“Uzushiogakure …” Naruto spoke as a misty breeze hit his face, making him feel as if he was stuck in Kirigakure’s signature technique that conjured up a huge amount of mist, allowing one to hide in it. The hidden village of Uzushio was placed in an extremely unique location. Not only was it surrounded by a thick veil of mist that would put Kirigakure to shame and make it difficult for anyone to reach it directly, but it was also surrounded by a huge lake on all sides, making it an island within the island of the Land of Whirlpools.

The blonde Uzumaki, still keeping up his Sage Mode even after having broken all possible time records that he had in the past, closed his eyes to examine the natural energy in his surroundings. ‘Water-heavy energy…’ He felt and mobilized all of that natural energy that was surrounding him. A deep whisper escaped his lips as he extended both his palms forward, “Push.” He didn’t mobilize the slightest bit of his chakra but a massive force escaped his palm, splitting the entire veil of mist apart as the way to the island was freed completely, allowing him to merely walk on the water to approach the hidden village.

‘All I’m missing is an almighty before that and I can have my own version of Shinra Tensei. Wonder if Nagato’s six paths abilities worked on the external mobilization of natural energy or something even beyond that. Maybe some of them, but the Human Path stuff involving souls shouldn’t have been done through the mobilization of external natural energy. What if Sasuke learned to activate Sage Mode? Nah, he has too little chakra, he would instantly get overwhelmed by the weight of natural energy. However, Sarada is a different story. She’s still developing her chakra and if that Sharingan mutation thing can somehow increase her chakra capacity, she should be able to use Sage Mode.’

“Fuck,” He cursed as he realized that the mist that he’d cleared moments ago had already gathered in front of him once again as he was lost in his thoughts.

‘The original will chew my ears out about being too lost in my thoughts. I don’t want to be the lost-in-thoughts clone … That dickhead.’

Preparing the natural energy in his surroundings once again, Naruto’s clone whispered, “Shinra Tensei,” There was no difference. The effects were the same as last time as he pushed both palms forward and separated the mist to form a valley that he could pass through.

He quickly started running on the water to cross the lake before the mist gathered itself once again.

‘I hope this is it. I’m tired of running around. I’m going to spend at least a week in this Uzumaki ruin exploring and enjoying myself. They’ve got to have some natural geysers here, I’ll take a nice dip in those hot springs.’

Despite his thoughts, the clone pushed himself to travel at peak efficiency, covering multiple kilometers of distance in mere minutes as he landed on the beach of Uzushiogakure.

‘Now let’s see what the deal with this place is.’

The first thing that entered Naruto’s vision beyond the beach was … trees, unsurprisingly. After fifty years of non-maintenance, a flora-rich village like Uzushio was bound to have all sorts of trees sprouting up to cover the land. Not only the hidden village, but the entirety of the Land of Whirlpools had the optimal climate for all sorts of tropical trees to grow safely and very quickly. The only reason that one of the five hidden villages hadn’t already taken over the ruined country was that none of them were willing to spend the kind of resources necessary to establish themselves in the country.

Unlike the past residents of the country, the other countries and hidden villages all had no idea about the entry and exit routes around the country’s natural protection. And it wasn’t due to a lack of trying. Ever since the Uzumaki clan was killed off, all of the previously known paths into the country had disappeared completely, rendering the entire Land of Whirlpools uninhabitable due to being completely inaccessible via sea routes.

‘I should see if I can swim down to the bottom of the sea. Maybe some of the scouting ships have some interesting valuables that have survived being under the ocean for so long.’

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Naruto looked around the village, noticing that the buildings here were much more sturdy than the small cities that he’d passed on his way here. Unlike those ones, which were almost all infested with plants growing through them, the buildings in Uzu merely seemed old and unmaintained. The materials that were used, or even the architecture of the buildings made them sturdy enough that let alone trees growing out of the structures, the buildings didn’t even seem like they were about to fall apart. Naruto was intimately familiar with the architecture of Konoha, and even after all of the pushing from the civilian council and making better and stronger buildings, they were estimated to have a life cycle of at most fifty to a hundred years if maintained well.

‘Uzushio was really too far beyond its time … These guys had wooden houses that have lasted for over half a century and the only real damage that I can see is the damage that the invaders caused. They seem to have tried their best to completely uproot the foundation of the village, but were still unable to do too much.’

Naruto started looking around for any noteworthy building before eventually entering the main section of the village.

‘Ahh, here’s the area that was most affected by the battles.’

He seemed to have made his way to the center of the village. There was a small lake in the middle, separating the somewhat undamaged part of the village and the absolutely decimated part of the village. Broken-down buildings and rubble still filled the streets as small vines and saplings seemed to have taken root in the aftermath of the destruction.

‘If I’m going to find anything then it’s going to be here.’

Naruto quickly jumped down from his vantage point and stood atop a broken building. He couldn’t see any distinct signs that would allow him to identify the building, so he used Senjutsu to cast an earth-type jutsu that would sweep everything under him to the side, leaving the actual ground. The rubble in front of him floated up and moved to another area, allowing Naruto to see the insides of that building.

‘This was probably the academy … I’m not going to find anything noteworthy here. The library was already ransacked. I’m looking for something that’s more along the lines of a secret code for someone with Uzumaki blood. Ugh, this would be much easier if the original would let me pull some of Kurama’s chakra. I could’ve just blown everything away and looked for everything then.’

Those were merely the clone’s errant thoughts. He had no plans to act upon them. Blowing everything away would destroy any leads that might still be here. His next task was much simpler. He created a large number of shadow clones. Almost a hundred. They all shared a look before spreading through the entire village, knowing what needed to be done.

Just like that, a few hours passed as the sun passed over Naruto’s head and was close to the horizon. Despite a hundred clones, all having activated Sage Mode — almost creating a small vacuum in the area above Uzushiogakure that needed to be filled by the surrounding natural energy — the search had proved fruitless until now. And that wasn’t counting the clones that had made even more clones to support them. The village of Uzushiogakure had almost a thousand shadow clones of Naruto scouring each and every inch of the land and not a single one of them could find anything that would fulfill the demands of the original.

“If the original would tell us what gave him the idea that he would find something here, things would be so much easier.” One of the clones was on break with two others along with the main clone that Naruto sent here. They were sitting on a ledge close to the lake that was in the middle of Uzushiogakure.

“I don’t like how he’s keeping things from us,” Another clone said, “we’re supposed to be extensions of his will. Does he think we will betray him or something?”

“Guys if you aren’t going to help with the search then stop whining,” The original clone spoke. “We all know that the original most likely has his reasons for doing what he’s doing.”

“Yeah, but aren’t you curious about that Uzumaki mark that he’s obsessed with,” Another clone spoke, “I can’t see what benefits that could bring to young Sarada.”

“I’m going for a swim,” Another clone spoke before getting rid of his clothes and jumping into the lake.

“Look for something in the lake if you will. Maybe you’ll have some luck, unlike us,” One of the clones joked as they all started laughing.

“Fuck, you’re all geniuses,” The original clone shouted loud enough to drown out the laughter, making the ten or so clones who were hanging out here all look at him. “Everyone, storm this fucking lake. We need to scour the bed without disturbing the water too much. Maybe we’ll have more luck in here,” He screamed loudly, enhancing his voice with his chakra to make all of the clones who were scouring the village hear him.

Quickly, almost a hundred clones approached the lake and jumped in. The rest all stayed up on the ground, continuing their search of the village.