Ch.26
"Why are you kissing my wife?!" Hiashi demanded in flabbergast.
"Because she was about to die, now she's only medically dead." Kurama told the man over Hiata's deathbed, which was moments ago just the bed in the Hyuga Compound that Hiata gave birth to a premature Hanabi Hyuga.
"She's dead?!" Hiashi bellowed in horror, as if his whole world shattered.
"Yes, but not for long. I need to prepare her body to receive her ego once more." Kurama moved her hands over Hiata's torso, around her impressive bust, to repair Hiata's necrotic lungs from the bacterial infection she had caught during her pregnancy. She would have to ensure that it didn't infect the newborn Hanabi.
"What do you mean by that?" Hiashi demanded as he grabbed Kurama's shoulders.
"By turning her into a Doll. Her ego is currently in the network, waiting for a vessel, her body cannot directly receive her without an uplink, so, Doll." Kurama bluntly informed him while adding in the seals engraved in Hiata's bones that would link the body as a Doll.
"I-you-you can't just give immortality! Hiata wants to meet her parents again once she passes of old age as we had both hoped! We were to meet in the purelands together!" Hiashi ranted.
"I'll just find a way for her to pass on when she chooses to." Kurama said, unnerved by Hiashi's insistence. Why wouldn't he want his wife to not worry about death? Why is he wanting death? Expecting it was understandable, but welcoming it?
"That's not good enough. I am ecstatic that you've found a way to stop death, but I have loved ones waiting for me. So does Hiata. We had planned to grow old together, to hold each other when our bodies start to fail us. I have seen what your Dolls are like, what Minato is like. I don't want that and Hiata didn't want it either." Hiashi said with a hard glare. "I know it might be a foreign concept to you, Kyubi, but many of us welcome death when we live a good life."
Kurama froze when she heard Hiashi call her by her title. Then she relaxed, remembering the Byakugan makes secrets from the Hyuga a polite fiction and that they just keep it in confidence, usually, unless it is a direct risk to the security of the village. Hiruzen likely already told them in advance anyway. "Well, tough shit. Hiata-chan is my friend, one of my best friends. I am bringing her back and she is going to stay young and beautiful until she chooses to pass on."
Kurama finished the process and then touched up the Doll so it was fully recovered from giving birth before she literally and metaphorically took Hiata's hand and guided her ego back to the Doll, which gasped for breath and sat up to slap Kurama, then kiss her, then slap her, then kiss her! Mixed messages! "Hiata! Thank goodness, but please let Kurama-san breathe!" San, eh? So much for Dono. Guess this means she's on Hiashi's shit list now.
=Fox=
Hiashi and Hiata were cross with Kurama for a week, but mostly got over it due to their gratitude for her saving Hiata from a premature death, along with curing the lung infection that Hanabi had indeed inherited from her mother in the womb. The Hyuga Clan as a whole was indebted to the Uzumaki Clan now, that wasn't in doubt, but the matriarch now being a Doll subservient to Kurama was a sore point, since Kurama couldn't sever Hiata without potentially harming her.
The Hyuga did put in petitions for her to do so, despite her clearly stating doing such a thing outright might just kill Hiata anyway and not mercifully. Kurama denied doing anything that could harm her friend. They had time to figure this out and try to ease her out of the network rather than trying to wholesale rip her out of it. That might result in a fate worse than death.
Then there was the troubles her other best friend, Mikoto, was having at home. She spent half her time in the Uzumaki Compound as of late due to increasing tension between her and Fugaku. "So you shoved Hiata into your creepy mind thing?" Mikoto asked nervously while having Sunday Tea with her friends like usual.
"It's not creepy!" Kurama protested. "I only overtake my Dolls when they are either simple like Furama or they send me an invite or there's an emergency."
"It's creepy." Hiata huffed. "I can hear them in my head, all the time. It's worse than my eyes. The others just note you block it out." Hiata grumbled around her teacup.
"You know you can turn that off, right, miss gossip queen? Enjoying being wired into the largest spy network in the world?" Kurama bitterly accused her friend, whose personal thoughts and feelings about how violated she felt were grating on her.
"Shut up! You can and few others like Kushina and Minato can. A lot of us are just stuck to hearing those two having sex right now." Hiata groaned looking at the roof. "I'm not just able to see if but feel, Ah~."
"Wait, you're remotely experiencing sex right now?" Mikoto asked, suddenly sounding envious.
"Between Danko-san and Urka-san, the two Dolls that are awaiting reassignment after their post in Ame was butchered by the man who killed Kushina-chan and set Kurama-chan loose when Naru-chan was born." Hiata excitedly blurted out, her nature as a Gossip Queen overflowing her disgruntlement for several moments before she remembered she was still upset.
"Is it really that bad?" Kurama chuckled, trying to ignore Hiata's mixed feelings and thoughts.
"Yes. Oh, Kushina-chan and Minato-kun are going at it now! Ugh! This is horrible, why is Minato-kun a girl, why is Kushina-chan this big fox thing with-?" Hiata squeaked as she tried hiding her face. "So scandalous~!" Kurama smirked, feeling and smelling Hiata's arousal and intense intrigue combined with amusement. "I can feel everything and see everything~."
"Yup, creepy, but kinky." Mikoto laughed harder with increased envy. "Wish I could feel that, without the whole 'hearing everyone's thoughts' thing."
"If Fugaku-san won't serve your needs, you know I'm willing and allowed to help with that." Kurama offered her bestie, who waved her hands
"No thanks, I'm not that desperate and my toys are enough for now." Mikoto assured.
"Like when you use the detachable dick to fuck the detachable massive O-cup boobs?" Hiata casually commented with a teasing smile and Mikoto turned a hilarious shade of red! "Get a bigger dick, then you can self-paizuri-."
"Children!" Kurama loudly stated and her friends ceased the naughty talk in time for Sasho to lead his fellow quintuplets on a squealing train through the tea room and back out again.
"I still don't like the immortality thing either." Hiata grumbled as her face got redder. "It's unnatural, no offense to the chakra beast in the room. I understand you were made that way."
"None taken. I am entirely artificial. Chakra itself isn't even naturally a part of this world. Every discovery made here might have long been known wherever my grandmother is from." Kurama shrugged, yet still simmered at the rift saving her friend's life had torn between them.
"Well, chakra is part of this world, if studies from the ruins your memories pointed out are to be believed. Though the people of that time, what my scholar friends are dubbing the people of sky and iron, never used chakra until they used some explosive that ended their world." Mikoto said with some disbelief.
"While that is a mystery, the 'chakra' those ruins speak of are actually what is known as Chi or Nature Chakra to the layman. This world's inherent energies are far harder to utilize and yet much more potent than Chakra. It is why Jiraiya is able to suppress me if he must and Risu is not around." Chi is just incredible, but oh so difficult to harness.
"I can guess. Did you hear that these people once flew into the sky?! They also apparently destroyed the moon, which I find hard to believe with it still in the sky." Hiata gushed before sipping her tea.
"Their moon looks different from the one in our sky, less of those circles and dark spots." Mikoto giggled and Kurama rolled her eyes.
"That's because the moon in our sky is my 'mother's' corpse, the Juubi. Remember what I told you about my father and all that." Kurama reminded her friends.
"Oh, right. Sorry, the journals on this topic are all conjecture and we barely know anything. The city they've been studying was hidden under the sea. It is all rusted metals, glass and structures that are theorized to have been so tall, just one of them could contain half the village." Hiata claimed much to Mikoto's awe.
"Interesting. I've encountered similar ruins. I bet this is Hiruzen's doing." Kurama hummed.
"He did send out teams to investigate your memories. The Old Tribes as they are being called from those areas have strange stories. They find the use of Chakra as a bizarre power and call it magic or something like that. They also use devices that are powered by steam, but are so isolated that it's hard to get examples back. Turns out the Land of Snow was once one of these tribes and that's why they have such advanced tools." Mikoto said as she retrieved a pamphlet from her pack about the Land of Snow.
"You carry archeological pamphlets in your handbag?" Kurama asked incredulously while Hiata snickered and Mikoto pouted at her friends with a blush.
"This is a travel pamphlet for a vacation. They have amazing hot springs. I went there in my youth before the coup." Mikoto explained with a blush.
"Pfft, 'in your youth', we're still in our twenties." Hiata reminded Mikoto playfully.
"I was five." Mikoto defended.
"Then isn't it 'when I was a little girl'?" Kurama pointed out and Mikoto rolled her eyes.
"I'm starting feel old with all the shit Fugaku-san is doing and the elders hounding us." Mikoto huffed as she crossed her arms. "At least he's bedding me again even if it's because we're both pissed at each other or someone else."
"Offer is still open." Kurama said with concern for her friend's sexual and mental health.
"I can manage a few more years. I think I actually have a case going now that he's bedding me. I think the guilt of maybe sleeping with another woman might be getting to him. Happened to my great grandmother. I've asked someone to look into his retreats and what not." Mikoto said with a scowl.
"Well, whenever you need help, you know my home is open to you." Kurama swore.
=Fox=
"Itachi-san, do you know what happened to Shisui-san and Danzo-san?" Minato asked the young Uchiha heir as he stared at the autopsy reports of both men's deaths. It was suspicious that both of them had heart attacks as the main cause of death just minutes between each from across the village. Especially when Shisui and Danzo were reportedly seen together recently.
"Shisui-kun had been meeting with The Illusive Man to explain how we can stop the Uchiha from rebelling." Itachi stated, causing Minato and Hiruzen to boggle at him in confusion.
"Itachi-san, what are you talking about? How long has this operation been going on?" Minato demanded gravely with a dangerous glare leveled at the prodigy.
"A few years. Were you not informed? Shisui-kun and I have been in contact with the Elders and Root who have been funding the mission." Itachi said in confusion.
"...My lad. Tell us all what you have done, all that you can, then, depending, we may need to secret you away somewhere…" Hiruzen said with lament.
=Fox=
Naru didn't understand exactly what happened at first. She and her age-mates had just joined the Academy. Then, something…horrible happened to Sasuke's and his mom's family and they moved into her home. Not that she was frustrated about it, it meant she could spend more time with her best friend! But Sasuke was really moody and refused to tell her what was wrong.
It took only a few days, but the news reached the ears of the kids. Sasuke's whole clan, besides his mom, were murdered by his big brother in one night. Itachi spared Sasuke and his mom was staying in the Uzumaki Compound for a few days when it happened. Naru hugged Sasuke all afternoon when they got home from school despite his protests.
"Oka-chan, is Sasuke-san our onii-san and Mikoto-san our ba-san now?" Nobu, the eldest son of the Uzumaki Clan, asked his mom at dinner and Naru smiled at her cousin's question. Since there were so many of them, dinner was had at both a big oval table and a few small round tables depending on if someone didn't want to be crowded or be left mostly alone at dinner. That said, Sasuke and Mikoto were seated at one of the smaller tables like usual.
"No, they are just staying until they can find a home for themselves, but they are welcome here as family if they wish." Aunt Kurama answered with a sad smile in Mikoto's direction and the somber woman weakly smiled back from where she and Sasuke were eating in silence.
"Don't treat Sasuke-kun any differently. He's still your friend and he needs friends right now too." Mother asserted and got agreeing nods from the other adults.
"Can Sasuke-kun play?" Naruko asked with a wide smile and Naru frowned. She knew Naruko had a crush on him, but Naru refused to let anyone get too close to her best friend! Besides, the last thing he needs is someone fawning over him, not even her sisters and cousins.
"Honey, it's late. You have to ask him tomorrow after school." Dad told her sibling and Naruko puffed up her cheeks adorably. The cute little terror was such a selfish brat sometimes. At least Narue had manners. The less said about Naruto, the better. Ugh. Her little brother was such a pain! "Naru, no disparaging thoughts about your siblings at dinner." Dang it dad!
"They and the girls at school are not nice. Sasuke-kun needs space, not fangirls." All the adult boys shivered in fear, Naru knew about it from when the adults talked about the past.
"Well, that's frustrating." Dad commented bitterly and began whispering with mom.
"No more adult stuff! I'm talking to Shu-Shu." Naru huffed before she closed her eyes and appeared in the white place with the big tan doggy who ranted about blood. "Blood is icky!"
"You! Who are you?! I shall introduce to death and taxes!" Shu-Shu declared as he swung at the giant bars around him.
"Hey Shu-Shu! Where's Gar-Gar?" Naru casually asked while looking around for the redhead.
"Grr, ignoring me in favor of his uncle." Shu-Shu snarled as he looked to the sunless sky. Then he bag an laughing. "Yes! Kill that man! You only exist to kill!"
"That's mean! Nobody exists to kill!" Naru scolded the giant, even knowing he wouldn't listen.
"Quite, pest! He's killing his uncle! I'll be free!" Shu-Shu cheered.
"Nuh-uh, someone like you shouldn't be free until you learn your lesson." Naru chided.
"Bwah? Lesson? You know I'm a demon, right? My oba-san is the moon? You know the Jubi?" Shu-Shu asked in bafflement.
"I know ba-chan Kurama and she learned her lesson, so could you!" Naru insisted firmly.
"Bwah? No! He let his uncle go! No! I missed my chance! You pest! I'll find you and make Gaara kill you! No, I'll get free and do it myself! Your innards will be littered for miles!" Shu-Shu screamed and Naru scoffed before with some focus, a distraught Gaara was beside her, crying, so she hugged him and shushed into his ear. Too much adult stuff all the time.
=Fox=
"Goku-san is being mean, Iruka-sensei. How do I make a big monkey like me?" Naru asked her teacher during lunch and the scar-faced man blinked a few times, paused with soba hanging from his pursed lips before he finished slurping them up.
"Who is Goku-San?" Iruka asked, wondering who his student had met today. He was certain that he didn't have a student named Goku, nor any other teacher in the academy.
"He's the Seiten Taisei Son Gokū. I met him in the white place in my mind I go to when I close my eyes!" Naru explained eagerly and Iruka quickly looked around, glad for the moment that the precocious tan-skinned blond was a pariah for no fault of her own.
"...Don't mention that to more people. As for how to get a monkey to like you, you should ask the Third Hokage, since he has a summoning contract with the Monkey Clan." Iruka suggested and Naru beamed brightly that her gramps might have the answer.
"Okay! I'll do that after school! It's so boring here and many of the teachers are throwing me out of class." Naru complained. "So what if I got a question wrong because I talk to animals in my head?" Iruka jost got this weird sad face and he tousled her hair! "Hey~!" She doesn't fuss over her hair like other girls do, but she didn't like people messing with it!
"I'll be having a talk with your parents about all this, so don't worry about it." Iruka then got this oddly eager look before he closed his eyes and smiled.
"Okay, I'll got play with Hinata-chan and Sakura-chan now. Sakura-chan's been weird, she's gushing all over Sasuke-kun and fighting with Ino-chan about it." Naru grumbled as she left.
Iruka waited until she was gone before his face became grim and he tapped his throat. "Iruka to pod, the school is going in circles, over." Then he went back to his lunch, all was normal.
=Fox=
"I'm so tired." Sasuke grunted once he and Naru got home. "Why did we have to, ugh, run from them? Why are they obsessed with me?" Sasuke asked his best friend, who was also a girl, even if she seemed to be the most boyish girl around.
"Eh, more the 'hn'. You must be tired." Naru groaned as her legs ached. Sasuke had been only saying 'hn' to any questions he got that were not school related for two months since his clan died. "And we had to run because someone decided to say I was their girlfriend to get them off their back."
"Sorry if you're the only girl I can stand recently." Sasuke grumbled and Naru turned red.
"Hinata is another." Naru looked away. "And you're like my brother, ew!"