7

More weeks have passed since Kushina became a resident of Konoha. She can say without a doubt she's growing to love the village as a whole more and more every day. While it still has its flaws and more than 50% of the population have a sheep mentality. The young Uzumaki sees Konoha as her home, even though she hasn't lived here long. It's fair to say that most will consider her an outsider for quite some time but she doesn't mind. She plans to be Hokage in the future after all. 

One of her ongoing self-imposed missions is to continue training hard and commit herself to learning as much as possible. Above all else, use the skills and abilities she knows now and will learn in the future, to protect Konoha and its people. 

While Kushina knows she's already extremely powerful as a child, she's nowhere near close to tapping into her true potential. 

She vowed to not let anyone, especially members of the Otsutsuki Clan, destroy her village. 

One may wonder in confusion why Kushina has such devotion to a land she wasn't born in? Especially a village who failed to help their long-time allies in their times of need. Like she said before, Konoha was always her favorite village in Naruto during her past lives. Now in a short amount of time those feelings of fondness and nostalgia grew to have a more firm substance. This is due to Kushina experiencing Konoha in person instead of through a screen, manga or fanfiction.

Currently she's in a large cave, located in a forest in the northeastern section of Konoha. It will take a person 15 mins to reach the cave by walking once they enter said forest. 

Kushina discovered this cave nearly two weeks ago while exploring the whole northern forest. She was drawn to it due to the chakra emanated within and outside of the cave. Inside the cave wasn't much except for some thick trees, a waterfall and a lake. The cave was somewhat illuminated to where a person can see well enough inside. The water was blue and exceptionally clear, Kushina can see the bottom of the lake clearly even without her doujutsus. The lake itself was crystalline blue along with the waterfall.

A beautiful scenery that not many know resides within the village.

As for the chakra, Kushina sensed two distinctive powerful signatures. She quickly concluded the chakra belonged to both Hashirama and Tobirama. Still to this day Hashirama's chakra subtly lingers throughout Konoha due to his chakra being infused into the trees surrounding the village. Hashirama's chakra is especially strong with the Forest of Death and the Senju Clan Residence. She knew of Tobirama's chakra signature because of Tobirama's chakra still lingering within the Senju residence due to the small lake within. Plus the Senju brother's chakra also strongly lingers from their scrolls that contained their techniques.

Right now Kushina was in a black one piece bathing suit, sitting in the middle of the lake with her legs crossed. No ripples could be seen in the water due to her perfect control over her chakra. At least from her position, by the waterfall is a different story. 

After training with Duy for a few hours earlier today, she came here to train on her own. 

"Otsutsukis are really haxed in the Naruto universe, it's so easy for me to manipulate chakra. I wonder if it's instinctive for all Otsutsukis like it is for me." Kushina knew all Otsutsukis had amazing chakra control, but she didn't know if it comes natural on an instinctive level for them as it does for her. "I'm so lucky and grateful that I was born with 100% Otsutsuki blood despite being a pure-blooded Uzumaki. Not only because of my mastery with chakra, but I won't gain the chakra disease like Naruto and Hagoromo did. Unlike them, my tailed beast chakra is actually my own chakra."

Kushina is also thankful that her ten-tails is not as ugly as the one in the canon series. Her ten-tails form is basically a copy of Kurama, only her version of Kurama has 10 tails instead of 9 and its fur is white with the same red slits for eyes. Another difference is that her ten-tails has no consciousness, so it appears to be in a deep slumber. Kushina could make it alive like other tailed beasts easily if she wants, but she hasn't decided on it yet. 

She hasn't tried out her tailed beast mode, though the young Uzumaki prays she has something similar to KCM. 

Getting rid of unnecessary thoughts, Kushina focused on the goblets of water suspended in the air. Like Tobirama, Kushina can also pull water out of the air. She can bend the water in the lake to do her bidding without having to move an inch. In fact her water manipulation skills surpassed Tobirama's to where Kushina can manipulate the fluids within a person's body. She can manipulate their blood to control their bodies to do whatever she wants. 

Also, like the water benders in Avatar: The Last Airbender, the young Uzumaki girl can turn water into ice through pure water manipulation. She does not need to combine water and wind chakra to utilize ice. 

After a few hours, Kushina finally called it a day on her training. She was hungry and in the mood for ramen. Changing back into her clothes, she left the cave and exited the forest quickly. 

While passing by the Konoha hot springs, her Observation Haki picked up a powerful presence. It seems this person had around Kage-level reserves, both fire and earth affinities mixed in with the chakra signature. 

At first she planned to ignore it since she wasn't really interested in seeing who it was, until it finally hit her. Plus her keen hearing picked up on the sound of a form of perverted giggling. Her eyes widened in both shock and excitement from accidentally coming across another member of the future Legendary Sannin.

Deciding to mess with him, Kushina used Yomotsu Hirasaka to appear directly behind the toad summoner. 

She can see he's using a monocular to peek at the women's section of the hot springs. All the while giggling perversely and mumbling to himself. 

The only reason why Jiraiya has yet to notice her is because she hid her presence and chakra completely. 

"OI YOU PERVERT! WHY ARE YOU PEEPING ON THE WOMEN BATHING IN THE HOT SPRINGS! HAVE YOU NO SHAME PERVERT?!" Kushina exclaimed in an 'outraged' tone.

Imagine Jiraiya's surprise when he suddenly heard a voice behind him. Before he could even wonder how Kushina got behind him without him noticing, he found himself already surrounded by a bunch of angry women. Both kunoichis and civilians all looked at him with disgust and rage. 

Kushina laughed as she watched Jiraiya get beaten up by the group of women, she walked away after a minute. Not surprised in the slightest that not even 90 seconds later Jiraiya appeared beside her without a hint of being injured. 

"Oi gaki, what the hell was that for?" Jiraiya asked with an angered expression. 

"Do you really have to ask? You're an old man peeping on naked women in the hot springs." Kushina replied while chuckling.

"Old?! Gaki I'm not even 25 yet! I'm far from old." Jiraiya exclaimed.

"Well you can't blame me for calling you old, only kids and old perverted adults peep on women. I doubt any of them giggle like a creep like you do when they peep." Kushina mocked.

"Bah, what does a brat like you know? You're a girl and a child so you can't possibly understand the beauty of women from a man's perspective." Jiraiya waved her off.

'Actually I do.' She said mentally before replying. "You may be right on certain parts, but I certainly understand a woman's beauty. I'm actually into women myself." 

Her words surprised Jiraiya. "Huh? You mean you don't like boys? Usually most girls your age fawning over boys."

"I'm not most girls, and it's not like I have anything against boys. I just play for the other side." Kushina shrugged.

"Hmmmm…well where are you going anyway gaki?" Judging by her red-hair, age and monstrous amount of chakra surpassing even his sensei. Jiraiya figured this is the girl Tsunade has been telling him and Orochimaru about over the last month. 

"My name is not gaki, it's Kushina Uzumaki and I'm quite sure you already knew this Jiraiya-sama given your friendship with Tsunade. I'm heading to Ichirakus since I'm pretty much starving from all the training I did today." She answered.

Truthfully Kushina can go a long while without food, but she is truly hungry and is craving ramen desperately.  

"The ramen shop huh? Mind if I join you?" Jiraiya wanted to learn more about the girl, it's not everyday one comes across a child who can match Tsunade's monstrous strength in battle. If he remembers correctly, Tsunade told him and Orochimaru that Kushina can uproot a tree with only one hand.

It's insane for anyone, let alone a kid to be that physically strong naturally. 

"Sure, actually I'll pay for your meal as an apology for ruining your peeping session back at the hot springs." Kushina offered while also giggling.

"I wasn't peeping! It's called research gaki, but you don't have to pay. I'm pretty loaded." Jiraiya declined.

"Nah don't worry about it." Kushina waved him off. "It's not everyday one gets the privilege of being able to brag about taking someone of your stature out to lunch Jiraiya-sama." 

Jiraiya stared at Kushina oddly for a bit. "You're a weird kid, gaki."

"Yeah I get that a lot, I was honestly born weird." Kushina said with amusement laced in her tone.

Not long after the two arrived at Ichirakus, they saw Aria was the only one in the front of the shop. 

Aria warmly welcomed them. "Welcome Jiraiya-sama, Kushina-chan." She was a bit surprised to see the two of them arrive together. 

"Hello Aria, it's sure been awhile since I was last here." Jiraiya greeted her back as he took a seat.

"Hi Aria, I've returned to your divine business." Kushina grinned brightly, sitting next to Jiraiya.

Aria could only playfully roll her eyes, over the last month she and her husband have come to know Kushina quite well due to how often the girl comes here. It's safe to say Kushina is quickly becoming Teuchi's favorite customer because of how often she praises and eats their ramen. 

Aria is positive Kushina may be the first ramen addict she's ever met. She admits that the young child quickly grew on her and her husband. 

"I keep telling you there is nothing divine about our restaurant, Kushina-chan." Aria said while shaking her head.

"Nonsense, I can sense the divine presence here radiating all the way from my home." Kushina replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Uh huh, I'm sure you do." Aria giggled.

"Oh? If it isn't Kushina-chan?! Back for another bow kid?" Teuchi's voice rang as he walked out from the back.

"Do you even have to ask Teuchi? It's hard to go a day without eating your ramen." Kushina grinned at the ramen chef.

"No, I suppose I don't. With you around I doubt we will ever have to worry about going out of business." Teuchi chucked before looking at Jiraiya. "It's good to see you again, Jiraiya-sama." He gave the white-haired man a respectful nod.

"You as well, Teuchi." Jiraiya replied.

Both Kushina and Jiraiya gave their orders to the ramen chef.

"So, it seems you come here pretty often." Jiraiya commented, gazing at Kushina.

"Yep, this is the food of the gods after all." Kushina smirked.

"Really? Ramen is good, but the food of the gods is a bit much isn't it?" Jiraiya chuckled.

"If it were any other ramen shop I would agree, but Ichirakus is different to me. Just this place alone made me realize how lucky I am to be a Konoha citizen despite only being here for barely over a month." Kushina said.

Jiraiya could see it in her eyes, it seems she really is fond of the village. Honestly it's a bit surprising since he knows how some villagers tend to look at outsiders. He assumed a kid would have a bit of a tough time adjusting, then again despite knowing Kushina is an orphan like himself, she's not actually alone like most orphans. 

'Well Tsunade did tell us that this kid is one of the more mature kids she's ever been around. Apparently the gaki is much more mature than Nawaki and he's already been a genin for over a year. Either way I can't deny she's an interesting kid from what little I've seen so far.' Jiraiya internally thought.