The journey to Nami was quite uneventful so far. Nothing major had happened, and was turning out to be just a regular escort mission, much to the dismay of Haruto who was hoping to fight enemies. Kushina and Tazuna had gotten over their issues, and somehow the two had began to hit it off with stories during the journey. The bridge builder apparently had a daughter and a grandson with him and was telling Kushina about his daughter's embarassing moments in the past. Somehow Naruko could already feel that said daughter would most likely skin the old man alive if she found out the topic of the discussion taking place.
"Look out, there's a puddle ahead."
Her face whipped towards the road, and just as Kurama said, there was a large puddle in the middle of the road. Most people would ignore it, but there was definitely something wrong with it. For one, it hadn't rained in a while, and no puddle could remain on an open road for such a long time. The second was that there was a chakra signature coming from it, confirming the fact that it was not a natural puddle, but a chakra signature.
She tapped her foot repeatedly in a pattern, catching the attention of her team. All graduates had to learn to communicate through simple gestures, the most common being through the tapping of the foot if they suspected that enemies were listening in on them.
"Puddle ahead, chakra detected, possible danger." The tapping implied. Kushina was immediately on guard and began tapping her foot aswell in response.
"Number of enemies?" Naruko sniffed the air as they moved. She could smell two foreign objects or entities that most certainly weren't water within the puddle.
"Two. Both in puddle. Possible Genjutsu." She replied back. Though the entire team, including Haruka who didn't know about the Soul-merge, didn't know how her sense of smell was superior at the above the level of an Inuzuka, they simply accepted it as one of the many quarks she had.
Kushina took the lead and proceeded to step onto the puddle, fists in her pocket ready engage any enemies, and as Naruko had predicted two figures jumped out the moment they passed the puddle and proceeded to fling chains at their team leader. To the enemies's surprise, Kushina grasped the ends of both chains with her hands and pulled, dragging the two masked enemies off the ground and flinging them into the air.
Sparing no time, she instantly nocked an four arrows and shot each limb of the first enemy to immobilize him whilst Haruto shot forward and smashed the second target into the ground, grinning madly as finally hit something for the first time in a week. Needless to say, said target lost consciousness upon impacting with the ground, legs bent the wrong way and chest slightly caved. The one she had shot was still screaming from pain on the ground, not daring to move as each and every movement brought a wave of pain from the areas where she had struck.
Kushina whistled slightly at the quick dispatchment of the enemy. "Good work team, at this rate we can actually hit B-ranked missions!" She walked up to the enemies before gasping. "Demon brothers? What are they doing here?" She muttered to herself before realisation dawned upon her. Her head whipped towards Tazuna, who was sweating bullets as he avoided her gaze.
"Tazuna-san, answer this question truthfully or we will turn back right now, WHY are the demon brothers after you?" She asked with her trademark stiff smile.
Hearing this, Tazuna caved as he began to explain the situation. According to him, a businessman by the name of Gatou had been monopolising all businesses in Nami no Kuni and bleeding it dry, and the bridge that they were currently building was the only hope Nami no Kuni had left as it would reconnect the residents to the world.
Gatou also seemed to be quite paranoid about the bridge, and was hiring mercenaries and missing-nin to kill Tazuna to prevent the completion of the bridge.
"Please—" He begged, "We don't have the funds to request anything higher than a C-rank, we will surely pay you back in full after Nami is back to normal again. If you leave now, countless will die of starvation!"
Kushina sighed as she turned back to the team, "What do you all think?"
"Of course we continue, we can't just let people die! Besides, this means we get to fight stronger people!" Haruto exclaimed with a grin of anticipation.
"…Sure…" Haruka muttered.
"Might aswell finish what we started." Naruko added.
Kushina smiled at our decision and turned back to Tazuna. "It seems that the team wants to continue, you're in luck this time, but you better make this worth the effort."
They left after hiding the bodies of the two in a hidden location within the forest, sending a message to Konoha so that they could send more shinobi to confirm and retrieve the bodies. The two refused to talk about their employer even with the threat of death, so there was no reason to keep them alive.
***
They continued down the road for another hour without rest since the team wasn't tired, whilst Tazuna insisted that the sooner they reached his home, the better.
Eventually, they had to leave the ground as a boat was the only way to reach Nami no Kuni. Kushina stayed on the boat along with Tazuna whilst the three genins used the water-walking technique and moved alongside the boat, looking out for threats.
"Welcome to Nami no Kuni." Tazuna said with pride as they approached land again. They couldn't see much due to the mist, but they could still make out what seemed to be a boathouse as they approached the shore.
They kept at a pace along a small road within the forest, taking up a triangular formation around Tazuna in case of an ambush. Kushina stayed slightly behind, letting the three genins do most of the work since she would only step in if she deemed that the three of them weren't enough to deal with a potential situation.
It was quite boring, and Naruko had no clue as to how Haruto and Haruka were keeping themselves entertained. Atleast she had a damned tailed beast within her mind cracking jokes and innuendos every minute to distract her from her boredom. Suddenly, an idea came to her mind as she approached Kushina who was leisurely strolling a few meters behind the rest of the team.
"Um… Sensei?" She asked to catch her attention.
"Yes?" She replied with one eye opened to indicate that she was listening.
"Do you have a third child?" She asked quite blatantly, earning a confused look from her mother.
"No, I do—" She began until she suddenly clutched her head with a groan. Naruko observed the reaction as she began to analyze the situation. She was about to press on until Kurama stopped her.
"Don't push her any further Imouto."
"Why?" She asked mentally.
"Judging by the reaction she is showing, there's something we don't know influencing her sudden headaches. We don't know if there are any consequences if we break that barrier forcibly."
Naruko, though unsatisfied, nodded in comprehension. It certainly made sense, and if she wasn't careful she could possibly hurt her mother. The risk was high as she still didn't know the exact reason as to why both Minato and Kushina reacted in such ways when they were reminded of her existence as their child.
"Ah, sorry about that, did you say anything Naruko-chan?" Kushina asked with a smile.
So she forgot the earlier question too? interesting? Naruko thought with a hand to her chin.
"No, it was nothing." She said as she returned to her earlier position, causing Kushina to raise an eyebrow, though she didn't question further.
Soon, they reached a small lake.
"We're nearly there, keep movin—" Tazuna began until a large object came hurtling from a nearby bush. "GET DOWN!" Kushina yelled as she swiftly jumped in front of the group, fists ready to engage.
Haruto pushed Tazuna to the ground, barely in time to stop the object—a blade, from cutting the old man in half. Haruka crouched to avoid the incoming blade whilst Naruko dodged to the side, letting the large blade continue on its path towards a nearby tree, imbedding itself half-way through.
The blade itself was monstrously big with a curved end and a circle cut out at the far end of the blade, most likely used for decapitation. Along with its giant size, something about it screamed that it was not just a big sword.
Suddenly, a figure appeared standing on the handle of the sword that was wedged into the tree, looking down and ignoring the three genins whilst specifically focusing on Kushina.
"Well well well, what do we have here? Three kids, an old man and one woman, why don't you all move aside? I'll let you live if you just let me take out that old man there." The figure said with slight amusement.
It was a tall and muscular man with pale skin, short spiky black hair, brown eyes and small eyebrows. Bandages covered the bottom half of his face like a mask, and he wore his hitaiate on his forehead, though slightly shifted to the side. The man himself was shirtless, with his chest only covered by a belt, baggy pants with the striped pattern typical of Kirigakure and mimetic wrist-warmers extending up to his elbows, with matching leg-warmers.
"Can't do that, now why don't you get down here so I can kick your arse!" Kushina yelled as she threw a set of shurikens at the man.
"I know who you are," She continued as the man jumped down from the tree, sword now in his hands as he landed in the middle of the lake. "Demon of the Hidden Mist, Zabuza Momochi, current missing-nin and former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, you been hired by Gatou to take out Tazuna too?"
Zabuza didn't show any change in demeanor as he replied, "And if I was? Doesn't change the fact that you will die today, Namikaze Kushina, wife of the Hokage." He brought his hand up and flashed a handseal as he raised a leg whilst pointing up with a hand, a meditative stance commonly used by ninjas.
"[Ninja art: Hidden Mist Jutsu]" He whispered, though it didn't escape Naruko's enhanced hearing.
Like the name of the technique suggested, mist began to cover the area until she could no longer see more than a few meters in front of her. She instinctively moved closer to Tazuna along with Haruka and Haruto, arrow nocked in preparation for an attack from every direction.
To their surprise, a figure suddenly appeared between the three, large blade in one hand ready slash at the three of them. Out of instinct, Naruko immediately shifted her aim and shot the arrow with more power than usual. Zabuza brought up a hand to catch the arrow, but to his surprise the arrow dragged him along as he caught onto it, causing him to skid backwards a few meters.
He opened his hand, dropping the arrow to find that his palm and fingers were bleeding from where he had grabbed the arrow. His eyes narrowed as he swiftly dodged a fist from Kushina and healed the cut with a minor healing jutsu.
"A good trick, I admit, but there's a limit to what small kids can do, don't think that'll work again." He said as he was swiftly caught up in a melee battle with Kushina. Naruko nocked another arrow just in case, and watched as the two experienced shinobi fought at a speed most chuunin would fail to track.
It seemed as if Kushina had the upper hand, and as she dodged a swing of the giant blade, she brought her right hand for a killing blow to the chest, but instead all she hit was air.
"W-what?" She gasped in surprise, too late to pull back as she was tripped by Zabuza's foot and fell to the ground headfirst.
Zabuza stood to the side, sword over his head getting ready for a blow that would most certainly cut Kushina in two no matter what she did. Her chakra chains weren't the most effective in close combat, and certainly wouldn't be of use if Zabuza simply evaded them. Though they could hold down a tailed beast if she concentrated, she didn't have enough time to manifest them in order to block the monstrous blade. Naruko could hear Haruto shouting in fear and even the usually expressionless Haruka was physically showing her worry
"…Take off the henge, you're going to need that extra brainpower and chakra." Kurama said, and Naruko nodded. The henge that she used to cover her features was a powerful one that was not only an illusion, but a true transformation that would make all changes physical. It required her to actively supply chakra along with constant attention, and overall it hindered her combat potential by quite a bit. Though she was still above most genins and possibly chuunins, she couldn't fight one of the Seven Swordsmen in such a state.
Furthermore, the henge actively cancelled out any special effects of the features she concealed, meaning that her sense of smell and hearing, despite being far above an average human's, were still significantly impaired.
She had to worry about the consequences afterwards, and since her team was technically the only witness that mattered, it wouldn't be too damaging since two of them were jinchuuriki whilst the other was the mother to the two (technically three).
"[Henge… KAI]!" She yelled as a burst of chakra erupted from her position, surprising both her teammates and causing Zabuza to pause momentarily to stare at her, eyes widening. Kushina was still on the ground but even so her gaze wondered from Zabuza towards her.