"Brats!"
"Let's get drunk!!"
CLINK
GLUP
"The meat is done. GET YOUR ASS HERE!"
It was incredible.
The village has a sense of warmth and closeness among its villagers. Sitting with them around the bonfire, I felt more warmth in their interactions than in the fire itself. Even if the cooking grandma was drinking sake on the side, meaning she was cooking while drunk.
Yep, I was not touching that meat. Definitely.
I ate the meat skewers given to me while gazing at the familiar moon, a prison. Ironic.
Quite the irony that the most beautiful sight in this world was a prison.
Fuck my twisted and sorrowful self.
"Damn! Who made the noodles? The spices and sauce mix are incredible."
I looked forward to the answer to the villager's question because the noodles were truly delicious.
The drunken granny's wrinkled face turned warm as she said, "Well, it was my grandmother's recipe. Considering the occasion, I opened our stock for this."
If this was how noodles tasted, I stand corrected. I was definitely going to try the meat now.
Even in this world, the spice trade was controlled and restricted, just like feudal societies on earth. They were luxuries that commoners couldn't readily afford.
Such rich spice mixes could only be used occasionally.
The man who asked the question stood while swaying, "Damn! Granny Chiyo, if I had known you had such a recipe, I would have stolen it by now."
"Papa! That isn't nice. Also, stop drinking. You are injured."
Tomi-chan's cute voice rang out as she pulled on her father's clothes. If I recall correctly, Sano wasn't all in his head right now. Considering the blood loss today and the extensive series of empty wine pots. There was no doubt that he was drunk. Quite wildly.
SMACK
And not anymore.
Damn, The Village elder was a spitfire. His cane rang out whenever he felt irritated.
"Stupid brat! Sit down."
"You @(*"
SMACK
Whatever Sano wanted to say was drowned out by pain and newfound clarity.
"Elder, that's enough. You are hurting him."
The gentle voice of the black girl, Rei, covered in Fuinjutsu symbols, soothed both the Elder and the growling chaos around the bonfire.
It was evident that Rei was a naturally gentle woman, considering that she was not irritated by little Tamako climbing onto her back while spreading the oil stains and meat juices from her little hands onto Rei's clothes.
A cynical part of me whispered that years of self-control might as well have crippled her anger sense.
Gulping water from my canteen, I destroyed the beautiful, peaceful atmosphere, "*Ahem*! We need to talk to everyone."
Their stiffening smiles and backs told me that I had them by the balls.
Despite the crude wording, it was the truth.
The emotional tears of an entire village told me how much the Fuinjutsu seal meant to them. Now came the hard part. Somehow, I had to convince a whole town to join my clan.
Frankly, it was impossible to do in a single moment. It would be a gradual process. After all, the clan concept, while similar to family, was not the same.
It was an inexplicable concept that would take years to form, having evolved from living together under the same name. What could I do then?
Fasten it. Like, really fast.
Seeing that I had the attention of 108 villagers, I spoke out, "Despite my self-disgust for doing this, I need to make it clear. I helped that woman, Rei, as part of a deal between her and me—a deal done under mutual consent."
Albeit, it was done after a round of beating, under the seduction of becoming a functioning human for her.
The Elder narrowed his eyes at Rei, who shook her head while looking down at her feet. After all, she gave me a literal blank check in exchange. Thankfully for her and me, the terms I needed to write in that check were relatively easy for her and necessary for my plans.
The village elder looked at me and asked me, "What do you want?"
Unlike the first time the Elder asked me this question, there was no hostility this time.
I want you and your entire village. Of course, I couldn't say that directly. It was impossible for the village to accept my absurd desire. Instead, I should start small and pave the way to make that impossibility a possibility in the future.
I smiled as charmingly as possible and said, "She will be named Kyudo Rei from now on; in essence, she will be my wife."
..." HUH!"
With a bright smile, I continued amid the muttering faces, sputtering Rei and choking Sano, "Her Curse, as you call it, is a Kekkai Genkai. Such abilities were worth fighting wars for. Obviously, that included even marriage"
Whatever embarrassment she had from my casual marriage proposal vanished when I poked her weak point like a dick.
"It is a curse."
I shook my head while pointing at the Fuin seals that were designed to suppress her sage transformation and said, "The kunai would be a curse in the wrong hands. But, in mine, it means much more."
The Elder sprang forward to stand in front, completely taking up my vision with a healthy dose of sarcasm, "OH! So, your hands are the right ones?"
It seems that the comparison with a weapon struck a nerve.
Unfortunately, the words once spoken couldn't be taken back. I took a deep breath and said, "Yes, my hands are perhaps the most suited to help her."
Of course, the underlying meaning was that the same held for them.
I walked towards her, bypassing the Elder with a single sidestep. Thankfully, the villagers didn't get provoked by that. Instead, they kept eating and drinking, looking at me. The earlier fight afforded me at least this much respect.
"The seal I used on you was invented and made by the Uzumaki clan from the land of whirlpools."
I could see that they were at least familiar with them, considering Rei's tightening of her fist.
"However, the evil-suppressing seal was never intended to be used as a continuous seal. After all, it was a one-time-use seal. There is even an additional complication of inscribing it on a living human. Not even the Uzumaki can use that seal on you guys without knowing about your Kekkai Genkai. At least, without crippling an unlucky few."
Even with the medical knowledge I gave, it won't be enough. After all, natural energy was a different beast altogether. However, a small part of me felt wronged by the fact that the Uzumaki could have achieved the same thing if a few villagers had been sacrificed for the experiment. Obviously, the ancient clan, dating back to the sage of the six paths, must have records of nature energy. Once they identified it with a couple of experimental sacrifices, they could easily do the same.
The fact that the Uzumaki Elder didn't do it was a question mark for me. After all, it was in his house and from his stories that I deduced the village's location.
I was dragged out of my thoughts when Rei grasped the most crucial point immediately, "I see."
She approached me and immediately whispered, "You know about our Kekkai Genkai?"
It wasn't a question.
"I am the best man to solve your problem. There is no doubt in my mind that I am the best in the world in terms of knowledge and means. Under my guidance, you will become one of the strongest Kunoichi."
It was enough to seduce her. After all, she truly loved her fellow villagers, as was evident in the tears she shed as she hugged the frightened little Tamoko.
I told her in no uncertain terms that I could show the village the path to becoming a shinobi.
This sent her spiralling into her thoughts—not just her but everyone else. Good, they should. After all, this village's peculiarity was hidden in plain sight.
AI, give me the Census.
[ Name: Unknown village.
Population count: 108
Age Demograph :
Under five years: 22
Age 5 to 12: 23
Age 12 to 18: 25
Age 18 to 40: 35
Above 40: 1
Average health index: 100%
Active Chakra users: 22%]
AI, estimate the percentage of active chakra users aged 18 or older.
[Ding...
Percentage of active chakra users above age 18: 0%]
There was occasional, sporadic activity in the kids' and teenagers' chakras. It was normal. Based on my observations, while the rate of active chaka networks was well above average, it was understandable given the special nature of this village.
Sano, the teenage father of little Tamako, even had genin-level chakra reserves. Frankly, it felt absurd.
Not the father's age at the time. No, it was common to see teenage parents in this era. It was an absurd fact that this countryside villager naturally had genin-level chakra reserves. At the same time, I shed blood, sweat and tears to gain that strength.
Even so, it was not a peculiarity. Only 0% of adults were active chakra users.
But a 0% rate among the adults meant one thing. These individuals were actively trying not to activate the chakra, and it could also be said that not activating it was the safest way for them to survive into adulthood. Those who risked using chakra died.
Well, that had been the case until now.
"I have a condition."
I felt the urge to laugh aloud at my soon-to-be fiancée's words. Though the same may be true for others.
"Rei-niiii!"
"Idiot! What do you think—"
SMACK
"Ahh!"
SMACK
Sano tried to pull back the old man from hitting Rei till death, "Elder! Wait a bit. You are being far too cruel."
Unfortunately, the old man was quite fit for his age. He shook off Sano and kept hitting Rei. The force behind the smack was so great that the bruises forming on her, when combined with her Fuin marks, gave her hands a bona fide black skin tone.
Rei ignored it all, even while the Elder started reprimanding her.
"I want you to teach the rest of my village as well. That's my condition."
It wasn't specified, but the help meant extending the same offer to others. The Elder stopped smacking, a mixture of anger, disgust, pride, and a hint of hope, revealing how tempting the village was.
I had a single response to that.
"I am not a monk."
This means that I am not a selfless, kind man. No. I might be considered kind in this era, but I was selfish. In a way, her condition fit into my plans with minor adjustments.
While hand signs in pace were visible to them, I moved towards her, "I did not forsake all my desires to help the needy like a monk. I have goals and responsibilities."
Considering my 6-foot height, I had to bend slightly to look straight in her eyes. "Considering how much this seems to you, I will give you a counteroffer. I don't mind helping others in the village, walking the path of Shinobi."
That meant sealing away anyone who might awaken the kekkai genkai and helping them train it.
"But, it would be only if they bear the surname -Kyudo. As long as they accept that, I don't mind."
My mystic palm healed her bruises visible to the naked eye. At the same time, I drove the final nail in the coffin: "Everyone who bears the Kyudo surname will be treated like my family."
I tried to be as sincere as possible in those words, knowing they would be felt without doubt.
Her answer made the old man's stick clatter. "When's the wedding?"
-
-
-
-----------Few days later-----------
Celebrations bled into arguments. Arguments bled into drinking. Drinking led to poor decisions. Poor decisions lead to chaos. Chaos led to a mind-numbing aftermath.
Standard village behaviour.
It had been a few days since that night.
A few days ago, shouting, second-guessing, more shouting, and one elderly man threatening to beat me to death with a cane over the wedding, before it was finalised.
Yes, the date was finalised. Not because everyone agreed, but because everyone got tired when Rei remained adamant and
While they argued over seating, food, and whether the wedding should be held near the river or away from it, "in case Rei explodes again"—
In the meantime, I worked.
Information alone won't win the war. It was the analysis that won it.
I pulled from every source I had- the chameleon network, Koza's noble circle. The black market—where truth was expensive but honest.
Of all of them, the chameleons were the most useful because they were recent and direct. Unfiltered.
And all of it pointed to the same thing -A Daimyo was going to die. As courtly politics tended to be, they were volatile and prone to violence with the right push. The problem was killing a Daimyo.
I, myself, had been planning and dreaming of killing one for a long time—the Grass Daimyo. I'd dreamed about it before. Not emotionally—strategically.
I'd contemplated his death a hundred different ways.Poison.Accident.Illness.Assassination blamed on a rival noble.
Still… knowing it and being tasked with it were very different things.
Koga knew exactly how cruel that order was.
Because even if I succeeded, Shinobi would dig. They always do. They'd tear the event apart layer by layer until they found a pattern. And even if I miraculously slipped through untouched, Koga wouldn't.
It wouldn't take a genius to connect the dots to him. And Koga knew that too, which meant only one thing. He planned to leak my involvement.
"Of course he did."
A shinobi shunned by the world.
A budding clan led by him.
A man who needed his protection.
What better leash?
As long as I stayed useful—and obedient—I'd live under his umbrella. And in return?
My budding clan would sit right beneath him. Above the rest. Unrestrained power. Forced loyalty. Fast elevation. In a decade or two, the Kyudo name could rival the Inuzuka. If my research into cursed seals and sage transformation succeeded, even Senju-level influence wasn't impossible.
And that…That was precisely why it was unacceptable.
It clashed violently with my vision.
A clan bound to a single man's ambition dies with him. Even more, A hidden village blacklisted by nobles dies slowly—but surely. The Daimyo and noble class held the continent's wealth. They always had. They always would. That wouldn't change until long after my bones were dust.
I didn't want my future village hunted, sanctioned, or quietly strangled by trade embargoes. Not for Koga.Not for anyone.
Which meant the assassination had conditions.
Kill a Daimyo. Walk away clean. Remain clean.
And ensure Koga couldn't afford to betray me.
I needed leverage.
Something that restrained him as much as he restrained me. Something that made leaking my name costly. And then there was the Aburame: the damned bugs and their sidekicks. I needed to know how Natsume—the old bastard—planned to convince them to join Koga's side. The Aburame didn't move for passion or emotions. They were considered the most shinobi-like clan out of all the shinobi clans for a reason. They moved for survival, long-term gain, and unpleasant truths. Which meant Koga was offering them something significant or threatening them.
Possibly both.
Either way, I needed to know.
Because if the Aburame committed fully, Koga's net would tighten.
And once it tightened enough, Hidden Village would no longer be an option.
I leaned back, staring at the ceiling of my borrowed room. Wedding decorations were half-finished outside. Laughter drifting through the walls.
It was peaceful. So peaceful that it would be a suitable environment for Rei's training. Rei's training exercise was the most boring thing imaginable-Meditation.
Just sitting.
She sat cross-legged on a mat, back straight, hands resting awkwardly on her knees like she wasn't sure what to do with them. The Fuinjutsu seals were faint today, behaving themselves for once.
I sat opposite her, leaning against the frame of an open window, chewing on a piece of dried meat and questioning my life choices.
"Close your eyes," I said.
She did. Immediately. Obedient to a fault. Such intense effort.
"That's already a problem."
Her eyelids fluttered open. "S-sorry?"
"You don't need to apologise for everything," I said. "If you keep doing that, you'll end up apologising to your own chakra."
She nodded.
Then froze.
"…Sorry."
I sighed.
Meditation was supposed to be simple.
In theory.
"Alright," I continued, tone flat. "Meditation for chakra control isn't about emptying your mind. That's monk nonsense. It's about awareness. Feeling where your chakra is, how it moves, and—most importantly—how it listens."
She tilted her head slightly. "Chakra… listens?"
"Yes. And yours," I added, "is very loud."
That earned me a small, confused smile. It was the first time I sensed a chakra signal so clearly without resorting to my sensing jutsu.
Perhaps I had been far too fast. Meditation was not something that could be forced upon and expected of the shinobi just to master it enough to truly connect with one's chakra intimately. That's right, I was talking about the capacity to mould chakra in different ratios of mental energy and physical energy, aiming for an equal proportion and finally adding the third energy, which would be something Rei was literally born for.
However, Meditation was a really boring thing. It needed self-motivation and realisation. You couldn't force them to learn about it. Expect if you were not Naruto.
To think he managed to mediate and manage to do that in a couple of days tells a lot about Ashura fuckery.
Looking at Rei, whose attention was far too focused to the point her face crumpled up, I decided to start small from the very basics.
I placed a leaf on the back of her hand. A normal leaf. Green. Light. Completely unimpressive.
"This is the leaf-sticking exercise. You pour chakra into your skin and keep the leaf attached without crushing it or letting it fall."
She nodded solemnly, as if she were being entrusted with a secret technique.
"Before you start," I said, raising a finger, "you need to understand why this is going to be hell for you."
Her shoulders tensed.
"Your chakra reserves are enormous," I said bluntly. "Obscenely so. Bigger than most trained genin. Bigger than some chunin, honestly."
Her eyes widened. "T-that's good, right?"
"Yes," I said. "And no."
I stood up and crouched in front of her, tapping the leaf lightly so it fluttered but stayed in place.
"Think of chakra like water pressure. Most people have a small pipe and a small tank. You?" I gestured vaguely at her. "You're a reservoir connected to a fire hose."
She blinked. "…Oh."
"That's why it's easy for you to activate chakra," I continued. "And why is it so damn hard for you to control it. You don't struggle to find chakra. You struggle not to drown in it."
She swallowed.
"So this exercise will be easier for you in one sense," I said. "You'll stick the leaf almost immediately."
Her face brightened just a little.
"But," I added, "keeping it there without tearing it apart will take much longer. You'll overshoot. Again. And again. And again."
Her expression deflated.
"You don't lack strength," I said. "You lack restraint. Which means your training isn't harder—it's longer."
"How much longer?" she asked softly.
I thought about it.
Then answered honestly.
"Hours," I said. "Every day. Possibly years."
She didn't flinch.
Just nodded.
That… surprised me.
"Alright," I said. "Start."
She closed her eyes again—this time slower—and focused. I could feel it immediately. Her chakra stirred like a restless tide beneath her skin.
The leaf trembled.
Then—
SHFF.
It grew greener and then was blown away.
She gasped, hands pulling back as she'd burned herself. " I-I'm sorry!"
"Stop apologising," I snapped. "You didn't fail. You did exactly what I expected."
I placed the leaf back on her hand.
"Again."
She tried to slow it down this time. I could see it in her breathing. Short. Careful. Controlled.
The leaf stuck.
For half a second.
Then shot off her hand like it had been flicked.
Her shoulders slumped. "I can't—"
"Yes, you can," I cut in. "You just did it. You felt the difference, didn't you?"
She hesitated. Then nodded. "It felt… quieter."
"Good," I said. "That quiet is what you're chasing."
Another leaf.
Another attempt.
This time, the leaf stayed.One second.Two.
Her face tightened with effort. Sweat beaded on her brow like she was holding back a flood.
Then the leaf got blown away again.
She stared at her hand, breathing hard. "It keeps slipping."
"Because you're trying to hold chakra," I said. "Don't hold it. Let it rest."
She looked at me, confused.
"Chakra isn't a clenched fist," I continued. "It's a flowing energy that follows its paths in our bodies. They were something akin to a route along our blood, lymph, nerves and so on."
Such a flow obviously had its own limiters, in the form of heart, lungs and spinal cord. Even brain. All so that to we didn't explode in a geyser of blood. There were a total of 8.
Not wanting to risk my life by touching the temptingly deadly gates, I choose to continue with my teaching. I placed a leaf on my own hand and demonstrated. The leaf stuck there lazily, unmoving.
"No force," I said. "Just keep it there."
It was as simple as that, like catching a leaf with your fingers. Of course, the fingers in this sense were a metaphysical energy brought to this world by Otsutsuki.
Her eyes followed every movement like a starving person watching someone eat.
She tried again.
This time, the leaf stuck.Stayed.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Her eyes widened in shock.
Then she smiled.
A real one.
And immediately—
CRACKLE.
The Fuinjutsu seals flared faintly in response to the surge of emotion.
The leaf, which grew greener and greener to the point it suddenly reversed on the colour change sequence, green to yellow, from there to brown and then disintegrated.
She froze, panic flashing across her face. "I—I didn't mean to—"
I raised a hand. "It's fine."
She looked at me, uncertain. Especially as I saw the minuscule amount of nature energy in the leaf made a small wave on the marking on her body before returning to normal.
"Emotions affect chakra," I said. "Especially yours. That's not a flaw. It's a fact. We'll work around it."
She nodded slowly, breathing steadying again.
I stood up and stretched.
"This is your life now," I said. "Meditation in the morning. Leaf exercise until your hands shake. Rest. Then do it again."
She looked down at her hands. Then back up at me.
"…Will it really help?"
I met her gaze.
"Yes," I said. "Because once you can control something this small—"
I tapped her hand lightly.
"—you can control the monster everyone's afraid of."
She lowered her head, gripping her knees.
"…Thank you," she said quietly.
The reason I was pushing her for chakra control was two-pronged—one for her own good, the other for mine. You see, her ability to read others' emotions would be an undeniable edge in achieving the weapon I needed to gain the trust of the villagers, and, in the distant future, the clans I plan to ally with.
It was something every chakra user could do; frankly, it was the reason chakra spread among humanity. The ability to connect with people through chakra, bridging the time taken for bonds to form- Ninshu.
It was something Naruto Uzumaki showed a lot, as long as you were sincere, it was possible to form an iron-clad friendship with any chakra user. I don't intend to connect with everyone. Just a beast with tails and people who bear the name of Kyudo, like my soon to be wife who was enjoying my teaching despite her slight wariness towards me.