Recommended Story: 'Shinsei Kuchiyose Seshuu: True Summoning Heritage' by BonclaysFan
I also want to tell everyone about a challenge that I helped Crossoverpairinglover create. It's for the Percy Jackson series and called the Silver Rebellion challenge. It focuses on the goddess Artemis feeling threatened by the other Olympians and deciding to do something about it. Check it out if you're interested.
Chapter Ten
"Looks like she's waking up." Shizune said as she noticed Tayuya display signs of regaining consciousness. Her eyelids fluttered a few times without actually opening and her rate of breathing seemed to be controlled now rather than unconsciously steady.
The redhead finally opened her eyes completely, though they were unfocused. When they did focus and she saw three strange woman above her, her reflexes told her to create some distance. Too bad her body told her it couldn't even sit up under it's own power, and her throat wasn't in any mood to work either.
One of the women around her was also a redhead and she gently placed her right hand on Tayuya's throat. "Nu daeyjuf." Instantly Tayuya felt her throat relax and return to a state of normal. She was thirsty as well but now she could speak.
"Wa... ter."
Tsunade held up a glass of water and gently held it to the Oto kunoichi's lips. Normally Tayuya wouldn't be caught dead drinking like this, but her arms could barely be lifted and she was too thirsty to resist for more than two seconds. The coolness of the cold clear liquid going down her esophagus was like a divine blessing to her thirst.
"Feel better?" Kushina asked.
"Somewhat. Now who the fuck are you and where the hell am I?"
"We're the ones who saved your life and you're in our custody. If you want to be able to walk again you'll cooperate, and if you'd rather be stubborn we'll find out how well you can swim in this state." Tsunade replied.
Tayuya rolled her eyes. "If that's your idea of a fucking ultimatum you're dumber than what people give blondes credit for."
Tsunade frowned and cracked her knuckles. "And if that's your idea of gratitude then you must be suicidal."
"Why should I be fucking grateful? You only saved me because you bitches want something from me, and if you get it I'm just going to be useless crap to you and you'll get rid of me without a second thought." Tayuya calmly answered with closed eyes, as if trying to relax.
"Considering who you're connected to would you honestly expect anything else?" Tsunade asked.
"I'll give you that much, but can you say I'm wrong?"
"I might, provided you convince me appropriately." Kushina answered, making the other women curious and confused.
"What do you mean?" Shizune asked. Kushina just kept her gaze on Tayuya. "Miss, so I don't call you something you don't like, could you tell me your name?"
The downed kunoichi just stared blinking a few times, when sneered. "My name's none of your fucking business."
Kushina smiled. "Hobu su jamudy emdruta."
"What?" Tayuya asked, not understanding a word. At the same time she felt a weird tingle over her skin, sort of like a full body feather caress. "What did you say? You better not have done anything to me you bitch."
"No need for vulgarity here. Now, do you like working for Orochimaru?"
"No one really likes working for him. Maybe a couple do, but anyone that depraved would also be the type of person to backstab the bastard when it looked like they could succeed." Tayuya responded.
"Do you want to go back to him?"
"Would you?"
"That's not what I asked." Kushina said.
Tayuya sighed. "Not that I believe you give a damn but... it's not like I have anywhere else to go if I could walk. Oto's the kind of place only a sadist would enjoy being in, and while I occasionally had some fun, I saw things that would make your hair turn white."
"And I've seen things that would make your hair fall out." Kushina countered calmly. "But your point is that you wish not to go back?"
Tayuya mock-laughed. "While I'm at it, why don't I wish my sister was still alive and it rained chocolate?"
"No need to be so crass to us. I'm just trying to understand you better." Kushina told her.
"Why would you want to understand me?" Tayuya asked.
"Because I don't believe in treating someone as an enemy by association. You're connected to Orochimaru, but you're not Orochimaru so we should not treat you like you are. I wish to know if you're a sympathizer to him or a mere subject so I know what we should do about you. Also, you remind me of someone I lost, so I can't just disregard you."
Needless to say Tayuya was quite surprised to hear this, but that didn't mean she believed it. "So? So what the fuck does that mean? My whole life since I was taken that snake people have always regarded me with absolutes and black-and-white views so why the fuck should I believe you? I'd have to be dumber than a sack of shit to believe you just because you say you're not like that."
Kushina leaned closer, narrowed her eyes, and spoke like her words were tempered steel. "Because we're your only chance for being able to walk let alone live again, and I'm sure even a foul-mouthed slut such as yourself values her pathetic life. Now, unless you want me to give new meaning to the term 'titty fuck' by ripping off your tits and shoving them up your pussy and then start getting nasty, I suggest you learn to play nice."
'Holy hell!' Tsunade and Shizune thought, slightly backing away in panic. "Where did that come from?" Tsunade asked.
Kushina smiled sweetly at the blonde hokage, but it didn't look friendly. "When you want to get a message across, you've got to speak in terms they understand."
Tayuya paled too, but then plastered on a fake confident grin. "Do your worse."
"Oh that was the wrong thing to say."
Isaribi had put up a bit of a struggle when Naruto insisted on bringing her to Tsunade, but she was outnumbered and overpowered so they were bringing her to the medic. The weird thing is, once they got there, they saw Tsunade and Shizune sitting outside the hotel room both sipping sake. The windows and door were closed and covered, so it was impossible to see what was going on.
"Hey Baachan, why aren't you inside with the other woman?" Naruto asked.
"Oh, your mother is handling her for now. She's a stubborn patient, so Kushina needs to... wear her down a bit first before we can do anything." Tsunade answered, just before the sound of something breaking in the room could be heard.
"Tsunade-sama, maybe we should intervene and stop this."
"If you want to, be my guest Shizune." Tsunade told her. As she expected, Shizune did not move.
Concerned, Hinata activated her byakugan. "I don't see any fighting, but I do see some broken glass over the floor. Kushina-san is showing off her wings and tail and the other woman looks scared."
"There's a woman with wings in there?" Isaribi asked.
"And who's this?" Tsunade asked. "Wait, aren't you that diver girl with the jellyfish story?"
"Yeah it's her. We saw her being attacked and she's having a hard time moving. Can you treat her?" Sakura asked.
Tsunade put down her sake bottle. "Sure. Gotta pass the time somehow."
Isaribi gave her a pleading look. "Please... don't. Just leave me alone."
"Your wounds aren't from jellyfish, are they?" Tsunade asked. Tearfully and frightened, Isaribi could only nod. "A person gave you whatever you're covering up, right?"
Isaribi just looked away. "Yes, but it's not what you think."
"Many girls say that when they're in trouble, and no offense, but you have domestic violence victim written all over you."
"I wish it was that simple." The purple-haired girl whispered to herself, but those close to her still heard it.
Ayame suddenly did a few hand signs. "Forced Sleep Jutsu." She then touched Isaribi's forehead and the diver was knocked unconscious. "She'll only be out for about ten minutes max, likely less, so Tsunade-sama if you want to see what's wrong with her I'd do it fast."
The medic nodded and had Isaribi set down on a mat so sand and dirt wouldn't get in the way then peeled back the bandages on her left arm. Once they were loose and the skin exposed she gasped and dropped the loose wrappings. "Wha... what is this?"
Everyone curiously looked at the exposed arm, and gasped too at what they saw. Green scales in place of human skin.
"Could that be normal for her?" Naruto asked. "I saw a guy from Kiri with blue skin who looked like a human and shark combined. Maybe she's similar."
"If that were true it's likely all her skin would be this way. No, instead I think this condition was forced onto her." Tsunade said, checking the other bandaged areas. Sure enough, there were more scales all over her in random places. "And look at this." She pointed to the border because the normal skin and green scales, where there were light red blotches. "That's scar tissue, classic sign of skin grafts. Someone's basically taking this girl's skin off and replacing it medically with new animalistic skin."
"Oh that's disgusting." Moegi said.
Tsunade nodded. "And what's worse is the body can easily reject the new skin, making it eventually peel off and leave her more vulnerable to infection and copious bleeding. In order for me to treat her, I'm going to need a hospital and donor skin. Here and now, there's barely anything I can do."
"Why would anyone do such a thing like this?" Sakura asked.
"I don't know. This sounds like one of Orochimaru's..." Tsunade stopped for a moment. "This is too much like something Orochimaru would do to be coincidental. Either he has a lab here, or there's some other sick twisted bastard here trying to turn people into something. Hinata, please see if there's any internal change to this girl."
Hinata nodded and activated her byakugan again. "I don't see anything wrong with her muscles, though her bones look different. Like there's more cartilage in them then there should be. The interior of her lungs look unusual to me, like they're a bit underdeveloped, and there's... something that looks like two bumps on the sides of her trachea in her neck. Also, the outer layer of her chakra network looks larger than normal but not as large as Naruto-kuns, and I think I see some kind of chemical in her bloodstream."
Tsunade struggled to remain calm. "Okay, I originally brought us here to give us some time to plan ahead the rest of our trip, but while we're here, we should find out what's going on with this poor girl."
No one argued.
The door to the room opened and a normal yet worn out Kushina looked out. "Well I'm done. She's ready to cooperate."
"I swear when my legs works the first thing I'm going to do is kick your ass until your legs don't work instead." Tayuya could be heard saying.
"That's ready to cooperate?" Shizune asked.
"Surprisingly yes." Kushina said, then noticed the unconscious girl. "Who's that?"
"An unfortunate victim of something unnatural." Tsunade answered. "While we're here we should look into it. This is inhumane and too much like Orochimaru's type of work."
"Well lucky for us we have someone connected to Orochimaru himself to confirm if he's involved."
"Oh right. Let's see if Miss Foulmouth really is ready to talk." Tsunade said as she got up. "Bring her in too." The others carefully brought Isaribi in and placed her on one of the beds.
While not able to sit up or move much under her own power, Tayuya could see they brought in another girl. "Another one? What's with your group and abducting helpless women? Boy here got a fetish?"
Naruto frowned at her. "I don't know what that is, but I'm assuming it's gross."
"Depends on the nature of the fetish." Kushina commented to herself, then recomposed herself. "Tell me, does Orochimaru have any operations in this country?"
Tayuya looked up. "Remind me where we are again."
"Sea Country."
The Oto kunoichi looked like she was trying to recall something. "Rings a bell, but nothing specific."
"We've got a girl here suffering from unnatural skin grafts. Does that jog your memory?" Tsunade asked.
"I've seen worse. But still no."
Sakura frowned. "You could at least sound like you're empathetic to her."
Tayuya leaned up to glare at the pinkette. "Well sor-ry for not crying over every tragedy I hear about, Pinkie. I've been thru quite a few myself so don't expect me to cry a fucking river over some skin injury."
Angry, Tsunade showed the defiant woman the scales on Isaribi's arm. "Does this look like 'some skin injury' to you?"
"Looks bad, but I still don't see the big deal."
"Have you no heart?" Hinata asked.
"My heart took a big hit the day my family was killed on our pilgrimage to Konoha, and it finally died the day my sister was killed and Orochimaru took my burned body to Oto and branded me with his slave seal." Tayuya said as she leaned back on the floor, her crossed arms behind her head.
Naruto looked confused. "You were once part of Konoha? When?"
"When I was a kid. My family was nearly wiped out when our original village was wiped out, and what remained immigrated to Konoha. My father, sister and I lived there for a few years, but they died in a fire and Orochimaru got me out of it and took me away. I've been stuck with him since."
Kushina looked bothered, like she was recalling a bad memory. "Your family immigrated into Konoha when you were a child?"
"You hard of hearing?"
"Tell me your name please." Kushina kindly asked.
The downed redhead looked up at the active redhead with confusion. "Tayuya."
Kushina's eyes widened a bit. "Tayuya? Yaya-chan?"
The Oto kunoichi's eyes were now even wider than her interrogators. "How do you know that stupid nickname?" She then gasped. "No way. It's impossible. Kushina-nee-chan?"
"You two are related?" Naruto asked, the others as surprised as he was.
Kushina and Tayuya ignored them in favor of seeing any hint the other was not who they thought they were. "Only my sister called me Yaya-chan, and only she would know that nickname. I swear if you're an imposter-" Tayuya was stopped by a sudden hug from Kushina.
"I thought you died. I thought the fire killed you like it did Otou-san." Kushina sobbed.
"I thought you died. I saw you on fire."
"That wasn't me. I was taken out by the Sandaime. I told him you and the others were still in there, but they only found charred and ashen bodies. You were declared dead when Orochimaru escaped. I cried for days."
"Me too." Tayuya surprised herself by hugging the other woman and even crying a tiny bit. "That bastard... used a seal to make me his slave. I had to become a monster or die, and I was afraid to die so I went along with it. Nee-chan, please forgive me."
"If you can forgive me for not being able to find you. I'm just glad to have more of my family back."
"You're an Uzumaki?" Tsunade asked.
Tayuya pulled away a little bit. "Surnames have no purpose in Oto so we never use them except for legal purposes, but yeah, my surname is Uzumaki. Orochimaru was determined to find a way to claim our kekkei genkai for himself, so he tried to abduct all of us in Konoha before he defected. I was the only one he succeeded in taking. The others died fighting him off the day he was forced to leave Konoha."
"Well this certainly makes things more interesting. So, you willing to cooperate with us more now?" Tsunade asked.
"Get this fucking seal off me and I'll strip for Blondie here." The flutist told her.
Naruto blushed and Kushina shook her head. "Imouto, Blondie there is my son."
"Son?" Tayuya repeated, surprised. "Well then I guess that makes me your aunt kid."
"In that case, please don't strip for me." Naruto told her, feeling bothered by the idea.
"You sure they're here?" Ino asked.
Shino nodded. "My insect has traced Hinata's scent to this country and location. She is here, and inside this hotel."
"So what do you propose we do now?" Tenten asked.
"I think I know what to do." Ino said "I have a clear shot at one of them from here. I can get in there and hear what they're up to."
"I could send in one of my insects to observe, but I agree that your direct approach is better. Provided you keep your cover." Shino stated.
"I'm a natural Shino. Watch and learn. Mind Transfer Jutsu."
Back in the hotel room, Tsunade and Shizune were going over Tayuya and Isaribi again, with Sakura and Hinata trying to help and learn what to do. Isaribi had regained consciousness but no longer struggled to get away from them, especially after Naruto showed her his new tail, making her no longer feel alone.
Tayuya was surprised to hear about Kushina's true species. "So all this time Nee-chan you've been a sex demon? And to think back when we were kids I was called the pretty one."
"So are you two really sisters?" Sakura asked.
"Not by blood no. Her father took me in when the Uzumaki left Uzushio. We lived together until Orochimaru interfered. She's my sister and Naruto's aunt in name, not genetics." Kushina answered. "I think I can try to get your seal off you, but since I don't have chakra anymore I may need someone else to actually do the job while I get it set up. But it will take some time to get it right since I'm a bit rusty on fuinjutsu."
Tayuya shrugged. "You could have a retarded pervert lick it off for all I care. Just get it off."
"Well I can't say for certain what can be done about the seal, my diagnostic of you two leads me to believe that treating you both could take years of recovery." Tsunade said. She first faced Isaribi. "Without proper knowledge of what was done to you, I don't dare try to undo it and risk making it just get worse. And even if I did understand, getting the reversal procedure done right will not be accomplished overnight." Isaribi looked heartbroken, and Tsunade adverted her gaze to Tayuya. "Your case is similar to a boy I just treated back in Konoha, but the seal Orochimaru placed on you has left internal corrosive damage to your body and chakra network. So the rate of success is even less for you than it was for the boy with crushed bones and tendons. Trying to cure you would make the medic jutsu try to undo the corrosion and your seal is likely to interpret that as a threat to itself and counteract or overpower any help I can do. Until that mark is sealed up good or removed, I don't think you'll be able to walk again."
"So we're stuck like this for who knows how long? Fuck!" Tayuya said.
"Is there really no other option for them Baachan?" Naruto asked.
Kushina cleared her throat. "This may not be the best solution, but I do know of a way to heal them both that could work perfectly."
All eyes were on her. "What do you mean?"
Kushina refused to give anyone eye contact. "It's sort of a kinjutsu that's being kept under wraps right now. It can return someone to perfect health. But... it has a side-effect. If done to them both, they will be the picture of health, but... they'll be turned into succubi."