Chapter Text
[December 24; Age 8]
Kakashi wakes up the next morning with no escape route in sight. There is no Nara boy at the foot of his bed keeping him trapped this time however, it is the knowledge that his Minato-sensei's daughter is staring at him from the doorway. It is the knowledge that she is well aware of who he is and what he's done in the name of grief and "following orders".
Which they are both well aware is a bullshit excuse. "Following orders" is what a coward says. Kakashi is a soldier yes, but he has also been raised to be an alpha of his own pack, in the Hatake way.
Alphas don't follow bullshit orders. He wanted to hurt her. Had needed to, so that he could hide from his own insecurities.
He cannot escape the wide blue eyes, so much like Sensei's. They pin him in place and start a fire under his skin and he burns.
The two of them stare at each other even as her eyes fill with tears and her scent turns to lavender and honey, the peculiar smell of her fear. He has always wondered why her fear smelled so calming and so sweet. He thinks that she is going to leave, going to wake up the rest of the house—Kakashi can tell that everyone is still asleep except for two other people; Nara Shikamaru and the green-headed teen who read Jiraiya-sama the riot act.
He smells the other two on either side of the doorway, as steady as any rock. The green-headed boy, Kotaro-san, smells like copper and vinegar, freshly tilled earth and sweat, and Kakashi can sense the fraught way that the boy is holding himself. Shikamaru, who is above honorifics in Kakashi's mind, is relaxed in the same way that all his clan are before they snap your neck with a shadow. There is an attentiveness to the boy that is directly focused on Naruto, the two children's scents intimately mingled together, a mix of grass and sunlight, thunder and rain. If Naruto smells like ozone and brine, storm and sunlight; Shikamaru is the forest and lazy nights spent counting stars in the moonlight.
It is a comforting scent, the mix of the two. It scares him, he is not a creature meant to be around such intimacy as this, even if this intimacy is between two children who are not carnally intimate—yet. It makes him uncomfortable, extremely so.
He thinks Minato-sensei's daughter—Naruto—is going to leave and run away as she normally does from him. She has always shied away from him when she was a toddler after she realized that he was not her friend and didn't like her. That Kakashi—as Dog—would drag her back to the orphanage, kicking and screaming, no matter what.
But she stays, silent and staring at him, tears making silver tracks down her face. The lavender and honey smell is overpowering.
"I…I am…I mean I don't—" The blonde takes a deep breath and swallows, the noise catching on the lump of tears that are clogging her voice. "I'm trying to be honest with people when they don't do things I don't like. Cause I promised that I'd try to stop being nice to people who aren't nice to me even—" Her voice is a warble of fear and anxiety. "Even if I'm scared. And,um…I'm scared of you cause you were mean to me and I thought you should know." Naruto coughs before nodding to herself. "So, yeah. I don't like you and don't want you hear cause you're mean and scary and you never apologized and you're supposed to when you do something bad—"
"You're right." Kakashi cannot continue to listening to this panicked speech filled with gasps and little sobs. He feels as if he's being ripped apart even if she's being so nice about it. She's always been such a nice child, even as a toddler.
"I know I'm right." Naruto says frowning at him sulkily. The tears have slown down and the lavender and honey smell is lessening slightly. Her voice is still choked with tears but its better now.
"You're really awkward dattebayo." Naruto says bluntly.
Kakashi blinks at her because she reminds him so much of her mother in that moment with that bluntness and the verbal tic. He misses Kushina-nee so much that it hurts even though he often thinks about Minato-sensei more than he does her, it doesn't hurt less. From what he can tell, Naruto is more of her mother's daughter than her father's with how she has approached him and the emotions behind her words. Kakashi cannot remember a time where he ever saw Minato-sensei cry or become emotional. Kushina-nee was always quick to cry and even faster to anger.
"So I've been told."
"People talk to you?" The blonde asks with a heavy amount of skepticism that Kakashi tries not to be offended at.
"Sometimes." People try at least. Gai does, but Kakashi has been avoiding him since he got out of ANBU, something that Gai forced upon him.
"I'll pray for them." The words are so sincere that Kakashi doesn't think she's mocking him.
"Me too," Kakashi says simply. Naruto stares at him with her tearstained face so much like her parent's and blinks owlishly at him.
"Also, I don't…I don't wanna be bound to you or anything. Cause I don't really want anything to do with you right now—or maybe ever—though I'm glad you didn't die when…Anyway, I'm gonna take it off so take off your shirt." The child orders and Kakashi freezes.
His back has healed from Tsunade-sama's loving ministrations but it's ruined, a mess of scar tissue where there was once a smooth back. He's become pretty insecure about his back, for good reason, he thinks. He doesn't know how Naruto is aware of the seal on his back that binds him to her, but he isn't exactly surprised. She seems to be a lot more observant than he ever gave her credit for.
But Kakashi still decides to play dumb. He doesn't want her near his back. "What do you mean?" He tries to smile at her, as much as one can smile when their face is mostly covered and feels terrible when she flinches away from him for a split second before steeling herself.
"I'm talking about the curse seal that I made that Tsuna-nee carved into your back."
"Curse…seal?" Kakashi had thought that he had gotten a regular seal, a fuinjutsu seal.
"At the time, I was learning juinjutsu which is fuinjutsu but…forbidden." The girl hesitates and looks at him with something akin to pity. "I didn't know that it was gonna go on you though dattebayo! And it was a regular seal before I made it…not a regular seal. Cause curse seals are used on people only while fuinjutsu can be used on both. I mean, juinjutsu can be used on other things besides people but its super complex and dangerous to do so cause—"
"Sunflower," Shikamaru interrupts and Naruto jumps. "He doesn't need to know all that nor does he care."
"Actually, I would like to know why my Sensei's child is learning such a cursed art."
"It's not cursed!" Naruto snapped at him, fangs flashing. "And anyway, it's part of my inheritance ya know! I'm gonna be the first juinjutsu and fuinjutsu master ever! Now take your fucking shirt off and roll over or I'll activate the fail safe and fry your balls off. It's not you're a man and need them."
Everyone in the room, even Naruto, froze in shock at the girl's words. There was a moment of silence before Naruto whimpered and whirled on Shikamaru who was slouching behind her.
"This is all your fault that I'm gettin mad and stuff ya know! Now I'm being mean!" She turned to Kakashi. "I'm sorry even though I meant it and I shouldn't have said—"
Kakashi held up a hand. "It's fine," he said stripping off his shirt.
The blonde sniffed tearfully while Shikamaru eyed him with distrust. Kotaro-san was the only one not facing him but that was probably because the teen was too busy laughing at him.
"Oh, and Naruto?" Kakashi waited until the girl had come closer to look her in the eyes. She frowned at him, head cocked. "I apologize and hope I can make it up to you."
She considered him for what felt like years. "I cannot accept your apology at this time, but I acknowledge it. So thank you."
Kakashi nodded at her. An acknowledgement was better than what he deserved. He rolled over onto his back to let her do her work.
Naruto feels much better after confronting Kakashi though she's not sure if it was much of a confrontation.
She supposes that most people talk back and all that when they're confronting each other but Kakashi had seemed almost scared of her which is weird cause she never did anything to him. So she's not sure what he's scared of cause Naruto thinks she's pretty nice and stuff.
Shikamaru hasn't stopped being a smug muffin the entire time though. At breakfast he keeps on smirking at her prompting her to try kicking him under the table and only succeeding in kicking Shikaku-touchan instead.
"Are you mad at me Little One?"
Shikamaru sniggered. "Yeah Naruto are you mad?"
Naruto hissed at him. Yume taught her how to do it and she'd practiced with Mata-chan. "I'm gonna put your head on a pike you insufferable rotting pineapple!"
"Oh? You sound a little upset. You should calm down." Naruto knows that her face is so read and she can smell the confusion of everyone at the table. Shikamaru is laughing so hard that he's crying and she's so annoyed with him.
Naruto is a mature individual so she's not gonna stoop to Shikamaru's level.
Which is why she launches herself across the table at him and sends them both rolling onto the floor, rice and miso everywhere, and Yoshino-kaachan scolding them for the mess.
Maturity means you get even and when they go low, you go to hell.
~*~
Yoshi-kaachan makes them scrub the kitchen and then Sasuke has to too cause Miki-kaachan caught him talking shit.
For once, Sasuke and Shikamaru ignore each other, focusing instead on cleaning their sections of the kitchen while Naruto tidies the dining room.
It is weird, this peace that she feels.
She has done a lot of crying and a lot of yelling over the past twenty four hours. She caused a blizzard where—thankfully—no one died, but plenty of people have bursted pipes and flooded homes but Naruto can't find it in herself to care. She made a promise to Shikamaru to not hide her feelings so much anymore cause obviously it wasn't really helping her and she talked to the person she was most scared of.
(She's still scared of Dog—Kakashi—but she thinks it won't be all consuming anymore. Hopefully. Eating breakfast when he was there was strange and uncomfortable, her food tasting like ashes the first few minutes of breakfast.)
There is still the worry there, at the back of her mind that demands that she smile and be happy and say everything is fine when its not. But the voice is smaller now, replaced with Shikamaru voice telling her that it is okay to feel and cry and hurt and scream and rage. Just because the village takes that as a threat doesn't mean it is.
She has been operating from a place where she has put herself in the shoes of the villagers, trying to understand their pain so as to not make them more miserable in her presence than they always are. But she is a child and they are adults (mainly) and it's not her job to fit into a role for them to feel comfortable and safe. It is their job as adults to make her feel safe as the child in this equation, Shikamaru said. And if they can't do that then they aren't worth her time or thoughts.
Naruto doesn't really believe this and Shikamaru knows this which is why he encouraged her to talk to Dog when she woke up with the man's scent on her nose, panicked and afraid. Shika hadn't even protested when she went and sniffed out Kota-nii, like he normally would have, because he knew that she needed Kota-nii to be there.
Naruto isn't sure if she'll ever believe what Shika is trying to tell her but she thinks it won't be hard for her to try. Try to believe and try to feel and try to be upset and try to act like her and not as Naruto the Kyuubi, the persona that the villagers have placed upon her. It is a scary thing this trying and she's not sure if she likes it but she knows that she needs it.
For the first time since arriving back in the village, since seeing the safety of Hisa-jiji, Hoshi-ba, and Yoshida-oji, Naruto feels…relaxed. She doesn't feel safe but Naruto thinks that she probably never will here in the Leaf Village. Which is not great, but it's okay. She will take being able to relax over the alternative state that she has marinated in these past few weeks.
[December 25]
"Touchan! Guess what?" Naruto-chan shouts as she bounces through the hallway and into the living room where Shikaku, Mikoto, Jiraiya and Asuma are trying to figure out how got rid of the snow that's frozen over from her little…episode. It won't melt through normal means, and fire jutsu don't seem to have effect.
Kotaro-kun is behind her, mirroring Naruto's excitement if the size of his grin are anything to go by.
"Yes?" Shikaku asks. The question prompts Naruto to skip towards him.
"My new neechan and niisan are here and they can help get rid of the snow dattebayo!"
It is Mikoto-chan who says what they are all thinking, "What?"
"My neechan and niisan are here and they can help get rid of the snow!" Naruto says with the same cheer. Behind her, Kotaro-kun looks like he's trying his best not to laugh but with the way his lips are quivering, Shikaku thinks he should just give it up.
"What Nara-hime means is that my counterparts, Chiaki Tomomi and Chigusa Yosuke have arrived in the village and cut a pathway to your house." Kotaro-kun smoothly interjects.
Naruto frowns. "That's what I said ya know!"
Kotaro-kun pats her head in a placating manner. "I know but adults can be pretty stupid Hime."
Naruto's mouth makes a small 'O' of understanding. "Yeah, they are pretty silly huh Kota-nii?" Before Kotaro-kun can answer, the blonde perks up, her head twisting around to face the door. "They're here!" She squeals and Shikaku hopes he'll be able to hear reasonably well in his old age. He loves Naruto-chan but she's so loud.
Naruto runs towards the door and wrenches it open to reveal two tall figures, a muscular blue-haired boy and a raven-haired beauty who stares at Naruto for half a second before scooping the girl up.
"Our master is sooooooo cute Kota-kun, Yosu-kun~" The raven squeals to Naruto's delight.
"I'm cute! I'm cute," Naruto cheers as the girl twirls around in place with Naruto in her arms in the entryway while Kotaro-kun sighs and the blue-haired giant frowns disapprovingly at her to no avail.
"The cutest~" The girl agrees.
Wordlessly, he gestures for a cigarette from Asuma, who doesn't hesitate to hand one over. He ignores Mikoto-chan's look of disgust as he lights up his first cigarette in about a decade.
He needs this. Mikoto can get fucked.
He doesn't even need to know that the two teens on his doorstep are a headache. The squealing from the girl and the no-nonsense vibe he's getting from the boy is making him crave a nap. And its only eight in the morning and even his wife, the earliest riser besides Naruto that he knows, is still out. Well, probably awake now with all the girlish giggling and screaming going on. But if Shikaku doesn't get to sleep in, he doesn't feel too bad about no one else being able to either.
~*~
Naruto-chan refuses to leave his office which is a first as the girl was normally quick to acquiesce to requests to leaving him to his work. He thinks that part of the reason she refuses is because Kakashi and Jiraiya are in the same room as the newcomers who have been revealed to be Chiaki Tomomi (the raven) and Chigusa Yosuke (the blue-haired giant). It is clear that she is afraid of Kakashi but it is harder to tell what she thinks of Jiraiya. Her face, normally so expressive and animated, is a blank slate of serene passiveness when she looks at the Toad Sage.
And since Naruto refuses to leave, his own son isn't going to—at least quietly—and Sasuke-kun isn't going to be left out if Shikamaru-kun is around so he has three children under nine, four teens around fifteen, and six adults—Asuma, himself, Kakashi, Mikoto, Jiraiya, and Yoshino—crammed into his home office. Tsunade-sama had forced her way through the snow to the hospital in order to help there when they received word in the middle of the night about a house collapsing under the weight of the snow turned ice during the night.
His home office is only made to fit five people at best and that's only if those people are normal sized and not doing their best to imitate the height of the Hashirama trees like the Lightning citizens are doing. Minato had been quite tall as well. He hopes that tallness is one thing Naruto doesn't get from her father's side of the family.
"Naruto—" Mikoto-chan tries to get the girl to leave so they can talk to the newcomers who really had found a way to melt the snow that wasn't the brute force way Tsunade-sama had. He'd had reports from three separate Jonin just three minutes after Tomomi-chan's and Yosuke-kun's arrival about how there was a clear pathway from outside the village to the Nara Estate. The path was large enough across for two ox-drawn carts to fit side by side and the shinobi who had some degree of mobility were taking advantage of it to reach their Hokage.
Before the pathway showed up, Shikaku had set up a mental connection with Inoichi to delegate tasks and make sure everyone was more or less safe.
"I'm not leaving. Hisa-jiji said that I'm his voice outside of Takumi so I gotta be here for my people dattebayo!" Naruto said stubbornly.
Shikaku knew that the old man was setting him up. First, he didn't mention anything about Naruto having a Kekkei Tota that allowed her to cause fucking storms, and let them believe that it was a result of hosting the Raiju. Second, the bastard left him with an unknown in the form of Kotaro-kun who didn't give a single shit about anything that wasn't Naruto-chan and was even more willing than Shikamaru to do something about anyone who fucked her over. Plus, the kid could control metal and do who knew what else. Pure Earth Release, left a lot to the imagination and Shikaku didn't really appreciate leaving anything to the imagination. Third, the Daimyo had put it in Naruto's head that the people of Takumi were her people, which was a clever way of making the girl more loyal to Takumi than the Leaf. From what Shikaku had heard, the blonde had had an amazing experience while she was with her father's family and considered them to be her family.
Shikaku wanted to be upset at Hisahito-dono for manipulating Naruto in such a way, but he couldn't lie and say that he wouldn't do the same if given the chance. Hell, he was trying to make an opportunity so that Naruto would care half as much about Konoha as she did the denizens of Takumi.
Furthermore, by telling the little girl that she was his voice outside the country, Hisahito-dono was effectively naming her his heir. Which Shikaku wasn't sure he could do without some kind of formal declaration but anyone who looked at Naruto-chan wouldn't need one. She looked just like the Usui she was representing.
"Do—Hatake-san—is not trustworthy and that guy," Naruto-chan pointed at Jiraiya-sama who was shamelessly ogling Tomomi-chan who didn't even seem to notice, "is a pervert! He won't stop staring at Tomo-chan's boobs!" Jiraiya-sama at least had the grace to blush at the accusation.
Tomomi-chan blinked at the man in confusion before looking down at Naruto. "Men normally stare at things they don't have Hime."
Naruto-chan looked horrified. "He's mad he doesn't have boobs?" She shot Jiraiya-sama a pitying look. "It's okay Pervert Spy, I'm sure you'll be a woman in the next life." Naruto said so innocently that Shikaku couldn't help but laugh because that was not what Tomomi-chan had meant at all.
He loved Naruto-chan. She always made things interesting even if lately those things involved a lot of paperwork.
Tomomi-chan for her part tried to correct her, "Oh Hime-sama that's—"
"Exactly what Tomomi-chan meant. You're very smart Hime-sama" Yosuke-kun said which was the first word that Shikaku had heard the teen speak and his voice was much softer than Shikaku would have thought it was. It was an airy baritone. Yosuke-kun was only a few inches shorter than Kotaro-kun who stood at about 6'6" but was much more muscular than the other boy who had the build of a dancer. If one would have told Shikaku that Yosuke was the one who worked in forges all day, he would have believed them. Yosuke-kun looked like he ate entire cows for breakfast and lunch then the rest of the herd for dinner.
Naruto seemed to glow with happiness at the words. "Thanks Yosu-nii!"
The teen coughed, a blushed spreading across his pale cheeks and both Tomomi-chan and Kotaro-kun stared at him in surprise. "Silence you imbeciles."
"No one said anything," Tomomi-chan muttered and shied away from Yosuke-kun when he glared at her.
"Be nice to Tomo-nee and Kota-nii, Yosu-nii!" Naruto told Yosuke-kun who sighed and apologized to the other two who stared again, wide-eyed at him. The two teens looked like a ghost had just come and introduced itself to them.
Shikaku cleared his throat. "Well, since no one is apparently leaving," he said staring at his son and Sasuke who both starred back unapologetically. "Let's get started with the obvious: why are you two here?"
All three teens looked at Naruto. The little blonde gestured Kotaro-kun towards her and made him bend down so she could whisper in his ear, Shikamaru looked amused as Naruto also gestured him over, even as he shoved Sasuke-kun into Shisui when he tried to follow. After some whispering, Naruto turned back to Shikaku and that same passively serene expression was back on her face.
"Chiaki Tomomi and Chigusa Yosuke are part of my guard." Naruto said finally after she seemed to get her thoughts together.
Shikaku raised an eyebrow and looked around the room to see both Mikoto and Kakashi in varying stages of bemusement while Jiraiya-sama seemed shellshocked. Shisui-kun had his younger cousin in a headlock that Sasuke was silently struggling to get out of, while Shikamaru looked like he was watching the most entertaining show in his life. The three Lightning teens were wearing their own versions of Naruto's blank face.
"Chiaki Tomomi and Chigusa Yosuke were not agreed upon as guards for you when your grandfather left you here Naruto-chan. Only Kajiyasaki Kotaro was. If there was to be any additions to your guard on Takumi's part, then it would need to be formally announced," Shikaku said seriously. He was partly amused but also impressed with the way Naruto was handling herself. She looked just like her father. Shikaku could understand Jiraiya-sama's reaction.
"Kotaro-san was given a copy of the agreement. Section II, Code Y states that in the event of reasonable harm being done to myself," Naruto paused and turned to Shikamaru who whispered something. Naruto nodded before turning back to Shikaku who was beginning to get a bad feeling. "Reasonable harm was not defined in terms of damage or time period. Therefore, reasonable harm can encompass the fact that I'm breathing the same air as Hatake-san right now or the fact that one of your citizens injured me in broad daylight only two days ago. Further, from what I understand, anything that can result in the instinctive use of my Kekkei Genkai means that I am in danger of being reasonably harmed."
Naruto nodded at Kotaro-kun who produced the agreement that he and Hisahito-dono had signed with Tsunade, Mikoto, Chigusa Yoshida and Usui Hoshiko as witnesses some weeks ago detailing Naruto's care and education. Shikaku took it from the boy even though he didn't need to. He'd written the damn agreement and knew it back to front.
"That's true," Shikaku admitted because it was. "But according to the agreement, you, Naruto-chan, have to request further assistance, Kotaro-san cannot do it for you. Which means that the Lightning delegation is not only trespassing but violating the terms of the agreement." Shikaku was sure that Naruto hadn't sent any letters to her grandfather nor had she gone to anyone about asking for more guards. He was, however, curious about what she would say in rebuttal.
Naruto didn't disappoint. "What you said would be true Tou--Hokage-sama," Shikaku smiled at her little slip up, "if I wasn't part of the royal family. It is a well established practice for the imperial families of the elemental nations to use intermediaries to speak for them. In fact, according to my grandfather, we've only started lowering ourselves to speaking to you as a show of goodwill and community. Why would I call for assistance for something that my vassal who is also my servant should do for me if they are a good servant?" The blonde said flippantly. He could see hints of the Uchiha better-than-you aura seep into Naruto's countenance. Those years with Biwako-same really left there mark it seemed. "According to etiquette, if I were to request assistance, it would be seen as an admission of abuse on your end which I'm sure I don't need to tell you is grounds for war with Imperial Family of Lightning? I can of course, ask one of my Raiju to tell my aunt's Tatsu about what happened—" Naruto snorted at the hiss of surprise Jiraiya-sama let out. "Did you think that I had no way to communicate with my family outside of letters?" The little girl asked condescendingly, still smiling that polite smile with nothing underneath it.
So she was her father's daughter after all.
Naruto gestured Kotaro-kun to come forward. "I tire of talking," the blonde said with an impervious nod. "Kajiyasaki Kotaro shall be my intermediary for the rest of this conversation." There was a growl from Naruto's stomach that belied the words. The blonde blushed but didn't lose her indifferent mask. "The Kyuubi gets very agitated in the mornings," she mumbled in response to Shikaku's raised eyebrow.
Turning, the blonde grabs both Shikamaru—who turns around to give his father a victorious smirk—and Sasuke out of the office.
"I just got played by a child didn't I?" Shikaku asked, not really expecting an answer.
Unfortunately, Mikoto-chan was more than happy to rub it in. "Like a damn koto. We should send her out on diplomatic missions cause that was pretty cool."
"Cool?" Jiraiya-sama said in disbelief. "You're just letting her do whatever she wants! This is exactly what Sensei was trying to contain—she's out of control and look what she's done to the village—"
"Your sensei is the reason why she doesn't trust anyone in the village and considers the people of Takumi her people and not us. Your sensei is the reason that that girl has trust issues a miles long and thinks she has to suppress every emotion she has that isn't happiness. Do not speak of your sensei in my house in any kind of positive manner."
"He was right," Jiraiya argued.
"No," Kakashi said surprising Shikaku. "He was wrong and the sooner you realize that, the better. For your sake, I hope that that little terrorist, Shikamaru—no offense Shikaku-sama—isn't listening in cause you're dead."
"So? He's a kid. He's several decades too early to try and fight me," Jiraiya scoffed.
"That kid," Mikoto said with a voice drier than Suna, "killed Itachi, was the one to plan the assassination of your Sensei, and was the one who snagged the Third's personal journals under his nose. That kid, is very…vicious to say the least, about Naruto-chan. He already doesn't like that Naruto doesn't like you which is enough reason for him to kill you from what I've seen."
"He was going to fight my mom, just to tack on to the story," Asuma-sun said from his position by the door.
"That…he killed Itachi?" Shisui whispered, horrified. Shikaku had forgotten that he was even there.
Mikoto shrugged. "Itachi had it coming," the Uchiha woman told her cousin. "If you take one thing away from this conversation, take this: do not fuck with Nara Shikamaru when it comes to Uzumaki Naruto. Now, if you cannot stand to guard Naruto-chan from now on then say so now because if I find out that you've…had a change of heart, shall we say? I'll end you myself."
Shisui nodded, still in shock at the news. "Naruto doesn't know. About Itachi I mean. She's well aware of who punted Sasuke's ass into a hospital bed," Mikoto-chan added.
Shisui-kun made a noise of acknowledgement. Shikaku spared the teen's hunched shoulders and trembling hands a glance and gave Asuma a look and received a nod in response. Asuma-kun led Shisui out of the office.
Shikaku hoped that unlike his younger cousins, the boy listened to Mikoto-chan. Shikamaru wasn't as bloodthirsty as he had been when Naruto was apparently holding his soul while also being a good thousand miles away from him, but Shikamaru always gave Shikaku the distinct impression that he could tap into his inner serial killer whenever he felt like it.
Which meant more paperwork for Shikaku. It seemed like both his children insisted on making his life miserable with only paperwork for company.
One of them was taking this Hokage hat from him. That was a promise.
The dobe was a princess. Apparently, according to Sarutobi Asuma, she was a double princess because the Fire Daimyo, their Daimyo, had adopted Asuma-san who adopted the dobe.
The girl was really too fucking nice. Especially for nobility. Wasn't the Lightning Royal Family the richest in the land followed by Fire's?
He'd been doing his best to piss her off and goad her into a fight literally last weekend with no knowledge that he could have been legally drawn and quartered if the blonde had been feeling a little vindictive. The things he did to her were capital crimes. Especially since she was still under the age of sixteen when laws protecting the Imperial Fire Family was still ridiculously strict in order to discourage the kidnapping of the imperial children.
Sasuke gave Naruto an uneasy side-eye. That little display of political intelligence was a direct contrast to the ditzy blonde she'd been portraying herself as. He didn't even know that she knew so many big words.
Sasuke wanted to believe that she had been allowing him to bully her so she could get him killed, but knew that was bullshit. The blonde was genuinely a nice person. And she'd actually wanted to be his friend.
Ever since that night two days ago where she'd apparently caused the blizzard that put him into close quarters with Nara Shikamaru, she'd been ignoring him. She wasn't mean, but she didn't go out of her way to talk to him as she had before.
Sasuke had learned a lot during the meeting about the blonde girl named Uzumaki Naruto. He had been surprised that his mother hadn't forced him to leave even though Shikamaru-san was still there. He was glad that his mother had let him stay after giving him a searching look.
He wasn't sure too much about the politics of the matter as Naruto seemed to be, but he was well aware of the implications of what was said. Naruto's grandfather had named her his heir even if it was pretty informal. Even an informal claim to the throne was taken seriously and it gave Naruto, who was apparently enough of a pariah that some psychopath thought it was okay to slice her cheek open, a good amount of power—political and economic—in the village and the world at large.
Sasuke didn't know anything about her grandfather or the Lightning Royal Family beyond the fact that they were shinobi. All the political lessons were given to Itachi, never him, and he didn't even know if his mother would get around to teaching him any politics with her new job as Jonin Commander.
They must have been powerful enough that Shikaku-sama had heard Naruto out instead of laughing her out the door. Plus, the white haired guy, the one Naruto called a pervert, seemed surprised by whatever she meant when she was talking about Raiju.
Which led Sasuke to the part where he understood what was said but didn't understand the why. Naruto had mentioned Raiju, a Kekkei Genkai, and the Kyuubi. Two of the three were known to be demons. The Kyuubi had ravaged the village eight years ago when Sasuke was only a few months old—was Naruto even born yet? Sasuke knew that the girl was younger than him by a few months—but the Fourth Hokage had given his life to defeat it so why did she mention it like she personally knew it? Then there was the Raiju which Sasuke mainly knew from listening to folklore stories that Shisui-niisan's mother used to tell him and his brother before she died when he was four. He was sure that the Raiju lived in thunderstorms. But Naruto had said 'my Raiju'. Again, with an air of familiarity and knowledge that she shouldn't have.
He wasn't even sure what to do with all the information except ask. Even though the blonde was currently treating him as piece of designer furniture, she didn't ignore him when he tried to talk to her unlike her asshole crush, Shikamaru-san.
The four of them—Sasuke, Naruto, Asuma-san, and Shikamaru-san—were sitting in the living room after Asuma-san had come back from escorting Shisui-niisan out the door (and what was that about?)
"Oi, Ursatonkachi—I mean…Hime-sama," Kami he felt so uncomfortable saying that. "What did you mean about the Kyuubi and the Raiju? And your Kekkei Genkai? Since when did you even have one? I thought you were an orphan?"
Sasuke didn't miss how Asuma-san stiffened while Shikamaru-san fixed Sasuke with a piercing glare that he tried to ignore. He was not scared of a weakling like Nara Shikamaru.
"Well, I'm a jinchuriki," Naruto said with the same cheer that she said most other things with. At Asuma-san's very loud groan of incredulity at what Sasuke assumed was probably classified information from the man's reaction, Naruto frowned before snapping her fingers together. "Oh," the blonde explained. "I forgot to explain! So like Jinchuriki are people who have one of the nine tailed beasts sealed inside them cause you can't kill 'em, only seal them. So I have the Kyuubi, obviously. I would say you could meet him but he hates Uchiha even though I keep trying to tell him all of you aren't bad dattebayo! And—"
"Thanks but just get to the Raiju part," Sasuke interrupted with a delayed wince. That sounded rude. Really rude.
"Oh yeah. Um…my dad's clan has a Kekkai Genkai called the Kuromate," that wasn't a creepy name or anything, "and it allows us to be possessed by demons. So like, a super long time ago, my Toyo-baachan feel in love with my Ume-jiji and she blessed the family so when we turn a certain age, we get claimed by a dragon which is super cool. But only if we're worthy ya know. And then my Naruhito-jiji was really nice to some Raiju or something? I don't know what he actually did but Raijin-sama, the thunder god, really liked whatever it was and gave him some Raiju. So now I have three Raiju cause they were fighting and all possessed me at the same time."
"You're telling me," Sasuke said slowly looking at the smiling blonde, "that you are host to four demons. One of which is the Kyuubi no Kitsune?"
"Pretty much."
"Hn."
"What does that even mean?!" Shikamaru scowled.
"I think he said that it adds up." Sasuke froze because…that was essentially what he'd meant.
"Oh hell no! Stop!" Shikamaru told Naruto as he pulled her behind him and began to pelt the still stunned form of Sasuke with pillows. "You are not about to become a Uchiha 'Hn' translator."
"Oi, stop throwing shit at me!"
"Stop infecting my wife!"
"Both of you idiots stop before I shove my foot so far up your asses that your teeth are scrubbing the dead skin off my toes!" Naruto snapped at the two of them.
In the background, Asuma-san gave let out another groan.
"That's disgusting," Sasuke snarled without heat. "What kind of princess are you?"
"The kind that kick your ass six ways to Sunday!" The blonde grinned ferociously at him. There was a warm feeling in his chest as Shikamaru-san tried to keep Naruto from getting into his face.
"Stay away from him Sunflower! He's venomous," Shikamaru-san sneered in Sasuke's direction but Sasuke could tell he was teasing. Mostly.
"The only thing deadly here is your hairstyle. Where'd you get the inspiration? An animate pineapple hentai?" Sasuke snarked back.
"You know what, never mind," Shikamaru said handing Naruto a couch cushion.
"Oi, two on one isn't fair!"
The blonde smiled viciously. "If you're Shika's rival, you should be able to keep up," Naruto said sweetly.
"Rival?" Shikamaru snorted. "Why are you encouraging his delusions flower? He'll never get the help he needs to get out of this phase."
Shikamaru yelped as a pillow hit him square in the face.
The fight was on.