I DO NOT OWN NARUTO

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The kunoichi cautiously stepped into the room, and at Senku's pointed look, slowly approached what looked like a metal box with a glass pane for a lid. Rising onto her toes in order to see what was inside, Naruko instantly dropped back down and started to back away, eyes wide and hands pressed tightly to her mouth.

"A little birdie told me that a little girl from Konohagakure found out how to remove the Hyuuga juinjutsu... a certain girl named Naruko Uzumaki," Senku's voice floated out from where he stood by the doorway, an eerily calm quality to his words.

Naruko was shaking, whether in fear or rage, she didn't know.

"We realized the seal's purpose the instant we saw it. We're very well-versed, you should realize. Konoha is home to quite a few Fūinjutsu Masters, so we were prepared for such a thing. But the Third Raikage... ah, he was never for it in the beginning, and only agreed to keep the peace. I am here to continue my father's work; I was but a teenager when the stasis was placed upon Hizashi Hyuuga's body and brought here, to the Ichinose family's secret underground lab." He looked a little too proud of this accomplishment, if it could even be called one. "Now, I assume you have figured out by now why I brought you here?"

Naruko started shaking her head. "No. No, I won't do it." She whirled around to face her captor, her eyes turning an electric-blue with a malevolent fury, standing out against the dim setting of the underground lab. "I won't help you find the Byakugan's secrets. I am a Konoha shinobi, and my loyalty is to my village."

Senku's eyes darkened as he took a threatening step forward. "No," he said softly, "you will do it. I am no fool, Naruko Uzumaki. I knew you wouldn't cooperate... at first. And that's why I took the liberty to do some research beforehand." His hand slid into his lab coat pocket and withdrew five photos. 

Naruko's breath hitched in her throat as she recognized the faces of her grey-haired brother and her two teammates. The fourth and fifth picture, however, displayed a redheaded Suna shinobi and a green-haired Taki kunoichi. Upon taking a closer look, Naruko saw that the backgrounds indicated the photos had been taken not during the Chuunin Exams, as she first assumed, but in their home villages. A cold pit of dread settled in her stomach.

"You see now, don't you, girl?" Senku's voice held a tinge of malicious amusement in it; Naruko wanted nothing more than to sock him for it. He tucked the photos away and leaned in close to her face. "I have men stationed and ready to kill them the minute I give them the order. And yes, I have accounted for Kakashi of the Sharingan and the redheaded boy's "ultimate defense", and allocated men accordingly." He leaned in even closer, until his mouth was right beside Naruko's ear. "Not a single one of them will escape with their lives."

Naruko's breathing remained steady, but her heartrate was another matter entirely. It was as if, at any second, her ribcage would shatter with how hard the organ was throwing itself against the cage. And for a moment, Naruko understood how Neji felt — a previously-free bird that had been captured and trapped in a cage against its will. The irony was not lost on her.

"So, will you do it now, girl?" Senku asked with a plastic smile, moving back. "If you can't, I have other... more persuasive methods."

Kurama suddenly spoke up, an urgent tone to his voice. "Kit, remember how you learnt how to summon Shadow Clones at specific, remote locations? And you remember what Yugito's apartment looks like? Well, then, summon me there!"

Naruko managed to stop her eyes from widening. Of course; and Senku hadn't even put chakra restraints on her. He probably thought that since she was a Genin and hadn't attacked him yet, she wouldn't. And add to the fact that she would have to use chakra to remove the juinjutsu, as Senku no doubt knew.

Speaking of the scientist... Naruko set her jaw. "Recall the men stationed around my friends." Behind her back, she dug her nail into her thumb hard enough to break the skin. She discreetly brought her arm to the front and wiped it across her torso, where the Eight Trigrams Seal was. Thankfully, her black obi would cover up the bloodstain. Dipping into the well of Bijuu chakra dwelling within her, Naruko specifically imagined the room she had appeared in the night she travelled to talk with her mother.

Senku chuckled. "Oh no, I can't do that. What if you were to undo the stasis? No, I will only recall them once the juinjutsu has been removed. If you can't remove it... well, that'll be a pity." A cold smile stretched widely across his face. "I told you before, didn't I? Nothing from beyond the door could leave this room. And that includes you. If you are unable to fulfill this task, then I will have no choice but to kill you."

'He's going to kill me anyway once I remove the Caged Bird Seal,' Naruko thought bitterly. This was a fine mess she'd gotten into. Aloud, she said in a voice calmer than she felt, "The Raikage doesn't know about this, does he?"

Senku blinked, clearly having not expected the question. He started to chuckle quietly, growing in volume until he was full-on laughing. Naruko shivered; this man's laugh wasn't happy; it was lunatical. "Of course not!" the scientist snorted, as if such a notion were absurd. He sobered, his garnet eyes gleaming dangerously. "A was a fool; he wouldn't take the opportunity even when it was staring him in the face. And his son — the Fourth — he doesn't care that Kumo is the Hidden Village with the lowest amount of kekkei genkai." His mouth twisted cruelly. "What I am doing, and what you are helping me with, is for the better good of Kumo. You, and everyone else, will see. And if sacrifices have to be made..." Senku's eyes drifted over to Hizashi's prone form, "well, nothing good ever comes without sacrifice, anyway."

"I'm out," Kurama spoke in Naruko's head. "No one's here. Yugito's probably training... I'm going to try reaching out to Matatabi and Gyuki. Otherwise I might have to wait until Yugito comes home — there's no use in causing an uproar over an eight-tailed fox running around the village when we're trying to be covert."

'How are you going to explain things? Specifically, to the Raikage? Because I assume you would need his permission to storm the lab.'

"I'm leaving that up to Yugito, actually," Kurama admitted sheepishly.

Naruko mentally rolled her eyes, turning to face the box that held Hizashi Hyuuga's body. "I need a week or two," she said at last. It was a lie; she didn't even need a day. But for all he knew about her and her friends, Senku didn't know the process of undoing this specific juinjutsu or how long it would take. And since she needed to buy as much time as she could, it went in her favour.

"We'll give you a ten days," Senku said sharply. "No more. Now, I'll leave you to it. But be warned — no funny business. I have cameras in every nook and cranny, monitoring yours and Hyuuga-san's stats and chakra while simultaneously watching your every move. Should you foolishly try to destroy or deactivate a camera, an alarm will sound and your friends will die. Understood?"

Naruko could only grit her teeth and nod. At this point, she didn't have much choice. At least now she understood why some shinobi preferred not to have connections or attachments; loved ones made you strong, yes, but they could also be used against you. But Naruko had been raised with the philosophy of precious people, and had been through too much to even consider taking it back now. No, she would find a way out of this, without bringing harm to her loved ones. After all, Senku Ichinose had already made two mistakes: first he took her from within Konoha's walls, and secondly, he brought her to Kumogakure. Naruko was just lucky she had so many allies in so many places.

Naruko took a deep breath as Senku opened the door and left, shutting it with an audible click — the message was loud and clear: she was locked in. Refusing to let the thought bother her, the blonde slowly approached the metal box again and eased off the lid. She grimaced at the death-like state her friend's father was in.

'Neji... I found him. And I'll bring him back to you. I promise.'

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Naruko sighed, alternating between rubbing her glabella and rubbing her arms. Since the lab was underground, it was rather chilly, and she was forming a headache from staying up for three days straight. The only reason Naruko knew it had been three days since her arrival in Kumo was because she had been counting the seconds since she had first woken up — she had counted the 259,200th second some 21,600 seconds ago. Though tedious, this menial task kept her grounded and forced her to multitask, meaning the removing Hizashi's Caged Bird Seal would be slowed, if only by a little bit.

Kurama was still out, presumably with Yugito and Bee. The strange thing was, the Bijuu had said half a sentence that implied he had seen Yugito, but the connection had abruptly cut off. Naruko had worried over this for a while, but ultimately pushed it back and carried on with her work.

To the cameras and Senku's grunts, it would appear that she was copying down the juinjutsu to use it in numerous trial runs, however in actuality she was studying the stasis jutsu that was cast upon the Hyuuga. Fascinatingly enough, it appeared to work almost identically to the Hyuuga's famed taijutsu style in the way that it blocked off Hizashi's tenketsu, rendering both his muscles and his chakra network useless. However there was something more to this jutsu, if the fact that his relatively healthy and un-aged appearance was anything to go by. 

'It's almost as if time froze for him...' Blinking at this train of thought, Naruko shuffled over and gently lifted the man's head. Upon closer examination, Naruko discovered a tiny seal painted on the nape of his neck — so it wasn't a jutsu, but a fūinjutsu. And it had a few elements that, as a Hiraishin-user, Naruko was more than familiar with. She smirked; now this she could work with.

Naruko winced as a dull throb became more pronounced between her brows; she reached up to rub at it absently. She closed her eyes only briefly, but when she opened them again, everything was... fuzzy. Squinting, Naruko rubbed at her eyes and watched as everything slowly swam back into focus. Either she was more tired than she believed, or she was getting sick. It wasn't like she had the luxury to rest, or anything to keep her warm. And the food wasn't exactly warming — a roll of stale bread and a bowl of cold miso soup. Neither nutritious or filling, but it was food and her current only source of energy. Well... not entirely true, but Naruko's brain wasn't functioning at its best in this specific moment in time.

Naruko blinked when she heard a loud crash and alarmed shouts and the faint blaring of sirens. Shrugging it off as an experiment that broke free from its confines — it's sad how used she got to it after only three days — she returned to Hizashi and the ratty sketchpad Senku had "gifted" her to work with. Her hand was shaking as it attempted to draw the seal; well that settled it, she was never staying up for three days and two nights straight in a freezing underground lab ever again.

"...kit. Kit. Kit! Kami-dammit, KIT WAKE UP!"

Naruko stumbled back from the table, blinking rapidly. 'K-Kurama?'

"Geez Kit, how out of it are you?" Kurama griped, irritation masking his concern. "Sorry I took so long, but they should be here any minute."

Naruko blinked. 'Who...?'

"Wow, you really are out of it. That's not good... look, I'm going to need you to—"

The Bijuu was cut off when the door abruptly slammed open, and the sounds of combat echoed eerily off the metal hallway and bounced to fill the room. Naruko half-turned to see a wild-eyed, panting Senku in the doorway. Naruko couldn't stop the small smile; over the past few days, she had realized Senku's stamina was worse than a baby's, and that's why he had so many grunts to order around — he was the brain, they were the brawn.

"Alright, I have no idea how you did it or if it was you that did it, but they're here," Senku growled as he stalked closer to her.

"Who?" Naruko asked blankly. Seriously, something was wrong with her brain and her ability to both function and process things properly.

"Fatigue, malnutrition, catching friggin' pneumonia," Kurama listed off. Naruko was inclined to agree with all three causes.

"The Raikage, ANBU, Killer Bee-sama and his students," Senku bit out, gripping her shoulders so hard it turned painful. "But as long as I've got you here, perhaps..."

"Naruko!" a female voice cried, and the blonde swivelled around at the voice.

Naruko blinked rapidly as an ANBU in a cobalt-blue Neko mask made to come closer. The outline of the figure was blurring, and her features were hidden by the customary ANBU porcelain mask, but something in Naruko recognized her at once.

"Okaa-san...?"

The ANBU abruptly stopped and Naruko was left confused, until she heard shouts of outrage — not just from the ANBU, but from others in the room — and became dimly aware of a white-clad arm holding her in a chokehold, crushing her windpipe while a cold blade rested under her chin.

She wasn't sure what happened next; all she heard was the crackling of lightning which instantly became drowned out by the roar of cobalt-coloured flames bursting forth and the screeching of an infuriated dam. The kunoichi's form rapidly morphed into a flaming two-tailed cat, pouncing on a terrified Senku before the man could swipe the blade.

The scientist screamed and instantly pushed the girl away from him as he started to run. Naruko felt herself fall, but she never connected with the ground; instead, slender arms wrapped around her shoulders and gently lowered her to the ground, her back resting against someone's thigh as they crouched on the ground. The unknown woman's voice was sharp and cold, underlined with a tightly-leashed panic — nothing at all like her mother's soft tones — as she shouted something.

Naruko whimpered as the loud sounds and negativity — despair, fear, sadness, fear, aggression, rage, fearfearfear — assaulted her senses. She unconsciously turned into the body of the woman holding her, trying to block out the sensory overload. "Kaa-chan..." (1)

"Who?" the woman asked softly, but almost urgently. "Who is your kaa-chan?"

In her haze-filled mind, a single name stood out. "Y-Yugito Nii."

There was a surprised silence; clearly, the woman had been expecting a Konoha shinobi's name. But she said nothing, instead choosing to shout again, something different this time. There was an abrupt silence as the previous sounds of combat disappeared, and then clacking footsteps on the stone floors as someone ran towards them, and Naruko was shifted over into someone else's gentle arms.

"Naruko," someone whispered, the tender affection lining that oh-so-familiar voice being almost enough to make the girl cry.

The young girl cracked her eyes open and saw the concerned face staring down at her, onyx eyes that were usually calm and serene now a turbulent squall of emotions behind a film of tears that refused to be shed. "Kaa-chan," she whispered with a weak smile.

"Hey," Yugito smiled shakily down at her, squeezing her shoulders. "You're okay now. I've got you. A's off destroying all the research and Bee's got Ichinose — he's not going anywhere. You're safe now... I'm sorry we took so long."

Naruko hummed contently as she rolled over to push herself closer to the warmth, nuzzling her face into Yugito Nii's collarbone. "I knew you'd come... you always do."

Yugito's eyes widened — even after all this time, she still had so much faith — and her grip on her girl tightened. She felt Naruko go limp, but before she could panic, Samui was there, pressing her fingers to Naruko's wrist before untying the girl's hitai-ate and laying the back of her hand on Naruko's forehead.

"She's fine," Samui smiled reassuringly at the kunoichi, "she just has a fever, and probably a little malnourished since I doubt Ichinose kept her well-fed in these last three days. But don't worry — she'll make a quick recovery."

Yugito breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at her friend. "Thank you, Samui."

The well-endowed blonde shrugged. "No worries. Let's get her to the hospital now, ne?" Her lips pursed in thinly-veiled amusement as her eyes flickered over Yugito's head; the kunoichi turned to see their Raikage grinning like a maniac — with an unhealthy amount of glee — as he wreaked havoc during his self-imposed mission to demolish the underground Ichinose laboratory like the Hachibi once destroyed Kumo.

Yugito turned to exchange smirks with Samui. The latter grinned with a shake of her head and stood up, dusting off her skirt before walking over to hold the door open. "Let's get out of here, Yugito."

The Two-Tails' jinchuuriki could not agree more.

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Yugito was still sitting by Naruko's bedside, two days later. Samui and A had both tried — and both failed — to get her to move. Killer Bee hadn't even bothered to try, and soon enough Samui and A got the idea and followed his lead. Samui did insist on dropping by to bring her food every now and then, and Yugito was thankful for that.

Naruko's fever had gone down slowly, and once her temperature dropped to normal, something in Yugito's chest loosened and she found she could finally breathe easier.

Yugito rested her elbows on the bed, cupping Naruko's hand in both of hers and leaning forward to rest her forehead on her hands. A bittersweet smile crossed her face; maternal instincts never went away, it seemed.

A faint twitch in her hands had her head shooting up, and she tentatively squeezed. The hand — that was still so, so small — gripped hers loosely, and then the azure-blue eyes opened, followed by a small smile.

"Hi okaa-san."

"Naruko!" Yugito almost pounced on the girl, gathering her daughter in her arms and holding her close. "Don't ever scare me like that again you hear me?" she demanded, pulling away for a brief moment to see Naruko nod in assent, before hugging her tightly again. "Good Kami... if I find any grey hairs, I'm blaming you."

Naruko giggled, clutching at her mother. "I know."

"So I felt a— hey, Little Britches, you're awake!" Killer Bee's boisterous voice filled the hospital room as he quickly made his way over, a bright grin on his tanned face. Naruko smiled and tried to sit up; Yugito shifted back a bit, but kept her hand on the younger blonde's shoulder. Trying not to show his amusement at the surfacing "Mama-Cat", Killer Bee leaned in to squeeze Naruko gently, ruffling her hair. "Freaked us the hell out, you know that Little Britches?"

"Sorry," Naruko apologized with a sheepish smile. She sighed, relaxing back into her pillows. "I have a feeling I'm going to be saying that a lot in the next few days." She paused, curiosity slowly making itself known in her sapphire orbs. "I'm going to go out on a limb and saying you stormed the lab and then transported me to Kumo's hospital?"

"Mm-hm," Yugito nodded, absently reaching out to brush a stray hair from Naruko's face. "I had a bit of a shock when I came home after spending the night at Samui's to find a fox curled up on my bed. An eight-tailed fox, nonetheless. I had to summon Matatabi out just so she could wake up Kurama — he sleeps like the dead, you know that? — and when he informed me of what was happening—"

"The reckless idiot of a mother of yours was about to storm the lab herself, if I hadn't caught her in time," a female voice interrupted. All three heads turned to see a tall, fair-skinned woman with a fairly curvaceous figure standing in the doorway. Despite her stoic expression, her electric-blue eyes held some amusement in them, the rimy shade complimenting her shoulder-length blonde hair that was cut in an asymmetrical bob.

Naruko recognized her voice — it was the woman who had caught her when she fell — though it was more composed and stoic than... wait, how long had it been since she was rescued?

"Samui," Yugito blinked in surprise, before her lips twisted in something akin to a cross between a pout and a playful frown. "I am not a reckless idiot. If anything, that title belongs to either this big oaf right here," she jabbed her thumb in a grinning Killer Bee's direction, "or that big lug of a Raikage."

A snort escaped Naruko's lips before she could stop it. At her mother's raised eyebrow, Naruko didn't bother holding in her laughter. "S-Sorry okaa-san," she managed through giggles, "but it's just... you always told me to be respectful to my elders, like my teachers but especially people of authority, like the Kage, because they are the strongest shinobi in their respective village and are the the ones who would not hesitate to lay down their lives for the village... but you just insulted  the Raikage."

"Yes, and it's a daily occurrence," a new voice joined in.

"Yo, bro!" Bee grinned widely, mock-saluting the massive hulk of a man looming in the doorway.

"Welcome back, you gorilla," Yugito greeted amicably.

A soft "pffft" escaped Naruko again, and she slapped her hand over her mouth. "I don't think Son Goku would appreciate that very much," she whispered thoughtfully to Yugito. The woman smirked, but didn't deign to give her a reply.

"I'm not a gorilla," the Raikage grumbled as he lumbered over to where his shinobi were. "Nice to see you've woken up, Naruko."

"Hai. It's good to see you again, Raikage-sama," Naruko smiled politely.

Yugito raised an eyebrow, "You know each other already?"

"We met at the Chuunin Exams," Naruko explained with another smile. "He's also met Yagu-nii and Uta-nii... he's probably sick of Yagu-nii, though. They had to share a hospital room." Yugito's previously blank face cleared up with a knowing 'Ah'. Naruko turned back to the foreign shinobi, "Um, this is a bit late, but..." she held out her hand, "I'm Naruko Uzumaki, Genin of Konoha."

Samui blinked before smiling slightly and taking her hand. "Samui, Jonin of Kumo." She paused, "And Yugito's best friend," she added with a smirk. The afterthought resulted in Samui having to lean backwards to dodge Yugito's half-hearted swat.

Naruko grinned, releasing Samui's hand. She looked around at them, "Are you the ones who... um, stormed the lab?" she asked curiously.

"Yes, but not all of us are here," Yugito answered, lifting her daughter so she was free to sit cross-legged on the bed and then situate Naruko on her lap. Despite being thirteen, Naruko didn't try to protest and simply leaned back into Yugito's chest, hearing her heartbeat thud comfortingly at the back of her skull. Yugito wrapped her arms around the girl, resting her chin on the younger's blonde hair. She pointedly ignored the amused and intrigued stares from her fellow Kumo ninja. "We had two other ANBU and Bee's students — Karui and Omoi." Yugito gently squeezed the girl in her arms, "I think you'd get along with Karui. She'a bit like you, actually. And, the best part is, she enjoys "contradicting" — also seen as "berating" — Omoi, who is a "realistic" person, but he really is just a pessimist."

Naruko grinned. "Great. Ganging-up on the pessimist. Sounds like my cup of tea."

A huffed, obviously disgruntled. "Karui and Omoi weren't supposed to come with us... but they trailed us and snuck in anyway," he grumbled.

"Personally, I blame Bee's influence," Yugito said lightly. "Look at that grin on his face, he's not denying it and he even looks proud. The audacity." She shook her head, a smirk growing on her lips. Yugito looked down at the girl again, "So what exactly happened? I thought Konoha was one of the most secure Hidden Villages, but here you are after being kidnapped from within the village's walls."

Naruko thought for a moment. 'Kurama, what happened?'

The fox sighed, and with a flare of chakra and a small poof of smoke, he appeared in the open. He was about to open his mouth to recount the tale when there was another flare of chakra and a smaller poof of smoke, and a small cat of cobalt flames appeared.

"Matatabi?" Kurama blinked, a palpable surprise in his voice.

"Kurama," the Nibi returned, prowling over to curl up by Naruko's side. "How are you, kitten?"

"Better," Naruko answered with a smile, reaching out to stroke the cat. Despite the appearance, the flames really did feel like very soft fur. Naruko almost giggled at a comparison that formed in her mind, but she quickly shook it off.

"You may continue, Kurama," Matatabi said, flicking her tail with an amused expression as her brother stared dumbly at her. "What? Like you're the only Bijuu who likes to come out every now and then?"

"R-Right," Kurama blinked. "Anyways what happened was Kit's Genin team was doing a sort of teamwork exercise where they would have their strongest points stripped away — as in, the Uchiha was blinded and the Haruno was deafened — so they were forced to rely on each other to find their sensei and beat him. They did a pretty damn good job of it, too, except at the end some Kumo dude let off a chloroform bomb and knocked Kit unconscious. Kakashi — who is Kit's sensei, by the way — chased Macho-Man until he pulled out a lightning orb to teleport away."

"Teleporting with a lightning orb?" Samui repeated with a furrowed brow. "I don't think we have anything like that, do we?"

"It's probably something Ichinose cooked up," A sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "He's a mad genius. Throw him in the Stone Age and he'd just as easily make a lightbulb as if it were like breathing. I'm guessing the "Macho-Man" was one of his "brawn allies". All muscle and stamina and no brain."

"So like you, then?" Yugito commented. "A 30-pound brain piloting a slab of meat." She was unfazed at the mock-glared A directed at her; the fearsome Raikage huffed and crossed his arms, muttering something about "let's demote the catty Jonin to a D-ranks for a year and see how she smart-mouths that". Yugito's eyes gleamed at the quietly-uttered challenge; A narrowed his dark eyes. They were both equally stubborn, and they both knew it.

"So that's how he got to you, and now your team is all blue. Maybe you should be more shrewd, but then again you do fine just as you," Bee rapped with a wide grin.

Naruko blinked; she hadn't heard his rapping in forever since he only did so in front of his Kumo comrades, so it took her a while to decipher it. "Um, okay, I'll try to keep that in mind." She felt her mother shake with laughter, and jabbed her elbow back to gently prod Yugito's ribs, a slight pout on her face. Mothers could be so mean sometimes.

"Sorry Naru-chan," Yugito mumbled, trying not to smile too hard.

Naruko sighed. Leaning back, she asked, "Well, now it's my turn to ask: what happened? In case you miraculously didn't notice or have forgotten, I was a little out of it when you rescued me."

"Curiosity killed the cat," Yugito said quickly.

"But satisfaction brought it back," Naruko countered easily.

The elder kunoichi rolled her eyes. "That's your automatic rebuttal, isn't it?" At the replying faux-innocent smile, Yugito sighed fondly. "To tell you the truth, I don't actually know," she admitted. "I sort of... blanked, I guess?"

Bee suddenly grinned wickedly, exchanging similar looks with A and Samui. "Ah, about that. We can fill you in... and then some..."

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"Yugito, I'm normally not one to judge... but what the hell are you doing running around with a fox?"

Yugito almost jumped at the sudden voice, but she didn't stop running. Turning her head to the left, she saw Samui keeping pace with her. Yugito almost grimaced at the raised eyebrow on her friend's face that could only mean one thing — Samui wanted an explanation, and if she didn't get it now, she wouldn't stop asking in her own indifferent, but nonetheless annoying, way until she got one. The kunoichi glanced to her right and down at the fox who was as tall as her knee and racing alongside her. Well... she supposed they did look suspicious.

Yugito sighed, "Someone I know is in trouble and I'm going to help her."

Samui's other eyebrow rose. "Right. Does Raikage-sama know? Or Bee, at least?" Yugito's lack of response was answer enough. Samui sighed, "You know you can't just run off on your own like this. People will freak out when one of their most talented Jonin suddenly disappears." The 'And one of their jinchuuriki' was left unspoken.

Sensing Kurama's growing irritation and impatience, Yugito was about to start running faster to hopefully throw Samui off their trail when the damned Jonin spoke up again, "Don't even think about it."

And that was when Kurama snapped. "Hey, I don't know who you are and frankly I don't care because we have a kid to save, so if you would kindly go away."

Samui blinked slowly at the kitsune. Yugito closed her eyes in aggravation; did he have to speak? She held her breath, hoping the endpoint reaction wouldn't be explosive. It was Samui, after all, so the likelihood wasn't very high... but you could never predict another's reaction to something like a Bijuu. 

"That's not a summon, is it." Ice-blue eyes flickered to the Two-Tails' jinchuuriki's, an analytical yet curious gleam in her eyes. "His chakra, it's like yours but... different."

Yugito almost facepalmed. "Look, long story short: Kurama popped up in my apartment to tell me that someone I know is in deep trouble and now I have to go save her. That's what we were doing when you stopped us."

"Right... and you never once stopped to think you should alert Raikage-sama that something is amiss in his own village?" Samui drawled. Shaking her head, the kunoichi reached out to grab Yugito's wrist. Before Yugito could comprehend what she was doing, the two kunoichi and lone kitsune disappeared, only to reappear in the Raikage's Office.

"What did you get into trouble for this time, Yugito?" A sighed the moment he saw two familiar kunoichi suddenly appear in his office. Bee was standing next to him, an amused look clearly on his tanned face despite the shades covering his eyes.

"Samui!" Yugito cried reproachfully, whirling around to glare at her friend. 

Samui stared coolly back. "If this is what I think you're implying, then you need to talk to Bee as well as Raikage-sama."

"But—"

"No buts, Yugito. The sooner you get this over with, the faster you can save that person. Without getting into trouble for it later." Samui rolled her eyes at the irritation that practically cloaked her friend. "I'm trying to help you out here, girl. You can thank me later."

"Samui—"

"I know this person is probably important to you, but you're important to me, too. So you'll have to forgive me if I'd rather not watch you get yelled at by Raikage-sama and probably temporarily demoted for being reckless when helping someone out."

'I'd rather get yelled at and demoted than leave my daughter alone with that slimy bastard for a single second,' Yugito griped internally. But from past experiences, she knew Samui had a will of iron, and while she could easily leave and return to what she had been doing — they both knew she could — she didn't. Simply because Samui was one of the few precious people Yugito had in Kumo, and she would feel guilty later. Besides... Samui had a point. A wouldn't have been happy with her, but Naruko hadn't escaped yet, which worried her immensely since the young blonde had been a master of stealth and trickery since childhood. That probably meant even she would have difficulty getting to her. So Yugito sighed and held out a hand, "Kurama."

The fox glared at his surroundings before reluctantly trotting over to the woman. "It better be worth it," he growled, hopping onto her shoulder as he shrank to a more reasonable travel-size. "I don't like that we're delaying Kit's rescue."

Bee suddenly blanched. "Yugito I need to talk to you," he grabbed the kunoichi's other wrist and ran out of the office, much to the confusion of both A and Samui. "What the hell?" he whispered harshly, "Is that the Kyuubi?"

"Hello, oaf," said Bijuu drawled.

Bee gaped before shaking his head. "What are you doing here? Where's Naruko?"

"In an underground lab, held hostage by some crazy scientist named Senku Ichinose. She got kidnapped from Konoha and she's being forced to remove the Caged Bird Seal from the Hyuuga-broski who's supposed to be dead."

"Broski...?" Bee mumbled.

Yugito wrinkled her brow. "You never told me that second part... wait are we talking about the Hyuuga Affair from ten years ago? That man's still alive?"

"Ichinose said they put a stasis jutsu on him, so he's been "asleep" for the past ten years. They didn't want to kill him without accessing the Byakugan. Apparently, they knew about the Caged Bird Seal from the very beginning and accounted for it," Kurama growled. "So Kit has been dragged into an ten-year Affair and is forced to resolve it."

Bee rubbed the bridge of his nose. "And you went to rescue her without informing even me?"

"There was no time," Yugito hissed. "All I heard was that Naruko got kidnapped by Ichinose and I went straight there. If it wasn't for Samui, I probably would've been able to rescue her by now!"

"Or you would've been captured for leverage," Bee pointed out. "Senku wouldn't dare harm you because of how valuable you are to the village, but he can use you to force Naruko to do what he wants. And while I readily admit you are a force to be reckoned with, in case you haven't noticed, you don't exactly think clearly when someone close to you, and especially Naruko, is in danger."

Yugito looked away. He made a valid point, though she would never say it out loud.

"Let us help you," Bee said quietly. "I know you're worried. I am too. You may be her mother, but I am also her brother. We stand a greater chance of rescuing her together."

Yugito closed her eyes and counted to ten. "Fine," she bit out with a semi-explosive sigh. "But we should hurry. Who knows what else Ichinose is forcing her to do... and that reminds me: Kurama, why hasn't Naruko escaped yet? She's a master of stealth and planning and trickery. Yagura, Han and the Base's natural formation made sure of that. Being held underground should give her an advantage for escape, if anything."

"Ichinose has blackmail on her," Kurama answered. "He showed her pictures to prove that he has men stationed on her teammates, Gaara and Fuu. If she tried anything, he'd give the signal and they'd all be dead. Apparently, he's even accounted for Kakashi's Sharingan and Gaara's automatic sand defense."

Bee shook his head, "No wonder..." Pulling himself together, Bee grabbed Yugito's wrist and led them both back into the Raikage Office. "So we got some news, and we need your views. Better listen close, lest you make her morose."

"Stop. Rapping. Bee," A ground out.

"Finally end up spilling the beans?" Samui asked languidly, eyeing Bee's grip on Yugito's wrist.

"No," Yugito jerked her hand out of Bee's hold. "What the oaf was trying to say is, we have a story to tell you... that goes back around thirteen years ago..."

And so she proceeded to tell them about the jinchuuriki, and how they had formed a family for themselves so no one would grow up alone, or become lost. She told them of the child they had been left to raise, and how for ten years, they had done just that. She spoke of the bonds formed in those long months, that still held strong and true to this very day. She admitted how, if any of them were forced to choose between their village and the jinchuuriki, there was a high chance it would be the jinchuuriki. Then she spoke of the organization that had threatened their peace, of how they had been forced to split up to keep everyone alive and safe. It broke their hearts, but it also kept them safe, and enabled the three youngest jinchuuriki to grow in a way that they never would've otherwise. She recounted what Kurama told her, and how they came here to this very moment. She tried not to leave anything out, though she took great care in concealing the other jinchuuriki identities that were still unknown to the world, especially those of high-rank such as Yagura, Roshi and Gaara.

"Naruko Uzumaki... I've heard that name before," A mused. He was surprisingly relaxed after the revelation Yugito had just dumped on his platinum-haired head.

"It's the blonde girl from the Chuunin Exams, the one with chains flying from her hands," Killer Bee offered helpfully, still in that irritating — and sometimes endearing — "rapping style" of his.

"That'd be it," A agreed. "Well if you're wondering — no, I did not put out an order to kidnap the girl," he scowled. "The Hyuuga Affair was ten years ago." He paused, "Wait... Senku Ichinose? As in, Byakuya Ichinose's kid?"

"Wasn't he the scientist who first put forward the notion of kidnapping Hinata Hyuuga?" Samui frowned lightly. "This is getting to be more trouble than it's worth." She sighed, "Well, Raikage-sama? What's your order?"

"Hmm... illegal underground labs... kidnapping children... keeping an innocent man alive but in a death-like state... forcing children to betray their village..." A stood up abruptly with a maniacal grin stretching across his face. "We storm the lab and destroy it until there's nothing left but dust and debris, of course! UNLEASH THE HACHIBI!"

The two kunoichi sweatdropped in tandem. "You're going to kill Bee..."

Said jinchuuriki didn't seem to have too much of a problem with it; "Won't lose my cool, gotta move cleverly. Chess not checkers, playing it with strategy. But me and Gyuki, well that's a win automatically, yo!" Bee grinned widely.

Yugito groaned, burying her face in her hands. "He's going to get himself killed..."

One and a half days later — much longer than Yugito would've liked — A had assembled a small ANBU squad and sent word to Konoha that they had thwarted a kidnapping and the missing girl — ahem, kunoichi — was safe with them. It was a twist of the truth, however A had no other way of wording it so it didn't sound like they intentionally kidnapped Naruko themselves. Besides, it wasn't entirely untrue; once the day was over, they would've done exactly that. And that was A's way of assuaging his guilt as he sealed the scroll with his stamp.

"Alright, that — is — it!"

A didn't bother to look up at as the doors to his office were flung open — it was a rather common occurrence nowadays, especially since Yugito had finally "come out of her shell". And yes, Killer Bee had indeed received a roundabout kick to the head for that particular comment. The female jinchuuriki, already decked out in her ANBU gear and cobalt-blue porcelain mask hooked on her belt, stormed in. A closed his eyes and prayed for sustenance, bracing himself for the yelling that was sure to come.

"Either you get your hulking ass out there, or I go alone!" Yugito snarled, planting her hands on the desk. "I can't wait any longer. I understand having to pull together a squad, and I could wait one night because I would be preparing myself, but it's 10:17 in the morning and I refuse to loiter around for another second! I need to get down there!"

"That was awfully specific, Yugito," A said absently, tying up the scroll with a dark-gold ribbon and adding a seal that bore "雷", the kanji for "Lightning".

"Either you come with me or I go alone!" Yugito repeated forcefully. "I'm not joking. If you're not out of that seat in the next three seconds—"

A grumbled, sliding the scroll into his desk. "Fine, fine, woman, I'm coming. Hold your horses."

"What did you just say to me?" Yugito hissed dangerously.

A held up his hands in defense as he slowly inched out of his office. Son of the Third Raikage and the current Raikage he may be, but even A knew it wasn't wise to provoke Yugito any further; she had the skills to match her temper and was as high-strung as the animal her Bijuu embodied. It had been a while since A had seen Yugito lose it, but at this moment she looked more than close to exploding.

"You know Yugito, when someone tells you to hold your horses, they're essentially telling you to be stable," Samui's bored voice quipped from the doorway. The blonde in question was leaning on the doorjamb, her cold beryl eyes glittering with some amusement at the exchange between her hot-headed Raikage and her unusually-jittery best friend.

"Shut up," Yugito muttered, pushing past the other kunoichi. "Let's just get going already."

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today," A whispered to Samui, who cracked a smile. Wrong side, indeed...

Yugito's unusual volatile mood only worsened as the day progressed. "Of course Ichinose just has to have his secret f---ing underground lab in a f---ing mountain," Yugito muttered under her breath as she followed Kurama, the other shinobi trailing a ways behind them. Luckily, no one other than Kurama heard her, otherwise they would've highly likely had her arrested for acting suspicious and being an impostor — Yugito Nii never swore.

"Losing's not an option, no time for ails, no time for fails," Bee warned as they finally came to the clearing about halfway up the mountain.

"I know," Yugito ground out through gritted teeth, watching as one of the ANBU cleared out the entrance with an Earth jutsu. She was the first one down there, jumping into darkness. Her onyx eyes instantly adjusted to her tenebrous surroundings, the feline characteristics that came from being Matatabi's jinchuuriki taking over.

They moved silently, quickly; slipping like wraiths around the various twists and turns. It was like a maze, but it also provided them with enough evidence to take Ichinose down, something that was noted with no small amount of satisfaction of a few individuals' parts. They had been doing well so far — even A and Bee seemed to be capable of complete silence — until there was a short muffled curse, and then a siren started blaring.

Yugito whipped around in alarm, a reprimand mixed with an order on the tip of her tongue. She froze. "What the hell are you doing here?" she half-hissed, half-yelled in a harsh tone.

The three ANBU, one Jonin, Raikage and the other jinchuuriki turned to see Bee's two students, Karui and Omoi. They were standing guiltily a few feet behind them, obviously having been the cause of the tripped alarm.

"You're kidding me," Samui muttered under her breath. Yugito felt the same way. Bee's students weren't supposed to be down here with them; heck, they weren't even supposed to be aware of this rescue mission. And they triggered a freakin' alarm. That could've easily been avoided since all of the shinobi that had come down with them were highly skilled and by all counts they were able to get in and out of the underground Ichinose lab easily... except they hadn't accounted for two blundering Chuunin.

"Fools!" Bee hissed under his breath, obviously as upset about this as she was. He knew exactly how crucial this mission was and what was at stake here. But apparently he had neglected to tell his students of that. "What are you two doing here, fools, you've interfered!"

Karui and Omoi looked at each other, a little chastened and just a little afraid; Killer Bee was the epitome of patience, mostly since he was also "abstract" personified. This was the first time he was truly angry with them. At first, Karui had wanted to see why Bee had blown off training with them and dragged Omoi with her. As they saw the squad go underground, the Chuunin realized it was something much bigger and more important than they had previously thought. But Karui had been curious and, despite Omoi's protests and various imaginary worst-case scenarios, had pushed him in before she jumped down herself. They had been following the ANBU, Raikage and Jonin for fifteen or so minutes — only fifteen minutes before they screwed up — and then Omoi tripped and grabbed onto the wall. He accidentally pressed a brick that slid backwards into the wall and the next thing they knew, an alarm was blaring throughout the narrow hallways and a fierce glare — courtesy of ANBU Captain Neko — was burning holes into them.

The Chuunin were not given a chance to respond to their master as there was an unmistakable pounding of feet and various orders were barked out, the harsh words echoing and bouncing off the walls. The Kumo shinobi instantly slid into defensive formation, ready for the attackers that surged from the three corridors that forked off the one they were currently standing in.

Yugito elongated both her fingernails and her toenails, lunging at the first grunt that came into her line of vision. She showed no mercy to him, her nails that were as sharp and tough as Bee's swords slashing at his chest and limbs with the fluidity and ferociousness she was well-known for. The brunette man fell to the floor, blood spilling from his split skin, but Yugito was already moving on to her next victim, nothing but a blur of yellow on black and blue. While nearly all of her opponents were packed with muscle that had their hits leaving quite an impact, Yugito was agile and fast, just like the feline Bijuu that had cared for her since she had been a two-year-old babe. Combining speed and deadly precision in a lethal dance, Yugito easily eliminated half the forces before anyone else could start counterattacking.

A blinked uncomprehendingly at the whirlwind of blade-like nails and flashing blue flames that signified Yugito's signature Mouse Hairball jutsu. "She's..."

"Vicious?" Bee supplied helpfully. "Yeah, that's why I call her "Mama Cat". And you'd do well to remember that no one messes with her kitten."

A nodded slowly, still watching as the vengeful blonde cut her way through the flood of men. He noted that, strangely enough, some of them looked foreign... German, perhaps? Had Ichinose's brat picked up strays or did he kidnap from other countries now, too? But some of them were of the large, full-grown men packed with muscle type. Surely they wouldn't have been abducted...

"Karui, Omoi! Make yourselves useful and check every room!" Yugito barked as she kicked her leg up with more force than necessary, causing a man's neck to snap backwards and hit the wall behind him, knocking him out cold. She didn't bother to stay and kill him; as long as he was out for the count, that was all that mattered. "We're looking for a blonde Konoha kunoichi wearing orange. She'd be about thirteen."

"H-Hai!" Omoi saluted her shakily before Karui dragged him off to throw open every door.

Yugito turned her attention towards a lithe blonde girl running on the wall and rushing towards her. She narrowed her eyes behind her mask; this girl was fast, perhaps as fast as her. Yugito ran to meet her head-on — better to get a high threat out of the way as fast as possible — and noted with slight dismay that she was almost as young as Naruko. Pushing that comparison away, the jinchuuriki brought up her nails just in time to block a katana's downward swing. There were no words exchanged throughout this short battle, but the intensity radiating from the girl was just as strong as Yugito's.

'She has something — or someone — to protect, too.'

Yugito propelled herself off a wall, flipping twice as she descended, slashing an X at the girl and hearing her stifle a cry as the nails cut her bare skin. Landing in a lunge, Yugito wasted no time in kicking up her right leg into a backflip, catching the girl's chin and forcing her into an upwards trajectory. Though in pain, as shown by the grimace on her young face, determination blazed in amber eyes. She angled the katana as she descended; Yugito reached up and trapped the blade between her nails, slamming the blade into the ground deep enough that it stuck, and used it as a point to swing herself around and stab her elongated toenails into the girl's torso in one swift movement.

There was a choked gasp, and she crumpled. Yugito hastily retracted her nails, ensuring she had not hit any vital points; she didn't particularly wish for her to die. And she would be picking dried blood out of her nails for days now... shoving the nasty thought of such an annoying and tedious task aside — because Naruko's safety, health and happiness was worth any and all the trouble in the world — Yugito turned her attention to her comrades.

"Go," Samui said calmly, weaving her tanto in a sequence of effortless, yet no less fatal if it were to meet its mark, movements. "We will join you soon."

Yugito gave a curt nod of thanks before running after Bee's students. She passed open door after open door, and with every empty room, her heart beat faster and harder until her sternum had a rather painful, constant throb. 'I'm not sure how much more of this I can take,' she admitted with a light grimace. 'The worry is eating me alive from the inside out.'

"Oh, poor mama-cat," Matatabi teased, "you work too hard." Her voice softened, "I'm sure the kitten is fine. She may be much smaller than average, but she's resilient and steadfast. It'll take a lot more than a kidnapping attempt to break— on your right, up ahead!"

Yugito's head jerked up and she saw a flash of beige paired with brush-like green hair. Ichinose. She barely managed to keep from snarling. "Karui, Omoi," she called sharply, "follow me!"

The two Chuunin instantly fell in step with her as Yugito raced around the corner, following the distinct hair and panicked footsteps echoing off the stone tiling. She slid to a halt right in front of a metal door that had just slammed shut.

Her heartbeat quickened until she could barely feel it anymore.

As much as Yugito wanted to slam open that door and storm in and give Ichinose a piece of her mind while also taking back what was hers... Yugito wasn't one of Kumo's very best Jonin and the legendary ANBU Captain, Azure Cat, for nothing. She knew how to keep her head even when the situation became more than personal.

"Omoi, go back for A, Killer Bee and Samui. Show them the way here. Karui, come with me."

Surprisingly without protest, the white-haired boy followed her orders, disappearing the way he went. Apparently, he had taken the initiative to draw a chalk line along the walls while they ran after the scientist; she would have to praise him for that later. For now, she and Karui had a little girl — okay, maybe not so little, but Naruko would always be her baby daughter in her eyes — to rescue.

Yugito turned to see Karui was attempting to peer through the door cracks. Rolling her eyes, she gently pushed the redheaded kunoichi to the side and raised her foot, slamming it twice — once on the handle to break it, and another time to send it flying inward.

"But as long as I've got you here, perhaps..."

"Naruko!" the name burst from Yugito's lips before the door had even opened.

"Okaa-san...?"

Yugito froze when she saw an all-too-familiar shade of yellow fluttering behind a petite figure like a curtain, and onyx met azure. But the girl's eyes were no longer bright; they were dull and unfocused. The little blonde was blinking as if trying to focus on the intruder's identity, yet she had known instinctively who had come.

She instantly made to catch her as the blonde swayed, but froze once more when a white-clad arm snapped around Naruko's neck and held her in place while a small pocket knife slid under her chin in a precarious position. Yugito faintly registered the arrival of A, Bee, Samui and Omoi but didn't acknowledge them; her eyes were fixed solely on the scientist that was threatening her daughter's life.

"No one move!" Senku Ichinose shouted, his red eyes wide and almost maniacal. "One single step, one minuscule movement, and the girl gets it!"

"Ugh... could he be anymore cliché?" Karui deadpanned, nose screwing up slightly in distaste. "I'm ashamed to be part of the same village as him."

"Don't insult him, Karui!" Omoi hissed around the lollipop that was bulging from his right cheek. "He might get angry and slit her neck, and then Bee-sama will disown us as his students, leaving Yugito-san to torture or kill us for causing them to fail this high-staked mission... if Raikage-sama doesn't exile us from the village first!"

"Will you shut up?" Karui hissed back, slamming her fist on top of his head. "Stop being so damn pessimistic!" Both Chuunin froze when they felt the air turn tense and heavy, the artificial lights flickering into a power outage caused by the tell-tale crackling of lightning — chakra formed as a visible cloak into the Fourth Raikage's famed Lightning Armour.

The lightning didn't last very long as it was instantly dominated by a roar of flames and the room was showered in cobalt-blue flames. Bee instantly threw Omoi behind him while Samui covered Karui; their defensive actions were not needed as the waves of fire, while radiating extreme heat, did not harm either the shinobi or the room. 

And in the center of the blazing inferno stood Yugito Nii.

The kunoichi's body quickly morphed into that of a flaming two-tailed cat, who wasted no time on leaping towards the rogue scientist, her large paw reaching out to tear through Senku's neck while one of her tails snapped the knife out of his hand. Senku gave a shrill scream, pushing the girl towards the transformed jinchuuriki. Yugito smoothly avoided the collision and continued to attack the scientist as Samui ran forward to catch the small, falling form.

"Yugito, that's enough! Calm down, Naruko's fine!" Samui shouted above the furious screeches and terrified pleas for mercy. She was cradling the young girl — Naruko Uzumaki — in her arms. Samui's eyes widened when she saw a ball of orange-coloured flames in the Nibi's gaping maw. 'The Flaming Cat Roar... made up of the Nibi's Purgatory Flames. That's powerful enough to turn a large building into rubble with one shot. At this rate... she might kill us all.' Samui's eyes drifted down to the unconscious girl lying in her arms; she was shifting slightly, a soft murmur slipping through her chapped lips. 

Samui's eyes widened at the whispered title. She had an idea, but first she had to check; "Who? Who is your kaa-chan?" she whispered urgently.

"Y-Yugito Nii."

Samui nodded. She turned her icy orbs back to the vengeful feline, "Yugito, stop, that's enough dammit!" Samui's voice rose. "Your daughter needs you!"

The flaming cat froze for a moment, and then she lashed out with a powerful kick, sending the scientist careening towards her fellow jinchuuriki. Killer Bee caught Senku easily, forcing him to the ground on his knees with his arms held firmly behind his back. Yugito was already running, cobalt flames disappearing into nothing as she returned to her human form. She dropped to her knees opposite Samui, her hands hovering uncertainly. Samui didn't hesitate to transfer the girl over to Yugito's arms; once she did, it was as if something finally clicked in place and Yugito was cradling the younger blonde close to her chest, in a way reminiscent of a mother and her child.

"Naruko," she whispered.

The young girl cracked her eyes open, forcing a weak smile. "Kaa-chan," she whispered.

"Hey," Yugito smiled shakily down at her, squeezing her shoulders. "You're okay now. I've got you. A's off destroying all the research and Bee's got Ichinose — he's not going anywhere. You're safe now... I'm sorry we took so long."

Naruko hummed contently as she rolled over to push herself closer to the warmth, nuzzling her face into the woman's collarbone. "I knew you'd come... you always do."

Samui sat back, observing the million and one emotions racing across the normally-unflappable kunoichi's face. Her eyes drifted to the flames still licking and spreading around the lab. 'Yugito... you wouldn't hesitate to tear apart heaven and earth or even set the whole world on fire if it was for her, would you?'

Seeing movement out of the corner of her eye, the well-endowed blonde quickly moved forward to press her fingers to Naruko's wrist. 'Too fast.' Samui untied the Genin's hitai-ate, gently laying the back of her hand on Naruko's forehead. 'Hot... I estimate she's around 37 or 38 degrees.' The Jonin smiled reassuringly up at her friend, "She's fine — she just has a fever, and probably a little malnourished since I doubt Ichinose kept her well-fed in these last three days. But don't worry — she'll make a quick recovery."

Yugito breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at her friend. "Thank you, Samui."

She shrugged. "No worries. Let's get her to the hospital now, ne?" Her lips pursed in thinly-veiled amusement as her eyes flickered over Yugito's head to where A was grinning like a maniac — and an unhealthy amount of glee — while destroying the underground Ichinose lab like the Hachibi once destroyed Kumo. Bee, Karui and Omoi were gathered around a long metal rectangular box, the Kumo rapper looking unnaturally solemn.

Samui's eyes drifted back to Yugito, who was smirking at her. She smirked back, then shook her head in slight amusement of their Raikage's childish ploys, and stood up to dust off her skirt. Her friend followed her lead, still holding her cargo as if it was the most precious thing in the world. Quite frankly, Samui found that adorable. She walked over to hold the door open, "Let's get out of here, Yugito."

《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》

Naruko couldn't help but sweatdrop slightly. She tilted her head back to look Yugito in the eyes, who very pointedly was not looking at her. "You unleashed Matatabi on him?"

Yugito cleared her throat, "Samui, was there a reason you came in?"

"Ah, right." Samui played along with the diversion, "We interrogated Ichinose and while sour and overly-sarcastic and smart-mouthed, he ended up answering our questions after... persuasion. It doesn't matter so don't ask," she glared at Bee's knowing grin. "One of the first things we asked was how he got into Konoha. He told us a, and I quote him directly, "one-eyed mummified elder who goes by the name Danzo Shimura" was the one who gave him all the information he needed to kidnap Naruko."

"Danzo Shimura? Why that war hawk of a motherf—"

Yugito clapped her hands over Naruko's ears, blocking out the rest of Kurama's tirade. Going by the expressions on all the shinobi and Matatabi's face, Naruko guessed her Bijuu was using a lot of creative and extremely vulgar words to describe the Konoha elder. Naruko felt Yugito bury her face in Naruko's hair, shaking a little with laughter. Looking around, she saw Matatabi looked a little disgruntled and resigned, while both Bee was grinning and A looked a little surprised. Even Samui looked caught between amusement and discomfort at the no doubt gory descriptions of what Kurama wished to do to the old "war hawk".

Naruko ended up counting to the nine-hundredth second since Yugito had deafened her before the woman's hands finally left the sides of her head. "Fifteen minutes," was the first thing that came from her mouth. "Really, Kurama? Fifteen minutes of swearing. Good lanta, and you have the audacity to wonder where my foul mouth comes from... on the very rare occasion that I find myself in a situation where no other words are remotely suitable," she added quickly at Yugito's disapproving raised eyebrow.

"Oh my Kami, you are actually such a mother it's adorable," Samui snickered quietly.

Yugito cleared her throat pointedly and lifted Naruko off her lap, setting her on the floor. "Well, I think we have more have more than enough information on this Danzo person. How about we go check on Hyuuga-san and see if we can release him from that stasis jutsu the Ichinose put on him?"

"Mm-hm," Naruko hummed in agreement. "Give me two minutes," she called as she slipped into the bathroom. Kurama and Matatabi also bid the shinobi a temporary goodbye before returning to their respective jinchuuriki's mindscape.

"She's cute," Samui commented, hearing the door lock click into place.

Yugito sighed, leaning back into the pillows and rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Yes, but such a handful sometimes. I swear, one of these days she really will scare me to death."

"Poor Mama-Cat," A teased, taking on the title from Killer Bee's jabs. "You worry too much. It's a little unusual seeing that from you. I'm quite used to the unflappable Jonin who doesn't care for anything and likes to sass at me too much."

Yugito rolled her eyes, and the mini-conversation stopped when the bathroom door reopened to show Naruko in her usual shinobi attire. The blonde pouted a little as she rubbed a finger over her bare forehead, obviously a little put-out that she hadn't been given back her hitai-ate. Yugito rolled her eyes, sliding off the bed to walk over and slip an arm around the short girl's shoulders, steering her towards the doorway.

Twenty-five minutes later, give or take a few, both the Caged Bird Seal and the stasis fūinjutsu had been removed and they were now waiting for Hizashi to wake up.

"That's quite some impressive work there, kid," A said, obviously impressed as he observed the bare forehead. "Considering Ichinose resorted to the drastic measures of kidnapping you just to get that seal off him... and you also undid the stasis. Is there anything you can't do?"

"Dance," Naruko answered with a giggle. "I'm too clumsy for it."

"And yet you're nimble and fast enough to outrun me half the time," Yugito deadpanned. Naruko laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Well, in all seriousness, I didn't think I'd manage to finish it in the allotted time I originally had to create the removal formula," the girl admitted. "I promised Hizashi's son, Neji, that I'd make a removal formula in two weeks. I was scared I wouldn't be able to hold up to that promise since I worked on it for a solid week and a half but couldn't do it without making the process extremely painful. Eventually, maybe a few minutes before I went to the Hyuuga Compound, I managed to figure out the trick." Naruko turned her gaze on Hizashi. "I've freed around a third of the branch family now... I suppose that was what drew Senku Ichinose's attention."

Killer Bee dropped his large hand onto his sister's head. "You should've never doubted yourself, matter of fact you should be proud of yourself, 'cause you had to find a way, go about it yourself. Nobody gave you direction, you had to route it yourself."

Naruko smiled up at him. Bee grinned back, knowing that despite her saying nothing, her eyes said everything.

"I'm worried. Really worried," Samui muttered in Yugito's ear. "Have you noticed ever since that fox came here, Bee's raps starting making sense? And some of them aren't even half-bad."

"I think... he's just... having a good day," Yugito finished lamely. Even she was a little put-off by Bee's sudden more-comprehensive-than-usual raps. She idly wondered how long it would last. "Oh Naruko, he's waking up," she commented off-handedly.

The little blonde almost jumped in her seat, instantly turning her attention to the man. "Um, H-Hizashi-san?" she spoke uncertainly, seeing as she had never met him before and as such wasn't sure of what sort of man Hizashi Hyuuga was. According to Hinata and Neji, he had been a kind man who cared deeply for his son, wanting more for Neji than to just be a member of the branch clan who would be forced to serve and protect the main house for the rest of his life. And it was that kind of thinking that led Hizashi to willingly take the place of his elder twin brother — it was his way of defying his destiny.

Yugito tilted her head before moving forward to place her hand over Hizashi's eyes. "Samui, turn off the lights. Bee, close the blinds." It was around midday, so the sun was at its brightest. Yugito appeared to be the only one who realized Hizashi's eyes would be unused to the light, and since the Byakugan was especially sensitive, it would probably be more than a little painful for him to wake up to he blinding hospital lights. "Hizashi-san, I'm going to slowly spread my fingers apart. I want you to tell me if I'm moving too fast, alright?"

The man opened his mouth but apparently changed his mind as his chin dipped in a nod. Yugito nodded to A, who had pressed the button for a doctor, and then started to gradually reintroduce Hizashi to light. Thanks to Samui, Bee and the thicker-than-strictly-necessary hospital curtains, the room had darkened significantly. Still, it took a bit of time for Hizashi's eyes to adjust enough to see that there were five people at his bedside.

"Um..."

Naruko rolled her eyes, "Oh for lanta's sake—" she cut herself off as she lit a small flame in her palm, lighting the candles that were conveniently placed on the bedside table. "We don't want him to be completely blind, geniuses," she retorted before taking on a politer tone, "Is that any better, Hizashi-san?"

"What...?" Hizashi blinked, squinting a little. Naruko smiled at him, patiently waiting for his coherency to return. What he said next, no one expected; "So either Minato got turned into a girl by his pervert sensei or Kushina dyed her hair, got facial tattoos and turned back time — which is it?"

Naruko's eyes widened as hysterical laughter roared in her mind, courtesy of Kurama. Yugito was biting her lip to refrain from laughing, while Bee had no such restraints and laughed openly. A, at least, had the decency to excuse himself from the room first; even with the door shut, they could hear his roaring laughter outside.

"Hizashi-san, you do remember that Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki were dead for three years before the... Hyuuga Affair... don't you?" Yugito asked politely.

"Yes, but..." Hizashi frowned at the girl by his bedside, "she looks exactly like Kushina... except blonde."

Naruko sighed, reaching over to pinch her brother's arm. Bee yelped, slapping a hand on his arm as if he had been bitten by a mosquito. Smirking in victory for quietening his laughter, Naruko then turned her attention back to their patient. "My name is Naruko Uzumaki," she informed the man with a smile. "Minato and Kushina were my parents."

Hizashi's eyes widened. "You're Naruko Uzumaki?"

Naruko cocked an eyebrow, "And what is that supposed to mean, exactly?"

"N-Nothing," Hizashi quickly backtracked, recognizing that look from a far-distant memory. "You were... a lot smaller when I last saw you. I know we didn't interact much, if at all, but... Hitomi — Hiashi's wife — was best friends with Kushina and Mikoto Uchiha. And though the council strictly forbade us from interacting with you, the Hyuuga have always looked out for you when you were a child."

Naruko's eyes widened. She had remembered that, while the Hyuuga had been cold with her on the occasions she met Hinata's family members, they had not been hateful or disrespectful. The attitude was quite simply the way they were taught to be; so in other words, they treated her the same as they would with any other villager.

"Thank you, Hizashi-san," she said at last, smiling slightly at him. "I appreciate that very much. I suppose you're wondering why you're... well, alive... and in a Kumo hospital?"

"Sort of... but no, not really," Hizashi admitted.

Naruko sweatdropped a little. 'He's incredibly nonchalant about all of this... he doesn't strike me to be the kind of person who would be Hiashi-sama's twin brother.'

"Don'tcha worry about a thing— oof!"

"Ahem," Yugito cleared her throat, removing her elbow from where she had jabbed it into Bee's ribs. "Ignore him, please, while we catch you up to the present day."

And so they proceeded to do so, beginning with what they speculated Byakuya Ichinose had done to prepare for his arrival, and skipping ahead to the Chuunin Exams which led to Naruko's original fūinjutsu creation, then to the time she had been missing until now. When they finished, Hizashi was staring at Naruko in what could only be described as awe, while he absently rubbed his forehead that was free of the mark he had carried since childhood.

"Words cannot express how grateful I am to you," he said at last. "Thank you, not only for freeing me and my family, but for befriending my son. I understand Neji can be a little... stand-offish."

"That's an understatement," Naruko snorted in amusement. "But he's been getting... better."

"Hyuuga-san?" A new voice called from the doorway, causing all heads to turn. The doctor gave a slight sweatdrop at having all of the high-ranked shinobi simultaneously turn their attention on him. Gulping slightly, the doctor stepped into the room. "About your... uh, bodily condition."

Naruko, recognizing what was about to come — and that would be a truckload of medical jargon she could not begin to understand, let alone be bothered listening to — immediately tuned out. She only tuned back in when Yugito pinched her; Naruko pouted at the woman who was looking away innocently. The younger blonde rolled her eyes and obediently focused on what the doctor was saying:

"Luckily, the loss of muscle mass is mostly reversible," the medic sighed. "Even with your unique case... Hizashi-san, while you remain here I recommend doing daily rehabilitation sessions with our medical ninjas to stave off any further damage, and speed up the reversal if possible. Once I deem you ready for the return journey to Konoha, then of course you should seek out Tsunade-sama for further — and as much as it hurts my patriotism to say this: more effective — treatment. But for now, you'll have to settle for Kumo's meager services," the doctor shot Hizashi a grin; the Hyuuga readily returned it. "You'll need constant resistance and strength training to rebuild the lost muscle, and your primary diet will consist of high-protein foods like fish, chicken, turkey and of course, everyone's favourite: vegetables."

"Oh joy," Hizashi remarked sarcastically, leaning back into his pillows.

"Indeed," Naruko snickered.

"You're not one to talk, Naru," Yugito chided, placing a firm hand on her daughter's shoulder. "You have a lot of nutrition to catch up on, as well."

"Aw, okaa-san~" Naruko whined, glaring at Hizashi when he started to laugh.

"I guess we Konoha shinobi do have to suffer together, after all," the Hyuuga said blithely. He only laughed harder when Naruko let out an long, exaggerated groan.

"We should leave Hizashi-san to his rest, now," the doctor said as he started to usher them out. "I'm sure further conversations and questioning can wait until later. No, Hizashi-san, you do not get a say in this — your body has to get used to functioning properly and regularly, but in small intervals only to begin with. I don't care how awake you feel or that you've been sleeping for the past decade, or how "ridiculous" this may seem to you. I do envy you on that count, though... I will strap you down, Hizashi-san, so do not tempt me!"

"I think Chiba-san is almost as scary as Tsunade-baa-chan," Naruko shuddered, allowing Bee to drag her out.

"Well that's the Hyuuga's problem now, but let me show you the product of a vow, that'll have you raising your brow!"

"Well his rapping just took a complete plummet," Yugito sighed. "I knew it was too good to last."

"It was horrible and made no sense whatsoever," Samui deadpanned, imitating Yugito's quiet voice. "Product of a vow? What is that supposed to insinuate, a child from a marriage?" Samui paused, thunderstruck. "Bee doesn't... he's not in a relationship, is he?"

Yugito stared at her friend flatly. "What sane person would want to be in a relationship with "Kumo's resident rapper"?"

"Point," Samui conceded. "Why is he dragging Naruko over to Karui and Omoi? What does that have to do with anything he just said?"

"Product of a vow... oh. He was talking about the teacher's oath... vow." Yugito suddenly buried her face in her hands. "It is an incredibly sad day when you realize you have spent so much time with him that you can correctly interpret Killer Bee's raps."

Samui said nothing, instead choosing to pat her friend's head sympathetically.

《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》

"What do you mean it's "off-kilter"?" an indignant voice protested outside the Raikage's Office.

A almost cheered in relief — for the past week, while Hizashi Hyuuga began his rehabilitation process so he could make the journey back to Konoha, it had become a common occurrence for his idiot brother, two of his best Jonin, the "daughter" of one of the said Jonin and, recently, the Hyuuga to crash his office at the most inconvenient times of the day. Sometimes A would resort to purposefully withholding missions from A's students just so they could "entertain" Naruko to prevent her devious mind from creating mischief. And where Naruko went, Yugito did, too. A had to chuckle at that; she was as overprotective as they came, but she didn't smother her daughter to the point where Naruko would snap at her. They had in interesting relationship, but it was the kind that would make even the most hardened criminal wish for a family of his own. It was very unexpected of the notoriously cold and composed kunoichi, to say the least... 

A flinched at the loud crash that resonated through the corridors. He idly wondered if it was just Bee's untactful comment or an annoying rap, or if a certain someone was in a foul mood. While their "visits" were often nuisances since they would leave noticeable traces in their wake — read: property damage — sometimes, particularly in the instances where the council wanted to meet up with him or when his desk was home to mountains of paperwork, they were his saving grace. And besides, he had never been a stickler for formality, so what did he care if five shinobi treated his office as if it was either their home or playground — it alternated every time — rather than a workspace? And who cared if they made a right mess of things and blasted a hole or three in his walls, or smashed the door off its hinges while completely shattering his windows? It wasn't as if he didn't need a new desk because he destroyed it in a fit of anger nearly every month, anyway.

"What's off-kilter?" A asked, looking up from his paperwork at the large group that was made up of Kumo and Konoha nin invading his office.

"Your face," Yugito answered automatically. A rolled his eyes as the two women high-fived each other with identically flat expressions. "We were just wondering when they were heading home," Yugito jabbed her thumb in the Konoha shinobi's direction. "They've been here for... uh, Naruko was kidnapped for three days, rested for two more, and Hizashi-san has been rehabilitating for a week. Since the stasis seal kept his body from deteriorating as much as we expected, Chiba-san said he has progressed much further than anticipated and is ready for travelling."

"Right," A grinned, throwing his pen down with flourish and heaving himself up from behind the desk. "Then we shall prepare for our journey and leave at midday!"

"Wha— in three hours? R-Raikage-sama, that's a little—"

"Fast? Of course not! Let's see... Bee and Yugito, you can come with us as well."

"Us? You're coming?" Hizashi blinked. "No offense meant, but why are you coming with us? Do you have the time? You are the Raikage, after all..."

A scoffed, waving his hand dismissively. "Raikage, Schmaikage."

Naruko bit her lip to contain her laughter, glancing over at her brother who was grinning widely while her mother was pinching the bridge of her nose.

"But you have a point. And since I'm the Fourth Raikage, that means I can do whatever the hell I want." A stalked out from behind his desk. "So if I want to escort you to Konoha then I very damned well am going to and no one can stop me, because if they tried, I would not hesitate to declare them a missing-nin."

"I'm pretty sure that's called abusing your power," Yugito deadpanned.

"You call it abuse, I call it taking advantage of," A shrugged.

Yugito frowned. "Isn't that the same thing, though? Both are negative, no matter which way you look at it."

A paused, and then slammed his fists into his wall behind him; the Konoha shinobi jumped while the Kumo remained unfazed. "Dammit Yugito!" he roared at the woman's smug expression. "I've told you this before and a thousand times after that — stop logic-ing me into a guilty conscience, damn you!"

"Ah, another day in Kumogakure," Samui muttered under her breath with a smirk, reaching over to low-five Yugito.

Hizashi leaned over to whisper in Naruko's ear, "That's not the same Raikage from when Hinata-sama was three-years-old, right? Please tell me that's not him."

Naruko shook her head, smothering a smirk. "No, this is the Third Raikage's son, A."

"Okay," Hizashi muttered, "but who names their child "A" and their second child "B"? That's just sad."

Naruko bit her lip again, trying not to laugh in the Raikage's office. "Um, Killer Bee is actually adopted. And I think "A" is something of a tradition for the Raikage line?" She shrugged. "I'm not sure."

Hizashi huffed as he stood back upright.

"Say your goodbyes, pack up and let us leave at once!" A announced with more enthusiasm than necessary.

"How did you get from "three hours" to "at once"?" a bewildered Naruko shouted at A, teetering dangerously close on the edge of slapping one of her fūinjutsu seals that Ino had asked her to try out, just so she could see if A's mental state was indeed intact.

"He just wants to get away from his paperwork," a new voice sighed, and all heads turned to see Mabui entering the office. The woman handed a small booklet to A before translating, "Do what you want for the rest of today but make sure you pack tonight, and you will leave late morning or early afternoon, depending on how fast A-sama finishes his morning paperwork. The Raikage has an especially important stack of documents to sign, or did you conveniently forget about the potential yet extremely vital trade deal with the Land of Snow?" (2)

A fell back into his chair, a sulky expression taking over his tan face. "No, Mabui..."

"Good," the white-haired woman smiled sweetly before leaving, her heels clicking on the tiles in an almost ominous way.

"So... we'll leave you to your paperwork then," Yugito smiled deviously as she grabbed Naruko's shoulders and steered her out the door. "We have a few goodbyes to say, and I'm sure that, as the Raikage, you are very busy."

"Wait—"

"All you fools, run!" Killer Bee shouted, his statement echoed by Yugito's gleeful laughs. Bee had grabbed Samui's wrist, who in turn grabbed Yugito, who was already holding onto Naruko. Using this as an opportunity to make the "stoic and proper Hyuuga" do something as "ragamuffin-like" as running, Naruko grabbed Hizashi's wrist and tugged him along.

"TRAITORS!" A's voice bellowed, the force of his voice causing the entire building to shake as bits of ceiling cracked and fell on their heads, causing a few startled shrieks and laughs as they raced around the corner and skidded out the door into a burst of fresh air.

"Naruko-chan! Bee-sama!" a loud voice shouted; they turned to see Karui and Omoi running up to them.

"Perfect timing," Yugito smiled, absently reaching out to tuck her daughter's hair back from her face and behind her ear.

Hizashi couldn't help smiling at the loud chattering that arose between two Kumo Chuunin and one Konoha Genin — it mostly consisted of Karui physically abusing Omoi while Naruko dished out the verbal harassment that she insisted was simply "savage sarcasm". He huffed out a laugh, shaking his head. When he first offered himself in place of Hiashi, he assumed his life would end the moment he agreed to replace Hiashi. He never dreamed his life would be prolonged another ten years, and more. He never thought his life would come to such an astounding point in time, where shinobi of differing villages could interact with such friendliness and no hidden motive. It was... refreshing. 

A loud roar and a chair flying through a broken window interrupted his musing, followed by the bout of uproarious laughter from not just his group, but from every Kumo citizen around.

Hizashi himself had to smother a laugh when he thought back on the current Raikage's antics; oh how the mighty have fallen... he idly wondered what the Third Hokage was up to. No wait, it was the Fifth Hokage now. Somehow that thought didn't comfort him at all; if anything it made Hizashi despair for his village even more. 'Kumo is on it's fourth Kage, as is Suna and Kiri, and Iwa are only on their third Kage... meanwhile Konoha has had five Hokage. What does that say about us?'

The Hyuuga sighed and shook his head again, absently following the now-familiar shade of neon yellow as it was dragged through the Kumo market district and through to the particular training ground that Bee's students favoured. "What, exactly, are you doing?" he asked in bemusement.

"Okaa-san is going to pack and she wants me to keep Killer Bee, Karui and Omoi out of her hair." Naruko giggled as Karui picked up half of her hair and looked at it contemplatively. "That gave them the brilliant idea of giving me a "makeover" which apparently consists of a new hairdo so I can look "fantabulous" when my Konoha friends see me again. Or something like that... I don't know, I was a little busy pouting when okaa-san implied she didn't need storage seals. I mean, if you're packing, wouldn't the most convenient and time-effective method be to use fūinjutsu? It would cut down half the time and—"

"Eheh..." Hizashi sweatdropped a little and gladly turned to Bee who decided to take pity on him and make small talk which, thankfully, was rap-free.

"How're you feeling?" Bee grinned at the man; he had been delighted to discover that, in stark contrast to the horror tales of the Hyuuga clan's stoicism — rivaled only by an Uchiha's pride — Hizashi Hyuuga had quite the sense of humour, and wasn't afraid to speak up once he became comfortable with his new and unexpected companions.

"Much better, thank you," Hizashi smiled back at him, folding his hands into the kimono sleeves. "Apparently the stasis seal was what prevented my body from deteriorating beyond repair, so I suppose I can be thankful for at least that. Chiba-san said that I was well on my way to becoming back to optimum health, so the journey back should be no problem so long as we take adequate resting periods in between, but he still strongly recommends I check in with Tsunade-sama upon my return."

"Naturally," Bee agreed. "I'll bring that up with A and Yugito. A is an adrenaline junkie so he loves to go fast, and I assume the same can be said for Naruko, what with her parentage and all. Yugito doesn't care, so long as everyone is whole and hearty."

"I must say, I'm a little surprised at how attached she and Naruko seem to be," Hizashi said in an almost careful tone. "One would think they've known each other for a long time."

"You know how Naruko is," Bee said lightly, also choosing his words carefully. "Has that uncanny ability to make friends with everyone she meets. Yugito's always had a maternal streak in her. I suppose Naruko latched onto her because Yugito was the one to rescue her from Ichinose." Bee eyed the man from behind his shades; while his brother and Raikage A was now aware of their — and by extension, the other jinchuuriki — relationship, Konoha still had yet to learn of it, and he was taking no chances as of yet. Besides, if an elder from Konohagakure was willing to give away sensitive information to enable the abduction of one of their very own shinobi — not to mention their only jinchuuriki — what did that say about the village itself? There was something going on behind the happy village scenes; something dark and sinister. Bee didn't want to admit it, but he was starting to understand why Kushina had left Naruko with the jinchuuriki instead of her own village. And, he was starting to regret letting Naruko go back to that village all by herself. But, he corrected himself, it hadn't been all bad — Naruko had made friends left and right, forging more connections than anyone would've thought possible; she loved Konoha, and Konoha was slowly starting to love her back.

Killer Bee frowned a little as he contemplated this. More giggles and hushed bickering distracted him momentarily, but it was Hizashi's persistent nudging in his ribs that had him finally looking up. "What is it?" he asked the man, who simply grinned and nodded over to the scene in front of them. Bee's face broke into a smile and he struggled to contain his laughter.

Naruko was humming a repetitive, lullaby-like melody — it sounded almost painfully familiar to Hizashi, but he just couldn't put his finger on it — and her arms were wrapped around her knees which were tucked into her chest. She caught the men's amused gazes and smiled back at them before rolling her eyes up to check what Karui and Omoi were up to — she wasn't sure who had started the debate, or how, but her brother's students were currently arguing over what genre of hairstyle would best suit her. Naruko hadn't tried to get between them, rather choosing the wise option of staying still when Karui sat her down, letting them do as they pleased. It was thirty-five minutes later, and she was internally patting herself on the back for trusting her intuition. And to be brutally honest, Naruko didn't really care what they did since her perfectionist mother would probably redo it anyways.

And speak of the devil; "What are you two doing?"

"Yugito-san, Samui-san," Omoi greeted, a hint of surprise and embarrassment in his tone. "We were just..."

"Braiding Naruko's hair?" Yugito raised an eyebrow, taking in her daughter's appearance. Naruko appeared oblivious to her current predicament: on the right, her hair was in a wonky pigtail, half of that being free while the other half was braided. On the left, her hair was once again split into two — half was in a tight, complicated fishtail and the other half was twisted up so it looked like a spiral danish pastry was stuck on the side of her head... or Princess Leia from Star Wars. Yugito sweatdropped at the mental comparison; it seemed three years wasn't enough for her to escape Roshi's influence.

The blonde kunoichi sighed, placing a hand on her cocked hip. "Well, Naruko is most definitely not going to Konoha looking like that. I'm not sure what you two were doing, but you managed to give her four entirely different hairstyles."

Karui and Omoi had the decency to look a little sheepish as they observed their handiwork.

"A's just about done with the paperwork so..." Yugito strode over purposefully, gently tugging out the hairties that held the ridiculous hairstyles in place. "I think you look fine with your hair out," Yugito murmured, running her fingers through the silky strands. "But if you really want to change it up, I guess we could... oh. I have an idea."

"Hm?" Naruko made to tilt her head back to look at her mother, but Yugito gently pushed her head back forward. "Stay still, love."

Naruko sighed but obeyed; picking up her humming as she felt her hair be parted into two once more, although this time the process was much faster and gentler.

"Aw, you look adorable!"

Naruko looked up at Karui's uncharacteristic squeal, and lifted her hands to feel what Yugito had done — it appeared to be two mini-buns that sat high on either side of her head while the rest of her hair hung free in pigtails, flowing down her sides easily. Due to being parted, her hair looked thinner than usual, but Naruko appreciated the lighter feeling. 

"Wait..." Hizashi turned a deadpan face to Yugito, who was smiling innocently. "Did you give her an odango hairstyle? Like the one Sailor Moon has?" At the raised eyebrows, he sighed, "Branch member and uncle of the heiress. I often had to babysit Hinata-sama when her parents were out at meetings and such. She's quite low maintenance, but watching TV was one of the few things I could think of to keep her entertained."

Naruko raised an eyebrow for confirmation at Yugito; the continuous faux-innocence was all she needed as answer. She sighed; sometimes it was like there were pieces of their jinchuuriki family in every member she reunited with. Apparently they had all rubbed off each other in one way or another, despite how often the jinchuuriki denied picking up each other's mannerisms. This was most likely a result of the mixed influence from "movie-explorer" Roshi in combination with Fuu and Yagura, who loved referencing things at the most inappropriate times.

"THAT'S IT I'M LEAVING!"

Everyone jumped; "So... does that mean A got fed up with the paperwork or did he finish it all for the first time since he took up the hat?"

"IF I SEE ANY OF YOU BRAIN-DEAD OLD FARTS AGAIN, IT'LL BE TOO SOON!"

"That about answers the question," Yugito sighed. "I don't even want to think about what the council is going to do with him for calling them "brain-dead old farts". At least, I hope it was the council and not some Land of Snow ambassador... now should we leave your hair as is or—"

"She looks divine and you look exquisite, but look at the time," Bee interrupted pointedly. "The crew is awaiting your orders, we should be getting away from our borders."

Yugito leaned over to Samui, "What crew?"

Any reply was cut off when a certain Raikage smashed down onto the training ground beside the seven shinobi, effectively creating a crater that had Karui loudly complaining for weeks on end. "Let's go!" he cried with a triumphant grin on his face. Yugito and Bee sweatdropped; they didn't even want to imagine what he did to the council... or poor Mabui...

"We might as well," Hizashi sighed, walking over to help up Naruko. "I assume we're all packed?"

"Oh no—"

"I'm going to stop you right there, oaf," Yugito held out a hand to cut off Bee. "You too, lug," she said to A, reaching out to give his chest a hard, pointed poke. "I packed enough for all three of us because I know the both of you are meatheads who can't do lick without me."

"But—"

"No ifs, buts or bloody coconuts!" Killer Bee interrupted his brother, grinning. They both knew it was true, but they liked to argue with Yugito anyways. After all, what would the other Kage say if they knew the famed Fourth Raikage was dependent on a female Jonin for mundane yet easy things like remembering to pack for a trip?

Hizashi sighed, "Great, now I'm craving coconuts..."

"The flesh or the water?" Naruko asked off-handedly, rummaging in her obi with her right hand.

"Both," Hizashi answered with another sigh, only to let a startled noise slip from his mouth when he had to fumble to catch a coconut. "Are you serious?" he deadpanned at Naruko, who grinned at him. "Who stores a coconut in their obi?" Despite his incredulity, Hizashi used a precise chakra burst to break a small hole in the coconut, accepting a straw as he started to walk to the gates as he drank from the coconut.

"That's an image I never thought I'd see," A snickered quietly. "A Hyuuga drinking directly from a coconut."

"Let's go before he gets lost... again," Naruko giggled, grabbing Bee and Yugito's hands to drag them with her. "For a Hyuuga, Hizashi-san has a truly terrible sense of direction."

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The first two days of the journey was entirely uneventful, aside from having to take more breaks than Naruko was used to due to Hizashi's recovering body. The blonde almost giggled when she remembered Chiba-san's tomato-red face when A told him that they would be leaving that day. That was the first time she saw someone argue for a whole fifty-four minutes against the Raikage without backing down. And yes, she had been timing it because she and Hizashi had betted who would back down first; she won. The comment that Hizashi's gambling luck was just as bad as a certain Slug Sannin had the Hyuuga pinching her cheek.

Naruko hesitated to close her eyes as she slid into her sleeping bag. She needed rest, she knew that much, but... during the week she had been staying with her mother in Kumo, she had had a lot of nightmares. The first night on the journey back was fine since she had exhausted herself to the point of being unable to dream. But she hadn't done that today, and she wasn't quite ready to admit that she was scared of sleeping. Her eyes drifted over to the familiar woman sitting by a dimming campfire, her slim figure outlined by the moon.

'That's right... with okaa-san here... I don't have to be afraid.'

Her heavy eyelids slid shut.

She was running. The lab walls stretched and turned like an endless maze. Voices called out to her, begging her to open the doors, to free them, to release them from this pain and misery. And still there were others, who called out not to her, but to him, crying for him to hold up his end of the bargain and save someone dear to them with his science. 

But she was here for a reason... what was it?

Oh right — she was searching for someone. But who?

Suddenly everything went deathly silent, and an eerie hiss of cold air rushed through the lab. She slowed to a stop; the voices had been muted. Now there was no sound, save for the creaking of crushed metal. Wait... her eyes widened when she saw the corridor walls were steadily closing in. She would be crushed if she remained here any longer. 

She started to run again, her footsteps echoing and bouncing off the walls. She skidded around a corner and saw a familiar door. One look behind her and she knew she had no choice; she dove in to the place of her nightmares.

But what awaited her there was nothing like what she remembered. The pristine, albeit cold, lab was destroyed into rubble, blue flames still licking the walls and ceilings and floor. The tech had all been destroyed by A's fists, and what hadn't, was burned to ash by the Nibi's flames. And yet, there was someone in the lab... she knew because she could sense the sheer hatred and loathing that radiated off them. But something in her gut told her that the someone was neither alive nor dead... that someone...

Naruko's eyes snapped open, shivering uncontrollably as she forced her breathing to slow down. She was only thankful she hadn't woken up screaming, which definitely would've woken up her companions. She tried to close her eyes again but quickly opened them the second she saw red eyes paired with white-and-green brush-like hair.

The girl flinched when a hand rested on her shoulder, and the hand instantly retracted, leaving her shoulder cold. "Naruko?" a soft voice questioned, and the blonde's head twisted to see her mother looking down at her worriedly. Her hand was still in the air where Naruko had shaken it off. "Is something wrong?" Naruko raised an eyebrow at her, and Yugito shrugged with a slight smile. "I was on night watch duty and I heard your breathing change. Sensitive hearing, and all that."

"I'm sorry," Naruko murmured, relaxing. Just the knowledge of her mother's presence filled her with a sense of security. "It... it was just a nightmare."

Yugito was silent for a moment, and then whispered, "I'll be right back." She swiftly moved over to where Bee's massive figure was sleeping, and crouched down by his head, reaching out to poke his cheek. "Hey, Bee, wake up," she whispered. The Kumo rapper's eyes furrowed a little as he fought to remain in sleep's embrace. Yugito smirked a little and poked him harder. "Wake up, you big oaf."

"Whazzit?" Killer Bee grumbled, finally acquiescing to waking up at some unearthly hour.

"Can you cover for me?" Yugito whispered. "Naruko had a nightmare."

Bee instantly sat up and nodded, reaching beside him to grab his shades to put onto his face. Yugito had no idea why he wore them every hour — except for when he was sleeping — but she didn't question it; he never questioned her quirks, after all.

Over by her sleeping bag, Naruko squeezed her eyes shut and curled herself into a ball. 'This is stupid... I'm thirteen. I shouldn't be scared of dreaming.'

"Hey," a hand landed on her head, "scooch over."

Naruko opened her eyes and blinked before looking up, sure that whoever was standing there — Yugito, and she was smiling gently down at her — could see the surprise in her eyes. 

"Scooch," Yugito said again, pushing Naruko's shoulder lightly. Still surprised, Naruko wordlessly obeyed, and watched as the older blonde slipped into the sleeping bag. Yugito held out her arms and Naruko instantly snuggled in close, feeling her mother's arms wrap securely around her as it tucked her head under Yugito's chin while the woman rested her cheek on her hair. Naruko was as close as she could be, forehead pressed against Yugito's pectoral to feel the familiar lullaby of her mother's heartbeat.

Yugito's hand started slowly threading through her daughter's blonde hair, quietly humming the girl's childhood berceuse. After a few repetitions, Naruko finally felt her eyelids grow heavy, and didn't bother fighting it as they slid closed. It wasn't like she had anything to fear; not when she was safe in her mother's arms. Dimly, she recalled that this had happened before — sometime in the week after Hizashi was awakened, she had found herself in a nightmare and after waking up, she had, feeling very much like her ten-year-old self, tip-toed her way to her savior's bedroom and crawled in with her. Yugito hadn't cared at all about the childish act; in fact, she had pulled her closer and quietly sung the same, soothing song.

Content, warm, and above all, secure, Naruko finally drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》

"Hey," a raspy voice whispered. It wasn't her mother's, that much she could tell. But the warmth beside her meant that the woman hadn't yet moved. Naruko felt the vibrations as Yugito gave the first speaker an answer; when she shifted, the teenager whined low in her throat and buried her face further in Yugito's collarbone in a futile attempt to block out the rising sun.

She heard both people chuckle, and felt Yugito running her hand through her hair again. "Wake up, sleepyhead," Yugito whispered, a tender undertone to her teasing. Naruko unconsciously let her lips curve at the familiarity of it. She whined a little, but tilted her head back to look blearily up at her mother, who was smiling in amusement.

"Sorry," Killer Bee whispered from where he was sitting cross-legged on her other side. "Wanted to wake you up before the others did, to not... you know... provoke questions."

Naruko stared blankly at him, his explanation barely registering in her sleep-fogged mind. She gave him a half-nod, and Bee chuckled as he reached into the sleeping bag and lifted her out in one swift move. Naruko couldn't help but let out a startled squeak as the cold morning air hit her in an unexpected wave, and Yugito hissed a reproach before a blanket was thrown at Bee's head. The man gave a low, rumbling laugh as he used it and, with the swiftness and expertise only an older brother would have, snugly wrapped his Little Britches like a burrito. Effortlessly, Naruko was hefted up into the crook of his arms as Bee strode over to the small campfire in the center of the little camp, where the hulking figure of the Raikage was already sitting.

A turned as his brother approached, with a small knowing smile on his lips. Naruko smiled at him, giggling a little as she heard Yugito sigh in a mix of exasperation and fondness somewhere behind them. Bee set the blanket-burrito down beside the Raikage, and A held out a fish-on-a-stick that he had been roasting over the fire. She looked up at him inquiringly; he only smiled and nodded. Smiling back at him, Naruko took the offered breakfast and blew on it twice before taking a tentative bite.

"It's good," Naruko swallowed, smiling appreciatively at the fish in her hands. 

A grinned, "Well if it wasn't, that'd be shame on Yugito."

"Lies," Yugito huffed, walking over to sit down on Naruko's other side. "You knew how to cook fish over an open campfire long before I taught you. I just refined your skills."

A let out a bellowing laugh. "Oho, refined, you say? I seem to remember a certain someone was once so impatient they used an overpowered Fire jutsu to cook fish and ended up charring it to the point where it was inedible!"

Yugito blushed and looked away, "Shut up," she grumbled. "I was aiming for you, dumbass. It's your fault you were standing in front of the fish and decided to leave it to save your own skin." She glared at A, who waved it off with a grin as Naruko giggled at their antics that were quickly becoming the norm.

"Aw, you guys started breakfast without me?"

"You should've gotten up on time if you wanted some delicious grilled fish, Hizashi-san," was all Yugito had to say as Naruko waved her half-eaten stick teasingly.

Hizashi pouted as he meandered over to drape himself on the log. "But how do you wake up so early? I woke up at the crack of dawn but I went back to sleep because it was too cold."

"Weren't you the one who slept for an entire decade?" Naruko sweatdropped a little.

"Being in a stasis does not equate to sleep," Hizashi said at once, leaning over to snatch Bee's breakfast from his hands and quickly biting into the fish before the Kumo nin could steal it back. "And for your information, if I'm not on a mission then I will sleep until I want to wake up which is likely to be in the afternoon, because I happen to enjoy sleep. Immensely." He paused, eyeing the fish with an unusual amount of appreciation. "Almost as much as I enjoy food."

"Yes, we are all aware of your schedule," Naruko grinned. "You hate to wake up before eleven or twelve in the afternoon and you refuse to do work after three in the afternoon."

Hizashi laughed sheepishly, bringing up his fish to cover his face. "Well..."

Naruko, Yugito and A laughed while Bee pouted at his lost breakfast. The rest of the morning passed as it had the past two days, and soon they were on their last leg of the journey. 

Yugito couldn't help but remember when she had last come here to the lush forests bordering Konoha — when she had to say goodbye to everyone she had loved and grown up with. Her feet slowed to a stop involuntarily as she stared up at the tall, bright green trees. 'I wonder... how are they doing? Yagura and Utakata appear to be doing fine, Naruko obviously is and Gaara's doing better... but what about Fuu? And Roshi and Han?' Yugito closed her eyes briefly, feeling the cool wind ruffle the parts of her hair that were unbound by cloth.

"Yugito, watch it!"

The jinchuuriki jumped as a blast of steam hit where she had been standing before expanding to cloak the immediate vicinity, blinding them.

'Steam...?' Yugito's eyes widened at the familiar jutsu. 'Oh hell no... don't tell me—!'

"Okaa-saaannnnnnnn!"

'Naruko!' Yugito acted on instinct as she leapt towards where Naruko's voice was. If this was any other situation, Yugito might've laughed; why was everyone kidnapping her daughter? What was this, a game of pinball?

Yugito's heart was pounding so hard she was sure her ribcage would shatter at any moment. Her daughter's screams from deep in the forest were still ringing in her ears, blinding and deafening her to anything and everything else as she rushed through the foliage. Yugito could pick out the sounds of two lower voices — males, both of them. She pushed off the bough with enough force to shave bark off it; in her haste, Yugito didn't even notice. All she knew was that Naruko was still screaming— wait... was that... laughter?

Yugito landed silently on the soil, narrowing her eyes through the sun-dappled clearing before her shoulders sagged in relief. Shaking her head, the blonde woman stepped out to lean on a nearby trunk, crossing her arms under her chest. "You know, next time you want to steal Naruko, please find a way that is less... heart-attack-inducing."

The redheaded man who had been more of a father to her than anyone else, turned to grin at her widely. "Oh, come now, Yugi-chan. What would be the fun in that?"

"And this is where Naruko gets that from," Yugito shook her head with a sigh, though she was still smiling as she walked forward to embrace him. "It's good to see you, Roshi." She turned to the taller man clad in red, who was dangling her daughter upside-down by her ankle. "And you too, Han."

The man's eyes curved up into upside-down crescent shapes, indicating he was smiling at her. The three shinobi didn't get much of a chance to do anything else as branches abruptly fell all around them — Roshi and Yugito instantly got into defensive positions as Han tucked Naruko in and under his arm, ready to flee if need be.

"Yugito, did you find—" Killer Bee stopped in the small clearing, blinking blankly at his fellow jinchuuriki before a skin-breaking grin broke out on his face. "Hey Roshi, Han, long time no see!" He reached over to fist-bump Han, who had visibly relaxed but had yet to put down their blonde sister. "Man, I should've known it was you two," Bee shook his head, grinning. "How've you two been?"

"Well, considering how I found Han hanging Naruko upside-down by her ankles while Roshi just about tickled her to death, I'd say they haven't changed a bit," Yugito answered wryly, eyeing the redheaded man with playful suspicion, causing said shinobi to burst into merry laughter. "What are you doing near Konoha, anyway?"

"Ah, we were hoping to catch a glimpse of Naruko," Han admitted.

"Despite the fact that you're both wearing red which stands out terribly in green forests, and you are shinobi of Konoha's most hated enemy village?" Naruko asked dryly.

Han lifted his arm until it was almost vertical so he could look his sister in the eye. "Yep," he said simply, eye-smiling at her. "What, you didn't miss your beloved nii-chan at all?"

Naruko rolled her eyes with a smile before propelling herself up to flip out of Han's loose grasp, latching onto his shoulder to cartwheel her way into sitting on his broad shoulders. "Of course I did," she murmured, reaching down to hug his head. "Every hour of every day."

Yugito smiled at the interaction, and then turned to Roshi. "Seriously old man, what's wrong?"

Roshi sighed, the wide grin dropping from his face. "Han and I got permission from Ōnoki to take some time off and "train" with our Bijuu-acquired abilities. We're supposed to be near Iwa but in a secluded mountain range. Obviously, as I'm sure you can tell, it was just a cover so we could be free to do some scouting. Two men were skulking around a little too close to Iwa for my liking... and they were wearing Akatsuki cloaks. So Han and I decided to go some scouting." Roshi gave a nonchalant shrug. "We've picked up a lot of useful information, and we'll head back in a week or two... what's with that face, Yugi-chan?"

The face in question was the one that Yagura had dubbed "Worried Mama-Cat", and an apt name it was too, for that was exactly what it sounded like — Yugito would furrow her brow to the point of wrinkling her forehead if things were dire enough, and her lips would purse together so tightly it would become white.

The kunoichi let out an explosive sigh, "Are you suicidal or just plain old idiots?" she demanded. "No, don't contradict me, you went looking for the Akatsuki. Roshi, the whole reason we split up was so that the Akatsuki would have more difficulty tracking us down and capturing us. And you are just... you're basically walking into a lion's den and asking them to eat you!"

"Aw, you're just worried you might lose your family," Roshi cooed, grinning widely. Yugito glared at him heatedly, her nails slowly elongating as her rage — that admittedly did stem from her fear or losing her loved ones — grew.

"Don't worry, nee-san," Han reassured from where he had previously been in conversation with Killer Bee. "We've been very careful, and we look out for each other. We have grown, you know... well, at least I have," he added thoughtfully, pointedly glaring at Roshi's direction. "The old man, though, he's still reckless and hotheaded and makes jokes in the worst situations."

Yugito rubbed the bridge of her nose. "You telling me that Roshi retains his hotheaded impulses does nothing to reassure me."

"No, but I'm there to make sure he doesn't give in to said impulses," Han corrected. "Don't worry so much," he said in a softer voice, walking over to hand Naruko to Roshi. "We're both Jonin, and we can call upon our Bijuu for help. We're not dim enough to think we could take on the Akatsuki when they're composed almost entirely of S-rank missing nin, and especially when they come in pairs."

Yugito frowned and crossed her arms again. "Just... don't be reckless, okay?"

Han eye-smiled at her. "As long as you do the same."

Yugito couldn't help the upturn of her lips as she nodded in acknowledgement of Han's request. Her eyes drifted over to her brother and father-figure — though she never called them as such — who were talking about who-knows-what. If it was anything like the old days, it was probably a debate on which movie star was currently the best, with a bit of Bee's rapping thrown in just to annoy Roshi. Yugito's smile grew a little; the old days. She half-expected Gaara and Fuu to come barreling into the room while running away from Yagura and Utakata, the former brandishing his staff in a mock-threatening way while the latter blew bubbles in attempt to capture the trouble-making imps.

"Yugito, Bee, we're coming after you!"

Everyone stiffened. "That'd be A," Bee pinched the bridge of his nose. "See, this is why you don't kidnap Naruko and send Mama-Cat into a frenzy—"

"I was not in a frenzy!"

"—and have me chasing after both of them," he finished, ignoring her completely.

Han sighed; some things never changed. He shot a glare at his uncle, "It was all his idea, so don't lump me in with his criminal acts." His glare intensified further at Roshi's grin, signifying that the older man was clearly unrepentant.

"Well, that cuts our reunion short," Yugito sighed, walking over to Han and lifting her daughter off Han's shoulders. "Come on Naruko, I'm sure Hizashi-san is even more eager than you to see his home. We shouldn't delay him anymore."

"Hai," Naruko smiled, running over to the edge of the clearing. Bee who clapped Han on the shoulder in farewell, wishing him luck and good health before striding to join Naruko. The Kumo nin grinned as he indulgently hefted the small blonde onto his own shoulders, patiently waiting for the Nibi's jinchuuriki to join them. 

Yugito sighed; that girl just loved being up high, something that probably came from her short stature. She smiled at Han, "Take care of your oji-san, Han. I have a feeling one of these days he's going to get himself into hot water if you're not there to stop him from letting his famed instincts take over," she winked, letting out a chuckle at Roshi's indignant cry. Yugito's smile softened as she turned to Roshi, "Take care... oyaji." (3)

Roshi's eyes widened in surprise before his weathered features settled into a warm smile, a sort of tender, indescribable emotion in his eyes. He reached out to squeeze Yugito's shoulder gently, leaning over to kiss the top of her head in a fatherly fashion. "You too, Yugi-chan... you too."

One last smile.

One last touch.

One last look.

And then they went their separate ways, not daring to look behind them.

Because if they did, they knew they wouldn't have the courage to part once more.

《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》

"Ah, we're getting close!" An excited grin broke out on Naruko's face. She risked a glance behind her, to where they had left her jiji and nii-san to their "activities". Her excitement dimmed briefly, 'Stay safe, you two.'

"I don't see why you're so excited to return," A grumbled under his breath. "Kumo is much better — it's like comparing tea to sake. There's no question that sake is better than hot leaf juice."

"I'll take hot leaf juice over rice wine any day," Hizashi answered mildly. "Besides, considering this is the Village Hidden in the Leaves, I am forced to assume our hot leaf juice is much better than in the Village Hidden in the Clouds, wouldn't you say, Raikage-sama?"

"Tch!" A looked away, grumbling as his companions laughed. He returned his attention when there was a sudden sharp gasp. An inquiring look at Hizashi, who shook his head, told him that it wasn't the Hyuuga. A turned his head in time to see Yugito's arms shooting out to catch the lone Genin they were travelling with.

Naruko winced as a wave emotions crashed into her, knocking the breath from her lungs. "I'm okay, just felt more than a truckload of negativity," Naruko winced with a reassuring smile at her companions' concerned looks. "You know — anger, desperation, resentment, terror... the usual. Except, it's really strong this time. It's like a storm of negativity." At Hizashi's raised eyebrow, she smiled sheepishly, "You know... jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi thing..."

Any questions Hizashi might've had were put on hold when a furious voice all but shouted in the distance, "What do you mean we can't go?" 

"Looks like we just found said source of negativity," Hizashi remarked. Naruko squinted at the foliage; A glanced down at her and lifted her up, eliciting a surprised squeak from Naruko as he planted the smaller-than-average girl on his broad shoulders.

"Let's go," the Raikage ordered. Used to their Kage's antics, Yugito and Bee flashed each other an amused look before following. Naruko was more than a little surprised, but had come to realize most of A's gruff gestures spoke what he wouldn't say. Hizashi shook his head, also amused, and kept pace with the two Kumo Jonin.

"In case you're either deaf or mentally impaired, Uchiha," an exhausted female voice answered with just as much force, "it means exactly that: you can't go out there and search for her."

"And why the hell not?" This time it was a younger, girlish voice that demanded. "Kakashi-sensei is still searching with his ninken and even Team 8 is out there, so why can't we go too?"

"Because Team 8 was specifically assembled for tracking," a deeper, weary male voice answered this time. "In any case, you two are only Genin, and you don't even have a Jonin to go with you."

"But it's been weeks!" the girl cried, frustration coating her voice. "And we don't have anything at all to go on!"

"Don't you think I know that?" the male voice snapped again, angry this time. "If you feel useless then how do you think I feel? I handle one of the most extensive and reliable spy networks in this damned dimension, and I can't find even a trace of my own goddaughter's whereabouts!"

Naruko covered her eyes with her hand, before it slipped down to cover her smiling mouth. Their concern and frustration at the lack of leads was touching, but wholly unnecessary. She could see Hizashi looking between them and her like a badminton match, a smirk set in his features. Yugito had raised eyebrows with intrigue written all over her face while Killer Bee was grinning at the — as he so dubbed it — "Konoha mother-henning".

Naruko tapped A's shoulder and the Raikage dropped down from the foliage a few meters away from the Gates. The blonde duo watched the argument for a few more moments, the younger with her chin resting on her forearms which were folded on top of the man's head. Having finally had enough, Naruko called out to the four Konoha shinobi in an amused voice, "I disappear for two weeks. Not even — I was gone for three... two... seven... twelve days. I wasn't around for just twelve days and you're already at each other's throats?"

"I believe you forgot to factor in it takes roughly three days to get from Kumo to Konoha," Yugito said in slight amusement as she came out from the tree's shadow, tapping Naruko's knee. (4)

"Right," Naruko rolled her eyes again, "so fifteen days. Huh, that actually was two weeks... and a day." She blinked before turning back to her fellow Konoha residents, "but still! Fifteen days and you're trying to tear each other apart? Now I know I can't leave any of you alone for even a mere second together after this," she laughed, slipping smoothly down A's large arm like it was a slide.

"NARUKO!"

"Ah!" Naruko squeaked in a mix of surprise and delight as she was swept up in a crushing hug — her two teammates had reached her around the same time and decided it would be a good idea to trap her in a simultaneous hug from front and behind. Tsunade and Jiraiya weren't far behind the Uchiha and Haruno, but managed to have enough self-control to not rush Naruko as well. A wise choice, seeing as Naruko was currently struggling to draw breath.

"S-Sasuke... feet...!"

"That's your fault for being so short," Sasuke retorted, noticing that Naruko's feet were indeed off the ground; his blonde teammate was a good head shorter than both himself and Sakura, so he supposed it made sense. "Besides, there's no way in hell I'm letting you go after all that just happened... don't you dare do that again, dobe!"

"I second that!" Sakura cried at once, and Naruko felt her right shoulder grow damp.

"A-Ano, I'm touched you guys love me so much, but... must breathe!" Naruko squeaked. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her mother, brother, Hizashi and A look on in amusement. They were even laughing at her misery. Ooh, they were going to get it once she was able to escape for more than a second.

"Naruko," Sakura said, clearly struggling to speak through her tears, "next time when we tell you to run... you run! Got it?"

Naruko smiled apologetically, reaching out a hand to wipe her sister-in-arms' tears. "Got it." She sent a exasperated look Sasuke's way; the Uchiha still refused to let go of her. Naruko sighed and rested her head on Sasuke's shoulder, resigning herself to her temporary "fate". Surprise flashed across Sasuke's face momentarily before falling back into the usual unreadable stone expression as he tightened his grip on his formerly-missing teammate.

"Naruko!"

"Yes, that's my name," she answered automatically just before she was tugged forcefully out of her teammates' grasps. "'N-Nai-nee!" she exclaimed. "Where did you come from?"

"Where did I come from? Where did you come from? Where have you been?" Kurenai set the girl down and gently shook her. "Do you know how worried we were? No, how worried Kakashi was? He's still out there searching for any trace of you!"

Naruko sweatdropped a little as she was denied the chance to answer when she was promptly handed over to Tsunade — 'I honestly despise being so small.' — to have a "check up". Naruko sighed in slight annoyance when she saw her travelling companions were still laughing at her, but smiled brightly when she felt her hands each be taken by Hinata and Sakura, both of whom were close to tears. Sasuke's arms slid around to loosely embrace her from behind, resting his chin on her head.

"Mou, you guys won't leave me alone for a long time, will you?" Naruko sighed in resignation, watching as Tsunade's glowing hands quickly ran a diagnostic over her body.

"Nope," all three answered at the same time.

"Geez Naruko, you're a trouble magnet, aren't you?" Tsunade smiled tightly at the girl, reaching up to tap one of the hair-buns. "Well this is new..."

Naruko sighed, "Blame the Kumo nin."

"The... what?"

Naruko pointed behind her; Tsunade followed her gaze and instantly stood up, walking over to greet the Raikage, an apology already on her lips. Jiraiya quickly hugged Naruko and promised to talk it over with her later before hurrying to join Tsunade; he had a feeling this would be one of those extremely complicated political matters that his hot-headed teammate would have no patience for.

"Hokage-sama," A said respectfully as he went to greet the buxom blonde halfway. "I already sent you a letter explaining most of the tricky details, so I'll get right down to it—"

"What letter?" Tsunade interrupted.

A blinked. "The letter I sent when we discovered Naruko was in Kumo. It should've arrived about nine days ago..." A suddenly sweatdropped when he remembered a certain impatient Mama-Cat storming into his office the day they rescued Naruko, and him tucking said letter into his desk. In all the drama afterwards, he must've forgotten to send it... oh boy...

Clearing his throat, A summarized, "Well, what happened was that one of our scientists operated behind our backs to kidnap Naruko, and after interrogation, he gave us the name of the Konoha resident that gave him access to the layout of the village, patrol shifts and other such things that he would need to pull off a successful abduction within Konoha's walls."

Tsunade raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow. "Oh?" she asked calmly, though the steadily-growing Killer Intent radiating from her was another indication altogether. "And who might this miserable fool be?"

"An elder by the name of Danzo Shimura—"

There was a loud smash and everyone jumped at least a foot in the air while the Kumo shinobi had their hands on their weapon pouches or katana sheathes. "Sweet lanta!" Yugito and Killer Bee both cried at the same time, wide-eyed at the crumbling building. A stared dumbly at his fellow Kage, who had just smashed her fist into a nearby building and causing it to instantly fall and crumble into nothing but broken wood and debris. The Genin had instantly shot to clump together as close as they could be, while Jiraiya sweatdropped and Kakashi tried not to laugh at the extravagant reactions.

From the center of the Genin clump, Naruko lifted herself on her toes to peek over Sasuke's shoulder, and stared blankly for a moment before bursting into blithesome laughter. "And that's my baa-chan for you."

"Naruko!" a distant voice shouted, half-drowned out by a deafening cacophony of barks.

Naruko twisted as best she could to see a wild mop of grey hair rushing towards the Gates. "Okay, now you really have to let me go, just for a few minutes," she tilted her head back to smile up at Sasuke, who frowned. Naruko giggled when she felt his grip tighten before releasing her. A startled squeak left her mouth as she was instantly swept up off the ground and crushed against her brother's chest in a bone-grinding embrace.

"Wow... missed you too, Kaka-nii," Naruko gasped out with a laugh as her arms wound around the Jonin's neck. With a slight amount of chagrin, Naruko noted she was still small enough for Kakashi to lift her up and carry her on his hip like she was some toddler. She pushed it back; she understood why Kakashi was suddenly acting like a helicopter parent and she would indulge — albeit reluctantly — him for a few weeks, considering the circumstances. No wait, scratch that... she'd have to indulge almost everyone she knew, from her fellow Genin to her Jonin mentors and ANBU friends. 'Ugh, why did I have to be the one that was kidnapped?' she wailed internally.

Yugito smirked at the sight and decided to take pity on her daughter, moving over to save her by temporarily distracting the Jonin and, in the process, abandoning A — she would be hearing all about that later. Hizashi had disappeared somewhere in the treeline before the Sannin could see him; she vaguely recalled him and Bee discussing something about "an entrance befitting a man thought to be deceased for a decade" and saving the best for last.

Yugito's keen eyes landed on the one-eyed, grey-haired male. 'So this is the Kakashi Hatake I've heard so much about... the man who took Naruko in, and is now her Jonin sensei.' The blonde took a few steps towards him — successfully catching his attention as she did so — and held out a hand. "I assume you're the Copy Ninja, Kakashi of the Sharingan. It's a pleasure to meet you," she said politely.

Kakashi blinked at her before taking the kunoichi's hand. "And you're Yugito Nii, the Azure Cat of Kumo. The pleasure is all mine."

Yugito nodded at him. "I just want to say thank you, for taking care of her all these years." She saw confusion flicker in his lone coal eye before his gaze turned to Naruko, and then back at her. Something akin to understanding dawned in him, and his eye curved into an upside down U as his gloved hand reached up to rub the back of his neck.

"You don't need to thank me... she's been my saving grace," he admitted. He shifted at someone calling his imouto's name; Yugito stifled a giggle, watching his face closely as the lazy half-lidded expression turned into one of unadulterated shock.

"Naru-chan, you forgot about me already? How rude," a man's voice commented cheekily.

"Hai, hai," Naruko waved at him dismissively, shooting him a playful smile before turning to her pale-eyed friend and taking her hand. "Hina-chan, while I was in Kumo, I... found someone. Even though it's been a long time, he's eager to see you and Neji again."

Hinata tilted her head inquisitively. Naruko simply pointed over her shoulder, and Hinata slowly turned around. Her pale eyes widened as a gasp slipped from her lips, her hands flying to cover her mouth. "Y-You're..."

Hizashi Hyuuga smiled kindly at the shocked heiress. "Hinata-sama? You've grown."

"H-Hi-Hizashi-oji-sama?" Hinata stuttered. She had only been three when her father's twin had been sent to his death — well, apparent death, now. But as she could see for herself, the stories of her uncle and her father being mirror images were true. And now that his forehead was empty of the Caged Bird Seal— Hinata stopped as her eyes widened even more. 'The Caged Bird Seal... it's not there!'

"Yeah..." Naruko's sheepish chuckle drew her out of the stupor. "So apparently I was kidnapped because I was the only one who knew how to undo your clan's juinjutsu, Hina-chan."

Hinata gasped again. "I'm so sorry, Naruko—"

"Whoa, why are you sorry?" Naruko laughed. "I found Hizashi-san, and freed him from the Caged Bird Seal. Hizashi-san knows that his family have also been freed from it due to the promise I made Neji after our match, so he isn't offended by your shock," she added when she saw Hinata was about to apologize to Hizashi this time around.

The clan head's brother chuckled, tentatively reaching out to place his hand on her head. "Not at all, Hinata-sama," he assured her. "I understand it's rather shocking to see your uncle alive, after believing he was dead for a good decade, however— "

"Hinata-sama!"

Hinata instantly whirled around at the familiar voice. "N-Neji-nii-san!"

Naruko stifled a giggle as Hizashi visibly froze up, and then completely lost it when she heard the Hyuuga mutter, "Oh shit." under his breath, looking almost frantic — well, as frantic as a member of the second-most-stoic clan could. "Language," Naruko chided him through giggles.

"Haha, very funny," Hizashi muttered dryly with a playfully glare directed at the whiskered girl, who merely smiled innocently at him.

"Hinata-sama, you cannot just run off like— Naruko!" Neji blinked when he saw the familiar girl standing beside his cousin. The blonde tilted her head with a smile already forming, which then disappeared when Neji started to scold her instead. "Don't disappear like that, baka!" He gently dope-slapped her, scowling. "You had half the village worried to death, not to mention the clan."

"S-Sorry Neji," Naruko laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck with a small sweatdrop. He was acting rather brotherly all of a sudden... she grinned, "Were you worried about me, Neji? Were you?" she teased, poking his chest. Her delight only furthered when a blush spread across the Hyuuga's pale cheeks and he glared at her, though he didn't outright deny it.

"Ne, Neji, there's someone who really wants to meet you," Naruko smiled, taking his hand. Neji tried to tug away, but Naruko's grip was firm as she dragged him a little ways behind her where Hinata had scampered off to.

Neji's eyes widened and his struggling went slack. He felt as if all the breath had been knocked from his lungs as he saw the carbon copy of his uncle talking to Hinata. 'It's Hiashi-sama... isn't it? But... he's back the Main House, training with Hanabi-sama.' And besides that, Hinata's face didn't have the reserved exterior that she used whenever she talked to her father; instead she was smiling, laughing, talking with him as if he were a friend. And so was he... the man who had the face of his uncle — and his father — was smiling indulgently as he maintained conversation. 'But if it's not Hiashi-sama, then it... but that's impossible!'

"Oh?" Hizashi shifted to see his son staring at him, and struggled not to laugh. 'He looks like a koi fish gaping for food... argh, I sound like Naruko.' Removing his hand from the kimono sleeve and gently placing it on Hinata's head as assurance that he would continue their conversation after, Hizashi smiled at the fourteen-year-old boy. Or was he fifteen now? Hizashi would have to check with his brother about that.

"Neji—"

Hizashi was instantly cut off when he received a punch in the gut. "Oof, that'll leave a bruise... I suppose I deserved that," he winced, rubbing his now-sore abdomen.

"Yeah, no sugary honey iced tea," Naruko muttered under her breath, keeping an arm around Hinata to prevent her from jumping between them. "You really should've expected this sort of reaction from Neji, Hina-chan," Naruko murmured with a quiet sigh. "He's never been a burst-into-tears-at-the-sight-of-a-long-lost-loved-one kinda guy."

"You bastard," Neji spat out, his eyes shadowed by his hair. "Do you have any idea what you did? You left. You didn't even say goodbye, or tell me why you were going. You just left!" Neji darted forward, punching Hizashi's chest. "I hate you. Do you hear me? I hate you! I'll never forgive you for leaving!"

Hizashi silently stood there as he let Neji hit him a few more times before feeling the twinge in his chest that meant he had taken enough physical abuse for one day. Moving just as Neji landed one more punch, Hizashi's arms jerked up and he grabbed Neji's wrists, halting his assault. Neji instantly struggled to free himself; with an exaggerated roll of his eyes that unfortunately went unseen, Hizashi twisted his boy in such a position that Neji's arms were pinned against his chest as Hizashi hugged Neji tightly to him.

"C'mon Neji, calm down," Hizashi murmured, "your old man's still healing here."

Neji's thrashing did indeed calm, until he was completely stone-still. "Bastard... I still hate you."

Hizashi rolled his eyes again, a smile curling his lip. "Of course, of course. I love you too." 

"I mean it," Neji muttered. "I had to find out why you left through a scroll. And Hiashi-sama only gave it to me after my last match in the Chuunin Exams... do you—"

Hizashi's smile abruptly dropped. "After the Chuunin Exams? Why that son of a— no no, we share the same mother. Gotta remember that when I'm insulting him," Hizashi muttered to himself. "I can't say he has a sad mug of a face either, because we have the exact same face... man, being a twin makes insulting each other so hard."

"Is he even taking this seriously...?" Naruko sweatdropped a little.

"Uh, Neji?" Hizashi gently poked his son's shaking shoulder. "Are you... okay?"

"Geez, you haven't changed at all," Neji muttered, tilting his head just enough so his father could see the amused smirk pulling at his lips.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hizashi exclaimed indignantly.

"You're a baka, Hizashi-san!" Naruko called over with a laugh, only to squeak out an, "Itai! Mou~ Hina-chan, you're so mean now!" when the heiress gently hit her head.

Hizashi smirked; 'Retribution: complete. Arigato, Hinata-sama.' He returned his attention to his son, pushing away thoughts on what he was going to do his idiotic twin brother. "Neji... I know it won't make up for the many years I've missed out on, and the pain I'm sure I caused you, but for what it's worth... I'm sorry."

Neji gritted his teeth, even as he felt a hot prickling sensation at the back of his eyes that became warm liquid sliding down his cheeks. He gripped the haori cloth so hard it nearly ripped; Hizashi didn't care, holding him just as tightly.

"Tadaima, musuko." (5)

"Mm. Okaeri, otou-san."

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OMAKE:

"I need a drink," Tsunade growled as she stormed up to the Hokage's Office, Jiraiya right behind her. Sasuke and Sakura had stubbornly remained at the Gates to wait for Kakashi and Team 8, but Kotetsu and Izumo had promised they wouldn't let either Genin take a single step beyond the Gates.

The busty blonde slammed the door open, and froze in her tracks as the chair swivelled around to face the front, a lithe figure sitting in the chair with the Hokage hat on their head, dipped low to hide their identity.

"Welcome," the intruder said in a low voice, though decidedly female. Her legs were crossed and her fingers were steepled in front of the lower part of her face. "I've been waiting for you."

"Who are you?" Tsunade demanded at once, her hand clenching into a fist. She was not ready to deal with more drama today, and she would sooner burn her sake than listen to this—

A single finger reached out to flick the Hokage's hat up, revealing a whiskered face and sparkling azure eyes. "When I said I was waiting, I meant I was waiting," she informed the two Sannin with a slight tinge of annoyance. "The four of you were down there, arguing for five hours. Five hours! If it wasn't for A, I would've either gone stir-crazy or jumped down to punch the lot of you in the head!"

Jiraiya and Tsunade could only gape at her. "Wait," Jiraiya suddenly blinked, "A...?"

"'Sup."

Both Sannin nearly had a heart attack when they saw the massive, hulking figure of the Fourth Raikage calmly sitting cross-legged on the floor beside the Hokage's desk, a woman with blonde hair tied in a cloth-bound braid sitting by his right, and a younger man of similar appearance to the Raikage sitting opposite him. Cards were splayed out in the middle of their makeshift circle, and said Kage was frowning at the ones in his hands. The man with shades was smirking smugly and the woman looked amused at the oldest's faint frustration.

"H-Hi-Hiz-Hiz-" Jiraiya was stuttering so hard he couldn't even form the word as he stared wide-eyed at the Hyuuga clan head's twin brother. Said man was leaning against the wall just to the left of the Hokage's chair, and had previously been admiring the admittedly-picturesque view of the village from the large window right beside him.

Tsunade shook her head, stalked over to the desk and grabbed a bottle from her hidden stash of liquor, and grabbed Jiraiya's shirt as she walked out the door without another word.

That was too much drama for twelve hours. She'd be back to deal with it in a decade or so.

《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》

(1) Kaa-chan = closest translation is "Mommy"
       Naruko usually calls Yugito "okaa-san" which is roughly translated to "Mom"

(2) Seeing as the Land of Spring was originally called the Land of Snow, and assuming that Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow hasn't happened yet (this original "arc" is set directly after the "Search for Tsunade" arc and sort of replaces the "Land of Tea Escort Mission" arc), the Land of Spring is still called the Land of Snow

(3) Oyaji = Father/My old man

(4) I actually did the math, and it takes roughly 68 hours and 32 minutes to get from Kumo to Konoha (including detours) which is 2.86 days. So naturally, I rounded it up to 3. Please don't ask how long it took me to get to this conclusion; I nearly tore my hair out over this and bashed my head on the desk too many times. Ah, the troubles of being a perfectionist.

(5) So contrary to popular belief (I've seen this in a lot of stories) "musuko" means "son". Which means "sochi" is NOT Japanese for "son"; it actually means "measure".