When we crossed back through the gates of the outpost, there was no welcome party waiting. Just the rustle of the forest in the wind and the soft creak of old wood under our feet. The outpost wasn't much — a few sturdy buildings, surrounded by high walls, hidden deep in the trees.
Yukino had fallen asleep somewhere during the trip back and hadn't awoken again yet, even now. I assume her body gave in to the drowsiness once we neared safety and she relaxed. After everything we'd been through, I couldn't blame her in the slightest.
The first thing I did was to carry her straight to the medical ward. I spoke to the medical-nin on duty, told them what little I could about her condition, and made sure they knew to have everything ready for Lady Tsunade the moment she returned from her own mission. Wherever that was.
To be honest, I was a little bummed out to hear she wasn't on site. I wanted Yukino to feel better as soon as possible. Maybe the medical-nin there noticed this and reassured me a bit begrudgingly. I guess I hit a nerve, seeing as they noticed I didn't believe they could help Yukino at this time.
You couldn't really blame me, though. After everything I'd seen Tsunade do over the past year, I could confidently say the rest of the medical personnel were subpar at best.
With things the way they were, there was no telling how much rest Yukino would need now, but at least she'd have it here in safety.
As for Yahiko and Konan... they were quiet the whole time, walking in that half-shocked daze you see in soldiers after a long, hard battle. We did travel quite a bit, and they were technically in enemy territory now from their own perspective. I'm sure they had their own feelings about everything happening around them right now. Given all that, I really didn't want to leave them standing around in the cold halls, so I brought them back to my personal quarters. Just a simple room: a bed, a battered old table, a window that looked out over the trees. It wasn't much, but it would do. I told them to get some rest and promised I'd be back soon after I'd debriefed the others on what happened. Konan really didn't want me to leave them there, she gave me those puppy eyes you just can't say no to, but there wasn't much I could do about it. The others were waiting, so she'd have to bear with it.
I didn't feel much like retelling that same horrid tale again, either.
News travels fast among shinobi. Barely an hour after we returned, Fugaku had arrived and started getting us a room ready to discuss things. Minato and Nawaki also arrived, flashing into the outpost with Minato's Flying Raijin technique. As soon as those two saw me, they were all over me.
As soon as Minato and Nawaki saw me, they were all over me.
"Shiro!" Nawaki called, rushing over with that familiar reckless energy, skidding to a stop in front of me. "You look like hell."
I gave a tired shrug. "Feels worse than it looks."
Minato arrived a step behind him, more composed but no less concerned. His eyes, always perceptive, scanned me from head to toe like he was reading every bruise, every scratch I carried beneath the surface.
"Where's Yukino?" he asked, tone clipped with urgency.
"Medical ward," I replied. "She's stable… for now. But it got bad, Minato. Really bad."
His jaw tightened slightly. He didn't ask how bad—I think he saw it in my eyes. Instead, he gave a short nod, then glanced toward the direction of the medical ward. "I'll check on her later. Tsunade should be here by tonight. I contacted her as soon as I heard you made it back."
"She wasn't there when we arrived," I said quietly, rubbing the back of my neck. "And the med-nin didn't inspire much confidence."
"They'll hold her over until Tsunade gets here," Nawaki said, almost too optimistically. "You got her out, that's what matters."
I looked at him for a second, his face was more serious than usual. That same carefree smile wasn't quite reaching his eyes. Nawaki could be reckless, cocky, even frustrating, but he cared. That much was clear.
"I didn't get her out," I muttered. "She nearly died. If it hadn't been for sheer luck we wouldn't be standing here talking about it."
Minato placed a hand on my shoulder, steady and grounding. "Shiro, you did more than most would've been able to. We'll talk about it properly inside."
I gave a nod, wordless this time, and let them lead the way toward the meeting room Fugaku had prepared. It was a small war room tucked into one of the outpost's sturdier buildings, sparse, cold, a table in the middle surrounded by mismatched chairs. Fugaku was already there, arms crossed, expression unreadable as ever.
He nodded to me when I walked in. "You look worse than the report."
"Thanks," I said, dragging out a chair. "Good to see you, too."
Once we were all seated, Minato folded his hands on the table and gave me a moment to collect myself. I could feel all their eyes on me... waiting, expecting.
I laid it all out to them. The struggle to keep Yukino alive. The initial journey back and our encounter with Hanzo. My fight with him. The choice. Shinichi's death and later meeting the orphans from the Rain country, Yahiko and Konan as well as my intentions to bring them into the Leaf.
"That's more or less everything that happened after we were separated."
The room fell into a heavy silence after I finished speaking. Everyone's faces were set in grim, tense lines. The firelight flickered against the old wooden walls, the shadows making the small meeting hall feel even heavier.
It was Minato who broke it first. He bowed his head, fingers tightening into fists against the table. "I should have been there," he said, voice rough. "When we got separated... I should have found you guys."
Guilt radiated off him in waves. Minato wasn't the type to shift blame onto others. I guess that went especially for when it came to comrades he'd grown up with. To him, we weren't just teammates. We'd sat together in classrooms, shared lunches, trained until we couldn't move. And no matter what our relationships might've been, I'm sure that to Minato, Shinichi had been one of us.
I leaned forward, voice low but firm. "If anyone's responsible, it's me," I said, letting the words fall like a stone into the room. "I wasn't good enough to get both of them out of that situation. That's all there is to it. It's something I'll have to carry from now on."
Minato opened his mouth like he wanted to argue, but no words came out. Nawaki looked down at the table, jaw tight. He was usually the most talkative among us, but now he was silent. For a long moment, it felt like nobody wanted to move. Like even breathing might shatter something fragile between us.
Finally, Nawaki shifted, rubbing a hand over his face before asking, "And Yukino? She's—?"
"She's doing fine," I said with a small, tired smile. "Sleeping it off. The medics said she just needs rest, and your sister—Well, Lady Tsunade will look her over once she gets back."
Mikoto, sitting beside Fugaku, visibly relaxed at the news, her hands unclenching slightly in her lap. "That's a relief," she said quietly.
Fugaku nodded once, his voice steady. "I'm glad you and Yukino returned safely. It's no small thing." His gaze darkened slightly, and he added, "It's a tragedy about Shinichi. I had hopes for that boy. He showed real promise lately... strong Sharingan potential."
I nodded. "Yeah... Shinichi had dreams of his own. He won't get the chance to chase them now."
The fire cracked sharply in the hearth, and Fugaku shifted, making a small deliberate cough to catch everyone's attention again. "And now," Fugaku said, his tone turning colder, "Those two kids that you brought along."
"What about Yahiko and Konan?" I asked.
Fugaku narrowed his eyes at me. "You realize what you've done, right? You've brought two unknowns from Rain Country into our outpost. Into our territory."
"They're just kids, Fugaku," I said, holding his gaze. "They're not enemy shinobi. They've lost everything. I wasn't about to leave them behind to die."
"That's not the point," Fugaku snapped, sharper now. "We don't know who they are. What if they're spies? What if they're trained to act helpless, just to slip a kunai between our ribs the moment we turn our backs?"
"Come on, Fugaku," Nawaki cut in, frowning. "They're like, what, 9 years old?"
Fugaku turned his frown on Nawaki. "Naivety will get you killed."
Shikaku spoke up. "As much as it pains me to say, captain Fugaku is not wrong. We ourselves have been trained to be shinobi since near birth. Their age matters little in these matters."
Nawaki was taken aback. "But still! I can't accept this sort of reasoning! I'm with Shirokumo and Yukino on this one."
Fugaku crossed his arms. "It's too high of a potential security risk."
"Better to take a risk on them than to be the kind of shinobi who abandons kids in a war zone," I said, voice low.
"In doing this, you've taken a risk with all our lives," Fugaku shot back. "You should have returned alone after Yukino was safe. Instead, you burdened yourself with outsiders. Unknowns. You think the higher-ups will just pat you on the head for this, Shirokumo?"
"I trust Shirokumo's judgment," Minato said simply. "If he says they're worth protecting, that's enough for me."
I glanced at him, grateful beyond words.
Choza leaned back in his chair, scratching his head. "I'm with Minato. Kinda sounds like the right thing to do. Not like we have a lot of orphans asking us specifically for help every day."
Inoichi nodded along slowly, arms crossed. "We've all seen what happens to kids caught in the middle of a war. If Shirokumo hadn't picked them up, bandits might have found them. Or worse."
"Shikaku?" Fugaku asked, turning sharply toward him.
Shikaku was sitting with his hands steepled, looking deeply annoyed that he'd have to speak at all. "Tch. I'm opposed to it myself. But at this point, they're already here. I guess if they're a threat, we'll deal with it when the time comes. As of right now, they're not a threat yet. We just can't be stupid about it."
Fugaku stood, the legs of his chair scraping against the wooden floor.
"You're all acting like fools," he said calmly. "We can't afford sentimentality. Not now."
"Maybe not," I said, standing too. "But I'd rather be a fool who saves two kids than a 'realist' who watches them die."
I hate that sort of shinobi mentality.
I could see the storm brewing behind Fugaku's eyes, but Mikoto tugged his sleeve, murmuring something in his ear I couldn't hear. After a long, stiff moment, he gave a small, reluctant nod.
"How certain are you that those kids won't be an issue." Fugaku asked.
"Believe me. It would be far worse to leave them to their own fate."
"Alright." Fugaku sighed. "But I'm holding you responsible for anything that might happen. You'd better pray nothing does."
"I'm ready," I said simply as Fugaku left the room.
Minato stayed quiet for a moment longer, eyes lowered, the firelight glinting off his blond hair. Then he looked up at me across the table. "We can't change what happened," he whispered. "But we can decide what kind of shinobi we want to be afterwards."
He stood up, pushing his chair back with a slow scrape. "And if saving those two kids is the price for carrying a little more risk... Then it's a price worth paying."
The others seemed to take strength from his words. Even Nawaki sat a little straighter, and Mikoto gave a small, almost imperceptible nod.
Whatever issues might arise from this decision, we'll take them on together. I already know the two are harmless with certainty, it's just about protecting them now and seeing what the butterfly effect has in store for this new timeline.
...
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Author Note: Hey, Rein here. How've you been? :)
I'm doing fine myself, thank you for asking!
But anyhow, what's up with the sudden update a year later you ask? Well, I realized I had 3 unpublished chapters and thought I'd do a little check up... See if there's still interest in this fanfic.
I'll update them, so if you're reading this, dear reader, please do leave a comment or two telling me if you want me to continue this work!
There's certainly a lot I planned and never got around to doing due to my busy schedule IRL, I'll probably have more free time now so I'm thinking of getting back into this story.
So, if you want to see more of Shirokumo and Yukino's story alongside Minato and the rest...
Show me. :>
If there's enough readers still interested I'll get to it and at the very least finish the Second Great Ninja War arc I have planned out.