Yuusuke whistled, partially to himself, and partially to keep his passenger amused, as he walked down the village street. It'd been a little less than three years since he and his crew had made Konoha their new stomping grounds, and things were looking good. All four of them were still sharp as ever thanks to no end of Konoha nin wanting to test themselves against the mercs, and they'd even picked up a few new tricks to incorporate into their styles. Speaking of challengers...
"DYNAMIC-"
"Baby on board Gai!" Yuusuke called out with a smirk. The smirk widened to a devilish grin as he heard a muted "uh-oh", followed by a crash as Maito Gai changed course at the last second, and failed to stick his landing. There was a shout, a quick apology and the tinkle of money changing hands to pay for damages. A moment later, and the green-clad Special Jounin was jogging next to Yuusuke.
"How goes it my youthful companion?" Gai was normally very boisterous, but a few times using his "normal" tone of voice around Naruto and making the kid cry, he'd learned to tone it down. Especially after Hiei had taken him aside and said a few short sentences in his ear. No one was sure what he'd said, but it'd put a decibel cap on Gai when he was around the Genkin and their charge. Yuusuke had to admit, wardrobe choices and volume-level aside, he liked Gai. He was probably the only active duty ninja in this entire village that he or Kuwabara could go up against in a straight-up knock-down drag-out rumble without worrying about killing them by accident that wasn't ANBU, and he was actually pretty intelligent to boot, once you got past the whole "flames of youth" thing.
"Eh, on my way to visit my sister and see how the incoming bouncing baby brat is making her life." Yuusuke was beaming as he said this though, belying his true feelings about the prospect of becoming an uncle once again. "And this one is on his way to his first ever sleep-over for Hinata-chan's birthday," he gestured down at Naruto, who was strapped to his chest, and giggling madly as he watched one of his "brothers" interact with Gai.
Yuusuke smiled even wider as he remembered the first time he'd brought Naruto over for his sister and niece to see. The kid had started crawling around the playpen that he was sharing with the little girl, before fixating on Hinata's shiny raven-wing hair. Being at that phase, he'd crawled over and given it a tug, making Hinata start to cry. Haruka had gotten up to disengage them, but Yuusuke had beaten her too it.
"Hey, Naruto, stop that!" The blue-eyed baby had dropped Hinata's hair, letting her crawl away, and turned to regard his caretaker. Who had taken one of the spiky blond locks in two fingers, and tugged just as hard as Naruto had Hinata's hair. The baby had immediately teared up, and Yuusuke had released the lock of hair.
"Doesn't feel too good, does it?" Naruto had gurgled, and then crawled back over to Hinata, bringing one of the soft toy blocks that Yuusuke had brought with them, and offering it to the sniffling little girl, cooing something that to Urameshi, had sounded like an apology in baby-talk. Hinata had accepted the block, and after both of them cooing and gurgling back and forth, they'd started playing with the blocks, everything apparently forgiven. Of course, Yuusuke scowled slightly, then Hiashi had had to come in and make a damn scene, scaring the kids with some killing intent when he saw Naruto, until he'd been forcibly removed by Yuusuke's flying tackle. At least it had been a good fight, he reminded himself, good mood returning.
"Surprised you're not with the rest of the guys patrolling the walls and everything, since we've got that entourage from Kumo coming in today," Yuusuke mentioned offhand. Gai looked sheepish for a moment.
"Lemme guess," Yuusuke chuckled, "that one medic pulled you off duty like she'd been threatening to do?"
"It was only a torn ligament! How was I supposed to know that Komiko-san would throw a fit over it?"
"Dude, I'm pretty sure she likes you, and doesn't like it when you're hurting yourself like that."
"Green-bean!" Naruto crowed from his place on Yuusuke's chest, attempting to wiggle out of the toddler-pack and stretching his arms out towards Gai. Gai gave a small grimace, before chuckling and tickling the boy lightly under the chin, eliciting a burst of giggles from the blond. One of the boy's first words had been the nickname that Kuwabara had stuck him with, and while it was hardly flattering, it wasn't derogatory in the slightest either, unlike some other things people had called him when they thought he couldn't hear them, so he'd learned to live with it. After a moment Naruto shoved "Puu", a curious looking stuffed toy that Yuusuke had given him, in his face. Gai smiled gently, and patted the toy on the head in greeting as well. He always wondered where Yuusuke had gotten such an odd-looking thing, but Naruto seemed to love it and the squeaky cooing sounds it made when squeezed at times.
*Later that night*
The masked man was silent as death as he made his way through the compound. He'd managed to avoid the Hyuuga patrols thanks to the information his faction had received, and was even now outside the nursery room of the Hyuuga heir. He grinned to himself beneath the seal-covered mask; the key to fame and power in his home village lay just beyond this door. Sliding it open and ghosting in, he paused as he got a good look in the crib. Two children were sleeping there! One was his target, but the other was an unknown; blond haired and clutching at one of the ugliest stuffed animals he'd ever seen. The man paused, wasting precious seconds as he ran several scenarios through his mind, before making his decision. He'd take both. Any child that the Hyuuga allowed to share the clan heir's crib was obviously worth quite a bit in ransom. He reached forward to grab the two brats and make his getaway.
That's when the plushy looked at him.
He froze. Blinked. And then reached for a kunai.
The piercing battle-scream of a bird of prey tore out of the toy's mouth, before it launched itself at him, managing to slam into his solar plexus with the top of its head and then bouncing off the floor and walls like a demented blue and black pinball with talons. Panicking, he managed to grab both brats, not having the time to apply the sleep genjutsu that he'd wanted to use, and bolted. They both woke up and began to scream as well. Killer intent flared in several parts of the compound, though most of it was overshadowed by four signatures heading in his direction from deeper in the village, before they went out like candles in a gale.
He managed to make it over the walls of the compound, somehow, and was dashing through the woods towards the wall. There was a small escape route that they'd planned out, and according to the map and schedule his team had obtained, it was only a quarter of a mile from the wall he'd gone over to it, and it would be unguarded.
Halfway there, his slim chances of escape evaporated. A vine of some sort lashed out of the undergrowth, unnaturally long thorns piercing his ankles and tearing at his flesh even as they bound his feet together. He stumbled, and the children flew from his arms. He reached for them, not out of any sense of protection, but because they were his ticket to the top. There was a flash of steel, and he was left dumbfounded, looking at the cauterized stubs of his wrists, even as a large man in white leaped out of the underbrush, managing to safely catch both children in midair, turning and holding them tight to his chest so they couldn't see the blood gushing from their kidnapper's wounds. Hiei landed, and with a flick of his wrist, extinguished the blue flames on his blade even as he nodded in approval at Kuwabara's reaction.
"Kurama," Yuusuke's voice was ice as he stepped out of the shadows, a gigantic shape shuffling along on the ground behind him, somehow managing to stay hidden in the shadows, "Keep him alive. I wanna know who it was that thought they could steal my niece and our ward and get away with it, and dead men tell no tales."
At that moment, there was a crashing in the underbrush, before a wild-eyed Hiashi emerged. Seeing the man lying prostrate on the ground, he leapt forward with a snarl on his lips, even as the killing intent he gave off caused both children to shriek in terror and bury their faces in Kuwabara's shoulders once more. Yuusuke moved like lightning, catching his brother-in-law in a sleeper hold.
"CALM DOWN DAMMIT! The kids are safe! But if you kill this guy now, we'll never get any answers!" He kept the hold until Hiashi stopped struggling. "You gonna be rational about this now?"
Hiashi's answer was muffled, but it was loud enough to be interpreted as "yes".
"Good, I'm gonna let you go now." Acting on this, Yuusuke let Hiashi go, before moving over to the downed man, who was unconscious thanks to a nerve strike from Kurama, who in turn was binding the wounds he'd inflicted. The two of them exchanged looks, before Yuusuke nodded.
"Kuwabara, take the kids back to the compound and stand watch. Make sure my sister knows that her husband is with us and that he's unharmed. Hiei, go wake up the Hokage. Kurama, you take the prisoner and Hiashi to his office. I'll be there in a bit."
---
Twenty-three minutes later found two of the four mercenaries in the Hokage's office with Hiashi, the still-masked kidnapper, and Sarutobi himself. There was a knock at the door, and when Sarutobi bade them enter, the entire delegation from Kumo was ushered into the room by Yuusuke, who subtly locked the doors as soon as he was through, Hiei flickers to stand next to him. The civilian spokesman for the delegation stepped forward. "What is the meaning of this Hokage-sama? Why have we been routed from our beds and told you needed to see us for an "important matter"?"
Instead of Sarutobi, Kurama was the one who answered. "Exactly half an hour ago, this man infiltrated the Hyuuga compound, and attempted to kidnap both the Clan Heir Hinata, and the ward of the Reikei Genkin. He was caught in the act, and attempted to flee with the children, but was apprehended and neutralized as a threat, permanently, by one of our number." Several of the delegates gasped and went pale as they saw that the masked man had lost both his hands. "I believe you're all already familiar with him?" With that Kurama whipped the mask off, allowing all present to see the face of the head Kumo-nin delegate. "Please note that he is still alive, though I doubt he will be very thankful when he wakes." Kurama's tone was clinical, even as he assessed the expressions of every Kumo-nin and citizen in the room. Hiashi had his Byakugan active as well, while Sarutobi merely scowled at the assembled personages. The pulsing sources of killing intent at their backs had all of them afraid to turn and see what Yuusuke and Hiei's expressions might be.
Sarutobi spoke then. "Now then, I believe your original purpose here was to talk terms of a peace treaty. Those talks will be suspended until I receive a message back from the Raikage in response to the missive I sent him just now. Until then, you will all be guests of our T&I unit." Several ANBU appeared in puffs of smoke. "You will not be harmed, physically, but I assure you, any involvement in this kidnapping attempt will come to light!" After the ANBU had escorted the last mobile Kumo personnel out, and dragged the comatose leader out as well, Sarutobi turned to look at the four other men in his office.
"How are the children faring?" Yuusuke scowled.
"About as well as can be expected. They're terrified out of their minds. And this idiot," he glared at Hiashi, "didn't help things at all when he slammed into the clearing blaring killing intent and frothing at the mouth like a mad fucking dog!" Hiashi opened his mouth angrily, but Yuusuke held up one hand, "I can appreciate the sentiment Hiashi, believe me, but the way you went about things? I'm thinking that neither one of the kids is gonna want to come anywhere near you for a good long while." Hiashi seemed to deflate suddenly, looking lost.
"I was just so worried, and scared, and angry, and-"
"You lost focus." Hiei's voice held no accusation, only clinical detachment similar to what Kurama's voice had held earlier. "You only saw that someone was trying to hurt your family, and so you tried to hurt them back even worse. But in doing so, you lost sight of the fact that the children were still. There." Now there was an edge to his voice that would put his blade to shame, "They may not have seen much, but they felt the bloodlust you were giving off, and they're too young to understand the entire reason behind it. Even if the others are able to convince them that you were not aiming any of those feelings in their direction, they will still be unnerved around you. It may take years to undo what you have wrought by accident tonight."
Hiashi just looked at his hands, the normally stoic and aloof Clan Head looking nothing short of utterly lost. Yuusuke gently laid one hand on his shoulder.
"I may not agree with a lot of the shit that the Hyuuga do Hiashi, but I'm willin to help you with this at least. Now come on, maybe between the five of us, we can get the kids calmed down all the way." With a gentle ease, he helped Hiashi to his feet, and then led the man out of the office, Hiei and Kurama preceding them. "We'll talk tomorrow Old Man," he tossed over his shoulder before the door swung shut.
Sarutobi sat, puffing on his pipe for a few moments, before looking out the window at the monument. "Ah my young friend, you were wiser than I first thought when you picked those young men to protect your son. They did the Leaf a great service today." The Fourth's eyes seemed to catch the moonlight for a moment, twinkling. 'Probably just some exposed rock crystals," Sarutobi mused to himself, before heading to his personal chambers connected to the office. He was going to have to be here early anyway to assure the civilian council that everything was fine and the situation had been resolved.