That night, I had a lot to think about while it was time to sleep. I slept in the same room as Takeshi and his father. They knew it wasn't good to sleep in the same room as an ill person, but they only have this one bedroom, so they had no choice.
This house actually had a few other rooms, but they had holes on the walls and roof, so they couldn't be used. If I had my power, I could rebuild this house with Wood Style. It should be doable even if I wasn't as good as Hashirama with it.
There was no point in being annoyed by something I couldn't do. So I should just do what I could right now, investigating this whole situation. I needed to make sure that I wasn't in any immediate danger here.
This house was obviously the first investigation target. I could get information about Takeshi and his father by checking their house thoroughly. It would be very bad if they were actually very dangerous shinobi who hid their abilities.
But it didn't seem like that. The investigation went too easily. Even with no chakra to use ninjutsu, my skills as shinobi that I've learned and used for years were still engraved in my mind. I could move very quietly and stealthily to check the whole house.
This was a small house, so I checked everything very quickly. There was nothing hidden here. The only real weapon here was the rusty katana in their bedroom that they didn't hide at all. If we counted the farming tools, then they could also be weapons, and they were actually in better conditions than the katana.
I found no hidden storages or hidden rooms as well. So they didn't hide anything in this house. But I couldn't be very sure yet because they could be elaborating with the others in this village, so I went to check the other houses, stealthily, of course.
Almost all villagers have slept by now, so it wasn't difficult to break into their houses. There were no guards or patrols either, so no one saw me sneaked into houses. I erased my presence as best as I could in my current situation and no one sensed me.
There were quite a lot of houses here, so just a night won't be enough to investigate all of them. That's why I decided to check random houses all over the villages like taking samples and doing quick investigations.
I would still find or at least sensed if something was wrong even with quick investigations, but I found no suspicious things in every house I checked. Rather than finding suspicious things, I found just how poor these people were.
I knew they were poor, but not to this extent. At least Takeshi could eat something. But some of the villagers actually tied stones on their stomachs to press them to help them hold their hunger.
The children were malnourished. They looked better than their parents because it seemed their family's food was prioritized for the children. But it didn't seem to be enough.
Even if the children ate enough, if their parents didn't eat anything, they would eventually die of starvation. With their parents gone and no one to give them food, the children would die as well. This was a worse situation than I thought it was.
"This is worse than what Takeshi said. Someone who rebelled against an already good Lord and took over his title is obviously not someone who wanted to make the country better. He must have the audacity to act this badly because he has a very strong backing. Kaido that pirate must be someone very powerful."
A world filled with people who suffer from their leaders' tyranny. This Genjutsu world might be made for me to relieve my heart that was full of regret. Maybe I should pay for all my sins by helping these people and only then could I get out of this Genjutsu to go to the afterlife with no regret.
If it was really so, then I would do everything I could to succeed. Even if everything was an illusion, the relief I would get in the end should be real. At the very least, I wanted to be a good person and pay for my sins even if everything is just an illusion.
Ignoring these people's sufferings just because this was an illusion would make me just as bad as myself after Rin's death. I was sure Rin would be very mad at me for not helping these people just because I wanted to meet her sooner.
"Sorry Rin, you need to wait a little longer. I couldn't save you, so I would save these people. Just for a little, I want to ease the guilt in my heart before meeting you again."
It would be difficult with my condition now as I had no chakra. But I still had my skills and experience to use, so I wasn't completely helpless.
First, I needed to know more about this place and its people so I could decide what were the best choices to help them. Then I also needed to know what I could do now when I didn't have chakra.
Furthermore, I also regressed into a child, so even my physical power was reduced significantly. I needed to know my limits so I could plan what I could do correctly.
So the next morning I tried some basic physical exercises to check my current physical limits. I must say, it was better than I expected.
Right now, my physique looked like when I was 7 years old. But I was as strong as when I was 12. My skills were obviously much better than when I was 12 though.
The only problem was I couldn't synchronize my skills with my current strength. When I tried throwing pebbles at a target, I missed most of them. But I knew it wasn't a skill problem. It was because I miscalculated my strength.
I was still not used to my lower strength and I usually used chakra to enhance my attacks. With less strength and no chakra, my throwing was really off. It would take a while to adapt with my current power, so I won't be able to do much for a while.
"Wow, you throw those pebbles like a shinobi." Takeshi saw my training because I did it openly in the backyard. But what did he say just now? Shinobi?
"Takeshi, what's a shinobi?"
"Hmm, how should I explain it? Shinobi is the Lord's trusted aide. They work in the shadows to help their Lords. I don't know much, but I think they collect information, or even assassinate enemies without being discovered. Samurai fights openly while Shinobi fights in the dark. But both are professions who risk their lives for their Lord's honor."
So they have Samurai as well. Their descriptions of Samurai and Shinobi were very similar to our Samurai and Shinobi. There were even Ronin and Rogue Shinobi, very similar to the system in my world.
I started to think that maybe this wasn't even a different world. Maybe I was just sent to another continent across the vast ocean. It would still make sense if they didn't know about the Elemental Nations or even the 4th Great Shinobi World War.
But it couldn't answer why I regressed into a child again. If it was just my soul being thrown to another continent and entering the body of a child, then I wouldn't look like when I was a kid, so this was my soul and body, which would make more sense to say if I was reborn.
Whatever the case may be, this place actually looked similar to my home world. Only that Samurai was more well known and there were more of them than Shinobi, so it was more similar to the Land or Iron.
I probably needed to investigate more about this country now that I knew they have samurai and shinobi as well. If the shinobi also used Ninjutsu, then I needed to know how they did it because most of the ninjutsu I knew was very reliant on the use of chakra.
Either they used tools or have another source of power, I needed to find them out so I could increase my future options. Also, in case they became my enemies, it would be safer if I knew how to fight them by knowing their fighting methods.
Of course, I needed to do the investigation secretly. I couldn't make enemies of anyone while I was still weak. So I would help Takeshi's work to earn my own food while investigating.
For now, I decided to just live my life in this Genjutsu world and helped these poor people. Maybe I would break this Genjutsu once I reached that goal.
Even if it didn't happen, I'd rather enjoy my life than think too much about breaking this Genjutsu. If I couldn't escape until I died of old age, then so be it. At least I could live longer than before.
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