(A/N) As we see me throw gender to the wind with Suga! No, its not Haikyuu Suga, I swear. I didn't make a reference this time I swear.
Minato's head was spinning a little bit from the rapid introductions of Semari's crew, and he definitely didn't remember everyone's names or pronouns, but they had said he could always ask. He wasn't sure he would, but that didn't matter at the moment.
He obviously hadn't met all of Semari's ship crew, since many of them had immediately gone off the ship to help the island and start drawing up the massive seal that would bring the island to Uzushio.
As such he wasn't too surprised when Kushina dragged a person he didn't recognize up to meet him and Tadaaki. They had been trying to identify some of the plants around here with a book Mitoko gave them, but weren't having much luck.
"Minato, Tadaaki!" Kushina shouted, despite the fact they had both given her their attention as soon as they heard her walking up. Or running up rather. "I found one who escaped the introductions!"
"I escaped for a reason," the person complained, being dragged along by the wrist. "Lemme go Kushina!"
"Nope!" Kushina chirped, pulling the person forward to introduce them. "This is Suga! They're using she/they pronouns at the moment!"
Suga waved, their red shoulder length hair blowing in the wind and getting in her face every so often. "Try and remember to ask my pronouns, it changes sometimes, so better to ask!"
Looked like he'd have to get into the habit of asking pronouns anyway. Minato was kind of selfishly glad there wasn't a person that changed pronouns on Mitoko's ship.
"If you're done with me Kushina, I have a partner to get back to and some cuddling time to get in."
"Okay fine you can go see Ine," Kushina huffed, pouting a bit. "Bye Suga!"
She waved again as they left, disappearing into the trees.
Tearing down houses and rebuilding them to Uzushio building codes was surprisingly intensive, considering the amount of people working on it. Sure they could tear down the houses fast, but that wouldn't preserve the lumber and stuff to be reused.
"What are you doing to the wood?" Minato asked curiously to Mitoko and Semari working together on drawing on a pile of wood.
"This reinforces the wood and preserves it," Semari replied around the paintbrush in her mouth as she put the wood she had been working on in a different pile Minato had been watching people take from steadily to build the new residencies. "Others are also working on doing it. This'll keep the wood from rotting or wearing away. It'll keep it around longer and hopefully make sure it survives going through Uzushio's storms. We'll gradually replace it with stone, but we only have so much of it. So we need this to last until we can get everything built to withstand time and chakra storms."
"What."
"Chakra storms," Mitoko said, setting her brush aside to move the wood. "They happen seasonally. Similar to how we get actual storms coming in from the ocean, the whirlpools generate chakra somehow and it builds up. Every spring there's a series of chakra storms that accompany the actual spring storms and it disrupts almost everything. Stone is hardy enough it can survive and keep its own seals intact, but wood doesn't do that, so anything wooden is easily removable so we can renew the seals on it every spring."
Minato decided he didn't really want to live in Uzushio. He'd kind of figured before, but he really didn't want to live there now.
He was fine living without the apparent storms and storms of chakra and the whirlpools and stuff. He was good in Konoha with its trees.
"Hashirama tree wood is good at holding its own seals too because of how chakra laced it is," Semari said, inspecting a piece of wood before starting to draw on it. "It's a big part of why we keep in close contact with Konoha. Plus little else besides Uzushio seals can keep the Kyuubi in check."
Ah yes, the perpetual giant nine tailed fox in the room. Minato was just glad it was sealed away. He was starting to wonder if Uzushio had a seal for everything though.
The new buildings were much sturdier than the old ones, and the very thankful villagers sent them off with a couple fun small trinkets they had made.
Minato had been awarded a very sweet homemade leathery bag he could probably ask someone to reinforce then use on a regular basis by several parents whose children he and Tadaaki had watched while their parents were busy helping with the houses. Tadaaki had been given a shirt all the children had drawn on, and based on his sniffling he loved it.
Thus they set off, waving goodbye to Semari's crew, and the island.
"Alright guys, change of plans. Konoha kindly requests we send their genin back, and Iwa does too, so we're getting you guys back to Uzushio," Mitoko announced, clapping her hands. "Sorry to cut it short, but we kind of need to return you from your impromptu kidnapping."
Minato was mildly disappointed but also kind of happy since he got to go onto the ground and then stay on the ground and that was going to be nice. It did mean saying goodbye to Tadaaki though, so that was slightly sad. And Kushina. Or was she coming back to Konoha too? He didn't know. He'd probably find out later.
(A/N) So yes, this is getting clipped a bit short. I'm not really sorry, brain won't write this so I don't want to drag it out and give myself more stress. So probably one but maybe two updates after this. Probably one so I don't have to just abandon it for the month of november on the second to last chapter.