Well I get when you think everything is too confusing right now but I would like to say, all in due time :)
Chapter 21: A Cat Finding Mystery
"You did not try spending time with me today" Naruto's relaxing time laying under the blanket of the moon and the stars were interrupted by a voice, he looke towards the source and saw his purple haired companion. "No, did it became necessary?" Sumire frowned at his reply.
"I just thought you find my company great, although it seems tonight isn't your night either. I'll be going then" she turned around and started walking away. "Stay" the silent whisper of him still arrived to her ears, as if the night itself wanted her to hear it. She stole a glimpse of Naruto who was still looking to the night sky and lost to his own thoughts. She sighed, this time she went straight to him.
"I'm sorry if I came in the wrong time, I just wanna know what's wrong…." he opted not to reply gaining another sigh from her. She sat beside him uninvited "Naruto?"
"It's alright Sumire I'm fine. I'm sorry for being rude earlier" Sumire shook her head "Maybe it's really just your bad day" he gave her a sad smile "not really."
"then what is it?" she asked with worry in her voice as she held the guy she is most endeared to. She garnered no reply as Naruto kept his watch on the stars "Na-"
"it's today don't you remember?" he cut her words. Sumire looked at her confusingly, upon looking at it he enlightened her with one name "Nagato" he simply replied still looking at the stars. "Oh…." Sumire had the gal to be embarrassed "I'm sorry I got so busy today" Naruto shook his head "Nah, it's fine. Even kaasan and tousan seemed to forgot. I'm happy for them, I'm sure Nagato is too."
"do you miss him?" she carefully asked. "I never thought I would see the day he would be killed like that" he explained " I wish I could have taken his place" his head lowered to the ground, the only clue Sumire noticed he is crying is the wet drops on the ground in front of him still visible under the moonlight. "If I just did my best in the academy, maybe I would have been the one on his team. Maybe he could ha-"
"Naruto"
"-no, he should have been alive right now. I would be able to dodge such an attack but he has to subdue the damn bijuu while his back was turned! He trusted his comrade to protect him, I should have been the-"
"Naruto" she pulled his face on level to her "listen to me, there's nothing we can do about it. Even if it's your fault which is definitely not, we can't bring him back to life now alright" she tried to explain seeing the fragile emotion of the blond. "I just miss him so much" he said wiping his tears.
A few moments passed between them as the tension slowly dissipated. " so it really is true that an Uchiha love is the greatest" Sumire said trying to open a topic against the awkward silence. "where did you hear that?" the blond asked looking at her. "your father, told me something along those lines back then. He said in order to understand you and I didn't really understand it… not until now" Naruto nodded in the explanation.
"Naruto?" she asked suddenly gaining some form of courage " Hm?" the blond ask back. "do you….. think you will feel the same way about me?" she ask with hope in her eyes looking at the blond. Naruto shifted his gaze from the stars and look at her, he could interpret her eyes. He's not the blond idiot that she told him back in her first world. He gave her a thin smile, he made an action that Sumire never really planned for as he moved closer to her face and gave a sloppy smack kiss to her face.
"Does that answer you question?"
~~BREAK~~
A hawk squawk interrupted her from her silent travel. She raised her hand allowing the messenger hawk to land. "Raikage-sama's message" she said more to herself seeing as she currently has no travel buddy. She opened the scroll "Yugito, you need to return immediately, Konoha forces suddenly bolstered. The dead are returning" she read. 'huh? Is this some kind of a code I should know?' she asked sighed when nothing came to mind "I'll just check this island first Raikage-sama and then I'll go home immediately. There's no way tree hugers could beat you after all…"
~~BREAK~~
Being a village leader is finally setting in again for one Namikaze Minato. The hectic paperworks that he has to do all day, stiff muscles that were kept in one place all day and all the things a leader must do. The only thing the place is missing is a self economy controlled by Daimyo to be finally a village, but Minato wont just allow anybody to do dadaDaimyo in the place he and his people built manually. No, he has that worked out, economy will come to them one way or another without Daimyo for the better.
The only plus side of being village leader again is at least he is not alone. It had been somewhat unwritten rule that he and his family leads the place, probably because of the huge respect the earned for giving them a safe haven outside the war. That was why Kushina is always around with him in his leader's office. The job had been shared between them since Naruto outright refused when offered. He had a good laugh when he saw Kushina's horror filled face on her first days being leader and her grumbling that she should have followed her own son's decision.
Minato stood up from his chair and went to his wife who was currently sitting on the floor trying her best to arrange paper reports regarding the place. Not much money is wasted thanks to Sumire's summon 'damn that Nue had all the luck in the world' but there are still things that requires mission, and so they need a place to get mission request, places would be more favourable.
"how are you doing my dear?" Minato asked as he massaged his wife's shoulder. Kushina grumbled "I didn't know it was this boring to be a leader, and I used to shout I'll be Hokage" Minato chuckled "I'm sure you still see some positive sides?" she smiled facing towards him "Sure I do, I get to see my husband everyday" she kissed him.
" Oh you need to take responsibility for that one" he teased trapping her into a longer sensual kiss. The moment started getting heated as Minato started travelling with his lips down to her neck making her moan when a loud and fake cough disturbed their 'alone' time. "I'm sorry Minato-sama, I was under impression that you needed me for a mission. I guess I should return after your…..'activity'" on leaning on the door is the casually looking Yuugao trying to hide her laughter with all the power she could muster seeing the blushing faces of the couple.
"Maybe I should tell your leader about Sasuke? You know seeing as no secrets must be kept to the leader etcetera etcetera, right?" Kushina asked rhetorically. "No!" the purple haired replied hastily making the couple laugh hard on her expense.
"Here Yuugao…." Minato said as he stood up and took a scroll on his desk "… I want you to give it to the Daimyo of the wave island. Take whoever you want to partner with seeing as you don't need four man squad with you strength as a kunoichi" she smiled widely at that " and tell Hana not to take any wolves with you on the mission."
"Hai, Minato-sama"
~~BREAK~~
"The villages will fall apart in a matter of days, they wont be able to handle the might of their predecessors. It seems it is about time to get back to life the real Uchiha Madara" the black zetsu said appearing beside Obito. "Hn, I want Madara to return after we truly capture the bijuus, that would be presenting it to him in a silver platter" the renegade Uchiha said.
"and what if you fail Obito?" the zetsu said in his maniac grin. "don't kid yourself zetsu, you said it yourself. With the might of the past ninjas now finally availabe in our hands, this war is as good as ours" he explained "I only needed Nagato to perform the rebirth jutsu after that."
"you know for a fact that not even Akatsuki would survive this all out war of your unscathed" Obito looked at him boredly, zetsu realizing his plan grinned manically "you're one dirty bastard" he said almost all too happily. Obito returned to his musings " you should return to finding the Namikazes, I thought your spying is flawless but they manage to allude you for about five years now. You disappoint me zetsu" the spy kept his silence but his grin was still plastered as if what Obito said does not matter.
"I'll get to it" Zetsu said vanishing. Obito kept looking at the place where zetsu was earlier ' yes zetsu, my plan is coming to fruiton. Uchiha Madara does not have to live again, he can remain a legend.'
~~BREAK~~
A spar is always a good way to relieve tension between couples. That's probably one of the reasons why Naruto and Sumire is sparring in the main island right now, outside of their home hidden inside seal. Sure they're new as a couple to say that they have so much tension built inside them for a long time, but the fact is they're hormonal teens.
Kushina admitted to them that that was the age when she and Minato first did it when Naruto reintroduced Sumire as his girlfriend so it's something like his mother is granting them to do it but they wanna take their time before taking it to the next level thank you very much.
Meaning no smutts for a while genius.
The surrounding animals were just watching them as they continued to spar " well, how was my first day as your boyfriend?" Naruto asked as his glass kunai parried her purple edge. "not to sloppy" Sumire teased, Naruto pulled her feet using his own foot before trying a stab on her as she started falling to the ground. Her response made Naruto's eyes grow as she was about to rotate, he shunshined away.
"really? I'm not parrying one of those rotation moves of yours. You're gonna break my arm" Sumire pouted at him making him smile "Aaahh, come on Naruto-kun, I'm not that 'hard' I'll be 'gentle'" she teased making Naruto chuckle before shaking her head "No thanks" he said. She continued her pout as Naruto kept smiling at her "oh stop that you baby" he tried but she kept pouting "Okay come here for a second" he said as Sumire looked at him confusingly but she complied.
Naruto took out two scrolls out from his pocket" me, tousan and kaasan talked about giving this to you. Kaasan had this made and she herself inscribed the seals. It would have been for Nagato but…. well you could have more uses to it" he said referring to the first scroll as he unsealed what's inside. Sumire reluctantly took the long blade from Naruto "I'm pretty sure you will like that, it's an Uzumaki blade" he said as Sumire quickly took out the sword from its sheath with more enthusiasm. The blade is pure red with shiny black handle and guard with glimpses of red Uzumaki designs. At the bottom of the handle attached black chains as long as the ribbon counterpart of it from purple edge.
She quickly took out the gift of Nagato, the Nue keychain, to her on her first birthday to this new world and clipped it at the bottom of the handle to the chain. "the blade's name is Crimson Equalizer" Naruto interrupted the amazement of his girlfriend. "Amazing" was her only word as Naruto nodded.
"I know right, the seals were designed by mom so that the sword will instantly increase in density proportional to how strong you swing it" he said explaining "try it" Sumire nodded silently as she struck her initial kenjutsu pose, this time with two swords, before rotating fully, the instant increase in density of Crimson Equalizer giving her inertia for a second rotation which she compensated with Purple Edge making up two smooth rotations in span of a second. Naruto clapped at his girlfriend's performance "it suits you."
He called Sumire again silently with his hand and gave her the other scroll, "now this one I'm giving you as a show of loyalty and as my girlfriend. Although I should probably have given it to you long ago after you mastered that new breed of jutsu of yours" he said as Sumire opened the scroll, her eyes comically widened as she realized what is the scroll making Naruto smile.
"Where did you get this?!" she asked looking at Naruto with disbelief. "I got it few years ago during our mission in the rain" he explained. "I could have haphazard guess of what summon animal it is but you can prove it now" he said "besides, it's high time you achieve your dream of becoming true summoner" Sumire nodded. She signed her name on the contract and went through the necessary summoning hand seals the same she used to summon Nue but this time thinking exactly what she wants to emerge.
And with that the salamander summons are back to the human world. The small summon looked at them confusingly as the two remained silent observing it. "Thank you!" Sumire squealed as she jumped her boyfriend kissing him as they fell to the ground. Salamander forgotten and sweat dropping.
~~BREAK~~
They appeared via entrance-exit seal at the edge of the wave island. "Uuuuggghhhh when would Minato-sama allow me to take a wolf, I only ask ONE wolf, is that too hard?" Yuugao chuckled at her friend's antics. "well, I thought he told you his reasons over and over again"
Hana blushed "well yes but, we're Inuzukas!, we're supposed to be the one more knowledgeable about canines!" she exclaimed. "If you try training and taking other animals maybe Minato-sama would allow you. Those wolves are apparently more important to the Uzumaki clan, records say something about protectors and guardians of Uzu no Kuni" Yuugao sighed explaining.
They were casually taking their time walking in civilians pace. The only village in the island is a civilian village, the island does not have its own shinobi. And that was a mistake as they let their guard down. A kunai with explosive tag hit the ground on beside their feet as they widened their eyes quickly substituting with logs abundant on the area, even the three dogs of Hana performed substitution.
"I finally found you black mask ninjas" the voice of the Nibi jinchuuriki ranged as she appeared in front of them "Tell me where the Namikazes are hiding and I will let you live" she said in a threatening voice. "Hn " was the only reply of Yuugao as she shunshined towards Yugito, her downward sword slash were parried by 'nails?' as Yugito grew her nails into weapons.
The blond jinchuuriki had to dodge as the dogs tried to literally dog pile him quickly replacing herself with a log. The dogs and even Yuugao widened their eyes as the saw the log with explosive tags. They jumped away, Yuugao having a wound on her shoulder as the dogs were wounded out of the battle, critically wounded.
"HAIMARU!" Hana called out to her dogs worryingly.
'that was one sick plan. Damn S-ranks' Yuugao thought "keep you wits on Hana" she warned her teammate as the said teammate spared a glance to her dogs in worry before looking towards the blond jinchuuriki "You're gonna pay for that" she said in a dangerous tone. Yugito responded in a smug tone "whose gonna make me?"
"Me " a voice whispered behind her as another three Yuugao appeared 'Mikazuki no mai' she intoned as she and two of her clones attack from behind Yugito. Yugito crossed her nails for defense in time as Yuugao and her clones smash their blade with full force sending the kumo nin tumbling some fifteen feet away. 'No wound' Yugito thought as she clearly saw the purple haired black mask was wounded earlier.
The clone beside Hana vanished as she herself had not been idle. She tried to capitalize by trying to swipe at Yugito on her own version of elongated nails but the downed Jinchuuriki dodge it rolling to the side. Hana tried to kick her but she instead rolled in close to her and kick her stomach making her fall.
Yuugao went in just in time for Yugito to stand up and bend away from her sword slash kicking the downed Hana in the process and jumping away to create space. Yuugao helped her friend stand up as Hana held her painful stomach. "Purple hair and very strong sword user. You are either the white mist or the black chakra. Whichever is it doesn't matter since any of those is close enough to the Namikazes" Yugito said remembering memories of the battle that wiped the armies of both side. Her bijuu chakra exploded out of her in a show of blue flames.
"Stay back Hana" Yuugao said placating her with her hand. "but-" Yuugao cut her complaints "it's gonna get ugly soon, go check on your partners" she said making the woman reluctantly nod. Yuugao never loosing her sight to the enemy in front of her. Yugito went through quick handseals "Katon: Mausu Kedama no jutsu" she announced her jutsu as a burning ball of hair in the shape of a mouse quickly raced towards Yuugao.
Yuugao dodged surprised horror from her face as the burning ball actually swerved and followed her around like a guided missiles. She waited for the projectile jutsus and substituted in the last second successfully detonating them harmlessly, a shadow covered her as Yugito was instantly on top of her 'Katon: Ao Gokakyu no jutsu' this time she had nowhere to escape as the ball of blue fire consumed her.
The flames dissipated to show a badly burnt Yuugao who calmly walked out of the flames like nothing happened. "the Mystery of Perfect Uchiha had a far better version of fireball jutsu than you" her calm voice ranged as she felt satisfied hearing Yugito clicked her teeth in anger. "you seem to have a lot of anger?" Yuugao kept taunting her. "now now, let me feed on it" she continued as black chakra exploded out of her body quickly healing her wounds and even mending her clothes.
"its always amazing seeing this power's healing ability, even a torn leather cloth would be fixed" she commented observing her renewed body. "So it seems, Mystery of Black Chakra" Yugito stated the obvious. "Now then, shall we continue?!" Yuugao asked her voice almost too jolly as on her mask the symbol for zero was marked in white. Yugito went through quick hand seals sending another group of mouse hairball flames at Yuugao again only to be snuffed as black tendrils of hands emerged from the black chakra surrounding her.
" Now now, enough of that. It's easier to feed on your hate when you're closer" Yuugao said as the next instant she reappeared beside Yugito as her jutsus were amplified by the negative chakra. Yuugao parried a punch from the surprised blonde and held the offending fist in place. Yugito regrew her nails and tried to stab Yuugao's eyes but a black hand of chakra took the hit. " I could hardly use my sword like this" she complained as she threw a punch to the stomach of the blond with her free hand.
Yugito seethed in anger as he Mystery is thrashing her. She exploded in anger pulling so much chakra trying to fully transform to her bijuu but Yuugao had another idea. "Oh no you don't!" Yuugao said as she raised through her hand seals of her own before black flames with kanji of numbers from one to five appeared on her fingers. 'thanks Minato-sama' she thought remembering the times she complained when the said blond forced all his ninjas to learn basic fuinjutsu. She shunshined towards the fallen blond enemy and slammed his jutsu seal to her stomach cutting the connection between her and her bijuu.
Her conciousness started to wane " tell your Kage we have no interest of war. We live in peace, do not be hypocrite and try to get revenge when your village started the war" the purple haired said before slamming her temple with her hand.