A/N: This is the rewrite of Sakoku I have been thinking about for months now, it just didn't seem to come together no matter what I wrote but finally I'm starting to become satisfied with it. The plot has changed a bit, if anyone wants the timeline please let me know and I will post it. As always R&R!
Summary: Uzumaki Miyawako was entrusted with Uzushio, protecting them from annihilation was just the first step. Keeping them from the greed of the Nations is another.
Second Shinobi War, Year 3
She can feel the chakra ink pour down her form and pool at her knees. Her chest is heaving at the effort it's taking to keep extending her chakra ink, it sinks down into the ocean and spreads thinner, faster and reaching more of the enemy. Her own shinobi had fallen behind the Uzu seals and watch from a five-mile distance, as the student of the Nidaime Uzukage became a legend before their very eyes.
Iwa and Ame shinobi surrounded her village, the natural whirlpools just barely managing to stop them. They knew who she was, they had all seen her in the battlefield and they could all only stare in apprehension at her, sitting seiza in the water. Her entire form was covered in never ending pitch-black chakra ink; she was like a demon in the ocean.
"You will die here," Her voice is sorrowful, she is mourning for them. "Thank you." Her hands form the tiger seal and everything explodes in a bright flash of blue.
Iwa and Kumo shinobi watch as bright blue covers the ocean and suddenly around them, their comrades are being swallowed up by the ocean and dragged down by glowing chakra ink.
"You will keep my village protected!"
They realize all too late that the village shields are being raised up again even when they had been assured that they would be weak. They start to retreat but they're surrounded by ocean, she has the advantage.
Uzu shinobi watch in horror and awe as 15-year-old Uzumaki Miyawako drags the enemy into the ocean, draining their chakra and siphoning it all to the barrier seals engraved at the bottom of the ocean.
Miyawako-sama rose from seiza, she was still covered in ink. She looked like a wraith that had clawed her way out of the bottom of the ocean but to her shinobi, she was their hope.
The enemy had that had retreated was too far back, her ink could not drag them down into the ocean and so she could only drag those that had not managed to make it. She, like every other Uzu citizen, was an endless well of chakra but this much effort had drained her to almost catastrophic levels. She had been on the battlefield ever since Iwa and Ame had started to advance on them and Konoha was not answering their call for help.
But she could not ignore Uzushio's call. The ocean, the island, it called to her very being, it called for her protection.
And she would destroy the world to protect Uzushio.
Second Shinobi War, Year 4
Miyawako sat seiza style in her new office. She had been named Uzukage not three days prior after much conflict from within the Uzumaki Clan but those that opposed her were all silenced at the authority of the Clan leader; Uzumaki Hideki reminded everyone that she was the reason they were all still alive.
The war had been raging for almost four years with no sign of stopping any time soon; it had taken its toll on her people. The rationing, the loss of life, the pain at having to collect hundreds of hitai-ate in the battlefield, it grated on her. It had almost killed her nation and she wasn't strictly speaking about the damn invasion that she managed to stop in time a year ago.
No, her nation was extremely self-controlled in terms of population; they were the nation of longevity most families only had one or two children. Their very lifespans dictated that they would run out of resources if they were to reproduce at the rate the other nations did. So with a carefully controlled population, they were able to have plenty of resources, no one in the nation suffered from extreme poverty, there were almost no orphans before the war. In fact, there had only been one orphanage that housed five children but now after four years of war, they had to build two new buildings to house the newly orphaned children.
Still they were lucky, before the Nidaime Uzukage died just two years after the start of the war, he had recalled all Uzu citizens of Uzumaki blood back. She wasn't exactly sure how, this was before the time of the nations when Uzu was still new and recently formed but the blood of the citizens was tied to the island and thus to the Uzukage. In extreme times, the Uzukage could somehow reach any and all Uzu citizens to warn them, protect them or abandon them.
During the days after the Uzukage had made that announcement, Miyawako had been at the single bridge in the northwest and had personally overseen the influx of redheads back into Uzushio. With an army of medic-nin, they had scanned and registered all citizens, relocated them to temporary shelters, the sick were transported to the hospital and the able were asked to sign up for volunteer duties. The Clan leader had then personally overseen the building of apartments for all families, dormitories for singles, and that food was well distributed. In all, Uzushio was perhaps stretched at bit tight but it wouldn't be that way for long. The war had made more than sure that Uzushio almost went extinct.
"Please start recording, Mikan-san," She gently lifted the cup from the table and took a sip, the strong and almost bitter taste of green tea comforted her in the same way her Sensei used to. It was already been two years since he had died, his shoes were almost too big to fill but she would manage as she had done for most of her life.
"I, Sandaime Uzukage Uzumaki Miyawako, with all the power vested in me by the people of Uzushiogakure and the Uzumaki Clan declare withdrawal from the war. Any and all continued attacks against my nation and its people will be perceived as a threat and thus eliminated. This nation and my people have been threatened by the nations and sought our demise thus the land of Uzushio will close its doors to the Hidden Nations in a period of self-isolation. To those who still seek our fall, I will find you and I will destroy you and your nations just as I destroyed your shinobi in my ocean. You have been warned."
Miyawako folds her hands on her lap; she no longer feels pain from sitting seiza for long periods of time anymore after years of being made to sit this way. She looks towards the chunin kneeling by the door in typical shinobi style and smiles, Mikan-san had been more than eager to continue being the personal assistant and guard to the Uzukage even if she was years younger.
Uzumaki Kaname had been a larger than life sensei for her, he had taken her in, trained her, confined in her. He had been the father she had not had and he had instilled in her a deep love for her nation and its people. The same people who now looked to her as they had looked to him.
"Uzukage-sama, won't the Clan leader question your choice?" Mikan-san asked, she was rolling five identical scrolls and tying them with the signature aquamarine ribbon of Uzu.
"Hideki-sama has already been informed of this when I was named Uzukage, he trusts me." And indeed Hideki-sama did, the day prior to her ceremony they had extensively talked about the war, their people, and the future. Self-isolation was needed in order for her nation to recover, to bury their dead, to strengthen their seals. It would be a critical time for Uzu to recover its strength.
Rising from seiza and smoothing down the skirt of her furisode, she turned toward the academy and watched as the children played about one another, all different shades of red hair. No blonde hair on any. Flashes of blue eyes appear in front of her and gently Miyawako shakes her head and turns from the window. She takes small steps, as her clothing doesn't allow for much movement but she's also used to this, she looked as demure as a geisha but as deadly as a Kage.
"Now, shall we make a visit to Mito-sama?"