23. The Jinchūriki

"Aiko-kun do you feel any difference from last time?" asked Minato who was standing beside them.

There wasn't much difference in his appearance this time, expect that his hair seemed a bit brighter and his eyes turned dark violet.

"No" muttered Aiko, and he looked at Kushina as if a bit confused.

"What is it Aiko-kun?" she asked as the boy kept staring at her.

"I sense a chakra source with full of anger, sorrow and malice inside you" said Aiko shocking them both, he had always felt two different chakra signatures apart from hers while one was of the baby's the other one was very small, but now he suddenly realised that the other source wasn't small in fact it was the largest he had seen, and there was only one association he could make with such a large source of chakra.

"You are a 'Jinchūriki'." he said, his calm voice containing a bit of shock, as he had read about seals designed for containing tailed beasts in the scrolls.

Kushina remained silent for a few moments, "Are you scared?" she asked, her voice sad.

"No, just a little bit surprised" replied Aiko calmly shaking his head, a bit confused by her weird tone as he looked at her, and it was his true thoughts as someone who had studied seals he knew that their function was to seal the tailed beasts into the humans and harness their chakra.

Kushina looking at his calm face sighed in relief, even though she wasn't discriminated against much in the village since she had become a Jinchūriki, but the people who knew about it always kept quite a distance from her as if she was some kind of explosion tag that could go off at any moment.

"Hehe" she laughed hugging him, Minato who was watching this scene also smiled looking at them.

"Is it the Kyubi?" asked Aiko curiously as it was mentioned that Konoha was in the possession of the nine tails.

Kushina nodded her head confirming his guess, 'It's emotions are vivid for a mindless beast' thought Aiko thinking about the information he knew regarding the tailed beasts. 'It's emotions are as complex as a human.' he frowned as he had also seen some nin dogs in his walks around the village and he could actually differentiate animals and humans based on the intensity and complexity.

He told them about his thoughts surprising them.

"This…" muttered Minato surprised because the tailed beasts he had seen or the news he had heard about them portrayed them as mindless beasts only capable of destruction.

Kushina also had a thoughtful expression on her face as she remembered a scene from her childhood.

It was the time when the Kyubi was just sealed into her and she had visited the seal for the first time out of curiosity even though she was warned by Mito not to do so and she had met 'that'.

........

-----FlashBack-----

A young red-haired girl could be seen standing on dried ground looking around the bleak space surrounding her curiously.

"Growl…." she heard a low growl as if in pain from somewhere in front of her.

She followed the sound and saw a huge red fox lying on a round rock locked in place by spikes formed by chakra.

As if sensing her presence the fox opened its eyes glancing in her direction which widened in hate and fury upon seeing her.

"Grahhhhhhh…" it screamed in anger as Dark red chakra flared from its body as if trying to devour her.

But the spikes formed from her chakra also glowed violet in colour and the beast gave a pained moan as the dark red chakra subsided.

But the roar filled with hatred and anger had shook Kushina's young heart as she had escaped from the seal.

And after being isolated and ostracized by the village, she had also come to resent the beast for this and hadn't visited the seal again.

---------------FlashBack END--------------------

'Is it really as intelligent as humans?' she thought, placing a hand on her seal thinking if she should go visit it once again after all these years.

'I am not that scared little girl anymore' she thought, deciding she would do it tonight.

'If they weren't mindless beasts then why did lord first capture them in the first place?' thought Minato as the whole tailed beast subjugation had taken place because it was said that they were wreaking havoc on mankind and creating Jinchūriki were the only method to harness their power for good.

"I was made a Jinchūriki because of my special chakra that is effective in binding it. Do you want to learn my special jutsu, Aiko-kun?" asked Kushina, making the boy's eyes shine.

Aiko learnt the Adamantine attacking chains from Kushina, though he wasn't able to produce long, sturdy chains like her due to his chakra quantity, he was able to decently execute the jutsu making Kushina satisfied.

Soon half an hour passed and his body returned to its normal state and he felt soreness all over his body.

'It must be the side effect of the skill.' thought the red-haired boy, but he did not mind it as it was in the bearable range.

.......

It has been a week since he knew Kushina was a Jinchūriki, there wasn't much change in his schedule, he would practice Hiraishin with Minato sometimes in Assimilated mode as it made his practice quicker and he also noted that his chakra control skill also levelled up quickly in conjunction with the chakra assimilation skill, levelling it to 5.

Overall the week was quite normal and Aiko also felt he was close to creating the seal and he just had to fine tune the structure of the seal a little so that it wouldn't collapse.

......

'Ding! Skill: Seal Creation has levelled up.

Skill: Seal creation [lvl 5]

Increases success rate of seal formation

Current increase 50%'

'Ding! Host has levelled up

All attributes +1'

"Success" muttered the red-haired boy looking at the shadow clone in front of him which had black markings on its wrists and ankles which formed a network connected to the centre of it's chest if, he studied the markings on the clone in front of him with full concentration, not paying attention to the system notification..

"The effect is as intended" said the clone calmly verifying the boy's claim.

The red-haired boy nodded his head as a small smile formed on his face, he dispelled the clone and analysed its memories.

"Now I should test it against someone strong" muttered Aiko as a white-haired boy's face flashed in his mind.

......….

"You want to test a new seal?" asked Kakashi a bit curious as he looked at the red-haired boy in front of him.

They were in the middle of the training field standing opposite to each other, Aiko requested Kakashi to have a spar with him and he had agreed.

"Yes, it is not something offensive and I want to see if it is effective in battles" said Aiko nodding his head.

Kakashi was intrigued about what type of seal it could be and agreed after thinking for a bit and took a fighting stance.

Aiko quickly made a few hand signs before taking a fighting stance as he increased his calm mind skill to 100% and activating instinct manipulation skill increasing his reflexes and senses.

If one looked carefully one would see a small circle with strange markings formed on his palms after he performed his hand seals.