Chapter 51

To my surprise, I slept the entire night curled against Fusō's back. I was also surprised that I slept through several children crawling onto the bed with me.

Fusō woke when I sat up, feeling much better than before. She smiled and rubbed the grit out of my eyes.

"You just needed a meal and a good night's sleep," she concluded. "Are you going to fix that shoulder or do you want me to redress it?"

"It hurts," I responded stupidly.

"I know; I've had a knife to the shoulder before. Are you going to heal it yourself, or do you want me to reapply the bandages?" She responded patiently.

"I'll fix it," I murmured, my voice still rough. "Can you help?"

"Sure, kiddo, come on, there's stuff to clean it in the kitchen."

I crawled over the sleeping children and followed her into the kitchen where Takeshi and another woman were making breakfast. A little boy who was so malnourished that he looked younger than Nagato, even though I knew he was at least nine, followed the woman around with wide eyes, taking the bites of fruits and vegetables she periodically handed down to him, and wearing nothing but a ragged pair of shorts. He immediately lost interest in the food and watched me carefully sit down on a low stool as Fusō unwound the bandages and cleaned out the stab wound. A few minutes later, I healed the damage to the bone and tissue while the boy watched in fascination from behind Fusō.

"This is Tamaki," Fusō introduced. "Tamaki, this is Kichiro, your big brother."

I held out a hand politely. He pointed to my shoulder instead. "I can do that," he whispered. "Watch!"

He leapt towards me, his hand reaching for my mouth. I flinched out of the way, barely catching him before he ran headfirst into the wall.

I felt slightly sick when I noticed the pale scars in the shape of adult-sized bite marks across his torso. I looked to Fusō for an explanation.

"His chakra, even though he only has the amount of the average civilian his age, is extremely potent, and it can heal anyone who bites him," she explained as I one-handedly fended off the boy's attempts to stick his hands in my mouth. "It's uncommon in the clan, but it's one of the reasons Uzu had its own school for doctors long before medical Ninjutsu was created and Tsunade-hime founded the hospital in Konoha. He discovered it at the orphanage shortly before he was taken and used it to heal his friend who fell off the roof."

The boy wasn't listening to her. I held up a hand glowing with medical chakra to distract him from his new game.

"He's completely blind, so he navigates by chakra sensing. We aren't sure if it was something that happened while he was missing or if he's always been like that, the kids don't remember and it took us several days to figure out why he ran into furniture and walls but knew exactly where everyone was. He's terrified of ninja; he screams about bad chakra whenever they get too close. We think it's something the person who took him did, that's why you didn't see him at dinner last night. He doesn't go into hysterics with Kushina, but he doesn't like her either. I don't know why you're different."

"Has he met Tsunade?"

Fusō shook her head. "The medic-nins are only available to treat shinobi."

"He hasn't been seen by—"

"Ise, Kaede, and I all examined him. As far as we can tell, he's only malnourished. The rest of the damage is to his mind."

Tamaki finally gathered up the courage to touch my palm and I wrapped his hand with medical chakra, stopping as soon as he jerked back in surprise. Fusō took a step back as the game I played with hundreds of skittish children began.

I held my hand out to him and held perfectly still until he stepped forward and put his hand in mine. I wrapped it with healing chakra, and to my surprise, he didn't pull away. He figured out the game quicker than most kids and switched hands. His bones were extremely weak, and the muscles barely strong enough to function, so I temporarily fortified them to help his cells get the most out of what he ate, at least for the next few days. It would make him almost hyper during that time, and it was meant to associate something positive about medics and shinobi in general. He grabbed my wrist and maneuvered my hand to wrap around his forearm.

The chakra spread from his wrist to his elbow before he jerked away in surprise. Cautiously, he held my hand against his other arm and I did the same thing. The expression of amazement made me smile. He grabbed my other hand and the game continued.

He held my hand against his chest and I gradually filled his torso with medical chakra. The corners of his mouth twitched up in a ghost of a smile as he pressed both of my hands against the center of his chest. He looked thoughtful for a long time as I continued to heal and fortify his body as much as I could, especially focusing on bolstering his immune system.

When I pulled back my chakra, his bottom lip started to tremble. "More?" He pleaded. I covered my hand in healing chakra, but didn't touch him with it, instead, I let him fidget with my fingers until he crawled into my lap. Cautiously, he pressed his ear against my heart. "Lub-dub. Lub-dub. Lub-dub." He started to murmur, barely audible. When he settled down, I noticed the adults watching me and Tamaki carefully.

I looked at Fusō, confused, so she explained. "Besides screaming at the ninja, this is the first thing he's spoken. It's another one of the reasons he wasn't seen by a medic, he just kept screaming 'bad chakra' whenever they passed by his room. Considering who was responsible for his condition in the first place, we didn't sedate him so he could be checked over, even though Tsunade-hime volunteered. He hasn't voluntarily touched anyone except me, Takeshi, and Shizuka. I think it's mostly because we're the ones giving him food at all hours of the day. I don't know why he's taken to you so easily."

"Because my chakra is corrupted," I answered easily. "It doesn't quite register as human to sensors because of the Kyuubi and how I early I started medical ninjutsu. It's—softer, I guess. The difference is slight, only really good sensors can pick it up."

Fusō nodded and rubbed a spot on her belly. "The baby is definitely going to be a shinobi, he or she is almost as strong as Nagato was."

"You can't be sure of that until several years after birth," I contradicted.

"Trust me, a mother knows."

I stood up, picking Tamaki up with me, and offered the stool to Fusō, who just shook her head.

"Part of me misses travelling with just Ise. He stopped coddling me—mostly—once I beat him over the head for the third time. Honestly, it's like everyone thinks I've never had a kid before! I was working up until the day Nagato was born, and was back to work the day after!"

I winced. "That's not very smart."

"I'm not even thirty yet." I wasn't sure of that fact, but I didn't contradict her.

"The second kid is often weaker than the first because of the stress pregnancy puts on the chakra pathways. You really should take it easy."

"Two hearts," Tamaki agreed with me, pointing at Fuso. "Three hearts." He sat up and laid a hand against my chest. "Four hearts." He continued and covered his own heart with both hands.

"See, Tamaki-kun agrees with me."

She smiled lightly and sat down. "You always care about everyone else, don't you, Kichiro?"

Tamaki's arms tightened around my neck and he hid his face against my collar. "Bad chakra! Bad chakra!" He started to repeat and I could feel tears moisten my shirt. A few seconds later, Kushina appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. I sent soothing pulses of medical chakra to calm the boy down, but all it did was quiet him.

"Does anyone know where Minato is? He wanted to train by himself yesterday and never came back. I just checked the training ground, he wasn't there."

"You know he can't get in after sunset, he's probably at his apartment," Fusō reminded.

"I checked there too."

"Urgent mission?" I suggested.

Kushina shook her head. "Minato and I are an official team, along with that Uchiha asshole." She clamped a hand over her mouth and looked at Fusō. "Sorry," she apologized. "Anyways, we always take missions together and there's no way Minato would have got one without me. I'm not worried or anything, just curious. Thanks anyways. Kichiro, I'd give you a hug, but Tamaki would freak out, so I'll see you later."

She turned on her heel and marched away as Tamaki squirmed out of my arms and ran over to beg for food from Shizuka. Fusō stood up and grabbed my arm, steering me out of the room, closed the door, and dragged me several meters down the hall before slamming my back against the wall.

"What game are you playing?" She demanded, her voice low.

I just looked up at her in confusion.

"She was up most of the night worried sick about you and you only say two words to her the second you can carry a coherent conversation?"

"I'll talk to her later—"

"You know better than I that 'later' isn't a guarantee for you two." I flinched. "Go after her this instant and apologize!"

She let me go and I raced up the stairs after my sister. I knew better than to disregard the orders of a pregnant woman.

I caught up with Kushina on the second floor and walked beside her in silence up to the third. They had set up an indoor training ground in the days that I had been gone, and Kushina immediately started target practice, ignoring me completely as I sat down against the wall.

After the hundredth kunai struck the target's last open spot and bumped three other kunai off, she plopped down beside me. I put my arm around her.

"Minato was really mad when he found out what we did for Uzu. We got into a really big argument on the training ground, Fugaku had to stop us from fighting. He, Minato, I mean, asked if it was your idea, he didn't believe me when I said it was all mine. He kept saying how he would have expected something like that from you, like you were some kind of traitor."

I combed her hair out of her face.

"He never had a clan, he barely remembers his family, so he doesn't understand. I still remember Uzu. Even though it was just us at the orphanage you used to sneak me out after bedtime and we would go swimming in the ocean. Remember that? Remember that night when we swam across the river and that ninja caught us halfway across and took us back and the lady in charge was furious and locked us in that closet for the day. We slept all day in the closet and you showed me a different way out that night and we swam all the way across the river and then you took me to some sweetshop that was always open and bought us candy with the money you saved up from whenever the lady gave us money to eat in town. We ate candy all the way back and that lady, I can't remember her name, but she caught us sneaking back inside that morning and then whipped us both."

"Probably deserved worse than that."

"Yeah. I'm surprised we made it all the way across that river—twice! It was huge! Anyways, we never spent much time in the orphanage, we always spent the mornings on the playground or in the library and the afternoons wandering around the village, talking to everyone, trying to follow the ninja around."

"Should have spent that time in school."

"I'm glad we didn't. You knew all the stuff they were teaching anyways and taught it to me." She wrapped her arms around my waist. "I know I'm not all that old, but living in Uzu was the happiest time of my life. I really like Konoha too, but no one stops to tell the kids not to stop in the middle of the streets or cares enough to get mad when I sneak out at night. There's no ocean to swim."

I wasn't sure how to respond to that, so I just stayed silent.

"I don't think Minato realizes what it was like to walk down the street and just know that everyone you saw was a part of a giant family that would take care of you if you ever needed it, and even when you didn't. Konoha doesn't do that. There's too many clans here." She fell silent for a long time and started to play with the hem of her uniform. "After the war is over for real, can we go back to Uzu and go swimming again? Even if it's just for a night or two."

"Of course," I murmured.

"Minato wants me to apologize for what I did, but I'm not sorry for it, but I don't want to lose Minato. He's my best friend, even though you annoy him a lot of the time. What am I supposed to do?"

"He'll come around, Kushina. Minato won't make you stop being who you are, and you're an Uzumaki through and through. We're loyal to a fault, and Uzu held that loyalty first, just like Konoha holds his loyalty above all. It might take a little while, but he'll realized that if Konoha had been destroyed and he'd been forced to move to Uzu, he'd want to keep his village alive in a foreign place that seemed to forget about it. He'll figure it out, I promise."

"I know that, but what if he doesn't?"

"He will."

"Promise?"

"Promise, even if I have to beat it into him for you."

"You never beat anyone up."

I shrugged. "I haven't needed to."

"Breakfast is almost ready."

"Okay."

"You should go eat."

"Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"You're a bag of bones, Nii-san," she deadpanned. "I'll eat later."

"Is this because of Tamaki?"

Kushina shrugged.

"Then I think I'll stay with you."

She stood up and pulled me to my feet.

"I will defenestrate you if try and toss me down the stairs," I warned. Kushina hesitated, thought better of her original plan, and picked me up in a fireman's carry. Ninja called it something different, but I never cared to remember the name. "Okay, I get your point, I can walk down the stairs by myself."

"The second I put you down, you're just going to pick me up instead."

"You're definitely going swimming now."

"No jutsus in the house, Ji-chan's rule."

"I don't need a jutsu." I licked my finger and stuck it in her ear.

"Ew, ew, ew!" She shrieked. Someone whapped me on the head with a rolled up piece of paper.

"Hey!" I looked up at the woman who had just come out of the second floor and was following us down the stairs.

"Stop teasing your sister."

"She was teasing me first," I protested.

"Keiko-sensei is just teasing you, Nii-san."

I gave her another wet willy. Kushina tried to throw me down the last few steps, but caught hold of her and dragged her down with me. She grabbed both my wrists and landed on top of me, trying to pin me. My back had barely hit the ground when I reversed the hold and nearly managed to pin her instead when she wriggled her foot between us and launched me into the air. We locked hands and when we landed, it turned into an impromptu game of mercy, shinobi-style.

Keiko edged around us. "Fusō! The kids are fighting again!"

There was an unspoken rule of no chakra, otherwise things tended to blow up. I hooked a toe behind Kushina's ankle as I forced her back a step and she started to topple backwards. Instead of falling, she tried to swing between my legs, but I dropped her on the ground, only for her foot to catch me in the hip. Both of us landed flat on our backs.

In my old body, I never could have done it, but I kicked myself up to stand on my forearms and then fell on top of Kushina, sitting across her stomach. To my surprise, we were both laughing, that is until Fusō grabbed both of our ears and dragged us to our feet.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" Kushina and I chorused, still laughing.

Fusō looked like she wanted to say something, but after a minute she just shook her head and released us. "I love you both to death, but—" she kept shaking her head. "I guess—" Her eyes lost focus for a moment.

"What?" Kushina and I asked simultaneously.

"What time is it?"

"Almost eight-thirty, why?" Kushina asked.

"Takako and Keiko just left for the shop; Takeshi left a while ago for the meeting; Ise, Kaede, and Shizuka aren't supposed to be home for several hours because of Tamaki—"

"What's going on?"

"Oh dear."

"What?"

"I really need to go lie down. The two of you are going to have to take care of the kids for a little while."

"Are you—" I started to ask and reached for her, my hand glowing with medical chakra. She caught my wrist.

"I'm fine, I just need to lay down, I'm feeling really dizzy, you were right about taking it easy. I shouldn't have set the table by myself. Anyways, Kichiro, the kids are in the living room, would you mind telling them that breakfast is on the table and getting everyone to the table. Gin will help you. Don't wait for me, I already ate. Kushina, I need to have a very long chat with you. I found out about your most recent watercolor job."

"Whatever happened, it wasn't me, I swear!"

"Sure it wasn't."

Fusō let go of me and put her arm around Kushina's shoulders and led her away. "Okay, maybe I did a little bit, but it was all—" The bedroom door closed behind them. I couldn't help but think there was something odd about the exchange, but I put it out of my mind and went to get the kids for breakfast.

Just as I filled the last plate on the table and the kids dug in, Kushina's shrill voice rang through the house. "KICHIRO!" She screamed. I didn't even know Kushina's voice could go that high.

"Keep the kids in here!" I ordered Nagato over my shoulder and bolted in the direction of Kushina's chakra. I nearly kicked down the door to Fusō's bedroom in my haste. "What's—oh." Kushina wordlessly pointed at Fusō, who was valiantly trying to hide the fact that she was starting labor. "Kushina, go help Nagato and the little kids with breakfast, I'll take care of this."

She was gone in the blink of an eye.

"Kichiro, you shouldn't worry—I'll be fine," Fusō stated.

"I'm not worried, everything is fine," I stated as I put a hand over her stomach. I used the tiniest trickle of chakra to confirm the statement. "Everything really is fine, I promise. You know what to do," I said as I laid several thick blankets on the bed so the birthing fluids wouldn't ruin the mattress.

"I'm sorry, Kichiro—"

"Don't be, I've done this hundreds of times, you've attended even more births than me. We both know what to do, I'll use a bit of chakra to speed up the process and we'll be done in an hour, okay? You'll have a new son or daughter by the time Ise gets home."

I genuinely wasn't the slightest bit worried, I could fix anything that could go wrong. I kept up a steady stream of reassurances. Thirty-seven minutes later, I was holding a disgusting pinkish blob of slightly-premature, screaming baby. I deftly cut the newborn's umbilical cord and gently washed the baby while Fusō panted on the bed.

By the time she was reasonably composed, I finished cleaning the infant, who was very loudly protesting her introduction to the world.

I stood beside Fusō and the moment she reached for the child, I dumped the noisy devil in her arms, exhausted. "Congratulations on your new baby girl," I told her as she carefully began to feed her child while I cleaned up the mess. When I checked the hallway, I saw Ise and Nagato waiting outside and waved them inside.

Fusō smiled at Ise, who quickly replaced the pillows supporting Fusō with himself. She settled against him and waved Nagato forward. I pushed the hesitant boy towards them. "Nagato," Fusō said patiently. The newborn was already asleep. "Meet your new baby sister!"

I picked Nagato up and set him down beside Fusō. She turned and gently settled the sleeping infant in his arms. I helped Fusō arrange his arms to hold the baby properly.

"What's her name?" Nagato asked, barely audible.

"Ise and I decided to ask you if you wanted to name her."

Overwhelmed, Nagato shoved the baby at me a little more forcefully than was probably good for the newborn, and fled the room. The infant woke, mewling, but quickly calmed as I sat down on the bed in the place Nagato vacated, mostly to discretely stop Fusō from running after him.

"Someone needs to go talk to him," she told me.

"He just had a very abrupt awakening as to what his job as both a shinobi and an older brother entails."

"Someone should explain—"

"No, this is something he needs to work out for himself. I'll go talk to him when he calms down."

Fusō stared at the door before settling back against Ise. "I suppose you understand him better than anyone. Both Ise and I were the youngest of our families."

I flinched when the door opened unexpectedly, but it was only Kushina. I quickly handed Ise the child when I saw her expression. "I'll see you later," I sent over my shoulder, and grabbed Kushina on my way out the door.