V.1-C.26│Assigned VI│

The Land of Whirlpools was a place that was once prosperous, but it was no longer the same after the Second Shinobi World War, and instead had become a place without proper protection, with a lot of refugees going around.

The Land of Whirlpools was much like the Land of Waves, in that it has many rivers running through it and is famous for its mangroves, which are filled with all kinds of lifeforms.

Kushina knew of these lands, as it was somewhere she had grown up. 'Land of Whirlpools... this used to be my home.' Kushina knew that she was here for a mission, but she couldn't help but lament the damage done in the war.

Most people were refugees coming, but mostly going, and there was no other place that was being set up for the refugees of said conflict, if there was any left, and it was a weird transition from the survivors of the Land of Whirlpools, going towards another area, away from the space in-between the Land of Fire and Land of Water.

It seemed like those that were not of the Uzumaki had come to remake their lands anew, and due to the lands being unoccupied by any major force, of course some sort of change would occur in the situation here.

Walking to another harbor that would take them towards said amalgamation of islands, Kushina looked at the land far away.

On a boat, the five would then arrive at a small developing town now that they have landed on the shores of the Land of Water.

"We have arrived." The simple fisherman that had helped them cross over the water and land on the Land of Whirlpools. It seemed like the fisherman didn't want to be here. "Please, I wish to leave immediately."

"Why?" Obito asked the fisherman.

"You will understand... I need to go." The fisherman left as soon as they all got off of the boat.

"Now what?" Kurenai asked as they were now a bit away from the first town they should come across.

"We move forward." Kushina said. "We need to gather some information ourselves, so that may require that we mingle with the locals. They should be our source of information, and it is through them that we will be able to find out what we want."

"However, from what I understand, the people seem very afraid of others. Or at least they seem to not like outsiders." Mei added this little tidbit of information. "It was because of the war and subsequent destruction of the Village Hidden in the Whirlpools."

"Is that right?" Rin asked as she looked towards Kushina for some information, given that she is an Uzumaki and this is technically a part of her homeland, or at least it should be.

"I don't know. I haven't been here ever since I went to Konohagakure." Kushina revealed.

"Really?" Now it was Obito's turn to be interested, and he thought to himself. 'So this place was in fact a part of where my people came from?' Obito didn't know of this fact, and why would he?

Anything related to the Uzumaki and their homeland would've been scrubbed from the history books, so much so that hardly anyone at all would even remember what really happened. Not even those considered their closest allies, Konohagakure, would know of what happened to them, simply because they forced themselves to forget.

It was super fishy, especially since the Land of Fire is right next to the land that was once theirs.

However, no one had ever questioned what happened to the Land of Whirlpools, and the subsequent collapse of their people and lands.

"Yes, really. It was destroyed in the last war." Kushina seemed a bit somber at discussing this subject, so being sensitive to the issue, everyone moved on from talking about it... for now.

"Where should we start then?" Obito asked, changing the direction of the conversation.

"We should start with the town. Surely I can use my status as an Uzumaki to gather some influence around here... maybe." Kushina was unsure, as the situation here is now completely foreign to her, and even if people do remember the Uzumaki, they would certainly not all think well of her.

Or anyone else that was an Uzumaki for that matter. After all, supposedly they had failed in helping the people survive the harsh environment from the other war.

"Ok, let's do that then." Obito affirmed Kushina's choice, while the three girls also didn't put up any resistance to the suggestion.

If all things went smoothly, they wouldn't have to worry and wouldn't have to take long in trying to find the threat to their situation.

"This way then." Kushina pointed in a random direction before they all set off.

[]

Soon enough, the five would come across another place, a small shack out in the outskirts of whatever newly being built town was happening.

'Wait a minute... This place looks oddly familiar.' Obito thought back on his memories for a bit, but he didn't have enough to contemplate the strangeness as a person made themselves known.

Specifically an a young man, whom had a young woman beside him. "State your business here, outsiders!" The young man said, having black hair and dark brown eyes, along with a growing beard.

The woman was also average in appearance as well, their clothing definitely a statement of their humble living situation.

"Wait! We come in peace. We are shinobi both from the Land's of Fire and Water. We are here to take care of a pirate problem that has cropped up recently." Kushina stated to the man, noticing that while not powerful, he was uppity.

"Pirates?" The man seemed confused a bit, before stating. "State your names!"

"I'm Kushina Uzumaki, and the other four with me are Obito Uchiha, Rin Nohara, Kurenai Yuhi and Mei Terumi." Kushina told the man.

While Kushina was speaking with the man, Obito happened to notice another person that was behind the two adults that seemed ready to defend their home. 'A girl?' She was about above average in terms of looks, black hair and dark brown eyes.

Noticeably she was similar to the two in front of him. 'Her parents? Their child?' Obito for some strange reason had something at the tip of his tongue, but was not able to put two and two together. It was familiar, but not exactly the same as he was reminded of something.

"You are here for Gato then. And here I thought that we would never get any help." The man seemed like he had a weight taken off of his shoulders.

"Gato?"

"He is the leader of those 'pirates,' but they are more like mercenaries gathered by him from his wealth." The man revealed, before he noticed his daughter. "Shizuka, come here. Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Takeshi, this is my wife, Misa, and this my daughter Shizuka. Please, come inside. You shouldn't be seen here, otherwise it would bring danger to us all."

It would seem like a lightbulb went off in Obito's head, realizing that this was an old man that was similar to from when he he was a genin in his previous life. 'Well, he ain't so old and there is even Shizuka...' As he looked towards said girl, she blushed a little.

'Huh?' A little confused, but nonetheless he smiled back as it would just be awkward to look.

"Come on." Kushina said as they all went inside this small house that wouldn't really be able to accommodate them all, not unless some people shared some rooms, which Kushina would naturally segment easily.

Soon enough, Tazuna had revealed to them his occupation, why he was out here, and everything about Gato.

It seemed like Gato was someone that was wealthy even before he came here, and was easily able to start acquiring the local government, placing them under the thumb of his power. His money.

A shipping magnate and founder of Gato Company. He also was secretly a drug dealer as well as the owner of a smuggling business and attempted to take control of the Land of Waves through the Land of Whirlpools connections to many areas.

Right now, through his business, Gato was trying to build it up on this land and through his shady deals with the government, he is slowly taking over. Even more so was the problem behind the legality behind him being someone that practically owned a lot of the sea related services from the Land of Whirlpools.

He has mercenaries to man his ships, which go out to sea and attack certain conveys that allow him to make more money.

It was kind of ingenious, given that the only people that would be sent out here during these times of unrest would be genin. At most chunin.

Gato's original gambled had payed off, and right now he was well on his way to turning this place into his own personal playground, but the damage down was not totally irreparable. If going by Obito's memories was a thing, then they would recover even after a complete takeover, as long as their problem is dealt with.

'But I got to rethink things. There is no telling what would happen and what could happen.' Obito knew not to look at the world through rose glasses, as that would be detrimental to being able to look at the whole picture.

In fact, with the Sharingan, he quite literally couldn't look at the world through rose glasses, and instead look at it through the truth that it was or is. Cursed.

But that doesn't mean everything was just black and white, instead things having greys, and maybe even a plethora of many other colors.

"Thank you. Your information is of much help to our cause." Kushina thanked the man.

Tazuna replied. "I'm sorry I cant do more. I wish to do something else, but I am a simple builder. I have a family, and I need to protect them."

"That's ok. As long as your information is correct about there only being low level shinobi, we will be fine in taking care of this problem." Kushina replied, before getting up. "We are leaving."

"Farewell." Misa, Tazuna's wife said as she lead them out and away from the house.

Once away, the five would need to decide upon their next course of action, which would probably be reconnaissance within the town ahead. Reconnaissance within Gato's current base of operations and his multiple businesses currently owned and operated by him and his company.

"Well, I guess this means we will be having to do some stealth." Kushina was usually not one for stealth, but this was a mission that required as such and she was good enough even with her horrible chakra control.

They would also be against low level shinobi, which would mean it was unlikely for any of them to be sensors. Especially since most shinobi that have some talent that is inborn or inherent, like special genetics, would be important for villages to not let go.

Valuable assets if you will.

"I think we will split off into three. I will go by myself to check out the main area, Obito will go with Mei, and Rin will go with Kurenai." Kushina would split them off like this specifically because she couldn't fully trust the younger girl from Kiri.

Obito was also realistically the strongest out of the three genin of hers, meaning that if she is indeed some sort of plant, she wouldn't have to worry too much about his safety.

"Ok." While Kurenai disliked that Mei would go with Obito, it wasn't like she wasn't able to rationalize why this was happening. Rin could also see the point, but the way these two girls saw it was that they thought Kushina did this because of others reasons.

Whatever that may be. "Obito, Mei, you two will check out the docks under Gato's control. Rin, Kurenai, I want you two to check out the town and collect some information from the townspeople." Kushina gave their assignments.

The three groups would now split off, going towards their designated areas, not before someone that was eavesdropping, specifically Shizuka had overheard what they were doing.

Shizuka would go off into another direction, specifically towards the docks as she was interested in one person in particular.

Obito Uchiha.

[]

"Tell me. Your clan, your family. You have one, right?" Mei questioned as the two of them were walking through the dock area under Gato's control.

Dangerous as it might be, they were in fact not in a lot of danger, specifically because shinobi come around here all of the time. It wasn't rare, maybe uncommon, for shinobi and even rogue shinobi to be around these shady parts.

"I do have a clan, and I do have a family." Obito replied to her question as he was watching everything within his view. "And you?"

"I am the last of my family, the last of my clan." Mei revealed to Obito.

"Oh... I'm sorry." Obito knew how that felt, to be alone. "How about this, let's be friends?" Obito held out his hand as he said this.

"Friends... I don't think that is a good idea. The people of my village specifically designed something gruesome... something to isolate ourselves." Mei did have this far off look, like she was remembering someone. "I had to kill someone. She was my best friend. And I had to kill her."

"You don't have to worry. You wont have to kill me." Obito still insisted. "And hey, even if you tried, you would fail." He grinned at her, and for some reason, Mei thought that maybe she should become his friend.

It wasn't like she had to go through the same process again. Smiling now, Mei took his hand and decided to become his friend. "Make sure that it doesn't come to that then."

"Of course!" As Obito said this, the two would then see another girl their age run up to them.

"H-Hello!" It was Shizuka.

"Shizuka?" Obito question, and Mei could see that the girl was here for Obito.

"Should I leave you two alone?" As Mei said this, it didn't seem like Obito managed to really catch on.

"What do you mean?" Obito asked, before someone pushed Shizuka to the side.

"Move! This is no place for children!" An older man, specifically someone that was heading towards one of Gato's ships said and didn't apologize for his actions.

Mei was about to take action, but she was reminded by Obito about what they were currently doing through him holding her back. "Right. Sorry." She apologized, before Obito went ahead and helped Shizuka out.

"T-Thank you. I want to help! I know where they keep some secrets. My friend, Kaiza's father works for Gato. I know where they keep their secret documents. They have some hidden location that they have set up as a base." Shizuka revealed.

"Really? Do you know of its name?" Obito asked the girl, as she was receptive, very receptive to anything Obito asked of her.

"I think it was called... Uzushiogakure."