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A blond ANBU with a bird mask walked into the Hokage's office like he owned the place. Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't mind at all. He looked up from reading a funds request from the groundskeepers of the training grounds and waved off the others in the room. None of his guards knew why the bird masked man was granted secret meetings like this, but they knew they had better obey.
"A question or a warning?" Hiruzen asked without any formal greetings.
"A request." The blond answered. He pulled out an old black and white photograph and set it on the desk between them.
Hiruzen barely remembered that day. He was sixteen at the time it was taken. The day in question was the wedding of Uchiha Hikaru and Hyuuga Himawari. Though, Hiruzen remembered she wasn't exactly a Hyuuga. She actually came from the now incorporated little village of Kinojo just north of the mountain.
In the picture, Hiruzen stood by his former friend, Renge Sora, and Sora's mother. He couldn't remember her name. "Is someone from your family planning to visit soon?"
"She isn't planning on it." Minato answered with a hidden smirk. "She will be here soon, anyway."
"What is her name? What do I need to know?"
"Call her Namikaze Sakura." Minato pulled out a few more pictures of the Uchiha-Hyuuga wedding. Several people he had met in Kinojo were there. Far more than the Hyuuga.
Hiruzen knew Minato was trying to pull sympathy from him. "And? That was decades ago. I barely remember any of them. Why now?"
Minato laid one more picture down. This one showed himself, Hiruzen, Sakura, and Sora all in a tight hug. "Unless you want this to have never happened, you need to set her up with Hatake Kakashi. Don't give him a choice. Konoha will fail if you don't make this happen."
"Who is she to you? To Konoha?" Hiruzen asked. It had, after all, been thirty years since the last time he had directly spoken with anyone of the Renge other than Minato.
"My and Sora's mother." Minato told him. "Kakashi is our father. I just need you to make a safe space for her in this time, and to make Kakashi spend time with her."
"If I hadn't known you and Jiraiya for most of my life, I would throw you to interrogation." Hiruzen grumbled. "But, I trust you. How much will she know?"
"Pretty much nothing." Minato finally sat down. "This is her first time using our kekke genkai. It's going to take a while before she is able to leave on her own. Nobody will come to help her. We can't."
"Why?"
"If we remove her, I will not exist. Naruto will not exist. None of our descendants will exist. Kinojo will rot. More than half the clans will still be your enemies. Uzumaki Mito will not have been a Jinchuriki. Hashirama-sama would have died in that last fight with Madara-sama. Konoha wouldn't be anything like it is today, if it even survived the following winter."
"All of that if I send her away?"
"She won't cause you any trouble. You can use her as a medic or an assistant in the office. She can do fieldwork with Kakashi, too. She will be worth it."
"Where will I find her?" Hiruzen resigned himself to this task. The Hatake and Haruno had fed all of Konoha right when they were about to starve. They were only able to do that because the Sarutobi, the Uchiha, and the Senju protected their farms. Some of the Renge helped the Shodaime in his last fight with Madara. They helped bring in more allies. Jiraiya… No, Hiruzen could not afford to deny Minato's request.
"In jail."
