"How do you know all this?" the locked-up Nine-Tails asked after calming down from his frenzy.
"Is it that important?" Seiryu asked with a smile, his Sharingan spinning.
The Nine-Tails looked at Seiryu's eyes, realizing the Uchiha could possess all kinds of strange powers. Maybe that's how he knew such secrets.
After a moment, the Nine-Tails spoke, "So, that brat just now is the one the old man talked about?"
"I've seen the two of you fighting side by side," Seiryu said sincerely.
The Nine-Tails, able to sense good and evil, stared at Seiryu. While his mind wasn't pure, his words were honest.
"Hmph, that brat? He's not worthy to fight alongside me," the Nine-Tails scoffed.
"Believe it or not, but let's make a deal," Seiryu suggested.
"A deal?" the Nine-Tails hesitated.
"Keep your chakra in check and don't interfere with Naruto's training. In return, Naruto will be Konoha's last Jinchuriki," Seiryu said.
"What do you mean?" the Nine-Tails asked.
"Simple. If you sincerely accompany Naruto through life, I'll grant you freedom in the future, and even set aside a place in the shinobi world for you and your eight siblings, where no one will disturb you again."
"You think I'll ever trust a human?" the Nine-Tails' eyes narrowed, but he still clenched his teeth.
"Believe me or not, but Naruto's my student now. If he can't learn ninjutsu because of you, I really will come beat you up."
"You think I'm scared?" the Nine-Tails roared, though he seemed a bit shaken.
Seiryu didn't reply. Instead, he summoned his full-body Susanoo within the seal space. Since evolving his eyes, Susanoo now had complete armor, glowing with natural energy runes, and a unique divine sword at his waist.
The Nine-Tails looked on warily, recalling the two people decades ago who could toy with him at will.
But after warning the Nine-Tails, Seiryu Uchiha dismissed Susanoo and said, "I hope you can get along with my student. I won't tell him your name for now. Whether you want to reveal it to him in the future is up to you."
With that, Seiryu turned and his figure faded from the seal space.
Inside, the Nine-Tails' eyes flickered.
Does this Uchiha know the significance of my name?
Back outside, Naruto slowly woke up.
Sasuke and Neji rushed over to see what had happened.
"I saw a fox—this big!" Naruto said, excitedly gesturing with his hands.
Sasuke and Neji exchanged confused looks. Despite their high status in their clans, neither was old enough to know about Jinchuriki, so Naruto's tale of a giant fox left them baffled.
"Alright," Seiryu Uchiha said, patting Naruto's head. "Now that you know about the guy inside you, try to get along with him."
"Okay!" Naruto nodded, then looked down at his stomach. "Who'd have thought there's such a huge fox inside me?"
"For now, you three come here after school to learn sealing jutsu," Seiryu said. "Sasuke and Neji, you may not need it for fighting, but it's still important to know the basics."
"Yes!" Sasuke and Neji replied together.
…
The next day, after officially taking Naruto as his student, Seiryu spread the news of the coming Hero Monument.
The ninja were thrilled. In the past, ninja lived in the shadows, but now Seiryu was telling them they could stand in the sunlight as heroes. The monument's location—right in front of the Hokage building—was especially significant.
For Konoha's ninja, this was a bombshell. As construction began, their unity and morale soared.
This was exactly what Seiryu wanted.
He knew that Konoha would face a one-against-four war in the future. While Konoha had won past shinobi wars, each was a pyrrhic victory. They couldn't capitalize on their wins, partly due to Hiruzen Sarutobi's weakness, but more because Konoha's logistics and ninja morale couldn't keep up in the later stages.
Investigating the Land of Fire, Seiryu found it had the best land and climate, enough to potentially unify the shinobi world. But under the leadership of incompetent nobles, the country's advantages were wasted.
Worse, despite having the upper hand on the battlefield, Konoha's ninja always lost the will for war first.
The root of the problem, Seiryu thought, was that the current ninja system only produced assassins, not true soldiers.
If he wanted to unify the shinobi world, reforming the system was essential. He couldn't win a war with mercenaries alone.
But such change wouldn't happen overnight. Most of the Second Hokage's policies had become deeply ingrained. The best way was to start small and shift people's mindsets over time.
The Hero Monument was Seiryu's first step.
With the monument's construction underway, the village flourished.
New factories were opening, raising employment. Migrants who had moved to the Land of Fire found work and better lives. The troublemakers, once dissatisfied with Seiryu, were now silent.
Now, anyone daring to badmouth Seiryu would be corrected by their own neighbors.
In the midst of all this progress, Seiryu found himself donning a pained expression.
Every night, teaching Naruto sealing jutsu, he was amazed by Naruto's lack of talent in this area.
He finally understood why parents in his previous life would collapse helping their kids with homework.
It was hard to imagine: the son of Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze—two sealing masters—struggled to learn even the basic duality seal.
After a simple math lesson on quadratic functions, Sasuke and Neji quickly grasped the basics and could use the sealing jutsu properly.
But Naruto? It took Seiryu two days just to get him to understand what a parabola was, and a full week for him to grasp the abstract rules of constructing a seal.
And this was after the Nine-Tails stopped interfering with Naruto's training.
The sole reason Naruto struggled was his utter lack of mathematical sense.
It seemed the future Uzumaki Leader would be as clueless about sealing as Seiryu was about genjutsu.
Watching Naruto's scroll tear apart from a mishandled formula, Seiryu sighed helplessly.
"Sorry, teacher. I'll try again," Naruto said, scratching his head with an awkward smile.
"Naruto, you'd better get along well with the big fox inside you," Seiryu said, rubbing his temples.
"Oh, right, teacher. Yesterday I think I entered that place with the big fox again," Naruto quickly changed the subject.
"Really?" Seiryu smiled. "How did it go?"
"That fox has a terrible personality," Naruto pouted. "I told him my name and asked his, but he just yelled at me and kicked me out."
"Don't feel bad," Seiryu laughed. "That fox doesn't share his name easily, but I believe you two will become friends."
"Yes! I'll work hard!" Naruto replied, renewed with spirit.
...
Two weeks later, the Hero Monument was completed.
It stood 35 meters high and 50 meters on each side. The top, carved by the same artisans who worked on the Hokage Rock, depicted major events since Konoha's founding. Some things—like Madara's battle with Hashirama at the Valley of the End—were omitted.
Every ninja who died for the village had their name carved on the monument.
At the unveiling, Seiryu held a grand ceremony. Besides himself and Hiruzen Sarutobi, even the young Daimyo Yoshihiro, recently obsessed with cricket fighting, was present.
The heads of all major clans stood in prominent places, including Naruto, who wore formal attire embroidered with the Uzumaki crest.
The villagers were astonished to see Naruto in such a position.
"Why is that demon fox brat there?" whispered a first-batch student of the Sannin Training Squad.
"Are you crazy?" his companion whispered, covering his mouth. "That's the police Leader's adopted son!"
"So what? Evil police and evil demon fox, all in cahoots—"
Before he could finish, several sharp looks silenced him.
Soon, the ceremony began, and the MC introduced everyone on stage.
When it was Naruto's turn, everyone was shocked by the announcement: "Uzumaki Naruto, Leader of the Uzumaki Clan."
Naruto stood up with a goofy grin and waved to the crowd.
"The Uzumaki clan? Does the village even have that?" Not just civilians, even some ninja began whispering.
After the unveiling, under Seiryu's direction, the previously hidden history of the Uzumaki clan began circulating in the village.
Only then did people realize the village once had a super clan as an ally, on par with the Senju and Uchiha. But due to certain events, the clan vanished, and Naruto was its only surviving heir.
From then on, the rumors about Naruto being the demon fox vanished. Under the police's watch, bullying a normal orphan and bullying a clan leader were two very different things—even if Naruto was the clan's only member.
A few days later, Seiryu, as the Fifth Hokage, issued a statement to all shinobi nations:
Konoha would protect all Uzumaki survivors. Any Uzumaki descendant could come to Konoha for protection. Any other force offering information on Uzumaki survivors would receive Konoha's friendship. If anyone dared harm an Uzumaki, Konoha would pursue the matter to the end.