Nothing Else Matters
An Uzumaki-centric story
Chapter 2
"Hot Springs and Lost Kinsmen"
(Below the ruins of Uzushiogakure no Sato)
Kushina began to regret living below ground. She knew her heart needed to be close to her old home, but the tunnels beneath Uzu were just too depressing. It reminded her of the evacuation practice drills she did when she was a young student at the academy. She could only imagine the atmosphere and the feeling of utter despair that permeated these tunnels when the last of Uzu's defenses fell. This place was an emergency shelter, but it was also a mass suicide chamber. Ashina Uzumaki, not wanting his family to be captured, sold and bred like common animals, activated the Space-time Ninjutsu that covered the chamber and trapped all the non-combatants in a storage seal, which he later destroyed.
Humans can't be preserved in storage seal, so everyone who was in this chamber at the time, thousands of women and children were dead in a matter of seconds.
She didn't know who to blame for that, was it Kiri, Kumo and Iwa, for their nonsensical fear of the unknown? or Konoha, for their apparent abandonment of their closest allies? Ashina Uzumaki was at fault as well, the fool believed himself above conflict and war. The peace loving fool didn't even mobilize the ninja forces at the start of the second Shinobi war, believing that the ninja villages would leave his clan out of the conflict.
Alas, this was the Shinobi world, nobody was spared, the weak were killed and the naïve were rightly exploited. Only the greedy, deceptive and pragmatic thrive in this world. It was a clan of fools led by an even greater fool, a case of blind leading the blind. Kushina learned from her family's mistake. Everyone who wasn't an Uzumaki was an enemy. Giving someone your trust is akin to exposing your back to them, letting them plunge a kunai into it. Having faith in people to do the good thing is the stupidest thing a person can do in this world. The strong ate the weak and a friend was someone who hadn't betrayed you yet. The only truth was family and blood.
Her experiences and the pain of losing her clan gave her this pessimistic view of the world. She loved her clan dearly, memories of growing up in Uzu were remembered fondly. She still despised her clan for their naivety. How can a clan prosper in the shinobi world with such foolish ideals? Peace was an improbable dream, only a careful balance between unstoppable power and compassion can grant long lasting peace, but even that wasn't long lasting, humans were mortal beings after all. If the peacekeepers died, the world would be plunged into war once again, and the cycle of war would start anew. Only the divine were truly immortal.
Getting tired of her philosophical musings, Kushina got off her comfy bed and dressed herself in her travelling clothes, a short black skirt and a sleeveless shirt under a yellow Kimono top tied with a black Obi. Putting on her knee length socks and comfy black sandals completed her attire. She found that travelling dressed as civilian was much easier than her dark blue Uzu Jonin outfit, as fighting common bandits was easier than fighting Hunter-nin. Showing off her legs also got her past many checkpoints without much trouble. She finished her off her dressing up by putting on her hairpin. Today she and Honoka would start their journey around the elemental nations, they would travel for little more than two and a half years, returning to start the process of reviving her clan. Finished with her wardrobe, she walked towards the stairs leading to the surface. Her ambition, the ambition of the Uzumaki, wouldn't be achieved by lazing about.
She and her cousin didn't actually live in the ruins of the destroyed village, they lived in an old tunnel network which was used as a food storage facility and a shelter for emergencies. While it may seem more sensible to live in the village, the pain of living among the corpses of your clansmen was too much for them to bear. This place was also closer to the hidden library of the Uzumaki clan, the place where the accumulated knowledge of the Uzumaki clan was stored, so that made it much more convenient.
Reaching the surface of the island-nation, she found Honoka sitting on top of a tree branch reading a book while her legs were swinging rhythmically. Looking at her cousin, she grinned when she remembered the sheer panic and distress that was on her face yesterday. Unlike Kushina, Honoka never left Uzu no Kuni since their arrival five years ago, so it wasn't that surprising to see Honoka frantically trying to seal about three thousand books to read on their journey. "I don't want to run out of reading material" she said.
"Honoka-chan," Kushina called with a voice that was a bit too loud "Are you ready to leave?"
Rubbing her ear from the shrill voice piercing her eardrums, Honoka sighed exasperatedly. Seriously, it was early morning. Where does Kushina get all her energy from? Closing her book and jumping down from her perch atop the tree branch, she addressed her overly energetic cousin. "I'm as ready as I can be I guess."
"C'mon Honoka-chan, where's your spirit, your enthusiasm? Aren't you just a little bit excited to go explore the world with your darling cousin?'
Honoka gave a slight smile "I am excited, I'm just really going to miss this place. We're going to be gone for a long time."
Kushina gave her an easygoing grin. "Don't worry, we'll be back before you know it. It'll be good for you to come out of your dark and dingy dungeon and see the outside world."
Honoka ignored the dig at her introverted tendencies and steered the conversation elsewhere. "What are we waiting for? I've already packed all my stuff in my storage seal." Civilians carrying large scrolls and travelling from country to country isn't a sight you normally see, hence why they both had an assortment of seals on both their hands that function as storage space.
"Let's go then" Honoka walked away from her home beside her cousin until they reached a ways from the tunnel entrance. Kushina started a 26 seal combination and bent down to touch the ground with her middle and index finger, kanji spread from the point she touched the ground and spread rapidly until it encompassed a circle with a radius of half a kilometer around the tunnel entrance. The symbols glowed before disappearing. "All done, I guess we'll return here in a couple years."
They took a couple of seconds to give a last glance to the place they lived for the last seven years, they took off towards the coastline.
(Two days later, Yugakure no Sato)
"Ah, this is the life" Kushina sighed in contentment, the hot springs of Yugakure lived up to their reputation. Sitting across from her was Honoka, Who had a frown marring her face.
Honoka was not so pleased. "How the hell is this place even considered a hidden village? There are literally road signs pointing towards its direction." Kushina gave a little chuckle at Honoka's statement.
It's true, even Kushina was surprised by the big sign they encountered that pointed towards the direction of the "hidden" village. After they left Uzu, they reached the mainland within a day of traveling by boat and walked to the nearest hidden village to begin their journey. A couple of bandits thought that a pair of teenage girls were easy pickings, other than that, the journey was fairly safe considering it was a time of war. Yugakure's security measures were pathetic as well, not even needing any form of identification to enter the village.
"Most people think that it'll transform into a tourist attraction by the end of the war, it's halfway there, most of the people entering the village look like rich merchants." Kushina said in a casual manner.
The frown on Honoka's face merely deepened "They'll only get slaughtered, demobilizing during a time of war is suicide, especially in Yugakure's case."
Kushina raised an eyebrow at Honoka's statement. It was true, Yugakure was located between Konoha and Kumo, the only thing protecting Yu no Kuni from turning into a giant battlefield was the presence of Yugakure's Shinobi. Demobilizing before the end of the war would guarantee that a most of the conflict between Konoha and Kumo would take place in their lands. But why did Honoka care? Usually she was the pessimistic one. "And why do you care? It's not as if Yugakure factors into our plan."
Honoka gave Kushina a glance out of the corner of her eye. "It reminds of," she paused for a second "Forget I said anything"
"Fine. So what do you want to talk about? We're going to stay here for a while before we continue our journey, so we might as well get comfortable."
Honoka was slightly surprised by the weird question "What do you expect us to talk about? Boys and fashion, Kushina? We're Shinobi, there's no need for needless chatter."
Kushina sighed, her cousin was such boring company. So what if she wanted to talk about trivial day to day stuff? It was a better than depressing Shinobi talk.
Honoka thought about it for a couple of seconds, Kushina might be a bit scatterbrained, but she had a one track mind when it came to her goals. Resting her hand on the stones outside of the hot spring, she applied a bit of chakra, symbols glowed from her hand and surrounded the hot spring in a silencing seal.
"Why don't we talk about how you escaped from Konoha? You might have been quite talented at the time, but how does the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi slip between Konoha's fingers?"
Kushina looked at her cousin for a couple of seconds before sighing "It was quite easy actually. I was kidnapped by a Kumo-nin. They wanted to use me to start an Uzumaki clan in Kumo, a pointless endeavor, the fools didn't do their research apparently. They put chakra suppressing on me, I was rescued by a classmate of mine, Minato Namikaze, he somehow beat up three Kumo Jonin and rescued me. After he gave me a sappy speech, he took off the chakra suppression seals my kidnappers placed on me. I had decided to escape my Konoha months before and it seemed a good opportunity to do just that, when he got close so he can carry me back to Konoha, I stabbed him through the stomach with a chakra chain and knocked him out with chop to the back of the neck and started travelling eastwards towards Uzu."
Honoka was looking at her cousin with slightly wide eyes after she finished her story. "I knew you can be cruel, but don't you think you were a bit too harsh?"
Kushina looked downwards, she had been wracked with guilt for several days after she escaped, she knew Minato didn't die, the injuries she inflicted on him would have allowed him to live for several days before he needed medical attention. Minato was a nice boy, if a bit girly and creepy with the way he was always following her. She knew she had to do it though, Minato was fiercely loyal to Konoha. He wouldn't have hesitated to drag unconscious body her back to the village if he knew of her intention to desert Konoha. No, what she did was for the best. The look of betrayal he gave her when she turned on him was still a bitter memory though.
"I did what I had to do, Minato was a Shinobi, he would understand." Great, leave it to Honoka to depress the most cheerful person in the world.
(Six months later)
Kushina and Honoka stayed in Yugakure longer than they had originally anticipated. The relaxed atmosphere of the village proved a comforting distraction from the hectic nature of the Shinobi world. The Second Shinobi war had just ended, Konoha having emerged victorious over Suna, Iwa and Kumo. There were no other major events, except the madman who slaughtered half of Yugakure's ninja force when it was officially announced as no longer being a hidden ninja village. Immortal bastard got away with it too. Too bad he got away as well, Honoka would have loved to learn the secret behind his unique abilities.
Honoka was currently sitting on on a chair in their apartment working on a seal that was sprawled out in front of her, a seal that would figuratively 'cleanse' someone's blood, cutting of their biological ties to one or both parents. The seal was to be used when the twins were born. She had easily created a rudimentary version of the seal but the hard part was isolating a specific Kekkei Genkai and retaining it after the process was finished. Kushina had wanted her children to be pure-blooded Uzumaki, while still having Mokuton. The seal would be applied a few months after birth, to give their chakra coils enough time to mature for the drastic change the seal would create.
Mokuton was vital for their plans, not to mention it would increase their affinity to nature, allowing them better control over nature chakra when they eventually master it.
Mokuton technically wasn't a Kekkei Genkai, it was a Kekkei Tota, a mix of three elements, Suiton, Doton and Yōton, the manipulation of Yang chakra. It was the Yang that 'breathed' life into the soil and created trees and other flora. It was classified as Kekkei Genkai because nobody really understood the inner workings of it. The only one who manifested it, Hashirama, had a body overflowing with so much Yang chakra that it was automatically infused in every Jutsu he released, thus unknowingly creating Mokuton when he tried to fuse Suiton and Doton. The Uzumaki instantly knew the nature behind Hashirama's Kekkei Genkai when they heard about his subjugation of the Bijuu. Mokuton had a calming effect on Bijuu and was able to suppress their chakra, just like the Uzumaki chakra chains, which were made purely of Yang chakra.
She still had a ways to go before she could say the thing was completed, it was quite frustrating to be so close yet so far. Kushina wasn't any help either, she couldn't even get her to look at the seal for more than five minutes.
While Honoka was working on the seal, Kushina was keeping her ear to the ground about any surviving Uzumaki. The best she got was a rumor about a red haired woman in Kusagakure who's blood could heal the most fatal of injures. She was being forced to work for shelter in the hidden grass, she heard. Nobody wanted to give Uzumaki refuge unless they can be used, no doubt she'll be thrown away like a worn tool when her use runs out. Although she was using her ability to heal the Shinobi of the village, she was still treated as an outsider, no doubt she wanted out of the life she's currently living, and Kushina wanted the hidden grass to burn for what they did to their cousin.
Her ability sounded like the Uzumaki Kekkei Genkai that Honoka gained a couple of years ago. The epitome of Medical Ninjutsu, without any training required. In simple terms, it was the opposite of the Kongo Fusa. Instead of the body having extreme amounts of Yang chakra which allows it to physically manifest, users of Shosaku Sen had an extraordinarily compressed amount of Yin chakra in their chakra network, which is the chakra used for all medical ninjutsu.
A drop of their blood, which is the most viable, non disgusting way of consuming someone's chakra, would heal the most grievous of injuries. Of course, people could just consume the blood directly from the skin via biting, that heal people much faster, but that is a huge drain on the user's life force, oftentimes being lethal. It was only a matter of time before the hidden grass took her abilities for granted and start overworking her to death. She had to rescue her before that eventuality occurs.
Entering the apartment they've been living in for the last six months, Kushina spotted Honoka face deep in yet another scroll. Kushina cleared her throat to knock Honoka out of her knowledge induced stupor. "Honoka-chan, pack all of your stuff, we're continuing our journey towards the hidden grass."
Honoka was initially sad about having to leave Yugakure, it was, in her mind, the best place to do research, nothing is better than a nice soak in the hot springs after ten hours of looking at a piece of paper in a dark room, but when she heard the name of their destination, she was more than a little confused. "Kusagakure no sato, I thought we weren't going to try to enter any hidden villages now that the war is over? You said that yourself."
"The situation has changed, there are rumors about an Uzumaki in Kusagakure, I have no doubt she's being exploited for her abilities."
By the time Kushina finished her sentence, Honoka was giving her her full attention, this was big, they've been looking for any of their lost kinsmen for years and have come up empty handed. The most they found were rumors about redheaded kids being sold off as Uzumaki. There was also that ridiculous thing that happened in the leaf a few years back, when half of Konoha's female population dyed their hair red after Kushina escaped to get Minato's attention.
This was different, if this person truly manifested their abilities, then there was no doubt about their lineage. "What abilities does she have?"
"Apparently, she has a good control over the Shosaku sen."
Honoka gained a slightly apprehensive look. "Have they..?" Honoka asked, hoping for the best.
"No, all of the rumors I heard were about her blood having the ability to heal wounds, nothing about direct biting of the skin, it seems she hasn't been disfigured yet, though it's only a matter of time before they discover that part of her ability." Kushina was rarely this serious about anything, but this time she was putting up a serious face to keep herself from going over to Kusagakure and slaughtering the bastards who dare use her kin as Yin chakra dispensary. This was the reality of the world, Uzumaki were forced to flee and hide, when they show themselves they would be exploited and taken advantage of because of their unique abilities, these were the fruits of Ashina Uzumaki's hypocrisy, damning his clan to this fate, all so he can claim to have the moral high ground.
Kusagakure would pay dearly for their actions, for what they've done, blood will repaid in blood, a nasty smirk plastered itself on Kushina's face, yes that would be a good way to pay the fools back for their arrogance.
"I'll start packing immediately." Honoka was slightly creeped out by the half smirk on her cousin's face, she knew the ill intentions were not directed at her, but that didn't make it any better.
(Three days later, Ta no Kuni)
"Kushina, you need to slow down! We'll be exhausted by the time we reach Kusagakure at this rate." Honoka almost screamed at the older redhead, sweat dripping down her face as she jumped off another branch, they've been travelling at a ridiculous pace for a couple of days, she even changed her traveling outfit for an Uzushiogakure Jonin outfit and geared up for a war, abandoning all semblance of stealth and subtlety. Since they've left Yugakure Kushina has been running like a woman possessed, they haven't taken a break in fourteen hours, Uzumaki or not, Honoka was on her last leg, a couple of miles and she would collapse.
Kushina grimaced, this was the third time in the last hour her cousin had asked for a break, she knew she was being a bit of a harsh taskmaster. She couldn't help it though, her kinsmen was most likely suffering in Kusagakure's hands, how could she take breaks let alone sleep when her blood was suffering? Nevertheless, the Shinobi part of her won the argument, it wouldn't to be good for them to be ambushed in their current situation.
Kushina stopped on branch and sighed, taking a break would be the most logical thing to do at this moment. They should set up camp and rest for the night, there was about eight hours until sunrise. That should be an adequate resting period. Ta no Kuni had no hidden village so the worst they can expect is a couple bandits, a few Kage Bunshin keeping watch with a perimeter seal and hidden explosive tags should suffice. "Take a break Honoka-chan, I'll set up everything."
Honoka sat down beneath a tree branch and laid her back on the tree behind her. Sighing at the comfort of not standing on her own weight. Honoka had never seen Kushina like this, she had known Kushina had a cold killer persona she wore on mission, but she never went with her on missions, opting to stay at Uzu and conduct research.
It took a couple of minutes for her to catch her breath and for the healing factor the Shosaku Sen provides her to begin mending all the torn and strained muscles in her body. Starting to breath normally, she got up and slowly walked where Kushina and a few Kage Bunshin were setting up camp. "Who's taking first watch?"
Kushina turned towards and raised an eyebrow "You're in no position to keep watch, you were about to collapse a few minutes ago. Sleep, my clones will stay up through the night and keep watch."
Honoka wanted to protest for the sake of her pride, but she knew how tired she was. Unsealing and setting up her ten in a hasty manner, she joined Kushina around the campfire she had her clones eat her dinner before she returned to her tent.
(5 hours later, Camp in Ta no Kuni)
Honoka wanted to slug Kushina in the face when she woke her from her beauty sleep, but the look on her face told her it wasn't the time.
"Wake up, there's someone out there." With that said, Kushina promptly left Honoka's tent to prepare for the eventual attack, she sensed more than a few people when they entered the range of her shadow clones' Kagura Shingan, they were more than a few, a lot more. Waling to the middle of the camp, in between the two tents and the extinguished campfire in front of her, Kushina closed her eyes, held her right hand in a ram seal and focused her sensing abilities.
Two, six, thirteen, twenty two, twenty two unknowns, their chakra was fairly weak so she wasn't too concerned about their strength. Two in particular had Jonin level reserves. These weren't common bandits, probably one of the clans inhabiting the countryside, if so, they weren't a threat at all. These clans barely had enough fortune to feed themselves, they must have turned to petty thievery when the times got too hard. She figured the Daimyo of ta no Kuni would rather pay Konoha or Kumo's services than sustain an entire clan.
Just when Honoka came out of her tent, five of her enemies dropped onto the clearing in front of them. She gave a mental order to her clones to take care of the enemies hiding in the trees surrounding them.
A giant of a man walked in front of the group, he was fairly tanned and had noticeable bags under his eyes, he was wearing a black shirt, blue baggy pants and a ridiculous looking cloak, he also carried a fairly large Zanbato on his back. All in all, he looked quite the intimidating figure, if Kushina hadn't sensed his chakra capacity earlier she would have been slightly worried.
"Alright girlie, this how this gonna go, you drop all your money and valuables on the ground and me and my clansmen don't rough you up too bad."
Kushina narrowed her eyes and responded to the muscle mountain "Clansmen? So you are a ninja clan. Being reduced to common thievery, pathetic. Do you whore your women out too? Leave before whatever patience I have runs out."
They were gritting their teeth and squeezing their tools to almost bend the metal. The leader of the group charged towards her and screamed "The Fūma have their pride, you asked for it bitch"
Wanting to test the capabilities of the unknown clan, she didn't want to to dispose of them too fast. As soon the buffoon got close to her, three of his followers charged, no doubt trying to capitalize on any mistake she makes in the initial exchange. Summoning her signature katana to her hand, she charged forward.
Dodging the reckless lunge, she swung to take the fool's head off. She was caught completely off guard when what looked like a pyramid made of chakra appeared in the trajectory of her swing and blocked her swing and disappeared. 'Jinton!' She thought in alarm. After a moment of panic, she figured it wasn't Jinton, Dust release disintegrates at a molecular level, this thing just deflects, most likely Kekkai Ninjutsu of some kind. She dodged the swing the brute aimed at her after the strange Ninjutsu dissipated and jumped back to analyze the technique she just witnessed. She only had to take care of these fools, the rest of their clan were being taken care of by her Kage Bunshin with a bit of help from Honoka.
Looking at each individual in their group, she saw that three were surrounding their leader while the fifth was a ways back with his hands in a seal. Figuring that he was the source of the defensive technique that deflected her attack, she made him her primary target.
She channeled Katon chakra to her katana and charged at the group of four. Dodging the kunai that one of the grunts threw at her she lunged for the closest ones' chest, surprisingly, no pyramid of any shape blocked her attack. She assumed that the Ninjutsu user only protects the leader of the group. Pulling her sword out of the dead mans chest, she charged at the leader, Hanzaki his men called him. Before she got close to him however, she was surrounded by the same chakra pyramid as before.
"We finally got you, bitch." Swinging her katana at the barrier, she hoped it would break. It didn't give. To make things worse, the damn pyramid was slowly getting smaller, constricting her body.
Getting tired of playing games with weaklings, she manifested four chakra chains and sent them to stab each of the four remaining Fuma clan members in the chest. The chains stabbed through the barrier like a knife through butter. An explosion ringed out, dissipating her chakra chains before they reached the last enemy, the one responsible for the three-dimensional chakra pyramids.
The man seemed completely and utterly shocked. "Impossible! My Jubaku Mandara can't be broken!"
Kushina looked at the pitiful man in disgust. "You overestimate yourself, trash. I could've broken through that barrier with my katana had I channeled chakra through it, I only used the Kongo Fusa to kill all four of your comrades simultaneously." One of her chakra chains impaled him through the chest before he could react.
Sealing her katana, Kushina sighed and ran a hand through her hair, those guys were much more troublesome than she anticipated. She would have welcomed the challenge any other time, but she needed to find the Uzumaki in Kusagakure as soon as possible.
Hearing footsteps and the crunching of grass behind her, she turned around to see a grinning Honoka who asked her "Did you have fun?"
Huffing, Kushina cheekily replied. "Can't say I did, they were all weak"
Honoka's grin widened "I had a lot of fun, turns out that the Interrogation seal I designed works, so does the pain inducing seal, though that one works a bit too well." Her grin faltered a bit at the end of her statement.
Nodding, Kushina dispelled her clones. "Get ready, we're continuing towards Kusagakure."
Honoka sighed in defeat, she missed Yugakure already, she would kill for a nice soak in the hot springs.
A/N: This chapter was a bit rushed, but I got so excited about the feedback about the previous chapter and couldn't help myself.
Some people were a bit confused about the timeline and the ages of the character, this is as close to a timeline as I can give you.
-16 – Kushina is born.
-12 – Honoka is born.
-11 – Nagato is born, Kushina arrives at Konoha.
-10 – Second Shinobi war starts and destruction of Uzu.
-7 – Kushina escapes, finds Honoka and arrives at Uzu's ruins.
0 – Start of the story.
0.5 – Second Shinobi war ends
6 - Canon Kyuubi attack.