The Mother Hen Jinchuriki (Naruto AU) - Chapter 1

Commissioned by [Aroniac] on Patreon.

Disclaimer - Disclaimer - I don’t own nor claim to own any of the IP of the giant multi Billion Dollar companies that might appear here. I just own any OCs that you see

Konoha, Land of Fire

–Hiruzen Sarutobi–

“No!” He whispered, knees going weak, as he all but collapsed on the ground, seeing the still bodies of Kushina and Minato, with the wail of their child deafening in his ears.

Too late! He had been too late! 

It should have been him! He was the past. Minato was the future!

His vision began blurring as the exhaustion of the fight, coupled with the stress of the future of the village weighed heavily on his mind as he tried to get up, only for his body to refuse to respond, the years not being kind to it, as it was suddenly thrust into one of the most difficult battles of his life after spending years in retirement, just relaxing.

Even then, he couldn’t rest. Not now, not after what had happened. Time for rest will come later. He has work to—-

His thoughts screeched to a halt as ANBU, having followed him, arrived at the scene and began inspecting everything. He was about to reprimand the ANBU who had touched Kushina and was bringing her body to him, when he looked up and saw that it was Kakashi, having his face mask torn off and the rest disfigured beyond recognition but he would recognise that chakra signature and that mop of hair in his sleep.

For Kakashi to do something like this could only mean one thing.

“Is,” He croaked, his throat dry, “Is she alive?”

“Barely. Hokage-sama. We need to hurry. Have you called for Tsunade-sama?” He recognised the way Kakashi talked, and he squashed the urge to reprimand him for burying his emotions so deep like that, it made him sound like one of Danzo’s men, and nodded.

Letting the fact that a shinobi of her calibre could turn the tide of a battle side, the fact that Kopnoha was going to need mass healing on a scale never before seen was not lost on him. Which is why the first thing he did when he saw the Nine Tails in the distance, was call both Jiriaya and Tsunade back to the village. 

At the pace they could both travel at, they should be in the village before dawn.

“Yes, she should be here soon.” He rasped out, suddenly finding the strength to stand and escort Kakashi to the Hokage’s private hospital, fortified beyond anything they had in Konoha, as he went back to where Minato drew his last breath after confirming that both Kushina and her son were safe.

He tried not to think of the implications of feeling the Nine Tails’ chakra in both of them. 

Minato, what have you done?

___xx___

[A year later]

He sighed as the doors to his office were once more blown off, the third time this month, as Kushina Uzumaki, burst into his office, her face set into a stormy scowl, as his headache deepened just thinking about what she came here for.

“Before you go all Nine Tails on me. I did try to get a compromise, but she refuses to take anything but the perfect solution.” He said before she could get into a whole tirade about the proposal that had been declined yesterday by the Council, a new and improved Council, consisting of far more members than before, and more importantly, all the Clan Heads. 

Tsunade, who was back in the village permanently, refusing to do any combat missions but just her medical expertise was a boon for the village, had petitioned her signature proposal, just as she did every month for the past six months, changed in some miniscule manner so the Council was forced to read through the proposal before dismissing it, since she, as the Senju Clan Head, could force reading of any proposal she deemed worthy.

It was not like he did not see the merit of her idea, but to change the structure of the entire genin team formula that had been in place since Nidaime-sama’s time? That was a bit too much, even for her allies to stomach. Any attempt at compromise, at allowing her to form her own specialised medic squads, of giving her access to talented Chunins to create new medics, was rebuffed, right in front of the Council, who did not take that kindly.

Tsunade was stubborn like that, refusing any attempt to placate her, only wanting the total and utter reconstruction of the very foundation of their growth.

Yes, they were in peace times but everyone knew they were not nearly as strong as they were when Minato was alive. To shake things up at such a time, not knowing if they would work or not would just be suicide. 

“Kushina,” He began softly, not wanting to set off the bomb that was Kushina Uzumaki, “YOu know as well as I do what kind of crisis the village faces,” She opened her mouth to rebuke as he steamrolled over her, “Yes, I know your contributions have been invaluable lately, and the border skirmishes have dropped to their lowest level in years in part to that but you have to realise, unless the next generation grows up strong, Konoha will remain weak and for that, we need to do what we have done. We need to continue doing what gave us people like Kakashi, Minato, Sakumo, Tsunade, Jiraiya and even…Orochimaru.” 

The name of his greatest failure being uttered dropped the temperature in the room by several degrees, as Kushina’s face tightened at the reminder of his failure.

And yes, it was his failure. He was sent by Minato to take Orochimaru in and at the time, he could have done it. He could have killed the boy he saw like his own son, perhaps more so than his biological ones, and yet, he didn’t. Now, it has come to haunt the entire shinobi world, his mistake.

“Fine,” Kushina visibly struggled before she spat the word out, as if the mere notion offended her entire being. “When is my next mission?”

He nodded at her, taking the opportunity to change the subject as he opened the drawer on his table and took out a set of files, all marked S-rank for secrecy and importance. Only S-ranked shinobi could take these missions and for now, he only had Jiriaya and Kushina who could take these missions solo.

Kakashi…the boy tried but knowing what the boy was trying to do to himself in ANBU, he refrained from giving Kakashi anything above A-rank in missions, even if it was sometimes disguised as S-rank, with the associated pay. 

What did the pay matter even? When Kakashi just donated it all to the charities set up for the victims of the War anyway?

Going through the entire list, he put them back in his table before facing Kyushian with a smile on his face, “You are free for the entire week. There are talks of a peace deal within Kumo but before we have anything concrete, I will need you to head to the Kumo border. Until then, you are free.”

Kushina mock saluted him with a suspicious smirk on her face before disappearing in a red flash.

His lips parted in shock, the pen clattering to the ground as he stayed rooted in place. After a few seconds, he smiled wryly as he picked up the pen from the ground, “She cracked the formula.”

It was not like it was impossible to do so, but to learn the Flying Thunder God Jutsu within just a year? On top of balancing multiple full time duties? That was a miracle.

He relaxed in his seat as he looked at Minato’s portrait, “You would be proud of what she has become, Minato. All of this, for him.”

At the same time, he relaxed in his seat, taking the pipe out from his desk, and for the first time since Minato died, it was not because he was stressed, but because he wanted to enjoy it.

Kushian learning Minato’s signature jutsu, on top of her already growing reputation across the Five Great Shinobi villages and beyond, meant that the load on the village was about to drop significantly. No one and absolutely no one, would want to provoke someone capable of traversing battle lines and drop a Bijuudama in the middle of their forces before returning within minutes.

He smiled, tears gathering in his eyes as he all but melted in his seat. Just that single demonstration had given the village the leeway it needs to not just grow but take steps without hesitating much.

He glanced at the rejected proposal on the table.

Maybe the village could afford to do something new this time, in hopes that when the time for war actually came, they would be far better prepared than every other village.

In the middle of his thought, he blinked. Had Kushina shown him her progress with Flying Thunder Got just so he could reconsider his decision on Tsunade’s proposal?

If so, the theory he had in mind about the implications of having just the Yin Half of the Nine Tails in her, improving her mind, was correct.

He just…didn’t know if it was for the best or not.

He shook his head at the treacherous thought. What was he thinking? As long as Naruto was a part of Konoha, he did not have anything to worry about, not from Kushina anyway.

___xx___

Kushina Uzumaki

Showing him the Flying Thunder God had been a calculated risk, something that would definitely increase her threat rating a couple of levels, something that the Old War Hawk should do as well, sparing her some pest hunting for the time being.

It should also have the unintended side effect of Tsunade’s proposal being accepted since her mastering Minato’s signature jutsu meant that the village should be safe from provocations for now, since no one in their right mind would want to fight someone who was basically a combination of her and Minato.

She appeared in the Senju compound in a flash of red, the wards surging forth to ascertain the identity of the individual trespassing, only for them to retreat as soon as they sensed it was her.

Another new thing about her situation, the advanced Fuinjutsu she had not just learned but invented, using the notes left behind by both Minato and Mito-sama. Before the….incident, she had been headstrong, too headstrong in fact, to parse through the more advanced works of Mito-sama, thinking herself too much of a genius to rely on the works of someone else, even if it was someone as accomplished as Mito-sama.

So, when Minato asked, she gave the notes she could give to someone else, to Minato and continued working on her own, something that was painfully slow but also much more fulfilling.

Looking back, she could honestly say that she was just as stupid as everyone thought she was. Even now, she woke up crying, knowing that if she had just dove into what Mito-sama had left for her, she would have been much stronger than what she had been during that night.

Shaking her head, she banished those regrets to the recesses of her mind, not wanting to let herself drown into self regret and pity, because self pity is the biggest luxury a human being can have and right now? She could not afford that luxury.

She had to move forward, look forward to tomorrow, and most importantly, plan. She couldn’t just jump into the situation without thinking about anything. That entire incident had been a wake up call for her, altering her personality on the spot as she became more and more analytical, methodical than before.

She knew it was not just because of the trauma of that night. No, it was also because of what Minato did. Minato, in his genius, used that Death Reaper Seal–stupid– and had sealed the Yin Half of the Nine Tails in her.

She was on the verge of dying when the Masked Uchiha ripped the Nine Tails out of her, and even using the Adamantine chakra chains had taken all she had, only for her body to greedily consume the chakra of the Nine Tails that was sealed in her by Minato, rapidly regaining her lost vitality.

She still lost most of her lifespan that night, she knew that much. Most probably, she would not live past 50 but that still gave her more than 25 years with Naruto, her son.

Aside from her life force returning, there were some other effects of the Yin part of the Nine Tails being sealed into her. Her Yin chakra, for one, skyrocketed, giving her a little difficulty in the beginning as her chakra balance was shot, but then, that same Yin chakra also gave her intelligence beyond her wildest dreams, allowing her to effortlessly devise a method to regain her lost chakra control and more, allowing her to finally learn Minato’s signature Jutsu.

The thing with both of Minato’s signature jutsu, the Rasengan and the Flying Thunder God, was that both of them were essentially advanced chakra control exercises, making them both inaccessible to her, that is, before she became like this.

Cold. Calculating. Analytical.

Her previous self would have hated her and yet, she knew that it was a matter of survival, that if she were not like she was now, her life and Konoha in general would have been in a much worse position.

At least that is what she told herself when she drove the kunai in the necks of shinobi half her age, their eyes widening in terror and fear as they saw her and knew, just knew that their life was going to end that instant.

When she mercilessly used all the advantages of being the Jinchuriki of the strongest Tailed Beast, to singlehandedly push back entire squadrons, leaving them a fraction of their previous self.

She had become cold, not seeing enemy shinobi as human, only numbers, tasks to fulfill before she could go home.

Go home and meet—

Her neck snapped to the side as the sound of pitter-patter of feet hitting the tiles entered her ears, and just like that, the cold, unfeeling Kushina went away. That cold unfeeling monster of Konoha retreated into her mind, the ice melting away as her son came into her vision, melting her shell instantly, with his hearty smile and laughter as she flashed towards him and hugged him with all her might.

Yes, Naruto. Her son, her sun, and the only light left in her life.

“Mama!” 

Yes. That single word. That in itself was enough for her. For that, she would go to war with the world itself. She would slaughter untold numbers of shinobi, destroy cities and villages, leave nothing behind, if only it meant she could live with her son.