Chapter 92: Naruto 6

Three months after his seventh birthday Carl regained his memories of his time in the cooking show world. Even though he didn't get any great perks from that world, it was fun remembering how he had transformed that world into a gourmet world.

It also sparked some odd ideas into his head. What would a world of ninja, samurai, and other such beings think of their world being transformed into a gastronome's dream?

Would the sudden appearance of Gourmet Grounds allow the various factions to focus on those rather than making war with their fellow ninja? Or would the struggle for control of a Gourmet Ground and the benefits accrued from it simply intensify the conflicts?

Carl shrugged away his idle idea of changing the Naruto world into a gourmet hunting ground. He may revisit the idea later, after some of the big threats out there were dealt with. Or he may not.

"Carl, time to wake up." Nuo called out from outside his doors.

"I'm up, Nuo." Carl called as he finished getting dressed.

He exited his rooms and made his way to the breakfast table. He saw that Neji and Hinata were already there.

"Good morning Hinata, Neji." Carl called out as he took his place.

"Morning!" Hinata cheerfully called out.

"Good morning, cousin." Neji calmly nodded.

"So, tell me more about how your classmates acted in the exercise, Neji." Hinata badgered their cousin for answers about their class activities.

Shortly after Carl and Hinata's seventh birthday the Academy started up once more, and Neji was enrolled. Hinata liked to dig for information and stories about Neji's fellow classmates, ask him about what he thought of them, and generally dig for information from their taciturn cousin.

Neji always answered her questions, but he wasn't a very talkative sort. So Hinata had to continually ask specific questions to get more detailed answers. Carl thought it was good training for Hinata in the interrogation skill of chasing after the information trail.

"There weren't a lot of students that stood out." Neji thoughtfully answered as he reviewed his memories. "Most of the class has never trained their bodies before, so they struggled to even finish the obstacle course, let alone excel at it. There was one boy with very shaggy hair that finished two minutes behind me. For a civilian born orphan, he did very well."

Carl thoughtfully looked at Neji who was deep in thought about what had happened in his class. From what he said, Carl wouldn't be surprised if Neji was talking about Rock Lee. Carl mused that it looked like Hinata wasn't the only one who was benefitting from the regular interrogation she put Neji under. The original Neji would never have had cause to actually take a second look at any of his classmates, or compliment them as he was doing now.

Hinata's line of questioning over the past couple of months had already caused Neji to start to actually look at his fellow classmates and evaluate them and their potential as his future teammates. And in order to answer her questions, he had to do a bit of information gathering himself to find out their circumstances.

And since the easiest method of finding that information out was to simply talk to his classmates and ask them, it was occasionally forcing him to become a bit more social. At least when he couldn't gather the information in the sneaky ninja way.

Carl thought it was a wonderful development in Neji. He was more observant of his peers and was looking beyond the surface to see who they actually were.

"And one of the girls was unusually accurate from the first time she picked up a kunai. She was the most accurate on that portion of the obstacle course, even if her conditioning needs to improve." Neji continued explaining to Hinata, probably speaking about Tenten.

"Moaning..." A sleepy eyed Naruko yawned as she stumbled into the dining room, plopping herself down in her spot next to Hinata and promptly leaning all over the girl and starting to snore.

"Morning sleepy head." Carl called out, while a red faced Hinata was poking her clingy companion. Hinata only got a couple of incoherent mumbles from the blonde from where she was draped over his sister.

Hiashi, Himari, and Hanabi entered the room then and took in the situation with a glance. Hinata looked at her parents in a helpless begging manner to ask for their assistance. She only got amused smirks in return as they took their place at the table.

Breakfast was soon served, which acted as a wake up switch for Naruko. The moment the food was placed on the table she popped upright, fully awake and hungry.

The family chuckled a bit, even Hinata joined in despite the embarrassing moment, at the familiar sight of Naruko's reaction to good food. Even after more than a year of living with them, Naruko was still so excited to be able to eat a variety of delicious foods that she could only have dreamed of before.

While the family ate in silence, Carl thought about just how much Naruko had improved over the course of the past year.

At first it had been a struggle to get her to sit still in their reading and writing lessons. She just seemed almost incapable of paying attention. It was a struggle for her to focus.

That had lasted for a few days until Carl seriously thought about what was causing her to be so anxious when it was time to study.

One of the thoughts he had was that Naruko's somewhat hyperactive fidgeting was a result of an imbalance of energies. As the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tail Fox, chakra was constantly leaking from the seal in minute amounts, defusing through her body.

The chakra of the Kyubi was generally corrosive to people, so it was constantly breaking down Naruko's body. But the health regeneration that came from being an Uzumaki, and which was probably enhanced by being a Jinchuriki, caused her to heal the damage very fast.

The result? Her physical body was stronger and more robust than others her age. And her physical energy far outstripped her mental energy.

The imbalance of physical energy to mental energy caused her to be very hyper and it was hard to settle down for the mental portion of their studies.

Aside from that imbalance, Naruko was simply not used to sitting down for scholarly studies, since the first six years of her life she was living as a wild child and was focused on struggling to stay alive in the midst of so much anger and hate directed her way.

So the first part of Carl's plan had been to increase Naruko's workout greatly so she bled off a great deal of physical energy in the morning. Her stamina was insane, so she didn't tire easily or for long, but at least the heavy workouts bled enough energy off that she could focus easier in the afternoons.

And the other part of Carl's plan was to simply explain certain things so that Naruko understood them. A short but detailed explanation of the nature of chakra and how their training schedule was designed to help them grow as ninja saw a huge transformation in Naruko.

When someone actually took the time to explain to her just why something was the way it was, or why they were doing something, it was amazing the effect it had on her.

Naruko was an orphan that had never had anyone to explain anything to her. Ever. She only ever learned as much as she did by observation and imitation. Having someone sit down and explain things to her and answer her questions without yelling was a novel experience.

And once she learned how important the mental aspects of training were to increase their chakra and control over their chakra, she had suddenly been very focused. She dove in to the reading and writing exercises with a will to master the subject matter. She suddenly loved learning art and music as a means to increase her mental energy and gain control over her chakra and become a better ninja.

Carl smiled and shook his head in amusement at the huge effect simple understanding had in the girl.

Thinking about the girl's prospects if he hadn't intervened in her life made him pleased with the changes he was making.

He could only assume that Naruko would have ended up with a similar development to the male Naruto in the story. They both lived in similar circumstances, and except for gender seemed to be very similar people at first.

Because of the change in circumstances, the two blondes were very different people now.

The original Naruto had lived in that unkind and hatred filled environment for six more years before he started getting any acknowledgement from his peers. He was never educated and taught how to act or how to be a ninja. He muddled through, lived behind a cheerful mask, and was shaped by his environment.

Because of his whole life goal of gaining recognition, he actually made a poor ninja. He craved attention and did things in a loud and flashy way, even if he wasn't sure of succeeding. Naruto would more often than not talk to his opponents and get their life stories and work his talk no jutsu to make them allies, rather than simply ambush them or fight them to the death.

Those kinds of traits made him an excellent hero protagonist, but it also made him a poor ninja.

And while Carl would never quite know what would have happened to Naruto if early on he had gotten some kind of intervention in his life like what Carl and his family was doing for Naruko, he could make some guesses based on the changes he was seeing in Naruko.

Finally gaining some acknowledgment and love, and training and attention, had done wonders for Naruko over the past year. She dove into their ninja studies and loved every minute of it as she proved she could be a very intelligent person given half a chance.

If she had lived for another six years without anyone to guide her, her habits and behaviors of muddling through would probably have become so ingrained, it would be hard to change at a later date.

Naruko still had her moments of nervousness and worry that it would all disappear one day, but those moments were growing further and further apart.

And under the guidance of Himari and Hinata at home, and the addition of Ino, Sakura, and Yakumo on their scheduled park days, Naruko was able to grow beyond her "gutter rat survival mode" and actually begin to be a young girl.

She was able to enjoy nice kimonos and colors other than orange. She was able to enjoy eating sweets. She was able to have fun gossip sessions with her girlfriends. She was able to spar with her adoptive family and friends, learn to read and write, and simply blossom into a vivacious little girl.

And she wasn't the only one to benefit from the arrangements. Hinata gained a sister her age that was just as cheerful as she was, even if she was a bit more exuberant in showing it. Poor Hinata and his mother were kind and cheerful individuals that were unlucky enough to find themselves in the midst of a very stoic clan. So it was nice for them to have another cheerful person to interact with.

It would have been stifling to a great degree for Carl's twin sister to live in the stoic Hyuga clan alone. But now that Hinata had a sister that she could show the ropes to, and who was just as cheerful as she liked being, the two girls got on like a house on fire. The clan of uncheerful people didn't feel as stifling with a partner in crime next to Hinata.

Once they finished breakfast, Carl shook off his introspective mood. He followed behind Hinata, Naruko, and Neji to the practice field.

While Neji did attend the academy, it didn't start until nine in the morning. The family usually woke at five-ish and spent at most a half hour on breakfast. So Neji had a solid three hours of workout time before he had to get ready and leave for the academy.

From what Neji told them, the Academy ran from 9:00 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon. Each class was 45 minutes long with a 15 minute break in between classes and an hour long lunch.

The first class was Reading and Writing. The second was History. The third was spent out in the practice yard on physical fitness and taijutsu. They were introducing the basic academy style of martial arts in the taijutsu class.

After an hour long lunch they would return for a class on various Ninja skills, followed by Languages and Codes, and then the last class of the day was Maths and the Sciences.

It wasn't a bad schedule for an academy, per se. But it seemed to be focused more on book knowledge than practical training. Carl blamed the gold diggers who were after Sasuke's bank book for the changes that happened.

While the mental aspects of learning helped improve their chakra, the physical aspects were just as important, if not more so. But the Academy only had one 45 minute class that focused on the physical, while the rest was on the mental. That should really be the opposite. The young ninja hopefuls could train and practice under the guidance of an instructor at the Academy, then spend their off time studying the knowledge portion as homework.

But thanks to the desire of the gold diggers to have their useless fangirl daughters stay in the academy to pursue their precious Sasuke, the curriculum had been changed for the worse.

"Race you!" Naruko called out when they arrived in the practice yard and took off running.

"Hey! No fair!" Hinata yelled as she took off after the laughing blonde.

Carl exchanged small smiles with Neji before they too began sprinting after the two girls.

Neji was a year older than the rest of them and had more training time under his belt, but often found it hard to keep up with the speed of Naruko, and no one could keep up with her stamina.

Well, no one but Carl. But he kept it a secret that he could easily beat her. He usually kept pace just behind Naruko to encourage his sister and cousin to push themselves to catch up; and encourage Naruko to push herself not to be caught.

Carl really, really didn't want to get the reputation of a "genius". Nothing good ever came of that label. Pedo snake ninjas chased after a young boy's body for that label.

'Okay, I'm being a bit unfair here. Orochimaru never wanted to get in Sasuke's pants in that way, as far as I know. He just wanted to take over a body that gave him cheat codes in acquiring jutsu.' Carl snorted to himself when they were on their 23rd lap around the practice yard.

'Or maybe it was the upgraded version of the sharingan that Itachi showed off that made Orochimaru so obsessed with the Uchiha eyes.' Carl suddenly realized. 'Cause it's not like Orochimaru ever needed help learning even S-rank jutsu, or just inventing his own. But the mangekyo eyes and the amazing powers they had would definitely attract the snake summoner's attention.'

Another few laps were ran while Carl pondered about this new idea. Naruko was shouting taunts that she was beating them in their run, causing Neji to redouble his efforts to catch the blonde who was annoying about rubbing her speed and stamina advantage in their faces.

'Well, thankfully Orochimaru doesn't seem interested in the Byakugan.' Carl finally concluded. 'I'm sure I could take him out if it came to it; but there's just something wiggy about the idea of having him focused on me, or any of my friends.' Carl shuddered.

Eventually Neji had to take off for the Academy and the other three soon got involved in their taijutsu practice. It was really good practice for Naruko to have to fight the Hyuga twins because it forced her to pay attention a lot to avoid being poked by their painful fingers of steel. And it helped Hinata a lot to fight a style other than the Gentle Fist; it gave her plenty of experience in fighting.

With more of his memories being restored, Carl had lots and lots of combat and training experience to call on to help them. Over the years since he had gone to the SAO world, he had spent plenty of time in the virtual world fighting against the toughest opponents he could program in, both human and giant monster.

All that extra experience directly translated to Carl being able to master and use the Gentle Fist style in the most efficient way possible. So if he wanted to make his opponents, Hinata and Naruko in this case, aware of their openings and weaknesses, he could easily attack that way to show them the holes in their defenses.

He also allowed holes to open up in his defenses so they could attack and score hits. It was important that they were good at not just defense, but attack as well.

His time in the virtual worlds fighting against the toughest opponents he could program to fight certainly made him aware that only staying on defense would allow an opponent to plan and execute a series of attacks much easier, which would lead to eventual defeat. Especially when he fought against monsters that dwarfed him in size. This ninja world had giant summons beasts, so those kinds of fights would be present, no doubt.

And while he hadn't exactly gone to a world of giant Kaiju, like Godzilla, plenty of profound beasties could fill the role of a Kaiju if they so desired. So he had learned to fight against them.

'Hmm. Maybe I should create that as my next training program. Can't believe I haven't programmed a Godzilla world in the virtual reality.' Carl chuckled at the thought. He then sent an order to the Yamato VI to review the Godzilla tapes he had in the database and begin designing a virtual game based around it. He was busy with other things, so he would have the VI do it.

Carl would review the game and make some adjustments if needed at some point. And a fun alternative would be to have him be the giant rampaging through the city. That could be quite fun indeed.

The morning exercises eventually came to a close, and Carl, Hinata, and Naruko headed to the baths to clean up for lunch.

Life was good.

A dark haired boy of about seven years old was alone in an apartment in another part of Konoha. He stood at the window in the front of his apartment, which was covered by some curtains.

Moving the side of one of the curtains a fraction of an inch, he was able to see out of his window to view the front of his apartment.

He shuddered.

They were out there, waiting for him.

Nothing really made sense, ever since his brother had killed their whole clan, their parents, and then tortured him. The world had gone mad in so many ways. All these random woman wouldn't stop ambushing him and telling him how much their daughter cared about him and wanted him because he was an elite Uchiha and was so cute.

He had no idea why they would want him. He hadn't even met their daughters, let alone knew what they looked like. He had no idea why they would want him, having never met them before.

But telling them that he hadn't even met their daughters had been his first huge mistake. Because after that they all began carrying pictures of their nearly naked daughters to shove in his face, telling him how beautiful they were and pressing him to agree to meet them.

"Don't you agree, Lord Uchiha. My Risa would make the perfect wife for you."

Lord Uchiha was his father. But that was before 'Tachi killed him. And mom. And everyone else.

A bolt of pain shot through his head.

'Damn you Itachi, you traitor! I'm going to chase you down and kill you like a dog!'

A voice echoed through his head. It didn't sound like his own voice, but he was in so much pain, he couldn't figure out who it belonged to.

'Why? Why did you do it?' Sasuke thought when the pain lessened, allowing him to sit up from where he had fallen before. "Why…why did you run without me, 'Tachi?'

'I hate you Itachi! YOU'RE DEAD!'

Sasuke grabbed his head as another bolt of pain shot through it. The voice that accompanied the pain that told him he hated his older brother 'Tachi – another bolt of pain ripped through his head.

'I won't stop until you're dead Itachi! I'll rage and hate and chase you until I can kill you!'

The pain continued rolling through his head.

After an interminable amount of time, the pain finally lessened. He dragged himself along the wall until he shakily sat up once more and took a deep breath.

The world didn't make any sense anymore. Random women threw their naked daughters at him while calling him 'Lord Uchiha', telling him that he was such a strong ninja. He knew he wasn't a strong ninja yet, not like 'Tachi –

A bolt of pain shot through his head.

"You're a damned traitor Itachi. I will kill you. Nothing will get in my way or stop me from ending your life!" Sasuke yelled out loud alongside the voice that echoed in his head.

The pain lessened a bit when Sasuke yelled out loud what the voice told him.

He finally recognized whose voice was echoing in his head whenever the bolts of pain would attack. He didn't know how that voice was echoing in his head, but he knew who it belonged to. That voice sounded like his older brother…Itachi.

Despite wincing and expecting the pain, nothing happened when he used his brother's full name. Sasuke shakily let out his breath. He had made the connection, finally.

When he thought of 'Ta – the nickname he had for his older brother, the pain would burst in his head and his brother's voice would tell him to rage and hate him. His brother was telling him to build up his rage and hate and kill him.

Sasuke curled up once more on the ground in front of the window, sobbing into his knees.

Eventually he stopped crying and got to his knees, and stood up shakily. He made his way to the kitchen of his new apartment that was far away from the Uchiha district where he had seen so many corpses of his clan.

He rinsed his face off, and then grabbed a cup and filled it with water.

The blood had run in the streets, splashing and staining his clothes as he ran frantically through the district until he arrived home and saw his brother, 'Ta – Itachi standing there.

Two swings of his sword, and their parents were dead. Falling over onto the ground. Their staring eyes unblinking.

Itachi had then poked him in the forehead, and brought him to the land of pain and hate.

And then he left him. He left him all alone.

And now the world didn't make any sense anymore.

Everyone was telling him what a powerful ninja he was. Because he was an elite Uchiha. He was the Lord Uchiha. They threw their daughters at him. They threw gift after gift at him, seeking his favor.

Anytime he thought of…the nickname, his brother's voice told him to gather his hate, grow powerful, and kill him.

Setting the empty cup down on the counter, Sasuke sucked in a lungful of air, held it. And then blew it out.

And made a decision.

"Since this is what the world has become, then so be it." Sasuke's hoarse voice almost grunted the words. "Since that is what you want, brother, then so be it."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. An elite Uchiha. I will hate a lot of things. And I will destroy…Itachi Uchiha."

The low level headache that never fully went away lightened up just a little bit at his declaration. He was on the right track.

He returned back to the living room of his apartment, and looked out of his window at the women that were waiting for him to emerge so they could sell their daughters to him.

Now that he thought about it, it was only right that they would act like that for an elite ninja that this world had become. The strong ninja always got the most attention, just like 'Ta – Itachi, the man he was going to kill.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, an elite ninja. I hate a lot of things. I will prepare to kill…Itachi Uchiha."

The pain lessened a bit more.

This world didn't make sense anymore. And this life was no good.

But at least he had a direction, a goal. His brother had told him what to do. Now, he just needed to do it.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, an elite Uchiha ninja. I hate a lot of things. Except my clan. I will one day restore my clan. Before that, though, I will kill Itachi Uchiha."

The head pain lessened a little bit more. Sasuke firmed his will. He knew what he had to do to make this life better. His brother had shown him the way. Gain power, kill Itachi, and build the clan up. Even more powerful than before so no one could ever destroy it again.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, an elite Uchiha ninja. I hate a lot of things. I don't like many things. One day I will restore my clan. But first, I will kill Itachi Uchiha." Sasuke repeated his mantra.

Maybe then life could be good again.

The day that Carl turned seven and a half years old he sported the equivalent of a massive Hyuga grin all day long. Carl really only played the stoic Hyuga when he felt like it, and today he was playing a happy stoic Hyuga to hide just how much his face wanted to stretch into a massive grin. With his cheerful sister Hinata and his overly energetic friend Naruko, he really didn't need to remain all stoic and unemotional.

Cause they would tease him relentlessly if he tried to act like a Hyuga for anything other than formal situations. So he shrugged and went along with it. It was more fun to enjoy his life and training than to have to role play as if he had a stick up his butt.

The thing that made him so happy all day was the return of his memories of the Dinosaur Gauntlet. He was the freaking Prankasaurus-Rex! He had an alternate T-Rex body! And it could even shift into a seven foot six inch tall beast of a man! So he wasn't stuck in a small kids body until he grew up, he could sneak out in the middle of the night and have some fun!

Now he just needed to look for something that was happening somewhere in the world for him to intervene in. Preferably something that would make the lives of those people he saved better off. Those were always the most personally satisfying things to meddle in. He could totally understand why the superheroes of the comic books were addicted to the feeling of saving the day. It made one feel great about themselves.

Later that evening, while the rest of the clan slept except for the guards, Carl put up the SEP field and teleported up to the Yamato. When he landed on the bridge, Carl shifted forms to his T-Rex humanoid form. His tall and muscular form could stand comfortably straight on the bridge, which had plenty of room.

A quick bit of magic repaired and resized his clothes. Oops.

Being back in an adult form, especially one that was so tall, really felt good. Even if his vision did feel like it had shrunk so much. He had grown very used to the 359 degree field of view over the past seven years, so that now it felt like he was half blind.

'Well, I'll have to see about adding the Hyuga bloodline to my T-Rex form when I'm finally finished with this jump.' Carl had found out many worlds ago that the terminal Spere 037 left him only operated in the time/space between jumps.

Seating himself in the captain's chair in his dino-human form, he began combing through his memories of the show and the characters that Naruto would have encountered or heard about that could really use an intervention about now. It would be fun to go around and disrupt the bad stuff from happening.

"Let's see." Carl muttered while connecting with the computer to look over reports. "First I'll start with the remaining Uzumaki that I know about. Karin and her mother Ali are currently being taken advantage of in the minor village of Kusa."

Ali Uzumaki had the very strong life force of the Uzumaki, which in her case manifested as a healing ability. Injured ninja could bite her, which allowed her to transfer her chakra/life force to heal them. He wasn't sure exactly what was happening there without getting some actual readings.

The ninja of Kusa village pretty much forced Ali to heal their injured, and in return they allowed her and her daughter refugee status in their village, but they were treated as the lowest class citizens. It was pretty cold hearted of the bastards. Even after she had healed up so many of their people, they still treated her like some worthless goods to be used up and thrown away.

Bringing up the scan report, Carl saw that there was a nine year old Karin in Kusa. Her mother was still alive at this point, although she had scars all over her arms from the multiple bites needed to heal up the ninja.

At some point in the near future there would be too many injured coming in at once, causing Ali to die from healing too many people at once for her life force to recover from. The ninja of Kusa would then force Karin to take the spot of her mother. Carl really didn't like how Kusa village ninja were using and abusing them. Especially because he had a soft spot in his heart for Uzumakis.

"Well, that will be a good place to start at any rate. I dunno if I'll be able to bring more Uzumaki back here to Konoha to be an extended family with Naruko. Even if I can, I don't want Naruko to think she has to live with Ali and Karin and that she's no longer welcome with us." Carl thought about it for a time. "Well, at least I can set up a new home and refuge for the strays I'll be picking up. They don't have to come to Konoha immediately. And when I've got some more people there they can take care of the Uchiha kids I rescued. At least then they can have a better example to live by then the power mad Uchiha clan."

With that idea in mind, Carl looked over the island where the Uzumaki clan once made their home, Uzushio. It was a total wreck at the moment. All the buildings were destroyed, the skeletons of the former inhabitants were still scattered around. And no one was currently present on the island.

"Perfect place to set up my village for refugees, then." Carl decided. "A least once it is cleaned up and rebuilt it will be. With some wards and technology protecting the island, there won't be a repeat of the massacre that killed off the Uzumaki clan in the first place."

With that decision, Carl teleported to the small island off the east coast of the Land of Fire. He landed on the tallest ruined building in the former village, immediately floating up in the air to survey the area visually. The half moon shone faintly down on the ruins. The night wind brushed through nearly silent remains.

Even after so many years, there were still scorch marks, upturned earth, flood damage, and other such battle damage. Carl could see how violent the death of Uzushio and the Uzumaki clan had been.

The sight of the destruction was somewhat depressing. Thinking of how this ruin was a prosperous village 20 some years ago made him shake his head. In the world of ninja, it was quite easy for death and destruction to come knocking without warning.

Carl spread out his senses, wondering if there were anything of interest left behind that the invading ninja didn't find and loot.

His mind and senses scanned his surroundings, skipping over and through the rubble as he looked for anything unusual. Most of what he saw was rubble, broken and strewn about. There were many piles of skeletons. The remnants of scrolls that were falling apart due to time and weather. And in a few cases, they had been used as a fuel source for a fire to cook food by the invading forces.

But there was one large manor nearby that had a…distortion, was the best word he could come up with. Carl couldn't get a better idea of just what the strange distortion was from where he stood. So he floated over to the area. He teleported in from the Yamato some specialty equipment designed to get highly detailed and accurate scans.

Over the next half hour Carl looked over the results of the scans. There was a dimensional bending where the disturbance was. It wasn't anything that could be seen by the naked eye, and only his magical and profound senses had been able to sense anything unusual in the first place.

If his "normal" eyes couldn't see anything, maybe his Byakugan eyes had a better chance?

He shifted back into his five foot tall human form, his tall frame shrinking into itself as he assumed his human Hyuga form. Sending some chakra to his eyes, Carl looked intently at the place the distortion was located.

Over the past few years he had been training his eyes diligently every day. He had made amazing progress in his use of the Byakugan. He far outstripped the elders of the Hyuga clan, let alone his peers, even if he did keep that fact hidden.

The more he looked at the distortion with his eyes active, the more he began to perceive what was and wasn't there, and how the space was bent to create the little pocket dimensional space. He also spotted the small flow of chakra linked to the distortion from a decoration on the curiously untouched wall.

"Huh." Carl muttered while looking at the decoration on the pristine wall that he had ignored until just that moment. "It looks like I've found some interesting seals here."

The complex seals just looked like decorations to Carl, but they obviously had very important functions. He still couldn't read any of the seals since he hadn't been able to study up on them yet. But he could assume that there was a seal to keep the wall in perfect condition so the seals weren't broken. There was also apparently a field that caused everyone to ignore the suspiciously pristine wall and seals.

He could also see a small amount of chakra forming up on several of the symbols that were then linked to more symbols and transferred the chakra over until the energy reached out from a set of seals and linked to the dimensional distortion that hovered in the air.

With all the clues, Carl would have to be dense indeed if he didn't figure out what the general job of the seals were.

He then focused his vision on the distortion, trying to see inside the distortion. The bend in space seemed to crack open a little bit, revealing what was hidden inside. He caught a glimpse of stacks of scrolls on a scroll-shelf.

"Well, well, well." Carl chortled. "I knew the Uzumaki were renowned for their sealing arts, and that the reason some villages banded together against them was because of their fear of what the sealing arts could do to the balance of power. But to find a hidden cache of knowledge here is definitely lucky."

Carl frowned at the seals and dimensional pocket setup in thought for a moment.

"I'm going to have to be careful about how I go about this, though." Carl paced back and forth in front of the spatial distortion. "If I'm too reckless, I might accidentally destroy this pocket space and lose the library. Not to mention that this is good training for my Byakugan eyes, reading some scrolls inside a pocket dimension."

Carl was about to get started on reading the scrolls when a thought intruded in his mind.

"Damn, almost forgot why I came here in the first place." Carl chuckled as he left the ruins of the house the library was located with one last look back. "I'll be back." He cheesily intoned with a faint smile before departing.

Carl then spent the next hour surveying the site of the ruined village and its surroundings. He located a decent place in the nearby hills and started digging into the hillside to build a crypt where he would inter all the bones of the deceased people of Uzushio. He was able to use excavation charms from the Harry Potter world to expedite the job.

With liberal use of magic, space expansion runes and charms, and a bit of technology here and there, he soon had a very dignified looking crypt the size of a mansion on a hill that overlooked the village. It was much bigger on the inside.

He began tracking down all the human remains and transferring them to the crypt for their final resting place. Carl could have easily tasked the Yamato VI to do it for him, but he felt it was more significant and respectful to the dead to do it personally.

He wasn't even really sure just why he felt the need to do so. It wasn't like he was personally attached to the old village or their people. But it just somehow felt wrong not to treat them with dignity when he was going to plunder their library that was the accumulation of their life's study. And set up a village of his own in place of theirs.

Well, he still shortened the time needed to collect all the remains by using his magic. He still had things to do, after all.

Once all the old bones were placed in the crypt, Carl looked at the time and realized the night was nearly over. It was about time to go back home for the day.

Instead of leaving immediately, he ordered the Yamato to come to him, put it in his pocket dimension, and entered the Time Pearl. Now he would have plenty of time to design the new village that he would be bringing all his strays to.

Over the next several days inside time compressions, Carl and the Yamato VI designed the wards and defenses for the island, how the village would be set up, and how the basic plants and animals would be grown and harvested on the island to provide food for his new village.

Once the plan was determined, Carl exited the pearl and sent the Yamato back into orbit. He knew the VI would take care of implementing the plan with a horde of the spider-like construction bots he had called Petes. Having very advanced technology was just as convenient if not more so than having magic.

The Yamato VI also had orders to monitor the people he had designated as his strays that he would recruit later. If anything were to threaten their life, the VI would intervene and teleport them out.

With all that taken care of, Carl teleported back to his room just a few minutes before Nuo showed up to wake him up. Carl went through the daily training with a certain bounce in his step. He felt good with what he was accomplishing.

In the middle of the next day Carl got notice from the Yamato's VI that Ali and Karin Uzumaki had been teleported up into the medical bay.

Once he looked over the report, Carl whistled lowly at how close it had been. Ali had been allowing herself to be bitten to heal the large influx of injured ninja in Kusa. She had been on the verge of dying, which alerted the VI.

Without wasting any time, the VI had transported Ali and Karin up to the ship and replaced them with lifeless clones. The VI had started instituting medical procedures to save Ali's live and restore her to health. Karin and Ali were kept unconscious until Carl could break away to talk to them.

If Carl hadn't designated them as persons of interest, Ali would have died earlier that day and left her daughter alone in the midst of the cold and heartless Kusa ninja.

'Well, it's good to have a VI to watch over things when I'm busy.' Carl chuckled, pleased that the VI leaving the dead clone bodies of Ali and Karin in their place had worked so well. That way the ninja of Kusa village wouldn't go looking for their healing slaves. 'The bastards don't deserve to be healed if that's how they're going to act anyway.'

She woke up muddle headed and unsure of just where she was. Looking around, the room looked like it was made of metal and glass. There was a curtain to her left that blocked half the view of the room.

"Hello?" Karin called out, wondering who had brought her to this strange looking place.

"Karin?"

"Mom!" Karin got up from the bed she was laying on and pushed aside the curtain, seeing her mother just sitting up from her bed. She jumped up and hugged her mom.

"There, there. It's going to be alright." Ali whispered to her daughter.

"Where are we, mom?" Karin asked her mom, looking around nervously.

"You're on my vessel." A strange and deep voice answered.

Karin looked over to the voice, and saw the biggest man she had ever seen sitting calmly a short distance away. He was strangely colored, his skin was dark browns and hints of green. Even though he was huge, he gave her vibes that he didn't mean them harm.

"Who are you? Why did you kidnap my daughter and me?" Karin's mom demanded.

The huge man held up his hands in the calm down gesture.

"You were on the verge of death when I found you. Another few minutes of being forced to heal the ninja of Kusa, and you would have died." The man bluntly said.

Karin looked over in shock at her mother. Tears filled her eyes. If her mother died…She began crying while clutching her mother, not wanting her mother to die and leave her alone among all those cold and hateful Kusa villagers.

Ali worked to calm her daughter, murmuring that it would be okay.

"Your mother is right, Karin. She will be fine, now that I had her healed." The giant man said. Karin, for some reason, believed him. Especially after she looked at her mother's arms that no longer had all the bite mark scars that her mother always tried to hide from her. He really had healed her mother.

"What's your name, mister?" Karin asked after wiping away her tears.

"And what do you want for saving me." Ali asked, more cautious than her daughter. In her experience, men usually wanted only a few things. And she wasn't willing to give those up, just because he saved her.

"My name is Carl." The big man said with a chuckle. "I'm in a unique position to offer you a place of refuge. As to what I want? Hmm." He put his hand to his chin and looked off to the side in thought.

Karin wondered why he was thinking so much. It was easy to say what you wanted, like having an extra large serving of meat for dinner. Or being able to go play at the park. She couldn't usually get those kinds of things, because her and her mother were poor. But it was easy to know what you wanted.

"I don't really want anything from you, specifically." Carl said thoughtfully. "I've already gotten my reward by screwing over the plot by saving you, after all."

Karin thought she could hear the big man mutter "stupid world plot", but that made no sense to her, so she ignored it.

"But, I'm putting together a village where people who have nowhere else to go can find safety. Are you interested?" The big man, Carl, continued as he looked back at the mother daughter duo.

Karin looked hopefully at her mother, just barely keeping herself from begging to go. It had to be better than Kusa. Anything had to be better than Kusa!

"And if we decide not to settle in your village?" Ali warily asked Carl.

"Well, then you can name me a place you would like to go to. You're not my prisoners. And you certainly won't be used like those bastards of Kusa have been doing. You will be a full citizen of my village, with all the rights and responsibilities inherent with the position. Would you like to see my village before you make a decision?" Carl asked. "Perhaps take a tour of the place?"

Her mom looked down at her, and saw her begging expression. She sighed and nodded agreement to the big man.

"Yamato, three to beam down to New Uzushio." The big man said.

Karin then saw a large white flash in her vision. When she could see again, the three of them were standing on a hill overlooking a village that looked like it was half built. It was night time, but there were enough lights over the village that she could see it clearly.

Looking closer, she could see a bunch of little metal spiders walking around the village. They seemed to be building the houses! That was so cool!

"New Uzushio?" Ali faintly asked the big man Carl.

"Yes. I'm rebuilding the village. I've put in a lot more defenses, including some that will keep people from even knowing that the village is here. It's as safe as I can make it." Carl said while the three of them were looking down on the village.

At his gesture, Karin and Ali looked behind them.

"All those who died in the battle and were left lying in the streets, I've given a place to rest here." Carl said as he motioned to the crypt he had set up.

Karin followed her mother in, looking at the resting places of the dead villagers who once lived there. After a moment, she noticed her mother was crying.

"Mom, what's wrong?" She asked.

"Oh, honey. This used to be the village where I grew up. All the people that are interred here were Uzumaki, like us. They were our relatives. It's…good that they finally have a place to rest."

Karin hugged her mom. She didn't feel the attachment as much as her mother, because her mother had barely told her any stories of where she grew up. But it was good that they had come here, and no longer had to live in stupid Kusa.

"Yes, we'll stay here in your new village, if you can guarantee our safety." Ali finally told Carl.

"Well, that's good." The big man said with a smile. "Now that you're staying, there are some things you should know, so that there's less confusion. This isn't my normal face."

The big man then melted down, changing into a much smaller person. He stood there with black hair, white skin, and pearl white eyes with no pupils. Karin realized that he was a couple years younger than she was!

"My name is Carl Hyuga. I can't stay here much during the day time, since I'm living at my home in Konoha. And since I'm so young I can't exactly ensure your fair treatment there in Konoha. So I decided to rebuild Uzushio and make it a place of refuge for people that were being mistreated like you were."

Carl smiled at the two Uzumakis and began walking down the hill to the village.

"There is already a house ready for you to live in. It is stocked with food already, so you'll be fine. You two are the first I've brought here. But you won't be the last, so don't worry about how lonely it might feel right now. I'll also make sure to stock the library with books and scrolls so that the kids can be educated and trained in the ninja arts if they want to."

Karin was having a hard time getting over her shock. Here was a kid younger than her, but he was able to do so much. And he saved her mother from dying, so she already liked him. He was kind of cute, too, even if he was younger than her.

"Thanks Carl!" Karin gave him a hug in her excitement before she dashed into the house he showed them to.

The house was so big compared to where they stayed at in Kusa! It was amazing too! There was so much food on the shelves, the toilet worked, the shower water was hot, and the beds were so comfortable!

She loved it here at New Uzushio. It was much better than nasty Kusa!

The weeks passed by swiftly for Carl as he enjoyed his time training with his sister, Naruko, and the rest of the friends he had made in Konoha during the day.

He had even gotten Neji to invite Lee and Tenten to their house on the weekends for more training and to get to know them better. They were the two among all of Neji's class that showed the most dedication and talent towards becoming a ninja. All the rest seemed to be content to get by doing the bare minimum, and weren't particularly focused on becoming a ninja.

And in the evenings he had been picking up strays and depositing them in the new village he had the Petes build. After collecting them in his manly humanoid T-Rex form, he was sure to show them his normal human Hyuga face. He figured they should know his alternate forms so there would be less misunderstandings if they ran into each other suddenly while he was on missions with his genin team in the future.

Call Carl paranoid, but he was sure that accidents and "humorous" misunderstandings like that were more likely to happen in the world of Naruto. So he was absolutely convinced that if the people he rescued only knew one of his faces, then some embarrassing (to him) situation would develop. And he would prefer to avoid that if possible.

Because Carl had been busy running around grabbing people for his new village, he hadn't spent as much time reading the scrolls in the pocket dimension library as he should have.

Part of the renovations of the village included building his own house around that wall and dimensional pocket space so that it wasn't disturbed, so he had it secure and available for his own study at night. While he hadn't gotten far in his studies, he had managed to read through the basic scrolls of sealing that were in the hidden library.

With Hiashi's warning, Carl hadn't been practicing the seals he read about just yet. He was going to wait until he'd picked up the Shadow Clone technique before he started trying to draw seals that could potentially kill him.

Carl was tempted to have the Yamato teleport up the forbidden scroll from the Hokage's office so he could make a copy of it. But something always kept him back from doing so. He wasn't sure just why, but he felt like it was premature to grab the shadow clone technique and start spamming clones just yet.

Since he still had something like six years left in the world and nothing pressing to do, he decided to go ahead and wait for a bit. Maybe after he enrolled in the Academy so he could send a clone to attend the classes while he did other things.

And so, just like that, three months had passed. Carl regained his memories of his time spent in Azeroth.

He re-experienced all the questing, PvP, and raiding. The crafting, destroying the Cult of the Damned, and getting to know and build up his Flight.

So…

Carl looked around his room where he was sitting in the morning just before it was breakfast time. He went over his memories of Konoha and it was obvious something was missing from the village.

Where were his Dragons now?