One Thing In Naruto That We Don't Talk About

Naruto is one of the most intricately crafted universes in the anime scene to date, with social, political, and economic world-building. With so much of this world to explore, there are things that are left behind by the fandom or by Kishimoto himself. One of these things being the very clan that Naruto, the main boy, hailed from.

The Uzumaki clan.

What first stood out to me about this clan was Kushina's arrival to Konoha. The sole reason she came was to become the next jinchuriki, and though it makes sense because of the Uzumaki's long life force and their ties to the Senju clan, it just doesn't sit well with me.

Because (and this is just headcanon) what if, by chance, Kushina were to say she didn't want to? Would they have found another candidate? What reason did they have to make Kushina specifically a jinchuriki? Her close relation with Mito? (Surely Mito knew other people in her home village other than Kushina). Her special chakra? (do they mean special as in special to HER or special as in uzumaki clan stuff)

It also makes me wonder how the uzumaki clan thinks. Because if they saw having a beast sealed inside a little kid as an honorary sacrifice, then I will say that it's the same blind Will Of Fire that they're following, and that what they're doing to kids is grooming.

If they saw Kushina as an unlucky sacrifice, then that's a different story. I wonder how they feel about Konoha picking up one of their own then? Do they hold resentment towards the nine tails, Mito or Konoha? Or are they passive about the entire thing? ( acceptance would sound like sociocultural normalization of taking in kids for sealing, which I highly doubt, because Mito was the first person to have the jinchuriki sealed in her so they won't be as used to it yet).

It was called it a burden that Kushina must bear, and that's very disturbing. What they mean by "must"? Kushina is a child (about 10-12), and not mentally capable of making these sorts of decisions. When Mito sealed the beast in her she was a full-fledged adult, and now they're passing this burden to a child,like it means nothing. This is a child that is not from their village, might I add.

(Yes, Naruto was a kid too but those circumstances are entirely different. Not great either, but Different.)

The Senju are said to have a good relationship with the Uzumaki, and I speculate they used that "bond" to their advantage, and took advantage of the Uzumaki clan's willingness to help. However, maybe the Uzumaki clan was also getting something in return, like goods for sale or protection. So basically they maybe gave up Kushina for that purpose, and agreed to the Uzumaki Jinchuriki slave...I mean, sacrifice contract.

Moving on from Kushina, it just so happens that, after Mito's death and Kushina's sealing, Uzushiogakure (the village where the Uzumaki clan stayed) was destroyed?

Now Konoha, the so-called allies of Uzushiogakure are now nowhere to be found during this destruction–did not carry out any research about this destruction nor was it ever discussed. And it's pretty damn obvious there are a bunch of Uzumaki running around the whole shinobi world, but Konoha doesn't seem to have a care in the world about them.

Now here's another headcanon: Konoha's relationship with Uzushiogakure was either fake and for the sake of politics alone, or it was real at some point, but completely fizzled out when the Senju clan died out.

In my headcanon theory, the Uzumaki actually disliked Konoha after Mito died due to a strain in the relationship because Hashirama can't mediate his way out of it and there are less and less Senju. So maybe they retracted their Uzumaki slave–I mean jinchuriki contract.

And now on that note we move on to the shady destruction of the village.

According to Narutopedia the "world's nations" banded together to destroy the village because they believed the village was too powerful, which makes absolute sense because shinobi fear kekkei genkai as seen with the Uchiha, but why so vague? What nations did the destroying?

And on to the question many die-hard naruto fans have, WHY was the village destroyed, and WHO did it?

A possible causes of the destruction could be that Uzushiogakure and Konoha got into a dispute, perhaps due to the canceling of the Uzumaki sla–jinchuriki contact (remember naruto was not born by this time). Danzou and his minions saw them as a threat, so he got lesser nations to band together and nuke them with his help.

This theory makes sense, but after a bit more thought, I'm very sure the goal was not massacre, but espionage and scattering the Uzumaki clan, because there are way too many Uzumaki still roaming around after years passed by.

If you're trying to disperse a group of people or drive them out of their home country then the goal is so they'll no longer be a collective unit. If they're no longer together, it is much easier to attack and exploit them.

Which brings me to this theoretical conclusion; they wanted to exploit all Uzumaki.

By "they", I can mean Konoha, other great villages, or lesser villages, or maybe two or three allied villages. The Uzumaki are seen to have unique healing powers, sealing powers, chakra, and sensory abilities, in other words, they are usable. Perhaps the goal wasn't due to fear of the village, but because other villages wanted to take some Uzumaki for themselves, as Konoha had done with Kushina. Evidence from Karin's Tsukyomi revealing her past, where her mother was bitten to death, and Karin kept getting attacked or kidnapped because of her healing ability and "bright red hair".

So in conclusion, the Uzumaki clan and the destruction of their village was one of the most suspicious things to happen in Naruto. Whether Kishimoto forgot about it, or just didn't bother to delve further because he didn't find it necessary, does not stop us fans from wondering what happened to one of the most powerful clans in the Naruto world.