To fuck around, is to find out
The land of Uzushio is strange and the scent of blood is still evident when you walk through the village, some forty years after the genocide. This land of sacrifice still honors the fallen, the blooded, it does not forget its people. The soothing, repetitive sounds of the waves crashing on the shores helped soothe the ache that grew with each passing day as she wandered listlessly. It was hard to celebrate, to heal, to live - when everything that she had ever loved was gone, wiped away, quickly, brutally, senselessly. A part of her curses her decision of sealing away the mad Rabbit Goddess - if only because she would love nothing more than to destroy her all over again. Everyone she has ever loved, called her precious people, are gone - wiped out. Never to walk, to laugh, to love, to breathe again.
The land is dead, she can tell by the way that life has refused to grow again after the poison has stopped spreading, the air is toxic - she has had a permanent air-filtering seal placed on the mask covering the lower half of her face, something she had started to wear after her Kakashi-sensei sacrificed himself to buy her and Sasuke time. It’s the stillness that remains, there are no birds chirping, no rustling of the wind through leaves, no whispers of people talking, animals scurrying. The land is as dead as her soul, she fears. The only sound she has been able to hear has been the crashing of the waves on the sandy banks. Nothing else remains in this dead, dead, dead world.
Her feet take her to the last stand, where the brave Uzushio soldiers stood, braced against the entire world - where they took out just as many as they sacrificed. She stands in the last known location where the Uzukage stood, her eyes closed - she lets loose the chakra she holds tightly in her core and feeds it into the ground around her, thinking of the last stand, of her people, of how much everything went to shit when her people died. The Uzumaki are blessed, stubborn, strong-willed bastards known for making the impossible - possible. If an Uzumaki got an idea in their head, then nothing could stop them from accomplishing it, from completing it.
Naruto feels a ghost of a smile pass across her face before the feeling of a seal activating has her blink her eyes open in surprise, gaze darting down to where she can see a seal, formed in the blood of her people, the blood of hundreds of soldiers, honorably given for a hope, for a prayer, one dying-last ditch effort to stop the enemy and laughs, laughs until she feels hysterical as she is rooted to the spot with chakra holding her firmly in place. Of course, she thinks, of course, they would do the impossible until the very end, even from beyond the grave. It is a summons, she can read from the glowing seal lines - a summons for help, for aid. Time and space has no meaning in this seal, it is one meant for those who could turn the tide. She can feel the seal sucking in her chakra to charge and she feels excited for the first time in years.
This is new, unprecedented, something she didn’t expect, couldn’t have anticipated in her dull, grey world of sadness and despair. She cannot wait to see where it will spit her out. There are lines meant for travel, for blood, for hope. Her eyes trace the lines, understands what each symbol means intrinsically in a way that comes with being an Uzumaki. It comes suddenly, as most seals do, with her standing in the land of the Dead - and suddenly appearing in a land of War. The sound is the first thing to capture her attention, the sounds of the dying, of pain, of weapons, and chakra-based attacks. It is so familiar to her, and yet so jarring at the same time.
She takes a deep breath, there is the heavy scent of blood and the ocean and salt in the air, her eyes flashing at the sights of invading nin - of Iwa, of Kiri, of Kumo, of some small little villages that she knows, holds no higher power but were pressured into joining the battle. Her chakra, seems to have been recharged in her sudden reappearance, whether it was purposefully from the seal or accidental by nature, she isn’t sure - and she can’t help but release it, feeling it explode out of her in a wave of all-too-powerful chakra blast that sends every ninja around her away, leaving her standing alone in a crater of her own design - it reminds her so vividly of the powerful Tsunade, of Sakura, and a part of her soul cries out at the memory of their strength.
“Uzushio, hear my cry!” She yells out in the sudden silence, gathering the attention of everyone around her at her strange appearance. “Uzushio, you will not fall! You will not die! Uzushio, I have come home!” She races forward, leaving a red streak behind her as her clones begin appearing all around her, hundreds and hundreds of clones who begin spreading as far as possible. The land is painted in red, but it is no longer from the blood of her people. She stops mid-run, skidding to a stop, at the sight of who could only be the Uzukage from the long, red coat he wears.
He stands tall, battling four enemies at once, the red hair that Uzumaki’s are so well-known for, dancing in the wind. He is everything and nothing like she expected. She can’t help but already love him, love her people, love the land.
The land of Uzushio whispers in her blood, in her ears, strong and potent and alive in ways that it hadn’t been able to do in her time. She races forward, stopping an attack from striking the Uzukage in the back and gaining his immediate attention.
“I do not recognize you,” He yells over the din of the battle.
Naruto laughs, “You may not, but Uzushio brought me home.” She glances at the man, blue eyes meeting violet before something flashes across his face that she cannot name.
“Then, welcome home cousin.” He greets her, a wide grin spreading across his face that just reminds her all the more of her mother. Her heart breaks and heals in equal measures.
Naruto looks around, sees the ebb and flow of the battle around her and drops to her knees, placing both hands in the sand, closing her eyes to concentrate. “Uzushio, I do not know you, not as you are, and only briefly as you were. But you are home, and home is something to protect. Take all that I am, take all that I can, save our people, save our land.” The drain hits her with all of the impact of a meteor to the stomach, momentarily knocking the wind out of her as she feels the land of Uzushio draining her endless foundation of chakra as quickly as it can replenish itself even with the impressive mass of chakra from Kurama.
She can feel the change happen in the air, feel the static charge of something happening that was beyond the scope of human understanding before she sees the waves of water come rushing from the ocean surrounding the village. Out of the corner of her eye, she can feel seals throughout the village going into effect. Naruto feels the sudden surge of water momentarily knock her forward before it suddenly moves around her, as if she is in her own little bubble in the sudden flood that is washing away their enemies. She sees the other Uzushio soldiers much the same, completely unharmed even as everyone they had been fighting are drowning as their oxygen is taken away as they are swallowed up by the ocean itself. She feeds more, more, more chakra, everything, anything that she has, because she will not stop until Uzushio and her people are safe.
It startles her, more than anything, when she feels a hand on her shoulder, followed by the feeling of someone sending their chakra through her. She glances up, holding the gaze of the Uzukage who smiles at her, even as other Uzumaki join, placing their hands on each other until she can feel a wide-range of chakra boosting her own and cannot help but smile back. It has been so long since she was around others to help her, so long because she has been alone for so long, too long.
She feels at home, in ways that she never could in the forest, in the wind. The water begins receding and Naruto gazes around, noticing that their enemies have been swept away by the current that touched not a single soldier bearing the mark of Uzushio. She smiles as one-by-one the others supporting her let go, until only her and the Uzukage remain. She laughs in delight as a curl of water, alive and affectionate, rubs against her cheek before joining the mass of water drifting back to the sea.
The draining of chakra ends, and she feels Uzushio give her thanks as she stands, eyeing the difference the tidal wave has caused. The buildings are a little rough-to-wear, but nowhere near dilapidated like she had seen in the village-of-before. “Cousin, Uzushio and I welcome you home.” The Uzukage states, standing firm and tall. “I am Yondaime Uzukage, Uzumaki Kazuhiko.”
“Uzumaki Naruto, the daughter of the Sage of the Six Paths.” She smiles at his look of shock before he laughs, laughs until tears form at the corner of his eyes. “Uzushio brought me home.”