<2 Years Passed>
At six years old, Kaien had already understood that patience was not the absence of action but the choice of when to act. His grandmother Benihime drilled that lesson into him every morning before training began, usually while correcting his stance or knocking him flat on his back with the blunt end of a naginata.
Strength without timing was wasted strength.
His days were divided cleanly. Mornings belonged to Benihime: physical conditioning, weapon forms, chakra circulation exercises that bordered on cruelty for a child his age. Afternoons, when his mother Aya and Uncle Ay were buried in negotiations with minor clans and defectors seeking Kumo's protection, were his own.
That was when he went to Kushina.
She had built her hut herself on Genbu's back at North-western side. There was a full on elite team managing the security of Genbu and their focus is always on kushina.
Kaien found her there that day, seated cross-legged on the stone floor, red hair tied loosely behind her, fingers stained faintly with chakra residue. Before her, a complex seal array hovered half-formed in the air, kanji flickering as she adjusted the flow.
"Kushina-san," Kaien said, polite but familiar, hands behind his back. "What are we learning today?"
She didn't look up.
"Haa…" she sighed, long and heavy. "You again. I already taught what I could to your jinchūriki. You can learn from him. Why are you bothering me?"
He noticed it immediately.
Three years ago, she would have shouted at him, cursed his family, glared like she wanted to tear his head off for daring to breathe near her. She had been fire held together by spite and grief.
Now, she was quieter and contained like a sealed explosion rather than an active one giving no opportunity for others to perceive what he intended,
Kaien smiled faintly at kushina's change in mindset. "Well… I want to learn from the best there is."
That got her attention. She glanced sideways at him, eyes sharp despite the exhaustion. "Flattery won't work."
"I'm not flattering," he said calmly. "I've been thinking about my abilities. Most of what I want to do… revolves around seals."
She studied him for a long moment, then clicked her tongue. "At least in sealing alone, your talent is greater than my own."
He didn't react outwardly, but he noted it carefully. Kushina Uzumaki did not give praise lightly.
"Your calligraphy strokes are precise," she continued. "The chakra distribution is clean. Fast, too. Most adults struggle with that. But you're still cheating."
She placed her palm flat against Genbu's surface.
The stone shimmered, and a sequence of kanji bloomed outward in perfect formation, glowing faintly red. No ink. No brush. Pure chakra shaping the kanji into seals.
"Until now, you've relied on chakra-based ink," she said. "It compensates for instability. To carve seals with chakra alone…" She flexed her fingers, and the kanji shifted smoothly. "That takes control and time."
Kaien watched closely absorbing every detail. The way she didn't force the chakra but guided it.
And then, without warning, he asked, "Kushina-san… did you ever want to rebuild Uzushiogakure?"
The kanji on her hand faltered. One symbol collapsed inward and then everything vanished.
Kushina froze.
For a heartbeat, she didn't even breathe.
Rebuild… Uzushiogakure?
The thought hit her sideways. She had never asked herself that question. Not once.
Uzushiogakure was gone and destroyed. Its ruins looted away by the all the villages. The Uzumaki clan reduced to talk of the past. She had accepted that as a fact, a tragedy and something immutable.
Her identity had been simpler that way.
She was a Konoha kunoichi.
She was Minato's—
Her chest tightened.
A yellow flash of hair crossed her thoughts before she could stop it.
When did Konoha become home?
She swallowed. "I… I don't know."
The words felt foreign in her mouth. She was not supposed to not know things. Kaien didn't press. He tilted his head slightly, studying her.
"If you could," he asked gently, "would you take that chance?"
She laughed, sharp and hollow, though it wasn't aimed at him. "Chance?" she echoed. "I'm the only Uzumaki left alive. There is neither clan nor the village. It was you people who destroyed our lands and stole our treasures."
As she reminisced her forceful transfer to konoha.
Kaien exhaled slowly. "I won't deny that," he said. "It happened when I wasn't born. But you're wrong about two things."
She looked at him again.
"One... You're not the only one left," he continued. "Many have escaped, they live now in minor villages. Hidden Grass. Rice Fields. Waterfall. Some don't even know who they are anymore."
Her fingers curled unconsciously.
"Two... " Kaien went on, voice steady. "What of Konoha? When Uzushiogakure burned, they did nothing, they turned away. Even though Uzumaki Mito was alive then. Even though your village was allied to konoha."
Each word landed cleanly. This wasn't accusation... instead what he said was true.
Kushina felt something shift inside her. She didn't know where to direct her thoughts to.
She had spent years defending Konoha in her mind, justifying it., saying they couldn't help, that politics were complicated, that war demanded sacrifices.
But she had never looked at it this plainly. Why weren't they given priority? Why didn't grandma push them to send help? Why? Why?
Kaien saw it in her eyes. He didn't push further.
He was laying bait.
The goal wasn't to convince her outright, but to redirect her thoughts... slowly, deliberately... toward the idea of rebuilding Uzushiogakure under Kumo's protection. By letting her reach the conclusion herself. To loosen her identity from Konoha thread by thread, replacing it with something that felt like choice rather than captivity. He want to give here a reason to stay back.
She would definitely not agree to join under kumo but he intended her to rebuild Uzushiogakure, which in turn would be a vassal. This will greatly diminish konoha, all while uzushiogakure tied to kumo. As he learned sealing arts from the past few years, it was quite possible that many of the secret could still be in some underground or some which would only activated from their own bloodlimit.
It was a slow process, one that demanded patience.
But it was already working. She had stopped talking about when she would return to Konoha. She had stopped framing her future around it. That alone was quite a progress...
"Take your time," he said, stepping back. "We'll continue the class later."
He turned and left before she could respond.
That, too, was intentional. That night, Kushina sat alone in her hut long after the light outside dimmed.
Uzushiogakure. The word tasted strange now. Would she be Uzushiokage?
She remembered red towers carved with spirals. The laughter of children practicing seals under watchful elders. And she remembered the attacks from Kumo, Kiri, Iwa and she also remembered that no help arrived.
She had buried that memory under loyalty and love for Konoha.
But Kaien's words echoed anyway.
Konoha turned a blind eye.
She hated that they made sense. She hated that she had never asked herself if things could have been different.
~~
A/N: Upto 20 Advance chapters available @ patreon.com/aizenDuchiha0
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