Emergency

Kakashi groaned as he blearily came back to his senses. He felt as though kunai had been driven through his legs and chest the way they were stabbing him through, telling him to stay down and not try to get up.

The sounds of battle, however, were telling him that he needed to get up. Now.

So, he tried to sit up and take stock of the situation, only to feel a hand try to push him back down. "Easy, Sensei. You took a bad hit."

"Nichiren-kun," Kakashi gasped out weakly. "Report."

"The bridge was being guarded by a squad of Daisuke's summon animals. Penguins," Nichiren rattled off immediately. "They've sealed Naruto and Sasuke off in a dome made of ice. Sakura and Hisako are trying to fight off their leader. Their leader doesn't like attacking medics, so he's having their team leave us alone deliberately. Put bluntly, Sensei, we're getting our butts kicked."

"Are they just guarding the bridge?" Kakashi asked, frowning beneath his mask. "Their summons, they have to have some kind of end-game for them to stick around this long."

"They're targeting Naruto," Nichiren replied. "The leader said they have some kind of package for him, but I don't know what that means."

Kakashi groaned and tried to sit up again. "Need to see."

"I'd stay down if I were you."

Kakashi inclined his head and saw the penguin with his own eyes. It was the first time he had ever actually seen one of Daisuke's summons in person; what little he knew about them, he read about in reports. The muscles around his beak were curled downward in an approximation of a human frown and the muscles where an eyebrow would be were arched upwards; like he had been evaluating his condition and found it unacceptable. "If you were to involve yourself in the current combat operation, I'd have to treat you as a hostile and I'd rather not do that since I already filled you with holes."

Kakashi found himself wanting to stand up even more, just as much spite as wanting to protect his students. But he couldn't, because he had been strapped down to the stretcher, and he was too weak to break out. "What's this about a package?"

"I have no idea," Shizo said, his frown shifting immediately into a huge grin. "By the way, you're the sensei of each of these kids?"

"Yes," Kakashi said, gritting his teeth through the pain.

The sound of Hisako shouting in anger caused each of them to turn to the duel she was having with Masato. She had apparently run out of senbon, the needles having embedded themselves in the stone up to the half-way point, and she was trying to charge the penguin with twin kunai in her hands. Masato, however, was having none of it, sliding backwards on his stomach while shooting ice bolts at her from his mouth.

Sakura, for her part, had recovered the shuriken she had attempted to hit Shizo with and was trying to provide fire support from a distance and being wholly incapable of hitting the penguin, whose erratic and unpredictable movements made aim nearly impossible unless you were a seasoned marksman.

She was not a seasoned marksman.

Hisako leaped into the air, jumping over a trio of ice bolts sent her way, looking to finally close the gap and seemed to be doing just that…only for Masato to immediately charge forward, sliding out from underneath the kunoichi mid-leap to charge Sakura.

Shizo's lit up as he saw an opportunity. "Excuse me."

He zipped forward on his stomach, out of Kakashi's sight-line and then caught up with Hisako, jumping up and spinning mid-air and slapping her in the face with enough force to knock her off her feet and off the bridge.

"One stowaway thrown overboard," Shizo said, smirking smugly as he clapped his flippers together. "Four more to go."

"Captain! Behind you!" Masato called as he dodged a punch from Sakura by falling onto his back and zipping forward.

Shizo immediately spun away from the wall as Hisako jumped back onto the bridge, swinging and stabbing her kunai forward.

"Huh. I'm impressed," Shizo said with a grin, chuckling. "I thought you were sent too far over the ocean to grab the wall."

"Ninja-wire," Hisako replied coolly. "It's a wonderful thing."

"Really?" He continued, still smiling. "I don't think I've ever seen that in person."

Hisako simply glared and charged forward. The Captain twisted to dodge the apparent strike and made to counter attack with a slap to the face, only for Hisako to slide down on her knees underneath the attack, then jumping back with her kunai to stab the bird in the back.

Shizo simply slid forward, hopping back to sit on his flippers while his claws flew into hand-signs and spinning around to face his opponent. Hisako spun a loop of ninja-wire over her head like a Lasso and threw it out. Shizo dodged, falling forward on his stomach to make it harder to catch him, forcing Hisako to hop and skip to dodge the oncoming ice.

With every projectile she dodged, Hisako looked angrier, throwing the kunai with the wire attached to them and pulling them back every time she missed. It was hard to tell what Shizo was thinking, his open beak thwarting any expression, but it was hard to imagine that he was anything other than feeling smugly superior, given how increasingly furious his opponent was getting.

But the Penguin was getting closer and closer to Nichiren, who saw an opportunity. The Chunin span out a loop of ninja-wire and threw it out, bringing it around the Penguin's throat and pulling, the sudden suffocation disrupting the Captain's concentration and forcing him to stand up. "Hisako, get another loop!"

She immediately did so and after a few seconds, he was completely tied up from claw to neck. Then, Hisako leapt forward, kunai in hand, only to get hit in the head when Shizo leaned forward and pecked her, causing her to recoil with a cry of pain.

"Hisako!" Nichiren shouted in concern.

Fell backward toward Nichiren on his back, and let loose a blast of ice from his beak, freezing the wire and letting him break out almost immediately. He backflipped off of his flippers and landed next to Nichiren slapping him across the face with a flipper. "What did I tell you? You should've just sat back. Now, I've got to slap you!"

Hisako slowly stood back up, holding her shoulder and trying to shake the blood dripping from her forehead, jumping forward. Shizo attempted another slap, which Hisako ducked underneath. She brought her attack forward, only to get jabbed in the shoulder by Shizo's beak, who then hit her in the leg, forcing her to buckle.

"Okay," Shizo flapped out his wings. "We're done now."

"Captain!"

Shizo looked upward at the dome, to see Rookie standing in a doorway he had made, waving with a flipper. "Package delivered! Target has been neutralized!"

"Naruto!" Sakura, who was fighting with Masato atop the dome shouted in fright and concern.

"Men! Desummon! Now!" Shizo ordered, bringing his talons up to make a hand sign, falling back on his flippers.

The Penguins disappeared in rapid succession, leaving small smoke clouds in their wake.

Kakashi's blood had turned to ice, and that was before the swirling orange chakra circling the dome.

Chakra Injection Complete.

Wait, what?

What was…oh.

Oh.

"Daisuke?" Anko asked, taking note of my sudden expression, dropping her chopsticks. She looked worried. "Daisuke, what's wrong?"

In front of us were partially empty bowls of rice, sushi and various sauces, with my black notebook open in the center, turned to my quest log and scrolled down partially so she couldn't see 'Reasons to Live' or 'The Kaiju'. Didn't need her to worry about those right now, I wanted to finish our honeymoon first.

We had sat down to eat lunch and had been enjoying a pleasant conversation about some of the missions she'd had to hand out as she manned the desk, comparing them to some of the quests I had done in the past…then this happened.

"I completely forgot about that," I said, shaking my head in shame. I stood, letting go of Growth Spurt. "Sorry Honey, it's an emergency. I'll be back before tomorrow."

"Wait, what?" Anko shook her head, looking nonplussed. "Daisuke wait-!"

"I'll explain later. I love you."

Immediately after, I was standing at the bridge.

…wow.

Okay, it definitely hit the fan.

"Daisuke?" I looked behind me, and saw Hisako, who looked like she had been stabbed in multiple locations, her eyes wide in shock and surprise. I saw Sensei, laid up on a stretcher with multiple bandages across his legs and torso.

"Hey," I said with a wave. "Give me a second, and we can catch up."

The dome made of ice reminded me of Haku's ice prison, which made me wonder just how closely this escapade with my penguins had mirrored canon. I know Haku wasn't here, so there wasn't anyone for Naruto to meet in the woods and get advice from. At least, the odds were so insanely small I can't see it happening.

I walked forward, coming to the small, penguin sized door and there, in the center, I saw Naruto.

He was hunched over, bathed in malevolent orange and red chakra. Sasuke, to his credit, had retained enough of his wits to back himself up against the wall and inch toward the door that was made, and he also watched my arrival with shock.

"Naruto?" I said, leaning in, falling to one knee and placing my hand on his shoulder.

Immediately, Naruto snapped around, his eyes red and slit, the whisker-marks on his face having swollen in size. He pounced on me like an animal, trying to rip my throat out with his bestial fangs.

"Hey. Hey," I said calmly and easily, pushing him off. "Easy. Easy, it's me. Relax. We're going to fix this."

In retrospect, that was not one of my smartest plans, putting it generously. That, and I forgot about it. So that's two failures on my part. Good job, Dai.

He was completely heedless of my calm entreaties, so I needed to take a more direct hand in fixing this. I placed my hand on Naruto's seal, started pushing my chakra into the seal…actually, come to think about it, this might be a great time for a constructive Genjutsu. Just to get in his head, like I saw done in canon so long ago. Get into Naruto's headspace and help fix this problem directly.

Psychonaut.

That video game always made me happy, so what fitting way to name a jutsu designed to get into a person's headspace then after a game where that's all you do?

Inside was a long corridor. I had been laying in what felt like sewage. It sure smelled that way, the noxious fumes filling my nostrils like a vapor. I sat up quickly, feeling my hair stick to my scalp like an eel.

The sewers shook with the roar of some giant animal, and I started having flashbacks to that time that I saved the Rookie 9 from the Fishmen. Good times.

Where's Naruto?

I started running, making my way through the sewers.

You know, I wonder what this says about Naruto, that his mindscape is a series of long tunnels with sewage running through them? That he has a tendency to get stuck and focused on one thing and has an undercurrent of something bad running through him?

In canon, that made sense, what with the shunning he endured. Here, though? I was able to stick with him through the bad times and he even gained the respect and friendship of the clans. He had his parents back!

…we'll have to figure this out after Anko and I get back from our honeymoon.

Oh, boy. Hisako and Ino's reactions to that bit of news is going to be legendary. It might not be a bad idea to put ryo down on an assassination attempt, on either Anko or myself.

Down some steps, the river of sewage got deeper, and the howls got louder. Not one animal, two.

Apparently, the Kyuubi was resisting being put back together. Interesting! I wonder why.

Wait, there's Naruto!

Naruto was sitting on his knees at the doorway to a larger chamber, which had large gates made of bars that shook. Beyond them, I could see the shadows of the Kyuubi moving, clawing, biting. Both halves.

"Hey, Buddy," I greeted as I walked up to him with a smile.

Naruto looked up at me, then his eyes grew wide with shock. "Daisuke!"

"Hey, it's been a while," I said as he jumped up and hugged me. "How've you been?"

"I've been better," Naruto groused. "What's going on?"

"Turns out, you had half of the Kyuubi inside you, not the whole thing," I reported with a shrug. "Managed to get it when I brought your father back to the land of the living and I wanted to get it to you since I thought it would come in handy in case the Akatsuki came calling."

"You couldn't have just given it to me?" Naruto groused, his eyes narrowing. "You didn't have to make your penguins do that."

"I should've given it to you directly, you're right," I replied. "Now that they're here, though, might as well finish putting them together."

I extended a hand and out flowed a series of chakra strings, hundreds of them. Interesting, they were two separate and opposing halves, and this fight that they were having wasn't them resisting coming back together, it was the process of them coming together itself.

Fascinating!

Expediting the process would be ideal, so that Naruto wouldn't be causing a chakra storm or going into a bestial rage, so let's…there we go.

The Kyuubi's started to melt together like smears of paint on an easel, burring into orange static as they slowly rearranged themselves into a singular being. At the end of it all, the Kyuubi sat down on its hindlegs and stared down at me. "You."

Its voice was deep and gravelly, and it echoed in the chamber.

I blinked in surprise. "You can talk?"

"Obviously," The Kyuubi replied airily.

I hummed, and turned to Naruto, who had walked up beside me and was looking up at the beast with wide eyes. "You feeling better, Naruto?"

"Huh?" He said, seeming lost in thought as he looked back at me. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm feeling okay.

Domineeringly, he looked up at the Kyuubi, a cover for how intimidated he was by the large fox. "What about you? You settled down, now?"

"Yes," The Kyuubi replied. "I did not expect to have my two selves reunited. It was a…difficult experience."

"Sorry about that," I said apologetically, to both Naruto and the Fox. "This was really poorly planned by me."

The Fox just glared at me. "You aren't even supposed to be here."

"In Naruto's mind?" I asked.

"Your presence in this world is wrong," The Kyuubi elaborated with a surge of anger. "An affront to the natural order. A violation of the very fabric of our lives."

"Hey, don't talk to Daisuke like that!" Naruto shouted, pointing up at him. "He's my best friend, show some respect!"

"I don't care how highly he ascends the path of power," The Kyuubi snarled. "He. Is. Wrong."

Interesting. Gaara said the same thing about me. "Well, you'll have to excuse me. It's not my fault I was born."

The Kyuubi squinted down at me and huffed, the breeze surging past me and making my jacket flutter in the wind. "That is your only saving grace."

Naruto laughed. "That rich, coming from you. You tried to destroy my village! You killed my parents!"

"That was not my doing," The Kyuubi replied. "I was removed from your mother's abominable seal and then my mind was stolen from me. If I had my choice, I would've run the second I was freed, to get away from you Ninja and your constant wars."

I blinked. "That's…not what I was expecting to hear."

"Humanity is a stupid and self-destructive species," The Kyuubi sniffed arrogantly. "If it weren't for my kin assuring mutual destruction, and the occasional good egg, they would've culled themselves like a cannibalistic virus in the world."

"That's not true!" Naruto barked.

"Do you have a name?" I asked with a frown.

The Kyuubi looked at me for a long, long moment. Naruto took this opportunity to interrupt.

"Humanity isn't stupid!" Naruto ranted angrily. "We created the Hidden Villages to pull ourselves out of the Warring States period! To stop the endless wars and have some peace and harmony! Give it enough time, and the wars and stuff will stop altogether! Because we figured out a system that works!"

Naruto was looking at me. If I had to guess, Ino managed to pull some stuff out of my head, like how much I missed my old world and how that translated into antipathy for this one and now he was trying to convince me…so that I didn't try to change anything.

I mean, it might've worked better if it wasn't for their wars being orchestrated by a hidden third party. But arguing the point wasn't going to change Naruto's mind…in fact, facts are usually dismissed if they fly in the face of an opinion that's got some emotional investment.

I just hummed. "Well, it did pull us out of the warring states period. You're right about that."

Besides, I was going to use the Hidden Villages to accomplish what I wanted for the Elemental Nations anyway.

"Yeah!" Naruto then looked at me, completely confused. "Wait, what?"

I shrugged. "What you said is objectively true."

"So," Naruto started, seemingly thrown off his groove somehow. "Wait…"

My agreement took the wind right out of Naruto's sails.

I looked back up at the Fox. "So, you're name?"

He groaned. "My name is Kurama."

"It's nice to meet you, Kurama-san," I said with a smile. "I'm Shimoda Daisuke, but you knew that."

"So, I did," Kurama replied. "What are you going to do now?"

"Well, assuming you and Naruto can get along," I began. "I was going to leave and figure out what you guys are all doing on the bridge."

"Oh, uh, well," Naruto started, looking pretty embarrassed. And nervous. "We were hired to destroy your bridge."

I blinked. There must be a reason Minato didn't mention that when I came back.

If I had to guess, it was either to avoid pissing me off, to let me know after it had been destroyed so I can go rebuild it…effectively fleecing the contract holder or to keep me away from Naruto until he could be sure that I had calmed down and wasn't going to abduct him after Hiruzen had explained the circumstances surrounding my departure.

Any one of those could be correct.

"Well, then I think your dad and I need to have a talk," I said flatly. "Not going to kill him. Or hurt him. But he and I need to have a talk. Who hired you to destroy the bridge?"

"Uh…Gombei-sama," Naruto replied.

"Gato's son?" I asked. "Why? I thought he'd be all over the bridge."

Naruto grunted, trying to figure out exactly what he needed to say. "He needs the latest round of shipments to go through to keep the company from going down under."

…they needed an immediate cash infusion to compensate for the insane losses I inflicted on them.

I slapped my forehead. How could I not have thought about that? That's so…basic. There is no excuse for an error that simple. If I had just invested a massive sum into Gato company after I payed everyone for the bridge, this whole mission would've been avoided. Hisako and Kakashi wouldn't have been wounded. I could've actually given Naruto the second half of the Kyuubi like a normal person.

But I had to go about this roundabout way thing because I was still trying to figure out how to do things without having speaking directly.

"Okay," I said. "I'll go have a talk with Gombei-san first, then your Dad."

"Are you mad?" Naruto asked.

"At myself," I replied. I looked up at Kurama. "You going to be okay?"

"As okay I can be," Kurama replied. "I don't suppose you can let me out, can you?"

"We'll talk about it later," I answered.

"Wait, you can't be serious," Naruto looked alarmed. "This is the Kyuubi we're talking about! It attacked our village and killed tons of people!"

And made me attempt suicide. "I know, but if he's telling the truth and his mind was stolen…we need to talk about it."

"But-but-"

He's pretty hesitant about it, but to be fair, so am I. The only thing I've ever known about the Kyuubi was that it was a malevolent demon bent on destruction wherever it went, so this thing about having a name and being controlled is news to me. "Alright, Naruto? I think we should head back to reality."

"There you go," Daisuke said, taking his hands off of Kakashi's chest. "You should be able to get up and walk, now."

Kakashi experimentally tried to sit up, and found no problems. "Thank you, Daisuke."

"Sorry it happened," Daisuke replied with a shrug, standing up. "I underestimated my penguin's ruthlessness. And overestimated their ability to handle things non-lethally. Still, no one's dead, so that's good news."

"Well, lesson to be learned," Kakashi grunted, standing up.

"Alright? Hisako?" Daisuke started, looking at his injured and bleeding teammate. "Let's get you patched up."

Hisako looked at Daisuke and pursed her lips in trepidation. But, as Daisuke walked over, she laid down and let him work. She felt a shiver of excitement as his soothing, chakra-covered hands were placed on her thigh, and again as he healed her shoulder and forehead. "Alright, there you go. You going to be okay?"

"I'll…" She took a breath. "I'll be fine. Thank you. Daisuke? Can we talk?"

"Later," Daisuke replied. "Promise. But I got to get back as fast as possible, that means handling the thing with Gombei. Now."

"Daisuke please," Hisako started quickly. "Just wait a minute, I'll do anything-"

"Later," Daisuke replied firmly. "I'll make sure you guys are paid for the mission, too, so just head home."

"Daisuke, wait a second," Sasuke said desperately, running toward him. "I have to ask-"

But he vanished right on the spot.

"NO!" Sasuke shouted in angry frustration, throwing his fists into the sky.

Hisako cursed and pounded the cement, starting to sob.

Kakashi took a deep breath. "At least he wasn't hostile. Naruto, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Naruto said with a smile. "You know what Daisuke said? While we were in my head, he admitted that the Villages stopped the warring states period!"

"That's…great, Naruto," Sakura said with a smile. "What does that mean?"

"It means we can change his mind!" Naruto said with a wide smile. "We can get him to come back!"

"That was the main goal of the mission," Kakashi replied with a carefully measured cheerfulness. "So…I think we can report to the Hokage with our heads held high, even though we technically failed."

"Yeah," Naruto said, his face suddenly falling. "Yeah, you're right. I guess."

"Some missions can't be completed, Naruto," Kakashi said, laying a consoling hand on his shoulder. "That's just the way it is sometimes."

The Gombei situation was surprisingly simple to resolve, but it took the rest of my hundreds of millions of ryo in savings. I just invested all the money I had in Gato company.

Yeah, the Elemental Nations had stock exchanges. I'm surprised too. The big ones were mostly active in Fire, Earth and Lightning, but some, like Gato company, sold shares internationally. So, I walked into a broker and invested my entire savings account – it was a good thing, too, because investors were selling at a breakneck pace. By my calculations, this will stop the hemorrhaging funds and investors and get them through the dry spell.

I included a message in my investment for the company, since I could do that.

For losses incurred, signed in my name. Kindly allow Hidden Leaf to retain its payment.

Hopefully he'll get the message.

Now, to head back to the vault.

I was back in the cafeteria and Anko was nowhere to be found. "Anko? I'm home!"

In an instant, Anko dashed out from my office down the stairs and wrapped her arms around me…and her boa constrictors. Because she could spontaneously make snakes. I forgot about that.

"You're home, you're home, you're home," She was crying. Then she loosened her grip and looked up at me. Her relieved smile swiftly morphed into an angry glare, her lips turning downward in the most hideously evil frowns I've ever seen on anyone's face.

Uh oh.

"Where did you go?" She demanded, trying to hold back more tears.

There's a way to go about this. "It's a long story."

The snakes slid back into her sleeves and she folded her arms, her displeasure carved into the stone wall that was her face.

"But before I tell it, I want to say how sorry I am for just up and leaving you like that, in the dark," I said, taking a breath. I know that Orochimaru just up and left her and she trusted him, so I imagine that my leaving like that brought those old wounds up to the surface. "Are you feeling okay?"

"No," Anko said, dropping her arms, her expression shifting from anger to sorrow. "Daisuke you can't just leave like that, without explanation or telling me where you're going! You can't just run off to handle 'an emergency' right in the middle of our honeymoon!"

She has a right to be upset. Beyond me disrupting our Honeymoon with my thoughtless plans, getting upset and venting is how she handles her negative emotions, just like how withdrawing and being alone is how I handle my negative emotions. I need to let her have this, even if it hurts.

"It's like you don't care!" Really, really hurts. "I know we got married within an hour of getting romantic, but I thought it meant more to you than that! I thought you wanted this to last forever! But here you are, running off at the first sign of trouble."

Fair? No. But it's poetic license, something I imagine she uses a lot when she's upset. She's exaggerating, and she doesn't really mean it personally. Which made it easier not to take it personally.

"I thought you loved me."

Ow.

She was breathing deeply, trying to keep herself from crying as she started to physically recoil. Maybe from the understanding of what she just said or maybe because she thought I was going to start yelling and I…wanted to. But that's not what we needed right now.

"I'm sorry I disrupted our Honeymoon," I began, now that I was sure she was done talking. It was taking everything I had to not bark at her, viciously, about exaggerating. "It was a result of thoughtless and idiotic plans of mine. You deserve better than that, and this Marriage deserves better than that. I didn't think you'd want to deal with my garbage, but I realize I still should've told you where I was going. Did you feel like I abandoned you?"

Anko took a deep, deep breath. "Yes. I thought you were going to go kill yourself."

I tilted my head. "I'm not following."

"You have a quest." She brought out my little black book, opened to my quest page, which was spotted with dots of water which I figure might be tears.

Reasons to Live.

Learn Ninshū.

Do not commit suicide.

"Oh," I said, my eyes going wide. "Were you thinking that you might've caused it?"

She nodded.

Made no sense, but that was emotions for you. I just up and left with no explanation beyond a vague promise to return, a promise which I made good on, and she already had abandonment issues. This just turned into a perfect storm.

I took deep breath.

"Anko," I said, taking her hands in mine and holding them to my chest. "I want you to know that I do love you. You are one of my many, if not my biggest, reasons to live. I'm not going to leave you. I'm not going to end myself because of anything you say or do. You're too…valuable for that. Again, I'm sorry for just leaving like that and putting you through the ringer."

It was unintentional, but accidents still happen.

"Daisuke, when I…proposed," Anko began, speaking through tears now, pointing her finger into my chest to emphasis her later words. "I said I wanted to share your life with you, to go wherever you go. We're married now. Your emergencies are my emergencies. My emergencies are your emergencies. We do things together. Alright? Promise me."

I frowned and thought it over. There were going to be times that I'd need to be alone, but we could talk about that once she's feeling better. "I promise."

She let out a huge sigh of relief, embracing me again. "Thank you."

"Do you feel better now?" I asked, returning the hug.

"Yes," Anko said.

"Good," I said, letting out a huge sigh of relief. "Good. Now, Anko? I need to say a few things."

"Okay," Anko said, wiping her eyes.

"First…when you're upset, I know you have a tendency to exaggerate," I began. "That doesn't invalidate you being upset or anything, I know, but when you said 'I thought you loved me'…that hurt. It hurt like a knife being driven through my heart. Okay?"

"I," Anko started, getting angry again. Then, she let out a breath. "You're right, that was really unfair. I'm sorry."

"Thank you," I said, letting out a breath. "I know you exaggerate but…can you try to tone it back when you get upset? Please?"

"Yes," Anko started nodding. "Yes, I can. Absolutely. I'm really sorry."

"Second thing," I began again. "You know how talking about your feelings and venting made you feel better?"

Anko nodded. "Yes. Thank you for listening."

"You're welcome," I said with a nod. "But I need to tell you that that's not how I handle my negative stressors."

Anko looked a little confused, then her eyes narrowed. "Right. You seem like someone who isolates themselves and work through it on their own."

"That's exactly right," I nodded rapidly. "Talking about it, for me, just makes it worse."

Anko slowly started to frown in thought. "That…doesn't make any sense to me. At all. But I can accept it. I will accept it."

"Thank you," I breathed out in relief. "That's a load off my mind."

"Now, there is something you still need to do," Anko looked straight into my eyes with a determined glint. "You need to complete this quest. You need to learn…what was it? Ninshū. You need to learn it right now."

"Can it wait until after our Honeymoon?" I asked with a frown.

"No," Anko snarled, looking angry again. "We are completing this quest right now and we are doing it together. Now."

I blinked. Geeze, a little pushy, aren't you? "Alright, alright."

Anko frowned again. "I just don't want you to kill yourself. I don't mean to sound demanding but…this is going to haunt me until we get it taken care of. Please."

"Okay," I said, trying to sound supportive. "You're right, I get it. I'm just not used to someone…forcing me to go on a quest."

"Well, I'm your wife," Anko replied, starting to smile again. "If you did anything to yourself and I could've stopped it by being a little pushy…I would never be able to forgive myself."

"We're going to the Land of Iron, by the way," I explained. "That's the only place I – we, can learn Ninshū."

Anko got a surprised and unsettled look on her face. "The land of the Samurai. Okay then. Have you met them before?"

"I may have handed them a book on everything I knew about Jutsu," I said, noting how her expression got more and more alarmed. "In an effort to build them into a super nation so they could impose their neutrality on the rest of the Elemental nations and spread Ninshū everywhere."

"Oh…kay then," Anko started blinked. "Well, that's one way of stopping the cycle of hatred I guess, but wouldn't the Samurai start killing all the Ninja? Including our friends?"

I groaned. She had a point. "For someone with ten intelligence, I suck at thinking."

"You know, it's okay," Anko said, letting out a breath. "You're still learning, it's okay. Besides, if anyone can fix a mistake like that, it's you. Who knows, it might turn out to be a good thing."

"I mean, they do want peace," I said with a nod. "Just like Konoha says they do, so who knows? They might make good allies at some point."

"If you could get them to break their neutrality to support Konohagakure," Anko began, starting to smile once again. "You really will be a miracle worker."

I'm so glad she's feeling better. Lets me know that it's possible that we can weather arguments and fights, which makes me feel better.

"Are you even slightly upset by how that quest told me to get a girlfriend?" I asked, only realizing after I said it what just carelessly flew out of my mouth and through my teeth.

Anko just snorted and shook her head. "I got my husband out of it. I'm thankful it led you to me."

"I love you."

"I love you too."