Chapter 7

The world may disapprove, but my world is only you

And if we're sinners then it feels like heaven to me

"How – but, what?" Naruto splutters incoherently.

Okay, so not exactly auspicious first words to say to your long-dead mother but considering that they're in Naruto's head and her mother is – well, long-dead – she thinks it's rather understandable.

Thankfully, Kushina doesn't take offense and just laughs. Her mirth rings through the air, causing Naruto's breath to catch at the warm and friendly sound.

"Some of my chakra was sealed into you when you were born, to help you when you tried to gain control of the ninetails' power."

Naruto barely registers the words as she drinks in the sight of her mother, alive and beautiful amidst the golden chakra space the sewer has turned into. She looks… she looks just like her. Their long pin-straight red hair, the slight purple tinge to their eyes, the shape of their face.

If it wasn't for the age difference and Naruto's facial markings, they could pass for twins.

Kushina smiles sheepishly under her scrutiny. "I know this is a bit of a shock, I wouldn't have expected my mother to just pop up in my head either–"

"Kaa-san!"

Naruto flings herself forwards to envelope her in a tight hug, cutting her off.

Tears well and spill over as she feels her mother's arms come up to wrap around her in turn, the first hug she's ever received from the woman who brought her into this world.

"I…" Her voice cracks. "I wanted to meet you for so long kaa-san."

Kushina holds her tight, and when she speaks her voice is soft and gentle, loving and warm. Everything Naruto has always wanted her mother to be like with her.

"Me too, Naruto. Me too."

The younger Uzumaki allows herself to bask in the embrace for several long seconds before she pulls back and wipes her eyes.

"It's – uh – good to meet you and all, but whatever you did to the – to Kurama you need to undo right now!" Naruto says urgently. "I'm in the middle of a fight!"

She really hopes she didn't just erupt into an explosion of ninetails chakra only to sputter out, and that she's now lying comatose on the battlefield.

Talk about performance issues.

"Don't worry." The older woman says reassuringly. "We're in your head, this is happening at the speed of thought. We have time."

Naruto's shoulders sag in relief and Kushina stares at her for a long moment, a smile playing on her lips.

"You look just like me." She giggles a bit. "Sorry about the red hair and round face, you were probably teased about it as well."

The younger Uzumaki quirks a smile. "Some people tried."

Kushina laughs and the sound fills the golden space with indescribable warmth. "It's a bit of a shame you look nothing like Minato, he's much prettier than me." She says it as if it's an inside joke.

Naruto is suddenly very much unamused.

"Minato? As in Namikaze Minato? He's my father?" Naruto asks with incredulous disdain. Although she has forgiven the man for sealing the kyuubi within her, accepts it as the logical decision he had made as the Hokage, she still doesn't care for him.

Her mother's warm smile falters in the face of Naruto's obvious contempt for the man.

"Yes." She says cautiously. "You didn't know?"

"Know?" Naruto scoffs bitterly. "I had to find out you were my mother from an old bingo book. No one told me anything."

"Oh." Kushina looks – stunned, like she hadn't even considered her daughter would have grown up ignorant of her heritage.

"Is that why you left?"

Surprisingly enough, her voice is free of censure. She just sounds curious and worried - worried for her. Naruto is surprised at how relieved the lack of judgement makes her feel.

"No." She shakes her head, hair swishing with the movement. "I actually didn't mind staying in Konoha, but my best friend became a missing-nin, so I did too."

Kushina's worry eases and she smiles. "Your best friend?"

Naruto beams. "Yes, Uchiha Itachi."

Her eyebrows shoot up and she grins. "Itachi? Mikoto's son?"

"You knew his mother?" Naruto asks, her turn to be surprised.

"I did." Kushina's smile dims a bit, looking both melancholy and nostalgic. "I didn't have a lot of friends, for a long time, it was just me and Mito-sama."

Her eyes darken.

"I was brought to Konoha because my chakra was unusually dense, even amongst the members of our clan. It made me the perfect candidate to become the ninetails jinchuuriki after Mito-sama, and so I was given to the village to strengthen Uzushio's alliance."

Naruto should have known. If Uzumaki Mito was the first, then obviously there had to be another.

"You were the jinchuuriki before me?"

The Uzumaki Clan and Whirlpool had always been white-washed in her mind – the family that was snatched away from her, innocent victims unjustly killed by this war-ridden world. But they were a shinobi clan and village the same as Konoha, they traded in the lives of people just as all others did.

They had traded her mother's life.

"Yes." The word is spoken solemnly, full of emotion.

"Tensions were high then and I was a foreigner from another land, allied village notwithstanding. I spent a lot of my time fighting with the people who should have been my comrades."

A tick of annoyance appears on her brow.

"I won all of those fights, of course, but –"

"I was so lonely." She deflates and whispers, and it pierces Naruto straight through the heart. She knows, she knows all too well.

Kushina clears her throat and collects herself.

"Then there was Minato after he save me from a kidnapping attempt, and I met Mikoto when we were both in our teens. She was one of the more easy-going Uchiha, and we became friends after one of our joint missions went wrong."

Her mother's expression is full of that same desolate understanding she herself had once given to Gaara. "It must have been hard growing up. You've been so strong."

Naruto's own eyes burn and it feels like a boulder has lodged itself in her throat.

"I'm sure you and Itachi both have your circumstances, but I'm glad that it's Mikoto's son that you found a friend in. I… I was really worried when we sealed the kyuubi into you."

Her whole world comes shuddering to a halt.

In the cavern that houses the kyuubi within her body and soul, the warmth that Naruto has been basking in vanishes as abruptly as if she had been doused in ice.

In its wake is a hollow void, screaming at the loss.

"You helped sealed the kyuubi into me."

The happiness she had felt drains from her, and all that is left in its wake is agony born of the deepest betrayal.

"I thought." Her voice breaks. "I thought you loved me."

She sounds like a child; sounds weak and helpless and nothing like how Uzumaki Naruto should be.

The woman who looks so alike her gasps in profound anguish. "Naruto." Kushina pleads. "I do love you! I love you so much!"

"Then… why?"

"I was going to seal it into myself, drag the ninetails with me to death." Kushina's eyes – a mirror of Naruto's own – look pleadingly at her. "But it would have just reformed a few years later, and I know the kyuubi. It would have gone back to Konoha, would have destroyed it for its imprisonment.

"But even then, I was not going to condemn you to being a jinchuuriki. Trust me Naruto, I argued with Minato not to, I was furious when he cast the jutsu! I – "

Kushina has to stop and swipe away the tears that have gathered.

"I never wanted you to be the jinchuuriki, not when I know how hard it is."

"Exactly!" Naruto cries, her entire body trembling. "You were the ninetails jinchuuriki before me! You knew what you were condemning me to!"

The isolation, the whispers, the years of a loneliness so profound it cannot be comprehended by those who have not experienced it.

The stares, the countless nights when she cried herself to sleep in her bed. The envy and jealousy she felt when looking at other families every day, wondering why everybody else seemed to have someone to love them, but not her.

How she had come to think there was something horribly wrong with her, because everyone else was shown kindness when Naruto was feared as if she was the bogeyman in human form.

How could she? How could she?

"How can you say you love me, when you turned me into a human sacrifice?"

Naruto doesn't know what her face looks like, but it must surely be the picture of utter devastation. Her words are a mere whisper, but Kushina hears them for she looks like someone has just taken a knife and flayed her open.

It is that look that cuts through her fury, deflating it like a popped balloon. Only someone who loves deeply can look like that, and Naruto regrets her words the instant after she utters them.

"I'm sorry." She says wretchedly. "We only have one meeting and I'm ruining it–"

"No, I'm sorry." Kushina says, distress and regret thick in her voice. "I failed you, I didn't protect you like a mother should-"

"No!" Naruto bursts out. She takes a shuddering breath.

"No." She says more calmly now. "It wasn't your fault. I already know it was the guy calling himself Madara who released the kyuubi after you'd just given birth. I'm being so unfair and blaming you for other people's actions."

"You know about him?" Kushina blinks.

Naruto nods. "Itachi told me."

"Ah."

They trail off, sitting in stifling tension. Instead of the comfortable atmosphere before, it has been replaced with horrible discomfort and Naruto curses herself again.

"I know no words will ever be enough, but I'm so sorry. I should have stopped him, I should have sealed the kyuubi within me before Minato had a chance to perform the jutsu. At least then, you would have had a father."

Naruto's not sure she wants a father if that father is Namikaze Minato. What kind of person abandons their jinchuuriki daughter alone in a village that has just been ravaged by the beast? When he didn't even have to?

Minato didn't have to seal the kyuubi within her, didn't have to summon the Shinigami. He could have lived. Instead, he chose to keep the bijuu for Konoha, damning her to a lonely existence more excruciating than any torture imaginable.

If Naruto hadn't met Itachi, she could very well have been trapped in that pit of solitude for the rest of her life.

Naruto has forgiven the Yondaime Hokage for sealing the beast within her, but she cannot excuse her father for the same. Minato chose Konoha over her, and she doesn't think she will ever forgive him for that.

But her mother…

"It wasn't your fault; you have only ever wanted the best for me." Even though she has only just met Kushina, Naruto knows this is true.

"Still-"

"I love you." She tells Kushina, so heartfelt and sincere that the truth can be felt more than heard. "I love you, kaa-san, and I forgive you."

Her mother looks as if Naruto has just given her the greatest treasure in the world.

"Thank you."

They spend a long embarrassing minute just crying together, and when they awkwardly detangle their arms, identical, red-rimmed eyes meet.

Naruto snorts grossly, Kushina cracks a grin, and they both burst into watery chuckles. They wind down into comfortable silence, smiling at one another. To fight and make up again in mere moments, to love one another through everything. Is this what family means?

"Naruto." Kushina says quietly. "Although I wish you never had to become a jinchuuriki, I can't fix that now. But will you at least let me help you harness the ninetails' power?"

"Help me?"

"Yes, I can help hold the kyuubi while you harness it's chakra."

She stares at her mother, face blank.

"No."

Naruto's refusal rings in the cavernous space.

"Kurama and I have a deal. He'll help me, will do his best to thwart Madara's plans and kill him, and in exchange I will free him upon my death. Besides, how is beating him up and taking his power supposed to encourage him to work with me?"

Kushina stares at her, dumbstruck, before she throws her head back and laughs.

"You're right, Naruto." She gazes at her daughter with such pride on her face that Naruto feels elated and embarrassed all at once.

"Of course you don't beat up your allies. What was I thinking?" Kushina grins.

She rises, hesitantly, hopefully, reaching out a hand to her daughter.

Naruto takes it, noting that unlike every other ninja Naruto has ever met, Kushina also has perfectly smooth, flawless skin. Not a single scar or callous mars her hands, and the younger Uzumaki is struck by their similarities.

Naruto stands tall and takes a deep breath, holding and releasing it. She opens her eyes and looks straight into her mother's.

"I love you, kaa-san." She says again, and her mother looks radiant.

"But I left Konoha. I'm a missing-nin. If they want a jinchuuriki, they can steal someone else's, like all the other nations have tried. But they're not getting me. Not ever."

Kushina simply smiles serenely.

"I support you Naruto. It's a mother's job to support their child in their every endeavour, you know?"

Her mother takes a step forward, holding both of Naruto's hands in her own. "Will you let me help you this one time?"

Naruto smiles. "Yes."

Kushina beams back.

Naruto opens her eyes to the feeling of her face smashed into the earth and the taste of dirt in her mouth.

When she rises, it is both her and Kushina who surge from her position, chains of gold erupting from what seems to be every pore of her body, the chakra constructs spearing outwards at a ferocious rate.

The ground around the crater she's in is cracked and baked from Kurama's chakra, the seething energy having burned out Sasori's poison and healed her wounds until the only trace they leave is a memory of the pain.

And even that memory is forgotten as Kushina grins like a predator, chains rising to answer her call, rattling as links sing through the air.

Adamantine spikes drive into the ground, a shimmer appearing and a dozen of Sasori's closest puppets drop as a barrier cuts apart the chakra strings controlling them. Kushina pummels their wooden corpses with even more chains, reducing them to debris in seconds.

Naruto expects her to continue to the next group of puppets, but instead, Kushina takes the time to seal the wreckage away entirely. Naruto gets a flash of her thought process as she does this – the pieces can still be controlled even after being broken – and the younger Uzumaki realises with self-recrimination that that was likely what had hit her before.

Sasori's countless puppets are not quick enough to survive the metal storm Kushina has summoned, for even if she misses her target with the wicked spiked tips, barriers appear between the links and she tears them apart all the same.

Naruto is both in control of her body and not as Kushina marches inexorably forwards, absolutely destroying her way through Sasori's army, treating his puppets like they're nothing more than civilian bandits for all the harm they can inflict against her.

Her mother is amazing.

The younger Uzumaki can feel Kushina's happiness and pride at her daughter's praise as they reach Itachi, who has been engaging in a monstrous ninjutsu battle with Kakuzu and has him on the ropes. The Taki-nin is down to a single thread creature that he absorbs back into his body, glancing between the two of them before turning to flee.

Kushina ignores the S-ranked nin entirely as she grins at Mikoto's eldest.

"Wow Itachi-kun, you've like, gotten so big! You're all grown up now!"

Naruto mentally spasms Ohmygod mom, what are you doing and has a moment of complete mortification as Itachi eyes her strangely.

"…Kushina-san?"

She beams. "You remember me, that's amazing! I'm only here for a little while you know, so let's waste these losers!"

Kushina cheers and pumps her arm jauntily, as if she's some sort of a cheerleader and not in the middle of a life-or-death fight.

Itachi shakes his head and quirks a smile. He's lost his travelling cloak at some point, but otherwise looks unruffled.

"I'll follow your lead then, Kushina-san."

The older Uzumaki grins in reply, and then her chains are sprouting from her back, the golden links shooting up into the air and crisscrossing in a grid pattern.

The redhead's face turns predatory as she turns to Kakuzu and Sasori, the two having regrouped on the far side of the field, arguing furiously while Deidara shouts down at them overhead.

"I don't think they knew what they were getting into." Kushina chuckles.

It is her mother's shade who manipulates the chains as if they are extensions of Naruto's body, and seals Naruto has never created yet knows intimately snap impenetrable walls into existence.

Impossibly long constructs cover the sky, and the enormous dome that forms is at least a square kilometre in size, cutting off escape entirely.

"Fuck you, un!" Deidara howls from outside it, explosions crashing against the transparent divider impotently.

The two men on the ground – looking untouched but with far fewer bodies than they began with – turn to them as they see the enormous barrier caging them in.

"Going somewhere, boys?" Kushina calls as she stalks towards them, a crimson spectre of death. Her hair splits and begins to wave around her ominously, sections set afloat by the rising of her chakra.

Naruto and Kushina's collective life force coalesces around their form, and the ground beneath their feet cracks from the potency of their energy.

"You're the ones trapped in here with me, you know." She bares her teeth.

And then the time for talk is over as her chains shoot forwards with Itachi's own weaponry in their wake, rebounding off both other kunai and metal links in an unbelievable display of accuracy. They cut off even the slightest gaps between the deadly chakra constructs so there is no escape.

Sasori's remaining puppets unleash their own senbon, dashing the kunai to the ground, and Kakuzu unleashes huge bursts of wind that knock most of the chains off course.

But she and Itachi are relentless.

The two Akatsuki members do their best to block and avoid the hailstorm of metal, but when faced with a devastating barrage of weaponry that whittles away at their remaining bodies and chakra, they eventually fall beneath its tide.

it is Sasori who dies first, heart container being pierced clean through, a hair too slow to dodge Kushina's attack.

Kakuzu dies next, having avoided the shuriken and adamantine spikes, only to miss the kunai that had rebounded against another, then ricocheted again off one of Kushina's constructs to imbed itself straight through his last heart.

Acid green eyes widen in shock as he looks down to see the metal tip sticking out the front of his chest. He is pierced through by a dozen golden points a moment later, falling to his knees and collapsing. With a few more gurgling breaths, Kakuzu falls still.

Itachi appears by her side, gaze now fixed on the swearing blond outside the shimmering dome above them. The Uzumaki releases all her constructs, adamantine dissolving along with the dome, and they share a single glance.

Together they pursue.

The hunters have become the hunted, and they pour on speed as Deidara flies away at a breakneck pace. They dash through what forest has survived the collapse of the Uchiha hideout, streaks of black and red as they close in on him, covering enormous sections of land each second they run.

And then an idea pops into Naruto's head and Kushina chortles.

"Going up!" She calls, the only warning Itachi has before Kushina wraps a chain around his waist.

More burst from her back, slamming into the ground and digging their tips in. Naruto keeps extending them and the lengths push the two ninja clean off their feet. They shoot up from the ground like a cannon ball, streaking through the air, wind tearing past them as they soar towards Deidara.

Itachi's lightning needles intercept all the minuscule explosives the Iwa shinobi has just chucked at them, so small Naruto can't even make out their individual forms, and she extends two chains from her arm.

They shoot out, in tandem and parallel on either side of Deidara's bird, and a barrier shimmers between them as Naruto flicks.

Like the biggest flyswatter in existence, she whacks the former Iwa-nin straight out of the sky.

Kushina's amusement mingles with her own as they extend more chains in the same direction they sent the bomber, and the Uzumaki tugs them after Deidara, reversing their momentum from up to down so quickly it causes her stomach to lurch.

Deidara is scrambling out of his crater when they land before him, odd black veins crawling up his neck to his face.

Beside her, Itachi's eyes widen in realisation and his sharingan swirls and pulses.

"Amaterasu."

The former Iwa-nin throws his hands in front of him, limbs erupting with black fire, and then he is jerking to the side as he barely avoids a killing blow from Naruto. Her chain pierces through his chest instead of his heart, and thick rivulets of blood burst from the wound.

"Too late, bastards!" Deidara howls gleefully, exploding his own burning arms clean off.

He grins through what surely must be absolute agony, his skin now entirely transparent and his chakra network swelling at the seams.

"Art-" He smiles manically, blue eyes alight with madness. "Is an explosion!"

Itachi casts himself at Naruto and her vision goes white.

The world erupts into chaos. Sound and light buffets them, and they are thrown head over heels until Naruto can no longer distinguish up from down.

They hit the ground a fair distance away, bounce off it multiple times like they're a stone skipping on water, tumbling over and over until she feels nausea crawl up her throat. They likely crash through a great number of trees, but Naruto can't hear them breaking over the ringing in her ears.

When they eventually come skidding to a halt, the kunoichi lays there, stunned and trying to push down her vomit. Beyond the pounding in her head, the only thing she can feel is Itachi's arms wrapped protectively around her.

Kushina's dwindling presence within conveys her relief at her safety, her gratitude to Itachi, and the sheer enormity of the love she feels for her daughter.

Kushina fades from her body with the final impression of her deep, heartfelt desire for Naruto's happiness.

The younger Uzumaki takes a long moment to simply lie there, ignoring the painful physical sensations to focus on savouring the emotions. She keeps her lids shut tight as she holds her mother's warmth as close to her as possible, engraving the feeling within her blood and bones.

Uzumaki Kushina loves Uzumaki Naruto.

Even if one day Naruto comes to doubt everything she knows, she will never doubt this.

She opens her eyes to Itachi's worried face peering down at her and has to blink dark spots from her vision. Naruto staggers drunkenly as she stands, and only her friend's hold keeps her from face-planting into the dirt again.

"Itachi?" She croaks. She can barely hear herself over the ringing in her skull.

The Uzumaki lifts her aching head cautiously and can make out the glowing crimson of Itachi's Susanoo surrounding them both. Naruto dabs at her ears, scowling at the blood she finds but isn't overly worried; Kurama is already healing it. The kunoichi glances worriedly at the Uchiha.

His own ears look fine, he must have protected them somehow, but there are tracks of crimson that line his face originating from his eyes.

"You're hurt!"

"It's fine." He impatiently wipes the blood away.

Naruto splutters incredulously. "It's not fine!" She says shrilly. "Your eyes are bleeding; that is the opposite of fine!"

They both look a mess, their clothing torn and dusty. Itachi's Susanoo disappears and his sharingan have faded to black when he suddenly glances to the side, screams ripping through the air around them.

Several figures topple out of the trees and to the ground, writhing as if being tortured.

Flitting from the branches, other masked and armoured shinobi surround their comrades protectively, several kneeling to break the genjutsu upon them.

Even hidden behind porcelain masks, Naruto can feel the weight of the gazes lingering upon the slashed leaf symbol she wears on her forehead.

"Konoha." Itachi's voice is suddenly back to that cool, emotionless and simultaneously dismissive tone he had adopted when he was playing his role in Akatsuki.

He takes a step forward, but Naruto shoots her hand out to grab his elbow, and he stills.

"Wait."

She knows he's only doing this for show and that he doesn't want to kill them either. But it's still unnerving to see the façade, to see the apathetic killer before her. Naruto thinks it doesn't suit him at all, and she wonders how anyone can believe this is his real face.

She addresses the tense ANBU, scanning their forms, but has no idea who any of them are.

"Go back to Jiraiya and tell him I've made my choice. That if he truly cares for Minato's daughter, he will leave us be."

There's a flurry of hand signs and although Naruto doesn't know ANBU sign language, she knows they're debating if they can take them on.

"Do not think it's because we lack the strength."

Naruto channels Kurama's entire chakra for the first time, and she erupts with indescribable heat and warmth. She is enveloped in gold, glowing and radiant, her jinchuuriki cloak covering her whole body.

She feels amazing.

And suddenly she can also feel the fear of the people before them. Can feel their controlled panic, the anger and hatred directed at them. The eagerness and urgency in some, obviously keen to exploit this rare opportunity when Itachi is supposedly vulnerable. Naruto narrows her eyes.

"I will be generous this one time. But the next time Konoha sends ninja after us, I will show no mercy."

The tension is overwhelming, and for a moment, Naruto thinks she's going to have to kill them all. But then the kunoichi with long purple hair dips her head, shuffling back and away. They leave, the members Itachi had caught in his illusion being supported by their teammates, flitting away with nary a leaf stirring in their wake.

Naruto and Itachi watch them go, not relaxing from their ready stances. Only when the emotions she can feel from them dims from her senses, does Naruto exhaustedly allow her cloak to fade away.

The first time you use my chakra, and you only use it for mere posturing!

Kurama's judgemental growl sounds in her head, bringing her out of her daze.

Pathetic he snaps.

Naruto flops to the ground, utterly worn out, and she throws her head back and laughs.

Whew, this chapter was a big one. Sorry about the delay, I had to rewrite the scene with Kushina so many times until I settled on this, it was really hard. But yes, Kushina is totally badass and while Naruto is good, she's still only fourteen - hence mom to the rescue!

Also, in a shameless bit of self-promotion, I have written an Itachi/Ino story! Visit my profile if you want to check it out :)

Thanks for your patience, I hope it was worth the wait!
Blackbird0