20 20. Tri-Pronged Kunai

"Yes, Minato?" Said Kushina, as she sat in front of him.

"What do you think of Aiko-kun?" He asked, looking at her.

"What do you mean?" asked Kushina looking confused.

"I want to discuss about his future," said Minato with a serious expression on his face.

"What happened, what is the problem with him staying here?" asked Kushina standing up looking agitated.

"Well, with Aiko-kun's talent he will graduate academy in a year and as a genin he can have his own place." Said Minato gauging Kushina's expression.

"Umm" frowned Kushina, clearly feeling a bit conflicted.

"What to do?" Kushina asked Minato.

"Kushina-chan, just because he is your clansman, we cannot restrict his freedom right?" asked Minato while the corner of his lips curved upward slightly.

"It's not just because he is my clansman, ya know, he is such a good child" said Kushina not noticing Minato's expression.

"Well, then, if you want him to stay here there is a method we can use" said Minato looking at her as his smile became more pronounced.

"What method?" asked Kushina hopefully.

"We can adopt him, so he becomes a family member instead of a distant relative." said Minato, surprising her.

"Of.. of course" said Kushina clapping her hands, feeling stupid that she didn't think of this earlier.

'She doesn't seem opposed to it' thought Minato, looking at her expression as he did not want to take this decision without her approval. He knew that there were many people paying attention to the boy who was close to the Hokage's family and as he said, once he becomes a genin and graduates the academy, he was free to do what he wants and if the boy voluntarily decides to join a organisation like Root, then even he cannot do anything about it. After living with the boy for so long and today morning's incident he did not want the boy to walk that kind of path.

"So, it's decided then, I will talk to the kid" said Minato with a smile on his face.

"Wait Minato, let's keep it a secret for now and adopt him on the day our child is born, it will be one big happy occasion " said Kushina excitedly.

Minato also nodded his head thinking it was a good idea.

"Minato, if that was your idea from the beginning then why did you ask those questions, were you making fun of me?" Asked Kushina her voice cold as a red aura oozed out of her as she thought back on the conversation they had.

"Where..where, I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page" said Minato seriously with his forehead coated with sweat as he thought 'Oops, that was close, I got carried away' when she calmed down.

Kushina too did not pursue the matter and thought happily that her family was soon going to double in number.

....................

Aiko on his way back checked his status.

Status:

Name: Aiko

Level: 6->7

Strength: 8->9

Agility: 13->14

Stamina: 10->11

Vitality: 14->15

Intelligence: 11->12

Charm: 9->10

Skills: calm mind [innate], Chakra assimilation [innate] mapping [lvl 4], Instinct manipulation [lvl 3], chakra molding[lvl 6], Seal creation [lvl 4], Chakra control [lvl 3], Presence concealment [lvl 2]

.....................…

'I feel like my mapping skill is going to level up soon' thought Aiko as he looked at his status window.

Soon, he reached home and found both Minato and Kushina in the living room, they too noticed him as soon as he entered and saw his dirtied clothes and weights he had on his arms and legs but did not comment on it, but Aiko would find that, from the next day, the amount of meat and vegetables in his food would increase considerably.

Aiko cleaned himself up and they had dinner together, both Kushina and Minato seemed happy for some reason making Aiko curious.

"Aiko-kun let's take a walk in the garden," said Minato after dinner and both of them headed outside.

The night was a bit bright, because of the full moon and Konaha's skies were always full of stars, Akio gazed at the sky looking at the moon wondering what was up there making it glow like that.

"Aiko-kun, here have this" said Minato as he handed a tri-pronged Kunai to him.

"What is this?" asked Aiko curiously as he held the kunai and inspected it, he quickly found that there were seals engraved on the handle.

"This is a special kunai that has my jutsu engraved on it" said Minato with a smile, "whenever you are in danger you just have to input your chakra into this kunai and I will appear next to you." he added, surprising Aiko.

'Are these seals the jutsu?' thought Aiko as he inspected the kunai before pouring chakra into it to study the structure of the seals when he heard a system notification.

'Ding! Chakra detected, does Host wish to Assimilate it?

-yes

-no'

Looking at this notification, Aiko hesitated a bit, and decided to test his latest skill out as he wasn't able to activate it manually.

'Yes' thought Aiko and felt a heat spread through his palm holding the kunai towards his whole body.

The burning sensation came too suddenly, catching him off guard, but he quickly increased his calm mind skill to 100% separating his thoughts from the pain as he focused on his body trying to understand what was happening to him while he felt as if body was on fire.

Minato who was just beside him was also surprised as he felt Aiko's chakra spike, but it quickly turned into shock when he saw Aiko's hair turn orange and his black eyes turn dark blue.

'No it's not just his body' he analysed as Aiko's chakra signature slowly changed resembling his own.

The pain Aiko felt went off as quickly as it came and he heard a notification.

'Ding! Chakra Assimilation completed!,' and a small timer appeared in the corner of his vision showing 29 minutes 59 seconds and it kept on decreasing.

Aiko felt like there was some change in his body, but he wasn't able to pinpoint where, just then he suddenly felt Minato grab his shoulders and the surroundings around them changed as they entered the basement of the mansion.

But, the change in surroundings was not what surprised him, but the moment Minato touched his shoulder, he felt his senses expand and a lot of points similar to, but also a bit different from the one shown in his mapping skill appeared in his mind, and he felt himself sucked into one of them before they faded away as he found himself in the basement.

"Aiko-kun what did you do?" asked Minato, looking at the boy.

"What happened?" asked Aiko as he was trying to understand the changes in his body and the weird sensation he felt just now.

"Look there" pointed Minato towards a glass cabinet

Aiko looked there seeing his own reflection and was surprised as he touched his now orange hair and peered into his dark blue eyes.