Leaving the Land of Water

After Haku and my vows to each other last night, we headed back to bed. Strangely, Haku was even more clingy than I normal, but I took it as meaning that she wanted to be close to me for the time being.

The next morning, we packed our things and began our journey to finally arrive at Kishinami town before the day was out. I had taught Haku to drive the wagon, as I wanted to give her more responsibilities so that she wouldn't ever feel useless to me again. Meanwhile, I began to teach Jugo the [Yin Strengthening Method]. I had the idea while doing my morning practice. Since the [Yin Strengthening Method] requires the user to meditate and circulate their chakra in a specific way through their brain, eyes, and other sensory organs, I had thought that using it would allow Jugo to be more at peace with himself and control his demonic sage state.

Oh yeah, I named his transformation the [Demonic Sage Mode], to which Jugo felt embarrassed and tried to yell at me not to call him that, while Haku tried to stifle her laugher from the front of the carriage.

Like this the day past and by the time it was noon, and just before we stopped for lunch, we saw Kishinami town in the distance.

I had expected there to be more events along the way, or perhaps for Kishinami town to have huge anime-style secrets, like it being secretly run by a cult, or for it to be plagued by bandits that we would have to stop, as the last week of travel and encounters had made me slightly excited to finally arrive, but what I was met with was a regular fishing village with a slightly larger than average dock for people to ferry their goods to other islands.

My disappointment was immeasurable, and my day is ruined. But memes aside, I was hyping myself up to finally put our time in the Land of Water behind us. I had spent the whole of my new life here, and even if it was where I called home, I still couldn't help but feel excited to leave this dreary place behind. Besides yesterday when the sun was out for our training session, it was almost always overcast or misty here. At least Konoha had a more moderate climate, with brighter seasons than the Land of Water or Kiri.

As we pulled into the town, we were met with a busy mood. I had slightly forgotten that this was harvest season, and in a week or so, there would be thousands of farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural workers flooding in to ship off their goods, but we were lucky to get here ahead of time, as we got an inn for cheap and were even able to stock-up on exotic goods from seasonal stores who only open their stocks during this rush of the year. I was able to purchase quite a few new pairs of clothes for Jugo, who would constantly tear them while training to control his [Demonic Sage Mode].

There were no official ferries scheduled for a few more days, but due to the fact that some Kiri shinobi would be stationed here to guard the town for the shipping season at that time, I had decided to leave early by hiring a local fisherman with a boat big enough to carry George onboard. I did have to dip into the considerable wealth that the Kaguya Clan had left behind in order to grease his pockets a bit for I'm to agree to ferry us along though.

I never thought about it before, but just the amount of wealth that the Kaguya Clan possessed was enough to feed a village, this big, for an entire year and still have money left over. I had also received the money from bandit camps we looted during our journey, meaning that, ironically, I will be leaving the Land of Water wealthier than when I arrived.

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The next morning, the fisherman Ryoshi and I had a discussion about the possible dangers of the sea before we departed. He had said that sometimes giant birds will swoop down and abduct people if they were fishing too far out to sea, and no one would fish with him anymore after it happened to his previous apprentice, so he has been alone ever since. We agreed to help him fish on our journey and to let him keep anything we didn't eat.

I had hoped this kind gesture would get us a reduced price, but apparently not. Cheap bastard! I bet the reason no one wants to fish with him is that he doesn't pay them well enough, not because of giant flying birds that abduct people.

Who would believe that!?

So after storing the carriage in my inventory, and getting George onto the boat, which was harder than it sounds due to her size, but strangely not due to her unwillingness, we departed just after sunrise.

As I looked back at the Land of Water one last time, I thought to myself 'I've only experienced this place through memories or the old Haruka, and through the last week and a half personally, which wasn't all that great, but strangely, I feel a little sad to leave.' I shook my head for a moment before returning to the fishing rods I was assigned to.

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I never realized it before, but fishing is stupidly good for training the [Yin Strengthening Method]! Since we are mostly just sitting around, waiting for fish to bite, we can train ourselves all we want and stop to catch the fish whenever they do bite.

I have improved by leaps and bounds in the three days since we left Kishinami town. I have completely improved my Byakugan so that now it doesn't have a blind spot and I have increased its range to 3 kilometers. I was able to fine-tune my Shikotsumyaku so that I can now manipulate the bones that have left my body. It's not quite the same flexibility as wood-release, which can create entire houses in an instant, but I can now make small trinkets and miscellaneous items with it. I used to create hundreds of Bone Kunai during the day, while inscribing them with my [Flying Thunder God] seals before bed at night with the help of my clones and Haku.

Jugo has made it so that he can now absorb Natural Energy without going into his [Demonic Sage Mode] and he can use this to restore his stamina and regenerate minor wounds in seconds, though we haven't tested if he can recover from major wounds yet, for obvious reasons. He has also begun learning more water release and wind release jutsu. He practices his wind release to push the sail of the boat, creating a new wind release training method in the process.

Haku has lived up to her reputation as a genius and has mastered all of the water and quite a few wind-based jutsu from the various jutsu scrolls I have. She copied Jugo's idea for training and has started manipulating the water around the boat to draw-in fish and move the boat even faster. She was even able to master calligraphy faster than I was able to. Though back when I learned it from my mother, I didn't have [Deva's Mind] to increase my learning speed. Natural Geniuses are scary!

Needless to say, Ryoshi was quite happy.

I wanted to help Haku train her ice release, but due to the prejudice against Kekkei Genkai users in the Land of Water, I didn't do so. I was only able to practice my newly named bone release because I could store the constructs in my [Inventory] without Ryoshi noticing.

We were on our final two days of our journey when suddenly, out of nowhere, a bird, four meters tall, swooped down and picked up Ryoshi off the deck of the boat and flew off before any of us could react. Normally, I should have been able to stop this, even if I had to use swift release, but I was so stunned by what I was seeing that I didn't have time to properly process what just happened.

"HEY! Come back!" Jugo yelled. Apparently, he was the first one to come out of his stupor.

"Haku, control the water around the boat to follow after him! Jugo, use wind release on the sail and aid Haku! I'll try to keep an eye on them with my Byakugan!" I yell out commands.

While it would be easy for us to get to the Land of Fire using my compass, I don't want to reveal my system to Haku or Jugo. Even if I trust them, in Konoha, there are ROOT members who are from the Yamanaka Clan and can read minds. I definitely don't want Danzo, who I know will try to pull something, to know I have more abilities than are publicly shown.

Although we were moving fast, we were not flying, and I could tell that we would not be able to catch up with the bird, even with our enhanced speed. Thankfully, after about an hour, and after Jugo and Haku had depleted most of their chakra reserves, we came upon a large island with a volcano in the center.

I ordered them to stop and I had them rest for a few hours as we drifted ashore. I was able to jump off and tie the ship down to a large boulder near a small bay. I poped a Senzu Bean and kept watch with my Byakugan while Haku and Jugo were recovering.

What I saw on that island was beyond what I had thought possible. Just about every creature here was a summoning animal. Huge spiders like the ones Kidōmaru summoned against his battle with Neji, large white snakes that looked like rouge Orochimaru summons, and I was also able to find a small research building tucked away in the forest.

'I know I've seen this place before, but I just don't know where' I thought as I continued to san the surroundings.

After another few minutes, I saw something that shook me to my core. I saw a lab with dozens of researchers talking with three women. Two were adults, around the age of thirty, and one was a little girl around our age wearing narrow glasses.

The girl looked awfully familiar, though because the Byakugan doesn't give colored vision when activated, I didn't immediately recognize her. The strangest thing though, by far, was the fact that after a moment of looking at her, she turned and looked directly at me before tilting her head to the side.

I immediately undid my Byakugan after that and rushed to tell Haku and Jugo that we were spotted.

"Haku! Jugo! We have a problem!" I yelled.

"Haruka-sama!" Haku said, as she runs up beside me. Jugo was not far behind, though a little slower than Haku.

"Someone was able to tell that I was looking at them with my Byakugan! The thing is, they are at least 2 kilometers away!" I say exasperatedly.

"Impossible!" Jugo says flabbergasted. He knows that it is almost impossible for him to tell that he is being looked at with the Byakugan and is only able to tell because of his nature energy enhanced senses. Haku can't tell when she is being looked at, even with her naturally high sensory abilities.

"Haruka-sama. I believe we should close the distance and check on this person. They may be useful to you in the future, and if they are not, I must silence them before they raise the alarm!" Haku states as she readies her senbon.

I look into her eyes for a moment before nodding. As we jump off the boat, I create a Bone Clone and leave him to guard the ship as we dash off into the forest.