Chapter 15

Four days of sailing passed boringly and monotonously due to the almost complete absence of favorable winds. I scoured the small ship, which was supposed to take us to Uzushiogakure, inside and out, but found nothing interesting except for a couple of rats in the hold.

In the end, not wanting to waste time, I returned to practicing chakra control — it was difficult to do anything else on the swaying ship. Unfortunately, I couldn't chat with fellow clan members for the simple reason that even at sea they continued to guard us diligently and showed no interest in engaging in casual conversation.

Well, at least the Uzumaki didn't pay attention to the fact that I was a half-blood. If our "famous" users of dojutsu were in their place, I would have been subjected to a barrage of disdainful glances.

And only closer to evening, when a strip of land belonging to the huge island appeared in the distance, something interesting began to happen. Mama specifically pulled me out of our cabin to demonstrate one of Uzushiogakure's most famous landmarks — the giant whirlpools surrounding the island and serving as an insurmountable defense against any enemy wishing to attack the Uzumaki clan.

Even from a distance, the sight was mesmerizing — huge funnels inexorably sucking in everything that came within a sufficient distance. And the closer we got, the clearer the true scale of these whirlpools compared to our ship became. Fortunately, we didn't get too close — the shinobi accompanying us jumped into the water and began forming hand seals.

At least, that's what I assumed, since I couldn't see anything from behind. However, after all four of them simultaneously placed their hands on the water and released a huge amount of chakra, a gigantic bridge began to rise from the depths, about four meters wide and about one and a half kilometers long — at least, that's how much distance remained to sail to the pier on the island.

And it wouldn't have been so surprising if it were a normal stone bridge — what amazed me the most was the fact that its entire visible surface was covered with seals, many, many seals glowing with chakra! With my senses, I perceived the bridge as one giant chakra accumulator! And this despite the fact that until recently, it wasn't even felt underwater! That's what it means — true masters of seals!

But they didn't let me stare for long — Mama picked me up in her arms, and together with our escorts, we waited until the ship docked at the end of the bridge, then jumped onto the wet stone and ran to the island. Where we were already awaited.

Among the few groups of teenagers aged ten to twelve, obviously performing D-rank tasks at the port instead of workers, stood out the tall figure of a red-haired person in the traditional kimono colors of the Uzumaki clan. And the closer the distance got, the more my jaw dropped and my eyes widened...

"To-san!?"