Chapter 6: Uzu
Naruto was leaning on the rail at the side of the boat, just gazing at the sun setting beneath the ocean. Jiraiya walked up to the boy and knelt down on his knee beside him. "Hey gaki, what's on your mind?"
Naruto sighed, "I just don't get it. Why do people hurt others so much?"
Jiraiya opened his mouth to start speaking but shut it moments later. He was surprised at such a mature question coming from the five-year-old.
Naruto continued, "That Kumo man, wanted to take Hinata and do bad things to her, the Uchiha that tried to take me, the shinobi who wouldn't just leave Kurama be. And then there's Uzu, three whole villages came to destroy one. You said the people of Uzu never even fought in the wars, people were just afraid of their power. Why do they do it?"
Jiraiya was stunned, not having expected such a heavy question from Naruto. "Naruto, the world we live in is stuck in a cycle of vengeance and hatred. Someone wronged someone else, so that person wants to harm them. And their loved ones want to harm the ones who harmed their own. People spiral, doing things they otherwise never would in order to gain power to keep the cycle going."
Naruto looked up to Jiraiya, "so how does it all end?"
"I wish I knew, gaki. I've been trying to think of how to do just that for many years now. But if I ever figure it out, I'll let you know. It's a good thing to reflect on, but you can't let it live in your mind. Now come on, it's time for bed, we should arrive in the morning.
The following morning the boat was headed toward a land mass, surrounded by large whirlpools. Having been to Uzu before, Jiraiya was able to help the captain navigate through them to land safely on the island.
"Alright, you got three days and we're leaving," the captain said to Jiraiya in his gruff voice.
Jiraiya and Naruto set off for the main village, which would take about a half day to arrive at. "The village should be just over this hill," Jiraiya said to Naruto as the two walked the last bit of a steep hill.
Arriving at the top of the hill, Naruto's mouth fell open, "beautiful," he said. Looking out, was a village now in ruin made of stone and wood. The village was largely taken over by lush greenery from the island's tropical flora. From their elevated view, they could see that the ruins created a giant spiral, with a tower in the center. The tower, given the state of the rest of the village, was in surprisingly good condition.
The two walked down the other side of the hill and entered the ruin village. Everywhere one looked they would find the remains of a building, seals carved right into the walls, and much to Naruto's dismay, skeletal remains of shinobi from many different villages and surely civilians of Uzu.
"We'll set up camp here and do some exploring before calling it a night. We'll focus on the outer portion of the spiral tomorrow, and the tower on the last day." Jiraiya said to Naruto as they walked into a relatively still put together building.
The first day, the pair didn't find much shinobi related materials. Mainly, Naruto just asked Jiraiya to seal up the handful of books and artwork that were somewhat still usable.
The second day was more fruitful, as they had found what used to be the shinobi district. Some things were preserved through the use of seals, some of which were able to be released with a drop of Naruto's blood. These were of course seals that were lower end and only meant to keep outsiders from accessing. There were some jutsu scrolls, some weapons, Fuinjutsu materials, and even some messages that were sealed away, the authors having penned them in their last moments before rushing out to war.
Some of the messages were just the last-minute thoughts of a ninja who knew he or she was about to die. Some were messages to family, hoping that maybe their spouse or children might someday find them. Naruto made sure to comb every structure hoping to find all of the messages he could. He felt as if it were his familial duty.
The third day was the day that would change the course of Naruto's life and shake the shinobi world.
It was the last day for the pair to explore the Uzu ruins. They were standing before the tower in the center of the village, staring up at a massive set of doors with intricate seals carved throughout them. After spending some time studying the doors, Jiraiya had Naruto put a drop of blood at a spot near the center and place his palms on two different spots, one on each door. Once Naruto's hands touch the spots, he was surrounded by a blue aura and four chains shot from his back, two striking into each door. As Naruto took a step back, the doors cracked open, seeing this, he glanced at Jiraiya who gave him a nod, he then continued stepping backwards until the doors were open enough for the two to step inside.
The pair stepped into a large open, circular room, with a spiral staircase running along the outside edge. Looking up, there were five floors with a few doors on each floor. With there being nothing on the first floor, Jiraiya and Naruto began to climb the stairs. On the first floor, Jiraiya hit the lottery, he found scrolls from the Uzu academy, he knew the information in the scrolls would be invaluable for Naruto's training. On the other floors, they found more Fuinjutsu supplies and other jutsu scrolls.
A few hours after stepping into the tower, they arrived at an ornate door on the fifth floor of the tower. Naruto opened the door the same way as he opened the tower door, a drop of blood and his chakra chains. Stepping into the office, the first thing that caught the two's eyes was a large beautiful wooden desk with four scrolls sitting on it, and one large scroll, as long as Naruto was tall, hanging on the wall behind it.
Taking a look around, they saw two portraits on the wall to the left, the first was of a man with long red and gray hair, there wasn't anything in particular about the man that stood out, but he seemed to exude a regalness through the portrait. The plaque beneath the portrait identified the man as Arashi Uzumaki, Shodai Uzukage. The second man was similar, but his hair was completely gray and he had a long beard and mustache that trailed down half the length of the beard on either end. The plaque beneath his visage identified him as Ashina Uzumaki, Nidaime Uzukage.
Stepping around the desk, the two examined the scrolls, the first one appeared to be a history of Uzu, the second contained various Fuinjutsu supplies of such fine quality that even Jiraiya had never seen their equal. The third was just a letter, Naruto opened it with another drop of blood and the two read:
My name is Ashina Uzumaki, the Nidaime, and perhaps the last, Uzukage of Uzu. As I write this, my friends and family are fighting to the death against the combined forces of Kiri, Kumo, and Iwa. I fear this will be the end of Uzu, but it will not be the end of the Uzumaki. The fact that you are reading this means you are one of my decedents, meaning my precious granddaughter, Kushina, has managed to escape to safety.
The first two scrolls you found contain the history of Uzu and the Uzumaki and our finest Fuinjutsu brushes, inks, and methods for producing the ink. The next scroll other than this one, is the summoning contract scroll for the Uzumaki clan summons, the dragon clan. The only dragon that can approve a new summoner is the head of the dragon clan, so the contract will only open once you are able to channel enough chakra into the locking seal to summon him.
Last, and most importantly, the large scroll hanging behind the desk, is the inheritance of the Uzumaki. Since I don't know how long it will be before you read this, and how much of the Uzumaki knowledge has been lost to the world, I have created a seal based on the Uzumaki clone jutsu, the Shadow Clone, but instead of gaining the experience of a clone when it dispels, when you activate the seal, you will gain my lifetime of experience to ensure the continuation of the Uzumaki. If you are not alone, you must not let anyone else activate this seal, if any non-Uzumaki chakra and blood touch it, it will active an explosive seal tied into the entire spiral of the village.
While Uzu will fall, the Uzumaki will endure. Uzu has never been about the land, but rather family. If you can bring together whatever remains of the Uzumaki, it will give this old man some peace in the afterlife.
Live well. Signed, Ashina Uzumaki.
Knowing how the shadow clone jutsu works, Jiraiya's eyes widened. Could it be possible? Jiraiya thought to himself. He knew that when a clone dispelled, the original would gain the clone's experiences. Presumably, since the two shared experiences up to the point of creation, the previous experiences either didn't transfer, or simply were able to assimilate seamlessly since they already existed in the original. But if the previous experiences were different, would those experiences transfer?
Thinking about it, Jiraiya thought it made sense. Afterall, if a clone learned something it wanted to communicate to the original, it could make another clone and dispel it. Despite being created after the primary clone learned the item of interest, the original would still learn of it. Jiraiya thought the seal must somehow seal a clone or the chakra of a clone and when an Uzumaki channels chakra into it, the seal must somehow tag the stored chakra with the new chakra so that the experiences would go to the Uzumaki activating the seal. It was pure genius. At that moment, Jiraiya could understand a little better just how terrifying the Uzumaki were. Not only was there skill in fuinjutsu without equal, but such a seal demonstrated a command of chakra theory that was down right terrifying.
After some internal debate, Jiraiya decided he had to allow Naruto to use the seal. He knew that it would be a lot of stress on Naruto, but between his Uzumaki vitality and the cooperative Kurama, Naruto would be okay. And the alternative would be to lose the inheritance of the Uzumaki, Naruto's birthright. He took the large scroll from the wall and laid it on the desk. Jiraiya then took a moment to seal the other contents of the office before having Naruto step up to activate it.
Once again, Naruto pricked his thumb and placed a drop of blood in the center of the locking seal of a scroll, this time, the large Uzumaki inheritance scroll. He glanced nervously at Jiraiya, who gave him an encouraging nod. Naruto took a deep breath and channeled his chakra into the seal. The large scroll unrolled itself revealing the most intricate seal Jiraiya had ever seen, once Naruto's chakra stopped flowing into it, everything stilled for a moment. Then, suddenly the lines on the scroll shot up Naruto's arms and spread across his body like a tattoo, they glowed the same golden color as his chakra chains would then fade into nothing.
"Ahhhgggrrahh!" Naruto let out a pained scream. He then looked over to Jiraiya, a glassy look in his eyes, a line of blood trailed from his nose, and he fell forward, unconscious.
Jiraiya caught the boy before his face could slam on the floor, having expected the memory feedback would render the boy unconscious.
Having picked the entire village clean and having already packed up before going to the tower, Jiraiya picked up the young boy and headed off to meet up with the boat, and to head back home to Konoha.