"Fucking idiots, that's why I didn't pay to have that special trip out." The Daimyo mutters later that night after he's finished with serious court appointments for the day.

"They expected everybody to drop what they were doing and rush to them for the privelege of being in the same area as them. Unlike those fools, many people actually work for a living. Anybody who would come running to them would actually be working for the airship company and too busy doing their jobs to dance attendance to them."

"But the whole wide world owes it to them to remind them daily how *special* they are." His wife says sourly. "For everybody in the court that actually works for a living, we have several dozen only here to be seen."

The whole clan is laughing that night, imagining the looks of dismay on the faces of the idiot nobles who were being 'disrespected' because nobody had come running.

"I almost wish some of the fools *would* come rushing to the Hokage, whining." Kiriko snickers. "Ummm ooopps, I kinda tortured some of your nobles to insanity for annoying me. I hope you don't mind." Her mother says dryly in imitation of the Hokage.

"Please, you want to come and deal with some more of the whiners?" Her father says in imitation of the Daimyo. The others laugh and nod, everybody can see just that happening. 

"Okay, other news. How are we coming along on the new meals?"

"Good, there's supposed to be somebody there who can use chakra unseal the meals, wash them, and reseal the dishes and silverware. We'll be dropping off enough meals for the week and somebody will deliver them to the shop at the end of the week." Grandma Miri nods in satisfaction. "The arrangements will probably change when the students start school and they need more. Maybe two or three times a week if not daily."

"Did you hear, the Hokage fined that fool woman who was in charge of the hospital?" Kiriko says a few days later when she unlocks the shop for the others.

"Really?" Sakura stops and stares at her.

"Yeah, seems some of the older medical nin didn't like a newbie coming in who might take their cushy jobs so close to retirement. Add in the fact that you're a civilian. . ." The others nod in nearly unison. "They were frantically trying to hold onto their position of power. Because with the changes the village is going through."

"They were losing it and miserable." Shikamaru's mother says. "The Hyuga elders case in point."

"Yep, now they're working the long hours they put Sakura through at the hospital at punishment wages along with that fool, so now they're all looking at working two jobs to make enough money to live on. At the hospital and wherever else the Hokage puts them."

"Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of assholes."

"Too many people wanting things to stay the way it is or take what other people have worked hard to achieve." Another clan woman snorts. "That fool woman who tried claiming her former husband was trying to kill her. She's now working two jobs and cleaning houses weekends. She couldn't even get a place with the working women, nobody would pay to fuck her." The older women bray with laughter as the younger people blush.

"Still so innocent." Shikamaru's mother says, patting them on the cheeks. She looks at Kiriko who just snorts. "My parents?"

"True."

"So that's it." Kiriko's father says a couple days later. "The Hokage is looking at setting up a building on the plateau that in a few years that will work for both the railroad when it arrives and the airships. It will be a while before it's used for anything beyond transportation of the crops, same with the railroad." Everybody in the clan at the meeting nods.

"Plans?"

"They're working on it right now, as well as a way to get the harvests up to the plateau and the people down. Like the Hokage said, it won't be used for a while and if need be, somebody like Naruto's team with everything in scrolls putting it onboard here."

"Are we hiring the new genin teams for the harvests?"

"No, they're too new yet. Give them another year. We didn't have problems last year with the chunin and the older genin teams." The others nod.

A month or so later the chunin and genin teams descend on the farm and the village's fields, quickly setting to work. There's a few hiccups as people get used to working in the fields again but six weeks later carts are sent off with harvests to be processed as more is put away in buildings on the farm or warehouses in the village.

"It's a lot of work." Naruto sighs.

"And it's just going to get worse as the babies grow older and start eating more solid food. The Hokage has already warned us that the fields are going to be double or triple the size we have now." Naruto moans slightly but nods. 

"Are we still going to be sending off food by carts?" Hinata asks quietly.

"Not much longer, there's no chance of bandits but it's going to be too many carts. Naruto's friend Tazuna, the one with the airship?" They nod. "Is going to be picking up the food and delivering it as needed, it's both faster and takes less manpower. I also see traders using the service."

"Yes, instead of traveling for days and hiring escorts, they can be there in a day."

Kiriko is called to the Tower a few days later. Her father looks at her when she returns. "They decided on a building design for up on the plateau, basically a warehouse for now. . ." Her father nods in understanding. "And when I go off to deliver the orders for the Daimyo's wife I'm to get as much of it as I can. He understands it's going to be at least two trips."

"And at least a year to be needed after that. Either for the railroad or the airship." Her mother says that night at the clan meeting. 

Everybody in the room nods. "Now us, do we need to add more buildings to the farm for storage?"

The elders tip their heads sideways, looking at walls as if seeing through them to the various storage buildings outside.

"Possibly, but not for years in the future. We planned ahead and made the buildings much, much, much larger than we needed when we brought them with future crops in mind. Now mind you Kiriko," Grandma Miri waves a finger the other woman's direction as she starts to snicker. "We never had an invasion and the village growing so quickly so soon in mind when we made the plans."

"And need be, we can put stuff in scrolls until it's needed." Another clan elder says. "Not like anything goes to waste here."

"No, we know how much time and effort goes into producing it. Unlike the new genin."

"The only thing they know about food is eating it."

"Madi." Kiriko calls a month later.

"Go off to our regular customers and the other shops for their lists and money?" Madi asks, leaning against the doorway of the back room where she'd been working on her assignments.

"Yes, tell them two weeks from Monday. And have the order and money for me the Friday before that."

Kiriko returns to the village three weeks after she had headed off with Naruto's team, sliding two scrolls across the Hokage's desk. "The supplies for the building with what I was able to get marked off." She nods at one. He nods in appreciation and takes the case with the remaining money. "And reports from my grandparents and the Daimyo." He nods again. "Bank?"

"Yes, for Naruto and myself."

The bank president arrives and gives them receipts for their money, including the payments from the Daimyo's wife and her ladies.

The shops are the first stops, Madi taking the scrolls of supplies and bringing everything out with the help of the others.

"Money?" One of the women asks as Kiriko walks into the shop.

"Already deposited at the bank." She hands over the receipt and the clanswoman overseeing the finances nods in satisfaction as the new orders are brought out as well as the supplies they'd needed and extra for the new orders.

"Oh good." She says.

"I knew we'd need extra. Especially in the future with the airship making travel so easy."

The women in the shop sigh but nod. "It's good money though."

"And easier travel for you."

The rest of the orders are delivered over the next couple of days, the others thanking her and settling into work.

The merchants in the village that don't use Kiriko's delivery service wail in front of the Hokage as they are told she does not *have* to deliver for them. Yes, her services are cheaper than having it delivered. She does this as favors for people she likes. She doesn't like you. So no, I'm not going to ask her to deliver to you as well. You can use the delivery services you have previously and *like.it*. Because if you demand she deliver for you, she'd laugh in your faces. And if you try forcing the matter, she'd walk over your bleeding bodies."

The merchants wail but know they have no way of forcing the issue. They're among the group that had attacked Naruto and had lost a lot of power once his true parentage had been revealed.

The end of the year celebration is hopping at the Izuno compound. Sakura is getting used to being welcomed by the Izuno clan and her friends. She's not the only one who's not an active ninja now and she knows her place in the community. The idiots at the hospital were wailing to anybody who listened that it wasn't fair that they were being punished for their actions. Nobody was paying any attention to them however, which was the worst hardship in their eyes.

"I didn't expect you to be delivering the scrolls Kiriko," the clanswoman who is running the day care center says when Kiriko hands over the scroll with the meals.

"I needed to get outside and walk around for a few minutes." She says. "The damn weather. . ." she nods, it doesn't know whether to rain or not and if you can be outside for a few minutes for some fresh air, you go outside. Then hurry right back inside because it's so cold.

"Yes, I know the children want to go outside and play but with the weather the way it is." She sighs. "Thank you for preparing the meals. It's one less thing the working parents have to deal with."

"What's going on?" Kiriko asks, returning to the shop and seeing a man and woman who look vaguely familiar walking down the street. The doorway is full of people watching them walking away so she must have missed a confrontation.

"Sakura's parents. Idiots pushed her off when they had twins and now they're working two jobs and have to have the babies in day care. They were trying to guilt her into quitting and returning home to take care of the babies and the house, have meals on the table waiting on them." Shikamaru's mother says is disgust. "Needless to say, everybody told them where to go and what they could do when they got there."

"Idiots."

"But if she's taking care of them and the house, we don't have to buy meals, pay for somebody else to take care of the babies. . ." Madi says scathingly. "Try being a damn grownup instead of a two year old."

The story of what her parents had tried doing is soon all over the village and everybody looks at them in disgust. "For gods sake," one of the other village women says in disgust. "Many places are working two shifts, one of you work days and one nights so you can clean the house, cook meals, and take care of the babies if you can't afford to keep them in daycare. Or hire somebody to cook meals for you and clean your home."

"But everybody's talking bad about us now." Mebuki wails.

"Good, you threw your daughter away without any damn life skills." The other woman snorts. "It's only working for Kiriko that she knows how to cook more than basic meals. As she said, she lived on the meals Kiriko says because living on her own left her numb. Maybe you'd know that if you ever bothered to look in on her once in a while instead of forgetting she existed until you needed something from her." Kizashi moans. Why had he never even looked in on his daughter since the boys were born? Did he think so little of her now that he has two fine, strong sons.

"I. . .I didn't realize it had been so long since we saw Sakura. We. . .we visited her at the apartment. . .didn't we?" Mebuki wails. She frantically is looking through her diaries and finds nothing about her daughter for years. "Please, tell me we had her come home for Sunday dinners. Tell me we invited her home for Sunday dinners." She wails, collapsing to the floor in great big heaping sobs.

"Damn fool, she's more sobbing about how she's being seen by the village than anything else." One of the clan women says. "She had this majestic fantasy and real life is kicking it in the ass. Her daughter would take care of them their entire lives. Now they need her and she doesn't need. . .or want them." The others nod. 

Her parents soon quit their histrionics when nothing happens and they go back to their lives, having to split their schedules to they can be home part of the day to cook and clean.

"Isn't that what most parents do if they can, work different schedules?" Madi snorts as they walk onto the farm.

"Yes, but I doubt they thoght their daughter wouldn't come running home the second they paid her any attention. They realized how much work two babies was and thought, oh hey yeah, we have a daughter who can cook for us, clean for us. . ."

"Kiss our asses and wipe our noses." Kiriko's mother says scathingly. "One thing about being in the clan, there's always somebody to take care of you and teach you everything you need to live on your own.

Kiriko lights the stove the next morning, the others nodding as they walk into the cooking rooms and soon the heat comes out of the buildings as they start cooking.

"So how are Sakura's parents faring?" Shikamaru's mother asks quietly.

"Still working two jobs, splitting their times so somebody is home with the boys While the other is at work. This way there's somebody there to clean the house and cook meals."

"Not enough money for just one of them to work while the other stays home?"

"No. Not without the base pay of Sakura as a chunin. They were both working full-time as soon as Sakura was old enough to attend the Academy. They lost a good bit of power when Naruto's parentage was revealed."

"And more when people realized how they threw Sakura away without giving her the training she needed to live on her own. I really doubt the academy taught cooking, how to do laundry, clean your apartment, budgeting. . ."

"Something the orphans were taught. And those who had families that actually cared about them." Shikamaru's mother sighs. Walking into the other building she hugs Naruto and Sakura and goes back to work. She's already hugged Neji, Tenten, and Lee. Who all need it.

"You know. . ." Kiriko says with a mean smirk. "They have days off work. They could work a day in the sewers and probably make just as much money as they do working their regular jobs."

Naruto and Sakura slowly repeat what Kiriko said and start laughing. "They would be horrified. But I agree, it's good money."

Mekubi sobs brokenheartedly as she sees her husband off for his day of work in the sewers. She'll be working there tomorrow. It's extra money coming in, but at a horrible price.

"Damn drama queens, you'd think she was sending him off to his death." A neighbor says, closing the door of her house.

"In her eyes, it probably is death. The death of her dreams and schemes to *be* somebody in the village." her husband snorts. "I'm glad we weren't able to have more kids."

"I am too, ours are grown and out of the house able to live life on their own. I hate to see how the boys will turn out from how she raised her daughter."

"Oh, but a boy won't need to know how to cook, clean, do laundry, or even wipe his own ass after he goes to the bathroom. He'll have a wife for that." Their brother-in-law drawls as he comes into the house. They'd made plans for the day which include a new movie and visiting their favorite restaurant.

The next day is a repeat of the day before and more eyes are rolling at their theatrics. Fucking morons is the nicest thing said about them and they sullenly settle down the histrionics when they realize nobody is going to come running with cases of cash.

"Fucking morons." Sakura sighs when she walks into the scroll shop. "Yes, I heard all about it from the neighbors who heard them and gleefully told me they were back to their usual nonsense. Yes, they did this before. The sad thing is I'm sure they'll have to do this again next weekend since they never bothered to actually save any money. Even before they had the boys."

"Isn't their home paid off?"

"No, they borrowed money from the bank to add onto it before I moved out. So they could be *seen*. If they could have had their own compound, they would have."

Kiriko rolls her eyes. "Please, this is the woman who tried getting on the civilian council because she thought she was all that." Sakura says as she puts on her apron and they start to work. "Now I know just how powermad my parents are. If we lived in the capital, I can see them trying to get an in with the Daimyo and his wife."

"I am so glad the Izuno clan keeps their head down and works for a living." Kiriko mutters. The others laugh but nod.

Kiriko shakes her head as she passes the house that had been identified as belonging to Sakura's parents on her way to the Tower. Too opulent for two civilians, that's something that would be seen on the palace grounds in the capital.

"How is the meals coming along?" The Hokage asks, waving her to a seat.

"Good, we're delivering to the day care buildings consistently and storing some away for the future when the schools reopen in a couple of years. I have already planned on doubling my supplies over the next ten to fifteen years, leaving some in scrolls until needed." Hiruzen nods in satisfaction.

Sakura's parents sob quietly as they force themselves to work in the sewers, part of the extra money is going to pay off the loan they took out to add onto their home, which they realize now they never needed. Oh, everybody in the village is 'seeing' them alright, and nobody is impressed. But hopefully they can start saving some money once the loan is paid off.

"Doubt it." is said by more than one neighbor. "They both liked to spend. . .on themselves." 

"Yup." Sakura says a few days later when the gossip reaches the scroll shop. "All the time, anytime they needed to get something for me, they had to have something for themselves. I didn't know it then, but I was well rid of them when they turned me out because they had the twins to think of. Or so they claimed."

"Are we going to have enough supplies when the schools reopen?" Madi asks, looking around.

"Yeah, I plan on basically doubling my supplies for the next fifteen years and that's already doubled when I got the news the Hokage had tapped me for meals. I'll have to leave the extra in scrolls until needed, we just don't have the room. Yes, we could add onto the buildings again but eventually the schools will be closing and what have you then? We won't have the need. Yes, the Hokage and I see the need for those protecting the village to have meals while they're working but not the frantic need to feed over 400 growing children one meal a day for over ten years."

The others listening nod in agreement. "Do you see scrolls being brought that day?"

"Yes, it all depends on how many people are eating at a certain site. Individual scrolls, not a chance. Too much work." The others nod. "Unless each person buys their own and brings them back when they're done."

"On the go, there's also they need for a second scroll to dump them in when they're done if it's individuals." Nods from everybody. Then they look at the boxes of dishes and utensils. "Yes, I need to start buying more and storing it upstairs for when the schools reopen."

Kiriko sighs as she settles into the steaming water of the bathing room.

"Is it just me or is this weather dragging on?" Madi asks.

"No, everybody is complaining about aches and pains, the hot springs are full of people either soaking out aches or trying to get warm. The only *warm* place in the village is probably the shop with both kitchens going." Kiriko opens an eye to look at her mother when she walks into the room, sighing as she settles in the water with Kiriko. "It's something you tend to ignore as a shinobi but unless you're actively working now you feel the cold."

"Reminds me once again why I never wanted to become a ninja." Like Kiriko Madi takes place in the every other weekend exercises and could easily have attended the academy but had other plans for her life. This time next year they'd be taking her and a couple other youngsters in the clan to the capital for higher education. They'd be taken care of by the Daimyo's wife and entering the university under her 'request' so any of the stupider students in the school would be told to bother them for being from a small village and not the big city and be prepared to face the consequences.

Kiriko herself brings back books from the university in areas that interest her, she could easily have taken several degrees from the university in any number of areas. Indeed, some of her trips she tests out of areas that she's been working on at the farm and been presented with degrees as a 'working student' since she's needed at the village. Ohhh, the administrators hadn't liked it but they'd seen her at work in the village on some of the trips with the Daimyo and agreed that she could work at her own pace in any program that caught her interest.

Sakura looks out the window of her apartment at the rain that had *finally* started arriving, maybe now the damn cold snap would ease up a little. Her leg aches in this rain, now she knows why some of the older jonin come monthly to have prescriptions filled for the pain. She's trying not to go that way, but times like this she needs the extra help. And she will only use them when she's not at work, too easy for an accident to happen in a kitchen where knives are used all the time. Pulling the curtains and lighting the stove for heat, she sits down and waits for the pill she'd just swallowed to take affect. What is her plans for the future? Kiriko has told her that she has a job at the scroll shop for as long as she wants, the need for the meals appears to be a lifetime affair. Looking at her leg as the warmth and pain pill start to take effect she suddenly chuckles, at least with her leg being so damaged, she never had to work in the sewers like the others.

Naruto is looking around his apartment, with the civilians knowing who he is now he has been able to fix it up and *leave* it fixed up. And buy new furniture. It's a cozy little nook for one person, or even two he thinks as Hinata's arms wrap around him and he wraps an arm around her.

"Thinking?"

"I want to start buying the supplies to build a house on our land next year. Like Kiriko, it would only take a few minutes to get from the farm to the village and then the shop."

"Plans for afterwards?"

"I like working with my hands, I've been offered a job making stuff by the clan." He sighs, looking out the window. "I keep thinking how things could be so different right now. We could be preparing for a war instead of being at peace, you could have been banished from your clan for the 'crime' of being interested in me. . ." he pauses as Hinata stiffens under his arm.

"I would have left the clan anyway." She says firmly. "I am not. . .the proper Hyuga the elders wanted. Now that they are gone it is not a problem, but. . .I would have left. I would have missed my father. . .and Hanabi. But I would have gone." She chuckles suddenly. "You could be still running around saying you want to be the Hokage one day."

Naruto shudders. "Oh gods, and as bad as things were when my parentage was revealed it could have been so much worse. I've seen the older records, there used to be things called jinchuriki, they were the human jailers of large monsters created when the ten tails was broken apart. Back in the early days, there was a village that had control of these monsters and handed them out to the others to use as weapons. They all vanished in the days of the second hokage, I remember Lady Tsunade says a clan member of hers used to be the jailer. They vanished suddenly one day, remember the sand ninja that had to be taken out because he couldn't . . .or wouldn't stop killing?" Hinata shudders and nods against him. "Rumor is it they were trying to recreate them and seal the lesser one into him as a weapon."

"Oh gods," she whimpers. "And Lady Tsunade says the one in her clan member was the most powerful. And they had to be sealed into *babies." She shudders against him. "Yes, I can see the life I would have lived if I'd been the container to a beast like that. I was hated before for my father dying of his wounds to proteact me, how would I have been treated having that as a burden?"

"I could have been living in the shadow of the Hyuga, too scared to live life on my own." She looks up at Naruto. "Do. . .do you ever think about Sasuke?"

Naruto sighs. "Yes, and I'm afraid he'd have snapped sooner or later. Everybody was fawning on him as the last Uchiha and he was licking it up. I talked to the people at T&I, he never should have been allowed to enroll at the academy. He was a loose cannon waiting to happen. Lady Tsunade was not happy when she found he hadn't got any counseling after the massacre."

"Of course not, the high and mighty Uchiha would never lower themselves to show human failing." Hinata snorts. "The Main Branch was the same way. And like the Uchiha, they lost all their power."

"Exactly, let alone his vendetta against his brother for killing everybody. He would have left the village as a missing nin to try to find his brother and kill him. In one way we're lucky, he snapped early and while Sakura had to pay the price for it with a bad leg the rest of her life, nobody had to die for his stupidity."

"Do you know why Itachi did it? Did he snap too?" Hinata asks as they settle on the couch with mugs of hot chocolate as the news plays on the television across the room.

"I asked Jiji once, he said there's been rumors of a coup attempt by the Uchiha. He wasn't in charge at the time, that was the fourth and he doesn't have all the details. Itachi was ordered to take out the clan but spared his brother for some reason or another. Now looking at Sakura hissing in pain in the kitchen as she moves wrong I wish he had." he says softly. 

At the Inuzuka compound Hana touches her brother's shoulder. "Big think?"

"Or thinking period. I know the others think I'm just a dumb mutt." He sighs. "I'm just going over the last few years and trying to figure out what caused everything to change. Was it just Sasuke going nuts?"

"Sasuke started it. Having so many babies born at once just helped it along." His mother says. "Little bastard should have been trained better as a pup but his whole family was as stuck up as he was. There's stories they were going to overthrow the fourth because they thought they were so special and Itachi had been ordered to do it. You're too young to remember it, but like the Hyuga the Uchiha loved flaunting the power around the village."

"What did they think would happen?"

"They'd install one of their own as Hokage and the village wouldn't *dare* do anything about it." Hana snorts. "I know you've been told this before, go to the Tower library and start looking up the history that you weren't taught at school." His mother nods when he looks at her. "It won't kill you to read and know your history Pup, being stupid on the battlefield would have."

"And what do you plan on doing for a future career?"

"I've been thinking about helping to train the dogs in the village for protection and guard duty. There used to be a village police force. . . "

"Mostly Uchiha but with so many clan raised children and all the genin the Hokage plans to reintroduce it since the ANBU can't be expected to handle everything."

"I think I'd like to work with them." He says firmly. 

"Good, I'm glad you kids are all making plans for the future. What about the others?" Hana asks.

"Naruto and Sakura work for Kiriko making meals, they're looking at a good fifteen years for that and Naruto is working with his hands making furniture on the side with more of the Izuno. The others are working with their clans just like me but they'll be *heading* their clans one day, I won't." He stops to think a moment. Well, maybe not Hinata. She's still with Naruto."

The sound of screaming and cursing from Kiriko's home has the other clan members waiting for her the next morning in the main building, giving her varying 'this had better be good looks'.

"And you complain about the noise your mother and I make." Her father says, teasing her.

"Dad, hush. I just woke myself up screaming out of a nightmare. The cats are all giving me disgusted looks and I can *sssssooooo* see it happening." She says, shuddering as she fixes herself a meal and sits down to eat.

"Give." her father says after she's eaten.

"I was at the shop and the Hokage summoned me to the Tower. I didn't think anything of it, I was making a trip out for supplies in a few weeks, we were still waiting on supplies to finish putting up the building on the plateau for the airships." The others nod.

"I walked into the tower and the Hokage dropped the hat on me. And I quote, tag you're it. You own the village already, you might as well have the 'fun' of the paperwork."

The others stare at her and start howling with laughter. "Yeah. And when I stopped cussing in the dream, he told me the academy was full of paperwork I needed to sort through. Oh, and I couldn't use Chakra to destroy it. He'd tried, the damn thing multiplied."

More laughter as the clan elders nod. Especially those who handle the paperwork for the clan.

"How would you have handled it?" Madi asks, smirking.

"Two words. Flame thrower." Everybody who's had the 'pleasure' of doing paperwork for either the clan or as an active ninja nod firmly.

OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE 

Kiriko reaches over and wraps her arm around Sakura's neck, pulling her down for a kiss where they. . .who the fuck wrote this shit? Dawn Summers howls as she goes back to her laptop after breaking for lunch.

Snickering has her looking behind her at the doorway to find Xander. Payback for writing me and Anya as Kiriko's parents. 

Xander she wails.

Oh relax, I saved your fic and that's a duplicate. You really should have a password on that Dawnie

If I do, Buffy breaks them. Literally. Oh she apologizes and says she won't do it again. But she does.