Compared to the Land of Water, the Land of the Sea is a small country.
It consists of four large islands and a number of smaller ones—Summoning Island is one of the latter.
After Kitazawa's group reached the southeastern coast of the Land of Fire, they boarded a ship bound for the Land of the Sea.
This time the vessel was supplied by Gato's shipping company—a big one.
It was Tayuya, Tenten, Karin, and Choji's first time on a ship that size; they stood on deck, looking all around.
Kitazawa, a short distance away, was chatting with Gato—more precisely, listening to Gato's latest report.
All in all, very good.
Neither the Land of Water nor the Mist had realized Gato was already under Konoha's control, so business continued as usual.
Even Konoha's Heart of the Ocean Jewelry Store and Gato's shipping company moved back and forth under the banner of ordinary commerce.
At this point Gato Shipping handled transport for the Land of Water and numerous islands, with connections to every port.
If Kitazawa ever decided to make a move against the Land of Water or the Mist, this would clearly give him a handy edge and first-mover advantage.
For now, making money would do; no other action was needed yet.
They spent the night on the ship, and by late morning the next day, Kitazawa and the others arrived safely in the Land of the Sea.
"Sleeping on a ship for the first time… I'm really not used to it," Kurenai yawned.
"A bit wobbly," Tenten agreed.
"Not 'a bit'—way too wobbly," Tayuya complained. "The sea is a lot less fun than I imagined."
She hadn't slept well either, waking up several times in the night.
"I thought it was fine," Choji said, scratching his head.
"That island there is Summoning Island." Kitazawa checked the map, compared it to the surroundings, and pointed. "We'll go straight in from the water."
"Won't the shinobi up there spot us?" Kurenai asked at once.
She remembered Kitazawa saying there were shinobi and researchers on the island.
"They're all inside the research base," Kitazawa said, putting the map away. "Let's go."
He stepped onto the sea and headed for Summoning Island.
Kurenai, Tayuya, Choji, Karin, and Tenten followed close behind.
They were ashore in no time.
"So many plants," Tenten said, looking around in awe.
It felt like a truly primeval island—strange vegetation everywhere, all of it towering.
"Wait!" Kurenai snapped to alert. "The ground's shaking—something big is charging our way. A large summoning beast, probably."
Tayuya raised her bamboo flute, Tenten set a hand on her summoning scroll, and Choji put away his chips—everyone slipped into battle mode.
Only Karin stayed tucked beside Kitazawa.
She wasn't a fighter and didn't want to mess up the mission.
"It's a porcupine," Kitazawa said after a glance. "Huge, but not a summoning beast. Just drive it off."
"I got it!" Tayuya blew into her flute.
Chakra poured into the sound and rippled outward.
The porcupine froze and dropped into a genjutsu.
"Sound genjutsu?" Kurenai was a bit surprised.
She hadn't joined the Orochimaru roundup, so she hadn't seen Tayuya in action.
"Sound genjutsu seems perfect for ambushes," Tenten realized. One-on-one bouts back at the training field had kept Tayuya from showing what sound genjutsu could really do—face-to-face with a flute in hand, everyone's guard goes up. Out in the wild, it's much harder to be ready for it.
Tayuya smirked and flicked a glance at Kitazawa.
"One point for you," Kitazawa said, ignoring the childish preening.
Tayuya blinked, the corners of her mouth twitching up—then she forced them down.
Just one point. Not worth grinning about.
She planned to use this mission to break into the top five of the practical-exam rankings and really make Kitazawa eat his words.
"Keep an eye out—summoning beasts can pop up anytime," Kitazawa reminded them, and moved on.
They walked through the primitive forest. Every so often an oddly shaped summoning beast would barrel out of the brush—
—but they were all pretty weak, nothing that impressed either Tayuya or Tenten.
"We're here. Wait for me," Kitazawa said when a research base built into the mountainside came into view.
"We're not going in with you?" Kurenai asked.
"Unknown situation inside. I'll scout first."
Kitazawa's plan was simple:
Let the so-called ultimate summoning beast out, have Tayuya and Tenten pound it, and that would be their mission done.
His own goal was to find the Uzumaki clanswoman.
"Be careful," Kurenai said with a nod.
Kitazawa slipped up to the base undetected.
Two shinobi stood at the entrance.
From their clothing, they were rogue ninja, not affiliated with any village.
Kitazawa flickered forward in a Body Flicker.
"Wh—"
They were both out cold before they finished the syllable.
He strolled straight into the base.
In the corridor, he opened his Byakugan.
The entire facility unfolded in his vision—thirty-six people total, ninjas and researchers combined.
He quickly locked onto Uzumaki Honoka.
Hard not to—the Uzumaki tell is obvious. Red hair and a massive chakra pool, bright as the sun.
Kitazawa walked to her room and knocked.
"Come in," came Honoka's voice.
He pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Everywhere he looked there were sealing formulae.
He scanned them and felt a twinge of familiarity. The Four Symbols Seal was in there—but not all of it.
A glance was enough to tell him what Honoka meant to do:
Treat the ultimate summoning beast like a tailed beast and seal it into a shinobi.
But she clearly didn't fully command the Uzumaki sealing arts.
That was why the creature went out of control in the original story.
"Who… who are you?" Honoka asked, startled at the unfamiliar face.
She knew almost everyone on the island—Kitazawa wasn't one of them.
And with looks like his, she would've remembered.
"You're Uzumaki, aren't you?" Kitazawa asked bluntly.
"I'm not!" Honoka's expression shifted and she denied it at once.
"Then how do you know the Four Symbols Seal?" Kitazawa pointed at one of the arrays nearby.
"How do you even know that's a Four Symbols Seal?" Honoka's heart jolted.
"I'm a shinobi from Konoha," Kitazawa said.
"No wonder."
After the Uzumaki were wiped out, Konoha shinobi were basically the only ones who still knew the Four Symbols Seal.
"Why is a Konoha ninja here? Are you after the ultimate summoning beast?" she asked, wary now.
"That thing? 'Ultimate'—hardly." Kitazawa shook his head. "I'm here to invite you to Konoha. Staying here will only waste your talent."
"Me?" Honoka blinked.
She hadn't expected to be his target.
"Konoha has the full corpus of Uzumaki sealing techniques—you can study them. And there are two Uzumaki in the village," Kitazawa added.
"What?" Honoka was stunned.
She'd always believed she was the sole survivor.
"If you don't believe me, come have a look. One of them is outside," Kitazawa said, pointing.
Honoka fell into thought.
She was on the island because the Land of the Sea had assigned her to do sealing work at the base.
She took orders from them out of a kind of deal—survival, really.
After the fall of her clan, she'd come to the Land of the Sea and traded sealing work for pay.
If Konoha bore her no ill will, living there would be far better than eking it out here.
"I want to meet that Uzumaki first," she said after hesitating.
"I'll have a shadow clone take you," Kitazawa nodded.
"And you?" Honoka asked. "Do you want that 'ultimate' beast?"
"Your experiment won't succeed. You'll see it go berserk any moment now," Kitazawa said, shaking his head. "A mindless, uncontrollable 'ultimate' summoning beast has no value at all."
No shinobi wanted a summon that would lose control and lacked a will of its own.
"How do you know so much?" Honoka couldn't help asking.
She knew the creature existed, but she'd never seen it.
Sealing something the size of a tailed beast usually took multiple techniques, arranged in a specific sequence.
Her job was to prepare those seals in advance.
"Konoha's reach is beyond what you imagine," Kitazawa said with a smile. "Since I came, of course I looked into things."
"Fair," Honoka said, letting it go.
She followed the shadow clone outside.
"Who is she?" Kurenai asked, eyes on Honoka.
"Red hair?" Karin instinctively sized her up.
"Are you from the Uzumaki clan?" Honoka asked, noticing Karin.
Tayuya was also red-haired, but the chakra inside Karin was dazzling to her senses—colossal, the kind only the Uzumaki possessed.
"I am," Karin nodded, eyes lighting up. "Are you, too?"
"My name is Uzumaki Honoka," she said with a smile, reaching out her hand. "Nice to meet you."
"There's an Uzumaki out here?" Kurenai said in surprise. "On a remote sea island, no less?"
"What's so special about the Uzumaki?" Tayuya asked.
"They used to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Senju and Uchiha," Kurenai gave her the quick version.
Tayuya touched her own red hair.
Same color, but her chakra was ordinary.
Envy.
If she had that much chakra, she'd be sweeping the field like Naruto.
"Wait!" Tayuya spotted a hole in the logic. "So Uzumaki Naruto too? Then why is his hair blond?"
"His mother was an Uzumaki, so he's only half," Kitazawa said.
"Who is his mother?" Honoka asked.
"You might know her—Uzumaki Kushina," Kitazawa said after a beat, not hiding it.
"Kushina-sama?" Honoka was moved.
She'd been a peripheral clanswoman; Kushina was the core of the core.
In the original story, she didn't flee to Konoha after the clan's fall—she was chosen and brought there.
If you're chosen, you're no ordinary Uzumaki.
"Alright—get ready. An ugly fight's about to start," Kitazawa reminded them. "That's your mission objective this time."
With that, he burst into smoke and vanished.
A heartbeat later, the ground heaved and screams tore the air.
Everyone looked instinctively toward the research base.
A massive gray-white "summoning beast" burst through the lab roof and loomed into view.
It was like a giant insect, nine or ten meters tall, eyes wild with bloodlust.
Researchers nearby were gulped down whole.
Honoka's heart lurched.
How could that be "ultimate"?
Just as Kitazawa had said—the experiment had failed.
"You two stay here," Kurenai ordered. "Tayuya, Tenten, Choji—move with me to stop it."
Summoning Technique!
Tayuya slapped the ground and her three Doki appeared.
Under the command of her flute, they charged the beast.
"Raaah!"
The monster saw them and, feeling challenged, swung a massive claw at the lead Doki.
The Doki raised its great club to block—but the force sent it flying, club and all.
"What?" Tayuya hadn't expected it to fold so easily; she gritted her teeth.
The other two Doki slammed in together.
Boom!
The collision of three giants kicked up gale-force blasts.
Even so, the beast still had the edge, shoving the two Doki backward.
Expansion Jutsu!
Choji flashed through seals; his body swelled.
Human Bullet Tank!
He tucked in his limbs and head, rolled up into a massive ball, and smashed forward.
Another deafening crash—combined with the Doki's power, the impact toppled the beast.
The ground split; shards of stone and clouds of dust exploded outward.
Tayuya exhaled in relief.
She steered another Doki, club swinging down for the beast's head.
Thud!
The beast shot out a hand, seized the club, and flung the Doki away again.
Choji clenched his fists and drove one forward; the beast met him head-on.
Power roared; Choji's feet dug furrows in the earth as he was forced back.
Tenten hurled a massive scroll that disgorged a downpour of ninja tools like rain.
But the beast's defense was beyond her expectations; the barrage did little real harm—if anything, it only enraged it.
"Raaah!"
It shoved the two Doki aside, leapt, and came crashing down toward them.
"Damn!" Tayuya felt the pressure.
She hurried to pull the Doki back, but it was too late.
Just then, Tenten bit her thumb and slammed a palm to the ground.
Tayuya blinked. Your summon's a ninja hound—what good is that now?
Suddenly, the sky went dark.
She looked up to see a fortress-sized silhouette.
The Shiromari dropped from above and body-slammed the beast.
The impact was unimaginable—a storm of shockwaves rippled outward in layers.
The beast screamed; beneath the wail was the crack of snapping bone.
"That… that's your summon?" Tayuya gaped.
"It's called the Shiromari. Kitazawa-sensei gave it to me," Tenten said.
"Then why didn't you use it in the practical exam?" Tayuya asked, baffled.
"Those are just sparring between classmates. No need," Tenten shook her head.
Tayuya suddenly recalled she'd placed tenth in the practical, Tenten eleventh.
Now that she'd seen the gecko, she understood—her tenth place had been Tenten's to take.
She fell silent.
So many hidden heavyweights in the genius class…
And again—something from Kitazawa?
"This isn't the time to chat. Don't forget your objective," Kitazawa appeared in front of them.
A chaotic melee raged before his eyes: three Doki, Choji, and the Shiromari versus the beast.
Tayuya and Tenten cut the chatter and jumped back into it—not so much fighting as directing.
In a free-for-all like this, there was little room for them to wade in.
"That's enough. Let's try our combo—Composite Ninjutsu: Typhoon Water Vortex Technique," Kitazawa said after watching for a few minutes.
Wind Release: Rasengan!
Kurenai's eyes lit up; she thrust out her hand.
Water Release: Tearing Torrent!
Kitazawa followed.
In an instant, a ten-meter-wide cyclone bloomed before them and hurtled toward the beast.
Already punch-drunk from the pounding, it was too slow to react.
Boom!
The storm struck home, the outer winds slicing like whirling blades and flensing its flesh.
Blood sprayed, then flashed to steam in the heat inside the vortex.
The beast shrieked, body a mangled mess.
"Nice power," Kurenai said, pleased.
Lightning Release: Kirin!
Kitazawa called down the thunder.
The sky exploded with peals of lightning; the bolts gathered into a colossal Kirin that plunged down.
The beast's scream ended in an instant.
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
— Currently You can Read 100 Chapters Ahead of Others!