Getting to the Land of Water was never going to be easy.
Geographically, it was pretty much a fortress: islands surrounded by ocean on all sides, no land borders with any other country.
If you wanted to go there, you had to take a boat.
But just as Kenichi and Sasori reached the port, new intel landed.
"Jūzō Biwa already left the Land of Water and went to the Land of Whirlpools?"
Kenichi rubbed the ring on his finger.
That message had come straight from the leader—Nagato.
According to reliable intelligence, Jūzō had already departed from Kirigakure and was now very likely somewhere in the Land of Whirlpools.
What he was doing there? Unknown. Nagato's order: Kenichi and Sasori were to go and find out.
"The Land of Whirlpools isn't that far," Sasori said casually.
After a few days of travel and long conversations, he'd loosened up a lot around Kenichi. His tone was more relaxed now, less icy.
"Yeah, it's close," Kenichi nodded. "But that country's already been wiped out. No idea what Jūzō Biwa wants over there."
On paper, the Land of Whirlpools and Konoha had been allies.
The leaf symbol carved into Konoha's forehead protectors even incorporated the Uzumaki clan's spiral.
And yet, in the end, the Land of Whirlpools had still been destroyed—
taken apart by those who feared the clan's sealing arts.
What exactly had Konoha done during that disaster?
That part, Kenichi didn't know.
He'd never asked his teacher about it either.
He only knew the result:
the Land of Whirlpools was gone, and the Uzumaki clan reduced to scattered remnants.
That was just how the shinobi world was.
Aside from the Five Great Nations and monsters like Akatsuki, small countries were fragile. They faded with time, vanished between wars, and most never even got proper "screen time."
If they were lucky, their names might be mentioned in passing when a main character needed a tragic backstory.
"Maybe he's there to strip the place," Sasori said while fiddling with his metal prototype.
"Uzumaki sealing techniques were strong. Even if the clan's gone, some treasures might have been left behind."
The days of muttering with Kenichi had clearly given him a lot of new ideas. He sounded almost excited.
He was planning to upgrade his "Unit-01," see if he could push it to a higher level.
Chakra-conductive metals, better structures, more power—
the works.
"I recall the legendary Seven Ninja Swords all conduct chakra perfectly…" Sasori murmured thoughtfully.
Kenichi just shrugged.
Nagato had given the order; they'd go.
And he was pretty sure this intel had come from Black Zetsu anyway. Intelligence-gathering was basically Zetsu's job in Akatsuki.
Plus, it was a good excuse to look for the Uzumaki clan's Shinigami mask.
If he remembered correctly, anyone who used the Reaper Death Seal had their soul trapped in the Shinigami's stomach.
To undo it, you needed that mask—
and the method was absolutely brutal: force the Shinigami to "undergo surgery" and split itself open.
The price?
The person performing the ritual dies in its place.
Which meant that in the current shinobi world, the most suitable person to handle that kind of thing…
Was probably Orochimaru.
"If the future plays out that way, sensei will get hit by that technique too—
but only if he actually follows the plan, and only if the Third Hokage doesn't keel over beforehand."
Kenichi sat on the boat, staring at the island coming into view, fingers absently scratching his head.
If Orochimaru did get caught in the Reaper Death Seal in the future,
that would actually be a perfect research opportunity.
Kenichi was very interested in Living Corpse Reincarnation.
Not because he wanted to use it to live forever—
but because he wanted to know how it really worked.
Where did the original soul go?
How was "possession" processed?
What happened to consciousness and memories?
Once he figured that out, he could walk up to his teacher one day and say:
"Sensei, you don't want your hands to be crippled for the rest of your life… right?"
…The line sounded weird in his head, but the logic was solid.
Before long, he and Sasori were standing on the soil of the former Land of Whirlpools.
Now, it looked just like any other uninhabited island.
Quiet.
Empty.
Too still.
The boat ride from the Land of Fire was short, and ships came here fairly often.
According to the boatman, people regularly came here to "treasure hunt."
Some even came as tourists.
Those tourists almost always hired shinobi bodyguards, though.
Kenichi remembered seeing escort missions like that posted on Konoha's mission board.
Given how tense things were between Konoha and Kumogakure now, though, he figured the mission board was probably only accepting high-paying jobs.
Trips to a ruined island?
Probably low priority.
"There's definitely potential here for a lab," Kenichi muttered, looking over the desolate ruins.
He'd originally considered putting a base inside Kamui's dimension… but since Obito was still alive, that option was off the table.
An abandoned island, on the other hand, had its appeal.
Remote. Quiet.
Not many visitors.
The only downside: it was far from everything.
By contrast, putting a lab in the Land of Rain would be safer in some ways, but Nagato or Black Zetsu might drop by unannounced any time—not ideal for "certain" experiments.
"Buildings can collapse," Sasori suddenly said. "Only puppets can become eternal art."
Kenichi gave him a weird look, then at the broken walls and shattered foundations around them.
If the Land of Whirlpools hadn't been annihilated,
maybe a lot of this architecture would still be standing.
"Come on, Sasori. Our target is Jūzō Biwa. He should still be somewhere on this island."
Kenichi's eyes narrowed, and he let his senses spread out.
Lightning-shaped markings crept from the corners of his eyes across his cheeks.
Sasori watched the lines appear but didn't ask.
Every shinobi had their secrets. Nobody liked to explain their trump cards.
In the end, the shinobi world was a war of information.
If Jiraiya had known exactly what his former student could do, that fight might have ended very differently.
"Mm."
Sasori fell silently into step beside him.
The two of them flashed across the ruins, moving rapidly through the broken streets and empty fields of the dead country.
Soon, they both stopped.
There, by the water's edge, sitting calmly and resting, was a man.
Jūzō Biwa.
Kenichi and Sasori had already stripped off their disguises and returned to their real faces.
Both now wore Akatsuki cloaks again.
"That guy looks pretty confident," Kenichi said, rubbing his chin.
"Let me test him first."
Sasori unsealed his Unit-01 from the scroll with a bam.
The giant metal puppet hit the ground behind him with a heavy thud.
Author's Note:
Someone's already claimed to have replicated that LK-99 material.
One U.S. stock even shot up over 130%.
At absolute worst, it's probably some interesting new diamagnetic material.
If it does turn out to be a real room-temperature superconductor…
yeah, that'll be insane.
Note: If you're interested, you can read up to Chapter 104+ at patreon.com/nakai01.