The Tale of Suiren Uzumaki : A Pacifist by Heart, Reaper by Logic : Chapter 1

Commissioned by @aroniac on Patreon.

Disclaimer - Yada Yada, I don’t own anything substantial of value and the ones mentioned below are not my property, but of their respective owners. Now, let’s move on.

Uzu

Suiren Uzumaki

“Once more, Sui-nii. Once more,” he smiled as he indulged in the childish requests of the kids around him, as, slowly so as to not scare the little ones, dozens of glowing chains burst out of his back and after wrapping themselves securely around all the dozen or so children around him, lifted them all in the air.

The giggles and the hysterical laughs as they were rotated mid air, at high speeds with varying altitudes was like the best music to his ears. To him, this was the use of Ninja Arts that seemed far too important compared to the usual filth of Ninja Arts that specialises in killing.

Even then, he knew, in the back of his mind, that he had done the same thing to dozens if not more of Enemy Ninjas, by hijacking their Chakras and slashing their hearts for a quick, silent assassination technique.

Shaking his head, he banished those thoughts and focused on the here and now, entertaining the kids, the future of Uzu, hoping, against all odds that these little gems of such blinding bright innocence did not have to go through what he did, did not have to see what happened in the real world out there.

Did not have to suffer atrocities and were not forced to commit atrocities in the name of their hometown, doing things that would eat them bit by bit every day, until one day, they woke up and did not recognise themselves in the mirror.

“Suiren-sama!” He snapped out of his thoughts and turned back, to see one of the Uzukage guards, Shiro-san, call out to him. His enhanced senses meant he could hear the man perfectly clearly despite the distance between them. “The Uzukage-sama has called for you. It’s urgent.”

He nodded at the man and in addition to that, he pulsed his chakra in a specific pattern, which was code for a message received as he began gently lowering the children, much to their dismay as he had to now deal with a babble of slightly upset children who were so easily distracted by the promise of sugary treats they heartily ignored him and ran towards their parents.

His chains dissipated as he stopped supplying them his chakra as he turned around and disappeared. Turning high speed movement techniques into cloaked travel was not hard once he cracked the Seals for combined light, sound as well as air shockwave cloaking, allowing him to move unimpeded through most shinobi camps, save for the ones that had a Sage among them, which was very rare.

Within seconds, he crossed an invisible threshold, entering the real administrative zone of Uzu, where the current Uzukage, his guards, his family, and all the noble family heads lived. He did not like it, the way that space was distributed on the island of Uzu. Sure, they had never really lacked for space or food or water, no, of that there was plenty to go around. 

Still, humans and shinobi especially had some sort of inborn instinct to live separately from the common rabble, something that he never understood, leading to shinobi only compounds, which led to this compound, which had an invisible boundary, where the real power of Uzu lived.

Technically, anyone could come and go in this place, as they pleased, but humans, even the ones without any active chakra, just knew when something was wrong, when someone who had killed more humans than they could count, was keeping an eye on them, which is why you would never find any civilian with untrained chakra entering the inner administrative sector.

Past the inner administrative sector, was the inner sector, where you would mostly find civilians and shinobis, living in mixed spaces, with most active shinobi and Fuinjutsu researchers living in this place, though those maniacs had long since moved their labs underground, and if he knew anything about those people, they lived in their labs.

This was the place where the shinobi’s families, untrained chakra or otherwise, lived. This was also the palace where the largest market of the island was placed and as a result, was the place that was the most lively.

Then came the area after the inner area, aptly named the outer area, where most of the area was just empty land or forests, with storage, archive, and other less priority stuff. The schools were also in that place, civilian and shinobi alike.

For the ones who did not know about Uzu’s true defenses would often say that it was a stupid idea, to put the children, the future of any Great Village, to the outskirts of the island where they would be less protected but they were acting on incomplete information.

The village of Uzu, was secure everywhere. The Great Barrier, powered by the clan shinobis, the Uzukage, the Great Elders, and more was something that kept everyone safe and not to mention the contingent of Elite Uzu Shinobis who kept a constant watch on the outer areas, to make sure that nothing happened to the children.

They were rare enough as is. The War had done no favours to overall birth rates but the number of children being born in Uzu was declining year by year, despite incentives provided to any baby born, to civilian parents, or to shinobi parents, hoping to reverse the trend.

It was a very worrying thing to witness and that was the number one concern of his that he raised in every single Jonin Meeting because that was the most important thing, according to him. The rest, the resource issue, the land issue, the trade deals, all of it depend on people being alive to do that.

If the next generation itself was shrinking year by year, there was no point in doing anything else because there would be no one left to defend their island, their crown jewel, a place that almost all Great Villages would love to have.

It was almost a perfect place to settle. In hindsight, Arashi-sama was really a very smart Uzumaki, to have commandeered this island and forced the rest of the Nomad Uzumaki into making this their home, allowing their populations to increase safely, and also created a land that is very easy to defend and a nightmare to attack, further bolstered by their seal advances.

It would not be wrong to say that their enemies would have to sacrifice multiple Kage level enemies if they wanted Uzu and that was a heavy price to pay, for any village out there. The one Great Village that definitely had the numbers to overwhelm Uzu with S-class shinobi was their oldest ally.

Konoha.

He was snapped out of his thoughts as he felt the Uzukage’s chakra pulse, in a specific pattern as he straightened and waited to be invited.

“Elite Jounin, Suiren Uzumaki.” His name was announced as he entered the room and took his seat. The meeting in total had about 50 people, from the Grand Elder Council, the Jounins, the Elite Jounins, the Uzukage’s personal guards, and more. All in all, 90% of Uzu’s true power was concentrated in this very room.

The doors closed a second after, as a shimmering blue veil surged over every corner of the room, effectively sealing the room from the inside. They had an even better seal for this that put the room itself in a subspace that was alternate to their home dimension, allowing for the greatest isolation which no technique known could pierce through.

Alas, it was deemed unnecessary and too chakra extensive to be standard use and was sitting, collecting dust in the Elder Council Libraries. To be fair, it was very chakra intensive but for someone like him, it was not that high of a price to bear.

“Now, let’s get to the point. We don’t have time for the usual song and dance.” The Uzukage began as he straightened and listened intently. After all, it was not everyday that he was called in for a meeting with all these distinguished people.

____xx____

The meeting done, all of them got up to leave, and as was tradition, the Elite Jounins were to leave first to check for any threats, which was purely ceremonial because the Grand Elders were more than strong enough to beat the Elite Jounins in the ground. As the strongest Elite Jounin in the village, he was the first to get up and head to the door when the Uzukage’s firm voice spoke up from behind him, “Suiren, you stay.”

He blinked in confusion as he bowed and stood to the side, watching as everyone else left, leaving just him and the Uzukage in the room.

“So, what do you think?” His shoulders relaxed imperceptibly as the Uzukage, his grandfather, Takeshi Uzumaki, spoke to him not in the tone usually reserved for official matters but for the very rare moments when he had the time for his family. 

His grandfather, was a very busy man so growing up, he had the image of this hardened man in his mind but once he became a Jounin and could finally understand the intricacies of the Shinobi World and Uzu’s unique place in that whirlpool, he realised why his grandfather, the sole living direct relative of his, could not spare much time for him.

Little him was very resentful of that, but over time, he realised that it was all misplaced and the man did everything he could to make sure that he had a very happy but balanced childhood.

A chain shot out of his back as he walked towards his grandfather as one of the seats for the Grand Elders was yanked out of its place and placed behind him, conveniently at the same time as he began falling back, creating a seamless transition. His chains continued as they brought in a table and tea from the nearby refreshments table.

His grandfather watched all of it with a hawkish gaze, even as he walked down from the Uzukage’s chair, which was situated high above every other chair. Once the tea was placed on the table, his chains shot out and placed another chair right in front of him, with practiced precision as it was placed right as his grandfather stopped at the edge of his table.

“I see that you have gotten much better with your Adamantine chains. Last I heard, you could not perform these precise movements with them, especially not with a single chain.”

He nodded as he began pouring tea for both of them, “Yes, sir. I have gotten much better with them, focusing on a single chain for now, and over time, I hope to achieve the same level of precision for all the 3 dozen that I can bring to bear.”

“Most shinobis would have been content in refining them to the point of using them as sharp weapons. Why all this extra effort for seemingly negligible benefits?” The question was pointed in a certain direction, something of a sore spot for both of them as he internally sighed and debated answering the question with the truth or some white lie.

“You know why,” he settled on prolonging the inevitable as he sipped on his tea, which was not great. Hmm, maybe this tea was just for show so they didn’t bother using any good tea for this specific one.

“Humor an old man.”

Sighing, he put the cup down, “So that I have something to look forward to that isn’t just me molding my gifts into better ways of killing people. So that I don’t slack off on my training because I know that I need to be the strongest I can be, to safeguard Uzu but at the same time, becoming strong for the sake of killing sickens me.”

He spoke calmly, even as his emotions raged within, demanding to be let out but he held them in. His grandfather was the Uzukage and despite his love for the man, they did not spend much time together. The most they had spoken before this, in a non official capacity was when he defeated an entire Kumo Jounin squad and sent them packing, without a single casualty, resulting in both a dressing down for not killing them when he had the chance and also giving him a promotion to Elite Jounin for summarily defeating them.

The sound of the teacup benign placed on the table gave off a sound that felt infinitely louder than it had any right to be. “Suiren, I know what you want but you must also realise that it is not realistic. I have had to assure multiple high ranking members of the council that you will not be a liability on the battlefield, that you will fight for Uzu and all her people.”

“And I will. Without question, if need be, I will lay down my life this instant. But that does not make me a mindless weapon. I have a mind of my own and thoughts of my own that I will speak publicly, public opinion be damned. I will not let my mind be muzzled because some old man on some council found my views contrary to his own.”

“...You know I did not mean it like that.”

Sighing, he stood up and replied, “I don’t think we can go anywhere with this. You are right in your way and so am I. So, if there is nothing else, Uzukage-sama, I will be taking your leave.”

There was a heavy sigh in the room before the overbearing presence of the Uzukage returned, bringing with it an air of professionalism that demanded absolute obedience. Not from him though as he remained standing, not acknowledging the change in the air, something that his grandfather probably recognised.

Not many could stand up to Takeshi Uzumaki without flinching as the man’s chakra, cold and filled with malice would disturb anyone, save for individuals standing at the same level. Something that his grandfather no doubt recognised as his eyes widened minutely before returning to the same level.

“You have been keeping stuff from me, haven’t you?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about, Uzukage-sama.”

“Very well, I have a mission suitable for someone of your thoughts. We have a delegation coming in from Konoha next week. It is an exchange of sorts, where shinobis of both villages will be visiting both villages. Something that Sarutobi proposed and I agreed to, in exchange for certain conditions. I want you to lead the Uzumaki delegation.”

“Very well.”

“Dismissed.”

He turned around and left, chains coming out of his back to place the chair and the table back to their original location before leaving, as the Uzukage’s chair was left in the same place.

As he exited the inner administrative sector, he looked up at the clear sky and sighed.

He was so, so stupid. The whole point of hiding his strength was to avoid more and more bloodshed. 

The island of Uzu was not like Konoha, blessed with plentiful S-class shinobis, more than the next two combined. No, Uzu had 2, maybe three Kage class shinobi and all of them had one foot in their respective graves.

Which is why Uzu, as of right now, did not participate in any wars. They lived off the coast of the Land of Fire, with whom they performed the majority of their trade. Food, clothing, and stuff they could not fish and make on their own were mainly imported from the Land of Fire.

In exchange, they sold their prowess in Fuinjutsu to the Land of Fire on a priority basis. They sold stuff to others as well but they had a deal with the Fire Daimyo, through which they offered their goods to the Fire Lord first and if they could not match the price, then the goods could be sold on the open market.

It worked well for them, as it allowed them to cater to a single customer but get the bargaining rights of a much larger market, with virtually no hassle when it came to payments or transportation as most of the accounts were settled with barter trade when they needed food or medicine.

It was also why Uzu as a village was rising, and its rise was not going unnoticed, putting them in a difficult spot. If the village had any more S-class shinobi or had someone young enough who was powerful enough to lead the village into battle?

Well, then, they would go from a major trading partner capable of defending themselves if need arose to a competitor right on their shore.

It was all very complicated and the whole reason why he never revealed his full strength, as he always stuck to levels that were comparable to Elite Jounins from other villages, and never stepped foot into the Kage territory and to be honest, he was not a Kage tier shinobi, not yet anyway.

Being called a Kage tier shinobi would require not just the chakra or the jutsus or the will to kill, but to have experience, the one thing that he lacked, being just 19 as of this year.

Alas, having his core views challenged by the one person whose approval he craved was enough for him to show off or lash out, resulting in the current predicament.

He was to go to Konoha, and there were any number of people in Konoha who could easily gauge his strength, not to mention Mito-sama, the strongest sensor alive.

He could decline but there was no reason to, anyway. Even if he did not reveal his strength and commit that blunder, this was going to be the more likely outcome anyway because he was the up and coming Elite Jounin, capable of slaughtering dozens of Jounins before he reached of age.

Yes, he was capable but as much as he could, he kept himself away from wholesale slaughtering. He was famous for that as well, both in good and bad ways.

Sighing once more, he moved to the edge of Uzu, effortlessly passing through the Great Barrier as it parted for him, looking down at the flowing water, hiding numerous traps within, nasty surprises that were laid down by his ancestors that were never triggered.

Lying on his back, he floated on top of the turbulent water, enjoying the slight chill it brought, something of a training exercise he did back in the day but now?

Now it was just a way of relaxing without doing any training that would just end in more dead bodies.