Chapter 28
4 years and 11 months later- a grand total of 10 years and 6 months in the past- October
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“How’s it going, Iruka?” Iruka grinned a Cheshire cat grin to his old teammate and his ANBU captain. Both Shisui and Kakashi were wearing their ANBU masks, Hebi and Inu as they approached him.
“Same old, same old. Nothing interesting, well, other than Rin coming back from her mission.” He gave a shrug and held back a chuckle as Kakashi’s interest piqued.
Kakashi was by no means attracted to his teammate, but he liked to keep tabs on them, whether it be Team Minato or his own ANBU team- Team Ro.
“Did she say where she was going?” asked the silver haired ninja with a drawl in his voice, trying and failing to sound uninterested- well at least t a person who knew him very well.
Iruka nodded and looked him in the eye, once again feeling a gleeful that he was tall enough to do so. He recalled a time when he was an entire head shorter than the Copy Ninja but now they stood at nearly equal heights. This feeling was crushed when he noticed that within the last month, Shisui had gotten to exactly Kakashi’s height.
He gave Kakashi a small smile which didn’t quite reach his eyes, “She went to visit Obito. Apparently she received an update stating he had gotten worse.”
No one could understand it. Obito would constantly get better but then Rin would be gone and he would go under again, all the progress he had made would go down the drain.
Kakashi gave him a small nod and went to stand next to Shisui who stood beside Iruka who wouldn’t get off his shift for another two hours.
“Have you heard anything from Naruto recently?” Iruka asked either of them, his last letter from the blonde fresh in his mind and he had to force himself not to smile as he recalled the secret on it.
Kakashi shook his head whereas Shisui clenched his fist, “Nothing.” It was unlike Naruto not to update Shisui of all people considering he had to keep up with her, to protect her.
It was a job their hokage had given him specifically when he had found out about her addiction to the Uchiha, but Iruka knew without a doubt that Shisui would have done so forever even without the hokage telling him to do so. After-all, he had been doing that for so much longer than the hokage had even known about the addiction.
Iruka gave a shrug of his shoulder as they walked around the top of the wall, “I’m sure she’ll send a message soon.”
Iruka already knew the blonde wouldn’t be sending any other messages, and if she did it would be to tell the Uchiha she would take longer than she had intended to get home from Kusa.
They carried on their patrol around the their section of the walls in silence after that, none of them caring much for small talk whilst on duty when they could do so when off duty at any time.
Once it was Iruka’s change of shift, he made sure Shisui took his medication, knowing he would forget and worry everyone sick if he collapsed.
Shisui didn’t have to take them all the time, but he needed to take a small dose of Naruto’s blood every other week, something Shisui often forgot given the long gap between each dose so people around him made sure he took it.
Shisui hadn’t always needed it, in fact, he had only started to need her blood a year after Naruto had left for her outer village work. He had been fine, taking missions as usual however he had been delivered a fatal blow to his abdomen, and had been in a coma for a week before he had begun to show signs of recovery.
And he had only shown proper signs of recovery when Naruto came back to heal him, and no one knew the exact details of what she had done but everyone had been thankful. The only detail they knew was she had given her blood to him, a lot, which caused an addiction.
Of course, the information about his addiction was S rank and the only people who knew what his medication was were; Iruka, Kakashi, Rin, Minato, the sandaime, Jiraiya and Orochimaru. Of course there was also Naruto but it was common sense she’d know about the addiction.
Coincidentally, this was about the same time Obito’s progress would change a lot but no one paid any heed to that oddity, after all, they were two different situations that happened at two different times.
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Shisui was feeling homicidal and was ready to murder someone. It had been a whole month since he had heard anything about Naruto and it had been even longer since he had seen her. Sure, she didn't need him there all the time to give her his chakra since they had stored some away but that was entirely besides the point. He didn't like the silence one bit and he hated that no one understood where he was coming from.
His father would say he was being ridiculous and that worrying was a waste of his time and effort. His uncle Fugaku didn't really care either way, Itachi said he was acting like a love-sick girl and his teammates were worse. They didn't care.
It seemed like he was the only person worried about his blonde teammate and he was ready to illegally leave the village to find her. He hadn't even heard from Lord Orochimaru or Lord Jiraiya which was even more concerning.
Naruto may technically be older than him in a mental state, but physically she was a year younger than him and he knew she was prone to accidents all the tome and had no regard for her own life. Out of everyone from their graduating class, she had the most injuries however none went marked by hospital as by the time she got there.
The hospital often claimed she couldn't be a front line shinobi given her clean record.
'They wouldn't think that if they went put to the field with her.' He though mirthfully
Currently, he was sat with Kakashi, Iruka, Genma, Raido and Itama in a tea house which sold decent food and dango.
Shisui didn’t have the sweet tooth Itachi had but he was in a foul mood and needed something sweet in his system or he really would kill someone.
He had just finished his tea when a set of hands curled around his chest from his back and a husky voice whispered in his ear, "Happy birthday, Shisui."
He shivered from hearing her voice and took a hold of both of her hands in his. He noticed she had painted her nails black today, which meant she was wearing something brightly coloured.
He turned his head to the side and was greeted by the blue eyes of his teammate he had been worried sick about for the last three weeks.
Without his knowledge, he began to pump his chakra into her and coated it around her, revelling in the shiver and the look of ecstasy on her face, her head tilted back and a low moan escaping her.
Naruto Namikaze would make her future husband a lucky man.
She gave him a half lidded glare before holding his head to her chest, running her finger through his hair as a blush forming on his face at her method of revenge for doing that in public.
A smile formed on his face when he registered her words, he hadn’t even realised it was his birthday today. As gift to himself, he took a hold of her and clutched her to him, breathing in her scent- orange and trees.
Her hair had gotten longer than when they had begun travelling, reaching the back of her knees but she often tied it up. He loosened his hold and stood up, his arm around her shoulders and took in her appearance.
True to form, she wore black shinobi trousers with an orange haori with black flames licking it and underneath she wore a black and orange shirt. It wasn’t as bright as he had initially thought but still brighter than what should be legal for a person as accident prone as herself.
There was a cough behind him so they turned to see everyone’s eyes sparkling, “Well, well Shisui… Are you done checking out Konoha’s heartbreaker?” asked Genma, his brows wiggling suggestively at Naruto who threw the blunt end of her kunai at his stomach.
“Behave, Genma.” She admonished before grinning, “We all know you’re not pretty enough for me, at least Shisui has a better chance taking me to bed compared to your attempt a few years back.”
Genma didn’t bat a lash, “You said pretty, you do realise he’s a boy right.”
Naruto grinned showing her sharp teeth, “Of course, I’m his teammate and I’ve seen his kunai in the onsen before. Would you like the details?”
Shisui and Iruka blushed a bright red and before either of their generations top perverts could carry on their conversation Shisui shunshined them a few times till they reached her apartment.
He groaned as soon as they arrived, going backwards to slouch on the sofa, hands on his face, “Did you have to encourage them? They already misunderstand our relationship and this’d just feed those rumours.”
He heard her laugh lowly and he removed his hands to see her bright smile, feeling a small smile break onto his face till she asked, “And how are those rumours treating your clan?”
His smile vanished as a grim, dark look covered his face as he recalled the night which rumours destroyed his clan. Naruto’s eyes filled with sadness as she knelt in front of him, her memory of that night fresh in her mind as it was in his own.
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FLASHBACK
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1 year 6 months since Naruto left the village
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Naruto, Shisui, Orochimaru and Jiraiya had been called back to Konoha to help with Kushina’s second birth, and this time it was a single child so she would go through the normal procedures of childbirth but as she was the jinchuriki she had to go to the outskirts of the village to give birth again.
Naruto and Orochimaru were on guard outside when the attack had started. An army of White Zetsu flooding the area, and without their notice, a masked individual with the sharingan had gone inside and kidnapped Kushina as they had fought off Zetsu and Isobu.
Once Naruto had hit him Isobu hard enough, she managed to knock out the sharingan’s control over him.
She didn’t understand what was going on till she felt a crushing pain in her abdomen. Kurama was being sucked out of her seal and into Kushina’s own seal, but thankfully for both of them- whoever was waking him out only had enough strength to take out half of Kurama. Meaning Kushina wouldn’t face any permanent damage.
Naruto hadn’t caught sight of any of her travelling companions as she made her way to Kurama and Kushina, tightening Kushina’s seal by overriding her current one with one similar to the one on Killer Bee.
She would have used the eight trigram seal however she didn’t have the time do so as Kurama was being controlled to destroy the village, something he had no control over.
Resealing half of Kurama inside of Kushina whilst her own seal was on fire hadn’t been easy but she had managed by forcing the pain out of her mind. She had no time to feel pain whilst her people were being threatened.
She had no time as he oldest friend was being controlled by some psycho.
The sealing didn’t take long, just long enough for Kurama to have taken down several buildings and houses, but long enough to do serious damage that would take long to rebuild.
By the time she was done, she was exhausted. Fighting Zetsu, Isobu and then sealing Kurama was tiring considering she hadn’t gotten any sleep as Kushina had been in labour for over a day.
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END OF FLASHBACK
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“They plan on going through with it and I don’t know what to do to stop them. Minato-sama is doing what he can and Fugaku-sama is against this coup but… there’s nothing I can do.” Helplessness didn’t suit Shisui and Naruto felt like kicking the Uchiha elders up their arses for putting such a look on her teammates face.
She gave him a heart-warming grin that made him feel better than her words did, “Well… I’ve been given free reign by the sandaime to do as I please which also means I can, theoretically, help your clan integrate back into the village without anyone facing any backlash.”
Her eyes shone with such innocence that Shisui knew she had something up her sleeve but he didn’t care. If she wanted to help his clan not get massacred or be used as puppets then he’d gladly pay the piper whatever price was owed.
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Fugaku looked at the blonde girl in front of him. He had seen the version of her which remained in the village however that version did not change much other than in height. The person in front of him was a young woman in her mid-teens who knew what effect she had on perverted males.
Fugaku was thankfully not a perverted male, at least not when the subject was anyone other than his wife.
“Could you run that by me again, Namikaze-san? I think I may have misheard you.” He asked, wanting to make sure his age hadn’t affected his hearing.
She gave him a patient smile and repeated her sentence, “I wish to help out the Uchiha clan with police business. As it stands, after the whole Kyuubi incident you guys are short staffed to deal with all the ruckus within the village and could use additional support. At least this way you’d all get more rest and time to yourselves.”
He looked at the yondaime’s sister sceptically, “And how will you, on your own, help out with such a large order? There is only one of you.” He pointed out.
She waved her hand, “That’s a non-issue. I can make a load of blood-clones which will help with matters. There’s also the fact that I’m a sage and have both great hearing and a great sense of smell. Finding will never be a problem and if I need to think about something, I could come up with a multitude of theories within a few minutes.”
She wasn’t boasting, Fugaku noted. Instead, she was laying out a portfolio of sorts, telling him her strengths but as she did so, told him her weaknesses. She had great hearing and smell which could be used against her by the use of loud sounds or strong smells.
He thought about her offer. If the Uchiha clan were seen with the yondaime’s sister it would show the village that they were not behind the attack 3 and a half years ago.
On the other hand, people would think the yondaime had sent his sister to spy on them from the inside under the guise of helping the clan. He knew the elders well enough to know they would web the girls good intent into a scheme that didn’t even exist.
“Is there any way I could have a confirmation that is your idea and not something the yondaime came up with? Just to show the clan.” He asked and she squinted her eyes at him.
“If I gave you such a document, your clan could say the yondaime was like the other hokage who did no favours to your clan.”
Ah, Fugaku hadn’t thought about that. Really, there would be no winning against the elders.
He nodded and said, “Thank-you for the offer and I will get back to you once I have discussed this with the clan elders.” He bowed his head to her as she rose fluidly, giving him a small bow before taking her leave from his office.
Fugaku chuckled. Minato Namikaze had offered him help previously and he had turned it down due to the elders but he would not do so with his sister. Whilst the elders may be able to twist Minato’s intentions, they couldn’t twist Shisui’s teammate’s intentions.
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“What do you mean you’re a jonin?!” yelled Iruka, hands on the table as he stood leaning over the table of Ichiraku.
His loud voice caused Kakashi and Naruto to rub their sensitive ears but she managed to grin through it, “I took the exam in Kiri a few years back and got promoted ‘tebayo.” She replied cheerfully.
Iruka glared at her, “You can’t take the exam in a foreign nation we don’t have a treaty with and get the jonin promotion!”
He had a point there, “Technically, I got the title by default really. Kiri has a treaty with Suna who we have a treaty with. Since Suna could confirm and allowed my rank as jonin, Konoha could do the same thing.” She explained. It was a lot harder than she had said. The amount of paperwork there was to be dealt with made her happy she didn’t have to do it anymore.
Naruto shook her head, “Enough about me. When did you make jonin and make it into T&I?” she asked, genuinely curious about what had happened during the time away.
Iruka rubbed the back of his head nervously as he finally sat down, “I made jonin after Tatsumaki was born but I’d made it in T&I a year after that.”
Tatsumaki was the unfortunate name of her second nephew and for the life of her Naruto didn’t understand what Minato and Kushina were thinking when they names each of their children.
Narumi meant the roaring of the sea.
Arashi meant storm.
Tatsukami meant tornado.
They seemed to enjoy naming these children of theirs after something to do with the weather and it made her wonder what the hell they were going to name the next one considering Kushina was pregnant again.
She really was trying to revive the Uzumaki clan the best she could.
But then again, it wasn’t like Nagato wasn’t doing the exact same thing. Well, not really, considering he was artificially inseminating the women and not actually sleeping with them.
Kurama snorted in her mind, ‘As if the purple haired girl or the orange haired boy would allow him to do so. His two lovers are awfully strange.’
‘Do you find them strange because of what we know or because they’re a threesome?’ she genuinely wanted to know his answer but he gave none.
Naruto saw the subtle pinkness around Iruka’s scar and her eyes gleamed brightly with mischief as she leaned forwards, the boys with the sharingan sitting back in their chairs fully prepared for her next question “Ooooh. Has someone caught your eye in Torture and Interrogation department?” Naruto gave Iruka a once over as he blushed a deeper red, “Hmmm…. Given your demeanour and behaviour as well as that strong smell of snakes as poison coming from you, I’d have to say you’re with Anko.” She deduced.
Really, Iruka had such carrying tastes in comparison to her original version it wasn’t even funny. In her time he had been a bachelor since he had apparently liked a guy who was dead after Naruto became genin and had decided to remain a bachelor after that but this Iruka was apparently into S&M since he was dating Anko Mitarashi.
Her chunin exam proctor who had licked the blood off her cheek when they had first met.
If at all possible his blush went a shade darker and Naruto wondered if that was even healthy, she doubted it. “Now, now, Naruto-chan. It’s not nice to tease Iruka-kun.” Spoke a sweet voice behind them so they turned around to see Rin wheeling around Obito in his wheelchair.
The boy looked fragile however there was something that was causing her to sit on edge as they took their seats. Well, Rin took her seat, Obito came with a seat.
They carried on discussing things from there, how Rin was a full medic however was still a chunin whilst the guard platoon were all jonin. Obito was of course off the roster till he could make actual progress which seemed to be impossible.
She had entertained the idea of giving him her blood to heal him but she didn’t relish the idea of having Obito Uchiha addicted to her blood the way Shisui was. She could take Shisui, Obito not so much.
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