The Spirit Summoning Art Is Too Precious to Give Me

Kakuzu was impatient; he was very impatient.

He was a man of a naturally volatile temperament.

Eleven days had passed since Yura left and never returned. Eleven whole days...

Do you have any idea how he had been living!?

His small, mung-bean-like eyes were filled with resentment. Kakuzu gritted his teeth, but fearing he might ruin the plan, he forced himself to calm down and closed his eyes.

The whip, soaked in saltwater, lashed against his body again and again. It was painful, but bearable. Kakuzu was a hardened ninja; the village wanted him to confess, but that was an impossibility.

This life of being beaten once a day was something he was finding harder and harder to endure.

On the other side, Yura was living quite comfortably. The afternoon sun filtered through the forest, bright and pleasant.

"The sun is quite lovely, isn't it, Kakuzu-san?"

"To think you were hiding so close by." Huan surveyed the surroundings and said, "You really are something."

Having nowhere else to go and unable to return to the village for the time being, she had no choice but to follow Yura.

"Rest up. Tomorrow we return to the village to retrieve the Hero Water," Yura said. "Then, you contact your subordinates. We will launch the operation in about three days."

"Isn't that a bit too rushed?" Huan grimaced. Her body still ached; three days wasn't enough for her injuries to fully heal.

"It's unnecessary," Yura replied. "The village's strength is what it is. Having the strongest, Mochizuki Gen, on your side actually removes a headache for me."

Coming from the Warring States period, one had to realize that the ninja who could cross blades with Sarutobi Sasuke was a powerhouse recognized not only by the Uchiha Clan but even by Senju Hashirama himself.

"Have you already become this strong..." Huan said, her eyes rolling as she secretly calculated.

She truly couldn't let such a formidable ninja leave the village, yet she was powerless to stop him.

"The power they command consists of at least a thousand people," Huan said. "If we aren't prepared..."

Yura glanced at Huan and said, "Unless there are more jonin to pin me down, no matter how many chunin or genin come, it's only a matter of time before I cut them all down. Instead of worrying, you should arrange your people so I don't accidentally cut them down too."

Yura was neither a sensory-type ninja nor a yokai, so he couldn't accurately judge whether the village still held hidden forces.

Any ninja clan would, to some extent, hide some power that wasn't recorded in the village's files.

"The four clans are at their weakest right now," Huan said, dispelling Yura's concerns. "Many elites died during the last mission to capture the tailed beasts. Even if the four clans have hidden jonin, there certainly aren't many. Gen-sama can handle at least ten jonin. The ones worth noting are the heads of the three clans; they are not weak ninjas."

"Gather them together and leave them to Mochizuki Gen. That shouldn't be a problem, right?" Yura asked.

"You'll have to ask Gen-sama that," Huan said.

"Arrange it," Yura said. "We'll talk in person."

Huan nodded and said, "In that case, you don't mind if I contact my subordinates to make arrangements in advance?"

"Go ahead," Yura said. "Now, what about the jinchuriki?"

Huan, who had just bitten her finger to perform a summoning technique, froze at the question and frowned. "We do have to consider her existence. That child is quite a troublesome one; she's a bit insane."

"A child? Insane?" Yura frowned.

"If you spend your days in the village, you can feel that the Uji Clan is a very deranged group; none of them are easy to get along with," Huan said. "That child is the cream of the crop among them, possessing incredibly powerful spiritual energy. She was secretly cultivated by the Uji Clan during the Warring States period as a weapon, which is why she was chosen as the jinchuriki. She can suppress the Seven-Tails on a spiritual level, but the problem is that she herself is quite mad and not easily controlled. Though, you don't need to worry too much; she won't follow the orders of the Uji Clan or the village."

"How exactly is she insane?" Yura asked curiously.

"That child hates everything in this world equally," Huan said, looking displeased. "Compared to normal people, she is a monster."

A monster?

Yura became even more interested.

"Her catchphrase is 'I hate it so much,'" Huan said. She formed hand seals, bit her finger, and pressed it to the ground. A small white snake was summoned. After swallowing the scroll Huan produced, it slithered away and vanished into the grass. Huan continued, "The most chilling thing is that because she likes me, she wants to kill me. I completely fail to understand her logic or way of thinking."

Because she likes something too much, she wants to destroy it...

This phenomenon is known as cute aggression. When one likes something to an extreme degree, a strong protective instinct arises, but when this emotion is difficult to express, it leads to psychological tension. To balance this tension, one might choose an opposite, seemingly contradictory way to release it—an impulse to destroy the object of affection.

A milder form of this is when someone sees a baby's face and wants to pinch it, or when someone wants to bite the person they are deeply attracted to.

Simply put, when one is so obsessed with something that they lose control, the ego feels threatened and attacks the object to maintain the integrity of its own rationality.

Little boys often attack the little girls they like.

"It seems she likes you very much," Yura chuckled. "However, this is normal."

"Huh?" Huan jerked her head up, staring at Yura in bewilderment. "Normal? Why?!"

But when it reaches this level of severity, it can usually be explained as being a sadist.

Essentially, it is a lack of ability to express one's own emotions.

When love becomes desperate, it turns into hate.

Yura shook his head, offering no explanation, and asked, "How old is she? What is her name?"

"Sixteen. Her name is Uji Lucy," Huan replied.

Sixteen, huh...

"You don't mind if I take her away, do you?" Yura asked. "Since you intend to seal off the village, the jinchuriki is an unstable liability to the village. Why not let me pack her up and take her with me?"

Yura had sensed that girl's presence from afar. To Yura, both she and the Tailed Beast within her were quite delicious existences, providing a steady supply of intense hatred. The two of them, human and beast, were both consistently and continuously going insane.

"No, she is too dangerous!" Huan said. "You must never let that child get hold of your hair. As the secret weapon of the Uji Clan, that child has mastered the Uji Clan's forbidden technique. It is a technique even more sinister than the Earth Grudge Fear of the Qian Gui Clan. It is called the Hour of the Ox Worship, capable of cursing and killing enemies from a distance, ignoring all space."

"Is that so..."

Seeing Yura's indifference, Huan said urgently, "Do you know why the village formulated the plan to assassinate the God of Shinobi? The village is not entirely ignorant of the God of Shinobi's power. The jonin who carried out the mission had a secret objective: to obtain the hair of Senju Hashirama. In our view, even the God of Shinobi would surely die under the terror of the Hour of the Ox Worship, unless Senju Hashirama possessed Earth Grudge Fear to use a second heart to block the curse, or he held the Kusanagi Sword of the Kusanagi Clan—the legendary blade capable of slaying spiritual bodies, the Onikiri!"

As expected of the young clan head of the Hero Clan, she knew quite a few secrets and had provided some truly critical intelligence.

These ninja clans with long-standing legacies were truly not to be underestimated. No wonder these four clans had been fighting in the Land of Waterfalls for so long; they were evenly matched opponents, each possessing their own unique specialty.

This Onikiri—does that mean it could directly threaten my soul?

Such a dangerous blade must be kept in my own hands.

"In my view, the village's jinchuriki is a person with very stable emotions," Yura said with a faint smile. Beyond the hatred that flowed on the surface, what lay hidden beneath was...

"Eh?"

"The village's sealing method is quite crude and simple, yet it still manages to keep her stable. I must say, that girl is an extremely qualified candidate," Yura said. "Since she became a jinchuriki, have you ever seen her lose control and go on a rampage, or even kill someone? Has she ever shown killing intent toward you?"

Hearing this, Huan was stunned. It was true; that child had only ever talked about it.

What lay hidden beneath was a much more intense fear; that child was actually very afraid.

"I have seen her communicate with animals without any barriers," Yura said. "If she were a truly terrifying person, sensitive animals would not go near her."

Hatred was her protective camouflage.

Take Yura, for example; animals rarely dared to approach her. Let alone birds, usually not even a single insect could be seen.

"Is that so?" Huan looked at Yura, and seeing her determined expression, hesitated. "If she is willing to go with you, I have no objections."

"Speaking of which..." Yura said, "The summoning technique from just now, was that a snake from Ryūchi Cave?"

Ryūchi Cave had numerous contractors in the ninja world; it was not exclusive to Orochimaru.

Huan nodded and said, "Yes, it was a summoning scroll provided by the Kusanagi Clan. The scroll is in the Kusanagi Clan's territory. If you are interested, you will have to go get it yourself."

What a stingy clan indeed, they won't even give me a summoning technique!

They have truly invited their own destruction!

Yura smiled faintly and narrowed her eyes, a flash of murderous intent flickering within them.