Author's Note: The concept of the Syndicate, a group who talks of peace but prepares for war, is based on one of the logical fallacies of Datara in canon. According to the basic description of the Infinite Tsukuyomi, it is designed specifically to create a world without conflict, but the formation of it requires you practically need to create a massive conflict for it to stop, ergo the Syndicate creates constant unrest, so that the inevitable conflict will happen, and they'll take extreme steps to stop the conflict… they themselves started!
Chapter 1: The Last Uzumaki
Decades passed. Uzushiogakure became known as the Fortress City, a nigh-impregnable walled city, a necessary evil, as the Syndicate sent their followers towards every part of the Elemental Nations, attempting to spread the unrest that followed them, attempting to become advisors and trusted associates of even the most honest Guild-appointed leaders. The main family within Uzushiogakure was the Uzumaki Clan, who adopted the Nine-Tailed Fox as their totem, a giant depiction of it's face carved into the cliff below their compound.
"The Nine-Tailed Fox protects and watches over Uzushiogakure, and the Uzumaki keeps it that way..." Mito Uzumaki declared. When a Syndicate mole managed to slip into the caverns below the compound, the opening strike in the attack that brought down Uzushiogakure was the sudden toppling of the cliff face, as well as the evacuation of the Uzumaki Compound as bombs sent it crashing down into the streets below.
Even as the city fell into anarchy, it had been made patiently clear. The Uzumaki clan had snubbed the Syndicate all too long, and with the fall of Haguromo, Uzushiogakure was doomed to fall eventually. Those who could, fell back to Konohagakure, one of Uzu's biggest supporters, and the city became known for being as impregnable as Uzushiogakure in it's golden age...
No-one could truly say they understood how the phenomenon known as Master Space worked, those who first discovered and documented it killed in the fall of Uzu. What was known was that it was a form of shared mental space, a form of lucid dream world that masters and their slaves interacted within, allowing the slave to serve as diligently in sleep as they did when awake. No two Master Space manifestations were identical, being a slow merger of the embryonic Master Space of the Master with those of their slaves.
However, Kushina Uzumaki, being native to Uzushiogakure, knew it was much more than just a dream world where a slave could serve all day and night. Deep below her, in the depths of the Master Space she shared with Minato, was the Ninth Beast, the nine-tailed kitsune, Kushina looking at the mental copy of her Enforcer's Credentials, where a rainbow line bisected the card, a single stud near one end marking her as the one who controlled one of the legendary creatures of both Guild and Syndicate lore.
A common myth said that the one whose card was marked up with all the Beasts would be named, by right of conquest, as the new Grand High Master of the Guild, effectively the one man, or woman, who had control over the nine most powerful entities in the world. The mindscape that was the fusion of her own mental landscape and Minato's was dominated by a stylised depiction of the original Uzumaki Compound from when Whirlpool still existed, overlooking an equally stylised depiction of Konohagakure, replacing Uzushiogakure.
The chamber where the Kyuubi lurked was originally the place she was sealed, a small coffin in the middle of a seemingly endless web of chains and padlocks, hidden behind the stylised fox head. Nowadays, those chains acted to seal the Kyuubi away, and, for all intents and purposes, right now, her mortal body was effectively a blood clone, everything but her body sealed within this mindscape to reinforce the seal after a message was intercepted declaring a very real threat against her
They were planning to break the covenant and allow the Ninth Beast to effectively become a Syndicate attack dog, allowing them to release the Kyuubi within one of the Guild's most powerful strongholds. She then heard a bell jingle in her head, as she felt the first of several links to the outside world trigger an alarm in her Master Space. Someone was in the hospital room where she was giving birth!
She was about to return to her body when she felt a tearing sensation run through her body, before she swore as the ground began to quake and fracture. Someone had exploited a weakness in her Master Space, meaning...
The clifftop began to break apart, the fox head broken and sent falling to the ground, the building itself at risk of falling itself as the unsealed form of the Ninth Beast broke out of the cliff face, causing untold damage to the building above, a reprise of the early days of the fall of Uzu, except it was the Kyuubi itself that caused the compound to fall. Her chains were summoned and used to pull the cliff back together, stabilizing the foundations. She then worked on restoring her link to her mortal body, hoping it would not die before she could do so. It would run out of chakra and die if she didn't complete this in time.
She felt the seal restore, and rapidly sealed the returning Beast into the massive chamber that had once been her Master Space, beginning to repair the building above it. She had a strong feeling this was not Minato's Master Space any more, but she had to repair the layers of the seal. If she didn't do this right, what little remained of the iron clad barriers around the Ninth Beast would snap.
Her form diminished, and her age dropped, as she rebuilt what she could of the Master Space. She then saw the new soul walking in the partially ruined building and swore. Minato was dead, in a way, she was dead. Her son or daughter however, would not go without her counsel. She'd been given a second chance, and she would not waste it...
She headed down through the gaping hole in the side of the cliff, seeing how much she could salvage of the head, keeping away from the upper floors until she was needed. She knew that, due to the nature of where she was, she would be mortal once more, thanks to the one who now could earn the rainbow mark. After that…
Whoever did this, they would suffer a thousand fold...
In the real world, Konohagakure endured. The Masters who had combat abilities had performed admirably, and the village's Enforcer squads acted in a way that was a tribute to the skills of Ibiki Morino, the paranoid local commander of Guild Security & Judgement. Unlike Uzushiogakure, who had been shaken by the toppling of their village's protector, Konohagakure was prepared for another terrorist act by the Syndicate. While the village's leader was killed, the defence plan held firm, and the man the Syndicate sent was forced into retreat.
The only notable incident came when the Board Of Representatives had tabled a motion to make an example out of the son of Minato Namikaze, branding him a slave. The Grand Master had been happy to tell them that the boy was Platinum ranked due to a direct lineage link to Uzushiogakure.
"If he'd JUST been the son of Minato Namikaze, his projected value within the Guild would be high enough that a quarter, maybe a third of the village could make opening bids. The boy has a perfect storm of reasons that, NO, we're not selling him even to the High Lords Of The Nations. Who I think are the only ones who might win the auction… Well, most of us aren't allowed to bid..." Grand Master Sarutobi offered, "Let's see, He's potentially the last member of the Uzumaki clan, he's the chosen host of the Kyuubi..."
Discussion of the sale of Naruto Uzumaki was left off the table after that, even after they removed who his father was, only to find it didn't help. The suggestions that it might work if they removed who his mother was or the fact he was the one who controlled the Ninth instead were shot down. After a while, they simply declared him a war orphan and sealed his file, for opening only by a Grand Master or higher.
The boy himself didn't hear of things like this, having moved, off his own back, out of the apartment Sarutobi had supplied him originally, and into a personally restored and refurbished temple to Inari, the goddess of foxes. Konohagakure, like Uzushiogakure before it, had several of these temples, Naruto's even having the statue, representing the Ninth Beast, in a state which allowed it to be repaired.
He was not to know the reason practically all those statues were destroyed, and the temples desecrated, was due to the Ninth's rampage, only knowing no-one had argued about him using the temple as a home, unaware it was since it was forbidden to argue if he ever asked that particular question, by a little known Guild law.
What didn't make sense even more was that, as far as he could tell, his standing with the Guild's slave markets was terrible. He had little to no credibility, and his money meant practically nothing. He wasn't sure if it was the fines for the frankly excessive amount of prank bids he'd been accused of, even if he pointed out he never hit the same person twice, and never that high, or just that the Guild didn't like him, but he couldn't get a slave for love nor money. Even a farmer in the rice paddies could get slaves easier than him, and he knew they subsidised off the rice sales!
The only sanctuary then that he had from his endless bad luck was his home. Within it's walls, there was no GSJ patrols looking for him, no angry Masters claiming he'd ruined their billion ryo transaction, no Guild Board Of Representatives summoning him to discuss the latest accusation of breaching Guild policies. Instead, he had regular visits from a small group of Potentials, like himself, including the 'honoured' grandson of the Grand Master, and his friends, as well as the heiresses of the Hyuga legacy.
The Hyuga were one of the old money clans who had lost a massive amount of prestige, no longer putting slaves on the open market, after a Syndicate scandal arrived right at their door, the two girls deciding arbitrarily that a particular spot in his gardens was perfect for sunbathing.
His only interaction with the spot in particular was to erect a small gated fence, before giving the keys to the gate to the two girls, which 'accidentally' cut off one of the best angles to get a good look at them sunbathing. Admittedly, someone else later put up a sign stating, "He who decides to cross this fence does so at their own risk", which Naruto suspected was their cousin.
An odd, but true, piece of advice, that had saved him several times over, despite being given in jest by the Grand Master, was that a good way to tell those who was not meant to be there, contrary to those who he should trust, wouldn't just 'visit' his gardens. Every time a gardening team had been sent officially by, supposedly, trusted members of the Guild, however, he had to call in GSJ when they curiously weren't able to get in.
He'd found every single one of them carrying secret orders to commit very specific acts of vandalism from people who were suspected to be working with a Syndicate sympathiser. Naruto checked every item they were meant to work on, to find complex wards that kept out those with dark intentions, but allow things like two of the cutest girls in the village to sunbathe where, if he was stood in the right place, he could watch them. Not that he did. Much.
As a result, seemingly randomly, a team were assigned to do training drills within his garden, with cutting techniques ending up cutting great swathes of his lawn, while the fences and benches were smashed or otherwise destroyed by 'badly' aimed techniques, and subsequently repaired with an honest apology, usually after weather damage had got to the boards. The most infamous example of this technique for working on his garden came when an argument broke out between Hinata and Hanabi Hyuga in the middle of their sunbathing spot, which had caused the felling of several trees and a rotten span of the protective fence, before ending apparently undecided.
Naruto knew what the decision had really been when a group of Hyuga branch members had arrived later that day, removing the remains of the felled trees, filling in and inducing grass to grow where they'd been, before replacing the fence panels, with the salvaged wood from the trees being credited to his account as 'Building Supplies (Guild)' a few days later. He later, in a peppercorn transaction, sold the sunbathing spot to the Hyuga clan, before signing over the rest of his gardens as an official training field.
This was done on the understanding that the Hyuga Partition and the temple itself were off limits. It had got to the point, due to how the arrangement worked, he'd once, when his broom was showing signs of wearing out, tossed it to one of the students who completely destroyed it using it as a weapon, getting a replacement a few days later. He still paid for repairs to the main building, but his garden was maintained purely through the generosity of those who he trusted.
More recently, He'd been notified about some family heirlooms which, due to an attempt to claim the inheritance as 'unassigned money and property', had any information on it secured with Guild Security and Judgement, the location of any monies and heirlooms being secured in a vault that was in an undisclosed location, which was stored, along with the contents of said vault, on a random page within the standard Guild report sent regularly to the Hokage, with the previous versions being handed to GSJ to be shredded and recycled.
Admittedly, the report in question was over 200 pages long, in the smallest font readable by a human being, and included a full catalogue of every slave owned by anyone who had registered with Konohagakure's internal marketing system, in excruciatingly precise detail. There was also an electronically stored copy, but Ibiki Morino required that the thick report was sent out regularly, so that, if there was a computer error, the Hokage could find the information… even if he needed a magnifying glass to do so.
What he had been cleared to know about his holdings within the vault was that, as an Uzumaki, he was descended from a clan who operated within the original seat of Guild power, the legendary lost city of Uzushiogakure, with assets that possibly had belonged to high-ranking and influential members of the Guild, but most of their holdings had apparently been lost when their compound was destroyed.
He'd also been notified that most antiquities sales that happened in the open markets were handled by Syndicate brokers, who had been known to find ways to fail to pay a seller, and also manufacture forgeries, which were often used to get hold of and retain the real items, due to attempting to devalue the mysticism of Uzushiogakure, which made him understand why they were held in trust.
However, he didn't care how mystical or magical Uzushiogakure was for the Guild right now, he'd have sold the master-crafted attire of an Uzu Enforcer, or other rare item with a good providence, if it would get him out of the pit he'd got himself into over affording the one mandated slave that he needed to continue as a Master of Konohagakure. He knew the regulations as much as any other Potential.
Before he could take on the mantle of Trainee Master, he had to have a processed, valid and pre-paid purchase order out on at least one slave by the end of the week to present to the Guild representatives as proof of his Master's Credentials. In fact, He only had that one week left before the deadline on his final opportunity lapsed, and he was rotated into the slave market.
"Where the hell am I meant to get half a million ryo? I have the basement to get up to current regulations, but even the cheapest slaves are six figure… Wait. The cheapest slaves, The cheapest…" He began, then thought about something, going to his examination book, and opening it to a certain page, "I knew it. I shouldn't be getting 0 results period, there's always at least one person who puts up the default sales profile… Let's see if GSJ are being their usual selves about checking for it, as in 'not at all'..."
He first entered the digits and a single line from the example listing, frowning as he did indeed get 0 matching results, before he wiped the digits, and asked it to give any value with that line in them. The text was identical… but when he checked the price, it was several times higher than the example listing had. That was why he wasn't finding any slaves in his price bracket! If the example listing was that high on his terminal...
A piece of paper and a calculator allowed him to figure out what the multiplier was, and he quickly worked out what his real price bracket was.
"Yes, I would like to print out copies for my records, No, I do not want to buy any of these slaves..." Naruto dictated, slipping the papers into a messaging tube, checking the new requirements, ignoring the fact that he was having to deal with a lot of pop-up windows about how he'd have his credential revoked if he even thought about making the bids, finding three names which stood out, two of which since they were not much higher than the minimum, short of doing a default listing, value, but had some interesting marks on them, and he could tell they were all clearly pseudonyms.
"Yes, I would like copies for my records again, This time, Yes, I would like to make a bid on these three people… Yes, I know just one of them exceeds my maximum funding amount..." He continued, "Upon completing this… I know, I know, If I'm wrong, I'll find the money, or GSJ will come banging at my door and have me up on charges… Thank you for your business… Screw you too!"
He then made copies of the stack of papers, slipping the copies into a second messaging tube, this one marked with a GSJ tag, which likely would dump it right in Ibiki's lap, both tubes including a message apologizing if he made abnormally large bids, giving his actual planned bid for each, carefully calculated, as well as a request to get back to him when they figure out why his terminal is being a piece of junk.
Sending the normal messaging tube to Sarutobi, along with the GSJ tube, he headed off to get something to eat, as well as to pat himself on the back for figuring out why he couldn't afford a thing. Unknown to him, those two stacks of paper and the messages with them had, inadvertently, saved his life...
