Extra 20: C.A.O.S. (5)
Extra 20: C.A.O.S. (5)
As for the children, they were playing with Kon and the other children of the clan.
"What are you thinking, Kurama-san?" - Nemu asked as she looked at the silver-haired man.
"That there's something weird about all this, I find it strange that my other self forgot about you, but not the people in your dimension, which makes me think that there's something more to all this" - Kurama replied as he shook his head, though his expression changed when he heard the door to his office open - "What now?"
"Listen Kurama, I'm a genius!" - Tayuya exclaimed as she walked in with a small whiteboard.
Kurama gave him a blank look because he didn't understand what was going on.
"The truth is, we had a little contest for the kids on what to call the phenomenon that caused all this trouble" - replied Kushina as she walked behind Tayuya - "And as you may have deduced, she wanted to participate..."
Kurama gave Tayuya a blank look.
"I call it C.A.O.S.!" - Tayuya exclaimed as he puffed out his chest with pride.
"I'm going to ignore the fact that you participated in a competition for children, tell me what does that acronym mean?" sighed Kurama as he wondered if Kushina was to blame for making Tayuya act this way, because if he remembered correctly, she wasn't that childish to begin with, in fact, she started acting this way after Kushina gave her a few punishments.
"C.A.O.S. stands for C for chaos, A for chaos, O for chaos, S for chaos!" - Tayuya exclaimed as Kurama shot an annoyed glare at Kushina.
"What?" - Kushina asked apprehensively.
"Nemu-san, do you think you can call Ino-chan?" - Kurama asked as he watched the black-haired girl leave for a moment, only to return next to the aforementioned blonde.
"What did you call me for, Kurama-kun?" - Ino asked in surprise.
"I want you to check Tayuya's mind, there's something I feel that doesn't add up" - Kurama answered seriously, after all, she was acting much more childish than usual, in fact, now that he thought about it more calmly, Tayuya had been acting strange for years, it's just that everyone ignored it because this was "normal" for her.
"Okay?" - Ino cocked her head to the side, confused at these words, though she still followed her husband's instructions. She put her hands on Tayuya's head, only to let out a scream of terror after a few seconds - "This is bad!"
"What's wrong?" - Kurama asked with a frown.
"Kurama-kun, this is terrible, she's suffering from some kind of mental corrosion" - replied Ino with a frown - "I'm not sure of the main reason, but you'd better investigate this more seriously."
Kurama was silent before snapping his fingers and appearing in a dark place.
Slowly, he began to check the surroundings, and noticed how everything around him was broken.
"Who are you ,Onii-chan?" - asked a childish voice.
Kurama looked in the direction of the voice's origin, and saw a cute little girl about 8 years old who was wearing clothes too big for her body, though that wasn't the biggest problem, but rather that she was wearing Tayuya's clothes.
"My name is Kurama" - Kurama replied as he looked closely at the girl.
"Kurama Onii-chan!" - shouted the childish Tayuya as she jumped into the silver-haired man's arms and climbed at high speed towards his shoulder - "Hmm ~!"
"What are you doing alone in this place?" - Kurama asked as he looked at the pink-haired girl.
"I don't know, I don't remember anything" - muttered Tayuya while frowning.
"Are you afraid of something near here?" - Kurama asked seriously,
"Afraid?" - Tayuya repeated as she furrowed her small brow before looking around.
"You can be honest with me, I don't want to hurt you" - smiled Kurama as he tried to soothe the girl.
"It's that way" - Tayuya replied as she bit her lip and pointed north.
Kurama looked in that direction and noticed how a black fog appeared, so he quickly put the little girl on the ground and walked in that direction.
"Wait, it's dangerous!" - Tayuya exclaimed as she tried to stop this stranger who made her feel something warm inside.
"Ino, I know you're watching me, I want you to take care of Tayuya" - said Kurama seriously.
"You don't have to say it twice" - replied Ino as she appeared beside the girl.
Tayuya let out a cry of fear, though she quickly calmed down when she noticed this woman's loving gaze - "Who are you?"
"A friend" - Ino replied as she placed her hand on Tayuya's head and began to stroke her hair.
Kurama walked quickly to the dark mist and saw a silhouette appear that he immediately recognized - "What are you doing here?"
"Is that any way to talk to someone who helped you, Kurama-kun ~?"
"You should be dead, I wiped out your soul" - Kurama growled neutrally.
"I know, this is the last remaining of my existence, a little insurance I kept on all my minions, hoping to be reborn, though it's a pity this girl didn't fulfill her goal being such an easy one."
"That doesn't mean you have the right to toy with her conscience, Orochimaru" - Kurama roared as his slitted pupils sharpened like knives.
"It's not my fault that Kushina Uzumaki made my job a little easier with so many outbursts, Kurama-kun" - replied Orochimaru disdainfully as he narrowed his eyes - "But don't worry, I'm not hurting this idiot woman."
"That doesn't seem true, she's acting like a retard" - Kurama replied neutrally.
"That has nothing to do with me, I haven't touched anything of her consciousness, in fact, I've been waiting for the right moment when she's pregnant, so I can take advantage of the excess vitality to create a new body for myself, that she is acting this way does not help my plans at all" - replied Orochimaru with a frown - "That is why I have been making a huge effort to try to repair this corrosion produced by a mixture of factors, these being the dimensional travel that caused a strange energy to erode this woman's subconscious and finally the influence of that strange creature you used to modify her DNA."
Kurama was silent because he wasn't expecting this - "Wait, you want to be my son?"
"In the slightest, the moment I managed to concentrate enough vitality to create a body for myself, I was going to escape from this woman's body in order to gather the necessary genetic code from other species, possibly one related to snakes" - Orochimaru answered with disgust - "After that, I was going to continue living among the shadows, gathering as much knowledge as possible thanks to my new immortality, remember that my experiments were the means to try to reach this result"
Kurama was silent as he let out a heavy sigh. After reading all of Orochimaru's reports, he understood some things about his actions, though at the same time he was not at ease with some of his deeds.
"Are you going to try to kill me for my past wrongdoings?" - Orochimaru asked with a frown - "I didn't think you were such a hypocrite, Kurama-kun, neither did I think you would discard me after using all my knowledge."
"I don't plan to do anything to you, Orochimaru" - Kurama replied while shaking his head. He had passed the stage where he considered himself a hero, he just wished to be at ease with his family and live a long life together, not to mention that having someone like Orochimaru on his team might help him more than he thought, after all, Kushina and the others weren't truly immortal, they were just long-lived.
"It's a relief, because I honestly don't have the power to oppose your moves against me, right now I'm nothing more than a flame that can be extinguished with just a breath" - Orochimaru sighed as he frowned - "And it doesn't help that I'm wasting so much of my little power trying to safeguard this idiot woman's conscience."
"Is there any way I can help you?" - Kurama asked earnestly.
"I didn't think to hear those words so soon" - Orochimaru replied as he raised an eyebrow - "I thought it would take you longer to accept me as an ally."
"Let's get straight to the point, I've had enough trouble without beating around the bush, not to mention that Tayuya's safety is far more important than our hostile feelings" - Kurama replied with irritation. Yes, he could sense the instinctive hostility coming from Orochimaru, though he couldn't blame him when he had been one of the reasons for his death.
"Since you're honest, I'm going to be honest too, to solve this problem, we just need Tayuya's consciousness to be strengthened, although this will be a bit dangerous" - replied Orochimaru while shaking his head - "The safest method, would be with training, but we don't have enough time to wait, that's why we'll have to take the risk and make his little consciousness slowly absorb the influence of these strange energies."