Chapter 163: Reminder
"This trip really didn't go that smoothly."
Masahiko sighed and shook his head.
He learned from Konan that she had started wandering about a year ago and had been alone the entire time.
"Have the two of them not met yet?" Masahiko muttered.
In Masahiko's heart, he didn't particularly care about Yahiko. After all, in the original story, Yahiko wasn't that important; he mostly appeared as a deceased figure in Nagato-kun's memories, and he wasn't a beauty like Konan...
But while the person wasn't important, Masahiko's Witness Points were. As the start of the main plot drew closer, although Masahiko was already the strongest in the ninja world, the Great Toad Sage's prophecy bothered him somewhat. He wanted to raise all seven attributes to Level 9 as soon as possible. Moreover, he had been looking forward to the Kekkei Mora for a long time.
"Sensei, can we take her with us?" Nagato-kun didn't know that Masahiko's purpose for this trip was to find Konan and Yahiko.
Masahiko looked at Konan, who still wore a guarded expression, and nodded. However, coaxing little girls was not his strong suit at all; this was evident from how a crying Izuko-kun had left him at a loss decades ago. He could only instruct Nagato-kun to comfort Konan.
Perhaps due to their similar ages, or because Nagato-kun had just saved her, Konan quickly relaxed her guard.
"Thank you, Uncle."
Konan's form of address made Masahiko pause. He then remembered that twenty-three years had passed since he saved Tobirama. Since he had been aging backwards by one year every year, his current appearance was that of a 43-year-old middle-aged man, hardly old enough to be called "Grandpa."
"I haven't used the Transformation Jutsu to hide it all these years. I guess many people have realized something is wrong..." Masahiko muttered, shaking his head. "Actually, everyone probably realized something is wrong."
Masahiko didn't care much anymore. Initially, he hid it because it was hard to explain to acquaintances and because he lacked strength. Now, he feared neither.
Looking at Konan before him, Masahiko shook his head. "Just like Nagato, you can call me Sensei. I will teach you ninjutsu from now on."
Konan looked pleasantly surprised. "Can I become a ninja too?"
After a pause, she quickly said, "Thank you, Sensei!"
At the same time, Chinese characters flashed before Masahiko's eyes. He had harvested another 50 Witness Points.
"As expected, accepting Konan as a disciple also gives Witness Points, though fewer than Nagato. It seems I still need to find Yahiko. Even if it's only twenty or thirty points, it's not a loss."
Masahiko sighed; poverty had made him lose his confidence.
"Nagato, Konan, let's look around the Land of Rain some more!"
The group of two became three. With the addition of a girl who hadn't trained yet, their movement speed slowed down significantly.
However, the Land of Rain really wasn't that big. It was similar to the old Land of Whirlpools, roughly a radius of a dozen miles—only slightly larger than Konoha.
They wandered around, covering most of the area. After walking through every street and alley, Masahiko still found no trace of Yahiko.
"Is he not an orphan yet? That shouldn't be right at this age," Masahiko muttered. He led the two towards the last place they hadn't searched: the center of the Land of Rain!
"Sensei, that place is Hanzo-sama's residence..." Konan spoke hesitantly from the side. Nagato-kun was young when he left and didn't know about these things, but Konan, having wandered the Land of Rain for over a year, had heard plenty about Hanzo's prestige from others.
Masahiko waved his hand. "It's fine, they won't discover us."
Actually, he knew in his heart that Yahiko was unlikely to be there. But having come all the way to the Land of Rain, even though he had gained something, achieving only half his goal left him a bit unwilling to give up.
Arriving there, the guards were noticeably more numerous, and the architecture was different.
To protect against the rain, the buildings here were more "slender and pointed." Moreover, every house had numerous drainage pipes crisscrossing it. Aside from that, there were surprisingly lightning rods.
"Interesting. I really didn't notice this when I came before. They actually have these things. The Land of Lightning doesn't have them, but the Land of Rain does."
The three walked forward, and the ninja guards they passed automatically ignored them.
They toured almost all of Hanzo's "home." Of course, they couldn't find Yahiko, but it satisfied Masahiko's curiosity.
"Hanzo has collected quite a few swords. Turns out he's a sword enthusiast." Masahiko looked left and right, then suddenly his face stiffened.
"Oh, what a coincidence, Lord Demigod!"
Unnoticed, Hanzo had walked to a spot not far from Masahiko and was watching the three of them quietly. Masahiko had been admiring the various swords and truly hadn't paid attention.
"Indeed, quite a coincidence, Senior Masahiko. I didn't expect to meet you in my own home," Hanzo actually learned to tease.
Masahiko paused, patted the shoulder of the terrified Konan beside him, smiled, and shook his head.
"Don't be afraid, Hanzo is a good person." As he said this, he almost laughed out loud himself.
Nagato-kun wasn't afraid at all, looking curiously at Hanzo from the side.
"Senior, are you interested in swords?" Hanzo asked.
Masahiko nodded and said shamelessly, "I used to use a sword too."
"However, I didn't come for the swords this time. I just came to see if any accidents had befallen you."
This sentence was his true purpose for visiting Hanzo's residence. Since that eerie Akatsuki organization was constantly correcting the plot, they might have chosen the Land of Rain as their base. Unfortunately, Masahiko found no trace of them here.
"No need for Senior to worry..." Hanzo spoke slowly, likely exploding with anger inside.
Masahiko smiled and didn't mind. "Since there's nothing else, I'll be going first. You, the Demigod, had better be careful. Don't get killed by some weird enemy."
He had made some assessment of the strength of those strange Six Paths of Pain. It took Mito a considerable amount of chakra to repel him, proving his strength should be slightly weaker than Mito's. That would make him stronger than the Hanzo before him, but there wasn't an absolute gap. As long as Hanzo didn't get careless, escaping should be possible.
However, Hanzo clearly didn't take Masahiko's words to heart. He simply nodded perfunctorily, wearing an expression that clearly said "good riddance."
Masahiko didn't care either. He just dropped a reminder to Hanzo while looking for Yahiko; whether Hanzo listened or not didn't matter.
As he left with the two children, a light bulb went off in Masahiko's mind. "Since they are correcting the plot so deliberately, they probably won't change the base being in the Land of Rain. If they aren't here now, it must be because it's not time yet. In that case, maybe I can take that opportunity to uncover their true colors?"
"In the original story, Yahiko died around the age of 20. Assuming he is the same age as Nagato, that would be roughly around Year 49 or 50 of Konoha. I'll come back then!"
Full of thoughts, Masahiko led the two children back to the Land of Whirlpools.
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