With a sharp bang, Tsunade kicked open the Hokage's office door.
Sarutobi Hiruzen calmly set down the papers in his hands and looked over at Uzumaki Rina and Karin.
He didn't even need to ask—he already knew who they were. That kind of overwhelming chakra and bright red hair wasn't something you could fake.
To his surprise and delight, there weren't just one but two of them. And both were women. If nothing unexpected happened, they could both settle in Konoha, marry, and start families—bringing the Uzumaki clan back as one of Konoha's shinobi clans.
"Hokage-sama," Rina said quickly, bowing. She knew full well the man before her was one of the most powerful figures in the shinobi world.
"You've been through a lot," Hiruzen said warmly. "Now that you're in Konoha, there's no need for formality—this is your home."
He wasn't just happy because of the Uzumaki–Konoha alliance. As Uzumaki, Rina and Karin had huge chakra reserves by nature. If they had even decent talent, becoming jōnin was only a matter of time—and the Uzumaki were naturally gifted at sealing jutsu.
Two jōnin-level seal specialists would be far more valuable than ordinary jōnin. After all, sealing jutsu were second only to the Sharingan and Wood Release in effectiveness against tailed beasts.
Right now, there were only two sealing masters in Konoha—Hiruzen himself and Shimura Danzō. Minato and Kushina had once been among them, but both were gone.
For Hiruzen, their arrival was nothing short of a windfall.
"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Rina said sincerely. With his promise, she knew she and her daughter would be safe—Grass wouldn't dare touch them again.
"Rina's health isn't great, so she'll stay with me," Tsunade said matter-of-factly. "It'll make her treatment easier."
"No problem," Hiruzen said, immediately agreeing—he could see she wasn't well.
"As for Karin, she's the right age for school. Transfer her to First Year, Class A," Tsunade added, glancing at Kitazawa. "You handle it."
"Karin hasn't had any schooling in Grass, so she's starting from scratch," Tsunade continued. "Help her catch up when you can."
She genuinely sympathized with the two, so she made sure to look out for them.
[Order from your future teacher Tsunade: You can't refuse.]
[Mission: Help transfer student Karin place in the top 10 of this semester's final written exam.]
[Reward: Four Limbs Weighting Seal.]
[Accept?]
Kitazawa's eyes lit up. One sentence from Tsunade and he had a new mission.
It wasn't too bad—just the written exam, not the practical. Theory could be improved the "easy" way, with enough practice tests. And with two and a half months left in the term, there was plenty of time.
The reward was fine too—a sealing jutsu for locking down an opponent's arms and legs, good for keeping captives from escaping. Like most sealing techniques, it was more support than offense.
"Got it, Tsunade-sama," Kitazawa said, accepting.
From behind her mother, Karin peeked out at him, red eyes curious. Kitazawa smiled at her, and she blinked back, thinking he looked kind—and maybe even gentle.
"Kakashi," Hiruzen said suddenly, "the mission report."
By Konoha's rules, missions needed a written record of how they were completed. Tsunade would never write one, but Anbu always did.
Kakashi produced a scroll and handed it over. Hiruzen unrolled it, scanning the contents—and the corner of his mouth twitched. As expected, Tsunade hadn't behaved herself.
Kakashi didn't know she'd whispered something to Kitazawa before the mission, so Kitazawa's actions read as her orders. Hiruzen didn't question it—he thought Kitazawa too much of a "nice guy" to provoke Grass on his own.
"Any problem?" Tsunade asked, one brow raised.
"No problem," Hiruzen said, rolling the scroll shut. At this point, scolding her was pointless. Grass had lied to Konoha and abused Rina; morally, they had the high ground.
"This was well done. I'm classifying it as S-rank," Hiruzen announced. "The reward is two million ryō, split among the four of you."
"Including Rina?" Tsunade asked. With only her, Shizune, and Kitazawa, that made three—plus Rina meant the Anbu weren't included. And S-rank missions didn't usually pay this much.
"Yes," Hiruzen nodded. "She's new here and needs the money."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama!" Rina said immediately. Words were one thing; actual money was another. Together, they made her loyalty to Konoha rock-solid.
"Good," Tsunade said. She knew it was Hiruzen building goodwill, but since it helped Rina, she saw no reason to object.
"Rina's treatment will need a lot of medicine," Tsunade added.
"Konoha will provide it," Hiruzen said without hesitation. Expensive or not, two future sealing experts were worth it.
"Kitazawa, you did well," Hiruzen said, turning to him. "You can pick three B-rank jutsu and one A-rank jutsu."
Now that was generous. Kitazawa was delighted and bowed in thanks.
"I'll take Rina and Karin home," Tsunade said, turning to leave. The Anbu vanished, Kakashi and Itachi included.
"Kitazawa, go with Haru to pick your jutsu," Hiruzen instructed.
"Yes, Hokage-sama."
Kitazawa left the office—and nearly walked straight into Danzō.
He froze. Of course Danzō would be here for Rina and Karin. He knew exactly how valuable the Uzumaki were, especially with their clan nearly wiped out.
Kitazawa gave him a glance and kept walking. Danzō, busy heading in to see Hiruzen, didn't even react.
Inside, Hiruzen's good mood dipped. He knew exactly why Danzō was here, but there was no way he was letting the Uzumaki near Root. Their sealing techniques were a strategic asset—especially against the Nine-Tails.
Kitazawa followed Haru into the jutsu archive. The sheer number of scrolls made him hesitate. His strengths were medical ninjutsu, genjutsu, Fire Style, and Wind Style—all solid and already in use.
He had five chakra natures, with Lightning and Earth still to acquire. In theory, he could pick Lightning, Earth, Water, and sealing techniques—but high-level sealing wasn't available here, and the rest weren't urgent.
Water Style, though, could boost his combat power—and Konoha had the best Water Style user in history: Tobirama Senju. Plus, Kitazawa still had to teach Kabuto, and sealing might be something he could learn directly from Rina.
On the Water Style shelf, he found many of Tobirama's techniques, including the legendary Water Severing Wave—but that was S-rank.
After some thought, he chose:
A-rank: Waterfall Technique (large-scale area attack)
B-rank: Water Formation Wall (defense), Water Dragon Bullet (Tobirama's improved three-seal version), Instant Water (mobility/ambush).
[New mission: Master four Water Style jutsu by the end of the third term.]
[Reward: Proficient-level Water chakra nature transformation.]
[Accept?]
Easy choice—reaching proficiency alone would take years.
By rule, A-rank scrolls couldn't be removed, so he memorized Waterfall Technique on the spot, then left with the three B-rank scrolls—only to see Danzō again, his expression sour. Clearly, he hadn't gotten what he wanted from Hiruzen.
Watching him go, Kitazawa thought: always trying to steal people for Root… maybe it was time to steal someone back.
Leaving the Hokage building, Kitazawa stretched. This mission had paid off—one complete, two new, and four new Water Style jutsu.
Back at Kurenai's place, she wasn't home, so he headed to the yard to train—Wind Style, not Water, since that mission wasn't urgent.
Time passed until he heard familiar footsteps.
"When did you get back?" Kurenai asked, walking over.
"About an hour ago. You weren't here, so I came out to train," Kitazawa said.
"When Tsunade returned, I happened to see them," she explained. "I went to meet the two Uzumaki you brought back."
"What did you think?" Kitazawa asked.
"I should've gone with you to Grass. Not teaching those bastards a lesson myself is a real shame," she said, clenching her fist.
"It's fine. I already beat them up for you," Kitazawa said with a grin.
"Not enough. I need to make jōnin as soon as possible!" Kurenai declared. As a chūnin, she wasn't even eligible for missions like this—unless she had pull.
"Then let's train together," Kitazawa said, taking her hand.
"Mm." She smiled and kissed him before they got to work.
…
The weekend passed, and by the third week of October—
"Good morning, Kitazawa-sensei!" Karin called brightly. In new clothes, with her red hair and eyes, she stood out immediately.
"Come on, I'll take you to school," Kitazawa said.
"Thank you, Kitazawa-sensei," Rina said, bowing politely.
"Don't worry," he replied, leading Karin to the academy.
Hyūga Hinata jumped up at the sound of the door, but froze when she saw Karin.
"Hinata, this is Karin, a transfer student in our class," Kitazawa said, ruffling her hair.
"Hello, I'm Hyūga Hinata," she said, recovering and offering her hand.
"Come eat breakfast," Kitazawa told them. "I've got a short meeting afterward."
Hinata glanced at Karin's hair—it was rare in Konoha. She couldn't remember any clan here with red hair.
"Hinata, take Karin to class after we eat," Kitazawa said.
"Come with me, Karin," Hinata said, standing.
Kitazawa headed to a faculty meeting about the upcoming October exams. He wasn't expecting big changes—the timing was too short for most students to improve much—but he was planning to quietly engineer a crushing loss for Sasuke, just to see if it triggered a new mission.
In Class 1-A, Karin's arrival stirred up the room.
"Your hair's red?" Naruto Uzumaki said, amazed. "I've never seen red hair before."
"I've never seen blonde hair," Karin smiled. She could tell he was just curious.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto," he introduced himself.
"You're an Uzumaki?" Karin shot up from her seat.
"Uh… yeah?" Naruto said, scratching his head. "Why?"
"You…" Karin hesitated. An Uzumaki without red hair? Maybe just a coincidence.
Sasuke walked in, ignored them, and headed to his seat. Karin's eyes lingered.
"Sasuke-kun is mine—don't get ideas!" Sakura snapped.
"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that," Karin said quickly. In the original story, she'd liked him because he'd saved her—but here, that hadn't happened.
"No need to be so formal."
"Not everyone likes Sasuke," Ino Yamanaka cut in, stepping forward with a smile. "I'm Yamanaka Ino. Nice to meet you."