Pre-Chapter A/N:Another chapter on time? Guess my lock-in is going pretty well. If you haven't already, I recommend turning on notifications for my stuff so you can see when new stuff drops right as it drops. More chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio. Since I just started a new story, there's a cheeky discount on said patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) page for anyone interested.
XXXX- KUSHINA UZUMAKI
She spoke too soon. They hadn't even made it to the private training grounds behind the Mountain when they began hearing the sounds of combat. It wasn't anything too loud—just the movement of feet and hands in a taijutsu exchange. The kind of sounds that indicated the training ground was indeed in use. If it was Shori-nii, then it meant that her attempt to hide what she was working on was dead in the water, but then again, she could feel his chakra clearly coming from the village proper. He had about six clones out and about. Two around the village, and the other four with him in the tower. She couldn't sense his chakra from the training ground, but there would have to be something wrong for her to do so.
The barrier blocked chakra from within from being sensed at all. The only reason they could hear anything from the outside was because they were keyed into the barrier so its sensory distortion effects and genjutsu wouldn't work on them.
They arrived and were met with the sight of two of Shori-nii's former classmates—Uraume-san and Uzume-san—exchanging blows.
The Hyuga was the first to notice them—or at least the first to recognize them—as she backflipped away from a sweeping kick and then turned to them, putting their spar on pause.
"What brings Shori's brats here?" Uzume-san said.
"Lovely to see you, Mito-sama," Uraume-san said instead, offering a bow to Grandma. Uzume-san seemed to snap out of her own rudeness and offered a greeting and bow of her own.
"Fantastic to see you as well, Uraume-chan. Come here, girl, I haven't seen you in so long," she said, calling her over. She offered a nod to the Uchiha woman's greeting but nothing else. Strange. That was oddly rude of her.
"You haven't answered my question, brats." If Grandma's reaction bothered her, the Uchiha hid it well. She just stepped forward and leered over at them. She was tall, just like Shori was. Minato was only a bit shorter than her, but she practically towered over Kushina.
"I wanted to practice something, and Minato was going to spot me," she said, stepping in front of him to prevent him from spilling too much. This woman was Shori-nii's teammate. They spent hours together everyday. Anything they told her would get back to him in no time.
"Oh, you wanted to train, hmm? Why not a spar then?" she asked, teeth sharp.
"Uzume," Uraume-san hissed at the Uchiha.
"What? These are Shori's students and Mikoto's teammates. I've seen them fight him once or twice, but I want to see what they are capable of myself," she said.
"I don't think that is the best idea," Minato spoke, trying to de-escalate.
"Why not? Kushina-chan wanted to practice something that she will only ever use in combat. She might as well practice it in a combat setting," Grandma said, and Kushina whirled around to see her smirking. What was she up to?
"So there are no objections to that, then," Uzume-san said, already taking her stance. Minato looked far from sure. She couldn't blame him. He hadn't even been expecting to leave his place all day, and here she was having dragged him out for one thing only for it to turn into something else.
"If you're sure you can handle us, Uzume-san," he finally said. That was apparently the wrong thing to say as Kushina sensed the woman's chakra spike with her displeasure.
"Just don't go crying to Shori when I put one or both of you in the hospital," she said, taking her stance.
"Uraume-chan, I am sure you don't mind spotting the spar," Grandma said, her chair already floating in the air and taking her out of the immediate line of fire.
"Look, here are the rules. No killing or maiming. Three clean hits or first blood wins," she said.
"First blood? What are they made of? Paper?" Uzume-san complained.
"Those are my rules. I'm not the one explaining any nonsense to Shori," she said.
"Fair enough. I'd advise the two of you to come at me with the intent to kill. Anything else and you just might die," she said, her chakra spiking to a point where even Kushina felt uncomfortable. It was not just the amount—and she did have a lot of it—it was the nature. It was just so dark. It was like her chakra delighted in destruction and chaos. It was unlike anything Kushina had felt from this close before.
She braced herself, but she was not the first target. Fast, was her first thought as the woman slid past her and smashed a kick straight into Minato. He had managed to cross his hands into a guard at the very last second, but he still went sliding backwards some distance.
"Chaaaa!" Kushina yelled as she twisted and aimed a punch at the woman that should have ended the fight. It never connected. Her eyes flashed red as the punch skated past her head. Uzume aimed a knee straight at her midsection that she barely blocked with two chains from her back. Two became a dozen as they moved to encircle the Uchiha as she had made the mistake of coming in so close.
"Too slow," she heard the whisper in her ears, and she was gone. Her chains caught nothing as the Uchiha woman shot backwards.
No, not just backwards. Right at…
"Minato!" she yelled the warning. It proved unnecessary as he had been waiting for her. He twisted past her kick this time and aimed a punch for her face. She tilted her head and allowed his hand to sail past just as the foot that she had used for the kick came back to the ground, and she used it to wrap around the back of Minato's as she pushed him backwards.
He tipped over, and as he did so, the ground beneath him exploded. Multiple spikes rose from it, each of them missing him by the barest margins as they moved to skewer the Uchiha. She jumped backwards, landing several feet away. Minato fell into the ground and in a matter of seconds was rising next to her.
"What have you noticed?" she asked him. He was the one better at dissecting opponents for all they were worth and figuring out their fighting styles.
"She's like Sensei," he said.
"She fights nothing like Sensei. He's gentler," she said, shaking her head.
"No. She's just less inclined to play with her food. Goes for the kill more often. Her taijutsu is similar to his. There's no trace of the Gentle Fist, but it's the same basic principles. Relies on quick movements to break through your guard when it can, and reroutes to unguarded spots when it can't, switching between both at random. She also doesn't hit quite as hard as he does," he said, gesturing to his sleeves. They were torn from the force of the kick he'd blocked, but she could see his hands had emerged more or less unscathed from it.
"So what are you going to make of this?" she said, and her fingers came together in the tiger seal.
She felt her eyes widen against her will as she sensed just how much chakra she was feeding the jutsu she was about to use.
"Move," she hissed at Minato, and then a second later, her world was fire. It was a Fireball Jutsu, she knew logically. But then the fireball was so large she hadn't even been able to see any of its edges from her perspective. And it had moved so quickly as well. She was unable to do anything about Minato, but she was sure that he would find his own way to escape it.
She pulled on Gyuki's power right before the attack hit. She felt her body be hurled backwards, digging into the ground further and further. She bit down on her lips to prevent herself from screaming out in pain as she felt her skin blister and burn from the heat. The fire didn't even touch her. The chakra cloak from Gyuki was too thick to let that happen. It was just the effect of the pure heat and concussive force from the jutsu. She opened her eyes when the jutsu had run its course. Looking around her told her she was in the middle of a massive crater. She looked up to find the Uchiha woman watching her from up high.
"Knew you could take it. Now where's the prodigy? Shori's been talking too much about him for him to lose that quickly," she said, hand on her chin. Kushina growled and pushed down at the ground with all her strength.
There was a sonic boom behind her as she aimed a punch straight for the woman's head. She caught it and the ground beneath them shattered, sliding down the crater. The woman smirked at her and twisted her body to land a kick. Kushina caught the leg with two of her tails.
"Chaaa!" she yelled as she spun the woman around before hurling her straight down the crater she had formed. She landed in the middle, spiderweb cracks forming around her. Kushina's tails dug into the ground as she stood at the edge of the crater.
The ground next to her cracked and a head surfaced. Minato looked at her and nodded.
"Ready to take it to her?" he asked as their opponent began rising from the ground.
"Yeah, let's make it hurt," she said. She pulled on more of Gyuki's chakra, four tails becoming five. This was as far as she could go before being forced to enter what Shori-nii called the Version 2 state, and that one was far from fun.
Minato pulled out the rest of his body, and she felt the air around his body still before it suddenly picked up speed.
"Wind Release: Wind Cyclone Cloaking Fist," he muttered.
She shook her head at the jutsu name as Uzume-san pushed off from the ground at them. Both of them dropped down to reach her as one. Minato was faster, cutting through the air with no resistance. He aimed a punch for her mid-section. She flicked it to the side with the back of her wrist before trying to bury her knee into his stomach. He tilted his body out of the way and then the wind pushed him to the side right as Kushina reached them.
She slammed her feet straight down aimed at Uzume's stomach. She smiled, red eyes shifting patterns. There was a flicker of purple light before she landed. They crashed into the ground and then Kushina felt something hit her. She sailed through the air, straight out of the crater and into the level ground. She looked up to see Uzume-san standing over her with a spectral ribcage around her body. A spectral ribcage with a single bony arm connected to it—Susanoo, she realized.
She turned around and watched as several of Minato's wind bullets smashed into the Susanoo with no effect. They were a distraction as he attacked from the opposite direction. Still, his punch failed to do anything to break through the Susanoo. The hand swept out at him, and there was an explosion of smoke. The real Minato attacked from her blindspot, Rasengan smashing and grinding through the Susanoo's protection. Kushina saw her opportunity, rising and shooting at the front of the Susanoo.
"Help me, Gyuki," she requested, and her friend and tenant helped her in controlling his chakra just enough to form a massive Rasengan that she smashed into the other side of the spectral ribcage. The armor did a good job, but standing against a Wind Release Rasengan and a Tailed Beast Chakra Rasengan was always going to be a tall order. She felt it give way first and she yelled as she pushed further. Minato on the other side did the same.
There was a stutter in reality itself, and then the Susanoo disappeared. It was not that they had broken through it or anything like that. It was more like there was something there, and then a second later there was not. Her eyes met Uzume-san's and then she was no longer in Konoha.
"So this is what the Eight-Tails looks like. How interesting. You know Shori reckons I won't be able to beat one? A Tailed Beast. I think he says it just to rile me up, but you know how things are with that cousin of yours. Can't ever tell when he's being serious and when he means something for true," she said. Kushina wondered what she could do. The chains that had once bound Gyuki now held her captive. She couldn't move. Her mouth was covered.
"Do you know what makes these eyes of mine special, Kushina?" she asked. Kushina just glared, unable to answer.
"They say the Mangekyou can control the Tailed Beasts. So, Kushina. Why don't you show me what you have without this borrowed power?" she asked. Sensing that something was wrong, Gyuki roared his rage, snapping through some of the chains that held him captive and then charging right at her. She turned to him, smirk clear on her face, and spoke a single word.
"Sleep."
Kushina was in Konoha again. But she was oh so weak. The power she had used to charge Uzume-san with no hesitation was gone. She fell to the floor and scarcely noticed it. She could sense Minato and Uzume clashing around her, their attacks meeting over and over again. She gasped at the emptiness she felt within.
"Gyuki?" she called. Nothing. Where she normally felt her friend and companion, there was just nothing there. It felt like the times when Shori-nii tightened her seal back when she was younger and had much less in the way of control.
"Are you just going to lay there, girl? Your boy toy can only entertain me for so long after all." She heard the smug voice come from above her, and then it was followed by the sound of a grunt coming from Minato.
"Fuck you," she stuttered out the words. Her chains shot out from her back. Dozens of them, so many that she could not count, but she could feel just where each of them were. They reached out for the Uchiha woman. She unsealed that gunbai of hers from… somewhere. And she deflected the first two with it. Another pair grabbed a hold of the weapon, squeezing to crush it. It was a contest of strength between the Uchiha and Kushina's chains. Unfortunately for her, Kushina's chains were as strong as she could will them, not limited to being as strong as Kushina herself was.
They strained against each other and then Minato was there again, wind armor letting him move at a speed she struggled to follow. Uzume could clearly keep up though as she let go of the gunbai to allow Minato's Rasengan pass through the space her arm had once occupied. She shot out a kick for his head. He followed his movement through, shooting past her and leaving her kick to hit naught but air. Once she sensed that he had escaped the killing field, Kushina's chains struck with the force of a god.
The ground shattered, dust rising. Any other would have thought they had managed to make a clean hit with how many chains had struck the ground, but Kushina could feel that none of them had struck true, and she was proven right. Minato dispersed the dust with but a gesture and there she was, body tilted such that each chain missed her by the smallest of margins. She had dodged each one despite how quickly they had landed. That was the power of the Sharingan.
Kushina removed her chains from the ground, and struck out at her target again. Once again, she dodged out of the way of each of the outstretched chains. Minato was there again. He formed a single seal and a dragon made of the wind itself, barely visible as more than a flicker in the air, struck down at their opponent. Without even forming a handseal she breathed out a fire dragon to match Minato's in size and power.
And when they matched so, the element with the advantage won out. The fire dragon seemed to consume the wind as it swelled to become so large that it shone like another sun. It spun through the air and then struck down at Kushina. She had had the good sense however to recall her chains. They wrapped around her and she brought her fingers together in the Ram seal, focusing her chakra.
The Adamantine Sealing Chains came together to form a barrier—the most powerful defensive barrier known to the Uzumaki clan (and if it was the most powerful known to the Uzumaki, then it was the most powerful known to man). The fire dragon struck the barrier, and from beneath it, Kushina watched as the jutsu exploded, fire spreading all over. Not even the heat touched her, so powerful was the barrier that kept her safe. Even as the ground around her was burned and scoured. When she deactivated the barrier once the jutsu had run its course, the air itself was dry like it had been burned. Not a trace of moisture or whatever else.
"Nice, nice," Uzume said, watching Kushina's position. And then she had to twist her body out of the way of a jutsu. It tore through the ground in front of her with the force of the wind. She caught Minato's high knee in her grasp, and then he pointed his fingers down at her like they were crossbows. She did not get the chance to react. Two wind bullets smashed against her, but they managed no damage.
"Match!" Another voice interrupted them.
Minato flipped backwards, smile on his face.
"What?" Uzume-san turned to her friend.
"The kids win. Three clean hits. Those were hit two and three. He managed to sock you a pretty good one not that long back, remember?" she asked.
"That didn't even do any damage. None of their hits did," Uzume contested.
"Were they clean or not?" Uraume asked, smirk still on her face.
Kushina was still shocked to find that they had won. Minato body-flickered next to her.
"Good job?" she asked more than said.
"I have to thank you for the first one. When she cast that genjutsu on you or whatever it was that got rid of Gyuki-san's power, I took the chance to land a straight one to her head. Didn't even tickle her. But rules are rules," he said.
A/N: Did you expect the spar to go a different way? Uzume was holding back for basically all of it, and the students manage to clinch a win on a technicality. Next five up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early. Started a new story, so there's a discount for the rest of the month on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga): feel free to check that out as well.