The return journey

Although the others had teased them until they were bright red, everyone still enjoyed the evening meal. As Yufeng ate some stir-fried food, he said, "So you're leaving already. Looks like our three-person team is breaking up."

"No matter where I go, we'll always be comrades," Uzumaki Men said earnestly.

"Honestly, it's not like Men is never coming back," Yucheng quipped beside him.

The other three offered their congratulations to Uzumaki Men and Uzumaki Shana as well. They had gotten along fairly well at the Ninja Academy and often chatted, so they were quite comfortable around one another.

"Has everyone had enough to eat?"

"Yes. Thank you, Teacher."

"Not bad. You make a good couple," Uchiha Mu remarked as he looked at the red-haired boy and girl. Although he still held the values of his previous life, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. He inevitably lowered his standards somewhat when it came to relationships. Of course, there was no need for electroshock treatment. He could use Lightning Release himself.

"Thank you, Teacher Mu." Uzumaki Shana was still a little shy, though she had heard it so often that she was nearly immune.

"Take care, Teacher." Uzumaki Men wanted to thank him, but those were the only words that came out. As an orphan of the Uzumaki Clan, he had lived on the clan's relief payments.

One day, over a year ago, an Uchiha had arrived at the Uzumaki Clan with a Hyuga woman and met with their clan leader, Uzumaki Ashina. Men did not know what Uchiha Mu had discussed with the clan leader, but Ashina had agreed to let Uchiha Mu adopt some children.

Men had been one of them. Uchiha Mu had taken him back and carefully trained him. When he returned to the Uzumaki Clan, he was no longer an orphan living on charity, but a genius. Now, he had even entered a relationship with a young lady from one of the clan's traditional families. Uchiha Mu had made all of this possible, and even someone as dense as Men knew that.

"Go on, go on. I'm not even eighteen. Why am I worrying about all this?" Uchiha Mu waved them off dismissively.

"Hmm? Mu, are you bad-mouthing us?" Hyuga Lingnai and Keiko Uzumaki walked over.

"Huh?" Uchiha Mu froze. Despite currently being the third-strongest person in the Shinobi World, he was at a loss.

"Teacher Mu wasn't. He was just trying to make parting less painful," Uzumaki Shana said, coming to his rescue.

"That's just how Teacher is."

"Come eat with us. It'll be hard to get everyone together like this again." Uchiha Mu patted the two seats beside him.

"All right." Neither woman refused. Naturally, they often interacted with Uchiha Mu's students too, except for Takeuchi and his two companions. With Madara's guidance, those three had enough talent to become Special Jōnin, but before that? Chunin had been their limit.

Yufeng and the others had been hoping to watch a bloodbath, but the three got along surprisingly well. Yufeng finally understood why his teacher had not chosen a woman from the Uchiha Clan. He was probably afraid she would awaken her Sharingan out of sheer rage over this.

The next day, Uchiha Mu waited at the village entrance with Keiko Uzumaki. Twenty-one people would be making the return journey, the same number as when they had arrived, except Uzumaki Men and Keiko Uzumaki had traded places.

The Uzumaki clan members soon assembled. Some looked back at the village reluctantly, but after a year away from home, they also hoped their own village could become like this one.

The journey was full of practical combat training. Aside from fighting Uchiha Mu, they also had to wipe out bandits. By now, dealing with bandits was a piece of cake.

The Land of Whirlpools occupied an island across the sea from the Land of Fire, but it was not far from the mainland. It did not take Uchiha Mu and the others long to return to the island enclosed by a barrier.

At the sight of the island, some of the Uzumaki clan members sighed. They had guessed that the village would not have changed. It looked exactly as it had when they left.

Since the villagers had no need to leave, and shinobi neither needed to travel on foot nor follow ordinary routes when they went out, there was not a single proper road outside the village. The village essentially operated as a closed system.

Of course, Uchiha Mu had not come empty-handed. He had brought plenty of things that did not require electricity. Kakuzu had supplied electricity to almost the entire Shinobi World, but he had left a few overseas island nations untouched.

Mostly, Kakuzu did not think it was worth it. He had investigated the Land of Whirlpools. It was simply a village founded by a shinobi clan, self-sufficient and largely isolated from the outside world. It did not even trade with Konoha. Under those conditions, selling anything there would result in a loss. Worse, taking away the money that sustained its internal economy could easily cause it to collapse.

Uzumaki Ashina hurried over. They had not seen each other for a year, and Uchiha Mu felt that he had aged considerably.

"I brought them all back in one piece. Want to test them?" Uchiha Mu asked him.

"No need. I trust you." Looking at the children who seemed disappointed, Uzumaki Ashina began to wonder whether he had made a mistake. Perhaps this young man had been right from the very beginning. If things continued this way, the Uzumaki Clan would be wiped out.

"Clan Leader, Men and I would like to take part in managing the village." Uzumaki Shana wasted no time. She was a young lady from a prominent family within the clan. Although she did not belong to Uzumaki Ashina's branch, she still had some influence.

"Uzumaki Men?" Uzumaki Ashina was a little puzzled. Wasn't he the boy Uchiha Mu had taken away first, the one who had made such an impressive showing here last time?

"Yes. Men and I are together now," Uzumaki Shana replied, biting her lip.

"I see. That's fine, but you'll have to win the elders' approval. You know the Uzumaki Clan's rules, don't you?" Uzumaki Ashina did not oppose young people taking part in managing the village. After seeing the spirit of these twenty children, he knew the village needed to change.

"Understood." Uzumaki Shana looked at Uzumaki Men. Their eyes met, and they both smiled. Over the past year, their opponents had been Uchiha Mu and tailed beasts. After combat that intense, facing the Uzumaki Clan's shinobi would hardly put them under much pressure.

As they followed Uzumaki Ashina back to the village, Uchiha Mu also told him that he had stolen Keiko Uzumaki away.

"Go, then. Go." Uzumaki Ashina waved a hand. Lately, he had been trying to develop a forbidden jutsu that would turn his own body into a sealing jutsu. Whatever dangers the future held, improving their overall strength could never be wrong.

Being on good terms with Uchiha Mu was worthwhile too. Why had they never associated with the Uchiha before? Because they were a bunch of lunatics. But Uchiha Mu was different.

Keiko Uzumaki breathed a sigh of relief. She had thought the clan leader would refuse. Then she turned to Uzumaki Ashina. "Clan Leader, let me tell you about what happened in the Hundred-Clan Shinobi Nation."

"All right. Uchiha Mu, you'll be staying in the same place as last time. We've kept it clean." Uzumaki Ashina was actually curious about the village this Uchiha who had left his clan had founded.

"Haha, no problem. Shall I take another group back with me in a few days?" Uchiha Mu asked. It was essentially a bait-and-switch.

"Let's test them first." With that, Uzumaki Ashina left with Keiko Uzumaki, leaving Uchiha Mu standing there alone.

"It feels like he's stopped being wary of me now that we're familiar with each other," Uchiha Mu murmured before heading into the village. There was another factor, too: if Uchiha Mu really went berserk, no one else could stop him anyway.