AN/ wow i got this out just in time to say happy B-day Naruto!

Naruto hadn't known what to expect when he stepped through that gate. A small but thriving community, sure, quite possibly. But as the scent of the sea filled his nose, never in a thousand years did he foresee this. Spread out before him was a sprawling metropolis, entwined with nature.

He could hear the gentle crash of the waves against the shore, as Children lept from branch to branch and from building to building playing within this unique fusion of an urban city and forest amongst themselves, while civilians and off duty shinobi alike went about their day. Fishermen hauled in their most recent catches, and merchants advertised their wears. It was, by all accounts, a thriving island.

"Welcome to Uzushio, the village reborn from the tides," Shinobu spoke up from beside him, "I think it's fitting that we reuse the name again, don't you?"

"Yes," Naruto wholeheartedly agreed, just standing here. He could feel the nature energy that flowed through this place. It was a feeling he had seldom experienced in his long life. Only on Mount Myoboku and when he had visited Wakanda had he felt nature's energy so rich that he actually had to focus not to take it into his being.

It was as if nature itself were reaching out to him. It felt as if all he needed to do was open himself up, and all of nature would eagerly come to his aid. Soothing his wounds, bolstering his weakened reserves, and slowly fighting off the black taint he was the unwilling host of. Even the Bijuu were having difficulty in purging that taint to restore the balance within his soul. The blackened Lichtenberg figures that scoured his right side faded ever so slightly. He had only been here for mere moments and already it felt like the burden of carrying that black taint was getting just a bit easier.

"Where are we?" Naruto couldn't help but ask.

"Near Mistral," Shinobu smiled a knowing grin.

"If you'll follow us, we can take you to the central tower so that you can meet Hideyoshi-sama, the acting regent of the Uzumaki coalition." Giyu said, taking charge and leading their odd group.

"I suppose we're quite the unusual sight," Naruto noted idly. As civilians and shinobi alike took notice of them, with but a glance, he could tell that they were being monitored closely. Trailed by what was likely an ANBU equivalent from the rooftops, while most civilians gave them a passing glance. Before going about their day, only a select few actually paid closer attention.

The keen eyed shinobi among them instinctively focused on their gait, what their weapons were, their numbers, where their hands unconsciously strayed.

Coco followed closely beside him, her eyes darting about, chasing at shadows, the strap of her weapon Gianduja held in a white knuckled grip, her other hand tightly balled into a fist so tight that her fingers were turning blue.

Naruto took her hand in his with his good arm, giving hers a reaffirming gentle squeeze.

"Thanks, Whiskers," Coco said, returning the gesture.

Despite the discomfort, Naruto wrapped Pyrrha in a one armed reassuring embrace as well, seeing that Pyrrha was just as nervous as Coco.

She snuggled into the embrace mouthing a silent, 'thank you.' with a grateful smile, ignoring the cat call and wolf whistles from the crowd that they had seemed to draw.

Finally, after some time, they made it to the Plaza, where the central tower was located. Only calling it the central tower was a bit of a misnomer. It was indeed a massive tower that stretched high into the air, its true height hidden by the morning mist, only much like most of the island nation it was entwined with nature, a massive gnarled old oak entwined itself with the tower stretching far past what they could see.

On the other side of the plaza stood a lone tower that was bereft of nature entirely. Not a single grove or vine grew near, bound as it was by something other worldly, chains of chakra bound it in place. And yet something about it drew Naruto's eye to it, as if a siren called out to him.

Naruto shook off the sensation once they entered the elevator. They traveled up several floors before they reached their destination. When the doors opened, a mountain of a man met them, built as strong as an ox. He stood over seven feet tall with hair as black as night. The prominent scar across his brow and his milky white eyes stood out on his stern visage. Despite that stern visage, he greeted them with a soft smile when the doors to the elevator opened, in spite of his apparent blindness.

"Ah, hello Giyu-san, Shinobu-san. Welcome back. I hope your mission went well?" He greeted them with a bow, speaking to them in their native tongue.

Shinobu smiled, "yes it went about as well as an escort and Grimm extermination mission could go Gyomei-san."

"Lord Uzumaki, this is Gyomei Himejima, second in command of the shinobi forces and head of the Hunter Corps." she said, turning to Naruto.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Himejima-san." Naruto said, shocking them with his fluency in what was supposed to be their native tongue as he bowed in return.

"Uzumaki-sama, you never told us you could speak our language." Shinobu accused, pouting sourly.

Naruto snorted in wry amusement, "you never asked." He shrugged.

"It's an honor to meet you Uzumaki-sama," Gyomei bowed, his eyes ever so slightly shimmering with tears.

"Hey not that I mind Foxy, but would you please speak our language so we know what's going on?" Coco huffed, crossing her arms in frustration. "It's rude."

"Sorry Coco." the blonde apologized.

"I apologize for my rudeness as well. I am Gyomei Himejima, second in command of Uzushio's shinobi forces."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Gyomei. I am Coco Adel, leader of team CFVY from Beacon." She smiled, the socialite and team leader in her coming to the fore. "And this is Fox Alister, Yatsuhashi Daichi, and Velvet Scarlatina, my teammates."

"If we're introducing our teams, then allow me to introduce mine as well," Naruto grinned softly. "This is Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, and Nora Valkyrie of Team NNPR."

"Now, if we're all done with introductions, can we finally meet with Elder Uzumaki?" Giyu cut in. "We were told to meet with him directly as soon as we arrived."

"Ah, yes, but he is in a meeting with commander Amagawa and Elder Tomioka at the moment, so if you would-"

"The old man huh," Giyu hummed, cutting the other man off, "if it's them then I'm sure he won't mind." he said, striding forward past the other man to knock on the door.

Gyomei, huffing in defeat, smiled softly, inwardly admitting to himself that he was a bit too soft with the men under his command. It was just in his nature; he supposed.

"What is it?" a gruff voice barked from the other side of the door.

"Jonin Giyu of team Tomioka reporting Mission successful, sir," he said quickly and to the point.

"Enter."

The doors opened, and he heard a laugh that turned his blood to ice. "Ufufufu, my, my, how brave of you Giyu chan." Sitting on one couch was the older terrifying beauty Shizu, head of the Shinazugawa clan and the chief of the intelligence division. And standing at ease behind her were her two sons Sanemi and Genya, accomplished shinobi belonging to that same department as well.

Giyu turned around, glaring at Gyomei with a look of betrayal on his face at the mere sight of her.

"What are you doing, dear? Come in," she coaxed, fanning herself innocently with one of her fans. Giyu stared at the thing with a weary gaze. He knew exactly what those fans were. They were her signature weapon, just as deadly as any blade, the same ones she had used to put her ex husband into a vegetative state.

Stiffly, almost robotically, Giyu walked into the room resigned to his fate. He wouldn't resist her, not at all, not if he did not want to be teased mercilessly by her.

Taking the seat furthest from Shizu, Giyu glared bloody daggers at Shinobu when she dared to take up a seat sitting next to her.

"Shinobu dear, how have you been?" Shizu asked as the others filed into the office, Team CFVY taking up the seats nearest to the windows, while team NNPR gathered up nearest to their leader in the center of the room.

"About as well as one can be after taking two missions back to back." the smaller girl admitted.

"Oh dear, I'm terribly sorry about that." Shizu said, fanning herself lightly.

"I'm glad you came. Grateful really." Hideyoshi spoke up, "I thank you from the bottom of my heart." He bowed.

"That's fine and all, but what makes me your heir? Better yet, how did shinobi from the Elemental nations wind up here?" Naruto questioned.

"To answer the first part you are the last living member of the main line through your mother Kushina." the elder admitted "how we got here that, however, is more complicated." he let out a mournful sigh.

"It was almost two hundred years ago when it happened. My father, Mitsuhide, was but a boy at the time. Uzushio was overwhelmed, surrounded by a combined host of Kumo, a small contingent from Tsuchi, and Kiri led this host. They utterly cut us off from any hope of aid. And as mighty as the shinobi of uzu were, no matter how great our seals were, it was just too much. For every one of our own shinobi there were ten enemy shinobi. Our situation was as hopeless as it could get…"

The elder Uzumaki seemed to age with every second that he told his tale. "That was when our clan head, your Grandfather Ieyasu Uzumaki, came up with a plan, a grim plan that would be either our salvation or our destruction."

Not a soul dared interrupt him. How could they with how tense the atmosphere had become? "The plan, to attempt to teleport all of Uzushio across the dimensional divide, It was pure and utter insanity. Especially when the most we had experimented with Time-Space Ninjutsu was the technique we helped Tobirama of the Senju create was the Hiraishin. But what else could we do? We were utterly surrounded, hopelessly outnumbered, not even our allies in the Land of Fire could hope to bring aid in time…"

"However, even with that hope, time was our greatest enemy. In order for the plan to work, we needed to buy time. At the most we could hope to last was three months. And so to buy the time we needed, it was to be paid for in blood… the blood of our friends, our families, of our enemies. For months, they fought to buy the time needed. We paid for each victory with blood but it meant very little, and every loss was devastating. In the end, we succeeded in our goal…"

"The seal was done, with an array that could span the entirety of Uzu had finally been completed just when the barriers that held back the bulk of the enemy forces fell at long last. We fought one last retreating battle to buy the time needed for the array to expand. Things, of course, were going smoothly until they weren't. The seal expanded far, but it couldn't cover the entire island. We lacked the chakra for that, even with every member of the main line working towards the cause. In a sudden surge, our left flank crumbled, exposing Uzushiogakure. It left the main house with little choice…"

His next words told the truth and the cost of what had happened that day. "Ieyasu activated the seal, just as the main thrust of the enemy forces had breached our walls. We had done it. In one moment, we're about to be overwhelmed. Many of our kinsmen would be doomed to either death or slavery. In the next, we found ourselves and a portion of the island had been displaced into unfamiliar lands. It was a one in a million chance we had actually made it to an inhabited world and not some wasteland. In the days of chaos surrounding the teleportation we were holding, making steady progress towards ending this once and for all, capturing who we could. Putting those that refused to surrender to the sword. That was when the creatures of Grimm came upon our shores. It was what felt like thousands of them swarmed up from the depths. They were mindless beasts slaughtering anything living in their path. It was that first endless horde that forced us to work together with those who were once our enemies if we wished to have any hope of survival."

"It was only after the chaos that had happened during those first few days, and the dust had settled and we had come to some sort of tenuous truce, that we could come to find out the truth… of What Ieyasu and the members of the main line kept from us. And the reason for the invasion. Many of us thought it odd that even our finest seals and vast array of weaponry could not keep the enemy at bay."

"The reason for our downfall was betrayal. Ieyasu's youngest brother, Nobuhiro, desired to take leadership for himself, such a fool boy, so far in over his head to realize that he doomed the very clan he sought to rule to extinction. By his own hand no less." the elder admitted. "And The cost of this Jutsu, in order to make the leap across the void, they used everything they had, their chakra, their vitality, and even their lives. The main tower was locked down with their deaths, and should have reverted control of the master seals to the next in line to take over my father, Mitsuhide. But they did not. To this day, they remain locked to the Main Line of the clan." While he meant no offense, Hideyoshi couldn't help the hint of bitterness that slipped into his tone at the end.

It was no question that they had lost much, sacrificed a great deal, the years of history gone, families torn apart, generations of youths sacrificed on the pyre that was war.

]|[

Naruto gazed at the night sky from the Engawa of the guest room they gave him within the Uzumaki compound for the night. For a guest room, it was rather spacious sitting at twelve by twelve shaku in length and width. He pondered just what he would do now… he knew he needed to contact Beacon in the morning. They were already well past overdue for their check in; but it was only natural that they had all needed some time to decompress after their own hard trials, especially after hearing the harrowing tale of just what had happened to his clan.

But the question that was stuck in his head was, did he accept? Did he refuse his family? Could he even reject them? In his youth, they were what he had been searching for all his life. But then he had started a family of his own, he had Hinata, Hanabi, Ino, Boruto, Kawaki, Himawari, Inojin, And Chinami. And even if they were no longer with him, they were still bonds, his precious family that he treasured deeply even now. He even had newly treasured bonds now, Yang, Weiss, and Pyrrha, all of them dear to his heart... He wasn't about to just forget about them and stay here. And here these people were Ready to accept him just like that. It was at times like this that he leaned on Kurama for guidance. He wished that the old fox was here for this.

'Kurama, buddy, I wish you were here…'

They didn't even know him, not really

A knock at his door broke him out of his thoughts.

Standing up, with just a few quick strides across the tatami, he was at the sliding door. When he opened the door, he came face to face with Coco and Velvet.

A part of him had to admit that the pair looked stunning in their borrowed yukata. Coco's was of a deep blue with the waves of the ocean printed on the fabric. Absent were her trendy Beret and sporty sunglasses. and Velvets yukata was of a more simple design, an off white with a slight pink tint, with a flower print dotting the hem. Based on the notes of Lavender and sandalwood his keen nose could pick up. Clearly, the two had taken full advantage of the hospitality the Uzumaki clan had provided.

If he was honest with himself, the pair were not who Naruto had expected to see tonight. While he hadn't had any set plans for the night. If anyone was to pay him a visit, He had expected it to be a certain red-headed prize fighter.

"Can we come in?" Coco asked. "There's something I, no, we want to talk about. Right Velvet?"

Velvet could only blush, nodding her head meekly rather than answer.

"Yeah, sure…" Naruto nodded, stepping aside to let the pair in.

Leading the pair to sit at the tea table at the center of the room, "can I get you anything?" he asked, "I have water, tea, coffee, juice, or some alcohol." The Uzumaki had really gone all out with their guest accommodations. The alcohol was strong enough to even give him a light buzz.

"Water is fine, thank you." As much as Coco knew, she would love some liquid courage. She would very much prefer to stay sober if not for her own sake, then for Velvet's.

"Uhh, I'll take some, yes, please!" Velvet squeaked, fidgeting in her seat for a moment before realizing that she hadn't specified her preference at all. "I-i uh, mean alcohol please." She flushed crimson at her slip.

Coco quirked a brow but said nothing.

"Ok," Naruto grinned, grabbing the ceramic serving set for the sake. The set had a two toned granite patterned design and two six inch tall serving carafes, one with a seal at the bottom for warming the liquor and the other had one for chilling it. Filling them both with a bottle of Uzu's finest, he grabbed a pitcher of water and a set of clean glasses from the kitchenette cabinet.

Setting it all on a serving tray, he brought it all over to the table. With a quick application of chakra, Naruto activated the seals on both bottles and began serving. Starting things off by serving the chilled sake to Velvet, then pouring a glass of water for Coco before serving himself a cup of sake as well.

"So what did you want to talk about?" he asked, taking a small sip of sake.

"I um… I-I uh- What I mean is…" Velvet began, trying to get what she wanted to say out. Stuttering and stammering until her words devolved into incomprehensible muttering, her cheeks coloring red with her embarrassment as she became a fidgeting stammering wreck.

"What I think Velvet means is that she likes you. We both do, really, if I'm being honest." Coco admitted rather boldly, her own cheeks dusted with just the slightest hint of pink.

"Is that true Velvet?" Naruto asked.

Seeking comfort and courage in the power of alcohol, Velvet downed the whole glass. Her face turned a bright red, but not from embarrassment. "God, what is in this stuff?" she gagged, choking on the strong liquor.

Coco rubbed her back, soothing her through her coughing fit. "You ok?" she asked as Velvet's coughing subsided.

"Yes, I just didn't expect it to be so strong…" Velvet admitted.

"Sooo… you gonna answer the man or what, Bun Bun?" Coco teased.

If it were at all possible, Velvet seemed to turn an even deeper shade of red, "Coco," she whined.

The gunner of Team CFVY snickered before urging her friend to answer. "Soo…"

Velvet glanced at the blonde meekly. "Yes," she admitted softly. "I've liked you since you helped me with team CRDL…"

"And if the rest of team CFVY were there, I can guarantee that things would have been a lot different." Coco cut in. "I have to say, you caught my interest the way you stood up for my adorable bunny here, more so than anyone who hasn't been of the fairer sex until now. So I'm willing to give this a try." she boldly confessed, stealing a cup of sake for herself. Feeling that a bit of liquid courage wouldn't hurt.

"I'm flattered… I really am. But I'm already in a relationship with Weiss, Yang, and Pyrrha…"

"We know." Velvet admitted, cutting him off.

"And we already had a chat about this with your prize fighter." Coco added. "She approved and gave us this opportunity."

"So what do you say…" Coco asked. Seeming just a bit hopeful.

"Well, I'm not opposed," Naruto admitted. "But…"

"Buuuttt…" she wheedled, drawing the words out, urging him to continue.

"But if you want this to work, then we need Yang and Weiss's approval as well."

Coco grinned lasciviously. "oh, I'm sure they won't be too hard to convince…"

]|[

A storm raged deep within the deserts of Vacuo. Thunder crackled in the night sky, and lightning struck the desert below, seeming to lens around a singular point in space when it strayed too close.

Space bulged as a reality warping distortion formed in the air distorting space until it couldn't any more, then like shattering glass it crumbled as a rift in space was torn open.

Five cloaked beings with plain porcelain like masks emerged from the void between worlds. As the tear in reality behind them closed, the surrounding storm lessened.

"Mother, finally we're here…" one of the cloaked beings said. As the tallest of them wove intricate hand signs.

]|[

Deep within the mountains of Vale, the crystalline manifestation of all those souls pulsed softly within Fool's hand. Even now he could feel what remained of the thing that was Stinger bitterly clinging to life, refusing to slip silently into that sweet oblivion. Initially, he had sought to absorb that power and make it his own… but perhaps there was a better use. "Can you hear me in there?" he asked what remained.

The stone pulsed violently at his words, arcs of dark ever light lashing out uselessly against him. Any wound inflicted healing almost instantly.

"Good, I'll take that as a yes…" he muttered to the jewel. "If you can hear me, then serve me, become mine, and I shall grant you life anew."

The jewel pulsed with that same dark light once more.

Fool set the gem on the ground. And with a flick of his blade, he opened up his wrist. "All you need to do is Drink, take in my blood, my power and be reborn. Become one of my followers, help me in my goal and the world will be yours if you wish it…"

His blood poured onto the gem and it trembled,began to crack, as black light poured forth from its broken vessel. He let his blood flow until his wound ceased to bleed.

From the broken gem, they formed a new being as it drank greedily of its offering, the first to emerge where its slender arms. Next to form was its head and lithe torso, followed by the rest of its body.

When the light died down, its definitely curvaceous feminine form was revealed. With eyes a vibrant lime green, hair that shined like pure silver, and skin as pale as snow. She was an other worldly beauty. The only sign of who she once might have been was the manic look in those captivating eyes.

Fool took off his cloak to cover her nude form, revealing crimson hair and tired violet colored eyes. "Tell me, do you have a name?" he asked.

On instinct, she wanted to use her old name to use Stinger once more. But that was not who she was anymore. As she opened and closed her mouth wordlessly. She bit her lip in frustration, shaking her head.

"Then we'll find you a new one, the two of us." he smiled. Patting her head with a marked palm "Now then, let's go meet the others."

Her eyes widened in astonishment. There were others like her? The creature that was once Stinger grinned softly as followed her new master.

"But first, let's get you some clothes."