Chapter 163: Hiroto's Jutsu and the Chess Piece
Kayo, no longer able to mind the commotion from the men's bath, quickly asked, "Is it true? This famous and luxurious hot spring inn is really Onii-chan Dana's?"
Many of the other girls in the bath pricked up their ears.
"Please," Kayo whispered, cupping her hand to her mouth, "tell me everything."
"I don't know the details," Konan said, a little flustered by her reaction. "But during the war, Lord Dana spent most of his time here, so I saw him a lot. The owner of 'Gokuraku no Yu' is Lord Kitanouji of the Kitanouji Merchant Guild, but in front of Lord Dana, he's completely submissive. It feels like not just this inn, but the entire Kitanouji Merchant Guild is under his control."
"The Kitanouji Merchant Guild that's been doing so well these past two years?"
Konan suddenly felt that it wasn't right to be revealing such things behind his back. She quickly tried to end the conversation. "I can't say any more. It's all just speculation. You're close to him, aren't you? Why don't you just ask him yourself?"
"How could I do that?" she said, flustered. "What if he thinks I'm only interested in that kind of thing? That would be so embarrassing. Hehehe."
Konan just gave an awkward smile as Kayo continued to wriggle with delight.
The commotion in the men's bath had been going on for a long time. The nose-bleeding Yusuke had been unable to defend himself and, after a righteous group beating, was now bruised and swollen, floating on the surface of the water like a corpse, his half-naked butt gleaming in the light. It was a sight to behold.
Dana awkwardly averted his gaze, wrung out a towel, and put it on his head. "So," he said to Hiroto, "what was the principle behind that jutsu you used in the final match?"
Asking about the details of another's jutsu was a bit of a taboo in the ninja world, but the two of them were close. After all, he had taught him the Rasengan and many other training techniques.
"Ever since the Four Violet Flames Formation," he said, "I've always felt that my own defenses were inadequate. Sakumo Hatake's sword is truly terrifying. If it hadn't been for Blue Bee-senpai's desperate protection, I probably would have died in there. When I was developing it, I first tried to imitate your method of attaching chakra to my body, but I could never succeed."
Dana nodded. The Sage Lightning Armor was not just made of lightning chakra, but "Sage Lightning Chakra," just like his special Sage Mode. Of course he couldn't have succeeded.
Just then, the unconscious body of Yusuke slowly drifted towards them. Hiroto, with a look of disgust, poked him with a finger and sent him floating in another direction.
"So," he continued, "I tried this."
He formed a series of hand seals. Dana recognized it as an E-rank Water Bullet Jutsu.
After finishing the seals, he did not release the jutsu, but continued with a series of sealing hand seals that Dana did not recognize. After a time that was three times longer than a normal E-rank jutsu, a faint, glowing symbol flashed on his chest and then disappeared.
He pointed at his shoulder and gestured for Dana to poke it.
Dana poked it, and with a flash of light, an orange-sized water ball shot out. Fortunately, he was quick to react and dodged it.
The water ball flew into the distance and hit someone.
"Cold! Who threw cold water on me?!"
Another commotion erupted as the boys started a new round of horseplay.
"Later I realized," he continued, "that I didn't need a solid suit of armor. That was too difficult. I just needed a way to counter an attack. But this method is not long-lasting. The sealed jutsu only lasts for a few hours. Before the match, I had been secretly forming seals and covering my body in these imperceptible sealing formulas, so that any attack would be met with a counter."
As if stirred by the horseplay, the now-distant Yusuke drifted back towards them. Dana pushed him away with his foot, sending the half-submerged figure floating away again.
"The chakra consumption must be quite high," he said. "You have to pay for the sealing jutsu as well, and it looks complicated."
"Don't worry," he said with a smile. "I have an advantage in that area. Samui-senpai's parasol also gave me a lot of inspiration. She has a lot of pre-set jutsu formulas sealed inside it."
Dana rolled his eyes, a little jealous of the Uzumaki's talent for sealing jutsu. It was not even his main focus, and yet he was quite proficient.
But then he froze. He had suddenly caught a glimpse of something, but then it was gone.
"What's wrong?" Hiroto asked, seeing his expression.
"I think I just thought of something," he said, one hand on his chest, the other stroking his chin, "but then I forgot it."
"It happens all the time," he said reassuringly. "If you think hard, you'll remember."
He continued to think, but he couldn't quite grasp it. What was it? It felt important.
Something very serious.
After a long moment, he clapped his hands. "I remember!" he said, his voice filled with urgency. "That guy, Yusuke, he's floating face down! Someone save him!"
The men's bath erupted into another commotion.
"Yusuke! Yusuke! Wake up!"
"He's not breathing! Someone give him mouth-to-mouth!"
"I'll do it! Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
"Lightning Release: Earth Runner!"
After the hot spring, they all went to the banquet. In a massive private room, the twenty-odd people were seated at a long table, the girls on the left, the boys on the right. Yusuke had been placed in a corner of the room, like a prop. He had not yet woken up.
"Eat up!" Dana said, raising his glass.
"Hooray! Long live Lord Dana!"
In a dark, underground space, an old, decaying body was hunched over, as if dozing.
A large number of strange tubes were inserted into his back, and the other end was connected to a terrifyingly large object, which was barely visible in the dim light.
After an unknown amount of time, a strange, completely white figure entered the space.
"Lord Madara? Lord Madara! Wake up!"
Madara Uchiha lifted his head. "What is there to report?" he rasped.
"The Joint Chunin Exams are over," the White Zetsu said. "Are you interested?"
"Child's play," he sneered. "But tell me. It's a way to pass the time."
After listening to the report, he was a little surprised. He hadn't expected someone from the Cloud to have won.
"First that Yotsuki Dana, and now an Uzumaki brat? Konoha has really rotted away, to be suppressed by the Cloud. Just as I thought, Hashirama, the Konoha you built..."
The White Zetsu did not want to hear his long-winded speech. All the White Zetsu who had served him knew that when he mentioned the name "Hashirama," everything that came after was the same, word for word. He had heard it so many times he could recite it by heart.
"Lord Madara," he said, "you've been telling us to look for promising young people. Do they have to be Uchiha? What about that Yotsuki Dana?"
Madara was a little hesitant. His plan was to leave two chess pieces in the world: one to inherit his eyes, and one to inherit his ideology (a fake one). Strictly speaking, the one to inherit his ideology didn't have to be an Uchiha. It was just his pride that made him think that only the Uchiha were worthy. And the extremist Uchiha were easier to control. The existence of the stone tablet also made it easier to persuade them.
But even with his pride, he had to admit that from what he had heard, this Yotsuki Dana, as a chess piece, was a bit too high-level. He would be difficult to control. A chess piece had to be cultivated from a young age, so that they could be easily controlled.
He shook his head. "No," he said. "Only an Uchiha is suitable for the Eye of the Moon Plan."
Thinking of his chess pieces, he was reminded that one of them seemed to be slipping from his grasp.
Ever since Nagato had met that rogue ninja, he had become more and more of a headache. At first, it was because he couldn't find anything wrong with the man, and Nagato did need a teacher to guide him on the path of a ninja, so he had allowed it.
But he didn't know if it was the man's charisma or Nagato's impressionable nature, but in the past few years, he had a feeling that the boy was going astray.
But it was not yet time to make his move. And he had not yet found a second piece.