2/4

Jiraiya sharply took in the smallest member of the reporting squad as the team captain handed over their mission scroll and four individual reports to the Hokage to skim before filling it all away at the ANBU HQ. The cat mask on the young teen was painted with wide black curves up both sides, starting from her jawline to cover the eye holes and stretching to her temple, leaving the rest bone white.

He pressed his lips together as he mentally connected the black and white feline mask to the ANBU title Panther.

Hello, neko-chan.

(ooo000ooo)

"Ah, one moment Wolf-san. I need you and Panther-chan to remain behind." Sarutobi Hiruzen stated calmly as he lowered his lit pipe when Wolf, Jackal, Horse, and Panther tensed to leave the same way they had come in. The two named hesitated while the remaining half of their squad left to report back to ANBU HQ. "Remove your masks, please."

Straightening up to the standing position of a shinobi reporting to their kage instead of the crouched position of ANBU heeding the Hokage's will, both Wolf and Panther took off the painted clay masks hiding their features from view.

Natsumi raised an eyebrow when her captain's mask dragged the black hood off his head, and stared at the twentyish-year-old man when his identity finally perforated her surprise that she got to see her captain's face.

Her captain was freaking Hatake Sakumo, if the silver hair and gray eyes were anything to go by.

Then again, with hair that bright? It was no wonder her captain hid it behind standard issued head wraps.

Still, poleaxed by revelation that Konoha's White Fang was her captain, she missed the initial greetings between the older men.

"-with the end of hostilities on the horizon, you do understand why we are bringing the issue up, Sakumo-kun."

Natsumi rejoined the waking world at the end of the Hokage's sentence, and briefly wondered what her kouhai's and Inoichi-kun's sensei was doing in the room as the older man puffed on his tobacco. She looked up to her captain, still slightly sidetracked by the man's gravity defying hair free of the hood.

Wolf-taicho, or Hatake-sama or -san or whatever suffix she was supposed to put behind his name now she knew he had one, had a furrow between his silver eyebrows, the lower half of his face still covered by ANBU's standard issue facemask like her own. He was a shocking lookalike to what Hatake Kakashi was drawn as, even without the tilted hitai-ate over one eye and porn in hand.

"I was more thinking to take her on myself, Hokage-sama." Sakumo drawled in his ANBU voice, the one that suggested everything and told them nothing at the same time. "She'd be a good kenjutsu mistress once she has the reach for it."

The Hokage nodded absently at the news, dark eyes flicking over to his white haired student then back to the ANBU captain. "Until that time, I would like Natsumi-chan to be placed with Jiraiya-kun and his team as the kunoichi for Team Seven. Not to damage the reputation any competence of yours, Sakumo-kun, but since young kunoichis are not generally apprenticed to an older shinobi by themselves until fourteen or sixteen years of age, it would be better all around."

That small furrow between her captain's eyebrows disappeared, and Natsumi had to hand it to the old man. That was a skillful twist to get two of his at least jōnin ranked shinobi to share a student. Then – wait.

What?

"Hokage-sama?" She blurted out, horrified.

They were talking about her?

Jiraiya-sama was Minato's sensei, and Sakumo-taicho was Kakashi's father!

The Fire Shadow smirked down at her as he blew out a gust of smoke. "You will be placed on Jiraiya-kun's team since the war seems to be over for the moment, and after you gain most of your major growth you'll be apprenticed to Sakumo-kun full time. Is that alright with you, Natsumi-chan?"

The girl with mismatched eyes nodded furiously, ignoring that the question had been mostly hypothetical. When your shinobi warlord told you to march, you got to marching before asking how far or how long.

"Um… what about my-our squad, Hokage-sama?" She pointed to both herself and her captain.

"You will have to be replaced for the interim, of course." The older man nodded with a kind smile softening the amusement he had shown at her, in approval of the girl's worry. At least ANBU hadn't managed to affect that side of her yet. "You will be tapped on occasion when an assassination is needed from the squad. But only if another assassin can't be tasked with it."

He glanced again to the white haired man standing impassively next to his desk, staring at the young girl.

"Of… of-course, Hokage-sama. Taicho?" She looked to the silver haired man standing next to her, inwardly panicking about the repercussions on the future as she knew it.

Sakumo looked down at his youngest squad member, smirking faintly at her bewildered look. With her pale but oddly colored eyes and that expression, she looked like the lost waif she really was and not the grim if sly assassin the ANBU ranks knew her as. "You'll need to return most of your standard issue, Panther-chan. Keep a set of armor, a uniform, and a field kit, but replace the rest with standard genin grade gear for day to day use."

Honestly, he couldn't argue with Hokage-sama's decision even if he was taking his fourth squad member after his squad had finally gotten used to the girl sized assassin.

He had been of the opinion that Panther, Natsumi-chan, and the others snatched out of the academy deserved more of a childhood than they had and she would now get under Jiraiya's care. He was immeasurably proud of her for keeping up the best she could and becoming a good squad mate even with the handicap of her age, ever since he had been tasked with finding a new fourth member after Rooster's death on a recon mission in Kumo and got caught up in Bear-sama's skimming off the top of the academy graduates.

The impersonal relations between ANBU members within their headquarters hadn't let him tell her that, and she probably didn't think of him as more than her captain on the rare times during the last six months when she could be out behind her mask, but this was a good way to make up for turning her into a killer. She was due some 'visible' time as a Konoha genin anyways, to keep up with her public image.

The man rubbed one side of his chin, tugging down the facemask as he realized he was still covered. "You'll need to find a way to cover your ANBU tattoo now, too."

Natsumi-chan nodded shakily at his order, saluting him and Sarutobi-sama before bowing to Jiraiya and the Hokage then jumping out the window and disappearing before anything else could be dumped on her, something he really couldn't blame her for.

Turning back to the other shinobi in the room Sakumo ruffled his hair out of exasperation, making it stand up more than it had been. "You could have let me break it to her in a less formal setting, Hokage-sama. Hell, you could have given me a heads up beforehand."

"True. But that wouldn't have been much fun. It is always amusing to mess with my ninjas' world views, and messing with ANBUs' is a fun all it's own."

Jiraiya finally laughed, gesturing for the ANBU captain to take a seat as he did so himself. "That was Natsumi-chan? I was expecting someone more… substantial."

Sakumo gave his old friend a half serious glare after the Hokage nodded that it was fine if he wanted to sit. "Saa, not everyone looks for a girl's measurements in determining how useful they'll be, letch."

Hiruzen harrumphed around his pipe, ending the good natured argument before it could get going. Knowing the two of them as he did, they could go all night if someone broke out the sake. "Sakumo-kun, I have a few things you'll need to pull a temporary member for your ANBU squad. But for right now, I've a few questions about Natsumi-chan before the two of you get caught up telling tall tales to each other."

Hatake cocked his head to the side, much like his mask's namesake or the man's family Summons would when confused. "Oh?"

"This technique of hers, the one she uses to disorient a target as she wishes. I've heard much from Bear-kun about it. Do you know how it works?"

"Unfortunately, I can't do it even if I understand what it is doing. Though with what she can do with it, I'm rather thankful she can't teach anyone." Sakumo grimaced as he recalled the girl trying to explain it to him after he caught her casting it on the worst of her hecklers in ANBU. He caught Jiraiya's inquiring expression and elaborated. "It's one of the reasons we've haven't missed a target with all the assassinations we've had recently and only a B-ranked assassin on the squad. A crude summery of the jutsu is a minute amount of flux in a double layered Hawk Eye technique; makes you think that flash of color out of the corner of your eye was someone coming after you or a flash of a blade and not just the scenery, or convinces you that the shape you can make out in the distance was only a interestingly shaped rock and not a shinobi. She made one of the targets skewer himself on Jackal's knives by playing around with it once. The poor sod never realized Jackal was there, and he was standing in full view waiting for the target."

It was possibly a start of a bloodline similar to the Hatake's White Chakra Nature if it really was the result of the purple shaded chakra Natsumi had, but with the face the girl had made at that idea made Sakumo think she thought differently. It would be a pity if the little assassin was right, because that possibility was the main reason Bear-sama had initially assigned the girl to him in the first place.

Although, she had proven her ability in the shadow ranks with her one and only jutsu even if she wasn't the start of something as grand as a kekkai genkai.

The Toad Sage winced and ran a hand over his jaw and mouth. That was something pretty powerful in the hands of a not yet twelve-year-old girl. No ninja would be able to resist checking up on any kind of threat they caught sight of, answering the few questions he had over Natsumi-chan's rather high assassin ranking with her chakra troubles. "How does it do against the dōjutsus? Or even those with heightened senses?"

"Haven't had the time to test it yet." The silver haired man admitted with a sly, wolfish grin showing a slightly protruding canine. "I suppose that is something you get to play with."

Jiraiya responded with a rude gesture to his old friend and fellow academy year mate.

Hiruzen opened his mouth to ask about the only other irregularity in the girl's file when one half of the ANBU team assigned to the marketplace appeared in a flash of smoke. "Hokage-sama, two shinobi from Kumogakure have just kidnapped Uzumaki-san."

(ooo000ooo)

Natsumi managed to return most of her ANBU kit without any issues, tucking the mask and tantō, which would never be returned to the general ANBU stores in her lifetime, away in a backpack as she left the ANBU headquarters and stepped out of the sight blocking fūinjutsu array that hid the passage from civilian view.

She was small enough that both fit comfortably in the overlarge pack with her few personal effects and remaining sets of kunai, senbon, razor wire, and the bladed, lacquered hair sticks Horse had helped her get when their mark had been some wealthy merchant with a liking for young girls a month before their last mission. Pity about the kimono and matching obi, but the two female ANBU members wouldn't have gotten rid of the bloodstains with any amount of cleaning products after the week long run to the border right afterwards letting them set in.

Horse had even hugged her before she left the barracks with what little she had in possessions, and that had been… rather creepy, actually.

At least Jackal had only waved goodbye at her.

The tiny tea shop that existed over the underground headquarters of Konoha's shadow guard was ran by a terminally forgetful old woman, current rumor from the trainees held her as the elderly mother of Bear-sama, who beamed and waved whenever the numerous and polite but drably dressed people came by her counter either to just greet her kindly or get a pot of tea to share between them. The newly benched ANBU assassin considered getting a pot of tea for herself and taking the time to think about that day's events trying to knock her for a loop, but her desire to jump her kouhai about her new circumstances won out over her desire to plot like some kind of fictional villain.

Besides, she was a few days late to meet up with at least one person of their little group and her captain always found her no matter what she did.

Scratch that, she was nearly a full week late, and knowing Minato-kun's worrywart habits she had better get a move on.

The brat had gotten better at kicking her ass in their infrequent spars since he became one of the Toad Sage's students. Unfortunately.

Checking one last time that everything that marked her as ANBU was hidden under the loose fitting, standard issued Genin Corps uniform in green, given to her from supply in place of her ANBU ones, the woman in a girl's body left the tea shop and struck out to Training Grounds Three. As infrequent as their spars may have been for the last half year, she still knew that if the two blond boys had free time they would be found either there or at the Yamanaka's clan grounds unless they made plans with the others, and the training grounds were closer.

Jumping up onto the tea shop's roof with the help of a nearby fence due to her short legs, she made for the third training ground from the Hokage's Tower.

The roofs were the accepted method of ninja travel while inside the village, simply because it was so visible. If you went more than three roofs without being greeted by someone else even with a short nod, which normally covered a fourth of a district with how long one 'roof' was, ANBU normally pulled you aside and made sure you really were a Konoha nin and not an infiltrator. Even ninja on the ground were not sparred from the faux-casual identity checks, though the Uchiha Military Police normally covered that.

That, and the visible presence of the shinobi protectors of the village kept civilian moral higher. It was hard to fear for one's life when you can catch sight of the guards that would give their lives for you by simply looking around or up.

She had the rather flimsy excuse of being ANBU to answer the challenge to other ANBU, and that was the only reason her mask was within reach and not left in ANBU HQ like normal. Even knowing general ANBU hand signs wouldn't keep her from a short tour of T&I if someone wanted to make sure she was who she said she was. Her ANBU tattoo, something that would even raise the eyebrows of most shinobi given her age, was plastered on the back of her left elbow and covered by bandages doubling as arm wraps. She had to go back to the Hokage's Tower later and get a genin standard living quarters in some crappy apartment building to dump her stuff in, but that could wait a bit.

It was the first time she had taken the roofs without Horse and Jackal with her, or even Wolf-taicho, or kitted out as an ANBU; and the unfamiliar feel of her mask-less face made her a bit self-conscious.

The trip was thankfully uneventful since Tsubaki-sensei managed to recognize and call out to her when she was passing the unusually busy marketplace near the clan districts, though her mind was spinning like the exercise wheel of a hamster even as she shouted a reply on her way past. She did get the eyeballing glare of an Uchiha policeman once, although that was probably from bouncing off an awning to cross one of the main streets rather than her current status as a Konoha genin.

Hatake Sakumo was her ANBU captain!

It seemed like whenever she could settle her mind to this life, her past one smacked her upside the head with another person that she knew was destined for a horrible end.

On hindsight, taicho was freaking hot.

Damn her redeveloping hormones, but in another life she would have no problems being labeled a cougar just to wake up to that face every day. Which thinking about made her feel like some kind of deviant, because she wasn't supposed to be old enough to appreciate that kind of thinking yet… or something.

Was she old enough now so that it wouldn't seem completely wrong to say something along those lines?

Half of her humor was built around perverted barracks jokes, and editing that out of her normal speech patterns was giving her a constant headache when talking to her fellow academy year graduates. She was counting down the years until she didn't have to hold herself back anymore.

Not to mention she caught sight of the newly legendary Jiraiya of the Sannin, the Toad Sage himself. Minato's sensei and Naruto's godfather, unmarred by the horror that was the Kyuubi attack and his student Pain's turn to Uchiha Madara's side. The relative age of the people around her sometimes threw her for a loop all its own, namely because Jiraiya hadn't had that wart on his face yet or the crags of time worn worry. Even the red streaks down his face were only halfway to the point she remembered.

Still! Sakumo was the man behind the Wolf mask, the shinobi she called taicho for nearly a whole year!

He was so damn handsome it was unfair!

He wasn't famous yet, though she was sure that wouldn't happen until he established himself as a jōnin outside of the ANBU ranks. From what little she could blearily recall, the White Fang of Konoha would end up on par with the sannin team members before his ill-fated mission and eventual suicide. The same sannin team that just fought a kage to a standstill not four and a half months ago, even if they all were supposed to be back in the village for whatever reason a full year ago now.

Natsumi had to wonder if Jiraiya-sama would have gotten a genin team even if he hadn't been injured before his return, she knew only because the smell of blood was a familiar one to the misplaced soldier and the sannin had the faint reek of it. Fresh blood that was, rather than the stale stench she was so used to from traveling in bloodstained uniforms.

The rumors around the academy at the beginning of her final year said a sannin was supposed to take on a team then, and the Toad Sage had only gotten Minato-kouhai and Inoichi-kun's team four months ago once Tsunade-hime had kicked him off the front lines near the end of their final year.

Wasn't he supposed to have wandered around for a year or so to teach the boy that became Pain, some other boy, and Konan?

Was that last year or was it still supposed to happen yet?

Reigning in her badly wandering thoughts, a habit she really had to kick since it would probably get her killed eventually, Natsumi finally found her two blond friends.

The situation was so odd, though, she reflexively dropped back into ANBU protocols and simply watched it unfold at first.

She thought her kouhai hated his fangirls' clinging to him.

(ooo000ooo)

Keiko gasped for breath, holding firm to Minato's clothing. "J-just came from… Uzumaki!"

That one word had both boys freezing in place in the act of trying to pry their female teammate from the shorter blond's person. Inoichi blinked blankly at her but Minato went still and calm, almost to a freighting degree.

"What about her, Keiko-san?"

As the story of being in place to hear of the fūinjutsu specialist's kidnapping came out, stuttered between gasping breaths, the mini-Yondaime seemed to turn to ice even as the mind walker's jaw dropped lower.

"Inoichi!" Minato barked, making his best friend jump a foot in the air. "Find Jiraiya-sensei and tell him what's going on. I'm going after Kushina."

He all but tore himself free of Keiko's hold and sprinted away before the Yamanaka could comment or protest.

He had sort of taken full command of their small clique after so long spent managing the airs of the clan heirs against the unruly edges of the orphans and lesser clan kids that the idea of him not being responsible for the well-being and manners of the group members didn't even occur to him.

Minato was too used to the academy instructors making small comments against the manners of the others to him, the chūnin instructors fully expecting him to manage the whole group all through the three years he spent there. Even though he relied a lot on his sempai's coaching, when she wasn't the one causing problems in the first place, to work through a lot of it.

He ran for the village's main gates like the hounds of hell themselves were on his heels, the only thought going through his head was that he needed to get Kushina-san back or Mikoto-chan would never forgive him… and for that matter neither would Fugaku-san on his betrothed's behalf.

"I'll watch his back, Inoichi." The familiar voice had the shocked two left in the clearing twisting around only to face a masked visage of a rather short ANBU agent. It was the eyes behind the black and white mask that informed them who this was, those were two different but familiar colors, making the girl splutter in shock and the mind walker nod firmly even as he paled to see Natsumi-chan decked out as one of the ANBU he only saw when there was some kind of trouble in the village. "Jiraiya-sama was in the Hokage's office half an hour ago."

She pitched the backpack she had at the Yamanaka's feet, after stuffing the clothing she had worn over her white armor into it and snagging the tantō and a brace of senbon, before taking off after her future Hokage.

Inoichi swept it up, still pale from both the news and the girl-woman's reappearance, and took off for the Hokage's Tower nearly in the opposite direction.

Keiko was left blinking at the abruptly empty training grounds. "…what?"

(ooo000ooo)

"So… " The voice almost had Minato tripping over his own feet, as it was he barely managed to keep upright as his no longer missing sempai's voice reached him. "Kidnappings… fun. Do you know who took her?"

He risked a sideways look at the familiar figure clad in ANBU armor running at his back and almost wilted in relief. Natsumi-sempai never was without an answer in the academy, and the younger shinobi didn't see her being without one even if they weren't academy students anymore. She currently had her ANBU mask pushed up so he could identify her, swiftly yanking it down again when he nodded in acknowledgement of her identity.

"Not really." He was a little worried the older girl would take offense to the short sentence, but he was running and wanted to keep his breath for more running.

"Well, there are three ways out of the village that I know of. Four, if you count the one that leads through Training Ground Forty-Four." How unfair was that, when the she had the breath to keep up with a full conversation when he didn't? Though, he could hear the hitch in her breath under that mono-toned ANBU's voice that told him she was expanding stamina just talking to him. "We can rule that one out, no one's that stupid to risk a place known as the Forest of Death with a hostage hampering them and ANBU patrolling the way. The main gates are a possibility, but way too showy with the full teams of chūnin and ANBU guards stationed there. Then there's the jōnin gate and the merchant's gate."

The assassin paused and hummed a little as they finally got to the main roads and could roof hop.

"I'd rule out the jōnin gate, though. It has almost as many checks as the main. The merchant gate is most likely, given that passes are issued only to civilians and I've done an infiltration in Kumo by exploiting that kind of flaw."

Minato wordless changed course, giving the girl-woman just behind him a dirty look for the mention of a non D-ranked mission.

"Hey, you want more exciting missions faster than you've gotten? Should have gone ANBU."

The future Yondaime gritted his teeth and kept running. There wasn't much one could say to that, and his sempai had paid through the nose for that decision.

She kept silent after that, though Minato had been halfway expecting a snort for his own silence or some breathless quip with his sempai at his back. The lack of horrible jokes or anecdotes had the blond slightly worried for his older female friend since she hadn't been that quite the last time he saw her.

She had been entrenched more and more with ANBU over the last few months, true, withdrawing from them and instead of being his slightly cracked Natsumi-sempai became one of the shadowy figures used to scare civilian children. Her latest mission had even overrun by a week and a half if the armor that she hadn't had the time to return was anything to go by.

A lot could happen in a week, as the orphan fully knew.

She had to be low on chakra or something to round off whatever was bothering her, because jumps that just took him but a moment took her two after finding something to give her a leg up.

He had to wonder if her disassociation with reality was popping its ugly head up again, or if a teammate had been killed and she was suffering from a renewal of her survivor's guilt. Natsumi-sempai's brand of nuttiness was almost hard to take, especially when she swung around to doubting their existence after something didn't mesh with the world as she had known once.

It had hurt the first time, when she admitted around a campfire in the Nara clan head's backyard that she was sure she was either insane or dreaming in some medically induced coma somewhere. Hearing that coming out of the mouth of a girl who had suggested putting each other down as the next of kin since they both were orphans had been jarring, because besides the apathy to the academy curriculum anyone could have seen he hadn't even suspected she thought that way.

Back in the good old days when nuts were nuts and good friends were almost all you needed Minato thought to himself, feeling guilty about thinking it even in the privacy of his own head.

Inoichi had validated Natsumi's past life to the rest of them that had gathered that night, though they really should get on telling the other two girls about it. It was hard to think about telling someone else though, given how broken the misplaced soldier had been after the mind walker had forced her to tell them about her death in her last life.

That a day he would never be able to forget anytime soon.

She was still behind him even with whatever was wrong going on, giving sorely needed operational backup in a time when he didn't have the time to explain more than the basics and he couldn't see the now chūnin Uchiha Fugaku-san or Hyūga twins doing that without a lot of convincing. Inoichi-kun and Shikaku-kun maybe, Akimichi Chouza-kun probably, and Mikoto-chan would have ran him over; but that would be only if they knew the full circumstances beforehand.

The touch of Natsumi-sempai's hand on his shoulder drew him out of his thoughts, the alarmed sort of expressions the guards of the merchant gate wore catching his eye. How the girl-woman knew he had been lost in his own thoughts was shoved to the back of his head along with the rest of his sempai's varied issues.

She was probably a good ANBU agent if she was still in half a year later, and that's all that mattered for the moment until they got back and he could force her into sitting down with Inoichi to fix up what had gotten broken again.

Nodding to the guard, he barely slowed enough to gasp out 'kidnapping' at the guards before they let the two out. With Natsumi-sempai decked out as one of the unspoken shadow guards of the village giving the stationed ANBU guard some hand signs he couldn't understand, no one argued.

Out in the forest around Konoha was different than inside the village. While the ANBU shadow at a blond genin's back would only raise eyebrows and eventually get back to her captain, in the forest tipping their hands about the shadow guard would only tell the kidnappers how much force they could apply to get Kushina back.

Instead of continuing to run just behind him, Natsumi faded into the background like the shadow she had become and leaving Minato alone to panic momentarily about how he was going to find the redheaded and missing kunoichi.

Right up until the lone strand of red hair caught his eye.

(ooo000ooo)

Kushina cursed out the Kumo shinobi in her head as she wiggled the fingers of one hand, keeping herself still to minimize the damage the older one's shoulder was doing to her stomach. Gagged and bound, the girl from Uzu couldn't do much but pull out a strand of red hair from the clump in her hand and let it drift down to the ground.

Her main hope was that an Inuzuka scent hound or an Aburame kikachu would follow it and the others she had pulled out back to her once the news of her missing got around to Hokage-sama and Mito-baa-sama. With the firm way the Kumo nin was holding her over one shoulder, it wouldn't do much to struggle and would possibly get her too injured to attempt an escape later on. Instead, she was limited to leaving a trail of red strands holding a fraction of a fraction of her chakra for someone to follow.

They eventually stopped once dusk had started to set in, the two Cloud morons determined to take advantage of Fire Country's forests to hide them. She could have told them even she, who had not been born to this county, could tell their little dugout was obviously not animal made.

Oh yeah, no she couldn't because of a gag. Sucked to be them.

With nothing to do but fume and gnaw at the strap of cloth over her mouth, she glared at the closest shinobi to her. They were ignoring her, and consequently missed the soft thunk of a kunai embedding itself into the ground next to her bound feet.

The Uzumaki took swift advantage even as she looked around for more and hopefully Konoha aligned ninjas hanging around, hooking the razor sharp metal over the rough rope holding her feet together. The kunai sliced through it, nicking her own leg in the process but that was ignored with her new freedom. Using her exposed toes and the flat surface of her ninja sandals, Kushina got an awkward grip on the double-edged knife and bent her body enough to transfer the kunai to her hands. After that it was child's play to remove the rest of her bindings and slink into the shadows of the forest before the Kumo-nin realized the Uzumaki girl had gotten free.

Two clearings over and almost to the main merchant's road into Konoha, she ran almost bodily into a pale Namikaze Minato. The boy didn't even wait for her to apologize for nearly hitting him, but started to drag her back to where the village lay.

"What the hell are you doing here, Namikaze?" The redhead hissed at him as she tried to free her arm.

"Shush. They're not too far away, Kushina-san."

Gaping at the terse reply, the future jinchūriki stopped struggling and let him pull her along. Minato-san moved swiftly now that she had ceased resisting him, almost self-assured and totally different from the polite but quite boy she had known back at the academy. "Did… did you come after me?"

Namikaze blinked back at her, confused. "Of course I did. Why wouldn't I?"

Kushina went as red as her hair at his lost expression. "Not every girl dreams of being rescued, Namikaze! I'm doing fine rescuing myself, thanks."

So intent on the boy in front of her, she didn't sense the Kumo shinobi charging her back. Minato did, and swept Kushina against him with one arm and spun them around a thick tree to evade the grasping teen's reach. The fūinjutsu princess had only a moment to take in the full view of the Kumo-nin before a black and white blur came down on his lower back with a sickening crack.

A short ANBU agent with a half black cat's mask had just driven his knee into the ninja's spine, probably breaking it.

Minato winced as the shadowy figure knocked the ninja out before he could do more than choke on the escaping air from his lungs. "Did you have to do that, Natsumi-sempai?"

The redhead gaped.

Natsumi-chan with the two colored ghost eyes had just broken someone's spine? The odd kunoichi that gave her and Mikoto-chan boy advice in her second year in the academy and kept her company through the third?

Then the younger girl blinked and took in the reality of the situation. Natsumi-chan made it into ANBU.

Of course she broke the spine of a kidnapper of a fellow Konoha shinobi. It was regulation to hamper the escape of prisoners, though probably not in such a final manner. It also explained why she had only shown up after graduation a few times to see her if she had been pulled into ANBU instead of getting a genin team like everyone else had.

The ANBU girl gave her kouhai a short gesture that he didn't get, if his huff told her right. Natsumi then turned back to the two of them, inclining her masked face to a wide-eyed Kushina in greeting before making the standard Konoha hand signs for 'second target', 'inbound', and 'remain' before melting into the shadows of the forest again, seeking out the other threat to her future Hokage and his not-yet-wife.

Minato obediently kept quiet but also kept a hold on her, letting Kushina think about all she had learned in the short few minutes. Namikaze had come after her with only one ANBU as back up, probably as soon as he heard about her. His ANBU shadow probably followed the blond boy while either on duty or on her way home, but that she attributed to mostly luck.

Mesuji Natsumi she could understand, the girl had helped her immensely with the aftermath of her home country's destruction by being there and apparently kept up with her fūinjutsu study even with her free time severely curtailed by ANBU just so she could discuss sealing with her on the rare occasions they met up since graduation. The girl with mismatched eyes was just quietly helpful like that when not cracking awful jokes.

Though, there hadn't been many of those in the past few months and she now felt foolish for assuming it had to do with the war and not something affecting her fellow kunoichi herself.

Namikaze Minato on the other hand, wasn't looking at her like the dopy eyed boys that tried to gain her affections before she hit on a working method to keep them away. He was peering in the direction the Kumo-nin had appeared from, trying to pick out the form of the other shinobi before he could spot them. Intent on keeping her from harm, even if she had protested it. The boy was their year's Rookie of the Year, but she hadn't thought much of him at the time of Mito-baa-sama pulling her out of class. The blond never wanted to spar with her, and spent most of his time in the academy keeping the peace between the clan heirs.

This boy was different that that easygoing kid from the academy.

The rustle of the leaves around them jarred both of them, but Minato only relaxed when the white haired form of his sensei dropped to the ground next to the paralyzed Kumo ninja along with a few of Natsumi-sempai's presumably fellow ANBU. The sannin grimaced at the broken teen, casting a glance to where they were against a tree before waving the ANBU off to where the Kumo shinobi had come from and where the girl had disappeared to. "You two okay, gaki?"

Minato-san nodded and finally released her and Kushina timidly smiled up at the Toad Sage. Crouched though he was, the older shinobi was still taller than them and a welcome sight.

"Natsumi-sempai's not going to get in trouble for this, is she?" The blond asked with a beseeching look to his sensei.

The redhead blinked in shock as her smile fell into a worried frown.

Right, Natsumi-chan was ANBU. No one was supposed to know that but her fellow ANBU members. She was probably in a lot of trouble for letting herself be identified behind her mask by a pair of genin even if it was during a rescue of a kidnapping victim.