Whoosh
Akashi and the other reappeared in a room in Uzusiogakure where he had left one marker.
"Did you have fun?" The Stern voice of elder Kuroko resounded in their ears..
"It was just business, unfortunately."
Contrary to the two beside him, Akashi remained nonchalant.
"You didn't bring them here, I hope, the Juzo?"
"No, I didn't bring them, just got them to swear fealty to me, in exchange for their fealty, I will offer them resources and solutions to their lack of self-control."
Hearing that, Kuroko looked at Akashi with a mix of helplessness and respect.
"That... clever," he ended up nodding after all, it was typical Akashi behavior.
"I intend to do the same with other ninja clans around the world if possible, to have more eyes and influence around the world, we have money; we might as well make use of it."
"Kiba and Marik are on the mainland, dealing with the underworld, making sure that we have eyes and ears everywhere..."
The reason those three high-ranking members of the Uzumaki rarely appear is due to their hectic schedules.
"With multiple Juzo clansmen for the crazy scientist to study, we will soon manage to decipher the secret of their natural energy absorption. We will gain a lot from it."
"...What you are doing doesn't conflict with their mission, on the contrary, it opens new doors. I will allow it," Kuroko said after a few seconds of reflection.
Even if he refused, he knew that that unruly kid would continue on his path, so it was better to accompany and guide him instead.
Meguru and Karin let out a sigh of relief as they saw that the situation was resolved.
"Come with me, something happened while you were away," Kuroko said, turning aroun.d
Soon, they entered a room where three Uzumaki ninjas could be seen lying on the bed, injured and nearly lifeless.
"What happened!?" Akashi asked, since they relocated here to the new Uzushiogakure and started to use Kana and Akashi's space-time ninjutsu, they had rarely suffered like that, particularly since they always moved in groups of two at least.
"They were attacked by that, and a group of Kirigakure ninjas," from a scroll the Kuroko took two white Zetsu, one who was charred black.
"This one latched onto one of them and managed to sneak here before being eliminated," He explained
"White Zetsu and Kirigakure, this is that man's work; it means that our location was probably leaked to that old creep." Akashi said, referring to Madara
"Do you think that our location could be leaked to other nations too?"
Karin asked a little anxiously
"It's possible, the Zetsu attacked with Kiri, now that the news has reached Kirigakure, it will probably also reach the other nations after all, they are all enemies," Kuroko said. "Plus, every nation have been attacking and infiltrating our business, they may already know that we sometimes use invocations to stay resupply,"
"What could be problematic is if Kirigakure spreads the fact that we can use space-time ninjutsu too."
Silence filled the room. They realized that they may no longer be safe,
"We already know that it could happen, even if they know it doesn't change much, they can't stop it," Akashi said, and Karin and Meguru looked at him with perplexed expressions.
"If we wanted to stay completely safe, we could have continued as we did in the begining, sending ninjas, cats, and other creatures to deliver goods in safe houses, or use our new space-time ninjutsu to send the supply directly without leaving that island, it would have allowed us to stay safe for decades, what is happening is what you wanted right?"
At Akashi's words, they realized that what Akashi said was true, but instead of continuing like that, Kuroko had changed strategy and started to send ninjas of other ninjas deliver the supplies.
"Grandpa, why did you do that?" She asked, geniunely perplexed, "Wouldn't that have been better to stay safe and grow here?" Karin asked her grandfather
Instead of answering, the old man offered a little tired smile
"Do you know the Kendashi clan?" he asked
Karin wanted to roll her eyes, understanding that Kuroko was about to start one of his stories
"I do not," Akashi responded before looking at Karin and Meguru for answers, only to see them shake their head
"You are too young to know, they were an old but prestigious clan of the land of fire, powerful and numerous at some point they grew dissatisfied with their situation as ninjas, they grew wary of killing, so, do you know what they did?"
Kuroko looked at the young people in the room as he asked that question
"They... Stop being ninjas?" Meguru asked tentatively
"Close but no, they diverted part of their attention towards trade, and contrary to most ninjas who only know how to kill and nothing else, they soon prospered, made a lot of money, even started to hire other ninja clans sometimes when their own clansmen were insufficient."
Everyone started to realize where it was going because the situation of that clan was starting to eerily mimic their own,
"Of course, their growing richness started to attract attention, and they were soon eradicated, because they started to get too comfortable."
"I think I get what you mean, but we have already been in that situation," Akashi said, referring to the attack on Uzushio by all their major ninja villages.
"I don't think that we were too complacent, we were just hiding to regain enough strength before emerging."
"This is what you think, most of the people or clans that joined us did it to hide from danger, and with the lack of trouble in the recent years, everyone's vigilance relaxed," He explained the situation and the state of mind of the people of New Uzushiogakure.
"Without any sense of urgency or even missions ninja's senses dull,"
"..."
After a few seconds, Akashi responded
"I see, I still disagree, but it is already done anyway, no sense in complaining about that now, what do we do now?"
"Our location will soon leak to the other village, if it is urgency that you were after grandpa, you've got it," Karin complained a little
"It doesn't matter; we have the strength to resist if they attack."
Noone was really scared after all, New Uzushio already had about five thousand well-trained ninjas, about half of the number of ninjas of the major ninja villages, with multiple S rank ninjas like Kuroko himself, Marik, Hinako, and Kiba.
New Uzushiogakure also had enough funds and relations in the underworld to, like Iwagakure, hire ninjas of the black market if necessary, adding to that the fact that the island was filled with thousands of summoning beasts ready to be deployed if needed, they were confident in their own strength, so the disagreement didn't last long.
"Anyway, Akashi, prepare yourself, we are going in the land of fire in a week,"
Kuroko said once the first subject was resolved
"Why now?" Akashi asked, it that wasn't the first time that they had been invited by nobles to an event, but they had always refused.
"This isn't sudden. I simply think that it's time we stop hiding."
"Alright then, I will be ready,"
...
Kumogakure
Raikage's office
"How are the research on the seals going?" the third raikage, a burly man with yellow hair and beard, asked his assistant
"Progress has been slow, sir, the technique they use for those jutsu tags is different from those of explosives tags, and they seem to be some kind of protection on them every time someone tries to tinker with them," the assistant explained
"So that means that all the money that we have diverted to the sealing division is useless?" the man roared "Don't they have some of the sealing techniques of the Uzumaki how come with the ressourses of our entire village they are still incapable to replicate what a destroyed clan can do," the raikaged rage slamming his hand on the table destroying it.
After the table was replaced, another ninja appeared, placing another stack that he gave to the Raikage
"So this is the hiding place of the Uzumaki?" the Raikage said, looking at the information on the document.
Kirigakure
"Sir, is that really the right thing to do?" one old man asked the Mizukage. "Revealing the location of the Uzumaki to the other village, what if they manage to obtain the seals of the Uzumaki before us? That time-space ability would have been extremely useful to Kirigakure."
Seeing the questioning look on the face of one of his multiple advisors presents the aged face of the third Mizukage, softening a little
"No other village knows yet that they have a space-time jutsu; they only know that the Uzumaki use small sommoning creatures to transport their goods with their seals. It's perfectly reasonable, the only reason we know they can do that is that we saw them do it,"
"Even so, I think that we should've kept their location secrets before launching another assault,"
The old face of the Mizukage scrunches up
"Idiot, did you already forget what happened when we attacked them just a few years ago? We failed to annihilate them with the other ninja villages, and you want to do that again, and by ourselves this time."
The expression of everyone in the room hardened
"If we want to eradicate them and avenge the grievance that we have against them, we need to use the power of the other ninja villages."
Iwagakure
The tsuchikage Onoki looked at the report on the table with great attention
"Are you sure this is the location of the Uzumaki clan?" Onoki asked the advisors in the room
"We got the information from Kirigakure, should we mount an attack now?" One advisor asked
"Are you stupid, Kirigakure let that information leak because they hope that we will attack to weaken both sides at the same time, and you want to willingly fell in their trap,"
"But what do we do? We didn't manage to crack those new tags."
It's something that annoyed Kirigakure
"Maybe we can use the underworld market, hire ninjas there to cause trouble," someone proposed
"Have you forgotten they have great influence in the underworld now!" another interrupted, looking at the advisor like an idiot
"What does that? Since when do we care what happened to those idiots from the underworld? We just need to verify that the information is right."
"This is a good idea, let's do that?"
Sunagakure
"Land of fire, land of wind, land of tea," The Third Kazekage said, his hands tracing the map on the table
In front of him were documents saying that the Uzumaki had sought refuge on an island, they are on an island hidden between the land in the water of those nations
"They dare to come near our water, are they mocking us or what?" one of the advisors of Suna, slamming his hand on the table, said with disdain in his voice.
"This is an opportunity, if we can find the exact island, we might be able to end what we couldn't do a few years ago, and get our revenge," Elder Chiyo said, remembering the failure that was the attack on Uzushiogakure a few years ago
"Do not underestimate them, sister, plus even if we found their hiding place, what stops them from escaping like they did the first time?"
"We still don't know what method they used to escape from us at that time, before we do launching another attack might be useless,"
Ebizu said
"Elder Ebizu is right! We need another strategy."
Konoha
"So we have finally led on where the UUzumaki are hiding?" Danzo said, greed flashing in his eyes
"Did Kushina and Minato manage to crack their new tags?" he asked Hiruzen, the third Hokage
"No... They don't even have an idea of how to do it, same Orochimaru, Jiraya, and the entire sealing team."
"How is that possible with the entire inheritance of the Uzumaki?" Koharu said
"Maybe we don't." Homura said, "They must have kept some secrets for themselves."
"Damn Uzumaki," Danzo grumbled before adding, "But now that we know approximately where they are hiding, finding them will be easier." The other advisors nodded at that
"I have an even easier solution to find them," Hiruzen said, taking out a scroll
"This is an invitation to the fire Daimyo taking his fourthtith concubine,"
"And why do you show us that?" Koharu asked,
"I went there last time. I am not going this time." I was there last time Hours added with a frown
"The Uzumaki have agreed to be there this time."
That sentence surprised everyone, for years they had stayed hidden, refusing to appear in public and now they suddenly agreed to appear in such an event.
"Hiruzen, let me go," Danzo piped up
"The Uzumaki have made many moves lately; this is a good opportunity that we can't let go; we need to gauge their intention and current force, and if they intend to go against Konoha."
"If necessary, I can deal with them," Danzo said coldly