Kushina took one look at the Great Hall...and then stepped out. It was pink...horrifically pink.
Dear Kami, did a Haruno redecorate the great hall?!
Minato walked up, just as disturbed. Though his look was more for the really horrifying dwarves forced to look like small cupids. He had an idea of what those harps were for, and he sure as hell didn't want any part of it.
Kushina spotted her genin team and hissed at them not to go in.
Minato and Kushina grabbed the four and bolted. The moment they found a nearby classroom that had been abandoned, they slapped so many seals on the door that a bijuu would have difficulty getting in. As it stood, Kushina tried in vain to drown out the rather sappy poem that a fan had written for her.
Kushina wasn't oblivious. She knew her popularity was the highest in the school, and since she was an unwed, powerful female most families would jumped to have her as a daughter.
As it stood, Minato had owled his parents about a contract between him and Kushina to avoid this very problem. When asked through the goblins, Kushina had agreed when she heard who was doing the asking. They would be married by sixth year unless one of the parties decided to break the contract early.
Unfortunately the contract itself wouldn't take effect until next year...
"Dear Ametarasu...who the hell thought of hiring dwarves to sing Valentines?" asked Kushina with a shudder.
Draco twitched as well. He had a few of his own, and they were so off key that they made him visibly ill.
"I'll give you two guesses...and you won't need one," said Minato horrified.
Lockhart, from his spot at the teacher's table, shuddered. Someone had danced on his grave, he just knew it.
"So have there been any reports of attacks not associated with that damn snake?" asked Kushina.
"None that I know of..."
"There was one, but Snape moved them pretty damn fast to St. Mungo's," said Draco.
"Who and when?" asked Kushina sharply.
"A first year Slytherin, half blood from a well known house. The reason you didn't know was because Snape had spotted him one door away from the classroom and moved him from the school rather quickly."
"That does it. It's bad enough we have a damn snake with Mystic Eyes on the loose, but adding a pedophile on top of all that is the last straw! Minato, we're finding that Chamber by weekend if it kills us!"
Minato scowled, but he fully agreed. With any luck Lockhart would try to confront them after they found it so they could use him as a living shield.
Luck, it seemed, was not in the school.
On Friday, Hermione was attacked with Neville and Draco. They had been petrified, thankfully. Kushina was so enraged that she went looking for Myrtle, the only ghost she had yet to meet personally.
Kushina didn't mind asking the ghosts how they died, if anything they seemed rather pleased to tell others. The moment Kushina learned how Myrtle died, she put two and two together.
It didn't take her long after that to locate the opening of the Chamber.
Which meant they hit the damn snake on Sunday during the Quidditch game. Kushina had seals to prepare, and with Hermione out of commission the girl couldn't help her.
Not that Kushina would allow her to read the Uzumaki clan book, copied word for word by Kushina when she was three. It was one of the weirder exercises her clan had her do once they found she was a natural prodigy with seals. They had her copy the Clan book, then burn it to keep the secrets from ever leaving the clan. Every third month, she would copy, memorize and burn the book. Minato had commented on it once, but Kushina never told him why she did it.
Kushina had used her second message to Naruto during Christmas to give him that same book, and told him that he was to never read it outside his mind. Naruto had promised her he would read it whenever he got the chance.
When she finally returned home, she would get him started on the tradition.
Their skeletons will lie in the Chamber forever.
That was the message scrawled underneath the original one. Those eight words did something that would haunt Snape for years.
It put Minato on the warpath. Whoever had kidnapped his sister and Ginerva Weasly would be dead before the sun rose the next morning.
Lockhart, in his infinite stupidity, tried to detain them with the idea that he could claim to have killed the monster, at the cost of two young girls.
He was pinned and bleeding from various wounds before he knew what hit him. Minato held his special kunai at the man's throat and he had every intention of killing him and feeding him to the damn monster if he spoke another word. Lockhart was so terrified he actually pissed himself.
"Congratulations, Professor. You have just volunteered to become our bait,"said Kushina with a smile that completely terrified the already scared man. If the snake didn't kill him, she would.
Kushina walked up to the sink she had found and hissed. It was a talent she rarely spoke of because of Orochimaru. The man already wanted her body because of her clan...if he knew she could snake speak fluently he would stop at nothing to possess her.
That was a talent she passed to her son. She knew that much from the fact that the villagers kept spreading rumors that Anko, Orochimaru's unfortunate apprentice, was protecting him despite her protests that she never had anything to do with the boy. It wasn't her fault that Naruto, in a fit of cleverness, asked the most poisonous snakes in the village to guard him in exchange for helping him get rid of his rat problem.
If he could keep one of the snakes from the Forest of Death outside his apartment, he would.
Minato practically threw Lockhart down the pipe. The man screamed like a civilian girl, before he made a noise indicating he reached the bottom.
Kushina slid down with Minato right beside her. Before Lockhart got any ideas, Minato had him pinned with another kunai, though not one of his specials.
"Start walking, teme," said Minato in a low growl.
Lockhart walked forward...and didn't stop until they found the fresh snake skin.
He fainted, or so it seemed...until he found Minato's slime covered sandal on his throat.
"Nice try, but we know you're faking. Keep walking before I slit your throat and throw your lousy corpse to the snake as a snack!" snarled Minato.
Lockhart whimpered, and kept walking. Had they been anyone other than trained killers, he might have been able to steal one of their wands and escape. He had the bad luck of pissing off the only shinobi in a one hundred mile radius.
They stopped at a large door, and Kushina hissed at it. The snake slithered around the circle, opening the hidden lock.
Minato pressed the kunai into Lockhart's spine, forcing him to move. It took all his shinobi training not to run to the prone forms of Luna and Ginny. Kushina made three clones, one of which took over for Minato so he could check on his sister.
"Luna!"
"They won't wake. Especially not little Ginny," said a voice rather smug.
Kushina spat.
"If you're going to bring out the damn snake, at least give me time to put this prick into the proper position to get eaten," said Kushina irritably.
Tom Riddle, the true Heir of Slytherin, looked rather amused at her bluntness. He nodded in the direction of the relief's mouth.
Kushina pushed Lockhart in that direction without a care.
"Go ahead and summon it. If that bastard gets killed by the eyes or the snake eating him alive, it will still be a better death than he deserves!" she said coldly.
Speak to me Slytherin, Greatest of the Hogwarts Four!
The mouth began to open, and Minato moved both of the girls. Luna had been petrified like the others, but Ginny seemed to be sapped of her chakra. And if Minato didn't stop whatever it was, she would die.
Kushina didn't look at the mouth directly, though she heard Lockhart faint for real this time before the snake could use it's deadly gaze on him.
Minato yelled at her, and she pulled out a long series of seals. She tossed one bundle to him, once he moved the girls to a safe area.
"Fight like a Hyuuga in the dark!" she yelled.
Minato took the hint and moved his new Leaf headband (Jiraiya had brought them a full ANBU set for them along with two new headbands since theirs were either lost or stolen. The first thing they did was place them on.
Both Minato and Kushina were in ANBU gear, and all they were lacking were the masks. Not that they would be able to wear them. Both of their masks had been reassigned since their battle with the Kyuubi...though Kushina's had more or less been destroyed since she had worn a fox one.
The Hokage had tried to save that for their son should he grow old enough, but someone had stolen it and left the destroyed pieces on his desk.
Kushina and Minato pulled their hitai ate down over their eyes. It was part of a joke among the ANBU when they had to fight without using their eyes to say that you should fight like a Hyuuga. Their Byakugan allowed them to see even with their eyes closed, though rarely did they ever do that.
By saying that, Kushina told Minato to fight using his other senses.
The two were so in tune with the other that fighting back to back without their eyes was as easy as breathing to them. As they ducked and dove, they slowly got used to the sound of the basilisk. Riddle cursed them out every time they landed a hit. Each strike of their precise movements came with a sealing tag. Each spike of chakra came with a hiss and the sound of flames.
Kushina and Minato were attempting to find and seal the Basilisk's eyes using a series of seals. If the tag didn't burst into flame, then the seal was the one they needed, and the basilisk would have it's eyes sealed unless someone knew the counter hand signs to go with it.
After the tenth tag, the two paused. The last tag hadn't gone up in flames. Kushina cautiously lifted her hitai ate...and stared at the annoyed snake full on in the eyes. She could literally feel the KI aimed at her, but with the seal on it, the power of the Mystic Eyes couldn't reach her properly.
She glanced at the seal that had worked.
It was the seal of Seiryuu and Suzaku. So named because a phoenix had given the seal to the clan as a dragon appeared in the sky. The only explanation that was given was that it would one day be needed.
It looked like Kushina found why they had left this particular seal with the clan.
"How dare this impudent hatchling seal me!" the snake hissed angrily. From the voice it sounded almost...female?
"You do realize we could have just as easily killed you. As it stands, I have an offer for you great serpent," said Kushina in snake tongue.
"Like I would believe a hatchling!"
Kushina raised her KI, drawing upon the infinite rage of the Kyuubi to augment the feeling. Minato shivered but said nothing.
Suddenly the snake was much more interested in what Kushina had to say. Unlike the current 'Heir', this hatchling knew the laws of the animal kingdom.
It was a kill or be killed world. The strongest commanded those weaker, or killed the creature. And Kushina was proving very well that she was the alpha female in the Chamber.
"...Fine, what is your offer?"
"A chance to live in a forest full of animals your own size and where you won't be forced to live off rats," she hissed.
"In exchange for what?"
"There is a woman who bears the mark of one who insults the name of snakes and serpents. She could use a partner such as yourself."
The snake hissed at the apparition.
"What of that weak hatchling? He smells foul," said the snake.
"From what I understand, your venom is strong enough to erode even magical items. Shall we test it out on that stupid diary of his?" asked Kushina with a smirk.
The basilisk hissed in dark amusement, and Tom looked very concerned.
It struck the diary, and the venom from it's fangs caused the thing to scream and spout out large streams of ink and what appeared to be blood. With a loud snap, the book was completely ruined. The apparition was no longer around, having been destroyed with the book.
Ginny gasped, but passed out when she realized the snake hadn't been killed. With a shriek, she fainted from shock. Minato removed his hitai ate from his eyes.
"So what do we do with him?"
"It's a she, you dolt. I'm planning to put her in a comfortable storage scroll and having Jiraiya give her to Anko as a present...or a bribe to help Naruto since we can't be there until Shinigami-sama's mission is completed."
Minato shuddered.
"Dear kami...can you imagine that thing and Manda...?"
"Bah. So long as they follow Anko and not that slippery bastard, I don't care what bizarre mental image that idea makes!"
Kushina and Minato drew a large seal for the Basilisk to slither on, and with it's consent, sealed into a scroll. Minato carried the girls up the large pipe while Kushina dragged Lockhart with disgust behind her. She didn't care that she could have levitated the bastard, or that his clothes were being destroyed by the rocks.
"GINNY!" shrieked Molly.
"Luna! Micheal!" said Selene with tears in her eyes. Flitwick had alerted her rather quickly that Micheal had gone to rescue his sister with Kushina.
Kushina tossed the ruined book onto Dumbledore's desk.
"Next time the wards alert you to a dark artifact, why don't you investigate the damn thing! There isn't a chance in hell that your precious wards didn't pick up on this thing!"
Dumbledore looked at her with patient amusement.
"What do you mean child?" he asked.
Kushina leveled a dark glare at him, her hair beginning the by now infamous nine tailed split. Students had learned that whenever her hair rose and split into nine segments that she was either really annoyed or extremely pissed. Though that was mostly around Lockhart.
"Sealing a soul into an object or person is a Dark, Forbidden Art, almost on par with bringing corpses back to life. Only a true fool or a desperate Dark Lord would dare split their soul. If your wards didn't pick this up, then you need to have specialists come in to check them. Otherwise you are willingly risking the safety of the students," she said coldly.
Molly gasped, hearing that the wards could have stopped this whole mess from the start and the Headmaster had allowed it to go so horribly wrong.
"You sir, are fortunate that the snake didn't kill anyone. Though you could have done more to clear Hagrid of those accusations caused by Tom Riddle back then and stopped him from ruining the poor man's life," said Kushina angrily.
"I wasn't aware you spoke to Hagrid about that incident," said Dumbledore.
"I broke down his door and made him explain why he was acting so damn odd whenever someone mentioned the Chamber. If you don't get your act together, Headmaster, then I wouldn't be surprised if Shinigami-sama sent your soul to hell," said Kushina.
Dumbledore leveled a look at her. She glared right back, daring him to try that mind trick Snape once spoke of. She felt a slight pressure in her mind, and watched with open amusement as the man recoiled as if bitten by the very snake inside the Chamber.
"Next time you mind walk, old man, make sure that the person doesn't have something guarding it for them," said Kushina with satisfaction.
She almost missed Lucius appear with a scowl, and her smirk made him back up rather quickly.
"Draco was most informative about where Ginny got that odd diary, Malfoy. I warn you know, you pale haired bastard...if I ever hear that one of your little...toys...harmed another student or released something that most wizards can't handle, I will give you one of my special torture sessions and listen to you scream for mercy. Am I clear?" she asked sharply.
"Crystal," he said, though it looked like he wanted to say more.
She spotted Dobby, who shivered behind his master.
"As it stands I may let you leave here unharmed...in exchange for something of course."
"What do you want?"
"The house elf behind you released from service."
"Done," said Lucius without hesitation. Dobby had been becoming rather useless of late.
Kushina had plans for Dobby, and they involved the twins.