Mount Katsuragi before dawn, shrouded in a thin layer of mist.
Sōji stood under the ginkgo tree and took one last look at the houses on the terrace.
Yingying's room was still dark, with the windows closed tightly. Only the wind lantern hanging under the eaves swayed slightly in the night wind, casting a small piece of dim light.
He didn't go to say goodbye.
Yingying slept deeply, hugging the pillow and curling up in the quilt that her grandfather had made for her, her brows stretched and the corners of her mouth slightly raised.
Ugly Treasure poked his head out from his waist and let out a reluctant whimper.
"She'll be fine." Sōji whispered.
Ugly Treasure then blinked and retracted his head.
En no Gyōja's room was also dark, but Sōji knew that the old man was not sleeping.
Six Eyes When scanning, he saw the old man sitting cross-legged by the window, facing the door, as if waiting for something.
What are you waiting for? Sōji didn't go into details.
He put a roll of paper on the doorstep, which was what he wrote last night, about the essentials of Chakra Meridian Blockage Technique and the basic principles of Medical Ninjutsu.
Then, Sōji simply turned around and walked into the mist, while the leaves of the ginkgo tree rustled in the wind.
The way down the mountain was much faster than the way up the mountain. Before it was bright, Sōji was already standing at the fork in the road at the foot of Mount Katsuragi.
He glanced back, and saw only a vague outline of the mountain in the morning mist, like an ink painting soaked in water, faint and likely to fade away at any time.
Ugly Treasure stuck his head out from his waist and whined.
"Well, it's really time to go." Sōji withdrew his gaze and walked toward the northeast.
Three days later, Land of Grass border.
Sōji stopped to rest at an abandoned inn.
He had not been walking very fast these three days, taking stock of the gains from his trip as he walked.
The first is Cursed Energy. From Sandview City to Mount Katsuragi, he kills Nami Ninja, Rebellion Ninja and Suna Ninja along the way, which makes his Cursed Energy increase sharply.
However, just having Cursed Energy is not enough, he also needs to cooperate with Six Eyes to practice diligently.
Secondly, there are the trophies brought by touching the corpses. Those wandering ninjas and rebel ninjas don't have anything valuable on them, but the equipment of Hidden Sand ANBU is much richer.
Four seal scrolls, blank, can be used for Sealing Technique style; more than one hundred Explosive Tag, Wind Release Ninjutsu scrolls, Wind Release: Pressure Damage and Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, all are range ninjutsu above B-Rank.
Six or seven Hidden Sand ANBU standard short knives, the quality is good, but not as good as Snakebite, as well as 150,000 taels of cash and a Sunagakure pass token.
Sōji put everything into Ugly Treasure's body in categories, while the pass token was placed separately. This thing may be useful in the future.
Then there are the gifts of the Tsuchigumo Clan, the basic theoretical knowledge of Sealing Technique and the three advanced Sealing Technique. In some situations, it may be better than any ninjutsu.
As for the spider Summoning Scroll, Sōji has been tried once, and what came out was a palm-sized gray spider with an antenna on its head.
The eight hairy legs crawled twice in the palm of my hand, and then turned into white smoke and disappeared.
At this time, Ugly Treasure whimpered and rubbed his head against his waist.
"It's almost time to rest, it's time to set off!"
Sōji recovered his thoughts, stood up, and patted the dust on his robe.
Then, he spread out the old map he bought at Sandview City and drew a line along the border line of Land of Grass with his finger.
The original plan was to take a boat from the pier south of Land of Wind and cross the sea directly to Land of Water.
But Mount Katsuragi is in the hinterland of Land of Grass. It will take at least seven or eight days to walk back to Land of Wind from here to the south.
Moreover, the people at Land of Wind and Sunagakure will definitely not give up. If Fourth Kazekage comes in person, they will inevitably cause big trouble.
So, instead of going back, it's better to change the direction.
Thinking of this, Sōji's finger continued to move on the map, heading east from Land of Grass, passing through the north of Land of Waterfalls and Land of Fire, and arriving at Land of Whirlpool.
Land of Whirlpool is an island country. It is closer to Land of Water by boat than from Land of Wind.
More importantly, there is a person in Land of Grass who is very interested.
Sōji's finger stopped at a location on the map.
Land of Grass, Kusagakure.
The orphan of the Uzumaki Clan, Karin.
He remembered everything about her in the original book. She had red hair, wore glasses, and had the unique powerful vitality and perception ability of the Uzumaki Clan.
She is used by Kusagakure as a sensing radar and walking medical kit. Every time she runs a mission, she will be bitten on the arm by her companions. She relies on Chakra on her body to recover her strength.
And her mother was also used to death in this way.
The current Karin should be less than ten years old, right?
With this in mind, Sōji put the map away.
"Let's go and have a look at Kusagakure." As he said that, he patted Ugly Treasure on the head.
Ugly Treasure whined, as if asking, what are you doing there?
"Looking for someone."
Ugly Treasure blinked and said no more.
Two days later, Kusagakure peripheral.
Land of Grass is not big, sandwiched between Land of Fire and Land of Wind, like a piece of dough squeezed by two big countries.
Most of the land is hills and wetlands, which are shrouded in a thin layer of mist all year round, making it gray even when the sun shines on it.
Kusagakure is located in a valley near the national border, surrounded by steep mountain walls, with only a narrow channel for entry and exit.
The checkpoint at the entrance of the village is very simple, consisting of two wooden towers, a horizontal pole, and four sentries wearing Kusagakure Forehead Protector.
The expressions of the sentries were very relaxed. Some were leaning against the sentry tower and yawning, while others were chatting in low voices. They occasionally glanced at pedestrians passing by, but their eyes were unfocused and there was no real vigilance.
After all, it is no longer war time.
At this time, Sōji did not choose to enter the village.
He walked around to a cliff to the north of the village and overlooked the entire Kusagakure from a high position.
Six Eyes is slightly hot under the black cloth, and the distribution of Chakra in the village can be seen clearly.
Kusagakure's strength is indeed not that great. The total reaction of Chakra in the whole village is probably equivalent to that of Konoha, a ninja clan.
The dozen or so strongest reactions are at the level of ordinary Jonin, and the degree of solidification of Chakra is quite different from Sunagakure and ANBU.
Sōji's sight continued to scan every corner of the village, and then he saw it.
In a building in the southeast corner of the village, there is a Chakra reaction, which is very weak, but extremely pure.
Unlike the Chakra of ordinary ninjas, that kind of purity is not about strength, but about essence.
Like a bottomless spring, it is calm on the surface but contains amazing vitality underneath.
Chakra of the Uzumaki Clan.
Sōji took back Six Eyes, thought about it, and broke into Kusagakure to rob people. It was not impossible, but it was not necessary.
Although Kusagakure is weak, it is still a ninja village. If it gets too big, it will easily attract unnecessary attention.
Moreover, what he needs is not to rescue Karin, but to make Karin willing to follow him.
This requires some patience.
Sōji stayed on the cliff until dark, then got up and disappeared into the night.
Two more days passed.
Sōji figured out the general rules of Kusagakure.
Kusagakure's ninjas are divided into three shifts, four on the day shift and three on the night shift. Checkpoints are always stationed.
The internal management of the village is very loose, and ninjas and ordinary villagers live together without obvious boundaries.
The building where Karin was kept, Sōji later confirmed that it was a material warehouse, with two people guarding it during the day and only one at night.
The guard's strength barely reached Chunin.
Today is a cloudy day, the dark clouds are very low, and there is a muggy feeling in the air before the rain.
Sōji changed his outfit, wearing a gray coarse cloth robe, with the common turban on his head wrapped in Land of Grass, and the black cloth blindfold was replaced by a more inconspicuous dark gray.
Ugly Treasure was taken back into the body, and now he was just an ordinary traveler.
He followed the path outside the valley and went around to the southeast of the village.
The material warehouse is a two-story wooden building. The exterior walls are painted with gray-white plaster. The windows are nailed shut with wooden boards, leaving only a few fist-sized ventilation holes.
There was a Kusagakure ninja sitting in front of the door, holding Kunai in his arms, and dozing off little by little.
Sōji is not approaching.
He squatted on a tree fifty meters away and Six Eyes targeted the Chakra reaction inside the building.
Karin is inside.
Her Chakra fluctuations are very weak, not a physical weakness, but a suppressed and curled-up weakness.
Like a wounded little animal, it huddled up into a ball and didn't dare to make any sound.
Sōji waited for a while.
The ninja in front of the door changed positions once, and the one who took over was also Chunin. He was more energetic than the previous one, but not much better.
He leaned against the door frame, took out a crumpled book from his arms, and began to read it with relish.
The sky was getting dark, but Sōji still didn't move. He was waiting for an opportunity.