3/4

Eri was considered Sakumo's wife, for all intents and purposes in the shinobi ranks, for the impending wedding and for having his child. Mesuji Natsumi, as an orphaned kunoichi not yet at the age civilians would accept being self-sufficient, was legally a ward jointly cared for by Jiraiya and Sakumo, and now Eri as the not-so-last Hatake's sort of wife. Uzumaki Kushina and Uchiha Mikoto were the closest kunoichi to Natsumi, since neither Minato nor Inoichi had the gender to witness the birth of a child not their own although they had the rights for it and Sakumo was banished until he calmed down.

That was why the two kunoichi had stepped in Natsumi's and Sakumo's place, the assassin wasn't expected back for another month and her master wasn't calm enough to hold his soon-to-be-wife's hand.

Now in the sort of standard uniform of the Chūnin Corps, the only thing the hospital had to replace mission damaged clothing before discharging shinobi because she had thrown her mission pack at Tsume's head when she hear where her taicho was, Natsumi smirked down at the fluffy silver head of the baby in her arms. She could admit he was kind of cute, it that lobster red and wrinkled look of all newborns.

Okay, yeah, she wanted one or two herself eventually.

"Didn't you have another few weeks out there before coming back? I know you just came in the village since you were still in uniform." Sakumo's low voice carried over to her, from where her kenjutsu master was sitting next to the sleeping form of Eri.

"Well… I finally got fed up with the two of them, threw them head first in a bandit encampment and didn't help until they got over their issues." At her old taicho's flat look, the assassin rolled her mismatched eyes. "Tsume-san's loud voice attracted attention of a wandering band of scruffy idiots, said idiots attacked thinking we were travelers and a dog in the middle of an argument. Shibi-san kept the Inuzuka teen from being beheaded while we were killing them. Something in her head went click, and now they can deal with each other. Mostly. I sped through the rest of my targets and we decided to run back because we had been out of the village a while and there was only two months to go before Kakashi-chan's due date."

"Don't you still have to report in?"

"If you wanna hold your son, say so taicho." Natsumi got up and carefully transferred the new Hatake clan member to his father. "And no. Hokage-sama gave me leave to report tomorrow instead of doing it then, giving me the news that you two-err... three, were in the hospital at the same time."

Sakumo smirked at Kakashi, who had started to fuss with the transference and the shifting sources of body heat. "Anything else to report?"

"I may have… acquired an unfortunate nickname for my mask while out there."

A silver eyebrow rose, but the man didn't look up. "From speeding through your mission like a green recruit?"

"…maybe."

(ooo000ooo)

Sosen no Fukushū. Avenging Ancestor.

Natsumi was sure some kami out there was laughing at her, but Minato was the only one she could hear at the moment. "Shut up already."

"Sorry." Her kouhai didn't look remotely apologetic about laughing at her or for the grin on his face. "But still… appropriate."

The assassin rolled the ghost eyes that gained her that nickname and slumped further into Minato's couch. Since either of her pale green and blue eyes were the only identifiable part of her in ANBU armor, some idiot she had missed sight of had recalled that when spreading the gossip of the assassinations she did. Natsumi was now wavering between being annoyed she was technically being called old and being impressed someone had escaped her notice after spotting her. She did have to hope the rumors would go away, that little nickname wasn't something she wanted attached to her name.

It was a very good thing it was hard to judge the age of someone in ANBU uniform and the idiot only saw her blue eye, or some of the ninjas that had been in Suna for the Chūnin Exams would put her eyes together with the mask of the rumors and point fingers at her being an assassin and not a kenjutsu user in training. They might still do it, but most who spread those rumors wouldn't believe that a young woman would be the cold blooded killer called Sosen no Fukushū without hard proof, and since the only other person in this world with her odd eyes was her kaa-san it would just give life to more rumors about dead women killing people. Civilians could be idiots sometimes.

Since other shinobi villages knowing that Konoha had a light blue-eyed assassin of that much renown wouldn't damage the village's reputation, their Hokage wasn't all that annoyed with her. She would still be docked mission pay, and until the rumors died down whenever a foreign ninja came to Konoha she would be required to either be in ANBU armor and on-duty or wear her green contacts, but eh.

Since ANBU wasn't supposed to exist, there was an entire branch of Intelligence that handled rumormongering to counter any sighting or stories of ANBU agents caught in the act. They also held the negotiators that haggled the prices for missions the civilians paid for their work being done, and the propaganda department that made sure the people of Fire Country thought only good things about Konoha and horrible deeds went on in other villages.

Which meant there were members of the Chūnin Corps that were paid just to go out to little towns and foreign countries and drink at a bar or four and exaggerate rumors circling around to keep a specific ninja from being identified. By the time they were done, Sosen no Fukushū might be anyone from a male Hyūga clan member to a nuke-nin under a genjutsu trying to keep from being identified.

Natsumi was just happy to be back in the village. Even if it did mean most of her friends would have a good laugh at her expense.

Besides, an almost four month long C-ranked ANBU assassination mission paid per target was a pretty hefty chunk of mission pay even with the knock off the top for risk taking.

"Natsumi-chan! Someone else is looking for you!" Kushina simply waltzed right into the blond's apartment, grinning at the two of them. Most of their friends knew exactly where to find her most days, right where she was currently sitting. "We need to put up a sign that says if you're not home, check Minato-kun's place."

"And I would like to know who's looking for me before I bother going to see who it is." Natsumi stuck her nose in the air. "It looks like neither of us is going to get what we want."

"She has a dog with her and another teen full of bugs, does that count?"

"Ah, fuck." Tsume and Shibi then. She had gotten back her mission pack from the Inuzuka when they reported to the Hokage that morning after taicho and his family was moved to his home, so what did they want? "Right."

The assassin got two feet from the door before she realized Kushina wasn't following. "Hime?"

"Hmm?"

"I don't think my kouhai needs someone to watch him ink a seal anymore. Apparently it's been a few weeks since he last screwed up an explosive tag, if the char marks on his table are any judge. Unless, of course, you want to stay and watch for another reason then I'm all for you staying."

The Uzumaki went red with a squeak and sped out of there even as Minato blushed and glared at her for the crack against his competence in his ninja specialty before she closed his apartment door. The following small thuds might have been some sharp things lobbed at her head, but her adorable kouhai wouldn't do that to his respectable sempai.

Mmm… maybe she should tone down the violence a little.

Kushina was writing something on the assassin's own apartment door, Tsume and Shibi were watching her do it as Kuromaru lounged against the railing. "Okay. Hime, what are you doing?"

"Writing my notice." The jinchūriki finished with a flourish, putting the brush full of ink back wherever she had stored it. "And now we both have what we want."

If she's not home, go next door.

While Natsumi had been decrypting the hurried handwriting, and taking apart the stasis seal around it in her head, Kushina got close enough to press a noisy kiss to her cheek. "Bye bye, have fun!"

"There is a lot I can do with that, Kushina-hime!"

"I'm looking forward to it!"

The assassin snorted when the last flicker of red hair disappeared out of sight, turning back to her unexpected guests. "If the two of you have some kind of clan problem, I'm kicking you to the Nara clan compound. Kami-sama knows Shikaku-kun did more of that than I did."

"No we're… wait, what?"

"I believe this conversation should take place inside. Why? We have just come by to express our gratitude for allowing us to solve our own problems in time."

Natsumi clicked her tongue at them, unlocking her door and letting them into her own apartment. "Mmm kay? There really hadn't been a lot I did for you two, you had the problem in hand and feeling for the solution even before I was asked to take a look and later play mediator. Tea?"

"You may not think much of it, Natsumi. But we would have been passed over for promotion if you hadn't." The future head of her clan took a seat on the floor in front of her own couch, letting her ninken sprawl across her lap. "As is, we maybe got a suspension as chūnin for a few weeks until they get off their asses and confirm it."

Suffixes were not something the Inuzuka clan used much, seeing no point in them if everyone was pack. The only ones they titled -sama was the Hokage and their clan head. Although the assassin admitted it was now a little strange not to hear a tag on her name when not in the middle of a mission and if something was urgently needed from her.

Since the wild natured teen was settling down for the moment, Natsumi figured she did want the tea. Shibi nodded his agreement, either to the tea or the statement, the assassin couldn't figure that one out.

"And ya took us with you on mission even knowing what we're like."

Natsumi almost missed her stove top with the kettle. As it was it still gave a dull clang when the two pieces of metal collided. "What?"

"Hokage-sama must have lied to us about Natsumi-san being able to refuse to assist. Why? Her reaction speaks of surprise."

"Um, no. I just wasn't aware I could have refused." At the two blank looks, and wow was Shibi a master of that expression, the assassin gave them a flat stare in return. "ANBU, remember? We don't turn down missions. Ever."

Tsume looked a little ill, recalling that while it had been a mostly boring run around the greater parts of Fire Country and a few of the border states for them, it had been a strings of killings for her. "Oh shit, right."

"It is likely that Hokage-sama intended for you to assume so. Why? In order to secure your assistance."

"Yeah, you are able to refuse secondary missions if they're not your main specialty, Natsumi."

Well… you learned something new every day.

"Damn, thanks for telling me now." Natsumi waited until the two of them had taken a sip of tea. "So, this isn't to tell me you're madly in love and are expecting the first of many kids you want to name after me?"

Hmm… apparently it takes more than that to make an Aburame spit take, though Shibi did turn an interesting shade of pale green and flailed slightly. On the bright side, Tsume got hers all over an unimpressed Kuromaru.

Well, it was a challenge to work on in her free time.

\V/

Sakumo had snatched her up and shunshined away, right in the middle of a conversation with Fugaku. If Jiraiya hadn't had such a habit of the same thing when he needed one of his students to make up excuses for him, Natsumi would have been a little more annoyed when the man put her down right in front of his home.

"I need you to watch them for me, Natsumi-chan. I've got a mission to deal with."

A pat on the head later, and the silver haired new father was gone. Judging by the frown on his face, taicho wasn't happy at the mission slotted for the moment his paternity leave ended.

Toeing off her ninja sandals by catching the clasps with her exposed toes, Natsumi placed her armful of Uchiha scrolls on a table close to the door and entered the Hatake clan home. Fugaku would send someone for them when it became apparent Sakumo wasn't returning her or them. "Eri-san?"

"In the kitchen!"

Following the sounds of the woman's voice and Kakashi's baby gurgles, which he was so getting teased over later when he was old enough to appreciate it, the assassin found the mother of her old ANBU captain's son making dinner. "What brings you by today, Natsumi-chan?"

"Taicho was pulled for a mission. He's tasked me with being his hands here until he's back." She probably didn't need to know about the 'watch' thing.

Eri sighed regretfully, but smiled softly at her fussing son before going back to the soup simmering on the stove and humming some lullaby to keep the newborn from crying.

There was a very good chance that the woman would have died in childbirth if Natsumi hadn't told Tsunade about her pregnancy before Sakumo panicked over her contractions and the blood.

Even when married or living with ninjas, civilian women tended to continue going to civilian doctors for pregnancy and child birth. Apparently, according to Biwako later when the emergency was over, that wasn't a very good idea at all. Shinobi parents were much more likely to have ninja children, with chakra networks active sooner than most civilian born ninjas had, who only got around to unlocking their networks in the academy unless someone took interest in them and showed them how.

Kakashi was exceptional in that regard, but he had almost unwittingly killed his mother trying everything he could to find a more comfortable position in an ever contracting space without a kunoichi midwife on hand to keep him from doing so.

Natsumi wasn't at all apologetic now about telling Tsunade about her taicho knocking up his girlfriend. Since that had let the two women meet and get to know each other before the little brat decided he wanted out and let the sannin realize the baby was a clan child, not an average ninja's, and all the complications that could have in the process. Her taicho had later cornered her and thanked her for spilling the beans to the Slug Princess about his girlfriend's condition, even if he had been less than appreciative at the time she had done so.

She wondered if that was the start of the end, her old captain's unknowing risk of Eri's life that eventually killed her. Was that the first crack in his confidence as a shinobi?

Natsumi stripped off her weaponry, piling it up on the floor next to her before extending a slightly calloused hand out to Kakashi, who was set up on the table in his little basket and waving his tiny fists at her. Eri looked over to them at the first clangs of metal, turning back when she realized the kunoichi was respecting her mandate of 'no weapons on your person when handling the baby'.

The assassin was sure there was a story behind that, but Sakumo had changed the topic too fast for her to ask when it had been brought up the first time.

"Are you going to be joining me for dinner then, Natsumi-chan?"

"Probably. Do you mind if I go grab Minato-kun and Kushina-hime when Kashi-chan naps? I still don't really know what the two of them eat when I'm not there to cook for them. Scratch that, I know exactly what Kushina-hime eats, and she doesn't need any more."

It really was possible to live off ramen if you vary it between flavors, Kushina was living proof. Natsumi just wanted to cringe over the sodium intake of Konoha's jinchūriki.

Both of them.

(ooo000ooo)

After Eri sent both Kushina and Minato home, each with seconds of dinner in a bento box for tomorrow, Natsumi went around the compound once to check out the perimeter as the older woman gave the baby a bath.

The only thing that saved her life that night was Kakashi loudly laughing at something and the sound carrying out to her.

Natsumi turned her head to see if she could pick up the sound of what was amusing the baby so, and caught the sight of a tip of a short sword being swung at the back of her neck. The assassin dropped forward, swinging a foot backwards as one of her hands went for a weapon. The blade sliced through her long hair, but she knocked the attacker forward onto her back and the kunai she never removed from under her left foot was firmly shoved back into the adult sized attacker's heart.

Rolling the man off her, and ignoring his blood seeping through her shirt, Natsumi leapt up onto the roof of the large, traditional style house. She caught sight of another figure making its way silently to where the upper floor bathing room was, and cast her kinjutsu to alter how the supposed killer saw reality.

Fugaku, even without the Yin release hint, had been instrumental in helping her develop the assassination technique further than the double sight effect it had initially done. Natsumi had played around with the levels of Yin she used in Suna when taking the chūnin exams like he had suggested, though he had asked about varying amounts of chakra, and figured out how to make a target see what she wanted them too. This version of it skewed depth perception, not the flicker sight of paranoia the first one suggested. The would-be assassin wouldn't be able to throw right if his or her life depended on it.

Her next target realized something was wrong when she misjudged a step and knocked a few loose tiles together, cutting off the sound of Eri's voice as she talked to Kakashi.

Natsumi grabbed the neck of the woman and shoved her bloody kunai through to the heart again, before the would-be-assassin had the opportunity to do anything. Slowly lowering the heavily bleeding woman to the tiled roof, the ANBU assassin flared her chakra in the standard pattern for 'attack, backup needed'.

That signal flare also alerted another assassin, the heavier footfalls of a male abandoned any attempt of surviving the mission and started slamming doors on the first floor, trying to find his targets. The ghost eyed teen used the window Eri had left open to enter the bathroom where she was with baby Kakashi.

The woman had already wrapped the wet two month old in a towel and held him securely in her arms, backing away from both the open window and the door to the hallway while trying to keep them both in her sight. She had to clap a free hand over her mouth at the appearance of the blood splattered teenager her husband taught, who ignored that to station herself between her taicho's wife and the door to the hall.

That door was thrown open a few tense minutes later, but it wasn't a man she didn't know. Hatake Sakumo looked all three of them over quickly then gestured to the assassin. "Eri, stay here with Kakashi. Come on, Natsumi. We're hunting."

She just nodded and slid pass Jackal, who nodded back at her, and followed her taicho down into the living room. Sakumo had apparently made it home in time to catch her signal and to keep the third attacker from going any farther than he had, because the man was sliced clean in though in the main hallway.

"Damn, taicho. Remind me not to piss you off any time soon."

Sakumo only bared his teeth at the corpse, biting a thumb and flexing his fingers rapidly through hand signs before slamming a hand down on the floor. Natsumi had never seen the man Summon his Dogs before, the Contract was too well known as belonging to the Hatake clan of Konohagakure no Sato for him to use it in ANBU, and watched the sequence avidly. A surge of chakra and an implosion of smoke answered, and a moment later an oddly dressed greyhound stood on all fours in the hall with them.

The dog looked around and shook her head. "Assassins, pup? In your own den, even. What have you been up to?"

The silver haired man knelt down to her level, almost vibrating with anger. "If it hadn't been for my own little assassin, they would have killed my mate and pup, Aki-sama. I think there may have been another."

The greyhound looked straight at Natsumi and she was going to assume the dog smirked. The assassin had an uneasy feeling about what the look was supposed to mean if directed at her.

"Then let's not waste any time. Follow me, I'll track the rat down for you."

(ooo000ooo)

There had been a fourth member of an Iwa assassination team, this one waiting outside the village for either the return of the assassin team or dawn's break to hightail it back to Earth Country. He wouldn't be doing that, as Sakumo, Aki, and Natsumi had eventually gotten around to knocking him out and handing the ninja over to T&I for processing… once they pried the man out of the greyhound's jaws and kept him from bleeding out.

Since neither master nor apprentice saw any sleep that night and dawn was staring to peek over the walls of the village, Sakumo simply grabbed the younger assassin and hauled her home with him after dismissing his Summons' pack leader.

Eri and Kakashi had been moved to the master bedroom, according to Crow who was standing guard just inside of the compound walls, with Jackal guarding the hallway door. Natsumi thought she saw Monkey on the roof where the woman had been last night. They did pass Horse cleaning the hallway, who gave both benched ANBU members a backward wave as she scrubbed the blood out of the hardwood floors. Tiger was checking each room upstairs, dropping what he had been on and clearing out one of the guest bedrooms when Sakumo asked him too, and Lizard had been flickering around doing the same downstairs.

It was almost like being back in ANBU headquarters, even if the new Lizard was female now, with the two squads Sakumo once looked after in the Second War keeping watch for them. Natsumi didn't even bother doing more that stripping out of the blood crusted clothing she had been wearing all night before collapsing into the bed.

\V/

Kushina was still fussing over her hair a week later.

"Honestly, hime. The only reason I never got around to cutting it was because there always were more interesting things to do." Natsumi pulled the now shoulder length mass up in a high-tail. "It's more manageable this way."

"Yeah… but once we evened it out after that idiot hacked it off, you lost more of it." The jinchūriki was clutching her own ruby red locks, as if someone would come around and try to chop hers off. "I liked your long hair, you know."

Minato, who had been unfortunately forced to listen to the two kunoichi about hair length for the last half hour since they were camped out on his couch, rolled his eyes. "And sempai puts it up nearly on a daily basis, Kushina-chan. It seems more practical this way."

The Uzumaki threw a glare his way. "Are you saying you think my hair isn't practical?"

"No! Just… that for sempai it seemed practical. Your hair looks good the way you have it." Natsumi's fellow orphan backpedaled hurriedly, dropping the inky brush he had been holding to wave his hands in front of him to suggest the other teen had taken his comment wrong. "It looks… um, pretty?"

"And now you're suggesting I'm more concerned over how my hair looks than how practical it is." Kushina huffed exasperatedly and got up. "I'll see you later, Natsumi-chan."

The assassin hid a grin and waved goodbye to the other chūnin, looking back just in time to see Minato clap a hand over his eyes and groan.

"I'll never understand girls."

"Well… that's not a girl, kouhai. She's a teenager."

The blond peered at her between his ink stained fingers. "Very funny. Why are you here, anyways? Aren't you usually learning how to swing a sword now?"

"Taicho wanted family time with Eri-san and Kashi-chan after the scare last week, and I'm really hiding from Fugaku-sama for a little while. He's not happy with me." Since she had both forgotten to have either of the others return his clan scrolls that night and to alert the Uchiha Police Station about the assassination attempt. Natsumi could understand the first part, hell she wasn't happy about not returning the scrolls. The Police wouldn't have been alerted even if they had the time to do it between keeping Eri and Kakashi alive and finding the fourth idiot, so there.

The assassin then started to sniff theatrically, pouting over to the fūinjutsu user. "Do you not like me too, kouhai? I'll leave if you want me to."

Minato gave a weak laugh, dropping his hand to pick up his brush again, scanning the fūinjutsu seals laid out so he could work on them spread over his table. "Wouldn't Fugaku-san come here first to find you? This is a little obvious, sempai."

Natsumi shrugged, falling back onto the couch and stretching out. "Eh… I'm not going to put that much effort into hiding from him. He's not that scary. Sides, you can take him."

Even with ink on his face, though the streaks were kind funny.

"Your faith in my skills is astounding." The blond deadpanned back. "Go bother someone else."

"Ooh… permission."

Minato's eyes widened and he turned around to face his open door. "No! Wait… ah hah, someone's going to kill me."

(ooo000ooo)

Shikaku looked pale under his tan when he saw her behind his front door.

Natsumi's ninja senses were tingling. Something was up. "Shikaku-kun? Something wrong?"

"Get me out of here." The Nara heir hissed, gripping the assassin's arm tightly as he drew her inside.

Aikido beamed at the female friend her son had brought into the living room. "Hello, Natsumi-chan. Was there something you wanted?"

"I have to steal Shikaku-kun for a few. Someone attacked taicho last week and he wants his security layout looked over."

Shikai gave them both a knowing look over his wife's head, shooing them both out with a lazy wave when the woman looked over at him to see if it was alright. "Scram then. Be back by evening, son."

The shadow master wasted no time in leaving, something highly unusual for anyone in the Nara clan. Natsumi kept her mouth shut until they passed the clan walls. "And now for the real reason I played extractor? Cause I have to say, there are fees for this kind of thing."

"Kaa-chan wants to arrange a marriage for me, since apparently I'm too lazy to find a wife." Sighing, Shikaku ran a hand over the back of his neck. "There's nothing wrong with Yoshino-san, really. She's… okay. Just, I can't see myself living with her."

The assassin hummed, turning that over her head as the two of them headed somewhere the Nara was leading them to.

The scare with Eri and Kakashi had left her wondering if she had assumed wrong about Sakumo's reasoning for his suicide, and had her carefully looking over her time here to see if there had been any other misconceptions because there seemed to be a lot in the series of events she had put together for her taicho.

If Eri had survived the birth even without Natsumi's meddling, she would have been weakened a lot from the bleeding and dealing with a newborn baby. If Natsumi hadn't been with the two of them when the older man had been on mission, they might have been able to kill her before anyone knew about the attack. Their targets didn't include a newborn baby, though, and T&I was operating on the conclusion that Iwa hadn't heard about the birth of the man's son yet for the reason why.

Sakumo already disliked Earth Country a lot for going after his wife, what would the older Hatake's feelings be like if they had killed Eri and were about to do the same to Kakashi?

If the Iwa ninjas managed to kill the weakened wife of the last Hatake, but missed the baby, would that have pissed her taicho off enough to gain the moniker of Konoha's White Fang? Would he gain that title since Eri and Kakashi were fine?

Now Shikaku raised this problem up. Marriage for shinobi in this generation didn't really go hand in hand with liking the other person, usually it ended up being because there was a child involved or someone was arranged for it.

Love wasn't something specifically sought out by sane ninja, because that was one hell of a weakness to have and most didn't have the lifespan for that search to take. If they had the time to get to know someone it was because they were ninjas too, or because they were stuck together for the purpose of procreation.

Natsumi had thought her friends were, at the very least, okay with whoever they ended up with. Like Fugaku and Mikoto, who respected each other and got along well; Hizashi and his fellow Hyūga girl, who were tolerant of the arranged match and each other; or like Sakumo and Eri, who genuinely liked the other and were getting to the point of affectionate caring.

Minato and Kushina were exceptions to that hard and fast rule, even the assassin could see the beginnings of something developing there, and she had assumed everyone else would end up with maybe a lesser degree of that in time.

Konoha was easing out of that mindset, by the next generation it wouldn't be until fifteen or twenty that the clans would start thinking about continuing the bloodlines with longer lifespans to consider, but right now most clans were looking into appropriate partners for their heirs. Only recently were there couples that waited longer than that to get together and start on the next generation.

"Who do you see yourself living with?" Natsumi asked idly, still turning the problem around in her head.

Had Shikaku ended up an alcoholic with this girl?