Chapter 4.

We got to the port city late in the evening of the next day, without encountering any more obstacles on our way and contrary to my expectations, we were met there - the four Uzushiogakure shinobi were located just near the very gates. - Nara Saya-san? - the leader of the four approached us, the same red-haired as the rest in the group. "Yes," Ma nodded, signaling the tense Konoha shinobi to relax. "I'm Uzumaki Jansen and we've been hired to escort you to Uzushio." - Okay, give me a couple of minutes and we can move out. After the mission scrolls for both teams were signed, Saya gave final instructions regarding the bodies of the attackers (just in case they didn't "accidentally" disappear from the mortuary) and co-investigating the incident between Nara and Senju. Even though her brother was the head of the clan, he preferred not to contradict the wishes of his wife or sister, which were not related to politics - the vast majority of men in the clan were under the heel of women during ordinary life and preferred not to arise about this. Having experienced farewell squeezing from Linley and a promise literally squeezed out of me to visit her somehow, accompanied by my mother's malicious laugh, we parted ways and, together with shinobi Uzushiogakure no Sato, went to the ship waiting for us in the port. I quickly got tired of looking at the city, since it was almost no different from the part of Konoha where ordinary people lived, so I switched to more interesting personalities - four shinobi who had the same hair color as me. Three guys and one girl almost did not differ in shape from their colleagues from Konoha, except that everyone was in the rank of chunin and looked about seventeen or eighteen years old, but in appearance they could give them a head start, of course, except for Senju. The four, without any effort on their part, demonstrated the noble blood flowing in their veins - movements filled with inner dignity, posture and subtle movements of the body, along with completely natural behavior, left no doubt that they belonged to an ancient clan that existed back in Rikudo Sennin times. Actually, of the eight that accompanied us, only jonins could boast of such. The same Inuzuka did not differ much from other chunin. Actually, now it's clear how I could be born - if all Uzumaki are so beautiful, then not every woman can resist, especially with the right approach. And the red-haired kunoichi clearly did not suffer from a lack of attention, given the looks that all the men she met saw her off in the city. Hmm, it remains only to regret that I am not older by a dozen or two years. However, appearance is not the biggest attraction of our escorts. And if I did not immediately notice this, then after ten minutes I managed to figure out some incorrectness of the Uzumaki's sensation. At first glance, my sensory abilities determined each chunin's reserve to be almost equal to my mother's, which is obviously not uncommon for representatives of this clan, so I did not pay much attention to it, but after a while I began to notice some irregularities. While in many normal chuunin chakra felt like an amorphous formation within the contour of the body, in red haired chuunin it was more like a thick liquid, much denser than normal shinobi. And only after I closed my eyes and tried to focus on my feelings, my jaw fell off - they hid their chakra and each of the Uzumaki had a reserve that was three or four times greater than that of Linley! Damn, now it's clear why all five great countries were afraid of them - if a chuunin has so much chakra, then how much jonin and Kage have ?! And this is if we do not forget that the chakra of the red-haired clan is much stronger than that of ordinary shinobi! At least, Kumo's desire to get Kushina is now clear - in a couple of generations, the village that laid its paw on the last representative of the clan will receive a tangible advantage over its neighbors in combat power. After a bit of shock, I sighed and looked longingly at the ship where we were heading. Afraid, if what I discovered concerns all the shinobi of the Uzushiogakure no Sato, then my sensory abilities will be subjected to a hefty test. However, I have a couple of days to dampen my sensitivity a little. *** After two days. Anbu underground base "Ne". Danzo Shimura's office. "Danzo-sama," the monotonous voice of a shinobi emerging from the darkness of the office made the head of the underground Anbu organization raise his head from the papers. - Report. "The mission to capture the members of the Senju clan and Uzumaki ended in failure," the subordinate reported in a voice devoid of any emotion. - Seven operatives sent on a mission did not report at the appointed time. "If they don't show up within five hours, send a couple of scouts to the proposed capture site," Shimura ordered after a couple of minutes of thinking, without showing a shadow of dissatisfaction with the news, let one more person be on duty at the gate and if the Senju team returns to the village, then immediately report to me. *** A day later. Hokage's office. "Danzo-Danzo, you've gone too far with your insensitive doodles," the Third Hokage shook his head, taking a long puff from his favorite smoking pipe and staring hard at his old comrade-rival standing in front of him. "Trying to capture a member of the Senju clan and a relative of the ruling Nara family is completely out of your head!" "I don't understand what you mean, Hokage-sama," Danzō replied calmly. - Do not understand? Perhaps this will refresh your memory," Sarutobi chuckled as he tossed a small scroll to the head of the Anbu side unit. - And what do I have to do with it? when is the Kiri shinobi mentioned in the report? - the experienced shinobi quite naturally portrayed surprise, only there was no one in the office who would appreciate his efforts. - And despite the fact that it is not necessary to consider others more stupid than yourself! Especially members of the Nara clan! The Hokage suddenly growled, accompanying his words with a huge amount of KI pressure. - This morning, an official died unexpectedly in the ANBU dungeon, leaking information that Ryu Uzumaki-Nara with his mother and Senju Linley's team are leaving the village, as well as where they are going. Do you think our chief strategist can put two and two together and arrive at the right conclusion? Especially when there were five bodies that hardly belonged to Kirigakure shinobi and used the techniques characteristic of the land of Fire during their lifetime. The Head of the Root prudently kept silent, not daring to object. - Read so Danzo, despite the absence of direct evidence against you and your organization, it was solely due to my intervention that the Nara managed to add two and two together, arriving at a reasonable conclusion. Unfortunately for you, he shared it with his allies, Senju, Inuzuka and Hyuga. "What's the matter with the latter, Hokage-sama?" "You see, my old friend, you made the mistake of thinking that since Nara Saya hired only one escort team, then only they would guard her," Sarutobi dragged on his pipe, "Unfortunately for you, the Nara Patriarch hired another team led by Yonshi Hyuga from the main branch of the clan."

Hokage-sama? Danzō's stone face mask slightly cracked due to the nervous twitching of his right eye. The Third Hokage made a meaningful pause and blew a ring of smoke, letting such news settle in the mind of the interlocutor. If the culprit of such a puncture remained alive, then the aging shinobi would make every effort to make his death as slow and painful as possible. For the sake of others. "As recently as today, a couple of hours ago, I had a very unpleasant meeting with the heads of the six clans and Mito Uzumaki, who was kindly brought into Senju's situation. And I really did not like to listen to that tub of quite fair slops that were poured on my head due to the loss of a valuable source of information under the protection of "my" Anbu. And especially the fact that if this happens again and all the evidence is "accidentally" lost again, then the clans will take matters into their own hands and it won't hurt anyone, including me. "I understand Hokage-sama," Danzō bowed his head, hiding a displeased grin that was showing up on his face, despite all the efforts of an experienced shinobi. "It's great that you understand," Sarutobi nodded, "I don't mind when you recruit among the orphans from the orphanage. But if you decide to do the same with the clan children, then you can order a coffin for yourself - I will personally cut off your head, just so that I will not be removed from the post of Hokage just because I am no less responsible for the actions of "your" people than you are. . Do not burrow Danzo, otherwise we can both fly down! You understood me?! "Yes, Hokage-sama, I understood everything," Shimura replied evenly, bowing in a bow and trying to hide the rage bubbling inside. For a veteran of the great shinobi war, it became more and more difficult to retreat before the will of the heads of the clans every year, and only their impending weakening or even destruction warmed Shimure's soul. "Well, if you understand, I'm not delaying you," Hiruzen relaxed and finally threw his former rival, "and don't forget that the clans currently make up two-thirds of our combat power and on the eve of a new war it's not at all the time for internal strife. "Yes, Hokage-sama, I understand that very well," Danzo nodded and walked out of the office with a sedate gait. "You understand, you understand, but you're unlikely to leave the dream of getting soldiers with kekkei genkai into the ranks of your personal army," Sarutobi sighed, returning to the curse of any leader - paperwork. *** Four days of sailing were boring and monotonous, due to the almost complete absence of a fair wind. The little boat that was supposed to take us to Uzushio, I climbed far and wide, but found nothing interesting, except for a couple of rats in the hold. In the end, in order not to waste time in vain, I returned to training in chakra control - it was still difficult to do something else on a rocking ship. Unfortunately, it was not possible to communicate with our clanmates for the simple reason that even at sea they continued to guard us regularly and did not want to be distracted by simple conversations. Well, at least the Uzumaki ignored the fact that I was a half-breed. If our "famous" dojutsu owners were in their place, then a tub of contemptuous glances would not have been avoided. And only in the late afternoon, when a strip of land belonging to a huge island appeared in the distance, something interesting began to happen around. Mom pulled me out of our cabin on purpose, to showcase one of Uzushiogakure's most famous landmarks - the giant whirlpools that surrounded the island and served as an insurmountable defense for any enemy who wished to attack the Uzumaki clan. Even from afar, the sight was bewitching - huge funnels, inevitably sucking into themselves everything that swam at a sufficient distance. And the closer we got, the clearer it became the true size of these whirlpools in comparison with our ship. Fortunately, we did not swim very close - the shinobi accompanying us jumped into the water and began to fold hand seals. At least that's what I thought, because I couldn't see anything from the back. However, after all four of them put their hands on the water at the same time and released a huge amount of chakra, a giant bridge began to rise from the depths, about four meters wide and about one and a half kilometers long - at least that was the distance left to swim to the pier on the island. And it would be okay if it was an ordinary stone bridge - what struck me most of all was the fact that its entire visible surface was covered with seals, many, many seals burning with chakra! With my senses, I perceived the bridge as one giant reservoir! And this despite the fact that until recently it was not even felt under water! That's what it means - real masters of seals! But they didn't let me stare for a long time - my mother picked me up in her arms and, together with our escorts, waited until the ship moored at the end of the bridge, jumped onto a wet stone and ran to the island. Where we were already waiting. Among the rare trio of ten-twelve-year-old teenagers, apparently performing D-rank tasks in the port instead of workers, a tall figure of a red-haired man in a traditional kimono in the colors of the Uzumaki clan stood out. And the more the distance shortened, the more my jaw dropped and my eyes opened... - To-san!?