After opening his "natural sensory touch," the cursed state of the Land of Water became clear in Hii Kōri's perception.
Plants, sand and stone, seawater... all things in this world silently yet faithfully and clearly recorded the "deviations" that had occurred on this land.
Information and memories from the natural environment converged and summarized in Hii Kōri's mind, ultimately forming a unique field of vision that transcended the conventional five senses even beyond the perceptual range of the Kagura Mind's Eye.
As he had anticipated, the entire main island of the Land of Water, along with the surrounding fragmented archipelago, was within the range of that curse field, having almost transformed into a living, diseased lesion.
Gray-black, viscous, aged bloodstain-like residual curses precipitate in every breath of air, every handful of soil, every drop of seawater in the Land of Water. The curse squirms, fermented, mutually nourished by the negative emotions unconsciously emitted by the island's residents, forming an irreversible vicious cycle.
And the place where that abnormal atmosphere was most concentrated was, naturally, Kirigakure.
For ordinary people controlled by strict laws and harsh punishments, society doctrine might serve as a constraint.
The pressure of daily life, the situation of one's family, the opinions of others—the factors that could prevent an ordinary person from taking extreme actions were simply too numerous to count.
Moreover, as anyone who kills regularly knows, once you cross that psychological threshold, killing is a very simple matter. But making the traces of your killing completely disappear is many times more troublesome.
Even in the modern period of Hii Kōri's previous life, experiments had been conducted. Using a freshly purchased whole pig from a wholesale market as the subject, a team of graduate students in medicine and chemistry spent three days and still couldn't completely eliminate the traces of that pig from the laboratory.
But neither of these two issues exists for shinobi.
For shinobi possessing extraordinary abilities, their first choice is always to personally give those bastards interfering with their lives an opportunity to face death.
And Kirigakure, having already transformed into the "Village of the Bloody Mist," naturally lived up to expectations, became a rotten, blackened heart that constantly pumped out foul curses and then sucked them back in.
Refining gutter oil, indeed.
Of course, due to mismatched specialties, even in the eyes of Yin Release ninjas, that filth probably wasn't visible.
Someone who has never been poisoned by eating wild mushrooms can never imagine just how wonderful those hallucinations can be. Without ever having used that disgusting energy called cursed energy, one naturally cannot perceive those residual curses.
Clearly, this atmosphere that had plunged all of Kirigakure into a maddened state was precisely the cause of the "Village of the Bloody Mist."
Paranoid, suspicious, possessing an almost instinctive hostility toward the outside world—feuds between families or neighbors often continued for generations, becoming a twisted tradition. Long-term soaking in this spiritual toxin would make even the most normal person become extreme and cruel, treating the lives of their fellow humans like blades of grass.
The Ninja Academy rule requiring graduates to fight to the death became only natural in this environment.
After all, the common sense of the entire society had already been distorted.
But Kirigakure going mad didn't mean everyone else in the Land of Water was normal. Aside from Kirigakure, some small islands outside the Land of Water's main island were also quite conspicuous; the concentration of curse precipitation there was no less than in some areas of Kirigakure.
That cold exclusivity and hostility were already pretty obvious signs. And within that heavy negative emotion curse field, these ordinary people could, at any moment, be driven by extreme mental states to "pull off something big."
The education of society and law is, after all, merely a form of insurance, not an absolute ideological imprint. If it weren't so, cases of impulsive killing wouldn't occur.
And in this sick atmosphere of the Land of Water, between self-destruction and taking others with you, the latter is clearly more favored.
Of course, the Land of Water's daimyō was no exception.
Although landowners and nobles ought to revere the daimyō, it's also common sense that landowners and nobles revering the daimyō is "unlikely." The farther one is from the center of power, the higher the autonomy of these people. But in any case, the mindset of a daimyō who had long ruled such a country had probably long since become incompatible with those of other nations on the continent.
In other words, Hii Kōri believed this negotiation would essentially have to end with violence.
Even if the negotiations went perfectly smoothly, he wouldn't want to sign a contract with a daimyō who could go crazy at any moment.
Missing in action means dead! Unclear symptoms means there's something wrong!
As for Kirigakure, it definitely needed to be dealt with. If the Bloody Mist problem wasn't solved, even if they "negotiated" successfully with the daimyō, these "Hachi-Kiri" might still stress over some inexplicable reason, hissing and crazy scratching.
He had been planning to collect a bunch of kekkei genkai clans anyway. Compared to infiltrating to steal samples, cleaning house was more convenient.
Beyond the curse, Hii Kōri could also feel a vigorous presence from the ocean.
That was the Three-Tails: Isobu.
At this moment, this tailed beast, still free, was roaming the deep sea not too far from the Land of Water's main island.
Among the nine tailed beasts, this turtle-like big guy was one of the more mild-tempered. Unlike the noisy Shukaku, as long as no one provoked him, Isobu mostly just stayed quietly in the water, rarely coming ashore.
But temperament wasn't the main point. As an aggregate of chakra split from the Ten-Tails, even doing nothing, his presence was overwhelmingly strong.
And due to the tailed beasts' extremely violent and exclusive chakra nature, Isobu, as a chakra aggregate, had far higher resistance to this spontaneously diffusing curse than other creatures.
Leaving aside when sealed inside a jinchūriki, tailed beasts still existing physically in the present world wouldn't be taken down by this unformed curse.
Thinking he would go see that big turtle after finishing up in the Land of Water, Hii Kōri ended his perception.
It was only thanks to his quad-core, 256-thread artificial intelligence brain, combined with a decade of mental energy enhancement from his constant Yin Release chakra circulation, that he could handle this kind of data influx. Anyone else would be unable to bear it.
But even so, Hii Kōri felt a mental fatigue he hadn't experienced in a long time.
He opened his eyes and sat up on the sofa. The sky outside had already darkened. The night of this port town in the Land of Water was still shrouded in thin mist; even the flickering lights on the streets looked hazy, as if seeing the world through frosted glass.
The room was very quiet, only the faint hum of the dehumidifier running.
Sasori, who had completely severed ties with the "ninja" profession, was in his own room studying the new device blueprints Hii Kōri had given him on the ship. Uchiha Hikari sat cross-legged on another sofa, eyes closed, practicing the basics of Yang Release.
That was a technique Hii Kōri had taught her. Yin Release related to the spirit, Yang Release to the body. Regardless of whether one intended to pursue deep practice, mastering the fundamentals was beneficial. Just as learning to refine chakra strengthens the body even if one doesn't become a ninja.
And as an Uchiha, Hikari especially needed some Yang Release chakra to balance her Yin Release. After using her ocular powers, using Yang Release to nourish her eyes and nerves could also alleviate the deterioration of the Mangekyō Sharingan to some extent.
"Kōri? You're awake~"
Sensing Hii Kōri's mental fluctuations, the girl immediately opened her eyes, jumped up, and bounded over to him. "How is it?"
"About as expected. The entire country is leaking negative emotions, which are further influenced by this curse."
Hii Kōri let the girl hang on his shoulder, walked to the window, pulled open the curtain, and looked out at the foggy street. "Ah... how should I put it. This feeling of being soaked in curse makes me a little nostalgic."
It really was nostalgic. Having been through to this world for over a decade, to be doing his old line of work again—even Hii Kōri felt quite amazing.
"Mm... I don't understand..."
Hikari blinked, thinking it was some knowledge of this era that Hii Kōri hadn't taught her yet.
"Ah, don't worry about it. That's a little secret only I know."
He reached up and scratched the chin of the girl resting on his shoulder, shifting the topic to their next move. "Later on, we'll probably be relying on you. Consider it a favor to me—use your mental control on the Land of Water's daimyō."
"? I can go in too?"
Hikari sounded a bit uncertain, though not about the "genjutsu" itself, but about the access issue beforehand. "The guards probably won't let a little kid like me in, right?"
"Leave the concealment to me. You just focus on using genjutsu to control those people."
"Mm. Then no problem."
The girl who had been used as a strategic weapon by the Warring States period Uchiha clan had no shortcomings in ability. And genjutsu was one of the Uchiha's specialty skills for survival.
No matter how exalted the daimyō's status, he was still just an ordinary person. Even counting his guardian ninjas, they were meaningless before the Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Good. But don't push yourself. If you feel your ocular power consumption too much, tell me. We have plenty of time; no need to do it all at once."
"Mm."
Hikari acknowledged, then after a pause, asked quietly, "Kōri, is this 'curse' very serious?"
"Hard to say. If left untreated and no one deals with it, something comparable to a tailed beast might condense in a few decades."
Hii Kōri gazed at the scene outside the window, answering with interest. "Honestly, I'd really like to see what kind of monster would be born here... but if we don't deal with it, it would be quite an obstacle to our subsequent development. Such a shame."
Hikari was silent for a moment, then climbed down from his back, walked to his side, and leaned on the windowsill like him.
"So we're doing something good, right?"
She was still small, her head only reaching Hii Kōri's chest. To look up at his face, she had to crane her neck.
Hii Kōri looked down at her and reached out to ruffle her hair. "Mm-hmm. From a results perspective, probably yes. But my purpose in doing this isn't to save the Land of Water, you know."
"Hai, hai~ It's all for selfish Kōri's own ideals~ The bloodlines of kekkei genkai ninjas, the strategic position of the Land of Water, that sort of thing."
"And the Three-Tails too." Hii Kōri added. "That big turtle is here too."
"A tailed beast, huh..." Hikari showed a reminiscent expression. "I think tailed beasts were active in my time too. But back then, people mostly treated them as myths. And now they've been turned into weapons by the ninja..."
"I suppose that's an inevitable result of the times. The tailed beasts' strength hardly changes drastically, but ninjas keep growing. It's only natural that old things are replaced... but right now, the urgent matter is to go get Sasori. I think it's time for dinner."
"Okay~"
The girl drew out her last syllable and ran to Sasori's door first, knocking vigorously.
The next day, the group followed the convoy toward the Land of Water's capital.
Although the land area wasn't large, the abundance of mountains and hills made the Land of Water's land routes quite difficult, requiring constant twisting detours. Some narrow passages carved through rock faces were barely wide enough for a single carriage.
This reminded Hii Kōri of the tunnel projects in the Land of Rain. Not only did the Land of Wind sponsor them, but the guild also invested, since more roads meant easier transport of their goods.
Once things in the Land of Water were settled, perhaps they could consider building some major roads and tunnels here—after all, by then, this place would be "home" too.
Although the straight-line distance didn't look far, the group still took nearly two weeks to reach the Land of Water's capital.
Though called a capital, its size was about that of a medium-sized town in the Land of Fire.
But the architectural style here was completely different from the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind. The building materials were all dark-colored, eaves hung low, windows were narrow, giving an overall sense of closure and depression.
Most pedestrians on the streets walked hurriedly; people gathering to chat were rarely seen. They kept considerable distance from each other, giving off a strong sense of "we don't know each other."
The group arrived in the afternoon. After some rest and formal announcement, they were granted an audience with the Land of Water's daimyō the following afternoon.
The Land of Water's daimyō's residence was similarly dull in color. The process of entering the main hall was quite tedious, requiring over a dozen inspections.
Of course, only the delegation leader Sakaki Tatsuma, Hii Kōri as the "technical advisor," and one other administrative assistant were allowed inside.
The other accompanying personnel, including Sasori, remained at the inn, watched by a group of ninjas.
But those ninjas' eyesight wasn't keen enough to see through the Uchiha Hikari disguised by Hii Kōri's Iron Sand Clone. The real Hikari, within the subconscious interference field created by his Rainbow Release, brazenly followed him into the daimyō's residence.
The Land of Water, with its abundant moisture, was the most suitable environment for Hii Kōri's Rainbow Release to shine. Simply manipulating the water vapor in the air was enough to form a "field" capable of influencing others' subconscious minds.
And so, Uchiha Hikari—her eyes shining with extreme excitement light, the girl possessing the Mangekyō Sharingan capable of easily tampering with others' consciousness—brazenly walked before the daimyō of one of the five great nations.
And opened those blood-red eyes.
***
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