Naruto Shippuden: girl from whirlpools

Our Stars

The Girl From Whirlpool

Chapter Eighteen: Our Stars

"Uzumaki Kushina? Yeah, I've not seen her in a while. Is it true she bailed without authorisation after all this stuff with Suna and the Kazekage kicked off? You know when people do that, it usually means they're up to no good."

"Chouza. It's Uzumaki. She's a pacifist."

"All the more suspicious."

"He's right, you know. It's suspicious. What if she's only a pacifist when it comes to fighting for our side? I mean she was always pretty adamant that this wasn't her village, and considering she's quick to rough up anyone around here who offends her – or is caught in an innocent misunderstanding – she was awfully timid about fighting the Waterfall forces because she said some of them were 'her people'. If anyone was going to turn traitor it was her."

"Inoichi."

"What, Shikaku?"

Shikaku looked pointedly at Minato who stood staring at them like a pale thundercloud. The Ino-Shika-Chou trio could practically see the electricity jumping through the air around him like a crackling aura. Suddenly Inoichi didn't seem quite so convinced of Kushina's disloyalty. "Or… you know… she's shy… easy to mistake for treachery."

When Minato spoke it was with the cold, flat tone that preceded a killing spree. "Thank you you've been extremely helpful." And he left them at the entrance of the training grounds and continued on his way to the Hokage tower.

They'd told him to go home and get a wholesome night's rest, but that was a little much to ask after the bombshell that had been dropped on his head. And how was he supposed to sleep soundly in a house whose emptiness howled, never allowing him to forget that there was someone important was missing? How was he supposed in a bed that, like everything else in the house, had been overturned in his absence by zealous ANBU agents who probably had no idea what they were looking for or if there was anything to find.

Minato hadn't been able to stay long. He couldn't bear to see all the things Kushina had worked so hard for, and cared for with such meticulous pride, scattered on the floor, bent, broken, and smashed by hands who didn't know or care about their worth. The only one who had escaped molestation was the single remaining guinea pig in the pen outside. Oblivious to the calamity that had befallen his caretaker, the little rodent was busily grazing when Minato went out to check on him. Kushina had evidently made no arrangements for someone to care for him. She'd told no one she was leaving. In fact, she appeared to have left most of her things.

Perhaps that was why Ren was convinced she'd been kidnapped. "Kushina has very special chakra," he had said in the Hokage's office when Minato and Sakumo returned from Suna. "The village has done its best to protect that fact, but it's possible one of our enemies has learned how valuable she is and taken her."

The Hokage was willing to entertain that possibility, which was why he had permitted Ren to mount a rescue mission with eyes on Kumo; usually when people of extraordinary abilities were abducted, Kumo nin were behind it, and they apparently specialised in taking people with Kushina's chakra.

"But what's so special about Kushina's chakra?" Minato had asked. He'd never noticed anything strange about her abilities. He knew her nature was 'wind', like his, and that even as a young genin she'd shown she could inject a tremendous amount of energy into her techniques, which he had always put down to a lack of control. It was slightly unusual, but not so strange that he would expect any village would covet her.

And the Hokage had looked at him with deep regret. "You're not cleared to know much more than that we must pull together and find this girl, as much for our safety as for hers."