The evening sun cast a golden glow over Konoha's streets as Minato and Arashi made their way toward the Uzumaki Compound. The village had begun to slow, shops preparing to close, families settling in for the night, and shinobi returning from missions.
Despite the winding down atmosphere, Arashi began to pay more attention to the people around him. His hands were tucked into his pockets, his steps unhurried, but his sharp green eyes swept over everything. He wasn't just taking in the sights, he was watching, cataloging, and learning about everything around him.
Minato, walking beside him, was equally observant. However, his thoughts were different than Arashi's. Minato was thinking about Arashi's presence in the village and also about the choice he had made back in the Hokage's office.
After a long moment, Minato finally asked, "Why'd you tell Lord Third that your kekkei genkai was Wood Style?"
Arashi's grin widened slightly, but he didn't immediately answer. Instead, he stretched, rolling his shoulders as if shaking off tension. "Straight to the point, huh?"
Minato sighed. "I've known you for less than a day however I've come to realize and expect an answer like 'just because' or 'it was funny,' but I'm asking seriously."
Arashi chuckled. "Fine, fine. I'll humor you, Golden Boy."
Minato side-eyed him but let him continue.
Arashi's expression turned slightly more thoughtful as he looked ahead. "It's not that I'm hiding it forever," he admitted. "It's just… I don't know what's waiting for me here. And if there's one thing I learned in the wild, it's that you never show all your tricks before you get a lay of the land."
Minato nodded slowly, absorbing that.
Arashi continued, "Back in the forest, I didn't need to be careful. Nobody cared what I could do because there was nobody to care. But here? Big villages, powerful people, all these moving pieces?" He exhaled. "I might not have been raised in a village like this, but I do know that there are dangers hiding behind these walls that I don't know about yet. Until I get comfortable, nobody, except the two of us and your wife, will know anything besides Wood Style."
Minato studied him carefully. His voice was light, almost casual, but there was something serious underneath.
"So even in the wild," Minato mused, "you came to the same conclusion shinobi do."
Arashi gave him a questioning look.
Minato smirked slightly. "To keep an ace, or two, up your sleeve. That it's important not to put all of your cards on the table first."
Arashi's grin returned. "Well, I'm not completely clueless. I was raised in the wild, not by fools."
Minato shook his head in amusement, but internally, he was impressed. Most people who grew up without formal shinobi training wouldn't think so tactically. But Arashi? He had figured it out on his own.
It made Minato wonder just how far Arashi's intelligence stretched. He played the fool very well, but there was an undeniable sharpness hidden beneath all of the sarcastic remarks and playful banter.
As they walked, the streets gradually emptied, giving way to quieter residential areas. The buildings shifted between general housing and different clan compounds, each with its own defining features.
And then, finally, they reached the Uzumaki Compound.
The large wooden gate stood tall, marked with the spiral crest of the Uzumaki Clan. But this place hadn't always belonged to them, Minato and Kushina.
Once, it had been the Senju Compound, home to one of the greatest clans in history, and one of the founding clans of the Leaf Village. But as time passed, the Senju bloodline thinned, and its members either faded from the shinobi world or integrated into Konoha's general population.
As the Senju married out into the village, they left the clan grounds one by one, and before long, the only person who had remained was Mito Uzumaki, the wife of Hashirama Senju. Being that Mito was the only surviving member married into the Senju clan, she inevitably ended up as the inheritor of the property.
As Mito grew older, and her children and grandchildren passed away, as well as the Senju meshing into the general populace of the village. Hiruzen began to think about the future and what the village was to do when Mito could no longer keep the Nine-Tails contained.
He came to the only natural conclusion. He needed to have another young Uzumaki with special blood integrate into the village so that Konoha could possibly have a lineage of Uzumaki capable of housing the Nine-Tails, something Mito had failed to accomplish with Hashirama.
That was when he went to their close allies, Uzushiogakure, and asked them for another Nine-Tails host, seeing that Mito was growing weaker. Uzushio had agreed without hesitation to send someone with the special chakra to hold the beast in order to strengthen their ties to one another.
When Kushina arrived and Mito passed away, she was the only one living in the expansive clan grounds. That was until Minato moved in with her, and for the first time since Mito's passing, Kushina was living with someone else. Now, they were the only two who lived here.
Arashi stopped, tilting his head. "Huh."
Minato glanced at him. "What?"
Arashi's green eyes flickered around the compound. "Feels… different."
Minato nodded. "The Uzumaki Clan is known for their strong chakra and sealing techniques. This compound has seals woven into its very foundation. You're probably sensing them."
Arashi scratched his chin. "Interesting. Seals like the one the guard just placed on my chest?"
"Yeah, similar in nature, just not in application." Minato raised a brow. 'He sensed them that easily?'
Most shinobi, even highly trained ones, wouldn't be able to detect sealing jutsu just by standing near them. You had to know what to look for and, for the most part, needed to be knowledgeable in seals. But Arashi had picked up on them instantly.
Minato mentally checked another box.
'Fiery red hair, check. An overwhelming amount of chakra, check. The unusual natural abilities, check. And now an intuitive sense for seals?' Minato had already suspected it before, but now… 'He really might be an Uzumaki.'
Arashi, completely unaware of Minato's thoughts, grinned. "So, do I get to pick a room, or are you going to assign me one?"
Minato smirked. "You know, you're lucky we even have space. I could just tell you to live in the forests of our clan compound."
Arashi rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. You live here with one other person. You could fit a whole army in this place."
Minato chuckled. "Come on. Let's get you settled."
As they stepped inside, Minato could already hear Kushina's voice in his head, demanding to know who the hell this was and why he looked kind of like her.
'This… was going to be fun.'