Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi

After exploring the village, Yura found that Takigakure was quite large. Within nearly a week, she had managed to get a rough grasp of most of the village's important locations.

Among them, there were three places with significant defensive forces.

The first was the main building at the very center of the village. This was the most imposing structure in the village, where the leader of Takigakure and a group of old fogies from the Warring States period held their daily office hours and secret meetings. Yura had previously lacked the qualifications to approach it, but this time, she secretly eavesdropped for a day. Most of the time, they were discussing trivial village matters and settling old scores from the Warring States era. A group of old men who could barely fight anymore would argue until their faces turned red, occasionally touching on major issues, such as grandiosely discussing their ambition to become the Sixth Great Nation.

However, because of the failed assassination of the God of Shinobi, their recent discussions had been very unpleasant. Beyond blaming and scapegoating one another, most of the old men were worried and fearful of retaliation from Konoha, leading them to discuss defensive countermeasures.

Konoha's retaliation would likely never come; given Senju Hashirama's personality, he probably hadn't even taken it to heart.

If they had provoked Tobirama, however, then the matter of retaliation would be worth worrying about.

When the village held its major meetings, the security was at its tightest. More than half of the village's jonin were gathered there, represented by the four major clans—Hero, Qian-Gui, Uji, and Kusanagi—each bringing one jonin as a guard. Essentially, it was a gang negotiation, and the level of trust between them was extremely low.

Consequently, of the remaining seven jonin in the village, only three were left. Among them, Mochizuki Gen remained neutral; he spent his days as a total drunkard in a medical clinic in a remote corner of the village. The other two jonin were not in the village at all, but were guarding a delicate location outside its borders.

Based on the intelligence and deductions Yura had gathered, that cavern was likely where the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki was being kept.

The two jonin were likely on a long-term garrison mission. Due to the village's manpower shortage, Yura saw no signs of a shift change. Moreover, as an outsider who was not a confidant of the four major clans, being assigned to long-term drudgery in the village was a matter of course.

Therefore, if the two of them were to die silently, the village might not even notice anything unusual for a day or two.

Yura did not intend to make a move on them for the time being, but before starting her operation, she would make contact with the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki. Among the Five Great Nations, the Tailed Beast capture plan had only just begun, and Senju Hashirama had not yet handed them over. Aside from Sunagakure, which possessed immature sealing techniques, Takigakure currently had the fastest progress. In just over a year, various signs indicated that the village had already sealed the Tailed Beast inside the Jinchuriki.

But at present, this kind of immature Jinchuriki technology often meant extreme danger.

It was perfectly normal for them to be placed in a remote area far from the village, and the Jinchuriki themselves likely had even more problems.

Lately, Yura had been thinking about how Kakuzu managed to wipe out the Takigakure leadership. Given Kakuzu's current combat power, taking on three to four jonin was about his limit. But if an accident occurred—such as the Jinchuriki going berserk—he could certainly fish in troubled waters and pull it off.

Conversely, if the village managed to utilize the power of the Jinchuriki, the result would not be very pleasant for Yura.

As for the last location, although it was guarded by twenty chunin and genin, it had no jonin stationed there. It was a ninjutsu library jointly managed by the four clans, built together to show their sincerity. This place was no secret; it was well-known throughout the village.

During this week, Yura had quietly snuck in at midnight to observe it.

Earth Grudge Fear was not stored there. Clearly, the four clans were holding something back; as expected, she would have to extract it from the old geezers themselves.

The techniques in the library that could be called "secret arts" were quite mediocre in Yura's eyes. Most were standard B-rank and C-rank ninjutsu of the ninja world, interspersed with a small number of A-rank techniques. Even though the Earth Style: Earth Spear was powerful, it was still just a B-rank technique.

These ninjutsu, even in the eyes of jonin, could be called powerful—for example, standard elemental techniques like Wind Style: Pressure Damage, Lightning Style: False Darkness, and Fire Style: Searing Migraine.

The Uji clan's unique Water Style ninjutsu did catch Yura's eye. For instance, the Water Dragon Bullet Technique required only six hand seals. Compared to the simplified hand seals of the Second Hokage, Tobirama, it only required two more, and it was undoubtedly superior to the original version's 44 seals. There were quite a few such Water Style techniques.

As for another type of Uji-style special Water Style, it was a seal-less technique. Similar to Uchiha-style swordsmanship, it belonged to Nintaijutsu, capable of manipulating water flow and transforming it into various weapons. The technique itself wasn't complex, only requiring strong chakra control, though its lethality was not particularly outstanding.

However, the Kusanagi-style swordsmanship was exactly what Yura urgently needed right now.

As a secret ancient school of swordsmanship, the Kusanagi clan could not possibly teach everything to Yura without reservation. The technique taught to Yura was called the Half-Moon Kodachi.

Yura had often felt that this technique was strange and awkward, especially since its offensive capability was severely lacking. The sword stances were mostly focused on blocking, parrying, and defense, which had forced Yura to develop Swallow Reversal to kill. And Swallow Reversal, to put it bluntly, was just an extension of the Kodachi's attack range. The solution was simple: tie it to a steel wire, crudely increasing its reach and turning it into a soft whip-sword. This avoided the terrible predicament of getting into close-quarters combat with a sturdy adult while she had small arms and legs, allowing her to launch surprise attacks that usually succeeded in one strike.

On the battlefield, enemies usually didn't expect Yura to launch her only ninja sword like a kunai. It was quite sudden, roughly equivalent to a simplified version of Kratos's Blades of Exile, easily reaching an attack range of three to four meters.

Otherwise, with her small arms and the range of a Kodachi, she would be cut down by a single sword strike before she could even get close.

But the Kusanagi clan was right to teach the Half-Moon Kodachi. For the young Yura at the time, this defensive style of swordsmanship was the most suitable. As long as she could stall an opponent on the battlefield for long enough, she was a qualified piece of cannon fodder. Whether she killed the enemy or not didn't matter; the longer she held out, the better. This often left Yura covered in wounds after struggling desperately to survive.

Now, having obtained the secret scroll of the Kusanagi clan's swordsmanship again, the technique of the Eternal Moon Odachi recorded within it left Yura in a daze for quite a while.

This nodachi, with a total length of over two meters, was not a weapon that the Yura of that time could have held. It was a swordsmanship set that complemented the Half-Moon Kodachi—a dual-wielding style, one for attack and one for defense. It required a considerable amount of superhuman strength to execute successfully; even adult ninjas found it difficult, and using two swords in combat was extremely challenging.

And difficulty meant it was extremely powerful.

Currently, although she had abandoned the sword, the dual-wielding techniques provided important reference material for Yura's multi-blade Swallow Reversal.

As expected of the stingy clan, the scroll recorded one technique each for Tachi, Kodachi, Nodachi, Naginata, Spear, Taijutsu, Shurikenjutsu, and Iaijutsu, all with the beginnings and endings cut off. There wasn't a single secret ultimate technique; she would still have to pay the clan head a visit.

The shurikenjutsu was a rod-style shurikenjutsu, mostly used by samurai, which Yura had already learned.

But what interested Yura most was the intelligence and rumors regarding various ninja clans of the Warring States period, summarized by the four clans.

They could also be read as legends.

For example, in the distant Warring States period, a monster weapon of the Uchiha clan called Uchiha Mumei was sealed by the Senju clan in alliance with the Sarutobi clan. A senior of the Uji clan suggested that it could be dug up and used for their own purposes, providing a clue that pointed to the Senju clan's secret history of the Warring States, where it would surely be recorded.

Or, for instance, the notes of a senior from the Qian-Gui clan indicated that the Kusanagi clan was suspected of sealing away an extremely dangerous Kusanagi Sword.

In the ninja world, the Kusanagi Sword was not a single weapon, but a collective term for a class of blades. Beyond their sharpness, they each possessed different abilities. Orochimaru's Kusanagi Sword could freely contract and deform, also known as the Sword of Gathering Clouds; Itachi Uchiha's Totsuka Blade was a spirit sword without a physical form, capable of performing sealing techniques; and Sasuke's Kusanagi Sword seemed to have no alias, but its ability was an excellent chakra conduction, making it the most suitable ninja sword for Nintaijutsu.

This class of blades shared a unified characteristic: they were indestructible.

This characteristic was very suitable for becoming the vessel for Yura's soul.

In this way, her only fatal weakness could be temporarily eliminated.

It could be considered an unexpected gain.

Sitting on a black nest in the dense forest outside the village, Yura dangled her legs and looked up at the moon, her mood somewhat subtle. After a week, she still hadn't found the location of the Hero Water. Now, she had no choice but to initiate Plan B.

Meanwhile, in Konoha.

Her eldest brother, who served as the Hokage, had long since gone home to sleep soundly. His miserable younger brother, Tobirama, could only stay in the Hokage building, suffering through overtime, the endless work nearly crushing him.

Behind his brother's back, he was helping him handle the preliminary matters of proposing to the Uzumaki princess for the Uzumaki clan.

This matter was essentially a political marriage.

At this moment, looking at a piece of intelligence in his hand, Tobirama wore a grave expression, his brows furrowed in deep thought.

In the current era of peace, no one dared to provoke Konoha; the fact that the Ino-Shika-Cho trio had gone missing after leaving the village and failed to return for so long was an anomaly worthy of vigilance and investigation.

Could it be the evil Uchiha Madara...

With a slight wave of his hand, a Senju ninja dressed in the mask of an Anbu appeared in a flash, kneeling before Tobirama to await his orders.