Swirling Chaos Ch. 3 (Naruto) (Patreon)

A/N: Meet the parents. Well, a parent and a half.

-x-X-x-

The Eight Trigrams Sealing Style. Also known as the Eight Sign Seal and the Eight Trigram Divination Seal Spell Formula. It was a derivation of the Four Symbols Seal, specifically a stacking of two different Four Symbols Seal to allow for the sealed entity’s chakra to merge with the person they’ve been sealed within. It was a Fuuinjutsu created by the Uzumaki Clan, intended to encourage tailed beasts to aid their jinchuriki, as the more chakra they provided, the weaker the seal would become, thus bettering their chance at freedom.

This one specifically was one applied to Naruto on the day of his birth by his father, Minato Namikaze. Thankfully, it was essentially identical to the one his older self had dealt with in the alternate timeline. The only difference was his mother’s missing chakra imprint, so modifying it was actually quite easy. All he and Kurama had to do was feed their chakra into it, weakening the seal even as it was also strengthened.

Naruto didn’t want to let Kurama out… luckily, she didn’t want to be let out either. They, the two of them, had been through a lot together. To separate now… it was unthinkable. Instead, Naruto reworks the seal into something stronger, something… better. At least for them anyways. It wasn’t the kind of thing that Naruto would suggest for every tailed beast and jinchuriki pair, not by a long shot. But for him and Kurama? It was perfect.

Now, technically Minato’s chakra imprint was supposed to trigger the first time Kurama got close to ‘tricking’ Naruto into removing the seal. Technically, what he was doing right now would have counted if he were going about things in a more ham-fisted manner. As it is, he’s not that stupid or that reckless. He’s more than capable of modifying his father’s seal without ever summoning the shade of his father designed to stop him from going too far.

Which is probably why Kurama lets out a noise of irritation, confusion, and disbelief when Naruto triggers the imprint anyways after he’s done.

“… Foolish brat…”

Naruto just smiles softly, turning as Minato appears behind him. Except, it’s not really his father. The Fourth Hokage is gone and nothing short of some seriously dark shit was bringing Minato back to this world. In this case, this is just a chakra imprint. Limited in scope. Not made for much beyond his purpose. He has a kind, warm smile on his face as he places a hand on Naruto’s shoulder.

“Naruto. You’ve-!”

And then the chakra imprint derails itself and just stares at Naruto for a moment in blatant confusion. In response, the most unpredictable ninja in all of Konoha offers a sheepish smile in response.

“Hang on! You’re older than me!”

This was indeed the case. In this inner world, Naruto shows his true chronological age. He’s not silly enough to necessarily claim that his two selves’ ages stack on top of each other. While there were tons of moments where their experiences split, at the end of the day, they were still versions of the same person. But his father, Minato Namikaze… had died at the tender age of twenty-four.

Naruto wished that he could say that was unusual, but the truth was, it wasn’t at all surprising. Their world was a treacherous one, and someone like the Third Hokage lasting as long as he had was far more unusual compared to Minato dying young. By comparison, Naruto reaching three decades was also rather surprising, especially considering what the world had been dealing with by the end of it all.

Rather than answer the incredulous chakra imprint, Naruto leans forward and hugs his father close. It’s not really his father, and he has no true desire to search for the limits of the fragment’s capacity for conversation. In the end, Naruto was being selfish here, so it was best to keep this short.

“You don’t have to worry dad. Everything is going to be okay. I’m not going to fail this time around, no matter how different this world might be.”

Without the proper information, one might call Naruto crazy for what he’d just said. But the chakra imprint betrays its inhumanity by ignoring the insanity of his words and instead turning its attention to the seal.

“Naruto, what have you done?”

This was its purpose. To protect him from Kurama. But he didn’t need that protection anymore. And so, Naruto lets out an exhale… and then inhales. The fragment doesn’t feel anything, of course. One moment, the chakra imprint is being hugged. The next, Naruto has assimilated his father’s chakra into himself. It’s much easier to do so then the assimilation that’s still ongoing between his two selves, though that’s rapidly nearing completion as well. At the same time… it’s not easy. Saying goodbye again.

“Tch. You know that wasn’t actually him, right? I don’t know why you torture yourself like that?”

Shaking his head, Naruto gives Kurama a watery smile.

“I know. And… because I had to. To remind myself what’s at stake. What we’re fighting for.”

Between the two of them, the massive bars of Kurama’s cage have begun morphing. Right before his eyes, they transform into something smaller. Naruto can’t help but smile as Kurama’s cage becomes a copy of their little hut together on that beach in his older self’s last timeline. The door opens and Kurama steps out in all of her foxy glory, stalking forward with visible intent.

Naruto’s smile morphs into a grin, and he spreads his arms wide, fully intending to welcome her… only for both of them to pause as they sense something at the exact same time. Kurama rolls her eyes, even as Naruto furrows his brow.

“Rain check.”

With that, he finds himself pushed out of his inner world a moment later, opening his eyes back in the real world just in time for the door to his bedroom to burst open and admit the natural disaster that he and Kurama had each felt rapidly approaching his location in the real world. It’s immediately obvious what happened. Kushina Uzumaki, like many of the Uzumaki Clan, was a natural Chakra Sensor. More than that, she was very in tune with both her son’s chakra… AND the chakra of the tailed beast she’d carried herself for a good solid portion of her life.

That doesn’t stop Naruto from freezing up at the sight of his mother, standing there looking both furious and panicked while wearing the full regalia of Konoha’s Hokage. His mom, the Fifth Hokage, had clearly rushed all the way from her tower to their compound, no doubt sensing that someone was messing with Naruto’s seal.

“N-Naruto. You-!”

Of course, when she arrives to find JUST Naruto sitting there on his bed and no one else around, the red head visibly starts to calm down. That’s surprising to his older self, who learned from friends that Kushina was once known as the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero. Of course, his younger self is used to a more… measured Kushina. A Kushina who has matured and is capable of holding back her legendary temper in all but the most extreme cases.

Naturally, just because she’s not about to fly off the handle, doesn’t mean Kushina is fully calmed down. Rather, the moment she ascertains beyond a shadow of a doubt that there’s no enemy ninja in the room with him, the Fifth Hokage rushes up to him, landing on the bed and yanking his sleep top up to show off his belly.

“Sorry sweetie, but mama needs to check on this. She felt fluctuations from halfway across the village in the seal!”

Naruto remains frozen in silence, even as his mom frantically summons the seal into being and begins looking it over. After all, Minato might have been the one to apply it, but it was still Fuuinjutsu belonging to the Uzumaki Clan at the end of the day. Kushina was no slouch when it came to sealing, as one half of his memories was quick to provide evidence for.

Honestly, he shouldn’t be this shocked by her appearance. It’s not like this is the first time Naruto has seen Kushina in the flesh, nor is it the first time he’s seen her in her Hokage Hat and Robe. His younger self has gotten an entire life of memories with his mother, and Naruto can call upon those memories at a moment’s notice, as well as feel the deep and everlasting love he has for his mom welling up inside of him.

But at the same time, the assimilation was not yet complete. And not only had his older self never gotten to know his mother properly, he also hadn’t had any human contact in… quite some time. Sexual activity? Sure, with Kurama of course. But human touch? Human interaction? Older Naruto was woefully starved of those things.

“What the… how did this… what the fuck happened?”

Meanwhile, poor Kushina is looking over the modifications he’s made to his seal with increasing bafflement. She understands what he’s done immediately of course, but what she doesn’t comprehend is the purpose of the changes, not at first anyways. But then to be fair, the first time around, when his older self had altered his original seal in the previous timeline, Naruto hadn’t even known what was going to happen. He’d been flying by the seat of his pants then, and he only knew what the end result would be now because of that original trial and error.

“It’s stable. But… to what end?”

Thus, it was perfectly understandable why Kushina didn’t get what was going on. Understanding and comprehending were two different things, and sometimes you needed to see it with your own eyes before you could truly comprehend what was right in front of your face. Naruto had every intention of easing his mother into things slowly. But you know what they say about intentions.

“To this end, girl.”

Standing in the doorway to his bedroom, leaning against the frame, Kurama cackles as Kushina whips around in shock at the sound of her voice and her sudden appearance. But then to be fair, to a chakra sensor like Kushina, it would be shocking. Kurama wasn’t ‘there’ in the normal sense that a chakra sensor could see. She was still bound to Naruto after all, and his own chakra completely overshadowed hers, even as they mixed together, a perfect mixture of ying and yang.

Naruto opens his mouth to explain, when his mother surprises him.

“You!”

In an instant, Kushina’s Chakra Chains, her signature ability, are out. At the same time, the Fifth Hokage’s Killing Intent fills the room. Naruto can’t help the way his eyes widen. He’s alarmed and impressed in equal measure. His mom’s strength was one thing. But her ability to see underneath the underneath, to look past HIS chakra and recognize Kurama for who she really was… THAT was impressive.

Kurama, meanwhile, just flashes her pearly white teeth and leans forward a bit, her canines all but gnashing together.

“Me.”

The sexy kitsune isn’t going to start the fight, but she’s ready for one. Kushina, meanwhile, has clearly reached the end of her rope. Before she can attack however, Naruto intercedes, grabbing his mom by her wrists.

“Mom… please, it’s okay.”

The look of wide-eyed shock that Kushina gives him causes Naruto to wince.

“O-Okay? Naruto, the Nine-Tailed Fox is outside of the seal! I don’t care what form it’s taken, the last time this happened, Konoha suffered greatly and your father gave his life to stop it! I nearly lost mine in the process too!”

Naruto just shakes his head.

“That wasn’t Kurama’s fault. She was controlled. We’ve been talking… and we’ve worked things out. I modified dad’s seal myself. Everything is okay, you yourself said it’s stable, right?”

Eyes flicking down to his stomach, Kushina lets out a strangled noise as he throws her own words back at her. For a long moment, Kushina seems to struggle with herself, but Naruto refuses to release her wrists. He’s not crushing them in his grasp or anything like that, but at the same time, he doesn’t want her to do anything she’ll regret.

To Kurama’s credit, she also backs off as soon as Naruto has Kushina’s attention on him. The MILFy Kitsune leans back and drops her aggressive posture, crossing her arms over her chest and watching carefully. For a long moment, Kushina is quiet. Finally though, she asks the question Naruto has been expecting her to ask.

“How? How did you manage to modify the seal all on your own, Naruto? You’ve never shown interest for the Sealing Arts before…”

Naruto winces a little at that, reinterpreting ‘interest’ as ‘aptitude’. His younger self HAD tried to get into Fuuinjutsu a couple of times, but it had never worked out. He was as much of a hyperactive knucklehead in this world as he was in the last, regardless of his early life being much happier and filled with love and affection.

That said, Naruto was going to have to lie to his mother. There was no other way.

“I snuck into your study, mom. I used your notes as well as dad’s and I came up with it myself.”

Technically, the lie even had the benefit of being partially true. After all, this timeline’s Naruto HAD snuck into Kushina’s study all the time. And from the unsurprised look on his mother’s face, she was well aware of that ‘sneaking’ too. However, the impressed look in her eyes makes it clear that Kushina didn’t actually expect Naruto to be able to make heads or tails of what he’d gotten his hands on. Not without her help anyways.

She was right… until now. Before his older self had shown up and the two had begun mixing together, his younger self hadn’t understood most of what he’d read in Kushina’s study. Things were different now though. Things were very different.

“… I see. So you went behind my back and performed a dangerous modification to your own seal, Naruto.”

The warning tone in Kushina’s voice makes him blanch a little. Maybe he’d be seeing the return of the Red Hot Habanero after all, heh. However, before she can truly blow up, the Fifth Hokage suddenly looks distracted.

“… Is this why you’ve been denying all of your offers for apprenticeship and insisting on staying at the Academy to do things normally? Is it because you wanted the free time to work on this?”

Naruto blinks at his mother’s question, quickly noting both the hope in her voice and what she was talking about. Namely, his younger self had refused to take any of the easier paths in front of him, and had instead stuck with the Academy despite not just Kushina but also Auntie Mikoto offering him an apprenticeship under them.

It seemed Kushina thought that the reason he’d done this wasn’t because he wanted to make his own path, but because he wanted to skulk around behind her back. And now she was semi-offering that apprenticeship again in a tentative fashion in the hopes that he might be interested after all.

The assimilation must almost be complete, because Naruto only has to think about it for a moment. Then, he opens his mouth to answer her.