Part 20 - Naruto returns to Konoha

Just what should I do with all of these leftover seals … there is no way I am ever going to use them. And I've also given Naruto, Jiraiya, Tsunade and Shizune a few scrolls of my unique one's too. They won't need more than that … and Jiraiya is a Fuuinjutsu master himself …

Uzu frowned slightly, looking at her stack of storage scrolls filled to the brim with useless seals that she created through rigorous practice with her wooden clones.

Wait … there'll be the Pain attack soon … and if things stay the same, there'll be a Fourth Ninja War too. Konoha's shinobi might appreciate the seals I don't need.

I'm not particularly in need of money, the Senju are one of the founders of Konoha, we have deep pockets~.

Either way, I should probably find a way to get rid of them that doesn't include just destroying them needlessly.

Storing the scrolls in her storage tattoo, she steps out of her room, intending to find Tsunade in her office.

Travelling through the Hokage tower, having chosen a more public route, she steps in front of the office.

I can count the times that I've used this door on one hand.

Sending out chakra waves and sensing only Shizune and Tsunade inside of the office, she just opens the door and steps in.

Seeing Tsunade abruptly raise her head, Uzu said: "M-"

Uzu's words caught in her throat as she sensed several Anbu come at her.

Not bothering with any jutsu, chains shoot out, holding them in place firmly.

Hmm. Maybe I should have knocked?

"Oh well … retreat." Tsunade said.

Uzu saw the nod Tsunade gave her and released her chains, but keeping them ready in case another idiot from Root had snuck in.

She would mercilessly destroy any Root that came at her, whether they had just been a poor child soldier or not. They wouldn't show mercy and they were brainwashed, there was probably no coming back for them if they ignored even the Hokage's orders.

Finally seeing the last of the Anbu retreat into the shadows, Uzu retrieved her chains and walked up to Tsunade.

Massaging Tsunade's shoulders, Uzu spoke: "Mom, I've just wanted to ask you whether it'd be a good idea to sell my leftover seals to whatever organization that distributes them to Konoha's shinobi?"

Seeing Tsunade think for a while, Uzu just waited for her Mom's answer.

"Hmm. Well, you don't need them, right?" Tsunade said, looking back at her daughter who had a small smile on her face.

As Uzu nods, Tsunade continues: "Well, then you could sell the weaker seals to the several gear shops we have in the market district. Hmm, if there are some more special, powerful ones that you want to sell, you can also give them to me, I'll give them to trustworthy Anbu that have no connection to the Root. Though, there might still be some people that Danzo has even in those that we deem loyal to us."

That'd be an idea. The Anbu need stronger seals anyway. Seriously, seal masters are too rare. Even only having one in a village could prove as a serious strength increase.

As far as I know, there are less than five seal masters in Konoha. One of them is Jiraiya and one of them is me. Mom also knows a bit about seals, but I've actually surpassed her in that aspect …

The rest of the seal masters are all hidden figures that I know nothing about … no, that's not quite right. Danzo also either knows about seals himself or has someone that knows about them that he trusts completely, seeing that his brainwashed Anbu are all inflicted with such a seal that prevents a breach of loyalty towards him.

…

After getting directions from Shizune and Tsunade and handing in some f her stronger seals, she sets off towards the market district.

Leaving the Hokage office, she makes sure that her fake smile is in place, it would make traveling easier. That was something that was pounded into her very bones. People like it when she smiled, and she could practically see them place a bit of trust in her just because of that.

Uzu had learned that other people thought her beautiful, she could use that to her advantage. She wasn't really going to do any kind of seduction, but a beautiful smile can help with almost anything.

Humans love beautiful things after all.

…

Walking through the streets of Konoha, she soon entered the civilian district.

Feeling gazes of civilians on her, she made sure to send a smile back to those that had no … malicious or lustful intentions.

Honestly … it's making me uncomfortable, having so many gazes on me. But I've decided to get to know the village a bit more and see what it actually is that I will protect alongside Naruto and Tsunade.

Who knows, despite all the bad that people have done, especially the civilians, their children might still be salvageable. If they, however, also hate Naruto, then even they are not worth saving.

Feeling a more persistent gaze on her, 3 individuals seemed to follow her, their gazes focused on the exposed skin on her legs.

Disgusting. Where do they even get the … ah. Yeah. I'm not wearing a hitai-ate. They think I'm just a normal civilian girl. Is that it?

Well, civilians don't have red hair like mine … oh … and I also don't carry a pouch with me.

Uzu looked down at her, everything seemed to scream civilian? She didn't even wear any clothes that would show either her Uzumaki or her Senju heritage.

Only civilians would not notice my big chakra pool. I'm not even concealing it. Shinobi of higher ranking all know me, I'm part of the Senju clan after all.

Bothersome.

Walking a bit further, she decided to just handle her business first, she was nearing the market district either way, there would be other shinobi around. Civilians don't dare to attack shinobi like this … often they are just disposed of.

Locating the weapon and shinobi gear shop, she stepped in.

Well, if they have even an ounce of intelligence, they should realize that they should stop following me.

Shinobi shouldn't attack civilians … they are who we protect. Even though I don't really consider myself a shinobi …

She looked around, seeing many well-polished and new-looking weapons. Kunai, swords, katanas, smoke bombs, seals, pouches, other gear. You could literally get yourself a full shinobi outfit here. Well, except for the basic clothes. You'd need to visit a different shop for that.

She walked towards the counter and waited for the presence in the back of the shop to notice her.

A muscular and bearded man stepped towards her, showing her a big smile: "I haven't seen someone with your hair in a long time. You're an Uzumaki, right?"

Uzu smiled, putting on her trained smile, and nodded: "Yeah. You are right. I've seen that you sell several seals here."

"Mhm." The shopkeeper nodded.

"Would you be willing to buy some of mine? I can guarantee that they are better than the ones you have here." Uzu said, still smiling, her eyes slightly closed, looking relaxed but easily trustable.

"Hmm. Show me some of them!" The shopkeeper said a bit louder, already having sniffed a good business opportunity.

As Uzu undid one single scroll from the seal on her hand, she saw the shopkeeper's eyes widen in surprise before his smile touched his eyes: "Hoh? It's not often that you see such high-level seals~. Miss, are you perhaps a seal master too, seeing that you are an Uzumaki?"

Uzu just nodded smilingly and retrieved a basic explosion seal drawn with the Uzumaki foundation out of the scroll.

Handing it to the man, she waited as he examined it.

"Mind if I test one of them?" The shopkeeper asked.

"Sure~." Uzu nodded, following the man into the back of the shop.

Soon enough they reached a rather big training ground. Probably a place that the weapons could be tested at.

Walking a bit further in, they arrived at a particular spot that had its ground littered with jutsu marks.

"Step back a bit. I'll first use a normal, run-of-the-mill, explosion seal before using yours." The shopkeeper said.

Uzu stepped back a bit and watched as the man sent some chakra into the seal before letting it float towards the ground, creating a rather normal, small-scale (2m radius) circle of impact.

As the smoke dispersed and the fires stopped, the man took out Uzu's seal and ignited it the same way.

Guiding it to the spot next to the previous explosion, he let it explode and the explosion radius tripled easily.

The man seemed impressed: "Sigh, the Uzumaki seals are truly great. It's a shame that they are gone. My shop used to sell those seals back in the days of my father … hence my knowledge of them. Hmm … what kind of price do you have in mind for your seals?"

Hmm. I don't really need money, but buying new paper and getting a new brush after a few weeks, costs money, so … seeing that my seal has thrice the effect, around twice the price of a normal seal seems alright? I'm no business expert and couldn't really care less about this … it's just better than burning them.

"Around twice the price of a normal seal?" Uzu asked, smiling softly.

The man regarded her for a while before slowly nodding: "Uzumaki seals are rare, they can only be produced by Uzumaki and have a much higher demand either way. I'll take all that you have."

Nodding, Uzu retrieved the rest of her storage scrolls filled to the brim with explosion seals.

Finally getting rid of these …

They had started taking up a lot of space and it annoyed her.

"Damn …" The shopkeeper said, sending his chakra into one of the scrolls.

"A thousand seals per scroll …" The shopkeeper sighed.

"I'll make a killing with this! Will you come again?" Uzu watched as the shopkeeper's eyes practically glowed.

Well, this guy seems funny and his shop is well cleaned and maintained. His shop is also the closest one to the Senju apartment, it's very convenient for me to just shunshin here the next time. There's no need to especially visit a different shop.

Thinking it over for a while, Uzu finally nodded and left the shop after receiving her money.

Honestly, it was such a meagre amount compared to the riches she already possessed, but so what.

Come to think of it, Shizune is the one that buys all the supplies we need in the apartment. She is also the one that buys my Fuuinjutsu stuff. I should thank her with something at some point. Maybe a personal seal?

Uzu vowed to scan her chakra pathway system, after gaining permission from Shizune of course.

Stepping out onto the street again, she noticed that three gazes instantly locked onto her again, greedily checking out her front side as well, lingering on her chest especially.

Persistent, aren't they?

Well, whatever, the question is … do I punish them? Or do I just leave.

The old me wouldn't have cared either way, as long as they leave me alone. But they are a bit too persistent and their stares are rude and annoying.

I guess … well … oh! I know what to do with them.

Gathering a bit of wood release chakra, she let three, slightly bigger than normal, ravens sprout from her right palm.

"Go." She ordered and sensed the ravens flying towards the three drunk men that looked rather dirty.

Well, that was rather gentle wasn't it, she thought, watching the ravens stick their beaks into the three men's bodies, drawing blood on several of these picks.

It made for a rather comical sight to watch three grown men run away, chased by a trio of ravens that seemed to never let go.

Uzu smiled to herself before body flickering towards the forest, intending to spend some time brainstorming on new seals and training a few katas for taijutsu practice.

Yeah, she did not really need to do that, but she felt like it, so she just would.

Afterwards, she would make some time to leisurely work on her drawing skills, basking in the softness of the furballs she had created for the forest.

She decided to have a few clones at home practice Fuuinjutsu as to never stop learning more in terms of seals and to never stop producing her older seals.

She would just use those to gain a steady amount of money, even if she didn't need it. Her mom would like her idea though, so it was worth it.

They would just needlessly stack in her home again either way.

There were some other clones continuously amassing other valuable knowledge in medicine.

Honestly, she had mostly read the available scrolls already … and they were in her memories too. She could probably easily take any kind of exam they throw at her, but she wasn't a medic and she did not want to be one. She did not want to be constantly working to save lives of people that she did not necessarily want to be responsible for. Her interests lied in other fields, even though her gradually increasing chakra control, medical knowledge and chakra pool were perfect for hospital shifts that could last for an endless amount of time. She just preferred Fuuinjutsu or drawing, so she would do exactly that. The hospital was not understaffed, they could manage.

She would, however, save those that had no one else to save them, if they asked nicely and had at least some connection with her that wasn't filled with hatred or malice.

Concerning her loved ones, she would do almost anything to keep them alive. The work on the immortality seal never stopped and she wouldn't ever stop until she perfected it. True immortality that could only be ended by the one that actively carried the seal. Of course, Uzu would keep a key to the seal for each person that she would give it to, should it ever be truly created.

Betrayal is the one thing that Uzu will never tolerate, no matter what. Even if it were Naruto. Only death awaits those that betray her. Even in her old life, Uzu had always, always, feared betrayal. Thank god she did not have friends or loved ones back then. In her old world, she simply wasn't anyone that people would hold onto no matter what. She was a normal, discardable and easily useable idiot.

Not here though. Here she could make the people pay that betrayed her. Though, the only ones that could really betray her in that sense were Naruto, Jiraiya and Tsunade. Those were the only people that she truly loved. They were loved ones. The one����s that she trusted and whose betrayal would shatter her, again.

…

Weeks passed.

Uzu mainly just let her clones work on the stuff she needed to practice.

Every other hour, those clones dispelled themselves and a clone with slightly bigger chakra reserves would create new clones that had the memory and muscle-memory of the clones that had worked before, essentially multiplying her practice speed by several times.

With every seal created, it got easier and easier to draw and her brush strokes were continuously refined. While her Uzumaki genes and her inbuilt control of her body allowed for a rather precise art style already, she could still improve. No, she needed to improve if she ever wanted to master air drawing.

She knew, with the way she was advancing her art, it wouldn't be long until she could start drawing onto surfaces that weren't paper or skin.

Sure, it wasn't even as hard as drawing on skin, since it did not have chakra pathways that needed to be kept in mind, but it certainly did cause some problems.

Drawing on water, for example, was one of the harder things to do.

She needed to create ink with her chakra, something that could only be learned through relentless practice. Until just recently, she had used a special ink and let chakra flow into it. That was something that was more widely used and easier than using chakra-created ink.

If a seal was unstable, while being drawn with this chakra-created ink, it could explode and potentially ruin a seal-master's career. Hence, not many even dared trying that nowadays.

The Uzumaki, however, have and always had intense healing capabilities, their hands could easily survive explosions from seals if they let them heal afterwards, hence their feared and renown mastery in seal crafting.

Uzu sat in her fur pile, a piece of paper securely sitting on her thighs as she drew a picture of a majestic tiger, not unlike the one her back was pressed against.

Feeling another wave of memories come in, she knew that one of her clones had finally managed to create a normal seal with chakra created ink, it would be slightly stronger than her usual seals, but not by much. It was rather the practice with such ink that made her happy.

Finally, she was moving forward in controlling the chakra-ink.

It was a lengthy process, but it was worth every second of it. Especially because her clones were having a lot of fun drawing seals of any kind. It relaxed her, so it also relaxed her clones, it was as easy as that. She would do what she liked.

… (proofread until here)

Another week later, she had finally gathered another huge amount of seals and body flickered towards the shop.

After leisurely selling her seals for the same price and hearing that the shopkeeper was making a killing with her seals, she couldn't help but smile as she exited the shop. The shopkeeper really seemed genuine and open in his desire for wealth. She didn't mind selling to him, especially since he didn't talk about useless things and wasted her time. Well, the fact that she already met him twice now would also help in her future visits to his shop.

Stepping foot onto the market district street, her chakra waves picked up 20 malicious gazes locking onto her, coming from a rather dark alley perfect for hiding.

Sigh …

Walking directly towards the dark alley, she soon found herself surrounded by 20 men with bulging muscles, some expertly twirling a knife in their hands.

She shivered, feeling their lecherous stares greedily roaming across her body and seemingly undressing her with their eyes.

Taking out a seal, she created a barrier that blocked out sounds.

Afterwards, not creating any hand seals, she sent wood chakra through her body, letting it enter the earth connected to her chakra conducting sandals.

Small but thick wooden roots grew from the ground, impaling every single one of the 20 men through their genitals and slowly inching forward to their heads and stealing any of the chakra they had in them.

People can actually scream like this?

Uzu was frowning by the time that the last man finally died.

Scum like these have long voided their right to live. Who knows what other things they've done? It was about time someone ended their lives either way.

Letting the earth swallow their bodies and burying them deep underground and dispersing the smell of blood with a bit of wind, she left the alley, keeping the same fake smile on her face she had had before.

She still felt no remorse at killing people that openly tried attacking her.

…

A few days later, while Tsunade, Jiraiya and Uzu ate breakfast, Uzu felt her palm's seal light up.

Looking down at it and smiling fondly at it, she later looked up, seeing Tsunade and Jiraiya look at her with kind eyes.

Smiling back at them, she slightly closed her eyes, making them curve into crescents.

She was truly happy whenever Naruto activated his seal. That meant that he was currently thinking about her and seeing it still on her palm, she knew that he was fine wherever he was. Well, at least not dead.

Cleaning up the dishes, she watched as Jiraiya and Tsunade left, doing whatever they needed to do.

After breakfast, Tsunade had asked her if she could help out in the hospital and Uzu agreed, sending a clone to go with her Mom. She would have fun drawing instead.

Around midday, Uzu stepped out of the apartment and started leisurely jumping across roofs to get to the forest.

A delicious scent of meat being grilled entered her nose and she inevitably moved her eyes towards its source.

Eh?

Sending out stronger chakra waves, she confirmed what she saw.

Naruto. He's back.

She jumped down from the roof and only then being able to sense and see the several other people sitting at the table with Naruto.

Ah, so the 6 other rookies (minus Sakura) that were with him on his scout mission have also come back to the village.

If she was honest, then yes, she did want to meet Naruto, but she did not like such large groups of people she did not know.

Observing them for a while, her eyes inevitably fell towards the blueish-black-haired girl of the Hyuga clan sitting next to Naruto.

Uzu instantly noticed the blush the girl had when she looked at Naruto, though Naruto never seemed to notice it much when their eyes met.

Naruto had a very, very happy smile on his face. One he hadn't shown her often.

Although she did feel slightly down that he seemed to have much more fun with them than with her, she was happy that Naruto had found more friends.

She … wouldn't interrupt their gathering.

Just as she decided to move on, her eyes met with a rather lazy looking pair of eyes. They seemed to regard her with interest before the young man spoke to someone. That someone had apparently been Naruto as he turned his head and their eyes met.

Naruto's eyes soon widened, and he got up from his seat, walking towards her.

She heard him shouting: "Uzu! Come join us! We have some nice food here."

Uzu was honestly unsure of what to do. While, yes, she did want to join him, but not necessarily the others.

In the end, his big smile and the way that he had already moved another seat next to his and another blonde-haired girl's Uzu identified as Ino, kind of forced her into joining them at the table.

Uzu was feeling really uncomfortable, having created a slightly awkward silence at the table.

Well, that's what happens when you suddenly add a stranger into the group.

Uzu just kept her smile mask on her face, not showing even an ounce of the discomfort she was actually feeling.

Just before it really became unbearable, Naruto spoke, breaking the silence: "Everyone, meet Uzu, she's my … uh … friend. Uzu, meet Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, Kiba, Shino and Hinata. As I've already told you, I've gotten a bit closer to them and we are friends now~."

Naruto said, pointing at the person whose name he was saying.

Uzu just smiled and said softly: "Nice to meet you all."

Awkward. I'm really not … uh … made for things like these. It's probably why Jiraiya didn't really teach me his craft of spying and gathering information. He knows that I do not like interacting with strangers at all … but that's literally the thing that information gathering is.

She received a few nods in return.

Soon enough, as the silence continued, the meat started smelling burnt and the slightly plump boy called Choji snapped out of his unmoving stance, quickly turning around the meat and continuing to shove meat into his mouth like the others weren't just silently doing nothing.

Slowly, the others returned to their eating but nobody really talked.

I should've just left.

Uzu closed her eyes, regretting her decision, when she heard a small but gentle voice say: "Naruto-kun, your meat is getting burnt …"

Hearing Naruto laugh genuinely, Uzu couldn't help but open her eyes.

Seeing Hinata shoving the meat onto Naruto's plate and the way their bodies were so near each other, Uzu couldn't help but frown.

There was a small blush on Naruto's face as she saw his eyes droop to Hinata's ample chest before he looked away in shame.

Uzu's frown deepened and her smile slowly vanished from her face, not bothering to keep up the pretense.

Seems like he has gotten closer to her too. She clearly loves him … even a blind person can see that. And he doesn't seem to really dislike her either.

Well … … it seems like I mistook his feelings for me?

She continued watching their interactions for a while, her mood only getting worse until she heard a cheerful voice ask from her left: "Hey, you are the girl that I saw all those months ago, right? You are the one that looked at the flower … ah, what was it again … a rose?"

Uzu nodded, also having forgotten what kind of rose it actually was, but yeah, she still remembered seeing Ino when she just entered Konoha.

"Damn, girl. You haven't aged a single day! And how did you manage to keep your hair so even and similar to all those months ago! That's cool as hell! Even your nail polish is still as clean and perfectly applied! You really got to tell me how you do all that …" Ino said, smiling genuinely at Uzu.

Uh …

Seeing Uzu not answering didn't disrupt Ino at all, as she soon talked again: "You've become the Senju princess, right? Tsunade-sama's daughter?"

Uzu remained silent for a second, receiving a few disbelieving stares from some people sitting at the table and a few other customers.

Forcing her fake smile to appear on her face, she slowly nodded.

This wasn't any secret. The people that really needed to know, knew and those that didn't, either didn't care or didn't need to know.

Her eyes met Naruto's and she could see a small frown on his face when she felt his eyes on her face, inspecting her expression.

…

Naruto carefully inspected the red-haired girl's smile, focusing on her lips especially and couldn't help but frown.

This isn't … how you usually smile. When did you learn to fake your smile like that?

He suddenly felt a bit disconnected from her. They'd need to catch up … if she was even still interested in meeting with him.

She had been awfully quiet all this time and he could feel her desire to leave the moment she had sat down.

The quiet that had permeated their table was suffocating and he felt bad at having forced either of the two parties into that. But, since Uzu was his friend … friend … and these 6 people were also his friends, he wanted them to get along.

Yes, he had noticed Uzu's gaze on him when Hinata leaned over his arm to drop the meat onto his plate … and Uzu had also clearly seen him accidentally look at Hinata's chest.

He hadn't meant to do that and had quickly averted his eyes. His mind had supplied him with an image of Uzu's chest instead, automatically comparing the two of them … he clearly liked Uzu more and it caused him to blush.

When Ino started talking to Uzu, he had felt her discomfort and looked at her only to see that damn fake smile that he also knew to use very well.

She shouldn't have to make such a smile … she should just show her natural expression, that's way better …

Naruto couldn't help but frown, looking at the girl he loved.

…

A few seconds of staring between Naruto and Uzu later, they both heard a lazy voice say: "Senju's princess, huh."

They turned their heads, looking at Shikamaru for a while.

Uzu had perfectly kept her fake smile on her face and slowly got up from her seat, receiving a challenging stare from her right, she looked directly into the eyes of Hinata.

Well. You know, little Hyuga girl, I will certainly not fight you for him. I can see that you two are quite close. Even though I may love him, it will fade in time. I can see that he is very happy with you and his new friends, so I won't intrude, I'm not welcome here anyway.

She looked at Hinata with a fake smile before walking off and not looking back. Once outside the restaurant, she shunshinned into the forest, vanishing from their sight.

…

Back at the restaurant, Naruto was kind of wondering why she had so suddenly left.

However, Hinata soon spoke to him softly: "Naruto-kun, are you and Uzu very close? You two seem to share a special friendship~."

Naruto mulled over it for a bit, thinking: I don't want it to be a friendship though, before nodding slightly, a frown still etched onto his face.

Was it because of Shikamaru's words?

Accusingly, he looked at Shikamaru, who only shrugged and said: "It wasn't me."

Finishing their lunch, he decided to go look for her, they had much to catch up on and he really wanted to hold her again. Maybe he'd even be able to … finally … say what he actually feels for her.

Those three words that he feared to say all this time. He still feared that she would leave him … and their time apart seemed to have … hurt their bond, relationship, whatever.

He still loved her, and he probably always will.

He just really didn't know whether he could live with rejection.

What if she just likes the contact we have but doesn't want it to be anything more?

…

Of course, Naruto was totally blind to the variety of different things she had given him.

The seal, the fox, the smiles …

…

A/N: Damn, this is a long chapter. Hmm, well this will all get resolved fairly soon, or so my current plans are :3

Either way, I'll be going to sleep soon … so I'll post another chapter tomorrow after it's done being written! 😊

(Please make sure to drop some stones or heart the chapter on scribble hub, that'd be great!)