Work Text:
“Can I move now?” It was an awkward position. Shisui wasn’t quite sure why he needed to stand on one foot, arms out stretched to either side, and he wasn’t entirely convinced that Naruto hadn’t just told him that to see if he would.
Kushina didn’t even look up from the hefty scroll open on the coffee table, her paintbrush moved steadily, “No.”
The other Uzumaki of the duo had disappeared in the general vicinity of the dining room table. Every now and again, one of the giant tomes and scrolls would move and make happy or disgusted sound depending on the scribbles found. Spiky blond hair would clear the sea of knowledge as Naruto surfaced briefly for air, then disappeared down below again.
“Okay!” Kushina announced suddenly. Just in time, Shisui was feeling the need to nap and his arms were starting to hurt. “All done.” Her grin turned sly, “Ready, Shisui-chan?”
Shisui blinked slowly, not quite liking the edge to Kushina’s grin. “If I say, ‘no’, will that stop you?”
The Uzumaki head pulled back, offended and at odds with the ink smudging one corner of her cheek from when she scratched it, “Of course! We want you to come back and work with us again.” Some of her long, red hair had drifted into an ink pot at one point and dripped black on the floor as she moved.
It was reassuring. Shisui sighed, “Then yes, I’m ready.”
“Excellent!” Kushina picked up the giant scroll she had been working on and skillfully maneuvered it over to where Shisui stood in one of the carefully painted circles surrounded with various symbols beyond his comprehension. “So, if this works you will be able hear what I’m saying no matter how far away I am. Think the radios we currently use but better, you know.”
She moved efficiently, laying the scroll just in front of the couch- pushed out of the way. The Uzumaki was muttering gibberish about directions and elements as she went. With painstaking precision, she copied out the symbols on the floor and, occasionally, on Shisui. Mostly around his ears.
Nodding with satisfaction, Kushina took a step back. “Alright. Naruto!”
The blond surfaced again, ink on one half of his face. The ten-year old nightmare for the ANBU corps was yawning, “Yeah?”
“Watch him. We’re about to prove Kensuke wrong.” Kushina crackled slightly, and then marched her way into a distant room of the apartment.
There was a flare of chakra, a slight tingling sensation around the crown of Shisui’s head and the ink moved swiftly into place, idly settling in as a dot behind his ears. The sudden change to his equilibrium had him letting his leg down and bending over to combat the dizziness.
Hmm, I wondered if that worked. There wasn’t any screaming, so that’s a good sign. Shisui flinched at the new voice in the back of his head, straightening immediately to look around for the source of the voice. It was Kushina’s, warm and friendly though a little baffled.
The voice that responded to her wasn’t Shisui’s.
Dark and more growl than speech, it spoke, Maybe it didn’t work. I don’t hear any screaming.
Shut up, Kurama. Kushina shot back, clear as if she was standing next to Shisui. That would mean Kensuke is right, and we know he’s not. We just have to prove it. Now let me test it.
Shisui swayed a little, blindsided by the conversation. The sudden silence was jarring.
After a moment, Kushina emerged. Poking her head out from the hallway, she said, “So what did I say?”
The Uchiha blinked at her, feeling two presences waiting for his response in the back of his mind. “Uh, you weren’t sure if it worked and that it was good I wasn’t screaming.” He licked his lips and continued, “And a voice you called Kurama suggested it didn’t work.”
To his shock, Kushina paled. Her lovely tan skin almost as white the high quality scrolls she worked with. The other voice, Kurama’s, added in the back of Shisui’s mind, Well, shit.
Naruto tilted his head up from the kitchen table, “Kurama? As in the furball?”
Kushina took a breath, then another, and then another. Finally, she said, “Yes, Naruto.”
The younger Uzumaki suddenly looked very excited, placing his hands on the table and pushing up to lift himself higher. “But ka-san! That means you developed a seal for mind reading!”
Naruto’s mother blinked at him, eyes widening and then she grinned, “You’re right! Ha! That’s even better than radios! I mean not quite what we’re looking for, you know, but T+I would love a seal like this with fine-tuning.” Kushina clapped her hands together, “What ‘til Minato hears about this! Or Kensuke!”
“Okay,” Shisui saw the signs of the Uzumaki about to decend into the rabbit hole of seals, he had to jump in soon, “Who’s Kurama?”
Kushina’s grin turned a little more feral, but Shisui was an Uchiha. He understood micro-expressions like the nuanced art it was, and saw the lingering fear in her expression. “That depends, Shisui-chan,” Kushina said crossing her arms, “On how well you can keep a secret.”