5

Chapter 5: FiveChapter Text

FIVE

It took many hours, but finally the men and women working over Naruto stepped back, and one of them turned to the doorway to bow deeply. "He will live, Hokage-sama." The woman said, her voice tired but sure. Striped-mask man turned in the direction that the woman had bowed, and Sansa was able to see for the first time that Hiruzen, the ruler– either Lord or Monarch, she was unsure– had entered the room at some point. He looked terribly weary, and also very relieved.

"Well done, Iyasu-sensei." He complimented. "And, of course, your talented, hard-working team."

"We live to serve, Hokage-sama." The woman– Iyasu-sensei– told Hiruzen tiredly, and after bowing again, she and the rest of her 'team' filed out of the room. Once the door closed after them, the gentleness disappeared from Hiruzen's eyes, leaving them hard and sharp and so very cold.

His eyes, in that moment, reminded Sansa of nothing more than a furious Lord Tywin.

"What," Hiruzen asked, his voice low and furious, "happened?"

"…there have been rumours, Hokage-sama," the rooster-mask woman said, after a silence that nobody seemed to want to break. "About the twins… and what has been sealed inside them."

Feeling a prickle of premonition, Sansa closed her eyes, letting out a soft, sleepy little mewling sound and turning to press her face against the vest the striped-mask man was wearing. There was a brief pause, as if those in the room had been reminded of her presence, but Sansa ignored it, and focused on convincingly slowing her breathing to feign drifting off to sleep, just as the infant she had failed to act as this night would. Feigning unconsciousness was a useful skill, one she'd learned while married to Ramsay– he wasn't interested in torturing her while she was unconscious; he liked her to be awake, to react; she was always hurt far less if she could keep up the act.

The conversation resumed around her; her act was apparently convincing enough, or people just really weren't expecting subterfuge from a near-newborn. And a near-newborn she must pretend to be, as she had so stunningly failed to act these past hours.

"Hokage-sama…" the rooster-mask woman started again, "the rumours… the rumours are that one of the twins is the Kyuubi, and those who lost friends and family to the bijuu… they want revenge."

"Gods-damnit!" Hiruzen snapped, and she could hear the frustration and stress both in his voice. "How did it leak? And how does that explain how someone got close enough to slit Naruto-kun's throat?"

"I'm sorry, Hokage-sama, but I don't know how it leaked. Yet." The rooster-mask woman said, something steely in her voice. "But as for how the man, Adachi, got close enough to make an attempt on the Honorable Son's life, I'm ashamed to say that the ANBU on duty thought that by turning a blind eye to Adachi's movements, they were acting to aid in ridding Konoha of a potential threat."

"Execute them– and this Adachi too." Hiruzen said coldly, and Sansa could hear the vicious pleasure in the rooster-mask woman's voice as she replied,

"With pleasure, Hokage-sama."

"And Tori? While I understand and sympathise with the sentiment, I don't want to hear you addressing either twin as the Honorable Son or Daughter again," Hiruzen added sternly. "Their anonymity is for their own safety, as well as Konoha's."

"Of course, Hokage-sama. I apologise." The rooster-mask woman– Tori– said.

There was a rustle of cloth, and Sansa realised that Hiruzen was walking over to her and striped-mask man.

"And how is little Fuyuko-chan, Tora?" Hiruzen asked, from right beside them now, and Sansa was very careful not to twitch as his hand briefly touched her head, even as the pressure of his fingers gently brushing over her small, oh-so fragile skull burned with potential threat. But she was used to that too, used to how Ramsay would trail the cold flat of a blade over her bare flesh as she faked unconsciousness, just waiting for any movement that would give her away. It had become almost a game between them; Sansa's resolve, her resilience to accept threats and even pain without flinching, and Ramsay's cold, twisted amusement at how she held herself still and without resistance for him.

"She is in perfect health, Hokage-sama." Striped-mask man– Tora– immediately reported.

"Then why is there blood around her mouth?" Hiruzen asked, sounding displeased.

"…it's easier to show you, Hokage-sama," Tora admitted, and Sansa made sure to make grumpy, sleepy sounds of displeasure as a gloved hand turned her small head to face the room and carefully forced her small mouth open with a leather-clad finger.

"Oh my," Hiruzen said, sounding startled. "Are those…?"

"Teeth. Pointy ones. Like a fox." Tora confirmed.

Sansa was immediately indignant; she was no Florent fox, she was a Stark, a wolf, and considering Tora still had his finger in her mouth, it gave her a good excuse to loudly let them know of her displeasure with an ear-splitting shriek of anger as she opened her eyes to glare.

"How did that happen?" Hiruzen asked, still startled, even as Tora hastily pulled back his finger.

"It's some sort of physical manifestation caused by using the Kyuubi's chakra, I think," Tora said, and Hiruzen made a strangled sound.

"Using the Kyuubi's chakra?" he demanded.

Sansa stirred, confused; what in the name of the Old Gods were they talking about? What was 'chakra'? And what did they mean, she'd used the Kyuubi's chakra? 

...and hadn't Jiraiya called the Fox-Beast that had been sealed into her and Naruto by Death 'Kyuubi'?

Sansa had to quell the infantile urge to whine in her confusion, instead focusing on the conversation around her. 

"It was how we knew something was wrong with the twins, Hokage-sama," Tori spoke up again. "Tora, Uma, Risu and I were patrolling nearby, when we felt a brief flare of the Kyuubi's chakra. We got there and found Naruto-kun bleeding out, and Adachi bending over little Fuyuko-chan with a kunai. Adachi later admitted to Usagi under interrogation that he should have had time to kill both of them, but feeling the Kyuubi's chakra sent him straight into a flashback."

"Thank the gods for that," Hiruzen said heavily. "I'll have to recall Jiraiya to check over the seals, but he's confident that Minato made no mistakes and I trust his judgment. Tori– I want that interrogation classified, and Adachi dead before he can talk to anyone. Nobody can ever know that an infant Jinchūriki was able to tap into their bijuu's power– consider it a For The Hokage Only class secret. Go now."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Tori bowed, and then in a blink, she was gone. Hiruzen turned back to Tora.

"Any ANBU on Jinchūriki duty is now to be thoroughly vetted by T&I first," he ordered. "And I want Iyasu-sensei vetted too before she's allowed to return and treat Naruto-kun; she is now the only medic allowed to treat him and must be supervised at all times when treating him. Nobody else is allowed near either twin, not until this situation is dealt with. Understood?"

"Understood, Hokage-sama." Tora said, nodding his head deeply, as he couldn't bow with Sansa in his arms.

Hiruzen sighed, sounding and looking exhausted as he turned back to look over at Naruto, small and limp and pale on the bed. Someone had changed the bedding, replacing the bloodstained sheets with fresh, white ones; they made Sansa's bright little brother look pale and washed out. "I had hoped to avoid this," Hiruzen said heavily, "I had hoped the twins could grow up in obscurity. But if their Jinchūriki status is already starting to leak through the shinobi ranks… I fear that it won't take long for the civilians to learn too. It's going to be hard times ahead of them, I fear."

"We'll keep them safe, Hokage-sama," Tora promised, "we won't let anything like this happen again."

"Protecting them from physical injury will only be half the battle," Hiruzen said grimly. "There are hard times ahead for the twins. I fear it will be an unfriendly, hostile world that they will find themselves growing up in."

And with that unsettling statement, Hiruzen turned and left the room. Tora let out a low sound.

"Gods, you both deserve better," he murmured as he crossed the room and carefully lowered her down so she was laid out on the bed beside Naruto. Sansa immediately reached for her brother, splaying her little hand over his chest in a movement that looked deceptively like the simple flailing of an infant, but was more a sort of controlled-chaos of her uncooperative limb. Feeling the rise and fall of Naruto's chest, however, and the thudding of his heart under her palm, Sansa finally felt as if a great burden had been lifted from her shoulders.

She would worry about everything else later, she decided; in that moment, she was just heart-wrenchingly grateful that her brother would live.

Sansa dozed off with her hand on Naruto's small chest. It was an exhausted sleep, after the turmoil of the past few hours, and she wasn't at all pleased to be woken by a disturbance.

People were arguing near her, and she let out an unhappy sound, feeling tired and grumpy and not at all in the mood for anything other than more rest. Before she could try to go back to sleep, however, the arguing voices briefly raised in volume, followed by a thud and then someone was bursting into the room.

Sansa's eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the youth who'd just charged in. He was short, dressed in the same odd clothing as everyone else wore, with silver-grey hair– nothing like the platinum-silver of the Targaryens, thank the gods, or she'd be reacting far less neutrally– a strip of material with some engraved metal sewn into it was slanted over one of his eyes, and nearly all the rest of his face covered by some sort of tight black cloth.

The youth, for he couldn't be more than ten-and-four or ten-and-five namedays old, not quite yet a man grown, stopped just short of the bed, his chest heaving, the heavy stink of panic and fear and grief wafting unpleasantly off him. Sansa stirred, uneasy but uncertain that the boy was a threat. This was confirmed for her as the silver-haired youth made a broken, grief-stricken sound as he bent over them. The look in his single visible eye was the look of a drowning man, and Sansa instinctively shied away, her small lungs tightening with the ghost of old memories and painful lessons.

When Sansa was very little, barely five namedays old, she and Robb had snuck out to play by Winterfell's hot springs, only for Robb to slip in and sink under the water's surface. When Sansa, shrieking loud enough to bring the castle down, had tried to pull him out, the panicking Robb had accidentally dragged her in after him, and water had immediately forced its way down her throat, into her lungs, as her heavy skirts had dragged her straight down, under the surface.

They'd both nearly drowned that day, and it had been her Tully mother who'd saved them. Catelyn had bruised Sansa's ribs black and blue, beating the water out of her lungs, forcing air into Sansa's body until she was able to breathe on her own– Catelyn was from the Riverlands, after all, and she knew how to bring the half-drowned back to life.

Catelyn had spoken to her afterwards, voice soft and gentle as Sansa had trembled and sobbed wretchedly. She'd told Sansa to never try to pull a drowning person out of the water, because they'd just pull her in too and they'd both drown. Sansa hadn't ever forgotten her mother's gentle wisdom, or the lesson, hard-earned and painful. This silver-haired youth, with his drowning expression, could mean nothing good for her– or her brother.

"Kakashi!" Tora wheezed, stumbling into the room, one hand pressed to his neck, as if he'd recently been delivered a blow there, "you're disobeying the Hokage's orders! You can't be here!"

"They nearly died!" The youth– Kakashi– rasped, his hands balling into fists at his sides. "They nearly died, and nobody told me!"

Tora sighed. "I know, kid, I know," he said, sounding genuinely sympathetic. "But orders are orders, and until you're cleared by T&I to be here, you need to leave. If you go now, I won't even tell anyone about this… lapse."

Kakashi made a strangled sound and reached out with trembling hands to gently, so, so gently, touch her and Naruto's wrists. It took Sansa a moment to realise he was feeling for their pulse, and she felt enough sympathy for him that, against her much better judgment, she used what little coordination she had to flail her other arm over to catch one of his fingers with her small hand and squeeze as hard as she could. Which wasn't very hard at all, but it was enough that Kakashi froze, his visible eye widening in blatant shock to an almost humorous degree.

"What is she doing?" he hissed, panicked. "Why is she grabbing me?"

"It's a reflex all babies have, Kakashi," Tora said dryly. "I mean, I'm pretty sure babies aren't supposed to start reaching out to grab things until they're three or four months old–" whoops– "but Fuyuko-chan is the daughter of two geniuses. It's not surprising she's ahead of her milestones."

Kakashi made a barely audible, broken sound when Tora mentioned Sansa was the daughter of two geniuses, his whole body flinching.

"I need to go." He said abruptly, and Sansa blinked in shock as the youth disappeared in a swirl of leaves, leaving her hand empty, her fingers grasping at air.

"Because it's not like I wasn't just telling you to go," Tora muttered, sounding exasperated as he rubbing his neck, wincing. "What a mess."

Deciding that the drama was over for now, Sansa determinedly closed her eyes, rolling her head away from Tora and focusing on the sound of her brother's breathing, letting it lull her back to sleep. 

*Sansa refers to the Hokage as 'Hiruzen', because she's not aware it's his first name, not his last, and she's also currently unaware of the social customs of the Elemental Nations.