Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!
"The geezer died... well damn... that is sad."
"Respect your father boy."
"I'm sick, so maybe don't hit my head." Naruto rubbed the side of his head where Mito smacked him, since she came to deliver the news of her husbands death. She kept her face stoic, but she had the smallest air of comfort and happiness when he made the small joke that he did. She had an apple in her hand, an apple that she placed on the bed next to him. Naruto could sense Hashirama's life force was inside of the apple.
He grabbed it and tossed it up into the air a few times.
"Then show your father respect."
"Forgive me, but we both know he didn't have long left... he's been holding on for awhile now." Naruto had mourned Hashirama's death long before it even happened. The man was not like himself and Mito, while he had powerful life force, his body couldn't truly keep up with his spirit. It was only a matter of time before his life started to give out.
Naruto tossed the apple up into the air once more.
Mito kept her eyes on Naruto though.
Naruto caught Hashirama's right arm when the apple came back down, having transformed itself into flesh once more. The apple containing the life force of the man, having turned into a semi-flesh, semi-wood, version of the man's arm. Mito wasn't surprised when the apple turned into an arm.
"That man..."
"Damn... this is going to hurt to put on." Naruto groaned and grabbed where his arm ended in a stump, before he sunk his fingers deep into his own flesh.
He yanked.
Blood splashed against the walls as he tore open the end of his arm, before he grabbed Hashirama's arm again and placed it against the bleeding stump. Mito watched as the wooden parts of the arm started to grow into Naruto's arm, stabbing into his veins as the half-wood arm sucked out his blood. The end of his arm, and the replacement, started to meld together in a way that seemed extremely painful.
"Do you need to bite something... ah..."
Naruto was biting his pillow.
He currently had several dozen microscopic vines digging around in his flesh and sewing themselves, fusing themselves, to his body and sucking out his blood so that it could flow through the new arm and form it's own veins. It gained a more youthful appearance in response to his blood entering and flowing through it, and the skin color of the wood started to change to match his own skin color.
'Of course it had to be so damn painful... I would rather cut off 20 arms than experience this bullshit again.' Naruto felt a numb feeling of pins and needles in his right arm as the nerves started to connect to his nervous system, and a couple of fingers twitched as he gained control of the arm. The arm gained a fleshy look to it soon enough, but despite looking like it was made of flesh, Naruto could still feel the fact that it was a mixture of wood and flesh.
A few tears fell onto the arm, and he could feel them.
"It's okay to cry."
"FUCK!" Naruto shouted as he wiggled his new fingers and he experienced their full range of motion. "I thought the VEINS hurt, but FUCK... the BONE hurts worse! Damn Old Man, Geezer, Sadist! Couldn't have made it painless could you... good prank." Naruto wiped the tear from his eye, his body extremely pale from the bloodloss. Only 20% of the blood the arm sucked out of his body went towards blood circulation, while most of the blood went towards making the arm suitable for his body.
The bone of the fake arm and the bone of his real arm connecting to each other was even more painful than the nerves. He felt a wooden spear stabbing and shattering his bones, before melding together with them.
Painfully.
"Language young man."
"Hah, I'm in so much pain, I didn't even FEEL that one." Naruto laughed at how he couldn't feel her slapping his head. Compared to the pain he was in right now, and how dizzy he felt, her slap was nothing. "... oh no... gonna pass out... hey... how long do you have left?" Naruto asked Mito as he wiped a tear from his eye again.
He didn't know why, but the tears just didn't want to stop.
Mito smiled.
It was a wide, genuine smile that she only showed when she was vulnerable and around her family. This was not a smile that could be witnessed by those like Koneko, who were not a part of the Uzumaki or Senju by blood. This was a smile reserved for himself and Tsunade, those who were among her bloodline.
"Is it appropriate to ask that young man?"
"... You've lost weight... since he died, you haven't been eating right... when was your last meal?" Naruto asked Mito with a sad smile.
She rubbed his hair affectionately.
"Yes... you're right. I haven't eaten since he died. I won't die until you give me a grandchild though."
"Grandchild... you already have a grandchild, Tsunade-"
"Young man, I raised that girl as a daughter... and since she can no longer give me a grandchild, I expect you to do it. I won't die until I know for sure that you won't be the last of the Uzumaki name." Mito pinched his cheek and wiggled it around. She never took Hashirama's last name, since an Uzumaki never took the last name of another clan when they married. They were a powerful, life force filled, clan who demanded respect. "As it stands, if I die, there isn't another Uzumaki who actually has our last name."
"What about-"
"We don't speak of that blood traitor."
'Geez... what the hell did you do in this world Nagato?' Naruto wondered as he coughed into his hand. The loss of blood, combined with his weakened body from having his seal strengthened, and the fact he was sick, were taking a serious toll on him. Still, he had to wonder what this world's version of his fellow clansmen had done to deserve being labelled a blood traitor and hated by Mito so much that she refused to so much as hear his name.
Mito stood up.
She started to wake away.
"Also, have you been practicing your mask making?" Mito asked with a raised eyebrow.
Clan tradition.
The enslavement of a god, and the binding of that god to a mask. They would carve a mask, and then they would enslave the power of a god and force it into the mask. A god or a demon with strength compared to a god. It was tradition for an Uzumaki to carve and enchant their own mask, before they used it to enslave the power of a powerful being.
Successful Uzumaki were considered the elite.
The last Uzumaki of their clan to succeed in the enslavement of a god was Nagato, and the Uzumaki blood within Tsunade was too weak for her to be able to perform the techniques. Naruto was half Uzumaki by parentage, but he had inherited the same powerful energy as his mother Kushina, the super large reserves of their clan, and the powerful life force and healing ability within their blood.
The Uzumaki blood within him was just as strong as any full blooded Uzumaki, thanks to the fact that his father had been abnormally strong as well, which added strong blood to strengthen his already strong Uzumaki genes.
"Uuuuuuuh."
"Boy... it is a rite of passage for any Uzumaki who wishes to be an elite. We are the Uzumaki." Mito started with a stern lecture.
Naruto had heard it a dozen times.
"We are the Uzumaki clan, we enslave gods themselves to our will. Our blood churns the oceans, the spirals in our hearts stir up the mighty whirlpool, and our bodies carry the mountains. We are-" Naruto stopped when she slapped her hand on his face, stopping him from mocking her speech.
Mito had a stern frown.
"Naruto, you have more untapped potential than your parents combined. You have more potential than me and my husband combined... you are the elite of the elite... yet for some reason, you hold yourself back, and refuse to see how far you can take that potential. Why don't you apply yourself... you could one day become the strongest this world has ever or will ever see." Mito couldn't imagine it.
Why was he purposely holding himself back, and refusing to truly apply himself to his training with all of his might?
He was talented.
He mastered Senjutsu in less than a week once he put his heart into it, fast enough that her husband had been shocked at how he progressed. Naruto only continued to study in the lower classes so he could held those who needed help, when he was so far progressed that he could have been teaching the class on senjutsu.
He was terrifyingly powerful.
90%.
90% of his raw energy reserved went towards maintaing the seal on his body, the seal consumed 90% of his power in order to seal away the darker power inside of him. It was a terrifying thought that even with only 10% of his reserves, he had more raw reserves than even her husband had in his prime.
If he ever mastered the dark power inside of him and no longer needed the seal, it would shake the heavens.
"What can I say... I just want a normal, peaceful, life... I want to go to school, I want to have fun... get a girlfriend... I think peace is awesome." Naruto smiled at Mito.
She sighed, because that was all she could do.
"Fine, but one day I expect you to take your duties seriously... and I mean seriously."
'... I don't want to kill anyone though... and most of the techniques I can remember were made for murder. I just want to live a peaceful life, where my friends don't have to worry about if every day will be their last.' Naruto felt the strength was sapped from his body. The topic of his strength and talent was depressing for him.
He hated it.
He hated how loved and natured he was when it came to his power, because it made him realize some dark truths about himself. He had always just assumed he was a hard worker, but he assumed that because he had spent a lifetime being told he was an idiot. Yet, everyone here since his birth had considered him gifted and talented, and they treated him well, with love, and they tried to nurture his talents.
How strong would he have been if his strength had been nurtured the same way in the shinobi world?
All the love and nurturing made him realize something.
He hated the shinobi world.
He loved how peaceful his life was now, and he wanted to keep it that way.
Chapter End!
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