"Mm~"
At once, information about Uchiha Shinmoku surfaced in Jiraiya's mind.
An intelligence operative, powerful, cold...
Had something gone wrong in the intelligence chain? How could someone who liked peeping on girls bathing be cold? He was more the secretly lecherous type.
"Pervy Sage—"
A roar interrupted Jiraiya's thoughts.
"You promised to teach me how to train! Why'd you run off again?" Naruto came striding over with an awkward gait. "Shinmoku? Are you peeping, too?"
"..."
"I already taught you. If you can't train on your own, what am I supposed to do about it?" Jiraiya said.
Naruto was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. When Jiraiya had first met him, he'd had the Fourth Generation's Eight Trigrams Seal and Orochimaru's Five Elements Seal on him.
The Five Elements Seal was an odd-numbered seal that disrupted the chakra inside Naruto. Jiraiya had already helped him remove it, and had also had Naruto write his name on the Summoning Scroll from Mount Myōboku.
The training was simple: use up his own chakra first, draw out the Nine-Tails' chakra, then use it to perform the Summoning Technique.
The steps were already clear. He just had to practice.
"But shouldn't you be staying with me?" Naruto argued. "What if something goes wrong?"
"All right, all right." Jiraiya was exasperated. "Let's get started."
"Heh heh—" Naruto grinned smugly. "Summoning Technique!"
"Poof!"
A little toad appeared in a cloud of smoke.
No, calling it a toad was a bit of a stretch. Its tail hadn't disappeared yet; it was somewhere between a tadpole and a toad.
"Mm~ One from Mount Myōboku?"
[Quest Triggered: Find a Summoning Beast] [Ninja Cats are great, but as a Uchiha, you need a more powerful summoning beast] [Quest Objective: Sign a contract with a summoning beast on the level of the Three Great Sage Locations] [Quest Difficulty: B-rank]
"Mount Myōboku?" Naruto heard Shinmoku and asked curiously.
Shinmoku came to his senses and replied,
"It's one of the Three Great Sage Locations. The summoning beasts there are strong, so keep practicing."
"But how am I supposed to practice? I summon one of these things every time!"
"How many times do I have to tell you?" Jiraiya roared. "Use every last bit of your chakra, you idiot!"
His voice echoed through the valley.
"Someone's here!"
A girl taking a bath cried out, followed by a chorus of shrieks.
"See you."
Shinmoku formed Hand Seals, used the Body Flicker Technique, and left.
In terms of overall ability, only the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path could rival the Three Great Sage Locations, because they had Senjutsu.
As for the strength of their summoning beasts alone, Shinmoku knew of the Third Hokage's Enma, the collection belonging to Pain's Naraka Path, and Hanzo of the Salamander's Ibuse.
There were surely plenty of other strange and wondrous creatures in the Shinobi World. But compared to searching for them, heading straight for the Three Great Sage Regions was simpler. At least he had a direction.
I'll pick Ryūchi Cave.
Riding a toad didn't suit a Uchiha, and a slug wasn't a good fit either. A snake was the best choice for him.
The known contractors of Ryūchi Cave were Orochimaru and Mitaraishi Anko, but it seemed only Orochimaru had the authority to choose who could sign a contract... Was there some sort of permission involved?
After sketching out a rough plan in his mind, Shinmoku began his evening training.
Boss Cat skirted around the crowd and returned to the Uchiha Clan.
There was some urgent intelligence. It knew where Shinmoku was training, but it was only a cat. Going to see him without warning would expose how they gathered information.
Fortunately, when they had been in Cloud Hidden, there had occasionally been times when they were short on time. It had delivered information to Shinna by going around Sifangtai.
It wrote the intelligence in the Uchiha's exclusive code on a scroll, then leaped onto Shinna's windowsill.
"Lady Shinna," it called to her. "Urgent intelligence."
"All right."
Shinna took the scroll. The next moment, she disappeared.
Guy had plenty of Taijutsu training exercises. He didn't run five hundred laps every day.
Today's training was a contest of strength against a tree. He had been kicking it for three hours, using all kinds of roundhouse kicks.
"Boom—"
The tree crashed to the ground.
Shinmoku paused to catch his breath when a waft of fragrance swept over him.
Shinna wore a white silk nightgown. She was barefoot, and her long black hair was still damp from being washed, hanging over her shoulders.
"Is something urgent?"
"Yeah."
"Teacher Guy!" Shinmoku shouted, turning his head. "I'm heading home first. The faucet at home burst."
"Okay!" Guy gave him a thumbs-up as always.
"Let's go."
As he spoke, Shinmoku turned to look over Shinna's outfit, crouched down, and patted his shoulder.
Shinna bit her lip, hesitated, then wrapped her arms around his neck.
As they passed Anko, she gave her a long, deep look.
Once they left the training ground, Shinmoku leaped high and raced between utility poles and rooftops.
"What is it?"
Shinna unrolled the scroll.
In the moonlight, Shinmoku made out the words on it.
Kabuto Yakushi was a Sound Ninja spy; Hidden Sound and Hidden Wind were working together; Gekko Hayate had been killed.
"Destroy it."
The scroll turned to flame and vanished into the air.
Shinna rested against Shinmoku's shoulder. "I suspect Mitaraishi Anko has some other reason for getting close to you."
"Couldn't she just have fallen for your brother's charm?" Shinmoku joked.
"...That's possible, too."
"I like the sound of that... Don't worry, I'm not that conceited. Between Konoha and me, Anko would definitely choose Konoha. I just hope she's never had to make that choice."
"Mm."
"How have you been lately?" Shinmoku pressed.
"Are you trying to get information out of me?" Shinna countered.
"I'm asking because I care about you!"
"Doesn't matter. I won't go easy on you during the exam."
"Fine, fine. Just you wait—you're in for a beating. I won't call myself a Uchiha if I don't make you cry!"
They kept trading threats all the way back to the Uchiha Mansion.
There was a teahouse in the courtyard, open on both sides. A breeze flowed through it like water, making it quite pleasant.
After half a month of training, he had gained an initial mastery of the Flying Raijin Jutsu. Building on it, he had gradually refined his plan.
The next morning, after finishing their weaving exercise, he said to Hinata,
"We'll have to pause for the next few days. I need to recuperate."
"Mm."
Hinata knew about Shinmoku's intense nighttime Taijutsu training... There couldn't be many people in Konoha who didn't.
After lunch, Shinmoku went to the Konoha Gate.
"I'd like to apply to leave the village and look for some medicinal herbs."
"Sure." The gatekeeper took out an application form. "Fill this in."
"Need any help?" Anko had appeared from who knew where.
"...That would be great."
Shinna's intuition had been right after all.
It wasn't a big deal. His first trip outside the village had only been to leave behind a Flying Thunder God Mark and a shadow clone. Now he'd just have the added task of looking for herbs.
"What herb are you looking for?"
"Waterfall Grass."
Shinmoku answered at once.