Author's Note: Sorry it took an extra day. I totally forgot yesterday was Friday, and I almost missed Saturday too! Anyway, better late than never?

Chapter 14: The Fifth Shinobi World War

Naruto had been feeling really good that morning, before Hyo showed up.

Despite the fight he'd had with his husband, things for Naruto were looking up. His genin were progressing nicely, to the point where he was considering entering them in the next chunin exam already. They'd need a bit more training to truly make them combat ready, but they were everything and more than his own genin team had been at that point.

And under Tsunade's tutelage, he was becoming more and more the Hokage the Konoha deserved of him. Sure, he wouldn't be able to go out of the village on missions, and he would be relegated to a desk job, but he was slowly learning about the politics necessary to be a good Hokage.

Tsunade had even commended him on his opinions regarding Konicho Nakamura, the former Mist ninja. Shikamaru had reported that he was given a psych evaluation and deemed safe to live in the village. He had a roommate/partner who was a member of the Foundation, keeping an eye on him at all times. He seemed to enjoy working at the Konoha Police, and he had given Ibiki and Inoichi some good intelligence about the Mist.

Naruto was savoring the feeling of being right when Hyo decided to barge into the room, and everything happened so fast from that point.

Tsunade stood up angrily and glared at him. "Who do you think you are, just charging in here without a knock?"

Shizune hurriedly followed Hyo through the door. "I'm sorry Lady Tsunade, but he refused to wait."

"There's no time to wait," Hyo said, handing the Hokage a scroll. As Tsunade looked it over, he spoke. "This is a matter of the utmost importance."

Naruto noticed Tsunade's hands forming into fists, and the paper crumpled beneath her hands. She walked around the side of her desk to stand at the window, facing the village. He was about to speak up and ask what the scroll said, but Tsunade spoke before he had a chance.

"Shizune, send an ANBU squad to the border with the Land of Hot Water," she said authoritatively. "They are to secure the border and make sure the fighting doesn't so much as touch the Land of Fire."

"My Lady, what—" Tsunade turned her head as Shizune spoke

"Quickly," Tsunade said, almost snarling. "We don't have much time. I'll tell you when you return." Naruto's eyes turned again to Shizune, who bowed her head and left without another word. "Hyo, I want you to tell me everything you know. Now." She turned her whole body back to Naruto and Hyo.

"Not much beyond what's in the scroll, my lady," Hyo admitted.

Naruto was surprised to hear Hyo so subordinate. The only time he'd really been exposed to Hyo was at Konicho's interrogation, and he seemed to be as insubordinate as Danzo had been. It must be because of whatever the scroll said.

"Leave us," Tsunade commanded him, and he only hesitated a moment before following Shizune out the door. When the door closed, Naruto finally felt like it was the appropriate time to ask.

"What's this all about?"

She threw the crumpled scroll at him, and he deftly caught it. He flattened it out and read it, dreading every letter.

War has broken out. The Mist fights the Stone in the Land of Hot Water. Mist fleet: 300 ships and 15,000 ninja. Unknown numbers of Stone.

The message was brief and to the point, probably sent from a spy in the Mist.

Naruto had never been very good at geography, but he had a basic enough knowledge to know about the Land of Hot Water. It sat to the north of the Land of Fire and to the South of the Land of Lightning. It was coastal, and the only land without a major ninja village along the coast, making it the perfect landing spot for a Mist fleet. It was quite far from the Stone village and the Land of Earth.

"The Tsuchikage knew that the Mist would land there," Naruto surmised. Tsunade turned to look at him with a curious look. "If the Mist had the element of surprise, then they would have landed and would meet the Stone further west. If Hot Water is the battleground, then that means that Stone ninja were already moving east, expecting war."

"We all expected war," said Tsunade. "I'm not surprised the Tsuchikage sent ninja so far east. Now the fighting is far enough from his own borders that the Mist can't attack his civilians."

"What about Kumo?" Naruto asked. "The Raikage will likely send a squad to secure his own border with the Land of Hot Water. Do you think they'll get involved?"

"The Mist doesn't want any more villages to be involved," Tsunade assured Naruto. "They might have a powerful military, but they know after Konohamaru was killed and the others were attacked, the Leaf will join the Stone if we enter the war, and the Sand will follow us. By landing a fleet on the mainland, they have started the war, and I'm sure Lord Raikage will see it that way as well. The Mist can't fight three or four enemies so far from their home, and they know that."

"So we're safe," said Naruto, looking for reassurance.

"Either side would be crazy to try to alienate and make enemies out of the other villages," Tsunade said.

Naruto nodded and stood up, anxious to leave the room. He didn't just stop there. He needed a breath of fresh air.

His feet ended up taking him into the village, to the place that he always went when he felt like shit. Naruto sat down at the ramen bar, and looked up at Ayame. She wordlessly went to making his usual, and Naruto was grateful that she didn't try to strike up friendly conversation like usual. He wasn't in the mood for that.

Failure.

The word kept bouncing around his mind. That's all he really was, right? He remembered the prophecy that Jiraya had been told. This pupil will become the harbinger of a great revolution in the ninja world. They will finally bring peace to the world, or utterly destroy it. The result of their revolution would be one or the other.

Well, his revolution was short-lived at most, and didn't bring any sort of lasting peace to the world. But if he didn't bring peace to the world, then did it mean he was destined to destroy it?

Ayame placed a cup of ramen before him, and he mumbled a thanks before grabbing his chopsticks. As he lowered them to the bowl, it all disappeared. The world spun around him in a cloud of smoke for a moment, before he was precariously dropped in a dank room.

The drop disoriented him, but as soon as he had a moment to look around, he understood. The same thing had happened to him long ago. He didn't even need to see the toad to know what it meant. People weren't just summoned to Mount Myobaku without reason.

"Naruto!" came the voice of the shriveled Fukasaku. "I hope we didn't disturb you."

Of course you did, Naruto thought to himself, but he didn't say that out loud. He looked over at the old, green toad and his wife, Shima. Naruto didn't even realize the two married toads were still alive. "It's all good, Pa," Naruto said, masking his misery with a grin. "What'd you bring me here for?"

"The Great Toad Elder wishes to speak to you," Shima told him. Naruto was grateful that she seemed to want to get straight to business, although it intrigued him a bit that she sounded so serious.

The two bickered as they led Naruto down the familiar hallway to the Great Toad Elder, but Naruto blocked them out. What could the Elder want?

They finally reached the Elder's chamber, where Fukasaku had to introduce Naruto to the Elder and remind him that he summoned Naruto there himself.

"You have a prophecy for him, remember?" Pa had urged the ancient toad. Another prophecy? I wasn't even able to achieve the first one yet.

"Ah, yes...Naruto," the Elder said, apparently having just remembered what the point of the visit was. Naruto couldn't help but wonder how old these toads got before they croaked.

"How do you have another prophecy for me?" Naruto asked. "I'm still working on the first one—a revolution to bring peace to the world, and all that."

"You are not the revolutionary, Naruto," the Toad Elder said. Naruto felt his heart leap to his throat, and the word failure bounced around in his mind. A part of him whispered to himself 'if only you'd succeeded, then you would be the revolutionary.' "In the prophecy I gave to Jiraya, I called you the harbinger of revolution. You light the way for the true revolution.

"From your lessons comes the creator and the destroyer. One who will destroy the world as you know it, and one who can rebuild it from the ashes. Your eyes shall know both the end and the beginning. Your eyes will see all, but there are eyes that shall see naught. For the most special eyes are the ones most blind in the end. The eyes shall see."

Naruto just stared at the Elder in confusion. "You mean that I will be the teacher of this revolutionary, not Jiraya?"

"Jiraya's lessons to you enabled you to bring this revolutionary to their full potential. The eyes shall see."

"What does that mean?" Naruto growled, confused.

"The eyes shall mark the revolutionary. Eyes that have seen misery, eyes that have seen triumph. The eyes shall see the destruction and the creation. But these eyes will also see a betrayal that could stomp out the flame of revolution before the spark is lit. The eyes shall see."

"Therapy?"

"Can you not say it so loud?" Ino hissed, lowering her head. She looked around the restaurant, and sighed when she realized no one was looking at her. "Yes, Choji, therapy," she whispered.

"Are things really that bad with you and Shikamaru?" Choji asked, the concern evident in his face.

"It's not about me and Shika," Ino corrected quickly. "It's Temari and Shiminama. I'm telling you, she wants him back."

"Shiminama?"

"Temari," Ino snapped. "She wants Shikamaru. There's no other reason for her showing up at the house all the time. She always has an excuse. Today she actually came over to ask Shikamaru if he wanted to go out and spend some time the three of them as a family. A family! Can you believe that?"

"Maybe she just wants Shiminama to spend time with both her parents at once," Choji suggested.

"Whose side are you on?" Ino pouted. Choji wouldn't understand why she was feeling this way. He didn't see the lingering looks. Temari wasn't the only one giving them. Choji seemed to be staring off to the right, so she kicked him under the table. "Well?"

"Your side," Choji quickly answered. "But seriously, you don't think there's a chance that you're overreacting? Seeing things that aren't really there?"

"Are you calling me paranoid?" Ino snarled, her temper flaring up.

Chojii opened his mouth to answer, but shut it promptly as he noticed their waitress coming from behind Ino. She looked familiar, but that wasn't very odd considering she and Choji usually went to the same BBQ place for lunch every couple of weeks. But there was something about the waitress that Ino felt she should remember.

"How's the food?" she asked.

"It was great as always," Choji beamed, content with a full stomach.

"Think we can get the check, Maya?" Ino asked, reading her nametag. Suddenly, she remembered why Maya stuck out to her. When Naruto surprised them at the BBQ place a while ago, Maya was the one who helped when Choji started to choke on his food.

Maya bowed politely and walked away to get the check, and Ino noticed Choji's look. She smirked and nudged him under the table.

"Choji has a crush," she whispered playfully in a sing-song tone, and Choji turned red as a tomato. Ino looked over her shoulder at Maya. She had long, flowing black hair that stopped at her lower back. She had a medium-sized build. Her hips were a little wide, compared to Ino, but her breasts were a bit larger. Ino turned back to Choji.

"You should ask her out," Ino urged, making Choji's blush deepen.

"I don't know how to ask a girl like that out," he protested. "She's so out of my league."

"You're a great guy, Choji," Ino reassured him. "If she doesn't want you, then that's her loss. But you won't have any chance if you don't try." Choji began to shush her as Maya came back to the table.

"Here's your check, miss," Maya said, handing the paper to Ino.

She practically snatched it out of Maya's hand. "Thank you. I'll see you later, Choji, and I'll tell Shikamaru you said hi." As she walked to the front of the restaurant to pay, she felt proud that she'd name dropped Shikamaru. Choji would have a better chance if Maya didn't think he was on a date with her.

She waited a few minutes outside the restaurant for Choji to come out. When she was about to walk back inside to see what was taking so long, Choji finally left the restaurant, looking towards the ground. When he saw her, he seemed surprised to see her standing there. All he did was shake his head, and Ino went to hug him.

"She said she was seeing someone," Choji said with a shrug. Ino could tell he was trying not to look miserable.

"You're girl is out there somewhere, Choji," Ino told him. "She's just playing hard-to-find."

"Is this a joke?" Ako asked irritably. "I don't have time for this."

"I promise you, it's one hundred percent real," Saki insisted, pushing the rest of the box towards her brother. He placed the newspaper article on the floor and began rummaging through the photos and newspaper clippings. Saki reached over and picked up the first clipping, the one that started it all. She wondered how her parents could have kept this a secret from them for so long.

Konoha Hero set to marry the Last Uchiha!

Yes, you read that right. After years of rumors surrounding Naruto Uzumaki (19) and Sasuke Uchiha's (20) love lives (recently, Uzumaki was rumored to be dating Ino Yamanaka, while Uchiha was believed to be in a relationship with Sakura Haruno), Konoha's most eligible bachelors are finally off the market and engaged...to each other!

"Sasuke and I have been in a relationship for a while now," Naruto Uzumaki, son of the Fourth Hokage and village hero, said yesterday during the announcement. "After a lot of thinking and talking, we have decided it is time for us to take our relationship to the next level, and that includes going public."

In an announcement that shocked the entire village, Uzumaki revealed that he and Uchiha have been engaged in a secret relationship for over a year. Of course, the largest shock to everyone was that both Uzumaki and Uchiha are, apparently, gay.

"I support both of my former students," Kakashi Hatake, 'the Copy Cat Ninja,' told this reporter after news broke yesterday afternoon. "They are wonderful people, great friends, and will be amazing husbands to each other. That is all I have to say."

Uzumaki is heavily favored to be Lady Tsunade's replacement as Sixth Hokage. He is the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox, and the village's savior during the Invasion of Pain. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, he became internationally renowned as a hero, defeating the Ten-Tailed Beast and Obito and Madara Uchiha.

Sasuke Uchiha is a favorite to become the ANBU Black Ops director. He is the only surviving member of the Uchiha clan (and due to his apparent sexual preferences, will likely be the last Uchiha). He defected from the village at the age of thirteen, but made amends and rejoined the village two years ago during the Fourth Shinboi World War.

The wedding will take place on October 7, the anniversary of the outbreak of the War, just days before Uzumaki's 20th birthday. The wedding ceremony will be open for all to attend, and will take place at the Hokage Mansion. The reception, however, will be invitation-only.

We here at the Konoha Sun wish the best for both Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha.

"Where did you find these?" Ako asked Saki as he continued to rummage through the box.

"They were hidden in Mother and Father's closet," Saki admitted. "I was looking for practice scrolls, and I didn't want to wait for Father to come home."

"Hidden?" Ako asked as he pulled out another newspaper clipping. "Listen to this:

"Disaster Strikes the Wedding of the Century

"The wedding of Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, two heroes of the Fourth Shinobi World War, was sure to attract a lot of attention and even a bit of craziness, if only due to the open-invitation of the event. However, the wedding was the place of tragedy and disaster as an enemy of the village attacked the grooms mid-ceremony.

"Despite the rainy and windy weather, both grooms had decided to keep the ceremony going as planned. Little did anyone know that the weather foreshadowed the misery of the event.

"Details are still emerging about who the attacker is, as well as the motives behind the attack. However, one thing is certain. Before the vows were finished, an attack was launch, beginning with a barrage of flying paper bombs that were set off at the altar.

"As chaos erupted and the attack began, the guests evacuated the area quickly. All shinobi present were set with evacuating villagers in accordance with emergency plans, save for a select few who stayed to fight the attacker.

"During the attack, the weather grew out of control. Experts are saying that yesterday's hurricane was caused by the attacker, who exhibited a variety of weather-related jutsu. Lady Tsunade and Naruto fought the attacker while the storm ravaged the village and took countless lives. In the end, Naruto ended the attack without killing or capturing the culprit, and Lady Hokage was rushed to the medical center with extreme wounds.

""Lady Tsunade is expected to recover shortly," Shizune, the assistant to the Hokage, told this reporter. "Until she is ready, Kakashi Hatake, Naruto Uzumaki, and the village elders will be taking over the Hokage's duties."

"I read about that attack on the village," Ako whispered quietly. "It didn't mention the wedding, but it mentioned that it was the worst attack on the village since the Invasion of Pain. I didn't realize it was this bad, though."

"So this attack happened when Father and Naruto-sensei were supposed to be married?" Saki asked. "What happened after to stop them from marrying?" Ako looked back at the box and pulled out another newspaper clipping.

"This," he said, passing it to Saki.

Naruto Uzumaki Dead!

Naruto Uzumaki, the son of the Fourth Hokage and three-time village hero, has died on a classified mission, according to the Fifth Hokage, Lady Tsunade.

"It pains me to have to tell you that Naruto Uzumaki has died," the Hokage told a group of reporters at a press conference. "He was sent on a mission that remains classified, and was ambushed by a squad of enemy shinobi."

The Hokage would not say if the mission and the shinobi were related to the attack on Konoha which happened just weeks ago. The attack, by Harame Mogiko, killed nearly a hundred civilians, caused over one million ryo of damage, and left the Hokage in the hospital for a week following the attack.

Naruto Uzumaki leaves behind no family except for pseudo-widower Sasuke Uchiha. The two recently announced their relationship to the world, and were set to marry on the day that Mogiko attacked Konoha. The couple never managed to tie the knot before Naruto's death.

The rest of the article acted as a bit of a biography of Naruto-sensei, talking about his years with Team 7, his notable accomplishments before, during, and after the Fourth Shinobi World War, and his personal life. Saki would have read more about it, but she was more concerned with how the three articles they found pieced together.

"So they really were engaged," Ako whispered soft enough that Saki almost couldn't hear.

"Why did Naruto-sensei fake his death and not tell Father?" Saki wondered out loud.

"I don't know," Ako admitted. "But a lot of people have a lot of explaining to do."

Kiba didn't particularly enjoy missions like these, but he wasn't really able to pick and choose what missions he went on.

He usually liked missions that involved some action, a chance to put all that sparring and training to use. On missions like these, he felt like he was a glorified detective. Not only that, but missions like these tended to get depressing.

So far, it had been eight boys who had disappeared, all between the ages of ten and fourteen. It wasn't a very large village, either. Only about two or three thousand people lived in this village. It sat between a port village on the end of the southeastern peninsula and a larger village on the mainland, so it saw a decent amount of travelers and foot-traffic, if not a lot of residents.

The entire area seemed to be a lot quieter lately, however, and Kiba knew why. The peninsula sat at the south of the Land of Fire, near some of the smaller island nations. But it was also the major trading port between the Land of Fire and the Land of Water. Usually, that was enough to keep the economy down here thriving. But the world was at war now, and the Land of Water was one of the combatants.

He had sent his other teammates to interview some of the parents of the missing boys. Kiba didn't have the stomach for it. It was hard for him, as a father, to look these people in the eyes and promise to bring back their boys. He'd heard stories of situations like this before. What Tsunade had called 'a few' disappearances was much more, and it was obvious to Kiba that it was kidnapping. One boy was even pulled from his bed at night and his parent's murdered.

When he first arrived, Kiba talked to the police 'chief' of the village. In truth, the man was more of a one-man show around there. It's not like there was usually a lot of crime to deal with. But he seemed to have a decent understanding of the situation.

"Otonaka Village has also had a lot of disappearances," Haro, the chief, told Kiba. "In such a large village, it isn't usual to have a large amount of crime and disappearances. But their chief tells me that the situation is getting out of control as well."

"How many?" Kiba asked. Otonaka, the port village, was at least ten times the size of this small village.

"Nearly a hundred," Haro told him solemnly.

"That means it's likely that our kidnapper is more focused on Otonaka than here," Kiba surmised. "The base of operations is either in Otonaka or between the two villages. Do you have any suspects?"

"No one I can name, no," Haro admitted. "But we have had multiple villagers report a mysterious, hooded man who appears every few weeks before another boy is taken."

"What have you done about this hooded man?" Kiba asked.

"There isn't much we can do," Haro defended. "I haven't really seen him, and people only report his presence after the fact."

"Is there any pattern to the kidnappings?" Haro pulled out a bunch of papers from the file on his desk.

"Each kidnapping has happened at night," he explained. "Usually in the early morning. The only one we were able to pinpoint the time on was the double murder. The bodies gave us a bit of evidence, but not enough to find this man." He pulled his straw hat off his head and placed it on the desk. "It usually happens every 2-3 weeks. It's much more frequent in Otonaka than it is here, and there have been times where multiple boys have disappeared at once."

"Is it the same thing in Otonaka?" Kiba wondered. "Boys between the ages of ten and fourteen?"

"They've been as young as eight and old as seventeen there," Haro told him. "Their chief insists that they've come close to capturing the man before, but I think he's full of it."

There was a knock on the door. When Kiba opened it, Sima was standing there with Amaro. "You're done with the parents?" Kiba asked, receiving two nods in response. He turned back to Haro. "How long has it been since the last kidnapping?"

"Fifteen days," the chief told him. So you're overdue, Kiba thought. He nodded and excused himself, Akamaru following behind him.

His team knew not to talk about the investigation where there could be other people listening in. They made their way back to the inn where they were staying. Mata was already waiting for them there.

"Whoever the kidnapper is, he's a trained shinobi," Mata told Kiba when the door shut. Mata was about twenty-eight, a solid decade-plus younger than Kiba, though the two got along the best out of everyone on the team. Mata reminded Kiba of himself at that age, still always joking around. Sometimes, when he was around Mata, he acted like he had when he was still a chunin.

"What makes you say that?" Kiba asked.

"These pictures." Mata laid a set of pictures on the ground, and the rest of the team began to look at them. Before Kiba could get a good look, he felt Sima press a little closer to him, so he politely shuffled away. She seemed to take the hint and didn't follow.

The pictures were all of the bodies in the murder. It was over a month ago, but it was still the most solid lead they had. During the kidnapping, something went wrong, and the kidnapper was forced to dispose of the parents when he took their child, an eleven year old. Each picture was a different angle.

"The parents were former shinobi from the Mist," Mata explained. "They were trained shinobi, and they were taken out without too long a battle. And look at the way they were killed." Kiba had already seen the pictures once, and didn't really look forward to seeing it again.

The mother's head was still intact, if not on her shoulders. The body was laying at least a foot away from where the head ended up. She was obviously decapitated in one clean swing.

It was the father that was more gruesome. On the other side of the room from the mother, the father had been injured already in what appeared to be a fight with the kidnapper. In the picture, he was sitting up against the wall. The thing that made the picture so gruesome was the head, however. It was not decapitated like the mother's head, but it was smashed against the wall to the point where it wasn't even recognizable anymore.

"Kabutowari," Amaro whispered from beside Kiba.

"What?"

"Kabutowari," Amaro repeated. "It is one of the swords belonging to the Seven Ninja Swordmen of the Mist. It consists of a two-sided axe connected to a large mallet with a chain." Amaro pointed to the photos. "It looks like when the parents attempted to save their son, our kidnapper first decapitated her with the axe and then battled the father."

"That's consistent with the crime scene," Maka confirmed. While Amaro and Sima had been interviewing parents and witnesses all day, Maka had been looking over the crime scene of the murder. "The furniture was smashed, and there were holes in the walls from both a blade and a blunt object."

"The Mist is still in possession of Kabutowari?" Kiba asked Amaro.

"After the Fourth Shinobi World War, the locations of the Seven Swordmen's blades were varied and scattered," Amaro said, as if he was reciting it from a textbook. Amaro was a younger shinobi, very bookish, who had a fascination with ninja weapons. "The locations of many of the swords are unknown. Hiramekarei is still in the possession of Chojuro of the Mist, for instance—"

"I don't care about all of them," Kiba cut through. "Who has possession of Kabutowari?"

"S-Sorry," Amaro whispered with a bow of his head. "Kabutowari, along with two other swords, were returned to Kiri by the Shinobi Alliance after the War. Suigetsu Hozuki tried to re-establish the Seven Ninja Swordsmen after the war, but ended up failing because he didn't have all the swords. A Mist shinobi—I don't remember his name—had taken Suigetu's sword and attempted to come into possession of all the legendary swords. I'm not sure how far he got, but he likely took possession of Kabutowari."

"What's the point of being a walking encyclopedia if you don't even know the guy's name?" Maka growled.

"Back off," Kiba said irritably. "I don't want us fighting over this. At least we know that a Mist ninja is responsible for this." I wonder how Tsunade will react when she hears that a Mist shinobi is behind these attacks. The world was at war, and this wasn't going to help the situation. He turned to Amaro and Sima. "What did you two learn from the parents?"

"Not much at all," Amaro admitted. "The parents I spoke to don't know anything, but they all talked about a hooded man who appeared before each child was taken."

"I heard the same thing from the parents I spoke to," Sima confirmed.

"We're keeping an eye out tonight," Kiba told his team. "The village is due for an attack."

There was no attack that night, nor the next night. After the first night, Kiba sent Sima and Amaro to Otonaka village to talk to their chief of police. He wanted to stay behind with Maka in case the attacker struck again. He and Maka slept in shifts during the day—Maka in the morning and Kiba in the afternoon. After the second night, when there was no attack, Kiba began to get nervous.

There had still been no reports of a hooded man in the village, and both Kiba and Maka had been making the rounds by night. Kiba began to wonder if the attacker knew that they were there, and was keeping a low profile until they had left. After that night, Kiba told Maka that they'd continue their surveillance in secret. They didn't want to scare the attacker away or they'd never get to the bottom of it.

But there was nothing the next night, or the night after that. It was almost three weeks since the last attack, and Kiba was beginning to wonder why the attacker had stopped. A part of him was also wondering why Amaro and Sima had yet to make contact with him since arriving at Otonaka.

Shiminama leaned back on the metal roof, enjoying the heat on her back. Konoha was so much colder than Suna had been, but the metal roof was hot and felt like home. She closed her eyes, enjoying the peace for the first time in a long time.

There was no quiet, even up here. That was another thing she'd have to get used to about Konoha. In Suna, even during the day, there wasn't so much of a hustle and bustle. People stayed inside when it got too hot or dry, or if a sandstorm was brewing. There weren't many nice days where people felt comfortable being outside just for the sake of being outside.

It wasn't just kids playing, and it wasn't just people walking from destination to destination. Konoha was an outdoor village. People shopped and walked around and had fun. They had different bars—noodle bars, soup bars, salad bars—so that people could eat while they were outside. People talked and had casual conversation. And there were a lot of people.

People were outside much later in Konoha too. In Suna, though there was no rule against it, people just didn't go outside after dark. When it got dark, people were home with their families. Even those without families tended not to stay out late. But in Konoha, the lights never went off in the main section of the village. Even after most shops were closed and people were asleep, there would still be the occasional person out for a walk, and streetlights to light their way.

It was a strange place, and Shiminama didn't really feel like she understood it.

The village itself was overwhelming, which was part of the reason why she'd ditched her parents. The other reason was her parents.

Her mother had sauntered over to Shikamaru's house earlier this morning and asked if he could take off some time to spend with her and Shiminama as a family. Ino practically exploded, and Shiminama couldn't really blame her. She knew her mother was trying to make moves on her father. Which was yet another reason she couldn't stand to be around her.

Truth be told, Shiminama was starting to like her new family. Her father was a pretty good guy, and he had a dry, sarcastic humor that Shiminama appreciated. Ino was...pleasant. She didn't really like Shiminama, but she did what she could to make her step-daughter feel welcome. Shikamira was definitely taking to having a sister, and Shiminama didn't find it to be as bad as she'd thought it would be.

But her mother was insufferable, which was probably the opposite adjective Shiminama would have used to describe her two months ago.

Temari didn't understand that she should give Shiminama some space. She was always coming over trying to get her to spend a day or night with her. It was bad enough she followed them from Suna in the first place.

And her father kept trying to make things okay between the two of them. Like today, when he agreed to spend the day together. Temari had tried to take them shopping, but Shiminama was not going to let that happen. She ducked out while Temari was in the changing room, and found the nice, metal roof to lie on.

The heat on her back and the wind in her hair. It felt like home...she missed home...

...

When she woke up, the sun had already started to set, and the temperature had dropped considerably. The roof was no longer hot, and the wind had seemed to stop, and she wondered when she'd fallen asleep. Mom and Dad are probably freaking out.

She jumped down off the roof, crouching down upon impact to avoid hurting her knees. I really don't care, she decided. Temari deserved to worry, and...well, Shikamaru didn't deserve that, but she was still annoyed by the entire day.

She decided that she'd go back home after eating some dinner. She'd skipped lunch, and her stomach was starting to rumble. She walked down a few streets until she recognized a particular ramen bar that Shikamira had shown her a few weeks ago.

She greeted the woman behind the counter and ordered pork ramen. When she turned around to start cooking, someone sat down near Shiminama. It only took her a moment to recognize him.

"Ako," she said when the name came to her. He turned to her with a bit of confusion, but seemed to remember her.

"Oh, hey..."

"Shiminama," she supplied.

"Shiminama," he repeated. "Right, Shikamaru's daughter." He mouth curled into a smile, but his eyes looked distracted by something else. "How have you been?"

"I've been worse," she answered casually. "What about you?" He gave her a questioning look. "You look like someone kicked your puppy."

"Just...family stuff," he said, playing it off with a shrug.

Shiminama gave a chuckle. "I know that feeling." He raised an eyebrow at her. She said, "Mommy issues," as if that explained it all.

"What a coincidence," Ako smiled, "I have some Daddy issues today."

"Then I guess we're quite the pair, huh?" The ramen woman turned around and placed a bowl of pork ramen in front of Shiminama before taking Ako's order. When she turned back around to make his dinner, Shiminama moved a seat closer so she was sitting next to Ako. "Want to talk about it?"

"Not really," he said. Shiminama felt a little stupid, having moved over to sit next to him when he didn't really want to talk. She resigned herself to just awkwardly eating her ramen next to him before he spoke up. "Eh, what the hell." He sighed. "I found out today my father's gay."

"Sasuke Uchiha?" Shiminama asked, a bit taken aback. Ako nodded.

"Well, he might not be gay, but he was going to marry Naruto Uzumaki before he faked his death."

"Your father was engaged to Uncle Naruto?" Shiminama asked, more than just a bit taken aback this time. Ako gave her a weird look before he understood.

"Right, you're Gaara's niece," he said, shaking his head. "I forgot for a minute there."

"Uncle Naruto was engaged to your father?" Shiminama repeated, almost as if it didn't compute the first time. She'd never considered that either of her uncles had any sort of romantic history before each other. They'd been together since before she was born, and neither had ever shown any interest in other people.

"Small world," Ako mused before nodding. "My sister found a box in my father's closet that had a bunch of pictures of the two of them, and a couple of newspaper articles that talked about their relationship and Naruto's death."

"Does Uncle Gaara know?" Shiminama wondered, more to herself than to Ako. But the Uchiha answered anyway.

"Probably. From what I could gather, when they came out, it was big news. My mom must have known about it, but I don't understand why she'd marry him if she knew he was gay." He was contemplative for a moment before speaking out loud. "It might explain her drinking problem." He seemed to realize what he was saying as he said it, and immediately looked like a deer in headlights.

"Drinking problem?" Shiminama asked.

"Don't repeat that," Ako practically begged. "I shouldn't have said that." He shook his head and cursed.

"Are things okay at home?" Shiminama asked, a little worried. His mother had a drinking problem and his father sounded uninvested in their marriage. No wonder Ako looked like someone told him Christmas was canceled.

"Things are fine," Ako snapped. An awkward silence came afterwards, more awkward than before he'd begun opening up.

"I think I'd better go home," Shiminama said, standing up to excuse herself. She put down enough money for the ramen and a tip on the counter. "My father's probably very worried."

"I'm sorry I yelled," Ako said.

"Oh no, it's fine," Shiminama brushed it off. She left the ramen stand quickly, and decided that jumping on the roofs would get her home faster than walking. Things are so much crazier here, she thought as she went back to her house.

Author's Note: We're starting to get to some of my favorite early parts in the original story. And though we're fourteen chapters into this fic, we've only caught up to around chapter three of the original. So there's still a lot left to go to the story. I'd guess that the story will end up being ~80 chapters long, but it might be a bit shorter or even longer.