I rolled my shoulders, watching Naruto eye the Hiraishin marked kunai. We sat together a little ways in the jungle in a nice, big, open clearing. We had a long while before the war would start, plenty of time for a crash-course in both of the jutsus.

Especially with a ton of Shadow Clones.

While I was over here with the original Naruto, a Shadow Clone of both of us were a little ways away and working on teaching me the Rasengan. Once the clone had given enough instructions, my own clone would spawn two hundred more clones to work on the water balloons.

Where had we gotten the water balloons?

Well, as far as anyone outside of the three of us (Naruto, me, and Kurama), we had brought them along.

In reality?

They have no barrier put up to stop me from using my Hiraishin to popping back into Konoha and buying them in bulk under a henged disguise.

Granted, the trip still took a good chunk of my chakra stores, but it was well worth it. Besides, I had to pop back into Konoha to get more supplies for Naruto to practice Hiraishin.

"For now, you don't need to worry about how to make your own Hiraishin, I've already drawn up plenty and we'll just share the anchors," I began. "This," I said with a flourish and produced a medium-sized scroll, "is the originator seal."

"The what?" Naruto asked, scrunching his face up in confusion.

"The originator seal," I explained carefully, "is the starting point for the Hiraishin to work. When you use the Hiraishin, in truth, you don't go immediately from point A to point B. You go from point A to the originator seal, and then to point B. It just happens too fast that you don't even notice it."

"And how do you get from point A to the originator seal?" Naruto questioned. "Sasuke thought, ah, that you kinda, um, what's the word.... Dematerialize?"

I smiled patiently. "That's not what happens at all. If a human were to be completely deconstructed, they would die. The reconstructed human would be a new human entirely, since the previous one died in the deconstruction. The originator seal is, actually.... Well, I guess you could call it a type of storage seal."

Naruto's eyes widened comically. "What."

I laughed. "I know! Kurama and I were so surprised when we figured that one out, but it is. It's a storage seal that doubles as a summoning contract. I'm not kidding, stop giving me that look. The seals painted and engraved upon the marks I use act as triggers. So long as I have enough chakra, the trigger sends out an instantaneous signal to the originator seal that activates it (obviously the greater the distance is from the originator seal, the greater amount of chakra is needed for the signal to reach). The originator seal then calls me, and whatever my chakra has latched onto, inside of it. From there, I can call upon the new point I want to go to and the seal summons me there through the mark.

"The entire process is transitory, and really, once you get the hang of it, you just focus on the new point you want to go to and... well, flex your chakra. It's a lot of instinctual stuff, so I know you'll get the hang of it after you practice a couple of times.

"The reason I brought the originator seal, however, is to implement your chakra and blood so you can use it just as I can."

"That simple?" Naruto wondered.

"Amazingly enough, yes," I laughed. "From what I gathered from Papa's notes, he intended for the originator seal to be used by the entire family. That way any mark one of us makes, we all can use."

Naruto beamed. "That's so cool! So what do I do first?"

"Sign your name in blood, and then sign it with your chakra," I instructed, unrolling the scroll. It really did remind me of the summoning contract I shared with the pack. There were some obvious changes to it, but the basic structure was overall very similar. Naruto squirmed excitedly, biting his thumb enthusiastically to write out his name next to mine. When he was finished, I gestured towards the sealing ink I had placed beside him.

His brow furrowed up before I told him that he had to push some of his own chakra into the ink in order for his chakra to mix with the ink. He crinkled his nose, jabbing his index finger into the ink. He pushed so much chakra inside of it the bottle cracked and his hand glowed a pale blue.

I resisted the urge to cringe at that. Sealing ink was damn expensive and pumping that much chakra into it would make it useless for any fūinjutsu. Fortunately, it would work just fine for our purposes.

He signed his name again with a flourish, beaming at me. "Now what?"

"Now we practice," I told him. "Go ahead and make your thousands of clones, I've marked this island pretty extensively. I'll keep the originator seal here with me, as the closer to the seal you are, the easier it will be; however, once you've succeeded a few times, I'll be storing it away safe and sound. Without the originator seal, we wouldn't be able to use Hiraishin at all."

Naruto nodded his head, his face screwed up. "How do I practice?"

"Since you've signed onto the originator seal, I'm sure you can already feel all the different marks I've placed," I told him, and his eyes lit up with realization that he could, "It's not unlike gathering chakra for any ninjutsu. Gather your chakra, focus on a mark, and flex it towards that mark. That's the best explanation I can give, as it's all about feeling your way around."

He gave me a thumbs up and a grin. "I'll have this down easy-peezy."

"I'm sure you'll master it in no time," I responded honestly, warm pride blooming inside of me as I gazed at my brother. It was true, when it came to hands-on and instinctual work, Naruto was a prodigy in every aspect.

I blinked in surprise when I found one of my clones' memories flooding inside of me. It would appear that I had already managed to pop the water balloon.

From what I could feel from the clones' memory, the chakra control level wasn't too far off from some of my favored multi-layered genjutsus (not that I got much of a chance to use genjutsu since after I started training with Jiraiya. Too many Akatsuki members could shrug off genjutsu. Sasori was a damn puppet, and had no nervous system to tamper with; Deidara had his eye scope; Itachi was Itachi; Kisame was used to Itachi; Tobi was Tobi; Zetsu had two separate people; Pein had Rinnegan; Konan could become paper and her nervous system would be nada...). Naruto might have been gifted in his physical way of learning, but I prided myself on my impressive chakra control, considering I had a grumpy bijū living inside of me that took great pleasure in shocking my chakra system with a burst of his own chakra for shits and giggles. Learning to control his chakra, as well as my own to calm it down might have taken me years, but damn it, I was doing pretty damn well.

A smile bloomed across my face.

It seemed this would be a productive time.

"Miwako-chan! Naruto-kun!"

My eyes widened in surprise at the very familiar voice.

Naruto and I both turned around—Naruto was about to summon thousands of clones, undoubtedly, but stopped when he saw who was racing towards us.

Hotaru, the young girl who became the student of one Utakata sprinted towards us. When she reached us, she threw her arms around us, tackling us into the ground. The young blonde was giggling like mad, her eyes lit up with sheer bubbly joy as she sat up. "I missed you guys! I'm so glad we have this chance to catch up."

"Hotaru-chan?" I questioned, mildly dazed in surprise to see her here. "Does that mean Utakata and Saiken-sama are here?"

"Mn!" Hotaru nodded enthusiastically. "Zabuza-sama said that Utakata-sensei had to stay with the other jinchuuriki on this island. Haku-kun said you two would be here, so I told Zabuza-sama that I had to go with Utakata-sensei. Well, I was going to go with him anyway because it's Utakata-sensei, but you guys just made me even more determined."

Naruto deftly wiggled his way out from under her and stood up, while I continued to lay under her. My face lit up. "That's wonderful! I'm really glad to see you, and hear that Utakata is doing well and will be staying here with us."

Hotaru beamed. "Mn! It's all thanks to you, Miwako-chan, and Naruto-kun."

"So where's Utakata now?" Naruto asked, smiling easily at the girl.

"He's meeting with some boring people," Hotaru elegantly informed us, a mischievous spark in her eyes. "He promised me when he was done, he would help me practice my bubbles!"

"You can make bubbles?" Naruto and I asked at the same time.

Hotaru giggled. "Tiny ones, nothing like the ones Utakata-sensei can make, but I'm getting there."

"I'm really happy for you, Hotaru-chan," I told her. "Ah, but do you mind getting off me? Naruto and I need to return to our own training."

Hotaru blushed sheepishly, rolling off me and hopping back up with grace. I took my time, brushing off the bits of grass that had stuck to me. I pushed back my pigtails, and attempted to move my bangs out of my face, but failed when they immediately came back.

Hotaru gave a small bow. "I'm sorry for barreling in on you guys like that. I was just really excited."

Naruto chuckled good-naturedly. "You're fine. So are you two liking Wave?"

Hotaru straightened back up, pulling out crinkles from her battle kimono and answered, "Yeah. Everyone there is so nice, and there are so many cute little academy students. When Utakata and I aren't training, Haku-kun and I have taken to helping the teachers at the academy. Haku-kun is really patient with the children, it's so sweet. It's hard to believe at times that he's Zabuza-sama's favored student, but Haku-kun insists that Zabuza-sama is just a big teddy bear."

"He is," I told her, smiling. "A big, ol' warm teddy bear."

She giggled cutely, tucking her hands behind her back. "You two should come visit us. I know Haku-kun would love to see you again, Naruto-kun."

Naruto gave her a thumbs-up. "Sounds like a plan to me! I could use a vacation after the whole Akatsuki bullshit."

"No kidding," I muttered.

"I'll let you two get back to training," said Hotaru, "since I probably should get back to Utakata-sensei before he misses me. I'll see you two at dinner, though, and I promise I'll make you both something delicious."

The prospect of a homemade hot meal was immensely appealing for the two of us, and we thanked her profusely.

When she was gone, I turned back to Naruto. "Alright, go ahead and make your million clones."

Naruto gave me a cheeky grin.

('･ω･')

It was nice.

For a good, solid, week, the two of us trained from morning until evening and then we shared lovely dinners with Hotaru and Utakata. The two had some interesting stories about Wave, and Naruto was eager to share his own stories.

Killer Bee even started joining us after the third day, and that's when things to really interesting. Between my hyperactive brother and the enthusiastic Bee, there wasn't a dinner that didn't end in food everywhere, dishes broken, and a mildly traumatized Utakata.

I think it was the tentacle night that really got to him.

Poor Utakata.

And while I enjoyed the dinners for the human company, I would shamed if I didn't mention how much the bijū company was appreciated. Utakata was kind enough to let Saiken (he was actually a very shy bijū and Utakata was the first human he felt comfortable around in a long time) out every now and then, and Killer Bee always relayed what Gyūki wanted to say.

Day to day seemed to pass by smoothly.

It was hard to believe that a war would be coming to us so soon.

But, I had thought, that's what we've been preparing for.

We're more than ready.

Mn!

('･ω･')

I had almost forgotten about Kisame being inside Samehada, but when Bee finally brought the massive weapon outside of his room after the first week had passed, I discreetly made several clones to fetch everyone else.

Bee sat down in front of Naruto, a smirk on his face while Naruto pulled out a deck of cards.

"I'll win this time," Naruto told him, a determined spark in his eyes.

Bee actually laughed so hard at that, he clutched at his sides.

"I so will," Naruto pouted. "Don't gotta laugh that hard, man..."

"I don't know, you've always been so slow you can't keep up with my flow," Bee told him.

Naruto huffed at that, shuffling his deck.

It was a nice day, that day, out in the forest. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the grass was so soft it was hard to resist the urge to just lay in it and take a nice long nap. If I didn't know what had to be done, I probably would have just laid beside the two jinchūriki and slept the day away.

Gai was the first one to arrive, along with Jiraiya shortly after.

They both played along with me, as my clone had asked them to come quickly, play dumb, and standby for battle. Jiraiya slung an arm around my shoulder, pulling me in to ruffle my loose hair with his other hand.

Gai gave a grin at seeing the card game unfold and eagerly asked to be dealt into the next game.

Utakata and Hotaru came next, and I knew that now would be the ideal time to act.

Deciding to get the entire thing done and over with, I said, "Hoshigaki Kisame is hiding in Samehada."

Everything that happened next was almost immediate.

Jiraiya launched himself towards Samehada, Rasengan flaring to life with Bee called upon Gyūki and shot out several tentacles. Gai threw himself at the Samehada, fire alight in his eyes.

Hotaru actually balked in surprise at first, but wasted little time in calling forth a water dragon ninjutsu, while Utakata created a massive bubbled that surrounded all of us.

Me?

I watched, prepared to make the next move as I knew what Kisame's move was.

Kisame's move was, it seemed, to flicker away from the massive damage that was coming his way.

Sadly for him, Utakata had already created his fortified bubble and the missing-nin collided into the invisible wall.

"I'm afraid so long as I maintain my connection to the wall, you won't be able to escape," Utakata informed him. "Go ahead and suck away my chakra, but you won't take it away fast enough to escape before these guys catch you."

"Judging from your battered state, I'd say you aren't even quite at hundred percent, are you?" I drawled, cocking my hip and calling forth Kurama's chakra.

A golden cloak bloomed around me, and Naruto quickly mimicked my actions.

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to surrender yourself and save us the hassle?" Jiraiya asked. "I've got a little tiny eensy bit of a grudge against Akatsuki, you see, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to hold back."

"I won't," Hotaru promised darkly. "You're trying to take Utakata-sensei away."

"How unyouthful of you," Gai declared. "I will stop you from destroying the blossoming glory of springtime youth!"

Kisame's eyes flickered back and forth between all of us, weighing his options.

"This sucks," he said.

It really did not end well with him.

('･ω･')

With an unconscious Kisame tied up with chakra-compressing restraints, we all debated on what to do with him next.

"I vote kill him," I put in.

"We cannot kill everyone that's a missing-nin, Miwako," Naruto sighed tiredly.

"We can't therapy-no-jutsu everyone, either," I pouted petulantly.

Hotaru cocked her head. "Therapy-no-jutsu?"

"Don't ask," Jiraiya chuckled, shaking his head. "I'm not one for torture, and frankly since he's been inside Samehada from the start, I doubt he'll be able to share any more information on the Akatsuki that we don't already know."

I'm mean, we are already at war with them and Kisame's been out of contact from the Akatsuki for weeks. How could he have any new and relevant information? He probably didn't even know the Akatsuki was going to declare war, let alone where Tobi would be holding the base of operations. Sure, he might have been able to find it soon enough, but knowing it off hand...?

"Shame we don't have anyone specialized in mind-jutsus," Jiraiya continued, "but that's how it is. I don't want him anywhere near Konoha, or our other bases. He's too dangerous. So my vote is... toss him out."

Naruto made a whine at that.

"You cannot save them all, kid," Jiraiya told him, patting his shoulder. "Miwako can't use the Hiraishin to take him back to Konoha," (Naruto and I steadily would not meet his gaze at that), "so we're out of options. We definitely can't keep him here, as we don't have a containment facility for someone like him."

"Unfortunate," Gai said solemnly, "but unavoidable."

"Let's just get this over with," Utakata muttered. "I'm hungry."

"I think I'll make some onigiri with lunch today," Hotaru mumbled, trailing off and looking thoughtful.

"I would love some onigiri," I told her, and she preened.

"Fine!" Naruto exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. "Kill him. I don't care anymore. Bastard ruined my card game. I was so going to win, too!"

Bee placed a consoling hand on Naruto's shoulder and told him with absolute certainty, "No. You really weren't."

Naruto whimpered.

('･ω･')

I rolled my shoulders, starting to feel anxious that my signal to get moving on the war had yet to go off. It was starting to make me restless, waiting for that signal, but I knew better than to rush it.

I wondered briefly if Yamato was even kidnapped by that point. While it was true that Jiraiya came with us to the island instead of Yamato, it didn't mean that Yamato was exempt from being kidnapped by Kabuto.

I shrugged. Even if he was kidnapped then I would just rescue him, right after my signal went off.

Which was taking forever.

Honestly, it had been almost two weeks now.

It was driving me absolutely mad, popping into my golden form and back just to see if Kurama could catch a glimpse of—

I paced restlessly back and forth on the tallest spike of the island, glaring at the roaring sea around us.

Just on the off chance, I called forth my golden form, prepared to be met with disappointment—

It's finally starting!

I could feel them—oh so faint, I would be able to sense Kurama's chakra from anywhere in the world.

A smile bloomed upon my lips. Before I could begin to set my own plan into motion, though, I heard Kurama call to me.

Miwako, he whispered to me, and oddly enough... he sounded nervous.

Worried for my friend, I entered my mindscape.

Even if our signal had just been launched, Kurama took priority.

Always.