The Chain

Arrested

Melissa was stunned as she watched the ANBU hauling Orion off.  She then face palmed as he saw her give Neo a look followed by a wink.  Cheeky little bastard.  Here he was getting arrested for his dazzling display of vengeance in the middle of the village.  Leave it to her godson to create a scandal in the heart of the village.  He was definitely his mother's son.  Iruka was chuckling softly next to her.

"I will hand it to your friend's family, they know how to get attention.  This will be the talk of the village for a long time.  First his sister racks the son of one of the most prominent men in the village, his mother gets into a hellish Ninjutsu fight with the same man's wife, marries the Sixth Hokage, and now said son takes down not one but three Foundation Shinobi... all while announcing that he is Obito Uchiha's son."

Melissa looked through her fingers at him before joining in his amusement.  "Oh, there has never been a quiet moment in the life of that family.  Kakashi has his hands full and doesn't realize it yet."

"I'm sure he will once he gets wind that Orion was arrested and for what," Iruka said with a slight smirk.  "Is it true?"

"Hmm?" she asked slightly distracted as the other three were hauled off while raising hell.

"Is he Obito Uchiha's son?"

"Yes," Melissa responded turning towards him.  "Of course, Sarah didn't know it was Obito when she fell in bed with him."

Iruka's brows shot up, "How did she not know?"

"He was masquerading as Tobi.  It's really not that hard to see how easy it would be to fool her.  She thought Obito was dead like the rest of us.  He was already badly mangled from that rock crushing him and part of his face was bandaged... and she was only fifteen.  You remember what it was like to be fifteen don't you?  We do all kinds of stupid stuff when we are kids."

"Hmm, that's true enough.  I used to get into all kinds of trouble when I was a kid, trying to get attention.  That's one reason I began to understand Naruto when he was like a wild animal."

Melissa giggled at the way Iruka described Naruto.  Her eyes danced as she looked at him, "I still remember when he graffitied the mountain monuments.  I laughed so hard as he was running away, paint still in his hand, from the Shinobi that had caught him."

Iruka made a groaning sound, "I thought for sure I was going to kill him.  Yet... that day, it struck me how alone he was as he was scrubbing the paint off while I supervised.  He started worming into my heart."

"And look at him now... do you suppose that is actually him or one of his clones?"

"Clone," Iruka chuckled.  "Naruto is probably still buried under paper right now."

The clone was disbursing the crowd alongside the ANBU that hadn't left with a prisoner in tow.  Iruka leaned towards her, noticing she was getting distracted again.  It had been a little amusing for him earlier at how quickly she had been ready to jump into the fray.  

"I didn't ask you... did you see Naruto yet?"

Melissa turned towards him, her lips curling up in a smile.  "Yes, I did.  He relieved me of duty on away missions.  Shikamaru did a bit a grumbling about losing one of their better field operatives."

Iruka thought it was cute how she almost preened at the words.  He reached forward and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, her eyes softening at the action.  "So, what will you be doing?"

"I don't know yet.  Naruto said he was going to think about where to assign me here in the village and gave me a two-week vacation in the interim."

 "Oh, that will be really nice," he said with a big smile.  "I'm sure you've earned a vacation after all these years."