Chapter 72: Members of the Clan

Arc: The Uzumaki Clan

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto. Naruto is the work of Masashi Kishimoto, please support the original work.

"Fuinjutsu: Unseal," Naruto said after taking out a scroll.

POOF—"Cough! Cough! Ugh—" Suddenly, a man appeared in a cloud of white smoke and started coughing. Seeing the man, Mei didn't hesitate to stand up from her seat to give the man a helping hand.

"Yagura-sama, please," Mei said and handed Yagura a clean towel. Yagura's clothes were clean and pristine, but Yagura's whole body was covered in bandages and just now, he coughed up a bit of blood.

After wiping off the blood on his lips, Mei helped Yagura stand up from the ground.

"I'm… Mei, tell me what happened. I want every detail," Yagura ordered. Mei didn't hesitate to comply and was about to drop three barrier seals when Yagura stopped him.

"Let him hear it as well," Yagura said and nodded toward Naruto. Mei paused for a moment before reporting to Yagura.

"Lord Fourth Mizukage, after you were controlled by a genjutsu, you reinstated and intensified the blood mist policy of the village. After a ninja from a clan betrayed your trust, you also began a campaign against all kekkei-genkai users," Mei said in one breath.

After hearing the report, Yagura didn't seem surprised and sighed.

"The person who controlled me is a masked man. He has a swirling orange mask, and he says that he is Madara Uchiha. Kisame Hoshigaki was contacted by Madara Uchiha. Mei, go and call her to your side in this instant," Yagura said.

Yagura knew better than anyone how loyal Kisame was. If he could get Kisame back under his wing, Yagura would do as much as he could.

"I understand, lord fourth."

"Also, as part of our deal," Yagura turned to Naruto. "You will return 40% of the three tails to me," Yagura said. Naruto extracted 90% of the three tails from him before he stopped.

Before Naruto came back to negotiate with Mei and the others, he unsealed and talked to Yagura.

Naruto informed Yagura of everything he should know, and Yagura believed all of it. While being controlled, he could remember everything he did. Naruto and Mei's report merely served to assure Yagura that he wasn't messing up again.

"And you promised to put a seal on me," Yagura said. He didn't want to be controlled again. Naturally, he asked Naruto for a seal that would make him immune to most genjutsu and have a higher resistance against the genjutsu he wasn't immune to.

"Yes, I didn't forget," Naruto said and took out two scrolls. The first scroll was red and a "3" was attached to the scroll. Yagura immediately knew what it was and took the second scroll.

When he opened it, a ring appeared in the middle of the scroll.

"What's this?"

"Wear it. After that, you will be immune to most genjutsu," Naruto explained. In reality, he wasn't sure how "immune" Yagura would be after wearing the ring. The ring served to disrupt Yagura's chakra every minute, and it can't be turned off.

It would've been a problem for others, but for a jinchuriki, it wasn't.

Naruto learned it the hard way.

After becoming a "proper" jinchuriki, Naruto learned the hard way why they are immune to most genjutsu.

The first reason is that the bijuu themselves could dispel the genjutsu. The second reason is that a bijuu's chakra is too potent, and after it mixes with a human's chakra, a.k.a. their jinchuriki, it would make the jinchuriki's chakra volatile.

Hence, a jinchuriki can deal with small issues like being disrupted every minute.

"Good," Yagura nodded. "It's a pleasure being allies with you, Uzumaki Naruto," Yagura said as he stretched his hand to shake Naruto's.

Naruto smiled and shook Yagura's hand.

"The feeling is mutual."

After the negotiations were finished, Mei became the official fifth mizukage, while Yagura became the secret shadow mizukage. They did it to seem as if Yagura had truly died, though Mei was doing all she could to clean Yagura's name.

She knew it was impossible, but she wanted to at least make it so that when Yagura reappears, the villagers won't demand to exile him.

"They said they would be here?"

Naruto asked Hinata as they walked to a remote location.

It was the place where Zabuza and Haku said they would be waiting.

"Yes. They said to send a toad to them after we arrive. That way, they can get out of their hiding place," Hinata said and smiled. She liked going out, and she liked it more when she was with Naruto.

She couldn't explain how happy she was that Naruto wasn't busy anymore with politics. She also couldn't explain how glad she was that she chose not to become the clan head.

"Can't you just see them with your Byakugan?" Naruto whined. He could send a toad to Zabuza, but doing so… was tedious.

Hinata knew why Naruto was complaining and chuckled as she closed her eyes.

"Byakugan!"

With a shout, Hinata's field of vision suddenly changed into black and white. "There," she said and pointed below the ground.

"They buried themselves?" Naruto chuckled. "No, they're in a cave. The entrance… is a bit far," Hinata rubbed her head as she answered. Zabuza and Haku chose a tricky hiding spot.

To get out, they have to swim out of their current position, and then walk a bit further before swimming out of the cave.

The cave itself was shaped like a zigzag.

"Well, let's go to them and scare them for a bit. I'm sure they are stressed out. Let's stress them out even more," Naruto said with a shrug.

"Are you sure? The cave… is full of life," Hinata said with her brows furrowed a little. She didn't specify, but the cave was full of strange fish and insects.

Naruto saw her discomfort and seemed to understand what she was implying.

"Very well. I'll summon a toad."

It took Naruto ten minutes to gather enough stable chakra to summon a messenger toad. After giving it a scroll and telling it to deliver it to Zabuza, the toad disappeared.

What amazed Naruto was that Zabuza and Haku took less than a minute to get out of the cave.

"IS everything all done?" Zabuza asked. Despite being inside the cave, Naruto informed Zabuza about the recent events in Kirigakure.

Had Naruto not done so, the demon of the mist and his little apprentice would've rushed out of the cave in less than a day to bring an early Halloween to Kirigakure.

"Yes. Everything is done and dusted. Let's go back to Uzushi—"

POOF!

As he was talking, a toad appeared on his shoulder and patted him on the back.

"It's been a while, Naruto," the toad said. The toad had an orange body and a cheerful smile.

"It's been a while, Gamakichi," Naruto replied and asked why the toad had appeared.

"That Gaara kid told me to give this to you urgently, so here I am," Gamakichi said and handed the scroll to Naruto. "See ya!"

POOF!

Naruto didn't pay any more attention to the toad and opened the scroll.

"Naruto. We found Orochimaru's lab and are currently keeping an eye on it. We also find two Uzumaki. One is a girl by the name of Karin, and one is a child whose name I do not know. What should we do?"

Naruto was about to take out a scroll to write a reply when he saw a tiny side note at the bottom of the scroll.

"Sorry, Orochimaru found us. We had to leave the area, but Karin promised to keep the other Uzumaki safe. Right now, they are waiting for your assistance. We will be waiting for you at…"

"Goddamned it. Why can't things be simple?" Naruto said with a smirk.

"Oh well. I guess the heavens want us to meet again, Orochimaru."

Naruto was still interested in Orochimaru's research.

If you'd like to support me, you can check out my Pátreón page. There are 15+ advanced chapters there. That's two weeks of advanced content!

link: pátreón.cóm/endbanner (replace the accent letters)