I didn’t think I would be out at sea so soon after I’d returned but today was a solemn day for some two-hundred persons. But I’d shut my heart to such sonder, I didn’t want to or need to think of how every one of the lives I’d set out to sail with from the mainland had the same ethical value, including Ao and Uncle Aoto who accompanied me and even the grizzly Chuunin that would be today’s executors.

“You’re brooding.” Uncle noted pointedly beside me. He had a green apple and a blunt kitchen knife working away slices into his mouth.

Junichi had just informed me that everything was set and ready for me at the docks and I started to leave when I caught Uncle Aoto having breakfast, he would have eaten all and more that was prepared this morning had he not been busy flirting with the cook. Once he saw me storming out first thing in the morning without stopping to eat or drink, he invited himself out with me in place of Junichi.

It was a welcome, if impromptu escort and as I stared out at the three ratchety ships that carried around fifty prisoners and death row scum I felt ever reminded of the reality that decided the worth of life around here. It was me.

“I have never ordered so many lives be snuffed at once before, defenceless lives.” I said, arms clasped behind my back helped keep my haori from billowing away in the sea winds.

Uncle shrugged, sliced a piece of apple and ate, “That true, I don’t think I have either. Oh don’t scowl like that, I know what you’re feeling right now, Yagura-kun and I know few others have to deal with a decision as heavy as this every morning.”

I inhaled the annoyance his nonchalant response brewed and asked, “But?”

He sliced another piece, “But you the Mizukage and these people, prisoners, criminals, fiends, thieves, murderers, traitors and worse, spies. You may see them as defenceless mittens now but you know the truth. Give them the chance and you’ll always regret it.”

I shook my head as I scoffed, “Oh yes, that I know, I understand but what I am feeling right now…I am not bringing justice or vengeance to these people. I feel even less about those ones.” I nodded my head up the deck where fifteen of the Kumo-nin that Junko and Fuguki had captured hung upside down with their heads masked and ready to be plunged into the basin of water.

I shrugged, “Don’t get misunderstand, I am furious at what they did, what they managed to accomplish under our noses but I am not furious at them. They’re just in the way, collateral, which, in their case, I readily accept for the dignity and pride of Kirigakure. But the others…”

“Ahh,” Uncle mused, nodding knowingly as we turned our gazes to the other two transport ships. They were less of ships and more of large boats who's destruction wouldn’t be felt. “I think I understand.”

Hope blossomed in my heart, a useless one for nothing would change even if he could read my mind, “Do you?”

Uncle chucked the appleseed hard into the water so it made a huge splash before setting a stony gaze on me, “You’ve removed yourself from civilian activities, during your…brief tenure, your ready council has carried the burden of meting out justice to the lowest scum of the land of water and Kirigakure.”

He pointed at one of the shitty boats, “Rapists, child murderers, kidnappers, violent brigands and all types of abusers. Your people do not want these people alive, they don’t want them near, they don’t want them even as an idea. You are the Mizukage and you defend us not just from the might of other nations but from the horrors of our own.”

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I couldn’t help but gulp, “Well said,”

Uncle grinned, “I’ve had practice giving justification, this wasn’t hard.”

“I understand and I am grateful for the council's grace in sparing me the ugliness of our people, I should join you for one of these sessions. But, though I believe in the justice we’re doing here, it still sinks my gut that I didn’t order them dead for justice but for power instead.”

Uncle found a stool and sat while I stood, he leaned against the hull with his legs crossed as he regarded me curiously. “And yet still, you know you are justified, otherwise you would take another route, another means to get this power you need to defend us.”

I nodded. There were a myriad of justifications I could conjure for taking this rather vile deal with a summon animal. I couldn’t follow any other route to acquire Senjutsu, it was an extremely rare ability that so few could hope to achieve even if they had contracts with animals knowledgeable of the ways.

There was no hope for me to somehow become a student of the ‘kind’ Mount Myoboku or the gentle Lady Katsuyu. All I was left with was a similar deal as Orochimaru had gotten but with a hopefully kinder animal path. Kaizoku was an indecipherable being to me for now, he was clearly powerful but whether he and his kind would be as greedy for blood as Orochimaru’s summons was yet to be seen.

His method to Senjutsu was also yet to be seen but I supposed that’s why I stood here, desperate for a defence and offence strong enough to bolster me against the enemies in the shadows.

In the end what other justification did I need except, “There’s no other choice, I wish there was one, a less tortuous and cruel one but…I will do what I must.”

Uncle smiled lightly and patted my shoulder, “I trust you.”

My mouth hung open for a second before I mirrored his smile, “Thank you, for your trust but also for the option of strength I explore now.”

“An Unagi…and one that can grant you the power of nature you say? Now I wish I’d given the contract a shot.”

I rolled my eyes at him, “I know you’re kidding but you still can, it’s just…you might want to get into shape before you do.” I said with a grimace.

“What?!” he looked up between his body and I, analysing, flexing and clenching where he could, “I’m in the best shape for a retired shinobi, could do with some more…bah! Who am I kidding, I’ll stick to administrative work until you call for me, Mizukage-sama.”

The title always sounded so funny coming from him despite the many times he’s said it unironically, “Why didn’t you anyway? When you first got it from grandfather?”

When he’d passed on the summon scroll to me he’d told me it was a gift from his father once he was chosen as successor to the clan. But the contract had no other signatures except mine.

His eyes glazed over a bit at the question but he answered, “I never felt like I deserved it. Your mother was the one that did and she…I just got it by default, it wasn’t mine, I did not earn it. But you did, you even survived the signing process my father was afraid would kill me.”

I wasn’t sure what to make of that last part considering what I’d learned of Kaizoku’s realm, “You would have survived, might have done better than I even.” He gave me a look that said he’d seen through my lie and I laughed, “Okay, it was difficult but you would have survived. The people that fail have their names stricken from the contract but are also trapped and transformed into kin by Kaizoku, at least this is my working theory.”

Uncle grinned, a beaming image of pride as he suggested, “Perhaps we’d learn more from the natives.”

I looked out and realised that the ships had sailed to a sufficient stop. I could summon Unaimaru and offer the prisoners to him. But first, I turned my gaze to the kumo-nin hung over a basin, “Let’s deal with them first, Unaimaru isn’t delicate.”