Third Person POV_____

Soft tapping filled the room, Mizuko smiled softly as she went over the finances and the expenses for the week.

To make sure she didn't mess up she kept a calculator on the table and was mindlessly typing in the equations as she went.

A few feet away from her Hayami, Yukio, and Kaida laid on top of a soft pink blanket. They had fallen asleep while playing with their toys.

Hiashi and Fumiko were quietly playing shoji by the fireplace. Nanami and Tadashi were running through the secret passageways in the temple. Their loud footsteps rattled loudly through the quiet temple.

Mizuko was smiling and humming, it was midday and she had already finished most of the orders that were due in the evening.

"Umiiiii!" Tadashi squealed as he noticed the teen slipping off her geta shoes.

"Hello!"Umi giggled as she patted his cheek. "You come back from work?" He asked her and she nodded.

"Yup, Oh hey Nanami." Umi grinned as she saw Nanami.

"Umi-nee how was the market?" Nanami smiled as Umi was setting her purse down. "We sold out on most things. People loved Mizuko-sama's jam recipe. Thank kami we made enough to sell." She says as she hurried toward the kitchen.

"That's good, mom made all of those wooden jars and we made a lot of jam. Hopefully, we don't run out. Since it's hard to grow more right now." Nanami frowned slightly.

"Don't worry about it, even if we run out the seal shop makes more than enough to keep food on the table." Umi smiles gently and ruffles Nanami's hair. The small girl flushes and nods. "Okay." Nanami beamed as Umi hurried off.

"Welcome back Umi-chan." Mizuko smiled softly as she glanced up at Umi who was walking in the kitchen.

"Mizuko-sama the market was really full today. I guess it was because of how nice the weathers been. But I was able to sell a lot of the fruit jam we made. They say the seal keeps it extra fresh." Umi rambled the second she sat down.

The young girl was pulling notebooks, pencils, and a few scrolls out of her bag as she rambled about all of the gossip that went on in the market.

Mizuko simply smiled and listened. At times she would ask a question about the story or commented on something that was related to the story.

"Oh yeah, and the merchant from Suna is leaving again she says she won't be back until spring. She says you should go over for tea before she goes." Umi finished off.

"Mmm, I guess I should make some time for that. Maybe I could go in the afternoon, after dinner so that Karin and the boys can watch over everyone."Mizuko hummed as she stopped working and grabbed her notebook and opened it. She quickly jotted down what she had to do.

"Tell her that Thursday afternoon I'll have an opening. I'll visit her then." Mizuko says and Umi nods. "I'll tell her when I see her tomorrow." Umi adds.

"These are the scrolls with the remaining jam jars." Umi stated as she placed the scrolls on the table.

"Good, I guess we can go over everything. The more you do it the better you'll be at it." Mizuko says as she unfurled the scroll. She showed her how to do inventory and finance the fruit stand.
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"This makes running the whole thing easier. I know how much we sell and what sells the most. We never learned this kind of math in the public academy, where did you learn how to do all of this?" Umi asked as she stretched her tired limbs.

Mizuko frowned slightly as she scrunched up her nose. Where had she learned how to make charts and finance like this. She looked down at her hands, she never had to buy anything in kusa and she rarely went out.

"I don't remember, it's just been so long I guess. My parents did own a small store. I think they sold high-quality paper and vegetables? I can't quite remember, I was about seven when I left the iron country." She sighs as she realizes that she couldn't remember much.

"You think you might've picked it up while working in the store?" Umi hums and nods and Mizuko chuckles. "Probably, Although now that I think about it, I don't remember much about those days. If it wasn't for the pictures the Hokage gifted me with I don't think I'd remember my parents' faces. Well more like my father." She smiles slightly at the end.

"But that doesn't matter, Ichika Akimichi came over to buy and trade some food for new wooden flasks with seals. They're for the Akimichi Jonin and Chunin. It's 7,000 ryo and some supply of pork from their butcher stores. You'll be picking them up on your way home. You just get it under the Uzumaki tab and it will be covered. It's a two-week agreement. " Mizuko grinned happily as she told her the news.

"We are going to deep freeze some of it right? It will be hard to pork for two weeks straight." Umi stated and Mizuko nodded.

"We will smoke it and make some jerky out of some of it. Deep freeze some and cook the rest. Knowing the kids, they'll definitely splurge on the extra meat." Mizuko chuckled as she glanced over to the smaller kids, they were all quietly snoring away on the plush pink blanket.

"Yay! I'm sure whatever you make will taste good. You could really give an Akimichi a run for their money." Umi says and Mizuko blushes. "Ah it's nothing, Uzumaki style dishes are all just very good." She smiles as she scratches the back of her head.

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Mizuko handed a jonin a packet of seals. "Thank you for your purchase." she bowed. She turned to the next person in line. "Good afternoon Mizuko-san." Kabuto smiled meekly as he handed her his chunin card.

"Hello, Kabuto-san. Did you find what you needed?" She asked and he nodded. "Yes, I've been using most of the seals that I've purchased. I can't help but buy more." He says and Mizuko nods as she checks the card. "I see, well I am glad you find them useful. So what can I get for you?" She asks and he hums.

"Some of those barrier seals, 4239 was the order number if I am correct. They were very helpful on the escort missions I've had." He says and Mizuko nods. "How many would you like?" She asked and he hummed. "They're all about 50 ryo each. Hm, give me 15 of them." He says.

Mizuko nodded and quickly gots the seals out and counted them. She couldn't help but glance over at the young Genin. He was about 2-3 inches taller than her. From the small talk they had while he was in the seal shop she found out that they were almost the same age, he was born in February while her birthdate was in September.

She had also found out that he had been adopted by the head of the hospital, so he was also trying to become a medic. He was pretty handsome and polite, so of course, Mizuko didn't mind taking his order.

"These correct?" Mizuko shows him one of the seals and Kabuto nodded. "Yes, those are it." He says with a slight nod. Mizuko nodded and smiled as she placed the stack of seals on the table. "That's going to be 750 ryo." She says and he hands her the money.

"You know Mizuko-san, I was thinking... Would you like to go out on a da-" Kabuto never got to finish the sentence because of a loud yell.

"Mizuko-chan! It's been a while... I brought dango, cake, and tea! A bit of an apology for spilling all that tea all over you last time!" Anko's voice rang loudly.

Mizuko jumped and squeaked at Anko's sudden appearance. "Kami Anko-san, You scared me." Mizuko heaved as she placed a hand on her chest.

Anko grinned and leaned against the counter. "You're closing soon right? I'll stay here after closing so we can grub." Anko held up a large bag filled with deserts and the small sack that had the fresh tea leaves.

Mizuko blushed and nodded. "Sorry about that Kabuto-san, But thank you for your patronage." she quickly bowed to kabuto and turned back to Anko.

"Thank you." Kabuto slightly trailed off as he glanced over at the Tokobetsu Jonin and then back at the Mizuko who seemed to be friends with said Jonin.

He turned around and sneered slightly. 'Is she tempering with Lord Orochimaru cursed seal? She is a seal master and probably better than Jiraiya. I guess I'll have to inform Lord Orochimaru that Mizuko might tamper with the curse seal.' Kabuto thought as he hurried out of the temple.

As he descended down the steps of the temple he glanced down at the stack of seals he'd just purchased. 'Hopefully, we will be able to break the compression seal she places on them. Lord Orochimaru wants to see what he can learn from her Uzushio style.' Kabuto thought to himself as he left the Uzumaki estates ground.

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"Anko-san what other kinds of missions do you take?" Fumiko asked as she listened to Anko's mission stories.

"I've taken quite a few. Being a ninja means you get to meet people from all around the world. I've been to plenty of countries, even some islands to the east." Anko says with a grin, she could see all of their eyes light up in excitement.

"It's like when we stopped at all those towns when we were on our way here!" Nanami pointed out and Karin scrunched up her nose.

"That feels like forever ago, but if I am right we started traveling almost two years ago. Didn't we travel for like a few months?" Karin says and Mizuko hums.

"About 1 year and 10 months. I wasn't even pregnant with Kaida back then. Mmm, now that I think about it I had fun in some of the villages." Mizuko pointed out as she gently bowed at Umi as she thanked her for serving the tea.

"Ah, so you guys already started traveling. That's good, you'll be able to handle sudden climate changes when your traveling at a high pace. Most jonin can run across an entire country in a few hours."

"A-A-A few hours!? It took us months to cross half of one country!" Nanami piped up as she stopped stuffing cake from her mouth.

"Yup, One day you kids will be sprinting across the entire country without breaking a sweat." Anko stated boisterously and Fumiko seemed to be in deep thought.

"Anko-san, your legs are pretty strong and muscular. Are our legs going to look like that?" Fumiko asked and Anko looked taken back for a moment.

"Well, yeah. You have to be pretty strong if you want to be a ninja. So you'll be a bit more on the muscular side." She stammers out, slightly embarrassed by the question. Mostly because civilian beauty standards were usually centered on being skinny and lanky.

Fumiko was quiet for a second before bursting out with a squeal. "I'm going to be really strong. I'm even going to have super strong and fast legs and strong arms like mama!" Fumiko cheered and both older women cocked their heads slightly.

"What does that mean?" Naruto asked boredly.

"Anko-san has really strong legs, she can run an entire country in hours! It took us like four months! And I've seen mama, she has really strong arms." Fumiko grinned as she flexed her arms.

"Now that you mention it. Mama, you're pretty buff." Karin says as she turns to Mizuko.

Mizuko blushed and stammered. "Don't say it like that." She grumbled and Umi hummed.

"It's probably from when you work at the seal shop. Beating the bark of the mulberry trees and creating the paper takes a lot of strength. That and the Garden. So it's only fitting that you have strong arms."Umi stated as she sipped on her cup of tea.

"Don't worry about it Mizu-Chan! You are really pretty, and besides who would want to marry someone with noodle arms. " Anko teased and gently bumped her shoulder.

"Besides, from what I hear you are already considered one of Konoha's beauties. I hear that you have some admirers in the shinobi corps and even some civilians are charmed by your beauty." Anko adds while she grins and bites down on her Dango.

Mizuko sipped her tea while blushing a bright red. "I guess your right."

"Now wait a minute! They better stay away from my mama! She's too good for most of them!" Karin calls out and Naruto nods in agreement.

"Yeah...Mom you deserve only the best." Naruto says stubbornly and crosses his arms

Anko laughs loudly as Mizuko's face turns an even brighter shade of red.
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Mizuko made sure to get dressed. "How do I look?" She asked the kids as she walked out of the bedroom.

"Pretty!" Hayami squealed as she hurried in front of Mizuko and lifted her arms so that Mizuko would pick her up.

Mizuko smiled and picked up the small toddler and placed kisses on her chubby cheeks.

"Ne, yamyam, do you like mama's kimono!" Mizuko asked the small girl and Hayami giggled and nodded.

"It looks really pretty. Man I wish I was old enough to get a kimono." Karin huffed as she stood up and walked around Mizuko to take a better look at the elaborate design.

"That's a new Obi right?" She asked and Mizuko nodded.

"Kimonos are kind of expensive so I decided to just grab one of the Obi's that we found sealed away." Mizuko says with a small smile

The obi was a light yellow with a dark purple diamond pattern and yellow daisies, at the bottom it had the Uzumaki swirl and in embroidered on the bottom was the Uzushiogakure name. It was proudly displayed on her back and the rope that held the Obi also had the Senju clan symbol and the Uzumaki clan symbol.

Her hair was tied in a loose ponytail and she had put on some lipgloss and put on eyeliner.

"Well, I think you look great." Kenta stated as he eyed the obi and the kimono.

"You're going to that clan meeting right?" Naruto asked as he looked over at her.

"Yeah, I am." Mizuko nodded and set Hayami down. She then unsealed a small package and began to unwrap it.

"The only thing left for me to put on is this." She sighed and the kids started to crowd around her.

"What is it-" Nanami quickly shut up and stares down at the headband in Mizuko's hands.

"That's .... That's an Uzushiogakure headband." Fumiko stammered out as she stared at the shiny metal in shock.

Mizuko nodded and carefully placed the headband on. "Due to circumstances, I will be taking a nonactive shinobi position. But as an Uzushiogakure shinobi, So my allegiance is to the next Uzumaki clan head." She smiled softly and Naruto stiffened his eyes going down for a moment, his face scrunched up as he thought about it.

'That's me, I am the next clan head.' Naruto thought to himself. He was already worried about having to become clan head when he was older, but now Mizuko was a ninja loyal to him. It was odd. He had always wanted to be Hokage and to lead the Konoha but this was not something he had ever expected.

Mizuko quickly noticed Naruto's slight dilemma and she reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Although, it's still a few years off. Hokage-sama and I spoke, since I was trained by an Uzushiogakure Jonin it's only right for me to take a shinobi status under mothers banner." She says as she looks over at everyone.

She held her head high and nodded. "I will be gone for several hours, listen to Umi-chan since she is in charge and behave." She says sternly as she looks over at everyone.

The older kids nod mutely as they looked up at her. The smaller kids loudly talked over each other about how they would listen to Umi and point out how Mizuko looked pretty.

"Alright then, I'm off." Mizuko sighs as she ruffles Naruto's hair and places a kiss on everyone's forehead. It took her a few minutes but soon enough she was slipping on her geta shoes and heading out the door.

"I don't know why, but seeing the Uzumaki headband... made me really happy." Karin mumbles as she glances at Naruto with small tears prickling the corner of her eyes. Naruto was still staring at the doorway but he paused for a second a small smile on his face. " It makes me happy too." Naruto grumbles with a small smile on his face.

__________

Mizuko walked down the streets at a quick brisk pace. She couldn't help but go over all the information the Hokage had gone over with her. From the seating arrangement and how they voted on topics, to how she would present an idea in the council hall.

The ninja guarding the tower quickly identified her and let her into the meeting hall. There were other clan heads already present. She took notice of the Hyuga, She wasn't quite sure what his name was but she recognized his pearly white eyes.

The Inuzuka matriarch was easy to spot as well, the woman was loud and boisterous. She seemed to be speaking to a blond-haired man. She wasn't quite sure who the man was, he had long blond hair and light blue eyes.

Besides the blond man there was another man, he seemed uninterested in whatever the blond man and Inuzuka matriarch were saying. He had dark brown hair and three scars on the side of his face and a slight goatee.

She assumed the man sitting behind him was Akimichi Choza, she had made a few dealings with Choza's wife, she was a full-bodied woman with short black hair and brown eyes that were accentuated by orange in the outer corner. From what she knew she was a polite kind woman and had been part of the Akimichi clan and a retired Kunoichi.

There were other ninja chattering but she didn't recognize them and figured that they were from minor clans or clans that didn't have distinctive features.

She carefully walked in trying not to gather attention but some ninja were quick to notice her. She wasn't able to walk quietly like them and she didn't even realize some of the more sensitive ninja were able to sense her large chakra reserves. She had a taken the Uzumaki seat, which was right beside the Senju seat. (Although that seat was empty.)

She could feel lingering eyes on her, they were watching her from afar. Maybe it was because they had not seen her before or because of her headband. It had been many years since someone had worn the Uzushiogakure headband.

"You must be Mizuko Uzumaki, right? Names Choza Akimichi." The large man spoke up he had bright red hair and purple markings on his cheeks. He was quite large (6ft tall) and he seemed to have some healthy weight on him. (Mostly muscle).

"Ah, yes. I am Mizuko, I've heard quite a bit about you from your wife Maiko Akimichi." Mizuko nods and the man chuckles and nods.

"All good things I suppose? But it's a pleasure to finally meet you. Those water flasks you sold to us have been a massive boon. Our clansmen are quite fond of the sealing matrix." Choza grinned and Mizuko smiled softly.

"Ah yes, I worked on that project for a few weeks." Mizuko preened as she remembered Maiko Akimichi. They had gotten along quite well. "How is she? I haven't had time to stop by and visit her." Mizuko commented and Choza grinned.

"She's well, but as always she's always busy with clan matters." He stated before the Hokage made his presence known. The room instantly quieted down, Mizuko stood up along with the other clan heads as the Hokage walked past them and sat in the front of the room.

"Konoha's Clan meeting starts, I will begin with the roll call of the clan heads." A shinobi called out as everyone began to sit down once again.

Clan head's names were being called out and in alphabetical order. Mizuko listened quietly for the Uzumaki name to be called out. She tried to memorize the faces of the Clan heads present, although she noticed that there were some clans she never even heard about.

It took about 8 minutes for them to get to her name. She was one of the last ones to be called out.

From what she knew there was about 80 or so clans in Konoha. Most of their ninja came from civilian families from the land of fire. The population in Konoha was around 400,000 people, out of that 60% of that population was civilian. Civilian born ninjas made most of the ninja population 120,000 out of 225,000, Clan ninja accounted for 105,000 of the ninja population and from what she could see there were about 80 clans. Some of the larger clans had a bit over 3,000 clan members while the rest varied in numbers. The smaller clans still had about a minimum of 100 members.

Of course there were still smaller ninja families and clans that had gone near extinct. The Uzumaki clan being one of them.

The last to be called out were the Yamanaka clan.

The meeting took hours, Mizuko tried to pay attention to everything being said. From the border patrol reports, intel of the other villages and the inner workings of the village.

It was quite impressive, how the ninja organized themselves in the village. Clans were like small city-states that listened to the Hokage. The ninja population being handled by the shinobi was also outstanding.

But soon enough the discussion shifted to seals. Hiashi Hyūga quickly spoke up when the matter of seals came up.

Quick discussion quickly took place from then on out. Clan heads spoke up about seals that they believed should be provided universally to all of their ninja. Like how the explosive tags were common gear.

"To be honest, at this point I think it would be wise to consult Konoha's sealing specialist." Hiruzen motioned towards Mizuko.

The entire time she had been silent and listening. But suddenly all eyes were on her. She could feel her cheeks flush.

She gave a firm nod. "I am the clan head of the Uzumaki clan until our heir is of age. You can refer all of your concerns over the seals to me." She calmly spoke. She internally counted the seconds that went by as they seemed to last forever.

"I do have some questions, I noticed the system set up for the purchase of seals. But I have one concern. What if there was a traitor what kind of precaution do you have in place so that the seals aren't used against the village?" Hiashi Hyūga spoke up and Mizuko pursed her lips.

"That's actually quite easy. All of the seals purchased are connected by the card the shinobi uses to buy the seal. If there was a traitor and the seals need to be disabled there is a function to that card. It's called Voiding, by disabling the card and marking it as Void. All seals connected with the card become completely useless. Of course, normal shinobi are not told of this function. So let's say they set up explosives in konoha and try to make an escape. Hokage-sama would order for the card to be made void and when the traitor was to try and activate them the seals will completely fail." Mizuko stated calmly.

"Jiraiya-sama was the one to assist me in making this function." She finished off .

There was some low mumbling in the room, she noticed some clan heads nodding in approval.

"Is there anyway to make a more mass production of the seals?" Shikaku asked suddenly and the room quieted down a bit.

"At the moment there isn't. I handle most of the production of seals. I do start off from raw materials and make my own high quality paper to ensure that there is no tampering with the process. I currently took in one vassal at the moment to help handle some of the workload. But I am considering hiring some more hands to expand the seal production." Mizuko points out.

"If I were to employe another person, it would not be for seal making. I would prefer to take an apprentice for paper making, being that paper making is a long and tedious task." She added.

"Are you willing to take an apprentices who want to learn sealing?" The Yuhi clan head asked and Mizuko shook her head.

"Uzumaki seals are a closed clan practice. I believe it would be best that only Uzumaki born learn the art. Although as mentioned to Hokage-sama, I would be willing to provide apprenticeships for normal sealing styles and or general seal education for the right price." She stated calmly.

A few more mumbles were heard across the room. So this is what Jiraiya had meant. It was obvious that many clan heads wanted to send at least one clan member to study as a seal apprentice.

It was a lost art and yet here they had a seal master in their village, it was a rare opportunity for them.

Normal ninja clans knew very little about seals. Not only because most of their jutsu and techniques were passed down from their ancestors, but because it was so hard to master and most ninja didn't live long enough to learn it.

Back in the warring era the life expectancy of a shinobi was early thirties and with luck their early forties. Most of them were to busy mastering gen, nin, and Taijutsu in order to survive that they never settled down and leaned Fuinjutsu.

But what they did learn about fuinjutsu was the most basic of things, exploding tags and sealing scrolls.

Meanwhile the Uzumaki life expectancy at that time was 100 years for the ninja and for civilians they could go up to 175 years.

The whirlpools made by their ancestor Kiyo Uzumaki, and had protected the village from most invasions.

From what Mizuko had read, Kiyo Uzumaki's real name had been Kiyo Senju.

Apparently she had been closely related to the Senju clan head a few centuries back. From the biography left behind, she had been born a stillborn but somehow came to life after an hour or so.

She recovered from that and her chakra grew in leaps and bounds. Her chakra reserves were so large that when she practiced calligraphy the letters actually became reality, that is where the art of sealing began.

She was also very beautiful, she had crimson red hair and violet colored eyes with a beige colored skin.

The Senju clan had been looking to unite their clan with the Hagoromo clan. The Hagoromo agreed because the clan Heir fallen deeply in love with the Kiyo, and in order to take advantage of that the Senju clan head agreed to wed them.

Being the free spirit she was, Kiyo declared that she wouldn't marry the Hagoromo clan heir  and ran away from the mainland.

She snuck out on a boat and traveled to the island and hid there.

The Hagoromo waited for the promised bride for their clan heir but the Senju turned up empty handed. The Hagoromo clan took offense and they decided to cut all of their alliances and trade deals with the Senju clan and joined sides with the Uchiha clan.

Infuriated by the repercussions the Senju clan head sent out shinobi to kill her and to kill everyone that had aided her escape and gave her asylum.

Kiyo was said to have used a forbidden technique and created massive whirlpools to protect the small island.

After months of trying to get to her and not being able to the Senju clan finally gave up.

The islanders were grateful for her constant protection against invaders that that made her the leader of the Village.

She then on changed her last name to Uzumaki and began teaching everyone on the island the art of sealing and the shinobi techniques she knew.

As the years went on she established the Uzumaki clan and their religion.

From excerpts of Kiyo's own diary the Uzumaki religion was explained.

The shinigami had liked Kiyo's chakra so much that he revived her and gifted her with an abundant amount of chakra as an infant.

At times when her sealing hadn't been enough to protect the village from the Senju or any other shinobi clan that was trying to get their hands on their fuinjutsu or trying to wipe them out before they became to strong. Kiyo had summoned the shinigami and used the god of death himself to kill any invaders.

Kiyo also started a long traditional practice amongst the Uzumaki. She had been able to genetically enhance herself through seals.

The practice was called hereditary seals. Seals that genetically modified someone, they were mostly used to create kekkei genkai.

Making a seal that could become a kekkei genkai was the ultimate goal for all seal masters and a few of them succeeded.

Many different abilities and kekkei genkai were created because of this and after the invasion most of the kekkei genkai's had gone extinct.

All except the Adamantine chains, healing via biting, and Kiyo's tremendous reserves of chakra and vitality .

That's why the Uzumaki had been feared. A clan that worshipped the shinigami, were seal masters, and they seemed immortal, because compared to others who only lived to 30-40 they did were. Imagine three generation of shinobi watching the same leadership in a clan. The fear that must've instilled in those around them.

They were also a lively crazy bunch, and compared to the other clans at the time they stood out.

The Uzumaki clan was not as old as the Hyūga, Uchiha, or even the Senju clan, but they had some the best documented history and their fuinjutsu was valued enough that the main family gained the title of nobility.

Mizuko was aware of her families history, her mother had been diligent enough to teach her even while they had been imprisoned in Kusa.

There was a bit more low whispers at the mention that she might take a few apprenticeship.

"Are you thinking about taking apprenticeship soon?" The Yamanaka clan head spoke up and Mizuko glanced at him.

"I would like to expand my seal shop a bit more before taking any apprenticeships. I also have to prioritize my own children's fuinjutsu training." She pointed out.

The Hokage nodded firmly. "For now the village will be ordering the recommended seals." He said and Inoichi nodded firmly and signaled for his subordinate to come in.

A young ninja appeared in front of the clan heads and Hokage.

Mizuko quietly watched and listened the ninja showed the results of the testing that had been done.

The armor enhancing seals were limiting the damage and on field injuries.

'Amazing. They were actually conducting experiments like this! I thought that just testing it out with Jiraiya had been enough. But they are continuing to observe the results of the seals  during live combat.' Mizuko was listening excitedly.

Seal masters were engineers, their thought process was always outside of the box and coming up with new ways to use the art of calligraphy and symbols.

It didn't take long for them to start going over other topics, but in some of the discussions Mizuko was left confused. She stayed neutral in most of the discussions and reserved her votes for a later date.

In other words the Uzumaki clan was staying Neutral to most things. She figured that it was better than just randomly picking a side on political issues.

Mizuko made sure to take notes on certain issues, and she was also skimming over on most topics that they were discussing, they had received packs of paper with more in-depth information about the reports.

By the time it was over four hours had passed. Mizuko was tired and bored by the end of it.

It took her another thirty minutes to leave the council hall because she stopped and talked to a few clan head who wanted to introduce themselves to her.

By the time she got home she was mentally exhausted.

"So how did it go?" Naruto asked her as soon as she walked through the door.

She smiled gently and let out a long sigh. "Tiring that's for sure. Met a lot of people as well." She stated as she ruffled his hair.

"Mizuko-sama, you're back already." Umi asked as she noticed Mizuko taking off her geta shoes.

Mizuko paused for a second and glanced over at Umi.

'I don't feel like cooking, and everyone must be hungry.' Mizuko thought to herself.

"Why don't we go out to eat. It's still early and I'm starving." She stated and both of their faces lit up.

"I'll go get the kids!" Umi smiled and hurried off to get everyone else.

"Worried?" Mizuko asks as she glanced over at Naruto and he gave her a nervous smile.

"It's still years before you have to worry about these kinds of thing." She says pulling him into a hug and kissing his cheeks.

"Mom!" Naruto groaned as he let her baby him. Mizuko laughed and patted his head. "Any restaurant recommendations?" She asks and his smile widened.

"Well, there's this great ramen place called ichuraku ramen." Naruto grinned excitedly and Mizuko chuckled.

" Then lets help Umi get everyone ready to go out."
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Hello guys! The story will definitely speed up now.

Any comments? Please leave reviews they make me write faster.

Rosymalik/rosyhatake