CHAPTER3 REUNION
"RASENGAN"
"CHIDORI"
Two more members of the Hyuuga clan that had caught up with the twelve went down. They were about three quarters of the way to their destination when the branch family members had caught to them. At first they came in manageable numbers, now it was starting to look like Hiashi sent the whole branch family.
"Neji, are the branch family members always this reckless and determined on their missions?" asked Naruto.
Neji looked over at Naruto after dropping another member. "No," he said, "I have never seen anyone in the clan act this way on a mission, it's like they are prepared to kill us."
"That makes sense" said Shikamaru. "So far all we have been doing is crippling them so they can't fight anymore, but if we kill just one, they will have an excuse to mark us in the bingo book and put a bounty on our heads."
"So by your logic Shikamaru, these branch family members are attacking us with reckless aggression in the hopes that one of them will be killed, correct?" asked Shino.
Shikamaru nodded.
Shino looked confused, "I was under the impression that the branch family still isn't very happy with the main family, what could they have been offered that would make them give their lives for something so underhanded?"
"The caged bird seal," this time, surprisingly, it was Hinata who spoke up. "I-i-if m-my f-f-father or the c-c-counsel g-g-gave hints that whoever d-d-died w-w-would be declared a h-h-hero and th-th-they would r-r-r-remove the c-c-caged bird seal in their ho-ho-honor."
"Of course" said Neji, " if they did it the way Hinata said, then should they fail, the council will just berate them and then nothing would change, and if they succeeded, the council would deny the hints claiming them to be wild rumors and nothing would change, win, win situation for the main family."
"Hey um guys" said Kiba, "I know how important it is to figure out why this is happening, but could we do that after the fighting?"
Seeing that Kiba was pretty hard pressed, Choji yelled for him to drop. As soon as Kiba was on the ground, a giant fist came out of nowhere scattering the clan members that had been trying to take down Kiba. Finally having room to maneuver, Akamaru launches himself into the air and lands next to Kiba, who pulls himself onto Akamaru's back.
No matter how hard they fought though, more and more branch members came to fight them, it got to the point to where the twelve of them got pulled into a tight circle, all looked lost until a dome of water suddenly surrounded and protected them. Then, turning their heads towards a roaring sound, they see huge wave of water heading towards them. It cleanly splits around the dome and washes away the branch family members.
As soon as the members were gone, the dome disintegrated and a woman approached them, as Naruto looked at her, he felt like he should know her. She had on a black body suit(1), which very form fitting though very shadow like, along with a thin black leather trench coat that came down to mid calf, but was light enough to move freely and not get in the way. She had on a forehead protector none of them had ever seen before. It had eight lines curving to meet in the center, like a whirlpool (2). She kept it wrapped around her forehead, her long red hair flowing over the sides and back of it. Her green eyes were flashing as she looked at them all one by one, finally stopping on Naruto.
"Who are you" she asked Naruto.
"Not to sound ungrateful, but shouldn't you introduce yourself first?" asked Naruto
"Fine, my name is Kushina Uzumaki." She said with some heat in her voice.
Everyone looked at her with wide eyes and open mouths, no one had expected this.
"Alright" she said, "Who the hell are you and why do you look like Minato?"
At this point, Sasuke and Sakura begin to feel a chakra signature they have felt before and start backing away, everyone else notices this then looks at Naruto. The red chakra had begun to surround him, but no tails have formed yet.
"Either, you are lying to me," he said in a voice filled with barely suppressed rage and a small tinge of hope. "And are just using my mother's name, or, you abandoned me, or the council pulled a stunt, I really want to give you the benefit of the doubt, but people don't earn my trust easily." He begins calming down as he sees the look of disbelief in her eyes.
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki." He took a breath to calm him further and looked to Kushina for an explanation.
A/N (1) think of the suit worn in ninja guiden black.
(2) A big thank you to lord of the land of fire for allowing me to use your idea of the whirlpool forehead protector.
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