Wow, this chapter has taken a while. Sorry for the late post; I've been stuck on this the last day and a half. I think I wrote chapter beginnings for two other jinchuuriki before finally deciding on Uzumaki Mito, the first jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tailed Beast. Enjoy. c:
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Uzumaki Mito is five when she first begins to learn fuuinjutsu, better known as the art of sealing. It is the specialty of her clan, and every member knows the basics of it, whether they use it constantly or not. It is a language in its own, and it is complicated to learn, every little swirl and symbol that means something different; that is why they start young, even for their clan, the members of which constantly live to nearly two hundred years, assuming they are a full-blood Uzumaki, and still to nearly one hundred and twenty for only a partial clan member.
She is excited to learn, utterly so, especially after having seen her father blow away everything in a ten-foot radius using one, activated by a hand seal instead of a burst of chakra, to keep himself from being destroyed as well. Someday, she'll create her own as her father does; first, though, she has to learn the language, the basics—how to hold the brush right, to make sure there are no mistakes whatsoever; the parts of a seal, what there should always be; and, of course, how to make sure that she will not kill herself or someone else with one unintentionally.
Her father sits her down, with a pot of ink, a fine tipped brush, a scroll on sealing, and a piece of paper, and tells her, "I want you to practice the first seal on this scroll. It's a simple one, only meant to seal away a small object, such as a kunai. Come get me once you think you've done it right." She nods, and starts to work; he stands over her small, red-headed form for a moment, watching, and then walks off.
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At ten, she is still learning the art of sealing. She's proficient in the basics now, though, and has moved on to more complicated ones, such as the damaging seal her father invented, and one to seal away near infinite amounts of chakra. It's a challenge, a great one; she has to make sure that there are no mistakes, just as with the smaller seals, though it is more important for these to be perfect. If they are done wrong, they could easily kill someone, probably her. That is why every morning after she's eaten, she collects her supplies, sits at the table, and practices sealing for several hours. She's coming along nicely, her father says.
It had originally looked as if she would be hopeless at sealing; she'd not even been able to get the simplest of them down. She'd been frustrated, incredibly so, until one day, in a last hope at getting it right, she'd calmed herself using the meditation skills she'd learned and tried once more. It had been perfect.
Now she knows that to get her seals right, she needs to keep herself calm, no interfering emotions. She's usually able to reach that state without meditation now, but occasionally, after a stress filled day, she does need to calm herself before working. It's nice; she's always been fond of meditation, the calm it brings. Even when it isn't required of her before practicing her seals, she often does it anyways. She's found it helps just a bit, helps her get the seal perfect in one less try. Soon, though, she'll need to meditate every single time—she'll be doing her own original seals in just months, and there will be barely any room for mistakes on those. One wrong symbol and she could be dead, or sucked into that other dimension, or wherever it is objects go when they are sealed away.
She can't wait.
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When she is fifteen, rumors swirl of a new clan head in the Senju, who are distant relatives of theirs and close allies. They tend to move around, as opposed to staying in one place as the Uzumaki do, but they are talented fighters, amazingly so. The new head is said to be young, only a few years older than she herself is; but he is very strong, said to use the plants as he fights. They say he is the reincarnation of the Sage himself, the one who was the first shinobi, who trapped the Ten-Tailed Beast inside himself, and then, when he was dying, split its power into nine and sealed the body into the moon. He is the origin of both the Senju and the Uchiha, the strongest of the clans. It is said to be why they hate each other; because of the two brothers, the sons, and the quarrel they had.
If he is truly the reincarnation of the Sage, Mito thinks she would like to meet him.
She does, and soon; he comes to Uzushiogakure to speak with them, as the new clan head. His brother accompanies him, as a guard for the journey there; not that he needs it, she assumes. She decides he most likely just wanted company, a familiar face in the sea of red hair and pale skin.
While Mito is not present at the official meeting—it is only the Senju head and his brother, as well as the Uzumaki head—she does catch a glimpse of the two of them as they leave the main building. She is waiting for her father, the Uzumaki clan's head; he was supposed to teach her a new seal today. His name is Senju Hashirama, he knows, and his brother is Senju Tobirama; they are both incredibly strong.
Hashirama is tall, taller than most of the clan, with long brown hair and deep green eyes, tanned skin and light muscles. His brother is the opposite; skin so pale it is almost white, with a mass of snowy hair and red eyes. They're fascinating to her, as she'd been surrounded by mostly red hair and only three eye colors—green, gray, and the occasional blue—her whole life.
Mito decides then that she will meet them again, as she would like nothing more at that moment to have a conversation with the possible reincarnation of their ancestor. She thinks it would be interesting, at the least.
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At twenty, she learns she will meet him again; there is a marriage coming up between the Senju and the Uzumaki, and she is involved with it, as is Hashirama. He'll be coming here to meet and collect her, and then they will go with each other back to the village that is just starting to form.
He is a legend, and she honestly thinks that if he is not in fact the Sage reborn, he does have something of the Sage in him. He managed to form a truce, between the Senju and the Uchiha, himself and Uchiha Madara, and there is a village being formed as she awaits his arrival. It will be the first one of its kind—while there have been other shinobi settlements over the years, each of them has only ever hosted one clan. This will have two of the greatest, the Senju and the Uchiha, and already there are rumors spreading that the Hyuuga are in talks to join them, as are several others.
And she, Uzumaki Mito, will get to watch it all happen. She's nervous, yes, but also excited; just as much as she was when she began to learn sealing, so many years ago. She will be leaving her home, but perhaps she will find a new one; it will never be Uzushiogakure, no, but maybe it will be close.
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When she is twenty-five, she has been with Hashirama for five years, married for nearly four. The village she had heard so much about from him so long ago is nearly complete; it is called Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, and it is enormous. There are clan compounds everywhere, as well as shops and civilian homes. The compounds are still being worked on, as is the Academy.
It's a novel concept, an Academy. It's meant to teach children, both from clans and civilian families, to become ninjas, instead of clan children being taught by their respective clans and civilian children growing up to be civilians, when some of them certainly must dream about joining the ranks of the village's shinobi. It also serves the purpose of clan children learning more than just what their clans teach: some focus on certain areas of techniques, and while most will specialize in those, there's always one or two that don't excel in those areas, but in others, and the Academy will help them shine as well.
Originally it had been Tobirama's idea, proposed at a meeting of the heads of the clans that had joined Konoha, with herself and Tobirama being included due to their ties to Hashirama. She had seconded it almost immediately—she thought it was an excellent idea, herself—and Uchiha Madara, surprisingly, had as well. Soon enough, there was a building being built for it, and they were attempting to sort out who would teach there.
She'd been amazed when she'd gotten here at how many clans there were in Konoha; there were the Senju and the Uchiha, of course, but the Hyuuga had joined them, as had the Inuzuka, Aburame, Shimura, and Akimichi. There were a few Uzumaki about, too; they'd come out to see what the village was like, and ended up staying. Mito had thought that with that many different clans about, there would be fights within days, but it isn't like that.
It's peaceful, held together by Hashirama's strong will as the Hokage, leader of the village, though also by the dream he and Madara had shared. She likes it here, immensely; it's so nice, seeing more than just her own clan wandering the streets.
It's almost like home.
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When Uzumaki Mito is thirty, she seals a demon into her belly with a seal she made herself.
It started out as animosity between Madara and the rest of his clan; he hadn't wanted to stay, while they did. Then they voted him out of the position of clan head, and from there it had spiraled down, to the point of now.
She stands, watching, her chest heaving as she breathes. Madara and Hashirama have just had the fight of a lifetime, each pulling out their best tricks; Hashirama's being a wooden dragon, controlled with his unique Kekkei Genkai, and Madara's being the Nine-Tailed Beast. When he'd summoned that, Mito had been glad she'd followed along, hidden from her husband and his rival. While Madara held control over it for now, she knew it would not be long before Hashirama pulled it away from him.
That was why she'd started on a seal there in the forest, on her knees and scribbling away; there would only be one chance, and it had to be perfect, just as her father taught her. And when it happens—Hashirama using his Wood Style to wrest the Nine Tails from Madara, and then pinning Madara himself with another move—she slams her hand on the seal that she's transferred to her belly.
Everything from there seems to happen in slow motion: the Nine Tails is sucked, vortex-like, into the seal, and she moves her brush to complete it, to keep it from escaping. Hashirama moves to finish off Madara; he doesn't know where it's gone, she can tell by the look on his face, but this is the perfect chance to finish off the Uchiha, save Konoha.
And she watches as he dies. Then Hashirama sees her, leaning against a tree with her shirt pulled up to show a seal on her stomach, and rushes over. His face is the last thing she sees before she blacks out.
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Over the next fifty years, she watches Konoha grow. Hashirama dies when she is fifty-five, he sixty, in battle, and she is left alone, though with children, now. Their only child has two of his own, Tsunade and Nawaki, and she watches them grow, going through the now finished Academy.
She sees two more leaders of Konoha: Tobirama takes over ten years before Hashirama dies, and he rules well into the Second Shinobi World War. He dies in the midst of it, a sacrifice so his team could escape back to Konoha. He appoints one of them, Sarutobi Hiruzen, as Hokage just before, and the other five swear witness to her when they return.
She sees great shinobi rise, most notably the Sannin, made up of Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and her own granddaughter, Tsunade. There is Hiruzen, of course, who was the sensei of the Sannin; and the five who had been with him when he was appointed Hokage on that night in the war. There's Shimura Danzo, Akimichi Torifu, Utatane Koharu, Mitokade Homura, and Uchiha Kagami. She also sees several promising children in the Academy in the years before her death—there's Namikaze Minato, Uchiha Mikoto, Hyuuga Hiashi, Hyuuga Hizashi, and many more.
The most notable of these, though, is a young Uzumaki girl, with hair as red as hers had been and wide gray eyes named Kushina. She comes to Konoha after Uzushiogakure falls in the Third Shinobi World War, in a flood of refugees, but also for another reason: even before that, they had planned to bring her here to become the next jinchuuriki of the Nine Tails. She will be the next host of it, as Mito's health is declining, even with her heritage, and they can't risk the Nine Tails escaping, so they need a new jinchuuriki.
Mito's last words are directed to her, just before they begin the process.
"Do not be afraid, Kushina. Fill yourself with love, and it will all be okay."