Chapter 53

When I finally regained my composure, Nagato started to pull me back towards the room where Ise and Fusō were still spending time with their new daughter.

"I want to see my little sister again," Nagato explained. I just shrugged and let him pull me along. When he pushed open the door, Ise turned toward us in surprise. Fusō lay on the bed, asleep. "Sorry I ran off." Nagato's apology was barely audible.

"It's fine, Nagato-chan. Have you thought of a name?" Ise murmured, his attention completely on the sleeping infant in his arms.

"Natsuki," Nagato responded with conviction.

"That's a beautiful name," Fusō answered, not as asleep as I thought she was.

I nudged Nagato towards his father and sister and sat down on the bed beside Fusō. She immediately sat up to put her arms around me and carded her fingers through my hair. I knew better than to tell her exactly why I was upset, but I still secretly liked the feeling of being held. I didn't feel guilty leaning on her like I did when I found myself relying on Nagato.

"You alright, Kichiro?" She asked quietly.

"I'll be fine," I assured her, but I didn't give any effort towards making sound convincing. I just turned my face into her shoulder. Emotionally, I was absolutely exhausted and I just wanted to sleep, even though barely half the day had passed.

"If my husband is going to steal the two children I carried around for nine months each, I guess I'll just take his best friend's child as ransom."

I laughed at that and relaxed against her side.

"Anyways, it's almost lunchtime, right? I better—"

"I'll make lunch for the kids," Ise interrupted quickly.

"I'm not an invalid!" Fusō retorted playfully.

"You just gave birth," he retorted.

"I'll show you—" She threatened and nearly knocked me off the bed as she chased him out the door. Luckily, Nagato was holding little Natsuki. The boy shifted awkwardly.

"Nii-san? Natsuki-chan smells icky."

I honestly wasn't sure if Fusō and Ise's swift departure was planned or completely coincidental, but they got out of changing the infant's diaper. I was so very tempted to feign sleep and let Nagato figure out the dirty diaper problem, but I stood up and started to sift through the dresser with baby things piled around and hanging out of it. It didn't take long for me to track down the diapers and change Natsuki into a clean one. It wasn't very neatly done, diaper changes were generally the purview of the Genin and civilian orderlies or pre-medics rather than the certified medics, so I wrapped Natsuki in a blanket to hide the fact. I knew Kakashi was far more aware of his surrounding than an infant ought to be, and it didn't take long for me to realize that the same held true for Natsuki, though to a much lesser extent, she was a month younger after all. She wasn't as cognizant as Kakashi was, but she was perfectly aware of her surroundings.

"You're going to have everyone you meet wrapped around your little finger by the end of the month," I grumbled at her under my breath.

"What was that, Nii-san?" Nagato asked.

"Nothing," I responded as I settled the infant in his arms. "Enjoy being a slave to her whims for the rest of your life."

He looked at me without comprehension.

(-_-)

Besides the bustle of taking care of an infant, the stress of which was almost nonexistent since there were almost a dozen hands willing and able to help out, nothing happened for the rest of the day. Natsuki barely fussed and, to my surprise, wasn't upset by the amount of attention she was receiving. Somehow, Nagato and I ended up caring for Natsuki most of the day while the adults worked because we technically didn't have a job to do. While Nagato entertained the newborn with miniature explosions, I watched Kaede draft healing seals. It didn't take much prompting for her to start explaining them to me. Apparently, I could save myself a quarter of the effort it took to heal with some strategic seals. Making the switch to healing with Fūinjutsu might have had a net benefit in the long run, but it didn't have the versatility needed for combat medicine. I wasn't particularly interested, but the diversion was worth it until Nagato's toy explosions grew too big and too close to Natsuki. It wasn't dangerous, Nagato was almost overprotective of his new baby sister, but they were obnoxious and the smoke was becoming an issue inside the house.

Everyone quickly drifted off to their respective beds after dinner. Nagato had opted to stay with his parents, so I commandeered his room. Technically, I had my own bedroom a few doors down, but it was empty except for a bed and extremely obvious that no one slept there.

In the middle of the night, I was awoken from a dead sleep by the door silently sliding open. I stayed perfectly still, feigning sleep until the intruder, who I couldn't identify from the almost-perfectly-concealed chakra signature, was within arm's reach. One hand reached towards me, and before it could touch me, I twisted and grabbed the arm, pulling the person off-balance and driving my elbow into their throat. A second strike to their chest, strengthened by chakra and with one foot braced against the ground, sent them flying into the second intruder, throwing them both out into the hall. As they landed, I recognized Minato's blond hair practically glowing in the dim light.

"What the hell are you two thinking? It's the middle of the night!" I growled, careful to keep my voice down to avoid waking anyone up.

Both of them shifted to their knees and pressed their foreheads against the floor, their apologies sincere, if incoherent.

"Enough, it's not me you should be apologizing to, it's each other." I lightly kicked Minato's shoulder since I couldn't see Kushina well enough to avoid kicking her head.

"Y-you're not angry?" Kushina asked.

"No, I'm not angry. You worked it out in the end and fixed the problem. Both of you have a mission in the morning, get some sleep."

I turned to go back to bed. "Wait!" Minato rasped, massaging his throat. I glanced over my shoulder at him. "That's it?"

"What more could there be?"

"We were stupid enough to nearly destroy everything, almost killed each other—"

"You learned your lesson and no irreparable harm was done."

"You said you wanted nothing to do with us," Kushina pointed out weakly. I could barely hear her.

"Good to know you still believe every word I say."

"No one is that forgiving," Minato responded.

"What do you expect me to do? Make you beat each other up again or disown you? That wouldn't accomplish anything."

Kushina flinched.

I took a quick step forward and laid a hand on each of their shoulders so I could see them both somewhat clearly in the dim light. "I'm going to be perfectly honest with you, no manipulation, double, or hidden meanings. I can't promise to be there for the two of you anymore. I can't promise your safety or happiness or anything really. I can't, in good conscience, continue to allow you to believe you can unconditionally rely on me. I—"

"Nii-san, you sound like you're saying goodbye," Kushina choked.

"No!" I responded vehemently.

"Nii-san?" Minato murmured cautiously.

I turned my attention towards him.

"I want to apologize."

"For what?"

"Before you left for Iwa, I yelled at you and I shouldn't have. I yelled at you and accused you of things that weren't true. I said you never fought back and I was wrong. You do fight. You fight all the time, but you don't fight like everyone else. It's subtler."

"I forgive you," I responded, cutting off the rest of whatever he wanted to say. I wasn't entirely sure what he meant, nor did I care. "You both have a mission in the morning, go get some sleep." Minato understood something, nodded once to me, his jaw set in determination and turned towards the stairs. I expected Kushina to follow, but she stood there, shifting awkwardly.

"Nii-san? Can you promise to be here when we get back?"

"I'm still in ANBU, so I can't promise that, but I will see you again. I can promise that, okay?" Even if it was in the afterlife.

Kushina nodded and hugged me tightly. When she didn't let go for a few seconds, I felt slightly awkward standing in the middle of the hallway in the dead of night. "Thank you, Nii-san."

"You're welcome." She scampered off without another word, leaving me in the hallway. I knew I wasn't going to sleep for the rest of the night, so I wandered into the library. The books and scrolls were obviously a part of the Uzumaki library Kushina had liberated before Uzu's downfall. It was nothing sensitive, but still plenty to learn.

As a rule, Uzumaki were generally short on patience when it came to everything except Fūinjutsu. Even so, there were several dozen members of the clan who had recognized the importance of history and wrote over a hundred thick volumes on Uzu's history and any other history they could get their hands on. It wasn't like normal history books, which even the most avid history fan would admit could get quite dry at times. They were told as stories and made history twice as interesting. I managed to make my way through Uzu and Konoha's histories and I had just begun the history of Kiri when the war started and since then I hadn't had any more time to study. It didn't take me long to return to where I left off and I spent the rest of the night reading.

At sunrise, someone knocked on the front door. I put down my book and went to answer it before anyone woke up. On the doorstep was Uchiha Fugaku. "Uzumaki-san," he greeted politely.

I deactivated the security seals and let him in. "Good morning, Fugaku-san" I greeted as he took off his shoes. "I assume you're Kushina and Minato's Uchiha teammate."

"I am," he responded. "Welcome home from Iwa."

"It's good to be back, though I'm not sure anyone should know where I was."

"The clan heads affected all know your situation, and as future clan head, I was briefed."

I accepted his answer without comment.

"My mission with your sister and Minato was moved up by several hours, where are they?"

"Third floor. Would you like me to—"

"Thank you, but I know the way. Have a nice day." He hurried away with his shoes in his hand. In a few seconds, he was headed up the stairs at the back of the house.

I closed the door and stared after him, confused. A door opened and Takeshi emerged from his room a few doors down the hall. I closed the door.

"Kichiro?" Takeshi asked as he squinted in my direction.

"Yeah?"

"Oh, just making sure. One of the kids has been sleepwalking."

"Oh."

"Want to help me make breakfast?"

"Sure." I followed. An hour later, everyone started to trickle into the dining room. The kids were half asleep and most of the adults kept sending longing looks back towards the bedrooms, but everyone was there except for Kushina and Minato. Fortunately, everyone perked up once they started eating.

Halfway through the meal, Sakumo appeared in the window with Kakashi in his arms. He was in his full Jōnin uniform. I frowned.

"What the hell happened this time?" I stood up and demanded as Sakumo landed on the floor.

"We just received intelligence that several teams are headed straight for an ambush on their way to the Iwa lines."

"Why—"

"They're medic teams. Half of Konoha's medics are headed into a trap and there isn't any way to send them a message fast enough."

"What idiot put that many medics in one place at once?" I growled.

"There was a spy who managed to get deep enough into the mission room and switched things up. No one caught it until we got intel of the ambush."

"Why are you telling me?"

"I wasn't supposed to, but I need to know if the Kyuubi can increase your stamina, I already know you can stave off the need for sleep. Unless you can make it, no one has the stamina to run at the speed they need to in order to intercept them."

"If I use the Kyuubi, the only limit in this equation is my speed. How far out are they?"

"Konoha has pushed Iwa back to just past the Iwa-Kusa border. The ambush is at the Kannabi bridge. The medical team is almost four days out, travelling with a major supply run manned by twenty-one Genin, four Chuunin, two Jōnin, and an unknown number of ANBU."

"Kannabi bridge is a six-day trip at Genin speed, correct? Which route are they taking?"

"Route four."

"If I take route seven and eat while running, I can reach the bridge in two days and backtrack until I intercept the team. If you can get me orders to change the route, I'll be ready to leave in twenty minutes."

"Two days is cutting it close."

"It's almost fall into an ambush or definitely fall into one."

"We can take Kakashi for an hour so you can deal with everything," Ise volunteered.

"Meet me at the gates in twenty." Sakumo handed the baby off to Ise and vanished. I leapt up from the table and raced upstairs. I only had one Chuunin uniform, and I hoped Kushina had brought it home when I had changed for the confrontation with the Hokage about the Uzumaki's status in the village. Sure enough, it was in the bathroom cupboard on the third floor. I dumped the seal with all my weapons and ANBU armor on the bed and rushed to put everything on as fast as possible. It took me exactly six minutes, and I ran down the stairs, tying on my hitai-ate in the process. I skidded to a stop in front of Nagato, who stood in the doorway of the dining room.

"Sorry, kiddo," I murmured. "I'll be back soon, I swear." I gave him a brief hug and waved at everyone before dashing out. I could have shunshined to the gates, but I had more than ten minutes, so I just leapt across the rooftops hidden by a weak Genjutsu. I arrived at the gate with a minute to spare and crouched above them as they opened for the morning. I knew I was breaking at least a dozen rules, but only shinobi could have seen through the Genjutsu. They didn't really care as long as I wasn't hurting anything. Within the minute, Sakumo arrived at the Chuunin deployment point and glanced around. I jumped down and landed heavily in front of him.

Sakumo flinched at my sudden appearance and held out two scrolls. I reached for them but he pulled them out of my reach. "Your orders are extremely specific, you are to take route seven to intercept the medical platoon, order them to avoid the Kannabi bridge and travel with them to their destination. At that point, you are to join the first squad headed back to Konoha, no matter who they are. No matter what happens, you are not to deviate from those orders."

"I can do more good on the lines than I can in the village."

"Iwa is raging for blood, yours in particular. If word gets around that you're on the lines, Iwa will likely send everything they've got at you. The Kyuubi is a fair trade for the Gobi and Yonbi." Sakumo reached up and grabbed my hitai-ate, readjusting it so it covered my hair bandanna-style. "You need a haircut," he commented, looking at me critically. I frowned, and after a second, he reached into his kunai pouch and pulled out a navy facemask. "I'm not going back to Suna anytime soon, so you can borrow this to give you some kind of anonymity."

"I could just use a Henge."

"There's no way anyone will believe you if you show up with a Henge on."

"Right."

"Here are your orders." He handed me the scroll. "And here are the orders to change routes." He handed me the other and I tucked them both in the part of the Chuunin vest meant exclusively for orders. They were inside the vest, a zipper disguised as a seam on the left side of the vest under my arm. "The current security code is 'white snake fled' and duress code is 'white snake lives'."

I nodded firmly and leapt away.

Five minutes later, I was out of sight of the village.

Until I started training with Sakumo, I never liked to run. Running a seven-minute mile felt good, but the feeling wasn't enough for me to ever voluntarily go out and run. When I started training with Sakumo, the speed boost made it ten times more enjoyable. Coupled with the fact I was leaping through the trees, the adrenaline rush was exhilarating. I took far too many risks when running across Konoha. I leapt the gaps between trees that were too far apart to be completely safe, ran faster than most would dare in anything but a fight, and I even occasionally used my hands and chakra to swing through the trees for several hundred feet.

For obvious reasons, I wasn't worried about injuries stopping me for more than a few minutes.

Around noon, I burned through the last of my reserves and tapped into the Kyuubi's. By the end of the day, the thrill of racing through the trees at an impossible speed wore off and I started wishing for music or something to listen to.

I scowled at the fact that I was only a quarter of the way to my destination. I tried to engage the Kyuubi in conversation, but he wasn't interested in talking.

I spent the night and most of the next day incredibly bored. It wasn't until evening fell that I started to look for traps that had been left behind during skirmishes or set to try and injure or kill an unwitting shinobi. Most traps were too slow to catch me as I raced through, but I almost ran straight through a web of ninja wire meant to slice someone to pieces. I flipped over it and kept running, my heart hammering for the next few miles and my senses hyper-aware. Wire traps and Fūinjutsu traps were the only thing I needed to watch out for. A wire trap could cut me to pieces and kill me faster than I could heal, while any decent Fūinjutsu trap was inescapable. I wasn't confident enough in my own Fūinjutsu skill to escape a trap.

When the sky began to lighten, I slowed my pace and deviated from the original route to follow the route the medics and the supply line was supposed to take. When I crossed their projected path, eight miles away from the Kannabi bridge, a kilometer outside of even the most paranoid shinobi's scouting range. I scouted for a kilometer on both sides, quickly establishing that I was ahead of them or it was too late for me to stop them. I jogged back towards Konoha, making sure to stay on the ground.

I stopped drawing on the Kyuubi's chakra when I felt a group enter my sensing range and headed in their direction at a walk. Twenty minutes later, I intercepted everyone. The moment the first person entered my sight, an alarm rang out. Three seconds later, someone appeared behind me—two people grabbed my arms and slammed me facedown the mat of leaves, the tip of a kunai digging into the soft skin behind my ear.

"Identify yourself," the man on my right ordered.

"Uzumaki Kichiro, Chuunin, registration number zero-zero-seven-three-zero-nine."

"Purpose."

"To deliver urgent orders." I flinched as the one on my left opened the pouch meant for orders and pulled out my mission and the orders for the medic squad and supply line. I deduced that the two holding me down were Jōnin, ANBU, or a combination of both. Protocol only allowed Jōnin to access another shinobi's orders without their explicit permission or incapacitation.

"Security code?"

"White snake fled."

The one on my right pulled off one of my gloves and glanced at the palm of my hand. "It's him," the one on my left concluded and the two picked me up off the ground. "Damn, kid, you must be a stamina freak to be able to make that run in forty-six hours."

I shrugged and dusted myself off.

The right one returned my glove. "Did the Hokage figure out who the idiot who put half the medical force in one deployment is?" He asked.

"It was a spy. The Kannabi bride has been trapped by Iwa. I'm here to deliver orders to change routes. I don't know any details. Anything vital should be in the orders. It's the scroll in your right hand. The other scroll is my mission."

The man on the left handed the scrolls to the one on my right, whom I was almost certain was the leader. "I'm Yamanaka Takuya, and this is Matsuoka Shiro." He introduced once he finished skimming the two documents. I should have guessed that Takuya was part of the Yamanaka clan, but I brushed it off.

"Nice to meet you," I bowed politely. "Uzumaki Kichiro, but you already know that."

"Before we head back to the rest of the group, am I correct in surmising that you are wearing a mask because of the Jinchuuriki situation with Iwa and their particular hatred of you?"

"Correct."

"Then I'll introduce you as Aoi, a Chuunin scout who stumbled across Iwa's trap at the Kannabi bridge and was placing warning tags to ward off the next group who came through."

I nodded. Any ninja worth their salt would know it was a lie, but the circumstances would deter anyone from investigating the claim, especially once the ANBU who was supposed to be with the group approached me as was protocol.

The Jōnin guided me back to the camp. I was a little off-put at the fact that it was in the opposite direction as I had seen the person from. Before leaving, I glanced back at where I had seen someone, and noted that it was only a blue and green sheet wrapped around a thin tree.

"Everybody up!" Shiro ordered as soon as we reached camp. "Double time! We need to move!"

I was surprised that the camp wasn't fully awake yet. Even Genin should have risen with the sun, and they should have started moving almost a half hour before. Before I could comment on the break in protocol, Takuya put a hand on my shoulder.

"They're fresh Genin," he explained. "They've been weighed down with supplies this whole trip, and the Hokage gave us three extra days to get there."

It was a valid reason, but I couldn't help feeling a little annoyed. The Genin emerging were all between ages nine and twelve. I knew Kushina and Minato weren't the best baselines, but they were Chuunin by the time they were nine.

After a minute, I started to wonder when I stopped thinking of twelve-year-olds as children and started to think of them as soldiers.

I put it aside to think about later as Takuya introduced me. The camp quickly refocused their attention on packing up as an ANBU landed in front of me. He or she made several hand seals that were too fast for me to see. I flinched as his chakra, it was definitely male chakra, washed over me for the briefest of seconds. A heartbeat later, the ANBU vanished.

The Jōnin led us almost to the Kusa-Taki border to avoid all potential traps by the Iwa shinobi who had snuck through Konoha's line of defense.

To my surprise and relief, the rest of the trip went incredibly smoothly. We reached the supply post before the deadline and the Genin split off into teams with a Chuunin or Jōnin leader and several medics. The first team to head back was the Genin delivering supplies. They were the only experienced team among the Genin, thus the only team that remained unsupervised.

As we set out to leave the second the supplies were delivered, inventoried, and a new list of requests was handed to the elder of the three Genin, I got a very bad feeling. Not one of the 'I am going to do something stupid' feelings, but one of the 'that lurch of my stomach was the handbasket picking me up to carry everything to hell' feelings.