FanFic Fiesta Entry! Add this to you library to support me!!
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A sat, braced, as Fuso's words hung in the air. The elder Uzumaki's face was grim.
"My intelligence division," Fuso began, "we were the best in the world. Our fūinjutsu let us bypass traditional security, to hear and see things others couldn't. We didn't just collect rumors, A. We collected facts."
Fuso's old eyes seemed to look past the Raikage, into a bloody history.
"We had all the info about everything. All the important and powerful shinobi around the world. Every single one of them."
This stunned A. He knew Fuso had been important, but the sheer scale of this claim was staggering. "All of them?"
"Everything," Fuso affirmed, his voice flat. "Their real name, their age, what they like to eat, what they like to drink. Their family, their fighting style. Who they feared. Who they loved."
He leaned forward, his gaze locking with A's. "And most importantly, we knew their Chakra paper result."
A frowned. The tension in the room felt too heavy for such a simple reveal. "Their chakra paper? Uncle, with all due respect, why is that important? It's an Academy test. A formality."
"It's important because we archived them," Fuso said, his voice sharp. "We compared them. We studied them for patterns. I am getting there, brat. Show the patience your father never had."
A settled back, again scolded.
"Now," Fuso continued, "you see, everyone in this world has a certain affinity they are intuned with, right? And you just said right now, or to be exact, just screamed it, 'That everyone with more than one affinity should be able to create a Kekkei Genkai,' no?"
A agreed. "Yes. With enough training and control, the combination should be possible. That's the theory."
"Theory," Fuso scoffed, the word dripping with disdain. "A fool's dream. Let's talk about practice."
He held up one gnarled finger. "Tell me, A. The Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen. The man known as 'The Professor.' His file... his file was a masterpiece. We knew for a fact that he had a natural, powerful affinity for all five elements. He didn't just learn them; he was born with them. A one-in-a-billion prodigy."
"So, let me ask you," Fuso pressed, "with all that time, all those resources, and all that 'brilliance'... how come the so-called Professor never managed to make one single Kekkei Genkai?"
The question stunned A. He had... never actually thought about that. Hiruzen was strong, but... Fuso was right. He'd never been credited with a bloodline. "I... I don't know."
"Of course you don't," Fuso snapped. "If he couldn't make a simple two-element combination, what chance did he have of combining three, four, or all five? He never did. He just used them one at a time, like a tradesman picking a tool. Why?"
"You want a more recent example?" Fuso didn't wait for an answer. "Take Kakashi Hatake. The 'Copy Ninja' of Konoha. Our intel on him is more recent, but just as thorough. Thanks to that Sharingan, he has also seen and learned jutsus of all five elements. He has the affinities. He has the 'brilliance.' So why can't he replicate Hashirama's Wood Release? It's just Water and Earth, right?"
"If that's 'too hard' or 'uses too much chakra,' what about the others?" Fuso's voice was like a hammer, striking down A's assumptions. "What about Boil Release? Lava Release? Magnet Release? He has all the components. But he never has. And he never will. Why?"
A just sat stunned and kept listening. The foundations of his shinobi knowledge were being methodically dismantled. He had always assumed it was a matter of skill, of chakra control, of genius. Fuso was telling him it was something else entirely.
"Because of this," Fuso said, sliding Raiden's crumpled, three-part chakra paper back to the center of the table.
"We didn't just know they had multiple affinities, A. We had their chakra paper results. And we compared them to the results of actual elemental Kekkei Genkai users. The Yuki clan. Terumi. The families from Iwa."
"And all the elemental Kekkei Genkai had one thing in common. A single, unifying factor that separated them from prodigies like Sarutobi."
Fuso tapped Raiden's paper. "When they were tested, their elements didn't just show up. They were in perfect balance!"
He grabbed the paper. "Sarutobi's test? We had a source. His paper lit on fire, then crinkled, then got wet, then crumbled, then split. A chaotic, sequential mess. His Fire affinity was 80% of his nature, and the others were just scraps he was smart enough to use. Kakashi? 90% Lightning. The rest is just noise he can replicate with his magic eye."
"But a true Kekkei Genkai user... their paper would split and get damp at the exact same time. Or crinkle and crumble together. Perfect, 50/50 balance. The creation of a new Kekkei Genkai does not happen due to personal brilliance, A! It happens because of evolution! It's a genetic mutation. A bloodline. It's a gift, not an achievement!"
A's mind was reeling. "So... Raiden..."
"Look at the paper, A," Fuso commanded, his voice low. "Wind. Water. Lightning. Three distinct, perfectly balanced sections. This... this isn't even a Kekkei Genkai. It's a Kekkei Tota."
"And you know what the top of all the Kekkei Tota is?" Fuso asked, his voice suddenly quiet. "The only other one we knew existed?"
A, still silent and listening, found his voice. It was hoarse. "Dust Release."
"Dust Release," Fuso confirmed, his voice now filled with a strange, dark envy. "Earth, Wind, and Fire. And you know how strong that is. Even in Ōnoki's hands, that old fossil who takes a long time to prep an attack... it is still one of the most powerful offensive jutsus in the world, short of a Tailed Beast Bomb."
"That..." Fuso said, his eyes distant, "that was the one thing the Upper Class of Uzushio used to envy. They dreamed of it. They were obsessed. They would sit in their grand halls, imagining what something like Dust Release would be like in the hands of an Uzumaki. With our chakra reserves."
A thought of it. He didn't have to imagine hard. It was a terrifying, apocalyptic picture. Not a single, slow-moving cube. But hundreds of them. A constant, unceasing barrage of pure, atomic destruction. Endless attacks of Dust Release, without stopping. Pure, total annihilation. The end of armies. The death of nations.
"The Upper Class tried everything," Fuso said, his voice laced with the old bitterness of his past. "Breeding programs. Horrific, twisted experiments. They tried to artificially create a Kekkei Tota. But they couldn't. It was all... unbalanced. It always failed. It always blew up in their faces."
Fuso picked up Raiden's paper, holding it as if it were a precious, delicate thing. "Not until now. Only when the bloodline was left alone... only when it was allowed to evolve on its own again... did it happen."
The old man looked up at A, his eyes sharp and intense. "And I think this is not the end. This is just the start. He will have many more surprises to come. I just have... a good feeling."
A finally, truly realized what Fuso meant. What Yugiri had brought him. This wasn't just a "talented kid." This was a living, breathing paradigm shift. Raiden was going to be strong. Terrifyingly strong.
"An Uzumaki..." A said, the words were heavy. "An Uzumaki with a new Kekkei Tota."
"Yes," Fuso said.
A leaned forward, his excitement from before gone, replaced by the heavy, calculating mind of a Kage. "What should we do? Pull him from the Academy? Assign him a special tutor? Put him in ANBU development? We have to fast-track this. We have to..."
"Nothing."
A just stared. "What?"
Fuso smiled, a real, genuine smile that eased the deep-set wrinkles around his eyes. "We do nothing."
"We treat this exactly as it is," Fuso explained, his voice softening. "A normal ninja, who has a rare three-affinity. A bit special, yes, but nothing to break protocol over. We don't make him a target. We don't put the weight of the entire village on his eight-year-old shoulders."
The elder leaned back in his chair, looking suddenly like the wise old man he was.
"Let the plant grow by itself, A. Let it find its own sun. All we have to do... is, from time to time, keep nurturing it. Give it water. And if any weed tries to grow and harm it... we protect it. We pull the weed out by the roots, and we make sure it never grows back."
"So," Fuso concluded, "let him grow at his own pace. Let him have his friends. Let him be that arrogant, white-haired brat who challenges the Raikage. That... is what will make him truly strong."
A, hearing this, felt the immense tension in his shoulders finally release. He leaned back, the shadow of his father's wisdom echoing in Fuso's words. The elder was right. Rushing this would break it. Forcing it would create a weapon, not a leader.
Let Raiden discover his own path. Their job... their job was just to help him, and protect him when it was needed. The Kumo way.
"Understood, Uncle," A said, nodding once. "He's just a rare kid. Nothing more."
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