Chapter 28.2- One Thousand Hands

Six months had passed since that day. Granduncle Tobirama died. He had a burial ceremony as befitting any Kage, and the world itself was darker for it. He was gone. Completely. It turned out that the act of affirming Tsunade as the next Senju Clanhead was enough to overrule the previous words stated in his will. Especially because he had done it in front of Hiruzen who was a competent witness as to his mental state. Part of me felt like the reason for that was because the will itself was too dangerous to Konoha’s interests to be allowed to stand. Somehow, the man had gotten it into his head to name me as his successor in his will.

If the ruling became that Tsunade’s appointment as Clanhead could not stand, then the one naming Hiruzen as Kage was put on shaky ground. It was for the best for everyone. Even me. I had no interest in being named Hokage. Especially not as I was now. So, I was forced to give the position of Clanhead. To her credit, Tsunade had offered me the position of being her heir but there was just too much emotional baggage in it that I’d taken the offer in the spirit it was given and refused it with a grateful smile. That hadn’t meant I’d had a peaceful time, however. Between training with the Whales and training on my own, I had little in the ay of free time.

And all that free time was taken up by the girl I now turned my attention towards. Kushina was the Eight Tails Jinchuriki now. Suffice to say, canon was well and truly gone. The seal my Granduncle had given his life to make was nothing less than a masterpiece. I could see the traces of the seal that would one day be placed on the main character of the show. It funneled chakra from Gyuki into Kushina, but it as much less filtered. Minato had been a genius. He had figured out a way to have the Kyubi chakra flow constantly into his son with no ill effects.

In our case, Kushina had writhed in pain for hours once the seal came fully into effect until Grandmother and I had been able to create a slapdash filtration system that filtered out then hate and anger of the tailed beast from entering into her chakra system and burning her from within. Now, she managed it by keeping careful control of her chakra and doing the filtration manually. For when she was asleep, we’d designed seal patches for her. I spent time with her, talking, playing, even helping with her training every once in a while when she asked. It was one of the few things keeping me sane in light of the circumstances. Her, and Mito to be sure. Mito who now did not have someone to take in the Kyubi after her.

A/N; In progress