Recommended story: 'Naruto: Tornado of Souls' by Thayerblue1

Chapter Thirty-Four

Everyone huddled together taking defensive measures. Adrenaline was helping them snap out of any remnant sleep they would otherwise experience.

"Kushina, what can you tell us about these dark elves as you call them?" Tsunade whispered, surprised but also grateful that there were no more arrows coming their way.

"Elves are the dominant race in Alfheim. Sure succubi and vampires live here too, but elves are to Alfheim what humans are to Earth. But there are two different kinds, the light elves and the dark elves. The main difference between the two is that dark elves are nocturnal."

"Meaning they have the advantage right now." Tsunade whispered back, to which Kushina nodded. "Yet they aren't using it. Why?"

"Fear of the dark." The redhead muttered. "They've got us panicked and scared, looking everywhere we can but unable to see anything. They can attack us at any time they want, so why rush it? Why not toy with us and make us more afraid? More likely to act recklessly and make it easier for them to take us down? I gotta admit, as a ninja it's a solid tactic." She then glanced to Hinata. "But one of us can see in the dark."

Hinata nodded and activated her byakugan. She couldn't see the mana that any enemy would have, but the byakugan was not dependent on light and she could see the environment and anything that would be out of place. Things like footprints or damaged trees, or even weapons. Such as bows, quivers, and some strange staff weapons with blunt ends, all being held by what she saw as shimmering silhouettes.

"I think we're surrounded by seven, but I might be wrong. I can't actually see any of them that well." She warned.

"Maybe I can help with that." Sakura said, then put her hand on Hinata's forehead. "You can see mana now."

Hinata felt a strange indescribable sensation in her eyes, forcing her to close them and deactivate the byakugan.

"Wait a minute..." Sakura started, an idea coming to her. "If I can do that..."

All of a sudden a volley of arrows shot out from all around them, prompting them to react on reflex alone. The adults managed to avoid the worst of it thanks to decades of experience with enemies using projectiles, Tsunade taking at most a scratch to her cheek and a cut on her ear. The kids however were less lucky. Each one took at least one hit, leaving an arrow or two sticking out of a random body part.

Naruto immediately moved despite the pain to check on his two mates and his other friends. He saw them in pain, all alive, but the fact that they had been attacked in the first place had been more than enough to piss him off. Add in the fact Hinata and Sakura were among the victims and Sakura was pregnant, and there wasn't enough drugs in the world to calm him down right now.

Naruto snarled with his eyes turning red, and red energy began to form around his body. It slowly but surely started to take on the form of a fox, and was visible even to those that lacked a byakugan.

"This could get bad." Kushina thought out loud, seeing another wave of arrows coming but all of them were at Naruto this time. He grimaced in pain but the bijuu cloak kept strong, though it seemed to be warping in some way.

'I gotta try it.' Sakura thought, closing her eyes and focusing as hard as she could. "Dark elves go away!"

There was a strange pulse in the area, like a small tremor went off, then all of a sudden everyone could hear some shouting and exclamations of shock along with tree limbs snapping and the like. Then it was silent.

Sakura smiled. "It worked. I got rid of them."

"Thanks, though it would have been good if you had gotten that idea sooner." Tsunade stated.

Sakura looked over the others, seeing them still hurt. "Everyone heal." The arrows were magically removed from their bodies and the injuries patched themselves up, not even leaving scars. Naruto even started to calm down with the chakra cloak receding.

"This is incredible. I can do so much with this power. Hell, why not make the rest of this easy for us?" She added.

"Now Sakura-" Kushina started.

"Take us to Yggdrasil." Sakura demanded, then the next thing everyone knew the scenery whited out and came back, only now they were right by the giant tree that they had used to arrive in Alfheim in the first place. "Ha! I knew it would-"

She was cut off by a surge of pain that made her drop to her knees, and what made it worse was her stomach was aching too. It was like she had eaten molten lead or something.

"What's happening?" She asked fearfully.

Everyone rushed to her in hopes of seeing what was wrong. Shizune did a quick diagnosis jutsu on her since she was the only medic with working chakra at the moment while Naruto held the pinkette's hand reassuringly. After a few seconds Shizune gasped and switched to a healing jutsu focused on the young girl's torso.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked, afraid of the answer.

"In short, she's at risk of a miscarriage."

Everyone looked horrified, though Tsunade stepped in and knet beside the pained girl. "Kushina please tell me you have a way to treat her."

"Not for something this serious. Most advanced healing spell I ever learned was for a broken bone."

Tsunade frowned. "Dammit, I never should have agreed to become a succubus. All my medical skills are useless to me right now. And I can't take the risk that my own Gift is somehow conveniently related to healing. I might end up hurting her more."

"Teach me something." Naruto told her.

"But Naruto-"

"I still have chakra left. I don't know why, maybe my Gift is having chakra and mana at the same time, maybe it's because of Kyuubi. But if I can still do jutsu, then have me do one in your place." He insisted.

Tsunade looked to him, then to Sakura, then back. "Okay, here's how to do a simple pain relieving jutsu. It's not much, but it will help Shizune with what she's doing." She started to show him the hand signs, trying not to rush through them.

"What just happened?"

The several dark elves from before had regrouped inside the canopy of the trees where their targets had previously been. But there were no signs of them remaining.

"It appears that they must have used a teleportation spell to escape. But I've never seen one that could take more than one person." One of the archers noted.

"What about that blast? How is it we were repelled yet the only damage done to the environment was done by us and not them? That's not how a repulsion or barrier spell work." Another archer added.

"Our source did say these beings came from another world. They could have spells the likes of which Alfheim has never seen." A third elf speculated.

"We should not waste time." The commander of the troop told them all. "We know for a fact that Kushina of Ai no Kuni was indeed here, and her cluster are supposedly heading to the Yggdrasil Root. Once we are all patched up, we must move as quickly as possible."

"But sir, it will surely be daytime by the time we get there." The fifth member of the group countered. "And assuming they did teleport, it's entirely likely that they'll already be gone by the time we get to the Root."

"Teleportation spells are draining and can only take one so far. It is unlikely any of them are significantly close to the Root from here. And even if they were, they'd be too exhausted to use it. We have time to get there." The commander assured.

"There's still the daytime issue sir. They have the advantage when the sun is up." The fifth member repeated, getting the others to nod.

"Surely you haven't forgotten our daytime tactics men. We will prepare and take them down. If anything, they will be less guarded in the daytime for us. But this time, don't stick to traditional battle approach. No scaring them and baiting them into abandoning strategy. When next we see Kushina, we will go right for the kill."

Back at the palace, many people were either already asleep or about to go to bed. All except the night guards of course, they wouldn't be doing their jobs if they snoozed at these times. But there was another person who was awake, and looking out the window.

"Mom, I'm sorry, but something's going on here and you're not telling me the whole story." Ursha said, moving into the open ledge of the window. If anyone were to look her way they'd be certain she was about to jump out at any second. She glanced behind herself, both to make sure her door was closed and the note she had written was still where she placed it. "I need to hear this from Aunt Kushina herself. I need to know why you're chasing away my cousin like this."

She jumped out and spread her wings, taking flight. A couple of guards of course saw this and called to her, but since they were light elves they lacked wings and could not follow her.

'Queen Zara isn't going to like this.' They collectively thought.

It was a long night, after that point no one could get any sleep. Tension and paranoia was just too high, be it from potential threats in the dark or Sakura's ailment. Naruto and Shizune had stayed by her side all night, with Hinata, Kushina, and Tsunade staying beside them too. Ayame and Tayuya kept watch over Ino, Isaribi, and Moegi, keeping them away since the situation was making them uncomfortable.

"Okay, I think we've stopped any chance of a miscarriage now." Shizune exclaimed in a tired but relieved tone.

"Thank heaven for that." Kushina replied softly. Naruto simply wiped some tears out of his eyes.

"However she still needs rest and more care. I'd avoid any and all sexual activity, even self-induced, for her, and just to be safe no more magic either."

"That's got to be hard for her. Each time she speaks she risks using a spell." Hinata noted.

"Guess these Gifts can be just as harmful as they are helpful." Tsunade muttered.

"Any skill or trait can hurt a person in the wrong situation." Kushina claimed. "But yes, for now it's best if she limit her talking to focus on recovering."

"Can't she just say she's all healed and get it over with?" Naruto asked.

"That's an understandable question Naruto, but the problem is she has to use mana to use her Gift just like any other succubus. With her Gift, she is at risk of using mana more often than someone like myself. She could go through it all in a couple of sentences, like she just did to get us away from the dark elves. It's the mana version of chakra exhaustion, and you can't use a jutsu on yourself to recover your own chakra. I see no reason why it would be different for her."

"And even if it was possible for her, what would be the side effects?" Tsunade added.

Kushina shrugged. "I dunno. Magic works literally, so any side effects would be based on a literal interpretation of what she said."

After that, no one was quite sure what else to say, and simply continued to keep an eye on the resting Sakura, while occasionally keeping an eye out for incoming danger.

"She what?!"

A guard cleared his throat. "You heard correctly Queen Zara, Princess Ursha has fled from the castle."

Zara growled and clenched a fist. "Why would she do that?"

"Perhaps this could explain?" Another guard suggested, handing her the note they found when they searched the bedroom of the succubus princess.

Zara snatched it, nearly tearing it in the process, and quickly read it over.

Dear Mother, I'm sure you're all kinds of unhappy right now, but frankly I'm not sorry. I know you and Aunt Kushina don't always get along, I assumed it was a sister thing. Some of my friends don't get along with their siblings either, even if they do grow up together in the same world their whole lives. But from what I've seen, Aunt Kushina and cousin Naruto have done nothing wrong and yet you've driven them both out of the castle. Why? Do you really see Naruto as literally nothing but a penis to take advantage of? Do you really believe Aunt Kushina is supposed to see him the same way? I know how important finding an incubus and saving the species from extinction is to you, but you're objectifying Naruto while doing it. He's a living being with dreams of his own, and from what I'm seeing you're actually expecting him to throw those away and fulfill your dreams instead. No offense, okay maybe some offense, but that's the most selfish thing I've ever heard of.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe there's more to this than just what I'm seeing. But you clearly don't want to tell me anymore than you already have. So the only ones left to talk to are Aunt Kushina and Naruto. If I'm wrong about all this, then hopefully this will be a lesson to you about actually explaining things to me when I ask you to in the future. And if I'm right and you really are being this selfish...

The note ended there. Zara checked to see if something had been torn off and she just didn't notice it before. But nope, her daughter ended their goodbye on a cliffhanger. Crumbling the note in her hands, she glared at the guards.

"Gather our fastest horses and best riders. Tell them to head to the Yggdrasil immediately. Bring back Ursha alive. Lethal force is necessary against any who might assist in her escape."

The guards agreed and zipped out of there. Zara's glare persisted at empty space.

A soft but pained groan was made, and immediately several people were put into alert.

Sakura's hand went to her head, as if she had a headache. "Ughh... what... happened...?"

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto started, getting right beside her and taking her hand in his own.

She slowly opened her eyes. "Did... did I... get us away from them?"

With tears in his eyes, he nodded. "Yes, we're where we need to be, but don't do that again."

She yawned for a moment. "Why?"

"You nearly died."

Sakura blinked, the effects of sleep starting to wear off faster. "What?"

Tsunade stepped in. "You nearly exhausted your mana, not unlike chakra exhaustion, and your body went into a comatose state. The worst part was you nearly miscarried."

Sakura gasped and her free hand went to her stomach. "Is... is it...?"

Tsunade nodded. "The child is alive and safe, mostly thanks to Naruto performing the medical jutsu that I couldn't."

The pinkette turned towards the whiskered blonde. "Thank you so much Naruto-kun."

"Don't mention it."

"For the time being Sakura, you must refrain from using your Gift so liberally." Tsunade continued. "You may be able to accomplish much with it, but there is still a price to this ability. Save it for small stuff, and think before you speak from now on."

Sakura nodded, a few tears falling from her eyes now as she glanced to her stomach. 'I... I almost killed my baby... all because I thought I could do anything with this Gift.' She closed her eyes and wiped her tears away. 'I can't let this happen again. I will be more careful.'

Gasping heavily, Ursha roosted in a tree canopy. "Woooo... haven't flown that long in a while. But at least I'm still the fastest succubus in Ai no Kuni." Her wings twitched a bit with some cramping, forcing her to try and massage them. Fatigue started to set in, resulting in her leaning against the tree more. "I could get a little power nap in, then try to search for them, again."

Her eyes closed, but the sound of a thud along with some shaking startled her awake again.

"Careful idiot!"

"Hey the sun's out! Don't blame me for not seeing clearly!"

'What was that?' She asked, looking down but seeing nothing now. 'Someone was just here and in a hurry. Was it Aunt Kushina?'

Shaking her head and stretching her wings, Ursha took to the air again. Some birds flying out of the trees gave her a hint of where to go, and as she got closer to whoever else was traveling she could see vague outlines within the trees, but nothing identifying. This prompted her to go under the top layer of the forest and fly within the branches, slower than she'd like but still fast enough to catch up.

When she got closer she gasped and hid behind a tree, coming to a stop. 'Were those dark elves? What the heck are they doing out like this during the day? What could be so important they'd... wait, are they after Aunt Kushina? She killed a bunch of them over the last few years. Did they see her come this way and want to take the chance at revenge?'

Taking a deep breath, Ursha spread her wings and soared back above the forest. 'That power nap will have to wait.'

"Shouldn't be we heading back now?" Ayame asked as the group made themselves something to eat out of some rations Kushina had stored away. The only ones not present were Tsunade and Shizune who were confirming that Sakura was in good shape.

"We should make sure Sakura is healthy enough to be transported. Don't forget that using the Yggdrasil isn't as easy as climbing a normal tree. She could relapse if it gets rough in there, same with back in the Elemental Nations. We can afford to wait a bit and make sure she'll handle the next part of the journey." Kushina explained.

"But what about those dark elves? What if they catch up?" Tayuya asked.

"They can't move around during the day, it's too bright and warm for them. During the war I was able to fight them by getting into their bases during the day, and let's say being chained up didn't do them any favors." Kushina answered. "They won't be here until the sun's down. We can afford to take our time getting home."