CHAPTER 65: NEW DISCOVERIES

“We were right.”

“Indeed. You think that’s it? That this… double helix contains blueprints for… everything?”

Tsunade wondered aloud, looking at the imagery in front of her, Karin and Riku. A double helix they had found by zooming in the nucleus of a cell.

“Possibly. We’d know for sure if we made some comparison. Between others time of cells from the same sources, then from cells coming from another test subject of the same species then from a different species. Can you imagine what we would be able to do if we were right?” replied Riku to his mother.

“At the very least understand what does what and try to modify it in favor of healing. Regenerating a missing body part from just this by stimulating the cellular division in the way we want…”

“More than that we may be able to understand kekkei genkai and maybe replicate them.” added Karin.

It’s been three months since they started working on this. It hadn’t been easy to create a microscope able to zoom way further than what it could actually do. Nor was it easy to determine what they were seeing. They succeeded however, and now a whole new branch of possibilities offered itself for them to explore.

“Those are questions for tomorrow. I’m beat and wouldn't mind going home.” Riku commented and both women had to agree. They’ve been at it for hours today and they were tired.

Karin and Riku walked home hand in hand like the engaged couple they were. After the news of Hinata’s pregnancy was shared he had quickly made his proposal to Karin to not make her feel left out and because as time passed, Hinata would need more of his time. The redhead had waited long enough already so he gave up on some functionalities of her room that still needed to be made, like the artificial sea breeze.

When it was time, he didn’t make a romantic dinner for her like he did for Ino or Hinata. Instead it was more like a romantic date at the beach. With fun and games, a picnic and a lot of swimming. When Riku revealed to her that the room was actually a reconstitution of a beach from Uzushio, the redhead's heart melted. She had always wanted to go there but was never able to.

As a consequence of their relatively close blood relation and their time spent together working on seals or dealing with the Kyubi’s chakra, Karin listened to many tales and stories Kushina knew about their homeland. Their bond became even stronger for multiple reasons. The first one was of course how alike they both were. From the Adamantine sealing chains, to being a jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, having a short fuse temper, being fascinated by fuinjutsu most notably pure sealing and barrier and finally for falling in love with a girly man genius. The only physical point in common was the color of their hair but if no one was paying attention to it they would have thought they were mother and daughter or sisters. The last point that brought them closer together was that Naruto wasn’t that interested in the Uzumaki clan. Sure, he loved the stories but that was it. He was born in Konoha and breathed Konoha. Uzushio was just a distant thing for him. Karin on the other hand and much like Kushina was not from Konoha at all. She hated Kusa and never considered it her home, dreaming instead of the Uzumaki’s home. When she migrated to Konoha, she came to see it as such but she already had an attachment to her clan and their history.

Seeing and hearing the length at which Riku went to recreate a piece of her motherland she always wanted to see, Karin didn’t even bother saying ’yes’ to his marriage proposal and fucked him right on the spot on the sand. It was only the day after when they woke up in each other arms in a bed that she finally gave him a proper answer. As a result, she never left the Senju manor and started to live there with Hinata.

That decision made Ino quite jealous and she finally accepted after nearly a year of engagement to move in. Each lady had a room of her own that Riku had expanded and which had direct access to his own bedroom. They didn’t have any schedule of who would spend the night with him beyond the single day reserved for the cuddling night with Tsunade and when one of the three wanted to spend the night alone with Riku. It was mostly for Hinata, Ino not caring if her friends saw her fuck their fiance or if they joined and Karin rarely wanting to spend time alone with Riku without the others.

Tsunade was more than happy to have more family living inside the manor with a grandchild on the way. When she learned that Shizune had a thing with Kakashi she subtly pushed her to tie the lazy man down and to give her another grandchild too. She was being so relentless that Shizune was rarely home nowadays. Riku didn’t know if his mother tactics worked and Shizune shacked up with his fake cyclops of a teammate or if it didn’t and shacked up with Yugao, the actual cyclops of Team Yukari or moved in Karin’s former place.

When they got home they were surprised by the presence of Kushina and Minato.  The man had been both happy to know he was going to be a grandfather and was also completely freaking out because technically, he was just 25. He had of course got to meet all his future daughters-in-law since his resurrection but only Karin did he get to really know because of the time spent with his wife and talking about fuinjutsu. Ino and Hinata were merely acquaintances and after checking with Kushina (who bonked him on the head for even asking) decided to change that, especially now that Hinata was entering her third semester and was showing greatly.

That didn’t quite answer why the Uzumaki couple were doing here today.

“Helping with the final touch of wedding’s preparation.” Kushina had answered with nonchalance as it was the most obvious thing in the world.

With Hinata pregnant, Riku had insisted they should be married before the birth of the children. Yes, children. Hinata may have taken her physique after her mother but it seems, like just her paternal grandmother, she got the possibility to have twins. Hiashi, who had been quite murderous for a few months when he heard that his eldest unwed daughter was pregnant, calmed down when he realized that one: he was going to be grandfather. Two: because the twins reminded him of his own brother. Now that the cage bird seal was no more and that there was no more branch of the Hyuga clan, the man had felt immense relief at the knowledge that no more twins would have their special bonds torn apart because of tradition; like his and Hizashi had been. He decided to see it as a sign from Kami that everything was going well for his clan.

The marriage would be in a week's time. A small ceremony with only family and really close friends who were invited and would take place in the Senju Manor’s big garden in the backyard. Of course the wedding triggered Ino’s inner and outer princess and she went all out. She was so crazy and hyper active, that Hinata tried her best to hide from her in those moments. Riku’s moon princess wanted something simple but quiet and pretty and that was it.

“Final touch?” Riku inquired, curious. As far as he knew, everything had been ready. From the invitations to the cake.

“That’s a surprise.” the redhead replied.

“Know anything about this?” he tried with Minato, who entered the dining room behind Hinata and carried the food.

“Nope. And even if I did, I like to live too much to spill the beans.” the man replied and Kushina quickly changed the topic of discussion.

“So, Karin. Any news to share? Like the Uzumaki clan gaining a new member in a few months?”

“It’s a bit too soon to-”

“You’re pregnant.” interjected Tsunade. Her words silenced everyone in the room in shock from the defacto tone she had used.

“H-How do you know?”

“I’m a sage, I know things.” replied the blonde woman with a knowing smirk. It was wiped out of her face and replaced by a pout with her son’s words.

“Sensing? It really allows you to know if someone is pregnant or not? Interesting.”

“Wait! So Karin is really…” Ino asked and Tsunade nodded in confirmation.

The young redhead was dumbfounded but a stupid pleased smile adorned her lips. Riku had gotten up to reach Karin for a loving hug but Ino was faster.

“We’re going to have another baby!” she squealed in delight.

“We?” Riku wondered aloud wondering what his sun princess meant by that.

“Of course we. I consider any child from Karin and Hinata mine too.”

“And vice versa.” added Hinata.

Karin being an Uzumaki and Uzumaki being very family oriented she agreed with this.

They had a good time during dinner and when it was time for, Riku made shadow clones so none of his fiancees would sleep alone. None of the girls cared if they had the original or not and didn’t even bother to find out. The clone with Hinata was rubbing cream on her pregnant belly that he found simply beautiful. The one with Ino had dispelled on her orders; she wanted to spend the night alone. The one with Karin was facing her and they talked lovingly about the baby they were going to have. That left the original with Tsunade, falling asleep, cuddling to her and sucking on her tits.

Only Ino out of the three knew of his activities with his mother and kept quiet about it for obvious reasons. As far as the others knew, Mother and son were just cuddling (which was what they were actually doing most of the time) and found it cute. Only because they were making up for lost time and bonded that way.

When Kushina had heard about this during a conversation with Karin, she became instantly jealous. She wished she could do that with Naruto but she knew it wouldn’t go well with him. She missed the time she never got to have to create a solid bond with her own son. Or rather a more solid one. Her relationship with Naruto was really good despite him being an adult and rather independent. He never forgot to tell her he loved her. Always gave her a hug or a kiss on the cheek. Still she wanted more out of it, she wanted the experience of being a mother proper, like Tsunade. Secretly she was reconsidering her stance on not having further children.

Time passed quickly and the day of the wedding arrived. The ceremony was a quick affair witnessed by many. On his side of the family, Riku had his parents, Nartuo and Kushina,Yugao, Kakashi, Shizune, Izumo and Kotetsu and Hiruzen who had received a special invitation. On Hinata’s side was her father, Hanabi, Neji and Tenten who came as his girlfriend, Kurenai and Asuma and of course Shino and Kiba. The latter had tried to make threats to Riku but Shino got him away before he got himself into trouble. The Inuzuka was still holding a torch for Hinata and was quite jealous of Riku having a ‘harem’, as he called it. 

While the ceremony (which had been officiated by Hiruzen as a former Hokage) was quick, the festivities weren’t. The wedding started right before noon and lasted well into the night. Before they went to bed, Hinata shared her decision to Riku about where she wanted her hiraishin seal to be on her body. She took her time to decide but she realized that the answer had been obvious: on her heart. Riku immediately picked up a brush, some chakra ink and put it on her left breast. He then activated the seal which disappeared under her skin.

When morning came Senju Hinata was so happy with her life that she didn’t want to open her eyes and start her days. Unfortunately for her, her bladder who was heavily squished by the babies decided otherwise. That was how her married life started. A trip to the bathroom. Thankfully she had a very good husband who carried her there and then back to bed.

“A ryo for your thoughts, Lady Senju.” Riku, asked his wife. He was half sitting in bed with Hinata leaning against his chest. He was rubbing gently her belly while resting his chin on the top of her head.

“That I’m happy. That I love my life right now and wouldn’t change a thing for anything in the world.”

“I think the same with one exception. I’d like those two to already be here with us.” he replied, feeling one of the babies kick, bringing a smile to his face. “Did you finally decide where you wanted to give birth?”

“Here, at the manor. Your mother said it was a Senju tradition.”

“She didn’t force or guilt trip you did she?”

“No but I like the idea. The hospital feels so… impersonal for it.”

“Any idea what you want for their bedroom?”

“Hmm. No. I’d like to talk about this later.”

“Then we will. Now, I think we should get up before someone comes and bothers us.”

Hinata nodded and with difficulty got out of bed. Riku did the same and both went hand in hand to the kitchen to have some breakfast. To their surprise, especially Riku, it wasn’t Sh izune behind the stove but Tsunade.

“You know how to cook?!”

“Of course, I know. Why are you so shocked?” his mother replied, not turning her head to greet them and instead focused on what was in the pan.

“It’s the first time in six years I've seen you cook.”

“If that bothers you so much you can…” Her tirade was stopped before it could even start with a hug from behind and a kiss to her cheek.

“I’m surprised, that’s all. There is nothing more to it.”

His mother's cooking was such a novel concept, he wasn’t about to say or do anything that would stop it. He had to admit it wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t the best out there. Tsunade had cooked for him and Hinata and that’s all that mattered for him. Soon enough the trio was joined by the rest of their roommates and everyone went to start their day. 

Riku and Karin went to the lab and started to study their discovery further regarding what they had found out about the cells a week prior. So far they have determined that the helixes were linked by two types of bonds from a total of four of what they named nucleotides, in a certain sequence. From there they began to record the entire sequence of each of their what they had named ‘genome’, to make a comparison and determine which did what. That was a titanesque work and both agreed they couldn’t do that by hand. Seals had to be involved in the sequencing which started a whole new lot of research on how they could do that.

“We’re going to be on this for months if not years.” commented Riku.

“Yep. So much fun to have.”

Riku didn’t share his lack of enthusiasm with his fiance but wisely kept his mouth shut.