Futsunomitama!

Without Terada Yusuke slowing them down, Team 8 returned to the Hidden Leaf in just a day and a half after Uchiha Mo recovered his chakra.

"Whew—finally back. I feel like I've been gone for months!"

Asuma let out a long breath. The scenery that had once seemed so dull now looked incredibly familiar and comforting.

Mo lowered his indifferent black eyes. "Take the proof and settle the mission yourselves. Split the reward between yourselves too. You don't need to give me any."

With that, Uchiha Mo lifted his foot and headed toward the Uchiha Clan District.

After receiving the gift from the Land of Birds' black-market merchant, the reward for a C-rank mission was nothing more than scraps to him.

Mo was eager to inspect his gains and claim the Kusanagi Sword from Cat Granny.

Just as he was about to use the Body Flicker Technique to leave, a voice suddenly called out from behind him.

"Wait! Mo..."

Uchiha Mo paused at the sound and turned around. It was Kurenai Yuhi.

She looked away, idly twirling a curl by her temple around her right index finger as she slowly asked:

"Mo, you haven't forgotten our agreement, have you?"

"No."

As soon as he spoke, Mo turned away and directly used the Body Flicker Technique to leave.

He soon returned to the Uchiha Clan District, but after knocking on his front door, he received no response for a long while.

Mo frowned slightly. "Still training?"

He glanced at the darkening sky, then raised a hand and took out a key from his ninja tool pouch to unlock the door.

"Creak~"

The wooden door opened. Mo strode inside, casually put his things away, then headed into the courtyard.

"Summoning Technique!"

Mo bit his thumb and slapped his palm against the ground. A black patterned seal instantly spread outward from beneath his hand.

Then, with a poof, smoke rose around him, and a ninja cat with sleek, silky fur appeared at his side.

"Mo, what is it this time? Meow."

Mo stood up. "Summon me to see Cat Granny. The mission is complete."

The ninja cat nodded its round, tiger-like head. "Understood, meow."

With that, the ninja cat vanished in a poof of smoke. Before long, Uchiha Mo sensed a summoning.

Without a second thought, Mo accepted it. The next moment, he too vanished from the courtyard in a poof of smoke.

Empty District.

Mo lifted the curtain at the entrance and stepped inside, entering the inner room.

"So Mo has come..."

Hearing the movement, Cat Granny raised her head. She looked at Uchiha Mo, took a puff from her pipe, and slowly said:

"Since you're here, I suppose the matter in the Land of Birds has been resolved?"

Mo nodded, his clear eyes fixed on the old woman as he slowly replied:

"The one who acted was Kakuzu. Several ministers of the Land of Birds and black-market merchants got greedy for his secret technique. Their trap failed, and they were all killed instead."

When that name was mentioned, Cat Granny's arm holding the pipe stiffened slightly. Only after Mo finished speaking did she let out a long sigh.

"Sigh—young people really are either ignorant or bold... Back in our day, we..."

Halfway through, Cat Granny abruptly stopped as she looked at Uchiha Mo before her, then shook her head with a smile.

"My apologies. When an old woman gets to my age, she tends to reminisce about the past."

"Granny, you know Kakuzu too?" Mo did not dwell on it, instead asking another question.

Cat Granny nodded. "Know him? More than that! He may not be a household name, but anyone with half a brain who's made it in the underground black market knows who he is. I just never expected that bunch of cursed fools from the Land of Birds to dare provoke him..."

The corner of Mo's mouth lifted in an almost imperceptible arc.

"Granny, do you know which underground black markets or bounty exchanges he likes to frequent? Last time, I destroyed four of his hearts, but he got away."

Cat Granny's right hand trembled, and quite a few sparks scattered from the bowl of her pipe.

"..."

Her cloudy old eyes stared straight into Uchiha Mo's. His gaze remained calm and steady.

"You really nearly killed him?"

Mo said nothing. Instead, he suddenly pulled out four battered, ruined masks from nowhere and casually tossed them onto the floor before him.

Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack!

"..."

"Haah~" The wrinkles on Cat Granny's face relaxed as she shook her head and gave a bitter laugh.

"I really am getting old, unable to keep up with the times. I never expected you to have become this strong, Mo. If you don't mind, this old woman would like to know how you learned Kakuzu's information. I don't mean anything else by it—it's not like no skilled fighters have tried to make a move against him before, but his abilities... give him an extremely strong intelligence advantage."

At her words, Mo slightly activated his ocular power. His black eyes were instantly dyed crimson, leaving only three ink-black tomoe resting quietly within them as they slowly turned.

"There is nothing these eyes cannot see through."

Cat Granny paused slightly, but she did not become wary. She looked directly into Mo's eyes.

"Three tomoe already... I understand. Later, I'll mark the frequency with which Kakuzu has visited black markets around various places in recent years on a map. I won't charge you for this information. Consider it payment for helping those people vent their anger."

As she spoke, Cat Granny raised a hand to extinguish her dry tobacco, then turned and shouted:

"Tamaki! Bring Mo that Kusanagi Sword!"

A still somewhat youthful girl's voice immediately came from the inner room. "Got it, Granny!"

Not long after her words fell, a girl around Shisui's age came rushing out, clutching a black ninja blade longer than she was tall.

She looked up at Mo, and a faint blush immediately spread across her cheeks.

"Here you go, Brother Mo."

Tamaki handed over the ninja blade, and Mo reached out to take it.

The straight blade still felt perfectly suited to his hand. His previous ninja blade had happened to be destroyed during his battle with Kakuzu, so this would serve as a seamless replacement.

Mo drew the ninja blade and examined it. "Does this ninja blade have a name?"

Some special Kusanagi Swords had unique names, such as the Totsuka Blade or the Ame-no-Murakumo Sword...

Though Mo appeared to be asking for the Kusanagi Sword's name, what he truly meant was whether this Kusanagi Sword was one of those exceptional specimens.

At his words, Cat Granny rarely broke into a grin and laughed aloud. It was the smile of someone who had finally encountered a customer who knew quality.

"Hahahahaha! As expected of you. Of course this sword has a name. You can call it the Futsuryu Sword, or you can call it Futsunomitama—whatever you prefer. Besides that... you can try infusing it with elemental chakra..."

Mo glanced up at Cat Granny, then lowered his gaze to its snow-bright blade.