NOVPUBWe did have a few shinobi approach on land a couple of times and they kept their distance and didn't talk to us. After Uzumaki Construction had delivered thirty bandit heads with a disgraced Samurai's to the closest village to claim the bounties, it gained both attention and caution.
We also let it be known we had a special Jonin, Anko Mitarashi as a guard, and had hired an experienced Genin team from the Hidden Sand Village as active guards as well. Word had spread fast about that and we heard back from the Kazekage that he was proud of his kids for their work to make the village prosperous.
That made Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara work that much harder at learning their lessons and patrolling for threats. Their enthusiasm was contagious and the others worked harder to match them. As for myself, I worked at the same pace, that way I didn't screw up the meticulous schedule we had worked out to finish the bridge.
I made up for it by spoiling Tsuru and Yui, usually at night when they were in the mood for it. I did catch Yui alone a few times during the day and teased her a little and played with her, making her laugh and moan in equal measure. She had always wanted someone to do that to her and show her they were thinking about her and loved her enough to disrupt their own day to sneak out to secretly meet with her.
I didn't mind indulging her like that and would keep doing it to keep her happy. It wasn't a bother, especially when it put a smile on her face for the rest of the day.
We also packed up the temporary housing every few days to bring along with us, just so we didn't have to walk all the way back to land. It had been Tsuru's idea and it kept us all closer to the worksite and the people we cared about. Staying together and safe was the entire point of having guards with us, so that's what we did.
*
The entire bridge was finished in only three weeks, much faster than anyone else had ever built any kind of bridge, let alone across a wide expanse of water to connect a mostly isolated island to the mainland.
As soon as the last brick was put into place, with a huge waiting crowd standing a hundred feet away and staring at us, a soft cheer came from them before they split apart and a short ugly man with fifty mercenaries behind him stepped through the opening.
“Thanks for completing my bridge. The tolls are going to make me even richer.” Gato said with a commanding voice. “Now get out of my territory.”
I had been kneeling to finish the smooth surface of the road, so I stood up to my full height. Even with me wearing work clothes, it didn't hide my muscular body at all. “Did you just claim this was your bridge?”
“It's on my land, so yes. It's MY bridge. You better leave or you're going to regret it.” Gato said and motioned with his hand. All of the mercenaries drew their weapons and braced for a fight.
I sighed and shook my head. “You're not even going to offer to pay for it, are you?”
“Why would I? You built it for free and connected it to my island without my permission.” Gato said and his arrogance filled his voice as he kept speaking. “I claim it by right of possession and...”
I took out a kunai, a diamond-shaped metal dart with a finger ring on the back of it, duplicated it, and flung them faster than the eye could see. They sunk into each of the man's eyes and snapped his head back. Blood gushed out of the eye holes and the dead body fell to the ground and twitched.
“Go ahead and take care of the rest.” I said and motioned with my hand.
The air was filled with shuriken, kunai, sai, and daggers, from all different directions. The mercs didn't have time to react or surrender and they died before their brains could register that they had been precisely killed and none of the nearby civilians had been hurt or even had blood splatter them. That's how good their accuracy was after all the training they did.
Dead silence came from the crowd as they stared at all of the dead bodies that they thought were going to overwhelm our small group.
“That was a bit anti-climactic.” Anko said and appeared in a small swirl of leaves.
“You're just sad you couldn't slip a cobra into Gato's clothes before he showed up here.” Temari said as she appeared beside her with only a small swirl of sand. She had been practising her version of the Shunshin a lot to cut that effect down as much as possible.
Anko huffed. “The little bastard always ties up the ends of his pant legs and his sleeves! Who does that every day for no reason?”
“Someone that's justifiably paranoid.” Tsuru said and came out from behind the closest pillar with Yui behind her. “Good job, boys. You didn't miss a single target and will receive full marks for this exercise.”
A slightly blushing Gaara and Kankuro appeared in a swirl of sand beside their sister, Temari. “Thank you, Sensei Tsuru.”
Yashamaru chuckled and walked into view from his hiding place for the ambush. “Only you would treat this as training and not the liberation of the locals.”
“We didn't liberate them.” I said and looked over at the still staring crowd. “We're just claiming the bounties for the mercs. What they do to Gato's place is up to them.”
Almost as one, the entire crowd startled and jumped slightly, exchanged pointed looks, then every single one of them started yelling about being free and ran back towards the town.
“Will there be a nice bonfire after they loot his mansion and shipping company?” Anko asked as she and Tsuru walked over to the bodies. “It might dry some of this place up.”
The kids laughed and ran over to help Tsuru and Anko loot the bodies of weapons and valuables. Their heads and bodies were stuffed into a bag after that.
I made Gato's body disappear, just so there wouldn't be any evidence. “If they work at it, they might be able to burn it down.”
“If they were smart, they would keep it and use it as an inn or something.” Anko said. “Or a casino.”
“I doubt they'd want to gamble away what little money they have.” Yui said and walked over to me. “Should we find an old building to use or do we approach the village elders to rent something?”
“Definitely rent. They'll need some constant income until we spread word about the bridge.” I answered and we all heard the sound of smashing wood and then cheers. “We can wait until after supper before we approach them about it. They're kind of busy having fun right now.”
That made everyone smile and we walked off of the bridge and onto the land to set up our temporary living space. It took half an hour to put up the walls and roof and we added the partitions for our rooms. As they unpacked their things, I put the kitchen together and set about making a nice meal for us all, which the others appreciated.
With the bridge finished and another permanent teleportation circle to be built, we could move on to the Land of Water and start building what the wife of the Water Daimyo wanted. As I cooked, I had the ridiculous idea to build a water park in the Land of Water. It wouldn't take much effort to start another business in another country, especially if we hire the locals to run it.
The shipping business back in Suna was already booming and making deliveries all over their own country of Wind, their neighbor Fire Country, and Earth Country. Even the small lands of Iron and Rice were getting things brought in, since it was much cheaper to buy basic goods from larger countries that produced more.
Now with Wave taken care of and added into the shipping routes, it wouldn't be long before Water Country was also engaging with trade with the other nations. No matter how much money you had, you always enjoyed finding deals that saved you money.
*
Not surprisingly, the townsfolk did manage to burn down Gato's mansion and danced on the ashes. They left his business building alone and rented it to us instead, because they said it was easier to keep the association about shipping to the same building, only we had to renovate it to remove the animosity the other shipping company had from the local population. We did it in an hour and everyone was happy.
After hiring a large group of the locals to gather the cheap toll to use our bridge and to clean it once a week, we hired passage on a ship going to Water Country. Surprisingly, they weren't pirates. Gato had hired some actual ships for his real shipping needs and they didn't steal cargo or kidnap passengers to sell them as slaves or indentured workers in mines and other dangerous professions.
Since we didn't know how long a ship would take to cross the wider ocean to the Land of Water, we planned for another week of relaxing onboard and treated it like a reward for finishing the bridge. Things had worked out in our favor several times and none of us questioned it.
I would have to find an actual map of the different countries to figure out where the actual borders of the lands were and where the best places for bridges were. Once word spread about the grandeur of the bridge we had built was spread around, I knew we would have many more requests to fix, repair, or replace a lot of the other bridges that existed, not to mention all the new ones that were needed.
I had also received an ungodly amount of Karma Points when the bridge officially opened. Apparently, it didn't count until someone actually used it and crossed it, which made me laugh in my head. It was only supposed to be a small trickle of income, since there wasn't a whole lot of things in Wave, and we had severely underestimated its importance. 𝓷ℴ𝓿𝓹𝓾𝒷.𝓬𝓸𝓂
Since Gato had worked for years to make it a focal point for all shipping while trying to gain a monopoly on it, everyone used their docks. With his excessive fees done away with and replaced with normal ones, that went right into Wave's coffers, more and more ships started showing up.
We didn't even have to deal with the pirates ourselves, which was a shock. The other shippers and townsfolk took care of them themselves. Without Gato there to fund and protect them, the pirates were left high and dry. Most went legitimate and joined other crews, since the money was much better, as were the working conditions, and the rest were killed.
*
The Land of Water's main island welcomed us with open arms and with enthusiasm, as if we were returning heroes. It had been just over a week on the ship with the favorable winds to help push us along and everyone had somehow heard about both the shipping business and the new bridge.
The Water Daimyo himself was there with his entourage to greet us with words of thanks and ushered us into his carriage. His wife was impatient and he was not going to make her wait any longer to meet us or to discuss what she wanted us to do.
When I agreed to leave immediately and said that a happy wife meant a happy life, both Tsuru and Yui softly laughed. Anko gave me a thoughtful look and Temari blushed slightly before she gained a determined expression on her face. Akiko nodded and rubbed a small ring on her finger. It wasn't a wedding band, though. She wouldn't do anything like that without telling us.
We arrived at the man's large sprawling estate and it looked a little over the top with the features. They had gone too far with it and it looked ostentatious instead of opulent, which meant we had a lot of work ahead of us to fix everything and make the place something that every other nation would want to visit to see for themselves.
Sanzui Unabara introduced us to a beautiful grey-haired woman, his wife and partner, as his motivation to make the Land of Water into the prosperous nation it was today. The old woman blushed and smacked him on the head for embarrassing her, then she laughed. It set a perfect tone for the meeting and Tsuru and Yui started talking back and forth in rapid succession.
With a whispered word that they were going to be at it for a while, Sanzui and his aides led the rest of us to our rooms. Once we entered, he apologized and claimed he couldn't slack off with his wife busy, and left to return to his duties. We quickly settled in and waited for Tsuru and Yui to return. Just before supper, they entered the room and had huge smiles on their faces.
One of the Daimyo's aides showed up as they told us we were going to have a lot of fun working on the updated plans. We were led to the large formal dining room and had a pleasant meal with the Daimyo, his wife, several members of the civilian council of the Hidden Mist Village, as well as several of their strongest ninja. The Mizukage himself, Yagura Karatachi, sat at the right hand of the Daimyo.
The teenager was the youngest Kage in history and was also the most powerful ninja of the village, thanks to being the Jinchuriki of the Three-Tailed Beast, Isobo. He also had full control over the chakra the beast emitted, even though the beast didn't care about his container or what his host did with energy.
When I sat across from him at the left hand of the Daimyo's wife, his eyes widened. He was surprised at my appearance and sent out a pulse of chakra, then frowned when he didn't detect anything from me. His thoughts gave away that he was prideful of his power and position, both of which I apparently didn't have, and he didn't like that I was sitting across from him as if we were equals.
The young man near the top of his teenage years, stood up and turned to face the Water Daimyo. He didn't say anything, because he wasn't willing to publicly embarrass himself by stating his protest out loud. Just his standing was enough of an indication that he thought I wasn't worthy to sit across from him or so close to the king of the country.
The Water Daimyo let out a sigh and his wife kept her face blank, despite the anger she felt at the insult. “Yagura, we've worked together for years and we've raised our entire nation to the best of our abilities. Are you really suggesting that I don't know who to sit across from you after all the meals we've shared?”
Yagura looked embarrassed and didn't speak. He also didn't sit back down.
“Mizukage.” The beautiful redhead at his side whispered. “Please sit back down.”
Unlike him, she didn't protest sitting across from Tsuru. She knew a powerful person when she saw them, even if they successfully hid their chakra from her. It took immense control to completely suppress any energy leakage and she did not want to anger anyone powerful enough to hide that they had any chakra at all.
“It's all right, Lady Terumi.” I said, my voice full of patience. “Some youths have to be excused for their ignorance until they learn to have the proper respect for their elders.”
Several gasps came from their side of the table and a few chuckles came from ours. The Water Daimyo's wife clamped her mouth shut and barely fought to not show amusement, since she knew who I was as well.
Yagura's embarrassment fled and he turned to glare at me. “I am the Mizukage of the Hidden Mist Village!” He nearly shouted and gained everyone's undivided attention, so they all saw him scrunch up his face as if he smelled something bad. “I am much more important than whoever you are.”
“Naruto, don't.” Tsuru whispered, only it was too quiet in the room and everyone heard her.
“Master Zabuza, what will he do?” A pretty girl whispered to the muscular man beside her.
“If it was me, the Mizukage would already be dead for the insult.” Zabuza answered.
“I don't want to rule your village. I have too much work to do.” I responded.
Mei Terumi briefly glanced at Zabuza and saw his slight nod. “Then maim him and we'll take his place.”
Yagura sucked in a breath and moved to draw his weapon as his thoughts gave away that he intended to decapitate Mei for her insolence. I pointed at his arm and a thin beam of light sheared off his arm at the shoulder and was immediately cauterized. Both the arm and the barely unsheathed sword dropped to the floor.
“Done.” I said into the resulting silence. A brush across their thoughts let me know that they were all shocked I hadn't stood up, used hand signals, or called out the powerful technique. No one had done that before, even if some of them were smart enough to muffle themselves with masks when they did it.
Even Yagura stared at the severed arm as if he couldn't believe it. He had been disarmed, in both senses of the word. It had happened in an instant and he couldn't have blocked it or avoided it. Something like that shouldn't have happened, not to him. He was the Mizukage!
“I believe we can offer free shipping rates for the first week during your new tenure.” Tsuru said to Mei, whom just realized what she said and what it mean.
The gorgeous redhead stood with a smile on her face, moved Yagura out of the way, and sat in the seat beside the Water Daimyo.
Zabuza let out a little chuckle and moved over to sit in Mei's previous seat and the pretty girl moved and sat beside him. Two other people moved up and left the last seat for Yagura, which meant that he was pretty much removed from the entire line of succession to become Mizukage again.
The Water Daimyo gave the entire table a searching look before he looked at Yagura. Since he wasn't bleeding out or seemed harmed, despite the loss of an arm, he let out a sigh and started eating. His wife was next and then everyone else joined in.
Yagura needed a few more minutes to come out of his shock. He bent down and picked up his sword, awkwardly slid it back into the scabbard, and the picked up his severed arm. He walked to the end of the large table, glared at the last chair, then put his arm on his lap and started to eat, too.
