Ch. 20
New Discoveries
After getting out of the hospital, Moriko was unceremoniously dragged to the Hyuga Branch Clan to be looked over by someone with a well-trained byakugan.
...
Hizashi, having heard of impromptu guests asking for a favor from the Clan, limped out to see what the fuss was about as someone fetched the person with the best eyes and the best medical knowledge. The Uzumaki woman flushed as she fidgeted but she didn't complain as two of his clansmen poked and prodded at her, both growing frustrated at their lack of in-depth medical knowledge. The Uzumaki responded to something said before her hands glowed green and she sank the chakra into her side where he had struck her previously. The Hatake seemed to panic before swiftly stopping her from using her chakra leading to the two of them bickering.
Hizashi's brows furrowed as he watched her pause her conversation with Hatake to speak with his clansmen. This was highly unusual. Not only did she know an intensive discipline like sealing but she knew healing as well, both needing years to master. Having someone train as long as she had was very unusual, starting at such an old age even more so. And the Hokage had wanted his clan connected to her from what Hizashi had gathered. With how she had befriended the Uchiha clan after saving its two heirs instead of demanding compensation, Hizashi had a suspicion that this was why the Hokage had wanted his clan indebted to her.
The previously self-isolating Uchiha clan had begun to engage with the village more over the past seven or eight years or so, seemingly dragged into social events by their friendship with the woman. Not only had the Uchiha gained a seal against eye thieves and a sealing master of their own in Itachi, but they had begun relaxing their policies on allowing some of their ninjas into the medical corps in the last two years, something that had not been done previously. Hizashi suspected that the Hokage might attempt to leverage Moriko to allow for some of the Hyuga to join the medical corps as well. He could already see the frustration on a couple of his clan members' faces at their lack of knowledge. If it wasn't for the increasing discomfort of the woman being examined and the insistence of her long-time friend, the famous Kakashi no Sharingan who had taken her from the hospital, he might have suspected her to be there on orders of their village leader.
"Dammit Kakashi," she snapped in English, and Hizashi's eyebrows rose in further surprise at the fluency of her words in the code.
"You know I heal fast, and I even have a bit of medical training, just let it go. They said that I was fine," she snapped as the copy nin straightened from his usual slouch, his firm posture causing her to shift on her feet in surprise at his sudden intensity.
"We both know how dangerous seals are." His firm words made her pursed her lips as she looked away. She seemed to think for a minute before she shot him a contemplative look.
"What are you really worried about?" she suddenly asked as the man's posture eased slightly now that she seemed to be listening.
"I could still feel the chakra from the seal in your clothing when I picked it up in the hospital, and it's been over a day, and it hasn't been fading. It's why I brought you straight here. With the intensity of chakra burns that occurred, it might have messed with any other seals on your body. From what Sasuke said, it took them a while to get you out from the barrier and any burns and embedded chakra you might have sustain would have probably healed before the barrier was lowered, meaning there would be no evidence of chakra burns that could destabilize some of your seals, but the chakra would be embedded in you." he finally said.
Her face suddenly blanched in realization. Her hand released the gravitational seal on her sternum swiftly before Hizashi watched her start to remove a seal on her arm entirely. One by one, she set about swiftly removing every seal on her body, Hizashi's eyebrows slowly climbing with the number of them, the majority he didn't know the purpose of.
"I didn't even think of that, thank you Kakashi. Are there any seals I missed Maiko-san?" Moriko said as the Hyuga woman reactivated her eyes.
"There are two on your hands, the one on your sternum, two on your back, and one on your wrist," she said, making Moriko grimace. Moriko grimaced before removing the one on her sternum, her gravitational seal. There was a sudden uptick in her body's movement speed and Hizashi assumed that that was the gravitational seal. She paused regarding the ones on her hands before grimacing.
"Kakashi, I don't think I can remove the rest of them myself. Could you go get sensei?" she asked. Her friend nodded once before disappearing in a blur.
There was a knock at the gate and soon three Uchiha were escorted in. Hizashi's eyebrows rose seeing Fugaku, Mikoto, and Shusui Uchiha make their way in. He supposed he shouldn't be too surprised with how the boy, Sasuke Uchiha, had been sent home by the copy nin. The boy had most likely told his parents what was going on, but it was a bit surprising to see that the rumors were definitely true and that the clan heads were friendly enough to come themselves.
The Uzumaki grimly looked at her hands as her friends questioned what was going on.
"Kakashi made a really good point, one that Sensei and I didn't think of. I'm really lucky he pointed this out before it became a problem," she said as she flexed her hands before explaining how faulty seal explosions sometimes concentrated chakra strong enough to start altering the matrix of an already-existent seal, causing unknown effects.
While Fugaku and Mikoto shot each other an alarmed look, Shisui asked "What could be some of the usual unknown effects?" Moriko's face was grim.
"They usually explode," she said causing several people to blanch as Hizashi winced. Both the Hyuga and the Uchiha had seals against eye thieves, meaning that this applied to all of them. The Uchiha shared a look with Moriko, seeming to have an unspoken conversation as the young woman nodded.
"I'll see if Itachi, Jiraiya, and I can't come up with a solution," she said as the two Uchiha nodded, clearly relieved just by her given word. That in itself spoke a lot for the relations between the two groups if her word alone was something that they trusted enough. Hizashi looked around the courtyard of his new clan compound, taking in the old Oba from the Uchiha clan that had drifted in as well as a few of the Uchiha kids who began socializing with his clan members. Soon the Toad sage arrived along with the Hokage's son Asuma, Sharingan no Kakashi, and the Green Beast of Konoha, her rumored training partners. The sage was in the middle of removing the seal on her back when the Hokage arrived, his bodyguards Raido, Genma, and Iwashi following. Soon Hizashi found his compound locked down by the Hokage once he understood the gravity of the situation. The man puffed on his pipe before seeming to come to a conclusion.
"Cat, go find Itachi-kun, he will need to know this information. Jiraiya, I will need you to create seals to restrict this information. Moriko-san, we will have you examined until the embedded chakra has faded from your system; no seals on your body and limited chakra usage until then. As for the information on how to disrupt seals on the body, this is an S-class secret punishable by death. To ensure no accidents happen with the children, they will be sealed against being able to communicate it. Everyone under Jonin will be sealed as well since this is a village secret." the Hokage snapped out. Moriko groaned as her teacher finally finished removing the large seal on her back, Hizashi's attention bouncing back and forth from the different happenings.
Her small chakra presence was suddenly like a leaden weight on Hizashi's senses and he could see a few twitches in the crowd as they reacted to it. Gai beamed at her, Kakashi clapping her on the back as Asuma shook his head ruefully at the woman. They talked about something and the young woman gave a nervous laugh as her hand blurred and she accidentally smacked herself in the face with it. She blinked in shock as her friends burst out laughing at her shocked face as her nose began to bleed. Glaring she disappeared in a blur before reappearing on the other side of the courtyard, clearly annoyed as Hizashi read the group's lips to try to understand what had happened. Jiraiya shot her a disapproving glare as the younger woman cringed but tried to ignore him as he stomped over to where she was going through the motions of limbering up.
"I told you to release the seal fully every month," the sage scolded as the young woman blushed deep red, Hizashi reading their lips as the young woman got a dressing down.
"Look at you, you can barely move without overextending yourself! Damn it Moriko, no more gravitational seal until you can acclimate yourself to not going through a wall at regular gravity," he snapped as she puffed up clearly irate.
"It feels too weird like I'm all floaty, I don't like this!" she hissed clearly frustrated as she seemed to do a full-body shudder scrubbing at her arms to get rid of the feeling. Jiraiya sighed.
"I thought you were releasing the seal all the way." When she didn't meet his eye he sighed.
"Fine. I'll make one you can't abuse since you can't be trusted with the other." he snipped as she shot him an outraged look. Their conversation rapidly went through English, French, Spanish, and German as the two argued. Hizashi sighed, not knowing any of the other languages enough to follow the conversation despite having the clearance for Spanish and French. The density of her muscles and bones suddenly made sense, as well as the slow beat of her heart, however, it did not account for her oddly large lungs, the chakra pathways around her eyes, or her odd reproductive track.
"Yosh! I will help you acclimate to this gravity within the day Moriko-chan and if I cannot-" Hizashi tuned out Gai's yelling as Shisui flashed over with a mischievous grin.
"Tag," he teased as he tried to poke Moriko. She dodged before the two became a blur before taking off to leave the compound only for Shisui to bounce off the barrier that still locked down the compound. Several people lost their composure in surprise as they snorted or laughed loudly. Moriko had fallen over laughing as she grabbed the Uchiha before he could stagger off the roof, clearly dazed. Soon his clansmen were checking the Uchiha for concussion as Moriko used medical ninjutsu to feel for swelling in the skull. Determining that the young man had a mild concussion, his family escorted him to the hospital, Moriko stating that she wasn't confident in her medical skills to treat the brain just yet.
...
The next night the Hyuga and the Uchiha had cleared her for seal usage and Jiraiya gave her a modified gravitational seal that would only need her chakra control to increase or decrease so if she focused she could raise or lower the gravity without needing to touch the seal. It also had a limit on it now but was still high enough for Moriko's liking. Now able to move normally once more with the seal in place, she, Jiraiya, and Hiruzen had been drinking Sake on the back porch and admiring the full moon, having a moon viewing party. Of course, the conversation turned toward work.
Moriko was currently going over the refurbishment of the old Izayoi compound that Hiruzen had gifted her for her clan and was inventorying all the work that it needed. She was also thinking about selling some of her seals to the village ninja and had asked the Hokage for advice on how best to go about it. Jiraiya was having issues contacting some of his spies in a certain section of Fire Country and might need to leave the village to check on them.
After a particularly stressed Hiruzen had gone over projected losses of shinobi and projected population growth, the issue of how to slow the rate of shinobi they were losing was brought up, as well as the New Hospital Hiruzen had commissioned a few months ago, and the final finalizations of the building plans being made.
"Tsunade wanted to have a trained medic-nin available on every team that was sent out, but the council shut that down, stating it wasn't feasible. At this point however, if we don't stem the number of shinobi lost, our future is going to be bleak indeed," he said as Moriko and Jiraiya sipped their sake, thinking over the problem at hand. The full moon hung bright and full in the sky as the first hints of cherry blossoms grew on the trees in the backyard.
"Well, the council is right, sending a lone medic on a team isn't feasible. Medics are rare considering the amount of time and refinement that goes into making such a valuable resource and putting one in the front line of danger is risking all the time and effort that went into making one," said Moriko as the Hokage grimaced.
"Besides, the medic-nin is going to be missing most resources that they could use if they were in a hospital," Jiraiya murmured as Hiruzen shot them annoyed looks.
"We need to stem our losses though, or we are going to be facing a shortage of ninjas in the next fifteen years," Hiruzen argued as Moriko frowned thoughtfully.
"Let's say we do implement that system. We need to create a specialized defense for the medics then to protect them since they will be targeted first on a team if identified. We also need to look into chakra storage for them since they might need more than what they've got to work with since many medics tend to have less chakra but finer control," she said causing Jiraiya and Hiruzen to share a look as they thought about how Mito had created such a seal for her grandaughter Tsunade. Jiraiya imagined an army of medic-nin wielding Tsunade's power and gave a light shudder as Hiruzen shot the younger man a smirk, having a good idea where his thoughts led.
"A mobile defense that is prioritized to the medic would be best," said Jiraiya as Moriko nodded looking thoughtful.
"It also needs fuel. Maybe it absorbed ninjutsu and kinetic motion," she said causing the other two to trade interested looks.
"And if the barrier is overloaded?" Asked Jiraiya as Moriko tapped her finger to her chin.
"Have a seal that converts it to chakra. When the medic has enough, have the rest stored in their seal. They are going to need several storage seals though in case the first gets overloaded. If the seal fills all the seals, have the barrier target the chakra signature of the person attacking since it should have received enough of the person's chakra at that point to identify them, then the secondary section of the seal goes on the offensive. Or maybe there is a secondary seal that gets triggered when the barrier seal begins to overload... Hmmm..." Moriko trailed off as she thought it over sipping her sake the others doing the same. Blinking out of her thoughts she clapped her hands to immerse herself in the present.
"What are your thoughts, Sensei?" she asked as Jiraiya seemed to mull it over.
"What we need to do is find a way to marry these ideas to solutions. Having a mobile medic protected by a fortress of seals is one solution, but the point of having medics on the teams was to give ninjas enough time to be treated at the hospital or to keep the team in the field. However, there are just some wounds that are too delicate that require more intensive treatment... So how do we get the ninja to the hospital and cut down the time between receiving the fatal wound and getting treatment?" Jiraiya mused as Moriko and Hiruzen shot each other a thoughtful look. Jiraiya's thoughts had drifted towards his lost student Minato and his infamous fuinjutsu adaptation of the Flying Thunder God. It had been an original seal that had been created by the second Hokage with help from his sister-in-law, Mito Uzumaki. He could tell that Hiruzen might have been thinking about the same. Maybe Moriko had inherited the Uzumaki gene that made all Uzumaki particularly deadly when it came to seals.
"Let's say that we can teleport a gravely wounded ninja to the hospital, what then?" asked Hiruzen as Moriko frowned, Jiraiya looking thoughtful. Jiraiya gestured for Moriko to take over the conversation, seeing she wanted to say something.
"Well, a lot of people don't know how badly they are hurt because of adrenaline. We could build in a failsafe to ensure that if the ninja in question is damaged to a certain extent, the seal triggers without their consent and they are deposited in the hospital into a specifically constructed trauma ward. From there the staff would have to fight the clock to save their life. Unless we removed the need to fight the clock as well," Moriko pointed out as Jiraiya made a noise of surprise.
"Like a stasis seal, but made for humans!" he gasped, dark eyes gleaming with ideas as his student grinned fondly happy to see her sensei so enthused about an idea.
"Maybe we can make a permeable barrier where the stasis is active inside the generalized field? We can incorporate the conformity elements that I use in the barrier seals for the grass and trees to the contours of the injured ninja. Maybe we can even keep them in space of time stasis while the medics work so we aren't having to fight blood loss and shock on a patient with traumatic or fatal wounds! The medics might have to use chakra to work through the barrier unless I can get the barrier to conform to exposed areas like a chest cavity and internally exposed arteries and organs so that operations can still be conducted," she said excitedly as the group traded eager looks. Jiraiya frowned after a moment.
"But what if their team needs support for their mission, now that they are missing team members?" he asked and Moriko's expression turned thoughtful.
"In my world, we had something called cell phones. It allows for near-instantaneous communication across the planet. Being able to communicate with our forces would be a great first step when missions go sour. It would also be great for passing information quickly, but not entirely the solution we may need," she muttered as Hiruzen hummed.
"Reverse summoning seals are also not ideal. Our forces could be summoned into a trap for interrogation if they fall into enemy hands," he said as Jiraiya and Moriko nodded. They sat in thoughtful silence for a minute, each pondering the issue before Hiruzen clapped his hands.
"Alright! Our objectives are as follows; find a way to create protective barriers that are mobile and will protect our ninjas, figure out how to transport gravely injured ninjas to the hospital, try to create a stasis seal to stop the clock and give them the time needed to be treated, and figure out how to give the remaining team support to complete their objectives," He said as the group nodded, Moriko writing down the objective on a scroll in English.
"If we do manage to achieve this, other nations are going to take notice, so we might want to include a powerful genjutsu element to protect the information when the seals are triggered. There is also going to be a political backlash for us coming up with something new and potentially threatening to their forces, so sorting out a distraction with the other villages might be for the best while the village is rebuilding itself," she said causing the two men to look intrigued.
"What did you have in mind, Moriko-chan?" asked the Hokage as a sly gleam entered the young woman's eyes.
"Have you ever heard the term global policing?" she asked. They shook their heads.
"I believe your old advisor was trying to do that, Hokage-sama, except he went about it all wrong from the bits of paperwork you had me look over. He was doing his best to undermine and weaken the other nations and rising powers. What he needed to do was help the other countries foster enough health and growth to keep the peace. People who are backed into a corner become desperate and do some rather deplorable things to save themselves," she said, eyes growing distant as Jiraiya frowned.
"You're talking like this makes you think of a specific incident," pointed out Jiraiya as Moriko frowned.
"My world had two world wars. After that, my country left its policy of isolationism partly behind and began involving itself in everyone's business. It's complicated, but one of the many reasons was to help prevent war or to keep threatening political factions from gaining traction. There were times they funded proxy countries to fight a certain political group for them with other countries." she muttered. After a moment she looked up to find the other two men looking alarmed as they signed to one another rapidly. She quirked an eyebrow as they suddenly returned their attention to her.
"What exactly are you suggesting?" Hiruzen said, cutting to the chase. Moriko took another sip of sake.
"I'm suggesting that if you help certain nations prosper, then the livelihood of war is going to be lowered for ninja villages since the people that typically hire them will have more money to do so, increasing the economic stability of the villages and allowing them to grow or in our case, recover. I do suggest having a cap for the growth or else it might explode in its growth, then when there is no more need, it goes into a state of collapse creating an economic crisis and instigating a war between countries," she said as Hiruzen sat back, thinking of what she said. Moriko began rifling between the papers they had before pulling the scroll she wanted and placing it on top of the stack.
"An alliance between Rain, leaf, and wind might be beneficial," she muttered biting her lip as the others shot her surprised looks.
"Why that one in particular? I don't see how this could be beneficial to the leaf long term," Jiraiya asked looking over the notes and intel that Danzo had gathered. Moriko sat back with crossed arms clearly deep in thought.
"Rain is the traditional battleground for major villages, leading to a surplus of resentment as we could see with conflicts against Hanzo the Salamander. Their ninja are fierce and well-adapted to fight in such a wet terrain as well. In exchange for help fighting an invading force, we evacuate their population from the land into a safer location and we get people specialized in fighting in such a location, most likely rock heads who aren't as good against water. We raise goodwill and help them salvage and rebuild. Maybe we could move the city using seals... Lightning users would be an issue, so maybe sharing a compressed seal that keeps lightning from being used against them... hmmm..." Moriko mused, clearly thinking before she returned to what she was saying the others waiting patiently.
"If they join the alliance we have with Sand we can help act as mediators in helping them set up trade agreements. Wind has little water and Rain has a surplus. Rain needs glass and metal to build their cities over the water, and Wind has plenty. We enter into trade agreements with their ninja for certain crops and maybe they start using more lumber in their homes for furniture etc. or certain foods. By stimulating their country's economies, we stabilize two allies and ensure that they remain fat and happy, leaving them no need to attack us for what we have. Having Rain as an enemy would be a hassle, but we could probably neutralize them. No one really wants to deal with the shitshow that Sand is," she murmured before straightening and giving the men her attention having said her piece. They appeared a bit bemused but thoughtful as they thought her proposition over.
"There have been murmurs of a group that has been rising to power over the past eight years located in Rain. It might complicate matters since there have been whispers that they have been wanting to gather the tailed beasts. I hear that they recently acquired missing-nin Kisame Hoshigaki, Monster of the Hidden Mist a couple of years ago," said Hiruzen as Moriko snorted as she raised her sake cup.
"Monster of the Hidden Mist? What is he, blue or something?" she asked starting to take a sip.
"... indeed he is," Hiruzen said with uncertainty. Moriko choked on her sake spilling it all over herself as she regarded the Hokage with wide eyes.
"Wait wait, is Hoshigaki Kisame blue, very tall, shark teeth, gill markings with white eyes?" demanded Moriko as the other two nodded. She covered her face with her hand, muttering as her face turned red.
"Just how do you know him?" asked Hiruzen when Moriko finally lowered her hand. She looked away face turning bright red.
The group regarded each other for a second before Jiraiya's jaw dropped.
"Oh my god, that time when I found you by the mountain pool, it was him? You slept with him?!" he gasped in understanding and disbelief as the young woman's face burned red and she crossed her arms defensively.
" ...Maybe," she muttered as the other two regarded her with disbelief.
"Really? Of all people, fish face?" Jiraiya demanded as Moriko groaned, burying her face in her hands.
"What? He's tall and well-built and once you get past the uniqueness, he's actually fairly attractive. He was a pretty nice guy, actually a decent person considering he's a ninja and all, don't make fun of his appearance," she grumbled as the two continued to stare at her in disbelief. Suddenly Jiraiya's jaw dropped.
"That man has the stamina and chakra of a tail beast, and yet... you left him unconscious afterward?!" he sputtered as Moriko glared, face heating. Jiraiya sat back looking stunned.
"Damn. I think you might kill a normal person," he laughed as Moriko's glare increased.
"Shut up sensei! I haven't gotten any in almost eight years because I'm afraid to kill a lesser man!" she snapped as Jiraiya howled with laughter.
"What, you can't control yourself not to?" he taunted as she looked away, clearly embarrassed. Jiraiya looked stunned. He seemed to think it over for a moment before cringing clearly not wanting to talk about it but needing to know the details.
"Listen Moriko, neither of us want to go into detail on this, but this sounds like something you've been having to deal with on your own for a long time. Is there something that happened that we should know about?" Jiraiya asked as his student began glowing red from her blush, unable to meet their eyes.
"First I'm going to state that the man could smell lies, which I found out later. Second, when he appeared I referred to him as a water god and he called me a water goddess. Third, anything he learned that could be harmful if learned was sealed so he cannot speak, write, sign, or convey what he learned about me, which is why I have not brought up the subject of my love life up till now," she said, forestalling the questions in the Hokage's eyes. Hiruzen nodded and gestured for her to continue.
"When he appeared, I was curious but not concerned with Shadow watching through our connection. I greeted him, calling him a water god, and he said he thought that I was the water goddess. I was being abnormally candid because it felt right and called him a kindred spirit for being an outsider. He asked me what I saw in the world. I had reached out to Shadow over the connection when I felt the man approach, and Shadow told me to say 'a world of lies.' Keeping with the theme of our talk of being a water deity, I said even in a different world, such things don't change and he asked me if 'you have been to others, little water goddess?' I played along and told him I wasn't originally from this one, thinking he would take it as a joke. He could smell that I wasn't lying, however. When he didn't take it as a joke I panicked, trying to flee but he kept me restrained but not forcefully and I begged him to keep my secret, asking him if he knew what people would do to me if they ever knew. He agreed, even when I asked him if I could seal the information. We sealed it with a kiss as I put the seal on his hip bone, and things escalated from there," she said with a deep blush.
"When he climaxed, I knew my seal would protect me from disease and pregnancy so I let him do it inside. What I wasn't expecting was that it would become trapped within me and be absorbed by my body for some reason. It set me off into a very... er, aroused state, which in turn set him off until he... had nothing left to give," she muttered as she pushed her hair out of her face from where it had fallen to shield part of her face.
"He could barely move after and he is a pretty large strong man. I was..." Her face contorted with self-consciousness and vulnerability that had Jiraiya putting a comforting arm around her shoulders as she struggled to find the words. Hiruzen frowned upon seeing how much this had affected one of his ninjas and dare he say it a friend. Worried tears began to fill her eyes as she struggled to fight them down.
"I... I don't know what to do. I don't know if a normal relationship is ever going to be available to me or if I can even have kids. If it's being absorbed by my body, then there's no chance of it getting me pregnant so I don't know what to do," she choked out as the other two traded looks. They knew how much Moriko loved kids. If it turned out she couldn't have any, they knew it would be heartbreaking for the young woman. Hiruzen made a decision he had been debating for the past five years and nodded with determination before taking the young woman's hand in his much older one.
"We will face this together, whatever happens. I will do what I can to ensure that you have the happiness you deserve." He gave her hand a squeeze as she gave him a watery smile, gratitude in her eyes.
"Thank you Hiruzen-oji," she murmured as he nodded. He and Jiraiya traded a look, a question in the younger man's eyes that had Hiruzen nodding in confirmation. He was going to recall Tsunade to the village.
AN: to explain:
1) Gravity seal- if you don't practice with how fast your body can go at full speed you won't be able to control your motions properly. Moriko hasn't really needed to lower the gravity on her seal all the way down over the years and it's possible to become too acclimated to notice things like this.
I spent a week wearing a 20lb weighted vest and by the end of one week, I was acclimated enough to not notice it when doing tasks that I previously struggled to complete. Now take into fact that there is a lack of object permanence with seals and an intangible force like gravity, it could be easy to mess something like that up in my opinion.
2) Moriko worrying if she's able to have children-
If her body is absorbing all the sperm, none of it can get to the eggs to fertilize them, so there is no chance of babies. There's also the fact that she was scared to know for sure if she couldn't have kids and there typically isnt a need for medical professionals to check her so she's been neglecting getting herself checked.