Sakura woke up to shouting and fists pounding on the door the next apartment over. The only neighbor she could figure could accrue that much noise was Naruto, and to be honest, she wasn't that surprised something he'd done or was doing acted as her alarm for the day. Really, it was only a matter of time.

She rolled out of bed and threw on one of Kiba's old jackets he left hanging on the back of her door. By the time she cracks open her own door, leans against the frame, and observes the two genin standing off just to the side, a comment was already sliding off the tip of her tongue. "You could try using the door knob. Sometimes he doesn't lock it."

Uchiha Sasuke and Hyuuga Hinata jumped and whirled around. 

Hinata muttered out a polite hello. Sasuke, in all the indifference he showed her their entire Academy career, huffed and crossed his arms in his customary fashion. "Hn. Sakura. I didn't know you lived here too."

She shrugged and glanced at the clock in her living room. 6:55. Still early. She turned back to them and gestured towards the door. "Like I said, try the door knob."

He donned a mildly doubtful look but tried regardless and—to his utter exasperation—the door swung open.

"Idiot, stupid excuse of a damn shinobi—" He stormed in a flurry of shouts and curses while Hinata hung back nervously as she wrung her hands together. Her pale eyes darted back and forth on the floor before she raised them and shyly met the other girl's neutral gaze.

"Th-Thank you for the suggestion. Naruto-k-kun's a bit late, you see-see."

Sakura waved her off. "No worries, everyone has their off days. Hope you have a nice rest of your day, Hyuuga-san."

"You as-as well, S-Sakura-san," she replied, face tinted pink.  Sakura smiled slightly and shut the door and walked to the bathroom to get ready for the day. She shucked off the jacket and tossed it on her bed before changing into her clothes for the day. On her desk lay the test puzzles she made for Kiba the night before; she placed them in a plain folder and slipped it into her pack along with a few protein bars, bottles of water, and a couple of the books Kurenai suggested.

As she slung a strap over her shoulder, she took one last look at her room before leaving.

Above her bed were four, thin, white wall scrolls of her own calligraphy, each with their own select phases.

"Remember what you witnessed here. This is what happens to fools who think they can change the world."

"Did you understand that, girl? You're their homegrown advantage. How does it feel to be used?"

"Because I'm not a good man."

"You will be an exemplary shinobi or you will be nothing at all."

Her gaze had sunk slightly after she turned away. "To remember," she murmured. Even though she didn't need to see the words to know them, it was nice to have something to look at when she thought of how to be better, stronger.

Exemplary.

::

Kiba sauntered down the stairs of his house, brandishing a wide yawn and wearing one of Sakura's old purple shirts. Akamaru trotted by his feet in a similar state of half-awareness as his partner slumped at the table beside a snoring while mumbling 'good morning' to his mother preparing breakfast in the kitchen.

"Glad you don't look like shit the way you did a couple of days ago," Tsume greeted. "You never did tell me how your mission went yesterday. You guys pass?"

"'Course! Who'dya think we are?" Kiba yawned again. "And Sakura totally sucks at taking care of kids. I don't think she really likes them or anything."

"Ha! That kid's pretty cold, I'm not surprised. When's the next time you'll bring her over?"

"Mm... end of the week, probably? Like always."

Hana shook herself awake and stretched her arms high over her head. The Three Haimaru Brothers wagged their tails around her seat. "What about your other teammate—that Aburame. Shibi-sama's son. That one."

"Shino's just as messed in the head as Sakura."

Their mother barked out a laugh. "I already like him!"

"Yeah, he's pretty cool."

As Kiba rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, his mind trailed back to the conversation he and the rest of his team had in Sakura's apartment the day they made dinner. He mulled over what they talked about, the things they'd be pretending to do and the things they'd have to work harder on until an odd thought popped into his head. Questioningly, he looked over his shoulder. "Is Uzumaki Naruto an orphan?"

The first thing he noticed was how the air in the room shifted.  He wasn't stupid; he saw the way his mom thought he wouldn't pay attention to the atmosphere, so he acted like how he normally did. Oblivious.

"He is," Tsume said. Her back was turned to him to hide the look he knew was on her face. "Why, you curious about him or something?"

"He's Sakura's neighbor. You know, since she moved out of the orphanage an' all and has a new place." He conveniently left out the part where he thought it was weird that Naruto lived there too. If he hadn't lived at the orphanage with Sakura or at any other places in the system, did that mean he'd already been living there for years? And if that was, how come it was allowed? He'd seen the locals catch kids who weren't where they were supposed to be. Naruto might be a total outcast, but that didn't mean he had to be treated any different.

Especially from the adults. You know, the people who actually had to make decisions for their society.

"I wouldn't worry about him," she dismissed easily. She piled their breakfast on eight different plates and set them out on the floors and tables. "That Uzumaki's trouble. Y'shouldn't associate with him if you don't need to."

Kiba bobbed his head and dug into his breakfast with gusto.

But inwardly, his alarm bells screeched so loud that if they were real, they would've make his ears bleed. His mom... why would his mom say something like that? He was always called a troublemaker in class and always overheard teachers saying he wasn't worth their time if he kept blowing off his work like he did. He was always used to being talked about like that, but hearing it about someone else kinda... hurt.

Suddenly he didn't feel that hungry anymore.

He pushed his half-eaten plate—the part he did eat weighing too heavily in his stomach—towards the middle of the table and stood up. "I'm gonna go get ready. Uh, we were supposed to meet early today. I forgot."

Confused, Tsume, Hana, and the other grown ninken watched the youngest two of the pack hurry up the stairs without so much a glance behind them. 

::

Every once in a while, Kurenai and some of the rest of the jounin sensei met up for breakfast. Maito Gai and Sarutobi Asuma were her usual companions. They'd always invited Hatake Kakashi whenever they went out, though, but he hadn't shown up once and probably wouldn't in the near future. 

He'd show up one day, they just had to keep waiting. Though for now, Kurenai decided to use this opportunity to see what kind of information she could pry out of the others while she masked it under the "I'm-a-new-jounin" facade.

Needless to say, it worked.

"Well, teamwork is important," Asuma said immediately. "I was fortunate enough to have an Ino-Shika-Cho group under my wing, so I don't think it'll be too hard to instill that bit." He took a drag of his cigarette and blew a cloud of smoke away from the table. Kurenai's first mental note: lecture her students on the dangers of tobacco. "What I do is put them in situations—simulations, I guess—where they have to puzzle out the different ways they can help each other get themselves out of trouble."

Kurenai's second mental note: Place her students in both metaphorical, moral, and literal situations they have to get themselves out of. It builds character.

"I agree!" Gai enthused. "Genin are placed in teams for a reason! I suggest trust exercises so they all understand the importance of good-natured youth!"

Kurenai's third mental note: Her team doesn't need trust exercises. Whatever weird thing they already had going worked fine as long as it was enforced with her plans in her second mental note.

Donning a feigned curious expression, she took her glass of juice and sipped, looking the perfect picture of a naive lady to keep her friends' guard lowered. "Does Kakashi-senpai do the same with his team?"

Gai perked up. "Ah, my dear rival does something quite infamous to test each genin team he received. Many have attempted over the years and only the most recent Team Seven has passed!" Kurenai's brow furrowed. That was harsh. "It's what he dubs the 'Bell Test'. Kakashi has two bells he carries on his person and his three students have to compete for them. He says whoever doesn't receive the bell gets tied to a stump when time's up and gets sent back to the Academy once their training time is over."

"But there's a catch," Asuma continued. "In the time that the genin who didn't get a bell gets tied to a stump is when the others get to eat lunch. If they don't show an ounce of teamwork by the end of that lunch period, Kakashi fails them all and sends all three back to the Academy."

Kurenai admitted it was an unusual way to pass a team, but still, it would've been hard to fail two main clan children and the Kyuubi host. It would've been a missed opportunity. "Interesting..." she mused. As their food arrived and the topic of conversation casually drifted to something else entirely, she kept what she learned in mind.

She blinked as she realized what she'd done.

Maybe her team was becoming a bad influence on her.

::

Shino was reading a book on advanced surveillance when he was approached by Kiba looking more troubled than he normally was. He marked his page before shutting the cover and offering his new friend his full attention. "Something the matter?"

Akamaru whimpered as he glanced up at his partner, and Kiba doesn't look up as his arms crossed. "I wanna find out the deal with Uzumaki."

"I don't recall us having a 'deal' with him."

"No, but..." Kiba trailed off uncomfortably. "Look, I'm not sayin' there's something wrong with him, 'cause there's not, but you've noticed it, right? About him?"

"Noticed what?"

"That—That people treat him like shit!" he exclaimed. Shino reared back slightly at the redness in Kiba's face and the way Akamaru whined in concern. "Even Iruka-sensei completely ignore him until after graduation, then—then all of a sudden he started treating him like an actual person! What did Naruto ever do to get the shit he does? Huh?!"

His defensiveness had come out of nowhere, Shino thought, but he knew that Kiba had been treated in a similar way back in the Academy. It definitely hadn't been as bad as the way everyone else treated Naruto, but maybe he was feeling guilty for not doing anything about it? 

But with Kiba's guilt came his own. He only recently realized the bias he placed against his current teammate through getting to know him better. A nauseating feeling swept Shino's stomach as he once again realized he'd thought about Naruto the same way.

A hand fell onto Kiba's shoulder and he turned to look up at Sakura's face. Her eyebrows were creased and knowing her, she'd overheard most, if not all, of the conversation. Still, Kiba opened his mouth. "Did you—"

"Yeah. Are you really—"

"Yeah."

"Alright."

Shino understood none of the short conversation, but what mattered was that Sakura was now in the loop. He glanced up and took in their surroundings at the training grounds, scanning the canopy before moving his attention back to the group. "Then would this be our first unofficial mission as an Infiltration/Reconnaissance Team?"

Sakura's eyes sparked with interest. "It would be, wouldn't it? But since we have Kurenai-sensei in our corner, we'll have to get her approval."

"We have to?" Kiba frowned. He scratched the back of his head and sighed. "Yeah, I guess. We have to like, keep her trust, right?"

"She did lie for us," Shino reminded him. "Why? I still haven't fathomed a sensible reason, but it's within our best interest to alert her of things that could get us into trouble."

Kiba blinked. "This can get us into trouble?" Akamaru barked and he shook his head. "Yeah, I know what Mom said, but..."

"Tsume-san said something to you about Uzumaki?" Sakura questioned. He bit his lip and looked back down at the ground, reluctant. Shino and Sakura exchanged glances at his odd show of behavior.

"I—"

A cloud of smoke alerted them of Kurenai's arrival and Kiba shut his mouth in return. "Good morning, everyone!" she started. "I hope you all had a restful Sunday..." She trailed off as she noticed the serious expression on their faces.

"We did," Shino answered on their behalf. "And you, sensei?"

"Mine was quite calming, thank you," she said. "Is there... something I should know about?"

Sakura stepped up for a reply this time. Kurenai braced herself for what she had to hear, because when the girl normally had anything crucial to say, it usually involved something that either a) was questionably legal or b) unexpected.

"Why does everyone treat Uzumaki Naruto like he's less than a person, and whenever asked about him, people act like they're not supposed to talk?"

Kurenai breathed out a strangled sigh. Okay. So this time, it was both illegal and unexpected. "Because we're not allowed to talk about it," she admitted. "And I won't say any more about it." Kiba opened his mouth to protest, but she raised her hand to stop him. "I'm not going to stop you if you're going to try to figure out the mystery on your own. There's no law against accidentally finding out... well... this."

Kiba narrowed his eyes. "And you'll tell us if we're right or not?"

"I will neither confirm or deny, but I have a feeling you'll know if you're right once you find it." She imagined they would've sought the answer for themselves even if she hadn't given them permission, but she appreciated the fact they brought it up with her first. The topic of Uzumaki Naruto was one she didn't like going too much into and she had no idea where the sudden interest came from, but all she had to do now was wait and see. "Now," she announced as she clapped her hands together. "Today's Monday, and that makes it a physical training day. I've set up the obstacle course and you have two hours to complete it, just like last time. And again, every additional five minutes is an additional lap you have to run tomorrow. You may begin."

As she watched them go, she held a small marble of hope in her heart that they took all of their time possible to find out about the truth behind Uzumaki Naruto.

::

They decided to start their research that day.

Immediately after practice, Shino and Kiba headed over to Sakura's apartment to clean up before heading to the library right after. They hadn't anticipated their impromptu plans and thus hadn't brought spare clothes with them, and Sakura simply solved their problem by handing them some of her clothes to wear. Shino was a bit taller than her and Kiba was a bit shorter, but she normally bought clothes one size up in the unisex section and the latter had half her clothes at his place anyways, so no fuss was thrown.

Except when Kiba had to roll up his pant legs in the middle of their walk after almost tripping on them.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up!" he growled as the others tried to cover their amusement with well-placed coughs. "But when I grow taller than you both, guess who'll be laughin' then!"

He didn't know until years down the line that he would be sorely disappointed.

The public library lay near the Academy and operated on a 24/7 basis. Normally they'd enforce a 'no food or drink' rule when staying at the tables, but it was nearly ten in the evening when they arrived and the receptionist was just a teenager who didn't even acknowledge them when they walked in, so they headed to the third floor, grabbed a corner spot, and started eating the take-out they bought before they got there.

They had no idea what could count as a starting point, but libraries were a wealth of information. They could at least establish a foundation.

Sakura tapped her finger on the edge of the table. "We should make a list of things people are most prejudiced against."

Kiba and Shino winced, the former taking a huge bite of his food. "Dude, that's definitely a can of worms I don't want to open."

She stood and pulled a dictionary from one of the shelves to bring back to the table. Flipping to the definition of 'prejudice', she recited: "'A preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience'." She flipped the pages again. "Maybe it's discrimination: 'the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.'" More flipping. "But ostracizing seems more like what's going on since there's nothing we can quite pick out. Ostracize: 'to exclude, by general consent, from society, friendship, conversation, privileges, etc.'"

"Which begs the question, is the resentment towards Uzumaki a product from the typical strands of discrimination? No one's mentioned anything of his gender or sexual orientation, he's not from another nation, we don't have an age issue in our graduating Academy class, and no ableist language has been used against him as far as we know," said Shino.

Kiba frowned into his food. "They could've been shitty to him 'cause he's not as smart as everyone else."

Sakura took out a sheet of paper and makes the first bullet point on the list: Intelligence.

"Behavior," Shino added.

"Hyperactivity," she noted. "Pranks too, but I suppose that goes along with behavior."

"Aggression?" came the second suggestion.

"I dunno, I think he's only like that 'cause people are already doin' stuff to him," Kiba said. "So it's, uh, like a... an effect?"

They tried to puzzle out more reasons based on his innate traits and personality, but nothing else came to mind. Naruto was what most considered a troublemaker who had bad grades. If the hate wasn't based on him personally, then perhaps—

Shino lifted his head, something suddenly coming to mind. "The Uzumaki were an important clan."

Kiba perked up along with him. "Yeah?"

"I read somewhere... Konoha's History, perhaps? It wasn't one of the Academy's editions but one that my father owned. I'll have to ask for it again, but if I remember correctly they had strong ties with the... Senju? Yes, the Senju. The First Hokage hailed from them, cementing what would be an important clan to preserve," he explained. "Since therefore their importance would span the times, assuming the Uzumaki would be included in that preservation, perhaps I was incorrect in my original assessment and his lineage takes part in why the people hate him so vigorously."

So Sakura added more to the list: Parents; who were they? She set her pencil down and cracked her knuckles. "We can take a more immersive approach to this issue."

"I'll ask my father for his history book and look into bloodlines to make connections."

"I'll ask some of the others we went to class with. I mean, we never really knew why they picked on Naruto, so it doesn't hurt to ask, right?" Akamaru popped out of his hood and bobbed his head in agreement.

"And I'll shadow him after practice tomorrow. See what I find," Sakura said. It was nearing midnight by then and they still had to wake up early for training the next day, so they began to pack their things and agreed to continue researching tomorrow. Before they took their leave, though, Kiba held out his fist to the middle of the group. Sakura stood still for a moment before she bumped her fist with his and held it in place.

Shino stared. "What are you doing?"

"Dude, it's a fist bump."

"What is its purpose?"

"To—you know, be like 'aw yeah we're doing great let's be cool about it'. It'll be a team thing!"

"But—"

Sakura stops him with a look. "Shino. Just fist bump."

Mildly disgruntled and only a tad annoyed at not understanding the concept of a fist bump, he curled his fingers into his palm and fist bumped the rest of his team.

::

Tuesday was a day of molding chakra to the bottom of their feet and trying to climb up the side of trees with only their soles.

Sakura got it on the first try. Shino got it on his twenty-third. Kiba got it on his sixtieth, along with the promise of the beef jerky Shino said he'd get him if he was able to complete the exercise that same day.

Kurenai dismissed them early after they'd successfully completed the exercise three times each, bidding them a soft goodbye and telling them they'd have a new physical exercise tomorrow. Right when she took her leave, Sakura, Shino, and Kiba split to complete their parts of their research and agreed to meet at their corner in the library at ten to see what they found.

Eight hours.

::

Shino headed home with his father in mind, intent on getting those history books and gaining clearance to comb through the Uzumaki bloodline. Eventually, he found Shibi in the laundry room staring a pair of black pants and a gray t-shirt. His father looked up in confusion and held up the outfit. "Did you get new clothes?"

"Those are Sakura's."

His father raised an incredulous eyebrow.

"I borrowed them yesterday after training. We went to the library and we couldn't possibly have gone in our then-current clothes," he elaborated. "Why? It would've been improper."

"What about your clothes, then?"

Shino looked down in thought as his mouth crinkled slightly to form a bare shadow of a pout that still would've looked blank-faced to any non-Aburame. Shibi could barely restrain the uncharacteristic urge to clutch his chest and gape. How influential was this new team to make his boy show such emotion?

"I forgot them there. I'll remember to ask her about them later."

He wouldn't.

That aside, Shino adjusted his glasses. "Father, is it alright if I borrow some books from your personal library? All I require are the ones on history and bloodlines."

"I... Of course," Shibi answered, regaining his stoic composure. "Look up as much information as you need." His eyes trailed his son curiously as the boy made his way to the study. A few moments passed before he turned back to the laundry. He stared at the clothes in his hands for a little longer, a quirk of a smile reaching his lips as he folded the shirt and pants and moved on to the rest of the clothes.

In the study, Shino found the history book he recalled from yesterday and flipped to the page that mentioned the Uzumaki.

The Uzumaki and the Senju were descendants of Otsutsuki Asura, younger son of Otsutsuki Hagoromo (see Index). Both clans were distantly related, but managed to maintain close bonds that were further renewed through the occasional marriage. (see List of Marriages Under Uzumaki and Senju, pg. 23).

He went to page twenty-three and spotted the first Senju-Uzumaki marriage in Konoha that could've created a line.

Senju Hashirama and Uzumaki Mito

He bookmarked the page and picked out similar books to add to his pile including A Brief History of the Land of Whirlpools and The Legacy of the First Hokage.

The scrolls on bloodlines that every noble house was entitled to sat on the highest shelf and was marked with dowels carved from marble. He took the scrolls on the Senju and the Uzumaki, each about a paragraph long, and sent a stream of bugs down his left forearm.

"Copy it using the paper on my father's desk," he murmured. "It would do me no good if he suspected my interest on anything other than pure curiosity."

As his insects completed their task, he noted some of the keywords those sparse paragraphs contained.

Senju:

Will of Fire; Wood Release; Leadership

Uzumaki:

Strong Life Force; Longer Lifespans; Healing Prowess

But then, there was something that ultimately caught his attention: "Uzumaki Mito, the Kyuubi's first jinchuuriki..." he mumbled. What was a jinchuuriki? Or the Kyuubi?

Brows furrowed, he gathered the copies and stacked them atop the books he already collected and quickly moved back to the shelves to get more. Nothing there mentioned those two words he'd never heard before, so he pulled out a recently published history book filled with the information of the past twenty years.

Jinchuuriki. Kyuubi. Those sounded important, but why didn't he know them?

Thoroughly bothered by the lack of information, he hastened to place his books in a bag before hurrying out of the house and bidding his father a quick goodbye.

He had a puzzle to try and solve, and he had a little more than seven hours to do it.

::

When Kiba arrived to their corner spot in the library with the information he gleaned off a good number of locals, his jaw dropped at the sheer number of books piled on the table, floor, chairs, and just about every available stackable surface. What was even more eye-catching was the frazzled Shino sitting in the midst of them with papers strewn about and various colored x's, circles, and arrows pointing to and away from what he'd written.

"Shino, dude..." he muttered. Akamaru sniffed at the heaps on the ground as he set his pack down and moved to stand at his friend's shoulder, peering down and trying to make sense of the nonsensical mess that met his gaze. "What the hell happened here?"

"I... Things aren't making sense. History books aren't matching each other and information is missing—have you ever heard the terms Kyuubi or jinchuuriki?" Kiba shook his head and Shino ground his teeth. "I thought so. Why? It's as if those terms don't exist here, but they must if the clans have an idea of them. I think we're in for a much deeper secret than we've anticipated."

"Yeah, you're telling me," Kiba snorted, but his eyes were seas of troubled waters. He reached into his pack and pulled out two colored photos: Namikaze Minato and Kushina. The Fourth Hokage and his wife. He placed them on the table side by side. "I talked to some of the genin we went to the Academy with and some of our teachers and a couple of vendors nearby. The genin said they only hate Naruto 'cause their parents hate him, no real reason, just prejudice passed down. Then I talked to everyone else, and guess what?"

Shino's glasses inched up as he reached to rub his eyes with both his hands. "What?"

"I'm mindin' my own business on my way here. We've been talkin' about Naruto all this time and as I'm lookin' through our old yearbooks to find some people to talk to, I can't help but look at Naruto's face. You see that for a couple of hours with the thought that he's got a secret and you start to realize some things, you know?" He took out their most recent yearbook, turned to the page with Naruto's most recent photo, and set it right beside the picture of the Fourth. "Like this. How come they look so much alike."

Shino was silent for five whole seconds before the thought Kiba was getting at dawned him. "You're not saying what I think you're saying. I refuse to believe that."

Kiba leaned forward, his voice dropping down to a whisper as he forcefully pointed at the picture of Kushina. "Her maiden name was Uzumaki."

Shino suddenly stood. "Motherfucker." 

While he dug through the piles of books with the expression of a mad man, Kiba shuffled towards the railing and took a quick look-around. The library was five stories high and he couldn't smell anyone else besides the receptionist and—oh. Sakura finally came. He made his way back to the corner to find Sakura standing with her arms crossed as she watched Shino clear the table to set down new books, papers, and photos.

"The Uzumaki were a clan that specialized in sealing and were revered for their skill, located almost exclusively in the Land of Whirlpools," he explained. "Some of the nations couldn't stand it. Why? Fear at what they could do. So, according to A Brief History of the Land of Whirlpools, those nations banded together and Uzushiogakure was destroyed. Survivors spread all through the world and went into hiding." He held up another book, navy, bound in leather, and titled A Biography of the Fourth Hokage: Namikaze Minato. "If what Kiba's saying is true—"

Sakura raised her hand. "Which was?"

"Naruto's the son of the Fourth Hokage," Kiba filled in.

"Ah."

"—then there is a significant connection between the demise of the Uzumaki, Kushina-sama's involvement in Konoha, and Konoha's destruction nearly thirteen years ago that creates a cohesive timeline. Let me elaborate," Shino said. "In the biography it's noted that Namikaze-sama met his wife when they were both in the Academy as she was a transfer student from an undisclosed location. At the same time, as described in A Political Overview Between Konohagakure and Uzushiogakure—" he help up another book, this time dulled red in color— "Uzushio, just before their ruin, sent a young girl to, and I quote, 'uphold the duty Uzumaki Mito had done for decades of her life'. It doesn't go into any more detail than that; I presume it has to do with whatever a jinchuuriki and the Kyuubi is."

Sakura raised a brow. "You don't know what those are?"

Shino set his hands on the table and leaned forward. "You do?" he demanded. "Those terms were never discussed in Konoha's curriculum—"

"—but you weren't born in Konoha!" Kiba finished. "So you know, then?"

"My father was adamant I did, seeing how dangerous they can be," she replied. Her face grew more serious as they braced themselves. "Listen closely. The Kyuubi is one of nine tailed beasts, which are enormous entities of chakra that have similar likenings to animals. The Shibi has one tail and looks like a tanuki, the Nibi has two tails and looks like a cat, and so on and so forth. They're tens of meters taller than the average village, can't be destroyed, can't be harmed, but can be sealed into human prisons and die if that person's life force fades. Those people are called jinchuuriki. Villages always fight for the possession of one and are more than lucky if they have two."

Shino's eyes lit behind his glasses as he scrambled to find more books. Kiba, on the other hand, steadies himself into a seat and stared with wide eyes as she went on a quick rundown of the tailed beasts and their locations. "Ichibi: Suna, Nibi: Kumo, Sanbi: Kiri, Yonbi: Iwa, Gobi: Iwa, Rokubi: Kiri, Nanabi: Taki, Hachibi: Kumo, Kyuubi Konoha. If Uzumaki Mito and Uzumaki Kushina had been the jinchuuriki for the Kyuubi and they're both dead, then where—" She cut herself off as a sudden realization hit her, and Shino came back to the conversation with even more books.

"Almost thirteen years ago, a massive attack was launched against Konoha, the perpetrator unnamed. Hundreds died, the Fourth and his wife included, and Sarutobi-sama reclaimed his title of Hokage," he said. Sakura lowered herself into the chair beside Kiba and stared at the ground with hard eyes. "It never mentioned a specific date, but based on construction logs, obituaries, and times of death listed around this period, I suspect the attack happened between October 9-12."

"Naruto's birthday is on October 10th," Sakura mentioned quietly. "And as I followed him in the last eight hours, there was a trend of people that called him 'Fox'. The same animal related to the Kyuubi."

The air was still just before Shino took a seat at the edge of the table and stared off into the space ahead of him, realization also taking hold of him. The three of them sat there for a while, staring at nothing, until Kiba decided to break the silence.

"You said tailed beasts get sealed into human prisons. Can... they weaken in childbirth?"

"Seals can weaken during any time the host life force is threatened," she informed. "Childbirth is one of those instances where it can happen."

"But to seal a chakra entity as big as a tailed beast—does a human have enough power to do it?" Shino asked.

"... Only if their life is sacrificed in return."

It went quiet again as the clock struck one in the morning. Kiba's fists clenched. "They saved the village by sealing the Kyuubi in their son, didn't they?"

"... Yeah."

A beat.

"He doesn't deserve this shit. It's not his fault."

Another beat.

Shino looked down. "He doesn't know, does he? About this. Any part of this."

A couple more wayward, sinking beats.

"And we can't tell him," Sakura added.

Papers covered the table and books littered the floor around their feet. Caps were separated from their markers and some of lethargy had leaked into their bones. It's the next day, a new morning, a new start, but it felt as if they were stuck. They don't know how to describe it, but Kiba perfectly expressed the feeling of the atmosphere of the air they're supposed to breathe with two simple words.

"This sucks."

::

And here we end with awesome fan works by:

Annella_chan !

and anonymous!