Set Off!

At the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rain, there lies a village that is relatively peaceful.

On the outskirts of this village, in a secluded wooden cabin, Sigurd and Uzumaki Miku have taken up residence.

After Sigurd purchased the cabin, he handed over all the banknotes he had looted from nearby bandits to Uzumaki Miku.

He instructed her to go out and purchase the daily necessities she needed from the villagers.

Once that was done, Sigurd fell into a state of dormancy.

To be precise, it was Tokiju, far away in Yugakure, who withdrew the consciousness he had been projecting into Sigurd.

This was because, on the day after Tokiju bestowed the Starlight blessing upon Tsunade and Shizune, he had informed them about Uzumaki Miku.

If one were to ask why he didn't mention it yesterday?

Don't ask; the answer is simply that he was too excited about reuniting with his elder sister and forgot—hands on hips, JPG.

In reality, the main reason was that last night, Tokiju had requested the training scroll for the Shadow Clone Technique from Tsunade.

He had spent the entire night studying it, which caused him to forget about the matter regarding Uzumaki Miku.

Upon learning that the Uzumaki clan member was actually pregnant, Tsunade immediately decided they needed to rendezvous with her as soon as possible.

One must understand that a depleted body is a serious matter; if handled carelessly, it could lead to lifelong ailments.

"Tokiju, where is this person you mentioned, Uzumaki Miku, currently located?" Tsunade inquired.

"She is currently in a small village at the border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Rain," Tokiju replied.

Hearing this, Tsunade muttered to herself, "The Land of Rain, is it? That's not too far. If we travel at full speed, it should only take five or six days."

While deep in thought, Tsunade slapped her thigh and said to Tokiju, "Hand over all the money you have on you; I need to go prepare some medicinal herbs for her recovery."

Tokiju naturally had no objections to this, although he felt a slight pang of heartache over the money he had earned from beating up bandits.

But since Uzumaki Miku's situation was more urgent, he generously handed over the more than one hundred thousand ryo in banknotes he had on him to Tsunade.

Although he knew his sister's bad habit was that she wanted to gamble whenever she had money, she was never ambiguous when it came to serious matters.

After taking the banknotes from Tokiju, Tsunade said to Shizune, "Shizune, come with me. You are also familiar with the herbs needed for physical recovery. We will split up to ensure we purchase everything as quickly as possible."

"Yes, Lady Tsunade!" Shizune replied, immediately preparing to follow her.

Before leaving, Tsunade instructed Tokiju and Uchiha Hikari, "Pack up our things at the inn, then go wait for us at the entrance of Yugakure."

With that, Tsunade took Shizune and left the inn room.

Seeing this, Tokiju and Uchiha Hikari went to pack their belongings.

Tokiju didn't bother with much; he simply took out a Space Scroll and shoved everything inside in one go.

Once finished, Tokiju and Uchiha Hikari immediately set off toward the entrance of Yugakure.

On the way, Uchiha Hikari looked at Tokiju and asked, "Is it really okay for you to expose your puppet trump card like this?"

Tokiju sighed upon hearing this.

"Sigh, she is a member of the Uzumaki clan, after all. My head was hot at the time, so I just saved her without thinking about the consequences."

"I had intended for her to act as a helper for Sigurd, but I didn't expect her to be pregnant."

"Moreover, her body is in a state of extreme depletion. I can't handle that kind of problem; I have to rely on my sister."

"So, now we have no choice but to bring her back to Konoha with us. After all, only Konoha can provide a relatively stable environment."

This was the result of Tokiju's careful deliberation over the past few days. Sigurd was definitely going to infiltrate the Akatsuki, that was non-negotiable.

If she were a healthy Uzumaki, having her act as a helper would have been perfectly reasonable.

Furthermore, as fellow orphans of the Uzumaki clan, it could have elicited sympathy from Nagato—a win-win situation.

But if she were a pregnant woman, taking her along for an infiltration mission would not be a wise move.

Therefore, it was better to have her return to Konoha with him.

Besides, since Karin had already been conceived, Naruto should be coming soon as well.

Tokiju remembered that Naruto and Karin were roughly the same age, both born in the coming year, Konoha Year 51.

And Naruto's birthday, if he recalled correctly, was sometime in October; it was the only birthday of a Naruto character that Tokiju had any impression of.

The current date was late September of Konoha Year 50. From this timeline, Naruto had not yet been conceived by his parents.

Judging by Naruto's birthday, he should be conceived around December of this year.

In other words, from this moment on, there was only a little over a year left until the Nine-Tails Rebellion.

This period of time was neither short nor long; he could only take things one step at a time.

Although Tokiju's mastery of sealing techniques was high, he ultimately lacked effective means to deal with a Tailed Beast.

After all, he had not yet fully awakened the Adamantine Sealing Chains, the ultimate anti-Tailed Beast weapon, and as a result, he was not very proficient with them.

Currently, he could at most manifest two chains from his lower back, and they didn't extend very far—at most a little over a hundred meters.

The main reason for this problem was that he was not a pure-blooded Uzumaki, and his internal chakra reserves were insufficient.

Although Tokiju possesses the bloodlines of both the Senju and Uzumaki clans, it is, in the end, somewhat impure.

Furthermore, not every member of the Senju clan is Senju Hashirama.

Take Tsunade, for example; even though she is the granddaughter of Senju Hashirama, the chakra within her is still far inferior to his.

That is precisely why she developed the Yin Seal to assist herself, aiming to compensate for her own lack of chakra.

If Tsunade possessed the vast chakra reserves of Senju Hashirama, she would have no need to develop the Yin Seal to store chakra; she could simply activate the Strength of a Hundred Technique and charge headlong into the fray.

Therefore, even though Tokiju's chakra reserves increase daily due to his absorption of Starlight, judging by this rate of growth, he would need at least several more years of effort to reach the level of Senju Hashirama.

This results in the current situation where, even though Tokiju has awakened the Adamantine Sealing Chains, he lacks the sufficient chakra to support him in binding the Nine-Tails.

Watching Tokiju's troubled expression, Uchiha Hikari pursed her lips and teased, "What, regretting saving that woman?"

Hearing this, Tokiju was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said firmly, "No, I will not regret saving someone."

Upon hearing this, Uchiha Hikari smiled helplessly; the brat before her was actually quite handsome when he got serious.

After waiting for a moment at the entrance of Yugakure, Tsunade appeared in their line of sight, leading Shizune.

Both parties nodded to each other, and after confirming that nothing had been overlooked, Tsunade waved her hand and shouted, "Let's move out!"