Shiki's goal couldn't be more obvious, he was raring to get back to his information stealing ways.
All of the secrets held by the people of Howling Wolf Village would soon be his. Roen would come right after that.
As the boy's senses spread throughout the village, Beni who was shopping for supplies immediately clocked it and smiled.
Shiki noticed it but it did not deter him in the slightest.
Benihime had always been watching his sensory escapades and never ratted him out so the boy was not going to start worrying now.
It was a bit too late for that kind of concern after all.
*
It had been a few hours since Shiki and Tomoe split off from Beni and Ema.
The latter pair had already bought up everything they required and were on their way to the group's pre-arranged meeting spot where Tomoe was going to pick them up.
Meanwhile, the boy had now fully explored all of Howling Wolf Village's secrets.
'What an unexpected bounty!' He couldn't help but internally exclaim.
The value and volume of his discoveries were unexpectedly high.
Roen's whereabouts, the location of the Kodon clan's temple where it was sealed was, of course, among Shiki's many discoveries but there was a lot more.
Data regarding tests by the Kodon clan before Roen was permanently sealed for example.
The effects of genjutsu, normal and drug based, what kind of illusions were best for controlling the beast, insight into its behaviour and instinct, all valuable information for one aspiring to tame it.
Still, all this information was not beyond Shiki's expectations.
What the boy vastly underestimated, was the various methods concocted by the local clans, to use the myriad of medicinal herbs that grew in the area.
The Blue Fire Powder, a coincidental creation of the Kumanoi clan discovered during an attempt to create some sort of eternal youth medicine, did not yet exist but the research that eventually led to it had already started.
If Shiki was lucky, he might be able to develop it himself.
Beyond this however, there were various kinds of prescriptions for strengthening the physical body, revitalizing the spirit, mixes that resulted in mutagens capable of permanently altering a shinobi's constitution through prolonged use and more.
For example, the Kodon clan's ability to consume Saenzai, a genjutsu inducing drug, and refine it within their bodies to produce a more potent and refined drug called Kotaro, could be acquired through these methods of drug induced body alteration.
There were hundreds of prescriptions with varied purposes and, though many of them were failed or heavily flawed creations, they all held value as research topics and convinced Shiki to rob the medicinal storages of the village's clans.
He needed materials to run his experiments after all.
His own young age and highly adaptable physiology that had innate tolerances for mutation and high resistance to the innate toxicity of many of the herbs and elixirs made him a prime candidate to benefit from this research.
'To not draw attention towards us, I'll double back one or two days after leaving the village. If the heist takes place as we leave, it will be far too suspicious.' The boy quietly decided.
But the most important matter for the time being was Roen.
'The seal holding it is . . . "primitive" to put it mildly.' Shiki evaluated.
His Kukyo - Seven Senses was able to reach the location of the seal if he decreased the overall radius and pushed his senses in a single direction.
This allowed the boy to analyse the seal without risking alerting any concerned party, namely, the Kodon clan who sealed Roen in the first place.
'If such a seal was able to hold it for decades until it was undone manually by a member of the Kodon clan in the future, it seems Roen's lack of true intelligence makes the job of sealing and controlling it much easier.' Shiki pondered.
'With my advanced Uzumaki fuinjutsu, sealing and controlling the beast ought to be relatively simple and easy' He concluded.
'When the ladies return, I'll take Beni-chan with me to keep watch while unseal Roen from the temple and re-seal it inside me.' The boy decided.
To be honest, he had developed an unusual amount of trust towards the girl.
Perhaps it was the fact that she could easily see through him with her dojutsu yet never made any move to exploit that, even helping keep his secrets in a way.
*
"Is it okay to let Benihime-sama and Shiki-kun wander around alone?" Tomoe questioned with worry.
Ema just giggled in response, drawing her companion's irate gaze.
"They are much safer than the two of us considering their strength. Are they not?" The younger woman countered in a gentle tone.
Tomoe showed an uncharacteristically cute pout.
"I know!" The older woman exclaimed.
"I'm just having a hard time accepting it." She explained.
Nodding with a smile of understanding was all Ema could do.
Shiki and Beni had just gone out to steal Roen for the boy.
"The temple where the beast is sealed doesn't have any guards. Its protection lies in it going unnoticed. Roen's capture was so long ago that, other than a select few of its captors' descendents, everyone thinks it is a mere myth." Shiki explained the situation to Beni.
"Members of the Kodon clan do go out to pray there regularly and take the opportunity to check on the seal but it's late enough that we only have to worry about tomorrow morning's visitors." He added.
"So you want me to keep watch for unexpected visitors, just in case?" Benihime inquired.
"Exactly." The boy replied, noting how, despite keeping her usual kuudere disposition, a strange sense of happiness and content seemed to just emanate from the young girl.
It did not take a genius to realize the source of Benihime's happiness and Shiki was certainly not dense enough to miss such an obvious thing.
With each using their methods, the pair hid their presence and figure and made their way to the temple within the Kodon clan territory.
It was thankfully quite remote, likely due to the fear of Roen breaking out within their clan compound and laying waste to everything.
Unfortunately for the Kodon clan, that also made it far easier to steal.
Soon enough, they reached their destination and unceremoniously entered the unguarded shrine.
"Without powerful sensory abilities, this seal can't even be noticed." Benihime commented.
"Indeed. The ability to go unnoticed is the only thing worthy of note about this seal." Shiki replied.
"Won't Shiki-sama's actions be noticed tomorrow morning?" The girl inquired.
She knew the boy disliked attracting unwanted trouble.
"Not really. I'm not going to destroy the seal, just open it. Freeing Roen will damage it but I can just repair it afterwards, the fools won't even be able to tell it's empty until they catch on that it is no longer deteriorating." Shiki explained.
Beni nodded with understanding and admiration but wasted no unnecessary words. The boy quite liked that about her.
"Alright then. I'm going to begin the process, watch my back." He declared.
And without further ado, the un-sealing and re-sealing of Roen began.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
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Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -