58

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT:

With her new apprenticeship and the lack of a death sentence hanging over Sansa's head, life fell into a simple rhythm.

Being an apprentice under Inaba Shiori was quite different to what Sansa had originally imagined, which was unsurprising considering that a Lord's daughter and Queen had little reason to know the workings of apprenticeships back in Westeros, let alone in Konoha.

For all her considerable skill with a needle, Sansa was largely unfamiliar with the intricacies of tailoring kimono, and yet despite her expectations, her time under Inaba-sensei's tutelage was not all focused on learning needlepoint. Instead, she found herself being taught how to navigate the extensive network involved in the business of fashion. Inaba-sensei's business required her to orchestrate negotiations with spinners, weavers, dyers, specialist thread suppliers, stencil makers and designers, while also bartering with the cutthroat merchants who arranged the buying and selling of individually commissioned garments. For all Sansa's experience at needlework, she had rarely dealt with the suppliers her bolts of cloth and thread had been purchased from.

That did not mean Sansa had no experience at all in trade; as Queen, she had dealt with disputes between merchants, had bartered for goods such as grain and cloth from the Southern kingdoms and glass from Myr, and she had hired the services of skilled craftsmen, such as carpenters, stonemasons, and more as she worked to rebuild the North following the wars and the Long Night. Learning to apply such skills to the craftsmen, suppliers and merchants in Konoha was both similar and altogether foreign as she approached them this time not from a position of power, but from a position of equality– though that was if she were being generous to herself, seeing as her apprenticeship truly meant her position was lower than that of an equal.

Inaba-sensei told her that she was already gaining a reputation– both for her skilled work and her skill for diplomacy and negotiation, much to Sansa's delight. There were those who refused to trade with her at the markets, those who still looked as if they wished to spit in her face for being a Jinchūriki and stinking of fear as she let her lips curl back to reveal sharp teeth, but Inaba-sensei did most of her business with those associated with the Haruno merchant clan, and Haruno Ayaka's approval had earned Sansa's patronage a wary tolerance.

Sansa and Naruto's eighth nameday passed without drama that year, if one didn't count how Kakashi spoiled them both with presents; he had gifted Naruto a set of spinning tops, a kite, an 'all-you-can-eat' voucher for Ichimaru's Ramen store, and a masterfully crafted straight-bladed tanto that Sansa was suspicious had more meaning then Kakashi's casual attitude suggested, but she kept quiet, understanding that Kakashi was awkward about outward displays of affection. Naruto was delighted and that was all that had mattered to Sansa.

Kakashi had gifted Sansa with several bolts of beautiful silk cloth of breathtaking quality, delicate panels of lace, a soft, pale leather hide, and a small fortune of embroidery thread in so many beautiful colours. It was far too much, but Sansa understood Kakashi was attempting to make up for what he saw as an abandonment of the seven previous birthdays and just hugged him tight.

Kabuto, Chiyoko, Tenzō, and Sasuke had also bought her and Naruto gifts, and even Jiraiya returned briefly to Konoha to deliver Sansa an embroidery frame carved of a bone-white wood and several silver bobbins, and a frog-shaped wallet for Naruto and a book titled 'The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi'.

Someone had also sent a box of sugar-cured lemon slices for Sansa, and a tin of konpeito* for Naruto– Sansa wasn't sure who it was, but Kakashi had begrudgingly admitted that they weren't poisoned, which told her he knew exactly who had sent them and wasn't pleased in the least. Sansa let it go– if Kakashi didn't believe the sender was dangerous enough to prevent them eating the sweets, then she trusted him enough to accept that. She had enough in her life to cause her stress without needlessly adding more (and the sugar-cured lemon slices were delicious).

Before she had been taken by Danzo, Sansa remembered spending her namedays with Naruto and Kanna, locked away from the populace of Konoha for fear of their safety. This was the first year they had spent actually celebrating with friends and family– and Sansa had the feeling that Kakashi and Tenzō's presence was the reason why it had been permitted, though she could also feel the presence of several ANBU outside their apartment, guarding them. Sansa wasn't concerned, not the way she had been when she was smaller, weaker, defenceless– she had faith now in both her own abilities to protect her brother, and that Kakashi would tear apart anyone who even tried to lay a hand on either of them.

Perhaps that was what the ANBU were really there for– to protect Konoha's populace from her, now that Sansa was more than capable of fighting back and had no reason not to. The Hokage was well aware that she would not hesitate to spill blood for Naruto's sake, nor she imagined had he forgotten Naruto killing his first sensei at the Academy for her sake, after the bastard had beaten Sansa and then stabbed her.

Either way, Sansa turned her attention from the ANBU, from the past, and focused instead on celebrating with her teammates and her pack.

The following day, in the early hours of the dawn, she and Naruto slipped from the apartment so Naruto could introduce Sansa to his new custom for this day– visiting the shrine they had so lovingly restored.

Sansa had set up seals to protect the shrine the previous afternoon, knowing the anniversary of Kurama's unwilling rampage through the village brought out the worst in Konoha's citizens and that the shrine was particularly vulnerable to their rage. She'd asked Tama to spread the warning throughout the Yūkaku about what she was doing, so that those trying to enter the sacred space without malice wouldn't fall to the same traps protecting the shrine from being desecrated in drunken rage. Her seals wouldn't stop a skilled shinobi, but it was enough to prevent civilians and lower-level drunk genin and chunin.

She removed the seals before she and Naruto entered, her stomach twisting as her eyes were automatically drawn to the place where Kanna's body had been left, discarded like she was nothing more than trash. Although the blood had long-since been scrubbed away, Sansa could swear the scent of salt-rust-iron still lingered in the air. Next to her, Naruto sniffled wetly, and Sansa let out a slow, tired breath.

Anniversaries of loss were always difficult.

(There were entire graveyards within Sansa's heart)

Sansa didn't kneel in the shrine, she remembered Inari-sama's words – "You are a Queen, are you not? You do not belong on your knees" – but she did bow her head as she prayed for Kanna, prayed that she had found a peace and joy in the heavens that had been so scarce in her brief life. With great care and gentle hands, Naruto laid out his offerings to Kanna and Inari-sama of handmade inari.

"Aneue?" her brother asked softly, returning to her side and leaning so his cheek was pressed against the curve of her neck.

"Yes, little prince?" Sansa murmured. Naruto sniffled again.

"Why'd Konoha kill Ka-ane?" he asked plaintively, his voice so hushed that even she could barely hear it standing right next to him.

Sansa turned her head so she could press her face into his sunshine-bright hair. "Because she was worth more to them dead then she was alive," she whispered. Kanna's life was no more than a piece on a gameboard to those who ruled Konoha, just a meaningless, easily disposed of piece, only good for manipulating the pieces with higher value.

Naruto's chakra was agitated, twisting inside him like a lashing seastorm as he clung to Sansa. "Are they gonna kill Saskue an' anija too?" he asked, a faint, desperate whine in his voice. "'Cause they're our family, jus' like Ka-ane was?"

Sansa's heart ached at the fear thick in her little brother's voice. It had never crossed her mind that Naruto was afraid that the little family they'd created with Sasuke and Kakashi would be torn apart and ripped away from them, like Kanna had been. Like Sansa herself had been, for so many years.

She should have realised, she scolded herself– unlike Sansa, Naruto had no memories of a family untainted by the grief and fear of loss. After Sansa's true childhood, when her parents and her kin had been murdered, she had found it difficult to trust that the new family she'd created with her children and those loyal to her, those who loved her, would not be taken from her too– especially with Daenerys ruling in the South, a dangerous spark she always feared would set fire to the kindling that was her home with every breath the silver-haired conqueror took.

Of course Naruto must be afraid. They were living in enemy territory, their lives at the mercy of an unmerciful dictator, and he was just a child. How could he not be afraid?

Sansa wanted to reassure him, desperately so, but she could not. Her lord-father and lady-mother had not prepared her and her siblings for the harsh truth of the world, instead allowing them a childhood of carefree summer, and the price they had paid for their innocence had cost Sansa almost all her kin.

She would not lie to Naruto, for she could not bear to lose him.

"I can make no promises," she said, her heart aching at how his little shoulders tensed at her words. "But that does not mean I will not do everything in my power to keep all of you safe. I will destroy this village before I allow any harm to come to my family."

~

Genma found himself stalking through the backstreets of Konoha, winding his way towards the district that had once been his home. The sun was still high up in the sky, the red lanterns unlit, but Genma could feel the shift in the air around him as he entered the Yūkaku.

Nobody looked over to him, or approached him, but he did not doubt that his presence had been noticed, and that those charged with gathering information had scattered to alert their patrons of the news. He really should have changed out of his jōnin vest to do this, but the memory of Raidou's slumped form as he sat hunched over, shoulders trembling with emotion, drove Genma forward.

He deliberately didn't try to hide his intentions, making his way directly towards the apartment building where the Uzumaki twins lived (and Uchiha Sasuke too, if the hushed gossip going around the jōnin station was true).

He was only a street away when he was intercepted when passing by one of the many alleys that branched off from the main streets, purposefully designed as the Yūkaku was for hidden shadows to conduct private business. Someone grabbed him from behind, dragging him into the alley and slamming him face-first into the wall of the closest building, barely giving him enough time to spit out his senbon before he impaled himself.

Genma could feel a hand like iron gripping around his neck, holding him pinned against the stone with his feet off the floor, pressing so hard his lips were shredded by his teeth, blood dripping like saliva down his chin. A second hand was gripping the arm that he had been reaching for a kunai with in a constricting hold that felt as if it was grinding the bones in his wrist together. The hand on his throat wasn't quite crushing his windpipe or blocking off the arteries, but he could hardly breathe and when he tried to grab his assailant's wrist with his left hand, to try to pull it away, the grip around his neck tightened.

"Good to see you too, Kakashi," Genma wheezed. Behind him, Kakashi snarled; raw and vicious and downright feral. Genma swallowed slowly, carefully tilting his head in a way that bared his throat– he'd worked with enough Inuzuka to pick up on the more animalistic behaviours and traits that nin who worked closely with summons or animal-nin partners tended to exhibit.

It seemed to work– for a moment. Kakashi slowly lowered him back down so his feet were on the ground and released his throat, but Genma didn't even have time to take a breath before Kakashi was using his grip to twist his arm, forcing him to his knees in the alleyway.

"You know," Genma rasped, moving his free hand very slowly up to rub at his neck, at the bruises that must already be forming there, "if anyone happens to glance this way, they're going to get a very wrong idea about what's happening." He paused, then cocked an eyebrow, his torn, bloodied lips curving into a leer. "Or maybe the right one?"

Kakashi's expression was carved stone above him, unmoved and unaffected by Genma's flirting, as always. Genma had seen Anko literally shove her bare breasts in Kakashi's face before and the other nin hadn't even blinked.

"What," Kakashi said instead, low and dangerous, a growl rumbling through every word, "are you doing here?" The implied 'near Naruto and Fuyuko' went unsaid but not unheard by either of them.

"I wasn't looking for the twins," Genma rasped. "I was looking for you." And all the jōnin knew where Kakashi lurked around these days.

"You found me," Kakashi's voice was icy, his single visible dark grey eye boring down on Genma. "Talk." Genma really wished he wasn't trapped on his knees at the risk of having his arm ripped out of its socket, because the vulnerable position made it really damn difficult to properly glare at Kakashi.

"You're being a fucking dick," he snapped. Kakashi's face didn't even twitch and Genma really wished he hadn't spat out his senbon– a little light impaling of his throat would have been worth it to spit it in Kakashi's face right now. "Seriously, Kakashi– at least hear Raidou out, instead of disappearing every time he tries to talk to you!"

"Raidou," Kakashi said softly, "is very lucky he's still breathing."

Genma reacted to the threat to his closest friend (and frequent lover) on instinct. It didn't do him any good. He didn't even manage to break Kakashi's hold before his face was slammed into the ground, both arms twisted behind his back now and the sharpened steel edge of a kunai pressed to the side of his neck where his carotid artery pulsed with each beat of his heart.

"Fuck," he slurred into the muck on the ground.

"You're an idiot," Kakashi informed him coolly, which Genma couldn't exactly argue with right now. Clearly anger had been the wrong approach to this issue. Which, in hindsight, was obvious, but Raidou's grief and guilt was wreaking havoc on Genma's self-control. He loved the other man and seeing him in this state hurt. Still, hunting down Kakashi to yell at him, especially so close to the twins' home, had been a terrible idea that Genma really wasn't surprised had turned out as badly as it had.

He exhaled slowly, the best he could without getting any dirt in his mouth, and forced himself to let the tension ease from his muscles. "Kakashi," he said, letting his voice turn plaintive, "I know you're angry. Gods know I'm angry. What happened to Fuyuko-chan… we should have been better, all of us should have been better. She should never have ended up in his hands, and never for so long."

He'd seen what Fuyuko looked like, when Kakashi and Tenzō had brought her back to Konoha alongside Jiraiya, after her escape from Root. Too-pale, too-small, and her face too-blank.

Genma wasn't unfamiliar with child soldiers, he'd been one himself, but what Danzo did to his child soldiers was different. It was monstrous. The Academy wasn't nice, not for a clanless child of a Yūkaku whore who wasn't expected to live past his first encounter with an enemy-nin, but it wasn't the ruthless, dehumanising, soul-crushing training that had been uncovered by Danzo's death. The 'graduation exam' where Root shinobi were forced to battle to the death against their partner, their comrade, was especially brutal and a complete antithesis to the Will of Fire that Konoha was meant to embody.

Following Danzo's death and the slow leaking of the information he'd kept confidential, one of the worst-kept secrets amongst the jōnin was that Kakashi had been forcibly enlisted into Root, several years back. Genma wondered if Kakashi had been forced to graduate from Root's special exam, despite his late entrance to the special force. It wasn't a question he ever planned to ask, no matter the morbid gossip and bets floating around. Normally Genma didn't hesitate to join the gossip-mongering, it was the best way to get his hands on juicy blackmail, after all. This time, though… this time it hit too close to home.

"What happened to Fuyuko wasn't right," Genma repeated. "Danzo never should have been given the chance to touch her."

"And yet," Kakashi leaned in slightly, the movement adding pressure on the kunai still pressed against Genma's neck, "Raidou knew."

And that was the problem, wasn't it? That was why Raidou was drowning in guilt, having spent years torn between his loyalty to a dead Hokage and a living one, and to the little girl he'd spent four years watching grow up.

"Raidou was given orders by the Hokage," Genma said quietly. "He didn't even tell me."

"He should have spoken up," Kakashi said, vicious. "He should have done something. He left her there to be tortured."

"You don't get it," Genma said, and if there was a hint of bitterness in his voice… well, he couldn't help it. "We're not like you, Kakashi– we're not fucking kage-level shinobi who can afford to disobey the Hokage because we're too strong to be executed for treason and have no family that can be leveraged against us." That was a low-blow, but he didn't regret saying it. Kakashi didn't get it, because the rules were different for shinobi like him– shinobi capable of blowing an SS-rank undercover mission in Iwa's capital to the hells without needing to care about the aftermath because he could just slaughter his way out of it, and it wasn't like the Hokage could afford to discipline him for disobeying orders.

For shinobi like Raidou, like Genma? No such leniency existed. Jōnin were a Hidden Village's most important resource, yes, but they were still replaceable. Not like Kakashi.

He was finally released, the kunai moving away from his neck, and Genma winced slightly at the rush of blood returning to his fingers. He stood slowly, wiping the blood and dirt from his face with the back of his hand. Kakashi's face was blank, expressionless as Genma faced him once more.

"I'm not asking you to be friends with Raidou," he said quietly. "I'm not even asking you to forgive him. But I am asking you to let Fuyuko and Naruto make their own decision about him– and he's said that he won't visit them until he gets permission to from you. He thinks you have the right to say he's not allowed to be in their lives."

"And you don't," Kakashi said coldly.

"No, I don't," Genma agreed easily. "I think you're a hypocrite. Raidou didn't speak up about Fuyuko being given to Danzo, but you never spoke up about the Hokage banning us from seeing the twins– if you'd gone to visit Naruto at all in the three years Fuyuko spent with Danzo, you'd have known she was missing."

"You think I don't realise that?" Kakashi snarled, the blank mask he was wearing to hide his emotions shattering to a livid fury. "You think I don't regret that?"

"Of course you regret it!" Genma snapped. "And guess what, Kakashi? So does Raidou!"

Kakashi honestly looked like he wanted to drive the kunai he was still holding straight through Genma's throat. So naturally, Genma decided to keep pushing.

"Is it easier to hate Raidou for his inaction, his obedience, so you don't have to hate yourself for yours?" he demanded. Kakashi took a step forwards, snarling, and Genma shifted, bracing himself for the oncoming fight, when a sharp bark interrupted them.

"OI!" a small, recognisable pug snapped as he scampered between them.

Kakashi's entire demeanour shifted in a split second, furious to panicked in less than a heartbeat. "Fuyuko?" he demanded.

"She's fine," Pakkun said grumpily. "I've been sent to deal with you brawling in the streets like an unruly pup!"

In other words, he'd been sent to deescalate a situation that Genma was ashamed to admit had rapidly spiralled out of control.

"I left the cub in the den," Pakkun added and Kakashi relaxed slightly only for Pakkun to lunge forwards and nip his ankle.

"Pakkun!" Kakashi growled, shaking his leg until the pug let go. Pakkun growled right back at him.

"Act like a pup, get treated like a pup!"

Kakashi glowered down at his summons before taking a deep, visible breath. Genma felt some of the tension leave his body as he watched Kakashi calm himself down, and once again, in hindsight, he really shouldn't have expected Kakashi to react well to… well, anything he'd just said. But he didn't regret it either.

Kakashi's face was blank again as he turned to Genma. "Tell Raidou I won't stop him visiting," he said flatly. Then he turned and disappeared with in a body-flicker too fast for Genma's eyes to track.

"I really fucked that up," Genma said wryly, grimacing as he rubbed his neck where Kakashi had kept the kunai pressed. His fingers came away bloody.

"No shit, kid," snorted the pug. "But let's be honest, you just did Kakashi a favour. I ain't saying he'll be in a hurry to forgive you, but he needed to hear that and it had to be said before the idiot burns every bridge he's ever had in this village."

"You'll make sure he's okay?" Genma asked quietly. He knew just as well as the next shinobi just how fragile mental stability was– there was a reason why shinobi were forced to attend so many compulsory mental check-ups and debriefings with psych.

"Don't worry, kid," Pakkun said, barring his sharp teeth in a mean, doggy grin, "I've got more than enough practice talking Kakashi off ledges."

"Yeah, that's the exact opposite of comforting," Genma muttered and Pakkun snorted.

"Wasn't meant to be," the pug said. "I said you did Kakashi a favour. I didn't say I liked you for it."

With that, Pakkun trotted out of the alley, presumably to go talk Kakashi off the hopefully metaphorical ledge. As soon as he was gone, a familiar kid practically melted out of the shadows. 

Sharp, dark eyes gleaming with the classic Nara ruthless, calculating intelligence met his. Genma didn't know her name, but he definitely knew of this girl– Naruto's "boss", the girl who'd set Kakashi on Danzo, the one who'd set into motion the trend of street kids painting stripes on their cheeks, yet another bastard child of a Yūkaku whore who had decided to make something of herself but choosing a very different path to Genma's.

"I'm guessing you're the one responsible for Pakkun intervening," he said. The girl smiled sharply.

"Two jōnin get into a fight, that means attention. None of us here are a real fan of that, you understand."

He would be surprised at the gall of a slip of a child with no shinobi training threatening him, but as Raidou had said; a kage could be killed by an academy student, all it took was one mistake. He wasn't about to make that mistake here. Besides, he'd accomplished what he'd set out to do– now he just needed to visit the hospital and beg one of the medic-nins for healing injuries that would be classed as 'superficial' and 'low priority' before Raidou came across the evidence of his altercation with Kakashi. His best friend would be furious at him for interfering when he still saw himself as at fault.

"Keep an eye out for them," Genma told the Nara girl. "They need every friend and ally they can get." He didn't need to specify who he was talking about. Fuyuko may have won the Chūnin Exams and Naruto might just be an Academy student, but for the Jinchūriki children of the Yondaime and the Whirlpool Princess, danger would never be far behind them.

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*konpeito = small, hard sugar candies that were first introduced to Japan in the 16thcentury