Author's note: I have no idea how I finished this chapter in record time. Literally started writing it once I posted the previous one. Damn... It was fun. Hope you guys like it! Also, no public update of this one today. Chap 3 is still angsty and I wish to post at once at least two chapters publicly to enter the fun parts of the story lol. So, right now this story is 4 chaps ahead of the 5 I offer. Getting closer to the norm!
Weight of the Maelstrom.
Chapter 6: I Am Not a Hero.
Itsuki Uzumaki.
The next few days were spent verifying whether the information the thug had given me was factual. He didn’t lie to me; I knew that much thanks to Nagisa-sama’s gift, but I couldn't trust that what he believed was the truth.
Emotional sensing was the most advanced of the enhanced senses the Uzumaki had, with very few members of our clan having one as advanced as hers. I still wasn’t used to them, and I didn’t know how she didn’t go crazy knowing how everyone felt around her.
Maybe in a hidden village where things weren’t as bad, Wave wouldn’t have been so jarring, but the sheer despair radiating from everyone here was something else entirely.
On some days, I sought out other hidden places in the woods where I could conduct my experiments, and I was successful. There were over four different locations I could use that were significantly out of the way and weren’t patrolled that often. With a bit of earth manipulation and a lot of hard work, I made different bases to prepare for my next hunt.
I was still affected by the death of the unnamed thug, but the thrill and need to learn more hadn’t decreased in the slightest.
For a while, I debated creating hidden caches on the bases, but I ultimately decided against it, mostly because separating my belongings didn’t make much sense when I carried them with me at all times. Sure, it took a bit of time to pull everything I needed, but it was better to have them all on hand just in case I needed to leave fast.
And so, my life turned into an unusual, but not unwelcome routine.
Over the next few weeks, my days were spent helping Tsunami around the house, keeping an arm’s length between Tazuna and me, and continuing to ignore the increasingly upsetting situation with Kaiza.
He tried his best to make me feel welcomed, and he succeeded. He asked every once in a while if I was feeling well enough to help him at the docks for some alone time, but I didn’t want to waste my physical energy on tasks like that.
My chakra was full, yes, but my body was a different story.
As I said before, Uzumakis need an absurd amount of energy in our bodies. Food, basically.
But the situation in the Land of Waves didn’t help in that regard. Things were bad. It could be worse, always could be worse, but they were bad. Food was scarce all around the country; even the food that Kaiza and the dockworkers managed to catch during the day was partly stolen by the thugs under Gato.
It made my recovery take much longer than it should have. For that reason alone, I wondered whether I should leave, but I wasn’t ready yet.
I still wasn’t sure what I should do with my life.
Kaiza always shrugged when I said no, in part happy that someone would keep an eye on Tsunami when he wasn’t there.
Something I would do without being asked to. She was… fuck, she reminded me of Nagisa-sama with how sweet and nice she was to someone she didn’t even know, nor had an obligation to help.
It angered me. It warmed my cold heart.
It confused me.
But I kept an eye on her, because Kaiza wasn’t helping in that regard. At fucking all.
He was truly the hero of the Wave, but a dumbass who put his family in danger because he couldn’t help but be a hero.
And I knew how heroes ended.
My nights, on the other hand, were… functional.
Nights were spent hunting and learning during the darkest hours of the day. The Land of Waves was perfect for that because it rained almost all the time, and the few tracks I left of my dealings were washed away by nature.
I only targeted the stragglers and the drunkards who wandered too far from Gato’s compound. I wasn’t a complete monster and felt sick in my stomach just thinking about using the Wave residents in my experiments.
No. The spirits of my clansmen and I agreed quite firmly on that. I wasn’t sure if I had gone crazy in the seal, but I could swear that their murmurs didn’t feel unnatural or fake. Maybe they were… they probably were, but they were a reminder of my family, and I was glad to have them.
All of them, me included, drew the line with civilians and innocents. It was a line I hoped I would never cross.
But yes, it was… productive, to say the least.
I had six bodies in total, for now.
Dead, because I decided to focus on the canvas first. To learn as much as I could about their anatomy, where I could safely work with seals, and how the ink interacted with skin, bone, blood, and everything I could think of.
But the itch to learn more about the sealing arts was growing increasingly noticeable.
To the point where I wanted to test them on myself.
But no, it wasn’t safe. The human body was too delicate, and I was still too green to start messing with my own body. I was not ready to risk my sanctuary like that.
Some seals still worked on dead bodies, and I learned a lot from them, but it wasn’t the same.
One thing I avoided for the time being was messing with storage seals. I didn’t want a repeat of that accident.
I succeeded in increasing the pressure inside the veins without injury. It wasn’t clean because I had to manually pump the heart to make it mimic a living one, but it worked.
What was the point of increasing the pressure inside the veins safely? I had absolutely no idea. But it was progress.
The problem that was bothering me now was that the disappearances hadn’t gone unnoticed.
Gato’s men had grown paranoid, and they stopped patrolling alone at night. They jumped at shadows, and that made some changes clear in the air around the village.
It wasn’t as tense as before.
A dangerously quiet hope began spreading among the fishermen first, then the old ones, then the kids. They whispered about the Gods finally hearing their prayers and whatnot.
Hell… some old grandma even said the ghosts of Uzushio had returned for vengeance. That made me snort out loud and feel proud, but it wasn’t that good.
The hidden smiles didn’t remain hidden for long, and that? That was an act of rebellion when you were under a Tyrant like Gato.
I knew it was a matter of time before the other sandal dropped. Gato was a tyrant, an evil bastard who preyed on the weak, but he wasn’t an idiot. He could not afford to let hope take root in his territory.
That sandal dropped on a humid Thursday afternoon.
I walked back from the market with a grinning Tsunami who was fussing over Inari, who wanted to run ahead. She was also happy because she found a good deal on some bags of rice that had my mouth watering just from thinking about it.
This, and whatever fish Kaiza smuggled into the house, would feel heavenly inside my belly. Even if we made it last, it was much better than the usual broth we had.
It was a shame I couldn’t use all the Ryo I had to simply buy more.
As I shook my head at the brat’s antics, the screaming started.
We hurried toward the village square, and I felt my stomach drop at the scene there.
A crowd of terrified civilians had already formed a wide circle around the main street.
With Gato’s high-tier enforcers standing there, all armed. Over seventy of them.
And they weren’t alone.
I couldn’t see them, but there were two signatures somewhere hidden. Their chakras felt alive, unlike those of the thugs.
Two of the thugs also felt stronger than the rest.
One of them carried a massive steel club, and the other rested his hand lazily on the hilt of a worn katana. They exuded arrogance, and I could feel their cruelty from this far away. They believed they were exempt from doing whatever they wanted without consequence.
They were dragging a young dockworker through the mud, probably all the way from the docks, considering how bloodied he was. The man with the club was breaking the boy’s fingers with the heel of his boot with a smirk on his face, demanding information about the disappeared thugs.
I watched calmly from a distance, keeping a firm grip on Tsunami, who covered Inari’s eyes despite the brat’s protests.
God… people wondered why I could stand children. Why in the world was he upset at not watching such a gruesome scene?
I rolled my eyes behind Tsunami, who finally decided to clutch the brat flush against her chest.
The crowd watched in silence, and the terror and despair began worming their way back into their hearts.
Then, the crowd parted from the side of the docks.
Kaiza stepped into the circle with a deep scowl. He didn’t carry a weapon, he didn’t start shouting or posturing under the whistles of the thugs; he simply walked forward, his massive frame radiating a fury I didn’t think someone as idiotically optimistic as him could possess.
“Let him go, he doesn’t know anything,” Kaiza demanded, his voice echoing across the square.
The mere sight of him filled the civilians with hope, and I sighed.
What a sad state of affairs. And he wasn’t making it any better.
The thug with the club laughed, stepping away from the weeping boy.
Other dockworkers stepped in and pulled the boy into the crowd. The thugs ignored them, and it wasn't until then that I realized that everything was a show.
They didn’t care about the kid. They were here to stomp the hope into the ground.
“Or what, hero? You’re going to hit me with a net?”
It probably sounded better inside his head, but a few of his lackeys laughed forcefully.
By the gods, they were pathetic.
The idiot number two swung his massive club in a brutal arc aimed directly at Kaiza’s ribs. Hard enough to shatter the bones of a normal civilian.
Normal.
Which Kaiza wasn’t, exactly. The number one idiot stepped inside the arc, absorbed the blow with his thick shoulder with barely a grimace, and drove a devastating right hook directly into the thug’s jaw.
The sound of bone breaking was sharp and loud. Idiot number two’s eyes rolled back, and his body slammed against the mud, completely unconscious.
Kaiza’s shoulder began to purple almost immediately.
The crowd went wild as they watched their hero, and I sighed, knowing what was coming.
Their vindication was amusing, if short-lived.
I felt from a distance one of the advanced chakra signatures roar in preparation, and it vanished from where it was to in front of Kaiza.
One of the rogue samurai the unnamed thug had warned me about. It was the first time I had seen them, and I kept an eye on Gato’s compound.
He didn’t wear their traditional armor, which was good for me. What wasn’t good was the disciplined flow of his chakra coursing through his limbs.
He didn’t have much chakra, but his control was undeniable.
Something I lacked, shamefully enough. It wasn’t easy to have such masterful control over chakra when one had as much as my clansmen and I did.
I watched with narrowed eyes as the samurai gracefully stepped in front of Kaiza, their noses almost touching as he looked down on the hero.
Kaiza’s eyes widened at the speed, but, as I said, he didn’t really think about what he was doing. He just threw a punch with all his might.
It was strong. You couldn’t say the opposite when it sounded like fwip as it traversed the air.
Thankfully, the samurai didn’t even draw his blade. He merely weaved under Kaiza’s bear-like fist, channeled chakra into his open palm, and struck the idiot squarely in the center of his chest.
The kinetic force was enough to remind everyone why chakra trumped everything else. Kaiza was lifted entirely off his feet, flying backward and crashing through the wooden supports of a market stall like they weren’t even there. He hit the ground in a tangle of splintered wood, coughing up a massive spray of blood.
As I expected, he tried to stand, his eyes burning with a fire that brought some very uncomfortable memories, but his body simply gave up. He collapsed directly into the dirt.
My grip on Tsunami’s shoulder tightened a bit as she cried seeing her man like that, but it wasn’t over.
The samurai turned his back and disappeared into Gato’s compound, completely bored. He barely gestured toward the surrounding thugs before leaving.
“Remind them who owns this town.”
A dozen thugs swarmed forward, descending on Kaiza’s broken body with heavy boots and wooden weapons.
I stood in the crowd, biting my lip. My right hand, the one that wasn’t stopping Tsunami from doing something stupid, clenched around my chain hard enough to draw blood.
My mind was in disarray.
Everything I was raised to believe screamed at me to move. I was an Uzumaki. The Uzumaki always helped the Land of Waves.
We possessed the power to do it without asking for anything in return. Everything to protect the smiles of our innocents.
We valued family above all else. Kaiza and his family had treated me like I was part of them.
And Kaiza was the pure embodiment of the ideals my elders and everyone else had died to protect.
Kiyoshi's whispers begged me to step forward. The Ghost of Elder Takara demanded that I defend my sanctuary.
But my legs refused to budge. Aided by the whispers of Lady Nagisa and Elder Aoi, who told me that right now wasn’t the time to act.
I was filled with anger.
My brain, my heart, my very self screaming to move. To slaughter them all.
I didn’t.
I was not at a hundred percent. The food shortage was a nightmare for my body. The rations in Tsunami’s house were small because there simply wasn’t enough. And I wasn’t selfish enough to put myself before them.
I stared at the retreating samurai. But the second one hadn’t moved, and I didn’t know where the third one was. For all I knew, he was good enough to hide his chakra signature from me.
If I stepped out there, I would have to kill them all, plus all the enforcers and the countless thugs. I calculated the odds in a fraction of a second.
I could win.
Maybe. My speed, my chains, my weapons, and my newly expanded reserves gave me a distinct advantage.
But it would be genuinely close. It would be a brutal, drawn-out bloodbath in the middle of the town’s main street. And I wouldn’t have the best advantage ninja were taught to use.
Secrecy.
A single mistake under all of their attacks, a single moment of fatigue born from my current state, and a single lucky hit from the samurai, and they would take my head.
Only to leave them with no one to protect. Even if I succeeded and killed many of them before they retreated like the cowards they were, what would Gato do? Call for reinforcements. Probably ninja, and he would come once more with the wrath of the gods.
And most importantly, if I died here, defending a fisherman I knew for less than a month, the Uzumaki clan would officially cease to exist. Kiyoshi-chan's bloodline would rot in the mud, and my body would probably be sold in the black market to one of the villages.
Their sacrifice would mean absolutely nothing.
Morality is a luxury for the victorious, I reminded myself, my stomach churning with disgust.
I forced my hand to release my chain. I forced my muscles to relax. And I decided to just watch.
I wouldn’t break my cover unless they decided to go for the kill.
If they did… I would think more about it.
Until then, I would remain frozen in place, holding the crying Tsunami and confused Inari.
I made sure to burn the scene into my memory.
Four minutes later, the thugs finally stepped back, panting and laughing victoriously. Kaiza lay there, a ruined, bloody mess, but his chest was still rising and falling in shallow rasps. The thugs spat on him, collected their unconscious leader, and began the slow, mocking walk back to the compound.
The moment they were out of sight, I loosened my grip enough for Tsunami to break free and sprint into the crowd, screaming his name.
I immediately changed my posture to that of a terrified civilian, mimicking everyone present. I rushed behind Tsunami, falling to my knees in the mud beside her.
“Tsunami-san,” my voice trembled, “we need to move him. And fast. Hurry and go home and prepare everything to care for him. I will take him there.”
She looked terrified, but she nodded, grabbed the crying inari, and sprinted towards the house.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to carry him alone. That saved me from the villagers' suspicion that someone my size could lift someone like Kaiza. No, the other dockworkers and even some civilians volunteered.
I grabbed him by the legs, and two other dockworkers took his shoulders, and together we hauled the unconscious lug back to Tazuna’s house.
Once we arrived, Tsunami had basically created a makeshift trauma ward. She wept uncontrollably, her hands shaking so badly she couldn’t properly hold the bandages on her hand as the dockworkers looked worriedly at Kaiza’s form.
Inari was next to the table, crying. Tazuna paced by the door, his face dark with a scowl.
I lessened the panic, because Tsunami wasn’t going to be of much help as she was.
“Tsunami-san, breathe. We need to help Kaiza,” I said softly, patting her shoulder and making her jump. I grabbed her trembling hands and guided them to the side of Kaiza’s neck, where a small wooden piece had lodged too close to his carotid to my comfort.
“Press here. Firmly. Don’t pull the piece yet,” I said firmly, “we need to stabilize him first.”
She blinked through her tears and followed my directions blindly. The rapid spurts of blood immediately slowed.
I moved to the next part that worried me the most, unbuttoning Kaiza’s shirt.
I began touching his chest carefully but firmly.
“He’s got two fractured ribs,” I grimaced, then palpated his chest, “he’s lucky, his lungs aren’t punctured. There’s no air or blood inside his lungs, for now. We need to keep it that way.”
I looked at the two dockworkers.
“Help me here,” I motioned towards a pillow and some gauze, “We need to make sure he doesn’t move much. Wrap the gauze around the pillow exactly here, not too tight, but enough to impede movement.”
“How will we know if we’re going too tight?” One of them asked, pale.
I waited two seconds, and Kaiza gasped in pain.
“Exactly there,” I said drily, “if he screams, it’s too tight. Just soften it a fraction.”
I ignored their grimaces, grabbed a needle and some thread from the table, and went to close all the lacerations I could see after cleaning them.
I had to remake the first one four times, but I slowly got used to it. It wasn’t that different from making ninja traps.
“How do you know how to do that?”
The voice was rough and filled with suspicion. I looked up and scowled at Tazuna, who stared at me across the table.
Really? Was this the fucking time for an interrogation?
Tsunami thought the same, because he soon sent the old man away with the crying Inari.
“Your daughter taught me a lot, and I was always interested in medicine, old man,” I said before he could leave. “I got a good memory.”
He scoffed and left the room, dragging Inari as the kid thrashed under his hold.
It took four hours to stabilize Kaiza. That’s how bad he was. But in the end, he slipped into a restless, pained sleep.
I quietly excused myself and retreated back into my room.
Once I closed the door and ensured no one was paying attention, I threw myself onto the mattress.
I felt sick.
I had let a good man be butchered because it was too dangerous. I had stood by and watched how some assholes acted like tyrants, and I did nothing.
The guilt threatened to break through my dark scowl. Every fucking moral I had grown up with told me I had taken the wrong decision.
I needed to channel the self-loathing somewhere before I spiraled too much.
Sitting in the lotus position, I closed my eyes and forcefully dragged my consciousness deep into the mental library. I bypassed the sealing theory and dived deep into the deepest medical texts I was allowed access to.
Reading about the cells, their theories, and how chakra interferes with their normal degradation. I memorized chakra pathways to ensure that my cells received the most efficient amount of energy from the world.
I buried my guilt under piles of knowledge, all until the moon hung brightly above us. Midnight.
I wasn’t doing it for revenge. I couldn’t care about someone I met less than a month ago.
I was simply maintaining my schedule. I needed more data, and this time I would get a live experiment.
Slipping out the window, I melded into the town's shadows.
There was not a single soul on the streets. Not after the beating.
A thug stumbled drunkenly away from the main compound, probably about to visit one of the brothels. I didn’t wait for him to get into an emptier place; I just incapacitated him instantly, dragged him deep into the woods, and bound him against a table made out of dirt.
Dipping my brush in the ink, I drew something that should deprive his brain of its senses. Directly into his spinal column.
It was delicate, and I wasn’t expecting it to work the first time.
It did, and I laughed loudly in disbelief, seeing his wide, terrified eyes as he screamed his throat raw.
I wondered what he was experiencing. Complete darkness, no sound, no taste, no smell, and no sensation of touch against his skin.
I doubted it was any fun.
He soon got out of breath, and he finally shut up, his chest rising and falling in disarray from his panic.
My head swam an instant later, and I gasped, stumbling backward and clutching my head. It wasn’t the agonizing pain of pushing too hard for knowledge I wasn’t ready for.
It was something I hadn’t felt before. Not good, obviously, but it wasn’t that kind of pain.
My consciousness was pulled against my will into the library, and the metal doors blocking my access to more knowledge groaned. The chains that fell from the center rattled, and then they opened.
It started expanding.
New concepts, more in-depth knowledge about the body, more information about seals, some I had heard about, others I had absolutely no idea about.
The God of Knowledge had promised I would have to earn it. And tonight, I finally succeeded.
I had proven my work. And I was proven to be on the correct path. This was what Kirokukami had meant when he talked about what seals were meant to be.
I was expelled from the library, but I felt as if it continued growing.
With a growing smile, I severed the thug’s brainstem with a single strike of a sharpened senbon, ending his life in an instant. Sealing the body inside with the rest of his peers, I grinned under the moonlight.
I couldn’t wait to see what else I could learn later.
Jumping from tree to tree, my smile faded little by little as I thought about the talk I would have with Kaiza once he woke up.
I wasn’t sure what I would say or do, but I wouldn't sit in silence any longer.
I could only hope I could get past his thick skull.