[A/N] This is one of those chapters that are really old. I tried to touch it up and make it fit my more current style of writing, but let me know what you all think.

November, 1946

Kushina stood in Andrew Ryan's office, holding her child as the man stood not far away, simply observing them for the moment.

"The story you've told me is quite fantastical," Ryan said in Japanese, Kushina herself not speaking English. "I do not claim to understand what you are, but I know that you are special. If I were less acquainted with the vicissitudes of genius, I suspect I would question your sanity. But I'm sure we are both in awe of each other, you from your world, and me from mine. I know little about you aside from what you've told me, but I think the more I learn, the more exceptional I will find you."

"You're right," Kushina said. "I don't understand how I came to be here, nor how there is a city under the ocean. The story you've told me is just as fantastical to my ears. I'm no stranger to wars, but weapons and such as you have described sound impossible. The only thing I do understand is that, for now at least, my son is safe. I think we can benefit each other, Mr. Ryan."

"How so, Mrs. Uzumanki?"

"From what you have told me of the surface of your world, Rapture is going to be the only place we can stay safely for an extended period. It will be one of the only places where people won't ask too many questions about who we are or where we come from."

"And how does keeping you here benefit me, since you brought it up?"

"Well, for one, with me down here I can't tell anyone on the surface." She noticed the slightest agitation on Ryan's brow. Hew words were incentive and a thinly veiled threat. "But something tells me you're going to need a police force. If people get restless, try to break whatever laws you set in place, you're going to need a defense against such things. Someone like me is more than accustomed to security and protection."

December, 1949

Naruto ran around Kushina's legs, giggling as he did. He was chasing a small wound up toy in circles. Meanwhile, Kushina was staring out of one of the massive windows and staring as some buildings were lowered in and others were being added to.

She also glanced at files, reading and looking at names, seeing all the people who were coming into the city. It had become her job for the time being, to account for the coming occupants of Rapture. So many people. Suchong, Tenenbaum, this man Fontaine. Many people seemed questionable to her. Fontaine, even through the photograph, had this look in his eye. She had seen it before. And then Tenenbaum. She seemed cold, calculating. There was a way about the woman that Kushina recognized to an extent.

"Are you sure about some of these people, Andrew? A good few of them seem rather questionable."

"Each are unique and have something to offer this city." Ryan walked up next to her, watching the construction form Hephaestus along with Kushina. The moment he was there, Naruto was running in figure eights around both of them.

Ryan had gotten used to how energetic the child could be. It was not an easy lesson. "Some even bring things we need," he said. "Steinman may seem questionable, but he is a doctor. And that is something we will need down here."

"I know I brought him up a few days ago, but this time I meant some others," Kushina replied as she flipped through some of the files. "Yi Suchong, Bigid Tenenbaum. Both are doctors, and I get we may need them, but they seem dark. Selling opium to the Japanese during the war, I mean, I understand using it to survive, but he was doing it long before someone was slaughtering his home. Tenenbaum, she helped the Germans with their experiments. Again, I understand the need for survival, but she strikes me as someone without much remorse. Almost like someone I once knew, but it's hard to place a name to the face now that I think back to it."

"I chalk plenty of their eccentricities to necessity on the surface world. Many of them have some darkness instilled in them, that much is obvious. But has the world, or in this case, worlds, not instilled some form of darkness in everyone? And I know that, on the surface, that will never change."

Kushina sighed. "You are correct. Except for one point. Rapture is part of the world, even way down here. Don't think that the distance from the surface exempts Rapture from the dark nature of humanity."

August, 1955

Kushina sat on a bench, a clipboard in hand. Naruto sat next to her, every so often looking up from his book to complain that he was bored and ask when they could go home. She would give a stern look each time, something she had learned bought another few minutes of quiet after the first hundred times he had asked.

It had been a long time since she had left Hephaestus, their home even being in a small section just a short distance from the command center of rapture. It was separated by a bulkhead, a bulkhead that only she, Naruto, and Andrew Ryan could access thanks to her seals.

Normally, only Naruto left Hephaestus for school, Kushina knowing that he could run faster than any normal person if needed.

However, she had to come down here in person to observe the final phases of construction on the fisheries. Fontaine had made it his priority to establish his business over the past few years, but there had been setbacks that made it take as long as it had. No one knew who or what had saved them, but when one of the sections collapsed, it was a miracle that so few had died. But every survivor mentioned a blur of red

As she watched the final pieces being welded and laid into place, she checked several boxes on her board. This had become her job as well, making sure Rapture was safe. She was not the head of security. She was the heart of it. There were heads of security, police chiefs, and a number of other ranks that commanded authority befitting those ranks, but most security in Rapture was privately owned, a business. Of the few things she had demanded there be some government funding for it was what little public security she was given command of.

But in the end, everything passed through her. Even Andrew Ryan, when concerning matters of security and maintaining order, answered to her, or at least heeded her words on matters where security was only a part of it. He had the final say, but he had learned to hear and take great consideration of her thoughts on many matters.

Hearing her tales of the man she had called Orochimaru was the driving force behind him conceding that even in this society, the government would need to take care of some things.

It was as she finished checking off the lists that she noticed many of the workers were staring at her. Some were uncomfortable under her scrutiny, and her odd appearance hadn't helped.

She had kept her long hair, never dying it, and chose to keep to a more Japanese dress as it seemed to be an almost exact match for the culture of her own world. She heard whispers every once in a while from people wondering if she was Irish given her hair but they dismissed that from her Asian appearance. The fact that her hair was far too red to be Irish added to that.

She continued to ignore them as she had the last time she had left Hephaestus to observe the final phases of Fort Frolic.

"You must be the woman Ryan mentioned sending down here to keep an eye on things."

Kushina turned towards the man, seeing the face of Frank Fontaine for the first time in the flesh. Looking him in the eye, she saw the same thing she had seen in the picture. An ambition clouded by something else. She wasn't entirely sure how to feel about this man, but she knew he set her on edge.

But she decided to keep up appearances and stood up, extending a hand to him which he shook with a smile on his face.

"And you must be Frank Fontaine," Kushina said, speaking in English. "It's a pleasure to meet you. And yes, I was sent to oversee the final phases of construction. After what happened a couple years ago, Mr. Ryan didn't want to take any chances."

"It is a pleasure to meet you as well miss…"

"Uzumaki. Kushina Uzumaki. With construction of Rapture and many of the policies so close to completion, you'll be seeing a lot more of me around here."

"Well, perhaps you could also help with my new project coming up. I'm setting up to have another section added before it's too late. It's gonna be called, Fontaine Futuristics."

Kushina unsealed the bulkhead, Naruto right behind her as they walked into their home. From the outside, one might think it was a large luxury apartment. However, a sizable portion of the building was actually a training ground that Kushina used to keep her own skills sharp and train her son.

The moment they were through the door, Naruto was in the air, walking on the ceiling. He loved how freeing it was to be back home, unrestrained by their need to appear normal. Mr. Ryan knew about them, but that was necessary. Who knew how others would react?

Kushina called his name and gave him a stern look when he turned back to her. He sighed and kicked off his shoes, pumping the air with his fist and mouthing a 'yes' when he got them into the designated shoe area on the first try. His mother nearly face palmed at his antics.

"Get ready for training, Naruto," she called out, eliciting a groan of annoyance from the boy.

October, 1958

There were setbacks, always setbacks. Supports needing to be reinforced, leaks needing to be sealed, and so many other things needed to ensure the city would last. But, while Rapture was finished later than originally thought, it was done sooner than more recent estimates had predicted.

And with Kushina there to observe and take note of everything, even using a sealing array when she was sure no one would notice the change, she had played a very large role in the construction of Rapture. Ryan himself had said that without her, Rapture may not have been completed or lasted if it had been finished.

But it was finished. It was finally finished. And, overall, twelve years was good time for building a city, even more so given that it was under the ocean. It had been done for a few months now, but only recently had they found time to relax and celebrate

And, as celebration, Andrew Ryan was opening an expensive bottle of liquor he had been holding onto for the years it took getting to this moment. Naruto, in a joking manner, reached for one of the glasses being poured. He didn't even have time to pull his hand back before it was slapped away by his mother.

Naruto gave a smirk before looking to Ryan. "What's been going on in the business side of everything? I heard that Fontaine guy's been working on all sorts of new projects. Saw an ad yesterday. Something about new genetic advancements to use for everyday purposes. And I didn't see it for long, but I thought there was something on there about teleportation. Not quite sure how that's going to work out, but it seems like Fontaine Futuristics has been making advancements in everything recently."

Ryan looked between a few of his other guests, some looking at Naruto without much thought considering he was a child, but a few had become trusted friends and knew he was more mature than his years.

"Yes, a shining example of growing industry, but I've been more worried about something else recently. This new arrival. The entire city is in quite the buzz over this 'Johnny Topside'. He just shows up a week ago, and now he's a celebrity."

Naruto, taking note of these words, slipped off. It was time to do a bit of sightseeing.

Naruto kept to the shadows, usually in the supports that made up some of the ceilings. Sometimes he walked around in plain sight, but even then most people ignored the twelve year old.

He walked through one of the financial districts, wondering how he might get a look at this 'Johnny Topside', but with no luck.

He had tried investigating a large crowd, but in the end it had only been Sander Cohen. He didn't understand the man's art most of the time, but every once in a while, there was a poem or play he enjoyed. Thinking about it, he was convinced it had been pure chance rather than Cohen producing intentionally producing somthing he thought of as normal.

He kept going, eventually making his way, via bulkheads and bathyspheres, to Apollo Square, knowing some friends there he could ask about this newcomer to rapture.

After walking to one of the interconnecting sections, deciding to take the sidewalks rather than the trams, he turned down one of the alleyways between the many apartment buildings that acted both as living quarters and supports for the large section of Rapture.

"Hello Mr. Dog-Eater."

Naruto turned towards the voice to see a young girl, around the age of six or seven from his own guess. He arched his brow at the name she called him, giving her a confused look. "Uh, hello, I guess. Mind telling me who you are, and why you called me Dog-Eater?"

The girl smiled and nodded. "My name's Eleanor, and mother says that other children are 'raised on a diet of dog eat dog.'" She spoke her mother's words in a mocking voice.

November, 1960

Naruto walked around Pauper's Drop, keeping to the shadows as he watched the workers and other people unable to live better. People shouldn't live this way, he knew that, but that's the way things were, and he alone wasn't about to be able to change that. He kept his thoughts clear of the matter as he often did, focussing on finding his friend.

As he walked, he thought about the way things were in Rapture. They had been progressively getting worse. Civil unrest had been growing due to the financial status of many, but he blamed a large part of it on Fontaine. He had grown up on the ideals of this city, on Ryan's ideals. The Great Chain. His mother's teaching had allowed him to see the flaws, but he believed it could prevail.

He was dragged from his thoughts when he got to the apartments where Eleanor had been living in the past few months ever since her mother was arrested. He heard screaming and instantly pulsed chakra into his legs, running to get there.

Having originally taken a more scenic route through the apartments and buildings on the way there, he rounded the corner just in time to see Eleanor being dragged into an elevator. He rushed over, trying to stop the doors from closing to no avail.

Pressing the button hundreds of times as rapidly as he could, he felt his patience evaporate. Unable to wait any longer, he checked his surroundings to see no one paying him any attention. Chakra coated his hands as he pried the doors open and jumped inside.

His feet hit the roof of the elevator silently, giving him an element of surprise. He readied himself to open the hatch and attack, stopping himself as the elevator came to a stop and opened. As the kidnappers left, he dropped into the elevator behind them, watching them enter a bathysphere and disappear.