Chapter Text
In one world, Uzu fell and her children slaughtered. Here, however, something protected Uzu with the wrath of a raging God. A thousand years ago, when chakra was new and young Otsutsuki Hagoromo still walked the land spreading his teaching of Ninshu, a child fell from the sky and landed on the simple island of Onmyoji of Uzu. He was pale and shivering, curling on his side as he cradled his stomach. The Head of Uzu felt a power not unlike the insane Rabbit Goddess dwell inside the tiny form.
Instead of killing the child however, the Head of Uzu came to divine that this child could bring about the prosperity of Uzu as the world change around them. As the child grew, he grew as one of the Uzumaki. He was beautiful and strong; the world trembled with his power with each step he took. He practiced Onmyojutsu with the rest of the clan, mastering the sealing of supernatural beasts and making friend with just as many. They let him choose his own name and he fell in love with the whirling tides of Uzu and called himself Uzushio.
Uzushio soon learned that he can share his power with the rest of his clan and by the time Otsutsuki Hagoromo arrived to the island of Uzu, he was astounded by the dense quality of their chakra. He then learned that they were blessed by the child of heaven, Uzushio, who fell from the sky and walked with them as one of their own. When he saw the still young Uzushio, he knew that this boy as one of his own; an Otsutsuki.
After much discussion, Hagoromo decided to teach Ninshu to the people of Uzu and Uzushio took to his teaching like fish to water. He was an absolute natural and Hagoromo delighted in teaching him. Uzushio then embarked on a journey as they traveled all over the world, from one land mass to another as Uzushio adsorbed all that he knew from the Great Sage of Six Paths. He was also taught to become a Sage, learning about the natural energy of the world all around him.
Uzushio then returned to Uzu and begin to teach what he had learned to the people there, allowing them to better control their chakra and creating new techniques that meshed well with their Onmyojutsu. They took pride in being able to create barriers that cannot be breached. They hunted with spiritual chains and spiritual eyes. They defeated their enemies with nothing but a brush and a pot of ink on papers.
Just as the world revered Hagoromo as the Father of Ninshu, Uzushio was soon revered as the Guardian Sage of Uzu. One day, however, he grew ill despite being so young and Hagoromo visited his sick apprentice and brother in all but blood with Hamura. Upon reaching Uzu, they could tell that it was bad from the dispirited people of Uzu as they brought the Two Sages to where Uzu was resting; a grove.
Tree branches had grown on his back like twisted wings and his horns similarly resembled the wicked tree branches, his odd blue Byakugan blinked with tears of pain as he smiled at his brothers, “Aniue, Nii-san…”
Hagoromo cried as he breathed, “You’re a Shinju Seed,” He sighed, “Your practice of Senjutsu had somehow started the process of turning you into the next Shinju Tree,”
Uzushio reached out, his hands like branches; thick, rough and gnarly as he grasped the Sage’s hand while the man cried over his fate, “Aniue…I’m fine,”
Hamura clenched his jaw, “No you’re not!”
Uzushio sighed, “We all return to the land one day, Nii-san,”
Hamura shook his head, “No! Not like this! You will be abused. Maybe not now but someday, in the far future where you grew and bare a single Shinju Fruit, someone like Mother will come and consume you and then all that you have learned will be perverted!”
Uzushio grimaced before sighing, “I…am not really Otsutsuki,”
Hagoromo sighed, “As you have kept telling us,”
Uzushio’s hardened neck cricked as though he was trying to shake his head, “I…I’m not really of the stars where Kaguya came. I…I was a child of the future. These past years, I realized that the dream I had been having wasn’t really a dream after all. But something…happened…between me and…Kaguya. I can’t remember everything. I wished I did so…so I can warn you but…I didn’t,” His hardened arms creaked as he moved a hand over his chest, “I was human…I sealed…I sealed all of her power within…turned myself like you and hid myself between time and space…until I lost all my memories and awakened as Uzushio,” His smile was bitter, “It’s a cycle. Sealing is not enough…”
Hagoromo and Hamura shared a look. They had thought it was because Uzushio was a pureblood Otsutsuki like Mother but clearly it was far more complicated than that. If in the far future Zetsu did succeed in releasing Mother, then perhaps what Uzushio of that time did was out of desperation. He repeated what Hagoromo had done but instead of separating her spirit from her body, he took her in as a whole probably in hope that she can never be revived ever again. However it was a futile effort because if he turn into a tree and bear the same fruit, the cycle will restart. They could end it here by killing him but…
Hagoromo came to a conclusion, “Uzushio, can you adsorb it?”
Uzushio looked at him, “Adsorb it?”
Hamura nodded, “Adsorb the seed growing inside you,”
Uzushio closed his eyes and began to focus on the natural energy around him. Hagoromo can feel the pull but soon realized that Uzushio will have to go slow or he will kill the world. He stopped the process and told him so.
Uzushio frowned, “If I go slow…by the time I am well, the time in which ‘I’ am born will arrive,”
Hagoromo and Hamura shared a look and smiled, Hamura declaring, “Uzushio, I am the Sage of the Moon. You will find me in moonlight,”
Hagoromo nodded, “I am the Sage of Six Paths. You can find me in the people’s spirit,”
Uzushio blinked and smiled, “Ah…yes…you were the one to help me…” He opened his palm and the Yang seal flickered before disappearing.
Hagoromo smiled with a single tear falling from his eye, “I see. So that’s why I can feel myself within you,”
Uzushio had the whole of the Uzumaki Clan gather before him and told them to strengthen their borders, especially towards ill intention. Then he breathed his last and turned into a tree. The Two Sages guarded the tree and attended to it, taught only the most trustworthy of the Uzumaki Clan to care for it. The clan loved Uzushio, he was their sun.
Then life moved on as life do.
Hamura moved to the Moon. Hagoromo built a clan and a family. When Indra left, Hagoromo visited Uzushio’s grove. He sighed as he looked at his sleeping kin, “When you told me that it is a cycle, I had hoped to have broken it. But when Ashura was born, I felt a flicker of you within him and I realized why the other me would lend you a hand. You were my son too.”
He sighed as he looked over the sea of Uzu, “The people call this whole island Uzushio instead of just Uzu nowadays. Did you know that they have also been burying their dead under your roots in hope of helping you? It was so different than how Mother did it. By the time you have stabilized, just how much stronger would you be, I wonder? Will you remember us?”
He chuckled, “I created the Bijuu according to your drawings. It felt right to design them so. I…I’m not long for this world anymore, Uzushio. Soon this body will return to earth and I wish to return to your root,” He patted the giant root he sat on, “This is my wish. If my doing so I can help you, then that is exactly what I will do,”
When Hagoromo breathed his last, the seal he created pulled him out of his bed and into Uzushio’s root. He had warned Ashura that he will return to the one place no one can disturb him. The Nine Chakra Beasts mourned his passing before going on their separate ways.
Then one deep winter night when the moon was at its brightest, Hamura visited the grove, “Uzushio…my eyes has evolved just like Aniue’s. I fear its power falling into the wrong hands. That is why…I am entrusting my eyes to you,”
He returned to the Moon blinder than a bat. A few decades later he joined Hagoromo in his resting place in the root of Uzushio. No one knew their final resting place, just as they like it. They knew too that Zetsu can never find them. Zetsu had always been more wary of Uzushio than either brother. As long as Uzushio was near, he dare not come close. By Uzushio’s side, both Sages will never be disturbed.
Indra and Ashura went to war, a battle of power versus love all for the sake of peace. At the end of the day, Ashura visited the grove and asked the man that was his mysterious uncle, “What is peace? How can I bring peace to the world when my own brother hates me so?”
He looked at the sacred grove, “Father and Uncle speaks highly of you. They are most fond of you and because of you I am not looked down upon for my clumsiness. You gave me strength of will and character, you tales taught me that hard work mattered more at the end of the day than unpracticed talent, because of your stories I could not find it in me to give up,”
He bowed his head, “Thank you,”
Ashura died a few years later and Indra, broken by his own sin of fratricide, committed suicide in his hysteria. The Otsutsuki Clan split and became Senju and Uchiha that battled endlessly. Ninshu was twisted and became Ninjutsu. The Shinobi system took over the world and the once peaceful land under the guidance of Rikudou Sennin grew violent until children became soldiers before they even learn how to play.
Until Senju Hashirama brokered peace with Uchiha Madara. Being the neutral clan in every conflict, the Uzumaki Clan was called forth to oversee this miraculous moment where the two clans ceased fire in hope of peace. Life moved on until paranoia and insidious whispers started once more. Zetsu would not leave them alone. Madara was a man driven insane by the voices in his head. He captured the Nanabi as he was the only one that Madara could find for Gyuuki was deep in the ocean visiting Isobu and Kurama never left Uzushio’s grove after he claimed the island as his territory, using the Nanabi Kabutomushi he attacked Konoha only to be defeated by Hashirama and his wife Mito.
The poor Kabutomushi who had been friendly to any visitors was bewildered when one moment he was staring into the eyes of Indra’s child and the next he was trapped within Uzushio’s vassal. Then he listened in horror as Mito was of the mind that all Bijuu were too dangerous to be left free. He cried, begged, and pleaded to leave his innocent siblings alone but she turned a deaf ears to his plea.
Kurama watched as Senju Mito marched into the grove, intent to seal him as Chomei raged against his chain within her. He growled, “When you treat someone as a mindless beast, forgetful daughter of Uzu, then a mindless beast will they become,”
She ignored him though Hashirama had a conflicted look on his face but determination to do what he believed was right moved his hands. The woods moved to trap Kurama but then…Uzushio answered by creating a shield of diamond hard barks around the Kitsune. Mito blinked in shock as a face, forgotten by the world, pressed forward from the bark. Around her, the people of Uzu, who had been arguing against her coming to seal what they saw as a family and a friend, gasped in awe and reverence.
The mouth of the wooden face opened as the words echoed in their very chakra, “If you deem my nephew a danger to the world because of the action of the Son of Indra, then within me he shall slumber. He shall be treated as my most honored guest, a family seeking shelter from the cruel way of Shinobi and not a hunting beast. I advise you to do the same, children of the flaming forest,”
Kurama breathed in reverence, “Lord Uzushio, Guardian Sage of Uzu,”
Within her Chomei whispered, “Uncle,”
Mito tried to explain her decision, “One have been used against my family. Who to say that the others won’t be used for the same reason?”
Uzushio answered, “One need a very special power to warp the mind of Bijuu. If you trap them in people, then they only need to have their own mind or someone’s order to make a move. Your decision will change nothing,”
Mito insisted, “But at least they will be controlled,”
Uzushio sneered, “They are not slaves! But it seems that your mind is made. I cannot move and I cannot take out Chomei from you without killing you. Forgive me, my nephew, for I cannot release you. But I promise you that you will one day be seen as the friend that you are. This I promise you,” He sighed, “I can tell, you will hunt down the rest. I cannot move and I am unable to warn them of your decision. However, I can keep my eldest out of your hands of greed,”
The trees twisted, covering the towering form of the Kyuubi no Kitsune and became a bulb before slowly twisting down, reducing in size and then…nothing. All around the people of Konoha, the whole of Uzu bowed in reverence and prayer. Mito had grown up with the Sage of Six Paths as her Sage. She did not know about the Guardian Sage of Uzu. Her family moved inland three generations ago when her ancestor married a Senju.
Since no one can touch the Kyuubi with this event, Mito and Hashirama retreated in defeat. And though they did not break the treaty with Konoha, the Uzumaki Clan deemed Mito and her Uzumaki family as the shame of the clan. Criticizing her family for not teaching her about their Guardian Sage. Since then, Mito and her family were forbidden from stepping onto the shores and waters of Uzu. Though the Senju, blameless for not knowing better, were given a strict pass to come visit but were not welcomed to stay.
And perhaps it was for the best that the strongest Bijuu stayed out of anyone’s hand. As predicted by Uzushio, Mito and Hashirama hunted down the rest of the Bijuu and sealed them in people. Treating them as mindless assets to be passed around. Slaves to the people’s will. Uzu tightened their security to keep the grove out of reach of those greedy Shinobi.
A few more decades passed since the incident and Kumo and Kiri launched an attack on Uzushio in hope of getting their hands on the mythical Sage’s power that they somehow heard tale of. As war visited their shore, Uzu came alive. When mothers screamed and children cry, when elders prayed and fathers fell, when sisters flee and brothers shielded, Uzushio came alive with all the fury of nature itself. And with it, their invaders bore witness to a nightmare unlike any before.
The tides churned and twisted, the land crumbled and the dead rose from beneath. The land of Uzu itself fought back. The Guardian Sage had slept too long and his power had seeped into the land. The whole island and its water was alive, sentient even in a way that perhaps only the trees of Hashirama can compare with. Only a handful invaders survived the horror that visited them that day but they all slowly died from an unknown illnesses. The world had forgotten but those of Uzu was diviners, sorcerers and shamans who were mediators between worlds.
There was a reason no one attack Uzu since ancient times.
When the forces of Konoha finally arrived from the other end of world after succeeding in defending their border from an invasion from Iwa and Suna, it was to the sight of the dead being helped back into their graves. No one said a word about the matter. Whatever it was, whoever it was that Guardian Sage was supposed to be, clearly Uzu was his stomping ground. In the end, they helped rebuild the island and planned a faster communication idea for future use.
But the use of such show of power was not without its drawback.
“Miko Kanna,”
Uzumaki Kanna opened her eyes to the voice of Uzushio. Rubbing the sleep off from a long day of fixing and healing, the young woman made her way to the grove after fixing her miko uniform. There she saw the Great Elder Ashina sitting firmly in the Sacred Grove. Joining him, she knelt down and prostrated, “How can this humble Miko help you, Guardian Sage?”
Uzushio whispered in their chakra, “A time of great upheaval will soon arrive. I must leave the grove to rejoin the world beyond,”
Ashina asked, “And how do we help you achieve that, Guardian Sage?”
A branch reached out and a fruit that resembled a dragon fruit started growing until it ripen. After Kanna plucked the fruit from the branch, Uzushio explained, “Feed this to a child of wind and harbor that grew in the forest of flames. His hair will be as gold as the sun and his eyes will be gentle with a hint of mischief. He is young but he is the soul that will bear me as his son,”
Ashina frowned, “Must you leave us, Guardian Sage?”
Uzushio answered, “This is something that is meant to be. My life is a cycle. I must break that cycle. But to break it, I must first be part of the cycle once more,”
Ashina asked, “I do not understand this cycle you speak of. But you are the father of our Uzumaki Clan. It is our greatest honor to help you,”
And so with help from one of Kanna, they had fed a young Genin by the name of Namikaze Minato a fruit when he was in need of nourishment after digging out important documents from a bombarded building. He was a little confused by the dragon fruit since he didn’t think it was the season for it, he was grateful nonetheless. So he ate the fruit no knowing that it made him the father of Uzushio’s next incarnation.
As the years passed by, Minato made a name for himself. Every time he was in danger he was given a boost from within. Every time he felt that it was beyond his capability, he heard a whisper in his mind to not give up. At first, it scared him. Then he swore that perhaps his life as a Shinobi was finally catching up on him even though he wasn’t even 20. Then he took it as a blessing.
After all, how many people out there have a voice that would motivate and encourage them?
The only other person he knew with voices in their head was his girlfriend Uzumaki Kushina.
Kushina sat in front of him, one more session of Fuuinjutsu lesson over, asking, “Are you still hearing that voice? I heard that your team had a hard time last mission,”
Minato nodded, “A bit. We were in a pinch,”
Kushina pouted, “I wish that the Nanabi would talk to me but he would only speak about the Guardian Sage of Uzu. Telling me to keep my root in my mind and stuff,”
Minato looked at her with genuine concern, “You better not say that around other people. You know how the Elders are like when it comes to the Bijuu,”
Kushina leaned against him with an impish smile despite the red in her face matching the red of her hair, “That’s why I’m raising a handsome and powerful husband to keep me safe, dattebane!”
Minato laughed at that. It still felt like a dream when she accepted his confession during last Rinne Festival. But he was happy even though at the same time it added another layer of duty to keep Konoha safe. He will not let anyone steal Kushina from him. And so, with her in the back of his mind and the voice in his head encouraging him, he continued to fight. Though he didn’t make it when the voice nudged him to find his student only to find that two survived while the third was buried under piles of giant rocks.
When he found Kakashi with his hand leaving the chest of Rin, he was heartbroken. But as he held her in his arm, he felt the power within him reaching out before dying. Then, right before his eyes, the hole in Rin’s chest was healed. He had immediately returned to Konoha where Rin was placed under Intensive Care. She remained asleep for the rest of the 3rd Shinobi War.
Finally, he ended the 3rd Shinobi War. As he stood there over a field of dead bodies, he didn’t know how to feel. He felt glad that Konoha and his precious people were safe. He was glad that he had stopped further death. But it still didn’t change the fact that he had slaughtered hundreds. When he returned home, he ignored the cheering and the praises poured onto him so that he can find the love of his life and bury himself in her warmth.
With her, he stopped being a kunai and became a man.
Then it was time for rebuilding. Rin woke up but she was weak and a little out of her mind. Medics said that she would need time to recover her missing chakra. Only Kushina knew what had really happened to Rin. That she was made in a Jinchuuriki and by Kakashi ‘killing’ her, the seal failed and the Bijuu ‘died’. In fact, Rin had died that day. But whatever it was that had helped Minato also helped her upon contact.
He laid on the bed beside Kushina, “Sometimes…it felt like the Voice knew what was going to happen,”
Kushina looked at him, “And have it ever made you hurt others?”
Minato shook his head, “No. Never. I was afraid then but…after so long, I have come to rely on it,”
Then, after becoming Hokage, he married the woman of his dream. He was happy until he heard that she was pregnant. He had just been talking with Hiruzen about what to expect should Kushina fell pregnant and was informed that the seal weakened during the birthing process. Then, as fate had it, she came to him beaming like the sun and said that she was pregnant. It was one thing to prepare for the coming of a child with an unstable seal in mind. Even though the Nanabi did not try to escape Mito, it still did not change the fact that should the seal fail, he and everyone in the vicinity of the birthing room will die from the chakra explosion. So when Kushina came to him with another surprise, Minato was near hyperventilating.
Twins.
She was bearing twins. But that wasn’t the biggest problem. The problem was for the first time since a very long time, the voice was missing from his head at a moment of high emotion.
Then, 10th of October arrived…