Chapter 27 - Depart, To the land of Iron

The next morning Sen woke up and after dressing himself he stood in front of the mirror.

Looking in the mirror, he thought his eyes flashed red for a second, but assumed it was probably his misconception due to his hair.

After waking up his black hair now had a few streaks of Red, the same color as someone with a high concentration of Uzumaki blood.

SEN POV

After confirming that I was dressed properly I walked out of the room where Shin was waiting for me.

As he led me through the streets of the village I saw the high walls in the distance surrounding the village, the trees planted along the roads and in the yards a lake on the west side of the village and the forest filling all the space in between the I felt something was wrong.

So while walking I started straining my mind to think about the cause of it and as I finally accessed my memories I realized I never brought the Jutsus sealed by Godfather back to the clan.

When we reached the central building I quickly made my way to Uncle and asked him

"How did you get the forest and the lake here without the sealed techniques of Godfather?"(Sen)

'Did someone awaken wood-style in the village?'

"OH! Looks like someone finally remembered about them!"(Akio)

'Damn!'

"It's not my fault, the seal makes it hard to remember things!" I argued.

"Yes, you are the Sage, you make no mistakes. Right?"(Akio)

'He's being awfully sarcastic, isn't he.'

"Okay okay, I am sorry. I know it's partly my responsibility but I said the truth, the seal really makes it hard to remember minor stuff."(Sen)

"So how did you get that?"(Sen)

"We asked a Konoha shinobi to deliver a teleportation scroll along with a letter to Mito so she could send them over." Replied Uncle Akio and I wondered how that happened.

"But wasn't Konoha also involved in the destruction of Uzumaki?"(Sen)

'I mean we certainly speculated their involvement.'

"You see, that is where things get interesting, there was this one small elite group that was sent to aid us in evacuating survivors but there was another hidden miscellaneous group that was there to kill us. Looks like Konoha's upper level isn't very united."(Akio)

'That information may prove important, I will take note of that.'

"One of the jounins who came to aid us seemed like a trustworthy person and I entrusted the task to him, he was a pretty strong young man."(Akio)

"He fulfilled his promise and Mito used that to send everything over."(Akio)

"What if he wasn't reliable?" I mean, just in case.

"We had a detonator that no one under a grandmaster could unlock so, it's good for him he was trustworthy."(Akio)

'Old Foxes, all of them.'

"I see, what was his name?"(Sen)

"Hatake Sakumo."(Akio)

'I will try to remember his name.' I thought to myself.

"Enough talking, let's go. It is time to introduce you to the rest of the clan."(Akio)

He said and took me to the balcony of the building and I saw everyone gathered there 'They number less than 200. That is probably why the village looks deserted and shabby.'

When they saw me come out they started cheering

And I couldn't help but ask Uncle

"How many people are there in the clan?"(Sen)

"There are 235 people left and except for about 70 people who are either outside of the village or busy with their duties, the rest of them have all gathered voluntarily."

He replied his voice sounding sadder-

"They wanted to see the one who gave them a chance to live."(Akio)

-but he recovered from it pretty soon.

I waved at the crowd while listening to his words.

After the introduction and a celebratory dinner where people started gathering around me and thanking me, the day was over.

"What do you plan to do now?"(Akio)

Asked uncle as we were walking towards my residence.

"I plan to leave this place, uncle and go to Konoha."(Sen)

'I think if I stay here all I will do is mope around.'

"How?"(Akio)

"I plan to travel on foot and take a look at the world while I travel."(Sen)

I will take a look at what this world feels like, and try to get a break from all that has happened.

"If that's what you wish, I will send you to our base in the land of iron and you can travel to go on from there."(Akio)

"Okay."(Sen)

"When do you plan to depart?"(Akio)

"Tomorrow, if possible."(Sen)

'The sooner the better.'

"Fine I will make the arrangements, I will keep the house you were living in for you so you can come back anytime."(Akio)

"By the way, I plan to make Shin the next leader of the clan and you will be the leader of the village."(Akio)

"Shin is a good choice uncle, but I don't know about me being the leader. I mean I won't even be here to lead them."(Sen)

"You don't need to be, you will be the pillar of support, the one they will look for before making any big decisions."(Akio)

"You don't need to be here to deal with minor matters."(Akio)

'If it's like that, then maybe I can do it.'

"I understand, I will try my best."(Sen)

The next day Uncle led me to the permanent teleport seal, when I looked I saw a building under construction next to the one with the sealing formation

"What is that place for?"(Sen)

Uncle looked at where I was pointing at and answered

"After much discussions, we decided to put the hospital next to the teleport seal as someone coming in the future may need urgent medical attention. I also decided to have the seal monitored at all times to prevent unforeseen circumstances."(Akio)

"Good thinking." (Sen)

I also put two 'Hiraishin' in the village one in my house and the other near the permanent teleportation seal.

After my uncle gave me some money for my travel, I stood on the seal he replaced a portion of it with another prepared piece and activated it.

"What was that for?"(Sen)

"We made a mechanism to locate the different hideouts, now just by replacing a few removable parts of the seal we can teleport to different locations."(Akio)

'That's neat, a whole network with one formation.'

"Can you show me all of them? I will memorise them."(Sen)

"Sure."(Akio)

"And what about coming back?"(Sen)

"All use the same ones as the destination they will reach is right here all the same."(Akio)

"I am done."(Sen)

I gave back the pieces after memorising them.

"Then, off you go." He said and activated the formation.

And the next moment I was standing in a room, with an Uzumaki clan ninja sitting and watching over the seal.

He quickly got up when he saw someone arrive and after looking at me, he got down on one knee and said

"Uzumaki Han greets the sage."

After a quick talk with Han and asking for a map and some directions, I picked up my box, put it on my shoulders, extended the wheels and set off towards Konoha.