The Uzumaki Clan had cornered the market so to speak on the best fuuinjutsu available. They were always coming up with more as well. And that was something that everyone wanted to keep an eye on. Every advantage available was more than welcome.
It was a wild world out there.
The conversation tapered off as Nagato had figured he'd overstepped his bounds even as village leader. Kushina was a married woman and was incredibly faithful even though not a single person had seen Namikaze Minato in Uzu no Kuni in ten years. It wasn't like he was welcome amongst their clan anyway. He was a vagrant ninja and everyone knew it. No clan, no pull in the world. The only thing about him was that he was apparently strong. Extremely strong.
Hell, the only reason most people in the village didn't think of him as a myth was because Naruto was physical proof of his bloodline. Namikaze Minato; the ninja so strong that his own physical traits managed to overpower the dominant physical traits of the Uzumaki Clan in his offspring.
It didn't need to be brought up to his wife to piss her off. Enough idiots had done that through the earlier years of their relationship and even after she'd had Naruto and Minato had been more or less subsequently blackballed from returning.
People had rather short memories as to how much of a scary badass someone could be when they were a new mother and hadn't been in the field for years just to raise her son and make sure he was properly cared for.
And Nagato loved her. But he could not have her. She was married with a son, and the son was a constant reminder of the man that took Kushina off the market before he was confident enough in himself as a ninja and a man to approach her as anything more than a friend. Even when he wasn't anywhere near them the cloud of Namikaze Minato hung over the village.
"I just know that if Naruto could meet Minato it would change his life, the way it changed mine. Ours." Kushina said, looking off at the sunset, "One day he will."
Every time the topic of Minato was brought up between Nagato and Kushina, hearing the way she spoke of him made his heart hurt. That was the way he wished that she would speak of him. In a better world, he would have been the one that she fell for. Naruto would be his son instead.
So many things would be different.
XxX
(With Naruto – Uzu no Kuni Countryside – Hidden Ravine)
Naruto couldn't tell the passing of time down in the dark ravine for two reasons. One, there was no way he could see the position of the sun because of the cave walls and the trees that concealed the top of the ravine. The second reason was because he was dead asleep in the paw of a walking natural disaster that was also asleep.
If he was awake, he'd be aware of the fact that the sun was going down, and he'd be freaking out because by the time he got home Kushina would be spitting fire at him she'd be so angry.
Fortunately he didn't have to worry about such things while sleeping, and he didn't seem like he'd be waking up anytime soon. Neither did Kurama.
Until one gigantic red eye snapped open upon the feeling of a disturbance in the air, just in time to catch sight of a swirling vortex appearing in the air at the back end of the ravine. From within it, a man appeared attired in a long, hooded cloak with an orange and black mask covering his face, "The Kyuubi no Yoko. The strongest of the nine biju."
Unlike with Naruto, Kurama sensed nothing but malice and ill intent from this man, and he stood up suddenly, prepared to kill the intruder. Who was this? He didn't feel anything at all one second and the next he was right on him.
Naruto fell off of Kurama's paw when he stood up and fell down onto the ground in a heap, "Wah! W-What? Why'd that happen? Kurama why'd you-?" He noticed that there was something wrong when he saw Kurama standing defensively, glaring and growling openly at something at the other end of the cave, "Who is that?"
"You've come to the wrong place human." Kurama said threateningly, his booming voice bouncing off of every wall with menace, "I'll give you one chance to leave the way you came."
"Or else what?" The masked man asked, sounding amused at Kurama's aggression.
"Or else I'll show you a little something I like to call 'fuck everything in that general direction'."
"You're aware that a Bijudama down here would cause an earthquake that would devastate this island aren't you?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. You're under the impression that I give a damn!" With that, Kurama lashed out with several of his positively massive tails, impaling into the walls and pulverizing rock formations sticking out of the ground while the strange man seemed fast enough to dodge them all, 'What? It would take more than speed to avoid all of my tails.' It was like he knew the direction they'd be coming from.
The masked man blurred through hand-seals and produced an offensive jutsu of his own to do battle with the monster before him, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)!" Somehow from behind his mask he produced a mammoth fireball half the size of Kurama's head, but the deadly target of his choice merely swiped it out of existence with a paw.
"Die for me now." Kurama demanded as utilized his paw with the same swipe that destroyed the fireball to smash into the masked man, dragging the clawed appendage through the ground hard and fast enough to cause a miniature earthquake that brought large portions of the ravine down around him.