Chapter 18 (Patreon)

“There are too many eyes watching us. Besides, this mission is only supposed to involve recovering a few items. Kakashi will be enough on his own.”

Kushina rejected the suggestion without a second thought.

The so-called Uzumaki relics were merely an excuse. The real purpose of the mission was to rescue two people.

If Hiruzen discovered their true objective, he almost certainly would not approve of sending Kakashi.

No matter how weak Kusagakure might be, it was still an independent hidden village officially recognized throughout the shinobi world. Entering another village’s territory without permission and removing one of its residents could easily cause a diplomatic incident.

Under normal circumstances, Hiruzen might have permitted the rescue for the sake of the surviving members of the Uzumaki clan.

Unfortunately, Konoha was currently at war with Kumogakure.

Hiruzen would undoubtedly worry that the other hidden villages might use the incident as an excuse to move against Konoha.

Rather than wasting time trying to convince him, it would be better to keep him in the dark and bring the two Uzumaki back first.

Before Kakashi departed, Kushina handed him a sealing scroll.

Inside it was a single Shakkahō personally cast by the Nine-Tails.

Even if Kakashi encountered a Kage-level shinobi, the power sealed within the scroll would be enough to create an opening for him to escape.

And if the mission proceeded without incident, the scroll itself could serve as the Uzumaki relic Kakashi had supposedly recovered.

As for the people he rescued, they could simply claim that he had encountered an Uzumaki clanswoman and her daughter by chance on his way back to Konoha.

The idea of sealing Shakkahō inside a scroll had originally come from Roy. Kushina and the Nine-Tails had then worked together to make it possible.

Roy had drawn his inspiration from the cultivation stories he had read before being transported to this world.

Whenever a gifted disciple left their sect to travel, an elder or master would often give them a life-saving treasure containing the power of a single attack.

The shinobi world’s sealing techniques could seal away all kinds of things. Even Amaterasu—the black flames said to burn until their target was reduced to ash—could be sealed.

Naturally, sealing a single attack was also possible.

However, that did not mean just anyone could accomplish it.

The Shakkahō cast by the Nine-Tails might have been weaker than a Tailed Beast Ball, but its destructive power still far exceeded the ninjutsu of an ordinary shinobi.

Without Kushina’s extraordinary mastery of fūinjutsu, successfully sealing such an attack would have been impossible.

Kushina told Kakashi that the people he needed to rescue were a mother and daughter. She also carefully instructed him on what he should say after bringing them back.

Only after making sure he understood everything did she accompany him to Konoha’s gates and watch him depart.

“Don’t worry. Kakashi will bring them back safely.”

Seeing Kushina continue staring at Kakashi’s receding figure, Roy stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her.

There were several reasons he had chosen to tell Kushina about the Uzumaki survivors living in Kusagakure.

First, Kusagakure clearly had no idea how to properly value them. Allowing the talents of the Uzumaki clan to be wasted there was simply unacceptable.

Second, rescuing them would help Kushina build a dependable circle of people she could trust.

They were among the few remaining members of her clan in the entire shinobi world. Combined with the debt of having their lives saved, it was unlikely that they would ever betray Kushina.

And third, Roy could use this opportunity to increase Kushina’s affection for him.

He hoped the system would soon allow him to switch from manual operation to automatic operation. He also wanted to uncover the secrets hidden within Naruto’s former residence.

The results were even better than he had expected.

Kakashi had only left that morning, yet by evening, Kushina had already asked Roy to scrub her back and give her a massage.

Had the Land of Rain not been so troublesome at the moment—and had Nagato not been under the surveillance of that devoted son, Black Zetsu—Roy might have considered rescuing another Uzumaki orphan as well.

Seven days passed in the blink of an eye.

During that time, the vitality of Kushina’s body had improved considerably.

She still could not endure the Nine-Tails’ chakra for an extended period, but maintaining it for around ten minutes was no longer a problem.

Kushina raised one hand and focused her spiritual power into her palm.

“Mask of flesh and bone, all creation, flutter of wings, you who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea surges, reverse its course toward the south and march onward!”

Crimson light gathered before her outstretched palm.

“Hadō #31: Shakkahō!”

The sphere of red spiritual energy shot forward and struck the training target, erupting into a violent explosion.

“That was perfect, Roy-kun! I did it!”

Kushina leapt into the air in excitement.

Roy watched her with a pleased smile.

Even among the Shinigami of Soul Society, not everyone possessed the talent required to learn Kidō. Roy himself might never have mastered it if he had not purchased the skill directly from the system store.

At the thought of the system, his expression became somewhat complicated.

Even after all this time, it still showed no sign of responding.

Roy had begun to suspect that the system had completely crashed while transporting him between worlds.

After teaching Kushina several more Kidō incantations, Roy sat inside the tailed beast space.

The broken half of his Asauchi rested across his lap as he stared down at it with a troubled expression.

An Asauchi was the foundation from which a Zanpakutō was born.

When a Shinigami imprinted the essence of their soul upon an Asauchi and formed a deep resonance with it, the nameless blade would gradually transform into a Zanpakutō unique to its wielder.

Normally, even if a Zanpakutō were broken or severely damaged, it would not revert to the form of an Asauchi.

That was why Roy could not understand what had happened to his blade.

Now that the system appeared to be dead, repairing the broken Asauchi—and restoring it to the Zanpakutō it had once been—had become an increasingly difficult problem.

The Zanpakutō wielded by the Shinigami of Soul Society had all originated from Asauchi forged by Nimaiya Ōetsu, a member of the Royal Guard known as the creator of the Zanpakutō.

Those Asauchi were created through the forging and compression of countless souls and reishi.

Roy had already tried nourishing the broken blade with his reiatsu, but the results had been disappointing.

Suspecting that the laws of the shinobi world might be interfering with the process, he had even asked the Nine-Tails to infuse the blade with chakra.

It had still shown no reaction.

For a Shinigami, the path from Shikai to Bankai required a deepening bond with their Zanpakutō. The wielder had to understand the spirit within the blade and strengthen their resonance with it.

Roy’s situation was completely different.

His Zanpakutō had come from the system’s beginner gift package.

Even his Shikai had been unlocked by purchasing it directly from the system store.

Because of that, his familiarity and connection with the blade were far weaker than those of an ordinary Shinigami.

Had everything continued normally, he would merely have needed to accumulate enough system currency to purchase and unlock Bankai directly.

Instead, he had been thrown into the shinobi world, his blade had been destroyed, and the system had seemingly stopped functioning altogether.

Forget Bankai.

Roy did not even know whether he could repair the blade or regain his Shikai.

“Could the problem be that our resonance is too weak for my reiatsu to restore it?”

There was another possibility in Roy’s mind—one he did not want to accept.

The blade might have been completely destroyed beyond all hope of repair.

That would explain why neither his reiatsu nor the chakra native to this world could restore it.

Otherwise, given the nature of a Zanpakutō, damage sustained while released in its Shikai state should have been repairable through the wielder’s reiatsu.

Kushina had finished memorising the incantations and turned around, eager to share her excitement with Roy.

Instead, she found him sitting silently with the broken blade across his lap, his brow furrowed in thought.

“Roy-kun, your sword…”

Only then did she realise that the blade Roy always carried at his waist was missing half of its length.

The clean fracture made it obvious that the weapon had not been deliberately forged in that form.

Seeing Kushina leaning closer and tilting her head so far that she almost twisted her neck, Roy lifted the blade and held it out to her.

“It was broken. I still don’t know whether it can be repaired.”

Under ordinary circumstances, the body of a living person could not directly touch a Zanpakutō.

However, they were currently inside the tailed beast space, and the Kushina standing before him was a manifestation of her consciousness rather than her physical body.

Kushina carefully reached out and accepted the broken blade.

The moment it entered her hands, both of them froze.

The previously ethereal weapon abruptly became solid.

Even the Nine-Tails, who had been watching from nearby, stared at the blade in astonishment.

This was not the physical world.

How could a material object suddenly appear inside a spiritual space?

Before any of them could understand what was happening, the blade vanished from Kushina’s hands.

Kushina recoiled in alarm.

“Roy-kun… I… The sword…”

Her panicked expression stood in complete contrast to Roy’s own.

After a brief moment of stunned silence, overwhelming excitement appeared in his eyes.

When he had first awakened his Shikai, his Zanpakutō had disappeared in exactly the same manner.

An ordinary Asauchi would never display such a phenomenon, regardless of whether it was intact or broken.

Roy immediately rose to his feet and extended his hand.

“Split open the heart, reflect its will, and bloom—Kyōen!”