The day Kakuzu and Mu left happened to be the start of winter, and Takigakure's weather was chillingly strange.
Sunny days grew fewer and fewer. Not only was it cold, but dry as well. Every day when he went outside and looked up, the sky was a murky gray.
Ruri had guessed that it might be because there were too many waterfalls within the country, creating a chaotic mess of water vapor or something of the sort. However, he was no specialist, so he could not figure it out even if he wanted to study it. Seimei was equally helpless in this regard.
After leaving Takikage Building, Ruri used the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport into the fortress. After turning this way and that, he arrived at a hidden patch of farmland. Well, calling it farmland was not quite accurate. It was actually a dozen or so houses made with Wood Style, except all of them lacked roofs. In place of roofs were strange-looking white silk fabrics, while quite a few coal stoves had been placed inside the houses.
The technological tree in this world was truly crooked. The Land of Snow was already developing railways and trains, and Seimei had produced so many advanced inventions, yet coal stoves remained the primary equipment for heating and keeping warm through winter.
The moment he pushed open the main building's door, a warm gust carrying the distinctive sour smell of coal stoves, along with a suffocating sensation, hit him head-on. Ruri hurriedly grabbed the tall, thin man squatting on the ground in a daze and dragged him out through the door.
"Zhengxi, what are you doing?"
"Lord Takikage?" Momochi Masanishi was not at all surprised by Ruri's sudden arrival. He answered earnestly, "I was observing! You said vegetables could be grown