Suigetsu was not happy, and he let the world know it with every swing of Kubikiribocho. He should have been ecstatic. A target-rich environment meant he took out at least two opponents with every hit. But his sword was stained with ink instead of blood, the waves of enemies seemed endless, they hadn't gotten any closer to Karin, and Suigetsu was starting to tire.
Suigetsu's stamina had improved over the last decade. He had needed to improve in order to keep up with Sasuke. Nonetheless, the sprint from Konohagakure to Uzushiogakure had cut deeply into his reserves, and the wait for backup hadn't been restful in any sense of the word. The constant, repetitive battle was draining what remained of strength, and Sasuke's liberal use of Fire Release was drying Suigetsu out. Juugo, who could usually be relied on to give Suigetsu a little breathing room, was no help at all. The fake shinobi had swarmed him like moths to a flame.
There was a slight possibility that Suigetsu would lose cohesion soon. There were places where it was okay to melt, and this particular battlefield wasn't one of them. He had no desire to mix with the black sludge that coated the ground.
Just as Suigetsu was considering dropping Kubikiribocho to give himself a little more time as a solid rather than a liquid, the fake shinobi fell to pieces in an explosion of ink and paper liberally splattering the assault team. Suigetsu blinked his eyes clear and glanced over the street.
Their team had acquired an additional complement of samurai and shinobi during the long slog up the main road. Suigetsu didn't recognize their faces, but he recognized their exhaustion easily enough. He wasn't the only one suffering from the drawn-out battle. Juugo was wearily picking himself up off the ground. Even Sasuke looked strained, and Suigetsu hadn't seen that since Karin and Sakura both volunteered to help furnish Sasuke and Naruto's apartment.
A shrill cry shattered Suigetsu's relief. The scream was difficult to pinpoint but moving steadily closer. Suigetsu looked up just in time to see Kurosaki's idiot doll come flying out of the sky. A confused mix of exhaustion and disbelief locked Suigetsu in place despite years of conditioning, and he wasn't the only one.
Sasuke stood still as a statue and gaping like a moron as the lion toy crashed into his stupidly pretty face. He reeled back and tried to pull the doll off, but whatever skill Kon used to hold things kept him glued in place. Sasuke stumbled back and forth like a drunkard as he tugged futilely at the plush toy.
Suigetsu leaned on his sword for support as he took-in the impromptu comedy routine. Short of rescuing Karin and murdering the assholes who took her, this was undoubtedly the best part of this sorry excuse for a mission. He was truly disappointed when Sasuke managed to rip the doll off his face.
Sasuke gripped Kon tight with both hands and glared at the doll with bloody murder in his eyes. "What are you doing?"
Kon pointed up the street in the direction the group was heading. "It's Ichigo's fault! He's the one that wouldn't slow down!"
Suigetsu glanced toward the village square, idly wondering how Kurosaki could have gotten ahead of them, when the road beneath their feet started to glow. Suigetsu froze in place, completely unable to move as the chakra in his body slowed to a thin trickle.
There was no way Suigetsu had Uzumaki-style chakra coils. Not even Orochimaru's weird experiments had altered his body that much. He quickly realized he wasn't the only person stuck in place. No one was moving except Kon, who was struggling to free himself from Sasuke's hands.
As the seconds ticked by, Suigetsu could feel the thin stream of chakra keeping him alive growing smaller and slower. If the seal wasn't destroyed, then Suigetsu would die, Sasuke would die, even Juugo with his monstrous ability to absorb natural chakra would die. No one would be left to rescue Karin, and that was completely unacceptable.
While Suigestu struggled against the unfairness of the universe, a dark, man-shaped shadow appeared at the end of the road. Suigetsu noticed the figure immediately. His eyes were fixed in that direction and nothing else was moving. Some old guy dressed in all black sauntered toward their group. He had sunglasses and a scruffy beard but no hitai-ate or any other identifying clan mark. Suigetsu wondered if this guy was one of the Hantokei Clan come to kill them while they stood helpless.
The guy stopped in front of Sasuke, the most dangerous of the group even while immobile. Of course, the lack of chakra meant the Uchiha couldn't activate his dojutsu, but Sasuke had a larger chakra reserve than Suigetsu. Maybe it was possible.
"Kon, Ichigo has need of you," said the old man.
Shock flooded Suigetsu. There was no way this old man was one of Konoha's shinobi, but Kurosaki didn't know anyone outside the Village Hidden in the Leaves. How did the old guy know Kon? Was Kurosaki in league with Hantokei after all?
"Do you think I don't know that?" shrieked Kon still struggling in Sasuke's tight grip. He spared a second to point an accusing paw at the old man. "What are you doing out of your sword? That's dangerous!"
If Suigetsu had full control of his body, he would be staring in dumbfounded surprise. As it was, he was barely managing to catch their exchange in his peripheral vision as his mind whirled through his possibilities. How could a man be in a sword? Was Kurosaki's weapon possessed? Was this man a ghost? Is that how he could move?
"At the moment, I can better serve Ichigo in this form," said the old man. He reached down and pulled the doll from Sasuke's hands.
"At least it's you not and not the other one," grumbled Kon then yelped as he was yanked none-too-delicately from Sasuke's grip.
"My other self is protecting Ichigo and his sisters from Hantokei," said the old man.
"WHAT!" shrieked Kon.
Ignoring the doll's cry of distress, the old man turned and raced away at inhuman speed. As they moved, Suigetsu caught a glimpse of Zangetsu strapped to the man's back. Kurosaki wouldn't have given up his weapon to just anyone.
Suigetsu might have prefered slicing his problems to pieces over thinking them through, but no one survived in Orochimaru's labs by being stupid. The old guy wasn't a shinobi, claimed to serve Kurosaki, and carried a copy of Kurosaki's Zangetsu. Most likely conclusion: the old man was a sword-spirit and about a thousand times cooler than that picky Samehada.
Precious seconds ticked by before a shockwave of power set Suigetsu's fading senses on high alert. If he could move, he would have been forced to the ground by a sudden overwhelming pressure. As it was, the fine hairs on the back of his neck and arms stood on end. Not even mostly frozen chakra could stop the classic fear response. Anything with that much power was a threat to his survival, and he wasn't resigned to dying just yet.
In the distance, something dark flew out of the village square into the sky only passing through Suigetsu's line of sight for a brief moment. But as the dark shape moved higher, the feeling of immense pressure eased to a tolerable level.
Then the sky fell in.
It was as if some massive hand had plucked the crescent moon from the sky, dipped that same moon in blacker-than-night paint, and then hurled it at Uzushiogakure. The leading edge crashed into the center of the village, burrowing deep into the earth, and the far-flung arms stretched from the treeline into the ocean. The ground heaved in protest, and the seal locking the shinobi in place shattered.
Suigetsu had just enough time to turn Kubikiribocho's blade away as he fell lest he become the sword's latest victim. Then he rode out the ensuing shockwaves as best he could. It was a good thing most of Uzushio's buildings had already collapsed. As weak as he felt after that chakra-immobilizing seal, Suigetsu didn't think he could stand upright much less dodge falling masonry.
When the world stopped shaking, Suigetsu rose to his feet on shaking legs.
"What the fuck was that?" he demanded.
"Kurosaki, had to be," growled Sasuke glaring daggers at the up at the sky.
Suigetsu looked up to see a speck that could theoretically be a human hovering above the destroyed village. "No way. No human could do something like that," he protested.
But then, Kurosaki wasn't entirely human, was he? He was part shinigami, and—clever genjutsu-based presentations aside—no one really knew what that meant. Except, apparently, it meant he could travel between villages in the blink of an eye; destroy an army of enemies that even Team Taka couldn't defeat easily one-on-one; shake off a jutsu that brought down Karin, Gaara, and Naruto; and toss the weight of Suigetsu and Kubikiribocho aside like they were nothing. Kurosaki had to be S-Rank, even if he was traipsing around with the title of baby genin.
Suigetsu turned to Sasuke to express his concern and yelped in dismay. "What are you doing?"
Sasuke had activated his Rinnegan and used it to open a portal. "No more waiting. I'm going for Karin."
He stalked through the swirling black and purple vortex without another word. Suigetsu swore, snatched Kubikiribocho off the ground, and raced after him before the portal closed. He sensed Juugo's looming presence close behind him as he passed through the second portal into the village square.
Suigetsu caught a glimpse of a deep wound in the earth before unfathomable pressure from above crushed him into the dirt. In response, Suigetsu did what any water-based being would when transported to the bottom of an ocean's worth of power. He melted.
Any embarrassment Suigetsu might have felt at involuntary liquefaction was quickly erased when Juugo landed on what had been Suigetsu's left kidney. Whatever that power was, it had forced Juugo, with all of his sage-driven strength, to his knees. Suigetsu marshalled his scattered thoughts and body enough to glance Sasuke's way. The bastard was still standing, of course.
On the other side of the brand new crevasse, Naruto was hunkered over in a crouch, but his red eyes and elongated fangs suggested he was preparing to pounce rather than struggling to stand. The Kazekage had hit the dirt briefly but was already climbing to his feet with a promise of bloody murder on his face. Unlike the two jinchuriki, the Hokage was still kneeling and leaning heavily on Kurosaki for support.
Suigetsu would have scowled if he had reformed his mouth. If Kurosaki was there, then who had made the giant hole in the ground? Was it the old man who had taken Kon? Could Kurosaki's sword wield itself and create that much damage?
Juugo's massive body was in the way, but when Suigetsu flowed forward, he could see Karin and the other captives lying unconscious on the ground. The poles previously holding them in place had toppled over. Fortunately, none of them had fallen forward into the crevasse. Suigetsu could already hear seawater roaring into the newly opened channel.
Just past the captives, the man responsible for this mess, Hantokei, was lying on the ground. Most of his body had been destroyed by the falling moon attack. His head with its flat, empty eyes; one arm; and a bit of his torso were all that remained for the madman. Part of Suigetsu felt cheated of his revenge, but mostly he felt relieved. They could take Karin, leave this cursed village, and go home.
Before Suigetsu could truly relax, the pressure that had forced him into a liquid state suddenly intensified. The edges of his puddle started to boil. Around him, the conscious shinobi wobbled in an effort to stay upright while he unconscious shinobi writhed in place. Even Hantokei's remains started to seize.
Kurosaki raised a hand and waved frantically at the sky. "Ichigo! Seal your zanpakuto!"
Suigetsu forced his gaze upward. He saw a blurry black-clad form holding a weapon in each hand. The right hand blade was wrapped in black-red flame and the left covered in silvery blue fire.
Then the pressure eased, and Suigetsu's vision cleared. Another Kurosaki wearing a strange outfit and carrying two previously unseen swords landed next to Kurosaki and the Hokage. If liquefying was causing hallucinations now, he would have to let Karin experiment on him again. He loved Karin like a very annoying, very loud sister, but going under her knife was not one of Suigetsu's happier thoughts.
While the strange pressure wasn't entirely gone, it was more manageable than it had been before. Suigetsu quickly returned to a solid state and pulled himself upright. Juugo gave him a hand up, and the kneeling version of Kurosaki helped the Hokage to her feet then respectfully stepped away. The double-sword version of Kurosaki continued to glare at Hantokei's remains.
"I'm glad that's over with," said Suigetsu when no one else spoke. "Let's get Karin and get out of here."
"He's not dead," said sword-Kurosaki flatly.
"Are you kidding me?" demanded Suigetsu. No one gave him a strange look for speaking to someone who wasn't there, so maybe there really were two Kurosakis. "There's barely any of him left."
"Ichigo turned him into mush earlier and didn't work," growled Naruto. "He's definitely faking it."
Hantokei's head started to laugh. Suigetsu almost jumped out of his skin at the dry, rasping sound. The head floated into the air and a body quickly reformed beneath it complete with ancient warring-states era-armor. In a matter of seconds, Hantokei was once again whole as if he had never been hurt.
"I am undying as are the rest of my clan," spat Hantokei. "In freeing your allies, you have freed them as well. See, even now they begin to emerge from the seal in which Uzumaki placed them so long ago."
Hantokei spread two intact arms wide and gestured around the square. Faint people-sized shadows dotted the area. None of them were more substantial than heat-haze. But none of them had existed before.
"Damn it, Kurosaki, you can't even kill this one. How are we supposed to get rid of an entire clan?" demanded the Hokage.
Sword-Kurosaki shrugged. "You're all strong shinobi. Somebody here can probably figure out how to seal them again."
Hantokei chuckled darkly. "You are mistaken there, young Uzumaki. It took your clan a century of dedicated work to the develop the seal that locked us away. With the Headman of Uzushio gone from this world, there is no one left to stop us. Any prison you attempt to create we can escape in minutes."
Sword-Kurosaki looked entirely unimpressed by this declaration. "Yeah? But that was before the founding of Uzushiogakure. There are all sorts of techniques you've never seen before."
"Maybe in the world you come from, little Uzumaki. But only the Headman of Uzu ever posed a—URK!"
While Kurosaki provided a distraction, Sasuke reactivated his Rinnegan and opened a portal in Hantokei's blindspot. A swift, silent kick from the last Uchiha sent the villain flying into another dimension.
"That was for Karin, asshole," said Sasuke after the portal closed.
"Where does that lead?" asked the Kazekage.
"Nowhere," said Sasuke. "No markers for him to find his way back and nothing to help him escape."
Naruto let out a low growl. He claimed he and the Kyuubi were friends now, but that didn't change the fact that the Nine-Tailed Fox and all the other Tailed-Beasts were known for their rage. When Naruto was angry, sane people got out of the way. "Nice."
The Kurosaki with the swords nodded in agreement then casually hopped over the gaping crevasse separating him from his sisters. With a few easy swings, he severed the ropes binding the hostages. He sheathed both swords in a double harness on his back then knelt to check pulses.
"They're just unconscious," said Kurosaki. "Probably from the first time they were sealed."
Suigetsu let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. Karin was alive and nobody he cared about was dead. He hadn't been able to murder the guy who kidnapped Karin, but he had watched Sasuke drop-kick the guy into another dimension and that was almost as good. If they could just take their teammate and leave, he was more than willing to let the various seal masters in Konoha deal with the creepy heat-haze people.
A flicker of motion in the corner of his eye drew Suigetsu's head around, even as he reached for his sword. He was not about to get jumped by a creepy half-sealed ghost-ninja. He relaxed slightly when he recognized the head of grey fluffy hair.
"Hokage-sama," murmured Kakashi respectfully.
"Report," said the Hokage. She pulled further away from the weaponless Kurosaki, who was looking somewhat awkward in the line-up of kages and clutching the now silent toy lion.
"Many of our forces are suffering from chakra-exhaustion following the engagement of the larger seal. I ordered Sakura to set up a field hospital on the—uh..."
Kakashi trailed off. His single eye widening. Suigetsu followed his gaze and yelped. "What the fuck?"
Kurosaki was covered in skulls and spinal columns and fangs like some kind of freakish armor. He didn't react to Suigetsu's yell at all. Instead he was holding out his hands over the still-unconscious but now glowing former hostages.
"Kurosaki, what are you wearing?" demanded the Hokage. There was only a hint of alarm in her voice.
"It's a gift from the Kushanada. I used their power to help the Sand Sibling wake up faster last time," said Kurosaki distantly. "I'll be done in a minute."
"Baki actually understated his unsettling appearance," said Gaara thoughtfully.
Suigetsu couldn't tear his eyes away from the unnerving skull-themed armor. Fortunately, Kurosaki hadn't overestimated his time-frame. The glow stopped and the armor disappeared just as the other Kages, General Mifune, and their surviving escorts reached the square. Everyone was liberally splashed with ink, but no one looked severely injured. Suigetsu was pleased to see at least some of the jounin looked as tired as he felt.
"Does this mean that you've dealt with the man responsible?" asked the Raikage looking at the empty square. "Or did he escape?"
"He was kind of immortal so Ichigo distracted him and Sasuke kicked him into another dimension," said Naruto. "It was awesome."
There was a long pause from the shinobi and samurai who had missed the action. Most of the Kage, who were somewhat used to Naruto's presence by now, looked resigned to this improbable sequence of events.
"It's true," confirmed Gaara. "Hantokei Jishin suffered many wounds that would have killed even a jinchuriki."
"If he's dead, then what the hell are these things?" demanded the Tsuchikage gesturing at the heat-haze indications of shinobi. "There are dozens of them all over the village."
"According to Hantokei, they are other members of his clan who were sealed beneath the village. If that is true, we may be able to seal them away again. Fortunately, they don't appear to be escaping quickly," explained the Hokage.
"Can you seal them away?" asked the Mizukage. "They are reappearing everywhere. You'll need to cover the entire village."
The Hokage hesitated. If Suigetsu noticed, then they all had to have seen it. Fear bubbled to life in Suigetsu's heart. He was not looking forward to fight another army of undying shinobi. Once had been one time too many.
"We have no other choice," said the Hokage finally.
"Then we can put this situation behind us," said General Mifune. "I am getting too old for pitched battle."
The air rippled between Team Taka and Kurosaki ending the conversation abruptly. The place where Sasuke had last opened a portal bulged and strained then cracked like a sheet of glass. Orange light filtered through the cracks which slowly twisted into a reverse spiral. In the spiral's convergence point, a hand emerged.
"What the fuck?" repeated Suigetsu. How was that even possible?
"No! Orange is the color of awesome! Not the color of evil!" protested Naruto.
"Jugo," snapped the Kurosaki by the hostages.
Team Taka's Karin came flying over the disturbance, straight at Jugo, who deftly snatched her out of the air. He tossed Temari and Kankuro at Gaara, who caught them both in a wave of sand, which then morphed into a sand clone and slung Gaara's sibling over its shoulders. Finally, he hurled his Karin at his other self and Yuzu and Kakashi.
"Get to Sakura," he ordered.
"Right," said the other Kurosaki, then he took off at top speed. Whatever he was, he was fast. In a few steps, they were out of sight.
Kakashi hesiated for barely a moment before vanishing in a burst of shunshin. The sand clone took off too.
"Go, Jugo. Look after Karin and Sakura," said Sasuke.
Jugo nodded and said, "Stay safe." Then he too, jumped over the chasm and started running.
Suigetsu, Sasuke, and Kurosaki looked at each other over the distortion caused by Hantokei's escape and silently came to an agreement. They retreated over the crevasse to take up positions by Naruto and the other Kages.
"Now what?" asked Suigetsu.
"Kurotsuchi, have you inherited your grandfather's skill with dust release?" asked the Hokage.
The Tsuchikage bristed. "Of course I have!"
"Try that first," said the Hokage. "If it doesn't work, then we will keep him occupied while Naruto prepares as Truth-Seeking Ball. He's not indestructible. Just stubborn about staying dead."
It was a testament to the strength of the Hokage and the desperation of the situation that none of the other Kages protested the plan. They all remembered how terrible it was to fight an undying opponent.
The Tsuchikage lifted her hands and started preparing her dust release technique. The shinobi closest to her all took several steps away. Suigetsu made sure to put Sasuke between himself and the disintegration technique.
A second arm pushed through the crack in the air. Hantokei seemingly braced himself against nothing and pulled his body out of whatever dimension Sasuke had dumped him in. The madman barely had a chance to open his mouth before the Tsuchikage released his attack.
"Particle Style: Atomic Dismantling Jutsu!"
Hantokei was gone, vanished in a cone of brilliant light, as was most the ground behind him and several more ruins of buildings.
Suigetsu decided it was really good thing that people didn't live here anymore. Between whatever it was Kurosaki had done and the Tsuchikage's Dust Release technique, this half of town was essentially gone. Then again, if the Kiri and Kumo hadn't eliminated Uzushio to begin with, then Hantokei would still be sealed and the rest of them would have never been caught up in this mess.
Suigetsu frowned to himself. He really was spending too much time with Sasuke if he was criticizing the way the Villages did things. He would have to go kill some nice, normal bandits later to improve his mood.
"Got him," said the Tsuchikage with clear satisfaction.
The settling dust swirled into the shape of a man. Hantokei gazed at them with flat eyes and a manic grin. "Not quite."
"How?" howled the Tsuchikage.
"It's quite simple, I'm immune to death," said Hantokei.
"That doesn't even make sense!" yelled Naruto.
Hantokei sneered. "Just the reaction I'd expect from an Uzumaki. From the minute I was born, they hated me and declared me an abomination."
Suigetsu raised his eyebrows. He couldn't imagine Naruto doing anything like that. The blond would take any family he could get. He couldn't even imagine Karin doing anything like that. If someone were that weird, she'd hold onto them just for the chance to study something new. Then again, no one really knew what the Uzumaki were really like.
"Why did they think you were an abomination?" asked Kurosaki.
"Couldn't you tell from my seals?" asked Hantokei. "You had to have studied them. To figure out there was specific clone to target."
"The seals were backwards," said Naruto slowly.
"Mirrors of ordinary seals. The only kind of seals one such as myself can make. One whose chakra system is mirrored, reversed, spiraling backward," said Hantokei.
Suigetsu had no idea what that meant. But apparently, this guy was hung up on it. Having weird chakra was no reason to take over the world in Suigetsu's opinion.
"So the Uzumaki threw you out because your chakra was weird," said Naruto.
"No, I abandoned them when they tried to change me to fit their mold," said Hantokei. There was an insane fervor in his voice. His words sounded angry. But his body was perfectly still like a doll's. The dichotomy was messing with Suigetsu's head.
"This world is not meant to sustain me, yet I do not die. I am greater than any other substance in this world. My body is perfection, and the Uzumaki refused to recognize it. And so, I found those who sought perfection and remade them in my image," continued Hantokei. "Together we sought to recreate the entire world, perfect and deathless, and the Uzumaki dared stop us. But now they are gone, and we remain."
"It's a good thing Orochimaru never ran into this guy," muttered Suigetsu. Orochimaru was all about living forever, and it sounded like this guy had found a way to do it.
Sasuke grunted quietly in agreement.
"It's chiral life theory," said Kurosaki in dawning realization.
"Will this chiral life theory help us stop him?" asked the Hokage.
"No. It means he should already be dead," said Kurosaki instantly. "But I guess adding chakra to the mix made him immortal instead. That's... annoying."
"Fine then. We're moving to Plan B," announced the Hokage. "And if that doesn't work, we'll hold him in place until we figure out how to seal him again."
Hantokei's manic smile returned. "I have my own plans, Hokage-sama. I won't allow your little band to delay me further."
"Little band?" growled the Mizukage. "You may be immortal, but you are just one man. Your ink clones are gone, and your "clan" is still trapped. Do you think you can withstand the combined of the Kages?"
Hantokei nodded along in agreement. "Yes, you destroyed my army. Very good. But fortunately I have another. And this is their home turf."
Dusky orange light illuminated what remained of the square. Suigetsu blinked at the sudden change, and when he opened his eyes, the square was full of bodies. At least a hundred Uzumaki shinobi filled the space behind Hantokei.
Unlike victims of Edo Tensei, the sea of redheads looked entirely alive. They also looked extremely irritated. Most were shooting death glares at the back of Hantokei's head, but not one made a move against him.
The Hokage let out a quiet gasp. "Grandmother."
Suigetsu wasn't the only one to curse in dismay. Uzumaki Mito was a kunoichi with strength on par with the founders of Konoha. Stopping her would require at least one of the Kages. Who knew how strong the rest of the summoned Uzumaki were?
"I think these toys of mine will keep you occupied," said Hantokei.
A bright dot of light appeared near the back of the group. Suigetsu wondered if Hantokei was summoning more of the resurrected Uzumaki. How many descendants had survived scattered among the Elemental Countries?
"Lightning-guy, move," barked Kurosaki.
The Raikage stared incredulously at Kurosaki. "Did you forget my name, boy? It's only one lett—"
Kurosaki, moving faster than the eye could track, tackled the man to the ground. A silvery-blue light shot over their heads, nicked the Kumo-nin standing behind the Raikage, and vaporized a large section of crumbled masonry. The kumo-nin let out a shriek of pain. Her arm had been severed below the shoulder.
A second burst of silvery-blue light shot out of the crowd. This time it arched into the sky. When the light reached its apex, it split into dozens of arrows. The gathered shinobi and samurai pulled back, but the spread of arrows was deceptively wide. Suigetsu lifted Kubikiribocho hoping the sword would deflect some of the shafts.
Kurosaki shoved off of the Raikage, pulled his swords from their harness, and sent two curving arcs of energy to knock the arrows out of the sky. One arc was red-black—the color of the massive attack that had sliced through Uzushio earlier—and the second was the same silvery-blue as the energy attacking them now.
"Who doesn't have enough control over their chakra to resist this little pissant's orders for more than a minute?" demanded one of Uzumaki shinobi from the front of the line.
Suigetsu guessed that explained why more shinobi weren't attacking them yet. But it didn't mean he was looking forward to the moment they lost the battle for control of themselves. Whether or not his opponent wanted to fight him, Suigetsu prefered enemies he could actually kill.
One of the Uzumaki jumped out of the crowd and landed on the near side of the crevasse. The woman was younger than the other Uzumaki, her hair was closer to orange than red, and she was wearing a civilian business suit instead of armor. Unlike most shinobi, she carried a bow in her left hand. Visiting Sasuke even once meant Suigetsu had heard Naruto wax eloquent about every facet of his new cousins lives down to the decorations in their house. He had a good idea of who this woman was.
"Mom," said Kurosaki.
"It's wonderful to see you, sweetheart. Try not die!" said Kurosaki's mother cheerfully.
Then with her right hand, she fired a crossbow bolt into his face.