289 Chapter 64

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Title: Land of Whirlpools.

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"..."

"Don't tell me you all don't get it? Nami?" Shun asked seeing the lack of reaction.

Looking back at the bandits Shun continued. "You all are supposed to go all, 'Huh!? You brat, are you courting death?' then you pull out you weapons and come at me, then you actually did."

"Understand?" Shun asked looking around only to still see the lack of reaction.

"Sigh. How disappointing." Shun sighed and shook his head.

The bandits were all confused at what was going on. Weren't they supposed to be threatening? Weren't the party Infront of them supposed to frightened?

"Um... Boss?" One bandit called out.

"What?"

"What does it mean to court death?" He asked.

"How am I supposed to know, this is way beyond me." The boss answered and then looked at Shun.

"Oi kid, what does it mean to court death." The boss asked Shun who was acting all depressed by the side.

Hearing the question, Shun immediately brightened up. "Hahaha, good question friend. Thats a very good question. You see, death is like a woman, you chase after a woman if you want to have her as your woman, until then, it's on its own. The same applies to death, it won't come to you until you actually court it. You get?"

Shun explained his understanding of the question. The bandits all looked to be in thought before one said. "I haven't had a woman as a wife so I wouldn't know."

Shun looked at him weird. "You don't need to have a woman to know, just know that courting death is similar to how you court a woman. Sometimes the woman notices you and goes with you, other times she just ignores you."

"Unfortunately, you had some obscene thoughts while looking at my people and although I would like to leave you all alive, I'll have to accept your courtship on behalf of death and send you to her, how about that?" Shun said with a gentle smile.

Before they could process what was going on, they found that they didn't have any form of I'll thoughts against this party in front of them and instantly, they all saw their bodies standing in front of them.

Yeah, their heads had all been lopped off at the same instant by Shun without them fighting back.

"Sigh, I hate my domain." Shun said with a sadly

"Why is that Sonchō-sama." Tatsu asked.

Shun looked at him in the eye before asking. "I would you like to die?"

Tatsu was startled at the question before saying. "Fighting to protect the village," conviction was dripping off of him as he said that.

"Hmm, now imagine someone puts you in an illusion where you don't get to have that option before killing you off, how would you feel in death?" Shun asked.

Tatsu widened his eyes in realization. Shun's domain literally deprived anyone from seeing him as an enemy even till they drew their last breath, they'd still not see him as an enemy.

In a way, Shun was stealing ones reason of being away from them. Making a joke of all the stood for before their deaths.

"I understand." Tatsu said with a bow. Shun has always been someone who advocated will above every other thing, being someone who deprives that from his opponent must make him feel sad.

"Hmm... Let's proceed." Shun said and continued on his way.

On the way, he and Hinami were having an intense conversation telepathically.

"... You broke my heart there, Nami, how could you not even react to that awesome clichéd line?"

"Shun dear, you don't expect me to react to something like that in front of my subordinates, do you?"

"Bu-but, I wasn't the one that told you to keep that stuck up personality in front of the world, you chose that yourself, but I was expecting you to at least chuckle or laugh, anything. You made me look like a fool right there." Shun poured out his grievance.

"Sigh, Shun dear, next time, know to check out the people around you before you act out your fantasy." Hinami said curtly. "Also, it was funny seeing you with the arrogant young master aura, it was... hot."

The scowl on Shun's face immediately turned into a smile. "At least you know your stuff. Umu~ I've forgiven you and also decided."

"Decided what?"

"That on this trip, I'm taking the young master route." Shun said with determination.

"Sigh... Shun?"

"Yeah?"

"If you do that, you'll lose me for a hundred years."

The expression on Shun's face turned into one of horror. "You wouldn't dare.."

"Oh? Wanna give it a try?" Hinami asked with a smile.

"I'd rather not."

"Good..." Hinami nodded. "We've been on the road for quite some time now, I can see the land of Whirlpools a couple kilometres ahead."

Looking at the squad that were quite tired out from the long distance race, she continued. "We'll take a short break once we touch upon land again."

They had just passed the land of steam and the closest island to them was the land of crows. This was a slightly bigger island than the land of Whirlpools.

This island housed the sage land of the crows, the intelligent ones. Hence the unique name.

...

As soon as they reached the land of crows, both Shun and Hinami felt multiple senses wash over them but didn't react much to it, only a slight flare of their chakra and the senses respectfully retreated.

On this entire planet, no sage land didn't know of Shun, either personally or through their respective means of collecting information.

Be it the Toads, snakes, slugs, dragons, tigers, or wolves, he had had altercations with them, both good and bad.

They spent a good hour on the island in meditation to recuperate their lost chakra. Continuously emitting chakra to run on water for hours wasn't something done without cost after all.

Their meditation didn't last long and after around thirty minutes, everyone was good to go, but Shun decided to rest up some more.

During their rest, he began telling a tale of , toward reaching the end, she said. "So you see, there's this thing about fate and luck that we all seems to neglect. Fate, that's a result of the choices we make, luck, that's the result of the actions we've made and will make, together with the actions of the people around us."

"Now tell me, what did you learn from this short tale." Shun asked.

Shun has told them about the story of Luffy and his absurd plot armour which he term luck as well as his fate to change the world.

"Umm... We can achieve whatever we want if we focus on it?" One guy, Takeru asked.

"Why are you asking me fool? I'm the one asking, you're answering." Shun rebuked.

"Apologies, Sonchō-sama." The guy apologized.

"Now why are you apologizing? Did you do something wrong?" Shun asked exasperatedly.

The guys shook his head. "Sigh, what are they teaching you young people these days?"

"But you're our age, Sonchō." Tatsu said casually.

"Pshh, I'm way older than you can imagine, do you think being the chief is easy? I'm probably an old geezer mentally." Shun answered.

...

Sigh.

"Why the long sigh, girl?" Shun asked one of his guards who had been silent since the beginning of his tale.

"Nothing much. I just think that this world is is very unfair. An ordinary person can diligently practice for a lifetime, and yet, they would never be able to touch a toe of these clan kids who also practiced." The girls, Yumeko said.

"Yup. Life is unfair. But even so, you can either resign yourself to fate, or fight against it. Haven't you read of legends in the past? Our ancestor wasn't blessed physically like the Uchiha and Senju ancestor, instead, he had his mind, he managed to create a bloodline that still flows strongly till this day, created multiple jutsus and Fuinjutsu we still use to this day,"

Shun chuckled as he praised himself. "I think if one truly walks down the path of self improvement, their hard work would never betray them."

After saying that he gave her a comforting eye smile, and then looked at the others listening to them.

"The same applies to all of us. Never look down on one's hardwork or it may come back to bite you in the ass.."

"Language!" Hinami said strictly.

"Yes, ma'am." Shun replied almost instantly.

Before the packed up to leave, Shun didn't forget to give some good pieces of advice.

"There's a saying that goes, 'for everything you lose, you gain something in return.' This is a simple logic. No matter who you are, you have to see your worth clearly and not underestimate yourself. Once you admire or envy the strength or talent of others, you will lose yourself. Those who can seat together with me as the Zero Squad are all extraordinary in a way. Even if right now, you have to incline your head and look up to those extraordinary figures, know that nobody know tomorrow."

Although this words have always been drilled into them since Shun became the Sonchō, hearing him say it to them personally seemed to carrt a certain weightage . It seemed to carry a unique magic that seemed to remind them of what truly matters.

"Alright, let's move." Shun ordered and took off immediately not waiting for their opinions.

"You're being too chummy with these guys, is there a special occasion?" Hinami asked telepathically.

"Nah... Just felt like saying a thing or two. You know, it's these people that have much more potential than these clan kids." Shun replied.

"Hmm. You've said this numerous times, I'm still yet to see it though." Hinami nodded.

"Haha. Soon dear, soon," Shun said and kept his silence.

....

The Land of Whirlpools, the home island of the Uzumaki clan was located on a tiny island off the coast of the Land of Fire. This was where the Uzumaki clan ancestors decided to make their home, taking after the example of their fellow ancient clan, the Tengoku clan.

Unlike the Tengoku island though, theirs was a little bit too small.

Having passed through the stormy river flowing along the coast of the land of fire, Shun and his escorts finally made it to this peaceful village.

Well, peaceful wasn't exactly the word tonuse as they too experienced their own fair share of wars from time to time, but compared to the lands outside, this place sure was peaceful.

But when compared to the Tengoku island, this place was still as war torn as the other lands.

As they admired the view, several chakra signatures suddenly arrived close tomtheir location and one of them, flickered and appeared a couple meters in front of Shun and his group.

He wore the usual samurai armour that covered his entire body with a sword placed by his side.

"Identify yourselves." He ordered sharply.

Shun didn't even bother looking at him as he had to keep appearances as a leader and as his ever trusty secretary, Hinami walked forward and said.

"We are the guest from The Tengoku clan here for the marriage between Hashirama and Mito, I believe you should be expecting us."

"So it's our friends from the Tengoku clan, sorry for the impolite reception, you must understand that now is a trying period for us all." The man apologized politely.

"Hasn't the fear of Hashirama put most people to calm already?" Mikoto asked.

"I believe you must be Mikoto-san, Mito-sama has asked us to bring you to her as soon as you arrive. As for Hashirama-sama, it is true he's strong, but he can't be everywhere at once."

"Hmm... Understandable." Mikoto nodded, then in a hushed voice, she asked. "By the way, Uzumaki-san, can you answer me a question?"

The Uzumaki man frowned a little in confusion only for Mikoto to wave and say, "don't worry, it isn't something too thought provoking."

The Uzumaki nodded and said, "Go ahead then."

"Hmm. Can you tell me whether Mito accepted this marriage willingly or was forced into it?" Mikoto asked.

Shun facepalmed at the stupidness of that question. Sometimes, Mikoto was an intellectual and smart young lady, but in terms of common sense, she lacked quitely.

She wasn't even aware of what Status these men held in the clan or whether they'll give her the truth as an answer or not, she just asked...

The very next moment, her domain was deployed and being Uzumakis, they were quite the sensors so the man looked around and commented.

"This must be the famed Domain of the Tengoku clan, although I can't feel any malicious intention from you, I would kindly ask that you retract your domain."

Mikoto squinted her eyes at him but didn't oblige, "You haven't answered my question."

"You are visitors here, young lady, and although you're Mito-sama's friend, I'll be forced to use force of pushed." The man also swuinted his eyes at her.

"I think Mikoto just found her match." Shun whispered to Hinami who gave him the stink eye causing him to raise his hand in surrender.

"Mikoto, stop it, we're visitors here, don't make a scene." Shun admonished her, then turning to the Uzumaki, he continued. "Don't mind the lass, she can be quite stubborn in things concerning her friends so..."

The man nodded and calmed his chakra as he felt Mikoto's domain disappear.

"It's admirable that she cares about her friends in a world such as this, but there should be a clear demarcations..." The man replied.

"Then please, lead the way, we've travelled quite the distance to attend this memorable event, also, you can't keep your young lady waiting." Shun said.

"Mm. Follow me." Saying that, he flickered towards a direction together with his entourage.

Nodding to his party, Shun flashed and followed behind them.

"I wonder how much Hashirama has grown since we separated, hopefully, he hasn't let down 'grandpa' down." Shun said to Hinami telepathically as they ran.

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Map above is my chosen description of the Shinobi world