A Home In A Person // Naruto

[ Chapter Six ]

The two Uzumaki eventually reached the end of the staircase, the room changing into a long underground passage. Lanterns were lined up on the walls to illuminate the corridors, guiding their eyes to see.

“Woah...” Naruto breathes out, his voice echoing in the tunnels. “Is this where you guys used to move or something?”

The red-headed woman nodded, confirming his question. “It used to be built for people to escape in case of an emergency. The seal you saw in the picture actually was implanted by an Uzumaki years ago,” she explained.

Naruto's eyes widened. “That's amazing, dattebayo!”

She smiled at him. “It is, isn't it?”

Naruto grins until he realizes something important. “Hey, I never got your name,” he said.

“Ah, my apologies, I'm Akira,” The woman, now introduced as Akira, informed him.

“Naruto. Nice to meet you, Akira-nee-chan!” Then Naruto blushed, slapping a hand over his mouth just like he had when he first met Kurama.

“Oh, those are good times. I remember how small you used to be. You still are though.”

“Not helping, Kurama!”

Akira seemed surprised, but a small, almost wistful smile settled on her face.

“Uh, sorry, I'd thought since you're family and all, it would be okay to call you that and—” Naruto's ramblings got cut off as Akira chuckled, shaking her head.

“No, it's okay. I don't mind it at all. It just... took me off guard,”

Naruto's red cheeks returned to their normal color, sighing internally in relief. He was worried that Akira would be mad at him. But thankfully, she wasn't, which is good.

They dropped silent, Naruto basking in the silence. After a few minutes, Akira told him to follow her to where the rest of the Uzumaki were, and he felt his stomach tickling in excitement hearing that.

Naruto pursued Akira to a series of routes, the female Uzumaki using her memory to navigate them.

As they walked, Naruto was still wrapping his head around... everything. For one, the Uzumaki clan is alive—mostly. All these years of wondering if he's the only one left of his family name are now gone, renewed with a sense of contentment. He felt like the tears he had shed during his childhood. The sadness and utter despair he experienced. It doesn't matter. None of those feelings mattered.

What counts is that he's happy to have someone who must have been like him once, thinking that they're alone too. (For very different reasons except him being a jinchuūriki, of course)

When Akira ceases her stride in front of a dead end, Naruto gives her a confused look.

“There's a blood seal here,” she clarified upon catching Naruto's perplexed expression. “Only the members of the Uzumaki can enter. We put this here for security reasons,”

He nodded, showing that he understood perfectly.

He watched as Akira bit her thumb and performed the same thing he did with the secret entrance.

The seal that was hidden glowed and the wall opened up to unearth a space that looked barely furnished, but when you lived under a bathhouse, it'd be best to not decorate too much to not leave a trace.

Once stepping inside the area and the wall closes, Naruto catches sight of several people sitting on scattered chairs.

Naruto's excitement to meet his clan slowly faded by a little, a seed of doubt planting in his chest that grew considerably larger the further he felt relatively out of place.