Kusanagi Sword

As she explored in earnest, Yura discovered that Takigakure was quite large. After nearly a week, she had roughly mapped out most of the village's important locations.

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

The first was the village's central headquarters, where the old relics from the Warring States era, led by Takigakure's leader, served as the upper echelon. It was the village's main building for daily work and secret meetings, and also its grandest structure. Yura had never been qualified to approach it before, but this time, she secretly listened in for an entire day. Most of the discussions concerned trivial village matters and old debts from the Warring States era. A group of old men who could no longer fight properly argued until their faces turned red. Occasionally, they discussed major matters, such as their ambition to become the sixth great nation.

However, because of the failed assassination of the God of Shinobi, recent meetings had been far from pleasant. While they blamed one another and passed the buck, most of the old men were worried about Konoha's retaliation and discussed defensive measures.

Konoha probably would not retaliate. Given Senju Hashirama's personality, he had most likely not taken it to heart.

If they had provoked Tobirama, then retaliation would have been worth worrying about.

Whenever the village held a major meeting, security was at its tightest. More than half of the village's Jonin gathered there. The Hero Clan, Qian-Gui Clan, Uji Clan, and Kusanagi Clan each brought a Jonin guard. At its core, it was no different from a gang negotiation, with extremely little trust between them.

That left only three of the village's remaining seven Jonin. Mochizuki Gen was neutral and usually stayed alone in a clinic tucked away in a remote corner of the village, a complete drunkard. The other two Jonin were not in the village, but guarded a delicate location outside it.

Based on the intelligence Yura had gathered and her deductions, the cavern there was likely holding the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki.

The two Jonin were probably stationed there long-term. Due to the village's manpower shortage, Yura had not seen any sign of rotations. As outsiders unaffiliated with the four clans, it was only natural for them to be assigned such a long and difficult task.

Therefore, if the two died silently, the village might not notice anything unusual for a day or two.

Yura had no plans to act against them for the time being, but before beginning her operation, she would make contact with the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki. Among the Five Great Villages, the Tailed Beast capture plan had only just begun, and Senju Hashirama had not yet made any deliveries. Apart from Sunagakure, which possessed immature Tailed Beast sealing techniques, Takigakure currently had the fastest progress. In just over a year, all the signs Yura had investigated indicated that the village had already sealed the Tailed Beast inside a Jinchuriki.

But at present, such immature Jinchuriki techniques often meant extreme danger.

It was perfectly normal to keep them in a remote area far from the village. The Jinchuriki themself might have even more problems.

Recently, Yura had been thinking about how Kakuzu had managed to slaughter Takigakure's upper echelon. With Kakuzu's current combat strength, facing three or four Jonin was probably his limit. But if an accident occurred, such as the Jinchuriki going berserk, Kakuzu really could take advantage of the chaos and pull it off while everyone was caught off guard.

Conversely, if the village managed to harness the Jinchuriki's power, the outcome would not be pleasant for Yura.

As for the final location, although it was guarded by twenty Chunin and Genin, no Jonin were assigned there. It was a ninjutsu repository jointly guarded and built by the four clans as a show of sincerity. This place was no secret; everyone in the village knew about it.

Over the past week, Yura had quietly infiltrated it at midnight to study its contents.

Earth Grudge Fear was not stored there. Clearly, all four clans had held something back. As expected, she would still have to pry it from those old bastards.

Some of the techniques in the repository could be considered secret arts, but they seemed rather mediocre in Yura's eyes. Most were standard B-rank and C-rank Shinobi World ninjutsu, mixed with a small number of A-rank techniques. Although Earth Release: Earth Spear was powerful, it was only a B-rank ninjutsu.

Even in the eyes of Jonin, these techniques could be called powerful, such as Wind Release: Pressure Damage, Lightning Release: False Darkness, Fire Release: Searing Migraine, and other standard five-element release techniques.

The Uji Clan's distinctive Water Release ninjutsu did catch Yura's attention. For example, the Water Dragon Bullet Technique required only six hand seals. Compared to the simplified Water Release seal sequence created by the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, it only used two more seals. Compared to the original forty-four-seal version of Water Dragon Bullet, it was undoubtedly exceptional. There were quite a few Water Release techniques like that.

As for the other special Uji-style Water Release, it was seal-less Water Release. Similar to Uchiha-style swordsmanship, it belonged to Nintaijutsu and allowed the user to control water and shape it into all kinds of weapons. The technique itself was not complicated, but it required strong chakra control, and its killing power was not particularly impressive.

The Kusanagi Clan's swordsmanship, on the other hand, was exactly what Yura needed right now.

As an ancient secret sword art, the Kusanagi Clan could not possibly teach Yura everything without reservation. The technique they had taught her was called Half-Moon Kodachi.

Yura had often found this technique strange and awkward, especially because it severely lacked offensive power. Its forms mainly focused on blocking, parrying, and defense. That was why Yura had been forced to develop Swallow Reversal for killing. Put bluntly, Swallow Reversal merely expanded the kodachi's attack range. The solution was simple enough: attach steel wire and brutally increase its reach, turning it into a flexible whip sword. That kept her from being trapped in the terrible situation of fighting muscular adults at close range with her tiny limbs. A sudden sneak attack usually succeeded in a single strike.

On the battlefield, enemies usually could not anticipate Yura throwing her only ninja blade like a kunai. It came quite suddenly, roughly equivalent to a simplified version of Kratos's Blades of Exile. Its attack range could easily reach three or four meters.

Otherwise, with her little arms and the kodachi's range, even their blade would be longer than hers. She would be cut down before she could even get close.

But the Kusanagi Clan had been right to teach her Half-Moon Kodachi. This defensive swordsmanship had been best suited for the young Yura at the time. As long as she could hold off one enemy on the battlefield for long enough, she would be a qualified Genin cannon fodder. It did not matter whether she killed the enemy or not; the longer she endured, the better. More often than not, Yura had struggled desperately to survive and emerged covered in wounds.

Now that she had once again obtained a fragment of the Kusanagi Clan's secret sword arts, the Eternal Moon Odachi technique recorded within left Yura in a daze for quite some time.

A Nodachi over two meters long, with a total length of seven shaku, had never been a weapon the young Yura could wield. It was swordsmanship paired with Half-Moon Kodachi: Dual Blade Style, one for offense and one for defense. It required tremendous physical strength to execute properly, and even adult ninja found it difficult. Mastering combat with both blades was even harder.

And difficulty meant tremendous power.

Although she had currently abandoned blades, the techniques of Dual Blade Style held important reference value for Yura's Swallow Reversal multi-blade style.

As stingy as ever, the fragment recorded incomplete portions of one technique each for odachi, kodachi, nodachi, naginata, spear, taijutsu, shurikenjutsu, and iaijutsu. There was not even a single ultimate technique among them. She would still have to pay the clan head a visit.

And the shurikenjutsu was rod-shaped shurikenjutsu, the type mostly used by samurai. Yura had already learned it.

But what interested Yura most was the information and rumors about the various ninja clans of the Warring States era, compiled from the records of the four clans.

They could also be treated as legendary tales.

For example, in the distant Warring States era, a monstrous weapon called Uchiha Mumei from the Uchiha Clan had been sealed through a joint scheme by the Senju and Sarutobi Clans. An Uji Clan elder had suggested digging it up and taking it for their own use, providing a clue pointing to the Senju Clan's secret Warring States history, where it was surely recorded.

For another example, notes from a Qian Gui Clan elder indicated that the Kusanagi Clan seemed to have sealed away an extremely dangerous Kusanagi Sword.

Kusanagi swords were not a single type of weapon in the Shinobi World, but a collective term for a category of blades. Beyond their sharpness, each possessed different abilities.

Orochimaru's Kusanagi Sword could freely extend, contract, and transform. Its other name was the Sword of Gathering Clouds. Itachi's Totsuka Blade was a spiritual sword without physical form that could perform sealing techniques. Sasuke's Kusanagi Sword seemed to have no other name, but possessed exceptionally excellent chakra conduction, making it the most suitable ninja sword for Nintaijutsu.

These blades shared one common trait: they could never be damaged.

That trait made them perfectly suited to become Yura's vessel.

That way, her one fatal weakness could temporarily be eliminated.

It was an unexpected gain.

Sitting atop Black Nest in the dense forest outside the village, Yura swung her legs and looked up at the moon, her mood somewhat complicated. After a week, she still had not found where Hero Water was hidden. Now, she had no choice but to activate Plan B.

Meanwhile, in Konoha.

Her elder brother, the Hokage, had long since gone home and slept soundly. His miserable younger brother, Tobirama, could only remain in the Hokage Building, working through the night. The endless workload was nearly crushing him.

Without telling his elder brother, he had handled the preliminary arrangements for his brother to seek the hand of the Uzumaki Clan's Uzumaki princess.

This was considered a political marriage.

At this moment, Tobirama looked at an intelligence report in his hand with a grave expression, deep thought visible between his brows.

During this peaceful period, no one had dared provoke Konoha. The three members of Ino-Shika-Cho had disappeared after leaving the village and had not returned for a long time. Such an anomaly warranted vigilance and investigation.

"Evil Uchiha Madara..."

With a slight raise of his hand, a Senju ninja dressed in Anbu attire flashed into place and landed on one knee before Tobirama, awaiting orders.