Kushina's Eyes

⠀⠀Hikigaeru took a deep breath. Then she read aloud, "the knee joint, articulation genu. The knee's synovial membrane is the largest and most extensive of the body. Commencing at the upper border of the patella, it forms a large cul-de-sac beneath the quadriceps femoris on the lower part of the front of the femur. It frequently communicates with a bursa interposed between the tendon and the front of the femur."

⠀⠀I winced at the medical talk and glanced at the ticking clock. I frowned at the time and asked no one, "how long's Hikigaeru been awake?"

⠀⠀"Around an hour," Minto answered, to my surprise. He was dressed in his Jonin uniform, a kunai pouch hung from his waist, and he held two scrolls under his arm. "Knowing her, she won't be much of a bother for you."

⠀⠀"Yeah, having to deal with periods at her age and with, what, at least kilometer sensing range?" Minato nodded. "Uh, I feel sorry for her. I know my periods suck, but having to deal with everyones? Mikoto was right! I couldn't imagine, you know? It'd be like torcher!"

⠀⠀"That's part of why I keep telling you she's tough," he noted. "And why I think she likes training so much. The dojo's seal cuts off everyone else, finally giving her a break from it all."

⠀⠀"It's called psychological conditioning," Hikigaeru cut. "It's quite fun."

⠀⠀"Fun?" I echoed, only to give Minato a look.

⠀⠀"To each their own," he shrugged. "I'll be back around dinner, depending on how Kakashi handles D-rank missions. I hear the Uchiha are funding the construction of a few new houses," he explained. Then, with a soft smile, he added, "he's going to paint a wall."

⠀⠀I smirked at that. "Have fun watching it dry," I joked. Minato shrugged, stepped passed me, leaned in, and kissed my cheek. I blushed, but he was gone before I turned to watch him go. I signed at his absence, and the steadily growing abdominal pain spiked.

⠀⠀"There's a warm towel in the dryer," Hikigaeru called from her seat near the couch. "And fresh tea on the stove. I got them ready for you."

⠀⠀"That's considerate of you," I quietly croaked. "Thank you." With slow steps, I fetched myself a cup of tea while the little angel went ahead and got me the towel. It was already pre-folded and waited for me at the living room table.

⠀⠀After sitting down and making myself comfortable, I asked, "did you ever help your Mom when she was in pain?"

⠀⠀"No, Mama had jutsu to skip her periods."

⠀⠀"What?! How is that not common knowledge?! Did Lady Tsunade better have made that a medical ninjutsu technique?" I semi-raged.

⠀⠀"It is, but I don't think they're in my books." Hikigaeru tilted her head, one hand on the stack next to her. "You're welcomed to read with me, though."

⠀⠀"No thanks," I lamented. "Just let me know if you find it..."

⠀⠀"I will. How goes the seal?" Hikigaeru asked, and the thought of that puzzle made me thump my head against the table. "That bad?"

⠀⠀"You have no idea."

⠀⠀"Could you break it down for me?"

⠀⠀"You think you'll understand?" I honestly asked, turning to face Hikigaeru, head still against the table.

⠀⠀"Is that a rhetorical question?" he gawked.

⠀⠀I sat straight and looked over the five-year-old with a frown. "It — shouldn't be, should it?" I asked, but not needing an answer, I continued, "okay. There are a few problems. Problem one: how we filled the seal with chakra. You're not compatible with Minato's or my chakra. Think like putting shapes in a box. You have to match the square to the square and whatever. Minato and I don't fit."

⠀⠀"That makes sense," she put in. "Not everyone's flavor works together. Not all flavors match up."

⠀⠀"Right. That's one way to look at it. Anyways, blending our chakra together helped. Kind of? Keeping it in a shape that works made it annoying," I grumbled. "Then there's the nature stuff you're absorbing. Problem two: the chakra in the seal is always moving. It forces your chakra to move with it, so you won't mix your chakra with nature energy."

⠀⠀"Like, a water cleaning system," Hikigaeru agreed with a nod.

⠀⠀"You know how those work?" With another nod from the five-year-old, I tilted my head, wondering just how much she knew. "Right. Well, it's not working. You're still getting nature energy. Plus, the moving chakra stops you from molding your chakra. I think that's three problems, then?"

⠀⠀"Three or four."

⠀⠀"Problem four or five: we can't give you control of the seal until you can summon. And we have to wait for your Dad and Mom for that one. Plus, you can't summon if you can't mold your chakra. Problem six-ish is that I could make an external chakra network to pull out the nature energy, but that'll cover her whole body with Fuin."

⠀⠀"Why didn't you do that?" she asked, one eyebrow raised. "Can't you hide Fuin under the skin? Or make the seal spread over my body, like a pop-up book?"

⠀⠀"Tsunade recommended that, but we'd have to start from scratch. I'd have to rewrite the whole seal, and if we do, then we can't use Tsunade's seal as a base. More like an addition to it."

⠀⠀"Sounds complex."

⠀⠀"Not really, it's just a lot of work. Nature energy is annoying."

⠀⠀"Oh, I know. It's turning me into a tree," Hikigaeru chuckled. "Have you thought of converting the seal into a one-way valve? Use the chakra you mixed as storage, and move that through me, taking the nature energy, then sealing it somewhere else?"

⠀⠀"You're taking this water analogy literally, huh, Hikigaeru? Well, no. That wouldn't work. Cutting you off from nature energy is 'dangerous.' Apparently, you're a natural sage, like the first Hokage. Those toads said you wouldn't have this problem if you had Lord First's chakra reserves. Which makes that problem six?" I rhetorically asked. "Jiraiya said, 'once we get you to train your reserves, you'll need the seal less and less.'"

⠀⠀"Would my seal suggestion still work if you can figure out how to mitigate the percentage of nature energy in my body?"

⠀⠀I frowned, looking over Hikigaeru as she asked, double-checking if it genuinely was her. Nothing stood out, and after I told myself Minato would have known if she was replaced, I nodded. "It would, but I don't know enough about nature energy to figure out how to make it work, you know? It's like trying to... I don't know, put a knife in a balloon? It's just going to pop," I grumbled. Then finally taking a sip of the tea, I hummed, "oh, this is good."

⠀⠀"Sencha tea with lemon, ginger, and a cinnamon stick," Hikigaeru spoke. I took another sip before Hikigaeru hesitantly asked, "would it help if I told you everything I knew about nature energy?"

⠀⠀"It would, but it might get you in trouble if you told me. It's secret stuff, you know?"

⠀⠀"I know, and I'd probably get in trouble," she quietly uttered. "But I don't much care. I know I can trust you. Minato loves you, after all."

⠀⠀I had to smile at that. "I promise to keep it a secret."

⠀⠀"You can tell Minato, Papa, and Mama. Everyone else can — um — buzz off."

⠀⠀"You... wanted to swear there, didn't you?"

⠀⠀"Absolutely, but I promised Minato I'd stop swearing," she insisted as I went to take another sip of tea. "And I don't break my promises unless it's absolutely fucken necessary." I choked at her swear and, half laughed, half sputtered my tea.

⠀⠀"Hikigaeru!" I coughed. "You did that on purpose!"

⠀⠀"Obviously. You needed the laugh," Hikigaeru shrugged.

⠀⠀"Yeah, I'm still telling Minato."

⠀⠀"Ah, come on," she chuckled. "Making you feel better is an emergency."

⠀⠀"Don't be cute," I grinned. "You made me waste tea."

⠀⠀"We have more."

⠀⠀I glared at the brat, nose drenched in tea, before redirecting, "you can tell me what you know about nature energy."

⠀⠀With a deep breath, Hikigaeru breathed in and divulged, "nature energy is everywhere in the world. In order to draw it into the body, one normally must first become 'one with nature' by remaining perfectly still. For me, I think I draw in the energy naturally. I can't think of a time when I'm not moving. Either way, a ratio of physical, spiritual, and nature energy must be established to use nature energy correctly.

⠀⠀"If nature energy overtakes either, then the person turns to stone. Or wood, for me, for some reason or another. However, nature energy is — strong, potent, powerful; take your pick from the thesaurus. Even if you know the ratio, you still need a lot of chakra to use nature energy, and you'd have to be physically capable, too. It's why Minato's been pushing me so hard. So when you work this seal out, I'll have a head start on my physical half."

⠀⠀"That's it?"

⠀⠀"Yep."

⠀⠀I furrowed my brow. "Really? It's 'that' simple?!"

⠀⠀"Yep."

⠀⠀The repeated answer only made me mad, something I knew Hikigaeru could sense. "Those toads are idiots!" I roared, and Hikigaeru snorted. "If I knew it was this simple... This whole time, this whole damn time, I treated nature energy like the Kyūbi," I growled, jumping to my feet. "I wondered why you needed an extra reserve of chakra! They didn't tell me crap at all, let alone..." I stopped, took a deep breath, then declared, "I'll be right back! I need to get stuff from my room!"

⠀⠀"Mhmm." Hikigaeru looked back at her book and, with a third deep breath, read, "the bursae near the knee joint. In front, there are four. A large one between the patella and the skin and a small one between the upper part of the tibia and the ligamentum..."

⠀⠀Hikigaeru's voice trailed off as I ran upstairs, grabbing scrolls, notes, brushes, and ink from my room. As I ran back, I left the supplies with her to get more. Quickly, the living room became a cluttered mess. Scrolls were opened on top of one another, with large sections linked with ink. Hikigaeru ignored my work and read away, only getting up to refill our tea.

⠀⠀Out loud, I said to myself, "no, the array is good. Don't need to redo that. This function needs to be repurposed. Tsunade's seal will need to be repurposed. At least Hikigaeru can input her chakra if we only use it as a reserve. No, that pointer needs to be removed. Didn't those toads say flowing chakra works better? Yeah, let's keep it then and redirect it. No, that one needs to go instead..."

⠀⠀"Where we expecting visitors today?" Hikigaeru suddenly asked.

⠀⠀"What was that, Hikigaeru-kun?" I asked, not looking up from my work.

⠀⠀"There are two Jonin at the door." A knock reaffirmed her statement. "Their chakra feels wrong. The textures — something else. Off? I don't-" she cut herself off, head snapped towards the roof, then the back door. "Three on the roof. Two in the backyard."

⠀⠀"It's probably the ANBU, Hikigaeru. The same people that protected you while you were in the hospital. Relax while I'll see what they want," I told her. She didn't seem to take in what I said, with one of her hands creeping toward the knife I knew she hid in her shirt. Regardless, as I stood, I b-lined to the door and said, "how can I - whao!"

⠀⠀I duct as a fist surrounded by a thick, purple mist missed my head by a hair. Then the door was kicked open, and I backflipped away from the massive attacker. They wore all black, and a white, blank mask covered their face. Leaping over the bulking intruder, a second intruder with a slender frame, wearing the same disguise, held their hands together. I could feel their chakra build before more purple smoke filled the hallway.

⠀⠀It was ascitic and burned, even after I lept out of the attack and to Hikigaeru's side. Her knife was already out, but she faced the back door, where several people rushed into the house. Outnumbered, I furrowed my brow before grabbing Hikigaeru. She didn't resist, her kitchen knife firmly unmoving. Even as I dashed to the kitchen window and lept through the glass, using myself as a shield, she held it towards the unknown nin.

⠀⠀But someone was waiting, their katana already drawn, and poison clearly visible on the blade. I duct the attack, then sprang up, headbutting them in the stomach. They flew back, their katana spinning up into the air. Then a sharp twang rang out from Hikigearu. A glance told me she blocked a senbon with the kitchen knife, her eyes glowing gold. I didn't have time to wonder why as I jumped into the air over the neighbor's house.

⠀⠀The air felt fridged as I took off into the sky, only for Hikigaeru to growl and throw her kitchen knife. I followed it with a glance, seeing it shatter against a chain flying right toward us. I turned midair and tried to kick at it, only for the chain to twist on itself, moving irrationally and wrapping around my leg. Our flight was dragged to a stop, and our attackers whipped the chain, throwing us towards the dojo's roof. I held Hikigaeru tight, taking the impact against my back as we slammed into the tile.

⠀⠀Through the pain, I hoped Hikigaeru was fine. Yet, as I tried to stand up to see if she was okay, the massive attacker reappeared. They reached down, only for Hikigaeru to jump from my arms and bite their fingers. A fast chop to her neck made her go limp, and I had to roar at the sight. Throwing myself to my feet, I was met with a spinning kick and was sent down toward our house. I knew my reaction time was failing as I tried to catch myself, only to slam into a wall.

⠀⠀"Let Hikigaeru go!" I yelled, again trying to stand.

⠀⠀From the corner of my eye, I saw several Chunin and Jonin arrive, trying to fight the other enemy ninja. But in that instant, purple smoke erupted around me, filling the house, yard, and surrounding area. It blocked my sight of Hikigaeru, smelled like mold, and ate at my skin. I coughed, holding my breath, and threw out into the yard, then into the air. I emerged from it all, already feeling the effects of the poison.

⠀⠀I didn't let it stop me as I roared again and pulled at my chakra, letting it envelop me. It made my hair snake about as several large chains shot from my back. The first three chains attacked the closest of the attackers, the ones preoccupied with Konoha's forces. The fourth went after Hikigaeru but was blocked by a thrown katana. The fifth impaled the kidnapper through the stomach, spraying blood over Hikigaeru. They still didn't react. Instead, they threw Hikgiaeru to another invader.

⠀⠀"Damn it!" I yelled, using my chains as legs, charging after her, only for my balance to give and my jutsu to fail.

⠀⠀I crashed into the neighbor's roof, unable to properly control my body. To my relief, a trio of Hyuga landed beside me. An older man and someone around my age continued to chase after Hikigaeru while the third Hyuga looked me over. "Are you-" he tried to say, only to cut himself off.

⠀⠀His attention snapped to the man impaled on my chains. With a dive, he reached for the attacker's face, his fingers outstretched. It was too late as the attacker bit down, and foam started curdling from the mask, presumably from their mouth. I could sense their chakra fade as they each took their own life.

⠀⠀"Don't let them take Hikigaeru!" I tried to yell, but my mouth was numb, and my words came out slurred.

⠀⠀"My father and brother won't let them get away, Young Uzumaki. They are still in Konoha, and I see others following in the pursuit. They won't get away. Now, focus on yourself. We don't know the effects of their poison. If you need it, I will carry you to the hospital."

⠀⠀"I'm fine," I tried to growl. "Get Minato. He's her guardian. Tell the Hokage."

⠀⠀"There's no need to tell Minato-san. I can see he's already after them," the Hyuga informed me.

⠀⠀I smiled. Or at least tried to, and breathed, "thank goodness."

Author's Note

⠀⠀500+ followers, 100+ reviews, and over 350+ favorites. On top of that, over 20,000 views. Y'all really do enjoy this story, huh? I wish I could get chapters out faster, but life is life. With that said, who do you think is trying to kidnap Hikigaeru?