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Chapter 3: ThreeChapter Text

THREE

Hiruzen ignored the trio of councilmembers following at his heels as he strode purposefully through the corridors of the overworked hospital. Nurses and medics alike rushed about him, not even pausing to bow, too over-worked and over-wrought in the aftermath of the Kyuubi's attack to spare time with formalities. The hospital was badly overtaxed, and the morgue below it even more so. Still, even in the over-crowded hospital, a room had been set apart from all the other patients and cordoned off with two ANBU set to guard it, and it was to this room that Hiruzen was headed.

He flickered his chakra in the pre-determined pattern as he neared the room and the two ANBU bowed in response to the code, stepping aside to let him and his old friends through. The hospital room was bleak, despite the bright, fluorescent lighting. White walls and white sheets washed out its occupants, another set of ANBU guards, Jiraiya, and, of course, the reason they were all there– Minato and Kushina's twins.

One of the twins was awake and whimpering, its skin strawberry pink with a tuft of bright-blond hair. It took Hiruzen a moment to notice the second twin was also awake, the much smaller baby was so quiet. There was something heartbreakingly lovely about the smaller twin, with its thin, easy to tear skin, fragile, pointy bones, and visible veins. It was easy to pretend, even in a world like theirs, that all babies come wailing into the world pink and robust, ready to be handed to teary mothers and proud fathers. But sometimes it didn't go that way at all.

"The seals are perfect," Jiraiya said quietly, looking up from his careful study of the twin seals. "The Yin and Yang halves of the Kyuubi are contained."

"Namikaze outdid himself," Danzo said, sounding almost reluctantly impressed. "Two jinchūriki."

Hiruzen felt as if the smaller, frailer twin's eyes sharpened briefly, but a second glance showed only an infant's bleary, unfocused gaze.

"Don't you talk about them like that," Jiraiya said, voice low and dangerous. "Don't you fucking dare. Not Minato, not Naruto, not Fuyuko."

Hiruzen closed his eyes, feeling the tension in the hospital room rise.

"And by your decree, are we to not discuss it at all, then? Are we to simply hide from the facts?" Koharu asked sharply, her voice cutting. "You may not like it, Jiraiya, but we cannot afford to hide from the truth of the Yondaime's actions and we must decide, and decide quickly, what to do with two jinchūriki."

"I can–" Danzo started, but Jiraiya interrupted him, snarling.

"You can fucking keep your hands off them, you sick bastard!"

"The other villages will be looking at us right now and seeing weakness," Danzo said calmly, though Hiruzen could hear the muted anger in his voice. "We need a show of strength; I can raise them to be powerful assets to Konoha."

"You mean, you can raise them to be emotionless little puppets!" Jiraiya retorted. "Over my fucking dead body are you doing that to my godchildren!"

"Jiraiya, Danzo, enough," he cut in wearily. "Jiraiya, you must realise you can't raise them yourself– Danzo's right, the other villages will be looking towards us and seeing weakness. We'll need your intelligence network now more than ever– we cannot afford for you to be taking the time off to raise two children, not unless you want them raised in a war."

"That's low, sensei," Jiraiya said, low and furious, his eyes glittering with something perilously close to hate.

Hiruzen was used to his students hating him, though, and he didn't let it deter him.

"You have a duty to your village, Jiraiya," he said quietly, and after a tense moment, Jiraiya bowed his head briefly, capitulating to the greater good.

"Danzo isn't touching them," he said lowly. "If I can't raise them, then Danzo isn't fucking touching them— that's my price."

"Hiruzen–" Danzo immediately protested, but Hiruzen raised a hand.

"Agreed," he said calmly. "But that raises another problem."

"It does," Koharu agreed, with a frown. "They can't be raised as Namikaze's children."

"What!?" Jiraiya demanded.

"Think, Jiraiya," Hiruzen said wearily. "The other villages will be looking towards us, trying to gauge us for weakness, but if we give enough of a show of strength, they shouldn't risk an invasion or breaking the current peace. Not unless we give them a good enough reason to– such as taking out the twin Jinchūriki legacies of the Yellow Flash before they're old enough to really be a problem."

Jiraiya looked furious. "So, what, you're going to strip them of their names, their inheritance, everything they deserve?" he demanded. "Just leave them as another couple of nameless, clanless orphans, in the wake of the Kyuubi attack? Like they aren't the children of your successor, the Yondaime Hokage? Like they aren't the direct descendants of the wife of the Shodaime Hokage? Like they aren't basically the closest thing this village has to royalty?"

"I have to think of what's best for this village," Hiruzen said quietly, and Jiraiya's eyes flashed with rage. He looked moments away from scooping both twins up and carrying them away with him, disappearing from Konoha forever. Hiruzen wouldn't even blame him, not really. It was the price of being Hokage, to lose the ones he loved; either to death, like his poor Biwako, or to the demands of his post, such as the case of his son and his students. But he wouldn't, couldn't, change his mind on the matter. Konoha had to come first, always.

Minato had understood that. It was why he'd sacrificed himself and his children, sealing the Kyuubi into them. His last wish might have been for the village to see his children as heroes, but he'd understand why Hiruzen had to do what he had to do, for the sake of the village.

Kushina, on the other hand…

As if he'd read his mind, Jiraiya smiled darkly at him. "I'd be afraid, if I were you," he said, "when you pass on to the Pure Lands, Kushina's going to tear you to pieces."

His student then pointedly turned his back on him, looking down instead at the twins. He took a deep, shuddering breath. "I'm sorry." He told them, the pained regret heavy in his voice, "I'm so sorry." He reached down to touch each tiny hand. "Take care of each other, okay?" He murmured, and then, in a swirl of green leaves, he was gone.

Hiruzen sighed, before turning to the ANBU. "Have them checked over by a medic then placed with the other orphaned children," he instructed. "Keep a rotating guard over them until further notice of two ANBU per child. And… inform the orphanage staff that their names are Uzumaki Naruto and Uzumaki Fuyuko."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Danzo asked, and he smiled tiredly.

"No," he admitted. "But do it anyway."

He couldn't give the twins their father's legacy, but perhaps he could give them part of their mother's.

(It would be years before he realised the mistake he'd made, but by then it would be too late)