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Chapter Text

Kushina comes to her door looking wrung out, exhausted and anxious, and says, “Miko, can we talk somewhere private? I need… advice.”

Mikoto has never heard Kushina sound so uncertain. “Of course,” she murmurs. “Dear, I’m going out. I should be back in a few hours.”

She closes the door behind her and offers Kushina her arm, walks with her to the bank of the Naka. They stand among the skeletal cherry trees in the grove where they used to train. Mikoto wishes the ground weren’t cold and wet, so they could sit on the grass with their knees just brushing like they used to. “Tell me,” she says, standing close enough to touch. But not touching.

“I’m pregnant,” says Kushina. In the lines of her face and the hum of tightly suppressed nervous energy Mikoto can read that she isn’t happy about it.

“What’s wrong, dear heart? I assumed… we all assumed you would be delighted.”

Kushina frowns, watching the ground and worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. It only reminds Mikoto that this is the place where she first kissed Kushina. Unhelpful. “I don’t want his child,” Kushina says finally. “No. I mean. Not with him. Miko, I don’t think I’m cut out for being straight after all. I tried, but…”

Even after eight years married to the head of the Uchiha clan, the merest suggestion that Kushina is still hers makes her heart flutter. She takes Kushina’s hands, waiting for the rest, and Kushina sighs. “I was never going to marry him. I thought it would be like having him as my best friend. I didn’t think he’d think it was forever. And now this happens. I don’t know what to do, Miko! If I stay with him I’ll go crazy, but how can I leave? He’s the yondaime, and I’m just a freakishly powerful shinobi who doesn’t know the first thing about being a single mom!”

“Look at me, Kushina-chan. You will never be alone as long as I draw breath. You will have me. Understand?” Kushina nods. “I have no small amount of experience raising a child, after all. We will be fine.”

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” says Kushina, and she embraces Mikoto. “I still have to get a new place, and make sure I have enough to not have to take missions till the baby comes, and then find someone to take care of her when she’s born, but… it really helps to know you’ll be there for me. However much you can spare for me is enough.”

Mikoto’s heart wrenches in her chest. She’s never heard Kushina sound so small, like she’s trying to minimize her impact on the world. Kushina is larger and brighter than life, she always has been, and she has never tried to hide it before. Mikoto should never have to spare time for Kushina; the thought offends her very soul.

She has always been a person more moved by personal loyalty than by duty. And so she makes possibly the stupidest decision of her life.

“When I said you wouldn’t be alone, I wasn’t speaking metaphorically, nor did I mean that I will be with you in spirit. Fugaku has his heir. This next child will be mine. Ours.”

Kushina’s eyes widen. “Miko!” She shouts. “This is your worst idea ever, and I love you so much for it, I think my heart’s gonna explode, you know!” She picks Mikoto up and spins her around—Mikoto can’t keep joyful laughter from bubbling up in her chest—and pulls her down for a kiss.

They haven’t touched like this since her engagement was announced. She has missed it. Oh, how she has missed it. When they finally draw apart, Kushina’s arms still around her waist, she says, “It won’t be easy.”

“Nothing about you has ever been easy,” says Kushina fondly. “I’ve managed.”

But Mikoto is thinking about how she will get out of the clan head’s household. If Namikaze Minato is difficult to escape—simply by virtue of his status and how nice he is—Uchiha Fugaku is much more difficult. When she was a child, Mikoto did prize duty above all else. She was a perfect Uchiha until she met Kushina, loyal only to her clan. But if she leaves like this, she will be outcast. She may be tried for treason against her clan.

It’s worth it.

When she returns home, she finds Itachi first. Her son is throwing shuriken at targets he’s too small to reach, having to get up on a stool to pull them out. She can’t identify what it makes her feel. “I’m home,” she says.

He looks around and jumps down off the stool to run to her. “Welcome home, Mother,” he murmurs into her shoulder when she crouches down to hug him.

“Itachi, I have to leave.”

“You have a mission?” he asks, frowning.

“No, love. I’m going to leave the clan. My dear friend needs my help, and I can’t help her if I stay with your father.”

He lays a careful, childish hand on her belly. “What about my baby brother?”

“He’ll be safe.”

“No! Will I get to see him? I really want a brother.”

“Of course you’ll get to see him. You’ll be welcome at my house whenever you want to come. You’re my son, after all. I’m not leaving because I don’t love you. I’m sorry I have to leave you here alone, but you’re too precious to your father. He wouldn’t let both of us leave.”

“I understand,” says Itachi solemnly. He’s too old for almost-five. “I will visit you and my brother and your friend.”

She caresses his face, and kisses him on the forehead. “You’re so strong. Be good for your father.”

Fugaku is harder, because he doesn’t love her. They’ve grown together in the eight years they’ve been married, but it was always for the sake of the clan, not for themselves. She tells him, “I’m leaving you. It would be unfair to you to come second in my life.”

“So instead I won’t come into your life at all,” he says. His face is stony. “Who is he?”

“Kushina. She’s going to have a baby.”

“Yondaime-sama can take care of her,” says Fugaku. “This is not worth abandoning your son and your clan. You would be outcast.”

Cold anger drips down through her body. He could never understand. “Do not think you know me because we have shared a bed. Do not think you know her.”

“In that case, do not think you will ever be welcome in the Uchiha district again. Do not think you are welcome to use that name. And remember who enforces the law.”

“I will move my things out by tomorrow,” she says stiffly. She turns to go but he grabs her by the wrist—she pulls it out of his grip, despising him.

“When my son is born, he will be mine. He will be an Uchiha.”

Without answering, she sweeps out of the room.

Chapter Text

Neither of them has much disposable income. Mikoto cannot lay claim to any of her husband’s money, and she hasn’t taken a mission for three months. Kushina has already disposed of her mission pay, for the most part. Consequently, the apartment they rent is small and in poor condition. In Mikoto’s eyes, it’s enough, because it’s theirs. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t miss her fine house, her furniture, and her son, but she’s willing to give up a great deal to wake up every morning and see the love of her life smiling in her sleep.

No-one knows where they live now, only that they’re still alive. Kushina was quick to ward the apartment with invisibility seals, protection seals, and many others that Mikoto doesn’t understand. What this means is that Hatake Kakashi, who is still technically Kushina’s bodyguard, sits patiently on the bare floor of their living room while Kushina burns a secret-keeping seal onto his tongue. He’s a rather frightening child, even for one who has seen what the Uchiha clan demands of its children; he almost never speaks, and it took near half an hour for Kushina to coax his mask off. When Itachi comes to visit, she will burn a seal onto his tongue too. Mikoto argued at first—it didn’t seem at all necessary. But when Kushina told her that the Kyuubi’s seal will weaken when she gives birth, it started to make more sense why she needs to be so cautious. Mikoto knows she doesn’t like hurting Hatake, who is only fourteen. She’ll like hurting Itachi even less, but she does it to protect the village and her unborn child.

Kushina spends most of her time transformed into a drab black-haired woman now, doing chores in the market because she can’t go on missions. The rest she spends in Uzumaki Mito’s library, designing a seal that will confine an area so tightly that even a bijuu won’t be able to break free. Just in case.

Were the Hokage anyone else, he would know they are still in the village. As it is, Mikoto tells the jounin commander, Yamanaka Inoiro, and swears her to secrecy, just so there won’t be a panic. She has told Namikaze enough.

Mikoto herself is gradually selling off her beautiful clothing, which was all she had the right to take except her weapons. She has gotten practiced at laughing naturally as she tells the women she’s selling to that she won’t be able to wear them anyway because she’ll never be thin enough again. The women with children nod sympathetically, because they know how childbirth can change one’s figure. She is not selling her weapons.

Mikoto only gets more irritable as her child grows. When she’s out selling, it means she’s demure but thinking hard about stabbing everyone she sees. When she’s at home, it means she’s lying on the futon scowling upside-down at Kushina’s back as she makes dinner. She feels like a petulant child whenever she asks for the affection Kushina gives gladly. Her first pregnancy wasn’t like this; she never wanted affection from Fugaku. She feels a little lost, because she’s not practiced at expressing her emotions freely. In the Uchiha district, everyone is… controlled.

One day during the third month Kushina comes home obviously upset. Mikoto tries to think charitably of her even as she slams the door and starts banging around the pots and pans in the kitchen. It only makes Mikoto’s headache worse, but for Kushina she’ll tolerate it. She gets to her feet carefully and comes to put her arm around Kushina’s shoulders.

“Dearest, what’s wrong?”

Kushina makes a face at the bottom of the pan she’s holding. “Fucking Minato. He’s a sensor, and I guess he’s been hunting for my chakra signature this whole time. He found me while I was in the marketplace and begged me to come back and live with him. Said he wanted to support me and whatever. I told him we could be friends again after he stops saying shit like that and then I started crying because of my stupid fucking baby hormones. Suzu-san, one of the fishmongers, punched him in the face.”

“Are we feeling… sympathetic, or vindicated?” Mikoto knows which she feels personally—she has never liked Namikaze, just as Kushina bears a vicious grudge against Fugaku.

“Little bit of both.” Kushina smiles over at Mikoto. Her eyes are still red. “I mean, he means well. He’s probably not trying to make me feel like shit. I might’ve punched him if I wasn’t crying, though.”

Mikoto kisses her, leaning awkwardly because her belly is so large. “Well, I’m satisfied. I would not have punched him. I would have—”

“Poisoned him, I know. And that’s why you don’t get to see him. Poisoning the Hokage is a crime, you know.” Mikoto laughs, and they start making dinner.

Both Kakashi and Itachi become regular visitors. Kakashi used to sit in the open window, half in the apartment and half outside of it. When Itachi comes, now, he always greets Kakashi politely and sits by him with a cup of tea. Usually he brings a book to study, sitting under the window where it’s brightest. Kakashi watches the insects that land on him, and sometimes gives Itachi more information on something in his book, but Mikoto doesn’t think he has ever taken off his painted ANBU mask in front of her son. Kushina vows that one day she’ll get him to eat a meal with them. “The boy can’t be getting proper nutrition, cooking for himself all the time!” she says. She has become very interested in nutrition since she learned she was pregnant. She scarcely eats ramen once a month now. It’s a bit frightening, really.

One major disadvantage of disappearing without telling anyone is that the hospital staff have no reason to stop Fugaku from naming her son. Or from coming into her room, holding her son like he belongs there, like it isn’t a threat.

“You won’t be allowed to visit him after this,” he says. “I thought you deserved to see him once.” He sounds almost agreeable, and for the first time Mikoto truly wants to kill him. But she’s exhausted and sore. She can barely move. All she can do is scream for Kushina.

Moments later, while Fugaku is still frozen in surprise, Kushina comes barreling through the door, looking wild. “Are you hurt?” she asks. Then she sees him, and the baby. “What the fuck are you doing here?” she snarls.

“I am Sasuke’s father,” says Fugaku coolly.

“Sasuke! What a dumb fucking name. You don’t have the right to name Miko’s son when you kicked her out of the clan, you know. Give him back to her right now.”

“Mikoto’s son?” he says. “This boy is a true-blooded Uchiha.”

“He wasn’t borne by an Uchiha,” says Mikoto faintly. “Look at his face.”

Fugaku looks down. He frowns, tracing the faint markings on the baby’s cheek. She hates him for the gentleness of that touch. “What is this?”

Kushina gets just close enough to look, and then lets out a triumphant shout of laughter. “They’re whiskers, you know! They’re Kyuubi’s whiskers! From his chakra, from my chakra.” Mikoto looks at her in awe. She’s beginning to understand that five months sleeping wrapped around Kushina left its mark on the baby growing inside her. She’s unspeakably grateful that there’s visible, irrefutable evidence that he’s their son, not Fugaku’s.

“It’s proof that he’s Kushina’s,” whispers Mikoto. “You have no right to him, not after you cast me out.”

“Do you think you can take him by force?” His voice is cold and deadly. He truly is ready to fight them for this. Not because he loves her son, but because he hates her.

Kushina growls. It has a weird and unearthly harmonic. Even Mikoto can’t help the visceral fear she feels when she sees Kushina’s dark eyes brighten to blood red, canines elongating, though she’s seen it before. The same marks Sasuke has appear on her face, and burning red chakra floats around her. “Yeah,” she says. “I do.”

Before Mikoto can even warn her not to look into his eyes, she manifests thick golden chains that wrap around his legs, up his back to his arms and neck. Quicker than he could move, he’s immobilized—and Kushina walks forward to take Sasuke from him.

The chains recede as Kushina comes to stand in front of Mikoto. Fugaku looks like he still might attack, but at that point Kakashi strolls in, doing his best imitation of casual. He must have been waiting just outside the door. “I advise against antagonizing Konoha’s jinchuuriki,” he says tonelessly. “You should leave.” Fugaku gives all three of them a hateful look, and then flickers away.

Mikoto tugs Kushina to sit on the bed so she can slump over, resting her forehead against Kushina’s back. “Thank you,” she says quietly. “Both of you.”

“He’s scum,” growls Kushina. The red chakra has ebbed away—Mikoto was afraid it might burn her son, but she should have known better. “I can’t believe he… UGH. I’m not letting you out of my sight until we get out of this damn hospital.”

In the end, they keep Sasuke because neither of them can think of a better name, but they change his surname on his birth certificate to Uzumaki to match his mother’s.

Chapter Text

Now that the boys can talk, Kushina will barely leave them alone. Perhaps the novelty will wear off in a year, but knowing Kushina it’s just as likely that it never will, and she’ll be an embarrassingly proud mother forever. Kushina is so filled with delight just by Naruto telling her that dirt is nothing but worm poop, or Sasuke declaring solemnly that he’s going to be a cat when he grows up.

Itachi, for his part, is even more starstruck by the idea of having brothers. He recites history to Naruto and Sasuke, and never refuses to play make-believe unless he has a mission. He’s always eager to watch the boys while their mothers are both on missions, and they admire him in return. Secretly, though, what Mikoto likes best is that Itachi now calls Kushina Also Mother. It’s something only he would think of, and he uses it so earnestly. Kushina very frequently picks him up to spin him around—Mikoto has noted an increase in smiles from both him and herself. Living with Kushina is just healthier. She is like the sun, and the Uchiha district lives by moonlight.

On the day their sons start the academy, Kushina convinces Mikoto to get up early with her and make fancy bento. It feels strangely secretive to stand in the kitchen together before dawn with only one light on, trying to be very quiet. Kushina keeps smothering nervous laughter and bumping Mikoto with her hip. Her excitement is infectious, and soon Mikoto is laughing too as she shapes rice into onigiri.

“Kushina, if you try to poke me while I’m working, I guarantee you I will either make a noise or try to murder you!” she hisses. “Don’t. Do not.”

Kushina tries to stuff her fist in her mouth, but chokes on her own spit and crashes into the counter. “Sorry! Sorry, Miko! I think I’m sleep deprived from getting up so early! It doesn’t help that you’re so cute, either.”

Mikoto can’t help but smile at that as she pulls Kushina back upright.

“Mama… Kaa-san… what are you doing?”

They freeze and turn to look at Sasuke, who is a much lighter sleeper than his brother. He’s squinting up at them in some confusion, and perhaps reproach. “We were making you lunch,” says Mikoto, attempting to look dignified. She’s also not going to blame Kushina, because it’s better to present a united front.

“Your Kaa-san couldn’t keep quiet,” Kushina tells Sasuke cheerfully, scooping him up. “She’s very clumsy, she bumped into something while she was laughing. We’re real sorry to wake you, Sasuke-chan.”

Mikoto resigns herself to being the mature one here. “Would you rather go back to bed or start getting ready, Sasuke?”

“Do I get to jump on Naruto?”

“Just don’t break anything,” says Kushina. Sasuke jumps down from her arms and runs off to their room to harass his brother.

“You don’t think we’ll need to watch over him, do you?” murmurs Mikoto once he’s gone. “I’ve never let him out of my sight before. Perhaps I’m a bit paranoid.”

“Miko, Miko.” Kushina puts her hands on Mikoto’s shoulders. “That’s why I made sure Ita-chan wouldn’t have a mission today.” It’s a waste of Itachi’s talent, but Mikoto smiles anyway. He'll appreciate it as much as she does. “And while he’s doing that, we can go on a date! It’s been way too long, you know. Waaaay too long.”

What Kushina actually means by ‘date’ is ‘training.’ She has an absolutely unfathomable amount of energy, as both an Uzumaki and a jinchuuriki, and she’s more efficient at using it than she used to be. Despite her raw power, though, Mikoto fights much more intelligently, and she nearly beats Kushina. There’s just the small problem that she no longer has the stamina to fight all-out for twenty minutes at a time, so she ends up pinned against a tree, wheezing.

“Fight me in ninjutsu and we’ll see who wins,” she murmurs as Kushina claims a kiss as a prize.

“Miko, you’re an assassin. You only win if I don’t see you, you know.”

“Then what was the point of fighting?”

“You don’t fight only to win, do you, Miko?”

“No. I fight to become stronger. I fight to protect my wife and my sons.”

When they come home, Kakashi is teaching the boys to make an elaborate curry. He seems to get very bored when he’s not on a mission, and he doesn’t eat very well except at the Uzumaki house. Mikoto doesn’t begrudge him the food, because he’s paid for it many times over in both protection and babysitting.

Naruto is very carefully chopping potatoes, stopping every few seconds to shake his hand because they’re still hot from being boiled. Sasuke, supervised by Kakashi, is mixing spices, apparently trying to invent a new kind of curry powder.

When he hears the door open, Naruto nearly falls off his feet in his excitement, and slices his finger. “MAMA’S HOME!” he shouts, and takes a running leap at Kushina. She kisses him on the head and seals his bleeding finger, then says, “Kaa-san’s home too, Naru-chan.”

“Kaa-san! I didn’t see you! You were just so sneaky.” Naruto smiles charmingly. He is certainly lying. “You’re such a great assassin.”

“I’m glad to see that you’re learning the art of deception,” Mikoto tells him, running a hand through his hair. “But don’t use it on your poor kaa-san too often.”

Sasuke, too, quickly abandons his work (Kakashi sighs) to hug his mother’s leg. “Mama, school was really boring. They told us stuff we already know about chakra. I liked some of the kids, though.”

Kushina hoists him up to her hip too so that she has two six-year-olds held out in front of her; even after a full day of training she has plenty of strength for it. Naruto starts to wriggle out of her grasp so he can climb over her shoulder to get to Mikoto. “Not everyone has two amazing shinobi for moms, Sasuke-chan. They don’t all know about chakra yet, so you have to be patient with them. Maybe your sensei will give you harder work if you ask him, hm?”

Naruto, who has an instinct for which of his mothers lives by secrets, whispers in Mikoto’s ear: “One of the girls, Ino-chan, asked if the Hokage is my dad.”

“And why are you telling me?” she murmurs, shifting her grip to make him more comfortable.

He squirms. “I dunno. It feels like a secret. I do look like him, though. Is he in the Uzumaki clan?”

“Is his clan name Uzumaki?” She debates: should she tell him to ask Kushina? Do their sons need to know about their biological fathers? Surely Naruto will realize eventually that he doesn’t look like Mikoto at all.

“His name is… Namu… Name… Namizaki? Mama just calls him Minato. They might be cousins.”

“I’ll make you a deal. Once you can bring me our family genealogies—mine and your Mama’s—and explain them, you will be able to understand who Namikaze Minato is, and I will tell you.”

“You make everything hard,” says Naruto, and jumps down to finish chopping potatoes. “I’ll do it, you know! You better believe it!”

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Mikoto has killed seventeen people since the exam was interrupted, and she doesn’t know where her wife is. She also doesn’t know where her sons are—she knows where they should be, but that’s no guarantee that they stayed put. They both have a tendency to gravitate toward danger, like Kushina.

And indeed, she finds Naruto and Sasuke fighting back to back against three Oto nin, apparently defending an injured classmate—Nara Shikamaru, the genius. Mikoto waits for her opportunity, and pierces all three of the enemies with poisoned senbon. One is apparently immune to the poison, and she has to meet his blade with her own sword. The battle is quick and furious, and it ends in a puddle of his blood.

“Holy shit,” says Shikamaru, eyes wide.

“Kaa-san!” shouts Sasuke. He and Naruto run to her—they want to hug her, but they think they’re too grown-up for it. She gathers them into her arms so they can pretend to be embarrassed, and nods at Shikamaru.

“Our Kaa-san is metal as fuck,” Naruto tells his friend, grinning. “Metal! Like swords!”

“Mama is the one who’s metal,” says Sasuke. “Kaa-san is classy.”

“In future, you will be expected to pretend you don’t know the word fuck,” Mikoto tells them. “I will need to have a talk with your mother, so let’s go and find her. Shikamaru-kun, I will carry you further from the fighting.”

“No, I want to help—”

“That was not a request. Up you go.”

Mikoto doesn’t even try to make her sons stay away from the battle. Since both of them have working legs, they would immediately find their way into a fight. It’s safer to keep them with her, and they seem to enjoy pretending to guard her. She lets them remove lesser threats in their path, and feels rather like a cat teaching her kittens to hunt.

They find Kushina fighting with Namikaze’s bodyguards, who for some strange reason are not with the Hokage himself.

“Aw, boys!” says Kushina with relief. One of the chains radiating from her hands withdraws from the unconscious body of a Suna nin. “I’m so glad you’re all right. You wanna take one of these guys for me?”

“Kushina,” Mikoto reprimands. “They’re not even chuunin yet.”

“But we will be, right, Kaa-san?” Naruto looks up at her with apparently guileless blue eyes. “We definitely fought well enough in our matches, you know!”

“Not if Hokage-sama doesn’t approve you. Kushina, where is he?”

Her shoulders tense. “He’s trapped in that barrier thing with Sandaime-sama and Orochifuckbastard. If he doesn’t come out okay I’m gonna kill him. Sasuke, behind you!”

Sasuke spins and breathes out a gout of flame onto the Suna nin behind him, following up with several shuriken when the woman tries to dodge. Naruto catches her blade on his shortsword, and Sasuke uses the opportunity to hit her in the eye with a knife. They stand apprehensively looking at the corpse until Kushina swoops down on them.

“Killing people kind of sucks, my babies, but you’ll have to do it again to protect your village. We’ll talk, okay?”

“Is this really the place for them?” asks Tatami Iwashi from behind her. “it’s true they aren’t chuunin yet.”

“I’m not wasting time tying them up to keep them away!” says Kushina, exasperated. She drops another one of her attackers.

“Can’t they evacuate civilians or something?”

“Hey, yeah! Boys, go find your jounin instructors and help evacuate civilians. Go on.”

They rush off, and Mikoto follows them after pursing her lips at Kushina for her irresponsible attitude. They will talk later.

It’s hours before they come together again. Mikoto has tracked her wife to the forest on the western side of Konoha, and finds her facing Suna’s jinchuuriki.

“That dumbass is not your mom, okay, sweetie?” she’s saying to the red-haired genin. “He’s been treating you like shit and it’s about time you fought back. I never, ever let Kyuubi-san hurt anyone, even when everyone was a real asshole to me.”

“It’s my choice,” the boy says faintly. “I do it because I want to.”

“Do you want to kill me?” she asks, stepping closer. Mikoto’s heart is in her mouth, for all that she knows Kushina can defeat this boy if she wants to.

“Yes. I mean… I don’t know…” He clutches his head, looking at the ground. “Mother says I must. She wants your blood.”

“You do it because you want to, huh? I personally don’t want you to kill me, Gaara-kun. I’d rather you came to our house for dinner, but if you keep trying to hurt my village I will fight you, and I’ll win, you know. Hey, Miko-chan! Come over and meet Gaara! D’you know where our babies are?”

Mikoto steps out from behind the tree, relaxing her chakra now that she doesn’t need to hide it. “They’re with their teams now. They may be evacuating civilians or not, but they’re with their jounin instructors.” She turns to Gaara and makes a short bow. “Pleased to meet you, Gaara. I’d also be much obliged if you didn’t destroy Konoha.”

“Why are you being nice?” he says, sounding bewildered and angry.

“We can afford to be nice because we aren’t afraid of you,” says Mikoto. “I am absolutely confident that Kushina can defeat you if she must. There is no advantage to refusing to try diplomacy.” He looks between her and Kushina, frowning. “You’re welcome to have dinner at our house, but we will need to go shopping first.”

Itachi, naturally, is suspicious but polite. Sasuke and Naruto accept him almost immediately, because they have not yet learned fear. It’s months before she hears his laugh, but in their household of outcasts it’s the most beautiful sound she’s heard. Only because Kushina’s laughter usually ends in snorting, which is endearing but not beautiful, unlike Kushina herself.

That is how Mikoto gets her fourth son.