Chapter Text
Six Years Ago. Uzushiogakure, the Land of Whirlpools.
The Hall of resonating souls was not a place for the living. It was a cavern carved deep beneath the bedrock of Uzushiogakure, illuminated dimly by the bioluminescent fungi that clung to the ceiling like stars in a night sky and the soft light of the crystal tables that symbolize every Uzumaki living.
In the center of the vast chamber stood the Ancestral pedestal where hundreds of crystal tablets rested, many glowing a faint, pulsing light while others were mute. They were not merely glass but tied to the life force of the Uzumaki blood.
Arashi Uzumaki, the fourth Uzukage, stood in silence. He is an old man, his once fiery red hair now a rust-like white, but his back was straight as a spear. Beside him stood a young woman, barely nineteen, her hair a waterfall of crimson while her eyes sharps and icy violet.
Kiyomi Uzumaki.
A quiet hum could be heard, both Uzumaki snapping their eyes to the sound where a new crystal began to knit itself together from the ambient chakra of the cave. It was small, fragile. The light dim as it is just beginning its life, flickering violently as they do when facing great danger.
A new Uzumaki has been born, not in Uzushio as they didn’t have records of any advanced pregnancy at the Uzumaki compound. That only could mean one thing, Kushina’s son has been born.
Both stood there in the Hall watching the new crystal form as a report came from the barrier team just moments ago: The Nine tailed beast has been extracted from its host, Kushina Uzumaki.
Kiyomi’s breath itches for a moment,betraying her usual calm demeanor, knowing what’s to come. Extracting a bijuu from its host just means one thing, after all.
Suddenly, a sound echoed through the silent cavern: sharp, violent, and final.
CRACK
On the highest tier of the pedestal, a tablet shattered. The light within it dying instantly, a fast death. The broken pieces of the crystal now devoid of any light indicating life.
"Kushina..." Arashi whispered, closing his eyes. The loss hit the room like a physical wave of pressure. Their Princess, their Diplomat, a mother, daughter, grandchild and big sister. Gone.
Kiyomi didn't weep. She stared at the dust that used to be her sister, her face an unreadable mask of porcelain while her mind was a turmoil of sorrow, her big sister Kushina who she could only admire from stories and what she told in her correspondence was gone. Leaving behind a child who seemed to be at death's door.
"If she is dead," Kiyomi said, her voice devoid of tremors, "then the beast is free. And if the beast is free..."
The little crystal light that was her nephew’s suddenly lighted up with renewed force.
Arashi’s eyes snapped open. He leaned forward, his weathered hands gripping his staff. "The boy."
Kiyomi stepped closer. "He lives. The Jinchūriki transfer... Was it successful?"
"Or the beast was sealed within him," Arashi surmised grimly, after all Uzumaki were the only ones who could contain the Nine tailed beast, and the only Uzumaki in Konoha was the prince son of deceased princess of Uzushio, Kushina Uzumaki.
Arashi decided to wait for Konoha’s message, brought by a toad summon two days later, a scroll sealed with the Hokage’s personal crest. Arashi read it out loud, his voice loud in the silence of the cavern where they reunited again. Present were only Kiyomi Uzumaki and himself.
"Regret to inform... Nine-Tails attack... Casualties are heavy... Minato Namikaze has fallen . Kushina Uzumaki has fallen. The child... perished with them."
Silence returned to the Hall. It was heavy, suffocating.
Kiyomi looked at the scroll, then at the small, flickering tablet on the pedestal. The light was once again weak, implying the child was suffering or his chakra was being suppressed, but it was undeniably unbroken.
"They lie," Kiyomi said. The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees. "Hiruzen Sarutobi lies to us."
"He likely fears for the boy’s safety," Arashi said, though his grip on the scroll tightened until the paper tore. "Or... he covets the weapon for himself. He thinks Uzushio is dead to the world. He thinks we will never know the truth."
"Do we strike?" Kiyomi asked. Her hand drifted to the iron fan at her hip.
"No," the Uzukage commanded. "The Ryūjin’s coil is at its peak. No ship can leave without being crushed by the tides. We must build a vessel capable of piercing our own barrier. And we must wait."
He looked at the flickering light of the newborn.
"We will give them a grace period. If the light fades, nature has taken him. But if that light is still burning when the Silent Tide is ready to launch..."
Arashi looked at Kiyomi, his eyes hardening into steel.
"Then you will go, Kiyomi. And you will remind the Leaf why they feared the Whirlpool."
Present Day. The Gates of Konohagakure.
It was a miserable morning for those needing to leave their homes at Konoha. A dense, unnatural fog had rolled in from the Naka River, blanketing the Hidden Leaf village in a cold, damp gray.
Izumo and Kotetsu shivered at the main gate.
“I hate this weather,” Kotetsu muttered, pulling his flak jacket tighter. “It’s not natural. Even the birds are quiet, the leaves don’t move with the wind.”
"Stop complaining," Izumo sighed, leaning back in his chair. "It’s just a cold front from the coast. Nothing is going to happen today."
As if to mock him, the moment he finishes his sentence the fog in front of the greatest gates began to swirl,
The sound came first, not footsteps but the rhythmic, heavy thrum of displaced air. It almost resembled a heartbeat.
Then, the silhouette emerged.
It was a ship, not on water. Hovering three feet above the dirt road leading to the gates, gliding silently on a cushion of visible, blue chakra was a ship. The hull was jet black, etched with glowing azure sealing scripts that pulsed in time with the thrumming sound.
It had no sails, it needed none.
"What in the..." Kotetsu scrambled to his feet, grabbing his kunai. "Alert the ANBU! Unidentified craft!"
The ship stopped ten meters from the gate. The chakra drive powered down with a hissing exhale and the vessel settled onto the ground with a heavy thud.
A ramp lowered and two figures descended. Two flanking guards were dressed in armor that looked like a hybrid of samurai plating and shinobi mesh, their faces hidden behind porcelain masks depicting snarling sea dragons with the Uzushio symbol on their foreheads.
Between them walked a woman, she wore a formal kimono of deep indigo, the layers shifting like ocean waves as she moved. Her dark crimson hair pinned back with a silver ornament. She carried no visible weapon, save for a folded iron fan tucked into her obi.
She stood before the slightly panicked Chunin, her violet eyes piercing while scanning them, lingering for a moment on the red spiral crests stitched onto their flak jackets. Her mouth twitched into a scowl before going back to her polite smile.
“Halt!” Izumo shouted, though his voice wavered. “State your business and affiliation! This is a restricted entry point”
The woman tilted her head slightly. The gesture was elegant and utterly condescending.
“Affiliation?” She repeated, her voice soft, melodic and cold as a winter stream.
Her hand raised to point a manicured finger at Izumo’s left arm where a red spiral a little lower from his shoulder.
“You wear the crest of my family’s house on your arm and back. You bleed and die wearing the symbol of my people and yet… you ask who I am?”
Izumo looked down at his jacket, then back at her red hair. His eyes widened. The color drained from his face.
"Uzumaki..." he whispered. "But... that’s impossible. Uzushiogakure is destroyed."
"Is it?" The woman stepped forward. The fog seemed to part around her. "I am Lady Kiyomi of the Uzumaki Clan. I am here to speak with Hiruzen Sarutobi. Open this gate, or I will open it myself."
The Hokage’s office
The air in the room was stagnant, thick with the smell of old tobacco and the sudden, sharp scent of ozone brought in by the visitors.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat behind his desk. He had faced armies, demons, and gods. Yet, as Kiyomi Uzumaki glided into the room, the God of Shinobi felt himself on high alert as if facing any of the previously mentioned rather than a 25 year old woman.
She didn't storm in. She flowed in, her movements so graceful they made the ANBU guards look clumsy by comparison.
"Lady Kiyomi," Hiruzen began, rising from his chair. He opted for a warm, grandfatherly tone, a tactic that usually disarmed foreign dignitaries. "It has been a long time. Please, sit. May I offer you some tea?"
Kiyomi stopped in the center of the room. She looked at the chair offered to her, then looked at Hiruzen with a small, pitying smile. It was the kind of smile one gives to a child who has drawn a picture on the wall.
"Tea?" she repeated, her voice light and airy. "Oh, no, Lord Hokage. I wouldn't dream of depleting your... obviously limited supplies."
Her eyes flickered briefly to the slightly worn edges of the curtains and the stack of paperwork on his desk. The implication was clear: Konoha is poor, and you are struggling after the Kyuubi attack.
"Besides," she smoothed the silk of her indigo kimono, "I fear the water in the Leaf might not agree with me. It has been stagnant for so long."
Koharu, one of the elders, stiffened. "The Leaf is as strong as ever, Lady Uzumaki. Do not mistake our hospitality for weakness."
Kiyomi turned her head slowly to look at the elder. She blinked, as if surprised the woman had spoken.
"My apologies," Kiyomi said, offering a slight bow that was technically perfect but felt like a slap. "I did not recognize you, Elder Koharu. I assumed, given the tragedy of the last war, that the council had... refreshed its perspective. It is quaint to see you are all still holding on."
She turned back to Hiruzen before Koharu could sputter a response.
"But we are not here to discuss interior decoration or retirement plans. We are here to correct a clerical error."
"A clerical error?" Hiruzen asked, wary.
"Yes." Kiyomi reached into her sleeve. Her movements were slow, deliberate. She pulled out the velvet-wrapped Soul Tablet and set it gently on the desk, right on top of Hiruzen’s paperwork.
She unwrapped it. The faint, flickering light of Naruto’s life force pulsed in the crystal.
"You see," she continued, her voice dripping with faux-sweetness, "six years ago, we received a scroll from this very office. It detailed the tragic, heartbreaking death of my sister, Kushina. And, tragically, the death of her newborn son."
She tilted her head, her smile widening just a fraction, though her violet eyes remained dead cold.
"Imagine our confusion, Lord Hokage, when this tablet did not shatter. For six years, we watched it. We thought, 'Surely, the Great Professor, the God of Shinobi, would not lie to his oldest allies.' That would be... dishonorable. Treasonous, even."
She leaned forward slightly, resting her manicured fingertips on the desk.
"So, I assumed it was an error. Perhaps the boy was lost? Misplaced in the chaos? Surely you didn't hide a Prince of the Eddies like a common stolen trinket."
The room was silent. Hiruzen looked at the tablet, unable to meet her eyes.
"The boy," Danzo Shimura spoke, his voice rasping from the corner of the room. He didn't stand. "Is a Jinchūriki. A military asset of the Hidden Leaf. His status was classified to protect the village from the enemies of his father."
Kiyomi straightened up. She turned to Danzo. Her smile didn't vanish, but it changed. It became sharp. Predatory.
"Ah. Shimura-dono." She used the honorific, but her tone suggested she was speaking to a servant who had spoken out of turn. "I see you are still lurking in the shadows. How... consistent of you."
"The Nine-Tails," Danzo pressed, ignoring her jab, "is a Konoha asset. You have no claim."
Kiyomi let out a soft, musical laugh. It was a chilling sound.
"An asset?" she repeated, as if he had told a funny joke. "Oh, you poor, confused man."
She took two slow steps toward Danzo. Her guards tensed, but she simply opened her fan with a sharp snap, covering the lower half of her face. Only her eyes were visible now, narrowed and amused.
"You believe because you sealed a beast into a child, you own the child? By that logic, if I stab a Konoha ninja with an Uzumaki blade, does he become my property?"
She lowered the fan, her smile gone, replaced by a look of bored superiority.
"Naruto is not a kunai to be stored in your armory, Danzo. He is of Royal Blood. And you..." She looked him up and down, sneering at his bandages. "...you look like you are barely holding yourself together, let alone a village. It is adorable that you think you can threaten me."
"Enough," Hiruzen said, his voice firm but tired. "Kiyomi. What do you want?"
Kiyomi turned back to the Hokage, her polite mask sliding back into place instantly.
"I want to help you, Lord Hokage," she lied smoothly. "It must be so burdensome, caring for a child you clearly have no resources for. I have walked your streets. I have seen the paint on the walls. The glaring eyes. It is clear that raising a Prince is beyond the... capabilities... of your current administration."
She clasped her hands together.
"So, I will relieve you of this burden. I will take custody of my nephew within the village. I will ensure he is fed, clothed, and educated in a manner befitting his station. You will grant us access to the Uzumaki-Senju compound."
"That compound has been sealed for decades," Homura argued. "It is deep within the village."
"Then unseal it," Kiyomi said pleasantly. "Or would you prefer I do it? My methods are... less subtle. I might accidentally bring down the surrounding district."
Hiruzen rubbed his temples. He knew he had lost. If he refused, she would expose the lie to the other clans. Or worse, she would leave, and the threat of the Uzushio fleet was not something he could test.
"You may have access to the compound," Hiruzen sighed. "But the boy stays in the Academy. He stays a Leaf Ninja."
Kiyomi bowed deep, the picture of elegant obedience.
"Of course, Lord Hokage. We wish for him to have a... robust education."
She turned to leave, signaling her guards. At the door, she paused and looked back at Hiruzen one last time.
"Oh, and Lord Hokage?"
"Yes?"
"Do try to train your shinobi and subordinates so they don’t speak out of turn," she said with a small, sympathetic smile. "It would be a shame if a war between allies broke out because your people don’t know when to keep their mouth shut."
She stepped out, leaving the threat hanging in the humid air.