open~

[ghostpepper]

Who: Kushina and whoever
When: Arriving March 1st, late morning, until leaving March 9th, mid-afternoon
Where: In and around Konoha, between the village gates and the travel seal if you really want, ...seriously, just everywhere when she's not spending quality time with her family
Notes: Just come say hi 8| Aforementioned quality time with family will be most mornings from March 2-9, and all nights. But family teammates are always welcome to dinner. >3>


No matter how many times she came back to Konoha, she always made a point to walk around different parts of the village. It felt necessary to reacquaint herself with the streets and various landmarks after spending so long away from home. And meeting up with friends is a must too. On a couple afternoons she even takes some time in one of the training areas by the river. No reason not to keep sharp, even if she's technically on vacation.

Whether you're looking for her or not, that bright red hair of hers isn't hard to miss.

Comments

[ghostpepper]

Somewhere on equal elevation, he was spotted. After her clone was hit and gone, Kushina ducked out of his line of sight, and signaled to her clones to hold back. Reaching into her pouch, she withdrew an explosive tag and wrapped it around a kunai. Once secure, she scaled up a few more branches, took aim, and flung it at Obito.

[thebestuchiha]

He twisted, hearing the sound of the Kunai coming at him, and managed to deflect it away before it could go off... and then it was right back to being in the water. Damn it. He quickly levered himself to the surface since it wasn't a roiling mass this time, but he was still sopping wet for his efforts, and was looking in the direction the Kunai had come from.

[ghostpepper]

She heard him hit the water as she slid back down the tree. She whispered orders to her clones to stay back, but to be ready to deliver an onslaught of kunai with explosive tags wrapped around the grips at her signal.

Meanwhile, Kushina proper decided it was about time to go face-to-face with her opponent again. And as she zipped out of the tree, she was already forming hand seals. Tiger. Ox. Dog. Rabbit. Snake. The last one slammed together as her feet landed on the water's surface.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

Within seconds, a powerful burst of wind whipped forward from her clasped hands. The force pushed her back a couple inches as it tore across the water's surface, picking some up as it went. The further out it went from Kushina, the broader its diameter grew, and the more water was flung into the vortex. Just a little more damage to be done. Something she had forgotten about were some of the floating branches that were also picked up. Oops.

[thebestuchiha]

His eyes went wide as he saw the veritable plethora of somewhat lethal objects flying his direction and the best he managed to do was to release his chakra from standing on the water and throw himself down. It wasn't fast enough to avoid being picked up, but at least most of the debris didn't hit him even as he was sent tumbling over the surface of the water.

Ow.

[ghostpepper]

She watched as he was picked up in the whirlwind and lifted an arm. Half of her remaining clones flew out of the trees to catch and restrain him.

[thebestuchiha]

Okay. This was super bad. She was going to get him at this rate and he tried to get up so he could bolt but wow woozy. He was not going to lose now! No! He was far too close to victory!

And bleeding from his forehead, as he hadn't dodged as well as he'd hoped from the massive amount of tree parts. Ow.

That didn't stop him from trying to bolt away from the hoard though.

[ghostpepper]

Kushina herself leaped forward, joining the chaos of her clones chasing after him. She swore she could taste victory. As long as most of her clones remained, her energy wouldn't tank. With half of them still tucked away in the trees, she was confident she could hold on until he could be pinned down. And there were definitely a few flying tackles going on. Maybe one of them would think to use a water whip... Eventually.

[thebestuchiha]

Ohhh dizzy. Intangible too? Nope. That failed horribly as he was clearly too tired to abuse that particular ability and his attempt to go through ended up more like bouncing off of. Which meant an immediate reversal and... releasing his chakra to drop into the water was needed. Yes.

[ghostpepper]

Some of the nearest clones saw the blood flow. This wasn't supposed to have happened. One drew attention to it until the original got the news. This had to end. Now.

"MOVE!" she commanded, forming a set of three hand seals. "Water Release: Water Whip!"

A path to Obito was quickly cleared as water shot up into Kushina's hand and was slung out to catch the Hokage by the wrist. A few other clones caught on and lassoed out water whips of their own.

[thebestuchiha]

He yelped because ow. The first one was an ow anyway, and that had him awkwardly half in and half out of the water until she pulled him out. Okay that was a sudden upping of the stakes he hadn't been expecting and he tilted his head to peer at the nearest Kushina, squinting a bit and eyes gone dark again. Not that he even realized that was why he wasn't phasing through jack anymore.

"Okay... that was faster than you've moved all day..."

[ghostpepper]

"You're bleeding worse than a stuck pig, you dumbass!" Kushina shouted as she ran forward, reeling in her water whip with every step. "Of course I'll look like I'm moving faster! You're exhausted, I'm going to be exhausted soon, and you need a medic, y'know! This ends now!"

Even as she got close enough, one of her clones was already scooping up water and splashing it on his wound while another was looking for large pieces of anything to pluck out.

[thebestuchiha]

He blinked at her, suddenly feeling really tired now that he'd stopped moving, and he kind of drooped now that he was pretty much immobile. "Probably just got caught with a branch. M'fine Kushina-nee." He tried to wave off the fussing, blinking a few times. Ohhh, but maybe something to drink would be smart."

[ghostpepper]

"Don't try to wave it off like nothing! Look at your reflection in the water! We're taking you back to my house for something to drink. And to patch you up and feed you."

She pulled one of her clones over to give her an order.

"I need everyone up in the trees immediately. Ten seconds after getting this message, the clones maintaining the barrier need to release it on the side facing away from the village first. Do not release yourself until we get Obito secured in one of the trees."

"Got it!"

[thebestuchiha]

Obito huffed softly, but didn't keep arguing, moving a hand to his head to poke at the cut there and wow okay that was really red fingers. "...Okay yeah... bandage is needed here."

He turned his head to blink at her and gave her a sheepish smile. "At least I'm not on fire?" Just sopping wet. Barely out of winter.

[ghostpepper]

She nearly took a swing at him for the wisecrack, but stopped her fist inches from his head.

"Shut up and come on," she said.

Two of her clones came to support him in order to bring him up into the nearest tree. His water whip restraints were released as the other clones went up into the treetops to avoid accidental destruction.

[thebestuchiha]

He gave her a sheepish smile and leaned more heavily into the clones than probably was reassuring. "I don't think I've used that much chakra in ages..."

[ghostpepper]

"And tonight and tomorrow, you're gonna be paying for it. You'll be lucky to move. But I think this game idea of ours might have to be shelved."

Once everyone was out of range of the water, the clone Kushina had given the order to released herself. And like clockwork, part of the barrier retracted and the water flooded out in a raging torrent after ten seconds.

"Once this all goes down, we'll get moving."

[thebestuchiha]

"I'll be fine. I'm sure Rin will find me and give me stern disapproving sighs for having damaged myself too. I'm just going to have to suck it up and make sure I do stretches before bed and in the morning so I don't gimp around like some old man tomorrow." He gave her a sheepish smile.

"So. Um. How long ago did my sharingan off mode anyway? I think I missed it. Couldn't have been too long though."

[ghostpepper]

"Minato will probably give me some kind of lecture," she said with a sigh.

Ah, and there went the water. She and her clones carefully jumped down the tree. A few released themselves after they landed in the soggy ground that could now pass as a marsh or swamp.

"Not sure how long your Sharingan's been off though. Looks like my strategy to burn out your chakra worked though."

As the barrier retracted and the clones maintaining it vanished, Kushina could feel some of the exhaustion hitting her. Damn it. How much chakra had she used up? Maybe some of her remaining clones could make dinner.

[thebestuchiha]

He hopped down with extreme care, having no desire to hurt himself and give her justification to carry him. Even if he did stumble on landing. "If you can wipe me out that fast I obviously have to try harder. We weren't even at that for an hour."

[ghostpepper]

"That fast?" she echoed with a raised eyebrow. "Please, if you were still a genin, I would've had you begging for mercy in five minutes. You did good, and you really gave me a run for my money."

Poof. Poof. Poof. Poof. Poof. Some more clones vanished and the combined energy spent was spread more heavily between Kushina and her remaining half dozen clones. Damn. But as she was determined to walk home without any support, the other clones would stick around. At least they waited until she was on the ground again.

"C'mon. Let's go. You're staying for dinner with us after you get patched up."

[thebestuchiha]

"Okay good! I don't think I could have done the whole 'manage a stove without burning down the kitchen' thing tonight anyway." He gave her a sheepish smile, one hand pressed over the cut to put pressure on it because damn but head wounds bled a lot.

Way too much if he was truthful.

[ghostpepper]

"Not with that much blood leaking from your head, Hokage-kun."

She led the way back to the Uzumaki house, mercifully not too far from the training grounds. Please don't let Minato or Naruto be home yet. Please don't let them be home yet.

[thebestuchiha]

He hadn't even thought of that. Don't mention that they should be home to him, Obito doesn't want to deal with the blonds while his head is starting to pound and the world won't hold still, okay? Okay.

"Yeah that part is not so good. Maybe it'll stop soon?"

[ghostpepper]

Maybe.

Almost there. Almost there. Made it! She opened the door and got no answer to her automatic "I'm home!" Another mercy.

"Alright you, sit," she ordered, pointing at the kitchen table. Then the clones were getting ordered around. "You, get the first aid kit and two bowls of warm water, one soapy. You, start making dinner. Make sure there's enough for four people. You... I think the rest of you are done. You can go."

As soon as the words left her mouth, the remaining clones vanished in a cloud of smoke. Her earlier chakra usage now spread between three. Wow... so much exhaustion she leaned slightly more heavily over the table. Maybe she used more chakra than she thought to keep up with Obito.