Chapter 83

"Stay concentrated, Jūgo. Feel the natural energy filling your body and slowly swirl it towards your core for ten heartbeats before pushing it away for twenty more..." I muttered as I was laying my hand on his back while I took off the wristbands preventing natural energy from getting absorbed by his body

Back then, I underestimated Jūgo's passive ability to absorb the surrounding natural energy... Firstly, the maximum capacity that his body could bear right now was low, mostly because of his age but that's making me wonder how he survived for so long in the canon.

Secondly, his rate of absorption was so massive he had to expulse with twice the strength he passively absorbed it.

To help him with it, I took off the wristbands that prevented the surrounding Natural Energy from getting absorbed by Jūgo and instead inscribed a Fūinjutsu on his back not by using chakra but by using Senjutsu and Natural Energy.

It was an extremely painful process for Jūgo when I had to carve the seal on his back but the result would be more than worth it.

"Try to transform your arm and attack me." I said as I took a few steps back while he turned himself to face me and nodded although he had some apprehension before his arm began to change into a monstrous-looking axe

While doing so would have usually transformed half of his face and chest because of a lack of control, only his arm was looking different while clarity could be seen in his gaze as he charged towards me just like asked.

Testing how tough his generated weapon could be, I covered my arm with Steel Release and didn't move at all as Jūgo's axe arm descended upon my own.

*CLANG*

A clashing sound between two hard materials resonated in the training ground and when Jūgo took back his arm which didn't look damaged, I was surprised to see a small cut in my Steel-covered arm, not life-threatening and barely noticeable but it still meant that his weapon made with Natural Energy at such a young age was capable of damaging a defensive Kekkei Genkai no matter how meager it may be.

"Mh, not bad, not bad at all Jūgo." I exclaimed with a smile before ruffling the silent orange-haired boy's hair which made him quite happy

I don't want him to try and transform more than one arm or leg for now because I feel like he would lose control... He's still really young, heck, he's not even old enough to enter the Academy, and yet he left a dent in my Metal Release's protected arm.

A bit further from us, we could see that Pakura was currently training Guren not with her Crystal Release because it was my job but instead trained her Taijutsu since Pakura was a great teacher for it.

It was to be expected since Scorch Release was the most effective combined with Taijutsu, and Guren needed such training along with her Ninjutsu to be a powerful kunoichi later on.

Pakura also told me that she enjoyed being a teacher to the younger generation, and even more to Guren, Jūgo, and Fū once I told her about their past.

Weirdly enough for someone coming from Sunagakure who, in my surely half-biased opinion, were great at treachery, Pakura was someone who believed that loyalty and love for family, friends, and the village was what made a shinobi strong.

Needless to say that I agreed to make her their Jōnin team leader once they graduate, something that wouldn't happen soon but she was already increasing her bonds with each of them before they could enter the Academy.

Though I would still teach them on the side since Jūgo's ability wasn't something Pakura could help him with, Guren's Crystal Release couldn't have a better teacher than me who used it since I was fourteen, as for Fū...

The bubbly green-haired girl was currently happily flying at high speed around the compound, perks of having Chōmei's agreement to help her, though it made it harder for me to keep her still for some needed useful knowledge learning sessions.

She could be considered an over joyous rebellious child, one that couldn't keep focused on something for more than five minutes.

Though I was glad to ask Pakura to take care of their training...

"GET DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW GIRL OR I WILL BURN THOSE WINGS OF YOURS!" Pakura shouted as a tick mark could be seen on her forehead since she was supposed to train both Guren and Fū right now but the latter 'fled' the training ground

"YES MA'AM!" I heard the young tanned girl reply as she landed in an instant on Pakura's side while profusely sweating

'I'm too soft with kids, thank God women around me are strong headed' I thought as Tsunade was also the one who spanked or punished Tsugumi when she did something she shouldn't have while I was always saying that it was fine

"Alright, Jūgo, I will allow you to join Pakura's Taijutsu training. As long as you only transform one arm or leg, you should be fine, and don't worry in case you lose control I will be coming, okay?" I explained to Jūgo since I didn't want him to be completely dependent on me or it would stress him when I'm not near and that would induce his loss of control

"Have fun teaching them, Pakura." I said as she replied with a thumbs up and a hint of a sadistic smile

'Nevertheless, I should warn the original to prepare himself for the upcoming wedding' I thought as I sent him a message since it was Kushina's wedding with Minato and such an event needed his presence

*POV back to the real Yuichi*

"Hm, it's time already?" I said as I opened my eyes and slowly got up from my meditative position

I finished generating the Five-Tails chakra some months ago and was now fully focusing on the Seven-Tails which should be finished early next year at this rate.

Considering how long it took me to generate the Eight and Nine-Tails, I was pleased with this development.

"Anyway, Tsunade's surely waiting for me." I said out loud before teleporting to my bedroom and appeared a few meters behind a semi-naked Tsunade who just left the shower

"Mh, I should have left earlier." I thought out loud as I missed the opportunity of showering with my wife

"We can't afford to be late, even more since you will accompany Kushina. And you are forbidden to isolate yourself until tomorrow, you're mine tonight." Tsunade said with a teasing smile as she passed by me and left her bath towel on a chair while she started to choose her clothes for today's event

"Someone intend to drink a lot today uh." I said with a chuckle since it was one of the rare occasions where Tsunade could drink to her heart's content, and she wasn't denying it

Promptly moving towards the bathroom to take a shower myself even though my body didn't need it to be clean, I carefully dried my wonderful hair and tied them in a ponytail before going back to the bedroom where I saw Tsunade wearing a beautiful red and golden kimono.

"You should wear kimono more often, it's perfectly bringing out your forms." I said as she finished tying her sash around her waist

"Are you insinuating that I'm fat?" Tsunade replied as she was still in front of the mirror to see if something was wrong with her clothes and had to be fixed

"Fat? No. Huggable? Hundred percent." I replied as I approached her and hugged her from behind while leaving a kiss on her nape, a feeling I always loved since I could embrace her easily considering how small she was compared to me in terms of height

"Good answer." she said while giggling before adding "Could you help me with my hair?" as she presented the hairpin in her hand to me

"Sure." I replied while chuckling inwardly as I wondered if I should become a hairdresser if I ever retire from being a shinobi since I pretty much became a professional thanks to my own hair

"Do you know if Tsugumi prepared herself?" I asked as I was combing her hair to make the rest of my work easier

"Chizu should be with her right now." Tsunade replied as she stayed still to not hinder me though her gaze in the mirror told me that she was enjoying the view of my naked upper half

Just like our wedding, Kushina's and Minato's wedding wasn't 'public' and had a limited amount of guests, most of them being people we know well enough.

They also didn't force the young children to come to the event since we knew that they would get bored quite easily, at least those who were still at the Academy were given the choice to come or not.

Anyway, back at talking about Chizu, she was more lively since the day I intruded her mind and broke the wall she settled herself.

I disliked playing with people's minds if they are close to me but I first decided to look inside of her mind and look through most of her memories to see if she was naturally acting like that or not.

Thankfully, I guess, she truly changed herself to become a literal weapon to me which made her throw aside what she deemed useless such as her emotions, thinking that it would be a hindrance for her duty to repay me with her life.

So, since unlocking all of her emotions at once would pretty much break her mind, I made her slowly recover them with time and it proved to have a great effect on her.

First of all, she didn't lose an ounce of loyalty to me and was as serious as before whenever I called for her.

And second, she became livelier when she wasn't 'working'.

She wasn't as lively as Tsugumi, Fū, or her brother but seeing her smile for the first time since I took her and Shuzo with me during my first travel was in my opinion truly worth it.

Usually, Chizu was rarely interacting with anyone else but me, Tsunade, Tsugumi, or Konan, but now she was more open to social interactions and finally used her free time to enjoy what the village could offer instead of staying inside of our house to do chores such as cleaning or cooking again and again when it was something Tsunade or myself could do ourselves.

"And... Done!" I said as Tsunade's hair were beautifully tied, something to be expected since I did it

"Thanks." Tsunade replied as she kissed me on the lips since I was around her height right now

"You're welcome." I said before taking care of my own clothes which consisted of a black suit with some kimono-looking details since ties and ribbons weren't a thing here

I still had a white pocket handkerchief and a white shirt below to give some contrast, though the colors were the classical ones men should wear during such events.

And right on cue, someone knocked on the door before we heard Chizu say "Everyone is ready, Tsunade-sama, Yuichi-sama."

"Let's go." I said with a smile as Tsunade locked her arms with one of my own before opening the door to reveal Chizu, Konan, Yugito Nii, Tsugumi, and Shisui all wearing a kimono with different color combinations

"Everyone is looking good for today." I said while being completely honest since the colors they chose were embellishing all of them

Considering the size of our group, we were quite noticeable when we left the compound to join the place where the ceremony would begin and once we arrived, I parted way with the group to join Kushina as her father figure.

Inside the building, I noticed Minato and Jiraiya, who was the one acting as Minato's father figure for his wedding, both waiting in the middle of the corridor.

"Yo Yuichi." Jiraiya said as he raised his hand in the air with a goofy smile on his face while Minato greeted me as formally as usual "Glad to see you, Yuichi-sama."

"I wouldn't miss Kushina's wedding, it's an important event after all... Though, is Kushina still preparing?" I asked as I couldn't see her around and was surely inside her room a bit further from us

"She said that she needed some more time to be ready, however, she did tell us that you could go inside once you arrived." Jiraiya said as he pointed at the door Kushina was in

'Am I going to comb some hair again?' I thought as I let out a small chuckle before saying "I will be on my way then."

Leaving Minato's and Jiraiya's side, I knocked on Kushina's room door before saying "Kushina, it's Yuichi, can I enter?"

"Yes!" I heard her reply before opening the door to see Kushina wearing the beautiful white kimono along with some red ornaments that most brides in this world had to wear

"Is something wrong?" I asked since I could see some obvious worry on her face

"N-No, I mean, yes, actually... You remember the crystal flower you made for me back when you visited Uzushiogakure for the first time?" Kushina asked as she was fidgetting

"Of course, why?" I replied as it was the day when the bond between us essentially began

"W-Well... I accidentally broke the flower when I was training with Kurama-dattebane." she said as her face was red from embarrassment and tried to hide it by looking down

'I guess the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode combined with an Uzumaki natural strength was bound to break it' I thought as Kushina and Kurama have been working together for a long time now

"You wanted to wear it for your wedding?" I asked as I wasn't that alarmed by it but the same couldn't be said to Kushina from what I understood

"Of course! It meant a lot to me... At that time I felt like I no longer had anyone to count on and you were the one who comforted me and gave me the force to keep on smiling." she explained as she had watery eyes while I smiled and replied "Look at my hand."

When she did, I started to generate a crystal flower with the same color as her eyes, purple just like before, but slightly bigger since she grew up quite a lot since then.

"Back then I gave it to you so you wouldn't feel alone once I left. However, I think it is more than symbolic for me to create a new one today since you are no longer alone... After all, aren't we here for your wedding?" I said as I started to fix the flower to her hair since it was her only missing ornament

Taking a few steps back, I saw Kushina's face shedding a few tears before she jumped towards me and muttered "Thank you... Dad." as she hugged me and was using a bit too much of her strength but I was used to such things

"There, there. You should stop crying, today's a beautiful day. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming, and your wedding is coming." I said as I refrained from ruffling her hair and instead gave her a handkerchief to dry her tears

"Hn!" she replied as she finally showed me a bright smile now that she felt ready and happier than ever

"Time to go then, your soon-to-be husband and the guests are all waiting for you." I said as I walked a bit to the side to let her leave the door first

As I watched her leave the room with her usual smile back on, I couldn't help but see the young version of herself instead, a nostalgic feeling that made me realize how time pass fast...