A Positive Twist

by Nasha Rei-Kun

He wanted to change the system they lived in. To allow people like Mai, Maki, and people like Toji to thrive with their own talents or desires. Naruto wanted to become a grade even become Special-Grade to work alongside his ridiculous cousin to change how the world worked. Naruto Uzumaki, 'Defect' of the Gojou Clan, wanted to put a bit of a positive twist on the Jujutsu world.

5. Connections and Vows

~NRK~

~September : 3 Years Until Return~

The afternoon following Naruto's departure had been… well.

Chaos, for lack of a better word.

Noritoshi, Nanami, Satoru, Shoko, Megumi, Yaga, Utahime, and Mei Mei sat along with many others within another chamber of the higher-ups' building.

Sorcerers aplenty mumbled about, some with news, others with questions, and many with firsthand accounts of the night before.

Naobito, Naoya, and Jinichi had arrived just then, the old man coming over with his arms crossed and simply sitting a few feet away from Satoru.

"So, he's gone, hmm?" The Zenin head asked with a tilt of the head and hum.

"Most will never know," Satoru crossed his own arms and hummed. "What I really want to know is what the higher-ups know," that'd be a big part of all of this.

No one besides the Zenin Head & the two behind him and their group knew the truth of the current situation.

And the advent of the top of the mountain being GONE was likely going to be a serious matter.

Large chance there wouldn't be any fun here.

Then there was a murmur as their higher-ups, from Tokyo and Kyoto, arrived. Their bodies covered by long flowing robes, cloth veils, and armed guards per superior.

They walked towards the center of the room before sitting within.

"All available sorcerers have been summoned for an urgent matter," one of them said with a hidden frown. "There was a disturbance the previous night that can't be understated."

Another spoke. "The top of the mountain is gone."

The sorcerers and clan heads murmured as Noritoshi wore a neutral expression.

'It's for the best he's gone,' it'd barely been three minutes but Noritoshi felt like things were already tense. "Sir," he spoke, gaining the superior's attention.

The man looked surprised. "I wasn't aware you were here, Noritoshi Kamo, Iori Utahime."

"He and the others came with me," Utahime explained with a small bow. "I was going to bring them over for a small event with the Tokyo High children but…" She wore the mask of someone shocked. "T-Things didn't… go that way."

"Hmm," the old man nodded as Satoru smirked a bit. "Yes, all the shikigami that could have arrived on the scene found no one there. No traces, cursed energy residuals, nor sightings."

"Someone destroyed the mountain top and vanished," another spoke. "We gathered you all to find out anything you can imagine."

The sorcerers around murmured some more as Satoru nodded.

"I felt it," he told them as Yaga nodded.

"It'd have been hard not to," the principal of Tokyo Jujutsu High said as the superiors grimaced.

"Yes, it'd have been useful if the energy involved wasn't a pure mess," the Gojou said. "It was pure positive energy," he told the room.

The superiors looked appalled, eyes going to the head-shaking Shoko.

"Nope, I was in the medical bay last night around when it happened. I'm shocked as is by something like positive energy being the culprit," she said, a cigarette soon put into her mouth as she shrugged. "The only individuals who can use positive energy are myself and Satoru but…"

"It's different," another superior grimaced at Satoru's words. "I doubt you wouldn't be able to sense me, come on."

The superiors murmured at that. "The fact remains that an alarming amount of power was witnessed last night and we need both sorcerers who can investigate the matter along with others who can assist in hiding the situation from the common populace."

True, Naruto's power was on full display and had destroyed part of the mountain.

That needed immediate secrecy.

"So, it wasn't a cursed spirit?" Iori asked.

"Not if they speak the truth," another superior said before sighing. "Such power can't just be left unnoticed. The less said about the potential in such an exorbitant amount of positive energy can also not be left unknown. If we can find this individual, we might be able to add another rare user of Reverse Cursed Technique to our ranks. It'd be a good idea to find this person as soon as possible."

Agreements passed around the room, Yaga cupping his chin. 'It'll only be a matter of time,' being honest?

Yaga cared for the blonde boy, Naruto was a joy to be around and he had a good head on his shoulders but he wasn't sure if they shouldn't still inform the higher-ups. Not to betray the boy's trust but because allowing these feelings of interest to fester, not fade, was bound to become a 'bomb'.

He'd know. God, he knew this situation well. Kuroi had been someone he had to ensure never knew how to make cursed puppets for her safety through a Binding Vow that anyone would be able to figure out.

He didn't wish to endanger his wife, his children, nor his students but he couldn't see the future.

Yaga Masamichi didn't know where things would head once Naruto returned with his powers on display, without filter.

Satoru, meanwhile, was already considering the questions that might pop up from his clan's elders.

'I need to make sure I only tell 'em certain things,' they were already not happy with his decision with the Uzumaki Clan. "So, really, what's the plan?"

"..." A superior mulled over the idea. "Right now, all sorcerers with sensory abilities who can assist in these matters will come forward in a pair of hours. All with cloaking Cursed Techniques or ones that can offer help to the reconstruction will follow that same method."

"With that said, has anyone else witnessed the events with a new perspective?" Another elder asked.

Satoru eyed Naobito's silent form for a bit before humming.

"... Then this meeting is adjourned. You know what to do."

Many of the other sorcerers dispersed, Satoru's group simply getting up and moving away to the side like a couple of the other groups.

Naobito's group followed.

"So, you're really going to host this charade until he reveals it himself?" Naobito asked with a raised brow as Naoya looked at the entire group with a discerning eye.

'Naruto-kun caused the destruction,' Naoya felt proud, really he did.

He'd been right about the blonde being strong but the fact he could wield positive energy made this entire situation so fascinating.

All the 'Strong Ones', the men with powerful abilities, Naruto would likely join that group along with Naoya, himself.

He smirked a bit and Megumi raised a brow at him.

'This guy's one of them I need to keep an eye out for,' well, Megumi had always been told he had a good poker face.

It was now shooting on all cylinders.

"Essentially," Satoru smiled. "The thing is, your feelings on the matter are right, it's not something that'll last forever nor come without issues but I think we'll solve those bits by then."

Jinichi stroked his chin. 'Power that could attest even Satoru Gojou, himself,' that's how the wild-haired man saw it.

Positive energy didn't 'attack', it was against its nature… so the fact the blonde had forced this power to destroy in some manner meant he was strong.

Likely, he could do things no other sorcerer could.

Noritoshi considered it all. "I believe we'd need to prepare for his return," he said after a bit. "You all speak about him with focus on his powers… but have you considered what will happen when word of him not being here the same night of these events arrives?"

Utahime's eyes widened. "... He's right," she grimaced. "That'd be suspicious beyond comparison even if it's only a bit. That's more attention than Naruto-kun needs, at present."

"But what would that mean?" Megumi asked. "I mean, what could we do?"

"... We'd need to come up with an 'event' that takes place for him to go on a journey, say, a couple months from now."

"?"

"I see where you're going with this," Satoru said as Megumi shot him a similar confused look. "Essentially, we have to pretend he's here, Megumi. At least, for a time so he doesn't 'look suspicious when he leaves'," the Gojou twitched his fingers the whole way. "We have to act like Naruto will leave on a training journey in a couple months."

"Konbu."

"Yeah, tuna…?"

The whole group blinked before turning their heads and looking down to see a short boy standing there with odd markings around his mark.

Megumi blinked at him.

He had short platinum-blonde hair, lightly-colored skin, and brown eyes that looked up at Satoru curiously. As noted before, he had odd markings around his mouth while wearing a simple dark blue shitagi with white hakama.

"Takana," the boy shot them a thumbs-up.

The group paled as one. "H-Hey, um, you can't say that stuff to anyone," Megumi said quickly and worriedly.

The boy blinked before nodding and pointing to his mouth. "Shake," he nodded.

"... Um."

"Wait, you're the Inumaki brat," Naobito said after calming down and raising a brow. "He's the heir to the Inumaki Clan, Toge Inumaki-boya."

Satoru cupped his chin as he observed the short boy before smirking.

He crouched low. "Nice to meet you, Inumaki-kun!"

~NRK~

~With Naruto and Yuki~

Naruto blinked as he looked around them.

"So, this is where we start?" He asked the Special Grade, face covered by a tribal mask as his tail peeked out the bottom of his cloak. "I expected something… older."

They found themselves in a casino near the border of one of the last wards of Tokyo before they hit the countryside.

All around them, individuals, civilians and sorcerers-alike, walked, chatted, had fun, or played the machines and tables.

Naruto blinked as Yuki grinned. "Duh, things change even if the old bastards in the high schools don't want them, too. This place is full to the brim with shamans I bet you can sense."

Naruto nodded, the two of them walking across the plush carpet of the large space. "So, I guess it'll be like bounty-hunting?" He whispered to her and she nodded.

"When it comes to this side of the world, even guys like us need our own buildings, spaces, businesses, and stuff. It'd be safer and better for the world when we need to meet up in spaces without too many issues, I mean, the schools exist, after all."

They made it to a board near the far back of the casino, the area around the duo lacking in people save for those also looking at this board.

"What's this? A kid?" Came the voice of the shaman beside the two. "I'm guessin' you're his mentor."

"Yep!" Yuki grinned before pouting at the man's shake of the head.

"For your Type, you're not exactly great and that kid's lack of cursed energy is hard to miss. You might want to give up on 'im and just focus on being a 'good' Special Grade."

Naruto rolled his eyes as Yuki huffed, the man taking a note off the board before walking off.

"He's fun," the boy said as the woman shrugged.

"It's life. Now, the reason we're here is because, well, you'll need money, Ruto-kun," she said with a keen eye. "If you're gonna fully perform your pilgrimage, you'll need funds, a bit of a reputation to offset you being so small, and time to rest and train."

Naruto nodded to that. "Thanks for helping me out this far."

"No problem. Now, which of these is suitable for you…"

~NRK~

~Tokyo Jujutsu High~

Megumi summoned his Divine Dogs in the school dojo in his training uniform before he heard a knock.

He blinked before turning his head to see a girl removing her hand from the wall by the door, coming in with a small shy smile that he nodded to.

"Hey, Mimiko-san," he greeted as she grinned.

"Hi, Megumi-kun!" She, Mimiko, responded.

She was a girl around his height with fair skin, brown eyes, and a short head of brown hair, the girl wearing a white tracksuit with brown accents.

"Good afternoon," Megumi greeted once more. "Are you working on your Cursed Technique?"

"I-I'm not doing that," Mimiko lied. "I was wondering if you heard all the news."

The Fushigoro boy nodded.

"It's kinda crazy. I-I mean, a mountain? It just vanished because of positive energy?"

Her brother, Geto, when she'd told him, had laughed and chuckled for a minute total.

When asked 'why?', he'd told her he knew who it was and that she should find out if Naruto Uzumaki was still on the campus.

The fact he'd essentially said that a boy, around her age, could do that made Mimiko nervous.

And then he explained the boy was a Gojou and she'd felt her soul leave her body.

Geto had reassured her, sure he had, and explained that the power within Naruto Uzumaki was likely never going to truly be raised at a human. The boy's flaw was clear.

He was too kind, too nice, to truly want to hurt a human being. It confused her until she learned more about him over the past month.

She'd never met him face-to-face, of course not, but she knew Megumi and the boy did nothing but sing the blonde's praises and efforts of his kindness and helpful nature.

It was a bit shocking how much the boy could flatter a Gojou so easily, wasn't Megumi supposed to be a Zenin? Of course, then he'd explained how their friends viewed things and how it kind of originated from the blonde-in-question.

He sounded like an amazing person and Mimiko had only ever seen him from afar.

"Well, you have to be careful about it," Megumi explained. "There are sorcerers all over and they might think we know something."

'But you do, don't you?' Mimiko thought with not a suspicious stare but one that knew the truth of the matter.

She'd seen it with her shikigami, Megumi's lacking presence for their 'night games' the night before had been obvious.

So, she'd sent a small insignificant spirit and saw it all save for the originator.

And now she knew that it was the blonde Gojou, Megumi, and likely his friend group by proxy, knew where he was.

"I-I get ya," she didn't want that kind of attention regardless. "Wanna train?"

He smiled.

~NRK~

~Jujutsu High Dormitories~

Mai laid on her back on the floor, Maki off somewhere with Kasumi to train.

"..." She blushed at herself, looking downright embarrassed and annoying. 'I-It hasn't even been a day!' And yet Mai felt like she'd not seen Naruto in forever. "Dammit."

She sat up and looked down at her shikigami talisman.

Mai flapped it out and released Inazuma, the female oni-

"Huh?" Mai blinked in confusion as she stared at her shikigami. "... D-Did you get bigger?"

The ogre spirit smiled. "Of course," she spoke with a smile.

Inazuma spoke?!

Mai's jaw dropped.

Where before, the shikigami had been what had to be almost a feet shorter than Mai, she wasn't now and could look Mai in the eyes.

With her white skin, yellow eyes, and red facial paint, her long curtain of white hair with black lightning marks made her seem very demon-like, almost scarily so.

She still wore her kimono but, now that she was focusing on it, it'd grown a bit shorter, hadn't it? Now only reaching the spirit's upper-shin instead of coming down to her clawed feet.

What the hell had happened?!

"You're confused, milady," Mai blushed at that as the spirit chuckled. "Hmm," the kind of squeaky voice of the shikigami made this a bit easier to deal with but Mai was still utterly baffled.

"Y-Yeah, what… How did this happen? I-I thought only Naruto got special shikigami!" Mai said in disbelief as her shikigami smiled. "Right?"

"That is true, my creator's blood is a bit different," Inazuma explained. "But that doesn't mean he could have gifted you some of it," the spirit grinned.

Mai processed her words for two seconds before burning the brightest red possible.

"!?"

"Yep," now that she listened more, was that a country accent?!

Naruto, what the hell?!

"S-So, he used some of his blood and…"

"And your own," Inazuma smirked at Mai's completely embarrassed expression. "Our creator's blood makes his creations a bit more life-like, after all, his powers are special as you know."

"..." That was true, wasn't it? "So, that 'life element' stuff in his positive energy… gave you guys the power to grow up?"

"Essentially," the female oni said. "It's a bit more than that, as you know, but it's the basics. Speaking, bleeding, and the like are things we've gained so far from what happened to Sage…" Mai raised a brow at the spirit's look of discomfort. "... We can speak, if you didn't know, through our tags," Mai's eyes widened as Inazuma smiled. "Yes, we can communicate for you if that's what you desire."

Mai blushed again but looked more comfortable while grinning.

"Well, um, does Sage know what he's doing right now?"

"Our Creator is currently doing small bounties and tasks for those on our side. Yuki Tsukumo seems to only be getting him set-up so he can sustain himself."

Mai considered that with a small hum, the two 'girls' sitting in front of one another. "... Inazuma-chan-"

"I can tell, you know," the spirit whispered as Mai bit her lip. "Milady, whatever you desire to do, I will stand alongside you the entire way. It's not you alone who will face your trials, myself, Milady Maki, my Creator, and more will help you where we can. Yet, in the end, it is your choice."

Mai fiddled with her fingers. "... I'm glad dad was beat a-and I know him, a bit," she muttered. "He's all about honor, for the worst, but he's honorable and he'll probably just leave us alone from now… but my family is a problem. I don't want to be a sorcerer, it'd be nothing but bad news but Maki's gonna be one no matter what. Naruto-kun is going to be one, Megumi, Momo, Miwa, all of them. Tsumiki's the only one I know who won't be one but she was mostly normal in the first place."

Inazuma nodded.

"So, I don't… know," Mai admitted. "Fighting is scary b-but my friends would probably be there and if they get hurt and I could do something… I-I don't know!"

The spirit tilted her head in thought. "... Then, why don't we ask someone?"

~NRK~

Utahime wore a sad smile as she and Mai sat by a familiar pond.

The girl and her odd shikigami explained the situation, Mai giving a more 'thorough' one than Utahime was happy with.

Because it painted an image of a hidden truth most likely knew about, already, about the Zenin Clan.

Utahime wished she had the power to change it, truly she did, but she didn't. Her influence was merely that of a teacher.

She couldn't help Mai nor Maki out of their home… possibly.

'He might be able to do it,' but that'd be selfish of her, Iori wasn't a fool.

She knew Satoru likely had the political weight to throw around in this situation, possibly even Naruto had the blonde been here and just allowed the truth to run amok.

But she wasn't those two and Mai was telling her all of this in confidence.

"I don't know what to do," Mai reiterated and the woman's heart throbbed painfully.

She didn't have a lot to say to that, there wasn't much she could do, was there?

"..." She took a deep breath before tightening her resolve. "Mai-chan," the girl looked up at her. "There's… there are a few possibilities, maybe," Iori began slowly as the girl swallowed before nodding.

"They're probably not great, huh?"

She was perceptive or likely just aware of how their world ran.

Most likely the latter. "Most definitely not, either way you go, you'd be making an enemy of your clan even if Naobito-sama was lenient about this but there's a…" An idea struck her and Utahime froze.

"U-Utahime-sensei?" Mai blinked as Inazuma tilted her head. "What is it? Is it bad?"

"T-There's an idea… maybe," Iori winced. "The rules of our world, the type of person Naobito-sama is, and your wants can coincide, Mai-chan. They can but you'd likely be taking risks you can't take back."

Mai's eyes widened. 'Risks?' When she considered the woman's words, it made Mai's stomach grow cold.

Something Naobito, her wants, and the 'rules of their world' could…?!

"A-A Binding Vow?"

"..." Utahime bit her lip for a bit before nodding. "T-That's if you wish to keep this to yourself, Mai-chan. There are other ways you can go about this."

Were there? Mai wasn't sure about 'other ways' outside of two.

One, deny her heritage, perhaps, and become an enemy of her clan.

Two, simply give up on ever entering the battling lifestyle her friends did and become a 'Woman'.

The two paths weren't equal, not even close. Mai didn't want to fight. Mai Zenin was fine with being a 'Woman'.

Some might say it was because of her upbringing, Mai would say otherwise.

She'd done it, naively in her mind, she'd tried fighting. Her sister was a fighter, her best male friend/crush was a fighter, and even her very-valuable-to-their-elders cousin was a fighter.

They were all amazing people who chose to fight for the things they wished to protect or be.

Megumi wanted to keep his sister safe, Mai could never dislike a dream like that.

Maki wanted to be a great sorcerer… Mai didn't hate her for it, she couldn't, Maki wanted to truly delve into their world's system.

Why their clan couldn't see it would bother Mai for the rest of her life, she's sure.

And Naruto, where to even begin with him?

The boy of her affections was downright the worst off, at least in the beginning compared to the other two. Naruto had been born a cousin to the most amazing sorcerer in the world. He'd not had his clan's notable hair or powers before all of this, he'd been shamed by them by his own words and likely hated by them.

Naruto didn't have the strength Maki had nor the 'Treasure' his clan wanted… but he'd fought.

He'd bled, he learned, he'd lost, and he tried.

And she couldn't imagine her friend's power being anything else, a power of life, of helping people. The power to become something beyond Special Grade.

Naruto was friendly, wise, strong, helpful, tough, creative, and possibly the kindest person that Mai had ever known or met.

And he was one of the types he chose to fight. Not just because he wanted to be great like his cousin, not just to help them.

He wanted to be great to change this rotten system of theirs and would have gone on to do so whether he had crazy positive energy or not.

Mai didn't want to be a fighter, a protector as much it pained her to admit it, nor a great person.

She just wanted to be happy.

And that happiness was at odds with her life and family.

"I don't want to fight anyone," Mai admitted as Iori nodded. "I-I just want to be happy so why can't that be simple?"

Iori understood her well enough, she'd spoken with Mai on more than a couple occasions.

The girl seemed happy with the 'Woman life' if you will. The way the girl viewed it could be better, seeing it as being at the 'bottom', but Mai also saw value in it despite that outlook.

Still, it was obvious to the sorceress that the girl, even if she didn't know it, wouldn't be completely happy.

She'd be content but would eventually end up being self-hating.

'But is there a happy medium?' Utahime didn't know.

In about four to five years, there'd be a big event that'd likely involve fighting on Halloween.

It'd be an unprecedented battle, most likely, that'd include fights that might end up with Naruto at their epicenter.

Mai wouldn't be happy with that, she clearly liked the boy and likely would never be happy with him being hurt and her having no ability to help… Ah.

"Mai-chan," the girl perked up at the teacher's words. "Life isn't simple, it's complex and full of all sorts of ups and downs that we can't truly explain or deal with so we do what we can," Iori told her with a serious look Mai blinked at while Inazuma hummed.

"You've an idea, sensei?" The spirit asked.

"Yes… it's likely going to include some deception, Mai-chan, possibly a good bit of embarrassment for you, too," the woman smiled apologetically as the girl paled and blushed.

"W-What do you mean?"

~NRK~

~Zenin Estate~

Naobito laughed as Mai's face burned the brightest red possible.

'Sensei, this was a horrible idea!' Mai wanted to bury herself, this was so embarrassing! 'I-I just said-'

"Hmm," Naoya cupped his chin with a tilt of the head. "Well, understanding and helping a husband-to-be wouldn't be the worst path for a woman," he frowned. "Still, it'll likely only be when Naruto-kun is there. There's a chance he might come back late so you'll need to keep your duties as a main priority."

Mai couldn't believe this was even possibly working.

There was no fucking way they believed this shit, was there?

Naobito probably didn't, the man's eyes telling her he knew this was mostly bullshit… but he didn't say anything in rejection.

So, here she was, making a Binding Vow that she'd perform her womanly duties for Naruto Uzumaki-

"You know, Mai," Naoya cupped his chin as his father snorted, shooting the girl a pitying look she didn't understand- "It'd be good for you to make sure you focus, perhaps, by the time of your… possibly your third year of schooling," he nodded. "You should make sure you gain a child to focus by that time."

His words echoed in Mai's mind time and time again.

Have a child.

Have a child during school.

HAVE A CHILD BEFORE SHE WAS EIGHTEEN WITH NARUTO?!

The girl's entire form turned bright red.

T-This hadn't been part of the plan!

~NRK~

Utahime's jaw dropped as her eyebrow twitched and her face colored at Mai's look of mortification.

"Y-You made a B-Binding Vow with that on the line…" The woman wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

She'd not just coerced a girl into teenage motherhood, had she?!

"..." Mai fidgeted as Inazuma tilted her head. "... W-Wait, don't-"

"I could look after her, milady, I'm sure that having your shikigami focus on minding your children would look more convincing," Inazuma said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Mai paled as Utahime's face contorted in disbelief.

'I'm completely out of my element,' this went beyond teaching a child!

She'd just gotten a built-in babysitter!

Mai swallowed, red coloring in her pale complexion. "I-I'll be in your care?" This was so ridiculous!

Damn Naoya and his fucking pretty boy face!

"... S-Still, this will likely… um," Iori looked embarrassed and guilty. "You're now in the Kyoto High curriculum? I guess since Naruto-kun was going there, they were thorough… in a way, that's convenient?" God, this was horrifying.

She wasn't prepared for this.

Mai nodded along with Inazuma. "... W-What should I do now?" She didn't know where this was to go.

She'd essentially promised her leaders she'd be Naruto's wife and h-have a kid by the time she was seventeen. She'd at least be around her friends all throughout their school years but this made the situation odd!

"Remind me, Mai-chan, what was the wording for your Binding Vow?"

Mai blushed, fiddling with her fingers. "I-I said it like this: My cursed energy would only continue after the age of seventeen if I had a child with N-Naruto Uzumaki."

The wording was as terrifying as it was embarrassing.

"I'll continue my life as his shadow," Mai continued. "As a woman who supports him as best I can."

That was a very specific one.

Utahime winced at the embarrassed girl before nodding. "I… This is my fault, I know what you'll say," she said before stopping the girl's rebuttal with a smile and raised hand. "You wanted an answer I gave, I do hold some responsibility in this, Mai-chan."

Mai blushed again before nodding. "... S-So…" She began, skin bright red. "I-I'm supposed to be a mom w-when I'm seventeen?"

Iori blushed at that. "W-Well… Yes," she said in a small voice. "B-But you're also to be a sorceress!" She said quickly. "So, for now, l-let's focus on that, alright?"

Mai nodded rapidly. "Still, sensei, you're going to return to Kyoto eventually… what about then?"

Utahime blinked at that, looking nervous. 'She's right… I'd have to find a way to train her at that point,' how could she do this?

Utahime was sure she could do this virtually, maybe? Maybe over Skype? But then she'd like to be more hands-on for Mai.

… And, well, there was another thing that Utahime wanted to be there for.

Considering the girl's Binding Vow, she feared that Mai might need better training than she could offer.

To be Naruto's 'shadow' could come with many different interpretations. What would the Vow bind her into doing? Would she need to be a training nut? Always be happy? Sad? Only be happy when he was around? The more she considered it, the worst it sounded.

With the worst thing that she could imagine being… that Mai would be forced to become as powerful as Naruto could be. Not to say she didn't believe in the girl's abilities but that wasn't some small goal.

Mai wasn't close to Naruto's level right now and the training the blonde had done up to this point was beyond her currently, no?

So, how-

"I think I should step out now," came a feminine voice that had the 'three females' freezing before they turned as one to see Mei Mei coming into view with a smile. "Hi~"

"Y-You," Mai began to burn up as Mei Mei nodded.

"Yep, heard everything, mother-to-be."

Mai wanted to die right then and there.

Mei Mei grinned knowingly.

"Well, we can talk about that later, I'm here to offer my services," the Grade 1 woman said as Iori pouted a bit. "Oh, come now, Iori, it's no time for pouting. I can help Mai-chan while you focus on your current students. It'll be fine."

Utahime folded her hands in her lap before slowly nodding. "Well… She has a point, Mai-chan," the teacher said as Mai looked nervous. "And don't be fooled, Mei Mei's been a Grade 1 since she was nineteen," Mai looked alarmed, head snapping to the grinning pale-blue-haired woman. "She might know a way for you to truly catch up to Naruto, she's actually really impressive when it comes to sudden progression."

"R-Really? How?" Mai asked.

"Hmm… you don't believe in your Cursed Technique, right, Mai-chan?" Mei Mei asked and the girl hesitated before nodding. "You don't see the use of it."

"... I don't," she never had.

Even with their years together, Naruto couldn't really convince her to do more than make weapons she could use for long periods of training on occasion.

She couldn't see the point of this Technique, especially knowing now that it wasn't meant to be used by a normal sorcerer.

"You'll learn with me, two things," Mei Mei began, raising two fingers before tucking in one. "One, the limits of the human body when it comes to cursed energy reinforcement and just physical limits," Mai paled.

Then Mei Mei's second finger came up. "And, two, you're going to master your Cursed Technique."

"Huh?!"

~NRK~

~A Day Later : Evening~

Naruto blinked as he and Sage sat inside of a tent within the forests of Nagano, the boy and his shikigami speaking about this 'new skill' his talismans had.

"Wait, hold on, when?!" Naruto asked in disbelief as the oni spirit chuckled.

"For a while, now, boss," Sage said before blushing a bit. "A-And Ina-chan tells me that Mai is learning under Mei Mei-nee-chan."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Wait, what? I thought… So, she's going to be a sorcerer?" Naruto looked so confused.

His shikigami rubbed the back of his head. "She didn't tell me why but Ina-chan just said that Mai wanted to be happy and this is supposed to lead there."

The blonde boy considered his words before nodding with a grin.

"Well, tell her I said she'll do great. Despite not wanting to, Mai's actually pretty good at cursed energy reinforcement, I'm sure Mei Mei-nee will be good for her."

Sage grinned.

~NRK~

~A Day Later~

Mai nodded to her sister and the other kids around their age.

"Mai-chan!" Momo cried tears of pride as Mai sweatdropped.

'I-I don't think I can ever tell her why I'm doing this,' there'd be a high chance Momo might actually explode. "Y-Yeah, just… I'll be joining Kyoto High when I'm fifteen," she told them, Maki shooting her a smirk that she blushed at. "J-Just because!"

"Right," her sister said as Megumi nodded.

"Well, I hope we can all have good Goodwill Events together," he said. "Still, n-now aniki and Mai-nee are going to Kyoto," Megumi looked nervous as Maki grinned. "I hope we can get someone really strong to face them."

~NRK~

Naruto stared at the boy in front of him, the one with a sort of tired look in his eyes that had been replaced by a bit of hope.

"Y-You can exorcize Rika?" He asked Naruto who shot him a small smile.

The boy was a bit taller than the blonde was with fair skin, droopy-looking black eyes, and a black hair that came down to his cheeks.

Wearing a white shirt, black shorts, and brown boots, the similar-aged boy looked nervous all of a sudden.

"I don't… R-Rika's not a bad person, I-I don't think so," he said quickly as Naruto blinked. "But… she's always so… R-Rika's not nice to people who aren't nice to me."

"... I get it," Naruto smiled as the boy blinked. "You might not know this, dude, but I can tell 'Rika' likes you a whole lot," the boy blinked again.

"H-Huh?"

"It might seem weird but, yeah, she's attached to you… and the vice-versa is true, too. You cared a lot for her and Rika responded… isn't that right?"

Naruto looked down as he said this, the boy with him doing the same before paling as a black circle rested by itself in between their feet.

"This is why I chose a forest, Rika, you can come out, now."

The shadow expanded to surround the two boys before two large arms popped out to slam at their sides.

Leave… Yuta… Alone

The words sprouted at the blonde as a large white and black spirit settled over Yuta, the tired-looking boy.

"R-Rika! Stop!" The boy shouted.

Rika was a large cursed spirit with a humanoid upper half and completely black 'tail' end.

She had long, thin, but powerful-looking arms that ended in long slim feminine fingers that had long nails. With a rib-like torso, her shoulders, head, and 'hair' were bigger than most of her body.

Her face was long, narrow, and half-composed of a long mouth with sharp teeth, the other half looking like a fleshy-looking mask that allowed tendrils of white with black speckled 'hair' to flow out.

All in all, she looked as terrifying as her cursed energy was LARGE.

"Geez," Naruto looked up at the spirit that came down before cupping his chin.

"Leave Yuta alone!" She shouted at him, power and wind throwing the blonde boy's hair back as Yuta fidgeted.

"R-Rika!" Yuta called.

"He's bothering you! You're so nervous!"

"Well, duh, I'm a guy he never met saying I could help," Naruto said with crossed arms as Rika looked back at him again. "He doesn't know me and I just sprung out of nowhere, why do you think he's nervous?"

The spirit looked taken aback, releasing the blonde's chin before observing him randomly.

Yuta, meanwhile, looked… shocked and relieved?

Huh?

"You're not… scared of Rika?" Yuta asked, looking nervously hopeful.

"I mean, no mistake, she's kinda terrifying," Naruto admitted. "But I can get over it. I've seen some crazy stuff, dude, trust me, I'm not that scared of ol' Rika, here," the blonde said with a grin as he pat the spirit's hand.

Rika rescinded as if burned, holding the limb as she shot him a 'look'.

No, don't ask how he knew, he just knew she looked at him like he was weird.

Just another day, ya know?

"... W-Weirdo! Yuta, he's a weirdo! We can't be near him!" Rika squealed as Yuta stared at her in disbelief for a reason other than terror for once.

"... What?"

~NRK~

~Tokyo Jujutsu High~

Mai gasped as she barely got back onto her feet, Mei Mei cupping her chin with interest.

With the two in matching white tank tops and black shorts, they'd been training in ways that made Mai want to hurl.

"You got your fiance's words working for you," Mai burned up as the older female chuckled. "He's right in that your Reinforcement is pretty powerful. Your cursed energy isn't all that great but your control is pretty impressive. That's another aspect you can work on, Mai-chan," Mei Mei said before walking towards the girl who flinched before stepping back. "Now, come on, time for you to attack."

Mai swallowed before jumping back and slowly circling the woman.

'I need to get stronger,' if only to look like she was trying to do what she'd made a Vow to do. 'I don't know if this will help.'

Would learning under this sorceress who'd implied they were similar work out? Did she want it, too?

Mai never thought about this kind of stuff, obviously, but if she became a Sorcerer of a Grade higher than 3, would she be happy with that? She didn't know.

All she knew was that her crush wanted to be Special Grade and more… and she wanted to, at the very least, somewhat stand alongside him.

Would Grade 1 really be as hard as him being the other? Probably.

But she chose to do this so…

The girl reached the patient Mei Mei's back before lunging at her.

The sorceress leaned around to Mai's back and the tackle missed before the Zenin kicked back while swinging out with an open hand.

Mei Mei caught it before grinning as the girl grabbed her forearm and kicked out at her head.

She missed as the woman's palm found her stomach before Mai grit her teeth and latched on.

The girl's hands burned with blue energy before Mai swung out at the woman's face-

"Oof!" She hit the ground with a groan as Mei Mei smiled.

"You've got motivation, Mai-chan," she kneeled down. "You can get stronger for your own dreams and future, you've got the one thing you need to do it."

Dreams? Future? To be strong?

None of that really mattered to Mai.

She just wanted to be happy and being somewhat strong was apparently necessary.

~NRK~

~Naruto, Yuta, and Rika~

Another tree fell as Naruto landed on Rika's outstretched limb.

"Haa!"

The spirit flinched back from a palm strike that didn't land, the force behind it slamming into her.

"!" Rika growled before roaring at the boy, throwing him back with a grin.

"Come on, Rika! Show me what you've got!" Naruto shouted back as the curse lunged at him at insane speeds. 'I can barely keep up!'

His staff found itself in his hands, expanding before helping him block Rika's punch… Well, 'block' was relative.

Naruto was sent flying through a series of trees before recovering into a tumble with a bit of a hiss.

"N-Naruto-kun!" Yuta called out with a gasp, running after the two. "R-Rika-!"

"I-I'm fine!" Naruto called back as he got up with a gasp, form glowing white as his hair glowed a yellow color. "I'm on a journey to become strong, Yuta, fighting Rika's not out of my wheelhouse."

The cursed boy looked nervous as Rika tilted her head at Naruto.

"You…" She pointed at him, the blonde's monkey tail confusing her greatly. "... Are you a monkey?"

"R-Rika-chan, that's rude!" Yuta reprimanded and she gasped.

"I-I'm sorry! Don't hate me!" She cried, hugging Yuta tenderly and worriedly.

The tired-looking boy considered her more now than he ever had before meeting Naruto.

'This is so weird,' why? She knew better, right?

This was Rika… right? So, why did she seem so worried about him leaving her? Was it because she'd cursed him?

"Naruto? Is exorcizing curses really painful for them?"

"... I'm not gonna say it's not violent, most of the time," Naruto began as he walked over, the sound of hissing reaching Yuta's ears and gaining his attention. "Don't worry about that, I'm just healing. Back to your question… Well, I don't have the actual answer for that but most curses are fighting sorcerers, Yuta, and that's gonna hurt both sides."

Yuta looked nervous at that, trembling hands reaching out to touch the sides of Rika's face. "..."

"... And, well, I'm different from other guys like me," Naruto continued, confusing the two.

He explained his situation and the power he could use.

"I'm training to get better at using it, finding a special tree for my shikigami, and going back in time to join the Jujutsu school with some of my friends," the blonde clenched his fist, tail curling around to the front of his shin. "Positive Energy is the direct opposite of cursed energy that Rika is composed of and most people produce. I could probably exorcize her a lot less violently by flooding her with the stuff. I don't want to actually hurt you, Rika-chan," Naruto grinned. "I want to help you and Yuta, I'm just not strong enough. You're crazy strong."

"..." Rika looked pensive while Yuta's head looked down.

"Is there another way? A way where we can do it painlessly?" The brunette asked, looking at the surprised Rika with a miserable look. "I-I don't want to hurt Rika-chan, I-I just want her to move on."

"Yuta…"

"You should be happy in heaven! N-Not down here with droopy me."

"Hehe, droopy," Naruto snickered as Yuta pouted. "... Ya know, actually," he considered with a smile. "Yuta, maybe you two can actually learn to work together?"

"Huh?"

"Well… I knew somes guys, who could tame cursed spirits and use them to fight alongside," Naruto continued with a somber smile. "One of 'em's not with us anymore but he showed me that you can work alongside a cursed spirit. His curse was super weak but Rika-chan's clearly smart enough to understand words, you guys could make a Binding Vow with one another to work together, to talk, to fight, and to help people. Not everyone is built for fighting, I know that, but maybe just exorcizing Rika isn't the only way."

Yuta's eyes shined. "I… I…" The boy considered the idea.

"It's just an idea, dude, promise. I don't want to force either of you to fight if you don't want to," Naruto shot Rika a look. "Rika-chan, don't take this the wrong way but attacking people isn't going to help Yuta," she flinched. "You love him, that's fine but you can't just attack everybody. Yuta needs more people in his life, you're an important part of it but a person's connections are just that, connections."

"Y-Yuta will leave me!" She shouted, voice trembling and not carrying force like it usually did. "I-I'll be alone."

"... No, you won't," Yuta said, looking at her. "I… I-I should have saved you."

Rika flinched.

"I-If I'd been paying attention, y-you might not have…"

She hugged him tightly, the sobbing boy's cries igniting her own.

~NRK~

~A Day Later : Suguru Geto~

Suguru blinked at the news Mimiko had given him.

"Mai Zenin's going to be a sorcerer?" He blinked from within a room. "I… Did you ever find out why?"

-No, we're not really friends but she seemed determined about it- Mimiko explained. -I guess she just chose to?-

That didn't seem right, despite their efforts, Mai always seemed fine with being like a worthless non-sorcerer. Something had to have happened… Ah.

'Was it because of that fight with her father?' Did that ignite her desire to fight and help? 'Perhaps Naruto gave her the motivation to want to be greater,' it'd be good for her.

The world needed less 'non-sorcerers' and more people like himself.

"Alright, just continue your efforts and studies, Mimiko-chan."

-Alright, bro, bye-

~NRK~

~Half a Year Later : March : 2 ½ Years Until Return~

~Streets of Harajuku~

Mai swallowed nervously as Mei Mei nodded.

Wearing a sleeveless black turtleneck, black hakama, and a pair of dark blue boots, Mai stood next to her mentor, the woman dressed as she'd always been for missions.

Though, she did say she'd be changing it up soon. "M-Mei-sensei? Are you sure about this?" Mai asked.

They were standing in front of a giant broken down school, a mission to defeat a Grade 3 Curse Spirit being the reason they were there.

The reason she was there, because her mentor had declared she'd be doing this one under her supervision, a black crow flying down to land on the girl's shoulder.

"Yep, you've been training well these past couple of months, Mai-chan~ Now's the time to use that training," Mei Mei smiled, hip-length long hair shifting before she messed with it. "Just training won't mean anything, you need to use it and experience the life of a sorceress to truly understand the efforts you'll be going through at my level."

"B-But usually those lower than Grade 1 do this in teams!"

"True but that won't help you," Mei Mei explained with a small smile. "You need to fight for yourself, too, Mai-chan. You can't just fight to be alongside your friends."

"You need a personal reason to fight."

~NRK~

Entering the school with a nervous sweat, Mai already felt her bones shaking.

'I-I'm here to exorcize a curse,' she told herself, walking into the silent halls.

Each of her steps echoed out and rattled her rib cage, each small insignificant sound encroached on her sanity.

And every one of her breaths made the girl feel like she was louder than usual.

'H-How in the world do people deal with this alone?!' Mai wanted to scream already and she'd only just started. "This is different from fighting Megumi's shikigami."

"Of course it is," came the crow's words, startling Mai before she held her rapidly beating chest in shock.

"S-Stop doing that!"

"Why? I'm watching you."

~NRK~

Mei Mei chuckled from atop the building, eyes closed.

"I did say you're under supervision, you know."

~NRK~

Mai pouted as the crow cackled.

"Mean," she mumbled as they continued on. "..." Mai blinked at a feel to her right. "H-Huh?" She looked up.

Science Lab.

"... I-I can't believe it's this room," Mai wheezed as the crow hummed.

"To be fair, it'd make the most sense. Most hot spots in schools or abandoned buildings are either the cellar, occult club, occult places, sciency areas, labs, and so on. These are the areas with the most 'fear' if you will," the bird said.

It made sense, negative emotions bred cursed energy which bred cursed spirits.

It'd have been surprising for it to not be in one of the hot spots.

She took a deep breath before grasping the sliding door handle.

Mai threw it open, eyes snapping around the ro-

She froze as Mei Mei hummed.

The assortment of numerous eyes on a sickly-green fleshy cursed spirit had her choking.

"Hmm, that's a pretty small Grade 3," the crow uttered.

Then, all its eyes snapped to Mai who flinched.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

She ran down the hallway as fast as she could, the sound of thumping behind her causing the Zenin to panic.

"Get away from me, you disgusting freak!" Mai shouted in terror as she slid around a corner.

A trail of cursed energy licked off her heels before she was shooting down another hallway.

~NRK~

"Hmm, her control's really the best thing about her," Mei Mei uttered on the roof.

Really, that bit of Naruto's praise always rang true for Mai.

The girl's physique was getting better and wasn't even that bad before Mei Mei had begun training her but that had been all she had going for her.

Her Innate Technique needed work.

Her level of cursed energy had been average at best.

And her list of actual skills was basically zilch outside of Reinforcement and one shikigami but those skills alone gave Mai more than one might know.

Inazuma was a special case, though, so the girl's Reinforcement was her best skill.

The fact Mai could use it so well was one thing but the fact she understood it better than that was the best part.

---

Mai hid inside of a classroom, the sound of the curse passing her by getting a sigh of relief out of her.

"Mai-chan, now is your time to attack," the crow uttered as the skill shivered. "It's scary, I'm sure, I was the same way when I first fought a cursed spirit… but you'll get over it. Right now, you need to gain that courage and become strong."

Become strong? Mai hated the phrase.

"Mmm," she moaned, slowly getting up and removing something from within her top.

A tag, a talisman.

Not Inazuma's Talisman but one for something else.

She sent cursed energy into the tool. 'Thank you, Minato-san,' Mai thought gratefully as she held the weapon in her hand.

It was something the man had begun to teach her ever since she began to learn under him via Mei Mei's recommendation.

A Tool Talisman, something the man had created with her so she could always have an array of different weapons to keep on her person.

So, with some cursed energy, she now had a gun in her hand. A Smythson Revolver that she'd been using for the past half a year.

An already-loaded tool… with her cursed energy bullets.

It'd been an idea she'd had to make use of her defective Cursed Technique. Now? She had methods.

And nearly a 100 bullets.

She slipped out of cover with a skirt of cursed energy, sounds dampened before she took aim.

Mai flinched as the creature perked up before she took her shot.

The bullet punched through the cursed spirit with ease, the power within it already enough to make a hole the size of Mai's torso.

"Haa… I-I did it," she said to Mei Mei who hummed.

"You did, I won't take that from you. You're truly learning to utilize your Cursed Technique, good work," the woman praised through her crow, Mai grinning proudly.

~NRK~

"Still," Mei Mei said to herself, not allowing her crow to speak. "She's comfortable at that range."

Mai's ingenuity was something to be applauded but the girl wasn't comfortable with combat at all. Not the kind outside of spars.

The problem would arise that Mai wouldn't know what to do when she was up close and that'd be tedious for her… hmmm.

'She needs to be put into a situation where she can't use long-range so easily,' it'd take time but Mei Mei had a few ideas on how to do this.

~NRK~

~Naruto & Yuta~

He slept next to Yuta, back near the boy's home and resting in a tent in his parents' yard.

"So, how's it been since last time?" Naruto asked him with a smile, the normally tired-looking boy looking a lot better since last time. "Rika-chan gaining a bit of control?"

"Y-Yeah," Yuta smiled. "We don't know how to fight together, though. She's so big and strong while I can't really use cursed energy," the boy said, raising his hand.

It was slowly covered in a 'small burn' of purplish-pink cursed energy, the color surprising the blonde until he realized what it meant.

"Oh, Rika-chan's cursed energy is your cursed energy. She basically changed its color for you."

"Wait, I thought it was different for everyone."

"Nope, the same."

"Whoa."

~NRK~

~Morning After~

Yuta gasped a bit before jumping to another branch again, Naruto ahead of him on another.

"Just take your time, you need to get used to the cursed energy flowing through your body," the monkey boy smiled as Yuta landed on his branch. "Good, your control's alright, Yuta, you just gotta get good at it."

"R-Right," Yuta said with a tilt of the head. "Naruto-kun, I'm confused, is your tail part of your C-Cursed Technique?"

"Blessed Technique," Naruto corrected. "And, well, yes and no? The thing is, it's an after-effect of me gaining my positive energy. The 'life' part of it just sprouted the animal we're most related to for some reason," he shrugged as the other teen nodded.

"Well, will other people have those kinds of things?"

"... Only one I know of who was also affected by my energy. Other than that? Not really, I don't think so. Now, come on, let's see how your Reinforcement is."

He jumped down first before looking up at the nervous Yuta.

"P-Pheew," the boy let out a breath before jumping down.

He landed on his feet in a crouch, eyes clenched, before Naruto's chuckling gained his attention.

"H-Huh?" He blushed before looking down, surprised. "T-That didn't hurt at all," Yuta realized as Naruto nodded.

"You've got an insane amount of cursed energy between you and Rika. I think, for now, you need to try and focus on your own," it was kind of like with him and Kurama.

If Yuta was to work with Rika, he needed to know his own energy's limits before trying to use hers.

"O-Okay!"

"Alright, good, now here," Naruto passed the other boy a long wooden branch, a thick one he'd picked up from off the floor.

Taking it, Yuta considered the object. "So, we're reinforcing these?"

"Yep," Naruto answered as he held one of his own. "Cursed energy reinforcement is a good skill to have if you use a weapon, ya know?" He explained as he raised his weapon.

Yuta watched as it glowed with a soft white light, the limb's form flourishing with small branches and leaves.

"Whoa…" He said in awe as Naruto chuckled a bit.

"The thing with me is that I need better control of my powers, it shouldn't be sprouting like this. For you, when you do it, the weapon shouldn't glow like that but it'll have cursed energy in it."

Yuta blinked before holding his hand up to his raised branch.

"L-Like this?"

Naruto watched as the boy's cursed energy flowed out from his body before covering the thick stick slowly but surely.

It spasmed, flickered, and cracked a bit but it was working.

When Yuta finished, he blushed at the harmed wood.

"You're not bad at it."

~NRK~

~A Week Later~

Naruto snuck around Tokyo's countryside.

"Hmm, what's it looking like, Sage?" Naruto asked his shikigami as they walked down a tunnel.

"I can kinda feel it," Sage said. "Though, this might be another 'root'."

They'd been finding small roots of the Vak Vak Tree over the past half a year.

It was always deep underground and, depending on how close they were to it, it'd decide the size.

Traveling an abandoned miner's tunnel, Naruto hummed as he spread out his senses.

"... There's a couple cursed spirits down here, mostly Grade 3s," he said as his eyes narrowed. "And a Grade 2."

"It shouldn't be too bad then."

They kept going for a bit, jogging down pathways before Naruto summoned Fujin to give them a good amount of clean air.

By the time they made it halfway down, they found the Grade 2.

It was a large mantis-like cursed spirit, one with a disfigured human face and bulging pincers that looked diseased and black.

Naruto was already walking past his shikigami with a hand raised at his side and brimming with a white light.

The curse spirit locked eyes on him with a warbling moan that announced its attack.

Naruto was already above it before bringing his hand down.

"Almighty Chop!"

The chopping hand sliced through the curse like a hot knife through butter, the boy landing behind the slowly glowing white spirit.

Its form dissolved into motes of light before leaving behind a mantis.

A little glowing white mantis that hopped off before burrowing into the wall and leaving his sight.

"That's gonna be weird to use on tough spirits," Naruto said with a sweatdrop.

As it turned out, his positive energy did exorcize curses oddly.

It basically purified it through his life element and left behind a purified spirit from some kinda run-off from the cursed spirit. He'd have called them 'blessed' spirits but they never had enough power after the cleansing.

"Alright, let's go," he said to Sage and Fujin, his spirits nodding.

And so they were off once more, the three delving deeper into the mine before finding an end to it.

Sage dug for them like he always did, Naruto allowing pulses of positive energy to fill the space every time he made a good bit of headway.

The ground would refresh and strengthen, the nature in it becoming stronger and more stable, allowing them to not worry about cave-ins and stuff.

By the time another hour passed, they broke out into a large cavern that shined with unnatural light from above.

"Whoa," Sage uttered as Fujin neighed with a shake of his mane, the kirin looking around while snorting. "Boss? What do ya think?"

"It looks like another supernatural 'pocket'... and probably," Naruto wasn't fully sure but he had a feeling. "We're getting closer to the Vak Vak Tree," he said as they made it to the center of the unnatural, natural, cavern where the light shined down on them.

Their forms glowed and they 'saw' more pathways, lines of roots and powerful branches that led far off into the distance.

It was more clear this time compared to the other times they did this.

Naruto grinned. "We're getting there, alright."

~NRK~

~Christmas Time : Under 2 Years Until Return~

~Harajuku~

Mai gasped as she ran around, looking for him.

Wearing a green kimono with a black & gold obi, a fluffy black mantle, and some sandals, her eyes looked every which way for him.

Her friend, her crush, her reason for doing as much training as she was doing!

Narut-!

"Whoa, there!" Came a voice as she was held close by a familiar warm boy, her eyes widening before her arms wrapped around him in 'repentance'. "I guess we haven't seen each other in a while, huh?"

When she was finished making sure he was real, Mai only allowed the blonde to put her down, their arms on one another's. "D-Duh!" She grinned as he chuckled.

Now being thirteen-years old, Mai knew Naruto wasn't going to be away for much longer but it felt like it'd be a 'forever later' after this day.

He hadn't changed much, now only a bit taller, maybe an inch likely to his chagrin, and sporting a new scar on his palms she could feel, he hadn't changed.

In a pair of black 'ninja sandals', taped-up shins, black pants, and a normal orange hoodie over his torso, the blonde chuckled at her, his grin warming her heart and reminding her of just how big of a change he had on her.

She hugged him again.

---

"Sup," Naruto looked at the others, almost everyone he knew, with a grin.

"NARUTO!?" Their collective shout echoed in the forest before he was mobbed.

"My baby's grown up so much since he's left," Kushina wailed dramatically as Satoru snickered.

"He's barely grown at all, that might be one of your genes not working yet," he teased as Utahime rolled her eyes but chuckled despite herself. "See?!" She blushed and Satoru grinned, cupping his chin. "I knew I could make you laugh!"

"I-Idiot!" The scarred woman burned up before growling at the chuckling man.

"Mmm~ Hime-chan~ Your greatest student has returned, you don't have time to be angry at me."

Iori's eyebrow twitched something fierce while Kuroi chuckled.

"Well, he's certainly not changed," she whispered with another grin to her fellow woman.

"Obviously," the 'priestess' said before turning away from the gasping Satoru. "... Welcome back, Naruto-kun," she smiled as the boy finally 'arrived' by the adults.

"Hehe, yeah, I got mobbed before I even made it to my parents. That's interesting," Naruto chuckled with a grin that reminded them all of just who he was. "But, come on, we shouldn't just wait here. I can tell Panda's waiting, Yaga-bro, we should see 'im."

Yaga smiled at that with a nod. "You're right. Welcome back."

~NRK~

They made it into a deeper part of the forest where a pair of 'boys' were playing in the snow.

"... Uhh, I'm gonna go out on a limb and that dad came up with super sleek cloaking tech," Naruto said as Minato tilted his head.

"Close enough," he said.

"Panda! Kuro!" Kuroi called out as the two snow-covered boys perked up. "Guess who's here?!" She grinned as their eyes widened.

"Bro!?" The two boys' shouted in disbelief at the grinning blonde.

He was tackled for the second time that day.

"Sup?!"

After a half a minute of cuddling and excitement, Naruto stood before the two 'boys' with intrigue.

"Sup, aniki," Panda said with a grin… that of a human and not a panda. "Hehe, Minato-ossan's pretty good, huh?"

Standing in his current form, Panda looked like a tall lanky boy with black hair, white skin, black eyes, and a big black splotch over his left eye. Wearing a furry white coat, black pants, and furry-looking white boots, he grinned once more as Naruto nodded.

"How'd ya do it?" Naruto asked his dad. "I mean, I can kinda take a shot in the dark at this but it'd be easier if ya just told me."

"It's about his different cores," Minato explained as Yaga nodded.

"By utilizing the Gori Core, we gave him a more human shape and Panda's soul and form was already easily moldable," the principal added as Naruto nodded.

"Alright, that sounds awesome!"

~NRK~

Moving down the streets, he explained his travels once they reached a large restaurant, Satoru having reserved a big private space.

With a small Curtain cast by Tsumiki and Megumi, Naruto spoke.

"Okay, one, Tsumiki-chan, the heck?" Naruto's eyes moved around as Megumi's sister smiled.

"I always wondered if it was possible," the Fushigoro girl explained as Momo nodded.

"It's crazy, she made it after three years, an invisible Curtain," she whispered in disbelief. "Us gals are making big changes!"

"I guess she's still on that?" Naruto asked as a small mechanic pin settled its mechanic spider legs onto his shoulder. "Mechamaru?"

[Greetings. It's been quite some time.] The robot said as Naruto chuckled.

"Yep and it seems like we've all gotten better."

[Of course, idling behind you is bound to leave us feeling restless. None would know more than Noritoshi-kun.]

The boy in question blushed, clearing his throat. "That is… not the right amount of words I'd use," Noritoshi said slowly as Maki smirked. "... But you're right in that we've all made our own developments."

He raised a finger before Naruto grinned at a trail of blood blades running down its length.

"I can't do it to my forearm, yet," he explained further with a smile. "But it's useful for close-range since I can use this alongside with Flowing Red Scale. I do have to thank you for that."

"No problem!" Naruto chuckled some more. "I'm glad to help even when I'm not around, it's good for my ego."

"There it is," Maki said as Miwa giggled. "But you're not wrong," she added, raising her wrists.

New white silver bangles sat on them, ones bearing odd markings that civilians would just see as cool kanji.

Naruto knew better with a quick grin. "Well, glad I could pass that on no matter what. It's a good method no matter what and I actually wanted to ask you and pops if I could get some of my old ones," they looked surprised as he chuckled nervously. "So, uh, before hitting the road fully to find the tree, I met a kid named 'Yuta Okkotsu'... and he's cursed… like, good God, Rika-chan is an utter monster when it comes to curses and cursed energy."

He explained the entire situation with the boy he'd met, the more information that flowed, the more the others gawked at him in disbelief.

But, none more than Satoru and Utahime were intrigued. "... You're sending him here, aintcha?" Satoru grinned as the priestess smiled.

"Yeah, Yu wants to be a better person, I think it's fair to give him more options that can help him and Rika become better people."

"Still, a curse on him?" Utahime tilted her head as Naruto blinked. "... Naruto-kun, are you sure about that?"

"Well, they're connected on a serious level, I can sense that but I can't see it like with aniki."

"I might be able to take a look at him," Satoru nodded. "Any idea on when he might come and join?"

"I don't know, he's not great with people… like, at all?" Naruto sweatdropped as Riko hummed. "Hmm… Actually, Riko-nee," he spoke up as she blinked.

"Yeah?" She asked. "What's up?"

"There was something I learned about Sage and Inazuma-chan a bit back," he said as Mai perked up.

"Oh, right!" She said as the others looked at her smile. "They can talk," she said before rubbing the back of her head. "K-Kinda. They're all in a sort of mind space thing and shikigami made with Naru's blood can communicate there."

Satoru raised a brow before squinting at Naruto.

He 'saw' through the table and the world around them, noting the glow of Naruto's Talisman Box, Fujin and Sage, and the new odd trail of energy that went from them to Mai's own Talisman Box.

"Huh, that's pretty interesting," he said as Utahime and Kushina shot him a look. "I think it's because they're in closer proximity so it's more obvious but I can't see that when they're apart… At least, maybe it's just that small and I can't discern it yet," Satoru shrugged.

"That's good, we can communicate with him," the teacher smiled.

"Yep! You're our Telephone Gal, Mai-chan," the silver-haired woman grinned as the girl nodded. "Hmm, so, tell us about your adventures!" Kushina said to her son. "Did Yuki stick around? Is Yuta-kun following you? Or are ya on yer own?"

Naruto explained his situation in full, only pausing when their food came and was spread out.

By the time they were all half-done with their dishes, they looked intrigued by Naruto's last bit of info.

"I'm close," Naruto smiled. "I've got connections~," he said with wiggling fingers as Megumi blinked.

"You do? What kind?" The Shadow-user asked with interest.

"Well, I've kinda got an 'in' with this small info broker dude who I helped dispatch curses with a bunch of times," Naruto explained as Maki raised a brow. "And I got him out of a tight spot with some guys trying to beat him up."

"It's like an underground deal," Miwa said with shiny eyes as Mechamaru chuckled. "Did you guys go on a big adventure?!"

"Not with him but I did do that with Yuta once," Naruto explained. "I wanted him and Rika-chan to really get it and he came out mostly okay but I don't wanna take him back on that kinda thing again for a while. Rika-chan's power is ridiculous and I mean it, she's too strong and I need to get Yu to move out of her shadow, so to speak, and fight for himself."

"Ah, does he have something that Rika-chan gave him at one point?" Yaga asked as Kuroi perked up.

"Oh, that's true," she said as Naruto looked confused. "Naruto-kun, think of it like this, sometimes, there's a 'remnant' that the spirit leaves behind. That'd be the connection between their powers if your senses are right about how connected they are."

Naruto considered it before his eyes widened. "There is, he told me more about Rika last month, said that she and him had promise rings or something that he still has, and wears… to this day, okay that explains too much."

"Yep, if he's wearing it, he's unknowingly 'wielding Rika'," Minato twitched his fingers.

"Can cursed spirits be that strong?" Mai asked. "I-I beat a Grade 3 one with a single of my special bullets," she said, Naruto nodding at that.

"Yes, there are many curses that'd be around Rika's supposed level if I'm assuming this right," Satoru said. "If she's as strong as Naruto makes her out to be, she's a Special Grade Cursed Spirit and there aren't that many in the world but they exist and they're likely four times the amount of sorcerer Special Grades."

"T-That's insane!"

"I mean, it makes sense," Tsumiki fiddled with her fingers. "Fears of disasters, death i-itself probably has a Special Grade," she added with a shiver as the other children followed suit.

Naruto was just wondering if 'Death' would look like the Shinigami from his world. 'Most likely not, right?' It'd be too coincidental.

Best to let that thought die before he brought such a thing about.

"Oh, definitely," Satoru said as Utahime's eyebrow twitched. "But, like, don't expect it to look so specific. Curses are disfigured views of negative emotions and cursed energy, a 'Death Spirit' might look like a damn aye-aye instead of a reaper with a cloak."

"The heck's that?" Maki asked with a trio of blinks.

"A really weird monkey."

"Marsupial but that'd be splitting hairs," Utahime shrugged. "The fact remains, there are Special Grade Curses that can be born. I'm pretty sure Tamamo no Mae exists as one and she's a big time legend."

"Sounds crazy," Momo said.

~NRK~

When they all finished eating, Satoru paid their bill before the group went to the giant Christmas tree in Harajuku.

"Be careful, there's bound to be curses about but we've already got guys handling it. Nanami's one of 'em," Kushina smiled.

They'd watched along with a bunch of civilians as the tree lit up, Naruto chuckling at it all.

'Three more years,' he'd be seventeen.

And a crazy Halloween would likely hit-

Naruto blinked at the feeling of a hand in his own, the boy considering the fingers he felt before holding them back.

"Merry Christmas, Mai-chan."

"Merry Christmas, Naru-kun," Mai grinned and he followed suit.

~NRK~

~A Month Later : January~

~Underground Tunnel in Akihabara~

"It's kind of weird that this is where it'd be but I also feel like it isn't," Naruto said to Minato, the two of them riding down to the depths of an old forgotten train station, on Fujin, beneath the 'Nerd City' as Mai would call it. "..."

He considered the previous month's events which came down to three things.

Mai's new 'telephone service'.

Yuta's slow growing confidence in cursed energy.

And his father's addition to his search along with his mother's new 'detainment'.

The man had decided to use his 'abroad time' to join his son on his quest.

With Kushina, apparently, now under scrutiny… it wasn't a good day to be the Gojou Elders.

Especially because of the crap they were trying to pull.

---

"What?" Naruto balked at Sage as the spirit grimaced himself.

"Inazuma tells me that Kushina told the others about being detained, at least, somewhat?" The oni frowned. "Aniki said that it was because of you not being at the school. They don't believe you're on a training journey and have something to do with the mountain."

---

Naruto had comfort in his cousin's political, and physical, 'weight' and Minato had decided to leave, on Kushina's behest, to stick around him until he was done.

This hadn't made the man's reputation in the superiors' eyes great, the higher-ups seemingly wanting to find him like he was the lead to Naruto, himself.

Which wasn't wrong but the amount of insanity that'd sprung up was getting on the boy's nerves.

'Maybe I'll go back sooner,' Naruto thought. 'But Yuki-sensei…' Make no mistake.

While this journey was his own, Yuki Tsukumo hadn't been off-hand with training him.

Whether it was random skill tests when she had him meet her in that casino, cursed spirit knowledge, shikigami knowledge, or physical combat, she'd been mentoring him at least once a week in every month.

Naruto was stronger and more knowledgeable… along with having more ideas with his continual skill assessments.

But it'd all been on the backburner of his mind when he considered his mother's current situation.

"It's fine," Minato whispered, patting his son's shoulders as Fujin galloped further down into the depths of the tunnel. "We'll make this right. That said, you're not returning early, my boy."

"What? Why?" Naruto looked confused.

"It'd be like an admission of them being right," Minato frowned. "Kushina… she's not being treated badly, she's a Gojou after all, much less the favorite aunt of The Gojou Head and Strongest Sorcerer Alive. It'd be a cold day in hell for them to try anything beyond harmless detainment. You can't exacerbate the situation with your presence, no offense, so you should focus on your training… and, perhaps, this is just me, but you might want to train for another year."

"?"

"Have you mastered Natural Energy?"

Naruto's eyes widened.

Outside of his sensory ability, he hadn't had much success with trying to regain Sage Mode.

His father could kind of do it but the Sage Mode of this world was too dangerous, too temperamental and negative.

And the energy within the blonde Gojou was too opposite to the negative emotions' effects. He couldn't do it, no more than using it to sense the world around him.

"... No," Naruto admitted. "I don't know what to do."

"That's why you'll need to do four things with the Vak Vak Tree bark," Minato smiled kindly. "Two of them are to enhance Fujin and Sage. The third is to try and regain that skill. And, fourth, perhaps using the tree's materials will allow for Sage Mode to be unattainable."

They traveled for maybe an hour, the causal gallop of Fujin getting them there just fine.

And, what they found was a bit surprising.

"It's a… person?" Naruto blinked at the gnarly-looking arbor.

It was thin… very thin, maybe the same thickness as an adult male's limb with white bark.

It was mostly sheared off, not surprising, but it sported a field of flowers around it, an unnatural white light coming up from its tip.

Also, it looked like there was a person inside of it.

Sage came out of his talisman before the four slowly approached the tree.

"It's so… peaceful," the oni said as Naruto and Minato nodded.

"It is," the man said.

"It feels weird, though," Naruto said as they approached the edge of the flowerbed around the Vak Vak Tree. "..." He blinked at what had to be some kind of… Curtain around it. "Did someone put this here over a thousand years ago?" He reached out.

His hand caused the air to distort before he blinked as he clenched and unclenched his fingers.

Naruto's eyes grew determined before he stepped into the Curtain and vanished from his father's sight.

"Naruto…" The man reached out towards the invisible Curtain only to catch… nothing. "What?!"

Minato pawed the air rapidly as Sage and Fujin tilted their heads.

"At ease, pops, it's nothing bad," the oni said as Minato froze before looking at him with concern. "Naru, the Boss, he's currently talking with It."

"The Tree."

---

Naruto's eyes closed as he was observed by those curling spirits.

They constantly revolved around him, small nigitama spirits that glowed randomly over different parts of the Gojou's body.

Moments later, they stopped and Naruto's eyes opened slowly so he could see the tree's main protector.

The wooden dragon spirit that held a human's face.

"Hmmm," it hummed, its wrinkled skin and blind eyes stretching around the blonde boy. "Hmmm…" He considered something.

Then, the dragon unfurled from around a small sapling?

Naruto blinked at it, jumping as he felt warm pushes on his back.

"H-Hey!" He shouted at the nigitama currently pushing him. "I get it! I get it!"

Naruto grumbled as he walked up to the Vak Vak sapling.

"I know I'm gonna get into trouble for this one day."

He took the offered plant.

The dragon hummed in 'that tone' again, leaving Naruto blinking as instructions filled his mind.

"... Wait, that's how it works?" Naruto looked at the spirit in disbelief. "I guess you're coming with me, buddy," the blonde said to the sapling with a chuckle.

The sapling wiggled a bit.

---

"Hup!" Naruto announced as he 'landed' from the distortion inside the tree. "Whoa, that's trippy."

"H-Hey, son," Minato said with a look of relief as Naruto chuckled apologetically.

"Sorry, dad. I was getting this boy right here."

The man and the boy's shikigami saw the sapling currently situated in a green ceramic pot covered in the markings of a human-faced dragon.

"Wait, is that a Vak Vak Tree?"

"Yep. Turns out, just taking from this tree right here isn't the way to go. You have to be given permission to get it and you'll be given one of these guys."

The Talisman Master was intrigued.

~NRK~

~Kyoto Jujutsu High Dormitories~

Utahime frowned as she sighed over the phone. "Kushina."

-It's fine, I promise, they don't seem to think I actually did something but they're trying to bait out my son- The Gojou woman said over the phone. -Seriously, do you guys honestly think my kid had something to do with this?-

-Gojou-san that's not important to this detainment- Came the voice of one of their higher-ups.

-You guys essentially put me on lockdown in my house in Kyoto, what exactly am I supposed to say here? Once again, do you think my son is involved?-

-We'd like to know why the boy was conveniently gone-

"Sir, Naruto Uzumaki went on a training trip with Yuki Tsukumo, we told you this, the woman herself even confirmed it," Iori said with a grimace. "I don't…"

-The fact remains, Utahime-sensei, that there has to be leads. The only ones not here who were supposed to be here on the day of the event are Naruto Uzumaki and Yuki Tsukumo- The man explained as Iori winced.

'She was there rather oddly,' so Yuki had been expected and that didn't do them any favors. "Still, what would a boy have that you want?"

-It'd be foolish if not for a hint-

Even though she couldn't see her, Utahime knew that Kushina also flinched a bit at the man's words. "W-What?"

-There was the sight of blood near a field-

Iori's eyes widened.

-And it matches with Ogi Zenin and the last anyone heard of him was with the boy-

~NRK~

~Jujutsu High Dormitories : 1 Hour Later~

Satoru frowned. "That's not good," he sighed.

-It seems like this was just going too well, huh?- Kushina sighed. -I'd… we didn't think Ogi would get involved. As Mai-chan said, he's the strict honorable sort and he hadn't outed us before but I didn't realize people would connect him with Naruto, especially after his rampage at the Zenin Clan Estate-

All actions had consequences, it was a fact of life.

It just so happened that this fact was biting them in the ass at the moment.

"It's gonna be hell for a while, huh?"

-It seems like they know more than we could have imagined and that's going to bite Naru-

~NRK~

~A Day Later~

Mai looked nervous as she sat under the scrutiny of the higher-up who'd come to speak with Kushina.

"H-Hi, ma'am," Mai bowed like a servant.

She smiled like prey.

And she hid her expression like a viper.

All parts of being a Woman.

"Hmph…" The old woman observed the girl before dismissing her presence as Mai wanted. "We knew of your connection to Naruto Uzumaki, girl, but it'd be of no use."

"Huh?" Fake it.

Act like the Fool.

'She likely doesn't know,' so no outside information had reached this child.

Chances were high that Satoru Gojou was handling whoever in his inner circle knew about the event.

'Damn that man,' ever since his conception, the boy had been nothing but a pain in the Jujutsu World's side!

In the beginning, they'd all been hopeful. Having the Six Eyes back was a grand boon to their status quo.

And nowadays, the man chose to whimsically trample all over it! He threw his weight around, kept his own interests beneath his banner, and had the power and might to do so.

It'd been an unprecedented nightmare but they'd had one hope.

The boy, Naruto Uzumaki, seemed to stem the powerful man's tendencies.

He'd been a lot less coarse, a lot more refined, and even more amicable with the boy in his life. It'd almost been humorous to think that the one who could control that wild animal of a man was but a 'defect'.

A boy with nothing. No cursed energy. No Technique. Not even his own blood wanted… most of them.

Not even MOST of his own blood wanted him.

His family, his cousin, and even the cousin's friends and teammates cared for him for reasons beyond her understanding.

And he made changes despite being powerless. The boy had pull with powerful sorcerers and was the child of a powerful Talisman Master and Gojou woman.

Disciple of the creator of the infamous Cursed Corpses. Debater with the Special Grade Cursed Sorcerer, Suguru Geto.

With the boy recently being friends with the Zenin Clan's former to-be heir, Megumi Fushigoro, having the ear of the Zenin Clan head to the point the man had done nothing to him for attacking his men, and somehow wielding shikigami of odd creation… He was a problem.

He was too connected, too skilled in aspects of their world, too wanted by powerful individuals, and now might have become something they couldn't ever predict even in the Golden Age.

But that was only a possibility and they needed to know if that 'idea' was even possible.

'And if it is, things must change.'

But that was a 'worst-case scenario'.

Mai just observed the woman for a bit before hurrying on into Kushina's room, gently closing the woman's door behind her.

"K-Kushina-oba-chan!" The girl hurried over to the woman currently combing her hair.

"Hi, Mai-chan," Kushina greeted as the girl stood by her chair. "How's training going?"

"It's going well," the girl said, pulling up another stool from the corner of the room and sitting on it. "Mei-sensei said I was pretty good at Reinforcement but…" Mai shivered as Kushina chuckled. "S-She's making me do so many exercises," the girl whined.

Putting down her comb, Kushina grinned. "It'll help you, Mai, you just need to power through. I bet even Naruto will be impressed," the woman said slyly as the girl froze before turning bright red. "Hehe-dattebane~."

"H-He's got nothing to do with this!" The girl said in a high octave. 'S-She can never know!' If the woman found out that Mai was essentially doing this all for her son, the girl knew she'd never live it down.

A Gojou would kill another Zenin in current times by accident!

"Hehe, I'm just teasing you. Come on, let's do your hair."

The girl blushed before nodding.

They spent the next hour handling hair and chatting, Mai relaxing easily with the Gojou woman.

"Hmm, next year, Naru is supposed to be here again," Mai said. "I-I'm worried he's gonna be all different since he found the tree."

"Might have found it," Kushina corrected weakly, grinning slyly as the girl blushed a bit but grinned.

"N-Nah, I know he found it, he's stubborn like that."

Oh, would these little romances never cease.

~NRK~

~Half A Year Later : July : Under 2 Years Until Return~

Mai observed herself in her mirror.

Being over halfway to the age of fourteen, and a lot more mature she believes, she considered her 'outfit'.

Wearing nothing but underwear, she blushed as she remembered her Vow.

'W-Will he freak out?' Mai hoped not, Naruto really was an amazing choice for a husband.

He was clearly good with kids, what with how he handled Megumi, Tsumiki, and even herself when they were younger. Add on Panda and 'Kuma' and he had quite the 'resume' when it came to children.

Naruto's wisdom wasn't one-sided and his kindness was seemingly everlasting. The way the boy had spoken to her father, well, Mai knew he hadn't lambasted him like she'd thought he would.

Well, okay, he had but, at the end of it all, with Ogi defeated, Naruto hadn't beat down on the man verbally. A simple exchange of words she could see with her, rather impressive from Mei Mei's words, eyesight was all it was.

Naruto told the man to be better and nothing more.

Truly, Naruto was honestly one of the best crushes a-and potential husbands she could have chosen, yeah?

But he didn't know either of that, hell, she didn't even know if Naruto liked someone yet!

Mai paced, arms crossed, mouth pursed, and eyes on the floor.

She never noticed Maki coming into the room from the bathroom, her twin sister shooting her one good look before rolling her eyes with a smirk.

"Good God, Mai, what? Did you think you'd ambush him in your underwear?" Maki teased as her twin froze before burning bright red from her head to her toes. "Geez," she chuckled, moving to a dresser.

Mai held her face in horror and embarrassment, looking at herself in her mirror.

'I-I don't want to come off that strong!' Mai wasn't arrogant in how she viewed her body.

She was buxom for her age, she had hips, and measurements. She took good care of her skin, her hair, and chose her outfits appropriately.

Mai Zenin knew she was a bombshell in the making. By the time she was an actual woman, she'd likely have amazing stats.

Now, if only that gave her more courage than she ever had when it came to considering how to spring this on her lovable blonde crush.

"I-I'm just thinking," she told Maki who nodded with a hum, her sister already putting on some black shorts. "... Where are you heading?"

"Please tell me you didn't forget."

~NRK~

Wearing matching black shorts, dark green hoodies, and brown boots, the Zenin twins nodded to Megumi and Tsumiki, Mai feeling embarrassed.

Wearing matching white shirts, black sweatpants, but different between white sneakers, Megumi, and brown sandals, Tsumiki, the Fushigoro siblings nodded to the twins.

"So, what's this about, Megumi?" Maki asked with a chuckle. "What? Did Mimiko tell you she had a crush on you?" The glasses-wearing girl chuckled.

…

Silence reigned as her laughs came to a screeching halt before her head mechanically turned to look at the slightly blushing Megumi.

"Um…" He burned a bit more as Tsumiki giggled with a grin. "Y-Yeah?"

…?!

"Haaa?!"

Mai balked as the boy groaned. "I don't… S-She said it in her sleep after we were training! It's not… she didn't say it to me-"

"Megumi-kun, this is big," Mai said with a blush of her own, the girl's finger scratching her cheek. "Still, um… what are ya gonna do?"

"That's why he called us here!" Tsumiki chuckled as Megumi groaned.

"H-Help me," the boy pleaded.

Maki cleared her throat with an embarrassed air about her. "Ok… Okay, we can do this," she said carefully as Mai snickered.

~NRK~

~Naruto, Minato, and Yuta~

Thirty minutes later, Naruto sweatdropped as Sage tilted his head.

"They failed, didn't they?" Naruto asked Sage who sweatdropped with a nod.

"Girls are weird," he said as Yuta nodded while Minato chuckled.

"Alright, alright, well… I'm sure they asked him but did they see what Megumi thought?"

"... I can give ya a soft maybe on that. Apparently, he doesn't know what to do. He never thought about this before."

Naruto considered that, arms crossed as the five, Fujin off to the side included, sat by a large river.

"Well… If I had to give some advice," Naruto began, eyes up as a familiar decently grown sapling sat in the ground next to him, now more of a tall branch instead of a baby tree. "It'd depend on that, I mean, if it was me and I like a girl? I would have said something already. I don't think it needs to be that complicated to ask someone if they'd go on a date and Mimiko-chan sounds like a good girl… but Megumi's feelings are also important. You can't force him to like Mimiko like that, you have to see if he's even ready yet."

~NRK~

~Mai and Maki's Room~

Mai considered Inazuma's relayed message.

Flat on her back with an air of shame about her, Maki laid next to her with despair looming overhead.

"We… might have gotten a bit carried away," Mai admitted nervously as Inazuma sweatdropped.

"My Creator seems to have prepared for that. He added that if you all went too far, you should probably apologize to Megumi first and stop him from going too far before he was ready," the spirit said nervously as the twins froze. "A-And it's been… half an hour…"

~NRK~

Megumi took in a deep breath as he stood in front of Mimiko's dorm door, arm raised.

"WAIT!"

He groaned against the ground in an instant, tackled by the Zenin twins and Tsumiki.

"W-Why?"

---

Megumi pouted a bit as they sat in his room, the girls looking sheepish.

"It's our bad, sorry," Maki apologized as the boy looked down in thought. "We didn't think about how you felt about Mimi."

"..." The boy rubbed the back of his head. "I don't… I-I don't really know," he admitted and Mai winced at that.

Yeah, they'd jumped the gun by trying to have him date Mimiko because they thought it'd be good for him.

'God, w-would Naruto even be cool with me forcing this on him?' That question came up again with a bit more nervousness behind it.

Knowing the blonde, she knew that he was adaptable and might not be 'alright' with it but… her cheeks burned.

He would follow through if only because of her and her dumb decisions. H-He'd become her… T-They'd have a kid and she'd-

"So, do I do something?" Megumi asked, breaking Mai out of her reverie as Tsumiki smiled kindly.

"You've just as much a right to who you date as she does," the girl said before tapping her lip. "And, well, we jumped the gun twice a-ahehe. You girls do remember he said she said this in her sleep, right?"

The twins froze, twitching as Megumi pouted again.

"We're sorry!"

~NRK~

~Naruto and Co.~

The blonde chuckled as Sage laughed.

Minato worked in the background with a shake of the head.

Yuta and Rika just sat in front of the blonde with intrigued expressions.

"Girls' feelings are super important," the cursed spirit said before scratching her cheek. "B-But I guess boys' feelings are, too."

"I hope M-Megumi-san is happy either way," Yuta said rigidly and with as much confidence as he could muster.

Minato laughed.

~NRK~

~Three Months Later : October 10th~

~Akihabara~

Naruto walked around in some blue shorts, an orange hoodie with the hood part up, and some black sandals.

He felt for his friends' signatures before smiling as he ended up at a karaoke place, going in through the front and nodding to the receptionist.

"Are you looking to get a room, young man?" The man behind the counter chuckled.

"No, actually, I'm here with a big group of boys and girls around my age," Naruto said and the man perked up. "Oh, and also, a lady with a scar and a dude with cool eyes."

"Oh!"

After being given directions, he made it to the room, grinning ear-to-ear as the door was opened by a grinning Satoru.

"Welcome, birthday boy!" He declared as Naruto came in with a chuckle.

"I'm here!" Naruto declared to the others.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

The air was filled with party poppers, congratulations, and cheers as the former shinobi grinned.

Greetings, hugs, back-pats, and compliments were thrown the blonde's way, Naruto accepting it all without hesitation.

Ten minutes after the group reunited, well.

It was Karaoke, after all.

Naruto rolled his eyes as Iori's eyes shined at the selection of songs they had to choose from, a guitar in his hands.

"I can't believe I let this happen again."

Satoru grinned next to her with a mic in his hands like the grinning woman.

"Ah, this should be good for you," Iori said as she picked the song. "Are you sure you can play this, Naruto-kun?"

"I did other things besides train all the time," Naruto sweatdropped as Mai snickered. "And since me and the others already failed at making music once, I was like 'might as well do it a couple more times' and it caught on. Besides, I like Bleach."

The woman grinned as the musical queues began to fly by on a large screen behind them.

The boy's hands worked themselves over the instrument in his hands.

Satoru grinned as Iori opened her mouth.

The lyrics flew around the room as the now-fifteen-year-old boy grinned, playing more 'heavily'.

The additions he added worked and Satoru joined in on the second chorus.

Mai's eyes shined as Maki sweatdropped.

"You know, had he played like this years ago, we might have made an actual music video out of that literal feel-good session," the glasses-wearing twin said with closed eyes and smirk.

"Wait, what?" Momo's jaw dropped while Megumi stuffed his face into his hand. "W-Wait, go back! You guys-!"

"I-It was Naruto's idea," the Ten Shadows User said as Miwa's eyes shined and the Mechamaru Pin on her shoulder chuckled.

[That sounds interesting.] He said as Tsumiki giggled.

"It was fun, I guess we weren't the only ones who tried to keep up with it," she grinned as Noritoshi's eyebrow raised.

"Oh?" He uttered as Megumi blushed some more while Miwa giggled. "That's interesting."

The three's, rather impressive at that, 'concert' ended with the song.

Utahime looked so refreshed. "W-We should have done this earlier!" She nearly squealed as Shoko chuckled.

Nanako's mouth just stayed dropped as Mimiko giggled incessantly, phone recording the three's song.

"Alright!" Satoru grinned. "Who's next?!"

With the trend set, well, the next one had the entire group of teens up there.

Nanami seemed so amused for the first time since they'd ever known him.

Naruto chuckled as he held a guitar once more, Tsumiki doing so on the other end of the group.

The chosen song? One of Satoru's favorites.

Butter-Fly.

Oh, the moment it started, things went badly.

Whether it was Megumi's embarrassment, Noritoshi's unfamiliarity with the art of singing, or just that new guy, Toge, the others said?

They'd flopped HARD but damn if he wasn't laughing by the end of it along with Mai, Mechamaru, Tsumiki, and Nanako.

Then, they switched it up.

Mai blushed as she, Iori, a blushing Shoko, a grinning Maki, and the other girls stood on the small stage, the men watching with interest or chuckles.

'Oh no!' She hadn't seen this coming!

"Now, I've got an assortment of songs we could try!" Iori said with an excited gleam in her eyes, Mai sweatdropping at the scarred woman's joy. "Let's try… ah, this one!"

What followed was an actually decent 'cover' of the song 'Simple and Clean'.

Naruto had grinned and cheered loudly, obnoxiously, and hilariously with Satoru, the two joined in by Toge.

Mai blushed before pouting as Maki laughed, Iori colored red, and the others either shuffled in embarrassment or looked proud of themselves.

Notably, the last one was only Miwa.

"Let's do it again!" The blue-haired girl cheered.

Following that had been a string of duets, actually.

One with Nanami and Shoko where they learned the usually uptight man loved enka singing of all things.

Yaga and Riko which resulted in the large man just following his twice-adopted daughter in song.

Then, there was Satoru and Iori, the two's singing forms following one another in perfect synchronicity.

It'd been the damndest thing that Naruto had to ask about.

Iori blushed a bit as Satoru smirked when the boy asked them alongside Mai, Megumi trying, and failing, to sing with Mimiko in the background.

"O-Oh? Well," the teacher blushed. "We go here… sometimes… after some drinks."

"I don't drink, obviously," the Gojou man snickered. "But she's basically a killer saleswoman when she's drunk. How could I refuse?"

When Naruto shot Mai a confused look due to her giggling, she'd pulled him aside and whispered things he was obviously still confused by.

"Alright?" He said unsurely as Utahime blushed some more but looked intrigued. "I don't think I'll ever understand woman-dattebayo," the monkey boy whined, tail unfurling and curling into a question mark.

Mai's smirk got a snicker out of Satoru.

And then, wouldn't you know it?

The two, themselves, went up for their last duet, the blonde choosing their song.

"Naked Hero?" Mai asked him in disbelief as he grinned.

"It's an amazing song and we can call it a cover, trust me on this," Naruto said as she hummed before shrugging.

"Alright."

He hit the play button before strumming up the guitar a bit.

Mai led them in with the first two lines of lyrics.

{

Dareka ga henna namida o

Nomikonde nomikonde iru

}

Megumi smiled at the song as Mimiko and Tsumiki grinned.

Noritoshi wore a relaxed expression as Mechamaru hummed.

Then Naruto joined in on the vocals.

{

Chikara ga tomonau akui furi hodoite

Mimi wa kikoecha inai daga yuusha wa ima

Chikara wa iranai mi ni makasete

Chiisana kono-te wa ima

}

Nanami breathed in softly, nodding along with Yaga and Kuroi as Riko pat Panda and Kuma's heads.

"Your bro and his 'friend' have got some singing chops," the fox girl snickered as they nodded in agreement.

"It's certainly pleasant compared to me," Shoko chuckled as Mei Mei smirked, Ui Ui raising two fans of enjoyment at her side.

The doctor chuckled some more.

{

Aishite shimatta zenbu zenbu

Furikakatta noroi mo zenbu

Mou aishite shimatta omoi o zenbu

Mamoreru hodo no hikari o

}

Maki crossed her arms in pride as Miwa wore a starstruck look.

Momo and Nanako nodded in delight. "God, aren't they only our age? They're so good at this, especially Naruto," the blonde girl said in surprise.

"I mean, you wouldn't think it with his voice but Naruto's actually pretty good at smoothing it out," the other girl chuckled.

{

Chikara ga tomonau akui furi hodoite

Mimi wa kikoecha inai daga yuusha wa ima

Chikara wa iranai mi ni makasete

Kage wa semaru `omaehana nda' to

}

Satoru nodded as the two continued their powerful duet, Iori smiling beautifully as they did, the roaming lights of the room emphasizing the two teens.

"It's been so long," Utahime said with a small chuckle, eyes closed. "Seven years since 'That Day' and it feels like things are normal."

Satoru didn't flinch nor frown, he just nodded. "Things and people come and go, in the past, I never really got that," he shrugged with a smile as she opened her eyes. "But, that doesn't mean they didn't, or don't, exist and might come back… or that they're around and things change between you."

The 'space' between them was 'silent' as Naruto and Mai kept on singing their hearts out.

Iori's fingers fidgeted in her lap. "I… I suppose so," she whispered as he hummed with slightly red cheeks of his own.

"It's not something I ever considered as a kid, despite everything, I wasn't a perv or a gigolo, I just wanted to do what I wanted," he said. "But, looking at the world now, how I see it, how I want it to be, I realize that I'm just one man, Iori."

Utahime's eyes widened as her cheeks brightened something fierce. "I-I…" What did she say in the face of this?

Was she not enamored with the man? The years that passed…

They made her realize that, yes, she did enjoy Satoru's company ever since he mellowed out over the years.

As he told Naruto and Mai earlier, they went on little 'bints' where they found themselves places like karaoke bars, the batting cages, or even, a couple times actually, a random fair or festival.

Throughout those moments, Iori had learned more about the man and his tendencies. He'd matured immensely and his views on the Jujutsu World, she'd like to see them one day.

Where the in-built misogyny was obsolete.

The pains of traditionalism were altered.

And just a world where her students could thrive. Yes, Iori believed in Satoru's dreams and ideals a decent amount and that had likely been where her attraction had 'sealed the deal'.

"You are," she said after her thoughts sorted themselves. "As Naruto-kun would say, you need other people, that's as simple as it gets."

Satoru blinked, blushing a bit more before rubbing the back of his head. "So, you agree?"

Iori felt her chest lighten as she bit her lip, cheeks bright red, and nodded.

"Y-Yes, I do."

The man tapped his chin as the music ended, the ridge of his nose red. "... O… Okay then."

The two steamed for a bit at what had just taken place.

Meanwhile, Naruto grinned as he bumped shoulders with Mai while the applause rolled out.

"Thanks for an awesome birthday," he chuckled as she blushed but grinned widely.

"You're welcome."

~NRK~

~Six Months Later : April : 1 Year Until Return~

Mai blinked as she listened in on Inazuma's message with Kushina, the lack of a superior outside with no surveillance working to their favor.

"He's not coming?" The girl said sadly.

"From what my Creator has said, there's something that's come up," Inazuma said kindly.

Now standing at a height of five and a half feet with her 'Milady', the young woman spirit's clothes had shortened a bit again.

In the back of her head, Mai 'feared' the 'final form' of the oni's outfit.

"What is it? I'm assuming Minato knows something," Kushina said with a small smile as she held Mai's shoulders. "... Does it have to do with Naruto's Vak Vak Tree?"

"Yes," the shikigami nodded. "It's got everything to do with it, actually."

Mai pouted as the Gojou woman chuckled.

"It's fine, Mai-chan, I'm sure it will be. Sometimes, things happen. And, look at it this way~," Kushina smirked as the girl perked up. "You'll be joining, likely, in the same year."

Mai's eyes widened before her face lit up.

The Gojou woman snickered along with Inazuma.

"She's right, Milady," the spirit grinned as the teen fumbled with her emotions.

"I-I!" The girl burned a brighter red. "I-I know," she pouted childishly.

Inazuma chuckled. "Well, you all should probably also be prepared for next year. My Creator won't be the only one joining. That 'Yuta Okkotsu' guy is coming."

Kushina perked up. "Speaking of, were they able to make any headway on Yuta-kun's situation?"

"I'll ask Sage."

~NRK~

~Naruto, Yuta, Minato~

"Sadly, we still can't figure out Rika-chan," Naruto told Sage who nodded. "That said, Yuta's getting better at this stuff."

The recently-turned-fifteen boy blushed a bit, looking bashful. Minato chuckled next to the three, sitting in a circle around Sage.

"I-I'm still only so good at it," Yuta stuttered.

"Still, you're leaps and bounds ahead of many your age. Your enormous amount of personal cursed energy is nearly on par with Satoru's own if not greater, you've a future ahead of you," Minato smiled as the boy burned bright red.

"T-Thank you, sensei."

~NRK~

~Uzumaki Home~

The explanations were beyond surprising.

"N-No way!" Mai gawked as Kushina nodded. "More than Satoru Gojou's?!"

"To be fair, Mai-chan, Satoru might have a lot but he's likely not that intimidating when it comes to pure cursed energy," Kushina said as the girl paled. "I mean, before Naru-kun's birth, I'm pretty sure I had double his amount even at his current age. Hell, I'm not that far behind him in sheer capacity as is."

The way the Zenin girl's mouth dropped at her had Kushian chuckling nervously.

"It's just a weird part of our lives-dattebane."

Mai shivered before shaking it all away.

She'd be finding out in a year, hopefully.

"So, you guys are coming next year, right?" The girl asked.

Inazuma's eyes closed.

~NRK~

"Yeah, we will," Naruto smiled. "The thing is, the reason we're currently not there? I need to secure my tree," he admitted. "Right now, I have an idea for it but we have to buy the area, defeat all the curses in it, set up shikigami that'll possess my tree, and a couple other things. That's gonna take a while. Yuta's in need of more training, too, so he's gonna be sticking with us for the next year. We got permission from his parents and everything."

~NRK~

"Alright," Mai nodded before taking a deep breath. "I-I guess we'll be in the same year," she said with a grin that she tried to fight.

But it was way too strong.

'We'll be in the same year,' it made her happier than she expected.

Going through the same things, the same courses, with the same teachers, hopefully Utahime-sensei.

The Goodwill Events, their friends, missions, and more.

Kushina's mouth set into a normal smile as she saw the 'light' in the girl's eyes.

"I'm excited for it!"

And, in that time, maybe she'll find a way to truly draw the blonde's attention.

To help her friends and sister.

To be happy and find her place in the world.

~NRK~

~Six Months Later~

Mai groaned, leaning down on her knees a bit, as Mei Mei considered the scythe the young woman had created, the two back in their 'training clothes' like in the beginning.

Oddly enough, the weapon didn't look 'normal' and was likely stylized by the girl's cursed energy.

'There's something off here,' the sorceress thought as she hefted the decently heavy weapon. 'Of course, if Naruto was right about their souls being one, this is more meant for Maki instead of Mai.'

It was a six-foot-tall thing with a black shaft covered in curling… chain-like markings that gave her more hints into Mai's Cursed Technique.

With the blade of the weapon coming out of the shaft being maybe only two feet long. It was a forest-green color with a gleaming edge that held a chain ball-like addition on its back.

All in all, this wasn't a normal weapon no matter who saw it.

Intriguing. "Mai, what do you think of this?" Mei Mei asked the girl as she twirled the scythe with strength that surprised the younger woman. "Hmm? Oh, well, you've never seen me use my axe, it's heavier than this but shorter."

"R-Really?" Mai was confused as she slowly regained her breath. 'It's not that bad?' When she considered it…

Was training actually making the drawback of her Cursed Technique lighter? Was that it?

"Yes, but that's due to the training you're currently receiving. I've reached the limits of my body and energy enhancement."

That was surprising to hear but it wasn't that shocking.

Mei Mei had told her in the beginning, hadn't she? That she, Mai, would reach the limits of her body completely along with her Reinforcement's ability being maxed.

But the woman's words made Mai more interested about her place in the world.

"Alright, it's time we teach you how to use this," Mei Mei said before handing the item to the shocked Mai. "You need to remember, you may wish to play support but you're still a combatant, Mai. You need to pull your weight in every way possible."

Mai nervously received the weapon, grunting a bit at its weight. "Why's it so heavy?"

"I don't know, you made it. Now," Mei Mei grinned as her body became enraptured by a wicked blue glow.

Mai swallowed as she hefted the weapon back behind her. 'God, this is gonna suck,' she didn't like close-quarters combat.

Why couldn't she be comfortable with her distance?

---

Thirty minutes of rough beatings later, Mai gasped in exertion, sitting on the ground, covered in bruises, and holding up her scythe.

Mei Mei, meanwhile, looked untouched outside of a single odd cut in her tank top's side. 'I was right,' there was a big mechanic to Mai's Cursed Technique that the girl had likely never noticed.

Maybe even more if the woman's hunches were correct.

'Still, she's really bad at attacking,' that might have been her own fault.

Mei Mei allowed the girl to specialize in her long-range combat styles, Mai even picking up a second handgun for her continued development.

The sorceress was sure that Mai would be an amazing gunwoman with just these talents alone but they weren't all her parts.

They weren't what Mei Mei trained the girl's physical body for.

Mai needed to understand close-quarters combat before that became her undoing but Mei Mei had never had a student before outside of her little brother and she knew she didn't go that harsh on Ui Ui.

'She chose the scythe,' it was fortuitous that Mai's first idea of a weapon was closer to Mei Mei's own but now the girl needed to build up the courage to use it. 'Even with that weapon, she's trying to stay away from her opponent,' but if this had been Mai's first choice, why not something like a chain?

Why a scythe? What was the purpose of its markings? The ball at the back?

What exactly had her Cursed Technique done to this weapon to incorporate who Mai was as a combatant?

It slowly built more and more but Mei Mei was more sure of it now as she watched how easily the girl handled the former-heavy weapon.

'It's adjusting to her needs. It's got the ability to extend her cursed energy. It's not just a scythe.'

Mai had created a Cursed Tool with her powers. No wonder the object basically took over half her reserves.

It was being imbued with its own technique and power. There was a chance Mai's Cursed Technique was actually incredibly strong… but Mei Mei couldn't tell her.

She hoped this wasn't a bad 'mentor move' as she watched her student slowly get to her feet with gasps aplenty and the sounds of rattling chains.

Mai would need to learn this aspect of her Cursed Technique harshly. If the girl saw no point to learning…

Mei Mei couldn't do it for her.

~NRK~

~Naruto, Yuta, Rika, and Minato~

Yuta jumped from tree to tree with a shaky but slowly growing confidence.

'It's gotten bigger,' he thought, loose baggy clothes ruffling in the wind before he stumbled on a branch. "W-Whoa?!" Yuta steadied himself with a rapidly beating heart, eyes wide as he let out several fast breaths. "O-Okay!" He said in a higher octave that had chuckling coming from below him.

In an instant, Minato Uzumaki appeared beside him, the man's speed something Yuta really couldn't hope to match.

"Y-You're fast as always, sensei," the boy said as the man smiled.

"And you're getting better at your balance of cursed energy. Your shifting of it is better and more precise, you're just as incredible," Minato said as Yuta blushed before smiling a bit. "Come on, I know Fujin is-"

A large shadow passed overhead, alerting the two.

"There he is."

The figure was fast, faster than any car while its cloud-expanding gallops shot it out towards a large tree in the distance.

A VERY big tree on an island.

"L-Let's go!" Yuta said with a big smile as Minato chuckled.

They tree-hopped across four miles of land, the distance covered in the span of two minutes.

When they landed on a branch the size of a bus, they ascended up a tree that stood at five stories of height.

'It's always so amazing,' Yuta thought.

The time he spent here, on 'Uzushiogakure', always made him feel the most free.

Movement was encouraged in ways that somehow beat any rollercoaster. The air was clean and crisp and the ground was fertile and budding with beautiful trees.

It was an actual forest paradise in the modern world.

And it was all due to the one boy they found in a large unnaturally molded nook in the Vak Vak Tree.

Naruto Uzumaki grinned as Fujin nuzzled his cheek while a ten-foot-tall oni sat in front of the boy.

"Sup!" The young man said to them, working on a talisman with numerous scrolls all around him and a pair of green glowing goggles over his eyes. "You guys good?"

"It's great!" Yuta smiled brightly as a familiar cursed spirit formed from his shadow. "Rika-chan."

"Mmm…" the spirit shot Naruto a look before crossing her arms with a huff. "It's alright… like last time."

The Gojou boy snickered.

"I hope so," he said as he got up before stretching. "I'm half-finished with my last Great Talisman."

It'd been something he decided to go with.

Adding together Sage's Talisman, Fujin's Talisman, and this one he was working on, these were his Great Talismans. The ones he'd make from his Vak Vak Tree.

Speaking of, the current tree's height and sheer size had come from a mixing of his positive energy and Natural Energy gathering when in the middle of it.

It came with the amazing ability of fending off, and purifying, cursed energy but only near the island. Anything taken away from Uzushiogakure would lose that skill but retain the cursed energy-resistance part of his tree.

So, here they were, standing in what was essentially his greatest 'creation'.

"With this, your training is done, for now," Minato smiled. "It's sad about Sage Mode only working here but it's a bonus that came with having this legendary tree. For now, what do you two want to do?" He asked the boys who blinked. "While not feeling it, Yuta-kun is more than trained enough to handle entering Jujutsu High along with you, Naruto. You two could join the current year, right now, and I doubt anyone would mind."

Yuta froze before trembling. 'O-Other people?!' H-He'd gotten so used to the father-son duo that he felt fine like this.

The idea of other people made his shoes very sweaty.

Naruto sweatdropped. "Dude, I promise, it's fine. The others are nice and open to more friends for our groups. Though, as for schools-"

"I think he should go to Tokyo Jujutsu High, actually," Minato said as Naruto blinked in confusion while Yuta paled. "For one, Yuta-kun, you need to expand your friend group and being away from Naruto will be good for you, I promise."

The boy didn't think so, Rika poking his statue-like form with a tilt of the head.

"Yuta's not really good with other people," she said as Minato chuckled.

"That's why he needs more exposure. Secondly, my nephew is there and he'd be a good guardian for you, Yuta. Trust me, he can help you in ways we can't."

The boy swallowed, skin still pale but his expression more contemplative. "... A-Alright," he said slowly before nodding. "I know I still have a lot to learn so I-I wanna do my best!" Yuta declared with tightly shut eyes but with as much confidence as he could muster.

Naruto blinked before grinning.

"You'll do great, Yuta, I promise. I actually know a lot of people on both sides so you'll never be without good pals," the other teen said. "Things'll be fine."

~NRK~

From afar, sitting atop a floating cursed spirit, a man lowered his telescope.

He raised a walkie-talkie from the back of his pants. "Suguru, it's as ridiculous as it's been for the past half a year," he said.

-Honestly, Naruto-kun is bound to be a big name from this island alone, much less from when he's actually back in the system. If it wasn't for that Curtain his father put down, they'd have been the biggest 'attraction' in recent years of Japan-

"Seems so. From what I can make out, they seemed to be talking about returning in the coming school year."

-Hmm… Thankfully, we've had time to accrue more curious cursed spirits. The Jorougumo and Biwa Woman should, hopefully, handle him long enough for the Christmas of the following year. I could probably spare a hundred or so cursed spirits to help lock him down-

The man frowned. "Geto… Are you physically okay?"

-... Honestly? No. I'll be fine in a month or so but the rapid consumption of cursed spirits hasn't been kind to my body. I'm resting, I assure you- Geto explained. -For now, I think you should return. You've been out there for an entire year-

The man sighed but smiled all the same. "Alright, still, this kid… he's another monster of the Gojou Clan, will they really not accept him?"

-Sadly, even sorcerers can be foolish. Trust me, there's likely to be a large amount of interest and derision when he returns to the public eye of the Jujutsu World-

"What of the other one?"

-Yuta Okkotsu has something I need, I'll get it from him when he develops the Queen of Curses more to the point of understanding her Technique, hopefully-

~NRK~

~Three Months Later : October : Under 1 Year Until Return~

The only ones who could have made the travels were few.

With a few of their members, Momo and Noritoshi, already in the middle of their schooling, others teaching, Yaga and Iori, and most of them needing some form of permission to come, it was a small group of individuals who found themselves teleported to a giant toad shikigami's back, half a mile away from Uzushiogakure.

"W-Whoa?!" Mai's jaw dropped along with Ui Ui's as Mei Mei's mouth stilled before settling into a grin the size of Japan.

"Oh?~ That's an interesting bit of real estate," she said with a monetary glint in her eye as Satoru snorted, Megumi and Tsumiki gawking along with the kids who did come with the group.

"W-What?" Megumi's jaw dropped as the giant toad spirit began to swim towards the island. "M-Minato-san?! What happened w-while you guys were away?!"

Minato chuckled. "A lot," he admitted as Riko's eyes shone with excitement, Panda standing behind her in all his true panda glory.

He tapped his lip with a claw. "Aniki's been busy," he said as Maki cupped her chin at it all, breathing in the air and shivering a bit.

"It's so… clean," she said in surprise as they passed 'something'. "What?"

"It's a special Curtain I worked with Tsumiki-kun on," Minato said as the young woman-in-question kept on gawking. "It hides the island from normal sight while sending anyone who passes through to the other side through the usage of my Cursed Technique."

Satoru grinned.

The sight of the large tree at the center of the island was already a big indicater on why no one should find this.

And then they saw the animals.

Some of the big ones.

Maki's eyebrow twitched as a giant, seven-foot-tall, tortoise blinked at her.

"What the hell is he feeding you?!"

Blink.

Meanwhile, the others looked at everything with interest.

Mechamaru's Pin took several quick shots of their surroundings.

~NRK~

"That's crazy," he said in awe and excitement. "He nourished its cells," 'Mechamaru' chuckled as he observed Maki being 'amused' by the tortoise. 'Of course, his energy encourages life, it makes sense that he'd nurture life itself.'

Good. This meant good things.

Now, he just needed to wait for the blonde to join their school and then approach him.

… for now?

He had an island to see.

~NRK~

"Miwa-chan would have flipped!" Tsumiki giggled as they walked down a pathway of random stones. "Did Naruto-kun do all of this?" She asked Minato in awe.

The man grinned. "Well, with help from Sage and Yuta, yes. It's something they did while I wasn't paying attention. Honestly, those three could be good construction workers if life was a bit less secretive."

Mai just observed it all with astonishment and rising pride in the person of her affections.

Naruto was amazing.

And then there was a shadow that passed overhead, Megumi and Mai's eyes snapping up-

They jumped at a neigh behind them, a light blue mist coming past their feet.

"Fujin-?!" The two turned with excitement before gaping as they looked up.

And up a bit more, the larger-than-ever kirin shaking its head a bit as its mane flowed dramatically in the small bit of wind around them.

He'd become bigger, obviously, and seemed to stand at some kind of ten-feet-tall from hoof to head. His mane and tail seemed to glow softly while his horns had grown while meeting back up into a single point that left a small hole from its previous forked status in the center.

Its pure white status hadn't changed and Naruto might have emphasized that point as small hints of white mist left its scaled parts to cast a small cloud around it.

All in all? It got big.

"W-What the heck did he feed you?!" Maki asked in disbelief, hands thrown at the dragon-horse with a gawk.

"A lot of things," the horse said, startling them. "Ah, yes, I can speak now."

Weirdly enough, Fujin sounded like the poshest bastard on this side of Japan.

So, clearly, the first word that left Mai's mouth.

"... Nice to meet you, Sebastian," she slowly grinned as the kirin's eyebrows raised. "Pfft!"

She started laughing as Maki wiped at her eye.

"Oh my God, I never knew he had eyebrows," they said in unison.

Tsumiki smiled as Megumi nodded.

"We didn't either."

Minato chuckled. "So, Fujin, where is-?" He began to ask.

And a series of powerful cracks rocked the air as the floor rumbled a bit.

"Master has decided to spar with Sage," the kirin said as more cracks rang throughout the air. "Sage's newest size is still unwieldy and he needs to exercise more to adjust."

"Wait, Sage has a new size…" Mai's mind spun up an image along with the others.

Of a giant ogre of impossible size that Satoru waved his hand through with a grin.

"Oh, come on, you'd have seen him by this point," he chuckled as the kids grew sheepish. "Still, he's gotten strong."

Another series of loud cracks rang out, Mai tilting her head with a raised brow.

"Come on! Let's go and see what's happening!" She exclaimed.

"Allow me," Fujin said as his scales released more and more mist. "Master has outfitted me with quite the additions."

When the mist fully covered their feet, the group of teens nearly screamed as they were lifted off the floor and taken high into the sky.

"W-Whoa?!" Panda said in shock. "... I-I mean, you can make clouds that carry people now?"

"Hm, hm, yes. Master has enhanced us with his Vak Vak Tree's power and that allowed us two extra skills. I can create clouds and use them to carry individuals."

Panda smiled. "It's like having a couple cores, Fujin."

"It wouldn't be wrong to assume so," the kirin said as they stopped high in the sky. "There they are."

Mai looked out into the horizon before catching sight of two individuals hopping along a series of large tree tops.

Those two figures slammed into one another time and time again, the blows shifting the tree tops each time.

They separated before traveling around the trees once more and continuing their clashes.

"I see them," Mai said as Maki whistled, hand above her eyes. "He's gotten so strong since we last saw him," she added with a look of disbelief.

Naruto and Sage's forms came closer and closer per exchange before the boy tackled his shikigami.

They came flying past, the wind dragging behind them and nearly disrupting Fujin's clouds before the kirin steadied their foothold.

"They usually do this every two days," the kirin said. "Sage's strength isn't small, it's never been, and his current size, his body, his muscles, and new skills take that to a whole new level."

That got put on display seconds later as, as if to demonstrate, a tree… uplifted itself.

Not a normal tree, either. The trees on Uzushiogakure were seemingly almost three times the size of a normal tree and sturdier.

So, when they said it was terrifying, they meant it.

The tree swung out with a swiftness that really shouldn't have been allowed and they barely caught the monkey-tailed figure going in and out of each attack.

"H-Haha! Good!" Naruto shouted as he landed on the makeshift club. "You're about as strong as Rika-chan is! Maybe you guys can arm-wrestle!"

"I don't think she'd allow me to!" Sage shouted before flipping the tree, Naruto's form flying overhead. "Hmmm," the large oni looked down at his hands as Naruto landed without issue, body covered in hissing steam. "I'm so much bigger, it's kinda weird."

Fujin brought their guests over soon after, the group looking at Sage with whistles all about.

[He's gotten more impressive.] The Mechamaru Pin said as Sage grinned before flexing. [And hasn't changed at all.]

Sage's new height, that ten-foot thing from before, allowed muscles of all sorts to show down his back, trunk-like arms, abdomen, and visible log-like shins.

He was still orange but it seemed more jaded, a darker shade, with the oni's horns now sitting as foot-long daggers while his sideburns, neck collar, and head of hair and fur had grown out. New patches of it formed around his wrists, down the back of his forearms, and ankles.

He was thick-looking while sporting black ink-like scriptures on his abdomen, the oni man now wearing an open black haori emblazoned with red markings, a large-for-his-size tiger-print loincloth, and a… was that a large pipe tied to his back?

All in all, he seemed like the oni he was meant to be.

"Sup?" His voice had gone through changes as well, now carrying a gruff but mature tone to it. "Long time no see," Sage smirked as he crossed his arms while the others ran over.

"YOU GOT BIG?!" They asked in disbelief while he grinned.

"Yep."

Mai slowly shook her head. 'I-I guess it wasn't only Inazuma-chan,' but the male oni was huge! "..." She looked around him at the chuckling blonde 'replanting' the tree Sage had used. 'He looks different…' Maybe it was just her but Mai thought the blonde had changed.

Whether it was the scars he seemed to now sport around his biceps, his whisker marks seeming a bit darker, his hair, or even just his two open eyes. Naruto seemed different despite only being almost a year older than her.

He wore a yellow shirt and a half-worn orange jumpsuit, the top half of the clothing currently flopping down the back of his legs, his feet covered by a pair of black ninja sandals.

His tail had gotten thicker-looking, too, and had gotten even longer.

All in all? Naruto seemed so strong right now.

"Sup, island visitors?" He joked as Mechamaru Pin chuckled some more.

~NRK~

He was likely the only one who could see it outside of Satoru Gojou.

But the blonde's vitals, his energy, they were downright radiant. If anything, the blonde's body had acclimated more with his Blessed Technique.

How riveting.

~NRK~

"So, you got super strong, huh?" Maki asked with a grin as Naruto shot her a sly smirk.

"I'd say so but, hey, what do I know, eh?"

Megumi rolled his eyes but smiled as Tsumiki giggled.

Satoru chuckled even as he covered his eyes with a thicker blindfold for just these occasions. "Thank God aunty made this," he said in relief as Naruto snickered. "How's it going, Golden Boy? Life come with more surprises we should know about?"

"Nope, just been training, helping, planting, and doing more studying as much as it kills me," the monkey boy said with a smile. "What about you guys?" He asked, looking over the group, half of whom blushed.

Maki just looked prideful as Panda was panda.

"I can tell, you guys got a lot stronger. The flows of cursed energy in your bodies, most of you," Maki snickered. "Got a lot better while Maki-chan's overflowing with vitality, that's good."

"Oh, that's a new thing," Mai said with red cheeks, rubbing the back of her head. "You can sense vitality?"

"I mean, life itself isn't out of his array of sensory skills," Minato said as she blushed harder in embarrassment. "Still, you guys are visiting so let's head to the tree."

~NRK~

Covering the distance there hadn't been too bad, the island was only so big.

And getting to the Uzumaki 'home' was interesting.

"So, seriously," Maki began as she sat on a wooden stool. "What's with this tree? You never said the Vak Vak Tree looked this big!"

"It wasn't, not the one I got my sapling from," Naruto said with a tilt of the head, the group sitting around a large table with water in wooden cups. "The thing is, you guys do remember that I'm a weirdo, don't you?"

Panda nearly choked on his water as Riko laughed.

"It's true! I guess the whole invigorating part of your positive energy just gave it a jump start," she said with a grin.

"It did," Minato smiled. "All things considered, Naruto's powers perfectly align with nature but nature of a supernatural sense is even more enhanced. The Vak Vak Tree is also still a tree so it was bound to receive powerful effects."

Satoru nodded. "This whole island is pretty amazing, too. It's basically got a 'tint' of positive energy throughout it. It's resistant to cursed energy. I'm guessing that's why you teleported us outside of it," Minato chuckled. "God, my family is full of weird people."

"That's not surprising," Megumi said as Satoru gasped. "Aniki, so, you're coming next year, right?"

"Yep, me and my newest bud, Yuta Okkotsu, as you guys know," Naruto said. "Speaking of, did that guy Yuki-nee-chan speak about go to Kyoto or Tokyo?"

"Who… Oh no," Mai began to say before her face shifted in annoyance as Maki smirked.

"You mean Aoi Todou, yeah?" The glasses-wearing twin smirked as her sister groaned loudly, red in the face. "Yeah, he went to Kyoto and he's a character."

Megumi blinked while Tsumiki tilted her head. "He is?" They asked as Maki laughed.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll meet him. He's too weird not to try and meet you guys at the upcoming Goodwill Event next year."

Riko sweatdropped. "That boy needs help in the noggin department," she said as Panda smiled.

"He's just another weirdo in our batch of weirdos, I don't think he's that weird," he said.

"... Panda… you're a panda, anything that could even be remotely weird to you would be something to worry about."

"... Not wrong."

[Todou-kun is just a bit passionate, Naruto-kun.] Mechamaru said. [... And his 'passion' could just be a bit better directed.]

"... Gotcha," Naruto grinned obliviously as Mechamaru chuckled. "So, how's everyone else? Yaga-bro still teaching on occasion? Uta-nee still got her sanity? Aniki make a normal decision?"

"Only the first one is a 'yes'," Tsumiki giggled with a grin as Mai nodded rapidly.

"Y-You won't believe it!" She said as Riko sweatdropped at her look of disbelief. "T-They got together."

"..." Naruto raised a brow as Satoru looked proud. "Who?"

"S-Satoru and Utahime-sensei!"

"..." Naruto's head slowly turned to Satoru to see the man's chest puffed out like a peacock. "... what happened?" He asked in such disbelief, the 'Strongest' wilted.

"D-Don't do that to me!" He pleaded as Naruto sweatdropped and Mei Mei smirked.

"As if it wasn't obvious," the sister sorcerer smirked as Naruto nodded.

"Aniki, she used to despise you and now I'm hearing you two are going steady, what the hell could I think about that?"

"Well… I mean," Satoru scratched the side of his nose. "... that's fair. The adult world is a curious road of twists and turns, Na-Ru-To. It's bound to throw you off the freeway eventually."

"At least that's a metaphor that's easier to understand," Minato said with a nod. "And Kushina?"

"Oba-chan's honestly fine. She's not detained at her house anymore but they want her on and/or near the campus mostly. So, she just took to mentoring Momo-chan and Miwa-chan."

"I'm glad. We'll see her soon… though," the blonde man rubbed the back of his head. "Be honest with us, what's the status of the mountain and the higher-ups' interest?"

The room was silent as Naruto's head slumped.

"That bad, huh?" He asked nervously.

"Um, the thing is," Megumi rubbed the back of his head. "... Yeah. Ever since fixing the mountain, they've doubled their efforts on finding you."

"You mean-"

"No, he means finding YOU," Mai intercepted the blonde who winced. "They're convinced it's you, Naru."

"In a way, it makes sense," Minato said as he leaned back in his seat and crossed his legs in thought. "... Nothing we can do about that. You'll just need to face it without fear so we can find a way to deal with it all."

"No other way to do it," Naruto said with a determined nod. "Still, they're definitely not gonna be fans of me, huh? The Gojou Elders hate me and I can't imagine they're gonna help in this."

Satoru nodded. "They'll likely get in the way of your promotions unless you go back with the power to ignore that," he smirked. "You've got the right 'Technique' to be considered, at least, Semi-Grade 1. There's a chance they'll just jump you up there without our clan's influence."

"Wait, they can do that?" Maki asked in disbelief as Satoru nodded.

"Even students can become a Grade higher than 3 if they're talented enough, Maki."

The girl looked intrigued.

"Still, with this, things are gonna be a whole mess when the time comes," Satoru said with a hum. 'And we haven't heard anything from him,' what was his plan now?

What did Geto seek with this crazy 'End All Non-Sorcerer' plan? And hadn't he said Naruto and he, Satoru, were important?

'He knows everything there is about Naruto that's important. So, the question remains, why didn't he do anything?'

Too many questions that'd likely be answered before Halloween in two years.

'... Still,' Satoru grinned as Naruto chatted with the others with a smile, Minato and Panda laughing at some joke as Ui Ui wore a determined expression. 'We've got many things on our side.'

Things would work out. They would.

Count on it.

~NRK~

And that's a wrap on the 'connecting to canon' chapter.

Next one, it's time to return in full form to canon JJK with all the positive twists added.

Time to have some fun and have Mai figure out when to drop the news on her blonde love of her life.

Ciao.

~NRK Out~