"There's one Uchiha loyal to the village," Sarutobi Hiruzen heavily admitted to the marble-faced Uzumaki woman. "And that is Sasuke, an eight-year-old child."
"I had a deal with Uchiha Fugaku to save him from you and your council." With that, Uzumaki Kiana swept around, but stopped at the door.
"I am old, Sarutobi Hiruzen, older than you by more than forty years," she told him in a chilly voice. "My children are probably dead by now, and I have no idea if any of them had children. If I find you had anything to do with the Uchiha dying, I will personally make sure every Uzumaki cuts ties with Konoha." She turned her ice-cold grey eyes to him. He was once again reminded of the brutal, one-sided fight of Kamido and Hashirama. "And we'll take that stand of Holy Food with us."
She swept out elegantly.
Hiruzen dropped his face on the desk.
"...Hokage-sama? What 'Holy Food' were they talking about?"
"Ramen," he replied, his voice slightly muffled. "That's the one thing they're all religious about."
~:~
Weeks passed. Naruto, Tayuya, and Karin were busy trying to construct a seal to help find other Uzumakis and call them and Kiana was busy trying to end her contract with the traveling brothel.
"Naruto." Naruto stopped getting ready for another long day at the Academy. "Skip the Academy for once, yes? Could you try something for me?"
Kiana looked nervous.
"Sure," she said, setting her satchel down. "What do you need?"
"I don't know if he's alive or not," Kiana revealed, "but I want to try and find my son."
"What's his name?" Naruto sat down.
"Uzumaki Nagato."
Naruto focused, looking up at the seal.
"Uzumaki Nagato," she said, pushing her will in it.
Unlike the other times, this was... Different.
She simply blacked out, unaware of the panicked scream Kiana gave out.
~:~
Deva Path stopped in his work. Something was in his head... Something... No, not in this head; his head.
Something scared, small, and childlike.
He perused the entity, playing a game of cat-and-mouse in his own head, eyes closed, giving everyone around him the assumption he had fallen asleep.
The red-streaked hair flew past his vision, and he set up a wall, hearing something collide with it.
Looking at the girl, he blinked at her innocence and yet the fact she looked like an adult.
She was Uzumaki. He knew her by her hair.
"Why are you in my mind?"
"Uzumaki Kiana, your mother, sent me to look for you," the child whispered. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, -ttebayo."
"My mother is dead," he refuted, unwilling to believe it.
Naruto shrugged. "What do I have to gain by lying to you?" she asked him.
A very good question indeed.
