There isn't really much to say again, but I really wanted to thank all of you for all your wonderful responses! *wipes away fake tear*

I originally didn't have enough time per my schedule to be able to update right now, but I threw in a little more effort because all of you are being so nice.

Chapter 14: Bonds

She felt as if her heart was going to beat out of her chest when she felt the seal on her neck change. The Uzumaki Jinsei Kizuna Fūin on her neck represented her relationship with her brother. To her, it was a symbol of their love, and hence an integral part of what she was. Anything concerning that particular seal was something she could never ignore. Hence, when it reacted, she was more than a little concerned.

'It doesn't feel wrong… It feels kind of good. But I don't know what's going on…'

"Onee-chan, something is happening to my seal. Can you have a look and tell me if you see anything?"

Natsumi looked worriedly at her sister and leaned in close to examine her seal. "It's darker than before Kasumi-chan…"

They both looked at each other in hopes that the other might have an idea of what's going on, but one look into the eyes told them that wasn't the case. As uncertainty clawed at them, unpleasant scenarios began running through their minds.

Could the seal have broken because one of the partners got involved with someone else, even if it was with the permission of his lover? Or could it have started activating to counter this development and influence their minds in the other direction? If so, will they start having hostile intentions towards their own mother, even subconsciously?

"We should go tell Kaa-chan about this."

Kasumi nodded as they both started to walk towards Kushina's room. They knew she was probably indecent, but this was a serious matter that they couldn't in their right minds ignore.

Kushina's Room

It hadn't taken them long to recover from their ordeal, especially Naruto, who had recovered within a minute. While they could have gone for more, both of them knew that they had to start doing missions soon unless they wanted to arouse suspicions from the Hokage. And getting safely out of Konoha was of more immediate concern than this.

Kushina had wanted them to get dressed quickly, but the weight of Naruto on top of her prevented her from getting up. "Naruto-kun… we can't stay too long…"

"I know…" he stroked her cheek tenderly, "But for a few minutes, let's just stay together."

She bit her lip and nodded, he was so mature now, she could hardly believe it. The door to her room unexpectedly opened then, and neither of them was anywhere near decent. With her thighs and lower regions soaked with cum, and nothing else covering up her slightly sweating figure, she looked like she had just finished pleasing a large group of males.

Natsumi blushed when she saw her mother's state, but she had been expecting something like this, so was able to keep from fainting. Admittedly, it was a nice view, Kushina being an extraordinarily beautiful woman, and Naruto's allure was nothing to scoff at either, both of them together made a perfect picture if looked at without any prejudice.

"Did you really get all that pumped into you?"

Kushina smirked at her golden haired daughter. "Yes, and it was the best thing I ever felt. Just wait till you get a taste of him, I'm sure you'll love it."

Natsumi blushed as she realized that she had actually asked something like that to her own mother, and was even more taken aback by her reply.

Naruto stopped playing with Kushina's hair, but still kept kissing the seal on her neck occasionally. "You two wanted to join in?"

Natsumi blushed even more, her face now matching Kasumi's hair color, while Kasumi hesitantly spoke. "Onii-chan, Kaa-chan, we came here because I think… something happened to my Jinsei Kizuna Fūin…"

The girls relaxed when Kushina gave them a victorious grin in response, now knowing it can't be too bad.

Kushina tried to push Naruto off her, but he didn't budge. "Off boy, we still have a lot of work to do! Naruto-kun! Get off already…"

"I can get off?"

"No! Not right now…"

"Aw…"

Kushina rolled her eyes at him, ignoring the astonishing fact that she couldn't push him off her, even though she was an S-class kunoichi. "For your question, yes, we found out that we can have more than one life partner as long as all of them love everyone bound by the bond unconditionally. Suffice to say, it won't work for most people, but since it does for us, I'm happy. Isn't it great?"

Natsumi and Kasumi were shocked upon hearing that. But nonetheless they were more than a little happy. Once Kasumi and Naruto had bonded, the others had accepted the fact that if they chose Naruto, they would never get the Uzumaki Jinsei Kizuna Fūin. "Wait, I realize I don't know too much about that seal but… I thought it was only to be formed in between an Uzumaki couple, not more than two people?"

Kushina nodded hesitantly. "It was kind of a tradition in Uzushiogakure to educate brides on workings of the Uzumaki Jinsei Kizuna Fūin only after they receive it – so that they don't get their hopes crushed if the seal doesn't get formed, which is why I never knew too much about it either.

With Uzushiogakure being destroyed so long ago, I doubt there are many out there who are aware of its workings. But hopefully Nina-san knows, being alive for so long she must have picked something up. Even if she wasn't married, she used to live in Uzushiogakure no Sato for a long time before its destruction. Why don't we all ask her?"

When the others nodded in agreement, Kushina tried to get up, only to roll her eyes as Naruto stuck his tongue out at her, refusing to get off her. "Suiton: Ekitai Atsuryoku Hazumi!" [Water Release: Hydraulic Thrust]

With a thin layer of water covering her skin and providing her with a massive boost in strength, Kushina pushed Naruto off her, and straight into a wall. He collided with a loud wham.

"Ouch!"

"Onii-chan!"

Kushina and Natsumi giggled as Kasumi fussed over the pouting Naruto. "That wasn't nice Kaa-chan! What if Onii-chan got hurt?"

"Oh come on musume, you and I both know I wouldn't do that. And he had it coming."

Natsumi just smirked at the twins. "Naruto-kun did ask for it by annoying Kaa-chan."

Naruto shot them a fake betrayed look, before breaking into laughter. "Alright alright… I asked for it. But let's go see Nina-chan now to ask her about our binding seals. And, uhm… Kasumi? Since we don't have too much time could you be a doll and make a water bubble for me to take a super-fast bath?"

Kasumi didn't need to move to do that, and made the high pressure bubble around both of them. Naruto was as clean as possible in seconds.

Naruto frowned. "Hm… Now you're soaked too."

The redhead smiled at him. "Don't worry Onii-chan. This water is made out of my chakra, and I can absorb it back in to avoid making the room a mess."

"Wait wait, what about all the fluids you washed off from me that got mixed into it?"

Kasumi tilted her head sideways, unable to see the problem. "They're yours and Kaa-chan's so I don't mind."

The blonde's eyes widened. "Whoa, you… absorbed them into your chakra system… Kasumi… that's not healthy… If it weren't for your regeneration you'd be long dead… The parts of me you absorbed contained yōki, not regular chakra. For you to mix them with your life stream is like self-poisoning."

Kushina coughed. "It's okay Sochi-kun. She's had yōki sealed into her system since her birth, and it's been poisoning her chakra system and expanding her coils constantly. While normally it would considerably shorten the life-span of anyone, she's already ageless so it doesn't matter. Further, she can't be poisoned with the level of regeneration she has achieved. It's already beyond what I have."

Naruto sighed. "Even so, injecting poison into your life stream just because you know it won't kill you?"

Seeing as none of them wanted to respond to that, including Kasumi, he frowned but decided to let it pass for now. "You all go wait for me downstairs, I will be there soon."

Natsumi was the first to walk out the room, with Kasumi following right behind her. Naruto gave Kushina a kiss on the lips before exiting the room, going in the direction of his own room to take a shower and get dressed quickly.

It wasn't really planned by either him or Kushina to start this today; it was more of a spur of the moment thing. When all four Uzumaki women had shown up wearing nothing but towels, he couldn't really control himself for too long, and Kushina had told him she was ready, so he didn't see anything wrong with it.

'I wonder just how much sorrow Kaa-chan has been hiding from us… We never knew she was always so sad until she met up with Natsumi, only then were they able to realize how half-formed her smiles were.

Again, we never realized how insecure she was considering her own capabilities as a female. Her confidence regarding that only just returned when I proved to her that she could enjoy herself and make me enjoy myself just as much.

What else are you keeping from us Kaa-chan?'

Fifteen Minutes later

Naruto, Kushina, Kasumi and Natsumi were waiting for Nina to begin telling them all the details about the Uzumaki Life Binding Seal, also known as the Uzumaki Jinsei Kizuna Fūin - as most probably, sooner or later Natsumi was going to receive the same and thus all of them would be bound by it. Of course, Nina might have the same as well, but that greatly depended on her feelings at the time she and Naruto decided to get together, if it happened. If she wanted to be bound by the seal, she had to love everyone that was already bound unconditionally, and that love must be reciprocated.

Their positions on the couch had become quite regular and predictable since Naruto had come back from his training. Kasumi was always sitting on her brother's lap with his arms wrapped around her waist; sometimes he nuzzled her neck affectionately. Kushina was on Naruto's right side with her head resting on his shoulder, while Natsumi was on his left in the same position.

Naruto being the center of attention could basically be credited to his training journey. Seeing as he hadn't been there for quite a while, all of them had been missing him terribly. Even if that weren't the case, Kasumi would still have paid him the most attention due to him being the one she valued most, and Natsumi would have done the same as she was saved by him before she ever met the rest of the family.

As was the convention, the person being interrogated or questioned had to sit opposite to them. When it was someone outside their family, Nina usually preferred to sit on Naruto's left side after Natsumi, whom she felt closer to than the rest.

'Honestly, I feel a bit out of place with them, they are all so close with each other. Why am I complaining anyway? They did give me the chance, and I still have it… All I have to do is take it, but is it really that simple? I want to be sure if I love him or not, only time will tell…'

Finally, Nina began telling them what they were waiting for. "I suppose you all know how the Uzumaki Jinsei Kizuna Fūin is formed, placed and its requirements? So I will skip those.

I didn't know more than two people can be linked through the seal, so that's new to me as well. But I guess it's rare for all three or maybe even four people to love each other unconditionally. It just… seems very unlikely to happen. Nevertheless, I guess it's not impossible, as we can already see.

The Jinsei Kizuna Fūin's most basic function is hidden in its name. It binds the life of people that share the seal. Let's say if one of them dies, then his or her life partner, or partners in this case, will all die along with that person.

Additionally, sometimes life partners can hear or feel what the other one is thinking or feeling – but that's a rare occurrence. Usually when your life partners needs your help or are in danger it activates.

Other than that life partners can somehow always tell where their significant other is, I guess that should be because of the seal as well."

Others in the room frowned but nodded. "I wouldn't want to live without any of you… although this does makes our elimination much easier. If someone were to be able to kill even one of us, all of us will die?"

Nina shook her head. "Don't forget Naruto-kun, your rinnegan is a wild card here. It is said that those who possess the legendary dōjutsu are beyond life and death. The Rikudō Sennin was said to have the power to bring recently dead back to life, as he had some form of control of the dimension between life and death. As long as the person's soul has passed on recently, say a few hours, and is still in that realm, a rinnegan wielder may be able to revive them.

Unlike the Edo Tensei, it really brings them back to life permanently as if they had never been dead. As such, it wouldn't make sense for the seal to take your life to reunite you with your partners when you can bring her back, will it?

If the person who created this seal really was the Rikudō Sennin, and I doubt anyone else could have given how complex it is – then he must have taken this possibility into consideration. So we don't know what will happen in your case.

Either way, that is the only disadvantage, if you can call it that. I am certain you all know that the seal strengthens your bloodline and lets your partner have it as well?"

At their nods, she continued. "For the three basic Uzumaki bloodline traits, the Uzumaki Jinsei Kizuna Fūin strengthening goes like this – your regeneration gets faster, but the chakra cost remains the same. The aging will still take the same amount of chakra, but you will be able to have a better control over it and age up and down at higher rates. For blood healing – I'm not sure myself. That is the rarest of the three, but I guess you will be able to heal more and more fatal wounds with less blood.

If you all have a common linking of each other through the seal, your abilities and control will be phenomenal. Naruto might even be able to control them as good as us if he practices well enough.

The complication that I can't answer right now comes with Naruto's bloodline, though since Natsumi has studied Kasumi's blood in detail, I am sure she can enlighten us a bit on it?" she questioned.

Natsumi nodded. "Sure, from what I can tell – Kasumi didn't receive any new affinities from Naruto-kun. So if you did get the same stuff as Kasumi – you will be able to combine the elements you already have to make sub-elements. But like he already told us, we will have to learn it first."

Kushina seemed to think about it for a while. "I have Suiton as primary and Natural affinity like all whirlpool girls, and I have a decent grasp over Katon because of being in Fire country for so long and learning so many fire jutsu. It's not as good as my water affinity, but it is there. So I guess I should be able to use boil release if I learn how to do it, huh?"

Natsumi nodded after thinking about it a bit. "That should work. The Rinnegan gene strengthening that happened in Kasumi should have happened with you as well, but I will check it later anyway."

Kasumi looked like she wanted to say something, as she was squirming on Naruto's lap, giving him a hard on. Kushina looked at her questioningly. "You wanted to ask something Kasumi-chan?"

She nodded a bit nervously. "Yeah, I wanted to know if you are planning on having kids anytime soon Kaa-chan? Seeing as you two have finally gotten together…"

Kushina seemed to think about it for a bit. She didn't have anything against having Naruto's kids, but pregnancy wasn't a very pleasant experience.

The Uzumaki bloodline regeneration did absolutely nothing to help with it. When your hands get cut off, you can regenerate them with the bloodline, but that doesn't mean you will feel any less pain when they are cut.

The reason she was so weakened after the delivery was pretty simple, her bloodline kept healing her during the delivery, making the process harder and even more painful, as the damage will be inflicted again because of the baby trying to get out, only to be healed repeatedly. The whole process consumed a lot of chakra as well.

Any Uzumaki female had a much higher probability of dying while giving birth because of this, reasons ranged from chakra exhaustion to inability to bear the unimaginable pain. This was one of the main reasons she wanted her daughters to wait till they are sure they are ready.

'Besides, right now it won't be safe to have kids, all these conflicts around us… the mother and baby both will be in danger…'

Finally she sighed, "We used anti-pregnancy jutsu this time… I don't really think it will be right for any of us to get pregnant till we are all safe and things have settled down a bit. Maybe in a few years when there is no big risk of Konoha attacking us and we have a stable and safe place to live in…"

They all sat there in silence absorbing all the information. A few minutes later, Kushina started speaking. "Unless I am mistaken, this is a great development. But we also have something more to worry about.

Thanks to Jiraiya we now know we've been too relaxed. He got inside the compound, and now knows some of our secrets, like Naruto-koi's bloodline, about Hitomi-chan, as well as a few minor Uzumaki fūinjutsu techniques."

"What are we going to do about him Kaa-chan?"

They all frowned at that. Jiraiya had caught them with their pants down.

"Well, Naruto-koi's bloodline was going to be disclosed sooner or later, we can't keep it hidden forever. We shouldn't worry about it as he doesn't know too much about it – just that it is something like the rinnegan and possibly extremely powerful. That will help in driving some fear into people's heart.

But what worries me is that he knows Naruto is a half-demon now. If this gets out before we are out of here then the whole village will be after our heads. Can I trust you with this Natsumi-chan?"

Natsumi looked nervous for a few moments before regaining her confidence. "Nothing is perfect Kaa-chan, but from what I can tell he should be in coma for at least six months even in intensive care - and that is without my sedatives.

We will be out of here in seven months at most; I'm going to put my best sedatives in him that will be undetectable by anyone except someone of Tsunade's caliber.

Those should keep him down for many years given the skill level of the medics here, but I am sure that Tsunade will be called upon sooner or later to heal him, as he is important to Konoha. If she tries she can counter my sedatives.

But they will all be busy till the chūnin exams, right? So they can't afford to pay way too much attention to him till the exams are over, and by that time we will be out of here."

Kushina nodded, while the plan had some flaws like Tsunade coming back sooner than expected, there wasn't much that could be done there. "I guess we will have to work with that here. If he does wake up and we are attacked, we need a backup plan."

Kasumi bit her lip nervously. She was still pretty shaken from the scolding she got earlier from Naruto about self-poisoning her chakra system, but nonetheless, this was important. "I think I might have a solution for that. If you all let me place some seals on each of you, I will be able to reverse summon you to my location. If I place one of my special seals outside the village, I will reverse summon you as soon as I teleport there – getting us all out safely."

Kushina smirked. "It's a good plan. But what's the fun in that Kasumi-chan? Since sooner or later Jiraiya will wake up and tell everyone about Naruto-koi's bloodline I think it will be best if we make Konoha fear us as much as possible."

Others raised their eyebrows at that, clearly interested in making Konoha suffer, but wary of any risks Kushina's plan was going to bring.

'Hyūga are Konoha nin after all, and they are the ones that raped my Kaa-chan. As if that was not enough, they faked friendship with Uzushiogakure only to later abandon them when Kumo-Kiri-Iwa alliance attacked, in which Kaa-chan and all my friends and family died.

Now I only have these few left with me, and even then Konoha has caused them so much pain and suffering.' Nina thought bitterly.

"I suggest that we show our strength through you three during the Chūnin exams, and then kill as many as possible during our escape. Of course, we won't risk being caught. If anything starts going wrong, Kasumi will use her escape plan to get us out of there, agreed?"

They all nodded in agreement. Kasumi and Natsumi hadn't yet made their first kills so Kushina made a mental note to get that out of the way during one of the missions. 'It wouldn't do if they freeze up during the invasion or the exams. OH wait, Naruto already killed a few hundred when he was six. That leaves Kasumi and Natsumi.'

Naruto hummed in thought, he had been silent for most of the conversation as he didn't see anything wrong with their plans till now. "I assume you will be modifying the barrier seals soon enough Kaa-chan?"

At Kushina's nod he continued. "Good, we should leave the compound intact then, but shouldn't leave anything too important here either. If we are in a tight situation sometime in the future Kasumi can teleport us all here. No one would expect us to hide in Konoha of all places."

Kasumi grinned at her brother's devious plan, while Naruto continued. "I was wondering though, can I use some of my bloodline techniques?"

Kushina shook her head. "You don't need to hold back too much during the exams, but don't do anything too outrageous. Not before the finals Naruto-koi, as that will be the day we are leaving. We don't need trouble before that. You can do whatever you want once the finals start."

Naruto grinned. "I will make sure we give them something to remember us for when we leave."

The girls couldn't help but wonder what, but they didn't ask him. They knew what he was going to do of course, but not how he was going to do it. Sometimes surprises are quite pleasant. Especially when they make your enemies suffer.

"I still can't believe I let Minato get his hands on Uzumaki archives… There were also some Jikūkan fūinjutsu techniques in one of the scrolls that had gone missing for a while… but I had found it later. I can't believe I never suspected Minato for it!"

Nina sighed. "He probably used them for developing Hiraishin no Jutsu. Don't worry about it though, he never taught it to anyone. But thankfully he left all the notes here."

Kasumi agreed. "Yeah, it was hard to redevelop everything from his notes, but the technique is admittedly useful."

That was one of the reasons those techniques were kept secret. Non-Uzumaki seal masters like Minato experimented with seals mostly in the wrong way, and the Uzumaki seals were too dangerous and powerful to be experimented with unless you have been taught all of their basics, which you weren't unless you were born an Uzumaki.

Obviously Minato had experimented with them. Fortunately nothing too bad happened from his experiments, and he even managed to develop a very powerful technique. He was a genius after all. Thankfully he never taught those space time seals to Jiraiya, otherwise there would have been a 'Pervert Flash' roaming the elemental nations as well.

'I can't believe they are taking everything so casually, and they even forgot about him!' Natsumi thought in exasperation. "You know, we are forgetting one important detail in our plans."

Naruto raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What is that Natsu-chan?"

"Orochimaru isn't going to let us waltz out of here. And he was really interested in our bloodline if you don't remember."

Nina nodded. "He will surely make an attempt on Natsumi-chan. Naruto-kun and Kasumi-chan have a demon and yōki sealed in them respectively - which will probably complicate his bloodline research, while Kushina-chan and myself are too strong to be easy prey to capture – so Natsu-chan will be the most obvious target. What are we going to do about it?"

Kushina sighed. "As I said before, he will most likely make a move during the second part of the chūnin exams or the invasion day. We are going to get the fuck out of here on the invasion day so the highest risk would be during the second part of the exams.

He uses a special type of seal on his subordinates to ensure their loyalty to him. If I know the bastard well he will apply it on Natsumi-chan as well. We can't plan too far ahead but I think it would be great if we know what we are up against.

I was going to kidnap Mitarashi Anko, the only one with the cursed seal in this village. We can try to decipher it. That was why I told you all to be ready to leave for the mission today; I wouldn't have bothered with that for a D-rank mission, would I?"

Naruto smirked. "You are as clever as ever Kaa-chan."

Kushina laughed softly. "I hope none of you are uncomfortable with doing that, right?"

They all shook their heads; they didn't give a damn about what happens to anyone other than their family and friends, as most others hated them for no reason anyway.

"She is going to be an enemy later anyway, once we leave the village, if she dies during our observation that is one less enemy to deal with for us."

Kushina nodded. "I agree with you there Naruto-kun. But don't forget she's not really liked too much here due to the same seal. If we manage to remove that seal, she might even join us. We won't trust her of course, but her skills can be of good use, and she does have the snake summoning contract."

Naruto nodded at her, along with everyone else. "Our first priority during the second part will be to prevent Natsumi from receiving Orochimaru's seal. If that cannot be done I am sure that it won't be too hard for all us to remove it. Orochimaru might be a genius but seals aren't exactly his forte."

"Oh well, let's get going. We are already behind our schedule of doing missions, and we have a Tokubetsu Jōnin to kidnap too."

Naruto sighed as he bit one last time on Kasumi's neck, making her moan. The area where her life binding seal was visible was obviously extra sensitive, which made playing with her all the more fun now.

Kushina couldn't help but smile at them. While she might have become Naruto's lover as well, she knew that Naruto and Kasumi were special to each other; no one could really get in between them. But they had work to do now.

"Don't forget to bring Jiraiya with us Natsumi-chan." She said as they all got up to get ready to leave.

Nina got up to scout ahead and look for Anko while the others get rid of Jiraiya and get a few missions from the tower.

A few minutes later | Hokage Tower

"Come in."

In walked a five foot ten inch tall blond boy in standard ANBU outfit, but he was definitely not an ANBU as he didn't have a mask or a cloak, or any visible ANBU tattoo. On both his sides were two girls, one five feet four inches with long blond hair wearing short leather dress and a white shirt with black edges over it. The other one was five feet six inches tall, had long crimson hair that reached past her waist, and was wearing a one piece outfit that started from her neck and ended by the middle of her thighs.

Leading them was a woman that looked barely nineteen with long crimson hair that reached her knees, she was wearing standard black ANBU outfit without a cloak and a mask.

'I knew that the Uzumaki live exceptionally long life, as Uzushiogakure was also called the 'Land of Longevity', but this is fucking ridiculous. Kushina seems to be getting younger with each passing day! She is supposed to be thirty now. Look at me, I look seventy, like I am supposed to! Why can't she just once do something like I expect? I don't like being surprised…' Sarutobi thought furiously, though no one could tell from outside, except Kushina.

"Ah, Team 11. So you all finally show up. I take it you three passed Kushina's test?" Sarutobi greeted with a smile.

"That they did, with flying colors. I am certain they will make it to Chūnin in this exam." Kushina declared proudly. She needed to keep a facade up in front of the Hokage. He didn't need to know about her goals, so she had to mislead him. It would be best if he thought she was only thinking about making them as strong as possible, and try to shoot them up through the ranks.

The truth though, was that she didn't think anything about ninja ranks at all. What is the difference in being a chūnin or ANBU if you are going to go missing-nin in six months anyway?

"Ah, that is nice to hear, this means you are going to enroll them in the chūnin exams Kushina-chan, ne?" he warmly added.

'At least something good will happen, all the spectators will watch how powerful these genin are and our missions income will increase.'

Of course Sarutobi didn't know exactly how powerful each of them was, like he would have preferred – but he was pretty sure Kushina had done a good job raising them when it came to fighting ability.

He didn't like Kushina at all, especially after she left ANBU and became an elite jōnin to teach her kids. 'Fucking S-rank missions are getting piled up and I have to send entire teams for things she had been handling alone!'

Indeed, the number of S-rank missions Konoha was getting was simply mind boggling. Everyone preferred to get important tasks that could be counted as S-rank to be done by Konoha.

It was because almost every S-rank mission was taken up by Kushina, who did it perfectly and quickly, completely satisfying the customer. But after Kushina had resigned from her ANBU position did the council understand her importance.

The number of S-rank missions they were getting remained the same as the customers didn't know or care that Kushina had stopped working and expected their job to be done the same way as Konoha had been doing all this time – efficient and perfect.

Much to their disappointment though, even when Konoha sent entire ANBU squads – they were slower, messier and less efficient.

This was leading to a constant decline in village's income that they got from S-rank missions, as well as their reputation being spoiled. Not to mention sending out many high level ninja for those missions instead of just Kushina weakened their defensive capabilities greatly.

'But that's okay,' thought Sarutobi 'It's not like we are going to be invaded during the chūnin exams or anything, all the villages know Konoha is too strong at the moment.

And I was going to get rid of Kushina after the chūnin exams anyway, so I will have to accept a few drawbacks. I still have to figure out the best way to kill her though…

I wish Itachi didn't disobey me and leave Sasuke alive. Mikoto was unavoidable as she wasn't in the Uchiha compound then. Still, had he not done what he did, he would still have been a loyal ANBU. He would have been a great help in eliminating Kushina…

Oh, Minato, if only you could see how your wife turned out to be, you would have been so disappointed… Poisoning her children to believe that they don't need to die for Konoha, extinguishing their will of fire, how horrible… I hope you forgive me for killing her, but it has to be done for the good of the village…'

Sarutobi knew that his successor would have made the same decision in his place, as the village comes above family or anyone. If Minato had to, he would have sacrificed his wife and children faster than most could blink.

Sandaime couldn't have been more proud of choosing Minato as the fourth; he had the will of fire shining brightly within him. When the question of who the child for sealing should be had come, he didn't hesitate at all to snatch Naruto and Kasumi from Kushina, and didn't let his wife's sobbing for mercy dither his judgment.

If Kushina had been strong enough to try and interrupt the procedure after her delivery, he wouldn't have hesitated to kill her either. A Hokage can't let a single women lead to the downfall of an entire village after all.

Kushina's voice broke him out of his thoughts. "Yes, I will enroll them. But for now we would like to request a few missions for ourselves to perform." She responded calmly. She didn't need to be too friendly to him either, or he will start suspecting something.

'What were we talking about again? Oh yes, chūnin exams… I must be growing old… unlike Kushina' his eyes narrowed. 'Her bloodline? That seems like a plausible explanation, maybe her regeneration got to a level where she can stop aging? Or she is trying to do something disgusting like my student Orochimaru?'

He mentally sneered at the thought of someone experimenting on the innocent villagers. 'That is another risk I will eliminate when I get rid of her. Orochimaru was such a big mistake I made… I hope I can fix it someday…'

"By all means, you all are the last to arrive today so we only have four left. You can choose between painting a fence, capturing Tora, picking out some weeds and babysitting. Which one do you want?" he asked switching back to his bored tone. He had to do this the whole day, and it was not fun.

"We want all four of them."

Sandaime shrugged. "Sure, be sure to get to the baby sitting on time, you can do the rest three at your disposal but they must be done within two days." He handed Kushina the four scrolls, not expecting to see them again for two days.

"You brought the scroll Natsumi-chan?" Kushina asked, confusing the Hokage about what they were talking of.

"Yeah, it was right here… I am sure I put it somewhere here…" Natsumi spoke as she started searching her dress for the scroll in confusion. She did put it somewhere in there.

Kushina sighed as she started feeling her up for the scroll. She was wearing a short leather dress with a small white jacked on top and long leather boots that reached up to her thighs. Even though there wasn't much space to lose the scroll, the scroll itself was easy to lose or hide due to its small size.

Iruka, who had been silent during the whole conversation passed out from a nosebleed as he saw Kushina's hands roam up and down Natsumi's body.

The Hokage himself got a rosy blush on his face as he observed very carefully; completely ignorant of the increasing glare Naruto was sending his way. His hand was repeatedly twitching as he felt really tempted to do to Sandaime what he did to Jiraiya.

'No, don't do it Naruto-kun. We don't want to give up our secrets before the right time!'

He calmed himself a bit on Hitomi's advice, but still. The old man better stop ogling his sister soon or he was going to pay!

"Ah, found it!" Kushina grinned in victory, holding up something that looked very much like Asuma's cigarette, only smaller.

Kasumi had taken it upon herself to create scrolls the size of matchsticks as she thought it would be nice to be able to carry many of them in ordinary pockets, unlike regular scrolls which are much larger and need special slots to carry them comfortably.

But they needed to make some custom garments soon; the scroll losing problem was becoming a nuisance. Stacking that thought away for later, Kushina turned towards Sandaime, who was looking at the small object in confusion.

She channeled some chakra into the scroll, and it poofed into a bigger scroll.

'Nice trick' Sandaime thought 'Once Kushina is removed I am sure the children will become loyal to the village with nowhere else to go, this will make Konoha ninja's carrying capacity much more efficient, I am sure they will share this technique with the village…'

Kushina unrolled the scroll. "Kai."

In a puff of smoke, Jiraiya appeared in Hokage's office, unconscious of course, with blood still leaking out of his nose. Even though his balls were crushed, you could see his erection if you look carefully enough, and for ninja it was rather easy to notice such small things as they were trained for it.

Sarutobi's eyes widened. "What happened to him?"

"He was peeping on us at the hot springs." Kasumi replied.

Sarutobi sighed tiredly at that. 'Couldn't I have had ONE decent student? Is it too much to ask? This is my only loyal student and look at him! What did I do to deserve this?'

It was regular behavior for Jiraiya, so he didn't think much of it. Except for one thing… 'If he was peeping on them in the hot springs that means he knows how to get through that damned barrier Kushina has around that compound. I will need to talk it out of him once he wakes up…'

"I apologize for my student's behavior, it won't happen again. But you know how he is Kushina-chan…" He apologetically stated.

"You better; if he tries anything like that again we won't return him to you alive." Kushina glared.

Sarutobi frowned. "I know he doesn't have the best habits, but that won't be a good enough reason to kill him, you will be punished accordingly if he dies by your hand, do I make myself clear?"

Kushina narrowed her eyes at the old leader. "Then make sure he doesn't do anything like that again and stays out of my way. I will try not to kill him."

Sarutobi rubbed his temple as he felt another headache coming. 'What was Jiraiya here for anyway? He only sends reports through his summons for regular things, for him to come here personally it must have been something big.

And now I don't know what it was thanks to Kushina… bitch… I guess I will have to wait till Jiraiya wakes up… he needs to be taken to hospital from the looks of it.'

"You are all dismissed." He finally stated with barely restrained anger as he continued to eye Jiraiya. 'Not being able to get whatever information Jiraiya brought on time might cost us, this is not good…'

Outside the Hokage Tower

The group arrived outside the Hokage tower to be greeted by Nina. "Hi Nina-san! Did you find her?" Naruto asked.

Nina nodded. "Yes, Naruto-kun. She is currently having a meal at the nearby dango restaurant with Jōnin Kurenai Yūhi."

They all looked at Kushina for further instructions. "Well," she started "it looks like the fire lord's wife lost Tora in the area between here and the dango restaurant. We will pick the cat up and seal it in a scroll and then proceed with our plan."

Others nodded as Nina proceeded to look for the cat with her byakugan.

A few minutes later

Thanks to Nina's wide range of view the Uzumaki had no trouble in finding the cat at all, but Kushina knew it will take a few minutes to subdue the cat, she had heard how annoying lady Shijimi's cat was.

They were all pretty surprised, except Kasumi, when the cat just ran straight at them instead of running away, and showed no resistance when Kasumi picked her up.

Nina wasn't all that surprised, as she didn't know Tora's real nature, but still pets weren't supposed to trust strangers like that.

Kasumi sighed at Kushina's bewildered look. "Kaa-chan, I think she trusts me because of the yōki I contain…" as she said this, the cat jumped from her arms to Naruto's head.

"Hey, get off me! You are ruining my hair style!"

Natsumi giggled. "You don't have a hair style Naruto-kun, it is all messy and spiky sticking out in all directions, and I don't think you were ever introduced to a comb."

Naruto glared at his sister. "Just because I don't have it doesn't mean she can just ruin it!"

Natsumi raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't even make any sense Naruto-kun…"

Meanwhile Tora had curled up in a ball on Naruto's head and was taking a short nap, she could sense this entity was very powerful, and he was also of the same nature as her, a demon.

Kasumi tapped her chin in thought. "It trusts me as well; maybe it has something to do with Hitomi-chan's chakra? Now that I think about it, Tora did use demonic chakra when she was fighting Kiba."

Other Uzumaki were fairly surprised.

'That is a minor cat demon, Naruto-kun. Sometimes due to certain dimensional rifts here and there even low level creatures from demonic and celestial realms can enter the human realm. Of course the higher level ones such as the deities can do that as they will. I suppose this one escaped her realm by chance or was brought here by some major demon.

Either way since she senses my presence and your own half-demon status she feels safer around her own kind than the humans. Or that is my theory anyway…'

Naruto sighed. The cat wasn't going to get off his head, and if he tried to pry her off then there was a chance he will lose a good bit of his hair in the process.

"Let's go get our major plan done. We will get this done later." He said in a defeated tone.

Others shrugged and started to follow Nina as she led them to the restaurant.

Kushina was still suspicious of Sarutobi's behavior when they were in Hokage office. He was letting his serious nature show more around her, but why? He wasn't acting like the kind old man he always does; he would only do that if it didn't matter anymore.

'What does it mean if it doesn't matter anymore if I see through his mask or not?' she thought for a while. 'There is a chance he thinks he can get rid of me, so it won't matter if I know about his real intentions or not, fool. Orochimaru will probably kill him during the invasion, or die trying. I will get rid of one of my major enemies without even lifting a finger, and I can kill the other one easily later. Kukukuku…'

"Stop your evil chuckling Kaa-chan, Anko will hear you." Kasumi said in a hushed voice.

That was when Kushina realized that during her deep thinking she had been following the Uzumaki siblings around, who were following Nina – who was in turn leading them to Mitarashi Anko.

They were currently on the rooftop of the building opposite to the dango restaurant where their target was eating dango and drinking sake.

"What now?" Nina asked.

"Huh?"

"You had a plan when you said you were going to kidnap her, right Kushina-chan?" Nina said in an irritated voice.

"Oh… I never worked out the details like that. My plan was to wait till she is alone and then grab her." Kushina stated simply. 'Actually my plan was to see if my children can form a good plan by themselves or not, but they don't need to know that. I will interfere if they fuck up.'

Everyone else's eyebrow twitched. "We need a real plan. Like how to get her away from others."

A few minutes later

Anko was having a good day. Well, as good as she can have in Konoha. She was still the 'snake slut' after all, but she had friends and precious people in the village who loved her too, so she was sort of happy.

"So, how is your little boy toy doing?" she asked Kurenai in her usual playful tone.

"Huh? W-who are you talking about! You know I'm single…" Kurenai stuttered.

"Aw come on! Aren't I like your best friend? You can tell me all about it, and you should know who I am talking about…." She whispered with a smirk.

"Me and Asuma are just friends!" Kurenai glared at the snake mistress.

Anko grinned. "See? That's what I'm talking about; I never even mentioned his name."

Kurenai's face turned red like her eyes. "If you tell anyone about this…" she started dangerously.

"Hey is that a fucking cat eating my dango?" Anko suddenly spoke, interrupting Kurenai mid threat.

Kurenai looked down back at their table, and indeed there was a brown cat with five pale stripes on her head and a red ribbon on her right ear chewing on Anko's dango, completely unaware of the impending doom that was going to be brought on her.

"That was my dango!" Anko yelled furiously. The poor cat looked up with her innocent black eyes, and then started hopping away with one of Anko's dango sticks in her little mouth.

"What the fuck do you think you are doing taking my dango! Give it back here you little thief!" Anko started rushing after the cat as Kurenai shook her head. "That is so like Anko, she will probably kill the poor cat for taking her dango… Oh well, I have a date later with Asuma soon anyway, so I better get going…"

Twenty minutes later

'That fuking cat, how can it run so fast?'

She had been following the cat around for quite a while now, unbelievably enough the cat was able to keep up with her speed. 'That isn't supposed to be possible…'

She knew that it was probably a ninja trying to trap her away from the general populace. It wasn't anything new really, genin and chūnin who had heard of Orochimaru often tried to do stuff like this – only once, before they stopped, then they knew not to mess with the 'crazy snake bitch' after she was done with those newbie's.

Anko sighed as she continued chasing. 'More brats to teach lesson today… I hope that their trap is at least worth all this time I am wasting chasing the fucking cat around.

And I have to make them pay for my dango!'

Finally the cat stopped running. Anko was confused, she had been expecting it to try and lead her to more dense or isolated areas, not in front of a huge ass compound where the Uzumaki lived. Those people just didn't give a shit if she was Orochimaru's ex-apprentice or not, she had seen the disinterested looks of the girls of that family. She doubted they even knew who she was, it couldn't be that they are the ones after her, could it?

The cat then grinned evilly at Anko, sending shivers down her spine. "Damn, you sure know how to make people nervous, for a cat. Perhaps I will make you my pet after we are done with this." She laughed like nothing was wrong.

But inwardly she was getting nervous. She knew of the Uzumaki clan head, Uzumaki Kushina. She might be considered crazy by others, but she knew if she had to fight Kushina then the best chance she had was to escape and let the Hokage know about this, and even that was pretty slim to happen.

'Shit, I hope it's not her… I can handle the brats, but the older ones are out of my league right now.'

She knew about Nina too, who wasn't even a Konoha ninja. But that didn't make Anko underestimate her, she knew that Nina had beaten the Hyūga clan head and Hoheto in a two on one fight, and Hoheto was a Jōnin.

She sensed herself becoming surrounded and cursed herself for her recklessness. But honestly she hadn't been expecting ninja of a higher level than her to be doing this, and inside Konoha. To take so much risk simply for the sake of killing her, why anyone would do that was beyond her comprehension.

Completely determined to fight perhaps the toughest battle of her life, Anko shifted into her serpent style defensive stance. She wasn't going to be taken down easily.

She didn't have big enough chakra reserves to be able to shunshin all the way to the Hokage tower, so she had to use her physical speed aided a bit by her chakra and evading skills to get there. But she could do it. She had to do it.

Chapter End

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