Arhat gazed at the child who was squirming in Karin's arms, then to his great nephew. He sighed sadly. He tried to think about what could have possibly done this to his nephew. He looked down at kage.
"What happened?" he asked. His voice strained with anxiousness.
"Well we found the girl, Naruto being Naruto, decided to bring her with us. He went to train and we discovered that she has the lava release bloodline when she tried to copy Naruto's Kami's garden technique. She created a pool of magma instead of a field of flowers." Kage said which everyone's eyes widened and they gazed at Pele.
"Well as fascinating as this is maybe we should take Naruto either inside the house or over to the crystal caves." Tayuya said concern playing in her voice.
Arhat looked at his nephew sheepishly. He was sad to admit he was more worried about what exactly had taken place then his nephew's current state. He quickly rectified that by scooping up the boy and walking towards the crystal caves. The other two followed. Once all of the Uzumaki, as well as the little adoptee and the fox familiar were in the cave they sat down around Naruto in the lotus position. They began pouring out their chakra into the crystals which begun to radiate with a calming power. It didn't take too long before Naruto started to feel better.
He finally calmed down enough to talk before telling them everything that had happened in ame. He explained how he had freaked out when he finally confronted Aoi and eventually lost himself to his battle instincts, which everyone present was very well aware of just how lethal that was. Tayuya shuddered. She had been the first one to find out just what happened when Naruto's body went on autopilot. If not for arhat refereeing that match she would have died.
"I woke up standing over the same thing as I did when I saved Tayuya. His blood was all over me, and viscera was all over the walls. And those soulless eyes were staring at me." He said his voice barely above a whisper. "And the worst part was it had to be me. There was no one else who can use that awful technique."
"Only you blondie. Only you." Tayuya said shaking her head sadly.
"Yea only me. Who else unconsciously unlocks such a power?" Naruto whispered heartbrokenly.
"its ok big sissy." Pele said glomping Naruto and clinging to his waist. "I still love you."
Karin was gazing at the duo with hearts in her eyes. Arhat was contemplating all that he had heard and trying to figure out how it would affect them. Tayuya looked like she was trying with all her might not to burst out laughing.
"did she call you big sissy?" Tayuya asked biting her lip.
"yes she did." Naruto said with a heavy sigh.
"I was just making sure." She said before she burst into a fit of giggles.
"Moving on." Naruto deadpanned.
"Yes we should be. So I need you all to start sealing up everything important. After we leave I plan on sinking the island so Uzu can finally have the rest it so rightly deserves." Arhat said with authority. The three Uzumaki's nodded. They each disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Arhat looked down at little Pele. "Well let's go and find you some food. Then we'll find you something to do while I help them seal up the remaining stuff." Pele nodded from where she was contentedly petting kage.
x-x-x-x-x x-x-x-x-x
All the Uzumaki were standing on the ocean five miles off the coast of Uzu. Naruto was holding Pele. If the other Uzumaki had been watching Arhat's face they would have seen a single tear roll down his face as he put his hands in the ram seal and said katsu. There was a sound explosion muffled from under the ground. The entire island gave a seismic shudder before sinking into the ocean. Arhat turned towards the distant island of wave country.
"Let's go we have a lot of ground to cover and we're gonna need to do it as fast as possible." He said with a heavy sigh.
"He's right. I might be able to stand here all day but the rest of you can't." Naruto said staring towards wave country with Pele riding on his shoulders and Kage slinking along beside him. They all began to follow. It wasn't going to be a nature hike to get to wave country though.
It took fifteen hours of solid running to reach landfall, and even with the Uzumaki stamina that was no mean feat. They all sat down heavily on the grassy knoll right off the sand.
"I'm going to sleep." Karin said tiredly. "Wake me up in a few hours."
Naruto nodded his accent to her statement. He cradled Pele close to him, as he watched the moons reflection across the ocean's surface. He was used to not sleeping when he was out in the open. And he was perfectly capable of going three days without sleep and still be cognizant enough to put up one hell of a fight. After three days without sleep though his body started slowing down. So it was with this in mind that it became sort of the unspoken rule that Naruto took first watch so people could get the most sleep possible.
"You know I find it odd that we have left Uzu." Kage murmured from beside Naruto. "It was where I reached cognitive awareness and has for the most part been all I know. And now it's just gone."
"I know exactly what you mean." Naruto said softly. "It was the first place I ever received any kindness from someone besides gramps Hokage."
"Well we are sure to make waves when we get there." Kage said laying his head over his paws. Naruto nodded in agreement before gazing up at the stairs. He thought back on his training fondly. He had suffered from some of the harshest training imaginable from his sensei, but as his sensei had said. "I'm not training you to be genin, or chunin, or even jonin. I'm training you to be the survivor on a battlefield of nothing but enemies. I am training you to face off against A class ninja and not even flinch. Always remember the best tools a ninja can possess are a sharp mind and a firm body." It had hurt like all hell but he had come out of it that much stronger. It wasn't going to be fun. In fact it was probably going to be downright upsetting if he thought enough about it. But he would go back to the village hidden in the leaves and he would make his father proud.
