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Chapter 53:​

I'd cleared some time after the operation to recover.

Honestly, though, it was just out of a desire to take a break. I'd been working non-stop for a while now and had resented Obito trying to force me to be less active, but... he'd had a point. I was just being stubborn. It wasn't even that I was close to burning out or getting tired. Being able to control my own neuro-chemical balance, meant those were concerns for other people. I was always precisely as tired or exhausted as I wanted to be, physically and mentally at least. There were occasions where I felt myself somehow wearing thin and I had to wonder if I was somehow taxing my very soul with how strenuous my schedule was.

In any event, I'd taken Obito's request/demand to heart all those months ago and made a bit of time for myself here and there... even if I really did have better things to do.

Like fine-tuning the plans for Kushina's operation or drawing up lesson plans for my new team.

I exhaled a breath and forced the thoughts away.

I was taking a break. This was me-time.

Work could fuck off for a few hours.

Besides, contrary to my bitching and moaning, I was actually in a good place in terms of my various projects. A newer generation of my matter-printer was soon coming online and would allow me further refinements on shape, composition, and mass. Lee's operation had finished successfully. I'd been on recent dates with Tenten, Yakumo, and Satsuki and used the time to appease each of them with attention. Kushina's planned surgery did need a few tweaks, but the modified sandevistan was complete and ready for implantation to support the work I'd need to do rebuilding her internal gates.

A number of my other projects, such as the newly-dubbed 'shinobi gauntlet' was entering more widespread service among the seasoned chunin. Or, at least, one of the prototypes was. The complete version wasn't slated to be rolled out for another three months at best. My swords were selling well, being picked up by people I pretended not to know were off-duty ANBU at a price I could live with, and my commissions per weapon were netting me a sizable amount of cash.

Sai and Torune were also coming along nicely. I didn't think they'd ever really be 'normal,' but what did that word even mean when you were dealing with ninja? Still, they could hold regular everyday conversations for extended periods without insulting or offending anyone... most of the time. I'd even managed to force Torune to take a boxed lunch while following me around today. After all, there was no reason for him to go hungry if I was just going to hike up to the top of the Hokage Monument and spend a few hours in peace and quiet. Even now, his chakra signature was a few dozen meters off to my seven o'clock, likely hidden in a tree.

I reached down and picked up a potato chip before idly placing it in my mouth. The bite of salt and pepper hit my tongue with a pleasant shock before I bit down with a satisfying crunch.

There were a lot of other things I'd put on the back-burner that I might pull out and finish off, but they were... well, not bad exactly, but after running them by Obito, Sai, Torune, and Itachi I'd had to concede that they were of questionable practicality.

The problem, as with all things in this world, stemmed from the ninja themselves.

It was easy to think that, by giving a shinobi body armor they'd be harder to injure or kill. That simply wasn't the case, though. Unlike in my previous life where the primary concern was firearms, in the Elemental Nations there were a myriad of ways to kill someone which were just plain hard to deal with as a whole.

Any given ninja could use any combination of fire, water, wind, earth, and electrical attacks as a baseline standard. So that meant any 'armor' you gave someone would need to be flame retardant, moisture-wicking and resistant to constricting forces, piercing and slashing resistant, and able to at least deflect crushing damage.

Oh, there were exceptions to the rule. Things like bracers, greaves, actual gauntlets (not my jutsu-casters), chest plates, and various pieces of armor were often picked up to bolster someone's defense in an individualist's style. Which was the other problem with shinobi. Each and every piece of gear was almost always either bespoke or symbolic. Chunin vests, the forehead protectors, and various other smaller marks given out for promotions or recognition were... debatably useful, at best. This was testified by the fact that most jounin dropped the vests after their promotion, it having become more of a tradition to mark advancement from genin than anything else. The headbands were more of a political flag-waving affair than anything else.

The best things currently on the market for generalized defensive gear were actually Aburame-crafted clothing, at least for Konoha. Some of their clan members specialized in extremely durable, damage-resistant, and protective clothing. That and a few high-end luxuries like honey and silk were apparently how their clan had the largest fluid cash reserves in the village. Which probably shouldn't have surprised me, but still did.

The armored cloaks I'd gifted my girls and Naruko were made of an advanced carbon-weave material with a few key body-plates that wouldn't inhibit flexibility or speed. Because that was another consideration. Shinobi lived and died by their mobility, so anything that slowed them down needed to be worth its weight in platinum. As it was, the cloaks were only slightly superior to what was available in the Aburame's catalog, though I could do a lot better at this stage. No, the real perks were the seal matrixes I'd woven into them.

That would make them utterly priceless from what I now understood. With how thorough I was, too, it was about the only real way to create any realistic 'armor' that would be worth it.

I mean, sure, there were shinobi who specialized in some kind of 'absolute defense' technique involving, for instance, armor-plating themselves, but all that meant was that you were going to die slower unless you could still land a hit on your enemy. In reality, the best defense a shinobi could muster outside of dodging the attack altogether was being able to adequately reinforce their own body with chakra to the point where they could simply tank whatever attack came their way.

But not everyone was Might Guy.

All of this was to say that I was actually fairly limited in terms of things Konoha wanted which I could readily create. Or, at least, I was limited when it came to 'high tech' stuff. The gauntlets and prosthetics I'd made were extremely well-received, after all, and I was likely going to be developing more along those lines for reasons I'd already considered.

There was also the limitation that Sarutobi had handed down, of course. I wasn't to create any sort of flying castles or giant bombs that could take out an entire nation or weird super-tech cities that could self-repair. Given that those were all things previous individuals with my brand of bullshit had shown off, it would be a dead giveaway that Konoha had a 'Dreamer' on their payroll and precipitate an immediate continent-wide war.

In a rare moment of real irritation with the man's cautious and good-natured mindset, I'd thought of Danzo's approval if I were to simply remove the rest of the villages from existence. Then I'd immediately recalibrate my thought patterns because agreeing with Danzo on anything was grounds for accusations of insanity.

But, no... Sarutobi had a point. There was a fine line between maintaining military dominance and amassing the firepower to annihilate entire civilizations because it would be convenient.

Or, as some asshole once aptly put it, 'there's a difference between being too scary to fuck with and too scary to let live.'

The sweet spot that I'd been trying to hit with my innovations, in other words, was the vague area between 'useful' and 'revolutionary.'

Oh, and one couldn't forget the fact that I was reinventing the wheel in many cases. Quite a bit of the scientific advancements of the ninja world were hidden behind the veil of 'clan secrets.' The most famous being the somewhat-jointly held catalog of medicines by the Ino-Shika-Cho families, who had been famously allied even before Konoha was founded. Even with my status I couldn't exactly demand to see whatever I wanted from various clan archives. Satsuki and Yakumo had, on rare occasions, brought me a few bits and pieces when I'd been working on something relevant to their families' specialties, but without marrying them I don't think I'd have any luck even with their clans.

So the only other 'big' project I was now working on was Kokoro's body.

That wasn't to say I hadn't made any contributions to the village, though. My knowledge in Battle Angel and Cyberpunk cybernetics wasn't precisely medical in nature, but the necessary preparation, surgical techniques, post-surgery treatments, and associated drugs were a wealth of useful information. In particular, Sarutobi was putting a rush-job on a new secure facility within the village that could produce a type of wound-foam I'd finished developing from their incomplete project archives.

They were also working on developing the infrastructure to make more advanced bone splits and outright replacements, something that had been a pipe dream before I'd shown up. The first stages of real antibiotics and vaccines were getting off the ground, too. I wasn't entirely sure what excuse Hiruzen was using to pull all of this out of his ass, especially since I'd begun writing entire volumes worth of medical theory down for limited distribution, but whatever lie they were going with had to be a doozy. Personally, I thought they were crediting Tsunade.

I looked out over the village of Konoha again, the urban sprawl really more of a city in truth. Focusing my vision with the superhuman talents of prana-bindu combined with a thread of chakra allowed me to pick out individual people on the various streets going about their daily business.

Good people, for the most part.

People who, just like me, wanted to be left to their own devices without the fear of violence or oppression. My medical advancements would take time to filter down to them, but it would make their lives substantially better over the next few years. Konoha shinobi would be more resistant to disease, harder to put down, quicker to get back up, and we'd see the start of those missing arms and legs cycling back into active service with my new prosthetics. Genin and chunin would become more dangerous with the proliferation of the gauntlets, meaning more would survive to gain veterancy and, perhaps, promotions.

It doesn't feel like it's enough.

Which was the crux of the issue, and why I couldn't truly take my mind off work even now.

I reached down and picked up another potato chip as I thought about things more deeply. One of the big questions was Akatsuki, still. There were a number of good reasons why I'd avoided looking into them just yet, but... the time where that excuse was valid was coming to an end. I would need to start building intelligence on the bigger situation soon enough. The only thing that had been holding me back was completing the design for Kokoro's brain, and the last full moon had allowed me to seize the potential to build 'brain bio-chips' to anchor her spirit to in the new body.

It would also allow me to give her something approaching a conscience as well, just in case.

The Medical Inspection Bureau of that world had used them to replace the brains of the entire population after copying over the data in an attempt to police the problematic free will of a civilian populace. Their design had included blinders meant to keep someone from realizing just what kind of surveillance state dystopia they were living in. Mine was more a loose collection of guidelines to value human life, obey the local legal structure, and function as a part of human society.

Not orders, mind you. Not even directives.

Just suggestions.

As with every child, they needed freedom to be themselves, but firm boundaries to stop them from hurting themselves or others. Besides, I'd put in a few more safeties just in case she decided to disregard what morality and ethics I could imbue her with.

But... the design phase of that was coming to a close. I had all the knowledge I needed, now I just needed to finish building. It would take me the better part of a month to get everything online, but I would make my deadline with room to spare.

I'm sure my new 'team' wouldn't mind an extra member.

Another reason I'd agreed to Sarutobi's little scheme, one he would likely realize sooner or later, but my daughter would need socialization opportunities and having friends in the children of powerful people made it more likely that others would speak up in her defense if she got herself into trouble. Or someone else did.

After double-checking that none of Torune's insects were within listening range to relay sounds, I decided...

"Fine," I resolved with a nod. "Information on Akatsuki it is. I'll use one of my two choices on that. The other one..." I cocked my head and then smiled. Something new. Something a bit odd that would serve the purpose of impressing the daimyo for a noble title.

Elven Bladesinging.

I chuckled aloud and reached for my drink. "Yeah... that'll impress alright. Especially if I make a few changes..."

Then a flare of intense chakra burst against my senses, the familiarity of the sensation stopping me from snapping a chakra blade into existence in my hands to defend myself.

"Kota!" The burnt orange-clad girl grinned at me brightly as she leaped at me. "Long time no see!"

"It's been a week, Naruko," I sighed good-naturedly.

"That's too long to not see a best friend, believe it!" Naruko chattered, then looked to my other side. "Ooooh, snacks! I mean-" She shifted guiltily. "Uhh..."

"Smooth," I complimented dryly, then held up the box. "Half. I made plenty, but I have to eat, too."

A wide and infectious grin split her face as she quickly nabbed a handful of chips. "Oh, uhh... I was supposed to give you something from Obito-sensei."

I cocked an eyebrow upwards as she handed me a scroll.

Odd, he'd usually use Sai or Torune to hand things off. Hmm...

I cracked the document after a cursory examination and, after a quick read-through, nodded in understanding. "Practice match, huh?"

"Whazzat?" Naruko asked, looking up from the pigs in a blanket I'd made as a treat for myself.

I snapped the scroll closed with a snort. "Nothing much. Just favor trading and politics. Standard stuff."

Naruko made a bored sound, then perked back up. "Ooh, hey! Can you show me a new technique? That new sword style is so cool! Even if I'm not good with them, they're awesome to watch!"

I chuckled and stretched as I laid back. "In a bit. I came up here to do some thinking and chill a bit. So either take some quiet time with me or head on back to your jounin now that you've been fed."

Naruko snorted and rolled her eyes, pulling her canteen to drink. "Hmm... I guess I could do with a nap. Sensei let us off with a half-day today since we already finished our D-rank."

In the span of a few minutes, Naruko had curled up next to me, quietly snoring as I allowed myself to drift off as well. It had been a while since I'd had a nap.

Chapter 54:​

My half-day vacation had been a pleasant experience.

So much so that I'd decided to take a bit more time to myself, here and there.

Well, as Yakumo sat down next to me, smiling as she leaned against my arm, it was enough to resolve to take any time off, even if it wasn't particularly 'to myself.'

"How's your week been?" She asked, looking over to the man behind the stall to place her order.

"It's been... eventful," I replied, accepting a large plate of skewers. "I helped out one of Tenten's teammates, if you'd heard?"

Yakumo chuckled as she cuddled next to me. "I think everyone's heard. I'm surprised their team leader isn't here forcing you to celebrate with him."

I snorted. Everyone had probably heard by now, given Guy and Lee gallivanting around doing chakra exercises and intensifying their training. I'd glimpsed Tenten and their third teammate briefly, a boy wearing the traditional long black fabric mask which hung down to his upper chest. As Tenten had told me when she'd joined the team, he was a member of the reclusive and mysterious Akado clan. They were a minor group within the Konoha political scene, having joined somewhat late in the game compared to many of the other clans. They weren't regarded terribly well either, what with their ability to drain chakra from others.

I remembered a few genin vaguely daring each other to approach their small clan compound back when I was still in the academy. The rumor was that, if you looked inside the gate too long, one of them would appear and drain you dry.

So, basically vampires.

Murta, the boy I'd seen lagging behind Tenten and Lee, had certainly looked as though the exposure to the sun wasn't doing him any favors. The look Tenten had given me, on the other hand, had promised a significant amount of pain coming my way in the near future. The fact that I'd smiled and waved at her probably hadn't done me any favors either, but I'd give her a nice meal and massage the next day she had off and see if she could hold a grudge through that.

"Considering Guy thinks that the best way to celebrate is through training..." I trailed off with a chuckle. "I don't think I'd be able to make the time to party that hard."

Yakumo giggled as she picked up a spear of her own order. "I think Naruko, Satsuki, and I got lucky in that regard. Obito-sensei is... unconventional, but far less intense than Guy-sensei."

"I've lived through natural disasters less intense than Guy," I replied dryly, earning another giggle even with the look of mild reprimand that accompanied it.

For a moment, there was nothing but companionable silence between us as we enjoyed a quiet meal out together.

"How's your new technique coming?" I asked, making conversation.

Yakumo smiled and swallowed her most recent bite. "Ah, it's actually coming along very well. Thank you for the advice. I never would have thought of pre-painting smaller cards to align them into a larger image like that."

I nodded, happy the idea was panning out. "It's nothing, just a random thought I had. Most of the combat tactics I have require extensive preparation in the same way yours do anyway."

"Your seals are amazing," Yakumo stated suddenly, apropos of nothing.

The statement left me feeling a bit uncomfortable, though I snuffed out the emotion as quickly as it came. While there might be truth in the idea that the praise was undeserved, there was also truth in the fact that my ability to pull knowledge out of the ether was only half of the equation. The other half was my own effort at manifesting designs and esoteric powers into a functioning whole. Praise still wasn't something I particularly enjoyed, though.

"I'm sorry," Yakumo continued, shaking her head as she cast her eyes down. "I shouldn't have-I mean, I know you don't like compliments like that."

I cocked my head and eyed her in surprise. "I'm surprised you noticed."

She huffed, faux-offense taking over her expression. "I'm a genjutsu-specialist. Of course I notice details like that."

I hummed thoughtfully, not expecting the warmth that bloomed inside of me. It was still a bit odd, having people in this world that cared about me. Even if I suspected that Yakumo's ability to notice my emotional states stemmed less from her genjutsu focus and more from the lessons on bodily control I'd given her. I allowed a small amount of my chakra to seep into her through the contact we shared, the energy instantly relaxing her as I checked on the seal.

As my ghostly presence within her slid over the flows of energy, I felt the barest stirrings of another consciousness reach out.

Hmm... not yet, but soon. Another month, maybe two before it breaks.

Part of me had contemplated extending the seal and keeping my 'daughter' asleep. Hiruzen hadn't actually been wrong when he'd lodged the various objections he had. Kokoro was dangerous. Or, at least, she had the capacity to very easily become dangerous at even the slightest provocation. I understood that, but...

I could somewhat sympathize with the creature that wanted to be my daughter. It wasn't precisely the same, but Konoha's walls were nearly as much a prison for me as Yakumo's unconscious mind was for her. More than the fact that I simply didn't approve of the kind of betrayal I would need to engage in to place her into sleep permanently, I simply didn't want to.

"Mmm... that feels good," Yakumo whispered, leaning against me contentedly.

"Just checking the seal," I replied quietly, picking up my last skewer and pulling the first piece of meat off with my teeth.

"I think... I might be meeting her in my dreams, sometimes," Yakumo admitted, sighing. "I can't remember them well, but I think she's getting ready to come out."

I made a wordless noise of agreement, the scroll in my back pocket feeling as though it was weighing far heavier all of a sudden. This would really be it. There'd be no going back after this. Instead of meditating further on a decision I'd already made, I slid the last bit of vegetables, peppers, and meat off before quickly chewing and swallowing.

"I've got a surprise for you," I stated, patting her on the arm.

"Is it-is she?" Yakumo asked excitedly.

"Not quite," I replied, standing as her expression faltered. "But I can let you see her."

Yakumo's eyes widened and she smiled widely, jumping up to hug me as a few people around the stall we'd been eating at either sent us looks of fond amusement or irritated unhappiness. Nearby, I felt Sai's chakra shift as we began walking away from the food stall and towards the blacksmith's shop. Given I'd planned this out, I hadn't wanted to make her wait too long before getting her 'surprise.'

Which was a good thing, because the normally-reserved girl was bouncing against my arm as each step she took seemed more like a hop or skip than her usual graceful trod.

With Sagara giving me his traditional grunt of a greeting, Sai entering the building soon after to take over the counter, I led Yakumo into the back, past Torune, and down into my workshop.

"It always surprises me, every time I come down," Yakumo admitted with a smile, looking around the expanded space.

"I'm kind of glad you didn't see it when I'd just set it up," I sighed, looking things over. Nothing was out of place, which was good. After a few incidents in the early days, I'd banned Sai and Torune (then Obito on one of his visits) from touching anything that they hadn't been explicitly granted permission to touch.

"Oh?" Yakumo asked, intrigued.

I shrugged. "It was about a third smaller back then, I didn't have proper lighting in place, and I'd ended up not laying the foundation correctly. When I fixed all that, I actually added the arches you see here and there for extra support with those pillars on the sides. Installing the plumbing was a bit of a headache, too, but you don't want to hear about that."

Her nose scrunched up. "No, I imagine I don't."

I huffed a laugh and led her over to where the skeletal form of a body was beginning to take shape. Snapping the lights on, Yakumo gasped as she took in the body which would house our daughter's spirit for the first time.

"It looks... almost like a living thing," Yakumo observed softly, then shook herself. "N-not that it doesn't make sense for it to or anything, I just... thinking about the other things you've built..."

"You thought there'd be more gears and springs," I guessed, chuckling as she nodded with a blush. I ran a finger absently along the half-finished musculature of winding cables. "I suppose I could have done things that way, but I wanted something more... elegant? Something like that. More human as well. She's already going to be so much different than anyone else..."

There must have been something like melancholy in my voice, because Yakumo reached down to take my hand in hers, squeezing it supportively.

"You never talk about your time in the orphanage," Yakumo observed quietly.

I worked my mouth for a moment, then swallowed. "No. No, I don't."

Yakumo sighed. "If that's the way you want it, Kotaro. Just remember that I'm here if you need me." She stopped and I felt a shift of energy through her chakra. "And if not me, then Satsuki or Tenten."

"You're still not happy Satsuki found out about my blood limit before you did," I stated, my voice neutral and objective.

"I... no, I'm not happy about it, I suppose," Yakumo admitted with another sigh as she turned and kissed me, her cheeks aflame as she did so. "I understand why, especially with the circumstances and I appreciate that you didn't want to distract me from mastering the techniques I needed to graduate, but I still wish you would have told me earlier."

"I'm sorry," I replied, bending slightly to kiss her back. Even if the apology was empty, sometimes it was better to offer them for a relationship to work. It meant I gave Yakumo the tactical victory in the conversation in order not to need to fight a strategic battle to put the entire thing behind us.

Feelings, after all, seldom cared about the reality of the situation. Even if I was already extending her a large amount of trust at the time by teaching her an entire personal style, regardless of compensation, she felt that not knowing substantial secrets in my life constituted a personal wrong I had dealt her. In some sense, given I was trying to treat her, Tenten, and Satsuki equally, I understood that. On the other hand, though, my secrets were mine to hand out as I wished, and Yakumo shouldn't attempt to make those judgments on my behalf, especially when it came to something which involved personal bias.

I could bring up the fact that Tenten, not being a clan heiress and having grown up in similar conditions as myself, did not feel entitled to such things and had taken the revelation that I had a secret 'bloodline limit' with a bit more grace than Yakumo had.

But I didn't.

The apology cost me nothing to give, but saved me the time and effort it would take to rebuild the emotional closeness I would destroy for the sake of some arbitrary 'victory' that wouldn't mean anything in the long run. It was both easier and better, by my accounting, to acknowledge that moving forward in the relationship, Yakumo (as well as Satsuki and Tenten) would have some claim to a part of my life and I'd need to keep that in mind.

"I had to promise the Hokage some things for him to let me embody Kokoro," I stated.

Yakumo stiffened slightly. "Oh? Do you need help? My family can-"

"It's alright," I replied, planting a kiss on her forehead to reassure her. "I don't want to create a schism in the village by pitting the clans against the Hokage. That way lies drawing me more deeply into politics and risks burning good will with the old man on top of everything else."

Yakumo grimaced, but nodded. "You're... probably right. A favor like that from my father wouldn't come cheap. Even with how you've raised our clan's standing with the gate project, I think he's still a bit irritated that I'm set on marrying you. Especially with Satsuki in the mix."

Clan politics, no doubt.

"I'll be explaining this to Tenten and Satsuki soon, but I wanted you to hear it first, since you're closest to the matter," I stated, making her perk up and in no small way reassuring her that she now had a one-up on Satsuki to match the girl's earlier one from knowing about my 'bloodline.' "I've put in safeguards so that Kokoro won't be able to use her full strength at first. This body is... extremely powerful. The bones are a special alloy I've developed using rare metals and a blend of titanium and wolframite. The muscles are carefully corded bands of carbon-weave fibers, and-"

"Kotaro, my love," Yakumo interrupted me by holding a hand up so that her fingertips covered my lips. "This is all very fascinating, but I have no idea what much of it means. Please? In terms I can understand?"

I huffed and rolled my eyes. "Spoil my fun, woman." She grinned in amusement. "Fine. I don't think the average chunin will be able to do substantial damage to her body considering her baseline durability. I'm not going to be giving our daughter a fragile body."

Yakumo stared at me for a moment, her eyes firming as she nodded. "Good."

"The downside is that, while she'll still be able to feel pain and other stimuli like a normal person would, being so tough will likely give her a certain disregard for authority, simply because she's able to ignore the consequences of her actions in most situations." Yakumo nodded less firmly this time, understanding what I was driving at. "Which is why I'm going to be tying you and the other girls into the control matrix for Kokoro's body. You'll be able to disable certain aspects, like her ability to project chakra externally into jutsu, or limit her speed and strength should the situation call for it. Up to and including disabling her body entirely and putting her to sleep."

Yakumo's brows knit as she contemplated what I was telling her. "Do you really think all of that is necessary? I don't want her to hate us if we use that against her. Kotaro, I know what it's like having my body betray me. I don't want that for our child."

"Which is why I think you should have it," I replied, stopping her. "You know what it's like and won't use it lightly. But, still, Kokoro is an unconventional child, born largely of dark chakra. I promised the Hokage that she would behave. I promised him on my life, Yakumo."

She inhaled sharply, her eyes widening.

"That's how much this means to me, and that's how much I'm willing to commit. I need you to be able to discipline Kokoro if she decides to push her boundaries too far. Which is why I want you to make time over the next month and I'll walk you through the ways to limit or disable her body. Otherwise... I won't be able to trust you to keep her in hand well enough to let you take her out on your own."

Yakumo's eyes hardened, her hands clenching as her jaw firmed. "I-I understand, Kotaro. Thank you. I can't tell you how much this means to me, that you're willing to do this. To go this far."

I accepted the tender kiss she offered as she leaned up to meet my lips, her arms wrapping around my neck and mine about her waist in a close embrace.

Eventually, we pulled apart, our breathing perfectly even where it should have been heavy and rapid. That was one of the perks that came with prana bindu training, though. "I'll walk you through the first lesson and then I'll activate a seal and we'll see about talking to Kokoro directly, okay?"

"Okay." Yakumo nodded, laying her head against my chest for a moment. "I love you, Kotaro."

I waited for a heartbeat, pressed my lips to her hair, and replied. "I love you too, Yakumo."

Was it the truth? I wasn't quite sure yet, but I believed so. Perhaps it was closer to a promise rather than an absolute statement of fact. Regardless, it was one of those little compromises I was willing to extend before I was truly ready to admit the feeling.

If only because of the smile I got in return made me more sure of the statement than I had been before I said it.

Chapter 55:​

"Art of Manifestation: False Summoning." I intoned, my hands racing through a series of signs faster than the eye could follow.

Yakumo held her breath as the seal I'd placed on the back of her neck did its work and, a moment later, the body of a clothed little girl flashed into existence with a tiny burst of chakra-smoke. In the back of my mind, I made a note to fine-tune the process a bit more. The ideal performance of a technique was to manifest as little 'smoke' as possible, the ephemeral gas being a physical manifestation of excess energy. The fact that there was any at all meant you could improve upon your skill with an art.

Producing so little meant that I was well on my way to mastery, which was admittedly exceptional for a technique I was actually performing for the first time, but I'd long-since developed habits to minimize my chakra expenditure and wasn't going to allow myself to relapse now.

Yakumo's eyes, rather than track the swiftly-dissipating burst of smoke, were quite thoroughly locked onto the girl which my technique had brought into the physical realm. "She looks... a little older than the last time we saw her."

"The aging shouldn't be one-to-one," I replied thoughtfully, "for a number of complicated reasons, but she does experience some amount of time passing in your subconscious even as she's been nominally asleep for the last several months."

Yakumo nodded slowly, reaching out to touch the younger child's cheek softly as her chest rose and fell. It was still a bit surprising to me how readily Yakumo had accepted Kokoro as her own child, but the answer to that conundrum was a mix of differing cultural norms and Yakumo's own personal concerns.

Simply put, female shinobi were expected to bear children. They didn't necessarily need to raise them, as having a child and then offering them up to an orphanage was considered acceptable for active-duty kunoichi. It was frowned upon for those who weren't active-duty, but not actively penalized beyond the social stigma for laziness. Regardless, a woman fulfilling their basic obligation to the village of reproducing forgave a few sins on their part. The fact that many kunoichi would either get knocked up on a mission or simply pick a random partner while outside the village probably had something to do with their reputation as easy women.

Being from a clan magnified the responsibility to bear children to the point where it wasn't even an unspoken expectation, it was an expectation that didn't need to be spoken. If you were born female within a shinobi village to almost any clan and had the capacity to bear children, you understood from a young age that you were expected to get pregnant and continue the bloodline... if not at the earliest opportunity, then at least within a reasonable timeframe.

The Kurama were not a large clan, unfortunately, which meant under normal circumstances Yakumo would be expected to have more than one child. The only reason she didn't have brothers and sisters herself was because her mother's last pregnancy had ended with a still birth that had ended any chance of producing further children.

Under normal circumstances.

With Yakumo's congenital weakness and what I was now sure was sickle cell anemia, she was unlikely to survive the rigors of childbirth more than once... if even that.

In that light, Kokoro was something of a miracle child, even beyond her existence in the first place. Possibly even more than achieving her goal of becoming a kunoichi, having produced an heir validated Yakumo's own life as being worth something.

"Is it okay to wake her?" Yakumo asked, sparing me half a glance.

"No, I only embodied her for you to stare at her while she's sleeping," I replied dryly, drawing a pout from Yakumo.

Shaking off my comment, I reached down and gently shook... my daughter.

Still taking a bit of time to really sink in, I suppose...

"Mmm... what is..." Hazel eyes blinked open sleepily, squinting against the electric lights I'd installed in the workshop. There was a lengthy moment between Kokoro gaining consciousness and realizing that she was now awake, but once it happened...

"Daddy! Mommy!" Kokoro cried, her eyes widening as she launched herself at the two of us.

Somewhat disconcertingly, her arms stretched a bit further than expected to encompass both of our bodies in a giant hug.

Yep, that was one of the reasons I went with an artificial body. An organic one would have been much more susceptible to alterations or mutations from dark chakra.

"Kokoro!" Yakumo squealed, her arms worming their way against me to hug our daughter back. "I've been waiting so long to see you again!"

"I've been waiting, too!" Kokoro complained energetically. "Sleeping was boring!"

Internally, I sighed. That was pretty good confirmation for a nonstandard neuro-typical setup.

Then again... these are the Elemental Nations, anyone of real significance is essentially a freak of nature and thinks at right angles to common sense. Maybe she'll fit right in.

"I'm glad to see you too, Princess," I stated, edging my arms out of her near-crushing hug to return the embrace while interfacing with her chakra via my ninshu skills. "Your new body isn't quite ready yet, but I thought we could have a little family meeting before you're ready to wake up for real, okay?"

Kokoro looked up at me with a quizzical expression colored by slight dismay as she released us from her grip, her arms collapsing to a normal length again. "Aww... can't I just stay awake until then? It's not long, right?"

Yakumo looked at our daughter, frowned sympathetically, then looked back at me with a pleading expression. I rolled my eyes, then gave her a flat look in return.

I really hope this won't set the precedent of me being the 'bad cop' parent.

"She's bound to you, personally, Yakumo. More than that, the seal is drawing from your chakra. Trying to keep the technique up for more than a few hours will seriously injure you," I reminded her, and she winced.

Kokoro's eyes widened as she looked between us. "I don't want to stay awake if it hurts mommy! I'll go back to sleep!"

I laid a hand on the young pseudo-child's head as she panicked, calming her. "It's okay, Kokoro. Remember, I said Mommy's got a few hours before anything bad happens. Once she recovers and we have more free time in a week or so, I think we can do this again, even. You just can't stay out right now until your body's ready, okay?"

"Ooooo~kaaaay," Kokoro groaned, slumping as she did so. "It's almost done, right?"

I nodded, gesturing towards the table where the near-complete body lay under a sheet. "You can have a look at it if you want, but some of the internal workings are exposed right now."

Kokoro cocked her head, then nodded. "I wanna' see!"

Meeting Yakumo's gaze, I shrugged, then stepped over to pull the sheet off. Kokoro's eyes widened as she looked the still form. "Oooooh~"

I snorted and began walking her through handling a few bits and pieces she seemed particularly interested in. Once she'd had enough, I knelt down and tapped a piece of exposed titanium-alloy 'bone.' "Now, Kokoro... this body is a lot stronger and more durable than most children your age have, so I'm going to put protections on it to keep you from hurting people, okay?"

Something flickered deep in her eyes. "Protections?"

"It means there are going to be things you won't be able to do until you prove to everyone that you can behave yourself," Yakumo explained as Kokoro frowned. "That's a rule for everyone out here in this world, not just you."

"But I wanna' do everything!" Kokoro cried in dismay, small tongues of dark chakra manifesting around her form. Yakumo's eyes widened in alarm.

"And you will," I stated firmly, discreetly activating a series of seals on my body before reaching through the dark energy. Kokoro froze, instinctually surprised I'd been able to do so when I touched her hand, ninshu directing me to calm her and analyze the reaction of her chakra. "Just not all at once. Daddy has had to make promises to important people. They want to know you can be a big girl and be responsible, so we're going to show them you can play nice with everyone out here in the real world, okay?"

I punctuated the question with a small poke to Kokoro's abdomen, making her giggle as the dark energy dispersed. "Mmm... okay! But I still get to eat whatever I want!"

Another flicker of darkness behind her eyes.

Yeah, that's going to be a problem. Perhaps some kind of inhibitor? Maybe intent-based...

"You can eat anything you want to as long as it's not alive," I stated pointedly. While some people might fight a child to ensure they have a healthy diet, another reason I'd gone for an artificial body was to hopefully be able to distract Kokoro with sweets and traditionally unhealthy foods. Realistically, there was no reason she couldn't indulge as she wanted in that regard, at least, and I didn't really want to fight an uphill battle trying to make sure a being that was at least as much chakra beast as human ate her vegetables.

"But I wanna' eat bad people! They have chakra like mine in them!" Kokoro complained.

Yakumo grimaced, dismay on her face.

"You can't eat people," I told her firmly. "There are a lot of people who do bad things that work with Daddy and Mommy and they'd get upset if you ate their friends. If they get upset, they'll try to hurt Mommy and Daddy. Do you want that?"

Kokoro frowned, ducking her head and whining. "Nooo~"

I sighed and mentally reviewed my options. The pragmatic approach was probably best here. Kokoro wasn't entirely human. Dark chakra was... interesting in its implications, but problematic for humans who drew on too much of it at a time, to the point that it could be self-reinforcing for negative emotions. Kokoro, however, seemed at least somewhat immune to that aspect given she hadn't spiraled out of control earlier.

Hmm... I'm not sure it's realistic to attempt to keep her from violence in this world, given what she is. Moreover, she needs training and socialization. I can accomplish the first, but the second... and like it or not, there are skills outside my umbrella...

"If you really want to eat bad people who draw on chakra like yours," I began slowly, "then you have to go to the shinobi academy and learn how to be a ninja." Yakumo eyed me in surprise. "They'll teach you about how to tell friends from food. Until you learn how to do that, though, you can't eat people."

I'll invent some kind of excuse for the general academy. A bloodline? Always a good fallback. Besides, Aburame have a history of devouring enemy ninja and, in emergencies, corpses using their swarms. That's cannibalism by proxy.

There was more Yakumo and I had to talk about with her, though we did get to spend a bit of time letting her draw pictures with crayons while we watched. It was surprisingly wholesome, even if her art was probably more akin to a developing serial killer than a small child. Eventually, though, Yakumo's chakra began to run low and I had to trigger the safeties on the seal to slowly put the girl back down for another 'nap' after promising another playdate in a week or two.

Yakumo sighed as our daughter's immaterial form faded into chakra smoke and quickly dispersed. "That... wasn't what I thought it'd be."

I shrugged. "We play the hand we're dealt. Second thoughts?"

There was a moment's hesitation, then she shook her head. "No. Just... coming to terms, I guess? She's not going to be like a normal child and I need to get used to the idea."

I nodded. "You should. Expecting Kokoro to act like a normal human won't do her any favors. Other people are already going to treat her strangely because of what she is."

"I understand," Yakumo sighed, then turned to look at me with a slight frown. "I was surprised to hear you recommend the academy."

I scoffed as I began cleaning up my sealing materials. "Just like you can't expect her to be a normal human, Kumo-chan, I can't expect her to keep to my sense of morality. The most I can do is try to teach her how to use what she is as constructively as possible."

Yakumo leaned into me, wrapping her arms around me and squealing quietly.

"Hmm?" I asked, smirking slightly.

"You called me Kumo-chan," Yakumo replied, snuggling up to me further.

I hummed faux-thoughtfully, then nodded. "I suppose I did. You like it, then?"

"I love it!" Yakumo cried happily.

Chapter 56:​

"Sarutobi-Jounin, correct?" I asked, offering the man a shallow bow to get his measure. As I suspected, though, he casually waved off even that level of formality, gesturing with one hand that still held a smoking cigarette between his fingers even as I busied myself tracing the backdrop of the new training ground I found myself in. New for me personally, of course, not for the village.

"Just Asuma is fine," he replied in a voice that spoke of years of smoking and rough use, even at his age. The similarly-seasoned eyes raked over me in all my visually-unremarkable glory. Brown pants, white shirt, a heavy brown jacket over that with a forest-green sash around my waist with black gloves and shoes.

The only hint of martial capacity was a wooden bokken slung across my back.

"So you're Kotaro, huh?" He asked rhetorically, taking a drag on his cigarette.

I shrugged. "That's me. Obito said you wanted me to do a training exercise with your genin?"

"Obito, huh?" Asuma asked thoughtfully, and I shrugged again. He hummed, then immolated the butt of his cigarette with a twist of chakra as he stood from where he was sitting on the upraised root of a tree. "Yeah, I recently saw his team in action, bunch of little monsters."

Thankfully, the last part was added affectionately rather than maliciously.

I really didn't want to have to make an issue of something like that, but given that Satsuki and Yakumo were my lovers and Naruko, my friend, I would have had to confront Asuma if he'd decided to be that petty.

"And you want me to help your team?" I asked skeptically, cocking my head. "I really don't have the kind of time it would take to get your kids up to their level. Satsuki, Yakumo, and Naruko are the work of years of effort on my part to say nothing of what their clans brought to the table training them. Besides, I wouldn't want to undermine your authority by being too hands-on with them."

Asuma grimaced, nodding slightly as he conceded the point. "Yeah, the Old Man would have my hide if he thought I was foisting an Ino-Shika-Cho trio on a civilian. I just..." His eyes cut sideways and he cleared his throat awkwardly. "...was wondering if you had any tips?"

I stared at the jounin, my face a blank mask over my incomprehension. "You want me to... teach you how... to teach?"

The older man's cheeks heated slightly, then his expression firmed and he bent down slightly and began speaking in an undertone. "Look kid, I just don't want to look like a lazy asshole in front of my girlfriend, okay? You'd be doing me a solid if you just gave me a few pointers and maybe showed up once or twice to get them properly motivated. That's your thing, right? Helping other kids your age?"

I chewed on the question as I quashed my instinctual response. Instead, I carefully measured my tone. "No. My thing is helping my friends and romantic partners. For what I hope are obvious reasons."

Honestly? Asuma would have had a better shot at asking Shikaku to get me more involved in helping his son. Then instructed Shikamaru to, in turn, draw me in to help his team. I made a quick mental note to watch for that and, if it started happening, to at least exact a price for it if I couldn't head it off at the pass.

Asuma stroked his beard contemplatively. "Hmm... how about a price to do it, then?"

I frowned, mentally drawing up my balance sheet of expenditures and withdrawals. While more money, in principle, was never a bad thing, there was a point where the opportunity cost represented by work of a specific kind was greater than the potential of doing a different kind. Or doing work for a different client. Asuma, as a jounin, likely had a fairly large disposable income. I'd spoken with Obito, Itachi, Mikoto, Kushina, and a few others on the topic of money over the last several months and come up with a good estimation of what I could charge people for custom blades and other bespoke projects. Sagara, of course, had helped out, though even the, ah... 'cutting edge' (pun intended) of his smithing prowess was nowhere near what I could create and, therefore, nowhere near what I could charge.

Which, to be blunt, meant that making a single sword would likely be a more productive use of my time than accepting Asuma's offer.

Although the man was a jounin, he was also on teaching duty. That meant he was detached from the general forces and, more or less, under the direct command of the Hokage instead of the Jounin commander. Why? Because Jounin-sensei almost always had politically valuable individuals under their watch. Granted, they were granted an enormous amount of leave to decide their (team's) mission roster, but the Hokage could (in theory, at least) force or bar said jounin (and their team) on any specific mission.

What this meant, in practice, was that the village subsidized the pay of jounin-sensei while they were actively teaching and allowed the actual mission pay of D and C-ranks to be split among the genin themselves. A long-term 'teaching mission' nicely solved both the income problems of the jounin and actually incentivized the genin to accomplish their missions instead of arguing about how much of their pay the 'lazy jounin teacher' was going to get.

It really says something that the goddamn shinobi have figured out that unpaid internships to 'learn important occupational skills' don't fucking work.

So... in short, I knew how much Asuma was making on a monthly basis. It was enough to live comfortably on, but not enough for massive expenditures. I distantly recalled he'd served with the Twelve Guardians of Fire in the Fire Daimyo's court and likely had a significant nest egg saved up from his stint there, but...

There comes a point where asking for an inordinate amount of money when a man's pride is on the line comes across as more of an insult than a simple refusal. I think the technical term for that point is, 'Dick Move.'

"You know how much my swords sell for?" I asked.

Asuma blinked at the non-sequitur, then grimaced. "Hmm... point. Alright then, kid, you've got me in a tough spot. What do you want?"

I cocked my head in thought. What did I want? Now there was a loaded question. I had Guy for the exhibition match I was planning, I had everything set for Kushina's operation, there wasn't anything pressing...

Hmm...

"Two things," I stated slowly, and Asuma nodded, standing back up to his full height as he watched me expectantly. "First, a banked favor." He grimaced, and I shrugged. "It won't be anything too bad. Worse comes to worst, I have you roll your genin team out for a mission on my behalf and you shoulder the fee."

That stipulation gave a level of monetary value and applicable danger to the favor, or at least a valid range thereof, to which Asuma nodded slowly. "Okay, I can do that. The second?"

"I heard through the grapevine you just got back from the Daimyo's court," I led with, seeing him frown once again. "Your nephew bragged about it while I was over at the Uzumaki Compound," which, thankfully was both true and a valid excuse, "but I'm cashing in a bunch of favor's with the Hokage to try and get a minor noble title-"

Asuma huffed a half-laugh. "Why'd you want one of those, kid? Even if you get one, everyone around you will treat you like shit. The only reason would be-" He stopped, realization in his eyes as he nodded slowly. "I was going to say the stipend, but if what I've been hearing from Obito and Guy is true, you're in it for your girls."

I shrugged, not bothering to deny it. "The Hokage might have said something about a bunch of blades I made disappearing into unknown hands earning me some credit in that regard."

Asuma sucked in a breath through his teeth. "And you want me to see about putting in the good word for you." It wasn't a question, and I waited patiently as he pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit it with a small flash of chakra. He took a long drag, likely enjoying being back in control of the conversation for a moment, then nodded again. "Okay, I can do that. Nothing obvious, but you don't want obvious for this. Still, I've got a marker I can call in."

"Alright then," I stated, crossing my arms as I thought over the matter. "The first thing you need to understand as regards getting your genin to perform is that it's a question of motivation. The main issue here is that I'm not entirely sure involving me is going to create the kind and longevity of motivation you want. While it's true I could provoke Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji into working harder, the fact that only Shikamaru knows who I am, and distantly at that, means anything I do to them would be a relative flash in the pan."

Asuma frowned and scratched his beard. "Hmm... that makes some sense, I suppose. Still, it better not be a lead-in to an excuse to get out of doing anything."

I barked an unexpected laugh and shook my head. "Ah, no. I'm just trying to temper your expectations here. Well, that and also trying to look at what kind of approach you specifically want."

Asuma nodded again, his gaze still speculative. "Hmm... okay, then. I'll hear you out."

…​

There were a number of reasons behind the meeting, but the most significant one in Asuma's mind was to get a feel for Konoha's newest oddity. His home, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, had a long and storied history of attracting and raising particularly weird ninja. He, himself, remembered the halcyon days of the Sannin. Although he wasn't old enough to remember their rise, he'd been an academy student while they were at the height of their power.

He also remembered what that had done to his father.

Asuma sighed internally and dismissed the pang of emotion those thoughts brought up.

Kotaro, the clanless orphan didn't particularly strike him as the second coming of the seal master Jiraiya had been, nor was he the rising star Minato Namikaze had been. In fact, Kotaro's particular brand of strangeness seemed to be how normal he was.

Or, well, how normal he appeared to be at first glance.

It was fascinating, actually, the boy reminding him quite a bit of his hobby of people-watching while working in the Guardians of Fire at the royal court. The younger nobles that had debuted during his tenure often had imperfect etiquette, learning it piecemeal as their days at court went on. Even if many of them had received extensive tutoring on the subject, practical experience was often a more instructive process. In the meantime, though, they would have patchwork habits as they pulled together different affectations from the appropriate levels of nobility and formality.

Kotaro reminded him a great deal of those younger court members.

Only... not quite. There's something else in him.

Even the highest court officials hesitated to speak so frankly to a shinobi. In particular, those who knew the difference between a green genin and a seasoned chunin or jounin at least made the pretense of feigned respect. Even if, in reality, they feared, shunned, or outright hated ninja. Monks and samurai could be depended, to a certain extent, to be loyal to ideologies. Even if they weren't especially convenient ones, and even if they also had political motivations.

Shinobi, though, only had two loyalties... and that was if you didn't have the misfortune of meeting a diehard patriot.

The first loyalty is always to the village. The second is to the mission.

There were ways to interpret both of them, of course. Being loyal to 'the village' varied between the political leadership of your home and the true best interests. Likewise, loyalty to the mission could mean the terms you agreed to with the client, whatever the village had actually told you to accomplish, your own teammates, or a personal interpretation of the objective which fit with your own morality.

...but those who don't understand the life of a shinobi never care to grasp the subtext of those decisions, either. For those people, ninja are bloodthirsty mercenaries bound only by gold.

And apparently Dear Old Dad was trying to get a 'civilian craftsman' into a key position as a mole within the court. It was, in its own way, as clever as anything the aging Hokage had come up with. Holding a prodigy back from graduating for superficial reasons that appeared legitimate, but training him as an 'off the books' agent of the village who could act as both an influence peddler for the village to the daimyo and a way for the Uchiha and Kurama to more closely associate themselves with the levers of political power.

Every generation, a few clans tried to make a play in the court and there were some success stories. A distant cousin of the daimyo had married a member of the Akimichi clan, in fact. It helped that the clan was sufficiently straight-forward in their traditions that they could impersonate samurai should they feel the need to in their heavy armor.

It did worry him, on occasion, how powerful the Uchiha seemed to be on the verge of becoming within the village, but... Itachi and Satsuki were cast from a different mold than their father, at least.

"So, what you'd suggest is finding ways to subtly provoke the kind of reaction that would motivate them without appearing to have deliberately intended it," Asuma frowned contemplatively, pondering the advice. It was a kind of generalist approach to deception that he hadn't considered using on the brats.

"That's if the straightforward approach doesn't work," Kotaro stated with a shrug, once again surprising Asuma with how casual the boy could be in conversing with someone so high-ranked. Definitely his father's hand there, if his suspicions for Kotaro's purpose were on-point.

"Put them through a personalized training hell. Nothing quite as brutal as what Guy does, but..." Kotaro explained.

Asuma frowned. His own sensei had been much more... free-range about things, he supposed was the best way to put it. Then again, his old team had been much more motivated than his current students. He'd thought getting this generation's clan heirs of the famous trio would have meant his own contributions would be limited to refining their basics and holding their hands through early missions. The opportunity would give him a chance to reacclimate to the village, shake the rust off some skills that hadn't seen use in the court, and... well, get him used to the idea of kids. Someday soon, at least.

But if it came down to putting in extra effort or having 'his' kids be the disappointment...

"So just run them ragged?" Asuma asked skeptically, imagining Shikamaru's reaction to the ultimatum. Chouji would put up with it after an obligatory period of whining, but Ino would be almost as bad as his Nara student.

"It's your job to prepare them for the life of a shinobi, not be their friend," Kotaro told him bluntly. "Friendship comes later, after the funeral they didn't have."

Asuma winced, irritated by how sharply that barb cut. He hadn't been treating them as friends, had he... Memories of the past months flared, casual interactions over games of shogi, tables of snacks, and arrangements of flowers as he guided them through rudimentary exercises. Looking at those same situations more analytically, his position had been an authoritative one, but less of an authority than a first among equals.

Shit. The kid might have a point... I might have been out of the regular chain of command too long. Ugh, at least I'm getting a good deal out of this. It'd be humiliating to have Dad or someone else dress me down for improper conduct, even with how loosely genin teams are run.

"I think I'll see about putting some pressure on them," Asuma mused aloud. "Tell them the period I've given them to acclimatize to their new position is over. Give that a week or two and check the results-"

"At least a month," Kotaro interrupted, Asuma's blue eyes flicking back to him consideringly, waiting for an explanation. "Changing pedagogies too frequently without giving them time to show results can be more damaging than sticking with a poor methodology. It's important to set expectations and hold students to them regularly to show that their progress is both being tracked and evaluated in a way that they can understand. If you shift from one teaching strategy to the next without warning or explanation, it confuses them as to what metric they should be judging themselves by and can feed bad habits instead of good ones."

That... was the first time Asuma had ever heard anything on the topic laid out like that, but it made good, logical sense.

Hmm... I can see why those girls turned into the freaks of nature that they did. It's not every day you find a prodigy that's good at teaching. Probably another reason Pops didn't want him on the front lines.

"A month, then, and if that doesn't work I'll explain to them why we're changing things up," Asuma agreed, his mind having long moved past an evaluation of Kotaro and into a re-evaluation of his own team and teaching style.

Chapter 57:​

I looked over the puppet I'd built and nodded.

As much as Nohara Rin was more than trustworthy enough to be made aware of my secret, the Hokage had judged her a high-risk asset due to how much time she spent out of the village. As such, while he couldn't forbid me from telling her, he'd made it clear that he strongly discouraged it.

That complicated matters given she wanted to meet the medic who was going to perform the surgery on Kushina's spine before she would grant her blessing.

Which... well, Kushina probably suspected I was behind the offer of a new spine, but couldn't prove it and also knew how important it was to keep such an asset on the down-low if they could be.

So, in the great tradition of supervillains everywhere, I'd constructed an LMD.

Wild blonde hair, tan skin, blue eyes, somewhat fat, wearing the robes of a monk and bearing the scars of a man at least fifty years older than me. Rihaku would be the new face for any surgeries I needed to conduct.

With a small gate implanted in his chest cavity, I could even control him from great distances without anyone the wiser, having fixed the mistake that had allowed Hinata to pick my seals out.

"Hmm... okay, let's think personality," I muttered, cocking my head as I pursed my lips. "I'm thinking... Jiraiya-esque? Little bit lighter than that, but still kind of an asshole. Mix in a bit of neuro-divergent and paranoia? That would explain the lack of any official ties. Just a general kind of weirdo."

I nodded in approval of my idea, then picked up the fabricated history Sarutobi had drawn up for my life model duplicate. This would be a long surgery and I didn't want to mess anything up if Rin decided to ask probing questions while I was doing the setup.

Hopefully by the time I was done Satsuki and Yakumo would be on their way back from their mission. Even if that ran long, though, Tenten had probed me about arranging a date during the off-period after her own mission, so I did have that to look forward to.

I sighed, centering my thoughts. Yakumo had been distracted and worried ever since meeting Kokoro again. Hopefully she was holding herself together well. If not, I trusted Satsuki to look out for her.

I wondered what they were getting up to...

…​

Not for the first time, Kurama Yakumo pressed her hand to her lower abdomen in an absent-minded motion that seemed to rear its head every time her thoughts turned to her unborn child. The revelation that she would, indeed, be able to bear an heir for the clan had been a powerful and uplifting one. Ever since Kotaro, wonder-worker that he was, had confirmed he would be able to realize Kokoro into a physical form, she had spent several of her precious off-days wondering what it would be like to have a child.

The reality, as with so many things in her life it seemed, was far stranger than she'd been able to contemplate.

"You okay?"

Yakumo blinked, looking over to where Satsuki sat on a branch above her, the other girl's eyes keeping a watchful bead on the forest around them. Even if the mission was, as Kotaro had termed it, a 'milk run,' Obito-sensei was correct in that these low-level jobs were still good opportunities to ingrain proper habits.

"Fine," Yakumo replied shortly, going back to mixing the ration packs to make something approaching a proper meal. She would have preferred to simply unseal one of the packs Kotaro had given them for food, but sensei had another good point about holding the 'good' food in reserve for emergencies. They should use the rations while they had time and weren't in a difficult position. Should things escalate, they could get an easy morale boost by eating Kota's dishes on the go.

If they were being overly cautious, they could enjoy them at leisure on the way back to Konoha.

Satsuki gave a short grunt, the noise somehow conveying disbelief. After a moment, the dark-haired girl spoke up again. "Communication."

Yakumo grimaced, wishing that Naruko and sensei would come back to interrupt the awkward moment. It was a foolish thought to have, given that would mean their scouting operation would have been blown and they'd need to break camp and clear out.

It was ironic, she considered in her more thoughtful moments, that she'd end up sharing a man with Uchiha Satsuki of all people. There was... not bad blood between the Uchiha and Kurama clans, but certainly complicated. Her clan had splintered off from the Uchiha a hundred years before the founding of Konoha and reconciliation between the two groups over the differences which had caused the split were slow in coming.

It was only recently, after all, that the Uchiha were beginning to shed their taciturn and cold-blooded reputation among the greater part of Konoha.

No, Yakumo would have much preferred that, if she could not have Kotaro to herself, the other party in the relationship would have been more personable. Naruko, for instance, would have been less objectionable...

But Satsuki was, in her own awkward way, trying here and now to initiate dialogue.

Something she was usually only truly comfortable with Kotaro around.

"Kota called up Kokoro so we could talk," Yakumo stated without preamble.

Satsuki was silent before making a wordless noise that somehow managed to combine surprise, interest, and disappointment.

"It was spur of the moment," Yakumo shook her head, not quite sure that was actually true, but willing to obfuscate the matter for the sake of harmony. "Kota had a conversation with the Hokage. Since Kokoro isn't entirely human..."

Although Yakumo trailed off, the way Satsuki's eyes narrowed and flashed red told her that she didn't need to give explicit details about the talk their mutual boyfriend had with the village leader.

"Will she put Kota in danger again?" Satsuki asked bluntly, forgoing roundabout information-gathering attempts in a way that, and she could tell, made them both uncomfortable.

Still, Kota was correct in the fact that it was better to be honest when dealing with important subjects rather than so circumspect that none of them could tell exactly what had been decided.

"Kota has put safeties in her new body," Yakumo replied, knowing that both of them had more faith in their man's skills than anything else. "But he wanted to talk to Kokoro and make sure she understood that there would be rules once she's out in the real world. I'm..."

Yakumo chewed on the thought for a long moment, trying to find the words she wanted to say.

Satsuki, to her credit, waited quietly for the other girl to get her thoughts in order.

"Kokoro... I thought it was going to be like having a... a normal human daughter," Yakumo admitted, weight lifting from her shoulders even as something heavy settled in her gut with the admission. "She just... she just seemed perfectly fine until... she talked about eating people, Satsuki!"

Yakumo shook her head, taking a stabilizing breath and drawing upon her boyfriend's lessons to properly center herself emotionally. Tears that were threatening to gather were reabsorbed in a blink, and the riot of feelings within her began to calm. Distracted as she was for the moment, though, she was startled when she felt a pair of arms encircle her.

Her breath caught.

"It sounds rough," Satsuki admitted, leaning against her. It was an awkward embrace, what with both of them wearing full mission gear, but... the fact that Satsuki was even trying... again, that meant more than the act itself. "Sorry I wasn't there."

"It's... okay. I just-I need to get used to the idea. Kota was able to talk me through some of it, like how the Aburame clan's insects are part of them and they're known to eat corpses. Or how the Inuzuka and their dogs occasionally eat human flesh when there aren't other options. There's even shinobi like Sasori of the Red Sand, in Suna, who uses human bodies for his puppet materials." Yakumo regurgitated the list that Kota had given her like a mantra, trying to normalize the revelation once again.

Satsuki grunted, making no move to extract herself. "Sounds like him. I-I love him, but he can be a dumbass sometimes."

Yakumo snorted. "He can, can't he? I like the way he cuts through the drama, but every now and then it would be nice if he understood emotions better."

Satsuki chuckled, the sound dying away as they were silent for a moment.

"You okay now?" The Uchiha heiress asked.

Yakumo sighed. "I will be. I have to be, don't I?" She paused. "Even if things aren't perfect, they could be worse. I'd rather Kokoro have strange urges or a... diet that I can't understand the appeal of instead of being born like me."

"There... have been Uchiha like that," Satsuki admitted slowly, audibly grimacing. "It... it's not pretty, but it sounds like Kota's fixed it."

"Yeah, he... Kota seemed to understand what was going on immediately. He handled it a lot better than I did." Yakumo sighed, leaning back against Satsuki. As irritating as Kota's tendency towards hard logic and straight-forward courses of action could be, his streak of realistic pragmatism so elegantly cut through the bullshit around them that she wouldn't trade it for the world.

"You have two choices. The first choice is to accept our daughter for who and what she is. She will kill people and she will enjoy it."

"What's the second choice?" Yakumo had asked, hand pressed against her lower abdomen.

"You can try to force her to spend the rest of your life pretending to be something she's not. Even if it works, and that's not likely, it will be a constant uphill battle and she will fight you every step of the way. Whatever relationship you have beyond that, you will doubtless build a great deal of resentment over it."

It wasn't quite the same as her own parents' attempts to force her out of the shinobi life, but there were enough commonalities that she could see them without them being pointed out to her.

Even if some part of her wanted to call Kokoro, the child she'd been so looking forward to bringing into the world, a monster... well, Kotaro had the unfortunate point that a great many people the village looked up to and acknowledged as heroes and saviors would be termed such by Kumo or Iwa. Just as their own village called the great ninja from those villages 'monsters.'

It wasn't about how many people you killed, it was about what symbol those people were wearing when you killed them.

Kotaro could be so damn irritating when he was being insightful.

"Hey."

Yakumo blinked, turning her head to look at Satsuki.

The other girl took the opportunity to close the distance between them, pressing their lips together. Yakumo's eyes widened, then slowly closed as she felt Satsuki tighten the embrace around her. For all that the other girl's kunai pouch was pressing against her shoulder blade at an angle she almost believed would bruise, the gesture wasn't something she would ever spurn. Certainly not at this point.

For a long moment, only the sensation of the kiss occupied her mind, banishing all of the worry and self-recrimination and anxiety she felt over the oncoming future.

Then, finally, Satsuki pulled away, breaking the embrace as she removed her lips from Yakumo's with a thoughtful hum.

Yakumo was left blinking as the Uchiha heiress took two steps before launching herself back onto her perch. Absently, her hand trailed up to her lips and she blinked at the girl blankly. "I... thought you didn't like girls?"

A tiny dusting of red appeared on her teammate's cheeks, something which could just as easily have been an artifact of the late afternoon sun. "'Don't like' doesn't mean 'hate.'"

Yakumo couldn't help the giggle that burst free.

Satsuki visibly rolled her eyes and turned, ostensibly, to watch another approach to their camp. Yakumo was sure it had nothing to do with the fact that it obscured her face. "Besides, you made it pretty clear you do like girls."

Her laughter cut off and shifted to an embarrassed squeak as she turned away as well, hurrying to finish making dinner. "Ugh, can't you and Tenten leave that alone? It was just a stupid illusion!"

This time, the grunt she got in reply was heavily laced with amusement.

Still, it was heartwarming that Satsuki was willing to go so far as to kiss her to ease her worries. It meant the usually cold-blooded Uchiha viewed her more than simply as a function of her relationship with their mutual love interest.

It was into that moment that Naruko and Obito-sensei finally arrived, approaching from one of the two sight-lines her Kurama-style genjutsu hadn't covered. The rest of the approaches had been obfuscated with pastoral nature scenes that would, with a little seal work, allow anyone looking to traverse the space their camp sat within without actually covering the ground itself.

"Seal the camp," were the first words out of Obito's mouth once he and Naruko had cleared the illusionary line between the exterior and interior of the space.

Barking a quick affirmative, Yakumo pulled a pair of playing-card sized pieces of paper from her waist-pouch and flicked them like shuriken into the ground with the ease of long practice. Instantly, a film-like shade slid up, joining itself to a similar translucent fabric-like sheen circling the rest of their campground.

"Good," the jounin nodded, relaxing slightly as he looked over the encampment. Finding nothing amiss, he turned to Naruko. "Okay, you're up. I want a report for your teammates on everything that happened."

Naruko, who had been clearly about to do just that, took a deep breath and visibly attempted to calm herself, her hands pulled anxiously on the jacket Kotaro had made for her. "Okay, so like Obito-sensei and I made for the coast and saw the bridge the guy is building. We did some recon and saw the builder-guy-"

"Tazuna," Obito inserted.

Naruko bobbed her head. "Tazuna, yeah! The drunk! Anyway, like, he's totally coming back from Kiri with the last of the shipments for the bridge right now! It looked like him and a bunch of workers were unloading barges at the docks!"

Satsuki, who had dropped down from her perch, frowned. "I thought the client had control of the docks on the island?"

Naruko grinned, holding up a finger. "See, that's the thing! The boats came in under a heavy bank of fog. You could barely even see 'em before they landed! Then a bunch of ninja jumped off and started tangling with the guys in uniforms around the docks!"

"What village?" Yakumo asked worriedly, her brows creasing.

"Hidden Mist," Naruko answered, her glee at knowing a secret fading as she spoke more seriously. "Sensei and I think it was, um... a team of three chunin and a jounin. The three chunin all had these weird red and white masks too, ya know!"

Satsuki blinked, cocking her head as she turned to regard her cousin. "Kiri hunter-nin? What would a squad of those be doing here? Aren't they deployed like ANBU? To capture renegade ninja?"

Obito nodded, taking a sip from his canteen. "Good catch. Yeah, it's unusual. Keep going, Naruko."

Naruko nodded eagerly, bouncing on her heels. "So it looks like we've got about a week to destroy the bridge before it gets finished! Once we confirmed that, Obito and I went around the other side of the island to meet one of uh... Gato's boats. He's like, totally got that yakuza-type feel to him! Like, I can't even! Ugh. Anyway, he was all, 'Just get the job done! I'm paying you, aren't I?' And told us to leave. Total asshole!"

Bright blue eyes turned towards Obito-sensei for approval, the man in question sighing deeply as he reached up to rub at the bridge of his nose. "Let's call that... serviceable and move on to more important things. We got here too late to just attach some explosive seals and take the easy way out. Plus, the client has offered us a bonus if we're able to take the bridge over for him instead of destroying it, but the priority is that Tazuna and the rebel islanders don't keep control of the bridge."

Satsuki frowned. "Why does he want to control it? Everyone knows big bridges like that are a huge target for enemy ninja. He'd be better off just leveling it and leaving it at that."

Naruko paused, looking as though she didn't want to admit the Uchiha had a good point. "Yeah, it's weird. Kind of makes you wonder why they're building it at all."

Obito waved a hand. "It's not too strange. Wave isn't in the center of any major trade lanes, they don't have a hidden village, isn't easy to travel to, and the area at large doesn't have any exploitable resources outside of seafood. A place like this can sometimes get away with major infrastructure projects even without having ninja around to defend them every waking moment."

Obito paused. "Alternatively, there are a great many civilians who just don't have any idea what ninja are capable of and believe they're the first one to come up with a great idea like building a bridge or rail line or whatever."

Satsuki grunted uncharitably. "They're idiots, then."

"Ignorant, not stupid," Yakumo commented idly, then nodded towards Satsuki. "But, yes, I can see why someone would be inclined to think less than charitably towards a man like this bridge builder. He's endangering the status quo of a shipping company, building a large infrastructure project that is temporary at best, and creating a large target for shinobi, monks, or samurai to take hostage in the event they choose not to destroy it."

"So... basically exactly what we're here for?" Naruko asked with an amused snort.

"More or less," Obito nodded, smirking in amusement briefly before sobering. "The presence of the Kiri team complicates matters, especially given their apparent status as hunter-nin. It's possible that their mission is deeper than simply guarding the bridge-builder and his construction project or they might simply be here on a training mission to break them in. They seemed like fairly green chunin if I read them right."

The encampment was silent for a long moment.

"Are we gonna' fight them?" Naruko asked, the other two girls perking up at the question.

Satsuki hummed, giving Obito room to think things over further. "Open conflict between two teams on village-sanctioned missions should be a last resort. It would be one thing if they were missing-nin themselves, but..."

Obito willfully kept his eyebrows from climbing. It always surprised him when Satsuki spoke up as the voice of reason in situations like this. They'd only been on a few C-Ranks so far; one bandit-clearing, a minor noble wanting a package shipped, and a protection job for a survey crew in the south of the Land of Fire, but each time it seemed like there was an easy avenue for violence, Satsuki had taken the high road.

It was a little bit eerie how level-headed his excitable little cousin had become under Kotaro's guidance.

Something he didn't know whether to thank him for or not, given how powerful his influence on her decision-making paradigm apparently was.

"Eh... if tha' Kiri team is here, isn't this all, like... political, now?" Naruko's question brought him up short, surprising him that he hadn't needed to broach the topic first. Even Satsuki's appraisal of inter-village conflict avoidance was far above what he would consider the skill level of genin to be. Contrary to the understanding of many shinobi, conflicting mission parameters didn't automatically mean you tried to start a fight.

They were ninja, after all. There were multiple ways of achieving an objective.

Naruko continued. "I mean... isn't this like Hidden Mist making a move on Konoha's turf? Since the island is really close to shore and now they'll have a bridge? So couldn't they invade easier or something?"

Yakumo shook her head, fielding the concern. "Not for an invasion, I don't think. But you're right that expanding their influence into the area is a bit worrying, Naruko. This strikes me as some kind of catspaw, distraction, or possibly the construction of a new smuggling route."

All good guesses, Obito thought, though she had missed the possibility of using the island as a recruitment base. Hidden Mist, while not as small as Hidden Sand, was never the largest of the villages and would always welcome the possibility of a larger population to draw from, even if they were only skilled craftsmen or unskilled labor. The other possibility, and one he thought just as likely, was that they would be using the route to funnel money and supplies to dissident groups within the Land of Fire. Even now, there were still a rare few temples, ronin houses, and ninja clans who remained outside the modern system headed by the daimyo and nobility.

Satsuki grunted. "We need more information."

Yakumo paused thoughtfully, then nodded. "They aren't going to finish the bridge for almost another week anyway. We have time to do further scouting and planning before we have to act. In theory, we could even wait for the Mist team to just leave. Unless they plan to station more teams here on a rotating basis, the bridge will be just as vulnerable to attack next week or next month as it will be tomorrow."

Obito made a mental note, once again, to try and squeeze some teaching tips out of that brat Kotaro. It was breathtakingly rare to see a team of green genin actually realize they could wait out a problem. Kids always wanted to take the most expedient course of action, which was seldom the smartest one. From the way Naruko was bouncing on the balls of her feet, he could tell that strategy didn't appeal to her, but she was still contemplating it.

"Naruko, are you good to throw off a dozen shadow clones?" Satsuki asked, her dark eyes flicking over to the blonde bundle of energy.

"You know it!" Naruko grinned, bringing her hands up to-

"Hold on!" Obito called, raising a hand. "Not here, Naruko!"

The Uzumaki princess froze, the hand seal half-made, but dropped her hands with a pout.

Satsuki snorted. "So let's use Naruko's shadow clones and transform them as local fauna like we did for the bandits. We can see what we're dealing with before we act. In the meantime... Yakumo."

The Kurama heiress perked up.

"Can you set up a painting to make the bridge disappear?"

Yakumo's eyes sparkled, then she grinned. "I'll have to see how big it is, I might need Naruko to provide chakra for it."

"Hehe, you prolly will," Naruko grinned, stretching her arms. "It's super fuckin' huge. Like, maybe half the Hokage Monument."

Yakumo and Satsuki's eyebrows rose as they looked to their teacher for confirmation. Obito chuckled. "She's exaggerating, but not by much."

Yakumo nodded slowly. "I'll need a big canvas and some time to properly treat it with seals then, but a week is more than enough and I have my supplies with me."

All three genin paused, then turned to look at their teacher.

Obito huffed a laugh and nodded. "Not bad. Not bad at all. I'll fill you in on some of my thoughts, but it's a workable plan for now. How about we break for dinner?"