CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Uzushiogakure!

XXX

Gaara, feeling generous, decided to return as much sand to the beach as he could when he woke up from his coma. All five of them sat there, with blankets around their half-naked bodies, staring out at the ocean as the sun began to set on the horizon. Kiri police officers had allowed them to stay on the sands as they taped off the scene, collecting blood samples from where Tobi got demolished and taking down giant structures of coral that the Three-Tails had created in its fight against Gaara, Fuu, and its new jinchuuriki.

"Naruto! Gaara! Guys! There they are!" Han yelled, running out of a destroyed section of the forest, onto the sands. Yugito ran down with him.

"Oh, thank goodness you guys are okay," Yugito said, hugging the teenagers, one after the other. "When we found out you were running into a trap, we were afraid we'd get here too late."

"Yeah, we survived by sealing the Three-Tails in Hinata," Naruto said, "How did you guys know we were getting into a trap?"

"Mei told us," Yugito said, introducing the auburn-haired woman.

"Who's Mei?"

"She's the Fifth Mizukage," Han explained.

"The Mizukage?" Naruto asked, for confirmation.

"Yeah, I'm the Mizukage of this…"

Naruto decked her.

Everyone gasped. The Mizukage's two guards, Ao and Chojuro, just stared at each other in utter disbelief. No one had been stupid enough to punch the Mizukage in the face, and no one had been stupid enough to do it in front of her guards.

"Naruto? Are you insane?" Han yelled.

"You're lucky you're cute, otherwise I would've knocked the shit out…" Mei paused when she looked back at Naruto. The Uzumaki's eyes were red with tears streaming down his whiskered cheeks. She held her cheek, "What's gotten into you?"

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? Since she was three, for twelve long years Kaede suffered in your village, and you let her! You're a Kage, you're supposed to protect your villagers, no matter who they are, no matter what they do, you've been put in this position by your people because they want you to put them first and you did nothing but turn her into a weapon! You're scum, you're worse than scum, dattebayo."

"Naruto…"

"NO, I'm talking! First, you killed her parents, then you put that horrible creature in her as a child, and on top of that, you force her to carry out missions that she said she regrets to this day! You beat her to the ground, then you kicked her while she was down!"

"Naruto…"

"SHUSH! What's worse is that you put a seal on her that kills her the moment she doesn't do your bidding? Like a leash around a dog's neck that you can hang her with when you can't control her? Even the other four nations, as sick as they were, didn't do that!"

"Naruto…"

"WHAT?"

"Kaede was a weapon."

"And that's what disgusts me most about you. She was a human being, yet for twelve years you saw it fit to treat a little girl that way you treated her, dattebayo!"

"No, you misunderstand. She was a literal weapon being used against the Hidden Mist. I didn't put that seal on her, the counter-revolutionists that were on Yagura's side during the civil war, were the ones that did it. They placed that seal on her heart when she was three, trapping the Three-Tails inside of her, the only way we could extend her life was by going along with their plans until we found a way to safely remove it without killing her."

Fuu joined in on the conversation, "Kaede told us she was your personal mednin. She told us her mission was to follow you wherever you went."

Mei shrugged, "Close enough, she was like a daughter to me. I spent millions of my own ryo making sure she was safe and hiring the best medics to research her seal and how to get it off her heart. You don't understand how much it hurt me to see her in pain. You had to watch her suffer for a few days, I had to watch her suffer for years. She was just a child when that seal was placed on her, at the tender age of three, her fate had been sealed forever and she didn't even know it. I gave her everything she needed, I gave her the best apartment I could find and let her stay there for free, I gave her unlimited food, and give her free reign to do pretty much anything she wanted to do… but she said all she wanted to do was continue being a weapon for them in hopes that they'd release her from her curse. I wanted to protect her so bad that I allowed her to come with me on missions, so the villagers didn't get a chance to try anything funny while I was away."

"Then why didn't she come with you to the Land of Lightning?" Fuu wondered.

"Yoshino, the leader of the counter-revolutionists, told me that he didn't want her to leave the village this time. At first, I thought it was because he knew mednin from other villages would be there, he feared we'd find someone who could remove the seal, but now I see that he somehow caught wind of your movements and wanted to keep her here to set up a trap for you guys."

Naruto jumped back in, "If she was a counter-revolutionist weapon, then why did you continually give her missions?"

Mei shook her head, "I never gave her a single mission. Heavens, no, if it was up to me, she would've stayed in her apartment all day enjoying her life…"

"But she went to your quarters every day to receive missions, even Gaara could vouch," Naruto explained.

"Yoshino must've taken refuge at my quarters in my absence."

"Then where is this Yoshino now?" Naruto was tired of hearing that name. "Point me to him, and I'll tear his face off."

"It's too late," Neji announced, running onto the beach.

Hinata gave her older cousin a hug as he arrived on the beach with Tenten and Rock Lee. "What do you mean?" Mei Terumi wondered.

"I mean… someone got to him first. They got to him and his bodyguards," Neji explained. "We found him dead in the middle of your office. His corpse is fresh, still warm. It must've been minutes ago. His eyes were ripped from his sockets in a hurry."

"Your Kiri mednin believe someone must've been controlling him with the Sharingan, similar to the genjutsu used to control Yagura," Rock Lee said.

"The Sharingan?" Naruto asked. He knew of only three Sharingan users. Sasuke. Itachi. And that masked man he'd fought a few hours ago. With Sasuke most likely a vessel now and Itachi back in Yugakure or something, the process of elimination meant it could've only been one man. But a Sharingan powerful enough to trap a perfect jinchuuriki in a genjutsu? Who was that masked man from earlier?

Mei walked past Naruto to place her hand on Hinata's shoulder. A shiver ran down the Hyuuga's spine as she turned to stare into the older woman's green eye. "H… hello, Lady Mizukage," Hinata greeted.

"A Hyuuga? That's who they chose to seal our tailed beast in… I mean, it's never been done before, but the new age of Kirigakure is all about trying new things."

"The new age of Kirigakure?" Hinata asked.

"What's your name?"

"Hinata Hyuuga, ma'am."

"Hinata Hyuuga… my adopted daughter's legacy now exists within you. The only difference is that you have the ability to spread your wings and leave this place of your own free will. Please allow her to live vicariously through you."

"So, you don't mind us taking your tailed beast away?" Fuu asked.

"Oh no, not at all, you guys probably haven't heard or felt it since you've been dodging us for the last three years, but the attitude of the Kage towards the tailed beasts has shifted severely over the last few years. Thanks a lot, to your Hokage… and your sister," Mei said, staring at Naruto, then Gaara, "The previous stance on the tailed beast was that unless you had one, your village would fall behind to those who did have one… perhaps if none of us have jinchuuriki, it'd be better than all of us having them."

"Makes sense," Naruto noted.

"How is Temari by the way?" Gaara asked.

"Why don't you ask her yourself? I'm heading back to Kumo in a few weeks after we've cleared out all the anti-revolutionist trash… why don't you guys come with me."

"No… not yet. We still need to find a jinchuuriki paradise," Gaara said.

"We were thinking of going to Uzushio," Han said, "When you… crashed into us… we were heading that way to try and see if we could find the island. As well as the Three-Tails."

"Uzushio? That'd be nearly impossible. A barrier jutsu surrounds the village. It seems they erected it just before the last of them escaped during the village's destruction."

"As the Mizukage, I assume you know what happened to the village," Yugito said.

"Of course, it was destroyed by a coalition made up of Kumo and Kiri shinobi just before the Third Shinobi World War. You could say it was the spark that lit the match of war," Mei said.

"How did a war between Iwa and Konoha end up in the destruction of Uzushio by Kumo and Kiri?" Han asked, trying to connect the dots.

"That's war. Alliances exist and promises are made across nations. History seems to be repeating itself in front of our eyes with the Fourth Shinobi World War," Mei said.

"How so?" Han asked.

"Well, it appears the war isn't just going to be between the Five Great Shinobi Lands and the Akatsuki, but between the Five Great Shinobi Lands and the Akatsuki, plus the Land of Iron, and the Land of Sound, as well as the Land of Rain, and the Land of Grass," Mei explained.

"And how's that happened?" Yugito wondered.

"The Five Great Shinobi Lands have had way too much power for way too long, and previous regimes have abused that power to the point of destroying smaller villages, such as was experienced by the Lands of Rain and Grass during the Second and Third Shinobi World Wars, respectively… as well as Uzushiogakure, as I just mentioned," Mei let out a harsh sigh, "I hoped that I could use my powers as Kage to communicate better with the smaller countries but with the escape of the jinchuuriki and the rise of the Akatsuki… everything snowballed into what it is today. I didn't want it to come to bloodshed, but the Akatsuki have threatened my people… and I won't stand for it."

"I mean… no disrespect to the smaller countries, but don't you think you'll steamroll through them if it comes to blows?" Yugito asked.

"We will. It's stupid for the smaller countries to try and fight us end-on, which is why we're being so cautious. They wouldn't jump into declaring war if they didn't have a plan that we don't know about," Mei said, "Which is why we were about to turn to you guys."

"Turn to us?"

"I don't want to say too much, but don't be surprised when a few treaties and agreements end up on your table," Mei said. "We need to iron out some egos, but it's better to overcommit and not need people, than to under commit and lose thousands of shinobi."

Han chuckled, "Thanks for the heads-up, we'll have your hospitality in mind when those treaties and agreements show up on our doorstep, but for now, we really should get going."

"Oh yeah, I'll have Tatsumaki, here, find you guys a boat to replace the one we destroyed," Mei said.

"Oi, Naruto, you still want to go check out the body before you leave?" Neji asked.

"Body?" Naruto titled his head.

"Yoshino's body? It's still in the Mizukage's office. The Kiri Crime Scene Investigation team are still there, but I'm sure they'll at least let you see the body."

Mei spoke up, "Yeah, I think we should all go. Kaede's death marks the end of a sad chapter in Kiri's history, but at least we can celebrate it with the death of a scumbag."

XXX

The mood switched from celebratory to disgusted as soon as the door swung open, and Naruto got a good look at the crime scene. He stood there slack-jawed as he laid his eyes on the dead body in the centre of the room. His eyes wandered to the wall, then the desk, then the corner of the room, and even the ceiling.

"Don't step beyond the yellow tape please," someone said from within the room.

"Holy shit," Fuu remarked as she entered the room last. "Boy, would I not want to be a crime scene clean-up crew right now."

Naruto's stomach churned as he looked around the room one last time. "How many people are… in the mess?"

An investigator in a full-body white hazmat suit looked back over his shoulder to answer, "Our estimates are about seven people."

"Estimates?" Naruto said.

"Yeah, we've found six pairs of arms, but we've also found seven pairs of feet and shoes, so we're looking at, at least, seven people, perhaps more, but we're not sure."

Mei stared at the centre of the room. Yoshino's body was the only one still intact. His body was perfectly preserved in the middle of the room in a plain white robe. His hands were laid on his chest, right hand over his left, with a red towel under his head and a white blindfold over his eyes. "What happened to these people?"

"Yoshino here was stabbed through the neck, then rested on the floor. We believe he was the last to die since there are guts, blood, and brain matter under his body."

"And the others?"

"We couldn't tell you yet, there are burn marks, slashes, gashes, bruising, there's water in their lungs, chunks of wood in their torsos that's splintered and punctured different organs… whoever killed these people either really wanted them dead or was using their bodies to release a lot of pent-up anger," the man stood up, "Who do you think it could've been, Lady Mizukage?"

"I don't think it could've been anyway, I know it was an Akatsuki member. There must be an Uchiha Akatsuki member that we don't know about," Mei Terumi reasoned. She scratched her chin a couple of times before thinking aloud, "It wouldn't surprise me if Orochimaru and Sasuke allied themselves with the Akatsuki just before the war."

"Sasuke?" Naruto turned sharply, "You're telling me Sasuke's alive?"

Mei's brow furrowed, "Of course, he's alive. He's one of Orochimaru's strongest test subjects, why wouldn't he… are you crying?"

"Huh?" Naruto looked down at his hands.

A single teardrop fell onto his palm.

He was.

He looked back up at Mei before wiping away his tears with his sleeve. "I guess I am… it's just… I never thought I'd hear that name again."

Tatsumaki knocked on the Mizukage's door. She bowed before stating, "We have a suitably-sized boat ready."

Han sighed, "If that's the case, then it's best we get out of here. Save your tears for another day, Naruto, because our next stop is Uzushiogakure."

XXX

For the third time that week, Han was back at the helm of a boat, but at least this time rather than a slow rowboat, he was at the helm of a family-sized bowrider boat that cut through the water much better than any oar-powered dinghy. Yugito was seated next to him reading a map of the Land of Water's seas to try and navigate the group through the still ocean. Gaara was seated in the front of the ship with Fuu and Hotaru. They sat there under the blanket of the heavens trying to identify constellations. When they failed, they switched up the game and tried to make their own constellations, connecting the dots between stars to make their own animals and objects from oxen to bears to blobs and blobs with tails.

Naruto, on the other hand, sat near the back of the boat staring into the ocean at the reflection of the night sky below. Hinata joined him.

"How does it feel?" Hinata asked. Naruto looked back at her with a confused expression on his face, "… to go back to Uzushio after so long?"

"I mean… I've never been there to begin with."

"Yeah, but this is your ancestral home. This is where your parents were probably from. Every Uzumaki in the world can trace their roots to this island and you're going to be the first person to step foot on it since it was destroyed," Hinata said, trying to cheer him up, but he wasn't budging. She knelt down to his level, "Are you still stuck on Kaede?"

Naruto looked back down at the ocean, "No… well, yeah, kinda. I'm just lost in thought at the moment. A lot of things have happened in the last 24 hours from Kaede, to that Akatsuki member with the Sharingan, to finding out that Sasuke was alive."

"But that should be cause for celebration. If Sasuke's alive then there's still a chance you can bring him back to the light."

"Yeah, but I've been trying to communicate with the Fox to see if I can take Sasuke off the bargaining table and replace him with the Akatsuki."

"Oh yeah… I forgot that he said he won't lend you any of his power until you kill Sasuke…"

Naruto tried to shift his frown into a smile, "What about you? How does being a new jinchuuriki feel?" he asked, wrapping his arm around her neck, and bringing her closer.

Hinata giggled, "It's exhausting."

"Yeah, being a jinchuuriki is full of extremes. When you're full of energy, you'll be jumping through the roof, but when you're tired, you'll be exhausted. It's a world of high highs and low lows," Naruto chuckled, "But hopefully, your tailed beast will be much nicer than mine. Maybe, he'll understand that you really need him, now more than ever."

"Yep. Maybe, I'll become a perfect jinchuuriki before you do," Hinata teased. They sat there, staring at the ripples being created in the bowrider's wake as it gently cut through the waters. "What is it like?"

"What's what like?"

"Being a jinchuuriki? The transforming? All of it?"

Naruto thought about it for a minute as the fog rolled in, "It's painful… and yet, painless, at the exact same time. It feels like a million needles between your skin and your muscles, but when you lose control and enter auto-pilot… you're floating in a void of emptiness."

"We're entering Uzushio waters," Yugito announced, which explained the sudden fog.

"Lady Mizukage said we'd be greeted by fog and waves that'll try to turn us back, so be prepared for whatever happens," Han warned.

Naruto and Hinata joined the other three at the front of the boat in preparation.

.

.

.

A purple chain shot out through the mist.

It got Naruto straight in the heart.

"AHH!" he was the first to scream. He gripped the chain and rose to his feet.

"Wait! Wait!" Fuu tried to calm everyone down. She hovered her hand over the glowing chain and ran her chakra down the metallic structure. "It's the barrier jutsu. It must've locked onto since you're the only Uzumaki," she noted.

Hinata activated her Byakugan.

"Whoa…" she remarked as the boat slowed, "There's a huge dome covered in seals just in front of us… and I mean, a lot of seals. They're stacked, one on top of the other," Hinata said before reaching out. The dome cracked open slightly. "Continue forward," she commanded.

"Are you sure?" Han asked. He couldn't see anything in front of him. The fog was too thick. All he knew was that something had reached through it to stab Naruto, but the Uzumaki looked fine to him. He was a bit panicked, but otherwise all right.

"Yeah… I'm sure," Hinata said.

Han continued forth. They cut through the mist for a few more seconds.

The chain went taut.

"Shit!"

Naruto was yanked forward. Chakra rushed to his soles. He held firm.

The whole boat shook.

It was boat vs chain.

Boat lost.

All of them were pulled deeper into the mist. So deep that finally, the mist disappeared. They crashed onto rocks, forcing Naruto to let go and fly off.

"Naruto!" their voices faded as he soared through the air, hands gone white, still wrapped around this chain for dear life.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" cloud after cloud exploded behind the Uzumaki. One Naruto grabbed onto the other, which grabbed onto the next, which grabbed the real one and held on. They formed a pyramid. The ones at the bottom digging their heels into the dirt only to get dispelled after crashing into a tree or a rock or a piece of debris. "Ahh!" Naruto screamed as he broke through a brick wall, slamming onto the floor and rolling around a few times before coming to a halt.

"This isn't the type of welcome I expected," Naruto said, his voice echoing up and down the hallway. "Where am I?" he asked, looking up. He was in a large hallway lined with huge mossy blocks of stone. They were inscribed with text and images. He looked up at the ceiling to see that same stone over his head with vines running along the roof. He looked around and saw nothing but darkness. Some lanterns lined the walls, but it looked like they hadn't been lit for years. He looked down at the floor.

His chain had come loose.

He picked it up and followed it down a set of stairs. His shoes tapping against the dusty stone flooring echoed as he walked. The stone stairway spiralled around into the darkest parts of the building. He continued to follow the chain until there was nowhere else to follow it. He reached the basement.

He was greeted by the sight of four skeletons dressed in light grey flak jackets with spiral headbands hanging loosely from their skulls. Their hands were locked in some strange stone device with a purple orb at its top. The orb was shooting some wispy purple beam into the heavens through a hole in the ceiling that continued up through every floor and out into the night sky. This was where the chain was coming from.

"Is this the barrier jutsu that Fuu was talking about?" Naruto asked, looking up at the sky. There were four different inscriptions over each person's trapped hand.

'Mist'

'Waves'

'Genjutsu'

'Barrier'

And on the orb.

'For the Land of Eddies and Those Who Bear Its Insignia, We Stand Tall Forever'

He placed his hand on the orb. "Are these guys some sort of… Uzushio guardians or something?" he wondered. "If so… I'm allowing you guys to rest. Uzushio is in safe hands now," he said, removing the waves hand.

He removed the mist hand. As the name suggested, the thick mist surrounding the village went down, flooding the village with moonlight.

He removed the barrier hand next. The purple column of chakra dissipated instantly and so did the chakra chain.

Lastly, Naruto removed the genjutsu hand next.

A flash of light. The lanterns along the basement's walls lit up for the first time in years. The vines disappeared as the basement seemed to breathe once more.

Naruto made his way up the stairs to see the dilapidated, old structure replaced by a new, fresh castle. Whatever Naruto had done de-aged the building by a couple of decades, bringing it back to what it looked like before the invasion presumably.

He walked up the same hallway he'd walked down a few seconds away, but this time the lanterns were lit, and a red carpet lined with golden frills lay under his feet as he walked. Tables with half-empty cups of wine sat on either side of the hallway. He opened different doors expecting the smell of stale air and gone-off food, but everything still looked fresh. It'd been more than 30 years since someone stepped foot on this island, yet he wouldn't have been surprised if someone told him the villagers were hiding in some other part of the castle.

"It must've been some kind of Vacuum Seal," Fuu's voice scared the Uzumaki.

"How did you get here?"

"Hinata tracked you with her Byakugan," Fuu noted.

"We're lucky we had her, even my sense of smell and hearing couldn't cut through the thick mist," Yugito said.

"I'm amazed though. The Vacuum Seal is such a simple technique. It's the jutsu I used to use to seal things like toothbrushes and towels into my scroll. It traps the object in a little space-time bubble where there's no air, so things don't rot but people do… but to do it on such a massive scale as to seal away a whole village. The Uzumaki clan truly were the best in the world at sealing techniques. Those fuckers wrote the book, we're just reading it."

"That would explain all the bodies outside," Han said.

"The bodies?"

"Yeah, tons of them, with old Kumo and Kiri shinobi gear. They really dated themselves," Hotaru noted.

"This place is massive," Han remarked, "Not just the castle, but the hill that it sits on, the village below. A large portion of it is destroyed but if rebuilt, we could house like tens of thousands of villagers."

"Really? I need to get out there and see it then," Naruto replied.

"But first, you guys are going to want to see this," Gaara said, popping his head into the hall, "Hinata and I found something you really have to see." The usually monotonous tanuki sounded oddly excited for once. It was unusual to hear so much pitch and emotion in his voice, so they followed him down the hall and the stairway.

They went about four levels down until Hinata turned right and pushed open a heavy stone door. As they pushed it open, huge volumes of clean, cold air rushed out. The stone swung open on some hinges to reveal another massive room, more massive than any room Naruto had ever seen before.

"What is this place?" Naruto asked. His voice echoing outwards.

"We weren't too sure ourselves. Hinata said there was a lot of chakra flowing around in the room, so she didn't want to open it in case there was another barrier placed over it," Gaara said.

Naruto looked across to the wall opposite him. He could make out the carvings on the walls thanks to the lanterns lighting it up. It was the Rinnegan. But it wasn't like the one Pain had. This one had three tomoe on each ring, with rays of light escaping it. To the wall on his left, there was another eye, this time larger. It was the same Rinnegan-Sharingan mix, but with a yin-yang symbol where the pupil was supposed to be. To his right, looming over him, was a carving of a huge black creature with the Rinnegan-Sharingan mix as its sole eye.

Naruto walked into the centre of the room.

"What is this place?" he looked down. Rings lined the floor. He was standing in the centremost circle. The second circle had another six tomoe carved into the flooring.

"We're here…"

"Fox? Did you say something?"

"We're really back?"

"I just realised… I haven't named any of you…"

"Fox? I don't know what you're talking about," Naruto said. "What the fuck?" the Uzumaki looked up. Suddenly, he was surrounded by the tailed beast. But they were younger. So much younger. Only standing at a measly 10 metres rather than their usual 100.

"I don't have much longer to live… Shukaku, Matatabi, Isobu, Son Goku, Kokuo, Saiken, Choumei, Gyuki… Kurama. Even if you are far apart…"

"… we will always be together…" Kurama's voice cracked.

"… And one day. You will all become one."

"This is where my father, the Sage of Six Paths, used the Creation of All Things Jutsu to turn fantasy into reality. Separating the Ten-Tails into nine tailed beasts. This is my birthplace, Naruto…"

"The Creation of All Things Jutsu?" Naruto remarked.

"Wow… we're standing in a place of untold history," Han noted.

"You got that right," Yugito said.

"What?"

"I said you got that right."

"… I didn't say anything," Han replied.

"You definitely said something. We all heard you," Naruto said.

"I didn't hear anything," Hotaru jumped in.

"… I heard it," Fuu added.

"Yeah, I heard it too," Hinata said.

The room fell into silence.

"Can you guys hear me right now?" Naruto asked.

"Loud and clear," Yugito replied.

"… Holy shit, you can hear my thoughts," Naruto's eyes widened. Yugito's did the same when she just heard Naruto's voice without seeing his mouth move.

"What is going on?" Hotaru wondered, seeing the moment of realisation hit everyone's face.

"Can't you hear that?" Naruto thought. Hotaru just looked at him.

"It must be some sort of tailed beast link," Fuu thought.

"Don't think anything inappropriate. Don't think anything inappropriate," Gaara's thoughts echoed around the room.

"Yeah, I think we should leave and return to this room later," Naruto said, with his mouth, so everyone could hear him.

They'd found the birthplace of the nine tailed beasts, meaning odds are, they'd found the final resting place of the Sage of Six Paths since it was believed he'd died shortly after his tailed beast was extracted. This place was a gold mine for knowledge and secret techniques. Who knew what else they could discover while here? All the ninjutsu, sealing techniques, secrets, and other treasures hidden around every corner.

Naruto told Yugito to get her 'spies' ready.

"I need you to find every Uzumaki, whether they're a first-generation Uzumaki or an Uzumaki thanks to a single drop in their blood. Find them and tell them that Uzushio's back. Their home is back. We've got a lot of rebuilding to do and we're going to need as many hands as possible," he told the blonde kunoichi as he exited the castle to get his first glimpse of the destroyed village.

It would take months of work to get the village running again, but for the first time in a long time, they had freedom.

Freedom and a dream.