Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Chapter 04: Reunification (04.10.36 AfoK Night – Early lunchtime 05.10.36 AfoK)
As it turned out, Tsunade was a lousy loser. She didn't have the dignity to show up in person for the meal while enduring being made fun of. Instead, she came by Ichiraku and told him she would pay for everything we ate and would bring the money the next day.
I wasn't amused and hypothesized I might have teased her a little bit too much but dismissed that thought as fast as it came to mind. This screamed for some kind of retribution, the question being what prank is appropriate for this situation, Hmm.
Mito and I each had our reason for being angry at Tsunade's behavior. Kushina, on the other hand, couldn't be happier. Not having to suffer her presence while eating on her tab. And boy did she take advantage. Every bowl she had was filled with more extras than their usual content. She even went so far as to order a dozen bowls to go for her second dinner later in the day.
To Kushina's and my surprise, Mito allowed it, without so much as an objection. Might have been an allowance since Kushina did not challenge me again to a ramen eating contest. I personally doubted she learned her lesson. It probably was her way of thanking me for teaching her by not trying to thrash me. And I had to emphasize the word try, she might think differently, but I wouldn't allow myself to be dethroned as the Ramen King, ever!
Subsequently, we went home. I helped Kushina refine the two jutsu I taught her earlier in the day. Meanwhile, Mito vanished somewhere in the house. The day for me ended a few hours later after the second Ramen buffet courtesy of Kushina, who was nice enough to share some of her loot.
After that, I didn't stick around for long and went to my room. Utilizing the help of a few Kage-Bunshin I enlarged the Shiki Fuin on my stomach. Nowadays, I had lost count, how many times I had to fix it in some fashion.
It was high time I replaced it with the labor of my hard work. Now that Kurama wasn't in it and a slight mistake could have cost me my life, I had free reign to adapt and evolve it. Unfortunately, there was only so much that could be built on top of something if the foundation wasn't designed for it.
I had to be ready should the worst case come to pass, and the current seal on my stomach wouldn't hold up to what would be required of it even though powered by the Shinigami with my father's soul as Brickstone. It needed it to become more, and I had an idea of how to achieve that.
We were jumping from tree to tree. I could sense another presence being snuffed out. I increased my speed again, despite knowing that we wouldn't make it in time; we were just too far away. My companions, who already struggled to keep up with me before I made haste, slowly fell behind.
I didn't care. Instead, I cursed Sakura and pushed myself even further.
When I finally reached the site where the battle took place. The attackers had already retreated, leaving behind a battlefield dozens of shinobi strewn about their innards adorning the ground, the stink of death lingering about amidst the simmering flames marking the places Fire-jutsu connected with their surroundings.
Lying against a tree I found her, Sakura, she was the last to die, her body a wrangled mess, her limbs cut away from her and the torso littered with hundreds of wounds, where jutsu and kunai penetrated her flesh over and over again until her chakra finally ran out and her regeneration jutsu stopped working only then did she die.
Tortured to death. Stupid woman, why would you destroy your Hiraishin marker. You were the only one left, the only one as hard to kill as me, and now you left me too. And this wouldn't have been the first trap of Madara that I sprung. Dammit, Sakura, what were you thinking?
I released the seal on her body containing her personal effects within them. Including the medical encyclopedia, she wrote after Tsunade´s death to preserve her knowledge, as were the plans she and Tsunade worked on in their free time their dream hospital as they called it.
Having everything a doctor and its patient could ever hope to wish for.
Their little project, in such a dire situation we found ourselves in, everybody needed something to hang on to in order not lose hope, and what better way was there than to plan for the after.
I pocketed it. My hands balled into fists at my side, I gave her a last silent salute, and then I took off, there were no tears left in my body to be shed, and I had no time to waste. There were some guys in desperate need of being killed.
At this moment, I didn't care what trap they laid for me, Sakura didn't want me to step into. I had just one feeling, one desire in my entire body that needed to be sated, my hunger for revenge.
I woke up in the middle of the night by the rustling of fabric close to me. I kept my eyes closed, and a sweep with my sensor power told me it was Mito, who, for some reason, was standing in my room in the middle of the night.
Long before she got close enough to shake me awake, I opened my eyes and turned her way. She had her cane with her, which once more was baffled at, didn't make any sound while she walked and placed it on the ground. A silencing seal perhaps? Which begged the question, why not use the same seal to mask the other sound she makes? Must have been intentional. Only a moron would get close to a shinobi in a manner that might be construed as ill intention, especially when they are at their most vulnerable, during their sleep.
"Everything alright?" I asked. I knew she wouldn't come to me at such a strange time if it wouldn't be important. She, after all, was around me the whole afternoon and evening, but so was Kushina, the paranoid part of my mind added.
"I think it would be better we talk somewhere else," she said in response. Sensible Kushina had her room on the second floor, and the walls were thick. Nonetheless, she was a shinobi in training better to be safe, especially if we were discussing anything she was better off not knowing.
Furthermore, we couldn't risk a Hyuuga having his eyes pointed at us, they usually were expert lip readers, and the barriers around the house and the compound weren't capable to hinder their sight; not much could actually.
A few high-powered barriers were protecting the compound that ran a lot of chakra through them. Enough that it at least distorted what they could make out looking in from outside the barrier. Similar to looking through a murky glass. It wouldn't be enough not to be seen. Having our lips read, on the other hand, would be all but impossible. Which sufficed for our purposes.
She led me through parts of the house I haven't been to before and ended up in front of a reinforced door. She removed a key dangling from the chain necklace around her neck and put it into a lock. The door that opened, cleared the way to a spiraling staircase. Leading deep down into the basement of the building.
She placed her hand on the wall to her right, and along the walls, lights flared up, clearly the product of some seal work. We walked down the stairs for quite some time, deeper into the ground with every step.
The purpose of the basement revealed itself to me after Mito opened up another door after reaching the bottom level. While I thought the other door was reinforced, it paled to the monster in front of me. It was a safe with hundreds of seals carved into it, one more intricate than the other, something I could infer through the visible encryption alone.
When the heavy double door swung open, it gave way to an enormous room hidden behind it. It was an extensive library full of scrolls sorted into Ninjutsu Taijutsu Genjutsu and Fūinjutsu portions. I have seen something like this once or twice, Clan libraries usually look exactly like that, but none I have seen before was this extensive. The Genjutsu portion, the smallest one was larger than complete libraries of some clans combined twice over.
I followed Mito inside, and the heavy doors closed behind us. She reached for the key around her neck and gave it to me.
"It is yours now, together with everything else the Uzumaki clan of Konoha owns, as its new Clan Head." She said to me.
She made me her heir. No, her words had more far-reaching implications. She closed her hands painfully around mine, holding the key, and there was a sting I felt, and the key glowed for a second immediately after. Something that should not be possible. My seal should prevent that from happening without my consent. My blood leaving my body should be inert for any jutsu relying on a genetic marker of any kind.
She smirked at me and released the grip on my hand, allowing me to open it. A short glance at the key made it obvious it was a masterwork, and one of the countless seals adorning it was designed to penetrate the one protecting my body fluids, which thinking about it makes sense it should even be a requirement for such a key lest it might be fooled.
She took a step away from me.
"We are currently in the Main-Hall the jutsu library. In here resides the collection of jutsu I was able to gather and write down over the years some entries I brought with me from Uzu when I first came to Konoha to marry Hashirama. Some are copies from what I found in the Senju library."
Pointing at a heavy-looking ornamented trunk standing on a pedestal in a premier position in the library. She said not without some bitterness and disgust in her voice, "In there are the foul creations I helped Tobirama create in a moment of weakness shortly after the death of my husband. Jutsu, I hoped, would never see the light of the day."
"Then you came along," she said resigned, "and I wondered, despite the atrocity, one particular jutsu turned out to be if perhaps it was the right thing to do, to cross that line."
"I heard those sweet words in my head, this time spoken by myself, not by Tobirama when he took advantage of me, of my grief, and for the first time since our initial success, I understood where he came from," Mito recalled her voice nearly breaking at the end.
It wasn't hard to puzzle the pieces together. The Second Hokage was known for his Water-jutsu and the groundwork of the Hiraishin that my father brought to new never before seen heights and the Edo-Tensei this accursed jutsu. It all suddenly made sense; how a Senju could develop a jutsu able to wrest the souls from the Shinigami. When the only ones who worshipped the god of death were the Uzumaki. Of course, he must have had help. Thinking back to the notes of the Hiraishin I got my hands on, there was a clear influence on how an Uzumaki would draw a seal in the Tobirama version. Comparable to my father's hand, whose knowledge in no small part must have come from my mother.
This also would explain how Dad could come up with something like the Hakke no Fūin Shiki; with Mom thinking herself the last Uzumaki. She undoubtedly would teach him even the best-kept secrets of the clan.
"Edo-Tensei, Hiraishin, you helped him create them." The words I said weren't a question but an accusation.
"You know about them?" she asked, surprised. "Then things must have been dire if you or your predecessor saw the need to use them."
"Oh, the need was there –" I confessed. "But our side never used the jutsu. It was stolen by an enemy who used it against us. It was by this jutsu Hiruzen was forced to use Hakke no Fūin Shiki summoning the Shinigami to win against a revived First and Second Hokage."
She paled and nearly fell down if not for my fast reflexes. I caught her and sat her down in a nearby chair.
"There are two seals I devised years after Tobirama was gone. I couldn't allow such a jutsu to exist without the means to combat it. The first applied to anyone will make sure that when they die, the hold over them by the Shinigami is absolute they won't ever be able to escape him and make their way back in the land of the living. I applied it to myself and Kushina the other seal, frees the souls from the jutsu sending them back into death's embrace." she said. It was clear to see it disturbed her greatly how the creations she had a hand in; meant to safeguard the village, were used to destroy it.
"Don't worry. I had absolutely no intention to ever allow for that jutsu to be used ever again. I've fought against more than enough of my revived friends and family to last me a dozen lifetimes. As a result, preventing this from occurring ever again made it to the top of my list." I reassured her.
Her seals would be useful. I was working on something similar it might be interesting to compare notes. To see if her work could still be used against the improved version of the Edo-Tensei. I hoped it wouldn't require me to test it in order to find out.
She was visibly relieved to hear that.
"Am I right to assume you also know about the copy in the Scroll of Seals, Tobirama created to collect all the dangerous but potentially useful jutsu in it?" she inquired.
"Yes, I do, and I have my eyes upon the one who is gonna steal it," I said.
"Good, you can not imagine how relieved I am to hear that after that scare you gave me. – Now, where were we?"
"You were about to tell me about the other rooms and their function." I supplied.
"Right, through the door behind me, you can reach the Master-seal of the compound. Every other seal applied somewhere in it is linked to this one and can be edited, activated, and erased from over there. The key I gave you gives you access to it. Then there is an armory filled to the brim with weapons seals and the like, enough to equip an army, a forge with rare materials is nearby. Then there is a huge training hall, able to simulate nearly any surrounding imaginable you design and place on a memory seal." She explained.
Listening to that, I had to suppress the urge to try it out. Such a room was of incredible value. In wars, the home-field advantage couldn't be regarded high enough. Even during the 4th shinobi world war, in which the fighting forces should have learned from the past, it was astounding what some Suna-puppeteers could do while fighting on sand or Kiri-Nin were capable of with water nearby was just frightening. It is no easy feat to recreate those environments, the villages sure tried, but those simulacra never came close to the real deal.
"I have also established a record room where I keep all the originals of the dealings of our clan. Next to it, there is a small library mostly filled with old history texts. It is also where I stored a not insubstantial part of the wealth of the clan in various forms; money, and gold are just two of them. The rest can be accessed through the Konoha bank. Ownership of everything was transferred to you, in order to accelerate the whole process, their bureaucracy sometimes takes forever, and I did not want to risk anything or anybody trying something with those funds."
It made sense since I wasn't her direct descendant. They could have tried to make a case against us about who is the rightful successor to get some kind of concession from either me or Tsunade whoever they finally decide to go with. Doing something like this could hurt them in the short term should it get out but depending on what they set out to gain it might still be worth it. In particular, if somebody else was pulling the strings in the background, someone like Danzō, for example.
It seemed like she considered everything. I, in her shoes, might have forgotten it, never really got the chance to handle anything funding-related. By the time I wore the hat there wasn't much left that needed oversight.
"The very centerpiece of this underground structure is made up with a room designed for the transfer of the Kyūbi. An exact copy of the one Hashirama and I built outside the village walls. The reinforcements used to build it should be capable to withstand and hide the transfer so that only those noisy Hyūga should notice it taking place, in case they are actively looking for it. This way, the higher-ups all not informed can only guess who is the new Kyūbi Jinchūriki, you or Kushina, or perhaps might even assume I died before I could choose a successor."
"Which might work in our favor. Because it also means no enemy would know for sure until it's confirmed, and it allows for some mind games. You're one scary woman. Someone ever told you that?" I complimented her.
"Who knows?" She said with a soft smile on her lips. "I have taken the liberty to write up a summary of all the important dealings our clan had with the village and its inhabitants. The associated duties and where to find the contracts, so no one can take advantage of you at the start of your tenure." She also insistently warned, "do not let yourself get outsmarted! Many will try."
"I won't. I promise."
"Do not promise me something like that," she sternly lectured. "There is no need at the end of the day; I could not care any less about some money. What I care about are the people my family, so I expect you to uphold your promise to protect them. Especially Kushina and Tsunade, both will need you in the days to come. Do not allow them to push you away!"
"There is one more thing," she said. "I want to make another request of you," and with a dose of anxiety, preempted a request. Whatever it was she intended to ask of me was a matter close to her heart, something that went beyond duty and obligation.
"Everything -" I responded without a moment's hesitation.
"Make sure they are happy. Existing without a spark of happiness is worse than everything else. Do not let it come to that. You have to promise me." this time, as Mito was asking for my word, she nearly begged me.
I knew what she was talking about, probably better than anybody. There was a time when I was about to walk the same path as Tsunade when I first met her and called her out on closing of her heart, shying away from allowing others to get close to her, dereliction of her duties, how naive I have been.
No, I wouldn't allow Tsunade to fall in this Abyss this time around, and neither would Kushina make the acquaintance with this special form of misery.
"I will, I promise, and Uzumaki Naruto never goes back on his word," I vowed.
"Good," she said with a relieved smile," then let us get started.
I helped her back to her feet, and she escorted me to a huge room. The walls, ceiling, and floor were covered with seals. Shortly after we stepped into the room properly, the door automatically closed behind us.
She moved into the middle of the room and turned to me. "Show me your seal," she demanded.
By uttering those words, my fears, my hopes were all verified at the same time. I removed the top of the white Yukata I wore and showed Mito the seal on my stomach. It had been modified no twelve hours before in a series of ways making the original base of the Shiki Fuin unrecognizable, having evolved beyond what my father ever thought possible.
She traced the lines on my stomach, and despite the encryption still in place, an accomplished seal master can make some educated guesses about the function and complexity of a seal.
"Do you want to see it for real?" I asked her.
"There is no need. I have seen what I was looking for. This astounding work will have no trouble holding it, "Mito mused." It was far more than I could have hoped for."
"It is," I confirmed. It was so much more than just a simple containment seal, like the one she used on herself, nothing like the seal she intended to use on Kushina designed, with it hardly allowing for the Bijū chakra to be used. Dad had the right idea but didn't go all the way to its final conclusion in fear of Kurama, not something that was gonna stop me.
"Then let us start. Step inside this circle drawn on the ground." She commanded and pointed at one of the two circles and moved over to another one, close to the first, barely a meter separating them.
"The transfer seal I drew should have no problems getting my prisoner to you. In case something goes wrong, I trust you can handle it?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "My advanced age and the loss of the Bijū might weaken me to a point at which I will no longer be able to interfere."
"I will manage," I said. Admittedly I was more worried about her. She nodded at hearing my reassurance and laid down on the ground right in the center of the seal.
"There is one last thing I have to ask of you - when it is done. Can you return me to my bed? I do not want it to end here, on this cold floor," she beseeched me.
"It won't," I reassured her.
She gifted me with a smile. And with a flick of her chakra, she activated the seals spread through the room and loosened the grip on the prison holding Kurama, opening the door just a crack. A second later, the escaping chakra was channeled into me, gathered and focused in my stomach.
His chakra invading my coils was biting and painful, like thousand of needles pulled through one's veins. I had forgotten how using his chakra felt at the beginning. It was like liquid fire burning you up inside out, uncooperative filled with hate and disgust.
The complete opposite of what I was used to. The delightful warmth spreading through my body like a blanket in the coldest of winter.
The stream of his chakra was steady as his presence in me grew stronger at the same rate it diminished in Mito, something with her seal now opened even if just by a crack I had no trouble to verify.
What concerned me was that Mito growing weaker at a dangerous rate, expending most of her strength trying to control what was ungovernable wild, and boundless.
"Mito, don't hold back. I can take it." I instructed her, "Conserve your energy." Following my order, she loosened her grip, and the increased output augmented the strain manifold. Every nerve ending screaming for relief, I didn't move so much as a muscle and endured. After all, I had worse, a lot worse.
The effects this had on Mito were clear to see. She was no longer overexerting herself. Of course, she was still growing weaker but nowhere near fast enough for me to fear her dying prematurely.
I lost all sense of time, with my own chakra sense being overwhelmed with all this chakra around and inside of me. The only thing that allowed a sense that time still moved forward was that Kurama self, the chakra he consisted of, continued moving from one place to another and that the amounts on one end diminished and grew on the other. Besides, I noticed Mitos's breath becoming more labored with every intake of air. The sweat, which only consisted of occasional drops on her forehead, in the beginning, was now present in abundance, soaking her clothes.
There wasn't much left of Kurama within her. It wouldn't take much longer, I thought to myself, when suddenly the remaining chakra was unanchored and got loose, and in one fell swoop, one huge wave of chakra reached me.
I wasn't given time to analyze the situation to theorize why it might have happened if Mito lost her strength and just couldn't hold onto it any longer or if Kurama freed himself from her grip, or if the band his chakra was stretched into just snapped loose.
Because I was hit with it, and this time, I couldn't say I had worse. A guttural cry of pain escaped my lips, and the constant pain I was under so far transformed into something else, indescribable I feared losing my mind if this continued, and then without forewarning, it just stopped.
In my mind, I felt the gates close shut behind Kurama, imprisoning him once more, and my body contorting fell down to the ground, utterly exhausted. I could already feel how my wounds mended themselves, and my chakra adapted, realigned itself.
My eyes found Mito, too weak to move. With great effort, I managed to stand up and walk over to her. I didn't need the help of a diagnostic jutsu to know that there was nothing I could do for her, her remaining time nearly up.
I bent down and lifted her up in a princess carry. There was a promise I had to keep. I staggered my way up out of the basement and to her room. Where I softly placed her on her bed. I was astounded by myself not having tripped somewhere along the way. Even though I came close once or twice, sealing Kurama in me really did a number on me.
First, I removed her soaked clothes, and with some towels I found in her closet, dried and washed her body to the best of my ability before I clothed her again.
She deserved so much more than not dying bathed in her sweat, but there was nothing else I could do for her. I considered more than once to wake up Kushina or to fetch Tsunade and Nawaki but ultimately decided against it, for if it were her desire, she would have asked it of me.
And I could understand her decision. Dying wasn't the worst outcome for the person leaving life behind, but for those that remain, the ones that loved her. In the hearts of those her absence will create a void that can never be filled, never be forgotten. Time only allows for it to grow smaller.
So who am I to fault her for not wanting to hurt them by allowing them to watch her slowly drift into an eternal sleep.
I tried to make the passage for her as comfortable as possible and told her anecdotes from my life, people I meet to take her mind off things while holding her hand and trying my best to provide her with solace. I couldn't be sure I succeeded without Kurama's help, it would take me some time before I would regain the ability to sense emotion, and the smile she displayed and reassuring words she uttered might have been just for my sake.
I could feel the exact moment the Shinigami retched his greedy hands for her to drag her with him. She knew, too. Because she whispered
"I'm scared," and then suddenly stilled. There was a long silence, the only sound being made by the occasional tear rolling down my cheeks splashing on her bed, my eyes focused on her, in death, peaceful-looking face.
I was surprised at myself. I was convinced my body lost its ability to cry for quite some time. I already feared there wasn't anything left that could be called human within me. So it was a relief to know it wasn't the case. I just bemoaned the fact somebody had to die for me to recognize I might not have been as lost as I thought I was.
It took the first sunrays illuminating her room to pull me out of my thoughts. I carefully lowered her hand I held onto till this moment to the bed and moved it to her side. I racked my fingers through her hair and tried to fix it somewhat. Pleased with the result I leaned forward and kissed her on her forehead.
I stood up and opened the curtains to allow the sun to herald the advent of a new day unobstructed access to her room. A day that started without someone great in it. I turned around and left the room without looking back. My work had just begun.
Authors Note:
A shorter chapter – didn't want to overload it with too much meaningless stuff or dump too much information. The main focus should have always been on Naruto and Mito... with everything else just being byplay.
Not sure If I was able to capture the feelings and the message I wanted to convey. The way I envisioned it in my mind. It was not easy to write it... still, I hope it resonated somewhat.
I'm aware that in canon Naruto had an Eight Trigram seal on his stomach. But as I explained at great length on my profile page I'm neither a fan of Kurama being split nor the idea that somehow a seal powered by the Shinigami, for some reason, should be unable to hold the Kyūbi even within the body of an infant. I mean, it was arguably one of the strongest seals ever crafted. Naruto came into contact with the Kyūbi chakra since his conception, so the fact he lived through that pretty much should make him the ideal Kyūb Jinchūriki... but in canon that still wasn't enough, really?
So what you read above was done deliberately -
Last edited 29.08.2021