-Uzumaki Clan Great Hall, Office of the Clan Head-

"Enter."

As Yoshide heard the door open, he looked up from his paperwork to see who his visitor was. A small smile crossed his face when he saw the rightful head of the clan entering the room.

"Ah, Lord Naruto, Welcome! What can I do for you?"

"Hi, Uncle Yoshide, I was hoping I could talk to you about something."

"Of course, what is it?"

Naruto looked down, seemingly a bit sheepish.

"I was hanging out with some of my friends yesterday and we got to talking. Shino's been doing clan heir stuff since the day he became a genin, and Ino, Shika, and Choji have been doing more stuff with their clans recently to..."

Yoshide chose to remain silent, waiting to see exactly what Naruto wanted.

"I think you're doing a great job, and don't want to rush you out of office, but I was wondering if you could start to teach me how to be a clan head?"

Yoshide beamed, he had of course been aware that the other clan heirs from Naruto's graduating class had started to learn about their future roles, but he hadn't wanted to push Naruto. Technically, Naruto was already the head of the Clan, he just wasn't eligible to rule yet, requiring the rule of a Regent.

"But of course my Lord. You are already the head of this clan. I've just been keeping the seat warm until you are ready to take it from me. If you're ready to get started learning then we can do some work right now."

Now it was Naruto's turn to grin. He'd seemingly been concerned that Yoshide wouldn't want to teach him, perhaps thinking that the long time regent was wanting to hold onto power as long as possible, but it was clear now that those fears were unfounded.

"That'd be great, 'tebayo!"

"All right then, you can help me sort out all of this paperwork. Each of these documents is something that either requires your approval or your attention, and part of the job of a clan head is having the skills to quickly prioritize them, otherwise you'll just get bogged down in paper."

"Couldn't...couldn't we just use Shadow Clones to help?" Naruto asked.

"Oh, but I do. I sort through everything myself, then create clones to handle the lower priority stuff while deal with the things that are most urgent."

"Oh...so what kind of things are in these documents?"

"Well, that varies from day to day."

Setting aside the large pile of documents yet to be sorted, Yoshide began pointing to the smaller piles and explaining each of them.

"That pile there is financial statements. Our clan is not yet large enough to have an in-house accountant, otherwise they would go to that person and only reach my desk if there was a problem. Since we have to contract out to outsiders, I like to double check their numbers. A shadow clone will handle this pile."

"When do you think we could have our own designated accountant?" Naruto asked, clearly not liking the idea of having to sort through financial statements.

"It's just a matter of having a clan member who has the technical knowledge to do the job, and that is not needed doing something more important."

"Oh. so what's that pile?" Naruto asked, pointing to another one.

"Copies of mission reports. Every mission completed by the village requires reports be submitted, and the clans receive copies of each report pertaining to a mission that a member of that clan was involved in. Sometimes they are redacted of course. Again, this would normally be something that wouldn't be important enough to be a day-to-day job for a clan head, they'd just look at reports for notable missions, but since we don't really have any clan members to spare on administrative functions I have shadow clones handle that pile as well. They'll dispel and alert me if there is anything they think I personally need to deal with."

Yoshide then continued to explain the various piles. A pile that was for transcripts and meeting minutes. Another pile was quarterly progress reports on all Uzumaki Academy students.

Naruto's reaction to the pile of monthly progress reports for each Uzumaki Genin written by their sensei was amusing. He desperately wanted to see the reports Kakashi had written about him, and Yoshide took no small delight in denying that request.

These were all piles that normally would be handled by administrative assistants or subordinates. For most clans, the clan head would only be notified if something in one of these documents was particularly notable, and the others would be archived. Of course, as was the running theme for the day, the Uzumaki were not large enough to both meet its quota of shinobi to the village and have left over clan members to serve in administrative capacities, so Yoshide's clones handled these documents.

Then there were the piles that a Clan Head would normally handle personally, mostly correspondence.

The Uzumaki Clan had official lines of communication with the Daimyo, the Hokage, with the other clans, and with various other higher ups and functionaries within the village and the Land of Fire as a whole.

"And of course the Clan Head would also personally deal with correspondence from Uzumaki Clan members out on missions for the Clan, but again, since we don't even have enough members to meet our quota to the village, we don't have any members out on missions for the clan."

"I...I didn't even know shinobi could be assigned missions by their clan." Naruto admitted.

"There are a lot of rules about it, but yes I could theoretically assign Uzumaki to missions, but only in a very select few areas. Most missions have to be funneled to the village itself, but each Clan has their own defined area of interest that they can assign clan members to missions for. An example would be a Nara member being sent on a mission to collect some rare herb for their pharmaceutical business."

"Interesting." Naruto said, "So clans can withhold missions from the village and handle them internally if they are within the clan's area of interest?"

"Exactly. Another example is the Hyuuga. Branch family Hyuuga tend to work for the village while main branch Hyuuga work for the clan. They have a large business empire, and it's not uncommon for their merchant convoys to be guarded by main branch Hyuuga. This separation allows them to not pull anyone off of the village's mission list, where as most clans temporarily withdraw a shinobi from the village forces to complete a mission for the clan."

"Huh." Naruto was clearly still processing this new information.

"As I said though, there are a lot of rules surrounding the process, mostly to prevent clans from stealing missions and thus profit from the village. Don't assume that these missions are commonplace. Clans are only allowed a limited number of these missions per year."

"Sure, I understand why it would be problematic for clans to have too many of these missions." Naruto responded, "pulls shinobi off of duty to the village and risks stealing money that should rightfully go to the village."

Naruto took a moment to survey the piles of documents, and his eyes fell on the one pile that Yoshide had not already discussed with him. "What about that pile, what is it for?"

Looking at the pile Naruto was asking about, Yoshide could only sigh. He had been hoping Naruto wouldn't see that pile, it wasn't something he wanted to discuss with the boy yet.

Still, Naruto had asked about it, and Yoshide gave him the truth.

"That pile is for proposals for your hand in marriage, Lord Naruto, along with some proposals for Karin."

The dumbfounded look on Naruto's face made clear his reaction, but he did manage to spit out a confused "WHAT?!"

"Don't be so surprised." Yoshide chided.

"My lord is an unwed clan heir, what did he expect? I guarantee that if you go to any clan compound in the village where the heir, heiress, or any other child of the clan head isn't married you'll find similar stacks of proposals. Marriage clauses as part of business contracts or political alliances are less common than they were in the Warring States Era, but are far more common than you might think. I've been receiving marriage proposals for you since you were three years old."

Seeing the panic in Naruto's eyes, Yoshide quickly moved to reassure his quasi-nephew.

"Don't worry, at this point in time the clan is not entertaining any such offers, and we would prefer to allow you to choose your own bride. You have some time to mature and think about this before the clan gets involved."

Naruto let out the breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding, but Yoshide wasn't giving him a completely free pass.

"That being said, Clan Heads have a duty to actively and aggressively pursue an heir, and when that duty is combined with the fact that the number one priority of the Uzumaki Clan is growth, you aren't going to be given forever to make up you mind. While most clans don't arrange marriages as a default, every clan has a metaphorical line in the sand where if the head, heir, or heiress hasn't made satisfactory progress towards their duty to reproduce, the clan will get involved."

"And what is that point for us, how long do I have?"

"I'm not sure, honestly. You're 13 right now, and an adult in the eyes of the village. Given that the average life expectancy of a shinobi is only to age 18 due to the high fatality rate, the fact that you are Lady Kushina's only child, and the last Uzumaki to be of royal blood the elders would be well within their rights to get involved tomorrow. For now I wouldn't focus on it too much, but if there is a girl that strikes your fancy - other than miss Yamanaka or any other clan heiress - I'd encourage you to begin courting her. That should be enough to buy you time."

Trying to get Naruto's mind off of the topic of marriage, Yoshide than pulled out the stack of documents yet to be sorted. "But come now, my lord. You wanted to learn to be the head of the Uzumaki Clan. Once we have this paperwork sorted I'll go over some documents with you so that you can see what they actually contain."

Eager for the distraction, Naruto gratefully dove into his new task. After an hour the pile was gone, and the Regent and the rightful head of Clan Uzumaki spent the rest of the afternoon going over and discussing various documents, with Naruto eagerly soaking up as much information as he could.

-Inside the Uzumaki Clan's Great Hall-

The Great Hall of the Uzumaki Clan served as the central meeting place for the clan. Designed as a smaller replica of the original Great Hall in the Hidden Whirlpool Village, the building contained several distinct spaces.

A Conference room where smaller clan meetings were held, the clan's archives, a vault, a large communal kitchen, and the clan head's office were among the various facilities within the building, but perhaps none were as impressive as the main community space.

A large room with high ceilings, most of the room was open, with tables and chairs of various sizes stacked to the side. A small stage was placed at the front of the room.

On this particular day, the youth of the clan were gathered in the community space for one of the most important hallmarks of any Uzumaki's education: Fuinjutsu lessons.

Fuinjutsu lessons began one year before students enrolled in the shinobi academy, with students practicing their calligraphy. As students got older, they moved from calligraphy to small and basic fuinjutsu seals. Finally, as genin, the group lessons were no more. Genin Uzumaki still gathered for fuinjutsu lessons alongside all the other students, but their lessons were more guided individual practice than the group lessons their younger peers participated in.

A number of Uzumaki chunin and jonin patrolled the room, each assigned to working with a specific age group. Overseeing all of the organized chaos was the legendary Fuinjutsu grandmaster Uzumaki Takahiro, who sat in a chair on the stage. Now in his 90s, his body had slowed considerably, but his mind remained sharp as ever.

His eyes went over to the youngest students, working on their calligraphy. The single largest number of teachers were over there, one standing at the front of the group demonstrating a particular concept with the others roaming and observing the work of the students.

Any errors in calligraphy had to be identified and resolved early, else the student with the issues would very quickly fall behind. Calligraphy might have been the least interesting element of fuinjutsu lessons, but in Takahiro's mind it was also the most important component of the sealing arts.

Satisfied that the foundational skills were being correctly taught to the beginners, the elder Uzumaki panned his eyes over the rest of the students, until they finally came to rest on the four Uzumaki genin.

Each genin was in a different place with their fuinjutsu, in part because they used their fuinjutsu skills in different ways. Tenten for example was totally focused on Uzumaki Kenjutsu. Sure, she kept up in fuinjutsu, but it was clear that her passion lay elsewhere, and that was reflected in her fuinjutsu skills.

Her fuinjutsu interests lay more in supplemental seals. Storage seals and seals that could be applied to weapons to modify or enhance them were her focus. Though Takahiro noted with a small smile that Tenten was not actually working on a seal, but was instead presently engrossed in a fuinjutsu scroll. She had a certification exam coming up.

Uzumaki Fuinjutsu users were graded on a scale of 1 to 10. At level 2, an Uzumaki was said to have a genin level of fuinjutsu proficiency. 4 was classified as Chunin. 6 was jonin. The title of Grand master, earned by perhaps only one or two people every couple of generations, was conferred upon those who passed the level 10 exam.

In Tenten's case, she was studying for the level 3 exam, an exam that Karin had passed just the week before. Karin may have been a year younger, but where Tenten's passions lay elsewhere, it was clear that Karin was totally focused on Fuinjutsu.

Where as Tenten's seals were practical, Karin relished the theoretical. Still, theoretical applications of Fuinjutsu, including the famous space and time fuinjutusu that enabled the infamous Hirashin technique of the 2nd and 4th Hokage were very difficult.

Though level 3, and thus the most advanced of the Genin, Karin was not yet anywhere near ready for Theoretical Fuinjutsu, Quantum Fuinjutsu, or any of the other most advanced concepts that most Uzumaki never learned. Still, she'd get there eventually. Takahiro could see her talent and her passion.

Tenten focused on Kenjutsu, Taijutsu, and Ninja Tools. Karin was a self-proclaimed 'fuinjutsu nerd,' and then there was Uzumaki Daisuke. His interests lay in ninjutsu. Like Tenten, his sealing interests focused on the practical aspects of Fuinjutsu as a supplement to his primary interests.

Finally, there was Naruto. Fuinjutsu was absolutely in his blood. Takahiro had never actually met Kushina. He arrived in Konoha only 3 days after her death, but he had examined her work and he knew. If she had only lived long enough she could have been a fuinjutsu grandmaster.

As for her husband, Naruto's father, Takahiro was also quite impressed:

As a non-Uzumaki we never would have let the Yondaime take one of our certification exams, but I'd estimate his skills would have placed him around level 8 or 9. Most impressive for one who had no access to Uzumaki sytle Fuinjutsu.

Still, as the Clan head Naruto would be required to be well balanced. He'd never have the time to dedicate to truly mastering Fuinjutsu. Not that he was a lost cause. He absolutely had potential.

Those were Uzumaki Takahiro's thoughts as he watched the one jonin working with the genin walk between the 4, offering support and feedback as they worked. Wishing to get a closer look at the next generation, the elder rose from his seat, leaning on his cane for support. Seeing him rise, a chunin quickly ran over and helped the elder down the stairs, supporting him as he made his way to the genin.

The nonagenarian's first stop was Tenten, who put down her scroll and offered a bow and greeting to the elder as he approached.

"Ah, young Tenten. Still studying for your certification exams are we? You've been studying for quite some time. You started studying at the same time as Karin, and she took the exam last week."

"I know. I'm sorry Takahiro-sama. I'm just not as confident in my work as Karin is."

"Ah, lack of confidence is it? Personally I'm quite confident you'll pass, but look at it this way: If you fail, you'll get detailed feedback about why you failed. This will help you improve. Failure hurts, it's true, but it is also the greatest learning opportunity we have. Why don't we schedule your exam for a week from today? That way you can still have a few more days to study, but can no longer keep putting the exam off."

Tenten nodded, accepting the gradmaster's proposed compromise. In response, Takahiro instructed the chunin accompanying him to report to Yoshide.

"Young Tenten will be taking her Level 3 certification exam one week from today. Please inform Lord Yoshide to pull her from the village mission list from two days prior to the exam through one day after the exam so that she'll have time to relax and focus without worrying about D-ranks and team training."

With one Genin out of the way, Takahiro slowly made his way to the next: Karin. Takahiro had taken a vested interest in Karin's training, seeing her as the most likely candidate among the clan's population to become the next grand master.

While Karin had the necessary love of theoretical fuinjutsu, it was still beyond her, so when Takahiro approached he found her working on something far more practical.

"Practicing your speed are we, Karin-chan?"

"Yes Takahiro-sama. I want to be able to write this seal fast enough to be able to use it in combat. I'm in the support role on my team, and I think this seal might be particularly useful for a tracking team.

Putting on his reading glasses and inspecting her work, Takahiro noticed that she was working on a type of paralysis seal. Useful indeed for when the trackers finally caught up to their target. Her brush strokes were all correct and her seals looked immaculate. Watching her make the seal two or three times, it didn't take long for the elder Uzumaki to figure out a solution for her speed.

"It seems that the only brush stroke on that seal that you don't have up to combat speed yet is the 3rd. On the second stroke try dropping the angle of your brush a bit. You'll find that at a lower angle the second stroke flows more smoothly into the third and should improve it's speed."

Karin did as instructed, and immediately noticed a slight difference. Not enough to fix her problem, but Takahiro could tell that with more practice this small correction would get her to her goal."

"Excellent, keep practicing Karin. You continue to impress with your efforts, and the clan has noticed."

"Thank you, Takahiro-sama." Karin said, blushing a little bit at the praise.

Taking his leave from Karin, Takahiro made his way over to Daisuke and offered feedback on his work, before slowly making his way over to Naruto and doing the same.

Finally, with his chunin attendant having returned from delivering Takahiro's message to Yoshide, the elder bid the chunin to help him back up the stairs to the platform where his chair sat.

Settling into the comfortable arm chair, Takahiro took a final look around the room. It warmed his heart to see the younger generations working so diligently on one of the clan's favored ninja arts. And so it was with happy thoughts that Takahiro drifted off to sleep for an unintended mid-day nap.

AN:

And that brings us to the end of outline 2. Next up is outline 3, covering the chunin exams. Beyond that...currently there is nothing. I've really struggled in the 2 years since I came up with this story concept to figure out where I want to take it post Chunin Exam. Maybe there will be more, maybe there won't. We'll see what happens in the future.

Anyways, here's some clarification on Uzumaki Fuinjutsu for this story:

As stated, Uzumaki Clan members are graded in their fuinjutsu abilities on a scale of 1-10.

1 - Novice.

2 - Genin level.

3 - Advanced Genin level.

4 - Chunin level.

5 - Advanced Chunin level.

6 - Jonin level.

7 - Advanced Jonin.

8 - Expert level.

9 - Master.

10 - Grandmaster.

It is uncommon for Uzumaki to advance past level 7, with most settling into the 6 to 7 range. Only the true fuinjutsu specialists tend to advance beyond that. To advance a level, an Uzumaki must pass an exam covering both fuinjutsu theory and practical application appropriate to the level the exam taker is attempting to achieve. The exams get exponentially harder beginning with level 7, as more advanced concepts are thrown in.

I should note that these levels bear no correlation to the actual shinobi rank an Uzumaki has. It's quite possible for the village to promote someone to chunin before they have a chunin level skill in fuinjutsu, for example. Fuinjutsu after all is not one of the skills that seem to play a part in promotions.

Current Uzumaki Fuinjutsu levels:

Takahiro - 10.

Karin - 3.

Tenten - 2, though by next chapter she will be level 3.

Naruto - 2.

Daisuke - 2.

Yoshide - 7.

Kozumu - 6.

Shizune - 2 (She may be a jonin, but given that she didn't start studying fuinjutsu until she married Kozumu, is not a biological Uzumaki, and is kept plenty busy by her job at the hospital and her 4 children, the clan doesn't really press her or any others who married into the clan to go past level 2.)

And for the heck of it:

Kushina was said to be level 8, but that was her own self assessment, which is considered a highly flawed way to diagnose. She did not get the chance to take an exam in the brief six month window between other Uzumaki beginning to arrive in Konoha and her death. Her skills may have been higher.

Kushina also estimated Minato to be level 9, though given that he only used regular fuinjutsu techniques, not Uzumaki Fuinjutsu techniques, he wouldn't have been able to take an exam even if he had time. Takahiro estimates in the chapter that Minato would be level 8 or 9 based on what he's seen of the Yondaime's work.

Kushina estimated Jiraya at somewhere between 6 and 7, though the same difficulties with Minato apply here as well, the exams are based around Uzumaki Fuinjutsu, which is a clan secret, Jiraya doesn't know it.

We'll see you again come the first chapter of Outline 3. Thanks for reading.