Ch. 40

Into the Future

Hiruzen was staring at the clock on the wall as he tapped his desk impatiently, tense with anticipation as Shikaku yawned from his place on the Hokage's couch. Moriko had been gone two weeks now with her bodyguards and team seven.

The chunin exams would be starting in three weeks from now. She was due to arrive at any minute by now. The clock clicked, indicating it was 2 pm and a group of three people appeared, Moriko bouncing in place with excitement as Ryusuke smiled tiredly, Itachi looking calm and collected. The Anbu in the rafters twitched but remained calm, having expected their arrival. Shikaku smirked, seeing the excited way the young woman was bouncing.

"Hokage-sama!" she greeted as Hiruzen relaxed with a sigh of relief, returning her wide grin with one of his own.

"Welcome back you three. I take it your trip went well?" he asked as she bounced on her heels excitedly.

"Yes. We dropped off the kids half an hour ago, they got a lot of good training in. I also managed to finish the last seal! I just need to teach it to Jiraiya, but we can start applying it to the ninja forces right now if you like. I'm going to set the homing seal to the office for now and we can do a few test runs to ensure the seal is perfect," she said as Hiruzen nodded. He signed to his Anbu to retrieve some of the prisoners to the village and one of the Anbu departed to get their human trials. He signed for Tsunade and her apprentice to be brought as well, another leaving to find the two women.

The young woman's hands sped through a line of hand seals before she slammed her hand on the ground, a seal covering the floor before condensing down into a classic Uzumaki Spiral. While it was partly symbolic, a nod to her adopted clan, it was also because the shape of the spiral was excellent at directing charka in the seal.

Jiraiya entered the office a minute later, the young woman and her teacher taking the time to catch up as Ryusuke and Itachi quietly briefed the Hokage on their time out of the village, despite having written updates to the village leader nearly every other night while gone. Shikaku drifted over to listen to their briefing quietly. Soon the Anbu returned with a small entourage of Anbu and prisoners, and a minute later Tsunade and Shizune arrived.

"What's going on?" Tsunade grumped with crossed arms, eyeing the crowd that filled the office. Moriko sent her teacher a questioning look and he nodded as Hiruzen began to explain the situation to Tsunade.

The Uzumaki made two hand seals before touching the prisoner before her on the chest as she placed the new medical stasis seal. The man grunted in surprise, his brow beaded with nervous sweat. Moriko's hair flashed out at deadly speed and the man disappeared. There was a thump as a body appeared behind her on the seal.

Tsunade made a startled noise before cursing as the blonde took in the frozen man on the ground that was covered in a green barrier that conformed to his body, even the cut that went through his neck. She cursed and knelt to inspect him, thankful she couldn't see the color of his blood. While she examined him, more prisoners appeared on the floor with deadly wounds and were stuck in the medical stasis seal. Tsunade cursed and got to work, along with Shizune and Moriko in examining the prisoners.

It appeared that the seal had triggered before there could be damage done to the carotid artery, saving the man from lethal damage. As she examined the wounds of the prisoners, she found that the seal had triggered in cases where the wounds would have been fatal, or if a certain amount of the person's internal cavity was exposed such as with disembowelment. With the prisoners fully healed the seal released them from their stasis and they were rounded up for another round of testing.

"That was to examine different forms of lethal damage. This will be to examine superficial damage, that can lead to life-threatening damage," said Moriko as she pulled the first prisoner forward, the man struggling. She tsked in annoyance before touching him with a second type of seal and stabbing his arm. He blinked in shock for a moment.

"Why doesn't it hurt?" he demanded as he gaped at blood gushing from his arm. Tsunade had thankfully gotten her genjutsu up in time not to see the blood, though she was glaring at the young woman's back. Moriko sent him a wry smirk as her hands glowed green to monitor his condition.

"I'm not a monster. If there is no need for you to be in pain for us to see if this experiment is going to work or not, then there's no point. Also there's no need to kill you., so you can all relax. I don't go to human testing until I'm fairly certain that the seal is going to work the way it's supposed to," she said causing him to relax slightly as tension leached out of his frame. Her eyes narrowed as he began swaying, blood still gushing. A moment later he disappeared only to reappear in the green barrier that acted like a second skin. Shizune, spotting Tsunade's annoyance bent to scrutinize the man.

"He's lost just enough blood that his heart should have stopped, but everything else in his body is fine. With a transfusion, he'll be fine," she offered as the young woman nodded, moving to the next prisoner.

"This next test will be painful but brief," she warned the man making his eyes widen in alarm. She slapped him with a seal, and he began to scream as lightning from the seal began electrocuting him. It continued for a minute until he reappeared in stasis and Moriko checked him over before removing the seal.

"So, if our ninjas are captured and being tortured, the seal should kick in. Good," she muttered before going to the next prisoner who was sweating bullets. She placed a seal on the man, and he relaxed, seeing it as the pain-canceling seal. She pricked him with a senbon loaded with poison and waited. A minute later he reappeared on the floor glowing green under stasis. Shizune examined him swiftly.

"He has a lethal dose of poison in his system, but it's localized. I can extract it," she said before doing so. As she worked the young woman ran through a few more tests to ensure that the seal wouldn't trigger prematurely without good cause.

The seal also worked even if there was a chakra suppression area or chakra suppression seals.

"I'm not sure I would be ok being frozen in a seal until someone else could release me," Shizune murmured to Tsunade with a meaningful look. The slug sannin crossed her arms looking intimidating.

"Oi, are there any safety precautions for the ninjas that are trapped in the seal against line theft or sexual assault?" she demanded making the young woman blink in surprise at the sudden question. Her expression turned darkly mischievous.

"Of course. No man or woman should ever question whether they were taken advantage of while under the seal. In fact, I cooked up something especially nasty for anyone that tries," she said with a gleeful chirp, looking pleased with herself. The sadistic smile on her face had the men and women of the room breathing a sigh of relief.

Men and women from their village had been captured and bred by the enemy for the sole purpose of their strong bloodlines. There had even been a couple of cases where a hospital worker had used medical ninjutsu to remove genetic reproductive materials and had sold them to countries like Kumo or Iwa for a King's random. It had been a whole debacle a couple of generations ago that had led to tighter medical procedures. Not that Konoha would turn up their nose to purchasing genetic materials from the other nations themselves.

The Uzumaki took input from the Hokage, Tsunade, and Jiraiya on what areas to alter the seal and if the seal should return ninjas with amputations right away or not. Next Moriko tested the highest speeds that the seal registered damage being made at and made adjustments so that if the damage was occurring at millisecond speed the seal would trigger right away and whisk the ninja away before they could be obliterated to dust or paste.

Done with those adjustments they went through another round of testing before the prisoners were returned to their cells, their memories of the testing sealed. Shikaku frowned down at the anchor seal on the floor.

"If other nations realize that we're using seals like this on all our forces... this could start the Forth shinobi war," he said to himself but everyone close enough heard him and a sudden silence descended on the office. It was quiet for a moment before Moriko straightened, mind already churning from him pointing out the obvious.

"You're right. Hold on," she said as she eyed her teacher thoughtfully before grinning widely.

"Looks like we have another seal to craft Sensei," she chirped cheerfully as her teacher sighed.

"What are you thinking?" he asked as he seated himself on the couch and pulled out a large pad of paper he had taken to carrying with him.

"When the medical seal triggers, another seal triggers at the same time, placing a genjutsu seal in the ground under where the person was standing to hide the seal. The genjutsu makes it look like they used a substitution with either a log, or piece of rock, or it looks like the popping of a clone. I'll also need to craft the genjutsu where you can't see the seal if it was exposed. For wide-area attacks, there's no need to hide their presence since one would asume the person to be obliterated.

If there is a seal placed, maybe the genjutsu seal alerts close by Konoha forces and uses the illusion of the 'hurt' ninja to lead the opponent into an ambush where our ninjas are waiting. The genjutsu seals are made to run out and dissipate quickly to keep them from being studied, so we'll need to make sure the range of the illusion and the amount of chakra line up," she said musingly as Shikaku and Itachi drifted over and began discussing logistics, adding things to the illusions that might make a target more temping to the enemy ninja to lure them after the decoy.

Hiruzen listened to them chat from his desk as he motioned for one of the Anbu. The man landed in a crouch before accepting the scroll that held in it funds to get the entire group dinner, while doubling as an easy form of transport, being a storage seal that could transport food. The Anbu departed to get the group an early dinner.

Tsunade and Shizune stuck around to listen in, the Senju's face unreadable as her apprentice's eyes would widen in surprise every so often, the younger woman not knowing much about the capabilities of seals. With the help of Itachi, Moriko and Jiraiya had a working seal far faster than normal since the Sharingan allowed for instant recall.

Moriko was beaming happily at the young man as he grinned back, pleased he had managed to impress the sealing master and learn a few new things today. It was late evening and the group was pleased with their hard work. Hiruzen finished his paperwork listening to the sound of happy chatter as the group snacked on leftovers. He smiled contentedly as he finished filing the reports. They had accomplished so much in such a short time.

And yet... would it be enough, he asked himself quietly. Shikaku's words from earlier had shaken him, not having expected that. Perhaps he should have, he noted as he watched the chatting group. Konoha had two, maybe three of the best sealing masters in the world, two of the best healers, Tsunade and Shizune, two of the most powerful eye doujutsu, and many powerful clans. All of them were a threat to another nation's power. If that group currently eating leftovers and chatting ever decided to end a nation, they probably could.

With the testing out of the way and a few minor changes to the two seals made they finished up their last round of testing and signed off on the finished seals. Moriko removed the anchor seal from the Hokage's office and sent a clone to place it in the hospital atrium that had been specifically created for the anchor seal. It room would alert the medical staff of the arrival of the injured, and if there was a large enough amount of injured showing up, the room alarms would start going off. She, Jiraiya, and Itachi gave the finished seals to everyone in the room, from the Hokage to the Anbu.

"We will need to test the seal and then give it to the rest of the ninja forces," said Hiruzen as Moriko nodded.

"I can be the first test subject," she offered. Before anyone could speak, Ryusuke was already cutting in.

"No can do, princess. Let your bodyguard do this," he said with a grin as he pulled a kunai, hand already a blur. She yelped as he stabbed his chest and he disappeared.

A moment later she breathed out in relief as her clone finished healing Ryusuke at the hospital and had dispelled itself after it had finished so she would know. He was already heading back to the Hokage's office.

"Worked just fine," came his voice from the window as he entered that way as Moriko rushed over to check him, Shizune doing the same as Tsunade shot the young man an unimpressed look.

"We should also do clan members and academy students as well; anyone close to the ninja population really to lower casualties," Shikaku pointed out, and the group hummed in agreement as the two young women continued fussing over the Nara. Ryusuke only seemed to have eyes for one of them though, Shikaku noted to himself as the Uzumaki continued fussing, not noticing the soft look directed her way. Shikaku heard a huff and spotted Tsunade watching the two with annoyance before looking away.

"That won't last long," she muttered before heading over to sit on the couch. Shikaku frowned deeply, concerned at the medic's words before his attention was drawn to the Uchiha in the room. Itachi didn't look pleased but he had controlled his expression, Shikaku noted. Good. Now wasn't the time or place for that.

There was still a lot more they had to do before the growing deadline but they were almost there.

...

Zabuza grit his teeth as he worked on the paperwork before him. Despite Mei being stronger, Zabuza now understood why the redhead had let him take the position of Kage. As he worked, the chatter or talking started picking up in volume as the ninjas in the room began passing around the new bingo books. Zabuza froze when he heard the name 'Uzumaki.' In his mind's eye he could see the sardonic tilt of Mei's lips. Looking back, she had been upset. What had she done?

He looked up slowly, eyes taking in the ninjas who were no longer working but frantically speaking over what they had found in the Bingo book. Unthinkingly, Zabuza found himself rising to his feet to snatch a book from the closest ninja to him, a flash of red hair on the page causing him to freeze before he was swiftly reading through the entry.

Ranking-SSS

Name- Moriko Uzumaki

Moniker- Ghost of the Uzumaki

Bounty- None

Status- Alive

Orders- FLEE ON SIGHT; EXTREMELY DANGEROUS; DO NOT ENGAGE

Hair- Red

Eyes: Teal Blue

Skin: Pale

Height: 5ft 6in

Weight: 200lbs

Special Abilities

INVISIBILITY

Abilities

SEALMASTER -Mastery

WIND CHAKRA BLADES-Mastery

KENJUTSU-Mastery

TAIJUTSU-Mastery

NINJUTSU- unknown

GENJUTSU- unknown

MEDIC- Journeyman

Zabuza's eyes snapped up to meet Mei's and he could feel a flash of fury contort his face.

"Mei. My office. NOW!" he yelled before storming off into Yagura's old office. She followed him in before she shut the door behind her.

"Are you out of your damn mind?! How did you even get some of this information?" he snapped as he paced in front of his new desk, Mei watching him with a frown, sensing something anxious in the man before her. While he was angry, this wasn't quite the reaction she had been expecting. If anything, he seemed more nervous than anything.

"I sent some ninja to interrogate the villagers of Wave. They had difficulties but were able to get the information eventually," she said as he froze, face horrified.

"We are relying on trade with Wave and you did what?!" he demanded. Mei swiftly began to backtrack as he stalked towards her now looking livid.

"No one was hurt! We just used disguises and genjutsu to get the information from the villagers!" Mei babbled and Zabuza gave a relieves sigh.

"How quickly are we able to retract those bingo books?" he demanded, eyes now boring into Mei. Her posture stiffened, her resolve firming under the expected anger from him. He thought he could shield that woman still? It seemed Mei had done well planning ahead of the new Mizukage.

"The new books weren't released here in Mist until I was sure the couriers made it to the mainland. The bounty posts are being informed as we speak. The rest of the books have reached all forces in Mist this morning. Some of those people are on missions right now, in case you try to get those books back," she said stoutly. Zabuza's face paled, hands shaking now.

"Do you know why I never sent out a report on her abilities Mei?" he asked quietly, scared eyes now boring into her uncovered one. She pursed her lips, her opinion written all over her face. He sneered, suddenly furious.

"You're a fool Mei. You think I didn't spread the word about her out of lust? Or affection? Ha! She's a monster wrapped in pretty packaging. It was out of fear! She's not just what we'd call a modern-day sealing master, Mei! She's like the Uzumaki of old! There's a reason she's called Ghost of the Uzumaki, because a full fledged sealing master like her shouldn't exist. Do you realize what's going to happen when the other villages hear about her? It's going to be a bloodbath, and the worse it is for her, the more she will blame our village for exposing her! She's fucking deadly! She was able to speed up time in localized areas Mei! TIME! She can control fucking time! And she did it to age Sake! Now imagine what she could do to this village with just that; trap us in a bubble where time passes in the blink of a moment, leaving us nothing but ash! And that was only one of many seals she could make! She put up barriers with ease, she could trap us all here until we starved, then pick off the remains. She can make our islands unreachable to us if we ever leave them.

"I saw her make entire islands disappear! Then another and another, leading all the way to the ruins of Uzugakure! Then she made that entire island disappear! Do you know how big Uzu is Mei? Do you? And whatever she was doing out there left disorienting fog, made a trap of the sea! My clones and my summons couldn't follow or find their way out of the fog and had to dispel themselves to get free. There's no way I'm taking responsibility for your fuck up Mei!" He yelled as Mei's face went milk white as the extent of her blunder began making itself known. She hadn't known the woman was a real master, because real master's at sealing just didn't exist anymore, it was such a lost art and for good reason. Konoha only had the toad sage, and even he hadn't been on par with the Uzumaki, but he had been one of the best since the defeat of the clan. A real Sealing Master didn't just pop out of the ground like lilies. To reach such a level of mastery took years and years of study, even she knew that much. So, she had just revealed a sealing master with full abilities in the art who had been hiding for years, and Mei had revealed them to the entirety of the elemental nations, blown years of work by putting them out there in the most visible way. And Zabuza was going to tell the sealing master who did this, who was responsible. Mei could feel her stomach turn.

Mei thought about what it would be like, to leave home on a mission, to come back and be unable to find her home, to get lost and turned around in the fog, to be unable to escape to get to the mainland, to grow weaker and weaker until her chakra gave out and she found herself helpless to the mercy of the sea. Her stomach turned again. The woman could turn invisible. She could sneak into the heart of their village and trap them all in a barrier, unable to reach the sea to fish, their inhospitable climate not letting them grow the food needed to survive, no way to get out, fading one by one. Or to wake up one day, feeling aches and pains she had never felt before, only to find herself old and feeble, her power and youth stripped from her, leaving the village ripe pickings for any that wanted to take their pound of flesh from their hide.

She might have just sentenced the Mist to a slow death with her actions if what he had said was true. That was if Zabuza didn't kill her first. Seeing the raw fear in her face, Zabuza sneered, truly disdainful in that moment.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize she was a real sealing master. My clan are distant kin with them. I can offer old sealing scrolls from the Uzumaki as recompense," she offered up quickly before bowing deeply to show her sincerity. Zabuza sighed as he sat behind his new desk, looking tired.

"You went behind my back to make sure I wouldn't be able to suppress the information, undermining my authority as Mizukage. If you're going to do shit like that you could have had the decency to take the fucking job and not make me more work," he muttered as he thought.

"The scrolls are a start. We will need to pay more out of pocket however to placate Konoha and the Uzumaki. While she was in Wave, she was working to create fish farms, pearl cultivation, and trade through them. She mentioned silk trade as well, and I have a feeling she's got as much merchant blood as she does ninja blood. She also valued rare wood types and plants, and other rarities. We will need to make a trip to Konoha to pay for this blunder personally, and you are coming with. As Kiri grows in prestige, power and trade, we will pay with other means. Until then, you will be working to pay off the debt you have incurred with our village," he said firmly as Mei's face paled with uncertainty. Whatever that was didn't sound good.

AN: Mwahahaha!

Edit: there was a bit added on to the end of this chapter!