Nothing Else Matters

An Uzumaki-centric story

Chapter 7

"First One and Samsara Eyes"

(Outskirts of Sunagakure no Sato)

Naruto looked at the two ANBU in front of him and his family. Those damned masks they were wearing made his blood boil. Just like the ones who hurt his mother.

The group of three was standing a few feet away from the ANBU, who had their hands on their weapons, signifying their hostility.

"Stop right there. How did you know the path to Sunagakure?"

Kushina put her hand on both her children's shoulders and gave them both a nod. They nodded back. Naruto ran forward with a kunai drawn while Kimiko stood her ground and put her hands in the snake seal to better her control over her wood style. Naruto created a clone mid stride so he wouldn't get overwhelmed by his enemies.

He understood what was going on, his mother wanted him and Kimiko to kill for the first time. While it was somewhat distasteful to put children in that situation, Naruto understood the the need to do it. He had been through far worse anyway, compared to seeing the person he loved the most, his mother, being stabbed through the chest in front of him, killing some Suna trash would be a walk in the park.

Naruto ran swiftly towards the one on the right. Because of his quick pace, he wasn't expecting his enemy to retaliate when he did. "Fuuton: Kaze no Yaiba" Naruto dodged to the right but still ended up getting a rather deep gash on his left forearm from the slicing wind. To make matters worse, his clone popped, which meant that he'd be fighting both ANBU. Kimiko would have to join the close range fight in that case. He was reluctant about letting her get close to the fighting, he didn't want her to get hurt.

"Suiton: Suidanha" Naruto released a concentrated laser-like beam of condensed water straight at the ANBU's chest. Because of the short distance between him and his enemy, Naruto's Jutsu hit with brutal effect, separating the man's right arm and hollowing out a small portion of the right side of his chest.

The ANBU looked down saw his arm lying on the ground, he seemed to blank out in disbelief before he narrowed his eyes. "You little bastard, I'll make you regret that." He spoke through gritted teeth.

Naruto channeled chakra to his feet and sprang away from his enemy. The ANBU would definitely be begging for a Taijutsu match, considering his inability to use jutsu due to his lost hand. Naruto doubted the man was skilled enough use one handed seal. Putting both hands on the floor, Naruto sent his numerous chains underground and had them converge around his enemy's position just as he began running towards Naruto.

Naruto's chains sprang out from underneath the surface and impaled the weakling in several places before he got close. Seeing his enemy was disposed of, Naruto hurried to his sister's position to rescue her from her enemy, she would be most likely have been overwhelmed the moment his clone was destroyed.

It seemed his worry was unneeded as his sister was sitting on top of her enemy corpse. the ANBU's throat was slit. She had quite the grin on her face. "I didn't expect you to take care of him so quickly. I'm impressed, Kimiko-chan."

"I wouldn't have been able to take him out if it wasn't for my new jutsu, I took him by surprise is all" She said in a pleased tone.

Kushina came from behind Naruto and put her hand on his shoulder. "You did well both of you. You're progressing very well Kimiko-chan. I'm surprised you were able to use that jutsu properly." She said in a somewhat serious tone.

Kimiko gave a smile at her mother's praise. Kushina continued in a more subdued tone. "Kids, do you want to talk about what you just did? Killing for the first time is a very hard experience, a lot of Shinobi never recover from it."

Naruto shook his head. "I'm fine, I've been through worse. How about you Kimiko-chan?" He looked at his sister expectantly. Kimiko wasn't with them when they were attacked by the Kumo ANBU, so this was her first real taste of psychological trauma.

Kimiko jumped to her feet and stretched her limbs "I'm fine, I've been preparing for this for a while. I have to admit it is a bit harder to cope with than I imagined, but I'll manage."

Kushina gave a cheery grin, she was happy they weren't too down. She couldn't stop crying for a week the first time she killed. They were handling it much better, courtesy of Naruto's earlier experiences and Kimiko's slightly cynical and nihilistic attitude. "Well, let's continue onwards. Suna doesn't really have any form of defense except for the sandstorms and the vast landmass surrounding it. Since we're already close to it, we should be able to infiltrate their wall easily. We'll sneak in through the cliff above the wall and look for our target."

Naruto and Kimiko nodded and started following their mother towards the village. Their fight with the ANBU patrol wasn't picked up on by the sentries on the wall, thankfully.

(Inside Sunagakure no sato, an hour later)

It was ugly, it looked like a child-made sandcastle. The houses were all made of clay, making the village look even more dull. How did people live in such hideous structures? The look of the place was extremely depressing. It couldn't compare to the sandy beaches and forests of Uzushio. The people looked like they were in rough shape as well. The economy must have taken a turn for the worst, Kimiko theorized.

This was Kimiko and Naruto's first time on a stealth mission, she was somewhat surprised by the ease in which they infiltrated the supposed great village. The wall only covered half the village, the other half was mountainous, all they had to do was climb the mountain and drop down in the middle of the village. Unlike the wall, there were no watch guards on the mountain.

They were currently walking through the village trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, their target wasn't going anywhere after all. Their bright red hair was covered by the sand colored turbans they wore on their head. After walking a fair bit away from the entry point towards the centre of the village, Kushina went to the side of the crowded road. "Alright, how about we have a little competition to judge your sensory abilities? Whoever can find the Jinchuuriki with their Kagura Shingan first gets to sit on the sidelines while the other does all the hard work."

Naruto bunched his eyebrows. "That isn't very good motivation, why would I want to sit and watch?"

Kimiko nodded at Naruto's words and smirked. "Naruto-nii is right, Okaa-san. Besides, he already knows I'm a better sensor so he probably won't bother trying."

Naruto's eyebrow twitched at the blatant and shameless taunt. Seeing the agitating smirk on his sister's face, he folded. "Fine, let's just get this over with."

Putting his hand in a half ram seal, Naruto concentrated his sensing abilities around him. He could feel the chakra of every creature in a the village, none were noteworthy except two, one was in the large sand tower with the word "Kaze" on it while the other was in an apparently empty road. The other chakra signature was a bit smaller than the first, but upon further inspection, it becomes apparent that there's another, massive chakra source within it. "I've found him. He's about four hundred meters north west of here." Naruto said

Kimiko started giggling. Muffling her giggles behind her hand, she spoke. "I wanted you to find him you dummy, now I get to fight him while you watch."

Naruto shot her a glare. "Whatever, It doesn't matter either way."

"No matter, let's go get him before Suna finds us skulking around." Kushina chuckled and put her hands on both their shoulders in order to lead through the streets to the Jinchuuriki's location.

Arriving at the location, a children's park, they found their target. He was sitting sideways on a swing, he had a very lonely and depressed feel about him. He had red hair and looked to be six or seven years old. Kimiko frowned when she saw him. "That's him? You want me to kill a kid?"

Kushina sighed. "You don't have to kill him Kimiko, you can just talk him into coming with us. I'll handle all the gory stuff."

Kimiko didn't move, her eyebrows were scrunched in thought. "I didn't expect him to be so little, he looks harmless. He can't be older than six."

Naruto, seeing the hesitant look on his sister's face, volunteered to go in her place. "I'll go. There's no need to burden yourself, Kimiko-chan."

Kimiko hesitantly nodded. Kushina was smiling seeing the interaction between Naruto and his sister, Naruto was the better choice after all. Kimiko backed down when the hard choice came, though she was surprised Kimiko handled killing as well as she did, she wasn't surprised to see her being apprehensive about killing the Jinchuuriki, especially with how much he resembled a young Naruto with his red hair.

Naruto looked at his mother. "Kaa-chan, how do I do this? I've never fought a Jinchuuriki before."

Kushina shook her head. "You won't be fighting anyone, you'll just disable him before he can use his beast's power. You can either disable him and take him or convince him to come with us, which is the trickier option. Just use a Shisho Fuin to suppress his link with the Ichibi and knock him out, it shouldn't be that hard." Kushina gave him a peck on the cheek before shoving him towards the boy.

Arriving at the foot of the tree the swing was hanging from, Naruto was surprised when the boy turned to look at him. He hadn't made a sound, so how did the boy know he was there? The Jinchuuriki had wide eyes and a slightly surprised expression on his face.

"How did you know where I was? I didn't make a sound." Naruto asked in a curious tone while walking in front of the boy.

The target seemed a bit surprised someone was talking to him. After taking a few seconds to comprehend what had been said to him, he shyly replied. "Th- The sand. I can feel when someone is walking on the sand around me." He said in a voice barely above a whisper.

Naruto looked at the ground below and saw that his left foot was in the sand while his right was further back in the grass, meaning that the Jinchuuriki had sensed him only when he set foot in the sand. A useful, if not specialized ability that was no doubt granted by the one tailed Tanuki, considering his relation to the desert.

Naruto wasn't too keen about conning a kid and killing him, but he had to do it. They needed the Ichibi for their plans, the kid was just an unfortunate sacrifice. Plastering his best fake grin, Naruto introduced himself. "I'm Naruto, want to be my friend?" Naruto said while offering his hand for a handshake.

Of course, he had already used his chakra to create a Shisho Fuin on his palm that he'll apply when the boy shakes his hand.

The red haired boy seemed shocked beyond words, if the way his eyes widened and his lips quivered was any indication. Reaching to shake Naruto's hand, he was momentarily surprised to see a wall of sand surge up to block Naruto's hand from to touching his. Remembering his 'condition', the boy looked down. "My name is Gaara. I'm sorry I can't shake your hand, I can't touch anything because of the sand."

Naruto didn't ease up his grin, even though he was internally shocked by the boy's ability. "That's ok Gaara-san, I'll still be your friend if you want."

Gaara had a surprised face for a few seconds before smiling slightly and nodding. "Do you want to play?" He asked Naruto.

Naruto thought about it, fighting and capturing him here would draw too much attention, especially considering his sand shield ability. The best bet would be to lead him away from the village, far enough that would see Naruto apply the suppression seal. That would take time, as he needed Gaara's trust to lead him outside the village. The biggest problem was his mother and sister were not very patient.

Considering his predicament, Naruto decided to throw caution to the wind. "Alright, let's go play Hunter-nin, missing-nin. I'll teach you the rules, I play it all the time with my sister. Though we need a big place to play, the village is too cramped."

Seeing as he couldn't take too long or his mother would be probably destroy half the village in her anger, Naruto decided to ask Gaara to leave the village walls right away. All that's left is to hope the boy was naïve enough to accept the offer.

Gaara seemed conflicted for a bit. "Well, we can go outside the village, but Yashamaru said it was really dangerous. Why don't we just play inside the village?"

Naruto shook his head, why couldn't he just fight him and be done with it? And why did his mother decide to sit put the most annoying task? Fate truly was cruel. "Come on Gaara, nobody will find out. We'll only be outside for an hour or two, what's the worst that could happen?"

Gaara bit his lip and slowly nodded. "Okay, but we can't stay out for too long."

Mentally cheering, Naruto started jogging in the direction of the cliffs he and his family snuck into the village from, that would be the exit point. "Try to keep up."

Gaara was stunned for a bit, before he regained his bearing and started to hurriedly ran after Naruto. "Hey! Wait up."

After a while they reached the cliffs, looking up, Naruto smiled. "Do you know the vertical surface walking exercise?"

Gaara scrunched his eyebrows "I don't know what that is."Tou-san taught it to me when I turned six."

Naruto nodded his head with a smile, he wouldn't have been able to carry him because of his sand shield. "Alright, let's race to the top of the cliff."

Before, he even finished his own sentence, Naruto ran off and left a once again stunned Gaara in the dust. Gaara quickly tried to catch up to Naruto.

A few minutes later, they were both on top of the cliff, Gaara was huffing tiredly while Naruto didn't even look slightly winded. "I beat you again Gaara-san. You should try to be a little quicker next time."

"You shouldn't have ran away so fast! I was plenty fast and would have beat you if we started at the same time."

Naruto chuckled. "Alright then, let's start going further out from the village so we can play." Naruto was sure his mother was this close to murdering him.

"Ok, but if we're going to race, try to tell me so it's fair." Gaara said.

They both walked side by side till they were a few kilometers away from the village. "Why are we going out so far? I can't even see the village anymore!"

Turning to Gaara with a serious face. Naruto put his hands in the snake seal. Multiple suddenly wooden branches popped out of the ground and constricted his lambs, the wood completely shredding his sand defense. Gaara was screaming at this point. Out of the wooden branches tying Gaara, wooden stocks emerged and impaled Gaara through the knees, making Gaara scream even louder.

Chakra exploded from around Gaara's body and started escalating at a rapid rate. "Come on out Shukaku." Naruto said as he broke the seal holding the Ichibi that was on Gaara's neck. Seconds later, sand converged on Gaara's body, completely covering it. Naruto jumped away from Gaara's location right before the sand took form and he was greeted with the giant form of Shukaku.

"Ahahaha. I'm out baby, now to crush some bugs." Seeing the beast, Naruto started the preparation to subdue him. "Mokuton: Mokuryu no Jutsu" a wood dragon popped out of the ground and started snaking towards Shukaku. It coiled around him completely at astounding speeds. Naruto jumped on top of the wood dragon's head which was a few yards away from Shukaku's face. "Get that wooden worm away from me you red haired baboon." The Tanuki yelled. Naruto pointed his palm which had the kanji for "sit" at his face. "Go to sleep now little doggy." The kanji glowed and Shukaku began feeling sleepier and sleepier. Before long, all that was left was Gaara's dead body and Shukaku's unconscious one.

Hopping down near it and disintegrating his wood dragon, Naruto waited for his mother to show up, she was the one who had the equipment to seal the massive thing. After a few seconds, his mother showed up in a Shunshin with a pride look on her face. She hugged him, smothering him in her chest. "I'm such a proud mother, my son's ten and he's already defeating Bijuu!"

After a bit of clawing and pushing, Naruto managed to pull away from his mother's embrace and breath some much needed air. Huffing, he looked up to see that his sister had arrived as well.

"I'll go seal the Ichibi so we can leave this terrible place, I'm sure you kids don't want to stay here another second." With that said, Kushina jumped on top of the prone Ichibi's head and summoned a large scroll which would house the Ichibi. She started drawing symbols to start the process.

Kimiko gave at Naruto with a sympathetic look. "It must've been hard for you to do that, it looked like you really like the kid."

Naruto gave a shrug. "I did, but he doesn't matter in the end. Family is what's important, nothing else matters."

Although Kimiko looked slightly surprised by his answer, she nodded all the same. "Nothing else matters" she repeated.

Kushina landed in front of Naruto and Kimiko and the Ichibi was nowhere to be seen. "Let's go, there was a monstrous chakra spike when the Bijuu was released, the only reason Suna Shinobi aren't here by now is because they traps I set up on the way here."

"Freaking finally, I thought this trip would never end." Naruto said with a sigh.

"It wasn't that bad Naruto-nii. At least you got to fight a Bijuu." Kimiko retorted.

"You'll have plenty of time to argue when we get home. Come on, let's go home already." Kushina said as she touched both Naruto and Kimiko before they disappeared in a flash. Seconds later, spears made out of the Yondaime Kazekage's golden dust impaled the ground they stood on.

The Kazekage himself was sitting only a few yards away. 'Gaara, I'm sorry' he thought to himself when he saw that his son's corpse was the only thing left. He had lost both his son and his Jinchuuriki, failed as both a father and a Kage, not to mention a husband.

He looked up and glared at the spot his son's murderers disappeared from. He would find those red haired bastards and he would be sure to kill them.

(Uzushiogakure, outside of the tunnel entrance, seconds later)

A flash of red signaled the arrival of Kushina and her kids. As soon as they arrived, Kimiko on Naruto fell on the ground and sighed blissfully. Seeing how relaxed they were on the grass, Kushina decided to leave them and go inside to have a talk with Akahana. "Don't stay out too long or you might get a cold."

"Finally, a hospitable climate." Naruto sighed in a pleasure filled tone. Suna's hot weather was something he hoped to never experience again. Being back in Uzu just compounded the feeling.

"Kami, it's like a different world. I hope I never have to go back that hellhole." Kimiko said while rubbing her face on a patch of wet and cold grass.

"What the hell are you two brats doing?"

"Ugh, the last thing we need is to get into a stupid argument with you, Karin. Please leave." Kimiko said, her earlier joy completely forgotten.

"Don't be so hard on her Kimiko-chan. It's great to see you again Karin-chan, believe me. You won't believe all the horrible things we had to go through." Naruto said in a dramatic fashion.

Karin stuck her tongue out Kimiko and hugged Naruto close to her chest. "You're so cranky all the time, Kimiko-chan, that's why Naruto is my favourite cousin of all time."

"I'm really sad about losing that vaunted position." Kimiko said sarcastically. "What are you doing out here anyway? You rarely come out of the lab."

Karin gave Kimiko a dirty look. "I do too come out, how do you think I keep my skin fair and beautiful? Anyway, I came out because Okaa-san needed some anaesthetic. I'm out looking for some herbs."

That particular part caught Kimiko's attention. "What does Akahana oba-chan need the anaesthetic for?"

Karin thought about for a bit. "I honestly have no idea. We Uzumaki don't really need anaesthetic as our blood naturally heals us. Though thinking about it, it might have something to do with pair of eyeballs Okaa-san keeps in her lab, although they've been lying around there forever."

"A pair of eyeballs? What would she want with those?" Naruto asked, having huddled over to listen to their conversation.

"Don't you know Naruto-kun? Some eyes are special, they have special abilities called Dojutsu, like the Byakugan of the Hyuga and the Sharingan of the Uchiha. It might be that this pair of eyes has a special ability too. Plus the eyes are said to be the windows of the soul, they have great beauty and power in them." She said with a dreamy look.

Naruto shuddered a bit at her strange obsession with eyeballs, talk about weird.

(Uzushio tunnel system, Akahana's laboratory.)

"Are you sure this is safe? I don't want my son turning blind because you messed up an operation."

Akahana sighed. "As I've said a thousand times before, it'll be fine. I've already done this procedure about 50 times with other test subjects. I don't think there will be any problem concerning the operation itself."she said in a somewhat apprehensive tone.

Kushina narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean by that? You make sound like that there's a risk in something other than the procedure itself."

Akahana nodded. "This is just a theory, as I have no conclusive proof whatsoever, but I think the strain of unlocking the Rinnegan will put a lot of stress on Naruto's body. His body might be too young to endure it."

"And you tell me about this now? When we're five minutes away from doing the actual operation?" Kushina said in an angry manner.

"Nothing bad will happen. Hopefully. He is an Uzumaki after all, his body will most likely be capable of enduring it. We must do the operation now anyway, unless you have another pair of Mangekyou. We can't delay this operation any longer or the eyes might rot, you can only preserve the Sharingan for so long after all."

Kushina nodded begrudgingly. "Alright, I'm sorry, it's just that I can be a little worrisome when jt comes to my children's health. I trust your skills as a medic, Akahana." She clarified. "I'm going to get Naruto, you should get the operation room ready." She said as she turned and left the laboratory to explain the operation and the eye son and daughter.

(Five days later, Naruto's room)

Kushina, Naruko and Karin were sitting around Naruto's bed. He was suffering from a very high fever ever since his operation. They had all been worried sick for him. He was mostly hidden under a blanket, with only his head popping out. His eyes were bandaged and his forehead was topped with a wet cloth that was routinely changed.

Akahana assured Kushina that the fever wouldn't do any permanent damage, that was the only thing that was keeping Kushina's nerves in check. She had been standing by Naruto's bedside for the whole duration of his sickness. He had been progressively getting better, as the only thing he had done first two days was waking up, mumbling some incoherent sentences and going back to sleep. On the fourth day, he had stayed up for a few hours and had a long talk with his mother. Akahana cleared him to unlock his bandages on the fifth day.

Feeling something stirring around under her, Kushina lifted her head from Naruto's forearm and groggily sat back in her chair. "Kaa-chan, are you there?"

Putting her hand on his, she responded. "I'm right here Naruto-kun. How are you feeling?" She asked worriedly.

Naruto tried to squeeze his hands into a fist, only managing to form a very loose one. "Weak, I don't like feeling weak. Hopefully I'll be able to regain my strength when I get out of this damned bed." She squeezed his hand comfortingly, hoping to release some of the tension.

"It's a good thing we chose you to carry these eyes, Akahana doubts Kimiko would have survived this ordeal." Kushina said in a low voice. "Naruto-kun, Akahana said that you can take your blindfold off now." As soon as she said that, he reached up to rip the bandages off. His hands were stopped by her firm grip. "You'll damage your eyes if you rip the bandages like that. You'll have to take them off slowly in order to let them adjust to the light." Kushina admonished. Lifting her slender fingers, she slowly unstrapped the hem of the bandages and started slowly unraveling them.

Light slowly streamed in to Naruto's vision, he stopped his mother from removing his bandages briefly in order to get used to the light. Soon enough, his eyelids were the only thing covering his vision. Slowly opening them, his eyes were assaulted by the bright light of the light from the ceiling light seals. Closing his eyes and reopening them a couple of time, he finally adjusted to the light and saw his mother's beautiful face looking at him worryingly. Looking down, he saw that the two weights on his lower body were his cousin and sister, both resting on his shins.

"Is your vision okay, Naruto-kun? Does it look blurry?" Kushina pestered.

He silenced her with a shrug. "Everything is fine, Kaa-chan, I can see clearly. You don't need to worry so much. How long do I have to stay in this bed?"

"As long as it takes for you to get back to full health. I won't have you risk your health any more than necessary. You already gave us quite the scare with your illness, I don't think my psyche can handle another five days of lying next to your bed, not knowing if you'll wake up or not."

Naruto winced as he heard his mother talk. He didn't know she was that worried. He once again allowed his body to fall back on the bed and relaxed. "Alright, I'll stay in bed for a while."

"Before you go back to sleep, sochi. Can you channel some chakra to your eyes?"

Naruto nodded and channeled a minute amount of chakra to his eyes. They turned red with three tomoe spinning rapidly around the center. Kushina nodded. "More chakra, Naruto-kun." Channeling more chakra, his eyes changed once again. The tomoe were replaced with a black four sided shuriken that spun around the center. "One last time, Naruto-kun." Naruto sighed and channeled the last bit of his chakra, he didn't have a lot because of his current state. As soon as the chakra reached the tenketsu in the eyes, a purple pattern of ripples emerged from the pupil of the eye, expanding outwards till it covered the expanse of the eye.

Kushina stared at his eyes for a bit before she smiled. "Perfect, you're going to be very strong when you master those eyes, Sochi. Now go back to sleep, you need your rest." With that she gave him a kiss on the forehead and left the room, carrying the sleeping Kimiko and Karin with her.

A/N: Well, that took a while didn't it? Sorry for the delay guys, I had a lot of schoolwork for the past week.

I want to respond to a part guest reviewer "Uzumaki Centric"'s review of chapter 6.

This is what he said: "I guess Tsunade really wanted the Uchiha's to share the fate of the Senju Clan since the Senju are on the brink of extinction, I can't believe she said Yin Chakra causes madness when in fact it enhances the mind"

I think you misunderstood me, I didn't say that Yin chakra was inherently bad. Tsunade theorized that the Yin chakra the Sharingan specifically releases leads to madness. Tobirama said the same thing when he had his talk with Sasuke. In times of mental anguish, the body of an Uchiha releases a unique chakra that improves the Uchiha's visual prowess, but it also leads them further into madness.

That's it I guess, I hope you enjoy this!

Jutsu translations:

Fuuton: Kaze no Yaiba - Wind Release: Blade of Wind

Suiton: Suidanha - Water Release: Water Severing Wave

Kagura Shingan - Mind's Eye of the Kagura

Shisho Fuin - Four Symbols Seal

Mokuton: Mokuryu no Jutsu - Wood Release: Wooden Dragon Technique

Shunshin no Jutsu - Body Flicker Technique