Ch.20
"You're pregnant~." Kurama cheered again before resumed making out with Kushina.
"Shut up~." Kushina muffled against her wife's lips and eagerly pressed their stomachs together. While neither of them were very far along and barely showing, the idea still turned them both on greatly that later, they will be bumping quite the bellies.
"Want you~." Kurama groaned as a shiver ran up her spine.
"Me too~, but…" Kushina bit her lip in horny dismay and Kurama sighed with a nod. Work before pleasure and while they really wanted to, time was not on their side right now. Not with having to run damage control with Minato being reintroduced as the Fourth Hokage, but not as acting Hokage. That said, his wives need to have a show of solidarity, which, considering Kurama's marriage to him is a secret considering her true nature, meant they could not be too open.
"I hate Hiruzen-san, giving me all the duties of a Hokage, but keeping all the public duties. Now I'm stuck in this office doing paperwork all day!" Minato raged and his clone at the desk did too.
"We are here to help, dear." Kushina said before she finished pushing the cart with more paperwork to Minato's desk, which Kurama had interrupted with her kissing and petting.
"Any more and I will need to actually work! What is even with half of this? What happened in the last two years?" Minato raged while holding up a file. "When I wanted to relax the academy, it was to keep children in it longer! Not dumb it down to the point Fan Girls will actually reach the field before that trait is squashed."
"Wait, what?" Kushina asked with rage. "This is proposed by the civilian faction? When did they have the authority to propose laws on Ninja affairs?!"
"Ugh, I gave them some power two months before Naru was born. It was a check and balance measure only to keep the Ninja and Elders in check. I have no idea how it could have snowballed into this unless the other two councils aided them."
"This reeks of Shimura." Kurama growled with a raised clenched fist.
"To you, honey, everything stinks of Danzo-san." Kushina sweatdropped.
"And I can assure you it was not me. I may have used the situation to my advantage when I thought it could have propelled my agenda, but I never pushed for them to have so much power. Several Merchant Clans connected to the Ninja council are being blackmailed.
"Humora-san and Koharu-san think that having a stronger civilian council is a good idea in peace-time, while the corrupt civilian merchants are pushing their agenda to get their children through the Academy so they can claim they are shifting to ninja status to gain greater influence and status in Konoha." Danzo explained as he laid a scroll on the desk.
"Bwah! When did you get here?!" Kurama flinched away from the heavily bandaged old man.
"I just arrived via the ANBU entrance. I'm delivering my report on my former organization. They are still following many of my old plans and I believe they've activated a contingency I had called Izanagi. A subordinate of mine who volunteered to be surgically turned into a copy of my younger self should have been given my last recorded mindset. He will believe he is me, having all my memories up until Kurama arrived. We have checked all of the bases in Konoha, Root has truly fled and gone to ground with subject Izanagi missing." Danzo reported grimly.
"So how do we know you're not the clone feeding Root information?" Kurama asked with suspicion and crossing her arms under her bust while scanning the man with her angry gaze.
"Blood tests and Tsunade-sama." Danzo told her before turning to leave. "I will do my best to correct my mistakes. With Minato-sama in charge, I know Konoha will not be as soft as Hiruzen would have it."
"I'll take the compliment, but he nor I are trusting you with such power again." Minato told the man with a glare.
"After this debacle, I don't blame you." Danzo said while he rubbed his side. "My own men declaring I was under a genjutsu, bah."
"You trained them too well." Minato said with a roll of his eyes.
"I may have. Good Day, Minato-sama." Danzo said his posture slumped in shame before he exited the office.
"Are we really not going to kill him? He's practically confessed to treason." Kurama grumbled.
"He's too valuable to kill and while he may have committed crimes worthy of prison, recent events and his own admission shows he left Root to operate almost autonomously with him only signing off."
"How Root carried out those actions, what acts they committed, how they got funds, how they recruited and even how they operated on the day to day was largely done by Root officers. The only thing Danzo had in terms of direct control was their loyalty which they lost once he started a 180 in his personal decisions."
"They are more loyal to the idea of Danzo as Hokage than they are to the man." Minato explained with a scowl. "They're even more set on the idea of Konoha as the only ruling village."
=Fox=
"Kurama, we need to deal with the kids. Or I can do it and you can go to Minato." Kushina told the demoness who had groped her buns of steel. Milfy cake buns, but still steel~.
"Alright, alright. I'm sorry, I just…this is the first time I really feel like I belong in this relationship with how receptive you are." Kurama giggled while kneading her wife's tight ass.
"I want milk! I want milk! Give me milk!" Naru whined as she reached for Kurama's bust. "I want milky!" Kurama sighed, because when Naru learned the milk she was drinking from her sippy cups was still coming from her breasts, Naru wanted it from the tap.
"Sweetie, just let me go to the fridge and-."
"No~! I want milk from ka-chan!" Naru demanded irately. Terrible Twos indeed…
"Naru." Kurama warned before she felt her chakra being pulled as Naru's eyes turned red when her tantrum started. "That's enough!" Kurama shouted and Naru's fire vanished fast before she began bawling and ran away, filling Kurama with dread and regret, but Kushina hugged her and shushed her as she sat her down on the nearby chair before she rushed off after Naru.
"Everything okay?" Shikazu asked when he entered, surprising Kurama.
"You're home?" Kurama asked in shock. "That was, is-?"
"Still on the job, had to be the runner for some intelligence that may help with the talks. I'm only here for a few hours and got permission to pop in. The commander didn't want the Chunin to handle the info." Shikazu stated while he drew near her and hugged her.
"Why?" Kurama asked with concern.
"Some of them have gone MIA. I put in a suggestion that we pull out of the operation zone to the Hokage. He said he agrees, but the withdrawal will take up to the end of the year. We have to finish what tasks we started and move personnel and equipment back in waves. I'll probably be one of last ones out." Shikazu told her with a compassionate look. "I'll be home soon."
"I hope so, because even with Minato and Kushina, Naru alone is a handful. At least Nobu and Naga seem much calmer children than them." Kurama sighed, both looking forward to and dreading the birth of her quintuplets. Since they were Nara children, they too were almost guaranteed to be boys with an inclination towards intelligence.
"I'm sure you can handle them all." Shikazu said before Kushina ran from Naru who was glowing red and crying about milk. "Naru just happens to be the real challenge."
=Fox=
"I want toy!" Naru declared, pointing at a fox plush while other customers of the general store glared at them.
"I can make you a toy, dear." Kurama promised and Naru, despite her petulance, cheered up and dropped it because she too knew her ka-chan was great at making things.
"I wanna go red!" Naru declared, tugging on Kurama's dress, the five month pregnant woman almost tripping, but a nearby patron, despite his disgust with the redhead's daughter, helped steady her with a pitying expression. At five months with quintuplets, Kurama had already surpassed her biggest size when pregnant with her twins and getting around was tough.
"Only at home or at a training ground, honey. You will scare people." Kurama nodded gratefully at the man for helping her and went back to putting her purchases in her basket.
"Can't everyone go red?" Naru asked with adorable ignorance.
"No, honey, you're…special." Kurama knew Naru wouldn't understand, even as brilliant as she was, but she couldn't avoid the topic entirely
"Like tou-chan! Is that why I only see tou-chan-fox?" Naru questioned.
"No, tou-chan is special in a different way. You're both very important to me." Kurama soothed on the way to the cashier, who glared at Naru, but shared the same pitying expression for Kurama before beginning to tally up her purchases.
"Then tou-chan-fox and ka-chan-fox are special too?" Naru tugged at her orange dress. Kurama didn't understand the girl's obsession with such a bright, autumn color. Then again, she was an autumn baby.
"Yes, sweetie, they are." Kurama confirmed after paying and recieving her receipt and led Naru out of the general store.
"I want ice cream!" Naru declared before spotting ichiraku's. "That smell good! ka-chan!"
"That is the food of the gods, my dear." Kurama blushed when her massive belly roared. "Mm…Naru, will you behave so ka-chan can eat with you?"
"Yeah! Yeah!" Naru cheered and hurred to the bar, where she climbed onto a stool. "Wow~!"
"Whoa, Kurama-chan, is it a good idea for you to be going around in your state?" Teuchi kindly asked when Kurama passed the noren to set her basket on the counter and took a seat.
"I'm fine. Besides, with Minato and Kushina so busy with assisting Hiruzen-kun and Shizune-chan's apprenticeship with Tsunade-chan reducing her availability to babysit, I still have to handle some of the shopping and take Naru with me since Inu, while a capable ANBU, is still a very young man and not fully qualified to handle such a spirited child." Kurama replied tiredly.
"I fire butt!" Naru cheerfully declared.
"She put a candle to his rear as a prank." Kurama clarified.
"That sounds mean." Ayame pouted disapprovingly. "Well, what'll you have?"
"All raman!" Naru declared with her arms wide.
"Three large miso pork and one medium miso." Kurama told them.
"If you were anyone else I'd bring out the bucket, but I know you can hold it even when not pregnant. Coming up."
"What is miso?" Naru asked with a tilt of her head and squinting her eyes in a way that made her look like a fox.
"It's soy essence, sweetie." Kurama patiently answered.
"Those crunchy beans oba-chan say are good?" Naru scrunched her face.
"Yes and you should eat them." Kurama affirmed Tsunade's words.
"Blach! No!" Naru declared making a disgusted face and folding her arms. This lasted until a bowl of heavenly broth and noodles was put in front of her. "...Where beans?" Nobody said anything as she took the fork, something only given to children too young to have learned how to use chopsticks, then had a taste. Then she was shoveling noodles into her mouth.
"Most kids this young can't eat that, is she going to be okay?" Ayame asked.
"This brat can eat a kunai and poop out iron pellets, she'll be just fine." Kurama deadpanned.
If you say so." Ayame said as she watched the two scarf down their bowls of ramen.
=Fox="
Kurama came home to find Minato slaving over paperwork before he spotted her. "Kurama! Do you have the receipt from your shopping trip?"
"Yes, why?" Kurama blinked in bemusement while Naru sleepily staggered to the nap-mat.
"Hand it over!" Minato demanded with fury lacing his voice.
"I didn't spend much…" Kurama defensively muttered, but handed it over anyway.
"I fucking knew it!" Minato vindictively snarled.
"Bad word…" Naru mumbled against the pillow on the napping mat.
"Kurama, I just went through the ledger and realized everyone in the Uzumaki Clan has been getting grossly overcharged! From 20 to 50 percent over the actual prices! The only reason you didn't really notice was because Hiruzen-san supported you at first, then you began raking in tons of money from your royalties for advancements in Fuinjutsu." Minato stressed irritably.
"They said those were tax?" Kurama questioned.
"No, they have been robbing the clan! That 'tax' was them forcing us to pay extra to spite Naru's existence! I am taking this straight to Hiruzen-san." Minato seethed and then Hiraishin'd away.
"Fox-tou-chan angry at me?" Naru asked as she began to sniffle.
"No, silly girl, he's angry for you. People have been hurting us without us knowing. I'll explain more when you're older, honey." Kurama sat down in the big chair of the living room and reclined, giving a relieved sigh as the pressure on her ankles vanished and the massage feature of the big, soft chair kicked in.
"ka-chan tired?" Naru asked as she jumped from the nap mat to climb into Kurama's side to snuggle against her belly on the plush armrest, already recovered from her food coma. "Milky?"
"Naru, why do you want milk all the time?" Kurama asked in exasperation.
"I feel close to ka-chan, it's warm and helps me sleep." Naru mewled.
"Tsunade-chan did say something about that way back. No, you can't keep drinking from-mm~..." Kurama's words were made invalid by Naru ducking under her shirt and suckling from her right G-cup breast. The breast reduction she had gotten was quickly on its way to being undone. "Oh. Even that makes me tired." Kurama groaned as the stress of the day practically flowed from her into Naru as the toddler drank.
=Fox=
"It is safe for her to still drink, she just can't be dependent on it. In fact, it's really healthy for her to drink until she's at least five. The issues I'm concerned about are psychological. If you indulge her too much or make it her primary meal, she can become far too attached to you." Tsunade told Kurama as the vixen lounged in the blonde woman's homey living room by the fire. The evening was cold even if the day had been rather warm for late winter.
"Being attached is an issue? I weaned her under your advice." Kurama asked in confusion.
"I know, I know, but what I'm talking about is that Naru may not develop her sense of independence from you if she feels you are her primary source of food. She needs to eat by herself over time. Breast milk should be more of a supplement at this stage." Tsunade tried to clarify. "Giving it to her is always fine, but the actual act of breastfeeding should be kept to a minimum so she grows independent of you."
"Okay, so the fact we've all been drinking my milk has been okay?" Kurama queried curiously.
"More than okay. Again, human breastmilk is easily one of the healthiest, most nutritious things for humans to consume. Your milk also just happens to taste both creamy and a tangy." Tsunade licked her lips. "My own milk tastes similar, but not as tangy."
"Now I'm wondering if my real body's milk would be like that." Kurama muttered. "I should check myself in the seal. I haven't done that in a while."
"Let us all know of any new developments." Tsunade reminded and Kurama rolled her eyes.
"Unless I can leave Naru with a proper chakra body I doubt much will change." Kurama huffed, annoyed she can't even have a sliver out of her old body so she could truly meet her spouses.
"Why not give it a try?" Jiraiya said from his writing desk. "I can monitor the seal with Minato, you could make like a body the size of a regular fox kit or something without killing Naru."
"Um, well, yeah, let's try, as long as it won't hurt Naru!" Kurama said with a stern glare.
"Yeah, yeah, let's get going." Jiraiya chuckled before he Shunshin'd away.
Kurama rushed to the seal and sat there, looking over her body. Other than having a male organ along with female organs, not much has changed other than she was thinner. She was just as dense in chakra as she always was, but it was more packed, lithe, like coiled springs rather than the thick trees she had before.
Then she felt it. The Eight Trigrams Seal was altered just a bit for her to push a claw through. She gulped since she pushed more chakra out of the seal than she had before, moving her mind with it. She heard Naru mewling in her sleep as her Chakra formed a proper body, not a Doll, not a Shadow Clone, but a proper body outside the seal.
Looking about, Kurama saw everyone was bigger than her. "I'm the size of a toy!"