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Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine. Also this story is a lemon fiction therefore is intended for people of a legal age from wherever they come from. So if these type of stories offend then stop reading now. Thanks.

Eroninja: The Limelight
Chapter 16
Kushina and Kiyomi: The Road not Taken

Author’s Note 1: For those who do not follow me on my Deviant art page, the first portion below is going to appear in chapter 106 of Eroninja, but as this chapter kind of grew and grew it ended up taking the majority of my time. But, I wanted to have something out for you all in time for Christmas so decided to change the plan up, and release the Limelight first. The Eroninja main story will hopefully be out a few weeks later.

Below scene would be the last one of chapter 106

Obito’s eyes snapped open as the crunching sound of someone biting into an apple disturbed his slumber. A surprising development for him considering that slumber had been meant to be eternal. Not wanting to alert whoever was present that wasn’t the case he removed motionless as he thought back to what he had believed to be his last moments, which had started with him in his cell. He had been sitting on a bed furiously writing in a journal that he had been given in lieu of a last meal. A journal that he had spent several hours furiously scribbling in as he tried to recount all that had transpired over the course of the last two decades. Not only including a timeline of the events that he had participated in, but theories he had spent the previous few days since Naruto’s visit and learning Rin was alive crafting to help dismantle the remnants of whatever plan that he had been used to set in motion as he doubted either KuroZetsu or the being that he believed had birthed it, Madara Uchiha, would let whatever setbacks they had experienced dissuade them for long. He had just added a few last occurring ideas to the back cover as he had completely filled the pages when the metal gate of his cell had slid open to reveal the Hokage, her apprentice Shizune, a cat masked Anbu Captain along with a squad of Anbu rounded out the party.

Stepping into the cell, Tsunade said, “It’s time.”

Obito nodded, and was somewhat surprised at how at peace he was with it. He wondered if it was because of his learning that Rin was still alive, and had seemingly chosen another to favor with her affection which had seemingly robbed him over a desire to live. Which if that was the case, even he had to admit made him a pathetically sad individual. Particularly as it forced him to face the fact that dead Rin could be anything he had wanted her to be, an unrequited crush where if not but for a small change of fate could have blossomed into the loving relationship that he desired. However, with her alive and seeming in love with another man again, well it forced him to concede that she might have never come around to loving him. Which Rin being alive meant that even if he had performed the Infinite Tsukiyomi, the end goal that he had believed all his efforts had been intended to bring about, it would have resulted in only him dreaming of a life together. Although admittedly that would have been the case even with her being dead, however knowing she would be dreaming of a world where she was happy with another, left the idea of his living in his own dream world remarkably hollow. Especially as he considered the possibility that her dream world might far more closely resemble the one that she currently was experiencing. As such, he felt it was best to end this pitiful existence, and hope that after spending time in the grey world as penance while awaiting his turn at reincarnation, he’d get a better outcome during his next turn at the game of life.

Yet while resigned to his fate in this world, he certainly didn’t want Madara or his agent to achieve their aims, so could only hope the journal he had written would be used to crush their dreams in much the same way they had his. In order to achieve this aim, he handed over the journal to Tsunade who asked, “What’s this? A last will and testament?”

“More or less,” he stated taking a small bit of satisfaction as her eyes widened at his admission.

What followed next was pretty much the standard walk to the execution as he often saw portrayed in moves, where the condemned is marched off to the gallows with someone reading the list of crimes that he had committed and for which he was receiving the ultimate sanction. As the reached the chamber, with numerous crimes still left unmentioned he thought to himself, “They should have put my cell on the opposite end of the building.” Looking at the journal, he added, “Although, even that probably would be long enough if they knew everything I’ve done.”

Still, the Anbu continued reciting them as they stood outside the chamber prompting him to say, “Skip it. I know what I’ve done, and soon you’ll have a complete picture, so let’s just get on with it.”

“Fair enough,” Tsunade said opening the door to the chamber, “After you.”

Stepping inside, he had his prison shirt removed as the Anbu strapped him down to a cross shaped table while Shizune study the panel which contained the chemicals. As the last Anbu finished strapping his own arms to the outstretched ones of the table, Shizune took over as she inserted the I.V.’s which would deliver the chemicals that would first put him to sleep, before the second paralyzed him, as the third would cause his heart to stop. From there, after everyone had left the room things had proceeded exactly as he had expected, as his world went dark.

Right up till now, where he wondered if somehow there had been a mistake and he had received a double dose of one of the first two stages. However, he didn’t quite expect the answer would be that simple, as while he had yet to open his eyes, the musky nature of the environment led him to believe that he was underground, and probably in some sort of cave. Beginning to wonder just what this meant for him, it was at this point that whoever was eating the apple revealed that she was a woman as she said, “You can stop pretending to be asleep now. I’m well aware of your having been awake for the past few minutes.”

Obito opened his eyes, and sat up, with the slight breeze generated by the movement revealing that to his surprise, the mask which had been affixed to his face since his capture had been removed. He filed this information away, as at present it told him that whoever the woman was, she was also connected to Naruto. A fact further confirmed as he found her sitting on a raised rock that looked to have been shaped into a platform upon which a stone throne sat, looking almost bored as she read the journal that he had given Tsunade while eating her apple. Her green eyes looked away from the journal, and with a wicked smile said, “Hello Obito Uchiha, I’ve so looked forward to our paths crossing again.”

He frowned as he had trouble placing her face, although there was something familiar about it. But, then like a hammer the vision of her standing in another underground cavern assaulted him as he recalled catching a vague glimpse of her before being forced out of the room which had contained the Gedo Mezo state as unknown forces had stolen it. “You,” he shouted, “You’re one of the people that stole the statue from us. You’ve been working with Konoha this whole time.”

“Not Konoha,” the woman stated as she held the mostly eaten apple up in the palm of her hand, which promptly burst into flames. “However, certain elements within it and other villages have been working with us.” Seeing the Uchiha’s shocked countenance caused her to laugh softly as it prompted her to ask, ”What, did you think you and your little goo buddy had the market cornered on secret cabals working in the shadows?”

Obito frowned as he asked, “Are you telling me that you’re with the Shadow Cabal? I find that hard to believe. Especially if you’re holding that book. They don’t strike me as the type of people that Naruto or the Hokage would align themselves with.”

Turning her hand to allow the ash of the apple to fall to the floor, she said, “Quite astute. Although it does disappoint me that you do not appear to have any great insight into them either.”

The woman moved to the end of the platform before jumping down with the few moments she took her eyes off of him allowed Obito to run a quick check of his body as he contemplated attacking her. Finding that although his chakra was sealed, the rest of his body seemed to be in good enough shape that he imagined he could surprise her, he hesitated as he felt someone else’s eyes upon him.

However, rather than searching around and giving away that he was aware of the hidden individual, he instead focused on the red-headed woman as he said, “They seemed inclined to ignore us, and so we sought to return the favor.”

“No surprise there, I suppose,” she replied beginning to sound disinterested, “Since it appears their goals are to ferment chaos, and oh boy, did you and your friends go about sowing chaos.” Opening the journal, she flipped through several pages before whistling as she said sounding almost flattering, “The Bloodline Purges of Kiri. That was you? What am I saying, of course it was you wrote it all down here stating that, you simply used your Shraingan to control the Bijuu contained within the Fourth Mizukage in order to twist him into becoming the type of man who would institute those bloodline purges. Wow, and people said I was a monster. But, I cannot even begin to hold a candle to you.”

Obito scowled at the mocking undertones contained within the woman’s words, prompting him to ask, “Who asked you? If you are so disgusted by me, why did you spare my life.”

Closing the book, the woman answered, “Believe me, it wasn’t the decision that I would have preferred. If it had been up to me, I’d have left you as the broken piece of garbage that Black Zetsu’s betrayal left you as. But, I admit that I’ve come around to the idea.”

Looking at right arm which along with that half of his body had previously been grafted on White Zetsu flesh, he said confused, “Wait, you healed me. Why?”

“Because he asked me to,” the red-head replied with a soft loving smile, “I really cannot say no to him.” The smile turned rather sinister as she said, “And as I said, I’ve come around to the idea, especially after reading your autobiography. I mean seriously, you spend damn near the last two decades fucking up the shinobi world and what, you get to go off to sleep as the rest of us have to clean up the mess you helped to make. Besides, I want to keep you in trapped in this world, a nightmare world of your own creation where your beloved Rin even now is probably bouncing wildly on Naruto’s dick all the while aware of the twisted piece of filth you truly are.”

“Argh! You fucking bitch!” Obito shouted as his anger caused him to charge as it overrode his previous hesitation.

Yet before he managed to make it a single step, another person appeared from behind the throne the red-head had originally been sitting in. This new individual moved as a blur, easily intercepting and kicking him away as he received a powerful blow to the chest that lifted him off of his feet. Slamming into the caverns wall, he slid down it slowly and after sinking to the ground sat dazed for several moments. Yet as his blurred vision began to clear, he gasped as do to the pain in his chest he somewhat hoarsely said, “Rin.”

However, as it cleared even further he realized the woman standing before him couldn’t be her despite the strong resemblance, even though she appeared to be about his age. This was mainly due to her sporting violet hair, while the purple marks on her cheeks were missing. Moreover, while her eyes were the same brown as Rin’s, they were currently regarding him coldly, as well as with a level of disgust that hadn’t been present when the younger Rin with Naruto had visited his cell.

“Thank you Hansei,” the red-head stated to her apparent bodyguard, “But, I wasn’t in any danger.” The purple-haired woman inclined her head, but still kept herself between Obito and the woman. The red-head turned to him and frown as he began to chuckle, prompting her to ask, “What is it that you suddenly find so amusing?”

“I knew that fraud with Naruto wasn’t real,” he replied while holding his hand up towards the woman named Hansei, “For starters she was way too young, and while your attack dog here is about the same age, everything else is wrong. But, I have to admit you played me. It got me to give up all my dirty secrets, so what is this. The part where you rub it all in.”

The red-head made a chiding clicking noise with her tongue before saying, “Obito, Obito, Obito, you sweet summer child. I already told you the truth. Your precious Rin is addicted to Uzumaki cock, and from what I understand she even fucked him just after seeing you for the first time in decades, she needed him to make all the bad memories just seeing you and hearing what you did supposedly in her name brought to the surface and believe me she loved… Every. Fucking. Moment.” Seeing Obito’s face twisting in horror and anger she moved to stand behind what appeared to be a purple haired version of the woman that he loved, “The reason Rin appears so young, is so she wouldn’t experience quite as much stress from the memories that were removed from her. Those memories being the time that she spent trapped in her own body as Joskei’s puppet.” Placing a hand on Hansei’s shoulder, she said, “Memories which I’ve used to create Hansei here. Granted, she might not be Rin, but she does have all of her memories. Including her time as a member of Team Minato.”

“T…that doesn’t make any sense,” Obito said even though he could feel that it was, and began to understand why the woman was staring at him with such cold disgust. After all, if the being wearing Rin’s face had acted as Joseki’s assassin then he could understand why the brown eyes that the younger one had still possessed some degree of warmth, while the hardened version standing before him now just saw him as a piece of trash which had betrayed everyone she had cared for.

“You get it now don’t you,” the red-head said with her sinister smile, “Removing her memories of her time as Joseki’s puppet would reset the true Rin to a point before she had been kidnapped. But, the memories that were taken away, would still retain all of the ones that came before. I’ve used those memories in Hansei who is going to act as our observer as you…”

Obito eyes hardened as he surged forward to tackle the woman, who gracefully leapt away at the same time. His gaze shifted to purpled-haired woman to see how she would react hoping to have just enough time to slam a fist into the red-head’s windpipe to crush it. Yet, before Hansei could react or he could shift back towards the other woman to aim for his target, he suddenly clutched at his chest as it felt like a hand had reached into his chest and was squeezing his heart. Clutching at his chest, he fell to the ground and as he managed to look up from the ground saw the red-head holding her hand out before her, looking as if it was wrapped around a heart made of chakra.

Understanding it was a representation of his which she appeared to be holding, and whatever seal was being used to currently constrict it had likely been placed within him when she had repaired his body, he gasped, “You bitch, what do you want from me?”

“I was just about to get to that,” she informed him calmly, before allowing the chakra construct to disappear at which point the pain around his heart began to lessen. Leaping back up to the platform containing her throne, she said, “Now then. The reason that we’ve spared your life, such as it is. Is so that you can put right the many wrongs you’ve helped to unleash upon the world. Preferably by hunting down, or uncovering what that Black Zetsu is currently up to.”

Getting back to his feet, he said bitterly, “I refuse. There’s nothing in this world I care about.”

The red-head gave him a knowing smile as she said, “We both know that isn’t true. But, if that’s your decision so be it. Slink of to the shadows to continue to feel sorry for yourself. But, a word of warning, if you try to go near Rin… you’ll quickly come to regret it.” She held her hand up causing the chakra construct of his heart to reappear for a moment, once it faded again she added, “Oh, and just so you are aware, she has access to the same jutsu as well.”

“That’s it,” Obito said sounding disappointed, “All this and you’ll just let me go.”

“Of course,” the woman replied with a smile, “We are not monsters. I wouldn’t force you to do something that you do not want to. I mean after reading your journal, it doesn’t even sound like Madara needed to force you in order to get you to turn your back on everyone you supposedly cared for. All the measures I’ve taken here are merely to protect those I care for from you. If you want to stand back and let Madara or his Goo baby achieve their dreams, who am I to compel you to stop them after helping them get this far.” To his surprise, the woman Hansei actually seemed even more disappointed in him then she had already appeared to be. Something which caused him to wince internally, despite his knowing that the Brown eyes currently staring at him did not belong to the woman that he had claimed to love. They did possess elements of her, and truthfully he felt the coldness and anger they contained came into being because he had let Rin down. Yet, he still considered telling the Red-head that she could go to hell, but then realized that he was already there, and she was just the devil running it as she added, “Oh, and just in case you decide to hit reset on this world, and hope the next is better for you. I’m not going to allow that, no matter how painful the end you choose, I’ll bring you back, and I’ll keep bringing you back until this plot you set into motion has been squashed.”

“Fine,” he relented after figuring the only peace he would ever receive was by completing the task being set before him.

The red-head smiled genuinely, before saying, “I’m glad to hear it.” Standing she indicated the cavern, while saying, “I’m sure you don’t recognize this place. But, this cave is where the path ended for one of the people you led astray.” Obito looked about in confusion for a moment before realizing this was the cave from which had Nagato launched his assault on Konoha, and where he had died at Naruto’s hands. “I had felt it would make for a good starting point as you embarked on this new path you find yourself on.”

“You mean forced onto,” Obito said in a dismissive manner.

To his surprise the red-head’s smile widened as she said, “Tomato, tomatoe. But, seeing as the poetic nature is lost on you, lets go with starting point B. Hansei, if you’ll be so kind.”

Before he could react, Hansei disappeared in a blur only to reappear behind him, and with a hand crackling with electricity grabbed him by the neck. He went stiff as the electricity coursed through his body, but primarily traveled up his spine into his brain and causing his eyes to roll up into the back of his head as he lost consciousness.

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Limelight chapter properly begins, scenes below take place during chapters after Kiyomi approached Kushina in 103, throughout 104, 105, and 106

Despite it being late in the evening, the night was still extremely bright due to the full moon appearing overhead within the cloudless sky. It was under such a sky that Obito Uchiha watched the sleeping village of Konoha located within the Land of Fire. He stood atop one of the large trees that surrounded the Leaf Village, while he frowned to himself behind his orange mask. Yet, he wasn’t sure what had compelled him to. Similar to how one may enter a room in search of something, and yet upon their arrival could not recall what it was that had first set them in motion.

“Damn, why can’t I recall what had me setting out tonight,” he thought to himself. “It can’t be trying to get our hands on the Kyuubi. No, that just isn’t feasible at this time. But, there was something about a pregnancy… and Kushina…”

Before he could finish his thought, he sensed a surge of chakra signifying that he was about to be attacked. He activated his Sharingan expecting the attack to harmless pass through him, and yet to his shock suddenly his shoulder flared in pain as the edge of what appeared to be a golden kunai appeared from it. He looked at the glowing blade in shock, before he was yanked backwards off of his perch to smash into the ground, and then was pulled along the forest floor until he was pulled up against the base of another tree. While he was still reeling from the impact, several more golden chains wrapped around him binding him to the tree, at which point his attacker appeared from behind it.

“Kushina,” he said through gritted teeth, wondering what she was doing in the woods, let alone apparently waiting to ambush him when even he couldn’t say why he was there that evening. Stepping fully into his view while wearing the traditional outfit of a Konoha Jounin, with her hair up in the high ponytail style that she had favored back when she had been an active duty kunoichi. While approaching, the chains that she had created to bind him to the tree began to rattle. Seeing the burning fury in her eyes, he tried to bluff his way out of the current situation as he asked, “By what right have you attacked me. I’ve not acted against your village.”

“Oh Obito,” she answered menacingly causing his orange mask to do little to conceal his surprise as a result of his visible eye widening at her using his name. She dropped to her haunches as she continued in an almost chiding manner, “I know all about what you’ve been up to since that mission to Grass, and while you haven’t acted against me yet. You’ll one day ruin what should have been the happiest day in my life.” She reached out gingerly towards him in order to remove his mask, thereby revealing his distorted face as she continued, “But, this time around I’m afraid, things are not going to turn out quite so well for you.”

“Wait… you’re supposed to be…,” Obito began to say as he recalled learning that a woman, with red hair which he had assumed to be the village’s lone Uzumaki was pregnant and should just about be ready to give birth. Still, a part of him had been skeptical considering a month or so earlier she had ended her marriage to the Fourth Hokage, so had hoped that perhaps she had learned of it after the fact, which would have provided him with an opportunity to get his hands on the Bijuu that she carried. As such, he had set out to determine if the rumor was true, still even as he repeated his motivation to himself. Sparking a feeling of being some character in a story whose backstory was suddenly being filled in. A part of him still felt like the details were off.

Yet, before he could question it further, not to mention why it was Kushina didn’t look to be heavy with child, she cut him off by placing a finger against his lips while stating, “Shhh, you have far more pressing matters to be concerned about. Namely, as this is all a facsimile, there’s really no reason for me not to enjoy this.”

Obito was about to tell her to do her worse, believing that she was just trying to intimidate him in order to get him to loosen his tongue as it was clear that she had some idea as to what he had been plotting. However, before he could express as much, she delivered a powerful shot to his jaw, a blow that hurt all the more as she had one of her golden chains wrapped around her hand. She quickly followed it up with another chain enhanced punch from the other hand which sent his head reeling in the opposite direction. He toppled over onto his side as she caused the chains holding him in place to disappear. She then quickly leapt on top of his chest, and then continued to rain blows down onto his head until all that remained was a red puddle filled with chunks of skull and flesh.

Standing she sighed in disappointment since the brutal act hadn’t really felt as cathartic as she had imagined it would have. She briefly wondered if it the feeling of release would have been stronger if the blood covering her had truly belonged to the man who had wronged her. But she knew in her heart that it wouldn’t. As the act wouldn’t bring her any closer to the life that had been stolen, and a large part of her still desired. However, as she turned away from the worm food that she had created, she figured that truthfully it didn’t matter any longer, as she had places to be less she miss out on the opportunity to enjoy some of the experiences that had been lost to her. So took off for her new home in the Village of Konoha to clean up in order to be presentable and to welcome in the new life that she had helped to create.

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“Ahh gods above… Why! Why’d I agree to this?” Kiyomi said between gritted teeth as she felt another painful cramp as she laid on a bed, with her legs up in a contraption and her lower half despite the light blanket covering her raised legs left her still feeling exposed for the world to see. Which wasn’t too surprising considering the two people hunched in front of the tunnel created by the blanket as they waited for the next stage to begin.

She felt a squeeze on her hand and looking over to the woman holding it, and suddenly felt a deep-seated anger at her, as she said with a soft smile hinting at her amusement, “Well, you said you wanted to experience the full scope of creating a life this time around.”

“Grrrr,” Kiyomi gritted out, before saying, “You did this to me!”

“Well, technically we did it together,” Kushina said as her amusement rose to the surface.

This prompted the woman in charge of the birthing, Biwako Sarutobi to lean out from the side of the blanket, and arch an eyebrow in confusion at them. But, rather than questioning what she had heard said, “You’re almost ready to begin pushing. Just bear with the discomfort a little longer.”

“Lady Biwako,” the woman aiding the Third Hokage’s wife, and who in another life both Kushina and her also shared a lover with, called attracting her attention.

Directing her attention back to the matter at hand as a result of Taji’s calling her, Biwako said, “Okay we’re in the home stretch now. Now Push…”

Kiyomi did as instructed and was glad that although she was experiencing matters much as Kushina had, since her memories were being used as the basis for the world they had created, the birthing was actually taking place inside a hospital as there was no danger of a Bijuu escaping.

Kiyomi looked towards Kushina, and despite her previous annoyance with her fellow red head felt a sense of gratitude towards her, not just for the support that she was currently giving her. But for having endured the current pain and discomfort that she was experiencing as a result of it being from the Uzumkai’s memories all in order to bring in the light of both their lives which they shared. Moreover, as she had based much of her physical form on Kushina’s body, she was getting a firsthand taste of what her former host had experienced. Furthermore, through the now shared experience, she was just beginning to understand how heartbreaking it must have been for her to spend nine months looking forward to meeting the life that all the discomfort and sacrifice was meant for, only to be given a few precious moments with him before having it all taken away.

Yet, she wasn’t given much time to experience the regret she was developing for her role in the debacle, as another strong feeling to push came over her, which she refrained from giving into until Biwako said, “Very good, one more should do it. Now push!”

Which she did hoping the Third Hokage’s Wife was correct, and after a protracted moment that seemed to last for an eternity, she finally felt a sense of relief which as soon followed by the crying of a newborn.

She heard a hint of concern as Biwako after snipping the cord, and moving to a table to clean the child said with a hint of concern, “That’s strange.”

Although Kiyomi was perhaps expecting such a reaction, Kushina not quite sure what her old midwife was commenting on asked with a hint of concern, “What’s wrong?”

“Well, it appears as if this child has been marked,” Biwako said cautiously turning while holding the bundle containing the baby up in order to reveal what to a casual observer most would assume was perhaps a simple birthmark on the back of the child’s neck. But, a shinobi would immediately recognize as a seal of some sort, and a kunoichi of Biwako’s standing instantly recognized as an extremely complicated and advanced form of the Fog Gate Seal. The seal consisted of a small circle which if one looked closely enough would see was made up of tightly condensed writings of the formula, within the circle was a curved line which divided it in half similar to the yin-yang symbol, a comparison made easier due to the two smaller circles located in the larger one. Each of these circles was located at opposite ends of the half that they resided in. Naturally, Biwako found its placement on a child she had just helped usher into the world rather perplexing since it was a memory sealing technique often used by shinobi infiltrators trying to break into a location where they may encounter opposition capable of reading their mind, so someplace like Konoha in particular due to the presence of the Yamanaka clan. The Infiltrator would first have the seal placed on their body, usually someplace a strip search might miss, like under an eyelid or inner lip. The individual would then take place in a ritual which would scrub any incriminating memories that might cause a village to discover the person’s true purpose from them, with those memories being locked within the seal itself. Once the technique was completed, new memories would be implanted into the gaps left by the old. Then at some point down the road, with the activation method being either time delayed, or delivered via a coded phrase given by another operative, the fog gate seal would open releasing the old memories at which point the infiltrator would usually begin the mission that had caused them to undergo the process in the first place.

Despite how effective an infiltration method could be, it was one that was rarely used since with most shinobi being trained from childhood, if one wanted to create a blank slate to infiltrate a village most of if not all of the infiltrator’s life would need to scrubbed away with an entirely new personality needing to be created and implanted. Which naturally meant one couldn’t be entirely sure how this new personality would react upon finding out their entire life had been a lie. On more than one occasion when such a method had been used, the individual having come to cherish the new life that they had been living often would work against those who had sent them undercover in the first place. Plus, with Konoha at least being a relatively open place, at least by Shinobi Village standards, the only real time an infiltrator might want to undergo such a radical procedure was if they were trying to get a position in some secure location, like as a chef for a Daimyo or even the Hokage. Although use of the Fog Gate Seal wasn’t the only method of creating such agents, as Biwako was aware of a man in Suna, who could overlap the new memories on top of the old to create what he considered to be human puppets, although it wasn’t a method that he could use in Konoha due to the Yamanaka easily being able to detect the stitched together memories.

Therefore, the Fog Gate Seal method was usually best used in specific cases, where only a few memories would need to be tweaked. Such as creating a situation where the infiltrator would be trying to defect, with them believing that was exactly what they wanted, and a scan of their mind would confirm until the Fog Gate Seal opened and their true purpose would be revealed.

Kiyomi although tired and drained had no problem noticing Biwako was regarding them with an increasing amount of suspicion. Not that she could say she was too surprised by this, since shortly after Kiyomi had arrived within Konoha a little over a year earlier the village had been rocked by Kushina’s sudden and shocking decision to divorce her husband the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze. A short time later, she had then moved into the house Kiyomi had purchased having entered the village under the guise of being a fellow Uzumaki, and although they hadn’t really acted in a manner to hint at their being lovers, it hadn’t exactly stopped such rumors from spreading. Particularly when a few months later Kiyomi had begun showing signs that she was pregnant, and although obviously in the real world of biology, Kushina couldn’t have been the one who had knocked her up, nevertheless it had only further fueled the rumors spreading about the two of them.

However, she doubted Biwako was currently paying the rumors much heed, outside of perhaps as an explanation for Kushina’s sudden divorce and subsequent closeness to a new Uzumaki arrival being a plot to usurp the village using a child implanted with someone else’s memories to act as some kind of ultimate sleeper agent. Taji began to grow tense as she sensed Biwako’s increasing wariness of the two red heads, and prepared to intercept them should they try to attack the Third Hokage’s wife. However, all the tension bled from both women as Kiyomi asked, “What are you talking about?”

Yet, despite Kiyomi’s eyes clearly glowing red, Biwako didn’t seem to pay that particular detail any mind as she looked down and found no sign of the seal that she had been sure was just there. The woman blinked a few times in confusion, and then wiped at the spot softly channeling a small amount of chakra into her fingers so that any seal would react. Yet, nothing did, and so said, “Sorry, I must be wearier then I thought.”

Closing with Kiyomi whose eyes had returned to their normal green color, Biwako stated pleasantly, “May I present to you your daughter?”

Kiyomi accepted the bundle and as she looked down at her daughter’s brown eyes, found that despite how difficult the last few hours had been, it had all been worth it.

“So, have you picked a name,” Taji asked as she watched the new mother beam down at her child, and found Kushina also seemed to be sharing in the moment in the same way as many new fathers did.

Kiyomi nodded, before stating “Yes, her name is Nir.”

Taji turned away to begin filling in the paperwork and as she did so looked forward to the day that she could start a family with her fiancé.

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Kushina was currently hovering between planes of existence, in this case the ones between being asleep or awake. It had been almost a week and a half since Nir had been born, and although there had been many restless nights as the baby woke numerous times to eat, for the most part the burden had fallen to Kiyomi due to her being the one lactating. Sliding closer to the waking world, Kushina worked up the strength to feel around on the bed and found it vacant. She began to awaken faster as she wondered if what had originally pulled her from her slumber had been the baby crying, but quickly rejected the idea as the bed was rather cool to the touch. She sat up to send a quick look towards the clock on her nightstand and found that about three hours had passed since she had first gone to sleep, a record occurrence since they had welcomed the new life that they had created.

She felt a wave of curiosity wash over her as to where the Bijuu that she had once hosted was at, and so slipped from beneath the covers to go in search of her. The cool night air quickly tried to sap the warmth that she had been enjoying under the blanket due to her nudeness, as such she grabbed the light robe she had draped over the handle of the closet. After tightening the sash of the robe around her, she exited the bedroom she shared with Kiyomi and began walking towards the nursery. As she approached, she briefly wondered how long it had been since they had entered the world they had created through usage of the reworked and improved seal that had first been used to help Kin awaken, which was currently using her memories as the anchor point. So while it had been just shy of a year within the simulated world, only a handful of minutes may have passed outside it.

Naturally, one of the major improvements to the seal had been toning down the prior one’s tendency to react extremely to changes from the world host’s memories. A necessary change since for starters she didn’t want to end up in another horror flick like had been the case when Kin’s mind had reacted to the changes Naruto and the other’s actions had resulted in, and so had begun to seize on elements contained in their minds as well to compensate, resulting in Konoha experiencing a zombie apocalypse. Which as they had actually arrived about a month earlier then when she would have actually gotten pregnant with Naruto, a change that she had insisted on since she didn’t want Nir to share a birthday with him, as she wasn’t entirely sure how he would react upon learning of her essentially being a parent to another child. Not to mention what their ultimate goal for that child was to be.

However, she pushed those concerns aside to be worried about at a future date in favor of focusing on what the past year had been like. It had started off rather rockily due to her sudden divorce from Minato, who had obviously been caught unaware by it. Even with the anger that she had felt towards him regarding his decision to allow time to unfold as he felt it should, which as far as he knew was going to result in her death, she had still felt like she was kicking a puppy when she had presented him with the divorce papers. He had tried to plead with her, and to her surprise, she had very nearly relented due to the earnestness in his voice as he had proclaimed to love her. The reason for which she imagined it had been particularly potent enough to make her second guess herself was due to it being her own memories of Minato which the simulacrum was based on. Which meant that in her heart, a part of her still deeply desired her old life. But, she rejected the false Minato’s pleas telling herself that while she didn’t doubt that he had loved her, those feelings wouldn’t stop him from using both her and their son to combat threats to the village. A fact made all the more painful by how even as he pleaded with her to change her mind, she knew that locked away within his memories was the knowledge that she would come to some tragic fate which would result in their son becoming a jinchuriki and he would do nothing to change it. Granted, she knew this was the outcome their son wanted. Which to Kushina was what she felt put Naruto in the right even as it had cost her everything because he had been fighting for the future he wanted to build for and with his family. A future Naruto was unsure was even possible, but she knew that even if he was shown that it was, but would cost him one of his precious people he would fight all the harder to change it for the better due to his being unwilling to pay such a cost.

But, ultimately Kushina had followed through with the divorce, and so had become persona non grata within Konoha. In truth, she expected that she would have been asked to leave the village if not for the fact that as far as those within the simulated village were concerned, she was still the host of the nine-tails. A fact most of the village was unaware of, and so the looks of disdain and hatred that she was now the recipient of from most of its populace were simply a result of her being perceived as having betrayed their beloved Hokage for another woman no less. Although not overtly bothered by her new status in the village, as it was an aspect of the divorce that they had been counting on in order to live on the periphery of Konoha society. Since with her status as a jinchuriki, they wouldn’t just be able to banish her, and although the Danzou of the simulation had suggested just outright killing her to find a more suitable host. Minato had been unwilling to play along. Still the villagers current attitude towards her was giving her a greater appreciation for what her son had endured, particularly as he had been forced to live with their cold stares with no clear understanding as to why for a large portion of his life. Worst still, he had been all but alone while she for the most part currently had Kiyomi.

Kushina’s feelings towards the Bijuu were complicated to say the least. Particularly due to the role that she had played in destroying the life that she could have had with Minato and Naruto. However, much of the anger that she had harbored towards the Bijuu had abated even before Kushina had taken the plunge of becoming her son’s lover as the only reason she had been given any true time with him was due to the Bijuu’s actions. Admittedly it had been to fix a problem Kiyomi’s leaving the seal had created, which had also put her on a collision course to the current taboo relationship that she had with her son. But, she couldn’t deny that the fox had truly come to love and cherish him, and so knew that Kiyomi’s actions to reunite them had primarily been motivated by those feelings and to give Naruto back something she had inadvertently taken from him. That Kushina had benefited had probably just been a happy coincidence to the Bijuu, but as her heart had been in the right place, her son’s happiness, that was what mattered. Still, they hadn’t exactly become friends despite both being bound to Naruto, which Kushina had to admit was primarily a result of her lingering resentment for the Bijuu. Not only for having needed to become her container in the first place, but not surprisingly also for the whole killing her part of their past history.

Which was why the past year had been a rather eye-opening experience for her regarding the Bijuu that she had once shared a body with, and in a manner of speaking still did. The first of which was that she was entirely convinced that Kiyomi did not care in the slightest about actually bringing peace to the shinobi world. Rather, she only aided Naruto in his endeavors due to her feelings for him. Much as Gaara could attest to due to her admission to him that she would be more than willing to return to her old monstrous ways if anything were to happen to him. Although, Kushina hated to admit it, if such a scenario where Naruto had been killed came to be, it would probably be a race between her and the Bijuu to reach whoever had ended his life to take their revenge. As such, she imagined that to Kiyomi while she took the task of bringing peace seriously due to it being Naruto’s goal, she would apply herself just as dutifully to the task if he wanted to conquer it. Admittedly, she doubted Naruto would have possessed the personality to so thoroughly charm the Bijuu if such was his goal, particularly since he’d probably have coveted her for the power she possessed. Which to Kushina begged the question, had Kiyomi been redeemed. Especially as she couldn’t say with any certainty that Kiyomi was bothered by her past actions outside of how Naruto viewed them. Which would be why her threat towards Gaara carried such weight.

Yet, Kushina was forced to admit that Kiyomi hadn’t exactly been a force for evil either. After all, many of the disasters that had been tied to her throughout the millennia she imagined would have similar beginnings. Especially if the last two were anything to go by. The first of which being the rampage that she had gone on which had been stopped by the First Hokage and Mito, which had been due to Madara Uchiha taking control of her. With the second being the night Naruto had been born when with Obito’s help she had broken free of her weakened seal and had once more been enslaved by a Uchiha to rampage through Konoha. Kushina was aware that the Uchiha clan, not to mention the world as a whole, had a long tradition of having tried to control the Bijuu, and Kiyomi in particular due to their viewing her as the strongest. So, imagined many such disasters had actually been started by humans trying to take that power for themselves.

So, in the end she supposed the question wasn’t really whether or not Kiyomi had been redeemed, but whether it was necessary to begin with. Kushina knew her son was of the opinion that it wasn’t. However, as one that had been wronged by the Bijuu, she obviously hadn’t shared that opinion. Although, the past year spent in the Bijuu’s company was perhaps bringing her around to understanding why Naruto would feel as such. Recalling how her son had pointed out that from Kiyomi’s perspective, on the night that she had broken free of the seal and after being freed of Obito’s control, she had just been a prisoner who after having her first taste of freedom in a century had regained control of herself only to see Minato and her acting to seal her in a new prison. Not to mention how she had been imprisoned for that century due to a rampage instigated by another. Which left Kushina to admit if the other times that she had emerged to destroy some village or country in the past had been because she had awoken to find what from her perspective would be ants trying to control her, could she really be blamed for the resulting carnage? Kushina couldn’t really say she could answer such a question conclusively, since she imagined even just moving from place to place could have resulted in some army being mobilized to stop her due to their believing her to be an omen of destruction, and so the resulting destruction could be attributed to her defending herself. Still, she knew where all the Bijuu would have perhaps taken some of the share in the blame for the destruction they had wrought, would have been in their viewing human lives as being beneath them. But even then, she couldn’t entirely fault them for taking such a dim view of humanity after who knows how many millennia of enduring being the targets of various warlords or shinobi plots to harness their power.

She felt a sense of pride that it was her son who now in essence controlled that power for his own ends. Yet what had led him to achieving the aims that many before him had sought, was that he coveted the beings the power belonged to. Not the power itself. Which ultimately showed Kushina that perhaps if Minato had been willing to act for a different future another solution could have been arrived at, as while his actions had been to save the village, he had also coveted that power since he had used it turn their son into a weapon that could one day be directed at the enemy that had appeared that night.

The pride faded to be replaced with a hint of curiosity as her thoughts turned to Nir, and the lack of connection that she felt with the child. At least in terms of the one she had felt with Naruto from the moment that she had first laid eyes on him, although truthfully it had existed between them even before then. Which she supposed would simply be the answer, that was she didn’t have the connection this time around because she had not been the one who spent the previous nine months nourishing the new life that was developing. Kushina wondered if what she was currently feeling was what all father’s felt which was a desire to protect and cherish the life a piece of her had gone into creating, or if she was perhaps unique as while she felt tied to Nir, was cognizant of an even deeper connection that could only exist between a mother and child. One that was perhaps missing for her this time around, but for Kiyomi who despite having brought two other lives into the world was perhaps feeling it for the first time.

She figured this was likely the case as she opened the door to the nursery to find Kiyomi standing over Nir’s crib wearing what appeared to be a rather concerned expression on her face. Which upon seeing the anxiety clearly visible on the normally calm woman’s face caused Kushina’s own concerns to spike, prompting her to quickly enter the room asking softly, “Is everything alright?”

Kiyomi looked away from the crib, responding with a whisper of panic, “She hasn’t woken up yet. They said that it would take about three to six months before she’d begin sleeping through the night.”

Kushina felt the concern bleed right out of her, recognizing the ‘they’ being referenced was just the doctors who had provided a basic timeline of events to expect. Still, she approached the crib and seeing that Nir was sleeping contently, figured that her fellow redhead was likely experiencing the post baby blues. An experience that she herself couldn’t attest to its effects due to her having been impaled shortly after having given birth and by the very Bijuu that she was now attempting to comfort as she softly said, “Relax Kiyomi, those are just averages. They’ll be good nights and they’ll be bad ones, and she’s only been a sleep for three hours.”

The nine-tailed fox swept up by the swirling emotions that she was feeling didn’t look entirely convinced by the Uzumaki’s logic, but allowed herself to be guided away from the crib by Kushina towards the room that they shared. As they proceeded down the hall, she tried to calm herself down, but found the task almost insurmountable due to the kaleidoscope of feelings that she was experiencing. Guilt being a particularly strong one as it kept hammering her from different angles, such as her feeling a stronger connection to Nir at present, then to her other two daughters, a closeness which she could only imagine was due to her having carried her newest to term. Which then bled into her guilt that she had denied both Naruko and Sage the opportunity to experience a childhood of their own. But, that quickly morphed into fear that Nir having experienced the relative freedom of one, would come to hate and resent her upon learning of the purpose for which she had been conceived. This then caused the guilt to return in a different form. Yet, rather than centering on the concerns that she had regarding her children, instead fell upon Kushina, who likely had enjoyed the connection that she currently felt to Nir, but rather than seeing it develop or grow had tragically been short by her own claws.

The feeling that she had only allowed Kushina to experience the powerful feeling for only a few fleeting moments caused Kiyomi to tear up as she said, “I’m so sorry… I… I…”

The Uzumaki was caught a little off guard by her outburst, causing her to turn towards the Bijuu. Her violet ones peered into Kiyomi’s green, and a light of understanding seemed to dawn in them. Looking away Kushina simply replied, “So am I.”

The simple statement caused most of the tumulus feelings that Kiyomi had been feeling to begin to settle, as she understood the woman’s words were not meant as an acceptance of her apology but simply an acknowledgement of what she had been denied. However, the finality with which she had spoken, as she refused to elaborate further, also conveyed an acceptance of what had been lost as time only ever moved in one direction. So, at this junction Kiyomi began to feel that it was already truly too late to fret over many of the resurgent feelings that she had regarding her past actions. So should instead direct her focus on the future that they were hoping to shape.

Of course, as they entered the bedroom and Kiyomi joined Kushina under the covers, and just as she began to relax, she found that just allowed for another door to open from which a bunch of new concerns began to flood in about the nebulous future that was awaiting them. However, before she could truly begin letting her mind dwell on these new uninvited guests, the sound of crying began blast from the baby monitor on her nightstand. This prompted Kushina to begin giggling due to Kiyomi’s stated concerns about Nir’s sleeping soundly being a cause of concern. Which caused Kiyomi to feel a sense of relief as this was a problem that she was rather well equipped to deal with in the here and now so pulled herself from the bed to do just that.

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Kiyomi smiled as Nir ran off with the money that she had given her to buy herself some ice cream as a reward for finishing their training. The now ten-year old girl eager to get her iced treat, rather than heading for the exit ran straight towards the iron and stone fence that surrounded the park where they conducted her home-schooled shinboi training. Leaping, Nir’s foot touched the stone pillar that separated the tall wrought iron fence panels allowing her to push off it so that she flew over the center like how a pole vaulter would clear a bar. Once clear of the fence, she reached out to grab two of the iron bars so that she could turn what would be a headfirst dive into the pavement into one where she landed on her feet. Which upon her landing on them, she gave her mother a happy wave before taking off to purchase her reward.

Kiyomi returned it, but her smile slipped some as she noticed the various villagers that Nir passed doing their level best to ignore her existence, an action which the children also took part in as they emulated their parents. Turning away, she tried to tell herself it was for the best, since they didn’t want Nir to form attachments with people that would cease to exist once the simulation that they were living in ended. Which was why they had avoided allowing the simulation to include members of the Family, so events had transpired to remove them through various events, such as Taji who after helping to deliver Nir had come down with a mysterious illness that had rendered her unconscious so that she had spent the last ten years in a coma, much as her real-world counterpart had.

Luckily for the time being, it didn’t seem to bother Nir all that much as Kushina and her did their level best to provide their daughter with all the support that she needed. But, at times particularly during these training sessions in the park, she had noticed Nir looking at some of the nearby playing children wistfully.

Her daughter wasn’t the only one that she caught at times staring off into the distance thoughtfully, as she turned to see Kushina sitting at a park bench watching her ex-husband playing with his son, who was about a year or so younger than Nir. Unlike was the case for them, Minato wasn’t using the park to train the boy, whose name was Miso. But they were simply enjoying a game of catch, although with a blunted windmill shuriken.

Kiyomi figured Minato’s familial bliss was due to the world being based on Kushina’s memories and experiences, so the Uzumaki was simply of the belief that he would have quickly rebounded from the divorce. Not a too earth-shattering revelation, since apparently Minato had been the boy that most of the kunoichi had been pursuing back when she and him had been attending the academy. As such, apparently many of her old rivals for his affection had quickly resurfaced with a woman named Torikae being the winner.

The Hokage’s current wife watch her husband and child playing allowing the Bijuu to see that she was a stunningly beautiful kunoichi, who had sharp black eyes, and green hair so dark that it also appeared black except for when the sun caught it just right. Hair that she kept parted in the front, and was currently sporting a short ponytail in back, which she appeared to be growing out. Making Kiyomi wonder if she was trying to emulate the woman whom she had replaced.

Turning her focus back to Kushina, she felt a sense of arousal as the Uzumaki was still glistening from their afternoon training session, and looked positively delicious in the running shorts and sports bra that she was wearing. Coming up behind her, she was tempted to begin fondling her fellow red-head’s breasts and begin devouring her right there on the bench. An action that she knew Kushina would likely welcome, as the two of them had turned to each other quite often due to their having not really accounted for just how much they’d miss the man that they shared, not to mention the sexual relief he provided. Kiyomi was rather surprised at just how quickly she had come to miss Naruto, after all a being such as her was used to measuring time in centuries, and yet within weeks his lack of presence had really begun to get to her. Moreover, even telling herself that despite how it currently felt in the seal generated world that years had passed, in actuality at worse only a day or two would have passed in the real world did little to alleviate her sense of longing. A feeling she knew Kushina shared, and so would accept Kiyomi’s advances. But, what stopped the Bijuu from currently indulging, was that despite having the ability to freeze time in the seal world, an ability that wouldn’t effect Kushina either allowing them the ability to act on their desires, it wouldn’t work on Nir either so could only imagine the questions it would cause her daughter to ask. Especially if she caught her mothers having sex on a bench in the middle of the park surrounded by people trapped in time.

Still, Kiyomi was rather tempted to indulge as the time spent together raising Nir had brought them much closer, and so found a part of her was growing rather jealous at her watching her former husband. Which prompted her to say, “If their existence bothers you so much, I could wipe them from the world.”

A startled Kushina looked back at her obviously caught off guard at her being right behind her as she wondered what the Bijuu was referring to. Turning back, she saw Minato playing happily with his Seal Generated son, and realized that she must have appeared to be staring at them, so quickly tried to deny that was the case, “I wasn’t…”

Although her attempt faltered as she was forced to admit the sight had triggered a more internal introspective so stated, “Seeing him being a father, and enjoying a happy domestic life isn’t the problem.”

“Oh,” Kiyomi said coming around to sit beside her on the bench, “Then what is?”

Kushina sighed heavily before replying, “It is accepting that I’m the one who destroyed our chance at having the same.”

“What do you mean?” Kiyomi replied dismissively, “You were half dead already when he sealed me into Naruto. The way I remember it you even offered to pull me back into you and die. But, he was insistent on turning me into a weapon for the village. At the very least he denied himself the opportunity to be there for Naruto.”

Her fellow redhead’s eyes began to grow watery as Kushina shook her head stating, “No, I’m the one who made him think it was necessary.” The Uzumaki then recounted the adventure to the past where Sara had first encountered Naruto and fallen in love with him, which Kiyomi had known the overall details of. But Kushina explained how during one of the fights that had taken place she had taken over Naruto’s body in an attempt to clue Minato into her ultimate fate, expecting he would work to try and change it. Sounding bitter, although it was directed towards herself, she said, “If I had just… trusted him… perhaps things would have worked out.”

Kiyomi turned away to watch Minato play with his dark green haired child, who truthfully was a rather spoiled brat as far as she was concerned. As even at only nine years old, Miso carried himself with an air of entitlement. Not that she could entirely blame the child, as the entire village practical worshiped his father and him by extension often referring to him as the Honorable Son. Moreover, although she never truly wasted any time contemplating much regarding the child, considering she knew that with a wave of her hand his existence, not to mention the world would end. Merely from just listening to the conversations that the villagers engaged in, it was clear that he was something of a prodigy. Although, she figured that the reverence with which the village spoke of him could just be due to who he was learning from since it wasn’t just that he was getting top marks in the academy. But was learning from his father as well as from his godfather Jiraiya who was a constant fixture in the boy’s life. The Bijuu suspected that the primary reason the village seemed so fixated on Miso was because Kushina’s subconscious believed this was the life that had been denied to Naruto. Which wasn’t a belief without merit, since the Leaf had often treated Konohamaru with a similar level of deference, although perhaps without the same high level of expectation regarding his potential.

However, those were secondary concerns as another reason Kiyomi had shifted her attention to the boy and his father was because a part of her was furious with Kushina’s admission. After all, judging by the Uzumaki’s words she was of the opinion that the proper way for things to have turned out would have involved stopping Minato from sealing her into Naruto. Which, would have left her sealed away and would have ultimate denied her the happiness that she had found in being his lover. Despite not looking at her, Kiyomi could feel Kushina growing tense beside her, no doubt expecting her to blow up in some fashion. Which, truthfully prior to the birth of Nir, she probably would have. Yet, just as quickly as her anger began it quickly subsided, as she found she could understand where her fellow redhead was coming from. After all, while she knew Kushina loved Nir as deeply as she did, she also recognized that she had experienced a deeper connection with their daughter. Which if some manic had appeared just after she had given birth to their purple haired daughter and denied her the past decade they had enjoyed as a family, she was sure that she would also be left with a painful hole in her heart which might never truly go away. That lingering longing for the life and relationship with her son which she had been denied was likely also why Kushina’s chakra remained in the red, and truthfully Kiyomi wondered if it would ever change.

She couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed that past decade, at least from their perspective, that they had been spent raising Nir had not alleviated Kushina’s longing for the life she had lost. But, she kept those feelings to herself, as she said with a tone of understanding, “Perhaps.”

Kushina was obviously surprised by her response, and Kiyomi suspected that the Uzumaki had possibly wanted her to snap at her. Likely to tell her that she was being selfish, especially when considering the number of women who would likely be forever be denied the happiness they currently had with her son. Something she demonstrated as she tried to rekindle the fire of her anger as she stated, “I know how selfish it is for me to think like that.”

Kiyomi recognizing that Kushina wanted her to tear into her, although she refused to be baited into doings so she did start off by replying, “Indeed it is. After all, some such as Sara are only alive today because of the life Naruto lived, which in turn would mean Seramu would never have been born.” Kushina looked away as she tried to use Kiyomi’s words to remind herself that she needed to stop longing for a life that she would never get to enjoy, however she looked back as the Bijuu continued, “However, I also think that Sara would also understand and forgive you for being so selfish, as even with how much she loves Naruto… I’m sure she would sacrifice that happiness and who knows what else if enjoying it meant losing the life she had enjoyed raising her. Because, I also now understand just how painful it must be to know you had this beautiful connection with someone, that you never got to explore. I can never express how truly sorry that I am at my taking it away from you.”

Kushina could see that now Kiyomi was beginning to tear up, so quickly said, “I know you are and I’m sorry for dredging up the past. It’s just seeing Minato there being a father… makes me wonder why he wouldn’t try to preserve this life for us. Especially when he looks so happy here.”

“Well, for starters it is because back in reality nobody brutally murdered the bastard who freed me and sent me off to attack the village,” Kiyomi said and was pleased as she saw Kushina smile in response.

“Ah, memories,” she said whimsically deciding to go along with Kiyomi’s changing of the tone. However, it didn’t last long as Kiyomi grew serious again as her mind began to form questions and theories using some of the new details which she had just learned. Kushina noticed that Kiyomi seemed to be retreating within herself so asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” the Bijuu answered before stating, “I was just thinking that your attempt at making your former husband aware that I ended up in your son suddenly calls into question the choices that he did end up making that night.”

“What do you mean?” Kushina asked with a frown, before starting with a fair share of bitterness, “He sealed away his memory of the mission along with those of the other participants.”

The Bijuu nodded in recognition of her point, but countered, “Yet, Naruto and Sara were able to regain them due to the strong connection they shared.”

“Are you saying Minato may have regained his as well?” Kushina inquired softly as the idea that Minato might have regained his memories yet still did nothing to change her fate resulted in an even deeper sense of betrayal taking root within her.

Despite being aware of how the topic was affecting Kushina, she nodded in response before explaining, “I have to imagine that is the only scenario that truly makes sense for why he would select Naruto as my host. He was hardly the ideal choice considering what happened.” She saw Kushina didn’t quite see what she meant so expanded on her point, “Consider what transpired. A masked man manages to get past and slaughter the Anbu guarding the site where you were giving birth. This same man teleports into a room with not only Minato, but the Third Hokage’s wife and another Anbu, two of whom he disables without much effort to grab Naruto. Admittedly, their focus was elsewhere. But, that is still quite the feat not only in combat prowess but bypassing the village’s security measures.”

The Bijuu’s point became clear to Kushina who stated, “So, you’re saying that considering Obito was able to seemingly just teleport into the room with us, it should have excluded his wanting to turn Naruto into a jinchuriki.”

“Yes,” Kiyomi stated turning her gaze to the facsimile of the man who had sealed her into his son as he continued to play catch with the one the world she had created had generated for him. “It doesn’t make sense that he would seal me into a child unable to defend itself, when he knew for a fact someone would be targeting him. Someone who could literal teleport himself into and out of the village with ease. It doesn’t make any kind of sense unless he knew for certain that the child would reach an age where he could begin defending himself.”

Kushina felt like she had been punched in the gut by Kiyomi’s words, and so pulled her legs up onto the bench. She then wrapped her arms around them while she buried her face in her knees. Although it had already dawned on her that her actions in the past had likely set the events which led to the destruction of her family in motion, it hurt all the more as Kiyomi’s words caused her to realize Minato might have had an even more compelling reason to allow her death in favor of turning Naruto into a jinchuriki. Sharing that reason, she pulled her face from her knees to say, “He might also have felt Naruto had become a perfected Jinchuriki.”

Kiyomi could see why Kushina had come to the conclusion, since Minato although he had been unaware he was communicating with his wife, had believed that he had been able to communicate with the Bijuu that she had contained and had been able to get it to retract back into Naruto by words alone. Which needless to say, would be a powerful incentive to let events play out so that Naruto would become a jinchuriki.

Placing an arm over Kushina, who’s face had once more disappeared into her knees, she could feel the woman sobbing softly so said, “For what it is worth. I feel you made the correct choice in trying to make Minato aware that a dark fate may befall you.”

Kushina raised her head showing that she was wearing a bitter scowl as she said, “Of course you do.” Her face softened almost immediately as she said quickly, “I’m sorry…”

“It is okay,” Kiyomi said giving her a reassuring squeeze, “I know that you must feel that we’ve all profited from your loss. But, it is possible that if you hadn’t the world may have lost far more.”

“Why is that?” her fellow red-head asked as she allowed her feet to touch the ground and sunk into Kiyomi’s side.

“Well let’s assume for the time being that Minato did recover his memories at some point,” Kiyomi stated causing Kushina to nod, “This would mean that sealing me into Naruto wouldn’t have been a spur of the moment choice. But, a decision he made because of the knowledge that he possessed of the future.”

“I’m not sure why his having his memoires is a must in that scenario,” Kushina replied with an undertone of sadness, “Kurara’s husband did the same thing to their son. It seem that Kage love to keep a jinchuriki close to their family line.”

“True,” Kiyomi admitted, “But again, Obito being thrown in the mix would at the very least make creating a jinchuriki who couldn’t adequately defend himself for years rather pointless. Kakashi would probably have been a better vessel at the time, as it would have helped erase his weakness with using the Sharingan and he had been gifted one of the Hiraishin kunai so it would have been a relative simple matter for Minato to collect him.” Kushina seemed inclined to accept her reasoning, so she continued, “So, let’s assume you hadn’t tried to make contact with Minato, and so he goes into the night of Naruto’s birth cold. Odds, are he would have selected another host since he couldn’t be certain a baby would make it to an age where he could be a viable jinchuriki, let alone a perfected one. If that happened, well the world goes on a vastly different track, and truthfully there are no guarantees Naruto survives it.”

Kushina sat up pulling away as she said somewhat defensively on her son’s behalf, “Don’t tell me you think you’re what makes him special.”

Kiyomi smiled at Kushina’s response, but growing somber said, “Well, I do feel I help contributed to it. Although, not in a positive fashion. It was because he was saddled with me that he understand what true loneliness is, and is why I feel he can so easily bridge the gap between people.” She turned her gaze towards the boy Miso, as she continued, “I think if he hadn’t become a jinchuriki, then there would have been no need for the Third’s Law which meant the entire village would have known who he was related to, and treated him like a celebrity. That doesn’t mean he would have turned out as bratty as that one. But, I think something important would have been lost.”

Kushina giggled seeing where Kiyomi was looking, and couldn’t help agreeing as the child whenever out of the view of his parents tended to act rather haughty with the other children. “Naruto felt much the same,” Kushina admitted recalling their discussion on the matter before she had tried to take over to warn Minato.

Kiyomi smiled at how her lover understood adversity wasn’t necessarily always a negative as it helped fortify and build character. But, it faded as while she was confident in the theory that Minato had to have recovered his memories at some point to come to a conclusion that his just born son would make for a good host considering who was after him. It did leave her with quite a few questions, the first of which she gave voice to, “Still, I’m not sure why he would take my Yin chakra in the first place and then after he did not use it to save you.”

Kushina frowned, but gave the answer Minato had that night stating, “He said that you possessed too much power for him to seal into Naruto.”

Kiyomi looked displeased by the response as her gaze shifted to the facsimile of the man who had sealed her, “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Why?” Kushina queried having always assumed the fully powered fox was too much for Naruto due to his just being born.

“Because, a just born child is the perfect host for a Bijuu as their chakra coils can expand far greater then even a child the same age as you had been when I was transferred to you,” Kiyomi answered as she watched Minato catch the shuriken his son threw and then called him towards him. When the boy reached him, Minato then lifted him up, placed him on his shoulders just as his current wife and the boy’s mother approached them. She spoke to the pair, whom both quickly nodded in reply before the trio began walking away.

“Well perhaps he may have tried if someone hadn’t impaled the pair of us,” Kushina suggested, although to the Bijuu’s surprise she didn’t sound angry or upset. Wondering if her suggestion that her actions might have secured her son’s future since it would have demonstrated to Minato that Naruto would have made it to his late teens as he had been just a few months shy of celebrating his eighteenth birthday when he had been sent to the past.

Kiyomi considered mentioning that in truth they had impaled themselves as she had been targeting Naruto, but didn’t want to sour the moment by joking about her trying to harm the one that was so precious to both of them. Instead, she said, “While possible, I don’t think that necessarily holds up.” She wasn’t surprised when Kushina’s mood took on a more melancholy nature, but pressed on stating, “For starters, your interaction with him in the past suggested that making Naruto a perfected jinchuriki was possible. To that end, I believe he would have always intended to seal your spirit into Naruto if only to increase the odds of his taming me. Your chakra chains would have been a huge boon if it came down to a conflict between us.”

Kushina nodded, and managed to recover some of her cheeriness as she said, “Yes, I doubt Minato would have expected that all Naruto would need is his cock. Perhaps, I should have just took enough control to get Naruto to have dropped his pants. At the very least it would have perhaps explained to Minato why kunoichi not only from the Leaf, but Cloud and Sand were so taken with him.”

Kiyomi let out a soft chuckle, but returned to the subject at hand saying, “Then there is the lie he told about his needing to separate my Yin and Yang chakra to seal me into Naruto. The Reaper Death seal couldn’t actually cut my power in half. So instead he could only take an aspect of it to seal away, the Yin half, which is not the same as halving my power.”

“It isn’t?” Kushina replied with some disbelief, and explained the source of it as she added, “But, you clearly got smaller.”

“True enough,” Kiyomi admitted, “However, think of your own transformation into a Bijuu-human hybrid. What has represented the greatest increase in your ability to call upon Bijuu chakra?”

“The number of tails that form when I generate a Bijuu Cloak,” Kushina answered as she was currently up to eight.

“Precisely,” Kiyomi said with a nod, “When Naruto allowed me to take this form, he originally allowed me four tails of my power. Now, these tails do not necessarily represent the full extent of our power, by this I mean to say that I am not nine-times stronger than Rangiku. But, as we were originally without a true physical, instead being made up of chakra, the number of tails were just tied to how many we had when our father created us. I was born with all nine-tails. They didn’t develop over time. But in time, they began to reflect how I saw my power as being represented. So, when I appeared to lose tails, it was akin to having power drained from me and as I recovered, they would reform. It is why as you are growing stronger as a Bijuu you are gaining tails since your Bijuu form is a mirror of mine, and this is why when Tier sacrificed two of hers to create her companions her form changed as a result.”

“Then why did you grow smaller,” Kushina asked genuinely curious.

Kiyomi pondered the question for a moment while she tried to think of a way to explain it in a manner that she thought Kushina would understand. Once she had, she began by stating, “First picture my Bijuu form as a glass container that is filled with water. Now, if you broke off several of the glass tails, and then plugged the hole you would have fully lost the water that filled those tails. If you were to somehow reattach them, you could then refill the container to return to full capacity. This is achieved as we absorb Natural Energy, and as it mingles with the energy of our spirits it because Bijuu chakra. This is why Nel reformed after her previous host died, as her spirit remained anchored to this world, and it began absorbing natural energy until she could fully manifest her chakra form.” Kushina nodded as she appeared to be following along with Kiyomi’s explanation, so the Bijuu continued, “Now, what the Reaper Death seal ended up doing by extracting my Yin chakra wasn’t so much as dumping out the water as in the previous example but changing it. In this case, it would be like stripping out the Oxygen atom of the water within the container, and leaving behind just the hydrogen. As such, my size appeared to shrink as a physical representation to the change.”

Kushina looked a little lost prompting her to ask, “But, by removing the oxygen… wouldn’t that by extension be the same as removing a considerable amount of chakra.”

“Not necessarily,” Kiyomi responded, “As by removing the oxygen, it would be changing form which in this particular case it would become a gas. Which in a sealed glass jar, the hydrogen atoms would have just expanded to fill it. What my shrinking entailed was sort of an external reaction to the change my chakra had suddenly gone through.”

“I’m afraid that I still don’t quite understand,” Kushina said with a self-deprecating smile, “I was never any good when it came to science, or math.”

Kiyomi frowned as she tried to think of a better way to explain it, she was about to give up though when she noticed a tree’s shadow fluttering due to the leaves being ruffled by the wind. Sparking an example that she thought her fellow red-head would be able grasp she asked, “What do you suppose would have happened if you used the Reaper Death Seal to steal the Yin chakra of a Nara?”

Kushina thought for a moment, before the answer dawned on her, causing her to excitedly say, “You’d probably end up removing their ability to control shadows.”

“Exactly,” Kiyomi said smiling as Kushina seemed to beam with satisfaction, “It is through their bloodline ability to manipulate Yin Chakra that they are able to control the shadows. So, Yin and Yang chakra are not so much a measurement of capacity as it is a matter of the nature of a person’s chakra.”

“Okay, so if it wasn’t so much to weaken you as he claimed,” Kushina said wondering why Minato would lie to her as to what he had intended for Naruto, “Then why bother?”

“Well, perhaps I may have spoken harshly when claiming he lied,” Kiyomi said as she didn’t want to dump too harshly on the man as his actions had made her one with the man she cherished above all others. “It may have just been he wanted to… play up certain advantages giving Naruto my Yang chakra would convey. After all, while all Jinchuriki can heal to an amazing degree, Naruto has bounced back from fatal injuries. It might even be that our ability to bring back the dead stems from his receiving my Yang chakra only. Although, I would still be inclined to believe that it is a combination of his own amazing vitality combined with absorbing my Yang chakra over the years.” Another thought occurred to Kiyomi which prompted her to ask, “Kushina… did Minato seem to change around the time that you told him you were pregnant.”

“No,” Kushina said at first without thinking. But seeing Kiyomi frown at her quick response caused her to reconsider the matter more thoughtfully, which caused her gaze to drift towards where Minato had left with his replacement family. A handful of seconds later, she did recall that he began spending more nights at the office, which when her raging hormones had been at their worst had caused her to suspect that he might have been having an affair, especially as she began to feel more and more like a whale. She had never given voice to the concern as she had recognized it was just due to her emotions being messed with by her changing body. But guessing that could be the type of information Kiyomi wanted said, “There was a period for several months just after he found out that he began spending long nights at the office. I was even worried that he might have been cheating on me. I asked him about why he was working so hard all of the sudden, but he just said he was trying to get ahead on paperwork as he wanted to take some time off after Naruto was born.”

Kiyomi had noticed Kushina’s shift in focus, so asked, “Tell me, is that Torikae woman that the seal paired him with the reason you thought he was cheating.”

Kushina nodded, before answering, “Yeah, I’m guessing the seal saw my old concerns buried in my memories and so after I divorced him here, it put her in my place. Back in the Academy, she was always trying to get with him before I came along, and when he became Hokage, she volunteered as his assistant. A part of me always suspected that she might have just been waiting for an opportunity to push me out of the picture.”

“May I take it that these long nights at the office were spent in her company then?” Kiyomi asked to which Kushina responded with a slow nod of her head.

Kiyomi’s gaze seemed to travel inward as she began to process the information, which prompted Kushina to ask, “Why does that matter?”

“Before I answer,” Kiyomi began, “would you mind answering what has become of her?”

Kushina shook her head to indicate that she didn’t before answering, “I don’t know. I just assumed that she had moved on with her life after our deaths. Well, that isn’t entirely true as to be honest I haven’t thought of her in the slightest since my rebirth. At least not until she popped up here to claim the spot I vacated.”

Kiyomi nodded, so responding to the Uzumaki’s previous inquiry stated, “It might be worth looking her up when we leave the seal.” Seeing that Kushina appeared dubious on the matter, she explained, “Let’s assume for a moment that the reason Minato started spending so much time at the office, was because he had regained his memories of his encounter with Naruto. After all, if I became aware that I had encountered the future host of a Bijuu that my wife was containing, and the person containing it was my son, then it is a safe bet something may have gone wrong during the child birth.”

“Because the seal containing you would have been at it weakest,” Kushina stated earning a nod from the Bijuu.

“Yes, it would be a point in time that one could assume something was going to go wrong,” Kiyomi stated, “Which if he had sealed his memories away to prevent damaging the timeline, then he could have set a release to correspond to such a potentially cataclysmic event. He may have been researching outside threats that could pose a threat on top of just my breaking the seal. Perhaps, he may have picked up some signs of Akatsuki’s interest in the Bijuu or if the Kurozetsu is the big bad behind everything some other plot it had its hands in. It might just be that the reason it appears Minato was caught flatfooted, was because he may have dealt with some other plot targeting you so was blindsided by Obito’s attack.”

A part of Kushina hoped that was the case, but looking at the Bijuu, she doubted Kiyomi truly believed that to be the case, so asked, “You don’t really think that is what happened, do you?”

“No,” Kiyomi admitted, but soon added, “However, it is possible that he became aware of some grand plan taking place.”

“What makes you think that?”

“I think it might explain why he may have felt so strongly about turning his son into a jinchuriki,” Kiyomi said after a few moments of gathering her thoughts. “Obito certainly was a threat that night. But that doesn’t explain why he would sacrifice his own life to turn Naruto into a jinchuriki. After all, he sent him running off with his tail between his legs relatively easily. Obito alone doesn’t rise to the level of threat where he couldn’t just have resealed me into you, since as an Uzumaki you of all the potential hosts make such a thing possible. Something that he should have been eminently aware of as Mito, despite her age, said that she hung on for nearly an hour after I was transferred to you.”

“Perhaps he just wasn’t aware of that particular detail,” Kushina said her mood falling as the topic returned towards Minato’s forsaking his vows to be true to her in good times and bad, “Sure, he knew that she was the host before me. But even Tsunade wasn’t aware that her grandmother once housed you. So perhaps there wasn’t a record of Mito’s strong vitality available for him.”

“True it might be possible,” Kiyomi stated, “But, Mito specifically sought to hide that fact from her granddaughter. Furthermore, I can only imagine that any remaining evidence that existed of her being my host would have been covered up or destroyed following what transpired the night Naruto was born. As I doubt the village would have wanted it uncovered that I had been present within the Leaf since shortly after its founding. But, I’m not entirely sure that would have extended to before my rampage. After all, they were pretty keen on making sure I was transferred to another Uzumaki. Yet, besides all that, why wouldn’t he immediately try to reseal me into you regardless of his possessing advanced knowledge. What I’m saying that if he wasn’t acting on rails to try and bring about a future that he thought was possible, seeing you had survived my extraction wouldn’t he have at least attempted to reseal me into you. The only reason I can think of for him not to make the attempt, was because he truly believed that for the good of the village he needed to turn his son into the perfect jinchuriki that he had encountered in the past. But, that threat he believed was around the corner couldn’t possibly have been Obito, as he had not amassed the kind of reputation to make such a belief warranted. If he truly felt Obito was that big of a threat, then he should have selected a host more capable of defending themselves.”

Kushina inclined her head in recognition of Kiyomi’s point, as even knowing that Naruto would make it into his teens didn’t necessarily explain why Minato would believe Obito was such a harbinger of doom. As in fact, considering the thirteen years it would take for Naruto to become a halfway decent shinobi, it would be extremely foolish for Minato’s to believe that such a dangerous threat would proceed to wait another seventeen or so years before making another attempt at getting their hands on Kiyomi. This meant that either Minato was just extremely lucky in assuming that the masked man who had made a play at getting his hands on the nine-tailed fox would be so kind as to wait until Naruto could defend himself before taking another crack. Which while that was admittedly more or less was what happened, it was extremely farfetched in most cases considering the regularity with which threats in the shinobi world rose and fell. Meaning, that although Minato had met Naruto in the past and so he knew that he would reach an age to defend himself, there was really nothing to suggest that Obito would be the threat that he needed to face. Or, perhaps as Kiyomi was suggesting Minato had become aware of another far larger threat out there that moved on an incredibly long timeline, and while he suspected that Obito’s attempt to take Kiyomi, may have been a move made by this larger threat to get the fox out in the open, while also potentially removing a shinobi village in the process. Thanks to his encountering Naruto in the past, Minato could at least be sure the fox would remain out of who or whatever the threat was hands for almost the next two decades. Which while on a tactical level Kushina could appreciate why he believed his actions had been necessary, it did little to soothe the increasing anger that she was feeling towards her former husband due to his leaving her in the dark.

“So, if I’m following your logic correctly,” Kushina said trying to draw a straight conclusion from the time travel nonsense, “You’re of the opinion that perhaps the reason he didn’t try to save me was because at least by choosing Naruto, he could be assured that you wouldn’t fall into anyone’s hands for a decade or two.” Receiving a slight nod, she then asked, “Then what point did it serve to remove your Yin chakra?”

“My best guess at this moment would be for it to act as a kind of fail safe,” Kiyomi stated causing Kushina to arch an eyebrow, to which she explained, “My sisters and I were created from a greater whole. I suspect that if Minato had some inkling that the attempt to grab me was just a precursor to collecting all the Bijuu. Perhaps he realized that they may have been trying to reassemble us into that being. So, by taking my Yin chakra, and then allowing himself to be in turn sealed within the Death God’s stomach along with it, he sought to prevent them from collecting all the pieces that they needed. Admittedly, there is no guarantee that his removing my Yin chakra would have prevented the Ten-Tails from returning. But, I suppose with his limited options he felt it worth a shot.”

“I see,” Kushina said, admitting to herself it was something that Minato would have done. “So, you think it might be worthwhile to reach out to Torikae and see if she recalls what he might have been researching. If anything, that is.”

“Yes,” Kiyomi replied, “If nothing else, perhaps it can help you find closure on why he made the choices that he did.”


***********************************************
Nir sat atop of the Fourth Hokage’s head as the sun shown down on the village of Konoha, which she had called home for the last eighteen years. A place that truly lived up to its name as a hidden village since as far as she could tell, despite being a village of shinobi they never seemed to sell their services to anyone. Not to mention how it had once had several large roads leading to and from it. Yet, they never received any visitors, which had resulted in the roads becoming overgrow by the surrounding forest.

She sighed in boredom, as she would give just about anything to see some action. A rather futile feeling she imagined as she wasn’t a shinobi yet as Konoha would only accept applicants to join the shinobi program upon their twenty first birthday if they were homeschooled as she was. With even those who graduated from the Academy usually being around the same age, although in their case the induction would just be at the closing of the school year. Still, Nir wondered if even joining the shinobi program would do anything to alleviate her boredom since for the last twenty years it seemed as if the world had become a far more peaceful place. Not that she had any inclination as to what was currently happening in the outside world, due to the aforementioned lack of visitors. Which, truth be told at times made Nir wonder if anything truly existed outside of the sea of trees which surrounded the village. Her mother Kiyomi certainly spoke as if there was one, especially during the lessons she gave about it. Yet, Nir always found the lessons rather surreal, since the information her mother Kiyomi provided always seemed rather current, rather than something which should have been out of date. Information such as who was currently running Kumogakure, or who the Daimyo that ruled the Land of Rice paddies was all conveyed with a certainty that she couldn’t understand her mother possessing especially as she rarely ever left their home without some purpose in mind. Yet, what made her mother’s knowledge of the outside world doubly strange was that it seemed to be knowledge that Konoha itself seemed to be lacking.

A fact that she had discovered one night when she had snuck into the Academy back when she was fourteen years old. A task she had undertaken as she had wanted to see just how the students in the Academy were being trained. She hadn’t exactly feared that her own training was inferior since she imagined that the only people currently in Konoha who could stand against her mothers were the Fourth Hokage, or his predecessor the Third. Although, she imagined that the Pervert that her parents often had to chase away from the onsen on their property could give them a good fight as well since he was rumored to be the former student of the Third, and had been the teacher of the Fourth Hokage. But, he tended to come and go as he pleased, which she supposed was perhaps some proof that there was a larger world out there. Yet, that hadn’t translated to the books that she had found within the Academy as they all seemed to be roughly two decades out of date, with the last major event they contained being the end of the Third Shinobi World War.

Granted, the books lack of more current events did make a certain amount of sense, as the shinobi world had seemed to enter into an unprecedented period of peace and stability. However, Nir couldn’t exactly understand why that would be the case as the Third Shinobi World War had wrapped up in much the same way the preceding two had, by Daimyo decree. With that being the case, she couldn’t understand why the last twenty years were so free of the minor border scrapes, espionage, or conflicts born of competing jobs that typically brought the tensions between the shinobi villages to a boil until the point where some incident would cause a new war to erupt.

She had considered broaching the subject with her mothers, but some nagging sense of concern kept her from doing so. What it was, she couldn’t say for certain, but at times she imagined that her parents might very well be the source of the incongruities that she noticed in the current age. Such as her mother Kiyomi’s almost encyclopedic knowledge of the current happenings outside of Konoha. Yet, at times she could tell her mother was being particularly vague or even evasive, one of the more recent times being when she had inquired about the events that had led to a woman named Chiyo being named Daimyo of the Land of Rice Paddies. A question Nir had asked because she had felt, even if the previous Daimyo had ruled a minor country, as it shared a border with the Land of Fire it surely should have sparked some sense of concern in the Leaf Village, especially as her mother had made it sound as if it had just happened in the last year or so. Nir had noticed that her mother had grown a little disconcerted by the relatively simple question. A feeling that became more visible after she had answered by stating the Daimyo had made a deal with a missing-nin who had then betrayed him, which had sparked a sense of excitement in Nir that prompted her to ask for more details, such as who the missing-nin was, what had he been hoping to achieve with the bargain, and many more. Her mother had quickly put an end to the lesson claiming such details were unimportant at the moment, and while Nir had relented in her impromptu interrogation. She just couldn’t understand why such an event hadn’t stirred any sense of concern in the leadership of Konoha. Especially as it was clear that her mother Kiyomi certainly had some strong feelings regarding what had gone happened in the Land of Rice Paddies, particularly towards the missing-nin that had set the events in motion. Nir wished she had been quite so quick to press her mother about what had happened as she was particularly curious as to how the matter had been dealt with, especially as it hadn’t appeared that Konoha was involved. So she was left wondering if perhaps Kumogakure had been involved in exposing the missing-nin plot, which had resulted in his having the Daimyo murdered, and the former princess of the Land of This, Chiyo, taking over his position. However, what her mother’s aborted lesson had highlighted for Nir was that the world outside of Konoha wasn’t quite as peaceful as the serenity surrounding the village itself would lead one to believe. Which just further begged the question, why were they surrendering their place in the world to their former rival villages?

A question that she was sadly no closer to answering, and truthfully, she wasn’t even sure how she would address finding them since she believed her mothers already had the answers that she sought, making them a part of the conspiracy keeping them from her. Which didn’t quite make sense to her seeing as how everyone in Konoha seemed to despise her parents, and so she didn’t quite understand why they would help in keepings the village’s secrets.

However, before she could ponder the matter further, her attention was pulled elsewhere by a loud moan. She let out a soft curse of annoyance, since she was already well aware of what she would find if she moved from her vantage point at the front of the fourth’s head to peer at what was taking place behind it. The annoyance that she felt wasn’t entirely due to what she expected to see as she crawled up enough to peer over the head, but at herself for not just ignoring the moans as she imagined some of the show was for her benefit. She frowned as after stealthily moving to the top of the head, and looking down from her vantage point, she found a naked Miso Namikaze kneeling behind a Hyuuga who she recognized as a member of the Clan Council named Hanami Hyuuga. The current leader of the Hyuuga clan had lost her husband a few decades before, although Nir wasn’t sure how since her mother never bothered to teach her about the inner workings of the village as her lessons instead focused on the outside world. An oversight that whenever she sought to have it corrected, her mother simply told her that they’d begin focusing on those lessons when the time was right.

The Hyuuga who was on her hand and knees while her robes were pushed up over her hips as the much younger man took her from behind. “Yes, more Miso,” she moaned as she threw herself back into the Fourth Hokage’s son in order to meet his incoming thrusts.

Miso gave the Hyuuga’s ass a good smack, causing her to cry out as the golden child of the village said, “What a slut you’ve become, Ms. Hyuuga! If only your clan could see you now. What do you think they would say?”

The Hyuuga didn’t appear to be perturbed by his words as if anything she moaned louder due to the young man pounding her while he reached forward to undo the sash holding the front of her robe closed. He pulled it free, causing her tits to spill out, which he began to fondle as he pulled the woman up to her knees as he squeezed her bountiful breasts.

The woman looked over her shoulder as she responded to his question, “I…I suppose that depends… if they’ve already enjoyed this dick… fuck…right there… they’d probably be asking to be… mmm … next. Although the… mmmarried one’s husbands might have something to say about that.”

Miso smirked at the response as he grabbed the woman’s hard nipples and pulled them out away from the Hyuuga’s body causing her to cry out towards the sky.

Nir, watched on, while feeling her own pussy growing wet with desire as she watched the older woman’s snatch getting plowed. Still, she refrained from teasing herself as she felt that was exactly what Miso was aiming for as he had only recently begun to bring his conquests up to the monument. Nir conceded that she might be reading too much into his actions, but the top of the Fourth Hokage’s head had long been her thinking spot. For reasons she couldn’t exactly explain as despite some part of her having always felt an affinity for the Hokage, her relationship with the man himself was virtually nonexistent since he usually kept his distance from her family.

An attitude his son hadn’t shared as he had recently made the mistake of making a pass at her mother Kushina after one of their training sessions in the park. As she had rested on a bench to rehydrate, he had approached thinking to make her another of his conquests. Still, she had rebuffed him gently at first, and was perhaps even a little flattered or bemused by his attempt at seducing her. Yet, when he had persisted by stating that he’d make her recall what being with a real man was like, while placing his on her thigh with the intention of groping her. It had been like flipping a switch on her mother’s temperament as she had done her level best to rearrange his face. Luckily, she and her other mother had been in the park as well to prevent the enraged Kushina from doing too much damage.

The incident hadn’t really done her family any favors in the popularity department. But the matter hadn’t progressed too much further, since the responding Anbu had preferred to drop it entirely rather than file a report which might reached the Hokage’s desk. She wasn’t sure what excuse Miso had given to his father or mother to explain the bruises. However, regardless she suspected word would have reached them eventually. Much like the young man’s philandering ways was an open secret within the village.

Nir suspected that his bringing his lovers to the monument was but another attempt at seduction, with the target this time around being her. She figured her mother Kushina’s rejection had hurt his pride, and so he was attempting to show off his sexual prowess hoping to entice her. Which she hated to admit was working to some degree due to her lack of options in partners and was also evident by the heat that she could feel building between her legs. However, it wasn’t just curiosity in knowing the pleasure that she could currently see in the moaning Hyuuga’s face which was tempting her to give in. Rather, what was truly pulling her to give in was the idea that becoming lovers with the current Hokage’s son, might allow her access to information as to just what was going on within Konoha.

Her attention was returned to the rutting taking place as Hanami was pushed forwarded by Miso, who climbed up to his feet to squat behind her, and taking hold of her hips began furiously ramming the Hyuuga. Hanami’s cries grew louder and louder, until she announced, “I’m …I’m cumming!”

“Yeah, me too!,” Miso shouted

“N…no…not inside,” Hanami said looking back as the Hokage’s son pulled her fully back against him.

“Too late!” he cried out while burying himself fully within the woman as she came along with him.

After filling her womb with his seed, Miso stood causing Nir to blush as she caught sight of his still erect penis which began to soften. He moved to stand in front of the still panting Hyuuga who looked up while sounding annoyed as she stated, “I told you not to cum inside. What are people going to say if I get pregnant?”

“It looks like she had a good time,” Miso replied dismissively once he was standing in front of her blocking Nir’s view of the woman. “Now, how about you be a good little slut and clean up after yourself.”

“Gods,” the Hyuuga said as she got up to her knees, “I wish I could say no to you.” She then leaned forward and began loudly slurping on his soften cock as she cleaned it of their juices.

After a few moments, Miso said with a groan, “Keep that up, and it won’t be a cleanup job any longer.”

Hanami got the hint and climbing to her feet began fixing her appearance, while saying, “I’ll head back first.”

“By your leave, milady,” Miso replied causing the Hyuuga to smirk as she began walking back down the trail they had used to arrive. When she was out of sight, he pulled on his pants while calling out, “Did you enjoy the show?”

Nir leapt from her perch on top of his father’s head and landed several feet in front of him. As she crouched down from her landing, his eyes immediately locked onto the junction between her legs as he looked up her skirt, likely trying to determine just how much she had enjoyed the show. Although a little put-off by his behavior, she wasn’t surprised by it, and had chosen to give him the glimpse in order to let him think his little game was working if she did decide to use him.

Allowing some of her true feelings of disdain for him to show through so as to not let him think she was easy, she said, “Ehh, it was nothing special.”

“That’s not what the spot I saw on your panties is telling me,” Miso countered which prompt Nir to scowl at him, although internally she was amused. Reacting to her outward demeanor he said, “Come on Nir, do we need to have the same old song and dance every time? If you weren’t interested, you could have just taken off.”

“True,” Nir said, “I’ll admit to having a little carnal interest or at the very least being curious as to what so many women see in you. But I can’t say that I saw anything too impressive.”

Miso frowned due to the pointed look that she sent towards his crotch but seeing at least a partial thawing in her demeanor towards him stated, “It ain’t just the size of the equipment, but what you do with it.”

“Maybe that true,” Nir said with a shrug, “But, why would I just want to be another of your floozies?”

“Don’t be like that,” he replied with mock disapproval, “Just because they know what they want doesn’t make them floozies. I mean Konoha is like the widow capital of the world. Someone needed to step up to fill the holes left behind.”

Miso chuckled in amusement at his joke, which nearly caused Nir to roll her eyes, yet she refrained as she asked, “That still doesn’t tell me what I get out of it.”

“How about answers,” Miso replied causing her eyes to widen in surprise making her wonder if he knew what she was up to. At least until he added, “To just what has all those women lining up get a taste.” Nir gave him a somewhat amused smile, although she began to feel that she was wasting her time. But, then he surprised her by showing that all of his brains weren’t exclusively located in his pants as he added, “Not to mention some answers regarding what is being kept from you about the outside world.” Nir couldn’t keep the surprise from her face, prompting the man to give her a self-satisfied smirk as he began walking around her while stating, “I know you’re curious about why Konoha has seemingly cut ties with the outside world. From sneaking into the academy each year to see if there have been any updates to the curriculum, to watching the gates from up here for visitors.”

Nir crossed her arms and didn’t bothering hiding her skepticism as she retorted, “You expect me to believe that you have those answers, and are willing to give them up for a little pussy?”

Miso chuckled, before stating, “Don’t sell yourself short. Besides, it’s not like you have any options in that regard either. Why not kill two birds with one stone?”

He reached out to place a hand on her shoulder, but Nir caught it by the wrist while countering, “Perhaps because knowing you. You’ll demand payment up front, and then fuck off once you get what you want.” Letting go of his wrist she stepped back adding, “You want to be my first then prove to me you’re spouting more than hot air.”

Miso didn’t do much to prove that her assessment of him was accurate as he simply gave her a dismissive shrug before replying, “Beggars can’t be choosers, and I think between the two of us it is clear who has the stronger hand.” Turning away from her, he called back over his shoulder, “Give me a call when you’ve grown tired of banging your head against the wall.”

“Bastard,” Nir said softly as he disappeared down the same path the Hyuuga had taken without looking back. She sighed in frustration since it was clear that much as he stated between the two of them, he had the stronger hand, and perhaps what was even more upsetting to her was that he didn’t even seem all that committed to trying to get her into his bed. She supposed she should just take that as a sign that his offer was worthless, which was why it annoyed her so much that she felt so tempted by it.

But calming herself, she began to call on some of her teachings from Biwako Sarutobi the one tutor that her parents had hired for her growing up. Since neither of her moms seemed to have much interest in the more refined kunoichi arts, such as flower arranging and the tea ceremony. But, Biwako’s lessens had also incorporated the arts of seduction, and so she reasoned that while Miso’s offer might not have been entirely genuine, it at the very least indicate a passive interest. One that if she played her cards right, she could fan into a genuine need on his part that she could use to have her own desires satisfied, and if in the process she so happened to learn why so many of the women in the village seemed to trip over themselves to hop in the sack with him so much the better. She considered going after him to begin the process, but held back fearing to do so would make her look too desperate. As such, she turned away feeling it was the right move as after all she had already waited years for the answers that she sought. Waiting a few days or weeks so as not to appear to be too desperate would only strengthen her hand, which would only grow stronger once she began using it to dole out a few sexual favors that would have him begging to fuck her, but only after she was satisfied with what he presented to her for the right to do so.

She smirked to herself as she found that she liked the idea of turning him into her little plaything. Although it didn’t last as she knew that between the two of them, he was the one with all the experience so opted to head to the library to see what past kunoichi had done when confronted with an opponent that far outshone them in terms of experience.

********************************************************

Mito Uzumaki approached the walls of Konoha, and looking at the sealed gates which hadn’t appeared to have been opened in decades found herself wondering just what in the world her successor as a jinchuriki, and the former Bijuu that they both had hosted were up to. After having dealt with the fallout from Naruto’s bringing Kukaku into the Family proper, by beating the hell out of her former lover, and the denizens of the man’s bar, not that they hadn’t had it coming seeing as he wanted to use the humanized Bijuu’s affection for him and unbalanced mental state to convince her to star in a video of her being gangbanged by his friends that he then planned to distribute. Luckily Naruto in the guise of Menma had prevented it, and as an added bonus had helped the Bijuu to recover some of the pride that she had lost from the injuries that she had sustained during the Battle of Ame. Currently, the pair were in Rice Paddies so that Kukaku could be added to the ranks of the Black Foxes, which not only helped the gang with the manpower shortage it was having regarding its rivals, but had the added bonus of also providing those investigating the incident in Konoha with a reason for the intervention as well.

With that matter on its way to being settled, Mito had decided to settle the matter of the curiosity that she felt regarding what Kiyomi and Kushina were doing as she had discovered the pair as she had sought out the Bijuu following Kukaku’s initial tantrum. Needless to say that the last thing that she had expected after joining them in the seal upon which she had found them laying, was to find herself alone in a heavily forested area. Yet the questions kept piling up as after jumping to the top of one of the trees and seeing Konoha in the distance, she quickly surmised something strange was going on as her granddaughter’s face was missing from the Hokage Monument. Moreover, as she ran towards the village, she realized that where she had appeared had once been the main road leading to the village, but it had become overgrown from lack of use as the forest reclaimed it. A state of being she began to understand as she approached the main gate to find that it looked as if it hadn’t been opened in a very long time.

She frowned as she stopped before the gate, since she could hear the sounds of a bustling village on the other side. Yet, that just left her feeling all the more confused as to why the path leading up to it was in such disrepair. As well as to why she hadn’t come across any signs of patrols, not to mention could see no signs of there even being guards stationed atop of the wall. Figuring that the answers she sought laid on the other side of the wall, she quickly darted up it, and after pausing for a moment to study the peaceful looking village leapt to the ground. Several nearby villagers who were passing by the unused gate backed away from her in surprise, which looked like it could quickly shift into panic. Yet, upon seeing her face their emotions seemed to switch first to recognition and then swiftly to disdain. As such as they walked away, she noticed a slight upturning of their noses at her as they went about their business.

Needless to say, she was rather surprised by the reaction since it would indicate that Kiyomi was known to the people in this version of Konoha. Yet she seemed to be held in a position of disregard, if not borderline hostility. Mito had a hard time picturing Kiyomi allowing herself being held in such contempt willingly, but reasoned that perhaps she had made a miscalculation somewhere in her seal, but had felt too much time had passed to correct it. But, she quickly rejected the theory, since she had studied the seal before allowing her consciousness to enter it as well, and had seen that the Bijuu had afforded herself an unprecedented amount of control over the world being created. As such, she realized that the villagers’ dislike of the woman that had taken her visage must be viewed as a benefit to the Bijuu.

Wanting to test her theory, and perhaps learn the root of cold glares that she was receiving as she proceed deeper into the village, she approached a shopkeeper who was sweeping the street outside his store with his back turned to her. “Excuse me,” she said after coming to a stop behind him, “I was hoping you might be able to help me.”

“Sure,” the man said politely as he turned towards her. Yet, upon facing her, and confusing her for Kiyomi, his face turned into a sneer as he said rudely, “What the hell do you want?”

Mito tried to keep her demeanor relaxed as she began to state, “I believe you have me mistaken with…”

“The only mistake around here is you, you fucking harlot,” the man shouted hefting his broom up like a weapon, “Now get out of here before I shove this broom so far up your ass you’ll be coughing up dust bunnies.”

The man didn’t give her a chance to leave as he attempted to bring the broom down on her, but Mito effortlessly sidestepped it and snatched the makeshift weapon out of his hand. She then spun around to move beside him as she used the broom to sweep him off his feet. At which point she then smashed the end of the broom against the side of the doorway to his shop snapping off the broom end, and quickly brought the now pointy end up against the shopkeepers throat while a crowd began gathering around them.

“Now then,” she said as she pressed the end of the broom into his throat, “As I was saying I believe you…”

“Mother,” a confused voice called out causing Mito to turn towards it.

Upon looking at the young woman, it was her turn to speak out in confusion as she said, “Rin…”

However, she quickly realized that wasn’t quite the case as the young woman although she possessed the same brown eyes as her fellow Family member, and also looked to currently be in her late teens, lacked the purple marks the original sported on her cheeks. But rather, it was her hair which was purple. The woman was currently dressed in a light brown long sleeve shirt, which was paired with a darker brown miniskirt under which peeked the leggings of the tight black shorts many kunoichi favored.

The confusion in the woman’s brown eyes seemed to clear as she noticed that her black eyes were different from the green that Kiyomi’s were, prompting her to quickly adopt a combative pose as she produced a kunai from the pouch she wore on her hip. Holding it before her she said, “The name is Nir. Now who are you, and why are you imitating my mother?”

“Mother,” Mito repeated in surprise, but like a puzzle piece falling into place suddenly felt she understood what the two women were up to. Prompting her to raise a hand to her forehead as she said, “Oh don’t tell me…”

Seeing her mother’s impostor seemed to have dropped her guard, Nir charged forward intending to use her kunai to disarm the intruder. However, the imposter quickly recovered and brought the broom handle up to batter the blade away. She then attempted to use it to trip her up, but Nir easily leapt backwards over the attempt to land a few feet away while holding the kunai in front of her. The woman moved away from the shopkeeper and his storefront to stand in the street causing the gathered crowd to shift along with them to give the two combatants room to fight.

“I see a lot of Kushina in your stance,” the Kiyomi imposter stated.

“How do you know my mothers?” Nir shouted angrily, “And why are you impersonating Mother Kiyomi?”

Ignoring the question, the woman replied with a hint of amusement, “Too be fair, she’s the one who stole my face.”

Nir looked ready to charge, but then a new confused voice cut in although Nir recognized this one as belonging to the mother the woman before her was impersonating. Although much to her surprise, she apparently recognized the imposter as Kiyomi said, “Mito, what the hell are you doing?”

“Me,” Mito said turning towards Kiyomi to find that Kushina was also standing beside her, “I think the better question is, just what in the world have you two been playing at for the past few days?”

However, although both women looked sheepish, before they could respond a confused Nir asked, “Days!? What is she talking about? How do you even know this woman?”

Kushina stepped towards her daughter, and trying to sound soothing said, “Calm down Nir. We’ll explain everything.”

However, despite it looking like she was on the verge of getting the answers she sought, realizing that her parents had been holding out on her, and possibly even lying to her prompted the purple haired kunoichi in training to take a step back as she began to experience a panic attack. “Stay back,” she said looking at all the people around her with a wary eye and finding that she suddenly couldn’t trust anyone took off running to quickly disappear down one of the nearby alleys.

“Wait Nir,” Kushina shouted about to take off after her, but found the wrist of the hand that she had outstretched towards her daughter was sudden in the grip of another. Directing her gaze towards the man, she said, “Let go of me, Sakumo.”

The man that many called Konoha’s White Fang didn’t relax his grip, as the squad of the Anbu that he led appeared from amongst the crowd to encircle the three women at which point he said, “Stand down Kushina. We’re taking this infiltrator into custody, and you two can join us at the Torture and Interrogation Department to determine what your connection with her is.”

Kushina didn’t bother to respond as she quickly took ahold of his wrist in turn, and to the man’s surprise almost effortless pulled him off of his feet to toss him through the wall of a nearby shop. “Now you’ve done it,” Kiyomi said as she flared her chakra causing a chakra construct of her Bijuu form to surround her, as she used its tails to batter the surrounding Anbu away.

“Oh shut up,” Kushina said as Sakumo appeared from the hole that he had created while now wielding his White Light Chakra Sabre. However before he could close with the Uzumaki, Mito appeared behind him. Reacting quickly, he spun towards the new threat and effortless sliced through her using the tanto like blade he wielded. However, Mito rather than turning into a fountain of blood exploded into a small cloud of smoke, of which the neatly bisected pieces of the broom handle fell from. His eyes widened in shock before she again appeared behind him and jammed her palm into the small of his back. The tips of her fingers then began to glow with chakra as she applied a seal to his spine which prevented his brain from communicating with the rest of his body causing him to collapse in a heap.

Taking note of the citizens that were now fleeing in all directions around them, Mito said, “Ladies, I suggest we take our leave.”

Kiyomi having made short work of the Anbu nodded along with Kushina, so all three took off down the same alley Nir had. As they fled Kiyomi sounding frustrated asked, “Now explain yourself. What are you doing here?”

Mito not liking the Bijuu’s tone said, “Explain myself… I think it’s the two of…”

To her surprise, Kushina interjected, “Answer her question Mito. Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

Mito taking stock of the two women running side by side before her, noticed a closeness between them which hadn’t existed before. She reasoned that while outside the seal only a few days had passed, within it years had, which if she had to guess at just how many, she’d imagine it was about the same amount of time the Rin lookalike had been alive. Still, despite receiving the twin glares from the women, she answered Kushina’s question by stating, “Some. If I were to guess, you’ve decided to create some puppet that you want to act as Obito’s keeper. As such, you’ve likely are using the memories that you’ve taken of Rin’s time as Joseki’s puppet as a basis for her personality, and have spent decades raising her up. So, how’d I do?”

“You’re wrong about her being a puppet,” Kushina said turning her attention forward again, “She’s our daughter.”

Kiyomi quickly added, “You’re also incorrect about us using Rin’s memories as the basis for her personality. It’s true I’ve sealed them in her, but I did so more to act as a template for her to so closely resemble her due to her chakra being contained within them. You are also correct in assuming that we were planning to ask her to act as an overseer for Obito, someone who could more closely monitor him, and hopefully would have an advantage should he turn against us. If she agreed, then we’d switch in the personality based on Rin’s time as a puppet, while Nir would act as the background subconscious to keep it loyal.”

Mito nodded, before commenting, “Ah, I see. That’s why it appears this village is filled with ghosts from the past, and why you allowed yourself to become so disliked within it. You didn’t want her to form attachments that would be hard to cut once you revealed the truth to her.” Receiving a nod from Kiyomi, she did find herself curious as to where they were heading as they found themselves having abandoned the twists and turns of the alleys between shops for a less populated portion of the village.

Guessing the lone home nestled on the edge of the woods was where the two women lived with their daughter, she received some confirmation as Kushina hit the door first and throwing it open by nearly ripping it off of its hinges called, “Nir, are you here? Please answer!”

Not receiving one, she took off towards Nir’s room which not too surprising was unoccupied. “Dammit, where is she,” Kushina said worriedly, “I knew we should have told her sooner.”

Kiyomi approached Kushina and pulling her into an embrace said, “We agreed that we didn’t want to burden her for as long as possible.”

“I know,” Kushina conceded, “But, she was growing so curious. She knew something strange was going on. We should have been more upfront with her.”

Kiyomi couldn’t really refute her fellow red-head, but said, “Come on, we can’t stay here. Other Anbu squads are soon going to be looking for us to get answers for the ruckus we caused, and this is one of the first places they’ll look.”

“I know, but maybe we should just take command of the seal and…”

“Before we do that,” Kiyomi cautioned, “we’ll definitely want to have found Nir first. If she’s confused and panicked now, imagine how much worse it will be if we suddenly paused time.”

While Kushina nodded in agreement, Mito was busy scanning the room that she guessed belonged to Nir. She spotted something that caught her interest so stepping into the room, pulled out several books which had been halfheartedly hidden under the bed. Reading the titles aloud, she stated, “How to Drive him Wild!, Surefire Kunoichi Techniques to make any Man Puddy in your Hands, and The Art of Oral!” Turning towards the two women, she said, “It would seem that despite your intentions, she had made a friend who she’s interested in.” Opening the covers of one of the books, she noticed that it had been checked out of the local library only a few days previously so added, “Although, perhaps only recently.”

Kushina’s violet eyes darkened as she said, “Or maybe some bastard set his sights on her, and she was hoping to turn the tables.”

“You can’t mean…” Kiyomi said surprised.

Kushina caused her to trail off with a nod, “We might not have been the only ones who noticed her curiosity and that little toad was probably watching us for a while.”

Kiyomi nodded, before adding, “I suppose after you rejected him so forcefully, he is the type who would decide to go after her next as a form of payback. Plus, if he had noticed her growing curiosity about the village’s isolation he’d undoubtedly use his father as a way of piquing her interest.”

“Um who are you talking about,” Mito asked in confusion.

“Miso,” both women answered in unison with one woman’s voice being filled with annoyance, and the other with an anger that hinted at impending violence.

****************************************************************************

“My this is certainly a surprise,” Miso said after entering his room to find Nir sitting on his bed as an Anbu Captain had interrupted his family’s dinner due to some incident that had taken place which had prompted his father to tell Miso to go to his room. He immediately picked up that she appeared to be distressed, which while internally he was rather pleased, he didn’t let it show as he allowed some concern color his tone as he asked, “Is everything alright?”

“I…I don’t know,” Nir replied sounding vulnerable. “I just don’t know who I can trust right now.”

Before Miso could inquire, he heard his mother saying loudly and bitterly, “I knew those women couldn’t be trusted. You should have followed Danzou’s advice after she betrayed you and had the beast that she carried removed to be implanted into a truly loyal soldier of the village.”

He couldn’t hear his father’s reply due to it being softer and more measured, but he began to suspect that whatever the incident was it was related to his dad’s first wife as his mother still harbored a deep jealousy of her. In fact it was because of that jealousy that Miso had first set his sights on Kushina, since he wanted to see if the women was quite as wild in bed as her demeanor seemed to suggest. Plus, he’d admit there was some part of him that would love for the woman to say that he was a better lay, particularly since the entire village seemed to worship his dad. Granted, it had resulted in more than a few pairs of legs spreading for him due to his being related to the much vaunted Fourth Hokage, but having been unable to truly prove himself as a shinobi due to the villages isolation, had settled on the method where he felt he truly excelled. Unfortunately, that method only had two true contenders, and while he’d admit that he’d love to bang his mother, she was far too gone in her infatuation with his father to ever consider it. That had left Kushina, who had rejected him in no less a thorough and painful a fashion before her daughter and supposed lover had pulled her off of him.

Guessing that incident might also be why Nir had apparently sneaked past the Anbu guards watching his home, just to slink into his room made him want to scream for joy since it was apparent it had eroded some of the trust she had in her parents. Sounding sympathetic, he sat beside her on the bed, and stated, “You can trust me.”

“Can I?” she asked, turning to look into his blue eyes.

“Well sure you can,” Miso replied while trying to sound mildly offended, “If not, why would you come here?”

“Because it has become clear that my mothers have been lying to me for my entire life,” Nir said bitterly, “With you, I at least know what you want from me in return.” She turned herself towards him, and adding a sultry whisper to her voice, placed her hand on his crotch as she said, “Help get me the answers that I want, and I’ll satisfy all your desires.”

Miso couldn’t help the wide smile that appeared on his face and was about to suggest that she give him a downpayment for his services. However, before the words could pass through his lips, the wall of his bedroom exploded, causing both him and Nir to cry out in surprise. When the dust cloud began to clear, both felt their blood run cold as Kushina stood at the forefront of her group coated in red chakra as her hair waved about her having taken the shape of several tails. Perhaps more disconcerting for Miso in particular was her eyes were the color of blood, and they narrowed angrily as she noticed the suggestive position the two of them were in. “Get your hands of my daughter,” she growled as she took a menacing step forward.

Miso was quick to raise his hands as he hurriedly said, “S…she came onto me.”

Nir’s eyes grew wide in surprise and a little hurt despite her having known that probably wouldn’t have made the most worthwhile of allies. However, her attention was quickly pulled away as Miso’s bedroom door was kicked in to reveal his father, mother, and an Anbu Captain. The Fourth Hokage was quick to position himself between his son, and the enraged Kushina as he said, “Calm yourself Kushina. Don’t allow that beast to take hold of you.”

“I beg your pardon,” Kiyomi said insulted, while Mito watched on feeling rather bemused by the entire situation.

Nir found herself suddenly kicked away from Miso to the opposite side of the room as Torikae appeared beside them and delivered a vicious shot to her ribs. She then pulled her son close as she shouted, “There’s your little whore of a daughter, now take her and get lost.”

However, seeing Nir being sent flying only served to agitate both women as Kiyomi was also quickly coated in her Bijuu chakra which took the shape of a growling fox with nine tails swinging about her. “What’s is this,” Minato said sounding panicked, “How are there two foxes?”

Wondering how he could get both threats away from his family, he launched himself forward with the Anbu Captain moving to follow his lead but both men suddenly began slowing before freezing completely as Mito snapped her fingers while stating, “Alright, I think this has gone on long enough.”

Kiyomi was the first to call back her cloak as she turned to Mito in surprise saying, “How did you give yourself override authorization while the seal was active?”

“I’m Mito Uzumaki,” she replied proudly, “There hasn’t been a seal invented yet which I couldn’t figure out and rewrite.”

“The Caged Bird seal seems to be an exception,” Kiyomi said snidely.

Undeterred Mito countered, “Glasses houses and all that Kiyomi. I haven’t seen you crack it yet either.”

Kushina ignored the two women to focus on Nir, who seemed in a state of shock at what she had just witnessed, not to mention how time itself seemed to have been frozen. She heard her mother Kushina calling her, but when her gaze focused on the red-head she shot to her feet as she pulled a kunai while shouting, “Stay back!”

“Nir, please calm down and trust us,” Kiyomi said moving to stand beside Kushina.

“Trust you?” Nir said question at first, before shouting, “Trust you! You both have been lying to me for as long as I can remember!”

“I admit that we’ve been hiding things from you…” Kushina began to say but was cut short as her daughter threw her kunai towards the ground before them, at which point the flash tag that she had affixed to the handle went off. After blinking the spots from their eyes, they found themselves alone in the room with the Namikaze family.

Both women prepared to take off again in search of her but stopped as Mito moved before them saying, “Stop you two. Just give her some space. I’ll try to talk to her.”

“You! Why would she listen to you?” Kiyomi asked, “We’re her mothers.”

“Who she is plenty angry with at the moment,” Mito countered, before adding, “And not without some cause. So, how about you two clean up this mess? I’ll go see if I can get her to calm down some.”

Kiyomi frowned at her response, but relented as she gave her former host a quick nod. While Kushina stepped forward saying, “She’s probably at the Hokage monument. She usually goes there to try and figure things out.” Mito gave her an appreciative nod before taking off into the quickly darkening village.

Turning towards Kiyomi, Kushina asked, “Just how are we supposed to fix up this mess though.”

Kiyomi gave her fellow red-head a bemused smile before saying, “How about you move the Namikaze family to another room and tie them up? I think I know how we can make the best of this situation.”

Kiyomi then walked deeper into the home that they had invaded as she went in search of the tool that she would need to help set next stage of her plan into motion. Not nearly as cleanly as she had wanted, but she could take some solace in it being a few years ahead of schedule.

********************************************************

Nir was laying flat on the Fourth Hokage’s head confident that she’d spot either of her mothers if they tried to pursue her. As she remained prone, she hoped that they would assume that she had fled outside of the village into the forest, and so her audacity to remain so close would give her time to come up with a plan. A plan that had appeared to work at least regarding the woman whose appearance had thrown her life in such disarray. As she had taken off through the hole that they had blasted in the Hokage Mansion, and then quickly made her way to the edge of the village before disappearing over the wall. Yet for some reason, her mothers hadn’t left the building themselves yet.

“Why am I acting like this?” Nir said as after several more minutes, she sat up to pull her legs up to her chest trying to warm herself up. “They’re finally ready to tell me the truth, but I’m acting like such a brat.”

Yet, to her surprise, she received an answer to her rhetorical question as Mito appeared behind her saying, “Well, that’s probably because you understand that getting what you thought you wanted can have major consequences.”

Nir tried to react, yet before she could she felt the redhead, who resembled her mother press on the base of her spine and suddenly found herself unable move as she collapsed backwards into the woman.

Mito lifted the kunoichi up and leapt down to land behind the Fourth Hokage’s head before leaning Nir against it. Satisfied the kunoichi wouldn’t topple over she straightened up saying, “Good, that should keep you in place for a while.”

“Who are you?” Nir asked with a clear hint of concern, with a hint of annoyance at being caught so easily.

She ignored the question in favor of stating, “Honestly, you have a long way to go as a kunoichi if you’re going to ignore information that you’ve already been made privy too.”

Nir was confused for a moment which prompted her to frown, before remembering how the woman had dropped her name only a few moments before. So, trying to recover some face said, “So what? You’re just some Uzumaki whose mother wanted to name her daughter after the First Hokage’s wife.”

“I’m the genuine article my dear,” Mito replied causing Nir to give her an incredulous look.

“Well, you’re looking good for a woman who would be well over hundred and has been long dead,” Nir stated dismissively.

“Why thank you,” Mito said giving her a pleased smile, “But, I assure you that I am who I claim to be. Moreover, from my perspective this world is populated by quite a few individuals who have moved on to the great here after.” Nir felt a flash of fear that the woman was about to inform her that she was in fact dead as well, and that the world around her was one of her own creation, which was on the verge of collapse.

Mito watched her for a moment, and perhaps sensing what was going on within her head said, “Relax, this isn’t one of those dream worlds brought about by extreme trauma. Rather think of it as an artificial environment created so your parents could raise and nurture you.”

“Artificial…” Nir repeated in disbelief. But looking past Mito and seeing clouds frozen in the nighttime sky found that she couldn’t exactly deny that something was out of whack. “For what reason?”

Mito looked a little hesitant to provide the answer but guessing she had volunteered herself to be the messenger said, “Why was the world created, well let’s just say your mothers were pressed for time, and so Kiyomi created this world which is based on Kushina’s memories to give you a childhood that her other daughters didn’t get a chance to enjoy. I suppose Kushina came along to help so she could experience the joy of raising a child, which she had previously been denied.”

“Wait! What?” Nir said shocked as her jaw dropped to the floor, “I…I have sisters?”

Mito flashed her a smile before dropping to her haunches before the stunned young woman as she said, “Oh, we haven’t even begun to cover the truly mind-blowing material yet. But yes, Kiyomi has two other daughters, their names being Sage and Naruko. They are beings that Kiyomi created and gave life to. She created Naruko as an act of atonement, while Sage was created to perform a specific task. At the time, she wasn’t much doing it with the idea that they would be her daughters, but that sort of is what they became.”

Realizing that she was just as artificial a creation, a deep bitterness entered her voice as she said, “So for what reason was I created?”

“My someone is starting to sound resentful,” Mito commented causing the younger women to glare at her.

“Why wouldn’t I be,” Nir shouted, “You just got done telling me that I’m some artificial creation, living a lie, and if the pattern holds true was created as an act of atonement or because my mother has some task for me to perform.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Mito said with an amused tone causing Nir’s glare to harden. “In your case it is probably both.” The glare she was receiving alleviated slightly, but mainly due to the look of confusion that appeared which prompted the Uzumaki to explain, “You know how I said Kushina had been denied the chance to raise a child of her own. Well, that is because she was killed shortly after giving birth to a son, who was fathered by the Fourth Hokage…”

“Wait if she’s dead…does that mean she is just a part of this… simulation too?” Nir asked as much of the anger she had been directing Mito’s way evaporated to be replaced with fear and concern.

Mito shook her head, as she reassured the purple-haired kunoichi in training, “No, she is very much alive. Much as was the case for me, death was… a temporary state of being. Although, I suppose it could be argued that in Kushina’s case, it was only her body which experienced it.”

“I… I don’t … I don’t understand,” Nir said as the confusion was easy to see on her face.

“That doesn’t come as too much of a surprise,” Mito said moving to sit beside the woman, “After all, in this reality it appears Kushina divorced Minato, in order for her and Kiyomi to raise you.”

“And how long have they dedicated to this task?” Nir said as her bitterness made a quick return.

“How old are you?” was Mito’s reply.

“I turned eighteen a few months ago,” Nir answered.

“Well there you go,” Mito said with a sense of amusement, “At least eighteen years, although my guess would be closer to nineteen to set a few of the changes I’ve seen in motion.”

Sounding frustrated Nir quickly said, “I’m talking about in the other reality. You said they were pressed for time.”

“Does it matter?” Mito asked tilting her head inquisitively.

“I just want to know how much time that they set aside for their little project,” Nir said turning her head away as her bitterness began to mix with sadness.

Mito sighed, before answering, “I’m not sure when they started exactly. But, I’m guessing it would be around two to three days at this point.” Yet she quickly asked, “So how much time did it feel like they spent being mothers to you.” Nir frowned at the question, and looked like she wanted to say something to keep the bitterness and anger she felt alive, but Mito squashed it saying, “My guess is you felt every bit of those eighteen years, and that would be the case for your mothers as well. Although, admittedly it is possible that the time might have passed in the blink of an eye for Kiyomi.”

“W…why,” Nir asked as her curiosity got the better of her.

This caused Mito to smile as she said, “Because if you think I look good for my age, well she’s been around for considerably longer. She is a daughter of the Sage of the Six paths after all.”

“W…what that is impossible….” Nir quickly said, “He only had a pair of sons, whose descendants eventually became the Uchiha and the Senju clan.”

“True, at least as far as children he actually fathered the old fashion way are concerned,” Mito stated before a whimsical look appeared as she pondered aloud, “Although, perhaps during his time it might have been considered relatively new. But, much like you, Kiyomi was a chakra being born when the Sage of Six Paths separated the Ten-Tails into the Bijuu.”

“M…mother Kiyomi is the nine-tailed fox,” Nir shouted in shock, causing Mito to giggle in amusement. At first Nir wanted to refute it, since the Bijuu were said to be a grave omen which often resulted in massive death and destruction whenever they appeared. Something she just couldn’t associate with the mother that had raised her. However, recalling the shroud which had coated her, found that she wasn’t exactly able to deny it either, especially as the Fourth Hokage had seemed to confirm it as well. But also recalling his surprise, asked, “Is mother Kushina a Bijuu as well. The Fourth seemed shocked that there were two.”

“Hmmm,” Mito hummed as she considered how best to explain the truth to Nir. At last settling on stating, “Well, from the Hokage’s perspective, he was probably more surprised by Kiyomi’s ability to call on a Bijuu’s chakra. You see, both Kushina and I were jinchuriki which once contained Kiyomi. I imprisoned her within me when Madara used her to face my husband back before she had taken human form. There she remained until I grew too old, and needed to find a replacement to keep her contained which is when Kushina was brought to the village. Kushina then served as her host, at least until she gave birth to her son…who I suppose would be your half-brother.”

“I have a brother as well,” Nir said shaking her head in disbelief. “Wait if he’s my half-brother then… did the Fourth also sleep with… no that’s stupid…I’m just a chakra thought experiment they created for some reason.”

Mito sighed before stating with an air of disapproval, “Let’s not regress back to feeling sorry for ourselves. After all, you’ve experienced something that neither your sisters nor brother have. A childhood where you were raised by loving parents. Moreover, you’re no thought experiment. Granted, your mothers do have a specific task that they want at least some aspect of you to perform. But, well that tends to be the case for most shinobi families.”

“Really,” Nir replied contemptuously, “I hardly doubt my circumstances…”

Rather put off by the young woman’s dismissal, Mito cut her off stating, “All of my children were conceived with the hope that they would inherit their father’s Kekkei Genkai. That isn’t to say that we did not love them, but it was what was expected of us to better the Senju clan. Furthermore, much like the generations that came before, they were all drummed into military service at an early, in order to protect the fledgling Leaf Village. They all served proudly, and contently, but as a result, I ended up outliving all of my children, as well as all but one of my grandchildren.”

Nir could hear the genuine pain and sadness in the redhead’s voice, which sapped much of the anger that she felt. “I’m sorry,” she stated causing Mito to give her a small smile of appreciation.

Mito then forced the painful memories back into the past, so she could comment, “Another difference between this world and mine is that you do not appear to have a headband, and so it appears that you have not been made a genin yet.”

“My mothers homeschool me,” Nir responded, “and so I’m not eligible to become one until I turn twenty-one. Although those who do attend to Academy are allowed to graduate and become genin around their twentieth.”

“Perhaps that reflects a hope for the future,” Mito stated, “In my time, children as young as six were often made genin, and even now the age they enter service is around thirteen. Although, I suppose it was also because they didn’t want you going out on missions.”

Although Nir was of the opinion that the reason lay closer to the latter, she asked, “What do you mean?”

Mito looked at the young woman, before looking up at the moon as she answered, “Well, the villages were originally founded to help foster peace between the various shinobi clans. The life you have been living, in many ways represents a reality where they succeeded. Even though I know many would claim that the founding of Konoha and the other villages had failed in that goal. It wasn’t a complete failure, as within a century it has allowed our children an additional seven years to just be children. Thus, this world where you truly are at the cusp of adulthood before becoming a shinobi is one where peace has truly taken root. Which ultimately is the goal that your mothers, sisters, and I are working for.”

Nir was a little surprised that Mito hadn’t mentioned her brother was also working for it, but didn’t focus on the exclusion in favor of asking, “And my creation is meant to in some way service that goal?”

“If you choose to help,” Mito stated with a nod.

“What makes you think I’ll have a choice?” Nir asked with a frown.

“Believe me, if Kiyomi hadn’t been inclined to give you one, I doubt she would have invested so much time to raising you,” the Uzumaki replied with a smile. “She could have just made a new being with the memories that she used to create you and tweaked them to make someone who would perform the task with a minimum of complaint. But, she’s also come to understand that living beings tend to develop in ways that she can’t account for, and so wanted you to have a happy childhood in which to develop.”

“Wait… what memories?” Nir asked in confusion, “As near as I can tell, the only memories that I have are of growing up with them.”

Mito recognize that she might be wading into a minefield, but pushed on asking, “Do you recall the name that I called you when we first met?” Receiving a brisk nod, she could see that the young woman was teetering towards dread of what was about to be revealed. She considered letting Kiyomi or Kushina be the one to explain it, but her fox mark was alerting her to the fact that the two women were otherwise occupied so said, “That is because outside of some superficial differences, you greatly resemble a woman named Rin Nohara. This is because sealed within you are memories which Kushina removed from her of the time when she had been kidnapped and forced to serve as an assassin for a Suna Councilor named Joseki.”

“W…why would they seal them into me?”

“It isn’t entirely accurate to say that they were sealed within you,” Mito stated pleased that although Nir appeared shocked, she hadn’t taken the revelation nearly as badly as she feared. “Think of them as a catalyst which Kiyomi took from Kushina in order for you to come into existence. She then used a variation of the Fog Gate Seal to seal those memories away, along with the personality of the puppet that was created while Rin was under Joseki’s control. Still, I imagine there was some bleed through allowed, which is why you so greatly resemble her, and probably explains why you seem to have some fondness for the Fourth Hokage.”

Nir began to feel on the verge of an existential crisis prompting her to ask, “Wait! What are they planning to do…replace me with these other memories? Make me some kind of amalgamation of me and her?”

“No,” Mito said quickly, although she had to base it more on what she believed of the two women who were the girl’s mothers rather than any actual evidence. So, she got back up to up her knees to comfort the purple-haired woman.

“How…how can you know?” Nir said beginning to find breathing difficult.

However, she forgot about her concerns for a moment, as Mito tilted her head forward, and channeling her chakra into the woman caused the Fog Gate Seal to appear on the back of her neck. Quickly studying the formula, she was impressed by what she saw, which caused her to say, “Because I know your mothers. Besides, going back to what I said about living beings not developing as planned, if you really want messy results then smushing two personalities together is definitely the way to go. She may have used the Fog Gate Seal as the basis, but this thing is so heavily modified it is almost something new. Essentially, it looks like rather than releasing the hidden memories when activated, it is meant to switch them.”

Nir began to calm, but asked, “Why? What am I meant to do?”

“Although, they haven’t filled me in completely,” Mito said retaking her seat beside the woman, “Seeing that seal, I’m guessing Kiyomi intends to use the puppet personality as a sort of watchdog for a man named Obito Uchiha, who roughly twenty years ago back in my world was responsible for setting Kiyomi free as Kushina was about to give birth. This event resulted in Kiyomi nearly destroying the Leaf, and in the deaths of Kushina and Minato at her hands. Although the Fourth did manage to seal Kiyomi into their just born son along with the spirit of Kushina.”

Nir’s eyes grew wide at the revelation, but she began to piece the details together causing her to say, “Then the reason they used this Rin’s memories, was because of the chakra that they would contain was used influence my growth all so that I would begin to resemble her.” Receiving a nod, she continued, “This Obito must have had quite the strong attraction to her if they felt it would give me… or the puppet some advantage.”

“Indeed he did,” Mito said, “You see, it was assumed that she had been killed during the Third Shinobi World War while in actuality she had been kidnapped. But believing her to be dead caused Obito to throw in his lot with either Madara Uchiha, or some being that may be vastly older. He betrayed not only his home, but his teammates and sensei all because he believed that through whatever scheme that they are plotting, he’d be reunited with her. He’s recently fallen into our hands, and the plan is to use him to get insight into their plot and then begin unraveling it. Still, Kiyomi, and I’m guessing Kushina are not entirely comfortable with that plan, and so I believe they want you to act as a handler of sorts for both him and this puppet personality. Seeing the seal Kiyomi used, my guess is that she’ll tweak the puppet to act as that overseer, and while it is acting in the foreground, your consciousness will be the little angel whispering in the puppets ear to keep it in line.”

“So, I’ll basically be a passenger in my own body,” Nir said, not entirely sure how comfortable she was with such an arrangement.

“In essence,” Mito replied with a slight nod, “But, it looks like she made it so that should you need to assert control, you could.”

Nir felt a small sense of comfort at that but wanting to hear the truth from her mothers said, “I’m beginning to understand why they didn’t bother telling me all this while I was growing up.” Receiving an amused and understanding smile in return, she asked, “Do you think that you can undo whatever jutsu it is that is preventing me from moving. I think it is time I hear the details for what they have instore for me directly.” Mito nodded, and tiled her torso forward so she could undo the seal that she had placed at the base of her spine. Nir quickly stood up to so that she could begin to stretch her arms over her head. While she basked in the feeling of being able to move again, she cheekily inquired, “So, outside of this grand mission it seems my mothers have in store for me, are there any other major bombshells that I am about find out.”

Mito smirked as she hummed for a moment, before stating “Oh, nothing too crazy. Although, I suppose you’ll probably be surprised to know that both your mothers and sisters are in a sexual relationship with your brother. So am I as a matter of fact, along with another seventy or so other women.” She struggled not to laugh at the incredulous face that Nir made as her mouth dropped open. Continuing on, she said, “Oh, and if I had to guess, while we’ve been talking your mothers have been putting on quite the show for the Fourth Hokage and his family.”

“What…why?” Nir asked in shock, but rather than wait for an answer, she took off leaping to the top of the Fourth’s head before making her way back to the Hokage mansion.

*******************************************************

Kushina stepped away as she finished applying the chakra suppression seals that Kiyomi had created and left on the kitchen table as she had moved the frozen family from Miso’s room to their dining room. She spent a few moments inspecting the knots that she had created to bind them to the chairs that she had sat them upon. As she inspected her handiwork, she spent a moment to wonder what Kiyomi was up to since she could hear the woman rummaging around somewhere in the Family’s home. Satisfied the knots would hold, she turned her attention to her surroundings which as Minato’s family was occupying the old residential section of the Hokage Mansion, which was quite the step up from the small apartment that they had shared back when she had been his wife.

She directed her attention back to her former husband, and wondered what his having moved into the Hokage Mansion was meant to signify. Particularly since Minato hadn’t really expressed an opinion on it one way or another. There had been some talk about moving after she had gotten pregnant with Naruto, but they had ultimately decided to stay since there still had been room in the apartment. Plus, they had both agreed that it would have been easier for Naruto to make more genuine friends if he wasn’t seen as being part of the village’s hierarchy.

She moved her gaze onto Torikae and wondered if it was her influence which had caused this version of Minato to decide to accept one of the perks that being Hokage had afforded him. One that no longer existed due to Tsunade’s remodeling of the Hokage mansion following the old buildings destruction during Furofuki’s attack on Konoha. A decision she had made to justify her moving into the Hidden Eddy Inn. If it had been because of Torikae’s influence then as it was her memories of the woman which had created her personality within the simulated world, Kushina wondered if it was an accurate reflection of who she was in the outside world. Truthfully, she couldn’t really say, since while Torikae had worked closely with Minato as his assistant, she had rather limited interactions with her. Kushina had been aware that back in the academy Torikae had possessed a crush on Minato even before she had developed similar feelings after he had rescued her from Kumo. But, as Torikae had only watched him from afar, usually while hiding behind some object, truthfully, she hadn’t considered the woman to be much competition for his affections when compared to some of her other rivals. However, she had noticed that after it became clear that Minato had begun to reciprocate, the woman’s gaze had become distinctly colder particularly whenever she was in the picture. Kushina had often been able to tell when that gaze had settled on her, because it would send a cold shiver down her spine. Still, Kushina couldn’t really say if the woman tied up before her was an accurate reflection of the one that may still exist outside the seal.

Her gaze then shifted over to the inferior son that Minato had brough up in the simulated world, and truthfully Kushina wouldn’t need a Yamanaka to recognize what Miso represented at least to her. Namely, a reflection of the outcome from the argument that she had with Naruto regarding informing Minato of what would happen to them on the date of his birth and how having his parents in his life would have changed who he would become. Although Kushina wanted to believe that she wouldn’t have been quite as coddling as Minato and Torikae had appeared to be regarding the raising of their son. Which she felt Nir would attest too. Yet, it wouldn’t have just been his parents that would have influenced the man that Naruto would have become. After all, in this world Miso had been given respect that he hadn’t earned just for being Minato’s son and held influence over others for much the same reason. An influence he had used, to plough his way through a number of the villages’ women. Which admittedly her own son had done, but while Kushina admitted that it might be her own subconscious reflecting how a lesser version of her Naruto would use his influence. She also felt it might have been a reflection of the kind of pervert that her own son might have become if his godfather had been a more present influence in his life. Particularly, if he hadn’t learned the value of the bonds that he formed due to his not having needed to earn them.

Kushina turned away from the family as she began to wondered if she shouldn’t have gone after Nir herself, since the Uzumaki imagined that her daughter would be hiding near her favorite spot in the village, the Hokage Monument. But she suspected that even if she had, it would just have resulted in her daughter fleeing from her again as she would need some time to calm down. She smiled thinking of her daughter, who had truly helped fill the void that she had felt at missing out on raising Naruto. From her taking her first steps, to mastering the jutsu that she and Kiyomi had taught her, it had filled Kushina with such joy. Which although she would also regret the lost opportunity to experience those moments with Naruto, her time with Nir had allowed her to come to terms with the truth that in order for him to become the man that he had, she couldn’t have been a part of it. It was still a somewhat bitter pill to swallow but raising Nir had made it easier to do so.

Her focus shifted again as she noticed Kiyomi entering the dining room while wearing a self-satisfied smile. She was about to ask what it was related to but stopped as the Bijuu noticing the bound family said, “Nicely done.”

“Thanks,” Kushina replied with a hint of sarcasm before asking, “Now, can you explain why we are doing this? Can’t we just come clean with Nir, and then reset the world so that today never happened.”

Kiyomi nodded at least regarding what they could do to fix their current predicament, but continuing to approach her responded, “Now where is the fun in that. Once Mito gets Nir to calm down, I feel we should probably just move on to phase two.”

“But, I thought…”

Kushina found her words cut off as Kiyomi pulled her into a kiss, which after being together for eighteen years she happily returned. When her fellow redhead pulled her lips away, she said, “I’ll explain everything when Nir and Mito return.” While still holding her close, Kiyomi turned her gaze towards the frozen family and raised one hand towards them before snapping. From the action, a barely perceptible wave that almost appeared to be the sound of the snap itself traveled until it had traveled the distance of the room before fading out. Which as it had passed over Minato and his family caused them to begin moving again.

******************************************************

Minato began to shift as if he was trying to rise up as the momentum from his previous actions returned, only for him to be stopped by the heavy ropes that now bound him. He then looked about the room in shock at his surroundings having suddenly changed before focusing on the two women before him. Yet before he could ask, what had just happened, his current wife said, “Untie us you demon bitches.”

“Torikae, please calm down,” Minato said his easy and commanding tone causing his wife to do as he said. Focusing primarily on Kushina, he said, “I’m sure this is all just one big misunderstanding. Why not untie us, so we can discuss this in a civilized manner.”

His view of Kushina was obstructed by Kiyomi as she stepped in front of him to say, “Oh, there isn’t much use in doing that. Instead…”

Kiyomi frowned as he shifted his head to look past her, to again try to reach the woman he had once loved, “Kushina, listen to reason. I don’t know who this woman is, or how she seemingly has access to the Kyuubi’s chakra, but it isn’t too late to fix things.”

“Oh but it is,” Kiyomi said grabbing his face and forcing him to meet her green eyes, which then shifted to red as her pupils grew to resemble the slits of her old bestial form.

“The nine-tailed fox,” he said shocked. “How did you break loose?”

“Break,” Kiyomi said sounding amused, as she let go of his face, “I was set free.”

“What!” the Hokage said stunned. Before then shifting his focus back to Kushina as he asked, “Is what she said true. How could you betray us?”

“Betray you,” Kushina said her anger spiking. Which resulted in her shouting at him, “You’re the one who betrayed me.”

“Oh go to hell you whore,” Torikae responded while Minato was surprised at the anger his former wife seemed to harbor for him, “First you take him from me, and now you want to claim that his choosing me is somehow a betrayal.”

“Oh, shut up,” Kushina said annoyed, “I completely forgot about your existence.”

“Indeed,” Kiyomi said amused as she hugged the Uzumaki from behind. Pulling her back against her, she rested her chin on Kushina’s shoulder as she asked, “Well are you going to respond to her charge.”

Minato frowned as Kushina seemed to relax in the other woman’s embrace, before answering, “I have no idea as to what she is talking about. She divorced me.”

“Then let me remind you,” Kiyomi said causing all three of the Namikaze to watch on in shock as Kushina let out a moan when the Bijuu reached up to grab her breast which she began to fondle. “Several years ago, you went on a mission to Roran, and there you encountered a young man named Naruto. This man helped you put down the Prime Minister’s plan of using the leyline it was centered on to build a puppet army to take over the world.”

For a moment Minato looked confused, since although he remembered the overall mission, he and the others who had participated could never recall the details. The official reason was that some sort of chakra overload had happened during the closing of the Dragon’s Vein which had caused the entire country to lose their memories of the previous twenty-four hours. However, suddenly the fog that always seemed to arise whenever he thought of the mission was gone as he began to remember the blue-eyed man who sported several whisker marks on each cheek, along with the knowledge that he was his son from the future. Not only that, but that he would be a host of the nine-tailed fox which had led him to believe that something drastic would happen to Kushina should she become pregnant. Now aware that he was the one who had caused everyone to lose their memories, since he had been concerned that with the knowledge he possessed of the future it would make him start to second guess his actions, or he would be tempted to try altering the future to save Kushina. A difficult to make considering how it appeared Naruto had not only made allies with kunoichi outside Konoha but had seemingly even managed to tame the Kyuubi to a certain degree.

This prompted him to look towards Miso, which in turn caused him to feel a sense of disappointment at what his son had seemingly achieved in comparison. Seeing his son was watching the Kyuubi’s fondling of Kushina with a goofy smile despite their current situation just further drove home the point of how disappointed he was in how his son had turned out.

Minato turned away to see that Kushina, who was dressed in the green and white dress that she had favored while performing chores around the house, moaned louder when the Kyuubi moved its other hand to grope his former wife’s crotch. An act which caused Kushina to slide her legs further apart, as the Bijuu began rubbing her pussy through the fabric of her dress. Minato forced himself to look away as he wondered how the Kyuubi would also know of that mission since Kushina had not been a part of it. Not to mention, one of the reasons that he had been so adamant about not changing the future and thus had erased the memories of the mission’s participants, had been because it had appeared as if Naruto had tamed the Kyuubi, which would have put him on an even keel as the jinchuriki of Kumogakure. He had created a backdoor for himself to recall them, which would have been triggered when Kushina became pregnant since he figured for Naruto to become a jinchuriki something would have needed to happen to his mother when she had gone into labor. The memory recall would only have been temporary, and had been created so he could assess the current political and threat situation to determine if there were any plots to steal the Kyuubi and counter them. If not, then once enough time passed the memories would once more be sealed to allow events to unfold as they would. As for all he knew, the child birthing process further complicated by needing to keep the Kyuubi from breaking the seal, would end up killing Kushina making Naruto just the most logically successor to the burden of containing the fox. A task that Minato already knew he would excel at, and so decided it was best not to meddle. A difficult choice, but one he made due to not only how much Konoha would stand to gain, but he knew there was no guarantee that he would survive the transfer of the Kyuubi either.

But, he began to consider the possibility that perhaps Naruto didn’t have as much control of the Kyuubi as he had believed. Perhaps the fox had managed to pull the wool over Naruto’s eyes, in an attempt to get him to lower his guard around it. He began to consider the possibility that the reason it had seemingly overpowered Naruto and took him over for a brief period of time during the Roran mission was so it could somehow send a message to its past self. Possibly forearmed with more direct knowledge of future events, the Kyuubi still housed within Kushina would then use it to convince her that he had betrayed her due to his lack of action that he had taken in helping her avoid her potentially fated death. Deciding to test his theory, he turned back to the two women but froze due to the sight of Kushina being molested by, if it was to believed, the creature she had once housed.

The fox upon seeing it had his attention again, pulled its hand that had been rubbing his ex-wife’s pussy away revealing the dark spot her excitement had created. It held its hand up to allow him to enjoy the sight of the wetness which coated them, before bringing them up to Kushina’s mouth, who to his shock began eagerly sucking on them.

“Whore,” Torikae spat, but was ignored by the two women.

Miso, on the other hand wasn’t as he asked, “Fuck, if you two were such sluts, why’d you reject me so hard? I’d have been able to…”

“Barely reach the depths that our pussies are used to accommodating,” Kiyomi said while she moved the hand that had been fondling Kushina down to the side of the Uzumaki’s leg. She then began slowly pulling up and bunching her dress which much like a rising curtain revealed more and more of her legs before finally revealing her dripping wet snatch to their captive audience.

Minato found his cock wanted to stand at attention, so shook himself free of the stupor his lusts for his former wife were creating to ask, “The mission to Roran… is that why you decided to divorce me Kushina? Did you decide to avoid what it suggested of our possible future by distancing yourself from me?”

Kushina found the drunken lust that she had slipped into burnt away immediately due to the anger his question had created. Pulling away from Kiyomi’s fingers she settled a glare on her former husband, that would have reduced him to ash if it was a jutsu as she said, “How dare you suggest that I would avoid giving birth to our son!”

“Then why change how events…”

“They didn’t change you asshole,” Kushina snapped angrily. But, before she could elaborate she let out a surprised moan, since Kiyomi having bunched her dress up to keep it raised, reached up between her legs from behind and buried a finger inside her.

Kushina tried to maintain her focus and anger but found it difficult due to Kiyomi’s ministrations, so allowed the Bijuu to take over explaining the situation to the confused Hokage, “I can see you’re confused Lord Hokage.” Minato frowned at the mocking tone contained in the fox’s voice, but remained silent as the Bijuu continued, “That’s is because your thinking is linear. All in all, it would be a bit complicated to explain, but for simplicity’s sake think of us as being visitors from a parallel world who traveled back in time. Naturally the changes that we have made caused this world to go along a different trajectory.”

“Then what did you do with my Kushina,” Minato said, his tone indicating that he still carried feelings for her.

A fact made easier for him to believe as the Kushina before him scoffed at his describing her as his, while his current wife’s gaze was focused on him in a mixture of jealousy and disappointment. Kiyomi hearing Kushina’s scoff, smirked towards the Hokage as she added another finger to her snatch before explaining, “Oh, I’m sorry to say that she is long gone. Let’s just say that we didn’t transfer into this world bodily, instead we took over the consciousnesses of the original inhabitants.” Minato looked down in sadness and disappointment, along with some guilt as he could feel Torikae’s questioning gaze upon him. He looked up as the Bijuu mockingly said, “Speaking of Roran, it wasn’t me who took control of Naruto… it was her.” Kushina moaned as Kiyomi punctuated her statement by kissing her neck while she increased the speed with which she was rubbing her insides. Focusing on the Hokage’s shocked countenance, she said gleefully, “That’s right, it was your wife whose spirit, you had sealed into Naruto in order to help him steal my power, who took control of him in order to let you know the fate that awaited the both of you. She trusted you to do everything in your power to save your family. But instead you coveted the weapon that you believed your son would become for Konoha, and decided to let events unfold knowing your wife would likely perish.”

“Kushina,” Minato said sadly, “You have to understand…”

“I do,” Kushina said breathlessly, “The vow you took as Hokage mmm..meant mmmore to you then the one you gave me when I became your wife. In mmm…many ways I was a failure as a jinchuriki, little m…mmmore than a cage to contain Kiyomi’s power, and in Naruto, you saw a perfect weapon…oh yes… to oppose Konoha’s enemies. Who due to his age, fuck…mmmeant to you that the village would control the Bijuu’s powers at least into his late teens. So, you told yourself it was just best to let events unfold as you imagined this future… give me more…was meant to.”

Kiyomi having busied her mouth by nibbling on Kushina’s ear as she responded to her former husband, added a third finger upon her fellow red-head’s request. Kushina’s eyes began to glaze over, so she continued in the Uzumaki’s place, “A future in which your former student Obito, who is still alive and well, and working to fulfill a plot that was put into motion by Madara Uchiha, although I have some doubts about his being the true mastermind, heard of Kushina’s pregnancy so attacked the village just after she gave birth. I’m sure you can imagine who it was that he was after.”

“W…why?” Minato asked as the newest revelation shook him out of the limpness that had settled upon him from finding out the Kushina before him had experienced the death fate his inaction had consigned her to, and so the anger that smoldered in her violet eyes when they landed on him, made it hard for him to justify the decision and fate that he had apparently settled on.

“Who can say to be honest,” Kiyomi stated, knowing that it was somewhat pointless to be explaining things to the Namikaze, but figured at the very least talking about it in the open might serve to provide some clarity, “It’s a plot that even roughly twenty years ago had been in motion for decades. With whoever was pulled into it all being promised peace, although the means through which it was achieved often varied. For some, they were promised that by collecting us Bijuu, it would create a jutsu so powerful and destructive that Fury would look like a firework, and so no one would dare oppose the peace that its usage would create and then enforce. While Obito was apparently promised a peace created through everyone becoming equal in a world without winners and losers. Although how such a thing would be achieved is beyond me. But regardless of how it would be, I suspect he thought it would allow him to live out a fantasy in which he ended up with Rin.”

Minato’s eyes grew wide in understanding, although Kiyomi’s suspected it was more a result of the seal using Kiyomi’s memories as the basis of the world, and so as she what their purpose in it was passed it on to him as he stated, “Is that why Nir so greatly resembles her? You intend to use her against Obito.”

“In a manner of speaking,” Kiyomi responded before deciding the current topic had run its course, “But, truthfully there isn’t really much point in explaining it to you.” She then favored Minato with a smile as she added, “Despite how things may appear. In truth, I’m glad you elected to act in favor of Konoha, and perhaps to a lesser extent your son. You were not wrong in assuming that he had earned my support, and in truth it was him who sent me free.”

“But… that would mean…”

“No, he isn’t dead,” Kiyomi quickly stated, “My Bijuu form is still sealed within him, rather it was my spirt which was sealed into the form that I currently possess. This decision for a time, created a situation where he couldn’t call on the Bijuu’s chakra still sealed within, which I was able to solve by merging Kushina’s spirit into my original form.”

“If you had already agreed to serve him,” Minato asked confused, “Why would you then agree to have your spirit sealed into a human? Surely you recognize that even if you would in time regain your power, the tradeoff was that you are far more susceptible to a permanent death if that body is destroyed.”

“That is indeed the case,” Kiyomi said with a grave nod, before allowing a wide smile to appear as she added, “But it makes sex with him so much more enjoyable.”

“What?!” Minato said as his jaw dropped.

Kiyomi enjoying the flabbergasted look on his face explained, “The man you met all those years ago didn’t beat me into submission to gain my power, allegiance, or support. Well, I suppose that isn’t entire accurate as he certainly pounded me into submitting to him. Better still, he was also sleeping with the three kunoichi you met back in Roran, and would end up sleeping with Sara when he returned back to the future.”

It was Miso’s turn to have an epiphany as although he had no idea of who this Naruto everyone was talking about was, he quickly realized that if Kiyomi was claiming that Kushina had rejected him because they were sharing someone it could only mean one thing. “Wait a second,” he stated bordering between revulsion and excitement, “You said she rejected me because I couldn’t measure up to whoever you are both currently fucking, then that wouldn’t that mean that she is fucking this Naruto clown too.”

Minato’s gaze quickly focused on his former wife who along with Kiyomi were giving Miso a fiery glare due to his insulting Naruto. Sensing his gaze on her, Kushina’s anger faded, as for a moment it looked like she far more was bothered and embarrassed by his learning about the taboo that she was possibly engaging it, rather than her currently being fingered-fucked by the Bijuu that she had once contained while in front of him and his captive family. But, she pulled away from Kiyomi to stand in front of Minato with her dress still raised so that her pussy was on display as she said, “It’s true. I’ve also become his lover, and much like Kiyomi alluded to the sex and more importantly his love is worth dying for.”

While Minato wilted at the knowledge he had been replaced by his son, the confidence Kushina was displaying began to crack as Torikae chimed in, “You filthy whore. What kind of slut can’t keep her hands off of her own child. His love, you would have had that from the beginning… you didn’t need to sleep with him.”

Kiyomi wasn’t too surprised as Kushina began to look guilty, since she imagined that as the Uzumaki admitted to not knowing the woman all that well so hadn’t been able to draw on much, the seal had augmented the woman’s personality and perceived dislike of her former host by using her own doubts and fears. Thus making the woman’s current attacks all the more effective, but having been prepared for such an eventuality said, “Now, now, those in glass houses and all that.”

Torikae quickly sent a confused look towards her son, but quickly focused back on Kiyomi in order to refute what she was alluding to as she stated with clear disgust, “I would never fuck my own son.”

Which prompted said son to state both hurt and disappointment, “You didn’t have to sound so put off by the idea. Half the village can’t keep their hands off of me.”

“Oh shut up,” Torikae replied quickly, “Most of them are just whores who are sleeping with you because you have both money and standing. While that slut Hanami, is just doing it because she feels if you become Hokage, it will allow her to manipulate you into favoring her clan.”

Miso began to glare at his mother, but before he could refute her claims, Kiyomi opted to take the woman down a peg or two, as she stated, “I wasn’t referring to the disappointment that you call a son.” She then began to undoing the sash of her robe, which caused the large orange dildo it had been holding in place to spring out. She let her robe, slip from her shoulders as she gripped the dildo that was attached to the harness that she was wearing, and sliding her hands over it, she stated, “I found this bad boy tucked away in someone’s underwear drawer.”

Torikae’s cheeks began to color, but upturning her head, replied, “So what! Name a woman who doesn’t have a toy or two.”

Kiyomi moved towards her fellow redhead who was staring at the orange cock hungrily while she said, “Oh it isn’t the toy itself which makes your harsh comments towards Kushina seem hypocritical.” She stopped though, to shrug as she conceded, “Although, to be fair, you are speaking from a place of ignorance. For you see, this beast is an artifact from our world, one I introduced to this one for some amusement. I was pleased that it became quite popular within the village particularly as it is modeled after our shared lover,” She smirked devilishly as Torikae’s eyes grew wide, as a spark of jealousy soon entered them.

Kushina frowned as even the sight of a rubber remake of her son’s cock made her pussy quiver due to how long it had been since she had it inside her. Pouting she said, “Why wouldn’t you buy one for us. All we ever ended up using was that yellow one, it’s barely half as big or wide.”

Kiyomi smirked as she said, “Well, they say absence makes the heart grow fonder. But, for shame Kushina, to think that even after all this time you haven’t realized our previous relationship aid was modelled after your ex-husband. I mean I thought the color was a dead giveaway, but I suppose I should have introduced it as the name it is sold under when marketed to this village’s women, the yellow flash.” Kushina was obviously surprised by the revelation, but smirked as it highlighted that her son had completely reshaped her pussy to accommodate him.

Moving towards Kiyomi with an exaggerated sway of her hips, the Uzumaki said, “Well I hope your bringing this out now means that you’re going to stop holding out on me.”

Sounding playfully hurt, Kiyomi said, “Oh, and here I thought you were quite fond of my Cunnilingus.” Before then giving a dismissive shrug after which, she gripped the rubber cock at the base like it was a delicious treat for her to enjoy, she added, “Although, I suppose I can understand why you’d feel my tongue and fingers are a poor substitute for this. So, why don’t get down on your knees and get it ready for me?”

Kushina was about to argue that she was already more than ready but seeing a glimmer in the Bijuu’s eye decided to indulge her. Coming to a stop before her, the Uzumaki pulled the Bijuu into a kiss that Kiyomi eagerly returned. When she pulled back, Kushina said, “I’ve come to love your Cunnilingus quite a bit. Almost as much as I’ve come to love you. I’m so happy that we did this. It’s only missing two things to be perfect.”

Kiyomi was surprised, and deeply touched by Kushina’s words as she began to tear up. But, not wanting to become emotional in front of their captives instead completed the thought, “Naruto, and the rest of our family.” Receiving a nod from the Uzumaki, she said, “Don’t worry, we’ll be back with them soon. But for now, I’ve got the next best thing.”

Kushina smiled as she began kissing down the Bijuu’s body, pausing for a moment to suck on one of her nipples. Kiyomi moaned in response, and watched with lust filled eyes as the Uzumaki let the hardened nub slip free of her lips to run her tongue along her chest. Stopping at the valley between her tits, she then licked down her stomach as she dropped to her knees, Kiyomi smirked towards the two men of the Namikaze family who watched her actions with envious eyes.

Kushina then ran her tongue along the rubber phallus but paused as she looked up at her in surprise and confusion. Kiyomi although aware of what the woman was thinking, kept silent as she watched her with an air of amusement. Kushina frowned at not receiving an answer to her unasked question, but deciding to get the answer herself gave the toy another lick. To her delight, rather than a cold lifeless toy it almost made her believe the cock she was tasting did in fact belong to her son. Finding the taste addictive especially as from her perspective it had been over eighteen years since she had last sucked on it motivated her to quickly swallow it, and moaned as her senses told her that for all intents and purposes she was sucking on her son’s dick.

Kiyomi smiled as Kushina eagerly began sucking on the rubber phallus, which due to the thin layer of her chakra which coated it was stimulating the Uzumaki’s taste buds to reproduce the sensations that she’d feel based on the previous times she had serviced her son in such a manner. Kushina’s violet eyes met hers and she could tell she was curious about what she was experiencing, but rather than answering her red eyes flashed as she used a variation of the same jutsu Naruto had on Mabui. For a moment, the bobbing of Kushina’s head slowed as she suddenly felt dizzy, which caused her to close her eyes.

***************************

When she opened them again, she found that Kiyomi had been replaced by her lover and son. Although, some part of her knew it was an illusion, seeing him made the cock in her mouth taste all the better so rather than fight the genjutsu she had been placed under decided to roll with it as she resumed sucking her son’s cock. After taking him as deep as she could, which was only a little over halfway, she pulled away as she began to gag and began stroking his length to work her saliva all along his length as she said, “Oh, Honey how I’ve missed you. It’s been too long since I’ve felt you inside me.”

Before her son could respond, Torikae reminded her that she was sucking his cock in front of his father as she shouted, “What is this whore talking about? She’s making it sound like she hasn’t seen you in years.”

Her son broke his gaze from hers, in order to look towards the Namikaze family. While he stared at them, Kushina thought his eyes gave off a red flash like the bulb of a camera. With her focus remaining on her son, she missed as the Namikazes all seemed to react to the jutsu that had been cast, as they all experienced a moment of lightheadedness, which when it cleared caused them to see a man where Kiyomi had once stood which only one of them recognized.

“N…Naruto!” Minato called out in shock, especially at how he was standing naked in front of his mother who was still stroking him, “W…what are you doing here?”

“That’s her son?” Torikae asked in wonderment, as she felt a spike of arousal as her gaze traveled down his body to the pillar of flesh his mother was currently stroking.

“That’s right,” Naruto replied towards the woman ignoring his father for a moment, while he placed a hand on the back of his mother’s head to urge her to take him into her mouth again. Something she did gladly as she wrapped her lips around his cock once more, while her hand glided over the portion of him which she couldn’t comfortably swallow. Naruto groaned in satisfaction before adding towards his father’s current wife, “I believe that I just heard you call my mom a whore. Why don’t you walk a mile in her shoes, and we’ll see if you still can be so disparaging about her character afterwards.”

Naruto held a hand on towards her before a large foxlike claw erupted forth to strike the woman in the chest.

“Torikae!”

“Mom!”

A moment later the claw seemed to disappear into the woman as the portion connecting it to Naruto faded, prompting her to say somewhat surprised, to her concerned family, “I…I’m fine.” She focused her glare on the young man, as she asked, “What did you do to me?”

“You’ll see in a moment,” Naruto responded with a knowing smirk.

Now addressing his father, he said, “As to what I’m doing here, I’m here to take what’s mine back. But, first, why don’t we expose the rest of that beautiful body, mom.”

Kushina continued to bob on Naruto’s cock as she gripped the bunched-up portion of her dress in order to pull it up over her head. As her dress rose up to her chest, Naruto took over the task of removing it so she could raise her arms up, as she only released his cock long enough so that the neck of her dress could clear her head. Naruto then tossed it away in an uncaring manner, before reaching down to fondle one of his mother’s freed tits.

This action caused Torikae to let out a moan, which shocked her as much as the fact that her mouth had been watering ever since she had been hit with the chakra claw due to her experiencing an unfamiliar taste. However, feeling a phantom like grip on her breast at the same time as Kushina’s was being massaged, suddenly brought into focus what the salty and sweet taste she was enjoying was.

Her husband looked at her with concern as he asked worriedly, “Are you okay Torikae?”

“Y…yes,” she responded without elaborating since she didn’t want to admit that if her theory was correct, she was currently experiencing everything his former wife was.

Torikae imagined the slight upturning of Naruto’s lips at her response meant that he was more than aware of what she was experiencing. Which is why she felt a deep sense of trepidation as he stepped back from his mother causing his dick to slip from her lips as he said, “I think it is time for me to return home, don’t you mother?”

However, rather than disappearing or leaving, he then moved to one of the remaining dining room chairs to take a seat. Kushina enthusiastically rose up to her feet to perch herself over her son’s lap as she gripped his throbbing cock and lined it up with her pussy.

Just as she was about to lower herself onto her son’s cock, Minato shouted, “Kushina stop! Get ahold of yourself. He’s your son. Whatever your issue with me are…”

His words died on his tongue though as Kushina glared at him from over her shoulder, before saying “I’m more then aware of who he is. And while that alone would be enough, he’s also a man. One who gives me everything I need.”

She moaned as she began to lower herself on his cock, which was echoed by Torikae to a lesser extent as she tried to suppress her reaction to the sensation of her pussy being spread by Kushina’s son cock. A sensation she had experienced quite a few times due to the toy that she had bought to keep her company during Minato’s increasingly late nights at his office despite how calm the village was. “Gods,” she thought as she watched Kushina wrap her arms around her son’s neck as she pressed herself up against him, a feeling that was matched inside her as she began raising and lowering her hips, “He’s so warm.”

Minato watched with horror as his ex-wife bounced her hips on her son’s lap, repeatedly impaling herself on his large cock over and over as she began moaning wildly. Unaware that right beside him his current wife was squirming in her chair because she was experiencing much the same.

Then to his surprise, Naruto with an arrogant tone that he couldn’t truly associate with the youth based on when they had met said, “Don’t blame mom. This is because of the events that your inaction allowed to be set in motion. You must understand how hard it was for her.”

Kushina cried out as Naruto punctuated the word hard by pulling her hips down roughly, fully burying himself within her. “Yes, so fucking hard,” Kushina moaned as she began grinding her hips on his lap due to his holding her in place.

Naruto smiled at her, and they began kissing deeply while Torikae who had yelped as she felt Naruto’s cock impact her womb watched on growing increasingly envious of the two Uzumaki. Feeling their tongues dance, she tried to keep from reacting as she felt the impression of Naruto’s hands on her hips urging her to turn, which Kushina soon responded to. “Oh gods,” she whispered as she felt the cock inside her twist while Kushina spun around on his lap until she was facing them. At which point, he released his hold, and Kushina raised up again before slamming back down.

The blond man gave his father a wicked smile as he said, “I mean put yourself in mom’s position for a moment, who after you decided to seal her spirit inside me to aid me in stealing my Bijuu’s power. Awakens only to find out that it has been given to me willingly and has already been set free. Then, out of the mercy of the Bijuu’s heart, she ends up sealed inside of the Bijuu itself to give her more than the handful of moments that your selfish decision would have afforded her.”

“Selfish,” Minato said angrily, “I had to for the benefit of the village. Ensuring you ended up with the Bijuu would at least guarantee that it would remain contained for almost another two decades.”

Pulling Kushina back against him, she rested her back against his chest as she began swirling her hips. He then caused both Kushina and Torikae to gasp as he began rubbing his mother’s clit, while replying, “I’m not complaining father. In fact, I wouldn’t have become the man that I am now if not for you. It is because of the loneliness that I experienced at being the host of the nine-tailed fox which allowed me to understand the true value of the bonds we make. A lesson that you perhaps could have stood to learn as you tossed away the one with the woman that you promised to have and to hold above all others, in order to fulfill your duty as a Kage. A sacrifice for which I thank you.”

“Then why are you doing this to us,” Minato asked his anger swiftly being replaced by grief as the truth of Naruto’s words struck home.

“Why for her of course,” Naruto said indicating the woman rolling her hips on his lap. Bringing the hand that he had been using to rub her pussy up to her lips, which Kushina began to suck on tasting herself on them, prompting Naruto to grin widely. Meeting the gaze of his father, the blond man said, “You decided her path for her, rather than being a true partner and trusting her. Because of this, there is still a part of her which harbors doubts not only about her current relationship with me, but regarding the life that your decision denied her.”

“Then what should I have done?” Minato asked torn between anger and sadness, “What answer would have satisfied everyone.”

Naruto shook his head in a chiding manner as he grabbed his mother under her thighs and lifted her up until his cock slipped out. “No honey,” Kushina immediately said sounding desperate, “I’m so close.”

“M…me too,” another voice said softly enough to be ignored by her husband and son who stared transfixed while Kushina’s pussy was placed on display for them.

Ignoring his mother to focus on his father, Naruto answered, “There isn’t one. But, if it was me, I would have trusted in her enough to give her a say in deciding her own path for the future.” Turning his attention to his mother, he stated, “Sort of like this. So mother, if you had a chance to go back and do it all over again. Would you have tried to take control of me back in Roran to alert dad of the fate that laid in store for you?”

“Yes,” Kushina cried out causing Minato to look at her hopefully. At least until she added, “Because that ultimately is what leads to my becoming yours. Please Honey, fuck me! You’re twice the man that your father was.”

Naruto gave a devilish grin as she began to lower Kushina back down, while stating, “What a perfect answer.”

However, while complying with her wishes, rather than aiming to slip back inside her pussy, he began to press himself against her anal passage. Seeing this, Torikae cried out, “No, stop you’ll tear me in half.”

The grin Naruto was wearing widened as he stared at her while saying, “Sorry, but I’m going to have to celebrate my mom’s perfect answer by enjoying the hole that she has only given me.”

Both women cried out as Naruto plunged Kushina down, impaling her ass fully on his cock. Holding Kushina’s legs up so that her knees were up by her shoulders, he repeatedly lifted her up bodily before slamming her down. “Yes, fuck my ass Honey,” Kushina moaned contently as she was bounced on his lap, “I’ve missed you so much. I belong only to you now.”

“I know,” Naruto said confidently, as he watched his mother reach between her legs to begin rubbing herself.

“Stop it,” Minato shouted upon realizing that Torikae must be experiencing something similar to his former wife as she was no longer trying to hold back her moans.

Although he wasn’t surprised by Kushina’s response of, “No, don’t stop. Please… give me more.”

He was flabbergasted as Torikae shouted, “Yes, fuck your mother harder…I’m going to… I’m going to CUM!!!!!!”

“Fuck, I’m cumming,” Kushina echoed as she tensed up, and began squirting with enough force to coat the Namikaze in her release.

Both women went slack upon their respective chairs, with the two Namikaze staring at the woman who bolted their Family together. However, although the silence that filled the room in the aftermath of the lovemaking that had taken place was noticeably more awkward for one group of participants, it was cut into by a sudden surprise shout of, “Moms, what the hell are you doing?”

*****************************

Kushina looked over and felt mortified at the sight of Nir standing in the doorway gawking at her. She tried to stand but felt lightheaded for a moment causing her to sink back down on the rubber phallus that she was impaled upon prompting a soft moan to escape from her. She frowned upon realizing it was now Kiyomi’s lap that she was sitting upon when it was the Bijuu’s voice that responded, “Oh nothing dear. Simply helping your other mother address some of her issues.”

Kiyomi then stood the two of them up and withdrew the toy from Kushina’s posterior. Turning towards her daughter, she erupted into a quick burst of flames which upon fading left her fully clothed once more. She began to approach her daughter, but noticed Kushina was still awkwardly searching about behind her for the discarded dress while trying to hide her private bits behind her hands. Although rather amused, she noticed Nir was having a hard time looking in their direction so said, “Kushina, simply picture yourself wearing it. Like back when you were locked within the seal.”

Kushina paused in her frantic search, to stand still as she closed her eyes, and a moment later her body was coated in chakra which then shifted into the dress she had just been wearing. Kiyomi was pleased to see her daughter outside of the blush that she was sporting from catching her parents in such a compromised position, had noticeably calmed down. Nodding appreciatively toward Mito, who returned it she was about to ask her daughter if she had any questions, but was brushed aside as Kushina wrapped her in a hug saying, “Nir, we’re so sorry for keeping the truth from you. We just wanted you to grow up without worries for as long as possible.”

Sounding indignant, Minato said, “That’s what I was trying to do for you Kushina.”

Which prompted Kiyomi to approach as she countered with an air of mocking disbelief, “Really! Just when exactly did you intend to let her know? After the birth… if everything turned out okay. When it would be too late for your wife to refuse any longer, as even if something happened to her years later with Naruto around, you could still bring about the future that you caught a glimpse of.”

“Thank you Kiyomi,” Kushina said appreciatively realizing what the Bijuu had put her in the genjutsu for, “It doesn’t matter any longer.”

Minato had been unable to meet her gaze as she stood over him, so stepping back said, “I suppose you’re right.” She then launched a massive chakra claw from her hand which impaled each of the Namikaze on one of its nails as it pinned the three of them against the wall. She turned away from the corpses and froze upon seeing the shocked countenances of her Family.

“Mother, how could you?” Nir asked the question that appeared to be on all the women’s minds.

However, aware that she had acted in an unthoughtful manner towards one more than the others, she approached Kushina to say, “Forgive me, I…shouldn’t have done that in front of you.”

Kushina smiled softly before giving her a short appreciative nod before saying, “So this is how you planned to move into the next phase? I understand now why you always skirted around it. But don’t you think that it is a bit ahead of schedule?”

Turning towards Nir, she said, “Perhaps. But it seems that we have made this world a bit too peaceful, allowing her to get up to all sorts of mischief. Also, it is probably best to start now that she’s been made aware of the truth, and still possesses that youthful call for action” Addressing her daughter, she explained, “Nir, we’ll fill you in on any lingering questions later. But, using the knowledge I’ve given you of the outside world, how best should we deal with the situation I’ve created?”

“Situation,” Nir said sounding incredulously, “You murdered the Hokage and his family.”

Kiyomi nodded, before stating, “I understand it may still be hard for you to accept, but the only thing that matters in this world to us is you.”

“Hey,” Mito said sounding hurt, although the amused smile she wore made it clear that no insult had truly been given.

Still Kiyomi rolled her eyes in response while adding, “As well as our uninvited guest, who barged in and disrupted everyone’s lives.”

Nir smiled as she was pleased to see that it appeared there were others that her mothers could be free around, since she was so used to the village being so distant from all of them. Finding herself all the more curious about the world that they hailed from, she looked forward to the day she would get to experience it herself so put her mind towards coming up with a solution to the problem her mother had created. After a moment of pondering, she stated, “We should escape to Iwagakure. By the time we reached the Fire border, I’m sure word would have already reached there. We’d probably be welcomed as heroes, especially if we can bring some trophy to further substantiate our claim.”

Kiyomi nodded her head pleased with her daughter’s assessment, so moved back towards the hall that she had originally appeared from. When she returned, she held up both of her hands to show off what she now carried, “I think the Forbidden Scroll of Seals and one of the Fourth’s Kunai should be more than sufficient.”

Her daughters eyes widened at the treasures her mother was holding, and was rather surprised when she casual tossed her the scroll. “Now if there is nothing else, I suggest we take our leave,” Kiyomi stated as she snapped her fingers again. The wave that emanated forth this time was much larger as it quickly spread to encompass the world.

Kushina looked in the direction of Miso’s bedroom as she heard the Anbu that had been frozen in time began to move again. Turning towards Kiyomi she asked, “You’re not going to let us get a head start?”

Kiyomi took a deep breath before releasing a fireball which shot towards one of the dining room’s walls and blew a massive hole through it along with several other rooms as it created an opening to escape from. Giving Kushina an amused smile she said, “Now where would the challenge in that be? We did also create this world to test Nir after all.” Turning towards Mito, she said, “I trust you can see yourself out.”

“I think I’ll stick around for a bit,” Mito said as she followed after Kiyomi, “There’s a few things that have transpired in the outside world that you should be aware of.”

*****************************

It has been roughly thirteen years since Nir had last looked down on the Leaf Village from atop her favorite perch. Although, this time around, she couldn’t quite say that she was enjoying the view since it was currently burning as Iwa-nin ransacked the place. She could hear the cries and screams as the village’s conquerors took what they wanted, be it possessions or people. It had been a long road to reach this point, as after the murder of the Fourth Hokage, they had needed to dodge the Anbu to make it to the Land of Earth, where they had been welcomed as heroes. Of course, Konoha had demanded that they be turned over, but their petitions had fallen on deaf ears, which had resulted in Danzou being elected as the Fifth Hokage. He had then called on Suna to honor their alliance, and joined Konoha in attacking Iwa. Although reluctant, they had agreed, which had resulted in Kumo entering the war as well as they had supported Iwa. Kirigakure had remained out of it for a time, but eventually entered on Konoha’s side due to Kumo using their Iron Ships to sink boats from the Land of Water which they believed were helping to supply Konoha’s war effort.

Nir being related to one of the parties responsible for kicking off the war, had been enlisted into Iwa’s forces along with her mothers, and Mito. Naturally, for the most part they hadn’t acted as frontline soldiers, since if they ended up being killed then it would give those losing the war a reason to sue for peace and save face. But eventually they had become one of the premier units in Iwa’s army and were usually called upon to attack opponents and fortifications that were too tough to crack. A change that had come about due to her mothers being the ones who had fought and killed Jiraiya as he had tried to end the war quickly by making a surprise attack on Iwagakure to kill the murderers of his beloved student.

Nir had learned two things after the epic battle, the first was that most of the people that she had met or interacted with in Konoha had either never existed or had already died in the world her parents hailed from. Something that had been brought to light by a defeated Jiraiya’s questioning of Kushina regarding how she could murder her former husband and family in cold blood. A question her mother Kiyomi had answered by saying, “Like this,” before then impaling him in a similar fashion as she had his student.

The second had been that her training had been woefully inadequate if shinobi from her mothers’ world were all capable of fighting at such a level. When she had questioned them about this, they had admitted that her training was relatively lacking considering how most elite shinobi were trained. But that it was intentionally so, as they were afraid to provide her with some of the higher-level training, such as incorporating her elemental nature into her chakra, as they were unsure what it would be once her consciousness was transplanted into a physical body. As her mother Kiyomi had explained it, as she was a being born from the combination of three people’s chakra, she never had a natural element to call her own, and thus she would likely end up inheriting it from whichever body they implanted her in. Much as Kiyomi had inherited her Hellfire element due to that being the Elemental Nature of the woman whose body she had taken over.

Nir had tried to argue that she could just pick one and they could find a body with that element. But her mother Kushina had pointed out that she might be setting herself up for future failure as everyone mastered elemental natures in their own way. With some shinobi never truly being able to find the correct path towards mastery, since it was a technique where even if a person received pointers from someone possessing the same element. Those pointers might very well lead someone down an incorrect path, since it was one usually found by one’s own efforts. Still that wasn’t to say she hadn’t been well trained, as she still had learned plenty of powerful jutsu to call upon. Yet, she was looking forward to this phase of her life coming to a close as she looked forward to the challenges ahead.

She returned her focus to the carnage below, which signified the end of the Fourth Great Shinobi War due to it being the last of the villages to fall. Watching the people of Konoha suffer, Nir was somewhat surprised that she didn’t really feel more from witnessing the horrors that they were experiencing. But she attributed it partially to the knowledge of this world existing solely to facilitate her training. But, even though it no longer felt quite as real as it once had, she knew the horrors that she had witnessed were based on many of her mother Kushina’s experiences during the Third Shinobi War. Which although due to the primary events being different, meaning nothing repeated quite the same as they had for the Uzumaki. The similarities to their past experiences with war were enough that at times, she could see that both her mother and Mito would appear haunted.

She had wondered why they would subject themselves to reliving such experiences, and when she had decided to ask her mother Kiyomi about it, had received the answer of, “For you.” When she had expanded on the reason, the Bijuu had explained that it was their hope that by letting her experience war firsthand, while it would serve as excellent training for her martially, it was hoped she would also understand why it was something to be avoided. A lesson that Nir, despite her disconnect from the world, had come to understand. Not only because she could see the pained expressions on Mito or her mother Kushina’s faces when passing through a burned-out village, or town. But, because she had also learned how even those with no stakes in the conflict, could be negatively affected with the same horrors such as the smaller countries that ended up getting swept up into the affairs of the larger ones they bordered.

Still, with Iwagakure having emerged as the final village standing, she wondered why they were now standing by idly watching its shinobi descend into barbarism as they took out their long held grudges on people who likely had no part to play in the forming of their grievances.

She looked back towards one of the two women who had created the world to ask, “Is it everything you hoped for mother?”

Kiyomi shook her head in the negative, before replying, “No, to be honest it actually pains me a bit to see it like this. Despite my history with Konoha, it has become my home.”

“Then why couldn’t we have just stayed in Konoha to kick off another Shinobi World War?” Nir asked genuinely curious.

Kiyomi moved to stand beside her youngest daughter, although she imagined that despite being born last, technically she would be the oldest, and watched as a group of male Iwa-nin murdered a majority of a group of fleeing civilians they had run down. Although they made an effort to spare a few, with the survivors just so happening to be made up of the group’s young women. The shinobi then began to chuckle in dark humor as they surrounded them like a pack of wolves about to devour a few deer. As the men set upon the pleading women, she lifted her gaze to the sky, before shrugging as she replied, “I suppose because in the end, it truly doesn’t matter.”

“Because this is just a fantasy world, that you and Mother Kushina cooked up for me,” Nir said without any real emotion behind her words understanding that at the very least her mothers’ feelings for her were real.

“That’s partially true,” Kiyomi replied, “But, keep in mind, Mito screwed up the script that we actually planned to follow after you became a full-fledged shinobi.”

“Honestly Kiyomi,” Mito said rolling her eyes in response to the Bijuu’s dig, “Your capacity to continue to needle people over old annoyances is unmatched.”

“Thank you,” Kiyomi said causing her daughter to giggle at the exchange. Turning towards her daughter, who due to having learned the truth of her origins, had resulted in her having changed her cognition of herself and as a result now greatly resembled both her and Kushina. It had been a slow change. As over the years, her purple hair had slowly turned red, with naturally occurring orange streaks acting as highlights, while her eyes which had originally been brown had turned violet. Kiyomi at first had been bothered by the change, since with her no longer resembling Rin, she felt it would blunt some of her effectiveness against Obito. But, in time saw that with a few tweaks to her original plan it would still work, since she could just alter the seal so that when the puppet persona was added to the mix her looks could be made to once more resemble the Uchiha’s former teammate. Answering her daughter’s question, with one she asked while directing her gaze pointedly to where the Konoha women were being assaulted by their conquers, “Would it make you feel better if it was the people of Iwa, who were currently experiencing these horrors?”

“No of course not,” Nir replied quickly as despite her having formed no lasting bonds during her time in Iwagakure, knew most of the people of both villages were just decent people trying to get by.

Kushina stepped up beside her as she said sadly, “Unfortunately, many people in our world would say yes. With the only crime their having committed was being born within Iwa.” Her violet eyed mother looked at her sadly as she added, “That is why in the end it truly didn’t matter in this case who we served during the war. Having a tie to a home or a family is a wonderful thing, but it tends to come with its own baggage as well. If you had grown up in our Konoha, you would have been raised learning all about the Will of Fire and why it needs to be protected and fought for. Yet, if you had been born in Iwagakure, you would have been taught that it was the Will of Stone which is the superior philosophy.”

“So, which is the better one?” Nir asked expecting it to be the Will of Fire considering it was home to the three women.

“Who can say,” Mito replied surprising her considering that it had been her husband who had founded the village which espoused the philosophy. “I suppose neither if I’m being entirely honest,” the Uzumaki stated. She gave a soft smile upon seeing Nir’s surprised face, before explaining, “You see, both are beliefs that express that the village is to be protected, at the cost of the individual. The Will of Fire expresses this belief by tying the idea that Konoha’s survival in turn protects the next generation. A fine sentiment, but if one were to look at it skeptically, then are not those who are protected not simply turned into the current generation of soldiers that are expected to sacrifice themselves and others for Konoha’s wellbeing.” She turned her head towards where her husband’s face had been carved into the mountain while adding, “When Hashirama first created the idea of the Will of Fire, it was in order to give the various clans joining the village, many of whom had been mortal enemies for centuries, something to unite them. All in order to create a home for themselves and each other.” Turning her gaze to look over the burning village that had been found due to her husband’s vision, she continued while sounding a bit melancholic, “Yet, over time, the message seems to have become rather twisted. A natural outcome I suppose, as in order to defend itself from the other villages and their competing visions. Soldiers were needed, and so a message meant to impart the importance of protecting one’s home, and by extension family, kept its overall theme, but with a key difference.”

“That the whole was far more important than the one,” Nir said while gazing at her mother Kushina out of the corner of her eye. Her mother, whose wellbeing had been judged by her own husband as being of a lesser concern than the village had a faraway look in her violet eyes. However, sensing she was being watched, Kushina gave her daughter a soft smile indicating that she wasn’t bothered by the current topic of conversation.

Mito seeing her fellow Uzumaki’s didn’t appear to be troubled continued, “A fine sentiment when it is coming from an individual, but it is decidedly less so when it becomes the village’s belief about its inhabitants.”

“Why?” Nir asked, “I’m not really seeing a difference.”

“The difference,” Kiyomi said placing a hand on her daughter’s shoulder, “Is born in what prompts a person to act. If a shinobi decides to sacrifice themselves, to protect their family and home. Because those are the most important things to them, then that truly is a noble act.” Holding her hand out over the burning Leaf Village, her mother said, “For example, I imagine if you could show a member of the Leaf this sight and told them that their death would prevent its fall. Many would gladly make that sacrifice since it would protect that which most mattered to them.” Directing her gaze to the woman that for the past thirty-one years she had built a smaller family unit with, she said, “However, when it comes to a village expecting such sacrifices in its name, then it and its leadership begins to justify anything to preserve itself. Not what its founding was meant to protect. Thus, a husband who had the knowledge to act can stand by and allow his wife to die, while also turning his son into a weapon. Or…”

“Or a founding clan can be murdered to just about the last man, woman, and child regardless of guilt,” Kushina said to which Kiyomi rolled her eyes a bit, as while she had come to accept Mikoto into her Family. She’d be lying if she said that she didn’t wish the Uchiha Massacre had been a bit more complete at least in regards to Obito and Mikoto’s younger son.

Nir inclined her head, but asked, “Then what of the Will of Stone?”

“Too be honest,” Mito stated as the ransacking of Konoha continued below her, “I cannot speak of it with the same degree of knowledge. But, while on the surface what is taught to shinobi seems to convey a desire for them to protect the will contained within them. In much the same way as priceless gems or other valuable metals can be contained within worthless stone. I tend to feel their monument reflects a darker take to this philosophy.”

Nir frowned as she thought of the Will of Stone momument where Iwagakure’s precious stone resided, as she tried to ponder what Mito was referring to. As she did so, she considered how according to legend the stone contained within, had supposedly been created by the man who would become the first Tsuchikage upon first receiving the Land of Earth’s Daimyo blessing to create a shinobi village within his country’s borders. He had then proceeded to move to the steps of the Earth Daimyo’s palace and thrown the stone an incredible distance while declaring that he would build his village where it landed. Finding the stone within a mountain range, he had built his village there as promised, with the monument being built on the very spot the stone had landed.

Although she had found the monument’s design itself rather impressive, she had always found the plain looking rock at its center rather lackluster. Especially as the platform upon which its pedestal rested was surrounded by a reflecting pool filled with numerous other rocks that could easily replace it. Which at times made her wonder if any shinobi may have accidentally knocked it off into the water and replaced it with just a worthless rock.

Her eyes grew wide as she had an epiphany which she shared by stating, “Wait, are you saying that the stone sitting on the pedestal is actually worthless?”

“I wouldn’t say worthless,” Mito replied with a small shake of the head. “As while it is easy to imagine that the stone which they seemingly revere could easily be replaced by any of the ones surrounding it. At the end of the day, it is the value that is placed upon the meaning behind the stone which matters. In that regard, it doesn’t matter if it is just a simple stone or a work of art like the Memorial Stone here.”

“Yet, if the Will of Stone is saying that one stone is just as good as another,” Nir said as she began to see what Mito was driving at, “Are you suggesting the village itself sees its shinobi as being just as interchangeable.”

“Well, it would certainly explain many of their military tactics,” Mito replied referring to how many Iwagakure plans were composed of just throwing bodies at an enemy’s fortification in the belief that sheer numbers would overcome them. “Granted, a truly valuable shinobi may be found from such engagements, but many end up being cast to the wayside. In fact, if the stone on the pedestal is perhaps meant to represent the Tschuikage, then all the stones in the surrounding pool are probably meant to represent the many sacrificed to find it.”

Sighing sadly, Nir said, “That’s rather bleak.”

Kiyomi nodded, but countered, “True, but keep in mind that the meaning truly is up to the individual themselves to decide. After all, even if the Will of Stone was meant to simply inspire shinobi to be willing to sacrifice themselves in order to reach the pinnacle that being placed upon the pedestal represents. It is up to those who accept the Will of Stone to decide if the potential costs they may end up paying are worth the reward. It only takes on the darker meaning when the sacrifice is expected without the consent of those that the cost is to be extracted from.”

Nir looked towards her mother Kushina, who she felt could have been considered to have been sacrificed to the Will of Fire twice. The first time being when she had been asked to bear the burden of carrying her other mother, due to the village believing her to be just a beast. A sacrifice her mother had made willing for the village. The second had been made for her, when the Fourth having decided that maintaining control of the Kyuubi mattered more than saving his wife when measured against the Village’s wellbeing.

Kushina unaware of what her daughter was thinking, made it clear her own thoughts were not being bogged down by those sacrifices as she said with a hint of amusement, “The bleakness you feel probably isn’t being helped by the events transpiring below. Perhaps it is time we end it.”

“Quite right,” Kiyomi agreed as she straightened up and closed her eyes causing the world to first pause, before everything and everyone but them began to fade away to be replaced by a glowing white world.

Nir watching the only world she had known for the last thirty-one years fade away, felt extremely nervous so said, “Now that we are here, I’m not sure that I’m ready.”

Each or her mothers took one of her hands before confidently stating, “You are.” The confidence in their tone quickly banished the fluttering butterflies in her stomach. Nodding in appreciation she asked, “Now what?”

“Close your eyes,” Kiyomi stated, which her daughter immediately did right before turning into a ball of blue chakra. Holding her hand beneath it, she encased it in another large one of her own before absorbing them back within her, while adding, “and when you open again, you’ll finally be home.”

*****************************

Kiyomi sat back in the Hot Springs located on her property and stretched luxuriously as the heat helped soothe her achy muscles which had remained motionless for the three days that she and Kushina had been in the seal. She sighed contently before sinking lower into the water until only her head remained above water. Despite the Springs no longer being for the express usage of the Family due to the Women’s Bathing Association opening up its membership, she currently had them to herself due to it being closer to morning than night.

Although, it wasn’t a status that she enjoyed for long as she heard someone else slipping into the water opposite her. Not needing to open her eyes to determine who her fellow late-night bather was she said, “You haven’t grown tired of my company yet?”

Opening them to find Mito sitting on the edge of the spring with just her legs being submerged the Uzumaki said, “Ah, are you saying that we haven’t grown closer after spending the past decade together.”

Kiyomi smiled as she sat up straighter exposing her breasts to her fellow redhead while saying, “Well you know what they say about enjoying too much of a good thing.”

Mito returned the smile, before asking “Where’s Nir? I thought she’d want to enjoy a real soak as well.”

“Exploring the village I imagine,” Kiyomi replied, “Now that we know her chakra element is Lightning. We’ll be returning to the seal shortly to complete her training. Although, I doubt we’ll need another three days, we’ll first need to use the seal to compress time enough that she can train, but once she appears to have a grasp, we’ll need to exit it to make sure the training method that she settles on is viable.”

“If not,” Mito asked with a note of concern, “The execution is only a few days away. Will she be ready?”

Kiyomi shrugged, before replying with a dismissive tone, “If not, I’ll just leave the Uchiha in an unconscious state until she is. There’s no rush to set him off on his quest for redemption. Although, I do hope to be able to before Naruto completes the exams.”

“So, you can keep your secret love child with his mother a secret for a little while longer?” Mito asked sounding torn between being amused, and concerned, especially as she was now a coconspirator.

“Partially,” Kiyomi said, with a small hint of concern herself, “Although, it isn’t because of how I believe Naruto will react. I think he’ll be more then overjoyed that he has a sister now.”

“Who is acting in the role of a conscious in the back of the mind of a personality that Joseki created to act as his personal assassin,” Mito said worriedly.

Kiyomi shared her former host’s worry, but said, “Yes, but the personality truly is the best watchdog one can have for that bastard. But it is because of who created that persona that I felt it best to add a conscious to it. As Naruko already demonstrated to me, given time, such beings will evolve past their original purposes. My fear was that if I just based the Watchdog after the puppet personality that already exists, due to the trauma that was inflicted upon Rin, it would become more of an enabler to the bastard than a brake. So, it is best to put in place a safeguard should such an outcome become reality.”

Receiving a nod in return, Mito said, “Still I hope you came up with a better name for it than Watchdog or Puppet. I mean honestly, giving your own daughter the name Nir, was lame enough. If you insist on calling this other being just Puppet, it will probably turn on you just out of spite for having such a lackluster name.”

The Bijuu glowered at Mito, before saying “Calling her Nir was my way of honoring the woman whose troubled memories helped give her life. Furthermore, if you must know, we’ve decided to call the being that she’ll be a part of Hansei.”

“Ah,” Mito said thoughtfully, “To acknowledge one’s mistakes.” Kiyomi seemed pleased by Mito’s response to the name the puppet persona would be given, at least until she added, “I imagine that it must have been Nir who came up with it.” Mito began to laugh in amusement as Kiyomi’s self-satisfied smile quickly disappeared to be replaced by another glare, particularly since she was more or less correct. Mito ignoring the harsh look she was the current recipient of said, “Do you mind answering a few questions that have been bothering me since joining you three?”

Kiyomi gaze softened to be replaced with an inquisitive one as she asked in turn, “Why ask now? From our perspective, you’ve had years to get the answers you wanted.”

Mito shrugged, before replying, “Well, I figured that perhaps at some point, I’d infer the answers I sought just from observing. But, to be honest, I’m still unsure of a few of the actions that you’ve undertaken recently.”

“Recently being more of a state of mind at this point,” Kiyomi said amused.

“Let’s just stick with the time span of the world to which we belong,” Mito replied dryly. Receiving a curt nod from her soaking partner, she asked, “I’m still not sure why you’ve taken the path that you have with Nir.”

“It didn’t sound like you had any trouble when you explained it to her,” Kiyomi stated sounding a little confused.

“That is because upon meeting Nir,” Mito replied with a soft smile having come to care for the young woman, “I realized to you she had become something precious, so found it easy to believe that you wouldn’t do anything too drastically which would change her. But, my question is more directed towards what was your reasoning beforehand. I mean considering now it appears that you are just going to use the Puppet Persona that had been implanted into Rin while she was Joseki’s agent. Why not just do that from the beginning?”

Kiyomi remained silent for several moments, before answering, “I suppose if I’m being honest, the answer is that I wasn’t entirely sure what the outcome would be at the end. While I was pregnant with her, it went through several iterations. Would I slowly leak the memories to create some merged being that could act as the agent directly. It wasn’t until one night after she had just been born when I realized I didn’t want to burden her with the horrors that the puppet would have committed. Still, I was loathe to give up completely, particularly as she grew older and began to resemble Rin to such an extent.”

Mito smiled before with an amused tone saying, “Well that certainly isn’t the case any longer. I suppose you’re going to blame me for that.”

“No,” Kiyomi stated although she considered it for a moment, “The truth is she would have likely begun to change regardless upon learning the truth of her origins. The War arc we undertook was probably the defining catalyst for why she changed so drastically.”

Mito nodded, since she understand that while Nir’s life had been peaceful, the memories sealed within her would have had the stronger influence in shaping her looks and even elements of her personality. However, the struggles that she had undergone during the simulated Fourth Shinobi War coupled with her now understanding the truth of her birth had led to her more closely resembling the other two women whose chakra had been contributed to her creation. “So, it was another of those little unforeseen complications,” Mito stated prompting Kiyomi to incline her head in agreement. Sitting back to stare up at the night sky, she said, “I guess with that being the case, it was a good thing you decided to just use the puppet persona pretty early on. But, why include Nir in the mix at all?”

“Because I can trust her,” Kiyomi said with a pleased smile, “Furthermore, her no longer resembling Rin will be a boon, especially as with a few tweaks to the Fog Gate Seal I can make it clear who is truly in control at any moment.”

“Ah,” Mito said feeling as if she had received the missing piece of information she had required, “You don’t trust the Puppet Persona.”

“Not just that,” Kiyomi said causing Mito to frown due to what she believed the Bijuu could be suggesting.

“Surely, you don’t think Rin would…”

Kiyomi surprised her by cutting her off, but rather than rebuking her said, “I do not believe the Rin that we know would turn on us. However, while I’ll have to bring elements of her personality to the forefront in this puppet to make it more complete, I’m… I’m unsure what will be created as a result.” Mito could easily see the concern the Bijuu felt, as it rose to the surface and was reflected in the expression she wore. After a moment of staring at her reflection in the water, she looked up to say, “I know it is easy to claim that Obito was just a bad apple who hadn’t been tested until the events in Grass. But, what if those events never transpired, does he go on to become a much beloved shinobi, or does he eventually become what he is now because it was always lying underneath the surface.”

“That’s impossible to answer,” Mito said after a moment of reflection herself, “Any number of small changes can send our lives drifting in drastically different directions. Sure a person’s character might give you a hint as to which way they will go, but new elements can cause them to shift their values so that things which were once precious no longer matter.”

“I agree,” Kiyomi said, before adding with a hint of worry, “Yet, my concern would be that a Rin created with all the memories of her time as Joseki’s puppet but without a Naruto to influence her could decide to walk a path similar to Obito. Even worse, would be if it began to use its resemblance to Rin as a means to manipulate him into working at a cross-purpose to us.”

“Sort of similar to what you are doing,” Mito stated unable to stop herself from pointing that particular detail out.

Not particularly bothered by it appearing somewhat hypocritical, since it was not the action of using a Rin stand in to keep Obito focused and controlled to disrupt her Family’s enemies which concerned her. Only the direction in which that manipulation might have the Uchiha directing his destructive impulses. Pointing this out, Kiyomi said, “I understand that I am playing with fire here, which is why Nir is my means of controlling both of them. After all, I shouldn’t need to point out to you that one of the leashes that I’ve put around his neck could be easily bypassed with the help of a skilled medic.” Kiyomi tapped the valley between her breasts, which caused Mito to frown as she hadn’t really considered that particular detail. Kiyomi feeling that she had provided the Uzumaki with the answer to her first question, asked, “Now, are there any other questions that you have?”

“One or two,” Mito replied before asking, “What was the point of the show that you put on for the Fourth Hokage back there? Were you planning that from the beginning?”

Kiyomi smirked as she recalled her fucking Kushina in front of the simulated Hokage, while making him and his false Family believe it had been Naruto. She shook her head as she began, “To begin let me answer the second. No, I didn’t have it planned from the onset. In fact I was rather surprised when she had volunteered to join me in raising Nir. In hindsight, I suppose that I shouldn’t have been as it easy to see that despite her current relationship with Naruto, she still feels the loss of not being there to raise him.”

Mito nodded in agreement, before asking, “So, what, it was some attempt to push her chakra into the orange? If so, I would have to say it failed as I didn’t feel any shift afterwards.”

Kiyomi shook her head in the negative surprising the Uzumaki, “No, I didn’t really think that it would. Although, I guess you can say I do believe it shattered one of the locks that may be in the way of her moving into the Orange. I think if nothing else, through our raising Nir, as well as our little show as you put it, it prompted her to admit out loud that she sees Naruto as having been an upgrade as a partner, and so she has moved closer. But, the remaining lock can only truly be shattered by Naruto himself.”

“I suppose you have some idea as to what that lock is,” Mito asked as she at times wondered what it would take for her own to shift.

“Indeed,” Kiyomi said before looking up at the night sky. She could feel Mito’s annoyance as she let the silence linger for several more moments before stating, “There’s a doubt that she carries around which only he’ll be able to remove. Namely, will there come a time when the stakes are high enough that he’ll also be willing to sacrifice her to achieve his aims.”

“You have to be joking,” Mito said with a clear air of disbelief, “If anything his actions on Yugito’s behalf should prove that there aren’t.”

Kiyomi shook her head, stating, “Sure, you would think his actions there would be close enough to assure her that he wouldn’t. But, while we were in the simulation, she shared with me that when they were in the past she tried to alert Minato that something was bound to happen to her by showing him that he was a jinchuriki.”

Mito’s mouth dropped as the ramifications of Kushina’s actions became clear, as by placing her trust in her husband, she had inadvertently locked in the course that her life would take. With that tidbit of information, she was now able understand why Kiyomi would come to believe that being sacrificed again on the altar of a lover’s ambition or desire, even if it was a fear that Kushina was perhaps unconscious of herself even possessing, could be a chain holding her back from having her chakra shift into the orange. Moreover, why it was that despite his actions on Yugito’s behalf, they alone wouldn’t trigger this change either, as Mito recalled how when Kumo had heard of her summoning Kushina to the village to house the Kyuubi, they had tried to kidnap her to act as a host for the Eight-Tails believing her unique chakra would help their Iron Seal in containing the Eight-Tails. Mito had no doubts that as a result of it being Minato who had rescued her, she had begone to see him as her hero, one who would protect her no matter the circumstances. Learning that perhaps his rescue had been less about protecting her, as about preventing an enemy village from getting their hands on her as evident by his letting events unfurl as they had when Konoha appeared to benefit, no doubt had left a deep scar on her heart.

Hoping her own path to her chakra becoming orange one day was nowhere near as thorny, she said somberly, “Poor thing.”

Receiving a short nod of agreement from Kiyomi, she smiled as the Bijuu asked, “Are there any other questions that you need answers to?”

“Need, no,” Mito replied but then allowed a smirk to appear as she said, “Now want, is another story.” Sitting back as Kiyomi gave her a questioning look, she explained, “As you know while for me it might have only been a few days since I last had our lover inside me. Mentally it feels as if it has been over ten years, so perhaps you’d be will to help me get over the lack of dick time displacement that I’m feeling?” To punctuate her question, she spread her legs and then used one of her hands to open her pussy up to show how wet she was.

Kiyomi shook her head in amusement before moving towards Mito. Standing up as she did so, she slid a finger into her former host as she said, “I’m not going to give you the fully treatment that I gave Kushina, but I’m sure you will not have any complaints when I’m done.”

“MMMmmm,” Mito moaned as the Fox Bijuu kissed her, while her finger began moving within her. However, at the mention of her fellow Uzumaki’s name, pulled her lips away to ask, “Speaking of….where is she?”

“Where do you think,” Kiyomi said lowering herself down to replace her finger with her tongue, “Being a good mother, and heading off to wish her son good luck in his exams. She may have missed the start of them, but if they keep to the schedule we’ve been given she’ll probably arrive by the time the first exam is over.”

Mito didn’t respond as she groaned from Kiyomi’s tongue taking over the task of exploring her love canal, before both of them disappeared in a burst of flame to reappear on the bed of the Den’s master bedroom in much the same position. Where after she enjoyed Kiyomi’s experienced tongue for a few more moments, was then flipped over onto her stomach as the Bijuu having used a chakra tail to procure one of the replicas of their lover’s cock that were stashed throughout the room, mounted her in order to set about helping Mito’s body recover from the cock deprivation that she had experienced due to the shifts in time that she had experienced. All in order to tide her over until she could once more enjoy the real thing. As the rubber cock began to kiss her womb over and over again causing her to bit into the comforter covering the bed, she felt a surge of gratitude towards her fellow Uzumaki for setting in motion the events which would one day allow her to experience such pleasure, as even if she had unintentionally done so, Kushina’s suffering had made the world a better place for an increasing number of women, and one day, she was sure her fellow Uzumaki would come to truly believe this was the case for her as well.


Author’s note: Hello everyone, to begin let me first say Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays which ever you prefer. I hope this chapter has proven to be worth the wait, and I thank you all for your patience. Now I imagine some people will possibly be annoyed at some of the events, particularly regarding Minato. But, as I’ve stated before I just find his reasoning for sealing the Bijuu into Naruto extremely lacking considering all the downsides, many of them that were laid out in this chapter. Now despite how it appears, I do not have any strong feelings agains Minato, I just feel that the chapter that featured the sealing of Kurama into Naruto were extremely lacking due to the laziness of the storytelling at that , and it being put on rails since we all knew in the end Naruto ends up becoming a jinchuriki. With a few rewrites I think it could have been much better, since as it is written Minato makes it clear his purpose is to make Naruto a weapon to fight Obito in the future. I’ve laid out how stupid that was. When rather, Minato should have been trying to reseal the Kyuubi into Kushina to save her, then at some point it could have targeted Naruto trying to force Minato to stop, at which point you can have the impale scene of them saying their goodbyes, and it truly being a last desperate act of Minato’s to stop the Kyuubi. Not to turn his son into a weapon, but generally to save his life along with most of the village. Granted even then it is perfect such as why would he be keeping the baby around when he can just Hirashin it away, but I feel the motivations would be far purer then as they were presented in the manga. Which is only further stained in my story due to the Blast in the Past arc.

But, hopefully it didn’t bother too many people, especially as I wanted to play with the Netorare trope a bit in this chapter. Perhaps not the best of topics considering the reason for the season. However, when is it ever. Furthermore, since Eroninja Naruto is not the type of character to engage in such activities. I felt it best to let Kiyomi serve as the stand in. Plus, it being done in this way does allow the actual Minato in the story, to at least maintain some of his dignity.

Moving on to what I intend for the future, well it was about this time last year when I said that I intended to start a patreon or a subscribestar. I still intend to do this at some point, but with the current state of the economy which many people assume is only going to get worst. I do not feel now is the time to start asking people to contribute. Especially considering my current update schedule of a chapter every few months. I’m going to try and get back to maybe one a month. But, we’ll just have to see how much free time I am able to put aside for writing.

As to what I plan to release next, well that should be chapter 106 of the main story. Followed by chapter 107, which now I feel will serve as the tie in to the Antithesis chapter that I was working on concurrently although soon this Limelight began to demand the bulk of my time as it continued to grow and grow. A few people ask when I plan to release the next chapter of the Pride or the Promise. To which the answer is after the current Chunin Exam arc. Which, I now feel will serve as the perfect close to Eroninja Part 1. Still, considering how the chapters grow, I imagine we’ll probably be somewhere in the 120 to 130;s before I am finished. But, upon the arcs completion, I think a good part of setup will be complete. There will still be more to be sure. But, regardless of the outcome of the arc, I think it will be a good stepping off point to begin moving into the next phase of the story.

The title I’m probably going to go with for it would be Eroninja: Earth and Water. Although, the title doesn’t necessarily indicate which land will be the primary focus for exploration. This part also will include some of the chapters that were hinted at way back in my old Sage’s Corner where I listed a bunch out. So it isn’t like things are going to change too drastically.

Well, I hope the chapter proved to be a perfect stocking stuffer for this Christmas season, and I hope everyone has an amazing 2024. So, as always let me thank those of you who take the time to leave a review. They are always the gifts that bring a smile to my face, even if they disagree with some of my decisions. But, even then it shows this is a story that people at least care for. So again, thank you and until next time, take care! Sincerely, The Lemon Sage.