The following week passed relatively slowly. They weren't called on any missions, so Naruto and Sasuke spent their mornings reluctantly studying the books for the jonin exam they were scheduled to take next year in May. Kakashi, seeing he had nothing to do, began the week by reading the remaining scrolls from his clans to see if he could discover anything else. Seina, on the other hand, tried to help her brothers study, but quickly grew tired of it.
"Naruto, stop looking out the window and focus on the text, will you?" she asked him. "What's the point of me making you a summary if you're not even listening?"
"It's because he's an airhead," Sasuke jabbed, taking notes without even turning to look at Naruto, who shot him a glare.
"I'm not an airhead, teme!"
Kakashi, sitting at the table with different reading material, let out a quiet chuckle behind the Hatake clan scroll. And just like that, they started arguing for the umpteenth time, and it was only Tuesday. Seina slammed the book shut, tired of dealing with them, and stood up.
"I'm going for a walk around the village."
"We'll come with you," Naruto said, jumping to his feet at the slightest excuse.
"No! You're staying here to study. Or do you not want to become jonin? Or would you rather we all become jonin except you?"
"Ugh… why do you always crush me with logic!" her brother complained, sitting back down and opening his book again under Sasuke's amused snort. "You shut up, teme!"
Seina left after giving her husband a brief kiss on the lips. She didn't even look at her brothers. Damn it, if only Jiraiya would come back so she could talk to him about her latest concern… She had already sent a message by pigeon, and he had replied saying he would return in a couple of weeks, so all she could do was wait patiently. She wandered through the village at a slow pace. She had plenty of time before lunch, so she strolled through the shops, buying a few things that caught her eye.
Finally, tired, she decided to take a bath in the hot springs.
"Ahhh…" she sighed softly, even though she was practically alone. "This is the life."
She leaned back against the warm stone, closing her eyes in pleasure, and cleared her mind.
"I don't know how you put up with them. I would've eaten them already," Kurama suddenly said, grumbling inside her.
"They're my brothers, Kurama. I'm not going to eat them."
"Your loss."
When she left the onsen, almost dragging herself home from how relaxed she felt, she told herself she had to come more often. That, or build one at home. Hmm… now that she thought about it, she could do something with the clan grounds. To start with, she could expand it with runes to create more space. Then, well, she'd figure the rest out later.
The next day she spent entirely at the hospital, handling paperwork and keeping track of patients. Her teacher's idea was for her to gradually take on more administrative tasks while continuing to work with patients so that, in a few years, she could take full control of the hospital. Seina also had another idea, one she hadn't yet shared with her teacher because it was still in its early stages: creating a clinic away from the hospital where they could operate on foreigners.
Foreigners treated at Konoha's hospital were people who commissioned missions and/or were rescued during missions abroad. Seina didn't understand why a separate facility hadn't already been created to restrict foreigners' access to the village's medical resources. How did they know those people weren't spies, or that they didn't intend to steal equipment or had bad intentions? It didn't seem right to her to house Konoha ninjas, some of them unable to defend themselves, under the same roof as unknown individuals.
Moreover, that separate clinic could also function as a cosmetic clinic, since, honestly, aesthetic procedures would be the most profitable in the long run. Seen that way, the clinic would pay for itself without Konoha's administration having to invest too much in it. On the other hand, in the hypothetical case that the hospital was destroyed, they would have another building with resources already prepared for any contingency.
Seina, in truth, had many plans for the village, but she would need the councillors to die so they wouldn't get in her way. Right now, there was no point proposing anything while they were all still alive and kicking. If by the time Naruto became Hokage they hadn't died, she would get rid of them herself in order to place Tsunade and a couple of loyal advisors on the council. Even so, she couldn't help but smile at the thought of everything she was going to do in the Land of Fire.
"Do you know what I found out?" Kakashi said suddenly the night of the following day, when they met for dinner alone in the backyard of their house.
"What?"
"Kurenai is pregnant."
"What?" she asked, completely surprised. She looked at her husband, who was smiling faintly. "How did you find out?"
"I ran into her this morning when I came back from a mission. Her scent gave it away."
"…Wow. I guess Asuma and Kurenai are more serious than I thought."
"You can say that again. It's the first baby among my generation of friends, you know?"
"Huh…"
"She made me promise not to tell anyone," her husband said, making her laugh. "Apparently she's four months along."
"And does Asuma know?"
"Yes, though I think it caught him off guard. Just wait until I run into him in the village."
"No, just wait until Guy finds out," she said, holding back a laugh that Kakashi couldn't resist joining.
They talked about it for a while longer. Seina knew what neither of them was saying out loud, but which she could feel through their marital bond. Kurenai's pregnancy had reminded them of their promise for the future.
"I'm happy for them," Kakashi said at last.
"Me too."
Seina sensed what her husband wasn't saying out loud—that he felt a mix of hope, desire, and a hint of envy. She kissed him on the cheek. It was only a matter of time before they both left active ninja life to become parents.
A couple of days later, while she was helping Naruto and Sasuke review their notes, she lay down in a conjured hammock to take a break and enjoy the mild morning sun. It wasn't hot, considering the time of year, but it was clear that it wasn't winter yet in the Land of Fire.
"How's it going with the code, Naru?" she asked her brother, stifling a yawn.
"I'm getting there. These tricks you taught me work pretty well."
She looked at her brother's blond hair, sitting on the grass beside her, and lazily closed her eyes. Sasuke, nearby in another conjured hammock, was reading the protocol book fervently with his sharingan activated. For once, they weren't arguing after hours, so she relaxed, feeling even Kurama dozing inside her.
"…you think you can solve it?"
"Give me—…"
Her half-asleep state lasted a long while, occasionally hearing her brothers trying to decipher the practice codebook, each one more difficult than the last. Her mind drifted to Kakashi, and even from a distance she could sense that he was focused on something, though also a bit bored. With some amusement, she thought he was probably missing Anbu missions-
"Midget," Kurama's voice snapped her out of her drowsy thoughts instantly. "Your bracelet is heating up."
Seina's eyes flew open. She raised her hand to her face and read the short message written by one of her friends:
Help. Akatsuki. Mortally wounded. 35'68950N, 139'69170E; bounty base. Nara.
"Naruto, Sasuke!" she shouted, jumping to her feet, ready to run home to grab her uniform and everything else. "Shikamaru is fighting Akatsuki and it looks like he's been mortally wounded!"
"What!?" Naruto yelled.
"Let's get changed, idiot!"
They met at the same spot in less than a minute. Fortunately, Shikamaru had been smart enough to provide coordinates and a reference point, so they used the hiraishin to teleport as close as possible.
"Can't you teleport us straight to him?"
"That teleportation method requires knowing the place first, dobe. Get moving!" Sasuke snapped as they ran, following the direction of her tracking spell.
Luckily, they arrived in under five minutes. The bounty base Shikamaru had mentioned was located far from any villages, surrounded by forest, in the middle of a large clearing of dirt and concrete. The Akatsuki left the moment they arrived, perhaps seeing too many Konoha ninja, or maybe because they had already completed their mission successfully. She saw Shikamaru alive, but clearly shaken, standing over who appeared to be his former teacher, Asuma, lying on the ground while Ino tried to save him with medical ninjutsu, even though Asuma himself seemed to have given up.
"Seina!" Chouji shouted upon seeing her, stepping aside. "Can you save him!?"
She didn't waste breath. She simply surrounded him with her magic and placed him in a state of regenerative stasis. Ino stopped healing him when she saw it, confused, nervous, and worried. Before she could start questioning her on the verge of tears, Seina spoke.
"He's not healed, just temporarily in stasis. Time is passing very slowly for him, enough for us to treat him."
Shikamaru, who had been silent, let out something like a sob as he realized what she meant. Ino seemed to understand too, because she resumed healing with trembling hands. Seina did the same with her magic. Between the two of them, they restored Asuma's lungs and heart as best they could. She closed her eyes as she followed the path of her magic inside him, repairing damaged tissues while Ino redirected the blood back into the veins from his lungs.
"Is he okay?" Chouji asked when he saw her open her eyes.
"He's lost some blood, but we'll fix that with a tincture once he comes out of limbo. Otherwise, I've repaired the stab wounds and Ino has redirected the blood. He should be fine, though exhausted. He won't be able to get out of bed for a couple of days."
"As if he has a choice, he's staying in bed for a week!" Ino cried, breaking into tears. Then she hugged Seina tightly, sobbing into her ear. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"Are you all okay?" Naruto asked the rest of Asuma's squad.
"It was just a minor strangulation."
"Let me heal you."
"No. Let's return to Konoha as soon as possible."
"Kotetsu is right. I don't want to stay exposed any longer," Shikamaru added.
"Alright. We'll return with the hiraishin."
"Can you handle all of us?" Aoba asked.
"Yes."
In a second, they returned to Konoha, near the main gate. Chouji, carrying the unconscious Asuma, nodded when he saw her looking at him.
"We're heading back to the Hatake compound. Technically, we weren't supposed to leave."
"See you at the hospital."
They parted ways after Sasuke spoke, reappearing at home with a tired sigh. Then they headed to the hospital in search of Asuma's team. As she expected, they found them entering through the doors carrying their teacher. She saw Aoba and Raido had already left, but Kotetsu and Izumo were accompanying them.
"Jonin Asuma Sarutobi, injured in combat."
In less than five minutes, they were on the ninja critical floor, sitting in the waiting room while Team 10 tried unsuccessfully to enter their teacher's room. Only Ino was allowed in, as she was the team's medic. Shikamaru and Chouji sat with them, frustrated, while Kotetsu and Izumo had disappeared to treat their own injuries. Seina looked at Shikamaru critically before reaching out and placing her hand on his head.
"Ouch," her friend complained tiredly as she thoroughly cleaned him with her magic, disinfecting every small cut before healing them. "Thanks, Seina."
"Shikamaru!?" a female voice called, rushing toward them from the stairs. "Where is he!? Is he okay!?"
"He's in the room. Ino and Seina managed to save him."
Kurenai sat heavily beside Shikamaru, stifling a sob as her eyes filled with tears. Then she looked at Seina, thanking her. Seina nodded. Before long, the waiting room filled with people who knew Asuma, including a Kakashi who had just returned from a mission, still covered in blood.
"Are you okay?" she asked, standing up.
"Yes. It's not mine," he said, taking her offered hand and squeezing it. He looked down as she cleaned the blood off him with her magic. She gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek, keeping appearances in front of Kurenai and Team 10, and whispered softly in his ear, "Thank you, love."
Seina stayed by her husband's side, leaning against the wall as they waited for Asuma's examination to finish. Just as she thought about it, Ino came out with a small smile that made it clear to everyone he would recover. Kurenai sighed deeply in her seat, placing both hands over her stomach.
"He'll live. They're moving him to a private room."
"Thank you, Ino."
They all left except Team 10 and Kurenai. The return felt almost anticlimactic. They walked silently through the village at a slow pace, reflecting on what had just happened. Seina looked at her husband curiously.
"How did you find out about Asuma?"
"I ran into Raido and Aoba in Tsunade-sama's office. I didn't know much about what had happened, but I knew Asuma was in the hospital with his team, and with you."
"Good thing Shikamaru was smart enough to ask you for something to communicate with him."
"If I had any doubts about making the bracelet traceable before, I definitely don't anymore," Sasuke snorted sarcastically.
"I suppose…"
"Do you feel like having dinner together?" her husband asked her brothers. "We could make a barbecue—what do you think?"
Naruto and Sasuke nodded. She saw the hammocks and drinks still lying in the garden where they had left them. She didn't feel like lazing around anymore, so she went to her study while Kakashi went to shower. She looked at the different piles of things she still had to do with some exhaustion. She didn't feel like making potions or creating new jutsu, so she focused on the wild idea Jiraiya had suggested months ago: runic tattoos.
She spent the entire afternoon pondering what would be most important to tattoo and how to do it. Kakashi poked his head through the door, telling her he was going into the village to buy meat and vegetables for the barbecue, but she only nodded distractedly. A knock on the window alerted her to Sasuke's presence, crouched on the roof just below it.
"We're going to start preparing the fire. You coming?"
"Yes. Give me a few minutes," she said, gathering the loose sheets filled with runic sequences.
"What are you doing?"
"Remember what Jiraiya told me about tattooing runes? I'm seriously considering it. The problem is, in the end, I still need a test subject and it's dangerous…"
"I volunteer."
"What?" she lifted her head from her notes, staring at Sasuke in disbelief. He hadn't hesitated for a second. "Are you crazy? What if I mess you up forever?"
"You won't. I know you. Besides, I'm not going to say no to something as useful as runes."
"You don't even know what I'm planning to put in the tattoo!"
"No, but it's not going to be something stupid, is it?"
"…"
"Like I said. I want those runic tattoos."
Sasuke vanished, called away by Naruto, and she was left standing there like an idiot, staring out the window. She shook her head in disbelief, but mentally noted his offer. The truth was, she knew of several people in the past, in the past of her other dimension, who had tattooed runes. Bill and Charlie Weasley were clear examples, but she was talking about witches and wizards from long ago. The Egyptians and the Vikings, not to mention the Celts, Native Americans, or Japanese criminals, were famous for their runes. Many cultures had their own traditional runic tattoos. Most runes had been related to healing, fertility, or more innocuous things like battle endurance; few people had dared to get full or highly complex tattoos because, as she had already thought, it was dangerous. But… what if she could do it?
She had thought she needed to settle for harmless runes, like endurance, but what if it were possible to activate and deactivate runic tattoos? As far as she knew, deactivating a runic tattoo wasn't common. In fact, it had put her off the idea before because she hadn't considered it because it wasn't something people did. More than that, she had never heard of anything like it or read about deactivation, except in ancient Egyptian texts and those were very specific, related to animal transformations. But if she could deactivate the runes and activate them independently… it would be a huge advantage. Just as Sasuke thought.
The question was how to link all the runes to a deactivation sequence she would have to design very carefully. It also had to be something the bearer of the tattoo could deactivate and, as an emergency measure, someone else too. She didn't like the idea of losing consciousness with the tattoos active and dying because no one could heal her or something similar. No. She had to think it through very carefully. In fact, she needed several opinions to minimize errors. She would need to talk to her family.
Luckily, they were all gathered that evening for their improvised barbecue. Even Itachi was there.
"Itachi!" she greeted, hugging him when she saw him dressed in civilian clothes. "How are you?"
"Fine. I got back from a mission a little while ago," he said with a faint smile, returning the hug. "I heard what happened. I'm glad Asuma is alright."
"Yeah. Lucky, honestly."
She sat beside Itachi, watching her brothers and her husband cooking at the large barbecue. For once, it seemed Naruto and Sasuke weren't arguing; Naruto was seasoning the meat while Sasuke flipped the half-cooked pieces. Her husband, at the nearby table, was preparing skewers, alternating meat and vegetables. And, notably, without wearing his face mask. She could tell he was genuinely happy and relaxed, so much so that he didn't feel the need to hide his face. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the faint smile on Itachi's lips, who, like her, was watching his brother with bright eyes and a calm expression.
"By the way, I'd like your help with a project," she said, drawing everyone's attention.
Sasuke smirked. "Is this about the tattoo idea?"
"Tattoos?"
"Yeah. Jiraiya gave me an idea for using my runes."
"You're planning to tattoo them," Itachi stated without a doubt. She nodded. "What do you need help with?"
While they cooked, she explained runes in more detail. Naruto, Sasuke, and her husband had already heard her talk about it and even knew how to carve runes, but they had always used them on inanimate objects, even when she used them on Isaribi. She explained her reluctance to use certain runes, why, and how she planned to overcome that limitation with a deactivation sequence.
"The point is, if I can use a deactivation sequence, it means I could tattoo anything."
"But you need help deciding what would be more beneficial than harmful overall, right?"
"Exactly," she smiled at her husband, pleased. "I was thinking about endurance and flexibility runes. Also lightness runes—those would let us run much faster, but we'd have to deactivate them independently from the others to fight in close combat, otherwise our strikes would be too weak."
"I see… Sounds pretty complicated."
"That's why I need help, Naru. Five heads are better than one."
They spent the entire dinner discussing it. Her family. She couldn't help but smile as she watched Naruto and Sasuke writing requests on a list while Kakashi and Itachi analysed each one—whether it was a good idea or how it could be improved. She ate slowly, not even thinking about the many things that should have been worrying her, knowing that sooner or later her time to relax would run out. She would enjoy it while she could.
The following days passed slowly. Asuma had woken up in his private hospital room, surrounded by his team and family, from what she had heard. In her free time, when she wasn't training with her brothers and Kurama, Seina began designing sequences for the tattoos Sasuke wanted.
"What about a rune to absorb natural chakra?" Sasuke suggested, watching Naruto train with his senjutsu. "It could be interesting."
"It could be," she looked up from her papers, smiling amusedly. "Don't you think at some point you'll have to stop competing with Naruto?"
"Hn. No."
Seina let out a snort of laughter at his immediate answer. The truth was, after so much discussion about runes, she had caught the bug too. Now she also wanted to tattoo runes and convince Kakashi to join in. The only one who didn't seem convinced was Naruto, perhaps because he was still training with Kurama in his spare time and didn't have room for more.
"Are you sure you want to tattoo the runes just like that?" Kurama said, in his small fox form, when he saw her designs. "Anyone could steal these sequences."
"But they wouldn't be able to activate them. I have to be the one to activate them the first time."
"Even so, are you sure you want to take that risk?"
"We could hide them with actual tattoos," Sasuke cut in, reading a book for his jonin exam beside her. "That way no one would notice."
"Do you seriously want to get, I don't know, 15 or 20 tattoos just to hide the runes?"
"They don't have to be big. They can be small things."
"Huh," she crossed her arms, exasperated. "Like what? What can you tattoo that small, symmetrically on your body, without anyone noticing?"
"…Let me think about it."
"Well, while you think, start bleeding into these vials, will you? I figured it'd be better to use each person's blood, aged for seven hours under the full moon, which, luckily, is in three days."
"How much blood do you need?"
"Half a litter should be more than enough."
Sasuke cut the veins at his wrist with a lightning-charged finger and filled every vial she handed him without hesitation under her watchful gaze. When she had enough, she healed the cut immediately before storing the blood in a dark place where it would be preserved by her magic. She had already drawn her own blood that morning, and although it had cost her three kisses, Kakashi had done the same. Itachi, on the other hand, had already left again on a mission with his ANBU surveillance squad, so she doubted he was thinking about runes right now.
Either way, she intended to give her family every possible advantage to survive what was coming.
Even if she didn't yet know what that was.