Yukihime touched her chin and thought for a moment, then nodded excitedly. "Yes, I remember now! Wait, I don't know where I tossed it after I finished reading it last time. Let me look—"
Then, Yukihime rolled up her sleeves and, without a shred of a princess's decorum, began rummaging through a pile of scrolls, tossing them all over the floor. A moment later, she moved on to another bookshelf.
Uchiha Nagi was speechless.
Well, I'll be. The culprit behind the messy state of this study has been found.
"Ah, found it! This is it. Here you go!"
Yukihime wiped a smudge of dirt from her face and happily handed the scroll to Uchiha Nagi.
Nagi opened it and took a look. It was indeed a map from several decades ago. With this, he could compare it to a current map of the Land of Wind and determine the approximate location of the Land of Roran in the desert.
"Is this it? Is this it?" Yukihime asked nervously, as if she were more invested in this than Nagi himself.
"Yes, this is what I was looking for. I need to borrow it for a while," Uchiha Nagi said after he finished examining it and rolled it up.
"That's great! Then you can take it. But… but…" Yukihime suddenly became shy.
It's easy to give away something that isn't yours. The map wasn't particularly valuable, at least not in her eyes.
"Is there something you want? You can tell me. As long as I have it, I can trade it with you," Uchiha Nagi said.
Despite having been in this world for twenty years, Uchiha Nagi still held onto some of his modern-day principles, like not harming defenseless women and children. It was one of the reasons he had chosen to be a medical ninja and stay off the front lines during the Great Ninja War. On the front lines, if your captain ordered you to slaughter a village, what would you do when faced with the elderly, women, and children caught in the crossfire?
Fair exchange was a virtue that Uchiha Nagi had managed to preserve.
Yukihime happily grabbed Uchiha Nagi's hand. "Really? Then take me with you! I want to go see the world outside the daimyo's city. I don't want to marry some creepy old man. He's not as good-looking as you."
Creepy old man?!
Could it be a political marriage? Unlike the ninja villages, which were constantly fighting life-and-death battles, the daimyo of the various countries were freeloaders. Besides eating and waiting for death, they also intermarried.
They felt that commoners were unworthy of their noble bloodline, and as for ninja…
That was a joke. The ninja of the great villages would rather stay single for life than marry into a daimyo's family. The only exception would be if the daimyo himself was willing to marry his daughter out.
But for a noble princess to marry into what they looked down upon as the samurai class? In the eyes of the daimyo, ninja were the modern equivalent of the samurai class, retainers and subordinates. They naturally couldn't stomach the loss of face. Besides, the Kage of each village kept a close eye on their daimyo.
You want to marry your daughter to one of our village's Jonin? Are you trying to cultivate your own power and seize control? Like the Twelve Guardian Ninja next door, trying to overthrow Konoha and take power in the Land of Fire?
So, tradition dictated that the daimyo married the children of nobles, and their daughters also married into the nobility, including the daimyo of surrounding countries.
"It's the Kazekage! His wife died many years ago. Then, for some reason, when he came to the mansion, my father had me meet him. Afterward, he told me I would marry him in two years."
Yukihime looked at Uchiha Nagi with a pitiful expression. "Take me away with you, please?"
Faced with this situation, Uchiha Nagi didn't know what to do. "You should listen to your father…"
Yukihime shook her head like a rattle. "No, no, no!"
The corner of Nagi's mouth twitched. He considered just knocking her out and leaving. He really didn't want to be saddled with dead weight.
"The outside world is very dangerous, and the Kazekage is very powerful. Besides, he's not even forty, right? What's so bad about it?"
"He's not as good-looking as you."
"…"
Alright, that's a very powerful argument. I'm convinced.
Yukihime touched her chin, her eyes fixed on Uchiha Nagi, her little brain working furiously to figure out how to get this man to take her with him.
"Oh, right! Is there anything you want to know? I've read all the books here. I even know the legends of the Land of Wind from a thousand years ago! If you take me with you, I can tell you all the stories. They're really interesting! I heard that the Land of Wind used to be ruled by a princess who came from the moon."
Hmm?!
A thought suddenly struck Uchiha Nagi. "Right. How did you manage to get in here just now without me detecting you?"
Yukihime bit her index finger and blinked a couple of times. "You really want to know? Then let's make a trade. You help me escape, and I'll tell you."
Uchiha Nagi was speechless.
I really shouldn't have mentioned trading with her.
Wait a minute…
"You tell me first, and then I'll consider whether to help you escape." Uchiha Nagi had already activated his Sharingan and was subtly beginning his hypnosis.
"No way! I'm afraid you won't keep your word. You're already using genjutsu on me!" Yukihime shook her head like a rattle, refusing to budge.
Uchiha Nagi was shocked once again. This girl, an ordinary person with no chakra, knows I'm using genjutsu on her? And from the looks of it, it's not even affecting her?
Genjutsu had no effect on her?
After a moment of thought, Uchiha Nagi made his decision. He would take her with him and see what secrets she was hiding that made her immune to his Sharingan's genjutsu, even if it was just the three-tomoe version.
"Fine, I agree. But let's be clear beforehand, I can't guarantee your safety. If something happens and you die, don't blame me. There are people hunting me."
"Okay, it's a deal! Let's go now! It'll be light soon, and it'll be much harder to leave then," Yukihime said excitedly.
"Alright…" Uchiha Nagi nodded. As for what happened to her later—if she died or was maimed on the road—she had agreed to it herself. It would have nothing to do with him.
After they left the study, Uchiha Nagi swept her up in a princess carry and leaped out of the daimyo's mansion in a few bounds.
Could it be the Transparent World?
On the way, Uchiha Nagi kept pondering. For her to be able to approach a powerful individual like himself without him sensing a thing, only a state similar to the Transparent World could explain it.
Although the name was different, the ninja world surely had its own version of the "Transparent World." For example, when Madara Uchiha was first resurrected, his Edo Tensei Rinnegan shattered, and yet he closed his eyes and slaughtered a large group of enemies without any pressure. Nagi would die before he believed Madara hadn't mastered that state.
And then there was Gamamaru, the old toad sage who had lived for over a thousand years and could even glimpse fragments of the future. Such a powerful old creature must have grasped that state.
And the two brothers, Hagoromo and Hamura, they should have been able to as well.
Could it be that this girl was a Child of Prophecy, born with the ability of the Transparent World?
At that moment, Yukihime was simply looking at the passing scenery with an excited expression.