Journey

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Anything involving contracts also involved vague, hard-to-define things such as souls and bloodlines. Because of that, the Contract Seal was no easier to learn than the Four Symbols Seal.

Naoki, however, was no longer a beginner who knew nothing about sealing arts.

After receiving guidance from the priestess of the Land of Demons and studying the Four Symbols Seal in depth, he had made real progress in sealing arts.

When it came to the Uzumaki Clan's sealing arts in particular, calling him half an expert would not be too much of an exaggeration.

After half a day of serious study, he estimated that fully mastering the Contract Seal would require at least seven days.

Fortunately, the village was currently negotiating peace with Kumogakure, and Team Eleven had no missions. Seven days was not too long or too short for him. It was just right.

Four more days passed. Then all of Team Eleven suddenly came to Naoki's house together.

Naoki looked over Kakashi, Shisui, and Guy, then smiled. "Why did all of you come here together?"

Guy was impatient by nature and spoke first. "Naoki, have you heard?"

Naoki replied casually, "Heard what?"

For the past few days, he had stayed at home and poured all his attention into studying the Contract Seal. He had reached the point where he was almost deaf to everything happening outside.

Guy said hurriedly, "The negotiations between the village and Kumogakure!"

Shisui added, "Senior, the peace talks between the village and Kumogakure have broken down."

Naoki was surprised. "What?"

In his memories from his previous life, the peace agreement between the village and Kumogakure had indeed led to the incident where Kumogakure's negotiation representative kidnapped the young heiress of the Hyuga main family.

But at that time, Konoha and Kumogakure had already nearly finished negotiating the peace agreement.

Now the negotiations were not even complete, yet the peace talks had already collapsed. That truly puzzled Naoki.

Kakashi, as the captain of Team Eleven, quickly explained the entire sequence of events in detail.

It turned out that Konoha was not the only side dissatisfied with the peace talks. Many people in Kumogakure were dissatisfied as well. They believed that if they held on a little longer, they could drag Konoha down from its position as the number one shinobi village.

With resentment on both sides, the talks had nowhere to go.

After hearing this, Naoki thought it over carefully, then smiled. "You do not need to worry too much. Neither we nor Kumogakure can keep fighting. The Third and the Raikage both understand that, so the peace talks will definitely continue."

Guy asked curiously, "Why are you so sure?"

Naoki smiled. "Konoha and Kumogakure are not the only shinobi villages in the world. If we fight until both sides are badly weakened, the other villages will be the ones to benefit."

Whether from the vague memories of his previous life or the intelligence he had gathered in this life, Naoki was certain that Kumogakure's surprise attack on Konoha was only a probe. If Konoha had shown little ability to fight back, Kumogakure would have launched a full assault.

But once Konoha proved that it was not a lamb waiting to be slaughtered, Kumogakure had the result of its test. There was no need for them to keep taking risks and serve the interests of other villages.

After seeing off the members of Team Eleven, Naoki sighed. "It looks like the peace talks between the village and Kumogakure will drag on for a very long time."

Although he knew both sides would eventually sign a peace agreement, the talks would likely sink into a long deadlock and a drawn-out tug-of-war before the resentment on both sides settled.

For Naoki, however, that was helpful rather than harmful.

As long as negotiations with Kumogakure continued, the village could not risk internal unrest by moving against the Uchiha. That meant the Uchiha shield could hold for the time being.

Naoki mastered the Contract Seal a full five days later than he had expected.

The main reason was that he had no opportunity to practice it. When studying the Four Symbols Seal, he could use anything in his house as a subject for sealing practice. The Contract Seal was different. It required a real contract-linked target to serve as the object of the seal. Sitting alone at home, Naoki simply could not find a suitable practice subject.

Fortunately, the scroll the Third had given him explained every important point of the Contract Seal clearly. Even without practice, Naoki could imitate the process and barely master it.

When Naoki returned the Contract Seal scroll to the Third, the Third was startled.

The Third had thought Naoki would need at least a month to master the Contract Seal. He had not expected Naoki to return the scroll in just thirteen days. In his memory, even the Fourth Hokage had taken almost fifteen days to master this technique.

Because of that, the Third privately raised his opinion of Naoki again, believing him to be a rare genius in sealing arts.

After returning the scroll, Naoki then requested permission to leave the village and travel.

The Third's gaze sharpened. "Why would you have that idea?"

Naoki had prepared his excuse long ago. "I want to search for a suitable summoning animal."

In Konoha, shinobi traveling outside the village was not unusual. Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, was the most typical example, since he spent almost the entire year away from the village.

But travel outside the village required approval. Even Jiraiya was no exception on that point. Otherwise, the village would regard it as defection.

Of course, if one's background was strong enough and one's strength high enough, like Princess Tsunade, it was not called defection. It was called leaving.

As an ANBU under the Hokage's direct command, Naoki normally had no qualification to request a journey outside the village, especially at a delicate moment when the village was negotiating peace with Kumogakure.

So Naoki had to use a reason the Third would find difficult to reject.

Since a summoning animal could affect a shinobi's combat strength, searching for a suitable summon was a legitimate reason for many Konoha shinobi to travel.

After a long silence, the Third finally relented. "I can only give you two months of leave."

After thanking the Third, Naoki hurried back home, picked up the luggage he had prepared in advance, and walked alone toward the village gate.

His main goal on this trip was nothing else. He wanted to see in person what kind of seal the Fourth Hokage had placed on the Dragon Vein and try to break it.

As long as he confirmed that he could break the Fourth's seal on the Dragon Vein, his artificial Tailed Beast project could begin at once.

After registering at the village gate, Naoki left the village without looking back. The Root member assigned to watch him had no choice but to steel himself and follow.

'I need to find a way to shake him off.'

Sensing the tail behind him, Naoki silently thought the matter over.

Suddenly, chains shot out from underground and bound Naoki tightly in place.

Almost at the same time, two figures rushed out from the bushes on either side. One on the left and one on the right, they drove their longswords into Naoki's ribs.

Only then did one of them grin viciously and say, "Twenty-five million ryo. We will be taking that."

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