Kushina is quickly given the position of head demon wrangler. There aren't any other demon wranglers yet, but Kushina's chakra chains make her indisputably suited to the role. Given how the collective despair of the lowest levels of Hel have started to coalesce into demonic entities, having someone around to control them is necessary.
Kushina's natural distaste for demonic entities quickly gives way before the earliest of Hel's new denizens.
"Oh, aren't you a cutie? Yes you are, yes you are!"
Brand new demonic entities tend to look as young as they actually are, which means that most of the demons in Hel right now look, at best, like month-old puppies, kittens, and so on. They are a fair bit larger than normal, to reflect their future monstrous size, but at the moment, they are still small enough that Kushina has absolutely no trouble with them whatsoever.
"Having fun?" Leah asks, taking a seat on a protrusion in the rock that makes up the walls of the cavern. Rin hovers behind her, clipboard at hand.
(Leah has removed the natural restrictions on her age. Rin's getting older, however slowly. She'll reach adulthood eventually.)
Kushina shoots Leah a dirty look, but stands and dusts herself off. "Yes, I am."
"More than you thought?"
"Yes, you told me so, I was wrong, and so on." Kushina rolls her eyes and leans down to pick up one of the demonic fox kits. "Are you just here to check up on my work or what?"
As deferent as Rin is, Kushina doesn't display any respect whatsoever. Eventually, this may be a problem, should Leah's armies reach the size she desires, but for now, it's amusing enough that she leaves the woman be.
"I'm thinking of visiting the world of the living soon." Leah tells her, which garners a reaction. Kushina's head snaps up from the fox kit and focuses on Leah.
"I thought you only did that for the Kyuubi thing because of how many people were dying." She says cautiously.
"I'm free to visit whenever I so choose; the event you are referencing was simply the first time I was interested enough to leave my duties. As it stands, the visit piqued my curiosity, and now I'd like to see some more of that world." Leah smiles. "So I've come to the two of you for suggestions."
Kushina looks to Rin, who shrugs. Leah doesn't bother trying to read the silent conversation, just waits.
(She is a Hel Queen. She has all the time in the world.)
"You'd probably be interested in the major villages," Kushina finally says. "Konoha, Suna, Kiri, Iwa, and Kumo are the five main shinobi villages, and whatever it is you're trying to find is probably in one of them."
What she's trying to find is almost certainly centered at least partially in Konoha, Leah thinks, but she doesn't say that. "Anything more specific?"
"Depends on what you want." Kushina sits back down on the ground, and the baby demons swarm her. "Restaurants, clubs, tourist attractions… I know where they are, and which ones are the best, but I'm not entirely certain which ones would interest you."
Leah tilts her head. "Milkshakes."
Kushina blinks at her. "Milkshakes?"
"It's been several years since I could have a good milkshake. I'm rather fond of them." The previous two Leahs had been the same way. "I don't think this world has anything similar to the diners I'm used to, so I'm not sure where to start the hunt."
"Michiro's café probably still carries them." Rin muses. "Maybe Haruhi's 24-hour Breakfast Corner?"
Kushina nods. "Yeah, either of those would do. Both are in Konoha, by the way, so they might have been destroyed by the Kyuubi, but you might get lucky. I'm not sure how much that means to you, but it's the area we know best."
"Not a problem." She'd spent quite a lot of time in Oklahoma, once, despite Asgardia and Hel being her nominal home realms. The previous Leah had, anyway. Konoha was more than large enough to sate her interests for the time being. "The attractions you mentioned?"
"Hokage mountain, but that's not publicly accessible." Kushina says immediately. "Fire Temple's usually good, though since you're a god yourself I'm not sure how much that'll interest you. The castle at Otafuku Gai, maybe?"
"I'll write up a list." Rin promises, her pen already skittering across the paper. "Anything else?"
"Dancing." There's something Leah finds she wants to do, despite her previous incarnations never finding any interest in it. "Swing dancing, specifically."
Kushina and Rin stare at each other blankly for a second before simultaneously saying, "Kumo. Definitely Kumo."
One of Leah's eyebrows inches its way upwards. "Oh?"
"Kumo's a bit more…" Rin struggles to find words, "You've told me about the closest parallel to our world in where you come from, that Midgard place. And the country most similar, in many ways, to that America place you stayed in is Kumo. And Konoha might have some place for what you're looking for, but you'll find more of that sort of thing if you go out to Kaminari no Kuni."
"I see." Leah wonders if she'll actually be able to find a nice swing club, but it's not really her main goal. "Milkshakes first. Rin, you're in charge until I get back."
"Yes, ma'am." Rin sighs, gives a shallow bow, and turns to head back towards the throne room, where her cluttered desk and all the equipment to track the state of Hel were.
Leah wondered if she should teach Rin how to form her own portals.
It could wait.
o.o.o.o.o
Next Time: Rin is perfectly content with her job, thank you very much.