Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Uzumaki Mito knows she's condemned herself to an afterlife of suffering after she chose to seal the Kyuubi, Tenko-sama, into herself. Her actions set off a long chain of consequences for the biju. She will be the cause for the enslavement of the rest of the biju and she knows no amount of repentance will make up for her choices. 

Her patron god, Shinigami-sama, must be disappointed in her. She wonders what her punishment will be when they come for her in the end. 

She thinks she could have grown to care for the Kyuubi were it not for the hatred he carries. It's too strong for her to contain, let alone try to help ease. 

Mito is the first of her kind - a jinchuriki - and while others may forget, she doesn't. She can't allow herself to. She created this system of power that binds the biju - sentient chakra creatures - to the villages as a means of a weapon.

Time passes and soon it's time for her to pick her successor - as if all the other jinchuriki aren't her successors - and it's an easy choice. It's an easy choice because she knows Kushina and knows she's strong, stronger than any Uzumaki has been. Her chakra is dense and bright; it's a blinding golden color. It's like staring straight at the sun. However, most of all, Kushina is kind and understanding. She wouldn't resent Mito for choosing her for this and she also wouldn't resent the Kyuubi. 

Kushina grew up with tales of the biju and their roles in the world. Her connection with the Shinigami was deep and powerful. Although she was a child, she was the only worthy option for her successor. This was only further proven to be true when she displayed her chakra chains. 

Her adamantine chains were a pure replica of how her chakra appeared to sensors. They were thick and dense with her bright chakra, glowing a bright gold. She could manifest them from anywhere on her body and could control the length, thickness, and strength with little difficulty.

If she had been younger, it was possible she could have survived the extraction but Mito was well past her prime, even as an Uzumaki. Besides, she had lived a long and fulfilling life. 

Dying was simply greeting an old friend. It was meeting her god once again and leaving to serve him. She would do whatever he saw fit as punishment for starting the age of jinchuriki. It was only fitting. 

When she took her final breath, her god was already waiting for her as they held out a hand for her. 

“Shinigami-sama, I am sorry for shaming you,” she says as she bows deeply to him. 

“You need not worry, Mito-chan. It was always going to happen. If you still feel like you need to repay a debt,” they paused and Mito hurriedly nodded at them, “I believe there is something for you to do for me. In a few years, Kushina will die along with her future husband. He will use the Shiki Fujin to seal half of the Kyuubi inside of himself and the other half inside of their newborn daughter. Kushina will join Minato in my realm, helping him to fight his way out until they find their way to the Pure Lands. There will be no one to teach her of her heritage. She is important. I would like you to mentor her.”

Mito looks at her god with barely hidden shock. Many vital pieces of information had been dropped on her in just a few sentences and she felt a pang of grief hit her at the mention of her grand niece’s future death. She’s not sure how it’ll happen but the Kyuubi will escape and with no one - no Uzumaki - there to coach and teach Kushina’s daughter, she will be undoubtedly unprepared for her fate. 

“Do you accept it?” 

It’s a simple choice, really. 

“Yes. I accept, Shinigami-sama.” 

“Some time will have passed by the time I let you out of this pocket space. I wish you well in this endeavor and remember, you will only have a few years with her. It’s not natural for my own to linger.”

Before she can ask just how much time will have passed, she’s thrown out and finds herself in a Konoha she does not recognize and in a body she hasn’t inhabited since she was young. 

On the Hokage Monument is a new face that looks almost familiar in a way. 

Oh, it was the boy that Mito had found lingering around the compound, searching and waiting for Kushina. The spiky hair and shape of the eyes was a dead giveaway. Kushina had done good for herself then. She must have followed her advice because it was obvious even then how much the boy cared for her grand niece. She was unsure if tragedy had already struck because surely there would be a new kage on the monument if it was so. 

Well, no time like the present, she thought as she walked - well, floated, really - to the hokage tower. 

In it, she found her brother-in-law's student back in his seat and she knew that it had already passed if Hiruzen was reinstated as hokage. 

Mito supposes that if Minato had only been a kage for a few years, a new kage would be out of the question. It would make Konoha appear weak and she knew Hiruzen had a great reputation that spanned across the Elemental Nations. 

From where she stands, Hiruzen looks tired and weary, aged beyond his years. She can’t see anything of the young boy she once knew and wonders where things went so wrong. 

She knows next to nothing of this new future she’s in, only that her grand niece and her husband died but not before they made a child who turned into a jinchuriki as a newborn. She doesn’t even know what their daughter looks like or what her name is. 

Deciding it her top priority to find their daughter, she does what any other shinobi would do and gets to information gathering. Finding out she can still use chakra is a shock but as it turns out, it’s still not physical so nothing she creates can be translated into the corporeal world. 

Henging into a nondescript genin with dark, short brown hair, the diamond seal hidden away, she gets to work. As it turns out, there are many ghosts in Konoha, lingering for one reason or another. She fashions herself into a confused and beaten down little thing, making it so that the other ghosts will help her. She explains to a group that are willing to hear her out that she just been on a mission when she found herself in a room with her family - looking older than she had ever seen - looking at her body. She tells them of her confusion at the new face on the monument and they take pity on her, consoling her, and catch her up to date. 

One of them explains how she must have been injured near the tail end of the Third Shinobi War and fallen into a coma, only for them to finally pull the plug on her. She makes a show of sobbing even louder at that information and the woman of the group rubs soothing circles on her back as the youngest one - around nineteen years old - explains how Namikaze Minato had been elected as the Yondaime Hokage after his brilliance during the war. He explained how he had earned himself a Flee-On-Sight rank in all bingo books and how not only two years into the rule, the Kyuubi attacked and killed it but with the cost of his life. 

One of the older men glares at him at use of the Kyuubi and says it’s against the law to mention the beast and the younger argues that it doesn’t matter because they’re already dead. The one who had stayed silent the whole time speaks up at the mention of the Kyuubi and says that the Yondaime couldn't have killed it and that it still ran around. Her eyes would have narrowed if she were any less excellent but she motions for him to continue, eyes wide in shock and terror at the thought of such a thing. 

He explains how the beast disguised itself as a harmless little girl with hair the color of blood and whisker marks decorating her cheeks. He calls it vile to use such a disguise and Mito feels fury and rage fill her at the stupidity of the man in front of her. It’s clear he’s talking about Kushina’s daughter. 

“Ano… how long has it been since the Kyuubi attack?” 

“Three years today. If we’re lucky, that beast will die today. I almost got it last year, you know?,” he sounds proud of himself and it, he, disgusts her, “It’s why I died. I managed to round up a group of my men and we were so close to killing it but its guards got me before I could harm it. Yoshi though… he managed to live up to his name and although he didn’t kill it, he got a good hit on it.”

“Do you know...” she stops because she doesn’t want to dehumanize their daughter but the show must go on, “where it lives? I know I’m… already dead… But, I’d like to avoid it if possible.”

“Oh yeah, the little demon lives in the orphanage near Yuki’s. You can’t miss it.” 

Continuing with her ruse, “Ano, thank you, oji-san. I think… I think I need to find someone I know but if I can’t… Do you think I could stay with you guys?” She looks at the ground demurely and it’s the woman of the group who speaks up. 

“Course ya’ can. Don’t ya’ worry ‘bout a thing. We’ll stay here for the next couple days for ya’ if ya’ can’t find no one.”

“Thank you so much!” She wills her cheeks to flush and waves goodbye to them, disappearing from their sights all too quickly and immediately the revulsion and hatred she hid comes back tenfold. 

They dare make out the little hime as a demon, as the Kyuubi. Has the village forgotten all of what the Uzumaki have done for them? The mere disrespect is enough to get her going, not to mention everything she has learned. She drops the henge as soon as she leaves their sights.

This Konoha is disgusting and vile if they can’t protect a child and neglect what should not be neglected. She can’t believe she ever put as much stock as she did in Konoha after hearing of the atrocities it has done to its own Uzumaki Princess and jinchuriki. 

Mito has much to think about but first and most importantly, she needs to find Kushina’s daughter. It doesn’t take much time and she finds herself in an orphanage during lunchtime. She can’t see any red hair among the children so she searches the rooms and still finds none.

It’s as she’s leaving the hallway that she hears the quiet cries of a child and she knows… she knows it has to be their daughter. Following the sound of her little sobs, she finds her in a small room - a closet - and enters, phasing right past the door. 

There is no light in the room but some of the sunlight seeps in through the cracks of the door and she can see how the little girl has buried her head between her legs and it pains her to know how she learned such a technique. 

Kneeling down, Mito reaches out and puts a hand on her knee and asks, “Little one, what’s wrong?” The girl looked up, her cries stopped short, and though she couldn't quite see her, the girl had heard her. 

It’s silent for a while but Mito is patient  and folds her hands and sets them on her lap. 

“Onee-chan is… dead?”

Well, not exactly how she wanted to start this conversation but it’s a start. 

Chapter Text

“Yes, I am dead. I have been for quite a while but it seems that I have lost a few years since then and have only appeared now.” Mito’s voice is soft as she speaks to the little girl. 

The child stares at her for a long while and she is grateful she is no longer crying. Her tears would have probably started her own because no child should be treated the way her littlest family member has. 

“That’s sad,” she whispers hoarsely, as if she had been screaming, “but why you here? Not scared?” 

“Why are you here,” Mito corrects immediately and the girl only tilts her head, “To answer, no, I am not scared of you. You’re only a little girl, after all.”

“No, I’m demon. Yui-sama said so.” The girl nods her head and the rage that’s been simmering beneath her skin only grows at her words.

How dare they treat her like this?

She is going to respond and correct her thinking when the door slams open and the girl’s eyes widen and scurries to push herself further into the corner.

Mito turns to find herself with a furious, red-faced civilian who scolds the girl in front of her. The civilian’s words are lost on her because her attention is focused solely on the girl who’s being dragged out of the room only to be roughly cleaned and made to appear nice compared to the raggedy. She doesn’t deny her effectiveness because she can see how Kushina’s daughter transformed from an obviously abused and neglected child to a normal if skinny child. 

Now that she’s clean, Mito can see just how much she resembles Kushina and it makes her heart ache at the sight. Her hair is crimson like any Uzumaki's is meant to be but it barely manages to reach her collar bones. It’s been trimmed short to even it out and only makes her face appear even rounder than it is. Her cheeks are adorned by whisker-like birthmarks, a feature undoubtedly attributed to being conceived by a jailor of the Kyuubi. Her nose is just like Kushina’s as well, small and round. She doesn’t have purple eyes but the blue she remembers Kushina’s lovesick boy having. They’re the only reminder of her not being a full Uzumaki as they were distinctly Fire Country features. 

Through it all, Kushina’s daughter stares at her with wide eyes and she knows it’s because of their shared hair color. After all, it is unique to Konoha with their largely brunette population. There’s wonder in her eyes and she clearly wants to talk to her but she’s wary of the consequences so only her eyes focus on her. 

The civilian dresses her in a light blue yukata that’s decorated with a multitude of white and pink flowers. It’s most likely the nicest clothing they’d be willing to give her because it’s falling apart at the seams and looks aged but it is still able to be somewhat appropriate. It’s her birthday so perhaps she’s being taken out for a nice day but she doubts it. 

Her hair is too short to be placed into an actual bun so the civilian makes two braids on either sides of her hair and pins them back, leaving pieces to frame her face. 

Mito feels her heart ache at the sight because with how nice she looks, the ugliness of the neglect and abuse is hidden well. What need should people look closer if she looks perfectly fine? None. 

She follows after them as they leave to go outside and she finds herself looking at Hiruzen. He’s in his full hokage regalia and she watches from afar as he walks throughout the village with her, hand in hand. Kushina’s daughter is subjected to the stares of both the living and the dead. He’s making his stance on her quite clear to all but also… Hiruzen wouldn’t… but he is. He is actively manipulating the little girl with his actions. It disgusts her, if she’s being honest. This Hiruzen is no longer the boy, nor the man she once knew. What had happened for everything to go so wrong?

They stop at a small restaurant and Mito drifts over to find a familiar face. Teuchi-san has grown older since she last saw him and he now has a daughter. It warms her heart to know he is still alive. It had been her idea for his family to immigrate to Konoha, after all. 

Teuchi-san welcomes them with a large smile on his face and says, “Welcome back, Hokage-sama and Naruto-chan! I suppose it’s been a year already?” 

Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto. Her name is Naruto and it makes her want to laugh and cry at the same time. It was such a Kushina thing to name her daughter after ramen but also as an ode to their fallen home. Fishcake and maelstrom. 

Naruto’s - and it feels so good to finally know her name - face lights up and responds, “Mhm, ji-san!” 

Hearing her voice once again, she sounds just like Kushina had at that age. She is hit with a sudden grief because Mito had died when Kushina was barely reaching her teen years and now her daughter, the same age she had when she had been selected to be the next container, is already a jinchuriki with no one looking out for her. Kushina had died before her thirtieth birthday, possibly before even her twenty-fifth or even twentieth. She had lived a fourth of what Mito had and now Mito must continue going on because although she had failed Kushina, she can’t and won’t fail her daughter. 

Konoha will kill Naruto as it had killed every other Uzumaki it had housed. She can’t let that happen. Not when it is her fault to begin with. She should have died in that fight, rather than chain and seal Kyuubi-sama. She wishes she could say she had only doomed her family with her actions but she has harmed more people than most in one lifetime, inadvertently or not. 

Mito doesn’t deserve forgiveness but she would still like to apologize to the rest of the biju because they were the ones she affected the most. Kyuubi-sama had heard her apology and then went on to curse her and threaten her. She had seen that coming from miles away but he had been pensive as she spoke before snarling at her and kicking her out. 

Naruto can learn from her mistakes, she hopes her seal is different from her own and Kushina’s, that it is kinder. No matter her choices, Mito hopes her seal doesn’t restrict him in the way their own had because he doesn’t deserve it, not really. Not even after he attacked Konoha during Naruto’s birth, and she is sure that is when Kushina died because it is the only time a seal like hers would have been weakened. 

Shaking her head, she realizes that whatever conversation they were having is long done and they’re exiting the stand and walking in the exact opposite direction of the orphanage. They enter an apartment and she realizes rather suddenly why they’re in an apartment. Naruto is a child and he’s leaving her alone with no caretaker. Even the abusive one is better than none because she knows without a doubt that Naruto doesn’t have basic life skills like cooking, cleaning, or even budgeting. Hiruzen is a fool . 

Eventually, he leaves and Naruto’s attention is back on her. 

“Who are you? Why do you have my hair?” 

“I am Mito and the reason why we have the same hair color is because we are both Uzumaki.” That should be simple enough.

Naruto’s eyes widen before they narrow at her. 

“Liar. I’m only Uzumaki.”

“I’m the only Uzumaki,” she corrects. “However, you are not. We are from the same family, the same clan, the Uzumaki clan. We are not originally from Konoha but from Uzushiogakure, the Village Hidden in the Whirlpools. It is east of here. We come from the tides and eddies; the sea is in our blood. We are known for our red hair and our longevity, which means that we live longer than most, but also our sealing abilities which is called fuuinjutsu. I am your great grand-aunt from your mother’s side. I am so sorry I couldn't come sooner, my child.” She reaches out to caress Naruto’s face as best as she can and she watches as her eyes become glassy and her lips quiver. 

“I have family? Jiji… lied?” Her face scrunches up and Mito can time the exact moment she breaks down because she throws herself at her and Mito tries to catch her but she is a ghost and she can only watch as she cries harder at the realization that they could never touch, that she will never be tangible. 

When she calms down, she looks up at her and with red rimmed eyes and says, “Tell me about her.” It’s not a question but a request and if there is anything that Mito can do, it is this one thing. Kushina's daughter deserves to know about her mother. 

“I don’t know everything because I died when she was just a teen but her name was Uzumaki Kushina and she looked just like you and me, long, crimson hair, round face, and wide smile. She was my apprentice and she came to Konoha when she was eight. She was a whirlwind of a girl…”