They Won't Even Give Me the Summoning Technique

Kakuzu was anxious. Very anxious.

He had always been an extremely impatient man.

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

Did they know how he had spent them?!

His beady little eyes brimmed with resentment. Kakuzu gritted his teeth, but afraid of ruining the plan, he could only force himself to calm down and close his eyes.

A whip soaked in salt water lashed his body again and again. It hurt, but he could still endure it. Kakuzu was a particularly tough ninja; there was no way the village could make him confess.

This life of getting beaten once a day was becoming unbearable.

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

Such lovely sunshine, Kakuzu-san.

"I can't believe you were hiding so close by." Huan looked around and said, "You're really impressive."

With nowhere else to go and no way to return to the village for the time being, she could only stay by Yura's side.

"Rest for now. Tomorrow, we'll return to the village and take the Hero Water," Yura said. "Then contact your subordinates. We'll launch the operation in about three days."

"Isn't that a little too rushed?" Huan bared her teeth as she spoke. Her body still hurt, and three days was not enough for her injuries to fully heal.

"There's no need." Yura said, "The village only has that much strength. Its strongest fighter, Mochizuki Gen, is on your side, so that removes one troublesome problem for me."

A ninja who had survived since the Warring States era and could fight Sarutobi Sasuke—one had to know that Sarutobi's reputation was acknowledged not only by the Uchiha, but even by Senju Hashirama. He was a powerhouse recognized by the God of Shinobi himself.

"You've become this strong already..." Huan said, her eyes shifting as she secretly began making calculations.

Sure enough, they couldn't let such a formidable ninja leave the village. But they couldn't stop her, either.

"The forces they control number close to a thousand at the very least," Huan said. "If we don't prepare properly..."

Yura glanced at Huan. "Unless they have more Jonin to hold me back, no matter how many Chunin and Genin come, cutting them all down would only be a matter of time. You'd be better off arranging your people while you have the chance, so I don't accidentally cut them down."

Yura was neither a sensory-type ninja nor a sensory-type monster, so she could not accurately determine whether the village still had hidden forces.

Any ninja clan would hide some of its strength, keeping it out of the village records.

"Now is when the four clans are at their weakest." Huan dispelled Yura's concerns. "Many elites died during the last plan to capture the Tailed Beast. Even if the four clans still have hidden Jonin, there definitely won't be many. Gen-sama alone can deal with at least ten Jonin. What we need to watch out for are the heads of the three clans. They're all formidable ninja."

"Can you bring them together, then leave them to Mochizuki Gen?" Yura asked.

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

"Arrange a meeting with him," Yura said. "We'll talk face-to-face."

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

"You may," Yura said. "Then, what about the Jinchuriki?"

Huan had just bitten her finger, preparing to use the Summoning Technique. At those words, she froze and frowned. "We do need to consider her. That child is quite troublesome. She's a little crazy."

"A child? Crazy?" Yura frowned.

"Living in the village, you must have noticed that the Uji Clan is an extremely deranged clan. None of them are easy to get along with," Huan said. "That child is the best among them. She possesses extremely powerful spiritual energy. She was originally a weapon secretly cultivated by the Uji Clan during the Warring States era, which was why she was chosen as the Jinchuriki. She can suppress the Seven-Tails on a spiritual level. But the problem is that she's crazy herself and not easy to control. Still, there's no need to worry too much. She won't obey the Uji Clan or the village's orders."

"What kind of crazy?" Yura asked curiously.

"That child hates everything in this world equally." Huan's expression darkened. "Compared to ordinary people, she's a monster."

A monster?

Yura was even more interested.

"Her favorite catchphrase is, 'I hate it so much.'" Huan formed hand seals, bit her finger, and pressed it to the ground. A small white snake was summoned. After swallowing the scroll Huan took out, it slithered away into the grass. Huan continued, "The most horrifying thing is that because she likes me, she wants to kill me. I simply can't understand her thoughts or logic."

Because she liked something too much, she wanted to destroy it...

This phenomenon was called cute aggression. When someone liked something intensely, they developed a powerful urge to protect it. But when those emotions were difficult to express, they could create psychological tension. To balance that tension, they might choose an entirely opposite, seemingly contradictory way to release it: an impulse to destroy the thing they loved.

In milder cases, seeing a baby's face might make someone want to pinch its cheeks, while liking someone of the opposite sex too much might make them want to bite her hard enough to hurt.

Simply put, when someone became so infatuated with something that they could not pull themselves away, their sense of self felt as though it was about to lose control and come under threat. So they attacked the target to preserve the integrity of their own rationality.

Little boys often attacked the little girls they liked.

"Seems she likes you very much." Yura chuckled. "But that's normal."

"Huh?" Huan suddenly raised her head, staring at Yura in utter confusion. "Normal? Why?!"

But when it was serious to that extent, it could usually be explained as sadism.

At its core, it was simply an inability to properly express one's emotions.

The more urgent the love, the more it became hate.

Yura shook her head without explaining. "How old is she? What's her name?"

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

Sixteen...

"You wouldn't mind if I took her away, would you?" Yura asked. "Since you plan to seal off the village, the Jinchuriki is an unstable disaster for the village. You might as well let me take the whole package."

Yura had sensed the girl's presence from afar before. To Yura, both the girl and the Tailed Beast inside her were exceptionally delicious. They could steadily provide large amounts of hateful emotions. One person and one insect, both were continuously and steadily going mad.

"No, she's too dangerous!" Huan said. "You absolutely cannot let that child get hold of your hair. As the Uji Clan's secret weapon, she has mastered one of the Uji Clan's forbidden techniques. It's an even more sinister forbidden technique than the Qian Gui Clan's Earth Grudge Fear. It's called Hour of the Ox Worship, and it can remotely curse enemies to death regardless of distance."

"Is that so..."

Seeing Yura's indifference, Huan urgently said, "Do you know why the village devised a plan to assassinate the God of Shinobi? The village wasn't completely ignorant of the God of Shinobi's power. The Jonin assigned to that mission had a secret task: to obtain Senju Hashirama's hair. In our eyes, even the God of Shinobi would surely die to the terror of Hour of the Ox Worship—unless Senju Hashirama possessed Earth Grudge Fear and had a second heart to block the curse, or he held the Kusanagi Clan's Kusanagi Sword, the treasured blade that could cut spiritual bodies: Onikiri!"

As expected of the young clan head of the Hero Clan. He knew quite a few secrets and had provided some extremely crucial intelligence.

These ancient ninja clans truly could not be underestimated. No wonder the four clans in the Land of Waterfalls had fought each other for so long—they were evenly matched opponents, each with their own trump card.

So this Onikiri could directly threaten her soul?

Such a dangerous blade had to be in her hands.

"In my opinion, the village's Jinchuriki is someone with very stable emotions." Yura smiled faintly. Beyond those superficial emotions of hatred, what lay hidden beneath was...

"Huh?"

"The village's sealing technique is extremely crude and simple. Yet she can remain stable even under those conditions. I have to say, she's an exceptionally qualified candidate," Yura said. "Since becoming a Jinchuriki, have you ever seen her lose control and go berserk, or even kill someone? Has she ever shown killing intent toward you?"

Hearing that, Huan froze. Indeed, that child had only ever said such things aloud.

What lay hidden beneath was an even more intense fear. That child was actually terrified.

"I've seen her communicate with animals without any difficulty," Yura said. "If she were truly a terrifying person, sensitive animals would never approach her."

Hatred was her protective coloring.

Unlike Yura, animals hardly dared approach her. Forget birds—she usually could not even spot a single insect.

"Is that so?" Huan looked at Yura. Seeing that Yura was determined to have her, she hesitated before saying, "If she's willing to go with you, then I have no objection."

"By the way..." Yura said, "Was that Summoning Technique just now a snake from Ryūchi Cave?"

Ryūchi Cave had many contractors in the Shinobi World. It was not Orochimaru's exclusive domain.

Huan nodded. "Yes. The Kusanagi Clan provided the summoning scroll. The scroll is in the Kusanagi Clan's territory. If you're interested, you'll have to take it yourself."

As expected of such a stingy clan. They won't even give me the Summoning Technique!

They have a death wish!

Yura smiled as she narrowed her eyes, a flash of murderous light flickering within them.