Time for an update to Senju Scion, finally right? As weak of a response to the fact of it taking time is, it is what it is. That is all I got in response. Anyway a brief heads up on this chapter, there will be some adult content later in the chapter, this is your only heads up for it, so if you don't like it just skim over it. While it will have character development during the scene it will not be egregious should you skip over it.

If you want a peek at chapters like this one earlier than other folks as well as exclusive stories look me up on under Helghy's Stories. A big thanks to Dragonkw213. As an investor tier they are a great help to yours truly.

Let's try and get into the story now, shall we.

Chapter Nine

Test and Review

The morning after Naruto's return to the village with Orochimaru, he found breakfast to be about as tense as he had expected. Orochimaru was just as chipper as she liked to be when emotionally digging at someone, and every time that Kushina or his mother reacted the village's snake mistress seemed to smile just a bit brighter.

Her favorite however was pushing and prodding at poor Minako. That was actually starting to get on his nerves a bit. Minako wasn't a wallflower or anything, but she was incredibly polite and reserved when compared to most of their odd little household. Naruto had long found a bit of a kindred spirit with her because of that.

Surrounded by the eccentric and often very boisterous personalities of Tsunade Senju, Kushina Uzumaki, and Orochimaru Mitarashi made those who were typically a bit more reserved and dispassionate like himself something to cling onto. Even if he didn't really process the fact that he did such things.

In the end though, that mattered little. He was honestly fine with Orochimaru playing her usual mind games and trying to rile up the other women in the house, and even rile him up at times as well. There did, however, exist a certain line that would inevitably be crossed the changed the interactions from playful and a bit nasty to downright hurtful. Orochimaru could identify those lines, but actually forcing herself to stop before crossing them was difficult at times.

More so since she had been away from the village with just Naruto and herself. He had a much longer fuse than pretty much anyone that Orochimaru knew. Minako also had a long one and Orochimaru seemed to have locked onto that for all the wrong reasons, because at the end of the day as similar as Minako and Naruto might have been, they were not in fact exactly the same.

Minako was a much more 'normal' person than he was. While she was a wonderful and proud kunoichi, she didn't have the unique mindset that Naruto's upbringing had somehow rendered out.

As a few had pointed out, Naruto seemed to possess all the potential of his Great Grandfather and Great Granduncle but his personality was far more in line with the latter. Minako wasn't weak emotionally but she was vulnerable to one of her idols picking at her for extended periods.

So, breakfast was tense. Uncomfortable as Tsunade and Kushina made it clear they practically wanted to tear Orochimaru apart while Minako bore the brunt of a verbal and emotional assault by the pale woman all aimed at every insecurity that she could find.

Naruto had just finished his food and wiped his mouth when he'd noticed Minako beginning to dig her fingertips into the wood of the chair she was sitting in. It was hard enough that her knuckles had gone white and she was starting to split the nails ever so slightly.

Simply telling his teacher to stop would probably lead to more of the same. It was her largest character flaw in his opinion. While others might say it was her amoral attitude, well he partially shared that so he disagreed. In his mind it was her obsessive tendencies. An ability to let things go that made her do things and hurt people she wouldn't normally.

That would have left the conundrum of how to silence the woman then. If someone hadn't spent years learning under her tutelage and become closer to her than literally any other soul in the world.

Naruto did exactly what Orochimaru expected him to do when he was tired of her tendencies. He attempted to put his plate through the side of her head.

Of course it didn't even come all that close. He wasn't going to just try and murder his teacher and lover at breakfast. That was completely uncalled for and a ridiculous notion. She just needed a reminder that he could try if he got annoyed enough.

As Orochimaru glanced at the cracked plate she had caught in her hand, Tsunade, Minako, and Kushina all stared over at Naruto in mild shock. From their point of view it had been a random act of violence with little leading up to it.

"Naruto, did you need something?" Orochimaru asked with a saucy grin turned toward him.

"Quiet." He replied with a shrug causing the woman to snicker slightly before nodding and bowing her head so slightly.

The others watched in mild wonder at the byplay between the two. The way Orochimaru seemed to get his meaning from that one interaction and actually dropped her teasing of Minako. As with all things it of course would only be a temporary reprieve, however Tsunade recovered from her surprise quite quickly and wrestled control of the morning conversation to prepare everyone for the events they had planned today.

"Naruto, you and the girls…and Orochimaru will be meeting up with Sensei to perform your test today. How are you feeling about it?" She asked.

He shrugged before looking at his fiance and…girlfriend? They had made it clear last night that Minako fully intended to pursue him sexually and romantically. She seemed inclined to pursue Kushina too, which he was in favor of. Puberty had opened his eyes to a few things he had quickly come to appreciate. His father took it too far but Naruto wasn't above carnal pleasure himself.

"We are going to kick your ass." Kushina laughed out as she caught his look.

"It is going to be a bit unfair for you with you going up against both of us." Minako remarked.

He glanced toward Orochimaru but the woman remained silent, both to acknowledge that he had requested it of her, and to punish him for doing so. She knew he had only meant with his taunting but he had no doubt that she would be particularly silent for the time being. At least until the test was over and done with.

"I don't want to sound too cocky but I hope you two know I won't be very kind to you during the test. I'll make it up to you later though, and make you feel good." Naruto said before turning back to where his breakfast had previously been and focusing on drinking down the glass of fruit juice he had.

Kushina and Minako practically choked on the air as they registered what he had said. Not just in what he had said, it was also the method he had spoken in. Flat and in a matter of fact tone that simply stated that was what would happen.

Tsunade was far less taken off guard and instead shot an unamused look at her old teammate. She was sure part of that comment had been the influence of the boy's father, but she knew Orochimaru quite well. Perhaps only slightly less so than Naruto or Hiruzen by this point.

"What are you going to be doing?" Naruto asked, pulling Tsunade's attention back to him.

"I will, uh, be nearby if you all need me. I have been awfully busy lately." She responded, weakly.

Naruto said nothing but he did seem to be searching her face for something for a time. She found his eyes, ones he had clearly inherited from her if based on color alone, seemed to be digging past her face and into her mind beyond. As if he was trying to read her mind like a Yamanaka. After a moment he looked away again and Tsunade almost felt herself breathing a sigh of releif.

It frustrated her, and that feeling only grew worse when she caught the piercing look of Orochimaru doing much the same that Naruto had been a moment before but much more effectively. Wonderful, she wasn't getting out of those conversations anytime soon.

No doubt that Sensei had passed every little thing he knew on to his favorite of his three students. Including things he had no business butting his wrinkled old nose into.

"Lord Third tends to keep an early schedule." Minako politely warned the group about the time, without actually warning them about the time.

Kushina snorted in humor. "The same with all geezers. Honestly I didn't use to notice when I was a genin, but after helping out with a few missions at the academy, I think old ninja are worse than old civilians. Up earlier than sunrise and back to bed before sunset."

"Kushina…" Minako muttered.

"What? I'm right." The redhead shrugged uncaringly.

"Well maybe if you wouldn't try to sleep in every single day and have to have me kick you out of bed, you would share a similar schedule." Tsunade growled, taking over the mild reprimand that Minako had in mind.

Naruto watched on with the tiniest of smiles on his face as he did, he had missed them all and things weren't exactly as he had left them, not even close, but they were still more pleasant than not here at home.

He hoped that they would stay that way or maybe even get better as the big events coming up in their futures loomed ahead of them.

The Third Hokage had chosen a pleasant clearing that was often used by some of the higher level shinobi as a sort of sparring arena. Just beyond the open meadow was a barrier of thick woods that were included in the training ground with a large pond along the northern edge with a stream running out of it and circling around the meadow before passing out of the training area and on down to the main river that passed through the village.

"I remember this one. You gave us the bell test here Sensei." Orochimaru commented as she and the Senju household joined Hiruzen and his pair of chunin aides in the clearing.

"That was quite a long time ago." Hiruzen chuckled.

"Yet it feels like yesterday sometimes." Tsunade added with a true smile.

"I don't think that I have used this one personally before." Naruto muttered as he focused on taking in his surroundings.

"Consider it part of the test. Minako and I train together on it pretty often." Kushina replied with a smirk.

Naruto only nodded as he continued to focus on his surroundings causing Kushina to deflate a bit as Minako tried to hide a giggle at Kushina's failed attempt to get under his skin. Minako herself had trained on the ground more often than Kushina had. While Minako had plenty of missions and tasks especially when training with Jiraiya, Kushina had a lot of official duties maintaining barriers not only within the village but throughout Fire Country.

Minako and Kushian were both quite skilled with seals, but in very different fields. Kushina focused on barriers and security elements while practically everything Minako worked with were combat or transport focused. She'd been given access to Lord Second's notes on sealing techniques by Lord Third and Tsunade recently and she had been making some notable progress there.

Still it made her wonder what exactly she and Kushina would be facing when taking on Naruto. As much as his mokuton was a known element, it was no doubt he had grown further in its use. Likely to the point that his use of his bloodline was practically unrecognizable from what it had been a few years again. She also knew Naruto wasn't one to be a one trick pony, especially not when taught by Orochimaru.

"When do we start?" Naruto asked, bringing the attention of the others to him.

"You're ready?" Hiruzen asked.

"We should give him a head start." Kushina confidently said, causing Minako's eyes to widen.

"Oh?" Hiruzen asked.

"Yeah, make it like a mission went wrong and he is fleeing from pursuers. Failure is being either immobilized or tagged by what would be a fatal blow. Success for him is doing the same for us. Say his escape is cut off so kill or be killed." Kushina laid out her idea.

"Hmm, I had envisioned a simple two versus one spar, but I like that. It's a hair more realistic in certain ways. If you are certain that you and Minako are comfortable giving Naruto a minute head start then I don't see the harm." Hiruzen said with shrugging shoulders and a mischievous glint in his eyes that only Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Minako caught.

"Hah, of course we do." Kushina said while wrapping an arm around Minako and pulling her in closely causing the blonde to blush and stammer slightly at acting this way in front of the Hokage.

"I won't turn down an advantage." Naruto said before disappearing into the tree line with a body flicker.

"So it begins. Come along Orochimaru, Tsunade. There is a good view from that rooftop beyond the trees." Hiruzen said before he too body flickered, followed shortly by the two women and the pair of aides.

Minako turned to look at Kushina who only smiled back at her. Slowly the smile slipped from her face as she took in Minako's flat expression.

"What?"

"You just argued for Naruto to have a headstart in a wooded testing field." Minako pointed out.

"Well yeah. There are two of us, I tried to make it sound like a real scenario for the Hokage but I wanted to give him a chance." Kushina said.

"Kushina…I have so much I want to say and none of it you want to hear right now." Minako pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance while her best friend blinked before narrowing her eyes.

"Just say what you are thinking Minako."

"We are going to get bullied by trees for a while because of this. You do realize that right?" Minako said.

Kushina's smirk returned at that. "I said we needed to give him a chance, not that I don't perhaps have something planned for reminding him not to be a one trick pony."

Minako said nothing but she really doubted that Naruto had fallen into that trap. He didn't think like most ninja. He was loving and caring for people who he gave a damn about but really he was cold and calculating at the best of times. The few times she had seen him angry he hadn't simply fallen into a rage and lashed out, he had brutalized whatever had angered him.

"I hope you actually have an idea for his wood." Minako said before blinking in confusion as Kushina cackled beside her.

"I have a few ideas, but let's handle the fight first, filthy girl." Kushina said before beginning to walk toward the treeline eyes alert for any traps near the edge of the forest.

"What?" Minako asked before choking on her spit. Was she turning into Jiraiya-sensei? The thought made her shiver slightly before she focused on the task at hand.

Naruto worked at not allowing himself to fall into a sense of overconfidence. He'd seen even skilled and powerful shinobi fall to chance and little more. Despite that, the last few years had steadily made him supremely confident in his ability.

To the point that Kushina insisting upon him getting a head start was something that had annoyed him. Not to the point of turning down the advantage, he was after all a shinobi who recognized and abused any and all advantages his opponents allowed him. Orochimaru would have put him through the wringer in training if he couldn't understand at least that much. Ironic for how much she liked to banter with her 'prey' as she called anyone she fought.

No, Naruto would not be turning down the advantage his fiance was ensuring he had, rather he would rub her nose in the silly mistake as gently as he could be expected to. Which was not gentle at all, she was tough. She could take it.

The moment he had slipped into the trees he had begun to seize control of the forest. He had learned plenty of techniques with his bloodline. As well as others of course. In fact the only nature transformation that he truly lacked any knowledge of was lightning release. For whatever reason it remained the most difficult for him, but that didn't matter much when he had worked himself to the point of exhaustion in the other elements and in other fields of shinobi combat.

He also retained his own additions to Mokuton that his great-grandfather hadn't ventured into. Ones that had been experimental at best when he had left for his training so long ago. By now however, with a lot of guidance from Orochimaru's knowledge of poisons, drugs, and other compounds, he had developed an arsenal of some truly nasty weapons that were all exclusively his to create and use.

Unfortunately, around ninety percent of those particular tools were a bit much to use in training, even against Kushina and Minako. While they might not have been sure kill moves as some people liked to brag that they possessed, they were best used on much larger enemies or the kind of opponent that could take a Kage on in personal combat.

Definitely best not to use on two women who he liked and very much wanted to keep on the good side of. After all, last night's conversation had very clearly detailed what staying on that good side would mean.

Naruto paused in his thoughts and his work in generating and shifting roots beneath the cover of the forest floor. Minako and Kushina had breached the tree line in pursuit of him. They were being awfully careful and he expected as much.

What he hadn't expected was the sudden loss of three wood style clones near the edge of the forest. Their loss had been incredibly strange as well. They had noticed Minako maneuvering, then…well nothing. It hadn't been her, unless they had missed a clone of the blonde approaching from another angle but that had been why he had set up three clones in the first place. Their placement covered one another so that simply being outmaneuvered wouldn't work. No, the moment Kushina and Minako had stepped into the forest Minako had picked up speed and circled in an arc around twenty meters ahead of Kushina, passing by his clones without having apparently seen them, then there had been nothing.

He focused his attention back on the task at hand as he either grew his own new additions to the forest or hijacked the descendants of his Great-grandfather's trees. Even without his clones he had a pretty good idea of what was going on throughout a pretty large region of the woods thanks to this. It took a lot of focus and chakra, though while the first could be an issue on a mission, well chakra was something he had quite a lot of so he wasn't too worried about that cost.

Naruto's worry had to be around the large moving deadspot of his awareness. His sensing through the trees wasn't exactly like seeing, or really even hearing or smelling whatever was passing along the trees. It was more like a sense of feeling. Like someone stepping past a branch causing the equivalent to a fly brushing past the skin on the back of your neck.

This felt like the equivalent of an arm falling asleep or worse, no longer being there at all. In a way, he realized that was exactly what it was. Some serious sealing was being used and honestly he was impressed as he was caught off guard. He knew both Kushina and Minako were studying the art extensively but he hadn't expected that there was a way for Kushina to use her barriers offensively.

That made him more wary of what Minako had at her disposal, strange as that thought might have been. However he had spoken with both girls for quite a long time if even only over letters or through summons. Minako and Kushina both had made it clear they wouldn't reveal too much before his return, but they had also explained that they almost perfectly complemented one another in battle. A sword and shield.

If this was the shield in action, a forty meter diameter ball of blindness in his zone of control, what would the sword be bringing to bear against him?

Unfortunately as things were he would need to engage the girls directly. However despite the area Kushina was essentially controlling within his woods, there were a few techniques that once started didn't need his control over them to continue.

Naruto ran through a series of hand signs. It was a rather complicated technique after all and he had only managed to master this technique to the point that he only needed three hand signs to activate it. Once that was done he took a curving path through the canopy of the trees choosing to come at Minako and Kushina from the side.

They should be distracted for the time being and give him the opening he needed to flank them without being spotted.

As they had moved deeper into the woods, both Minako and Kushina had known it was only a matter of time before Naruto changed tactics to attempt and hit them. After all, if Kushina's seals were properly working, and Minako had no reason to doubt that they were, then not only was Naruto effectively blinded for a sizable area but he knew that they would eventually find him as they searched the forest.

Of course, Naruto wasn't going to sit idly by as they hunted him, but they should have expected something more tricky than a simple flanking attack. They wouldn't have simply charged in at a side angle and have expected it to work but the sudden assault had been enough to still catch them off guard and forced them to react as if it was Naruto's main assault.

Kushina may have found a way to cut him off from using his techniques within a certain area around her person, but that did still leave some ranged techniques in his arsenal to use. The finger length thorns that tore through the trees and bushes and would have easily torn through Minako and Kushina too if they hadn;t rapidly moved out of the way didn't need chakra to retain their flight paths.

Large flytrap looking plants infested the trees nearby releasing several dart like thorns each in rapid succession before seeming to wilt and die the moment they ran out of what actually appeared to be some kind of seed. Naruto had been using his mokuton and Orochimaru's education to create some rather gnarly and frightening monstrosities out of simple plants.

There were too many to simply deflect them, but Minako wasn't defenseless. She had spent all of the time she could in her own training and among the things she'd studied most had been sealing as well, just in different fields than Kushina had.

Technically speaking she had gone much further than Kushina had with what she could do with sealing, largely because the fields she focused on simply had more potential. Unfortunately that potential was also arguably much harder to reach.

Minako was nothing if not determined though, and while she still believed she had a long way to go, as it was she was perhaps the most capable shinobi in the world when it came to space time techniques and their related seals. With a twist and focusing of her chakra, Minako inscribed a seal onto the tree she had been standing on before she launched herself away from it and back toward Kushina.

The thorns that passed by the tree suddenly found themselves reversed, flipped one hundred and eighty degrees backwards. They weren't spun around, they simply were backwards after passing the tree that Minako had marked. Several of the thorns returned to the plants that had fired them, tearing them into confetti, while others impacted one another and bounced into trees or the forest floor.

"So that worked better than I expected." Minako muttered before she was forced to bring an arm up to block the kick headed for the side of her head.

Naruto wasn't a kid anymore. He was grown enough to be considered a man by the village and the weight of his body added with the growth in muscle sent Minako tumbling despite having blocked the attack. She quickly righted herself once again and slid across the grass into a ready position, but by that point Naruto and Kushina were already engaged in a fight.

Kushina's sword caught the kunai Naruto brought down toward her before she drove the blade forward and he twisted around and made a grab at her dominant wrist. It wasn't until Kushina spun away from the attempted grab that he felt the odd sensation spreading through his body.

"Your chains?" He murmured in a question not truly directed at Kushina but the woman grinned and replied anyway.

"Not exactly, just inspired by them." Kushina bragged as she swept forward with a strike but narrowly missed the blond as he bent backwards around the attack.

"So a seal then, one that creates a barrier with you at the center. Smart."

Kushina's smile dipped as Naruto clearly pieced together just what it was that she had done in practically an instant. Minako wasn't sure why that would bother her. All three of them were skilled and all three of them knew one another better than anyone else. It would have been disappointing if Naruto hadn't managed to figure out the technique to some degree.

At least, despite knowing what was going on, Naruto didn't have an immediate counter to it. Kushina's seal drained away chakra around her in a forty meter bubble, only those tagged like Minako had been weren't affected. Then again, Minako did have to restrain herself to using sealing to fight as well, since if she had tried an elemental ninjutsu it would have been diminished by Kushina's seal as well.

"Hmm, the closer to you i get the more my chakra is drawn out toward you and destabilized by the transfer. It's not as strong as your chains though." Naruto said before running through a series of hand signs catching both girls off guard.

Again it really shouldn't have. Naruto was clever, but in his mind often the cleverest thing to do was to simply overpower whatever he stood against and carry on.

A huge burst of chakra emanated from the Senju heir before he released perhaps the largest wind style technique either Kushina or Minako had ever seen. Even with the chakra drain it was strong enough to shatter a couple of nearby trees and tear Kushina up off of the ground and hurl her backward through the forest and far away from Naruto and Minako.

"You two make a good team." Naruto said simply as he changed targets and tactics.

With a pair of hand signs and a stomp of his foot roots as thick as he was wide began tearing upward out of the ground and swelling into massive wooden tentacles all moving to wrap around Minako. The drain from Kushina's seals fell away suddenly as she was forced far enough away by his earlier attack and suddenly Minako found herself facing him alone in a forest completely subjected to his mokuton bloodline.

The blonde had to keep mobile, sliding and leaping between the massive roots while still trying to keep Naruto within sight. Thankfully it seemed that this particular technique required him to remain stationary so that he could feed chakra into it and manipulate the forest around him. However he didn't exactly need to to move to attack her if he now had control of the entire space around them.

Deciding her best course of action, at least until Kushina could link back up with them, would be to directly attack him and force him on the defensive Minako began weaving her way through the attacking trees with a fluidity and speed few others could mimic.

Eventually though Naruto's constructs grew to be too much and she was forced to use another of her recently created techniques. An orb of swirling pure chakra rapidly formed in her hand and she lanced forward with it directly into the wall of living wood in her path. Trees and giant roots splintered and shattered and she drove herself forward like a drill directly toward Naruto.

He wasn't sure what the technique was exactly, but with the ease it destroyed his constructs he was certain he did not want to find himself on the receiving end of it. So he released his current technique and began retreating backward as he ran through hand signs for another technique, this time focusing his chakra into draining the same constructs he had just made of every drop of moisture he could pull from them.

Naruto wasn't to the point of matching his great uncle yet. He couldn't simply form dragons of water from the air, though he had begun to manipulate moisture in the air for techniques. He could, however pull from the plant life around him, and plant life he had made himself was even easier.

Within moments a swirling pillar of water formed around him before it was released and shot out toward Minako like a cannon. Just as before, Minako used her technique to drill forward into the chilling water and continue her attack. Unlike with the trees however, the water pressure in Naruto's attacks was enough to shift her angle and after a moment, force her up and off of the ground before launching her backward.

He didn't get a chance to capitalize on the shift in combat though, he barely had time to realize Kushina was beside him before ducking to avoid the swing of her sword. She had released her seal to better get the drop on him and hadn't announced her approach in the slightest. She also seemed to be using her chains now, to propel herself along in directions and speeds that no one could manage short of literally flying.

"You summoned a giant snake and had it eat me?" She roared outraged and disgusted.

"I had thought it would keep you busy longer. Good job." Naruto said before flinging several shuriken at her that Kushina knocked away with one of her chains in an almost annoyed manner.

"I am covered in snake spit and dirt now. I'm taking that out on your ass." She growled as she launched herself forward much faster than she normally would be able to. Naruto slipped around a large branch before separating with a wood clone and letting Kushina face it head on while he tried to formulate a new plan of action.

Minako knew better than to give him breathing room to begin using either his mokuton or another ability though and Naruto was once again being pursued by one of the girls as the blonde seemed to speed herself up somehow while slowing him down.

"More seals." He grunted in realization.

"All around us now, while Kushina kept you busy." Minako obligingly answered the questions running through his mind.

"Both of you together are a good team." Naruto remarked before letting loose a sudden gout of flame that sent Minako to the side just as he had wanted, her legs caught in a mud style trap he had made but she quickly got free of that as well, after all it was one of Naruto's father's preferred moves.

"The three of us together are even worse I bet. Missions will be fun when we can go on them together again." Minako grinned at him before she began using her own mud style technique that Naruto managed to avoid by taking to the trees.

"Yes it will." Kushina said as she tried once more to skewer her fiance with her sword only for him to turn into a wood clone as well as the one she had already dispatched.

"What the hell?" She squawked before grunting in pain as she felt Naruto slap a hand to the back of her neck. A death blow if done with a kunai.

Kushina deflated as Minako and Naruto took off after one another in the forest once more leaving her behind as she was dead according to the rules of the scenario. Her own rules of her own scenario.

"You did incredibly well." A voice said beside her making her jump. It seemed as though the Sannin still had a few tricks up their sleeve.

The unnaturally young Orochimaru settled in beside Kushina as they both watched the fight between the blondes continue. It had picked up speed and ferocity. Neither slowed down, except when Minako's seals managed to force Naruto to slow. His reactions to such a tactic remained lightning fast though and he freed himself from each seal before Minako could properly capitalize on the brief moment.

"Come to gloat about something?" Kushina asked sharply, only to be caught off guard by the unfortunately alluring giggle the woman made.

"What is there to gloat about Kushina? You really are so bullheaded sometimes, I thought that would change more by the time we returned."

"What do you want?" She cut to the chase. It seemed Orochimaru approved as she smiled a bit more widely.

"For you to just do what you already planned to do. Do you really think I would try and wedge myself in between you and Naruto? Take your place as his wife or something?" Orochimaru asked. Almost condescendingly, almost but somehow it sounded sincere instead.

"You couldn't if you wanted. He and I are set to be married, and we will be. Then the three of us, Him, me, and Minako will start our family." Kushina said harshly.

"The four of us dear. I think you know I won't let go. That boy is the best thing in my life, right there with his mother. The two of them mean more to me than anything else and I am selfish enough to carve myself a place with them, however I feel it. Then again that isn't what bothers you about the whole matter. You are just angry at me because I took what you saw as your right." Orochimaru hit the nail on the head.

"Why is Tsunade letting you off your leash to come bother me?" Kushina bit out.

"Why, I am still sitting and chatting with Tsunade and the Hokage. You need to work on identifying clones better." Orochimaru chided.

Kushina rolled her eyes and Orochimaru took that as a sign to continue.

"You know, Naruto was the one that wore me down. I wanted, or at least convinced myself I only wanted, to view him as my beloved little nephew. I never thought I would ever be able to have a real lover or even dream of building a family of my own. Fantasies I had as a little girl in the orphanage that fell away when I realized that I am…strange." Orochimaru admitted.

Kushina felt suddenly awkward. The woman was speaking of incredibly deep things for her, and well Orochimaru didn't do that. Not normally. Not with anyone except maybe Tsunade and Naruto, and perhaps the Hokage.

"You, Minako, and Naruto all share a bond I am a bit jealous of. There was a time, when I was a young kunoichi that I had almost hoped for a relationship like the three of you have between my own team. I thought it would be my chance to have the things I assumed were not available to me, instead I found myself as a third wheel and unwanted as more than a friend. Eventually I could accept that." Orochimaru continued.

"Then when Naruto and I left on our training trip he began to grow and he began to take interest in me in ways that no one ever had before. I have been the subject of lustful looks and desire, but not like with him. He saw me the same way he sees you and your friend. As someone to grow his family with and to love. How cruel was fate to place a young man beside me who saw me like that when I was to only see him as family. As a nephew."

Kushina bit her lip slightly as she lost interest in the fight between Naruto and Minako out in the trees and turned fully to Orochimaru.

"I don't normally speak like this with others. Not outside of Naruto and Tsuande anyway, but you and I will be sisters in a way. I refuse to let him go, and you know why now. He can be very strategic in things outside of battle, and he won me out one night near the border mountains in the far west. It was probably two or three weeks before I was ready to try my technique to create and move into this new body. It was nothing but bliss. Then I assumed it would stop, I would make myself younger and have my chance to maybe find another that looked at me like Naruto had. Instead, I let him take me again and I fell for him completely."

"There is something I haven't told him or Tsunade about. Only the Hokage knows because I hadn't meant for it to happen like this and there may be some complications." Orochimaru said as her hand drifted down to her stomach and Kushina felt her blood turn to ice.

"You're pregnant?" She asked, a bit more sharply and accusatory than she had meant to but Orochimaru let it slide past without notice.

"I am, but due to my technique being imperfect my body is aging rapidly and the pregnancy is somehow doing the opposite. I am more than seven months along, but the fetus grows as if it was only my second month. I am worried it will fail to come to fruition, so I am approaching you for a deal."

"I know you plan on seducing him today after the spar. He's always a bit wound up after combat, even practiced combat. It's very primal of him." Orochimaru said, taking a guilty pleasure in the discomfort that flitted across Kushina's face at those words.

"Take him to the bathhouse, take him at the bathhouse and you will thank me. But make sure he does the deed fully. You will be marrying him in a matter of weeks at most. Get started on that family in case this falls through, there will be some good in the coming weeks of the war then." Orochimaru said as she gently rubbed her stomach.

"You are asking me to just jump right in to having babies, but with the war on our team will be sent on missions, being pregnant will definitely be an issue."

"You aren't a team anymore. You, sadly will be kept here in Konoha, your barrier techniques and the fact that you are all but running the barrier and defense corps as wella s taking care of Tsunade's problem means you won't be leaving the village anytime soon."

"Tsuande's problem. You know about it…" Kushina said sadly.

"I am also going to be here, and together we will help her through it. I promise. Don;t feel left out by your teammates either. Minako will be taking on genin. First that boy you have been looking out for, Sakumo's son, then a full team." Orochimaru explained.

"Leaving Naruto to take missions alone." Kushina said with obvious disdain.

"Of course he will. You have no idea how much he held himself back for this spar. Most of his techniques are designed in such a way to overwhelm an opponent or poison them or wipe out whole squads with ease. You are all strong but he couldn't use his deadliest attacks in training with you because they are that deadly, Kushina. There is no half measure."

Kushina was silent as she mulled over everything the woman had said, and slowly blew out a sigh as she realized her course of action would be exactly what Orochimaru said. She wanted a family and the way things were looking it was better to get a jump on things. They had all lost friends and loved ones in the last one. Anyone could die, even the most powerful and skilled could fall prey to an ambush or simply bad luck. Such was war.

Not to mention, Kushina had lost a very large family and was as intent at rebuilding the Senju clan as a combination of the Uzumaki and Senju that remained as the village was at having the Senju clan reconstituted. She had also seen what happened to some other clans over the years and outside the Uchiha and Hyuga, their numbers had taken huge hits during the last war.

"This doesn't mean I am happy about any of what is going on, plus you need to tell Naruto about your baby. Even if things don't work out then he has a right to know."

"Let me tell him after you have good news of your own." Orochimaru said softly.

Kushina sighed but nodded. So be it. Then she thought of the coming afternoon and blushed faintly in realization that she was really going to make a move today and try to get a jump start on her family.

The end of the spar had been a bit lackluster. In the end Naruto had chosen to simply exhaust Minako to the point that she could no longer keep up with him. While the woman had him beaten in speed and flexibility no one could compete with him in endurance and stamina.

Eventually she had to slow down and with a combination of ninja wire and mud style he caught her up in what amounted to a web, unable to get free between Naruto already being beside her with a kunai and being more tired than she had been in recent memory, Minako had no choice but to yield to the Senju.

Naruto quickly cut her free and caught her as she fell into his arms. The small smile that they shared filled Minako with a warm feeling that passed away as the others all flickered into the area that they were.

"You overdid it." Tsunade scolded Minako as she stepped up.

"It's fine." She tried to say.

"Some pulled muscles and chakra burns. You overdid it. We are going to take care of this." Tsunade said with a faint glare.

Minako sighed but allowed the older woman to practically pick her up and start heading for the Senju estate. Tsunade was a bit of a mother hen whenever any of them had even the slightest injury or exhaustion. It was too endearing to actually be annoyed at though and she let the woman do as she pleased while running a faintly glowing hand up and down her form as she checked her over.

Orochimaru joined them as Hiruzen announced that they would all have a week off but need to report to his office after that for their assignments. Minako gathered to mean she and the others would not be teamed up. She'd expected as much even if Kushina had been insistent that they would be together.

Speaking of Kushina the redhead shot her a look before glancing at Naruto. Minako was smart enough to realize what her friend was asking without opening her mouth. She flashed her a thumbs up and the redhead smiled as much as she also blushed faintly.

So, Kushina was taking that step. Good. Minako didn't intend to wait out the week herself without doing the same, but unlike Orochimaru she intended to let Kushina have a first go. Wife's right or something. It mattered little to Minako, she planned to make her own time with Naruto special in her own way.

Naruto had initially planned on following after his mother and Orochimaru to the estate and make sure Minako was fine. He felt a bit like he had cheated in his fight with her. As far as any shinobi could, he wasn't so foolish as to think any advantage such as simply greater endurance wasn't something to be used in battle. Still it hadn't been an actual fight with his…girls? What did he refer to Minako and Kushina, and well also Orochimaru as. They were far more than friends and if he was reading the shuffling that Kushina had taken to doing as they made their way toward the onsen he and Kushina were about to go beyond simply being betrothed.

"You know, there is no hurry. As much as I want to move forward with you and Minako, we could wait, at least until after we are married, if you want." Naruto said softly, interrupting Kushina's rambling about some shopkeeper that she didn't like because she was a snob toward kunoichi or something.

"Figured that much out just by walking to the mixed baths…" Kushina chuckled before reaching out and taking his hand.

"You know you are mine right? I have to share you but I am possessive and you are mine. Your dad and the Hokage decided that much when we were little."

Naruto blinked before chuckling. "You think you are more possessive than I am? Kushina, I'm still a teenager but I have figured out enough to tell exactly what is mine and how I am going to take it. I am a man after all and you are going to be my wife."

The almost purring way Naruto muttered that into her ear sent a shiver down Kushina's spine. Suddenly she realized that Orochimaru hadn't been joking. This boy, no this shinobi was as much his father's son as his mother's but he seemed intent on getting what he wanted. Which worked in her favor. She wanted it too, just now some anxiety was building up.

"I had considered that maybe you preferred older women." Kushina said meekly as they stepped into the changing room.

"I do, then again you are older than me, remember?" He replied with an uncharacteristic smirk.

"That's not what I meant." Kushina said before pausing as she realized she was about to begin undoing the wrappings she wore over her more intimate areas. They were better suited for kunoichi tasks than the simple underwear she preferred to wear when not on duty, but they were also somewhat seductive in how they wrapped around her figure. Both she and Naruto seemed to notice at the same time, and he wasn't proper enough to stop watching as she slowly began to unravel the neat white strips of cloth.

"Maybe not, but I do prefer my women older than me. In fact the only women I have ever found attractive have always been a bit older than me." Naruto said as he simply let his own clothes pool on the ground giving Kushina more than a peek at what he kept hidden within his pants.

She didn't really know what to compare it with. She wasn't experienced in this sort of thing obviously but she also hadn't been a medic or really learned much more than the basics of male anatomy. She did know that seeing ti in person was vastly different than seeing a picture here or there and she suddenly felt nervous all over again.

"Are you going to keep those on, or did you want me to help?" Naruto asked as he wrapped a towel around his waist concealing his manhood once again and fully turning to eye Kushina with a look she had never seen on his normally placid face before.

Honey colored eyes seemed to drink in her form and it was like she was already nude under his gaze. It actually egged her on and she smirked back at him hoping she conveyed as much desire with her own violet eyes as he did with his.

"I wouldn't turn down a little help." She said, her voice just above a whisper not yet sure how ready she was to thrust into the teasing sexy persona that she had imagined for this moment. It struck her as funny that the both of them almost seemed to be trying to mimic some of the characters from Jiraiaya's books. The thought almost made her giggle, probably would have if she hadn't felt Naruto's hand slide up her torso, caressing her skin, before cupping her breasts through the wrappings there.

He didn't really fondle her or massage her, instead his hands simply rested there a moment before setting to work unbinding her chest. Kushina was almost, disappointed. At least until she found the last of the fabric falling away and his hands returning to gently grip her chest filling each hand.

"How do you like this so far?" He asked in a whisper to her ear as he began kneading at her soft skin.

She swallowed thickly at the foreign sensation of the man she cared for touching her like this. It became harder to breathe though as she felt the hardening bulge beneath the towel at his waist. It pressed slightly against the small of her back and she realized suddenly that he had recently surpassed her in height. Only just but unlike her, it was likely that he had much more room to grow.

"Kushina, don't waste time, undo the rest." He prodded gently as one of his hands fell away from her breast where her nipples had grown hard and began helping to unwind the cloth wrapped tightly to cover her womanhood.

Not wanting to fall behind and be led along by a boy younger than she was, Kushina unbound her lower body quickly letting the fabric simply drop to the floor at her feet. Naruto's hand slid between her legs and she felt his fingers tentatively prodding her sex as if exploring it.

"You keep things well groomed, or was that because you knew I was returning to Konoha?" Naruto breathed into Kushina's ear.

"Let's keep some things secret, but you don't want it shaved clean?" She began confidently before he stammered a bit as she asked his preference.

"No, I like a bit of hair, just like this." He replied as his thumb tickled across her pubic area before he caused her to jump as the tip of his middle finger slipped inside of her.

"Warn me next time." Kushina mumbled as she let him pull her in closer to him.

Naruto didn't reply, instead he just continued to play with Kushina going a bit further and becoming a bit more aggressive as she leaned into him. It didn't take much for her knees to shake ever so slightly at the sensations she was feeling. By the time he had sunk two fingers fully into her tight cunt, he had hardened to the point that he didn't want to wait around any more.

"Lay back on the bench, Kushina." He said as he let her go and spread the towel on his waist out over the bench in the changing room.

The redhead didn't argue. She was needy now, just as much as he was. Without a word she lay back and lifted her legs to let him press in closely and angle his cockhead with the opening of her pussy.

As he pressed forward he leaned down and caught her lips with his kissing her deeply and Kushina returned it fully as she felt him stretch her unlike she had ever felt before. It didn't hurt like she had been expecting. A part of her mind chalked that up to the active life of a Kunoichi, but it was quickly drowned out by the pleasure she felt to finally be taking that step she had been waiting for.

Naruto seemed to feel the same as he kissed her and rocked his hips to plunge deeper with every motion.

Hopefully people would be wise enough to avoid the changing room based on the sounds from within. Naruto and Kushina both planned to be there for some time.

Alright that is all you are getting this time around. Next chapter we will see our heroes be assigned teams, get some more information on the threats that Konoha is facing in this new war and check in on some of our other characters that have yet to return since the time skip.

Anyway

Till Next Time