Chapter 9: Dinner with Friends

Musket walked through the village as he watched the people as they went through their daily activities, from shopping to the small children playing ninja to even some Genin doing their D-Rank missions for the day.

Many watched him as he passed by, all curious as to who this man was but once they saw the Leaf headband on his right shoulder they decided to not question it. In fact some seemed happy to see a ninja walking through the streets. Some smiled and waved to him, a gesture he followed in kind. However his smile was holding in something.

As he walked through the village, Musket was thinking to himself. He wondered how he could get back home. To the people he knew.

'I still don't know what this is all about. But I do know this, I have to find a way out of here. The question is how. Maybe a portal will appear. No, not likely. If the knight did this then most likely he wouldn't let me go free. No, there has to be a way home. Damn, why didn't I learn Plain Shift when I had the chance. Would have helped me now. For all I know they all died and I could stop it.'

Musket stopped as he went through that thought again. Had he failed his team? Was he all that was left of them? Musket took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket as he grabbed a lighter from the same pocket. Putting a cigarette in his mouth he lit it and began to try his best to calm down. But he just couldn't seem to. He failed them. His team was gone and if that monster killed them then he probably went for more people. He was probably laughing at him now. That bastard probably just killed everyone he ever cared about and now he was stuck in this place. With people he didn't even know. In a war he signed himself up for.

"God damnit." He whispered to himself.

"You ok?" A familiar voice called out from behind him. Musket turned to see Kushina staring at him.

"Ye-yeah I'm fine. What are you doing here?" He asked while throwing the cigarette on the ground and putting it out with his foot.

"Actually I came to ask you something…I didn't know you smoked." Kushina said as she was a little surprised to see him put out a cigarette.

"Huh? Oh yeah. Well I haven't had one since a few days ago and I didn't want to be rude when I was with you guys." Musket said as he looked at her. "So what did you want to talk about?" He asked.

"Huh? Oh right." Kushina laughed a little as she rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment at forgetting what she came to him to do. "Well me and Minato were wondering if you'd like to come over tonight for dinner. Like as a way for all of us to get to know each other, you know."

Musket thought for a moment at her offer. In all reality he wasn't really in the mood to hang out with anyone right now but some part of him told him to take the offer. "Meh, I don't see why not."

"Great!" Kushina yelled out "here's our address, we live on the eastern side of the village. Anyway I have to go, see ya." Kushina said as she gave Musket a piece of paper and ran off toward her home before Musket could say anything else.

Musket stood there for a moment, a little confused at what just happened as he looked at the address "Eastern side huh. Wait, which side am I on now?" Musket finally realized that he had no idea which part of the village he was even in as he looked for Kushina realizing she was gone. "Ah crap."

LATER THAT NIGHT

Kushina was working on dinner when she heard the door open as the voice of Minato was heard in the hall.

"We're home!"

"Took you long enough. How was the mission?" Kushina asked as she poked her head from out of the kitchen.

"It was good." Minato said as he kissed Kushina.

Kakashi only scoffed as he passed the two. "If you think that demon cat is easy."

Kushina smirked as she looked at Minato. "Ah. So that's why."

Minato chuckled as he went into the kitchen. "Yeah, well. We can't do higher ranked missions just yet so it was the best choice. What did you do today anyway?"

Kushina only smiled as she began to look at the stew she was cooking. "Well. I went to ask Musket if he'd like to have dinner and he agreed. Then I went to the market to get ingredients for this stew and I met Kurenai and Asuma while I was there. Still can't believe they aren't a thing yet."

"You and me both. Wait, you said that he agreed?" Minato asked.

"Yep. I was so happy that I immediately went to get everything ready." Kushina smiled as she turned off the stove as the meal was finally ready. Minato however only looked at her as he realized something.

"Hey, Kushi. You did tell him where we live and at what time we were going to eat right?"

Kushina gave him an annoyed look as she thought about it. "Of course I did. I gave him our address and told him we were on the east side of the village. What else should I have do…" Kushina finally realized her mistake as she remembered that Musket was new to the village and that she didn't give him a time to come. Minato only smacked his forehead as he looked at her. "So you mean to tell me you forgot that he is still figuring out the area and probably wouldn't know that we don't even live on the east side of the village."

"Hey I'm sorry ok. I just call it that cause it's right of the monument. Can you really blame me?" Minato only gave her a glare as she began to shrink at his glare. "Maybe I can't but I think he definitely will." Suddenly a knock at the door caught the attention of the two as Kakashi spoke up. "I'll get it."

Reaching the door Kakashi opened it as he saw Musket out of breath and having torn clothes from what looked like dog bites. Kakashi was very confused as Musket tried his best to catch his breath. "I-Is Ku-Kushina here?" Musket asked as he looked at Kakashi.

Kakashi took a moment before he looked back into the house. "Hey Kushina! Musket's here!" Kushina came to the door with a very red face as she greeted Musket. "H-Hey there. Um soooo, it looks like you found us."

"Six hours. It took me six hours to find your house."

Kushina began to sweat as she looked at his clothes. "Um. So what happened here?"

"Oh. Oh this. Oh it's nothing. Just turns out when you gave me this address, well it turns out there are eight different places with this exact address and one of them just so happened to be the Inuzuka Compound."

"Ohhhhh. Ummmm. Yeeeeeah. Kind of forgot about that." Kushina tried her best to divert her eyes from the man whose eyes were currently trying their best to bore a hole through her skull.

"Yeah. And guess what? Turns out that their dogs aren't the biggest fans of people who don't have chakra in their body. Don't ask me how but it seems they can sniff that shit out somehow and welp, here we are. I'm honestly glad I met Tsume yesterday or I might not be here right now. So you know what? For the fact that you're the reason I met her I'll only break around half your bones. How about that?" Musket looked at her with an unhinged glare just as Minato finally decided to come out of the kitchen, trying his hardest to hold in a laugh.

"OK, OK. I think we should do this after dinner. Kushina made stew. Is that alright with you?" Musket looked at the man before nodding. "Great. Then come on in." Minato aloud Musket into the house as Kushina tried her best to come up with an escape plan.

Musket looked at the large apartment and was a little impressed. Looking at Minato, he decided to ask him a question. "Can I make myself look a little more decent then before we begin?" Minato nodded as he showed Musket to the bathroom, Kushina and Kakashi went to the dinning room to set up the food.

Kakashi watched Kushina as she put some plates down before he spoke up. "Hey, Kushina?" Kushina looked up to him as she waited for him to continue. "Why is he here anyway?"

Kushina took a moment as she thought about how to answer his question. "Well. Me and Minato thought it would be good to get to know him better since we all only met a few days ago." Kakashi looked at her for a moment before asking another question. "What did he mean he doesn't have chakra?"

Kushina nearly had a heart attack at hearing him ask that. While it wasn't a secret that doesn't mean something like that was a usual thing that happened. Thinking for a minute she finally came up with an excuse that could work. "Well you see. We found out that his chakra is very special. It turns out that he's basically invisible to those who are trying to look for him with chakra sensing and things like that. Even the Sharingan has a hard time finding it so he's really good at infiltration and things like that. That's apparently why he was on that long term mission and why the Anbu attacked him. But don't worry about it." Kakashi waited for a moment before he shrugged it off. Honestly it wasn't his problem so why should he care.

After they had set up the table Musket and Minato entered into the room with Musket wearing some more casual clothes to the almost suit he had worn before. "Good thing you're my size or that wouldn't have worked." Minato joked as they came to the table.

"Well they're a bit small if you ask me." Musket commented as he looked at the pants being a little short.

"Hey it's not my fault if you're taller than me. Honestly, how tall are you anyway?" Minato asked as he tried to calculate Musket's height.

"6 1. Why?" Everyone looked at him for a moment like he was a crazy person. "What?"

"6 1 what?" Kushina asked.

"6 feet 1 inch. Why? Do you guys not use feet?" The others just shook their heads as they wondered why he was talking about feet. 'Oh God they use the metric system don't they?' "Um, I mean 1.8 meters." Everyone looked at him for another moment before they all nodded and decided to drop the subject. Musket could only kick himself for thinking that they would just know the imperial system, especially since he wasn't in his world anymore. Decided it wasn't worth it he waited for the others to make the first move so he could be polite. Soon the others made a small prayer as Musket did the same before they all began to eat.

As they ate, Kakashi decided to speak up as he asked Musket a question. "Hey, Musket. What was your mission like anyway?" Kushina and Minato stopped eating as they looked to Musket who seemed to be in thought.

"Well. I had to help a small country of the coast with a powerful warrior who had started to become too powerful for the nation's liking. So me and a team went to fight him. And we did, but." Musket paused as he tried his best to lie while reliving the memories of his failure. "But I was the only one who made it. After that I came back but since it was so long since I've been here they didn't recognize me and well, you know the rest."

Kakashi was a little amazed by his mission as he wanted to ask more about it but he felt Minato's hand on his shoulder which told Kakashi to drop the questions for now.

Soon the group was finished with their meal as Musket asked if he could go outside for a moment. Minato showed him out as he looked to Kushina who gave him a remorseful look. Minato nodded as he went outside.

Musket was smoking when he heard Minato walk up to him.

"What's up?" He asked as Minato came to his side.

"I'm sorry about Kakashi. I didn't want you to have to use a story like that. I know you used some truth to it."

"Most of it was. Except for the end. That part didn't happen."

"Cause that's when you came here, right?"

Musket only nodded as he smoked from his cigarette. "Yeah. The thing is. I don't even know if they're ok. And I might never know."

"Don't say that. You could find a way back."

"Not likely. I don't have a spell to go through another dimension and I'm betting something like that for the people here would be deadly at best. Honestly I just hope I'm lucky enough to find some kind of portal or something to get back. At least then none of you will get hurt." Musket looked up to the sky as he said that, Minato doing the same.

After a few minutes Minato finally decided to talk. "You know why we asked you here don't you?" Musket looked at Minato and shook his head as he became curious. "Well. It's because Kushina wanted you to come. You and her have a lot in common and she wanted to show you that you weren't alone."

Musket's eyes widened as he turned to Minato. "What do you mean?" He asked.

Minato looked at the man as he gestured for him to follow. Musket obliged as he put out his cigarette and went back into the house. Once they entered, Minato went to get Kushina. As he waited, Musket looked at some of the photos on the walls. One was of Kushina and Mikoto with Chunin vests and their hands in the peace sign with huge smiles on their faces. Another was with a younger looking Minato with three other people. Minato was in the middle with a small smile with a girl to his right that looked like a younger Mikoto and a boy to Minato's left who had his eyes closed. Behind them was a very large man with red makeup and long white hair who had his hands on the girl and the other boy's heads. Another photo was that of a much younger looking Kakashi, from what Musket thought maybe 7, sleeping next to a sleeping Minato, both having marker mustaches on their faces. Musket chuckled at that one as his eyes looked to a large group photo, this one with Kushina, Minato, Fugaku, Tsume, Shikaku, Mikoto and a few others that Musket didn't recognize all looking happy as Mikoto and Tsume had small bundles in their arms.

As he looked through the photos, Musket heard footsteps as he saw Kushina coming towards him. Looking at the photos Kushina smiled as she picked up one in particular and stared at it for a moment. "See this little one." Kushina pointed to a small baby in her arms in a photo. "That's baby Itachi. A few days old too. Mikoto let me hold him when I went to see her after she had him. And guess what he did?" Musket only raised an eyebrow as he waited to hear what happened. "He started to cry and then I smelt something terrible. Little brat made me change him the first time I met him. But after that, he was actually really calm. And then Minato got this picture. And now look at him. My little Godson is growing up too much. Don't you think so?" Musket smiled as he noticed a photo that was behind the one she had picked up. "What's that one?" He asked.

Kushina put down the photo as she reached for the one Musket pointed to. It was at that moment that Musket noticed pain fill her eyes as she picked up the small photo. As he looked at it he saw a small red haired girl with a few more redheads that all were smiling. Musket noticed the similarities to the small girl and Kushina as realization came to his face. Kushina only nodded as she kept her eyes on the photo. "This was the last picture of my family before my village was attacked. You see, I'm not native to Konoha either. I come from a small island nation off the coast of Fire Country called Whirlpool country. My clan, the Uzumaki, made a hidden village of their own called Uzushiogakure. The Land of Whirlpools. We were a powerful clan that was allies with one of the founding clans of Konoha. So any Uzumaki is considered a citizen of Konoha and the same goes of any resident of Konoha being a citizen of Uzu. But then, something happened. Just before the Second Shinobi World War it was attacked. My people fought for a while but we soon lost. My clan was wiped out. And now I may be the last Uzumaki left. That one there." She pointed to a small girl next to her in the photo. "That's my little sister. I lost track of her when we were sent to Konoha and as a result, well." Kushina felt a tear run down her face as she thought about her sister. Musket tried his beat to comfort her by putting a hand on her shoulder.

"It's alright. You want to find her don't you?" Kushina only nodded as she rubbed her eyes of their tears. "And when I do I'm gonna give her the biggest hug I can. And that's a promise, Dattebane!" Musket smiled at her as he looked at the photo.

"I lost my father. He became what I am now so he could support my family but one day, he disappeared. So I went to look for him. So in a way, we have a similar goal. So I hope you find her." Kushina gave him a great full smile. "And I hope you find him as well. Speaking of which. What are you anyway?"

"Yeah, I'd like to know that too." Minato came up to them as he stood next to Kushina.

Musket smiled at him. "Only if you tell me what that stuff on your face was." Minato smiled at that.

"It's called Sage Mode. It's something I learned from my sensei. That man." Minato pointed to the photo with him as a younger kid with the other three people. "That's my sensei Jiraiya. He's actually Mikoto's sensei too. We were on the same team as Genin. But anyway, it's not completed just yet. You see, to use it you need to gather chakra within the environment and mix it with your own and then you can use it. But I'm terrible at gathering Nature chakra so I can only keep it active for a limited time. Like for one attack at most. Actually that isn't the only technique I'm having trouble with." Musket was a little interested in hearing that. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you know my Rasengan?" Musket nodded as Minato continued. "Well it's also incomplete. I'm almost there but it's just not there yet. You see it's supposed to not use up any chakra once you complete it but mine still uses a bit of chakra to keep it going. I am close to finishing it though but it's been three years since I started on it so there's that." Musket only nodded as he knew how hard it was to make a new move, even if he had some help with making his. "OK, now that I told you something, it's time for you to tell us something." Minato said as him and Kushina waited for Musket to speak.

Musket sweat dropped at that as he thought of where to begin. "Well you see. I'm not exactly human. I mean I was but not anymore. I'm what my people call a Shining Servant. We're like super soldiers that are used to fight and do things most wouldn't be able to. We were made a long time ago to fight these powerful demons that tried to destroy the world. And we were good at it. Two of the best even killed a few of them. Their names were Rosaline and Nathan. Got to even meet them and I can definitely say that they were, characters to say the least." Musket sighed at remembering those two and how they acted. "But they were still good at their jobs. And honestly that could be said about any of us." Musket stopped talking as they all fell into silence.

After a while Musket decided to speak up. "Welp I think I'll go then it was good seeing you guys again." Musket went to the door as Kushina and Minato waved him goodbye. Once he left he walked down the street as he thought about his time with the two as he had a small smile on his face.

"That was nice."

END OF CHAPTER

ABILITY LIST:

PLANE SHIFT: a powerful spell that allows one to send themselves and/or others to travel to another plane of existence. Musket could not learn this spell due to its complexity and level being higher than what he can do. Honestly this one was my fault since I thought it was a lower level but hey it still kind of works for the story cause Musket couldn't learn it even if he wanted to so meh.

Author's Note: hello there. Nice to be back on this one after so long. Honestly I need to do more of it cause I may have the most fun with making this story out of all of mine so far. But yeah as you can see we have some lore for Shining Servants. Not too much though but enough for now.

OK so I know that Rose's player reads these so I hope you liked that little character drop there Mikey. Heh heh.

Anyway thanks for reading and please review cause I got a lot more of this story coming very soon.