At Ichiraku ramen Naruto was on his way to devouring his twelfth bowl of ramen as Seiko bolted into the stall. Seiko, panting for breath, not seeing Naruto there, asked Ayame, "Is Naruto-kun here?" Ayame giggled at the girls question, prompting Seiko to say, okay, not here then," before turning to leave the stall.

Naruto said, "Seiko-chan," his mouth stuffed with food, "What's up?"

"Naruto-kun!" Seiko said, before breaking out in tears.

"Uuhhh..." Naruto intelligently said at the sight of Seiko crying.

Ayame rushed out the back of the stall and came round to Seiko's side, hugged her, and asked, "What's the problem...Seiko, was it?"

Seiko nodded into Ayame's shoulder as she clutched it closer, using it as an anchor. As her tears flowed faster Naruto slurped up the last of his ramen, slid off the stall and appeared next to Ayame, he asked, "What's up?"

"It's my father...he...he..." Seiko's words were taken over by sobs of grief, and anger, at her father's actions.

Ayame asked, "What is it Seiko-chan?"

"He...he..."

Teuchi came around the side to see what was going on and, hearing the last bit of the conversation, said, "Your father tried to ban you from interacting with Naruto, didn't he?" Seiko nodded, howling in grief. Teuchi laughed and said, "Do you want to know the reason why?"

Getting control of her emotions, Seiko asked, "The reason?"

"Yeah," said Teuchi as he looked at Naruto, "Naruto, you're not going to like this, so just bear with me, alright?"

"Huh? Why won't I like it?"

"Because, it's to do with your parents."

"You know who my parents are old man?"

Teuchi sighed and said, "Yes. But I can't tell you who they were."

"What? Why the hell not?" Naruto demanded.

"There were some laws made, with good reason, that say, basically, if you tell anyone who Naruto's parents were, you'll be locked away for the rest of your life."

"I see..." Naruto said, clearly not doing so.

"Well, anyway, back to Seiko's problem. You see, when your mother was younger she happened to be rather enamoured of Naruto's father. But your father also happened to be enamoured of her. When your father started dating your mother, Naruto, Seiko's mother moved her attentions on to Seiko's father. This has always left him wondering if her feelings for him are true, or if she just settled with him because Naruto's father was no longer an option."

Seiko said, "But...that's ridiculous."

"Oh, I completely agree with you, but it's always left him insecure about these things. But that alone can't be what caused all this distress."

"Well, there is something else, though I should have seen that one coming," Seiko sheepishly said.

"Huh?" Naruto asked. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you know Shigeko?"

"Yeah, what about him?"

"Notice how his name, Uchida, is like mine?"

"Yeah, now that you mention it, I did think that it was a bit weird this morning."

"Well, there's a bit of history between his clan and mine."

"Really?" Naruto asked, eager to learn more about his friend.

"His clan was originally an offshoot of the Uchiha, kind of like the Uzumaki and the Senju..."

"Huh?"

"What? Didn't you know that the Uzumaki were once considered a powerful clan of shinobi?"

"No, how would I know that?"

"Well, I suppose that they were wiped out a long time ago. I couldn't tell you the reason why it was though." Naruto got a serene smile on his face, thinking that there may just be another Uzumaki out there. "Well, anyway, the Uchida separated from the Uchiha due to the differing beliefs held at the time. Personally I think that they are completely ridiculous, but hey. The leaders of the Uchiha clan believed that the wielders of the Sharingan were far superior to all other ninja, purely based on our possession of the said Dōjutsu. The Uchida believed that the Sharingan was merely a gimmick that shouldn't be used unless they were in the direst of circumstances. Eventually the Sharingan became dormant in the Uchida, and even now, only few in the Uchiha clan can actually activate theirs, let alone use it for an extended amount of time. There are some in the clan, my father included, that still despise the Uchida for 'their betrayal' all those years ago."

"Betrayal?"

"Yes. You see, when they left they killed all of the members of the Uchiha that could use the full form of Kenjutsu, leaving only half-trained Kenjutsu users. They also took all of the scrolls that were related to it."

"So your form is incomplete?"

"No, not really incomplete, but more lacking. You see, in the Uchiha's ancient style of Kenjutsu, there were two forms, one offensive and one defensive. The Uchida left us with only the defensive form."

"I see," Naruto said, coming to understand why some of Seiko's clan were sticks in the mud. "Well, if you don't want to go home tonight, you can always stay at my place."

Seiko's face turned red as a tomato, prompting Ayame to say, "That may not be such a good idea Naruto-kun. We can take care of her for tonight, if you don't mind."

"No no, that's fine," Naruto said, waving goodbye.