The Sage of All Paths
AN: Ahoy, SpontaneousMusician here. This is my first time writing a fanfiction so if I make any rookie mistakes, it is because I am a rookie. I would like to think that my spelling and grammar are both above average for my age, but please, feel free to notify me of any mistakes I make.
I will try to update this story as often as I can, but I am very busy with school and all that jazz so updates might be very infrequent at times.
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This first chapter is mostly made up of stuff in the normal "canon" episodes/chapters.
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
"Giant person, creature, summons speech"
'Giant person, creature, summons thoughts'
Jutsu
Flashback
Chapter One: Lineage
Back in the era of the warring clans, there were two men who were feared more than any others. Those two were Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara. Hashirama and Madara were both very similar and very different at the same time. But one thing that they both had in common was their lineage. Both Hashirama and Madara were descendants of Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo, also known as; the Rikudou Sennin, first ever shinobi, creator of ninjutsu, wielder of the legendary rinnegan, strongest man to ever live, and the very first jinchuuriki.
Despite being distant cousins, Hashirama and Madara did not get along in the slightest. Their clans, the Senju and the Uchiha, were rival clans, always clashing with one another.
However, as time passed, Hashirama, Madara, and their respective clans, grew weary from the constant fighting. As such, Hashirama and Madara, as the leaders of their clans, formed an alliance with each other, as well as a few other prominent clans. That alliance gave birth to the first hidden village, Konohagakure no Sato.
When the time came for the people Konohagakure to choose a leader for their village, they chose Hashirama over Madara. Madara was outraged. Madara felt that his clan was being overshadowed by the Senju clan, so he attempted to rally his clan in an effort to seize power over Konohagakure. But, the Uchiha clan turned on Madara, labeling him as "power hungry". Due to his planned coup d'état, Madara was banished from the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
During his time outside of Konoha, Madara had a bastard child in Kaminari no Kuni, one whom even Madara did not know existed. This child had the blond hair of his mother's side of the family, with his father's unnatural spikiness. His name was Namikaze Minoru. Minoru travelled around the world to find out who his father was, but was never successful. Instead he settled down in Konoha after hearing how great a place it was.
While all that happened with Madara, Hashirama and his wife Uzumaki Mito, heiress to the Uzumaki Clan, had not one, but two children. Many did not know that they had two children, mainly because their first child was sent back to Mito's village, Uzushiogakure no Sato. That child was a girl named Uzumaki Kaori. Kaori took up her mother's clan name due to their uncanny resemblance, and the fact that Kaori was to be living in Uzushiogakure, the home of the Uzumaki clan.
In the Namikaze household, Minoru has had one child; however that one child is no longer a child. Minoru's son, Namikaze Masao, was married and had a baby boy on the way. Masao and his wife planned on naming him Minato, and wanted to enrol him in Konoha's Shinobi academy in the hopes of him becoming a great shinobi
With Kaori, no one in Uzushiogakure knew who her parents were, except for the clan head and his immediate family. Nevertheless, Kaori become quite the renowned shinobi of Uzushiogakure and ended up having two children who also became shinobi. Sadly, her second born child died in a skirmish with Iwagakure no Sato, another new shinobi village. However, Kaori's first born child had a daughter by the name of Uzumaki Kushina. While Kushina was a child, her parents noticed that she had extremely potent chakra, so potent that they predicted one day Kushina would be able to manifest her chakra into solid objects.
Uzumaki Mito, whom we all know as Kushina's great-grandmother, was the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko. However, Mito was growing old. Having past one hundred years of age, Hashirama already died long ago, Konoha need a new jinchuuriki for the Kyuubi. Konoha, being on very friendly terms with Uzushio, requested using Kushina as the next jinchuuriki. Uzushio agreed to sending Kushina over, telling her that she was being sent to Konoha in order to enrol in Konoha's shinobi academy.
*Present day*
Kushina, now eight years old, had just arrived in Konoha a few minutes ago. After her escort left her with one of Konoha's ANBU Black Ops, the ANBU had taken her to Konoha's main gates. At the main gates of Konoha, Kushina met Konoha's current Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage.
Hiruzen was holding a scroll, a scroll depicting Kushina as the one who to be the next Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. The scroll also mentioned how Kushina was not aware of that fact. Kushina was very nervous, here she was, standing in front of the strongest person in the entire village, and that very same person was about to choose her fate of whether or not she would be staying in Konoha for the rest of her. Not that Kushina knew that last part though.
After he finished reading the scroll, Hiruzen rolled the scroll back up, shoved it into the folds of his Hokage robes, and beckoned Kushina to follow him. Kushina did what she was Signified to do, albeit a little too hastily.
After walking for about 5 minutes, Kushina finally worked up the confidence to say something, "Where are we going?" She asked, her voice a little shaky.
"I am taking you to the Senju compound, so that you may meet one of your relatives. Her name is Uzumaki Senju Mito, she was my sensei, the Shodai Hokage's wife."
Kushina was in awe. One of her relatives was the wife of the Shodai Hokage! Little did she know that in fact, she was directly related to both Mito and Hashirama, the Shodai Hokage.
*Ten obscenely long minutes later*
Kushina, Hiruzen, and the ANBU guard were nearing the Senju compound. Upon entering the Senju compound, Hiruzen lead the group into a cozy living room with a few chairs and sat down in one of them.
"Feel free to have a seat, Kushina." Hiruzen gestured towards a chair across from him. Kushina sat down in said chair, noticing it to be of a very fine fabric and very comfortable.
"You may leave now, Kuma." Hiruzen ordered the ANBU, that Kushina forgot was with them, in a commanding tone. Kushina was very nervous after hearing that tone of voice, fearing that she was in some kind of trouble.
After the ANBU left the room, Hiruzen smiled warmly at Kushina, cooling her nerves a bit. "Tell me Kushina. Do you know why you were brought here to Konohagakure no Sato?" Hiruzen asked, with no ill intent in his voice.
"I was told that I was brought here to study at Konoha's shinobi academy." Kushina replied in a tone as politely as she could manage.
Hiruzen chuckled at her obvious nervousness, he was greatly surprised that she hadn't blurted anything out in a crazed manner yet.
"It's as I suspected." Hiruzen remarked with a weary expression, earning a questioning look from Kushina.
"Kushina-chan don't you think it's a bit weird that you were sent to Konoha in order to simply attend a school, a school of which you have a very similar one back at home?" Hiruzen questioned. Kushina's eyes widened at that. She had not thought of it that way. Gears spinning in her head, 'If I wasn't sent here to join the academy, then why was I sent here?'
"You were sent here in order to become the next jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko." Hiruzen announced, a slight frown on his face.
After hearing those words, Kushina's entire world just stopped. Having come from a clan of renowned for its fuinjutsu, Kushina had already learned what jinchuuriki were, and she was just told that she was to become one!
Anyone in the right state of mind would freak out if he/she was in Kushina's position. So naturally, Kushina was afraid, very afraid. 'What if the seal put on me is weak, and the Kyuubi invades my mind? What if the seal breaks and the Kyuubi attacks me? What if I never make any friends because they'll all be afraid of me?' were some of the many thoughts running through Kushina's eight year old mind, thoughts that no eight year old should have.
"I'm assuming that, by the look on your face, you know what a jinchuuriki is." Hiruzen observed. To which Kushina nodded her head in response.
"In that case I should probably let you know that the sealing will be done by one of the best seal-masters in the world, and that your jinchuuriki status will be private knowledge." Hiruzen reassured, eliminating a good amount of Kushina's fears.
"Now that that's over with, it's time for you to meet the person we originally came here to see, who just so happens to be the current jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi." Hiruzen said, standing up from his seat. Kushina, once again, only nodded in response, still in a state of mild shock. "Mito requested that you be summoned to her immediately after you were told about what is to become of you." Hiruzen continued.
Kushina arose from her chair and followed Hiruzen as he led her through the house towards Mito's room.
Upon arriving at Mito's room, Hiruzen said "I will be taking my leave now; I wouldn't want to intrude on your conversation." He starting walking back the way they came in and disappeared around the corner leaving Kushina with a few options.
One: Run and either try to make her way back home to Uzushiogakure, or stay in the forests outside of Konohagakure. Two: Refuse to enter Mito's room and go find the Hokage. Or three: Enter Mito Uzumaki's room, her relative.
After remembering that Mito was family Kushina scrapped all other ideas and knocked on the door.
"Come in." Came the kindly voice of Mito Uzumaki. Kushina opened the door and started walking towards the other end of the room, where Mito was, stopping about ten metres from Mito, who was sitting on her bed.
"Come closer." Mito politely requested. Kushina, still nervous, obliged nonetheless, walking right up to Mito.
Mito reached out, gently grabbed Kushina's right hand, looked Kushina right in the eyes, kind smile on her face and said "You look like you could use a hug." Mito then extended her free arm to the side so Kushina could come in for a hug.
Kushina was more than happy to receive a hug so she immediately moved into the comfort of Mito's arms, happy to have family in such a foreign place.
The two just sat in silence for a few minutes, partway through that time Kushina had lowered herself into a kneeling position with her head on Mito's abdomen.
"Like you, I was brought here to become the vessel of the Kyuubi." Mito started "I can imagine your shock when you learned of this. How sad you must have been. How you have suffered" Mito continued, emotions welling up in her voice. "You can tell me the truth."
Kushina looked away for a moment, if one were to look into her eyes, they would see visible sadness. "Yes…" was Kushina's response.
"Now listen carefully" Mito began again. "Indeed we are the vessels for the Kyuubi. However, there is a way to find happiness even if you must live as a jinchuuriki." Kushina looks up towards Mito with hopeful eyes, intrigued by her wise words.
"First… by filling ourselves… with love." Mito concluded, Kushina drifting into sleep in her arms.
*The next day*
Kushina woke up and found herself in a comfortable bed in where she guessed was one of the spare rooms in the Senju compound.
Kushina arose from of the bed and looked down to see if she was still wearing the same clothes as the day before and noticed that someone must have changed her clothes as she was currently wearing a pure white nightgown. Looking to the left of where she was standing, Kushina noticed a large mahogany wardrobe left slightly open. Walking over to the wardrobe, Kushina noticed all kinds of clothes inside that looked like they would fit her perfectly.
Kushina chose a sleeveless kimono-style blouse that was yellow in colour and held closed with a green obi over a short-sleeved mesh shirt with a pair of dark blue shorts.
While looking at herself in the mirror, Kushina heard a knock on the door, followed by a man's voice saying "Uzumaki-san? Hokage-sama would like to see you in his office. When you are ready, come outside and I will take you there."
"Hai." Kushina replied, slipping on a pair of brown shinobi sandals before walking out the door to her room.
Upon exiting her room, she noticed the one waiting outside was the same ANBU member as the day before, Kuma. When Kuma saw Kushina leave her room, he calmly walked up to her, gently grabbed her arm and Shunshined outside the Hokage Tower.
Kushina was surprised by the sudden change of scenery and let out a small "Yelp!" before realizing what had happened, quickly calming herself down.
"Hokage-sama will be waiting for you in his office at the floor right below the roof, the secretary will tell you the specific directions." Kuma said before disappearing in another Shunshin.
Kushina proceeded to walk into the Hokage Tower inside which she found a moderately young woman in the typical Chunin garb sitting at a desk. The woman was expecting Kushina and told her the directions to Hiruzen's office.
When Kushina arrived at the doors to Hiruzen's office she knocked quietly on the door as to not disturb anything going on inside.
"Come on in Kushina." Hiruzen's voice resounded from inside his office.
Kushina opened the door and saw Hiruzen quietly working on some paperwork. When she was about five feet away from his desk Hiruzen put down his writing utensil and looked Kushina up and down.
"How did you sleep Kushina-chan?" Hiruzen kindly asked.
"I slept better than I thought I would Hokage-sama." Kushina replied.
"Now Kushina, I don't mean to be abrupt but I would like the sealing to take place as soon as possible, which is right now. Are you okay with that?" Hiruzen proposed, raising an eyebrow.
"Hai." Kushina responded, her usual confidence in her voice, igniting a smile on Hiruzen's face.
"Good, I will have one of your clansmen do the sealing as they are probably the greatest seal-masters to be found in this era."
"Hai." Kushina acknowledged. Hiruzen led Kushina out of his office to the place where Kushina would have the Kyuubi sealed inside of her.
*A few days later*
The day started out as an average day for our eight year old Namikaze Minato. He woke up at 6:00, ate some breakfast, did some early morning training, had a quick shower, and started walking towards Konoha's shinobi academy. He arrived 10 minutes early and sat in his usual seat, the middle seat of the middle-left table when looking from the teacher's point of view. That was when he remembered. Apparently, a new student would be joining their class, a girl from Uzushiogakure. Minato had heard that the people from Uzushio often had long red hair. He pondered whether or not this new girl would have red hair.
Minato had always been more of a critical thinker than any child his age or even any child 5 years older than him. He was considered a prodigy that comes around only once every hundred years. Sadly though, his parents died when he was very young and he has been living with his grandparents since he was three years old.
Back in the classroom, all the students had made their way to their classes and taken their seats. It was then that Minato noticed a new face at the front of the room next to the teacher, a girl around his age with long, red hair. He figured this must be the new girl from Uzushiogakure. Minato did not understand why, but he felt a strange pull towards this girl coming from the inside, but he just shrugged it off. However, he could not help but feel entranced by her flowing red hair.
He was brought out of his trance when he heard her say "I'm Uzumaki Kushina, dattebane!"
'Dattebane?' He inwardly questioned. Then he noticed that all the other children around him were laughing at Kushina and making fun of her bright red hair. He could not help but feel sorry for her.
Kushina, blushing up a storm, was not thinking straight at the moment and was thinking somewhere along the lines of 'What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?!' She was so nervous that she ended up just saying "I'm… I'm going to become the village's first female Hokage!"
Minato was taken aback by her sudden exclamation, so he decided to make her feel a little more welcome by telling her his dream.
"I want to become a great Hokage who will be admired by everyone in the village too!" He stated with one fist clenched over his heart, a warm smile on his face. Kushina though thought he looked like a wimp and that he could not possibly become Hokage.
The day was pretty normal for Minato after that. The teacher taught a lesson on some stuff that Minato already knew, Minato read a book on chakra control. That was until lunch came. When lunch came around Minato heard some voices from behind him.
"Tomato!" One boy shouted, pointing at Kushina. "From today, we're going to call you Tomato! You have a fat round face with red hair! Just like a tomato!"
"As if a tomato can become the Hokage! I hate tomatoes!" Was the yap from another boy. "Me too!" The first boy exclaimed. "I never eat it in my salad!" A third boy yelped.
By now Kushina had gathered a small crowd of 6 or 7 boys around her, all making fun of her.
"A tomato that everyone hates could never be accepted as the Hokage!" Continued the first boy.
After that last comment all the boys around her were laughing at her. She looked towards Minato and saw a concerned expression on his face, but all Kushina saw was him just looking at her. Minato however was feeling very worried for Kushina and was debating whether or not to step in and intervene.
While that was going on inside Minato's head, Kushina was looking down at her feet, blushing from embarrassment.
"You're getting redder and riper!" One of the boys shouted, commenting on her blush as he grabbed and pulled on her hair. "It's the Tomato Festival! It's time to harvest!"
Kushina, having had enough, grabbing the offending boy's arm said "Who're you calling Tomato?" Gripping harder, "now you listen… I hate tomatoes too, dattebane!" Lifting him up and spinning him so that his body knocked over all the other boys that had gathered in the crowd around Kushina.
After letting go of the boy, she jumped on the back of the first boy who called her Tomato and started pummeling him with her fists while saying "Keep calling me Tomato and you're going to get it, dattebane!"
It was then that she looked at Minato and noticed him laughing in her direction. She took it that he was laughing at her just like all the other boys. "What are you laughing at?!" Kushina shouted towards Minato, causing him to jump and look away in embarrassment, pretending that he was never looking in her direction, but still looked in her direction out of corner of his eyes.
Inside Minato's head, he was thinking along the lines of 'well looks like she didn't need my help after all, better keep a close eye on her from now on just in case.'
After that incident, Kushina was given a new nickname… The Red-Hot Habanero.
As the days went by, Kushina would get into lots of fights, the majority of which Minato would keep a close eye on, none of which would he intervene. He did not need to. Kushina would win all of her fights and never appeared to need any assistance. That was until one day.
It had been roughly two weeks since Kushina started attending Konoha's shinobi academy, and she was currently running between the sakura trees on her way home from some training done at training ground 3. Suddenly she sensed a presence. Stopping dead in her tracks, Kushina watched as the boy from her class whom first called her Tomato walked out from behind one of the trees, once he was in full sight another person walked out from behind the same tree, an arrogant look on his face. This person was wearing a Konoha Hitai-ate, signifying him as an official shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato.
Minato, whom neither party knew was watching, was a little nervous about Kushina fighting an official shinobi. She was only an academy student after all.
'I hope you'll be alright, Kushina-chan' Minato spoke inwardly.
The Konoha shinobi most likely a Genin, the lowest rank for a shinobi, due to him being most likely only a few years older than the other people in the area, put his on the boy's shoulder.
"Are you the one who's always making my kid brother cry?" The shinobi, now identified as the boy's older brother, questioned.
"That's because he's always messing with me, dattebane!" Kushina snapped back. "And he's such a wimp!"
The boy whom Kushina just called a wimp looked away shamefully due to obvious reasons. The boy's brother however, did not care for reasons, he came here for a fight and that's what he was going to get.
"I'm a Genin! Cool, huh?" The boy's brother said, pointing at the hitai-ate on his forehead, arrogant smirk on his face. "I have to teach anyone who bullies my kid brother a lesson." Cracking his knuckles midway through the sentence.
Kushina got in a ready stance used a chakra enhanced jump to get up into the treetops in order to gain some distance from the Genin. The Genin though, was not a Genin for no reason, and had no trouble keeping up with Kushina. After a few jumps through the treetops threw a kunai at Kushina, who dodged it in the nick of time.
'A real kunai' was the thought running through her mind as she span around in the air and sprang off the trunk of the next tree back towards the Genin, punching him in the face midair.
The Genin fell to the ground with a thud, then burst in a cloud of smoke leaving a log behind revealing it to be a Kawarimi.
The Genin then appeared behind Kushina and delivered a swift chop to the back of her neck, and a hard kick to her back sending her five feet away from where she was standing and landing face-first.
As Kushina was trying to stand up, the Genin came from behind her, grabbed her hair and pulled it up so that she was on her knees facing away from her.
"You can't even recognise a Kawarimi no Jutsu? You're still just a kid!" The Genin taunted. "You're hair's so red… and it's stiff like thread. Hair like this is ugly!" He oh-so rudely proclaimed.
The Genin's brother, the one who first called Kushina "Tomato" laughed at Kushina's now crying face and said: "Serves you right!" But once he noticed Kushina crying he backed off and looked ashamed with himself.
"I… I don't like my hair either!" Kushina shouted the last word, standing up and pushing herself forward while the Genin was still holding on to her hair.
The two of them both tried to pull in opposite directions, putting more and more tension on Kushina's hair. Kushina seemed to be pulling the Genin in the direction she was walking until finally the strands of hair that the Genin was holding on to snapped, leaving him flabbergasted.
Kushina proceeded to turn around and punch the Genin hard in the gut, then kick him in the face while he was slightly bent over. Kushina jumped high into the air then delivered an axe kick to Genin's head, knocking him right on his back.
Kushina climbed on top of him and started repeatedly punching him in the face and said: "But…" At this point the Genin's little brother knew that things were not going exactly as planned and started backing away slowly "Even with hair like this, I'm still me! What choice do I have?" All throughout saying that, Kushina kept punching the Genin again and again.
At this point, the little brother turned around and ran away screaming "It's the Red-Hot Habenaro!" Leaving his older brother behind like a coward.
Kushina stood up, breathing heavily, and watched as the Genin started sitting up and shouted "Outsider!" and threw the strands of her hair that had pulled out in her face.
When he finally stood up he said "As if an outsider can become the Hokage!" followed by turning around and walking away, after about five steps that walk turned into a run.
Kushina just stood there for a few seconds until she felt a new presence and looked to her side seeing Minato standing in tree looking at her with a solemn expression on his face.
"You're not going to help me because I'm an outsider?" Kushina accused.
Minato, surprised, started to say "I…" but was cut off.
"I bet you agree with them too!" Kushina hollered. Kushina started to run back towards the village, crying once again.
Once the Hokage Monument was in in sight she stopped and thought to herself 'It's because I don't want to be an outsider… It's because I want this village to be my home… That's the only reason why I said that. Who would want to become the Hokage anyway?!'
That's a wrap.
I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. If you did, feel free to leave a review. I may not update for a while though.