Weight of the Maelstrom.
Chapter 4: The Broken Country
Itsuki Uzumaki.
There was something exhausting about weaponizing trauma. It worked; no one could say the opposite, but fuck, it hurt.
But I needed something real to fool the fishermen, something that would drop their guards around me. Being a child in the Elemental Nations didn’t mean much when a kid barely five could massacre an entire settlement if he was talented enough.
Admittedly, I didn’t exactly look like a ninja. The cowl still helped hide my face, and I refused to take it off. The fishermen exchanged uneasy glances but avoided questioning the obviously traumatized kid, so they let it go.
A second fisherman, a man called Daichi, was graceful enough to offer me some dried fish and another cup of water.
After so long, it was nice to have something in my stomach. I did follow the book's recommendation: just a few nibbles before I tried to sleep a little more.
Thankfully, I still possessed the ability to rest while remaining physically primed for combat. It was a standard academy technique designed for surviving behind enemy lines.
It wasn’t as restful as normal sleep, but it helped more than being completely alert the whole time.
No idea how long after, I woke up with a violent jolt as I finally let go of the chain on my neck.
The boat bumped against something wooden on an unfamiliar coast. I kept my eyes closed, mapping my surroundings with my senses.
The boat stopped moving after a couple of minutes of movement from the fishermen. And I couldn’t help but notice the overpowering smell of fish in the surroundings, as well as the other signatures inside my range.
Sitting up slowly, I kept my act, now focused on silence instead of the panic before. Rubbing my eyes, I took in the environment for the first time.
We had arrived in the Land of Waves.
And… it wasn’t like anything I had heard from the veterans back home.
No, I wasn’t expecting a place that showed riches or anything like that. It had always been a pretty barren place that always depended on the fishing industry.
But what I saw was far bleaker than I imagined.
That meant that either a long time had passed, which wouldn’t surprise me, or something weird was happening on the Land of Waves.
Especially the fear and despair radiating from everyone on the docks.
It was… poverty given form, basically. The boardwalks were made of splintered wood over the dirty water.
Was that why Kaiza and the rest decided to go that far to catch fish?
I frowned minutely before easing my expression.
The men who rescued me, Bar Kaiza, those being Daichi, Genzo, and Rokuro, slumped their shoulders and lowered their heads. I imitated the rest of the workers around the docks.
It was suffocating. A feeling that I had felt around Uzushio when the bastards attacked. Almost to the same level, as if everyone here had accepted that their days were coming to an end.
“Morning, kid,” Kaiza said brightly despite the gloom.
He stepped down from the helm, “We made it, you’re safe and sound.”
I nodded weakly, pulling the cloak a bit tighter around me and hugging myself. As I stood up, I made sure my legs didn’t wobble. Kaiza extended his hand over the railing, and I allowed him to help me as any normal victim would, grasping his hand and stepping carefully onto the dock.
My feet hit the wooden planks of the dock, and I grit my teeth at the pain that speared through my body. My right hand immediately went back to my chain.
A group of dockworkers looked at us from a distance with hollow eyes.
The majority of them carried instruments made for fishing, but my eyes focused on the ones that didn’t feel curiosity but dislike. Which, for some reason, carried strange weapons and stayed very far away.
Cheap weapons, but weapons nonetheless.
At least their chakra was weak: they weren’t ninja. I could handle a few mercenaries.
I didn’t particularly like their kind and wouldn’t shed a tear for them.
My hand tightened around the chain before I took a deep breath. Lowering my gaze to the ground, I deliberately mimicked the posture of the majority of the men here, slumping my shoulders to blend in.
Kaiza stepped in front of me, shielding my body from their view.
“He’s with me,” he announced, and the feelings of the vast majority changed into understanding.
Except for the mercenaries.
Most gave Kaiza respectful nods before continuing their tasks.
I, too, lowered my hand. While I wasn’t averse to violence, I also wouldn’t enjoy acting out against civilians.
Also, most acted as if they were subservient to Kaiza. The man commanded absolute respect in this miserable place as easily as breathing.
It reminded me of Kiyoshi’s father.
“Stay close to me, Itsuki-kun,” he whispered, placing his large hand gently on my shoulder before guiding me away from the docks.
I followed closely, looking around with a disapproving frown.
This was strange. Why was it so… pathetic? Wave was always supported by Uzushio and the Land of Fire. Ever since the Warring States, and even through the war, it hadn’t changed.
The houses were unpainted, and they looked in disrepair. Children looked almost as gaunt as I currently did. Which was worrying to say the least.
But as bad as I felt seeing such scenes, I was glad. I was glad because it was the perfect place for what I needed. A blind spot from the big ninja villages until I knew more about what had happened while I was on the seal.
Minutes later, we reached a small house near the end of the village. But this one was different, at least it looked like it was taken care of. Kaiza pushed the door open without knocking, and I followed in after being gestured to do so.
A woman stood by the stove. Her eyes were gentle, reminiscent of Nagisa-sama before Orochimaru came. Her hair was dark, twisted into a simple knot.
She was a beautiful woman.
A young boy sat at the table, drawing something on a scrap of paper. His smile was almost as bright as Kaiza's once he noticed him arrive.
And an old man sat next to the boy, drinking from some bottle. It smelled like… fruit.
It smelled heavenly.
“Tsunami, dear. We have a guest,” Kaiza called out gently.
The woman wiped her hand on the apron before turning around and smiling softly.
Then her eyes widened seeing my state. My empathic sense was assaulted by a wave of motherly concern to a level I hadn’t felt before.
It was just so… pure.
I hid my reaction, keeping my eyes downcast.
“Goodness gracious, Kaiza,” she gasped, rushing forward. “What happened to you, kid? Are you okay?”
Without waiting for an answer, she turned in Kaiza’s direction, “Where in the world did you find him?”
I stayed silent, watching everyone’s reactions.
The kid looked curious, the old man dubious.
Hm.
“He was on a raft near the whirlpools,” Kaiza said gravely, “Shipwreck, you know? He was there for days, he said. He’s a lucky lad; he built himself a raft and got out of the island.”
My shoulders hunched, but I appreciated that he didn’t call Uzushio a cursed place like the rest of his friends had done.
“You poor thing,” Tsunami said, her voice filled with sympathy.
She placed one warm hand on my cheek, “Inari, can you prepare the bath? Father, can you bring the medkit I have under the bed, please?”
The older man grumbled but went deeper into the house. The kid, Inari, just pouted for a second before running behind him.
Over the next hour, I allowed Tsunami to take care of me. Though my ego stung and my feelings grew chaotic, I just gritted my teeth and let her fuss over me. Before taking a bath to get rid of the grime, I locked the door and sealed all my belongings into the storage seal.
I kept only the chain as a weapon just in case.
Later, once I felt like a new man, I returned to the main room, and Tsunami placed a bowl of plain rice and some broth.
“Eat, Itsuki-kun, it looks like you need it,” she commanded gently.
They kept looking at me, and I avoided their gazes, acting nervous.
“I appreciate this,” I said quietly after finishing the portion, feeling full despite the small amount, “I will not burden you for long, I swear. I will stay only for a bit until I find my bearings, and I will repay your kindness.”
Tsunami laughed demurely and waved her hand dismissively, “Nonsense, Itsuki-kun. You have nowhere to go, and I doubt you have anyone else close. You can stay as long as you need.”
“I insist,” I added a bit of pride into my voice, “I cannot accept charity without offering something in return. While I stay, I will pull my weight.”
“Where is your family from?” Tazuna, the old man, asked shrewdly. He kept looking at me as if I were a puzzle waiting to be solved.
That was a problem, because he kept sending glances at my hair.
“I’m from the Land of Water,” I sighed. “My family were merchants before… the shipwreck.”
My voice choked.
Tsunami put her hand on my shoulder and glared at her father.
“Enough,” she said firmly, “we can get to know him later, is that understood?”
“Yes,” Tazuna grumbled once more.
Kaiza chuckled to break the tension, “He has spirit. And we can always use a helping hand, no?”
I offered him a small smile.
“Can I ask you a question, Kaiza-san?” I asked timidly.
“None of that, kid,” he burst out laughing, “call me Kaiza. Everyone does.”
“Why does everyone treat you like that? I couldn’t help but notice how you command respect from the rest at the docks.”
I lowered my head nervously before letting out a soft laugh, “It reminds me of my father.”
The one who replied wasn’t Kaiza, who looked sheepish, but Inari, who went into a long tirade of how his adopted father was the hero of the Wave.
I listened and cataloged everything for future use with a dumbfounded expression on my face that wasn’t entirely fake.
Three days later.
Itsuki Uzumaki.
Tazuna was a problem.
The more time I spent inside the house or near them, the more I was sure of that.
He suspected something even if he didn’t say it openly, but he was always watching.
But he hadn’t said anything, nor asked me more pointed questions to break the story I had created.
Apart from that, everything could be said to be going as I intended. I had integrated myself into the household, sweeping the floors, helping Tsunami whenever she went to the market for groceries, and even helping Inari with some of his studies.
My body felt stronger by now, but I didn’t accept Kaiza’s invitation to help in the docks. It was by far the place with the most mercenaries around, and the less I attracted their attention, the better.
Every waking moment was spent on reconnaissance, mapping the entire layout of the village and tracking the movements of all patrols through the terrorized streets.
The land of waves was currently under the absolute control of a corporate warlord named Gato. I had no idea where he came from nor what his real business was. No one was exactly sure.
What everyone knew was that he slept on money and probably shat it too.
His forces were pretty much a joke, though. There were no ninjas, and the majority were like the normal mooks that raided Uzushio years ago.
But things were tense. Because there was someone who didn’t bow under Gato’s might.
Kaiza.
He stood, in merely three days I had known him, more than four times between a mercenary and different inhabitants of the Land of Waves. He never intimidated back, and he acted uncaring about the weapons they had. He was double the weight of most grown men, and he used that as his advantage.
He was the beacon of hope in their despair. He was the hero of the wave, and the villagers treated him as such even when he didn’t ask for a recompense.
The unspoken leader.
And also a dead man walking.
Gato didn’t sound like the kind of man who would allow such a symbol of resistance to survive inside his territory, not when he gave hope to the masses.
Kaiza was unafraid, but he didn’t realize that he had not only put a target on his back. He also put one on Tazuna, Tsunami, and his kid, Inari.
When I wasn’t helping around the house, I used the free time to train in the secret of my room (the attic) or read the books inside the mental library. And despite my misconceptions about Medicine, I was getting hooked on the knowledge. I was still unsure why I had such books inside Kirokukami’s gift, but it was useful to know.
Not only did it help me know how to care for my own body and build it into something greater, but it also showed me which parts of human anatomy were the weakest.
Obviously, I kept practicing my sealing every once in a while, but I didn’t advance in the art because the books I had available didn’t offer any new insights.
There had to be a way for me to unlock how deep I could go, but I wasn’t sure.
But it was time to get some answers.
As the moon hung over the dark sky, I opened the window and nodded to myself. The rain was perfect to hide the sounds, and it looked like it was about to get even worse.
The village was silent, and the mercenaries patrolled like they didn’t care. Since no one but Kaiza stood their ground, they were pretty lax in their security.
My attire was another black ANBU vest and an oni mask as dark as the rest. My cargo pants were filled with weapons.
I moved across the rooftops in absolute silence, going barefoot to avoid the clanking of my wooden sandals. Expanding my sensory net, I filtered the sleeping civilians and focused only on the moving targets. Looking for isolated ones around the edges.
And there it was. A man walking down a dirt path leading away from the main settlement, cursing like a sailor and glaring at the clouds on top of us.
He grabbed a lighter and a cigarette and started walking into the forest outside. Probably looking for somewhere empty and covered to light it up.
I stopped for a moment as he started patting his vest, only to snort when he took out a half-empty bottle of liquor.
Observing him in the rain was boring, but the idiot wasn’t exactly that good with alcohol, and before long, he stumbled under a tree.
Channeling my chakra into my legs, I launched myself forward.
It followed my direction even better than before, accelerating my body to speeds I never reached on Uzushio.
And I struck him behind his head, directly on the base of his skull, with moderate force. According to the books, it was enough trauma to instantly sever his consciousness without fracturing the bone or causing hemorrhage.
His eyes rolled backward, and his body went limp. The bottle was about to fall onto the ground, but I grabbed it before it could. Holding his limp body with my other hand.
My breathing remained steady, my heart calm. It had been a long time since I had interacted with someone with violence, but the practice was there.
Dragging the body into the forest, I pulled into an empty clearing behind some rocks and threw him to the ground.
He groaned slightly, but I ignored him while I kept working.
My hand went into my vest and pulled enough ninja wire to bind him, both legs and wrists together, then I secured him against the root of a massive tree.
I knelt in front of him, studying his face.
Just trash.
He was breathing steadily, and I only had to wait a minute or two before he regained consciousness.
Sitting in front of him, I waited, taking a sip of his bottle before spitting it into the ground.
… me and my curiosity. It tasted like piss.
Before long, he started twitching, and his eyes flung open. The panic that came out of him was like music to my ears.
He opened his mouth to scream, but before he could, my hand entered his mouth and grabbed his tongue in a firm grip.
His fear increased even more as his addled mind focused on my mask, but my eyes were neutral as I stared at him.
“Try to scream,” I whispered, keeping my voice devoid of emotion, “and I will rip this before you can do so.”
The man stared at me, his eyes filled with terror. He nodded frantically.
I let his tongue go, and he opened his mouth to scream.
My feet hit his just below his ribcage with enough force to kick the air from his lungs as the scream turned into a pathetic gasp.
Pulling out a kunai, I severed his finger.
“Want to test me again?” I asked blankly, looking at the dripping blood.
His mouth opened in a silent scream, and he shook his head, honestly this time.
“You have some answers,” I nodded, “And I have some questions. You will leave after you’ve answered enough.”
“Whether you leave this place with the rest of your fingers depends entirely on how useful those answers are.”