Here is the Bonus Chapter.
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The Kumo Envoy team finally stepped onto, The Battlefield, it felt suffocating. The dirt was still upturned and cratered by heavy impacts. This was the place where Kaien had been captured.
Aya stood at the center of the devastation, her breath hitching in her throat. Every instinct in her body screamed at her to let go, to sink into the dirt and howl her heart out. But she didn't... she dug her nails into her palms, drawing blood to calm herself. She had to be a pillar... She has to be strong for her son when she finally sees him.
Her voice was a fragile, when she finally spoke. "Renga... tell me about the mission."
Renga understood she wasn't asking for a tactical briefing or a list of objectives of the mission. She wanted to know what her son's last moments of freedom looked like. She wanted to know how a mission had spiraled into a nightmare.
Nearby, Kushina Uzumaki stood silently as her eyes scanning the ground. Her gaze fell on the distinctive three-pronged kunai scattered across the terrain... the signature of the Flying Thunder God... then looked towards Renga wanting to hear what he was about to say.
She thought of Kaien and, during her own time as Kumo's Hostage, she slowly became ever of how Kaien has been protecting her from torture as a silent guardian.
Even when the Old lady Benihime had roughen her up first, it stopped being that bad a while later. She had assumed the old woman was going easy on her. Kaien had been shielding her from the shadows, even then.
"I wish I could thank him", she thought, a lump forming in her throat. I wish I had realized sooner.
"It started better than we expected," Renga's voice broke her chain of thought. "The alliance with the Chinoike clan wasn't just successful; it was seamless. Everything was going perfectly. That was when Kaien said he feels something bad is about to happen but," He paused, taking a breath that rattled in his chest as everyone's attention fell on him. "But then he shook it off. He convinced himself he was just being paranoid because the stakes were so high and that it was because it was his first mission."
"We were preparing to head back to Kumo," Renga continued. "That's when they appeared. A Reanimated shinobi... Might Duy and two boys masked as Konoha ANBU were closing in on us. The power coming off Duy was... suffocating. I knew I had to draw him away if the kids were to stand a chance. I engaged him, moving the fight away, leaving the rest to Samui, Mabui, Darui and Kaien."
Mabui continued from then. "After father left, It was Kaien who took control of team and stepped into the gap. He took command of the team instantly, using his jutsu to dictate the pace of the fight, keeping those two ANBU at a distance. They looked our age, but more stronger than us."
She wiped a stray tear from her cheek, her voice trembling. "Two Chinoike shinobi joined us mid-fight. I'm certain Kaien had brought them somehow without us noticing."
"That's when everything shifted," Mabui whispered. "One of the boys... the one in the kitsune mask... reached into his pouch and pulled out a three pronged kunai. The moment Kaien saw it, the color drained from his face. He screamed at us to retreat. It wasn't a tactical withdrawal; it was a plea for our lives. He looked... devastated. Like he was counting the seconds he had left to live."
Mabui continued her shoulders shaking. "If it wasn't for Kaien, not a single one of us would have come back alive. But, we were prepared to die."
Aya could no longer hold back tears as her knees hit the hard-packed earth with a dull thud. The guilt she had been suppressing took over her. "I should never have let him go on the mission. It is all my fault." she sobbed, her voice a visceral sound of agony.
In her grief, she began to strike her forehead against the ground, the blunt force drawing blood. She was punishing herself for the crime of being a mother who couldn't protect her child.
The Raikage was about to step toward his daughter. But Kushina flickered to Aya's side. She caught Aya by the shoulders, pulling her back that brooked no argument.
"Stop it!" Kushina commanded, her voice ringing out across the clearing. "Look at me, Aya. Do you think Kaien would be happy to have his mother mutilate like this?"
Aya looked up, her face smeared with blood and tears, her eyes vacant with shock.
"It's only a matter of time now," Kushina said, her tone softening but remaining firm. "I am sure nothing would have happened with Hiruzen as the Hokage. He won't let anything happen to a high-value hostage, especially not when he knows Nine-tails jinchuriki is the leverage. He'll keep Kaien safe because he understands it is the only way to keep the peace." She spoke with a conviction that came from years of knowing the "Professor" of Konoha. He was a coward, he would risk it.
However, she had no way of knowing that the Hiruzen Sarutobi is long dead and that the village she used to call home had changed completely.
Kushina reached down, pulling back the sleeve of her robe to reveal her forearm. "Bite me," she said simply.
Aya blinked, momentarily stunned, she looked into Kushina's eyes. Without a word, Aya leaned forward and sank her teeth into Kushina's arm.
The Uzumaki vitality surged into Aya, a warm tide of chakra that knit the skin on her forehead back together. The bruising faded, and the physical pain vanished.
"Now," Kushina said, helping Aya to her feet and wiping the dust from her clothes. "Be strong for him."
The Raikage looked at Kushina... and felt a strange, inexplicable emotion. He suddenly felt a kinship... he couldn't put words on it.
To his eyes, weirdly Kushina looked no different from Aya. He didn't know why he felt like Kushina was also his Daughter.
He wondered if it was the Uzumaki blood he had recently integrated into himself that was playing tricks on his mind, or if there was something deeper. He felt a protective urge toward Kushina same as he had for his own Daughter, Aya.
But Kushina already felt that when the Raikage first appeared, with his red hair, before her. She also felt a kinship... however, she did not discuss it as she doubted her own feelings and would be weird to call him "Father".
He cleared his throat, the sound gruff and commanding, breaking the silence of the battlefield. "She's right," the Raikage barked, though his eyes remained softened as he looked at the two women. "We've wasted enough time grieving. Konoha is ahead, and my grandson is waiting."
He turned toward the direction of Konoha, his cloak billowing in the wind. "Let's hurry."
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A/N: As the battlefield would come across their way from Kumo to Konoha. A short stop before getting to Konoha.
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