My baby sister Hikari, is 2 years old now along with Kus.h.i.+na's daughter Tsubame. They both get together at the local park for playdates. When I am not on missions or with Mei, I try to find time to play with Hikari. I try to make her mimic my hand seals, she gets frustrated when she can't interlock her pudgy little fingers. Poking her belly and cheeks are my favorite things to do since she is a little ticklish. Every now and then I infuse her with small doses of Ki to strengthen her. Whenever Tsubame is also here I do the same for her too. Naruto seems really happy and overprotective of Tsubame though good thing that Hinata's new personality keeps him in check. We still have training sessions every now and then. Other than Naruto, I finally see Sasuke joining, and where Sasuke goes so does his groupies. Since Sakura takes her apprentices.h.i.+p with Tsunade seriously, she comes when she has time. Karin also became a follower but not as severe as it was in the original story line. Karin became Kus.h.i.+na's apprentice and started to work on the Uzumaki specialty, Fuinjutsu (Sealing).

When Mei has time for a date I ask her where she wants to go and how much time she can spare. A few times she was in Konoha on business and talks of treaties were in the air. When she did come one of those times I introduced her to my parents, Mei wanted to meet them. At first my parents were at a loss for words, out of all people the Mizukage. My father was proud and took me to the side to talk to me. What kind of son would I be if I at least didn't introduce my girlfriend to my parents?

Kaien: I knew when you brought a woman home it would be someone beautiful, but the Mizukage herself. I am proud of you son.

Sage: I just hope mom likes her. Your opinions are the only ones that matter to me.

That day I went all out and cooked dinner. I cooked in a French style which is uncommon in this world. The menu was b.u.t.ter lemon garlic and herbs spiny lobster with mushroom risotto and char grilled salt and pepper asparagus, fillet mignon with small red potatoes with broccoli in garlic sauce. For dessert I made strawberry caramel flan, pudding. The recipes were ones I made for my parents in my previous life for their anniversary. I took cooking cla.s.ses in college and was quite good at it but not enough to be a professional. After the meal Mei chatted with my parents before we headed back to my apartment for some s.e.xy time. Sometimes when we held training sessions, Mei would actually be around to watch. During some of those times Ino would be there. Mei would wipe the sweat from my face and hand me a bottle of water, from the corner of my eye I could see the mixed feelings on Ino's face. The brighter the smile on Mei the uglier Ino's expression became. I didn't care and carried on.

A few weeks later Konoha received letter for help from Sunagakure. Like in the original story, the sand apologized and compensated for the invasion led by their false Kazekage. Peace treaties came fast between our villages. The Akatsuki was made known to our village and those allied to us that held a Biju or Jinchuuriki ever since Itachi and Kisame came after Naruto. When Sunagakure was attacked by an Akatsuki member they let us know but there was no call for help. Not until Kankuro was attacked and poisoned by an enemy did the sand finally call for Konohas help. The reason was that they found the ident.i.ty of the enemy, Sasori of the Red Sand. Deidara and Sasori were the ones to attack the san to get to Gaara, who was now the Kazekage. Minato called for a council with the previous Hokages and those who hold power, like me, Tsunade and Jiraiya.

Minato: We are going to send some people to help Sungakure. I wanted to know which of you will be available to help with the the teams that are going. The teams that are going are Kakas.h.i.+'s, Azuma's and Kurenai's team. They have Lady Tsunade's disciples so the poison can be easily taken care of. Now I am a.s.signing you as a supervisor Sage-kun.

Sage: (I shrugged). Sure, why not. Maybe I can get some new recipes. I will get ready then.

I cared less for the rest of the meeting. Search and destroy is my go to solution considering I know what they want to do with the Biju and Jinchuuriki. We set off after preparing. I didn't fly nor teleport because I was still on cruise control. Nothing fun will happen until Pain comes for Kurama and Kaguya enters the stage so I was going to let Akatsuki get Shukaku and let the old lady Chiyo sacrifice her life for Gaara. In order to get the Akatsuki to get the biju to summon the Jyuubi and then Kaguya I needed the biju but since I didn't want to sacrifice either Kus.h.i.+na and Naruto I asked Kurama from both mother and son to give his chakra so I can use it instead of them for the past 2 years. Kurama, Kus.h.i.+na and Naruto knew what I wanted to do and what the chakra was going to be used for so it was a win- win that they trusted me with it. Gaara is going to live and Killer Bee has a way to survive the extraction so the other Jinchuuriki didn't matter to me. The more I thought about it the more I convinced myself to take Nagato's eyes so I grew excited waiting for Pain to come attack. I already what I could do, destroy all the Pains except for Yahiko's body and take his eyes that way even before he destroys the village. It took us 3 days to finally reach Sunagakure.

???: DIE KONOHA'S WHITE FANG!!!

A little old lady came flying in attacking Kakas.h.i.+. After the misunderstanding was settled and I stopped laughing they gave us the current status of the situation. Old lady Chiyo calmed down and explained what to expect from Sasori but his partner, Deidara, was a mystery to them. Sakura, Ino and Hinata went to look at Kankuro and made an antidote for Sasori's poison. Since there was three disciples of Tsunade, they were able to make more antidotes for those afflicted.