Chapter 36
2 weeks later- mid september
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"Are you Sure I can't punch him in the face?"
"No." Came the cold reply.
"I promise to only break his nose a little."
The ANBU on duty's sweat dropped. One might think these conversations were normal considering the way the yondaime was talking to his sister without even looking up from his papers.
And they would be right in thinking so, in fact, dealing with such discussions was another test of the ANBU. If you could handle these annoying shifts you could handle just about any conversation with a blank face.
The ANBU on the corner of the room was about to say something but caught the eye of the only senior ANBU in the room and thought against it. He didnt want to be the only rookie to make, well a rookie mistake.
Naruto sighed as she flopped into her seat, "come on. If I add just a tiny bit of chakra into the punch it might bring him back to his senses." She pleaded. In all reality naruto just wanted to punch the teenager and get away with it.
"You are not punching my student who is still in hospital. It might make him regress." Came minatos flat reply, handing her a paper to sign.
She took it, "how can he even regress more than he already has? I swear, someone is feeding him crap in the head with how much shit he was spouting the last time I saw him." She held back a shiver as she recalled going to see obito in hospital only for him to try attack her.
She frowned as she tried to recall the visit, it had only been about ten hours ago and she hadn't had a chance to dwell on it. Duty calling her away from her thoughts.
Obito had been muttering below his breath and naruto had opted out of listening in however kakashi, who had gone with her, had been listening.
Standing up she stretched and summoned on of her hawks and gave them a note to give to kakashi, requesting he come into the office at once.
Minato raised a brow but otherwise said nothing, once again signing a document before handing it to naruto to also sign because apparently Kusa wouldn't accept anything if it didnt have both of their signatures on it.
16 papers read and signed later, kakashi arrived with his orange book in hand, nose inside as he pretended to read its contents when naruto and Minato both knew he wasn't reading anything.
Minato got up and was about to leave the room but stopped when naruto flagged him to take a seat again. She leaned against the desk and crossed her arms, "kakashi, when you took me to see obito earlier, he was mumbling something but I wasnt listening to what he said. Can you tell us what he said?"
Kakashi raised his head but looked very bored, "why would you want to know that? It wasn't anything that made sense." He drawled as he shrugged his shoulder.
"It might make sense to me. Plus it might help to determine why the hell he tried to attack me." It was clear to kakashi and Minato the girl was irritated the uchiha had tried to attack her without what seemed to be reason.
Kakashi squinted his eyes as he thought about obitos exact words, "Ashura is coming. Indara has just left. Now is the time to take them. To seal them before they seal us." He replied and naruto frowned. "But when he spoke it... it didn't quite sound like obito. It sounded as if someone was speaking through him."
This caused narutos face to harden. Whatever kakashi relayed to her had clearly been important.
"Has he ever mentioned the names Ashura or Indara before? Perhaps even mother?" She encouraged him with a blank stare that cause the hairs on the back of his neck to stand. She was only like this when someone spoke about things like war and similar things like that.
Kakashi gave it further thought. He had. "He's mentioned all of them a lot usually it's something about bringing mother back. Sometimes he says that he needs to separate Indara and Ashura before they become closer."
Naruto furrowed her brows. She wasn't close to Indara. As far as she was aware, her souls brother had not found a host near her.
However the words Hagoromo once said in her dream rang through her ears. He also said Indara was near.
She let out a frustrated huff. It didn't help lead her to him. If she ever wanted to seal away Zetsu she needed Indara's reincarnation. She wished the old man six paths would show himself to the uchiha that was his host and that they'd leave hints for her to track him down.
Wait... indara just left?
Without a word to the others she hiraishined to the hospital in front of the secretary, scaring the poor woman who happened to be there.
Narutos eyes were frantic as she asked, "the signing in and out sheet. I need to see it."
Without a word the secretary handed it over to the blonde, knowing that if she was asking such a thing it was for a food cause.
Naruto read through the names, trying to find who had gone to see obito today however no one had signed in or out. Meaning they hadn't signed in.
Which basically means they snuck in.
Thanking the secretary she returned to the office, finding the two males in the same position she had left them in. "No one signed in to see Obito today so if anyone did see him, they went through the window." She leaned against the spot of the wall where Shisui would be if he were on duty and but her nail.
"Why would you things someone went to see him?" Asked Minato as he placed his final document in the complete pile, lacing his fingers together under his chin.
"Kakashi said that obito said Indara just left. As in, they were in the room with him before we got there."
Kakashi spoke up next, "So you're saying when he speaks about mother, Indara, Ashura and Zetsu he's talking about actual people and not made up people from his head?" Naruto gazed through Kakashi, hearing him but not registering what he said. Not after hearibg Zetsu coming from behind his mask.
Just as Minato was about to say something, the door to the office opened and in came the bane of Naruto's existence. Homura, Koharu and Danzo.
Why Minato didn't just tell them to retire or force them to retire was beyond her. If she had them on her council she would have booted them out quicker than you could say rasengan.
Deciding that she had no further business here, she left the office and altering the ANBU to return to their posts.
Slowly she made her way to the Uchiha district in vain hope that someone would know who went to see Obito. She knew it would be a futile effort considering no one could possibly keep tabs on the whole clans whereabouts but she needed to take the next step.
Because clearly, Zetsu was coming in and out of Konoha to see Obito, brainwashing him and that spelled trouble for her.
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Three hours later and Naruto was none the wiser on who had gone to see the ill uchiha in Konohas version of Bedlam.
She had asked everyone who was currently in the compound and only needed to ask those that were dispatched on missions or patrols this morning.
"You look like you need a break, my lady." Spoke the firm voice of the Uchiha patriarch causing her to tilt her head to look at him. His face looked neutral however naruto knew the uchiha clan and could see the flicker of concern on his features.
She gave him a small smile before looking back at the bustling compound, "I dont have the luxury to rest."
"I do not believe my nephew would be pleased to know I allowed you to wear yourself out as such. Please, come into my home and have some tea with Mikoto, Itachi and I." He raised a nand for her to take however she was stiff as a board.
"Why would Shisui have a problem with that?" She asked in a tone that she hoped was casual as she took the hand given to raise herself before folding them behind her back.
However given the glint in his eyes it was anything but. "I never mentioned a name."
Naruto had fallen for the oldest trick in the book for egging people on about people they don't want to talk about. She gave him a fake smile, "Shisui is the only nephew of yours that I interact with. Unless of course you're telling me that the uchiha clan houses fanboys of mine?" She asked innocently and it caused the man to blanch.
"Never. However, I shall not allow this conversation to go your way. I am fully aware of your relationship with him. Even if others are blind to it."
Naruto ground her teeth, "How?" There was no use denying, it would just cause both of them to clam up and the offered tea would make things awkward.
"The way he looks at you and the way you look at him when the both of you think no one is looking. I was how I looked at my wife when we were still in the academy and i was engaged to Hiashi's late wife."
This answer caught her off guard, "you were engaged to Hiashi's late wife? I wasnt aware. I always assumed you were engaged to Mikoto this whole time."
Fugaku gave her a bittersweet smile, "No. Mikoto was a fruit from the forbidden tree just as Hiashi was for her. When both of our father were killed in the second war our mothers said nothing as we disbanded the engagement and married those within our own clan."
Naruto frowned at that but said nothing. It had nothing to do with her if they two of them sought love out of their chosen spouses. Even if it wasn't right, you don't control who you fall in love with.
The walk to the main house was silent after that and fea with the head family was peaceful. It was a nice change to have many uchiha around her that had no expectations of her. Usually she had to hold herself high and with pride, with the head family she could lay down and drink her tea and no one would bat and eyelash.
Her peaceful time was cut short when a member of the ANBU came in via sunshine kneeling before her, "My lady, lord fourth has requested your presence in Torture and Interrogation."
She sighed as she got up from her position on the ground, thanking her hosts before going to T&I where Minato stood beside an irate Ibiki and Inoichi. She also noticed Shisui was there and her heart skipped a beat as she looked at him through his mask before turning her attention to the other two.
"What's the problem?" She asked, knowing they would never call her here if if wasn't as a last resort.
"This guy-" started Ibiki as he pointed behind him to the guys tied in the chair, bloody and clearly with broken bones. "isn't giving any information up. He's even got a seal to in his brain to stop us from going to far in his mind without frying it."
She raised a brow at him and looked at the guy. If he was cleaned up and was walking passed her in the street she wouldn't immediately peg him as a guy that Ibiki would have troubles with.
She asked Inoichi for. Basic memories that fought be described as traumatic and grinned when he did so, with a hint of confusion on his part.
Naruto walked into the room and took a seat, "Tea?" She asked as she pointed to the kettle in the corner and the man scoffed.
"What's in it? Poison? Blood?" He asked and she simply smiled and shrugged.
"I wouldn't know."
"So you plan to psyche me out then. Not gonna happen little bitch." Naruto worked a brow and chuckled as she felt Minato, ibiki, inoichi and Shisuis anger rise.
"You're not th first person to call me a bitch so get creative. As for psyching you out... well we'll just have to see." She got up and walked behind him, placing her forearms on his shoulders and she sensed the boys stiffen. "During my years I've learnt a few things. Some men respond to having a dog try to bite off their dicks, women respond to a snake bite their breast, people in general have different things they respond to whether its physical or mental or even emotional.
"During my lifetime I've been subjected to each type of torture you can think of and theres always one that gets people talking."
"And what may that be?" He asked.
She smirked and leaned down to speak closer into his ears, "Sometimes memories are the worst form of torture."
The mans eyes widened before the placed her fingers around his face and head before placing a seal and forcing him into his mind scape.
It was dank, gloomier than the sewers her own had been as a child. However she did see foliage which was more than she had had.
The man staggered as he entered the part of his he had never seen before.
His memories weren't particularly traumatic so she gripped him to where she knew the fun stuff was going to be.
Entering the door with her unwilling companion she forced to sit and watch. It was a memory of his sister. Particularly, the memory of him doing nothing as the cult he had been apart of tortured his sister. He had believed it to be a part of a righteous ritual however he later discovered it had been for their own sick pleasure.
Naruto made sure he sat and watched again and again, the men and women bleeding her dry of her blood with slashes to her skin before burning the skin closed. She made him watch as he had done before.
After the fourth time rewatching it he yelled defeat and agreed to tell her what they wanted to know.
Bringing them out of his mind she signalled then to come inside and stood in the corner with Shisui, slightly in front of him so she could touch his fingertips to her own without anyone noticing or questioning.
She missed him.
Duty kept them together but also kept them apart and she knew all the secrecy was killing her boyfriend on the inside, slowly eating at him. She new she needed to do something or he'd surely fall into the dark recess the Uchiha were known to be able to fall into when their loved ones were concerned.
A bell went off in her mind and she whispered low enough for only him to hear, "Did you go to see Obito again today?"
It wasn't an odd question for either of them to ask so he didnt suspect a thing when she asked it of him and simply answered, "Yeah. Right before you got there."
His words were calmly replied however the turmoil in her mind and heart was..... chaos? Confused?
She didn't even know.
And he didn't know what he caused her by answering her very simple question.
Kurama had the gall to laugh at her as did the others in her mind and each of them said at the same time, 'it seems you have a type naruto.'
She mentally scowled at them, 'if I have a type then so do you all.'
They had no reply for that so she assumed they were done mocking her which was technically mocking themselves but they didn't see it like that.
Deciding she wasn't needed for the rest of the interrogation and seeing that someone had come to take Shisui's place, she gave a chakra signal, signalling their departure before leaving via hiraishin.
Shisui let out a loud and heavy sigh before removing his mask. Once it was off he placed his hands on her waist, drawing her to him as he lowered his face into the crook of her neck, inhaling her scent.
However, since her nerves were still very high strung her chakra and blood were circulating there. With him so close it was oh so tempting and since he knew she didn't mind....
Tentatively he gave the junction between her neck and shoulder a gentle nip just to test her reaction and she raised her hands to waive her fingers into his hair gently, encouraging him to do as he wished- he had her permission, always.
Taking the hint he bit harder, hard enough to break her skin just enough to leak a bit of blood and chakra out of her. She felt heat pool in her lower abdomen and she wondered if there was something wrong with her considering she was enjoying it a bit too much.
But that's what he did, from the very beginning he had tried to make sure it didn't hurt and over time he made it feel good. She preferred this method over simply drawing her blood or chakra from herself to give to him.
She wasn't sure how long had passed but when he was done, he gave the spot a kiss before pumping it with his chakra so both heal her and feed her his chakra causing her to sigh, leaning against him.
He chuckled as he ran his own fingers through her long blonde locks, weaving through them with relative ease but meeting some resistance every now and again.
They stayed like that for some time before he shunshined them to her sofa, with her laying on top of him so she could rest a bit.
Closing her eyes she thought she'd take a moment to soak this in. The have this moment undisturbed by anything and before she knew it she fell asleep.
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Naruto found out when they first started dating that her new favourite way to wake up was with Shisui and her wrapped up in each other.
She had been with arguably a lot of people in this time and she never felt like this. The closest she had felt like this was with Kakashi but that was only because Kakashi had always been home for the blonde no matter the occasion as he was an orphan like her but he had lived through it all.
With Sasuke, he was family but it still never felt like this. She surmised it was because whilst she loved Sasuke she didn't love him. There was a difference.
But with Shisui, she loved him because he was everything to her: friend, family, home, safety, happiness and lover. She knew he wasn't perfect, similar to herself, and knew whilst he brought all those things to the table he also bought his own dose of stress to her but she did the same for him.
Possibly causing him more stress since he was technically younger than her but not at the same time.
Stupid time travel messing up with tenses and stuff related to it.
She was bought out of her thoughts when Shisui noticed she was awake, "Good morning." He whispered, knowing she would hear and she was certain she heard a hint of teasing.
Looking up, she saw he was in fact teasing her since it was so late into the evening, bordering on nightfall.
Instead of getting irritated or acting irritated she leaned up and kissed him, smiling as she laid her chin on her hands which rested just below his collarbone.
He weaved his finger through her fringe, moving it behind her ear. "Have I told you how beautiful you are?" He had. Just a few days ago and he knew it.
Yet hearing the words whispered in that voice, as if he were speaking to a goddess instead of a kunoichi made her heart flutter and face blush a bright pink which wasnt too obvious thanks to her tanned skin but he saw it.
She nodded her head and tried to hide behind her hair but he didn't let her. Raising her till she was face to face with him, he spoke again, "You are so beautiful and kind hearted and I love you." It was too much sometimes when he did this. When he spoke his sweet words to her and said them so reverently as if she were the only woman on the planet made her heart beat like she had just made a bijou dama and thrown it at Kaguya.
"I love you. More than anyone and everyone combined. I don't know what I'd do without you. You're the one person outside of my head that's keeping me grounded, reminding me of everything I never think I need to hear and it always overjoys me whenever you do because you can see something I've hidden and buried so far into myself where even I can't see it anymore."
She'd said something similar before and he knew it but the words were always just as heartfelt as the first time.
He gave her a gentle s no lie and kisses her forehead, "You okay? You seemed stressed earlier about something."
She let out a shuttered breath and decided to take the long route in telling him, "You know I've been trying to find Indara's reincarnation for a while now right?" He nodded his head so she continued. "I've found him. I think."
His face brightened for her however she saw the look of concern and fear. She had been intimate with the lady reincarnation and he was afraid she would leave him for the other.
Silly. Even if they had been different people she would still love him.
"How did you find him? Who is he?"
She frowned and leaned against his neck once she lowered her head, lacing her right hand fingers through his left ones before bringing them to her chest. "When I went to see Obito with Kakashi he said something and later I asked Kakashi what he said. Turns out Indaras reincarnation has been visiting him often but because he knows that, Zetsu has been around as well."
If he noticed how she dodged answering her second question he didn't say anything about it. At least not yet. "How did none of us notice?"
"We've been busy. I've been looking and trying to sense him everywhere but in konohagakure. Theres also the slight issue that I can't sense him. He can block his chakra and his entire existence from me no matter what I do."
Shisui nodded slowly, "You never answered who he was."
At this she let out a chuckle. "Kurama and the others say I've got a type."
"Tall, dark and broody?" He offered and she lightly smacked his chest.
"No."
"Well other than that I fail to see how you have a type."
"You know I dated Sasuke back in my time..." she left it off for him to make his assumptions. She could be sadistic when she wanted to be.
"Um... uchiha? Indara reincarnation?"
"Ding ding ding ding we have a winner." She said quietly and he stiffened. He was aware that her relationship with Kakashi had been open and was most likely thinking she wanted that sort of arrangement once again.
She lifted the hand she was holding, his left hand and brought his immer palm to her lips and kissed it, infusing it with hagoromos chakra, activating the black crescent moon mark on it.
Receiving it for the first time caused him to flinch and look at his hand, confused and surprised. He knew about this mark, naruto often spoke about it having been on Sasuke and the man had never cared whereas she had taken great lengths to hide it with gloves or bandages.
"Me?" He squeaked and she nodded
"You."