In a ruined passageway in an unknown place.
Ninja Cats licked their fur along the dim corridor. When they heard footsteps, they looked up, gave a casual greeting, and went back to grooming.
Uchiha Sora and Shisui passed through the corridor and entered a spacious chamber.
This was the "Cat Village," where the Ninja Cats lived.
Cat Village did not refer to some village out in the wilderness. It was a ruined, unclaimed area that belonged to no country or village.
Granny Cat was skilled at making equipment for Ninja Cats, and many of them had signed contracts with her and rallied under her, forming Cat Village.
At the same time, it was also an important source of intelligence and weapons for the Uchiha Clan, with deep ties between them.
Many Uchiha chose Ninja Cats as their summoning beasts. Uchiha Sora was one of them.
Shisui had no contract with a Ninja Cat. His summoning beasts were the Ninja Crows passed down through his family, and this was his first time visiting Cat Village. His eyes were full of curiosity.
Just as he was about to reach out to the Ninja Cat crouching by the entrance...
"Hinai has a bad temper. You'd better not tease him."
The Ninja Cat guarding the entrance, Hinai, yawned and stretched.
"Oh, it's Kong. Did you bring anything, meow?"
Hinai was a bit of a snob. Even though Uchiha Sora knew him well, he'd still get upset if Sora showed up empty-handed.
Sora took two bottles of Heavenly Catnip drink from his sleeve and handed one to Hinai and one to Tianhuo, the two cats on guard.
"Go get Granny Cat."
"OK, meow!"
Not long after the two sat down, an old woman holding a cat walked in. She wore orange clothes, a dark gray cat-ear headpiece, and smoked a pipe.
She sat down opposite them and first turned to Shisui.
"You're Shisui, right? This is our first time meeting."
"I hear you're the most talented of the new generation of the Uchiha."
Shisui bowed respectfully. "You flatter me. Compared to Sora, I'm no genius at all."
Though Uchiha Sora's combat prowess was mainly thanks to Rayquaza, people in the Shinobi World considered summoning beasts part of a shinobi's strength.
Uchiha Sora skipped the mutual flattery and got straight to the point. "Granny Cat, I'd like to know where the Fuma Clan is located."
"The Fuma Clan..."
Granny Cat thought for a moment. "If I remember correctly, your Uchiha once worked with them during the Warring States period."
"The Fuma are skilled at making weapons..."
Granny Cat narrowed her eyes. "Kong, don't tell me you're heartlessly abandoning this old woman to seek out a new weapons supplier."
"Cat Village is an important ally of the Uchiha Clan. We don't have a habit of abandoning our allies."
Uchiha Sora shook his head. "Things are different now. The weapons you used to supply were enough for the Uchiha, and we could even bill Konoha for them."
"But now we're running things ourselves... We still have to cut costs wherever we can."
"We've only just started getting things going, and rebuilding a village is far too expensive..."
After grumbling about their finances for a while, Uchiha Sora got to the point.
"I'm planning to take over the Fuma Clan."
"If I'm not mistaken, your next step is to establish a shinobi village?"
Uchiha Sora smiled faintly. "That's right. A shinobi village belonging to the Uchiha."
"Kong, don't take it personally, but even if you're short on money, you still have to pay the agreed fee for the information. Not a single coin less."
Uchiha Sora nodded. "Of course."
"But..."
"This old woman understands. You want to put it on credit."
"It wouldn't be the first time. You can pay next time."
It wasn't just Granny Cat. Uchiha Sora had borrowed money from nearly every Ninja Cat.
They had no idea what he used it for, but as long as he paid it back with interest on time the following month, that was good enough.
The Ninja Cats regarded lending money to Uchiha Sora as a reliable investment.
Especially the blue cat, Jialuo, who had lent him all his money. It was a long-term investment, with repayments every month.
Only someone as trustworthy as Uchiha Sora could get away with borrowing from Granny Cat. Even Fugaku himself wouldn't be able to put it on credit.
Granny Cat took a long drag from her pipe, seeming deep in thought.
As the Uchiha's information broker, Granny Cat was highly capable.
She didn't have a dedicated intelligence room or anything of the sort. Countless pieces of information were stored in her mind using a secret technique.
In the underground black market, the bounty on her mind had already reached eighty million ryō!
Fortunately, she was a formidable fighter in her own right and had many Ninja Cats under contract. Most importantly, she was an ally of the Uchiha, so few people would dare to target her.
There was one green-eyed man who was always looking for trouble with her.
Granny Cat knew he was not easy to deal with, so whenever she got wind of him, she would steer clear.
After a while, she took out a map and pointed to a spot.
"Here."
The Land of Fields, huh...
After defecting, Orochimaru joined the Akatsuki. He probably founded Otogakure only after leaving them.
Uchiha Sora took a stack of silver from his robes. "This is what we agreed on—the fee for the Ninja Cats' help with the move."
"We'll need the Ninja Cats' help with the reconstruction too. I'll settle their wages next time."
Ding—
"Fulfilled agreement with Granny Cat. Reputation points +16"
Over several years, Uchiha Sora had earned more than six hundred reputation points through his clan and Cat Village, then taken out a large loan.
Rayquaza's loan was worth 1,000 points, but thanks to the new-user benefit, it had only used up 500 reputation points.
Now 500 of Uchiha Sora's reputation points were frozen. Until he repaid the Rayquaza loan, he had only a little over a hundred points he could use.
Borrowing money today and paying it back tomorrow wouldn't work. It had to be a legitimate transaction lasting more than a month, and the lender had to make a profit...
The relevant rules were complicated. There was no way to exploit a loophole.
Another important rule affected how many reputation points a transaction earned.
The more powerful the lender and the harder the agreement was to fulfill, the more reputation points the borrower could earn.
In Uchiha Sora's view, reputation points were like collateral for the platform. The 500 frozen points served as collateral for borrowing Rayquaza's power.
And the loan wasn't just about letting Rayquaza come over for a single rampage.
--
"Heavens Lending Platform" After Uchiha Sora's first loan, a branch information database had appeared beneath it. "Current loan project—Sky Divine Beast Rayquaza" "Project level—Gold" "Related information" "Rayquaza trial card: User currently possesses 20% of Rayquaza's instinctive ability to manipulate energy, randomly mutated into 50% chakra control." "Bond amplification: User shares similar traits with the lender, granting a 60% boost to randomly selected abilities."
--
"Repayment terms— The user may not repay early. Time flows differently across different dimensions, and your ten years may not be the lender's ten years. This is a risk of borrowing, and the user bears the responsibility. If the loan is not repaid on time, pursuit will be triggered. The user will lose 10% of all attributes per minute until the debt is repaid. The user may pawn abstract concepts such as 'memory fragments,' 'emotional colors,' or 'knowledge of abilities' to obtain an extension."
"Friendly reminder: A major breach of contract by the user will trigger a 'chain of misfortune'..."
--
It felt as though he had a fragment of Rayquaza inside him.
All of his abilities had been boosted, most notably his chakra control.
It was precisely this surge in chakra control that had allowed Uchiha Sora to reach the Three Tomoe after the battle.
Feeling the power contained in his eyes, Uchiha Sora put aside his plans to earn more reputation points for the time being.
The most important thing now was to absorb these abilities and make them his own.
Before you continue