Welcome to the long awaited performance my dear readers! First off, I'd like to apologize for the long wait. I had most of the script completed but struggled to decide how I wanted it to end and it wasn't until I read one of your reviews that inspiration hit me so an enormous shout-out to Shinonom for it was your review that assisted in the completion of this next act. Now may the curtain rise and the next act of our story begin!

Chapter Twelve: The Kurosawa Clan

After leaving the beach that Isobu brought me to, I immediately began my trek into the woods hoping to find a path I can follow to the nearest village so I can have an idea where I am and probably find a place that will take me in for the night so I can get proper rest. It was taking longer than I would like to get through the woods because the hem and sleeves of my kimono kept getting caught in bushes and low tree branches when I push them out of the way.

"Kojiro, maybe you should take a break." Isobu suggested after my sleeve got caught in a bush for sixth time in a row. "You have been walking nonstop ever since you left that beach."

"A break does sound good right about now." I said in agreement as I found a stump and proceeded to unceremoniously flop on it releasing an exasperated sigh. I looked down to my aching bare feet and cringed at how much dirt and sand clung to them. "I need to find a river or something, I went who knows how many days without taking a bath." I brought several strands of my hair in front of me and had a look of disgust when I saw that my usually soft spiky hair was now not only still soaked from the sea water but also smelled like dead fish. I sighed letting go of my hair to let it go back to hanging behind me resting my hands on the stump as I leaned back to stare at the sky through the gaps in the trees. 'Is it too much to ask for something good to happen to me?'

"I believe the saying 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger' applies to what you have been through, Kojiro." Isobu said in my mindscape as a single leaf fell off a branch and slowly fell under my nose tickling it causing me to sneeze. "Give it time and I am sure that good fortune will soon follow the bad."

'I hope you're right, Isobu.' I said mentally picking up the leaf placing it on my lips holding it in place with my index and middle fingers and closed my eyes as I blew into the leaf creating a high-pitched sound that echoed through the forest that surrounds me. 'Huh, it actually worked.' I began to change how I held the leaf as I blew into it thus changing the pitch that's created until I started making my own melody. As I listened to the melody I was creating, I felt relaxed and in peace, almost like everything was just a long dream. 'This sounds nice, almost makes me forget what I've been through.'

The song seems to have a life of it's own as on some parts were filled with warmth and joy while others were filled with pain and sorrow. My eyes started to sting with tears when the melody took on a sadder sound but kept them in and continued playing. It was then that I realized that the song was reflecting off my memories of my life, from the times I was really happy to the times I was really sad, when I felt the warmth of my parents when they held me for the first time to the aching pain in my heart from seeing them laying on the ground soaked in their own blood and knowing that I'll never feel that warmth again.

As I continued to relive every moment of my new and previous lives, I could feel Isobu's chakra flow through my body as a form of comfort that made me feel safe and secure and that he would always be there for me which I'm grateful for. When the song finally reached it's end, I lowered the leaf from my lips wiping away the tears that managed to slip through my eyelids and down my face.

"There is no need to hold back your tears, Kojiro." Isobu said softly as his chakra created a red shroud around me and a wide, flat tail gently wrapped itself around my body. "It is not good for you to bottle up your emotions. It is okay, let it all out." Just like a dam breaking, my tears started to flow nonstop as I let out all the emotions that I had bottle up ever since leaving the Land of Water. Grief over the death of my parents, the frustration that I can't remember who killed them, and fear of nearly dying on the ship I was on. As I sobbed letting everything I held back out in the open, Isobu let his chakra act like a warm comforting hug. After what felt like hours of grieving, my sobs turned to sniveling as I began to calm down. "Do you feel better now, Kojiro?"

I nodded wiping away the remnants of my tears from my most likely red and puffy eyes I did felt better after letting everything out, like an enormous weight was lifted from my shoulders, and I was grateful that Isobu was with me giving comfort as I was reduced to a sobbing mess. "I'm fine now, thanks Isobu."

"Anytime." I got off the stump I was sitting on and continued my trek through the forest hoping to find a town or at least a path I could follow. As I got farther in the forest, my mind would wander to back to when those two people attempted to kidnap me and were talking about a clan I supposedly belong to.

'The Kurosawa Clan.' I shuddered when I remembered my encounter with my scaly lookalike in my mindscape and what it said to me about not being worthy of the Kurosawa name. 'Is that thing connected in some way?' I finally found a path and began to follow it ignoring when my bare feet would occasionally step on a rock. 'Why didn't dad tell me anything?'

"He probably wanted to wait until you were older." Isobu suggested and I nodded in agreement as it does make sense but it doesn't explain why someone would be after a member of the Kurosawa Clan.

The more I think about my supposed clan, the more I want to know about it and the only person who could tell me is now gone. The only things I know is that all members has blue hair and an affinity for water jutsu, which tells me absolutely nothing about what the clan was. I was so lost in my thoughts, I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings until my face slammed right into something.

"Ow." I backed away holding my aching nose looking up to what I walked into to see a worn out wall. "What the? What's a wall doing here?" I looked around and noticed that the wall seems to cover a large area. "Question two; what's behind this wall?"

"Perhaps we will get an answer if we find a way inside." Isobu suggested and I began to follow along the wall to see if I can find an entrance to see what was behind it.

"This wall looks really old." I muttered as I walked along the wall with my hand against it inspecting the cracks and scorch marks along it's surface. "There was probably a battle here years ago." I stopped walking when I finally found an entrance and peeked inside to see that on the other side of the wall was many destroyed houses and buildings. "A village?"

"The remains of one to be exact." Isobu said as I entered the ruined village walking by the many collapsed buildings.

"This silence is kinda creeping me out." I said nervously as I warily looked inside each ruined building I passed when I noticed something. "Hold on." I walked in the building I was currently looking in and saw that it was less ruined like the other buildings. On the wall in the back of the building was a circle and inside it was a lotus flower with a ying-yang symbol in the center. "Could this be this village's symbol?"

"It's likely." Isobu said as I got closer to the mark on the wall and when I reached out to touch it the wall seemed to have been pushed back before sliding to the side to reveal a room on the other side. "A secret room, good work finding it Kojiro."

"But, I didn't even touch it." I said in confusion looking at my outstretched hand then to the newly discovered room before walking in. The room was completely dark making it hard to see but I can still tell that it was empty inside, there wasn't even any other doors or windows. "I don't get it, why make a secret room if there's nothing in here?" As if to answer my question, when I took a step forward, the room started to shake as the center of the floor sunk and split open before a pedestal rose up with a chest that had the same lotus symbol on it. "A chest?"

"We should see what's inside, it might tell us what happened in this village." I nodded in agreement and opened the lid to see that there was a scroll inside with a red string tied around it.

I took the scroll out of the chest and untied the string before unfurling it to read what was inside. "If you are a member of the Kurosawa Clan, then I am relieved that it was you who found this scroll and no one else." My eyes widened at the mention of the Kurosawa Clan and continued reading. "This scroll holds our clan's history and most guarded secret. This secret has been passed down to the head of the clan for many generations and if it were to fall in the wrong hands could spell the end of the world as we know it." My grip on the scroll tightened when I read that part and my curiosity about my clan rose to new heights. "Many years ago, our clan's ancestors discovered that the boys born into the clan will develop a unique ability."

"A unique ability?" I could practically hear the confusion in Isobu's voice. "What unique ability could it be?"

"Hold on, let me keep reading." I said as I unfurled more of the scroll. "This ability only makes itself known when the child has reached six or seven years of age where they would experience random cases of severe headaches for unknown reasons. It was soon discovered that these headaches occur due to the awakening of our clan's kekkei genkai." My eyes widened again at the mention of a kekkei genkai and I remembered what Ao told me about possibly having one. "When the child loses consciousness, scales begin to form on their body and they become violent and ferocious attacking anything that moves." I dropped the scroll and backed away from it, afraid to read the rest when I remembered my encounter with my lookalike in my mindscape.

"Don't be scared, Kojiro." I felt Isobu's chakra flow through my body again to comfort me and my fear slowly faded away knowing that the three-tailed turtle was with me. "That thing can't hurt you or anyone anymore, you're completely safe."

After my fear was completely gone I mentally thanked Isobu before going to pick up the scroll to read the rest of what was inside. "The scales act as armor for they were harder than steel, their teeth becomes fangs that can inject a deadly poison, and they gain immense physical strength that can shatter boulders. We had no choice but to imprison them when they became too much for us to handle until we could find a way to help regain their sanity. We started to lose hope for the boys who have lost themselves to their kekkei genkai and feared that it would be the end for our clan when a member of the Uzumaki Clan stumbled upon our previous village in the Land of Water." I nearly dropped the scroll again only this time in shock when the words 'Uzumaki Clan' left my mouth. "When she have learned of our plight, she developed a kind of seal before placing them on the boys and they all slowly began to regain their senses."

I let out a sigh in relief knowing that a solution was found for my fellow clansmen and gave my thanks to whoever gave them that solution. Though I frowned when I remembered the scroll mentioning a 'previous village' in the Land of Water. 'Why did they leave the Land of Water and made a new village here?'

"Perhaps the scroll will have the answers if you keep reading." Isobu suggested and I unfurled more the scroll only to be disappointed when it came up blank. "Blank?"

"That can't be it." I muttered under my breath unfurling the scroll desperately looking for more until I couldn't anymore and fell to my knees when it truly was blank from where I stopped. "There has to be more, there just has to!" Then I remembered the chest and went to it to see if I possibly missed something that might tell me more about the Kurosawa Clan's history. I checked for a false bottom on the chest or maybe even a storage seal or two but found nothing inside that could hide another scroll. I let out a sigh of disappointment placing the chest back on the pedestal only to lift it back up and smiled when I found that the pedestal had lines on it in a rectangular shape. "Very clever."

"What's clever?" Isobu asked as I placed the chest down on the ground before placing my fingers where the smaller lines were and lifted it up to revealed that the pedestal was where another scroll was hiding. I picked up the scroll and untied the string that was tied around it and I could feel Isobu nodding his head in understanding. "Clever indeed, hiding the scroll where possible thieves would never think to look."

"Well, time to find out what happened." I said as I unfurled the scroll in read aloud. "The Uzumaki explained that the seal she used would suppress the violence and ferocity until the boys learned to control it themselves and our ancestors were forever grateful for what she did that the clan relocated to the Land of Fire to act as the Uzumaki Clan's protectors." I frowned when I noticed some splotches of red on the scroll and I had a good idea of what was written next "Alas, we failed when some of the world's nations banded together to destroy Hidden Eddy Village, believing the Uzumaki Clan was too powerful to be allowed to continue."

'I knew it.' I bit the bottom of my lip when I now knew that the red splotches was in fact blood but continued reading. "Their forces were too great for our clan, even for those of us who have mastered our kekkei genkai, and overwhelmed us. As my last act as head of the clan, I evacuated the women and children back to the Land of Water where they would be safe and went to the Hidden Eddy Village so I can at least protect the Uzumaki Clan's secrets by taking all of their fūinjutsu and hidden them where only a member of the Kurosawa Clan will be able to retrieve them."

"Could that be the secret the previous scroll mentioned?" Isobu questioned.

"Maybe." I replied rereading what I already read to make sure I didn't miss anything. "The Uzumaki Clan was both respected and feared for their skill in fūinjutsu, so it makes sense that if those skills fall in the wrong hands could mean the end of the world if used right." I shuddered at the thought of a world-wide massacre with just a single seal before shaking that thought out of my head and went back to reading the scroll. "My hope is that someone would one day put an end to all the fighting and that there will be peace."

Again the scroll was blank from there, but I knew that I won't find any more even if I tore this entire room apart if those last words were any indication. I rolled up the scroll and tied the string back in place before doing the same to the scroll I left on the ground and held them in my arms as I walked out of the hidden room leaving the building to explore the other houses in the abandoned village. As I explored the village that my clan called home, I found some clothes that were my size and in surprisingly good condition under a pile of rubble as well as a hot spring.

"Are you perhaps thinking of taking a bath Kojiro?" Isobu asked as I approached the hot spring and dipped a foot in to test the water to see it was the right temperature for me.

"Best to be clean when I get to the next town." I replied removing my hair stick and hair band and pulling out my parents' headbands from the folds of my kimono gently setting them aside as I started to take off my kimono. I slowly lowered myself into the water and let out a long, content sigh as the heat worked it's magic to warm up my body. "I almost forgot how nice a hot bath can feel."

"What are you going to do about those scrolls Kojiro?" I looked to the aforementioned scrolls contemplating what I should do with them. "They didn't disclose the location of the Uzumaki Clan's fūinjutsu was hidden, but there might be more than what meets the eye about those scrolls."

"You're probably right, Isobu." I said as I thought back to what was written in those scrolls. It's true that they didn't have the location written on them, but that's only if you look at it at face value. There might be more hidden in them that I just can't see and that was when I made my decision. "I'm going to hold on to them. They hold my clan's history and I can't even think of throwing them away." I lowered myself deeper in the water so it was up to my neck as I stared up into the sky watching how it turned a brilliant shade of orange as the sun sets. "Plus, there might be more to those scrolls that I haven't figured out yet."

"Do you think it has something to do with why the last parts were blank?" I nodded getting out of the water after I deemed myself clean and started putting on the clothes that I found which were a simple white shirt with the circle, lotus, and ying-yang symbol on the front which I think is the Kurosawa Clan's symbol, brown shorts, and a pair of sandals. "Are you sure you should wear those clothes? There's no telling what-"

"I'll be fine, Isobu." I said reassuringly folding my kimono and setting it aside knowing that I probably won't be able to wear it again because of the blood stains and tears on it. "I appreciate your concern, but I want to wear them." I looked down to lotus symbol on the shirt and placed a hand over it carefully as if my touch is all it would take to make it disappear. "I just learned that I'm part of a clan and I want to have proof of that fact, even if said proof is just a shirt that I found buried under a pile of rubble." I picked up my hair stick and hairband and began to tie my hair in its usual spiky ponytail before reaching for my parents' headbands.

"You there!" I froze at the sudden voice but didn't dare to turn around to see who it was. "What are you doing here?" When I heard the sounds of footsteps getting closer, I quickly grabbed the headbands and the scrolls and ran from the person behind me as fast as I could. "Wait!"

I ignored the person, who I think was a man from how deep their voice was, and focused on running not even looking back to see if he was coming after me. I knew he was following me when I heard his footsteps again, only this time they were getting closer much faster and that made me fear what would happen if he caught me. 'Isobu, HELP!'

"Just keep running, Kojiro!" Deciding to trust the three-tailed turtle, I kept running barely missing the steam that was seemingly coming out of my body that quickly covered the area making it difficult to see where I was going. When the sound of footsteps started to get distant, I jumped into a bush making sure to stay completely still as I tried to calm my rapidly beating heart. "Stay where you are until my mist clears, he should be gone by then."

I nodded in understanding placing a hand over my mouth and nose to prevent any sound from coming out of them. 'Why was someone there? It was just a destroyed village, there isn't anything of value there except the scrolls I have.' My eyes looked down to the aforementioned scrolls that were in my free arm with my parents' headbands and tightened my grip on them. I stayed hidden in the bushes for who knows how long contemplating what that man wanted in the destroyed village. 'Could he be looking for clues to where the Uzumaki Clan's fūinjutsu is hidden?'

"Found you!" A startled yell found its way out of my mouth when a hand tightly gripped my shoulder and I closed my eyes tightening my hold on the items in my arms when I was turned to face the man that ran after me. I was confused when he did nothing else to me but I didn't dare open my eyes or loosen my hold on the headbands and scrolls in my arms. "Open your eyes." That was clearly an order and not wanting to know what would happen to me if I refused I slowly opened my eyes looking into a pair of red eyes with three tomoe in each. "Good. Now, tell me, what was a kid like doing in that village earlier?"

I don't know why, but I felt fear well up in inside me when I look into those red eyes that I wasn't able to take in the other features of the person in front of me and wanted to be anywhere but here. He probably noticed my fear as his red eyes turned pitch black and I began to calm down enough to get a good look at the person in front of me. What got my attention was that on his forehead was the leaf headband and he looked really young, probably a teenager give or take a year or two, he had short, unkempt, dark-colored hair, obvious black eyes and a relatively broad nose and well-defined eyelashes. He was wearing a dark colored long-sleeved shirt with matching pants and a green flak jacket.

My eyes widened when I recognized who was waiting for an answer and couldn't believe it despite the proof literally looking me in the eye. 'What's he doing all the way here?! Shouldn't he be in the leaf village right now?!'

"Do you know him, Kojiro?" Isobu asked in confusion.

'I'll tell you later, Isobu.' I mentally replied before speaking out loud acting like the scared and confused child I should be. "I was told never to talk to strangers."

"Well, it is true that you shouldn't talk to strangers." The teen admitted nodding in agreement to what I said before letting go of my shoulder. "How about this, I tell you my name and you tell me yours. If we do that then we won't be strangers anymore, do you want to do that?" I eyed him suspiciously and slowly relaxed when I didn't spot any signs of deceit before nodding my head. "My name is Shisui Uchiha, and what's your name?"

Assuming he wanted my full name, I looked down to the symbol that was on my new shirt before looking back to Shisui. "Kojiro Kurosawa."

"Did you say Kurosawa?" Shisui asked raising an eyebrow looking in the direction of the village before looking back to me with his eyes lingering on my hair. "Are you perhaps a surviving member of the Kurosawa Clan?" When I nodded my head Shisui placed his hands on my shoulders again giving me this serious look that made me tense. "How old are you?"

I was confused as to why Shisui wanted to know my age, but then I remembered what I read in the scrolls about my clan's kekkei genkai. "I turned six a few days ago."

"Did you have any headaches recently?" Again I nodded when Shisui seemed to realize something and started to look around the area. "Where are your parents? They should have prevented that from happening." My hold on the scrolls and my parents' headbands tightened again and I lowered my head when I felt tears welling up in my eyes again. Shisui probably saw the blood covered headbands because he removed his hands from my shoulders. "I see, my condolences."

Even though he wasn't holding me in place anymore I didn't run because I knew it was pointless to run from 'Shisui the Teleporter' and I couldn't even if I wanted to as the grief returned stronger than ever that made me fall to my knees and sobs tore from my throat. I can feel that Isobu was concerned about me but I stopped him from letting his chakra flow through my body mentally telling him that I'm fine now but didn't lift my head to look up to the Uchiha in front of me.

"Do you live anywhere near here?" Shisui asked softly and I shook my head. "Is there anyone who can take care of you?" Again I shook my head and Shisui fell silent probably thinking on what to do about me. Shisui held out a hand to me and I finally looked up to him in confusion. "If that's the case, then why don't you come with me?"

My eyes widened in shock that he offered to take me with him even though we just met. 'Did he really say what I think he said?'

"He did." Isobu said confirming that I didn't hear the Uchiha wrong. I bit my lower lip debating what I should do. "You should accept his offer, Kojiro. We were planning to go to the leaf village anyway and with him around the chances of you getting there safely are much higher." I couldn't argue with that since it was true that my chances of survival go up by a high percentage if I go with the Uchiha waiting patiently for my answer. After further debating with Isobu, I made my decision and nodded to Shisui.

"Alright then." Shisui nodded reaching for the items in my arms but I held them closer to my body protectively and Shisui held up his hands. "Relax, I was only going to seal them in a scroll." He pulled out said scroll from his flak jacket as proof placing it down to the ground unfurling it to show that it was blank. "Those are obviously precious to you, so sealing them will make carrying them easier."

'That's true.' I mentally admitted thinking that losing any of the scrolls or headbands in my arms was out of the question. Reluctantly, I placed the items on the scroll as Shisui started weaving hand signs too fast for my eyes to keep up before slamming his hand to the ground and the scrolls and headbands vanished in a puff of smoke being replaced with inscriptions on the scroll that wasn't there before. I looked at the scroll in awe at seeing an actual sealing in person as Shisui rolled it up and ties a string around it.

Shisui seemed amused by my obvious awe as he was chuckling handing me the scroll. "Here, be sure not to lose it." I nodded taking the scroll from the Uchiha who turned his back to me and crouched down. "Hop on, it'll be faster if I carried you." Being mentally older than I looked, I was embarrassed that someone had to give me a piggyback ride. Nonetheless, I climbed onto his back and he placed his arms under my legs to make sure I didn't fall before standing up. "Ready?"

'This is so mortifying.' I thought knowing that my face was flushed with embarrassment but nodded anyway only to let out a startled yell when he suddenly jumped up to a tree and began to jump from branch to branch. I shut my eyes with one hand tightly holding onto Shisui's shoulder while the other was holding the scroll close to my body as to not lose it. After getting over my surprise, I slowly opened my eyes and was amazed as everything seem to just blur passed us and how my hair seemed to be floating behind me. 'Amazing, it's like we're flying.'

"And with training you can do this too, Kojiro." Isobu pointed out and I knew he was right. Just thinking of doing stuff like this got me even more excited to start training despite knowing the dangers that come with being a ninja.

'A little danger isn't going to scare me.' I thought looking at the back of Shisui's head remembering his and his entire clan's fate before shaking my head of that thought. 'Even if my body is that of a child, I'll do everything I can to save as many lives as possible.'

Hope you enjoyed our performance for it is now time to reply to your reviews.

Oblivious IJ: No, I haven't forgotten about the pedo, though he shouldn't be problem until the chunin exams at least. Only time will tell what the outcome of their meeting could be. Now there's an idea, I'll have to consider that as I continue to write.

Luckyshot8: While I agree with you that Kojiro should practice his chakra control now that nothing is messing with it, let's take things slow and not make him too OP right off the bat.

Blueowl: Indeed, who knows what would happen if Isobu didn't isolate the problem. I'm glad you liked the bonding time I wrote.

SilverDragon1218: Yes, their on their way to the Leaf and Kojiro now has added protection other than Isobu. It is comforting and I was more than happy to write that. If you want to know how Kojiro became Isobu's jinchuriki, then please read the first part of chapter eight to find out. They'll have to find out first and who knows how long Kojiro can keep it hidden.

oshietenaruto: The probability of that happening is very high. Yes, he knows that naruhina is canon and will most likely try to hook them up. I'll leave that to your imagination.

ryder5012: Glad to hear you thought it was good and interesting. I'll do my best with each update.

thepowerfullkira: I'll leave that to your imagination. ;)

Shinonom: I'm happy to hear that you loved it. I'll see what I can come up with about Shisui and the Uchiha's, no promises though. Yeah, there's not enough of that which I find a little unfair to Isobu. I'm happy that I made your day. Thank you for pointing that out and I'll try to slow it down a little and put in more detail. I hope that the wait was well worth it and that you'll tolerate more patience for my next update.

Waffenmia: Thank you for reminding me that I still need to think of someone to pair Kojiro with. Sakura is a maybe, but I'm not going to make any final decisions on that just yet.

jgxx01: Hope the wait was well worth it and I look forward to hearing from you again.

guest reader: Most likely not as knowing Naruto's personality wouldn't find it amazing at all. Naruto using fuinjutsu secretly is something that I'll have to think about.

sarahgri99: Glad you thought it was amazing and I hope you thought the same of this chapter. Well, I hope you can be patient a little while longer.

With that over and done with, I bid you all adieu until the next time we raise the curtain for the continuation of "A New Life in Naruto?!"