AN: Last new chapter for this update.
Naruto had wanted to spend the rest of the day with her, had spent half of it running around the house in a game of tag and the other half dragging her around by the hand from game to game. She had gone through it all with a smile, didn't let it fall no matter how many times he looked back at her. She hadn't let the fact that he was checking she was still here every time he had to run and get a new game, had run off to grab something else to show her, get to her.
By the end of it all, he had been tired enough to drop into bed.
Even if he had stubbornly refused to just go to sleep once in bed, had wanted more than one bedtime story from her. He had nodded off more than once, had caught himself each time.
Finally, he couldn't keep it up anymore and had stopped jolting awake.
Once she was sure he was staying asleep this time, Jade had tucked him into bed before heading out the room.
Minato had been waiting for her outside the door, a conflicted expression on his face that had quickly smoothed into a face left blank.
"We need to talk?" Jade didn't even know why she asked the question.
As an answer, Minato merely held out his hand. The fact that he thought they couldn't talk in his own house made her want to wince. Regardless of her feelings, she took the offered hand with a grimace.
Moments later, they appeared in one of his many safehouses. Where exactly she had no idea.
And she promptly doubled over, a blue hand over her fanged mouth.
Jade held down the desire to hurl from travel via Flying Thunder God. She didn't exactly know what she would hurl up if she let it with the way her body had transformed. It could be anything from nothing to weird Shadow Vomit to the last thing she ate (something she had no idea what it could be, she didn't even remember the last time she did something as normal as eat).
Minato patted her on the back as he walked past her, headed to mess with something on one of the walls.
"I still hate that." She just felt weird after going through it, had no real idea why Minato's teleportation technique messed with her but it did. "You couldn't just tell me to meet you here?"
"Wouldn't make it much of a safehouse if anyone else knew about it." Minato finished what he was doing (flipping a wooden tile around) before he turned to face her. "Now, I think it's time we have a long talk about what happened."
Not related to her weird nausea, Jade grimaced.
"I figured." She dropped into the closest chair, sighed. "So, what do you want to know?"
"The Shadowkhan aren't fully under your control." At the way she jumped, she didn't have to say anything to confirm what he said. "I figured as much. They're not independent of you but they're not wholly dependent on you either." She must've been looking at him with shock he had figured it out because the blonde man continued. "You should've paid more attention when Kushina was trying to tell you about Ninjutsu. They're not common but some are similar enough to what you do for me to piece most of your abilities together. Especially with Kushina there to help."
"So is this going to be bad?" Jade was nervous, it clear on her face and in her voice. The exact thing she didn't want him to figure out, the guy in front of her figured out.
She sometimes forgot the guy was an actual genius.
"Not at all." Minato waved his hand through the air. "I kept your secret if that's what you're worried about. Anyone who asked, I gave the same answer: 'Additional security I placed around foreign Shinobi'. The Raikage may complain but he's in a bind as much as I am since it was his Shinobi was the one who violated the treaty. He either disavow his actions and leave him to us, and take a popularity hit in the Hidden Cloud, or confirm this was all smoke and mirrors to acquire the Byakugan, which risks a battle he knows he can't win." The blonde sat down across from her. He also finally noticed the renewed look of shock on her face. His face softened. "Jade, I've never questioned you about your abilities before and I don't intend to now. You're not a danger to my village or my family. As long as that holds true, you won't have to worry about telling me anything."
She didn't know what compelled her to speak her next words.
Maybe it was from visiting the temple and the familiar way it gnawed at her mind, how it wormed its way into her thoughts.
Maybe it was from seeing Naruto and spending the day with him, seeing how bad her going away had been for him.
Maybe it was being adrift in the Shadow Realm for so long, being suffused in nothing but pure Shadow Magic.
"But what if I am?"
Minato's answer was to raise an eyebrow.
His body didn't tense.
He didn't draw one of his knives.
He just waited for her to continue.
"What if I'm actually a demon?" That thought, the twisted path it had spawned in her mind, had been what drove her into the Shadow Realm for so long. She had seen what wearing an Oni Mask had turned people into, had been victim of Shadow Magic herself from putting Tarakudo's Mark on her skin as a kid, knew how dangerous even partial possession was. Her mind had been twisted, was changed to think that all-consuming darkness engulfing her was natural, that it was what she really wanted, how she got what she deserved.
It was something she had never forgotten.
It was something she couldn't forget.
Losing control like that, going from herself to…to a thing, a monster.
She never wanted it to happen again. No matter what it took.
"What if I can't control my powers anymore, if I lose control just like I lost control over the Shadowkhan? What if I hurt Kushina, hurt Naruto when I lose it?" She didn't know what she'd do if that happened, if she really did something as awful as hurt Naruto. "I can't control myself if I can't control them. If I can't control myself than that means I can't stop the Shadow Magic if it gets out."
The shadows around her were twisting, were bubbling and rising as a result of her fear. The Shadowkhan didn't rise from them because her focus was too abstract for them to draw out their form. What she was afraid of was herself after all.
If she lost control, if she ever gave in…
There was no Uncle Jackie to help undo it all again, to stop her before she could hurt someone.
"It won't come to that." Minato's calm voice cut through her panic, Jade looking up and seeing he had moved in front of her. Tan hands gently took hold of unnatural blue. "I've trusted Kushina about you for years and she's never been wrong about you. Whatever power's inside of you, whatever it tries to make you do, she's never doubted that you'll use it right. She's always had the same faith in you back then as she does now."
"I just…" Jade shook her head. "I don't know if she's right to trust me so much.:
Silence was her answer.
Minato let go of her hands.
He left her alone.
For all of three minutes.
One moment she was the only one in his safehouse and the next the occupants had more than doubled.
Minato had gone to the Hidden Sand and grabbed Kushina.
He must've explained the entire situation to her as well because she didn't waste time, grabbed Jade into a bone-crushing hug. A full-blown Mom HugTM.
Without much thought to it, Jade couldn't help but answer with her arms coming up to wrap around the woman who had been brought over from an entirely different country to help her.
"Kushi…I…I'm so sorry." Jade didn't know what else to say, could only apologize.
"Not now Jade. No saying sorry." The Jonin rubbed her back. "Just talk to me. Tell me what's going on and how we can fix it."
"I-I don't know if I can. I don't know."
"Yes we can. I'm here with you right now. I'm going to stay with you until we fix this."
Behind her, Minato nodded at his decision to bring in Kushina. He was fine to give the two some privacy with this, heading out the rarely used door to his safehouse, would spend his time sweeping the surrounding forest while he let her help Jade through this.
He was more than a little surprised to find someone outside his safehouse.
Well, he almost was.
Once he recognized who it was, it was a bit easier to accept.
The redhead didn't say anything upon his approach, the legendary eyes known as the Rinnegan coolly observing the Fourth Hokage.
"Nagato." Minato nodded to the Shinobi from the Hidden Rain. "Any reason you're here?"
"I've got a few. All of them about that babysitter of yours."
AN: And to quote IRead2MuchManga99 (appreciate the help): "The plot thickens".
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Peace.
