Inside the cabin, when Gato came back to his senses, his entire body was drenched in cold sweat, his eyes filled with fear and awe toward the mysterious figure before him.
The Hell Viewing Technique might only be a simple C-Rank Genjutsu, but for an ordinary person like Gato, who possessed no Chakra, it was no different from a 'divine technique'.
"My lord!" The moment he came out of the Genjutsu World, Gato immediately prostrated himself at Menma's feet, his voice trembling.
"Gato is willing to serve you, my lord!" Gato raised his head, his small eyes brimming with terror and reverence.
He was terrified that he might be deemed useless and slaughtered on the spot.
The Hell Viewing Technique allowed the victim to see their deepest fears.
And Gato's greatest fear was 'dying before he could spend all his money'.
In the Genjutsu, he had experienced countless cycles, forced to watch as the business empire he had painstakingly built grew into a world-class conglomerate… only for him to die repeatedly due to various reasons.
Sometimes it was an accident, other times he was caught in the crossfire of Ninja Wars, and occasionally, he was simply assassinated by Ninjas.
There were various Genjutsu, numbering in the millions.
The time Gato experienced in the Genjutsu World, when converted to real time, exceeded a full year.
Of course, Menma had added a little extra to the Genjutsu, making Gato witness how the lofty Daimyo and nobles were mercilessly slaughtered by powerful Ninjas.
Therefore, the moment Gato came out of the Genjutsu, his first instinct was to beg for mercy from this mysterious Ninja-sama, pleading to be of service.
This also completely shattered Gato's faith in the old order of the Ninja World.
His previous reverence for the rule and worldview of nobles and Daimyo had been utterly dismantled by the Genjutsu he endured.
Menma nodded in satisfaction and placed his hand atop Gato's head.
Gato tensed and lowered his head nervously.
[Blood Oath Seal]
As Menma's dark, violent Chakra surged into Gato's brain, a Curse Mark similar to the Caged Bird appeared deep on Gato's tongue.
This is the Cursed Seal Menma had developed in the Limited Tsukuyomi World.
It was similar to Root's [Tongue Eradication Seal], though the latter only paralyzed the body if the subject disclosed Danzo's information.
Menma's [Blood Oath Seal] was far more brutal, as anyone marked by it would have their brain instantly destroyed if they revealed information about Menma, preventing enemies from extracting further information through memory reading.
However, Menma had further refined the technique, allowing it to store a small amount of Chakra equivalent to that of an average Genin, significantly enhancing the subject's physical abilities.
"I need your financial skills to secure funds for the organization." Menma said, floating mid-air as he gazed down at the kneeling Gato.
Feeling the faint but unmistakable surge of chakra within his body, Gato's face lit up with delight, and he dogeza once more.
"Thank you for your grace, my lord! Gato pledges his life to your service!"
…
Night fell, the waves gently lapping against the ship's hull.
Gato's office had been cleaned up, the corpses tossed into the sea, and the room reorganized to serve as Menma's quarters aboard the vessel.
"My lord, this is the finest tea from the Land of Tea, reserved exclusively for the Daimyo. May I brew a cup for you to enjoy?" Gato asked cautiously as he attended to Menma.
"Hn." Still wearing his mask, Menma lounged lazily on the sofa.
The little Nine-Tails had already crawled out from Menma's fur collar and was now sitting on the tea table, devouring sweets with gusto.
Gato hurriedly offered more pastries, serving them as if attending to a God.
"Your current task is to manage the company's profits and secure funds for the organization." Menma said, flipping through an ancient book from an unknown country that was collected by Gato, his right hand propping up his cheek.
"Yes! I shall obey your command, my lord!"
Though it pained him to hand over the wealth he had earned to the organization, Gato had also gained power and a certain status within his new lord's ranks.
In the future, he might even become a noble in the new world!
"How much longer until the fleet reaches the port of the Land of Lightning?" Menma suddenly looked up and asked.
"My Lord, it will probably be five or six more days. It's the northern wind season now, so the fleet will move much faster."
Departing from the port of the Land of Fire, the ships would need to bypass the Land of Hot Water and cross a bay before reaching the coastline of the Land of Lightning.
The distance wasn't too far, roughly equivalent to traveling from Konoha to the Land of Hot Water.
If calculated based on a Jonin's speed of 300 kilometers per hour, it would take about a day, accounting for rest breaks… around 5,000 kilometers in total. (T/N: Jonin sure are fast…)
This ship was a wooden sailboat, and with the northern winds boosting its speed, it could reach about 18 knots, or 33.3 km/h, meaning a maximum daily distance of 800 kilometers.
So, indeed, it would take five or six days to reach the coastal regions of the Land of Lightning.
With this in mind, the Ninja World is still quite large.
It was just that Ninjas were too fast.
Take Naruto and his team's three-day journey from Konoha to Sunagakure as an example… even if they were all Elite Jonin with peak stamina, traveling at 200 km/h and sleeping only five hours a day, they could cover 3,800 kilometers daily. Three days would mean 11,000 kilometers.
By comparison, Earth's circumference before Menma's transmigration was only 40,000 kilometers.
It seemed this planet's size was indeed modeled after Earth. The entire Ninja World's continent likely had a population of around 300 million, with each of the Five Great Nations housing between 30 to 50 million people.
Menma gently stroked the little Nine-Tails' head and added, "Aside from gathering funds, your company must expand across the Five Great Nations and surrounding smaller countries, collecting intelligence on each."
"May I ask what kind of intelligence, specifically?" Gato inquired cautiously.
After a moment of thought, Menma replied: "Terrain and geographical features of each nation, major cities and strategic strongholds, port conditions, population statistics, social structures, conflicts between nobles and commoners… all of it is worth gathering."
"What about the Ninja Village?" Gato asked in a low voice.
Menma didn't point out that an ordinary man like Gato was ill-suited for infiltrating Ninja Villages. Instead, he simply said, "The Ninja Villages will be handled by a separate intelligence unit."
"Understood, my lord!" Gato straightened up.
The little Nine-Tails, dressed in a red-and-white kimono like a child, sat on Menma's lap, clutching a large piece of dessert in her paws.
Just as she was about to take a bite, she suddenly looked up at Menma.
"By the way, what about that Kumogakure's Ninja's corpse? Aren't you going to deal with it?"
Menma finally remembered that he still had the body of the Kumogakure's envoy in his storage scroll that he hadn't dealt with.
"Where's the Land of Lightning's bounty exchange?" Menma asked Cardo.
Since they were passing through the Land of Lightning anyway, he might as well visit a bounty exchange station and see if he could cash the corpse in for some money.
And while he was at it, he'd drop by Kumogakure for a visit.
Maybe even deliver some… local specialties.