"A Konoha spy found out that there're several Iwa bases scattered around the outskirts of Iwa. Our job is to uncover at least three." Kushina nodded, humming in thought. They checked into an inn for the night, and come morning, they'd set off for the outskirts of Iwa.
Now, the only problem was that there was only one bed. It turns out that this happened outside of romance novels. There was no couch either. Sasuke awkwardly glanced at Kushina.
"Who cares? You're like a kid anyway," She ruffled his hair, tossed three pillows into a perfect line on the bed, and as soon as her body hit the bed, began snoring.
Sasuke apathetically decided it didn't matter and took the side opposite her, a little bit insulted at being called a kid. Some paranoid part of him thought about what Naruto would do if he knew Sasuke slept with his mother. Without a care in the world, he fell asleep.
Their vision blurred as they sped through the treetops, semi-racing each other towards Iwa.
"So, got any ideas?" Kushina asked. Sasuke pondered. Honestly, he was never the covert type if he could help it, and he hated taking things slow and steady like this mission seemed to be. He didn't mind a little risk, so frankly, he had a wonderful plan to uncover multiple Iwa bases.
"Let's break into the Tsuchikage's office." Kushina smirked in response.
"I like the way you think," she made a sharp left towards Iwa instead of the outskirts. In ten minutes, they'd enter the danger zone, full of skilled ninja patrolling the borders. Fortunately, no patrol was more skilled than he.
The change was gradual. At first, it was a chakra signature here and there, but as they approached closer and closer, the signatures became less sparse and more dense. Sasuke didn't bother suppressing his own. Iwa would position its best sensors, so trying to suppress it and get caught was stupider than not suppressing it. Although, Kushina suppressed hers shockingly well. Sasuke assumed it would be hard for her since her chakra reserve was insane.
The hard bit was bypassing the actual border by either trickery or evasion. Personally, Sasuke thought it better to evade the eyes rather than masquerade as an Iwa ninja and potentially get caught later on. Kushina agreed. She did an impressive henge of a fly, followed by Sasuke, flew over the border, and transformed once again into a totally nondescript civilian.
"Betcha it's in the centre, ya?" Kushina imitated the accent, her voice coming out deep and gravelly to match the appearance. They couldn't talk about anything suspicious, so their conversations would consist of euphemisms, vagueness and implications.
"How long d'ya reckon the walk is?" 'The walk' being the mission.
"Ehh, coupla days. Can't be more, or I'll be knackered." They were forced to walk at a normal, slow civilian pace towards wherever the Tsuchikage worked. Sasuke doubted they had a tower like Konoha did. His best guess was that it was underground. That would be a smart decision, so only those with an earth nature could find it easily. Fortunately, they didn't factor in doujutsu.
Except that Kushina's sensory ability was insanely good to the point that it extended underground. No doubt the Tsuchikage, who wouldn't actively be trying to suppress his chakra, and with a large signature, would easily be detected by her. Sasuke had the absolute displeasure of having met Onoki in the future, the man was ancient, grumpy, and honestly, his age was getting to his head. Not that Sasuke could judge slightly insane people.
Hopefully, he wouldn't be any different twenty years younger. Sasuke doubted it. Stubbornness like Onoki's was a genetic thing, he supposed. Sasuke heavily disapproved of the whole Kage system. It led to the ruination of villages, and he should know. People often picked the flashy, powerful, charismatic one to be their leader when physical strength and leadership abilities had little correlation, and therefore led to lacking Kage. Is democracy a good thing if everyone was stupid? Onoki and Hiruzen were prime examples of shitty leaders but excellent ninja, and there was a difference between the two.
"Below us," Kushina muttered. So he was right; the Tsuchikage's office and what-not was underground. Now, the only thing they'd have to do is somehow get under there, find Onoki's office with a map of the bases and skedaddle out of there before they got caught. They'd of course need to personally visit the bases to check for misinformation. Easier said than done.
Sasuke sighed. For a moment, he let himself think him and Kushina could parade around the country partying and eating inarizushi. Damn you, Hiruzen.
"Eh, how're we gonna get in if the door's closed?" Sasuke was almost proud of his fake accent.
"How big is it?" His question was almost inaudible.
"Very," she replied, glancing around for some secret entrance. There was no need. Sasuke briefly activated his Sharingan before finding the entrance within a dango shop owned by presumably a retired Jounin.
"Hello," he said to the owner, smiling, "Hanami dango, please." Not a second after the words came out, Kushina snuck up behind him and hit a pressure point along the neck. She performed a small memory-erasing jutsu before allowing Sasuke to lead the way. His Sharingan revealed to him that the entrance only opened when it detected a specific kind of chakra. He would've been stuck here had Kushina not reached her hand out and broke the detector entirely.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes, part suspicion and part awe.
"How did you do that?" She put on a ditsy smile before shrugging her shoulders. So they both had secrets. Sasuke guessed that hers was almost as shocking as his. He suppressed a tinge of curiosity; it was none of his business.
On edge and tensed, they entered underground. Sasuke deactivated his Sharingan and let Kushina lead the way to the Tsuchikage's office. They traversed multiple tunnels and caves before arriving at a metal door.
"More obstacles," she cursed, rolling her eyes. Not that this was unexpected.
This time, it was more complicated: eye scanning, chakra signature, as well as typing in a complicated 9-letter word, all combined into one stress-inducing machine. This time, instead of breaking it, Kushina pressurised her chakra and overloaded the detector. Sasuke scanned his Mangekyou over the scanner. A little known benefit of the Mangekyou. Now, their only problem was the word.
"This is impossible," he muttered. There were too many combinations and so few attempts.
"Pessimist," Kushina whispered teasingly. She suppressed her smile. A glimmer of hope rose within Sasuke. Did she have some technique to get around it?
Kushina summoned some sort of gold chain from her hand, willing it to wrap around the machine and wiggle strangely. The machine bleeped green.
"Uzumaki clan technique," she winked. "I have technological know-how, you know." He was less surprised by the fact that she knew technology than that the Uzumakis had a technique. Naruto never showed off anything. Then again, they were all a bit too dead. Relatable.
The metal door creaked open. Sasuke thanked his luck that Onoki was nowhere in sight. They traversed any other alarms before rummaging for the maps. Kushina took the left side while he snuck around the right. Onoki had a large office resembling an oval. With baited breath, he came across a desk with a false bottom. A jutsu was in place to make the desk seem smaller than it was. It required another eye scanner. Onoki was paranoid, if only he had been a bit more so.
"I found something," he beckoned Kushina over.
"Me too," her voice was laced with a sort of frightened curiosity.
"You first," she found something awful by the looks of it. Kushina scrutinised a small pink piece of paper before letting him read it.
Jinchuuriki: Han (5), Roshi (4). Both train. Little control.
A set of incredibly succinct notes on the Jinchuuriki. He glanced at Kushina. Her complexion was pale from fright and worry. Less than 10 words seemed to have shook her to the core.
"What's wrong?" He asked, expressing genuine concern. But he had an idea. She was unknowingly giving him extensive hints that started to piece the puzzle together. Kushina may or may not be the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. It made too much sense.
And yet, it wasn't shocking, or even remotely intriguing. Before, he would've utilised the Bijuu to torture the world or whatever, but his priorities were different, because now he regained what he lost. He was starting to care less about world domination and more about living a stress-free life with his family. Unfortunately, that was impossible in the world they lived in.
Kushina mustered up a fragile smile and shook her head to shake her out of her seeming misery. Sasuke awkwardly patted her shoulder in an effort to console her. Then, he turned back to his discovery.
"It's the map to Iwa's bases. At least a few of them." He held out an ink-drawn white sheet, letting his gaze shift to a marking in bright red. Something of great importance, undoubtedly.
"I'd like to go there first," he pointed to the crimson mark. Kushina hmmed, then nodded.
"We shouldn't split up," on that, they could agree. Sasuke, with the help of the Sharingan, memorised the map. They resumed to declutter the mess they caused, restructuring every minute detail to its former state. Onoki would never know.
They even went to the trouble of locking the metal door entrance. Everything had to be perfect. Onoki wasn't that observant, but he wasn't oblivious either. They snuck out of the underground base as carefully as they came in, making sure the owner's memory was wiped for good and repairing the broken chakra detector. It was like nothing ever happened.
"Alright, let's head for the red base. It's closest anyway." With a discreet nod, they swung into the treetops again. Sasuke recalled the directions and navigated, closely followed by his partner. They'd be there soon.
"We're here." The base, among the foliage, looked decrepit, tarnished and overall like a shack. It was a clever deception. Sasuke couldn't sense the few pulsating flurry of chakras at work. Only a few ninja worked here, but those that did were extremely skilled, bordering S-rank. Even if it was nighttime, Sasuke suspected these were the only workers. For some reason, Iwa was so tight-lipped about this base that he couldn't believe it was this easy.
"Do you think we could fight them all?" Sasuke didn't have to feign confidence, and neither did Kushina. Both of them were hesitantly assured of their presumed victory for reasons unknown to the other. They could win, if it came down to it.
Sasuke had to be concentrating on all times to suppress his chakra, or else he was sure he'd have gotten caught. Kushina, on the other hand, roamed around the building in an almost carefree manner, sneaking around. He followed her with half his mind. Before them was a steel door, with another chakra detector. Kushina's Jinchuuriki status allowed her to bypass it easily.
They entered, and Sasuke was subconsciously holding his breath in a mixture of awe and fright. In obsidian ink, it was like a mandala, the most complicated artwork he'd ever beheld. The drawing stretched on for the entirety of the room, practically an acre. It was almost too much to behold at once, but Sasuke had turned on his Sharingan in order to process it in its entirety.
Whereas Sasuke was sort of awed, Kushina seemed to be downright terrified, not even trying to hide it. She trembled.
"This is..." she trailed off, holding her head in her hands and trying to calm her panicked nerves. She knew what this was.
"Kushina, what is it?" Normally, he would've made an effort to calm her, but his rising curiosity could not be repressed. She inhaled a gulp of air, which seemed to calm her down minisculely.
"It's a seal," Kushina once again scrutinised the patterns, seeming to read them as easily as she did words. Right. She mentioned at dinner once that she was a seals master. Impressive, considering the art seemed to die down in the future.
"A space-time seal. It seems to enable time travel." Kushina seemed utterly downcast. Sasuke's vision seemed to tunnel. What the fuck? His heart rate accelerated in shock. To make things worse, a flurry of running footsteps resounded. And suddenly, they were surrounded by several vehement, vindictive enemies.