AN: Beta'd as of 5/10/19

It was seven in the morning when Naruto awoke to a pounding on his door. The banging was loud and insistent, as if the person on the other side had urgent business to attend to. Although what business anyone needed him for at seven was a mystery to him. Groggily, he rolled over to glare at the door. It was his day off, and anyone who would bother waking him up this early knew that!

The pounding continued.

"Argh, fine," he growled, pushing the blankets off. Stomping to the door, he swung it open to reveal Sakura with her fist raised, ready to knock again. Upon seeing him, her face lit up.

"Good, you're awake. Let's go!" The pinkette was bubbly with excitement and practically bouncing on her toes. What had her in such a good mood?

"Go where?" He moaned, rubbing at his eyes. "I'm not even dressed, Sakura."

"The library, of course," she stated bemusedly . "I told you if Lord Hokage wouldn't talk, we'd find out more about those chains by ourselves."

Naruto blinked, surprised by the conviction in her voice. "Yeah but," he started uncertainty. "it's our day off," he pointed out. "I would'a thought you wouldn't want to see me until at least tomorrow."

Sakura seemed to think about his statement before replying. "Maybe." She admitted absently. "But this is so much more interesting. Like a mystery!"

Naruto sweatdropped. "You're way more excited about this than me."

Scoffing, Sakura rolled her eyes and pushed the boy back into his apartment, following after to close the door. "Just get dressed." she sighed. "We have a long day of going through books and scrolls." she continued as Naruto trugged back into his room. "Ah, so exciting! A whole day of research!"

"Only you." he grumbled from his room. Shrugging his shirt on, he prepared himself for a long day ahead of him. Because knowing Sakura, that's exactly what was going to happen.

Stacks of books and scrolls were piled high on almost every table in the back corner of the Shinobi library. Sakura had really outdone herself. She'd pulled out everything remotely related to Uzushio and the Uzumaki Clan, which somehow expanded to books such as Genealogical History of the Feuding Clans as well as a map of the destroyed city itself. Neither was going to be of much use to them, but Sakura insisted on pulling them out anyways.

Even so, it was a lot of literature to go through, and Naruto wasn't sure his brain could handle it.

A loud thump sounded as Sakura dropped another stack of books onto the table. Looking wearily up from his own book, he saw Sakura dusting her hands off as though she were getting rid of all the grime from the old texts.

"There," she said. "that's all of them." Gulping, Naruto looked over to see just how many books she'd brought. It was a fair sized stack, about six books, on top of the already full table(s) they'd commandeered already for their research project.

"I don't think we'll be able to get through all these, Sakura." he moaned.

"Not by yourselves, no." a new voice cut in. Turning around, both Naruto and Sakura were surprised to find Sasuke standing a few feet away, hands in his pockets, looking thoroughly and utterly bored.

"Sasuke!" Sakura gasped, face turning just the barest hints of pink from a blush. "You actually came."

Sasuke shrugged nonchalantly, even though they could tell there was the barest amount of discomfort hidden beneath. "Yeah well, the quicker we get through all these, the less I'll have to here the loser whining."

Naruto scoffed, taking offense before realizing that Sasuke was offering his time to help them on something that didn't benefit himself, and quickly shut his mouth. He would be wise not to comment on the fact, as it would just make the Uchiha defensive.

"Great!" he said instead. "And with my shadow clones, we'll get through this in time!" Sasuke just made his signature "hn" sound before sitting down with him anyways, Sakura following suit right after.

"All right guys," she said brightly. "Let's get to work."


It was nearing lunchtime when Sakura spoke up again.

"Hey Naruto," she whispered, careful that no one overheard. Naruto looked up to show he was listening.

"What was your mom's name again? You said she was an Uzumaki."

Right, Naruto had never really talked about her since they got back. He hadn't even talked about her to team 7 at all really. They only knew that his dad was the Fourth, leaving everything about his other parent to the imagination except for the fact that she was an Uzumaki.

"Uh, yeah," he whispered back. "Kushina Uzumaki. She had chakra chains too."

Sakura hummed in disappointment, looking back down at the book she currently had splayed open before her. "Well, damn it." she groaned. "This one is about Mito Uzumaki."

Mito Uzumaki. That name rang a bell…

"Oh!" Naruto exclaimed, straightening up in his seat. "She was the first Hokage's wife, y'know," he told them. Then, in a quieter voice, "My mom told me she was also the first jinchuuriki of the Kyūbi. Pretty cool huh?"

"Has every jinchuuriki in this village been an Uzumaki?" Sasuke wondered aloud, still looking down at his own book.

Naruto shrugged. "Guess my clan's just that awesome," he smirked. Sasuke rolled his eyes and remained silent, not taking the bait. Naruto pouted in disappointment, always enjoying the chance to bicker with his teammate, but all in all wasn't too upset about it. It was enough that the boy was here at all. Best not to push his luck.

"Hey, this is exciting!" Sakura exclaimed, looking back down at the book. "It says here she had the Hundred Hands of Healing seal, just like Lady Tsunade!"

"Well yeah," Naruto said. "she was her grandmother."

"Wait," the girl said, straightening up to look at Naruto. "does that mean you're related to Tsunade?"

Naruto had never really thought of it before, but he supposed she was right. "Probably;" he said thoughtfully. "but like, distantly, too, y'know. Lady Mito wasn't my grandma or anything, but I guess we're still technically related."

Across from him, Sakura was gushing with excitement. "That's so cool!" she squealed. "You're related to a Sannin!"

Naruto smiled, Sakura's infectious enthusiasm spreading to him.

"Still doesn't help us any, though." Sasuke pointed out, bringing the mood back down to somber.

"Sasuke's right." Sakura sighed dejectedly. "If we can't manage to find anything on Kushina Uzumaki or Uzumaki kekkei genkai, we won't find anything to help Naruto."

Naruto slumped in his seat at the declaration. She was right, which is what made it all the worse. "And it's not like we can just ask the Old Man." he said, in reference to the Hokage. "He likes his secrets."

"He didn't seem all that willing to share yesterday, either." Sasuke pointed out. "Our best bet is here in the library." Naruto nodded, still disappointed. And the worst part was, this wasn't even a guarantee. There might be nothing for him here. At least when Sasuke got his kekkei genkai the first time around he had someone to teach him. Naruto had no one. Suddenly the feeling of loneliness he'd been ignoring since they'd arrived came back in it's full crushing force, squeezing his lungs and making it difficult to breathe.

They all went back to reading after that, Sakura with her book Famous Clansmen Throughout the Ages, Sasuke to his History of Hidden Villages, and Naruto to his own Kekkei Genkai Among Clans. Within minutes they were all completely absorbed in their readings.


"Man, that was a long day." Naruto groaned as he stretched his back. The library was shutting down for the night and they had all been kicked out, but not before Sakura had checked out nearly every book they hadn't gotten around to reading. She was making Naruto, Sasuke, and Naruto's clones carry them. Naruto was actually loath to dispel them, considering they had gone through a book or two each themselves, and there were about five of them. If Naruto was exhausted from just one of him doing this, he wasn't excited to see what happened when he got five more of the same experience shoved into his brain. For some reason he had a feeling it would be worse than when he'd been training with Kakashi-sensei the first time around.

"It sucks we didn't find anything on your kekkei genkai," Sakura pouted as they reached her house. Shifting her own stack of books into another arm, she rummaged around for her house key to unlock the door. Turning back around, she added, "I'm sorry, Naruto."

"Nah, it's fine." he said, waving her off. "We got loads of time to figure it out. Besides, it's not like I'm gonna use the chains anytime soon. Don't got a reason to."

"That is true." Sakura agreed. Sasuke hummed in agreement as well. "Well, I should get going. My parents really freaked out yesterday about that A-rank, they don't want me out of the house long."

"Well you failed that." Sasuke snarked.

For a moment both of the others were shocked into silence. Had Sasuke just… made a joke? Staring at the Uchiha, Naruto figured that, yes, he had. Who was he and what had he done to Sasuke Uchiha?

"Why are you two staring at me?" the boy in question demanded. "It's creepy."

"Sorry," Sakura breathed out. "it's just, you know, you... were funny?" Naruto nodded heartily in agreement.

"Hn, whatever." he tried, face turning just the barest hint of red. Was he blushing! "See you two tomorrow." And with that, he handed his own stack of books off to one of Naruto's clones and jumped off to the rooftops to head home. Both Sakura and Naruto watched him go, confusion etched on their faces.

"So, that happened." Naruto finally offered.

"Yeah, it did."