Seal The Deal

The atmosphere in the room was odd.

Naruko sat at the head position of the table, the design blueprints for the chakra-gun and all the parts needed to make one laid out in front of her, her right leg crossed over her left knee and hand against chin in an arrogant manner.

Of course, Naruko knew she was the weakest person in this room, but being subservient because of that would cause her to get majorly ripped off, and Naruko hated pushovers who got shoved around more than anything else.

Konoha's government was an odd thing. The major flaw in it was the power distribution. The Hokage held almost all the power, nothing could pass without his permission. But on the same end of that spectrum, the Hokage cannot just become a tyrant to the village, as any large decision made by the Hokage needed to be approved by at least 3/4 of the active jonin in the village.

Another thing about Konoha was the lack of power in civilians. Civilians held zero power in the running of the village, and could only work as lobbyists for the major decisions through paying the join ninja. This was mainly because Konoha is a village quite literally built around the military.

Most of the current clan heads were currently sitting at the table, along with the Hokage and the Konoha Council.

The Konoha council currently consisted of Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane. It used to include Danzo Shimura too, but he was kicked out when Root was disassembled due to him acting against orders during the Uchiha Massacre. Three of the Hokage's old teammates help suggest decisions made and advise in the decision-making of the village. But they still do not hold much power, only being able to directly talk to the Hokage when he is making decisions.

So many people were called to the meeting due to the dangers of the chakra-modified gun. Mainly because anyone with even a tiny bit of chakra control could store chakra into it constantly for years, proving to be a fatal weapon for even jonin if charged enough and caught off-guard.

And that's where the current predicament came in. The occupants of the room we're currently discussing what should be done with it.

"I, for one, believe we should distribute the chakra-gun to our ninja. It would be a great addition to our strength, especially because many of our most powerful ninjas have died or left in recent years." The head of the Hyuga clan, Hiashi Hyuga, spoke up.

"Oh yeah? And you want to put a self-destruction seal on the weapon like your clan members too." Tsume Inuzuka, Head of the Inuzuka clan, snarled at the man. It was a barely hidden fact in the village that many of the clans despised the Hyuga clan and their way of doing things.

The Hyuga clan used a special fuinjutsu seal known as the 'caged bird seal' that acted as a way to prevent their dojutsu from being stolen off the clan members' corpses and stolen by enemy nations.

But this seal was only placed on the side branches of the family. The Hyuga family had been split off into the main branch and side branch, where the side branch of the clan was subservient to the main branch, and this was because of the other side of the seal, that allowed the main family to control those branded with the cursed seal, acting as a form of slavery. Of course, members of the family only claimed it to be a form of 'discipline' but almost every ninja in the village knew what it truly was.

"I also believe that we should distribute the weapon to our ninja." The stoic head of the Aburame clan, Shibi Aburame, stated.

"But what if it falls into the hands of the other villages! It makes shuriken and kunai practically useless. It would redefine ranged combat. I say we lock it away and reserve it for war-time." The head of the Akimichi clan, Choza Akmichi, proposed.

At this, Naruko snorted loudly. This made all the people in the room turn towards her once more. "Even if the design got out, no one could make the chakra gun." She said arrogantly.

"Aren't you a little too arrogant in you're abilities? You are just a little girl who happened to create a weapon that you have no clue how to control. You should just leave this to us adults while you go play ninja with your cardboard shurikens" She turned to the female member of the Konoha Council, Koharu Utatane, who had said that in a deprecating manner. Naruko didn't necessarily mind her manner, after all, she wouldn't expect a ten-year-old to normally sit in on an important meeting like this.

But just because Naruko knew where the elder was coming from didn't mean she was going to sit by and let them insult her skills.

"And an old foggy like you can still think straight? My seals are top-notch, no other village has a fuinjutsu user quite as advanced as me. Fuinjutsu is a lost art that no other village focuses on besides Konoha." Naruko shot back. The air in the room immediately became tense at this.

"Alright, let's take a vote." The voice of the Hokage instantly cut through the tension of the room like a hot knife through butter.

"Hands up to pay Naruko Uzumaki to produce more of these weapons and distribute them to the jonin ninja of the village." Instantly most of the hands in the room shot up beside a select few.

"Alright, it has been decided the chakra gun will be put into production, I will now ask everyone to vacate the room so that I can work out the terms with her on the production and distribution of this." The Hokage announced. The occupants in the room only nodded at that and walked out, a few grumbling on their way. When there were only the two of the left, the aura around the Hokage seemed to deflate like a balloon as he heaved a heavy sigh.

"Gramps, you okay? You seemed to be struggling quite a bit in there, what's going on?" Naruko questioned him, the man in question only took up his pipe that he regularly used, before lighting it and breathing out a bit of smoke.

"Naruko, I'm getting old. Far older than I should probably healthily be doing the duties as a military commander. My chakra has already thinned down quite a bit with old age, and my physical status is rapidly dropping. I can no longer do my job as a ninja, I'm just too old. If I push myself, I could probably last a few more years. But I really need to retire. And these meetings really do tire me out, watching the clan heads of the village fight like that. I have made some poor decisions in my life, but I truly am tired." Hiruzen heaved a tired sigh. Naruko who had watched this suddenly had tiny pricks of tears in her eyes. She didn't want him to leave her! The Hokage had been with her ever since she was three and he was the one who promised to be there when she finally accomplished her dream!

Naruko ran at the old Hokage and quickly hugged him right, clutching him tightly as her tears fell onto his robes a bit.

"I'll make you immortal, gramps, I'll make sure you live long enough to see me reach the stars, and you'll follow me all the way there." Hiruzen heard Naruko's muffled voice, and that sentence made him suddenly gain a faraway look in his eyes.

"Naruko," He said, and she looked up at him. "Immortality is not the answer. I have made many mistakes under my role as Hokage. But letting one of my previous students try to become immortal was one of my worst. Immortality is not something we humans should have. Nature works in mysterious ways, but humans should never question it. And when we die, we can spend time with our loved ones in the Pure Land. Naruko, promise me you will never let the Will of Fire leave you, for me, and the village. I know how harshly they have treated you, and only know that you will learn the reason in due time. But it might be too much for you currently. I will tell you when you graduate, and finally, become a ninja."

Naruko looked up at that, before wiping her wet eyes and nodding.

After this, the two of them sat at the table and started writing out the plan for the future.

Naruko would create the special seals for the gun, which would then be transported to one of the chakra-blacksmiths in the village, who would then inscribe the seals into the gun and send them to the Hokage to be distributed.

The difference between a chakra-blacksmith and an ordinary civilian background was mainly their knowledge. While civilian blacksmiths could only forge with ordinary metals, chakra-blacksmiths were able to use chakra inductive metals and had a basic knowledge of fuinjutsu so that they were able to inscribe seals onto their weapons.

In the end, Naruko would get paid a large amount for her work on the seals, and they would be able to produce at least ten chakra-guns a week. This means the corps of jonin ninja, which numbered around five hundred currently, should be able to be armed with a chakra gun in around a year.

As the Hokage watched Naruko happily skip out of the office, he heaved another heavy sigh while taking a smoke from his pipe.

Hiruzen originally disliked Naruko, like most in the village. It was her birth that weakened the previous jinchuriki of the Demon Fox, Kushina Uzumaki, her mother. On top of this, she looked too much like Minato Namikaze, the fourth-Hokage, her father, and his successor. And he couldn't look into her eyes without the face of a disappointed Minato looking back.

But he pushed back his grudge and made sure to make ANBU look after her. He finally got past his dislike and got her a home at four. This was not for her, but instead because if she died on the streets, the Nine-Tailed-Fox could be released, and the village would lose its jinchuriki.

But as time passed, Hiruzen started truly viewing her as his granddaughter. And now when he looked at her face, he didn't see the disappointed image of his successor but instead the image of Kushina and Minato smiling at him happily from behind her.

He sighed happily, now if he could just find another successor and happily retire. He could spend time playing with his grandson, Konohamaru more often. And then go visit Naruko and discuss her crazy inventions.

He had a successor lined up, but the person in question wouldn't take it. Kakashi Hatake, was a student of Minato so he was perfect for the role. But Kakashi had told the old Hokage that he didn't deserve the position and that it held too many memories.

Meanwhile, one Naruko Uzumaki had happily arrived home and was now sitting in her library. It had been cleaned up, finally, but now it was once again littered with chakra-theory books and large whiteboards she had 'borrowed from a store owner that owed her money for constantly over-charging her. So she paid off the whiteboards with her 'tab.'

Naruko was truly happy for the funds she will finally have access to. She didn't want to admit it, but the past six years were her just messing around, and all her other inventions were just her testing herself and making out-of-the-box seals. The chakra-gun was her first truly large project.

But these projects would include the use of different types of elemental chakra, which is what lead her to this. She had finally made a breakthrough in her research of chakra and elemental chakra.

When she first started researching, it was the question 'does a certain chakra affinity affect the human body.' Which it did, people with different affinities all had different advantages and different advantages. The next question she answered was, 'are affinities something predetermined at birth.' And this question lead her all the way to where she was currently. And it was that they aren't.

The truth is, that a human being technically had affinities with every type of chakra nature. They had to be, as these were the five components that made of the earth. Being earth, wind, water, fire, and lightning.

Each human had five extra gates inside their chakra core. A human could unlock these chakra gates through pure force, which would damage it, or through long hours of practice. But the third option she had found in one of the Uzumaki books was that if one could enter their mindscape, there was another way that was not explained.

Naruko quickly discovered that being 'born with an affinity' was truly just having one gate partially opened. And the longer a gate was closed, the harder it will be to open it. This was why, if most of the join currently tried to naturally open up a gate, they would fail miserably and be forced to damage the gate to even get it the slightest bit open. A damaged elemental gate is very problematic, as some of the chakras from it could leak into other jutsus and cause major problems.

Each gate also came with a benefit and problem. Someone with their earth gate open would naturally be more stable, durable, and could hit harder. But with that came very low flexibility. While someone with their water gate open would be very flexible and would be able to easily flow through different moves. But they would not be very durable. Someone with their fire gate open would have increased muscle strength and would hit very hard. Someone with their wind gate open would have greatly increased speed, at the cost of being less durable. And someone with their lightning gate open would naturally be more precise with their strikes and fast.

This is also why most people thought they found a taijutsu style that suited them, but in reality, they found something that compliments their natural strengths and weaknesses due to the gate they have opened.

Which meant if someone opened all five of their gates, they would be a 'prodigy' of taijutsu. But in reality, it was just a lot of hard work.

Naruko sat down and looked at the theory she had come up with. Now all she had to do was test it. She focused on her chakra core, before trying to connect to an element.

As she opened her eyes again, she was in a large space, filled with stars surrounding her and multiple shining blue pathways in front of her. She knew what this was after studying many of the Uzumaki sealing books, though, it was her mindscape.

Not many people knew what this was, but the Uzumaki found it and abused it. They used their mindscapes to store vast libraries of knowledge and other weird things. Naruko suddenly sensed an insane amount of dark chakra coming from one of the paths, gulping, she quickly scurried away from there.

Wandering through the paths of her mindscape, she saw all kinds of memories up in the starts, like her first time meeting gramps, and her discovering Ichiraku ramen for the first time. She smiled softly at all the memories, before arriving in front of a large door.

She cautiously opened it, to reveal a huge room with five ginormous gates, that seemed to leak large amounts of chakra. Along with eight smaller gates above them, that seemed to be limiting the chakra through her body.

She knew that the eight gates above were the eight limiting gates, and with the five gates below them, she finally confirmed her theory.

Cautiously approaching one of the five large gates, she stretched her hand out and touched it. As soon as her finger was on it, it felt like her body was consumed in a blazing inferno. She quickly took her hand back. She did this for all of them, one felt like a large bolt of lightning hit her, one made her feel like she was drifting away from the world, one made her feel like she couldn't move and was stuck at the core of the earth, and the final one felt like she was standing in the middle of a tornado.

Naruko stood back in the middle of the room, pondering. She knew that she could open the gates, but that was with years of practice. The other option was forcing them open, but a damaged gate was the last thing she wanted.

This time, she drew her chakra from the mindscape around her. This was her mindscape, so the chakra quickly came rushing to her. She forced it into five different ropes, before sticking each of them to the five doors with them, similar to the leaf exercise.

Naruko held the edge of the rope that was connected to the five gates, before giving a tug at it. It felt like she was trying to drag every single Akimichi clan member at once.

Gritting her teeth, she started channeling the chakra all around her into her body to increase her strength.

It seemed like hours, she kept pulling at the rope until she finally heard a creak. Looking forwards, she saw all the gates had finally opened a bit, letting her see that she was finally making progress.

What felt like an eternity later, but was actually only around two hours in the outside world, Naruko was seen struggling inside her mindscape. She could tell she was running out of chakra, and that she only needed a final push to open them all.

But she knew if she stopped now, the gates would all close once again.

So with a show of resolve, she drew on her chakra reserves once again, leaving her ocean of chakra almost dry, and with her final tug, she didn't even realize she drew upon another source of power inside her.

The beautiful blue chakra of hers changed into a blood red, and as gave one final pull, the gates flew open. A beautiful display of green, red, blue, purple, and brown flew out from it, before flowing throughout her mindscape.

Naruko finally exited the mindscape, laying down on the ground of her library with a case of chakra exhaustion, something unheard of for her.

But now she had a bigger problem. "I have zero control of any nature transformation," Naruko muttered to herself, before passing out on the floor of her library.