Ninja of the Spiral

Prologue

[Hokage's Office, Konoha]

Seven Years Before the Current Time...

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha, had faced many challenges throughout his long life. He was no stranger to uncomfortable situations, not by a long shot and the one he was currently in, while it didn't even come close to topping his list, could easily lead to a situation that would if he didn't handle it just right.

What was this new challenge, you might ask?

He was having a meeting with foreign delegates regarding terms of alliance between the two villages, with the bonds already existing between them having become incredibly strained. The future of both would be made or broken today, and he knew it very well.

"Do not mock our intelligence by playing dumb here, Sarutobi. We know there is at least one Uzumaki in this village. We may not be Konoha nin but we have every right in the world to see this person, or these people if it's more than one Uzumaki, for ourselves. Do not make this more difficult than it needs to be." The leader of the group of foreign shinobi warned him.

This person was a foreign liaison, a representative from one village to another on behalf of the village's leader, regardless of whether or not that leader was also a Kage. While they were in the other village they were to be treated as if they were equals to the kage themselves, even though they had no actual authority.

"I'm afraid you just proved yourself wrong. As you are not Konoha-nin, and in fact are not even citizens of Konoha, you do not have no right force me to do anything that involves a citizen of my village." Sarutobi told this person and their advisers.

"No, but as Uzumaki we do have a right to freely interact with our kin. Or are you going to pretend that there are none in Konoha?"

"What makes you so sure there are Uzumaki still alive in Konoha?" Sarutobi asked. "I won't confirm or deny it but I do need to know what gives you reason to believe this."

"Simple." The person to the right of the main liaison answered. "The Kyuubi attacked Konoha a few years ago. The fact that we're not standing in the ashes of its burnt ruins can only mean that it was successfully resealed and, seeing considering the last two jinchuriki were members of our clan, that means there has to be an Uzumaki around holding it. And there's no way you wouldn't know where such an Uzumaki is."

Sarutobi closed his eyes for a moment. "Alright, there's no way for me to argue that. Yes, there is an Uzumaki in Konoha. But they are a citizen of Konoha and are a part of Konoha. Therefore you have no jurisdiction over him."

The person standing in the middle of the three ninja arched an eyebrow. "You speak as if we came here solely for the purpose of taking this person away, whom I'm concluding is a boy by your use of the word 'him'."

That threw off the seasoned ninja, but he was good at not showing it. "Then why are you here?"

"We came to check on the well-being of the Uzumaki remaining in Konoha, particularly the jinchuuriki. And we intend to offer our services to ensure his, or them if there are others, continued and if need be improved well-being. If we are satisfied in how things are here we will gladly allow your village to continue supporting our kin, but if we feel this village is endangering them, we will respond accordingly."

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow. "And that would entail...?"

"You don't want to know, old man." The person to the left of the head liaison answered.

Looking at the three of them, Sarutobi knew that threat was far from hollow.

The person standing in the middle of the three ambassadors was Uzumaki Kikyo, one of the strongest kunoichi to ever live, rivaled only by Hiruzen's own student, Tsunade. From what he had heard, she was an expert in many shinobi skills but was most proficient in long-range attacks and was the epitome of the term 'marksman'. She was capable of killing off her opponents before they even knew she was nearby, most often with a yumi bow she sported. Sarutobi had only seen her do it once and even now he still couldn't figure how she she was able to do it. But her accuracy and range could not be matched by anyone; known as "One-Shot Kikyo" because one shot was all she needed to take your life, her marksmanship was so great she could effortlessly kill a person from five miles away with one shot of her bow. Simply put it, if Kikyo wanted you dead, it was only a matter of time until you died.

Appearance-wise, Kikyo was a 24 year old red-haired woman who always looked and carried herself like a professional. She was wearing the standard Uzumaki armor of her village, which looked mostly like a plated apron for both front and back, with a red long sleeve shirt underneath and dark blue pants, and a yumi bow and quiver on her back. Her eyes were azure and her hair was almost as red as lava, cut in a hime style with a low ponytail behind her. At her hip was a sheathed dagger, though Sarutobi had no idea why she carried such a weapon given her talents.

Standing to Kikyo's right was another girl, Uzumaki Miya. She was 19 years old with amber eyes and dull red hair tied at the end behind her shoulders with a grey hitai-ate across her forehead. She was an expert swordswoman and those that have seen her fight said she was so good they couldn't see her or her blade when she attacked even as she was cutting her opponents down. She had an inherent talent for spotting openings and finding the weak points of both weapons and people. People claimed it was downright impossible to fight her and not lose some blood from it. You'd have a better chance of successfully walking across burning coals than escaping a battle with Miya unscathed.

To Kikyo's left was the one male of the group, Uzumaki Jun. He had blue eyes and vermilion shade of red hair, and he was the only person there Sarutobi was unfamiliar with. He wore an armored suit like the other two and carried a shakujo, as if trying to look like a monk. If that was his intention, however, it clearly wasn't working. Sarutobi has seen too many Uzumaki in his lifetime to believe one of them was incapable of kicking someone else's ass.

"I suppose I should tell you everything, seeing as how you're already on the verge of figuring it out yourselves." Sarutobi started. "You are right about there being an Uzumaki in the village and about there being an Uzumaki jinchuuriki in the village. What you don't know... is there's only one Uzumaki in the village and one alone."

"Are you telling us that Kushina-sama is dead?" Jun asked.

Sarutobi sadly nodded. "Yeah, that was a grave lose for us all."

"Oh man, Rea is not going to like this bit of news at all." Miya said to her colleagues, who nodded in agreement.

"Miya, go find Rea. Knowing him he's probably doing something incredibly stupid right now." Kikyo ordered. Miya nodded, then seemed to just disappear into thin air without using a shunshin.

"Kushina may be gone, but she died so her son would live. That is something to be respected." Sarutobi added.

"Her son?" Kikyo asked, then smiled. "Excellent. So appears there is a heir after all."

"Heir? You mean a clan heir?" Sarutobi asked, wondering if they intended to pull leverage over him somehow.

"More than that. Heir to all of Uzushio." Jun answered.

"Heir to an entire village?" Sarutobi asked. "How can that be? Hidden villages aren't run by monarchies."

"Yours isn't, ours is." Jun claimed. "The way ours works is a bit different from normal monarchs. We have a leader who chooses an appropriate successor from direct family, and if no suitable candidates are available more distant relatives are taken into consideration. So in that sense, we are a monarchy. But the ruling class must maintain their own training and missions as ninja just like everyone. They rule over warriors, and ninja trust their kage more than their daimyo, so our rulers must be kage more than anything else."

"But due to the troubles our village has faced in past decade or so, the ruling branch of the Uzumaki family has almost died off entirely." Kikyo interjected. "If Kushina-sama has a living son, he is a legitimate heir to the kage throne. He must be taken to Uzushio."

"I'm afraid I cannot allow that." Sarutobi said, and saw both of them reach for their weapons. "Would you care to hear why? Or would you rather just kill me?"

They stayed their hands. "This better be good, old man." Jun said, just barely to avoid sounding threatening.

Sarutobi folded his hands together. "First, Kushina and her husband died to protect Konoha from the Kyuubi. To take away their son, the jinchuuriki who to this day still continues to protect the village in their stead, you make their sacrifice meaningless. If that is not enough for you, consider this. The balance of power between the five major countries is always delicate. Taking away Konoha's jinchuuriki removes a vital asset from that balance and leaves the lives of everyone in jeopardy. Not only that but, considering that you're trying to keep your reconstruction efforts secret to the rest of the villlages, having a jinchuriki appear right in the middle of your village would be like telling the world, including your enemies, that your village survived. Not to mention we that have a history of being able to provide for two jinchuuriki in the past, whereas your village to the best of my knowledge is currently having a hard enough time with the people you have at the moment. Giving you a jinchuuriki child would only complicate things for you. Besides, would your ninja accept a jinchuuriki as leader?"

"Would yours?" Kikyo asked.

Sarutobi did not know what to say. In argumentative terms, that was definitely a perfect counter. "I'd like to believe someday it will be possible, but I cannot say for certain it will come anytime soon. I'm no prophet you know."

"Sometimes you don't need to be." Kikyo stated.

Meanwhile...

Coming out of the Konoha cemetery was a man wearing a hooded black coat with a large spiral on the back and the hood up, as well as black gloves and shinobi sandals. He was the kind of guy that looked immediately suspicious to you, but all he had done was pay his respects to one of the deceased. 'I wish I had been there Nee-san. Maybe I couldn't have changed anything, but at least I could have made an attempt. But at least I can do something for your son, once I find him.' He looked left and right, wondering where to go. 'I already checked out the Uzumaki buildings, but they were all abandoned. Where would her son live if not there?'

The black-coating wearing individual put more thought into it. 'I should try searching the village while putting my admittedly limited sensory skills to good use. Who knows? I've gotten good at controlling myself while using that power, so maybe I could try using it to augment my sensory abilities. If I'm lucky, it might help me find him.'

With that decided, he jumped to get atop a nearby telephone pole, giving him a decent view of the village. 'This should do.' He though before closing his eyes and opening up his chakra senses. In sensing, high altitudes helped expand the search area, but the downside was it was harder to sense in focus. Same principle as normal eyes trying to see from a distance.

Fortunately, the target he was looking for didn't need to be in focus. 'I'm not sure if that's him, but it's definitely the most obvious chakra signature in town. That's a start.' He said before jumping from pole to pole to get closer to the chakra source.

As he got closer, he could tell more and more about the chakra signature. He could sense that it was similar to what his sister's chakra signature had felt like. But, at the same time, it was different. Like a mix of her chakra signature and someone else's, like you'd find in someone who was a child of theirs. As he got closer and closer and could better sense it, he became more and more sure that it was the person he was looking for.

That wasn't the only thing he could sense. Once he got close enough, he could tell that the chakra signature was in an erratic flux. Not like when someone was using their chakra. No, this was far different. It felt panicked. Like the person was scared.

No, not scared. Terrified would be a better way to put it.

He could only run faster at sensing that.

After a bit he had to leave the poles and take to the rooftops instead to get closer. Once he did, he saw someone else take to the rooftops too, someone dressed like a ninja and carrying what looked and sounded like a protesting child in their arms. And if that wasn't bad enough on its own, the chakra signature he had been pursuing seemed to be coming off the child.

The black-coated man narrowed his eyes at the ninja's retreating form as he pursued him. 'On no you don't...!'

He held out his right hand, and from his palm emerged a small flame that spiraled out and grew before pulling back and forming a spinning loop rotating around his wrist. He pulled back his arm and bit then thrusted it forward as if throwing something. With that, the fire ring left his arm and sailed through the area like a frisbee at the ninja taking a child.

The fire ring smashed into the nin's waist, burning him badly while seeming to even cut into him upon impact. Said impact forced the ninja to collapse on the roof of a building, allowed the hood-covered man a chance to catch up. When he got there, the kid was already on his feet and trying to get away, but not sure how to get away.

"You okay kid?" He asked, but the boy wouldn't respond. "Hey! You okay?"

The boy turned to look at him, and his expression was frightened. Like he expected this guy to do something to him.

The black-coated man's eyes widened at the sight of the boy's face as he began to take in the appearance of the frightened boy he'd just saved. The child was no older then six, seven at the absolute oldest and that was assuming he was short for his age. He had blonde spiked hair with blue eyes and a set of obvious whisker marks on his cheeks. His clothes were brightly colored but faded and dirty with some patches, like they were hand-me-downs or ones he had kept for a long time, unable to replace.

But what got him most was the shape of the boy's face. It was the EXACT same shape that his sister's was when she was the boy's age. If he'd had any doubts that this was the kid he was looking for, they were erased when he saw this.

The black-coated man decided that removing his hood might make him look less intimidating to the poor boy. So, with this in mind, he reached a hand up and began to pull down his hood. "It's alright kid." He said when his face was visible. He had a normal facial shape with emerald eyes and spiked hair just as the boy did. Only his hair was a little longer and more of a rusted scarlet color with some orange streaks to it. "I'm not here to hurt you. Why was that guy taking you anyway?"

The child was still shaking. "I don't know. One minute I was just out walking when this big smelly man started chasing me with glass in his hands. He kept tripping for some reason so I thought I lost him in an alley, but he caught up. This masked guy showed up and saved me, but before I could even thank him he grabbed me and said he was taking me away."

"Sounds rough. And not at all like something that should have happened. But you're safe now. The name's Uzumaki Rea, got it memorized? What's yours?"

The boy's eyes widened. "U... Uzumaki?"

"Yeah, does it mean anything to you?" Rea asked.

The blonde boy slowly nodded. "Yes, my name is Uzumaki Naruto. Why do you have my name?"

"I assume the same reason you have my name. You're part of my clan."

"Clan? What's a clan?" Naruto asked.

'Okay, even kids half his age know what clans are when they're in clans. Clearly someone's withholding information from him, and if he doesn't know that, what does he know?' Rea asked.

Rea just sighed and looked down before mumbling something, then looked up at Naruto. "C'mon, kid. You and I have a LOT to talk about."

"Y-you... you are not taking that boy ANYWHERE..."

Rea looked to the ninja he had taken down, and this guy was back on his feet, albeit shaking while he stood. He pressed a button on a black panel on his belt, which made Rea raise an eyebrow. "Listen buddy, there's nothing you can say to me to make me walk away from this boy. And if he is who I think he is, I won't have a problem killing you to make that happen. Got it? So do us both a favor and you be the one to walk away."

The ninja, whom Rea noticed had an ANBU mask he did not recognize as being from the normal ANBU, shook his head. "I cannot do that! My superior had ordered that this boy be brought to him... and failure is NOT an option!"

Rea signed and shook his head. "Why do I always get stuck with the icky jobs?"

Rea raised his arms to his sides as a burst of flame appeared in each hand. The bursts of flame soon spiraled out and reformed themselves into large and oddly-shaped chakrams with flames around the spiked edges. The ninja, caught off guard by this, could only bring himself to stare at the weapons that quite LITERALLY formed out of nothing but fire. Rea began spinning one of them as fast as he could before letting it fly toward the nin.

"Eat this!" He said as he threw the first ring. The masked nin jumped and turned in the air to dodge the chakram that twisted itself in the air as well, like it was trying to reshape itself into another weapon. While the enemy was in the air and unable to react, Rea threw his second fire chakram. This one flew through the air vertically and hit the masked nin's abdomen, cutting right through it like a buzzsaw and cauterizing the wound perfectly. Both fire rings faded and the bisected nin collapsed, the top half on the roof and the bottom half over the edge. Someone from below screamed, not expecting a person's legs and ass to fall down by them like that.

Rea stepped up to the downed ninja and leaned down to whisper. "That's what you get for trying to hurt my nephew." He said it too quietly for Naruto to hear it.

Suddenly a large cluster of kunai bearing exploding tags appeared out of nowhere, impaling themselves in the roof around the fallen nin but not hitting either him or Rea, as if they were supposed to miss. Not having time to think it over, Rea pulled back quickly and grabbed Naruto without a word, although the boy was clearly not fond of being taken again, then jumped to the next building just before it exploded.

On the other rooftop he saw a group consisting of six ninja all wearing the same outfits and masks as the one he just killed, the only thing giving them any individuality appearance-wise being their own height and hair. And all of them looked ready to fight, as soon as he made a move.

"Well, this might actually pose a challenge for me." Rea said, setting Naruto down to free his hands. The young boy scurried away, but couldn't get too far without getting close to the others. "Stay behind me, kid!" He told the younger Uzumaki as he raised his arms to his sides again, his hands open and his palms facing outward, before reforming his flame-chakrams.

"Why should I trust you?" Naruto asked.

"It's either me or them, feel free to choose."

The masked nin moved as one to ambush the two Uzumaki, forcing Naruto to decide by hiding behind Rea. The orange-streaked redhead held out his hands forward, turning his chakrams into a type of shield rather than weapon. He added a spiral of fire to them to give them more cover, so it looked like he was defending himself with his own clan symbol.

The masked nin were surprised to see this. This man, whoever he was, was using jutsu and abilities unlike anything they had ever seen. In some ways, it reminded them of a red-haired woman that their leader had briefed them on. One who was supposedly connected to the blond they were attempting to bring to him.

They couldn't think of that right now, they had to continue their attack on him and get to the boy. Each drew out a katana and four of them moved to hit the flames directly while two others would move around them.

Rea saw this coming, however. He threw his two flame-chakrams like boomerangs, bisecting the two attackers coming at them from the side before they could even blink, and stomped one foot to the ground. When he did, a large ring of fire sprung up around him and Naruto protectively before he caught his flame-chakrams.

The four other ninja were spared the attack, but one of them managed to cut his coat and draw some blood. They couldn't add more because of the fire wall, so they pulled back. "This won't protect you." One of them said before taking out a scroll and unsealing some stored water. "Suiton: Water Bullet Volley!" From the water on the roof sprang forth a lot of projectiles at high speed right at Rea.

Rea just threw one of his flame chakrams at them and raised his hands as a wall of fire rose up from the ring of fire, blocking the water projectiles. The flames that the wall of fire was made of were so hot that the water projectiles turned to steam before they could get very far through it.

Naruto looked at the older Uzumaki, in awe of the power the man was displaying. 'Th-this guy... he's really strong...!'

"You're good, but you can't keep this fire up forever." One of the ninja reprimanded, holding up a paper tag with a seal on it.

Rea narrowed his eyes, able to recognize that seal. 'It's a fire suppressor, a low quality one by Uzushio terms but enough to buy them some time to get past my defense.'

The nin got ready to throw it, but before he did, he just dropped it. And the hand that was holding it.

The other ninja were stunned by this surprise, then felt something cut them all and blood gush out. But for the life of them, none of them could see what was cutting them now.

Rea smirked at seeing this. 'About time she showed up...! If she'd taken any longer, there's a chance I would've had to start resorting to THAT!'

"Tell me you didn't spur this on Rea. Again." The voice of Miya said to him, fazing out of invisibility among the downed masked men, holding her sword which was covered in dripping blood.

"Nope, not my fault this happened Miya. Besides, their friend was trying to hurt a fellow Uzumaki. If I had started it, wouldn't you want me to instead?"

Miya sighed. "You have a point there." She then looked at the blond boy hiding behind Rea as Rea dispersed his ring of fire and made his flame-chakrams disappear. "Is this him?"

"Yes, and apparently something's going on here. Something that is completely uncalled for." Rea said.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

Rea and Miya shared a look. Both knew that telling the boy would only confuse him, and at worst could plant seeds of outrage and disaster in his mind and future. They couldn't say anything in front of him, not yet anyway, but how to tell him this without losing any chance at getting his trust?

Rea contemplated telling him that they knew his mother and were only able to come see him now. It wasn't a lie. it just wasn't the full truth. He opened his mouth to speak, but just as quickly as he did that Miya came right up to the young boy and put her finger on his forehead. In no time Naruto collapsed and started snoring.

"Miya!" Rea said, bothered.

"Not now. I know you want to tell him, but doing it without Kikyo-sama is a bad idea." Miya told him. "Before you object, are you sure you want to risk offending One-Shot Kikyo?"

"Alright alright, I'll keep my mouth shut. But she will want to hear what I heard." Rea told her.

"Welcome back Rea-san." Kikyo greeted formally when the two Uzumaki returned to the Hokage office. "I trust you've gotten your little need for sight-seeing out of your system." She arched an eyebrow at the sight of the child in Miya's arms. "And what's this?"

Rea held a slightly dark look as he turned his gaze towards Kikyo. "This is the Uzumaki we're looking for. And I have reason to believe that he's my nephew, since the last people in this village besides Kushina-nee-san that were known to have Uzumaki blood were Tsunade and Nawaki. And, as you know, Nawaki died at about the age of 12 and Tsunade never had any children."

Kikyo didn't react, but she looked over the boy. Nothing about him looked like a trait from the Uzumaki clan, but his chakra... that was definitely of her clan. There could be no mistaking it.

"What have you done to the boy?" Sarutobi asked.

Rea gave the old man a dirty look. "I could ask you and this whole village the same thing. Did you know he was being abducted when I first saw him? And before that, a man I'm guessing was drunk, at NOON mind you, was trying to hurt him with broken glass?"

The Uzumaki in the room widened their eyes at these words, then turned to Sarutobi with their eyes narrowed. The old man felt like the air was getting thick with heavy ill intent. "Sarutobi, care to explain why such an event would be occurring in your village?"

It didn't take a genius to figure out that Sarutobi was in hot water with the visiting Uzumaki. "The people of Konoha don't take too kindly to the knowledge of this boy being the jinchuuriki for the Kyuubi. Right now, you have an idea of how kindly they don't take it."

"Don't take it kindly?" Rea repeated, offended by the phrasing meant to soften the news. "This was attempted murder and attempted kidnapping! This is beyond not liking what he is, this is treating the child like he IS the demon!"

"That regrettably is how some see the boy. Fortunately I've at least forbidden anyone from speaking of it so no one his age knows the truth." Sarutobi replied.

Jun folded his arms. "With all due respect Hokage-dono, forbidding anyone from talking doesn't stop them from acting on those thoughts they can't speak of."

"Clearly this village is not a safe place for the child." Kikyo stated.

Sarutobi sighed. "As much as I hate to admit it, you're right. But there are a few who look past the hatred of others and see him for who he really is. Like the Hyuuga heiress, for example."

Miya tapped her foot on the floor. "You expect us to leave him here, knowing this, just because a little girl has a crush on him?"

"No, I'd be foolish and undeserving of my job if that was my one argument to the case. Look, the truth of the matter is when Kushina was giving birth the seal on her failed and someone whose identity we've yet to learn took contorl of the escaping Kyuubi. Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage, husband to Kushina and father to Naruto there, was able to reseal the fox inside his son, but both parents died in the process. They died believing that Naruto could protect the village better than they ever could. To take him away from Konoha before he even has a chance to be a ninja would be spitting on their sacrifice."

Rea clenched his fist at this. "I get that. But isn't letting him live in these conditions with people trying to kill him spitting on their sacrifice even MORE SO than taking him away from here should be, a place that one of his parents once called home?"

"There is only so much I can do to keep him safe." Sarutobi explained.

"Obviously you're not doing enough. Naruto revealed to me he doesn't even know what a clan is. Tell me, how can a clan heir and the one Uzumaki in this village not know something that basic if you were doing everything possible to honor my sister? You're the Hokage so couldn't you just tell him about his heritage yourself?!" Rea asked.

Sarutobi sighed. "It's not as easy as you think. I can't teach him anything ninja-related myself without drawing more attention to us both, but I have told him to always listen in class once he starts the Academy. Not only that, but while I was focusing on making sure we recovered from the Kyuubi attack, the civilian council got their hooks into the Academy and changed the curriculum around a bit. One thing they've done was cut learning about the Uzumaki from the program in order to try and save face with the other nations by making us seem unassociated with your clan. I myself didn't find out until recently and intend to rectify this situation as soon as possible."

"You let the civilians decide what should and shouldn't be taught to ninja?" Kikyo repeated, making a look of disappointment and bewilderment. It was an expression shared by the rest of her clansmen at the moment.

Sarutobi shook his head. "No, it's more like they forged my signature and put in an order for it to be changed to their liking."

"And you let them stay in power?" Jun asked, starting to get angry.

"No, of course not. I had them sentenced to life without possibility for parole on grounds of usurping and defrauding the Hokage. I have the current council fixing the problem now. Like I said, the problem was only recently discovered."

"So to fix a problem created by civilians, you're entrusting new civilians to fix it simply because they're new?" Rea asked.

"I'm awaiting the report of the new curriculum as we speak. And to make sure it's genuine and not a mere diversion, I will check it myself when the semester starts."

"I can understand that but we still have reason to believe Naruto here is better off in our village. Especially if the people who wish harm on him will find ways to use their children to make it happen for them." Kikyo claimed.

Sarutobi nodded sadly, knowing that they had a point. "Is there any way we can find some sort of compromise that would allow us to fully honor Minato and Kushina's wishes as well as do what's best for Naruto-kun?"

Rea thought it over for a second before a grin, not unlike one that would be seen on Naruto's face when he was planning something big, stretched across his face. "I think I've got an idea."

Hiruzen visibly cringed when Rea said those words. "I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"