Chapter 80: Uzushiogakure

Naruto entered the Hokage's office and looked at Hiruzen who was busy doing paperwork like usual, one of the reasons that Naruto wasn't really that interested in becoming Hokage was the absurd amount of paperwork that you needed to do, there were dozens of stacks of it on Hiruzen's desk after all.

"Yo Hokage-Jiji, I came to ask for a favor!" Naruto greeted Hiruzen and announced what he came for

Hiruzen looked up from the document that he was filling out and his eyes widened in shock, a completely different Naruto stood in front of him!

"Naruto! What happened to you?!" Hiruzen exclaimed in surprise.

Naruto's head turned in confusion "Hmm? What do you mean?" He asked in confusion.

Hiruzen opened one of the drawers in his desk and grabbed a mirror from it and put it in front of Naruto.

Naruto's eyes similarly widened, a completely different Naruto was looking back at him.

Previously Naruto had long spiky bright yellow hair and had a long scar running down from his right eye down to his chin, but now it was completely different, his bright yellow hair had changed to a deep red, almost blood red color, and the scar on his face had completely disappeared, his skin became much clearer with zero to none blemishes, the only thing that still remained where the whisker marks on his cheeks.

With Samehadad on his back, his long, dark and spiky red hair, and his height of 1.9 meters he had quite a terrifying appearance that would strike fear in his enemies

"What the hell happened?" Naruto asked himself confusedly, he had felt that something had changed but he didn't realize that the change was so drastic.

Hiruzen sighed deeply "Sigh, kid, what did you do this time?" Hiruzen asked Naruto.

Naruto shook his head and answered, "Well, I'm not so sure myself, I used a few seals but other than that pretty much nothing."

Hiruzen sighed once more "Very well then, tell me what kind of favor you came to me for." Hiruzen said.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head "Well you see I was kind of hoping you would let me go on a week-long vacation to the ruins of Uzushiogakure so that I can become more connected to my roots?" Naruto said in a questioning voice.

Hiruzen sighed for the third time that morning and answered "You finished applying the security seals two days ago so I see no reason for you not to be able to go, but, I will need you to be here for the Chunin exams which are occurring in 1 and a half weeks, so as long as you promise me not to be away for more than a week then you may go." Hiruzen said while looking at the smiling face of Naruto.

Naruto grinned at Hiruzen and immediately turned and ran out of the room before Hiruzen could change his mind "Thanks Old-Man!" Naruto shouted when he was a safe enough distance away.

Before Hiruzen could say anything Naruto was already gone, so all he could do was sigh for the fourth time that morning.

"Sigh, this kid will be the death of me." Hiruzen joked to himself with a fond smile.

Naruto didn't need to do anything other than say goodbye to Kakashi, the Uchihas and Shino, he had everything he needed including some Ichiraku ramen in his inventory so he quickly said goodbye to his friends and left the village.

Uzushiogakure was two days of travel away from Konohagakure, it was located on an island that was called the Land of Whirlpools before the Uzumaki clan was destroyed, it was located a few hours from the border of the Land of Fire and was only accessible to people who knew the specific patterns of the whirlpools, which there weren't many left of, luckily for Naruto the Origin Scroll of the Uzumaki clan contained the knowledge needed to traverse the violent waters of Uzushiogakure so all he needed was a boat to sail in.

After traveling on foot for over a day Naruto arrived in a medium-sized port town that was located around 6 hours away from the island of Uzushiogakure, he rented a sailboat and immediately set out towards the island.

After traveling by boat for 5 hours he noticed the water becoming more and more violent, he was getting quite close to Uzu, the closer he got the worse the whirlpools got, so Naruto quickly analyzed the whirlpools and decided on which path to take, another rigorous hour later Naruto finally arrived at the island.

The island's natural beauty was truly something worthwhile to see, Naruto was already satisfied just by seeing the island, but he sailed for another 10 minutes and arrived at the port that the Uzumaki clan used to store boats and to receive guests, or at least that is what Naruto had read.

Naruto truly wished that his clan could have survived but sadly he was unable to change the past so there was no way for him to truly know whether what the books said were the truth, he would never experience the life and culture that a true member of the Uzumaki clan would, deep down he felt very sad about this, but all he could do was hope that in the future he would be able to make it so no one else had to feel like he did.

From the port all Naruto had to do was run for 5 minutes before he arrived at the ruins of Uzushiogakure, the village had been destroyed so long ago that Nature had completely overtaken the ruins of the village, nonetheless, the view of Uzushiogakure was breathtaking to Naruto, seeing his ancestral birthplace brought up an unfamiliar emotion of longing in him, he had never realized that he had always longed to come here, it felt as if a weight was being lifted off of his shoulders, he felt like he could truly live now that he knew where the Uzumaki clan came from.

All that was left now was to explore it.

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