Chapter 90 (Patreon)

Kushina knew Roy would never lie about something like this, but she still couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Really? Roy-kun, is there truly someone from my clan on Summoning Island?”

“All I can say is that it’s possible.”

In truth, even Roy didn’t know exactly when Honoka had lived in relation to Konoha’s current timeline. She might have already been devoured by the Ultimate Summoning Beast, or perhaps she had yet to arrive on the island.

“Whether someone is there or not, we have to investigate. I’ll send for Kakashi right now—”

Unfortunately, Kakashi was away on a mission, and Shisui Uchiha wasn’t in the village either.

“You’re planning to go yourself, aren’t you, Roy-kun?”

Realizing what he intended, Kushina stared directly at him.

“Ahem... That was the idea.”

“Then who are you planning to take with you? Yakushi Nonō?”

Roy only had three possible companions to choose from. Kushina certainly couldn’t leave the village herself, while Kaorui lacked experience outside Konoha. That left only Yakushi Nonō, the woman once renowned as the Wandering Miko.

With a chance to leave the village right in front of him, Roy naturally had no intention of letting it slip away. In fact, he had specifically brought up the possibility of an Uzumaki survivor on Summoning Island to give himself a reason to go.

Kushina eventually nodded in agreement.

When her attention returned to the room, she turned toward Shikaku and Fugaku.

“You can all get back to work. I have something I need to take care of.”

Without waiting for either of them to respond, she rose from her seat and returned home.

Only after spending another two hours alone with Kushina, lingering over their farewell, was Roy finally allowed to leave. He then headed to the Academy, found Yakushi Nonō, and departed from Konoha with her.

Yet once they were outside the village, Roy discovered that he wasn’t nearly as excited as he had expected to be.

Whenever he remembered the reluctance in Kushina’s eyes as she watched him leave, part of him wanted to turn around and go straight back.

“Roy-sama, what exactly is our mission this time?”

Nonō’s voice pulled him from his thoughts.

“We’re heading to Summoning Island near the Land of the Sea to search for a possible survivor of Kushina’s clan.”

“Summoning Island?”

Nonō searched through her memories but found nothing. During her years as a spy, most of her missions had involved infiltrating the other four Great Shinobi Villages.

Although the Land of the Sea was an island nation like the Land of Water, it was even smaller than the Land of Hot Water. It had no shinobi village of its own and possessed nothing valuable enough to attract the attention of the great nations.

As a result, Nonō had gathered very little intelligence about the country.

Roy didn’t know the Land of the Sea’s exact location either. All he remembered was that it lay somewhere along the sea route toward Kumogakure.

Once they reached the port, they could ask the crews of the merchant ships that regularly traveled between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning.

Nonō’s traveling speed was much slower than Kushina’s. Judging by how long their previous journey to the front lines had taken, she would need approximately two and a half days to reach the coastal port.

To shorten the journey without exhausting her, Roy had her capture a wild boar they encountered along the way and place it under genjutsu.

The arrangement was hardly dignified, but Nonō had endured far worse conditions during her years as a spy. Her expression didn’t change in the slightest as she climbed directly onto the boar’s back.

It certainly saved her a great deal of energy.

Controlled by her genjutsu, the wild boar charged desperately in the direction she commanded. Its enormous size frightened away most of the beasts along their route, but it also attracted the attention of a Konoha patrol squad.

The shinobi were left speechless by the sight before them.

They had seen beautiful women before, and they had seen people riding wild boars.

However, they had never seen a beautiful woman riding a wild boar.

After Nonō presented her identification and received permission to pass, the patrol members remained where they were, staring at one another for a long time.

Roy decided to use their time on the road to teach Nonō several Kidō techniques.

What he valued most about Kidō wasn’t that it was inherently stronger than conventional ninjutsu. Its true advantage was that, once properly mastered, it could be cast instantly without an incantation.

While an opponent was still weaving hand seals, the user could already strike them in the face with a low-level Hadō. The advantage was obvious.

Nonō’s chakra reserves couldn’t compare with Kushina’s, so Roy began with the most basic offensive spell—Hadō #1: Shō.

Despite Nonō’s intelligence, coming into contact with an entirely new power system for the first time proved difficult. It took her quite a while before she could successfully cast Shō with its incantation.

Casting it without an incantation would require much more practice.

With chakra reserves amounting to less than one “Kakashi,” Nonō could cast Shō only a little over thirty times.

This didn’t mean Kidō consumed less energy than ordinary ninjutsu.

Chakra was formed from both spiritual energy and physical energy drawn from the body’s cells, whereas the reiatsu wielded by Shinigami was purely spiritual. The physical half of chakra provided an additional reserve that helped compensate for the energy consumed.

Because of this, shinobi appeared to expend less energy when using Kidō. The tradeoff was that chakra wasn’t as pure as reiatsu, resulting in considerably weaker spells.

Of course, someone like Kushina, whose chakra reserves were absurdly vast, was an exception.

The Shakkahō she cast with its full incantation was already slightly stronger than Roy’s own. If she drew upon the Nine-Tails’ chakra as well, its power would exceed his by more than three times.

Compared with Hadō, Nonō learned Kaidō much faster.

For one thing, she already possessed extensive experience with medical ninjutsu. Furthermore, after learning Shō, she had developed a basic understanding of how this new power system worked.

Most importantly, she possessed the intelligence and talent expected of one of Konoha’s finest spies.

Once Nonō had grasped the fundamentals of Kaidō, the wild boar beneath her became the perfect patient for her to practice on.

Even with Nonō repeatedly healing it, however, the boar had already reached its limit by the time the sound of waves reached them early the following morning.

After running throughout the entire night, it finally collapsed with a heavy thud and could no longer rise.

Nonō was nearly as exhausted as the boar. She reached for a military ration pill to restore her strength, but Roy stopped her.

“I’ll take you the rest of the way to the port. You can rest once we’re aboard the ship.”

The workers loading and unloading cargo at the port, along with the passengers waiting to board, watched in stunned silence as a woman floated toward them from the distance, her feet hovering more than ten centimeters above the ground.

If the morning sun hadn’t been shining brightly overhead, everyone might have abandoned the port on the spot.

Even so, they couldn’t tear their eyes away from Nonō. Only after watching her drift toward a merchant ship bound for the Land of Lightning did those with no connection to the matter finally breathe a sigh of relief.

“M-My lady... p-please...”

“One ticket to the Land of the Sea.”

Nonō forced herself to muster enough energy to take out some money.

The owner of the merchant ship was far too frightened to accept it and immediately offered to let her travel free of charge.

Nonō only wanted to sleep and had no energy to argue with him. She accepted the ticket, pressed several hundred ryō into his hand, and boarded the ship.

After entering her cabin, she set up a simple alarm trap on the door. She didn’t even bother washing away the lingering smell of the wild boar before turning toward Roy.

“Roy-sama, please excuse me.”

The moment those words left her mouth, she fell asleep.

Roy could only shake his head helplessly. He had repeatedly warned her to conserve her chakra during the night, but she hadn’t listened.

He bent down, removed her shoes, and pulled the quilt over her before quietly slipping out of the cabin.

Once he reached the deck, Roy turned his attention toward another cargo ship anchored nearby.

At the same moment, a figure standing on the deck of that ship was also looking in his direction.

“As expected of the future Fifth Mizukage. She already possesses nearly three Kakashi’s worth of chakra at such a young age.”

The figure on the opposite deck was none other than Mei Terumī, a kunoichi from Kirigakure. At this point in time, however, she was still only thirteen or fourteen years old. She had likely traveled to the Land of Fire as part of a mission to purchase supplies.

“Who is serving as Mizukage in Kirigakure right now?”

Supporting his chin with one hand, Roy quietly contemplated the question as he continued watching Mei from across the water.