Chapter 30
Uzushiogakure
A pleasant wind swept through the village, which was now fully renovated and rebuilt. Children were playing happily in the streets, their laughter giving Uzushio a serene sense of peace.
In the center of the village stood the mountain. Currently, Kushina and Haruto were walking hand in hand toward the main training grounds.
"I can't believe I really said that to Sensei's face."
Kushina was still groaning about her drunken blunder.
"Hmm? No, you didn't say it to Saki-nee," Haruto said in confusion. "You asked me a question about why I call her 'Saki-nee'."
Kushina blinked. Yes, she had always been curious about that, but she had never actually asked either of them while sober.
"Really? And what did you answer?"
Haruto beamed up at her.
"I said Saki-nee is Saki-nee."
Kushina practically had to shield her eyes from his blinding innocence. But when she heard his answer, a fond, relieved smile graced her face.
'It's so like him,' she thought affectionately.
"And she releases a very pleasant, bright colour every time I call her that," Haru tried to explain further.
"Colour? What colour?" Kushina asked. She could also see different colours floating in the air—black, gold, red, green, blue, and many others she couldn't quite find the words to describe.
As she spoke, Kushina activated her dōjutsu. Her eyes glowed slightly, and the world shifted, revealing the various colours drifting around them: vibrant greens, blues, blacks, and golds.
Then, she looked down at Haruto, who was warmly shrouded in a brilliant mixture of green and gold.
"Sss!" Kushina hissed, quickly rubbing her eyes in sudden pain.
This was another frustrating issue. Whenever she used her eyes to focus too intently on those colours, a sharp ache pierced her skull, making her head feel like it was splitting open.
Haru looked at her worriedly and grabbed her hand tighter. Without hesitation, he circulated his warm chakra directly into her body.
Kushina instantly felt better. It was as if all the pain simply melted away, leaving her feeling rejuvenated, like she was bathing in the world's best hot spring. The feeling of his pure chakra was dangerously addictive.
"You shouldn't do this. It's Tenka's turn this week," Kushina sighed, though she didn't pull her hand away.
"I am sure Tenka-nee wouldn't mind," he said with a bright, toothy smile.
A slight blush dusted Kushina's cheeks.
"You didn't answer my question," she whispered, turning her head to hide her flushed face.
"Hmmm.… it's hard to explain. Everyone has different colours, but the main ones I can see are black and gold. Everyone has them in different ratios. Some have more black than gold, and vice versa," Haruto said, his face scrunched up in concentration as he thought hard.
"Huh? You don't see the blue, green, and other colours floating around in the air?"
"Ah? No. I only see what shrouds people."
"Hmm… then do you feel anything from those colours?"
Haruto hesitated slightly. After a second, he nodded, but remained completely silent.
"If you aren't comfortable sharing it, there is no need to force it, Haru," Kushina said comfortingly, giving his small hand a gentle squeeze.
After a few more seconds of walking in silence, Haru finally mumbled.
"Black is bad… gold is good."
Kushina's steps faltered for a fraction of a second, but she quickly recovered her stride.
"Is that so? …Do you hate the black, then?" she asked, feigning nonchalance.
She suddenly remembered one of Haru's rare, stubborn outbursts about being a ninja.
Haru had firmly refused to become a shinobi. When pressed by the adults for a reason, he had bluntly stated that ninja were 'bad and dirty'.
The adults had been frozen by that statement, and Kushina hadn't understood it at the time either. But if Haru could actually see the core nature and morality of a person as a literal aura… then it made perfect sense. Ninja were forced to kill and deceive; naturally, they would carry a lot of 'black' around them.
She was abruptly brought back to the present by Haru's surprisingly firm voice.
"No! Black is bad, but it doesn't represent a person as a whole. And everyone has it: Mom, Saki-nee, Sakuko-nee, Uncle Kenji, Uncle Shōto, and even you and Hiyuki-nee."
Kushina instantly discarded her previous theory. If Dad and I both had it, it clearly had nothing to do with basic morality. It seemed Haru was seeing something else entirely. She asked another question.
"Even Auntie?"
"Hmn… Mom has it the most," Haru nodded nonchalantly. "And Mom also has the most radiant gold colour."
"Hmmm…" Kushina began thinking hard, until something finally clicked in her mind.
"Wait, even I have the black colour?"
"Yes. But compared to the others, it's practically nothing. Even Hiyuki-nee has more than you," Haruto answered innocently.
"Ahh. Let's just forget it. My head is already hurting." Kushina dropped the subject with a heavy sigh. It wasn't the first time; most things concerning Haru were a complete mystery, and they had all learned to simply accept his oddities a long time ago.
"Hmmm!" Haruto nodded, once again beaming happily.
They continued their peaceful walk toward the training grounds.
"What are you two doing here?"
Kushina instantly jumped in surprise at the sudden sound of the voice.
"Saki-nee!!" Haruto lunged happily into Saki's arms.
"W-well. G-good morning, Sensei," Kushina greeted nervously. She took a deep breath to steady herself and bowed a perfect ninety degrees. "I am so sorry, Sensei, about my behaviour last night. I should never have asked that question."
Saki calmly adjusted Haru on her hip and stared down at Kushina in total silence. The long seconds stretched out, making the redhead sweat bullets under the intense gaze.
Kushina was practically vibrating with anxiety, but thankfully, Haru came to her rescue.
He kissed Saki's cheek and deployed his ultimate weapon.
"Saki-nee, please forgive Kushina-nee. Pleaseee?"
Puppy-dog eyes. Full power.
Saki instantly folded.
"Ugh. Fine… fine. Stop using those eyes," Saki sighed in defeat. Then, her gaze snapped back to Kushina. She reached out, clamped her hand over the top of Kushina's head like an iron claw, and began dragging her forward.
"Ow! Oww! Ow! Sensei, it hurts!" Kushina whined, grabbing at Saki's wrist.
"It's your punishment," Saki stated flatly. Then, she looked down at the boy in her arms. "As for you, mister. Let's finish today's training before your mother calls for you."
"Aaargh… no, I don't wanna. Please, Saki-nee?"
Now it was Haruto's turn to whine. Desperate to escape training, he fired off his ultimate weapon a second time.
"Ugh…" Saki visibly resisted the puppy-dog eyes. Sensing she was fighting a losing battle against him, she quickly deployed her own ultimate weapon. "I was thinking about giving you a special treat after training."
"Really?" Haruto instantly perked up, his crystalline green eyes shining.
"Yes."
"Tsk…" Kushina clicked her tongue from where she was currently trapped in Saki's grip. She knew exactly what 'treat' Saki was talking about.
Hearing the click, Saki increased the crushing pressure on Kushina's head, instantly making the girl groan in pain.
"Let's go train, then!" Haruto cheered, pointing dramatically toward the Compound's training grounds.
*****
On the other side of the village.
A building much larger than the surrounding structures stood proud. People and shinobi alike were constantly coming and going through its doors.
It was the Administrative Building of Uzushio. It functioned exactly like the Hokage building; shinobi took their mission assignments from here, and civilians posted their daily requests. It also housed the offices for Uzushio's higher-ups, including Kenji, Shōto, Iori, and many other important figures.
Kenji, whose once vibrant red hair had become noticeably duller and whose face now showed clear signs of aging, was currently going through a thick file. Across the desk sat his childhood friend, Shōto.
It was the master file regarding the orphans they had adopted from the mainland over the years. Most were perfectly normal, and some possessed decent talent. If Uzushio poured their resources into them, they could easily become high-ranking chūnin, or perhaps even jōnin. But nobody was nearly as exceptional as that first batch of children.
"We should halt the adoption operations now. The other villages have caught our trail. They are actively investigating our movements in their territories," Shōto informed him seriously.
"Hm. Then let's stop it. We have already stabilized our population and forces; adding more unknowns right now would be counterproductive," Kenji said without taking his eyes off the files.
The specific files in his hands were about the girls Haru had shared his chakra with, detailing their progression.
"They have become quite the powerhouses," Kenji commented.
"Yes, they have," Shōto summarized, as he was the one who had compiled the reports. "From Tenka's space-time bloodline limit and Konan's vastly strengthened Paper Release, to Hiyuki's incredibly potent Ice Release and Mikasa's unbelievable chakra growth in both potency and volume."
"You forgot Kushina's massively increased reserves and her newly awakened Mind's Eye of Kagura," Kenji pointed out.
"Then you forgot to mention Medori, Sakuko, and Saki's increased chakra volumes," Shōto added flatly. "Medori is his mother, so her growth was obvious. And we all saw Saki being healed by Haru after the invasion. That was one of the main reasons we chose not to interfere when the kids started sharing chakra with each other," Shōto replied crisply.
Yes, the adults had noticed the children's "little secret" much earlier than the girls thought. But they hadn't meddled, because they had clearly seen the benefits—from Medori's dense chakra to Saki's drastically fortified body and chakra veins. For a fully grown, adult elite ninja to experience a sudden increase in chakra potency was practically unheard of.
So they let it continue. But they simply hadn't considered that Tenka would possess a dormant, highly unstable bloodline limit.
If it hadn't been for Saki and Medori's quick response that day, the resulting spatial distortion would have been devastating.
"I still think we are wasting his potential," Shōto said with lingering disappointment. "And now the boy doesn't even want to become a shinobi."
Kenji glanced around the office cautiously despite the privacy seals.
"Do not ever say that in front of Medori, Saki, or any of the girls close to the kid," Kenji warned jokingly, though the seriousness in his tone was real.
Shōto sighed, rubbing his temples.
"Yeah, I know. They are very protective of him. That kid has all the strongest kunoichi in this village wrapped around his little finger. Don't worry, I know what to say and who I can safely say it in front of."
Kenji nodded, satisfied. Then, his voice shifted into the heavy tone of a clan head.
"As for using Haru to boost our forces, I think Medori did the exact right thing by putting a stop to it. Children should not have to shoulder our burdens this early. And as a father, I completely support Medori's decision. A child should never be used purely as a tool for village benefits."
As Kenji said that, his heavy gaze landed on the formal letter resting at the far end of his desk.
It was a letter from Konoha, desperately stating their need for a suitable Jinchūriki candidate.
They had even heavily hinted at requesting Kushina, citing her unique chakra.
Kenji chuckled inwardly at the sheer audacity of the situation. At this point in time, Konoha was practically being kept afloat by Uzushio.
Uzushio currently contributed more than half of Konoha's operating revenue, especially after the Leaf had officially entered a war against Sunagakure.
At first, the War was swinging in favor of Konoha. But after two years of bloody stalemate, Amegakure had also declared war on the Leaf, officially starting the Second Shinobi World War.
Then, just last year, Iwagakure joined the fray, turning the conflict into a meat grinder with no end in sight.
But Konoha had also benefited from this war. The village's fame was at an all-time high, largely thanks to Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru making a name for themselves, alongside Sakumo Hatake cementing his alias: 'Konoha's White Fang'.
However, recently, another name had emerged from the shadows of this war. And technically, she wasn't even a part of it.
The 'White Death'.
It was Hiyuki's new alias in the bingo books.
After Hiyuki had passed Saki's rigorous combat test at the age of fifteen, she had begun taking various high-ranking missions outside the village. Most were crucial escort missions, securing the transportation of Uzushio's highly valuable goods to different nations.
A few months back, Hiyuki had been tasked with escorting a massive shipment back from the Land of Grass, carrying various Suna-traded goods—most importantly, raw gold. Sunagakure was rich in iron and gold mines, and gold was one of the most highly conductive, essential ingredients for Uzushio's advanced fūinjutsu carvings.
Her caravan had been caught in a three-way crossfire between Ame, Iwa, and Konoha forces. Hiyuki had calmly tried to negotiate safe passage at first, but the Ame and Iwa commanders had refused.
So, Hiyuki had single-handedly frozen the entire battlefield, effortlessly slaughtering every single Ame and Iwa shinobi present.
That massacre was yet another major reason why every hidden village was currently investigating them. The Uzumaki were globally feared for their vibrant red hair, their absurd vitality, and their sealing jutsu. They were not known for possessing white hair or the Ice Release.
Kenji sighed and picked up Hiyuki's file. Hiyuki was a distinct oddity within the group—not just because of her unique looks or her devastating Ice Release, but because of her entirely different power system.
She did not operate on chakra alone. Instead, she utilized something she called 'Resonance Energy', drawn from the glowing 'Tacet Mark' located on the outer side of her upper right thigh.
Even after years of intense study, Uzushio's brightest minds couldn't figure out exactly how she manipulated this power. The only concrete fact they had discovered was that it possessed a strict physical limit, a state Hiyuki referred to as Overclocking, which functioned similarly to severe chakra exhaustion.
Then he picked another file.
Konan had been another incredibly pleasant surprise. She possessed the rare Paper Release and was flawlessly suited for Uzushio's combat style. She might not be the most physically powerful brawler in the group, but with enough preparation, she could easily decimate an entire army by herself.
And that was only if she used standard explosive tags. If she switched out the paper bombs for high-level Uzumaki fūinjutsu—weaving jutsu seals, advanced storage seals, and barrier seals into her origami—she would become an absolute disaster for any enemy nation to deal with. With her currently studying directly under Medori, it was only a matter of time before her name became just as infamous as Hiyuki's.
"So, what should we do with these children now?" Shōto asked, pulling Kenji from his thoughts.
Kenji fell silent for a moment. After a second, he channeled a tiny spark of fire chakra, burning the sensitive files regarding the girls to ash. He already had securely encrypted copies in his personal compound; there was no need to keep such dangerous intelligence lying around the administrative building.
"Let them be. They are still children. They should remain as such and enjoy their childhoods," Kenji said, looking up at Shōto. "Because everyone has to become an adult eventually."
Shōto nodded, dropping the subject respectfully.
"So, what is the latest update from the war fronts?"
"Konoha might be facing a functional alliance. The other three villages have seemingly come to an unspoken agreement to make the Leaf bleed," Kenji explained, leaning back in his chair. "Konoha is stretched incredibly thin. Sakumo and Tsunade are holding the Suna front, Jiraiya is entrenched on the Ame front, and Orochimaru is pushing Iwa in the Land of Grass. They had to keep shuffling their commanders around, but Tsunade ultimately had to be permanently deployed to Suna just to counter Chiyo's poisons. Konoha had already suffered massive casualties from her toxins alone."
"And Danzō?"
"As for Danzō, he has remained mostly quiet after his humiliating defeat on the Suna front, where he permanently lost his right arm."
It had been one of Konoha's most disastrous military defeats. Danzō had confidently led an elite division to ambush a Suna supply line, only to walk directly into a brutal counter-ambush orchestrated by Chiyo and her puppeteers.
In the end, only Danzō and a handful of his elite operatives had survived to retreat, all bearing critical injuries.
"If you ask me, Konoha needs to focus on breaking one village first, rather than fighting a war of attrition on all fronts," Shōto analyzed grimly. "Everyone is bleeding out their resources in this conflict. And who knows if Kumo also decided to join."
Kumo and Kiri had not joined this war yet, which is understandable; after Iori and Medori's ruthless financial hit, Kumo and Kiri were still in recovery
*****
An hour later.
Inside Medori's compound.
Kushina sat heavily on the porch, staring out at the training grounds with completely dead eyes. Out on the field, Haruto was lazily practicing basic katas, while her sensei guided his forms with the gentle patience of a doting older sister.
Kushina wanted to weep tears of blood at the sheer injustice of it all. When she was five, she had been forced to desperately dodge spears, kunai, and tantō strikes just to keep her body from having more holes, fighting her terrifying sensei until she collapsed from exhaustion.
'Is this what they call blatant favoritism?' she thought inwardly.
Her fists tightened against her knees. But truthfully.... she wasn't actually against it. She never wanted Haru to suffer the kind of pain she had endured, especially since he didn't even want to be a ninja in the first place. So, she would just have to get incredibly strong. She would protect him herself… even if it cost her life.
Thwack!
She turned her head toward the sharp sound. On the far side of the grounds, Hiyuki was practicing with a traditional longbow. Her arrow had just hit the bullseye dead center on a target several hundred meters away.
Then—
Thwack!
A second arrow crossed the massive distance in the blink of an eye, perfectly piercing through the wooden shaft of the first arrow, splitting it right down the middle.
It was so incredibly cool to watch. Kushina knew for a fact that Hiyuki could imbue those arrows with her Ice Release, turning them into freezing explosives on impact.
In their group, Hiyuki and Mikasa were undoubtedly the most badass when it came to raw combat.
As for the others, Tenka was an absolute pain in the ass to deal with. Because of her space-time bloodline limit, she would constantly disappear into one portal and instantly strike from another. She could even go toe-to-toe with Mikasa's monstrous speed for a short while—though inevitably, Mikasa would adapt and absolutely beat the shit out of Tenka.
Sora and Akira weren't frontline fighters. Uncle Shōto was training the twins to be strategists and battlefield commanders. However, individually, they could easily match an elite genin, and when fighting together with their flawless coordination, they could comfortably defeat an experienced chūnin. Their seamless teamwork was something even Kushina deeply admired.
And Konan was certainly no slouch either. Kushina glanced up at the delicate origami cranes hanging from the porch balcony. Different types of beautiful origami decorated the entire compound, but Kushina knew the truth: almost all of them were inscribed with surveillance and barrier seals.
Ever since that incident with Tenka's spatial distortion years ago, Konan had effectively turned this entire compound into her own heavily trapped stronghold. That unparalleled preparation was exactly why Konan was a disaster to deal with in a fight.
Kushina smirked to herself. Konan might be a disaster to deal with, but Kushina was her natural counter. Her Adamantine Sealing Chains absorbed and shredded Konan's chakra-infused Paper Release. Meanwhile, Konan's massive area-of-effect traps perfectly countered Tenka's portals and Mikasa's close-quarters speed. It was a perfectly balanced, chaotic ecosystem.
But it was not absolute either, most of the time, Mikasa still won because of her instincts and speed and even she had lost against Konan countless times.
"What are you thinking so hard about?"
Kushina instantly jumped in surprise, forcefully holding her honed combat instincts at bay even though her first reaction was to punch that bitch who just snuck up on her.
"Aagh! For fuck's sake, Tenka, stop sneaking up behind me like that!" Kushina hissed, clutching her chest.
Tenka stepped completely out of her swirling spatial portal, a playful smile plastered on her face.
"Fufu… you just looked so cute, focusing so hard over here. I couldn't resist it. Sorry…" Tenka apologized, though she didn't sound the least bit sorry.
A tick mark popped onto Kushina's forehead.
Tenka completely ignored Kushina's annoyed expression, her gaze shifting back to watch Haruto's training with an affectionate look.
Kushina didn't know why, but she felt a sharp prick in her heart whenever Tenka looked at Haru that way.
"They are about to finish," Tenka noted, and Kushina forced herself to calm down.
Out on the field, they saw Haru practically jumping around Saki, excitedly waiting for his promised treat.
Saki sighed, looking down at Haru's expectant gaze. Since she was only wearing a tank top, she simply extended her arm, offering her bare forearm to him.
Haru's emerald eyes sparkled. He gently bit down on her forearm and began drawing out her chakra.
Saki's spider lily forehead seal automatically activated, lighting up her entire body the moment Haru's chakra entered her system, seamlessly circulating and absorbing it.
As Haruto fed on her chakra, he seemed to slip into a trance. His eyes suddenly shifted from bright emerald to a brilliant ruby red. With that shift, the atmosphere of the entire surrounding area changed. The air grew heavy and oppressive, as if an invisible weight had just slammed down upon the training grounds.
On the far side of the field, Hiyuki paused her archery practice. She silently glanced toward the group, then toward the porch, before quietly resuming her training.
From the balcony, Kushina and Tenka watched the scene with varying levels of annoyance.
Here they were, stuck on a strict one-week rotation to share chakra with him, while Saki and Sakuko could just use 'training' as an excuse to bypass the rules entirely.
Well, that's just their jealousy talking.
In reality, Haruto didn't like to train very much, so Saki had come up with the plan to offer her chakra as a reward to motivate him. It had been a massive success, and naturally, Sakuko followed suit.
After five minutes, Haruto stopped drawing chakra. He slowly opened his ruby red eyes, meeting Saki's crimson ones. Removing her arm from his mouth, he slowly and deliberately licked the red mark on her skin, healing it in an instant.
"You taste divine, Sensei~" Haruto purred alluringly.
A faint blush dusted Saki's cheeks.
This was the other bizarre mystery regarding Haru. At some point, whenever he absorbed chakra, his innocent personality vanished. Instead, he became an overwhelmingly dangerous playboy.
The girls had collectively dubbed this persona 'Haruto's Dark Side'.
And everyone knows the dark side has cookies.
A second later, Haru's eyes shifted back to their bright green luster. The heavy, oppressive atmosphere vanished instantly, snapping back to normal as if it had all been a bizarre dream.
Haru looked innocently at Saki's flushed face and tilted his head in genuine worry.
"Are you alright, Saki-nee? D-did I take too much?"
"Ahm. No. No, it's alright. You didn't do anything. I—I just got suddenly tired and need a shower," Saki coughed awkwardly, desperately trying to change the subject. "Let's go. You have to be somewhere today anyway. I will bathe you before your mother calls for you."
Up on the porch, Kushina's eyebrows were violently twitching, and Tenka was trying her hardest to keep a strained smile on her face as they watched Saki and Haru leave the training grounds.
Kushina sighed heavily, rubbed her throbbing temples, and looked around.
"Where is Konan, by the way?"
"Hmm—oh, Konan is doing her homework," Tenka replied, finally snapping out of her own daze before turning to Kushina. "What about you? Have you finished yours?"
"Heh. Auntie said we just had to submit it at the end of the week. I have plenty of time," Kushina replied nonchalantly, waving her hand.
Tenka blinked, looking genuinely surprised.
"Sometimes I really don't know if you are smart, or just incredibly stupid."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Kushina growled.
"Kushina… what day is tomorrow?" Tenka asked slowly.
Kushina began counting on her fingers. As she arrived at the answer, she stopped, turning toward Tenka like a rusty mechanical doll.
"T-The weekend… But Konan is late doing hers this week!" she realized, her voice dripping with horror.
She always relied on Konan's schedule as her personal timer to start her own homework!
"Well, duh. She was busy this week, helping Auntie prepare for Haru's party last night," Tenka replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Oh shit. Oh shit. I have to go!" Kushina vaulted over the balcony's couch and began sprinting frantically toward her home in the Main Compound.
At the end of the hallway, she nearly crashed into Mikasa.
"Hi Mikasa! Bye Mikasa! And thanks for helping me earlier!" Kushina yelled rapidly as she bolted past her without stopping.
Tenka shook her head in amusement, offering a smile to Mikasa as they both watched Kushina disappear down the hallway in a blur of red hair.
"Where were you, Mikasa?" Tenka asked.
"Hm—oh. I was sweaty after sparring with Sensei, so I took a shower," Mikasa replied. She was now dressed casually in a plain T-shirt and sweatpants, though the simple clothes did little to hide her honed physique.
"Ohh… wanna help me with lunch? Auntie will be busy this afternoon."
"Hm. Of course, why not," Mikasa nodded in agreement.
Tenka then turned her gaze toward the archery range, looking at Hiyuki's target.
The wooden target now had several arrows that had completely missed the bullseye, landing on the outermost rings, with a few even missing the target entirely and burying themselves in the grass.
Clearly, the stoic Ice Release user had also been affected by Haru's little 'dark side' display.
"Hey! Hiyuki! Wanna help us with lunch?" Tenka called out playfully.
Hiyuki stood perfectly still for a moment. Then, she sighed heavily, turned around, and began walking toward the weapon rack to put her bow away.
"Sure."
A minute later, all three of them disappeared down the hallway, heading toward the kitchen.
*******