[X] Good Things Grow In Ontario~
You've just finished tucking a final dandelion behind your ear when someone zooms into the garden and snatches up Sasuke before he has time to so much as squeak.
You have the assailant rooted to the spot before you notice it's not a Kumo-bloodline hunter (for whom, your mother stresses, you must always have a crotch-punch at the ready), it's just Itachi.
He stares at his legs for a moment, and then at you.
You grimace.
My apologies, Itachi-san. Gently, you release him.
"Itachi?" Mikoto calls. "Is there something the matter?"
"No, mother," he replies. "Sasuke was fussing, so I picked him up."
"In the garden?!" your mother asks, stampeding out of the sitting room, through the antechamber and out onto the deck. "Naruto?"
"Is fine," Itachi assures her. "She's fascinated by the flowers."
"The
poisonous flowers?!"
Ah, you've left the ground again. You hope she doesn't keep holding you this tight forever, you can't see the sunlight at this angle. Oh, that's better.
"How did you get out of your cage, you little monkey?" Kushina asks.
"Oh my," Mikoto says, sounding slightly dazed. "Kushina-chan...? You'll want to see this..."
"What's the matter?" Mother says, shifting you into an over-the-shoulder position and heading back inside.
Itachi waves. You wave back, and he smiles.
Your mother freezes.
It may just be your imagination, but you
think parts of her hair might be... undulating...
Slowly, she holds you out to Mikoto.
"Mikoto-chan, would you please take my daughter for a little while?"
"... Kushina...?"
"I just need to run an errand, that's all." The false cheer in her voice almost makes you twitch.
"Kushina-chan, I know that 'smile'. What errand would this be?"
"I have a very large, very ugly, very
dead snake to dispose of."
"Kushina-chan!" Mikoto says in dismay, "You're in no condition to be fighting one of the Sannin alone! Hazaka, Kamadaki?"
"Yes, ma'am?" say two until-now hidden guards.
"Kamadaki-kun, run to the Hokage's office to tell them Uzumaki Kushina's child is the Mokuton user they've been looking for and that we are en route to bring Orochimaru in for questioning. Hazaka-kun, go and tell my husband that anyone with a Bingo Book entry is welcome to join us and that if he doesn't let them go for the day he will never see the inside of my bedroom again."
The guards speed off in different directions.
"Itachi?" Mikoto adds. "Gather the boys.
We're going for a walk."
=
You and Sasuke are left with a middle-aged lady called Uruchi and her husband. You spend a pleasant if slightly dull afternoon squishing dough into various shapes and keeping Sasuke from sticking any of it into his mouth.
When your mother comes to pick you up she smells distinctly of blood, but little of it is hers, so you suspect her errand met with success.
"Did all go well, Kushina-san?" the woman's husband asks. "How is Mikoto-chan?"
"Doctors said she'll be out of the hospital in a week," Kushina says, picking dough out of your hair. "Mr Detective's gonna be laid up for a whole month, though. Itachi'll be by later to pick up Sasuke."
"And the mission? Was it successful?" he persists.
Your mother winces. "Meh, half-and-half. We found some stuff we weren't expecting to find... well, that and the bastard decided to resist arrest."
"Ah." The adults all nod wisely at one another.
What on earth kind of policeman is
Sasuke's father, exactly?!
"Well, it was nice seeing you guys again, but I've gotta get home and wash the probable cause out of my hair." Kushina pokes you. "Say 'bye-bye, Sasuke'."
You wave, but Sasuke is engaged in a staring contest with the couple's cat and doesn't respond.
=
The months following the Mothers' Walk, as the incident becomes known, pass quickly for you. After all, you're busily engaged in the business of (pick three):
[X] Learning to walk.
[X] Learning to talk.
[X] 'Learning' to read.
[X] Controlling your bladder. Diapers were bad enough in a society that had disposable ones, these cloth things are awful.
[X] Working with the dandelions you gathered.
[X] Making friends on visits to the playground:
-> [X] The cocky loudmouth
-> [X] The arrogant loner
-> [X] The stubborn twit who constantly gets in way over his head
