A/N: As promised, another update! Thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, faved and followed! XoX

The Orange Daimyo of Uzushiogakure

Chapter Five – The Silent Children

Jiraiya stretched as he sauntered into the next village. This village was a particularly good one; it had not one but two seedy establishments that catered to his more –ah- unrefined tastes. In fact, he was looking forward to stopping here all week. It was his favorite spot to stop and let loose before he headed onward to Uzushiogakure, where he had to be the picture of sagely dignity. Well, maybe just marginally more dignified.

The Toad Sage went to Uzushio several times a year to check in with and help train his godson, the Daimyo of Uzushio. It had been three years since the boy had left Konoha, and sometimes he still found his mouth agape at the turn of events. He was one of the few people in Konoha who knew what had happened to the orphan Naruto. Naruto's whereabouts were a village secret - something that he and Tsunade had argued over sake about many times. The Hokage argued that it was for Naruto's and Uzushio's safety, but Jiraiya was mildly suspicious about the whole thing. After all, if Uzu and Konoha were ever going to be allies again, the secret would come out almost instantly. For the time being this hadn't happened; Uzushio was mostly lying low and rebuilding, but to Jiraiya, it seemed an unpleasant eventuality.

The sage ninja frowned. He wasn't supposed to be thinking about this crap until after he left his private paradise village. He twisted his little finger in his ear as if to clear out the wayward thoughts and continued on into the downtown core. The sun was mostly set, and a few of the keenest establishments already had lanterns lit. The aging sage sped up as he traced the familiar route to Mikia's.

It was only an hour or so later that Jiraiya surrounded by lovely young ladies, all of whom were rather scantily dressed and plying him with booze. He was in the middle of telling the all-female entourage a story about his fantastic travels when his ears picked up something unexpected: gossip. Well, gossip itself wasn't rare, nor was his highly tuned spies' ears catching the gossip…it was the topic. He couldn't help but listen to the conversation after Uzushio had been mentioned. With a silly smile still glued to his face, the sage listened in on the conversation between two barmaids.

"…heard 'bout it too?" an older, gruff looking lady asked her cohort.

"Yeah, it's totally freaking me out. Ghosts!" The younger woman shivered, as if a ghost had just chilled the room.

"People been sayin' them kids came from the Isle o' Uzu. Died see? Then came back to see their families…without a voice to speak!"

"Eep! Quit telling me all this, I'll never sleep again!" The server flapped her tray at the other one to prove her seriousness.

At this point, Jiraiya gave up on the gossip entirely. Rumors of Uzushiogakure being haunted were hardly rare, seeing as how it was abandoned for half a generation. He sighed slightly, finding himself thankful that it wasn't actually something that needed some investigating. Tuning out the vapid servers, he turned his full attention back to the more vapid floozies. He was falling behind on his relaxation schedule…a game of catch up was in order! The sage threw himself into his activities with a little more zest, feeling confident that no more gossip about Uzu would get in his way.

When Jiraiya awoke, the only light filtering into the room was from the moon, and even that made his head pound. Most of the women that he had been drinking with were gone, but a handful of them were sleeping on the cushions around him. His vision was a little bit blurry as he stumbled to the back of the room and he swore under his breath as he found the door to the back of the establishment locked- the bathroom was back there, and he needed to piss bad enough that he had woken up in this state. Still grumbling, he picked his way through the maze of shapely bodies to get out the front door.

The fresh air seemed to clear up his vision a bit, and feeling a bit steadier, he made his way around to the back of the building. The bar was situated so that the back faced the dense forest that surrounded the town. It was kind of oddly positioned, but he wasn't one to complain, since it meant he didn't need to pee on the dusty street.

A heavy sigh escaped him as he emptied his full bladder into the bushes. He had never been so thankful that someone had forgotten to lock a door...

His senses sharpened slightly when he heard the quiet snap of a few twigs. His stomach churned from drink as his held his breath. There was a flash of movement to his left and Jiraiya was just fast enough to see a small form circle behind him. He turned to follow the phantom, and reacted just in time to grab a skinny wrist armed with a kunai. He clicked his tongue. "You're no ghost…"

The child before him had a curious expression on his face, and was dressed head to toe in pale grey shinobi attire. The boy couldn't have been older than ten, yet he did have some skill…enough to catch the Toad sage himself somewhat off guard while he was taking a drunken piss. "What's your name kid? And why are you swinging a kunai at me?"

Cocking his head to the side, the boy said nothing. A small shiver ran though the older ninja. The kid didn't seem to care much that he was caught. In fact, his expression didn't make it look like he cared much about anything. The kid's eyes glinted in the moonlight, revealing nothing. "Damn it kid, I've had too much drink and I just need to go back to sleep so just let me know why you're running around in a forest playing ninja already!"

The mysterious boy again said nothing but shook his head. "Really?" Jiraiya sighed again at the display, "do you want me to put you into a toad's mouth? That's an option looking more appealing by the momen…AH!"

The boy had begun to open his mouth, but something off, really off. The boy's tongue slid farther out of his mouth than should have been possible and it was covered in pulsating veins that were large enough that they could be seen easily, even in the relatively dim lighting of the moonlight. Black lines of ink sprouted from the centre of the kid's mouth. Like the crack of a whip, the elongated tongue flew at Jiraiya's face, and only years of training on Mount Myoboku allowed him to catch the mutated appendage. The owner of the tongue shrieked as Jiraiya held it tightly in between his fingers and inspected the still-visible lines of script.

He recognized the root of the fuinjutsu: it was a very advanced seal, one that copied memories and information from another person's brain. It was also a technique that had been banned and black-booked due to the damage it did to both the caster and the victim. It was commonly placed on hands or feet, but to place it in a child's mouth seemed unspeakably cruel.

The child began writhing as if in pain. With great deliberation, the sannin let go of the kid's tongue. The cursed part of the child's mouth returned to its hiding spot, and moments after, the boy shrieked again. It was a shrill, unnatural howl and it was followed by silence.

Dropping to his knees, the grey-clad child gurgled once or twice and went limp into the dew-covered grass. Swearing again, the toad sage flipped the child face up. A couple small trickles of blood ran from the boy's mouth and his eyes were glassy.

Jiraiya shook his head as he closed the glassy eyes and in his own mind, denounced the hatred of the world he lived in. Working very carefully, he summoned sealing paper and began working to make a copy of the dreaded seal within the kid's mouth. It was difficult work at the best of times, and in the dark of the early morning while still saturated with sake, it was damn near impossible. It took him much, much longer than it usually would have, but by the time the sun was rising, he had a workable copy of the horrific jutsu stowed away.

His white hair glinted in the early morning sun as he stood up and dusted his knees off. It was time to leave for Uzushio; there was absolutely no time to waste. Any suspicions that he may have held about the current elders and councilmen in Uzu had been inflamed tenfold because far too much of the seal that he had worked on all night was based in traditional Uzu fuinjutsu. So just who had put that demonic seal in the mouth of an innocent?

Naruto wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of his hand and retook his stance in front of the blue pool in front of him. With a deep breath in, he turned his focus back on the centre of the water. At first, nothing happened, but after a half a minute the centre of the water started to spin and soon it was dipping inwards on itself to make a small whirlpool. His blond eyebrows twitched as he forced more chakra into the maneuver. In response, the whirlpool grew nearly twice as large, with choppy waves splashing over the edges of the pool, wetting his sandals. Soon after it grew, it began to take on an oblong shape. All of a sudden, it destabilized completely and water went everywhere, thoroughly soaking Naruto in the process.

Pulling his shirt off over his head, he began to ring the water out of his shirt. Hearing footsteps approaching behind him, he slipped the still-damp shirt over his head again, hoping to hide the little mishap. "You need to focus on the stability of the maelstrom Naruto, not the size!"

Naruto turned to see Airi coming around the corner into the part of the gardens that was filled with training ponds. "Watching that, huh?" he said with a chuckle. Airi nodded, and then began moving her hands in tandem. The water slipped from his clothing and off the ground surrounding the pool and formed into a large ball that then smoothly dropped back into the pond with only a ripple.

"Overall, I think that training's been going well! Look how big this bad-boy is!" Naruto turned his focus to his hand and felt the familiar rush of chakra. A rasengan formed in his right hand, and it was at least three times larger than the ones he used to make when his godfather had just taught him the technique. "Pervy sage is going to have his mind blown!"

The auburn haired kunoichi's eyebrows rose. "You'll have a chance to tell him a little sooner than you think…" she trailed off and motioned towards the castle with her head. A small flare of excitement lit in the young shinobi's chest and he followed Airi back into the castle. Pervy sage was early? That seemed too good to be true, to the point of being unheard of. Naruto knew about his godfather's 'mini-vacations' in the last town before the harbor port that ferried people to Uzu. What had happened to get him past there so quick?

Naruto was still speculating that perhaps Jiraiya had run out of money for alcohol, when entered the main greeting hall to see his tall, white-haired mentor. As soon as Naruto saw him, his previous speculations were abandoned to his excitement about improving one of his trademark techniques. "Yo pervy sage, wait until you see this! It'll…"

His mentor cut him off "No, you just wait 'til I show you something!" He winked at Airi and nudged the blond. "Pictures! Loads of them! But let's go up to your room first, aye?"

At this, the kunoichi made a face, turned on her heel and left the area with her arms crossed. Naruto looked guiltily between the two adults, but before he could speak, the Toad Sage grabbed him by the wrist and started dragging him off towards the nearest stairwell.

"Hey! I can walk there myself old man, quit that!" Jiraiya let go of his arm, but still continued to march towards Naruto's room.

When they arrived, Naruto's mentor started speaking loudly about teaching him a new sealing technique. Irked now, the young ruler watched as Jiriaya did a fourteen prong silence seal on the room. Once the seal was in place, the sage let out a sigh of relief and Naruto let out a grunt of annoyance. "I already know that seal; what's the deal here? And…do you really have some pictures to show me?" he asked with a slight blush heating up his face.

The more wizened face looked incredulous. "Wha- pictures? No, no I don't have that for you. Look kid, we don't have much time here before people realized I'm not showing you a technique or pervy pics. I'm just gonna come out and say this. You need to look into some serious shit under your doorstep. Has the council granted you anymore leeway in taking over the actual leadership of Uzu?"

Naruto felt distinctly uncomfortable at the question. "No," he said finally, with blatant annoyance on his face, "They said I have to at least wait until my 17th birthday." He had had that particular discussion fairly recently with the council that was overseeing his people until he was old enough to take over. It hadn't exactly gone as he had planned.

Jiraiya shook his head, sending his bushy hair flying. "Younger people have held the position before. I think they're stalling, Naruto. It's easy for a group like that to get used to power, you know. I think you better assert your rights to rule and you better do it damned quick."

Their eyes met and Naruto could see that there was something that Jiraiya was holding back, and it was something that had rattled even him. Whatever it was, it had worried him enough for the sage to come to Uzushio almost a full week early. Blue eyes gazed downward. In the back of his mind, Naruto had gotten the same feeling. He heard a rumor or two about the town that the council had held a meeting without him. At the time, he figured it was just that: rumors. But now? He couldn't be so sure.

Blond eyebrows came together defiantly. "I'll tell them that I'll be taking over some of the duties at the next council meeting." There was a pregnant pause. "but pervy Sage…do you think I'm actually ready for that?"

Jiraiya looked down at his godson very seriously. "You'll have to be. But don't worry. You're your parents' son."

Jiraiya's large, calloused hand dropped onto Naruto's head and ruffled his already manic hair. Naruto felt buoyed by the praise and watched while Jiraiya dropped the seal. The time had come a little bit earlier than he had expected, but he wasn't about to let anyone down. He let out a breath he didn't notice he was holding. It was time to start truly being a leader, but he was definitely ready for the challenge. The next meeting was supposed to be next week but he decided that moving that date up himself by a few days would frame the announcement nicely. In the mean time, Naruto had a really awesomely large rasengan to show his godfather!

It was very late and very cold in the area that Hideaki and Danzo had agreed to meet. On the northeast side of a remote mountain face, there was a large cave. The cave itself had been modified to be a more comfortable meeting place, but try as anyone might, the biting cold of the outside weather couldn't be fully blocked out.

Hideaki had arrived first, and so he sat in the chill, fending off the cold with hot tea. His old bones ached slightly in the less than favorable weather. The old soldier looked around at the men he had with him. He was only allowed to bring three trusted men with him, if one didn't count the 'package' that he was dropping off with Danzo.

Hideaki had only met up with Danzo a handful of times since their exchange regarding the Uzumaki boy. The old man turned his head to the side considering that particular deal. It had been working out perfectly so far. The boy seemed to trust him and the council well enough…and he trusted Airi completely.

Not that Airi knew any of the real details. Hideaki could see the look in his goddaughter's eyes when she had asked him for permission to continue training the boy. Naruto had won her heart over in a very short time which was actually a good asset for a leader. She had been allowed to do this, however, but only due to the fact that Airi was both a strong patriot and quite an accomplished teacher. She had been at the top of her classes for being an educator, only to find out after graduating that Kuso wouldn't allow a kunoichi originally from another village to be a teacher at their academy. Hideaki ran his hand through his close cropped hair. That disappointment was probably what had made Airi so easy to draft in the first place…

Uzushio's old military man was pulled from his thoughts as Danzo and his handful of people arrived. "This is a dammed inconvenient place for an old cripple like me to get to, Hideaki."

Hideaki let out a wheezy chuckle. He knew damn well that Danzo wasn't as feeble as he looked. "It'll be worth it, Danzo. Sit down; I bought something you asked for."

The old warhawk and his men sat around the creaking wooden table. "You asked me if I had something to help take care of that problem of yours," Hideaki started, "and I have just the thing."A small, mousy haired child was brought forward. The Uzushio councilman glanced to one of his soldiers. "Show him."

With an uncomfortable swallow, the man did as he was told and opened the girl's mouth to show Danzo what he was getting. There was a collective gasp when the long, ink covered tongue was exposed. The grim corners of Danzo's mouth turned up. "Interesting."

Hideaki waved his hand lazily and another man took the child to the back of the room again. "It's a combination of several seals. If that tongue makes contact with anyone's head, a large amount of their memories will be absorbed and copied. It will also kill the recipient if there is long enough contact."

"A useful feature, to be sure".

The red-haired shinobi continued, "There is one more feature of note. If anyone looks upon the seal for a long enough amount of time, the seal will kill the host. It goes without saying the child is unable to speak, but this way, even with mind-share jutsus, the identity of the master is protected."

Danzo folded his good and bad hands together. "So then, my friend, what is that you want in return for this –ah- treasure?"

The other man's lined face pulled into a grin. "Consider it compensation for giving me the Uzumaki boy. Besides, it won't be long until we're both leading our respective countries from the comfort of the shadows. It's time for us to officially begin to make Konoha and Uzushio allies again. It is better to start now, because when our true military might comes to light, our neighbors are sure to be less than welcoming of it."

The bandaged man pondered the words of his colleague. "You might be right. Do you have a plan in mind for this yet?"

Shaking his head, Hideaki answered. "I don't quite want to out the identity of our Daimyo yet, so the easiest course of action is complex. Let us both think about it. We can contact each other early if the situation necessitates."

The two men peered at each other. "Dare I ask where you came up with this seal?"

Looking wry, the red-haired shinobi shook his head again. "Let's just say I've been outsourcing a bit, and leave it at that."

Black eyebrows raised, but Danzo said nothing. Instead, he stood, followed closely by his men. "Until our next meeting," he said with a slight nod. At that, the group of ROOT operatives left the cave along with the cursed girl, leaving Hideaki and his men alone to ponder about the next steps to be taken.