Chapter 11.
Sanbi didn't like Kushina. He didn't like Kushina at all.
They started the next training phase early in the morning, barely leaving them enough time to digest their breakfast. Kushina couldn't teleport them into the underground training area, but there were other ways, secret passages that she had shown Rin earlier.
Konoha's two resident jinchuuriki didn't need anyone else to get into their sanctuary.
"The thing is, bijuu are not just mindless beasts," Kushina said once they had arrived, sitting down with some difficulty and pointing Rin the floor before her. "They're monsters, but they can think. They can reason."
"Reason? To… What extent?" Rin asked, her heart in her throat.
Kushina's eyes turned hard and cold when she said, "Enough for our purposes." Then she closed them and locked her hands in an unfamiliar seal before her belly. Thick golden chains erupted from Kushina's back and locked them in a glowing cage, chiming like bells as they moved.
"You see, when the bijuu take over our bodies they damage us. If they go too far, we die. If we die, they die. So simple logic dictates they want to keep us alive," Kushina said, and oh, this was the woman who had successfully chained the most powerful demon in existence to her soul.
Kushina didn't explain the chains, but they made Sanbi's restless rumbling go quiet. They made Rin go quiet too. In a world where chakra could make just about anything possible, these chains still seemed otherworldly. Foreign.
"What are they?" Rin asked softly.
"It's a genetic mutation, or a bloodline limit. It pops up in our family every couple of generations, and only ever in the women," Kushina said. The light from the chains reflected in her eyes and make them look like liquid gold. "Once you've mastered them, you can use them to seal anything you want. Or practically anything, anyway."
Rin couldn't quite hide her awe. "Your family... You mean the Uzumaki clan?"
"Yes. Mito-sama had this particular mutation as well. She called them the adamantine sealing chains."
"Sealing?"
A sad smile. "Yes. Guess why they picked me as Mito's successor?"
"Oh. But… That doesn't seem fair," Rin said slowly. "Were you the only one with... With this?"
"The first in sixty years," Kushina said. Her eyes softened at last and she gave Rin a wistful smile. "I first manifested them when I was six."
How relieved the clan must have been, Rin thought, to finally have someone to take over from the elderly Mito. And how terribly sad that that was all they ever valued Kushina for after. "That's when they decided to pick you," she said, knowing it to be true.
Kushina nodded. "Don't think too harshly of them. Someone had to do it. I was simply the most suitable candidate."
"It's still cold."
"So's the world. So is this village."
Rin must have looked confused, because Kushina chuckled. "You said it yourself, didn't you? Sometimes, the village just uses people. That's why Minato wanted to become Hokage. Not for fame or respect, but to change things. Even if it's just people's minds," she said.
Rin smiled back. "That's why he's a good Hokage."
Kushina gave her a fond look. "He tries to be."
Rin looked up again at the golden dome around them. "So… What is this for?" She asked.
"Just a precaution. I want you to feel safe enough to try something new."
"What kind of new thing?"
Kushina grinned wickedly. "How do you feel about poking giant monsters with a stick?"
Rin pulled a face that told Kushina exactly what she thought of that. Kushina laughed.
"Kushina-nee-san, are you telling me to poke Sanbi with a stick? Because that doesn't seem very wise," Rin said dryly. Her stomach flipped nervously.
"It's a metaphorical stick." Kushina clapped her hands together. "Close your eyes. Focus on your chakra. Imagine Sanbi doesn't pull in yours, but you pull in his. Imagine how it could feel."
It would feel like fire. Like chidori blazing through her chest, or a raging thunderstorm caught in her belly. But it would also feel like power. She met Kushina's eyes uncertainly. "I'm not sure I could handle that."
"You can handle more than you think. Look – being able to use his chakra at low risk? That's the endpoint for us. That's as good as it gets. That's what you're going to aim for," Kushina said, leaning forward and taking Rin's hands in her own. "You don't have to get there right away. But what we're about to do is the first step to achieving it."
"How? Is that even possible?" How could a human body hold that much power, that much energy, and not rip apart? It went against everything she knew about human anatomy – no, human endurance. "Can… Can you do it?"
Kushina grimaced. "Briefly. Kyuubi is… Well, difficult. I can get him to cooperate when he… Well, when he feels like having a good fight. But there's no way of knowing what Sanbi will be like. That's why you have to talk to him first."
Rin blanched. "Well. If that's all."
"I'll be here by your side all the way. I will stop him from doing anything untoward like taking over your body and killing everyone."
"That's not very comforting," Rin said. Somehow, she managed to stop her voice from shaking. "I just – this isn't like Minato sensei's training at all. Wouldn't it be better for me to focus on what I can do without Sanbi?"
Kushina sighed. "Minato wanted you to know your limits, and see how far you could stretch them. I want to make sure you're prepared for what happens if you go past those limits."
"… Can I be?"
"Not completely. But more than you are now. If you can talk to him, you can make a deal. Ask him to give you some more space. Find out what he's made of, whether he's cooperative at all," Kushina said. She grimaced. "The thing is, this is the first time Sanbi has been Konoha's. We know nothing about him. There are no other jinchuuriki to inform you about his quirks and triggers. The only way we can find out is here, in a controlled environment. Trust me, it's better to lose control here than on the battlefield."
Rin dropped her head. "Losing control… Can you still tell, when he takes over? I mean, can you see what he does with your body? Do you remember how he…"
As a chunin with a fairly short war record, Rin had never seen a jinchuuriki in action. Not Kushina, nor anyone else. All she had were tales of bogeymen with chakra like acid or fire or lightning itself. Tales of great monsters ripping men to shreds on the battlefield, friend and foe alike. Jinchuuriki were monsters. Everyone knew that.
Rin had known it herself, until one day Minato sensei had set them down and told the truth about his lovely, kind, funny fiancée. It hadn't seemed real at first. It had felt like a lie, like something impossible and cruel. But then Kushina had continued to be sweet and kind and funny even as she confirmed Minato's confession, and slowly minutes of students had come around to the idea that perhaps jinchuuriki were as human as anyone else. Two weeks in and they had all but forgotten that there were reasons to fear Kushina other than Kushina getting hungry and not having access to food. Now, Rin wondered whether Kushina had been scared of their response. Whether she had perhaps feared their rejection. If she had, she hadn't shown up. Kushina really was unbearably brave.
And right now, she was looking at Rin was a distant expression on her face. "Sometimes, I remember things. The memories don't… They don't feel real, to be honest. It's like being stuck inside a glass bowl filled with water. You can't quite see clearly, and all sound is muffled and strange. You don't even feel angry anymore, at some point. You don't feel anything at all," she said softly. "Not until you wake up, anyway. That's the most difficult part."
Rin really, really didn't want to be a jinchuuriki. She really, really didn't want it. Damn Kirigakure. Damn Sanbi. And damn Kyuubi and Konoha too, for making Kushina suffer.
She took a deep, shuddering breath. "And what we're about to do… It will make it less likely that I lose control?"
"That's the idea."
"Then let's do it."
Which was how Rin figured out that her own warm feelings towards Kushina didn't exactly transfer over to Sanbi.
She closed her eyes to enter that strange, otherworldly place where her bijuu was kept with Kushina's encouragement. She fought thoughts of mind control and hurting friends, but Kushina's steady voice told her to breathe through it – so she did.
Sanbi gave a great rattling roar when he saw her, his huge maw spread open wide. He looked strange out of the shadows, huge armor plating covering his skull and body, a single glowing eye staring out from underneath a heavily ridged brow.
Nohara Rin, he rumbled and his voice was like a great waterfall thundering down upon her. Nohara Rin, why did you bring me that monster?
Rin struggled to breathe as her knees gave out and she splashed down into the water. It was almost uncomfortably warm. She couldn't bring herself to speak.
WELL? Sanbi roared.
"I – I didn't bring any monsters," Rin said, stumbling over the consonants.
Then what do you call that woman with her burning chains? Did you think I would not be able to sense him languishing inside her body?
"Wha-" oh, Kushina. "You mean you can sense Kyuubi?"
Of course I can sense him, you dimwit! He is my brother, he burns like a furnace in my mind! Sanbi brought down a great, webbed foot, sending up a wave high enough to knock over Rin's head. She spluttered and coughed as it washed over her. The fact that the water wasn't real, that it was just another imagined effect of having Sanbi here, didn't make it feel any less like drowning.
"Your brother? You guys are brothers?" She said, when she regained her breath. Kakashi would probably say something like "talk about a complicated family tree", and pull a face when he realized he had just made a joke
I'm the one asking questions here, puny human. WHY WOULD YOU EVEN NEAR THAT WRETCHED CREATURE?
Rin, in what had to be a trauma induced bout of stupidity, said "She's my friend."
WHAT?! Sanbi screeched, and sent up several more waves with his angry thrashing.
"You know my name," Rin said, voice shaking. "Surely you understand I'm a Konoha shinobi."
Sanbi reared back, his one eye widening. He watched her, completely silent all of a sudden, before arching his head towards her as closely as he could get before the chains of the seal could him back. Kiri must have been very desperate this time around, he said. Saiken will laugh at me for getting into trouble.
"Who?"
Sanbi snorted. So now I'm stuck with ol' 'Kyuubi' for company so long as I'm with you, he drawled.
"I – yes?"
Oh, thanks. That's just what I needed.
"I – I didn't ask for this either." It probably said something about Rin's life that she could now genuinely say she'd spent time being annoyed by a massive, incredibly destructive chakra demon.
How many seals are there in here? This seems overkill. Sanbi moved around, testing the chains wrapped around his limbs. They didn't give much.
"They wanted you to destroy Konoha. The seal had a timer on it so it would release when I got home."
That would have been fun. Pray tell me who derived me from this pleasure?
"I don't think I should," Rin said, slowly shaking her head.
Well, WHY THE HELL NOT? Sanbi roared, all humor fleeing from his voice as he threw himself towards her. The chains holding him screeched mightily against the strain.
Rin flinched and scrambled away from him purely by instinct. Her heart pounded in her chest. "Because holding grudges isn't healthy," she heard herself say.
Healthy – healthy? WHO THE HELL ARE YOU, KID? I AM A GODDAMN BIJUU! I CAN HOLD AS MANY GRUDGES AS I LIKE!
Rin flinched and wished there was a place to hide. Sanbi's voice was terrible in its volume, each word rattling around in her head and making her ears ache with the force of it.
"That's enough of that," a clear voice said, and suddenly there were hands on her shoulders. Then she was looking into blood red eyes with slit pupils set in a familiar face. Kushina. It was Kushina.
"Kushina? How did you get here?" Rin stuttered.
Kushina grinned. "Because I'm magic like that. And because I convinced the old furball it would be a good idea. So, these are your digs, huh? Not much better than mine," she said, putting her hands in her sides and looking around before finding Sanbi and giving him a challenging look. As if she wasn't a nine-month pregnant lady facing down a bijuu with murder in her eyes. "You must be Sanbi. I've heard a lot about you."
Sanbi cocked his great head. And you're Kurama's current girl, are you? Uzumaki. He made a strange spitting noise and the water around them seemed to heat up around their ankles. I can tell just from sensing your chakra.
"That's right, you big old – well, we can't call you furball," Kushina said, squinting a little. "How do you feel about 'shelly'?"
A beat.
I am not in favor, Sanbi said.
Rin gaped at Kushina. She closed her jaw with a click. Okay, this, even Kakashi would have been impressed with. Kushina had just… Schooled an actual bijuu. "Shelly," Rin copied weakly.
I shall not be called SHELLY! Sanbi roared, and threw his limbs around in rage, his massive tails swishing through the air above them.
"Well, you throw hissy fits like Kurama," Kushina commented, hands in her sides.
Rin blinked a few times. Right. This was actually happening. Okay. "Kushina-nee?"
"Yeah?"
"Uhm... The point of this little meeting?"
"Oh, right! Sanbi! You have a contract to sign!" Kushina cried out, planting her feet wide and waving her index finger in Sanbi's face.
Sanbi watched them, his one eye narrowed in suspicion. Contract? I have no need of a contract, he said slowly.
"Yeah, you do. Think of it as signing a lease to your new house. You gotta agree with the new landlady on the rules."
Rin's eyebrows rose steadily on her forehead as it occurred to her that she was the landlady in question.
Sanbi looked puzzled. I don't do contracts with... 'land-ladies'. Whatever those are.
"Well, new village, new rules," Kushina shrugged. " 'Cause if you don't agree, I've got a tenant of my own who's pretty eager to show who's boss right about now."
Her voice grew colder as she spoke, and Rin looked back up at Kushina's eyes. Still blood red. Still very much not Kushina's own color. Right now, Kyuubi was silent witness to everything Kushina, Sanbi and Rin discussed. The thought sent a shiver down her spine. If Sanbi was a hurricane, Kyuubi was a meteorite about to crush the planet.
Sanbi moved his body back slowly, as far as the chains would let him, rumbling deep in his throat. What kind of contract?
"Rin?" Kushina looked at her now, smiling gently despite her terrifying eyes, and she was still Kushina, wasn't she? She was still Kushina, and she was horrifyingly in control.
Rin swallowed and forced herself to stand up. "I – I want to be safe," she said slowly. "I want you to promise… You won't try to – try to possess me while I'm in the village."
Sanbi hissed again, slow and angry.
"And I want to be able to use my own chakra when I want to use it," Rin added quickly, while she still had the courage.
You can use it, little girl, Sanbi hissed. You just get some of mine in return. There's no escaping that.
Rin swallowed down her anger. "I mean without you – your chakra hurting me. Or someone else."
Sanbi was quiet for a moment. Then he laughed, a horrible rasping laugh in the back of his throat. You want to heal, don't you? I could tell from how soft your chakra is that you were a medic. You want to heal people. Well, guess what? That's not going to happen. It can't happen. Oh, of all the Bijuu you could have gotten it just had to be me, didn't it?
"What are you talking about?" Kushina asked sharply.
Sanbi brought his head closer and sounded almost gleeful when he spoke again. Well, I'm corrosive, aren't I?
A low fog rose across the water, painting the landscape pale and eerie. Rin looked down and hissed as the fog touched her skin. It didn't feel like vapor, it felt like fire.
I am water and steam, heat and poison, Sanbi hissed, and you would melt a man's skin off before you would heal him.
"I figured," Rin said softly, ducking her head. "But that's not what I'm asking of you."
Sanbi reared back. The water around them stilled and the fog stopped progressing. Then what do you want, little girl? He rumbled, some of the bite gone from his voice.
Rin looked up and met the great glowing eye without blinking. "if you promise to help me protect my people, I will let you fight."
Steam Village was having a rough couple of years, Kakashi thought as he pulled his mask back up, the scent of smoke and blood thick in his nostrils. Behind him, someone screamed and he turned around to see another Kiri shinobi being pushed to the ground, knife at her throat.
Barely twenty minutes of tightly controlled chaos had sufficed to see the Kiri shinobi off, caught as they were between Konoha and Kumo. The conflict had been brief but brutal.
"Heads up, kid," a gruff little voice said, and then Pakkun came leaping into Kakashi's arms. The pug pawed at Kakashi's arms to get them in the most desirable position, and then gave a satisfied yawn. "What a mess."
Kakashi hummed his agreement, still scanning the crowds. There wasn't any fighting left to do – there was something of an uneasy truce between their troops and Kumo's, and the remainder of Kiri's army were either already imprisoned or being taken care of. In the square where Kakashi had first seen Kuriarare, Fugaku knelt before an injured enemy soldier, quietly asking him questions even as his eyes blazed red.
Kakashi rolled his shoulder experimentally to test the joint. He grimaced. The pain was manageable, the injury probably not permanent or even particularly debilitating. If anything, it was just embarrassing that the older shinobi had gotten the drop on him so easily, S-rank terror or not.
He remembered being thrown to the ground, remembered Konoha's troops barreling through the barriers – not even all of their troops, that hadn't even been necessary with Kumo advancing on Kiri from the other side – and finally Kiri, retreating in a panic.
"Don't look so glum, you did good, kid," Jiraiya commented, walking towards them from across the street. "We got into the village and caused a nice bit of chaos, all things considered. Kiri knows it won't be able to hold onto Steam, now, and we got a pat on the back from Kumo out of it, too. They're as sick of war as we are."
Kakashi sniffed and looked across the town square, where Minato was talking to Tsunade and Shizune. Jiraiya had been throwing badly hidden glances in that direction as well, but Tsunade wasn't coming over. He had lost track of her in the chaos of the fight, which given her fighting style probably meant she'd left most of the work to her old teammate and Minato. Her presence, though, along with that of the Yellow Flash, had been enough of a statement in itself. It wasn't every day you had to face three living legends.
Tsunade looked pale. Even now her shoulders were tense and her eyes flicked around restlessly. Shizune refused to leave her side. Kakashi frowned, and wondered what the hell he was missing. There was something off about Tsunade, in the way that there had been something off about his father. It was one of those intangible things, something in the set of her back and the dullness in her eyes. Whatever else she was, Senju Tsunade was a troubled woman.
"They're taking off," Minato sighed, when he joined them. "Tsunade is tired of fighting." His face was drawn with exhaustion, his hair limp, and he kept tugging on his blood-soaked sleeve. It wasn't his blood – Kakashi had asked – but it seemed to pain him all the same.
Jiraiya grunted and looked down at his big hands. "Yeah, I know. I'll… I should talk to her. Fix things."
Minato gave him a fond smile, eyes filled with all sorts of things that made Kakashi feel like he was missing something important – again. "You should. You're still friends, after all."
Jiraiya gave his pupil a wan little smile. "Friends, yeah. And what a friend I've been to her. I should apologize. I'm just gonna –" he jabbed a thumb in Tsunade's direction, nodded to himself, and then got up and left.
Kakashi watched him go. "What am I missing here?"
Minato sighed. "About twenty years and a lot of unreciprocated feelings," he said dryly.
Kakashi turned back, surprised. "Feelings?"
Minato gave him a tired little laugh. "I'll tell you some other time, perhaps. Truth be told, it's not really any of your business," a cheeky smile, "But you were very brave today so I might make an exception for you."
Kakashi flushed. "It was fine."
"You won us the day, you and Tsunade's girl. People won't forget this. I won't, either," Minato said, and deliberately met Kakashi's eyes. "I should have trusted you from the start."
Kakashi looked away and shrugged. "Well, yeah. Whatever."
Minato smiled. "I'm serious. I suppose I still have to get used to the fact that you really are one of Konoha's jounin. You're as competent as anyone else in this camp, if not more so."
Kakashi didn't bother fighting the burst of warmth this evoked in him. He could almost imagine being eight again, on a mission with just Minato, the two of them against the world. Those missions had meant an escape from home, from reality. He had missed them. He had missed Minato, without even noticing. "I'm going to make sure you don't forget you said that," he mumbled.
Minato laughed. "Of course you are. I should've known better."
Kakashi smirked. "Damn right."
The fire crackled away. A cool breeze came rushing past them, sending a shiver down Kakashi's spine. Not long until autumn. Soon, Konoha's forests would be turning gold and orange and flame in the sunlight.
"I have an assignment for you," Minato said unexpectedly. "To prove my faith in you."
"Oh?"
"I want you to take my report of what happened here to the Eastern watchtower. I intend to stay here little bit longer."
"Wait – me? Not ANBU?"
Minato gave him a tired smile. "No. I'm trusting you to do it."
Pakkun started to snore. He had fallen asleep in Kakashi's arms.
"When do I leave?" Kakashi asked.
"Right away. I want the village to know what happened as soon as possible, but I intend to stay to negotiate with Kumogakure's commanding officer regarding the fate of Steam," Minato said, nodding towards a dark-skinned man a few streets away.
Kakashi felt the excitement bubbling up in his chest. Sure, it wasn't a particularly challenging assignment, but it did come straight from the Yondaime as a show of faith in his ability. As a show of trust. For once, he felt undeniably proud of himself. "Yes sir. We'll go right away," he said, shaking Pakkun awake.
Minato smiled. "Good man. When you're done, you can head back home and perhaps we can celebrate that birthday of yours after all. All of us, together."
Kakashi grinned and hoped he didn't blush. "Sounds pretty good," he admitted.
Shizune found him as he was packing his things, Minato's message rolled up and tucked into his belt. She looked unharmed, though like the rest of them she could have used a bath or two to wash off all of the dust that Tsunade's spree had thrown around. "I figured I'd say bye, before we left," she said, shrugging. She studiously avoided his eye.
"Right... Thanks for helping me." God, talking to teenage girls was so weird.
Shizune nodded sharply. "Just remember I was right, okay? Tsunade-shishou came through for us in the end."
"I guess so," Kakashi said, and then remembered something. "Actually, I wanted to ask her something. Does she – Err –" he had a feeling the sentence 'does she take on students' wouldn't sound right coming from someone who had so openly criticized the woman. "I mean, I guess – if you ever go to Konoha again, you'll at least know someone."
Oh, congratulations, Kakashi. And the price for most awkward, nonsensical statement goes to…
"Right," Shizune said, drawing out the vowel. "Sure."
Kakashi cleared his throat. Perhaps he would just write Tsunade, or track her down and shake all the secrets of her chakra reserve seals out of her. That would still be less of a hassle than finishing this conversation. "Well, gotta go. Bye."
He turned around as quickly as he could and walked away.
"Smooth," Pakkun commented dryly. "I can tell you'll grow into a real ladies man."
Kakashi fought down his blush. "Oh shut up. Your idea of a good conversation starts with sniffing someone's butt," he muttered. "Anyway, we have a job to do."
"Right, right – a courier job?"
"Yes. While you're here you might as well help. There might still be enemy shinobi around, so stay alert."
Pakkun let out a long, torturous sigh. "Oh, all right then. If we must." He hopped to the ground and stretched out his legs. "It has been a while."
And it had, hadn't it? At least three months had passed since he had last run with his pack at his side. It felt good to step out of the village with Pakkun loping ahead of him – or, well, bouncing anyway – the smell of fur in his nostrils. If he concentrated he'd be able to hear the telltale patter of nails on the floor. It'd be better if all the other dogs were there as well, but there was no real reason to call them up now. It would be impractical more than anything.
They reached the woods in no time at all. His injuries didn't hinder his movement much and he hadn't used a lot of chakra, so he didn't bother rationing his energy. It felt good to run after sneaking around all day yesterday. He channeled his chakra into his nose and his ears and sensed every nuance of the forest, like the smell of wet moss on the trees, the sound of a rabbit burrowing into its den and the wind rushing through the trees. Kakashi loved the forest.
Perhaps it was his joy at having succeeded and being out in the forest that kept him from noticing the other presence, at first.
Perhaps, if not for Pakkun's superior senses, he would not have noticed at all.
AN:
Oh boy, that's not good. Who do you think is in the forest with Kakashi?
My boy Kakashi tries so hard. Also, can you tell he actually has slightly better self-esteem than he does in canon? It's a miracle.