Chapter Eight: Kushina is Scary

Naruto really wasn't sure what he had expected when his sensei had handed him a mysterious scroll that was only to be used in an emergency, and could supposedly kill him, but that little knife? The one he was pretty sure Kakashi-sensei had nicked from his room that one night a while back, was not it. How was that going to help?

"Sensei! What the hell?"

"Kage Bunshin, Naruto!"

Cheh, as if the blonde genin wasn't going to do that anyway. Muttering under his breath disparities about his silver-haired teacher, he summoned about a dozen fresh clones and sent them to attack Zabuza as a distraction for his back up plan. Now to make another bunshin and henge into-

He was startled from his careful thoughts and planning when one of the bunshin distracting the enemy suddenly exploded. What looked like glowing blue chains shot outward from his doppelganger and skewered the Zabuza bunshin viciously. Mad cackling filled the air as the enemy clone dissolved back into a puddle of water.

"No-brows is mine, Husband. You can babysit the kiddies," Naruto's suddenly deranged kage bunshin spoke, it's voice filled with promises of pain and violence. "He hurt my baby, I'm gonna set him on fire."

"Oh?" another clone spoke up nonchalantly from beside the first, amusement clear in its tone. "I get to hug Naruto first? How gracious of-"

"What?!" the first one demanded, turning to glare at the second. "I didn't say that!"

"Shall we race for it, then?"

"You're on, Namikaze! We're in the same body now, none of that super-fast Yellow Flash training!"

Both of them whirled around and started running toward the original blonde boy, and Naruto took a step back. And then another when one of them pulled out a kunai.

"That's cheating!" the other one protested.

The one with the blade in hand merely laughed as he threw it, right at Naruto's feet. The twelve-year-old had only enough time to recognize the odd three pronged kunai before his vision was filled with familiar unruly golden spikes and bright blue eyes. Somehow, the bunshin had moved instantly from back there, to right in his face.

"Sorry, I need to tag you before your mother steals you from me," it blurted out in a rush, smacking its palm into Naruto's forehead lightly. There was a brief flash and the warmth of chakra being used, and then he could... feel something?

He didn't get a chance to figure out what that something was before more chakra-warmth wrapped tightly around his waist and yanked him off his feet and away from head-smacking, knife-wielding clone. Only to be brought straight into the arms of the psychotic, chain-spawning one. Literally into its arms; it had him pinned tightly in a 'hug' that threatened to suffocate him.

"Naruto, my darling baby boy! Mommy doesn't have much time right now, but know that I love you and I'll be right back after I go rescue your big brother... and then punish him severely... but rescue first!"

The blonde had just started to lift his hands to claw at the arms cutting off his air supply, when he was released. Coughing and sputtering for breath, he turned wide confused eyes on the clone. It had turned away from him to focus back on the real Zabuza who was already in the process of forming two more water bunshin. Using its teeth to draw blood from its thumb, Naruto's clone began rapidly scrawling... something into its left palm.

"Minato, take care of Naruto. This shouldn't take long," the bunshin called out distractedly.

At the edge of Naruto's senses, he felt another something pop up a little ways behind him, right before the kunai-throwing clone randomly appeared out of nowhere beside him again. "Yes, ma'am," it spoke with a small grin as it placed a hand on the genin's shoulder and threw the odd three-pronged kunai at the ground beneath Tazuna and Sakura's feet.

In a flash Naruto's surroundings flickered away and he found himself standing over the precise spot the knife had landed. He shot the bunshin still standing next to him a questioning look, but it was already distracted forming a series of hand seals.

"Jikukan Kekkai!"

Black chakra ink flowed outward from the clone's outstretched hands and into long thin strings of characters similar to the ones that had been on Kakashi-sensei's arm after the whole 'fell-out-of-a-tree' incident. The dark bands formed a netted dome over them; Sasuke, Sakura, Tazuna, Naruto and his odd clone.

Then, before Naruto could formulate a question out of the sheer confusion befuddling his brain, the clone keeled over and promptly lost its lunch. "Ewww... gross!" Naruto took a step back from the mess.

"Well... I guess that answers that. Bunshin can be sick. Lucky me," the clone muttered before straightening again and turning to face the rest of them sheepishly. "Sorry about that. Naruto's chakra is a little... volatile. I don't understand how Kushina can stand it." It turned its gaze on the other bunshin that was fending off two Zabuza clones while trying to finish whatever it was doing on its palm in blood. "Must be an Uzumaki thing."

"You.. it... what just happened?!" Naruto demanded, drawing all eyes back to him as he finally settled on a question. "Who are you and how did you crazy people get inside my clones?!"

"Ah...," the clone started uncertainly, scratching the back of its head as it tried to think. "That's... really complicated to explain, and I'm not sure now is the best time to try."

"You're Namikaze Minato, Konoha's Yellow Flash," Sakura spoke up, a small amount of awe in her voice.

"You've heard of me?" Minato asked brightening.

"Everyone's heard of you, you're a legend!"

Naruto snorted. "I haven't heard of him." Beside him Sasuke looked as if he were trying unsuccessfully to place the name as well.

"Baka!" Sakura shouted, slamming a fist down on the blonde's head and missing Namikaze's slight frown a the action. "He's the-"

"No, wait, I want to see if they can guess it," Minato interrupted. "Later, though. Kushina will want in on this."

"Kushina? Is that the crazy one that thinks it's my mom?" Naruto asked, nursing the sizable bump on his head.

Minato grimaced. "Uh, you better not let her hear you say that." The clone looked over to make sure his counterpart was busy fighting and not listening in. "Oh! She finished the seal!"

Indeed, Kushina had completed the intricate design on her hand and activated it with a quick press to her forehead. Now the fun could start for real. She hadn't just spent the last two minutes setting up the field with invisible chakra impressions under the guise of dodging attacks for nothing. Seriously, how often did she get a completely immobile target to mess with that had no idea what she was capable of doing if given time to prepare?

She completed the ring around Zabuza and Kakashi, now to just get the mizu bunshin in place... wait, why was it suddenly getting harder to see? Mist rose up from the water beneath her feet and slowly began thickening the air until she barely see her hands in front of her face. Well. This complicated things. Stupid mist ninjas using mist.

She quickly went through a mental checklist of what she had on hand to counter such an ability, all while ignoring the idiotic voice of the enemy droning on and on about the 'best' way to kill her. Eventually she just decided on the straightforward pump-chakra-into-and-enhance-everything method. It worked on Kakashi.

Blue chakra began leaking from her as she directed to her muscles and all her senses. Her vision sharpened, and her sense of smell, which had already been inhumanly good to begin with, began picking up the smell of death and rotting seaweed she associated with her enemy. She ducked just in time to avoid the massive sword aimed to cut her in half, then rolled to the side to dodge the kick from the other clone.

The water below her began to grow unusually thick, and she growled out a curse. With a quick chakra disruption seal, she shattered the water prison before it could fully form. It was usually for particularly stubborn genjutsu, but it also worked on partially formed ninjutsu if you could get it right in the center of it. Huh, so he was deeming her threat enough to tie up a clone in capturing her instead of dealing with her directly. Bah, she'd better wrap this up quick then or things might actually get serious when he stopped underestimating her.

Throwing out chakra chains to get some distance between them, they'd long since learned to not let those touch them and thus hastily dodged whenever she brought them out, she bolted between them and back toward where their original was still holding Kakashi prisoner. Like the easily predictable shinobi he was, (which was pretty much any non-Uzumaki ninja, really) she sensed him use the shunshin body-flicker technique that would spell his doom.

Shunshin, in spite of popular belief, was not an actual teleport; only abilities like Minato's Hiraishin were capable of that. The body flicker technique was merely a temporary chakra boost to speed that allowed people to travel at speeds that merely seemed like teleportation. A very important distinction, because it meant that he still had to actually travel the distance between the two points and somewhere in that 'distance' was the trap she had laid.

Before the water clone could reach its destination, a red chakra glow erupted from the water beneath its feet and froze it in place. That was when Kushina began her maniacal laughter that always set her enemies on edge, not that it was needed. The crimson glow snaked outward along the chakra impressions she had so carefully placed before until it completely surrounded the original Zabuza.

Too late, the missing nin tried to get away, but it was over the instant his clone had been caught and used to form one of the most powerful sympathetic binds possible in fuinjutsu. Blood binds were nice, but a full bunshin? Now that... that was a solid link.

His other clone dissolved back into the water it had come from as the seal bound up the real one's chakra. Kakashi was released as an... unfortunate side effect, but she was willing to live with that so long as he didn't attack her again. She kept a wary eye on him just to be safe, though. Hatake hastily lowered his hitai-ate back over his sharingan and backed away and out of the seal. It wasn't bound to him, so he was free to retreat back to observe from a safe distance.

Somewhat satisfied that her husband's student meant her no harm for the time being, Kushina turned back to give her prisoner a demonic grin that typically had people running in terror.

"Now, Zabuza, was it? I do believe I made you a promise at the beginning of this... what was it again? Oh, yes. You hurt my baby. I'm going to set you on fire." She raised her right palm slowly toward the clone next to her, the kanji for fire in blue chakra glowing ominously on it, and cackled darkly.

A/N - So, Merry Christmas! This would have been up sooner, but FF was having issues or something... : /

Hopefully this chapter didn't disappoint in the action or family moment areas. I like it, but I'm probably biased. XD

Christmas has been awesome. I got an apron mad from a fabric of red dragon scales. I'M THE DRAGON IN THE KITCHEN. RAWR. I lurv it. X3 My sis-in-law made it and my brother put a tag on it (I used to play WoW):

Pyrostrasza's Charred Carapace
Binds when picked up
Chest
752 Armor
+10 Intellect
+15 Stamina
+20 Fire Resistance

Equip: Increase cooking skill by 25.

Woo! I'm so happy. XD Welp, I gotta go back to doing family stuffs. Later guys! MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS! You guys are awesome.

-Py