Sasuke was reading his grandfather's journal while patrolling the bridge.

He was nearing the end of the journal itself, and he still wondered why his grandfather called Amaterasu's Light an Intelligent device and a Unison device. According to Naruko and Kakashi, the two were almost completely different.

Sasuke turned the page, and noted the blood on it. It appeared to have been coughed on it while still being written, as some of the ink was on top of the blood itself.

Madara has managed to seal half of Amaterasu, leaving only the barest hint of her true self. Fortunately I had hidden the uchiwa fan in the family shrine, which even he would hesitate to defile. As a result her power is cut by more than half. Though the user can still unison with just the fan, her true power will be withheld until she is released.

Unfortunately I don't know where Madara has hidden Amaterasu. His increasingly erratic behavior makes it impossible to guess where he has taken her.

Sasuke, if you find Amaterasu and unseal her, you will inherit all the spells of our family that I have recorded. I'm afraid jutsu are not my area of expertise.

At the moment, Amaterasu's Light has been downgraded to a simple Intelligent Device. Though she may not look it, she is more powerful than you can imagine. As I'm sure you've already seen, the uchiwa fan becomes a sword that can absorb flames and lightning to become a powerful weapon. This is because most of our family has an...affinity...towards swords for the most part. Amaterasu only takes the form of the fan because that is her standby mode. It is from this form that we take our Uchiha crest.

There was a larger than normal blob of blood there.

Sasuke, no matter what anyone says, never forget. Family is what we make of it. Even if our clan is cursed, I want you to try and rely on your teammates, particularly if they are of Uzumaki blood. Those of Uzumaki blood have never strayed.

Love, Taiyo Uchiha, patriarch of the Uchiha clan and Magus.

Sasuke closed the book carefully. It had taken him several days to finish the book. Now that he had his own Device, he carefully thought about his future.

He could remain a shinobi and go after Itachi or Madara. Frankly that idea didn't really appeal to him since learning how Madara had pretty much weakened the clan out of spite. He could join the TSAB, but that didn't appeal to him either. His best bet would be to just try and make each day count and to follow Naruko, as she seemed to have a good grasp on the world in general.

In this world full of darkness, she was like the Sun itself. It was easy to follow her leadership, even if she didn't realize that she was the true leader of their group.

For now, he would follow her lead and see where it got him.

"I didn't know it was possible to seal the power of a Unison Device away," said Naruko.

In front of her was a communications screen that connected to the single ship in orbit. There was a building in Konoha for budding mages, but the ship was on standby because people still feared Reinforce would go nuts.

Not that she ever had, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Apparently is it, but it takes quite a lot of power to separate the two functions and a place where the seal won't break," said Sasuke.

"Hmm...think this Madara stuck close to home or did he leave the country for a while?" asked Naruko.

"From what this journal said and the mission reports of the time, Madara didn't have much leeway between missions to seal anything, and something like that would have taken time," said Sasuke.

He had looked up Madara as a class assignment once. If his parents had been alive they might have been proud of him for a change.

"That leaves us a one hundred mile radius around the village where he could have stashed the main core of the Unison device. When the TSAB finds out about this, he's going to be in for a world of hurt. Harming a Unison device or a Familiar is a crime punishable by jail time," said Naruko.

In the meantime, Naruko and Sasuke trained using the few tricks Naruko had developed. Sasuke's power and speed increased at a steady rate while Vita guarded Tazuna.

Three days into training, Vita sent a loud cry for assistance as Zabuza had appeared on the bridge with his mysterious apprentice. Kakashi had his hands full with the jounin, and Vita couldn't handle such a fast opponent as Graf Eisen was simply too bulky for her to use. Zafira was with Tazuna.

Sasuke and Naruko jumped from their beds and reached for their devices.

"Amaterasu's Light!"

"Reinforce!"

"SET UP!" shouted the two.

Over the past few days working out how to use their magic, the two had created a camaraderie that wouldn't have been present had they stuck to pure shinobi teachings. Having someone fumble around learning the same thing had done wonders for Sasuke's attitude problem. Reading that journal had also helped to change Sasuke's goal in life, as he had lost the stick that seemed firmly lodged in his arse thanks to his father's teachings.

They took out the thugs sent to abduct Tazuna's family, giving them enough time to find a place to hide.

Naruko cast a quick teleport spell Signum taught her to the bridge.

"Sasuke, you help Zafira, I'll take the apprentice!" shouted Naruko.

"Deal!" said Sasuke.

Anyone who could keep Vita on her toes was so out of his league it wasn't funny, and he had more common sense than to try and help Kakashi.

Naruko was the speed demon of their group.

Naruko did as she had been instructed by Signum. The leader of the Belkan Knights was pleased with their current master.

Naruko would never use them and throw them aside as so many had over the millenia. She treated them like valued comrades, like they were a part of her precious family.

All she asked of them was that they train her so that she could fight alongside them in a battle, rather than be the helpless princess to be protected.

After all those sparring sessions with Fate, who was even faster than Naruko because she was used to using magic and not chakra, Naruko was barely able to follow the apprentice jumping from mirror to mirror.

Reaching into her jutsu library, Naruko downloaded the hand signs from Reinforce into her mind and then performed the jutsu.

The difference between jutsu and spells being cast was that while she just had to repeat the words in order to use the spell, she had to download the signs and 'feel' of the chakra being used in order to use the jutsu stored. That was why the space taken up by jutsu was minimal compared to spells.

Jutsu required the user to actually have a working chakra core and knowledge of how to use hand signs. Spells just needed a large understanding of math and the power to use it. The amount of math required more 'memory' than the hand signs ever did.

It was part of the reason why it had taken so long to get as much as Signum had. Jutsu only took up a few pages at a time. While spells took up two to three pages at least for the smaller ones.

Naruko carefully aimed her jutsu as she called out quietly "Fire Style: Fire Dragon Bullet!"

Signum thought it was beyond idiotic to shout the name of the jutsu used, as it told the world which one you were going to do next.

She had beaten that annoying habit out of Naruko the first chance she had, not wanting her Master to be killed for such a stupid habit.

There was no reason why you had to announce the jutsu you were going to use unless it was to warn your allies.

The apprentice was clearly startled at such a chakra-intensive jutsu used on the mirrors, which shattered upon impact. Sasuke had to dodge the rest of the blast as Zafira put up a good sized shield.

"DAMMIT BLONDIE, WATCH THAT AIM!" shouted Sasuke.

"Bite me Pyro!" shouted Naruko back.

"What are you?" asked the kid.

"A shinobi who was lucky enough to be given the chance to become a mage. My barrier jacket will repel your senbon, and with Vita out of the mirrors, Zabuza is in a lot of trouble," said Naruko flatly.

Indeed, Haku could clearly hear Zabuza cursing loudly as Vita kept trying to send him flying via her hammer, which had enlarged to ridiculous proportions. Kakashi wasn't impressed because he had already seen Graf Eisen at full size before.

For a tiny girl, Vita could hit harder than most grown men, baring shinobi.

There was a reason why Naruko treated the girl like her sister.

"I wish that we had met under different circumstances... Maybe we could have been friends," said the hunter quietly, before she slipped into the mirrors and changed tactics. From senbon to ice daggers, Naruko was having a tough time.

"SON OF A BITCH! HOW THE HELL CAN YOU LIFT THAT THING?!" yelled Zabuza. This was the fifth time that tiny runt had nearly turned him to paste with that massive hammer! If she wasn't a girl he would have been sure she was overcompensating for something!

Vita just cackled as she slammed the hammer at him, only barely avoiding damage to the bridge at the last second. She didn't want to stay in Wave any longer than she had to.

Kakashi was merely her back-up, as he had enough time to activate his device.

He was about to be roadkill when his grip on the chakra mist dropped. Avoiding the girl's hammer was more intensive than he would have guessed originally.

He was about to counter when he heard the distinct sound of clapping from the unfinished end of the bridge.

Standing there with an army of bandits and thugs was Gato.

"I should have known you were worthless," sneered Gato.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" snarled Zabuza enraged.

"I find it cheaper to kill the missing nin than to pay them. And the bounty more than makes up for the cost of paying for my little thugs," sneered Gato.

"So just to be clear, you intend to betray your shinobi and hand his head in for the bounty," said Naruko, out of the mirrors.

The smirk on Gato's face spoke volumes.

"Right. Zabuza, would you be adverse to joining Konoha in exchange for our help in taking out the thugs while you kill Gato?" asked Naruko.

"Girlie, you let me kill Gato and you can hang out with Haku for all I care," said Zabuza with a snarl.

"Zafira, Sasuke, keep an eye on Haku and the bridge builder. We don't need to fail this mission because some thug got a lucky shot in. Kakashi, make sure Zabuza gets to Gato and survives. Vita, let's have some fun!" said Naruko.

"Finally! Graf Eisen!"

(Schwalbefliegen.)

"Blutiger Dulch...Pierce through, Bloody Dagger!" said Naruko with glee. This was the first time she was allowed to go all out with Reinforce.

(Bloody Dagger.)

Blood red daggers appeared and aimed themselves at the thugs who were now looking decidedly nervous about fighting shinobi.

Vita slammed Graf Eisen into the silver balls she had in her fingers, and they began to slam into the thugs. The screams of pain was loud in the quiet waters.

Kakashi had Chidori out and had made a lightning barrier with his magic. Zabuza wisely avoided touching the edges as the wannabe samurai and thugs who did were fried instantly. By the time they got to Gato, Kakashi had killed fifty men with his cage and Zabuza was very eager to see if he could get a similar toy to play with.

Haku looked at Zafira.

"You are a very unusual colored ninken. Any reason for that?"

"I'm a familiar, not a shinobi animal or summon. I'm sure Naruko would be happy to share how to create a familiar if you ask."

Haku thought back to her pet rabbit which she had to retrieve after Zabuza had used it in a switch technique to avoid Naruko's kunai.

"I just wish I could find the rest of Amaterasu's Light so it wouldn't feel so awkward," grumbled Sasuke.

Because half of his device had been sealed by force, using spells was very difficult and the power output was minimal at best. That was the only reason Sasuke didn't argue with Naruko about protecting the bridge builder.

Well, that and because he had no idea about what spells were loaded onto the device just yet. Most of them were sealed along with the main power in the fan when Madara sealed the 'soul' away.

By the time the sun set, Zabuza had decapitated the tyrant, Haku had made a new friend, and Naruko finally got some real battle experience in, even if she had only wounded the enemy.

"We are so looking for the main body when we get home," growled Sasuke.

"Well duh. Do you really think I would let a unison device remain like that if I had a choice? Reinforce would never let me hear the end of it if I didn't help!" said Naruko scoffing.

"Naruko-nee, Vita-nee, I'll miss you!" sobbed Inari. The two Uzumaki had smacked some sense into him after they learned the fate of his stepdad.

Naruko hugged him tightly, letting the kid get it out. To be honest the brat had grown on her (Vita not so much) and she would miss him too.

"You do know that you can send me letters right? I left my address with your kaa-san so I want to hear all about how you and your family are doing!" said Naruko.

It was still a thrill to have an address for people to write to, and a family that was waiting for her. It was something she had sworn to never take for granted.

As the team left (with Zabuza and Haku following shortly after) Tsunami turned to her father.

"What are you going to name the bridge father?"

"Considering the one who lead them in the defeat of Gato...I was thinking the Great Uzumaki Bridge!"

Naruko had used her magic and shadow clones to help repairs in the village, so people loved her. Vita's use of Graf Eisen to keep the thugs from trying to attack Wave while they were busy repairing had endeared her to the populace as well.

It was a rare breed of bandit who was willing to attack a young girl able to lift a hammer bigger than most houses with ease.

Hearing the cheer from the others, the Great Uzumaki Bridge was christened.