I guide him to my bed.

Chapter 7: Chapter 7

It takes me another two days to get both Mito and Kushina into their bodies, and by the end of it I can barely see, my soul hurts so bad. I rub at my chest as I stare at the sun setting from the roof of the Uzumkai embassy and listen to the murmuring of the adults behind me. I may have wanted them to be here, for themselves and for Naruto, but ripping a part of your soul out hurts.

Feet patter, and Ryou sits down next to me. He's no longer holding Naruto, like he used to all the time, Kushina had claimed that job, but with his origins as a clone I made specifically to take care of Naruto, there's a sense of him in the absences. I wrap an arm around him and lay my cheek on his hair as we continue to watch the sunset.

At some point in the last two days I went out to double check the clan seals that one of me had started on while the other was off killing bandits, and I somehow find the time to key in all of the former slaves thta I've brought home as under the Uzumaki's protection before I slap up the seals and make the former Senju Compound a true part of the Uzumaki legacy.

The slaves I had freed were settling in after a visit with the Hokage and a quick check in with Intelligence, and while not split evenly gender wise, or even numbers wise, they had all found someone to share one of the empty Senju houses with, as friends at the very least. While all of them worked with the children under Ryou's instructions (supposedly coming from me), some of them were getting closer to specific kids.

Tsubasa, the only one year old in the group had basically been adopted by Asai Kuzuko, a young woman who had had a miscarriage because of her harsh treatment by the bandits. She seemed determined to care for Tsubasa as the child she never had the chance to have, and I was willing to let her. I blink at the dark sky before me, and sigh, finally pushing myself up.

"Come on," I say as Ryou doesn't move, leaning against my legs. He mutters something and shakes his head. I roll my eyes, and lean down to pick him up. I carefully balance on the slippery roof tiles as I make my way over to the flat part of the roof - and the entrance into the attic. Luckily, I'm already on the flat part of the roof when the voices coming from within the house raise, making me startle. I peer back though the darkness at the roof with a frown before Ryou grumbles something. I sigh and carefully climb down the ladder, into the attic, and close the roof hatch behind me. I turn and walk to the bed - really more of a pile of pillows and blankets I'd liberated from dusty linen closets - and I settle down with Ryou, pulling the blankets over us.

Distantly I can hear Naruto start to cry, and the voices instantly quiet. I sigh as I wrap my arms around Ryou again purposefully listen to the breathing of the children who were sleeping downstairs.

I wake up, and in a breath know what I should do now. I'm going to get Isobu and Shukaku away from the villages that are abusing them. Isobu first because he's being controlled by Tobi, then Shukaku, with his terrible seal. I may just be running away from my Jinchuriki, but if I'm going to do that, I'm going to be helpful. I carefully extract myself from Ryou's arms and make a shadow clone, who crawls back into bed next to Ryou. I quickly pull my hair back up into its high ponytail as well, and tie the ends of the two dark patches of hair hanging over my ears.

I glance at the two for a moment before I'm out of the attic and running.

"And don't forget to ask him to get our stuff!" Kushina calls as I exit the room, and I sigh, but nod before I'm out of her sight. I walk quietly to the hatch leading to the attic, and climb up. Kurama - Kyuubi - hadn't told us where he was sleeping now that we'd taken over his room, but I can feel the Hirashin kunai I'd given Ryou - a split part of his soul a clone he'd created to take care of Naruto - above us, and extrapolated. I climb up the ladder, and look towards the kunai. I pause and frown at the pile of blankets and pillows, guilt welling up.

Of course he's sleeping on blankets and pillows, we kicked him out of his room!

I push the guilt aside though and gently tread towards Ryou and Kurama. Ryou's eyes open as I get closer, and blue eyes watch as I reach out to touch Kurama, only to pause.

"He's a clone," Ryou says quietly, threading his fingers through the dark orange hair, which is out of the ponytail I'd always seen him in. "I'm kind of surprised you noticed. Most don't know the difference."

"It's his chakra," I say, sitting back, and studying the two before me. "It feels different. I had to kow exactly how different chakra would react, and how to imprint upon them when I started putting my Hirashi seal on everything. Otherwise, I could have hurt someone."

"Ah," Ryou states simply, without judgement. "So, why did you come?"

"Well, none of us can go out of the compound," I say, settling into more of a relaxed position. "So we needed someone to get our stuff. And one of the people you found at the bandit camp was asking for money and help finding the market so they could get more food."

"Alright," Ryou replies. "I'll tell him when he walks up. Anything else?"

I hesitate for a moment before I ask my question. "Why did Kurama create a shadow clone?"

"He's running," Ryou states simply. "He's scared of you, and scared of your choices. He wants Naruto to know you, but he's scared that you'll not want Naruto to know him."

"But we're a part of him now," I say, startled. "He has more claim to Naruto than we do because while we are a part of him, we are not a part of Naruto."

Ryou blinks at me, looking slightly startled at my out pouring, before he shakes his head. "He doesn't see the situation that way. He thinks of all of you as separate, and that as his parents, you have better claim than him, a stranger."

It's my turn to be startled, and I blink back at Ryou. "If you're a clone, why do you think so differently?"

Ryou gives me a small smile. "I'm not a perfect clone. I couldn't have taken care of Naruto nearly as well if I was obsessed with him like Kurama. I'm missing about a centuries worth of his knowledge. I don't think of Jinchuriki like he does because I have not had one yet."

"Oh," I say, pondering that.

"Go," Ryou urges softly as the clone stirs. "He'll do as you've asked."

Chapter 8: Chapter 8

I almost want to laugh as I race through the desert, the sun above me and the wind on my skin. The enjoyment is a small thing, but it's a pleasure I have not been allowed for a century, by myself or others.

But I am alone.

And that thought tears apart the fragile joy at the sudden wealth of loneliness bubbles to the surface. I should be here with Sukaku, or one of my other siblings, glorying in the pleasure of living, but instead I'm here alone, running across the sand dunes to save my youngest brother, and it hurts.

I force myself not to think for the next two kilometers, counting each meter as it flies by beneath my feet, before I can return my attention to my previous thoughts.

Shukaku. Held under a seal that forcefully binds his power, painfully packing it away and concentrating it into one human, then not even separating him from the human until they could barely tell themselves apart - well, there's a reason none of us blame him for the sheer wrongness he created in that village. I don't know what would have happened had he been given a chance to recover, given that he he was torn for his Jinchuriki and forced into that wretched statue which barely allows you to think, let alone recover. And I don't know what Gaara did to pacify him in those two ears Naruto was learning from the Sage, so I don't know if that helped, but I'm going to try something, because I don't want to loose (oh father please don't let me loose) my youngest brother.

Father may have told us to watch the humans, but this is my brother, and no matter what Father professes, my youngest brother, and I was unable to protect him. And as for the one who sealed him, well . . . Chiyo should be glad that her "heroic" death gave my Naruto happiness, if only for a little while.

I shake my head slightly as the tall walls around Suna appear in the distance and shift my run slightly. The sand that had been flying up from the force of my running settles far behind me as I keep running, some of my speed sacrificed for stealth. I weave through the sand dunes and try to keep cover for as long as I can, but far before I get near the walls I have to slow down even more to cross the flat plane of sand outside the city.

"Halt!" a shinobi cries as I near the entrance, and I slide to a stop. My eyes are on the man as he looks me over cautiously, no doubt taking in my appearance, the yukata giving me a deceptive fragility. "Get out your identification, and come closer slowly."

I pull out the Konoha identification card Sarutobi had provided me with and silently hand over it over the the guard sitting behind the desk. He examines it as I look around and catch the darkened glint of his partner's drawn kunai in the shadows before the shinobi hands me my card back and pulls out a piece of paper.

He quickly writes my name and information down before looking up. "What is your reason for vising here?"

"Social," I reply, watching as the shinobi writes the information down. "I heard that one of my relatives are here, and I was hoping that I could find them."

"An Uzumaki here?" the guard snorts. "They'd have to be crazy to stay, we don't have the water to support their favored techniques. Length of visit?"

"I should be gone in two days," I say, and the shinobi nods as he writes that information down as well. Then he tears the top sheet off and hands it to me, tucking the second one into the top drawer of his desk. "Keep that sheet, and show it to anyone who asks. If you need to extend your length of stay, please come back here to reregister."

"Alright," I say, tucking the visitation license into my pocket with the Konoha identity card. I walk past the guard as he waves me past, and sigh slightly in relief as I enter the shade between the two sides of the wall. I walk slowly through the two sides of the wall protecting Suna and finally sigh as I step out from between the two sides into a medium-sized plaza. I move slightly off to the side so I can sit down undisturbed. I look around at the people moving and the children playing before I close my eyes and reach out.

My brother is easy to find, my mind leaping to his the moment I reach out, and I have to flinch away at the boiling chakra that lashes out at me.

Whyweren'tyouhereearlier whydidn'tyouprotectme helpmehelpmehelpme youshouldhavebeenhere youpromised YOUPROMISED!

I wince slightly at the words, and again at the human's panic at the surge of killing intent. The children who had been plying in the square all run to their mothers crying. I scramble to my feet and push off the sides of the buildings and leap across the tops. It doesn't take me long to find Shukaku's location after that burst of killing intent, and after about a minute of running, I land carefully on the roof top of the house across from the kazekage's mansion. I can't see Gaara through the window, the shinobi aren't that stupid, but this close, I no longer have to reach out to feel Shukaku's boiling rage, and I don't have to reach out to feel the pain his seal is putting him through despite his attempts to hide it.

I just barely stop myself from reaching out to soothe his pain, and try to comfort myself with the thought that this time at least, he won't have to suffer through thirteen more years. But that just reminds me hat he did have to suffer those thirteen years last time, and I quickly derail that line of thought.

For a while my thoughts are almost blank as I stare at the sun washed sandstone before me, plans floating to the surface like bubbles and popping with a thought. then something occurs to me as I glance up to check the sun's positions. It was three when I arrived, and now the sun's low enough for three hours to have passed. I push myself to my feet and slip over a couple of streets before I slip to the ground and start looking for a hotel to sleep in. My plan calls for the early hours of morning, when nothing but the ANBU are awake, so I'll stay in a room for the rest of the night to add reality to my visit.

Before I leave the street, I send out a burst of affection and comfort to Shukaku. Then I loose myself in the crowd as Shukaku's killer intent slams out, trying to find the gnat annoying it.

Chapter 9: Chapter 9

I slip into through the window and into Kazekage's residence. I glance around quickly to check for guards, there's no chance that I'll be recognized in the form I've taken but you can never be too careful. I take slight note of the sandstorm shutters, but ignore them and quickly scurry towards the door. I run down the corridor, unerringly seeking out my brother. I have to pause and hide several times along the route to avoid guards before I finally slip behind the base of a gourd of water and peer out at the guards standing on either side of the doorway.

This is the trickiest part of my plan, and one that will take the least effort. I reach out to Shukaku, and don't flinch away this time at the anger and pain he sends out, and the killing intent that floods the area suddenly overwhelms the guard's minds enough for me to leap past them and slip past the door before they can blink. I leap forward towards the kit, not stopping my love and affection (in a distant corner of my min, I'm crying because of the anger and pain Shukaku is sending, because it's obvious that he remembers nothing of me but that I was supposed to protect him, and I didn't) as I concentrate and shift

I let the brush slip into my fingers and bring the back of my other hand to my teeth to rip it open, not even trying to open the bottle of ink that I brought with me. Before me Gaara is asleep, and despite my hurry, I'm careful not to disrupt that as I loosen to blankets to get at his neck. I place two fingers on his collar bone and channel my chakra to get his seal to show before I dip the hair thin brush into the blood on the back of my hand, heedless of the fact that the skin underneath had healed carelessly, before I bring it down to the skin of the child before me.

First I carefully create a cage around seal to contain anything that I might do to it and allow me to manipulate it, before I use the rest of the blood on the back of my hand to wipe away the rudimentary seal and leave the old on the edge of the cage. I absently bring my hand back up to my mouth to tear it open with my teeth again, but that action is small in comparison the the many minuscule brush strokes that I have to concentrate on making perfectly. Each one shrinks as I complete it, and a spiral pattern of my people soon becomes evident.

I absently not, about halfway through the process that Shukaku had stopped projecting killing intent, but the thought is soon forgotten in the process. I finish the final swirl, reminiscent of those on my own seal with a sigh, blinking down at the seal before me. I look up at the door bursts open, but before the shinobi there can do anything, I grab Gaara and leap onto the balcony railing, using it to propel myself up to the roof and to run. I lead the ANBU in a merry chase before I manage to loose them in the hospital.

I finally get a good look at Gaara as I smile down at him in a corner of the maternity ward. He giggles, unminding of the blood smeared all over his neck because of the seal, and I smile as I relax against the wall. After a couple of minutes I remember that blood is not normal on most children, and I start looking around for the bathrooms. It only takes me a little while before I find them, and I carefully remove the seal cage and let Gaara's new seal fade back into his skin before I carefully use the provided towels to carefully scrub the blood off of his neck and off the back of my unmarked hand.

I return to my hotel once I'm certain that the ANBU have given up on finding me there with Gaara carefully wrapped up in his blanket once again. I dodge the patrols and slip into my hotel room with a sigh of relief. Gaara luckily remains quiet the whole time, but I'm too afraid of reaching out to Shukaku only for him to send back a burst off massive killing intent and give away our position, so I'm not sure what he's feeling. I tuck him into the bed and check the clock. Luckily, it's early enough for me to take a shower now and leave to go about my business.

I smile thankfull at the mother in the booth selling baby slings as she helps me settle Gaara into one.

"Thank you again!" I say with a smile, and she waves a hand.

"Don't worry. I was glad to, he's such a cute child!" she says, waving at Gaara, and beaming as he waves back at her. You should probably leave now though if you're planning to travel today. The last of the merchant caravans is leaving soon."

I nod and hurry away, glancing up at the still dark sky, but not doubting her words. Most travelers wold try to travel as much as they could before the sun came up so that they could rest during midday while the sun is hottest. Being a ninja, I don't have that particular restriction, but it will look best if I leave at a reasonable time.

The guard behind the one free desk is the one who signed me in yesterday, and he waves me over, an interested look on his face as he realizes that I'm not alone.

"So you found someone," he comments as I hand him the visitation license.

"Yes," I reply, watching as he looks over my copy and starts digging into the file drawer in his desk. "I still have no idea why my relative was here, but they were gone by the time I go here, and I was lucky to find him."

"Interesting," the guard says as he pulls a piece of paper out of the drawer. He carefully lines my paper and the one from the drawer up before he stamps them and hands me my paper back. "Alright, you're good to go."

I give him a nod and start down the canyon in the walls protecting Suna, thankful for the lamps giving just enough light to see by.

Chapter 10: Chapter 10

"I'm back," I say softly as I close the gate of the Uzumaki embassy behind me. Gaara shift slightly in my arms as the chakra rushes around him and greets him like puppy does their master. hen the breath is knocked out of me as suddenly a little body impacts with my legs, many more little bodies crawling on top of me moments later, all of them scolding me or cheering that "Kurama-ji is back!".

I don't manage to say anything until the little bodies start to climb onto my chest, and I manage to speak. "Hey! Careful, I've got a baby here!"

Instantly that kids draw back enough to allow me to sit up. I look around to see a sea of four and five year old children looking at me expectantly, and after a moment, I reluctantly shift Gaara so that his face is more visible in the faint light coming from the lamps on either side of the gate. All of the kids instantly start cooing, even the boys, at the sight of Gaara's face.

"Alright, I think that's enough," an adult voice calls before the kids can say anything, and I look up to see Minato walking towards us. The kids all make diappointed sound, but draw back from me obediently to let Minato kneel down in front of me. "Hello Kurama-sensei, we've missed you."

I blink at the word, then go rigid when Minato's arms go around me a second later.

"What are you doing?" I ask stiffly.

"He's hugging you, silly!" Akiba Ryuu, one of the five year olds, pipes up knowingly.

"I mean - why?"

"Why not?" Minato asks, drawing back, the kids around us nodding at his apparent logic. "So, who have you brought back this time?"

"You make it sound like I make a habit of bringing people back with me whenever I venture out of this place," I grumble, but I easily shift Gaara once again sso that Minato can see him as I look around. "Why are all of you even up this late? It's far past your bed time."

"We're on Kurama duty," Saeki Masaru says, the others nodding along. "We''re here to give you hugs and make sure you aren't alone!"

"So, who is this?" Minato asks, drawing attention back to Gaara before I can come up with a response to that statement.

"This is . . . um," I start before I fumble the introduction as I realize that I probably shouldn't keep using his real name, but my mind refusing to think of another name for the stubborn sand user.

"Someone who needs protection?" Minato asks with a smile, and I seize the opportunity.

"Yes! He wasn't being treated well, so I decided to take him in," I say.

"Alright," Minato says, before he turns to the kids. "Come on now. Kurama's back, so you guys need to go to bed."

This brings up a series of loud protests, but the allow themselves to gently herded back to their rooms. I watch them go, rocking Gaara slightly as I contemplate what had just happened.

"So, do you feel better now?" a child's voice asks, and I turn to see Ryou looking at me, his arms crossed.

"Should I?" I ask, feeling bewildered, and he huffs, his red hair shifting as he shakes his head.

"I swear, that century you spent with jinchuriki has made you even worse at understanding you emotions," he sighs before he extends a hand to me. "Come on. Let's get you to bed."

"Ah- what about the clone?" I ask, letting him pull me up out of the dirt.

"You can get the memories in the morning," Ryou says, his mouth twitching into a smile. "Let's just say that your little group of adoptees have taken to seals marvelously."

"Oh," I say, and suddenly Minato's here again.

"Here, let me have him," Minato says, gesturing to Gaara. I blink before I carefully let him take the child.

"Come on," Ryou says as I watch Minato leave uncertainly, cradling the baby.

He pulls my into the embassy, and into the room I had thought that my jinchuriki had claimed. I blink at the sight of my clone lying sprawled across the bed, his hair unbound, the sight so unusual that it takes a moment for me to realize that he is curled slightly around a red-haired baby.

"Naruto?" I ask, my breath catching at the sight, and Ryou pushes me forward. "Go. It's obvious you didn't get any sleep while you were away."

"But-"

"Sleep."

I wake up with a start as something shifts in my bed and my eyes snap open to find -

The identical eyes of my clone stare back at me, before the both of us glance down at Naruto, who is sleeping between us, and just starting to wake up. He yawns as we watch, revealing two rows of pink gums.

"You're back," the clone says at last, and I nod absently. "I should go then."

Before I can say anything in reply, the clone bursts into smoke and I receive a barrage of memories.

Getting Minato and Kushina's stuff under the guise of Kushina being an Uzumaki and any possessions not willed to someone going to her clan-

Teaching all of the kids their first seal - a healing one so that they can heal them selves should they hurt themselves and can't get to an adult in time even though healing seals are some of the hardest to do-

The kids finding seals that would tell you if something was a clone (though it wouldn't say anything about the meat bag clones) and the way they'd been so proud of themselves when they'd managed to stick it on him, before they realized that he was a cone and demanded to know where he was-

The kids telling the adults, who were immediately worried-

The kids adding Kurama duty to the list of chores and other tasks that needed to be done to keep the Embassy and compound running smoothly with the definition of "Watching out for Kurama - clones and real - and making sure he knows he's loved.", and putting under the essential tasks that always needed to be done, like taking out the trash of washing dishes-

Minato and Kushina practically forcing me back into my bedroom, and leaving Naruto behind with him, saying "You'll do a lot better job of keeping him informed without being too graphic. Besides, we've got some things he shouldn't see."

They then proceeded to disappear into their room, and while the walls weren't too thin, they were thin enough that I could tell what they were doing-

"Kurama!" a kid exclaims as I sit up. "You're back!"

Behind her is a flood as the other hundred kids all try to cram into my bedroom to hug me.

Chapter 11: Chapter 11

Ryou comes in and shoes the kids off an hour after I wake up, and I blink at him as I run fingers through my hair to untangle it.

"So, how have you been?" Ryou asks me, closing the door behind the last of the kids with a careful foot before he moves towards me and places a tray on my lap.

"Fine," I reply, looking down at the breakfast before me. It's nothing much, just some grilled fish, miso soup and white rice. To the side, there's a bottle of milk for Naruto. "Thank you. I feel like I should be taking care of you, but you're taking care of me."

Ryou smiles at me as he sits down next to me careful not to make the tray move, and lifts Naruto out of my arms so that I can eat. He grabs the milk bottle from the tray and starts feeding Naruto as he talks. "You have more emotional problems than I do, and as for technology, most of it is very much like the things we had in Uzushiho. So, who exactly it the child you brought in last night? I felt Shukaku come in."

"Well, that kid is the Kazekage's son," I say after finishing the food in my mouth. Then I frown as suddenly the realization dawns on me. At some point, someone had the brilliant idea of dropping their kids off at my place. Then someone else copied them. And they all left money, so I couldn't really complain.

"Oh no, that's going to increase the number of children coming here by so much," I groan as I set down my chopsticks. None of the kids were Uzumaki, or at the very least, none of them had any seal so they couldn't get into the compound or the embassy. But the fact is that the Senjus, being like the Uchiha, were a very large clan, and when the village was founded, they were given about the same amount of space as the Uchihas on the opposite side of the village. And the Senjus, being very friendly, had not walled in all of their amenities. They'd only walled in everything that was strictly sleeping space, leaving everything else free for non-Senjus to come and spend their money, and leaving many buildings outside of the protection of my seals, free to anyone who wished to come.

While people had stopped going to the Senju district as the Senjus died off, the village still took care of the buildings, and made sure none of the pools went stagnant, even though the water had been turned off. So, there was shelter, there was water, there was food (from the kitchen gardens, which had thrived in the absence of gardeners to produce ludicrously sized fruits and vegetable), and there was fun (in the form of other children).

There was also no way for me to stop them. So I had sighed and set one of the kids who wasn't old enough for the academy out in front of the entrance to Senju land with a bowl and orders to collect compensation.

"You think?" Ryou asks sarcastically, a frown on his face. "Now everyone's going to send their kids here because there's some person who can get pact all of the security of a hidden village and kidnap their leader's child, and their most powerful weapon! Sure it's not like we can guarantee safety, but there will be some people watching the kids, which parents will think is better than nothing."

"Perfect," I grumble. Then I stop as another memory comes to me, and I turn to Ryou again, who's setting the empty milk bottle to the side. "Ryou. I asked you yesterday, but you didn't answer because I came back - what's happening with all of the Uchiha orphans tat keep coming here?"

Ryou blinks at me before me give me a smile. "The Uchiha orphans have apparently decided that they like living in the Senju compound better than in their parents houses, so they've chosen a few houses and started living here."

"And why haven't they been placed with a member of their clan? All of the other clans did it, that's why we don't have any of their orphans," I ask, carefully accepting Naruto back from Ryou.

"Well, Fugaku decided that any orphan old enough to attend the academy is old enough to look out for themselves," Ryou replies as he stands and walks to the door. "You might want to just adopt them too."

"Am I a child magnet or something?" I groan letting my head drop forward. In my arms, Naruto giggles slightly, and I try not to see that as a foreboding sign.

Gaara, with his new name Katashi, fits right in. I'm too frightened of loosing him, and thus loosing my brother to let him live with someone else, so he becomes the third child to stay in the Uzumaki Embassy itself on a permanent basis.

My brother . . . refuses to say or do anything, even when I reach out to him right now. There's almost a sense on anticipation - he's no longer hurting , and he's waiting to learn more about me before he'll form his opinion - it I want to feel hurt, but I can't help but feel guilty instead because I wasn't there. For all I know, he may have forgotten everything from before his Jinchuriki and is now trying to figure out who I am.

Then, a couple of days after I'd gotten back here, Suna reprints their bingo book with the brilliant addition of:

Shapeshifter

Name: Unknown

Village: Unknown

Skills: Assasination, kidnapping, shapeshifting, unknown

Threat level: Highly dangerous

Wanted for: Kidnapping the Kazekage's youngest child

Reward: $40,000,000 ryo

I'm blushing.

Sadly, I was entirely right about people's reaction to the news, and people send their kids to me in droves because where better to put them than on Senju land, with a ton of other kids all protected by a grumpy old Uzumaki.

I think that some of the kids had also caught glimpses of Kushina or Minato because there were also rumors of The Fourth Hokage's Ghost, and The Red Hot Habanero's Ghost.

Chapter 12: Chapter 12

I smile as the flood of Uzumaki children race after Kurama, waving their seals. One of them finally manages to tage him, and there's a collective sense of disappointment that makes me look up.

"He's gone again, isn't he?" I ask.

"Yes," Ryou confirms sitting next to me with the quiet Katashi in his arms.

"It's sad. His immediate response to anything and everything seems to be flight," I observe.

"He fights too," Ryou comments.

"Not if he thinks it will hurt someone he cares about."

The pain surrounds me, not missing an inch or my body, and despite the roaring presence of Isobu's chakra desperately trying to heal

"Yagura," a voice calls as gentle hands shake me, making the general aching sting sharply. I gasp, then moan as the shaking stops for a couple of moments, leaving the sting to fade before that shaking returned.

"Please, just open your eyes," a voice pleades, and I struggle with my eyelids, dragging the weights up long enough to catch a faint glimpse of a concerned set of red eyes framed by orange hair.

"Thank you," the person says, their voice growing distant even as I feel something drape over me, and realize how cold I had been. "Thank you."

I next awaken to the sound of a crackling fire, and open my eyes to look at it trying to get up when I see it, my eyes wide, but I frown and look down when I feel something keeping me from moving, only to find nothing. All that was there was a soft and warm looking sleeping bag.

"You actually awake now?" asks a soft voice barely above the crackling of the fire, making me look up and squint at the indistinct shape hidden by the fire and the heat haze above it.

"Yes," I reply after a second. "Where am I?"

"About fifty miles off the west coast of the Land of Honey," the low voice of the person replies.

"Oh," I reply, uncertain of what to say. "What happened?"

There was a pause before the person on the other side of the fire shifts and walks over to me, crouching so they could look me in they could look my in the eyes.

"What's the last thing you remember, Yagura?" he asks, red eyes concerned, his straight orange hair swaying.

"I- I remember falling asleep after graduating," I reply nervously. "Is this the second test that we're supposed to get?"

The stranger only closes his eyes and shakes his head, settling into a more comfortable looking cross legged position. "Yagura, that ten years ago."

"What?" I whisper, eyes wide as I watch the person in front of me. "What do you mean?"

The person merely shakes his head again, not answering my question as he gently pushes my head back down onto the pillow. "Sleep. I will tell you later."

When I next awaken, I lay there and wait fot the monster to take command of my limbs, for the heart stopping sensation of being totally out of control of myself as the masked man sends my people off to die, to kill each other just as much as they killed their enemies. I'd learned long ago that trying to escape would only lead to blood, the five times I had tried it resulting in the massacre of my family, the killing of my genin team, and three years of the graduating children fighting to the last man alive. After that, I'd stopped trying. The man in the mask always noticed I was awake soon enough.

After waiting for an hour according to my internal clock, I open my eyes in confusion and look around at the stone walls around me, and the open window to the sea that had kept me from suspecting any differences, frowning as I sit up.

The curtain made of what looks to be shells at the far end of the room clinks as someone passes through it, I I turn sharply, swiftly taking in the bright orange hair and red eyes of the person who had entered, and the steam drifting up from the bowl on the tray he's carrying.

"Who are you?" I ask sharply. "And where am?"

The person simply sets the tray down on the bedside table and looks at me for a moment, before sighing.

"What do you remember?" he asks simply, picking up a lap try and setting it over my legs. Then he looks up, catches my glare and sighs. "Fine. I am Uzumaki Kurama, and you are currently in Barae-Mura, one of the fishing villages in the Land of Red Bean Jam."

He sets the bowl of steaming broth onto the lap tray with a spoon next to it as I contemplate his words.

"An Uzumaki?" I finally ask after staring on the broth. "Why did you rescue me? My village destroyed yours."

"Funny," the stranger replied, still watching me with unreadable red eyes. "And here I though most people wanted to live."

He sighs after a moment and drops his head to his hands. A tired voice drifted up, "Just eat the soup Yagura."

That's another question answered. He does know that I am personally the one to order the destruction of his village. Not that I wanted it in the first place. Destroying a whole village in one blow is horrible. I think bitterly as I sip the soup, watching Kurama as he shifts, lifting his head after a couple minutes to watch the sea out the window. But that merely draws up more questions. Why he hasn't killed me yet for one.

I set the bowl back onto the lap tray when I am done, the click of porcelain on wood turning the orange-haired head.

"Do you want more?" he asks, putting the soup bowl back onto the tray and moving the lap tray back to the floor.

"Why did you rescue me?" I press as Kurama stands with the tray, and red eyes study me again.

"What do you remember?" he asks after a moment. "I'll tell you if you tell me."

He turned and walked away as I stare after him. I settle back into the pillows, watching him until he was past the curtain before I turn to the window and watch the sea outside it. I feel strangely empty as I reach for the familiar presence trapped inside me that had been the only friendly company I had had since the man in the mask had made me his puppet.

'Isobu . . .'

Chapter 13: Chapter 13

"What's happened now?" I ask, morbid curiosity stealing over me as I watch people pour into the compound. Genin teams are roaming the streets, and I reflexively pull a strand of my hair forward to check that the seal on the underside of my bracelet is holding.

"Someone kidnapped the Mizukage," Ryou notes.

"Who are they blaming it on?" Kurama asks as he settles down beside me, sharp eyes scanning the crowds. His eyes linger for a moment on the children collecting the fees, but each of them have an orderly line in front of them, Kids coming in and parents leaving after they put some money in the bowls.

"They're blaming it on Suna's shapeshifter. Apparently the guard saw someone leap off a balcony and turn into a bird before they hit the water."

"Good," Kurama mutters.

"I can't believe you shifted into a bird," Ryou says as he watches Kurama stand. "I know Crow hates it when we impinge on his territory."

"Tell me that again when he stops pretending to be a kitsune." Kurama rolls his eyes. "I am a trickster. If I wasn't impinging on his territory, there would be no point! I'm going to go adopt those Uchiha orphans who stay here now. Their elders obviously don't care what happens to them because they haven't even notied that they're missing any of their kids."

"As your legal council, I am obliged to remind you that you need to ask them first!" I call as he heads for the edge of the roof. Kurama looks back, confusion clear, before realization dawns on him and he grins back with teeth a bit too sharp to be called human.

"The chance for friends other than the people they've known all their lives, or isolation. I think I know what most of them will choose!" Kurama yells before he leaps off the roof, his orange hair flying behind him like a banner. I grin because he is following the word of the law, if not the spirit. Them is rather unspecific after all.

I watch crowds for a couple more minute before I ask the question that had been bugging me. "What were you two talking about, with the Crow?"

"Hm?" Ryou looks at me with a frown. Then he shakes his head and smiles. "I forgot. Crow is much like a kitsune, only he is his own god."

"Uzumaki-san," Yagura calls, making me look up from the seal I was absently etching onto a piece of metal. "I remember the masked man. I remember - I remember fighting back and people dying for it."

I look down at the hiate in my hands and sigh, offering it to him. "I remember the ninja united as one, and the world burning despite that. I remember pain, and acceptance. I remember switching bodies as easily as if I were a part of him."

Yagura looks down at the seal etched into the metal plate, then back up at me. I grin slightly at his unease. "Take it. If I'd wanted to kill you, I would not have kidnapped you. This will protect your identity, and let me find you if you need help."

"So you're leaving me?" Yagura asks, carefully taking the metal plate from my hands and letting the cloth drop, his eyes widening as he looks at what I gave him, his hand rising to the metal plate sewn to his shirt. "This is a stomach guard."

"Yes."

"Yes to which part?" Yagura asks looking up, and I smile at the typical ninja suspiciousness.

"To the stomach guard question. I'm hardly going to abandon you after I went to so much trouble," I say, watching as Yagura traces the subtle seals I had embroidered into the cloth while I was waiting for him to wake up. "I was planning to ask you if you wanted to come back with me though. I'm gathering the clan, and once I have enough people, I plan to restart Uzushiho."

"Why are you asking me?" Yagura says, looking up. He hides his insecurity well, but that's a negative emotion, and I can feel it murmuring through his thoughts and wearing away stable thoughts. So I tell him a truth that I think he will understand.

"Who better to rebuild something than the one who destroyed it." I glance momentarily at the lines of kanji I'd gotten from the village herb healer. "What ever your answer, I'm leaving tomorrow. I have work to be done still."

It only takes me 5 hours to cross Amai Bay, Yagura clutching my shoulders tightly at first, but slowly relaxing as the fishermen ignore us and seas stay calm. He can't stop trembling though, and when I tell him we're staying the night here at Mura no Umi. Honestly, I'm surprised he had the strength to last as long as he had. Madara controlled him since his time in the academy if what he remembered was right.

He may be lucid now, but I have no doubt that Isobu's chakra is the only kind in his system. Theoretically, he is strong, yes. His body has fought and his chakra has been used. But for ten years, he has not been in control, utterly dependent on foreign chakra running through his system. His nerves don't remember how to take orders from the conscious part of his brain, and the only reason he can move right now is because of Isobu's chakra running through his system to keep him from collapsing of chakra depletion, and the fact that Isobu is passing his commands from his brain to his nerves. Isobu has also spent the last week frantically rewiring everything without upsetting Yagura's system enough to cause a total collapse.

Isobu . . . hasn't spoken to me either. I have to force myself to think as I wander the store/post office/town hall of the small town. From Isobu's point of view, we haven't talked in what feels like eons. I lashed out at any of my siblings that tried for the longest time, and they soon learned not to, and became preoccupied by their own hurts. I saw them occasionally, sometimes as disasters, and sometimes across the truce table or on the battle field. But we didn't talk.

From my point of view, I still have not talked with Isobu, but I fought a war for five years. Gyuki is the only one of my siblings I had the chance to talk to, and I found myself amused with my younger sibling's antics. I grew used to talking with him - to the awareness of him whenever I reached out, to his ready patience whenever I came home too tired to speak with eyes too old for even one of my years and memories of emotions pounding at me. I cannot feel the positive emotions, and on the battle field, I have to remind myself to breathe because there is no clear space in the miasma. My gift is not a blessing. There is a reason I do not share it with my Jinchuriki like my siblings share their talents, and it's not just because I want to hoard my power.

And I may not have communicated with Isobu, but for a brief moment, I was trapped with him, and I remember the howling. From the outside I hadn't felt it, but as a part of the giant statue, squished and being melted to join with the seething mass of chakra around me I could feel the pure, unaltered pain and grief.

It wasn't as painful with Shukaku because I remember what he was like even before he was sealed into the statue. Isobu . . . I did not meat him, and in the absence of anything familiar he is something to cling to.

I eventually buy a bag of granola mix (almonds, dry oats, dried cherries, and honey)and some water before I climb the stairs up to our room. Yagura is sleeping in the one bed, and I watch his chest rise and fall for a moment before I sigh and sit down on the window sill. I watch the boat move in the water was I rest my head against one of the many panes of glass.

Map being used here is on my site under Naruto. Hope you guys like this!

Chapter 14: Chapter 14

Yagura grows better in the six days it takes us to travel to Kumogakure. I don't always eat myself, but I do make sure that Yagura gets three meals a day of nutritious food. Isobu's chakra is still very prominent in his system, but it is passive now, all of the physical problems fixed. Despite that, Yagura continues to sleep when he can. As far as I can tell, it's because he's in a constant state of exhaustion. Isobu is trying to wean him off of extra chakra, but without it, he isn't producing enough chakra to fill his chakra coils on his own. He won't die any longer without the extra chakra, but he might not wake from the coma taking it away would result in.

For now, it's an easy enough task to stow him away in a cave that B had showed me (telling me a long story about discovering it when he was 30, which is years from now), and to use the papers I forged.

Yugito Ni is currently 14, about a year out of the academy. She's old enough not to need protection any more, but I want to make sure she isn't being treated too badly before I just leave her behind.

I wander around the village with the discrete advertisement for ninja cloth pinned to the side of my shorts. A couple of shinobi stop by me to ask about the cloth, and soon enough I have direction for the academy after I admit that my cloth is meant more for beginners or infiltration missions than for the constant strain of a more adult shinobi. I set myself up outside the academy and lay out the cloth that I swiped from an abandoned Uchiha encampment a couple of centuries ago and sealed away for later use. Yugito should have graduated by now, especially if she has better control than Naruto, but I have a feeling that she'll be here.

I spend the afternoon waiting patiently behind the booth, chatting with anyone who comes to me, and selling a few rolls of cloth. My hunch pays off when Yugito arrives just before the academy lets out. The bell rings, and a stream of kids rushes out of the building, all talking loudly. Yugito waves at a giggling group that separated itself from the min stream of kids to talk to her. She says something, and the girls burst into laughter. One of them turns, spots me, and says something to the group. As one, they cross the street and throng around my booth.

"Vendor-san! What types of cloth do you have?" the one who had spotted me asks, running a hand down a piece of silk I have out on display.

"Well," I start with a smile, " That depends on what you ladies are looking for. That silk you're touching is fine, but not nearly fine enough for a daimyo's court. And if you're looking for more durable materials, I have some cotton with beautiful patterns."

It's been a while since I played this game, but I was able to observe the modern styles of dress through Naruto's eyes, and his pink team mate had been unknowingly quite informative whenever she discussed styles and fabric with her blonde friend during the war. The group of girls leave after a couple of minutes, several swathes of fabric heavier. I smile as they leave.

Yugito seems happy here, and after my rather obvious kidnapping of two village's Jinchuriki, she'll probably be better kept this time around.

I pack up my fabrics as the shadows star to be taller than the objects they imitate and seal everything away. I wander out of the village after I check out at the gates and quickly limb up to where I left Yagura.

"Where were you?" Yagura asks as I round the corner and step into a wider area.

"Kumogakure," I reply as I sit down and quickly heck the food I left out. Some of the carrots are gone, and so are a whole pack of beef jerky and the rest of the bread.

" . . . did you kidnap anyone this time?" Yagura asks.

"No," I reply, grabbing the last pack of beef jerky.

" . . . Isobu says you're trouble."

I go still, but that's all Yagura has to say. He pulls the blanket tighter and closes his eyes.

"There," I say, setting the brush down and flexing my hand. Daichi raises a hand to the side of his neck where the seal is with a look of wonder. It'll take a couple of hours for the red to start showing, but the moment it was completed he was an Uzumaki.

I smile as I watch him hop off the stool I had all of the kids sit on so I could paint the seal on and run over to the door. It hadn't opened to him before without the Uzumaki seal, but now, he cautiously rests his hand on the handle, and pulls the door open. I slump onto the chair myself and rub my eyes. Declaring my intent to do something is all well and good, but the body I have right now isn't as durable as a real body and doing even the twenty seals necessary to give myself a claim on the Uchiha orphans wears me thin.

I don't even have the seemingly unlimited chakra resources I had when I sealed the hundred-something children because I have a meat-bag body now instead of just one made of shadows and clouds.

"I know that Kushina doesn't know that the seal can be used in this way, but you could have asked me you know."

"Mito!" I jump, turning to look at my Jinchuuriki. Mito was my sister the last time I'd been adopted into the clan, and it hurts to look at her. I hadn't had any chice in being called to fight battle against her husband or in being sealed into her, but I remember when she got the letter notifying her that I was missing. She'd been avoiding me since I brought her back.

(Other than hurting when I look at her, I also know things no man should know about their sister. Ever. Especially not from the inside. Also, babies? Women forget it as a coping mechanism, but it really hurts to have one.)

I look away from her quickly, and in doing so, miss the punch that hits my cheek and knocks me off my stool.

"What was that for?" I ask, looking up at her bewildered, a hand on my sore cheek.

"That was for abandoning my and making me think you died you b******!" she yalls at me, her cheeks flushed. Then she drops to her knees and throws her arms around me. "And this is for staying with me the whole time."

"Honestly, Aneki," I mutter after a moment, relaxing into the hug and wrapping my arms around Mito. "I didn't really have a choice in either of those things."

"Humor me," Mito murmurs, her grip tightening. "I thought you were dead for most of my life. Finding out that I sealed you away didn't exactly make me feel better about it."

She draws back after a while, and for a moment we just stare at each other. Then she starts shaking my shoulders. "You baka! What were you thinking giving out a sealing contract that includes yourself! You could have gotten any number of people killed if you disappeared at the wrong moment or in the middle of a sealing or something!"

"I'm sorry!" I yelp.

Chapter 15: Chapter 15

It takes us twelve days to reach Takigakure, home to Fu and my sibling Chomei. We stay a day, but all that does is confirm what some shinobi had told me during one of the breaks in the war. Shubiki is already protecting the baby from any criticism from the villagers, helped by the fact that Chomei was relatively calm, and hadn't escaped from her Jinchuriki before she was sealed into Fu.

We arrive at Konoha after two more days of travel, and I smile down at the village that is now my home. It's been almost three months - ten weeks and two days - since the night the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked them, and there's not much to show that the attack ever happened.

Isobu still hasn't responded to my queries, but he no longer flinches away whenever I try to reach out to him.

Yagura is still constantly tired, but his chakra reserves have grown enough to fill his chakra coils without Isobu's influence in the past few weeks due to a combination of our traveling and his constant quizzing of me on various subjects. His hair is now a rather muted shade of red, a change which had come after he'd started asking about seals and adoption, marriage, and the seal on the stomach guard which hid his identity. A few pointed questions later, and I found myself painting a modified marriage seal into him.

("Why exactly am I doing this?"

"You said that I'm Uzumaki now, right? I should look the part. And besides that, it'll help your identity protection seal."

"You can look the part without joining the clan. You know that from one point of view, you're marrying me, right? I am theoretically married to 21 living people."

". . . Living? Do I want to know how many dead people you're married to?"

"Probably not.")

As of this moment, the two of us are sitting in one of the trees on top of Hokage mountain as I watch Yagura stare at the village below us in amusement.

"You've seen this many people before."

My voice interrupts the mood, and Yagura grits his teeth.

"Leave me to my awe, can't you? I'm not disturbing you."

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm tired, and I want to get home, eat, take a shower -" I sniff my clothes and wrinkle my nose to make my point "- and sleep. My soul has been stretched a lot in the past three weeks, and I really want to sleep right now."

Which reminds me. I talked to him about his eventual future, and he took is surprisingly calmly for a continuously grumpy and pragmatic half-child. Which is to say he went and ranted at the second and third Mizukages.

"Why did you come searching for me again?" Yagura grumbles as we start leaping down Hokage mountain.

"I wasn't about to leave my little brother to suffer under a madman who wants to control the world was I?"

"Ah, yes. That."

"I'm hope!" I call softly as I open the gates to the section of town I sealed off for Uzumakis only.

"Kurama-ji!"

A wave of children comes out of nowhere, but I manage to stay upright this time, prepared for it.

"Hello Ume, Suzu, Shizuka, Minoji," I say, greeting each of the children by name, all of them brightening as I say their name. "And, Eito, Yoko, and Isao, what are the three of you doing here?"

"We're Uzumaki now Kurama-ji! Look!" Yoko says, holding up her hair for me to look at in the darkness. I peer at it closely, and laugh, because her hair is very much that exact shade of brilliant red that the Uzumaki are known for.

"Well then, welcome!"

"Kurama-ji, Kurama-ji, who'd you bring back this time?"

The cry gets the children's attention, and they nod, turning towards me.

"Yeah, they must be important, you were gone for a really long time!"

"Is it another baby like Katashi-chan?"

"Oh! Did you bring some more adults like Sachi-ba?"

"Hey, hey, calm down," I call, suppressing a smile. When the kids are all quiet, I turn and motion for Yagura to come forward. He steps out of the shadows of the gates hesitantly. "Kids, this is Yagura-kun, Yagura-ji to you."

The introduction breaks the silent spell, and the kids swarm over to Yagura. I laugh as I watch him awkwardly talk to them, crouching down so Suzu can whisper into his ear.

"Kyubi no Baka!"

Oops.

"Eh, hello Kushina-chan, you're looking well!"

"You were gone for three weeks!"

"I was alright! I had t check up on the other Jinchuriki!"

"And did you tell me that?"

The kids, distracted from Yagura giggle at my predicament, providing no help at all.

"You would have know if I died! The clone would tell you! Besides, I rescued Yagura!"

Kushina's eyes flick to the side and I cheer silently.

"This isn't over, baka," she hisses at me, and I sigh in relief as she stalks over to Yagura, the children scampering out of her way in a practiced manner as she examines him.

"Too thin. Pale. You need to eat more, and get some sun . . ." she mutters half to herself, pacing around Yagura.

"Come on, she can lecture you in the morning."

"I glance down to see Ryou looking at Kushina with exasperation.

"Come on kids! Kurama's back! Time for bed!"

"Aw," the kids say, but they obediently leave Yagura to Kushina's examination.

"Good night, Kurama-ji," they each say as they file past me and towards the various Senju houses they sleep in.

"Come on," Ryou syas, once all of the kids are back in their houses.

"You can sleep before you absorb the clone."

"Thanks," I say, rubbing at my eyes. "Only, a shower? And food?"

"Shower's ready, and the food will be done when you get out," Ryou says, giving me a half smile. "Don't worry about him - Yagura right? - Kushina will take care of him."

"That's what I'm afraid of," I say, throwing a skeptical glance back just in time to catch Kushina dragging a flailing Yagura towards the main entrance of the embassy. I strip as soon as the door closes and step into the shower with a sigh of relief. Hot water is a blessing, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. After I've washed myself, I just stand there for a moment, letting the hot water pour over me before I turn off the shower with a sigh and start wringing my hair out.

I pull the clean clothes sitting on the counter on, and open the bathroom door. Dinner is a warm beef soups, and once that's done, I practically fall into bed with Naruto Ryou and clone.

I'm asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.

Chapter 16: Chapter 16

The clone pops at sometime around midnight without waking me up, and it takes me a moment to focus on what exactly happened over the long time I was gone. Implications and consequences fill my mind as I rub a lazy hand over my face and stumble towards the bathroom, my other hand supporting Naruto with more care than I'm taking for myself.

In the tree months I've been here, I've changed the word dramatically. Even if I am to die tomorrow, the kids I've adopted are enough to give the Uzumaki clan a good head start. If I don't take any of my Jinchuriki down with me, then Mito and Ryou will heave them too well established to kill long before they are noticed. And beyond that, I just kidnapped Yagura, the Mizukage of the Bloody Mist. With him gone, many of Madara's pawns that were useful under his reign will turn on each other, making it easy for the Revolt to come in and take over. Suna will have a much higher population without Gaara killing them off. Even if the Uchiha Massacre happens again, there are still the twent kids I adopted into the Uzumaki clan. Because of various reasons, it's less likely that they themselves will ever get the Sharingan, but if their children do not become Uzumaki, then they might have the Sharingan. That's not even including what Yagura will do now that he's free.

For better or for worse, the world will be different, and I'm the one that made it that way.

A yell breaks my introspection, and I want to laugh because; "Oi! Ototo! Get your lazy behind out of bed! You're helping me teach the kids some good old fashioned stick seals!" isn't something most people in this day and age would expect of Uzumaki Mito. From what I remember, she didn't have many chances to act out in public, always maintaining her somber face as the Uzumaki representative.

I dry my face off and quickly pull on one of the many generic Konoha uniforms I have. My hair goes up into its ponytail, and I'm out the door to find my sister.

"Yagura-ji! Yuo're from Kiri right? Kiri's an island right?"

"Can you really make coral?"

"Ne, Yagura-ji! Kushina-ba said that you made a lot of people sad. Why'd you do that?"

"Are you really a Jinchuriki like Katashi-chan and Naruto-chan?"

"Can you help me with my clone technique? The instructors keep messing me up whenever they say something because it's always wrong!"

I laugh as I find Mito watching the kids swarm over an uncomfortable looking Yagura. Then one of the kids notices me, and they swarm over with cries of "Kurama-ji!". I kneel down to give them hugs with a laugh. They're careful not to jar Naruto in his sling around my neck. The group today is just the ten-year olds, the Academy students in school and those any younger deemed too young for anything I hadn't already taught.

"Alright, settle down," Mito calls, and the crowd reluctantly does as she asks, a couple of the kids still clinging to my legs though. "Today, we're going to be teaching you how to make a seal that will stick two things together."

"Oh! Oh! Is this how the ninjas walk upside down and sideways?"

"No, this is something different," Mito says as the kids spread with pieces of paper from the cart next to her. "The ninjas just use their chakra to do that."

The kids look disappointed, but they soon forget that as Mito starts drawing the seal on her white board, carefully explaining each part. I watch Yagura, standing in their midst look bewildered, before I motion for him to join me.

"I thought stick seals were hard?' he says softly as he walks away from the crowd with me. "Actually, I thought that we only really know how to seal or explode thigs, and that every other type was too unpredictable."

"Yagura, I think you're forgetting just what clan you got married into. We're the Uzumaki, masters of Seals. Sure most of us concentrate on one area or another, but we know seals. We can do almost anything. Besides, we taught our kids healing seals first."

". . . there are healing seals?"

"You didn't know? Yeah, there are healing seals, they're some of the hardest. About half of our clan were healers because they liked the challenge."

"Half the village?"

"No, just the clan." I frown at him. "Are you alright Yagura?"

"If half your village were healers, then how did you withstand so many attacks? It took two major villages to defeat you!"

"Yagura, you do realize that by healer, I simply meant that half of them specialized in healing. Not every one was able to become a true master, but they were still able to use other seals to fight - Yagura!"

Yagura is clutching his knees and muttering to himself. "Half of them were healers. Their healers fought. How the hell did they not get noticed earlier?"

"Yagura -"

"Kurama, your clan is utterly insane. How did the Senju stand it? They're so uptight!"

"You do realize that you're insulting yourself," I tell him. "And as for the Senju, our healer were half the reason they kept their alliance with us for so long. They were miserable at healing. The only ones who had any talent were always one or two generations away from pure Uzumaki blood. Whay are you so upset about our healers anyways?"

Yagura pauses in his muttering.

"Kurama, you do know how Konoha is the number one village in the medical field?"

"Yeah. That's because Tsunade-chan revised a number of our seals into techniques. She was very good at it, I was so proud that she managed to do so many."

"And you do know how medics are treated outside of Konoha?"

"The other villages aim for the medic first. I always thought that was a bit counter productive, shouldn't you take out the best fighter first? And you never kill them, you just try to kidnap them."

"What do you know about the medics in other villages?"

I frown, trying to see where this is leading."

"Well, I assume that they're something like Kohoha's -"

"We don't have chakra medics! You just told me yourself that most of Konoha's techniques came from Tsunade, and even then, her techniques came from the Uzumaki!"

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. "You guys don't have chakra medics?"

The world turns sideways, and I find myself laughing helplessly.

"You don't have chakra medics!"

"And you had a half a village of them. Can you imagine what will happen if it gets out that we killed of a ton of chakra medics?"

I sober at that.

"Well, it looks like we'll be keeping that a secret. Come on. Let's go tell Mito. If I didn't realize, she might not have either."

Chapter 17: Chapter 17

whydidn'tyouprotectme? youpromised.

I startle, looking up at the child before me.

youpromised. Ishouldknowyou,whoareyou?

The voice is wistful and sad.

Shukaku?

whydidn'tyouprotectme?

"Katashi, will you come here for a moment?" I ask the child sitting in front of me.

I forgot where I can from. I hurt you and ignored you.

Katashi blinks up at me before he takes a couple of wobbling steps towards me and collapses onto my legs. He curls up, and promptly falls asleep.

Ishouldknowyou,whoareyou?

I am Kurama. I am your big brother.

I look up as Yagura hesitantly comes into the room.

Kurama. Bigbrother?

Yes.

amIsafe?

Yes.

The presence fades away.

"I'm sorry," Yaagura says quietly. "I couldn't help hear it."

"Shukaku was projecting," I reply. "Every one heard that."

"Er, everyone?" he asks, looking slightly resigned. I laugh, looking down at Katashi.

"No, not everyone, but all the the bijuu and jinchuuriki," I reply, turning back to the flower I'd been working on before Shukaku interrupted me. It's a flower that had thrived in Uzushiho, and apparently liked the Senju greenhouses as well.

"So we might have to worry about Jinchuriki putting together that Shukaku's jinchuuriki was kidnapped by someone named Kurama? There are still six jinchuuriki out there," Yagura asks, sitting down next to me as I finish the preservation seal on the flower.

"I know that," I note as I set the flower aside and reach for the sprig of Chirito. I smile slightly as I spin it around before I set it down on the low table in front of me. Chirito, is a variation of ironwood that the Uzumaki had gradually modified with seals until the still living plant fit their purpose. As such, I'd been surprised to find it's rather distinctive green and purple flower in the garden. "But as I've told you, Son Goku and Kokuo's jinchuuriki aren't exactly interested in keeping their village up to date. Kiri's in the midst of giant revolution, so anything Utakata says will most likely be forgotten. Fu is too young to remember. And both Yugito and Bee have had training. They'll talk to Matatabi and Gyuki, and respect their wishes."

"Utakata," Yagura murmurs, a frown stealing over his face. He reaches over to take Katashi from my lap. He doesn't say anything as I continue to paint preservation seals onto the plants.

"Naruto!" Bee yells as I turn and stab the white Zetsu behind me in the heart, not pausing as I start to work my way towards Bee. Seals grow from my finger tips and I slap the Zetsu in front of me. I use that hand to vault over him as he collapses, the leaves that sprout out of his chest at my touch burning. I recognize Sakura's pink hair as I duck under another Zetsu and punch him up into the air, and a spiraling ball of air blows the rest of the Zetsu out of my way as I slide towards the downed medic.

I'm not the best at healing with chakra in the way that modern medics heal, but I know more about healing than they do, and I don't need to do things their way. Healing seals flare on one hand and crawl over pale skin as blank chakra practically gushes out of my other hand, brute forcing healing that no human could do as the medic gasps beneath my hand.

"Don't die on me now Sakura-chan," I murmur, blinking tears out of my eyes. Sakura is the last of my class still alive, one of four people left that I knew before this stupid war. But I can already see, even as I try to knit back together her small intestine that she's not going to make it. Her eyes are glassy, even as blood continues to pump out of her. She gasps once more, then is still, and I can practically feel her soul flee from the pain, its last tie removed. The reaper brushes past me, and I can see the two of them for a moment - Sakura's short pink hair, her hand held by the reaper's, before they're gone.

I numbly close her eyes and slip her necklace over her head. There is now only one person I knew before this stupid war.

"Get the hell up!" Bee yells at me, sweeping past in a storm of flashing blades. "We don't have time to wait for back up! We're down to two, just me and you!"

I stand and stand, breathing once, deliberately, before I stab the Zetsu behind me and drag the kunai through his lungs before I spring forward. I drop into my instincts, not thinking, just stabbing and burning and sealing and killing everything that comes towards me.

It takes me a full minute to come to, finally realizing that there is no one left to attack me. I blink at the odd battle field, still unnerved by the way the aftermeth looked after four years, before I start searching through the trees and ashes for supplies.

"You find any tree spawn?" Bee asks, and I shake my head. "Alright then, come on."

We trudge back to camp slowly, taking the long way around just in case. Another hopeless battle lost.

"Naruto!" a bright voice calls as we enter the caves. There's a moment of disorientation as Naruto and I struggle to pull ourselves apart, shared experiences and memories almost tearing before they manage to settle themselves together. It's grown harder and harder for me to distinguish myself from Naruto, he is, after all a part of me. But he needs me, so I cannot simply become knowledge at the back of his mind. There's a fleeting sense of thanks as we go our separate direction, and I open my eyes to the sight of the clear water above me that is the permeable membrane between us, Naruto a flickering shadow against the light of his mind.

"Mirai-chan," Naruto greets the child softly as I curl up. I keep half my attention on him as always, but the rest of it I let drift. Sleep is hard to come, and light, but it's still a blessing.

I twist slightly on the sheets as I wake up. There's the familiar feeling of a child curled up in my arms, and I can feel Naruto as a muted presence in the back of my mind. It is the shift of some thing behind my back that throws me into panic. I leap off the bed and roll to my feet, seals flaring on my left hand and a rasengan formed in my right. I stare at the bed as the heavy weight of hair falling down my back almost makes me stumble. There is a child sitting up and rubbing his eyes who looks much like the form I took as an Uzumaki, only his hair is much more red, and a small red haired baby. Naruto isn't reacting to my emotions, and when I reatch for him, all I recieve is a nebulous feeling of unhappiness and loos of warmth.

"Kurama?" the red haired child asks, yawning halfway through my name. "What are you doing?"

People know my name now, but . . . "Who are you?"

"Kurama?" the child frowns up at me.

"What have you done to Naruto?"

Chapter 18: Chapter 18

I curl up in a corner, sobbing after I shut the door.

Oh, Kitten.

Matatabi flits from side to side in her cage, her two tails lashing.

I don't want to hear from her right now, the words that the drunk shouted at me echoing in my head.

"You killed my mother!"

He'd screamed at me, lunging forward and catching hold of my shirt before I could pull back, stilled as I am by shock. He'd thrust me back against the wall and wrapped his hands against my throat, sour breath washing over me as he started to squeeze.

"Now I'm gonna kill you! See how that feels, demon!"

Kitten. Kitten listen to me. Please, kitten.

"What?" I ask the empty air before I hiccup over a sob. "It's not like I didn't already know that some people would think like that."

Kitten, it's well and truly not your fault. If anything, it's mine -

"Don't go blaming yourself!" I protest. "I've heard the story as many times as I need, and more than enough times t know that it wasn't you."

I bury my face in my knees. "I just want to be alone right now. To think things over."

There was a moment of shared silence as I simply breathe, and think about the damage my predecessor did to the village. Abe Wakana, from what I am told, had once been a very kind man. He had been related to the daimyo (one of his many grandchildren), and when the time can, the daimyo had sent him to us as a sort of peace offering. The nibi was sealed into him as age three, and he grew up in Kumo. Then out of nowhere, he snapped, and started attacking people and setting anything he could on fire. The shinobi managed to hold him off for the two days it took the Raikage to return.

Kitten . . . if you truly want time, I can think of two options.

Matatabi interrupts my train of thought hesitantly.

There are some caves that haven't been found yet. You can go there and think. You'll still have to find food. Or we can go find one of my siblings other than Gyuki.

"Which one?" I sniff. "Aren't they all locked up somewhere? There's no way a village will let me in just to talk to their jinchuuriki. They'd think we were going to rebel."

Honestly kitten, haven't you been reading the bounties?

"Are you sure she's going to meet me?" I ask Saiken nervously as I look around. Blaze country is infamous for its yearly blazes, and the inhabitants that just keep going about their work.

Yes, I'm sure.

Saiken replies patiently.

When I asked her to meet up, she said to meet in our normal place. This is where we met for the last few centuries.

I sigh at Saiken's reasonable answer and return to pacing the edge of the cliff. Water to my right, ten steps to the rock. Water to my left, ten steps to the log. Don't look down into the mist. Don't think about the really long fall.

I look up sharply at the sound of light footsteps other than my own, and watch as a pale, blonde teen steps into the clearing. I shift away from the edge as she moves out of the trees so that I can't be pushed off the edge as easily.

"You're . . . the Nibi's jinchuuriki."

The girl nods too quickly, tugging at the hem of her too large, brown, civilian sweatshirt. "You're the Rokubi's."

I nod in return, though it feels odd to hear Saiken called by his number rather than his name.

Great. We've established that we are who we are. Can you two stop being so skittish now and sit down?

A female voice asks grumpily from the back of my head. I startle, looking around for the source of the voice.

Now, now, Matatabi. These two are ninja. Or have you forgotten how complicated humans are?

Saiken admonishes.

But little one, do sit down.

"Will you tell me we're going to meet now?" Yugito asks as I sink to the ground, her arms wrapped around her knees.

We're going to meet Kurama.

The female voice - Matatabi? the Nibi? - replies smugly, and I frown.

"Kurama? The Kurama the we heard Shukaku talking about a week ago? The one you won't tell me about?" I ask Saiken.

Well, yes.

Saiken replies, sounding faintly embarrassed.

But you can't blame me for not telling you about him. This is probably the first thing I've heard about him in centuries. We've been avoiding him because he was rather cranky after someone important died.

"So, who is he?" Yugito asks.

He's the eldest. Kurama's the Kyubi.

We make our way to what ever destination our biju have in mind rather lazily. Utakata shows me his bubbles, and I show him my fire. Both of us buy several sets of civilian clothes to blend in better. I have my suspicions about where exactly we're going. Somewhere during the second day, Matatabi sends word ahead that we're coming. I've been into the Land of Fire before on a courier mission, so when we reach the road leading to the village my suspicions are confirmed.

"Matatabi, you told me that we weren't going to a village," I grumble as we walk down the road.

Well, how was I to know where Kurama took Shukaku?

Matatabi grumbles.

I thought that if he was going to be stealing a jinchuuriki, he'd have kept them away from a village.

"I wish we weren't playing at civilians," I grumble. "We could have shaved off a day."

"How?" Utakata asks, looking around in fascination.

"The civilian road isn't straight," I explain absently. "It has to curve to avoid mountains and training grounds, and it's also meant to delay any forces coming to attack Konoha. As ninja, we could cut through the training grounds - or at least run down this road."

"Oh," Utakata says, looking thoughtful. Then he tilts his head slightly in the way he always does when he's about the talk to Saiken. "So, when is that help you sent ahead for coming, Matatabi?"

He said that he'd come at nightfall.

Matatabi murmurs.

Chapter 19: Chapter 19

" 'A'a'wa," a voice demands, and I look down to see Katashi tugging on my pants with a determined look.

"Yes?" I ask, rubbing my eyes with the hand not clinging to Kurama.

"A neh hep," he says, his face screwed up as he enunciates carefully. "Mah pepu ai us."

I stare at him in bewilderment.

I think Shukaku asked him to do something.

Isobu says gently as I start to consider that I'm hallucinating.

What do I say? I ask, blinking down at the earnest baby staring up at me as he clings to my pant leg.

Give me a moment.

Isobu says.

"Could you say that again?" I ask Katashi gently, picking him up and setting him down on Kurama's bed. He glances briefly at Kurama but doesn't seem concered much after patting the hand I want back to grasping.

"A neh hep. Mah pepu ai us."

He's saying, "I need help. More people like us."

Isobu says.

I talked to Shukaku. He's . . . not exactly sane, but he's saying that there are two jinchuuriki waiting outside the gates of Konoha somewhere to be let in.

"Thank you," I tell Katashi, and he giggles.

Do you think I should go? I ask, checking Kurama's pulse.

Wake Minato. After that, well . . . you might as well. They wouldn't have come all this way for no reason.

"So, why are you here?" I ask Utakata quietly. We hadn't really talked along the way, but now I try to strike up a conversation for lack of anything better to do. I'm starting to miss my friends now that I've had time to think.

"Things got . . . bad after the Mizukage was taken. There's a civil war being fought between those who were loyal to Yagura, and those who were simply biding their time. As a jinchuuriki, I'm of particular vale to both sides," Utakata starts, picking at his nails. "But, that's not the only reason. My mentor, he tried to unseal Saiken. Once I escaped, I sort of went to the seal to rage at Saiken."

Here he blushes, and I try to image what would have happened if I had tried that with Matatabi.

"Saiken was really nice though, he let me yell at him till I was exhausted. Then he lay out the situation for me and gave me a couple of options I wouldn't have had on my own."

"I think that if I tried that, Matatabi would refuse to talk to me for a month," I reply.

"A month?" Utakata replies, looking a cross between shocked and amused. "I would get a week, but isn't a month a bit harsh?"

"Well it's not like she choose me to be sealed into," I reply. "Honestly, I'm more surprised that she talks to me in the first place."

He's coming.

Matatabi says, making both of us sit up right and focus on the road beneath us. After a minute, a pale shape glides into view through the trees and stops beneath the tree we had hid ourselves on. I glance briefly up at Utakata to see him frowning before I look back down at the figure - just as his purple eyes lock onto me.

"Yagura-sama?" Utakata asks, and the nagging sense of familiarity that I had pushed back is dispelled as I recognize the former Mizukage. I want to plaster myself against the tree at my back as this is the Mizukage who gave mist its bloody moniker. Yagura doesn't do anything threatening though, simply smiles and looks relieved.

"Utakata. I'm glad you're alright."

"This was not what you said would happen," I hiss at Matatabti.

I don't think he'll hurt you kitten. This isn't what I was told either though.

"I'm sorry, did you think Shukaku was going to come?" Yagura asks, and I go pale. "He's rather unequipped to come right now. I appologise if I startled you"

"So he told you to come get us?"

"Well, his jinchuuriki first got my attention, then Isobu went to ask him what he wanted. I can bring you two in now, if you would like."

"Where exactly are you taking us?"

"You don't know - of course, he told me he avoided everyone. We're going to the Uzumaki Clan's compound. Kurama is an Uzumaki, and he wants to rebuild the clan."

"But we destroyed the Uzumaki," Utakata says, looking pale in the little light there was. I frown and tilt my head as somethign starts to nag at me again.

"He knows," Yagura says, tilting his head slightly. "But I'm here."

"Why is your hair red?" I ask, and Yagura blinks, then laughs.

"It's because of the Uzumaki," he replies with a smile. "I told Kurama that if he was going to have me helping out the clan, then I wanted to look the part. He modified the marriage seal, so now he jokes around about me marrying into the clan. I'm not actually married to him though."

"Marriage seal?"

"Look, why don't you two just come on in and get some sleep. I can explain some more in the morning," Yagura says, taking pity on us.

"Matatabi?" I ask quietly.

Go ahead kitten. I've been talking with Isobu. He probably won't kill you, wich is better than I can say about the people in some of those hotels you stay in on missions.

I nod slightly and slide down the tree behind Utakata. Ygura grabs Utakata's wrist, making Utakata go stiff, and examines it.

"Skin and bones. If Kushina were here still here . . ." his voice trails off, and I frown at that as he turns. "Come on you two. There's a smaller gate we can use that's closer to the Uzumaki compound."

Kurama. Kurama. Kurama.

I groan and turn on my side to pull the pillow over my head and block out the sound. There's a slight pause, before it becomes evident that it didn't work, because the voice returns, more enthusiastically and louder than before.

Kurama! Kurama! Kurama! Kurama!

"Go awayyyy," I groan.

Alright, so I am abysmal at authors notes. So, yes I deleted the old chapter 18 on purpose. It didn't make sense, and it was horrible. I just couldn't get that angle to work for me, so I did something different. Thank you Sir Jinx Alot 666, and Lord Geovanni for asking about it. Hope you guys like this chapter! ~ Morgan K'Treva

Chapter 20: Chapter 20

I start awake when Kurama rolls away from me and pulls the pillow over his head.

"Kurama?"

"Go awayyyy," Kurama groans, and I huff out a sound that's half sigh of relief, and half laughter at his words. I reach out to gently shake his arm, and he rolls back towards me. "Stop it."

"Kurama, please," I shake my head. I glance up as I notice the lack of Yagura, but my attention is quickly returned to Kurama as he tries to bat away my hand. Ryou collapsed yesterday, and Kazuko (one of the slaves Kurama rescued, now acting as our go to medic when Kurama can't be found) said that he was dehydrated, and exhausted.

"No, 'ruto," Kurama grumbles, making me freeze. He'd told us about the future eventually, but he was always trying to control his reactions, always watching his words, and I'd never been able to quite see it. "This is my first sleep in forever. Le'me alone."

"Kurama, I'm not Naruto," I sigh, and his breathing stops. Then he explodes out of bed and pins me against the wall, nails sharp against my throat. His eyes widen as he registers who I am, and he backs up, releasing me. I blink after him, the image of a man whose shelter had just been utterly destroyed in the face of a giant storm coming to mind.

"Minato. I apologize," he murmurs, putting a hand to his forehead and swaying slightly. He carefully settles himself down onto his bed. "I am not at my best."

"It's alright," I say, a slight smile on my face. "That's the most life we've seen out of you in days."

"Days?" Kurama asks, looking startled as he pulls his hair over his shoulder to look at.

"You woke up -" I pause to check the time -" four days ago, and you didn't know where you were or who Ryou was. Then you collapsed. Kazuko said that you were pushing yourself too much, trying to do too many things at once, though she couldn't identify all of your symptoms. Ryou said you'd split your soul too fast, stretched it too far . . ."

"Where is he?" Kurama asks, looking around. He's absently pulling fingers through his hair to comb it out. "For that matter, where are Mito and Kushina?"

"Mito had an idea based off what Ryou said. She and Kushina . . . they did something, I'm not entirely sure what, but . . . they aren't breathing anymore."

Kurama looks startled at that.

"What was Ryou talking about?" I ask. "You told us that we were part of your soul."

"Well," Kurama says, looking slightly embarrassed. "I've made beings like Ryou before through various methods, and for various reasons. I can't make too many at once because it takes a part of me to do so. As for the stretching, well . . . my jinchuuriki weren't really disconnected. You three were bound too tightly for me to be able to truly disconnect. You didn't fully answer my question though. Where is Ryou?"

"He collapsed yesterday because he wouldn't stop taking care of you to take care of himself."

"Aren't you going to ask about me?" a voice asks from the doorway, and Kurama turns. His eyes skip right past Yagura, who's leaning against one side of the doorway to land on the blond and brunette teens behind him.

"Yugito, Utakata."

"You're Kurama?"

Kurama's eyes linger on the pair before he stands and starts pulling his hair up into its high ponytail as he walks towards his closet. "I am."

There's an odd silence as Kurama walks behind the screen in front of his closet door. It feels like it should be awkward, but it isn't, and yet because of that it is. It feels like there should be questions, but there aren't, and like we should all be strangers, but I feel more comfortable turning my back on them to watch Kurama than I was ever comfortable with Jiraiya watching. I feel like I know them, like I can absently make breakfast for all of us without thinking, but the moment I ask myself what the breakfast would be, I pull up blank.

"Can I stay with you for a while?" Yugito asks, finally breaking the silence that made my head spin.

"Of course," Kurama replies, the screen before the closet not disguising his actions as he throws the yukata he wore to sleep over it. He emerges a couple of seconds later in the Konoha uniform. "The Uzumaki compound is small, but we can find you a room here if you want. There are parts of the Senju compound that I have blocked off as well if you would rather live by yourself."

"I think I would rather stay here," Utakata says. "Just, not near Yagura please."

"I would as well," Yugito says, and Kurama nods.

"Alright. Yagura, could you show them to a set of rooms far away from yours?"

"Give me a moment. I have to get these shrimps off," Yagura says, and I blink as I look down.

"Kurama!"

"Hello, Kurou, Ume," Kurama says, smiling as he kneels down and spreads his arms out. The two children immediately abandon Yagura and run into Kurama's arms.

"You're awake!" they exclaim, and Yagura turns in the doorway, tugging Yugito and Utakata along behind him.

"Yes I am. Why don't you two go tell the rest of the kids that?"

"But we're supposed to watch you," Ume objects with a frown. "That's the point of Kurama duty!"

"Yes, but Minato has a question, and don't you think that the others will want to know?"

"Alright," Ume says sullenly. "But we'll be back!"

Kurama lets the two of them go, and they dart out the door, Kurou clinging to Ume's sleeve like always.

"So what did you want to ask me?" Kurama asks calmly as he sits down on his bed.

"First, how did you know I had a question?"

"I'm more sensitive to you now that you're the only one connected to me," Kurama replies as I sit down next to him. He fiddles slightly with a strand of hair, then reaches up to his ponytail to let it down.

"That makes sense," I murmur. "So what was that feeling I had about those two Jinchuuriki? Am I more sensitive to you in return?"

"Ah, no," Kurama says, his hands doing something I can't see behind his head. "That comes from being my Jinchuuriki. You feel my comfort and familiarity with them. You actually have felt it before, but the presence of more of my siblings increased the feeling. There are now four of my siblings here, which is twice as many as there were before."

I blink, because this reminds me of something I've heard from the Yamanaka clan about their twins.

"Alright."

Are we almost there yet?

Yes!

You said that the last ten times I asked.

Considering that we've been traveling for the last three months to get here, I was considering us almost there because we only have to go on for another couple days. Now, we should be there in a couple of hours.

Finally! Who are we going to see again?

My father.

I really wish that you would have left the contract here. It would have saved so much time.

Shut up. Do you want to be summoned by anyone who can get their grubby paws on it?

Chapter 21: Chapter 21

"Kurama! Kurama! Look! All of us made it!" the kids gathered around me say, their voices overlapping as each of them tries to shove their shiny new hiate into my face.

"Yes, yes, I can see that," I laugh, letting them surround me. "Are all of you ready to help support the clan?"

"We're going to support the clan?" one of them asks. All of them are older, so they weren't as enthusiastic about the idea of being adopted. Despite that, something seemed to have given them hope because not one of them seems to resent me.

"Yes, you'll be supporting the clan," I reply with a slight smile. "The kids coming into the Senju compound and me can't support us forever."

"We're important."

"Yes you are," I say gently. "You are important."

Mita Haruka was the first of my kids to die while out on her first C rank mission, and while I was sad, I wasn't surprised. Mission ranks are usually very accurate, but we can't account for chance. Haruka's teacher was had a reasonable bounty on her head, and Harkua had died trying to defend her. I was slightly surprised when they managed to identify the nukenin as Kakuzu, but again, their teacher had a bounty on her head so I pushed my suspicions to the side.

Several weeks later, after a few more Uzumaki children had their first C ranks, Gushiken Sora was kidnapped by Orochimaru. Her team reported that he had seemingly come out of nowhere and just grabbed her before beating a quick retreat. The suspicion that had lingered in my mind when Haruka was killed grew stronger. It doesn't help that I'm being asked about a Hatori Ko and Sora, who had entered after claiming to be my relatives. I deny knowing of them and having seen them.

Barely a week passes before two more of my children - Hagane Kotetsu and Kamizuki Izumo - are killed by Sasori, and that is apparently the last straw. I want to go and hunt that stupid organization down, but now, anything an Uzumaki leaves the protection of the seals, they die or are simply gone in minutes, and I find myself desperately trying to guard the children, but I look away for one minute and they're gone.

The adults that I've rescued are gone much faster because we needed them to be around the village to buy food and supplies. I can't watch over them every moment of the day.

Yuugito and Utakata try to help, but whatever is decimating my children seems to consider them fair game, because they disappear off the street along with the children they were guarding.

The Uchiha police are no help at all, declaring this a clan matter and shutting the door in my face.

In days, all children above the age of four are gone, and the whole village knows it. Minato doesn't even try to hide anymore, though he does disguise himself, but even he barely manages to snatch one child back before a group is taken, and any seals he tries to plant on the children, even ones directly on their skin, are somehow neutralized.

We get word from the other villages and from bounties fulfilled that Takigakure's jinchuuriki is missing, B, Han and Roshi's bounties have been collected. Yagura tells me this, pale as he concludes, "Someone else seems to be going after the jinchuuriki."

I nod, having already come to that conclusion myself. "Stay within the seal boundaries. Unless they manage a miracle, you should be safe in here."

They don't manage a miracle, but what happens instead almost makes me wish they had. I startle awake in the middle of the night when the fuinjutsu alerts me to people crossing the boundaries and entering. I walk to the window, rubbing my eyes, and blink out, expecting to see Ryou or Minato sliding in. Instead, I see a horde of dead eyed children covered in cuts and bruises, all of them with hair a shade of red.

Then I recognize them, and I recognize the chakra ensnaring their senses. It was a technique that Tobi had used during the war when ever he could get his hands in living shinobi. He would cast genjutsu after genjutsu, layer medical techniques, and torture till in the end the shinobi was nothing more than a doll that would follow his commands.

But these aren't shinobi, these are children, children I have known for months, children I am responsible for, children, children like Naruto.

I bring my own downfall in the end. There in no way to deprogram a person after Tobi has twisted them this far. But I cannot bring myself to kill these children, and they are relentless. The remaining children are quickly subsumed into the mass, and it's not long before all that is left is myself, Ryou, Minato, Naruto, and Katashi the two babies between the three of us standing back to back. We knock the children out, using sleeping jutsu when we can, and force when we can't, but they just keep coming, climbing over limp bodies to reach us. There's no blood, strangely, but the shocks of red hair lying about make up for that nicely.

In the end, there are simply so many children, and without our limitations they can do far more. Gushiken Sora stares blankly at me as I struggle against the seal placed on me, carrying the mockery of a palanquin ahead. Minato and Ryou's bodies were killed, and I can once again feel the warmth behind my breast bone. I almost cry because loosing someone is not a time to be comforted.

I don't know how long I traveled - at some point, one of my kids comes to the palanquin and injects me with sedative. The next time I am awake, we are underground. My eyes are open in a moment, just in time to see one of the children dart away from me and out of my line of sight. The there's a chuckle.

"Uzumaki. How thoughtful of you to have joined us."

I growl instinctively at the familiar voice, but Tobi only laughs again. There's the near silent of shinobi clothes rustling as he moves into my line of sight and crouches so that we're looking each other in the eyes. "I'll give you my thanks now."

I jerk away, but his clan have practiced this maneuver for decades, and I'd looked longer than the glance that ensnared most shinobi. The last thing I remember is the whirling of his stupidly familiar Mangekyo.

Don't worry. I'm not done with this story. - Morgan K'Treva

Chapter 22: Chapter 22

I blink, and suddenly Naruto's arms are around me, his hand tangled in my hair, and tears are running down my face. I freeze, because this isn't what I'd expected. That doesn't mean it isn't just as painful, and I cling to Naruto.

Then something tugs at my chakra, pulling me away.

"No!" I moan, clutching Naruto's turtleneck tighter.

"Don't worry, you'll see me again," Naruto says, and I sob.

"But I won't. This is an illusion. You're gone."

Then my control snaps, and I revert to the giant chakra fox. I don't stop clinging to Naruto as he grits his teeth against the pain to the extraaction, but I can hear the whimpers that die in his throat, and eventually it's too much. With each tug on my chakra, he cries out, and I shrink.

I'm down to my last wisp of chakra now, and Naruto's arms are huge in comparison, when he pushes away te pain and manages a slight smile. "Goodbye, Kurama."

Then I'm gone again with eight times my power fighting against me screaming, trying to drag me do into their madness and flinching away in fear and the seal on my back is burning and I scream as I am cut off from even the illusion of being connected to Naruto once again and why does this feel so familiar and -

I open my eyes with a gasp just in time to see the Shinigami leaving the cage. I stare blankly, but the Shinigami turns despite my silence.

"You're older than you should be."

"This is the third time I have lived this moment," I reply, unwilling to make the higher power mad.

"Then I will give you that which is yours by right."

I nod in a way I hope is respectful, and the Shinigami turns again to disappear into the whiteness that makes up a newborn's mindscape. A familiar warmth grows behind my breast bone, but I remain numb to the feeling. It's all an illusion anyways.

(I ignore the voice that's trying to remind me of the dichrome color scheme that a Tsukiyomi always uses.)

I curl up on the floor (just white, not hard not soft. Naruto hasn't-) and count the seconds.

There are 60 seconds in a minute. There are 3,600 seconds in an hour. There are 86,400 seconds in a day. There are 259,200 seconds in three days.

I counted every one of them.

Something should have happened. I should have come back to myself, gasping, in the cave. I should have woken up - maybe to see that the world ended, maybe to the pain of being crammed into the stupid statue with all of my siblings.

But there's nothing but the same white, broken only by the bars of my cage.

For a while, I just stare at the cage bars. This isn't a nightmare. For a while, I wonder if I shouldn't just stay in here. Naruto had survived the last time I stayed in the cage, but when I left . . .

The thought makes me shiver, and I make my decision all at once. I throw myself forward and leave most of my chakra behind as I twist through the layers of Naruto's mindscape and shoot out into the physical world. I hover over Naruto for a moment, just absorbing his features for a moment in the way only floating chakra can, before I twist myself around to appear into my pocket dimension. There's a pair of bodies that I'd originally planned on having Shukaku and Isobu use when they trusted me. I eye the pair for a moment before I sink down and mold one of the men's bodies into my own image once again.

I examine the body for a moment, taking in the form that I've worn for thousands of years, before I wave and the body changes once more. My face becomes a little rounder, my eyes slightly larger, the orange hair darkens until all of it is the exact color of fresh blood welling up in a scrape. A set of three black whisker like marks appear on my cheeks. My eyes don't change color though, and I take a moment to just look at the form I've chosen for myself. Then I wave once again, and the body shrinks, deaging before my eyes until all that's left is a baby who is at most a couple of days old.

I dive into the body the moment I'm sure it's perfect and settle into it it. Eyes blink and mouth open involuntarily at the sudden sensations. It's a little hard to think around my body's fright!fright! instincts, but it doesn't take me long to realize that I made a small mistake. I forgot to put myself where I wanted to be found. My body and instincts halt at the sudden felling of disgruntlement, leaving me pouting at the sky.

Honestly.

I sight, and let my chakra seep out to form four sets of arms, two of which support my now very fragile body, and the other two of which push me off the ground. I wobble slightly, not used to moving myself this way, before I manage to twist myself around to reenter the physical world. I blink at the sterile white of the hospital room for a moment before I scuttle over to the nurse's station in the corner of the room. I have no doubt that this, or at least the supplies here wouldn't have been in this room normally, but with the kyuubi attack, they were finding children in the rubble, and they had to label them with where they found them, if not their names.

I carefully set myself down on the counter next to the supply of baby identity bracelets, and it's a moments work to have a blue one and a pen. I hesitate for a moment over names before I remember that one time in a alternate universe. I quickly write down the name and snap the bracelet around my wrist before I use the arms to walk me over to be basket where Naruto is and set myself down next to him. I look at Naruto for a moment, taking in his blond hair before I use my chakra to imprint the Uzumaki seal. I let the arms retreat.

Then I sleep.

Chapter 23: Chapter 23

"And make sure that the food from bunker 4 is distributed," Hiruzen snaps, the two ninja in front of him saluting and leaving in a swirl of leaves.

"Hokage-sama, we might have a situation," a young female voice says. Hiruzen stiffens slightly. It's a given now that Hiruzen is the Hokage after four days without Minato, but it is still something that he never wished to be called again.

"What is it?" he asks the nurse, turning to see he holding a pair of red-haired babies.

"Hokage-sama, according to their identification bracelets, the child in my right arm is Uzumaki Naruto. The child you told me to watch over was blone, not red-haired, and had a set of whisker like birthmarks ," the nurse says, offering him the child in her right arm. He carefully picks up the child, and the nurse shifts the other child so that she can support him better. "In addition, this child appeared overnight in the same crib. The ID bracelet claims that his name is Uzumaki Menma, and gives no further information."

Hiruzen frowns, then pulls up Naruto's shirt. Jiriaya had mentioned the technique for revealing a passive seal when he'd arrived earlier that morning and heard of Naruto. He had been intending to check if the method worked later. He carefully runs a finger lightly over the baby's skin, chakra licking out and sliding beneath the baby's skin. A black seal that he had seen Minato working on many times as he worried over Kushina appears on the child's skin, fading slightly where the chakra is thin.

Hiruzen silently pulls Naruto's shirt down and exchanges babies with the silent nurse. He pulls "Menma"'s shirt up and lets fingers drift. He almost leaps up when grey lines appear all over "Menma"'s body, and it takes him a moment to recognize the lines as being the same ones on Naruto.

"You can put them back," he instructs the nurse after a moment, a frown stealing across his face. "However, keep a close eye on them."

Life as a baby is far less glamorous than it is sometimes made out to be. Other than trying to figure out exactly why the family seal changed Naruto differently this time, listening to the ANBU who are taking care of us talk about classified missions, and thinking, there isn't really much to do.

The first year of it, I spend copying everything Naruto did, and crying every time I couldn't see or feel him. Naruto always started crying in response to me, so the ANBU quickly learned to keep us together if they didn't want two loudly screaming and sobbing babies. We see Jiraiya a few times in the beginning, but by the time Naruto's first birthday has come, we haven't seen him in six months

The second year of life as a baby (or toddler. Whatever.) is much the same as the first year, only with the addition of following my little Jinchuuriki around. I still scream just as shrilly the moment I can't see or feel Naruto. Dog, who hadn't really been around last year, starts to show up and take care of us. He takes us outside more than our old caretaker did.

My third year of life as Naruto's brother is the first time I actually try to change much. The Hyuuga Affair, where Kumo tries to kidnap Hinata, I show up and take pictures of everything before I leave the camera on Sarutobi's desk. With the proof, no matter how dubious, of their ambassador's attempted betrayal of the newly signed contract, Kumo is forced to retract their demands for Hiashi's head.

When we're four, Naruto and I are put in a normal orphanage, and I immediately hate it. I hadn't realized how used to the citizens liking, or at least accepting, or even not knowing who Naruto was, and I try to growl at every person who glares at Naruto. Some time in Feburary, I snap. I go into the woods, and I come back with a fox kit old enough to make its own decisions who is willing to be glared at.

When I come back, Naruto is panicking and trying to fight his way out of the orphanage. The orphan workers trying to hold him back let go of him when they see me, and he sprints into my open arms, knocking me off my feet. He's shaking in my arms as I hug him, and I can barely make out the reasons that he's so scared. This is the first time I've left him alone, and he doesn't know how to handle it. I hug him back tightly, and don't let go. I let him touch me, hands roaming as he tries to reassure himself that I'm here, that I didn't leave him forever as some of the other children had taunted. The kit waits patiently until Naruto lets me up, though Naruto refuses to let go of my wrist. I introduce the kit; Yoko, to Naruto.

While we're five, Itachi is allowed to enter the chunin exams by himself, and there's a sort of delighted murmuring among those politically minded when he wins, and becomes a chunin. We are also allowed to enter the Ninja Academy that year, two years before the rest out our year-mates, and while I have no intention of becoming a ninja and tying myself to the village, I follow Naruto when he signs up.

On top of that, Naruto and I are given our own apartment. I guess it finally became apparent that we weren't getting satisfactory care at the orphanage when I fainted from lack of food in the middle of endurance training at the Academy. Naruto was extremely worried when I collapsed between one step and the next, and even more worried when he realized exactly how little I was eating when he went to get our dinners that night. Sometimes, in the apartment, we arrive home to find our fridge stocked with fresh foods and a variety of pre-made dinners. I always eye Yoko whenever that happens, but she always denies it.

(I don't believe her denials, we always get more food whenever we're just about to run out. The ANBU don't really care to monitor our food, or they would have taken us from the orphanage long ago.. Whatever the case, Naruto has much a healthier taste in food this time around. Food like Inarizushi. I'm a little sad that he won't meet the nice old man this time around, but he's already much taller than he had been last time around.)

At six, they start teaching us about chakra and how to use it. The teacher is one of those who can't bring themselves to stop hating Naruto and I, despite the logic of the Third's explanation of Minato's seal, and while he doesn't hate us enough to sabotage the learning of the class as a whole, learning to use chakra is a very personal process which usually requires hands on experience with a person who knows hoe to use it in order to call out your chakra. He can very easily not help us, and claim to not have noticed us or to not have time to help us in addition to all of the other children.

Luckily, I know how to use chakra, and I've helped others gain access to their chakra before, so I can help Naruto learn to use his chakra. When Naruto asks how I know how to do this when he has so much trouble with it, I pass it off as learning somethings faster. Truth to be told, Naruto learns how to use his chakra faster than any other child I've ever seen.

Chapter 24: Chapter 24

I smile slightly at Naruto's sleeping face, and brush his cheek lightly with the back of my knuckles. Yoko is curled up between us under the blankets, lazily waking up, and Naruto's arm drapes lightly over her to grab at my shirt. This year is important for many reasons. It's the first year that Iruka, the man that Naruto had once loved so, would be teaching. It's the first year that others Naruto's age will be joining the Academy, is at two levels below us. And sometime during this year, the Uchiha massacre will happen.

I still don't know what I want to do about it. I hate the murderous, lying, controlling, bastard Uchiha, but at the same time there are leftover feelings that linger from the many times that Naruto and I were as one in the battles, and I know what it is to like if not love one. And I also feel guilty about the many people I condemned to death my not reeling in the extra chakra. Maybe it was the orphans I adopted last time around, but I don't want any more children to die if I cannot prevent it.

I sigh slightly, and shake Naruto's shoulder. "Hey. Wake up."

Naruto groans and turns his face into my arm. "Dun wanna."

"Up," I repeat firmly, peeling his fingers off of my shirt and sliding off the bed. Yoko leaps off the bed after me, well aware of what happens in the mornings, just in time to avoid Naruto as he rolls over and tries to snatch at my shirt and pull me back into bed. I snort at his predictability and dart out of the room, past the bathroom and into the kitchen. I check the fridge to see what ingredients there were and grab what I'll need.

Yoko comes in and takes the plate of bacon that I leave out in front of her stool, and settles in to eat after a few barbed comments. Naruto comes in about halfway through, and I finish cooking before I sit down to eat with him.

When breakfast is done, I go back to our bedroom to change and to the bathroom to wash my face as Naruto washes the dishes. Then we're off to the academy, nervousness buzzing through my veins.

I don't actually realize that I have never seen Itachi with my own eyes before we arrive at the school. Itachi is standing slightly to the side of the gates, crouched down so that Sasuke can slide off his back, and I can't stop staring because he looks so young.

"Come on," Naruto hisses at me, pulling my arm to get me to move.

"Sorry," I say after a moment, letting myself be pulled through the gates. "It's just . . ."

Naruto glances at me, then at the two Uchiha standing next to the gate. His eyes narrow slightly before he grins. "You liiiiiike him!"

"Naruto!" I yelp, offended by the very notion. Giant blobs of nature chakra don't like people. "You!"

Naruto giggles, letting go of my arms and running through the crowd towards the Academy building.

(It's very easy to see why one would like Itachi tough, were one not a blob of fox shaped nature chakra. I know exactly what he will become, what he can become, what he can do, but all I can think of is him setting Saskue down gently.)

Iruka isn't our teacher this year, still not really trusted to be much more than an assistant, but from my point of view, the situation is still almost perfect. Iruka's voice is easy enough for me to tune out and ignore due to long, in comparison to the other teacher's voice, which always seems to change just when I've gotten the hang of tuning him out.

That is, it's perfect excluding the fact that they're going to start teaching us how to use our chakra this year. While I can technically get away with either the lazy genius stance, or the dumb brute, not using my chakra will simply be another opportunity for people to insist that I should be held back, and thus to separate me from Naruto in hopes that separation will harm whichever one of us is the demon child. Holding a superficial henge won't work for the purpose of concealing the seal either because the teacher would notice, and full on body transformation won't help either because the body will still be mine.

I knew that both by experimenting in this body, and by past experience with seals. They all affect different people slightly differently, and presumably this body has an annoying, but not too rare tendency to show any seals applied to it of the being occupying it with the application of chakra.

I want to groan slightly as I turn the dilemma over in my head once more. The once sharp edges are blunted after years of consideration, my mind wandering the familiar crevices of the problem as I idly search for a solution. Then I sit up straight as a new solution comes to mind, brought up by the topic of Iruka and new teachers - I can wear a mask like Kakashi, which will take care of the problem I hadn't been able to solve yet. With that in mind, I can wear long sleeve shirts and gloves as well as pants in order to cover the rest of the seals.

The only think left is to come up with a reasonable excuse - not hard with my example still in mind. I can claim that I saw some guy with one of these wandering around at some point, and decided that they looked cool, but I couldn't manage to get one until tomorrow because . . . of reasons. The last bit wan't particularly solid, but I'm a kid, they won't really argue with me. Probably.

I slump into my seat as I follow my train of thought to its logical conclusion though. With that gone, I now only have to worry about the Uchiha Massacre, and that's a topic I've been avoiding. The massacre is something that I find very emotionally taxing.

Again, there's the freaking Uchiha on one hand. On the other hand, there's the children, the very innocent children that I very much want to protect after my failure to do so last time around, whatever happened. There's Shisui and his god-like Sharingan. There's all of the advantages that Danzao gains from killing everyone. And finally, there's a weary sense of this again? that lingers in the back of my mind. How many times much the Uchiha die before I am satisfied?

Chapter 25: Chapter 25

Hi. This is abandoned, and will go to my Dribbles story tomorrow. I apologize.