By the time Naruto finished talking, Kushina finally understood what these three years had done.
Konoha and the Third had failed Minato and her, exactly as the Nine Tails had warned. No, more precisely, they had failed the hope she had placed in them. They hid Naruto's parentage and left him to swallow the hatred of an entire village.
Minato would have imagined a noble reason for secrecy. Protect the hero's child by hiding his name. Kushina scoffed at that. What could be more dangerous than being the Nine Tails' jinchuriki. If the village could let the rumor spread that he was the fox reborn, it was no different than telling the four great villages that the blond boy was the host.
Add the title son of Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina and how much worse could it get. Worse than not knowing his parents at all. Worse than being cursed to his face before he turned two. Worse than any child who touched him being dragged home to wash off the bad luck.
As for Minato, at first she had fumed at how he had tricked her and left her sealed for three years. Yet he had always indulged her, right to the end. With time the anger cooled. But after hearing Naruto's story she could not shake the thought that Minato had foreseen Naruto's suffering and feared what she might do to Konoha. He had agreed to let her stay, then sealed her anyway, to keep her from upsetting the plan in the tower.
If that was true, then the Third had not betrayed the Fourth at all. He had simply understood Minato's intent. The one who chose was Minato. Faced with family or village, he still stood with the village.
Why. Why not trust the wife who shared his bed. Why not trust his own child. To prevent a mere possibility, must you cut so deep.
No answer came. Tears soaked her cheeks. Behind her, red hair rose and flared like nine tails in a storm.
She hated the Third. She hated Minato. She hated old comrades and subordinates. She hated the ignorant townsfolk. Those accounts could be settled later. First there was a certain bastard to handle.
Kushina wiped her eyes and stepped toward Mo Ke, fingers curling into a fist. She was grateful for the warning and for keeping Naruto company. That did not forgive making her son call him father. That was taking advantage. The Red Hot Habanero had been forgotten it seemed. Third, Fourth, Mo Ke, one after another, all needed reminding what Uzumaki Kushina meant.
Chakra burst out and swept the space. The books Mo Ke had left by the sofa skittered into corners. She still kept a grip on herself. She would not let the force bleed outside and risk alerting the old man in the tower.
She reached the bed. Mo Ke slept on, quiet as a saint. She sized a punch, then decided against cracking his skull. The fist dipped and drove for the lower abdomen.
Die, you fox.
His eyes snapped open before the blow landed. Malice pinged along his nerves, warning him that the hit would not kill him but a certain vital brother would suffer for weeks. The Zanpakuto slid from the void into his hand. Space folded at the last instant and the punch came down on empty cloth.
A thunderclap. The spirit bed shattered into loose motes that drifted away.
Mo Ke reappeared in a corner slumped by the gate, sweat cold on his brow and a scowl already forming. He wanted to see which fool dared throw hands at his High Horse. If not for how far he had pushed his release and instant space steps, a very important friend would have been crushed. Whoever this was, they would…
Red hair hit his eyes first. Then a long green house dress. Then the face he knew from a hundred panels, smiling coldly with blue eyes burning.
He turned his head by reflex. Naruto was also slumped in a corner, shaking. Mo Ke remembered what he had forgotten before seclusion. The little turtle's talent for surprise.
He swallowed. In drawings Kushina's temper had been cute. In person, seeing that hair floating was something else. He told himself he was the Nine Tails, proud Mo Ke, not someone who could be rattled. The hollow feeling in his gut insisted otherwise.
All he had done was nudge a husband and wife apart to keep himself safe and raise the boy for a few years. That was all.
"Kushina. Welcome back. I can explain. Really. I can explain. Do not come any closer."
"Save it. I will listen later. Right now I need to vent, dattebane."
She rolled her wrists and advanced.
Even the King of Heaven would have to wait until she had gotten a few swings in. Then a voice came that lit a tiny flame of hope in Mo Ke.
"Wait, Kushina. Do not hit him."
Bless the other me. They must have gotten along. He could talk her down.
"Do not hit him. Leave him to me. I am going to kill this little bastard myself."
The huge fox shade rising behind her was the yin Mo Ke. The look in those eyes was worse than Kushina's. The moment it solidified, it howled and lunged, tears and snot streaming as it charged.
"Do you know how I lived these three years. Every day she hit me. Angry she hit me. Bored she hit me. Happy memory she hit me. You cut me off and left me alone, you useless lump."
"You played outside. You learned to walk like a man. You adopted a son. You made a water bed. You read novels."
"You locked me in her belly and I had to tell stories to keep her company."
"Three years. I even told her what color shorts I wore as a kit, you animal."
It snorted mid charge, then swiped again. "And when I saw the little apartment and piles of novels you made out here, I wanted you dead more than if you were actually dead."
Mo Ke fled in circles, batting aside flying tails and dodging flailing claws. The two brothers traded punches and insults while Kushina watched, the gloom in her chest easing almost against her will.
She extended her adamantine chains from behind and tightened the edges of the space so no power leaked, then flopped into the S curve sofa and enjoyed the show. The soft double pillows under her head made her blush. She spat a single word under her breath. Pervert.
Ten minutes later, Mo Ke sat on yin Mo Ke's head looking melancholic, a cigarette conjured between his fingers.
"Three years. I am not who I was. What gave you the idea you could beat me."
The fox face below him sagged. He almost whimpered.
At last the yin fox lifted a paw and made a fist. "Come on then. Touch fists. Show me what you have been doing for three years."
"I am not dumb. You want to pass the pain to me. No thanks."
"No. I want you to see how Kushina looks when I tell her about the Raikage brothers fighting. She blushes."
"You told her that kind of story. You are scum."
"Heh. You are me."
"Heh."
A shadow fell over the happy pair.
A few minutes later, both Mo Kes sat on the floor with lumps on their heads. Naruto sat beside them with a blank face. Kushina crossed one leg over the other on the sofa, queen of the room. Even in a simple dress her shape stole the eye.
The two foxes shared a helpless look.
"Red. Silent and deadly."
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