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Chapter Text

I

The first time they meet, Shikaku is bleeding heavily from multiple wounds, Inoichi and Chouza are unconscious, and the enemy shinobi are just seconds away from finishing them off.

And then just as he is starting to realising that there was no way out of this, they were going to die, his brothers were going to die, she walks into the battle-ravaged clearing, looking for all the world like she is just taking a relaxing stroll in the forest before, casual as you fucking please and without even blinking, ripping the three Kumo shinobi to shreds.

And as he stares wide-eyed at the young woman, taller than most, black hair short fly-away curls, eyes green as emeralds and curious black dots all over her face, he can only think about how the little black specs resemble stars.

(He never notices the wisps of orange and violet that appeared when he thinks about his claimed-brothers dying, focused as he was on the enemy)

II

Their second encounter is just as random as their first.

This time, it is much less stressful, a simple mission to deliver a scroll to a wealthy client, and the sun has just disappeared below the horizon when they stumble upon the star faced woman deep in the woods they’re traveling through, a campfire crackling in front of her and a merry tune thrumming on her guitar.

She turns her head just as they drop down from the trees to the edge of the clearing, her green eyes sharp and assessing as she takes them in, never stopping in her idle playing.

He doesn’t dare venture further into the clearing and his men follow his lead, even if they are confused about why they have stopped.

Truth be told, Shikaku doesn’t know either. There’s just this nagging in the back of his mind, one that’s been there since their first encounter and has only gotten louder since, that if he rushes this… this thing that’s between them, that if he makes this wild and free creature (Free, free like the Clouds his Clan so adore, free like he can never be) feel like he is trying to trap her, to force her hand in any way, then she will leave, disappear, vanish, and he will never see her again.

And that is something he will not tolerate.

So he waits and waits and waits, ignoring the impatient shifting of his troup, until the woman’s intense stare shifts to a friendly grin and she cheerfully asks if they’d like to share the fire with her for the night.

(His mother isn’t happy with him when he demands his engagement to Yoshino be canceled. Neither is Yoshino. They both scream at him, plead with him, try to make him see ‘reason’, but Shikaku will not back down. He doesn’t know what it is he feels, doesn’t know why this woman captivates him so, but he knows that, now that he has met her and talked to her and seen the glimmer of mischief and intelligence in her green green eyes, there’s no way he’ll ever be able to settle for anything less than her.

For anything less than the woman with stars on her face and freedom in her veins.)

III

They continue to meet sporadically over the next couple months, sometimes in the middle of the woods, sometimes in cheap inns and bars, sometimes in the middle of fights, and with every encounter, he learns something new about her.

He learns that she is a traveling musician, exploring the Elemental Nations at her own leisure and suddenly the guitar makes sense. He then asks himself what the hell else it could have been for.

He learns she can play just about any instrument, from her ever-present guitar to piano to flute. Nothing seems out of reach for her, nothing too simple or too complicated. If it had to do with music, then she could play it.

(When he asked, torn between humor and curiosity, if there was any instrument she couldn’t play, she smiled and quipped “Well I never got to try out a harpsichord, so that’ll probably give me a bit of trouble. Also, I have yet to figure out how to work a ‘cat piano’.”)

(Later, he would wonder why anybody would want to make a piano out of cats.)

(He also wondered what the hell a ‘harpsichord’ was.)

He learns her mother was the sweetest woman to ever walk the earth, always ready with a kind word or a warm cup of tea for any lost soul that wandered past her home (Or she dragged there, she snickers one late night around the campfire, because she had a habit of seeing those that had been hurt by those that should have loved them and making sure they never felt that way again. Ever.)

He learns her father died when she was young, that she had to get to know him through her mother’s stories and what few pictures they had around the house. That she has his hair and freckles, as the dots are called.

(She tells him of the language of her father, the one she speaks fluently, and he wonders if he’ll ever get to learn it himself.)

He learns that, for all her cheer and easy sharing, his star faced woman is slow to trust, slow to share any truly important personal details about herself, slow to let him into her space without an intense staredown first.

But he is a Nara. They’re strategists, planers. They understand the importance of patience and so he endures the soul searching stares, the wary eyes, the songs that sometimes sound darker then usual and slowly, ever so slowly, he learns more.

He learns her favorite snack is Takoyaki. (He starts sealing some away every time he has a mission outside Konoha’s Gates. Just in case.)

He learns she is twenty. (Older than him by a year, but that’s fine, he never understood the need for your partner to be the same age as you anyway.)

He learns she has a pet spider named Tomomi. (Who is much bigger than any spider he has ever seen before. Were it not for the fact she doesn’t have more chakra then the average Genin, he’d think the spider was a Summon.)

He learns she can conjure up some strange violet flames. (Something in him sings when he sees them, that same place that told him to never push for more than he was given by his star faced woman, and he relaxes for reasons he doesn’t understand, holds back the urge to reach into the fire. Not yet.)

He learns she is strong. That she loves to fight, loves to feel her punches and kicks shatter bone under the flesh, loves the feeling of blood on her skin as she literally tears her enemies to bloody, gory shreds of meat, revels in the danger of a high stakes battle. (Learns she is possessive, that she claims things as hers and refuses to let go. Even if those things are people.)

He learns her name is Akatani Mikumo. (There is no pause when she says it, no tick to indicate she’s lying, but something in him tells him that that is not the only name she’s gone by.)

(But he doesn’t doubt that it is her name now. Because she is free, free as the wind and wild as the forest and such a person does not see why a name defines you. Merely sees it as an extra chain.)

(His mother still won’t end the engagement, but that’s fine, for now. He doesn’t need her to, he simply takes as many missions as he can in order to see her. To see his star faced woman. His Yamikumo.)

IV

They’ve been meeting like this for two years when she first comes to Konoha.

At first, he is surprised as hell and doesn’t bother hiding it. After all, he never expected his star faced woman to ever want to set foot in a Shinobi Village. She’d certainly done her best to disappear whenever they got close to one.

But then he realises, through a combination of his brothers’ light teasing and her ‘Are you stupid?’ raised eyebrow, that she came here because of him. Because he was here and she didn’t want to leave it up to chance when they’d next meet.

(Although, to be fair, after that second time it had never been ‘chance’. They were drawn to each other, however faint, and she always found him whenever he was out of the village, regardless of who he was with.)

It made that part of him (The one that had appeared so suddenly and inexplicably that he should probably have worried, but which was now as much a part of his life as his chakra.) swell with glee, and he has the sudden and overwhelming urge to go to the nearest rooftop and shout his victory for all the village to hear.

Because she had come to him. This wasn’t them meeting in the woods and sharing stories to the tune of her music, wasn’t a blood filled battlefield where they fought side by side and left death in their wake.

This is her, his star faced woman, his Yamikumo, coming to Konoha because this is where he is and so this is where she wants to be. With him.

(He knows she will not stay and she knows that he knows she will not stay. But she's still here and for him, that’s enough.)

(Because he knows that even if he gets what he wants, even if the engagement is nullified and she is willing to take his name, she will always be as free and wild as the wind and he never wants to deny her that. Never wants to see her wither away chained to a place that can never hope to hold her.)

V

He had never hidden her existence from anyone.

She never shied away from him, even if he was with teammates, so pretty much everybody knew that Nara Shikaku spent at least five hours of every mission he took conversing with a young woman who somehow always managed to find him, no matter the mission.

That, however, only fueled the collective curiosity of Konoha’s shinobi about who this mysterious woman was and why she held the newly appointed Jonin Commander’s attention so thoroughly he was willing to work past the infamous Nara laziness in order to see her.

Which, of course, means that almost every shinobi in Konoha is stalking them as he shows Mikumo around the village.

Luckily (For them) his star faced woman only finds their entourage amusing, and takes great glee in leading them around on a merry chase whenever she’s off exploring the village on her own.

And somehow, she bumps into Hatake Kakashi.

(“He’s alone,” she tells him, her eyes sad, and he wants to find whatever put that expression on her face and rip it to shreds.

He doesn’t voice his violent thoughts, though judging by her expression she knows what he’s thinking, and instead asks, “Who is?”

“The white cub,” she answers, propping her chin on his chest and looking up at him with soulful eyes. “He’s sad and so very lonely and the Rain is starting to pull him under.”

“The Rain huh?” he echoes, lifting a hand and letting it erupt in orange and violet flames so he could study them.

She makes a happy sound and wiggles so she can snatch the hand, watching as her violet and his orange mix and dance and she sighs, falling into a boneless heap as a warmth unlike any he’s ever felt before erupt in his chest and spreads to the very tips of his toes.

It feels like Home, she feels like Home, and he vows then and there to never let anyone harm this magnificent creature.

“Yeah,” she sighs, all but purring her contentment as he runs a hand through her curly hair. “The Rain.”)

(He finally got the engagement ended. His mother had tried to speed up the wedding once she saw Mikumo was in Konoha and his star faced woman had not been amused.

It took three months to repair the damage to the compound and everyone now had a healthy free of ever angering his new fiancè.)

Chapter Text

VI

She left soon after that, itchy after so long in one place, but that was fine, because he had expected it and she was leaving with a ring on her finger. A platinum band with amethysts and black diamonds arranged in a small circle around an emerald.

(His brothers’ girlfriends had cooed at the ring when they finally coaxed Mikumo into showing it to them and his brothers themselves had given him knowing looks. He just rolled his eyes and smirked smugly. Only the best for his star faced woman.)

When she leaves, she leaves in the quiet of the night and with only a note to tell him that she’ll be back and to please give the recipe on the other paper to Chouza-san at the earliest convenience, he had been so excited when she agreed to share it. He simply smiles, practices a tune on the guitar she had bought for him, and goes about his day.

His brothers are perfectly understanding, because they had met Mikumo, had talked to her and listened to her songs and they knew just like him that the only reason she loved him so much was because he let her come and go as she pleased, because he never tried to cage her.

(They smile when he shows up at Inoichi’s place without her by his side and Chouza’s girlfriend hands him a cup of strong tea.

“I was wondering when she would leave,” the young woman muses, getting hums from the rest. “Honestly I'm surprised she stayed this long.”

“Me too,” Shikaku sighs, sipping his tea and looking at the simple black band his star faced woman had given him to wear with longing. “But I’m glad she did.”

“So are we all,” Chouza agrees, already immersing himself in the recipe Mikumo had written out.

“Well, maybe not Yoshino-san,” Inoichi’s fiancè interjects, a smirk on her lips. “She and the Lady Nara were looking a bit chewed the other day.”

“They should have listened when I told them she would retaliate,” he says dryly, smirking slightly himself.

“True,” the woman sighs, smiling wryly. “Still, was it necessary to have Tomomi-chan try to eat them?”)

The rest of the village, however… they were less understanding.

Not that he cares. Shikaku loves Mikumo, Mikumo loves Shikaku, there was no question about that and he knows the only way that would change was if he did something horrendously stupid. Like try to chain her down. 

It was just so troublesome, to have every person from his mother to the desk shinobi to the Hokage himself demanding answers that really weren’t any of their business.

(“Where, exactly, is your fiancè Shikaku?” his mother asks and boy does he relish in the way her mouth contorts around the word ‘Fiancè’.

He shrugs, holding back a smirk. “Somewhere in Iwa, I’m guessing.”

He swears he can hear her teeth grinding together.

“And why,” she spits out through a clenched jaw as she glares at him. “Is she in Iwa?”

“I’ll have to ask her when she comes back,” this is easily the most entertaining thing that’s ever happened to him. “Was there anything else Okaa-sama?”

“Leave,” she hisses, and he does, desperately holding back laughter as he goes.)

(“So, Nara-san,” the desk-nin he was handing his report to begins, a gossip-hunger look on his face. He knows it well, Inoichi has the same look almost all the time. “Where’s Akatani-san?”

“No idea,” he answers calmly, shrugging. “Her note didn’t say.”

The other man blinks and Shikaku can practically taste his confusion.

“Her… note?” the poor nin echos dumbly, staring. “She left a note?”

“Yup,” he shakes the report in his hand, hoping it will draw his attention so they can get back on track.

“But… why? Why did she leave a note?” it doesn’t.

“Because she left the village and didn’t want me to worry,” seeing where this was going he puts the report on the nin’s desk, turns around and leaves the mission room into utter chaos.)

(“Is there a reason your fiancè left, Shikaku-kun?” the Third asks, his face placid but his old eyes filled with soon-to-be-released protective fury if Shikaku so much as hinted at Mikumo playing with his heart.

It would be heartwarming if the implications don't make him furious.

He gives the old man a hard look and says, very seriously, “Mikumo is like a cat, Hokage-sama. She comes and goes as she pleases, wanders far and wide, but she always comes back. She didn’t leave because she has something to hide, she left because it goes against her nature to be in one place too long. It’d kill her.”

The Third looks him in the eyes and holds his gaze, searching.

Then, he relaxes, a small smile on his face as he reaches for his pipe. “Ah, that’s good to know. Do you think she’d be willing to pick up some pipeweed in Nami? I’m running distractingly low.”

He chuckles. “I’ll see what I can do, Hokage-sama.”)

(But even if he understood, even if he had known it would happen, there was still something in him, that mass of orange and violet flames under his heart, that ached in the absence of his star faced woman.)

VII

Shikaku had learned early on that Mikumo was possessive as hell, as had everyone else-

(“What the hell happened here!?” a Chunin whose name escapes him at the moment blurts, staring wide eyed at the smoking crater that was all that remained of the Nara Main House.

“My mother and former fiancè decided now would be a good time for us to get married,” he drawls, smirking. “Mikumo objected. Violently.”)

-But he hadn’t realised just how possessive she would get after they got engaged, nor how, to her, their engagement meant that every single Nara was now hers.

So when teams of shinobi with Nara members start returning to Konoha with wild stories of the future Lady Nara leaping in to save them from dangerous foes with a snarl of “Mine.” on her tongue, he is both surprised and not surprised at all.

(“I should probably have expected this,” he muses, graciously ignoring the gaping shinobi. “She does it to me, why wouldn’t she do it to you now that she’s a member of the Clan?”

“So this is not unusual behavior for her Shikaku-kun?” the Hokage asks, looking horribly entertained.

He shrugs. “Not really, no. She’s been doing things like this since she told me her name. It’s perfectly normal.”

“She ripped off their heads! ” the previously gaping shinobi protests. Vehemently. “With her teeth!”

“Like I said,” he reiterates. “Perfectly normal.”)

(And so when his star faced woman returns to Konoha months later, bearing the Hokage’s requested pipeweed and a cheerful grin, accompanied by the words “I think Tatsuo fits me better now, don’t you?” all he can do is nod in agreement.)

VIII

Her second visit is different from her first.

There is much confusion about her sudden name change, few able to understand the fact she has no attachments to the name she had before.

(“You can’t just change your name!” a random civilian screams one day, glaring fiercely at his fiancè.

Tatsuo turns away for the colors she was considering (The Nara Main House was finished, had been for a while, and now all they had to do was decorate the inside. He just hadn’t wanted to get started without his star faced woman there to do it with him) and frowns at the civilian, uncaring of the fact basically the entire street was staring at them.

“Why not?” she asks, clearly puzzled. “It’s just a name.”

The civilian sputters in shock and he smirks, sneaking a lazy arm around her waist and throwing the eavesdroppers a dark look.

The majority of them flinch.

Tatsuo ignores the byplay, just continues to frown at the confrontational civilian. “You shouldn’t randomly screech at people,” she reprimands, her green eyes twinkling with well hidden mischief. “One day you’ll screech at someone who’ll take serious offence and then where will you be?” she taps a finger on her chin as the civilian pales. “Probably in a grave somewhere,” she gives the civilian a wide grin, one filled to the brim with knives. “So, tone down the screeching, yeah? Wouldn’t want to step on any toes, would we now?”

The civilian woman pales even further, her white face clashing terribly with her dark blonde hair, and a pink haired man, presumably her husband, quickly drags her away.)

The civilians, those that have never known the need for an alias, question her, demand to know things they have no right to know, push and don’t expect the metaphorical punch they get in return.

The shinobi, on the other hand, asks how she does it, how she separates herself so completely from her name that her introducing herself never registers as a lie.

What few seem to understand, however, is that his star faced woman hasn’t just changed her name. She has changed her very identity, has left behind the life she lived as Akatani Mikumo with her renaming of herself

Akatani Mikumo was a traveling musician, a woman unbound by anything, drifting without rhyme or reason between countries and villages, simply going where her feet took her and never anything else. She traveled, she played her guitar to earn coin, and she sometimes collected bounties.

Tatsuo is still free, still travels to whatever place catches her fancy, but where Akatani Mikumo had nowhere she could confidently call her home, Tatsuo does, and she always returns. Akatani Mikumo, for all her strengths, had nothing, no one, to call her own, to look at and know with certainty ‘This is Mine, this is my Territory, this belongs to Me.’ and Tatsuo does, has him and his brothers and now their Clan to call her own, to protect and care for in her own special, sometimes confusing, way.

Akatani Mikumo was a Lone Wolf, simply drifting, unchainable, but without purpose or territory.

Tatsuo is a Dragon, fierce and possessive and greedy, hoarding every shiny thing that catches her eye away in her den and destroying anything that tries to steal from her.

Of course, since the thing Tatsuo decided to hoard was people, not inanimate objects, she has to get a bit creative in regards to keeping her possession safe, but that’s fine, according to her.

(“Inverted, Polarized, Soft, whatever you might call it, my Flames are outside the norm, Shi-kun,” she explains, smiling around her little nickname for him. Civilians would think she was simply shortening his name.

Shinobi would know she was calling him Death.

“I've learned to live with it, to accept that the people that are Mine can't stay where I am all the time. That they have lives of their own and would not appreciate me going around trying to police then simply because they are now part of my Hoard. Besides, I’m not a hypocrite.”)

She’s still the same person at the core, still protective and possessive and free and wild and all the things that drew him to her. She’s just not living the life she did as Akatani Mikumo, and because of that, she no longer sees that as her name.

And that’s all there is to it.

(And though many boggle at the ease with which his star faced woman has left her former name behind, none can deny just how well her new one fits. After all, Tatsuo is very much a Female Dragon.)

IX.

It doesn’t take long for Tatsuo to bump into Hatake Kakashi for a second time.

And kidnap him, apparently.

(“Mi Nube,” he says, fondly exasperated even as that warm place inside him hums in satisfaction when he speaks the language of his star faced woman’s father. After all, the fact she even taught him tells him more then any words ever could. “What is this?”

His finacè just grins, before lifting her arms to show the Heir to the Hatake Clan, her hands under his armpits like he was a puppy she was eager to show off. “Mine,” she says shortly, completely serious and utterly unrepentant.

The kid just blinks slowly, clearly confused but unwilling to show it, before giving him a respectful nod. “Shikaku-sama,” well, it was good to know the kid could act professional, even when he was being held aloft by a strange lady he had only met once that had apparently decided he belonged to her now. “Was there something you needed?” ah, hoping it was him that had asked Tatsuo to fetch him, was he? Yep, there are the pleading puppy-dog eyes.

“No,” he says, a small smirk on his lips. “Tatsuo just likes you, kid. Welcome to the family.”

The kid stares at him, wide eyed and so very confused, while Tatsuo gives Shikaku a happy grin and hugs the boy to her, her Flames curling around the newest piece of her Hoard as she croons reassurances and declarations of protection and promises of warm meals in her father’s language.

Hatake is still clearly confused, but the feeling of Tatsuo’s Flames, possessive and protective and already so very loving is a heady one, and he has no choice but to relax into her embrace and soak up her affections like a particularly dry sponge.

Shikaku just smiles, rolls his eyes, and goes to find one of his Clansmen to see about getting one of the many empty rooms in the Main House ready for their newest member.)

Kakashi fights it, in the beginning. He flees when he sees her, bites at any part of her he can reach when she does catch him, refuses to eat the food she makes him and even throws his own beloved Sensei at her when she comes to snatch him away from a training session.

Tatsuo, of course, finds it both adorable and heartbreaking, because on one hand “He’s so cute Shi-kun, he thinks he can hurt me!” but on the other, “Shi-kun, he’s hurting, he’s Mine, why won’t he let me take care of him?”

Because for all that he fights and yells and tries to hide it, Hatake Kakashi is a wolf without a Pack, the Last of his Clan, and Tatsuo is strong, radiates Alpha, Safe, Protection even without her Flames and the kid wants that. It doesn’t matter if he denies it, his instincts, the instincts of his Clan, still scream at him to give in, to let the strong, caring Alpha Female take care of him and give him the home he lost when his father killed himself in an attempt to regain the honor he never lost in the first place.

(When he tells his star faced woman the story of the boy’s, Her boy’s, father, her eyes gleam with Rage and her Flames ripple around her, easily visible even to those that are Inactive in her anger. 

The next day, the hospital is full to the bursting and the Hokage finally sees first hand the Power held by the future Lady Nara as he tries to reprimand her and all he gets in response is a smile filled with teeth and green eyes gleaming purple.)

X.

In the end, it takes years before Hatake finally breaks, finally stops running away from Tatsuo and instead look at her with tired eyes, one grey, the other black on red, and sees her worried gaze and protective scowl and instead of scoffing and turning away, he takes a flying leap into her arms and sobs.

(He’s there when it happens, at the Gates with his fiancè as they wait for Team Minato to return from their latest mission. Said fiancè is lurking in the shadows, waiting for them to arrive so she can snatch her boy away and force him to rest and eat and not foolishly try to train if he is injured.

But instead of that happening, instead of the un-Uchiha-like Uchiha bouncing through the Gate with a shout, instead of the little medic-nin chatting fruitlessly at a non-responding Hatake, instead of Shikaku having to distract Namikaze so the man slated to be Fourth Hokage doesn’t notice one of his students getting kidnapped by the Nara’s somewhat-insane fiancè, what happens is that instead of four people going through the Gate, there are only three.

Tatsuo immediately abandons her spot in the shadows and goes straight for Hatake, ignoring everything else in the face of her injured and exhausted boy.

Namikaze startles and tries to jump between them, but Shikaku is already in front of him, eyes sharp and body tense. “Don’t,” he says, but doesn’t elaborate when the other man gives him an angry and bewildered look, simply shakes his head and turns to watch his star faced woman and her boy.

She doesn’t even glance at them, barely acknowledges the little kunoichi long enough to gently push her out of the way, as she goes to stand in front of Hatake and crouches down, her hands coming up to cradle his face, thumb gently tracing the bloody tear in his mask where someone had clearly cut him.

Hatake, for once, doesn’t say anything, merely stares at her as she frowns at the injury and carefully lifts his now slated headband up and away from the eye it was covering. Tatsuo, likewise, doesn’t say anything when she is greeted with red and black instead of dark grey, only continuing her tracing of the slash over his eye.

And then finally she stops her inspection and looks at her boy, locking eyes with him and shifting her grip from his face to his shoulders. She doesn’t do anything much, doesn’t try to pull him in and hug him like she normally would. Instead, she merely squeezes his shoulders and goes to stand up.

Something in Hatake breaks when she does and he sobs, fat tears welling up in his eyes as he launches his battered and exhausted body at the woman with what little strength he has left and starts crying into her shoulder.

She doesn’t hesitate, wrapping her arms around the boy, her boy, and lifting him up, barely pausing to give Shikaku a nod before she’s gone, leaving Namikaze and the kunoichi gaping at the spot where she once stood with their teammate.

Shikaku just sighs, pats the other man on the back, and leaves, making a bee-line for Tatsuo’s favorite Takoyaki stand. She’ll need it to calm down so she doesn’t go on a Rampage when Namikaze inevitably tries to take his student back.)

When he returns to the Compound he finds them in a pile made out of every pillow and blanket in the house, his fiancè wrapped protectively around her boy and said boy’s many dogs cuddling around them, a spot left for Shikaku himself behind his star faced woman.

His fiancè stays quiet as he fits himself in behind her, waiting for him to wrap his arms around her waist and press a calming kiss to the back of her neck before she begins talking.

She doesn’t say much. Her Rage is too great for that, her Flames burning purple in her eyes as she says one simple sentence.

“This war ends now.”

He doesn’t bother asking stupid questions.

“I’ll inform the Hokage.”

And that’s that.

(The next day, when Namikaze and his girlfriend barge into the Nara Compound to try and get the former’s student back, they are met with Tatsuo’s gleaming eyes and scheming mind.

Within a week, Iwa has surrendered, half their army wiped out by the methodical Rage of a Rampaging Inverted Cloud.

Within two, Kakashi is happily living in the Nara Main House and nursing his heavily injured teammate/boyfriend back to full health with the help of an insufferably smug Tatsuo and the extras she had picked up on the way back from the hospital.

Then again, Shikaku can’t say he wouldn’t be smug too if he had just fought a man widely regarded as one of the strongest shinobi in history and won.

Uchiha Madara had nothing on his star faced woman.)

Chapter Text

I

The first time they meet, she doesn’t think much of him.

He’s there, getting attacked by the idiots that had been rude to the nice old lady that had let her sleep on an extra futon the next town over, but other than noting his position and determining he isn’t going to get in her way, she doesn’t really acknowledge him.

However, once she senses the newly Activated Sky Flames pouring off the guy, she gives him a second glance.

He’s handsome, with strong features and dark eyes, but what draws her eyes are the two fresh cuts on his face, still sluggishly oozing blood and almost certain to scar.

She hums, smiles, rips the two trespassers to shreds for daring to exist, and leaves.

(And if she put a bit more strength into their demise than she would usually bother with, made it more bloody and violent and showy, well then there’s no one around to call her out on it.)

II

She honestly doesn’t expect to meet the Sky again. After all, with how strong his Flames were, even the mostly Inactive shinobi population were bound to be drawn to him and, like so many other times in history, be compelled to hide him away and keep him safe at all cost.

So when she feels his Flames, purer and stronger then she remembers them being, about three months after she had stumbled upon him and his teammates in that clearing, she feels her surprise is justified. After all, the last time she felt Flames like that was when Estúpido finally broke the Seal on Conejito.

The thought sends a stab of pain through her but she ignores it, focusing instead on the Sky that drops down at the edge of the clearing she has set up camp in, staring directly at him as she wonders what he’ll do next.

To her surprise, he does nothing, staying at the edge of the clearing and holding her gaze without flinching. That alone is enough to peak her interest, but it’s his Flames that really make her pay attention.

Because his Sky is open and free, and unlike so many other Skies she’s met before, he doesn’t try to push his Flames on her. It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t know what they are, or that he likely has no idea how to use them even if he does.

What matters is that the warm, open Sky Flames are tinged with familiar violet and pulse with want, Cloud, strong, want, beMinebeMinebeMine beMine, and yet they stay where they are, simply hanging in the air and chanting their desires, but never pushing for more than the curious pokes she is willing to give.

And for that, she grins and offers the unusual Sky and his group her fire for the night.

(They chat, the two of them, long into the night after the Sky has claimed first watch. She sees the cuts that have indeed turned into scars, the dark eyes gleaming with ruthless intelligence, the power in his form, and decides, almost without realising; “Mine.”)

III

She continues to travel, her Flames guiding her feet to wherever they’ve decided to to go next.

She explores the forests surrounding Konoha, treks across the Suna desert, climbs the mountains and cliffs of Kumo’s homeland, hides in the mists with Kiri and spends many a day in shelter from the rain in Ame.

She plays her music at inns and bars, fights the bandits that are stupid enough to try and rob her, helps the people that help her in return and does her best to avoid the Hidden Villages. After all, they are notorious for doing everything in their power to keep the strong people that wander into through their borders within their borders.

And she refuses to let them chain her down.

But through it all, through her traveling and playing and fighting, there is one new element that wasn’t there before.

Because the Sky, Nara Shikaku, continues to draw her in now that she has had a taste of his Flames, a taste of the freedom and acceptance he radiates simply by existing.

They meet in the bars where she plays, in the woods where she camps, in battles fought on both their sides. They dance around each other like leaves in the wind, occasionally brushing against each other and turning away just as quickly, one restrained yet wanting, the other guarded yet hopeful.

And bit by bit, she starts sharing herself with him, tells him of her mother and her father and her love of music and in exchange, he tells her secrets that had not been told to many.

He tells her the story of his beloved deer skin vest, how he had cut it from the back of a dying mother doe in a desperate attempt to keep her young fawn alive in the freezing cold.

He tells her of his Clan, of the inherent laziness present in all of them that can be stripped away at the drop of a hat if they are angered.

He tells her of his brothers (Not by blood but by choice and that is something she can respect) and their traits and she learns that Chouza loves every meat but salmon and that Inoichi hates winter yet loves the rain.

He tells her stories and she teaches him facts, and she smiles when he first unseals a plate of Takoyaki, snickers when he stares wide-eyed at Tomomi, grins when he keeps himself in check when he sees her Flames and laughs gleefully as they tear through bodies together, blood painting their skin crimson red and bones breaking under the force of their blows.

(She had heard tale of Skies, be it from Bonded Guardians who sing the praises of their Chosen Sky, or the worn Elements who speak of Rejection in bitter tones yet still hold a spark of longing in their eyes when they think of that elusive orange Flame. She had heard the tales and saw fit to be proud of the fact she had never felt the draw of Harmony.

Now, as she stands in a sea of corpses and tells Nara Shikaku her name, she cannot help but think back to those Guardians and Elements, and smile.)

IV

She is twenty two and he twenty one when she first steps foot inside the Gates of Konoha.

(She hadn’t planned on going to Konoha. She hadn’t planned on wanting to go to Konoha. But there’s a longing in her Soul and an ache in her chest and suddenly, she knows where she needs to be.)

He’s surprised, at first. She doesn’t blame him as she smiles and waves at his brothers, introducing herself and sharing an embarrassing story or two.

(“Hello!” she chirps, snickering at the dumbfounded stare her Shi is giving her. “I’m Mikumo! Nice to meet you!”

“Hello, Mikumo-san,” the redhead, Choza, returns, shooting her Shi an amused look. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Indeed,” the blonde, Inoichi, agrees, his lips twitching as if wanting to smile. “Shikaku’s told us a lot about you.”

“Oh?” she asks, eyes glinting. “Did he tell you about that time he got so drunk he started talking to some random bush because he thought it was me?”

They both give her sly grins and her Shi finally snaps out of his gaping to groan loudly.

“You promised not to mention that,” he grumbles, but he still wraps her in a hug and kisses the top of her head, and his Flames still brush against hers eagerly, practically singing with joy at her presence.

“I did no such thing,” she denies, wrapping her own arms around his neck and grinning sunnily. “I just shoved a bucket under you and laughed while you barfed your brains out!”)

He shows her around, proudly points out landmarks and sprouts off facts, takes her to his favourite restaurants, lets her drag him around as she looks for every secret she can find, from the little hole-in-the-wall Takoyaki stand that quickly becomes her favourite place to be beside her Shi’s arms, to the small clearing deep within the Aburame’s lands where she can let Tomomi out to play once in a while.

(At first the Shinobi Clan doesn’t really know what to make of her and her giant spider. Then she makes it clear she is happy to let them have her friend’s babies, since she has no way to care for all the tiny buggers, and suddenly they are all for them being there, offering the tarantula all sorts of males to see if she will like them.

The fact her venom and the venom of her offspring are incredibly powerful probably also helps.

Her Shi just shakes his head and goes to Shibi, the future Head of the Clan, to negotiate some sort of alliance between their two Clans so her little agreement with the Aburame doesn’t become a problem later down the line.)

(She likes the village well enough, but she knows she won’t be staying permanently. Her Flames might be content for now, with her Shi nearby and his brothers to get to know and the Aburame to discuss facts with, but someday that won’t be enough and she’ll need to leave, to roam the world again and feel the wild wind in her curls.

But her Shi knows this too and so she isn’t worried for the day she needs to leave. Instead she cherishes the days she can stay.)

V

She loves her Shi.

Somehow, when she realises this, it catches her off guard.

(She blinks, turning away from Shibi-san to look at her Shi, staring at him as he naps against a tree, unbothered by the dozens of tiny Cloud enhanced Bird Eaters play-fighting on his legs.

“Oh,” she breathes, feeling her heart skip a beat at the sight.

“Is something the matter Akatani-san?” Shibi-san questions, a hint of worry hidden in his monotone voice.

“No,” she answers easily, still staring at the Sky. “I just realised I love him.”

“Ah,” now he sounds amused and she glances at him with a pout, to which he simply pushes his glasses up. “Yes, I assumed you already knew this. Why? Because it is clear for everyone to see that you are in love.”

“Everyone but me apparently,” then she shrugs and looks back at the shinobi. “Oh well. What were you saying about your new bugs?”)

She had never imagined herself as someone that would one day fall in love. When she was still with Mama everyone around her had seemed stupid and narrow-minded, then when she was with Estúpido and the rest they had been too busy hunting down the Abominación to care about something like love.

But here, in this world with shinobi and death around every corner, she had found love in a lazy Sky with a fiercely intelligent mind and warm dark eyes.

And she couldn’t say she minded very much.

(It's so easy, falling into Harmony with him after so long spent dancing around each other. His hand lights up orange and purple and all she can do is reach out and grab it, letting the feeling of Home wash over her as she sighs and goes boneless, thoughts of the sad, lonely cub banished for a time as she basks in the presence of her Sky and idly ponders when he had had the time to learn how to use his Flames.)

Chapter Text

I

The first time Kakashi meets Akatani Mikumo, he doesn’t really know what to think of her.

He’s training by himself in a lesser known Training Ground when she wanders in, a guitar hanging on her back and black dots all over her bored looking face. That boredom quickly disappears when she spots him however, and he braces himself for whatever negative reaction is coming.

Instead of one, however, the strange, foreign-looking woman simply tilts her head and stares.

She doesn’t introduce herself, she doesn’t ask what he’s doing, hell, she doesn’t even blink. She just stares.

And he stares back, both because he doesn’t really know what to do in a situation like this, and because something in him (That place that he had been doing his damndest to ignore ever since That Night-) growls at the woman and the way her stare feels like a challenge.

Then, after what felt like an hour, the woman smiles, takes three long steps up to him, pats him on the head and leaves.

He blinks after her, confused and slightly suspicious, before mentally shrugging and resuming his training.

(It’s only later, much later, after she has already left again, that he learns the strange woman’s name and the reason she was in Konoha.

On one hand, he is glad. Yoshino-san never struck him as a good match for Shikaku-sama.

On the other, his new fiancè is weird.)

II

The second time they meet, the damn woman kidnaps him.

He’s so bamboozled he doesn’t even try to resist, just lets her pick him up and throw him over her shoulder before she’s running to the Nara Compound.

(“Ah, Tatsuo-san,” the shinobi guarding the gate to the Compound greets, glancing at Kakashi in amusement. “New friend?”

“Mine,” is all she says in response and he lifts his head to give the Nara wide, pleading eyes as she walks past him. The guy just laughs.)

She takes him to Shikaku-sama, to her fiancé, and he expects the man to sigh, give her a stern look, and tell his crazy future wife to put Kakashi back where she found him, please and thank you.

But that doesn’t happen. Instead, the Nara gives his fiancé a fond look and welcomes Kakashi to the family, as if kidnapping (Because that’s what she did and he refuses to acknowledge that place in his chest that screams for him to just let go already, let Alpha take care of you-) is a perfectly normal way to adopt a child.

And he isn’t a child! He’s a Chuunin, an adult, and he doesn’t need to be adopted! He’s fine.

(But the woman holds him tight, cradling his small body so carefully as she croons things in a language he doesn’t understand but that still sounds comforting, and there’s nothing he can do to stop himself from melting against her, sinking further into her embrace and letting the feeling of safe, Mine, love, protect envelop him like a warm blanket.

He hopes this feeling never goes away.

He doesn’t deserve to feel this way.)

III

Kakashi spends the next few years running.

He runs from his past, from the Demons that haunt him.

(“There he is,” they whisper behind his back as he walks past, uncaring if he hears them or not. “Hatake Kakashi. Sakumo’s son. The son of a traitor.” )

He runs from his Team, from Rin and her stupid crush and Obito and his stupid smile.

(“Bakashi!” the Uchiha calls, somehow looking both existed and annoyed and Kakashi does not think it’s cute, thank you very much. “Come on, we’re getting ramen!”

Kakashi scoffs, turning away to hide the want in his eyes. “Idiot,” he mumbles, walking away from the other boy’s offended yelling and ignoring the ache in his chest.)

But most of all, he runs from Tatsuo, from the crazy woman who had claimed him as hers after only one meeting.

(“Perrito,” she says that strange, rolling word, a small, concerned frown tugging at her lips as she looks at him with soft eyes. “Come on, let’s get you healed up.”

He glares at her, glares through the pain of his injuries and the screaming in his heart. “Just leave,” he hisses, hand curling tight around a bleeding wound. “Why are you even here?!”

She doesn’t answer right away, her eyes moving away from his to roll over the bloody battleground, the torn off limbs and ripped out bones of the group of Iwa shinobi she had found him fighting spread across the ground like a bratty child’s toys, before going back to looking him in the eyes.

“Because you were in danger,” she says, soft and calm and deadly, green gleaming purple and black dripping red. “And I protect what is Mine.”)

He runs and runs and runs, ignoring the nails digging into his hands, ignoring the eyes on his back, ignoring the sad, caring gaze that refuses to fucking leave.

He just runs.

(Kakashi wants. He wants so, so badly.

But he knows he can’t have it.

Because even if Obito smiles at him and Minato-sensei lets him stay over and Kushina-nee feeds him ramen and Tatsuo sends every shinobi she hears talk bad about Hatake Sakumo to the hospital with broken bones and shredded flesh, Kakashi knows it won’t last.

Nothing good ever lasts for him.)

VI

Kakashi is twelve when everything changes.

(His eye’s gone and Rin’s hurt and oh god, Obito!)

Tatsuo is twenty-four when she holds his shoulders and traces the wound over his eye, completely ignoring the Sharingan lazily spinning at her, forcing him to memorize every line and dot on her face.

(She looks so sad, why is Alpha sad, why is she leaving!?)

Shikaku is twenty-three when Kakashi breaks down, crying great, heaving sobs and throwing himself at the man’s fiancè because he just can’t take it anymore.

(He wants. Hewantshewants he wants!

He can’t have it!

‘But you can,’ Alpha’s eyes seem to say as she squeezes his shoulders and moves to stand up. ‘You can have it. Just let go.’

Something in him breaks, like a wall has been smashed, and suddenly, he can’t stop the tears welling in his eyes.

Kakashi doesn’t want to stop them.)

He cries and cries and cries, soaking in the comfort of his Alpha’s embrace as she lifts him off the ground and whisks him away, carrying his shaking, hurting body to the Nara compound.

(Alpha ignores the curious Nara milling around the Main House, snapping out orders for medicine and food and all the soft things in the house with the aura of a woman not in the mood for bullshit as the usually lazy shinobi scramble to obey her, expressions of shock and determination on their faces and all of a sudden, Kakashi is being bathed and given new clothes and laid on a pile of soft and fluffy things, a medic holding a glowing green hand over his eye and Alpha growling at anyone that comes too close.)

It’s when Kakashi is healed and it’s only the two of them in the house that Alpha pulls him close in the nest of blankets and pillows and looks at him with soft, loving eyes, asking him if he wants to summon his ninken.

He does, he wants his Pack near him now that he’s tired and full and not bleeding, but he knows he doesn’t have enough chakra for it.

Expect Alpha smiles and lights a hand up with purple fire that feels like warmth and protection and Mine and somehow replenishes his chakra.

He doesn’t ask.

(The dogs look at her with guarded eyes and she looks at them with a teasing smile, only telling them, “Make sure there’s room for Shi-kun.”

They blink, nod, and make themselves comfortable, leaving a large space behind Alpha free for her Mate.

And it’s here, surrounded by his Pack and in the arms of his Alpha, that Kakashi feels at home for the first time since his father killed himself.)

V

The next day is… different.

(Kakashi wakes up warm.

That’s… unusual.

He scrunches up his nose, burrowing further into the warmth in front of him even as his mind sluggishly starts to work. Why is he so warm?

Why does he feel safe?

Arms tighten briefly around him before going loose.

“Hey kid,” he wiggles at the quiet words, his instincts humming peacefully in his bones and making him lazy, unconcerned. He’s safe, Alpha will keep him safe, he doesn’t need to be on high alert. Whoever was taking must be safe too.

The person rumbles quietly, amused, and the arms holding him tighten again, this time accompanied by the body he was burrowing into moving sluggishly.

He whines, pressing his face closer to the warmth. He doesn’t want to wake up.

“Perrito,” another voice says, raspy from sleep and just as amused as the other person. Alpha, his instincts sing. “You need food. Wake up.”

He grumbles, finally lifting his head to squint irritably at the amused face of his Alpha.

Alpha’s smile only grows at his grumpy look, the dots on her face moving with the motion, and she leans in to nuzzle his hair, making him relax at the calming action.

“Come, Perrito,” she purrs, rolling until he’s on top of her before sitting them both up. “Breakfast.”

“No,” he knows he sounds like a petulant child, but he also knows Alpha won’t mind, and so he doubles down by hiding his face in the crook of her neck. “Wanna stay.”

Alpha’s mate laughs. “Looks like you’ve finally met your match Tatsu,” he says, obviously amused.

“Sush, Shi-kun,” is Alpha’s response, and then Kakashi is being lifted into the air. “Off we go then.”

“¿Vas a dejar que él también coma así?” there it is again, the words he doesn’t understand, the words his Alpha and her mate speak as easily as Kakashi does the ones he has always known, the words that make them sound like they’re singing instead of speaking.

“Él es mío,” Alpha responds and even if he doesn’t understand the words, he understands the way her grip on him tightens. “Y está afligido. Por ahora, déjalo tener esto.”)

Alpha, Tatsuo, makes him foreign food he’s never seen before but tastes amazing, flavors so unlike his usual rice exploding across his tongue. She’s even made something for his Pack, who she watches eat with amusement from her place as Kakashi’s chair. 

He would have moved, (Or, well, would have slide off the woman’s lap into a pile of embarrassment, because really, he’s twelve, he shouldn’t be sitting in laps anymore) but Tatsuo is warm and comfortable and safe, so he stays and eats the sweet bread with jam she offers him and hums around various different meats and ignores the amused look Shikaku keeps giving him from across the table.

Then, when they’re done eating and Tatsuo has cheerfully forced Shikaku to wash the dishes in between bright, delighted giggles and sneaky pecks on the mouth that left the feared jonin dazed and gooey-eyed, his Alpha picks him up, plants a big, warm kiss right on his cheek, puts him in her fiancé’s arms and sashays out the door with a cheerfully wave and a smile filled with teeth and hunger.

(“Where is she going?” Kakashi asks anxiously, worried in a way he can’t remember ever being before, peeking over Shikaku’s shoulder to watch his Alpha (Warm, safe, love, MineMineMine) walk away from them with a predator’s looping gait, an edge of barely restrained violence visible in the lines of her straightened shoulders.

“I have no idea,” the Nara who’s back he is currently perched on says with a sort of fond resignation that tells of this having happened many times before. “But don’t you worry, kid. She’ll be back before you know it.”

Kakashi still worries, still fidgets with his sleeve and flinches when Shikaku pats his head and reaches for kunai and shuriken when he’s startled, but the warm press of his Alpha’s Not-Chakra had left behind a promise to return, one he clung to with all his might during those anxious days where she was gone.

And return she does, barely two weeks after she had left, baring a bloody grin and gleaming eyes and a new scar across her stomach, like someone had almost cut her in half before being stopped by her spine.

She also comes with Obito, wheezing and incoherent and covered in enough bandages to keep a mummy happy for a full year, but blessedly, wonderfully alive, and that is all Kakashi cares about as he launches himself at his Alpha and scales her tall body to reach the boy on her back, shamelessly crying over the battered and bloody form of his team mate without even a thought towards the people that are looking at him.

Tatsuo grins, laughs and gives him a peck on the cheek before cheerfully making her way towards the hospital, a besotted Shikaku and almost hysterical Minato following behind her.)

Chapter Text

VI

Her Flames wake her up in the middle of the night, as they have done many times before, to tug at her feet and fill her bones with wanderlust.

She doesn’t fight it. She never has, even when it popped up in the middle of an oh-so-important ‘meeting’ with Estúpido and the rest where she really, truly, could not have given less of a shit about their annoyance at her leaving, because honestly Estúpido, I don’t like you, why would I stay when I want to leave?

So she ignores the pang in her chest at the thought of leaving her Shi, packs her stuff as quietly and quickly as she can, gives her fiancé a kiss on the brow and leaves a note on the table before leaving Konoha entirely.

Fiancé. Her Shi is her fiancé. He wants to marry her. He wants to be hers for the rest of his life.

She thumbs at her ring and smiles.

(“What?” she stares at Choza and Inoichi, takes in their solemn expressions and pursed lips and knows something is wrong.

“Mikumo,” Chouza pauses, hesitates, and she instantly has her guitar out of her hands and on her back.

“What?” she repeats, sharper than before, her Flames stirring inside her.

When the Akimichi doesn’t answer, she turns to her Shi’s blond brother instead, narrowing her eyes at him.

Inoichi looks at her, eyes roving over her face and body before settling on her eyes. His expression shifts, becoming closer to glee than wariness. “Nara-Sama and Yoshino-san have decided to speed up the wedding,” he tells her, and then is suddenly on the other side of the clearing with a worried looking Chouza.

But she doesn’t notice.

Slowly, she rises from the stone she has been sitting on, quiet and fluid and dangerous, her Flames a roar in her soul, in her bones, in her eyes, dripping like violet tar from her curls, just barely visible in her sudden and all-encompassing Rage.

“Where,” she snarls, a demand instead of a question, reaching for her bond with her Sky and finally feeling the discontent and worry he had been hiding from her, that intelligence she so adores working against her. Why did he have to learn so quickly?

“The Nara Main house,” is the answer, and she barely has time to process it before she is tearing through the Aburame’s forest, careful even in her Rage to not harm her friends’ insects.

That is all she is able to do.

Because the sudden rush of Thieves, Mine, he’s Mine, you can’t have him has her instincts (Those that sometimes made her feel more like a predator than a human) clawing at the edges of her mind, demanding to be let out, to take control, to find the ones trying to steal from her hoard, to tear off their flesh and rip out their bones and make sure they never steal from her again.

It’s hard to keep them down, to not just let them out, but she doesn’t want to destroy the home of her friends (Or Konoha, really. She likes it, if only because it’s where those that belong to her live.) so she keeps as tight a hold on her Flames as she dares, uncaring of the frightened civilians and wary shinobi that jump back when they see her.

They have a right to be scared. She has been told her Rage is particularly terror-inducing.

She growls at the Nara manning the gates, shrugging off their shadows with ease and forcing her way through the wall without so much as a backwards glance. She tries not to hurt them, because they belong to her Shi and he would not like it if she hurt those that didn’t deserve it, but it is hard when they try to keep her from him.

Tomomi clicks at her from her shoulder and she obliges, letting her Flames pour into her friend to propagate her size because hell, they’re trying to steal from her, might as well scare them with a giant spider.

She crests a hill and lock eyes with her startled Shi, holding hands with a dark haired woman clad in cream with clear reluctance in his stance and his Flames, and that is all she sees for quite some time as the Rage overflows and her instincts swallow her whole, her body moving not with thoughts but with need, Protect, Mine, He’s MineMineMine Mine-!

When she regains her senses, it is to Shikaku’s soothing hands in her biceps, Tomomi’s angry hissing, and a smoking crater where the Nara Main house used to be.

She blinks at the carnage, taking a moment to process that yup, she did that, before shrugging and turning to look at her Shi in question.

“Did I kill anyone?” she asks, because she would like to know how much trouble she’s in. Not because she cares all that much, not even her Rage can make her kill someone if she’ll regret it later, but she would like to have at least an idea of how many people she’d have to punch rather than get blindsided by an army or something.

Her Shi (Her wonderful Shi who knows her so well) laughs, a relieved sound that tells her more than words ever could, and drops his hands down to grab her own and squeeze them. “Almost,” he says, grin soft and eyes misty. “Okaa-sama tried to stop you and you almost ripped off her head, but I told you to stop and you did.” he goes quiet for a beat, almost long enough for her to say something in return. But then… “You were so angry,” he murmurs, something more like awe than fear in his dark eyes. “Your eyes were glowing and you could barely speak. You just growled at anyone that came too close. You were like a dragon .”

She hums (Somewhat amused by her Shi’s uncharacteristic rambling and the way it resembles how she herself used to act) and leans in with a smile, her tender eyes locked on his.

“Of course I was,” she tells him with certainty, even if she doesn’t remember doing what he’s saying she did. “I don’t get that angry often, but I’m not surprised I did today. They were trying to steal you, Shi-kun, trying to take you from me forever. You know I would never let that happen without a fight.” her forehead meets his and she grins a cheeky grin. “I am, as you say, a dragon. Nobody takes what is mine.”

Her Shi laughs, breathless and happy and in awe and really, how could she not kiss him after that magnificent sound?

They both resolutely ignore the furious screeching of the woman pinned under Tomomi, her cream kimono stained with dirt and grass and smoke. She’s not important, after all.)

The chunin manning the gate don’t see her, not when she don't want them to, and she’s off, walking through the forests of Hi no Kuni with a tune on her tongue and Tomomi on her head.

(Every step she takes simultaneously makes her feet lighter and her heart ache. She misses him already, Shikaku, but she needs to wander, needs to feel the wild wind in her curls and see things she has never seen before. She needs to be free, to know she is never tied to one single place.

Her Shi knows this. Her heart wouldn’t ache like this if he didn’t, because then she wouldn’t love him like she does. And besides, she’ll return. Konoha is where her Shi lives, the place he calls home, so of course she’ll return.

And besides, confusing the shinobi is really quite fun.)

VII

The Nara are hers, now.

They are wary of her, in the beginning. Suspicious of her intentions with their future Head, no doubt. In some way, it endears them to her, that they care so much for her Shi that they will risk their lives to stalk her. Or, at least, they think they’re risking their lives, because how could the woman that single handedly destroyed the Main House in a fit of rage possibly be reasonable in any way?

(“Shi,” she says, opening her eyes to look up at him. She doesn’t need to say anything else.

“Yeah,” her Shi sighs, sounding irritated. It makes her smile. “So troublesome.”

“They’re protective,” she reminds him, lifting her arms over her head to wrap them around his waist. “It’s cute.”

Shikaku grunts, annoyed and frowning, and she squeezes his waist. He looks down at her, frown turning into a fond smile, and she gives him a grin in return that makes his eyes go soft with love.

“Oh kami,” one of the unknown Nara groans, quiet enough that she has to pour a bit of Cloud into her ears to hears it, his voice floating somewhere between annoyed and disgusted. “Please tell me they’re not going to start sucking face where we can see it.”

“Shut up Ensui,” another Nara whispers furiously, female by the sound of her voice, and she has to bite her lip to keep from laughing. Shi’s eyes move with the action, curious about what caused it, before his smile shifts into a smirk. “We still don’t know if she’s trustworthy!”

“Please, like Shikaku would ever act like that with someone he didn’t trust,” Shi’s hands move to frame her face, his fingers knitting together at the nape of her neck. His thumbs brush against her cheeks, following the pattern of her freckles, and she closes her eyes with a soft exhale at the soothing sensation. “Look at him, he’s so in love it’s gross.”

“It’s suspicious,” the female Nara hisses, low and mistrustful. “We don’t even know her name, why is he so enamored?”

“I think it’s cute,” the third Nara piped up, his voice high with youth. It makes her Flames flare, rumbling and possessive for the pup that already likes her, for her Shi’s clanmate that approve of her despite not knowing her at all.

A spark of mischief flares in her and her lips quirk. Shi’s thumbs suddenly stop moving and she opens her eyes to see why, blinking slowly at the raised eyebrow she finds looking back at her.

“ ¿Por qué sonríes así, mí Nube?” he asks quietly, the rolling sounds of Padre's language on his lips making her want to purr in satisfaction.

“Solo un pequeño pensamiento,” she answers in the same tone, easily rolling onto her front to climb into his lap, a coy smile spearing her lips. “ ¿Cómo te sientes acerca de meterte con nuestros compañeros de clan?”

Her Shi just chuckles, deep and fond, and lets her push him onto his back without a fight, his hands grabbing her thighs where they are straddling his waist.

“They’re gonna fuck, aren’t they?” the Nara called Ensui says, resigned, and she kisses her Shi to hide the shit eating grin that steals her lips.

The trio spying on them can stay or go. Either way, she’s not leaving.

They don’t actually have sex, because she knows herself and she knows her Shi and neither of them would be able to hold back, would be able to keep from attacking the people intruding on something so private, so theirs, but it’s fun to listen to the groans and grumbles of the spying trio as she and her Sky play their silly game of pretend.)

She wants to say all she feels for their suspicion and mistrust is amusement, wants to say it doesn’t bother her, but it does.

Because the people that eye her with mistrust aren't just some random civilian or shinobi. They’re Shikaku’s Clan, the family of her Sky, and to see them so disdainful of her makes her Flames croon in dismay.

But she has known from the beginning of their relationship that Shi’s family likely wouldn’t welcome her with open arms at first, so she bares with it, squares her shoulders and straightens her back and walk as surely as she ever does and makes sure to always jump in when she stumbles upon a Nara in a fight during her wanderings.

(“Are you hurt?” she asks the genin with Shikaku’s eyes and the Nara Clan symbol on his shoulder, looking him over for injuries.

The genin doesn’t answer right away, wide dark eyes flicking between her blood smeared arms to the gore dripping from her hair to the broken battlefield behind her a couple times before he swallows and answers. It’s shaky and hoarse, but still firm enough that she relaxes at the clear “No,” he gives her.

“Good,” she nods, uncaring of the blood she sends flying into the air at the action, and turns to leave. There is a creek some distance away that she can use to wash the sticky liquid off before it dries on her skin.

“Why did you help?” the genin demands, stopping her in her tracks and making her glance behind her to meet his guarded eyes.

“Because you’re Shikaku’s,” she tells him, her Cloud roaring up, chanting Mine, His, Mine, OursOurs Ours. “And that makes you mine, too.”

And with that, she leaves.)

(It takes over fifteen times, over fifteen interrupted battles, for someone to ask her a question that isn’t ‘Why?’

“Do you love him?” a man asks, his eyes lined with black and hard as steel.

She looks into those eyes without flinching, blood dripping from her fingertips and her eyes glowing violet.

“With all that I am,” she tells him solemnly, sincerely, and waits for his verdict.

He stares at her for what feels like years, his dark gaze searching her very soul, before finally nodding sharply and relaxing into that achingly familiar slouch.

“Don’t break his heart,” he drawls, lazy and uninterested, but his eyes are deadly serious.

She laughs, a short, harsh bark.

“I would rather die,” she says, and he grins.)

VIII

Her Shi asks for Nami pipe weed.

She asks what the Hokage wanted.

(“Ah,” her Shi breathes, amused from where he looks down at her. “To make sure you weren’t leading me on.”

“Really?” she blinks, shifting to fold her arms against the edge of the hot spring so she can lay her head on them. “Didn’t think he’d care.”

“It’s all relative,” Shi idles, his dark eyes glued somewhere behind her head. Her ass, probably, it’s only half covered by the water after all.

She smiles a lazy invitation.

“I’ll get some when I’m on my way back,” she assures him, kicking her feet in the air as her fiancè takes his clothes off. “Anything else?”

“No,” he growls, pants dropping to the ground, and she barely has time to move away from the edge before he’s tackling her, sending water everywhere as she laughs loudly.)

The Konoha shinobi start seeking her out once it becomes clear she’s on their side.

It… doesn’t always go well.

(“You the kid that’s got the Nara heir acting like a lovesick fool?” the white haired Sage asks, his dark eyes roving over her body in a way that has her itching to rip something off.

Preferably his spine.

“I am,” is what she says instead of giving into the itch, because this man is an ally and she can’t just kill him if he annoys her.

The man whistles. “Damn, Shikaku lucked out, huh? Mind if I watch some time? I need to research for my next book.”

Nevermind.

She’s going to strangle this man with his own intestines.

She doesn’t but god does she want to.

Instead, she strings him up by the balls over a bath she knows is frequented by kunoichi and goes on her way.)

Other villages also start sending shinobi after her, trying to get an edge on one of Konoha’s deadliest shinobi.

That’s just fun.

(“What are you!?” the only survivor screams, frantically trying to scoot away from her with his only remaining leg, his hand pressed to the bleeding stump that used to be his right arm. “What the fuck are you!?”

She grins sunnily, the blood splattered across her face and up her arms turning the expression feral.

“I’m a human, just like you,” she informs him cheerfully, pinning him in place with a stomp and shattering his hip bone under her heel. She ignores the screaming to dig her fingers into his collarbones. Her grin widens as his pupils shrink in terror. “I just learned not to care,” she sing-songs, fingers breaking through his skin and wrapping firmly around bone.

He sobs and she laughs.)

(She gets a chapter in the Bingo Book.

It reads ‘Flee on sight, Dragon of Konoha’

“Dragon, eh?” she muses under her breath, something in her chest purring. “Yeah,” she smiles, soft and pleased. “That fits.”)

IX

When she returns to Konoha, she finds the pup again.

He’s still as small as she remembers.

(“Hey, what the-!?” she cheerfully ignores the pup’s Sensei, grabbing the tiny boy and throwing him gently over her shoulder so it’s easier to run.

The pup doesn’t move. She’s going to disregard the likelihood of shock and take it as a good sign.)

He doesn’t want her, in the beginning. He runs away every time she brings him home, even though she can tell how much he wants to stay. He ignores the bento boxes she leaves in his training ground because she can hear how his stomach rumbles for food. He throws his teacher at her when she comes to take him home for lunch to make time for his dragging feet.

Although honestly, that one is just hilarious.

(“Perrito!” she calls, smiling widely when her pup twitches and whirls around to look at her in what is meant to be horror. “Time for lunch!”

To her, it looks more like heartbreaking confusion.

Her pup twitches at each step she takes towards him. Then, when she is close, he grabs the blond man standing beside him and throws him at her.

It makes her Flames coo, because look at him, look at how strong her pup is, he can throw a fully grown man!

The burst of pride distracts her enough for the man to actually hit her, though the flying impact really doesn’t do much. It makes her sway slightly, but her feet are planted firmly and in the end, it is only the blond that goes crashing to the ground.

She looks down at the dazed shinobi with a bright grin.

“He’s so precious, isn’t he?” she asks, and ignores how her pup’s dark haired teammate snorts bitterly somewhere behind her.

The man looks at her like she’s insane.

Rude.)

But even as his actions make her laugh or coo or sigh in exasperation, they also confuse her.

Because her pup’s clan is the Hatake, the one that is almost as closely intertwined with their instincts as the Inuzuka, as her, so why does he deny his instincts?

Why does he ignore how her Flames pulse with Mine, Pup, letmebeyourAlpha?

She asks her Shi and hates the answer.

(“Hatake Sakumo was a good shinobi,” her fiancè says, quiet and contemplative, one evening on the porch. “They said he was on par with the Legendary Sannin, and he was respected for it.”

“What happened?” she asks, just as quiet, her head tilted onto his shoulder and Tomomi resting in her lap.

“He was a good shinobi,” he answers, voice grim and face tight with anger. “He chose to save his teammates over finishing the mission. Not long after, the third shinobi war began.”

“They blamed him,” she realizes, and her Flames shudder in anger.

“They still do,” Shi turns his head to press a kiss to her forehead, his own angry Flames curling around hers. “And eventually, he killed himself in an attempt to spare his son the shame. It was that son that found him.”

She whines, high and distressed at the thought of her pup, her tiny pup, even tinier than now, standing over the bleeding body of his father, and inside, her Flames sour with hate for the man that hurt her boy so much.

Shi just throws an arm over her shoulders and presses her tight against his side, his Sky covering her Cloud in a thick blanket of warmth, of I’m here, I know, Iwillneverleave.)

(She gets called into the Hokage’s office the next day.

Sometimes, she wonders about the man under the Hat, about when he chooses to interfere, and when he doesn’t.

She thinks about her pup’s father, once respected and yet vilified for a single mistake, and knows that for all her hatred of him, she will never speak ill of him.

Not when he was only a man, a flawed man, who did what he thought was needed to save her pup from a life of misery.

The Hokage tries to lecture her, to reprimand her, to scold her for the countless men and women she has put in their hospital.

She doesn’t listen.

Instead, she smiles, wide and full of teeth, and asks a simple question.

“Would you be telling me this, Hokage-san?” she asks, her Cloud bright in her eyes and hungry in her bones. “If they were dead?”

The Hokage stops, looks at her eyes and her smile and her teeth, and sees the threat she doesn’t try to hide.

He lets her go.)

X

Her pup comes home with heartbreak in his eyes and blood on his face.

Unacceptable.

(“This war ends now,” she tells her Shi, her pup finally sleeping in her arms and his dogs all around her.

Shi hums.

“I’ll inform the Hokage,” he says instead of asking questions and for that, she falls a little bit more in love.)

She meets her pup’s Sensei and his Sensei’s girlfriend on her way out of the compound.

(“Namikaze,” she says before the man can speak, the growl in her voice making him shut his mouth instantly. “Uzumaki. You’re here. Good,” she grins, wide and full of teeth. “Just who I needed.”

Namikaze whimpers while his girlfriend laughs and tells her they’ll be good friends.)

She tears through armies.

(“RU-!” the head is off before it can say anything else, torn from the neck by her blood smeared hands.

She snarls, feral, and throws it at another head that is still on shoulders, hard enough to shatter them both.)

She finds her pup’s teammate.

(“Give him to me,” she tells, staring at the fossilized man with eyes glowing violet.

“You do not give commands here,” he tells in turn, black bleeding into red.

She grins.

“I wasn’t asking,” she rasps, fingers curling into a fist and Cloud burning through her veins.)

She returns to Konoha.

(“Obito!” her pup cries, his face round with a healthy diet and his visible eye swimming with tears. “Obito!”

She stands still so he can climb, moving one of her arms away from where she is carrying the kitten on her back to support her pup.

He cries, but that’s okay, because they’re happy tears this time and there’s nothing to worry about, so she laughs and kisses his cloth covered cheek in greeting before setting off towards the hospital.

The kitten still needed to be looked at, after all.)

She goes home.

(“Tatsuo-san, only family is allowed to discharge a patient!” the med nin exclaims, eyes jumping between the dark haired boy on her back and Shikaku standing just behind her.

“Tatsu is family,” her pup says menacingly, standing on his tiptoes to peek over the counter and narrow his eye at the increasingly nervous nin. “She’s my mom and Obito is my boyfriend. That makes her his mom too.” the 'you moron' is strongly implied.

She laughs, the kitten blushes hotly against her neck and Shikaku chuckles.

The nin passes out from the stress of it all.)

Chapter Text

I

Obito doesn’t really know what to make of the crazy lady that keeps kidnapping Bakashi.

At first it’s hilarious, to see the serious and moody Kakashi run at the first sight of a woman that looks like she’d taken a sharpie to her face, only for her to catch him with ease and whisk him away to who-knows-where. 

Well, he kind of knows where, he isn’t stupid enough to not know about Nara Shikaku’s crazy new fiancé, but the idea of Kakashi getting kidnapped and dragged to the Nara Compound almost every day is a bit too weird for him to really consider.

(“Perrito!” the strange woman calls, a cheerful smile on her face as she saunters into Team Seven’s training ground. “Time for lunch!”

He and Rin watch, dumbfounded, as their always-in-control teammate goes from this-is-beneath-me to oh-shit in two seconds flat at the sight of the woman, before he’s turning on his heel and sprinting to get away.

The woman just looks amused at the reaction, turning to the two Genin with an easy smile on her dotted face.

“Go get some lunch you two,” she tells them, green eyes glittering with mischief. “Seems Perrito wants to play tag.”

And then she just leaves, completely ignoring Minato-Sensei as he gapes at her.

Obito blinks.

“The hell’s a perito?”)

He learns her name after that, though it’s a bit confusing.

(“Wait wait wait wait,” Obito says, shaking his head as he gives his Uncle an incredulous look. “So, that weird lady’s name is Tatsuo?”

“Yes,” his Uncle says, looking both amused and tired as hell.

“And she’s Nara Shikaku’s fiancé?”

“Yes,”

“And her name used to be Akatani Mikumo, but then she decided she didn’t like it anymore?”

“That’s how Shikaku-sama explains it, yes,”

“And she’s, like, crazy strong?”

“Yes,”

He blinks.

“So what the hell does she want with Bakashi?! She sounds awesome!”

‘ Why him and not me?’ he thinks but doesn’t say, hiding his frustrations. ‘Why’s it always him?’

Now, his Uncle looks pained.

“Tatsuo-san is…” he trails off, frantically searching for the right word to describe the woman set to be the future Lady Nara. “Unique.” eh, good enough.

“You mean crazy,” he blurts, and what follows is a two hour long lecture about respecting prominent members of Konoha’s Clans.)

But after a while, it stops being funny and starts getting weird, because the crazy lady doesn’t stop.

She doesn’t stop when Kakashi tells her to go to hell (Of course, he says it with more words because he’s annoying like that.)

She doesn’t stop when Minato-Sensei tells her to stop stealing his student (She stares, unimpressed, before rolling her eyes and snatching the Hatake from behind the man.)

She doesn’t stop when Kushina, Minato-Sensei’s crazy girlfriend, tells her to knock it off. 

(It’s the first time they meet, Kushina and the crazy lady, the Uzumaki having come to the training ground after having had enough of her boyfriend whining about the curly haired woman that kept taking his student.

They look at each other, their eyes sharp for all that their faces are friendly, and Obito suddenly can’t get the image of a dragon and a kitsune sizing each other up out of his head.

In the end, the crazy lady is fast enough to snatch Kakashi up from right under Kushina’s nose, and the red head starts chasing the student thief around Konoha at high speeds, admitting defeat when she stands in front of an amused Nara Shikaku, his insane fiancé cuddling a bewildered-but-not-really-resisting Kakashi behind him.)

(One time, after the woman appears to whisk Kakashi away (Again) and he’s run away (Again) Obito straight up asks her why she keeps kidnapping his teammate.

She looks at him, her green eyes an odd shape and dots all over her face, and says, like it explains everything “Because he is Mine.”)

II

It takes a long time for Obito to realize that everyone in the village is scared of Tatsuo-san.

Which, to be fair, is perfectly reasonable when all he’s ever seen her do is kidnap Kakashi and be all mushy with her fiancè.

(The crazy lady’s back, prowling around the edge of the training field like a cat, a soft smile on her face and a glint of pride in her eyes as she watches Kakashi train.

It should be weird, but it isn’t. 

Which honestly just makes it weirder.

Suddenly, the lady perks up, her smile spreading into a wide, happy grin, and the only reason Obito even notices is because practice isn’t over, meaning it isn’t time for her to whisk Kakashi away yet. 

Which is also weird.

“Shi-kun!” the lady calls cheerfully, and Obito isn’t the only one who turns his head to watch the Nara Clan Heir walking into the field at a leisurely pace. “¿No ibas a dormir la siesta, mi Cielo?”

Obito doesn’t understand a word of that, but Shikaku-san clearly does, because he huffs a short sound of amusement and gives his fiancè a fond grin. "Sí, lo estaba," he responds with those same, strangely rolling words, holding up a small paper bag Obito is slightly ashamed to say he hadn’t noticed until now. "Vi esto de camino a casa y pensé en ti."

Tatsuo-san cocks her head to the side, a curious look on her face, and leaves the shadows she’s been prowling through to look at the small bag in her fiancè’s hand.

She blinks, clearly surprised, and then laughs, loud and bright and utterly delighted, shooting the man in front of her a look so fond Obito kinda wants to gag.

“Tù savia,” she says, words unintelligible but tone obviously teasing, as she reaches into the bag and pulls out a small glass figurine of a cat sitting at a piano.

Obito doesn’t get why that’s worth the nauseatingly gooey eyes the two throw at each other, or why the shit-eating grin Shikaku-san gives her after Tatsuo-san pulls it out makes her laugh again and pull him into a kiss that lasts way too long, but hey, he’s not the one about to get married, so what does he know?

Nothing, that’s what. Just like he doesn’t know why he glances over at Bakashi when the adults start kissing and blushes.)

But eventually, even Obito begins to notice the space most of the shinobi population give the dotted woman when she walks down the street, notices the tightness around his uncle’s eyes when he tells the older man of Bakashi’s newest kidnapping, notices the whispers and the wary glances and the fear that follow Shikaku-san’s fiancè around wherever she goes.

Eventually, he sees it first hand.

(One day, Obito gets yelled at. 

There isn’t really any reason for it, he’d just been walking out of the grocery store and hadn’t been paying attention, too distracted by thoughts of dinner and training and punching Bakashi in the face to notice the man until they collided.

He stumbles, but stays upright, while the man turns to him, angry and annoyed, and starts screaming as soon as he lays eyes on him.

“Fucking Uchihas!” he roars, right in the middle of the street, uncaring of the looks he’s getting. “Always walkin’ ‘round all high an’ mighty, the fuck makes you think you got the right to look down on the reest of us, huh!? You think just ‘cus you traitor of an ancestor help found this village that you can just do whatever the fuck you like!? Is that it!?”

“No!” he yells back, angry and hurt and maybe just a little scared, because why isn’t anyone helping him? Why are they all just standing around with those looks on their faces? “Look, I’m sorry I bumped into you, I wasn’t paying attention-!”

The man snarls, hateful and angry, and moves to hit him. He’s too surprised to dodge.

And then, suddenly, there’s a hand grabbing the approaching wrist, big and tanned and dotted with tiny scars.

The man looks over, eyes narrowed and teeth bared in a scowl, ready to turn his fury on a new target. Only, when he meets the cold eyes of a stone-faced Tatsuo-san, he freezes in place, eyes going wide with shock and fear, fury paling to a sickly green hue. Tatsuo-san doesn’t say anything, just narrows her weirdly shaped eyes and tightens her grip. The man whimpers as his bones grind together.

The lack of cheer is probably the weirdest part of it all, because Obito can’t remember a single time where the lady’s dotted face hadn’t been some version of cheerful or amused or mischievous.

First time for everything, he supposed.

“Don’t touch him,” she says, quiet and serious, deadly in the way Obito has only ever seen when some idiot threatened Itachi-chan while Mikoto-san was near, and the man nods frantically, turning around and bottling as soon as the woman lets go of his wrist.

She watches him go, still and silent, her eyes hard in her stoney face, her fingers curled like claws at her side, ready to strike and flay and kill.

Then, with no warning what-so-ever (Rude) the crazy lady turns to him with a smile like the sun and pats him on the head like he’s a dog or something (Or Kakashi. Obito’s seen her pat him more times than he’s bothered to count) before walking off with a spring in her step and a tune on her lips.

Obito watches her go, confused and weirded out and just the tiniest bit scared.)

Eventually, he asks.

(“Hey, Sensei?” Obito calls, staring at where Kakashi is running away from the crazy lady, with her following after him, a small, amused smile on her face.

Somehow, despite her just walking sedately, she’s always right behind him.

“What is it, Obito?” Minato-Sensei sighs, rubbing a hand over his face tiredly.

“What’s the deal with Tatsuo-san?” he asks, curious and maybe a little demanding. “I mean, I get that she’s crazy, but why’s that got everyone so scared of her?”

Minato-Sensei stops rubbing his face, lowering his hand to give him a serious, unreadable look.

It kinda freaks him out.

“Have you ever noticed how Tatsuo-san walks, Obito?” Sensei asks, like that makes any sense at all, and Obito is already opening his mouth to demand an explanation when he pauses, glancing over at where the crazy lady is still stalking after Kakashi, face the picture of indulgence.

He watches the way she moves, the sway of her body, the bounce of her hair. She doesn’t move like a shinobi, all silent and light and quick, but even though she walks like she doesn’t have a care in the world, her steps are sure and steady, quiet enough to be unnoticeable when there’s noise to cover it but still not silent, uncaring of the consequences of being heard.

She walks like she knows nothing can stop her, confident in her power and her ability to completely destroy anyone and anything that gets in her way.

“Oh,” he says, staring at the woman that moves like an unstoppable force towards his teammate, steady and sure and inevitable.

“Oh,” Minato-Sensei agrees with a nod, watching with him as the woman finally stops walking and instead darts forward to snatch Bakashi up, a mischievous smile on her dotted face and a glint of violet in her green eyes.)

III

They blow up a bridge.

It’s awesome.

(“We did it!” he cheers, pumping a fist in the air. “Go us!”

Rin giggles while Bakashi rolls his eyes.

“Shut up stupid,” the younger boy mumbles under his breath, but for some reason it doesn’t sound as biting as it usually does, so Obito ignores it.

For now.)

A boulder falls on him.

That’s less awesome.

(“Rin,” he rasps weakly, every ounce of his willpower going towards not screaming in agony. “Give my eye to Kakashi.”

Rin gasps and Kakashi protests but Obito is stubborn, like all Uchiha are, and he refuses to budge. 

Eventually, they give in.

He’s dying anyway. It’s the most logical choice.

“Tell the crazy lady I said ‘hi’,” he tells them when it’s done, when his eye is gone and all he can see is darkness. “And that her weird beef pastries are fuckin’ amazin’.”

Rin laughs and it’s wet, Kakashi sobs and it’s sad, and Obito blacks out and doesn't expect to wake up again.)

Then he gets kidnapped by his crazy, way-too-old-to-be-alive ancestor.

That’s even less awesome.

(“You shall help me destroy them all,” the wrinkled, dusty mess that claims to be Uchiha Madara rasps, a manic gleam in his dark eyes. “We will bring peace.”

“You’re crazier than Tatsuo-san,” Obito tells him, scared and in pain and just a little amazed. “How are you crazier than Tatsuo-san?”

He didn’t even know that was possible.

“Silence,” the old man hisses and Obito shuts up, if only because talking still really hurts. Who knew half your body getting crushed by a boulder could be so painful?

Not him, that’s for sure.)

And then, Tatsuo-san crashes through the wall.

That’s awesomely confusing.

(“Give him to me,” the dust-covered woman demands, backlit by the hole she has just punched into the cavern wall . Her hands are hanging by her sides, relaxed but alert, and she’s looking at maybe-Madara, staring him down with eyes that are hard and, for some reason, glowing bright purple.

Maybe-Madara sneers, that all-too-familiar condescending Uchiha look. “You do not give commands here,” he rasps, all listen-to-me-peasant and how-dare-you-speak-to-me-worm and Sharingan swirling to life in his eyes and no, please, she’s his only hope of escape-!

Tatsuo-san grins, wide and wild, like a hungry wolf or an angry tiger or a mocking Biju. “I wasn’t asking,” she rasps in return, hands curling into fists and eyes glowing brighter and suddenly, definitely-Madara is stuck in the opposite wall and Tatsuo-san is advancing fast, lips curled into a grin like a baring of teeth.

Obito hunkers down as best he can and prays he doesn’t get hit in the crossfire.)

(It’s close. It’s far too close.

But she wins. The crazy lady wins, Madara pressed into the ground by her boot on his chest and his arm in her hand, ripped straight out of its socket by the crazy lady’s monstrous strength. She snarls down at him, lifting the arm like she’s fully prepared to beat him to death with it, only to get stopped by some strange shadow-plant-man thing that thrusts its arm through her stomach and throws her off of the fossil, ripping her side open in the process.

She roars, more out of anger than out of pain, and shoves herself to her feet, the dots on her face almost all buried under a blanket of blood, teeth bared in a furious snarl, while the gaping wound in her side is slowly but surely stitched together by some strange purple flames.

The shadow-plant-man thing takes one look at that murderous snarl and the weird flames burning away the wound that should have killed her and nopes right out of there, taking the now one-armed Madara with it.

Tatsuo-san blinks, snarl falling away to frown in annoyance at the spot where Madara once stood, before she shrugs, rises out of her hunch, and goes over to him in three long strides.

“Hola Gatito,” she says, eyes kind and grin bright and teeth stained with blood. “Let’s get you home, yeah?”

Obito’s too tired (And terrified) to do anything more than nod.)

IV

Travelling with Tatsuo-san is… interesting.

He’s never really talked to her before, has always been a little weirded out by the crazy lady that kept kidnapping his teammate, but after the week he’s just had, after she saved him from his insane ancestor, Obito will gladly talk with the strange woman that doesn’t look like anyone else and who walks like destroying a mountain would be a fun challenge.

And as they talk, he learns things.

He learns what the word she calls Kakashi means.

(“Eat Gatito,” she tells him, voice cheerful but soft, and gives him a bowl of stew. “You need your strength.”

“What does that word mean?” he asks before he digs in, because Tatsuo-san cooking is delicious and he’d be an idiot to turn it down.

Tatsuo-san smiles, face soft and eyes kind. “It means kitten,” she tells him, easily snatching the bowl away when he starts coughing. “Like Perrito means puppy.”

“I’m not a cat!” he snaps, annoyed and embarrassed at the cutesy nickname. Then his brain catches up with the rest of her sentence and he grins. “Wait, you’ve been calling Kakashi ‘Puppy’ this whole time?”

The woman barks out a laugh and nods, her grin sly, and Obito laughs with her, wheezing so bad Tatsuo-san has to knock him out so he doesn’t hurt himself.)

He learns that she’s a musician.

(One night, Tatsuo-san takes out a guitar, old and worn and clearly loved, and starts to sing.

Obito listens.

“ ¡Ay! De mi Llorona, llorona, llorona, de azul celeste,” she sings, quiet and soft, a gentle, foreign melody strumming on the strings of her guitar, loud in the quiet of the night. “ ¡Ay! De mi Llorona. llorona, llorona, de azul celeste…”

She continues for a long time, the strange words echoing through the trees, and eventually, Obito tries to sing with her. He only knows one of the words, the one that’s repeated the most through the song, and he’s awful at pronouncing it, but Tatsuo-san smiles when he tries, warm and happy, and that’s all that matters.)

He learns that the war is over.

(“Hey, Tatsuo-san?” he says on the third day, when they’re only another night away from Konoha.

“Hm?” she hums, tilting to look at his head on her shoulder. She carries him everywhere and he can’t say he minds, not when his entire body still hurts and his forehead is wet with sweat even when he doesn’t move.

“Why haven’t we been attacked?” he asks, because he’s been wondering about it for a while now. “The war’s still going, right?”

“Oh, that?” Tatsuo-san huffs, lips lifting into a smirk. “Nah, I stopped that a while ago.” she says, nonchalant and careless, like that isn’t the craziest thing Obito’s heard in his entire life. Including the whole let’s-make-peace-by-killing-everyone thing his crazy founder had going on.

“Huh?” he blurts, wide-eyed and shocked, mouth agape despite the sharp sting of pain it brings.  “Wait, hold on, you stopped it? What do you mean you stopped it!?”

He’s panicking, just slightly. Tatsuo-san notices, she always notices, but she just chuckles lightly and gives him a smile.

“It means I stopped it, Gatito,” she says gently, seeing his distress and soothing it with the strange roll of her words. “It would have been much harder to find you if I had had to worry about enemy shinobi while I was looking. Much easier to just end it before I tried anything.”

Tatsuo-san never stops walking as she talks, her steps measured and sure, face the picture of confidence, and Obito has no choice but to believe her. No one can look like that and be lying.

That Tatsuo-san never lies helps too.

Suddenly, her face shifts, sharpening into something closer to hunger than calm, her eyes narrowing.

“Besides, it hurt Perrito,” she rumbles, low and dark, dangerous, and he can feel it through her back, like he can feel a cat’s purr when he’s petting it. “And no one hurts what is mine.”

Obito swallows and decides now is a good time for a nap.)

He learns that Tatsuo takes orders from no one.

Not even the Hokage.

(An ANBU appears just before Tatsuo steps through the gate, their animal-like mask fixated on the dotted woman with eerie intensity.

Tatsuo stops in front of them, tilting her head down to narrow her strange eyes at the elite ninja, because she’s unfairly tall and has to look down at almost everyone she meets.

“Tatsuo-san,” the ANBU intones in their emotionless voice, making Obito shiver from something other than fever. “The Hokage asks for your presence.”

It’s phrased like a request, but they all know it isn’t one. The Hokage never makes ‘requests’, only orders that look like them.

But Tatsuo huffs, amused, and steps around the nin without so much as a backwards glance.

“I’ll meet with Hokage-san when Gatito isn’t injured, ANBU,” she calls into the air in front of her, moving as she always does, like an unstoppable force on a mission. “If I feel like it.”

Obito isn’t sure if he should be impressed or terrified.

Probably both.)

He learns she loves him. 

Him, Uchiha Obito, the nuisance, the deadlast, the failed Uchiha.

She loves him.

(“Why did you save me?” he asks her later, much later, when they’re in the hospital and Kakashi’s fallen asleep in the chair next to the bed and Minato-Sensei has been scared off by Tatsuo’s stare.

The woman looks up from the book she’s idly flipping through, her other hand buried in Kakashi’s thick silver hair and her fiancè nowhere to be seen, called in by the Hokage to explain where his future wife has been all this time.

“Because Perrito loves you, Gatito,” she tells him calmly, something glinting in her green eyes, something that looks like purple and possession. “And that makes you mine.”

Obito swallows around the lump in his throat, his exhale shaky, his cheeks red with a bright blush. He still hasn’t gotten over Kakashi pulling down his mask and kissing his cheek awkwardly after he woke up from surgery, all shy and grumpy and adorably determined.

“And no one hurts what’s yours,” he says to distract himself from thoughts of his cute teammate-turned-boyfriend, looking at the foreign woman through his lashes, shy and hopeful in equal measures.

Tatsuo grins, that same wide, wild grin she had given Madara, all bared teeth and gleaming eyes and hunger.

“Precisely,” she purrs, the sound thrumming in her throat like a wolf’s growl, and Obito grins right back, not as wide, not as wild, but happy, and that’s what matters.)

V

Tatsuo-san takes him home, alongside Kakashi and Shikaku-san and a bewildered-but-not-protesting Gai.

(“Obito!” he hears as soon as Tatsuo steps foot outside the hospital, making all of them turn their heads to look at the cloud of dust that is swiftly approaching them.

Kakashi sighs from where he stands next to Tatsuo, next to his (their) mom, eye moving heavenward like he’s praying for patience. The twitch of his lips under the mask gives him away, though, and Obito can’t say he feels any different when the cloud turns into Maito Gai, still too green and too loud and too Gai.

He wouldn’t have him any other way.

“My Youthful Friend!” their fellow shinobi exclaims, wide black eyes wet with grateful tears. “Words cannot express my Joy at your return! My Eternal Rival has been devastated by your Alleged Death and to see him smile again brings me the Greatest Happiness!”

Tatsuo makes a noise under him, a purr mixed with a note of intrigue, and he shares a Look with his boyfriend(!) and his new host.

Next thing they know, Tatsuo has Gai under her arm like a bag of potatoes and is happily chatting away, asking the other boy all sorts of questions about his life, his home, his family.

She’s way too happy when he tells her his father died to protect him and his teammates, but she doesn’t show it in a way Gai can see, so it’s fine.)

She leads them through the Nara Main House and lets them pick their bedrooms, smiling when he and Kakashi pick the one right next to her and Shikaku’s and coaxing Gai into picking one with the promise that he can continue living on his own until he’s gotten to know them all better.

Gai looks so confused by Tatsuo’s insistence that he pick a room that Obito and Kakashi step in to help him, because they know their new mom and they know she isn’t going to quit. She’s decided that Gai is her’s now, in that weird way she has with him and Kakashi and the Nara, so there’s really no other option than to go with the flow and explain hard boundaries to the woman that sees rules as suggestions rather than hard limits.

Another ANBU appears not long after, this time sent by the Hokage’s Council, and this one is treated the exact same way as the first.

Namely, with no fucks given.

(“The Council summons you, Tatsuo-san,” the ANBU intones ominously, and the woman snorts, looking up from where she’s guiding Kakashi through tying Obito’s bandages while Gai watches on.

“And I say ‘no thanks’,” she clips, bored, and goes back to ignoring the suddenly-still elite ninja.

Shikaku-sama laughs, deep and low, and smirks at the ANBU. “Better leave, Sparrow-san,” he drawls, eyes hard and dangerous. “Tatsu gets annoyed when strangers go near what’s hers.”

Said woman rumbles, like an annoyed predator, and the ANBU shunshins away, leaving behind a few scattered leaves.

Tatsuo just rolls her eyes and burns the offending foliage away in a flash of purple.)

Eventually, the Uchihas interfere.

Or, well, try to interfere

(“Tatsuo-san, this is getting ridiculous,” Uchiha Fugaku says with exasperation, eyeing the gaggle of kids around the tall woman oddly. “You cannot keep these children, they are not yours.”

“Oh?” Tatsuo says, and it's mild, calm, not threatening at all, and yet Fugaku-sama’s eyes snap away from them in an instant to stare at the dotted woman who leans back on the couch and gives him a pleasant smile. “And why’s that? They want to stay here, so why shouldn’t they?”

Her voice is calm, the ways her words roll pleasant to the ear, her posture relaxed and carefree.

And she couldn’t look anymore like she wants to beat Fugaku-sama to death with his own spine if she tried.

Fugaku-sama visibly swallows, staring at Tatsuo’s smile like he expects her to lunge for his throat.

“I can’t think of any reason,” Shikaku-san says lazily, cracking open an eye to smirk at the Uchiha Clan Head from his fiancè’s lap. “Can you, Mi Nube?”

“No,” she says, staring at the Uchiha with murder in her pulsing purple eyes. “Not a single one.”

Fugaku-sama leaves, face paler than snow and skin clammy with sweat.

Serves him right for interrupting Tatsuo’s Español lessons. Gai still hadn’t figured out how to roll his R’s and hearing him struggle was hilarious.

“Teach me your ways,” Genma says seriously, while Ebisu looks at her like she holds all the secrets of the Forbidden Scroll.

Tatsuo just laughs and shows them the letters needed to write in Español.)