A few hours later
"They are coming," a ninja of the root of Danzo said to his comrade as he felt the chakra of Akashi and the Uchiha escorting him.
They root had been waiting here for a long time, it was obvious that Akashi's itinerary had been leaked.
By whom, it was obviously from the Hokage, after all, the only ones knowing what road they would take were Hiruzen Sarutobi and Akashi's own grandfather, who had sent his own men to escort Akashi.
Soon, the figures of Akashi, the Uchiha, and Kana's clone, now moving like a puppet, appeared in the root ninja's line of sight.
"Now!"
With that signal, all five root teams attacked.
"Fire release: fire ball jutsu,"
"Wind release: great breakthrough"
Shadow release: shadow binding
Yin release: mind transfer
"..."
The moment they got into range, the root ninja launched an incredible, powerful, and well-synchronized series of attacks.
The shadow technique of the Nara Clan, the mind transfer of the Yamanaka immobilized them, the insect of the Aburame started to swallow their chakra to stop them from mobilizing it in the short term before the combined fire and wind release crashed onto Akashi and his escort.
With the support of the Hokage roots recruited many talents of the clan in the village of konoha.
In fact, all the fifteen ninjas of the root sent today were members of the Konoha elite ninja clans.
"Did we get them?" One of the root Ninja asked one of the sensory ninjas.
"No! We are surrounded!" The sensory ninja suddenly shouted in alarm.
Every root ninja turned to see blazing red eyes looking down on them.
While they were wondering how the Uchiha managed to slipe through their perception the answer quickly arrived.
Five Ninja with massive amount of chakra in blazing red hair appeared beside the uchihas.
"Like you predicted, they indeed really prepared an ambush for us," Sakai, a jonin of the Uchiha Clan, said to Kiba Uzumaki beside him.
'The Uzumaki and the Uchiha, we need to warn master Danzo?'
The root ninjas thought but before they could react.
"Kill them!" kiba shouted voice laced with anger and hatred.
With th that the Uchiha and Uzumaki shunshin toward the root ninjas.
Boom
Boom
A powerful explosion resounded in the forest as the two groups clashed.
Soon, the reason why the Uchiha and the Uzumaki were so feared across the ninja world revealed itself as all the ninjas of the root, powerful clan members of Konoha, lay lifeless on the ground with nearly no casualties from the other side.
After the battle, the Kiba Uzumaki and Sakai Uchiha moved away from prying eyes for five minutes before the Uchiha returned to Konoha.
"Let's go,"
Just like that, Akashi joined the Uzumaki, and they moved to a temporary underground shelter that had been created using earth jutsu just for the occasion, and with their sealing techniques, they were sure not to be discovered.
With their abilities, this kind of thing is child's play for a ninja.
But it was just one layer of protection.
Once inside, Kiba bit his thumb and with a quick series of hand seals, he summoned a massive alligator covered in seals.
Akashi's eyes lit up seeing that
"Did you succeed in creating that technique? We couldn't do that with just me and mom!"
"Yes young master, with the help of all the clan we managed to create that technique just in time to save a little bit of our clan,"
The alligator opened its mouth and everyone walked inside before the creature closed its mouth and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Somewhere else in another and safer underground shelter.
Poof
An alligator appeared in a large space prepared for those invocations.
As the alligator opened its maw Akashi and the other walked out before the creature disappeared again.
"Woah, this is really impressive,"
Ajashi couldn't help but be impressed by that technique.
Even though that idea came from him, he wasn't sure that they would create it.
He couldn't help but thanks the new memories and experiences that appeared in his mind since the day he had that vision of the future, he could already see many applications for that technique that would make him a powerhouse.
He was already remembering a lot of his old life in his old world.
World where Naruto was one story among many that he enjoyed.
He remembered that in that life he was a computer science major passionate about coding and anime.
In fact, the reason why he was reincarnated as a Uzumaki after his death was probably due to all the potential he saw in them, with his knowledge on anime, technique and other he was planning an entirely new system of fighting for himself, but now wasn't the time for that.
As they were walking towards the center of the shelter Akashi was briefed by Kiba on the actual situation of the clan.
From the more than 10,000 Uzumaki living in Uzushiogakure, only about 700 remained, with only 70 ninjas present. It was a catastrophic loss, which was the reason why they were now hiding kilometers underground, a place with seemingly no entry or exit.
This method of deplacement created in the last hour of the battle in Uzushiogakure would now be their method of deplacement for a while, and all of them were aware of how much of a game-changer it was.
After a while, they finally arrived in the center of the shelter, a big room where an old man with only a few strands of red hair remaining among the white ones was seated in seiza position.
He looked at the lifeless clone of Kana that was following Akashi for a second before turning to Akashi himself.
"Good morning, young master, I am Kuroko Uzumaki, I..."
"You are the man who followed us when we left for Konoha,"
Akashi said before the old man could end his sentence.
"Yes, yes I am. Did the princess talk to you about me?" he asked slowly
"I felt your presence sometimes when we were traveling," Akashi said. The old man's eyes widened a little bit. It's through that he had never tried to hide his presence, but the fact that Akashi was able to feel him was a testament to his ability.
"I am the only elder of Uzushiogakure still alive, and I will be in charge of the clan for a while,"
"What happened to my mother? I know that something happened to her, her clone suddenly became unresponsive during the travel and now it is only moving by instinct, so I know something happened, tell me what happened to my mother,"
Akashi interrupted, no longer willing to listen to anything else, his mother was his only priority and the only one he really cared about, and he knew that something had happened to her.
The old Kuroko looked at Akashi for a few seconds before sighing. He got up and walked towards a door hidden behind a curtain, with Akashi following.
There on a bed protected by a barrier created by golden chains, his mother Kana Uzumaki was lying on her back, unconscious and pale-faced.
"What happened? It shouldn't have happened. We talked about it. She promised that the moment things became dangerous, she would retreat..." Akashi said in a hoarse voice as he suppressed sobs.
Even though he was starting to remember his past life, he was still a child at heart.
"Things became complicated, the evacuation began completely chaotic, she was trying to save the children..."
"I don't care about you, any of you, you threw us away the moment things got complicated and ignored us like pests, why did she put her life in danger people like you when she has me," Akashi anger was felt through his word
"Because she's a good person," Kuroko said after a moment of silence
"A good person with a beautiful heart like her can't abandon people, children, her family and watch them die in front of her, even though they hurt her,"
"In the last hour of the evacuation, before the destruction of uzushiogakure the six tail lost control and managed to reach us, her father and grandfather were already dead so she perform the reaper death seal, a modified version to seal part of the creature. You know how she enjoy modified existing technique, because of that she is still alive, but no one know how to reversed the situation, I'm sorry,"
The old man said, looking at Akashi, who was caught between anger, pain, and a feeling of betrayal.
"I know that you have no love for us, for the clan, but as the great-grandson of Ashina Uzumaki Daimyo of Uzushiogakure, grandson of Ashinta Uzumaki the Uzukage, and son of Princess Kana Uzumaki the clan belongs to you,"
"I do not care about your stupid clan, and I would not bat an eye if all of you died," Akashi screamed at the old man, his chakra fully unleashed.
It was so dense than it destroyed the ground around him.
'So much power at such a young age,' the eyes of the old man once again widened in disbelief and delight, seeing the potential of his young master
"I'm aware. But your mother got injured like to save the clan, it will be ridiculous that after that sacrifice you refuse to benefit from it, the clan will be yours in a few years, I know that you have ideas for the direction it should go, your mother already told me about the most important part, but it will need you for the coming years, to steer it in the direction that you want until you are strong enough to inherit it,"
The old man stated calmly
"And why would you give me that kind of power when you know that I have no affection for any of you,"
"Because the only reason we are still alive is because of you,"
The old Kuroko simply stated
"If you agree, you will have all the resources of the clan at your disposal and, with your talent, you will quickly become independent, also to find a solution for what happened to the princess, the clan support will be invaluable.
Also I think that with your strange way of looking at things which is actually very similar to your mother's, we will be able to find this solution much faster,"
After I said all that, the old Kuroko shut his mouth and just looked at Akashi with anticipation.
For a few seconds, he remained silent, looking at his mother with complex emotions, before turning around and revealed to the old man his spinning three tomoe sharingan.
"All right! I agree to your proposition,"
Hearing that a small smile appeared on the lips of the old Kuroko before he bent the knee to Akashi,
"It will be my honor to serve you, my Prince,"
From this Moment onward, the Uzumaki Clan will enter a new era never seen before, under the leadership of Akashi and the old Kuroko.
...
Meanwhile, all around the world, the news of the destruction of Uzushiogakure was spreading, but it was not just the destruction of Uzushiogakure that was making waves, or even the fact that Konohagakure, their long-term friend, had abandoned them to their fate.
No, it was the sheer volume of the loss that the coalition of the four great ninja villages suffered in that attack.
About 20,000 Ninjas and four-tailed beast had been sent there and at the end of the fight less than 5,000 Ninja were left alive on the side of the four great ninja Village, while all the tail Beasts all lost their mind and went on a rampage after having part of the soul cut out by the reaper death seal.
Even though at the end they managed to achieve their objective by destroying Uzushiogakure and obtaining many sealing techniques, the loss of the majority of their forces made it hard for anyone to consider that a victory.
After that day the war that in the original story would have continued for a few years ended abruptly.
...
In konoha
"So you failed to find any information on the Uzumaki who escaped from Uzushiogakure, and all your men were eliminated," Hiruzen Sarutobi said, looking at his comrade in front of him; the two other advisors, Homura and Koharu, were also present.
"Hiruzen you need to demand answers from the Uchihas,"
Hiruzen just lifted his brow,
"And what am I supposed to say, I leaked the itinerary of your mission that I had approved so that we could obtain information on the Uzumaki that escape the destruction of Uzushiogakure so that we could force them to join Konoha or eliminate them to prevent any future threats from happening to the village in the future,"
At that point in time, the situation between the Uchihas and Konoha was still quite good, and Hiruzen didn't want it to change.
"Do not take that tone with me, you saw how much potential that kid has and how big of a problem he will becomes as an enemy,"
Danzo argued
"Then maybe you shouldn't have made an enemy out of him,"
Danzo just scoffed at that truly his old friend was nothing but a hypocrite
"Then why didn't you send help when there was still time to save Uzushiogakure? Why did you give me the itinerary of the boy?
You let the situation take its course before you knew that sacrifice in Uzushiogakure was the best for Konoha, and you let me try to eliminate the boy because you know this is what is best for the village so stop playing games with me,"
A long and uncomfortable silence filled the room after Danzo finished talking.
All of them knew perfectly well what he did, why he did it, and how it helped Konoha emerged as the uncontestable winner of the Second Great Ninja War.
Indeed, after the attack on Uzushiogakure, the others ninjas village had suffered so many losses that they had to stop the war.
The early end of the Second Ninja War and the dire situation of their enemies could be considered as his contribution, and it cemented the importance of Danzo's roots for Konoha.
"I already interviewed them to know what happened," Hiruzen finally said breaking the silence.
"The Uzumaki met them halfway, they have no way to contact them, they do not know their situation or their shelters location,"
"They might be lying,"
"They might, but they were not. The Uzumaki no longer consider us allies and know that we have something to do with the destruction of their village and people, so why would they give us a way to find them in their moment of weakness,"
At those words, everyone realized that it was true.
"Then why did you let the kid leave, he could have been our way to find them,"
Homura asked
"He was!" Hiruzen said flatly, and it took a second, but they quickly realized what he meant.
"So you were using my root to find them, huh?" Danzo once again witness the shrewdness of his old friend.
"You couldn't keep him nor do anything to him in konoha due to the protection of lady Mito, this is why you let him leave hoping that Danzo would manage to find their lair, it was a good strategy, but what do we do now that it failed," Koharu asked
"Now we focus on rebuilding Konoha and making it as powerful and prosperous as we can like we always did,"
With those words the meeting came to an end.
All the ninjas village return to licking their wounds, regain their strength and train their ninjas and peace once again return to the ninja world.