Chapter 54 - Next Morning

It was six o'clock in the morning. The sun was rising, illuminating the Hidden Leaf Village with a carefree atmosphere. The birds were chirping, there was a layer of dew covering the grass. In this peaceful environment, Ino and her parents endless conversation broke the tranquility.

After returning from the fight against Kaguya, Chojusen had a chance to explain himself to her parents. However, after he left, Ino's parents wanted to know more about her experiences in those five years training in Chojusen's personal dimension. Even, when Ino condensed all the important events that took place while she was training, it still took her a couple days to finish recounting everything.

When she finally finished her story, concluding it with the events of the day before she and Karin were given the day to spend at home, before the Chunin Exams, her parents would not stop requesting for her to confirm that she was indeed seventeen, that she was not forced by Chojusen, and that they truly loved each other. She obviously back Chojusen up, and at long last was able to leave her house.

Finally free from this endless interrogation, Ino left her house to go pick up Karin. They were both given promotions to Jonin Rank because of their merits pushing back one of the fronts before Pain's attack. Now that they were Jonin they would be assigned missions by Minato every once in a while, so she wanted to pick up Karin to go check if there was anything for them to do.

When Ino reached Karin's house, she found that Karin was finishing a similar conversation her mom. However, unlike the deadly serious conversation she had with her parents, Karin's mom was more like a gossiping school girl, excited at every twist and turn to Karin's narration of the events back when they trained.

Karin's mom didn't really mind Chojusen's advance on her daughter when she though they were twelve, so now knowing that they were actually a couple seventeen-year-olds when they did the deed, didn't really cause any change to how she saw Chojusen. However, like Ino's parent's she asked Karin to confirm that Chojusen didn't force her and that they truly cared about each other.

Karin obviously said that Chojusen didn't force her, in fact, remembering the scene caused her to blurt out some of the more explicit details of their first time. When Karin let it slip that it was her who made the first move, Karin's mom gave her an over-the-top thumbs up. Somehow, she said "Gude jop!" in half broken English.

Karin was pulled out of this awkward interaction by Ino and the two then went over to pick up Chojusen. Chojusen might me a half god Immortal Sage to the whole ninja world, but to Ino and Karin, he was just their hubby. So, when they got to his house, they called out to Chojusen and announced their arrival. Getting no response was odd, as they knew that Chojusen didn't sleep, and Karin could tell that was in his house with her sensor abilities. However, she found that right next to Chojusen was Kaguya's energy signature.

Karin obviously concerned, she knew that Kaguya became an ally after the battle, but seeing someone so powerful so close to Chojusen, caused all sorts of alarms to sound off in her head. Now, with her sensing abilities, she could only see other people's chakra and chakra signatures; not their bodies or the situation around them.

She ran up the stairs and burst through Chojusen's room. The sight before her stunned her into a pseudo-petrified state. Chojusen was sleeping on the floor, completely naked, with his arms and legs outstretched. On top of the left side of his body, there lay the pale white body of Kaguya, still wearing only her black lingerie, hugging onto Chojusen as if he were a body pillow.

Ino ran up the stairs and stopped outside of Chojusen's bedroom as she was concerned about Karin's random burst of activity. She was also stunned to see what Chojusen and Kaguya had been up to last night.

At this point, all the noise of Ino and Karin running in his house and bursting through his door had woken up Chojusen and Kaguya. Chojusen yawned and stretched himself quite lazily, while Kaguya tried to hide from Karin and Ino with Chojusen's bed covers. She didn't want this to be how she faced Karin for the first time after the fight; having almost killed her, made her feel immense guilt, especially now that she had tasted her boyfriend…

Chojusen wasn't too worried about this situation. He knew that Karin and Ino would not mind Kaguya after knowing more about her. But, right now he had some explaining to do.

Karin wasn't even the first person to lash out at Chojusen, it was Ino who said "Cho-ju-sen! What is the meaning of this? I can't believe you… you and her! After what she did… she almost killed Karin!"

After all those years training together, Ino and Karin were as close as siblings. Ino had taken more offense to Chojusen sleeping with Kaguya than Karin herself.

Chojusen said "Before, I let her tell you her story, I need both of you to come here. I want you show you something."

Ino was still bubbling with wrath, but her subconscious deeply wanted to believe that Chojusen had something to redeem himself. She and Karin both walked next to him, which made Kaguya try to scurry away from the situation.

Chojusen turned to Kaguya and said "Stop! Come back, you haven't done anything wrong… After last night I've also fallen for you, so if we're to continue our relationship, you need to be on good terms with my other partners."

Kaguya was still deeply ashamed, but for the sake of staying together with Chojusen, she reluctantly came back. Still, she didn't dare to look at Ino or Karin in the eyes.

Chojusen turned back to Ino and Karin to told them to take his hands. The compiled, and upon coming into contact, Chojusen transferred his view of the world to them with his Chaos and Yin law principles. He activated his Essence Sensing and the two girls could now see Kaguya's emotions manifesting in corporeal world.

Kaguya's soul was immensely powerful, so all the girls could see was an endless sea of purple. The purple color would darken every time Kaguya mistakenly made eye contact with Karin; it was safe to say this purple color was a mix between regret and shame.

Chojusen said "Just tell them how you really feel. With my ability they will know that you are being sincere."

Kaguya said "Chojusen… is my new world. I-I would do anything for him. He's already save me twice and after last night..." She stopped talking about how she saw Chojusen and began to seek forgiveness from Karin. She said "I… I'm truly sorry about what I did. Even though I can't do anything to make up for my past mistakes, I can promise to never make that mistake again."

As Kaguya spoke, her purple aura changed to a white light that pulsed harder the further into her words she went. This was the white glow of sincerity, manifesting at the highest level. The love in her words which was directed at Chojusen was expressed in a pink light as well.

After that, Kaguya recounted her story once again. After hearing about Black Zetsu and the result of eating the chakra fruit, Karin and Ino started to feel pity for Kaguya. They couldn't imagine how she managed to live for so long without going insane from all the negative emotions crashing around in her soul.

After listening to her story and knowing how she felt about Chojusen, both Ino and Karin accepted her as being a fellow partner. Even though they accepted her, they would need some time to bond and truly care for each other on the same level as Ino and Karin's relationship. With all the drama out of the way, Chojusen created some clothes for himself and Kaguya and the group of four left Chojusen's house to go see Minato.

In the Hokage Tower, Minato had just arrived to start another day managing the village. He was expecting Chojusen today to discuss what he planned on doing. When Chojusen arrived, his entourage of beauties was not expected; especially Kaguya. Minato said "Morning..."

Everyone returned the greeting, and he said "So… Where do we go from here?"

Chojusen said "What do you mean?"

"What do you plan to do now that everyone fears your strength."

"Uh… I don't know, to keep training with my friends or something."

Minato gave Chojusen an odd look and said "Training? Why train when you're already so strong? You could unite the world with your strength alone..."

"The training never ends… Even I'm not the strongest thing this world can support, so I'll keep training in case I ever need to use my power. As for uniting the world… What good would that do? Sure, they might agree to all our terms and act like there's peace, but there will always be those scheming for power, looking for loopholes to exploit. If you wanted to talk me into joining all the villages together to make one super village to rule, I'll have to refuse."

"So, we keep the other villages around?"

"Yeah, just make sure they pay some reparations for trying to invade and try to start working together to expand. This world has over 500 million square kilometers to explore. It's sad to see that humanity has less than a tenth of a percent conquered..."