Symbiotic Curse Seal?!

The woman trembled with rage, humiliation and indignation nearly setting her ablaze.

Her nails dug deeply into her palms. She wished she could immediately form the seals and slap a Four Symbols Seal onto that hateful face.

But the icy blade at her neck constantly reminded her that if she made the slightest move, her carotid artery would spray blood like a ruptured water bag.

Madara, who had been watching the situation from afar, abruptly narrowed his pupils.

This madman was actually using his real body to fight at close range?

Before his eyes, the ten Exploding Tags stacked in Kosuke's left palm had vanished at some point. In their place, a complex curse seal was spreading from the woman's lower abdomen.

More critically, Kosuke's current position left his back completely exposed to the enemy's kunai range. If anyone were hidden behind him, all they needed to do was raise a hand slightly, and he would be pinned full of holes.

"A Chakra seal?!" The woman finally noticed the abnormality in her lower abdomen, terror creeping into her voice.

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

"Stop!" the woman practically shrieked. "Everyone, stop!"

"Princess!"

"Princess?!" Kosuke's pupils contracted slightly.

At that moment, the Uzumaki ninja, who had gradually been unable to hold their ground, suddenly erupted with terrifying strength upon hearing the woman's voice. With one palm strike, they forced back their opponents, then instantly broke away, turned around, and charged viciously toward Kosuke as if they had gone mad.

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

Kosuke lightly pressed the kunai in his hand. Tiny beads of blood immediately seeped from the woman's neck.

Feeling his warm breath speaking by her ear again, her eyes suddenly reddened. In a hoarse, choked cry, she shouted, "All of you, stop for your princess!!"

Seeing the blood seeping from the princess's neck, the Uzumaki ninja finally stopped in their tracks.

They still glared at Kosuke with eyes nearly splitting apart, their killing intent almost tangible. They even ignored Madara and the others closing in on them.

"Release the princess! Whatever you Uchiha want, name it!"

Thud...

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

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

Kosuke chuckled. "Now isn't this awkward? Didn't you just say we could ask for anything we wanted? We only want your lives. What, regretting it now?! I hate it most when people lie to me!"

Kosuke inhaled the sandalwood scent from the woman's hair, and his Adam's apple bobbed slightly.

He silently cursed a Buddhist invocation, yet he could not stop his thoughts from wandering.

Form is emptiness, emptiness is form; feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness are likewise...

Fuck, this bitch isn't going to affect how fast I draw my sword, is she?

At that thought, he suddenly became alert.

Damn! Did she just say "your princess"?!

Could she be Hashirama's woman?!

I should've let Madara deal with her.

Listening to his constant murmurs beside her ear, the woman felt not only humiliation and indignation, but also a trace of confusion. Affect how fast he drew his sword? Hashirama's woman? What did any of that mean?

Only then did Madara finally understand why Kosuke had discarded their original battle plan from the very beginning.

Madara's kunai shot down beside an Uzumaki guard's feet with a whistle. He coldly asked Kosuke, "When did you learn the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Technique?"

"On the battlefield last year." Kosuke pointed to a scar somewhere on his leg. "I dug it out of the mind of some dying Uzumaki ninja."

"Captain Madara, you're up. Explain to these little cuties what Uchiha rules are!"

Under Madara's lead, the injured Uchiha's Sharingan all spun in unison.

Genjutsu instantly enveloped the three Uzumaki ninja, after which they stepped forward and bound them.

Then four team members swiftly scattered in every direction, searching for the civilians who had fled earlier.

Before long, screams and wails rose one after another from the woods.

"How is it?" Kosuke looked toward Madara, only to see several drops of blood fall from between the dark red armor plates, blooming into dark crimson flowers on the ground.

"Not good." Madara's voice came through the midday heat haze. "Worry about yourself instead—Lord Black Fiend."

Seeing that Madara was unharmed, Kosuke promptly stopped paying attention to him.

"Tell me, my princess. What is your name? Why are you here, and where were you headed?"

Kosuke irritably shoved the woman from his arms, letting her stumble to the ground. He then put the kunai into his ninja tool pouch, took out a scroll, and tossed it to the vigilant Madara nearby.

"I know your Uzumaki Clan excels at Sealing Techniques. Go ahead and try resisting."

As he spoke, the Sharingan in Kosuke's eyes changed again. Unlike during the previous battle, three tomoe now revolved clearly within his pupils.

"Three-Tomoe Sharingan?!"

Madara froze for a moment, then quickly suppressed his emotions, though a raging storm had already risen in his heart.

When the woman slumped on the ground saw the Three-Tomoe Sharingan in Kosuke's eyes, her last hope of escape shattered instantly. She silently lowered the hand seal she had been using to undo the seal.

Without any Chakra flowing through her, she was as helpless as an ordinary civilian woman.

"Uzumaki Mito!"

"What the hell?!" Though Kosuke had already guessed her identity, he still could not hide his shock upon hearing her admit it herself. "What else? Not talking, huh? Madara, slit the throat of the one by your feet."

Madara had just been about to open the scroll. Upon hearing this, he gripped his kunai again and slowly walked toward the stunned Uzumaki ninja.

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

Stop? Even if Hashirama himself came, it wouldn't do a damn thing!

Slit it! I have to slit his throat!

A streak of scarlet blood immediately burst through the air, flashing with a brief, eerie red gleam beneath the sunlight.

"Can you talk now?"

Kosuke withdrew the Three-Tomoe Sharingan from his eyes and stared intently at the furious Mito.

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

"The Daimyo? What task?"

Mito glared at Kosuke with eyes full of hatred, only to be mercilessly ignored.

"Not talking?"

Seeing the lecher's gaze change again, Mito could only helplessly reveal everything.

"Salt?" Kosuke turned and walked over to the undamaged cart, using his long blade to lift the oilcloth covering it.

A cart filled to the brim with sea salt appeared before his eyes.

He turned his head toward the area around the other shattered cart. Seeing sea salt scattered across the ground there as well, he asked again, "What's the value of the salt in these two carts?"

"Three billion ryo."

Kosuke turned back in surprise. Just as he was about to ask in detail about the Uzumaki Clan's sea salt production sites, Madara suddenly threw back the scroll from earlier.

After Madara had fully read the blood-mediated "Mutual Assistance Treaty," he finally could not help shouting at Kosuke, "Are you insane?! You want the Vortex Princess to form a Symbiotic Curse Seal with you?!"