NARUTO SI: A Burdened Soul (Elder Brother to Itachi SI)

Part 1

KUSHINA UZUMAKI

Uzumaki Kushina did not have a lot of friends. Being a jinchuriki and an outsider tended to do that to you in Konoha. And so, the few friends that she had, she treasured dearly. Though each was now busy in their own life, with the war going on. Most of her friends were out there fighting, while she stayed behind in the village, given her strategic importance as the jinchuriki of the Nine Tails.

There was a time when she had wished to be a Hokage, to be the first female Kage and to declare to the world that the demons of Uzushio were not as gone as they would have them believe, that though they may have destroyed Uzushio the Uzumaki still lived, and yet she had learned to let go of that dream, to entrust it to someone dear to her.

She had come to this village as a vessel for the Kyuubi, a prisoner for a power so vast that few could presume to control it, let alone tame the ancient beast. In reality, she was a prisoner to the beast, and ironically, she was a prisoner herself, locked up in the sealing tower built by the Shodaima and Mito-sama to help stabilize the seal on her until she learned to fully control the Kyuubi's chakra.

She was like a butterfly entrapped in a gilded cage, with few allowed to visit her, of which fewer did so with the Third Great Ninja war raging on outside.

"Kushina-sama, you have a visitor," the ANBU guards keeping an eye on her informed her as she sat in a room going over her clan's archives.

"Who?" she asked, excitement bubbling in her gut at the notion. Minato had told her that he was going away on a mission a few days ago. Had he returned so quickly? She thought. Yet the masked ANBU's answer was not what she had expected.

"It is Mikoto-sama," and her eyes widened, hearing that name. Mikoto Uchiha, she had been her friend from genin years. Being a badass senior, Kushina had looked upto the Uchiha kunoichi a lot. She was amongst the few kunoichi who respected her and her dream, though it was a shame that she had passed it on.

And immediately she rushed towards the door, jumping from her chair as she made her way to the entrance, and there she saw her. Her hair black as the night skies, similar in coloring to her eyes as she stood there flanked on the side by two Uchiha police members looking around with utter disgust.

"Mikoto!" she greeted with a smile, and the Uchiha clan girl smiled as well. She flung herself at her friend even as the Uchiha guards suddenly screamed.

"NO!" and yet before she could wrap her arms around her, Mikoto jumped to the side, making her stumble on the ground as she winced in pain.

"Ouch," she grunted as she rubbed her chin, and Mikoto chuckled.

"How many times have I told you to be more careful?" Mikoto admonished her, and she offered her a hand as Kushina complained.

"I would have been fine if you hadn't jumped away," she rebutted as she took her offered hand, as the Uchiha clan girl smiled, and helped her up and she finally noticed something different about her, or more importantly about her abdomen, which was protruding a bit, and she found her eyes lingering for too long as her brain tried to make sense of it

"Kushina, Kushina," she was so lost in thought that it did not register to her that her name was being called out when suddenly she looked up and shouted at the top of her lungs.

"You are pregnant!"

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"Hahaha," Mikoto chuckled as they both sat at the dinner table while she flushed in embarrassment at her earlier behavior, though that had done little to curb her excitement at seeing her friend.