"I know. I'm ready," she says, then, when nothing else seems appropriate to say, "Good luck with your family, and your life!" Then turns to head back to the hotel she's staying in with Jiraiya.

"Good luck with your dreams," Tsunade says, and returns to Sound.

The next day, Orochimaru finishes preparations to bring Nawaki back. They think they'll be able to manually age the body, so that Nawaki isn't stuck permanently twelve, but they'll see.

Tsunade is more anxious now than she was for Dan's return. She's alone with Orochimaru and the sacrifice, having asked Dan and Shizune for some privacy.

She watches as Orochimaru finishes the technique, then as the sacrifice is slowly replaced with her brother. He stumbles when the technique releases him, blinking open his eyes, then cries out and flinches, landing on his back. "What - what happened," he stutters, looking at his flaking hands.

Tsunade rushes over to him, picking him up and enveloping him in a hug. He squeaks, but relaxes into the embrace. "You - you died," she chokes out, and she would've thought she'd be better prepared for this after Dan, but having him here again still feels surreal. "I - I couldn't - "

"Sister?" he asks uncertainly. "I died? It's - how long has it been, are you dead too?"

She shakes her head. "No, I'm not, Orochimaru figured out how to put you back... It's... It's been thirty-four years, Nawaki. Konoha... Konoha has changed a lot. I've changed a lot."

"...You don't look fifty-one," is all Nawaki says after a long pause.

She half laughs. "I'm using a technique..." she says.

(Orochimaru slips out, to let them have their reunion in peace).

She is not letting go of her brother anytime soon. Nope. Not even if he squirms.

Nawaki just hugs her for a bit, then: "Wait. Who's Hokage now?"

"...Konoha is currently between leaders; a Fifth hasn't been chosen. The Fourth died twelve years ago, he was one of Jiraiya's students, and the Third stepped back up. He died himself a month ago. I... was offered the position, and declined."

"What? Why!" her brother demands, stepping back. She reluctantly lets him go.

"I wasn't ready. I've changed so much, I'm not the sort of person who should be leading..." she admits. Maybe if Orochimaru had been more his old self, she would've refused his deal and sided with Konoha, but, well.

"What about your teammates? Jiraiya, Orochimaru-sensei..." he asks.

She shakes her head. "Jiraiya refused last I heard; he's busy with other tasks. Orochimaru and I... are also no longer directly associated with Konoha."

He blinks in shock. "You both retired? I guess you are kinda old now..."

Huff. "No, we didn't retire... Nawaki, there's a very good chance I'll be declared a missing-nin as soon as Jiraiya gets back to Konoha, I... Made a deal they didn't approve of, for your return. Nothing that would threaten the village, but..."

"What - how could you - sister, what happened?"

"You died, and I held on, I did, all through that damnable war, but it wouldn't stop, and Sarutobi-sensei - he wasn't the person I'd thought as a genin - and I met someone. I loved someone. And he died, too, just another casualty of that stupid war the Third started! Orochimaru promised an end to death; how could I not support that, as a medic?"

"How could you side against Konoha?" he demands, then when she doesn't respond backs up more, and turns to run blindly out.

She lets him go.

Orochimaru steps in. "Didn't go so well?" he asks, aiming for 'gentle' or perhaps 'understanding.'

She shakes her head, and fights the urge to start destroying the nearest structures. "Where's something I can punch?" she asks, voice hoarse.

"The training grounds are open, and if you want an opponent, an Edo Tensei like Kimimaro can be provided. For Nawaki... I can ask Rian to talk to him, they're physically his age. He might be more willing to talk to them."

"Give him a bit to cool off, first. Maybe a few hours. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a training ground to go destroy. I don't need an opponent." And she heads off.

Orochimaru watches her go, then returns to his experiments.

Rian approaches Nawaki a few hours later, knocking on the door to the room he's chosen for sulking in. (He's acting so young, were they ever this young? Orochimaru, who became a soldier at six, or Rian, who watched her world die at seven? And yes, they're well aware this body is only a few months older than his.)

"Hey," they say.

Nawaki half-turns, frowning. "Who're you?" he asks.

They lower their hand. "Uchiha Rian. I wanted to see if you needed anything?"

"Everything back the way it's supposed to be!" he responds, crossing his arms.

"Time-travel's not one of my abilities, unfortunately... Do you want to talk about it?"

He looks uncertain. "Maybe... Why're you here? Are you a missing-nin, too?"

They shrug. "Possibly. I was a loyal Konoha shinobi, wanted to be Hokage and change things even, but... I resonated with Orochimaru, during my chunin exams. He brought me here. Didn't give me much of a choice, and afterwards... Returning to Konoha didn't seem in the cards."

Nawaki goes quiet. "That's rough. Orochimaru-sensei can't have been an easy person to resonate with... I can't imagine being ripped away from Konoha like that, too."

Rian steps into the room, moving to sit by him. "I think you can. That's what happened really, isn't it? One day you're a Konoha shinobi like any other, the next you're here, and the world's gone topsy-turvy."

He nods. "Yeah..."

They talk, then, quietly, about their respective experiences of Konoha.

It's nice, in a way.

He returns to Konoha, his wayward student in tow, much more rapidly than he'd set out.

Telling the council about Tsunade's betrayal and his own failure to stop her is probably one of the toughest things he's ever done. She's quietly declared a missing-nin; Shizune isn't, yet, because of Jiraiya's testimony that she'd tried to stop her master, but her status and loyalty are marked as 'unknown.'

He doesn't tell them about Mariko's interference. She's an idiot and grieving and far too much like him, but she's not a traitor.

They repeat their offer for him to become Hokage. He turns them down; there's other candidates out there. Probably. Maybe.

He skips out on the meeting with the daimyo to nominate someone, instead focusing on his network of spies, hunting down any mention of Orochimaru or the Akatsuki.

The next day, Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura travel to Kakyo, the capitol of the Land of Fire, along with Nara Shikaku and the ANBU Commander, Saiga Kakureki, and an honor guard consisting of several ANBU. They're able to get a meeting with the daimyo and his advisors fairly quickly, thanks to the ongoing state of emergency in Konoha.

Koharu summarizes the situation with Tsunade and Jiraiya for the daimyo, then settles into her chair. The space for Danzo is notably empty.

"That's a pity," the daimyo says. "I'd thought to choose Jiraiya... I like him. But if he's refusing..."

"There aren't many options now, with the Hokage's teaching lines all but ended. Jiraiya has recently taken a new pupil, but she's still much too young for the position..." Shikaku says.

"Hmm... Perhaps an option for when it comes time to discuss the Sixth, then," the daimyo says. "Are there truly no good options within Konoha?"

"Maito Gai is powerful and well respected," Homura says. "Sarutobi Asuma is also well-positioned, but not quite at Kage levels of power. Our own Nara Shikaku is also an option, but there's the same problem as with Asuma... Akimichi Chouza is another option, he rests at a middle ground between Gai's power and Shikaku's experience, and he was a student of one of the Third's clansmen."

The daimyo's advisors discuss this lowly among themselves for a while, going back and forth on each candidate, until the daimyo gestures for silence. "None of those are ideal... If I may put forth a candidate of my own, I would suggest Utatane Yasumi. As one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, she is both experienced and strong." Not to mention how she recently saved his life, and would likely be more loyal to the nation than many of the other proposed candidates, who are Konoha loyalists or who he knows little about.

That sets off a new round of discussion - she's young, but Minato was younger; she's not from a famous clan, but the Utatane are a solid clan as evidenced by Koharu; she's not at the caliber of most Kage, but there's nothing wrong with having a diplomat as a leader, and wouldn't that be better anyways than someone like Gai...

"It's decided, then!" the daimyo says, after letting the argument rage for a good thirty minutes. "Pending confirmation from the jounin, Utatane Yasumi will be the Fifth Hokage!"

Being the Hokage had. Not been her dream. Her dream had been to serve her country as long as she was able, then retire and settle down with a nice kunoichi and adopt some munchkins and a dog or two. Maybe become a jounin-sensei at some point, passing down her knowledge sounds appealing.

Not being nominated Hokage because apparently none of the Legendary Sannin give a shit about their country and everyone else is either horribly undiplomatic or unable to account for themselves in a fight or insufficiently loyal or dead, which tends to put a damper on leading.

But dreams are for children.

She's confirmed as Hokage mere days after being informed she's been nominated. The village must be anxious to have a leader after a month and a half headless, given that she hardly knows anyone and her reputation is at best as the longest-lasting Guardian, the only one still serving from when the current daimyo's father ruled, going from the youngest to the oldest Guardian in her time.

She packs her bags - she's hardly accumulated anything in the over two decades she's been stationed at the daimyo's side - and returns to the village of her birth.

This might not have been what she wanted.

But she'll be damned if she does anything other than her best.

Utatane Yasumi is not who they'd hoped for. They barely know anything about her; she's been quietly serving as one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja for twice as long as any of them have been alive. Her record's unassuming, although the Twelve often don't report to Konoha at all. She is, most likely, a loyalist to the daimyo.

She isn't famous. She isn't strong.

But Satomi, Sai, and Tetsuma haven't found anyone else surviving from Root.

"I say we tell her," Satomi says, the day of Yasumi's confirmation. "Today, or tomorrow if not. Root is something she needs to know about sooner rather than later, especially given what Tetsuma found."

Sai doesn't have any arguments he hasn't brought up before, against the idea of telling any Hokage. But their failure to find living operatives over the last nearly two months doesn't speak well for their odds, and they'll have significant trouble going it alone.

He stays silent.

"I'd be inclined to agree at this point... Whether or not we tell her, it needs to be soon, she'll might hold it against us if we delay... And without any ranking operatives, the Hokage is the only one to report to."

"I'll be the one to tell her, I'm the least - alarming - of the three of us. You two should probably be ready to go to ground if something goes horribly wrong."

"We'll need to be close by, too, just in case she wants to see us right away."

"Yeah, that's a good point. So, tomorrow?"

The other two agree, and they disperse.

It's the first day of her new administration, and already someone's made a meeting with a set of codes she had to look up amidst her predecessor's notes. They're ANBU codes with no known uses.

She suspects she is about to inherit quite the headache.

The mystery person is noted down only as Ne-602, a designation Yasumi is entirely unfamiliar with.

She hates black-ops.

Satomi enters precisely on time, and kneels as she doors close behind her. "Hokage-sama," she says. "I am ANBU Root operative 602. I have... Information for you on certain activities of the late Danzo-sama, and some intelligence to pass on."

There should not be twelve-year-olds in ANBU. Not now, not since Uchiha Emi.

"Report," is all she says.