"...What do you mean?"
The girl paused for a moment before asking.
"The literal meaning," Ryuji replied with a light laugh. "To deal with disruptions from people like you, we've incurred significant losses. How can we not recover those losses from you?"
An intelligence team might not necessarily have a Sensor-type Shinobi, but a team temporarily assembled to gather important intelligence would inevitably include one. Due to the huge commotion caused by the Ugo Ring and the rumor that 'Sunagakure is manufacturing a secret weapon to dominate the Shinobi World', every village attached great importance to it. The teams they sent to investigate basically all included Sensor-type Shinobi.
However. Sensor-type Shinobi are rare and precious. Their strategic value is immeasurable and irreplaceable. If one could capture a Sensor-type Shinobi and have their village pay a high price to get them back...
For Konoha, perhaps it wouldn't work, because they have the Hyuga, the Aburame, the Inuzuka, the Yamanaka, and several other sensor clans. Plus, with their large population base, one or two civilian-born Sensor-type Shinobi always appear. They simply don't lack Sensor-type Shinobi. If the price demanded is too high, then forget it.
But other Shinobi Villages are different. Even the other four of the Five Great Shinobi Villages possess only a handful of Sensor-type Shinobi, let alone a small to medium-sized village like Shimogakure.
Their total number of Shinobi probably doesn't exceed a thousand, and they likely only have one or two Sensor-type Shinobi in total. As long as the ransom demand isn't made in bad faith, they definitely wouldn't refuse.
In the past few days, Ebizo had successively captured six intelligence squads from other villages, and three of those squads included Sensor-type Shinobi.
After noticing this situation, Ryuji thought of trading prisoners for money to compensate for the losses incurred by prioritizing the flight system. If they could capture a few more Sensor-type Shinobi and successfully negotiate with their home villages, not only could they cover the losses, but they might even make a hefty profit.
"Barring any accidents, you will return safely to your village. The prerequisite is your cooperation."
After explaining the reasoning to the girl, Ryuji used survival as an incentive.
But the girl refused without a second thought.
She snorted coldly. "Don't even think about it. Even if there's a chance to survive, I won't betray my village."
"No, no, I don't need you to betray your village." Ryuji gently wagged his index finger, a smile on his lips. "I have no interest in the secrets of your little village. What I want to understand are your Hawk Eyes. You have ten seconds to consider: cooperate with me, or let me kill you and use your corpse for research. Let me tell you first: although you being alive could fetch a large ransom, the value of that ransom compared to the value my research brings is literally a drop in the bucket. So don't imagine I'll change my mind because of money. Now you can start considering. Ten, nine, eight..."
Ryuji's flat voice was like a death timer, throwing the girl into a panic.
Hawk Eyes were her unique Dojutsu, the foundation of her standing in the Shinobi World. She didn't want outsiders to know its secrets, nor did she want anyone else to take them away. But compared to life, Hawk Eyes were nothing.
If death was certain, then she naturally wouldn't need to consider much.
But if she could live, she definitely didn't want to die. Especially if she could live without betraying her village, she wanted it even less.
If given ample time to consider, she would ultimately choose cooperation. But now she only had ten seconds. Human greed made her want to negotiate, but the fear of life and death made her afraid to decide.
As the countdown got closer and closer to zero, the girl finally yielded.
"I agree."
After saying this, the girl seemed as if she had just gone through a life-and-death struggle, covered in sweat, her clothes soaked through, a faint scent of sweat emanating from her. Little Ryuji forcefully rose again.
Ryuji frowned, displeased. "Although I'm glad you agreed to cooperate, if you use seduction techniques on me again, I'll throw you into a pen of boars in heat."
"No! This is natural!"
"Natural?"
Looking at the girl's panicked face, Ryuji scrutinized her again, expressing doubt.
The so-called seduction technique is, simply put, seduction… a Ninjutsu that uses Chakra and displays charm toward the opposite sex to achieve its purpose. If one cannot display the charm of the opposite sex, it simply can't be effective.
Although the girl's figure was quite attractive, the dirt on her made it hard to find her appealing. If not for the effect of a Ninjutsu, he wouldn't believe in any natural seductive charm even if beaten to death.
To put it plainly, 'natural seductive charm'... although it appears frequently in novels, especially in Jiraiya's Icha Icha series, it's never been heard of in reality.
"It's true."
The girl, perhaps genuinely worried about being thrown into a boar pen, hurriedly explained, "I'm Chie Kana. I'm from the Kagero Clan of the mountain stream."
"The Kagero Clan!?"
Ryuji's face showed surprise, and he subconsciously took a few steps back, putting distance between himself and the girl.
The Kagero Clan was famously well-known in the Shinobi World, even more so than clans like the Uchiha or Hyuga. Of course, being famous didn't necessarily mean they were strong. And their fame didn't come from being active in the Shinobi World.
On the contrary, the Kagero Clan wasn't active in the Shinobi World at all. They hadn't joined any shinobi village; the entire clan lived in seclusion deep in a mountain stream in the Land of Waterfalls. But they became widely known because Jiraiya's Icha Icha series sold so well.
This is how Jiraiya's novel described it: Women of the Kagero Clan are born with a naturally seductive charm, possessing great allure for men. But when they feel love, their breath, saliva, sweat, and even blood turn into deadly poison with no known antidote. All men who fall in love with them die in the sweetest moments of love. Because of this constitution, the Kagero Clan lived in seclusion in the deep mountains, marrying only within the clan to reproduce.
Also because of this constitution, every adult male of the Kagero Clan would die on his happiest day, leading to a long-term imbalance where females far outnumbered males.
Jiraiya's novel portrayed this part of the story as extremely poignant and beautiful, interspersed with some adult elements, evoking empathy from the male populace and even girls across the Shinobi World, earning tears and sales.
People of this world might not know, thinking Jiraiya's novel was fictional. But as a Transmigrator, Ryuji knew very well that most of the stories and characters in Jiraiya's novels were based on his personal experiences and observations during his travels across the Shinobi World, then embellished.
If this Chie Kana really was from the Kagero Clan, then if she were to feel love for him and just breathe on him, he'd be done for. Because he hadn't modified his body and had no poison resistance.
"What kind of reaction is that?! Do you think I'd fall for someone I just met?"
Seeing Ryuji instinctively distance himself, Kana was on the verge of a breakdown, 'This guy, what does he take me for?'
"It's hard to say."
Ryuji responded instinctively.
In Jiraiya's novels, many girls of the Kagero Clan fell in love with the protagonist at first sight, desperately throwing themselves at him. This seemingly promiscuous behavior of falling for any man made it impossible not to be wary.
But he soon realized this plot was likely fiction Jiraiya created to attract readers. Otherwise, if Kagero Clan's women were truly so promiscuous as to fall for someone at first sight, the subordinate who got blood spat on his face earlier would already have been poisoned to death.
So, seeing the girl trembling with anger, looking like she might charge at him to fight, he quickly changed the subject.
"Didn't your Kagero Clan live in seclusion in the deep mountains of the Land of Waterfalls? How did you become a Shinobi of the Land of Frost?"
Kana was successfully diverted.
She extended her bound hands, gesturing for Ryuji to untie her, then said, "It's all because of that Konoha's Shinobi, Jiraiya."
"Jiraiya?" Ryuji, while untying the rope, showed confusion.
"Him." Kana recalled, "I was five at the time. Jiraiya traveled to our clan's secluded home. Through his stories, I learned about the exciting outside world and always yearned to see it. So after training and becoming a full-fledged Shinobi, I secretly ran away."
"Jiraiya... didn't that guy get poisoned to death?"
"Huh!?" Kana looked at Ryuji in surprise. "How did you know he almost got poisoned to death?"
"Do I even need to guess?"
Ryuji rolled his eyes speechlessly.
That pervert, upon seeing a beauty, couldn't help but flirt. Luckily, that guy was devoted to Tsunade for life. If he had truly been a playboy, he probably would have been poisoned to death already.
"You know Jiraiya?"
Seeing Ryuji's expression, Kana also guessed the truth.
"You could say so." Seeing Kana about to ask more, Ryuji changed the topic again. "Jiraiya's novels didn't mention the Kagero Clan having Hawk Eyes. So is this unique to you, or does everyone in the Kagero Clan have it, and Jiraiya just didn't mention it?"
"It's not unique to me, but not everyone has it either." Kana threw the untied rope aside and continued, "Each generation of the Kagero Clan has one person born with Hawk Eyes. That person becomes the clan's elder and seer, guiding the clan's survival."
"I see. So what are the specific abilities of Hawk Eyes?"
"Night vision, long-distance vision, extremely high dynamic vision. The field of vision is also more colorful; the colors seen for the same objects are more numerous and vibrant."
"Exactly like a hawk's eyes." Ryuji's eyes brightened. "What's the performance like?"
"The long-distance vision is a bit weaker than a hawk's. Can only clearly see things about two kilometers away. The rest are roughly the same as a hawk."
"It seems this is exactly the ability I'm looking for."
A smile appeared on Ryuji's face.
White Zetsu's body cells are closer to plants. Its Chakra and aura are extremely similar to nature's. Ordinary sensory abilities simply cannot distinguish White Zetsu's Chakra from nature's; only visual confirmation works. Hawk Eyes perfectly met this requirement.
Although Hawk Eyes cannot see through objects and can't spot White Zetsu that have burrowed underground, as long as they aren't buried too deeply, the color-sensitive cells of Hawk Eyes can detect something underground. Combined with Chakra Sensing for confirmation… if no differences are found, then there's a problem.