Future

3rd POV

Kushina for the better part of a year had been practicing with the water scrolls that she had found in the eight-tailed jinchuriki's humble abode while also perfecting her chakra control with Leo and getting a better mastery over her sealing techniques.

During her training, she found of the allied attack against Uzushiogakure had been planned with the help of an official from Konoha. Uzushiogakure had been protected with seals only the higher-ups knew about and how to bypass them. After finding such a thing out Kushina had decided to join Leo since he had decided to help her out with her future endeavors and wasn't forcing her to join Kumo.

Deciding to find a way to make it a win-win situation for the two of them Kushina had been hard at work to improve. So much so that she sometimes went overboard with her training and would work herself to exhaustion. Leo had asked her why the rush and with a slight blush she admitted that she didn't want to separate him from his somewhat normal life just to help her out. Leo had reassured her and told her not to worry about it, "I won't die that easily if it comes down to it. Plus Kumo isn't all that special to me as some of its people, I can count the people I consider friends on one hand so it isn't something that you should worry too much about, so let's just focus on you and how to help you further improve since it's the strong and sneaky ones that dictate how something goes."

With newfound reassurance, she dutifully did her training and took mandatory breaks so as to not overwork herself.

During her training, they had some visitors one of them was a tall, fair-skinned woman with a curvaceous figure who generally wore a stoic, aloof expression on her face. She had blue eyes and straight, shoulder-length blonde hair cut in an asymmetrical bob style. Leo introduced her as Samui. She usually wore a very low-cut outfit that displays her sizeable cleavage, with mesh armor underneath, a short skirt and red hand guards, high boots, and what appears to be a modified Kumogakure flak jacket that covers her stomach only, similar to a girdle. She also carries a tanto strapped horizontally to her lower back.

The other was was a dark-skinned young woman with green eyes. She wore very formal attire consisting of a long-sleeved, high-collared dress shirt and skirt, along with a pair of long earrings and high-heel sandals. She wore her light grey hair pulled back into a bun with two bangs that fall on either side of her face. Her name was Mabui

During their visit, they had informed them of what was going on in the outside world.

Things weren't pretty as constant attacks had broken out due to other villages trying to take advantage of Konoha, and due to this and not knowing exactly where Kumo was keeping the nine tails was preventing them from declaring war on Kumo. In particular, during this time Iwagakure and Sunagakure had temporarily allied to attack Konoha but had been at a standstill since they didn't want to start an all-out war just yet. For this reason among others, Kumo had opted to not participate in these attacks.

Since no war had been officially announced the shinobi attacking had been labeled "rogues" by their respective villages.

x-X-x

Kushina by the end of the year-long training had improved leaps and bounds and with the added tutelage Samui and Mabui.

Speaking of the three girls, it would seem they found themselves in a bit of a situation. During their joint training, they found themselves discussing a particular (L/N). While the exact subject of their discussion is a mystery they agreed to bring it up again in another year to get their thoughts and feelings in order.

x-X-x

Leo POV

During my and Kushina's conversations about the future, a certain group that had caught their attention. A group propagating peace had popped up in Amegakure. They call themselves the Akatsuki.

"Hmm, what an interesting place to establish themselves. Symbolic even considering the amount of bloodshed that happens there."

The village hidden in the rain has always been at the center of other villages' conflicts.

"Since directly joining another country would be problematic, joining the Akatsuki could prove to be beneficial. There's also a chance we might run into an old acquaintance of mine. Heh."

Kushina: "You sure do know more people than you lead on."

"This is the main exception since Amegakure is the only other country I've been to."

x-Flashback-x

My family had gone to meet a branch of our clan. Since we're scattered throughout the great nations having branches of our clan throughout them wasn't a surprise.

Amongst them, the closes to us were the ones in Amegakure. As separated as we were we managed to keep in contact with each other through visits and the occasional letter.

However, being separated and by extension isolated proved to have its downsides. Because of it, we were woefully ignorant of the 2nd shinobi war.

On their way to visit their branch village, they had a run-in with Iwa shinobi ransacking a random Ame townlet.

Being upstanding people the troupe of travelers had amassed together to fight off the shinobi, myself included.

It wasn't a hard-fought battle due to the Iwa shinobi's being unable to counter the black fist taijutsu.

During the altercation, I found myself defending a blue-haired woman and her daughter.

I didn't have to play defense much after since they couldn't use jutsu due to the enclosed space.

They found themselves being overwhelmed with swinging fist after fist coated in hardened chakra.

After the kerfuffle, we took the remaining townsfolk to our branch village where they integrated themselves into it.

We stuck around for a while, during our stay I later found out about the blue-haired girl, her name was Konan she possessed a notable ability that allowed her to control paper. I chalked it up to being good chakra control of some sort or some sort of kekkei genkai.

Assuming the former I taught her forms of chakra control and the basics of chakra coating. She could turn out a strong kunoichi if she masters her technique.

We left a few days after.

Waving us off we headed back to our village.

x-Flashback End-x

Kushina: " Wait so why did you teach her the black arm technique but not me?" She said with puffed-up cheeks in annoyance.

"She met the requirements, duh. She had low chakra reserves and I also figured her future fighting style would use paper so she wouldn't need complete mastery over the black fist technique since she could just harden her paper rather than her body in general."

"Still." Is all she could manage to say. Deciding it's better to change the subject she inquired "So by going to Amegakure we could run into your old acquaintance and join the Akatsuki?"

"Yeah, but our current main goal is getting you big and strong enough to fight the nine tails. Having you do some heavy lifting will help prevent some of my impending back pain from having to carry everything in the future."

Teasing her and getting her to puff her cheeks out in annoyance seems to be a common occurrence these days. It's far too entertaining to simply stop.

"In any case considering your progress, it shouldn't be more than a few more months before we can get the ball rolling, heh."

Seems she doesn't enjoy when I change the subject to benefit me since she tries calling me out. "How come I'm the only one training? you haven't done much of anything this past year."

There she goes puffing her cheeks out, heh. "It's simple really, I'm a one-trick pony. The majority of my clan is, plus I'm versatile enough to not have to worry about training."

My signature smirk forms as I bask in her radiating annoyance.

'It'll never get old.'