A few more years passed, the Second Great Shinobi War ended, and Konoha emerged victorious, having achieved most of its goals, but not without suffering some great losses.
The war also created legends, and three such legends were the Three Legendary Sannin of Konoha, who had held their own against Hanzo the Salamander and earned those titles from his own tongue.
Just having that title bestowed on three of their best shinobi was enough prestige for the Hidden Leaf, which soured the mouths of their enemies.
Once the war ended, Kazuma started his plan and used the Forbidden Key of their clan to unseal their bloodline's locked powers.
Even though his beloved sister knew that she would die soon after giving birth to their child, she consented to it.
Kazuma too knew that he would permanently lose half of his chakra and longevity at the child's birth, but he too was willing to bear all sacrifices to make sure that the Uzumaki Clan would never suffer the same fate again.
It only took them a few months to conceive the child, but it was going to take years before his son's birth. Over time, Akiko kept growing weaker and weaker.
Fujin and the rest of the Uzumaki youngsters joined the Academy and passed the tests within a few months, becoming Genin of Konoha, much to the pleasure of the Third Hokage, who was looking forward to replenishing the strength of the village following their losses in the Second Great War.
Kazuma also started interacting with the other Konoha clans and attended every council meeting.
At home, he trained his sister, Kushina, in Kenjutsu and Chakra Chains, and his niece, Himari, in Sealing Arts and their clan's hidden technique, the Mind's Eye of Kagura. He refused to let the two join the Academy, despite some requests and suggestions from people close to the Hokage.
Uzumaki Fujin, who was put into a cell with Uchiha Hazuki and Hyūga Hizashi, under the command of Hatake Sakumo, grew up to fall in love with his friend.
The two appeared before him in the Year 41 AE, distraught after the death of their sensei, who had committed suicide after his fellow shinobi scorned him because he went against orders and saved their lives instead of completing the important mission. The two dropped to their knees and kowtowed to him, requesting that he let them marry each other.
Since Fujin was already from a Branch Family, Kazuma did not object to it, and even convinced the new Uchiha Clan Leader, Fugaku, to let the two youngsters get married.
Of course, it was not without conditions, which both clans put forward.
Hazuki then left the Uchiha District and started living in the Uzumaki Compound, having retired from her duties as a shinobi.
Her husband did the same after spending a couple more years in the Hokage's service, earning the rank of Jōnin, and surviving all the hidden attempts on his life.
In the year 45 AE, Hazuki gave birth to a beautiful daughter, who had inherited the dark eyes of the Uchiha, and whose hair was dark too, but not raven. They were brown, very dark brown.
They named their child Izumi, and since her powers had not manifested yet, they did not give her the Uzumaki or Uchiha clan name.
At the end of the same year, the Third Great Shinobi War erupted when the skirmishes on the borders turned violent, and the village was once again sent into a period of gloom.
This time, the Hokage asked the Uzumaki Clan for help, not just with supplies, but with manpower.
Kazuma, not willing to let his men die, left Fujin in charge of the clan in his absence and personally led a group of his clansmen to take part in the war. Since his niece, Himari, insisted on it, he took her with him.
Over the next two years, Uzumaki Kazuma displayed unreal power on the battlefield, overshadowing everyone and engraving fear in the hearts of the enemies.
He shed the blood of Kumo and Kiri, forcing them to run at the sight of him.
Clearing front after front, Kazuma eventually arrived at the battlefield where the Third Raikage had been besieged by ten thousand shinobi from Kiri, Konoha, and Iwa for the last two days.
The Raikage was fighting hard to protect the fifty Cloud shinobi who were with him, and he looked like a man who was on a mission. He had already killed over half of the forces, and seeing the state of the shinobi of Konoha, Kazuma immediately ordered them to retreat.
He then did something that every witness would remember for the rest of their lives.
He warned the forces of Iwa to go away before joining hands with the Third Raikage to kill every shinobi from Kiri.
Afterwards, Kazuma did not let A leave and even ordered the Konoha forces to surround the Cloud shinobi who were present with him from all sides.
The Uzumaki then asked the Third Raikage to eat and rest, and two days later, they faced each other in single combat with the forces of Iwa, Konoha, and Kumo as their witnesses.
Brimming with energy after the rest, A seemed like an unstoppable force, but Kazuma was like a monster who possessed just as much chakra, even greater than a Tailed Beast. He was fast, ridiculously fast, and able to keep up with the Raikage, who was in his Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
The two fought for the entire day before A fell and the Uzumaki ended his life by stabbing his sword into his heart.
To the relief and sadness of the Kumo shinobi, he allowed them to take their Raikage's body away and then turned his attention to the remaining forces of Iwa, who had not yet left the battlefield.
Before he could charge at them, everyone ran for their lives, and the cheers of the forces of Konoha reached the sky.
That very evening, Uzumaki Kazuma saved the lives of a thousand Honoha shinobi at another front, becoming a war hero and legend in the history of the village.
It was the same evening when he found comfort in the arms of a woman who needed to be comforted as well.
Senju Tsunade, the granddaughter of the First Hokage and the last of her family, was a woman who had lost everything, and the Uzumaki gravitated towards her, unable to help himself.
The two spent an entire year together, every night in each other's arms, and they only separated when they returned to Konoha in the autumn of Year 48 AE.
Kazuma returned to his clan, to his wife, and weeks later, when he went to see Tsunade at the Senju Compound, he found her absent.
The only thing he found was a letter, where she apologised to him and informed him of the reason why she wanted to leave.
She was sick of all the wars and bloodshed, and she wanted to get away from the village. She had even left her forehead protector behind.
The Uzumaki felt sad, especially after he learned that she had taken away the niece of her former lover, Dan Katō, with her. Tsunade had never stopped loving that man...
He, however, soon got over it as he spent every day with his wife, locked in the Uzumaki Forest, not caring about the war and the political battle of the village which was in full swing.
At the end of the year, the Third Hokage summoned a Konoha council meeting with the representatives of the Fire Daimyō to decide the next Hokage, and Kazuma attended it with all the other clan heads and the Jōnin of Konoha.
Three names were put forward.
Uchiha Fugaku, Namikaze Minato, and Orochimaru.
Votes were cast, and the Uzumaki Clan supported Uchiha Fugaku. The only other clan of the village that supported Fugaku was the Kurama Clan. Almost everyone else, except for Danzō and his loyalists, voted for Minato.
In the end, the Namikaze won the vote because of his recent performance in the war and because Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, and the Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, passed their old friend and student in favour of the younger shinobi.
Kazuma smiled in his heart when he watched the indifferent or unsightly faces of some of the key people in the council room, and after congratulating the new Hokage, he returned to his home.
The Third Great War continued through the first five months of Year 49, with Hidden Leaf suffering some losses, but in the end, they came out victorious and a truce was agreed upon between all the partities involved.
On 10th May, 49 AE, Uzumaki Akiko, who was frail to the core of her being and heavily pregnant, officiated the ceremony where she wed her husband, Kazuma, to their niece, Himari.
She did not want her brother to be alone after her death, and since it was what her niece desired, she forced her husband to agree to it.
Akiko held strong for the next couple of months, and then she entered labour on the night of 21st July.
After an excruciating couple of hours, she finally gave birth to her child, a beautiful boy with brilliant red hair and violet eyes, whose smile rejuvenated her.
She named him Enma, the hope of their clan.
Akiko knew her days were numbered, so she always held her child in her arms and fed him on her milk for the next seven months, refusing to let him feed on another woman. She then silently passed away in her sleep on 14th February, 50 AE.
Her funeral was held in the Uzumaki Cemetery of Konoha, inside the Uzumaki Forest, and hers was the first body to be laid into the ground there.
All the clan heads of the village, and the Hokage and his advisers attended her funeral and offered Kazuma their condolences.
It was the first time they met the heir of the Uzumaki Clan, Uzumaki Kushina, who was a girl of seventeen years, extremely beautiful and even more dignified.
She bore her brother's solemnity, and since Akiko was like a mother to her, she was silent, and her eyes were vacant. She had lost the only mother she had known all her life.
It was the same for Uzumaki Himari, who was five months pregnant, and unlike her little aunt and husband, she could not hold back her tears.
Months passed in the blink of an eye, and on 20th June, Uzumaki Himari gave birth to a beautiful daughter with red hair and crimson eyes, whom she named Karin.
Himari wanted to name her Akiko, but Kushina adamantly refused, not willing to let her niece become a reminder of someone they dearly loved and lost. Hearing her reason, the mother quickly settled on the other name she had thought of.
The two kids became the light of their lives. Enma was a quiet child, while Karin was restless and even made her brother cry with all her crying.
Himari took the role of Enma's mother as well, and Kushina completely immersed herself in training Ninjutsu, Fūinjutsu, Kenjutsu, Taijutsu, and Medical Ninjutsu.
She spent most of her time in the library, learning new techniques, mastering Kinjutsu, and creating her own Sealing Arts.
It was clear to Kazuma that her talent far surpassed his own, so he taught her everything he knew. He even imparted their Clan's secrets to her, training her into the next Clan Head.
Even though she was of the age where she could get married, he did not marry her.
Half of his lifespan was gone, along with half of his chakra after his son's birth. It was going to be too unfair of him to marry her and then leave her behind in the world. He felt like he was already being unfair to Himari, but some things were necessary.
With Enma the only pureblood male of their family, he wanted Kushina to marry him in the future to continue their pure bloodline, and his sensible sister was fine with it. Given the Uzumaki lifespans, she could afford to wait for several years or even decades.
Kazuma was immensely grateful to her for her understanding and felt relieved to leave the clan in her hands should anything happen to him.
As the Year 50 AE went on, stability and peace returned to the village, and smiles returned to the faces of its residents.
Minato was proving to be a much better Hokage than his predecessor, as he was able to involve the clans in more official matters and also increased the funds for the police force, which improved overall security and law-abidance in the village.
He was also very keen on making sure that every clan was recovering and working well after the losses they suffered in the last two Great Wars, and it had not taken him long to grow even more popular amongst the civilians than the Third Hokage.
However, only tragedy awaited him and the village, and something no one had expected happened.