"Take anything, just let at least one of these kids grow up with their parents!" A man with spiky blonde hair said to the ghostly form that was floating behind him.
"… Anything? For AT LEAST ONE of your children to grow up with their parents?" the shinigami asked as if amused.
"Yes… anything."
"Alright, I'll let you live, and I will follow your wish BY THE WORD." And as the ghostly form disappeared with a chuckle, the sealing was complete. Minato fell to the floor in exhaustion, panting from chakra exhaustion.
"By… the… word…" The words echoed as a headache assaulted Minato as he swiftly fell unconscious.
At the same time, Kushina had woken from a terrible headache, clutching her head whilst screaming in a makeshift hospital room within the walls of Konoha.
***
"This is Arrow, target is on the move."
"Great Red speaking, target moving towards stairs."
"…Silence speaking… Target confirmed…"
"This is base, good work, keep at it."
"Great Red speaking, why do we need to talk like this again?"
"Arrow speaking, its practice for future missions in other villages, though I doubt its usefulness. Why is your codename Great Red again?"
"Haven't you seen my new choice of clothing? Red's the best colour in the world!"
"…Target approaching site…"
As the sun rose for the residents of the Elemental Nations, three new genins were on a mission as shinobi
Namely, to catch Tora the Cat.
The Hokage insisted that it was an important mission for genins to take in order to develop their team work, communications and also experience for infiltration missions, though everyone knew that the truth was that the daimyo simply insisted on the cat being caught every time or his wife would give him an earful.
They were allowed to choose their codenames, and Minako simply went with the first thing that came to mind whilst Naruto decided to choose his favourite… colour… as a codename. Yoshina didn't even speak, so Kushina thought it would be funny if she chose the name for her.
…It had been a full hour since they had accepted the quest, and to say that Tora was a master of the escape arts was a huge understatement. Minako wouldn't be surprised if it could even escape from a Kage's grasp.
It had been a full month since they had formed a team, and Kushina still hadn't a clue as to her true identity, which in itself was depressing even though she knew that Kushina wasn't known for her intellect. She had yet to meet her father yet as her mother would always be the one to accept quests, so there was still a chance that they would recognise her, and so she continued to hope.
Half an hour of frantic searching later, Minako had managed to locate the demon in disguise from a vantage point, the next half hour was spent mostly observing it under Kushina's orders as she wanted to see most likely wanted to see how patient her team was. Yoshina was somehow multitasking between reading and keeping track of the cat whilst Naruto seemed as if he was already at his limits. Since she had proven her senses to be far keener than the rest of the team, her mother included, she was allowed to keep her distance, much to her luck as she could relax whilst letting her enhanced hearing senses do all the work without the others finding out.
"Base to team, you may commence operation." Almost immediately after hearing the words come out from the comms, Naruto had leapt towards the cat at chunin level speeds. Minako could see that his whisker marks were slightly deeper than usual, meaning that he was currently utilising a small portion of Kyuubi's chakra.
The more tailed beast chakra a person used, the more they would lose themselves to the power. With training, one could theoretically hold off the madness, but she had learnt from Yoshina that both she and Naruto could only use up to three tails without the power consuming them, even after their several years of training.
Despite the fact that the cat was good at escaping, it wasn't good at running away after being spotted. It didn't even know what hit it until Naruto had already grasped its tail, dangling the cat in front of him.
"…mission accomplished…" Yoshina whispered as she appeared from behind a bush along with Kushina, who simply shunshin'd into the middle of the two.
"Good work team, I'm impressed Naruto-kun managed to hold it in for so long, he cracked only five minutes last time as well!" She said whilst facing said boy, who was now slightly red in the face.
"S-shut up! That was because the cat fell asleep and you still didn't let us go for it!" He retorted with his fist raised in the air.
"Anyways, Minako-chan, go and inform Minato-kun on the success, we'll be there shortly."
She nodded and leapt off from the building, heading towards the large building in the distance. As she moved, she realised that this would be her first meeting with her father in several years. Seeing that her appearance was radically different from when she began living in the forest, there was close to no hope of her father recognising her. She sighed in disappointment as she picked up the pace.
"Don't mind it imouto, We've been prepared for it to be like this for over five years now." Kurama reminded within her mind.
She made her way through the first and second floor, greeting others as they passed by her, eventually arriving outside a room labelled 'Hokage'.
She took a deep breath as she announced her presence.
"Team 12 member Minako reporting in." She said.
After a few seconds, she heard books shuffling as a familiar voice replied. "Come in."
As she entered, she came face to face with a blond haired man in his early 30's who was smiling lightly whilst reading a scroll on his desk. As he looked up, he froze on the spot as his eyes widened, staring at her in shock.
Almost immediately, He clutched his head with a hand as if in pain.
"H-Hokage-sama?" She asked with uncertainty. She certainly hadn't expected such a reaction from her father, but the hopes that she had buried within her mind resurfaced again. She watched expectantly as Minato let go of his head, face strained slightly, indicating that the pain was still present. The two continued to stare at each other, both refusing to blink.
"N-Minako—" He began as her heart started to race, shoulders stiff in anticipation—
—until Kushina walked in with Naruto and Yoshina in tow.
"Is everything alright here? Kushina asked, slightly perplexed as to why Minako and Minato were staring at each other.
Minato seemed to snap out of his shock and turned towards his wife with a slightly awkward smile. "I-It's fine, anyways, I see that you completed the mission."
"Mhm, had them observe the cat for a while to test their patience, they all passed except Naruto who seemed a little too eager to hit something." She said whilst giving said boy a stern look, causing him to step back in fear.
To say that Minako was irritated would be the understatement of the year. She was finally about to get an answer from her father until her team had walked in, what even was that timing?
"Eh, Uzumaki's were known to have abysmal luck, It seems that it's starting to kick in after a year of peace." Kurama answered, sensing Minako's irritation.
She sighed. "It's fine, nothing will change for now even if they do realise." She said mentally as she brought her attention back to the real world.
"Then how about another D-ran—" Minato began before being interrupted by Naruto.
"Why can't we do a C-rank already? We've been weeding gardens and catching cats for a whole MONTH, we can totally handle it!" He shouted with his signature fist raise.
Kushina seemed to support the idea. "I'm pretty sure the team can handle even a B-rank by this point, just give it to them Minato-kun."
He seemed to contemplate for a moment, but gave in after Kushina pressed on with a look that seemed to say 'agree or you die'.
"O-ofcourse, I have one here actually, it's an escort mission for a bridge builder who needs you to guard him until he finishes the bridge building in Nami no Kuni. He should be in the village currently, so I'll go contact him, just wait here." He immediately called an ANBU to find said man and bring him to the tower.
A few minutes later, the same ANBU along with an old man, clearly drunk with a sake bottle in one hand, walked in.
"Team 12, meet Tazuna, the man you will be escorting to Nami no Kuni. Tazuna, meet team 12." Minato introduced.
"I see, the famous jinchuuriki twins and the wife of the Hokage, the young girl seems capable too, thank you for your generosity, Hokage-sama." He said after taking a sip from the bottle. Though Naruto seemed like he wanted to complain about their supposed contractor, a glance from Kushina shut him up instantly.
Kushina spoke up first since Tazuna didn't seem to have anything further to say. "Team, I want you all up and ready to go in an hour, go and pack for a month's worth just in case there are any complications, and make sure you bring enough weapons, though that isn't a problem for you, right Minako-chan?" Minako nodded in response. "Good, now off you go, we will meet you at the gates in an hour for departure then, is that alright with you Tazuna-san?" She asked.
"Eh? Yeah, sure, whatever." He replied and left through the door before anyone could say anything further.
A tick mark appeared on Kushina's forehead as the temperature dropped slightly. "I will soooo kill him if he does that again, hehehe." She chuckled as Minato began to sweat slightly. It seemed that he knew that a pissed off Kushina was a bad Kushina rather well. "Team dismissed." She called as she disappeared behind the door whilst muttering something about disrespectful men. Yoshina and Naruto shortly followed her out to pack for the mission.
Just as she was about to do the same, Minato spoke. "Wait."
She looked back at Minato, who was back to staring at her with a slightly worried expression.
"I-Is it possible to have a chat after you get back? I have a feeling that I know you from somewhere, but for some reason I can't remember, the headache is getting worse the more I think about it, so why don't we call it a day for now?" He said whilst rubbing his forehead.
Alarms started going off in her mind at the words. Headaches from trying to remember something? It sounded awfully like some seals she had read in the Uchiha clan library.
No, she couldn't jump at conclusions this early with such little information, but the hope that had been all but extinguished as of late sparked. "Fine by me, just call me once I get back."
He smiled. "Be safe, and take care of the Kushina, she can be pretty headstrong at times."
***
The journey to Nami was quite uneventful so far. Nothing major had happened, and was turning out to be just a regular escort mission, much to the dismay of Naruto who was hoping to fight enemies. Kushina and Tazuna had gotten over their issues, and somehow the two had began to hit it off with stories during the journey. The bridge builder apparently had a daughter and a grandson with him and was telling Kushina about his daughter's embarassing moments in the past. Somehow Minako could already feel that said daughter would most likely skin the old man alive if she found out the topic of the discussion taking place.
"Look out, there's a puddle ahead."
Her face whipped towards the road, and just as Kurama said, there was a large puddle in the middle of the road. Most people would ignore it, but there was definitely something wrong with it. For one, it hadn't rained in a while, and no puddle could remain on an open road for such a long time. The second was that there was a chakra signature coming from it, confirming the fact that it was not a natural puddle, but a chakra signature.
She tapped her foot repeatedly in a pattern, catching the attention of her team. All graduates had to learn to communicate through simple gestures, the most common being through the tapping of the foot if they suspected that enemies were listening in on them.
"Puddle ahead, chakra detected, possible danger." The tapping implied. Kushina was immediately on guard and began tapping her foot aswell in response.
"Number of enemies?" Minako sniffed the air as they moved. She could smell two foreign objects or entities that most certainly weren't water within the puddle.
"Two. Both in puddle. Possible Genjutsu." She replied back. Though the entire team, including Yoshina who didn't know about the Soul-merge, didn't know how her sense of smell was superior at the above the level of an Inuzuka, they simply accepted it as one of the many quarks she had.
Kushina took the lead and proceeded to step onto the puddle, fists in her pocket ready engage any enemies, and as Minako had predicted two figures jumped out the moment they passed the puddle and proceeded to fling chains at their team leader. To the enemies's surprise, Kushina grasped the ends of both chains with her hands and pulled, dragging the two masked enemies off the ground and flinging them into the air.
Sparing no time, she instantly nocked an four arrows and shot each limb of the first enemy to immobilize him whilst Naruto shot forward and smashed the second target into the ground, grinning madly as finally hit something for the first time in a week. Needless to say, said target lost consciousness upon impacting with the ground, legs bent the wrong way and chest slightly caved. The one she had shot was still screaming from pain on the ground, not daring to move as each and every movement brought a wave of pain from the areas where she had struck.
Kushina whistled slightly at the quick dispatchment of the enemy. "Good work team, at this rate we can actually hit B-ranked missions!" She walked up to the enemies before gasping. "Demon brothers? What are they doing here?" She muttered to herself before realisation dawned upon her. Her head whipped towards Tazuna, who was sweating bullets as he avoided her gaze.
"Tazuna-san, answer this question truthfully or we will turn back right now, WHY are the demon brothers after you?" She asked with her trademark stiff smile.
Hearing this, Tazuna caved as he began to explain the situation. According to him, a businessman by the name of Gatou had been monopolising all businesses in Nami no Kuni and bleeding it dry, and the bridge that they were currently building was the only hope Nami no Kuni had left as it would reconnect the residents to the world.
Gatou also seemed to be quite paranoid about the bridge, and was hiring mercenaries and missing-nin to kill Tazuna to prevent the completion of the bridge.
"Please—" He begged, "We don't have the funds to request anything higher than a C-rank, we will surely pay you back in full after Nami is back to normal again. If you leave now, countless will die of starvation!"
Kushina sighed as she turned back to the team, "What do you all think?"
"Of course we continue, we can't just let people die! Besides, this means we get to fight stronger people!" Naruto exclaimed with a grin of anticipation.
"…Sure…" Yoshina muttered.
"Might aswell finish what we started." Minako added.
Kushina smiled at our decision and turned back to Tazuna. "It seems that the team wants to continue, you're in luck this time, but you better make this worth the effort."
They left after hiding the bodies of the two in a hidden location within the forest, sending a message to Konoha so that they could send more shinobi to confirm and retrieve the bodies. The two refused to talk about their employer even with the threat of death, so there was no reason to keep them alive.
***
They continued down the road for another hour without rest since the team wasn't tired, whilst Tazuna insisted that the sooner they reached his home, the better.
Eventually, they had to leave the ground as a boat was the only way to reach Nami no Kuni. Kushina stayed on the boat along with Tazuna whilst the three genins used the water-walking technique and moved alongside the boat, looking out for threats.
"Welcome to Nami no Kuni." Tazuna said with pride as they approached land again. They couldn't see much due to the mist, but they could still make out what seemed to be a boathouse as they approached the shore.
They kept at a pace along a small road within the forest, taking up a triangular formation around Tazuna in case of an ambush. Kushina stayed slightly behind, letting the three genins do most of the work since she would only step in if she deemed that the three of them weren't enough to deal with a potential situation.
It was quite boring, and Minako had no clue as to how Naruto and Yoshina were keeping themselves entertained. Atleast she had a damned tailed beast within her mind cracking jokes and innuendos every minute to distract her from her boredom. Suddenly, an idea came to her mind as she approached Kushina who was leisurely strolling a few meters behind the rest of the team.
"Um… Sensei?" She asked to catch her attention.
"Yes?" She replied with one eye opened to indicate that she was listening.
"Do you have a third child?" She asked quite blatantly, earning a confused look from her mother.
"No, I do—" She began until she suddenly clutched her head with a groan. Minako observed the reaction as she began to analyze the situation. She was about to press on until Kurama stopped her.
"Don't push her any further Imouto."
"Why?" She asked mentally.
"Judging by the reaction she is showing, there's something we don't know influencing her sudden headaches. We don't know if there are any consequences if we break that barrier forcibly."
Minako, though unsatisfied, nodded in comprehension. It certainly made sense, and if she wasn't careful she could possibly hurt her mother. The risk was high as she still didn't know the exact reason as to why both Minato and Kushina reacted in such ways when they were reminded of her existence as their child.
"Ah, sorry about that, did you say anything Minako-chan?" Kushina asked with a smile.
So she forgot the earlier question too? interesting? Minako thought with a hand to her chin.
"No, it was nothing." She said as she returned to her earlier position, causing Kushina to raise an eyebrow, though she didn't question further.
Soon, they reached a small lake.
"We're nearly there, keep movin—" Tazuna began until a large object came hurtling from a nearby bush. "GET DOWN!" Kushina yelled as she swiftly jumped in front of the group, fists ready to engage.
Naruto pushed Tazuna to the ground, barely in time to stop the object—a blade, from cutting the old man in half. Yoshina crouched to avoid the incoming blade whilst Minako dodged to the side, letting the large blade continue on its path towards a nearby tree, imbedding itself half-way through.
The blade itself was monstrously big with a curved end and a circle cut out at the far end of the blade, most likely used for decapitation. Along with its giant size, something about it screamed that it was not just a big sword.
Suddenly, a figure appeared standing on the handle of the sword that was wedged into the tree, looking down and ignoring the three genins whilst specifically focusing on Kushina.
"Well well well, what do we have here? Three kids, an old man and one woman, why don't you all move aside? I'll let you live if you just let me take out that old man there." The figure said with slight amusement.
It was a tall and muscular man with pale skin, short spiky black hair, brown eyes and small eyebrows. Bandages covered the bottom half of his face like a mask, and he wore his hitaiate on his forehead, though slightly shifted to the side. The man himself was shirtless, with his chest only covered by a belt, baggy pants with the striped pattern typical of Kirigakure and mimetic wrist-warmers extending up to his elbows, with matching leg-warmers.
"Can't do that, now why don't you get down here so I can kick your arse!" Kushina yelled as she threw a set of shurikens at the man.
"I know who you are," She continued as the man jumped down from the tree, sword now in his hands as he landed in the middle of the lake. "Demon of the Hidden Mist, Zabuza Momochi, current missing-nin and former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, you been hired by Gatou to take out Tazuna too?"
Zabuza didn't show any change in demeanor as he replied, "And if I was? Doesn't change the fact that you will die today, Namikaze Kushina, wife of the Hokage." He brought his hand up and flashed a handseal as he raised a leg whilst pointing up with a hand, a meditative stance commonly used by ninjas.
"[Ninja art: Hidden Mist Jutsu]" He whispered, though it didn't escape Minako's enhanced hearing.
Like the name of the technique suggested, mist began to cover the area until she could no longer see more than a few meters in front of her. She instinctively moved closer to Tazuna along with Yoshina and Naruto, arrow nocked in preparation for an attack from every direction.
To their surprise, a figure suddenly appeared between the three, large blade in one hand ready slash at the three of them. Out of instinct, Minako immediately shifted her aim and shot the arrow with more power than usual. Zabuza brought up a hand to catch the arrow, but to his surprise the arrow dragged him along as he caught onto it, causing him to skid backwards a few meters.
He opened his hand, dropping the arrow to find that his palm and fingers were bleeding from where he had grabbed the arrow. His eyes narrowed as he swiftly dodged a fist from Kushina and healed the cut with a minor healing jutsu.
"A good trick, I admit, but there's a limit to what small kids can do, don't think that'll work again." He said as he was swiftly caught up in a melee battle with Kushina. Minako nocked another arrow just in case, and watched as the two experienced shinobi fought at a speed most chuunin would fail to track.
It seemed as if Kushina had the upper hand, and as she dodged a swing of the giant blade, she brought her right hand for a killing blow to the chest, but instead all she hit was air.
"W-what?" She gasped in surprise, too late to pull back as she was tripped by Zabuza's foot and fell to the ground headfirst.
Zabuza stood to the side, sword over his head getting ready for a blow that would most certainly cut Kushina in two no matter what she did. Her chakra chains weren't the most effective in close combat, and certainly wouldn't be of use if Zabuza simply evaded them. Though they could hold down a tailed beast if she concentrated, she didn't have enough time to manifest them in order to block the monstrous blade. Minako could hear Naruto shouting in fear and even the usually expressionless Yoshina was physically showing her worry
"…Take off the henge, you're going to need that extra brainpower and chakra." Kurama said, and Minako nodded. The henge that she used to cover her features was a powerful one that was not only an illusion, but a true transformation that would make all changes physical. It required her to actively supply chakra along with constant attention, and overall it hindered her combat potential by quite a bit. Though she was still above most genins and possibly chuunins, she couldn't fight one of the Seven Swordsmen in such a state.
Furthermore, the henge actively cancelled out any special effects of the features she concealed, meaning that her sense of smell and hearing, despite being far above an average human's, were still significantly impaired.
She had to worry about the consequences afterwards, and since her team was technically the only witness that mattered, it wouldn't be too damaging since two of them were jinchuuriki whilst the other was the mother to the two (technically three).
"[Henge… KAI]!" She yelled as a burst of chakra erupted from her position, surprising both her teammates and causing Zabuza to pause momentarily to stare at her, eyes widening. Kushina was still on the ground but even so her gaze wondered from Zabuza towards her.
***
Kushina was not having a good day.
The mission her team took was going well at first, until the demon brothers appeared and attacked the bridge builder, Tazuna, who they were tasked to guard, increasing the rank of the mission to at the very least a B-rank.
Normally, she would have simply turned around and returned to the village and reported the mission as a false and put Tazuna's name on the blacklist, but she was sympathetic to the man's situation, and her team seemed to think so too.
She was lucky to be able to instruct her two children, and oh she was proud of them. Despite being only twelve and fresh genins, both were at the very least high-chunin level if they unlocked their kyuubi chakra, and possibly borderline low-chunin if regularly, and it was something that she took pride in as a parent.
Due to this, she was also worried as to how the third member of the team would fare. Would they feel inferior? Or perhaps they would be understanding of the situation?
Oh how wrong she was.
Despite her worries, the last member, Minako, was in every way either at the level or superior to her children, which in itself was quite shocking. Though she had an odd choice of weaponry and never used her sword, her speed and skill with the bow could get her to the rank of jounin easily, not to mention that she was unnaturally fast on her feet.
It wasn't everyday you found an academy graduate that could potentially beat high level chunins by herself. Her children were exceptions, as they had the Kyuubi chakra within them and also had years of training with Minato, who was viewed as the pinnacle of power within the village along with Sarutobi.
Her taijutsu was possibly her only weakness, but seeing that she materialised her bow and sword at will, there wasn't really a time she would need taijutsu at all since she could call the sword back to her hand even after being disarmed, at least according to her.
The girl had somehow befriended Sasuke at a young age, and seemed to be his one and only friend. Kushina was glad that at least someone was there to look out for the misfortunate child.
Despite all this, something felt odd when she was around her, but she could never really pinpoint what until very recently. Minako had asked her a very odd question as they approached Wave, and though she couldn't recall the question or her initial answer, she did remember the headache that accompanied her answer.
This confirmed her suspicions that there was something that she was missing, and it was clearly related to the odd girl who claimed to be both a swordswoman and a huntress.
Immediately after that, they were attacked by the Demon of the Mist, Zabuza Momochi, a former Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. She had let her guard down and allowed Zabuza to get past her and to the children, but to her surprise the missing-nin was blown back by an arrow with cuts on his hand.
Perhaps she was hiding her power, or she still is? Kushina thought, slightly worried at the thought that the mysterious and prodigious child still had more up her sleeve.
She engaged Zabuza in combat, and when she finally thought she had found an opening, she realised that she was tricked and that it was only a feint to get her guard down.
Now she was facing a monstrous sword that was ready to come down upon her, ending her life and possibly the lives of her children as well. She couldn't use her chains as they would be too slow. She had lost hope, until a sudden burst of chakra from the side caught both her and Zabuza's attention.
"[Henge… KAI]!" A voice said as raw chakra washed over the surrounding area. She heard Zabuza gasp as she followed his gaze to where her team was currently standing, namely at Minako who was the source of the chakra burst.
Her eyes widened as the air around the huntress cracked, and shattered as a new figure but familiar figure appeared from underneath.
Animal ears sprouted from her head as her pupils turned into slits, eyes glowing ominously. nine golden tails the same colour as her hair sprouted from her back as she grew a few inches in height, muscles toning slightly. Her canines grew sharper and longer, now noticeably bigger than the rest of her teeth, giving her a beastly appearance.
She gaped with her eyes wide at Minako's appearance. 'Kyuubi' was the first thought that went through her head. But that shouldn't be possible! The chakra of the Kyuubi was sealed into her two children, whilst the consciousness was sealed into—
"Agh!" She clutched her head in pain as a bad headache assaulted her. Why couldn't she remember who it was sealed into?
She calmed herself slightly as she brought her attention to the real world. Zabuza continued to stare at Minako, who was aiming an arrow straight at Zabuza's heart. The missing-nin seemed to be on guard, still wary from the previous attack from the girl and was prepared to block with his monstrous sword. The gold markings on the bow began to glow as the tip of the arrow began to release sparks. The air around the girl circled her, giving the appearance of a mini tornado. She muttered something under her breath, too quiet for Kushina to pick up as she unleashed the arrow.
At the last possible moment as soon as Minako released the arrow, Zabuza's eyes widened as he dodged to the side, abandoning the block stance he took earlier. She watched as the arrow that was nocked simply disappeared as soon as it was released, a howl of wind accompanying it.
She closed her eyes and hugged the ground as a blast of wind assaulted her. As soon as it stopped, she looked up again. Her jaw dropped in shock as the dust in the air cleared, revealing destruction along the flight path of the arrow. Any and everything along the path was either obliterated completely or sent flying somewhere else. A column of trees stretching over fifty meters along the arrow's path were uprooted, and she could see a large crater at the end of the path.
Zabuza stood on the other side of the clearing, one hand holding the stump that was formally his right hand whilst panting heavily.
…Did she just blow an arm off an A-rank missing-nin!? And what the hell was with that power? Kushina mentally screamed within her mind. She had only seen such destruction from high A-rank and S-rank jutsus, seeing it coming from a child who didn't even seem fatigued afterwards was quite frightening.
"You… you're not quite what you seem…" Zabuza said as he forcibly stopped the bleeding from his severed arm through the use of an emergency medical ninjutsu. He held his giant sword in his left hand and lifted it from the ground, going to show just how much strength and endurance the former Seven Swordsmen actually had.
Not allowing Minako to nock another arrow, he instantly closed the gap and went for a killing blow to the chest. Kushina was about to send a chain to stop him, until Minako's body exploded in light as the sound of steel clashing registered.
As the light died down, Kushina saw that Minako was no longer in the black hunting dress she was always in, but pure white armour of a design she had never seen before. A sleek black sword of equally strange design and markings was now in her hands, being used to block the massive blade Zabuza had swung at her. Despite the fact that she was not knowledgeable in weaponry other than common shinobi tools, even she could tell that the sword was not ordinary, perhaps the best she'd seen in all her life as a shinobi.
"HAAA!" With a yell, Minako stepped forward with her strange armoured heels and pushed Zabuza away, causing him to skid backwards slightly.
"A swordswoman now? Just how many tricks do you have?" He asked, breathing still unnatural, possibly from the lingering pain from his severed arm.
"More than you think, how about a duel then?" Minako said as she raised her sword and pointed the sharp end towards Zabuza.
"Hmph, duel accepted." He replied, doing the same with his oversized butcher knife.
Kushina's mind was starting to overload from what was occurring in front of her. One of her genins who he deemed to be mid to high chuunin at most was able to use an S-rank level technique, amputated the famed Demon of the Hidden Mist, and was currently challenging said man to a one on one sword duel.
It would be more realistic if this were all a dream, but unfortunately the fatigue she was feeling confirmed that this was all in fact real.
She wanted to help the twelve year old girl against the monster that was Zabuza, but she knew better than to interrupt a formal kenjutsu duel. Kenjutsu users had their own code of honour, one of which being that a duel between two kenjutsu users be a fair one on one. Despite the fact that they were shinobi, people specialised in utilising cowardly tactics to finish their missions at all costs, a kenjutsu duel was a different matter altogether. It was an accepted fact amongst all shinobi from all over the Elemental Nations that the Shinobi Creed could be put aside when two Kenjutsu users fought, and this was one such situation.
As much as she wanted to aid her, she wouldn't stamp on her honour as a swordswoman. She would only intervene the moment she clearly lost the battle. It was her job to keep both Yoshina and Naruto from interfering too, though Minako beat her to the punch.
Minako turned around and looked at the two jinchuurikis. "Don't interrupt, this is a formal duel." She said with a cold tone, the innocence that the team was used to completely absent.
Naruto didn't seem to understand. "B-but, we can't just let yo—" He began.
"She's right, don't interrupt, idiot!." Yoshina cut in from the side, giving Minako an encouraging nod, fully confident in her abilities despite the clear shock on her face after the power display earlier. Minako simply nodded back.
Did her daughter know Minako well? Though she didn't pay attention to the team's relationship with the huntress—now swordswoman, she would have known if the two had developed a close friendship over the last month, so that means they knew each other well beforehand.
For one, she was glad that her quiet yet intelligent daughter was close to someone during her time at the academy, but Kushina was confused as to why she wasn't told of this.
Wait… Right.
Yoshina probably would have told her if she asked, and would have kept silent indefinitely as long as she didn't specifically ask if she had made any friends.
Though Kushina used to ask such things of her during the first year of Yoshina's time at the academy, she soon gave up after realising that the chances of Yoshina befriending someone was as likely as Orochimaru being a good guy all along.
Naruto looked like he wanted to say more, but seeing that even his mother wasn't doing anything, he gritted his teeth and swallowed his words.
Minako turned back to Zabuza and entered a stance, one which she had never seen before. Minako seemed to be a bundle of endless surprises, hell someone could tell her that the Kyuubi-like girl was the one who killed Danzo and she would probably believe it after all the things she had seen today.
***
Entering her standard form with blade pointed to her side, Minako stared at her opponent who was slightly off-balance due to the loss of an arm. Despite this, the one-armed man returned the stare with eyes that of a predator, all playfulness from earlier gone. She could tell that the man was taking her seriously despite the fact that she was genin, though it made sense after her earlier display of power. If she could cause so much destruction with a single shot from her bow, who knew what she could do with a sword. He could feel Zabuza focusing his attention on Kuro, possibly intrigued by the strange design and on alert from the strange stance she was taking.
It was a given since she had developed it herself after countless bouts with Itachi and Sasuke. Kuro wasn't a single-edged sword like most on the Elemental nations nor was of the shape of any double-edged swords, meaning that creating her own style was the best way to go as opposed to using a style meant for other types of swords.
"Is there anything about you that is normal?" He deadpanned.
"Nope." She simply said, earning a chuckle from the swordsman. Minako didn't know how the swordsman could be so nonchalant about the loss of an arm, but she guessed that the missing-nin was prepared for such wounds since he decided to become a Shinobi.
"Enough of that now, block THIS" He yelled the last word and dashed forward at a frightening speed, sweeping his sword from the side. It was slightly off target, possibly due to his center of gravity being off due to the less of an arm, but it was accurate enough.
She brought Kuro to the side to guide it away from her instead of blocking. Despite being strong, she wasn't going to risk a contest of strength where she couldn't utilise Kuro's weight shifting ability since she was on the defense.
Before she could even think about counter-attacking, another Zabuza swung again, this time aimed to decapitate her. She crouched before she had to dodge yet another swing.
Fast! She thought as she continued to dodge strikes, not finding any room to begin her offensive. She gritted her teeth in frustration as her fighting style was not designed for continuously defending, and her stamina was being chipped away slowly.
This was Zabuza's goal, to not give her the chance to attack. He had most likely figured from the shape of the sword that it wasn't made for defending but for repeated attacks, and was trying to kill her without giving her to use any gimmicks she might have.
Fortunately however, Zabuza stumbled slightly on one of his swings due to his right hand not being present to stabilise him. Realising his mistake, he immediately pulled back, but it was too light.
"NOW!" Kurama called as Minako jumped up and brought her blade down at the giant sword in Zabuza's hand, increasing the weight to 1000x an instant before the two blades collided.
"[Weight of the World]!"
The earth shook as the ground beneath Zabuza caved along with the ground within a ten meter radius. Cracks appeared within the earth and spread from the area of impact towards the corners of the clearing and into the nearby forest. Zabuza's feet buckled slightly as his remaining arm bent from the force. She could see that his hand was trembling under the weight, and in an instant he retreated before she could cripple his only remaining hand. Looking carefully, she could see Kuro had managed to dig halfway into Zabuza's sword in the short exchange.
Minako could audibly hear two jaw's drop from behind her, most likely from Naruto and Kushina. She had actively used chakra this time unlike her battle with the masked man a year ago, increasing its power and efficiency. The attack was extremely cost-effective, as she barely used any stamina for it due to the fact that the strength behind it was mainly from the weight-shifting itself, but its weakness was that she could only use it with a downward swing whilst she was airborne, or else she would either: 1) lose her balance completely. 2) crush herself from the weight or .3) damage herself more than the enemy.
Despite this, it was incredibly effective against enemies who were unaware of Kuro's property, as it would 9/10 times completely crush the enemy if they were caught off-guard.
Zabuza, however, didn't seem to be taking chances, and had fully focused all his strength on the block, most likely cautious that she would pull something like the arrow earlier.
That was what had saved his life.
"You know kid, are you just the Kyuubi in disguise or what? The ears, tail and strength all kind of fit." He said in a completely serious tone as he stretched his leg. His words actually had merit to be honest, and nobody present could question it even if she said the claim was correct despite how absurd it may seem.
"He's not going to give you the chance to do that again, you need to end this quickly or else you'll lose in the long run if he keeps going on the offensive." Kurama said and she nodded in agreement.
She slammed her sword into the ground again, causing a cloud of dust to form around her, blocking her from Zabuza's vision. Using her hearing senses, she confirmed that Zabuza was still stationary in anticipation of an attack from any direction, and used the chance to charge up an attack.
Gathering all her tails to a single point above her head, black and negative white chakra began to gather from the surrounding air and slowly began forming a dark ball. She could hear collective gasping from her team behind her, who could still see what she was doing as they recognised the attack she was using. In fact, it would be strange if the three of them DIDN'T recognise what she was about to do.
As the ball formed, the pure power energy being emitted from it dispersed the cloud of dust, revealing Zabuza who was still in his defensive stance. His eyes widened as he saw what she was doing.
"I thought this was a kenjutsu duel you brat!" He shouted.
"I proposed a duel, not a kenjutsu duel, I'm still playing within the rules, your fault that you accepted." She replied with a foxy grin, face strained slightly from the amount of chakra being used.
"[Bijuudama]!"