The May morning breeze lifted the hems of everyone's clothes. The Third Hokage Tsubasa, Ten'i, stood under an old locust tree ten miles from the village, the gold patterns on his crimson Hokage robe swaying slightly with his movements. Behind him stood the Konoha High Command in order: to his left was Shikaboshi Nara, the white-haired, slightly curly-haired Anbu Uchiha Tomioki, the Konoha Military Police Force; Hyuga Tensei, the commander of the Kirin Corps.
To the right was Mito Uzumaki. Beside her stood her son Akira Senju, and her daughter Biwako Senju, as well as Tsunade, who was only five years old. Behind Tsubasa were more than a hundred people, all of whom were high-ranking officials of Konoha or clan leaders.
" Lord Hokage, the Anbu reports that the Uzumaki Clan's convoy has passed Yellow Wheat Hill." The Anbu Ninja knelt on one knee, his voice tense beneath his mask. Tsubasa raised his hand to indicate he understood, his gaze fixed on the dust rising in the distance—a luxurious convoy was slowly emerging from there, the red Uzumaki pattern on the banner at the forefront fluttering in the wind.
When the seventy-five-year-old Uzumaki Ashina stepped down from the carriage, leaning on the shaft, he resembled an ancient pine tree that had weathered a century of storms. His full head of red and silver hair was neatly combed into a bun and secured with a sandalwood hairpin engraved with runes from the Land of Whirlpools. His thin face was covered with wrinkles, but they could not conceal the piercing light in his amber eyes beneath his brow. The old man's indigo robe was clean and tidy, with exquisite sealing arrays embroidered on the cuffs. With each step he took, the seven copper bells hanging from his waist jingled softly, like the prelude to an ancient incantation.
" Ashina, we've been waiting for you for so long! You've finally arrived!" Tsubasa quickly greeted him with a smile, bending down to a ninety-degree angle. He noticed the old man's left leg was slightly lame—an old wound from when he defended the Land of Water ninjas at the border of the Land of Whirlpools. Ashina reached out to help him up, the calluses on his palm brushing against the back of Tsubasa's hand. "The wind in Konoha is gentler than in the Land of Whirlpools. You're Hokage now, you can't just bend down like that."
Tsubasa smiled and said, "You are my elder, so it is only right that I pay my respects to you. The people who have come to welcome you today are all high-ranking members of our Konoha and the chiefs of various clans..."
After exchanging pleasantries, the group walked and chatted through the ordinary streets of the outer village and entered the inner village. Tsubasa laughed and said, "The outer village is still quite simple. This is the inner village..." Before he could finish speaking, a child's exclamation came from behind them—several Uzumaki Clan boys were leaning on the carriage railing, looking at the towering barrier tower of Konoha in the distance, their eyes shining like stars.
"Mother! Look, those houses are glowing!" The little girl with her hair in two buns tugged at her mother's sleeve, pointing to the row of towering rune-inscribed houses at the village entrance in the distance. A pale golden barrier enveloped each tall building, and pale blue Cursed Seal flowed within the brickwork of the exterior walls, resembling a flowing galaxy in the sunlight. The woman holding the swaddled baby gently covered the child's mouth, but her fingertips couldn't help tracing the Uzumaki pattern on her sleeve—she remembered that in the Land of Whirlpools, her family of seven squeezed into a leaky mud-brick house, and every rainy season, her husband would climb onto the roof to repair the tiles. And the people that Uzumaki Ashina had brought this time were mostly poor members of the Uzumaki Clan.
"Line up, collect your keys according to the roster!" Administrative Department Tian Flying Swallow, stood before the registration desk, holding a parchment scroll. Behind him, Kagami Uchiha expressionlessly distributed bronze keys, his knuckles still damp with ink. When a freckled boy received a key, he suddenly screamed and jumped up, "The key can talk!" A chorus of exclamations rose and fell around him—the key was reciting the room's location and the incantation for the seal in a voice only its holder could sense. Ashina watched this scene, a slight smile playing on his lips, his wrinkles filled with warmth. After settling his clansmen, he smiled and reminisced with his daughter's family.
"Grandpa!" A clear voice pierced through the crowd. Wearing a light blue ruqun ( Biwako Senju broke free from her mother's hand and leaped into Ashina's arms like a little rabbit. The old man smiled and caught his granddaughter; a silver bell jingled on her head, startling a sparrow perched on his shoulder. " Biwako has grown up." He pinched the young girl's cheek, his gaze passing over her head to Mito Uzumaki, who was walking side-by-side with Akira Senju Saki.
Mito Uzumaki, in her forties, wore a dark blue shrine maiden's robe, her hair adorned with a mother-of-pearl hairpin her father had given her years ago. Beside her, Akira Senju stared intently at Ashina, his hand tightly gripping the old man's. "Father, this is Akira. You haven't seen him for over ten years, have you?" Mito said softly, her voice choked with the emotion of a long-awaited reunion. Ashina reached out and patted his grandson Akira Senju's head, feeling the powerful energy within. " Akira's Chakra is so pure. I heard you've been living alone in the capital of the Land of Fire all this time; you've suffered."
Looking at his maternal grandfather, whom he had met since childhood, Akira Senju felt a deep sense of closeness and said, "I have always heard of your illustrious reputation, and today I am finally fortunate enough to meet you. I will definitely ask you to give me your guidance in the future."
Uzumaki Ashina happily patted Akira Senju's head and said, "You just need to follow the Hokage's footsteps closely. That child has grown to a very reliable level." He looked up at Tsubasa, who was talking quietly with Konoha High Command officials, arranging work. Sunlight shone through the Konoha Uzumaki emblem on the brim of his Hokage hat, casting diamond-shaped spots of light on the ground. This was the friendship between Konoha and the Uzumaki.
As twilight seeped into Konoha, the first rune lamp lit up in the Uzumaki Clan's new homes. On one rooftop, several boys were making hand gestures towards the starry sky—they were imitating the barrier masters they had seen during the day setting up lighting runes. Ashina stood on his own terrace, watching the warm yellow light gradually illuminate the entire residential area, like Xingchen scattered across the earth. Footsteps sounded behind him, Mito Uzumaki approached with a teacup. "Father, you've had a long day. Get some rest."
The old man shook his head and took out a wooden board covered with runes from his sleeve. Moonlight fell on his trembling hands, and the complex sealing diagrams gradually rose to a faint glow. "Tomorrow I have a meeting with the Rune Sealing Department of Konoha. I need to reorganize some of the rune improvement plans from the Land of Whirlpools. I saw today that the rune level of your Konoha is very high! Now that I've taken over the Sealing Department, I have to give it my all. I can't embarrass myself in front of the Sealing Department tomorrow." Mito Uzumaki looked at her father's hunched back, knowing that it was useless to persuade him. She suddenly remembered when she was a child, she would curl up beside him like this, watching him carve sealing scrolls under the lamp. The laughter of children came from afar, and the aroma of food wafted from a window, mixed with the fragrance of flowers in the evening breeze, weaving a gentle net.
Ashina suddenly turned around, his amber eyes gleaming warmly in the night. " Mito, Konoha is doing very well. Listen—this is the sound of home." In the distance, a child began to play a bamboo flute, the off-key melody filled with longing for a new life. Further away, Tsubasa stood beneath the Hokage statue, gazing at the lights belonging to the Uzumaki Clan, and thought with emotion that with the Uzumaki Clan, skilled in Sealing Jutsu, joining the Konoha's Mirai rune technology was surely promising, perhaps truly shining forever like these rune lights.