บท 61: Hospitable Welcome

Sensei had tied the enemy jonin he had fought and 'disarmed' to the mast of the ship so they couldn't go anywhere in the meantime.

"Alright, gremlins, we're about a day and a half out from the Land of Noodles, so all of you take a quick break to relax and regain your chakra. Shiran, keep an eye out for any more odd signatures around us."

"Understood, sensei," I nodded towards him as I closed my eyes once again to meditate.

'I have no idea what that feeling was before those ninjas started causing trouble. I felt so peaceful and at home, and it felt amazing. Almost like I was part of the water itself.'

Recentering myself, I tried to recapture that feeling again, but it never came back. It was like when you needed to sneeze, but it evaded you every time it was about to happen. It was simply infuriating. Sighing, I eventually opened my eyes a few hours later just in time to see the sun start to set.

Going over and sitting on the edge of the boat, I looked over the ocean towards the spectrum of colors that composed the sunset. The yellows bleeding into the oranges, the oranges leading to bright pinks, the pinks fading to bluish-purples. 'It's breathtaking,' I thought to myself as I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

"You really are an interesting young shinobi, Shiran," my sensei's voice piped up from somewhere behind me. "Sometimes you look as if you're a kid with all the excitement and hope for the future in the world. Then other times it's like you're contemplating things that should be well above what someone of your age should be thinking about."

I let a light smile grace my face as I went to respond. "You're one to talk, sensei. You call us all these different names and act all distant, but I can feel the emotions you have towards us. You would do anything to help us get better and get out of a bad situation, so why act the way you do? To me, it's you who is the interesting and confusing one; I'm just another young talented ninja in a line of them." I sighed as I thought about the future powerhouses that would come.

"Nah, I'm nothing interesting at all. The only thing noteworthy on me is my bingo book entry, and even then there's not much that's interesting in there," he responded, showing a rare, non-hostile smirk.

Turning to look at my sensei closely, I got within a couple of inches of his face. "Are you sure you're not one of hostages in a transformation jutsu?" I asked in a speculative voice.

Seeing the tick mark appear on his forehead, I smiled a little. "I'm sure you have something interesting in your life. Maybe a child, girlfriend, hobby? I'd pin you as a gardener if I'm being 100% honest here."

Thunk

"Ah, so I was wrong then. You really don't have anything interesting."

He sighed and looked at the sky. "No, you were right about the gardener part. I have a whole bed of wisteria in my backyard at home I take care of."

"I KNEW IT!"

Thunk

"Sorry, that was an overreaction. So does that mean you have a girlfriend too?" I asked hoping to get a little bit more insight into his life outside of being a ninja.

"You don't get to know that. Be grateful I even told you about my hobby," he said roughly as he stood up and walked away.

'Can't really blame him for being an oddball though. I mean, I am a reincarnated individual living in an anime world,' I thought as I got off the railing and laid underneath the emerging stars.

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Arriving at the Land of Noodles dock, we all got off the ship as it was docked and put in storage along with the two ninjas that were still on the ship. "Alright, punks. Get off the boat and start heading due East. It should take us only around an hour or so to arrive at the front gates of the clan. When we get there, let me do all the talking and under no circumstance are you allowed to speak, understand me?"

"Yes, sensei," we responded as we started to run eastward.

Because the only place we could dock our ship was about an hour away from our mission objective, we got to traverse a fair part of the land. As we ran through the Land of Noodles, it was kind of a boring experience, though the flip side to it was that it was fairly different from our island of Uzushio.

Throughout the entire journey, we were passing by vast expanses of wheat fields. It didn't matter where we were or how far from a village we were; there were always wheat fields. Which makes sense because noodle production is the biggest source of this peninsula nation's economy. We ended up running over top a couple of rivers and alongside some lakes, but overall it was a very calm and flat piece of land that this clan inhabits.

"Here it is, you guys. Remember what I said," he gave us a serious look before turning back to face the clan compound's entrance.

"Hold it!" A loud voice pulled me out of my thoughts as a tall ninja with an eye patch appeared before us. "State your name and purpose," he eyed us critically, taking notice of our headbands.

"My name is Hanzo, these are my three students; Shiran, Kiyoko, and Benimaru. We've come to meet with your clan head in regards to a mission we were sent on by the Hidden Whirlpool Village," Hanzo responded clearly and concisely, making sure to keep eye contact with the lanky ninja in front of us.

Taking four pieces of paper out of his pocket, he handed them to us. "You will put these pieces of paper on, no questions asked."

Handing the seals to each of us, my sensei looked at me as if to ask me to verify what he had already thought. 'It's a chakra seal, right?' Nodding to him, I gave a thumbs up and slapped the seal on my hand.

'They can't be serious though, such a low-level chakra suppression seal has to be the easiest thing to rip out of. This is an insult to fuinjutsu and us as a team. It's like if you put handcuffs on Superman and told him to stay put.' I smirked as I felt the seal trying to restrain my jonin level chakra the best it could. Judging by sensei's chakra signature, he also thought that this was somewhat entertaining but mostly just annoyance was what I was picking up at the moment.

The giraffe in front of us proceeded to make a motion with his hand and three more clan ninja appeared around us. Grabbing me, Benimaru, and Kiyoko by our collars, they carried us like prisoners into their village.

"Hey! Wha-" Benimaru didn't get another word out before sensei shot him a glance that shut him up immediately.

'Talk about a warm welcome to the village.' I shot a sideways glance at Hanzo who was walking in front of

the ninja that greeted us as the three of us were carried by a member of the Otozuko clan.

Arriving at a building that looked slightly run down, we went inside where we were thrown into what looked like a prison cell. Shooting one last disgusted look at the four of us, they walked out to leave us by ourselves.

"Seriously, who do they think they are? I could easily break out of this stupid place. And why did they have to carry us? That was humiliating, it was like I was just a piece of trash to them," Benimaru started to air out his grievances.

"Yes, we could all easily get out of here but that would be a horrible idea especially since our mission is in this village. If we break out, they won't listen. If we give them problems, they probably won't listen. If we talk the wrong way to them, they might not listen. This is the reason we are going to sit here and wait for the clan leader to come grab us. Once he hears there are shinobi from the Whirlpool Village in his clan grounds, no matter why he dislikes hidden villages so much, he'll have to come let us out and talk to us; they can't win against a whole village," our sensei explained calmly, looking at Benimaru.

"Well, whatever, they still didn't need to handle us the way they did."

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Click click click

The sound came from outside the cage we were in as the face of an older man wrapped in yellow garments popped around the corner. "Sorry about all of this, you guys. We didn't mean to upset or cause any hard feelings between us." What we presumed was the clan leader spoke to us.

"No, it's fine. I just thought our village would've given you guys a heads up before we came over."

The old man looked a little confused. "No, there wasn't a letter or anything that we had gotten that signaled a visit from you guys. If there was then we wouldn't have had to go through all this." He looked apologetic.

"Ah, whatever, it's fine now. How about we go and talk business?" Hanzo said while motioning towards the door.

"Sounds good to me."

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(A/N: The audacity to have an Uzumaki put on an elementary level seal as if that would hold them. Anyway, gonna try my hand at negotiations next chapter so I hope it comes out okay. Also, I would appreciate it if you guys could leave a review. I believe I only need like 3 more to get an overall score for the story. I'll even throw in 3 extra chapters if I can get them. Thank you for your support! :)

70 powerstones for an extra chapter

120 for 2 extra