Symbiotic Curse Seal?!

The woman trembled with rage, shame and fury nearly consuming her.

Her nails dug deep into her palms, aching to instantly form seals and slap a Four Symbols Seal over that detestable face of his.

But the coldness pressed against her neck constantly reminded her that with the slightest movement, her carotid artery would spray blood like a burst water bag.

Madara, watching from a distance and keeping tabs on the commotion, felt his pupils abruptly contract.

This madman was using his real body in close quarters?

In his line of sight, the ten Exploding Tags stacked in Kosuke's left palm had vanished at some point, replaced by a complex curse mark spreading along the woman's lower abdomen.

Even more lethal was that Kosuke's current position fully exposed his back to the enemy's kunai range—if someone were hiding behind him, a mere lift of their hand would pin him like a sieve.

"Chakra Seal?!" The woman finally noticed the anomaly in her belly, her voice laced with panic.

"Oh, you know it? That makes things easier." Kosuke smiled as he tightened his arm, pressing her back fully against his armor. "I'll give you three more seconds. Three..."

"Stop!" The woman nearly screamed. "Everyone, stop!"

"Princess!"

"Princess?!" Kosuke's pupils shrank.

At that moment, the Uzumaki ninja, who had been struggling to hold his ground, suddenly erupted with terrifying combat power upon hearing the woman's voice. He struck his opponent back with a palm, instantly turned, and charged madly at Kosuke.

"Looks like your words don't mean much to them!"

Kosuke pressed the kunai in his hand lightly, and a bead of blood seeped from the woman's neck.

Feeling the warmth of his breath by her ear again, her eyes reddened abruptly. She choked out a hoarse shout: "All of you, stop, on this Princess's command!!"

Seeing the blood seeping from the princess's neck, the Uzumaki ninja finally halted.

They still glared at Kosuke with eyes wide as if they would split, their killing intent nearly solidifying into substance, ignoring even the approach of Madara and the others.

"Release the princess, and whatever you Uchiha want, just name it!"

Pfft...

Amid the muffled sound of a kunai piercing flesh, the three surviving Uzumaki ninja stared in shock at Maki, whose kunai dripped blood.

"What are you doing?! We've already surrendered! Why kill our comrade?"

Kosuke let out a low laugh. "Look how awkward you've made this! Didn't you just say we could name whatever we want? We just want your lives, that's all. What, having second thoughts now? I hate being lied to more than anything!"

Kosuke caught the scent of aloeswood from the woman's hair in his arms, and his throat involuntarily bobbed.

He silently cursed a Buddhist mantra in his mind, but couldn't stop his thoughts from wandering.

"Form is emptiness, emptiness is form; sensation, perception, volition, consciousness are likewise...

Damn it, is this bitch going to slow down my sword-drawing speed?"

Thinking this, he suddenly snapped alert.

"Shit! She said 'this Princess'?!"

"Could it be Hashirama's woman?!"

"I should have let Madara deal with her."

The woman, hearing the continuous muttering by her ear, felt not only shame and anger but also a trace of confusion: Slow down his sword-drawing? Hashirama's woman? What does all that mean?

At this point, Madara finally understood why Kosuke had abandoned their original battle plan from the very start.

Madara's kunai whooshed and embedded itself at the feet of a certain Uzumaki guard. He said coldly to Kosuke, "When did you learn the Uzumaki clan's sealing techniques?"

"On the battlefield last year." Kosuke pointed to a scar on his leg. "Dug it out of a dying Uzumaki ninja's head."

"Captain Madara, your turn. Teach these little darlings what the Uchiha way means!"

The wounded Uchiha, led by Madara, all rotated their Sharingan eyes in unison.

Genjutsu instantly enveloped the three Uzumaki ninja, who were then bound and tied.

Afterward, four team members quickly fanned out to search for the civilians who had fled.

Before long, the forest echoed with screams and wails, one after another.

"So?" Kosuke's gaze turned to Madara, only to see a few drops of blood fall between the dark red armor plates, blooming into dark red flowers on the ground.

"Not much." Madara's voice came through the midday heat. "Watch yourself—Black Fiend-sama."

Seeing Madara was fine, Kosuke dismissed him.

"Spill it, my princess. What's your name? Why are you here, and where are you headed?"

Kosuke irritably shoved the woman in his arms away, letting her stumble to the ground. He then put the kunai back into his ninja tool pouch, pulled out a scroll, and tossed it to the wary Madara.

"I know you Uzumaki are masters of sealing techniques. Feel free to try resisting."

As he spoke, the Sharingan in Kosuke's eyes shifted again. Unlike during the fight, three tomoe now spun clearly in his pupils.

"Three Tomoe Sharingan?!"

Madara froze for an instant, then quickly suppressed his emotions, though a storm raged in his heart.

The woman, slumped on the ground, saw the Three Tomoe Sharingan in Kosuke's eyes and felt the last shred of hope for escape shatter. Silently, she lowered the hand seals she had been forming to break the seal.

Without chakra flow, she was as helpless as an ordinary civilian woman at this moment.

"Uzumaki Mito!"

"What the hell?!" Though Kosuke had already guessed her identity, hearing her admit it still shook him. "And the rest? Not talking, huh? Madara, slit the throat of the one at your feet."

Madara was about to unroll the scroll, but at the words, he gripped his Kunai again and paced slowly toward the frozen Vortex ninja.

Amid the sound of the blade cutting through air, Mito suddenly screamed: "I'll talk! I'll talk! Tell him to stop!"

Stop? Even if Hashirama himself showed up, it wouldn't matter!

Slit it! It must be slit!

Instantly, a splash of fresh red blood burst into the air, flashing an eerie crimson under the sunlight.

"Now will you talk?"

Kosuke withdrew the Three Tomoe Sharingan from his eyes, his gaze locked tightly on the furious Mito.

"We were heading to the Land of Fire's Daimyo to complete a mission he issued."

"The Daimyo? What mission?"

Mito's eyes burned with hatred as she glared at Kosuke, but he coldly ignored her.

"Not talking?"

Seeing the lecher before her shift his gaze again, Mito had no choice but to spill everything.

"Salt?" Kosuke turned and walked to the undestroyed Cart, lifting the oilcloth covering it with his long blade.

A cart piled high with sea salt lay fully exposed before his eyes.

He glanced sideways at the scattered remains of the other Cart, seeing the same salt strewn across the ground, and asked again: "What's the total value of these two carts of salt?"

"Three billion ryo."

Kosuke turned back in surprise, about to ask more about the Vortex Clan's sea salt production site, when Madara suddenly tossed the earlier Scroll back to him.

As Madara fully read the blood-sealed "Mutual Assistance Treaty," he finally couldn't help shouting at Kosuke: "Are you insane?! Forging a Symbiotic Curse Seal with the Vortex Princess?!"