The Tale of Suiren Uzumaki : A Pacifist by Heart, Reaper by Logic : Chapter 2

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

He smiled and watched as the Konoha delegation arrived at the shore. The Uzukage, his grandfather, had taken some very interesting steps this time. Their flagship ship, used only to ferry the Uzukage and the Grand Elder Council members to and fro from the shore, was being used this time to welcome the delegation members into Uzu.

His eyes widened as he recognized the people coming as part of the delegation.

He could see why the Uzukage pulled out all the stops today. After all, it was not every day that the Senju Princess along with the White Fang came to visit Uzu, let alone any other country.

Well, both of them visiting any other country would certainly trigger some old fo0lks who would no doubt try to attack them, inevitably failing in the process because he could feel the White Fang’s chakra and he was not a man to be trifled with.

Firmly S-tier, maybe on the same level as the Grand Council Chairman, but not on the level of the Uzukage, which was good because sending in someone as strong as the Uzukage would have been considered a declaration of war.

His eyesight caught on to the other members of the delegation but they were not anyone famous so he would have disregarded their presence, if not for the fact that he had their clan's Kekkei Genkai, allowing him to sense their emotions, as well as their chakra and chakra natures.

They felt…dead, if he could describe the feeling he was getting from them. There was a variety of chakra natures within them, with fire being the predominant one, which was obvious considering they came from the Land of Fire, but it was not their chakra natures that made them stand out.

It was their emotions. He couldn’t feel much from them, the emotional response within them felt muter than anyone he had ever met in his life. Hell, even people with severe brain diseases that made them lose sense of all emotion for most of the time had more emotion than these guys. 

It was not natural, and he felt alarmed as to why Konoha felt the need to send someone who was obviously suppressing all of their emotions to the point they themselves were not feeling anything. It was a very brutal technique and he did not feel good about it, not at all.

It felt like that squad was here specifically to test if Konoha could get past the more advanced versions of Mind’s eye of Kagura and the mere thought of them doing something like this evoked disturbing thoughts within him.

As the premier user of the Mind’s Eye of Kagura within Uzu, he was probably the only one who could feel the dead emotions behind their acting, but the same could not be said about Mito-sama. 

He had to think that Mito-sama had some involvement, at the very least, in selecting the delegation coming to her home, though considering the amount of time she spent in Konoha, it would not be wrong to say that Konoha was more her home now than Uzu was.

Still, it would not be wrong for him to assume that Mito-sama had close contact with these individuals, and if she knew about their odd emotions, why did she allow them to be sent here?

Because he knew that no matter how much the propaganda continued to insinuate that the Third Hokage was the strongest shinobi in Konoha, as long as Mito-sama was alive, that title would remain with her, up until the point she died, because as history was witness, Uzumakis, especially the ones with one foot in their graves, were more dangerous than anyone could predict.

After all, it was not like any other clan in history had managed to make contact with the Death Gods and even bind one of the lower tier ones in a mask of all things. That was supposed to be a secret but his advancement in Fuinjutsu and subsequent promotion to Fuinjutsu Grandmaster meant that he was privy to such information automatically.

The delegation itself only comprised about 10 people, with Sakumo Hatake, the White Fang probably heading the whole thing because of his seniority but their whole entourage was over 40 people because they did not come empty handed. Gift giving was a common practice, especially between Konoha and Uzu as both sides could engage freely in the form of gift giving without being worried about being stabbed in the back.

Though, he was starting to have some other thoughts about their whole relationship, and depending on his investigation into the 4 people with the White Fang with dead emotions, he might just have to change his views on Konoha and its alliance with Uzu.

After a while, once everything was handled with their land team, which involved the delegation sending back multiple carriages that were just used to carry stuff up to the shore, they stepped forward and he used the opportunity to jump from the ship and land gently on the ground, the subtle use of Wind Chakra manipulation to slow down his fall allowing him to land gracefully, right in front of the one of the biggest legends of the time.

Sakumo Hatake. The White Fang.

Garbed in signature combat clothing along with his infamous White Saber hanging behind him. Man, the chakra ore in that thing was way too high grade for it not to be a blade from the Land of Iron.

He wished he had a blade with chakra ore that good. Alas, too good chakra ore could also be a problem if one wished to add Fuinjutsu to the mix, and his sword was filled to the brim with his personal brand of Fuinjutsu.

“Thank you for receiving us, Uzumaki-san.” The man bowed politely at him.

“Please,” He mirrored the action, “The honor is all mine. It’s not every day that one gets to meet the White Fang without having to face you in combat, which I’ve heard is a horrible position to be in.”

“Oh, please,” The man pleasantly smiled and waved him off, “It’s nothing compared to your infamy. I wouldn’t want to get caught up in your chains. I’ve heard the end result is not good.”

He smiled politely at the man before gesturing at the ship behind him as chains shot out of his back, making the emotionless squad tense up, even as Sakumo and the Senju princess remained calm, just watching as his chains wrapped themselves around most of the stuff that was offloaded from the carriages.

Sakumo Hatake, having a watchful eye, noticed the Fuinjutsu on the carriages as he commented, “I assume something to keep the cargo weightless?”

“You have a good eye. And yes, even I won’t be able to carry all that weight without some cheating. Please,” he then greeted, once again, at the staircase that would take them to the ship as his chains began depositing the cargo into a hole that appeared into the hull, where someone would take the stuff placed on carts and unload it back on Uzu, where it would undergo rudimentary checks before it can proceed with the delegation.

This being stuff from Konoha and especially since it was a gift, they could not subject it to the same intense scrutiny that they did to everything else that ever made its way inside the island because it would seem inappropriate but they could do some checking for their own peace of mind.

Once all the stuff was placed, he jumped directly from the ground, landing on the deck as the Konoha delegation was being shown around the ship.

“How do you navigate through the chakra traps and the whirlpools?” He turned to the side to see the Senju Princess, leaning on the railing, looking at the mass of water before them, as the ship lurched a bit before moving on to their route.

“Well,” He cheekily winked at her, “Now that would be a closely guarded secret, so I can’t tell you that. What I can tell you is that the chakra traps have never been activated, ever, and the only reason we have not run into them is because our ancestors were pretty smart.”

“So, they left you a map.

“Of sorts.”

“It really is dangerous to sail around here,” Hatake-san said as the three most powerful members of the boat gathered together.

“It is,” He commented, letting the breeze flow over his face, “But it is also home, so we never think of it like that.”

Hatake-san nodded but didn't reply as all three of them spent the next hour or so, standing in silence. Despite that, he didn’t let his guard down, keeping a close eye on the people who were guided to their rooms. Technically, all three of them also had their own accommodations, even for such a short journey but for some reason, both Hatake-san and Senju-san stayed with him.

Nothing suspicious happened with emotionally dead people, though it was a very short period of time so he couldn’t be sure about that.

As the shore of Uzu became visible and the ship slowed down, he commented, “The Uzukage is very sorry he couldn’t come to greet you at the shore but he has sent the Grand Council Chairman in his place.”

“We are honored.”  Was all he received in response so he shrugged and went down to one of the lower levels to check in on stuff.

The chakra signatures remained the same above him so he made sure to use his close range to check in on the cargo but just like before, he received no active chakra feedback so no Fuinjutsu, no chakra trap, nothing of that sort.

He perked up a bit as the chakra of the Great Barrier washed over the ship and also him, as all the chakra traps on the shore were deactivated because of an authorised ship coming near, otherwise the ship would have been torn to shreds because of all the traps by now.

Some of the more creative traps involved things that would result in stuff being flash vaporised, leaving behind no ashes.

Jumping out of one of the windows, he used his chains to latch himself to the hull as he pushed himself up, right in front of the amused and interested gazes of the Senju Princess, Tsunade-sama, and Hatake-san.

“So they are useful outside of battle as well.”

“Very.” He replied as they watched the ship dock itself to one of the docking stations, which had a much more developed walkway, instead of the staircase landing directly into the sand, like the shore on the Land of Fire.

They couldn’t do anything about that because the Fire Daimyo refused to build a dock exclusively for Uzu and also refused to let them build one out of their own money, which is why they are stuck using the Hiun Port for trading, which was a minor inconvenience because it added about 3 hours extra travel, one way.

A welcoming party was waiting for them, with floral garlands, coconut water, and last but not least, bags of holding. Spatially expanded bags continuing care packages for every single member of the delegation.

All of which was spearheaded by the Chairman of the Grand Elder Council, a Kage tier shinobi, another old foggie with one leg in the grave. Thankfully, for Uzumakis, having one leg in the grave just meant they could live for another decade or so if they kept themselves from any heavy chakra activity.

“Ah!” Kato Uzumaki, a heavy burly man, with height eclipsing the White Fang, laughed heartily as he embraced the White Fang in a tight grip, tapping the Saber on his back, without a care in the world.

“Welcome! Welcome! I hope my nephew was  not lax in his duties.” He resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the glare that he was subjected to, which had no heat behind it.

“No! No. Suiren-san was an amazing host. He even helped us load all of our cargo on the ship.” Hatake-san was quick to jump to his rescue.

“Bah!” The old man scoffed, “It’s the least he could do, flaunting all those chains of his. It’s not like he has to work hard like us men.”

“Doing hard work just for the sake of it is illogical, Kato-sama.” he indulged the man in the small talk he was having to make the situation less tense, which was already working on everyone, except the four emotionless shinobis.

What was up with them? He really needed to get to the bottom of it.