37 The Lost Traces of The Uzumaki Clan (1)

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A week has already passed by since Neji's unexpected and precarious confrontation with Toneri Otsutsuki. However, they all still survived in the end. They gave their last atoms of strength, but they still lived after all. Toneri later chased them day and night, inside the various terrains of the Land of Fire, after that. However, as Neji, shut all of their chakra presence they weren't found. It truly humiliated and reminded Neji that he still can't be complacent in the future despite getting so strong. After all, if Toneri managed to pressure him like that, what about full-blooded Otsutsuki members who are all above the so-called Six Paths level? Neji needed really to step up his game.

Nevertheless, even know they have all recovered more or less by now, Kiyomi apparently reported some kind of permanent eyesight loss due to her extensive overuse of the Mangekyo's abilities. Neji immediately reassured her that he would work on her eyesight next as soon as he established a permanent place where he could relocate his laboratory from the Land of Fire near the Konoha.

But first, Neji led them to try and find some of Uzumaki's secret long-lost heritage for Karin, as she wasn't aware of much of it on her own. Then, after elevating Kiyomi and Karin to their fullest potential, he could try and steal that Giant Tenseigan from Hiashi and bring himself to the next level of power as well. After all, he mainly lacked chakra, for now, DNA vision was still a longer-term plan.

In Neji's opinion, the Uzumaki were probably a less genetically gifted version of the Senju clan, regarding Hagoromo's "body" part of the inheritance without the possibility of awakening the Wood Release, therefore probably had to instead focus on fuinjutsu. Though the differences between them were minimal. Just like differences between the Hamura's "body" part of inheritance were also minimal between the Kaguya and the Otsutsuki clan on the Moon, one had Byakugan, while the other had bones kekkei genkai, however, both were relatively similar in terms of overall physique and chakra levels. While Hyuga and Uchiha were both Six Paths "eyes" genetic inheritors.

"Neji, is this really the hometown of my clan?", Karin walked among ruins in front of Neji and curious-looking Kiyomi. The place looked like it was destroyed a very long time ago, only a couple of Uzumaki clans symbols on parts of the demolished buildings here and there revealed its origins. They all came toward the Uzushiogakure, the hidden village of the Uzumaki clan a long time ago. It was located on a small, desolate island, in the sea between the Land of Fire and the Land of Water.

The Uzumaki made their home in the Land of Whirlpools, a small island nation off the eastern coast of the mainland, named for the whirlpools that manifest in its numerous rivers. Their missions typically involved traveling with sailors and merchants overseas to provide protection during their voyage, guarding coastal towns against bandits and ninja, and they were frequently hired to hunt down pirates causing trouble for the local authorities. Though, they were now mostly forgotten.

Karin was feeling weirdly sentimental at this time, walking around, as if she had some kind of deeper kind of connection with the place. Neji looked at this and sighed at how Sasuke never brought her here in the original. It was very easy to find thanks to Neji's knowledge of Naruverse geography from his past life and little research earlier in this world. Neji had some kind of intuitive feeling it could make Karin stronger. After all, Neji long ago realized that genetic memory was real here. Uzumaki clan's hundreds of years of history could probably make Karin compatible with fuinjutsu due to her genetic memory. Therefore, it was the predestined perfect direction for her.

"Yes, Karin, concentrate this time, look around more carefully. Maybe there is some kind of secret mechanism here waiting for you to discover. Then you can learn some secret techniques of your clan.", Neji suddenly mentioned. In his opinion, there was a big possibility for something like that.

After all, even in his previous life, it was always weird to him. The Uzumaki clan was obviously wiped out. However, why did such a great clan forget to leave any backhands behind? Or they did, but it simply wasn't shown? Karin, Nagato, and their parents were obviously survivors of the Uzumaki clan, scattered around different parts of the world. But what if there were more people like them? What if the Uzumaki clan managed to save some of their members from destruction purposefully and left them some kind of secret heritage, waiting for them to discover, which wasn't shown in the original?

They looked all over those ruins for a while, but they didn't discover anything new. However, all of sudden, Neji got a flash of inspiration and said to Karin, "Try to activate your Kagura's Mind Eye.", Karin was doubtful but still nodded and did what Neji asked, however, she still didn't find anything of value inside those ruins. Neji suddenly turned silent in disappointment, but then got another idea, "Try sensing all around this island, maybe there is something in the sea.", Karin listened to him again. Kiyomi and Neji turned silent while she concentrated hard. Both of them were not big talkers.

"Neji, I found something! Inside a small coral island around twenty kilometers away from here! There is a distinctive chakra footprint!", Karin suddenly spoke energetically, "Then let's go there!", Neji smiled, it seemed that he was proven right once again. He genuinely had a very good intuition. It seemed that only Uzumaki members who had awakened the Kagura Mind's Eye could spot that location. He wondered what kinds of shocking and unknown things waited to be discovered there.

***

Once in history existed a truly special existence. It was a country ruled by only one shinobi clan. That clan formed its own hidden village and even had the power of their whole country, where they resided, in their own hands. Outside of the usual shinobi-like services, their whole livelihood was based upon the powerful seals that they were making and then selling to other shinobi forces. The members of the clan were mostly discernable by their mainly red hair color coming in few shades.

Seals were a powerful tool made for shinobi. They are made of chakra and they could store all kinds of items inside, thereby providing a lot of convenience for the shinobi. They could also be used for a lot of other purposes like defense, or attacks. It all depended on the creativity used for the seals.

Uzumaki lived longer lives, and their wounds healed faster compared to other shinobi. This is why their hidden village was once called "The Village of Longevity". The only clan that could compare to them in this department was the Senju clan of the Hidden Leaf Village. The Senju and Uzumaki clans had an extremely good relationship throughout the whole history of their individual existence. They were also, unbeknownst to the world, also both descendants of the same ancestor Ashura Otsutsuki. The only difference between them, their fields of specialization, and some unique powers.

Every generation was closely interlinked with one another through arranged marriages and other various means. They were really close to a real family in that way. Following the founding of the Hidden Leaf Village at the end of the Warring States Period, the Senju chose to symbolize their clans' friendship by adding Uzumaki's emblem to Konoha's flak jackets. Konoha and the Uzumaki's own Uzushiogakure hidden village remained close allies over the following decades, with the Uzumaki providing fuinjutsu, seals, and expertise in seals, at cheap prices, to Konoha at all times. The peak of the relationship between the Uzumaki clan and the Senju clan and the Konoha by extension, was when the founder of the Konohagakure and the First Hokage married Mito Uzumaki.

However, due to his extreme "Will of Fire", as soon as the Warring States period ended and the Konohagakure village got established, with his belief that everyone should be a family, and that there should be no barriers between villagers, Hashiarama encouraged everyone in his Senju clan to intermarry with ordinary villagers as to make the village as a whole more strong and united, to make everyone more equal in power, totally unlike what closed clans as Hyuga or Uchiha believed.

That meant that the Senju clan ceased to exist, Mito Uzumaki died of old age, and Hashirama died even earlier due to some unknown reason. The Uzumaki clan found themselves suddenly left with no firm allies. They were left with just famously weak-willed and indecisive Hiruzen, and Danzo who whispered to his ear that they should just let Ushigakure get destroyed because it was too dangerous and strong and that going against the other four great ninja villages for one Uzumaki clan was suicide. Therefore, once they were attacked by the other four great ninja villages at that time, they got no help from Konohagakure and were truly destroyed to the point of no return then.

They already got Kushina Uzumaki to continue the lineage of backup jinchurikis, they got Uzumaki's techniques through Mito Uzumaki, and they didn't need them that much in Danzo's mind anymore.

After all, even Konoha was afraid of them. As for why the other four great ninja villages always wanted to massacre them so mercilessly, it was probably because the Uzumaki clan previously always helped Konoha by selling them seals at half price, even during the previous shinobi world wars. Also, they were stronger than each of them, that's why they had to gang up to destroy them.

Konoha always preferred Uzumaki clan jinchurikis instead of Senju ones, despite them both having similarly strong bodies and large chakra pools because only Hashirama managed to ever get the illustrious Wood Release required for taming the tailed beast once it run away, of the Senjus, meanwhile many ordinary Uzumaki clan members learned the Adamantine Sealing Chains, therefore, they were better containers for those beasts, they could catch it back if it ever runs away.

In fact, not only Konoha did not help the Uzumaki clan, it even left the Iwagakure and Sunagakure forces, who needed to come through the Land of Fire due to basic geography, at that time, to pass freely without alerting the Uzushiogakure. And that fight lasted for days, they could come to help as Uzushio was just in the sea right beside the Land of Fire. It was apparent that it was a classical sellout done by them. This was all hypothesized by Neji even in his previous life as a fanfic writer. He just got more and more confirmations recently while he researched information related to that clan.

Previously, Karin noticed a peculiar chakra presence inside this small coral island, and they promptly came there. However, only Karin could see and was allowed to pass the secret seal formation which guarded it probably from outsiders. So, she went in, while he and Kiyomi remained outside, standing on the water and waiting for her to come out again. Neji was really looking forward to it. Neji talked about his theories regarding the Uzumaki clan previously with Karin to pass on time. Karin was apparently taking really long inside, however, he checked with his eyes, and she was fine.

"Damn, this Konoha is really more insidious than I thought! They could betray their own ally, their own clan who founded them. They simply deserve to get destroyed, it's universal justice!", Kiyomi gritted her teeth after getting the full story from Neji. She also had a bit more good feeling for Karin realizing that they shared quite similar fates regarding the clans to which they belonged to.

"I don't know how were they defeated in the end, however, it must've been quite a fight as nearly all of the big nations had to band together against them. Maybe Karin will clear this out for us later. I suspect that she is currently receiving some kind of very important inheritance from her clan inside. The stronger she is, it's better for us as a team and for your dream of destroying the Konoha. It's kind of us against the whole world.", Neji added and looked at Kiyomi who looked like she agreed.

And just like that, Neji and Kiyomi had to spend another three hours in mindless chatter before Karin came out of the mini-island looking dazed. She also now got the control seal of the place.

"I met with the last patriarch of the Uzumaki clan just now! He was very old, in fact probably over a hundred years old, and he was called Ashina Uzumaki. He left a part of his soul inside of this place before he perished in battle for the survival of the clan against four big ninja villages. However, no one could see this due to his special seal, only a member of the Uzumaki clan with great potential, meaning the Kagura's Mind Eye that I awakened. He didn't want to talk to you, that's why I couldn't bring you in. His soul went to the Pure Land after we finished the conversation. He was very powerful.", Karin finally spoke after gathering and segmenting all the information that she heard.

"He told me that it took four Kages acting together to kill him, on that day, alongside a dozen of S-class shinobi by today's standards. He invented many of Uzumakis' strongest techniques himself. He also told me that he was stronger than the legendary Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha during his time. He also lived through both the Warring States period and the Hidden Village period of the world. In fact, he even found the Uzushiogakure based on the Konohagakure's model.", Karin spoke.

"All material valuables of the clans were looted by those great ninja villages that attacked them, while they burned down all the techniques so they don't get it. He could teach me only verbally now about many different techniques of the last clan, however, I still got it!", Karin praised herself.

"Ah yes! I'm the new patriarch of the Uzumaki clan!", Karin suddenly made a serious pose and laughed, "That elder told me to revive the Uzumaki clan in the future. And that they purposefully left some of their members, like my parents, to scatter all over the world in hopes of one day a strong inheritor of the Kagura Eye appearing looking for them and then reviving the Uzumaki clan secretly! That's me! The elder praised me as one of the Uzumakis with the most potential in history. He told me only Kushina Uzumaki and Mito Uzumaki could compare! to me!", Karin boasted again.

"And you agreed?", Neji smiled and asked all of a sudden, "Of course, Neji! That was the condition for teaching me all those techniques. How could I help you in the future, and stay by your side, without being stronger than now? Wait, you have something against me reviving my clan later!?",

Karin suddenly responded back while Neji confidently interjected, "I don't even have anything against you going after all the big five villages for destroying your clan, they are lightweight. I support you in whatever you want just like Kiyomi. I just want you to train hard and get stronger.", Kiyomi looked at him and nodded in satisfaction, while Karin looked over warmly and with a blush.

"Alright, but what exactly did you learn from him regarding jutsu?", This was what now interested Neji the most. Of course, he was also very surprised by Ashina's unexpected strength in her words.

"Well, all kinds of Uzumaki standard sealing techniques, also some barrier ninjutsu of various scales. Don't worry, I wrote everything on a scroll while he taught me. Then there are those two... In fact, now that I know everything, they were probably one of the most dangerous techniques in the whole world. It was no wonder that the Uzumaki clan was so feared that it managed to bring together all the previously warring four big nations against it.", Karin suddenly turned serious "The Reaper Death Seal and the Adamantine Sealing Chains are the strongest moves of my entire clan. And there are are way more stuff to those two jutsu than the rest of the world currently believes..."