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A Silver Lining Among The Clouds Part One

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A Silver Lining Among The Clouds Part One

Summary: Nightmares of old foes rattle a kunoichi’s confidence.  During the rotten day that follows, her comrades reassure her of her ability to protect those that she cares about.  An old friend of the kunoichi imparts news about hers and her childrens’ future.  Based off of my Naruto/Danny Phantom crossover, Whirlpools of Lightning.  Takes place two years before WoL.

Warnings: Crossover, New Gen, Fem!Danny, OCs, gore, violence, nightmarish imagery, mentions of torture, spoilers for Naruto chapters 600+ and the ending of Danny Phantom, slight AU (deviates from chapter 692 of Naruto onwards, including the upcoming movie Naruto the Movie: The Last, and has a few deviations from Naruto canon)

Deviation From Naruto Canon Warnings: Rebuilt!Uzumaki clan and Uzushiogakure, living-but-blind!Neji, dead!Guy, survivors of Uchiha clan massacre (only a couple who were on faraway missions at the time; they never rejoined Konohagakure post-massacre)

Deviation From Danny Phantom Canon Warnings: Fem!Danny.  Otherwise, none. (Dark Danny still exists, Dani was still created, Danny and Sam got together in the finale, etc.)

 

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Uchiha Mitsuki’s belly churned.  She had just teleported home after visiting her friend Yoshida Shiori in Shimogakure.  The hands on her clock pointed to the nine and the twelve.  None of the kids greeted her as they usually did.

She searched the entire place for them.  The kitchen was too clean.  There were no footprints from shinobi shoes that had not been taken off at the door, and none of the dishes sported stains from food cooked that evening by the children while their mother wasn’t home.

The living room was just as empty.  The board games, drawing paper, crossword puzzles, and books sat untouched.  The television remote remained on the coffee table.

The white-haired kunoichi opened her niece Rina’s bedroom door.  That she heard no yelling from the pinknette about intruding on her privacy was worrying.  Her training equipment laid at the door, so she didn’t sneak out after curfew for some last minute training.

Misaki’s medical books she was assigned to read by the hospital’s Academy student medic-nin program sat unopened.  Kiyoto was not planning to execute pranks in his room.  Akira’s book collection had no books out of place on his shelf.  Yuki’s ninja equipment sat abandoned in her room.

Where are they?!

Terrified screams from out of the house banished Mitsuki’s musings.  Without a word, she phased into ghost form.  She flew outside as fast as she could.

In the nearby pine forest, she spotted a smoking crater.  Rina and her nephew Kiyoto laid inside of it.  Scorch marks covered their small bodies.  Blood trickled from their mouths.  Their chests were still.

No …

The mother half-ghost flew faster.  Tears burned from her eyes.  Hopefully, she could find the person who murdered her nephew and niece.  She had to locate the other three kids before the same befell them.

She skimmed the forest floor for Yuki, Akira, and Misaki.  Instead, she spotted men that she wished not to see again in this life.

Their white coats and dark glasses made them stand out against the thinning coniferous trees.  They chased a familiar child with bushy black hair.

The girl called out to her.

“Mitsuki-bachan, help!”

The thin kunoichi sped through hand signs.  Sharp wind gusts whipped around her body.

“Fūton: Daitoppa!”

But, just as she diced them with her Fūton jutsu, one of the Guys in White agents blasted a large ray of energy at Misaki.  She crashed into the tree with a sickening thud.

The scum who attacked the pale-skinned girl were dead, but so was her niece.  The energy blast downed part of a tree.  The tall girl’s back was impaled with numerous splinters.

A growl rose in Mitsuki’s throat.  She had to find her twins, even if it killed her.  If the Guys in White thought they could tear her away from her new family as well as her old one, they were about to receive a rude awakening.

The trail of craters and dead Guys in White agents led her into Kumogakure proper.  None of the regular guards manned the gates.  In several sections of the village, fires blazed above the walls.

Dead citizens, whether they were civilians or shinobi, covered the street.  The spiky-haired kunoichi stole a glance of a dead girl with a darker complexion and braided black hair.

Shika too?  What have these monsters done?

Along with her nieces and nephew, those scum not fit to be called men had killed the Raikage’s daughter.  They were going to pay.

She passed Naoya’s Shinobi Bar.  Flames swallowed the wooden establishment before her eyes.

The family who owned it, including Kiyoto’s best friend Hara Naoki, laid unmoving with prominent burns.  Her stomach tightened.

Yuki, Akira, where are you?

Mitsuki’s frantic flying led her to the Raikage Tower.  A’s assistant Kobayashi Kanayo sported a blackened neck.  Her mouth was frozen in a final scream.

She found two other comrades in a massive pool of blood.  Tamura Kazuki and Shibata Mayu were friends from her early days in the Hidden Countries.  They had been subordinates of the Akatsuki before Konan had been murdered by Uchiha Obito and applied for asylum in Kumogakure together.

Mayu bled from her chest.  Her blonde head was twisted at an odd angle.  And Kazuki …

The thin jonin had to turn away.  The blue-haired medic’s body was torn beyond recognition.

Mitsuki headed for the entrance of the Raikage Tower.  A shiver running across her body stopped her in her tracks.  A pale blue mist streamed out of her mouth, an event that had not occurred frequently in the past twelve years. 

The half-ghost kunoichi ascended into the sky from a nearby window.  Her glowing green eyes caught a glimpse of a muscular man with a ghostly glow.  She forced her fears down her throat.

Of all ghosts … it’s him.  He must have escaped from Clockwork’s Tower!

Dark Danny glanced down at her with a smirk on his lips.  In a black-gloved hand, he held Yuki and Akira in a chokehold.  They sputtered for breath.

The heavily scarred girl rushed through hand signs for a Suiton jutsu.  A large wave like the one created by Suiton: Bakusui Shōha should knock her evil self out of the sky.  It would also quell the fires raging below.

Just as she was about to unleash it, Dark Danny conjured green flames in his free hand.  He thrust them onto the young half-ghosts’ chests.

“Kaa-san …” Yuki whimpered.  Her body slackened, like a puppet that had it’s strings cut.

Akira said nothing.  His head laid at an ominous angle.

All feeling drained out of Mitsuki’s heart.  She had failed them … all of them.  Ways of killing her foe scorched her skull.

The white-haired jonin had to kill this alternative form of herself.  It did not matter how she completed the act.  The snake-tongued ghost could be killed by a large-scale jutsu for all she cared.

The black-hearted ghost cackled.

“You’re so pitiful.  You cling to your friends and family, and you’re unable to save them.  Don’t you remember what I said years ago, Danny?  I’m inevitable!”

Mitsuki snapped open her icy blue eyes.  Her chest shuddered.  Cold sweat covered all of her body.

Right in her line of sight was a pair of golden eyes and a small black beak.  A soft mewing echoed in her ears.

“Shiro-chan …”

The white-haired kunoichi extended a small hand to her snowy owl’s wing.  She relished the feel of her soft feathers.

Shiro extended a speckled wing to her shoulder.  The mostly white owl pecked her lightly on the cheek.

Mitsuki glanced at the clock beside her futon.  It told her in glowing blue numbers that it was only five AM.  At this early morning hour, there was little chance of falling back asleep.  What a pain.

The thin girl rose from her bed.  She slid a pair of slippers onto her feet.  She invisibly headed for her children’s rooms.

Thankfully, there were no unwelcome visitors.  Yuki was cuddling her cat plush in her bed.  Akira slept with a bunch of books strewn around him.  Rina snoozed with a pillow covering her head.  Kiyoto mumbled in his sleep about hunting deer.

The short kunoichi paused as she reached Misaki’s room.  Her niece laid on the floor instead of her bed. 

She does get energetic while dreaming.  She must have fallen off her bed during the night.

She scooped up the tall girl.  She laid Misaki under her bed's bright yellow covers.

Relief flooded her veins.  Dark Danny had not returned.  Neither had the Guys in White.  All was well.

Mitsuki floated back into her room.  Sleep never came to her after nightmares.  Her kids deserved freedom from their mother’s demons.

She cleaned Shiro’s feathers with a moist cloth.  After she finished cleaning her feathered friend, she sharpened the white bird’s beak and talons.  The young-looking kunoichi was rewarded with a cuff on her shoulder.

The white-haired girl ambled to her dresser.  The few leafy trees near Kumogakure had grown an orange tint as of late.  A light outfit with short sleeves might not be wise in the upcoming autumn season.

From a sea of green, black, white, blue, and lavender, the small jonin picked out a pale green kimono shirt with matching pants, a white obi, white tabi socks, and white gloves.  She headed for her private bathroom with her clothes in hand.

A warm shower erased the cold sweat that had built up during the night.  But, Mitsuki’s fears did not vanish.  She thought about her nightmare.  About all of the wreckage Dark Danny caused.

He’s right.  If I lose all of the kids, I will stray into darkness.  And, if I were to do so, there would be very few who could stand in my way.

That was not being arrogant.  That was reality.  As a half-ghost who had mastered her powers and had lived with S-rank criminals for a couple of years, Mitsuki earned her place in the Bingo Book.  While she still helped innocents, any hesitance to kill threatening forces had been banished a long time ago.  The white-haired kunoichi had become an S-rank ninja in her own right.

Intangibility alone made her hard to hit in a combat situation.  Obito was a bitter reminder of how difficult individuals with the ability were to eliminate in open combat.  He held a variant of it from his Mangekyō Sharingan. 

The deranged man had been nearly untouchable during the Fourth Shinobi World War.  It took Ōtsutsuki Kaguya to take him to the grave.

Her invisibility allowed her to hide from view until it was too late.  Few shinobi could aim at her well if she flew in the sky.  Teleportation granted her the ability to be in an area one minute, and a place hundreds of miles away the next.  Her Ghostly Wail had only gotten more powerful with time.  Only the Raikage and Killer Bee might be able to handle her.  And, that was a big if. 

The rattled jonin slipped into her clothes.  She secured her spiky hair with a knotted blue ribbon.  Her Kiri Hensou no Jutsu sharpened her features, made her eyes a little smaller, and changed her body to a more mature build.

The kunoichi tied her forehead protector around her neck.  She took a look at herself.

Mitsuki’s eyes held deep bags under them.  As always, scars jutted out all over her face.  Her pale skin had been drained of color.  Her poor health could not be hidden today.

Her fragile hands grabbed pills from different bottles.  She swallowed them with a glass of water.

To believe I’m this ill and yet, I’m the last person someone wants to face in combat.  The main reason I’m still here is my will to live.

But, her will to live would not sustain her forever.  The Guys in White did more than dissect her, cut her with sharp blades to disfigure her, shock her, and play mind games where she was tricked that her friends and family invaded their headquarters to rescue her.  They tested drugs on her.  Drugs that wrought damage all over her body.

Kazuki was the first to check her after her being inducted into the Akatsuki as a subordinate.  The scarring all of her organs exhibited disturbed him.  Her liver, lungs, and heart barely had any healthy tissue left.

While nothing had been said outright, the white-haired kunoichi was not expected to live beyond her thirties.  Her half-ghost physiology and the vast number of organs involved impeded the idea of transplants.  Medical jutsu could not reverse it.  Kazuki and C attempted to fix her a long time ago.

Tsunade never had the opportunity to look at her before her death from wounds sustained during the Fourth Shinobi World War.  Uzumaki Naruto ruled as Rokudaime Hokage for two years before a battle between him and Uchiha Sasuke ended in a mutual kill.  Their sensei Hatake Kakashi took over as Nanadaime Hokage. 

The young men’s deaths were partly how she ended up with Rina, Kiyoto, and Misaki.  Naruto and Sasuke’s former teammate Haruno Sakura fled Konohagakure after their fatal battle.  The Rokudaime Hokage’s sudden demise left an unstable political climate in his wake.  The pink-haired medic was pregnant with Sasuke’s triplets.  The more extreme advisors in Konoha would have ordered her death if she stayed in her home village.

She eventually joined the half-ghost’s group of former Akatsuki subordinates.  In spite of Kazuki’s best efforts, Sakura died shortly after her children were born.  She had lost too much blood.

Mitsuki’s dark mood stayed for the rest of the morning.  Her kids rose from their beds around six-thirty.  Yuki and Rina had one of their usual arguments while the family ate bowls of rice mixed with poached egg yolks, apples, broccoli, and glasses of milk.

“Your shuriken aiming skills are pathetic.  None of yours made it into the target yesterday!” her niece boasted.

Yuki slammed her bowl on the table.  She crossed her arms.

“Really?  I hear that your Academy sensei gave you a hard time because you couldn’t perform Kawarimi no Jutsu properly.  And, you couldn’t break the small genjutsu she set on your class!”

The two girls squabbled for a long time in between bites of their food.  Rina eventually shot a kunai in the white-haired Academy student’s direction.  The older girl threw a shuriken.

Mitsuki shot out her hand.  She caught both metal weapons.  The blue-eyed kunoichi’s anger boiled to the surface.

“Enough, both of you.  Eat your food, and get out of my sight,” she snapped.

The two Academy students froze.  They finished their food in a few gulps.  They ran out the door with their backpacks on their backs.

None of the other kids stayed long after her outburst.  Akira and Misaki bolted from the dining room in a jittering rush. 

Kiyoto cleaned up the table, but he too headed for the Academy once all of the dishes were in the sink.  He grabbed his sisters’ and cousins’ bento boxes that had been forgotten in the fridge.

“Don’t worry, Mitsuki-bachan.  I’ll give everyone their lunch,” the black-haired boy promised.

She tried smiling at her nephew.  It came out looking like a grimace.

“You’re a good boy, Kiyoto-kun.  Make sure that Rina and Yuki do not get into another fight.  And, I hope I don’t hear about another prank of yours.”

The boy nodded rapidly.  He ran off to rejoin his sisters and cousins.

The half-ghost kunoichi cringed.  While they deserved it for throwing weapons in the house, she didn’t like it when she forced her stress on her children.  She hated scaring them with her fits.  The killing intent she leaked didn’t help. 

She sat down for a few minutes at the kitchen table staring at a picture of her long-gone husband, Uchiha Itachi.  She concentrated on breathing deeply.

I didn’t handle that well.  Maybe a day or more away from the kids will do me good.  I still have that report to deliver to A-sama about those anarchists between Shimo no Kuni and Kaminari no Kuni.

Not everyone had accepted the peace that transpired after the Fourth Shinobi World War.  The group of anarchists that Shiori alerted her about planned to destabilize the Hidden Countries by killing the daimyos.  The Yondaime Raikage had to hear about them as soon as was feasible.

Mitsuki slid on a pair of black sandals.  She scooped up the files pertaining to the anarchists’ group.  Shiro perched on her shoulder.  She allowed a pair of white rings to overcome her body.

Teleporting outside of Kumogakure’s gates took only a few seconds.  She deactivated her ghost form.  The guards let her through after glancing at her white forehead protector. 

Kumogakure had changed much since she, the kids, Mayu, and Kazuki were first allowed to seek asylum.  The village had grown.  Citizens wore tracksuits, caps, leather jackets, jeans, and sunglasses in addition to more traditional attire.  Businesses dotted every street corner.

The white-haired kunoichi traversed the top walkways lining Kumogakure’s mountainous terrain.  As the blue building built into the village’s tallest mountain loomed closer, her chest tightened on her again.  She paused in her progress.

She barely noticed the two shinobi approaching her.

“Mitsuki-san, are you alright?”

“Mitsuki-chan, where are you off to?”

Kazuki and Mayu came into view.  The small jonin cringed at the former.  Her body shivered uncontrollably. 

A man … No, Kazuki-san is not one of the Guys in White.  He’s one of my friends.

The kunoichi forced her gaze to the ground.

“A-sama’s office...  I visited Shiori-san yesterday at her pet store, and she brought a dangerous group to my attention.  I need to tell him about them right away.”

Mitsuki’s voice came out shaky.  Her friends frowned at her.

Kazuki’s dark green eyes scanned every inch of her body.  His gaze settled on her chest.

“Your breath is coming irregularly.  I’ll bring you to Raikage-sama, but we’re going to see what’s wrong, and if C-san can assist us.”

The tall man scooped up his small friend.  He nodded to Mayu.

“You’re going to tutor the first-year Academy students in taijutsu later, right?  You best get moving.”

The short blonde woman bowed to the two of them.

“I hope you feel better, Mitsuki-chan.  Take good care of her, Kazuki-kun.”

The kunoichi with a green top under a white flak jacket jogged away in the opposite direction.

Shiro resettled on her owner’s shoulder.  She barked at the blue-haired ninja holding her owner while spreading out her wings.

Kazuki carried the thin half-ghost through the doors of the Raikage Tower.  They boarded the elevator.  Several other shinobi joined them.

“Hey, Kazuki.  Why aren’t you at the hospital?” Darui inquired.

The shaggy-haired ninja stood to the pair’s right.  His dark eyes landed on Mitsuki.  She snuggled against her friend’s flak jacket. 

Her comrade from her first days in the Hidden Countries spooked her enough this morning.  She just wanted to turn in her findings to A and leave.  Old memories screamed at her to run far away.

Kazuki looked down at his friend.  He cringed.

“Today is my day off.  Mayu chatted with me about getting to teach the really young kids the basics of taijutsu at the Academy later this morning.  We found Mitsuki-san hunched over on the upper walkways.  She needs to deliver intel to Raikage-sama regarding some dangerous individuals, but she’s been hindered by her issues.”

Darui cringed.  He spoke again in a whisper.

“Her physical problems or her mental issues?”

Kazuki leaned into the white-haired man’s ear.

“Both.  She has found breathing difficult, and when she spotted me running up with Mayu, she shivered like she had a chill.  Her eyes were as big as an owl’s.  I think she’s afraid of men again.”

The elevator stopped moving.  Its doors opened wide so the shinobi inside could exit.  They moved in a pair of straight lines.

Darui herded the two of them down the hall.  The Raikage’s office loomed in the distance.

Mitsuki closed her eyes.  She mentally prepared herself.

A-sama is a man, and wears a lot of white, but he isn’t a Guys in White member.  He’s the Raikage.  I need to tell him about the anarchists near Shimogakure plotting to kill the daimyos.

The scruffy-haired shinobi entered the office first.  He gestured the white-haired girl and her blue-haired companion to stay outside.

The half-ghost kunoichi held her files close to her chest.  Eventually, the door to the Raikage’s office opened.  Darui walked out with a few other ninja following him.  A deep voice called out from inside.

“Kazuki, you may now enter with Mitsuki.  All of the men in the office but C and I have been dismissed for the time being.”

The white-haired girl’s comrade carried her through the door.  She was lowered into a chair facing the most powerful shinobi in Kumogakure.

A was starting to show signs of aging.  While he had not lost his combed back white hair or muscular physique, his height had begun a downward spiral.  His wrinkles had grown more pronounced.

Mitsuki handed the documents about the anarchist group to the dark-eyed man without a word.  The Raikage’s eyes widened.

“A group wanting to kill the daimyos?  No wonder you wanted to see me when you look so bedraggled.”

The muscular man creased his brow.  He frowned as he read the files.

“This needs to be nipped in the bud.  I’ll talk to the other Kages through e-mail, and see about protecting the daimyos of the different nations with platoons of shinobi.  I’ll send a group of shinobi out to capture members of the group since they’re near our borders.”

A placed the files into the ‘urgent matter’ pile on his desk.  He signaled a man with short blond hair to approach with a wave of his hand.

“C, perform a medic scan on Mitsuki.  Concentrate around her heart and lungs.”

The tall man nodded. 

C crouched beside Mitsuki’s chair.  He slowly placed a glowing hand on the jonin’s chest.

Mitsuki breathed deeply.  After a few minutes, the pale-skinned man removed his hand from her body.

“Mitsuki-san’s heart is beating too fast.  It’s working too hard to keep her blood circulating.  I think she needs a few pills to calm that down.  And, she should take it easy for the rest of the day.”

The white-haired kunoichi accepted a pair of powerful cardiac pills that C placed in front of her.  Kazuki fetched a glass of water from an adjoining bathroom.  The water helped the pills slip down her throat.

Her heartbeat calmed down.  C nodded approvingly.

“Now,” the blond instructed, “release your Kiri Hensou no Jutsu.  Your body needs to be as free from stress as possible.”

Mitsuki did so with a soft sigh.  Her features softened back into her default fourteen year old state.  The small jonin’s body trimmed itself of more mature assets.

The next hour was a counseling session between her and A.  The dark-skinned man prompted her about what caused her recent problems.

“Mitsuki, I know that you were due to collect intelligence from Kumogakure and Shimogakure Mayonaka members yesterday.  Your conditions are easily aggravated.  Did you have a nightmare about your past?”

The short kunoichi cringed.  She slowly nodded.

“More like a blending of the past and present, but yes.  I dreamed about arriving home without any of the kids being there.  It was after their curfew.  I looked everywhere in the house for any sign of them, but there was nothing.  Then, I heard several screams outside of the house.”

The white-haired jonin paused for a moment.  A furrowed his eyebrows.  She continued on with an evident quiver in her voice.

“When I followed the screams … Rina and Kiyoto were dead in a crater.  I snooped through the forest that ends near the village.  Guys in White members chased Misaki for whatever reason.  I tried to attack them with a jutsu, but they fired a blast of energy at her with their modified ecto-guns.  She ended up impaled on the splinters of a downed tree.”

Images of the vivid nightmare flashed in her head.  The corpses of those who died in the nightmare stood out the most.

“I followed a pattern of craters and deceased Guys in White agents into Kumogakure.  Citizens of both shinobi and civilian origin lied dead in the street.  Shika had been one of them.  A fire going on in the village swallowed Hara Naoya’s restaurant.  All of his family had been burnt to death.  I headed for the Raikage Tower after seeing all of this destruction.”

C and A wrote notes on pages of paper.  Kazuki bowed his head with an obvious frown on his face.

“Where did your terrible dream lead you when you decided to find the Raikage Tower?” A pressed on.

Mitsuki grimaced.  She concentrated on the climax of her night terror.

“I found the Raikage Tower, but you, Killer Bee-san, C-san, and Darui-san were nowhere to be found.  Kanayo-san had been there with a fatal burn to her throat.  I also saw Mayu-chan … and you, Kazuki-san.”

The blue-haired shinobi approached her side.

“What was I doing in the dream?  Was I fighting Guys In White members, or was I just another corpse?”

The Raikage held his hand up.

“Kazuki, let me question her, please.  The description of the whole thing is giving me shivers,” the older man ordered.

The tall medic-nin silenced himself.  Mitsuki plunged on while trying to hold back tears.

“Kazuki-san was not only dead.  He had been torn apart.  Mayu-chan bled from her chest.  I assume she was struck in either the heart or lungs.  My ghost sense went off at that point.  I realized that a ghost was involved and flew out of the tower.  This ghost was in the sky with Yuki-chan and Akira-kun in a chokehold.  I couldn’t believe who it was …”

The thin half-ghost shook violently.  She scrunched her eyes closed. 

That corrupted version of herself tortured her kids and killed them in front of her.  And, she had been unable to do a thing about it.  That it happened in a dark dream didn’t matter.

“Which old ghost enemy was it?” A asked.

“You’ve told me about the ones that faced you in the past.  Was it Skulker, Walker, Undergrowth, Plasmius Vlad, or someone else?”

Mitsuki cringed.  She buried her face into her gloved hands.

“If only it were that fruit loop, if only.  Even Pariah Dark would have been better.  A-sama, do you remembering us discussing the Temporal Incident?”

The dark-skinned man creased his eyebrows.  He nodded rapidly.

“Yes.  When I asked you about your past before you came to the Hidden Countries, you told me how an evil version of yourself laid waste to the planet in an alternate timeline.  He had resulted from a situation where you lost all of your friends and family to an explosion.”

The white-haired girl lowered her head.  Her teeth chattered against her will.

“Dark Danny was that ghost.  I tried to launch a Suiton jutsu on him, but he shot flames into my kids’ chests before I could do anything.  He told me that I useless to my friends and family.  And, worst of all, he said that his creation was inevitable …”

Mitsuki laid her head on the desk.  Shivering overtook her body.

“I love the kids, even if they’re difficult to handle sometimes.  If I were to lose everyone like that, my morals might disappear with them.  My combat skills and ghost powers would make me difficult to deal with.  The very idea of me going missing-nin is a dangerous prospect.”

A’s hand cupped the thin kunoichi’s chin.  He tipped her head up.

“Mitsuki, I know that if you were to defect and go on a rampage, there would be few shinobi who could stop you.  At the same time, if such an event caused you to lose your way, the matter would eventually resolve itself.  Your hidden ailments would catch up to you.  A cardiac arrest would take you out before you could destroy the village.”

The words took some time to sink in.  The aging Raikage continued to speak.

“In such an event, at least a couple of your friends would survive.  Even if they could not fight you directly, they would protect the innocent until nature took its course.”

The white-haired kunoichi pictured her friends who did not appear in the nightmare.  Karui, Omoi, Shiori, Kouki Mao, Hayashi Kaede, Kawato Aki.  Such a calamity might be enough for those from faraway to intervene too.  Visions of Fujimoto Norio, Takayuki, the revived Uzumaki clan, and Hyūga Hinata joined them.

The kunoichi’s fears slowly left her.  She thought of the incident with Yuki and Rina earlier in the morning.

“Thank you, A-sama.  I will rest for a few days.  Before I leave, I wish to ask a favor of you.”

A nodded at her.

“Go ahead.”

The blue-eyed kunoichi plunged in to the matter.

“Can you and Rei-san take Rina for a little while?  Her rivalry with Yuki got overheated this morning.  They chucked weapons at each other at the kitchen table after they exchanged trash talk about their performance at the Academy.”

Kazuki and the Raikage dropped their jaws.

“They did what?!” Kazuki exclaimed.

The tall shinobi’s eyes widened.  He moved closer to the door.

Kumogakure’s leader massaged his temples. 

“Of course I will.  Those two might be the death of you one day.  Since she is always with Shika-chan after the Academy is over, I’ll have Rei-chan or myself tell her that she’ll be staying the night.  And, that her stay at our house will not be all fun and games.  She needs to be punished.”

Mitsuki sighed.  Neither her niece nor her daughter could go without a punishment.  Shinobi did not point their weapons at family members or comrades. 

“When you return home, you may reprimand Rina in my steed.  Both girls will be relieved of their weapons pouch outside of class and training after school.  While Rina’s with you, have her attend Shika-chan’s evening politics lessons.  She hates studying.”

The white-haired man smirked.

“That punishment sounds good so far.  I will add that Rina clear the Academy training grounds of loose weapons after the Academy lets out.  The Chunin Exams are coming up, so there are not many teams free for D-ranks.  What will you give Yuki?”

Mitsuki had never attended a Chunin Exam.  She had been given chunin rank automatically when she, Kazuki, and Mayu agreed to join Kumogakure.  By the time she was granted a promotion to jonin, she ran out of Kumogakure every few days to meet with intelligence liaisons.  The intelligence business was too dangerous for a rookie genin team.

The small half-ghost thought of her daughter.  Yuki and Shika were not friends thanks to their respective relationships with Rina.  The two cousins should be separated for the time being. 

“I’m not sure.  Yuki and her brother inherited my ghost powers.  If I stuck her with Rina and Shika, she could just sneak off.  She’s about the age of the younger genin, so even if genin teams were available, it could cause some problems if I made a genin team babysit her.”

The white-haired kunoichi frowned.  Her daughter’s age meant that she was outgrowing certain penalties.  Her ghost powers made her immune to others.  The days of grounding, timeouts, and the rare spanking were about over.

She could take away Yuki’s allowance, but that could backfire as well.  What if her daughter ruined her clothes from sparring or if her twin brother Akira wasted his allowance on her?  The two were rarely seen without each other.

“I will leave a message with Shiro so Yuki and Akira will stay with Tetsuya-kun and Hideki-kun tonight,” the frustrated kunoichi breathed.

A gestured her to continue.

“She does not get along with Shika-chan or Rina, so it would be foolish to have her stay at your home.  In the letter I will send to her and her brother, I will express how disappointed I am.  Once she returns from sleeping over with Tetsuya-kun, I will scold her in private.  She will have to write an essay about weapon safety.”

Kazuki and the Raikage nodded in approval.  The difficulty of disciplining the Uchiha twins was well known by those acquainted to the family.

“Now that we’re done with that,” the aging Raikage advised, “take a deserved break.  Shop, go eat somewhere, and if you get too tired, go home to rest.  I’ll take care of Rina.  Good day, Mitsuki.”

The white-haired kunoichi rose from the chair.  She nodded.

“Good day, A-sama.”

Kazuki scooped her into his arms.

“If you wouldn’t mind, I would like to carry you until we’re in the main village again,” the blue-haired man urged.

“The high altitude isn’t good for your lungs.”

Mitsuki smiled at her old friend.

“Of course.  Thank you.”

The former Akatsuki subordinate followed the trails carved on the sides of the mountains back to Kumogakure’s ground level.  Once they reached the ground, the tall ninja released the thin kunoichi from his grasp.

Thus, a busy morning began for the Uchiha clan matriarch.

Links to Other Chapters:

[Part Two]

[Part Three]

Japanese Translations/Shinobi Terms:

Shimogakure – Village Hidden In The Frost

shinobi – ninja

kunoichi – female ninja

Guys In White – An American-based ghost hunting organization.  They were sanctioned by the American government until they kidnapped, experimented on, and killed half-ghosts from all over the globe, including Phantom Danny/Uchiha Mitsuki.  Most of their members were killed by Uchiha Itachi in the Burning Exodus of 2005.

-bachan – auntie

Fūton: Daitoppa – Wind Release: Great Breakthrough

Kumogakure – Village Hidden In The Clouds.  One of the five major hidden villages.  Located in Kaminari no Kuni.

Akatsuki – red dawn; daybreak.  A terrorist group based out of Amegakure comprised of S-rank missing-nin from different villages.  The main members perished ten years ago.  Subordinates and associates survived Akatsuki’s destruction, and made new lives elsewhere.

Suiton: Bakusui Shōha – Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave

 kaa-san – mother

-chan – an affectionate suffix used on young children, girls, and women.

Rokudaime Hokage – Sixth Hokage

Nanadaime Hokage – Seventh Hokage

Kawarimi no Jutsu – Body Replacement Jutsu; one of the basic jutsu taught to Academy students.

-sama – a suffix that acknowledges the recipient as higher in rank.  Similar to Lord or Lady.

Shimo no Kuni – Land of Frost

Kaminari no Kuni – Land of Lightning

-san – a suffix acknowledging the recipient as equal in rank.

Mayonaka – midnight.  A multi-village intelligence organization based in the Outside on Sakai Island.  This organization spies from the shadows to prevent war.  All major and minor villages are represented with the exception of Otogakure.  Each village’s Mayonaka division has a Head who oversees that village’s Mayonaka members. 

Kiri Hensou no Jutsu – Mist Masquerade Jutsu; a jutsu Mitsuki uses to hide her actual age/appearance. 

-kun – an affectionate suffix used on boys and men the speaker is familiar with.

  

A/N:  I’ve been sick, and this idea refuses to leave my head.  This fic is basically a day in the life for the one who puts up with the Uchiha twins’ and triplets’ shenanigans the most. 

In most of Whirlpools of Lightning, we see Mitsuki from the POV of Yuki and Rina for the most part.  There are some things regarding her physical and mental health that are not shared with the kids.  Mitsuki does not want to share them.  She feels that her issues are her responsibility alone. 

In my New Gen Naruto stories, kids enter the Academy at five years of age.  The preferred graduation age is twelve, but kids can graduate as early as ten years old with permission from their guardians and the local village leader/Kage.  Kumogakure is the most lax with the restriction, while Konohagakure is the most strict about it.

Rina is in her fifth year of schooling and Yuki is in her seventh year.  A lot of their schooling is focused on the practical part of the shinobi arts at this point in their education.  Most civilian subjects (reading, writing, math, social studies, etc) were covered when they were younger.

Mitsuki hates Obito because he killed Konan, who she served under as an Akatsuki subordinate.  He also crashed hers and Itachi’s wedding.  Learning of his past has not changed her opinion of him.

The Guys in White left her with both physical and mental problems.  Mitsuki has been left with a fear of men.  She can usually suppress it, but on bad days it comes out in full force.

Yuki and Akira’s ghost powers have made it difficult to punish them as they aged.  Think about it: they can phase through any spankings, escape the house without a trace if they’re grounded or in timeout, sneak in the living room to watch TV if they’ve been banned from watching it, and complete extra chores quicker. 

The ninja training everyone is getting at the Academy is making the non-half-ghost kids grow out of their punishments at a lesser rate. 

Nothing exists to combat or short out ghost powers in the Hidden Countries.  There are laws that restrict certain items from being imported from the Outside, and ghost hunting weaponry are among the restricted items. 

Few malicious ghosts exist in their current residence.  Mitsuki does not wish to invent alternative devices because she knows they might be used against her kids one day in a combat situation. 

I was having a hard time deciding how to present Pariah Dark’s name.  ‘Dark Pariah’ just looked wrong.  Rock Lee and Might Guy have the same sort of problem when their names are renditioned in English name order.   It’s a paradox.

This fic is also meant to flesh out a couple of family members for the Uchiha kids’ teammates on their genin squads in the main story.  The Uchiha clan still being around is a secret of the highest order.  The Raikage must be sure that their squads are on good terms with the Uchiha kids and will keep the secret no matter the cost. 

The Uchiha children were not grouped into teams based on the ‘rookie-of-the-year, best kunoichi, dead-last’ formula.  While abilities factored into team selections, their teammates were chosen by whom they were friends with and could trust the most.

This got so big that I split it into three chapters.

    

 

 

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