Uchiha Nagi eagerly had Yukihime write down what she remembered from the Ninshu books she had seen, whether it was ninjutsu or Buddhist sutras. The results, however, were a great disappointment.
"This is all just stuff like Buddhist and Taoist scriptures. Isn't there anything about ninjutsu training?"
Yukihime had already written out several volumes for Nagi, but they were all religious texts, profoundly esoteric and mostly exhorting people to do good.
"No, anything related to ninjutsu was hidden away by the daimyo. Otherwise, I wouldn't be an ordinary person," Yukihime said, blinking innocently.
"Is there anything about spiritual training?" Uchiha Nagi asked with a frown.
"No, if there was, it would be in these scriptures…" Yukihime said innocently.
On the second night after helping her flee her arranged marriage, Uchiha Nagi tested her again. It was the same as before: as long as Yukihime was out of his line of sight, he couldn't sense her presence. It was truly bizarre; she was clearly just an ordinary person.
Nagi then probed her further and found that her spiritual energy wasn't particularly strong. What was unexpected, however, was that it felt incredibly… peculiar. It was an oddity he couldn't quite describe, as if no genjutsu could affect her. Or rather, while her spiritual world was pitifully weak, it was like a house secured with an iron-locked door; no one could get in.
Unless you tore the whole house down—meaning you could kill her, but you couldn't hope to invade her mind.
Afterward, Nagi tried to follow the scriptures Yukihime had given him, but he couldn't find any entry point or method for cultivation.
He concluded that these scriptures left behind by Ninshu were genuinely religious texts, completely devoid of any training methods.
And yet, it was through years of reading these very scriptures that Yukihime had stumbled into this state, a half-step into the Transparent World.
Damn it.
Uchiha Nagi asked Yukihime again about her daily routine and whether she had ever trained.
Yukihime still insisted that she had never trained. It was just that when she read, she found it easy to concentrate. Later, she discovered she had a good memory, and so she read more and more books.
Uchiha Nagi stroked his chin thoughtfully. According to her, she had inadvertently unlocked a method of cultivation. By concentrating while reading, she had unintentionally entered a state similar to a high monk in deep meditation. By pure coincidence, she had successfully cultivated the power latent within these Ninshu scriptures.
But it was understandable. If there had been any explicit ninjutsu or spiritual training methods written down, they would have been locked away in the treasury by the successive daimyo long ago. Only these texts, which appeared to be mere religious scriptures, could have been preserved for so long and left so casually among the other miscellaneous books in the daimyo's study.
Nagi had a bold guess: the Fourth Kazekage had noticed Yukihime's special condition, but also saw that she was an ordinary person with no chakra. That was why he had sought a political marriage with the daimyo, intending to make her his wife.
"Let's go. We'll head to the Land of Roran first," Uchiha Nagi said.
"Okay, sensei."
"Okay…"
Just as they were setting out for the Land of Roran, the daimyo was flying into a rage. The princess was missing, and not a single guard had noticed.
However, he couldn't blame his mere six Jonin. Recruiting Jonin was difficult; not many were willing to retire to the daimyo's mansion.
Fortunately for the daimyo, he received news that a terrible plague had broken out in Sunagakure. The wedding was postponed indefinitely. He no longer had to worry about the scandal of his daughter running away from her marriage.
At that moment, Sunagakure was a land of wailing. After the first ninja death, case after case appeared. The only thing they could do was quarantine the sick.
Even Temari had been infected with the nano-insects. Sunagakure's medical technology was completely unable to eliminate the bugs; they could only delay the inevitable. The longer it went on, the more ninja died. Their only recourse was to protest to Konoha and threaten them with war.
"I disagree, Hiruzen. Send medical personnel to Sunagakure? So they can rebuild their strength and attack the Land of Fire again next time?"
A high-level meeting was being held in Konoha's Hokage Office.
Leading the meeting was naturally the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, along with other high-ranking officials like Koharu and Danzo. The rest were the heads of the various major clans.
The topic of today's meeting was singular: a large-scale plague had broken out in Sunagakure, and an investigation had revealed it to be a nano-sized venomous insect.
Sunagakure, without any proof, had thrown the blame onto Konoha, claiming it was an attack and demanding to know if Konoha intended to start a war.
The Third Hokage spoke again. "What I want to know now is whether the incident in Sunagakure was the work of Root."
The high-ranking officials all turned their gazes to the head of the Aburame clan.
The Aburame clan head's face was expressionless—of course, his high collar and sunglasses hid his expression anyway. Only the fist clenched tightly in his pocket, knuckles white, betrayed his current emotional state.
Danzo spoke up. "It was not. Root has never intended to start a war. The incident in Sunagakure has nothing to do with Root. However, I will say this: since it has happened, let it continue. Don't forget, in the several Great Ninja Wars, Sunagakure has always been Konoha's mortal enemy. This is a good opportunity to weaken them."
"We've had barely ten years of hard-won peace. If we just ignore them and let their strength be sapped, then even if another war breaks out in a few years, Konoha won't have to worry about being besieged by multiple nations."
The Third Hokage cut Danzo off. "I believe you that it has nothing to do with Root. But I have already spoken with the Aburame clan head. Within the Aburame clan, only Aburame Torune can control the nano-sized venomous insects…"
Seeing Danzo remain silent, he clearly, tacitly admitted it.
The Third Hokage waved his hand, annoyed. "All of you, leave us. I need to speak with Danzo alone."
The heads of the various large and small clans all stood, bowed, and exited, leaving the Third Hokage and Danzo alone.
Among them, as the head of the Aburame clan walked out of the Hokage Office, he silently looked down at his hand. His fingernails had dug deep into his palm, and blood was dripping from the wounds. His hand hurt, but his heart hurt more.
Because Aburame Torune was his eldest son.
The surrounding clan heads saw this and remained silent. The head of the Hyuga clan, Hyuga Hizashi, merely sighed and patted his shoulder in a gesture of comfort.
"Torune died in the Land of Wind, didn't he? So what mission was he on that led to the insects spreading like a plague in Sunagakure?"
The Aburame clan could control insects, but when the caster died, it didn't mean the insects died with their master.