A.N. A short chapter bridging the finding of the scroll, and the start of the training. Hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 2 : Mito of the Uzumaki Clan

Naruto woke up to the sound of birdsong. Slowly opening his crusted eyes, he got up from his uncomfortable position on the ground. He paused to make a face in disgust; soil did not taste good, especially in the morning before he could brush his teeth. He would know, he had checked.

Now what had he done this time to sleep in the woods?

Naruto was used to sleeping in the woods; in fact he had slept in them consistently for over a year between his forced ejection from his childhood home, the Orphanage of Western Konoha, and him being found by a 'kind old man' who gave him the apartment he lived in now. He still slept in the woods from time to time, when the pressures of living with people who hated him got to him, or when he wanted to cause some destruction in order to let out his feelings cathartically without doing something drastic like punching Sasuke's smug face in. Training himself to exhaustion just to get rid of his feelings was nothing new to him, though he had cut back recently. This must have been the first time he did it since his meeting with Haku in the woods of Nami no Kuni.

Idly looking at the sky, he found that it was exceptionally early; it was only 6am. Kakashi-sensei did not come to the training grounds till well past eleven which left him with almost 5 hours till the team met. In a way, he was glad; he was not eager to meet his team right now with the wound of his rejections still fresh.

Looking around the clearing for any stray kunai he may have used – throwing kunai were an incredible way to relieve stress – he found an odd sight; a bejeweled scroll cap peeking from the underbrush. That triggered his memory of what had happened here.

In a flash, he was pulling the scroll out of the bushes, holding it almost reverently between his hands as he examined it. It was real! It was something that was entirely his, something belonging to his family. With trembling hands, he reached to pry it open…

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Naruto turned around in surprise, coming face-to-face with the speaker. Who was pale, translucent, dressed in an ornate pure white long sleeved kimono and looked like a noblewoman. Not that Naruto was particularly concentrating on that. He was firmly rooted in the 'translucent' part of the observation.

"G-G-Ghost!"

In a motion that looked inherently strange in an incorporeal being, the wraith winced, putting translucent hands in front of translucent torso in the universal instinctive warding gesture. Naruto was having real trouble getting over the translucent part.

Then she spoke. Her voice was soft and quiet, yet firm and cultured, and she seemed quite cross with him.

"I'm getting a sense déjà-vu." She sighed. "You know, for a novice you wield those infernal chains of yours pretty well. Though that doesn't mean you should spear them through me!"

"G-G-Ghost!"

A gusty sigh escaped the ghost's lips. "You know for an Uzumaki you're unusually timid." She paused. "And repetitive. Very repetitive."

"Hey! Who're you calling timid, dattebayo!" The taunt got Naruto's attention, but a split second later he remembered what he was speaking to. "Please don't eat me! O-Or do anything else y-you g-g-ghost's do…"

"I'm not a ghost!" The ghost refuted hotly. Naruto wordlessly pointed towards her body. The ghost looked down, only to scream at her see-through body.

After recovering from her abrupt scream (which had not consisted of him screaming his head off and running up a tree) Naruto looked at the ghost to find her interestedly prodding at her own body and muttering to herself. "Hmm… It looks like the visibility array malfunctioned, you know… Though the solidity array works pretty well, as well as the de-aging seal." She prodded her own body again, before shrugging. "You know, I am a genius!"

Naruto looked on open mouthed, as the 'ghost' continued to prod her own body in apparent detached interest. "Umm… Hello, Ghost-san, who the hell are you and what are you doing here, dattebayo?"

Said ghost looked up, and judging by the frosty expression on her face wasn't very pleased with the question. "You know, its Mito-sama to you little boy, didn't your parents ever teach you to be polite?"

That had Naruto on the defensive. "Hey, you can't go around telling me what to do, creepy ghost lady!" He moped. "You're being really rude, dattebayo."

"And I'm an orphan, so there!"

For the first time in the conversation, Mito seemed to have difficulty forming a sentence. "I-Is that so?" She inquired hesitantly. "What about cousins?"

A shake of the head.

"Any relations?"

"No. I'm the only Uzumaki in Konoha or anywhere else! I've never met any relatives, I don't have a fancy clan, and I don't want to talk to you! Why are you asking anyway?"

Mito's eyes softened in understanding, even as she gasped in realization. "Are you Kushina's boy?"

Naruto shook his head again. "Never knew my parents, nobody in Konoha knows who my parents are… Even Hokage-jiji didn't know…"

Mito frowned. "And you haven't ever heard of you know, the Uzumaki-clan?"

Naruto scoffed. "Never heard of an Uzumaki Clan. What're you trying to say, anyway? That I'm from some sort of fancy clan? Yeah right. That'll be the day. Ghost lady, Konoha doesn't treat people of clans like they do me."

Mito's eyes widened with realization.

"You dropped the creepy part, you know. It's nice to know I'm only 'ghost lady' now." Mito observed with a slight smile, even as her eyes smouldered with anger at the realization of what had happened. "Anyway," she continued casually, "you wouldn't happen to be a jinchuuriki, would you?"

Naruto choked on his breath. "Wha-What? Why would you even ask that?" His voice rose an octave in his attempt to deflect the question, and Naruto cursed his voice under his breath. Why did his voice have to start cracking now, of all times?

Mito looked at him sternly, and Naruto tried not to quail under her stare. "You know, for a shinobi your lying skills are notoriously poor. Your eyes wander, your hands twist together and you shuffle your feet."

As Naruto hurriedly tried to fix the points mentioned, Mito soldiered on. "And as for your question, when I lived in Konoha there was another Uzumaki living here, and she was also a jinchuuriki… You know, only an Uzumaki can successfully hold the Kyuubi."

Naruto interrupted her, looking at her with sparkling eyes. "Really? Who was she? Do I know about her? Oh, wait," he deflated, "I checked the shinobi records, there have been no Uzumaki living in Konoha from its start!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes at Mito. "Are you lying to me?"

Instead of a startled reaction as Naruto half expected, Mito flew into a rage. "Erase my records! Oh, this time that old monkey went too far…"

She stood rooted on her spot, before abruptly turning towards Naruto. "Little Sarutobi is still the Hokage, right?"

"Old man died a few weeks back, Orochimaru killed him." Naruto stated flatly. However much he had had doubts of the Old Man, they had still been very close. "The fifth is Senju Tsunade."

"Little Tsu-Tsu! That's just wonderful! I've got to see her…"

Naruto stared at her disbelievingly. "Little Tsu-tsu?" He repeated hollowly. "She'll probably smash me through the wall if I called her that, literally! Just who are you and exactly how old are you, ghost lady?"

Mito started guiltily; she had completely forgotten to introduce herself. "Sorry about that," she said sheepishly, "I am Senju, nee Uzumaki Mito, Wife of Hashirama Senju, Daughter Heiress of the Uzumaki Clan, and Mistress of the Sealing Arts. And if you're who I think you are, then I'm your Great-great-grandmother. Nice to meet you."

Naruto flapped his jaw futilely for a moment. "That's real nice, ghost lady," he mumbled weakly. "I think I'll take a nap now." With that, Naruto fell backwards in a dead faint.

"You know, you should get that looked into."

Naruto simply groaned. "So, ghost lady, what are you going to do now?"

Mito grinned slightly. "Well, Naruto-kun, before I answer that, what do you know of the Uzumaki Clan?"

"Uhh… Nothing, I guess…"

Mito stared at him, before sighing and calling him over to the edge of the crater created by the chakra chains in the first scroll. As they both sat down on an uprooted tree, Mito began her story.

"You know what? I'll tell you the story the way my mother told me, back when I was a small girl growing up in the Islands of Whirlpool…"

Once upon a time, about a thousand years ago, the world was a very different place. The countries in the world were different, and they all had armies of samurai. Ninja lived in small hidden enclaves, never seen by civilians, and only accepting missions through contacts. It was a simple life, but they were happy.

Then, one day, a God and a Goddess came down to earth to spend some time together. But the Goddess fell in love with the earth, and she refused to leave, instead spending her time frolicking among the flowers and spurning the Gods affections. In time, the God, who was in love with the Goddess, became jealous of the earth and the flowers as he felt they had stolen his love from him.

Therefore he hatched a plan. Going into the Underworld and plucking a seed from a tree there, the God snuck into the Goddess' garden and planted the seed there. In time this seed grew into a beautiful tree, growing on the negative emotions that plagued the world. For you see, this was no ordinary plant, but a demon child.

When the Goddess saw the beautiful tree in her garden, she was overjoyed, and tried to pet the plant like she did every other tree in her garden. However the demon in the plant couldn't bear to come close to the Goddess, therefore it scratched her hand in fright.

Horrified by her bleeding hand, the Goddess swore to never garden again, choosing to leave Earth with the overjoyed God, who in his happiness forgot to return the plant to the Underworld.

In time this tree would grow very large, and began to be worshipped by the people as a symbol of god. However, the negative emotions wafting from the tree spread discord, causing the lands to descend into chaos, with tribe fighting tribe, clan fighting clan, and country fighting country.

In time, it came to be that one small fledgling nation gained custody of the land containing the demon tree. This kingdom was ruled by the clan calling themselves the Otsutsuki, and they had a princess called Kaguya.

She was fascinated by the tree and would often visit it in her walks around the palace. One day she saw that the tree had born fruit, and thinking that with the strength of the gods she would be able to stop the constant bloodshed, she consumed it.

The fruit deformed her, and in despair she fled her country. Her desperate desire to heal the world would stop most of the corruption, but the power had warped her, not only in body but in mind. In time she would emerge from the shadows, a god-like being with unspeakable power, to unite all nations under her oppressive fist.

Her kingdom was not to last. The demon had felt its power being used by another, and it grew enraged. Transforming into a demonic creature with ten-tails, it stampeded through the world, leaving chaos in its wake. Meanwhile among the humans, Hagoromo, the son of Kaguya overthrew his mother, leading a rebellion to free the lands from her rule. Having inherited his mother's powers in an even more concentrated form, therefore he was the person the people turned to save them from the rampaging demon.

Meeting the Ten-tails in an abandoned valley, Hagoromo battled it for seven days and seven nights, finally managing to wound it fatally, before sealing its essence inside himself and the body inside the moon.

Hagoromo gave rise to the age of ninja, and his teaching of ninshu spread across the lands. He is known as the hero of the world, and as the god of shinobi. He is also the creator of the bijuu, and the progenitor of the Senju, Uchiha, and Uzumaki clans.

It is said that on his deathbed, the man now known as the Sage of Six paths divided his philosophy among his three children:

To the eldest son, who would found the Uchiha clan, he gave his insight and vision, the ability to see the nature of human conflict. He also inherited the strong spiritual presence of his father.

To the younger son, who would found the Senju clan, he gave his pragmatism, his grasp on emotion, the ability to recognize love and inspire it. He inherited the strong physical presence of his father.

To his daughter, who would found the Uzumaki clan, he gave his courage, his will, his ability to weather the storms of circumstance to reach their goals. She inherited the unique mind of her father, allowing her to see things from different perspectives, which she would later incorporate into our unique sealing style.

The Uchiha were the first to turn from the path set for them by the Sage. Horrified by the reality of the world and unable to handle it, they sought to cleanse the world by baptism of fire, espousing that the world was too corrupt to save.

The second to turn from the path were the Senju. Horrified by the crimes committed by the Uchiha, they nevertheless stayed their hand blinded by their love for peace and their wish to save people who did not want to be saved, refusing to strike down even those who deserved it.

The Uzumaki alone stayed true to our values as time went on. Never choosing a side between the warring brothers, they would be a constant in an ever changing world…

"…And that is what the philosophy of the Uzumaki is, Naruto-kun."

"What do you mean?"

"An Uzumaki endures, an Uzumaki survives, an Uzumaki does not compromise their values, and an Uzumaki always keeps his eyes on the objective." Mito's lips twitched in a slight grin. "That is why we were so feared, you know, Naruto-kun. Because a true Uzumaki was the ultimate shinobi. You know, it took three elemental nations and their entire armies to bring Uzushiogakure, the home of the Uzumaki, down in the First Shinobi war. M-My b-brother, Uzumaki Shin, was the Clan head at that time. Took the entire force of Iwa's BOULDER unit to bring him down, and he still didn't go without taking the entire lot with him, you know…"

Naruto listened to Mito ramble on about the Uzumaki clan with a small content smile on his face. Listening to the stories of his kin brought to him a strange sort of relief, like a ache that he had carried in his heart for a long time had healed. May be he was losing his mind, talking to a ghost, and he might wake up tomorrow with a lump on his head to find that he had been hallucinating, but right now, he wouldn't give this moment up for the world.

Coming up next on Tales of the Arcane:

"What the hell did your scroll do to me? How the hell am I going to explain this to baa-chan!"

"Now calm down, Naruto-kun, we'll work it –"

"I'm not going to calm down, ghost lady! I'm a blond, and I will always be a blond!"

The Crimson Thread of Fate, or not!

Kekkkeigenkai95, out!