[Chapter Size: 2500 Words.]
Third Person POV
Uzumaki Clan, Year 42.
...
...
Minato had told them everything that happened in Konoha, so the clan leader and elders decided to follow Minato's plan, trusting him.
Two hours later, Minato left the main building with Kushina, already with permission to walk around the village at dawn, while the leaders began choosing a group to go with them and witness, to have voices in Konoha from the Uzumaki clan as Konoha's allies for so many years and, at the same time, to ensure justice for the assassin who had killed the members of the last delegation sent to Konoha.
"Do you think she'll be upset about us showing up at this hour?" Kushina couldn't help but ask quietly as they walked side by side.
"Do you believe your mother would be upset with you showing up at her door in the middle of the night, after a decade without seeing her? Don't be silly, Kushina. She's your mother, she'll certainly be happy and emotional to see her daughter after so many years." Minato said, while feeling the kunoichi squeeze his hand tightly, basically asking for tenderness from him for what was to come.
She was nervous.
The sole purpose of them strolling through the Uzumaki village, ignoring all the watchful eyes of the ninjas who were waiting for any order from the clan regarding the visit of these two, without any guide, was precisely to see Kushina's mother, whom they had decided to visit after the meeting they had.
Minato had passed by her house twice in the two visits he had made to the clan and now they headed to the house, entering through the garden, while at the same time he felt the presence of the older woman through Haki, in a bedroom of the house sleeping. She hadn't even noticed the clan's movement that night.
Kushina seemed increasingly nervous, and he could feel her squeezing his hand more and more. They knocked hard on the door, enough to wake the woman who had been sleeping until then.
She got up alarmed, seeing that it was still night, wondering if something had happened.
She wasn't a ninja, had no great skills — she was just an ordinary citizen, a housewife. Kushina had said that her father was the opposite, he had been a very important person for the village, but died shortly before the girl was sent to Konoha.
The woman wasn't very happy, and Minato could feel it, which wasn't a big surprise when she had to watch her husband die and later, her own daughter leave — a cruel act in Minato's opinion, but also selfish when thinking that he didn't want to change the fact that Kushina had been suddenly taken from her life. After all, how could he have met the woman at his side if things hadn't happened the way they did?
The door soon opened, and the woman blinked when she saw who was there. As she tilted her head to the side, she first saw a blond boy — something quite uncommon in the clan, even strange, since there was no one with that kind of hair. Although she had already heard rumors of a young man with the same hair color who had been in the village some time ago, according to what some women had commented about what their husbands had seen, and that he had gone straight to speak with the leader.
It was strange that the clan didn't allow any foreigners to enter their lands, and even marrying foreigners was considered an act of treason, as they kept their bloodlines pure — after all, there was no one with a hair color other than red. Obviously, Minato drew attention simply because his hair was yellow.
Beside him was a young woman holding the boy's hand. The woman felt the girl's firm grip when she saw her, while she studied the young woman for a moment. Red hair was common in the clan, but that hairstyle, along with the hair clips on the right side — the same ones the woman herself also wore — and the blue eyes, made her freeze for a moment.
"Kushina..." The name of her daughter escaped along with her stunned breath, while Kushina narrowed her eyes, tears streaming down her face.
Kushina couldn't hold herself when she saw her. Obviously, her mother was no longer a young woman — she was middle-aged, with red hair and brown eyes, just as Kushina remembered well, with a few white strands mixed into the red hair, showing her age as the color faded.
Still, the hair was very similar to Kushina's, even the loose style. She remembered her mother wearing the same clips holding one of her bangs, but since she had been sleeping, she had removed them and her hair was now completely loose in front of her. Kushina's face was also almost identical to her mother's, only the blue eyes had been inherited from her father.
At that moment, Kushina simply darted forward, letting go of Minato, and threw herself against her mother's body, hugging her tightly while rivers of tears ran down her cheeks. The woman was stunned, feeling herself pressed against the girl in front of her, but returned the hug as soon as she realized what was happening.
"Mom..." Kushina squeezed her tightly, while the woman could no longer hold back and just let tears fall from her eyes as she realized it was her daughter — her sweet little girl — in her arms.
"Kushina... my daughter... but it's... it really is you!" she burst out, her trembling voice also filled with emotion.
Minato stood watching the scene with a restrained smile, seeing Kushina cling to her mother as if she might disappear at any moment. The two Uzumaki — mother and daughter — cried together, trapped in that moment.
It took a while before things finally calmed down from the first meeting, when Kushina managed to pull away from her mother a little.
"Kushina... what are you doing here?" she finally asked the question she had been holding back, though the emotion of finding her daughter was greater than any inquiry.
"How did you end up here, when everyone is so restless?" It was impossible not to know about the attack from several nations against the Uzumaki clan at that moment, even for the villagers. It was no longer a secret that the clan was being targeted, but still, Kushina's mother believed they could overcome it.
"We're here to help, Mom... it's a long story... I'll tell you everything!" Kushina said.
Minato felt it and, on the other hand, knew that in the original story, fate would have been cruel to them. Although, in this version, things were happening later, the plan to destroy the Uzumaki clan would eventually succeed, leaving only a few survivors like Karin and Nagato at the beginning of Naruto Shippuden as pure Uzumakis, and there were only three known people with Uzumaki blood in the entire work.
Now, there were at least five thousand Uzumaki in the Land of Whirlpools. It wasn't a huge number, but since they were users of powerful jutsu and naturally possessed abundant chakra, they had managed to hold strong until the imminent joint attack from the great villages.
It could be said that all kinds of atrocities had been committed to exterminate those people. Not to mention the dark things that could have happened in the years that followed — villages trying to obtain the Uzumaki bloodline by force, kidnapping women to turn them into instruments and try to replicate the clan within their borders as sexual slaves. Obviously, such attempts failed, given the actual number of Uzumakis decades later. Many of those women had probably preferred death over suffering such horrors.
Then there must have been a mass suicide. It was macabre to think of something like that.
Minato interrupted those thoughts. With his presence in this reality and his actions, things would not happen that way. The Uzumaki clan would not be exterminated, as long as he could do something to prevent it, even going against Konoha and its future decision. He had already told himself that.
In any case, things had calmed down between Kushina and her mother when Minato finally stopped getting lost in his own thoughts, seeing Kushina point at him.
"This is my fiancé, Minato Namikaze. We're going to get married soon." Kushina said with a slightly embarrassed tone, while her mother looked at her and studied Minato for a moment.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Minato. I'm happy that Kushina has a fiancé. My name is Akahana Uzumaki. Well, we have a lot to talk about... Now, please, come in. I'll prepare some tea." she said, and if she had still been sleepy from waking up in the middle of the night, that disappeared completely when she saw her daughter.
Minato entered along with Kushina, and when they closed the door, they headed to the kitchen. The woman quickly prepared the promised tea, while Kushina sat at the table. Minato didn't say much. It wasn't his place to interfere in their reunion — he was only there because Kushina had asked him to.
Still, he asked, "I think it's better for you to spend some time with your mother, I can go meet the others and come back later."
"Don't be silly. I want you here, at least for now." she asked, as her mother returned to the kitchen after heating the water with a Fire Release jutsu in her hand.
"I didn't know some Uzumaki had an affinity with the Fire element." Minato commented, surprised to see her handle the flames.
"We're all naturally born with the Water element, but we can also acquire others, though it's very rare. I'm not a kunoichi, I was never trained to fight, but we Uzumaki, with the amount of chakra we have, naturally learn to use our elements even for household activities." She smiled, placing the cups on the table and handing one to each of them.
"Now, I'd like to hear your whole story, my daughter."
Kushina shifted in her seat, still nervous, and began telling about her life since she had gone to Konoha. She explained how she spent the first weeks in the Senju clan, meeting Mito and other members of the clan, then entered the Academy, where she met Minato on the first day, and how they formed a bond the moment their eyes met. She also spoke of when she was discriminated against and Minato defended her from the mocking laughter of the class.
As Kushina spoke, the woman glanced at Minato from time to time, with a gleam of gratitude in her eyes, for he had protected her daughter several times and had been a support when her mother could not be there.
It was no wonder her daughter had such strong self-esteem because of Minato — she loved him, and the boy clearly loved her daughter. That left the woman satisfied with the relationship Kushina had built.
At a certain point, some Uzumaki ninjas knocked on the door, calling Minato to go to the main building. Apparently, things were calmer. Kushina, laughing and joking with her mother, looked happy, and Minato thought it would be good to leave them alone for a while. So, he said goodbye to the two and headed to the clan building to take care of the matters awaiting him there.
He stayed longer than he should have. Two hours passed before Minato returned to Kushina's mother's house, finding the two of them talking in the garden while looking at a cherry tree that was there.
Minato approached, and Kushina looked at him, breaking into a smile. "So, are we leaving soon?" she asked, a little sadly.
Minato nodded. They had important matters to resolve with the clan, and the group that would represent the Land of Whirlpools was already ready. He had even prepared the kunai he would use for teleportation.
Kushina's mother approached him with a smile at that moment, changing the subject. "So you're the one responsible for making my daughter stop liking cherry trees?" the woman said with a playful smile.
Minato raised an eyebrow, and the woman continued, seeing the blond's confusion.
"She always liked the cherry tree we had at home. It was her favorite tree. But for some reason, now she says she likes sakuras more."
Minato heard Kushina laugh and throw him a wink, clearly hinting at the romantic reasons for that preference. It was no surprise — he had shown her a large sakura tree during their first dates back in the academy, and she used to visit it whenever she could leave the clan, where she could think about Minato when he was at war.
It was no wonder she would go back there now, after years of being trapped.
"Anyway, I'm going now, Mom. I swear I'll be back soon. Minato will bring me here." Kushina said, squeezing herself into her mother's embrace.
"I'm sure you will, my dear. It's good to see that you've changed so much in ten years. You've become a beautiful woman… and so strong, stronger than your father ever was. He would be proud."
After a few more words, Kushina finally stepped back and walked over to Minato.
"Let's go." she asked.
Minato nodded and, instead of using teleportation immediately, walked with her through the village, which was beginning to see the first light of dawn, while Kushina talked about her meeting and the conversations she'd had with her mother.
"Your mother is one of those who stay faithful to those they love." Minato commented in an amused tone.
Her story had been quite tragic. Kushina's mother, Akahana Uzumaki, had lost her husband and then had to give up her daughter — the result of an agreement her own husband had made with the clan leadership. Kushina possessed abilities superior to those of other children and had been chosen to become the next jinchūriki when she was only five years old.
Her father died shortly afterward, and despite her protests, the mother still decided to fulfill the agreement and take her to Konoha. She never remarried or had other children, remaining faithful to her husband in the hope of meeting him again on the other side — and now also faithful to her daughter, whom she had always dreamed of meeting again until the day it finally happened. It was no wonder she hadn't yet given up on life.
In the end, they continued walking in silence, exchanging only a few comments about the meeting, until they reached the group already waiting for them in the courtyard. Minato said goodbye to the leaders, while Mu Uzumaki took the position of head of the delegation.
He gave the signal for everyone to get ready and, in the next moment, used the teleportation jutsu, disappearing from the place along with a group of fifteen Uzumaki and Kushina.
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