Shinigami in the Ninja World

Naruto and Karin rested for the night and set off at dawn the next day.

The warning to Rock Village yesterday had been effective.

A good number of ninja had withdrawn from the town.

The Land of Whirlpools is a small island not far off the coast.

After sailing for more than two hours, they arrived at an abandoned harbor.

The mist hung low over the water, casting a somber mood.

The pier extending into the water was decayed and dilapidated, with only a few broken, barely attached planks remaining.

It looked so fragile that it might not survive a strong gust of wind or a heavy rainstorm, let alone someone stepping on it.

"Has the Land of Whirlpools always been like this?" Naruto stared at the pier and asked softly.

The boatman didn't turn his head: "Hardly anyone comes here."

"I remember... this place used to be a nation."

"I don't know why, but it suddenly vanished overnight."

At this, the boatman paused: "I heard from the elders in the town that this nation angered the Shinigami, who descended with punishment and destroyed it."

Naruto raised an eyebrow: "The Shinigami? Why would they say it was the Shinigami?"

The Land of Whirlpools was an island nation.

Even to ordinary people, the nation's demise, if attributed to a deity, would logically be linked to a "sea god."

"Hurricanes," "earthquakes," "volcanoes"... all these natural elements seemed more reasonable than the appearance of the "Shinigami."

"I don't know either." The boatman shook his head, "That's just what the elders in the village say."

Karin spoke softly: "My mother once told me that the Uzumaki clan used to have a tradition of worshiping the Shinigami."

"The rumor that the nation was destroyed by the Shinigami probably stems from that."

The boatman turned around, looking at Karin in surprise: "Now that you mention it, I remember hearing something like that..."

"The ninjas of that country were mostly red-haired."

"Are you one of their descendants?"

Karin didn't answer him and continued speaking: "The Land of Whirlpools wasn't destroyed by the Shinigami."

"It was because the other nations feared the Uzumaki clan's sealing techniques."

"In one night, they joined forces and destroyed the Land of Whirlpools, and even their ally, Konoha, didn't have time to react."

The boatman nodded, suddenly understanding: "So that's what happened!"

"What an astonishing piece of news."

He avoided the pier, threw a rope to tie the boat to a tree stump on the shore, and set up a plank for them to disembark. Naruto and Karin stepped onto the land that once belonged to the Uzumaki clan for the first time.

"Wait!" The boatman called after them.

They turned back.

The boatman scratched his head: "Although you two seem quite strong."

"And you seem to be connected to the ninjas and this destroyed nation."

"But be careful."

"There are still some original residents on this island."

"And I've also heard... some pirates live on this island too."

Naruto smiled at him: "Thanks, old man!"

The boatman watched them leave, then began to row the boat back.

On the island of the Land of Whirlpools.

The trees were tall, the underbrush dense, and everything seemed vibrant.

But strangely... there were hardly any signs of human habitation.

From the pier inland, there was a well-trodden path, but it hadn't been used or maintained for nearly twenty years, and weeds had begun to overrun it, threatening to swallow it up.

Following the path forward, they came to a town.

This place had once thrived on port trade.

But now it was only a collection of broken walls and ruins, an area left desolate.

"Shall we look for something here first?" Karin asked, peering into the doorway of a half-collapsed house.

"Let's find the ninja village first." Naruto shook his head.

Continuing forward, they had just left the town when they heard a commotion not far away.

The two of them immediately moved and landed on a tree.

The noise came from a crude settlement.

The houses were built from materials scavenged from the town.

It was a small village with only a few dozen people.

They were under attack.

Five pirates, wielding knives of unknown origin, some brandishing kunai and shuriken.

"Hurry up! Hand over all your food!"

"And your money too."

"Or else you'll die!"

They were extremely arrogant.

Even though there were only five of them, the entire village didn't dare resist.

The older villagers looked numb.

The young people and children wanted to fight back, but the adults held them back firmly.

"There are ninja among them." Naruto spoke softly, his gaze falling on two of the attackers.

Those two did not wear ninja headbands.

Their chakra wasn't strong, not even on par with Sakura.

But there was no doubt they were beyond ordinary people.

"Naruto, do you want to save them?" Karin tilted her head, not particularly concerned about the villagers' fate, only about Naruto's opinion.

In response, a golden arc of light flashed.

Naruto intervened in the battlefield silently.

The grins on the five pirates' faces instantly froze, their bodies petrified, unable to move, with only their eyes able to turn—this was the opening Naruto had created.

The five of them strained their eyes to focus, their gaze falling on that head of blonde hair.

Fear showed on their faces.

A powerful ninja?

Could such a high-level individual appear on this remote island in the Land of Whirlpools?

"With greater power, you only wish to bully the weak." Naruto spoke softly, his gaze sweeping across their faces, "Truly unforgivable."

He placed his hand on the hilt of the "Nine-Tails" sword.

He drew it just an inch.

Without fully unleashing its power, he used only a trace of it.

Five semi-transparent hands of a tailed beast emerged from the ground.

Amidst the five men's terrified, resisting, and pleading looks, without any hesitation, the hands crushed their throats.

Naruto turned back.

The villagers were cautious and wary.

"Are you... Ninja-sama?" An old man, who was being surrounded by the others, spoke cautiously, "Thank you, Ninja-sama, for saving our village."

He signaled to a man beside him.

The man holding money in his arms quickly ran to Naruto, kneeling in a "dogeza" position, and reverently piled up the coins at Naruto's feet.

The old man continued, "This is all the money our village has, as a token of gratitude for saving us."

"We hope Ninja-sama won't find it too little."

Though losing their "money" was unfortunate.

But... on this island, there aren't many opportunities to use money. Compared to that, it's already good enough to keep their food.

Only then did Karin descend to the ground, standing beside Naruto.

The villagers became even more cautious and careful.

Another ninja!

Naruto didn't immediately respond; he was thinking about something.

After a while, he smiled.

He bent down and picked the two largest bills from the pile, stuffing them into Karin's hand: "Let this be the reward for saving you."

"As for being a ninja..."

Naruto spoke softly but firmly: "We are not ninja."

He paused, then thought of an appropriate description.

"I'm just a hero passing by."

The old man was stunned.

He stared at Naruto's face, his bright smile shining even more radiantly against his golden hair, as if it could disperse the gloomy fog lingering over the island in an instant.

A hero...

And not a ninja?

"Hero-sama, could you tell us your name?" he asked.

Naruto raised his thumb: "You can call me the Golden Flash, Uzumaki Naruto."

Karin chuckled, "Naruto, your naming sense is much worse than your taste."

"The Golden Flash sounds cool!" Naruto grinned, "Besides, it was my dad's nickname."

"I'm blonde too."

"It really suits me."

~~~

Naruto's Dad is Yellow Flash not Golden Flash but alright.