Upon reaching the village once more, Kushina was taken to the hospital for a check of her condition. She thankfully didn't have any injuries, but her Chakra and hunger levels were still dangerously low. The staff cooked up a full meal for her with everything she'd need and told her to eat and rest for a while. As she was eating, Minato stepped out to speak to the Hokage. Probably to let the man know what had happened. The Uzumaki Genin did her best to relax after she'd finished her meal, but she couldn't help but feel on edge. Understandable since she'd just been kidnapped, and a good response for a Ninja to have, but still. Kushina couldn't help the tremors that wracked her body, or feeling nervous every time a Nurse walked in.
Eventually the blond Genin returned with the young Sarutobi. The Uzumaki's attention snapped towards the door as it opened, and relaxed slightly as her savour entered. She relaxed even more as Minato came over and sat next to her on her bed. The two smiled at each other for a moment, before turning their attention to their leader, who settled himself in the chair. Hiruzen smiled slightly, "how are you feeling Kushina-Chan?" he asked once everyone seemed to be comfortable. The red-haired girl frowned, "honestly Hokage-Sama? I'm still very on edge after what just happened- I mean I was kidnapped from my own house a few hours ago for Kami's sake! Where the heck were all the ANBU that were supposed to be guarding me? What, were they all on a toilet break or something!?" she demanded. The Sarutobi frowned with a bit more force than usual, "what do you mean?" he asked. Kushina scoffed, "oh please, you really think I believe that time with the ANBU taking me to Mito-Sama what the only time you've had them watching me? Watching us?"
The girl paused for breath, "you've had them watching us ever since we all came here, even more-so since I became the Kyuubi's Jinchuriki, and yet not one of them acted while I was being kidnapped? When I was screaming for help while I was being kidnapped? And what about while I was being taken from the village? So you're telling me, that not even a single ANBU, Hyuuga or Inuzuka could track me, even when I left a highly visible trail of my hair behind? What were they all doing? Why is it that I had to rely on my Genin friends to come and save me, rather than the Shinobi of my own Village? Why was Minato-Kun the only Shinobi to find and rescue me, only after we'd nearly crossed the border of the Land Of Fire!?" Kushina gasped for breath after her long-winded interrogation-rant. She was trembling. The terror she'd felt at that time was too much for a nine-year old girl to handle. It was still too much for her.
Any child, Shinobi or civilian would have been left traumatized after such an event. And maybe in hindsight, it wasn't such a god thing for her to have chewed out the Hokage, but she was stressed damn it! After she was somewhat calm again, Hiruzen cleared his throat, "now Kushina-Chan, I did have ANBU guarding you- and we'll discuss exactly how you know that they should have been later- but I did have ANBU guards surrounding the perimeter of your Compound, all of whom should have neutralised any threat to your well-being should such an event have occurred" the old man replied calmly. The virtual Uzumaki's eyes widened. What? There had been ANBU guarding her Clan compound the whole time? Then why hadn't any of them come to her aid when those Hidden Cloud Shinobi had grabbed her? Then maybe- Kushina gasped and turned to face her leader.
"What if- it was an inside job?" she asked faintly. The two male's eyes widened. "This is just a theory, but if someone in the village wanted to get rid of me for whatever reason, then having another village kidnap me would easily do so, as well as move any suspicion or blame off of them and to the apparent guilty party" she explained. The Hokage frowned, "but why would anyone what to do that? getting rid of our village's Jinchuriki would be an idiotic thing to do, not to mention just how moronic an idea it is to hand you over to another Village!" he exclaimed, but seemed to be deep in thought as well. "That's true, but I'm sure some Shinobi in this village don't like the idea of a child keeping the Nine Tails at bay and are worried about it escaping, not to mention I am an outsider after all-" she looked down, "I can't be trusted to be 100% loyal to Konoha, what if I snap and let the monster loose? I'm sure many of them think that as well" the girl replied sadly, clenching her hand around the folds of her sheet.
"Kushina-Chan, that's not true, we do trust you. We wouldn't have let you become a Ninja otherwise" The Third Hokage tried, but Kushina scoffed, "oh yeah, as if the Shinobi Council would have ever let me be anything but a Ninja. I am not stupid! I know that politics is a big part of running any Village, I just wish more of them could hide their stupidity better!" the Uzumaki panted as she finished her rant. Tears welled up in her eyes and she turned away, "just leave me alone, both of you," Hiruzen and Minato seemed to be about to speak, before the red-haired girl spoke up again, "please, just- go. I need some time to myself after everything that happened" the Uzumaki said. Hiruzen nodded, "alright then" he replied softly, standing up to leave. Minato frowned in concern, "Kushina" he said softly, trying to reach for her hand. The Kunoichi flinched away and buried her face into the pillow more, "Minato, please" she begged.
The blond Shinobi closed his eyes for a moment, before retracting his hand and standing up, "alright, I'll go. Someone's gotta let the others know you're fine, huh?" he asked. The Uzumaki stayed silent. Minato quietly left the room, looking depressed. As he reached the Hokage's side, he felt the man place his hand on his shoulder. The Namikaze looked up at the old Shinobi, "Hokage-Sama?" he asked, "I know that look, it's how I always used to look at my wife. Kushina has been through a lot. Just give her some time. She may return your feelings yet" Sarutobi said. As Hiruzen began to walk away, Minato bowed, "thank you for all your help" he replied.
ŅŴŔ
The blond Ninja was on his way back to their compound. Extra ANBU were now stationed around the building. As he walked he couldn't help but think about what had just happened at the hospital. He knew that Kushina was under a lot of stress, and that she needed time to recover. But he couldn't help but feel like she was rejecting him. Minato shook his head. She just wanted some time to herself, to relax and recuperate, and yet he felt like the world was falling apart? He knew that he had feelings for the girl. Had for years now. In fact he'd gotten a crush on her the moment he first saw her step up to calm everyone down when they'd first gotten trapped in this game. Slowly, as he stealthily observed her, he felt his feelings grow from admiration to something more.
Maybe it wasn't love yet, and maybe Kushina didn't love him, but it was 'something'. He had hoped that maybe their leader felt that same 'something' for him as well. Maybe she did. But right now, after being kidnapped, taken away from her father (as he had noticed her calling Jiriya Daddy sometimes when she thought others weren't looking), starved and terrified of what was going to happen to her, now was not the time. However, with them being on different Genin teams now, Minato couldn't help but wonder just how much time the two of them had to turn 'something' into possible love. He shook his head as he reached the Uzumaki Compound. Time to face the panic, relief and endless questions he was sure that he was going to face from all their friends.
ŅŴŔ
When he got back home, Minato was swarmed by the others, just as he predicted. Jiriya was right up front, gripping the boy tightly by the shoulders, "where is she? Where is my daughter?!" he demanded. The blond boy sighed and waited for everyone to calm down, before turning to the white-haired Genin, "Kushina is fine physically, she is currently resting in the hospital. But as for mentally and emotionally- I don't know. It might take a while for her to recover for everything" Minato explained. "She's in the hospital? I'm going to see her!" Jiriya exclaimed, beginning to rush off, but the Namikaze caught his arm, "wait, Kushina is very traumatized right now, she said she wanted to be left alone" he explained.
The boy whirled on him, "maybe she wants some space from you, who never did anything while she was being bullied in the Academy, but what makes you think that she'd want me to stay away? I'm her father!" he snarled. Minato regarded Jiriya calmly, "that is true, but did you go to her when she was being kidnapped? Did you try to find her when she needed help? Did you try in any way to save Kushina when she needed you the most?" he asked. The white-haired Genin growled, "what are you trying to say brat!?" he demanded to know. The blond boy kept his gaze and voice calm, "I'm just saying that your daughter might need to some alone time from you as well as everyone else after what happened tonight" he replied.
The man-in-a-boys-body tried to come up with a retort for that, but couldn't think of anything, so he simply tore his arm out of the other boy's grip with a huff of frustration and stormed away. Minato sighed, he prayed that everything wouldn't fall apart while their leader was in the hospital.
ŅŴŔ
Kushina meanwhile was trying to meditate in an effort to overcome the turmoil that still gripped her mind and heart. It was something that Mito-Sama had taught her over the years. As she mediated, the girl found herself within her Mindscape. Another thing she had discovered since becoming Kurama's Jinchuriki, was that, much like Mito-Sama, it was highly probable that Kurama himself was an AI of some kind. She opened her eyes, finding herself in her mind, which was basically like the anime's version of Kushina's Mindscape. She had tried to change the layout of it, mostly to make the giant fox that she was now sharing a body with more comfortable, however, she had discovered that to affect anything within her mind, she needed "Mental Skill Points" much like her normal Skills. However, the only way to gain these Points was to meditate and train within her mind often, and she just didn't have the time with everything else.
So unfortunately her "Mental Skill Points" were only up to 20. Not nearly enough to alter her Mindscape. Stepping up to the huge moon that her Tenant was bound to, Kushina called up: "hey Kurama! How're you doing up their?!" The giant AI Biju shifted slightly and opened his eyes. Two blood red slitted eyes stared down at the girl. He huffed, "how do you think I am brat, I've got theses damned stakes stabbing into my body!?" Kurama replied curtly. The girl winced, "you know I'd try to help more with that if I had the time, but I have to make getting out of this game my number one priority" she replied sympathetically. The Biju rolled his eyes, "yeah, yeah, I know. So, how was your first taste of the world out there? A little more 'real' than you'd thought a Virtual Word could be, huh?" The fox asked. Kushina shifted uncomfortably and wrapped her arms around herself. She couldn't suppress the shiver that ran through her body.
"I was so scared back their Kurama. I didn't know what to do. If Minato-Kun hadn't come and rescued me-" the girl paused. "After all my training, I thought I'd gotten stronger. I thought- that I was at least a bit closer to getting us out of here, but-" she looked up at the Kyuubi, "it wasn't enough. I wasn't strong enough." Kushina clenched her hands around her arms, "If I'm not even strong enough to face that, how can I ever hope to become strong enough to beat this game and free everyone? We're all Ninja now. What happens when we start going on missions? We're bound to only have D-Rank mission to start off with, but we'll move up eventually. If someone dies here- I promised everyone we'd all get home! I promised! But I don't know what to do. I'm not strong, I'm just a young woman pretending to be a Kunoichi! I-I'm so scared that I or someone else will die in this game!" she looked up at her partner, a look of desperation in her eyes, "what do I do Kurama? How do I protect everyone and get them all home safely?" she asked.
The Kyuubi shook his head, "I don't know Kit, but we'll figure it out. Together" Kushina stared at the fox for a moment, before nodding, 'right, together'.
To Be Continued