Chapitre 8: CHAPTER 8 : Kushina Uzumaki...?

Naruto arrived at the academy gates, at half-past midnight. He could see the ninja moving on the rooftops all around the village. Just 2 or 3 ninjas. Not many could see them, it was only because of his chakra enhanced eyes and with nano's help he was able to see them. But they would never be able to see him. He almost perfected his art of staying hidden. His stealth was on a whole other level compared to his other abilities.

The gates were almost never guarded. The patrol or sentries mostly only watch over the training ground entry gate. He didn't know what their thoughts were. Maybe they thought no one would dare to enter through the main gates. Maybe or they may have been lazy.

He scaled the wall and entered the administrative building block. He could see two sentries in the main hallway through his map. The archives room was in the underground room. He used a window in the teachers' lounge to enter the building. And slowly made his way to the archives room. There were two ways to enter the archive room, one directly through the teachers' lounge and another through the main stairs.

Usually, the archives room was never guarded. The ninja guarding the floor always slacked off, as the academy building was at the core of the village just near to the Hokage building. So they always slept through their shift.

The records room contained papers related to the students present in the academy. And their records were moved to the archives room as soon as they graduate or move out of the academy.

Naruto entered the archives room and searched for the documents and papers he came for. He started with batch thirty years old to twenty years. He guessed if his parents were ninjas then they must have been from between these ten years. His purpose was to flip through the pages and nano record the contents. Even if the room was dark, which it was, Naruto was able to see clearly as it was daytime.

He returned to his room after one hour as it was only a test run for his break-in.

Naruto did this for the rest of the week. Going to the academy at midnight, flipping through the papers and returning home after an hour. It was on the fourth-day nano notified Nauto of the name, Kushina Uzumaki. Naruto's hands which were flipping the pages went still. Uzumaki, a shared name between the two. But still, he already considered the name was somehow related to him. Maybe his mother. He read further on the page.

[Uzumaki Kushina, female, clan member of Uzumaki clan sent to Konoha to attend Konohagakure academy on year 50….]

It was recorded as she was enrolled as a third-year that too in the middle of an academic year. No further details were recorded. No age. No parents' name. No guardian's name. Everything was left blank. Some parts were even shaded.

While he went through others' bio-data, the information recorded in it was at least 2 paragraphs. But this particular person's bio-data consisted of only two sentences.

'Nano, what is the possibility of this Uzumaki Kushina being my mother'

[Further data is required to make any conclusion]

Naruto went towards the rack that consisted of yearly academic reports. He was sure there would be something.

[We should leave now Naruto. Any further will exceed our time limit. And there is high probability of us getting caught]

'Are you kidding me? We just found something that is related to me. I need to know more'

[More the reason we should leave now. If we are caught now, we will have no chance to know more additional information. We always have time tomorrow]

This was what he disliked about Nano. After almost a year with nano, he came to know that nano works based on probability and profit. And it was always correct. Well mostly. Like the time during his visit to Nara compound nano gave him the option of declining Shikamaru's offer. But he went through and it was all good in the end. But the rest of the time, whatever option nano gave worked out in the end.

He returned to his home and didn't sleep for the whole night. Despite nano's urge, he couldn't sleep. He wanted the day to be over fast and for the night to come sooner. He wanted to know more about…..Uzumaki Kushina.

Moreover, what was that about the clan.

'Bring up Uzumaki Kushina's bio-data'

Nano brought up the page on the display.

There….. he saw the 'Uzumaki clan'. From outside of Konoha. Out there somewhere there are more Uzumaki people, that may be an aunt, uncle, maybe even his mother is present there. Maybe the Uzumaki are not as powerful like the clans of Konoha. That was why he never heard of them. Yes, maybe that was the reason. Maybe they too have never heard of him and so that was why nobody came to take him out of the village.

Before nano had come into his life, he several times prayed to the gods that someone would come and take him out of the village. Away from this miserable place. No one ever came. Maybe they never heard of him.

It was like the minutes ticked very slowly. Like it took days for the night to arrive. The closer to midnight, the longer the seconds it stretched for Naruto.

Even though he was anxious, he was very careful. He was very careful for the whole day without dropping his act. If some mistake happened, then all his efforts will be in vain. So he has to be very careful.

That night Naruto returned to the academy.

Naruto went straight to the row where year 50 records were kept. There were no academic reports of Uzumaki Kushina. He went through 51st year bio-data, Uzumaki Kushina was present, but no academic report. The same for the last academic year too. There were no reports on her academic performance.

Naruto checked over any other anomaly like Uzumaki Kushina. Lo and behold, Namikaze Minato's academic reports were also missing from the same batch. A part of his mind already conjured some possibilities of these two being his parents, as both their academic reports were missing.

Well, his guess was not wrong, they both were his parents, but the reason for the missing academic reports was not as Naruto believed it.

Kushina being Jinchuriki, her records were hidden from the outsiders for the most part. As for Minato's records not being there, as soon as he became a Hokage, they were removed from the archives. Not only Minato's, every member of ANBU, will have their reports hidden under more security.

His misunderstanding resulted in getting answers. And it was the right answers too. But he didn't know that now. Only later when nano compiled all the data from the academy archives and mission archives it presented the conclusion to Naruto.

All his wait for the whole day was useless, as he found no further information other than what he had found already.

After finding his parents' name, he wanted to know whether they are alive. Minato being dead was a piece of known information. He wanted to know whether his mother was still alive or not. And he guessed that the information may only be available in the Hokage tower or some other secure location. At present, he didn't know whether he has the capability to break in into the Hokage tower.

Plus he wanted more information regarding the Uzumaki clan. He may have to invest more time into the academy library.

'Nano next target is Hokage tower. We can take as much as the time we need. Prepare a plan and recon for this mission'

[Task Established

Mission : Infiltrate mission archives - Hokage tower]

After that day, Naruto still went to the academy archives daily to flip through all their records for nano to compile more data regarding the Leaf village and the ninjas. Even after the academy holidays were over he went through every record stored in the academy.

….…

September 21st, year 72 (Academy 3rd year)

"Now, we will begin the new jutsu. For this academic term, you would be learning about the Replacement technique (Kawarimi no jutsu). Have everyone read about the theory part" Iruka asked the class.

""Yes, sensei""

"Good. Did everyone memorize the hand signs?"

""Yes sensei""

Iruka had showed the new jutsu during the first day of their academic year. And further assignments were given to them so that they would familiarize themselves with the jutsu.

"Good, now I will perform the hand signs and the technique slowly for you to show how it is done" Then Iruka walked towards the window and placed the dustbin and he proceeded to walk towards the door.

"You must always determine the object before doing the technique. If you did the technique without determining the object then the chakra expelled becomes useless and that will result in a failure. KAWARIMI NO JUTSU"

Iruka disappeared from where he was standing and appeared near the window and in his place was the dust bin that he placed near the window.

"WOW"

"Sensei that was awesome"

"It was so cool…"

Well, it was mostly the civilian kids who were impressed by the display. They have never seen many techniques, which made this demonstration impressive.

"Everyone will demonstrate the hand signs now. WITHOUT applying Chakra. I will come to you and check one by one"

"But sensei you just showed the technique. How can we do it in the first class" one student asked.

"That is why I stressed WITHOUT applying the chakra. You are only doing the hand signs, it is not that difficult. Go on. Practice it. I will check one by one" Iruka answered.

Naruto for his part was unimpressed. He had shown this technique to Shikamaru and Choji, during their training session in the Nara compound. He had done this technique without much effort. He also did extensive research on this technique and found that many techniques could be derived using this as basic.

The drawback of this technique is, that it can be used to replace an object only within a range of 15 m. However much chakra you pour into the technique the maximum range to replace himself is 15 m.

The technique is based on the particular ninja's chakra moulding speed and reaction speed. If one's moulding speed, perception and reactionary speed is high, then they can perform the substitution even in a millisecond.

The chakra expelled pushes the ninja at a maximum speed beyond the perception of a normal human and substitutes with the desired object. Also substituting a living human with an active chakra system is difficult. Like very difficult almost impossible. But Naruto could do it. But both Shikamaru and Choji couldn't perform the replacement technique on him. The active chakra in the system in the human opposes the jutsu performers chakra from taking the replacing effect.

One must have a ridiculous amount of chakra to achieve that. Plus Naruto's chakra is very different from others, most probably due to the Kyuubi. Just like his solid transformation technique.

(AN: I am trying to justify the technique. So go ahead and skip it, if you don't want to read it.

In the canon Sasuke was able to perform replacement more like with teleportation with the help of rinnegan, so he can use a person with an active chakra system for replacement without much effort. Moreover, his replacement is instant activation and teleportation, while replacement jutsu is based upon distance, chakra moulding speed, chakra network of the target)

The replacement technique can be hampered or taken advantage of by an enemy ninja who has a fast reaction speed and high perception. Uchiha with their red eyes can keep track of the movement in slow motion. If they are fast enough and react in time, then they could take advantage of the replacement technique. The jutsu casters starting posture and resting posture remain the same while performing the jutsu, leaving them at disadvantage.

Nano had been trying to replicate the fast movement that is used during the replacement jutsu without replacing the object. Just the movements alone. It is basically Shunshin no Jutsu at short range. If nano had come across the Shunshin no jutsu it would have achieved that short-range movement technique sooner. But it hasn't seen the hand signs of that jutsu even once.

So Naruto was left with performing the replacement technique repeatedly and polish it little by little.

"Everyone performed the signs but not at the level I wanted. We will continue sign practice for two more days before performing the Jutsu. And Don't try to perform the jutsu at YOUR HOME" With that Iruka finished the class.

….…

Naruto not only listened to his class, he actively eavesdropped on other classes like his senior batch. While he didn't learn any new ninjutsu of any kind, he came to know that there were many other additional classes the students would be allowed to take from their fifth year.

Mainly trap making. An elective class offered in the fifth year. He also started reading books on that topic.

There were several other elective classes but Naruto didn't have much interest in them. For now. So his focus was only on Trap making. If he laboured a little bit more he would have known about Fuinjutsu, but it would be still another year before he knows about the Art of Seals.