"…He escaped." Minako said as sweat dripped down her face, legs shaking slightly from the attack she had just used. Since her organs weren't necessarily needed for her to function as a chakra construct, her body was still modeled after a human's due to her original nature, and a lack of chakra would be the same as regular exhaustion to a human.
A large crater of over 80 meter radius could be seen a fair distance from where she stood, the point of impact of her [Bijuudama], dust cloud still yet to fully disperse. The attack was meant to take Zabuza out once and for all, but she couldn't smell the lingering remains of him, meaning that he had somehow escaped. Even if he was completely obliterated, he would have left small traces of his smell around the blast area, but no such smell was present.
She had made sure that Zabuza was in no state to Shunshin out when she used her attack, but what was surprising was that she sensed another presence the moment the tailed beast bomb was fired before both the mystery person's and Zabuza's presence disappeared almost completely.
So he had backup available. She sighed slightly irritated that she wasn't able to kill Zabuza. It would have saved them a lot of trouble in the long run, now they would most likely have to face off again but purely on Kenjutsu as Zabuza wouldn't fall for the same trick twice.
"W-what are you?" Someone asking from behind could see Naruto on guard, staring at her with wary eyes whilst Yoshina seemed to be slightly distant, possibly going through everything she just saw. Kushina was… Unconscious?
Nevertheless, it was a fact that both Naruto and Yoshina seemed to be slightly wary of her.
"They're probably considering what Zabuza said earlier, about you being me and all," Kurama said with a hint of amusement.
…Want to join me on a prank? She asked, grinning inwardly.
"Of course." Kurama grinned back before taking control of the body. She changed her body posture to be more intimidating whilst ignoring the pain in her legs from chakra exhaustion.
"…Humans…" She, or rather Kurama growled.
Naruto began to panic seeing this, whilst Yoshina stood still for a few seconds before her eyes widened in realisation. The stoic girl knew that Minako was a prankster, and most likely caught on to her intentions and was playing along.
Tailed Beast chakra began to cover him and took a stance as if ready to leap at her at any second. "WHERE IS Minako?" He shouted whilst growling.
Minako couldn't hold it in any longer and fell to the floor in laughter. Even the stoic Yoshina could be seen with a hand over her mouth holding in a chuckle. Naruto stood there, confused as to why everyone was laughing and evidently embarrassed from the fact that he was left out of whatever was going on.
"You actually… believed it!" Minako managed to get out between her gasps from laughter. Naruto looked on for a moment before he realised what had just happened. He hung his head, but the two could still see that he was fuming slightly.
"Anyways, what happened to Kushina?" Minako asked. It wasn't as if she hadn't seen a Bijuudama before, so it didn't make sense for her to faint of all things.
"She started clutching her head after you started charging that… Bijuudama… up, and fell unconscious whilst screaming afterwards." Yoshina explained, causing Minako to frown slightly
Now THAT was sending alarms off in her head. From Kushina's reactions earlier when she had hinted at her having a third child, it was quite possible that the battle had reminded Kushina of her child's existence. If that was the case, she didn't know what would happen if she woke up. There was a chance that she would recognise her, and Minako would need to prepare herself for such a situation.
"Alright, I'll explain everything when she's up, let's get moving for now." She said whilst motioning at Tazuna, who looked as if he had seen a ghost, to lead the way.
Suddenly, her legs failed her for a moment as she dropped to her knees. It seemed that the chakra exhaustion was beginning to catch up to her.
"Minako!" Naruto jumped forward in worry to support her.
"It's fine… just a little… tired…" She managed to mutter as she forced herself up.
"I can carry you there you know?" Naruto suggested.
"No, I'll rest when we get back, I'll be fine for now, carry Kushina and move along." She replied back, too prideful to admit that she required help. Naruto looked like he wanted to retort, but simply nodded and hung an arm around Kushina before leaping off towards where Tazuna was heading.
Yoshina looked at her for a moment. "Explain… Later…" She said as she followed the others, leaving her in the clearing by herself.
Catching her breath, she dismissed her armour for her hunting dress as it was more comfortable for casual wear and moved along towards, not daring to use anymore chakra in fear that it would aggravate her body further.
Due to her being a full chakra construct, all she needed to survive was chakra, and chakra exhaustion was basically akin to her being very, very hungry. If she were to use more now, she doubted that she would even make it to wherever Tazuna was taking them.
Despite this, she was naturally as fast as chuunins without the use of chakra, and was steadily catching up to the trio not including Kushina, who seemed to be heading towards a particular house. As Minako moved, she could see the situation of the people who lived in the area. People were dressed in rags, most even skinnier than the slum dwellers of Konoha. She grit her teeth in frustration at her inability to help in the situation, and swore that she would make the one responsible pay.
The door was left open for her, and inside she could see her two siblings sitting down with Tazuna and another woman, most likely the daughter that he had been talking about on the trip. Kushina was nowhere to be seen, but she could still sense her chakra signature within the house, meaning that she was most likely left to rest in a spare room.
"Ah, you've arrived, do come and sit down." Tazuna said, gesturing Minako towards the spare space opposite her siblings. She nodded and walked over, ignoring the gazes of Naruto and Yoshina who seemed to be transfixed on her fox-like features. Before Tazuna could reach for one more cushion, she raised a hand to stop him and sat down on the spot with her tails curled under her. She dismissed the upper layers of her dress as it was still dirty from the dress, letting it burst into particles of light before fading.
Her two teammates seemed to exchange glances briefly, clearly unaware of what she just did, whilst Tazuna and Tsunami seemed to dismiss it as a shinobi trick.
They sat in an awkward silence, none daring to speak up. Seeing this, Tazuna decided to get the introductions under way first.
"Alright, now that we are comfortable, Team 12, meet my daughter Tsunami. Tsunami, meet team 12. The blonde haired kid is Naruto, the red-haired one is Yoshina and the… fox-like… girl there is Minako. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be here." He said with a nervous chuckle, but his words had managed to break the tension between them. "Do get our guests some tea Tsunami." Tazuna added as his daughter nodded with a smile before disappearing into another room.
Before the two could even begin the interrogation, Minako put up a hand. "Wait for Kushina to get down, I'm not explaining this twice."
The two nodded as they received their tea from Tsunami. The three talked about other subjects for quite a while until footsteps reached their ears. Looking over, Minako could see Kushina slowly limping towards them.
"N-Minako…" She muttered as she made her way over.
"Minako!" She shouted this time as she, to her shock and surprise, embraced her with tears running down her face.
Instinctively, Minako pushed her away, causing Kushina's eyes to widen.
"Minako…?" She muttered again, staring right at her. "It's me, I'm your—"
"I know, I'm just… not prepared yet." Minako said with her head hung slightly, not daring to look up.
"… H-have, you known… All this time? Since when?" Kushina asked, pain evident in her voice.
"… f course I did, how could I forget? Six years isn't that long when you think about it."
She heard Kushina gasp with a hand over her mouth, clearly surprised by what she admitted.
"Did you run away by yourse—"
"You and Minato forgot to include me in the blood seal. I was… rejected." Minako said calmly as she slowly reached out to the opening in her dress just above her breasts. She pulled it down slightly to reveal a large cross-shaped scar that she never fully healed to remind herself of who she was, despite the fact that she could heal it any time she wanted.
She had tried to put the painful memories behind, but she found that the best way to deal with them was to just accept them as a part of who she was, for the memories of the past were still a part of you after all.
She could hear gasps from around the room as they stared at the large cross that shouldn't belong on her white skin. Silence followed afterwards, no one saying anything. Tazuna and Tsunami seemed to have caught onto what was happening, though Naruto seemed to be confused. Figures, he couldn't figure it out unless you spelt it out in front of him.
***
"T-that… what happened?" Kushina asked, though she would rather not know.
She had awoken to a headache accompanied by memories, memories of the past that had been… locked… to her, one way or the other. And to her horror, she realised that she had a third child, Minako. Yes, she recalled the times she used to look after her three children when they were still in their cribs, how could she forget those moments?
How could she?
She had immediately made her way to downstairs to where her children, ALL her children, were waiting along with Tazuna and another woman, most likely the daughter Tazuna had kept going on about. Kushina could see Yoshina and Naruto sitting quietly, unusual for the latter child who was usually louder than performers. The two seemed to be staring at something. She followed their gaze, and gasped as she Minako sitting there, fox-like ears, tails curled under her acting as a cushion with her eyes shut as if in meditation.
She wasn't dreaming, it really was her child, but it felt… different. The nine tails under Minako immediately put her on alert. Why was her child's appearance so similar to the Kyuubi's? Had it somehow managed to take over her? But that was impossible, the chakra of the tailed beast was sealed into her two younger children.
And when she had desperately tried to reach out to her, she had pushed her away, was this the price?
"Threw me straight into the bars outside the estate and into the river, spent a night floating around until I ended up near the Uchiha estate, lived in the forest for a few years until the massacre so I moved in to keep Sasuke company." Minako replied to her question.
Kushina was horrified to see such a scar on a child so young. If the wound was just slightly more to the left then it certainly would have pierced her heart and killed her instantly, how she survived such a wound for a night was a question in itself.
She froze at the prospect of her eldest dying, without her ever realising for that matter! And she had lived in the forest for several years? Why hadn't she called them?
"But, why didn't you call for us?"
"Because I didn't know why I was forgotten. If I were brought back, I didn't want to live under a household simply due to pity." She replied.
Kushina took a deep breath before choosing her next words carefully. There was no point going further into Minako's past, that would be for another time, when they were more acquainted. It hurt to know that she knew almost nothing of her eldest child's past, but forcing her wasn't something she would ever do. It was good enough to know that she was alive for now.
"Minako… This may sound ridiculous, but me and Minato wer—" She began before being interrupted.
"I know." Minako said, still not looking her in the eye.
"W-what?" She said in surprise. Had Minako known all along that they couldn't remember due to inteference?
"I figured it out on the way here. You seemed to be reacting with pain whenever any mention of me went around, I figured something had happened, now sit down before you ask any more, I'll only answer three more questions for today before I retire." Minako said swiftly before she could make her own conclusions. Ignoring the confused looks of Naruto, she sat down opposite to Yoshina, who seemed strangely calm, as if she had known about Minako's identity all along.
…Had she? It wasn't important for now though, something she could ask later.
"Alright, who wants to go first?" Minako said, looking up for the first time and scanning the room. Kushina gazed at glowing turquoise eyes that weren't of her nor Minato's shade of blue, distinctly different from what she remembered Minako's eyes were like back when she was still a child. Though she hadn't paid any attention to it, the emerald fringes covering the front of Minako's hair was also unlike any shade of green she had ever seen, another mystery she would need to look into.
Tazuna and Tsunami seemed to have sensed the atmosphere and remained quiet, both drinking their tea and observing with interest.
After a minute or so, Yoshina put her hand up, surprising the members of team 12 as she was never one to usually take the initiative.
"Are you human?" She asked rather bluntly. Kushina felt like throwing a mock punch at the girl to punish her for her rudeness, but felt that it was not an appropriate moment to do so.
"No." Minako replied with equal bluntness, causing Naruto to choke slightly as he hadn't expected her to admit it so openly. Knowing her son, he probably still didn't figure out Minako's connection to the family even after the exchange earlier, but that who just who he was.
"Can you explain that in detail?" Kushina pressed, hoping to learn more about the daughter that she had… had forgotten… for over half the girl's life. Despite the fact that it wasn't her fault, she felt that it was her responsibility no matter what to have looked after her family, to know that a girl, her own child, had to survive in the woods by herself for several years damaged her pride as a mother quite heavily.
"I'm a tailed beast, the Kyuubi to be specific." Minako replied whilst reaching for her own cup of tea, ignoring Tazuna and his daughter who now had the same reaction as Naruto earlier.
Despite hearing such a thing, Kushina's heart almost skipped a beat, not out of excitement but simply because her thought processes froze for a moment.
Her daughter, the Kyuubi?
Despite the appearance Minako took up, she thought that the girl had merely took up the appearance of the nine tails due to personal reasons. Hearing her claim to be the very thing that took so many lives on that terrible night was something that she wasn't expecting.
Yet despite this, she kept quiet, hoping for Minako to expand.
Seeing the blank look on her face, Minako shrugged. "What did you expect would happen when you seal the soul by itself into someone, they merge! I'm Minako yet at the same time I'm also the Kyuubi, you could say I'm both." The sinking feeling within her multiplied, she felt as if she would faint at any moment.
Noticing that no one else was saying anything, Yoshina spoke up again, "So you are also the Kyuubi, you say?" She asked, as if asking for proof. Sensing it, the Minako closed her eyes for a second, before opening them again, revealing familiar bloodthirsty eyes that still haunted Kushina to this day.
"Exactly as I said it, Imouto." Her daught—no, the Kyuubi spoke in a distorted voice that no human could possibly possess, sending shivers down their spine. "Enjoying my chakra, you two?" The being said again, now in a slightly more cheerful tone.
The fact that such a… thing… was in the form of her long forgotten daughter angered Kushina to the point where she felt like punching the Kyuubi out of the body, but even someone as hot-blooded as her knew what this meant.
Her daughter was no longer the same.
Though the memories were vague as they had only returned a short time ago, she could still remember the cheerful child that brought joy to both her and Minato, how did it end as such? How could that someone end up become like this?
She already knew the answer.
Minako had already said that it was a result of the sealing of the soul. They were the ones who decided to do such a thing, she and Minato were responsible for thi—She calmed herself as she noticed that she was hyperventilating. It wasn't fitting for a kunoichi to show such unsightly behavior in front of others, civilians nonetheless.
"I don't hate you, you know?" The distorted voice sounded again, causing Kushina to lift her head slightly, only to be greeted by glowing turquoise eyes in slits.
"W-what, but—"
"Namikaze Minako is a person who has difficulty in hating anyone…" She said before pausing for a moment, "I will take my leave for now, I've answered the three questions and allow you all to think, perhaps allow my little brother there to actually take in the information." She added before standing up with a bow and heading for the door, outer layers of her clothes materialising.
Kushina could feel tears rolling down her face… As a mother, she had failed. No matter how much it wasn't her fault, she had still failed.
But would she give up? No, she was an Uzumaki after all.
She reached out with a hand and tapped her forgotten daughter's shoulder just before she was about to exit.
She had no right to intrude on her life, that she knew, but it didn't mean she couldn't start from the beginning. With this in mind, she extended a hand towards her.
"Friends then?" Kushina asked. Minako seemed stunned for a moment, before a small smile appeared on her face.
"Sure!" The girl said as she shook the hand she had extended before disappearing into the woods.
The house was silent as no one dared to speak (Though Yoshina was nibbling on the cookies that were present on the table). The awkward atmosphere continued until a certain headstrong blond decided to speak up.
"So who is she really?" Naruto asked as Kushina gaped at him, speechless that he still couldn't put it together.
"THAT WAS YOUR SISTER, YOU IDIOT!"
***
"Well that worked quite well" Kurama commented as Minako jumped from branch to branch, speeding through the forest with her beloved bow strapped to her back.
She was surprised when her mother had extended the offer to friendship. It seemed that she had realised that if she wanted to be any part of her life, she would need to start from the beginning, and it was something that she could respect, though it was unsurprising that Naruto was still clueless even after she had dropped so many hints.
Her chakra level was still low, but now at a level where she could use it to boost her speed ever so slightly.
Arriving at a small clearing a fair distance away from Tazuna's house, she sat down in the middle and closed her eyes as if in meditation. Reaching within her consciousness, she opened her eyes again to be greeted by an open field, very unlike where she was before. Only a few steps away stood a female figure with emerald green hair, looking at her with a small smile plastered on her face.
Her inner mindscape hadn't changed much since the soul merge and as such she didn't spend long looking. She delved deep into her mind again, this time going through her own memories, unlocking some locked away memories of Kurama's past at the same time.
Amongst those memories were some foreign to both her and Kurama.
At first, she was confused as to why there we a few memory shards of a certain green clad huntress and sword wielding King of Knights floating around within her mindscape, but over time she came to the conclusion that these memories weren't purposely left here as the majority of the memories were simply of the huntress walking around or of the King of Knights sitting on a throne, unimportant memories that certainly held no purpose. Kurama had concluded that they were simply accidental shards that were left behind as a result of the two invading her mind at a young age.
Though most of them were just random fragments, there were a few that stood out, which told of the kind of lives the two lived, and from what she saw both were just as tragic. She hoped that she could atleast change something like the King of Knights had said.
"It's time, the concentration of chakra is currently at its highest during the day." Kurama called, reminding her of their original objective.
Ever since viewing the memories, she had been attempting to replicate some of the attacks the two had shown in her memories, specifically the attack the huntress had used against the boar, [Phoebus Catastrophe] She had called it. It was definitely in a foreign tongue, yet she could still understand it, another mystery she would have to think about another time.
Her instincts told her that she could use the attack, yet nothing happened every single time she attempted to use it in the past years. Her bow would build up energy, vibrate slightly as if it would succeed, but the chakra buildup would disperse immediately before firing.
It was then that Kurama had told her that the energy type being used was similar, yet different to the chakra that she was used to. She had delved deep into Kurama's memories since then to uncover any information on the energy source being used, and only recently did her efforts bear fruit.
Most up and coming nin's would learn of the composition of chakra during the academy years, but even those were simply what scholars thought to be true, as very few could interact with the very foundations of chakra without suffering severe backlashes.
Therefore there were very few who knew anything about the truth of chakra's origin except the fact that it came from the God Tree, one of those few was Otsutsuki Hagoromo, otherwise known as the Ridudou Sennin, the Sage of Six Paths. The old sage seemed to have a habit of leaving his work laying around, and through Kurama's memories Minako managed to gather enough information.
The original source of energy, Mana, which used to be present everywhere until the appearance of the God Tree. The God Tree had 'tainted' all Mana it came into contact with, turning it into Chakra, a similar yet different form of energy. The process of transformation was sped up as Otsutsuki Kaguya, mother of Hagoromo, consumed an apple from the God Tree, obtaining chakra for herself and all humans that came after her.
From what she could see through the memories, mana was far more versatile than chakra, despite being harder to manipulate.
It was clear that the God Tree had added his own taint into Mana to create Chakra. Following this logic, it meant that it was also possible to remove the taint, though very risky.
"The old man's famous [Creation of All Things] was based off something he called the [First True Mystery], or was it the [First True Magic]? Don't remember too clearly. Though apparently his technique paled in comparison to the 'True Magic' as he called it. His technique could only create non-living things, meaning that Souls and Energy such as Mana and Chakra were far out of his league." Kurama had told her when she asked if she knew anything about Mana. It was this that encouraged her to study the splitting of Chakra into its base form, Mana, a feat that only the Sage of Six Paths had managed to perform.
Despite this, she was born an Uzumaki, and Uzumaki's never gave up.
today would be her first attempt to perform the splitting of Chakra into Mana. She had already put up a seal around the clearing to make sure there wouldn't be any uninvited guests in case something went wrong.
"I'm ready, let's begin." She mentally called to Kurama as she let out a nervous sigh before tensing her muscles in anticipation.
Minutes passed as she simply sat there, hands extended as if in a prayer, and only after half an hour did a small flicker of chakra appear upon her palms, dancing around her hand. Sweat trickled down Minako's head as she concentrated on keeping the chakra physically manifested.
"All negative components removed, go ahead."
Negative chakra was said to be the most volatile of the what people believed to form chakra itself, removing it would severely reduce the chances of the experiment exploding in her face. Hearing the confirmation, she nodded and closed her eyes.
Analyzing initial components
God Tree taint identified
Isolation of selected energy
This was the hard part. The taint itself was easy to detect once you knew what you were looking for, the first step of separation was to isolate the taint from the Mana itself. Such an action required identifying every single essence of the taint before moving it away from the Mana, and unless you were used to the action it would be nigh impossible.
Fortunately for her, she had been at it for several years, and the action had become second nature to her.
Isolation complete, commencing separation
separation complete, commencing deletion of taint
The final step, which required her to completely destroy all essence of the taint without losing control. The last time she had tried it, she had been knocked unconscious for a full night. At least this time she had a failsafe ready in case things didn't go as planned that wouldn't leave her vulnerable if she went out.
Only a second passed in the real world, but to her it seemed like days as she swiftly destroyed all traces of the God Tree's taint.
Though she didn't notice, she had almost stopped breathing at one point, focusing purely at the task at hand. Only after a minute did she open her eyes again as she gasped for breath. She swiftly looked back down at her hand, eyes widening as she saw blue, string-like particles floating around just above her palm. She could sense that it was definitely not chakra, meaning only one thing.
"I… Succeeded?" She said in a quiet voice between pants. Though tired on the outside, she was more excited than she had ever been, why wouldn't she be? She had just past a block in her progression that had been there ever since her training had started, with this she could finally progress on her training.
"Congra—WATCH OUT!" Kurama began before ending it with a panicked yell. Minako didn't have a chance to register the words as she felt all the chakra in the nearby region being separated back into Mana, with her hand at its origin, almost like a chain reaction.
"A chain reaction!? Bu—AGH!" She began before crying out in pain. It felt as if her body was tearing itself apart from the inside. It only took her a moment to realise what was happening.
"The chain reaction is affecting me as well since I'm a chakra construct…" She concluded as she desperately tried to find a way out of the predicament, but it was too late as she collapsed screaming. Her last thoughts were that she was at least safe with the sound-blocking seals installed.
She awoke in a sea of darkness, never ending darkness similar to what she saw during her soul merge, yet she felt at peace.
"Where am I?" she thought as she tried to turn her head, but to her surprise she was locked in place and couldn't move an inch. She attempted to call out to Kurama, but found that communications were lost between them, at least for the time being.
"CONNECTION TO ROOT DETECTED."
…What?
She could hear something, but she couldn't understand at all.
Not the 'another language' type of can't understand, but she simply couldn't comprehend the nature or origin of the sounds at all. It was as if it wasn't meant to be understood in the first place, yet her instincts told her that it was definitely saying something coherent.
"CONNECTION TO ROOT DETECTED."
She tried to turn around to face the sound, yet to no avail.
"BODY OF FOREIGN ENTITY: CHAKRA CONSTRUCT."
She simply gave up and allowed herself to float in the never ending abyss, listening to the autonomous voice which she couldn't attribute to a human, the voice was completely out of the world, something humans weren't meant to comprehend.
"ENTITY STATUS: CRITICAL."
She listened…
"ALTERING BODY COMPOSITION TO ENSURE SURVIVAL."
And listened…
"ALTERATION COMPLETE, COMMENCING EJECTION."
Until her mind suddenly shut down.