The Mad Sage Of Uzushio, A Naruto Fan Fiction:
Chapter #3: Redemption Revelation Revolution
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Chapter 3
Redemption… Revelation… Revolution…
Welcome to the Uzumaki Clan!
The afternoon sun beams down upon Konoha as Shintaro rings the bell on the front door of a modest and nondescript family home, in row of such homes. The white eyed and dark straight haired matriarch of the house opens the door and finds before her the hooded man in black bearing the crest of the Uzumaki Clan upon his brown leather messenger bag, the dark hood hanging low over his face again.
Shintaro:
Konichiwa… Hinatasama… I know you don’t have much reason to believe me… But my name is… Uzumaki Shintaro… And I am your husband Naruto’s uncle…
Hinata:
Naruto’s uncle?… I didn’t even know he had an uncle… or any other living relatives… for that matter…
Shintaro:
May I come in and sit down… and talk with you for a bit… over tea?…
Hinata:
Come in?… I don’t even know you… And as the wife of the hokage… I have to be extra careful… Besides you can’t really blame me… when you won’t even show your face…
Shintaro pulls back his hood and removes his shades, revealing a head of long vivid Uzumaki red hair, and a pair of white opaque cataract covered blind eyes, with thick red eyeliner like markings formed around his eyes.
Shintaro:
Do I not at least resemble an Uzumaki?… Usually… it’s the hair that gives it away…
Hinata:
Your… blind?…
Shintaro:
Why yes… Quite so… Completely… Utterly… And from birth… But the Uzumaki have other ways to see… in a manner of speaking… So… would you trust a blind Uzumaki well enough… to invite him in… for a little tea and conversation?…
Hinata:
Well… If there was just some way… of verifying… that you are who you say you are… then I might feel better about it…
Shintaro:
Well… That’s no problem at all then… It just so happens that your father Hiashi is an old friend of mine… And he can easily verify my identity… for both you and my nephew Naruto… After all… If you can’t trust your own father… then there is nothing I can do for you otherwise… You can call him if you like?… I’m more than happy to wait outside in the meantime… In fact… in general I prefer to be outside… out in the elements… within nature… And your garden does smell quite lovely…
Hinata:
Well… Okay then… But you stay outside in the garden until he gets here… Okay?…
Shintaro:
That will be perfectly fine by me…
Hinata turns to go and make some phone calls, as she closes and locks the door behind her. A pair of children can be heard talking and laughing in the near distance, just down the street from the very garden where Shintaro awaits, now seated on a stone bench along the walkway between the front gate and the front door. The little girl has black hair like her mother’s, but blue eyes like her blonde haired older sibling in the Konoha etched steel shinobi headband.
Young Girl:
Aniisan… Can you train with me everyday… after the academy… or are you just doing this today… because it’s my first day?…
Aniisan:
Now Himachan… you have to understand… I’ve got missions of my own to go on … As well as intense training with my master Sasuke… I can’t make any promises like that… I can only promise to do what I can… when I can… and hope that’s enough… Okay?…
Himachan:
Okay…
As the siblings reach the gate to the front garden, they enter to find a red haired blind man, sitting on a stone bench in the middle of the front garden, with Shintaro smiling at them as they entered.
Shintaro:
Konichiwa!… fellow Uzumakis!…
Himachan:
Konichiwa?…
Aniisan:
Fellow Uzumakis?… Who are you supposed to be?…
Shintaro:
My name is… Uzumaki Shintaro… And I am your father’s uncle… Your grandmother Kushina… Naruto’s mother… was my baby sister you see…
Hinata calls out to her children through an open window.
Hinata:
Himawari!… Boruto!… Come on inside!… Leave Shintarosan be… while he waits for your grandfather…
Boruto:
How does he know our grandfather?…
Shintaro:
We served together during the second great ninja war… in a special unit of the anbu…
Himawari:
Anbu?…
Shintaro:
Yes… It’s an elite special division… within Konoha… And we were a special unit… within that special division… you see?…
Hinata comes out the front door with her Byakugan in full effect, with the veins surrounding her eyes on either side bulging out, glaring at the mysterious stranger.
Hinata:
My Father was never in the anbu!… That much I know is false!…
Shintaro:
You seem awfully sure that he would tell you about it if he was… Perhaps you’re just not as familiar with the nature of the anbu… as you think you are… Or you’re just not as familiar with the nature your father… as you think you are… Or perhaps both… I bet your father still has his mask… Why don’t you ask him yourself?… You were supposed to be calling him anyway… to help verify my identity… I thought…
Hinata:
My father… is already on his way here!… And we will sort this all out for good… when he gets here!…
Hinata forcefully shuffles the kids inside and she closes and locks the door again. As Shintaro waits in the garden, he reaches into his messenger bag and pulls out his red heart-shaped ocarina. As he begins to play, Hinata is drawn, to the still open window, to listen. As the playing continues, the wind begins to pick up slightly, and gently swirls about the garden, as rain clouds gather over head, slightly obscuring the late afternoon sun. The sound of the notes of the ocarina begin to blend with the sound of the wind, until they become one, and amplify each other, each resonating with the other, combining their energy. Himawari and Boroto join Hinata at the window, as they increasingly marvel at the show unfolding within the confines of their garden.
As the wind picks up and the rain clouds begin to dump, the wind and water within the garden seem to swirl and dance to the tune of Shintaro’s ocarina, augmented with the power of senjutsu and sage mode chakra. Flowers bloom and undergo extreme growth spurts, as they begin to join the wind, and water, and they too move to the sway of the tune coming out of Shintaro’s ocarina. Flowers begin to spring up out of no where, combining with the flowers already planted, to fill the garden space with seemingly endless flowers. Just as the song seems to be reaching it’s crescendo, a new cherry blossom tree shoots up out of ground, in left front corner of the garden, and rapidly grows to full maturity, sprouting cherry blossoms.
A second cherry blossom tree springs up in the right front corner of the garden. A third cherry blossom tree springs up, recessed deep into a corner along the right side, in a part of the front garden, recessed deeper back along the right side of the house. Just as all of this reaches it’s proper crescendo, Hyuga Hiashi arrives with his other daughter Hyuga Hannabi. Hiashi appears as if an elder feudal lord dressed in a semi-formal kimono, with his long graying straight black hair and white eyes, typical of the Hyuga Clan, and similar to Hinata and Hannabi’s straight black hair and white eyes. As Shintaro notices Hiashi’s arrival, he immediately stops his playing, and slides his ocarina back into his messenger bag, while the garden gradually returns to semi-normal, after having already being substantially and permanently altered by Shintaro’s jutsu.
Hiashi:
Nani?!?… What is going on here?…
Shintaro:
Hiashi?… Don’t you recognize me?… If you don’t… I don’t have many other old friends… who are still alive in Konoha… and could be trusted to possibly vouch for my identity… and none who are also the father of my nephew’s wife…
Hiashi:
Of course I recognize you Shintaro… Baca!… But it simply cannot be you… There is no way… No one has seen or heard from you… since the investigation of the fall of Uzushio!…
Shintaro:
I have reasons for all of that… And I’m afraid… I have many long stories to tell you… my old friend… But I can prove everything I say… Well… Mostly everything… in a manner of speaking…
Naruto’s chief advisor Nara Shikamaru arrives with the Sixth Hokage Hatake Kakashi, as Hinata and the kids come out to take a closer look at Shintaro’s handiwork in the garden. Shikamaru has long brown hair tied back in a ponytail behind his head and his Konoha headband tied around his left arm. Kakashi wears the same dark gray mask over his mouth and nose, with his spiky gray hair barely contained by his own Konoha headband tied around his head on the usual manner.
Shintaro:
Little Kakashi?!?… I barely recognized you… The last time we met… you were just so little… back before your father died… I heard you had become hokage…
Boruto:
Little Kakashi?!?…
Kakashi:
Konichiwa… Shintaro sensei… What happened here?…
Shintaro:
Gardening happened here…
Hinata:
Gardening?… Is that what you call… that crazy jutsu you were using earlier?…
Shintaro:
I call what I use it for gardening… Why?… What would you use it for… if not gardening?… And what would you call that… if not gardening?…
Hannabi:
Who are you suppose to be again?…
Shintaro:
I am Uzumaki Shintaro… eldest brother… of Uzumaki Kushina… Naruto’s mother… And the former heir to the head of the Uzumaki Clan… my father… Uzumaki Adama… the last feudal lord of Uzu… Naruto’s grandfather…
Hannabi:
Can you prove any of that?…
Shintaro:
Well… I thought my old friend Hiashi could vouch for me… But he seems uncertain… But we live in an age of genetic testing… even on this backwater of a planet… I suggest you take a sample and see for your selves…
Shikamaru:
That may not necessarily be required… I happen to know a great deal of the classified history… regarding Uzumaki Shintaro… I made a bit of study of the history and background of the Uzumaki clan… back when Naruto first became the hokage… just in case it became pertinent… to his administration at some point… Once I started looking into it I came across a thick classified dossier on you… when I started looking into that… I came across a note indicating that the thick dossier… was only the summary!… referencing an entire vault in the classified archives… dedicated to all things… Uzumai Shintaro… By then I just gave up… because it was all just too much… But I got the jist…
Hinata:
Did Naruto… ever… get the jist?…
Shikamaru:
The broad points… for the most part Naruto always wanted to focus on the future… He refused to dwell on his own tragic family past… As he felt it would be a self-indulgent distraction from his duties as hokage… I told Naruto to make a study of the history of his own clan… just in case it ever effected his administration in the future… Well… Here’s the future…
Hannabi:
Well… Since your so expert… how do you suppose we verify… that this guy is who he says he is?…
Shikamaru:
That may be fairly simple… for our purposes… If Hiashi and Kakashi can at least verify your appearance… as that of Uzumaki Shintaro… The dossier indicates… that Uzumaki Shintaro is known to have mastered senjustu… some time before he first came to Konaha at age fourteen… to serve with the anbu…
Hinata:
Senjutsu?… At age Fourteen?…
Hiashi:
I may have a hard time believing it… But that face… is definitely the face of Uzumaki Shintaro…
Kakashi:
From what little I can remember from when I was a kid… that certainly looks like him…
Shikamaru:
The dossier also indicates… that Shintaro’s transition into sage mode… is accompanied by a somewhat distinctive visual change in appearance… described in detail in the file…
As Shikamaru explains this, Shintaro shifts out sage mode then reenters it, causing the marks around his eyes to vanish then reappear, disappearing then manifesting the visual markings characteristic of sage mode, as a demonstration of the characteristic transformation.
Shikamaru:
That would be confirmation…
Hinata:
Is he really Naruto’s uncle?… If that’s true… then where has he been all this time?… especially when Naruto’s Parents were killed?…
Shintaro:
Over the course of my life… I have spent a number of years off of this planet… including the day Naruto’s parents died… By the time I learned of what had happened… it was already far too late… He was already attending the academy by then… And the Third Hokage had already been looking after him for several years… Since Naruto’s father had made him the nex jinchuriki… there was simply no real chance of me taking him with me… without a miner war being fought over the matter… right in the middle of Konoha… My own complicated political past… as well as the present at the time… made it impossible for me to stay… By then I had already left the planet… been captured by the Otsutsuki Empire… and made off with emperor’s daughter… to start a new family as fugitives… on another planet entirely at the time… All of which… in and of it self… is another long story… I assure you… I’m afraid I have an overabundance of long and complicated stories to tell… But they are stories that need to be told… and that need to heard… But if they’re not told in the proper way… and in the proper order… none of them… will make any proper sense…
Himawari:
You were captured?…
Shintaro:
Yes… Indeed… By my future wife-to-be… By none other… than the daughter of the emperor himself… I guess you could say… that we effectively captured each other… although in different ways… in a manner of speaking…
Boruto:
So you were kind of a bad boy then… Weren’t ya?…
Shintaro:
Why I’ll have you know… that I was once the considered world’s most notorious and dangerous terrorist… plaguing the parasites of the feudal aristocracy… There were legends about me… the Ghost of Winter… the Reckoning of Lords and Empires… And that was before I left the planet… I’m way more notorious now… just not on this planet anymore… The Five Kage saw to that decades ago…
Boruto’s eyes light up as Boruto wonders what sort of stories he’s about to hear.
Shintaro:
Hiashi?… Do you still not believe that it’s me old friend?… I need you of all people… to believe me right now… to believe that I am really… who I say I am… even if you believe nothing else besides…
Hiashi:
Baca!… I know that it’s you!… I am no Baca!… I still just can’t believe… that it is you!…
Shintaro:
Sumimasen… old friend… I know that I’ve been away… for far too long without a word… But I am here now… And I have much to tell you… about a great many things…
Shintaro bows slightly as he makes this assurance, as if to beg his old friend’s patience as well as forgiveness.
Hiashi:
Do not bow to me… begging forgiveness… It is I… who should be begging forgiveness… for having turned by back… on one of my best friends… so many years ago…
Hiashi bows slightly.
Shintaro:
Oh… Please don’t bow… This is all so tedious and tiresome… Can we please just skip all this stuff… go inside… and get back to just being old friends… who tell stories… over tea and dumplings?…
Hiashi:
Hai!… Shintaro… Hai!…
Hiashi then turns and walks briskly into the house, followed by his two smiling daughters, and one perplexed granddaughter, leaving Shintaro with Shikamaru, Kakashi, and Boruto.
Shintaro:
I do not sense my nephew’s chakra anywhere in Konaha… I did I come at a bad time?… I was hoping to talk to my nephew as well… Will he be returning anytime soon?…
Kakashi:
Soon enough… Why don’t you just tell us your stories in the mean time… until he joins us?…
Shintaro:
Does that mean we can finally go inside?…
Shikamaru:
Sure thing… Why don’t you go on ahead inside while I have a few words with Kakashi and Boruto?…
Boruto:
Why can’t I go with uncle Shintaro?… I don’t want to miss anything…
Shikamru:
Sumimasen Boruto… But I need you… to go get your dad… He should be on his way back from the capital… He should be rushing back to Konoha right now… because of an incident this morning…
Boruto:
What happened this morning?…
Shikamaru:
Never mind that… That’s classified… And not part of your mission yet…
Kakashi:
Now Boruto… As a genin… you know you can’t just go and do what you want… Besides your father needs you to do this… even if he doesn’t know it yet…
Boruto:
Wakata!…
Shintaro:
If it makes you feel better Boruto… I’ll try not to be too interesting while your gone… I’ll have to tell Naruto when he gets here anyway…
Shintaro turns and walks inside the house leaving the three shinobi behind.
Kakashi:
Now get going… Grab Mitsuki and take him with you if you can… Otherwise… go alone… Konahamaru should be traveling with Naruto…
Boruto:
What about Sarada?…
Shikamaru:
Sarada is unavailable… No time for explanations… Just go…
Boruto heads off at best speed to find Mitsuki before fetching his father.
Kakashi:
Well… What do you think?… What’s your real assessment of Shintaro?… Do think Shintaro sensei…. is a good guy?… or at least sane?…
Shikamaru:
Shintaro sensei?… Was he your sensei once?…
Kakashi:
No… not really… That’s just what my father called him when he introduced us… I was so little at the time… I thought that ‘sensei’… was just part of his proper name…
Shikamaru:
I don’t know what to think yet… But my father knew him!… According to the file… But he never even mentioned his name… I heard a little bit more from Choza… after the war… after I had learned about him from other means… after Naruto became hokage… But he was always somewhat evasive… and wouldn’t really say anything at all… All I know… is his senjustu… combined with that wood style… that wood style… which is most definitely not in his file… makes this a whole new game… Almost no matter what his file says… in theory… your Shintaro sensei… has enough power to destroy Konoha… all by himself!… We better hope he’s a good guy…
Kakashi:
I was just a little kid when my father introduced me to him… back before my father died… Back then… Shintaro was already a reclusive hermit… as a result of his… political troubles… somehow resulting from him being… some sort of… crazy powerful magician… forced into exile from his homeland… or something like that… I never really knew or understood the details… By time I had access to the truth… I didn’t want to know… After my father died… I kind of blocked out the memory… because of the association… to be honest…
Shikamaru:
Just what do you mean… crazy powerful magician?…
Kakashi:
I told you… I was kid… He just seemed like some… impossible magician… with an endless array of crazy impossible tricks up his sleeve… My father said he was a demon hunter… and an exorcist… which didn’t really mean anything to me at the time… He was the first person I ever saw… use the Super Beast Scroll jutsu… for example… and shikigami… not to mention the ice style… I honestly don’t recall seeing anything like the wood style… Not from him… That’s a new one on me… There’s no telling what else he may have up he sleeve… The stuff we know about is troublesome enough… if he decides to make trouble… for whatever reason… We better get going… before sensei melts the furniture or something… with some other weird jutsu that we don’t know about yet…
Shikamaru:
Lady Tsunade might know him much better… She wasn’t that far away I thought… But we have no idea… if she even received our message… Although… from what I heard… there was a history there… Tsunade’s presence… might actually complicate things… rather than simplify them…
Kakashi:
At the moment I’m more worried about Naruto’s history… and emotional family baggage… Not to mention Sasuke’s… unavoidable disposition… as a result of the incident this morning… Simplification… is simply not on the menu today… Naruto doesn’t dwell on his past… which is to his credit… But this is bound to stir up all sorts of issues for Naruto… that he’s never really fully dealt with before… It will be up to us to watch his back… in more ways than one… Shintaro is unavoidably an agent of chaos… whether he means to be or not…
Shikamaru:
Alright… We better get going… in case we miss something…
Kakashi:
Ai… I agree… Time to enjoy our story time… with the bonus magic show…
Shikamaru:
Hey… Don’t forget tea and dumplings…
Shikamaru and Kakashi both turn to walk inside the house, where they find Hiashi sitting on a couch in the living room opposite from the couch where Shintaro sits, with his messenger bag with the Uzumaki crest, sitting upon the coffee table in between them, along with the demon bio-hazard gourd. Hannabi is seated on the couch next to her father. Kakashi sits down on the couch next to Shintaro, as Shikamaru pules up a stool to the breakfast bar nearby, while Hinata making tea with Himawari in the kitchen.
Shikamru:
How are you holding up?… Hinatasama?… Daijoubu desuka?…
Hinata:
Daijoubu desune… I guess… My father seems really happy to see his old friend… But I just don’t know what to think of him yet… It’s all a lot to take in… Shintaro seems somewhat important to my father… as well as Naruto… But I’ve never even heard his name before…
Shikamaru:
Same with my father… But he never said a word… makes you wonder what else the old ones aren’t sharing… and why?… Eh?… Hinatasama?…
Himawari:
Is Uzumaki hair really supposed to be… that red?… Normally?…
Hinata:
Quite so… in the past at least… the Uzumaki Clan was well known for their vivid red hair… If you look at the picture of your grandparents… you’ll see that your grandmother’s hair… is just like Shintaro’s… The entire Uzumaki Clan normally had hair like that… But your father and brother owe their appearance more to your grandfather… the Fourth Hokage… And you… take more after me… except for those blue eyes…
Shintaro:
According to clan legend… the red hair of the Uzumaki… is the outward manifestation… of the fearsome Uzumaki spirit… in sympathetic resonance… with the fires and quakes… of the volcanoes of Uzu… The very word Uzumaki… means maelstrom… and we are aptly named… even if I do say so myself… The Uzumaki themselves were often likened to maelstroms personified… At first hearing… you might be tempted to think that is just some silly old wives tale… passed around within the clan… to make the clan feel better about itself… But the Island of Uzu is a special place… It is a place where things that don’t normally make sense… tend to make perfect sense… and things that normally make sense… often fail to do so consistently… The island can be said to exist entirely in a kind of paranormal state… like Mount Myoboku… Ryuchi Cave… or the Shikkotsu Forest… Like them… the Island of Uzu… is neither strictly here nor strictly there… But exists within the overlap between the realm of light… the normal physical existence all around us… and the realm of shadow… the realm of spirits… ideas and dreams… as well as the afterlife… An ancient nickname for the Island of Uzu among sailors and pirates… was Ghost Island… And it was said to be haunted… by the spirits of those who shipwrecked on the island… having gotten too close to what they called… the Waters of Death… the complex maze of crazy currents… and unpredictable whirlpools… that gave us and the island our names… We are maelstroms… born of maelstroms… in a manner of speaking…
Himawari:
Wow!… Ghost Island?!?…Waters of Death?!?… Maelstroms?!?…
Young Himawari pulls up cushion and sits down on the floor by the end of the couch where Shintaro sits, captivating her attention, soon to be followed by her mother Hinata on another cushion, after Hinata deposits a tea set on the coffee table, with tea steeping in the kettle, as Shintaro continues to captivate. Shintaro pulls out a small scroll and lays it out on the table next to the tea set. Shintaro runs his index finger along one of the entries, infusing chakra within it as he does. Suddenly, three small bags of takeout appear on the table next to the tea set, all bearing the crest of the Akimichi Clan, as a brand logo.
Shintaro:
I normally like to travel prepared with suitable provisions from one of my favorite restaurants… run by an old friend of mine… with very authentic Uzushio recipes… I don’t suppose you’ve ever heard the Theory of the Uzumaki before… have you?…
Himawari:
The Theory… of the Uzumaki?…
Shintaro:
Ai… It’s the theory passed around by the elders of the clan… to explain why the Uzumaki… were different from other clans… The Uzumaki Clan were known for various characteristics… besides the red hair… Perhaps most notoriously… the Uzumaki were known for their hyper-energetic and incorrigibly tempestuous natures… We were also known for our longevity… One alternate nickname for Village of Uzushio… was the Village of Longevity…
Hinata:
Do the Uzumaki really live that much longer?…
Shintaro:
Ai… Sodesune… As long they don’t get themselves killed young and stupid… which is also a tendency… they often do live quite long lives indeed… In fact… As long as Konoha doesn’t tire of him… and he doesn’t get himself killed being relatively young and stupid… Naruto could easily serve as hokage… for the another hundred years…
Hinata:
Another hundred years?!?… Well… Were going to have to have a talk about this when Naruto gets home!… I may be willing to give up a lot for Konoha… But… eventually… I’m going to want my husband back!… I don’t think I can wait another hundred years… He may last another hundred years… But I am not Uzumaki by blood… I don’t think I can last that long… And I certainly refuse to wait that long!…
Shintaro:
I wouldn’t worry too much about that… Hinatasama… I’m sure Konoha will get sick of him long before that… if nothing else… Wearing out one’s welcome due to excessive incorrigible obnoxious tempestuousness… is also a tendency…
Himawari:
Papa isn’t like that!…
Kakashi:
Perhaps not that much any more… But he certainly used to be… back when he was younger and stupider… In fact… His temperament didn’t really change that much… until he married your mother and started his prep work for becoming hokage some day… He made a real conscious effort at it… because he knew he had to for the sake of his future family… as well as for Konoha…
Shintaro:
That’s how it goes… Or otherwise… tragedy is inevitable… Because that is also the tendency… The history of the Uzumaki is littered with the corpses of the examples… That is why the elders would also speak… of what they would call… the taming of the wild Uzumaki… Which would encompass both simple child rearing… as well as the shinobi training within the clan… In general… It often involves the combination of harsh discipline… along with long exhaustive and exhausting training… to wear down the young Uzumaki… by providing them an outlet for all their excess energy… occupying their time so that they’re not as likely to get themselves into serious trouble… while also making them stronger and more capable of dealing with the trouble… when they inevitably find themselves in that sort of trouble… as it is an incorrigible tendency…
Kakashi:
That sounds like how I trained Naruto… except I would never have to try and occupy his time… He would always beg and demand it!… Obsessively!…
Shintaro:
That passionate obsessive excess… is also a tendency of the Uzumaki… Which can be fatal in and of itself… if not channeled or otherwise reigned in properly… But all is seldom if ever completely lost… There are of course other advantages to the Uzumaki nature… besides longevity… Perhaps the greatest advantage of being Uzumaki… is the Uzumaki’s special extra sensitivity to chakra… the chakra sense of the Uzumaki…
Himawari:
Chakra… sense?…
Shintaro:
Ai… Strong enough in many Uzumaki… that they can become extremely powerful sensory type shinobi… Your father is probably the most powerful sensory type in Konoha… Although… not as long as I’m around…
Himawari:
You are?…
Shintaro:
Ai… Largely as an unavoidable consequence of having been born both blind and Uzumaki…
Himawari:
You were born blind?… How does that make you a stronger sensory type than papa?…
Shintaro:
Compensation…
Himawari:
Compensation?…
Shintaro:
Ai… The human mind… in general… has evolved to process the information coming in from all five senses simultaneously… If one source of that information is diminished or removed… the full processing power of the human mind… meant to process all five senses… is then focused that much more intently on the information from the remaining four… Making them that much more sensitive… augmented by compensation… When I was born blind… my senses were similarly augmented to compensate… But… because I was Uzumaki… my chakra sense was augmented the most of all… From the time of my earliest memories… I have always seen absolutely nothing… but chakra… I learned to recognize people by their chakra… the way other infants would learn to recognize the faces of their parents… I learned to infuse and mold chakra… the way other infants would learn to crawl… and then to walk… I performed my very first jutsu when I was just a small infant in my crib… I was also strong wind style prodigy… from a very early age… Seeing and manipulating wind nature chakra… was practically second nature… So one day when I was being especially cranky and difficult… my mother began playing her ocarina… the very same one you saw me playing earlier in fact… I could see the wind nature chakra that she was using to augment her playing… It filled up every chamber of the triple chamber ocarina simultaneously… allowing her to play three part harmonies with a single flute… something impossible to perform except for a skilled wind style musician like my mother… I wanted to reach out to it… to touch it… grab it… and hold it for myself… So I instinctively infused wind nature chakra into my hand… and then my finger… then extended it out from my finger to reach out with it… forming a chakra string… as my first jutsu… and wrap it around the ocarina and pull it towards me… Which I succeeded in doing… causing the ocarina to hit me right square in the face… leading to my second jutsu ever… the Howling Mad Jutsu… Or at least that’s what my mother called it… I reflexively infused my lungs with wind nature chakra… and bellowed out like some wind demon… My mother told me that people could hear the wailing all throughout Uzushio… if not the Middle Sea…
Kakashi:
How does this theory of the Uzumaki supposedly explain any of that… given that Naruto didn’t have any such ability… until after he mastered senjutsu…
Shintaro:
He might not have known about it before mastering senjutsu… simply because he was made into a host for the Nine-Tailed Fox as a jinchuricki… shortly after he was born… When my little sister Kushina was made into the jinchuriki for the Nine-Tailed Fox… she said it was as if a world of light had been suddenly shut off… and only slowly grew back to light… as she adjusted and got used to it… compensating for it… It would be like trying to listen to a whisper from across the room… while sitting next to a raging big band… It simply cannot work… Without the guidance of another Uzumaki… or even the knowledge of the existence of this ability… there is no realistic way of doing it otherwise… That is why the Theory of the Uzumaki is so valuable… And that is why I truly regret not being able to be there for my little sisters child to begin with…
Hiashi:
Then why weren’t you?… Where have you been all this time?…
Shintaro:
Well… like I mentioned before… That is another long and complicated story… But you know how it begins at least… if you remember…
Hiashi:
Ai… I remember… It was the last time I ever saw you… during the investigation of the of the Fall of Uzushio… We all saw you disappear into that demon’s portal… And we permanently sealed it up behind you… just as you ordered us to do… That was the last time I saw you… the last time anyone saw you as far as I know… until now…
Shintaro:
I have been back before… But I couldn’t risk making contact because… well… you were just too high profile… and always surrounded by ever watchful Byakugans… When I first returned to this planet… it was many years ago… but it was far too late for my sister… Naruto had already been made the jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails… and as such… would never be allowed to removed from the village without unnecessary conflict… and potential bloodshed… There was simply no way for me to stay in Konoha… But Naruto’s place was in Konoha… and I knew he had Jiraiya and the Third Hokage looking after him… They were the only ones that I dared make contact with upon my return… I submitted my report to the hokage… took my leave of Konoha… then hoped for the best…
Shikamaru:
Your file indicates that you submitted your report… But I couldn’t find it… buried in with all the other records of your exploits that we already had… That vault of yours is kind of ridiculous…
Shintaro:
Bureaucracy!… The cancer of empires!…
Shikamaru:
Well… That’s a bit harsh…
Shintaro:
It is what it is… My report was quite thorough and detailed… I would hate to have to go over everything in it from scratch… just because someone misfiled the report…
Shikamaru:
I’ll have to see about tracking that down… In the mean time… could you at least give us a summary?…
Shintaro:
I could just give you a copy… However… It suffices to say… that what I found when I disappeared through that portal… was beyond hellish… People imagine a hell… as a place of torment for the damned spirits of guilty condemned monsters… But what I found was a hell for the living… and for the innocent… a hell called… the Otsutsuki Empire…
Shikamaru:
Empire?!?… There’s a whole damn empire?!?… Mendocuse!…
Shintaro:
Ai… And not only is there an empire… there is a Great Celestial War… between that empire… and the other Great Rival Powers of the cosmos… that has been raging in the cosmos for aeons longer than there have been humans on this planet… The current mere stalemate of which… has lasted now for over ten thousand years… long before Otsutsuki Kaguya ever came to this planet… let alone the Fourth Great Ninja War… or the chunin exams!… That is what I found… on the other end of that portal Hiashi… And that is what I put in my report… although in much much greater detail… not that anyone would ever believe it before now… Perhaps not even now…
Hinata:
You said… that you started a new family… that were also fugitives… on another planet?…
Shintaro:
Ai… You see… when I launched myself through that portal… I had forsaken all possibility of ever returning… having ordered the portal to be permanently sealed behind me… It was a one way mission with no realistic means of return… at least not the way I came…
Himawari:
Why did you have to go at all?…
Shintaro:
That is an excellent question!… Never stop asking questions like that… even if it annoys everyone else around you… especially the authorities… and other officious types… especially then… The simple answer was… I did it for my sister… mostly… among others… All that I had left… I either took with me… or I left behind in better hands than mine… The open demon portal was an ongoing imminent present danger… not just to Uzushio… as it was the means by which the demon hordes made it past all the barriers put into place to prevent exactly that… It was an ongoing threat to the whole planet… depending on how many demons might be waiting on the other end of that portal… The individual portal could have been sealed… But… any power capable of creating a portal that can bypass the barriers of the Uzumaki Clan… can simply create a similar portal to anywhere on this planet… including Konoha… And there would be no defense… That power… on the other end of that portal… whatever it was… had to be destroyed… if at all possible… And… to be perfectly frank… I was perfectly expendable… not to mention one of the few qualified to make the attempt… and the only one with even a remote chance of ever returning… There was simply no one else…
Kakashi:
What exactly did you find?… when you first went through?…
Shintaro:
Well… I’ve already told you that it was beyond hellish… The vast and infinite meta-verse… contains an endless and infinite variety of horrors and wonders… Some of which… Hinatasama… you might not want your young daughter to hear about just yet… But I recommend you letting her stay… as she will have to face these realities eventually… If I do not explain it to her today… either you or Naruto will have to do it eventually… or perhaps even Hiashi… And since she has started training at the academy… it might help inform… direct… and inspire that training… going forward…
Hiashi:
I agree… In fact… as her grandfather… I couldn’t agree more… In a way… I have been preparing this… since before either of you two girls were born… ever since Shintaro’s disappearance through that portal… I have tried my best to guide the Hyuga Clan… and my own daughters training… with Shintaro’s demon hunter training in mind… to prepare them for the day when we may be faced with the prospect of another incident like Uzushio… perhaps even in Konoha… But I may have to reconsider whether or not my efforts have been enough…
Himawari:
You were trained to hunt demons grandpa?…
Hiashi:
Ai… And my bother Hizashi too… back when we were still genin fresh out of the academy… It was a special unit of the anbu… created for a specific specialized purpose… the purpose of demon hunting… Kakashi’s father… Sakumo… the White Fang… was our field commander… and two teams of chunin were assigned as an adjunct to our unit… to provide back up as necessary… which included your father Shikaku and his team… his generations Ino-Shika-Cho Trio… as well as the future Fifth Hokage… Lady Tsunade and her team… which would eventually become known as the Legendary Sanin…
Kakashi:
That explains why my father always called him Shintaro sensei…
Shntaro:
Your mother was also a part of our anbu unit… an Inuzuka girl as a recall… feisty and scrappy… and a gifted tracker… even of demons… That anbu unit was how they first met… of course your father was her supervisor… which was all kinds of naughty under the circumstances… But your mother became obsessed… and would not be denied… not without a fight… Nobody really wanted that… So everybody just let it go… and they were eventually married after that… a match made in the anbu… and not the only one historically speaking… in spite of the rules…
Kakashi:
My father never mentioned any of this to me… especially about my mother…
Shintaro:
Well… you were very young when your father died… and as I recall… your mother died in childbirth… These sorts of things… are not exactly the kind of stuff your eager to talk about to a small child… even if your allowed to… And with the anbu… some secrets your never allowed to tell… unless your like me and you just don’t give a crap anymore…
Kakashi:
Is that true?… Hiashi?…
Hiashi:
Yes… I knew her quite well in fact… She was in same class as my brother Hizashi and me… She was one of the cutest girls in the school… But she was a total tomboy… and fought with all the boys in the school… including me… on our one and only date… which I won… but just barely… thus ending the courtship… She was plucked right out of the academy… for the anbu unit… just like Hizashi and I were…
Shintaro:
It never ceases to amaze me… how baca shinobi can be so good at keeping secrets… that they manage to keep their precious secrets… even from themselves…
Shikamaru:
Well… why don’t you help us baca shinobi out… and cut to the chase… No more stalling… No more digressions… What exactly did you find at the other end of that portal?…
Shintaro:
Aren’t you curious at all about your own fathers role in all of this?…
Shikamaru:
Ai… But that can wait… The more I hear about all this… the more I think my father must have kept some secret journal of all this… probably buried in that ridiculous vault of yours… along with copious notes… I think I would rather hear about his role… in his own words… Besides… I’m going to have to sort that mess out anyway now… So I’ll have that to look forward to… In the mean time… why don’t you just cut to it?… Eh?… Shintaro sensei?…
Shintaro:
At the other end of that portal… I found the flesh markets of the Otsutsuki Empire… They are like a commodity exchange for demons… trading in human flash and blood… among other atrocities… just like commodities on any such exchange… or even a supermarket… They are the means by which the empire manages the care and feeding of their pet demon hordes… their proxy army of mercenary demons… They also serve as dispatches… sending their pet demons wherever they need them… in exchange for their precious and profane rewards… That was the means… of the destruction of Uzushio… Although I must confess now that… my report on the Uzushio part of this… is woefully incomplete in certain key respects… When I wrote my report… there were some aspects of what had happened… that I didn’t learn until many years later… The how was understood well enough at the time… But the why remained illusive… and seemed relatively trivial in the face of looming empire… The great bulk of my report is taken over by the need to report on the empire it self… I had assumed the culpability of the empire directly… For an empire like the Otsutsuki’s… using an army of demons to destroy a small village on one lone planet… is as significant to them… as the swatting of a fly is… to man with a flyswatter… But many years later… I learned that the destruction of Uzushio… was the result of manipulations of these flesh markets… by the creature you may know… as the Black Zetsu… A creature that was heavily involved in manipulating events on this world for centuries… bringing about the Fourth Great Ninja War… I have come to believe that the Uzumaki Clan… as an institution… were targeted for neutralization by the Black Zetsu… as a potential threat to it’s ultimate aim of releasing it’s mother Otsutsuki Kaguya from her prison where she was sealed away… a thousand or so years ago… It was the awesome power of the Uzumaki Clan’s fuinjutsu… that the Black Zetsu feared… Because it could have sealed her away again potentially… even before Naruto… was even born… All the Black Zetsu would have had to do… is provide a portal… and a promise of a good meal and a fun time… It’s just a bonus if it happens to be a village with a tradition of demon hunting… special delight to be had then… But that is a relatively trivial revelation… compared to what I have learned about Kaguya herself… Only in recent years… after the death of my own wife at the hands of her own father… by the Otsutsuki Emperor himself… was it that I learned that Kaguya was my wife’s twin sister… the sister of Otsutsuki Kagumei… They were both twin daughters of the emperor…
Hannabi:
Holy crap and a half mad man!!!… Can you even prove that?!?…
Shintaro:
For that there is no real proof… other than hypothetical genetic testing with evidence that is completely unavailable… But that is still just where the interesting part begins…
Shikamaru:
There’s more?!?… Holy crap and a half indeed!… Mendocuse!…
Just as Shintaro drops his bombshells, the doorbell rings.
Shintaro:
Speak of the she-devil!… She’s arrived early!…
Hinata:
Who’s arrived early?!?…
Shintaro:
My daughter and her family… I took the liberty of inviting them over earlier… to help explain things… But I was hoping to get to explain a bit more before my daughter got here though… My daughter can be a bit difficult normally… and she’s bound to be very upset with me today…
Hinata jumps up from her cushion on the floor and makes her way to the front door, followed closely by Himawari, tightly grasping at her mother’s hoodie, tethered for dear sanity among the crazy. Shikamaru slides off his stool at the breakfast bar, to follow behind and check things out for himself. As Hinata opens the door, there stands Shikamaru’s best friend, the large light brown haired Akimichi Choji and his family, including his even larger brown haired father Choza, wearing a giant light blue kimono with pink butterflies all over it. Choji’s wife Karui joins them, with her more plump and Akimichi-like daughter Chocho, with long straight orange hair and yellow eyes like her mother, along with Karui’s brother Yukai.
Shikamaru:
Choji?!?… Did you know about this?!?…
Choji:
Sumimasen!… Shikamaru… Please understand!…
Shikamaru:
You are in so much trouble with me right now…
Choza:
Please try to have compassion… for my poor love struck son’s situation…
Karui:
Sumimasen… There really is nothing else I can say except… Sumimasen… My father is an incorrigible lunatic… Sumimasen…
Hinata:
Well… You might as well all come in and get comfortable… I have a feeling it’s going to be a long night…
There Is No Alone!
Forever Never Ending!
There Is No Escape!
There Is No Point In Pretending!
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