The Draw Sword Guild's flight finally touched down on South Korean soil. To the S-rank hunters already familiar with flying in a plane. The flight wasn't anything to write home about. But to one Kushina Uzumaki?
Let's say it was a day to remember.
"Whoa!" Kushina exclaimed. "That was exhilarating! I've never been so high up before, dattebane!"
She craned her head up, hand over her eyes, to see another plane flying off in the distance. "What a behemoth, huh. How can such a thing fly?"
Kushina turned to Kanae, expectantly.
"What?" Kanae shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know? Ask one of the employees."
"Oooh! Good idea!" Kushina jumped to follow her directions.
Ippei wrapped a hand around her wrist, pulling her back to the group.
"Maybe don't do that…" He said stiffly, much to Kushina's chagrin. 'She's like a little kid right now!'
"You know, Kushina…" Shimizu began, leaning toward the redhead. "I didn't think you'd be this enthusiastic about planes after we hit the slightest bit of turbulence."
"Hey, that was actually scary, dattebane…" Kushina murmured, pouting and turning away as her cheeks turned red.
Atsushi, watching the exchange, started to grow hot under his mask—admiring Kushina's beauty. 'She's so cute! Ah, I mean—focus, Atsushi!'
"Still annoying. I couldn't get a lick of sleep thanks to you screaming bloody murder the whole time," Kei complained, rubbing the sleep from his tired eyes. "Why do we have to accommodate this noob?"
"You got a problem with me, bud?" Kushina raised a closed fist up to Kei's face in a threatening manner.
"Yeah, I do." Kei sneered beneath his mechanical mask, tilting his head up to size her up. "You stink."
Mana wavelengths grew stronger as both their auras started to seep out of them.
"Whoa, stop it you two!" Kanae stepped in between the two, pushing them back. "You're gonna cause an international incident."
"He's got it coming! He's been a jerk ever since I got on this team!" Kushina argued angrily.
"Personally, I wanna see something interesting after all these boring days. Maybe an international incident might not be a bad idea." Akari whispered to her friend Mari.
Mari gave her a flat expression. "You're not helping."
"What?" The S-rank healer feigned hurt. "I'm the healer! I'll be helping… making sure no one dies in the fight, of course!"
"You're something else, Shimizu." Mari rolled her eyes.
Tensions continued to escalate between Kei and Kushina, Kanae trying to meditate as a crowd began to gather.
Goto Ryuji stepped through into the airport, expression hardened, sensing the mana wavelengths of Kei, Kanae and one other unfamiliar wave. The Japanese Association translator, Hanakawe, trailing behind him in her neatly tailored black suit and a blank expression that gave nothing away.
Goto stopped Reiji and Minoru Hoshino on his march to the commotion, stepping past him and expecting to be followed. "Do you not sense those wavelengths?" He asked his vice, voice twinged with contempt, "What are our S-ranks doing?"
"Now that you mention it…" Reiji replied, lifting his head as his eyes flashed green for a brief instant. "That is certainly quite the surprise."
"You're telling me…" Goto muttered, though he could sense that Reiji wasn't nearly as irritated as he was.
Goto stepped through the crowd, people giving him wide breath, unconsciously or otherwise. He flared his aura, the wavelengths washing over all others except one.
"What is going on here?" He demanded.
Goto saw Kei pulling on Kushina's hair with Kanae between the two. Kenjo had Kushina in a full nelson, slowly being pulled away while Kei was being shoved back by Tatsumi Fujishima. They all froze when they felt the powerful presence of their guild master.
"Behave yourselves! You're members of Japan's most elite guild. Act like it." He berated them like a stern teacher to unruly children. They were certainly acting like ones.
"Who started this?" Reiji asked calmly.
"It was him!"
"It was her!"
Kushina and Kei pointed accusing fingers at one another—only to yelp when Kanae smacked them both on the head.
"It was both of you dumbasses!" she snapped.
Goto sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as Reiji chuckled, entirely unbothered.
"Sir." Hanakawa spoke softly to the guild master, her voice betraying nothing about how she felt about the situation. "We should be heading to the Korean Hunters Association. They are eager to meet."
"Yes, of course." He nodded. He turned to the S-ranks, giving them a single glance. "Go get checked in at the hotel. Report to the Korean Hunters Association at 0930 hours."
With that final directive, he turned and left, Hanakawa following closely behind.
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Minato watched the Sung siblings drive off to the hospital to pick up their cured mother. Jinwoo hadn't quite broken the news to her yet—wanting it to be a surprise. It certainly was to Minato.
From what he had read about the disease that inflicted Jinwoo's mom, there was no cure. He and everyone else was wrong.
He supposed that it satisfied his curiosity about Jinwoo's hellbent obsession with climbing the floors of the Demon Castle and why he abandoned him there.
He wasn't happy about it nor had he forgiven Jinwoo yet, and he let him know that, but he could try to understand his feelings.
With all that stuff past them, he went back inside for a shower before fixing himself a nice pair of clothes to wear. A fresh seat of cargo pants with almost as many pockets as his flak jacket, a blue long sleeve shirt and a pair of black sneakers. His trips with Jinho the prior really expanded his wardrobe, which he was appreciative of.
Sealing the old and dirty clothes in an empty sealing scroll, he made his way to the couch and plopped down before pulling out another one.
"Okay," He said to himself, unfurling the scroll. "What do you have in store for me?"
A thin leather book, pulsing red veins and a dark red eye in the center appeared in his hand, with a puff of smoke.
"This is a grimoire, hm?" He opened the book, carefully, cautious about any traps that lie within the pages. Satisfied when nothing persisted, he began to read.
The words inscribed on each page were written in runes but for some reason he could understand them. Each letter automatically reworking itself into something he was familiar with and could comprehend.
Recalling the explanation that Esil gave him about demons. Language barriers weren't a thing for them because they could understand people through their intent. 'How does that apply to words, though?'
"How does housing a 'demon' inside my body—one from a completely different dimension, that isn't even truly a demon but an amalgamation of chakra—give me abilities eerily similar to demonkind?" he muttered.
"Unless it's not me," the Nine-Tails rumbled, dragging Minato into the mental realm, "but the tainted mana that's been passing through you this whole time."
Minato blinked.
The familiar blue mist surrounding Kurama had thickened—no longer a haze, but a dense blue fog.
"…You think this mana has something to do with it?" Minato asked, running a hand through the fog.
"I don't see why not," the beast growled. "Every time you killed a demon, traces of it slipped through. The stronger the demon, the more leaked in."
"I assumed the seal was purifying the tainted mana and converting it into my own reserves," Minato said slowly. "But if that's the case… why is it lingering here instead of integrating?"
"It's a different source of energy obviously," The Nine Tails scoffed. If Minato could see through the fog then he would've seen the beast rolling his eyes. "Your seal is not tailored to such a potent power."
"Ah, yes of course!" Minato snapped his fingers. "That's really helpful, uh… um…"
He trailed off, clearly thinking. The Nine Tails noticed the awkward pause but did nothing to address, preferring instead to get some shut eye.
"I just realized something," Minato said after a moment, "I never asked your name, Nine Tails. What is it?"
"Why would I tell you that?" The beast rumbled back.
"I imagine you'd prefer being addressed by your name rather than what you are." Minato said calmly—much to the fox's irritation.
"Don't be insufferable, you pathetic fool!" The Nine Tails roared. The fog was blasted away in an instant, only to roll back in waves.
"Okay—sorry, geez." Minato said quickly, holding his hands up. He jumped up to the giant bars of the torii gate, peering in until he spotted the fox's enormous slit-pupiled eye. "One day, I will learn your name. And I hope by then, we'll be able to work together."
A giant claw slammed against the bars but Minato jumped back just in time to avoid getting squashed.
"Get rid of this putrid mana, Fourth Hokage!" The Nine Tails snarled, his form vanishing in the thick fog. "It's getting rowdy."
Back in reality, Minato immediately set to work adjusting the seal— following the fox's advice. 'He's going to try and break out,' Minato noted calmly. 'I need to account for that.'
Not it would be a problem for him to keep the Nine Tails in check— but one could never be too cautious. He lifted his shirt, watching as the Eight Trigrams sealing formula revealed itself across his stomach.
'I have to adjust it so the correct ratio of mana flows into my chakra network.'
Five fingers lit aflame with chakra as he examined the seal closely. He didn't have the original key for the seal but with his mastery of fuinjutsu, altering it was little more than lockpicking. 'Too much mana flowing in and integrating with my chakra could have unintended effects,' he reasoned. 'Better to keep the ratio conservative.'
If his original chakra balance with the Nine-Tails had been 10 to 3, then a safer ratio between his chakra and mana would be something closer to 10 to 2. The absorption rate would be slower and less significant than the Nine Tails but safer.
'I can adjust it later once I'm more comfortable.'
He pressed all five fingers onto the sealing spell. His body flinched when he felt the rocking of the Nine Tails trying to break free but he quickly suppressed his revolt.
Kanji twisted and flowed, rearranging themselves under his precise control. Lines expanded, symbols layered, and the seal grew more complex each second. Eventually, the kanji settled and an additional inscription formed to regulate the mana flow.
Minato's eyes flashed a deep silver before fading back to blue.
"#$%#$%"
Minato whipped his head around when he heard a whisper running past his ear. The room was empty and the whisper was gone but the chill never left him. "What was that?" He murmured, brows furrowed. He decided not to pay it any mind now that it was gone.
"I feel different now," Minato looked at his palm—flexing it. "That's to be expected. Is this what people who awaken feel?"
A sensation of pins and needles ran under his skin as he felt an unfamiliar power settling into his veins. The mana was doing more than just expanding his chakra, it was enhancing his physicality.
He lifted his grimoire and started flipping through. The former Hokage really just wanted to expand his knowledge on magic when he requested the Radiru for a set of grimoires—but now that he had mana. He was confident in actually performing the spells.
"Let's try this one," he said, "Demon Arts: Netherstorm. Sounds hardcore— as Kushina would say." Thoughts trailing fondly to his late wife—bringing a bittersweet smile to his lips.
Setting the grimoire aside, Minato followed the instructions precisely. Feet shoulder- width apart. Back straight. Left hand outstretched. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he felt power thrum underneath his skin.
"Netherstorm."
His eyes flashed silver as magic twisted in the air in front of him, forming a red orb in front of him. Just as his concentration hit its peak, a thought occurred to him that he hadn't previously considered.
"...Should I be doing this inside?"
It was at that moment the red orb imploded, lashing back with force enough to send Minato flying back and careening into the kitchen wall—the whole next room.
"Ow…" Minato groaned, slowly rising to his feet. "That was definitely hard."
Suddenly the door slammed open, Jinwoo standing protectively in front of Jinah and another woman. "What's going on in here?" he demanded, eyes promising pain.
"Sorry!" Minato called groggily, poking his head out from the wrecked kitchen. "My fault!"
Jinwoo froze. His shoulders slackened as he took in the scene, disbelief replacing tension. "What the hell, dude?"
Behind him the woman and Jinah peered past his shoulder, eyes widening at the scattered books, overturned cushions and papers strewn across the room.
"Uh… welcome home," Minato said with an awkward smile, his cheeks flushing. "Sorry for the mess."
"No need to worry, young man." The woman recovered quickly, stepping forward with a gentle smile. "After four years, what's a few more chores, right?"
Minato paused, allowing his gaze to linger as he quietly took the woman in. She was middle-aged, slender in build, with long black hair held neatly in a mid length ponytail. Faint wrinkles traced her features—a sign of her years lived. Her gray eyes made him pause, stirring an odd sense of familiarity he didn't place immediately. Peering deeper with his keen observation skills, he saw she sported a small burn scar on the left side of her neck.
All this analysis took place in a matter of seconds for the master shinobi—all the pieces fell in place for him.
"You must be Jinwoo's mom!" Minato blurted out, eyes wide. "Oh—wow. I'm really embarrassed now."
"Don't be!" she laughed, helping him to his feet. "My name is Park Kyung-Hye. And you are?"
"Namikaze Minato."
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After everything settled down, the group set to work on cleaning up the apartment.
"This house is rather old now, isn't it?" Kyung-Hye said, wiping off a particularly stubborn stain on the counter. "There are stains everywhere around the house."
"Are you sure that's not just Minato's doing as well?" Jinah joked, teasing the ninja. Minato groaned, lugging a trash bag outta room while Jinah the entire time.
She was actually happy that he had caused the mess because it meant she wouldn't be blamed for actually causing the majority of the mess. Jinwoo was on his trip for days so Jinah procrastinated cleaning up the place the entire time.
"I'm sure, Jinah. Please don't be mean to the young man," the mother reprimanded her daughter lightly. She chuckled under her breath as well, knowing it was good harmless fun.
Jinwoo watched the whole exchange in stoic silence. "We've lived here since we were kids so it makes sense." Jinwoo offered his mother a reasonable explanation as to the condition of the house. A small content smile playing on his lips the entire time.
Kyung-Hye, sweeping off some dust behind the couch, picked up a frame lying upside down.
"Hey, Jinwoo." Kyung-Hye softly called out to her son, brushing dust off the frame. Jinwoo lifted his head from his task, sensing something off in his mother's tone. "Maybe… While I was asleep, did you hear anything about your father?"
Jinwoo swallowed hard, hanging his low. "No. Nothing…"
"I see…"
Heavy silence hung over the Sung residence like an avail. Minato, returning from taking a bag full of trash out back, immediately noted the gloomy atmosphere.
"I saw you became a hunter too," Kyung-Hye said, seeking to move the conversation to less heartache territory. "You're all over the news."
"Yeah." Jinwoo replied.
"Actually," She placed the frame down on the shelf. "Do you remember when your father was a firefighter? The way he always wanted to help people might be the biggest reason I became his wife." She had a fond smile on her face, recalling memories of the man in the frame. "I can tell you inherited that part of him."
Jinwoo chuckled lightly, his drastically improving thanks to his mother's kind words.
Jinah not wanting to be left out, wrapped her arms around her mom. "Hey, do you think my dream of being a doctor is cause of dad too?"
The mother of the two siblings laughed, "Yeah, you're both your father's children."
Minato leaned against the door frame, watching them interact with a fond smile. His eyes grew distant as dreamt of a far off timeline where this was him and Kushina with their son Naruto. Joking, laughing and teasing each other. Maybe some yelling from Kushina and him trying to calm her down after some kid on the playground did something to upset little Naruto. It was a fond daydream and the fact that it was just that—cut deeper than any blade.
"Hey," Jinwoo called, breaking him from his depressing thoughts. "You good? You were out of it for a while."
Minato blinked, noticing all eyes were now on him. "Oh—um, it's nothing really. No need to worry about me."
"Are you sure, young man?" Kyung-Hye asked gently.
"Positive, ma'am." Minato said confidently.
"Your eyes tell a story, Minato. One of immense triumph but also pain." She said, seriously.
"The nature of what I am is to endure. It's what makes me who I am." Minato replied, steely and determined—completely set in his beliefs.
"That is very admirable. I'm glad that my son has made a friend like you." She said sincerely.
Suddenly, the older Sung siblings' phone started ringing. Fishing it out of his pocket, he answered.
"Hello?"
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The hotel was nice from the outside looking in, but after checking in and receiving her keycard, Kushina quickly realized it was even better than she'd expected.
'It's like I'm a daimyo,' she thought, dropping onto the soft bed with a satisfied grin. 'I could get used to this.'
She turned her head to the digital clock on the nightstand. Twenty minutes remained before she had to rendezvous in the lobby and head out with the others to the Korean Hunters Association.
With a groan, Kushina pushed herself up, tossed her brown cardigan onto the bed, and walked toward the balcony. She leaned on the railing, looking out to the city.
From her vantage she could see people milling about like busy ants through the connected shopping and entertainment complexes.
'In the next four days, I'm going to be on that island.' She mused, looking out in the island's direction. 'I'm not scared or anything, but something about it is making me uneasy.'
It's rare that she got this feeling and she was usually on the money, that something big would happen, when she did get it.
Taking a breath, she expanded her senses and immersed herself in the waves of mana she could sense throughout nearly the entire district of Songpa. Since her fusion with Tenken her sensory perception has only improved, and being around so many high level hunters has only helped her accurately gauge differences in mana levels.
Below, there were mostly normal people and few hunters scattered here and there. Paying attention just a little bit more, she noted that most of these hunters barely moved or were in strategic locations around the shopping district.
That meant two things.
Either they were registered awakened beings hired as security for private companies or Association hunters conducting patrols.
A human layer of surveillance to catch what the mana sensors set up throughout the city couldn't.
Japan pioneered the strategy, keeping its cities safe among the safest in Asia according to nearly every international metric.
All of that, Kanae had explained during their patrol two days earlier. Even as prominent hunters, they were still expected to perform mundane tasks—patrolling districts, clearing low-level dungeons, and heeding the summons of the Agency like every other hunter.
"Hm?" Kushina was intrigued by a sudden spike of waves in the area. The spike was drastic and significant almost like a gate opening up.
Looking down she couldn't see anything and there didn't seem to be anyone reacting to the danger.
Her eyes flicked back to the digital clock through the open window.
'Fifteen minutes.'
"Eh. I won't be long," She promised, jumping the railing and to the rooftop over.
Letting her senses guide her, she jumped down into the crowd of people. Many were startled by her sudden appearance, giving her wide birth and she imagined cursing her in their native tongue she couldn't understand.
"The waves have settled…" She mumbled to herself.
After surfing through the crowd at leisure pace, she heard it minutes later. Screams of terror, emanating from the theater two blocks ahead. She sprung into action immediately, leaping into traffic, bouncing off car roofs to gain air before launching herself forward. She arrived to witness the carnage from a lamppost.
Bodies strewn about on the stairs as reptilian monsters ran rampant on the street, chasing down any human with gleeful brutality.
Hunters were quick to respond and deter the magic beasts as civilians evacuated the area, but none of them were truly a match for the B-rank magic beasts that the lizardmen were.
In fact, one of the hunters would have been headless if not for the golden chain piercing straight through the lizardman's skull. The hunter breathed a sigh of relief as the reptile was yanked into the air and flung across the street, colliding with another of its brethren.
"Oi," Kushina called out, her voice echoing unnaturally as spoke in the tongue of monsters. "Don't piss me off!"
Her hair levitated, flowing like tentacles in water as a murderous aura flooding the streets. The lizardmen looked petrified, staring at her with mouths agape and trembling limbs.
"What's this?" A growl reverberated from the darkness of the theater's entrance. "Our feast disturbed by a human."
From the shadows emerged a massive red reptile—a salamander with scarred scales, razor claws, and amber eyes split by vertical pupils.
"Leave this place, lizard," Kushina ordered coldly, impaling a stunned lizardman and hurling it at the creature's feet. "Or suffer the consequences."
"Lizard?" the salamander echoed, crushing the struggling creature's skull beneath his heel. "Don't compare me to my slaves, human!"
The salamander roared, unleashing a torrent of fire right at the Uzumaki.
The hunters cried out as Kushina was swallowed whole.
"What do we do now?!"
"She was strong—wasn't she?!"
"Can we hold out until reinforcements—?!"
As the hunters panicked, the smoke cleared to reveal a wall of golden chains in pristine condition.
"Human?" Kushina scoffed, "I'm anything but human at this point!"
She shot forward like a bullet and palmed the magic beast three times her size back into the theater.
"Hey, reptile!" she shouted, "Don't get comfy. Mama's gonna rip your scales off once I'm done with your entourage."
She turned her demon-like visage onto the remaining lizardmen. "Let's try this," she grinned, slamming her hands together.
Several kunai made of light spawned in. Kushina stretched her hand out, firing them through the heads of each monster with sniper's precision.
The hunters standing by were stunned by the efficiency and ease in which she dealt with the overwhelming numbers.
"How dare you!" The salamander bellowed, storming out. Kushina's palm imprinted on his chest like an iron-brand. "I am the Devourer of Lake Scalter—Tiemes the Salamander!"
Kushina ducked under the creature's long sweeping swipe and seized him by the throat. "Who now?"
She didn't exactly lift him up, more so constricting his breathing patterns. Golden chains wrapped around all four of his limbs, beginning to stretch him wide.
"Hm?"
Danger spiked Kushina's keen senses. She clicked her fingers and formed a thin barrier in front of her that blocked the torrent of flames launched by Tiemes at close range.
"Look at you—cooking yourself alive. That's just hilarious!" She mocked with a twisted smile.
Her expression turned cold.
"Such a fitting end for an ungraceful creature like yourself."
The chains flared as enough force was applied to rip off all the salamander's limbs simultaneously. The barrier ensured not a drop of blood touched her clothes.
Recalling her chains, all the limbs dropped unceremoniously onto the floor as her hair settled, her aura receding.
"Ah—geez," She muttered, noticing the civilians that stuck around to record proceedings and a full news crew staring at her in shock. "They're gonna be so mad at me for this."
The reporters rushed forward, shouting questions she didn't understand. Factoring in that she wasn't supposed to be there and the fact she didn't understand a word from their mouths, she decided it was best to flee.
'I'll leave the spoils to the hunters,' she thought, grinning. 'Call it a tip for saving their butts.'
Freely rushing from rooftop to rooftop, she made it all the way back to her hotel room. Climbing over the railing she heard the sound of the TV she never turned on. Immediately knew someone had walked in.
'Damm it,' she cursed. Inside sat Ishida Mari, arms crossed, face perfectly flat.
"Quite the galavanting, huh?"
"Yeah…" Kushina laughed awkwardly, "Please don't report me!"
"Not her call, unfortunately."
Kushina deflated instantly at the familiar voice.
Hoshino Kiss-ass Minoru—as she liked to call him.
"By the Rulers…" She groaned. The assassin stood up from his chair, expression stern like a senior reprimanding his junior.
"Ten minutes late," Minoru said. "and another near international incident."
"You really are bad at this."
"Look at the bright side," Kushina offered.
"And that is?"
"We can blame it on traffic!"
"Go downstairs, Uzumaki Kushina."
"Right…" She muttered, heading for the door, "Captain Kiss-ass."
No one heard her.
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That's it for this chapter. The S-ranks and Kushina have finally touched down in Japan. Minato meets the mother of his friend Jinwoo. I have a feeling that Kushina's short fuse and rashness in this chapter might be quite jarring compared to the image I painted of her in previous chapters, but I think she's starting to act more like herself around the people she's getting familiar with (The S-ranks).
Even though she is free-spirited and uninhibited, I still think that she has that sub-conscious fear of not fitting in and so acts more reserved and controlled around people she's not familiar with. I think this is also displayed quite well in the show by her hatred of her verbal-tick "dattebane".
As for Minato, I'm enjoying writing about him and other than his power set (teleportation is the most annoying power to write imo) I think he's pretty cool so far. As of right now, I'm still trying to decide what he will learn from the grimoires. What I have: Enhancement spells, Curses and Blessings, Seals or barriers of course. I'm trying to stick to a power set that would most match Minato's affinity in the show which were seals, barriers and enhancement techniques like KCM or body flicker.
As a side note, please remember that Kushina is the fusion of a SOLDIER of the Rulers not an actual Ruler.