Chapter 29
Five years later.
Uzushiogakure.
In the soft morning rays, twelve-year-old Kushina was sound asleep. Suddenly, she felt two soft, fluffy cushions pressing against her face. She happily buried her head further into them.
"Umm… Kushina, could you stop doing that? It tickles," Konan said, her face flushing slightly. "And we should get up now. It's almost time for breakfast."
Konan was now seventeen years old and looked absolutely nothing like her formerly malnourished self. Thanks to Medori ensuring she ate until she was full every day, combined with her secret activities with Haruto, she hadn't just returned to normal health.
She was now physically stronger than most chunin and, thanks to five years of Haruto's chakra, far more… developed than any normal girl her age.
And Kushina was currently violating her bosom.
Kushina groaned and hugged Konan tightly, squishing her face right back into the older girl's chest.
"Five more minutes, please," she mumbled groggily. "My head is pounding."
"Well, it should. You accidentally drank sake last night," Konan said as she gently combed her fingers through Kushina's tangled red locks. "And the mess you made after that…"
Kushina sprang up, sitting bolt upright in bed. She clutched her throbbing head, a cold sweat breaking out as she desperately tried to piece the night together.
Today was Haru's birthday, so they had thrown a small party for him last night, starting right at midnight.
She remembered enjoying it with Haru, Akane, Konan, and everyone else. They had all given Haruto his presents. Then, she remembered getting thirsty and chugging a glass of 'water'—except it was bitterly strong, and after that, everything was completely hazy.
She looked at Konan in horror.
"W-what did I do last night?" Kushina asked in a grim voice.
"You don't remember?" Konan asked, shooting her a pitying glance. "I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing."
Now Kushina was in full-blown panic mode.
Suddenly, an energetic voice rang out from the doorway.
"Wake up, slowpokes! Breakfast is ready!" Tenka burst inside with a massive smile. But when her gaze landed on Kushina, her expression instantly melted into clear sympathy.
Tenka was now twelve, the same age as Kushina, but she was noticeably more well-endowed than the fiery redhead.
"Hey, why are you looking at me like that?!" Kushina cried out. "I'm seriously freaking out here!".
Tenka looked at Konan questioningly.
"She doesn't remember a thing," Konan stated flatly.
Tenka lightly punched her fist into her open palm in understanding. Then, she looked at Kushina again.
"Good luck, Kushina. You are going to need it," she said, already turning to walk away. "Get ready quickly. Auntie is setting the table. Come to the dining room before she has to call you."
Konan stood up from the bed and looked down at Kushina.
"Hey, don't worry too much about it. Everyone enjoyed your tipsy state. Even Haru joined in on the fun."
Kushina's eyes lit up with a tiny sliver of hope.
"Really? I didn't do anything embarrassing, right?" she asked, looking at Konan with wide, hopeful eyes.
Konan averted her gaze and silently walked into the bathroom, shutting the door.
"Hey! You are not helping here." Kushina yelled.
******
On their way toward the dining hall, they bumped into the twins, Akira and Sora, who were turning ten this year.
"Good morning, Konan and… Kushina," they both said simultaneously. After a brief pause and a pitiful look, they addressed Kushina again.
"Hey, what's with that pause?" An irk mark practically throbbed on Kushina's forehead. She was getting incredibly frustrated. Everyone was looking at her like it was her last day on earth, but they all refused to elaborate.
"Nothing," Akira said innocently.
"Best of luck," Sora teased from safely behind his brother.
"Come here, you brat!" Kushina flickered from her spot, appearing instantly behind Sora. But just as she grabbed him, he burst into a poof of smoke, leaving behind a solid wooden log in Kushina's hands.
Another irk mark popped on Kushina's head.
"Oh. Is that a challenge, brat?" Kushina asked ominously, her grip tightening until she cracked the log into splinters. "You are on."
She flickered away, activating her Mind's Eye of Kagura to track him down.
Yes, Kushina had recently awakened her Mind's Eye and was currently training under Medori. She was now one of the very few Uzumaki who possessed all three of the clan's legendary bloodline abilities, and at such a young age, too.
Akira and Konan watched with amused gazes as Kushina chased Sora throughout the house.
This home was never quiet; laughter was constantly reverberating within its walls, usually caused by Haruto, Sora, or Kushina. Those three were the troublemakers of the household, leaving Konan, Akira, and surprisingly Tenka as the ones constantly keeping them in check.
"So, how is it going with Shōto-sensei?" Konan asked from the side as they resumed their walk toward the breakfast table, completely ignoring the two shouting troublemakers for now.
"Well, it's manageable. Shōto-sensei is a strict teacher, but still a kind one," Akira replied with a soft chuckle. He carried a quiet maturity far beyond his ten years.
By now, the orphans were closer than friends. Living under the same roof for five years, they essentially considered each other siblings.
They all lived within Medori's compound, which was massive. It featured a sprawling garden and multiple houses and a main building connected by long, winding hallways, along with separate buildings reserved for guests.
Entering the warm, sunlit dining room, they saw Medori setting the main table, with Hiyuki helping to arrange the utensils.
Hiyuki was eighteen this year. Her long white hair now reached all the way down to her knees, and she wore a dark, off-the-shoulder kimono, maintaining her uniquely aloof style.
Medori looked up at them and smiled warmly.
"Good morning, you two," Medori greeted, walking toward the kitchen to bring out the food. "Are those two starting up again this early in the morning?"
Konan followed Medori to help.
"Well, Kushina forgot her drunken haze, and Sora was the last straw," Konan replied calmly. Akira took a seat at the table and greeted Hiyuki, who returned it with a small, quiet smile.
"Ohh. It was her first drink, so that explains her irritated mood," Medori said with a chuckle, glancing at Konan. "And I am sure the rest of you were egging her on."
"Well, guilty as charged," Konan admitted with a helpless shrug.
Konan then looked around the large table. "Where are the others?"
There were only three of them currently present: Hiyuki, Akira, and herself. Kushina and Sora were clearly still running around, as she could hear Sora's echoing laughter and Kushina's angry shouts.
"Hm—oh. Haru was still asleep, so Tenka is currently waking him up. As for Saki and Mikasa, they left early in the morning right after eating breakfast. Apparently, Mikasa wanted extra sparring lessons from Saki," Medori replied.
"Ah. So Mikasa took the fall for Kushina," Konan deduced with clear mirth.
After living with them for five years, Konan knew perfectly well that Mikasa—despite her serious, cold exterior—was very protective of Haruto and Kushina.
"Hmn. Now sit down. I will handle those two troublemakers."
"No need for that, Auntie. I've got it covered!" Kushina marched into the room, dragging a thoroughly defeated Sora by the collar, a fresh, comical bump rising on his head. "So... can anyone finally explain to me what I did last night?"
She winced at the lingering headache as she took her seat.
"Oh, nothing serious—" Medori started.
Kushina sighed in relief. If her aunt said it was nothing serious, then she was safe.
"You were just more unhinged…. And just called Saki old."
Kushina's face instantly drained of all color when she heard the last part. She mechanically turned her head toward Medori.
"W-what?" she squeaked, refusing to believe her own ears.
Just then, Tenka appeared from a swirling purple spatial portal, Haruto stepping out right behind her while rubbing his tired eyes. Haruto had just turned five, but thanks to the girls' 'help', he physically looked closer to eight or nine years old.
It had all started innocently enough, with Kushina secretly offering her massive chakra to Haruto. Soon, the others had followed suit.
At first, no one thought much of it. But then Konan's body, stunted from years of starvation, began to rapidly heal, growing far stronger and more developed than anyone her age. Once the others noticed, the pattern became undeniable: their physical strength, chakra density, and bodily growth skyrocketed one after another due to the continuous chakra feedback loop with Haru.
The adults had noticed the anomaly but ignored it for a time. That was, until it all came crashing down the day Tenka unexpectedly awakened her bloodline limit—a highly volatile, space-time related one.
It was an absolute disaster. Tenka had accidentally destroyed half of the compound that day, generating a terrifying spatial distortion field. Saki and Medori had been forced to cast a high-level barrier, sealing the area with Tenka trapped inside just to stop the distortion from spreading and consuming the island.
It was a terrifying, agonizing hour. They thought they'd lost her, until Haruto's ruby red eyes had snapped open. Unfazed by the tearing spatial rifts, the young boy had forced his way into the anomaly and dragged a bruised, unconscious Tenka back to safety.
After that incident, Medori strictly banned Haruto from feeding on anyone's chakra, or giving them his own, without her explicit permission.
But after months of relentless convincing and pleading from the girls—and looking at Haruto's safely accelerated growth alongside the girls' massively strengthened chakra coils—Medori finally relented, giving them permission to share chakra only in strict moderation.
The result was that these teenage girls now possessed chakra volumes and densities that could easily suppress most elite jōnin.
Bringing the conversation back to the present, Hiyuki took a serene bite of her food.
"More precisely, you said, and I quote: 'She is more ancient than this village,'" Hiyuki stated calmly.
Kushina turned to stone and Imaginary cracks appeared on her.
"I am dead, aren't I?" Kushina murmured hollowly to herself.
"Best of luck," came the synchronized, unsympathetic reply from around the table.
"Oh, stop scaring her, all of you. It's not a big deal," Medori chided gently.
Haruto and Tenka finally took their seats at the table.
"What if she called you more ancient than this village, Auntie?" Tenka asked playfully, leaning forward.
Suddenly, the temperature in the room plummeted to sub-zero. Medori's polite smile didn't budge a single millimeter, but the ominous, suffocating killing intent she casually emanated sent chills down everyone's spines.
"Fufu… it seems awakening your bloodline has made you quite bold, Tenka."
Tenka gulped audibly, sweating bullets.
"N-No! Auntie, it was a joke! I swear! You look so young you could easily pass for Hiyuki's sister!" she babbled, frantically backpedaling.
Instantly, the crushing pressure vanished, and the warm morning sunlight felt pleasant again.
"Fufu... be careful making jokes like that, sweetie," Medori said, her smile returning to true warmth.
Tenka nodded vigorously, shutting her mouth and began eating.
"Auntie… did I do something wrong?" Kushina whispered, her earlier frustration completely gone.
The others at the table halted. A frown appeared on both Hiyuki and Konan's faces. Haruto's emerald eyes narrowed, but before he could speak, Medori gently stopped him.
Medori sighed softly. "I don't know, Kushina. Saki has a very complicated past. Haruto calling her 'Saki-nee' is something she deeply cherishes. So, whether she is genuinely mad at you or not, you should still apologize to her, sweetie."
Medori still clearly remembered that day. When Saki had recently moved into their compound, it was awkward for the elite kunoichi to adjust to domestic life at first, but she had quickly settled into the rhythm of their home.
Next to Medori herself, Saki was the one who looked after Haruto the most. On one peaceful evening, Medori and Haruto had been sitting alone in the living room.
Saki had just returned from her active duties, looking utterly tired and physically exhausted.
Medori was just about to greet her, when little Haru suddenly stood up on his wobbly toddler legs, extended both of his chubby hands toward the doorway, and happily babbled.
"Saki… Saki-nee… Saki-nee."
Medori had been so thrilled at the milestone in that moment, but the second she looked up at Saki's face, her breath caught in her throat.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
One, two, three… and then, like a shattered floodgate, tears began streaming down Saki's stoic face, splashing onto the wooden floorboards. The profound, suffocating sorrow Medori felt radiating from the usually unbreakable woman was heartbreaking.
Without a single word, Saki walked over, dropped to her knees, pulled Haru into a tight, desperate hug, and quietly wept into his small shoulder.
Later that night, Saki finally revealed her past. She told Medori about how she had lost her little brother, and how it was her fault that he died.
Kushina's quiet voice suddenly pulled Medori out of her tragic memories.
"I didn't mean it like that…. even if I don't remember saying it," Kushina murmured, looking down at her lap guiltily.
A soft, pleasant wind brushed against Kushina's face. She looked up, her violet eyes glowing slightly, and saw a small wind spirit gently patting her head with tiny hands.
The small blob of wind had evolved into a palm-sized girl with pointed ears. She had very long, flowing blonde hair, pale skin, and soft light-blue eyes. She wore a silver headpiece that looked like intertwined, leafless branches or thorns, along with blue teardrop earrings and a vertical Tacet Mark glowing on her forehead.
It had happened after Haru absorbed Hiyuki's chakra and synchronized with her frequency, just as Hiyuki had whispered about that day.
Kushina's eyes shifted to Haru, who was looking at her with a comforting smile.
"Don't worry, Kushina-nee. Saki-nee is not really angry at you," Haru said in a warm voice. "And if you want, I can accompany you and we can both apologize to her together."
He gave her a bright smile, and the warmth in the room seemed to multiply.
"Hmn. Thank you, Haru," Kushina said, a genuine smile finally returning to her face.
The others smiled as well and resumed their breakfast.
"Come here, Cartethyia," Medori called to the small spirit, molding a tiny, dense ball of chakra on her fingertip. "Here, have some."
The small spirit named Cartethyia happily drifted toward Medori. She took the tiny ball of chakra and began munching on it with both hands, looking exactly like a cute squirrel.
Medori smiled and gently rubbed the spirite's small head with her finger.
"I like you way more than the other you," Medori said fondly.
If Cartethyia represented Haru's green-eyed, gentle nature, then Fleurdelys represented Haru's red-eyed, domineering, and destructive nature.
Hearing Medori's remarks about her other self, Cartethyia pouted, floated away to sit on Haru's shoulder, and stubbornly continued eating her meal there instead.
Haru gently rubbed her small cheek with his finger and looked at his mother.
"Mom, she doesn't like it when someone bad-mouths Fleurdelys."
"Well, I didn't bad-mouth her. I just said she is my favorite."
"Mhm…" Haruto replied, sounding unconvinced.
The others watched the interaction with curious eyes, because almost no one could actually see Haru's guardian spirit. All they saw was a small, glowing chakra ball floating in mid-air being invisibly devoured.
At this table, only three people could see the spirit clearly besides Haruto: Medori, Kushina, and Hiyuki herself.
To anyone else, no matter how hard they focused their chakra, it was just empty space where a small ball of chakra was slowly disappearing bite by bite.
"By the way, where are Mikasa and Saki-sensei?" Kushina finally asked in confusion, having completely missed the earlier conversation.
"Never change, Kushina," Konan sighed with a fond eye roll.
Soft laughter echoed around the table.
******
In the main training grounds.
Mikasa stood in silence opposite her teacher, two sheathed katanas strapped firmly to her hips.
Mikasa was now fifteen years old, with straight, dark hair that fell just below her shoulders. She wore a tight, white, sleeveless crop top that left her midriff exposed, proudly displaying heavily toned abdominal muscles. Long, black, fingerless sleeves extended all the way up past her elbow guards, paired with loose, baggy black sweatpants for maximum mobility.
"So, are you finally ready for this, or are you just here to save Kushina?" Saki asked with a raised eyebrow.
Saki was dressed similarly in a tight black tank top that exposed her own carved eight-pack abs, wearing her standard black shinobi pants below.
"No. I am ready," Mikasa replied seriously, her grey eyes narrowing.
"Good. Come, then. Show me what you've learned these past few years."
With those words, Mikasa completely disappeared in a gust of wind.
Saki stood perfectly still, waiting patiently. Then—
Clang!
Mikasa materialized directly beside her in mid-air, swinging her blade toward Saki's neck.
But a spear constructed entirely out of glowing crimson seals stopped the steel blade dead in its path.
Saki calmly met Mikasa's shocked eyes.
"Good use of Wind Release to mask your approach, but you are still far too slow and predictable."
Mikasa's eyes widened. Using her core strength, she rapidly rotated in mid-air, drawing her second blade from its sheath.
Instantly, dozens of glowing seals manifested out of thin air, surrounding Mikasa on all sides. From within the seals, various weapons violently launched themselves toward her.
'Wind Release: Vacuum Gale,' Mikasa chanted inwardly, channeling her wind-natured chakra directly into her blades.
This was a strict rule they had all learned under Saki: never shout your jutsu out loud, unless you specifically needed to draw more raw power from your lungs. In a real battle, silence was lethal.
Swinging her blades, Mikasa created a spiraling wind vortex around herself, perfectly shielding her body from the onslaught of weapons. In the very next second, she released her lightning chakra, sending violent waves of electrical arcs outward to completely shatter the airborne storage seals.
Mikasa landed softly on the grass, dropping into a defensive stance a few feet away from Saki, who had not moved a single inch from her original spot.
"Are you done?" Saki asked leisurely.
"Your speed is good, your form is perfect, and the way you use your Wind Release for sudden bursts of movement is phenomenal. But you rely too heavily on raw reaction; you lack a ninja's subtlety in your attacks. That's understandable, of course. Subtlety comes from experience." Saki grinned, a sharp, dangerous look entering her eyes. "But your instincts… they are top-notch. Truly the best I have ever seen."
Only Saki knew the hell she had put Kushina through just to force those same survival instincts to develop. Yet Mikasa possessed them completely naturally…. just like her.
Mikasa nodded silently, acknowledging the critique.
Then, she took a deep breath. This time, there would be no holding back.
Mikasa leaped forward in a blinding burst of lightning.
Saki raised an eyebrow. 'She has improved her Lightning Release,' she noted internally.
Her eyes calmly tracked Mikasa's erratic, zigzagging movements as the girl blurred around the training grounds.
Suddenly, Mikasa lunged. Saki merely shifted her upper body a fraction of an inch, effortlessly dodging the lethal stab before throwing a devastating punch right into Mikasa's exposed ribs.
Mikasa was violently flung backward by the impact. But, rapidly channeling her Wind Release, she expertly adjusted her balance mid-air, using the air currents to catch herself before immediately launching back at Saki like a missile.
They clashed a few more times, the ringing of steel echoing across the field, before Saki realized something: Mikasa was actively becoming faster and smoother with every single strike. Her body was adapting to Saki's rhythm.
Eventually, Saki was actually forced to raise her crimson spear to block a heavy strike, taking a step back from her original position just to dodge the follow-up slash.
In the blink of an eye, Mikasa appeared directly in front of her. Saki heavily parried the twin blades with the shaft of her spear, using the momentum to launch Mikasa high into the air.
Without missing a beat, Saki leaped up right after her.
They clashed repeatedly in mid-air, their movements so fast they became nothing more than a blur of crackling blue lightning and flashing red seals.
During one of her strikes, Mikasa overextended by just a fraction of an inch, and Saki instantly punished her for it. Catching Mikasa by the wrist, Saki used the girl's own momentum to violently hurl her down toward the ground.
Mikasa hit the dirt with a bone-rattling crash, kicking up a massive plume of dust.
From high above, Saki looked down at the expanding dust cloud. Suddenly, two blades shot straight out of the smokescreen, aimed directly at her.
Saki raised an eyebrow. Throwing away your primary weapons mid-fight was a bold move. She calmly tilted her body, easily dodging the incoming projectiles. But as the blades whizzed past her, the morning sunlight caught the glint of an almost invisible thread attached to their hilts.
Steel wire.
Realizing the trap, Saki instantly activated her defensive markings, erecting a glowing crimson barrier seal completely around her body.
Down on the ground, hidden perfectly within the dust cloud, Mikasa finished weaving a rapid set of hand signs. She grabbed the trailing ends of the wires, channeled her lightning chakra directly into the steel, and yanked them hard.
The airborne katanas instantly reversed direction. Driven by the violent pull of the wires, they whipped tightly around Saki, binding her glowing barrier in a cage of steel wire and violent, crackling electricity.
Mikasa then dropped the wires and formed a single, one-handed release seal, manually triggering the explosive tags she had hidden on her weapons.
High in the air, Saki remained wrapped in the electrified steel wire, the lethal current completely held at bay by her crimson barrier. But suddenly, her supernatural instincts screamed at her from behind.
Without even looking, she jerked her head violently to the side.
In the very next instant, she heard the terrifying crack of her barrier shattering. One of the katanas, wrapped in highly concentrated lightning chakra and propelled by the point-blank explosion, tore straight through her defense. The blade shredded a few strands of her hair and grazed her cheek, drawing a thin, bright line of blood.
A small, genuine smile grazed Saki's lips as she slowly descended from the sky. Around the fresh cut on her cheek, a crimson petal seal bloomed, healing the wound in an instant before seamlessly dissolving back into her skin.
Saki landed gracefully in front of Mikasa, who was still breathing heavily, and spoke with a distinct hint of pride.
"Good. You are now ready to take missions outside the village without dying in an instant."
Saki extended her right hand. A glowing red seal materialized above her palm, and from it, a thick scroll appeared slowly onto her palm. She tossed it casually toward a bewildered Mikasa.
Mikasa caught it reflexively, looking at her teacher in confusion.
Saki smirked. "That is my personal gravity seal fūinjutsu. Your combat style is the most suited for it. Learn it well."
Without another word, Saki turned and began walking back toward the compound. Mikasa stood completely frozen, her wide grey eyes darting between the scroll in her hands and her teacher's retreating back.
Finally, she had to ask.
"Sensei… are you really angry at Kushina?"
Saki paused and chuckled, glancing back over her shoulder.
"So, you really did come out here just to take the fall for her," Saki said with a fond roll of her eyes. "As for your question… no. Why would I be angry at her? She was just drunk. Though I am still slightly annoyed."
In truth, Saki had never cared about silly jokes regarding her age. Her only real, quiet fear had been that, because of Kushina's careless comment, Haru might stop calling her 'Saki-nee.'
But Haru's simple, innocent reply at the party—"Saki-nee is Saki-nee"—had completely blown those lingering insecurities to pieces.
What had actually happened the night before was quite simple: Kushina, completely devoid of her usual filter in her drunken haze, had looked at Haruto and asked a genuinely curious question.
"Why do you call Saki-sensei 'Saki-nee'?" she had asked with completely unhinged bluntness. "She is more ancient than this village, you know."
Haruto hadn't sensed any malice or insult from her at all—just pure, simple curiosity as to why he used that specific honorific for the fearsome kunoichi.
So, he had simply answered with a bright, beaming smile.
"Because Saki-nee is Saki-nee!"
That simple, innocent declaration had instantly warmed the entire room. Saki's hidden anxieties were crushed in the best way possible, and Kushina had immediately cooed, tipsily squishing Haru's cheeks with immense affection, her question completely forgotten in the span of a single second.
********
A.N:
Well a 5 years time skip. And the next chapter will mostly be what happened around the world in these 5 years.
And another thing I forgot to mention.
Saki's forehead seal has different activation mode.
In her normal stage. They remain dormant. And if Saki wanted she can hide it.
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In activation mode. They start spreading from her forehead towards face then the whole body.
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