Back in Uzushio, Naruto and his daughters stood before a large seal array, marveling at its sheer size. It stretched as far as the eye could see in either direction, absolutely dwarfing any other they'd seen before. Careful not to get too close, they took a closer look and then Naruto dropped to one knee. He performed a basic scan and was immediately assaulted with a strange tingling sensation. A loud hum blurred out everything else for a moment and then it faded. The seal flashed white in an instant, before returning to normal, as if nothing had happened.
"Daddy, are you okay?" Harja looked at him with concern. She saw him stagger a bit upon scanning the seal and immediately panicked, assuming that the boobytrap function had been triggered. That flash didn't help matters in the slightest.
"I'm fine, honey," Naruto assured. "It was just scanning me."
He was lucky that the seal didn't sense him with any negative intent. It would have stopped his heart on the spot otherwise. But, he and his girls were fortunately here for completely innocent reasons, so they had nothing to worry about, so long as they were careful not to trigger any… less discriminate seals by accident.
Once he was finished being scanned the second layer of the seal powered down. Turning to his daughters, he addressed them. "Alright, girls, line up," he said, "Time for a bit of a crash course in advanced Fuinjutsu."
Harja, Susan and Hana all looked at him with expectant eyes as they did just that.
Naruto smiled and nodded, standing up and pacing in a manner similar to a drill instructor. "Alright, as I've said before, this seal will scan your intentions when you try to unlock it. Don't panic, it won't hurt you. I will show you the steps in doing so and the three of you three will be the ones to carry it out as Daddy's first official lesson in the sealing arts. Understood?"
"Okay Daddy!" Hana, Susan, and Harja all said at the same time. The girls were very eager to have their first lesson in advanged fuinjutsu and Harja, being the eldest of the three daughters, stepped forward first as she wanted to lead by example.
Naruto smiled at her, ruffling the girl's hair. "Alright," he said, "Let's start from the beginning."
----
Back in Morris, one hour later, Clarice sat on one of the hospital beds as Shizune gave her a checkup. Sakura was tending to Sarada at the moment and Tsunade was passed out in the corner. There was plenty of sake bottles on the desk, which explained why Tsunade was passed out in the corner. Then again this may have been Tsunade on her break.
To be fair, she needed one.
Miata, meanwhile stared oddly at the glowing hands on her Mama, curious as to how the technique Shizune was using worked.
"Looks like the little guy's doing just fine," the medic chirped. "It shouldn't be long before you come to term. I'd say just shy of a month, now… give or take a week or so. You can never tell with this kind of thing," Shizune chuckled tiredly. "In short the baby will pop out when he says he's ready."
Clarice giggled at that. Not long ago, Tsunade had informed her that she'd have a son.
Miata's eyes looked at Clarice's tummy with wide eyed curiosity. "I have a brother, mama, papa?" she asked.
"Yes you do," Naruto replied with a grin. Then he reached out for her as he added, "If you're worried that we'll ignore you, then you have nothing to worry about. We will still love you, honey."
Miata leaned into his hand and let the clone ruffle her hair with a giggle, before looking at Clarice's swollen belly once more. She placed a hand on it and gasped in surprise when she felt the baby kick. She pulled her hand away from Clarice's tummy out of sheer reflex and looked between her hand and Clarice's belly in perplexment.
"You felt it, didn't you," Clarice said, giggling at the surprised look on the girl's face. "That was your little brother."
"Does it feel weird when he moves around like that?" Miata asked, an adorable, childish curiosity in her silver eyes.
"Yes. It does feel weird. In a good sort of way." Clarice said with a loving smile and she put Miata's hand back on her swollen belly, and put her hand on top of it. "He doesn't do it often though. Sometimes, it's not pleasant, because he kicks my stomach or something, but that can't be helped."
"How come?" Miawa pouted in concern upon hearing that.
"He's still in Mama's tummy," Clarice replied with a giggle, ruffling Miata's hair "He's not old enough to know it hurts and there isn't a whole lot of room to move around in there."
"Not to mention he doesn't know any better." Naruto added with a smile. "Everyone was like that at one point or other. Even you, Miata."
"You too?"
"Yes," Naruto grinned at her, "even me. Especially me, now that I think back on it."
"Oh, you're just being hard on yourself, honey," Clarice giggled.
Naruto shrugged. "Maybe, but I was a bit of a brat when I was younger. Granted I never had any parents growing up, but now that I look back, I was a brat - I mainly did it to get attention, any type of attention."
"Well, now you can have all the attention you could possibly want," Clarice giggled lewdly, the innuendo flying right over Miata's head as the brunette gave Naruto a peck on the cheek. Naruto chuckled at that and returned her affectionate kiss with one of his own. Then he snuggled up against her and offered Miata to snuggle up beside him on the bed, with Clarice. Miata's expression brightened considerably and she plopped down beside her papa and snuggled up against him with a small, but happy smile.
----
Blazing through the hand seals Daddy taught them, Harja, Hana, and Susan slammed their hands down on the parts of the seal that he pointed out to them. They were immediately assaulted with a strange tingling sensation as a loud hum blurred out everything else for a moment and then it faded. The seal flashed white in an instant, before returning to normal, as if nothing had happened.
They were worried for a moment, but then, the seal started to move. That caught the girls by surprise. When it stopped moving and its configuration completely changed, it flashed again before returning to normal.
Naruto flashed through his own set of hand seals to scan it and if flashed again, automatically checking his intentions, but left him alone. "Measure twice, cut once, as the old saying goes…" He let out a chuckle before turning to his kids and giving them a thumbs up. "Good job, you three!"
Hana, Susan, and Harja all beamed at him as they practically oozed joy at being praised, drawing a chuckle from their father.
"Alright," he.said, creating a few clones to sout ahead. "Now that we have this seal outta the way, we can see what lies beyond it.
"What about Mommy and the others?" Hana asked.
"It's been shut down for good. It won't hurt them," Naruto informed. "They'll be safe getting past it, but I wanna make sure there's nothing particularly nasty waiting for them in the inner village."
"That makes sense," Susan commented with an accepting nod.
"Oh!" Naruto perked up, upon receiving the memories of a clone. "There's a relatively intact building not too far from here," he pointed out. We can camp out in there after we've cleaned it up. Follow me."
With that, Naruto, Hana, Susan, and Harja all made their way to the building in question. But not before Naruto made a shadow clone to get the other women to follow after them.
It was a fairly big building; a story building with a tower, and like the memory of his clone showed it was relatively intact. This would be a good base of operations for when they're exploring the island.
----
Meanwhile, back in morris, someone was not having quite as good a day. After passing Sarada on over to Sasuke, Sakura decided she needed to ask Naruto something, but couldn't find a clone. So she decided to check the Don Jon, remembering that it was his bedroom and the highest room in the castle. So, that seemed like that was a good place to start.
Unfortunately, she found one…
As soon as Sakura opened the door, she regretted everything. On the bed, held up by her wrists, Sylvia was being pounded within an inch of her life from behind. She gurgled pathetically as the doppelganger's massive, throbbing dick rammed the entrance to her womb. The clone stood behind her, letting the young woman lean against the edge of his bed as he had his way with her.
Sakura was behind them and the poor pinkette couldn't look away. The mating couple hadn't noticed her entry and thus, she had a front row seat to the Dead Last of the Academy thrusting one more time with a grunt blowing his load inside the trainee. Sakura's eyes were glued to the contracting nutsack emptying itself inside Sylvia's raw cunt. They just didn't stop! For what felt like an eternity, those damn things kept twitching, Sylvia's gasps signaling that she'd received yet another glob of baby batter… and another… and another! How much was he going to pump into this girl?!
Her answer came in the form of Naruto finally stopping and withdrawing with another grunt of exertion. As he did, what looked like a damn pint of semen started leaking out and forming a massive puddle on the hardwood floor.
"Fuuuuck, your cunts tight!" the clone groaned. "You just wouldn't let go of me!"
Poor Sylvia gurgled pathetically, now completely limp as she drifted off into unconsciousness.
Naruto chuckled warmly at that, reaching over and folding the blanket over to cover her up, only to feel the eyes on him and turned to see Sakura, her gaze now glued to his still-hard member.
And then, she fainted…
As the pinkette it the ground with a thud from sheer embarrassment and her brain's inability to process the shocking sight, Naruto sighed. "Well… shit."
Well… at least she didn't try to punch the living shit out of him. She's improving!
----
Sakura groaned as she returned to the land of the living some time later. What the hell just happened? Was she in a bed? The pinkette yelped and bolted upright, frantically looking around. She… was in her room, now. Sasuke was leaning against the wall; Sarada was snoozing happily in her crib; Cynthia was there as well, looking concerned as she insisted on being sent back to make sure everything was okay when her hubby informed him what happened; and a sheepish-looking, fully-clothed Naruto was standing behind the blonde.
"Oh, thank the gods," Naruto sighed. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd hurt yourself."
"To be fair, she would have deserved it." Sasuke casually pointed out. "She did walk into your room without knocking after all."
Poor Sakura turned beet red at that, thoroughly embarrassed. "S-sorry…"
"Eh, no harm, no foul," Naruto shrugged. "So I take it you needed something?"
"I… don't remember," Sakura muttered timidly. The utter shock she'd endured made her mind... go completely blank.
"It'll come to you sooner or later…" Cynthia assured. "Just make sure you knock first if you're looking for a clone. They tend to be… busy. That's what happens when a man has a harem."
"Duly noted," Sasuke chimed in, before addressing his wife. "You were going to ask about what Naruto was about this 'Mainland'."
"Y-yeah! That's right!" Sakura realized. "We're here because you are trying to ward off the Mainland from returning. Are you actually planning to head on over there, though?"
"I'd head over there, only if I am provoked," Naruto replied with a shrug. "They leave this continent alone, then we'll leave them alone. There's already a war raging over there that's been going on for centuries it seems. I doubt they'd want another party in the mix, but it's better to be safe than sorry. The Organization that was on this continent was cleary packing some psychos in their roster, so it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that their actual leader is worse."
"Naruto did give a spy who's working for the people fighting the Organization a warning." Cynthia added, "Basically, the warning was: provoke us and we will destroy you and your enemy."
The blond in question nodded at that and he crossed his arms. "I don't want to get involved in their petty war. And I think we can all agree that getting dragged into a war is not in our best interests."
They agreed wholeheartedly with him on that one. No one from the Elemental Nations wanted to get themselves involved in another war. One was enough. And the hybrids, Cynthia especially, were now used to living in peace and would like to keep it that way. They didn't fancy taking up their sword and risk their life to kill bandits anymore. Granted, there are some that needed to be taken care of but Naruto's been cleaning house so outlaws setting up camp anywhere close to the Dragonspine mountains was becoming less and less likely.
Chronos and Soleil's groups had also dealt with the remaining youma last week with Isley's help, so they were not an issue, anymore. That massive horde was most of them, as it turned out, so the few-dozen or so stragglers were easily cleared up in about four days before they could cause any real harm, thanks to Naruto's 'pet dragon' providing transportation. Maybe they can deal with the bandits, too? It would give them something to do, after all.
Filing those thoughts away for later, Cynthia addressed her hubby. "It's not," she agreed. Then her tone turned sickly-sweet as she continued. "But, if they are dumb enough to threaten my babies, I will have their heads on a platter by week's end."
"You and me both, honey," Naruto chuckled ominously, hugging her from behind. "Nothing would be left of them if I ever got my hands on them."
"Charming as that is," Sakura chimed in nervously, "I'll see what I can do to make sure it's unnecessary."
"Please and thank you~!" Naruto and Cynthia both chirped at the same time, with wide grins on their faces.
"That aside," Sasuke said, "Any word on the group that went to Uzushio?"
"Naruto's having our first born daughters help him with a few of the remaining seals still protecting the island," Cynthia replied. "They've just set up camp in a relatively intact building. They should be done with clearing them out within the next couple of days or so."
"After that," Naruto added. "We can start the restoration. That should take a few weeks, seeing as how the a lotta buildings can still be restored. We still have yet to see the main compound, so that remains to be seen, but the maintenance seals in the village are still working, miraculously, so they've reduced the workload needed to patch a lot of it up."
"Sounds like good news to me," Cynthia chirped. "I'd better get back to the real Naruto now, seeing as how everything's okay."
The Naruto clone chuckled and gave her a peck on the lips, before producing a clone of his own. As Cynthia latched onto the new doppelganger, they were gone in a flash. Then, Naruto turned to Sasuke and Sakura before asking, "So, is there anything else you need?"
Sasuke shook his head, since he came a-running when he heard that Sakura's fainted. Learning how that happened was both embarrassing and hilarious, but the Uchiha hid it well. Then he looked at his wife, Sakura, and she shook her head no as well. That was all she wanted to know really; what his next move was and all that. She was satisfied, though it was worth noting that she would have rather avoided the circumstances that played out before her questions were answered.
"Alright," Naruto chirped, before turning to take his leave. "Have a good night, then, you two." With that, he was off to check on Sylvia.
Fortunately, she was still happily snoozing away, so he tucked her in properly and gave her a kiss goodnight.
----
Back in Uzushio, the original Naruto and his group had just finished setting up camp and had rested up well enough. Needless to say, his daughters found what happened back home to be much more amusing than they should have, though they were at least polite enough to keep it to themselves.
While they were resting Naruto's clones had scouted the area and then some and found all of the remaining seals, active and inactive, on Uzushio. As expected, there were hundreds of the damn things. Luckily less than a couple-dozen were still active. One of the seals they did find to be still on, however, was a perimeter seal around what appeared to be the main Uzumaki Compound. If he wasn't mistaken, that was the location on one of Kakashi's maps, but it was hard to tell from all the damage and overgrowth where everything was. He'd have to go there to be sure, but the place did appear to be what he'd assumed.
He'd have to check that out as soon as that perimeter seal is down. He'll get a clone to do it if he's too busy. In the meantime he had to sort out through the many memories of his clones he was receiving through their dispelling.
"So, what's the plan, now, Daddy?" Harja asked, as she popped a squat next to him.
"What I came here to do: reclaim Uzushiogakure no Sato." the blond replied with a shrug. "We're well on our way towards doing that." He ruffled her hair with a grin before continuing. "There's another perimeter seal ahead of us, around what seems to be the main Uzumaki Clan compound. I'm gonna need you girls to help me, again. It looks like another multi-bloodlock, like the other one. It's smaller, but more potent, though, so I'll have to scan it for good measure, first."
Harja grinned widely, she was looking forward to it. "When can we set off?" she asked him.
"Later. I'm still sorting through the memories of my clones." Naruto answered her with a sigh. "I can't let myself get too distracted, otherwise I might end up making a mistake." Making the smallest mistake can have huge consequences - waiting until he gets these memories of his sorted out is the wisest thing he can do right now.
"Fair enough," Harja chirped. Then she scooted on over to sit next to him, then she leaned against her father with a peaceful smile. "I look forward to seeing this place restored and coming to visit whenever I get the opportunity."
"You're not staying?" The blond asked, looking at his daughter from the corner of his eye in surprise.
"Mommy wants me to stick around Raby Castle and help unify the church of the Twins with that of Rabona," Harja replied. "I'm also an acolyte of the Twins and need to complete my training, so I'll be sticking around Morris for a few years before moving to Raby… unless we can have a chapel added to the latter."
"I see." Well, that left a bitter feeling in his chest, knowing that one of his kids wasn't coming to stay. As much as he didn't want to part ways with her, he knew that day would come eventually. He didn't think it would be that soon.
Then again, Riful had voiced a desire to stay behind and ensure the clan had a second home to return to, just in case it was needed, and it made sense that she'd want to have her kids with her. They are just as much her babies as his, after all.
Harja could sense that her daddy was feeling a bit down about that, so she decided to let him know a little secret. "Y'know, I wanted to keep this a surprise, but I've been studying the Hiraishin," she said. "I'm a long way from actually figuring it out, but when I do, I'm gonna be able to visit anytime you want~!"
Naruto smiled widely at that as he felt pride welling up from inside of him. Well that, and he was glad that Harja was studying his father's -and in turn, the Second Hokage's - technique. Not only would she be a monster on the battlefield, but she would be able to go and see him anytime she wants.
"Well, that's good to know." he said with a wide grin and Harja giggled when she felt his hand ruffle her hair. "It's nice to hear that you're not going to up and abandon me,"
"I would never abandon you," The half-awakened promised.
"Good. I'll hold you to that," he told her. Then Naruto stretched and asked, "So, I'm pretty sure you're eager to learn more about Fuinjutsu; you still got your ink, scrolls and brushes on you right?"
Harja perked up at that and she looked up at him with an excited glint in her eyes, "Yep, yep! I still do! I want to learn more!" she answered with a lot of enthusiasm. She wanted to learn the branch of ninjutsu that made the original Uzumaki Clan so feared after all, and fuinjutsu was integrated into the family.
"Very good. You're going to need that enthusiasm. It took me two-and-a-half-years to become a journeyman level fuinjutsu user, and another year-and-a-half to become a fuinjutsu master."
"How many ranks in fuinjutsu are there?" Harja asked, she was a little curious about this.
Naruto frowned thoughtfully as he thought back on what Jiraiya had told him all those years ago. "There's three: Apprentice, Journeyman, and Master." the blond started as he looked down at his eldest daughter, "Right now, you, Hana, and Susan are at the Apprentice rank. And you have a long way to go to reach the Master rank. The seals here in Uzushio, were made by the best Fuinjutsu users in history and I would never let you three go anywhere near them… but you're also the only ones here that have Uzumaki blood in them so exceptions had to be made." Then he smiled and said conclusively, "But I didn't mind it to be honest; you got to learn something and see how a master level Fuinjutsu worked - so you learned a couple of things."
Harja beamed at that. She was glad to help. It honestly felt good to be able to help her Daddy.
It didn't take long for her to whip out her sealing kit, and then she gave Naruto an expectant look. "So what do you want me to try and make this time?" she asked. "Another sealing formula?"
Naruto shook his head. "No. Doing the same tag over and over again can get dull. So I'm going to have you do something different from that: an exploding tag."
"An exploding tag?" Colour her curious, she's never seen an exploding tag before, she didn't even know such a thing existed!
This was understandable, since Naruto never used any other types of seals than the ones he already showed. The Hiraishin, the simulation, teleportation, the barriers, privacy seals, and storage seals were the only ones he really ever used.
"Yep. An exploding tag. It's a little hard to put it into words, but, what it does is make things go boom."
"...Boom?" the deadpan was strong in this one.
"Let's put it this way, then," Naruto chuckled. "You know how a keg of alcohol likes to explode when you light it on fire?"
"No. Because I'm not that mad." Harja deadpanned.
"Okay… then another example; you know how I Kurama and Uncle Isobu blew up the Organization?"
"Yeah….?" Who doesn't know about that? Her aunties wouldn't shut up about it ever since it happened! And they described it in vivid detail too!
"Think of an exploding tag as a lesser version of that." Naruto explained. "It works very differently from Bijuudama, but the end result is the same. The explosion is much smaller, mind you; it's big enough to destroy a wagon, but it's still deadly, needless to say. They can kill entire platoons of soldiers, be used to engineer landslides, or even level a castle, if you have enough and know where to place them."
Though he did see a couple of shinobi use a more 'safe' version of an exploding tag. It's used to briefly blind, deafen and disorientate people though. It was like a… flash bang… or something like that. And there are more lethal versions of it too, granted he never saw them in use, but Kumo was known to have used a more deadlier version of exploding tags where one of them managed to make a big enough explosion to kill well over fifty Konoha-nin during the Third Shinobi World War.
They were never used again though… mainly because his dad took out the demolition squads single handedly and destroyed the tags themselves enmass whenever they were used. It's a shame too… they would have been extremely useful in the Fourth Shinobi World War.
It can't be too hard to recreate it, though; most 'innovations' to already existing fuinjutsu were made through experimentation and trial and error.
...And he likes to experiment and create new techniques. Maybe a few dedicated clones would get the job done?
Naruto chuckled as he saw Harja's eyes sparkle, quite literally at that. He ruffled her hair and said, "We're going to start things simple: all I want to see you do is make a small puff of smoke when it's used."
And just like that the Riful lookalike deflated. "A small puff?"
"Yes, a small puff…" he replied with a nod, then Naruto gave her a really flat look as he added, "that way any mistakes you make won't end up blowing in your face and accidentally take off your arms… or, y'know, kill the child you're carrying."
"Ohhhhhhhh…" Harja said in realization; right, she's pregnant with Daddy's child… she forgot to consider that. "Good call."
"You're smart, but tend to look over things… kinda like me." Naruto praised. "Let's get started, eh?"
"Okay!" And with that, an enthusiastic Harja got the ink, paper tag, and brush ready, listening to Naruto's instructions as he guided her on how to make the exploding tag.
----
Meanwhile, back in Morris's simulation, within the cabin Kaguya floated cross-legged in the air in contemplation. A clone sat on the ground before her, keeping an eye on the woman and making sure that she doesn't try to do anything troublesome. She may have been nerfed - a lot - by Himawari, but she's still a Goddess. And he still had complete control over the simulation so he could take away her limited amount of powers if he wanted. It was a good idea to be careful.
But as he looked at her, and how young she looked when compared to with her son Hagoromo, Naruto with overwhelming curiousity, couldn't help but ask, "So… out of curiosity... do you age?"
"I do not," Kaguya replied absently. "I am, after all, not human. Even if I was, my true form is locked away in that seal, which preserves me in the state I was in when I was imprisoned. Even that's not accounting for the Shinjuu fruit, which has the side effect of making one immortal."
"Huh… I guess that explains why Old Man Hagoromo was old as dirt when we met for the first time…" Naruto trailed off and added thoughtfully. "And why you're still so young, and good looking… you've had to be in your early 20s when you ate the Shinjuu fruit… at most."
"I was… roughly 215," Kaguya stated, "Days are longer on my homeworld, so I am unable to give you an exact estimate. Members of my Clan also mature at a slower rate than you humans… hybrids like my sons notwithstanding. Maturity-wise, I was in my late adolescence."
Naruto whistled. "For someone who's that old, you're still sexy~" he grinned, and with a chuckle he added, "That makes me wanna see you in that swimsuit again to be honest… or maybe naked~"
For the life of her, Kaguya couldn't help but blush. She expertly maintained her composure despite that, though. "Do that and I will find a way to hurt you." she threatened in a calm, even tone.
"You tried to kill me and make everyone into your personal White Zetsu army," Naruto pointed out with the same exact tone, "Not only that but your 'son' Black Zetsu was the main reason why the Shinobi World ended up the way it is. Embrassassing you is the least you can let me do… unless you're too proud for that?"
"Black Zetsu was trying to free me," Kaguya pointed out. "I am his mother. I'm sure your children would do anything necessary to free you if you were sealed away like I was. Also, the White Zetsus are to protect the world that I have claimed from my brethren. They are scouring all of existence to find me as we speak and it's only a matter of time before they come here."
"Oh, great…" Naruto muttered. "Fighting you was tough, now there's an entire clan after your head?"
"Yes," Kaguya replied gravely. "I am stronger than either of them are individually, but together, they could potentially kill me, despite my immorality."
Naruto stared at her with unblinking eyes as her words slowly registered. "....Well, fuck!" Naruto cursed; then he fell down on his back and buried his face in his palms, "Fighting you was hard! I can't imagine what it would be like to fight more people of your caliber! The Gods and Goddesses of this world fear you already!"
"That it will be like," Kaguya corrected and ignored what he said about the gods and goddesses, "They will come here eventually. I can tell." She shrugged. "Call it women's intuition, but I'm guessing they'll be here at some point in your lifetime."
"Crap! Crap, crap, crap!" Naruto took several deep breaths to calm himself down lest he panic. "Alright… I'll just have to come up with a game plan, just in case, then… I'm sure they can be beaten… somehow."
Kaguya scoffed at that, rolling her eyes. "Please, if you manage to achieve that, I will find a way to break out of the seal, just to be your next broodmare."
"...what?"
"You heard me," she replied. "But there is no way you could beat them."
Unbeknownst to the Rabbit Goddess, that… pressed a button. Naruto legitimately startled her with the most determined expression she'd ever seen in her long life. "Challenge accepted."
"...what?"
----
Thirty minutes later, back in Uzushio, the real Naruto felt a chill run up his spine… why did he get the feeling a clone of his just did something so utterly stupid?!
Harja, meanwhile, didn't notice her daddy's internal plight as she was completely focused on getting this right. It was her third attempt. The first one lit itself ablaze and the second glowed, but that was it… until it, too, burst into flames. The third time's the charm, right?
"Well, it's not blowing up in your face like mine did, so you're on the right track," Naruto said with optimistic approval after he got back into the zone. "Your inkwork is impressive for a beginner, I didn't see any any smudges. However, it's likely you got the formula wrong. I'm going to need to see the trigger once you make another exploding tag."
"Okay," Harja got herself another blank paper tag and got to work on carefully applying the seal formula to it in long, careful strokes. The pattern was quickly becoming second nature to the young woman as she painted away. A short moment later, she let out a sigh of relief upon seeing that the end product was pristine - not a single blotch, smudge, or unintended marking of any kind. Now, she just needed to see if she got the pattern right. With that in mind she handed the 'smoke' tag to her daddy for inspection.
He inspected the seal formula for any mistakes that she may have missed. And sure enough, he found one. "I found an… innovation."
"Um… Innovation? Don't you mean 'mistake'?" Harja was disappointed, and more than a little annoyed that she had made yet another mistake. But Daddy didn't call it that.
"No. It's an innovation." Naruto chuckled. "Sure it was unintentional, but you daughter of mine, created an entirely new seal. One that starts fire." He set the 'fire tag' down and pointed at a specific part of the formula. It was the 'trigger' to setting it off, and it had two 'arches' at the bottom of it that curved up and meeting back at the top… resembling a fire of sorts, "This right here is what's causing the fire. That would normally go straight down and nothing else. But you made a change to it that made it make fire. Jiraiya-Sensei's never seen anyone use this type of seal before, and there was no mention of a 'fire maker' tag in any records." Naruto gave his daughter a wide and proud grin and ruffled her hair affectionately. Then Harja let out a startled yelp when her father suddenly pulled her into a one armed hug. "You just created your very own seal and you're not even out of your apprenticeship yet! I'm SO proud!"
The poor thing was beet red, completely overwhelmed by what her daddy was saying, but immeasurably happy. She smiled brightly, hugging him back and purring loudly.
Off to the side, Cassandra and Miranda smiled at the father and daughter, looking forward to seeing their man and children interacting in such ways. Cynthia giggled and while Hana and Susan were admittedly jealous of Harja's achievement, they were proud of her as well.
It was also a very encouraging sight for the twins. If Harja was able to create her own seal on accident, then they were bound to learn how to do that shit on purpose, eventually! Of course, they would have to be careful when they go about it lest they cause an accident.
"Anyway, achievement notwithstanding, you still need to get a puff of smoke." Naruto said as he let Harja go. "So, get another blank tag and try again without the arches and curves on the trigger this time.."
"A-alright, Daddy," Harja replied, still needing a moment to calm herself. After a few deep breaths, she picked up another blank paper tag, got her brush and tried again.
The half-awakened hybrid drew the formula with long purposeful, yet careful strokes and she made damn sure not to make the same mistake as last time. Even if that mistake had inadvertently made a new type of seal. A short moment later, she was done and the end product was pristine; like the last time, there was not a single blotch, smudge, or unintended marking of any kind. She handed the 'smoke' tag to Naruto for inspection.
"Hmmm…" he said analytically; then after a moment he said, "It looks good. I'm going to get a clone to test it at a safe distance, just in case." Naruto told Harja, and he proceeded to do just that. A single kage bunshin appeared in a puff of smoke, took the paper tag from the original and jogged a safe enough distance away from the others.
He needn't have bothered in the end. A small amount of chakra was put into the tag and after a few seconds of waiting, a small puff of smoke shot out of it.
Naruto smiled. "Looks like you got it right this time." he grinned proudly and ruffled Harja's hair. "Good job, Harja!"
"Thank you, daddy!" Harja chirped.
"Now, let's do a few more," Naruto said, grabbing three more blank paper tags and set them down in front of the girl. "Your next challenge is to create three copies in a row that achieve the same effect. Pull that off, and we'll advance to the next level: making an actual exploding tag."
"Okay!" Her enthusiasm was contagious that was for sure. She dipped her brush into the ink and got to work on making three more exploding tags. Harja was careful and made damn sure that no mistake was made, and that the ink was not smudged in any way. After the first one was done, she slipped it aside for inspection and got to work on the second. And then she slipped that one aside for inspection once it was done and got to work on the third.
Naruto carefully looked them over one by one and once he had all three, the young father was impressed. "Alright, now it's time to see if you were able to pull off the same effect."
Naruto made another clone and handed him the paper tags. Once he took them the clone jogged to a safe enough distance so the possible explosion doesn't hurt anyone. He channeled come of his chakra into the formula and waited for a few seconds. He got a small puff of smoke. He did the same thing for the second paper tag, and got the same result. He did the same thing once more, for the third and final paper tag, and...
Harja squealed and clapped her hands together repeatedly with excitement after getting three out of three.
Naruto chuckled, ruffling her hair. "Nicely done," he praised. "That is three out of three. Now we can advance and get you to try making an actual exploding tag, this time."
Harja was very excited to hear that~!
"Settle down, my little demolitionist," Naruto teased. "These are going to be smaller explosions at first, before we advance to the bigger ones." He got another blank paper tag and set it on the ground in front of her. "The formula is going to be a little different this time around…"
----
Late the next morning, back in Morris, a Naruto clone found himself an interesting surprise as the Elder Priest of Rabona was apparently on the town's doorstep, looking to chat with Father Isaac. Fortunately, more than a few villagers were happy to help with that and guided his caravan to the chapel.
The caravan itself was heavily armed and armoured, but that came as no surprise. Naruto was well aware of the City of Rabona's superstitious attitudes towards his silver-eyed wives, though that appeared to have lessened up, thanks to Clare. His little harem was allowed to take shelter there for the night on the way to Nile, but were excessively tucked away from prying eyes during their visit.
Needless to say, he hadn't been back since, but Rabona herself apparently got herself busy in making that problem a thing of the past. They were still a bit wary, but old habits die hard, as the old saying goes. He could tell they'd warm up eventually, when given enough time.
Apparently, Riful of all people was expected for an appointment, later this afternoon, pertaining to the churches of Rabona and the Twins combining. It was a bit odd, he can admit that - he'd have thought Neideen would have been expected, or Sistina. Neideen because she's a literal Saint and Sistina because she can talk to the twin Goddesses...
Then again, they practically lived in the chapel unless they were getting nookie from their man, and Riful was among the wisest beings on the continent, so maybe that was why...? Naruto shrugged mentally, he wasn't a religious man by any means - even though he does have the eyes of Goddesses on him - so he'll let the whole religion thing be handed by the experts.
With that thought aside, he decided to check on a few things. Those poor Feeders, in particular, were getting lonely without 'Alpha' actually being there. It seemed like a good idea to start with them. So, he did just that…
----
A few minutes later, the clone found himself smiling warmly at the adorable sight before him. Having found the Feeders in Inonon's room, the girls in question here curled up around her as the Yamanaka petted Gaki while reading one of Naruto's books.
Luckily that book was not one of his adult ones. It was his autobiography, a book that told his rise from rags to fame. It didn't have everything that's happened to him in it though, some times were too personal for him to let others know of.
Naruto came closer and ruffled Inonon's hair, startling her as she raised her nose out of the book; when she saw who it was the blonde gave him a warm smile. "So, how are they fairing with the Boss being in Uzushio?" he asked.
"They're fine. A little lonely, but fine." the girl answered with a shrug, and she smiled down at Gaki who - along with the other eight Feeders - had taken up residence in her room. While Naruto was gone, she was Alpha. "They've taken a liking to me and practically live in here, at least for now."
"I guess that explains why the Boss or the others haven't seen them wandering around the castle often." The clone mused with a grin. "Have they been giving you any trouble?"
Still smiling, Inonon shook her head, "No, they've been on their best behavior."
Naruto leaned in and gave the blonde a peck on the forehead, drawing a heavy blush from Inonon. "That's good to hear. Thanks for keeping an eye on them." then he pulled back and looked at Gaki, Akkah, Rylee, Meru, Rose, Sonya, Mary, Freya, and Astrid with mock seriousness, "If you're bad girls, I just might have to spank the lot of you~"
The girls in question giggled as Astrid and Sonya nuzzled up to him. While they missed his scent they enjoyed the clone's warmth, especially when he petted them. And petted them he did; the clone enjoyed having them nuzzle against his palms.
"So, I'm going to be here to keep the Abyss Feeders company for a bit," the nine women in question all perked up at that, "whereabouts are you in the autobiography?" the Naruto clone asked as he took a seat on the edge of the bed.
"Just got to the part where you saved Nami, but this is my fifth time reading it," Inonon replied sheepishly. It was slightly embarrassing getting caught fangirling, but there wasn't much she could do about that.
The clone looked back at her with wide eyes at that. Then his eyes went back to normal as he chuckled, "I see." he scooted back on the bed a bit and asked, "So, Inonon, is it okay if ask you something?"
The blonde in question gave him a smile. "Go right, ahead."
The Naruto clone smiled back at her, "You wanna play 'doctor'?"
Inonon dropped the book in shock before frantically snatching it up before it could get damaged. Then, she giggled and gave him a shy but eager nod. "I take it I still need to avoid anything too risky?"
The clone looked at her as if she asked a dumb question. "Of course. You're still underage here." the clone reminded her.
"My next birthday couldn't come soon enough," Inonon giggled.
The Abyss Feeders looked between the two of them with curiosity. "D-D-Doc...tor?" Sonya rasped, she was still not used to talking and her vocal cords were underused still.
"It's a… very naughty game," Inonon giggled. "Don't tell anyone or Alpha will get in trouble, okay?"
Suddenly the Naruto clone went up in a puff of smoke, making poor Astrid and Sonya jump out of their skins in surprise. And when the smoke dispersed in the air, a younger 13-year-old Naruto was there and was smiling both apologetically and sheepishly.
Then the blond quickly got in the act of acting like an embarrassed, and nervous, young boy, "U-Um, Doctor Inonon… I-I have another problem, c-can you… t-take a look at it again?" he looked at Astrid, Sonya, Gaki, Akkah, Meru, Mary, Rylee, Freya, and Rose, "M-Maybe the nurses can help out?"
Inonon giggled impishly at that as the Feeders all shared looks of curiosity, then the blonde quickly got into the role of a concerned Doctor and said, "Of course!" as she carefully and slowly pulled further along the bed before laying him down on it. "I'll take good care of you."
Naruto felt his pants tighten upon hearing that. Then Inonon made a show of doing a diagnostic by 'scanning' him for any ailments with her hand hovering above him. She started with his head first, then she slowly trailed her hand down his body.
"It would appear you have some pressure built up in your groin, again." Inonon said analytically, once she reached there, "We're going to have to ease that pressure before it's too late to cure."
"A-alright," Naruto replied, doing his best to sound nervous.
"Now, now," Inonon cooed, "No need to be shy. I said I'd take good care of you, didn't I~?" Wasting no time, her hands went straight to his trousers and she added, "Now let's get these out of the way so I can treat you, okay?"
And then she slipped her digits under the waistline of his trousers and in one fell swoop, Inonon firmly yanked his trousers and underwear down his legs. His 9 inch cock, sprang up and slapped against his abdomen once it was free and the 9 Abyss Feeders gasped as they stared at the thick slab of meat and the equally large ballsack. Even in this younger form, it was still huge!
"Yes, this is most definitely the root of your problem," Inonon said with absolute confidence in her voice, and the huge, veiny cock throbbed menacingly when the blonde took it in her hand and straightened it up, "The pressure needs to be sucked out of it," the Yamanaka lewdly licked her lip before looking at Astrid, Sonya, Gaki, Akkah, Meru, Mary, Rylee, Freya, and Rose before saying, "Girls, you're going to have to use your mouths and help me suck out the pressure from this huge, throbbing cock before it's too late~"
While the girls didn't quite understand the roleplay, they licked their lips, knowing full well what she wanted them to do. Gaki was predictably the one to crawl up first, being the next up in their little 'pecking order', right after Inonon.
"I said girls, not girl," Inonon giggled when no one else tried to get a piece of him, "But, then again, it would be hard for more than two at a time." She looked to her man with a mischievous glint in her eye. "This is going to be a looong session," she cooed. "I hope you're ready~!"
"I…" the deaged clone inhaled deeply and exhaled, "I am…" the deaged clone shuddered when he felt Gaki's warm breath against the underside of his cock, "I can take as many mouths on my cock as they can fit around it!" He said both as a way to challenge them, and to get as many mouths sucking away on his cock.
"Two more it is, then," Inonon giggled, looking at the other Feeders who suddenly looked rather eager. "Akkah, you're up, too!"
The strawberry blonde cooed hungrily at that, licking her lips as she crawled on up to him. She sat to Gaki's left, and Naruto's right, and impishly looked at the deaged clone from the corner of her eye.
Inonon giggled and sang, "Freya, you're up as well~!"
The Feeder in question chirped happily, crawling on up to Gaki's right and Naruto's left. She too impishly looked at the deaged clone from the corner of her eye. With those two in position, Inonon took up hers, opposite to Akkah and started licking Naruto's shaft. The strawberry blonde followed her example as Freya and Gaki worked together, closer to the head - doing their part to get their mate off.
Soon, the girls started alternating their strokes as best they could with the limited room they had, Inonon and Akkah going up while Freya and Gaki went down, before they switched. Their coordination was nothing short of uncanny.
Naruto moaned happily at the sensations, and he was loving every bit of it as his balls started to churn.
Inonon withdrew and did a good job in looking very concerned, even as Gaki, Akkah and Freya kept licking away. "Oh no, the pressure is getting worse!" She donned a very serious look, "It looks like we're going to have to get serious. Gaki, Akkah, Freya, you've got to start sucking it with everything you have before it gets worse!"
The three exchanged a glance, before getting themselves into position. Gaki was taking the head, with Freya taking the right, and Akkah taking the left as Inonon stepped aside. Then Freya and Akkah latched their mouths to the sides of Naruto's cock and started sucking and slurping away as they moved their mouths up and down along it. Gaki in the other hand took the bulbous head right into her mouth and started sucking away on it with a series of hungry moans and grunts as her tongue swirled around it with enthusiasm.
Naruto enjoyed it immensely, letting out a guttural moan as he basked in the sensations. Those Feeders knew how to work their mouths now that they're not… well… sharp enough to bite your dick off.
Inonon was right, this was going to be a long session.
----
Meanwhile, in Morris's simulation...
"Seriously, don't call me 'Giggles'."
"But you are 'Giggles' to me! You giggle a lot~!"
"Why don't you go and bother him?"
"OI! Don't involve me!"
"Why not 'Yami'?"
"Because I ain't part of your dumbass conversation!"
Two Naruto's and a plant were talking in the sim's void. Insane Naruto, who'd been dubbed 'Giggles' by the plant, 'Yami' Naruto, the masked one who'd owned Team Ebisu a while back, and Himawari who's proactively acting as the real Naruto's 'daughter', thanks to Irene giving her the idea of being a female.
"Oh? Well, you are now, Uncle Yami~" Himawari giggled, as she wiggled around with excitement.
"Don't call me uncle!" Yami growled. "It makes me feel old. If anything, I'm your sibling."
"Oh, oh~!" Himawari chirped. "Yami-Oniichan, then~!"
"No… don't call me Oniichan." the masked blond growled with irritation, "I'm not from the Elemental Nations - so I don't even need to be called that."
"You must be greaaat at parties…" Giggles deadpanned.
"Oh put a sock in it you psychotic, sad, insane excuse of a Naruto." Yami spat.
"Oniichan it is," Giggles chirped before breaking down into a rapid series of insane giggles..
"Heeeeeeeey.... Don't fight. Think of the opportunity~!" Himawari said with excitement. What she said had gotten Yami and Giggles' attention, and interest.
"...What opportunity?" Yamo asked, his tone sounded almost demanding.
"Giggles-"
"Don't call me 'Giggles'!"
"-here can manipulate the simulation to appear in front of others, even when it's not being used! I can do the same and so can you, Yami-Oniichan! Think about it: when someone is using the simulation we three can appear and have a little fun~!"
"My type of fun is utterly wrecking them when I'm being 'used'." Yami deadpanned. "And unlike you and 'Giggles' here, I'd rather not do that. That pervert of a Sage is here, so is that Red-Headed woman and the blond. All three of them are either seal masters - or at least proficient enough to stop us in the Red-Head's case. I like my freedom, thank you."
"But think of the fun we could have!" Giggles said with enticement.
"You dumbass, I'd rather not get erased in retaliation, thank you very much."
"That is a very real possibility," a feminine voice pointed out. The three of them redirected their attention to Kaguya as she floated on up to them. "From what I can tell, it's entirely possible that those three were placed in this seal as a countermeasure."
"Who the fuck are you?" Yami flatly demanded, and grunted in surprise when Himawari whacked him across the back of the head with one of her vines.
"Charming…" the woman muttered sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
"That's Kaguya, A Goddess. And someone who could easily wipe the floor with the three of us, were it not for the leash I have on her." Himawari said.
"At least I'm getting my due credit," Kaguya chirped. "So… just how many of you are there in this seal? I simply must know."
"Fuck if I know," Yami flatly answered, "Ten, twenty, a thousand? There's a robot version of the real Naruto in here somewhere… along with a robot version of that fox sealed in him. There's also that Ten Tails thing in here as well, and so is Madara. But he's not like us… I think?"
"He is indeed a fake," Himawari clarified. "Him, Mukade, Zabuza, among others…"
"Including that singing girl you like to eat," Giggles added.
"It's the only reason Daddy lets me do that," Himawari giggled. "There's a few plants as well, but as far as I know, I'm the only one of my kind. The rest are not at all self-aware."
"Wrong," Yami drawled, "There is one other plant that's self-aware: the plant that ate that brunette and blonde woman in those rocks. It's not smart enough to talk, but it could clearly understand them."
"Oh, that one's just like the singing girl," Himawari clarified. "Smart, but not aware of its own false existence like we are."
"It's still self-aware." Yami shot back, "Self-aware, because it responded to the blonde's taunts, and the brunette's praise; but not smart like you."
"Yeah, I suppose that's accurate." Himawari giggled. "So far, we are the only ones aware of our false existence," she said, turning to address Kaguya directly. "You and those other three are technically from outside, so you're not fake like us. But you in particular… you're a confusing one..."
"Oh? How's she confusing?" Yami asked.
The flower bounced enthusiastically, "I created her to be part of my adventure! She had no soul, like the others I've created and what happens to the girls I manage to gobble down - then, out of nowhere, she became conscious when Daddy wanted her to be as accurate to the real Kaguya as possible. Daddy even said she was the real deal and that he could sense her presence!"
"Huh… That is weird…" Yami muttered under his breath. He cocked his head consideringly. It's entirely possible that someone put her consciousness in here. Of course, being the bastard that he is Yami kept that thought to himself.
Of course, Himawari could tell what he was thinking, but kept that to herself as well.
"Rest assured that I am still just as confused as you are," Kaguya added with a sigh. The woman could see one silver lining to this though: she wasn't stuck in a moon in one of her own dimensions anymore… well… conscious wise that is. She could do without the flower - of all things - wanting to eat her, but there wasn't anything she could do about that.
She is fairly sure that the real Naruto is having a panic attack as well. The one that was with her had dispelled himself, and while she didn't know the specifics of that technique, she did notice during their fight that they all remembered and adapted to her lack of a combat expertise; when she killed clones with her Ash-Killing Bone, though, the others didn't react as if they had an influx of memories. She could feel the chakra going back to the other clones though, but other than that nothing else happened.
She pushed those thoughts aside, though. It was beneath her to think of the mechanics of inferior techniques.
"So why are you here?" Yami grunted out, drawing Kaguya's attention to him. "If you're here to have a conversation, then I'm sorry to say we're not exactly… good conversationalists… or whatever it's called."
"We have a plant, an insane man child, and a depressed emo~!" Himawari giggled.
"...I'm going to ignore that last part." Yami muttered.
"I was just wondering what you three were up to when I saw that you were together," Kaguya shrugged. "Since that clone left for the night, I've been wandering aimlessly around the seal out of boredom, for the most part… and pointedly avoiding the perverted toad man."
"These idiots want to cause trouble, by hacking the seal and muck around in the simulation when it's being used" Yami said, jerking his head towards Himawari and Giggles, "You two morons are already pushing your luck, and the real Naruto's already nerfed you, plant, because of you've apparently never heard of subtlety. And if 'Giggles' here doesn't knock it off, a similar thing will happen to him. And now the two of you want to cause even more trouble that might end up with you becoming even weaker, or worse! Being wiped from the seal entirely! I prefer to exist, thank you very much!"
"All valid points to consider," Kaguya replied with a sagely nod. "I like this seal. It's by far preferable to the sensory deprivation of the one I was originally locked into."
"I'll take your word for it," Yami shrugged dismissively. "Well, if you want to have a conversation, then join us if you want. Just stay away from 'Giggles'-"
"I ain't Giggles dammit!"
"-and the plant. The blood covered one's more likely to rip you a new one, and the plant's more likely to eat you." seeing the look Kaguya was giving him, Yami just shrugged his shoulders and said, "They were made that way. They can't help it; though they seem to enjoy it. The plant has a preference to eating girls though."
"I see… I shall take that into consideration." Kaguya said with a thoughtful frown. It was a no brainer, the woman floated on over to Yami and kept all three of her eyes on Giggles and Himawari.
"Awww~!" Himawari cooed. "Don't be like that. You'll just respawn after I'm done digesting you, just like that singing girl~!"
"I'd... rather not test that for obvious reasons," Kaguya deadpanned.
"I don't think anyone would want to test that for obvious reasons." Yami added in wholehearted agreement. "Anyway… what were we talking about again? I forgot."
Giggles opened his mouth, only to close it a moment later, "...I forgot too." he said sheepishly.
"I forgot as well," Himawari admitted. Then she bounced in place, "Oh! Oh! Oh! I know! Let's start a new conversation!"
"Like what?" Yami flatly asked.
"Like getting to know our new guest, perhaps~?" Himawari suggested "She did nearly kick Daddy's ass, after all; I am so curious about her~!"
They would have seen Yami roll his eyes if it wasn't for his mask. "What's there to know about her? She's a Goddess, it's obvious she would be able to kick his ass."
Kaguya couldn't help but smile at that if her life depended on it.
"I'm curious about where she came from," Himawari replied. "Apparently she's where all chakra in the world comes from."
Yami thought about it for a moment, and quickly shook his head in denial. "...No. There's no way that's possible."
"And why not?" Himawari asked, with Kaguya looking at Yami questioningly.
"Because that would mean Kaguya either fucked like… thousands of people in her lifetime… or the Sage of the Six Paths somehow spread chakra around. Now that I think about it, I'm betting it's the latter, than the former."
"I only had two children," Kaguya pointed out flatly. "Both with the same man. What they did after I was imprisoned is anyone's guess, but I am indeed the progenitor of chakra."
Yami tilt his head with consideration. "Huh… and the Uzumaki, Senju and Uchiha Clans are descended from you… I guess in some twisted way, you're the Clan Head of all three of them."
"Wasn't it rumoured that the Hyuuga are descendants of the Uchiha or just splintered off?" Himawari asked.
"Oh?" Kaguya perked up at that.
"That's just a rumour." Yami shrugged. "The eyes of both the Hyuuga and Uchiha Clans are different. But… Kaguya here has got the eyes of the Hyuuga Clan and her third eye is a mixture of the Sharingan and Rinnegan; the Sage of the Six Paths had the Rinnegan, and his two sons inherited the eyes - the Sharingan for the older brother - and the body of the sage. The Uchiha and Senju Clans are descended from them respectively, and the Uzumaki Clan splintered off from the Senju Clan. The lesser known son may have had the Byakugan, and the Hyuuga Clan's descended from him. Of course, that is speculation on my part… unless you confirm it."
Yami never saw the Six Paths Sage before, so he was going entirely on what limited knowledge he has on the legend. It certainly helps that his past was very similar to the original.
"I have the All-Seeing Eyes and my third one is solid red with odd patterns…?" Kaguya added with a helpless shrug. "One of my sons had the All-Seeing Eyes and one did not."
"That's our confirmation then - one of Kaguya's sons had the Byakugan, and everyone can therefore trace their ancestry back to Kaguya. Seeing as she is the oldest living being right now, Kaguya can in theory claim ownership of the Uzumaki, Uchiha, Senju and Hyuuga Clans since they technically belong to her."
"One problem with that though," Giggles pointed out, and him sounding sane threw Yami and Himawari in for a loop. "She's trapped in here. And if her words are anything to go by, she's also trapped in another place entirely. She also tried to kill everyone and turn them into White Zetsus, if what Himawari said was right. Pretty sure the clans in question wouldn't take too kindly to her trying to claim that position."
"...you sounded very smart there." Yami was pleasantly surprised.
The blood stained Naruto gave Yami one of the flattest looks any of them had ever seen. "I may have the tendency to not think things through, but that doesn't mean I'm an idiot." he flatly pointed out. "I can think, and I can act on what I think. Honestly, the Goddess here pretty much dug her own grave and no one's going to listen to someone who is for all intents and purposes, a part of this simulation. Granted, she's real, like the Fourth Hokage, but no one holds her in high regard."
"Doesn't mean she can't give advice here and there." Yami pointed out. "But you have a point, and what I was saying was technical. She can technically claim ownership of those Clans, because they're related to her. Whether or not she'd actually succeed in doing so is another story entirely."
Crossing her legs and tilting her head curiously, Kaguya decided she might a well humour these three. "So, is there anything else you would like to know?"
"Oh! Oh! Oh! Am I allowed to eat you~?" Himawari cooed as she bounced in place with excitement. Well if nothing else the flower was a determined little thing when it comes to getting what she wants.
"No." Kaguya sighed. The flower's determination was admirable, so credit where it was due, but she was not about to experience that if she could help it… especially after seeing Himawari's last adventure, earlier this morning. That poor redhead…
"Aw…" the flower whined, only to cheerfully bounce back, "Well I can mind control you into doing what I want…" she said ominously.
"Please don't…" That sounded horrifying!
Deciding to diffuse the situation, if only to avoid pissing off the real Naruto, Yami cleared his throat. "So…" he began. "Where are you from? You never answered that question, because we got sidetracked."
Visibly - albeit subtly - grateful for the change of subject, Kaguya hummed thoughtfully. "How to explain that… It's not as simple as saying I'm from a specific country, because said country is in another world."
Giggles, Yami and Himawari exchanged looks with one another before they looked back at Kaguya. "Humour us," Yami said.
She took a deep breath and said, "I am from the land of Y'gdra, on a world several universes away the one Naruto lives on."
"Aaaaaand you've lost me," Giggles said in a flat, tone.
Kaguya let out a long suffering sigh. Explaining this to a bunch of primitives was going to be a bitch wasn't it? "I'm a dimension-hopping rabbit goddess from a far, far, far away world you've never heard of. It had purple skies, three suns and five moons. The grass was orange, the trees were blue and my cousin has eyes in his hands."
Giggles just stared at her with wide eyes. Yami was completely unreadable, thanks to that mask of his. Himawari was silent. But Kaguya knew they were trying to process her words into an image in their heads, but were simply unable to.
"...your world is strange." Himawari was the first one to speak and Yami and Giggles nodded in silent agreement.
Then, Giggles predictably made this awkward. "So, how does your cousin jerk off without poking himself in the eye?"
Yami and Himawari both whacked him across the head and he just cackled like a madman.
Kaguya's pale skin, meanwhile, turned bright red from her collarbone to the roots of her hair like a thermometer. "I… never asked."
"Ignore this idiot - he's stupid." Yami growled, jerking his head to the blood covered blond in question.
"I ain't stupid!" Giggles snapped.
"So, what is it like there?" Yami asked, promptly ignoring him.
"It had a beauty that was comparable to this world." Kaguya answered evasively.
"...I noticed you said, 'was', 'were' and 'had', something happened to it." Himawari stated and it wasn't a question either.
"Yes." Kaguya sighed, and she noticed Yami and Giggles were giving her their absolute attention. "Long before I became a Goddess, my homeworld was destroyed by my Clan's own hubris; and in the wake of the planet's destruction in our solar system, we took to exploring our dimension through the void of space. And after an undetermined amount of time, I ended up in this dimension by complete accident. The rest from there is history."
Her Clan had ended up destroying all three of the suns in their solar system, and in the wake of its expansion they had to move somewhere. And the universe was a large, vastly unexplored place.
Yami and Giggles blinked at that; well, it seems the old saying 'you learn something new every day' was true.
----
Later on, after having made sure everything was in working order, the clone who'd discovered Kaguya in the sim dispelled. Due to the long distance between the clone and the original though, there was a bit of a delay - about a days worth - but when he received the memories, Naruto bolted upright from his sleeping bag.
"FFFUUUUUCCCKK!!!"
His distressed howl could literally be heard all the way back in Nami… eventually. The soundwaves needed a moment to get there.
"OH SHIT! OH SHIT! OH SHIT!!!" Naruto was curled up in a ball, arms around his head, and was quickly rocking himself back and forth in his sleeping bag. It would have made for a comical sight, if he didn't look so genuinely scared.
Of course, his cry of distress had brought everyone else's attention to him and Cynthia was the first of the ten to arrive.
The pigtailed blonde slammed the door to the room her husband was in open, as her silver eyes darted frantically around the room for her husband. And when she saw him, rocking back and forth looking terrified, she immediately ran over to him. "Naruto! Naruto, what is it?!"
Struggling to calm his nerves enough to communicate, Naruto took several deep, calming breaths, before hauntingly saying, "K-K-Kaguya…"
Immediately, Cynthia frowned, scooping her hubby up into a comforting hug. "It's okay, honey," she said, "It's just a bad dream. She can't hurt you anymore."
"She's in the simulation seal," Naruto said after several more deep breaths. "A clone of mine and that flower, Himawari, did something and she somehow ended up in there… Oh, and there's more." Naruto chirped with mock-excitement. "Apparently, Kaguya was turning everyone into an army of White Zetsus for the purpose of defeating her clan, who are apparently out for her head."
Cynthia widened her eyes at that, as did everyone else as they piled into the room. That was… bad news. Very, bad news.
"D-does that mean we're going to be facing an entire family of Kaguya's calibur?!" Cynthia almost shrieked, now she understood why Naruto was acting this way. Beating her required both Naruto and Sasuke to work together, and they were barely able to land a hit on her! Now there's more?!
"Kaguya guessed it would be sometime in my lifetime, so, I'll have to say 'yes' to that." Naruto hugged his wife and rocked back and forth again, with the plaited blonde doing the same thing.
"Who is Kaguya?" Cassandra asked. She was pretty much out of the loop on who this person was, but from the way Naruto and Cynthia was acting she had to be bad news.
"Kaguya is a Goddess - a literal Goddess." Galatea shakingly answered. "Naruto fought her with the help of Sasuke, Kakashi, Sakura and an Uchiha called Obito, and managed to defeat her by imprisonment. She out classes all of us in power and techniques."
Naruto added a bit more to it since he has more experience with the woman's abilties. "She is faster than Hysteria's Elegance, has the Hyuuga Clan's All-Seeing Eye, and has the Rinne Sharingan which is the predecessor of the Sharingan and Rinnegan. She can literally pull you into another world instantly, and she has an instant-kill technique, that will slowly crumble you to ash if you're hit. You have a good healing factor? Wel,l too bad! You're dead anyway! It's something even I can't heal. Oh, and she can fly."
"To make matters worse, it's safe to assume these clanmates of hers are actually trained in combat if they're looking to pick a fight with a literal goddess," Harja muttered thoughtfully. "So, they won't share her lack of expertise."
"Sasuke and I will have to fight them if that's the case." Naruto groaned in agitation, "We're the only ones capable of sealing them away thanks to Old Man Hagoromo giving us his chakra." Then he tried to be optimistic and added, "Still, on the bright side, a thousand years had passed without any sign of her Clan's arrival so it's entirely possible that their numbers have dwindled enough that they can't spare any people to investigate."
"Well… that is one way to think about it." Cynthia didn't like to have negative thoughts but just this once she can try and take comfort in the fact that a family of alien beings that can destroy them with a flick of their wrist may be down to their last numbers.
"So… does this mean we have to go back?" As much as she wanted to stay, Hana knew this was very serious. So if he wanted them all to go back then she would go back without question. She, along with the other nine, were pleasantly surprised when Naruto shook his head no.
"It seems the plant has a leash on the woman." Naruto was happy to say that because he was outright grinning. "Himawari's got direct control over how strong Kaguya can be. The plant did make her body before her consciousness somehow found its way in there. All Kaguya can do is float and use a sharingan and byakugan from what the memories tell me. We can stay here for the next few days; my clones are almost done sweeping the ruins for any remaining active seals."
"If the situation changes somehow, don't hesitate to give us the word, okay?" Cynthia asked, giving him another hug.
"Alright," he hugged her back, giving the former Number 14 a peck on the cheek. Then, as he withdrew, he addressed everyone. "You all can go back to bed, now. I'll be fine."
Cynthia just held her hubby tighter, "I'm going to stay with you. You scared me!" she huffed with a childish pout.
Naruto chuckled warmly at that, hugging her back. "Alright, fair enough," he said, giving her a peck on the cheek. He unzipped his bedroll and let Cynthia slide inside; once she was in Naruto wrapped his arms around her and pulled his wife to him who smiled. She may not be affected by the biting cold winds of winter, or the scorching heat of the summer, but she was affected by Naruto's warmth.
He was just so comfortable to be around!
Naruto smiled at the others, "I'll see the rest of you in the morning, alright?"
The others smiled and nodded before leaving the room without a word, though Galatea gave Naruto a deep loving liplock before she departed for her own room.
"Everything will be okay, alright, honey?" Cynthia cooed. "I'll do everything in my power to help you if you need it and I'm sure all the others will do the same."
"I know," Naruto sighed. Then he leaned in and started kissing and nibbling at her neck. Cynthia mewled longingly as she tilted her head for better access. Naruto chuckled and started rubbing her back and leaving a nice fat hickey to mark her as his.
He wasn't planning on plowing her, though the temptation was there. But he was doing to cuddle the woman and give her some nookie. And from the looks of it, Cynthia was all too happy to receive it.
----
Back in Morris.
Riful was, for all intents and purposes, bored out of her mind. Granted this was all part of her plan for world domination, but there were days when she just missed being the Abyssal One of the West and having everyone afraid of you. Luckily she wasn't alone, in the chapel with her was Neideen the Naughty, and Sistina the Divine Oracle, both of whom are garbed in their nun uniforms. Father Isaac was there as well, and he was talking to the Elder Priest of Rabona; why she of all people was asked to come down here was beyond her, since it looked like Isaac had everything handled from her perspective. But she wasn't going to question it.
So, there Riful was, sitting at a round table quietly listening to Father Isaac and the Elder Priest chatting away about things she was incapable of understanding. Sistina and Neideen were seated beside her, with the latter quietly humming to herself and the former was drumming her fingers against her forearm.
They were just as bored as she was.
"So, this is the famed Riful of the West, then," the Elder Priest mused aloud, eyeballing the girl. "I must admit that I was rather skeptical of claims that a young girl who turned into a giant ribbon monster had nearly destroyed the Organization and razed no less than ten villages, all those hundreds of years ago."
"Fifteen, actually," Riful clarified. "Some of them were blamed on youma."
"I see," the man replied, giving her a cautious grin. "Well, I am glad to hear you are on our side. I am the newly-appointed Elder Priest of Rabona, Father Vincent."
"Oh?" Neideen quirked an eyebrow at that. "What happened to the previous one?"
"Old age, I'm afraid." The bald man answered. "He passed away in his sleep, a few months ago, at the age of 101."
"Impressive lifespan, I must say," Riful commented, visibly surprised. An ordinary human living past a century was almost unheard of! It happened, but only if you were very lucky. And the former Elder Priest was clearly lucky. "Clearly, he was doing something right."
"Indeed, he was," Vincent chuckled warmly. "The man lived a happy life and was quite a joy to be around. He'll be sorely missed."
"Naruto might have him beat in life span, one day," Neideen chuckled. "His mother's side of the family were known for their longevity."
"Very interesting," Father Vincent mused aloud. "The fabled Lord of Morris truly is full of surprises, isn't he?"
"Oh, you have no idea," Riful giggled. "The destruction of Pieta was his doing, though, to be fair, that was to wipe out an invading force of monsters. And where he's from he's essentially a mayor with the military rank of a king. All he lacks is a realm, but he is in the process of reclaiming his ancestral homeland, so that won't take long to amend."
"His ancestral homeland is far from these lands, across the sea to the West." Sistina clarified when she saw the questioning look on the man's face. "You would not have heard of it."
"He's actually heading an expedition to the island as we speak," Riful chirped. "They should be back in a few days."
"To think there are far away lands yet unexplored," Father Vincent muttered to himself in amazement.
"Not unexplored, just not yet rediscovered." Sistina corrected, "The Organization is to blame for that. The civilians on this continent actually came from another one, where the Organization themselves hailed from."
Neideen added with a sickeningly sweet smile, "To make a complicated story short: there is a war. The Organization's side was losing, so they used this island to create weapons to fight in their war. We 'Claymores' are experiments of theirs to be used in this war and everyone else is in their eyes unimportant collateral damage."
"All in all: this entire island is just one huge experiment for them. Thanks to Naruto however, we are no longer bound to live or die on their word." Sistina said with a happy smile.
"Naruto even has proof from the Organization's misdeeds since they arrived here." Riful added, "It was how he had managed to get so many warriors to defect to his side when the time came."
"Such fascinating achievements," Father Vincent commented, looking to Father Isaac. "It comes as no surprise that the Twins and Lady Rabona have grown so fond of him."
"Them and many others," Sistina giggled. "Both from this land and his, no less."
"So... you all seem to have everything well in hand, so why am I here, exactly?" Riful asked; she was awfully curious and wanted to know why they asked her to come along when it seemed they didn't even need her to be here.
"Because the City of Rabona will be falling under your domain, when you and the other Abyssal Ones stake your claims on this island," Father Vincent clarified. "I wish to become more familiar with the Supreme Overlady of the West."
"Supreme Overlady, huh?" Riful raised an eyebrow before smiling. "I like it~!" The title had an odd ring to it, but she could get used to that.