“Huk tuah! To hell with you, Mizukage!” the dead man dismayed, managing somehow to spit despite being hung upside down all this while. I looked at his companions, they weren’t as outwardly spoken as he was but all held the same spite he did.

“Drop them.” I said to my executor, a middle aged Chuunin in standard Kiri garb. With a pull of a lever the rope hoisting them at their feet slackened and they dropped headfirst into the Kaizoku sea from the side of the ship.

“They’ll take their time drowning, we should go.” Uncle said, a tad impatient and excited to see me summon Unaimaru.

I hummed at that, I didn’t know if simply filling their lungs with water from the Kaizoku sea and then offering their beheaded, bloated corpses would be enough to fulfil my deal with Kaizoku but that was alright. Any losses would be covered by the excess of criminals the boats ahead had on them.

“Let’s go then.” I leaped out of my haori, leaving it behind as I shot off the side of the ship and descended into the water. Uncle splashed right after me and I smirked over my shoulder as he landed.

“Oh?” he grinned with a raised brow, “It’s a race is it?”

Rather than answer I dashed out towards the boats. They were each at sufficient distance from the vessel we just abandoned and were manned and guarded by a team of Chuunin. As the wind billowed against my hair and Uncle struggled to keep up with me, I blared out a whistle tone.

A different, shorter tune was whistled back in which I gave curt affirmation by blaring the original tone again, the result was the Chuunin guards abandoning ship. They dashed down past myself and Uncle as we approached the boats.

The prisoners were locked up in cages, some had dedicated Fuuinjutsu seals locking away their chakra and many were shackled to their peers who in turn were chained to the very boat itself.

This is it. I thought as chakra flared, grinding in my stomach as I prepared to condemn all these non-combatants to Unaimaru’s gut so I could maybe become powerful with the Sage Art. Uncle huffed though he wasn’t visibly tired and clasped my shoulder, giving a reassuring nod once I looked up at him.

But beyond the trust, support and love in his eyes my ears couldn’t block out the growing dread in the voices of some two hundred prisoners contemplating what would happen to them next. A fair portion of chakra flowed into my hands.

“Forgive me.” I cut open my thumb and blurred through quick and familiar hand seals, “Kuchiyose no Jutsu!”

I slammed my palm against the water and watched with a fallen dread at the finality of my actions as the water underneath filled with smoke. The water spat it out in a burp that repulsed Uncle and I on a wave as the sea rained.

“Where is he?” I heard Uncle ask over the rush of waters.

This being the first time I’ve attempted to summon Unaimaru— the other time was just him escorting me out of Kaizoku’s realm— I honestly didn’t know. “He should be in the water.”

I’d certainly summoned something because the water was still settling from the sudden change in volume within it. Uncle and I narrowed our gazes in search of the slippery Unagi it was meant to be and—

“Look!”

Right as I turned to look the first boat was instantly ploughed through by a long, slick and black being. It’s head— Unaimaru’s head peaked above, a certain grin smeared his features as he looked down upon the screaming and wailing prisoners.

“Oh goodness, the legends really weren’t kidding. Hahah! Mizukage-sama!” Uncle cheered, slapping a broad palm at my back to infuse me with all his pride.

But my stomach was only in knots as Unaimaru, a giant Class-C summon, turned his attention to the second boat beside the first that was reduced to driftwood around him. He inhaled, his barbels flailed excitedly as he spat out a compressed spout of water that sliced clean through the wood, shattered every foundation, slashed through chains and split men open as they fell under the pressure wave alongside their boat.

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At this point the water was sailed majorly by planks of wood and chained corpses. But Unaimaru wasn’t done. For the few that sought to save themselves by paddling away, Unaimaru sank underwater until only the hairy top of his otherwise smooth head could be seen. The giant Unagi then swam about his victims, gathering them into a centre as he continued to pick up speed and water behind his kicking tail.

“Is it…?”

“Yes, he is.” I said, a bitter taste in my mouth as I stood by and watched Unaimaru create a whirlpool that trapped every one of his victims, sending them tumbling head over heels, water over sky. “They will all drown.”

“That was the idea. With this, you’ve paid the price for power greater than the Five Kages have known.” Uncle said, watching with me.

“Yes, Kirigakure will be safe after this, things can only get better.” My hands balled into fists beside me as I quenched all feelings of guilt and moral corruption, I had no right after all and neither did anyone else. Few people would until the true child of prophecy was born and then, perhaps then this world would have a place for Jason’s useless feelings.

Criminals, the lot of them. I breathed and as the whirlpool began to die down, the bodies it swallowed never to be seen again, Unaimaru slithered towards us, his eyes and hairy top of his head still the only part of him above water.

I stepped out in front of Uncle as Unaimaru got close. I hadn’t spent long with the Unagi but I knew it liked to test the boundaries, at least it liked to test mine. My thoughts are almost instantly proven when it’s eyes crinkle at me, whether that was mirth or annoyance I wasn’t sure nor did I care.

“I’ve paid Kaizoku’s bill, Unaimaru, it’s time.” I said, ignoring the way Uncle marvelled, chuckling amusedly to himself.

Unaimaru rose from the waters, his eyes were narrowed slits that judged Uncle and I but mostly Uncle as his nose wrinkled when he asked, “That one smells like you, not part of the offering I assume.”

“The offering is paid.” I said, arms folded and face hardened against Unaimaru, “It’s time Kaizoku live up to his end, isn’t it?”

Unaimaru smirked as he swayed in the water, “Perhaps it is, perhaps it isn’t. Kaizoku will be the one to decide, but otherwise, it has been a fine and quick offering. None of your predecessors have managed to pay their due of drowned souls so quickly, except you…Mizukage.”

I didn’t like the way he said that, any of that. Uncle brushed past me, “Unagi! I hear you are called Unaimaru? Yes? You spoke of predecessors yet the—”

Unaimaru growled low and rough, “Why does it question me?”

“Answer the question if you know it, there is no shame in ignorance otherwise.” I said, clasping Uncle's rather eager hand. Unaimaru was little threat to me but with Uncle here…I didn’t know if the similarities between Orochimaru’s Snake summons and my Sea Serpent summons were entrenched and I wouldn’t like to find out.

Fortunately, Unaimaru was amused more than anything. He snorted and grinned widely as I began to think. Standing up to his useless growls and threatening imposition is the best response.

“Mizukage’s predecessors do not exist any longer, but their presence was felt and appreciated by the Great Kaizoku.” Unaimaru glanced towards the open sea, “They settled not far from here centuries ago and the last Sage of our kin ensured they prospered or so I believe.”

It took me a moment to realise he wasn’t just looking out to the open sea but to— “Uzushiogakure you mean?” Uncle asked.

“Uzumaki they were, a fitting name.”

“They’re gone now, Kirigakure destroyed them.” I said and Uncle smacked my side as he hushed.

“Sounds like Unagi and Uzumaki were pretty good friends, what are you doing?”

Unaimaru laughed, lowered into the water and swam a circle with his body that enclosed us from the rest of the sea as he peered down, “Then we must have stopped being friends before you destroyed them, Mizukage, otherwise you wouldn’t have.”

I was getting annoyed by him, “Enough, if I want to learn tales of the Uzumaki’s past with you I will learn them from Kaizoku, right alongside the power of the Sage. Now, when will Kaizoku decide?”

Rather than answer, Unaimaru came close enough that even my fist could reach his snout, but it didn’t. Instead his barbels, long and thick as the ropes I’d used to condemn Kumo-nin, lurched out and wrapped around Uncle before I could blink away from his serpentine gaze.

“Unc-!” A dark dampness swallowed me as the last thing I saw was Uncle flung out into the sea. I was in Unaimaru’s mouth. I flared chakra, even calling on Isobu’s before common sense said otherwise.

And so I sat, feeling the slight movements of the Unagi on the outside I spoke loud enough that he would hear me through the slime greasing his mouth, “You shouldn’t have done that, Unaimaru, but I will forgive it, if the next person I see is Kaizoku. Otherwise, I’ll ensure you see your stomach.”

My new quarters shuddered, laughing at my words but I meant them.