~~ 3 Weeks Later ~~

Peeking my right eye around the tree trunk, I checked on the target. Good, we were still undetected. We had been very careful about remaining downwind from the target so that our scent wouldn't alert it.

Turning my head, I gave a thumbs up to Misaki who was hiding behind a tree to our right. Misaki nodded and proceeded to sneak towards a tree that was closer to the target. Rumi and Kiyoko were currently crouched beside me while Sakamae was hiding behind a tree to the left of us.

The five of us were currently hunting a lone deer, its antlers indicating it as a male of the species. It probably weighed between 80 and 90 pounds which was enough meat to feed us for about a week. As we didn't have any rice for carbohydrates, we had shifted to eating protein to compensate.

After arriving in this unknown land, we had yet to meet a single person. The first night here had been a bit rough as Tou-san had insisted on travelling about ten miles or so along the beach before finally deciding to set up a temporary camp for a late lunch.

He had chosen an area inside the forest, about a hundred feet or so from the sandy beach. After eating the onigiri which I had stored inside my Inventory the night before, we had then spent the afternoon cutting down trees and creating a makeshift wall around the three wagons which we had arranged in a roughly triangular shape.

With a small campfire in the middle of the three wagons, Tou-san then decided that we should try to settle in for the night. As no one had really felt like sleeping on the ground, most of us had slept inside the wagons. Tou-san had unsealed one of Ojii-san's rattan chairs and had slept on that chair next to the fire.

The following day, Tou-san had taken Naoko with him on horseback to explore the surrounding area. The rest of us set about making our camp a little more comfortable. I had suggested hammocks for beds, which my sisters had readily agreed to. After all, sleeping inside the limited confines of a wagon wasn't very comfortable.

After two hours spent exploring our surroundings, Tsuki had located a suitable area about half a mile inland from our camp site. After leaving a note pinned to a tree for Tou-san and Naoko that included directions to our new camp site, we shifted everyone over to the new location.

There was a river nearby for drinking water and the trees in that location were closer to each other, which allowed us to set up hammocks tied to four trees instead of the traditional two. We had used our bed linen to create the hammocks, one for each of my siblings and I.

My parents and our three grandparents had declined to sleep in hammocks, saying that they were more comfortable sleeping inside the wagons. After cutting down some of the surrounding trees, we set up a wall made of wooden logs.

I had been forced to use Chakra-Enhanced Muscles to place some of these tree logs in position as they were extremely heavy. We had stacked the wooden walls in a pyramid shape, placing several stakes into the ground to prevent the logs from rolling away or towards us.

We had managed to build about a quarter of the wall around our new campsite before Tou-san arrived back with Naoko. They had traveled further along the beach for another twenty miles but had failed to spot a single person. It seems that the coast that we were currently on was uninhabited.

Over the next week or so, my siblings and I finished building the wall of wooden logs, leaving two entrances: one facing the river and the other on the opposite end facing the direction of the ocean. We hoped that the four-foot high wall was enough of a deterrent against wild animals, especially the black bears that we had spotted on our second week.

After informing Kaa-san of the black bears, she had insisted that we place outward-facing wooden spikes along the outer area of the wall just in case. This task took us three days to accomplish as we first had to cut down some trees down before crafting sharp sticks out of its branches.

We liberally used our chakra blades for these construction tasks as no one wanted to blunt their blades on tree trunks. After two weeks, Tou-san had given up on scouting the surrounding area, saying that his time was better spent improving our campsite.

Tou-san, Naoko and Tsuki had formed the Construction Team, reinforcing the wooden logs with twigs and dirt, in effect creating a six-feet tall wall that looked very much like a beaver dam. Kaori-obaasan had placed several detection seals throughout the forest, setting up an outer perimeter that was capable of detecting intruders up to fifty feet away.

After a week, the food in my Inventory had begun to run low. After informing my family of this, Tou-san decided that we should start hunting for food. We had spotted deer and rabbits intermittently throughout the forest, so we decided to hunt those.

Ojii-san had finally conceded his position on the consumption of meat, citing necessity. That first meal of rabbit was the best meat I had ever eaten. It was a good thing that Kaa-san had me store away all the herbs and spices from the kitchen pantry.

Having recovered from her chakra exhaustion, Kaa-san assisted my two grandmothers in the preparation of meals, forming the Cooking Team. For herbs, Kaa-san had taught the Food Gathering Team which consisted of Misaki, Sakamae, Rumi, Kiyoko and I how to gather wild herbs such as tsukushi which grew along the riverbanks or shiso and fukinoto which grew on the forest floor. We occasionally gathered wild berries for the horses to eat, just to give them a break from eating grass.

For salt, we were told to collect seawater in buckets, sieving the water by pouring it through one of Tou-san's old shirts into a large pot. We would repeatedly sieve the water to remove any sand or other impurities before placing the pot over the campfire to boil. Once the water had mostly evaporated, we would dry the slurry white remnants in the sun and collect the salt once it was fully dry. This salt collection process took two days to complete.

The Food Gathering Team would wake up early in the morning and head to the river, spending a few hours fishing with a stick that had its sharpened end split into four. I would stand on the riverbank and spear the fish that swam near, using ACS to ensure that my pointy stick successfully pierced the fish.

Misaki and Sakamae would then remove the fish scales with fillet knives before handing the fish to Rumi and Kiyoko who would then gut the fish, letting its guts fall into the river which also served to attract more fish to our location. I would then store the processed fish in my Inventory.

Once we had processed the fish, we would then return to the camp and I would give Kaa-san six of the fish, which was enough to feed the twelve of us for lunch and any leftovers would be eaten for tea. After resting for half an hour after lunch, the Food Gathering Team would then go rabbit hunting.

There was a large colony of brown rabbits nearby, about a mile away from our campsite. Kaa-san had warned us not to cut or spear the rabbits as the contents of its colon or innards would contaminate the meat. As such, I had simply used ACS to grab the rabbits before shifting them into my Inventory. When Tou-san discovered what we were doing, he taught us how to build a simple rabbit trap with a few small sticks and some wire, using fruit as bait.

After catching the rabbits, we would return to the river where we would kill the rabbit on a flat piece of wood by cutting off its head. We then cut off its tail before removing its skin and fur similar to how one would remove a glove from one's hand: just pull it off.

Kaa-san had shown us how to set aside the rabbit's heart, kidneys and liver as these were edible. We emptied the rest of its innards into the river, in effect feeding the fish. Kaa-san had informed us to dispose of any liver that wasn't a deep red in color as that meant that it was inedible.

I would then store the semi-processed rabbits into my Inventory before returning to our campsite where Kaa-san and my grandmothers would then cook the rabbits for our dinner. We would throw the rabbit heads, ears and tails into the campfire as its fat content served as fuel.

Although it took some convincing, Kaa-san had finally managed to persuade everyone and by everyone I mostly mean my four older sisters that we weren't allowed to use soap and shampoo as we only had limited amounts. Kaa-san suggested that they all cut their hair short, offering to let her hair be cut first. Tou-san proceeded to cut off Kaa-san's long hair with his tanto before digging a hole and burying it, explaining to us that burnt hair smelled bad.

My older sisters had very reluctantly decided to cut their hair for practical reasons. All four of my older sisters screamed and cried when Kaa-san cut their long hair above the shoulders. Sigh, girls. When it was their turns, Rumi had a neutral expression and Kiyoko somehow looked excited. Perhaps she simply couldn't wait to look like all her other sisters and her Kaa-san.

After an early dinner we would head towards the river and bathe as a family excluding Ojii-san, who was still bedridden and given sponge baths by Kaori-obaasan. We would scrub ourselves as thoroughly as possible with a rough sponge which functioned as a loofah, letting the freshwater from the river wash away all the sweat and dirt that we had accumulated throughout the day.

I would bathe with Tou-san while my grandmothers, Kaa-san and my six sisters would bathe about sixty feet away, presumably for modesty purposes. We would usually finish bathing as the sun was setting, returning to our campsite via the light of flaming torches that we had constructed out of a long piece of wood with dried leaves tied to its end that was dipped in cooking oil, the only flammable liquid that I had in my Inventory.

If we had time, the Three Musketeers would play on the riverbank as Kiyoko loved combining dirt with her building blocks to build a tall tower. I would wash the wooden blocks in the river before storing them back inside my Inventory.

Our diet had changed drastically from three weeks ago. While we previously ate rice and vegetables, we now had to severely ration our dwindling supply of rice. As such, our diet now consisted almost exclusively of fish and rabbit meat with the occasional vegetable soup if the Food Gathering Team managed to collect enough kombu or kelp from the beach.

And so, our family slowly but surely adapted to our daily routines in this strange new land. We would wake up, the Food Gathering Team would gather food, the Construction Team would continue improving our campsite and the Cooking Team would cook food throughout the day. We would eat lunch and dinner as a family while breakfast was eaten separately as each Team awoke at different times. Then we would have our daily baths in the ocean before retiring to the camp for the night.

As there wasn't that much to do since reading with the flame from the campfire was torture on the eyes, we spent our nights talking around the campfire as a family. We discussed many things while we each sat in one of Ojii-san's rattan chairs around the campfire, everything from what percentage of gross profit spent on advertising was the most cost effective to the best way to grow potatoes.

Last night we had discussed a family secret: Kaori-obaasan's history. It turns out that Kaori-obaasan's mother was an Uzumaki. Yes, the same Uzumaki as a certain blonde-haired boy from Konoha. Apparently, the main protagonist of this world was distantly related to my family. Cool.

Kaori-obaasan and Ojii-san had met when he traveled to the shinobi village of Uzushiogakure or the Village Hidden by Whirling Tides in order to sell the Amano family's high-quality paper. The Amano family had just gotten into the paper manufacturing business and needed to build its business network which required Ojii-san to travel to Uzushio to meet with current as well as potential customers on a regular basis.

Over time they had fallen in love and eventually had gotten married in a lavish ceremony beside Uzushio's main bridge which crossed the large river that ran throughout the shinobi village. Even the Head of the Uzumaki clan had been present at the wedding as Kaori-obaasan's mother was a descendant of one of the more prominent Uzumaki families.

After their marriage, Kaori-obaasan had moved out of the island where the Land of Whirlpools was located, staying with Ojii-san on the mainland and settling down in the Capital of the Land of Fire. Some time before Tou-san was born, they had built the Amano family estate and moved there instead. Ojii-san explained that he had gotten jaded by all the corruption and greed within the Capital.

According to Kaori-obaasan, since Uzumaki clan members lived such long lives, every family had large numbers of children which meant that a household with eight children was considered average. Uzushio was therefore comprised of thousands of Uzumaki clan members with only a hundred or so non-Uzumaki present within the village. This being the case, Uzushio was led by the Head of the Uzumaki clan instead of a Kage.

The shinobi of Uzushio specialized in sealing techniques or fuinjutsu, the art of sealing living beings, objects and even chakra within another object, usually a sealing scroll. Uzushio shinobi were infamous for their use of barrier ninjutsu, storing highly complicated and very powerful barriers inside sealing scrolls and sometimes sealing tattoos on their bodies. The combination of barrier ninjutsu and fuinjutsu was called sealing barrier.

Barrier ninjutsu allowed one to erect a formidable barrier in order to protect themselves or to trap their opponents. As barriers required a painstakingly long time to prepare since they were so powerful, the ability to carry around barriers that could be deployed at a moment's notice meant that an Uzushio shinobi was a terrifying opponent.

Sealing barriers were also used by Uzushio shinobi to manipulate space on the battlefield: cutting off enemy reinforcements, isolating enemy leaders or creating choke points where none previously existed. This gave Uzushio shinobi an unparalleled strategic advantage, whether it be during a one-on-one fight or a large-scale battle between hundreds of shinobi.

Kaori-obaasan said that the most terrifying sealing barrier in existence was called Sealing Barrier: Genbu The Black Tortoise. It functioned by trapping enemies inside a black barrier that neither air nor light could travel through and was designed to constantly absorb chakra, neutralizing ninjutsu which made escape impossible.

The more chakra Genbu The Black Tortoise absorbed, the stronger the sealing barrier would become. Eventually, everyone inside the barrier would die due to having all of their chakra extracted. It was the very first technique of its kind and was created by Uzushio's Fuinjutsu Research Centre.

Uzushio had only used this horrifying sealing barrier once: towards the end of the First Shinobi World War in order to avenge the death of Konoha's First Hokage, Senju Hashirama. While Senju Hashirama was the leader of a shinobi village allied with Uzushio, the use of this particularly brutal sealing barrier was primarily due to him being married to the daughter of the Head of the Uzumaki clan.

It was said that as many as ten thousand shinobi and a hundred thousand civilians died inside the sealing barrier which was shaped like a giant box and covered approximately 10,000 square miles. I remembered that the Little Boy atomic bomb dropped on the city of Hiroshima during World War Two only destroyed 5 square miles. 10,000 square miles was larger than the U.S. state of Maryland.

Deployment of Genbu The Black Tortoise resulted in the deaths of the First Tsuchikage of Iwagakure, the First Raikage of Kumogakure and the First Mizukage of Kirigakure. Armies from these three shinobi villages as well as those from Sunagakure were in the midst of a large-scale battle when they were all ambushed by Uzushio's sealing barrier.

While a large portion of Sunagakure's forces were killed, the First Kazekage was not on the battlefield at the time. This led to deep-seated enmity between these four shinobi villages and Uzushio which also extended to Uzushio's ally, Konoha. The four shinobi villages viewed both Uzushio and Konoha as being hypocrites that preached pacifism but were willing to employ techniques of mass destruction.

Genbu The Black Tortoise was considered a technique of mass destruction because the sealing barrier didn't just absorb chakra, it also absorbed natural energy: a form of energy that existed in the atmosphere and in the earth. Once the sealing barrier had absorbed a certain amount of chakra and natural energy, it would trigger a massive chakra and natural energy explosion inside of it. The chakra and natural energy expelled by the explosion would once again be absorbed by the sealing barrier, repeating the process.

This absorption-explosion cycle would recur until there was no longer any chakra or natural energy left inside of the sealing barrier, after which the sealing barrier would dissipate as it now lacked an energy source to sustain it. When the sealing barrier finally dispelled, there was nothing left inside but dust and sand.

As such, deployment of Genbu The Black Tortoise directly resulted in the creation of a 10,000 square mile tract of desert in the Land of Wind which was previously covered in greenery. Over time, the desert would grow as the windy nature of the Land of Wind constantly distributed the sand around, ultimately converting the Land of Wind into a large desert.

Shortly after this sealing barrier was used, all Five Great Shinobi Countries hurriedly agreed to an armistice treaty as this was the first time in known history that someone had used a technique of mass destruction. I suppose it was similar to the Japanese surrendering during World War Two after witnessing the destruction caused by the atomic bombs dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Approximately two decades later, the combined forces of Iwagakure, Kumogakure and Kirigakure swept through Uzushiogakure in a surprise attack, kicking off the start of the Second Shinobi World War. Everyone in Uzushiogakure was killed, its buildings torn down and burnt to the ground with the only survivors being those that weren't present inside the village at the time of the attack.

By the time Konoha's forces arrived in Uzushio, there was nothing remaining but the burning remnants of a completely destroyed village. Tou-san thinks that Uzushio shinobi destroyed their own fuinjutsu knowledge so it wouldn't fall into enemy hands and be used against its ally, Konoha.

Kaori-obaasan's theory was that Iwagakure, Kumogakure and Kirigakure did not trust each other and had therefore agreed to destroy everything rather than loot the village for its fuinjutsu knowledge. This was because shortly after the joint attack on Uzushio, the three shinobi villages had declared war on each other.

Ojii-san's theory was that they were in a hurry and wanted to leave before Konoha's forces arrived, with 'destroy everything' being the fastest option as opposed to 'kill everyone, loot the village first then destroy it'. Regardless of which theory was correct or perhaps it was a combination of all the theories, the main consequence of Uzushio's destruction was that fuinjutsu knowledge was set back by a few hundred years. Currently, most shinobi villages only knew the most basic fuinjutsu such as creating sealing scrolls or explosion tags.

To the Five Great Shinobi Countries, Kaori-obaasan's detection seals are considered an advanced fuinjutsu technique. However, in Uzushio this was an intermediate level technique. Kaori-obaasan explained that everyone in Uzushio could learn fuinjutsu regardless of whether they were shinobi or a civilian like her. Of course, only shinobi were taught advanced fuinjutsu which was geared towards combat.

When she was younger, Kaori-obaasan aspired to become a shinobi but did not have the talent for it, her chakra reserves did not meet the requirements to enroll into the shinobi academy. As such, she then switched her goal to mastering a single branch of fuinjutsu: chakra detection. From then on, Kaori-obaasan specialized in detection seals.

Kaori-obaasan's detection seals could detect chakra signatures up to fifty feet away and alert her via a fuinjutsu seal on a scroll. The rectangular paper charm hanging from a thin gold chain that I wore around my neck was actually a detection seal that allowed Kaori-obaasan to know my location. It had a range of up to a mile which was quite impressive. To my delight, Kaori-obaasan said that when I was older she would teach me fuinjutsu, including creating the seal that she used on the toboggan, one of the few that she knew outside of detection seals. Apparently, it removed all friction. If I applied it to my swords, wouldn't I be able to swing them much faster due to a lack of air resistance?

I did ask if Kaori-obaasan knew more than just detection seals. Unfortunately, Kaori-obaasan did not have the opportunity to continue her fuinjutsu lessons as Uzushio was wiped out while she was in the Capital. The world I currently lived in reminded me of the ancient era of Earth, where kingdoms would constantly fight each other for the stupidest of reasons, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Wasn't the Trojan War caused by some guy stealing another guy's wife?

In this world the wheels of war turned due to vengeance, greed or because someone felt offended at something, resulting in shinobi fighting against shinobi, hidden village against hidden village. As always, the once that suffered the most in war are the ordinary civilians. After the Second Shinobi World War, there was a Third Shinobi World War.

Kaa-san said the main reason for teaching all of us sword techniques was so that we could keep ourselves safe when the Fourth Shinobi World War occurred. According to Kaa-san, it was only a matter of when, not if. This was a rather scary realization as the closest that I had previously come to experiencing war was witnessing a large brawl in front of a fast food outlet where someone got stabbed to death over an argument about a chicken sandwich.

Going to sleep after being informed of all these disturbing things, I had a nightmare about all my family members dying pointless deaths during the Fourth Shinobi World War. Waking up with sweat dripping down my face, I realized that I wasn't shivering from fear but rather from my shirt being drenched in sweat.

Right then and there under the dark morning sky, I promised myself that I would do whatever it took to protect my family; even if it meant using my Gamer ability to become Genghis Khan and conquering the Five Great Shinobi Countries, unifying them through force and establishing an empire.

This was of course the very last resort, the first being hiding my family away on some remote island. After all, we seemed to have this live-off-the-land thing down pat. All we needed was a way to generate electricity and we could use the electrical devices currently stored in my Inventory.

From what little I could remember from my high school science lessons, in order to produce electricity through electromagnetic induction I needed an iron core wrapped in copper wire with a magnet in the middle that I needed to spin around. Basically, I needed to invent the bicycle then attach a homemade dynamo to it in order to generate electricity on a small scale.

Tou-san said that electricity in the Land of Fire was generated by large hydroelectric dams. It was mind boggling to realize that the people of this world had discovered electricity and invented large-scale electricity generation yet had failed to invent the bicycle or telephones. They had hair dryers and air conditioning but still traveled around on horses or walked. It was so weird.

Looking around the campsite, I realized that the sun had yet to rise which meant that I should probably go back to sleep. Swapping my shirt for a clean one in my Inventory, I thought of all that we had accomplished so far in this unknown place.

|[ You are now wearing Outfit: Casual Attire (Long-Sleeved T-Shirt). ]|

The Construction Team was currently trying to build a roof over our campsite and were about halfway done. They had made rope from some of the plants that grew nearby, tying pieces of wood together to form the skeleton structure of a circular house. When completed, our house would probably resemble a large circus tent.

After they had accomplished that, they started stacking a combination of dried bark and leaves on top. Once they were done with the roof, they would be building the walls of our new house. When asked why they built the roof before the walls, Tou-san replied that he didn't want us to get wet if it happened to rain.

The Food Gathering Team had gathered more than enough fish and rabbits to last us two months, three months if we rationed. Due to the lack of carbohydrates and the minimal amount of fruits that we could find, Kaa-san encouraged us to eat our fill of fish and rabbit meat every meal.

Kaa-san had a plan to grow potatoes using some of the potatoes that I stored inside my Inventory, but first the Construction Team needed to clear out some of the land nearby. Imagining Kaa-san growing potatoes like that scene from The Martian made me smile.

The Cooking Team had managed to process about a gallon of sea salt as well as building a rock filter for clean drinking water. Pouring water from the river through the top of the filter, Kaa-san would then boil the water. We now had about ten gallons of drinking water stored inside my Inventory in water flasks and large cooking pots. Feeling satisfied with my family's accomplishments on this deserted coastal area, I fell asleep.

|[ You have slept in a hammock for 2 hours. All HP and CP restored. ]|

Waking up a few hours later just as the sun rose, it was decided that the Food Gathering Team would attempt to hunt deer for the first time. Misaki and Sakamae had grown bored of our routine so after our morning routine of fishing then lunch, we had spent the last three hours stalking an adult-sized deer.

As none of us had hunt deer before, it was a long process of trial and error as we discovered that deer have an excellent sense of smell and we needed to approach it from downwind. Misaki had also missed the first two times when she threw Nuibari at it.

Misaki complained that it wasn't like a spear as the blade portion of Nuibari was four feet in length while its handle was a foot long. It was probably designed to be thrust instead of thrown through its target.

However, after practicing a few times on a nearby tree Misaki had claimed that she was now confident that she could hit the deer on her next throw. And so here we were, sneaking up on the elusive deer for the eighth time in three hours. As I waited for Misaki to get into position, my mind wandered.

'Hmmm, I wonder how much progress has been made on investigating how we got into our current situation. Gamer System, what is the status of the analysis?'

|[ Analysis of space-time abnormality: 1% ]|

'Only 1%? But it's been three weeks! Goodness gracious, at this rate of progression we'll only be able to return home after a few years.'

As Misaki crept closer towards the grazing deer with Nuibari held in her hand and prepared to throw it, the rest of us watched with bated breath. After three hours, we were growing tired of this hunt. Misaki finally relented and said that if she failed this time, I would be allowed to use my abilities to kill the deer.

Right as Misaki was about to throw Nuibari, the deer suddenly raised its head and took off running into the forest, away from our direction. Misaki tilted her head downwards and slumped her shoulders while sighing loudly.

'Eh, what happened this time? Did it smell Misaki again? But I'm certain that we're downwind.'

"We should return to the village soon, Izumi-san. This whole thing is so pointless," Tadahiko complained as he pulled the heavy wooden cart behind him. Not only was the cart made out of wood, it currently held eight large sacks of rice. And the village was too poor to afford to buy a new horse after all their horses had been taken away by the bandits a few years ago.

The twenty-one-year-old Tadahiko had previously made the mistake of calling the sixteen-year-old Izumi by the chan prefix instead of the san prefix, leading to an argument about how the Village Elder and the Village Council had put her in charge of this mission and not him. Therefore, she was technically his superior and he was not allowed to call her by the chan prefix.

Not wanting to anger her further as he intended to seek her hand in marriage someday, Tadahiko now referred to her as Izumi-san. After all, she wasn't just the Village Elder's granddaughter, she was also the prettiest girl in Horei Village that wasn't already married.

'It is only fitting that the strongest and bravest warrior in the village should marry the prettiest girl in the village,' Tadahiko thought to himself as he struggled to pull the heavy wooden cart over a particularly large tree root, huffing and grunting loudly.

Tadahiko had yet to formulate a plan to deal with the bandits but he was sure that his brilliant warrior mind would come up with something. As such, he detested the idea of Horei Village relying on outsiders for its safety, be they samurai or shinobi.

"So, it was the two of you! You idiots made so much noise that the deer ran away!" an annoyed voice loudly said, drawing Tadahiko and Izumi's attention to a girl in a blue shirt and black shorts who was holding a long spear.

"Ok, you've had your chance Misaki-chan. Can't we just let Genji-kun do his thing already, this deer hunting stuff isn't as fun as I thought it'd be," said another girl as she appeared from behind a tree wearing a dark red shirt and black shorts.

"But this doesn't count, the deer only ran away because of these two noisy idiots," the girl in blue said as she pointed at Tadahiko and Izumi with her spear.

"May I ask which village the two of you are from?" Izumi curiously asked as she finally got over her shock as the next village was a two day walk away. No one lived this close to the coast as pirates from the nearby islands liked to raid this area.

The two girls looked at each other before the one in blue replied, "We only recently settled here and are not from any nearby village. Would you mind telling us if this is the Land of Fire? If so, which coast are we on?"

"Uhm, I've never heard of the Land of Fire. This is the territory of the Fire Shogun, is that why you call it the Land of Fire?" Izumi asked in reply.

"What's a Fire Shogun?" the girl in dark red curiously asked.

"How do you not know who the Fire Shogun is? Did you grow up in a cave? And you dare to call us idiots," Tadahiko said with a smirk.

"I called you an idiot because you are one! You made so much noise that the deer that we were hunting ran away," the girl in blue huffed in response.

"That's why people set traps to catch deer, idiot," Tadahiko replied, his ego not allowing him to lose an argument to a stranger, much less a little girl.

"Hey, who're you calling an idiot, idiot?" the girl in dark red said as she placed her hands on her hips, just above her swords.

"Tadahiko-san, I would appreciate it if you didn't go insulting strangers in the forest, especially strangers with a spear and swords," Izumi whispered, an annoyed look in her eyes.

'Wait, swords?' Izumi thought to herself as she looked carefully at the two girls standing before her. The one in blue was holding a spear with a sword attached to her hip. The one in dark red had two swords strapped to her hips, 'Swords are expensive, so only samurai and shinobi have swords.'

"I apologize for my travelling companion's remarks, he did not mean any offense. My name is Izumi and his name is Tadahiko. May I ask if the two of you settled here with your families?" Izumi asked.

"Yes, we are here with our family. My name is Misaki. Which village are you from, Izumi-san? We searched along the coast for several kilometers but didn't see anyone," the girl in blue asked.

"What does kilometer mean? Is that a measurement for time?" Tadahiko asked.

"No, it's to measure distance," Misaki corrected.

"Never heard of it. We use chains and furlongs to measure distance," Tadahiko replied.

"You use a chain to measure distance?" the girl in the dark red shirt asked in surprise.

"Not a literal chain. A hundred links make a chain and ten chains make a furlong. This is basic knowledge, how do the two of you not know this?" Tadahiko asked as he used all the self-control that he had not to insult these two girls, not willing to earn Izumi's ire.

"And how long is a link?" Misaki asked.

"About this long," Tadahiko replied as he placed his hands in front of him about a shoulder's width apart.

"If you don't mind, let's save the discussion on units of measurement for another time. My name is Sakamae and you still haven't answered Misaki-chan's question, Izumi-san. Which village are you from?" the girl in dark red asked.

"Nice to meet you, Sakamae-san. We are from Horei Village, about a day's walk that way," Izumi replied as she pointed behind her.

"Izumi-san, I don't think it is wise to tell strangers where our village is," Tadahiko said as he eyed Misaki and Sakamae suspiciously.

"Hey, what did you mean by that?" Misaki said in an offended tone.

"Shut up Tadahiko-san, your stupid mouth is going to get you killed some day," Izumi hissed in reply.

"Ahh, so sorry about that Misaki-san and Sakamae-san, he did not mean any offense. Actually, I was wondering if you and your friend-", Izumi said.

"Sister. She's my sister," Misaki interjected.

"Oh, I see. Now that you mention it, I can see the resemblance. Anyways, I was wondering if you and your sister happened to be shinobi in training? After all, the both of you have swords and civilians don't usually carry swords," Izumi enquired.

"We're not shinobi, we're samurai!" a small girl excitedly announced as she popped out from behind a tree. She was wearing a pink shirt with black shorts.

Another small girl wearing a grey shirt and black shorts appeared beside the pink one and quickly pulled her back behind the tree.

"Awww, but why can't I talk to them Rumi-channn," a voice whined, presumably from the pink little girl.

"Oh, don't worry so much Rumi-chan, Genji-kun is here so we'll be fine. You worry too much," the voice continued after a short pause from behind the tree. Misaki and Sakamae both sported amused looks on their faces.

'Genji? Isn't that a guy's name? Does that mean that there are two little girls and an adult man behind that tree?'

"Misaki-san, why are samurai like yourself living out here in the middle of nowhere? Are you ronin?" Izumi asked, hope rising in her heart.

"Ronin? What's a ronin?" Misaki replied with a confused look on her face.

"Izumi-san, I think they are lying. Someone claiming to be samurai but not knowing what a ronin is? And everyone knows that women can't be samurai so they are clearly lying," Tadahiko whispered.

"This is why the Village Council put me in charge of this mission. Don't you know that a small portion of samurai are women? Their father is probably a samurai, so just shut up and let me do the talking," Izumi whispered in reply, getting annoyed by Tadahiko's bone headedness.

While she had always suspected that he lacked intelligence, after spending three weeks alone with him on this mission her suspicions had been confirmed. And to think that his father, Fujimori-san was always trying to get her to consider marrying him. Tadahiko was so useless, he had neither brains nor brawn and wasn't handsome by any stretch of the imagination. Ugh.

"A ronin is a samurai that has lost his or her master, Misaki-san. Since you have settled out here in the middle of the forest, I assumed that you were a ronin as samurai usually stay near their masters," Izumi replied.

"Oh, I see. In that case, I suppose you could say that we are samurai without a master. But we didn't lose our master, we simply never had one to begin with," Misaki replied as she looked to Sakamae for confirmation, receiving a nod in reply.

'Strange, maybe their samurai father lost his master and never informed his children out of shame,' Izumi wondered.

"You mentioned a Fire Shogun, is that who the samurai in this land serve?" Sakamae asked Izumi.

"While the Fire Shogun does have samurai under his command, most samurai serve a Daimyo who in turn pledge their loyalty to the Fire Shogun," Izumi replied.

"Oh, a Daimyo? And where is the Daimyo of this land? Is he in the Capital?" Misaki asked.

"The Daimyo lives in his castle of course, all Daimyos live in castles! How do you not know this? It's basic knowledge, idiot!" Tadahiko exclaimed, unable to resist any longer.

"HEY! DON'T CALL MY SISTER AN IDIOT!" the small girl in the pink shirt angrily shouted as she made another appearance from behind her tree.

"Or what, little girl? You're going to bite my ankles?" Tadahiko sneered in response.

"Or Genji-kun will get angry, and you won't like him when he's angry," the little pink one threatened.

"Is Genji-kun your dog or something?" Tadahiko replied in a mocking tone.

"Tadahiko-san, what did I say about shutting up? Their father might be a samurai, so stop provoking them or have you forgotten our mission, genius," Izumi angrily whispered.

"These idiots? They don't even know basic knowledge. Let's just leave Izumi-san, stop wasting our time with these imbeciles," Tadahiko replied with an eye roll.

"Well that was rather rude, so I'm going to have to demand that you apologize," a small armored form said as it appeared beside the pink-clad girl, the grey-shirt girl appearing beside it soon after.

"And I thought the one in pink was small. This one is even tinier!" Tadahiko continued his mocking as he laughed.

"Tadahiko, you idiot. Can't you see that he's wearing armor of some kind? Shut up, now!" Izumi said as she eyed the new stranger.

'While swords are expensive, full body armor is several times more expensive. And who would make armor for a little boy anyway? He'll grow out of it within a year or two! They are clearly not ordinary samurai,' Izumi thought to herself.

"Here are your options: Option one, you apologize. Option two, I make you wish you apologized. Now, choose," the small person in armor said.

"I'd like to see you try," Tadahiko scoffed.

All that Izumi saw was a black blur rushing towards Tadahiko. One moment he was scoffing and the next moment he fell over onto the ground, clutching his crotch while moaning. When Izumi finally processed what she just saw, she gasped in shock.

"You… you're a shinobi!" Izumi exclaimed in surprise.

"No I'm not, I'm a samurai like my sisters," the small one in black armor replied before he kicked Tadahiko in the stomach, triggering a pathetic "oof" in response from the foolish man who had refused to heed Izumi's advice.

"Wait, are all of you siblings?" Izumi asked.

"YES WE ARE! AND THAT'S GENJI-KUN! I told him not to make Genji-kun angry but did he listen? Nooo," the small girl in a pink shirt said with a grin.

"I'm not angry, Kiyoko-chan. I just don't like it when people insult my sisters in front of me," the one called Genji said as he kicked Tadahiko in the stomach once more to emphasize his point.

"You're angry Genji-kun, I can tell," the one Genji had called Kiyoko replied.

"Ok, fine. Maybe I'm a little annoyed, but I'm far from angry," Genji said as he turned around and walked away from Tadahiko who was now in the fetal position while still clutching his crotch.

"Doesn't annoyed mean angry, Genji-kun?" Kiyoko asked.

"No, Kiyoko-chan. Annoyed is what you feel when your tower block falls over. Angry is what you feel if I throw away all your wooden blocks," Genji replied as he once again stood beside Kiyoko.

"NOOO, MY TOY BLOCKS! You wouldn't do that me, would you Genji-kun?" Kiyoko said with a frightened voice.

"Of course not, Kiyoko-chan. I was merely trying to explain the difference between annoyed and angry, that's all," Genji said as he put an arm around the taller Kiyoko's shoulder.

"As you can see, my little brother and sister are very cute," Misaki gestured while giggling.

"And yes, all of us really are samurai. Both our parents and our grandfather are samurai too," the little girl with the grey shirt said.

'Ronin! I've finally found ronin!' Izumi happily thought to herself, 'Now I just need to convince their ronin parents to help my village.'

"And what's your name?" Izumi asked with a gentle smile.

"I'm Rumi," the girl in grey responded with a neutral tone.

"Nice to meet you Rumi. And you must be Kiyoko?" Izumi asked the girl in pink.

"YES, MY NAME IS AMANO KIYOKO!" Kiyoko enthusiastically responded.

'They even have a family name! That settles it, they are clearly samurai. Civilians like us don't have family names,' Izumi nodded to herself.

"Would you mind taking me to meet your parents? I'd like to make them an offer," Izumi asked as politely as she could manage.

"An offer? What kind of offer?" Misaki asked, her tone shifting from playful to serious.

"Well, our village is currently in need of samurai for protection and we would like to hire your parents in exchange for a sack of rice or two," Izumi said.

"Rice?" Misaki curiously asked.

"Yes, rice. Our village isn't very wealthy and this is the most valuable item that we can offer," Izumi sheepishly said.

"Well, we could use some rice. Alright, follow us," Misaki said.

"Uhm, we might need to wait for Tadahiko-san to erm, regain his composure," Izumi said.

"Oh, ok. While we wait, Genji-kun please go get the deer that ran off. But tomorrow when we hunt for deer, you'll let me kill it, ok?" Misaki said as she looked at her sibling.

"Ok, Misaki-neechan. After all, you do need to get used to using Nuibari," Genji replied before rushing away from the group in a black blur.

"Uhh, where did your little brother go?" Izumi asked, still in shock at how fast the little boy could run.

"TO GET US DINNER!" Kiyoko happily replied.

"There's no need to shout and scare away the animals, Kiyoko-chan," Rumi admonished.

"Sorry, Rumi-chan. I'm just excited to eat deer," Kiyoko replied.

"I am too, but please don't shout in the middle of a quiet forest," Rumi said.

"Ok, Rumi-chan," Kiyoko replied in a whisper, as she opened her arms for a hug.

"There's no need to whisper either, Kiyoko-chan", Rumi said with a laugh as she hugged her sister.

"The three of you are just too cute," Misaki gushed as she walked over and ruffled their hair with her free hand.

'Why would they send their youngest brother to kill a deer? Well, I suppose he is rather fast and should be able-', Izumi thought to herself.

"I'm back!" Genji announced as a black blur ran by and stopped beside Rumi and Kiyoko.

'What, he's done already? But he isn't carrying anything though. Did he just kill it and leave it in the forest for the black bears to eat?' Izumi thought to herself, shocked at such wasteful behavior. After all, a deer could probably feed their entire village for one meal.

Determining not to question the children of her village's potential savior in case it offended them, Izumi decided that the wisest course of action was keeping her lips sealed. Walking over to Tadahiko, she said, "Oi, get up. We have to go meet their parents."

"You're a girl, you don't know how it feels to be hit in the family jewels," Tadahiko groaned.

"Oh, don't be such a baby. I just used the sheath of my wakizashi. And you deserved it for being so rude to my sisters," Genji replied.

"YEAH, YOU DEserve it. Sorry Rumi-chan, I forgot," Kiyoko said as she quickly lowered her loud voice, receiving a pat on the shoulder from her sister.

After a while, Tadahiko finally stood up and the rag tag bunch made their way through the forest. The group was made up of a young adult man pulling a wooden cart, a teenage girl, two young girls, two smaller girls and an even smaller boy who was strangely the only one of them wearing armor of some kind.