AN: Longish AN at the bottom. For now, because it confused me greatly at the time Sannin = Member of the Dentetsu no Sannin; Sennin = Sage.

Enjoy!

At almost four years of age, the Uzumaki Compound was the only world Naruto ever knew. It was big, full of laughter and the brushing of ink on paper and redheads walking the cobbled streets; and yet, behind the trees and the banners of the whirlpools everywhere, behind the soft tapping of bamboo and trickling water, Naruto could glimpse the walls between the Compound and the Outside world he knew was there, but had never seen.

Konoha.

What Naruto did see, and how could he not, were the sentinel trees of the Senju, tall above the walls of the Compound, always green and shimmering with morning dew even in the cold of winter. That night, kaasan told him during story-time that the Shodai Hokage grew them when Konoha was founded all those years ago, and when Naruto asked how could the Hokage grow trees so big and tall all by himself, kaasan smiled.

"The Shodai was a great shinobi, Naruto-kun."

"Like you and Ibiki-oji, kaasan?"

Kaasan's chuckle was warm, but not really a laugh. Naruto only rarely saw kaasan laugh. "Much, much stronger than Ibiki and me, Naruto-kun. The Hokage is always the strongest shinobi in the Village, so he can protect everyone in it..." Naruto gave her a disbelieving look: Ibiki-oji was big like a bear, and there's nobody stronger than kaasan! But she was speaking again. "... and the Shodai was a Senju." Her smile slipped for a moment, but Naruto was in awe and starry eyed and he didn't notice. "What do I always tell you about the Senju?"

"That the Uzumaki Clan owes them lots. To the Nidaime Hokage too," Naruto answered dutifully, and squirmed a little when kaasan ruffled his red hair and kissed him on the brow goodnight.

"We owe them everything, Naruto-kun," kaasan said, and Naruto thought he heard something sad in her voice. Then she smiled down at him again, flicked him on forehead, and he forgot about it.

Kaasan was standing on the door when Naruto piped up again from his bed. "Can I be a shinobi too, kaasan? Like the Shodai and you?"

She smiled at him, and in the dim light of the corridor her hair shone a deep, dark red. "You can be anything you want, Naruto-kun. Sleep well now."

The door closed, and shortly after Naruto's dreams were filled with towering trees, swirling chains and whispering leaves in a cold, autumn night.

When Naruto woke next it was to the starry sky outside his window, and his bladder aching tellingly. He scampered out of bed and rushed to the bathroom down the corridor, feeling proud and accomplished for waking up in time. When he came out, Momoko-chan waved and smiled at him from her armchair, and he paddled down the stairs to her.

Momoko-chan was a friend of kaasan and Naruto's favourite babysitter when kaasan had grown-up things to do. After they swore each other to super-secrecy from the wrath of kaasan, she poured him a cup of her sweet tea and went back to read from a scroll, her brows knitted in concentration. Naruto tried to peek, rising to his tiptoes, but his eyes were already drooping and all he made out were symbols and lines that made no sense to him. He was already fast asleep when Momoko-chan tucked him into bed again.

A crash downstairs and a strong impact on his window wrenched Naruto away from dreamland, and the first thing he saw was his room glowing a deep blue glow shrouding every inch of it. Momoko-chan was the second as she appeared from thin air, leaning against the door, pale and panting and holding one hand against her tummy to staunch the flow of... blood...

"Naruto!" she gasped, and her voice was harder and at the same time weaker than he ever heard her. "Under the bed! Quick!"

Another thud on his window, and the blue barrier rippled. Naruto's head whipped around and his eyes widened at the man figure that stood outside his window, clad all in black and with a blank mask covering his face, and thrust a sparkling sword at the glass.

Naruto yelped and fell back, then toppled onto the ground with a wince. Momoko-chan fell on all fours, tracing lines on the wood of the floor with her finger covered in her own blood. There was so much of it, slowly widening under her...

Naruto crawled to her, but the look on her face stopped him cold. The same look turned into something else in a single moment, something scared and angry, sad and determined. Naruto felt her arms wrap around him, her weight press him down and rob his lungs of air, her heartbeat against his ear and words he couldn't comprehend. Something warm drenched his pyjamas, then a flash, the whole room trembled and the world shattered.

Kushina Uzumaki, clad in full shinobi battle kit, emerged from her Shunshinto the sight of her parents' home reduced to a smoldering wreck torn open by an explosion and belching thick plumes of smoke; Uzumaki Clan shinobis and the Military Police were cordoning the area off from passers-by and the nosy, while medic nins gaggled around a spot in her backyard, which she could see through what remained of her home.

She stood still for less than a heartbeat, taking everything in and raging inside at why was she the last one to be told, before she rushed forward into another Shunshinand stopped at the edge of the perimeter set up by the MP.

"Uzumaki-san," a spindle, black-haired Uchiha warned, trying and stop her with a gesture and an ink-black glare. "This area is off limits by orders of Hokage-sama and Uzumaki Goro -"

"Out of my way!" she hissed. Killing intent hit the chunin like a sledgehammer, turning his knees to rubber. He took a trembling step back, sweat breaking off his unblemished brow, but Kushina was already moving past him.

The next Chunin to bar her way, a clan member this time around, did so only to point her way to the direction of the forward command centre established in the next house over, telling her she was being expected by Goro Uzumaki, the Clan Head.

She grabbed him by the scruff of his flak jacket and heaved him up and closer with such speed and strength the Chunin could only stare and gulp, though chakra chains were quick to form and wrap around his arms and torso, for all the protection they would offer.

"Where. Is. My. Son?"

"I don't know, Kushina-taichou. I was only told -"

Kushina dropped him and stepped into another Shunshin as the bottom of her stomach fell out and dread climbed up her throat.

Her backyard was strewn with charred wood beams, splintered furniture, ruined heirlooms dating back before the fall of Uzu and broken masonry cutting deep swathes into her garden. It was the circle of medic-nins, however, that monopolized her attention, drawing her in with feet made heavy and yet swift by worry and dread.

Hands aglow with the Shōsen roamed over a still figure resting in a fetus position on the blackened grass, far too long-limbed to be her Naruto. Kushina's relief morphed into a spike of horror and guilt, however, as she glimpsed the waxen, ravaged and barely recognizable face of Momoko, her whole back a blackened, ruined crater.

"Kushina."

Pain. Anger. Relief. Hope. She recognized his voice, but for a long moment she couldn't take her eyes off Momoko. Then the lead medic shifted back on his haunches, grimacing behind his surgery mask; the green glows abated, one of the medics swept her friend's eyelids close, and the spell was broken.

"Take me to him." Please.

The feeling of instant movement, faster than the fastest shinsun, was at the same time familiar, wistful and exhilarating. Kushina stomped down on those stray thoughts with the weight of her worry in the blink of an eye it took her to adjust to the warmer overhead lights, the monotone quietness of the room and the aseptic air typical of an hospital.

Naruto was fast asleep on a white, candid bed, his chubby face wrapped in sterile gauze and an IV dripping into his arm. A toad plushie, only half-sizzled around one limb, rested close to his pillow, a treasured gift from Jiraiya-kyoufu. He looked… at peace and his skin was warm under the blankets when she found his hand to make sure her eyes weren't playing tricks to her, or this was a genjutsu.

He plopped heavily down on a chair behind her as she took place against the bed's railing, beside her son. "The medics say he'll be alright by tomorrow morning. Only some minor bruising and a few cracked ribs, already mended. Momoko shielded him with her body."

Kushina blinked, then nodded, her eyes fixed on her baby boy as a pang of grief tore at her heart. Oh, my dear Momoko...

"Is this place safe?" she asked.

"Nobody but Rin and her assistant know he's here, and I have Kakashi and his team watch over him already." He tilted his head to the door. "I can alert Obito and Mikoto-san as well, if you want, but nobody else: I don't want to draw too much attention on him, and the village is in a whirlwind. Multiple attacks on several Clans, and they almost made off with the Hyuga heiress. Just as I was dealing with the Kumo ambassador. There's enough on our hands to spring another Great War."

"Then it's Kumo behind this?"

He shrugged, but he could feel his eyes boring into her back, intense and pensive. "Seems so. Ibiki is chatting the only prisoner and initial analysis would point to nuke-nins, mercenaries backed by Kumo, or even the Kinkaku Squad: they left behind a trail of bodies long enough to be them. Not really subtle, very organized, superbly equipped… lots of Raiton thrown around too." She could imagine him pursing his lips.

"It's too obvious. And let's not forget the assaulters were quite adept at fuinjutsu as well, enough to break both yours and the Hyuga's security. Something Kumo isn't exactly reknown for."

"They have a mole in my Clan."

He sighed at her bluntness, sounding far older than he actually was, but not in denial. She pressed on, glaring a hole into the wall, words fast and burning a hole through her teeth.

"Grandmother designed the wards protecting the house: no two-bits Kumo fucker could have surpassed them. Even then, nobody but an Uzumaki, or someone breast-fed fuinjutsu by an Uzumaki, could recognize of the secondary failsafe and the circular triple-backup mechanism triggering the defensive wards. Anyone else would've died of chakra poisoning and I'd know even before that." She squeezed her eyes shut against the ache in her chest. "Instead they get through. Momoko must have overcharged the additional wards in Naruto's room with her blood before they could surpass those too. And still."

"I'd put myself and Jiraiya-sensei out of the list of suspects, thank you. That still leaves most of your Clan's Seal Masters in though, from Goro-san down. Maybe Homura and some of the Hyuga and Senju masters as well." She heard his lips smack in a grimace. "Orochimaru, too. I'll put the ANBU on it, but… there's something else."

Kushina fought back the urge to scream and turn around to face him. She even managed to keep her voice mostly level.

"What?"

"It begs the question: why Naruto? If they were only after the Uzumaki bloodline, like for the Hyuga, the Uchiha or the Nara, there were easier targets. Unprotected, as you said, by Mito's own wards."

The breath caught in her throat as her mind jumped to what was being implied. "The Kyuubi."

He shrugged again - she could hear his haori shifting on his shoulders in that familiar way, and his adjusting his position on the uncomfortable hospital chair - and his voice took a sharper edge. "Less than ten people know what really happened that night, Kushina. We sacrificed another boy's life to make sure of that."

"Danzo -"

"I know, but Danzo is also patriot, first and foremost. Do you see him giving away Naruto to the enemy? To Kumo or, Kami forbid, Iwa?"

Silence settled stretched. Kushina watched her son sleep, his tiny hand slightly balled up in hers, the rhythmic beeping of the monitors and the slow rise and fall of his chest marking the seconds ticking away. The ugly snake of doubt and suspicion coiled and uncoiled in her stomach, injecting its venom with a veritable burning ache, until it assumed the connotations of certainty.

"They wanted to hit you."

Behind her, she could feel him nod, but he didn't look away from the nape of her neck. "It's… very likely, though I haven't the slightest how they could know. Kumo isn't the only one with an interest in the Byakugan, but even A isn't that overt and blunt to strike on our turf during negotiations he wanted." A slow, calming breath left his nose, and she could hear the joints of his hands creaking as he balled them into fists. "Their ambassador is denying any and all involvement, and unless Ibiki digs up something, I'm inclined to believe him. The Raikage would have sent his hitmen against me, not my children. This stinks of Onoki Two-Scales."

A fickle of genuine concern, despite everything between them, wormed it way into her voice, even as her mind plotted to murder the Tsuchikage's wrinkled ass in the slowest, most painful ways she could come up with. "Are your wife and Tamako-chan alright?"

"A bit shocked, but unharmed, thank you. It seems they didn't have the same insights on the Shodai's defenses. The alarms warned me." What happened next, Kushina could easily guess.

"Good."

Another minute of silence stretched, then she heard him get up from his seat and take a couple of steps forward. The heat of his hand as it hovered just an inch over her shoulder made the part of her that still loved him - that would always love him- strive to lean in, but she resisted the brief urge by shoving it into the mental closet where it belonged. A few seconds later, the hand retracted.

"Consider yourself on extended furlough. Stay with him. If you think it's better, I can have Inoichi-san have a look at him when he wakes." He sighed. "I'll talk with Jiraiya-sensei and Sarutobi-sama and we'll find who's behind this, and who's their plant. I promise you, Kushina."

"Thank you." When he didn't move, she added. "Go back to your family, Minato. I'll manage."

She caught just a glimpse of spiky yellow hair and a white haori adorned with licking flames at the bottom before the Kage Bushin crossed his fingers and vanished without even a poof of ninja smoke, leaving her alone with her son.

"It's all right, Naruto-kun," she soothed her son in his sleep. "Everything will be alright in the end." And with that, one hand around her son's and the other gripping the end of an half-formed Adamantine Chain rattling against her leg, she prepared herself for the long night.

"This will be our new home for a while, Naruto-kun. And this is your room. Do you like it?"

"Yeah. I guess."

"You can have your friends over too for your big birthday party next week. What do you think? Do you want to see Sasuke, Karin and Idate?"

"… can Momoko-chan come too?"

"Naruto-kun… Momoko-chan is still at the hospital. Those shinobi, they hurt her badly, and she needs time to recover."

"Can I go see her?"

"It's better not. The doctors say she needs lots of rest. But I saw her briefly, and she sends you all of her love. She says… she says she'll have some of your secret tea ready for next time she babysits you."

"… I couldn't help her."

"Naruto-kun…"

"She was bleeding a lot and it wouldn't stop and she-told-me-to-go-under-my-bed-and-then… she had this look on her face… I - I'm sorry, I - I -"

"Shhh. Here, it's alright. My big baby boy. Everything will be alright, your kaasan's here."

" - strong."

"Hmm?"

"I-I want to be strong. So when they come again, I can protect you and Momoko-chan and everyone else."

"Naruto, listen to me: nobody will come to hurt you anymore. Hokage-sama has sent the bad men a… message, and they will make sure nobody will try to harm you again. You are still too young to start training. Let's wait until you're a bit taller, hmm?"

"Idate says Ibiki-oji trains him since he was three. I'm almost five ."

"Ibiki can be very… intense at times, Naruto-kun."

"Kaasan, please. I… I don't want to feel like that."

"What do you mean?"

"Like when Momoko-chan was hurt and I only watched. I don't want to feel like that anymore."

"Oh, Naruto-kun… why don't we have dinner now? Kaasan will think about it tonight, and tomorrow we can talk about this when we aren't all so tired."

"You promise?"

"Pinky-swear."

The inner courtyard of the Uzumaki's temporary residence was a small patch of green land that enjoyed the cool shadow of one or another of the Senju's sentinel trees during most of the day. Those were more common the closer one walked into the beating heart of Konoha and the seat of its power: the Flower District, which spanned indeed almost a fourth of the entire village and covered both the Compounds of the major clans - Senju, Uchiha, Hyuga, Sarutobi and Uzumaki- and the summer estates of Fire Country's nobility, now boarded up in the thick of winter.

Minato had transferred them to some wine merchant's complex, sequestered earlier in spring from the man's family as refunding for some ill-fated mission in Kawa no Kuni doomed by the merchant withholding critical information, and turned into something of an temporary ANBU hideout. She had made sure to inspect it all before she brought Naruto in, screw the ANBU's reassurances, but Naruto and herself only kept to a wing of the place, where the servants and guards used to reside, and the inner courtyard itself. Not that she hadn't warded every entry and access point, visible or potential, with the nastiest fuin arrays in her extensive repertoire, but the echoing, lacquered halls and the opulent surfaces unnerved her.

They reminded her of the Senju residence, and she had little in the terms of fond memories of the place.

Kushina glimpsed the still form of an ANBU in the shadow of the porch, cloaked under a near-perfect Meisagakure, then shifted on the uncomfortable boulder and returned her complete attention to her son's exercises.

"Again."

Naruto, now five and a half years old, huffed, wiped the building sweat clean with a towel, leaving red hair plastered to his brow, and lowered himself into a the starting stance of his assigned kata. She watched, proud and critical, as he moved through the basic forms of Reppan-Rÿu, the Uzumaki own style of taijutsu, with all the awkwardness and determination of a stubborn five years old wanting to please his mother and show up the rest of the world.

His arms and shoulders were stiff and angled a bit oddly, but Kushina let that slide for the moment, focusing on his footwork. Naruto stepped cautiously but not jerkily into the gaps left by the criss-crossing chakra chains carpeting the garden and unravelling from her hands, careful not to even brush any of the links, or he'd have to start over with the exercise.

From time to time, she sent minute chakra pulses down her Kongō Fūsa, shifting them across the dry, grey grass, forcing Naruto to feel - or guess - the alteration unless he wanted to step right onto another chain. He failed more often than not, but Kushina wasn't troubled, and she made sure to reward his every success and whoop of joy with mirroring excitement.

"Don't restrict yourself to sight only, Naruto-kun. Ear the clinks, feel the air shift, the crack of the grass and my chakra moving through the chain."

Naruto nodded stubbornly, and she smiled at him, sending out another pulse of chakra. The chain shifted, and Naruto stepped square onto it.

"Kaasan! I was doing so well!"

She flicked him in the forehead at his pouting and kneeled until she was eye level with him. "And you'll do better every day, Naruto-kun. Now go dry yourself up and pick up your tools: we'll go over sharpening and maintenance after you've rested a bit."

"Can we do seals again later?" he asked under her ruffling hand, and his tone was so begging she was hard pressed in saying no.

"Depending how you do on your math and geometry assignment." He pouted again, and she fixed him with her stern 'teacher' look. "You can't draw a good seal if you don't know the rules behind the curves and shapes."

He huffed, lower lip jutting out, and she ruffled his hair again to his wordless cry of protest, then he skipped out of the garden as Kushina's chains reverted to pure, formless chakra into her coils.

A small chakra signature and the mild tingling of one of the seals etched into her forearm warned her of the friendly presence at one of the gates, and a small smile curled the edge of her lips. With a wave of her hand she dismissed the Cat ANBU, one of Kakashi's own pupils, and proceeded to unfold a blanket on the porch for Naruto to display his ninja tools for the following lesson.

Even in the thick of winter, the air only held a pleasant chill, so Kushina tended to keep Naruto outside as long as she could. Kami knew the forced separation from his friends at the Compound and out, barred some remotely in-between visits, were taking an hard toll on him even before the news dropped in at the beginning of the Academy semester.

She was nearly done when the rush of fleeing air announced the Shunshinsomewhere to her left.

"Kushina-nee."

"Obito-kun. It's been so long."

The red-haired Uzumaki and the lithe, spike-haired Uchiha hugged each other, Obito's single arm squeezing the shorter woman's shoulders.

"Look at you," she said, holding him at arms' length, one hand just above the stump at his shoulder. "Lean and clean and so handsome in your flak jacket. Out hunting to break some girl's heart?"

He smiled ruefully, eyes crinkling with mirth behind his goggles. "Ne, Kushina-nee-chan. I'm just a Chunin: kunoichi these days chase only after career Jounins."

"Bullshit, Obito. I'd bet my money on you against every Elite Jonin in the Village."

Obito's ink black eyes swirled with a sheen of red for a moment, then his smile widened, if a bit stiff. "Don't let Rin-chan hear that."

Kushina's face turned conspiratorial. "Oh, I thinks she's due in a few minutes. Don't let your nee-chan's presence stop you from taking your chance."

Obito blanched, his already pale complexion turning milky white, and he made to turn away when an hard bark of laughter stopped him cold.

"I hate you, nee-chan"

"Double bull, and you know it. Come on, don't be a scarecrow, sit down. Naruto will be around in a jiffy, and you can make yourself useful by teaching him some of your secret Uchiha shurikenjutsu stuff."

Obito shook his head with a chuckle and sat down cross legged on one corner of the stretched blanket. "Hell, why not? Might give Fugaku-dono an heart attack. One can only hope."

Naruto re-emerged shortly after, wearing a fresh white long-sleeved tee and black pants, wrists and ankles bandaged not too tightly with ninja tape, and found his mother chatting up with the one-armed Uchiha.

"Obito-nii!"

The next hour flew away in a climate of exuberant cheer. Obito did his best to keep his word and get a little further up still on his Clan Leader's shit list, giving pointers and advice to Naruto on how to keep and wield his tools, to the point of adjusting his grip, stance and aim when Kushina relented and allowed the boys to play target practice. Naruto could barely refrain from bouncing on his toes in excitement, and a good twenty minutes passed by as Obito related, step by step, some of his most adventurous missions to a starry-eyed Naruto, while Kushina quietly rolled her eyes on the side at the load of embellishments, arm-waving and outright lies, but didn't spoil their fun.

After a while, however, Obito looked up at the clock and sighed, levering himself up from his cross-legged position. "Ano, Naruto-kun. I've gotta go."

The redhead's face crumpled. "But! You've only been here only an hour. Top!"

"Hey now, don't fret: I'll be around again before you know it! Until then, I've got something for you." The one-armed Chunin unrolled a storage scroll from his thigh side-pockets, one of the cheap, mass-produced models every shinobi shop worth its name used in lieu of shopping bags these days. A quick pulse of chakra lit the seal up and in a puff of smoke, the contents flopped on the thin sheet of paper.

"Whoa! This is so cool!"

Naruto picked up the jacket reverently, turning it around in his hands, then zipped it down and wiggled his way into it. It was a dark shade of blue, the kind that reminded Kushina of pictures of the sea around Uzushiogakure; a thick, high collar of Lightning's white wool, several practical pockets along the sides and a large, crimson spiral on the back completed the picture. It fell a bit from Naruto's shoulders, no matter how much he shrugged into it, but there was no dimming his full-toothed smile.

"This is the best present ever, Obito-nii!"

Obito chuckled. "And you haven't seen half of it. So I went to this shop, but I didn't know how much of a runt you still were. Clearly more than I thought…" Naruto stuck his tongue out at him, an action Obito mirrored before continuing. "… but I'm nothing if a man prepared for every hurdle, so I had something extra built in. Can you channel charka into stuff yet?"

"Of course I can!"

"Nope, you can't." Kushina corrected him. Naruto sulked a bit, giving his mother a betrayed look. "Oh, don't be like that. We're Uzumaki: we just have that much more chakra to throw around than pretty boy here and pretty much everybody else. You'll have it down in no time, and then you can crush all the opposition for mocking you! Just like your kaasan!"

"Modest, too," Obito deadpanned.

"Naruto's the five years old here, Obito-kun. Don't cut in on his business."

"Hey! I'm almost six!"

Obito rolled his eyes and knelt until he was eye level with Naruto. "As I was saying, this may seem a bit loose. But if you channel some chakra into this seal here, just under the neck… better now, huh?"

A faint prickling sensation run over Naruto's skin and then the cloth followed it, brushing and contracting around his arms, shoulders and torso until it was a perfect fit. Naruto's lips made a small, silent O with just an hint of sharp canines, and Kushina whistled appreciatively.

"Chakra reactive cloth and a size adjusting seal. Nice."

"Thank you for spoiling the magic, nee-chan."

"Oh, I'm sosorry, Magician Obito." She batted her eyelashes at him, then her expression softened looking at Naruto spinning in the garden, pure, unbridled ecstasy on his face. "Seriously, thank you. It must have cost you a lot."

Obito waved her off, turning to look at Naruto as well. "Ah, don't mention it. It was worth it." He followed Naruto's frolicking for a few seconds, then sighed. "This whole situation, the continuous protection, and now the delay in attending prep-school… It must not be easy on him."

"It would be easier if Minato stopped being a dumb asshole," Kushina glowered. "Did you know he intends to keep Naruto confined in here until the investigation on the assault's over? For safety, sure, and yet the Hyuga princess, Sasuke-kun and Tamako-chan attend school with everyone else. He doesn't even have the decency to say it to my face."

"He told me he offered to pay for private instructors until this whole mess' over…"

"Again, dumb," Kushina huffed. "Unless he wanted to pay them to livein here until he graduates, because that's how long this mess's going to last at the very least, it would go beyond the very point behind keeping Naruto low-profile. Besides, I can teach him just fine, keep him on par with the classes. That's not the point."

Obito chuckled weakly. "Yeah, I saw. Math and geometry? Isn't that a bit early?"

"Once a lazyass, always a lazyass." Obito groaned and Kushina shrugged, but a small smile played on her face. "He won't stop pestering me about seals, and it's not like it's higher calculus. Pretty basic stuff." As fast as it appeared, however, it evaporated, and her face hardened. She followed Naruto's path in the grey expanse of the courtyard, and both waved at him when he spun around, arms outstretched.

Kushina took the Uchiha to the side on the way to the main door, and her glare could have sent every predator in Training Ground 44 skittering away with their tail tucked between her legs. That there were ANBU nearby was a given, but she didn't particularly care if they eavesdropped.

"I have a message for him, Obito. Tell Minato I won't have my son to grow a recluse because that bitch Senju Aiko and her father would rather forget he - we- existed. He has until the start of the next semester to pull his shit together and grow a pair. He doesn't want to acknowledge him? Fine, but I won't allow for politics and grudges to stop my son from living a normal life while he can."

Obito nodded, then his eyes tinged with a sheen worry and sadness. "I'll make sure he hears that," he said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Nee-chan, the Hokage… I think he still cares about you. Both of you. But with Goro-dono and your Clan Elders putting pressure on him on one side, and the Senju pulling on the other, he has to compromise." The Uchiha grimaced. "He was always quite good at that."

Kushina's eyes turned to the ceiling, her lips set into a sour line. "Confiding in Goro about Minato and I… that was a big damn mistake," she ground out, her shoulders slouching in self-disgust. "And Naruto is paying the price for his politicking."

"I know, but it won't be for long now. Oh!" He gave a weak chuckle, at which Kushina rose an annoyed eyebrow. The Uchiha scratched the back of his head, a boyish grin on his lips. "I kind of forgot: Jiraiya-sama sent a frog ahead just this morning. Tsunade-hime and he are coming back in the next few days. If I were you, I'd get started and fill Naruto's entrance sheet. That, or your mourning dress."

"How bad is it?"

The Hokage's office was a wide room of deceiving simplicity and elegant furbishing, meant to host foreign delegations and emergency war meetings alike. As the midday winter sun filtered through the sentinel trees' foliage, however, the two legendary shinobi had the room all for themselves. One sported a head of blond hair atop the stately vests of office, left incomplete by a discarded hat; the other's attire wouldn't be out of place in kabuki representations in the capital city of Keishi.

New lines deepened on Jiraiya's face. "On a scale from One to Uzu's Razing? Nagato has dropped off the map entirely: not even the Toads can find him. Akatsuki's taken the hit, and badly too: many believed him the second coming of the Sage, and are now laying down arms, returning to Hanzo's fold. Iwa's involvement's just the icing on the cake."

Minato leaned back on his seat, staring up at the glowing privacy ward on the ceiling, one fingers brushing the hilt of a kunai in passing. "So it's true? Onoki's people are taking the field?"

"They already have. A few dozen here, a platoon of the Explosion Corps there. And one of Akatsuki's holdouts in North Ame was razed by the Gobi's Jinchuuriki. Two Scales would probably flood the whole region if his people didn't fear you so much and if the Stone Secessionist weren't giving him such a nasty headache."

Minato nodded, lips pressing into a thin line, then stopped as Jiraiya's expression turned grimmer. "Yahiko?"

"He's upset. Scratch that, he's mad. At Nagato, and at us. I refuted him when he asked for more support, like you ordered. Didn't take it well."

"I imagine it wasn't easy for you, but you did the right thing sensei." Minato rubbed his eyes and the dark circles under them. And it was only midday. "Konoha can't push more their way short of taking the field, not with Kumo on the lookout after the kidnappings. We get involved openly, and it'll be open war again.

"It'll spill out of Ame anyway, Minato," Jiraiya folded his arms across his broad chest. "Akatsuki still has access to our black funds: I have it from my contacts that Yahiko is buying weapons from Tani and the Fuuma Clan. Worse, he's sent feelers to those Kaguya Clan nutjobs from Kusagakure. If they get involved, things will escalate quickly and when they lose - because they will lose without Nagato - Hanzo will have all the reasons he needs to push into Kusa."

Minato tapped his desk. "But he won't. Both the Fire Daimyo and Konoha have standing treaties with Kusa, and he knows it. One step across the border, and we're entitled to put his forces into the ground, in self-defense. If he does…" The Hokage drummed his fingers on the hard oak of his desk. "If he does, we'll crush him, for good, and Akatsuki can have Ame as per agreements."

"There won't be an Akatsuki to speak of once Hanzo and Iwa are through with them!"

"Would you prefer another Shinobi World War then? Are they worth this peace we've crafted?" Minato sighed, and his blue eyes met his sensei's narrowed ones. "Are you absolutely sure Nagato didn't defect to Hanzo or another nation? There can be no mistakes when the Rinnegan is involved, sensei."

Jiraiya closed his eyes for a long moment and exhaled, then stood up with a mighty creak from his seat and picked up the framed photograph on the Hokage's desk.

"Just like her father," he muttered. "You shouldn't show this on your desk when the outsiders come knocking."

"Sensei."

"… Konan was the last to speak to him. He was… perplexed is probably the best word, from what she tells. You know already the Rinnegan has always granted him visions. Of what was or will be, of chakra, the Sage only knows." The Toad Sennin placed the photo back on the desk and started pacing. "Apparently, they grew worse these past few years. More intense. And he became more and more disillusioned with Akatsuki's mission."

"He told Konan he'd find his own and the world's peace. A couple of hours later, puff, he was gone."

Minato rose an eyebrow, hands meeting on his desk around a three-pronged kunai. "Just like that."

"Yes, just like that. They sent out scouting parties, but even Konan's own brand of sensing didn't pick up a trace. That was two weeks ago."

"Two weeks?" The Hokage's eyebrows inched upwards, then plummeted. "What took you so long?"

Jiraiya retook his seat, his spiky white mane a shroud falling on his shoulders and spilling over the struggling backseat. "One of my agents reported in when we crossed back into Fire. Said Nawaki's murderer had been spotted near Sora Ku, the old Uchiha stronghold. The identikit matched."

The Minato Jiraiya remembered from five years before, still new and uncomfortable in Sarutobi's old robes and struggling to come to terms with the reality behind the dream and his choices, that Minato would have shot to his feet, quiet rage in his eyes and one Hiraishin away from taking the man behind the Kyuubi's Unleashing head on and, more importantly, alone, like he almost had that fateful night.

The only thing that belied that Minato's endured existence was a darkening of the Hokage's blue eyes as they shifted on him and narrowed slightly in focus, a dusting of early crow's feet letting themselves be seen. For the rest, he remained impassible, if tense around the shoulders.

Jiraiya decided that the Old Monkey and Daisuke Senju had been teaching his former pupil well. Probably too well.

"You should have sent word. It could have been a trap."

A bark of laughter, hard and self-deprecating, echoed in the office. "We are still the Sannin, Minato-kun, and both of us are Sennin. Besides, you want to tell Tsunade-hime to get off Nawaki's murderer trail? Please."

Minato scowled, then shook his head and shrugged. "Suit yourself. So, what happened?"

Jiraiya pondered his words. "Sora Ku is officially a desert city, bar the ninja cats. The Uchiha might want to send someone down to scour the ruins and retrieve them. Tell them to pack shovels and Doton."

"They're not going to like this."

"Well, they're going to like what comes next even less," Jiraiya said, grimacing and surreptitiously giving the privacy seals a once over. Satisfied, he continued. "So, it was a trap, points for originality, and we sprung it. The few residents and Uchiha retainers were long dead, several months at least is Tsunade's judgement. In their place were those mute, masked kids, some further along their teens. All with the blasted Sharingan."

Minato edged forward on his chair. "The wayward Uchihas. I assume you took care of them. Any sign of the Father? Did any possess the Mangekyou Sharingan?"

"I was getting there and no, Kami be praised." Jiraiya shook his head, smiling wrily. "One was bad enough at the time. After we dealt with them, Katsuyu-sama discovered an underground complex they were seemingly protecting, smack in the center of the city."

"Tell me you found something valuable."

"It was emptied and scrubbed clean long before we came, but the Father didn't bother to take away some of the old medical equipment. Nothing remarkable per se, or so he must have thought." Jiraiya chuckled. "My hime restored power to a couple and went to work on the fresh samples we gathered outside. That they weren't tainted with the Kyuubi's youkai helped a lot."

Jiraiya paused, letting the silence become just poignant enough for theatrics' sake like the travelled screenwriter and author he was. Minato groaned silently, but waited.

"Turns out, this Father is both a medical genius, and supremely arrogant in underestimating my hime's medical prowess. She'll give the eggheads the full report later, but the long and short of it is that the Father's using clones, from the same sample."

Minato's eyes widened under his blond bangs and his eyebrows inched up on his forehead, and then some. "Clones? Full functioning clones?"

"Tsunade-hime said something about DNA degradation and long-term degeneration, and each had a complex medical fuin array in place to slow that, but they certainly fought well enough."

Minato's gaze wandered, lost in thought, until he was staring off at one wall, equal parts of him horrified and amazed. His former sensei's voice shook him out of it just as a question blossomed on his lips.

"Yes, the Sharingans were cloned too. And they worked."

Minato Namikaze, the Butcher of Iwa, actually blanched. "This… this is what Orochimaru was attempting before he left. Artificial Bloodline replication."

The mention of his erstwhile teammate and title-holder had a familiar stab of ghost pain slither through Jiraiya's ribs where the Kusanagi found its mark once. "His late experiments, yes. The fuin arrays do away with most of the Uzumaki core precepts, just like Maru was wont to do. The method is similar too, from what my hime can tell. More refined than what we recovered from his labs and… study subjects, but it's largely the same process."

Minato leaned heavily on his desk, chin resting on his thumbs and fingers hiding the lower end of his face. For a long minute, the only sound was that of Minato's thinking. To his credit, the now-Hokage didn't interrupt the meeting to consult with his advisors.

'Stop right there,' the Toad Sennin urged his own spiteful side. Minato's breaking the silence saved him the next moment from mental ruminations that would just spoil his mood further. 'Quite the feat, that.'

"I'll need to inform Kagami and Fugaku Uchiha. Neither of you can't tell anyone else about this, sensei, not even the medical corps, Sarutobi-dono or the Senju. If this gets out, and the other nations catch wind of any of this…"

Jiraiya nodded. "The Father will have more pursuers than he knows what to do with them. Or buyers, if he hasn't already. I'll tell Tsunade-hime to deliver her reports to your desk then."

"Good. Where is she, by the way?" An hint of a smile, something Jiraiya saw only so often from his former student, tugged at the corners of the man's lips. A nervous one born of the need for momentary diversion, but beggars can't be choosers. "Finally got fed up with you and your shameless erotica for old men?"

Jiraiya huffed theatrically, cringing inside. "So spoke the affectionate reader. After a year and a half breast to breast and with her upbringing, you'd think she had learned to recognize art already." He winked salaciously, and Minato snorted. "Alas, 'tis not meant to be. Yet."

The Hokage shook his head, then his voice sobered. "Seriously, where is she? With these new developments, I'd expect to see her with you first things first. I know she must have missed Shizune-san and…"

"Don't play dumb, Minato. You don't know how." The Hokage sighed and met Jiraiya's glare where all traces of warmth were rapidly dimming. "She opted out after she learned you put Naruto in some posh merchant house and stopped him from attending the Academy. Wasn't sure she could refrain from punching you out of your chair, so she went ahead and visited. She brought the boy gifts too, I think. Late birthday and missed occasions."

Minato held his sensei's accusing gaze. "How did you learn where he was before even setting foot in the Village?"

"I'm your spymaster," Jiraiya snorted without mirth, a rumbling sound that echoed from his broad chest. "At least for foreign business. I always knew: not much you can hide from me, especially when it involves one of my godchildren. Why? Why the difference in treatment?"

"You mean I should listen to Goro Uzumaki, recognize the child legally and make him my heir?"

Jiraiya cut the air in front of him with a palm, frowning. "Cut the crap," he said in a tone more appropriate to scolding an unruly genin than speaking to one's Kage. "If you want the truth, yes, yes you should, just to be fair to the boy and Kushina. But you made your choice, and she respected that and you. I'm not saying you should start a Clan War over it and allow the Senju to complete Kiri's and Kumo's work: just tell the old Uzumaki geezer where to stuff it, and allow both of your children to live their youth while they have it."

Minato stiffened in his seat, eyes resting briefly the photograph on the desk, then he swiveled around and was on his feet, reaching the back of the room and the wall-long window with a couple of steps. Even this high up on the Holage tower, the sentinel trees of the Senju dominated the landscape; the sunlight reached the glass filtered through a hundred thousand leaves and changing with every breath of the wind, playing games with one's sight and picturing impossible shapes on the far wall.

Standing against such a kaleidoscope of colors, the tips of the Yondaime's blond hair seemed aflame, but the man under it let out a long breath and seemed to deflate: his shoulders slouched, his head hung and his clasped hands slackened behind his back.

"I should, and I want to, believe me. But even if others wish otherwise, he's my son, and that means he's a target. He always will be a target, and that's not accounting the Kyuubi. Doubly so now that this part of the truth has leaked out, somehow. He needs to be protected."

"You can't keep him locked into a house for the rest of his life."

Minato turned around, eyes darkened in frustration. "And I won't! But first, he must become strong, strong enough to survive out there. I intend to see to that. And you will too, when the time comes." The Hokage glanced down at the framed picture again. "Tamako has the entirety of her mother's family and the ANBU looking after her and protecting her. Naruto has Kushina: she's good, but how long before she slips? How long before my son is dead and the Kyuubi's on the loose again?"

"You're underestimating Kushina, Minato. And the boy was victim of an attempted kidnapping: if you can justify Clan escorts for the Uchiha, Hyuuga and everyone else, you can do the same for the Uzumaki. He's of the line of Mito, for Kami's sake: his people will jump to protect him."

"And that's the main problem," Minato said. "Kushina is convinced someone in her Clan collaborated with the attempt at Naruto. A Seal Master, and one good enough to disrupt Mito's protections. I'm… inclined to believe her."

Jiraiya scowled darkly, but his body remained posed and in control, betraying not a single unwanted muscle twitch.

"I see. You found anything?"

Minato shook his head. "Nothing, which is hardly surprising, considering we're dealing with Seal Masters here. I even had Danzo's people look -" Jiraiya glowered, and Minato rolled his eyes. "Right, let's not get there. Still, nothing, just suspicions. And now it seems the nuke-nins did hail from Kumo, but were employed by Iwa. The implications are… distressing is a way to put it."

"You want me to look into it?"

Minato shook his head. "I need you working on the Father's trail before it goes cold again. Finding Nagato is another top priority. If it turns out he defected to another country…"

Jiraiya grimaced, lips pursing into a thin line, but after a long moment, he nodded stiffly.

"Good. You and Tsunade take a couple days to R&R, file your reports, visit around, then I need you back to work. Father's connection to Orochimaru is troubling, but is another path to follow. One we didn't have before."

"Yeah, because Maru is notoriously easy to find and an eager conversationalist."

Minato sighed, rubbing the back of his head vigorously. "I know, I know, but only a Sage can keep up with a Sage, right?"

"True enough," Jiraiya grunted, then chuckled. "My hime isn't going to like this."

"It's only a couple of days."

"You know her. Two days here is one day too long. Expect reports of drunken vandalism and destruction of village property."

Minato gave him an arch look. "I trust you'll keep her in check."

"I can only promise keep up with her drink by drink. Seeing Shizune and Rin again will help, probably." Jiraiya levelled a faintly amused look back at the Hokage. "You keep your wife's family out of her hair."

"Deal." Minato returned to his seat and plopped down on it rather bonelessly. "Now, about the Ame situation…" All traces of amusement fled the Sennin's face. "I'm cutting down Akatsuki's funds, but if it's too late and the Kaguya Clan gets involved, there's not much else we can do short of assassinating Hanzo."

Jiraiya frowned, then shook his head. "You might be able to manage it if someone tagged him, but Hanzo's old, not senile. Old and paranoid. There's just as many chances you'll get a tag on the Tsuchikage or the Demon Emperor."

"Which is why I'm having Danzo-san take charge of the Ame theater to sabotage his alliance with Iwa, and let them rip each other apart."

One could have heard a pin drop in the Hokage's office. After a while, Jiraiya's seat creaked as the corpulent Sennin shifted and leaned back. It didn't take S-rank levels of observation to see the Hokage wasn't joking.

"Have you lost your mind, Minato?! First Naruto, now this?" Jiraiya erupted to his feet, snarling. His chair toppled to the floor with a crash. "Danzo and his zombie ROOT minions in charge? You're signing Yahiko's and Konan's death sentences!"

The Hokage was unperturbed, the younger man's weariness evaporating as he straightened, once more every inch the Hokage. Jiraiya distantly considered he could probably match the Old Monkey's composure. "Theirs and all of Akatsuki's, but only if the situation becomes unsalvageable. Konoha risks to be exposed too much by trusting in your students."

"You were my student too, Minato."

"I was," the blonde agreed, then his voice sharpened. "Now I'm your Hokage, a position you were offered before me, repeatedly, and refused, because you knew what the position entailed. I thought I did too, when I accepted. I only learned later. Now, it's my duty to uphold the Will of Fire at any cost, and your students are ultimately not Konoha. If you'd taken them back to the village at the time, things would have been different, but you didn't."

Jiraiya's fists tightened. "You can't ask me to forfeit them."

"I'm not asking, Jiraiya-sensei. I'm giving you an order to continue protecting Konoha as you've done for so long. We're Shinobi: sacrifice to the village is our duty."

Jiraiya stood, tall and terrible, and Minato braced himself for an outburst, or a stampede out of his office. He was rather shocked, however, when the big man's chest heaved, and a look of incredible sadness flickered across his face.

"You truly have grown into the hat, Minato," the Sennin said, and Minato knew it was no praise on his sensei's part. "You are following the path Sensei left for you more closely than you realize, and his mistakes too. Yes, we are shinobi, sacrifice made flesh, tools to the Will of Fire and the Village's well-being… but there's one thing I think the Professor never grasped, or accepted, and I'd hate to see the consequences if you didn't either."

The Toad Sennin turned around and made for the door in long, clanging steps. "You can ask someone to sacrifice only so much for a Village that gives little back and takes apart everything you've ever loved… before they say no." Minato didn't move to follow, nor he called after him with an order or a question: he didn't trust himself to speak. To him, Jiraiya was cycling through old emotions and memories. The fight with the Father's minions had likely taken more out of him than he was willing to admit. Or maybe he was more similar to Tsunade-hime than even he realized.

"Sensei circumvented that, often, by not asking. His blindness and prejudice cost us Maru, and his deafness made it so that my hime's loyalty to Konoha verges on finding her brother's killer. Me?"

He snorted, but there was no real humor behind it. "Look at me, Minato." He turned briefly over his shoulder, then averted his eyes. "Sensei took and took and took from us when we were grown men and woman already, loyal Shinobi of the Leaf, and left husks behind of the survivors. A man-whore, a vengeful drunkard and… whatever the fuck Maru has become. How long before a child, and one with such a headstrong mother, comes to see things as they really are, underneath the propaganda and fairy-tales? What do you think will happen when you reveal just what he's keeping at bay, on top of years of isolation, single-minded purpose and envy?"

On the door, as the privacy wards disengaged and the light dimmed in the office, if only by a fraction. Jiraiya turned to look at his student once more. "Listen to a fool, for once. Put people you can both trust to guard Naruto, and let him live, let him be happy, like Nawaki-san and Mito-sama did before him. You saw the signs: the other Villages are gathering their forces. Another War's coming."

The privacy seals died, the door clicked shut and Minato Namikaze was alone in his office.

AN: So, stuff. I've seen a lot of Abandoned!Naruto fics on this website and most include a favored twin sister, mustachio-twirling absent parents for no good reason and Criminal/Survivalist!Naruto. Here's my own spin to the concept, plus stuff. And a few minor OCs (save one), because I need to repopulate two entire clans from scratch.

For those confused (tell me if you are, it means I failed to convey parts of this story), Minato has married into the Senju Clan, which is still very much kicking. He has a daughter, Tamako Namikaze, from his wife Aiko Senju… and of course he's Naruto's father.

Again, this is not a bashing fic. Minato IS quite OOC, but I think it's justified since he went through some very crucial decisions before and after becoming Hokage, and more importantly, to crown his 'dream'. Yes, Nawaki Senju was the previous Container of the Kyuubi, not Kushina. No, neither him or Tsunade could or can use the Mokuton. Nor will Naruto.

Also, yeah, Obito and Rin are alive. So is Kakashi. And your guess on the Father's identity is probably right.

Don't forget to review, ok? That's pretty important to me right now.