As dawn arrived, trickles of light flashed from the horizon. In the forests of Konoha, there lay a large boar-dead, impaled on a boulder by an arrow through the skull. A trail of destroyed trees and debris from the dead being led to a young, unconscious child that was no older than eight.
Unlike her skin and hair covered in dirt, her clothes were as clean as they could be. A battle dress as black as the night sky covered her body, with a short skirt kept at a length that wouldn't interfere with movement. Thigh high socks that also acted as a shoe covered the majority of her legs whilst dark, claw-like gloves covered her hands. The socks, whilst seemingly flexible, were as hard as metal, acting like armour whilst avoiding discomfort for the wearer.
The skirt also accommodated the nine tails that sprouted from the girl's back whilst two fox ears sprouted from the girl's hair.
A large emerald green symbol of a fox's face adorned the center of the dress, the same colour as the girl's bangs. The symbol only contained straight lines, primarily triangles and roughly depicted a grinning fox. In the two eye sockets were two blood red dots resembling eyes that seemed to glow in the dark.
Under the skirt was a short curved dagger which, unlike her attire, was pure white including the handle and base. A red gem was embedded in the hilt whilst the blade glistened under the sun's light.
Just out of her reach was a white longbow with gold markings. Unlike the day before, it was now slightly smaller to allow the young girl to at least wield properly. At the two ends of the bow were marks identical to the one on the center of the girl's dress, that of a fox.
The girl stirred as light reached her eyes. As she woke, a groan escaped her lips, yet she still stood. Letting out a yawn, she gasped as she saw the gloves on her hand. Suddenly remembering the conversation she had with the Kyuubi, she looked at the ground to find the bow she had used the day before to slay the beast.
"So it was all real… not a dream… alright, let's see what changed then." She muttered to no one in particular.
She grabbed the bow and decided to head towards the nearest lake which was only a few minutes away if she kept at a fast pace, though not before fawning over the new bow that was now in her possession. To her surprise, she found herself noticeably faster and less tired than usual. Though she didn't know what had caused it, she assumed that it had something to do with the clothes that she now donned.
Reaching the lake, she hesitantly looked down.
There she stood, in all her glory, stunning new gear that she could never have even dreamed to obtain with her current circumstances. With the bow strapped to her back, she looked Intimidating. Even with the figure of an eight year old child, her current attire literally oozed serenity. Without her noticing, tears began to form as she gulped.
For all her life, she had never had anything she could truly be proud to call her own. Her old mundane hunting gear, bow and knife were all gifted to her by the Uchiha, namely Mikoto and Itachi. Though she treasured them as they were given to her by her surrogate family, she was never proud of having them. They reminded her of her unfortunate predicament and they reminded her of the pitiful looks her surrogate mother and brother gave her when she received the gear.
But here now she stood, with one of a kind gear and weapons that she could proudly call her own, and hers only. She may not be a part of the Uzumaki-Namikaze household at the moment, but at heart she was still an Uzumaki, and she had the Uzumaki pride.
silence ensued for several minutes as she collected herself. After wiping away the tears, she took out the food that had already gone cold and began to heat it using a basic Katon technique before beginning to eat. Though she hadn't noticed due to the events that had transpired from yesterday, she was practically starving.
What surprised her was how sensitive her smell was to the food that was in front of her. With it, she also noticed how clear the sound of the running water in the lake was.
Probably effects of the Soul-merge, these ears can't be there just for decoration, meaning that my sense of smell is also probably the same. She deduced before indulging in the meal.
***
A lone deer appeared from the nearby bush and cautiously moved over to the riverside to drink, seemingly not noticing her presence.
A good time to test out the bow, she thought as she steadied herself and reached for an arrow from her quiver, only to find something foreign. She then realised that her quiver had also changed slightly, a sleek black quiver that blended in with her clothes. The arrows inside were of the same kind, but had a blood red tip similar to that of the fox symbol's eyes.
As she held the arrow in her hands, she strengthened her grip with chakra to crush it to feel the material, only to find it dissolving into nothingness upon snapping along with slight weight being added to her back. To her surprise, she found that the dissolved arrow had once again made it back to her quiver alongside her arrows.
"W-wha—"
Those bows are chakra constructs like me Kit, they reform when they are broken. Quite the useful thing, once they're broken they immediately reform in your quiver, meaning that technically you have an infinite amount of arrows. A voice in her head said calmly.
"Kyuubi!?" She exclaimed before covering her mouth with her hand in a hurry after noticing that she almost startled the deer.
Calm down Kit, just talk inside your head, I can still hear you.
R-right, so you can hear and talk to me?
Yes, I am in your head you know.Originally I couldn't due to the seal, but since 'that' happened yesterday, we are connected in more ways than one. I am directly talking to you through your, or should I say, our soul instead of through your mindscape.
Anyways, as I was saying, those arrows are chakra structures, they don't have a definitive shape, and can be formed into anything through the use of chakra reforma—
Speak in a language I can understand!
Just think of it as having infinite arrows, the Kyuubi replied with an audible sweatdrop at Minako's lack of comprehension skills in anything that required more brainpower than absolutely necessary.
Could've just said that first.
I simply thought you would appreciate the insight of a being as great as I.Minako could imagine the Kyuubi huffing with pride.
Doesn't matter! All I need to know is that it's arrows that don't run out!
Riiiiiiight, call on me when you actually require my intellect, I'll be having a nap. And with that, the voice faded into nothingness and silence permeated through the air-with the exception of the running water next to her.
Nocking an arrow, she attempted to pull the bowstring, only to find it as stiff as steel. Pouring more chakra into her upper body, she finally managed to move it, albeit only about 15%, hardly much improvement from last night.
Remembering the destruction caused from last time, hesitantly retracted some of the chakra before firing the bow. Her instincts from using her old bow told her that the arrow wouldn't even fly a meter out with how far she drew the bow, but ignoring all possible logic, the arrow flew out such force that it blew her back slightly as she was not expecting a recoil. The deer, however, was not lucky enough to only be blown back.
The arrow pierced straight through the skull, decapitating the creature from the force and impaling the head straight on a boulder, which evidently have cracks sprouting from the arrow's origin. A moment later, the arrow dissipated and reformed within her quiver, allowing the head to roll down onto the ground.
The rest of the animal's body spasmed as a gurgling sound could be heard from where the head was ripped off.
Even though she had lived through hunting, she was at heart still an eight year old girl, and couldn't help but gag slightly at the brutal scene in front of her. Hearing the cries of birds from ahead, she could tell that other predators had sensed the blood and were coming to investigate. Without wasting a moment, she began to retreat towards the Konoha walls, specifically the Uchiha compound.
She didn't know if they would recognise her with her current appearance, but the tails and ear should be able to convince atleast Itachi and Uchiha that she was still Minako.
Arriving at the border, she carefully maneuvered around the rooftops to avoid being spotted by the citizens. Even if they were of Uchiha who had given her shelter, she couldn't trust every single one of them to keep it to themselves. Arriving at the head of clan's household building, she swiftly reached to one of the trap doors on the roof that she often used to get inside the house. Taking a deep breath, she jumped in and landed with a thud in one of the spare rooms used for storage. The trapdoor was also rigged with a seal that automatically informed others of her arrival
Almost immediately, she could feel cold steel touching her neck, drawing blood slightly as her fox ears picked up the sound of footsteps making its way to her location.
She could feel the coldness in the tone of the owner of the blade as he spoke.
"Who the hell are you?"
***
As soon as Fugaku felt a presence enter through the trapdoor with a chakra signal different to Minako's, Fugaku immediately headed for the storage room with his blade drawn. It was common tactic for shinobi to enter through spare entrances when attempting assassination, and for all he knew this intruder could be after his family. taking a kunai from his back pocket that he kept for emergencies, he silently shunshin'd into the room and held the assailant with the kunai by the throat.
"Who the hell are you?" He asked before looking down towards the intruder, and to his surprise he found a young girl. Namikaze yellow hair unkempt hair reached the figure's waist, whilst emerald green hair decorated the front of her face along with her two bangs.
A black battle dress unlike any he had ever seen before covered her whole body, whilst a pure white longbow that practically radiated power was strapped to her back. Even the arrows on the pure black quiver on her back felt strange for some reason.
Black claw-like gloves covered her hands, exuding a sensation of wilderness. What was strangest of all were her eyes—a beautiful turquoise in colour, staring at him with a beastly glint. It was familiar, though a different colour, it was still yet very similar to the eyes of the misfortunate yet cheerful girl that had basically become a part of his family.
What didn't escape his gaze were the two animal-like ears and nine gold fox tails that sprouted from her back. 'Kyuubi' was his first thought, but who was foolish enough to take on such an appearance in Konoha of all places? He could tell that it wasn't a henge from the lack of chakra exuding from them.
Wait, but that's if the girl had a choice at all, perhaps this is how she truly looked like?
"You have five seconds before you find your head misplaced, starting now." He said in hopes of intimidating the young girl. It certainly felt wrong to threaten a child, but this was the most effective way to gather information. For all he knew the girl could've been raised by nuke-nin as a specialised assassin. He could tell that it was working from the girl's breathing pattern.
Before she could speak however, Mikoto, Sasuke and Itachi came running, most likely suspicious of Fugaku's sudden departure from dinner.
"Fugaku, what ar—Minako?" His wife began questioning him before looking over in surprise at the girl he was restraining.
"Uhh, hi?" The girl said with uncertainty as she scratched her hair whilst letting out an awkward chuckle. Now THAT gesture was VERY Minako-like, but he couldn't say for sure yet.
"Minako? No, prove you are her!" He asked with a sharp edge, resulting in his wife stabbing needles into the back of his head with her disapproving gaze. No one could blame him for his caution though. If it weren't for the three whiskers on each cheek, he would have probably killed the girl the moment she stepped into the building.
"Hey! Just because I may have changed a little doesn't mean you can go on forgetting me!"
"'Yep, definitely Minako"' The four Uchihas thought with a sweatdrop each. The two adults and Itachi immediately went into analysis mode and started forming their own bizarre theories on how such a change could've occurred overnight whilst Sasuke snuck up behind her and jumped on one of her tails.
"Kya!" with a squeal, the tail he had grabbed literally flung the boy across the room and into the wall. Fugaku raised an eyebrow at her reaction. Well there goes the theory that this is an illusion, he thought.
"What was that for!" She shouted across the room.
"I was just checking if those tails were real or not!" He yelled back whilst rubbing the backside of his head where he had landed on, seemingly unaware of Itachi's snickering.
Meanwhile Minako was trying to figure out how she had just done that.
"You can thank me for that one." A familiar voice sounded.
"You did that?" she asked mentally.
"Who else would? Those are technically my tails too, you know, I don't like people touching them without permission." He huffed.
Whilst Sasuke was propping himself back up, Fugaku decided to start talking first.
"So mind explaining how… This… occurred in a span of less than 24 hours?" He asked
"12." Mikoto corrected.
"12." Fugaku repeated.
"Before we start, can we sit down?" She asked whilst pointing at the kunai that was still held at her throat. Remembering that he was still holding her hostage technically, Fugaku withdrew the kunai swiftly and chuckled awkwardly whilst rubbing his head, avoiding his wife's gaze that promised pain upon noticing the trickle of blood that was dripping from Minako's neck. What made it even more terrifying was the innocent smile she wore whilst letting out the bloodlust, causing even Itachi to back away slightly.
"Aaany ways, why don't we go take this over to the dining room. Sasuke, go fetch the sake please, I feel like we need a couple barrels to get through this." He promptly fled towards the dining room to avoid being scrutinised by his wife any further, followed by Itachi and Sasuke who had gone the opposite direction to the basement to fetch the sake. Mikoto then headed towards the exit to the room, prompting Minako to follow her as she went.
As they gathered around the table, Minako decided to begin.
"So it started after I left last night."
"So… to put it simply, you were injured due to the mob, ended up running into a mutated beast, partially completed a Soul-merge which is a forbidden art that even the Uchiha Library has very little information on, not to mention you merged with the Kyuubi itself, but the now you are technically one with the Kyuubi to a certain scale, have new gear and weapons which seem literally out of the world, AND ON TOP OF THAT the Kyuubi also turns out to be a female and a nice person too?" Fugaku asked in deadpan, though Minako could tell that there was a hint of both amusement and disbelief in his voice.
"Essentially." She replied.
"Itachi, get me one more bottle." He asked as Itachi complied. Throughout her small tale, the man had already confused three bottles, now moving onto his forth. For the first time, Mikoto seemed to not mind his drinking habit.
"By any chance does the Kyuubi know exactly who was controlling her?" He asked hopefully.
"No… The man was wearing a mask, so I couldn't see who he was. Though the bastard's Mangekyou was three stretched triangles evenly spaced around the pupil that each curve at the top around the eye." Kyuubi spoke to Minako mentally. Though she didn't approve of her dislike for the Uchiha in general, she was glad that he was at least willing to cooperate, even if only slightly, to identify the masked man.
"Mangekyou?" She asked in confusion.
"It's the evolved form of the sharingan, has a few scary abilities including one capable of controlling us tailed beasts. Don't worry about it too much Kit, you won't need to know anything about it anytime soon."
"He says he doesn't know, though he does know the pattern of the man's Mangekyou if that helps." Her mentioning of the Mangekyou almost made Fugaku spit out his drink, though he was choking slightly.
"W-wait, how do you know about that? Its existence is a secret even amongst the Uchiha." He asked as Itachi and Sasuke wore confused expressions, backing up his claim.
"Kyuubi, remember? Said that she was controlled by it." She said, receiving an 'ah' from both Mikoto and Fugaku.
"Well no matter, the first thing we need to do is get you to start using the Henge and master it. If you're seen like that by any member of the ANBU during patrol, you will probably be hunted down by Danzo for his sick purposes, and not to mention that you will be attracting far too much attention once academy starts." Fugaku began to explain.
She nodded. Her current appearance gave all the more reason for the villagers to try to kill her as they would be convinced that she was the Kyuubi itself.
"And if I remember correctly, you haven't merged with the Kyuubi fully yet, but what happens when you do? Any ideas?" He asked out of curiosity.
"Animal merges usually end up with the host receiving some of the animal's traits, In this case you already have. I don't know what merging with me, a chakra construct with the most dense chakra capacity in the world, would do to you, but I can assure you that you won't become a beast." Minako repeated it to Fugaku, who was now back into analysing mode, though relief was evident on his face.
"So if there's another one of these transformations, then she can attach more items to her soul through it? That could be quite the opportunity." He thought to himself.
The Kyuubi, anticipating the question, replied without it being asked. "Yes, you can create more soul-pieces through it. The main reason soul merges used to be practiced were the weapons and armour that could be created through it, though people realised that to create something that was truly worth all the effort and price, a monstrous soul of a beast would be required at the very least, and it was slowly forgotten.
"Now tell him to stop asking questions, I may tolerate him but I won't forget that someone of his wretched clan did this to me." The tailed beast ended with a growl, ending the connection abruptly.
"She doesn't like the Uchihas, she said that she won't answer any more questions for now." Hearing this, Fugaku frowned, but accepted with a nod nonetheless. It was fortunate that the Kyuubi was even in the mood to answer questions from the clan that had controlled her against her will.
"Alright, I would offer you residence here again but since I know you'll refuse, have a little more food before you go. I recommend you to take some more food." He offered with a smile. Though it bugged him to leave a child to survive on her own, he couldn't really fault her logic, or deny her growth due to it.
He waited for a moment with his eyes closed, waiting for a reply which never came. After a few seconds, he opened them to see that Minako. On closer inspection, he could see that the remaining people in the household were stifling their laughter whilst looking at him. Sasuke didn't even try to hide it and was on the floor laughing hysterically.
He wondered for a moment, before he realised what had happened. Looking down, he noticed his clothes had been switched with a Kimono—a pink, female kimono of all things.
He had been told that he usually spaced out and didn't pay attention to his surroundings when offering things to others, closing his eyes until the other party accepted. Minako had managed to find out and used every opportunity available to prank him by using his habit to his advantage. It seemed that his clothes had been kawarimi'd with a spare pair that had come from who knows where. His eyes twitched as he thought back and realised that this was at the very least the fifth time he had been pranked in this same manner.
"Cheeky brat," he muttered to himself. The food that was set on the table was missing too, and assumed that Minako had taken it with her with the permission of Mikoto and left before he could figure out what she had done.
A damn prankster, just like her mother… at least her pranks are harmless… for now. He shuddered at the thought of the child beginning to get 'practical' with her pranks like her mother did during the academy years when people were ridiculing her for her hair.
A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. Swiftly changing back into a spare pair of clothes, he opened the slide door to find a young Uchiha messenger waiting outside.
"The council wishes for your presence Fugaku-sama, they are trying to convince you to rethink your… 'priorities'" He used the most respectful tone he possibly could so as not to agitate the clan head by implying anything.
A tick mark appeared on Fugaku's forehead. The Uchiha elders had been attempting to convince him to join them on their little coup plan, though to no avail. The current hokage was doing all he could to support the Uchihas in this time of mistrust, and although he didn't approve of the man's parenting skills, he certainly was a good leader. There was no reason to be hasty and risk too much with a coup when his children's lives were at stake, not to mention Minako's standing in Konoha.
"Tell them that once they grow a head, they can seek me out again." He replied in a most serious tone, causing the messenger to start sweating, albeit slightly.
"R-right away Fugaku-sama." The man practically ran off, not wanting to spend another second being scrutinised by the powerful clan head.
Fugaku sighed as he looked back at the worried faces of his family sans sasuke who was playing with one of the jet black arrows he had taken from Minako without her noticing. Though the child wasn't as proficient as the blonde Namikaze girl in most areas, he did manage to pick up the stealth arts from the pranks they usually performed together. He nodded towards Itachi who nodded back before disappearing with a crow shunshin to inform Minato of what had just transpired.
"W-what!?" Sasuke exclaimed as the arrow in his hand began to fade before disappearing into nothingness. Fugaku could tell that the arrow had dissolved into chakra, further supporting his earlier theory that the arrows were pure chakra constructs.
"It probably went back to Minako's quiver, you didn't break anything, don't worry." He reassured his son. Minako had a Kushina level temper on the occasions that Sasuke touched—or worse, broke one of her possessions without her permission, and Sasuke looked like he was about to faint when he thought that he had broken such an expensive looking object.
"Are you sure she'll be fine out there? She was just in a life or death situation you know?" Mikoto asked in a concerned tone.
"Don't worry, if anything that incident will teach her to be more vigilant of her surroundings from now on, it's a good skill to have when you are surviving on your own." He explained. "Not to mention that she has the Kyuubi looking out for her along with those new gears, even you should've noticed that those were some top-grade weapons, clothes and armour—one of a kind actually."
At this, his wife nodded. "Yes, you're right, I'm just being paranoid now." She looked at her husband with a light smile. "Sake?" She offered.
He grinned. "You know me well."
***
In another universe.
Inside a sealed room within the Clock Tower, a portal-like hole was ripped open. A figure clad in green stepped out, her emerald and flaxen hair swaying behind her. As she stepped out, she could hear the sound of clapping from in front of her. She grabbed her bow on instinct, but relaxed with a tick on her forehead as she recognised the source.
"Splendid job, you just single handedly saved an entire universe A LOT of unnecessary trouble and deaths, and as much as it pains me to say this—you have successfully averted a disaster." His tone clearly told the green clad huntress that he would have loved to see the ensuing chaos of the 'disaster'.
"Shut it vampire, I did it for the mother and the children whose lives would have been robbed otherwise." She said whilst scowling.
The now identified Zelretch simply chuckled. "How unbecoming of a woman, you'll start getting wrinkles if you keep that u—" He quickly dodged to the side nonchalantly without a care in the world as an arrow embedded itself in his previous position.
"That's not very polite! I could've died, you know!" He mock shouted with exaggerated gestures.
"Then you would have done the world a favour." Atalanta added.
"Nonetheless, the job is done, crisis averted, now we just wait for our cute little king to come back as well and we can all relax, how about a party afterwards, ey?" He proposed, earning a growl and another arrow in response.
"As much as I am glad that another universe has been saved, why did you tell us about this? As far as I know, destruction and chaos is your middle name, why are you so concerned with the well-being of another universe?" She asked cautiously. It was a question that had been bugging her since she was sent to the alternate universe to assist Minako. Her mood worsened when Zelretch's grin got wider.
"Do you think I can just jump around from universe to universe causing destruction without any consequence? Hell no, the foundations of existence would tear me apart, so I do some good things now and then to balance out the destruction." He said enthusiastically with gestures as dramatic as cartoon characters, earning a sigh from the chaste huntress.
At least she could be glad that he had no ulterior motive behind it, but then she realised the wording.
"Wait… so that means you can go around causing more destruction in other universes for the time being?"
"Yep!"
"And you just decided to make us do your work for you?"
"Indeed!" The dead apostle replied cheerfully, causing Atalanta to groan as she realised that Zelretch hadn't magically changed his ways as she had hoped. The grin on his face disappeared suddenly as he adopted a face of curiosity, a rare sight that didn't belong on the old troll's face.
"Did you manage to see Ophis and Great Red during your time?" He asked, a genuine question that wouldn't lead to her revealing embarrassing information about herself accidently—very rare coming from the infamous wielder of the Kaleidoscope.
"No, mother seems to be as distant to her family as she claimed back then. Even if I did see them, I wouldn't have done anything, they were still children then." She replied, eyeing the vampire suspiciously whilst implying a specific word that the vampire knew was basically a trigger on the huntress's mood.
He put his arms up in a surrendering pose, "Do calm down, I wasn't implying anything, I just wanted to know if that loli dragon was as expressionless 2B even as a child."
"2B?" She asked.
"Ah, don't mind that, just someone I met in one of the more interesting universes I visited. Did you know that apparently humans actually managed to make lifelike robots with emotions and everything in that particular universe, I mean the androids were hotter than any woma—" He was abruptly cut off as a barrage of arrows assaulted his position, causing him to duck and hide under a table, an irritating grin still plastered on his face.
"Keep your fantasies to yourself you wretched male, I swear in Artemis's name that I will have your head one day." She growled out, face beginning to redden as Zelretch's taunts were beginning to get to her.
"And I look forward to that day." He fled the room before Atalanta could have the chance to begin channeling her more powerful attacks. Though he enjoyed getting on people's nerves, it would be more of a pain to rebuild the Clock Tower afterwards simply because he had pissed off a very legendary hero of the past.