Family Matters
Chiyo Kyoakuna has lived to a ripe old age relying on her innate intelligence and conditioned resourcefulness, but she's lived long enough to know that often the deciding factor on whether or not you live to see another day is luck. Things as small as a well-placed rock, a gust of wind, the color of your clothing, or a timely sneeze can spell your death if they're lined up at just the right moment. Living to old age as an active shinobi is the equivalent of winning the lottery, and even Kage rarely live to see fifty. Even after fighting in three shinobi wars, Chiyo survived. Lived where hundreds and thousands of friends and comrades fell, men and women better than her, stronger than her, people that by all means should have outlived her, and they died where she survived.
Her son wasn't as lucky.
Chiyo has lived through three wars, fought in the front lines and witnessed the very depths of human depravity. Indoctrinated into the old values and ideals of shinobi life at a young age, she's long since lost her faith in humanity, learned to scoff at words like kindness and mercy and never hesitate to kill if necessary. All you can do in this world is survive, survive and look out for number one. Empty words like friend and comrades mean nothing, pretty lies to hide betrayal and greed. That's what she believed.
Until she met Shuurei.
It was near the end of the Second Shinobi World War, when it seemed like everyone was an enemy and every day found another dozen names added to the KIA lists. Despite that, things were looking up. Suna had made an alliance with Konoha and just won a crucial battle against Iwa over essential trade routes and supply lines that cut them off from Kumo, and it felt like all of Suna was celebrating. 'The end of the war!' they whispered, though Chiyo was skeptical. Konoha? Did they not remember how Konoha betrayed them at the end of the first war, in a situation just like this? Konoha, bah! An alliance like that wouldn't last long. Why do they need Konoha anyway? Suna is strong! Konoha's just waiting for the first opportunity to screw them over.
Still, it was a fact that the war was winding down, the fighting getting less intense, and she allowed herself to relax slightly. Stopped worrying about her son and his wife quite so much. Sure, they weren't the strongest of shinobi, only high chunin at best and not likely to ever be made jounin, but they were intelligent. They were resourceful. She beat that into them herself. They'd be fine.
A routine mission, that what it was supposed to be, but it ended with her son and wife dead along with an entire platoon of Suna shinobi, and the only survivor pointing fingers at Konoha, saying it was Konoha's very own White Fang that ambushed them on their routine patrol. Her son is dead, dead by treachery and betrayal and they should have known better! She warned them! Every Council meeting she argued furiously against accepting, but the Council members, all the ones with the most power, the greatest influence, they were too young to remember Konoha's sly cunning and underhanded deals. They ignored her and what happened? They were betrayed, betrayed and her son paid the price, her grandson and god, she's too old to raise him, how is she going to manage and- god, he's never going to know his father. Her grandson is going to grow up an orphan and what did they do? How did Suna react? They gave them a pass! They accepted the treaty anyway and she thought Suna was better than this! She's done, she's retiring, she refuses to serve a village as weak-willed and soft as it has obviously grown to be and her grandson needs her. Fifty years old, four decades as a shinobi, and she deserves to retire.
But then one day, two weeks after she found her son's name on the KIA lists, a little red-haired girl from Uzushio shows up at the gates toting her half-dead son and daughter-in-law on her shoulders and looking fairly battered herself. Apparently she and her genin squad had been on their way back from a C-rank escort mission when they got caught up in the fight. Her jounin sensei got them out of there as soon as he was able, but Shuurei found Chiyo's son and daughter still alive and left her team with a Shadow Clone so she could bring them back to Suna. She carried them home through warzones for two weeks and it didn't make sense.Why would she go to such lengths for a stranger from a different village? They questioned her, of course, and she played it as a genin's hopeful naiveté and honoring the tentative alliance between Suna and Konoha- and by extension Uzushio- but Chiyo knew there was more to it. The girl was far more intelligent than a mere genin, but she wasn't under a henge and she didn't do anything wrong- even if she wanted them to keep quiet so her team didn't know she took such a risk- so they let her go. Later when they woke up- disabled, they will never be shinobi again, but so blessedly alive- they revealed that it wasn't an ambush that started the conflict but a few of their own turned traitor that initiated the fight and then lured in a nearby Konoha patrol. Traitors, and heaven knows how deep the conspiracy goes. Immediately the Kazekage had those he trusts explicitly launch an investigation, though Chiyo still doesn't know about the results to this day. She wouldn't even know about it if she hadn't been the first one they told when they regained consciousness. Needless to say, though, that Suna's ranks went through some extensive renovations after that.
Chiyo was old, yes. Old and hide-bound and with far more honor than such a seasoned veteran should have, and she recognized a debt to be paid. Even though the whole incident gave her goosebumps and made her instincts light up brighter than a Konoha training ground doused in oil, she promised the girl that if she ever needed something, she need only ask. The girl was startled- genuinely shocked- and actually tried to deny that Chiyo owed her anything. It was all her own decision, she said, her own stubbornness and bleeding heart- they kept moaning about their baby- so she should just forget about it. Chiyo was already cross and uncomfortable admitting it, irritable from staying up all night healing all three of them- apparently one of Shuurei's nicks was poisoned- so she snapped at the girl and made her promise to keep it in mind.
Over the years, she's kept to that promise. Honored that debt. When Shuurei sends her an owl asking politely for her services, she never refuses, ever. Because no matter how many favors she asks, it'll never be enough to repay her for the lives of her son and his wife, for the smile on her grandson's face when he sits on his father's knee and listens to the story of the crazy little red-haired girl that carried them all the way back to Suna. At first she seethed in righteous indignation at being in debt to a girl from Uzushio, Konoha's self-titled sister village. She was sure Shuurei would use the opportunity to leverage her into something, try to turn her into a spy against Suna or turn traitor. Why else would she save her son specifically? She must've known who they were related to, how influential Chiyo is as the Chief Medic of Sunagakure, one of the best medic-nin in the world, and seen an opportunity.
But it seemed that her spontaneous, irrational altruism wasn't limited to her son or her village. Or any village, really. All Shuurei ever asked from her were some medical texts on normal healing methods- because apparently Uzushio shinobi all work through seals because of the chakra overload, who knew?- and to heal a few people whose injuries were beyond her skill. None of them came from Uzushio. She brought in an orange-haired kid from Ame, for Kami's sake, and spent an entire week hovering at his bedside looking like it was her best friend lying there, dying, and not the complete stranger the other two insisted she was when Chiyo questioned them out of curiosity. Came to her with a half-healed arrow wound to the back that punctured her lung, and all she cared about was if the brat would be okay. Who does that? Who cares that much about a stranger?
Chiyo doesn't understand how someone could live and fight in a war, watch their entire village be razed to the ground, and come out of it crying for complete strangers. She cannot fathom what it takes to stay whole and relatively sane after having your whole world- everything you love- destroyed, to still have so much faith in humanity that the sincerity is practically coming off of her in waves. Yes, after Uzushio fell she got good at hiding it, but all anyone needs to do is look in her strange, bright green-gold eyes to see her inherent kindness. A few years ago she would've sneered at that word and the actions related to it, but after meeting Shuurei she's slowly begun to revise her ideas on what it means to be a shinobi.
So when she received a message late at night from one of Shuurei's summons about a patient in need of her skill, she immediately sent back a confirmation, even though the timing couldn't be worse.
She met them at the gates two days after the missive, and hadn't that been a surprise, her two little midget tag-alongs. All of them were under a genjutsu disguise, of course, until she brought them into a secure location- her own private workroom- and they dropped the jutsu. At first she'd thought the black-haired kid was her patient, because the scars on his body were horrific and obviously only in the beginning stages of recovery. Her hands fairly itched to see what methods the girl used to help him survive what even Chiyo admitted to herself should've been fatal, but then it turns out that her patient is someone far more interesting than even that.
"Chiyo-san, I… have to ask you a favor. A really big favor. If you agree, then you can consider whatever debt you think you still owe me paid in full because this is pretty huge." Shuurei rung her hands in her shirt, uncharacteristically nervous. The black-haired brat was also pretty tense, something she'd originally put down to being in a strange village secretly consorting with a strange shinobi, but now wasn't so sure. The grey-haired brat seemed to be immune to it, though, if the way he'd wandered over to her bookcase and started poking at her medical texts (and how old was the kid anyway, that he was actually reading them?) was anything to judge by.
"I doubt that," she snorted. "Come on girl, spit it out. And while you're at it, tell me what's up with Scarface over there." the scarface in question twitched and shot her an irritated look at the nickname. Oooh, feisty.
"Oh, that's Shima-kun and it's kind of a long story. But first, do you mind if I put up some more privacy seals?" Shuurei asked, holding out a scroll with green striped edges.
Her eyebrow twitched upwards at that. "Paranoid, are you? Whatever. Go ahead."
The room secured, she took a deep breath and brought out one of her Live Sealing Scrolls and with a swipe of blood, released the person inside.
There, on the floor of her study, was the Fourth Hokage, frozen moments before his death with a fist-sized hole in the middle of his chest.
Decades of medic training and experience had her kneeling at his side, running diagnostic jutsu on him before she even really had time to process the situation. What she found wasn't promising. Thankfully the wound was on the right side of his chest, missing the heart and the spine, but it punctured his right lung and the fact that he was missing a large chunk of flesh made this infinitely harder for her because instead of simply closing the edges of the wound and knitting back together the flesh beneath it she'd actually have to regrow the missing tissue.
"Shuurei," she growled, beyond irritated, "what the hell is going on? Why is the Yondaime dying on my floor? And- is that bijuu chakra? He has chakra poisoning, though I bet you knew that already!"
"Konoha was attacked when I was in the area, looking to visit a cousin of mine. Somehow the Kyuubi got loose and Hokage-sama here was partially impaled on one of his claws. My little apprentice over here," she smiled at Shima whose expression turned even more grim and depressed than before, "managed to hold it off with some newly discovered abilities or it would've been even worse. As it is, he's probably the only reason he's still alive."
"I froze. I froze and I didn't get-" he hesitated, glancing at Chiyo out of the corner of his eye, "-didn't get the little blondie out of there fast enough. If I had, sen-Hokage-sama wouldn't have had to protect him and-"
Shuurei sighed and wacked the back of his head, cutting him off mid-sentence. "Enough with the self-pity, Shima-kun. You saved him. Anyone would've frozen in that situation, and several seasoned shinobi a decade older than you did. It would've been worse if you hadn't been there. We wouldn't have this chance to save him without your intervention, so shut up and get over it. We have a delicate situation on our hands." She knelt down next to her, rocking back on her heels slightly and turning her head to look Chiyo in the face directly. "I know you have a grudge against Konoha after what happened with your son, but I really need your help on this, and you can't tell anyone. Not a single soul. I- you don't owe me anything, Chiyo-san, and you never did no matter what you believe. You have no obligation to save him, so I'm asking you this as a friend."
"A friend, eh?" Chiyo replied, cracking a grin. That's- true, isn't it? She's really gotten to know this strange little red-haired kunoichi over the years, and grown to respect her sincerity and incredible determination, even if she can't understand the motivation for it. "I don't really have a problem with Konoha, not anymore. Not after we found out some of our own were sabotaging our relations with them. I don't know if I ever told you, but it was traitors who set up the ambush that almost killed my son, though if you ever bring the White Fang here I won't be responsible for my actions."
"Really…" Shuurei murmured, eyebrows kneading together, eyes narrowing consideringly.
Kneading her forehead with a sigh, she lamented Shuurei's timing. Namikaze's healing will be very chakra intensive, and while normally this wouldn't be a problem, Chiyo has a situation of her own she needs to monitor and she isn't sure she has the chakra and the time to spare for something like this. Then again… this might be the perfect solution. "Fine. I'll heal him, but you have to help me as well. Let's trade a secret for a secret."
"Deal." she agreed easily, showing just how desperate she was for Namikaze to survive by not even asking for the terms before she agreed like any half-way decent or marginally intelligent shinobi would. "Anything. What do you want me to do?"
Chiyo hesitated, aware that what she was about to say would be hard for Shuurei.
"Chiyo-san? What is it? Why are you making that face?"
"Shuurei… Kurara… Kurara died two weeks ago."
Upon delivering such horrible news, she'd expected shock, denial, grief, and maybe even little anger towards the people who couldn't keep her favorite aunt alive. What she hadn't expected was for that anger to be directed inwards, as if her aunt's death was a personal failing of hers, or for the instant acceptance and resignation of the fact, as if she knew this was coming and was mad at herself for not having stopped it beforehand. She'd been very close to Kurara from childhood, because although Kurara was technically her aunt they were around the same age and were fairly close childhood friends, so much so that they'd kept in touch even when Kurara's parents decided they wanted to move to her father's homeland. Chiyo was half convinced that she'd picked up the Bird Summoning Contract just to make it easier to keep in touch, especially when she started wandering the nations looking for Uzushio survivors, though admittedly the communications between the two had stopped when the fighting really escalated near the end of the Third Shinobi War. She'd started sending letters to Chiyo's husband as well before he died in the war, when she learned he was also an Uzumaki, and thus made Chiyo aware of this family correspondence.
At this point Chiyo considered her extended- if distant- family, and Kurara's brats were practically her grandchildren at this point. A relationship she wouldn't have had if Shuurei hadn't pointed out that they were technically related. That made Kurara's decision- and yes, it was her decision in the end, because neither Rasa nor the Council forced her into it- all the more painful. Rasa had been optimistic, but both Kurara and herself had known the probable fate of the mother in such a procedure. That didn't mean she didn't try like hell to keep her alive when Gaara was born, though, and it made just that much harder to bear when she failed in the end. Both in keeping Kurara alive, and in giving her son a flawed seal.
Which is what she wanted Shuurei's help with.
What made this situation so perfect- well, the solution so perfect, because the situation was horrible on both sides- was that normally Chiyo wouldn't be allowed to tell an outsider like Shuurei who their jinchuriki is even if the outsider in question was somewhat related to the Kazekage, but with this to hold over her if she were ever to breathe a word of what exactly Gaara is Chiyo could, in good conscience, ask Shuurei to fix Gaara's seal. And with it being Shuurei, already known to the Kazekage as his wife's family, it wasn't likely he'd object. It was already well known that she's a fuinjutsu genius after all.
Though she did really want to know what incredibly unlikely series of events lead to her absconding with Konoha's current Hokage.
Shutting her eyes tightly in a pained expression, she blinked once, hard, eyes suspiciously wet, before she got a hold of her self, remarkably steady for someone receiving such news. "How?" was all she asked, voice rough with emotion.
"She died in childbirth, giving birth to Suna's newest jinchuriki, Gaara. They… they sealed the Ichibi into him before he was born and the trauma of birth wrecked havoc on her pathways until…"
Chiyo watched her iron-tight self-control waver, her lower lip starting to tremble slightly, her breathing picking up speed, the clenching and unclenching of her fists, before she went still. Too still. And walked calmly over to the nearest wall and slammed her fist in it hard enough for it to crack and some of the sandstone to crumble and fall away as dust. "And she kept it from me, too. She… she knew I would've tried to stop her but- goddamn it! I'm a fucking Seals Master! I could've made a better seal that wouldn't kill her when the little gaki was born! Why didn't she- but she must've thought I'd try to talk her out of it and I would have, too, because sealing a bijuu in an unborn baby? That's fucking stupid! Of all the stupid, moronic, idiotic, bone-headed…" She continued on in that vein until her cursing devolved into labored breathing that eventually morphed into heaving sobs. "You fool! You stubborn, selfless, impossible fool. Always putting everyone else before you, huh? Your parents, your husband, your kids, your village… and you never once thought of yourself and now you're gone, dead because of it!"
"Shuurei…" the back-haired brat started hesitantly, hand hovering just over her shoulder as if not sure his comfort would be welcome right then. Then he seemed to steel up his resolve and threw caution to the wind, catching her in a hug around her waist. She tensed, like Chiyo expected her to, but then to her surprise she thawed, leaning into the touch with a small, sad smile, patting his hand in a silent thanks.
Brave, that one, to hug a jounin-level shinobi when they're emotionally distressed. People have died from startling a shinobi at the wrong moment, and that he was not only still alive after hugging Shuurei- who's leery of any kind of physical touch she doesn't initiate herself- but that his comfort was appreciated spoke volumes about how much she trusted the kid.
"I- okay, yes. I'll do it. I would've insisted on looking over the seal myself anyway. Just- kami, what a burden to put on such a young child. Let's go now. I assume you want me to tweak the seal first, so you can be sure I won't just run off with the Hokage once he's healed?"
Chiyo snorted. "Like you'd ever do that. You're far too honorable to even think of doing something like that, but… yes, I'd like it if you could take a look at Gaara as soon as possible because if there is something wrong with the seal, I'm worried what effects it'll have on a developing child. The early days are always the most important, after all. How long will the stasis seal on Namikaze last?"
"Forever." Shuurei replied, so nonchalantly it made Chiyo feel like a fool for gaping at her. "What? I've tweaked it so it's a self-perpetuating seal, drawing on the nature chakra in the environment to keep going. It took me a while- almost seven years, in fact- but I finally figured out how to include nature chakra in my seals. It really is something completely different to work with than human chakra, doesn't like to be manipulated and most of the time tries to break away to do its own thing when you use the raw form, but I found that if you convert it to something almost human-like immediately on pulling it into the seal it'll do what you want without too much fuss. Not that I can use it much in the majority of my seals- I don't have enough control over it for that, yet- but stasis seals are easy and simple enough to add it in."
"I… see." Chiyo replied in a tone of voice that said she really didn't. Fuinjutsu of this level was far, far out of her depth, and she'd never even heard of nature chakra before except as being credited for miracles and the greatest mysteries of the shinobi world. Sometimes she forgot just how brilliant and… exotic Shuurei could be. And unpredictable. She has the Hokage dying under a stasis seal on the cot in her private workroom, after all.
Before they went it to see him, Shuurei asked Chiyo if there was anyone she could leave her little silver-haired brat with, as she didn't want to be exposed to bijuu chakra if she could help it. Shima, with his Uzumaki-infused chakra (and wouldn't she just love to hear how that happened), should be fine, but if some bijuu chakra did escape while she was tampering with the seal, she wanted the defenseless four-year old as far away as possible, so they stopped by Chiyo's house, the Kyoakuna Complex, before they went to the Tower and left the kid with her grandson- thirteen years old now, and already a jounin, she's so proud- and her brother. The moment the kid- did she even get his name? She didn't think so- heard that Sasori is a puppet-master he'd immediately started plying him with surprisingly intelligent questions on how they worked and were operated, much to the bewildered panic of Sasori who was… well, she'd been worried about his anti-social tendencies for a while now. He'd thrown her a pleading look, clearly asking for her help getting some breathing room. She promptly ignored him and left him to his fate. It'd be good for him. And if it kept the kid from finding out what her specialty is…
Well, that's just an unexpected bonus.
Shuurei hesitated slightly when entering the Kazekage Tower- probably nervous to be in a foreign nation's base of operations- where baby Gaara was currently being kept as close to the Kazekage as possible so he could better contain it if the seal were to falter and the Ichibi broke out. At least, that's how he rationalized it to everyone that so much as looked at the boy sideways when they went to report in to their Kage for missions and the like. It was obvious he was a little… strange around him. Obsessively overprotective and distant at the same time, clearly still trying to get over his wife's death and avoiding interacting with the living reminder of that, even if he was too paranoid to let Gaara out of his sight. Honestly, Chiyo was more than a little worried about that and promised herself she'd keep an eye on the little gaki in repentance for what she did to Kurara.
While they were waiting for an audience with Kazekage-sama to ask for permission, Shima asked Shuurei about her relationship to Suna. "You have family here, shishou?"
Shuurei snorted. "I have family everywhere Shima-kun." she replied, sinking into one of the chairs in the waiting room. "The Uzumaki clan… wasn't like most clans are. We were always a family before we were a military power, and Whirlpool was founded on that principal. Our clan founded the village, and all but a few small clans- and the Tsumeito, I suppose, they were pretty big- made up the majority of our shinobi. Most kekei genkai are recessive traits with a low probability of being carried on, which is why some of the stuffier clans are so rigid about not marrying outside the clan, but the Uzumaki are different. Our genetic quirks are dominant, to the point where you can still see our trademark scarlet hair and variations thereof many generations after a single Uzumaki ancestor, so it wasn't necessary to be so strict about things like marriage. Family is the most important thing to us with love as a close second, so when someone fell in love outside our- very small- village, we didn't make too much of a fuss about it if they decided to move away. Hell, we encouraged it, because as small as Whirlpool was we didn't have the widest selection of partners we weren't related to and were none to fond of inbreeding when we had no need for it. Add that to the fact that any Uzumaki kids were guaranteed to have above average chakra reserves even three generations down the line and give a boost to kekei genkai if the suitor in question belonged to a clan, and no village ever had a problem with an Uzumaki marrying into their village. Our clan was practically premium, and sometimes even political treaties we made with other countries hinged on an arranged marriage with an Uzumaki. That's why Mito-sama originally went to the Leaf, to marry the First Hokage and hopefully pass on his Mokuton genes since there was a much better chance they'd be inherited when paired with the Uzumaki bloodline, though that didn't end up working out. Finding out from her example that we make the best jinchuriki only ended up making us seem even more desirable as marriage candidates, hence situations like with Namikaze's wife where Uzumaki children are taken to foreign villages to become jinchuriki."
Shima blinked, looking like he'd just been hit over the head with a history book. "Wow… the Uzumaki are kind of awesome."
Shuurei smirked. "Sure are." she chirped, but then her smile dimmed a little. "Which is why we were annihilated at the start of the Third Shinobi War. All of that, paired off with our advanced fuinjutsu skills…" she winced, and forced the pained expression from her face. "But anyway, yeah. It lead to our clan being pretty well spread out throughout the Elemental Nations, and thus situations like this. Though most of my other relatives probably have no idea of their Uzumaki ancestry at all, or what it means since we were such a small village. It's different with me and Kurara because we were so close when she moved out of the village that we decided to keep in touch, and since my village was destroyed she, Chiyo-san, and their kids are pretty much all the family I have left at the moment, so like hell am I going to lose touch with them, even while I wander the nations looking for other Uzushio survivors."
He was thoughtful for a moment, thinking that through, and then made an aborted gesture to touch the scarred half of his face and asked, "Is that why I-?"
"Yes, probably." Shuurei answered hastily, cutting him off with a sideways look at Chiyo. "That's probably why it was so easy to… adapt. My chakra probably meshed well with the… procedure, being distantly related and all. Plus, our base… abilities, have the same regenerative qualities, which made it even easier once I pumped you full of it."
Well, obviously they were keeping something secret. Chiyo pouted a bit, put out by the fact that she won't be getting the chance to find out what it was Shuurei did to the boy to allow him to recover from such traumatic injuries, and was still sulking when the door to the Kazekage's office opened, revealing that he'd just been in a conference of some sort with his advisors. She sighed, already bracing herself for his inevitable foul mood since he's probably been having to deal with them all day, on top of some pretty obvious sleep deprivation. He really didn't look well, and she knew that it was from having to deal with the flare-ups of the Ichibi's chakra every night. Pale skin- well, paler skin than usual, they were in a desert after all- dark bags under his eyes, and sharper features than usual, bones prominent and easier to see since he's been steadily losing weight even before Kurara died. In the last month of her pregnancy he was so busy worrying about her that he started to neglect himself, and when she actually died he started eating less and less. Yes, Chiyo is very concerned about that family of three. Well, four she supposed, with Kurara's stepsister on her father's side. Lovely woman really, very good with the children, but she's a kunoichi above all else- an active one at that- so she's out of the village fairly often and harbors some obvious and predictable resentment towards Rasa that may end up becoming an issue between them later on in that she might influence the kids to be resentful of their father when they get old enough to what it was, exactly, that happened to their mother.
'What a family.' she thought with a mental sigh, and then her lips twitched upwards at an amusing thought. 'Rasa's probably the only father in existence that prays that his newborn doesn't sleep through the night.'
Shuurei took one look at Rasa and saw the same damn thing, and she wasn't afraid to tell him off over it either. "Rasa-sama," Chiyo started at such an unrepentantly frank use of his actual name, wondering when the hell she missed them getting this close when he didn't snap at her for it, "what the hell have you been doing to yourself? You have three kids and a village to watch out for! You're doing no one any favors moping around like this. If Kurara could see you now you know full well she'd tell you off for it."
Rasa flinched at the mention of his dead wife's name, glancing back into his office at the crib in the corner as they filed in. "Shuurei-san, this is… rather unfortunate timing. We have a bit of an issue going on right now of a confidential nature, so-"
"I already know about it." she cut him off with a wave of her hand. Seeing his irate glare towards Chiyo, Shuurei reassured him. "Don't worry about it, we traded a secret for a secret, a service for a service, and insurance for if I ever do end up spilling to a foreign shinobi what exactly Gaara is. Did you really think you could hide it from me, anyway? I'm an Uzumaki, I could sense that seal the moment I entered the building on top of the fact that it's leaking bijuu chakra like a colander under a running faucet, and if you thought you could keep me away from the kids and out of Suna when Kurara's dead, well, you have another thing coming."
If it were anyone else, Chiyo knew for sure and certain Rasa would've had their hide for being so disrespectful, but Shuurei is an Uzumaki and from his wife and her parents he knew this blunt frankness was just part of the territory, even if Kurara was polite and soft-spoken for the most part. He did pinch the bridge of his nose and grimace as if he were in pain, though, and Chiyo came forward a few steps, gathering medical chakra in her hand and waiting for his acknowledgement before soothing the pounding migraine there.
Eyebrows knitting together, she stepped forward to do the same, running a diagnostic on him and coming back with an even more worried expression. "Rasa-sama, what have you done to yourself? Exhaustion, malnutrition, and chronic chakra exhaustion, this is not good. I don't care if the very thought of food makes you nauseous and you have to shove it down your throat, you better start eating soon or I'm putting an IV in your arm and loading you with enough anesthesia to knock you out for a week. To those three kids you're all they've got now, you understand me? What do you think Kurara would say if you left them all alone because you were too busy grieving to take care of yourself?"
His expression stayed blank as it ever was, but his gaze moved to the far corner of the room where Gaara's crib was and stayed there, as if he couldn't look her in the eyes. "Shuurei, I'm sorry." Chiyo was shocked. Rasa is a proud man, for him to apologize to someone- especially someone who doesn't belong to Suna- is unthinkable, a minor miracle. He must really respect her, and with an excessively practical man like him that judges everything with an objective eye by it's value, that isn't something that's easy to obtain.
The irritation in her expression softened, leaving behind pure worry and grief. "I know. I understand why you didn't go to me, Rasa-san. You couldn't reveal such an important secret to someone outside the village without compromising security, but you should have anyway. It's not just about Kurara's life, but Gaara's safety and putting the whole village itself in danger. Chiyo's skills are negligible at best- sorry Chiyo-san-"
"It's fine, I know full well they are."
"-her skills are negligible at best and bijuu sealing is a very complicated branch of fuinjutsu that very few know anything about. If she'd made one mistake that night, it wouldn't have been just Kurara that suffered for it. She could've set the Ichibi loose in Suna, and not even your golden sand would restrain it long enough for her to seal it again. Plus, doing this so young has an incredible amount of risks even if done properly, there's no need for you to seal it into an unborn infant. Why the hell didn't you wait until he was at least separated from Kurara before you sealed him?"
"But Shuurei-san," Chiyo interjected, "the younger they're sealed, the better the jinchuriki adapts to the bijuu."
Shuurei kneaded her forehead as if she was the one who had a headache now. "That may be, but a few months of growth won't make the slightest difference so it's unnecessary to risk the mother like that. In fact, it's so much harder to do since you can't put the seal on the baby directly before it's born!" Sighing through he nose, she shook her head and looked over at the crib in the corner. "Alright, let's see what we've got. Shima-kun, get over here. This is a rare learning opportunity."
"Hai, shishou!" he saluted cockily, glancing curiously at the Kazekage out of the corner of his eye.
"He's your apprentice?" Rasa inquired, giving the black-haired boy a measuring look.
"Yep." she answered distractedly, leaning over the crib, and then- "Oh kami, he's adorable!" she cooed, nudging his tiny little fist until he gripped her finger. He is, too, the cutest baby she's ever seen, including her own grandchild. "Hey there, Gaara-kun! Nice to meet you, I'm your Shuurei-oba-chan. Now, let's take a look at that seal, shall we?"
Lifting his shirt, she put her hand on Gaara's cubby little belly and channeled the tiniest bit of chakra while Gaara squirmed under her touch and gurgled happily. The seal- Trident of the Sea God- appeared as three equidistant lines bisected by a circle connecting the three.
Shuurei paled, eyes wide, and clutched at the sides of the crib with a white-knuckled grip that made the wood groan. "Oh dear kami-sama, what have you done?" she gasped. At her side, Shima glanced at her questioningly and then leaned forward to study the seal intently, brow furrowed.
"What, what's wrong with it? I used the Trident of the Sea God, it's the strongest chakra storage seal there is-" Chiyo protested weakly, heart pounding in fear of the thought that she'd somehow managed to mess up big time.
"For human chakra! It's not equipped to handle bijuu chakra! Bijuu are so much more complicated than mere chakra, they're intelligent beings! Not only is this seal just barely holding the chakra back, but it does nothing to restrain the Ichibi's mind at all! Do you understand what that means?! You've basically let the bijuu roam free in his mind! And using water to restrain an earth natured bijuu?! I understand your reasoning in thinking it would help hold him back, but here all it does is make it that much harder to convert the bijuu chakra into something Gaara can use!"
Gaara startled and started to fuss and cry in surprise at the sudden noise, and bits of sand started coming away from the sandstone walls as dust to swirl in a slow circle on the ground at the feet of his crib. With a sad smile, Chiyo scooped up the baby and startled bouncing him lightly and he settled with a soft huff and a few sniffles.
"…Is there anything you can do?" Rasa asked weakly, collapsing bonelessly into his chair, one hand covering his face
"I-I don't know." she stammered, looking uncertain for the first time Chiyo's ever seen. It had to be bad if Shuurei, the Uzumaki genius doesn't know what to do. "The Trident of the Sea God seal is very basic. Powerful because of that, but difficult to alter and- and I can't do it right away, nothing major, because it's been such a short amount of time since he was sealed the first time and his chakra network wouldn't be able to handle the strain and- kami-sama." she sighed heavily, expression bleak, as she sank into a chair Shima pulled up for her. "I have to redo the seal from scratch and I've never done anything like that before. It's not just a matter of taking the old one off and putting a new seal on, because if I did that then the Ichibi would be released so I- maybe a temporary container?"
"Shishou, what about a storage seal? Like, a pocket dimension?" Shima offered.
Shuurei blinked owlishly. "I- yes, that could work, but it'll take a long time to alter it and it'd only last so long… For now, what I can do is put another seal on top of this one, as three pronged seals are designed to work with others it wouldn't be too difficult to do, but I'll need to expand the seal completely so I'm going to need an empty room, preferably with white walls so the ink shows up better. It going to take time, too, a week at least, maybe two…"
"Consider it done." Rasa snapped his fingers and an Anbu appeared, kneeling in front of his desk. "Prepare everything she needs and set the two-"
"Three," she interrupted, "I left my youngest with Sasori-kun and Ebizo-san."
He eyed her strangely, "…three of them up with a room."
"Hai, Kazekage-sama!" the lizard masked Anbu replied before disappearing in a shunshin that left behind a spray of sand which immediately moved to join the small swirls circling Chiyo where she was still holding Gaara.
"What's with the sand?" Shima asked, staring at it in fascination.
Shuurei's mouth twisted to the side in a wistful smile. "He gets that from Kurara, though she never had the chakra for anything big like this tyke, much less unconsciously. He's going to be something else when he grows up. Can I hold him?" She held out her arms and Chiyo carefully transferred him to the crook of her elbow, being sure to support the head. Rocking him gently her expression softened, somehow the lines of worry, stress, and grief fading into an adoring smile, something like an awe and wonder in her eyes.
"So it like, moves on its own?" Shima asked, kneeling down to poke at it and jumping in surprise when it hardened into a miniature barrier where his finger was, then yelping when it latched on. Frantically he tugged and pulled, trying to get some traction only to flail and fall on his but, feet sliding forward, finger still trapped. With a determined scowl, he braced his feet against the sand barrier- which stretched and grew to protect against them- and heaved, straightening his legs and pulling with all his might until, with a loud pop, his finger was released and he flew backwards, landing on his back, limbs splayed out and a stunned, goofy expression on his face.
Even Chiyo cracked a grin at that one, Shuurei doubled over laughing- being careful not to drop Gaara, of course- leaving Chiyo to answer. "You could say that." In Shuurei's arms, Gaara waved a pudgy little hand, accidentally whacking Shuurei on the side of his face, burbling out a shrill little laugh of his own.
"Hahahahaha…. ooooohhh…. Not a year old and you're already trolling Obi-Shima-kun. Good one, Gaara-chan!"
Hoisting himself back onto his feet, Shima gave the sand a dark look and kicked at a thin string that was drifting its way into the room from the door, slightly ajar from where it hadn't been shut properly. "Stupid sand! Bad enough it gets everywhere, even in my freaking underwear, now it's throwing me across the room!"
"Hey, don't blame the sand. It was your fault. You should know better than to poke at strange jutsu, especially kekei genkai. Honestly, I would say I thought I taught you better, but I didn't think I needed to teach you common sense." Shifting Gaara slightly and frowning, probably at how light he is- he was premature, after all- she turned to face the doorway, saying, "Well, what are you waiting for? I've got to go spoil my cute little cousins!"
Rasa heaved a sigh, reluctantly reaching out to shuffle through one of the stacks of paperwork at his desk, and Shuurei's ears caught the sound. "Oh, no you don't!" Eyes narrow, lips puckered in a stubborn, contrary scowl, she marched around behind his desk, grabbed his arm, and pulled him to his feet dragging him across the room with her free arm. "You need to get some sleep, and so help me god I will wallop you on the head and knock you out if I have to! You're taking the day off."
"I have paperwork…" he protested weakly. "I'm the Kazekage, I can't just take the day off."
"Yeah, and you're no good to anyone like this, isn't that right, Anbu-san?" she directed the comment to the corner of the room, where an Anbu dropped his genjutsu and shimmered into existence, sliding into place behind Rasa and taking his other elbow to help escort him out of the room.
Shuurei chuckled again while Rasa groaned, pulling his hand from Shuurei's grip to rub at his eyes. "Anbu. Who says they're impersonal and inhumane? Mother hens, the lot of them!" he complained, but the sides of his mouth twitched upwards ever so slightly, and when his hand fell away Chiyo saw more life in his eyes than she'd seen in weeks. "Let's go then. I'm not going to waste this opportunity when I finally have a babysitter."
'Shuurei' Chiyo thinks, relieved, as they file out the door, 'has the best timing in the world.'
Obito stares at the kid. The kid stares back at him, suspicious, face scrunched up and obviously deep in thought. They stare each other down in silence as the blonde girl- Temari- asks, "Why are they doing that, Shuurei-oba-san?"
Shuurei sighs. "I don't know. It's probably a guy thing."
"Boys." Temari sighs too, already sassy and making snarky comments at four years old.
Finally the kid- wasn't it, like, Kanky or something?- says, "Your face is weird."
Obito bristles. "No, your face is weird! Why's a guy wearing makeup?"
The kid sniffs, nose as high in the air as a three year old's can go. "It's called camouflage, stupidhead!"
"Then why's it purple, neko-chan? You looking to hide in the girl's part of the clothes store?" What a rude kid! Stupid, snobby clan kid!
Kanky glared at him with all the fury a three year old could manage. "I am not a kitty! These are off-offishal puffeteer clothes! Chiyo-obaasan said so, so there!"
"Yeah, well, you still look like a girl!"
"Hey, I take offense to that!" Temari protested. "I'm not nearly as wimpy as he is!"
Shuurei chuckled and leaned down to ruffle Temari's hair. "Come on Kankuro, are you going to give your oba-chan a hug, or are you going to argue with weirdoes all day?"
"Hey!" Obito yelled as Kankuro gave him one last sneer and turned to barrel into Shuurei's legs. "I'm not weird!"
Shuurei simply quirked an eyebrow at him. "And who was it that lost an argument with a four year old? Who was it five minutes ago that poked at a kekei genkai and ended up getting their finger stuck? I also seem to remember a certain someone dying their face blue on accident a few months ago."
Obito shot a glare at Kabuto, who was smirking at him. "That was Kabu- the little squirt's fault! He tricked me and-"
"Made you set off your own trap? I mean, really Shima-kun? What kind of shinobi forgets where they put their own traps?" Shuurei shook her head and cast her eyes skywards, her expression clearly asking what-am-I-going-to-do-with-you.
Obito shivered at the memory. "Yeah, well, I'm never going to do that again! Not after the training you put me through after that. You left me hanging there the whole night! I thought I was going to pass out!"
"Well, the lesson stuck, didn't it?"
"A chipmunk crawled into my pants! I was hanging upside down by my ankles, he was running around in there for hours!" That was not a night he was going to forget any time soon.
She hummed, staring off into the distance with a thoughtful look on her face. "True… we really need to work on your upper body strength, if you couldn't get out of something like that. Probably your core muscles, too…"
"That is not the point!" Shuurei… she can be really scary if she wants to be, especially if it has to do with training or revenge.
"You three get along well, don't you?" Chiyo said with a snort. "Where'd you pick them up anyway, Shuurei-san?"
She flapped a hand. "Oh, here and there… This is a nice place you've got here, Rasa-sama. You've moved since the last time I visited, haven't you?"
Obito squinted and looked around, trying to figure out just what was so 'nice' about it. It was… well, it was beige. Beige like the village walls, beige like the Kage Tower, beige just like every house in Suna. He doesn't see what's so remarkable about that. It… well, it was kind of roomy, high ceilings and such, but what use was that when there were no windows? It just made the ceiling seem dark and kind of creepy… like that horror move he saw in the theaters where spider creatures with human heads dropped down from the ceiling on their webs and started biting peoples' heads off…
He shivered and drew his arms in around himself, glancing at the ceiling nervously and tucking his head into his scarf, like that'd somehow stop mutant spider creatures from tearing him to pieces.
Suddenly something whispered in his ear… "Boo!" and he jumped, squealing- ahem, he means yelping- and spinning around to face the giant spider, one hand going to his weapons pouch.
Kabuto snorted condescendingly, his hands meeting at the back of his neck. "Too easy!"
Kankuro laughed and sneered at him, his obvious superiority complex in full swing. "You're such a sissy boy, you scaredy cat!"
"I am not!" Obito protested, ticked off at being made fun of by a three and four year old. Really, what is it with the kids he keeps meeting? Either they're bloodthirsty demons like the Uzumaki orphans, or they're huffy little clan kids with sticks shoved up their asses!
Shuurei groaned, shutting her eyes hard enough to wrinkle her forehead. "What am I going to do with you?" she sighed, and Obito's chest twinged a little at the exasperated tone in her voice. He didn't want to disappoint her, not after all she's done for him. Not after she believed in him…
He wasn't quite fast enough to wipe the downtrodden look off his face before she caught it. "Oh geez…" she sighed again, giving him a fond smile and putting her free hand on his head to mess with his hair. "Don't be so sensitive, Obi- Shima-kun. I was just teasing."
He shifted a little, nervous, eyes wandering downwards to stare at his sandals, not quite believing her. Training… it'd been pretty slow recently. It felt like he wasn't making much progress at all.
She read that too, pulling him into a one armed hug. "Hey, I mean it. You've been doing really well recently. You're getting a lot better with learning about herbs, and your control's getting better too! And that suggestion you made at the Tower was a good one, I'll probably use that… you have a good head for seals."
He lifted his head to look at her face, trying to judge if she was serious or not. Him, Obito, actually good at something? "Really?" he asked and winced at the high pitched whine to his voice, which was changing. Puberty sucks.
Shuurei scoffed. "Do I ever say things I don't mean? Trust me kid, I don't hand out empty platitudes. You've even memorized the third kata for the Whirlpool style! It took me a lot longer to learn that one than it did you. Now, stop wallowing in the self-pity and start thinking about what you'd do if you were the one fixing Gaara's seal."
He blinked, not having expected that topic. "Uh…"
While he was frantically trying to come up with an answer, Kabuto approached Kankuro and the two stared each other down like Obito had done a minute before. "My name is Kabuki… what's yours?"
"Kankuro…" he narrowed his eyes at Kabuto and pursed his lips, considering. "Do you like poisons?"
Kabuto scoffed, pushing his- recently obtained- glasses up on his nose where they somehow flashed with virtually no light in the room. "Can the ricinus communis kill a man in five minutes?"
Kankuro grinned exultantly, eyes lighting up, happy to find someone his age that like poisons just as much as he did. "You really know your stuff! Hey, you wanna see Chiyo-obaasan's herb garden? She's got some Brugmansia."
"Would I?" he answered with an equally wide grin, following after him out the door.
"Be home back by seven, you two!" Shuurei yelled at their retreating backs. "Well, they certainly hit it off. Have you been teaching him, Chiyo-san? I'd wondered why they're both so articulate this young."
"I have been training the boy in using poisons, but the reason they speak so well for toddlers are the tutors Kazekage-sama hired for them. He's taken a shine to puppeteering, too, but he's still too young to be fooling around with chakra so I can't help him there yet, no matter how much he begs."
She winced in sympathy. "I know what you mean. I've only been with Kabuki for a few months and he's practically devouring any medical text I can get my hands on, and begging me to teach him the Mystical Palm technique besides! I don't know how much I can teach him this young without accidentally hurting him..."
Chiyo half turned from where she was puttering about in the kitchen, making tea. "I don't have that problem, not quite. However much effort the brat's been putting into learning poisons, he's still not a genius. It is a common issue with kids, though, that they always ask for things they're not ready to try and experiment behind your back. Why, I remember when my son was their age and he launched himself across the room because some idiot wanted to show off the wall-walking technique he'd just learned."
Rasa sighed from where he was laying on the couch, an arm over his eyes. "You will never let me forget that, will you? I was just a genin, I didn't think he would actually try."
"Do you know how hard it was to convince him to try again when he actually became a genin? He even barricaded himself in his room!"
She laughed at the thought, trying to imagine a ten year old Rasa and failing badly. "That's right, how has your son been doing, anyway? What does he do for a living now that he can't be a shinobi any more?"
"Oh, he's still helping out in the Puppet Division, helping the active duty shinobi develop their puppets. Sasori-kun got his knack for puppets from him, after all, just as much as me. My daughter-in-law works in Intelligence as a secretary. Both of them are very happy with where they are now, even if they miss taking missions every now and then. What can you do, though, with a compromised chakra system and a missing leg?" She set the teacup on the coffee table, prompting Shuurei to sit down on the other available couch, Temari curling up next to her and reaching for one of the cookies on the plate of snacks she'd also brought over.
"Did she ever find a prosthetic she was happy with?" she inquired, then smiled sheepishly at Chiyo's incredulous eyebrow. "Ah, right, I forgot where I am for a moment there, which is strange because we were literally just talking about puppets…"
"Sasori-kun even designed it for her. He's really making waves with his puppets. Did you know, he made his first puppet when he was five years old? Five! An not a toy or miniature, either, but a functional, human-sized puppet." Chiyo grinned broadly, gesculating excitedly with a cookie in hand, flinging crumbs everywhere.
On the other couch, Rasa groaned turning his face into the cushions. "Could you not be so loud?"
"You, why are you not in bed yet? Eat the sandwich Chiyo-san so graciously made for you and head on off to bed." Shuurei raised a menacing eyebrow at him and, as if he could sense it, he reluctantly hauled himself up into a sitting position and grabbed the sandwich off the plate, glaring at it balefully but making no move to actually take a bite. "Rasa-sama…." Never before had an honorific sounded so threatening. With a roll of his eyes he bit into the sandwich with a grimace.
"Right. Now Shima-kun, have you thought of an answer?"
Obito, who'd been watching incredulously as Shuurei was browbeating the Kazekage into submission, twitched. "Ah, well, even numbered seals work the best at restraining chakra, but you can't put an even numbered seal on top of the three pronged one he already has, so, another odd numbered one? I don't know what you should do about the whole water natured thing, because it really wouldn't work that well with both Gaara's and the Ichibi's nature being earth…"
"Very good! Yeah, I'm not too sure about that either. It might be better if I just changed the seal directly instead of just putting another one on top of it, because converting the Ichibi's chakra to water and then converting it into another element closer to earth to make it easier for him to absorb would just be wasting a whole lot of chakra…"
"Shuurei-oba-san, what are you talking about?" Temari asked with a yawn, sitting up from where she was napping on Shuurei's lap.
"Oh, we were just talking about how to help your new little brother."
"You met him? I haven't got to see him yet 'cause tou-san says it's too dangerous which is really sad 'cause I really wanted to meet him." She gave this adorable little pout, crossing her arms and slumping against the back of the couch.
"Yes I did, but I'm here to help fix the problem and then you can meet him! His name is Gaara and he's got red hair just like your grandma used to have and these pretty green eyes with circles around them like a panda."
Her eyes lit up. "Really? He sounds so cute!"
Shuurei snaked an arm around her and pulled her closer to her side in a one-armed hug. "He is, and in a week or two you get to meet him and take care of him like a good big sister, you think you can do that?"
"A week? But that's like, forever! Can't I go see him now?"
" 'Fraid not sweetie, but you know what? While you're waiting you get to play with me, Shima, and Kabuki-kun! Doesn't that sound like fun? In fact, I've got this fun new game I remembered from when I was a little girl. It's called Uno, you want to play?"
And then Temari was squirming out of Shuurei's arm and bouncing in her seat with excitement. "Yeah, yeah, yeah!"