Inside a dimly lit workshop not too far from the Akakage building of the Uzumaki clan, the air hung heavy with the scent of fresh ink and scorched parchment.
Flickering lanterns cast long shadows across the cluttered workbenches, their surfaces littered with brushes, half-empty inkwells, and crumpled seal prototypes. The stone walls, etched with intricate fuinjutsu arrays for research and safety, glowed faintly.
Kushina Uzumaki stood at the center, her fiery red hair tied back in a practical ponytail, blue eyes narrowed in concentration as she leaned over a scroll. Her simple tunic, stained with ink smudges, clung to her toned frame, a reminder of the effort she poured into this project.
Beside her were Renji and Souta, two of Akagakure's brightest minds in fuinjutsu. Renji, the foremost seal master of the Uzumaki clan whom Kushina had put in charge of research, was a quiet man in his late thirties. He had dark red hair and green eyes.
Souta, on the other hand, was an up-and-coming talent at just 13, his spiky red hair framing a youthful face lit with enthusiasm. His gray eyes gleamed as he scribbled notes.
With them was a civilian builder that Kushina had pulled earlier. A volunteer- or rather, a lab rat.
He stood nervously in the corner, his sleeve rolled up to reveal the fresh swirl of black ink on his upper arm, the symbol of the Uzumaki clan. Kushina had inscribed it herself. The man shifted uncomfortably, his eyes darting between the trio, clearly out of his depth.
Kushina herself was a master of seals, her creations stronger than most due to her immense chakra reserves and pure Uzumaki bloodline. However, she didn't have the same breadth of knowledge as Renji, who had grown up in Uzushiogakure.
Her seals were potent, fueled by her raw power, but lacked the mastery that came from years of traditional study. Lately, she had enlisted their help on a new project- one that had consumed her thoughts for weeks.
"Lady Kushina?" Renji called, pulling her out of her thoughts. His tone was neutral, but his brows were faintly raised. "This project is… really ambitious."
He traced the ink lines sketched on the parchment before him, lips pressing together. "I don't think the Uzumaki have ever created a seal at this scale."
There was no criticism in his voice, only observation and admiration.
Renji had been a quiet man ever since the fall of Uzushiogakure, carrying grief deep in his chest where few could reach. But when it came to fuinjutsu, his passion still shone through. Here, in this workshop, he almost seemed alive again.
Kushina nodded, brushing a stray strand of crimson hair out of her face. "I wasn't lying when I said Akagakure will surpass Uzushio, dattebane. This is just the start."
He nodded, his expression thoughtful. "The implications... it's groundbreaking."
From her bag, she produced two scrolls, carefully bound in red silk. She handed one to Renji and the other to Souta.
The boy's hands trembled a little as he unrolled his. "W-Whoa…" His eyes widened at the dense strings of formulae covering the parchment.
Renji leaned forward, reading silently, while Souta mouthed bits of the seal array as if sounding out a foreign tongue.
While they read, Kushina glanced at the civilian. The man sat awkwardly at the corner of the room, his posture stiff, like he feared he'd break something just by breathing. His eyes darted from scrolls to ink jars to Kushina's crimson hair, and back again.
On his upper arm was a swirl of black ink- the crest of the Uzumaki clan. She had inscribed it earlier, a prototype, to test her theory work.
The seal was a failsafe for her clan. A last resort. Should the worst ever happen- should she lose in battle- this would give her a chance to save them. It wasn't something she expected to use since her growing bond with Kurama and her own power made defeat difficult to imagine, but she had lost her clan once. She would not lose them again.
If the Kage or Madara have any tricks up their sleeves, this will come in handy. Not to mention any other threat she hadn't yet considered.
Still, she hit a snag in her research so far and needed some outside opinions. The Uzumaki archives she reclaimed were not complete- so Renji's expertise was invaluable.
Souta broke the silence first, his voice pitched high with wonder. "This is… amazing, Lady Kushina. To think you even came up with this-!"
She smiled faintly at him. His mastery wasn't high enough to contribute much yet, but Kushina thought he could use the experience anyway. Besides, watching his enthusiasm was worth keeping him close. Someday, Souta would be a cornerstone of their village.
Renji, on the other hand, was already frowning in thought. He set his scroll down and tapped it with a long finger. "I see the problem, Lady Kushina." He paused, tracing a finger along the diagram. "You don't know how to coordinate the seals you'd put on each clansman. The individual application is flawless, but scaling it to the entire village... that's where the complexity lies."
"Exactly." Kushina exhaled. "The seal works as a single point. But once you spread it… it's too much."
Renji's gaze sharpened. "This is… unprecedented, Lady Kushina. A network of seals interconnected with one another. No clan in history has attempted such a thing."
Even for the Uzumaki clan, which had spent nearly a millennium researching seals, this was fresh.
"Then we'll be the first." Her voice was full of conviction.
They argued and brainstormed for hours. The air grew thick with chalk dust as Renji scribbled suggestions on the board, creating sprawling webs of formulae that had to be erased and redrawn repeatedly. The civilian shifted uncomfortably each time they asked him to stand or sit, to test how the seal behaved.
At one point, Souta piped up with an eager suggestion about chaining the seals through bloodline resonance. Renji shut it down immediately, warning of the potential side effects. Kushina, however, patted Souta's head and told him it wasn't a bad line of thinking- it just needed refining.
After exhaustive debate, Renji stopped mid-stride, his eyes lighting up with realization. "I think I've got it. Instead of trying to link them together directly, which risks instability from distance or interference, why don't we set each seal open to receive a certain signal? That way, you can activate them without trying to precisely link them together- like a broadcast."
Kushina's eyes widened a little, a hint of excitement appearing in them, her voice rising with enthusiasm. "That sounds perfect, dattebane! It would remove a lot of the compl-"
She paused abruptly, her face turning serious, her body tensing like a coiled spring. She just sensed a large amount of malice approaching Akagakure.
Its density and size were nearly on par with Kurama's, a surging wave of dark chakra that pressed against her senses. The only one to give her a similar feeling was... Madara Uchiha. Her heart raced, but she forced calm, her mind shifting instantly to defense protocols.
She flickered out of the workshop faster than Renji or Souta could react, leaving two very confused Uzumaki behind, their scrolls still open, the ink drying on unfinished notes.
----
Kushina appeared in front of the new Uzumaki guard barracks, a sturdy, fortified building of dark wood and stone, its walls reinforced with glowing fuinjutsu seals that shimmered like a protective veil. This was where Akinari and Aina Uzumaki worked normally, coordinating patrols and defenses for Akagakure.
She wasted no time and went straight to his office. He was there, currently working on some paperwork, his red hair tied back, gray eyes focused on the reports. Luckily, he had not been outside on a mission; his presence was crucial in moments like this.
"Lady Kushina? It's a pleasure to-"
"Silence," she cut him off, her voice sharp and commanding, laced with urgency. "There's an enemy approaching fast. We need to activate the defenses immediately."
Akinari nodded with a serious expression, his instincts kicking in, "Right away, my Lady."
They both flickered off in different directions. He went to rouse the Uzumaki and activate their defenses, his voice barking orders as he mobilized the guards, while Kushina went to the edge of the island, facing the threat directly.
Most of the land here was still undeveloped, so the edges were teeming with untouched forests and beaches, the sand pristine and the waves lapping gently against the shore. The natural beauty belied the danger lurking beyond.
Kushina landed on the cliffside, the salty wind softly blowing her hair. She narrowed her eyes, staring into the distance.
She saw an... island? It was a floating island. A city sprawled on its surface, and strange carved heads jutted from its sides.
The sight sparked something in her memory. Kushina had heard of a fortress like this before- it belonged to a nation called the Land of the Sky.