The Red Flash Chapter 40 (A Song For War)

Naruto

The moon shines the sea, the surface of the water, dancing close to the land, small waves hitting the shore, despite being night, Naruto could see everything around him. His legs were shaking, his knee felt weak and numb, he felt tired, but most importantly he reached Uzushiogakure.

Naruto saw little grabs, running away from him, using the sand around to cover themselves until one couldn't notice that a small animal was hiding there. The scent of the sea was strong all around him, it smelled like salt. And a little like... eggs?! Naruto didn't know why that smell was around him, but he didn't bother with it. The wind flew around and hit his face, his long red hair dancing with the wind. The moon making it shine and look like a red crystal.

A few burned houses were nearby, Naruto could tell from the dark wood left from the fire, a few had bones around the courtyard, half-rotten clothes stick to them. Naruto knew he was on the south side of the island. The main entry to Uzushiogakure was through the east, an opening to the ocean that lead the ships to the centre of the village.

It was called the Sea's pass, which lead ships from Uzushiogakure to reach the open sea. The opening stopped in the centre of the village, the village had been built around the opening, making it easier to hunt for fish, having easier access to the water of the ocean. From what Naruto remember from his dream, the Uzushiogakure main village was around the end of the opening. Sea's pass stopped in the centre of the Island and that's where Roku had started building the village.

The end of the Sea's pass where Ships docked and gave supplies or took supplies was called, DeepWater. Naruto didn't know why but figured must be a reason for it. DeepWater was rich with different types of sea animals, Uzushiogakure of course had grown their own food, different vegetables, fruits and other necessary items for a simple life.

Naruto had wondered if they earned money through other means perhaps a mine with different minerals like gold or silver, or maybe just through selling supplies, and accepting jobs for Ninja like the other villages did.

Naruto escaped his thoughts when he started walking around the shore, this place was a bit far from the main village, this place was probably used by fishermen who didn't like to live in the village. The houses were still there of whoever lived here, but no one was alive, except the animals and plants.

Naruto felt the water of the sea wetting his black shinobi sandals, taking a deep breath, he felt dread. He couldn't stop this feeling inside him, the place felt like calling him but at the same, he didn't feel prepared to see his homeland... destroyed. To see everything Roku had built destroyed, the place where his mother had been raised, burned to ash and be forgotten.

"Naruto, I'm here with you, you're not alone" Kurama suddenly said feeling the dread and even a hint of guilt and anger in his body.

Naruto managed a small smile and mentally thanked Kurama for being there for him, the young Uzumaki half hoped that Roku would be here along with him. Closing his hands to a fist, he took a deep breath, feeling the fresh air in his lungs, the smell of mint and eggs was strong and he wondered where the smell came from.

Deciding to ignore it he jumped through the beach, running as fast as he could, soon he reached a forest, Naruto keep jumping from tree to tree, he noticed different animals looking at him, perhaps surprised but he didn't stop to see them closely.

He kept jumping and the feeling was getting stronger with every step he took, his seal started glowing red and spread from his stomach around his chest and slowly spreading through his right arm, Naruto stopped moving and saw red lines slowly reaching the seal Roku had put in his wrist.

The seal looked like the spread wings of a bird, the seal reached the part that separated the two wings and looked to gather in a small spot. Naruto didn't feel anything at first but then he suddenly felt his chakra growing in that spot, almost like all the chakra of his body was accumulated in a single spot, suddenly the pressure stopped leaving a small empty red circle in it. The circle connected the two separated wings.

Naruto touched the skin around his wrist but couldn't feel anything different, not even Kurama could detect anything and that concerned him, that apparently Kushina or Minato or both had been able to make a seal that kept him inside Naruto but at the same time he couldn't detect anything that the seal did to him.

The lines that had spread from his seal slowly detached from the empty circle and returned back to the seal. The seal stopped glowing red and turned back to its normal dark colour before disappearing.

"Naruto. I- I don't feel the seal doing anything bad to you, but I know your parents would never make a seal that would hurt you" Kurama said reassuring Naruto that the seal wasn't doing anything to harm him.

The redhead knew his parents would never harm him but he didn't know what the seal did and that annoyed him. Focusing his eyes, he spread his chakra almost like he was about to do a jutsu but the new symbol didn't react to his chakra. Understanding that nothing happened, he stopped trying and decided to keep going.

His eyes slowly looked from his seal and in front of him. There should be answers in Uzushiogakure? Naruto thought and jumped away through the forest.

After almost an hour, Naruto knew he was close, jumping from the final tree, he saw something he wasn't prepared for.

In front of him stood Uzushiogakure, the walls still stood tall and strong but some parts of it destroyed, the concrete still lying on the ground, his eyes saw a flag half-burned standing at the top of the wall, Naruto couldn't clearly see the symbol but he could tell the symbol of The Uzumaki Clan.

Strong wind hit his face sending shivers in his body, he saw the wall stretched from south to the North. The wall looked two times larger and taller than the wall of Konoha. The wall had small plants growing around it, creating small cracks, slowly destroying what was left. Naruto noticed a few houses standing close to the gates of the Village.

The gates were burned, what was left was a huge chunk somehow still hanging from the top of the wall, until that part fell as well. Despite being years since anyone was here, Naruto felt the scent of fire all around the place, almost like the place was still burning to this day.

Naruto felt sadness covering his body like a cold blanket, his fist closed, his knuckles turned white like milk, he bit his lower lip tightly, his eyes full of tears, his vision fuzzy. Naruto quickly used his left sleeve to wipe the tears away. He was here to find answers and learn.

"Naruto. I know this might not be the best time, but you should know that even I respect your clan. I hated everyone else but - your clan was different, and So are You" Kurama said feeling the sadness of Naruto.

The young Uzumaki stood silent for a few minutes before smiling and nodding his head. "Thank You Kurama," Naruto said and the fox smiled.

The young Uzumaki started walking towards the gates, what was left of them. His eyes looking at the houses as he passed by, the houses surprisingly didn't look destroyed... but just abandoned. He wondered why, his blue eyes soon noticed something. That none of the houses close to the wall looked damaged and same was for the ground around the gates, he half expected small craters and maybe even clothes and what was left, but he couldn't see anything to implement that a fight was fought outside of the gates.

His eyes turned to the gate itself, the gate looked 10 meters tall, but he noticed no seals around the wall, either the seals had stopped working or were very well hidden. His eyes saw inside the gates and could tell inside looked much different, the destroyed houses were everywhere, he couldn't see anything that wasn't destroyed. Taking the first step inside, neither Naruto nor Kurama didn't detect the Seal of Life letting him inside the village.

His seal glowed red for a moment before disappearing again, walking inside he felt - alone. Cold. Sad. Angry and Guilty. Everything was covered in darkness, each house inside the village looked destroyed, nothing left but rubble, the signs of a war fought here were everywhere, from the rubble in the ground, small craters around the ground, houses burned, their concrete looked to have melted in some places making look slippery. Weapons lying around the ground, trees that look clearly to have been cut down.

Naruto's eyes went to the centre of the village that had the largest building, and still standing, the building looked white, the roof looked similar to that of Konoha except the Uzumaki symbol was in the centre.

The streets looked covered by white bricks, he saw a few parts of the streets had started splattering from the plants growing around.

The redhead knew what he would see when he arrived here, but still the feeling of complete silence, no sound could be heard around, setting a feeling of dread around almost like something was hidden in the shadows waiting to come out.

Naruto slowly walked inside a house, his footsteps were the only sound around, he slowly opened the front door made of strange wood that had weird marks around. The door made a brassy sound, inside he saw everything was covered by a thick level of dirt, everything looked grey, Naruto saw a hole in the roof and below the hole was what looked like bones, and clothes still covering it. Naruto saw arrows that had pierced the wall from inside, few weapons were lying in the ground close to another- body. Weapons like a small sword, kunai and a few Shurikens.

"Naruto, you don't need to see this" Kurama said knowing that Naruto feeling guilty about what he was seeing, despite not being his fault.

Naruto closed his eyes, the silence almost swallowing him whole, he felt cold shivers around his body, his skin felt like something was crawling.

Naruto didn't say anything but just left the house not wanting to stay there any longer.

Walking through the streets, he found bones lying around, some shattered and some missing hugs chunks. He saw a few small bones in a dress covering them.

After a few minutes of walking, he soon reached the docks of Uzushiogakure, as usual, everything was deserted, there were a few small ships still docked but none of them was in condition to use, they were either filled with water or almost destroyed. Naruto saw empty crates lying around close to where the ships were docked. His blue eyes turned to look at the main building of the village that stood the closest to DeepWater.

"Do you think there's anything that might help me for Fuinjutsu?" Naruto asked out loud since there's was no need to talk mentally, no one would hear him here.

"I'm not sure Naruto, but even if there's something, don't expect for the doors to just open for you and be careful, The Seal might have left you to walk inside but you can never be too careful" Kurama warned him, despite he himself not thinking that there was anything too worthy about, would be good to keep an eye out for anything unexpected.

Naruto nodded his head in agreement, he soon made his way to the main building of Uzushiogakure. While walking there, he saw the fountain was still there, the statues of children playing were still there, water was still coming out of their hands, and falling down in the basin. One of the statues had his head destroyed but still, he could tell how it looked before.

One of the hands was in the mud, but one of the children statues was intact. Naruto walked closer and put his hands together and filled his hands with water and splashed it in his face, the water was cold, was still fresh and not filled with dirt or blood.

He turned around and looked at the gates that lead inside the main building, one of the gates still standing. The wind flew around, hitting his face, making the gate slowly moving around and making small and terrible sounds almost like someone using his nails in a blackboard.

Naruto walked inside the house seeing that it was ... intact. Before him was a long wide-open corridor with closed doors on both sides, but what surprised Naruto was that nothing looked damaged, the walls and everything looked unclean but still no sign of battle inside the building.

He soon reached a large door that lead inside a big hall, the hall had many windows that let the light of the moon stream inside. Naruto saw a desk at the very end of the hall, walking up to it. He saw papers lying around the desk and on the ground covered in dust. Naruto used his hand to shake off the dust.

The papers were nothing but filled with missions completed around the island of Uzushiogakure and around Wave and even some missions completed in Kiri, Naruto noticed one of the names in the papers was mentioned far often than the others, apparently this Kurayami Uzumaki, had completed over 100 missions in a single month, but the papers mentioned nothing else.

Naruto didn't think of it as important despite being impressed by the number of missions he had completed.

"Naruto, do you feel this?" Kurama asked.

Naruto closed his eyes and now he actually felt something in this hall, he turned around and looked beneath him, strange symbols were covering the floor. But Naruto could tell this was a seal. An advanced one.

He did hand signs, "Open," he said and the seal started glowing red. Before the ground started shaking almost like an earthquake. The floor in the middle of the hall started opening. Naruto walked closer and saw stairs leading under the building. But he could hardly see anything.

"Let me help you"

Naruto's eyes changed to red, and now he could see more clearly in the darkness. He walked downstairs, his eyes roaming around and wondering where this was leading to.

Soon he reached a door, opening it, he saw a large room filled with scrolls and books, almost like a library.

Suddenly fires lighted around the walls, torches started burning again and he could see, in front of him was the largest library he had ever seen.

The shelves filled with scrolls and books stretched at least hundreds of meters. The symbol of the Uzumaki clan was standing proudly in each scroll and book.

Naruto saw many desks, tables around and chairs. He was about to look at some of the books when something blue started appearing in front of him, it looked like a bright light, Naruto covered his eyes, and soon the light stopped.

The young Uzumaki moved his hands away and in front of him was Roku Uzumaki. His whole body looked slightly transparent and bluer than in his dream.

"Roku-Sama"

"Roku-Sama"

The old Uzumaki smiled proudly at the young man, he had passed the Seal of Life, and the Seal of The Truth.

When Roku had been 241 years old, he had made the Seal of Truth, the seal would work to detect the colour of someone's chakra. The darker a person was, the colder and grey was their chakra. The seal protected the secret Library of the Uzumaki Clan. If the seal had detected that Naruto wasn't worthy then a counter seal would be activated and Naruto's chakra system would have been blocked, resulting in immobility to ever use Chakra.

Naruto noticed the 'Sama' that Kurama used and was surprised to hear him say that but decided to ask later.

Naruto bowed his head respectfully to Roku who gesture for him to stand up.

"No need for that young Uzumaki, it seems you were able to find this place," Roku said smiling.

Kurama stayed silent and couldn't believe that Roku was here, he still remembered him, despite being a thousand and five hundred years since he died.

‘Kurama stood beneath a large tree in the land of fire. He was only a bit taller than four meters, Kurama had decided to explore the lands around alone. Gyuki and Nanabi had wanted to come and especially Matatabi since she was the friendliest to him.

But Kurama had declined and instead told them he wanted to be alone for some time and possibly be friends with the humans since his father had told them.

The others had accepted and left to go alone, Shukaku had mentioned that he wanted to leave towards the south soon enough, after all, he loved the sand.

Kurama opened his mouth and closed it, his eyes still closed enjoying the sound of the forest around him.

"You're quite big" he heard a voice and immediately jumped awake, his eyes opened and looked forward to being met with the purple eyes of a human. For a moment he thought that tou-chan was there but giving him a second look, his eyes were just purple but no Rinnegan.

'Who's This? How come I didn't feel him coming and second why is he smiling?! And third, why does he look so familiar?'

Kurama bombarded himself with questions and noticed the strange human was still standing there smiling.

"My father told me about you, but I never thought you would be so ... cute," The strange human said.

"What?! I'm not Cute" Kurama yelled angrily and showed his teeth trying to intimidate him.

"Calm down. I just felt your chakra a week ago and wanted to meet you. I'm not here to hurt you" The strange man said raising his hands. Showing that he wasn't here to hurt him.

Kurama stopped releasing his KI and looked at his face.

The man had long red crimson hair that reached his neck, his long face with and a small beard around his jawline and chin but no moustache.

His smile reminded him of Tou-chan and now that Kurama could feel his chakra, he noticed the similarities between his father and this strange smiling man.

"I'm not afraid of you, strange smiling person" Kurama growled.

"My name is Roku, and I would like to talk to you" He stated and walking closer before sitting on the ground close to Kurama.

The nine-tails fox rolled his eyes. "Why is that" Kurama growled.

"Well, My father told me a lot about you, and I would like to know you better," Roku said.

Kurama narrowed his eyes slightly, who was his father that apparently knew about them. Kurama wasn't stupid, he knew that not that many people knew about them.

"Who is your father?" Kurama growled slightly showing his teeth again.

Roku just laughed and didn't look scared of him that made Kurama a bit happy but this wasn't the time for that.

"My father is Ashura Otsutsuki"

Kurama's eyes widened in disbelief, he had noticed the similarities but didn't think that the brat in front of him was the grandson of his father.

A smile slowly across his face and his face brightened like a sun.

"It's good to meet you Roku," he said happily and perhaps this journey was for the better.

Kurama remembered it and a tear was slowly showing on his left eye.

Naruto was about to say something to Roku when Kurama suddenly took control.

"Is good to see you Roku" Kurama said with Naruto's body and gave the control back to Naruto before Roku could actually say something to him.

Roku chuckled slightly, one moment the young Uzumaki was talking and the next Kurama was talking.

"You haven't changed at all Kurama," he said smiling, a smile that Kurama recognized very well.

Naruto could feel the happiness of his friend and was glad for that.

"I hope Kurama is not giving you problems," Roku said.

Naruto shook his head. "Nah, he's just an overgrown furball," he said and even Roku could hear Kurama screaming at him for calling him a furball. Usually, Roku would have laughed but this wasn't the moment.

Roku's face suddenly changed to a serious one, he looked at Naruto, the young Uzumaki felt his eyes piercing his soul.

"Before you can study Fuinjutsu young Uzumaki. I need to show you something" Roku stated with a strong tone.

Naruto understood the seriousness of his tone and nodded his head.

"You might want to rebuild Uzushiogakure, but without understanding the past and what led to the destruction of our village, we will be doomed to repeat it" He stated and everything changed around them.