AN: New chapter.
Last night was…an experience. For the entire family it seemed.
Kushina had come bleary-eyed out her and Minato's room to find Jade and Naruto on a pile of pillows her Shadowkhan must had gotten…from somewhere. The pillows honestly covered an insane amount of their living room and, from how mismatched they were, had been grabbed from too many places to count.
Minato had managed a smile at Naruto snoring on top of Jade, wished he had taken a picture before Kushina had lifted Naruto up off of her and taken him to bed. Jade had snapped awake almost instantly once Kushina had begun reaching for Naruto and had met her halfway with the still snoring blonde.
Kushina leaving left Jade and Minato alone as she went to put her son to bed.
"I feel…really tired." Jade didn't know how else to describe herself at the moment.
It wasn't even a physical kind of tired. She just felt drained.
"I think we all are." Minato could admit that the night had been draining on him just as much as Kushina and, as seems to be the case, Jade as well.
"Today is going to be fun." Jade glanced around at the pillows covering the floor and couldn't help but sigh at the fluffy ocean she must've passed out in. Her Shadowkhan had definitely overdone it. "Guys, I appreciate last night but put these back where you got them, alright?" A blue hand reached out from below, grabbed every pillow, and dragged it into the shadows beneath. "And be sneaky when you put them back!"
Her half-shouted order would probably be obeyed.
Minato's amused smile dragged a tired one out of her.
"One of your pranks?"
"One of my pranks."
The lie to tell anyone who complained about stolen pillows agreed to, the two headed to the kitchen as Kushina came out of Naruto's room.
"We're lucky it's a weekend. He's still sound asleep." Kushina joined them. Violet eyes held a subdued worry as their owner looked over Jade. "You alright?"
"Nothing I can't handle." Jade's smile was better this time as she offered a helpless shrug. "Back in my old world I pulled enough all-nighters to get used to them. They still stink but I can manage."
Kushina was still worried, a silver of it coming through their bond.
"Fine. Fine. I'll take it easy today." She knew when she was in a losing battle with the Uzumaki and knew when to try her luck. This wasn't one of those times. "All I'm doing is spying anyway." She looked to Minato the same time he earned a curious look from his wife. "Right?"
"Maybe." The Hokage shrugged. "I'm waiting on a new message from the Raikage, see if he accepts just taking the two back. Then we can just move past all this."
"I still say you should let me mess with him." Jade hopped between the shadows, moving from where she was standing to next to Minato. "I could make him accept anything you want just to get rid of me." She had to stand on shadow stilts but she smiled over his shoulder at Kushina. "Just think about all the chaos I could cause. I won't even hurt anybody." Her eyes flashed. "Too much at least."
"And we've already talked about why we're not doing that." Minato only shook his head. "I want this settled just as much as you do but I want it done cleanly. This is still a best-case scenario." He looked to Kushina as Jade's response was a raspberry blown next to his ear. "Kushina? You agree with me, right?"
"Not at all." Her smile was small but it was there. "I think Jade should go get pranky on them."
"See?" Jade appeared behind the redhead, wrapped her arms around her as her head settled over her shoulder. "Your wife agrees with me. You should too."
A hand was gently, but firmly, pressed to her face and pushed her back.
"No he shouldn't." Kushina shook her head with that smile still on her face. She turned to Jade, mock disapproval on her face. "Just because I agree with you doesn't mean we should do it. We definitely shouldn't go and tie-dye all his clothes his least favorite colors. Or replace the chalk he uses to lift weights with itching powder. Or-"
Minato was the one to appear next to Kushina this time, quiet his wife with a kiss that left her blushing. Off to the side, Jade couldn't believe she had started to miss how lovey-dovey the two could be with each other while Kushina was gone. If this kept going she was going to start pretending to gag like Naruto would.
"I see where this is going." He was amused but his blue eyes turned to Jade. She tried to paint herself a picture of innocence, an expression that had literally never worked. "Let's not go prank any of the other Kage. Even if they deserve it."
"You wouldn't be saying that if it was the Tsuchikage." Kushina's smile was pure mischief as Minato made a point of looking away from his wife, tried in vain to push down the red on his cheeks.
"We're not talking about that old geezer."
"We could prank him too." Jade left Minato with that temptation while she headed to the door. "Anyway, I'm going to head out. Get an early start on my spying. I'll swing by the office if I hear anything good."
She didn't leave through the door, only grabbed her mask from the hook there before she dropped into her own shadow.
She didn't head over to the Hyuga Clan.
She didn't even leave the Shadow Realm.
"Have your fill yet?"
"Of course not." Orochimaru's smile was still on his face as he closed the book he was writing in. "You've only succeeded in drawing even more of my attention Jade-chan."
"You are so weird." Jade still 'sat' in front of him. "So, are we done? Or am I going to have to kill you or something to keep you quiet?"
"We both know that won't work." Jade 'reached out' with a not insubstantial amount of Shadow Magic, covered Orochimaru in darkness for a moment. His smile never faded. He was confident in whatever countermeasures he had in place, why he even allowed Jade to take him into the Shadow Realm to begin with.
She frowned at his lack of terror.
He was either telling the truth or his poker face was the best she'll ever see.
"You make me want to try anyway." Jade withdrew the Shadow Magic, drew herself closer to him despite how much she wanted to tear him to pieces. "Alright. What's next?"
"There's no need to rush these things." Orochimaru's golden yellow eyes met her red, amusement shining in them when there should be terror at her growing uncanny visage. "But I do have another request." He reached into a pocket of his vest and withdrew something he definitely shouldn't have.
It was the fan she had given Hiashi.
Thanks to how she had crafted it, she hadn't even known he had taken it. It was all but a normal fan until it was opened, actively called to her. She would need to fix that if she ever did it again. Something similar to what she normally tagged Naruto or Minato with, kept them, their shadows at least, in her 'sight'.
"I will require something similar." He returned it to the pocket of his vest. "Although, I would request that it be more robust. I don't need to summon you every time I use it. Any of your Shadowkhan will work just as well."
'Great. This guy has 'I'm going to try to conquer the world' written all over him.' Jade wanted to end him and be done with this but his disappearance could cause problems. He had figured out more than anyone else save for, maybe, Minato about how her powers actually worked.
And he just wanted a piece of it.
But, like everyone else, he didn't seem to know why the bond between her and Kushina even existed.
'Everyone just wants something from her. And me.'
Twenty-Two Years Ago
"Did it hurt?"
"Huh? What?"
"You know." The twelve-year old threw her arms out as if to encompass everything she wasn't saying. A dark eyebrow was raised. Kushina felt like burying her face in her hands, settled for her words after a moment. "The seal. I've never tried it before. I don't think anyone's alive ever tried it before. So…how did it feel?"
"It felt…" Jade thought back to how it had all felt a few weeks ago.
After being forcibly torn from dimension after dimension, ripped to the space between before she would appear in another, nothing really registered on her personal pain scale. Minus the aforementioned dimension traveling. That was always a solidly agonizing '10'.
"I guess it felt…really tingly?" Jade could only offer a shrug to the red-haired girl. "Like…pins-and-needles times a hundred?" Her added description only made the girl sigh.
"Forget it." Kushina relaxed back against her side. "I guess it doesn't matter now. You're still here."
"You bet I am." Jade smiled down at the girl pressed against her side. "Whatever you did, it worked."
"I'm glad it did. I thought…when I saw what was happening to you, it felt so unfair. You had saved me and you were going to just disappear like that. I couldn't let that happen." Kushina's violet eyes were focused towards the floor. "And…I..." She didn't even know if she should admit this next part.
Jade could think she was weird.
Jade could not like her.
Jade could even hate her.
But Jade also deserved to know it just as much as she did.
"When you didn't look at me like everyone else did, when you just saw me like a normal girl…I didn't want to lose someone like that. I-I've been looking for friends, even just one, for so long and I felt like you just dropped out of the air to be one. We…we could have each other. And-And I thought that would be-"
Jade stopped her from rambling with a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey kid." Her smile was wide. "Don't worry about it. You know more than I do about the seal. It was something I had to agree to just like you had to on your end. Like a contract. I'm not here because I'm stuck with you or you forced me to say yes and stay. I'm here because I want to be here for you. Got it?" She made sure the girl was looking at her, could see that she was telling the truth. "Besides, I got a best friend out of the deal too."
The smile that stretched across Kushina's face was something else. It made everything Jade had gone through worth it.
"Thanks Jade." Kushina closed her eyes. "I…I got a best friend too."
AN: Well, I'm sure nothing bad will come from Orochimaru knowing more than he should. Nothing at all.
Review/PM if you want.
Peace.
