A/N: HOWDY, PARTNERS, WE GOT A CHAPTER UP IN TWO MONTHS. NOW, THAT'S CUSTOMER SERVICE, BABY.

(We always do joke author's notes before writing real ones, just to amuse ourselves, but there was really no topping this one. Thank you to all you lovely people who reviewed. We spend a lot of time on this, and we're really appreciative of your feedback. Also, hey, first simultaneous release with ao3.)

Content Warnings: Just as a heads up, we're not going to consistently warn about violence, unless it's particularly heinous in nature. This is an action story involving ninja, so just assume that violence can occur at any time. Other than that, warnings for brief animal cruelty, descriptions of panic attacks and PTSD, and the abuse of story structure.

Previously on Once More with Feeling: After Kakashi tells Jiraiya and Tsunade about the future, they agree to work together to kill Danzō. The three of them go undercover in the Akatsuki, calling themselves Yoshiki, Raiden, and Yoshiko, and they take Shizune, Tenzō, and Kabuto with them. They stay for a month and a half, before telling Yahiko that Hanzō was planning on betraying them and agreeing to go back to Konoha. Tsunade comes home for the first time in a decade and is welcomed enthusiastically, but she is still uneasy about her return. She becomes coordinator of the hospital, Kakashi works to get Tenzō and Kabuto used to Konoha, and Jiraiya starts writing his book. At Kakashi's request, Rin and Obito get to know Shizune, and the three of them become friends. On their fifth day back, one of the Uchiha elders, Hiromu Uchiha, kills herself, because it comes to light that her son, Yoichiro, is not her husband's. Threatening to kill the Uchiha clan, Yoichiro Uchiha abandons the village and is marked as a missing-nin. Because Kakashi is asked to look after Itachi Uchiha during this time, Danzō and ROOT start watching his apartment. As Obito mourns the death of Hiromu, he and Kakashi reconnect. Kakashi and gang worry that Yoichiro will be chosen as the next Tobi, but agree that it's best to not chase after him. Jiraiya asks Kakashi to stamp one of his teleportation seals onto an envelope. Then, the war ends, and Kakashi confronts the fact that his former students are gone. In grief, he gets a tattoo of the kanji symbol for the number seven from a sketchy artist named Skimbops Marquis. Minato is asked to be Hokage, and Mikoto Uchiha reveals that she's pregnant. Now, without further ado...

Blame it On a Rise of Power

AKA

"Nina Cried Power" By Hozier

(Shot Heard Round the World)

EXTERIOR THE WORLD — LATE DECEMBER

KONOHA'S YELLOW FLASH, Minato Namikaze, Fourth Hokage elect, as terrifying and powerful as a typhoon in the heart of the season, like lightning on a field—responds to the earth's summons and his name is whispered in the wind, and then sharply said, and then screamed in anger until his opposer's throats are raw.

EXTERIOR KONOHA — NIGHT

The ripples start in Konoha, where the news of the Third's retirement breaks first, before trembling outward into the great beyond. War is hell and the people are broken, but Hiruzen is theirs, they insist. Their voices are loud, objecting, scandalized. The Third can hardly get a word in to soothe their fears, to insist that this is for the best; though he is silently uncertain, because Minato is young and and his people have endured more than they should have had to, it is a secret he is prepared to take to his grave. From the sidelines, Danzō watches and is pleased by his old teammate's scrambling.

In his house, Minato waits with his wife in the dark. He is not hiding, he is not that kind of man, refusing to back down from what awaits him outside. But, the Third insisted that his presence is better left unseen tonight. Tomorrow, he will face them, but for now, he gently runs his fingers through his wife's hair, as if she is the one that needs reassuring. Kushina interlocks his fingers with her own.

EXTERIOR SUNA — NIGHT

The quakes of the news have carried (Konoha's Yellow Flash, Konoha's Yellow Flash, Konoha's Yellow Flash), and the people of Suna begin to panic. Their village was nearly decimated by the war, left in financial ruin, and he is an easy figure to blame. He was only following orders, the real blame further up the chain, but he became the face of Konoha's part in the Third Great Conflict. Minato is an unstoppable force that leaves death in his wake, and now he is to lead the village that crushed them in the first place. They wonder why the power they once had has forsaken them.

Taking to the streets, the people of Suna protest in front of their Kage, begging with him, pleading with him to do something. The Fourth Hokage can not be accepted, because what might become of the Sand Village, then? What might be left of the Sand Village, then? How will their families be fed, then? How might their children survive, then?

Their Kazekage does not have an answer for them, though his heart breaks with them, because he knows there is nothing to be done. Minato Namikaze will rise to his appointed role and direct the will of Konoha. There is a bitter taste in his mouth knowing that the war was for naught. Looking at his own two children, he is afraid for them and their futures, and with the One-Tails in his possession, he begins to form a plan.

EXTERIOR AME — NIGHT

The world is shaking, and Yahiko can feel it crystal clear beneath his feet. He's always had a knack for that. Though he has no opinion on Minato's nomination (though the world is reeling, Jiraiya vouches for him, which is enough for Yahiko), he is an opportunist. He takes his people onto the streets and their voices cry out into the night, petitioning for peace with a unified message. With the poise of someone much older, he leads them onward. Their shouts amplify like their numbers are much larger than they are, yet they blend like they are one.

Yahiko (whispering to his organization, rousing their spirits in the freezing rain): We will rise as the dawn.

(Hush Little Baby)

As she walked back to the cold examination room where Kushina awaited her, Tsunade held good news in her hands and bad news on her tongue. Greeted by Kushina's hopeful face and her reluctant excitement, yearning to hope but scared to be let down, Tsunade wanted desperately to stop at the good. Kushina did not deserve the bad, did not deserve anything close to it. Rage burned in Tsunade's heart for her: at Danzō, Madara, Kaguya, all of them.

But, she learned long ago that the good were not spared from the tragedies of their world. Usually, they were the first to be knocked down.

"Congratulations," said Tsunade, and she was surprised to find that her smile was only half-forced. Despite everything, Tsunade was happy for her and Minato, and she was relieved for both the world and Kakashi that Naruto would arrive as expected. "You're pregnant."

"I'm going to be a mom?" asked Kushina, eyes widening as if checking to see if she was pregnant was not the intended subject of today's doctor's visit. "I'm going to be a mom!"

Even though the situation was not Tsunade's fault, she was overwhelmed with guilt all the same. "Do you trust me?"

"Of course."

"Then, I need you to do something for me." Tsunade placed her hands comfortingly on the sides of Kushina's arms. "You can't tell anyone that you're pregnant. And, I don't mean just the general public. I mean anyone, except for Minato. Not the Third Hokage, not any of the council, not any other medical-nin. No one."

Kushina's smile started to die, holding on only by a thread, and she studied Tsunade for a moment. "You're afraid," she noted. "And angry. What happened?"

"Kakashi, Jiraiya, and I need to tell you something. But, we have to wait until Minato is sworn in as Hokage."

"If the Third Hokage and the village elders can't know, what the hell is he about to be sworn in to?"

"A mess," admitted Tsunade. Now was not the time for lies. Not to her. If they were about to finish off their five-man team of 'people who knew about the future,' there needed to be honesty all around. "But, if he doesn't take it, the village is going to be in a lot of danger. I swear, though, we won't let him go in alone."

"Is this why you came back?"

"Sort of. That's a complicated story that will make more sense later." Frowning, Kushina continued to examine her. "Look, the three of us would do whatever we could to protect you and Minato. You know that, right?" Kushina nodded. "We're doing this to save both of you, because if we don't, you and a lot of other people are going to die. Do you trust me?"

"Yes," said Kushina, after several seconds of deliberation. "Yes, of course, I trust you."

"Then, swear to me you won't tell anyone, and you will make sure Minato does the same thing."

"I swear."

For a long moment, neither of them said anything. Tsunade was still trying to gather herself from what had just happened and what would happen soon, and she suspected Kushina was doing the same. Taking a deep breath, Tsunade tried to quiet the rage still burning towards those who would harm Kushina, but she was unsuccessful; she was not certain that she would ever be successful until Naruto was born, and Minato and Kushina, at least in regards to Kaguya, were out of harm's way for a while.

In a gesture of needing reassurance, Kushina pulled Tsunade into a tight hug. Tsunade returned it, giving it to her.

"I'm really sorry," said Tsunade.

"Do you think everything will be okay?" asked Kushina.

"Yes." She hoped the uncertainty she felt did not show through her tone. "Or, Jiraiya, Kakashi, and I are going to die trying."

"Please don't die," said Kushina. "I love you, you know? You're the only family I've got left."

"Love you, too." For the first time in over a decade, Tsunade felt like a big sister again, and her thoughts wandered to Nawaki. A painful ache jolted through her, and after a few more seconds, Tsunade pulled away. "For now, your diagnosis is the flu. In a couple weeks, we're going to upgrade it to leukemia."

"Leukemia is a little extreme."

"We need to keep you down for a little over nine months and make sure you can't have most visitors. Leukemia is a good way to do that. When Minato is ready to talk, tell him to come to me and ask if I know anything about your blood test results. We're all being watched, have been for a while, so we have to be very careful."

"Right," said Kushina, still dazed.

"Hey," said Tsunade. "You're still going to be a mother. Hold on to that, alright?"

"I'm going to be a mother," repeated Kushina, and she gave a tense but genuine smile. "Wow…a mother, you know?"

(Such a Dick Move)

During Minato's coronation, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and, unknowingly unwelcome, Orochimaru stood near the front (Kakashi, for Tenzō's sake, was somewhere in the back with both he and Kabuto). Once it was over, the Fourth Hokage looked at them and smiled. To anyone else, the smile would have seemed wholly confident, but Tsunade knew the wariness it must have contained. Laying low, she, Jiraiya, and Kakashi had not spoken to Minato since Kushina's pregnancy confirmation, and they agreed it was best to give him nothing more than a brief congratulations until he was ready to talk for real. Even so, the smile Tsunade returned to Minato was genuine, her pride beaming through the dread.

Tsunade was not expecting to see him for at least a couple days afterward, and she had no intentions of pressing. They still had time to discuss killing Danzō, and Tsunade knew his curiosity and the urgency of the situation would break him before that time was up. With the graveness of the news, it was far better that they discussed everything on his time than theirs.

To her surprise, however, he showed up at her office only a few hours after the ceremony.

"Well, well," said Tsunade, leaning back in her chair and grinning. "Our new Hokage honors me with his presence."

He rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "How did I do?"

"Better than most would have, I imagine. If today was anything to go by, everyone's warming up to the idea of you being Hokage."

A brief smile flashed across his face, but it dwindled quickly. "I'm less worried about what the people of Konoha think than what the rest of the world thinks. I've heard the rumors. It seems like the entire world is watching."

"I'd wait until you actually step foot in the Hokage office before worrying about foreign policy," said Tsunade. "Nothing's likely to escalate in twenty-four hours, and if it does, we're fucked anyway. Besides, I'd worry about stabilizing Konoha before other countries."

"Kakashi Hatake, of all people, has had me worrying about foreign policy for months now."

"Do you often take political advice from Kakashi?" asked Tsunade, raising an eyebrow. Though, it was not as if she could talk—Kakashi had also had her worrying about foreign policy for months now—but at least she knew he was from the future and actually knew what he was talking about.

"He has a lot of feelings about foreign policy."

Tsunade snorted. "That is very true. But, I think even he would say you have to worry about Konoha first."

"I was meaning to ask," he said abruptly, making it clear they had gotten to the real reason for his visit. "Have you found out anything about Kushina's test results?"

"Yes." Hesitating, she was caught in a no man's land between relief that he wanted to talk about it and already dreading it. "I need to talk to you and Kushina about it, preferably at your place. I'd still rather her not leave the house for now. But, let's wait twenty-four hours. Today's not the day for those kinds of things."

"If something's wrong, shouldn't we know as soon as possible?"

"Wait twenty-four hours," she insisted. "Commemorate today however you'd like. Go home to your wife, tell her how well everything went, get some sleep, and start your first day as Hokage with a clear head. We can talk tomorrow evening."

"Eight o'clock, then?" he asked, and she nodded.

To not arouse suspicion, Tsunade waited until morning before going to the records room, checking out Tenzō's file, and making copies of some of his labs. As they were nearly two weeks old, Kakashi had already seen them, but an onlooker wouldn't know the difference.

"Hey," greeted Kakashi, when he let her into his apartment. He turned to Tenzō, who was the only other person there; Kabuto was, presumably, at school. "Go return your library books and check out new ones. You're almost ready to move up a reading level."

"Kakashi," said Tenzō, narrowing his eyes. "Do you like Kabuto more than me because I'm not human?"

The question was so bizarre that neither Tsunade nor Kakashi could think of a coherent response. "What?" asked Kakashi.

"You always make me read," said Tenzō. "But, when you want Kabuto to leave the apartment so you can talk to someone, you tell him to go play with friends."

"Well, first off, you won't make any friends. Second, going back to the human part—what the hell are you talking about?"

"I saw a book in the library that had a cover with a man in a giant test tube, just like I was. When I asked the librarian lady what it was about, she said it was about a scientist who made fake humans by gluing pieces of other people together and zapping them with a lightning jutsu."

"She did tell you it was just a story, right?"

Tenzō nodded. "But, she said that the fake human was an experiment, and you said I was an experiment. Have you ever met anyone else who even came out of a test tube?"

"Tenzō, you came out of a test tube because someone put you there."

"But how do you know? I don't have any memories from before."

"You can talk, can't you?" asked Kakashi. "Even fake humans have to learn how to talk."

"They do?" asked Tenzō hopefully.

"Yup. Which means that if you already knew how to talk when we got you out, someone must have taught you to talk beforehand."

"Besides, even if you weren't born like other kids," said Tsunade. "Which you were, but even if you walk away from here afraid that you weren't, all kids are basically created in test tubes. You've seen pregnant women, right? They've got something like a test tube inside of them that children grow in until they're ready to be born. So, you wouldn't be less than anyone else anyway."

"Oh," said Tenzō, thinking on that for a moment. "How do they get there?"

"This is getting off topic," said Kakashi, glaring at her. She cringed, regretting her lack of forethought. "No, Tenzō, I don't like Kabuto better than you. I just want you to catch up to other nine-year-olds so you can be put in the Academy when the time comes. And, no, you aren't a fake human. Now, go return your library books so I can talk to Tsunade."

Giving in, Tenzō gathered his books and left the apartment. Though there was still the shadow of sullenness on his face, not wanting to read, he did look less inclined to shout into the sky about the nature of his creation.

"Whatever you're about to say," said Kakashi, his face growing pink when he noticed her grinning. "I don't want to hear it."

"You've just become so domestic," she said to irk him, as they sat down at his kitchen table. "I think it's sweet."

"And you've become so bureaucratic," he said, for the same purpose, nodding towards the file folder in her hand. "Practicing for Minato's resignation, already?" Completely prepared for it, when a flash of anger struck her and she threw the folder at him like a kunai, he ducked out of the way easily. It embedded itself into the cabinet behind him. The corners of his eyes wrinkled as he grinned, but they faded as quickly as they arrived. "He's growing restless—Tenzō. And moody. He doesn't like being stuck inside here, even more so than the Rain. I think he knows what he's missing, now."

"You think he'll do something stupid?"

Kakashi shook his head. "He's a smart boy. He knows what there is to lose. But, it's not conducive to integrating him into Konoha or to his social development."

But, despite the stress of caring for an irritable kid all day and their rapidly approaching day of reckoning, Tsunade could not help but notice that Kakashi looked better than he had since she'd known him. As he was once Hokage, she assumed he was the type to do well under pressure, but he seemed to grow pronouncedly more confident and focused the closer the day to return to the Rain became. Some of the color returned to his face, and though he was often deep in thought, it was more calculated than it was distracted.

"It'll all be over soon, at least," said Tsunade. "Speaking of, our new Hokage is ready to talk. I'm going at eight tonight, but you and Jiraiya should wait until fifteen after, so I can take Kushina's bloodwork, close up the house, and get a barrier going."

Kakashi reached backwards, grabbed the file folder, placed a seal on it, and handed it back to her. "We'll be there," he said, and then just as nonchalantly, despite the gravity of the subject matter: "You know, you don't have to stay. You've already heard it, once. It'll be a boring few hours."

"Don't be stupid. Of course, I'm staying." She was not surprised that he offered it, though she was mildly offended that he might have suspected she'd take it. "I do hate that we have to tell them. They deserve a truth that's so much better, you know?"

"It'll be alright," he said. "Maybe not at first, but they'll be okay. It's not what they deserve, but they'll be okay."

"I want to save them more than anything," she confessed. "So, I know that we have to tell them, because we have to save them. But, it's just…such a dick move."

"They told me you would be stopping by," she said, appearing from the back room.

Her beauty was breathtaking, unexpected, like stepping out into the first frost of the year. With the mystery of a winter's night, she leaned against the door frame, and her near-black curls fell loosely over her snowy curves. Icy in both color and demeanor, her eyes met his. Her alluring coldness captivated him, and he couldn't look away. The author began to suspect that he, himself, might have an unexplored sexual attraction to weather conditions—

Sighing, Jiraiya wadded up his piece of paper and tossed it into the trash can, which was on the edge of overflowing due to similar rejects.

Her boobs were like boobs, began Jiraiya, on a fresh sheet of paper. Which don't need any description, because it is a known fact that everyone likes boobs, and therefore no one needs convincing—

The sentence was mercifully cut short by a knock on his apartment door. After disposing of his new sheet of paper, Jiraiya looked through the hole in his door and saw Kakashi standing on the other side.

"Give me a second," said Jiraiya, loud enough that Kakashi could hear him.

Quickly, Jiraiya attempted to clear the numerous stacks of paper that littered his kitchen table and lay open on his counters. There were too many to put them completely out of sight, but he did manage to make sure everything was piled in a way that made sure Kakashi could not catch a glimpse of anything. While most of it was just drabblings to get a better feel for the tone of the story, that would never make it into the final draft, the samples were rough and made him self-conscious, particularly around Kakashi.

After one last look-around, Jiraiya finally let him inside.

"Minato is ready to talk," said Kakashi. "We're meeting at the Namikazes' at eight-fifteen."

"Good," said Jiraiya, even though it wasn't. "I'm ready to get this over with."

"Is this…?" asked Kakashi, gesturing around at the disaster before them. Jiraiya nodded. "How's it going?"

"Poorly. I'm beginning to think that you're lying about the future, because if anything I write manages to be best-selling, the literary market has gone to hell." Lips pressed tightly together in a crooked frown, Jiraiya picked up four pieces of paper off the counter, separated them into two piles, and gave them both to Kakashi. "Here. Read these two beginnings and tell me which you like better."

Kakashi read over them slowly, pausing several times to look up at Jiraiya. Meanwhile, Jiraiya watched him like a hawk, trying to ascertain everything he could from Kakashi's reactions. It was stressful enough for anyone to try and read his writing, so trying to gain Kakashi's approval was a particularly nerve-wracking experience. With his future knowledge, Kakashi, in many ways, knew his writing better than anyone on the planet.

"I like this one the most," said Kakashi, waving the one in his right hand.

Damn, thought Jiraiya. He didn't not like that beginning, but it meant that he had to cut a later scene he really enjoyed.

"So, go with this one," said Kakashi, waving the one in his left hand, and Jiraiya was afraid he might have sworn aloud.

"What? Why?"

"Because you looked disappointed when I picked the other one."

"Yes, but if the other is the best—"

"I didn't actually read either of them," said Kakashi. "I just wanted to know which one you liked the most."

"You motherfucker," said Jiraiya. "How am I supposed to know which one is going to make a better novel?"

"You already know."

"I'm not exactly known for my ability to write best-selling novels in this timeline."

"Jiraiya, you're the best storyteller I've ever met," said Kakashi. "And you have yet to write a novel I haven't liked. You hit a market failure with your last book, but I've already told you what the right market is. Trust your instincts."

The blatant fondness of the compliment, a rarity from Kakashi, took Jiraiya off guard, and he was almost certain that it was the nicest thing anyone had said to him in a long time. "At least read that one first, before you tell me to commit to it."

For real this time, Kakashi scanned through the copy in his left hand. "Interesting."

"How close is it to my book last time?"

"I'll tell you once you've published this one."

"You're the worst fucking beta reader imaginable."

"Yes, I like this one," said Kakashi, ignoring him and handing both drafts back. "But, rewrite paragraph three. You can do better."

Reading it back over, Jiraiya concurred. It wasn't quite "her boobs were like boobs" bad, but it didn't match the quality of the rest of it.

"You know," said Kakashi, just as casual. "You don't have to stay tonight. You've already heard it once. It'll be a boring few hours."

"You're an idiot," said Jiraiya, refusing to even entertain the idea. "For better or for worse, this is our shared clusterfuck." Narrowing his eyes, Jiraiya studied him. "Are you ready?"

"Enough," said Kakashi, sounding more convinced than Jiraiya suspected he felt. Still, Jiraiya noticed that Kakashi looked better than he had in weeks, more certain of himself. Pressure and action suited him, it seemed. "I've planned all I can, at any rate."

"They trust the three of us a lot," said Jiraiya. "Which is better than you had last time, with Tsunade and I. We've had worse odds. Nothing but worse odds, really."

Still, his words did not settle his own fears about tonight: what was at stake and what could go wrong. Jiraiya suspected the next few hours would move far too slowly, decelerated by the mental image of the horror on their faces. After all, they deserved so much better, and he wished he could give it to them.

"I wish we didn't have to do this," confessed Jiraiya. "We have to do it—it was my idea—but it's such a dick move."

As instructed, Kakashi teleported himself and Jiraiya to the house at eight-fifteen, using the folder he gave to Tsunade as the anchor. In the blink of an eye, they went seamlessly from Jiraiya's place to the Namikazes' living room, which was engulfed in a barrier to prevent any sound from escaping. Tsunade and Kushina were on the couch, the former bandaging the latter's arm.

"Is everything secure?" asked Kakashi. Tsunade nodded. "Where's Minato?"

"In the kitchen," she said. "Making tea and putting some of the blood samples in the freezer."

"Delicious," said Jiraiya, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "Nothing like frozen blood in the morning."

"It's to preserve them, dumbass."

Where it usually would have continued, the bantering died there. The tense air in the room and the melancholy, worried look on Kushina's face made their usual coping mechanism seem inappropriate.

Once Tsunade was finished with her bandaging and placed all her supplies back in her medical bag, she stepped out of the barrier and into the kitchen. After a few minutes, she and Minato came back with five cups of tea. They dispersed them, and everyone sat down, Kakashi on the floor.

"Well," said Minato quietly, after a few moments of silence, no one in the mood for small talk. Like Kushina, he seemed stressed and somber, but while it rendered her dazed, it brought about an air of authority to him. Not dangerous, for Kushina was deadly, too, and he did not seem threatened by them in the slightest. Nor did he hold himself in arrogance. But, the Hokage position suited him, and though he had to know the pain that likely awaited them, he had the grace of someone who knew his own power and was inspired to do something with it. Minato looked so much like Naruto that it made Kakashi's chest ache, but he reminded him of Sasuke in his better moments—what Sasuke could have been. "Are you going to tell us what you found three and a half months ago?"

But, despite Minato's presence, Kakashi was once Hokage, too. In some moments, he still couldn't shake the feeling that he still was, and he was not the type to be outdone by someone who nearly felt like a kid. Though he was sitting on the floor, lower than everyone else, he did not allow his posture to diminish. He did not feel certain of anything, but he was used to that feeling; it was part of being Hokage. So, by instinct, he radiated out the self-assured composure that being the Sixth brought, easily matching the man in front of him.

"I'm not sure I would use the word 'found,'" said Kakashi. "But, yes, this is about what happened the morning of the Kannabi Bridge mission. Obviously, the three of us have been…different, ever since."

"Despite what you've convinced everyone," said Minato. "I know you're the one who recruited Jiraiya, not the other way around. Was it your idea to recruit Tsunade, too?"

"It was."

"So, how much of the mission report that Jiraiya gave to the Third Hokage was a lie?"

"Besides the fact that Tsunade, Shizune, Jiraiya, and I met up with one another, all of it. We did not go to gather information, and we instead spent the entire time in the Rain. Tenzō and Kabuto are not my blood relatives. We acquired them at the start of our mission, not at the end, and brought them along."

"Why—" Minato gave him an odd, narrow-eyed look, though it was not quite one of suspicion. "—why tell Jiraiya and Tsunade but not me?"

Hurt, Kakashi realized. He feels hurt.

"You're young," admitted Kakashi. "Younger than you know."

"Kakashi, you're thirteen."

"I'm not, though. That's the problem." It was time, now, to get on with it. Still, every part of him was protesting it, and he shook his head and muttered the mantra of the evening: "This is such a dick move."

(Greatest Goddamn Medical Ninja)

Though she was better prepared for it, Tsunade found it worse to hear about the future for the second time. If she had to guess, Jiraiya and Kakashi did, too. Without the overwhelming shock, Tsunade was left with all the the other negative emotions that naturally arose from the events: rage, sadness, betrayal, and, loathe as she was to admit it, paralyzing fear. Hearing about Minato's and Kushina's deaths with them in the room crushed her, and that was only the beginning. The Orochimaru bits and the end of the world were no less horrifying than last time. Several events—the Uchiha Massacre, the problems Naruto faced, and all of the Obito stuff—were even worse due to the Namikazes' presence. Tsunade found it difficult to even look at them.

Kakashi paced across the room for a large portion of it. Despite being the one to tell the story, there were long periods of time where Kakashi didn't make eye contact with any of them, speaking to the walls and the ceiling instead. When it came time to introduce the beginning of his career as Team Seven's jōnin-sensei, he gave a short, half-mad laugh, apologized, and continued his account in a far more mechanical way than he began it. Tsunade had not looked for it last time, hardly believing it, but this time, it was easy to see the age in Kakashi's demeanor—the tiredness of someone nearing middle-age.

Jiraiya, though he put on a tough exterior, spent the entire time rapidly looking between all of them, nearly frantic. Every once in a while, however, Tsunade looked over to find him staring off somewhere past Kakashi, his mind far away from the current scene. She wondered, just to distract herself, if he was thinking about his book. She wondered what it might be about.

Largely, Minato and Kushina just stared at Kakashi in unmoving, open-mouthed terror.

None of them stayed afterward, as to let Minato and Kushina deal with everything in peace. Almost as soon as it was over and it was made clear that no one had any questions, Kakashi teleported himself and Jiraiya back to the latter's apartment. Tsunade remained only long enough to grab her bag and the blood samples, before disappearing out their front door into the chilly, night air.

She intended to only drop off the blood samples at the hospital and go straight back to her own apartment to sleep the day off. However, with rage leftover from the future-account, the blood vials and her inability to look at them infuriated her. They were her biggest weakness, the thing keeping her from being a proper contributor to their world-saving cause—their Kushina-and-Minato-saving cause. The mere knowledge of their existence made her want to throw the nearest chair through the wall of the hospital laboratory.

The two technicians working the night shift, though, would have taken offense to that. Her reputation with the hospital staff, given her sudden return, rough start, and complete takeover, all while being unable to actually practice medicine, was already rocky. So, she refrained.

"Don't touch these samples," said Tsunade to the two technicians. "They're mine."

Knowing that Kakashi would not leave Jiraiya's place immediately, as to provoke as little suspicion towards their coordination as possible, Tsunade rushed over to Jiraiya's part of town, hoping to catch both of them.

"Yo," said Jiraiya, opening the door with a raised eyebrow. Behind him, Kakashi sat on his couch, hunched over a small stack of papers, and his eyes flickered up to meet hers. "Fancy seeing you at this hour."

Though it seemed like a good idea on the way over, her courage was starting to falter. A shiver wracked through her body, and she tried to pass it off as a byproduct of the weather. "Will you two help me with something?"

As it was nearing midnight, the section of the hospital used for routine doctor's visits was completely empty, and all the lights were off. Tsunade unlocked the door to wing, let the three of them inside, and went to flip on the lights, but one of the jōnin sentries stopped her.

"Lady Tsunade," he greeted. "We've already pulled our guard from the wing for the night. If you're going to use it, would you like us to send them back?"

Do you even know who the fuck we are? she wanted to ask, but it seemed unfairly bitchy towards someone who was just doing the job that she personally assigned them to do. So, instead, she said, "I'm sure we can manage, thank you. For now, keep to your post. I'll let you know if anything changes."

"So bureaucratic," whispered Kakashi, once the jōnin was out of earshot, and she sent him a glare.

Tsunade led him and Jiraiya to the office furthest from the door. She could not articulate why the distance made her feel better, because it was not as if someone outside the wing could see or hear inside any of the offices unless one of them started screaming, to which they would hear regardless. But, the distance did make her feel better, and for the sake of getting through her exercise, she allowed herself the one thing.

"Alright, Jiraiya," she said, not looking at either of them as she gathered her supplies. "You're first."

"Why me?" asked Jiraiya, though from his tone it was clear he was not actually protesting, just engaging in banter.

"Because, you've got the largest veins." Tsunade could almost feel him smirking, and when she heard a slight intake of breath, she added: "Whatever's about to come out of your mouth better stay there."

Kakashi snorted. "Well, you know what they say; it's not the size of the vein, it's how you use—"

Before he could finish, Tsunade picked up a roll of gauze and, still not looking, threw it at his face. The roll hit the door with a thud, and he gently tossed it back to her.

"You two are disgusting," she said.

"I didn't even say anything," protested Jiraiya, with a smile in his voice.

"You thought it. It was enough."

"I didn't know we were so telepathically connected."

"Far more than I'd like, at least." Crass as they were, Jiraiya and Kakashi were intentionally doing a good job of distracting her from her nerves. Desperate to not let the conversation die, she hastily thought of something else to say. "All the paper everywhere—that the book?" Jiraiya hummed in confirmation. "How's it going?"

"The last sentence I wrote unironically started with 'her boobs were like boobs,' if that tells you anything."

"Your maturity is astounding," she said, rolling her eyes. "I read Tales of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi, by the way. It was good."

There was a pause. "You read Tales?" asked Jiraiya.

"I'm offended that you sound surprised."

"I'm mostly surprised you enjoyed it, to be honest."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Because no one enjoyed Tales," said Jiraiya. "You've just joined a very lonely club, which, funny enough, has the same members as another club we just joined."

"Hiruzen-sensei didn't like it?" asked Tsunade, not wanting to dwell on Minato and Kushina.

"Neither he nor I have ever acknowledged that I've published a book in the other's presence, so as far as I know, he hasn't read it."

"I'm sure he has." Before finding out about the future, she would have said it with certainty. But, she also would have said the phrase 'Hiruzen-sensei would not knowingly let someone in power repeatedly commit treason and fuck over Konoha's citizens in the process' with certainty, so she was not sure what she could and could not accurately assess about her old teacher. Frowning, she finally turned towards him. "Alright, sit down and roll up your sleeve."

"When you say 'good,'" he said, doing as she asked. "Do you mean 'I would read another book by this guy' good? Or only, 'I got through this without physical pain' good?"

Her mind processed the question, but it was unable to form a response. Though she had yet to even prep his arm, an overwhelming haziness crashed over her, and her heart rate rapidly quickened. She looked during all the preliminary work for Kushina, so until she picked up a needle, this was nothing she hadn't done a few hours ago. However, knowing that the goal was not to look away at the crucial moment was enough to throw her off.

"Good," she repeated stupidly. In trying to focus on the task at hand, her mind reverted back to default. "Can you verify your name and date of birth?"

"Jiraiya," he said slowly. "November eleventh, in the year you've forbidden me from speaking aloud."

To confirm his identity, she reached over, grabbed the empty vial she prepared, and inspected the sticker on it. Or, as she found, the lack thereof, because there was no lab order for the sticker to correspond to.

"Interesting," she said. "I've never had a blood vial verify me as an idiot before." The entire situation was so embarrassing that she wanted to disappear through the floor, which was saying something, because Jiraiya and Kakashi saw her through a non-insignificant number of personal things over the past few months. There was something intimately mortifying about failing to practice medicine in front of the two of them. "Sorry. Are you, um, allergic to anything?"

"Wasps, but I'm hoping that's not relevant here."

"And here I was," said Kakashi. "About to release a canister in the hospital."

"It would certainly make this a memorable experience," said Jiraiya. "I would, of course, develop anaphylaxis. You would, of course, get arrested—"

"He wouldn't, because I'd kill him first," said Tsunade. Step four. "I'm going to wash my hands, now."

Taking a breath so deep that her ribs hurt, Tsunade went through the rest of the steps to prepare for a blood draw. Like she hoped, she found a good vein in Jiraiya's left arm immediately. After that was done, she was left with gloves on her hands and a needle clutched tightly in her fists. Her arms began to shake.

"You good?" asked Jiraiya.

Truthfully, the answer was "no." Her chest was so tight and her heartbeat was so erratic that she felt like she was having a heart attack. The pain was not radiating, which made an actual cardiovascular event unlikely, but she still felt a sense of doom all the same.

Pull yourself together, she told herself, taking another breath to try and snap out of it. This is the same thing you did earlier, and it'll be even easier, because you'll actually have a visual.

"I'm fine," she said. "Clench your hand into a fist."

Positioning her fingers over his vein, Tsunade slid the needle into his arm. But, her hands were trembling so violently that she missed the vein entirely.

Fuckup.

Jiraiya did not move, sensing from her expression that she did not get it. Without taking the needle out, she gently repositioned it a few times, and on the fourth try, it finally stuck. She did not yet dare look, releasing the tourniquet on his arm first, lest things went south. Then, she placed the unmarked blood vile into place and watched as it filled.

The world began to move in slow motion, and it took a few seconds for the situation to fully register in Tsunade's mind. Blood poured into the tube, out of Jiraiya, beneath her hands, like it pooled out of Dan on the floor of the forest. The air was cold, then, and she felt goosebumps ripple across her skin. The smell of iron filled the air. She remembered the sound of her voice, could hear it clearly, hoarse from the rawness in her throat, calling out his name, screaming into the ground.

Her hands were wet, his last breath escaped him, and blood overtook the world.

Someone was pulling her backwards, away from Dan. She wanted to struggle against them—she didn't want to leave him—but every muscle in her body was frozen. Tsunade vaguely registered the disjointed voices around her, one higher and perfectly calm and the other decidedly less so on both accounts. But, she had no idea who they were or what they were saying. The only voice she could clearly make out was her own, begging the universe to give Dan back, begging the person leading her away to let her go. Once the person stopped moving her backwards, they did.

More voices joined the fray, tense, shouting. Were they being attacked again? She wanted to fight back, to defend herself, to run, but she couldn't move, paralyzed in shock. All she could do was collapse, brought to her knees. The person who guided her away was gone, leaving her alone.

She was going to die here. She was not sure she cared.

"Tell them to shut the fuck up," said the calm voice, now sharp, now muffled. No longer with her. "Do they not know how to follow orders?" There was a pause. "Yes, yes, I know."

Her chest erupted in a painful burning like fire. Had she been hit? Was that why the voices abandoned her; she was a lost cause, being left for dead? Was some of the blood on her hands her own?

She was going to die here. She was not sure she cared.

"Tsunade." The voice returned, once again calm, once again clear. Desperate to make him stay, she grabbed his forearms with an iron-clad grip. "Can you hear me?" She nodded. "Then, I need you to take a deep breath."

Mostly in hopes that the voice would not attempt to leave her again, that she would not die here alone, she did as he asked, and the inhale stung her chest like a fresh burn.

It took Tsunade forty-five minutes to regain the ability to form coherent sentences, and the first thing she said was, "Well, to state the obvious, that didn't fucking work."

Per her request, they had not yet left the hospital, because despite her exhaustion from the experience, she was not ready to give up for the night. Though she did not remember how she got there, she was curled up in the medical-nin's chair, her knees to her chest and a cup of hot tea in her hands.

Neither of the men were sitting, likely still on edge. Jiraiya stood by the window, leaning on the sill, and Kakashi stood by the door, leaning on the frame.

"Drink your tea, won't you?" asked Kakashi softly, and she did not fight his request. Whatever happened in reality during the last hour left her throat sore. "You only tried it once. Maybe, it'll just take time."

"I'm missing something," she said. Every part of her ached with fatigue, stress, and regret. "Look, it's been a long day. You two should go home."

"Don't be stupid." A faint smile reached Kakashi's eyes. "Of course we're staying."

Jiraiya hummed in agreement. "Besides, all I would do is go home and write, and I'm not sure I'm ready to take another blow to my ego."

With another sip of tea, Tsunade was not sure if she was ashamed or relieved that they were staying with her. Relying on them made her feel revoltingly fragile, but her inability to be a functioning medical-nin made her feel infinitely more so.

"Can you think of anything else that Sakura told you?" asked Tsunade.

"I never paid much attention," he admitted. "And she never disclosed much about her research unless she needed something. Having you, her, and Shizune, I never even looked at the hospital unless one of you needed a figurehead. But, I do remember that, somehow, exposure was the answer."

"We can't actually expose her to what traumatized her, though," said Jiraiya. "Unless you're volunteering. Not to mention, I know jack shit about medicine, but I've met enough ninja to know that traumas can stack."

"No, I actually think you're onto something," said Tsunade, sorting through Kakashi's reluctantly shared memories to get inside Sakura Haruno's head. Her two companions gave her an odd look. "Not with killing Kakashi. I mean, what if 'exposure' means that you're supposed to expose yourself to the memory?"

"Relive it?" asked Jiraiya, and she nodded. "Well…tell us about the memory, then."

"No," she said immediately. "That's—" Bizarre? Private? Shameful? Awkward? Upsetting? All of the above? Even the thought of it made a new wave of anxiety wash over her. "—it's just, it's mine. My memory isn't your problem to deal with."

"Yeah, but we want—"

"It was a Tuesday," interrupted Kakashi.

Even taking the time to process it, Tsunade could not make sense of what he meant. "What?"

"The day I killed Rin," said Kakashi, after a moment of awkward hesitation. He did not make eye contact with either of them, instead examining the door frame like it was a normal thing to do. "It was a Tuesday. The weather was clear—it hadn't rained in days—which I thought was a good sign, since we were dealing with ninja from the Mist—"

Though Kakashi had already shared his entire life story with them twice, he only ever presented his experiences in the detached, formal way that one would write a mission report. It was easy enough to connect his current actions with the details in his history and extrapolate from there, but there was never any true humanity in the way he talked about his past. Tsunade did believe him, because she understood why he did it, but the lack of a seeming emotional connection to his memories was the biggest strike against his believability.

But, as he recounted the story of killing Rin in depth to her and Jiraiya, Tsunade felt like, for the first time, she was hearing a genuine memory. Pacing across the floor once again, he described every detail of the experience, even down to the basic senses: what she was wearing, the sound of her screaming, and the smell of killing someone with a concentrated, lightning ball that he was not yet, at the time, used to. It was vivid and horrifying, much like her own memory—the kind of involuntary experience that haunts a person for the rest of their life.

She wondered, as she listened, whether or not he had ever told anyone about it with that level of confessional information. Knowing him, she doubted it.

"—then I got knocked out," finished Kakashi. "And, you know the rest."

Taken off-guard, Jiraiya stared at him with an unreadable expression. Though what it was that threw him off, Tsunade could not say for certain: Kakashi's jarring openness, the lucidity of a memory from a world that was not their own, a new insight gained from the story, or something else entirely. Tsunade was primarily focused on the first. While she knew he was not going pressure her into saying anything, the act of sharing was such a weird, vulnerable gesture from Kakashi, done solely for the purpose of making her feel more comfortable about potentially sharing in turn, that she felt pressured all the same.

"Fine," she said, almost competitively. "It was a Sunday, and the weather was terrible."

Unlike Kakashi, Tsunade could not get through her story smoothly, hindered only by microscopic pauses and lack of eye contact. In some ways, the act of describing the memory felt just as real as the memory itself. There were long stretches of time where she said nothing, instead just shivering in her chair until one of them gently prodded her onward, grounding her back into reality.

It was horrible, and she hated both of them for compelling her to do it.

"—and you know the rest," she finished.

"Good," said Kakashi. "Now, do it again."

For a moment, she was quite certain that she would rather pull out her own teeth than repeat it. But, her pride and gnawing need to practice medicine again got the best of her. "Fine," she said, through gritted teeth. "It was a Sunday, and the weather was terrible—"

After Tsunade's second time through, Kakashi insisted that they break for the evening. It had been a long and emotional night, he reasoned, and she would have a better chance of succeeding if she tried again after some sleep. She didn't make it into her bed until four, but she knew Kakashi was right in that sleep was necessary after such a night. So, she decided to sleep in and be late for work. The only person she truly answered to was Minato, who wouldn't even know—who would even chastise her?

A few minutes past eleven, only half an hour after she arrived, Danzō visited her office. After last night, Tsunade couldn't think of a person she wanted to see less.

"Danzō," she greeted, a fake smile plastered on her face. "How can I help you this morning?"

"I was talking to our new Hokage," he said. "And he told me that Kushina Uzumaki is ill—has been for a few weeks. Tell me, when were you planning on informing the council?"

"I don't even know if it is anything," said Tsunade. "In fact, it probably isn't. I'm just being thorough."

"What are you checking for?"

"You know I can't discuss patient records without their consent."

"She's the Nine-Tails. The council has a right to know."

"She's also the Hokage's wife," said Tsunade. "I'm not going over his head on this."

Danzō paused. "Are you sure that it's wise that you're handling her care?" he asked. "Given your…state."

"For someone worried about my state," she said, poison slipping through her pleasant tone. "It seems rather unwise of you to have put me in charge of the hospital."

"Let us not pretend that pushing papers around is the same as directly keeping someone alive." A tint of red blurred across her vision. "You've not practiced medicine in nearly ten years."

"I have caught up on every major medical breakthrough in the last decade," she said coolly. "So, I'm just as qualified as any senior medical-nin to handle her care."

"Barring, of course, that you still have yet to practice. Tell me, if I were to, say, slice open my hand in your office, would you be able to keep it together? I've heard hospital rumors of your…outburst."

Her blood was nearly boiling, and she was struggling to contain her urge to grab him by his throat and plunge him through the nearest wall. "Does this have a point, Danzō?"

"Give up Kushina's case to someone else. She's a valuable asset to the village. We can't take any chances."

"Oh, fuck the Nine-Tails," said Tsunade, her patience slipping. Danzō raised an eyebrow. "She's my cousin, so if you think I'm going to sabotage her health in any way, you are sorely mistaken. If I thought I needed help on this, I would have already taken it."

"Do you honestly believe that you your judgment is the soundest?"

"Yes," she said, without hesitation. She was not going to give him the satisfaction of hesitation. "Barring, of course, my decision to let you into my office. I am running absolutely everything under the goddamn sun and will be triple-checking all of the results myself. So, no, short of Minato and Kushina personally firing me, I will not be handing over this case to someone else."

"It is interesting," said Danzō. "That after a decade, you should turn up to stubbornly return to medicine right before your cousin falls ill."

"Are you implying that I'm poisoning Kushina or something?" she asked, outraged.

"I don't know what you're doing," said Danzō, still just as even. "Or, if you're doing anything at all."

"I suggest you listen carefully." If anything, Tsunade was not sure it was wise to continue escalating her anger, knowing the entire goal of their current plan was for Danzō to find them as non-suspicious as possible. However, she supposed it would be out of character for her not to be angry, and appearing in character was their best defense against knowing something they shouldn't. If his whole game was to get a read on her, she refused to give him the real answer. "This is my hospital. I'm here, sitting in this chair, because you don't know a thing about medicine. So, you will not disrespect me in my own office. As I said, if the Hokage has problems with my job performance, he is free to take that up with me himself."

"The Fourth has been Hokage for less than forty-eight hours. He has no idea what he's doing."

"Does the Third Hokage share these suspicions?"

"Relying on nepotism all around, then?" he asked

"I don't need nepotism," she said, standing, now yelling. "I am the greatest goddamn medical ninja on the entire planet." Before, she might have faltered, but Kakashi's words, his and Jiraiya's continued support, and their unwavering belief in her were emboldening her. Now, her strengthened spirit was radiating across the office, and she knew it. "So, I'll tell you again, if you consider yourself to have any ounce of wisdom, do not disrespect me in my own office. Bring me in front of either the Hokage or the full board, should you find him lacking, if you have any further concerns."

"You're as defensive as ever," said Danzō. "But, a lot changes in a decade. Forgive me if I still can't be sure you have Konoha's best interests at heart."

"I would die for this village."

"Funny, that's not the sentiment you were echoing ten years ago, after you abandoned it. You didn't even bother to come back during the war." Clearly, he was still trying to get something out of her, was still suspicious of something, but she could not help but feel like he was enjoying it. "Lots of lives were lost that you could have saved. Tell me, do you consider yourself to have selective cowardice or selective caring?"

Refusing to walk out of her own office, Tsunade gripped her desk to keep herself in place, afraid she might be overcome with the urge to punch his skull into the wall. She knew so many ways to painfully kill someone without blood being involved. She could make poisons that could eat him from the inside out, drown him, induce all sorts of torturous medical conditions. But, if she were to kill him, it would be with her fists, because there was not a weapon more distinctly her. If there were ever a person to risk it for, it would be him.

Though his words were like a punch to her stomach, she managed to make her own words not sound too breathless. "You absolute c—"

A loud knock on the door interrupted her. "Yo, Tsunade," said Jiraiya through it. "Do you have my wallet? I can't find it anywhere. I think I might have left it here last night."

Secretly, she was glad for it, and she let out a microscopic breath of relief. But, anger was still pulsing in her veins, and her tone was just as sharp when she fired back, "Did no one at the front tell you I was in a meeting?"

"Bold of you to assume I didn't sneak by the front desk."

"I'll leave you to it, then," said Danzō. Even Danzō, it seemed, knew not to degrade her in front of Jiraiya. "I look forward to seeing Kushina's test results."

With that, Danzō strolled out of the room before she could get a last word in, making only brief eye contact with Jiraiya as he disappeared down the hall. Jiraiya, in turn, entered the office and shut the door behind him.

"What the hell did you do that for?" she asked. Some of the rage still remained, but it was quickly dying, and she allowed herself a few more steadying breaths.

"Well, I did actually go by the front desk," said Jiraiya, pulling out his wallet. "And they did have my wallet. But, they also told me you were in an impromptu meeting with Danzō. So, then I snuck by the front desk, heard you yelling, and decided to be a dick to him."

Locking her jaw in place, she shook her head. "Thank you. He's such a bastard."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, he's just…a bastard." She did not dare elaborate there, for fear that Danzō might somehow still be listening. As her mood deflated, Danzō's words finally started to truly gnaw at her. Proving him wrong seemed just within arms reach and yet still so far away. "I need you and Kakashi to meet me at the hospital again tonight. I have to get it right. I have to."

That night's attempt, this time with Kakashi as her test subject, resulted in the same panic attack as the night before. But, it only took thirty minutes to recover, and during their memory-repeating drills afterward, the pauses were less.

"It's progress," said Kakashi, putting his hand on her shoulder assuringly, as they got ready to leave. "You'll get it. Trust me—I know you will."

Nodding, she repeated the mantra once again in her mind, over and over again as she walked back to her apartment: the greatest goddamn medical ninja.

(Whatever Lies Hidden)

After Kakashi, Tsunade, and Jiraiya left their house after the future retelling, Minato and Kushina did not move off the couch. Too horrified, they could not have moved even if they wanted to. Even repositioning themselves felt like a monumental task, as if they were moving through molasses. For the entire night, they just sat in their living room, completely silent, Kushina resting her head on her husband's shoulder. Where normally his fingers would have played with her hair absentmindedly, they stayed limp on her arm.

Minato's first day as Hokage went well, he told her. But, she had a feeling that his second day would run less smoothly, due to the stress and the sleep deprivation. Unsure of what else to do after he left for work, Kushina numbly cleaned the house for hours. Though she was traditionally less clean than Minato, the house, due to her complete auto-pilot, was beyond spotless by the time she was done.

As she was in her first trimester of pregnancy, Kushina was already tired most of the time. With the added exhaustion of a sleepless night and a morning spent extensively cleaning, she finally pushed through the horror to find the will to take a quick nap around one.

Minato woke her sometime later, when he sat on their bed and gently placed a hand on her arm. "Hey, I'm home."

"What time is it?" she mumbled, stretching awake with her eyes still shut.

"Eight. I've put on dinner, if you're hungry. Should be ready in about half an hour."

"Oh," said Kushina, finally opening her eyes. So much for a quick nap. Stretching once more, she sat up and rested her upper-body weight on her hand. "Thank you. How was work?"

"It was—" He didn't bother finishing, only vaguely shrugging, but she understood. What was there even to say? "How are you?"

She was tempted to respond in a similar manner, but she knew they had to talk eventually. Life, very suddenly, felt infinitely more pressing than it did before. "I'm horrified," she said honestly. "Just—just horrified."

Nodding, he placed his hand over hers, gently tracing patterns onto her fingers. "Do you believe them?"

"I thought about it a lot, this morning. And, I'm still in shock. It's just—" Biting her lip, she met his eyes and took a deep breath. "But, for now, yes. I think we have to believe them. It comes down to this—either they're telling the truth, or the Third, Orochimaru, and Danzō are telling the truth. I know which group I trust more. If it were anyone else in the world, I would think different, but it's Jiraiya and Tsunade. We know them. They wouldn't lie to us about this. If we can't trust them, we can't trust anyone."

Motionless, he did nothing but contemplate her words for a long moment, so she continued, "I didn't tell you about this, because Tsunade told me not to tell anyone at the time. But, the day the war ended, it was my job to find Kakashi to see if he wanted to go to dinner with us. I found him in one of the training fields, and I heard him yelling before I saw him. So, I admittedly decided to be nosy, hid, and spied on his emotions. Minato, the grief he felt was…horrible. Like someone who'd lost a child.

"So, once he stopped yelling at nothing, I went to him and found him sitting in the field alone, except for three, white flowers in front of him, grave-sized widths apart. Of course, it didn't make any sense at the time. But, now I know the three people those flowers were for. You can't fake that kind of grief, Minato. Not to me."

He nodded, neither in agreement nor disagreement, like he was just passively absorbing her words. "And, are you okay with that? Believing them?"

"I don't know," she said, and she had to pull her hand away from Minato's to wipe tears from her eyes. "It's so horrifying, and there's so much of it that I feel like my head is going to explode. All the stuff with the village and the end of the world and Obito. How do you move on from that, knowing all those things?" Her voice broke then, and the tears fell harder. But, the faintest of smiles appeared on her face. "But, we're having a son, you know? And he's going to be a good man. Just the strongest, greatest, kindest son you could ever hope for, you know?"

Nodding in the same way as before, Minato took her into his arms. All the bottled emotion finally breaking through, she cried openly onto his shoulder, the sobs spasming her lungs. She did not know what else to do but cry, and he did not know what else to do but rub her back soothingly.

"It'll be alright," he said. "I swear, whatever it takes, I'm going to keep you and our child safe."

"I know." She wiped her face with his shirt sleeve like it was a tissue. "You're a good man, too, you know?" Placing her hand on the side of his face, she met his eyes once again. "What about you? What do you think?"

He hesitated, and though his answer was noncommittal, she knew it to be true. "I haven't decided, yet."

It was late when Minato knocked on Jiraiya's door—only just before the time Jiraiya planned on getting his stuff together to meet Tsunade and Kakashi, forty-eight hours post reveal. However, Jiraiya put the hospital on the back burner; speaking to Minato was more important. Worse comes to worst, Kakashi could handle Tsunade alone.

"Hey," said Minato, after Jiraiya let him in and shut the door behind him. He nodded towards the stacks of paper that littered across Jiraiya's kitchen and living room. "Working on a new book?"

"Since we got back," said Jiraiya. "It's slowly growing out of control."

Making no attempt to continue the conversation, Minato made it clear he was not in the mood for small talk. Jiraiya knew him well enough, knew the look on his face well enough, to know what was coming. He had always encouraged Minato's inquisitiveness and knew when he was about to be faced with a barrage of questions.

"Are you absolutely sure about Kakashi?" asked Minato. "That he's telling the truth?"

"I am," said Jiraiya, after a moment of thought. "It's a lot to process. I had my doubts, even after I agreed to help him. But, it's just too much information. I don't think Kakashi has it in him to make up that much stuff. And, his story didn't change a bit when he told us versus when he told you.

"Plus, he knows too much to not have some kind of omniscience. He was right about things he had no way of even guessing, down to the Third retiring, when the war would end, and that you and Kushina were planning on having a child and when. The way he knows how to use a dōjutsu suggests that he once had one. The way he interacts with Tsunade suggests that they were friends. He knows a helluva lot about me. And, don't tell him I said this, but I think Kakashi's a good man. It's wild, but I trust him."

Minato nodded without a reaction, just neutrally taking in his words, so Jiraiya felt the need to elaborate. "I know he seems detached from the things that happened. But, I think it's just what he puts on. Two days ago, he told Tsunade and I about…one of his worst memories, in painstaking detail. Hearing it, I have no doubt that he was there."

"Which memory?" asked Minato.

For a moment, Jiraiya considered brushing off the question, but he knew it would not help his case. "Killing Rin." Even then, Minato did not react. "When you talk to him, ask him about the tattoo he got. It'll help you understand."

"He got a tattoo?" Jiraiya nodded. "About Rin?"

"No, nothing to do with Rin. Just ask about it."

"And your trust in him," said Minato. "How much does that have to do with Sakumo?"

Jiraiya paused before answering. "Some, at first," he admitted. "I projected a little. Well, a lot. But, now, almost nothing." Probably. "He's a very different person than his father. A few similarities, but—no, now, almost nothing."

"If I should believe you, what were you planning as your next move?"

"We realized we had three options for the first thing we did," said Jiraiya. "One freebie before things got more complicated. We could either kill Danzō, take down Orochimaru, or keep the Third's trust and maybe convince him to do something. Kakashi thinks, without hesitation, that killing Danzō is the most important."

After that, Jiraiya told him about their trip to the Rain and their setup to blame Hanzō. As he went on, Minato continued to nod, as if he did not care one way or the other. Minato's surface-level apathy did not bother Jiraiya, however. Like Kakashi appeared aloof about his past, Minato, slow to anger and quick to be objective, appeared aloof whenever he got in an interrogating mood.

"And Kushina and the Nine-Tails," said Minato. "What's your plan on that?"

"It's still a work in progress. So far, our best case scenario is that it never happens, and in our worst case, if the Nine-Tails does escape, our plan is to put it in Tsunade until…further arrangements need to be made. Tsunade thinks Kushina can survive the extraction, as long as she is there to help her."

"Does it ever seem normal? The time traveling?"

"Kind of," said Jiraiya. "I'm only three months in, but I'm at least used to Kakashi now. That he's an adult who's my age. That he's a friend. Mostly, it's still philosophically throwing me off. It's making me question everything I thought about the world. I don't know what reality is anymore. Is it everything that the earth experiences? Is it everything that's ever happened? Is the future that Kakashi experienced just as real as everything else, even though it only exists in his mind? Are we only ever people's memories? Weird bullshit like that."

For the first time, Minato looked like he was taken off guard, likely not having reached that stage of time travel acceptance, yet. Jiraiya expected that his old student would join him in his existential crises soon.

"How is Kakashi doing?" asked Minato.

"Better than he was. He looked rough for a while, but he's been less defeated lately. Less dead inside. But, I don't think he's fully used to it yet, either. He's lost a lot of things."

"And you?"

"Other than the existential stuff," said Jiraiya. "I think I'm fine with it. Much better than I thought I'd be. Certainly better than Kakashi and Tsunade. But, Tsunade's here, so she's arguably better than she was before."

Jiraiya did not want to push. Minato had been given only two days to process everything, on top of the chaos that came from learning how to be Hokage. All of them felt like assholes for dumping it on him and Kushina, and the more Jiraiya pushed, the less likely their plan was to work.

However, Jiraiya was worried about him, because he cared about him a good deal, so he could not resist asking, "How are you doing?"

Before answering, Minato stared at him for a long moment, thinking on it. "I haven't decided, yet." He looked to be on the verge of saying something else, but he thought better of it. Shaking his head, he continued: "Goodnight, Jiraiya."

With that, he was out the door, leaving Jiraiya alone in the apartment once again.

Three days after telling the Namikazes about the future, Minato showed up at Kakashi's apartment just as Kakashi and the boys finished cleaning up from dinner. Jiraiya told Kakashi about Minato's visit to his own apartment, so his appearance was not a surprise. Still, Kakashi let him in with an expression that suggested he was unprepared, not wanting to seem too assuming.

"Do you have time to talk?" asked Minato.

"Of course," said Kakashi, before turning to the kitchen table. Tenzō was reading one of his library books—he was so close to catching up to his year—and Kabuto was doing homework, a furrowed expression on his face. "Boys, be polite and greet the Hokage."

"Good evening, Mr. Hokage," said Kabuto, and Tenzō followed.

Kakashi shook his head, but decided that the issue of their etiquette was not worth pressing at the current time.

"Do we need to leave?" asked Tenzō.

"Yup," said Kakashi. "Why don't you guys go play outside?"

Both boys got up quickly, ready to take a break from their reading. After throwing on their coats and scarves, they rushed out the door before Kakashi could even give them a curfew. He had a feeling he wasn't going to see them for a while.

"Tea?" asked Kakashi to Minato.

"I'm fine, thank you," said Minato. So they could sit, Kakashi cleared the homework off the kitchen table. "If it's alright with you, I'd rather skip the small talk."

"I'd rather the same." Kakashi knew that everything would likely come down to this moment, and he had no interest in delaying it.

"I have several things I want to say," said Minato. Face stoic, his tone of voice landed somewhere between authoritative and terse. "Starting with, I believe you about time traveling."

Just as stoic, Kakashi nodded, but inwardly, he was so relieved that he could have laughed. "Thank you."

"Second," said Minato. "I'll go along with Danzō, as long as you meet my list of conditions. First, Jiraiya told me about your other two options. Justify to me right now why we should go with killing Danzō over taking down Orochimaru or persuading the Third."

"Make no mistake about Orochimaru," said Kakashi. "Unlike Jiraiya and Tsunade, I hold no, nor have I ever held, any fondness for him. He's hurt a lot of people I love, and if I could kill him right now, I would do it without hesitation. But, even still, Danzō's more important. At some point, Danzō will try to assassinate you to take over the Hokage position, and he won't care if he has to use your wife or your son or whoever to lure you into a position where he can. You'll never get control of Konoha while he's around, and you, your family, and everyone else here will always be in danger as long as he's alive. No one is off limits to him.

"As far as the Third, I do like him a lot. I've become disillusioned with time, but I still owe him, because he did a lot for me after you were gone. However, as much as I care about him, he cannot be trusted to not be complacent. His weakness is the people he loves, and he loves a lot of the wrong people."

Minato nodded. "My next condition is that I go along, and we get a detailed plan together ahead of time."

"Of course."

"Finally, once we're there and we have Danzō trapped, I need you to get him to confess. At least to something, so I know without a doubt that you know what you're doing and the things you say are true."

"I will," promised Kakashi.

Truthfully, he was not sure if he could, because Danzō was not the sort to give over information, even when cornered. But, if it was what Minato needed to trust him, to forgive him, then he would go to the end of the earth to try. To win Minato's approval, he was willing to do a lot worse.

"Third on the list of things I want to talk about," said Minato, and his tone softened. "Thank you."

Kakashi paused, baffled. "For what?"

"For everything you did for my son." Minato looked at Kakashi as if this was obvious. "You helped shape him into the man he became, since I couldn't. You protected him. You went to the end of earth with him, and that means more to me than you will ever know. And, now that you're here, you're doing everything you can to protect my family and my village."

"I am so sorry," said Kakashi. The thirteen-year-old Kakashi—who still viewed Minato as a parental figure rather than a substitute child that had been substituted in for another substitute child, who felt a desperate, gnawing need to apologize instead of protect—burst out before thirty-seven-year-old Kakashi could stop him. "For everything that happened last time. For killing you and Kushina and Obito and Rin—"

"I would never blame you," said Minato. "Those things weren't your fault. You were just a kid. A jōnin, but still a kid. And, I'm sorry, too." Minato's voice broke, and Kakashi had to turn away to keep his composure. "I was so careless about so many things. I was Hokage, and I knew better, but I was so, so stupid. I could prevented a lot of those things. It left you and Naruto alone, and it killed my wife—"

"I would never blame you," said Kakashi, returning to his adult self who felt the need to console Minato. "Not once. Neither did Naruto, and you know Kushina wouldn't. How could you have known what was coming? The things that happened last time were beyond any of us, including those who were much older than you."

"Thank you," said Minato, and though he looked relieved, he did not look anymore certain.

"Last time was hell for everyone," said Kakashi. "That's why we have to fix it. This village and its people, including you, deserve a lot better than what they got."

"But, you don't think the war can be prevented."

Closing his eyes, Kakashi wished he could come to a conclusion better than the one he did—that had been running through his mind since the day he came back. "No. I don't want to believe that some things are just destined, but in my heart, I know the war is. No matter what we do, no matter what we change, she is going to be watching us from the shadows. The only way to really stop her is to wait until she comes out of hiding, and she won't do that until she's ready to wage a war. Our goal should be to reduce casualties."

"I told Tsunade, the day I was made Hokage, that it felt like the entire world was watching," said Minato. "I guess it was even truer than I realized. Everyone is watching, and everything we do matters. You're right. We have to do better, now that we know what's coming. I have to do better. The people in this village deserve a Hokage better than the one I was and the one the Third was afterward."

"You're not alone," assured Kakashi. "Jiraiya, Tsunade, and I are willing to go to hell and back. I owe the village for my mistakes, too. We'll fix it—together."

"Together," agreed Minato.

For the first time, both of them smiled, despite the subject matter. If nothing else, they did have together. That was not a bond that even hell could take from them, no matter how much dynamics had shifted over time.

"Jiraiya said I was supposed to ask you about a tattoo," said Minato.

"That bastard," muttered Kakashi. "Look, I had a…rough morning the day the war ended, that resulted in a lapse in judgment. The lapse in judgment, of course, being an unplanned tattoo."

Raising his sleeve, Kakashi showed Minato his memorial tattoo. Despite all of their fears of infection, it healed nicely with no complications. The linework for the symbol for "seven" was still immaculate now that it had healed, and the top colors—red, orange, and pink—still blurred nicely into the blue. Skimbops Marquis was not a good man, instead a master of petty lawlessness, but he was a good artist, as long as he was mostly sober and remembered to clean his needles.

"I'm sorry I showed you," said Kakashi, self-consciously adjusting his sleeve back down. "I'm sure seeing a memorial tattoo dedicated to your unborn son is a bit disturbing."

"It's okay," said Minato. "You cared about them a lot, huh?"

Kakashi gave a closed mouth laugh. "Yeah. They were—" Everything to me. "—I mean, they weren't the best students—no offense, of course—but they were the best damn ninja in Konoha, and they were mine."

"I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thank you," he said softly. "How are you doing with…all of this?"

"I'm—" Minato shrugged, hesitated, then shook his head. "—I'm trying not to be angry."

"At?"

"The village. I know it's not helpful, that as Hokage I should be better than that, but I'm still angry. I'm angry at the Third Hokage, for allowing Danzō and Orochimaru to just do whatever treason they pleased and walk away. I'm really angry at Danzō for everything he's pulled. When I took the Hokage position, I had a lot more faith in what it meant. But now, whenever I look around at the government, it just feels like a ship sinking in poison."

Kakashi nodded in understanding. "It's like I said at the cliff top—this isn't going to be easy. It's going to be complicated and harder than anything you've ever done, but you're doing it because you want your son to have the chance to grow up in a place better than he did. The reason you're Hokage is so you can be different. Take it from someone who was, being Hokage still means something, even after the betrayal."

"Does that ever get any better?" asked Minato. "Having one of your students betray you deeply enough to kill you?"

"Yes," said Kakashi confidently. "Sometimes, people turn, and it hurts like a hell you wouldn't believe. But, sometimes they turn back. The memories never go away, but that doesn't mean you can't heal from them. Sasuke's a bastard, but I was supposed to be his father at his wedding, so we have—we had—all made our peace. Plus, with Obito, I basically locked him in the village, so it won't happen again."

"And we're thinking Yoichiro is a strong candidate for the replacement?" Kakashi nodded. "What do you think Sasuke would have been like? If all of that hadn't happened?"

"I like to think he might have been a bit like you. An arrogant, kind-of-an-asshole version of you." There was the beginnings of a half smile on Minato's face, but as he paused a moment to think, it faded. To try and ease the mood, Kakashi continued: "Though, if it makes you feel better about being angry, no matter how hard you try, you'll never match Tsunade, and she was an excellent Hokage. You know, whenever I made a decision she didn't like, she broke into my house and threw my furniture at my face unless I gave her alcohol."

"That sounds like her," said Minato, snorting. "But, on a similar note, for my last topic of conversation, I'm making you my unofficial adviser."

"What?" asked Kakashi, after a beat, taken off guard once again.

"What you said on that cliff top—that I was made Hokage not because I knew how to do it but because I knew how to learn—you were right. Unfortunately, I've just learned that everyone who was supposed to be teaching me can't be trusted. So, you're now the next best thing. I can't pay you, as this is all secret, but I'm not giving you a choice, either."

Though he wanted to protest, hardly feeling qualified, Kakashi realized, to his horror, that he probably was the most qualified person for the job.

"But," continued Minato. "I am requesting you don't break into my house and destroy my furniture, for your own safety. Kushina is fond of it and can kick your ass."

"I'm sure I can refrain." Pausing, Kakashi gave him a hesitant look. "Regarding Danzō, I have a request for you."

(Who, Pray Tell)

On Saturdays, Rin, Obito, and Shizune made it a habit to have ice cream together. It started on the former two's quest to show Shizune everything worth seeing in Konoha, and despite the chilly temperatures outside, they found it an imperative to show her their favorite ice cream place. They wound up making it a weekly thing, finding something funny about eating ice cream in the frost.

"You know, it'll be kind of sad," said Rin to Shizune. "When you take the chūnin exam, we won't be able to do this every Saturday anymore."

"I mean this nicely," said Shizune. "But, I'll give up ice cream to be a chūnin.

Rin giggled. "Still hating being a genin?"

"Don't even get me started," said Shizune, scowling. "If I have to babysit another kid, I'm going to lose it."

"Kids aren't that bad," said Obito.

"You're only saying that because you have the good ones. Yours can do ninja stuff, but all mine can do is puke on you."

"Remember that time we babysat that Inuzuka baby?" asked Rin to Obito, giggling again. "And, she threw up all over Kakashi?"

"He was so mad," said Obito to Shizune. "It was the first time I'd ever heard Kakashi swear, and Minato was so furious about him swearing in front of a kid that he made him do workout drills until two in the morning."

"I guess Kakashi cares a lot less now," said Shizune, with a laugh. "He, Jiraiya, and Tsunade had to have a talk with Tenzō and Kabuto about how there are some words you're not allowed to say until you're old enough. The boys took it so seriously."

"Does Kakashi swear a lot?" asked Rin.

"Some. But, nothing even close to Tsunade." Shizune leaned back into her chair, before lowering her voice. "She uses 'fuck' like a comma."

Obito laughed, but Rin turned towards him, her brow furrowed in concern. "Doesn't it bother you?" she asked. "How much different Kakashi is?"

"No." Obito took a bite of his strawberry ice cream. "New Kakashi's great, and swearing isn't that weird. He taught me how to fix a sink, and he took me, Tenzō, and Kabuto to this volunteer thing that I wanted to go to—"

"Yes, I mean, he seems great," said Rin, her tone short. "I know you like him a lot. But, he's wrong, you know? Does it not bother you, even a little?"

"You know, Rin," said Shizune bluntly, licking some of the melted chocolate off her hand. "You talk about Kakashi a lot."

Flushing scarlet, Rin's eyes darted towards the floor. On the other hand, Obito's expression soured, and he turned away. Shizune cringed, realizing, in her awkwardness, that she hit a sore spot.

"I wouldn't worry about it, Rin," she said quickly, trying to salvage the moment. "I mean, he seems okay, doesn't he?"

"Maybe." Rin's eyes were still glued to the floor. "I don't really know how to tell."

Before Shizune could stick her foot in her mouth further, three boys she did not recognize joined their table. The one leading the charge had the bushiest eyebrows that she had ever seen, a black bowl-cut, and a skintight, green jumpsuit. One of his two companions had round, black glasses and suspenders. The other was a more normal-looking, brunette, older boy.

"Yo, guys," said the eyebrows boy, waving as they walked over. "Fancy seeing you here."

"Hey, Guy," said Rin, smiling as if the previous thirty seconds had not happened. She turned towards Shizune. "These are our friends, Guy, Ebisu, and Genma. They're on a team together. Guys, this is Shizune."

"Oh, you're the little genin girl," said Genma, grinning as he leaned against the side of Obito's chair. "How's painting fences?"

"Just fine, thank you," said Shizune coldly, not appreciating the nickname.

"Genma, don't tease her," said Rin. "Shizune, don't take it personally. He's just…like this. You guys want to join?"

As the newcomers sat down, Genma laughed, not bothered by Rin's words.

"Are you attempting the spring chūnin exams?" asked Ebisu.

Shizune nodded. "I'm passing the spring chūnin exams."

"Don't worry if you don't, though," said Obito. "Rin and I failed the first time but passed the second."

"Tsunade says I'm too old to be a genin. That, and, I'm tired of doing chores with nine-year-olds."

"Tsunade trained you, right?" asked Genma. Shizune nodded. "Yeah, little genin girl, you'll be fine."

"You won't be fine if you keep calling me that."

Despite her threat, Genma's grin did not falter. Crossing her arms, Shizune was quite certain that she did not like this boy in the slightest.

"Oh, speaking of promotions," said Guy. "Genma's being promoted to tokubetsu jōnin."

"Whoa, no way," said Obito, his eyes lighting up.

"Congratulations!" said Rin, which Shizune echoed half-heartedly.

"We're going camping to celebrate, when we've all got a weekend off," said Genma. "You guys want to come?"

Obito and Rin agreed excitedly. After Rin elbowed Shizune, communicating a familiar sentiment of "Shizune, agree to this social interaction because it will be good for you," she conceded as well.

"Do you think Kakashi will come?" asked Guy.

The ice cream trio all hesitated, exchanging awkward glances. "I don't know," said Rin. "He's been busy doing…whatever he's been doing."

"He doesn't like leaving the kids alone," said Shizune. "Not yet, at least."

"You know, out of all of us," said Genma. "Kakashi would have been second to last on my list of people who would become a teen father."

"Who is the last?" asked Ebisu.

"You. I'm not sure we could find a woman willing."

As Ebisu shot him a dirty look, Obito and Guy laughed. Even Shizune, though she blushed and put her head in her hands to hide it, cracked a grin. Rin, however, looked back at the floor, quite sure she was the only one truly unnerved by Kakashi's transformation. Perhaps she was being over-dramatic, or perhaps she was mistaken, but it bothered her for reasons she did not know how to put into words.

(The Debts We Owe)

For a group of people who were so close in both proximity and friendship, Tsunade's, Jiraiya's, Kakashi's, and Minato's ability to communicate with one another became unreasonably difficult. As the days until their plan's execution grew fewer, their paranoia only increased. Particularly with Danzō's recent interest in Tsunade's motives, they knew that there was no such thing as too cautious and agreed to correspond through convoluted means only.

Kakashi and Minato needed to talk the most often, as Kakashi was calling most of the shots and Minato needed the most instruction, which was unfortunate. They were the only two people in their plan who could not, under nearly any circumstance, speak face-to-face. Should anyone catch on to any possibility of scheming, their natural inclination would be to suspect Jiraiya as the mastermind. Removed from the situation, Kakashi was completely inconspicuous. However, if Kakashi visited Minato too often, a clever person might suspect that they were using Kakashi's innocence as a cover for passing messages between Minato and Jiraiya. Wrong as the assumption would be, it would still bring attention to Kakashi that could foil their entire plan.

Instead, they worked the reversed expectation of their reality to their advantage. For the most part, Jiraiya removed himself from interactions with everyone, publicly blaming his recent stride on novel writing. All of them stopped the night gatherings at the hospital, they knocked down the frequency of Jiraiya's lessons with Kakashi, and Jiraiya hardly left his apartment unless food or alcohol was involved. With an excuse to talk to Minato regularly, Tsunade played the role of messenger, shuffling letters back and forth between Minato, Kakashi, and Jiraiya.

It was harder for her to find a reason to visit Kakashi, so they had to craft a scenario where Kakashi and Shizune appeared, to an outsider, like they might perhaps be dating. Tsunade knew it made Kakashi feel uncomfortable, due to the fact that she was fourteen and he was old enough to easily be her father, even though all he was doing was visiting with her in the evenings and occasionally taking her to breakfast or lunch. Though Shizune did not know Kakashi was drastically older than her, she was not happy about their arrangement, either. However, it was the only way any of them could think of how to get messages from Tsunade to Kakashi, so Kakashi sucked it up and did his best to ignore how creepy he felt. Tsunade had taught Shizune well, and no matter how little explanation Tsunade gave her, she would not protest or tell a soul.

Tsunade appreciated that she put Shizune through a lot. Making her spend many of her evenings at Kakashi's apartment instead of hanging out with friends, sitting in silence for hours as he hastily wrote back all of Tsunade's, Minato's, and Jiraiya's queries, was just the latest offense. Thinking back on Kakashi talking about the importance of integrating the kids into Konoha and furthering their emotional development, Tsunade was still racking her brain on how to make up for a decade's worth of weird decisions during Shizune's core developmental years.

However, Shizune was not the only family member that Tsunade was worried about disappointing. Though she had seen and spoken to Minato a good deal, all of their real communications had to be in letters that contained essential information only. As much as she wanted to know, Tsunade could not justify, for the greater good, wasting paper space for "by the way, how is your wife taking this, and does she hate us?"

When Tsunade had to return to the Namikazes' a few days after the future reveal to take a few more vials of blood from her, just to run more tests to buy time, she had no idea what Kushina's response to her would be. After the news they gave her, the sky was the limit in terms of potential reactions.

On the way over, Tsunade desperately tried to think about what she could say to Kushina that might make everything seem okay. But, when Kushina let her inside and they sat down on her couch, all that tumbled out of Tsunade's mouth was "I am so, so goddamn sorry."

Though it took her a second, Kushina eventually flashed a sad smile. "I know. But, it's okay. I mean, it's not, but I don't blame you. Or Jiraiya and Kakashi, for that matter. It's not like you asked for it, either."

"How are you?" asked Tsunade. "Really?"

Kushina bit her lip, taking a moment to think on her answer. "Honestly? I guess it's predictable coming from me, but more than anything right now, I'm just angry. I'm angry at how corrupt this village is. I'm angry at the truly impressive number of people who've managed or will manage to betray me or my family, some of whom I really, really wanted to trust. I'm angry that my son suffered for so long. I'm angry that after everything I thought about fate, how much I romanticized it, it turns out the only fate we get is being pawns in some mad god's plan and then getting tossed away like none of it ever mattered.

"It just makes me feel small, you know?" asked Kushina, irritatedly blinking back tears. "The one time it really matters, the one time it's most important to do something, the Nine-Tails, which is what even makes me useful to begin with, is keeping me trapped inside my own house. The one time I can't afford to be, I'm completely useless."

"I understand," said Tsunade. Though there was little to feel relieved about nowadays, she still felt so relieved that Kushina's anger wasn't directed at her that it was like a thousand-pound weight lifted off her chest. "About all of it."

"Minato told me about the Nine-Tails, you know. That if everything goes south in October, our best chance is for you to become the next jinchūriki."

"Only if it comes to it. Trust me, we'll do everything we can to make sure it doesn't come that."

"I think it's brave of you. The Nine-Tails is a lot to bear." Wiping the last of her tears away, Kushina gave a bitter laugh. "I tried talking to him—the Nine Tails—after last week. I figured, if Naruto could get through to him, maybe I could too. Just asked him about his past, you know? Anyway, he brushed me off and told me that, even if no one else dies in October, he hopes I die a slow, miserable death at his hands. Obviously, I got mad and then told him that I'll make sure he goes down with me this time, so if I had to guess, he and I aren't going to improve upon our relationship for a while."

Tsunade grimaced. "I'm…sorry?" she said, unsure of what condolence was even appropriate for such a confession.

Nodding absentmindedly, Kushina shrugged. "Minato's angry, too, you know," she said, as if the previous monologue never happened. "Not at the Nine-Tails. In general. He won't talk to me about it, because I think he's trying to pretend like if he fakes having everything together, it'll make it so. But, I know better. The obvious stuff is, of course, getting to him, but the Third not being the man he thought he was is hitting him hard, too." Tsunade swore that she didn't react, but when Kushina caught her gaze, her eyes widened. "I'm sorry. I didn't think—of course, it has to be way worse for you than it is for him—"

"It's okay," said Tsunade, meaning it. "I mean, it's not, but it's not on you or Minato. You both have a right to be upset, too. It's all complicated."

"How are you doing? And, don't lie; I'll know."

"I'm angry, too," she confessed. "And stunned, still, even after three months. As much as I want to pretend I haven't, I've put a lot on the back burner, because it's too much to deal with everything right now. I'll have to do it eventually, but for now, I'm focusing on being angry. It's the easiest thing to be."

"You know what's stupid?" Kushina gave another short, horrible burst of laughter. "I've been a ninja since I could walk. I thought I was okay with everything, afraid of nothing. But, I'm not. I'm not ready to die—at least, not like that. If I'm going to die, I want to die fighting, not…like that, you know? And, I really don't want to know the day well in advance."

"They won't get you," said Tsunade sharply, grabbing her hand. "Not on that day, not like that. I swear, we won't let them."

Kushina nodded, though she did not look like she believed her. "It just makes you think about things, you know? The stuff that dies with you. The stuff that you leave behind. What all of it means." Taking a deep breath, she brushed her hair out of her eyes. "Do you think we'll always be angry?"

"Maybe. But, we'll get through it," assured Tsunade. "Together."

"Together," agreed Kushina. Some of the sadness left her smile, and she leapt off the couch. "Oh, before I forget—" She wandered into the kitchen and came back with an envelope, which she handed to Tsunade. "Whenever you have a moment, will you deliver this to Kakashi for me?"

Pocketing it, Tsunade agreed. She decided that they'd put off lab work long enough, and she unpacked her medical supplies onto the coffee table. Before she could do anything, however, Kushina interrupted her.

"Tsunade," said Kushina. "I need you to do me a favor, okay?"

"What is it?"

"You're all I have left, you know," said Kushina. "You, Minato, Jiraiya, and Kakashi. I can't trust anyone or anything else. Without you, I'm alone." Kushina took her hand once more. "So, I need you to work through your fear of blood, so when the time comes, you can be there with me, okay?"

"I swear," said Tsunade, resisting the urge to hesitate. Kushina deserved better than hesitation. "I swear."

At six p.m. on the dot, Shizune arrived at Kakashi's apartment. "The usual," she said, once the door was shut, taking an armful of paperwork, letters, and one package out of her bag and setting them on the kitchen table. "Tsunade said to tell you that the top letter's from Kushina."

"Thank you," he said.

As he sorted the mail, figuring out what all he had in front of him, Shizune wandered into the kitchen. She had grown almost as comfortable as Tenzō and Kabuto in his apartment, looking through his cabinets for something to eat without making any pretense of manners. Settling on a packaged sweet roll, she pulled one of his chairs up to his counter (she could not sit at the table, as the letters were beyond classified) and opened it.

"I think I've met all your friends by now," said Shizune. During these nighttime visits, she often talked at him, to give herself something to do. He did not mind it much, and she never took offense if he replied with nothing, instead just continuing on like she was talking to herself. "I met Kurenai today, finally."

"Did you?" he asked absentmindedly, organizing his letters into piles depending on who they were from.

"Okay, I have a question, though. Is Genma always the worst?"

The question took him so off guard that he laughed before he could stop it. "What?"

"He keeps calling me 'little genin girl.'" She took a violent bite of her roll and scowled at him. "Even after I threatened to poison him."

"He's doing it to get a reaction out of you," he said. "And it's working."

"He's just so irritating. And, nothing ever gets to him. He's impossible to tease back."

"Tsunade raised you. Surely you can get creative."

"If I called him anything that Tsunade has ever called someone," she said. "Rin would have a heart attack."

Kakashi smiled. "He's a good person, once you get to know him. He likes to make fun of everyone and everything, but he's a good person."

"He'd be a better person if he stopped calling me 'little genin girl,'" grumbled Shizune, as she took another bite.

Though he had several letters from Minato that were likely more pressing, he decided to start with the one from Kushina. Taking the letter out of the envelope and unfolding it, Kakashi began to read:

Dear Kakashi,

Since I can't see you in person right now, I'm going to try to get some of my thoughts out in letter form. Sorry if I ramble.

I know you apologized to Minato, and he forgave you. I just wanted to let you know that I forgive you, too. I trust you. All of it is hard to believe—so hard—but I trust you.

I don't know how I'm feeling about all that, at the moment. I'm hoping I will soon.

Thank you for looking after my son, for all those years. I'm so, so sorry for your loss. For your three flowers in an empty field. Have you talked to them since that day? If not, I think you should. They live on in you, you know? They wouldn't want you to suffer alone. None of us do, either.

Minato told me about the tattoo, as well. I think it's sweet.

When this is all over, I'd like for you to visit and tell me about my son. What he's like and what he likes. The little stories that didn't make it in. About his wedding and his wife. All the things I missed last time. I feel like, somehow, I owe it to his memory to hear them, you know?

Until then, I need you to do me a favor. I love my family more than anything, you know? But, before I loved them, I had a different set of family that I loved and a village that I loved. I had shared memories that I loved. There were once people and places who lived and were mine, but now they're gone, and I'm the only one who still remembers.

I don't want to seem ungrateful to my life now, because I'm more thankful than I can put into words. Minato has always been uniquely mine, and I wouldn't trade him for anything. Though my feelings towards Konoha are complicated at the moment, this village took me in when I had nowhere else to go. And, a lot of it runs together at this point. Life here has been kind enough to me that I can't decide which village, Uzushiogakure or Konoha, is my real home. My family then and what family I have left now blends together in my mind. My friends then and now run together.

Usually, it is a good thing. No matter what I do, I cannot bring back Uzushiogakure. My heart being here is just a part of accepting that my heart there is gone. But, sometimes, it makes me suddenly very aware that there are people and things that should not be forgotten whose memory will die with me all the same.

I don't know if any of this makes sense to you or if you are just reading this and thinking about how crazy I am.

Also, I don't want to make it seem like Minato, Jiraiya, and Tsunade don't fear the village being destroyed. I'm good at reading people, you know, and they're all so afraid at the moment they hardly know what to do with it (don't tell them I've told you, though. They all like to pretend they're much less affected by things than they actually are). However, there is a difference between the way one fears a theoretical and the way one fears a memory. They don't know what it's like to be the last of something.

Not like me. Not like you.

I don't know if I can do it again.

If Kaguya really perhaps come back with you, then she won't make the same mistakes again. We can't either, for Konoha's sake. For my son's sake. For Minato's, Jiraiya's, and Tsunade's sakes. Worried as they are, they do not fear enough, not in the same, desperate way as those who remember. I know you will anyway, but also do it as a favor to me, because I can't go along:

Make sure Danzō dies.

Until then,

Kushina

"Kakashi?" asked Shizune. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," he said, but his voice was breathless and his throat felt tight. It was far more emotion than he was comfortable showing around Shizune, and he tried to cough away the constriction in his chest. "I'm fine."

Not looking at her, Kakashi went into the kitchen, the letter clutched tightly in his hands. He turned on the stove and almost turned it to ash—he had to burn all of his letters after reading them, so no one would ever find them—but after a moment of hesitation, he set it inside one of the drawers. Instead, he moved his tea kettle onto the flames.

He would burn it later tonight, but he wanted to read it a few more times, if only to think of how to respond. It was a whirlwind of a letter, both relieving and heart-breaking, healing and horrible, like he'd been punched in the stomach and hugged, all at the same time. He should have known that, of everyone's reactions to the future, Kushina's would break him the most, but it still took him aback. However, it was not fair to make Shizune wait around while he pondered a personal matter.

Closing his eyes, he pushed the letter from his mind as the water began to boil. For now, he had to be the Sixth Hokage, not a person who remembered.

Once Shizune was gone and the boys were put to bed, Kakashi was left with only the letter for company. Resting against his kitchen counter, he read through it several more times, trying to think of what to say back. At some point, however, he realized he was just reading it to delay its destruction. With a sigh, he turned on his stove once more and finally put the letter to rest.

He stood over the flames long after the paper disintegrated, still dwelling on her words and the people who would die with him.

Lighting a candle and taking out a stick of black chalk, he sat down on the floor of his kitchen. Gently, he sketched out the symbol for the number seven onto one of his cabinets. Then, with feather-light touches, he traced the outline with his finger tips, imprinting the design onto the white paint, not ready to move on to the inevitable.

The Sixth Hokage had left with Shizune's letters, it seemed, leaving only a man who was the last.

Kushina, he realized then, did not have graves, either. He wondered, on nights like these, what she prayed to.

"Hey, guys," whispered Kakashi, feeling awkward. He was no stranger to talking to the dead, but usually the dead weren't his kitchen cabinet. "It's been a while."

Already, his voice was shaking. There was a reason he had not spoken to them in a month—the wound was still gaping open and raw.

"The oddest things have happened here," he continued, trying to push through. "Like you wouldn't believe. I think I'm turning into you, Naruto, because not knowing what else to do with him, I adopted Kabuto. And now, he, Tenzō—Yamato—and I are living in my apartment together like it's a completely normal thing. Yes, Sakura, I know you would make fun of my and my current domesticity if you were here. Tsunade certainly has in your absence. Sasuke, I know you would be questioning my sanity If you were here, and I assure you, many people have in your absence.

"Naruto, your mother wrote me a letter, which is why I'm here. I told her and your dad about you—" The familiar tightness was returning to his throat, and he did his best to cough it away. "—about everything. All things considered, I think they took it well. I tried to keep out most of the embarrassing stories, but Kushina wants to know more about you, so no promises. Your parents and Jiraiya look good. They're very proud of you."

Kakashi allowed himself a few deep breaths before he moved on. "Sasuke, I've seen your parents several times. It would give you a stroke, but Itachi and Kabuto have become friends. It's a flashback to worse days in an innocent, little package. That, and I spent nearly two months with the Akatsuki, which was—" Not finding the words to describe the situation, Kakashi just shook his head.

"You would almost certainly be questioning my sanity if you were here, but somehow, I think you would understand. That's part of atonement, isn't it? We do what we have to, no matter the personal cost." Kakashi almost smiled. "But, I am about to kill someone who you would be very glad to see dead, if that's any consolation. Wish me luck.

"Sakura—" It was always Sakura that got to him. Kakashi paused for a long moment, composing himself so he could continue. "—Tsunade's doing really well. So is Shizune, even though Genma apparently keeps teasing her. But, Tsunade's back in the village and trying to practice medicine. She's so close, too. Just a little longer, I think.

"I wish you were here. You'd know what to say to her. You'd know what she needed to do. Instead, we're all bumbling in the dark trying to reinvent your wheel. I took you for granted and didn't pay enough attention, stupidly thinking that I wouldn't outlive you. That I wouldn't outlive any of you.

"I did tell Tsunade about you," he said. "She'll never tell you this to your face, but she's looking forward to teaching you. Naruto, Jiraiya's looking forward to teaching you, too. Sasuke, you'll have to settle for just me, because I won't let Orochimaru get to you this time. I promise." In his previous lifetime, Kakashi was never a crier, but here he was, tears brimming in his eyes for the second time in the span of a month. He quickly wiped them away, so he could almost pretend he wasn't. "It feels selfish to be upset, because the three of you will technically be alive again. But, it won't really be you, will it? It's selfish of me, but god, I wish you three were here right now—"

As much as he felt it was selfish to not keep going, that was it for him. With a quick, whispered "fuck," he leaned his forehead against the cabinet. Ash-colored chalk smeared across his forehead and up into his hair, and tears fell onto his kitchen floor. It was embarrassing—this never used to happen to him. But, he knew the only people who could see him was them, and he knew they would not judge him.

(Quiet, Quiet)

The morning after, as Kakashi was feeding the kids breakfast, he took out a small package from his cupboard and unboxed the pill bottle inside. Taking out two pills, he set one by each of the boys' plates. If they noticed that the cupboard was vaguely tinted black, they did not comment on it.

If they noticed Kakashi's hesitation as he divvied out the pills, they did not comment on that, either.

"What's that?" asked Tenzō.

"Vitamins," said Kakashi. "Everyone's getting sick at the academy. Don't want us to catch it, too."

"Do we have to?" asked Kabuto, wrinkling his nose.

Kakashi did not bother to respond, instead just giving him a stern look. If nothing else, Team Seven had taught him how to give an effective one. At that, Tenzō and Kabuto took their pills immediately, swallowing them down with their tea.

If either of the boys noticed Kakashi's hesitation as he took his own pill, they did not comment on it.

As luck tended to go, the very next day, Kakashi, Tenzō, and Kabuto all woke up with fevers and pounding headaches. Though the boys fought to stay in bed, cranky from being ill, Kakashi made them get dressed so they could get checked out at the hospital.

"Well, it's not the flu," said the medical-nin who examined the three of them, bringing back their results. "Probably just a random virus. It's been going around lately. Get some rest and drink plenty of fluids. You should feel better in a few days. Come back if anything changes.

Once they arrived back home, Tenzō and Kabuto passed out in their beds, expressing no interest in either breakfast or lunch. Though he had housework to do and things to plan, Kakashi, too, had trouble staying awake. Around noon, he gave up his fight and laid down to take a nap, but not before giving him and the kids their second dosing of pills.

Monday morning, shortly after Kakashi should have dropped Kabuto off at the academy, Jiraiya swung by his apartment.

"I was going to berate you for missing our training this morning," said Jiraiya, crossing his arms when Kakashi opened the door. Kakashi's face was pale, save for a violent blush on his cheeks, and he was covered in a feverish sheen. "But, you look rough."

"Don't come any closer," said Kakashi, leaning sleepily against the door frame. "Me and the kids caught whatever academy bug is going around."

"Gross," said Jiraiya. "Well, don't bother coming to training until you're better, because if you give it me, I will kill you."

"Noted. If both of you have a moment, would you ask Tsunade to bring by some more medicine? We're running low, and Kabuto keeps complaining."

"Am not!" yelled Kabuto's voice from inside the apartment.

"Stop screaming!" said Tenzō's voice, just as loud.

"If both of you don't stop," said Kakashi, peeking his head back in. "I'll tell Tsunade to bring you nothing and you'll like it." The boys' voices instantly quieted. With a cough that sounded like it was ripping the insides of his lungs, Kakashi turned back towards Jiraiya. "Sorry."

"Sure," said Jiraiya, looking amused. "Just one question, though, for my own curiosity. When you blow your nose, do you still keep the mask on? Because if so, that's kind of disgust—"

Before he could finish, Kakashi shut the door in his face, not in the mood.

By the time Tsunade came by Kakashi's apartment later that evening, the boys were already asleep again.

"Your requested drugs," she said, holding out a pill bottle to him.

"Thank you," said Kakashi, reaching out to take them.

If anyone had been standing in the hallway with them or had been looking upon the building with a dōjutsu, they might have seen his hand grab her wrist instead of the pill bottle. They might have seen that, for a brief moment, there were four people in the doorway instead of two. They might have seen her hand off the pill bottle to one of the fresh clones, who quickly shifted their shape.

But, after a second, there were only two people in Kakashi's hallway. With a brief goodbye, Kakashi shut the door behind him and collapsed back on the couch to sleep, and Tsunade made her way back to her own apartment.

Near the Fire country's border, approximately halfway between Konoha and the Akatsuki's current hideout, Kakashi and Tsunade landed on an envelope in an empty, one-room house. The sudden drop in chakra elicited a sharp intake of breath from Kakashi and brought him to his knees.

"You alright?" she asked, helping him up.

"We need to keep moving," he said, slurring his words and attempting to stand on his own.

"You look like death. We need to rest a couple hours."

"Tsunade—"

"Don't Tsunade me. You're supposed to be running stealth." Both of them realizing that he could not, in fact, stand on his own, she brought him over to a chair in the corner of the room "We can not risk your chakra-exhausted, poisoned ass getting us caught." Reaching into her pack, she pulled out a pill and handed it to him. "Here's the antidote. It'll take a couple hours to work, but once it does, you'll feel a lot better."

"I still hate that we had to poison the kids," said Kakashi, gratefully taking it as a cough wracked his lungs.

"If you could hold a multi-day shadow clone instead of making me do both of ours," said Tsunade, sitting down in the chair next to him. "And weren't also the one most concerned about someone noticing that you had my chakra signature if you went out in public, we wouldn't have that problem."

"I said I hated it, not that it wasn't necessary." As he stretched out his back, he gave her a side eye. "And, I wouldn't get so cocky about 'making' you do anything. Only one of us had the capability of getting us out of the village without anyone noticing, via teleporting to Jiraiya's safe house, didn't we?"

"I'd have figured it out," she said, shrugging and giving him a narrow-eyed look back. But, after a few moments, her expression softened. "The kids will be fine. It'll leave their systems as soon as we stop dosing them and they'll never know they didn't have the academy bug."

"You have Minato's seal on you?"

Tsunade nodded. "Speaking of—" Taking out a small piece of wood, she placed it on the floor near the entrance. "His chakra levels are better than yours, so he'll be able to get all the way to the Akatsuki hideout."

"You did poison me."

"Excuses, excuses," she said, grinning. "How are you feeling?"

"Still poisoned, in case you didn't notice."

"That's not what I meant."

His thoughts were still jumbled from fever, and it took him a few moments to think of an answer. "You know, if you would have asked me six months ago—or twenty-four years from now, in a way—whether or not I could take him down, I would have said no." Kakashi almost smiled. "Even as good of a ninja as I became, there were always a few people who terrified me, and he was one of them. But, I don't fear the same things anymore."

The ensuing silence was uncomfortable but not awkward, each in their own heads about what was to come. Four months was not such a long time to plan something, and killing one person, even if he happened to be a political figure, was still less grand than a lot of things they had individually done. Both of them had waged wars and fought the unfightable—were once regarded as legendary, no matter how much they had fallen.

However, the idea of it being their first thing gave it a certain gravitas.

"I really am good to move on," he said eventually, though his words slurred.

"Yes, you seem completely fine," she said, rolling her eyes. "You should get some sleep. You'll recover faster that way."

He wanted to protest, knowing he would feel a lot better once they reached the Akatsuki hideout successfully. Though, despite the fact that the chair was uncomfortable, the poison was giving him metaphorical beer-goggles, turning it into something deliciously appealing. Curling up as best he could, Kakashi's consciousness began to fade.

"The world is watching," he muttered, just before he was gone. "We can't be too long."

Then, he fell asleep, leaving Tsunade to listen to the rain in silence, trying to pretend, for her own sanity, that she did not also feel the eyes.

At nearly three in the morning, Yoshiki and Yoshiko met Nagato in the Rain, in the same shack they met the orphans before. Yoshiki's legs were shaking underneath him, though neither of the twins seemed bothered by it.

"Hey," said Kakashi, once the door was shut. "Get here alright?"

Nagato nodded. "We're ready."

"Been careful?" asked Kakashi. Nagato nodded. "Good. Our other two guests will be arriving in a few days, depending on the circumstances. For now, I'll pretend to be them."

Putting his hands together, Kakashi created two clones and disguised them as Raiden and Kaiya—his disguise's brother-in-law and niece.

"Do you think this will work?" asked Nagato. Though Kakashi still loathed Nagato, as much as he tried otherwise, his voice was so small that Kakashi saw Jiraiya's point. Like Kabuto and Obito, Nagato was just a kid who could be better. "I just mean, Hanzō has the entirety of the Rain on his side. We don't have enough people to fight them off."

Kakashi and Tsunade exchanged a look, before he looked back towards Nagato. He really did not like him, did not trust him in the slightest, and he knew that Tsunade did not either. However, their plan hinged on Nagato, so while Kakashi could never forget death, he had to make himself forgive it.

"About that," said Kakashi, forcing a smile. He's just a kid, he's just a kid, he's just a kid. "Before we go back to the hideout, there's a couple things I need to teach you about the Rinnegan."

Early in the morning, Yoshiki, Yoshiko, Raiden, and Kaiya snuck into the Akatsuki hideout and were deposited in one of the spare rooms. When asked where Yoshiki's sons, Dai and Jun, were, they explained that they temporarily left the boys with an old friend. Bettering the world with the Akatsuki was far too dangerous of a task for two young kids. Soon enough, when Yoshiki missed his sons to an unbearable degree, they would retrieve them. But, for now, they were determined to do all they could.

After a round of greetings, from some old faces and some new, the four of them seamlessly integrated into the Akatsuki like they had never left. Raiden told his stories, Yoshiko and Kaiya listened next to him, and Yoshiki sat in the back, watching his family and those that surrounded them.

Now that they were no longer under the watchful eyes of Konoha, Kakashi and Tsunade were mercifully free to continue their nightly sparring sessions. Despite their nerves and the chakra drain of maintaining both disguises and clones, both were sleeping better than they had in weeks. Somehow, the bunker and the Akatsuki were a more comforting constant than home; somehow, there were less enemies here.

"You know something," said Tsunade, as they stood in one of the training rooms at three in the morning, seven days into their stay with the Akatsuki. Having sparred for nearly four hours, she was breathing heavily, and her face was scarlet. "We're really out of shape."

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Kakashi, bent over with his hands on his knees as he tried to hyperventilate oxygen into his lungs. He was not sure how his younger self managed being so weak. However, he supposed his thirteen-year-old self was not regularly sparring one of the Sannin. "I've never been stronger."

Her hair was splayed in every direction like a busted hay bale, so she did her best to smooth it out of her eyes, using her sweat as a makeshift hair gel. "The desk-bound life is not a good look for either of us."

"No," he agreed. With a last, gasping breath, he stood back up. "Want to do another round?"

Nodding, she raised her fists. Just before she could rush at him and he could ready a jutsu, they felt a familiar burning against their legs. Both of them shoved their hands into their pockets and ran their fingers across Jiraiya's line on their kunai.

Incoming, read his message.

After gathering their things, they rushed back to their room. It only took a minute, but by the time they opened the door, Jiraiya and Minato were already there.

"Hey," said Minato, before noticing how nearly-asthmatic they were. "Where were you?"

"Sparring," said Tsunade, leaning against the wall. "Took you two long enough. He's left the village, then?"

Minato nodded. "Our village's upper government is now being run by as many shadow clones as actual people. How long do you think we have before he shows?"

"If I had to guess, two days," said Kakashi. "Three at the latest. After that, we need to start becoming suspicious that we've been made. He'll want to get it over with as soon as possible."

"Which is fortunate," said Jiraiya. "Because I'd like to get it over with as soon as possible." With a shrewd look, he glanced around at all of them, but his eyes lingered on Kakashi. "And, we are ready?"

Minato and Tsunade turned towards Kakashi, too, taking their cues from him. Though he was no longer Hokage, and matters of the council were no longer his to bear, taking down Danzō was his mission, his brain-child. It was his job to be certain, so despite any of his private doubts, he was.

"We are."

(Solvet Sæclum in Favilla)

It was raining, of course, but the earth paid it no mind. Rain was usual, expected, and there were far more interesting things slinking across the ground. The earth lingered for the ending, for it did not remember that which should have been, but there were those who did.

There were those who remembered that, on the day of rain—that day, there was a naive innocence and those who took advantage of it. A trap was laid on those that trusted too quickly, whose optimism for a better world was left unchecked. On the day of rain—that day, the hospitality they were extended was violated. One by one, they were slaughtered, unprepared, unknowing, and a totalitarian evil rose from the ashes of the dead.

The earth did not remember that history, but there were those who did, and they smiled upon the change.

A man, accompanied by two companions, arrived at a hideout in the Rain and feigned an offering of peace. Politely, a member of the company to whom the hideout belonged greeted him and escorted him inside, bringing him to the organization's leader. As they made their way through the rusty halls, damnation radiated through the man's every step, and the earth trembled in waiting beneath his feet.

Another man, accompanied by several companions, stood inside a hollowed mess-hall and refused to tear his eyes from the door. Comfortingly, one of his crew put her hand on his shoulder and whispered something encouraging in his ear (though she was not entirely sure who she was comforting—him or herself), but he hardly heard her. As he paced across the length of the room, damnation radiated through the man's every step, and the earth trembled in waiting beneath his feet.

When the the first man entered the mess hall, he saw just one man, the leader, standing inside it, facing him in expectancy. For a quick moment, the world seemed to take a deep breath and freeze, watching the sepulcher, awaiting. Then, two different barriers went up, trapping the first man, his companions, and the leader inside.

The first was held by four cloaked ninja in each of the corners of the room, leaving its holders just outside the perimeters, leaving no one inside able to escape and no one outside to enter. The second was also held, impressively, by the ninja in the nearest right corner, along with a ninja in the middle-back of the room and the middle-left, which left the three of them inside it but still outside the initial barrier, trapping in their sound.

Before the first man could even react, another man, nearly a boy, with a shock of violet-red hair teleported inside the barrier, stabbed him with a needle, and teleported back out.

The person in the farthest, left corner knocked loudly on the ground twice. After a couple seconds, the person in the middle-back knocked as well.

"What is the meaning of this?" asked the first man, Kanzō, almost failing to suppress a groan from the needle puncture.

"Did you really think we were that stupid?" asked Yahiko.

"What are you talking about? We were sent by Hanzō to—"

"You've never taken orders from anyone in your life, Danzō Shimura."

"Who?" asked Kanzō. There was no change in his demeanor, but neither was there a change in Yahiko's.

"If you are not Danzō Shimura, and the two ninja with you are not ROOT members—" Yahiko looked towards the two men with him. "—do me a favor and repeat the words 'Danzō Shimura is currently committing treason in the Rain.' If you are who you say you are, it should be simple."

At their silence, Danzō knew that he had been bested. His demeanor immediately changed, his spine straightening. "Who are you?"

"You might as well give up your disguise. The blocker we gave you has almost completely diminished your ability to use chakra. But, I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

Danzō nodded, and both he and Yahiko dropped their disguises. "You're not who I expected," said Danzō. "You're interrupting Konoha's business, boy."

"Am I?" asked Kakashi indifferently.

There was a brief moment of silence, as if Danzō was expecting him to say something else. "And, Tsunade's here, too," said Danzō, gesturing to the ninja in the near-right corner, whose eyes were glued to the floor. "Only one person could have the chakra strength and control to hold two barriers, yet be too cowardly to look the conflict in the face."

"You will not taunt her any longer." Despite the threat, Kakashi's voice was still as even as before. "She does not need defending, of course, but she has had the restriction of diplomacy. I do not."

"As an elder of Konoha, I'm ordering you to stand down."

"I'm afraid I can't."

"Did Jiraiya put you up to this?" Kakashi said nothing in response. "Don't you think it's strange that he left his thirteen-year-old apprentice alone to deal with this? Let's be honest with ourselves, despite your nobleness; Tsunade hardly counts."

"I have all the protection I need. And, he'll be here soon. He's on his way to the Rain right now."

"So, he is behind it?" asked Danzō. "Been training you for this?"

"I'm not supposed to tell you anything."

Danzō narrowed his eyes, looking far less pleased at the possibility of dealing with Jiraiya, knowing it would be a death sentence. With the slightest of nods, he ordered the two ROOT members by his side to kill Kakashi. Unperturbed, Kakashi did not move, even to flinch. Instead, the same, red blur teleported into the field, struck down the ROOT members with ease, and teleported out as quickly as he entered.

"Had to be sure you were as well protected as you claimed," said Danzō, seemingly unfazed. "My orders are far above your's or Jiraiya's pay grades. I don't want to kill you, Kakashi, because I think you have potential. But, make no mistake, if you betray your country, I will kill you myself. Trust me, even without chakra, I can do it with ease. So, I tell you again, stand down."

"Jiraiya said that you don't have any orders," said Kakashi. "That you were acting behind the Yondaime's back."

"Of course not," said Danzō. "Whatever your new teacher has wrapped you up into, I assure you, he does not have the political experience to know what is best for our country. The people here are more dangerous than you know—dangerous to Konoha. You're being played by the people you look up to."

Kakashi appeared to falter for a moment, his posture growing smaller. "Jiraiya wouldn't lie to me."

"Did he tell you that these were his students?" Kakashi nodded. "Don't you think that he might do whatever he could to protect them, even if it meant betraying the village's government? Even worse than that, he's using you as a scapegoat for treason to save them."

"Minato-sensei trusts him," said Kakashi.

"He's playing Minato, too," said Danzō. "Don't you see? He's had an agenda from the very beginning. He's the one who took you on as an apprentice, brought Tsunade back to the village, and suggested Minato for Hokage. He's used Minato to get village secrets, to know we were planning this mission."

"Why should I trust you?"

"Don't listen to him, Kakashi!" said Tsunade.

"Because, I've always cared about Konoha," said Danzō. "More than anything else. I've had years of experience learning how to best take care of it. As I've said, you've got potential, Kakashi. Jiraiya clearly thinks so, too. I know you have people you care about: the Yondaime, his wife, Obito, and Rin. Don't you want to keep them safe? Or are you going to betray them, too?"

"Jiraiya said you were allied with Hanzō."

"Sometimes, you have to make alliances you don't mean. Hanzō is a foreign power who needs to go down, just like the people here, to preserve our peace. Now, I will only tell you one more time; stand down."

"You know, the people here enjoy talking about philosophy," said Kakashi. "So, it would be appropriate for us to talk about it in their halls. However, this is not about policy. This is about treason." Where once his presentation was demure, he suddenly seemed much larger than his thirteen-year-old body would suggest. The wavering face of a boy was replaced with confidence, and though it could not be seen underneath the mask, his face broke out in a twisted grin which created an unnerving glimmer in his eyes. "And, I heard you were only planning on betraying Hanzō until after he helped you take down Konoha's government. Or, was that what you told me?"

Once again, Danzō narrowed his eyes. Based on visuals alone, his body language did not change, but the ground nearly quaked underneath the quickening of his heartbeat. "Who are you?" he demanded.

The person in front of him shifted again, becoming much taller and paler, and his hair faded into black. "For a man whose job it is to know everything," said Orochimaru, the horrible grin finally visible. "You really have no idea what's going on, do you know? It doesn't become you."

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Betraying you, obviously."

"You're bluffing," said Danzō. "You're not Orochimaru."

"And, why do you say that?" asked Orochimaru, grinning wider, like a predator looking at his prey.

"Orochimaru's smarter than that."

Orochimaru bit his thumb so hard that it bled and pressed his hand to the ground. A two-foot snake appeared in his palm, hissing and wrangling as he picked it up off the floor. Grin never faltering, Orochimaru squeezed it until it bisected in his fists, and his own blood and the snake's mingled as it dripped off his fingers.

"I wanted a village, Danzō," said Orochimaru, dropping the two halves of the snake onto the ground. "You said you could get me Konoha, but you couldn't even pull that off. As much as you like to claim it's the other way around, you're still the Third Hokage's bitch."

"Watch your tongue."

"Or what?" Orochimaru's posture was far more relaxed than his previous two alter egos', nearly lackadaisical, clearly enjoying it. Not breaking eye contact, he licked the blood off his hands. "Did you honestly think Hanzō was going to pan out, even if we didn't show up here?"

"What is it that you're playing at, Orochimaru?" asked Danzō, ignoring him.

"Payback," said Orochimaru, and his eyes grew cold. "See, Jiraiya's been looking into you for a while, and your incompetence and conspicuousness lead him to my lab. He put two and two together and confronted me. But, I'm not done with Konoha, yet, so I struck a deal. He found taking you down and saving his old students in the process to be a very fair trade."

"And just like that?" asked Danzō. "He was willing to overlook everything you've done? Don't play me for a fool—you and I both know that Jiraiya is honorable to his own detriment."

"That wasn't all I traded, and he hates you more. But, the rest isn't your business. And, after all, he and I were teammates, once upon a time. Nostalgia's deadly."

"You need me. Without me, nothing you want to do will be possible."

"I needed your knowledge and your secrecy. Unfortunately, it turns out you have neither. What good are you to me, now?"

"No one will trust you after this," said Danzō. "I gave you all the resources and man power you wanted."

"You also got me caught, so I'll take my chances. Live bodies and scrolls and chemicals are much easier to find if I've not been executed."

As much as Danzō wanted to weasel his way out of a confrontation with Jiraiya, he looked even less pleased that he was being cornered by Orochimaru. His heart rate raced even faster, in time to the rain outside, rising into his throat and convulsing the ground beneath him. "We had a deal."

"I have genuinely never been a man of my word." Throwing back his head, Orochimaru laughed harshly. "But, to be fair, neither are you. You and I betrayed my old sensei more times than I can bother counting. What's one more betrayal?" With another laugh and a loud, popping sound, Orochimaru turned back into Kakashi. However, his body language did not change, still just as relaxed. "At least, that's what I imagine Orochimaru would say."

"What?" asked Danzō, uncharacteristically thrown off.

"Surprise," said Kakashi. "I lied."

Danzō said nothing, just watching, unmoving.

"You know, you were close, towards the end," said Kakashi. "Suspecting that Tsunade might be in deeper than everyone thought. But, your biggest mistake was not suspecting me. Sure, you scheduled a couple ninja outside my apartment, but they were easy enough to lose. You didn't even notice Tsunade and I leave the village."

"You seem very certain that I didn't know what you were planning."

"If you did, you were very stupid to come here." Kakashi pointed towards the furthest-left corner. "Even the Sharingan, as useful as it is, cannot tell a shadow clone from a person. However, the Rinnegan can. That's what that knock was—confirming that you weren't a shadow clone. The second knock was confirmation that the chakra blocker worked and all of your shadow clones had dispelled, so you couldn't run around making a fuss—"

Interrupting Kakashi, Danzō's hand quickly reached for his own belt. However, before he could execute whatever last-minute move he was planning on, the red figure returned, knocked his face straight into the ground, and disappeared.

"Too slow," said Kakashi.

"What is this game of chess we're playing?" asked Danzō, spitting blood out of his mouth and getting up off the ground as he tried to grasp at the upper hand.

"I am playing chess," admitted Kakashi. "But, unfortunately for you, you're not my opponent. You're just the sacrificial pawn at the start of the game."

"Who are you?" asked Danzō again.

"Kakashi Hatake." Though it still could not be seen, save for the glint in his eyes, a twisted smile once again danced across his face. "Maybe. Or, maybe—"

Kakashi began to walk around the room, his arm stretched out behind him. From his fingertips, a shadow clone appeared. "—I'm Hanzō," said the clone, disguised as such. "And figured out you were planning on betraying me after I helped you destroy Konoha. Do you deny it?"

"Or maybe—" said Kakashi.

As he continued to walk, a new clone appeared next to Hanzō, creating an unmoving line behind Kakashi. "—I'm Hiruzen Sarutobi," said the clone, disguised as such. "Who grew tired of your treason during my reign. Do you deny it?"

"Or maybe—"

Another clone appeared in the line. "—I'm Minato Namikaze," it said. "Who figured out you were intending to eventually kill me and take over Konoha. Do you deny it?"

"What are you do—" said Danzō.

"Or maybe—" interrupted Kakashi.

Three more clones. "—I'm Yahiko," one of them said, Konan and Nagato behind him. "Who figured out you were planning on luring us into a trap with false promises of diplomacy in order to slaughter us. Do you deny it?"

"Or maybe—"

"I'm Fugaku Uchiha," said the next clone. "Who found out you were planning on stealing my clan's eyes and disposing of us when you could. Do you deny it?"

"Or maybe—"

The next clone was a generic ninja in a Konoha flak jacket, with a gaping hole in his chest. "—I'm one of the ninja who died during the Third Ninja World War," it said. "Who was killed when you escalated and extended the conflict by murdering ninja on all sides, ours included. Do you deny it?"

"Or maybe I'm God," said Kakashi, and all the clones vanished, leaving him and Danzō alone in the barrier once more. "And, I know all the things that you've done. Do you deny them?"

For the first time in a long time, Danzō felt fear.

For the first time in a long time, Kakashi was completely without.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Danzō; to his credit, he recovered quickly.

"I see all, Danzō." Kakashi continued his slow, leisurely walk. "There's no hiding, now."

Danzō smiled, cold and hateful. "You know, we're a lot alike, you and I."

"Maybe so," said Kakashi, not bothered by the suggestion.

Once again, the red-haired figure returned to the barrier, bringing a blue-haired girl along with him. They immediately dropped their disguises, morphing into Minato and Jiraiya respectively.

"Good enough," said Minato.

"Surprise," said Kakashi, never taking his eyes off Danzō. With a sharp exhale, Danzō took a step backward. "I lied again. They've been here the whole time."

"Danzō," said Minato, looking at the man in front of him, and his eyes darkened. "With the power vested in me as Hokage, I am charging you with treason, and your sentence is death."

Not even the best ninja alive could last long in a close-quarters fight with Minato and Jiraiya, much less Danzō on chakra-blockers. Calling it a fight would be an overstatement; it lasted only four seconds, ending with Danzō knocked to the floor on his knees. Jiraiya and Minato stood on both sides of him, holding his arms to keep him in place.

When Minato met Kakashi's eyes, he hesitated before relenting. "As we agreed."

Kakashi closed the gap between him and Danzō.

"How do you think it will feel?" asked Danzō, looking up to Kakashi with hate in his eyes. "Knowing that you're the reason Konoha burned to the ground?"

Kakashi had to admit, that was the first thing Danzō said that got to him. But, it would be the last.

"My only regret," said Kakashi, leaning in close to Danzō. "Is that death is peaceful, and that's far better than you deserve."

Balling lightning between his fingers, Kakashi shoved his hand through Danzō's chest.

The earth laughed.

When Kakashi plunged his signature jutsu through Danzō, Tsunade looked up. She was not sure why she looked—whether it was just a reflex from hearing what sounded like a thousand birds chirping or a deep-seated need to watch Danzō die—but she witnessed his death from start to finish.

Just as Kakashi said, it was not a bloodless death. The lightning did cauterize part of his chest, but it wasn't perfect, and blood dripped down Kakashi's arms and onto the ground. She wondered, briefly, if he felt better in that moment or if he thought of Rin, just as she was thinking of Dan. Though she still registered the mess hall, it started to fade out of existence, blurring with the quickening pulse of her heartbeat. Like it was dripping down Kakashi's, blood dripped down her arms, pooling out of Dan's chest. Everything was in the present and in the past, and in the wild daze of the moment, she froze.

Still, with the vague visual of Danzō laying dead on the floor, downfall never tasted so sweet.

"We have to get out of here," said a voice. "Yahiko and Konan, start evacuating the rest of the Akatsuki. Hanzō probably already knows the mission has gone south, and we don't have much time. Nagato, help them, and remember what we talked about. Minato, Jiraiya, we have to burn the bodies of the ROOT members. The story will be easier to explain if we only bring back one body."

People began to rush by her in a swirl of colors, but she barely registered them, only the painful tightening of her chest. She couldn't move or speak—she wasn't even sure she was breathing.

After the flurry of the crowd, three people stood in front of her and flames erupted from their hands. The room was filled with waves of orange and red, then the putrid smell of burning flesh and hair. Finally, she was able to cross her arms over her face, to protect herself from the heat and debris. But, that didn't stop the feeling that she was choking, from the smell, from the smoke, from her failing, gasping breaths. She tried to stand, at least to get away from the direct flames, but her legs were shaking so violently that she couldn't get off the floor.

"Tsunade, we have to go," said one of the figures in front of her, a different voice, stopping his onslaught of flames. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Though it felt like her whole body was made of lead, she managed to shake her head. "Did you look? Why the hell did you look?"

"I've got Tsunade," said the first voice. Carefully, he knelt down to her level, placed his arm around her, and pulled her upward. "Jiraiya, grab the body and catch up to Yahiko and Konan at the front. If Hanzō gets to us before we can get to the next hideout, they'll need you. I'll head up the rear with Nagato. Minato, get back to the village. Remember what we planned."

A man with yellow hair—Minato, she thought. My cousin's husband, my Hokage—nodded. "See you guys in a few days. Be careful."

"Good luck," said the second man, placing his hand on Minato's shoulder. Jiraiya, she realized. My teammate, my best friend. "If anything goes wrong, let us know."

Nodding, Minato blinked away. With one last look towards the man supporting her—Kakashi, my confidant, the future man—Jiraiya clenched his fist and gently brought it down on Kakashi's shoulder, as a last gesture of good luck. Then, he was gone.

"You have to disguise yourself," said Kakashi, morphing into her disguise's twin.

Resisting the urge to take in a deep breath of toxic air, she did as he asked. With ash flurrying around them, they burst into the main hall, which had dissolved into complete chaos as people fled in droves. Their panicked yelling thudded against her eardrums and coiled around her brain, leaving her unable to think, and it was far more suffocating than the layer of cinders weighing in her lungs. Kakashi led her outside amongst the mass of people, but instead of following the crowd through the forest to the new hideout, Kakashi used the pandemonium to slink off the the left.

Tsunade was not sure how long they hid behind the trees, watching the colorful blurs rush by. Eventually, the crowd thinned to halt, leaving just a man with violet-red hair standing at the entrance of their hideout. Taking this as his cue, Kakashi quickly drug her onward, following the coattails of the Akatsuki, rougher than he had previously.

"Shinra Tensei!" said a loud voice behind them, up in the air.

The earth around them exploded, and the radiating border of a shock wave pushed against her back like a shove, causing both her and Kakashi to stumble before regaining their footing. As she heard the hideout crumble to the ground in their wake, destroying all evidence that they once occupied it, she felt Kakashi give a violent shudder.

It took Minato only seconds to reach his shadow clone, which was sitting in his office in Konoha, quietly doing paperwork despite the lateness of the hour. Minato decided to leave him to it; it would have been dishonorable to not go himself. Though he smelled of flames, he would soon smell of flames, anyway.

Adrenaline pulsed through his veins, and time was of the essence. But, he paused for a moment as some of the reality set it. He was comparatively uninvolved in Danzō's death, playing only jury to Kakashi's judge and executioner. Still, it was his very first sentence as Hokage, and it was on the person in Konoha whose power was second only to his own.

Now, he was alone. The Sixth was not here, and the Third Hokage was certainly not here. It was time for the Fourth Hokage, hopefully buried somewhere deep inside of him, to truly take his first steps.

So, taking a deep breath, he stepped forward.

"I need you to meet me at the ROOT hideout," said Minato, to one of the three ANBU stationed outside of his office. It was late enough in the evening that the Hokage's offices were cleared, save for him and his guard. Kakashi, before he left, gave him a list of ANBU members he could trust most, and Minato made a point of making sure they were the ones guarding him. "With as many empty boxes and canisters of Ethanol as you and one other can carry."

"Yes, Hokage, sir," she said, nodding in respect, before taking off.

"You," said Minato, turning to one of the others. "Wait fifteen minutes, and then visit the Third Hokage at his home and ask him to meet me at the ROOT hideout immediately."

If the ANBU ninja found his order odd, he did not voice it. "Sir," he said, before running off just like the previous one.

"And, you," said Minato, to the one remaining. He was one of the higher ranking ANBU captains, Chikara Koyano. "Come with me."

Though Minato did run to the ROOT hideout, Chikara trailing behind him, he slowed to a power walk once he was inside it. With a last deep breath, he held his head high and pushed his shoulders back, digging up every ounce of confidence he could manage—for his wife and his village and to live up to the person Kakashi, Jiraiya, and Tsunade believed him to be. This wasn't wholly different than fighting and war, he reasoned, only with the exchanging of words rather than blows.

Once they reached the main hall, the remaining ROOT members were just hovering inside of it, frighteningly still. No doubt, they realized what happened. Seeing Minato, they wondered what that meant for them.

"As I'm sure you've all noticed," said Minato, once they summoned everyone before him, projecting his voice. It reverberated off the metal walls, echoing throughout the hall. "Danzō is dead." Minato swore he heard a sharp intake of breath from Chikara, but he paid it no mind. "No, we don't know what happened. But, I don't care where you think he was, or what you think he was doing. Whatever happened, he is dead, now, and you have no direction. So, should you integrate into the ANBU quietly and answer any questions we have, you will not be charged with any crimes you may have committed against me or any of the previous Hokage. Should you refuse, you will be charged with treason and executed. Are we clear?"

In the chaotic stillness of the moment, the pace to which the ROOT members agreed was sporadic, all still in shock. For all their lives, they had been broken-in to obey Danzō without thought, and the question of afterward was never considered. However, the agreements did come.

"Take them back to the ANBU barracks," said Minato to Chikara, leaning in close enough that the ROOT members could not hear. "Just get them set up for now. We'll figure out what exactly we're doing with them later. Should you notice anything…odd, report back immediately."

By the time, they got everyone shuffled out, the original ANBU and one other arrived with their boxes and barrels. Hastily, Minato ordered them to help him pack as many of Danzō's notes and records into the boxes as they could—the ones that Kakashi told him were most important. After they were finished, Minato sent them away, instructing them to bring the boxes to his office.

Then, he was alone, standing in the now-empty base with only his thoughts for company. Taking one of the barrels, Minato flung the ignition fluid first over the remaining notes, and then all over Danzō's office. When that was covered, he took to the storage areas, the barracks, and the main hall itself. As rage pounded in his ears, he seethed over everything Danzō had already done to Konoha and the rest of the world, how much worse everywhere was left in his regime. How much worse things would get, and how much was overlooked by the people that Konoha mistakenly trusted to protect them. How much he would have been made to overlook, trusting the same people. The entire hideout was just a manifestation of the government's poison, and he drenched it.

After his supply was depleted, Minato stopped in the entrance hall. He wanted his anger to carry him through, to feel nothing but fury as he tore everything to the ground. But, there were three people in the Rain who knew him well and trusted him anyway, and that was enough to give him pause. Kakashi warned him that being Hokage meant putting aside the man, the human, the husband, the soon-to-be father—that there was an otherworldly persona he would have to find within himself. Hokage were not people, he told him, but rather characters, whose impossibility was in fact impossible, because the people of Konoha needed more than just a person could give them.

Minato thought he had already found it, in his extensive battle experience, but with everything in front of him, he only just now understood. The Third Hokage was stern and wise, even though Hiruzen Sarutobi was complicit. The Sixth Hokage was unwavering and clever, even though Kakashi Hatake was a man so haunted by his past that, during their two days of sharing a room in the Rain, Minato was not sure he saw him sleep once.

Currently, Minato was bitter and unsure, but Minato was not the man who needed to be in the room. Anger worked for the Fifth Hokage, but Minato was not her anymore than he was the Third or Sixth. His predecessors and successors were all powerful, wickedly intelligent, and capable, but the Konoha under each of them was not the one he was currently facing.

The Fourth Hokage, he realized, would be born out of this moment. It was now Minato's choice as to what he would be.

So, closing his eyes, his chose to let the anger and the uncertainty go. Instead of picturing the wrongdoings of Danzō, he pictured the Konoha in Kakashi's mind. He pictured the village in a time of prosperity and peace, where quality of life was better, and children and civilians were safer. Konoha was better for what they did, and Minato had an obligation to his son to give him the world that Kakashi saw. The Fourth Hokage had an obligation to his village to give them the world that the Sixth Hokage saw. He allowed himself, for the first time since being sworn in, to feel sure.

He balled a fire jutsu in his fists for the second time that day and unleashed it into the hideout.

The ethanol in the main hall caught fire immediately, and the flames roared across the floor. However, the igniter would not do all the work, so he continued to walk through the primary areas, throwing fire with great force. It pummeled into the walls, licked up into the ceilings, and started to crumble what remained. The heat was unbearable, but Minato barely felt it. His mind was not in the present, not anymore, but in the future.

For Konoha's sake, he burned, and he burned, and he burned.

(Journey Into the Unknown)

By the time the Third Hokage arrived, Minato was finished, sitting on the steps at the entrance and watching the world around him burn. Minato stood when the Third approached and bowed respectfully in greeting.

"What happened?" asked the Third, looking wildly between Minato and the flames.

Minato bit his lip and looked at him for a long moment. From his pitying expression, the Third guessed what happened before Minato even opened his mouth. "Danzō is dead," said Minato.

It took the Third a moment, in turn, to speak, and when he did, it was breathless. "What happened?" he asked again.

"I have no idea. He wasn't in the village, apparently. All of his seals spontaneously released and his shadow clone disappeared. ROOT knew it happened when it happened." Turning back towards the flames, Minato recalled the words Kakashi told him to say. "I'm worried that someone did it for information and was planning on infiltrating the village, so I moved all of the ROOT members into the ANBU hideout, took all of Danzō's relevant notes and records to my office, and torched the place. It'll send a message to anyone near that we already know and to not try anything."

In all actuality, it was to make sure no one in Konoha could stumble upon how deep the rot went. But, that was only for him, Kakashi, Jiraiya, and Tsunade to know.

"We have to send out a team—"

"I already have," said Minato. "Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Kakashi left the village a few minutes ago. Between Jiraiya and Kakashi, I'm hoping they can track which direction he went. In the meantime, I'm going to look over his notes to see if there's anything useful in there. They're encoded, but I think, with time, I can translate them."

"Right," whispered the Third. It was the first time Minato had ever seen him look taken aback. "We also need to interview all of the ROOT members, to see if they knew where he was. If nothing comes of that, we need to send out more teams. ANBU teams. We have to figure it out."

Minato nodded. "I'm so sorry for your loss." And, he was. Despite ordering the execution himself, despite the fact that it needed to happen, Minato felt sorry for him. While Danzō was a government official—and a corrupt one, at that—to the Third Hokage, he was first and foremost, on some level, a friend. "We will figure it out."

"Right," whispered the Third again.

In silence, they stood beside the flames for a minute, letting the heat shield them from the bitter, January air. While the Third did nothing but watch the smoke rise into the air, trying to process what happened, Minato watched the Third, as if waiting for direction. Minato had his instructions from Kakashi, but part of those instructions were to listen to the Third as much as possible. It decreased their suspiciousness if Minato appeared as uncoordinated and unprepared as could be managed.

"We have a lot to do," said the Third, not taking his eyes off the sky. "We need to gather the council and plan what comes next."

"Ready when you are." Minato placed his hand on the Third's shoulder and tried not to let the word liar bleed through his body language. "I am sorry."

Then, smelling of smoke and ignition fluid, the Fourth Hokage left.

Despite all the notable events in Tsunade's life, only one seemed to really matter, that separated her life neatly into a before and after: Dan's death. Her two, distinct life phases, when everything was in front of her and nothing was in front of her. When all was won and all was lost. There was bad that happened in the first part of her life and good that happened in the second, but for the most part, her life was easily classified into a period of uphill climb and a period of downward fall.

When Kakashi and Tsunade arrived at their and Jiraiya's room at the new Akatsuki hideout—Tsunade's awareness of herself arriving with them—she wondered what moments split up Kakashi's life and how many of them there were. Surely, there must have been several: the death of Sakumo, the year everyone he loved died, being put in charge of Team Seven, the Fourth Ninja World War, coming back in time.

As she looked at Jiraiya, who was sitting on his bed and writing in a notebook, still disguised as both Raiden and Kaiya, she wondered how many he had—moments where things were never the same again. She wondered how many she could guess: becoming a part of their Team Seven, receiving his prophecy, being dubbed as one of the Sannin, and the Sannin breaking up. She wondered how many phases of his life she missed.

However, Tsunade had just the two, perfectly-bisected halves, that made everything else seem inconsequential: before Dan's death and afterward.

She wished loving him had been as influential as losing him, but there were many things in her life she wished she could wish away.

"Everything go okay?" asked Jiraiya, closing his notebook.

"Hideout was destroyed," said Kakashi, nodding. "I hung back and we weren't followed. You?"

Jiraiya shook his head. "We didn't run into anyone."

"I'm sorry," said Tsunade sheepishly. "I didn't mean…I was hoping…"

"S'okay," said Jiraiya. "No harm done. Danzō's dead, we weren't followed, and Minato has yet to come back panicking."

"Don't jinx it," said Kakashi, collapsing on his own bed, and Tsunade followed suit. "I'm begging you."

For a long moment, none of them said anything, taking a moment to breathe. They were all disgusting and would later regret collapsing onto their beds without showering. But, they were all so exhausted that, for now, they gave it little thought.

"Yo," said Jiraiya, looking over to Kakashi and breaking the silence. "You were kind of hot today."

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "What the hell took you and Minato so long to intervene?"

"I think Minato wanted to see what you could do," said Jiraiya. "But, after you pulled out the 'might be a god' card, I warned him you were probably running out of conventional ideas and we were running out of time."

"It was about to start getting a lot weirder," confirmed Kakashi. "Attempting to seduce Danzō using Naruto's sexy jutsu was on my list of last resorts, to name one."

"I don't know if that would have been more or less hot."

"Shut up, Jiraiya."

Though he opened his mouth to speak, Jiraiya paused awkwardly, and after he finally spoke, Tsunade understood why. "How'd you do the snake thing?"

"I asked Nagato if he would catch me a couple snakes," said Kakashi. "So I could imprint some summoning seals on them. We'd been keeping them in a box in the kitchen."

Jiraiya wrinkled his nose. "I admire your dedication." Though his tone was light and joking, there was an odd, uncomfortable lilt to it, almost as if he brought up Orochimaru just to see how indifferent he could be about it. "And drinking snake's blood. It was convincing."

"Thank you. It was disgusting."

Tsunade wanted to banter with them, to finally let loose. It was over, after all, and no matter what came after, that alone deserved a sigh of relief. But, she was plagued by that which so often plagued her, amplified by Danzō's word.

Let us be honest with ourselves, despite your nobleness; Tsunade hardly counts.

He died doing what he loved, it seemed—committing treason and shitting on her out of nowhere.

"Do you feel better?" she asked Kakashi.

He hummed in confirmation. "At the very least, it's over."

"Good." Kneeling beside her bed, she rummaged for her medical supplies. "Then, roll up your sleeve."

With a moment of hesitation, Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "Are you certain?"

"I want to remember Danzō's death," said Tsunade sharply, narrowing her eyes right back. "And enjoy it."

Though Kakashi suppressed it quickly, the beginnings of a smile flashed across his face. Consenting, he rolled up his sleeve. She went through all of her preliminary steps, having to run to the bathroom halfway through to wash her hands. Then, it was just her, the needle, and the vein in front of her, and all else seemed to fade away.

Like always, the desire the run struck her—to just calmly put down her medical supplies, leave the room, and sprint out into the countryside of the Rain, never to talk to any of these people again. But, she refused to give Danzō the postmortem satisfaction of being right. Somewhere deep inside of her, courage was baked into her core. Her grandfather had not started the village and her grandmother had not controlled the Nine-Tailed Fox for decades just for her to give up now.

Besides, how could she look Kushina in the face and promise she would save her, if she could not look at her own inevitability—her continuous undoing—and say, "Not today?"

Gripping the needle in her hands tightly to steady the quaking of her arms, she decided it was time to split her life once again. It was a clumsy chopping at several moments, much less clean than her first split, months of grasping at straws and clawing her way to victory. But, she refused to give up, for all those who paved the way before her. For her grandfather, Nawaki, and Dan, for Jiraiya, Kakashi, Kushina, and Minato, for Konoha, for the world, and for herself. She was doing this for the seven-year-old Tsunade who still had light in her eyes, for the seventeen-year-old Tsunade who thought she might be great forever, for the twenty-seven-year-old Tsunade who thought her life was over, and for the thirty-seven-year-old Tsunade who was tired of being called a coward.

For them, she slid the needle into Kakashi's arm and watched the blood flow out of it.

She froze as the familiar panic started to set in, the familiar shifting of scenery, but she tried to fight against every, involuntary action her body was taking. Drowning in an ocean of quickening heartbeats and sweating and shaking and the overwhelming feeling that they were under attack, she grabbed at every rational thought still left in her, trying to find some of that determination and anger again.

"Talk it through," said Jiraiya, beside her. "What are you feeling?"

"It's a Sunday." She was not sure she could have stopped the words if she wanted to. They tumbled out just as involuntarily as everything else, as if her body was grabbing at its last lifeline. "And the weather is terrible."

Using the words to steady herself, Tsunade let Kakashi's blood finish filling the tube, never taking her eyes off it. Passively watching the flow, she described what she saw and what she felt. Though her hands were still shaking, she removed the vial from the needle when it was finished, removed the needle from his arm, and carefully put everything in a waste bag.

It took her a few moments, still staggered by the experience, to process what happened—what she had just managed to do. When she turned back towards Jiraiya and Kakashi, the former was grinning from ear to ear and the latter was, once again, collectedly trying not to but beaming with pride all the same. She wished she could say something more coherent in the triumph of the moment, but all that came out of her was an inelegant:

"Holy shit."

Waiting for her husband to return to her, Kushina was starting to feel like she was in prison.

Beyond the physical confinement, the anxiety was maddening. Kushina was not used to feeling afraid, but she was not used to feeling trapped, either: in her house, in her own body, on the sidelines, looming ever closer to a certain date. Fear did not suit her, but things the way they were, she could not seem to stop it.

She was going to die in 260 days. Not that she was keeping track—had sat down with her calendar to count them and double-checked when they seemed too few. Not that the number pounded in her head like a bad hangover, even when she tried to block it out with Tsunade's and Minato's assurances that everything would be fine.

But, somehow even worse than that, in the short term, was the boredom. With no one to talk to and no ability to leave, all she had for company was her own thoughts and the interior of her home, both of which got old after a few days. She supposed she had the Nine-Tails, too, but she was not in the mood to try again with him.

The isolation had given her plenty of time to bake and cook, a chance to experiment with all the things she had been wanting to try but had never found the occasion. But, she could hardly do that all day, every day. Minato had brought her home several books to read, but she could not stand to read every hour of every day like he could. However, Tsunade warned her that she had to keep her stress levels as low as possible, so she refused to give in to the monotony. She settled on bouncing around several things, to and fro from her old hobbies to some newer ones she was attempting to take up: origami, drawing, and embroidering. She was not very good at any of them yet, but she was determined to get at least functional at one of them. During the day, their living room was littered with craft projects that she hastily threw in her kitchen cabinets right before Minato got home every night, to spare him from the chaos.

Restlessly waiting up for him, as she had the past few nights, since Minato's real self disappeared to the Rain, Kushina was less contained than usual. So, when she finally heard Minato unlock the front door around eleven-thirty, she had to quickly shove everything she had been working on underneath the sofa. Everything hit the floor with scattered clanks as she kicked it out of sight, but she hoped he would not pay it much mind.

"I'm home," he said, when she finally met him in their entry. When she kissed him, he smelled of smoke and tasted like ash, which made her wrinkle her nose. "Really home."

"Is it done?" she asked. He nodded. "Is everything okay, then?"

"Yes. Everything went as expected."

As she rested her head on his shoulder (he really did smell claustrophobically of sweat and smoke, and she would have to wash her hair again, but she was so glad that, for a moment, she did not mind), a weight lifted off her chest. If nothing else, Danzō was gone and would never get the chance to harm the village or her son any further. Though Kakashi had not written her back, nor had she expected him to, he kept his unspoken promise, and they all made it through their first phase. It gave her a little bit of hope that the future might not be as permanent as she feared.

"And, Kakashi?" she asked. "What do you think of him now?"

After a quick pause, Minato smiled, though it was hollow and exhausted. "I think he's telling the truth." His tone was tense, but she did not know if it was a response to the question or the stress of the day. "And, I'm very glad he's on our side and not theirs."

It was a Tuesday, and the weather was clear—an old, familiar dream. The dream. An enemy so frequent that its presence was more tiring than frightening. It had not come to him since his return back in time, but he suspected the dream would always be his, like a scar that would never quite fade.

Electricity crackled blue in his palm and bird-like chirping threatened to deafen him. Before he could move his hand out of the way (though, he had stopped pleading with the inevitability long ago), the Lightning Cutter plunged straight through her chest. His own blood ran cold as hers pooled out of the arm-sized hole in her abdomen, staining her green overall-dress and dripping off of her long, red hair. The tailed-beast chakra inside of her began to fade.

"Kakashi," said Kushina, her voice breathless as she began to fade, too. "Kakashi!"

Kakashi awoke, sitting upwards with a jolt, arm outstretched in front of him.

"You alright?" whispered a female voice.

Blinking the darkness out of his eyes, he looked up to find Kushina staring back at him. It startled him so severely that he involuntarily leapt backwards, and his head collided with the wall.

"Shit," said Kakashi, equally as quiet. To ease the sting, he rubbed the back of his head

Before anyone had a chance to blink, Jiraiya was out of his bed, a kunai clutched tightly in his fist. "The hell's going on?" Despite his alert stance, his words slurred. He had clearly been in sleeping deeply until the sound roused him. "Everyone okay?"

Kakashi studied his surroundings a moment more, and he realized that he was looking at Tsunade, not Kushina. He, she, and Jiraiya were still in the bunker, and though they were now on edge, they were safe. Undisturbed, Danzō's body bag was still stretched across the floor at their feet.

"Nothing," said Kakashi. "Air. I just…need air."

Half-mad in panic, he leaped off his bed and burst out of their room. Trapped in the bunker, he knew air was not a luxury he would find. Instead, he settled on rushing to the bathroom and splashing water on his face.

For a long moment, he stared at his reflection in the mirror, watching as the water dripped off his face. A few hours ago, he felt triumphant—Danzō was dead, the Akatsuki were safe, and Tsunade managed to look at blood long enough to carry out a blood draw. Now, he was less certain of their victory.

Not sure what else to do, he took another handful of water and drenched his face with it.

What the hell was that?

Standing behind the observation mirror of an interrogation room at three a.m., Minato hoped, for what must have been the thousandth time that day, that Kakashi Hatake knew what he was doing.

He had not stayed home for long, waiting only until Kushina fell asleep. As he needed stealth above all else, he could not afford to lose the cover of the late-night crowd in the streets. Earlier, he and the Third interviewed ROOT members to find out Danzō's location, with Minato taking care to appear secondary to the Third's interrogation. After a consensus was reached—that Danzō was making his way to the Rain when he died—Minato feigned sending the message to Jiraiya and the council agreed to break for the evening. A message was sent to the Daimyō and a team was sent to find Danzō's body, which was all that could be done today.

At least, for the rest of the council; Minato's agenda was just beginning. In secret, he woke Inoya Yamanaka, who was the head of the Konoha Analysis team, so he could interrogate ROOT members for him. Thought Minato gave him little information—just that Danzō was dead and he had been translating his notes—Inoya asked few questions. It was a task far better suited for the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force, but half the reason for the spectacle was to have Inoya become in-the-know about Danzō's activities by seeming happenstance. Inoya was the head of the Yamanaka clan, which was a major and powerful clan in its own right. But, it also had close ties with the Akimichi and Nara clans, all arguably more loyal to one another than to Konoha itself, which made Inoya a powerful ally to have.

So, Minato stood in the viewing room adjacent to the interrogation room where Inoya and the first ROOT member were sitting opposite one another and hoped for the one thousand first time that day that Kakashi knew what he was doing. One of the scribes for the Interrogation Division sat next to Minato, notepad in hand, ready to transcribe.

"State your name for me," said Inoya.

"Danzō called me Yuki," she said.

"Do you have a name apart from the one Danzō gave you?"

"If I do, I don't know it."

Apart from exhaustion, there was no emotion on her face. It was not even the relaxed, unassuming persona that a good ninja was taught to adapt when being interrogated—just effortless emptiness. Kakashi assured him that emotions could be taught, that humanity could not be stripped from people so easily, and Minato wondered, in this moment, with her whole life turned upside down, what she might be feeling. Was she worried, even a little? Or was this just a continuation of her duty that she had been brainwashed to accept without question?

"What were your whereabouts, earlier this evening, when the Hokage told you of Danzō's death?"

"I was in our headquarters, waiting for orders."

"And, were you aware of Danzō's dead when it happened?"

She nodded. "We all were. When we become a part of ROOT, Danzō gives us seals that prevent us from speaking about him. But, shortly before the Hokage came to us, they vanished. If he was not dead, I would not be able to be here, answering your questions."

"The Hokage has assured me," said Inoya. "That if you cooperate, you will not face charges for anything you have done. However, if you withhold any information or attempt to lie, you will be executed for treason. He has already started to translate Danzō's notes, so he will know if you are lying. Do you understand?"

"I do."

Not breaking eye contact with her, Inoya leaned forward. "Have you committed any crimes under Danzō's orders that directly go against any orders given by the Third or Fourth Hokage, or have you otherwise committed any acts that either the Third or Fourth Hokage might find treasonous?"

She thought on it for a moment. "There are two."

"And, they are?"

"First," she said. "I was ordered, during the Third Ninja World War, to kill as many Konoha ninja as I thought necessary to prolong the duration of the war."

The scribe briefly fumbled with his pen in shock, dropped it onto his pad of paper, and hastily picked it back up again, as if hoping Minato had not noticed.

"Did he say why he asked that of you?" asked Inoya, not pausing.

"He did not."

"Was anyone besides Danzō and ROOT aware of this?"

"Not to my knowledge."

"And, your second crime?"

"I have been studying the Uchiha clan," said Yuki. "Danzō wanted to slowly kill the entire clan off and steal their Sharingan. It was my job to gather information on them and figure out who among them was the weakest and the easiest way to kill them without alerting anyone."

"Did he say why he wanted the Uchiha clan gone or their eyes?"

"He did not."

"And, was anyone besides Danzō and ROOT aware of this?"

She nodded. "Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane were aware."

Though the scribe did not drop his pen this time, he did pause, look intensely at Yuki through the glass, and, without turning his head, look up at Minato with the same expression.

"Is there anything else you have to add?" asked Inoya, to which she shook her head. "Very well."

To verify everything, Inoya stood up, walked behind her, and placed his hand on her head. With one of his clan's jutsu, he poured through her memories for nearly a minute. Then, he knocked on the door of the interrogation room. Two ANBU ninja came in and escorted Yuki from the room. Instead of asking for his next interrogatee, Inoya followed them out and entered the viewing room.

"A word, if you would," said Inoya to Minato, before looking pointedly at the scribe.

With a nod of his head, Minato ordered the the scribe to leave. Nodding back in respect, the scribe put down his notebook and left the room.

"I did tell you it would be top secret," said Minato, once he was gone.

"You did," said Inoya. "But, there is a difference between top secret and—" He gestured vaguely towards the interrogation room, before sighing. "—though, I do now see the wisdom of doing this in the middle of the night."

Leaning back against the door, Inoya stared at him for far longer than was comfortable, and Minato did not even have to act like he was frazzled to keep up appearances. Despite having showered, the smoke had yet to leave his sinus passages, leaving him unable to even breathe without the constant reminder of his current predicament.

"May I ask you question?" asked Minato. "Off the record."

"Of course."

"What would you do, if you were in my position?"

With a deep breath, Inoya thought for a moment. "My son's wife is pregnant with my first grandchild," he said, which might have sounded irrelevant if Minato did not notice the threat in his words. A child could drive a man to great lengths, the likes of which caused Minato to agree to kill Danzō in the first place. With three clans backing him, Inoya was a dangerous man, and Minato hoped, for the one thousand second time that day, that Kakashi was right about who he would be dangerous to. "Of course, I have a clan behind me, which makes my answer different than yours. The rest of the government just threw you into the lion's den, didn't they?"

Minato knew there was an intimidation attempt hidden in his advice introduction. But, after the events not twelve hours prior, Minato did not have it in him to be anymore so.

"I have a clan," continued Inoya. "So, my answer, if I was in your place, would be to find strength in them. Do you have people you trust—really trust? People with more experience than you?"

"I do." For better or for worse, Minato placed his trust in them in a way that could not be taken back. At the very least, Minato knew that if Jiraiya ever ever betrayed Konoha's interests, then they were all lost. "Perhaps I do not have a clan, but I have those."

"Then, I would keep them close. And, particularly depending on what we continue to hear, I would think very hard about who you pick as Danzō's successor." With a mirthless smile, Inoya turned to look at the interrogation room through the glass. "It's going to be a long night, isn't it?"

"I have a feeling it will be," said Minato. "Thank you. For the wisdom."

Respectfully, Inoya nodded, and after giving a tired sigh, Inoya turned back towards the door. However, before he turned the doorknob, he looked back over his shoulder. "Should you need anything, Yondaime, know that the Yamanaka clan has your back."

Nodding courteously back, Minato hoped, for the thousand third time that day, that Kakashi Hatake knew what he was doing.

On their third night in the Akatsuki's new bunker, just as Kakashi and Tsunade were walking back to the room after their sparring session (she decided blood was no longer off the table during their sparring session, from which Kakashi was growing very injured but also very proud), Kakashi picked up a flurry of sharp voices, despite the lateness of the hour.

"Do you hear that?" he whispered to Tsunade.

She shook her head. "What is it?"

"I think it's Yahiko and Konan." Weighing his options, Kakashi tried to pick up what of their conversation he could. After a few moments, he realized that he was not going to hear anything substantial from this distance and beckoned her forwards. "Come this way. Quietly."

Kakashi did not dare get too close, just in case Nagato was watching out for them or they were just particularly perceptive that evening. Instead, he just led Tsunade about one hallway closer. Tsunade still could not make out any words, but he could at least make out some, which he hastily repeated back to her.

"—I can't believe you," said Konan, nearly hissing in a heated whisper. "This is everything we stand against, and you know it."

"If you think I'm going to stand aside and let them hurt you—" began Yahiko.

As if realizing they were being overheard, their voices dropped so low that it was only as audible as an incoherent, humming sound. Kakashi was worried that was all he would get until Konan said, "This is insane. I know what happened was—"

There was another pause of untranslatable speech. "You have to look at the big picture," said Yahiko. "Can't you see that we can make it happen?"

Another pause. "—happened?" finished Konan, from a phrase Kakashi did not understand.

"I'm doing this for you," said Yahiko. "And for Nagato, and for this organization, and for the fate of the world. How could you even doubt where my priorities are?"

"Yahiko, I love you. I really, really do. But—"

Another pause. "—wasn't wrong," said Yahiko. "Power lies—"

"Is that what this is about?" asked Konan, outraged. "Power?"

"Don't put words in my mouth. But, let's be honest with ourselves, if the last couple days has taught us anything, is that we have no—" The rest of his sentence was lost in a mumble. "—if all we do is get slaughtered, then we might as well not have started this organization."

After a final pause, the door sharply opened, causing the hinges to give a rapid squeak. The lone, thudding footsteps of Konan exited the room and towards the direction of their hallway. Eyes wide and hearts racing, Kakashi and Tsunade walked back to their room before either Konan or Yahiko noticed.

Just before Kakashi could open the door of their bedroom, Tsunade stopped him. "Do you remember what I told you?" she asked. "Back when we were here the first time, about doing what we have to?"

"After that night?" he asked. If anything starts to go south, she'd said. We have to kill them. She nodded. "I do."

"Just keep that in mind."

"Do you remember what I said?" he asked. If something goes down, it won't be me you have to convince. Once again, she nodded. "Then, keep that in mind, too."

They woke Jiraiya and, once he was awake enough to comprehend their words, filled him in on what Kakashi overheard. An uneasy feeling followed their explanation and thrived in their ensuing silence.

"What do you think it means?" she asked, after neither of the men spoke.

Jiraiya smiled mirthlessly. "It means we suddenly have no idea what's going to happen."

As was agreed, they returned to Konoha with Danzō's body after five days, shortly before midnight, so they would not run into anyone. Jiraiya awoke Minato (though he had not actually been asleep, instead reading a book on his couch, as he knew they would return), and all of them met at Minato's office. Both Minato and the three that remained in the Rain assured the other party that everything went more or less according to plan, before Minato told them that he would take the body to the morgue and instructed them to get some rest. The daimyō was in town for the occasion, and the council was desperate to know, so they needed to have the debrief first thing in the morning.

Exhausted, none of the three objected. Tsunade and Jiraiya went straight home, took a quick shower, and collapsed in their beds. However, Kakashi stayed up a moment longer. He stealthily picked a white flower on the way back to his place, and once he entered, he placed it on the floor of his living room. His place was empty (once they feigned leaving a little less than a week ago, Kakashi had Minato ask Mikoto if she would babysit the boys until his return), so he felt no need to hide, and he drew the symbol for the number seven on his living room wall.

"Sasuke," was all he said, kneeling down in front of the flower. "You're welcome."

The meeting the next morning was small, as expected. The daimyō and a couple of his men were there, as was Minato, the Third Hokage, and the two remaining members of the council. At the front of the room, Jiraiya stood, while Tsunade and Kakashi sat at the back.

Like they did in the Rain, they let Jiraiya do nearly all of the talking. He was best suited for it, and all of them felt it seemed more legitimate. After all, Kakashi and Tsunade being there in the first place seemed almost like an accident, as Kakashi was just an apprentice and Tsunade was a wild card.

So, Jiraiya fed them their made-up version of the events. Hanzō killed Danzō, he explained, for reasons they had yet to understand. Most likely, it was an attempt of gathering information, hence the burning of the ROOT hideout, to deter any thieves. After a few days of tracking, they found his body in the Rain.

There was a slight bit of discussion on what needed to be done once he was finished. However, it did not last long. Everyone agreed that it was a matter best left for a few days time, once they sat on the information for long enough and funeral arrangements were made. So, they adjourned, and everyone rose from their seats.

"A word in the Hokage's office, you three," said the Third Hokage to Minato, Jiraiya, and Tsunade, so low that the others shuffling out of the meeting room could not hear. "Kakashi, why don't you go home?"

"No," said Minato quickly—too quickly. Snapping his eyes over to him, Kakashi silently disagreed with his ruling. "No, he stays."

The Third narrowed his eyes and locked his jaw. "I really must insist—"

"He stays," said Minato, with a finality in his voice that made it clear he was not open to negations, from either Kakashi or the Third.

Though their heads did not turn, Jiraiya and Tsunade exchanged a look out of the corner of their eyes. Unbeknownst to the other, they both tensed up, readying for an altercation.

The moment they entered the office and Minato shut the door behind them, the Third turned to them, hatred in his eyes. "I know the four of you killed Danzō."

A/N: Hey, we finally hit the plot. Reviews make Danzō's death that much sweeter. Speaking of sweet...

Fun Fact of the Chapter: Back in our early stages of planning, we thought we would keep Danzō alive much longer. At some point, though, we realized we were just making excuses for him to survive various circumstances, despite all odds, and he kept throwing a wrench in all our plans. So, we just decided to kill him really early on. Because of all the grief he caused us, we joked that when we killed off Danzō, we were going to get a cake to celebrate. But, that was a long time ago, and now we're adults who have jobs and things to save for and don't even live in the same city as one another. However, as writing a Naruto, time-traveling epic would suggest, we are not responsible adults, so Laser Beam left from work late and drove three hours to Chicken Train's place, where Chicken Train had a cake—that she placed an order for well in advance and paid real-ass money for—waiting. Link in profile, for those interested.