"How do I get passed these?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow. He was currently standing on top of the water, using his chakra to keep himself from sinking under the current. He had starteds his journey out of the village a few days previously, and he had been running most of the way to his first destiniation for training. Of course, nobody was allowed to see him off on his journey because him leaving the village was a top secret. Naruto was SURE that the Third Hokage had sent somebody to tail him, something Erza and Kushina both agreed that the old man had done for Naruto's protection.
He had already left the Land of Fire days ago, and he had passed the Land of Hot Springs before he reached the ocean.
The Village of Hidden Eddies was only a few miles of the coast of both the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Springs, but Naruto had started off at the closest point being the Land of Hot Springs. After that, it didn't take much walking over the waters, about 6 hours of running and walking to be more exact, before he came to the first real problem in his path.
The small island Land of Whirlpools... was surrounded by whirlpools that he couldn't walk around. They were all powerful and close together, though he could see the actual island itself not very far away. He would try and jump, but thw whirlpools were scattered a good distance around the perimeter of the island. He couldn't simply jump over them, and swimming through them wasn't an option.
"Any advice on this Kushina?" Erza asked with a raised eyebrow, looking into Naruto's eyes so that Kushina could see her.
"Well... normally we just swam through them actually. We Uzumaki were raised around whirlpools all out lives, and with our amazing stamina, chakra, and life force we adapted to the whirlpools... we gained the strength to swim across them. Not to mention a lot of us had Wind and Water release, so we could just... make them pause for awhile." Kushina said in an unhelpful way. When you were raised for much of your young life around whirlpools, then you learned how to swim inside of whirlpools. There was no great secret to getting around them, no great jutsu that only Uzumaki could do that would let Naruto safely pass the whirlpools.
If you were skilled enough in Water or Wind release, were strong enough to jump or swim across, or could fly, then you could gain access to the whirlpool nation.
"That is... actually pretty cool. So you can swim across this right?" Naruto asked Kushina with a glint in his eyes that only Erza could see.
"Well... yeah?" Kushina stated in a questioning way. Naruto's body glowed and he exchanged his armor that he was wearing, before he switched into a different armor that he knew about but never actually used in battle before. This armor was MUCH more revealing than the other armors he wore, and Erza nodded in appreciation when she saw him summon one of her elemental empress armors that would actually help out in this situation. The Sea Empress armor that gave extremely high water resistance, and granted the user the ability to manipulate water and increases their swimming ability 20 fold what it was before. He was wearing long green fishscale-like armored leggings that went up to his mid-thigh, and on each side of his hips were green seastar-like armor plates with a light green cape travelling around his backside. He wore a simple black bikini bottom, and his stomach was completely uncovered with his only his ribs and a bit of the front side of his chest being covered by green armor that looks a bit like kelp. It hung off him loosely at the sides, flaring out a bit.
His shoulders had blue plates on them, and in front of that were blue fin-like decorations. His arms, up to his elbows only, were covered in green metal with a blue gem on the elbow with fin-designs on it. He a green high collar around his neck, on top of his forehead and framing his face was a blue armored head protector with lighter blue fins on the sides covering his ears.
"The Sea Empress Armor... good choice. That armor gives your body the ability to withstand high water pressures, and both hot and cold water as well. It makes swimming easier... huh?" Erza questioned when she saw that both of Naruto's blue eye had changed into a plum color. Naruto blinked, before he looked down at himself with a strange expression on his face.
"... EH!?" Kushina's voice actually came out of Naruto's mouth.
"... Kushina?" Erza asked with her eyes HIGH in the air. Yes, she could possess Naruto and take control of his body with permission, but she didn't know that Kushina could do the same thing as well.
"Why am I in control!?" Kushina shouted in shock, using Naruto's body to cover his chest and crotch with his hands. She had no idea what had happened, or why it had happened, but she was the one in command of Naruto's body.
"You know how to swim in whirlpools, so I gave you control of my body. The Sea Empress armor will make up the difference, and your skill will make this easier than me nearly drowning." Naruto said with his voice echoing to both Kushina and Erza.
"You did this?" Erza asked with a raised eyebrow.
"How?" Kushina asked as well.
"It isn't that hard, our chakras are almost the same... so I just traded my chakra for your chakra. Don't worry, I am refilling your lost chakra with my chakra... so for now my body is your body." Naruto said, though they couldn't see it he was grinning from inside of himself. Kushina blinked a few times, before she moved around in Naruto's body. She was surprised that it wasn't that much different than her own body when she was about his age. It seemed that Naruto was a late bloomer in the height department like she was, since he was about her height when she was this young as well. She looked down at the water below, and the waving of the water showed her just how similar they were.
Though his hair was a deeper red color, and one of his eyes was brown... he looked just like her to the point that she almost mistook the reflection in the water as her own slighter tanner face... with whisker marks that seemed to have grown a little thinner how that Naruto wasn't the dominant personality in the body. It seemed that whoever was in control of his body, affected the appearance of the whiskers on his cheeks. Kushina reached up and touched his face, before she smiled in his body. To think, that the first time she TRULY held her child as a young boy she was using his own hands to do it.
"Hello? Whirlpools need swimming." Erza reminded Kushina with a tap on the head.
"... Sorry, just taking a moment to really see how he's grown. My baby boy is so beautiful." Kushina whispered with a small smile on her face. Erza stayed silent, but smiled at the tender expression that Naruto's face wore because of Kushina. She would let Kushina have a few more moments just admiring how her son has grown.
"I can hear everything you say you know." Naruto reminded Kushina, who nodded and looked towards the whirlpools. She tensed Naruto's legs, before she pounced and jumped into the wide of the nearest whirlpool. Starting her swimming, she let the whirlpool take her near the other side of it, before she swam out of that whirlpool and into the next, riding it while swimming out of it when she reached the other side. She swam from whirlpool to whirlpool using the currents and the roaring waters as a booster, letting the whirpools do the work of moving forward for her. All she was doing was making Naruto jump from whirlpool to whirlpool by controlling the movements.
In five minutes, all of the whirlpools were safely swam through as red hair burst through the surface of the water on the other side. Kushina was grinning, before the plum colored eye turned blue and Naruot regained control of his body and started to swim towards the sandy beach that was the land of whirlpools. Naruto reached the beach, before he whistled at the pristine white beach as he stepped out of the water and onto dry land. "Ah~! Taste that clean and salty sea air! Isn't it just fantastic, cure the fresh forest air and the smell of earth is nice... but nothing beats being back home!" Kushina said from back inside of Naruto. You could hear the joy in her tone, and Erza nodded and appreciated the view, before she noticed that Naruto was back in the water. He had a white and red tube around his body, and was wearing her body black swimsuit and just relaxing in the water in a content look on his face as he splashed around a bit.
...
"What?" Naruto asked as he kicked back and relaxed in the water, with Erza staring at him with her eyes dulled.
"I thought you would want to explore the island, clear the ruins... learn about your clan's history." Erza reminded him with a twitch to her eye.
"I have like 3 or 4 years to do all of that, and I am going to be sticking around here for awhile anyway." Naruto reminded her this time, and she nodded after a moment.
"I just want to go see the Fairy Shrine, the Mask Shrine, and see my old home." Kushina said, with both Naruto and Erza perking up.
"Fairy Shrine?" Erza asked with interest, as a member of Fairy Tail she had always wanted to see what a fairy looked like... or if they really existed.
"Your old home... hey, how important were you to the clan anyway?" Naruto asked with his interested peaked.
"Well, the Uzumaki family didn't have a clan head family. Our clan head takes the person with the highest sealing potential, teaches them secrets, and then they become clan head. Most clan heads weren't related by blood... so by importance I was only a little more important than the others. My chakra was special, even among our clan... and I would have more than likely been chosen for Clan Head should I have stayed long enough. I am related one of the clan heads, Ashina Uzumaki, by blood... he was 67 when the First Hokage came into office I think... and he died a few years after I was born." Kushina recalled with a furrowed brow. It wasn't THAT long ago by her memory, but if she was alive today then she would actually be around 37 years old... still rather young by her clan's standards actually.
"Did he teach you anything?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Just how to use some Uzumaki Sealing Jutsu and how to use my chakra to write Seals without ink, the Four Symbols Seal, and the Dead Demons Consuming Seal... I actually taught the Fourth Hokage everything he knew about Sealing and the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style he used to seal the Nine Tails into you... and the Dead Demons Consuming Seal he used to seal the other half into himself... when he COULD have just used... whoops." Kushina mentioned when Naruto's eyes widened.
"Wait... the Fourth Hokage didn't have to seal the Nine Tails into me?" Naruto asked with narrowed eyes, standing up and glaring at the water so that Kushina could see his reflection.
"... I offered to take it back into myself and die... but he insisted on you becoming the new Jinchuriki. But other than that... he didn't have much of a choice. The Dead Demon Consuming Seal is something only Non-Jinchuriki can use... and it wasn't strong enough to banish the entire Nine Tails. I'm ashamed, but the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style is based on my own Four Symbols Sealing Style... I am part of the reason why you are the Jinchuriki of the Nine Tails." Kushina told him with clear shame in her voice.
She hated that he had to grow up without her or a father.
"Why... where was my Dad in all of this? What was he doing!?" Naruto demanded of her, and for a brief moment he could feel her flinching inside of him.
"Naruto, calm down and think rationally... think about it for a second. What does the Fourth Hokage look like... his picture was in the Hokage office." Erza asked of Naruto calming him down. Naruto thought about it for a second, and remembered what the Fourth Hokage looked like, or at least what his face looked like.
"He looks a lot like me... he looks a lot like... I did? Mom... why did you teach the Fourth Hokage Sealing Jutsu?" Naruto asked with a softer tone, putting the pieces together.
"Why wouldn't I teach my future husband Sealing Jutsu... I was from a clan and he was not. He would have taken my name after we got married, and Uzumaki need to know the Uzumaki Sealing style... but you just figured out who your father was... didn't you?" Kushina answered him with with her tone wavering for a second.
"... I want to punch him in the stomach so bad... what kind of Father seals the Nine Tails in his own son?" Naruto asked with a furrowed brow, with Kushina chuckling.
"You'll get your chance... one day." She muttered, while Naruto gripped his fist tightly, all of the fun of playing in the water lost to him.
He was the son of the Fourth Hokage, and nobody ever thought to tell him?
What the fuck!?