Library and The Uzumaki Clan

It didn't take long before Naruto could be spotted standing outside the Konoha Library. It was a large, pink stoned building with mahogany brown planks decorating its outskirts. Yet despite being a relatively important building in Konoha, the blonde-haired boy noted it was fairly deserted.

Naruto hoped he wouldn't be barred from entering due to his past pranking habits. After all, it was one of the few places that he refused to prank in respect for the librarian that didn't hold any prejudice. 'Or maybe she did, but just hid it well?' A pessimistic part of Naruto thought.

After opening the front door, Naruto scratched his head in confusion after finding that the inside of the library was practically devoid of people. 'Surely a place that is as useful as the library wouldn't be this empty… Maybe I am here too early?'

What Naruto didn't know was that the library was rarely visited by shinobi unless they received a D-rank mission to clean it. This was because all Taijutsu, Kenjutsu and even Ninjutsu and Genjutsu are usually taught by their superiors. They would only visit the library to purchase a jutsu that they wanted to learn, but nobody knew, or if they wanted to brush up on their geographical knowledge.

"Hello, receptionist lady. I would like to visit the shinobi section." Naruto walked over to the half-asleep receptionist, waking the woman from her stupor.

"Ah, you're the Uzumaki kid…." The receptionist tapered off, earning a sheepish look from the boy. She was reluctant to let him in as she would be held jointly responsible for any damage done to the library. However, rules were rules, and any shinobi were allowed to enter, provided they weren't banned.

Naruto looked curiously at the receptionist while she was having internal struggles about letting him but smiled as she sighed, her shoulders dropping all tension.

"Just don't damage anything." The receptionist commanded, shooing the boy away while watching him like a hawk. She didn't have anything against the boy, but the boy's love for pranks, even if they were sometimes funny, made her a little wary about what his goal was in visiting the library.

Her worries were quelled as she saw Naruto pick up a book on the basics of shinobi arts before sitting by a table in the corner. She continued watching him for the better part of an hour, waiting for him to slip up, but all she could see was him silently reading.

Eventually, she decided that the boy could be trusted. It wasn't like she could spend all day watching him, so the receptionist returned to what she was doing before he arrived. Dozing off.

Naruto finally felt the gaze on his back disappear, allowing him to immerse himself in the book. He wasn't often stared at, especially with such an intent gaze that drilled into the back of his head, so he initially felt a little awkward. But the awkwardness soon faded as he continued to read the book's contents.

It didn't take long before he was able to make his way through the book. As he gently closed the book, Naruto thought back to the contents of the book before coming to a startling realization.

He could remember. Every word of every line of every page in the book. He could remember everything.

Naruto took a small slip of paper and wrote the contents of page 48 before comparing what he had written to the text in the book. It was exactly the same.

The blonde-haired boy continued to test himself with random lines in the book, with him having a 100% success rate in recalling what he had read. Naruto knew that he had never had this ability before; otherwise, even with the subtle sabotage he received at the orphanage and the Academy, he wouldn't have fallen behind at all.

He recalled that this all started after opening the first inner gate, the Gate of Opening. 'What… what if opening the first gate didn't grant access to every memory? But instead caused a change in my brain to give me the ability to remember everything I see?'

It made sense after thinking about it. Naruto had found it strange that the clone had managed to memorize everything in the book it was given so quickly. But he ended up figuring that it had something to do with the nuances of Shadow Clones.

However, this was completely different. It wouldn't take long for him to catch up and even surpass everyone in his graduation class with this new ability, especially with the help of Shadow Clones, which made it as if he was reading 10 or even 100 times at once.

Naruto took a deep breath to calm himself before he got too ahead of himself. There were still things about the Shadow Clone Technique that he was wary about. After dispelling the two clones that were reading and training, he did feel a significant amount of exhaustion and slight pain from the sudden memory influx.

He didn't want to find out what would happen to this slight pain if there were 10, 5 or even only 3 clones reading simultaneously. He might even feel the same sharp pains he experienced when initially opening the first inner gate.

The blonde was sure that he was walking on thin ice at the library. With his past penchant for pranks, he knew he would immediately be kicked out if he made noise, even from screaming in pain.

Hence Naruto decided to tone down the plan to summon 10 Shadow Clones and only conjured a single clone. If he discovered that he could handle the strain from more than one clone reading, he would assign more to read in the future.

Clone Naruto walked over to a nearby bookshelf, picking up a book about nature transformation before an idea came to his mind.

'Henge no Jutsu' The clone transformed itself into an ordinary Genin before sitting at a table out of the receptionist's view.

Naruto's eyes brightened, and he nodded in admiration at the smart idea. He truly was a genius. If others came in, seeing two Narutos reading, they might get suspicious about his use of clones.

The Henge would prevent anybody from walking in and seeing the two Narutos reading, while hiding in the receptionist's blind spot would prevent her from calling out why a 'Genin' entered without signing in.

After learning that the person he considered closest to him, the Hokage, had lied about the two biggest problems that plagued his existence alongside remembering clearly how everyone he knew had treated him, had made Naruto not know who to trust. As a result, he would rather keep his training a secret for as long as possible.

After both Narutos settled down, they began to read in earnest, flipping through the pages must faster after discovering his now perfect memory.

True to its name, his memory was truly perfect. It didn't matter if he was reading at speeds that most humans, even shinobi, couldn't accomplish; he was still memorizing every word.

Yet, despite only focusing on memorizing, Naruto was instinctively breaking down every sentence he read into the basics. This wasn't just rote memorization and recalling facts, but he was actually learning as he was reading.

'That's strange. If my increase in memory can be attributed to the first gate, what could my increase in understanding be related to?' Naruto thought to himself.

Initially, he put it down as his sudden enthusiasm for learning had bolstered his learning rate. Or the book he was reading explained it in a way that was easy for him to understand. Yet even after changing books, Naruto still felt the same way.

In the end, Naruto shook his head and continued to read. The sudden increase in comprehension and understanding wasn't a problem that needed figuring out. He didn't need to overthink every small thing that happened.

Since the learning increase happened around the same time as his changes in memory, then he would just chalk it up to being a result of opening the first inner gate.

...

For the next few hours, Naruto could be seen in the corner reading books. After every hour, he would swap the book for a different one on the same subject. He learnt more than in one month of studying at the Academy for every hour spent reading.

"So it turns out that the shinobi arts are divided into Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Taijutsu, with there being many sub-techniques such as Bukijutsu, Fuinjutsu and Juinjutsu. There are even some techniques such as Senjutsu and Space-time Ninjutsu.

"Space-time Ninjutsu… Isn't that one of the techniques I found in the Scroll of Sealing? The Hiraishin?" Naruto muttered aloud to himself, breaking his gaze free from the book.

He took a quick look around in the library, finding several books on Space-time Ninjutsu; however, they were closer to random creator notes, alongside calculations and formulas that would make anyone dizzy looking at them.

One word that caught his attention on one of the space-time ninjutsu notes was 'Fuinjutsu', which was hastily scribbled on the page.

Curious about how Fuinjutsu was linked to Space-time Ninjutsu, Naruto looked around until he found an introductory book on Fuinjutsu. "Fuinjutsu is a type of technique whose entire purpose is to seal. Whether objects, living creatures or chakra, everything can be sealed with Fuinjutsu."

Naruto's gaze stopped partway through the book despite finding the book an interesting read. "The Uzumaki clan, which hailed from Uzushiogakure in the Land of Whirlpools, were Fuinjutsu specialists."

'Uzumaki clan? I have a clan? Do they know about me?' Naruto gasped in shock and happiness, quickly searching the library for every scroll they had on the Uzumaki clan.

Yet after he started reading the very few scrolls stored in the library, Naruto's happiness turned into horror. Every scroll stated that Uzushiogakure was destroyed in the Second Shinobi World War due to fear of their Fuinjutsu. As a result, the Uzumaki clan had practically gone extinct, with very few sightings of an Uzumaki in the elemental nations.

Naruto looked distraught at the only chance of him having a living family was ruthlessly quashed by the past actions of shinobi. In spite of this, he continued to look up information on the Uzumaki clan. He wanted to know what they were like and if his mother was an Uzumaki or not.

"The Uzumaki clan shared distant blood relations with the Senju clan. Following the founding of Konohagakure, the Senju chose to symbolize their clan's friendship by adding the Uzumaki's own emblem to Konoha shinobi's flak jackets.

"Uzumaki's are known for their red hair and incredibly strong life forces, with them having very long lifespans and ageing slower than the average human. They were known to be highly proficient in Kenjutsu and were considered to be the most advanced Fuinjutsu users across the elemental nations.

"It has also been documented that some Uzumakis have very rare Kekkai Genkai; however, it hasn't been confirmed what type of Kekkai Genkai and what their abilities were."

"Red hair? So my mother was an Uzumaki?" Naruto muttered to himself, finding himself one step closer to learning who his mother was. He hoped he could find her in the shinobi records as he hadn't seen any red-haired people, and nobody in Konoha's has the same last name as him, so there is no doubt that she should be easy to find.

After reading more about his clan and their exploits, Naruto was shaking with a mixture of emotions. As selfish as it was, he was less sad that his clan had been destroyed as he didn't personally know them, and more upset at the fact that it crushed his last hope that he might have some distant family members alive.

However, the fact that the Uzumaki's were feared across the elemental nations due to their techniques was something he was in awe of.

"Kenjutsu and Fuinjutsu, huh?" Naruto muttered to himself. He wasn't planning on learning the two ninja arts just because his clan was said to have been experts in them. But instead because of how powerful they were portrayed to be. If a nation was destroyed in fear of their prowess, they had to be highly useful techniques.

Before reading the Uzumaki clan's accomplishments, Naruto was one of the people who initially overlooked the usefulness of weapons. Instead, he was obsessed with different Ninjutsu and its various elements because it is cooler. As a result, he had never considered adding them to his repertoire before but did agree that they would be useful for when Taijutsu couldn't be used.

Meanwhile, Fuinjutsu was a far more complex topic. While Naruto felt the need to learn it because of him being living proof of how powerful it is, with it sealing the Kyuubi inside of him. He wasn't anywhere near close enough to start learning it.

Naruto read the introduction to the basics of Fuinjutsu. The book stated that having high accomplishments in mathematical knowledge, caligraphy skills, chakra control, Jutsu-Shiki, and Fuin-Shiki, alongside having one nature transformation under your belt, was mandatory before learning Fuinjutsu.

After comparing the extensive list of prerequisite skills to his current skills list, Naruto sighed. His handwriting was horrible, with him never needing to practice it as nobody had complained before.

Mathematical knowledge, nature transformations, chakra control, Jutsu-Shiki and Fuin-Shiki knowledge were practically non-existent. Except for some basic mathematics and chakra control, none of the topics were approached at the Academy.

However, even without learning Fuinjutsu, except for calligraphy skills, Jutsu-Shiki and Fuin-Shiki, everything else were topics he was planning on learning anyways.

Naruto figured that once he finally mastered, or at least reached a high proficiency in those subjects, he would consider touching Fuinjutsu if he showed enough talent and interest in it.

After writing down everything he needed to learn, Naruto put the books on Space-time Ninjutsu, Fuinjutsu and the Uzumaki clan back on their respective shelves before picking up a book on chakra control.

The book contained 4 basic chakra control exercises. Leaf sticking, tree walking, water walking and senbon spinning. The author also provided several detailed tips on how to accomplish each activity, alongside the advantages of having high chakra control.

"So the reason why I can't do the clone technique is because of my poor chakra control, resulting in me using too little or too much chakra? Why didn't anybody tell me before?" Naruto was almost pulling his hair out in annoyance.

Even when he was paying attention to what Iruka-sensei was teaching when the clone technique was brought up, he only received feedback such as "Try harder next time, Naruto." "You are using too little/much chakra."

Sure he could give Iruka-sensei the benefit of the doubt that the man had only been transferred to the ninja studies from history studies in the past year and hadn't had a chance to get a closer look at his problems. But only being told the problem and not the solution was starting to get tiring.

Naruto continued reading through several different books, committing every chakra control exercise, Taijutsu stances and Shurikenjutsu throwing postures to memory before leaving the library. The clone was left behind to continue reading the books on nature transformation.

After exiting the building, Naruto stretched his slightly stiff body. It had been a long time since he had sat down and earnestly studied, but it gave him a sense of nostalgia and accomplishment.

However, the entire time he spent reading, Naruto could feel the restless energy inside of him increase the longer he spent studying. He felt like he had to move and get some form of training in before he exploded.

Taking a step towards Team 7's training ground, Naruto's stomach started rumbling. "Well, make that after I get something to eat." The blonde sheepishly muttered while patting his stomach.

Initially, Naruto considered going to Ichiraku to order ramen but was reminded of his almost empty money pouch and settled for some instant ramen at home.

End of Chapter