Sensou
"Only fools don't know the consequences to their actions." - Anonymus.
"Naota-kun! Naota-kun!" Satomi tried in vain, waving her hand from the shore in desperation, but nothing happened. Either the boat was too far away for her voice to be heard or Naota had completely fallen asleep, making her calls kind of useless. The later sounded like the more likely reason. When he went out fishing there were few things that could bring him back to reality; his father's commanding voice was one of them, but since he was busy dealing with the council at the moment, Yohei Uzumaki-sama had asked her to fetch his oldest child and the future leader of the Uzumaki family. Problem was, Satomi wasn't a trained ninja, making walking on water something she was still not used to doing.
She came from an influential family in the south islands that were to be part of Whirlpool. A deal had been made with the ninja village, and the Azore's archipelago islands were to be incorporated into the land of Eddies, meaning that they now had the privilege of trading with the great nations in the continent and be part of the protection program Whirlpool was now implementing to all of their allied islands. Now that a new Mizukage had been name, his first deal of order had been to "recuperate all the island that had been stolen from them by that damn Second Council". In reality, those islands had once been part of the previous Taisho dynasty, a powerful clan that had ruled much of the west and south ocean and had taken it upon itself to rule much part of the continent as well.
Unfortunately, the second son of the powerful clan leader, Yasu Taisho, hadn't been born with the innate talent in strategy as his elder brother had and thus was brutally defeated in the fight against the second Hoakge of Konoha, Tobirama Senju. The defeat of their leader caused a civil war in the Tategami ocean which in turn cause the independence of many islands among the once great empire. Unfortunately, the Second Mizukage, saw the opportunity to seize more land and conquered the southern Mitsukemija islands, that now formed part of Kirigakure. The Uzumaki clan, who had been a powerful ally of the Taisho clan, had taken it upon itself to follow their cousins steps and form their own ninja village, were they could live in peace but with a form of independence. Fuyuika Uzumaki, Naota's great grand father and leading commander of the Taisho army founded the hidden village of Whirlpool which grew larger when neighbor islands were absorbed into the Eddie nation as a means to diversify itself and grow more independent of the continent. Yet unlike Kirigakure, Whirlpool still recognized the independence of those countries that had been created with blood and death and allowed them to choose their own leaders which in turn would form part of the leading council of Whirlpool. Said council, consisted of the leaders of each archipelago of islands which ruled the nation of Eddies which consisted of more than two hundred islands in itself. By the time the third Mizukage had been elected, some of those nations that had been once part of Kirigakure fought for their independence, driving them into the land of Eddies which the second council accepted with grace promising not only a change in their ruling but also a better economic stability that the one they once had under Kirigakure brutal rule. This is turn anger the Mizukage and to prevent a war between the two Nations, Whirlpool's second council had decided to pay Kirigakure a large sum of money for the acquirement of said lands, something the second Water Daimyo had agreed upon, since said islands didn't pose any strategic nor economic gain for the land of water. Unfortunately, said lord had spent the money on pretty dresses and laborious parties and had bankrupted the water nation, leading to the downfall of a once powerful village.
The Azore archipelago had never been part of either the land of water nor the land of Eddies. They had acquired their independence when the Taisho empire had been destroyed and had served as an independent nation for more than one hundred years, something they valued deeply. Yet, the newly appointed Mizukage had set his eyes upon the free archipelago and had decided to gain said islands when when a gold mine had been discovered in one of their water caves. With the last war, the value of precious stones and metals had skyrocket, making Azore's archipelago and the land of Nagi a powerful price for the dying ninja nations. The invasion of the Azore's islands had taken place over a year ago, which had cause more than twenty percent of their population's death, something their leader had not taken easily. The call for help to their nearest neighbor and most powerful ally had been something painful to the once proud village, but it was either merging with Whirlpool or become another colony of Kirigakure.
The leader had died inexplicably before the papers had been singed, something the Azore people had taken as an attempt of Kirigakure to prevent the merge. Her father had taken the lead on the negotiations and had offered his daughter for marriage to the oldest son of the Uzumaki clan as a sing of friendship and loyalty. Satomi couldn't have been more than eleven years old when Seiji, her husband to be was killed, breaking the marriage and the promise of a merge with the ninja village. Fortunately the Uzumaki leader had another son, Naota, who was next in line to inherit the title of Kaicho. He was barely a year older than her yet they hadn't gotten along the first time they had officially met. The idea of an arranged marriage had been something so absurd to them at the time that they hadn't taken the deal seriously enough, until their fifteen birthday when Naota had been chastised for getting a girlfriend that wasn't Satomi.
"She's your future wife," his father had told him, trying to get his young son to understand the importance of the marriage to be. "You will treat her as such."
"But I don't even know her!" Naota had protested. "Why do I need to marry someone that had once been promised to Seiji?"
It had been meant as a off handed comment, yet Satomi had heard every word. Her future husband was a brute! And her father was going to force her to go through with this? There was just no way. Trying to get out of the so called marriage, Satomi and Naota had set aside their differences and worked together to convince their parents that such marriage would just result in a war between the villages in the future. But nothing would make their parents back down. It was far too important for either village to just go with a whim of two spoiled teenagers. Fortunately, their teaming up had only made them realize how similar they really were. It took them a while but Satomi and Naota finally realized that the nagging feeling they were always getting whenever the other was around was love and not annoyance as they had previously thought.
"It's gonna take us a while," Naota finally admitted to Satomi, "But I hope that someday we can have each others backs as something more than we are now."
That had been ten years ago and even thought the marriage had been something set up between their fathers, Satomi had grown to love and admire Naota in more ways than she realized. Tying herself to him had now become more than just trying to help her village.
"Naota!" Satomi cried once again, jumping up and down to see if maybe the movement would get her boyfriends attention, but it didn't work. He was laying down on the boat and had a straw hat over his face, something he only did whenever he was sleeping. There was only one other option.
Satomi sighed and took her sandals off. She would have to walk on wanter and knock the boat over to wake her boyfriend up, other wise there was no telling when he was going to get back from dreamland. Taking the few steps carefully, she locked her gaze on the water below her and walked slowly. The last thing she wanted was to fall on the water and ruin her hair, yet she had been asked to get Naota from his fishing trip for an emergency meeting at the council, time was something she didn't have.
"That idiot." Satomi murmured under her breath, getting closer to the boat. "Just wait until I get my hands on his pretty little neck!"
'It's just a few more steps.' She thought, eying the boat with annoyance. 'I can't believe I'm scare of a few feet.' But it wasn't the distance that she was scared of, it was the water.
Oddly enough, she had developed an aquaphobia when she was still a little girl. She couldn't quite place the reason for it and her father had never gotten into much detail about it, but for some reason she was scared of open deep water she couldn't just stand on. It was like she felt herself drowning every time she came across an open body of water, something Naota had found ironic seeing as they lived on islands. Satomi had too eventually seen the irony and had allowed him to teach her the walking on water jutsu, to help her conquer her fears. Yet it was not something she had done by herself, Naota had always been by her side. And it had been on a lake, where the water hardly ever moved, this was the open sea with waves and wind.
"Don't be an idiot Satomi!" she scowled at herself. "If Naota can do it, you can do it one hundred times better!"
Taking a quick glance to make sure she had not diverged from her original direction Satomi lost her footing, losing the balance she had been previously been careful to maintain. The feet went under and she felt herself fall slowly too, something she found quite ironic. Of all the ways she thought she would die, drowning was not in neither of the options. Taking one last big breath, Satomi closed her eyes waited for the water to cover her completely, for she didn't know how to swim.
'This is it,' Satomi told herself, watching the sky with regret one last time. 'This is were I die.'
"What are you doing?" a deep voice she knew by heart asked her, forcing her to open her eyes.
She was alive! She had survived! Naota had-
"You idiot!" she punched him on the chest when he scooped her up in his arms. "You incredible idiot!"
"What?" Naota asked, making his way up to the shore once more. "What did I do this time?"
"Why would you make me do something like that? You know how much I hate open bodies of water!"
"Hey I don't even know what you were doing out there." Naota defended himself watching with amusement as his girlfriend got the annoyance wrinkle as he liked to call it. "You could have just used one of the messaging birds."
"The birds?" Satomi asked, her stare going black. The birds! How could she have forgotten? She could have just written a message and pasted it on their legs. She didn't have to- "Urgh, I'm such an idiot!" she mumbled, burying her face on his neck.
Naota laughed and pressed a small kiss on her forehead. "I know." He said earning another punch. "But what was so important that you risked your life to tell me?"
Not once, in their nearly thirteen years they had known each other had he sheen her come close to a body of water without him to watch her over. For her to do something like that it had to mean that something must have happened. Maybe her father had changed his mind on their marriage and she was now engaged to be married to someone else, like say, Daichi, the future leader of the Fukayama clan. Naota had never really liked him or his clan. They were more vengeful than the council seemed to want to realize and didn't try to hide their sympathy of an all open war against Kirigakure for the islands of the south. The loss of Whirlpool shinobi lives didn't seem to matter for them, as long as their thirst for dead Kiri ninja was met, not to mention the ideas on the Kirigakure controled islands after Whirlpool takes them back. Did no one preach for peace anymore? He almost felt like he was the only that was trying to think of a way to get out of war with Kirigakure.
"Was Daichi elected the Fukayama's clan leader?" Naota asked his girlfriend, setting her back on her feet once they reach the sand. "What happened to Goro? I thought Hajime-sama was dead set on making him the next clan leader?"
Satomi's gaze darkened, she knew of the continuous battle inside the Fukayama clan for the seat at the council. Goro had been nominated as the next clan leader but rebuffed among the older members of the clan for his youth and Daichi had taking the opportunity of nominating himself for the tittle. He was well liked amongst the old members but disliked amongst the younger ones leading to a division of clan, something that was never good in any family, specially if the older ones were the ones that picked the leader after all.
"Last I heard Daichi had bribed a few members of the clan promising to relocate the capital to the Barlavento Islands."
The Barlavento Islands were a set of five islands near the border with Kirigakure and one of the southern most territories that Whirlpool owned. Relocating the capital there with everything that it involved, not only moving the whole council and population but also the military…it would send a clear message to the Mizukage and war would not be far from their future. His father had always said that the farther away their military stayed from the land of water, the easier it would be to come across a future peace negotiation with Kirigakure. Moving there would not only be stupid, but incredibly costly.
"Is Daichi stupid?" Naota couldn't help but ask himself out loud. It just seemed that every action the Fukayama made, it was done just to set everyone on their toes. "What would we gain on moving the capital there? We still own Konoha for the loan on the purchase of the southern islands. Getting ourselves into another war would bankrupt us! We don't have the power not the funds to fight against the Bloody Mist!"
It was true. Even though Whirlpool was considered one of the most powerful ninja villages in the world, they were still a small nation, with a ninja military of less than two thousand shinobi, something that Kirigakure tripled. They owed their international respect for their blood relation with the Senju clan of Konoha, Mito Uzumaki, the first and only shinobi to have ever tamed and sealed one of the tailed beast. Her marriage to Hashirama, the first Hokage of Konoha and the ingenious seals she had invented and passed on, had helped not only put Whirlpool on the map but also made other nations fear them. Yet, provoke an open war like this…
"That Fukayama is going to get a piece of my mind." Naota clenched his fist, his eyes narrowing. It was clear the discussion would not be made with words.
Satomi put a hand on his chest to calm him down, but the seriousness of her expression never left her. "As much as I agree with you, that is not the reason I risked my life for."
Naota was tempted to laugh at her small joke but the seriousness of her voice made eye her carefully. "What's going on?"
Satomi hadn't been able to believe it when she had first been informed by it. It was something so strange and out of the blue that it almost seemed impossible for it to be happening and at a time like that this of everything. "We're at war with Konoha."
Naota rushed into the already chaotic room. There were people yelling, others were arguing amongst themselves and others decided that running up and down the room in madness would give them the answer they were looking for. This chaos wasn't something called for exactly, under dire circumstances people tended to act irrationally, Naota knew that, yet he also knew that letting ones emotions take control of one self wouldn't fix the situation at hand. What had to be done was to calmly asses the situation and look at the causes and consequences. Then, they could make an informed decision and proceed with caution to avoid further error. That's one the things his father had emphasized over the years, something that had been drilled on him since the day of his birth. Too bad most of the council hadn't been raised by his father.
"This is madness!" Daichi Fukayama leader, leader of the Barlavento Islands, yelled at his companion taking the scroll that the leader from the Kaza family was examining. The action was so sudden and brisk that she didn't have time to react properly before Fukayama started yelling again. "This most be a mistake! Konohagakure has been our ally for more than three hundred years! Sarutobi wouldn't just declare war on a powerful ally without heavy arguments to back it up."
"It's our ancestors fault for making us so dependent of them in the first place!" the leader from the Marugo family yelled over his fellow members. "Konoha has always taken advantage of us! Even since the beginning when they asked Mito-sama to partake in the sealing of the Nine Tails that was later confiscated by Konoha for more than four generations. Our forefathers should have never approved of that marriage."
"What does the ownership of the Nine Tails have to do with anything?" Fukayama asked throwing the scroll at Naota's direction. "The Nine Tails might be a powerful being but without Hashirama-dono here to control it's immense power, the tailed beasts are useless in battle. What's really strange here is the timing of the declaration. After so many years of friendship and trading, why now?"
Why indeed, Naota asked himself wondering the same thing as he read the scroll.
"Isn't it obvious? The Hokage and the Mizukage have met several times. Its not a secret that they have been talks of a mutual commercial alliance between both villages. Yagura of the mist wants to bring the Land of Water closer to the continent so they can find an excuse for an open war between our two villages." The leader from the Tokaji family reasoned, slamming his fist on the table. "The fact that we've depended on Konoha for so many years only strengthen our stupidity over the years. We should have never agreed to acquire the Azore archipielago. Not only do they not bring anything of value to our country, we are openly threatening the Land of Water in such a trade."
"Don't be so ridiculous." Naota finally voiced his opinion setting the scroll down on the table to anyone who wanted to take it. The information on it didn't offer much insight on the reason of the war and there was no point in re-reading the three lines written on it. It was clear that the Hokage had made a weird but clear enough move that they didn't understand yet, but would in the future. "The Azore archipielago has trading agreements with the Esashi continent something this council has been looking at for the past three hundred years. The Land of Demons and the Marsha Country are two village that could offer special support to our small nation. The fact that they are not connected with our continent gives us an insight whose side they will take when there really is another shinobi war. We can't lose that promise of alliance just because of speculation."
It was true. The Esashi country had been the only country in this part of the world that hadn't taken part in any of the two previous shinobi wars and there was only one reason for that: they were far away enough that attempting to invade it was a stupid idea that even the Raikage recognize. Having no border obligations with any other nations except with themselves, they could be as neutral and far away from the hypocritical politics that took part of the Kokka continent which Whirlpool and the other villages were on. Having someone neutral but powerful enough to make other villages hesitate on invading them on their side was something beyond simply expanding their trading options. Treaties and alliances could be broken easily, as Konoha had just demonstrated, but blood responsibilities that the Azore families brought with them (once Naoto and Satomi produced an heir) was something Whirlpool couldn't ignore. Breaking such a promising military stability to a nation that was constantly threatened by the Bloody Mist and it's allies was something only fools would do.
"We need to send a diplomatic representation of Whirlpool to Konoha and try to come with terms of negotiation." Naota spoke once again, making the room grow silent. "We don't have the power of resources to fight Konoha, not to mention the moral implications that would take on our people. Most of us have relatives and friends in their military force. Killing someone you know it's a lot different that killing someone that is trying to kill you."
"So what do we do?" Marugo asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "We can't wait for Konoha to invade our shores and take over our the council just because of a few blood relations with some of their people. Danzo is one of the most dangerous men I've ever come across with. If we surrender there is not telling what he might do to our country in the future."
"Danzo isn't part of the military." Naota tried to reason once more. "He can't even fight! He has no real power inside of Konoha except as an adviser to the Hokage."
"He has other ways to get his opinion around." Kaza agreed, nodding along. "He might not have much control over the military forces but he has influence over the commanders of their divisions."
"Not to mention his Root ANBU division. They might not bee as well trained as their ANBU, but powerful opponents don't always come in small numbers." Tokaji agreed, looking around to get others to agree on his opinion. "If we get our troops on the Land of Fire's shores we might stop the first wave of invasion from Konoha, giving us more time to think of a plan of attack.
"So what you are saying is that we should counterattack the declaration of Konoha with a full invasion of the continent?" Naota couldn't believe what he was hearing. "That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard."
"What other choice do we have?" Kaza cried hysterically, making her seem much older than she really was. "Half our forces are at the border with Kirigakure, the ANBU is guarding the Moriguchi family leader and the other half are completing the missions that bring economical stability to our village. We won't have the man power for a counter attack if we let Konoha get to close. We need to act now before they start moving their forces."
"What we need to do first is find the reason behind this." Naota pointed to the scroll he'd just been holding. "Konoha would never break an alliance unless there is something more important in their agenda that the existence of Whirlpool threatens. If we find the reason behind the break of alliance maybe we can come to an agreement and avoid open war with the Land of Fire."
Some in the council looked at the younger Uzumaki like they had never seen him before. Naota had participated in the council numerous times in the past, voicing his opinions and coming up with ingenious solutions to some problems Whirlpool had been facing at the moment, something his father was extremely proud of, yet there were few council members that didn't like his new ideas and were dead set in their ways making Naota feel like he was a mere child playing at being an adult.
"You might be your fathers spokes man at the council for now Naota-kun," Fukayama spoke watching him with amusement in his eyes, like he was chastising a child for doing something he wasn't supposed to do. "But the vote hasn't been taken yet. There is still one person that could take your father's place in the Uzumaki chair in the future. Your opinions here are just that, opinions. You don't have any real power inside this council."
That Naota knew. There was another faction of the Uzumaki clan, the older faction that was not happy with his father choice to pass on the council seat to his eldest son. Some argued that he was far too young and inexperienced to take on such an important task. Others argued that Naota hadn't been prepared enough like Seiji had to take on the council, and others dared argue that Naota was merely looking out his well being and wasn't taking into account the well being of the Uzumaki family, something his fathers had found outrageous.
"You think he would marry someone he doesn't love if he were merely looking for himself?" his father had yelled at the protesters. "Just because he didn't grow up with war threatening his life it doesn't mean that he's not prepared to take his place as the leader of this country. We have to move past the pain and revenge and focus on our future with new peaceful ideas. War doesn't always get us what we want. You would be wise to understand that once and for all."
"As long as my father is the ruling member of my family and I, his eldest son, you will respect me as you have to respect my father."
The council members that had smiled at Fuyama's comment suddenly sobered, remembering that even though Naota wasn't an official member of the council yet, he had been appointed by the leader of the Uzumaki family, something the rest of the council had to respect. The last thing they wanted was to take on the most powerful family of Whirlpool as an enemy.
"What we need to do-" but Naota wasn't allowed to finish his sentence for the doors of the council room were unexpectedly revealing his younger sister. "Kushina?" Naota asked, losing his train of thought. The last thing he had been expecting to see at the moment was Kushina since she was supposed to be back in Konoha, under the Hokage's orders. What exactly was she doing here? Had the sudden war with Whirlpool driven her away? Or had she escaped when Konoha tried to use her as leverage? Did that meant war was really inevitable?
"Kushina does father know you are here?" Naota asked, making his way to were his sister was standing. "How did you get here? Does the Hokage know?" For the longest time she hadn't been able to leave Konoha without the Hokage's strict orders and set of bodyguards following her. "And more importantly, why isn't anyone with you?"
Kushina didn't answer. She just stared at Naota with eyes he had never seen. There was a pain in there. A kind of pain that was more than physical. Maybe there was something far bigger going on out there than what they wanted to realize. Maybe this war went beyond the political upheaval in the world. The fact that his sister was here without anyone knowing the reason it had to mean that the situation with Konoha was not an isolated incident. Did Kushina have anything to do with the sudden war with the land of Fire? The timing did seem a little coincidental and those words in the scroll…
The friendship between our two villages has always been a fragile thing.
Unfortunately our goals don't harmonize with the way Konoha is expected to grow in the future.
As of today, Konohagakure and the Land of Fire will cease all ties with the Land of Eddies and it's ninja village Whirlpool.
"Kushina-" but before he could even try to get his sister to answer yet another round of his questions, she fell to the ground a pool of blood forming around her.
The salt water felt good on her face. It always seemed like forever to her whenever she was allowed to come visit her home land. If it were up to her she would have never left the land of Whirlpools. Even after all the friends she had managed to make in Konoha, she had always felt a piece of herself missing whenever she got back from a mission or headed home after a long night of drinking. The ocean had always been part of her, ever since she had been born. Being surrounded by trees, miles away from the shore, she could never understand how people lived like that.
Wincing as her fresh wound touched the salt, Kushina laid down on the sand and looked up at the sky. Millions of stars lay before her eyes, melting into each other creating a nice white blanket of light. This was another thing that she missed the most whenever she was in Konoha. The village lights, which were never really truly shut, would always block out the lights that the sky brought when it grew dark. Even if one were to visit the library at night, there would only be a couple of diamonds visible, something she had once told Minato about.
"You don't know what it's like," Kushina told the blond, watching the sky with yearning. "If we were back in Whirlpool you'll get to see the milky way before your eyes. You don't know what that is like. Millions and millions of tiny points of light melting into each other until they create this path of light that somehow illuminates the dark."
"Sounds kind of impressive." Minato had said, watching the village lights.
"You can't even imagine." Kushina muttered under her breath as waves washed over her.
"What can't I imagine?" a voice asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.
She sat up as quickly as she could, trying at the same time to turn around and face her brother but the exertions of her abdomen was not something her body was ready for yet and a sharp pain filled her, making her cry out and grasp her bandage.
"You haven't changed one bit Kushina," Naota said, walking up to her and sitting by her side. There was no sympathy for her in his tone of voice. "Always acting before thinking. Father would be proud if he were here."
A grim clouded her once relaxed features. "If you are here for a lecture then save it." Kushina didn't look at him, knowing that a scowl would adorn his features. She had taken it from her family, the doctors and even some of the council men that have visited her earlier at the hospital, she hadn't left to be fed up with questions and hypocritical words once more. What she wanted was peace. Something she knew she would get at her favorite place by the beach. Too bad, that place was no secret for her elder brother. "I don't need to hear it and the doctors forbade it. They think I have some kind of psychological trauma that prevents me from explaining in too much detail what happened. So if you're here to question me then you better-"
"Are you the reason we're at war with Konoha?"
The question had taken her back. She had not been expecting that. Not at all. Not ever. War with Konoha? Had she heard right? "We're at war-"
"A scroll came this morning with a declaration of war from the Hokage himself." Naota never looked at her, not even once and for some reason that hurt even more than the opening wound. "Then you show up covered in blood. I might now believe in coincidences, yet you can't argue that the timing couldn't be worse."
"I-"
"Kushina you are not a little girl anymore." Naota finally looked at her, a hard, serious, grave look on his face. His was not joking around and he wouldn't allow avoidances on the subject. "Lives are at stake here. War is not a joke. Death never is."
"I know that!" Kushina looked offended, glaring at her older brother. "I just-"
"Then why are you here?" Naota exploded, stating up from his sitting position, his cool demeanor gone. "Father didn't call you over. The council didn't call you over. There are not important dates coming nor the Hokage approved of this visit otherwise he would have sent you with bodyguards! The fact that you are here unauthorized and alone means that something has happen. Something that has to do with you and it is directly affecting us along the way. We are in the middle of a merger with a powerful set of islands that is angering one of the most powerful and savage shinobi in the world. We can't allow another of the five main shinobi villages to declare war on us. We don't have the man power nor the resources to fight both Kirigakure and Konohagakure in the same war in two different fronts. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
'So, it's really happening…' Kushina thought moving her gaze from her brother to the illuminated horizon. "It's really war, huh?" she asked, not bothering to answer Naota's question.
"It's funny," she continued, dropping her eyes to her hands that caressed the waves as they came and went. "I can hardly remembering him. I was really little when it happened, yet I can still recall the last thing he said to us. 'I'm fighting so you won't know war.' That's what he said. Do you remember? That's what he promised us. That's why he died. Or at least I had always thought so. Turns out, people are far more bored with their lives than you can imagine. Power, money, that's nothing compare to the excitement that they find in doing something cardinal. It gives them purpose. It gives them something to do. That's what war really is about. It eases the boredom of a bunch of idiots." She sighed, enjoying how the coldness of the water soothed her. Even in the middle of summer, she could feel autumn slowing coming from the south. "I don't know why we are at war with Konoha." She lied, never looking up. "But I know why I'm here. I escaped because of this."
Raising her left hand she showed Naota what she had been hiding under some bandages. The seal she share with Satoru. She knew that they would start asking questions once they saw it, so she had been careful enough to bandage her left arm and claim there was a deep bruise there. It had taken a lot of convincing for the doctors to leave it alone for they wanted to see just how bad it was, but she had managed to get her way. It was one of the things she was really good at; convincing people otherwise.
The shook on her brothers face was palpable. It was clear he had never seen one of these in real person, yet he knew what it meant. She hadn't been the only one that had studied forbidden fuinjutsu.
"That's a seikatsu seal!" Naota took her arm and raise it enough so he could have a better look at it, forcing Kushina's wound open. Her verbal protest was ignored. "Kushina when did you do this?" he asked, kneeling by her side when he saw her face full on pain.
"A few months ago," Kushina said, taking her arm back. It was bad enough that her side throbbed, it was another thing to have your brother grasp your arm like he was going to rip it off. "Someone I loved died and I was just trying to bring him back, you know? Using those medical jutsus that father taught us, but the wound was too close to the heart and the seals were not keeping the blood inside and he was losing consciousness and I don't know, I don't remember much of that night after that. All I know is that when I woke up after that, this appeared in my arm."
Naota tried to make sense of what she was saying without success. Kushina had never been good at explanations but what she was saying now made no sense at all. Who was she linked to? Why couldn't she remember it? And more importantly, how had she made it happen? The seikatsu seal was something the Uzumaki clan had seen only once before and that had been before the creation of the shinobi ninja's. It was seal that no body knew much about and that was why it had been forbidden, the fact that Kushina had even been able to make it…well he didn't exactly know what that meant, but it was something that would have grave consequences in the future. His father had always warned him so. The more simple the seal, the more consequential it would be to the user.
He was about to say as much when something snapped in him. Something he had read about this seal a long time ago.
"Kushina…is…the other person that has this seal… still alive?"
Kushina frowned looking at her brother with wonderment. What was he asking exactly. "Yes," she answered, trying to ignore the pang that nearly stopped her heart. "He is." That had been the deal here. She would share her life with the one at the end of this seal.
"Do you know what this seal means?" Naota asked, finally looking her in the eye. "Do you know what Seikatsu means?"
She had never been good at memorizing kanji and meanings. She was more visual than verbal, that was why, when she had found the seal, she was far more interested in what it could do than what it actually meant. Besides, Satoru was alive and that's what mattered to her. Everything after that was effectual.
"I know what it does." She answered, not liking how her brother was looking at her. It was almost like, he was scared, but of what exactly, she still didn't know.
"Seikatsu, means life in old kanji, meaning that the futatsu no en seikatsu seal, literally meaning, the two circles of life seal is a seal that binds the life of one person to the other until the dead comes back to life."
Kushina frowned once more. Naota was making no sense. If that's was true, why was the seal still here? Satoru was alive. If it only worked until he came back to life, then-
"That means, that your chakra, is being leaked into the dead body that you rescued. Which means that your chakra, is being transfered into someone else. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Naota asked desperately, grasping her shoulders with a force she never knew he had.
Did she? At this point she wasn't so sure.
"You might have more chakra than the average Uzumaki, but even you have a limit. When you reach that limit you will die."