Kiunno held a corner of a scroll still with his palm, using his other hand to draw the character for 'explode' in the middle, surrounded by a ring of curved arrows. The ring beyond that was made of numbers meant to stabilize the seal. He pulled back once he finished, holding the brush over the floorboards. He studied the original copy of the seal sitting next to it, making sure each character and arrow matched.
The explosive tag seal was complicated, and he'd rather eat dirt than do it again.
"What's that?" Kushina asked, crawling forward to look at it.
"Ugh." Kiunno fell back, spreading his arms out. He decided he hated fuinjutsu. It was probably used for toture somewhere across the water. He couldn't imagine a worse fate than being forced to copy pages and pages of seals for hours on end.
Kushina dug her knee into his side.
"A piece of paper," he deadpanned, staring at the roof. He thought he could see words carved into one of the beams. It made him nauseous.
Kushina huffed. "Tell me or I'll punch you. Really hard."
Empty threat or not, he didn't want her yelling in his face if he refused. "Explosive tag," he mumbled.
Kushina picked up the original copy and held it above her, leaning back. "Why do you get to learn all the cool stuff while I'm stuck in class all day?"
"You're leaning fuinjutsu too," Kiunno pointed out.
"Yeah, but it's so slow." Kushina turned the seal upside down, tilting her head at it. "We're still learning how to write neatly while you're doing all this advanced stuff. It's not fair."
"Ask Papa to teach you."
"He's so busy all the time now," Kushina murmured, quieter.
"Stop being a baby and ask."
Kushina made a noise in her throat, face turning red. "Fine," she said, standing. "I will." The seal crumpled in her fist as she turned to face the hallway. She didn't move.
"You going or not?" he asked.
Kushina knelt next to him. "But he's with Elder Hama. It would be rude."
"Since when do you care about being rude?"
Kushina yanked him up by his collar. "I'm polite to people who deserve it," she hissed.
Kiunno hung from her grip like a limp doll. He watched the seal on the ceiling fade into the wood as Kushina shook him and demanded he pay attention to her. The front door slid open before he could wonder why, and he understood. The seal was deactivated.
Kushina dropped him like a hot potato as footsteps echoed down the hallway. He fell with a thud, his groan shushed as an unfamiliar voice spoke from the other side of the wall.
"We're sorry we didn't give you more time to prepare for our arrival, Great Elder. I'm sure you received word about Princess Mito's condition by now."
Kiunno knew then that whoever he was, he was from across the sea. He never heard anyone on the island call Elder Hama 'Great Elder', not even the foreigners.
"Princess Mito?" Kushina mouthed at him.
He shrugged.
"Hmph," Elder Hama's cane cracked against the floor. "'Condition' you say? If growing old is a sickness, then I must be on my deathbed, eh?"
"It appears that I misspoke," the stranger said quickly. "Forgive me."
"He did not," another voice spoke up. "The seal holding the Kyuubi is dangerously weak. It is important that we bring a host for the beast back to Konoha as soon as possible. The safety of everyone in the village depends on it."
Kiunno could hear the clack of Elder Hama's cane as he turned. "And who are you?"
"Hoko Hyuuga, Great Elder."
"I brought Hoko to look at Kushina's chakra system. Just to make sure nothing changed since the last time."
Kiunno blinked. It took a second for him to process it, that the off-islander said that someone would be looking at his sister's chakra. He raised one of his hands, staring at the faint blue lines running up the back of his palm to his fingertips. Someone else who could see chakra. He had questions suddenly, ones that burned his chest and fought to escape his mouth.
Was the ability to see chakra as rare across the sea as it was on the island?
Did any of them ever feel out of place in their own body like he did?
"Me?" Kushina mouthed in shock.
"And here I thought the Hyuuga were all about deferring to your elders, hm?" Elder Hama didn't wait for an answer before he spoke again, "That man over there is Himuro Uzumaki, the father of our little sea spirit."
"I'm Inojin Yamanaka. It's nice to finally meet you."
Kiunno could hear what sounded like a handshake. He dropped his hand. Did the off-islanders sort chakra in shades of brightness, like he did? Did everyone in Konohagakure have to hide their chakra around Hoko?
"What will happen after this?" Papa asked.
"Ah, that's difficult to answer," Inojin said. "When we left Konoha, Princess Mito wasn't doing so well. If we receive word that the situation has changed and Princess Mito's health is better, we won't have to take Kushina right away. If the situation hasn't changed…" he trailed off.
Did Hoko see chakra as a network of blue lines, constantly moving, flowing from one part of the body to another?
"Take me?" Kushina whispered.
Kiunno looked at his sister. Her eyes were wide, staring at the wall that separated them from the mainlanders like she could see through it. He could see fear hidden in them. He knew Kushina didn't like being scared. Her fists clenched, her teeth grinding together as she ducked her head. She would rather be angry.
He could hear Papa and the mainlander talking, Elder Hama's cane as he came down the hallway, but it was all background noise. Her chakra flared, a sudden wave of bright blue that made him flinch, black spots dancing in his vision. Kiunno closed his eyes, and when that didn't feel like enough, covered them with his arm.
Did he imagine the wisps of purple mixed in with her blue? "Kushina-"
"Uzushiogakure owes you a great debt, little sea spirit," Elder Hama interrupted him before he could tell her to stop.
Kushina gasped like she'd been holding her breath.
"Perhaps one day you'll come to understand why this must be done, or perhaps you'll hate me for it," Elder Hama mused. "But it is not my place to explain this to you. I promised your mother as much. Come, Kushina Uzumaki."
Kiunno peeked. Kushina was standing next to him, her body dipped in a short bow, hands at her side. He could hear Mama in his head, admonishing him for not showing Elder Hama proper respect, but he couldn't bring himself to get up.
His eyes watered.
Elder Hama offered her his hand. His back was warped into a 'U' shape, his beard long and braided, adorned with yellow petals and seashells. Kiunno felt like he was staring through him. He was empty inside, like he didn't have any chakra at all.
"Yes, Elder Hama." Her voice was different. Quiet. Subdued.
It unsettled Kiunno.
"Kushina will be returned to you soon enough," Elder Hama reassured him, mistaking his expression for worry. He didn't know Kushina like he did. She didn't just stop being angry.
Did Hoko see her chakra flare?
Kiunno watched Elder Hama walk out of the room with his sister, then slid his arm back over his eyes.
"This is Kushina Uzumaki," Elder Hama introduced. "Favored child of the ocean. Chosen by our ancestors to take the place of our beloved Princess and carry on her legacy once her soul returns to the sea."
"It's our pleasure, little lady," Inojin said.
"How old is she?" Hoko asked.
"Six. Her birthday was a month ago, on the tenth," Papa answered.
The conversation lulled. Kiunno tried to imagine it. The mainlander focusing on Kushina, looking, searching through the rivulets of her chakra. Would it appear suddenly, like a switch being flipped on, or would he simply look, the chakra always there but ignored? Could Hoko control it?
"The unique chakra in her system should be able to nullify the toxicity of the Kyuubi's chakra," Hoko said. "She isn't producing more of it, like we thought she would, but it should still be enough."
"Should," Papa repeated. Kiunno could hear his frown. "And if it isn't?"
"Himuro," Elder Hama warned. "We shouldn't talk about such things in front of our little sea spirit, hm?"
Kiunno thought of the chakra he saw when he looked at Kushina. He could still see it, wisps of purple, separate and distinct from the ocean of blue. There were a lot of words he didn't recognize; Princess Mito. Kyuubi. Host. The purple chakra was unique, something no one else had. He didn't know what toxic chakra looked like but knew his eyes wouldn't like it.
"Until you decide whether Kushina is suitable or hear back from your Hokage, you are welcome to stay in my home, as guests of the Uzumaki," Elder Hama said, breaking the silence.
"That is quite generous of you, Great Elder," Inojin said. "Thank you."
Kiunno heard soft footsteps. The front door opened, then closed.
"The plan seemed to have changed without my knowing," Elder Hama said wryly. "Wasn't that spitfire wife of yours supposed to be the one meeting with Konohagakure's ambassadors?"
"She was," Papa said with a sigh. "She came down with an illness this morning."
"Not the same one I appear to be suffering from, I hope."
"Why are you sending me away?" Kushina exploded before Papa could respond.
Kiunno shifted his hand down, staring at the wall. He could hear the hurt, buried beneath layers of anger.
"We are not sending you away," Papa said firmly, but he sounded tired.
"Those two—they said they were taking me, didn't they?" Her voice trembled, and Kiunno could hear the sniffs she was fighting off.
His eyes still hurt, but that didn't seem as important in the wake of the image in his head, of his stubborn, angry sister trying not to cry. Kiunno stood, padding out into the hallway. He squinted at the roof to avoid Kushina's chakra, but he could still see it, blue scratching at the corners of his vision.
Papa ran a hand through his hair. "Konohagakure is in trouble right now." He knelt in front of her, squeezing her shoulders. "Princess Mito is one of your ancestors, but she's nearing the end of her life, Shina, and she needs someone from our clan to-"
"Is it because of the boy I pushed down in class? The mud I got on Mika's dress? Tell me what I did to make you send me away."
"I would never send you away, Shina. We all want you to stay, but this is more important than what I want. A lot of people need your help."
"I don't want to help them. I want to stay here."
"I promise I'll tell you everything, Shina. Your Mama and I, we want to tell you together."
"I told you I don't wanna go! Why won't you let me stay?"
Kiunno looked down. Kushina shook him off and backed away, shaking her head. Papa reached for her, but she had already turned and ran away, her chakra wild and searing. He squeezed his eyes shut, covering his face with both hands. His head hurt. He shouldn't have looked, but he wanted to do something, to help in some way.
How was he supposed to help Kushina when he couldn't even look at her?
"It's a difficult thing to handle, at her age," Elder Hama said, quieter.
Kiunno heard the wrinkle of Papa's pants as he crouched, felt the breath of his sigh on his hands. He couldn't look. His eyes were on fire. He'd had enough of chakra.
"You can look now, Ki." Papa said gently.
He grit his teeth, shaking his head.
Papa tried to pull his hand down, but Kiunno turned his face away. If being able to see chakra made him special, why was it always hurting him? He felt Papa's arms around him, lifting him. Kiunno burrowed into his shoulder.
"I hate chakra," he said, muffled.
Papa sighed again. He didn't say anything at all for a few seconds. "We're going to find Shina, and then we're going to start on chakra exercises, see if that helps."
If his eyes were a gift, he wanted to return them.
. . .
Inojin held a cigarette between his pointer and middle finger as he looked over the ocean, steps away from the edge of a cliff. Hoko sat next to him, and a falcon stood in the center of a summoning scroll. His partner had a small note spread over his knee, scrawling a report in thin scratches of charcoal.
"You should show more respect to their Elder," Inojin said, idly blowing smoke. "A good ambassador knows how to read the room and choose whether politeness or a tougher approach is best."
Hoko paused, looking up, "I was respectful."
Inojin met his eyes and after seeing he was serious, laughed so hard he choked.
Hoko frowned. "Princess Mito is unstable. The Kyuubi could escape at any time. I would think the direness of the situation proceeds placating an Elder."
"You'd think," Inojin said, tapping ash off the end. "But why should anyone here care about that?"
Hoko's expression said he didn't understand.
Inojin watched a wave crash against the rocks, just past the shore line. That was where what was left of boats washed up from failed invaders. "The seal breaking has no effect on Uzushigakure," he explained. "If it breaks tomorrow in the middle of Konoha, the Kyuubi won't ignore the village and come traipsing over here."
The escort sent to guide them past the whirlpools told Inojin all the ways invaders had met their grisly ends trying sneak past their defenses. It seemed that the war made even allies turn suspicious eyes onto each other.
"If Kumogakure loses control of the eight-tails, we won't hear about it until after the Land of Lightning is in pieces. I doubt we would send aid, either," Inojin said.
"If the village is destroyed, Uzushiogakure loses their strongest ally," Hoko reasoned.
Inojin nodded. "That's why they're offering the girl. Say the transfer works. Our alliance becomes stronger, and our enemies become their enemies. But they also gain a powerful foothold in the village." He shrugged. "If it came down to it, I think Princess Mito would choose what the First believed in. The girl? She doesn't have any ties to the village. She would turn on us if we became enemies, side with Uzushiogakure if they demanded aid or supplies. And what could we do to stop her? If anyone in the village could hold the Kyuubi we wouldn't be here. Our hands are tied and the Elder knows it."
"And if the transfer fails?" Inojin took a long drag from his cigarette. "We wouldn't really be in a position not to ask for aid after that, would we?"
Hoko stared at the note, troubled. "They should not have that much power over us."
Inojin turned his gaze back to the ocean. "How old are your nephews again?"
Hoko looked up, startled. "My nephews?"
"The twins," he said, exhaling.
"Seven in a few months."
"January?"
"You knew?"
"No," Inojin twisted the cigarette between his pointer finger and his thumb. "Lucky guess. Inoichi was born in January." He wanted to turn the topic away from the Kyuubi, but now he was thinking about the war. How his son and Hoko's nephews were all too inexperienced and naïve to be thrown into it if the graduation age was lowered again.
Hoko wrapped the note around the falcon's leg, but hesitated as he tied it.
"Something on your mind?" Inojin asked him.
Hoko finished tying the note. "There was someone in the other room. A boy. Do you know who he is?"
Inojin sucked in as he thought about it, smoke filling his mouth. When he met Utsumi Uzumaki the first time, he vaguely remembered her mentioning that Kushina had a brother. It seemed so insignificant and unimportant at the time that he hadn't asked about him. The sensor-nin he was with, who had been crippled and retired from active duty since then, never acknowledged him or Utsumi's statement.
"Kushina's brother," Inojin said. There was something else he'd forgotten. Was the boy older than her by a few years? Younger? "You saw something?"
"He has unique chakra, mixed in with his normal chakra. Very little of it, but it's there. I'm sure of it."
Inojin wouldn't question him, but suddenly wished he thought to bring sake instead of a wrapped bundle of cigarettes. The Hokage would want to know about this. "Enough for him to survive the transfer?"
"It's possible," Hoko said mildly.
That roughly translated to 'maybe'. There was a chance then, that the transfer could be successful for him if the girl failed. Inojin felt a headache coming on. "Include it in your report."
Hoko unrolled the note and wrote on the back of it. Inojin watched him secure it to the falcon and form a hand-sign, a signal for the bird to take flight. He turned away and stamped his cigarette out in the grass.
. . .
Hiruzen Sarutobi stared at his village through a large window. The shinobi flitting from roof to roof, carrying planks of wood. The children gathered in front of the Academy as the school day came to an end. One generation still recovering from the war, another he hoped would never have to see it.
Had it already been twenty years?
It felt like no time at all passed and they were at war again. A falcon sat on the windowsill, preening itself. He folded his hands behind his back. The instant after he read the message from his ambassadors in Uzushiogakure, he'd burned it. It was cruel, but necessary, to force Kushina Uzumaki from her parents and her home. Crueler still to take the other child as a backup, a precaution in case the nine-tails overwhelmed Kushina.
Hiruzen looked at the Hokage mountain as the door to his office creaked open, wondering what Sensei would do in his shoes. "Hello, old friend."
He'd been expecting Danzo the second Boar told him that the falcon had been intercepted, then released a few minutes later and allowed to continue its path to his office.
"How is the Princess?"
Straight to the point then. "Better," Hiruzen admitted. The Princess had sent the squad protecting her into something of a panic when her health declined, but the medic tending to her said that while she wouldn't get better, her will was strong. It didn't look like she would let herself die anytime soon. The report was still on his desk.
After all the trouble he went through to scramble his ambassadors to Uzushiogakure, perhaps there was still time to give Kushina more of a childhood, to let her parents give her a proper goodbye. "She's stable. Stronger than we give her credit for."
"How long until her replacement arrives?" Danzo asked.
Had Danzo always seen children as things to be used instead of the people they were? Or was that another thing that only cropped up after he was made Hokage? Along with the ever-growing rift between them.
"Kushina is a child, old friend. I can afford to let her be one for another month." The idea of tearing Kushina from her family before he had to left a bad taste in his mouth.
Danzo sighed, exasperated. "You're still soft, Hiruzen. You would sooner sacrifice the village to the nine-tails than push aside your sympathy for a child."
"So I'm told," Hiruzen said airily. He was too soft, he knew, because he still allowed Danzo to ignore his title and refer to him by his name, to question his decisions, as if he had a say. All because at one point, he considered Danzo his closest friend, his brother, and he cherished those memories.
"And the other one? Will you let that opportunity slip by, as well?" Danzo asked.
Hiruzen didn't answer him. Saying that he didn't know what he would do wasn't what his old friend wanted to hear, and neither was it the answer someone of his status should give to one of his subordinates, so he chose to stay silent.
Danzo ambled closer, the long shadow always behind him. "You must see the potential of this discovery," he insisted.
He did. For two decades, he'd sent Uchiha and Hyuuga to Uzushiogakure in search of an Uzumaki with the unique chakra the Princess had, and now two had fallen in his lap. If Kushina could not hold the Kyuubi, the other had to, or everyone he was responsible for, his family, would die. It would be better to be prepared in case the worst happened. And yet it still felt personal to Hiruzen.
What would the First say if he knew the children of his wife's clan would be used like this? Like pieces he could use and throw away as he saw fit? What would the Princess say?
"Iwagakure, Kirigakure, and Kumogakure," Danzo spoke. "All have two tailed beasts to use against us. The container of the nine-tails, no matter how strong, would fall if our enemies decided to attack us with both of their weapons at once. The second child gives us a chance to end that threat, to level the playing field."
What would Danzo consider to be too much of a sacrifice, Hiruzen wondered, for the benefit of Konoha? What did Utatane call him, back when they were all children in awe of the First and his power to grow buildings out of the dirt with only a bit of chakra and a hand-sign? She'd called him ambitious.
Ambitious enough to split the Kyuubi in half and create a second living weapon.
"We don't know if such a thing is even possible," Hiruzen said, attempting to curb his thoughts. "The risk of unleashing the beast in trying would be too great. We have the strongest tailed beast of any nation. It will have to be enough."
"If the possibility of our enemy employing such a tactic exists, then we must act to prevent it. The war can only be won if we have a counter to any, and every strategy our enemy may come up with."
Hiruzen didn't answer. How cruel must he be to even consider such an idea?
"When will another opportunity like this present itself to us, Hiruzen? How many of our people will die, if our enemies send their jinchūriki to battle?"
It would be too soon, he thought, when he chose a predecessor. Hiruzen closed his eyes. The chance of it happening was slim, but it was there. The enemy would have to be desperate to risk losing a jinchūriki on the battlefield. But it would be unexpected, and if properly trained, devastating.
"No," Hiruzen said. Too soft, indeed.
"We must get ahead of this, before it's too late to do anything at all."
"I will only consider bringing the other child to Konoha on the chance the Kyuubi escapes, but nothing else, old friend." His tone was colder, more authoritative.
Danzo paused. "As you wish, Lord Hokage," he said without emotion. He left without another word.
For a moment, Hiruzen let himself think that his old friend would leave the matter alone.
A/N: The House of a Thousand Dead Suns by SassySizzleMonster, OC-Insert Post Uchiha Massacre
I've been gone for a while again, haven't I? On the upside, there will be another chapter in about a week from now. Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Reminding myself that there are people out there who want to see this story completed is what keeps me going, seriously.
