Prologue

Naruto and the Inquisitor

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. – Yoda's Quote (Phantom Menace)

The Hidden Eddy's Village was once located not far off the coast from the main land near the Land of Waves. In fact it was basically an hour's journey from said village. Currently the Elemental Nations were undergoing a period of reconstruction, mostly in manpower and supply logistics. For Naruto however it was a time of reflection, the war brought up both good things and a lot of bad, most of the bad involved Sasuke, while much of the good was Naruto finally meeting his parents, even spending time with his father on the battlefield. However the whisker marked blond had no real connection to his late mother save for Karin who currently was undergoing a heavy mental evaluation. The war had been costly on all fronts, Shikamaru and Ino both lost their fathers, the Hyuga clan lost over half their numbers, Hinata, Neji, and several prominent elders, thankfully Hiashi and Hanabi had survived. Frowning slightly Naruto wondered why he felt little grief in Hinata's passing, regret maybe but not grief.

Sakura looked around the ruins glancing at Naruto with a winsome expression her last visit with Sasuke did not go well at all. The Uchiha had been hanging on by a thread since his battle with Kaguya, Shizune gave him a five percent chance he'd survive his injuries.

The Hidden Eddy's Village was in the sweet spot between a wreck and a complete ruin, several buildings were still standing some were not, those standing were either burnt out husks or crumbling. But what Naruto saw as far as he see was his clan symbol darting almost every building in the area. There were a few that had other clan markings, some even Naruto recognized from the Shinobi Alliance. Walking down the main road of the village, scanning buildings making mental notes as the duo walked quietly along the road. However what brought Naruto to a stop was one particular building with one particular clan marking just behind a small burnt out herbal shop. Eyes wide in shock jogging over to the building which turned out to be connected to both the herbal shop and a modest compound set in a semi-circle that had several buildings with the same clan markings. "Sakura-chan!"

Sakura stopped walking having been so distracted by her inner thoughts she missed Naruto moving off. Turning she looked in the direction Naruto's voice came from and her heart seemed to jump to her throat. "W-What the hell?" she asked looking dumbfounded at the clan markings more specifically her clan markings, jogging over to stand next to Naruto she looked at the compound in absolute shock. Every building had her clan's markings of a pure white circle or red circle, she slowly walked into the center of the semi-circle and stood staring at each building most were intact though a few had collapse in on themselves but overall the entire compound was intact. "My clan was from the Hidden Eddy's Village?"

Naruto came up beside her looking around in awe, "looks like it," he reached up and gently put an arm around her, not sure if it was appropriate or not he just felt like he needed to. When Sakura took a step into his embrace both taking a moment of silence, before walking toward what would be described as the clan head's home. The door had been knocked inward a clear indication the compound had been invaded during the 2nd war. Once inside Sakura, moved into the main living area and spotted a fireplace with a mantle most of the pictures and paintings had been knocked to the ground glass shattered. She bent down and picked up the largest one. Flipping over she found a large family portrait, of men, women, boys, and girls either with her trademark pink hair or her large forehead. Scanning the portrait her eyes fell onto a young boy no older than maybe three or four perched on the shoulders of a broad shouldered man with a warm smile, unlike most he had bright jade green eyes and dark brown hair wearing strange looking black armored robes, his left arm loosely wrapped around a beautifully elegant looking woman with long milky pink hair, both had wrinkles around there eyes, standing to the right of the broad shouldered man was a man who clearly gave his looks to the boy, wild pink hair, he had a sad smile on his face. "This is my dad when he was a kid."

Naruto came up behind her looking over her shoulder at the photo, "Looks about three in the picture, mom said the village was invaded shortly after she turned six. She already was in Konoha by then."

Sakura sniffled wondering what her grandfather and great grandparents had been like, also wondering where her grandmother had been at the time of the photo. "I think the couple and the man in the photo closest to him are my great grandparents and granddad."

The whisker marked blonde looked around before sighing sadly, "I'm sorry Sakura-chan?"

The rosette haired girl looked at him for a moment, "What's there to be sorry about, I never met them."

"Yeah but I know what it's like thinking about things you can't change, Sakura-chan," the blonde stated rubbing her shoulders. "Wondering if you got more traits from people you never knew. I guess I got lucky meeting my parents."

"Is that the real reason we're here?" the rosette haired young woman asked.

Naruto shook his head, "No, the mission is still find both clan and non-clan seals. I still think it was a good idea, I mean my clan were known worldwide for being the best seal masters ever, believe it!" a second later Naruto chuckled rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Guess I'll never get rid of that."

Sakura giggled shaking her head, "well you did say you got that verbal tick from your mother, so yeah."

Both fell silent as they left the Haruno compound Sakura storing a banner and the photo in a storage scroll determined to confront her father about both the moment they returned to Konoha. Less than a minute later the duo entered the Uzumaki clan compound which took the majority of the southern part of the village, it was also where the majority of the damage had also occurred. Several buildings had burned to the ground just judging by the shear amount of stubby blackened husks of buildings. Naruto took a few deep breaths slipping into his sage training no sooner had he done so, images, ghosts from the past appeared before him, images of people laughing, children running in and out of buildings. Sakura notice tears beginning to fall from Naruto's cheeks as he took in the images, the feelings, and eventually he started to feel the anguish from the deaths of his clanmates and family.

Staggering slightly Naruto slumped to the ground gasping for breath, not expecting such powerful vision or how real it felt. "Man that was intense," he muttered.

The rosette haired young woman looked at him in confusion for a second, "What do you mean?"

"I-I could actually feel it, the day the village got attacked, I felt the pain, I felt the fear, it was like I-I felt everything that happened that day," the whisker marked Jinchuuriki stated softly.

"I never knew your sage mode could do that?" Sakura remarked.

"It shouldn't but I don't think," Naruto frowned rubbing his hands over his face taking a deep breath. "I'll be alright maybe it's the spirits around here reacting to us mucking about."

Sakura smirked slightly, "you mean the ghosts."

Naruto jumped slightly before frowning at his long time teammate and not so secret crush. "I'm over that stuff Sakura-chan, the old toad stated ghost are simply restless people who stay behind because they weren't able to finish some task before dying. Considering this area was invaded and a lot of people died you can imagine how restless spirits are around."

Sakura looked around seeing faint images while not as in touch with nature as her favorite blonde goof, she had always had a strange sixth sense about things. Probably explains Inner Sakura and my ability to shrug off Ino's family jutsu.

The two entered the Uzumaki clan head residence which looked almost like an exact replica of the Hokage tower. So much so the duo seem almost at home in the building outside of the Uzumaki swirl dotting the every area where the Land of Fire would dot the Hokage Tower. Naruto snickered slightly as they walked up the stairs. "What's so funny?"

"I think Gramps Hashirama and Granny Mito kind of traded building ideas with the Uzumaki clan head," Naruto snickered again.

Sakura rolled her eyes, "only you would call the first Hokage and his wife Gramps and Granny and probably get away with it."

Naruto held a thumbs up, "Of course they're family." The finished ascending the stairs. In Konoha the door before them would have led to the Hokage's office. Again the Uzumaki Clan head's office looked almost exactly like the Hokage office, right down to the scroll storage room. Sakura moved toward that door while Naruto quietly moved toward the desk at the center of the room. Outside of everything being ramshackled, scrolls tossed everywhere, several burned, the office was mostly intact same for the entire building.

"Why is everything still intact?" Sakura asked trying to open the scroll room door.

Naruto smirked turning to the rosette haired young woman, "Preservation seals on a massive scale I mean look at the office. It's been what thirty to forty years since the village has been abandoned, and this tower is practically pristine, except for a few scrolls out of place or burned everything is move in ready."

Sakura let out a low whistle, "Damn, your clan really was something with seals."

The whiskered marked blonde chuckled moving around the office casually before his eyes settled on the empty office chair. Sakura had dropped into a crouch looking at the door to the scroll room scrutinizing why it was locked. A second later she heard a distinctive creak turning she saw Naruto finish sitting down in the office chair a wistful expression on his face as he looked around the desk in front of him.

Sakura pursed her lips watching him, after a brief moment and a mental shrug she moved at slow gait unintentionally adding a slight sway to her hips. This drew Naruto's attention to her watching in confusion for a second before she moved around the desk their eyes meeting as she came around. Naruto shifted the chair as she came up to him looking down at him. "Sakura-chan, wh-?"

The rosette haired young woman quietly slid into his lap and gently wrapped her arms around his neck. The two looked at each other in companionable silence before the young woman leaned down kissing his cheek then standing up again. Blinking in even more confusion as Naruto could hear the fox snicker, What?

Nothing just something I remembered from my time with your mother that's all. Kurama shook his large head remembering certain aspects of the pink haired vixen that reminded him a lot of his former vessel. Naruto gave a mental shrug before getting out of the chair and moving with Sakura to the scroll door.

"I can't find a keyhole," Sakura muttered to him trying to keep her face neutral however that little display of abrupt affection had been sparked by a memory from the war when Naruto's father asked if they were a couple and Naruto kind of confirmed it.

Naruto examined the door before he smirked, "It's locked behind a blood seal, it's faint but you can see it in the wood grain surrounding the door handle." Sakura blinked taking in what he said looking for the seal and finding it. "So many awesome seals, and this is just the tip of the iceberg." Biting his thumb he grabbed the door handle letting the blood coat it enough to activate the seal. A brief reddish flash appeared and the whisker marked blonde turned the handle.

Inside was massive room lined from the floor to the ceiling were scrolls, thousands of them small as a pencil or as large as a textile spool. The sheer volume was overwhelming, "this has to be every documented seal the Uzumaki clan ever made since the time of the Sage of the Six Paths," Sakura whispered in awe.

"Yeah Gramps Ashura," Naruto choked up a bit looking at all the scrolls. "He was great."

"Which ones are you going to keep for the village?" Sakura asked.

"General seals mostly, anything that's more aligned to family or clan personal seals I'll keep here until I can make up my own vault back in Konoha," the whisker marked Jinchuuriki trailed his hand along each scroll memorizing the touch. He continued along the wall until he came to a divide his still bleeding thumb caressed something smooth and oval shaped the same style of reddish light flashed. Both he and Sakura jumped back both in a ready taijutsu stance as the divide widen to reveal a hidden doorway with a stairway leading downward. The two members of Team Kakashi looked at each other in shock before both tentatively moved toward the stairway.

XXX

Said stairway was not all that spectacular save for the fact that it looked decades more advance than anything the two had seen, even more advance than the Land of Spring technology. Lighting coming from rounded bars set inside the walls. The stairway itself was made of a smooth black metal that neither shinobi had seen before. "Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained," Naruto muttered slowly beginning to descend into the narrow spiral stairway. Sakura followed after him, tentatively stretching out her hand to the railing which had a smooth texture that had some give to it, almost like a sponge. It took a few minutes to finish the descent where the stairway lead into a small hallway that spat out into a massive cavern in the center of the cavern was arguably the strangest thing the duo had ever seen in their young lives. It was grey and black in color, in kind of pentagon style shape, with two sides of the pentagon split apart by a central cylinder. "W-What is this?"

Sakura shook her head deciding to take her mind of the strange thing to examine more of the cavern. The cavern was wide as it was large, and decorating the wall opposite of the massive thing was a large metallic work bench, a large cabinet and huge screen with a chair sitting in front of it. The thing left side was a bit of a wreck the pentagonal wing was mangled and twisted, there was metal fatigue throughout the structure. She watched Naruto move toward the back of the thing seeing a ramp of some kind. She wandered over to the bench and cabinet, pulling open the cabinet looking inside. Several strange pieces of armor, crystals of various colors, as well as tech the likes that would make the Land of Spring jealous. Pulling out one of the armor pieces noting it was slender and feminine in appearance. Sliding on the gauntlet she was holding finding fit nearly perfectly. She looked at the other pieces of armor and blushed slightly at some of it being decidely skimpy in appearance. Jiraiya's perverted wet dream. She slid the gauntlet off putting it back, pulling out one of the crystal's examining it, it was a beautiful green crystal highly polish, turning it over and over in her hand before putting it back.

Naruto sighed trying to open the door at the top of the ramp leading into whatever the thing was. He had a hunch it was some kind of ship, it could be either a traditional boat or a flying ship like the one he boarded in the Land of Snow, trying to save Princess Koyuki. He walked back down the ramp then went over sitting down in the chair in front of the huge screen turning in it to look at Sakura. "It's some kind of flying ship I think, like Koyuki's air ship only it didn't need the balloon. Can't get inside cause the door's locked."

"Why would the Uzumaki Clan hide something like this?" Sakura asked.

"Don't know, but the level of technology is like ten times more advance than the Land of Spring it's kind of amazing," Naruto whispered in awe looking around.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" a disembodied and sultry voice stated. Both jumped looking around.

"W-Who said that?" Naruto asked looking around.

The voice snickered a bit before a strange black and red pyramid located on the desk between the huge screen and the chair flashed to life. A smaller pyramid at the tip of the larger one started glowing and the image of a woman dressed in a series of heavy looking robes though very revealing at the same time with bits and pieces of armor on her shoulders, wrists, knees, and heavily clad boots. She had long dark nearly reddish black hair, bright blue eyes, easily a body many men would drool over. She stared at the two shinobi with both a look of mishchief and inquisitiveness. "Greetings, I'm Kagome Uzumaki and welcome to my Sanctuary."