Hey guys! It's me as usual, I know I haven't updated lately but I took a real good look at life again and I decided that my life and summer couldn't be spent writing fanfiction 24/7. Instead of regular updates, I'll have longer chapters but the updates will be further apart. I've also decided to stop my other fanfics, I'll be updating this one and X-Factors, if you would like to take over my other two fanfics let me know. But enjoy this chapter :D I'll update X-Factors later on this week.
They walked on for hours, the shinobi who had been chasing them had given up the chase long ago, leaving them alone in the grassy fields. Slowly, the scenery changed, from the grassy fields to windy foothills as far as the eye could see. Neji had fallen asleep on his father's back long ago, completely tired out from this whole ordeal. But still they didn't dare stop to rest, trying to reach Uzugakure as soon as they possibly could. On they went, continuing until foothills changed to steep and treacherous mountains, an impossible climb for ordinary citizens but a difficult climb for shinobi. Still they plowed on, the soft rustle of grass underfoot became the rattle of gravel and then finally, the non-mistaken sound of snow crunching under their feet. Cloaks were pulled on, extra layers were added to their clothes to keep them warm.
The snow was falling lightly so visibility was still good, last thing they needed was a driving snowstorm to deter them from their destination. Although all of them were exhausted, they did not dare stop walking, for fear that they would fall asleep if they did and then to never wake up again, it was all they could do to put one foot in front of another. "This should be it," Kushina croaked, having not said a word for so long. She walked up to the foot of a mountain and pushed aside a boulder with the help of Itachi and Shisui. The hiss of steam escaping was heard as the boulder moved aside, the bathed in the warmth for a minute and all leapt into the hole the boulder was covering. As soon as all of them were through, the boulder moved back all on its own.
They slid out of the tunnel, to land in a cavern where they were immeadietly surrounded by other ninja, all wearing a green flak jacket and a headband with a swirl and a cloud around it on the metal. "Halt! State your name and bussiness or prepare to be destroyed!" One of the jounin spoke, his katana out. Itachi and Shisui tensed, their hands immeadietly going for their ANBU katana's on their backs but Kushina held out a hand to stop them.
"My name is Kushina Uzumaki, I wish to seek refuge in Uzugakure, this is a letter from my mother," she hastily fished out a rumpled letter from her pockets and handed it to the jouning who was obviously in charge.
The jounin read it through once, twice and then fell to his knees, "Uzumaki-sama! You have returned!" the other jounin around followed his lead, falling to their knees, their weapons laid out on the ground before them. The travellers were appalled at this sight, obviously not used to seeing this everyday."Send word to Uzukage-sama!" one of the men their leapt up to his feet, retrieved the letter and vanished with a simple shunshin. "If you'll grab onto one of us, we'll take you to the Uzukage's office," a few jounin's offered their arms, which all of them accepted and vanished in a splash of water.
"Uzukage-sama, they have arrived," there were a few murmurs and the jounin who had taken them there waved them in, shutting the door after them. The Uzukage was reading through a report when they entered and gestured for them to sit in the chairs in front of his desk, Neji had woken up sleepily earlier and sat in his father's lap, still a little drowsy.
Finally the Uzukage put down his report and took off his Uzukage hat, running his fingers over light brown hair. "You're Uzumaki Kushina? Why the last time I saw you, you were just a little girl!" he exclaimed, clearly surprise. "May I ask who your companions are?"
"Keiji? Is that you?" Kushina also seemed as surprised as the Uzukage did, Keiji had watched her when she was still a little girl. She remembered all those times when Keiji played with her when nobody else was around to play with her. "These are Uchiha Itachi, Uchiha Shisui and Hyuuga Hizashi and his son, Hyuuga Neji. But when did you become Uzukage?"
"Uchiha's and Hyuuga's...you came all the way here from Konoha eh?" Seeing their confirmed nod, he continued. "That's pretty far...Me becoming Uzukage? Long story short, Uzugakure was nearly destroyed by Orochimaru quite a few years back, and all the Uzumaki's or so we thought all of them died protecting Uzugakure. Well we joined up with Soragakure because Soragakure was still small at that time and we needed to recover. So we all moved on over here and here they made me Uzukage but wait till you see who's the Sorakage, you'll be totally surprised!"
"You have two Kage's?" Itachi asked frowning, confused at how two Kage's in one village would work.
"Ah yes, we keep each other in line, it's the best way to make sure nobody does anything injust," Keiji explained, shrugging. "But now, onto more important matters, turns out Kushina, you have more than just one son to take care of," Keiji nodded to Naruto in the basket, he had put two and two together. "Your twin sister Uzuki had two kids you see before she died, both which we have in our custody, well the Sorakage's training one and the other is still to young. The older one's father we don't know who it is but we know the younger one's. The father is Kouka Hinote of the Hinote clan, they were a clan here until recently, they moved out to Konoha, wanted to expand they said." he gestured to an ANBU member who stepped out of the shadows, carrying a baby in his arms which he handed to Kushina. The baby's hair was a dark dark blue, almost black with a tint of red at the near the ends, he had bluish grey eyes, which blinked intelligently at Kushina.
"This is Kinen Tsubasa Uzumaki, he's your son now, but you can just call him Tsusbasa," Keiji signed off a few documents, certifying this. "His older sister is also under your care, as well as the two boys that came with her." He shuffled all the documents into a folder and labeled it, filing it away. "I'm sorry if we're dumping a huge load on you, but we're kind of in a tight situation here, but you came non-too-late. There's this other clan here, Seikon. They're a...well...not powerful but a large clan with influential power, so I'm hoping, by bring you Uzumaki's back we can make them back down." He pulled out a box and started handing things to her.
"Keys to the Uzumaki compound, headbands, jounin vests, money to get you settled and..." he scribbled furiously on a scroll before marking it with his Uzukage stamp. "A scroll explaining your presence, should anyone question it...send them to me. Missions and stuff will come after you have settled in, that is all, the Uzumaki compoud is huge you can't miss it."
"Arigatou Keiji," Kushina got up and bowed which was kind of hard since she was carrying the two boys in her arms. With a busy nod, Keiji dissmissed them, already immersed in the large pile of paperwork on his desk.
They walked out of the Uzukage's tower, noting that the other tall tower in the distance must be the Sorakage's tower. To their surprise, even though the paths had been cleared of snow, that it was warm, considerably warmer than outside of the village in fact. They wandered about the streets, watching children play in the snow and civilians and shinobi walk about the village. The Uzukage had infact been right, they couldn't miss the Uzumaki compound, it was huge! The swirls that were the Uzumaki's clan symbol was painted on the walls everywhere. Kushina arrived at the front gates, which they found a few men looking at.
"Can I help you gentlemen?" she asked frowning at the guys who had gathered at the front gates. Itachi and Shisui flanked her, their hands straying to their ANBU katana's for the second time that day.
"Unless you can convince the Uzukage to let us tear down this empty old compound which belonged to those filthy Uzumaki's and expand the Seikon compound, no I don't think you can sweet thing. What's it to you anyways?" The leader of the men stepped out, his eyes looking over her.
Kushina growled, struggling to keep her temper in check, Itachi and Shisui tensed, as if waiting for some signal. "Destroy them," at those words, Itachi and Shisui flashed forwards, blades out, Sharingan spinning. "Never insult the Uzumaki clan in front of my face again or you won't live to regret it," she hissed, unable to fight because her hands were full with Naruto and Tsubasa. "My name is Uzumaki Kushina! Head of the Uzumaki clan, you step within a hundred yards of my compound and I'll make sure you won't live to tell the tale." Furious, she unlocked the front gates and shouldered the heavy re-inforced doors open, pushing her way into the compound.
Later that evening, when Kushina's anger had finally simmered down, there came knocks at the front gate. "I swear if it's those Seikon guys again I'll play Ibiki today," she growled, her temper rising again as she pulled the heavy metal bolt out of the latches and pulled open the front gate a crack. What she saw completely calmed her anger and gave her a little surprise. There standing in front of her, complete with the goggles and the scar on his left eye was Obito Uchiha, accompanied by a girl about eight years old and two boys flanking her who were also about the same age stood in front of the gate, school bags over their shoulders. Kushina guessed that the Academy had just let out, then she noticed that the girl had similar redish hair at the end of her dark blue hair. "Obito!? Is that you!? You're still alive! Minato was so sad after he thought you had died! And you! You must Tsubasa's sister!" the girl nodded almost shyly. "Well come on in, I took a look around earlier and saw four rooms were already occupied, I suspected they were yours," Kushina closed the gate behind them and relatched it securely.
"Well, I'm Kushina Uzumaki, your mom's twin sister so scientifically that makes you my kid and me your mom," she frowned, "That's weird...Anyways all of us here have eaten, and there's dinner on the table so help yourself..."she trailed off, seeing how dirty the three kids were, "After you go wash up, I don't want you guys getting sick because you forgot to wash up, now go!" she commanded, completely in mother mode. Turning to Obito, who was helping himself to some food off the dinner table, she asked, "How did you survive? You were crushed by rocks they said!"
Obito swallowed the rice ball he had just put in his mouth and picked up another one before speaking, "Some guys from Uzu came shortly after Minato-sensei and them left, they never bothered recovering my body you see. The Uzu people dug me out and brought me back here where they healed me with this new jutsu or something, makes my cells regenerate, the even regenerated my eye that I gave to Kakashi, sure it cuts my lifespan a little shorter, but I'm still alive. I've been here ever since, and then Keiji entrusted me with those kids a couple years ago, Tsubasa came only recently but his sister and her two friends, Konan, Yahiko and Nagato have been taking care of him really well."
"They managed to complete the cell regeneration justsu? Wow, and they said it couldn't be done," Kushina marveled, amazed at how many lives could be saved using that jutsu, people who lost a limb could regain it, the blind could get new eyes to see from, the possiblities were endless. Their conversation was interupted by the three reappearing in the kitchen and sat down at the table, helping themselves to the food on the table. "It seems I made a good choice coming back here, rather than staying in Konoha."
"How are things back there anyways?" Obito asked, curious to know what was going on in his place of birth.
"Danzo has quite an influence on the council with Homura and Koharu are leaning towards Danzo's side. His Ne ANBU are back up, secretly as well. Plus Fugaku Uchiha wants that Hokage spot, but Sarutobi's holding it firm with the Hyuuga's on his side," Kushina recounted the major events back in Konoha. "In short, it's chaos..."
Thank-you for reading, please R&R please! While I have a plot, my plot could go a couple different ways depending on pairings so if you have any pairing ideas please please please let me know I'd be more that happy to take it into mind :D Until next time ~AnimeClouds~