Ruling by the Book: Chapter 10: Double Summoning (Patreon)

Ruling by the Book

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 10: Double Summoning

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- Kazuya -

Sealing was a complicated art and yet when mastered, one could do almost anything in this world. It’s because of this that I was putting so much stress on learning Fuinjutsu and even establishing a connection with the Uzumaki Clan despite the potential danger.

Fuinjutsu was the only counter to Tailed Beasts apart from Wood Style, Mangekyo Sharingan and Chakra Chains, all of which are Bloodline techniques.

This alone showed how diverse and strong this art was.

Not to say that sealing a Tailed Beast was easy.

It was anything but that.

The degree of difficulty varied depending on the number of tails or rather the amount of chakra the beast possessed.

For someone like Shukaku could also be sealed in a Teapot, made of chakra metals and reinforced with hundreds of seals but still… a teapot but this was not possible for the higher tailed beasts. They needed living vessels to contain them.

Luckily for us, Rōen was at Shukaku’s level, moreover, unlike the tailed beasts, it was just a mindless animal so it can’t resist the sealing as much as them.

I didn’t plan to release it here but rather transfer it into a… lamp, like a Genie.

This lamp was prepared over the last several months for this very purpose. Our method would be similar to what is used in the case of transferring Tailed Beasts from one Jinchuriki to another.

We quickly got into preparing the setup for the transfer.

A ritual like this takes an extensive setup and I had everyone practise it dozens of times in the last few months.

They were already at work.

With our combined efforts, the preparations were completed in an hour.

None of us used any clones as we needed every bit of chakra for the ritual later.

Finally, I placed the lamp in between the formation, in one of the two circles with the other being the Shrine.

We took the corners of the formation and I led the ritual while the rest just provided chakra for support.

My chakra connected with the Shrine’s and I felt an intense burst of malice and madness crash into my senses. It almost made me feel dizzy but my mental power and soul were far stronger than normal people and pushed back the feeling almost immediately and took control of the chakra and guided it towards the lamp.

The rest provided me with their chakra to keep the beast restricted inside the circle.

Over the next five hours, I continued guiding the beast into the lamp. It also told me just how huge the chakra of a tailed beast could be.

Dammit, this was just one tail level at best and it still had dozens of times more chakra than me. Hell, it had several times more chakra than Shiroyasha Uzumaki.

Just because a Kage could fight a Tailed Beast didn’t mean that they had tailed beast level chakra reserves.

The only shinobi with chakra reserves rivalling tailed beasts were outliers, all of whom were related to the Otsutsuki Clan.

Hashirama Senju, Madara Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, which one of them wasn’t a monster. It was one thing reading and a completely different thing, feeling it for myself.

It felt like standing in front of a mountain while the mountain looked down upon me. It was… a very uncomfortable feeling.

The realisation also made me want to become a Jinchuriki but I rejected that thought almost instantly.

With my Grimoire, I could reach that level sooner or later. There was no need to become a Jinchuriki for that.

Haste makes waste, one step at a time.

Finally, it was around seven in the morning, nine hours later, the sealing was finally completed and I stored the lamp inside my Grimoire and almost collapsed on the floor.

Rose came to my rescue, healing my fatigue, but she had already done that a few times already and now I was feeling sleepy.

Man, just how strong was Minato to do what he did with Kurama? Then again, he sacrificed his life and Shinigami was the one who did all the work so that didn’t count.

It also made me realise what utter monsters Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha must have been in their time and what kind of monsters I will have to face in the future.

The sun was already out and it was time for us to go.

To my surprise, the Kumanoi Clan head came to meet us before we left.

“Your Highness, was your investigation successful?” He asked. “Can I help you with something else?”

“No. We couldn’t find anything here but we thank you for your help. If you find anything, please be sure to inform the Land of Flowers, I will make sure you get rewarded appropriately for it.”

“Your Highness is very kind.” He then brought out a scroll from his back. “We have heard that you like collecting Medicinal Plants of different types. These are some plants which only grow in the mountains near the Howling Wolf Village. I hope Your Highness will like them. This is a small gift and apology from the Howling Wolf Village for the actions of the Kodon Clan.”

I looked at the man with a slightly raised eyebrow and then at Saitō who accepted the scroll. “Very well. We will not blame the Howling Wolf Village for the transgressions of the Kodon Clan. You can rest assured.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.” He bowed politely and left after some more talks.

We left the village soon after. In the carriage, Genshiro-sensei was sitting in front of me.

The Uzumaki Trio didn’t ask me anything and I didn’t tell them anything either.

Some things were better kept to myself.

We reached the Land of Medicine and took Kasumi before departing. Kuina and Kasumi had taken this time to buy several rare medicinal herbs and plants in the country.

Our entourage left the Land of Stairs soon after and headed back for the Land of Flowers at full speed.

- Genshiro -

They separated from the Prince’s entourage and headed for the place they were staying while the Prince directly headed for the palace.

This trip to the Land of Medicine had given him a completely new understanding about Prince Kazuya.

His intelligence network was beyond anything Genshiro had seen and while a monster at the level of one tails might not shake the foundation of any of the five Great Ninja Villages, the fact that he had discovered something which even the clan guarding it didn’t know, manipulated both the village and the daimyo of the land to drive the clan away and then steal away such a monster right under their noses… was a scary feat.

And even in doing so, he didn’t ask for their help.

Were they taken there to guard him, to act as backup for sealing the beast or just to show them what he was capable of?… It was something Genshiro couldn’t understand for the life of him.

He went directly into their home while Rina and Mina did some shopping and returned.

“Grandpa Shiro, you won’t believe what we heard.” Rina said as soon as she entered the house.

“Oh? Did something big happen?” He asked, smiling at her excited tone.

Rina was the more talkative of the twins and someone who had learned under him for a while so could be considered his student. In fact, both sisters were among the best of his students.

He knew the reason Shiroyasha had sent these two girls here. He had been someone who had witnessed Lady Mito’s wedding with Hashirama Senju and thus knew how these kinds of alliances worked.

His elder brother had been married to a prominent member of the Senju Clan too, when he followed Lady Mito to Konoha as her aide.

Still, he would have never thought that such an unbreakable alliance had dwindled to the point where he had to hide from them.

Back in the day, the name Hashirama Senju alone was enough to stop wars. With Tobirama Senju by his side, the Senju name was enough to shake entire villages and now… sigh. During that time the alliance between the Senju and the Uzumaki made the Uzumaki nigh untouchable.

And now Shiroyasha wanted to recreate such an alliance… with Prince Kazuya.

Genshiro had complicated feelings about it but a part of him actually believed that this could be the decision which could change the current fate of the Uzumaki Clan. This feeling had only grown stronger the more of the young Prince’s secrets he witnessed.

His chakra and talent in Fuinjutsu alone could have made sure that he would become one of the top figures of this generation and that was not even considering his ability to open the Eight Inner Gates and his charisma.

The young prince reminded him of a young Hashirama Senju in some ways like his attitude towards his subjects and his sincerity when asking for the alliance with their clan, and of Tobirama Senju in the way he kept everything in control.

Such people often had talents gathering around them as was seen here too.

He had seen their prowess against the group of ninja who had burned the village and while not at his level at their base, he wasn't sure he would be able to take them on in their Eight Gates mode.

And from the words of Rina, the Prince's group had finished their fight in minutes while they had to fight for around an hour, against a group of similar strength.

The more he saw the more sure he became that he could save the Uzumaki Clan from its current fate.

Konoha’s current unclear attitude didn’t fill him, Uzukage-sama or Daimyo-sama with confidence. They were continuously making excuses even in front of overwhelming proof of enemies eying Uzushio.

On the other hand, Prince Kazuya has been risking everything just to establish a friendly relationship with them.

The difference between the attitudes of both sides was like heaven and earth.

Genshiro just hoped that the Prince gets the chance to grow to his full potential and Uzushio gains a new ally.

“Yes yes. Very big. We just got news from the Land of Rain. The Third Hokage’s students fought Hanzo of the Salamander.”

A frown appeared on his face.

“Were they…?” He asked.

While he didn’t know much about the other two, one of them was the Princess of the Senju Clan, Tsunade Senju… the granddaughter of Mito Uzumaki, his distant cousin. He wouldn’t lie and say that he didn’t care about her at all.

“They were defeated.” Mina said with a serious face.

“Are they alive?” He asked, suppressing his worry.

“Yes. Hanzo, the Salamander… let them go.” Rina answered excitedly. “He also gave them a title for surviving in a fight against him. Can you guess what that title was?” She asked, making him raise an eyebrow.

“What title?” He asked, amused at her excitement now that he knew that the Senju Princess was safe and alive.

“The Sannin. He named them… the Sannin…” She answered excitedly, making him open his mouth in surprise. “Just like…”

“Just like the Prince had predicted…” he whispered.

“How did he do that, Grandpa?” Mina asked, confused.

“I… don’t know Mina… I don’t know.”

- Kazuya -

The first thing I did after returning was talk to Grandpa about the village which was burned and found out that it was not a lone case. There were a total of five villages which had faced the same end. He had sent people to investigate but not much was found. Some indicated the involvement of Iwa but after the things we had found, we were not sure they were Iwa anymore. I took the name of the villages and planned to search for the culprits using the Grimoire.

“I swear that each and every one of the culprits will get punished, Grandpa.”

“Don’t let your emotions get the best of you, Kazu-kun. Leaders need to keep their calm at all moments. One wrong decision from your part can and will cause hundreds, even thousands of deaths… and there will be nothing you can do but grit your teeth and move forward. As much as I want to say that this was an exceptional case… it’s not. There have been cases like this in the past and will be cases like this in the future wars too. Not only in our Land but many others. You cannot save everyone so don’t let yourself get crushed by it.”

“You didn’t see it Grandpa… those people… even the kids… newborns…” I spoke, almost in a whisper.

“That’s something you have to learn to live with Kazu-kun. It’s the part of sitting in the position. The best you can do is prepare that such a thing never happens again… but even then always be prepared to accept a repeat. We just live in that kind of world.”

…

…

…

…

His words were heavy and yet I couldn’t argue back at all. He was right in the way things worked in this world. It was what he had seen in his entire life.

But there was something different in our ways of seeing things.

I, who had the Akashic Grimoire and means to do things which were unimaginable to him or anyone in the world.

Then I will do just that.

I will make this country into something this world has never seen before.

_________________________________x____________________________________

I stood in the middle of the ritual room, ready to do the summoning once more.

Today was the night of the full moon and the best day to summon a living person.

“You know what Kazuya? Instead of always summoning someone who is about to die, why don’t you try summoning someone who wants help. I am pretty sure there will be many people who want to get away from their current situation and accept your call.” Kuina said as I was preparing everything.

She did have a point but there was also the thing about them later regretting and I didn’t have a way to immediately send someone back and that would just cause them to resent me.

I explained the reason to them and Rose was the one who spoke then.

“There have been such cases in the Hero summoning too. How about you explain everything to them and give them a choice like serving you for a decade before you can send them back or something? Believe me, there are worse things than dying and this way you will have more room to choose from. Who knows, some might even just want to stay in a new world if they have nothing left behind.”

“Alright, let’s try this.” I set the conditions and started the summoning ritual.

I need someone strong to protect and make my people strong. This was the thought I had in mind.

The light of the magic circle lit up and the lamp in the middle started trembling before smoke leaked from it and took the shape of a giant creature.

We had a barrier set up and everyone poured their chakra in the barrier to restrain the beast in case things got bad as well as keep the sound and chakra from going out.

As the beast took form, we saw the creature for the first time.

It was like a hybrid between a tiger and a wolf with chakra tentacles around its neck. Standing at the height of forty metres tall and around seventy metres length, it was by no means smaller than any tailed beast.

For the first time I was glad to have built this ritual room so big and away from the main city because there was no way I could have contained this beast inside.

I poured my chakra into the Grimoire and a golden light covered the beast, its body disintegrating and changing into a much smaller form.

When the light faded, the figure became clear but before we could go ahead, the figure crashed on the floor below.

“Are those…” Kuina said as she stopped a bit away from the girl.

“Cat ears?”

“Rose, check on her.” I commanded, still trying to understand the whole situation. 

I sacrificed a motherfuc… tailed beast level beast and I got a cat girl?

Is the Grimoire fucking with me?

“Her physical condition is fine. She is probably mentally exhausted.” Rose reported while I saw her closer.

The girl had black hair and looked around the same age as Kanae. The most prominent features about her however were her ears and… two tails.

I saw the colour of her eyes when Rose was checking up on her and they were golden.

While I could have easily temporarily stored her inside my grimoire and found out everything about her, I decided to let her wake up and listen.

This girl was my biggest investment in this world. I didn’t want to mess up any chances.

“Is that it? Are you telling me that this cat girl inside is supposed to be equivalent to that giant love child of wolf and tiger curses?” Toji said, incredulously.

“You shouldn’t judge a book by the cover.” Saitō replied, and then ignored the man.

While they were doing their cold war thing, I was trying to remember all the cat girls I knew of.

Well, there is no need to worry. We will know everything when we wake up.

The girl woke up around eight hours later and Kuina sent a message to me.

By the time I reached there, the girl was already given an explanation about her situation by Kanae.

She looked directly at me as soon as I entered the room.

“Hello. My name is Kazuya Katsuyoshi. I take it that Kanae has explained everything to you?” I asked.

She nodded. “Thank you for helping me out. I just have a few questions for you before we discuss anything.”

“As away.”

“Can you summon someone else for me too?” She asked.

“Well, I cannot say for sure but I can try. It will depend on many things like for starters, how strong is the person you want to summon and will they want to come here?” I asked.

“She will. Once she knows I am here, she will surely come. And she is not very strong but she can get stronger with training. She will be very useful, I promise.”

“If it’s your family member, they don’t really have to fight for me if they don’t want to. The reason I am asking about their strength is because summoning stronger people needs more energy. It took a lot to summon you and I am afraid if she is anywhere near your level, we cannot do anything about her at this moment.” I explained.

“Don’t worry. Shirone is just a child. She is not that strong.” She hurriedly explained.

Wait… Shirone… the name sparked a memory in my head and what followed were a series of memories.

“You are… are you perhaps… Kuroka?” I asked, stunned at the memory.

The girl looked surprised and then came fear as she slowly shifted into a defensive position. I hurriedly waved my hand to prevent anyone from taking action.

“You don’t have to get defensive. I know about your situation, about everything the Naberius were doing and why you did what you did. Trust me, I would have done something far worse. No one here is going to blame you for what you did but I will never tell them if you don’t want me to.”

A look of shock appeared on her face but it soon went back to a look of doubt. “How should I believe you?”

“I summoned you to a different world, something I doubt anyone you know of is capable in your world and you are surprised by me knowing something about you? You are Kuroka, the older sister of Shirone. You were a bishop under a member of the Naberius house who was doing experiments on you to discover a way to create super devils. The experiments made you stronger making you a rising star in the Rating Games but when they stopped getting results, they planned to do the same to your sister. That’s when you snapped and killed them and were declared rogue. Am I right till this point?” I asked.

“I would assume I am right, seeing your surprised face. As I said, I know many random things. Some background knowledge about you was among these memories. I assume you want me to summon Shirone?” I asked.

She nodded. “Can you? I will do anything if you can do that.”

“I will try but I cannot promise you anything. Shirone was almost crushed by the whole incident and it took her a lot of time to recover. She was adopted by the Gremory House and lived a good life but she didn’t have any good feelings about you so I don’t know if she would accept the summoning.”

I wasn’t lying either.

“She will accept the summoning. I just know of it. She will never leave me.” The girl protested.

“There is no doubt that your sister loves you, Kuroka. If she didn’t then she wouldn’t have been so sad. But she thinks you went mad on power due to Senjutsu and murdered your own master. She herself was looked upon with fear by others.”

“Please…” She begged.

“Sigh… let’s go. We can try once now and then once next month if it doesn’t work.” I stood up. “Saitō, bring me the strongest prisoner we have.” I commanded.

This was the first time I wanted to do a focused summoning.

Before this both Kanae and Toji had asked me to do it but we just didn’t have everything needed to get it done.

First, the energy requirements were far beyond the level of being summoned. Like, for example, in normal summons, I could summon a Jōnin level being with an Elite Jōnin level chakra but in this case, the best I could summon was a Genin.

That’s why I sent Saitō to get a sacrifice to reduce the energy expenditure.

The second requirement was something belonging to the person, best if it was something containing their DNA. This part was nigh impossible to get but in this case, by some stroke of luck, we had both. Kuroka had a handkerchief which she had used to wipe her drool off and so it contained her DNA. I checked it using my Grimoire and it was acceptable.

Last but not the least were anchors to that world.

Which I had in the form of Kuroka and everything on her body.

The setup was completed in record time and we were ready for the second summoning.

I just hoped it didn’t fail.

The prisoner Saitō had brought was a Tokubetsu Jōnin level but I had used up the best chance of summoning someone this month so the next chance was lower.

I took a deep breath and started the process.

“Let’s hope she accepts.”

“She will.” Kuroka answered confidently.

“Summon Shirone.”

The message for her was different from what I gave to other people.

Instead of a normal message, she was told the truth about Kuroka and given an offer to be summoned to meet her.

We waited with bated breath as the magic circle lit up and felt my chakra drain rapidly from my body… then after a minute…The body of the prisoner disintegrated and turned into a ball of flesh which lit up and started to spin, taking the shape of a figure.

A minute later, the light faded leaving a white haired girl in front of us.

Kuroka rushed, catching her before she fell down on the ground.

She accepted.

Damn… did I just summon two people in one day?…

Holy Crap… that’s a record for me…

Was the last thing I thought before fainting.

___________________________________x__________________________________

Chakra Exhaustion… is a bitch.

I never thought I would be forced to this extent, summoning a kid.

I opened my eyes to find Kasumi sitting near my bed.

She sensed my movements and looked at me. “Kazuya-sama. You are awake.”

I got up, still feeling slight pain in my body.

Damn, just how much did that ritual drain me?

I was pretty sure I could shrug off a normal chakra exhaustion without any problems due to my vitality.

“How long was I asleep?”

“For a full day. Rose-sama said you were extremely exhausted and she healed you immediately but the exhaustion was mental as well and you could only recover from it through rest.”

“No wonder I feel like my head was hit by a truck… and hungry. I feel very hungry.”

“I will get something for you to eat.” She quickly got up.

“No. Just tell someone else to do it. Stay with me.” I held her hand and stopped her.

She looked at me and nodded before ordering someone outside.

I didn’t waste any time and pulled her to my side. The lime smell of her shampoo was refreshing, helping a lot to clear my mind.

She too didn’t move away and slowly caressed my hair, massaging my head.

The peaceful atmosphere didn’t last long as the door was soon opened by Kuina and she entered with the rest of the group.

Kasumi tried moving but I held her hand and laid down on the bed with my head on her lap. “Please continue doing that. I was feeling better like that.”

The girl blushed but continued her ministrations.

“Yeah, he looks fine, alright.” Kuina commented, rolling her eyes at the scene.

“I am not exactly alright per say. My head is killing me.” I replied with a pout.

“You pushed yourself too hard. You said it yourself that targeted summoning is not easy.” She chided.

“Hey, there was nothing we could have done. Did you see her? She looked like she would break down into tears at any moment and this time I could actually do something for her unlike the previous cases. How are they doing by the way?”

“They are fine. Shirone woke up after a few hours and the two sisters reunited. They waited for you to wake up and had gone to bed just a few hours ago. Poor girls had to go through a lot so I didn’t wake them up either.”

“Good. Let them rest.”

Kuina then explained the situation of the two sisters before they were summoned. Kuroka was actually badly injured when she was summoned after being chased by the Naberius while Shirone had just been rescued by Sirzechs Lucifer and was summoned directly from the stage… in front of everyone.

Hahahaha, that must have surprised some people.

We discussed a few more things before my food came and they took their leave. 

“Kanae, please stay back for a while if you are free.” I called her as everyone was leaving.

“Hmm? Okay…”

When the room closed, I took her hand and pulled her on the bed with Kasumi and me, making her yelp in surprise.

“Kazuya-kun!”

Snaking my arm around her waist, I looked at her. “What?”

“I… I… “ She spluttered, trying to find any words before taking a look at Kasumi.

“I don't mind it, Kanae-sama. I knew that Kazuya-sama would have other partners. Moreover, I would also love to have someone like you or Sera-sama as a sister.” Kasumi said in her usual calm tone.

“I… “ Kanae took a few moments to register the words and then turned red to her ears.

“There, you don't have to feel embarrassed. Now come here. I need another pillow.” I pulled her into a hug and surprisingly, Kasumi put her other hand on Kanae's head, softly caressing her hair. That’s when I realised something else. “Wait, what was that about Sera?”

“Hmm? Didn’t Kazuya-sama say she was yours to the Medicine Prince?” Kasumi asked, confused.

“Oh that… well, that idiot was pestering Sera and I was worried that she might actually kill him or something. That's why I did that to pull her out of the situation.”

Changing the topic, I asked her something else. “Did you meet Shirone and Kuroka?”

“Yes. They are very nice girls. Both of them care a lot about each other.”

“Hmm. They are going through a very hard period of time. Anyways, I guess you have questions. Go on. Ask away.”

“I…”

She hesitated but after some more prodding she asked several questions.

I was planning to show her the summoning but resisted since the one with Rōen could have been dangerous.

So I took this opportunity to explain things to her while eating.

“There are many worlds out there, more than you can even imagine. Some similar, some different. In some worlds, humans are the only species while in some others, Gods and Demons live together with them like in Kuroka’s world. For example, in Kanae’s world, demons were rampant… although they were originally humans or animals so I guess that’s different.”

“Kanae-sama is from a different world?” She asked, surprised.

“Yes. In my world, all Demons were created by the first Demon, Muzan Kibitsuji directly or indirectly. They were originally humans or animals.” Kanae nodded.

“Actually, even Muzan was originally a human. He became like that due to using a drug to make himself immortal. He is missing a key ingredient which could have made him conquer his last weakness, that is sunlight. He is searching for it even now.”

“What! Is that even possible?” She asked, surprised and horrified.

“Yes. It is very much possible, as is changing a demon back to their human form. I even know the location of the missing ingredient although you don’t have to worry. With the strength we have, we can take down Muzan the next time we enter your world.”

“Kazuya-sama, you will be going to Kanae-sama’s world?” Kazumi asked.

“Well obviously. She has her siblings back there and I promised her to help her with the problem with Muzan. Don’t worry, we will not stay there. Just go and return in a while. In fact, if you are strong enough, I can take you there too… that is if you want to.”

“I would love to…”

“Great then. It’s decided. Just make sure that you don’t tell any of this to anyone or not only I but this whole country will be in danger.”

“I will never…” She started to speak but I put a finger on her lips.

“I know, that’s why I told you this. Now, I am still feeling tired so how about you two give me a hug. I haven’t been able to do this for a while.”

We didn’t do anything while on the carriage because all my subordinates had exceptional hearing and would have heard everything going inside.

However, we were alone here and I didn’t have to worry about anyone interrupting us.

My hands slid down their waists, landing on their bottoms, feeling their soft flesh on my palms and pulled them further into my embrace. They turned redder but their hands wrapped around my chest.

Feeling two beautiful girls on both sides like this I couldn’t help but think… Grandpa had a point.

___________________________________x__________________________________

“Why are you running like your legs are filled with lead? Run like you mean it, you maggots!” The shout made the kids who were straggling behind pick up their pace, charging ahead.

Holy Crap!

Rose was a demon instructor!

I had asked her to watch over the training of the new kids so that she could heal them in case they got injured during training. She agreed and even asked me for permission to allow her to choose people from the group.

I allowed it but I never thought she would be… like this…

A month had passed since I summoned Kuroka and Shirone. Both girls were learning about the history and background of this world, Shirone taking a bit more time due to her age.

Hiding their ears and tails wasn’t a big problem as Kuroka easily solved it with a few spells so they could even join others with their training.

In the meantime, I got a rundown of the skills Kuroka had.

And boy did I luck out by summoning her.

Now I can understand why it took summoning that beast to summon someone like her.

She was already a High Class level and a strong one at that which meant she could destroy a mountain with her strongest attack. That’s already better than an average Kage level and equivalent to a lower numbered Jinchuriki.

But this was just her raw power and Kuroka was not exactly a power fighter.

She was more of a skill and technique type fighter so power was not exactly her strong point. She was an expert in Devil Magic, Yojutsu techniques which were Youkai Specific techniques also known as Fear in some factions in her world and best of all, Senjutsu.

We finally had a sage.

And not just any Sage, her Senjutsu was actually a better version than the one used by humans of this world.

In this world where humans emulated the methods used by other animals to use natural energy, Kuroka’s method directly manipulated it which reminded me a bit of the Six Paths Senjutsu.

With some help and research, we could very well open a sage land for ourselves.

Currently, all three known Sage Lands were contracted with Konoha, which kinda closed the lines for other villages.

I didn’t want a contract with them because… well, they were kinda shady.

The less said about Mount Myoboku, the better.

They obviously knew about the Sage of Six Paths and his children and yet never took any steps to interfere or stop all this bloodshed, just sat back and watched, only supporting selected people at times.

Ryuchi Cave was dangerous and the snakes were extremely selfish and whimsical creatures. I am not going to be having any contact with them.

The Slugs of the Wet Bone Forest were… well, they were kinda unknown.

The only thing I knew about them was that Katsuyu was the largest summon among all three Sage lands as not even Sakura and Tsunade together could summon more than a tenth of the whole entity.

Just the sheer size would allow it to cover up tailed beasts.

The Sage Lands were unique places as in they were within the elemental nations and yet they cannot be found by anyone. Each of these lands are surrounded by special Fuinjutsu which only allows those who search for it specifically to find them or they would just roam around the place without ever finding them.

I so want to find out what the seals used there were to use myself to hide some of the research facilities and plantations.

Anyways, with us already possessing the method to mutate normal animals, and now a sage like Kuroka, we could totally make a new Sage Land with the help of my Akashic Grimoire, maybe a Cat based Sage Land?

But all of these were long term plans.

The biggest advantage Kuroka had over almost anyone in this world was her ability to get around. She could perfectly hide herself using Magic and Senjutsu and could get into and out of any place using teleportation. She could even hypnotise anyone using magic which worked a bit different from normal genjutsu and all this made her an incredible spy, something I had been lacking. With her around, we could do so many things that were previously out of our reach.

Finally, with her around, the Land of Flowers suddenly had a kage level, a decently strong one at that which gave us a way to protect ourselves.

Not that I was going to disclose her to the outside world.

I would prefer to have at least three to five Kage level people before disclosing one. We already saw how the Land of Sky ended. We didn’t need a repeat of that.

Kuroka had already started learning about Chakra and she was a bonafide genius at it, learning things at an incredible pace.

I can’t imagine how strong she will become in a few years, especially since she hasn’t even fully explored her original world’s powers to the fullest yet.

By the end of five years, I was pretty sure she would be someone whose name could be counted on the same line as Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha and then… the Land of Flowers wouldn’t have to fear anyone anymore.

And Shirone can get to the same level too… yes, the summoning with Rōen was the best thing I had done.

Although, it took me almost a week to completely recover from the targeted summoning of Shirone. According to Kuroka, it wasn’t a problem of body or mind but rather of the soul. Even with my already strong soul, I had strained myself in that ritual.

Looks like I have to do the next soul ritual sooner than I was expecting.

It required three Demon or similar beings.

The Uzumaki knew the locations for some of them, having been the ones to have sealed them. I was planning to ask the Uzukage about the location of some of them when she next comes to meet.

“Get up and start running!” My thoughts were broken by Rose’s voice who had just kicked a straggler who was actually healed of his fatigue and ran again.

“Rose-san is… quite strict.” Kanae sweatdropped at the sight too.

“Nah, I think she is perfect. I would have made them run without healing them.” Toji added and no one there doubted that the guy would do that… because he already did.

“The more injuries they suffer now, the less injured they will be on the field. I think Rose-dono’s training methods, while harsh… are actually the best we can provide these students.” Saitō added, surprising even Toji who threw a smirk at the man which the guy expertly ignored.

Rose got along surprisingly well with Saitō, both having been soldiers, commanding officers in their respective countries.

They might have different methods of teaching but they respected each other’s capabilities and treated each other politely.

Did that leave Toji as the only loner in our group?

Not at all.

“Myaah~” Shirone, in her cat form purred in Toji’s arms as he scratched behind her ears.

No one had expected that man of all people to take a liking to Shirone or the girl to like the guy either.

His reason was that he was a cat person. Actually, he treated Shirone quite well, like a rowdy uncle of some sort.

The man had actually mellowed a lot.

I think getting the ability to use chakra had done wonders about his inferiority complex over not having Cursed Energy and the treatment of the Zen’in Clan.

Now he had a power, far more versatile than Cursed Energy and he had thrown himself into exploring every intricacy of this power.

The guy had recently reached the level where he could open the sixth gate, taking the lead in our group.

The two sisters were getting along with everyone in the group quite well and surprisingly, both got along with Toji.

In fact, she had brought news that had shocked Saitō. The news about Okita Souji, one of his closest friends being the Knight of Sirzechs Lucifer and the strongest Knight of the Underworld.

The man had complex feelings about the whole thing. On one hand, he knew that it was not the same guy as the one he knew but at the same time, he was happy that he was able to survive his illness.

It however only served to motivate the man to train even harder. I guess there was some healthy competition between the members of the Shinsengumi.

Kuroka was a bit wary of everyone at the start but was slowly opening up after the girls accompanying her.

According to Kanae, she was deeply touched when she saw me pushing myself so far to summon Shirone and that’s why she could sit like she did, in her cat form, in my arms while we watched the training of the new batch of students. In fact, it was her who had helped me heal faster with her Senjutsu, which involved her sleeping with me.

The girl did so… in her cat form.

Well, at least she wasn’t treating me like her previous master so that was a plus. We can get her to warm up more later on.

- Shiroyasha Uzumaki -

“What does the letter say?” Her husband asked as she placed the letter aside.

She could understand the reason for his impatience.

The news could be the one which can decide the continued fate of the entire Uzumaki Clan. Even she was just as worried about it.

“The eighth team has confirmed the location of another continent, one almost as big as the elemental nations. They have also discovered that the people on that continent don’t even know of the existence of Chakra so there are no dangers to our Clan on those lands. They were even able to locate a place suitable for us to set up a village.”

“They don’t even know about chakra?” Her husband asked, surprised. Even she had to reread the letter twice to verify that part.

“Yes, none of them have any idea about Chakra. Their culture is very different from the one in the Elemental Nations. Most of the continent is barren but there are parts of land suitable for cultivation which makes people fight over them. Nothing different from the Elemental Nations there. There are no big countries and things are still like the Sengoku Era there.” She explained further.

“Still, if there are no people with knowledge of Chakra, we would have no danger there. We can even develop and get more jobs for our people there without any worry about stepping on anyone’s foot.”

“Hmm. The place is godsent for us. I don’t think we can get a better opportunity than this right now.”

“So… we move.”

“Yes. We do. But first.”

“The Prince of Flowers, eh. That boy has been more surprising than I had expected. The last letter from Genshiro just made him become more mysterious.”

“Compared to the information and location of the new continent, the location of a sealed beast is nothing. While the fact that he could move it without anyone’s notice is surely worthy of praise but just that. We could have done the same with many other locations if we wanted.” She added on.

“So, when are you going for another visit?” He asked.

“In a week. You on the other hand, start preparing for ships to begin the exodus. The injury of the Tsuchikage has led to them delaying the invasion as they don’t want to lose out on too many of their people. They are probably waiting for Onoki to heal before attacking. If they find out we are planning to move, they might leave all that caution to rest and attack us. We cannot let that happen.”

“Around twelve ships are already ready. We need twelve more or we can shift in two rounds. Currently people think we are planning to trade with the Land of Swamps and the Land of the Moon. Our people are buying ships in other lands and keeping them under disguises. We are modelling them to look the same. When the time to move comes, we can send several batches of people in those ships and make it look like they have gone to trade. The next batch of ships will pretend to be the same ones which had left earlier and pick up the rest and move away. We can complete buying and remodelling the ships in a month. It’s just that we will have problems buying supplies for the journey and a few months at least till we are settled there.”

“Why? What’s the problem?”

“Getting such large amounts of food during the wartime is extremely hard. Moreover, our properties cannot be liquidated so easily without tipping anyone off so it will be hard to gather funds too.”

“Hmm… that is indeed a problem.”

“Perhaps…”

“Yes?”

“Perhaps we could buy some supplies from our newest ally. In return, we can transfer some of our properties and items which we cannot take to him. The Land of Flowers has a surplus of food from what I have heard and could sell some to us.”

“I see. Yes. That’s plausible. He could get the supplies for us. Alright, I will talk to him about it.”

“Then… what do we do about Konoha?”

Her husband’s question made her face blanch. “Nothing. We do nothing for now. They will be treated just like any other. A small group of the old ones have decided against moving. They said that they were born on this land and wish to be buried here. They will cover for us while we are gone, using clones to give a feeling of the village still being populated. Meanwhile, they will set traps for any invaders. None of them took the fact that we were being forced to flee lightly. They wish to bury everyone who dares to attack us. They will manage Konoha.”

“Those old fools are really stubborn.” Her husband shook his head.

“Your father and grandfather are among them, you know.”

“Still doesn’t change anything. They are planning something big but haven’t told me what it is.”

“Leave them be. They would never do anything to jeopardise our escape.” She advised making him nod. “Although it seems they will be suffering some kind of accident sometime soon.” She added

“Oh?”

“Konoha had sent people disguised as Iwa shinobi to loot and burn villages in the Land of Flowers to cause friction between them and disturb their line of supply.”

“They did what?!”

“Yes. The Prince encountered one such village while he was on his way to the Land of Medicine and immediately chased and killed them. He was even able to look through their disguise immediately. Konoha not only failed their goal but also made an enemy out of that person. Genshiro said that each of his retainers had the strength to take him on in a battle.”

“That’s… does it affect our side of the deal in any way?”

“No. The Prince was quite understanding about the whole thing although from Genshiro’s words, he was extremely angry at the sight of the massacred villagers.”

“As he should be. I know I would be enraged if someone did that to any of our people. Seriously, what is Konoha turning into? I doubt we would even recognise it in a few years at this rate.”

“Perhaps we won’t. Mito-sama’s condition has deteriorated. They have requested for a team of Fuinjutsu Masters to assist in the transfer of the Kyuubi. After she is gone…”

“We will face whatever comes our way.” Her husband assured her. “By the way, have you chosen whom to send to the Land of Flowers apart from the three already there?” Her husband asked and she nodded.

“Yes. Yes, I have someone in mind.”

“Sigh… I still can’t believe we have to do this…” Her husband sighed. She put a hand on his hand.

“Time changes and those who cannot keep up with it… perish. As ninjas, the first thing we are taught is to be adaptable. The lives of our people are more important than our pride and who knows, we might be able to return in the future?”

“Yes… we can at least hope so.” Her husband nodded too.

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Author’s Note:

I am back with another chapter of ‘Ruling by the Book’.

Things are looking good finally.

Kazuya finally has his first Kage level in the form of a cute Cat Girl.

Butterflies have also started flapping their wings.

How will things turn out in the future?

Enjoy the new chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.