Next day
Capital of the fire country
It started with the excitement of the children playing toward the dock who didn't stop pointing at the ocean with their innocent enthusiasm, then their parents and the workers there, and soon words had traveled to their neighbor.
Soon the dock was full of stunned and scared citizens looking at the massive boat of metal floating toward them.
"What kind of monster is it?"
"It isn't a monster idiot it is a boat!"
"Are you sure? What kind of boat is as big, It is at least three times the size of the biggest boat that I saw, and it was the one of our Daimyo,"
"How does that even float?"
"Is it safe to be here?"
While they were discussing the ship of the Sky country finally arrived on the dock of the fire capital.
"Clop, clop, make way"
At the same time, multiple carriages made their way toward it.
"What is it?"
"Looks like a procession!" someone else exclaims
A few minutes later a bridge was installed and in front of all the citizens, Akashi wearing a traditional white and blue sky Kimono colors of the Sky country appeared.
By his side, Arima and Karin in blood-red Uzumaki Kimono followed.
They were followed By the old Kuroko one of the Yanagi's advisors, and an old woman named Araya she was she had been many things in her life Samurai, businesswoman mother, advisor, and many more.
Following them were the businessmen and others sent for the negotiation protected by the samurais and ninjas flanking them.
"We welcome you all to the Fire capital," A muscular man with white hair all over his head and wearing elegant clothes offered a polite bow before continuing
"Welcome to you Sky prince, I'm Leyasu, one of the ministers of this country,"
"I'm Seichiro Akashi, adopted son of the Sky Daimyo Yanagi Seichiro, It is a pleasure to visit your beautiful capital," Akashi said offering a polite bow in return, he then started to introduce the other
"You may already know them, but let me make the presentation, my cousin Arima Uzumaki, my friend Karin, and the two behind us are the elders Kuroko and Araya,"
"Yes my prince, I Know them, I met the elder Araya at the fifth wedding of the previous Sky Daimyo may he rest in peace when I was sent as representative a long time ago and I met the elder Kuroko years ago, I don't remember when exactly,"
"Woah so you are all old friends, huh,"
"I wouldn't say friend young master," responded Araya with a frown "But for people like us encounter are inevitable,"
"Well I wouldn't want to keep you here for too long," he said looking at the crowd around them that kept growing not only because of the massive ship but also because of the presence of the apparition of the red-haired clan after a long time.
"Follow me please I will lead you to your residence," they then all boarded their luxurious carriages in the direction of the residence reserved for them.
They then continued their conversation on the road.
In the begining Akashi was half listening to the old man at the same time he was observing the layout of the city and its protections, to keep an eye out for those who would target them like for example the Zetsu.
But after a while, he left that mission to Karin who was the expert on that domain while he conversed with that old man.
"Huh. I didn't know that," he said looking at the smiling Leyasu before turning toward the old Kuroko and his his expression told him that it was true.
"I knew that she had run away because of an engagement but I didn't know that the engagement was with one of the sons of the Daimyo," he explained
"Of course, it isn't something to brag about young master, It caused a lot of trouble for everyone involved, a real drama,"
'Hope they are over it, I don't want to have to deal with my mother's resentful ex-fiance will be a hassle, she could've at least given me a heads up,'
They continued the conversation and Akashi, and he learned a lot of interesting things that he didn't know before.
Turning to Arima who was seated beside him he asked
"So you already met the Fire Daimyo,"
"I was too small to remember, I took part in a few social events and I also briefly met a few nobles that visited Uzushio in business or other things, before it was destroyed."
"You never told me that either," Akashi complained
"You never asked?!"
They continued their discussion until they arrived at a massive estate belonging to the Sky Country.
"Well, it was a pleasure to meet both the Sky Prince and Whirpool Prince," With that, he left with his men in his carriage.
Akashi looked at the old Leyashu with a mixt feeling
'He is a talkative old man,' Akashi thought walking inside with Arima and Karin, there were already maids inside waiting for them.
"So you are both princes, huh, I thought that only Akashi was the only one that could be considered one, you know because..." Karin said a little bewildered
"The destruction on Uzushiogakure? I get it but it is a little more complicated there are rules, Uzushio isn't the first country to be destroyed and it won't be the last, in fact sometimes a prince of a destroyed noble clan can become even more valuable after the destruction of his country," Arima explained
"Why, shouldn't it make them less valuable?"
"It depends, in fact, if you can prove your legitimacy and attract a powerful baker they can help you rebuild your nation, they may give you one of their daughters in marriage to strengthen your alliance but most of the time if you have no power, you will be a puppet ruler" he continued his explaination
At the same time, Kuroko and Araya started to give their orders Kuroko commanded the Ninjas and Araya the samurai.
"Check everything, the inside, and the surroundings, establish a perimeter of defense..."
"Install the seals on the walls, I want a background of all those people...."
By the time they arrived in the building, the men were already deployed each executing their tasks with precision, care, and focus.
Before they even walked inside Kuroko had already deployed the samurais and ninjas inside the estate.
"I thought that I was gonna be the only one who would have a hard time, but it looks like you will have your share of trouble too," Akashi said entering the house.
"Don't be anxious I already went through that before, I think I was seven at the time, I will guide you if you get into any trouble, even though I have a few things to do myself," Saying that his head turned toward an estate nearly as big as this one but in a much more dilapidated state, on it was the whirlpool of the Uzumaki clan.
Seating in the living room they turned to Karin
"So how was it," he asked
"Well I didn't reach everywhere of course but from what I could see more samurais are patrolling throughout the city than at home, not sure if they are as skilled as the ones we have but they are more numerous, I even noted five that could pass as chunin, there are also some monks here,"
Taking a few seconds Aakshi analysed what Karin told him
'It means that there are more samurais here than at home, I wonder if I should try to organize something, to see how well they fare against the ones that fathers trained, the old school samurais against the new,'
Taking out his laptop, he started to type something on it while they discussed what to do in the following days.
He had already noticed that there was electricity and electronics all around the city, even though it wasn't as advanced as in the sky country it was more advanced than in the ninjas' villages.
At the same time, he noticed his worries were unfounded, that it was obvious that there would be the necessary facilities, and they wouldn't buy their laptops if they couldn't even charge them.
****
Unknown location
"Madara-sama, Madara-sama, the Uzumaki, a delegation of the Uzumaki arrived at the capital of the fire nation today," A white Zetsu shouted sprouting out of the ground
"So it was today," Madara Uchiha now a frail old man said waking up
"We have been unable to infiltrate the Sky country since they took refuge there, it is obvious that they now know about you, we have lost many white Zetsu there without being able to infiltrate the place and we couldn't do anything about them since they were so careful, but now this is our chance," said black Zetsu
"Use the network that we have established, do what you have to do but make sure to get some result," he said before getting back to sleep.