"Oh, it seems that for once your gift has shown something juicy," the kunoichi perked up, smiling lewdly, which looked downright scary on her disfigured face to the untrained eye, assessing her friend, who was blushing to the tips of her ears. "I demand details!"
For obvious reasons, crowds of suitors did not run after her, and Kana considered it beneath her dignity to use her henge to pick up ordinary men for one night, but she showed great interest in gossip on spicy topics, often sharing it with her friend.
"W-well... the two of them... then the three of them!" the priestess blurted out, very embarrassed and confused, waving her arms.
"Three?" the kunoichi raised her eyebrows in amazement. "Someone got pretty bold and decided to experiment?"
"It's just a possibility!" Miroku snapped, trying to regain her composure. "And anyway, even if the gift shows visions of different paths, these are just isolated possibilities out of many, and there's no guarantee that they will come true."
"I don't care! I want Miroku to be that brave! I want details!" Throwing all rules of decorum aside, Kunochi clung to her friend with a death grip, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. "Are there two boys with you, or a boy and a girl?"
The young woman only squeaked, finding herself in a steel grip, and despite her attempts to resist, she soon gave in, trying to remember the details of the moments she had glimpsed. At that moment, there were only two close friends in the room, allowing themselves to forget the masks of mistress and subordinate that they were forced to wear in front of strangers.
Having sealed the passengers in the scroll, I did not linger and, despite the late hour, set off in the opposite direction, now at full speed and bypassing enemy patrols in a wide arc, not wanting to get involved in a fight that was useless at the moment.
Moving straight to the capital of the Swamp Country might have saved an hour or two, but on reflection, I rejected this option — there were sure to be a lot of checkpoints in this direction from the Demon Country, and considerable forces of local ninjas were concentrated on both sides. Better to take the route I knew through the Land of Trees.
I reached the border between the countries quickly, encountering only one patrol of two teams, which I safely bypassed at a decent distance, but then the problems began, though not mine — but those of the rare travelers who were hastily leaving Oni no Kuni.
Along the road, I could see the remains of bodies, almost torn to pieces with characteristic traces of demonic chakra, and after more than an hour of running, I caught up with the culprits — three shinobi stopped not far from the road, near the burning wreck of a wagon. The smell of burnt flesh in the air clearly indicated that its owners had suffered a similar fate.
Frowning, I created three kage bunshin and sent them to deal with the freaks, continuing on my way — if the demon's minions reached the city, the locals would be in for a rough time, even if we managed to stop them all together.
Alas, the dozen or so frail chunin and genin I had sensed during my last visit would be easy prey and would hardly be able to protect the peaceful inhabitants. Even three shinobi could destroy a medium-sized town if they had a couple of area-of-effect ninjutsu and a reserve for several uses.
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