Bai Jue: What the hell are you? (Seeking monthly votes)

"Only three minutes left?"

The port of the Land of Hot Water was already shrouded in darkness.

Baiyu frowned as he glanced at the time. After a moment of hesitation, he gestured to the helm behind him, ordering the anchor to be raised on both sides.

Woo!!

The Dawnbreaker sounded its departure whistle, a dull and loud hum cutting through the port.

The Dawnbreaker, disguised as a tugboat, swayed slightly like a tipsy giant, its hull bumping against the waves.

Inside the duty room, the drugged man slept soundly, merely smacking his lips and shifting his sleeping position at the sound of the whistle.

--Three minutes.

Their trip to the Land of Whirlpools was a secret operation. In three minutes, whether Yun Chuan and the others arrived or not, the ship would leave the port and head to the Land of Whirlpools alone, ensuring no witnesses discovered their trail.

"Lord Yun Chuan, has he run into trouble again?" Baiyu felt a hint of worry, spitting on the ground and muttering, "This damned world is getting more chaotic."

Kirigakure's recent movements were becoming increasingly obvious. While carrying out tyranny and purging dissidents, the Third Mizukage was also secretly mobilizing the forces at his disposal.

Baiyu didn't know what the Third Mizukage was planning. He only needed to follow Lord Yun Chuan's instructions.

Just as Baiyu was pondering, "Aaaah! I'm not ready yet!!"

Hearing the voice from below, Baiyu's body jolted.

Bang!

Before he could even lower his head to see the source of the sound, a black shadow was thrown onto the deck, screaming wildly. The moment it landed headfirst, a heavy thud echoed.

The body, which had been flailing wildly, instantly stiffened, sliding to Baiyu's feet with the remaining force of the throw.

"..."

Baiyu, feeling empathetic, couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth. He looked down at the orange-haired brat lying like a dead fish, silently mourning for the unlucky kid in his heart for a second.

Below the ship, Yun Chuan ignored Yahiko's screams, jumping from the shore and landing lightly on the deck.

Nagato followed suit, grabbing the ship's railing with one hand and nimbly flipping onto the deck, landing firmly on his feet.

"Stop playing dead." He kicked the corpse-like Yahiko with his foot, his tone cold and merciless without even looking down. "You're tough as nails, you won't be hurt by a fall like that."

As he spoke, Nagato's mind recalled the words his brother had said.

"Nagato, a person's dreams shrink with age. As a child, you want to become a towering figure, but as various blows come one after another, you gradually become rational, objective, and fair."

"You worry about more and more things, no longer going crazy, no longer letting yourself be controlled by emotions, and you don't take sides or express opinions, ensuring that you can always withdraw unscathed."

"You see some people crying, shouting, angry, and helpless, and you laugh at them in your heart for being so stupid."

"You always remain silent, believing that silence is the best weapon, too lazy to fight for anything, accepting everything, and living your life meticulously and skillfully, like a pendulum forever stuck in the middle."

"Such people do make up the majority, but they only make me feel bored. Sometimes, calmness is not necessarily clarity, it may just be cowardice. But you and Yahiko are actually the same, you're people who can make me feel happy."

"For me, life is like this, like tasting wine, sometimes taking a sip, sometimes drinking wildly, doing whatever makes you happy, that's more interesting."

Are he and I the same kind of interesting people?

Finding value in interesting people and things, and having no patience for boring people and things.

His brother was still as mischievous as ever in his words and deeds.

Nagato took a deep look at Yahiko, and then gently kicked him again: "Get up, don't lie here blocking the way."

Yahiko, lying on the deck, twitched, raised his face, which was as black as the bottom of a pot, and gritted his teeth, but still stood up with a carp-like flip.

"Uncle Baiyu, please take care of him." Yun Chuan handed the sleeping infant in his arms to Baiyu.

Seeing this, Baiyu was also stunned for a moment, taking it with a blank expression.

But after looking down at the sleeping little face, an old smile appeared on his wrinkled face.

"Oh!" Baiyu rocked the swaddling clothes, smiling and squinting as he asked, "Lord Yun Chuan, how is it that every time you go out you can kidnap...呸, bring a few children back?"

In the past, they were at least five or six years old, but this time it had simply become a newborn baby.

"Have you named him yet?" Baiyu looked up at Yun Chuan, his eyes seemingly shining.

"Not yet, Yahiko saved him. Let him name him himself... Let's not talk about this. Uncle Baiyu, am I disturbing your good times?"

Looking at Baiyu in front of him, whose deep aura had dissipated a lot and who felt like an old tree in spring, Yun Chuan blinked and said jokingly, "You haven't forgotten the way to the Land of Whirlpools, have you?"

"Please don't tease me." Baiyu showed a wry smile, hammering his lower back. "I'm more than grateful to you for helping me escape the sea of suffering!"

After saying that, under Yun Chuan's teasing gaze, he gestured behind him again, his old face flushed as he took out a map.

"This is the most recent route." Baiyu pointed out the route on the map, explaining, "If there are no accidents, one day should be enough."

As he spoke, the large ship sailed out of the harbor towards the black, boundless waves, leaving only the deep, silent night in the bay.

"Then let's do it that way." Looking at the route, Yun Chuan nodded.

From Baiyu's hazy memory, the journey from Konoha to Sunagakure, even at a ninja's pace, would take at least three days on foot.

In comparison, traveling by boat was already considered fast. Reaching the Land of Whirlpools before Kirigakure shouldn't be a problem.

"Brother."

After sending Yahiko back to the cabin, Nagato approached Yun Chuan and asked in a low voice, "Do you know Kirigakure's purpose in attacking the Land of Whirlpools?"

He now knew that his brother's so-called relatives were the Uzumaki Clan members in the Land of Whirlpools.

Although he was born and raised in the Land of Rain and had never had contact with those clansmen, his heart couldn't help but be touched upon learning that he had relatives.

After hearing the news of Kirigakure's attack on the Land of Whirlpools, Nagato felt an even deeper hostility towards Kirigakure.

"Maybe some guys are just too restless,"

Yun Chuan chuckled, stroking his chin. "Some people hope to create an even more chaotic world."

Hearing this, Nagato was stunned, somewhat puzzled.

However, Yun Chuan didn't continue to explain. Instead, he smiled and narrowed his eyes, placing his hand on Nagato's shoulder under his bewildered gaze.

Glug! Glug!!

A large amount of scarlet blood mist gushed out from his palm, instantly enveloping Nagato within three seconds, spreading and covering his body like a liquid.

"Brother?"

Nagato felt an extremely cold chill, but out of trust for his brother, he didn't resist. He simply frowned awkwardly and asked, "What..."

Before he could finish, Nagato's words suddenly stopped.

Because, to his stunned expression, something white was wriggling and growing out of his chest...

"Ah!!"

Accompanied by a terrified and shrill scream, first the head, then the body, a white humanoid creature twisted and grew out.

"What the hell is this thing?!"

Nagato, covered by the symbiote, and the white humanoid thing looked at each other, both uttering frightened voices in unison.