Two fresh lumps later, both Mo Kes behaved.
Kushina had wised up. Three years of listening to the yin Mo Ke's saga meant a single glance told her exactly what trick the two foxes were cooking up. The yin side was a snitch and the yang side did the math. One against two ended with a beating, so the wise fox chose peace.
She lowered her crossed leg, cleared her throat, and spoke. "Talk. These three years. Naruto's a little dummy. He can't explain."
Mo Ke drooped his head. Words were work. "I don't know the first year and a half. I only slipped power out of the seal a year and a half ago. I'll pass that time straight to you."
He motioned for her fist. She set her tiny hand out and he tapped it.
Warm. How could such a small fist hit so hard.
Her eyes sharpened and he sobered. He sent it all , a flood of memory straight into her soul. A normal beast would only share intention through a touch. A shinigami could lace recollection into that bridge. He considered claiming it required a hand on the chest because heart power and all that, then wisely didn't. Healing Palms is such a useful art. No matter the ache, the hand lands on the chest.
Kushina's eyes opened. Everything since Naruto was a year and a half old lay in perfect sequence inside her mind, like she had stood in his body and watched it all.
Words could not match this. The child's thin vocabulary could not deliver what the truth now pressed into her ribs. She hugged Naruto without thinking. The always-baffled boy finally booted up, wriggled hard, and shouted.
"Who are you. Why did you hit my dad. You're a bad woman. You're like the other grown ups in the village."
"Naruto, I really am your mother. He isn't your father. Your father is Namikaze Minato, the Fourth of..."
"Save it. My dad is Mo Ke. I don't care who that Namikaze is or what number he is in the village. Uzumaki Naruto recognizes only the father who stayed. Mo Ke. Uzumaki Mo Ke."
She had no answer. Tears returned and slid quiet down her face. If you were not there, could you claim the name. Blood ties alone meant that on the street your own child would pass you by.
Mo Ke's old heart warmed at the words. He wanted to reach into that wide embrace and ruffle the boy's hair. Kushina's look turned sharp and he settled for the back of his own head.
"Naruto, Kushina really is your mother. I told you. She and I are sealed in your belly. You tugged the tag and she came out. I am not your birth father. I am Mo Ke, the Nine Tailed Fox. But everything I told you was true. I did not strike at Konoha. I only hid your parentage."
He thought, then squared his shoulders. "Even if I am not your birth father, if you call me Dad, then I am your father for life. With Dad here, no one bullies you."
The boy tore free of Kushina's arms and dove into Mo Ke's chest. The day's shocks finally cracked and tears came heavy.
"No. You are my dad. My heart knows it. In this whole village you are the only one truly good to me."
"You can skip the second sentence."
Kushina ground her teeth and glared at Mo Ke. "Fine. What now. Say it here and now. You helped Naruto, but that does not mean I am unsealing you. Not yet. Too many innocents live in Konoha."
"That attitude is wrong, Kushina. A little hardship and you jump to destroying Konoha."
"I never said that. I am worried you will destroy Konoha."
"Not important." He waved the debate aside. "Konoha has sins. The sinners are not the people and not the Will of Fire. That will was born from Hashirama to keep children from fighting a Warring States childhood. Look at the Third's era.
Children go to war before they graduate. Naruto's childhood is not unique. Danzo built a factory and stamped children into tools under Root."
"Kakashi the Twelve Year Old Jonin. Shisui the Body Flicker. They were children, famous on battlefields while the village bragged instead of blushed."
"The speech goes that Konoha was in danger and had to send kids. If power was short, why didn't Koharu and Homura, the old fossils, go to the front after they became advisors. Chiyo was older and still traded hands with Tsunade.
Why force White Fang to die because he wasn't of the Third's faction. A man stronger than the Sannin, how many children's lives would his shadow have saved. And where was the Sarutobi clan's private army. Ten thousand strong, if you believe the legend."
"Enough. No lecture." Kushina's forehead throbbed. "I won't be like Minato. I won't trust the tower without question. I've paid Konoha enough. Konoha owes me."
Mo Ke coughed and let the sermon die. Shame that he hadn't reached the Sannin and the Uchiha yet.
"Even so, many good hearts live in Konoha. Even now, more than a few treat Naruto kindly. Our task is to cut out the rot. I have some feeling for the village now that I've lived in this book for a while. Call it the sentiment of an old resident."
"My plan: you cannot leave yet. As a soul, you are fragile. We lie in wait. See what the tower plans next for Naruto and answer each move. As for me, my sense says a shift will come in late December. That is my cue. I will appear in Konoha as Uzumaki Mo Ke, kinsman to Uzumaki Kushina."
He smiled thinly. "Do not worry. I do not need you to unseal me. With spillover alone I am not weaker than the chatterbox over there."
He shot the yin fox a look. Confidence crackled.
"What nonsense. I am not at full strength. Kushina, undo the last chains on my tails. I will beat this turtle to paste."
Mo Ke adjusted imaginary glasses and gave his other self a pitying stare. Poor thing. The system had arrived after you were sealed. You never learned I am broken by design.
"Come. It is time you understood the difference between a spare part and the main body. Time you learned what it means to be the world's chosen."
He lifted his left fist and held it out. The yin Mo Ke lifted his paw and met it.
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