Chapter 10 Cold Burns and Mountains of Silence

Quote 10: "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." -Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Time Rule 10: Travelers can appear anywhere, upon their appearance to the past.
(Traveler cannot dictate this, either. It is also random. This is a highly dangerous aspect of Time Travel, due to being placed somewhere that is in the midst of a battle, or other such dangerous situations. It is advised that Travelers be prepared to fend for their lives.)

Kurama growled and snapped, pacing restlessly in the overly small cell that was his prison within Kushina Uzumaki. How?! How, how, how?! The thought snapped and snarled in his mind, over and over. By all rights, virtually all that Hinata had somehow accomplished, in the past week or so, was impossible. She had accessed his chakra, not once, but twice, while he was busy settling himself back into the seal, getting used to the feeling of having absolutely NO freedom.

With another snarl, Kurama turned and stalked back to the other end of the sewer-type cell. "Holy crap, Kyuubi, what's got you so pissed off? Well, more pissed off than normal."

Kurama turned his fiery golden eyes to the red-haired jinchuriki that now stood before the golden gates. He regarded her for a moment, contemplating her calling him "Kyuubi". Well, it's been a long time since that, if nothing else, he thought. Deciding it wasn't worth it to argue with the insane spit-fire, Kurama turned away and renewed his pacing.

Think, Kurama, think! What facts are you missing? What needs to be answered?

"Are you ignoring me, datterbane?!" The red-head snapped, her anger flaring at the Fox's disregard of her.

Kurama stopped pacing again, to study her. "I am confused," he stated, gaining Kushina's curious attention, "why must you ask if I am ignoring you? It was fairly obvious, I'd thought, though perhaps it is expecting too much of you to understand such things as social cues."

Kushina's deep violet eyes widened, then narrowed. "You damn Fox!" she snapped. "What the hell's with the insults all the sudden, datterbane?" Then she paused, and a smirk appeared on her face. "Does it have anything to do with the missing Hyuga kid? Are you just upset you're too weak to keep her from being kidnapped, being stuck here, and all?"

Kurama stopped dead in his pacing. A low feral growl began to rumble in him building up his throat and falling out of his mouth at a thunderous roar. He turned on Kushina with wild golden eyes, leaping for her with a vengeance, the only thing saving the Uzumaki was the gates that separated them. It was easy to say, with all of her strength, pride, and stubbornness, Kushina Uzumaki wasn't ashamed to say, the normally indifferent Beast was quite terrifying when provoked. If she were any less of a shinobi, she'd honestly admit, she would have peed herself, then and there.

A smirk no longer playing on her features, Kushina watched the raging Beast. "In all honesty," she started carefully, "that's why I'm here. I'm not here to insult you, but to ask how you know her and why you care."

Kurama snarled at her, not bothering to show his sentiments via words.

Kushina sighed. "Listen, datterbane, I want to know because she wasn't the only one kidnapped. Two other children were kidnapped, as far as we know, and if they were all taken by the same person, it'd be nice to know. You care about the Hyuga girl, don't you?"

Kurama didn't answer, though he was no longer snarling; he simply stared at her. Taking this as conformation, Kushina continued. "If you can tell me where they are, I will make sure to rescue all three kids."

Kurama's response was long in coming. "What makes you think I know where they are?"

Kushina cocked her head, like a curious bird. "Uh, because you flipped out back at the cave, and again not too long ago," Kushina paused, as though not certain how to phrase the next part. "When you did," she started softly, "I felt a fluctuation? in your chakra. Since you were so worried, that meant is wasn't you, which meant it was her, and if it was her and she can take your chakra, then you can contact her, which then means, you will know where she's at."

Kurama was silent again, for a long span of time. Then, quietly, scary quietly, for him, he answered. "Yes, I know where she is, and the two other children are with her."

When he said no more, Kushina bit her lip and clamped down on her hands behind her back. She was dying to speak, but she was afraid that if she did, he would change his mind about helping.

"They are…being cared for, by Lightening." He stated at last. "They have done terrible things to the Uchiha child, but Hinata, the little Hyuga Kit, was able to persuade them otherwise. They will now be cared for nicely, however, that isn't to say Lightening won't attempt to use them against your village." The way he spoke was slow, with various intervals, as though he was thinking which words were best used and how much he would give away to Kushina.

Kushina was simply happy he gave a straight answer at all. With wide, hopeful eyes, Kushina bowed to Kurama, quite respectfully. "Thank you, Kyuubi. You're not such a big ass afterall."

Kurama snarled, but the kunoichi was already gone.

Kushina had been sitting in the corner of the Council Chamber for quite some time, strangely quiet for her normal flamboyant personality, as the remaining individuals there argued.

All current clan heads were present, the Civilian council was there, the Hokage and his council were there, the three Sannin were there, and of course, Kushina (as she didn't strictly belong to any of those groups, as she hadn't a clan anymore, unless her husband's counted, which she only partially did).

The current argument was about whether or not it would be a good idea to look for the missing children or focus on the war effort.

"Children go missing every day!" Homaru Mitokado snapped. "Why are these three any different?"

"Because," Tsunade snapped back, "two are the children of present Clan Heads and the third is the best medical student I've ever seen, even better than Shuzune Kato."

There was a flurry of murmurs. "Clan heirs?" Koharu Utatane asked. "I was under the impression the Hyuga was simply a random orphan you found."

Tsunade sat back a little, with her arms folded across her chest. "From what she told me, she's the daughter of Hiashi and Yumi Hyuga."

All heads turned to the man in mention, who looked thoroughly confused. "Why would she believe that?" he asked. "I have no children, at least not yet."

Tsunade shrugged. "That's what she believed, though…" she paused, throwing a glance at Orochimaru, who was silent, as always. "Everything about her is confusing and questionable. Her very existence is a cosmic anomaly."

"What does that mean?" Tsume Inuzuka growled. "Quite playing with words, Senju, and speak so we all understand."

Tsunade's eyes sharpened and she sat forward aggressively, leaning slightly on the table. "It means, Inuzuka-san, that she. Is. A fucking conundrum, that I don't understand!"

Orochimaru leaned forward ever so slightly, to lay a hand on his teammate's shoulder. "Calm down," he murmured, "we will get nowhere if we get angry with each other."

Shikaku Nara sighed, rubbing his neck. "I agree. This is all troublesome, but it'll be more so if we can't even hold a decent discussion." There was a collective sigh and shaking of heads at the genius' wording, though everyone knew what he said was true.

"Very well," Hiruzen stood. "This meeting isn't about the oddities of the girl, but whether we should put forth the effort to find her. All in favor of looking for her, let's have a show of hands."

Of the twenty individuals present, an even ten raised their hand. Hiruzen sighed, of course it would be a perfect half. "All in favor of looking for the Uchiha heir." Surprisingly enough, sixteen raised their hand this time, including every single clan head. "And finally, the genin?" Only a total of three hands raised.

The council room was silent for a moment, before a very loud "DATTERBANE!" split every eardrum, causing the elite shinobi to jump in their seats, some even cussing at the sharpness of the noise (Tsume Inuzuka). In her silence, the entire room had forgotten Kushina Uzumaki's presence, as it was virtually impossible to be in a room with her and not hear her.

"HELL FUCKIN' YEAH!" She exclaimed, dancing around like a child. "Enough of this stupid voting, 'atterbane! We're going to rescue those kids!"

"I'm sorry, Kushina, but the effort cannot be put into searching for and locating all three children." Hiruzen put in.

The wicked grin that appeared on the kunoichi's face sent a small shiver down more than one spine. "There can if they are all in the same place and I know where that is."

Murmurs filled the room as Minato Namikaze addressed his wife. "How can you know where they are, Shina-chan?"

The vibrant red-head bounced up to him and planted a kiss on his lips, much to the indignation to the more cold-hearted of their company. "Because, Minato, the damn Fox knows the Hyuga girl and he agreed to tell me where they were if I promised to rescue her along with Tachi-kun and Rin-chan."

The entire room went dead silent.

Then, "You would trust that monster's word, have you taken leave of what little sense you had or is your heart too soft for you to see the truth?" Kushina's exuberant attitude vanished in a cold, yet feverish way.

"Excuse me?" Her tone was icy hot, cold enough to burn, the fact that her verbal tic was nonexistent in her short statement caused much more fear, for she was that controlled; controlled anger is so much more devastating than that of a fiery anger.

"Kushina—" Minato got no further with the low-toned name of his soulmate.

Her nickname was the Red-Hot Habanero, but those that had ever seen her truly furious were more likely to compare her to dry ice, than habanero peppers. She was quick, she was cold, she burned so deeply it left scars the size of mountains.

"I am insane," she whispered. "I carry a monster of deadly enmity. I have a temper as short as the timer on an explosive tag. And yet, you hold to the belief that I will not use the information I have to save my best friend's son, the monster's heart, and my husband's student, who is like a daughter to me. Then, you insult me. Tell me, Councilman Mitokado, what exactly is stopping me from causing Konoha harm, if not my soft heart?"

The silence in the room was a mountain.

"I have endured the unending pain and torment of being the jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox, yet even as I do so, I fight for those very idiots that think to ridicule me, never realizing that should I so decide, I could take away their joy, their freedom, even their very lives, if I wanted…all without the help of the Kyuubi. So, I warn you, just this once, doubt my heart ever again and you'll find out just exactly what its doing for your safety."

She stood back from the wide-eyed ex-shinobi and made for the door without a backward glance. "I'm going to the Land of Hot Springs to rescue the three children, those who wish to go or send a representative, I'll be at the gates in exactly an hour. I wait for no man."

The mountain was shattered with the slammed door, but even so, it was still a heart-murmuring burden.

A/N: Well, there's chapter 11, right on schedule. I hope you like it, please review and tell me what you think. Before you ask, yes, Kushina is a bit OOC in this chapter, but I feel like the people that have really fiery tempers also have super scary cold tempers underneath, that are calm quiet angers that could tear apart nations. Also, regarding her freaking just because of what Mitokado said, her best friend is gone, they don't know if she was blown to bits, or lost in some alternate dimension (the Dimension Jumper thing will be explained when we get to it), her husband's student (who is like a daughter to her, as she said) was kidnapped, along with her best friend's son (who is like a nephew), and someone insanely important to the Kyuubi. She's stressed, worn thin, and WAY out of her depth. It'd make anyone a little OOC (refer to Kurama's attempt to attack Kushina because he's worn to his limit with Hinata's insane strangeness).

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. Stay tuned next Monday, for what happens next.