Chapter Text
Konoha. 12 or 13 years ago.
"I do not see how my medical care is a concern of yours, Shimura-sama."
Shimura Danzou was smart enough to hear the warning coldness in the wife of the Hokage. He just ignored it.
"I assure you, Kushina-san, I speak merely--"
"Of things that reflect purely of your pissing match with Hiruzen. One, I might add, the Professor has no damn interest in participating in! He keeps holding out his hand in friendship, and you piss on it! And you're pissing at me now!"
Danzou kept himself composed, but couldn't help but look around. The few people near the shinobi clinic where the Hokage's wife was in tears blasting away at the village's Shinobi no Yami politely did not hear it. Most residents of Konoha had gotten used to the heated outbursts of the Woman from Whirlpool.
She had been to the clinic a lot-- even more, it was murmured, than the Shodai's wife had been when pregnant with her children.
"You think I don't know," Kushina said, clutching a belly that was just starting to achieve roundness, "how you're already trying to figure out how to turn my child into a weapon?"
Danzou took a deep breath, reminded himself the woman was pregnant, after all, and began, "Ninjas are the tools of the village--"
"Spare me what you tell yourself late at night to stave off the guilt," Kushina interrupted, pushing past him. "Just because you're so upset you couldn't die for Konoha for no reason doesn't mean you have to warp the rest of our lives to... to whatever!"
Danzou could not restrain himself. He reached out and grabbed her shoulder. "How dare--"
Kushina spun and glared at him, raising one finger-- which, Danzou would reflect later, was likely the only reason the ANBU that were no doubt shadowing her did not step in. He felt a stinging and barely noticed one of her chakara chains retreating to her and disappearing.
"Your grandfather. Your father. Both gave their lives with honour for Konoha. You keep acting like your mistake was to not take your turn. Maa! you act as if you were just being cued up to be next in line. You misplace your anger on to Hiruzen, because that could have been you, you say. Never mind the Nidaime might have already made his choice, and was protecting our future. Never mind your father was likely doing the same. You lose yourself to the idea we must sacrifice, as if the sacrifices were the point! If you have nothing to sacrifice for..." She took a deep, heaving breath, and Danzou suddenly realized how stressed she was. In an attempt to lay ground work for the training of the Yondaime's heir, he was endangering the heir.
Danzou managed to guide Kushina to a bench a short distance away. He was able to do it with minimal fuss, for which he was thankful. He sighed as he sat beside her. "I am sorry, Uzumaki-sama. I am perhaps oversensitive when I feel someone is doubting my love for Konoha."
She took his offered handkerchief, smiling weakly. "Never that, Shimura-sama. It's just... if you love our home so much... if you wish to honour those who sacrificed to keep it here... isn't it... I mean, why did they sacrifice themselves?"
Danzou actually gave the question some thought. "To preserve Konoha, is the obvious answer. But I suppose you wish me to apply one of the oldest maxims of the ninja..."
Kushina snorted slightly. "No, I don't have the patience that requires. Can I... tell you what I see under the underneath, and ask you think about it?"
Danzou smiled. He hoped it was as earnest as he felt-- wanting to be on good terms with the woman aside, he had to admit he liked hearing secrets and insights. "I promise you I will not say one word regarding the future of your child until I have considered your point at least enough to give you a proper rebuttal."
She considered this, nodded, and sighed. "Konoha is its people. A ninja must always be ready to make sacrifices, even that final one. But if all we find honour in is the sacrifice, we forget what many who came before were sacrificing themselves for."
She looked up, and he followed he gaze to the monument her husband had so recently been added to.
"We risk making Konoha a place where, instead of dying to preserve, one dies to escape from. We honour them by making Konoha a place people will always want to return to. It is better to honour those that have died by carrying on-- because by living, we make Konoha."
Danzou sat, and let the words sink in-- he had given her his word, with no reason not to. And the words went through his mind, and he considered them... and could not turn them aside.
"I will indeed need to think on that, Uzumaki-sama," Danzou said, rising.
She smiled. "While you do, Danzou-san, would you help a hampered woman to the ramen stand?"
"Oh. Far be it from me to deprive the good owner his rent."
She swatted him, and insisted her purchases alone were not enough to pay the rent on Teuchi's newly popular stand, and took his offered arm to rise, and started bubbling on about some silliness involving her husband's echii student Kakashi and that eccentric taijutsu prodigy, Gai. And Danzou smiled, chuckled, and nodded...
But part of him was still thinking over the jinchuriki's words, and would be long into the night.
Words they never really would have had, had not Kushina discovered her child was likely to be a girl-- and doubled her check ups. Females of the Uzumaki tended to be special, after all...