Chapter Thirteen

The two months and change following Naruto's birthday were actually quite peaceful, relatively speaking. Likely with Naruto's care in mind, Team TAK was issued a string of C-rank missions that never kept them from the village for more than two days, and even then only occasionally. And during those instances, Ken was relieved to find that Iruka or Ayame were more than willing to look after Naruto.

It helped that a major part of this time was covered by a longer-term mission that was right up Ken's alley: he was ordered to examine the sealing barriers around the village and repair it where necessary while Aoba and Tomoko covered his back. As such, he had been granted access to the barrier's formulae blueprints, originally devised by the clan-legendary Mito Uzumaki. Tomoko had been happy to point out that he'd literally started drooling when he first saw them.

This particular mission, funded by the village government, had lasted three weeks and, while painfully dull for his teammates, had been an intellectual thrill ride for the Uzumaki. He had been able to examine the entire expanse of the seal matrices that covered the village walls while remaining hidden by a sealing technique he had only ever read about. Only an Uzumaki knew how to reveal the sealing script Branded into the reinforced walls, which explained a major reason he had been given this task.

The mission had also had two fringe benefits: the consistent and rather generous payout had bolstered the funds for Ken's prospects of a permanent home for him and Naruto, and the hearsay from Ken's work had boosted his publicity as a seal master.

Very soon after the party, Ken had begun subtly looking for a plot of land to purchase for the construction of a new Uzumaki home to be built in the method of the fallen Whirlpool village; namely, a body made from coastal stones with wooden accents and sitting on a visibly elevated foundation. Naturally, he'd eventually need to locate and hire a reputable architect, but for now he needed space to plan and build. And given the lingering, shadowy threat of the infamous Danzo, he was wary of showing interest in anything specific until he was certain he could secure it.

This plan was made much more feasible by the string of sealing commissions he'd received since the Barrier Mission. When he'd arrived in Konoha, Ken had assumed he'd have to choose between a shinobi career or a small business, but he'd since realized that he could do both. And the use of shadow clones made it even more feasible. They would work on commissions while he was working with his team, out on missions or training Naruto and he himself would provide any enmass chakra necessary for the workings.

As the weeks rolled by, Ken was very much aware that his prospective Chunin Exam was fast approaching. As Tomoko was already a chunin and Aoba was a tokubetsu jonin, they were definitely not going to be his teammates. On the single occasion he had brought it up with the Hokage during the team's occasional in-person mission assignments, Lord Hiruzen had simply grinned and said Ken would be in "capable hands."

This did very little to allay his fears, but he had a feeling he would get nothing else until the departure date. After all, one must be capable of adjusting to any team configuration for missions.

What did come as a surprise was an announcement a few mere weeks before the cutoff date; an assignment of sorts that the redhead would never have seen coming in a thousand years. "You want me to do what?!" Ken yelped.

"I want you to be a guest speaker in some of the Academy classes on the subject of the practical sealing arts," Hiruzen repeated, casually shuffling papers as if he had merely commented on the weather. "As you are no doubt aware, sealing is a versatile and incredibly powerful art when properly utilized, and it is unfortunate that so few delve any deeper than storage seals and explosive tags."

"You want me to stand in front of a bunch of kids with attention spans hardly longer than Naruto's," Ken said dryly to mask his trepidation, "and try and convince them that a delicate art that requires extensive focus, experimentation, and discipline — not to mention intensive study — is worth their time?" Ken might have laughed if he didn't have a ton of dread coiling in his gut at the very idea.

"Yes. I do," Hiruzen replied lightly. He wove his fingers and leaned back in his chair. "Rest assured, Uzumaki, that I do not expect a classroom full of seal masters after a single lecture. I do hope, however, that a demonstration will plant a seed of interest in even one young mind. Uzushiogakure was unique in that a great number of people committed considerable time, effort, and resources into research of the sealing arts. And not only that, they built upon each others' work, instilling in each generation both an early foundation and outright passion for the art." He sighed. "It is my hope that you may capture the barest hint of that in our Academy."

He chuckled. "Not to mention it is an order from your commander. You have three days to prepare for your seminar on Friday, so I suggest you get started." He returned to his paperwork as if Ken was no longer there, a subtle dismissal. As Ken growled a sigh and turned to leave, the Hokage gave one last barb. "I would also suggest you prepare something flashy. Can't have the students losing focus, now can we?"

"Everyone settle down, now!" Iruka said, not loudly but with his voice carrying across the training field. "I know you're all excited, but we need to give our mystery speaker our full attention!"

In spite of Iruka's attempts to settle the class, the students were still murmuring to each other in excitement. All week there had been rumors going around about a guest speaker in the classrooms demonstrating some amazingly powerful technique. All of the children of the clan heads denied knowledge of it being their parents, which left it an even bigger mystery. Some thought it might be the Hokage himself. The only ones who were actually silent were Hinata Hyuga, who was always kind of quiet, and oddly enough, Naruto Uzumaki, who seemed to almost be vibrating with the suppressed urge to speak.

As Iruka tried to settle the students, Mizuki — whose class was merged with Iruka's for the demonstration — smirked through his nominal efforts to help. He'd been the one to slip to his students, several times, that their guest speaker would be amazingly powerful. He carefully hid his glee at the thought of the Uzumaki upstart being humiliated in front of the Fox-brat's peers.

As Iruka checked his watch for the timing of the presentation, he and Mizuki looked up at the distinctive swish of a kunai flying through the air. Both ducked on instinct, allowing the knife to imbed into the ground, revealing a sealing tag attached to the pommel. After a few seconds, the tag activated with blue light and a dense fog began to roll in around the students and teachers. The thin layer of fog above them muted the sunlight, casting everything in an ethereal light.

As the students looked around from their seats, the ground rumbled for a moment before walls of stone rose up around and in front of them, each one patterned like bricks and carved with the Uzumaki clan swirl. And finally, a figure familiar to a handful of the students appeared on top of one of the walls, his hood raised and his arms crossed. The mist slowly faded, allowing the full strength of the sun to return, and the figure tossed his head back, his hood falling to reveal the trademark red hair of Ken Uzumaki.

"Good morning, everyone," he grinned.

"Hi, Cousin Ken!" Naruto shouted from the front of the group, his volume almost making up for keeping quiet all of this time to not ruin the surprise.

"Hey there, Naruto," Ken greeted before hopping down from the earthen wall. "My name is Ken Uzumaki," Ken called out, "one of the last scions of the noble Uzumaki clan of Uzushiogakure. And today, I will be showing you one of the most underappreciated, but exceptionally powerful ninja skill sets!" He held up a simple sealing tag. "The sealing arts!"

The students were quiet for a moment before someone called out what most of them were likely thinking. "If the Fox-kid's clan was so great, why are you two the last?!" This brought a round of quiet chuckles from some of the students before another wall arose behind the group, sealing them in.

"First of all, his name is Naruto Uzumaki," Ken said coldly. "And secondly," his tone had warmed considerably, "before I answer that I want you to look at your teachers." He pointed at Iruka and Mizuki. "Gentlemen, if you would please turn around." Both instructors, who had moved to the back of the group for the demonstration, spun around to reveal the backs of their chunin flak jackets. And in the middle of them were the same swirl as on the walls around them.

"That swirl on Konoha's flak jackets is the Uzumaki clan crest, and the symbol of Uzushiogakure before it was razed to the ground. The power of the village had grown too great, its influence threatening the status quo and offering a powerful ally for this very village. And so, during the Second Shinobi World War, an alliance of three Great Villages and four smaller ones was formed to launch an attack and decimate Uzushiogakure … and the Uzumaki clan." He once again held up the tag. "And the root of our strength, feared by our enemies and respected by our allies, layed in seals."

Ken carefully hid his surprise at the wide-eyed looks he was getting. Granted, he hadn't said a word that was untrue, but he hadn't expected them all to be swept up in his story. Guess Tomoko was right about kids being suckers for crazy stories.

"Now, one of the reasons sealing techniques are so dangerous is because they are unusually hard to master. The scripts and glyphs and shapes of seals can have any number of effects — literally. An old saying says a true seal master can level mountains, dry oceans, and pull the stars from the sky. I am a seal master and haven't figured any of that out, but it really means that with enough practice and imagination, someone who understands seals can do practically anything." He held up the sealing tag from before in one hand and a different one in the other.

"Naturally, I can't make you all seal masters in one day," 'Thanks for that little turn of phrase, Lord Hokage,' he thought, "but I can show you some basics … and then some really good stuff. These are the two most basic seals ever created, ones that any shinobi will use any number of times in their lives. Heck, some of you may have used them by now: storage seals and explosive tags!"

Ken stuffed the explosive tag into one of his pockets and placed the storage seal on the ground, a quick pulse of chakra revealing what it had contained: a set of four heavy weights and two poles. "Now, for a demonstration I'll need a volunteer." He pursed his lips in mock-thought before grinning. "Instructor Mizuki, would you mind?"

Mizuki glanced at the collection of sixty-someodd children and grunted in reluctant agreement. As he approached, Ken tied a weight to each end of each pole. "Mizuki, if you would balance this one your shoulders," Ken requested, flicking through a chain of hand seals before ending with the Snake seal and clapping his hands to the ground to raise a pair of stone pillars across the training yard, "we're going to race. First one to cross that finish line with our weights on our shoulders wins." He'd pitched his voice to let the students know what was happening.

Mizuki grunted and tried to lift his weights, grunting with effort at how heavy they actually were. The pale-haired instructor had to sit on his knees to lift the weighted pole onto his shoulders before slowly rising to a standing position. With sweat beading his brow before the race even started, he took a bit of grim satisfaction at the sight of the Uzumaki struggling just as much.

"Three … two … one …" Ken said through gritted teeth, "... GO!"

Mizuki stumbled forward a step at a time, going as fast as he could without losing his balance. The students were laughing and some even jeering at his predicament, none louder than the Fox-brat, but Mizuki was pleased to not see the elder Uzumaki in his peripheral vision. At least until the halfway mark when Ken strolled by him at a leisurely pace, his hands in his back pockets as he walked and whistled a light tune.

Mizuki could only watch in horror as Ken held up a sealing tag and flashed him a quick grin over his shoulder before unsealing his weights and stumbling the two steps between the pillars and over the finish line. Without missing a beat, he resealed his weights and returned to Mizuki to do the same to his burden. "Thank you, Mizuki," Ken said with an icy smile. "That was very gracious."

Mizuki moved between Ken and the students before covertly flipping the redhead off. "You're welcome," he said airily, while his gaze practically screamed bloody vengeance.

"Now," Ken said, clapping his hands sharply to draw everyone's attention, "who can see the benefits of the humble sealing tag after that?"

One student, a girl with pink hair that he recalled was named Sakura, shot her hand into the air. He pointed at her to answer. "You can carry practically any supplies you may need on a mission and in any amount!"

Ken snapped his fingers with a smile. "Very good, miss! It's true, you can do that. In fact, my grandfather, an ANBU for Uzushio, was very well known for doing just that. He carried an army's worth of weapons, medical supplies, food stuffs, garments, and anything else you can imagine. They called him Kenan 'the Prepper' because of it." His grin widened. "But that's far from the only way storage seals can be used. As with any kind of seal, the only limits are your skills and imagination. For example, one Niko Uzumaki carried a massive scroll with her filled with storage seals that she used as a weapon. On one hand, it acted as a good club, but on the other … when she unfurled it, she could seal away her opponent's very techniques to protect herself, and then with another swing could send them right back at them. Or she could save them for later against others or even to study and figure out how they worked."

Narutally, this got a collective "Oooh," from the class, and even some impressed looks from the instructors. "Can you do that?" one student asked.

Ken laughed. "Not at the moment. Lady Niko took three years to figure out a sealing formula so complex and wide-reaching. Again, this discipline is not at all easy, but the rewards are worth the effort if you can bring yourself to master it." With that, he flicked his hand to reveal the explosive tag from before between his fingers.

"Moving on, I'm sure all of you know about exploding tags, also called exploding cards or paper bombs. They come in usually one standard potency," he wrapped the tag around a stone from the ground and tossed it up before triggering it to demonstrate, "but a user of seals can vary the explosion to a weaker distraction or something that can level a building." He smiled viciously. "Or they can do something a little more … unique."

Ken produced another tag, this one on red paper, and curled it around a kunai handle. He reared back and tossed it into the air at an angle, and at the apex of its trajectory, the tag burst and released a rushing sphere of swirling yellow flames that spun for a solid ten seconds before dispersing. At the class's stunned looks, Ken explained. "That was an Uzumaki Inferno Seal."

"That was awesome!" Naruto shouted, leaping to his feet to pump his fists. This opened the floodgates for cheers from the classes, which Ken couldn't help but smile at.

"Any questions?" he asked.

As students shouted over each other to try and ask their questions about what kind of seals he could make, one student in particular was quiet as he thought over the demonstration. The Last Uchiha looked between Naruto, the closest thing he had to a rival at the Academy, and the redhead who had causally displayed such a formidable arsenal … with the implication that it had hardly scratched the surface.

It seemed he had to think on this new route to the power to destroy that certain someone and avenge his family.

At the same time, Ken's words and demonstration had lit a spark in another young mind. A girl a bit older than Naruto, her dark hair styled in a distinctive pair of odango buns, was tapping her finger to her lips in thought, a smile slowly curling them.

After school had been let out for the day — during which Naruto had been happy to say he'd been hammered with questions about his cousin's abilities with seals — Ken poured himself a cup of tea as he observed Naruto working on his hand-to-hand combat with his specialized dummies. Ken frowned a bit as he noticed Naruto slowly losing steam in his training. Normally, the kid would be at it for hours, practically drawing new strength from the physical side of his training. But now he seemed … contemplative. Which, for anyone who knew the boy well, was a bit odd.

"Naruto? Is everything okay?"

Naruto tensed and glanced back at Ken before approaching the porch with a downcast air. He bit his lip, his head tilted down to hide his eyes behind his spiky bangs. "Cousin Ken … Was all of that stuff you said about … About our clan … Was it all true?"

Ken sighed through his nose with a grimace directed at himself. He had anticipated this question, and wrestled with himself for the last three days on whether to include it in his speech before deciding it might be a less-painful segway into Naruto finally learning the truth. As it turned out, it was still going to be just as painful.

"Yes, Naruto … It's all true."

Naruto sat heavily on the side of the porch, eyes wide and irises flicking from side to side in thought. "But … But why? Why would they do that?!"

Ken sat and offered a second cup of tea, this one with a generous serving of honey, to Naruto. "It's … complicated, kiddo," Ken admitted. "Most of what I know is either from rumors that my grandfather picked up while he was raising me or stuff we figured out on our own from seperate facts."

Ken took a deep breath. "Like I said, many of the shinobi villages across the continent believed that Uzushiogakure had grown too powerful, too much of a threat, to remain; this was made even more true to them because it was a minor village and that threatened to status quo of there being five Great Villages ever since the village system had been invented.

"Uzushiogakure, or the Village of the Whirling Tides, was the shinobi village of the Land of Whirlpools, a large island off the coast of the Land of Fire. I'm sure you've already learned in the Academy that the Senju and Uchiha clans were the ones to found this village, rapidly joined by the Sarutobi and Shimura clans, then the Hyuga, then the Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi, and so on." He was suddenly glad for the brush up on Konoha history for his citizenship test.

"What has been slowly phased out of Academy instruction in favor of more recent events has been the bond between Konoha and Uzushio. The Uzumaki chose not to join Konoha and instead settled on the island that would become the Land of Whirlpools. Why they did this, I'm still not entirely sure. But the kinship between the Senju and Uzumaki clans forged a bond between the villages.

"Konoha, thanks to the Land of Fire's greater territory provided Uzushio with necessary material resources like timber, metals, and coal, while Uzushio in-turn provided a buffer from the sea, traded seal-enhanced weapons and armor and, when necessary, provided consultations on bigger sealing works. For example, Uzushio ninjas created the detection barrier that surrounds this village."

Naruto blinked as he processed this new information. "So … If Konoha and Uzushio were such good friends, how did Uzushio fall?"

Ken pressed his lips into a thin line and took a moment to order his thoughts. "First, I want to make sure you know that a lot of this is guesswork," he said. Naruto hesitantly nodded for him to continue.

"The Fall can be traced to the efforts of the Major Villages of Iwa, Kumo, and Kirigakure, with the hired support of troops from the villages in Lands of Rain, Rivers, Stones, and Frost. Iwa didn't actually attack our home; it launched an attack against the Land of Fire to draw Konoha's attention away from the eastern front. I assume they were in on it to strip Konoha of a valuable ally.

"Kumo, from what we can tell, also hoped to leave the Hidden Leaf vulnerable, but I think that was more of a side benefit for them. The Hidden Cloud Village has shown a pattern of trying to steal valuable secrets and players from other villages, or at least from Konoha." Ken chuckled humorlessly. "In fact, one instance involved them kidnapping your mother to get their hands on the Nine-Tails," Naruto gasped at that, "and she was rescued by your father. It's supposedly when she fell in love with him." Ken narrowed his eyes and decided to take a gamble. "Another incident was just under five years ago when they tried to kidnap little Hinata."

"WHAT?!" Naruto shouted, jumping to his feet. "But Hinata's such a nice girl! And she would only have been-" he paused to count on his fingers, "-three years old! Why would these Lightning jerks do that?"

"Naruto, calm down and sit," Ken said sternly, though he was also a bit pleased at his little cousin's strong reaction. "If you keep talking, I won't be able to explain." Naruto grunted and sat with his arms crossed.

"To answer your most recent question, Kumo wanted the power of the Hyuga clan." With that, he launched into a brief assessment of Bloodline Traits — abilities inherent in specific clans that could not be learned — and the little he knew about the Byakugan in particular. "And so they presumably hoped to raise Hinata and force her to have children in Kumo with her special eyes," Ken finished.

Naruto's eye twitched and Ken was worried he might have said too much to an impressionable eight-year-old, but then the boy calmed down a bit. "Well, they didn't get my mom or Hinata, so it all kind of worked out for us." Ken bit his lip and chose not to get into the further details of the Hyuga Affair, which he and Tomoko had discussed some weeks ago.

"Yeah, well, given that little tendency of Kumo, my grandfather and I thought they were involved in the attack to get their hands on our sealing techniques to better bolster their military strength." Ken cackled darkly. "Which, good luck with that! Everything important we developed was protected by blood seals on both buildings and containers, and the texts themselves were written in secret cyphers. Not to mention the really good stuff would take a team of absolute geniuses to reverse engineer!" Ken kept laughing for a few moments. "And since no one has seen an uptake in sealing techniques in the years since, it's very unlikely they actually got anything worthwhile."

Naruto smiled at the fact that Ken was laughing about it, even if the subject was a bit grim. "So, you've covered the rock guys and the cloud guys. What about the other people?"

Ken sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Kirigakure. They had the most ... personal reasons for attacking. You see, Kiri's position as a cluster of islands and its abundance of Water Release users makes it the go-to village for nautical missions; hunting pirates, guarding merchant ships, protecting coastal towns, stuff like that. But as Uzushio's power grew, in part due to our research into seals, we became a genuine rival. We, too, had a ready supply of Water Release users, and our seals could reinforce ships and port towns.

"As Uzushio continued to draw customers away from Kiri, it apparently put a real strain on their economy. Not to mention, Uzushio was the only real obstacle standing in the way of them and the Land of Fire's coast. So they got the big score by attacking the village: they removed a powerful ally of Konoha, they probably tried to steal our seals too, and they removed an economic threat. All in one fell swoop."

Naruto swallowed thickly. "Was it really that easy?" he asked in a small voice.

Ken smiled sadly. "Now that, little Cousin, I can say I know something about. My-" Ken cut himself off and took a deep breath. "My grandfather was there when they attacked. As it turns out, attacking a village of sealing experts and masters on their home turf isn't the smartest idea.

"The village was layered with decades of defensive seals that weathered the storm of attackers. Normally, the whirlpools that surrounded the island would have helped, too, but Kiri knew what they were doing on that front. My grandfather did quite a bit of investigation in the years after and found out that over two-thirds of the attacking force were killed, whether in the attack or when they left. Some of the defensive seals were apparently there out of spite, to kick them while they were down.

"But even with the support of seals, Uzushio was still a minor village, and small besides. We could never have weathered such a huge force, even with every combat-ready soldier, veteran, and trainee we could muster. Uzushio fell after three days of resistance, and no one has lived on the island since."

Naruto was quiet for a while before asking one last question. "So … We really are all that's left?"

Ken shrugged. "Honestly, maybe not. My grandfather escaped with me, a friggin' newborn. It's entirely possible others escaped too and went into hiding." Ken gave a wane smile. "It was my dream growing up to find them, to find survivors that were family." He ruffled Naruto's hair. "And now that we're reunited, maybe someday we can find more."

Naruto's gaze turned from sadness to determination. "Well, that's what I'm gonna do! I will still become Hokage, but I'm also gonna do my best to find other members of the Uzumaki clan and bring them home. You better believe it!" He looked out over the yard to the training dummies. "And to do that, I gotta get stronger than ever, y'know!" With renewed vigor, Naruto charged and resumed his assault on his targets.

Ken smiled and cracked his neck before summoning a shadow clone to fight with. Because he, too, would do all he could to make that dream a reality.

Lucky number thirteen! This premise rattled around in my head for quite some time before I could finally put it to print. I really hope it turned out well!

*The idea that Mito Uzumaki designed the village security barrier is admittedly a head-canon. It just makes sense to me.

*The design of Uzushiogakure homes is all-me, too. It seems coastal to me, perfect for an island nation.

*Yet another head canon for me is that Uzushio was so great at seals because they put collective research and effort into it. I can't help but feel that most ninja who use the sealing arts have to teach themselves and start from scratch, to reinvent the wheel as it were. The Uzumaki clan pooled their resources and knowledge from a very early age to make something truly great.

*The logistics of the Fall of Uzushio are largely my own ideas. Rather than just petty jealousy, I tried to come up with feasible, semi-real-life reasons why a small but powerful nation would be attacked.

As always, please leave a review if you liked it or have questions. They really help stoke the forge of creativity! May your own inspirations flow freely!