Uzumaki Quest (Naruto AU)

Fifty years after the establishment of Uzushiogakure, it was ransacked. Decades of infiltration and sabotage from Iwagakure and Kirigakure had finally cracked Uzushio's legendary seals wide open, a golden egg fresh for the taking. It took days for the once great village to be reduced to rubble, the scarce survivors fleeing for Konoha through tripley secret tunnels as the Uzukage and their contingent of remaining shinobi stayed behind. They weren't staying with a noble purpose in mind, but with a furious goal to tear the invaders apart limb by limb, to hurt them like furious dogs without their masters. This last desperate attempt would tear apart hundreds of invading shinobi, despite the interference of the Tsuchikage and the Seven Swordsmen. The terrifying counterattack would go down in legend. Kiri shinobi would drunkenly wobble around their bars, boasting about surviving Uzushio, where two of the Seven Swordsmen died, leaving Hiramekarei and Kabutowari to be abruptly handed down to their apprentices. Iwa shinobi would recount the terrifying strength of the Uzukage, summoning barriers with twitches of her hands that sliced shinobi in half from fifty feet away. They were too dangerous to be left alone, they would say. And these stories floated through the elemental nations. Kusagakure heard it, Sunagakure heard it, Kumogakure heard it, Amegakure heard it. They all remembered Uzushio through those final legends, that the island of the Uzumakis and the sealing experts were too strong to be left alive.

But Uzushio and the Uzumaki didn't die with Uzushiogakure and the Uzukage. Their bloodline endured. Konoha might have received the bulk of the refugees, but Uzumaki spread across the Elemental Nations without any direction in mind. Across all the major nations, Uzumaki found their way to nooks and crannies, for better or for worse. And where there is one generation of Uzumaki, the next generation will follow. This next generation of Uzumaki will be raised where everyone has heard of the legendary strength of Uzushio's final stand. And where stories are told of your bloodline's strength, everyone will fear you, and want you.

[ ] Wind Country: You are a half-blood Uzumaki. Your father was a romantic, a roaming shinobi who was renowned for his excellent suiton. He fell head over heels with a civilian woman in Sunagakure, and after three months of whirlwind romance, they were married. He left just as suddenly only to die in Uzushio's final stand, his signature suiton jutsu tearing apart dozens of Iwa shinobi. It will only be a matter of time before you will be noticed for your potential.

[ ] Lightning Country: You are a half-blood Uzumaki. Your mother was a chuunin of Uzushio, a budding sealmaster in the making. She fled Uzushio during the invasion all on her lonesome, having forged her own seals to flee the island. She had the unfortunate fate of getting captured by Kumogakure shinobi as she wandered alone, having teleported into the middle of Lightning Country. You are her unwanted child, left alone in a Kumo orphanage. You are expected to become an exemplary Kumo shinobi.

[ ] Earth Country: You are a pure-blood Uzumaki. Your father was one of the key traitors to Uzushio who helped Iwa and Kiri break the seals protecting Uzushiogakure. After the destruction, he was extracted from the ruins of Uzushio by the invading Iwa nin and brought to Iwagakure as a loyal ninja. Along with him, he brought you, his one year old child. You are seen as an expendable tool of a hated bloodline.

[ ] Water Country: You are a pure-blood Uzumaki. Your mother was as civilian as an Uzumaki could be, a humble housewife and genin. Her husband, however, was one of the few traitors to Uzushio, and couldn't bear to see his pregnant wife die. He warned her of the invasion mere days in advance, and she fled into the depths of Water Country, hoping to hide where no one would look. You were born into hiding, in a dirt-poor village near Kirigakure. No one knows who you are, but the bloody mists will shape you nonetheless.

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One of the goals of this quest is to write a story that is solidly taken away from the typical canon and story of Naruto. For this reason, I want to write a story where Konoha isn't the main player in it, and the main driving 'ultimate goal' is different. For this reason, this story is AU. In it, there is no Moon's Eye plan. Madara died at the Valley of the End. Zetsu is not Kaguya's son, and Kaguya does not have any plans to reincarnate herself. Other elements of the world may also be AU.

Name: Kouyou Honoka (Kouyou Uzumaki)
Title: None
Age: 3
Appearance: You're a short and wiry child, with only a bit of pudgy baby fat remaining on your limbs. Your hair is cut short, into jagged, spiky strands of rusty red hair. Your eyes are a murky grey. You are cloaked in a threadbare grey shirt several sizes too large for you and a worn pair of blue shorts, scuffed with dirt and mud. When you smile, your teeth are a bit too sharp.
Position: Civilian

Primary Skills:

• Physical Skills:
  • Taijutsu: Untrained
  • Bukijutsu: Untrained (40/50 XP)
  • Stealth: Untrained
• Chakra Release:
  • Genjutsu: Untrained
  • Ninjutsu: Untrained
  • Nature Transformation: Untrained
• Chakra Manipulation:
  • Chakra Control: Untrained
  • Chakra Sensing: E- (50/100 XP)
    • You can sense active use of chakra nearby, as long as it spikes high enough or is sustained long enough. Looking at someone makes it easier to sense their chakra.

Advanced Skills:

• Fuuinjutsu: Untrained

Mundane Skills:

• Survival: D (300/600 XP)
  • You can easily survive in the forests of Water Country, with some tools. You might struggle somewhat in other environments.

[X] Water Country

You are Kouyou Honoka, daughter of Yanagi Uzumaki. You've lived in the village of Senki-Mura for all your short life. The mists sit heavy on Senki-Mura, an ever present reminder of the village's proximity to Kirigakure. That's what Yua-obaachan tells you, when she's hunched over in the rickety chair in the left corner, talking with her creaky, dry voice for hours at a time, stories of oni and shinobi filling the air in the cramped room. Kirigakure, she'd rasp, is the village of the shinobi. Kirigakure is the village of the bloody mist. They are butchers and assassins, she'd say, over and over again. If you ever see a shinobi, Honoka-chan, you should hide and run, because they'll eat you. Do you know how to recognize a shinobi, Honoka-chan? They all wear a hitai-ate, a metal plate, somewhere on their body. She'd reach down with her slim wooden walking stick and shakily draw the Kiri hitai-ate into the dirt floor, and point at it. If you ever see this, Honoka-chan, what should you do? She'd wait for you to answer in kind.

"Run," you'd say. And she wouldn't smile, but she'd nod. And hide, she'd say. Run and hide. She'd then smear out the icon from the floor, leaving the dirt as if she'd never said anything in the first place.

Her stories were always more boring. She'd drone on in her stale voice, reciting something from memory she'd said a hundred times before. She talked about strange spirits that'd eat you if you lied to them, or would drown you if you boarded their ship. She talked about strange shinobi, ones that had red eyes like blood, or ones who could summon a blizzard to smother a village in it's sleep. There were a thousand stories she knew, and she always had new ones.

Yua-obaachan would never permit you to play when she was telling her stories. When she arrived, she expected you to sit down on the dirt, or on your futon, sometimes. She'd creak her way through the door and park herself on the chair, and demanded that you sit still. It was hard to push down the twitches that ran through your body after sitting for hours, listening to Yua-obaachan. When kaasan came back, as the sun was setting, normally, she would look at Yua-obaachan with a nasty look in her eyes, and Yua-obaachan would leave without a word passing between them. Then kaasan would help you up, her worn face inspecting your every inch, and she'd push a bowl of rice, or fish, or daikon, into your hands.

You don't see kaasan very frequently. She wakes before you, every morning, and disappears into the mist before you could ever say goodbye. Sometimes she shows up as the sun is high in the sky, filtering through the mist with a harsh glare. She'd find you, wherever you'd wandered off to, and follow you around. She doesn't know you know that she follows you sometimes, but you noticed her one time, and you make sure to not miss her again.

When kaasan shows up, it'd be late, when the moon is softly shining through the mist, an iridescent glow reflecting off of small puddles. She'd walk you back home, and sit you on her lap. She'd tell you secrets, secrets that you're not supposed to tell anyone, not Yua-obaachan, not Shicho-sama, and definitely not Touma-kun.

Kaasan is a shinobi, she'd whisper to you. She's an Uzumaki, and you are too. You'd wiggle in her grasp and ask her why you're Honoka and not Uzumaki, like her, and her voice would sound more tired. Because being Uzumaki is dangerous. Because being Uzumaki means that people wanted to kill her, and they'd want to kill you too. So no matter what, Kou-chan, never tell people you're an Uzumaki, okay? But you can always remember it, and think it inside your heart.

Kaasan told you, on other nights, that because she was a shinobi, she had to protect Senki-Mura. That it was her duty. That was why she was gone into the mist, at all times, to protect Senki-Mura. She told you that all shinobi had leaders, and hers was Shicho-sama. In the past, she had a different leader, the Uzukage. They were great and powerful, and commanded hundreds of shinobi. Whenever she talked about the Uzukage, her voice would get distant and she'd stop looking at you, instead staring into some vacant point a million miles away.

Kaasan told you that the greatest secret of all was that she loved you, and then a smile would force its way onto her lined, tired face. She'd insist that you smile back, and wouldn't stop tickling you until you did.

Kaasan would be gone the next day, afterwards. Disappeared back into the mist, leaving you alone once again. You weren't allowed far from home. Only as far as the river and past a couple houses the other way. You could play in the river bank, pulling out seagrass and tying it into frivolous knots. You could draw in the dirt, as long as you rubbed out the drawings afterwards. You could get as muddy as you wanted, as long as you washed it off yourself.

Sometimes Touma-kun would come to play with you when you were out by the river. Touma-kun was a lot larger than you, and he'd push you face-first into the river. He'd laugh as you'd get back up, and boast that he was going to become a super strong shinobi. You'd attack him back, jumping at his knees and trying to pull him down with you, scraping at his pants legs with your nails. He'd always win, always end up on top at the end. Sometimes you got him good, like when you hit him in the eye that one time by jumping off the side of the wall. Eventually, you'd be too tired to get back up and he'd laugh and leave you in the river as he left. You'd have to pick yourself up anyways, and clean yourself up anyways before night fell, or kaasan would know, and she'd be upset.

You didn't want her to be upset with you.

The night was young, and kaasan had you in her lap, her hands carefully threading through your hair, when the door was slammed open. A man stepped in that you'd never seen before. His face was grizzled with a shaky black beard and his nose had an aggressive slant to it.

He cut through the sound of kaasan's voice like a tearing a piece of seagrass in two.

"Yanagi-san." The word was all but snarled. "Shicho-sama demands your presence at once." You are dumped off of kaasan's lap without warning.

Kaasan raises her voice, and you shake. "Ichiro, in what way was this part of the deal?"

Ichiro raises his voice to match. "We don't care about this child, Yanagi! You will come with me, or whatever deal you have with Shicho-sama, will be called off."

For a second, kaasan looks like she's about to collapse. Then she swallows. "Alright," she murmurs, her voice as quiet as the wind.

Kaasan follows Ichiro out of the door without a word. The sudden silence inside is deafening, and you feel like you're still shaking.

Where is kaasan going?

[ ] Follow her: Kaasan is gone, following a strange man who you've never met. And kaasan is upset. She's followed you many times before, perhaps you can follow her as well.

[ ] Stay here: You're not allowed far from home, and kaasan always leaves to go much further away. If you were to follow her, she'd be furious at you. A terrifying idea.