Altered Story
Chapter 5: Seal Masters
Uzumaki-Namikaze Compound
"No."
Naruto closed her mouth and stared at her best friend who had his back turned at the moment, busy sharpening his chokuto.
"I haven't even said anything yet!" she shouted indignantly.
Sasuke turned around and gave her a look. "Its still going to be an awful idea whether I know or not." The Uchiha had developed a sense for when Naruto was about to suggest something stupid. He usually had Sakura and Shikamaru to help stop or at least curb it when she was feeling particularly stubborn. Which led him to think of the time that one of her particularly ridiculous and life threatening plans managed to actually set back Madara by a few months.
It was on the spot, right in the middle of a battle. A year had passed by already and there was no point in separating ourselves by village so everyone had worn the new hitai-ate with 'shinobi' written on the plate. Everyone was currently fighting the newly popped up army of White Zetsu clones after the last batch . . . and she hadn't told anyone about it, but Naruto had managed to figure out how to activate her chakra chains. The blond-red head continued to show why she was called the most unpredictable shinobi by activating it when she was 100 ft away. The immortal Uchiha did not know she would have been able to use it and was stunned. That opened the opportunity for the Rokudaime's Kage Bunshin to throw her over to the trapped man with a Sage Art: RasenBijuudama swirling in her palm. The attack was devastating and not without cost as all over the Uzumaki was slowly healing gashes that looked an inch deep. They did not know how Madara would have survived that, but everyone retreated as Black Zetsu had appeared to take the near-dead Uchiha away.
The former ANBU was brought out of his thoughts by his Kage's next words. "I'm going to help Gaara so we can be best buds again."
"Still no." Blunt as ever.
"Come on! I can do it and if something goes wrong, Ero-Sennin can be there to make sure everything's okay," the whining kunoichi told him. She could practically hear Kurama rolling his eyes in the back of her mind.
"Are you not thinking about the repercussions of messing around with a faulty seal? You don't have you Seal Master level chakra control anymore and your chains are useless as they have the same problem," the Uchiha pointed out to her.
"Which is what Ero-Sennin is for!"
"Thanks a lot brat."
The two turned to the girl's godfather who was sitting on the couch.
"Anyway, why don't you just have that cousin of yours help you," the white-haired man said.
"Nah, just cause we seem to be geniuses when it comes to seals doesn't mean we don't need to learn more." Naruto waved off with a snort. "Plus, she's with Ino and Sakura, learning about poison and other kunoichi aspects from Anko." That made both men and one Bijuu shiver thinking about the volatile tempers those three young girls had combining with the Torture specialist's sadistic nature. "I would join them, but I have my own things to worry about and its more their area anyway." She shrugged. Thank Kami all three thought. She's already a monster all on her own and reaches near impossible when combined with Kurama, adding more skills would just be overkill, Sasuke held back a shiver.
"Have you thought about how to keep him from going all, 'Mother wants your blood'?" Sasuke brought them back to the main conversation.
The two other shinobi snorted at the boy's representation of the Ichibi Jinchuuriki. It was the only thing that could make the stoic man blush as it was mortifying to think that he had ever thought of the insane Bijuu as his mother. Shukaku would laugh hysterically inside the Uzumaki's head every time it was mentioned.
"Well, I know Shukaku will be able to tell that Kurama is inside me so that should give me enough time to get close enough to allow him contact. Then I can talk-"
"Therapy Jutsu," Sasuke coughed out.
"-to him and he will become the cute panda-chan that I once knew!" The Uzumaki-Namikaze continued resolutely as if she wasn't interrupted.
"What's this Therapy Jutsu about," the Sannin asked with an amused glint in his eyes.
Naruto knew she wouldn't be able to stop Sasuke as he looked ready to break his aloof persona to laugh.
"I hate you guys," she deadpanned. "You'll know where to find me as I'm going to see Gaara now."
The two shinobi were quick to follow her as they did not want her to do the task on her own. They jumped over to the roof of the hotel where the Suna ninja were staying and as luck would have it, Gaara was sitting on the rooftop. They let the blonde-red head go in front of them and Jiraiya set up a Bijuu Chakra Concealment Barrier that Naruto had given him on the way there. Just in time too as they felt the malevolent chakra of two Bijuu surrounding them.
"Shut up, Shukaku. This has to do with Otou-sama." The boy had started to scream as he held his head, but he stopped all of a sudden to show that the Ichibi had heard his sibling. "Let my partner fix the seal so you won't feel pain anymore."
Shukaku had told them back in the future that he went insane with the pain from the faulty seal holding him and was okay now that he was out. He was still pretty crazy, but would not start going on a killing rampage anytime soon. It was more for his entertainment anyway to see their fear when he went on about killing sprees.
"Wh-Wha. . . Y-You are like me?" Gaara breathed out as he regained his stability.
"Yeah," Naruto answered sadly. "I could have been just like you." Then looked over at her two companions and the village she was standing in. "But I found something precious to me and I will do everything to protect it. If I didn't have that I don't know where I'd be, but I can't go through my life always wondering about it."
"How could you stand their glares and hateful whispers?" the boy questioned, showing vulnerability.
"I just smiled and walked on. Doing something to retaliate would prove them right so I strive to be different from their expectations. Even when the universe told me to give up, I didn't because I owe it to my precious people to try and live. Make things better so that none have to suffer like I did." She was silent for a moment. "You know, Shukaku's not bad once you get to know him. Also, he's not really your mother and I don't know why he insists he is," smiling at the thought. Turning to the red-head who stared at her with a concentrated look on his face. "Would you let me fix your seal. It's really nasty and I don't think it was done by a master." Sorry Chiyo-baa-san. "It would let you sleep again."
Gaara did not answer right away, but nodded after a minute of silence. The young seal master gestured for the two to come closer.
"And another win for the Legendary Therapy Jutsu." The glare sent to the former nuke-nin caused him to raise his hands in a placating motion.
"Whipped," the white haired man whispered loud enough for the young man beside him to hear. Sasuke proceeded to swipe at him with his chokuto but didn't go further than a glare. They stopped their antics when blue eyes deadpanned at them and they had the decency to look sheepish.
Blue-eyes turned back to the boy beside her. "Okay Gaara. Now I need you to lie down so you don't collapse during the process since it will be painful to unravel the seal you have right now." Scanning the seal placed on him, she grimaced along with her teacher. It was a really ugly seal and there was no way to revise it into a better one, hence the reason she needed to disassemble it. Luckily Karin isn't here, she has a strange dislike towards faulty seals that it seems more like a trigger to a full blown rant.
"Alright." She let Jiraiya go closer as she didn't have the chakra control to do this procedure, but she had the new seal ready to slap onto the Jinchuuriki as soon as the old one was off. It was essentially the seal that her mother had, the Hakke no Fuin when she had Kurama sealed within her.
Have I mentioned how much I hated those times? her Bijuu deadpanned in her mind.
Hai, hai and how you also hated being in Mito-sama's seal too. Rolling her eyes at her Bijuu, but quickly looked back to the sealing procedure. Gaara was now biting onto a steel rod to keep himself from screaming as Jiraiya made quick progress with unraveling the seal. It was a hastily done job and she really hated to disrespect the woman who gave her life for Gaara's but she really did a horrendous job. I might suggest letting me do a mission to go to Suna to teach Fuinjutusu their as it should strengthen our weakening alliance. It's just a bonus that I can fix their atrocious sealing skills.
Rolling his eyes at his jinchuuriki as she was reverting to her Kage-thinking ways. She's already beginning to do your job for you, Sarutobi.
Naruto sensed the moment Jiraiya released the last layer and flared up a level one chakra cloak to protect her and her companions from the Ichibi's chakra. She dashed to her brother in all but blood and slapped the new seal on top of his heart where they had sealed Shukaku.
"FUIN!" She yelled. A blast of chakra surged to settle the seal and hold back the one-tailed beast. Releasing the cloak, she fell onto her knees and into the awaiting arms of one of her trusted guards. It took a lot of chakra to seal a tailed beast and anyone below elite jounin reserves would just die from the chakra depletion. Of course, with her practically having Kage-level reserves with being an Uzumaki and having Kurama's chakra, it would serve to only take half with the strain of containing a Bijuu with this inexperienced body being the reason for her exhaustion.
"We'll see you later Ero-sennin for training unless you want to come with us tomorrow to discuss our plans to turn Suna on Oto. Gaara will be awake by then so we can discuss it with the Sabaku team and after that we can go train," thinking back to her training with the toads. "I wanna relearn my Sage training so you gotta let me sign the contract again."
The Sannin shrugged. "I was already planning on it anyway and I might as well go see what our future Hokage will do to settle diplomatic matters as I don't know your political strategies anyway."
As soon as they dropped the barrier, Gaara's team burst through the door that led to the roof of the hotel. The two siblings immediately went into a combat stance, but their sensei had noticed who had their Jinchuuriki in their clutches and put his hands on his students shoulders to stop them from doing anything rash. The combination of one of the Densetsu no Sannin, Jinchuuriki of the Nine-tails and Uzumaki Clan Head, and the Last Uchiha who had killed Orochimaru's spy in the preliminaries was suicide to go against.
"Might I ask why you have Gaara with you," paling at the sight that he now realized was his unconscious student and was wondering why the Ichibi was not taking over.
"Well, I thought that it was ridiculously stupid of Suna to leave their Jinchuuriki in that state with a faulty seal to hold back a Bijuu. I thought it would be best to make him a new one which would help strengthen our diminishing alliance by allowing you to keep Gaara safe, sane, and the ability to partner with his Bijuu to have control over its chakra," Naruto calmly explained to the agitated ninjas. They all tensed as they were in the midst of planning an invasion which would destroy their alliance making them feel the slightest bit guilty as the Konoha shinobi had helped them and they were to repay them with betrayal.
"Ah, you must be thinking about your planned invasion with Otogakure." The Suna team tensed in horror at the revealed information and they awaited the next move. "Yeah, your gonna be betrayed by Orochimaru as he plans to kill the Kazekage and impersonate him during the third part of the exams. When, he is defeated, which no doubt will happen, he will leave you to deal with the repercussions as he pulls his shinobi back into his village leaving you Kage-less and in the mercy of the village you betrayed." The Uzumaki said this blankly with no emotion as if she were not speaking about the planned destruction of her village to its possible instigators.
"Then what will you do with us?" A cautious Temari asked, blanching at the imminent future that could await her and her people. Sasuke smirked, he saw that Jiraiya understood what he did. They we're too distracted by the reveal of their plans and imminent danger to their village that they didn't even question Naruto possibly knowing that something like that could happen.
Nice job, kid. Looking at his goddaughter.
The time traveler shrugged at her. "Well, I was hoping you would turn on Oto and fight them for the possibility that they would still continue with their plan." At their confused stares, she elaborated. "Orochimaru is a man who makes sure that things goes his way, meticulous about it to boot, and with the fact that all the Great Hidden Villages will be attending the Third Part is probably an unexpected variable. He's insane enough to actually risk it for revenge." Snorts. Ignoring the subtle jab at her little lie. "I would still like to know that we can trust our allies not to betray us if the Hebi does go for his plan to crush my village." She gave them time to think though she did not assume they would take long as there really was no other option for them but to accept.
"We would like to discuss what to do to," Baki spoke for them.
"Great!" Reverting back to her cheerful persona. "Well, we'll talk more when Gaara is awake because he will be part of the whole plan to keep the Kazekage alive as I am not sure any Sunanin can protect him as well as he could. No offense, really, but a Sannin will be hard pressed to attack if their are ANBU, a Kage, and a Jinchuuriki to boot," she quelled their indignant expressions at the insinuation that they would not be able to protect their leader. Everyone agreed to meeting later and Naruto left one of her bunshin to inform her of when the red-head awoke.
"All right, next stop is the Kiri contingency, but first we need to get Karin as she insists on being there to 'protect me.'" Sarcasm lacing her voice even though she headed for T&I. The three headed to the fake entrance and saw that the red-head was just heading out.
"Naruto-sama," the girl greeted with a bow making Naruto sigh and the other two shinobi snicker.
"Still don't think this is necessary."
"It may not and I may not have been born during the annihilation, but I remember my mother's cries of anguish that she tried to keep quiet during the night. I was forced to live in the village that was not mine and used as a healer against my will. I want to be there for justice, not vengeance." The sharp glean in her eyes were made of steel and Naruto wouldn't have refused her anyway with or without her reasons. The Clan Head just nodded and the four headed to the hotel where the Kirinin were staying.
With good timing, they met Aoi at the entrance who had been waiting for them after receiving the message that they would be there.
"Uzumaki-sama," bowing in respect, to the surprise of the group. They didn't expect much with only having revealed themselves recently. As if knowing their thoughts, Aoi spoke. "We would not ignore something so important as this and being here gave us the greatest opportunity." Leaving that open-ended, he gestured inside. "Please, follow me." Nodding, Naruto and her entourage followed the man inside. Few shinobi lingering outside, were surprised, but outwardly stared blankly with interest in their eyes. They walked into the room and after a talk with Ao, Jiraiya set up the privacy seals to make sure no nosy shinobi listened in.
She gestured for him to begin as his Kage had been the one to prompt the meeting.
"First, I wanted to extend my own apologies for our predecessors actions towards your clan's village. Mei-sama extends her regrets." Bowing towards Naruto.
"Well its not like you did it yourselves, but I do hope their is no plans of destruction for the village the clan resides in now?" The warning implied with a hint of killer intent from both Uzumaki had the Kirinin holding back a shiver of fear.
"No, we would like to extend an alliance actually." Surprised looks flashed quickly through the group which Aoi decided to explain the reason for the offer. "As Mei-sama might have told you, there is important information that she kept hidden to make sure she would not be assassinated not only for her bloodline. As a descendant of Uzumaki Aiko she feared for her life in a village that participated in the purging of her clan."
Silence.
It was obvious the man spoke the truth as Naruto had not claimed otherwise. In hindsight it should have been obvious with red hair not quite reaching the heights of pure Uzumaki red, but definitely inherited the infamous raging temper that made men quake in their heels.
"She wants to have an alliance with the village that has her clansmen in it and the village that has managed to survive tragedies of their own and come out as still the strongest of the 5 villages."
A little much... but not bad though this should really be spoken with the Hokage though, Jiraiya thought bemusedly and smirked at the look his goddaughter tossed at him.
"Well as flattered as we are by your offer this should be discussed with the Hokage unless you have the official offer with you?" Jiraiya asked the man to which he nodded. "Then I don't see why we can't have you set up a meeting with the Hokage."
"Mei-sama also sends a piece offering in the form of sending over some stolen items she found in our village that came from the ruins of Uzushio." A scroll with the Uzumaki symbol on it was given to Karin, she inspected it and set her sensors on the scroll. Feeling nothing she bowed her head in thanks to which he returned.
Naruto spoke, "Well, the Uzumaki clan thanks you and please let your Mizukage know that she has the backing of my clan. We protect our own." Aoi bowed one more time and the group left.
An hour later after having sifted through the items and organizing them in the compound's vaults, her clone had popped to inform her that Gaara had awoken
"So I shall accompany the Kazekage to Konoha to prevent his assassination?" the red-head questioned.
"Pretty much, you can also train with me to access our Tailed Beast Forms when we connect with them," the future Rokudaime informed him cheerfully.
The past few hours were just hashing out the plans for the month. Baki would speak to the Kazekage who would speak with the shinobi who were part of the invasion that there would be a change in plans. Naruto, of course, would send Kage Fuin Bunshin to help with the persuasion as there would be obvious opposition. She had never met the former late Kage back in her timeline, but he seemed the type to care about his village. He would try to seek any sort of advantage to gain more money to stabilize his village due to the decline in missions from their Daimiyo who sent those missions to Konoha. Also, it wouldn't take too much convincing for the shinobi forces to comply as their was not really resentment for Konoha, save for few people.
"It would be. . . interesting to see my powers when I am fully aware of my surroundings." It'll be fun, don't worry about me taking over since Uzumaki fixed the seal. We can have so much fun! Ignoring the cackles coming from his Bijuu, he turned to look at the girl who saved him from his madness.
"There'll be other Jinchuuriki coming too! We can meet everyone for a little Pow-Wow. Ooh and-" she rambled on about the fun things that they would all do together once she convinced them and the red-head could see out of the corner of his eye that the black-haired boy who was beside her was slowly inching away, blanching at the crazy ideas coming out of his friends mouth.
"Naruto, we should let them depart," Sasuke called out to his Kage. Looking at the clock and seeing that he was correct, she created a Kage Bunshin. Taking out the seal that would allow her bunshin to last as long as it avoided fatal blows and placed it under the clothes on its back. It would be under a henge, of course, as it would be weird to see the Nine-tails Jinchuuriki leave with the Suna team.
"Now, come on Gaara. I've already set up your room beside Karin's, you know I kind of wonder if you're an Uzumaki too cause of the red hair, ya know? Plus. . . " Her voice faded away as she left the hotel with the fellow Jinchuuriki following her along with the Uchiha.
The Sunanin were left alone with the Gama Sannin who was giving them an intense look.
"Let me get straight to the point and say that I have all the means to be able to raze your village to the ground if you dare continue the plan." The KI suffocated the the three, but were able to shakily nod in agreement. The bunshin in the corner rolled her eyes at the boss's Godfather.
"That was also another reason why I'm going with them, Ero-Sennin," she deadpanned.
The white-haired man shrugged unapologetically. "Doesn't hurt to put added measures to it," then shunshined out there leaving smoke to billow out through the window.
I kinda don't know what to do with this story even though I have the outline finished. I just feel like I'm not doing a good enough job. I need some constructive criticism people! Give em to me! Though if I feel that they are flamish then you should just leave if you don't like it cause I don't wanna hear any of it.
Peace!
Keep Calm and Hope I Find A Way Cause I Am Really Confused!
Edit:
Wow, I am so sorry for the weird Hiatus, does it even count as one? But I just hadn't felt the motivation and now I found it again. I was like () this close to making this crackish because sometimes trying to be realistic gives me a headache. Again, I'll try to update a bit more, but I really can't give any promises. If I ever write another fic, I'll write it in full before ever posting the first chapter so I can update weekly.
Peace!
Keep Calm and I Am Alive Not Dead!
