Chapter Text
What was in a name? It was a question the young girl asked herself every day. Her name, for instance, was Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto, like the best part of the ramen (or was it the best because they shared a name?) that old-man Teuchi served her and charged her very little for… Y’know, despite the fact that she ate around seven bowls at a time, and anywhere up to twelve on a bad day. And she had a lot of bad days. Uzumaki, though – she didn’t have a cool name like the Uchiha or the Nara. Or even Hyuuga, like Hinata. U-zu-ma-ki. But she did have a cool name according to Iruka-sensei, who said today that she had a clan – a dead clan, a defunct clan, felled for being too powerful, but she had a name. A name. A bit like Hyuuga and Uchiha, except it was Uzumaki, and there was an Uzumaki Mito tied into Konoha’s history books, and she didn’t really like the history books –
And yet here she was, in the library, nose buried deep in a history book as she craved more about her clan name that she didn’t even think was real, or important. Uzumaki Mito was a beautiful woman, with fiery red hair and pale skin and pretty, cat-like eyes. Uzumaki Naruto did not have fiery red hair and pale skin and pretty, cat-like eyes, and her hair was cut short like a boys’ hair because that way she was less likely to be pressured into flower-arranging classes. Uzumaki Mito looked like she did flower-arranging classes, and that wasn’t a bad thing – she was pretty and strong, and – a jinchuuriki? Naruto paused at the word. What was one of those? She scanned through the index page of the book but found no other allusion to the word jinchuuriki. Some words were curiously blacked out with marker pen. There was an entire page that had been blacked out, but she could just about make out ‘kyuubi’. What did Uzumaki Mito have to do with the Nine-Tailed Fox demon? At eight years of age, she thought she was quite smart – not book smart like the Sakura girl in her class, but she was smart. She knew people. And Uzumaki Mito couldn’t possibly be the Nine-Tailed Fox demon. So… maybe jinchuuriki meant… Maybe she held the fox. Like mothers held their babies? No. The picture of Uzumaki Mito didn’t have the giant bump that mothers had from being swollen with child, so she couldn’t possibly contain a demon in her like mothers had babies.
But maybe it was like the ‘storage scrolls’ that Iruka-sensei wouldn’t let her look at any more...? He wouldn't let her look after the incident. She just thought the writing was really cool and neat, so she tried to make her writing cool and neat too. The problem was, and she’d told Jiji about this, she could make some pretty cool storage scrolls too. They weren’t like the one Iruka-sensei hid from her. Less writing, for one, and the Hokage had struggled to decipher what she’d done. But she had managed to store a blunted Academy kunai in one, and get it back out again, which was a pretty big feat for a storage seal that nobody understood. So maybe they had sealed the demon into Uzumaki Mito like a storage scroll…
She looked up and over at the librarian at the counter. Nozomi-baachan was really nice to her, unlike the other one, and thankfully Nozomi worked during the weekends which was really the only time she could visit the library. She put her book down and bounced over to the counter, grinning a big, foxy grin. “Nozomi-baachan!” she sang. “Do you have anything on the First Hokage’s wife?”
Nozomi looked over her glasses at her and gave her a small smile. “And why, Naruto-san, do you want information on her?”
“Because she’s a badass!” Naruto chirped, ignoring the sign that said ‘speak quietly’. Being quiet was overrated, and Nozomi-baachan didn’t mind. The other one didn’t let her in anyway, so she was happy to spend time with just Nozomi, being loud and not told off for trying to get through the door. “And we’re doing somethin’ at the Academy about her, but Iruka-sensei moved over it real quickly and I think I might be related to her! Cos, cos, she’s called Uzumaki Mito, and I’m Uzumaki Naruto, so… So I need to know.” She put on her best puppy-dog eyes.
Nozomi gazed down at the young girl, thoughts whirling around in her mind. She knew of the S-classed secret about the Kyuubi, having been fifteen when the fox attacked. She knew that Uzumaki Kushina must be the girls’ mother, though she wasn’t sure about her father. If she had to guess… Well, it was obvious from the golden hair and blue eyes that were uncommon in this region (discounting the Yamanaka).
Naruto-san had grown up to be an intelligent young girl, though overlooked by poor teaching at the Academy. Even as a civilian, she knew that Naruto had been stunted somewhat by lack of understanding of the content being delivered to her. However, she was corseted by how much she could help the girl, especially as her brother – a shinobi – had lost his pregnant wife in the aftermath of the attack. He didn’t blame the child, but he couldn’t cope and developed his own eccentricities that she found many ninja had. If Naruto-san put two and two together, or discovered Mito was a jinchuuriki too, she may uncover her own secret. And yet… Nozomi couldn’t help but still appreciate the child’s innocence in the face of so much hatred, and it was with a heavy heart that she smiled, stood, and took the child to a dusty tome that she and Keina-chan kept away from prying eyes.
“This book is very special, Naruto-san,” she said in a stern tone, the child’s hand warm in her own. “And I must beg you to be very, very careful when reading it. It was gifted to this library by one of the remaining – and only – members of the Uzumaki clan. This tells the story of a lost Hidden Village, headed by the Uzumaki clan, lost only recently. This village is Uzushiogakure no Sato, whom enjoyed close ties with Konoha and who you may be related to. I must stress to you, Naruto-san, that this village has been destroyed, and the likelihood… Of you having existing relatives – well… It may also be that you aren’t related at all, but were merely gifted this name as an orphan. However, the Uzumaki were a proud clan, and it’s unlikely you would be gifted this name.”
Naruto digested all of this information with wide eyes, sucking her lower lip as she listened. Nozomi-baachan knew so much, and had never told her any of this! She was fairly confident she was definitely an Uzumaki, because Mito-baachan sounded amazing and so she had to be amazing too. And Nozomi was holding her hand, which was really nice, and she was being so gentle with her too. “Okay, Nozomi-baachan,” she said solemnly, as solemn as a child could be. “I promise to be careful with the book!”
Nozomi stopped in front of a door marked ‘staff only’. She released Naruto’s hand for the keys and fumbled for a moment, before unlocking the door and ushering the girl in. The room had many scrolls and books, and it took her some time to uncover the book they library had been gifted by Uzumaki Kushina. When she finally found it, Naruto was bouncing around her, having regained some of the energy Nozomi’s speech had sapped from her. “Naruto-san,” she chided gently, gesturing to a plump seat by a windowsill. “Sit down. This is the book you need.”
And so began Naruto’s quest into what made a name.