"Chizuru-chan..." Hiruzen began hesitantly, before sighing, and continuing, "It's time I told you something important..."
Chizuru straightened up at the Hokage's demeanor, and noticed a shift in the attitude of the room. Kakashi, and Hiruzen seemed to both know what was going on, as they shared a similar look on their faces. Chizuru took note of that, and immediately began to run through every possibility as to what could be causing such confliction in the two older shinobi. Could they know my parents? Did I do something wrong? Are Haku and Zabuza going to be killed? Am I? Jiji would never do that! Would he? As her mind started to delve deeper into subjects that she really didn't want to happen, she was pulled out of her mild panic and frazzled thoughts by the hokage clearing his throat.
"What do you know of the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha twelve years ago?" Hiruzen asked.
"Huh?" Chizuru asked plainly, before she processed what was asked of her, after which she thought for a moment before responding, "Well... The Kyuubi appeared in the middle of Konoha on the night of October Tenth, twelve years ago, and when the Kyuubi appeared, Konoha-nin immediately leapt into action to defend their village. When you joined the battle, you were able to back the Kyuubi out of the village, but it began to charge up an attack. After the attack was released, the yondaime entered the battle and deflected the shot away. The yondaime proceeded to kick the Kyuubi's ass, all while leading it away from Konoha, but eventually, the Kyuubi bested him, but not before the yondaime was able to fatally wound the Kyuubi or something like that..." Chizuru rambled, not quite knowing how it ends, "Anyways, the yondaime kills the Kyuubi, and the Kyuubi kills the yondaime."
"Your retelling makes me certain the education system is doing its job right, as yes, that is the story we are trying to push." Hiruzen commented, then straightened up. "However, as you might have guessed by now, it's not one hundred percent correct. Instead, it is only partially true, and now, I trust that you are ready to know the truth." He stated.
"Really?" Chizuru questioned, amazed that there was a whole hidden side to a well known event.
"Of course." Hiruzen said, "It's true the yondaime led the Kyuubi away from the village, but it's not true that they fought eachother to the death. The yondaime set about to restraining and sealing the Kyuubi into a baby who was not even a day old, and died only when the Kyuubi struck out at the child." The hokage announced.
"Really?" Chizuru asked, piecing together what was said to her.
"Yes. The yondaime died protecting the hero of the village, not just the village." Hiruzen continued, "And that hero, young Chizuru-"
"Is me?" Chizuru finished his sentence questioningly.
"You always were smarter than you let on." Hiruzen complimented.
"So... I have the Kyuubi sealed inside of me?" Chizuru asked.
"Yes... Having the Kyuubi sealed inside you is the reason why when you were younger you were ostracized, and shunned. I had hoped the villagers would heed the yondaime's last wish, and treat you like a hero, but they didn't... They'd rather spit on his image, than allow the 'Kyuubi brat' to live a normal life." Hiruzen spat out the last sentence, seemingly angry at the world.
"I... See..." Chizuru said hesitantly.
"I want to make it clear Chizuru-chan... You're not a monster for what's sealed inside you-" Hiruzen began, but was cut off by Chizuru.
"I know I'm not a monster Jiji. I didn't learn all this fuinjutsu just to throw my knowledge out the window whenever I wanted to." She joked, then a sad look crossed her face, "It's just... Why did they have to treat me so bad if yondaime-sama wanted me to be seen as a hero? Do they really think a master of fuinjutsu like him would mess up somewhere?" Chizuru asked.
"They really were in the wrong, those stupid, stupid villagers... They spat in the image of the yondaime and shunned the only thing keeping them safe from annihilation!" Hiruzen growled.
"The Kyuubi's sealed inside me, big deal! I'm gonna show this world that there's no such thing as monsters! You'd better believe it!" Chizuru exclaimed.
"I wouldn't expect any less from you." Hiruzen said while smiling.
"Wait... Why was it that only adults seemed to be mean to me on purpose?" Chizuru asked.
"You see, I created a law that forbid anyone, but you, from revealing the fact that you are the Kyuubi Jinchuriki. It didn't help, as by then the whole village knew, but it did prevent the younger generation from catching wind of it." Hiruzen explained.
"Huh." Chizuru said plainly.
"If there are no more questions, you may rejoin your teammates in the waiting room. Oh, and make sure to tell them that you aren't going to be taking any missions for another week. You need the break." The hokage said.
"Alright Jiji! See ya later!" Chizuru called back.
Hiruzen released the privacy seals, which Chizuru didn't even notice he activated, but shrugged it off as it happening when she was spiraling down a bad path in her mind. As she neared the door, it flew open and someone came bolting in.
"I'll defeat you this time for sure! And then, I'll get to take that hat old man!" The person shouted.
Chizuru stood stunned at the person's entrance and was about to make a move to protect the hokage, when suddenly they fell over. Chizuru sweat dropped at this, but was finally able to get a good look at the intruder, they were wearing a weird helmet, a blue scarf, yellow shirt with a Konoha symbol on it, and light green shorts. It seemed he was a boy, a young one at that, who had brown hair done up through a hole in the top of the helmet, and had seemed to drop a kunai when he fell. Chizuru took notice of what the boy fell over, and saw that he tripped over his scarf, but she didn't know how he could be clumsy enough to do that. She was about to move toward him when he shot to his feet again.
"Alright! Which one of you tripped me!?" He shouted while looking around angrily, but stopped when he laid his eyes on Chizuru. "It was you wasn't it!"
"What?" Chizuru asked dumbly.
"Don't try to trick me! Do you even know who I am!?" The boy shouted, which irked Chizuru.
"Now listen here you little punk! Firstly, I didn't trip you, you tripped yourself with that stupidly long scarf of yours!" Chizuru shouted, "Secondly, I don't care if you're the yondaime himself! You came in here and charged the hokage with a kunai, and that makes you an enemy!" She added.
"It's okay Chizuru-chan, this is Konohamaru, my grandson." Hiruzen announced.
"Yeah! Now put me down you flat chested hag!" Konohamaru shouted, expecting no repercussions.
Chizuru saw red, she cocked her fist back and slammed it down on Konohamaru's head, then turned, and left. The hokage's grandson was now on the floor holding his head, which sported a massive bump. The boy's babysit- I mean instructor, Ebisu had walked in right before Konohamaru insulted Chizuru, and watched in amazement as she walked away without a lashing from the hokage. After Chizuru pushed by Ebisu, she made her way into the waiting room, and motioned for her friends to get closer.
"Jiji told me to tell you that we have a week off from missions, but right now, if you need me, I'm going home to shower." She informed them.
"I should get home to tell my father about the mission..." Hinata muttered.
"I need to tell my parents about it too... Oh man, they're gonna freak out!" Sakura exclaimed.
"Wait up everyone." Kakashi called to them while approaching. "I forgot to mention that I want to see all of you at training ground three at seven in the morning in three days, take a rest for now, but training calls!" Kakashi said.
"Yes sensei!" The three chorused.
"Well, except for you Chizuru, we will be meeting there at four in the morning, not only then, but tomorrow and the next day too. Don't think I've forgotten your punishment for going behind my back in Nami." Kakashi said sweetly, a sinister smile spreading across his masked face.
"Y-yes sensei!" Chizuru exclaimed in a panicked voice.
"Good, now you're all dismissed." He said.
Chizuru and the rest of the group headed out, said their goodbyes, and went their separate ways. She was about halfway home when she noticed something was off. She checked behind her, and noticed that the boy from earlier was following her. When she turned back to see him however, he hastily, at least in his eyes, tried to hide himself with a blanket that was designed like the fence he put his back to. However, the blanket was facing the wrong way, and his feet were sticking out the bottom.
"What do you want Konohamaru?" Chizuru asked plainly, still a little irked by the kid's earlier remarks.
"As expected of my new boss!" Konohamaru exclaimed, dropping the sheet, "You're as sharp as they say you are!"
"They?" Chizuru asked.
"Yeah! You're the talk of the town! A clanless kunoichi made rookie of the year, shinobi all around are waiting to see what a prodigy like that can do!" The kid exclaimed.
"Really?" Chizuru questioned.
"Uh huh! You're supposed to be the best genin in all of Konoha, at least that's what Jiji said." He added.
"I-" Chizuru began, not finding the right words immediately, then, after thinking for a moment, she continued, "I doubt it. I'm nothing special kid, I just worked my ass off is all."
"So humble!" Konohamaru shouted.
"What? No. I mean it, I just worked as hard as I could to get that rookie of the year spot!" She exclaimed, then took a breath to calm herself, "What did you even want anyways?"
"I want you to train me!" Konohamaru announced.
"Really?" Chizuru asked again, to which the boy nodded. "Alright then, I need to shower and eat first, but I guess for the time being you can train with one of my bunshin."
"Okay!" Konohamaru chirped.
Chizuru quickly summoned a bunshin to take Konohamaru to her regular training grounds, before making her way home. When she arrived she set her things down next to the dining room table, and immediately grabbed new clothes before heading into the shower. Once she finished showering, she set about to making a few sandwiches. After unsealing the ingredients and making the sandwiches, she sat down to eat, pulling out the most recent fuinjutsu book she was reading. She finished her last sandwich just as she read the last lines of the book, then, not much surprising her, the book vanished, resealing itself for someone else's future use, and in its place was a test. She quickly ran through it, as this was just another theory test, and watched as it disappeared to, and in its place, this time to the surprise of Chizuru, a box appeared. It was small, it could sit on one hand comfortably, but was about as wide and long as two. There were intricate seals etched into it, and Chizuru immediately noticed that they were made by someone who was really confident in their ability. The etches, on closer inspection, were finely detailed sealing matrices in and of themselves, which made Chizuru a little nervous. She realized that this had to be a secondary test of sorts, and immediately set about to decoding the seal. She wrote on many pages of her newest notebook, and determined that the box was a jutsu storage seal, that was its primary purpose at least.
When she went back through her notes she saw that it was a jutsu storage seal that was interlaced in several interlinking even numbered, spiral-like seals. She recognized them as Uzushio in origin, a village she only learned about through the yondaime's books, and also took in that they were designed in a way that every seal was incomplete, missing one, two, hell, even up to sixteen different components each. In order to activate the box, and release the jutsu, she had to complete each seal, as well as match the chakra output of herself to the chakra laced within the seal. She threw together her highest chakra detection seal in ten seconds, and activated it on the box. Throwing another one together she detected her own chakra, and compared the results that appeared on the two scrolls. She noticed they were oddly similar, but shrugged it off as coincidence. She would only have to preform sixteen hand seals in order to shape her chakra just right, and, by her calculations, she would only have to hold it for around twenty seconds in order to complete all the seals. Steeling her resolve, she set about to unlocking the box. She finished not a moment too soon, as right when she drew the last mark, her bunshin dispelled itself, thus throwing her chakra back into its natural state. Breathing a sigh of relief, she quickly ran through the memories of Konohamaru's training session. The bunshin decided on stealth, and taught the kid two of the academy three, henge and kawarimi. It took a while of drilling, but eventually the boy got the hang of it, then the Chizuru-bunshin set out to mold his stealth skills by telling him to disappear for thirty minutes, if he's not found, he wont be tied to a post for a few hours. That didn't end in his favor, and the Chizuru-bunshin gave a few tips on how to better improve his stealth, and, after three hours, untied him then sent him away with a couple of scrolls that had written down on them training methods on improving one's stealth. When she finished with the memories, Chizuru set about unsealing the box again, and ran through the hand signs to realign her chakra.
After pumping a bit of chakra into the box, it lit up. After a moment of glowing, the box released the jutsu it was holding. A puff of smoke signaled the release, when it cleared it revealed a woman, who was now standing on top of Chizuru's table. Chizuru took in the sight of her and took mental note of what she was seeing. The woman was wearing a long green apron over a white shirt, and lilac sandals. She had finely toned muscles, and was standing with her arms crossed, a smirk marring her face. What stood out most however was her bright red hair, it was straight, seemed to go to about the mid of her back, and had a clip holding her long bangs of to the side. Chizuru was about to ask who the woman was, when suddenly, the woman back flipped off the table, landing on the other side of it from Chizuru. She then took a deep breath in, and spoke.
"Introducing the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero herself!" The woman called out, "I'm Kushina Uzumaki 'ttebane!"
Chizuru was star struck, she read about Kushina a few times in her history books, and knew for a fact that she was a powerful sealing master, and, if she were to guess, the Uzumaki hailed from the capital of fuinjutsu itself, Uzushio. Her mouth hung open for a minute while Kushina basked in the silent awe. When Chizuru finally regained control of her mouth she pumped herself up to give an equally awesome intro.
"Hn." She huffed, while crossing her arms and taking a pose much akin to how Sasuke would, then she smiled brightly, "Introducing Fuinton no Chizuru!" She exclaimed, "I'm Chizuru Ikeda 'ttebayo!"
"Oho!" Kushina exclaimed. "Well Chizuru, it seems as though you're quite skilled in fuinjutsu, by Konoha's standards that is. But now, we'll be playing on my stage. The box took all the information you put into my husband's tests and transferred the information directly into me. As of now you're a seal master, by Konoha's standards, even better than ero-sannin was the last time I checked. Ikeda though? Never heard of a family with that name... Clanless?" She asked.
"Yeah..." Chizuru said dejectedly.
"Aw cheer up kid. Here, I have an idea." Kushina said, then grabbed a scroll and some sealing ink, before setting off to work, "This seal I'm making is a specialty of mine, its an advanced, near X-Rank chakra detection seal, it can tell me what clan, if any, you hail from. You look like a Hatake, but then again, looks can be deceiving. Aaand... Done!" She exclaimed while marking the paper once more.
"Just pump some chakra in, and we'll get a look at what you're all about." Kushina instructed.
Chizuru walked up to the scroll, nervous that she was about to find out who her family was, she gulped, then breathed a deep breath, before placing her hand on the seal, and pumping in a small amount of chakra. The seal got to work immediately, decoding Chizuru's chakra signature, it noted an anomaly with the word Rinkaka, then deciphered the rest of the chakra. Two clans popped up onto the sheet, one much more prominent than the other, but there was also a note that went along with the other. The clans listed were 80% Uzumaki, and 20% Senju(Namikaze).
"Huh." Kushina said simply. "I... Huh."
"Is that odd?" Chizuru asked.
"Well... Kinda?" Kushina revealed. "The yondaime, my husband, is Namikaze, and I'm pure-blooded Uzumaki, so... I need to speak with the hokage..." Kushina announced, she was about to leave when Chizuru stopped her.
"I'm coming too." Chizuru announced.
"Well of course you are, you cute little snowball, we'll go together!" Kushina announced, she then picked up Chizuru and held her under her arm. "Off we go!"