15 The ruins of the whirlpool
"Kushina-chan is that you?" asked Kenji in surprise.
"SHSSSS, let's not talk here let's go to a more hidden place" Kushina said putting her cap back on.
"Ok, let's go to my house" Said Kenji still surprised to meet his former student again.
When Kenji and Kushina were on their way to Kenji's house they were interrupted by the mayor
"Thank you sir warrior for saving my granddaughter and this town" Said the old man as he bowed to Kenji.
"No need to thank me mayor, I just did my duty" Said Kenji as he lifted him up. After that he walked out of the port leaving behind the villagers who gave him a look of deep gratitude
"You are quite the hero Kenji-sensei" Kushina said with a smile.
Kenji who was now a little shy replied "That's the least I can do for this village since I've been living here for many years" Kenji replied
As they walked away from the harbor Kushina stopped and said "Let's wait for my escorts Kenji-sensei, I didn't come here alone."
Kenji nodded his head and they waited for Tsunade and Shizune to arrive.
Kenji was confused as the other girls were also wearing black clothes that covered their whole body
Once they arrived they said nothing and headed to Kenji's house in silence.
They arrived at a two story house, on the second floor there was a blacksmith shop with several weapons displayed on the wall and on the second floor was Kenji's house
"So you work as a blacksmith Kenji-sensei" Kushina said as she saw Kenji's store.
"Yes, ever since I discovered the destruction of our clan, I have been living here forging tools and weapons for the village" Kenji replied as he led them up to the second floor
Once they sat down on Kenji's couch they removed the hats that covered their faces. Kenji was even more surprised to see Tsunade, who wouldn't recognize the legendary sannin, then he turned his gaze to Shizune but didn't recognize her. Seeing Kushina's face brought tears to his eyes, it's been a long time since he's seen another Uzumaki
"It's been a long time Kenji-sensei it's good to see you" Kushina said with a warm smile.
"You've grown up Kushina-chan, you're all grown up now" Kenji replied.
Kushina and Kenji started talking about their lives, Kushina was telling him about her life in Konoha and how she met Minato and now they were married, While kenji was telling him how was her life in port Yōsui.
Kushina after spending half an hour talking to Kenji thought it was time to talk about the clan " Were you in uzushio on the day of its destruction Kenji-sensei?" Kushina asked.
"No, I was on a mission in the demon country, when I heard about the big villages attack on Uzushio I ran as fast as I could, but I was too late. When I arrived in Uzushio I found only ruins and the bodies of our brothers scattered all over the place" said Kenji with pain.
"I buried them so they could have a dignified rest and go to the pure world" Kenji said as tears fell from his eyes.
Kushina cried too, when she heard about the destruction of Uzushio even though she was sad she had her boyfriend by her side so she got over it easily, before Jiraiya came she didn't care too much about the death of her clan, she treated it as part of the past and nothing more, she had a family now, she had grandmother Mito, tsunade-nee and her boyfriend Minato. But when Jiraiya arrived she realized how wrong she was, although while she had family in Konoha, she hadn't cared about her family, about her clan, she hadn't cared if there were survivors. All she cared about was her current family and she had turned her back on her clan and her family, but she had decided to make amends for her past, she decided to revive her clan and save the family she still had left and she won't let anything happen to them again.
Kushina looked towards Kenji with teary eyes and said "I know who was responsible for the destruction of our clan Kenji sensei" Kushina said angrily.
Kenji was surprised "Who? I thought it was a joint effort by Kumo, Iwa and Kiri" Kenji asked confused
"It was Danzo Shimura, he spread rumors about the Uzumaki in the other four major shinobi villages about Uzushio having the power to destroy an entire village with our fuinjutsu" Kushina replied
"But why would it? Uzushio and Konoha were close allies" Kenji asked confused.
"Danzo wanted to destroy the senju clan but he was afraid that the Uzumaki clan would interfere" Tsunade replied
"Why would Danzo Shimura want to destroy the Senju clan Tsunade-san" Kenji asked Tsunade
"Danzo greeds for our bloodlines, but he can't have them since the great clans protect us. He believes the clans will be a problem once he becomes Hokage as they will not be silent in the face of his extremist actions.
His plan is to destroy the clans and leave only a few members alive who carry their Kekkei genkai and he can control them. So he started with the Senju by sending them on suicide missions and to the front lines of wars. Since the Uzumaki clan was allied with the Senju clan and would not stand by and watch their cousins disappear he came up with another plan to destroy the Uzumaki clan. But there was a problem, only the Uzumaki clan has the ability to become the Jinchuriki of the Kyubi and the Uzumaki that held Konoha was already old and would die soon. To secure the Uzumaki bloodline and the Kyubi, he convinced Hiruzen and Mito to request an Uzumaki from the royal family so that he could be the new Jinchuriki of the Kyubi.
Once Kushina was in Konoha she started spreading rumors about the Uzumaki in the other big villages so that they would gather and destroy the clan" Kushina explained angrily.
Kenji hearing Kushina's explanation was filled with anger, he wanted to go right now and kill Danzo. A few moments later he calmed down and started to think.
Kenji looked at Kushina and said "It is impossible for the other villages to attack Uzushio since the whirlpools protect the islands. Only an Uzumaki knows which is the safe way to Uzushio so even if all the big shinobi villages got together they couldn't invade Uzushio" Kenji said.
"You're saying that there was a traitor in the clan? But who could it be?" Kushina asked as she started thinking about the possible traitors
"That makes sense" Tsunade said suddenly gaining the attention of the two Uzumaki. "Think, doesn't it seem strange to you that Kenji was sent on a mission right at the time of the attack" Tsunade continuedY then looked towards Kenji and asked "How were the fuinjutsu defenses of the village?" Tsunade asked Kenji
Kenji became thoughtful as he remembered the moment he arrived on the island, after a few moments his gaze hardened, he looked at Tsunade and said "They were all deactivated, none of Uzushio's defenses were activated. That's impossible even I don't know how to deactivate the defenses myself, only the upper echelons of the clan knew about it" Kenji replied.
"Exactly, it would be impossible to face the Uzumaki on their land and with the defenses active, someone in the upper echelon must have deactivated them" Tsunade said, then looked towards kenji and said "Besides deactivating the defenses, they sent you away so you wouldn't be there.
With an S class shinobi at least Uzushio couldn't resist" Tsunade continued.
"But there were still four more S-class Shinobi left, my grandfather the clan leader, my father, Yoichi sensei and Masamura-san. It would be almost impossible to invade Uzushio with four S-class fuinjutsu masters fighting together on an island full of defenses, if someone deactivated the defenses they just had to reactivate them, unless..." Kushina said thoughtfully
"Unless one of them is the traitor" Kenji completed the sentence "But who could it be" he exclaimed thoughtfully.
"You said you buried the fallen uzumakis, right?" Said Tsunade receiving Kenji's affirmation continued "You have buried them too haven't you?" asked Tsunade
"Yes, I buried the clan leader, Kushina-chan's father, Masamura-san and..." Replied Kenji until he realized something "I haven't buried Yoichi-sama" Kenji said in a solemn voice still refusing to believe that he was the traitor
"It can't be, Yoichi sensei was a kind man, he taught me everything I know about fuinjutsu, he can't possibly be a traitor" Kushina said refusing to believe that her sensei could be a traitor
"Who gave you the mission to the demon country Kenji-san?" asked Tsunade to Kenji.
Kenji hearing Tsunade's question his expression darkened "Yoichi-sama gave me the mission and he said it was urgent and that I should leave that very day" Said Kenji solemnly
"It can't be" Kushina said crying "Why did he do that?" she continued crying, she couldn't believe that her sensei who was always kind to her was the one responsible for the death of her family. Soon the pain turned to hatred and she said "I will kill him. Once I find him I will kill him slowly, I will make him feel the pain my family felt when they died. I swear by my name" Kushina proclaimed with hatred.
They spent hours taking in the traitor's revelation, once they got over it Kushina said.
"I'm planning to rebuild the Uzumaki clan Kenji-sensei, would you join us?" Kushina asked with a smile.
Kenji thought about it for a moment, but then nodded, he had nothing here, he was tired of living alone and felt lack of having a family
"Yes, I will join the new Uzumaki clan Kushina-chan" He replied.
"Good, then let's go to Uzushio" Kushina said out loud she had regained her cheerful mood
"How do you plan to go there, we don't have a boat" Kenji asked.
Kushina laughed hearing what he said "Didn't you already get us a boat Kenji-sensei?" asked Kushina
"If you're talking about that clown's pirate ship, I don't think it's still there, when you talked to me I forgot to kill his crew" Kenji replied
"Don't worry, before I talked to you I had already killed his entire crew" Kushina said with a smile.
Kenji, Tsunade and Shizune felt chills when they saw Kushina talking about killing more than 30 people with a smile
Once they took Buggy's boat they started their journey of a towards the secret passage between the whirlpools of Uzushio.
After the long journey they were now in front of a gigantic whirlpool the whirlpool was over 200 meters in diameter any boat that entered it would be sunk and destroyed in moments.
"This is it" Kushina said with a smile.
"Yes, this is the place, let's wait until the time comes" Kenji said.
"What time? We won't go in there right, we'll sink and die" Said Shizune fearfully
"The moment this whirlpool decreases in size which will leave us a passage of about 20 meters so we can enter the waters of Uzushio" Explained Kushina briefly
"Only the Uzumaki know about this passage, plus we can sense when the passage will open and for how long, since the passage opens at random times of the day"
They were waiting for an hour until Kenji, Kushina and Tsunade sensed that the passageway was going to open and it would last for half an hour open
"Let's get going towards the passage" Kenji said loudly.
Shizune who was not an Uzumaki could not see the passage, to her they were heading straight towards the giant whirlpool "Nooo, we are going to die, you are crazy" Said Shizune while hugging Klunk with fear "OINK, OINK" Shrieked the pig who also could not see the passages
Kushina, Kenji and Tsunade laughed as they saw Shizune and her pig's reaction.
Shizune who was expecting to sink was puzzled as she didn't feel anything, she raised her head in confusion and looked out to sea, she could now see the passageway as they were going through it. She stood up and breathed a sigh of relief.
Two hours later they had finally reached their goal, the main island.
They docked at the port of Uzushiogakure.
Kushina was depressed to see the state of her former home, the once beautiful city became nothing but ruins, they had destroyed everything. Kushina became more depressed as she walked through the streets, seeing the place where she had been born in this state was too much for her
Tsunade seeing the state of her little sister went to her and hugged her without saying anything, nothing she said could ease the pain she was feeling now
Kushina had already assimilated the destruction of her village, but seeing it personally reopened the wounds that had not yet healed. She realized how selfish she had been, while she was living a happy life in Konoha with her boyfriend and her new family, people in Uzushio were murdered in cold blood. Babies, children, the elderly, were killed without mercy. The Uzumakis who escaped had no better fate, they were exploited for their bloodline abilities, they were persecuted for fear of their abilities, many were raped and used as breeding grounds. All this while she lived a happy life without worrying about their fate, she the heir of the Uzumaki had turned her back on them. But that would change, she realized her mistakes.
"Where have you buried them sensei?" asked Kushina to Kenji who led them to the place where he had buried all the dead Uzumakis.
A large makeshift cemetery appeared before them, over a thousand stone tombstones could be seen, at the end of the cemetery two major tombstones could be seen, which Kushina deduced were of Ashina Uzumaki her grandfather and clan leader, and that of Tenrou Uzumaki her father. She knelt down in the middle of the two and asked her.
'Forgive me father, grandfather, sorry for failing you, I'm so sorry. It won't happen again, the Uzumaki clan will rise from the ashes, I will reunite our family again. And if anyone tries to stop me, I will destroy them.' Kushina thought as she wiped the tears from her face. Her gaze hardened with determination.
Kushina stood up and looked at Tsunade, Kenji and Shizune and said "Let's go" then she started walking towards the center of town where the Uzumaki's palace was located.
After a few minutes of walking they arrived at the palace. It was a traditional Japanese castle. it was the administrative building of the whirlpool country where the leader of the clan and the country ruled.
"The palace has been kept in almost perfect condition" Tsunade said when she saw the building and noticed the contrast between the temple and its surroundings which were in ruins
"I guess they didn't disable the palace's defenses" Said Kenji.
"Or they couldn't disable the defenses, only the clan leader can do that" Kushina commented. After saying that they started walking inside when Shizune stopped.
"Eeh, I can't get through" Shizune said confused.
Kushina seeing what was going on said "Give me your hand Shizune-chan" When Shizune offered her arm Kushina started to draw a seal on her hand "This should let you in, try again" Kushina said.
Shizune nodded and tried again to pass through the outer gates of the palace, but this time she was able to get through
"This is the entrance "rune", it is used to allow outsiders into the palace, you shouldn't have been able to enter the city without it, but since the defenses were deactivated you were able to get here" Explained Kenji
"And Tsunade-sama, she doesn't need the rune to enter" Shizune said.
"Tsunade has Uzumaki blood and she also has blood from the Uzumaki royal family as she is the granddaughter of Mito Uzumaki" Kushina replied as they entered the palace
The palace was large and luxurious, with hundreds of rooms, large halls.
They made their way to the palace courtyard where the Uzumaki inheritance temple was located.
Kushina and her group entered the temple, in the temple there were several oni masks displayed on the walls. In the center was A large stone that had engravings written on it
The history of the Uzumaki clan was written on it, from the era of Kaguya to the day the clan was officially formed. There was also information about the cousin clans of the Uzumaki clan, the so-called royal clans after the ancestor.
Kushina looked longingly inside the temple, she remembered the first time she was here and the first time her father told her about the history and legacy of the clan. She was lost in her thoughts when a voice speaks to her.
"Look Kushina-chan this is the stone with which Uzumaki-sama controlled the whirlpools that protect Uzushio" Kenji said as he showed Kushina a light sapphire blue stone with the clan symbol on it.
When Kushina took the stone she felt a connection with it, she instinctively knew what to do, she infused her chakra into the stone and by doing so she could feel all the whirlpools surrounding Uzushio, she felt that she can activate and deactivate them whenever she wants.
"I can control the whirlpools" Kushina said out loud gained the attention of the others, who were surprised.
They were exploring the temple for a while until Kushina frowned "What's wrong with you Kushina" Tsunade asked seeing her expression.
Kushina hearing the question replied "someone took almost all the scrolls that should be here, plus they took the other two legendary swords of the clan"
"It must have been Yoichi" Said Kenji angrily.
"Yeah, it was probably that traitor" Kushina said in disgust 'When I find that old man, I'll make him pay for everything' thought Kushina.
They were searching all over the palace and the temple looking for anything that would be of use to them, but there was nothing, someone had taken everything, weapons, sealing scrolls, sealing jutsus, money and gold. He had taken everything.
"Damn Yoichi, you'll pay for this" Kushina said angrily.
"This will make rebuilding the city take much longer" Kenji commented.
"How long do you think it will take to rebuild the city Kenji-san" Tsunade asked.
"Realistically, without money, manpower and the material it should take 15 to 20 years to rebuild this city alone. If we count the towns on the other islands it would take even longer" Kenji said.
"And if we use shadow clones?" Kushina asked.
"If you make at least 5000 clones a day it should take 12 to 15 years to rebuild the city" Kenji replied.
"But that's impossible" Tsunade said "You still have to manage the clan in Konoha, so we won't be able to focus on rebuilding. And don't forget about our enemies, Kumo, Kiri and Iwa won't stand still if they find out that the Uzumakis are rebuilding Uzushio" Said Tsunade
"She is right Kushina-chan, rebuilding Uzushio is not the most important thing, what matters are the people, we will be the Uzumaki clan here or in Konoha" Encouraged Kenji seeing Kushina's expression.
Kushina started to think about what their course of action would be from now on.
"Ok, we'll settle in Konoha while we slowly rebuild the country. Besides, we can't repopulate and rebuild an entire country with just the current Uzumaki clan, we need civilian population and some clans that are willing to come and live in Uzushio" Kushina said enthusiastically
"We also need money, a lot of money to buy the materials to rebuild the country" Said Kenji
Kushina hearing his words laughed "Don't worry about that sensei, I have several fuinjutsu projects that will make us rich quickly" Kushina said proudly because of the projects left to her by Jiraiya. She then raised her hand and pointed to her ring "Look at this ring, we can sell rings like this for millions of Ryo" Kushina said with a smile.
"Unless you want to spend years locked up in a workshop just doing fuinjutsu and even then it wouldn't be enough, we need billions of Ryo, even if you use 20 000 clones all making seals to sell for thousands of Ryo it would take too long to have enough money" Tsunade said to Kushina
Kushina was dejected for a moment, but her smile returned to her face, she remembered one of the ideas Jiraiya gave her before leaving "I have one more idea, we will create the fuinjutsu gremium. A place where the most talented seal masters gather, under the banner of the guild we will be able to sell in all the nations of the continent and get the best talents under our command" Kushina said with a smile
Tsunade, Shizune and Kenji were amazed by Kushina's idea, if her idea worked the Uzumaki clan would be absurdly rich
"You are a genius Kushina" They all said at the same time.
Kushina gave an uncomfortable smile for taking credit for her grandson's idea 'Sorry Ji-chan, I'm taking credit for your ideas, when you are born I will make it up to you' Kushina thought.
They were discussing the future of the clan for a long time until Kushina said 'Let's get going' as they were preparing to leave the island
"Next destination..."
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Sorry for the giant chapter, I was going to split it in two but I already want to get to Naruto's birth.
Sorry if Uzushio is a bit disappointing, originally Uzushio would have a lot of treasures and power ups, but the Uzumaki clan is already going to be very OP so I didn't want to make them even stronger.
Who will be the next Uzumaki to join the clan????
If you liked the chapter don't forget to comment and give me your power stones!
