Chapter 16: Kushina, Explanation

"Wood Release: Great Spear Tree."

CRASH!

A giant explosion sounded as an extremely sharp tree burst out of the ground and stabbed into the 4 Root Shinobi.

"Plop!"

"Plop!"

"Plop!"

A rain of blood showered Katomo. The tree slowly withered away, perhaps on purpose and perhaps not.

The bodies of the 4 shinobi slowly slid down the now withering tree; gaping holes having been made in their bodies.

After the tree withered completely, Katomo lost consciousness and fell down.

"( ・◇・)?"

Thud!

Izuryu collapsed as well.

***

'My head hurts like hell…'

Izuryu rubbed his head, the splitting headache actually feeling like someone was splitting his head in half.

Moving his body around, he discovered that he was laying down. He moved his body and sat on the bed, barely having enough stamina to do it.

"I guess taking on 10 or so Jonin and another 10 chunin was a really bad idea huh..."

He tried stretching his arm but the sheer amount of pain involved in doing so made it almost impossible to do.

Izuryu shook his head and smiled bitterly. He observed his body to discover than he had been stitched in many different places. He wasn't aware of it when he was fighting. Perhaps the adrenaline rush had gotten to him, making him impossible to know such small details.

Yet before he could do anything else, the scene of a tree sprouting from the ground and killing 4 Jonin instantly revolved around Izuryu's mind.

"To think he has Wood Release…"

Izuryu's brows furrowed.

There was no way a wood release user wouldn't have been known by Konoha shinobi, especially during times of war.

Izuryu was convinced that this was not a coincidence that Katomo was someone that could fight Jonins at an age similar to Izuryu, had a very good healing prowess, was a Senju and had Wood Release.

'It's as though something's trying to balance it out… Someone like me with the potential of Madara who was months away from awakening his Rinnegan couldn't be left alone in the world. There needed someone to balance it out. Someone to act as the successors of The God of Shinobi and The Ghost of The Uchiha. Two children who could continue bearing the chakra and Indra and Ashura while having potential comparable to that or greater than their predecessors. So, we were chosen. And it just happened that my request to God fulfilled his requirements. 'I' became the incarnation of Indra, the son of Madara and 'he' became the incarnation of Ashura, the son of Hashirama.'

This was his theory for now. He couldn't think of anything else at all.

"It seemss you're awake?"

A raspy, cold and grating voice echoed within the room, making Izuryu jump upwards in surprise.

"Orochimaru…sama"

"Oh, it seems you know about me?"

He spoke, his eyebrows slightly arching upwards; a smile hanging at the corner of his mouth.

"Indeed, I do. The three disciples of Sarutobi Hiruzen, the third Hokage. Tsunade, Jiraiya and you, Orochimaru. A great researcher who has brought many achievements to the Hidden Leaf."

'And a psychopath who murders people and tortures children for the sake of your 'immortality'

Izuryu added inwardly.

Orochimaru's lips curled up.

This was not the Orochimaru who had defected from the Hidden Leaf and was already mad in the pursuit of immortality.

He still had his teacher, his friends and his village. He was not the man who lost his parents, friends and his disciples, making him aware about the fragility of life; giving him an unhealthy obsession to immortal life.

"Haha, it seems you know about my achievements. Isn't that right,

"Red Eye Reaper."

Silence overtook the room after Orochimaru worded his thoughts out.

Izuryu's brows arched up, as he laughed.

"Indeed, I do. Including your obsession of immortality."

Now it was Orochimaru's turn to be silent.

Yet in the end he mouthed out a question.

"Did you know that ever since the moniker of The Red Eye Reaper spread out, I've been looking for you. And once I did find out who you were, I was stunned.

"The sheer strength you have in your age, the way you kill, the reason you've got the moniker. I've researched everything.

"And at the end of my research, I thought of something utterly preposterous, yet something that makes a lot of sense.

"'What if it's not an 8-year-old kid within that body but someone else? Someone who's strength during his peak was so great that he could break mountains and control Bijuu on his own. Someone who was famously known for his red eyes.

"What if, within that body wasn't Izuryu Tsukisumi but someone else? What if, within the body of Izuryu Tsukisumi was Uchiha Madara?"

Orochimaru witnessed as Izuryu's pupils that were as black as the abyss, slowly gaining hints of red, until a blood red pupil surrounded by 3 tomoe appeared in his vision.

***

"Ouch!"

A girl with waist length red hair bumped into a boy with black hair.

"Ah, I'm sorry about that."

The boy apologized as he lent his hand to the red-haired girl.

She had fair skin, with violet eyes. A round face topped off with her fiery red hair stuck out from the crowd of shinobi yet that didn't reduce her childish cuteness one bit.

The girl took the boy's arm and stood up. She patted her clothes to get rid of the dust and looked at boy.

"What's your name?" the girl asked. She had felt many gazes in her stay at the Hidden Leaf. Most looking at her as though she was an exotic creature. Yet this 'boy' didn't, he simply 'looked' nothing more, nothing less.

"Tsukisumi Izuryu, what about you?"

The girl put on a wide grin on her face and replied.

"Uzumaki Kushina, dattebane!"

'As expected…'

Izuryu thought to himself as he looked at Kushina. The girl wasn't a Jinchuuriki yet, but perhaps that would change in a year or two when Uzumaki Mito would pass away.

"Uzumaki? Are you from Uzushiogakure?"

Izuryu asked in 'curiosity'.

"Mmhm! The princess of the Uzumaki clan!"

She puffed out her non-existent chest and pridefully spoke, her face having a smile on it.

"Ho, then what is the princess of the Uzumaki Clan doing in Konoha?"

Izuryu asked with a smile on his face.

"I came here to study and be a shinobi!"

She said with a determined expression.

She had round face, which, with her red hair naturally framing both sides of her face, gave her the resemblance of a tomato. Her determined tomato-like face, brought a smile onto Izuryu face as he poked her cheeks.

"Did you know you look like a tomato?"

Kushina's face puffed up in anger. Her red hair started floating around as she brought up her fist.

She thought she'd sense feelings of ridicule or disdain from Izuryu but she didn't. There was just interest.

"No, I don't!"

She brought her fists down but her round face was still puffed up, having a shade of red on it.

"Haha!"

Izuryu chuckled as he conjured up some silica from the ground and made a makeshift mirror.

"Look at your face right now."

Izuryu passed the mirror onto Kushina, who placed it in front of her face.

She saw, in the barely mirror-like mirror, a round face with fiery-red hair; the girl's cheeks puffed up with a shade of red on them.

'Tomato…'

The first word that came to her mind was tomato, something made her embarrassed. To think, the thing she'd furiously refuse to acknowledge would be the first thing that'd come to her mind when she saw her own face.

Another shade of red appeared on her face. This one not from anger but from embarrassment.

"Don't you agree with me?"

Izuryu asked.

He felt that teasing Kushina was very fun, her different reactions bringing him a sense of achievement.

With a mosquito-like voice, she quietly replied.

"Yeah…"

Izuryu laughed and turned the silica back to powder as he quickly bought a portion of Yakisoba.

"Now then, shouldn't you be at the Academy?"

Izuryu asked but all he got was silence in return.

He stopped eating and looked at Kushina, who was in turn; looking at the portion of Yakisoba that he was eating. She stopped looking at the Yakisoba and looked at Izuryu, her eyes practically begging him to buy it.

"You haven't known me for more than 2 hours and you want me to buy something for you?"

Izuryu asked but Kushina kept looking at him, not replying at all.

He sighed and bought another portion of Yakisoba. As soon as he handed it to him, Kushina started digging in.

"Not even saying 'Thank You'? How rude."

"Thwank Youh. Nom"

Kushina finally replied between bites.

30 minutes passed quickly as Izuryu placed 2 portions of Yakisoba, Yakitori, Okonomiyaki, Takoyaki to the side.

Kushina was on the other side, patting her now round belly with an expression of satisfaction.

'Was she ever this much of a foodie…?'

Izuryu asked himself.

He knocked on Kushina's head and asked again.

"So, why aren't you in the Academy right now?"

"I'm taking a break…"

She spoke lazily with a hint of drowsiness in her voice.

"You're allowed to do that?"

Izuryu asked her with a hint of surprise in his voice. He had never heard of that happening.

"My grades were almost perfect so I asked the teacher for a break and he agreed."

"Almost-perfect? Whose grades are perfect then?"

Kushina put on an annoyed expression on her face and replied to Izuryu.

"It's a blonde girly-boy, his name is Namito Kaminaze or something. He keeps getting perfect grades so I can only be one step behind him."

She snorted and faced her head away as though she refused to talk about Minato, whose new name now seemed to be Namito.

"It seems you don't like him?"

"Hmph! He's so weird, and keeps looking at me as though I'm an exotic creature, of course I don't like him!"

"Hm…"

Just as Izuryu was about to ask another question, Izuryu heard someone calling out for Kushina.

"Kushina! Why are you in this place?!"

It was a girl who had a similar fiery-red hair like Kushina's. She had some resemblance to Kushina but still didn't look very much similar.

"Hm… I was eating with Izuryu the whole time, Izuki."

"Let's go, you still need to do your training with me!"

"Alright, alright, I'm coming."

Kushina lazily stood up and looked at Izuryu and smiled at him.

"Thanks for buying me food!"

"Sure, no problem. If you ever want to eat some ramen, visit Ichiraku."

"Alright!"

Kushina was promptly pulled away by Uzumaki Izuki as they soon disappeared into the crowd.

"Another anomaly…"

Izuryu walked away as he too disappeared into the crowd.

***

"May I come in, Lord Hokage?"

"Yes, you may."

Sarutobi pushed the paperwork to the side and cleared up a space for him to see the shinobi.

"Why are you here?"

"Sir! Fox from the Anbu has sent you two scrolls."

Hiruzen's eyebrows arched up as he took the two scrolls.

They were red and blue colored respectively.

Hiruzen saw that there were two pieces of papers glued on to the scroll.

One of them wrote "Read First", while the other "Read Second".

Hiruzen saw that they were storage scrolls and waved his hands.

"You may go now."

"Yes, sir." The shinobi saluted as he left the room.

Hiruzen channeled some chakra onto the scroll as a few documents came in his sight.

"Nigome Yokira

"Age: 32

"Marital Status: Single

"Shinobi Rank: Jonin

"…

"…

"Relevant department: Anbu (Root Division)"

"Kawazura Yarasu

"Age: 26

"Marital Status: Single

"Shinobi Rank: Jonin

"…

"…

"Relevant department: Anbu (Root)"

There were a few more documents of such format, each of the document having a photo of the man or woman. Totaling 6.

After putting the documents on the side, Hiruzen opened the scroll and it's contents were ghastly.

6 severed heads were laid out on the scroll.

The heads were exactly the ones on the document.

Sarutobi saw another piece of paper.

He picked it up and read it aloud.

"I NEED AN EXPLANATION"