A Temporary Place to Stay

As time passed, the night quickly slipped away. Tokiju had spent the whole night watching the starlight with Uchiha Hikari.

Watching the sun slowly rise in the distance, Uchiha Hikari still felt she hadn't had enough.

She felt that if she absorbed starlight for a few more nights, her ocular power might recover to what it had been when she first awakened her Mangekyō Sharingan.

Seeing how reluctant Uchiha Hikari was to stop, Tokiju smiled and said, "Hey, hey, focus up. We'll have plenty of time for this later."

At his words, Uchiha Hikari finally came back to her senses, a hint of disappointment showing on her face.

But she quickly regained her composure and smiled at Tokiju. "Starlight really is amazing. What does moonlight do?"

Uchiha Hikari looked at Tokiju, her eyes full of curiosity.

She already knew what sunlight did from experiencing it during the day. The only thing she didn't know about was moonlight.

Hearing this, Tokiju gave a mischievous grin and swiped his hand through the air. A dagger shimmering with a bluish-green light appeared in his hand.

After casually playing with it for a moment, Tokiju tossed the dagger to Uchiha Hikari.

She took it, felt along the blade, then tested its weight before looking at Tokiju and asking, "How long can this thing last?"

Tokiju scratched his chin. "That depends on how much moonlight energy I use to form it. The more energy I spend, the longer it lasts."

"And forming things with moonlight energy doesn't take much. How should I put it..."

"About as much energy as a Great Fireball would take is enough for me to make dozens of daggers like this by hand and keep them around for several hours."

Uchiha Hikari was astonished. She hadn't expected moonlight to take so little energy.

After all, even a Genin could use the Great Fireball Technique, and it didn't take much chakra to perform.

For an Uchiha like Uchiha Hikari, who had already awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, that amount of chakra was a drop in the ocean.

Besides, Tokiju's chakra reserves weren't much smaller than hers.

In other words, as long as Tokiju was a little careful about how much chakra he used in battle, he wouldn't need to worry about running out of ninja tools.

Whether during the Warring States period or in the current era of hidden villages, ninja tools accounted for a major portion of a ninja's expenses.

Hadn't Sasuke, an Uchiha who was nearly Six Paths level during Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, still been throwing all kinds of shuriken around? Especially when he fought Otsutsuki Momoshiki.

I figured he still hadn't paid off his mortgage at the time, since he'd spent all the family's money on ninja tools. Of course, I'm joking.

What Uchiha Hikari didn't know was that Tokiju's light energy didn't consume chakra.

She still thought sunlight, moonlight, and starlight all worked like the phosphorescence in the Sealing Space and had to be combined with his own chakra before he could use them.

Tokiju didn't bother explaining.

It wasn't that he was hiding anything from Uchiha Hikari. He simply didn't know she thought that way.

Just like your own habits, you might not even notice them unless someone asks.

That was how Tokiju was. After years of using light energy, absorbing it from his surroundings had become second nature.

Besides, Uchiha Hikari hadn't told Tokiju what she was thinking, either.

And so, a fairly unimportant misunderstanding took shape.

Looking at the crimson sun before them, Tokiju turned to Uchiha Hikari and asked, "So, should we keep going now, or take a short break first?"

After all, he and Uchiha Hikari had been standing outside all night.

The starlight had kept Tokiju from feeling tired. If anything, he was full of energy.

But Uchiha Hikari was different. She had only passively received the starlight's blessing, so whether she felt mentally tired was anyone's guess.

At Tokiju's question, Uchiha Hikari shook her head. "No need. I feel full of energy, so I can keep going."

Seeing how rosy her complexion was and how lively she looked, Tokiju said no more.

He took a map out of the System Space to check their route for the day.

Because Tokiju was hopeless at leaping from branch to branch, he and Uchiha Hikari hadn't covered much ground the day before.

At yesterday's pace, it would take them about three more days to reach the Land of Hot Water.

That wouldn't do. Who knew how far Tsunade might travel in three days?

They could use the Katsuyu Sage to keep track of Tsunade's location, but that would still be a hassle.

He should've agreed to the Katsuyu Sage's idea of reverse summoning. Then he wouldn't have to go through all this trouble.

But changing his mind now would make him look bad.

So he'd just have to keep hopping from branch to branch at his own pace.

He still wasn't skilled enough at controlling moonlight to form a proper thruster, so flying there was out of the question.

Tokiju figured it would take a long time before he could form a perfectly designed thruster.

Sigh... Forget it. He'd just keep jumping. He was a ninja, after all. He could endure it.

Meanwhile, after searching all night, Sigurd found a small village not far from the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rain.

The village wasn't large, with only a dozen or so households. Everyone there was an ordinary civilian with no chakra at all.

Sigurd gave the village chief some money in exchange for temporary use of an empty house far from the village.

Afterward, he used Sealing Jutsu to seal the village chief's memories of him, leaving only a vague memory of Uzumaki Miku.

The village chief was already old, so even if his memories became muddled, no one would find it strange.

When Sigurd arrived at the empty house and opened the door, he found dust covering the floor.

After inspecting it, he confirmed that no one had been there for a long time.

He and Uzumaki Miku gave the place a quick clean, until it was at least presentable.

Sigurd hadn't wanted to make the pregnant Uzumaki Miku do any work, but she'd refused, saying, "I'm not so far along that I can't move."

Unable to talk her out of it, Sigurd could only let her do something light.

After he'd used Starlight Energy to treat her the night before, Uzumaki Miku's complexion had become noticeably rosier than when he'd first met her.

The countless bite marks on her arms had mostly disappeared overnight, leaving only faint traces.

The Uzumaki Clan really was incredible. Their healing abilities were downright miraculous.