...I really need to stop saying things like "next chapter is basically done" and "will be up in a couple weeks." I just wind up jinxing myself.

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy amidst the COVID-19 chaos. Please, be safe. Don't panic, get reliable information from reputable sources (ie World Health Organization, CDC in the US), and practice good ol' hand-washing and social distancing. Be kind to each other, and to yourselves. The world hasn't seen something like this in over a century (since the "Spanish" flu of 1918), but we are far better equipped now than people were back then. All the same...look out for each other.

Now for a bit of escapism!

Chapter 24: So Long, Farewell

"There's some stuff you should know - about your mother, your birth, and about what happened the night she and Minato were killed."

Kaiya immediately turned her full attention to Jiraiya, nerves tingling, her mind already jumping from idea to idea of what it could be. "Wait - if this is about our parents, shouldn't Naruto hear it too?"

"I'll tell Naruto all of this when he's a bit more ready to hear it," Jiraiya assured her. "But since you're not coming with us, I figured I should let you know now. Everything I know about the Kyuubi attack comes second-hand, mostly from Sandaime. The first thing you need to know is that the Kyuubi didn't just appear outta nowhere; it escaped."

Escaped? That implied a prison, but unless the Kyuubi had previously been in some holy relic, that meant… "Are you saying…it was in someone else?"

He gave a grave nod. "In your mother, in fact."

For a long moment, Kaiya just stared blankly at him while the information - and everything it implied - sank in. Her mother had held the Kyuubi. Her mother. The smiling, bright-eyed young woman in the photo album had held the Kyuubi. Someone before Naruto held that thing, there were people who knew about this, and - her face blanched - it had something to do with her parents' death.

"The Kyuubi cannot be taken from Naruto without also taking his life," Sandaime had told her. Was that true for anyone who carried it? Was that how…

After what could have been two seconds or two full minutes of silence, Kaiya stuttered out, "What - how - why-"

"It's a long story that goes back to Konoha's founding, if not before," Jiraiya began, taking her utter astonishment in stride - though he swallowed another cupful of sake before continuing. "Back to when the idea of 'chakra monsters' wasn't so foreign. Nowadays, people think of demons and all that like they're the stuff of fairy tales; truth is, it wasn't so long ago that some powerful ones roamed the earth. We don't see 'em anymore because some people - some Shinobi - found ways to contain them, control them. Think of summoned creatures: They come from a sorta…parallel dimension, I guess you could say, touching ours but not fully in sync. There are stories, though, of times when such creatures would cross over on a whim."

Kaiya thought of Ojii-san's story and of the masks at the Uzumaki Temple, each resembling a nightmarish entity from storybooks. A chill crept under her skin. "The Uzumaki Temple...I saw the masks they had there, and there was this summoning script...they're the ones who contained them, weren't they?"

"They specialized in it," Jiraiya confirmed with a nod. "It's one of the things that made them so feared. But the Bijuu…even the Uzumaki had a hard time figuring them out."

"The Bijuu?" Kaiya asked, testing out the word on her tongue.

"'Tailed beasts,'" Jiraiya explained. "That's what they call chakra monsters like the Kyuubi, since they've all got some number of tails. Every country's got its own stories about them." He ticked a few off on his fingers. "Go to the Land of Wind, and you'll get tales of the demon 'Shukaku' turning fertile land into barren desert. In part of the Land of Lightning, people claim a devil cat with two tails once haunted the countryside. Depending on where you go and who you ask, you'll hear tales of people building temples and worshiping Bijuu like gods, offering anything, even their own lives, in order to appease them. Others saw them as a sort of natural disaster, like a tornado or tsunami, unpredictable, destructive, a thing to be ridden out and survived."

His face darkened with a frown. "One thing they all agree on: the Bijuu are powerful - and it's in human nature I guess to want to possess power. There were ways to contain the Bijuu, and ways to manipulate them, but not both at the same time. At some point, someone came up with the idea to try using human beings - a natural vessel for chakra that can also shape and mold it. Thing is, it's not that easy to pull off. The Uzumaki clan was the best with Fuinjutsu, and even they couldn't get it right. Figures that an excommunicated Uzumaki would be the one to crack the code," he said with a wry smirk.

"Uzumaki Mito," Kaiya filled in, seeing where this was going.

"Yep. Pretty much everyone knows the story of the Battle at the Valley of the End, where Shodaime fought with Uchiha Madara. Most people know that Madara used the Kyuubi during that battle, controlling it with his special Sharingan. What they don't know is what happened to the Kyuubi afterward. The common belief is that the Kyuubi dispersed, either on its own or thanks to some power of Shodaime's; in reality, it never left Konoha. After the battle, Shodaime's wife, Uzumaki Mito, sealed the Kyuubi into her own body, becoming the first successful 'Jinchuriki' as they're now known ."

Kaiya blinked rapidly. "Why doesn't anyone know about this? Wait - how do you know about this? And what do you mean 'they?'"

Jiraiya held up a hand to stop her flow of questions. "I know 'cause Sandaime was my sensei. He trusted all three of us - me, Tsunade, Orochimaru - with this because we were strong enough to be helpful if anything ever went wrong. As for the general public…they didn't need to know, and it was in Konoha's best interest to keep the Kyuubi as a secret weapon. We already had enough reputation to keep most enemies at bay; flaunting too much strength would've tipped the scales, incited those enemies to team up and take us down…like what eventually happened to Uzushio."

Kaiya nodded slowly. It made sense; one of the unwritten rules of their world was that you never showed your entire hand except in dire circumstances. That was true for individual ninja and Hidden Villages alike. "But…you said there are other 'Jinchuriki.' How is that?"

Jiraiya tipped his sake cup back and forth, considering. "It's one of those paradoxes you find all too often in the ninja world: A strict secret that somehow, people know about anyway. It's like…once Mito-sama succeeded in becoming a Jinchuriki, others followed suit, making their own. Copycats, I guess you could say. But so many were unstable that to this day they're mainly used as deterrents, weapons of mutually assured destruction that keep the villages just on the edge between peace and conflict."

Unstable…deterrents…weapons…The words rang in Kaiya's head. They made her think of Gaara, the desert boy whose own father treated him like nothing more than a volatile grenade to be let loose among enemies. These other villages…did they even consider their 'Jinchuriki' to be people? Or did they just see them as another tool? "Jiraiya…what happened to the 'unstable' Jinchuriki?"

She almost didn't have to ask, almost didn't want to hear the answer - because she already knew. She'd known back when Sandaime had used phrases like "Naruto was brought to the Academy" and "has been allowed to proceed to Genin." She'd known when she first heard Gaara's story.

Jiraiya must have known why she was asking, because he replied, "They don't last. But that's not going to happen with Naruto - I promise you that. He's got too much of your mom in him to let him fail, and your dad made one hell of a seal."

For her own sanity, Kaiya chose to believe him rather than let herself linger too long on the panic-inducing 'what-ifs.' His determination, at least, brought her some genuine comfort. "So…how did my mom end up as a 'Jinchuriki?'"

"Simply put, it was because Mito-sama got old," Jiraiya said. "Konoha's only option for keeping hold of the Kyuubi was to create another Jinchuriki, and Uzushio had the perfect candidate: your mother."

Of course Konoha wanted to keep the Kyuubi, Kaiya thought bitterly. Granted, she didn't like the idea of the Kyuubi being free either, or under another a potential enemy's control. With a grimace, she was forced to admit that there probably wasn't another 'good' solution. "So they needed to keep the Kyuubi in another person. But why her? Why my mom, and not…"

"Someone else?"

Heat spread up her neck. She'd basically just admitted to wishing that fate on someone else, as long as that 'someone else' wasn't her brother, her mother. How was that fair?

"To be honest, I'm a little vague on the details there," Jiraiya admitted, rubbing his chin. "Something about her chakra was special, even among the Uzumaki. Whatever it was, it made her ideal for imprisoning and neutralizing a chakra monster. From what I understand, as soon as they identified her as Mito-sama's successor, they sent her on over to Konoha. She was probably five or six at the time."

Kaiya blanched, her mouth going dry. "They did that to a child?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "Well, Tsunade could probably explain it better, but kids are just better at adapting to major changes in their chakra systems."

'Major change' seemed a wildly mild way of putting it. Kushina was taken from her home, maybe even from her family, to a foreign country where she was made to carry a monster. She didn't come to Konoha of her own volition; she was excommunicated by her home in order to become another village's weapon. And she was only a child. Kaiya had been the same age when she lost everything, but at least that had been something out of most people's control. Her mother's fate, however, had been decided and carried out long before she could have any say in the matter. "That's…"

"Something that had to be done," Jiraiya finished for her, probably sensing her bewilderment and disgust. "Otherwise we'd have lost hold of the Kyuubi, and it could terrorize unsuspecting towns on its own - or be used by one of our enemies. Knowing Kushina, even if she'd had a choice, she'd have chosen to become the Jinchuriki if it meant protecting innocent people."

A small, bitter voice in Kaiya's head wondered if that was true - not whether her mother would've chosen so selflessly, but whether it would've been a fully informed decision. Trust your leader…obey orders…these tenets were drilled into her from childhood. History claimed that their current system was far superior to what existed in the Warring States Era, or the "dark ages" before that. Shinobi kept the world in order; if they didn't, chaos would reign.

Yet Kaiya now wondered just how true or right any of that was. For a moment, she tried to imagine a world where children weren't used as sacrifices for the greater good, where innocent civilians weren't assassinated for the sake of secrecy.

A world without war…

"How much of the world is 'right,' and how much of it is just what we've gotten used to?" she wondered aloud. "I mean…you're saying that my mom would've chosen that, but look at the choice she was given. Was there really no third option?

"If there was, your father might not have had to seal the Kyuubi into Naruto," Jiraiya pointed out.

Kaiya had to admit that he had a point, though she did so grudgingly. She stared moodily into her drink. "What happened that night?"

Jiraiya set his cup down with an audible 'clack,' shaking his head with an expression of age-old frustration. "No one knows - and what's truly maddening about it is that by all rights, everything should've been fine. We already knew the seal would be at its weakest during childbirth - natural redirection of chakra and all. But Kushina had you, and that was under far less ideal circumstances."

"What do you mean?"

"You were two months early," Jiraiya said. "Totally unexpected. The Third War was already underway, ninja medics were needed on the field - including the designated midwife. Even Sandaime was away, trying to negotiate a treaty that went nowhere. As it so happened, I was in the village at the time." He shook his head again, this time with a bewildered quirk to his mouth. "Not something I'll easily forget, let me tell you."

Kaiya turned to him with narrowed eyes. "You were there when I was born?"

"I was there the whole time," he confirmed. "Not alone, thank the gods and the Sage and all that is holy - a friend of Kushina's was around who'd just had a baby herself, and the Anbu on duty to watch your mom found a trustworthy medic to actually deliver you. Surprisingly good one actually, especially for a civilian. I just monitored the seal, but I'll be honest, I was mostly winging it."

Imagining Jiraiya helping in any way to deliver a child was certainly unnerving. If anything, she could sooner see him doing anything to escape such a situation. That he'd helped in her birth…it boggled her mind to the point that she didn't know what to think or feel. She almost wanted to be angry with him again. He'd helped deliver her, and when she and her brother needed him, needed some sort of caring adult in their lives, he stayed away!

Then something clicked in her head about what he said - something that stopped her anger cold and made her mouth go dry once more. "Wait - you said a friend of my mom's was there? One who'd just had a baby?"

Jiraiya rubbed his chin in thought. "Ah, what was her name? Right! Hard to forget, really - it was an unlikely friendship. Dark-haired beauty, wife of the Uchiha clan's head."

"Uchiha Mikoto," Kaiya supplied, the name falling from her lips before she could think better of it.

"Yeah, that was it!" Jiraiya arched a brow at her. "You remember her?"

She swallowed and shook her head slowly. "Not exactly…"

Her pulse pounded in her ears. Her face felt numb, and she had to remind herself to breathe. Just how much of her life had involved the Uchiha family?!

Jiraiya lifted a hand as if to touch her shoulder, then withdrew it. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she lied, pushing back her bangs and forcing herself to focus on the present. She had to know more; maybe there'd be answers in the rest of his story. "Just…thinking. Keep going."

He gave her a long, probing look before resuming. "Well…in the end, you were out, and your dad made it back in time to finish repairing the seal. There was a bit of a shitshow afterward, though. The Council was less than thrilled that a civilian medic and Mikoto-san were in on the Jinchuriki thing. The whole village might know about Naruto today, but back then, the Kyuubi's status was kept strictly confidential. I argued that it was a need-to-know situation, your father backed that up, and I think Sandaime was just glad nothing had gone wrong." His lip curled like he'd swallowed something exceedingly bitter. "Danzo was practically out for blood over it, though. He seemed less bothered about the civilian medic than about Mikoto-san being there."

"Why?"

"Because she was an Uchiha," Jiraiya said flatly. "There's always been some bad blood concerning the Uchiha, even before Madara's defection. But really, I think Danzo was more pissed off at the idea of her telling her husband, and by extension, the entire police force."

Again, the only thing Kaiya could respond with was, "Why? I mean, I'd think if anyone could be trusted with village secrets, it's the police."

"And you'd be on one side of an age-old political debate," Jiraiya drawled. "Because the Uchiha police force was created to basically be its own entity, independent even from the Hokage. That's why they never held an office; it would've been a conflict of interests."

Never held office? Was that true? Hikaru would know. It struck her as strange, though she couldn't put her finger on why.

"So in theory," Jiraiya continued, "the police force had the power to investigate any issue, even ones concerning Anbu or the Council - not that it ever really came up. I think people like Danzo, who value secrecy above everything else, resented that, since it meant they could make such secrets public if they wanted. He and his Foundation tried more than once to disband the police force, while folk like your dad actually wanted to expand it, opening it up to people outside the Uchiha clan. Ultimately, it was a question of secrecy versus transparency. I guess you could say the Foundation won, since there hasn't been a police force since the massacre."

Kaiya's brow furrowed at this. She hadn't thought about it much, but Jiraiya was right: the police force was never reinstated after the massacre. In Konoha, civilian crimes and misdemeanors were dealt with through the Hokage's office, often in the form of low-level missions. If a Shinobi was suspect, Anbu took over. That meant all affairs in Konoha, Shinobi and civilian alike, were under the watchful eye of the Hokage and the Council.

But who watched them, now that the police force was gone?

"Of course," Jiraiya added darkly, "the Kyuubi attack didn't help their case, either."

"What do you mean?"

"Two things happened that night that damaged the Uchiha's reputation," Jiraiya said. "One: They ignored a direct order from Sandaime to join the front lines against the Kyuubi. Instead, they stayed in the back, overseeing the civilian evacuation."

Kaiya's breath hitched. "What?"

Jiraiya shook his head, his expression torn. "Some said that Fugaku-dono countered the order as a form of retaliation for not even being considered for the Hokage position. Utter nonsense, of course - as police chief, he couldn't have been nominated, even if he had the inclination. Again, conflict of interest. Besides, I never took him for the 'petty' sort. No official accusations were ever made though, and the Uchiha never offered any excuses. At least, not on record."

He gave her a pointed look as he spoke, making her narrow her eyes. "What about off-record?"

"I went to talk to the head family myself after Sandaime told me all of this," he said, leaning back and crossing his arms. "Caught Mikoto-san at home, but she was a changed woman from the last time we'd met. Cold. Tight-lipped, though maybe that shouldn't have surprised me. I didn't get much out of her, just that, and I quote, 'The clan was following orders - just as they always had.'"

"But they didn't follow orders that night," Kaiya protested, her face scrunching in confusion.

"That's what struck me as weird," Jiraiya agreed. "But then her husband came home, and, well, you know how it is. You read the room, the room is hostile, you take your leave before things get ugly."

That was true enough. Yuuma had taught her never to overstay her welcome with a mark, except in exceedingly rare circumstances. There had been no danger to Jiraiya or his 'mark,' she presumed, so it was better to leave before either side grew too heated.

"You said there were two things," Kaiya brought up. "What was the other?"

He sighed and turned his cup around in his hand. "You." Another pour, another swallow. "Naruto's birth was planned down to the very last detail: the where, the when - they actually induced labor once she reached full term - and most importantly, the who. You were not to be near the birth site, of course. Too risky. The Council wanted to put you in a safe house with an Anbu detail; your parents had a different idea."

He paused long enough for Kaiya to guess. "Wait - you're saying...no…"

"Yes," Jiraiya countered. "You were to stay with a particular family friend: the head family of the Uchiha clan. I think your parents knew you well enough to know that you'd never just sit still and behave for a bunch of boring, masked operatives. You were too excited about your baby brother, too impetuous, too much Minato and Kushina's child: a dangerous mix of his brains and her impulsiveness. Anyway, they figured you'd be easier to guard if you were with someone you knew, someone with kids you could play with."

Kaiya felt the world tilt a little around her - not the blackout-inducing vertigo of finding those photos, but a shift she was beginning to expect whenever the Uchiha were brought up. Somehow, it no longer shocked her that Itachi had been part of yet another key moment of her life. Instead, she just felt exhausted, tired of the omissions, of having bits of her own past in anyone's head but her own.

"What happened to me that night?" Kaiya asked, her voice rough.

Jiraiya's face darkened. "According to Sandaime...no one really knows. Only he, the Council, your parents, and the Uchiha head family knew of your whereabouts that night; Fugaku and Mikoto even took an oath not to tell any other Uchiha. Mikoto-san took responsibility herself, saying that in the chaos of the evacuation, she'd turned away for only a few seconds; when she turned back...you were gone."

It made a tragic sort of sense. Kaiya had done some missing persons cases for civilians in her time, including a few concerning children. It was a common thread among the parents' accounts: They'd only been gone for a minute, only turned away for a few seconds. It was long enough, though. It always was.

But - a suspicious part of her mind spoke up - Uchiha Mikoto, wife of the police chief, would have heard of those sort of accounts. How easy would it have been to claim such a thing in order to cover up some other nefarious truth?

"Seems...convenient," Kaiya muttered, mostly to herself.

"I'm pretty sure that's what most of the Council thought, too," Jiraiya said. "It's not something I want to believe, especially of a friend of Minato and Kushina's. Nothing was ever proved, of course, but I can't help but wonder if the whole creation of the Uchiha district happened because of the whole Kyuubi thing."

"They weren't always in their own district?"

"Oh no," Jiraiya said. "Actually, of all the clans in Konoha, the Uchiha used to be the most integrated. I think Mikoto-san lived just a block or two away from your folks back then. Sure, they had their own particular customs and beliefs, as all the clans do, but they were spread out all over the village."

This perplexed Kaiya almost as much as the revelation that she'd been with Itachi that night - or perhaps it was simply an easier topic to dwell on. She'd thought of the Uchiha clan as insular, proud, and that their isolation was their choice. Itachi and Shisui had been the exceptions, she figured; the few encounters she had with other members of their clan, especially at Shisui's funeral, only made her more sure of this.

That the Uchiha hadn't always been so isolated - no, that this wasn't even something she'd known about was just strange. Did Hikaru and Gorou know anything about it? Hikaru hadn't lived in the village before coming to the Academy, but he made a point of knowing its history and politics inside-out. Gorou's family had been here for generations; maybe his mom could shed some light on this.

That would have to wait until later. For now, Kaiya forced her attention back to the more painful implication of Jiraiya's account. Uchiha Mikoto had been another connection to her family, and she never even tried to reach out. Kakashi's words from the night before returned to her then. Sandaime and the Council told anyone who might recognize you not to approach you.

Her jaw tightened. "Did the Council keep Uchiha Mikoto from us? Or did she just…"

Jiraiya sighed. "I don't know. Maybe."

Kaiya wasn't sure who she was more angry with: the Council for forbidding contact with the woman who'd been so important to her mother, or the woman herself for allowing it. Kaiya wouldn't have given a crap about Council orders; if her friend's kids were suddenly orphaned, she'd have looked after them, orders be damned.

Not for the first time, Kaiya was hit with the all-consuming need to remember what had happened that night. She couldn't explain it, but it seemed imperative that she did, as though that one night held all the pieces of her incomplete puzzles. But how could she regain memories lost through physical trauma?

Or…her stomach gave a nauseating lurch. What if the trauma hadn't been physical at all?

"Jiraiya," she began, "what did Sandaime tell you about how I was found? Was I actually hurt?"

He gave her a confused look. "Well…yeah. You were out for a few days. It wasn't until Sandaime was visiting the wounded personally that you were recognized, and he said you'd been hurt badly."

Kaiya wasn't convinced. Now that the idea had taken root, she simply couldn't let it go: What if her memory loss hadn't been from an injury, but from something else? Genjutsu, as she knew all too well, could put a person in a coma for weeks, and it could affect free will. Perhaps it could also affect memory.

It was hard to imagine Itachi being able to pull something like that off at age five. But he was a prodigy…or maybe, a dark part of her mind suggested, another Uchiha could have.

Kaiya pushed her drink aside, unable to stomach it with the bile rising in her throat. Her vision seemed to squeeze, darkening around the edges, her ears filling with the sound of her own breath. The pocket-dimension bar suddenly felt stifling, airless, closed in.

"I need to get out of here," she croaked, staring straight ahead. "How do I get out of here?"

Jiraiya was visibly concerned, but for once, didn't demand an explanation. Kaiya almost welcomed his guiding hand against her shoulder blade as he brought them out of the toad's stomach; she took no notice of how exactly they reached the open air, just ran toward the sunlight when she saw it. Leaning against a tree trunk, she breathed the chilly air deeply and focused on the feel of bark against her back. Little by little, the panic ebbed away.

"You okay?" Jiraiya asked hesitantly, staying a few feet back to give her space.

"Yeah," Kaiya lied, willing it to become true. "Just…lots to process."

"Uh-huh," he intoned flatly, crossing his arms over his broad chest. "Anything you need to tell me?"

"No," she answered quickly - too quickly. She swallowed. "I…don't want to talk about it. Not yet."

Pushing away from the tree, Kaiya paced along its roots, raking her twitchy fingers through her hair. "We should get back to Naruto. Probably wondering where we got off to. Um…for now, can you not tell him about Uchiha Mikoto? It's just…it complicates things, and they're already going to be complicated, so…"

Jiraiya was watching her as if she was a cornered, feral animal that might flee at any moment. When he spoke, his tone was slow and placating. "All right…I'll give him the short version. If he asks, I'll say you were staying with family friends, but they died. Not a total lie."

She nodded. "Thank you."

True to Jiraiya's word, time moved differently in the toad's stomach; outside, only a few minutes had passed. When they returned to Naruto, he greeted them with a sour pout and averted eyes.

"You two done talkin' about me behind my back?" he grumbled, scrunching up his lower lip. "Any chance I get a say in any o'this?"

Kaiya felt a pang of guilt. Only now did she realize that the whole time she and Jiraiya had discussed the training trip in front of him, they'd never actually included him in the conversation. They'd talked over him, about him, but never to him. He'd never been given the chance to choose whether he wanted any of this to happen. How many times had people decided things about her life without consulting her? And here she was doing the same to him. "Sorry, Otouto. If it helps, it wasn't really to do with you. Jiraiya and I had some other things to talk about."

Naruto still wouldn't look at them, but his narrow shoulders slumped a bit. "I just think you all shoulda asked me before deciding on this whole training trip, you know. It's my life, an' I'm not just a little kid anymore! Maybe I don't wanna go away for three years with an old pervert. Didja think about that?"

"Seriously?!" Jiraiya exclaimed. "You should be honored to be my pupil! It's not like I take on students lightly!"

"You only took me on 'cause of my dad an' 'cause I got this thing in me," Naruto shot back, his voice surprisingly soft despite the accusation in it. "That's why you came around at all, isn't it?"

Not long ago, Kaiya would have been almost relieved to hear Naruto realize this. Now she wondered if she'd poisoned his line of thinking with her own vitriol. Sitting at his bedside, she tried to catch Naruto's gaze. "I know what I've said about Jiraiya before - and don't get me wrong, he's still an old pervert. But he's the best possible teacher for you right now. He's familiar with your seal, is powerful enough to help you regain control if something happens…" She cut herself off. These were the wrong arguments; Naruto wouldn't care how many credentials someone had. "And he does care."

Naruto kept staring out the window, away from both of them. "But…if you aren't gonna come with us…"

"I'd just wind up distracting you," she insisted, taking his hand. "Believe me, I'm not exactly thrilled about it, but honestly? If I came along, you wouldn't be able to focus on your training. Not entirely. And it's not any fault of yours," she added quickly. "You know me. I'd fight this old guy on any decision that could put you in the most remote vicinity of danger. Besides, the whole point of this is to learn to control this, right?" She pressed her fingertips to his abdomen, over the hidden seal. "Part of that's going to involve actually losing control a little so you can learn how to reign it in. You wouldn't be able to risk that if you were worried about me being too close by."

Naruto's open face showed every minute shift of opinion as he listened, gradually relaxing out of its pout. "It's just…we just learned we're family, you know? And it's like you said: Sasuke's also kinda family. We should be finding him together."

"Kaiya's got that covered," Jiraiya said from behind her. "She's good at what she does."

Cheeks coloring, Kaiya sent a silent thank-you to the Sannin for his vote of confidence. "We both have our own projects, see? And I promise you: the minute I find Sasuke, I will send a message by toad."

Finally, Naruto looked at her, his eyes widening. "Wait - you mean…you can use toads too?"

"That's why Jiraiya needed to talk to me alone," she said with a grin. "You're looking at the newest member of the frog-summoning circle!"

A wide smile lit up Naruto's face. "That's awesome, ya know! Hey, hey, have you summoned Gamabunta yet? He's this really big boss toad, an' I got him once and he almost didn't listen to me but-"

That was all it took to start bringing Naruto around. Any frustration or indignation he'd felt seemed to evaporate once knowing that they had this in common and could use it to stay in touch. The conversation quickly turned to other things - where Naruto hoped to go on their journey, how now he'd be the one bringing back souvenirs for her, the crazy-strong techniques he was sure to learn. Kaiya relaxed and let his excitement brighten the dark shadows of anxiety and doubt in her own mind, giving herself over to his enthusiasm and letting go of her own problems for a few hours.

The very next day, Kaiya went to Tsunade to propose her idea for rescuing Sasuke. She told the woman exactly what she said to Jiraiya, though she left out that her first attempt at reading the Toad Sage's notes was...difficult.

"We need to act on this quickly," Kaiya argued, holding the notebook up for emphasis. "The longer we wait, the staler this information gets. Orochimaru won't follow the same patterns for long, right? He's too smart for that."

Tsunade sighed, leaning her cheek on an outstretched finger. "Let me stop you right there, because no matter what else you're about to say, I can't officially sanction this."

Kaiya felt her pulse flutter and her stomach drop. "If it's about resources, then just put Kakashi and me on it! We can do the tracking-"

"That's not the problem," Tsunade interrupted. "Honestly, I do believe you two could pull off that much, given enough time. But I don't have time to give you, and that's only the first issue." She dropped her hand to the desk, straightening in her chair. "Maybe you've forgotten, but Orochimaru was pretty damn interested in you, too. There's no way I could get away with sending you into his path on purpose, even with Kakashi there to protect you."

Kaiya chafed at the idea of Kakashi being her 'protector' in this scenario - she'd thought of it more as a 'partner' situation - but as much as she wanted to argue, she couldn't. She hadn't been able to do much against the Snake Nin on her own the last time they'd met, and she wasn't much better off now.

Tsunade's face softened a little. "I'm sorry, Kaiya. I know how important this is to you, believe me. The fact is, Sasuke left voluntarily. I can keep his name out of the Bingo Book for as long as he doesn't personally break any more laws, but as far as the Council is concerned, he's now a Missing-Nin. We don't do rescue missions for defectors, especially ones under the protection of someone like Orochimaru, and especially not when such a mission would incur so much risk."

Kaiya's blood boiled. The Council...again, they were getting in her way, and for what?! "You're the Hokage. You can overrule the Council, can't you?"

"On some things, yes," Tsunade said. "But it's a balancing act. They'll pull if I push, and I've already had to push on a few things - including getting them to agree to letting Jiraiya take Naruto away for training. The way they see it, since I've taken office, we've lost our last surviving Uchiha, and now we'll be three years without a Jinchuriki. They will not risk any more valuable assets."

Seething, Kaiya stopped herself from arguing further or saying what next came to her mind: If she couldn't get official permission, she'd just do it on her own. Of course, she couldn't say that to Tsunade. She'd be inviting the Hokage to put her under close watch and restriction.

Instead, she asked, "What would it take to change their minds?"

A satisfied glint entered Tsunade's hazelnut eyes. "Now you're asking the right questions. Well...if you could prove yourself capable and powerful enough to pull off this rescue, and if you could manage it with little to no risk or loss to the village...then, we could talk."

Kaiya nodded her understanding. There was time; as Jiraiya pointed out, they had three years before Orochimaru would be forced to change bodies again, and as she herself had said, the Snake Nin would want Sasuke to reach his full potential before taking him over.

She had three years - no, less than that - to form a plan that the Council couldn't argue with, and to get strong enough to pull it off.

"Keep in mind," Tsunade said as she turned to leave, "that while you've got a few years to work on this, you only have two weeks until Naruto leaves. Don't waste it chasing after someone who doesn't want to be found."

Kaiya gave another small nod. She was right; Sasuke wasn't the only person she cared about. Her baby brother was still here, at least for a couple weeks. As much as Kaiya trusted Jiraiya to return him safely, anything could happen in the next few years. While she couldn't allow herself to consider just what 'anything' entailed, she knew she'd regret not spending as much time with him as possible.

Though...there was one thing she wanted to finish before Naruto left.

Over the next couple of weeks, Kaiya made a point of spending quality time with Naruto. She showed him the box of their parents' things, wrapping him in the long red scarf and laughing when he tried on their father's overcoat (which dragged on the floor behind him). She even brought out the photo album. True to form, Naruto barely blinked at the presence of an Uchiha boy, nor did he seem to realize that the baby in the last photo was Sasuke.

She decided not to tell him.

When she wasn't with Naruto, Kaiya poured herself into her project, determined to finish it before he left. She took to setting up her barrier around her apartment whenever she sat down to work, wanting to be away from prying eyes.

The work and its deadline helped keep her mind off of things like Itachi and what he'd done, or Sasuke and what could be happening to him. She only attempted sleep when she was too mentally and physically exhausted to even lift a pencil anymore. For the time being, it seemed to work, letting her get a few hours here and there of uninterrupted rest.

It took almost the entirety of the remaining weeks to finish the formula, but at last, Kaiya did. By then, she knew its workings inside out and backwards, at least in theory. All that was missing now was the symbol - something to condense the formula and make it her own. She thought about something Jiraiya said when she'd gone to him for advice a few days before:

"Heh…Minato loved stupidly flashy names, so such a sentimental phrase made perfect sense! Went right along with his personal philosophy, too: Sword of enduring love had nothing to do with kunai or actual weapons. He saw himself as the sword, that he was a servant, a tool for his enduring love of the village and of the people in it. He believed that love fueled the Will of Fire, that it was what sustained him when all else fell. It was his anchor."

Sentimental, a bit sweet, and more revealing of her father's character than almost anything else she'd learned so far. But it wasn't her style.

Kaiya had never been one for giving her techniques flashy names. She thought of herself as more a pragmatist than a poet, and rarely bothered giving her jutsu names at all. Her barrier was just that - her barrier. Pretty much all of the named techniques she used were created by other people, and even when she put her own touches on them, she kept their old monikers.

So in what way could she make Hiraishin her own?

She was an Uzumaki. Perhaps some swirling pattern, then…but how much did she really identify with the nearly-extinct clan? So far, what she'd seen of them at the Temple made her feel more removed from them, not less. She knew little of their motivations or principles, just that they were great Fuinjutsu masters, feared by many, and that her mother came from their village. She identified with the name more as a connection with Naruto than as a point of pride.

Nin ai no ken…Her father had chosen that phrase because it meant something to him. It was him. Nidaime, too, had used a symbol that he connected too: something similar to his clan's crest, his first loyalty before Konoha was formed. Both men had believed in what their marks meant.

What did she believe in?

Barely a year ago, Kaiya would've said she believed in the village, in the Hokage and all that both stood for. Now the only thing she was certain of regarding Konoha was that it was a complex place layered with a mixture of lies and truths. She wasn't sure what to believe, couldn't imagine herself taking anything at face value anymore. Every supposed 'truth' was now a knot to be untangled, often releasing a dozen other 'truths' that had to be dislodged and examined. Meanwhile, the truths she actually wanted to find buried themselves deeper.

"Untangling a freakin' mess," she muttered to her empty apartment. "Story of my life…"

Actually…Kaiya put her pen to paper and sketched out a kanji character, one that had several synonymous meanings: Untangle…unravel…release…

It was a funny thing: growing up, she'd only ever spelled her first name phonetically in hiragana. Kanji was for people with families and histories, whose names were supposed to mean something; some still believed that a name was prophetic and decided a person's fate. As an orphan with no memory or known family, Kaiya's name had no meaning. It was just a collection of sounds that she somehow recognized as her own, so she was taught to spell it as such. She did write her false surname, Fuumaki, in kanji, wanting to believe she once meant something to somebody,

When she found the file with Namikaze Kaiya's death certificate, she also found how her parents had written her name. Two kanji characters, two parts of a strange phrase: kai, to release, unseal, or unravel; and ya, night.

Perhaps there was some truth to names being prophetic after all.

Maybe she wasn't sure what she believed in anymore, but she did have a purpose, a path. She'd been taught to see through guises, to break codes and open locks; now she'd use those same skills to find her way through the dark, to light up the shadows and expose what hid there.

She would do as her name commanded.

Kaiya took out a brush, ink, and blank tag. Into every stroke, she embedded her purpose. This would be one of her tools on that path. She didn't try to be neat in her calligraphy; life wasn't 'neat,' and she was certain there would be plenty of tangles ahead of her. Let the symbol reflect that, and let that reality be a grounding point. Into the symbol she also poured her love, for in that way, she was like her father: love was her anchor, her beacon in the night.

I never saw him so terrified as when he held you for the first time…

Love had created her, and love - along with every fear and anxiety that came with it - gave her focus, meaning, and purpose. It was the reason she fought, the reason she worked, the reason for mastering this jutsu at all.

Lifting the brush from the tag felt like lifting herself from a trance. She was calm, completely certain in her choice of symbol and that it had taken the imprint of her essence the way she'd intended. It was ready…now she had to use it.

Kaiya decided to try it right where she was, though she let her barrier down first in case it interfered with the teleportation jutsu. She'd have preferred to try this out in an open field, where there was more room for error and fewer walls to worry about, but she didn't want to risk being seen. Until she was ready to use this is combat, she wanted to keep it under wraps, an ace up her sleeve.

Setting the tag on the inside of her door, Kaiya walked a few paces back and closed her eyes. She pictured the kanji on the tag, let it overtake her consciousness like she would any seal. She felt her chakra light up within the ink, a beacon in the dark that only she could sense.

Everything was clear. Her chakra flowed cleanly throughout her body, in and out of her tenketsu points to join minutely with the world around her, and she knew - she understood - that there was no true barrier between her body and that world. Everything was just a collection of atoms held together by some cosmic energy…so what was the difference between her standing in this spot, and her being at the target?

Purpose.

She was ready, her physical and spiritual energy perfectly in sync and bound by that single purpose: be at the target. In her mind, she saw the Hiraishin formula in its entirety, every intricacy mapped, every symbol calling out to her. She poured her entire awareness into it until it became the only thing she knew - and she squeezed. Energy, matter, body, mind, chakra - it all came together in the split-second, and she was spinning, her atoms coming apart and reforming -

And then it was over. Kaiya stumbled, dizzy and nauseous, hand braced against the slightly uneven surface of painted wood. Once she could open her eyes without succumbing to vertigo, she peeked out through her lashes.

She was at her door.

Her lips stretched into a bewildered smile; she laughed, unable to believe her own eyes, yet the proof was staring right at her! Looking across the room and seeing the spot where she'd just been standing only confirmed what she already knew.

She did it.

SHE DID IT!

Kaiya tore the tag off the door and hurried back to her table. There was still much to do. She had to internalize her symbol and learn to create it at will with just her chakra. She had a lot of training to do to get rid of the vertigo effect, enact the jutsu faster, and eventually use it in motion. Then there were all the things Yondaime - her father had been able to do with it.

And that would be just the beginning.

But it worked - that was the important part. For now, there was only one thing she absolutely had to do.

The morning of Naruto's departure came much too quickly for Kaiya's liking, though she supposed she'd never be truly ready for it. It was cold, a low mist hanging a foot off the ground and swallowing the gray light of dawn. The faint sound of crows was the only sign of wildlife; this time of the year, they tended to be the most visible members of nature, unafraid of being out in the open while other animals sought shelter from the weather.

Kaiya walked with Naruto through Konoha's empty streets, every few minutes checking to make sure he had everything he needed.

"At least four days' worth of clothes? Including socks and underwear?"

"Yep."

"All your weapons packs?"

"Got 'em."

"How about rope? You'd be surprised how useful it is."

"I've got it, Nee-chan! 'Sides, Pervy Sage is loaded. If I forgot anything, we can just pick it up on the road, right?"

"But maybe not right away. Toothbrush?"

A long sigh, then a faltered step. "Um…"

By the time they got to Konoha's main gate, a small crowd had formed. Kaiya spotted Jiraiya easily, his large, hulking form towering over almost everyone else. Also there, one hand on her hip, the other stifling a yawn, was Tsunade, flanked by Shizune and Tonton. The blonde woman looked like she'd much rather still be in bed, her paler-than-usual face suggesting that she and Jiraiya must have shared a few drinks the night before.

To Kaiya's surprise, there were two other figures in the group. Challenging Jiraiya's height was none other than Gorou; Hikaru stood with crossed arms next to him. She'd told them about Naruto's upcoming departure, but hadn't asked or expected them to come themselves.

Gorou started teasing Naruto as soon as they came into view; soon they were engaged in a very serious battle wherein Gorou tackled Naruto to the ground and Naruto tried desperately to escape being tickled to death. Kaiya stepped around them to stand by Hikaru.

"You came," she muttered, genuinely surprised.

"Of course we did." Hikaru glanced sideways at her. "Are you all right?"

Kaiya had been determined not to break down when Naruto left; she wanted to send him off with smiles, not tears. But having her teammates here, knowing that they knew how hard this was for her, knowing that she wouldn't have to put on a face for them…it was almost too much. She managed a nod. "I will be."

"'Bout time you got here," Tsunade grumbled as Gorou graciously allowed Naruto to escape his normally inescapable headlock. "Kakashi's not rubbing off on you two, is he?"

"I'm not always late," insisted the low tenor of the silver-haired man, who stepped out from behind one of the gate's doors.

"Yes you are," chorused Kaiya with most of the others.

Kakashi's mock-offended stance brought a small smile to Kaiya's face. She hadn't seen much of him in the past couple weeks. He caught her eye and nodded. They had much to discuss, and they soon would; she trusted him for that.

"It's time," Jiraiya announced. "We got a lotta ground to cover today."

Kaiya went to Naruto, brushing some dirt off his jacket.

"I have something for you," she told him. "Something to go with that necklace you won..." Kaiya pulled from her pocket a small, frog-shaped pendant made from polished jade. "A little good-luck charm from your big sister."

Naruto turned the frog around in his fingers, pausing when he found what looked like an old-style kanji character emblazoned on the frog's stomach. "Huh? What's this say?"

Kaiya blanched as if she'd forgotten the symbol was there. "Oh - my attempt at personalizing it. I misjudged how big I was writing."

"I dunno," he said, a smile stretching across his face. "I think it looks pretty cool."

He swiftly strung the charm onto the necklace, letting it drop against his chest next to the pendant. Then he threw his arms around her neck. "I'm gonna miss you, Nee-chan."

"And I, you, Otouto," she whispered, squeezing him back with equal ferocity. They held each other for what felt like an eternity, but when the time came to separate, eternity was far too short.

"I'll keep an eye on him," Jiraiya promised with a nod.

"Thank you," Kaiya said, returning the gesture. She smiled at Naruto, her hands still on his shoulders. "Don't give him too hard a time, 'kay? And learn everything you possibly can!"

Naruto gave her a grinning salute. "Got it! You won't even recognize me when I get back!"

Kaiya ruffled his hair as she stood up, secretly hoping that wouldn't be the case at all. She didn't want him to change, not really - or at least, not in any fundamental way. Get stronger, yes; smarter…hopefully. But she hoped that when he returned, he'd still be Naruto. "Well, I'll still be here, same old, same old - though I plan to have a few new tricks up my sleeve, too!" She winked.

They didn't say goodbye, or farewell, or even 'see you later.' Neither of them considered themselves good at such scenes, and, Kaiya supposed, neither of them ever wanted to be. Naruto did wave at her as he and Jiraiya started down the path away from the village; she was glad that he only looked back once before disappearing into the misty forest. Any more than that, and she might have lost her composure and run after them.

Gorou put an arm around her shoulders, letting her lean against him as she continued to stare out after the two had disappeared from view. Hikaru remained by her other side, a quiet sentry assuring her with his presence. Kaiya stayed with them a moment, her melancholy thinning thanks to their tacit support.

Behind them, Tsunade headed back into the village with Shizune and Tonton in tow, the blonde woman complaining that Shizune wouldn't let her just go back to sleep at this point. Only when Kaiya and her teammates turned around did she see that Kakashi had also stayed, leaning silently against the gate's wall. Gorou gave her shoulder a squeeze before he and Hikaru excused themselves, leaving them alone.

Kaiya went to Kakashi, not sure what to say, but wanting to talk to him regardless. "So…"

"So," he echoed.

"Will you try taking on another team now?" Kaiya asked after a few seconds.

"Nah," Kakashi said with a sigh. "At least, not if I can get away with it. Plenty of work to be done for the village right now."

"Uh-huh." She nudged him in the side with her elbow. "You're just hoping for more reading time."

"Nothing wrong with enjoying a hobby." He lowered his voice. "By the way…that thing you gave Naruto: that mark wasn't a mistake, was it?"

Kaiya couldn't help it: she let a sly grin cross her mouth. "Nope. Won't be much use yet, but I'm working on it."

"So you figured it out?"

"I know, it's about time I did," she sighed. "I have the basics down, enough to say that yes, it works for me."

Kakashi's visible eye crinkled in a smile that, although barely visible through the fabric of his mask, chased away the morning's chill. "I knew you would get it."

Kaiya felt the heat of pride and something more tender and shy blossom behind her ribs. The warm feeling intensified as he shifted a little closer, and she had the sudden urge to lean against him now. It was just the cold weather, she reasoned to herself even as a faint blush rose up her neck. She was just chilly.

The warmth faded a bit as the weight of everything yet to come returned to her shoulders. While she recognized Tsunade's wisdom in waiting to pursue Sasuke, she still got anxious every time she thought about it. It wasn't just her fear that the intel wouldn't be useful for long; each day was another chance for Orochimaru to do kamis-knew-what to Sasuke. Kaiya hadn't let herself think too much about this before - it sent her mind to suspicions that would drive her mad with panic and despair for the Uchiha boy - but now the thoughts crept into her consciousness: Orochimaru's predatory gaze focused on Sasuke, the Snake Nin grooming and molding him into his perfect vessel…Sasuke losing all semblance of himself in the process, down to the last bit of fierce love that she knew still burned within him.

"Thinking about Sasuke?"

Kaiya jolted a little at Kakashi's voice. "Yeah."

"Me too," he murmured, his visible eye still watching the path Naruto and Jiraiya had taken.

"We need to get stronger," Kaiya declared, squaring her shoulders in an attempt to chase away her own worries. "So we'll be ready when we find him."

Ready to deal with Orochimaru, if necessary. Ready to give Sasuke a reason to come back.

Kakashi nodded, then glanced back into the village. "Agreed. First, though…breakfast?"

Kaiya blinked. She'd almost forgotten that it was still early morning, and that she hadn't eaten since…sometime. Or slept much. Breakfast seemed like such a normal occasion, so mundane compared to everything else going on. "Is anywhere even open yet?"

"Doesn't have to be out anywhere. I'm a decent cook." Just as her blush started to return - he was inviting her over? For a meal? Just the two of them? - he added, "Lots of ears out here."

Oh. This was about having privacy so they could talk. Kaiya tried to push away the sudden rush of disappointment she felt, then tried to pretend she hadn't felt it at all. Why should she be disappointed? There was nothing to feel bad about. Besides, he had a point. Privacy, even within the village - no, especially in the village - felt difficult to come by these days. Danzo's motives were still unclear. He wanted access to Uzushio, but why? How far was he willing to go to get it? Was he still watching her?

At least with Kakashi, she felt safe. Despite his lies of omission, she found herself believing in his sincerity with ease. He now knew things about her that even Hikaru and Gorou didn't, and not once had he ever judged her for poor decisions. Somehow, she trusted that he would help her however he could - not 'no questions asked,' but certainly without strings attached. She almost felt bad, like she should be reciprocating in some way, though she wasn't sure how to.

For now, though…breakfast sounded nice.

"Okay," Kaiya said softly. "Lead the way."

And so ends the first major arc of the story! Here's a little bit of what to look forward to in the next one:

-Sneaky sleuthing!

-More revelations!

-New lore!

-Kaiya makes some new friends from the canon-verse!

-Romance! (As in actual, present-day, not-just-stolen-glances-and-pining-thoughts romance with actual, live kissing. Likely more, too ;) Gotta earn this rating somehow, amiright?)

-Itachi returns, also in present-day!

...and omigod SO much more!

What are your predictions/hopes? What do you think of the story so far? Do you have a favorite character or portrayal? Are there any characters you think I could be presenting better somehow? Share your thoughts in the comments!

THANK YOU ALL for reading, favorite-ing, following, and reviewing! Seriously, feedback is part of what keeps me going when I hit a slump or a dead end, and I just love hearing from you. I've made actual friends since starting this crazy journey, and I hope to make some more along the way. And as always…

Stay Tuned!