Chapter Text
The atmosphere in the room was tense to say the least…
It’s been a day since the prelims were over and just a few hours since the council was gathered, with no sugar coating and little to no warning, Hiruzen laid bare the situation with Danzo, Mikoto and Kushina.
To say the clans were outraged was an understatement and the tension in the room was more than enough proof of that.
“do you think she already told him?”, Shikaku asks, smoking his tenth cigarette in the hour.
“I didn’t felt any spike in tailed beast chakra, so she either did it already and Naruto is doing a good job at keeping his lid on or he doesn’t know yet”, Inoichi answers, looking around the room trying to get a good reading of the people there.
“well, it was nice to meet you all!”, Tsume says, causing the whole shinobi side of the council to look at her, “oh, come on that piece of sh*t Danzo dug up the bodies of two mothers to use as rat labs. Right about now, Naruto releasing the f*cking fox on our asses, is the kinder way to go, because we all know we’ll have hell to pay once Itachi gets a whiff of what happened!”.
“sh*t!”, Haiashi says in defeat.
“yeah, sh*t!”, comes Naruto’s voice from the door.
He looked like a mess, so clearly Twonade had brought him to speed, another proof being the suffocating killing intent flooding the room was he walked into the room in his four tails jincloak.
“Naruto…”, Hiruzen says, not really thinking on any excuse to give, because there was no excuse to be made.
“jiji”, Naruto says, stopping the Hokage on his tracks while Twonade walked behind him, “I want you to know, right about now, I am not in a very good mood, the only thing stopping me from snapping right now is the fact mom calmed down enough for me to have a semblance of rational thinking”.
Hiruzen feels a nervous bead of cold sweat running down his brow, the same can be said about the council, civilian and Shinobi alike.
“and yes, this is myself with a semblance of rational thinking”, Naruto clarifies, noticing people staring at him and his cloak of tailed beast chakra, “so, I’ll ask you and you better be honest, did you knew about that?”.
“no, I did not knew about that”, Hiruzen answers waiting for Naruto to jump and eviscerate him but when he was met with silence, he decided to just keep going, “Naruto, I will not ask your forgiveness, I do not deserve it and I do not even have words to start apologizing, my own incompetence led into this”.
The entire room falls silent as Naruto stands there with his eyes closed and taking deep breaths.
“what is he doing?”, Chouza asks Twonade with a whisper.
“breathing exercises”, Twonade whispers back, “he’s trying to calm himself down to stop from doing something he might regret later”.
“jiji, I do understand that the Hokage has to, on occasion, either do or turn a blind eye to heinous sh*t”, Naruto explains after gathering enough strength to not just kill everybody there, “I do understand, but that does not mean I have to agree nor like it. I know you aren’t lying to me, because desecrating allies tombs is a line I know for a fact you wouldn’t cross, so I’ll ask you one more time, did you knew about it?”.
“if I had known of what Danzo was doing, I would have killed him myself”, Hiruzen answers with determination.
Naruto looked at the man from head to toe with an analytic gaze, his once blue eyes changed into vertically slatted demonic red ones.
“I’ll let you deal with the rest”, Naruto says, before the cloak subsided, “and I’m giving you a heads up, mom and Mikoto are NOT happy and so is Sasuke. I may not be taking my pound of flesh from you but I cannot promise they won’t”.
“that’s absolutely fair”, Hiruzen admits, what he heard does little to nothing o reassured him.
“good”, Naruto says, “and jiji, for your own sake and peace, I hope something like this never happens again”.
After that, Naruto leaves with Twonade.
The second the door closes, a member of the civilian council was about to say something.
“shut the f*ck up”, Hiruzen says, courtesy be damned, “the civilian side may leave now”.
As the shinobi discuss, Naruto is back at Skycastle where Kushina, Mikoto and his half-sisters(?) where going through another battery of exams.
“do we really have to do this?”, Kushina asks, as she laid on her bed.
“for the hundredth time, yes Lady Kushina, you do have to do this”, the nurse answers, without lifting her eyes from the tablet in her hands, “your highness ordered us to make sure you, Lady Mikoto and the children are in perfect health and we are going to make sure to fulfill our king’s orders”.
“the girls and Mikoto, are they alright?”, Kushina asks, feeling her heart tight.
“the girls are fine, right now they are being watched by both Lady Tsunade and Lord Tobirama”, the nurse answer, “as for Lady Mikoto, just like you, her exams are about to be completed, we are just making sure she’s adapting well of her new pair of eyes”.
“and Naruto is he ok?”, Kushina asks, sick with worry.
“your highness is angry”, the nurse answers, “and justifiably so, for now he’s focusing on blowing off steam. He’ll feel better once he purges the anger from his system”.
Kushina can only lay there and think, think about how her life had taken such a turn.
That fateful night twelve years ago when she sacrificed herself, she never expected to see her son again and deep down, she hoped their reunion wouldn’t occur so soon.
She hoped her baby boy would live a long happy life, that when they met again in the Pure Lands, he would be as old as Mito was when she passed away, that he would share with her happy stories of his children, grandchildren and with some luck, great-grandchildren.
A dream, she realizes after waking up from the deep restless slumber her body was kept on as the tales of how Naruto’s life had panned out so far where relayed to her by the Tsunade replicant.
How it pained her heart to learn what Naruto, her baby boy would have become if this alien fortress had not found him, how more likely than not, he would have died, or worse.
The fact there was an option worse than death haunted her to no end.
“and we are done”, the nurse snaps Kushina out of her musing, “you are free to go now”.
“thanks!”, Kushina springs to her feet, discarding the medical gown she was wearing and putting in the fresh clothes provided by the maids.
Following one of the maids, Kushina is guided to where Tobirama and Tsunade where with her daughters.
“mom!”, the both the red-haired and the sun kissed girls run to Kushina.
“Mito, Natsu”, Kushina hugs the girls, “are you two having fun?”.
“yes!”, the dark skinned girl, Mito says with a bright smile, “uncle Tobi and AnutTSunade were telling is stories about dad”.
“he was a buffoon”, Natsu says.
“Natsu, don’t be mean!!”, Mito wines comically.
“but he was!”, Natsu quips back, “like, what kind of idiot gamble away the village’s budget?”.
“but he won it back”, Mito points out.
“and lost it again a week later”, Natsu adds, causing Mito pout.
At that, Mito pouts again staring daggers at her sister.
“alright, no fighting ok”, Kushina says after a giggle, “where’s Mikoto?”.
“with ducckbutt hair and Mira”, Natsu says.
“Natsu!”, Kushina gasps, “it’s not nice to call people’s names”.
“but his hair does look like a duck butt”, Mito adds, much to Kushina’s annoyance..
“and your brother, have any of you seen him?”, Kushina asks, worried.
“your highness right now is blowing off some steam at the training grounds”, Twonade says, appearing out of thin air.
“log above!!”, Kushina screams jumping back, “is he ok?”.
“no, not right now at least”, Twonade answers very politely, “right now he needs some time to clear his head”.
“I… understand”, Kushina says, her heart clenching knowing her baby was deep distress.
She wanted to go where he was, to comfort him, to hug him, but as much as she wanted to, she understood that Naruto needed some space to cool his head.
“would you like to go on tour of the castle?”, Twonade asks and Kushina nods, “good, by the way, Tsunade you are late for your lessons”.
“oh give me a break!”, Tsunade complains.
“keep whining and you might not have any wine at dinner”, Twonade says with an eye smile and a sweet voice.
“sorry, ma’am, I’m going right now ma’am”, Tsunade says, leaving in a haste.
“wonderful, now, Lady Uzumaki, follow me, we have much to see”, Twonade says.
Kushina was… confused, but she agreed to a tour and that sounded fun.
“oh, and who is this lovely lady?”, Kushina asks once the tour brought them to the lecture halls of the castle.
“oh, hello Lady Uzumaki, I’m Haku it’s an honor meet you”, Haku says, her hair tied into a bun while she practiced her medical ninjutsu, “I apologize for not looking up, this technique is rather demanding”.
“bah! That’s not a problem at all”, Kushina says, waving her off, “and forget this whole Lady debacle, call me Kushina”.
“Haku, keep a careful watch over you chakra flow”, a replicate maid says, while closely watching as Haku trained he technique, “remember, you have to keep a steady flow, too little and it won’t heal, too much and a tumor might develop”.
“yes ma’am”, Haku says, with determination as sweat rolls down her brow.
“it’s so refreshing to see a dedicated young lady”, Kushina says feeling her heart swell.
“I want to make myself useful and your highness gave a chance to improve myself. I intend of making his investment worthy”, Haku says, still focused on the jutsu.
“I’ll leave you to your studies”, Kushina says, as she spots Shizune and Tsunade in a corner reading and taking notes while another maid tutors them.
“Twonade right?”, Kushina asks as they leave the lecture halls and wall down the hallway.
“how can I help you Lady Uzumaki?”, Twonade asks.
“I have a feeling of what the answer already is, but I do have to ask”, Kushina says, “hypothetically speaking, if I asked Naruto to open the doors of the castle to the village, what would be his answers?”.
“he would probably ask if you are in a alternated state of consciousness and the tell you to buzz off”, Twonade answers, “what would be the cause of this hypothetical scenario, if you don’t mind me asking”.
“don’t worry, I don’t have any intention of asking him to do it”, Kushina says loking at the window and seeing the clear blue skies created by the atmospheric barrier that allowed for the continen sized island the castle was situated to brim with life.
“that does not answer my inquiring”, Twonade retorts.
“I’m asking because I fear what he might do if…”, Kushina stops and thinks what to say next.
“one does not need to fear something that will never happen”, Twonade says, “are you aking this question because you think he should open the gates of the castle?”.
“I don’t know what to think, on one hand, so many good changes could be made, so many lives could be saved and improved if he shared this castle with the village, but at the same time…”, Kushina lets out a sad sight as her daughters hug her sides.
“whatever contempt your highness feels about the village was brought upon them by their own foolishness”, Twonade says with a calm tone, “whe people shows their true collors you believe then”.
“they weren’t like that”, Kushia says, “at least not always”.
“I know it pains you to see how much hate your highness has for the place you and your husband gave your lives to protect, however, this hate was brought upon them by themselves”, Twonade adds, “treat others like you would like to be treated it’s the golden rule, they treated your highness with hate and contempt, so they don’t get to complain about being repaid on the same coin”.
“if Minato was here he would give this grand speech about forgiveness and being the bigger person”, Kushina says with a chuckle, “but alas, I’m not Minato and I’m honestly happy may son has enough self-respect and self-love to not try to get approval from those people”.
“if your husband was here and tried to give said grand speech, he would get punched in the dick… repeatedly”, Twonade admits with a chuckle, “being the bigger person is often used as a substitute term for being a doormat, and forgiveness is earned and so far, no one in the village had done a thing to earn it”.
“amen”, the three Uzumaki say in unison.
“also, if someone tries to convince him to open the doors for the populace?”, Twonade completes her thinking, “do not worry, your highness is not one to resort to violence as his first kind of answer, don’t get me wrong, violence is pretty much on the list, somewhere close to the bottom, but still in the list nonetheless”.
“I… understand”, Kushina lets out a sight, “thank you, for taking care of him”.
“we are only doing our job”, Twonade says, “by the way, under any circ*mstances, do not ask him to opens the gates of the castle to the village. All things considered and the recent events piled up on top of the previous ones, the village’s credit is on an all-time low, they are literally one hissy fit away from getting the belt”.
“sucks to be them”, Natsu says.
“yeah, they had it coming”, Mito adds.
