Kushina was not having a good day.
The mission her team took was going well at first, until the demon brothers appeared and attacked the bridge builder, Tazuna, who they were tasked to guard, increasing the rank of the mission to at the very least a B-rank.
Normally, she would have simply turned around and returned to the village and reported the mission as a false and put Tazuna's name on the blacklist, but she was sympathetic to the man's situation, and her team seemed to think so too.
She was lucky to be able to instruct her two children, and oh she was proud of them. Despite being only twelve and fresh genins, both were at the very least high-chunin level if they unlocked their kyuubi chakra, and possibly borderline low-chunin if regularly, and it was something that she took pride in as a parent.
Due to this, she was also worried as to how the third member of the team would fare. Would they feel inferior? Or perhaps they would be understanding of the situation?
Oh how wrong she was.
Despite her worries, the last member, Naruko, was in every way either at the level or superior to her children, which in itself was quite shocking. Though she had an odd choice of weaponry and never used her sword, her speed and skill with the bow could get her to the rank of jounin easily, not to mention that she was unnaturally fast on her feet.
It wasn't everyday you found an academy graduate that could potentially beat high level chunins by herself. Her children were exceptions, as they had the Kyuubi chakra within them and also had years of training with Minato, who was viewed as the pinnacle of power within the village along with Sarutobi.
Her taijutsu was possibly her only weakness, but seeing that she materialised her bow and sword at will, there wasn't really a time she would need taijutsu at all since she could call the sword back to her hand even after being disarmed, at least according to her.
The girl had somehow befriended Sasuke at a young age, and seemed to be his one and only friend. Kushina was glad that at least someone was there to look out for the misfortunate child.
Despite all this, something felt odd when she was around her, but she could never really pinpoint what until very recently. Naruko had asked her a very odd question as they approached Wave, and though she couldn't recall the question or her initial answer, she did remember the headache that accompanied her answer.
This confirmed her suspicions that there was something that she was missing, and it was clearly related to the odd girl who claimed to be both a swordswoman and a huntress.
Immediately after that, they were attacked by the Demon of the Mist, Zabuza Momochi, a former Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. She had let her guard down and allowed Zabuza to get past her and to the children, but to her surprise the missing-nin was blown back by an arrow with cuts on his hand.
Perhaps she was hiding her power, or she still is? Kushina thought, slightly worried at the thought that the mysterious and prodigious child still had more up her sleeve.
She engaged Zabuza in combat, and when she finally thought she had found an opening, she realised that she was tricked and that it was only a feint to get her guard down.
Now she was facing a monstrous sword that was ready to come down upon her, ending her life and possibly the lives of her children as well. She couldn't use her chains as they would be too slow. She had lost hope, until a sudden burst of chakra from the side caught both her and Zabuza's attention.
"[Henge… KAI]!" A voice said as raw chakra washed over the surrounding area. She heard Zabuza gasp as she followed his gaze to where her team was currently standing, namely at Naruko who was the source of the chakra burst.
Her eyes widened as the air around the huntress cracked, and shattered as a new figure but familiar figure appeared from underneath.
Animal ears sprouted from her head as her pupils turned into slits, eyes glowing ominously. nine golden tails the same colour as her hair sprouted from her back as she grew a few inches in height, muscles toning slightly. Her canines grew sharper and longer, now noticeably bigger than the rest of her teeth, giving her a beastly appearance.
She gaped with her eyes wide at Naruko's appearance. 'Kyuubi' was the first thought that went through her head. But that shouldn't be possible! The chakra of the Kyuubi was sealed into her two children, whilst the consciousness was sealed into—
"Agh!" She clutched her head in pain as a bad headache assaulted her. Why couldn't she remember who it was sealed into?
She calmed herself slightly as she brought her attention to the real world. Zabuza continued to stare at Naruko, who was aiming an arrow straight at Zabuza's heart. The missing-nin seemed to be on guard, still wary from the previous attack from the girl and was prepared to block with his monstrous sword. The gold markings on the bow began to glow as the tip of the arrow began to release sparks. The air around the girl circled her, giving the appearance of a mini tornado. She muttered something under her breath, too quiet for Kushina to pick up as she unleashed the arrow.
At the last possible moment as soon as Naruko released the arrow, Zabuza's eyes widened as he dodged to the side, abandoning the block stance he took earlier. She watched as the arrow that was nocked simply disappeared as soon as it was released, a howl of wind accompanying it.
She closed her eyes and hugged the ground as a blast of wind assaulted her. As soon as it stopped, she looked up again. Her jaw dropped in shock as the dust in the air cleared, revealing destruction along the flight path of the arrow. Any and everything along the path was either obliterated completely or sent flying somewhere else. A column of trees stretching over fifty meters along the arrow's path were uprooted, and she could see a large crater at the end of the path.
Zabuza stood on the other side of the clearing, one hand holding the stump that was formally his right hand whilst panting heavily.
…Did she just blow an arm off an A-rank missing-nin!? And what the hell was with that power? Kushina mentally screamed within her mind. She had only seen such destruction from high A-rank and S-rank jutsus, seeing it coming from a child who didn't even seem fatigued afterwards was quite frightening.
"You… you're not quite what you seem…" Zabuza said as he forcibly stopped the bleeding from his severed arm through the use of an emergency medical ninjutsu. He held his giant sword in his left hand and lifted it from the ground, going to show just how much strength and endurance the former Seven Swordsmen actually had.
Not allowing Naruko to nock another arrow, he instantly closed the gap and went for a killing blow to the chest. Kushina was about to send a chain to stop him, until Naruko's body exploded in light as the sound of steel clashing registered.
As the light died down, Kushina saw that Naruko was no longer in the black hunting dress she was always in, but pure white armour of a design she had never seen before. A sleek black sword of equally strange design and markings was now in her hands, being used to block the massive blade Zabuza had swung at her. Despite the fact that she was not knowledgeable in weaponry other than common shinobi tools, even she could tell that the sword was not ordinary, perhaps the best she'd seen in all her life as a shinobi.
"HAAA!" With a yell, Naruko stepped forward with her strange armoured heels and pushed Zabuza away, causing him to skid backwards slightly.
"A swordswoman now? Just how many tricks do you have?" He asked, breathing still unnatural, possibly from the lingering pain from his severed arm.
"More than you think, how about a duel then?" Naruko said as she raised her sword and pointed the sharp end towards Zabuza.
"Hmph, duel accepted." He replied, doing the same with his oversized butcher knife.
Kushina's mind was starting to overload from what was occurring in front of her. One of her genins who he deemed to be mid to high chuunin at most was able to use an S-rank level technique, amputated the famed Demon of the Hidden Mist, and was currently challenging said man to a one on one sword duel.
It would be more realistic if this were all a dream, but unfortunately the fatigue she was feeling confirmed that this was all in fact real.
She wanted to help the twelve year old girl against the monster that was Zabuza, but she knew better than to interrupt a formal kenjutsu duel. Kenjutsu users had their own code of honour, one of which being that a duel between two kenjutsu users be a fair one on one. Despite the fact that they were shinobi, people specialised in utilising cowardly tactics to finish their missions at all costs, a kenjutsu duel was a different matter altogether. It was an accepted fact amongst all shinobi from all over the Elemental Nations that the Shinobi Creed could be put aside when two Kenjutsu users fought, and this was one such situation.
As much as she wanted to aid her, she wouldn't stamp on her honour as a swordswoman. She would only intervene the moment she clearly lost the battle. It was her job to keep both Haruka and Haruto from interfering too, though Naruko beat her to the punch.
Naruko turned around and looked at the two jinchuurikis. "Don't interrupt, this is a formal duel." She said with a cold tone, the innocence that the team was used to completely absent.
Haruto didn't seem to understand. "B-but, we can't just let yo—" He began.
"She's right, don't interrupt, idiot!." Haruka cut in from the side, giving Naruko an encouraging nod, fully confident in her abilities despite the clear shock on her face after the power display earlier. Naruko simply nodded back.
Did her daughter know Naruko well? Though she didn't pay attention to the team's relationship with the huntress—now swordswoman, she would have known if the two had developed a close friendship over the last month, so that means they knew each other well beforehand.
For one, she was glad that her quiet yet intelligent daughter was close to someone during her time at the academy, but Kushina was confused as to why she wasn't told of this.
Wait… Right.
Haruka probably would have told her if she asked, and would have kept silent indefinitely as long as she didn't specifically ask if she had made any friends.
Though Kushina used to ask such things of her during the first year of Haruka's time at the academy, she soon gave up after realising that the chances of Haruka befriending someone was as likely as Orochimaru being a good guy all along.
Haruto looked like he wanted to say more, but seeing that even his mother wasn't doing anything, he gritted his teeth and swallowed his words.
Naruko turned back to Zabuza and entered a stance, one which she had never seen before. Naruko seemed to be a bundle of endless surprises, hell someone could tell her that the Kyuubi-like girl was the one who killed Danzo and she would probably believe it after all the things she had seen today.