Shine like the Sun

He had pictures; There was one of him and Chiba-baasama on the trip from Konoha to Uzushio, one of the entire family on Chiba-baasama's birthday, one of him and Nagato-nii when Naruto officially became a ninja and the older shinobi’s apprentice… the most recent one was of him and his gennin team. 

One of the things he had to find in Konoha was a picture of his mother. 

Even if it was only her official shinobi card… he needed it.

He locked the house behind him, and started running towards his grandmother’s bigger house, just down the road. 

If it could be called a “road”. 

There was a visible path, to be sure… only it was several feet underwater. 

The seawater in these parts was turquoise and transparent, and underneath him coral biomes swelled with fish life. Visible from the surface were the underwater glowing seals set all around Uzushio, the ones that protected them from, and to a certain extent controlled, the sea currents. The land of Whirpools was not so much ‘land’ as it was several small, very small, and medium islands off the coast of the mainland. The seas that surrounded Uzushio were plagued by perpetual and dangerous whirlpools, giving the land its name. 

The main city was on the largest island, but the Uzumaki's lived on a set of separate, smaller ones. Naruto sometimes hesitated even too call them ‘islands’. Their land was more like sand dune beaches and coral that had risen above the surface and been petrified into rock. 

The path between Naruto’s miniature island-home and Chiba-obaasama’s bigger home was simply the spaces of visible sand between the coral ecosystems that lived beneath the water. 

The water itself was not particularly deep; the deepest point was still diving distance without gear, and for most of the ‘road’ even Naruto, one of the youngest and smallest in the clan, wouldn’t sink much deeper than his chest. 

Before learning to water walk, he used to swim to the other homes, and before that he’d take his canoe, even now tied to the dock on his house, unused for several months.

There were thousands of interesting fish and animals in and around the area, and one of Naruto’s favorite pastimes was diving under the surface and following sea turtles and small sharks around. 

He’d learned to identify quite a few number of poisons this way, since the poison specialists in his clan and village would also spend hours of the day bellow, hunting down the various species of anemones, jelly fish and other creatures that provided toxins. 

In the corals, bright colors didn’t always mean poison… but sometimes they did. The sea was never not interesting, and some days Naruto preferred to sit on his porch, practicing his seals… and when he grew bored he’d stick his head under the turquoise water, watching the underwater metropolis, so much fuller and more complicated compared to their relatively small village. 

The Uzumaki compound was a series of small houses almost identical to his own. Some, like his, with a base over sand, some over petrified coral, and some held up by nothing more than wooden beams, covered in seals that prevented water rot. The main building, three times the size of all the other houses, was also the closest to the village, and so directly in Naruto’s path. 

Entering the larger house, Naruto headed straight to the kitchen where he found his cousin, Honoka, feeding her baby. He left his keys with her, as well as a list of strict instructions to water and care for his plants. 

Honoka rolled her eyes at him, but nodded anyways. She was technically off duty, on maternity leave to take care of the baby, but even if she hadn't been, she’d be the one in the family with the most time anyways. 

Honoka was one of the last Uzumaki’s to return to Uzushio, even after Naruto, and she was a seals-master exclusively. Her house was more like a seals workshop, and so she spent a lot of time in Chiba-obaasama’s house. To Naruto’s knowledge, the farthest she’d gotten from the village since arriving was a few kilometers underwater to strengthen the protections around the village. 

“Be good to your team, Naruto.” she said as he turned to leave, “and kick some ass.”

“You know I will!” Naruto shouted, then he bent down to kiss her and the baby both goodbye. The baby giggled, bright eyed and in a good mood. 

Naruto melted, just a little. 

With a final wave he went hunting for his grandmother, his last stop before going to his team’s meeting point. He found her in the sunroom, still in her sleeping yukata, having breakfast. 

Naruto bowed formally to the head of his clan as he entered the room, then grinned, and disregarding all formality, ran at her and threw his arms around her thin frame. 

She let out a sigh that could be interpreted as a laugh, and spoke. 

“Aren’t you running a little late Naruto-kun? Your cousin came in almost an hour ago and told me that you where leaving at 9h00.”

Naruto smiled up at her, disentangling himself and stealing a piece of toast from her plate.  

“I still got half an hour,” he said in between mouthfuls, “If I run fast I’ll reach the main gates before it's time… and there’s no way I was leaving before saying goodbye!” 

Chiba-baasama snorted, hiding her face behind her tea cup. In the years he’d known the old woman, she’d gone from moving around animatedly to confined to the house for a variety of health reasons. But her smile was as ready as always, and she was as warm and loving as she’d been the day she’d accepted him into her family. 

“You make me blush Naruto-kun. In any case, since you came, I might as well make good use of you instead of calling for a messenger. There’s a sealed scroll on my office desk, go fetch it."

Naruto jumped up, ran through the house until he found the scroll, then ran back. Even though her health had been on the decline lately, Chiba-obaasama was still part of the village council. However, unless her person was required urgently, the council sent her documents to read and review via gennin messengers.

He presented the scroll to the old woman, who squinted at it, confirmed it to be the correct one, and nodding, pressed it to his chest. 

“Give it to your sensei. One more thing. I’ve been thinking, here,” she gave him a piece of paper with a name and direction, and he looked at it, curiously.

“This is the only other Uzumaki I knew of still living in Konoha. Well, half-Uzumaki. He might have stories of your mother.” 

Gratefully, Naruto clutched the paper to his chest. Then he turned to kiss his grandmother on her wrinkly old cheek.

He’d told his family of his personal mission, besides the exams, on his return to Konoha. He was going to find himself a picture of Kushina, his mother… whatever it took. 

As long as it doesn't cause an international incident between the two villages, had warned Chiba-baasama. 

Naruto had blushed, but nodded.

It wasn’t that he’d never seen a picture of his mother… as a birthday gift, when he’d turned 9, Nagato-nii had given him Uzumaki Kushina’s entry in an outdated Kumo Bingo Book. It was a small picture, of her as a teenager, a little older than what Naruto himself was now, and black and white. He still wanted another. 

With a last hug, he stood up, ready to leave.  

“Good luck Naruto-kun!” said Chiba-baasama, “And whatever happens, I know you’ll make me proud.” 

Grinning, he threw up a peace sign, then turned and exited the house, not through the door he’d entered, technically the back door, but through the main entrance.  

The Uzumaki lands, like all the other small islands that belonged to the clans, was visible from the main island. As Naruto ran out, the water beneath him became darker, deeper. The main island was 2,000km wide, with a large bay were all the ships that carried the international trade were situated, and like all the other islands, it was surrounded by seals. The ocean was so deep in those parts, on almost all sides, the seals became invisible to the naked eye. 

Before Naruto had learned water-walking, he'd take his canoe and row to the village. It used to take him almost half an hour by canoe.  Now, running at full speed, he got there in less than 15 minutes. 

Uzushio had an odd beauty to it. The city was a combination of wooden huts and two and three story buildings made out of cement. The new city had been constructed on the remains of the old, and unfortunately, there were still visible scars where the previous buildings had been torn down, brutally and violently. A house would neighbor an empty lot, full of rubble from the attack more than 20 years ago.

Naruto sped past the city, not bothering to slow down as he tore through the market, full of a variety of sea foods that were delicacies in any other part of the world. The houses were all decorated by shells, colorful rocks, or the bleached bones of sea creatures. He passed by the pharmacies, bakeries, clothing shops... and eventually made it to the main street. 

The street ended with the city gates, and behind those, Naruto knew was the wharf, where all the larger boats were parked. As he approached, he could see two merchant caravans, and his gennin team. 

Uzushio’s village security was unlike many of the other shinobi villages, which were closed off completely. Uzushiogakure was built over an island, and that gave it a certain amount of security, but there was no outer wall around the village. Instead, in front of the wharf there was a tall wooden gate, seemingly unconnected to anything beyond. 

Which was not strictly true. Seal masters had painted protective seals all around the island, and anyone trying to get into the city without taking the main gates would be in for a nasty surprise. 

Although it was quite easy to leave the city borders, considering the seals had no reason to keep things in… if you did leave, and weren’t wearing a seal negating the electric security perimeter, you had to go back in through the main gate. The seals around the city were for the most part hidden, now. Plant life had taken over the ground and rocks where the seals had been carved, and only a few were visible to the eye. All Uzushio-citizens had the counter seal carved into, or painted on, objects they never took off- necklaces, bracelets, anklets, earrings, hair ornaments... Naruto had even seen it tattooed here and there.  

He himself had the seal on a bracelet, the main stone a golden, iridescent coral. 

It wasn’t the only jewelry, or for that matter, the only seal, he carried on his body at all times. 

Naruto reached the gates, a few minutes before the deadline, skidding in front of the group and singing “ta-daaaa” just as he arrived. 

Konan, his sensei, looked him over suspiciously, but said nothing. 

Karin, Naruto’s cousin and now teammate snorted and shook her head. Haku, Naruto’s other teammate, remained silent, though a small smile adorned their face. 

Uzushio was only sending out one team for the chunnin exams, and they had only been together for a few weeks. Because they were such a small village, the gennin usually worked under other ninjas, chunnin and jonnin depending on the specialization they were looking for, as apprentices.  

Karin had two ninja specializations she was working on developing, and as such had two mentors. She was studying to become a medic-nin, working in the Uzushio central hospital under the direct command of her mother, Akane. Karin was also a natural sensor, and to develop her basic skills in both that and the other ninja arts, the village council had assigned her to Konan. Konan-sensei was one of the villages best ninja, and through her, Karin hopped to learn more than just “basic” techniques. 

Naruto’s other teammate was a recent addition to the village, and they produced conflicting feeling in Naruto. Some part of him felt that by bringing Haku to Uzushio, he’d saved the other teen… The other part felt guilty that he hadn’t let Haku die with their teacher and master. 

Haku, like Karin, was a year older than Naruto, and they were still the prettiest person Naruto had seen their age. For normal missions, they wore their long black hair in a bun on top of their head, and a white mask, fashioned similar to their old Kiri ANBU mask, different only in that the Kiri markings had been changed for the Uzu spiral, and instead of covering their entire face, the mask ended just past Haku's nose. 

Haku wore the mask for the same reason they’d worn it in the past. When the mask was on, they were ninja. When it was off, they were Haku. As a ninja, Haku was quiet, efficient, and rutheless. Without it, they were shy, lovely, and unfortunately, depressed. 

Though not a medic-specific ninja, Haku enjoyed learning of medicinal plants and their uses, and one of the few ways in which they engaged openly and energetically was discussing plants with Karin. The rapid change from medical to poisonous usually gave Naruto mood whiplash. 

After they’d arrived, Haku had been offered to apprentice and partner Konan as well. Their skillsets were both deadly, silent and unique, and their personalities similar enough that friction wasn’t anticipated. An added bonus was that as one of the very few S class shinobi in the village, Konan was more than qualified to continue teaching Haku, who wasn’t a chunnin yet only because they’d asked to be made a gennin, when they’d first arrived.

Haku had told Naruto this was because if they were to be a Uzushio ninja, they wanted to have the same starting point as everyone else. 

Considering she already had command over two of the ninja ready to ascend ranks, the decision to make Konan the leader of a traditional three man gennin team was very simple. 

Naruto joined the team last, only a little conflicted about leaving behind his mentor, Uzumaki Nagato. Though Naruto missed training with Nagato-nii, Konan-sensei was as amazing a ninja, and an incredible mission leader. 

They’d been together only for three D rank missions as a team, though each had completed more on their own, and now, they were taking on a C rank; as they left the village for the exam, they would also be accompanying three merchants to Kusa to export some of the delicacies only available in Uzushio. 

Once in Kusa, they would be joining the grass contingent to Konoha for the chunnin exams. 

Leaving Uzushio demanded an experienced navigator and a special boat, covered in the many seals that made avoiding the deadly whirlpools surrounding the village not only feasible, but necessary. 

Uzushio textbooks explained that the city had almost been erased from the face of the earth once, in a terrible joint attack by three of the 5 main ninja villages. To do this, Kiri had supplied great war ships, and had parked those an hour out to sea- experienced ninja had then run over the water without loosing too much energy before attacking the gates, bypassing one of the villages main protections, the whirlpools, entirely. 

Uzushio had survived the attack thanks to the people who had fled before hand, and returned, years later, to their homeland. 

Nagato-nii and Naruto had once taken a mission in the mainland, and as training had ran all the way… with their enormous Uzumaki chakra supply, it had been a feasible undertaking… but even they had been tired out after 5 hours of non-stop running, and had returned to the village the traditional way, by boat. 

The gennin helped the merchants load the ship, then got on themselves.

Leaving the protections of the seals that surrounded the village felt like a shiver, and then they were out in the open sea.