Chapter 66 (Patreon)

“Roy-kun, how did it go?” Kushina asked hurriedly when Roy returned, her body wrapped in a bath towel.

“My range really did expand.”

“I can’t believe something so ridiculous was actually true!”

Roy shrugged. He found it just as absurd as she did.

Still, his thoughts immediately turned toward expanding his movement range even further.

However, he needed to take things one step at a time. If he told Kushina what he was thinking right now, there was a good chance she would beat him senseless. She had already been hesitant about what they had just tried.

Once she became comfortable enough to let go of her remaining reservations, his range might expand again, and they could take the final step as well.

Honestly, if his movement range weren’t involved, Roy wouldn’t be interested in rushing her into anything.

With Kushina at the center, he could now move freely within a radius of three thousand meters. That gave him plenty of room to operate.

For example, he could infiltrate Root’s underground base. Even if he killed Danzō, no one would suspect Kushina when she was three kilometers away from the scene.

More importantly, almost no one could detect Roy’s presence.

He was practically born to be a spy.

As long as he found evidence of Danzō’s crimes inside the Root base, even if Hiruzen Sarutobi wanted to protect his old friend, he would first have to see whether Konoha’s other ninja clans were willing to accept it.

The only problem was that every intelligence report and record Danzō kept was protected by sealing techniques. Roy had no way to remove them without first breaking those seals.

Testimony alone would never be enough to convict Danzō.

“Leave that part to me,” Kushina said.

Her plan was to create an unsealing scroll for Roy to carry. Whenever he encountered a sealed document, he could open the scroll and place its formula over the existing seal, temporarily disrupting it.

However, that only solved part of the problem.

The members of Root couldn’t see Roy, but unless they were blind, they would certainly notice a scroll floating through the air.

Anyone who saw that would immediately realize that someone was either invisible or controlling the scroll with chakra threads.

“Roy-kun, your Zanpakutō becomes tangible after you release its Shikai, doesn’t it?”

“You mean...”

“That’s right. I can inscribe a storage seal directly onto your blade. You can store whatever evidence you find inside the seal, then deactivate your Shikai. That way, you can bring everything out without exposing yourself.”

“It’s worth trying.”

Roy recited his Shikai’s release command before drawing the Zanpakutō from Kushina’s chest.

At his command, the blade—which was normally invisible to ordinary eyes—transformed into eight scarlet chains. In this state, the chains were completely tangible.

Kushina brought out a bottle of special ink and began drawing a storage seal across the chains.

The ink contained a substance capable of binding itself to chakra. As long as that substance wasn’t completely exhausted, the sealing formula would remain intact.

Before long, the seal was complete, and Kushina began pouring her chakra into it.

“Let’s test it.”

Roy didn’t possess chakra, but he could use his spiritual pressure to activate the chakra Kushina had placed within the formula, allowing him to use the storage seal.

“Seal!”

With a soft pop, the desk wrapped in the scarlet chains vanished.

A written symbol appeared within the formula on the chains.

The user could alter that symbol at will, making it easier to label different storage seals instead of searching through a pile of scrolls for the correct one.

Roy didn’t normally carry many things, so he didn’t bother changing it.

Now that the desk had been successfully sealed, they needed to confirm whether it would remain stored after Roy deactivated and released his Shikai again.

The experiment proved that Kushina’s plan worked.

After Roy released his Shikai once more and activated the storage seal, the desk reappeared before them without the slightest damage.

Kushina then drew several seal-breaking formulas directly onto the chains.

Otherwise, once Roy entered the Root base, there would be no one present to help him use a separate unsealing scroll.

Even after completing their preparations, Roy didn’t leave immediately.

It was already night. The ANBU guarding the Root base might be less vigilant at this hour, but Kushina suddenly wandering through the village in the middle of the night would attract too much attention.

He would have to wait until morning.

Once Kushina went shopping, Roy could make his move without anyone suspecting her.

“I should have waited a little longer before moving here,” Kushina muttered.

The entrance to Root’s underground base was less than three kilometers from Minato’s house, but it was beyond Roy’s range from the First Hokage’s former residence.

“It’s only a little more than ten hours,” Roy said. “If you don’t feel like sleeping yet, we could always do something worthwhile.”

“Go find Kaorui. My cheeks are still sore.”

“I wasn’t asking you to use your mouth. We can do it the usual way.”

Next door, Kaorui had already coaxed the two children to sleep.

She changed her clothes while waiting for Roy to summon her. At the same time, she expanded her Kagura Shingan to monitor the surrounding area.

She told herself it was only a precaution against another intruder slipping inside unnoticed.

Unfortunately, sensory techniques didn’t distinguish between allies and enemies. Everything within her range appeared just as clearly.

Naturally, she had sensed Roy and Kushina drawing sealing formulas onto the scarlet chains.

“Roy-sama probably won’t have time to come over tonight.”

Kaorui patted her flushed cheeks a few times before changing back and returning the clothes she had just put on to the closet.

However, just as she was about to withdraw her perception, a scene she had known would eventually happen began to unfold.

Early the following morning, Kushina emerged from Kaorui’s room with the two little ones in her arms, just as Roy and Kaorui stepped out of the neighboring room.

“Have breakfast first,” Roy said. “Then take them shopping at around ten.”

Kushina nodded.

Kaorui didn’t know what the two of them were planning, but she understood which questions she should ask and which matters she should leave alone.

As they made their way toward the main hall, Roy looked at the two women walking ahead of him and thought of another way to expand his movement range.

Each time Kushina indulged him, he gained more freedom. Indulging him meant allowing her boundaries to fall, so helping her lower another boundary should produce the same result.

If Kushina accepted being with both him and Kaorui at the same time, surely that would be enough to expand his range again.

Besides, Kushina had already gone as far as bringing him and Kaorui together. Convincing the two women to join him at once should be easier than persuading Kushina to take the initiative on her own.

The thought of that wonderful future made the corners of Roy’s mouth rise uncontrollably.

Lost in his imagination, he failed to notice Nii Yugito approaching from the side.

The moment she passed through his incorporeal body, the corridor vanished from Roy’s sight, and he was suddenly pulled into her inner world.

Yugito’s body stiffened in place.

Inside her inner world, Roy and the Two-Tails stared silently at each other.

Unlike the Nine-Tails, the Two-Tails wasn’t restrained by chains. She could move freely throughout the entire space.

Under normal circumstances, she would have attacked an intruder immediately. However, she could sense the Nine-Tails’ presence clinging to Roy.

“You are...”

The Two-Tails had only just regained her composure when Yugito’s consciousness appeared inside the space as well.

Yugito couldn’t sense the Nine-Tails’ presence as clearly as the Two-Tails could. The moment she spotted Roy, she attacked without hesitation, launching a whip-like kick toward him.

The kick tore through the air.

Roy turned and raised his blade to block it.

Their clash forced them apart, and Roy immediately turned and fled.