Kiyoshi's tent.
'It's already at 99%,' Kiyoshi thought expectantly.
As long as he accumulated enough Blue Traits, he would inevitably trigger the synthesis path for a Purple Trait. These Traits provided permanent talent bonuses; the more, the better.
"Kiyoshi..."
A familiar voice drifted in from outside. Kiyoshi closed the Trait panel and lifted the flap. It was Natsu Hyuga.
Kiyoshi stood at the entrance, scanning Natsu from head to toe. Beneath her short skirt were smooth calves, almost entirely devoid of hair; they would surely feel silky to the touch. Her face had clearly been meticulously cleaned, and her dark green short hair rested on her shoulders. She looked youthful and radiant.
The faint look of timidity in her eyes, whether intentional or not, perfectly complemented her status as a pitiful little maidservant of the Hyuga.
"Please, come in."
Natsu felt her skin crawl under Kiyoshi's intense gaze. It wasn't until he nodded in satisfaction and gestured for her to enter that she gave a soft "mm" and followed him inside.
The space inside the tent was small. Aside from a small bed, a simple table, and a trunk for clothes, there was nothing else.
'Clean and tidy,' was Natsu's first thought.
She was slightly surprised by how industrious Kiyoshi was. She remembered that even though his house back then was old and worn, it had always been very clean. Even here, in the middle of a war, he maintained such habits. Under the pressure of the conflict, her own tent had become somewhat messy; she simply didn't have the extra energy to tidy up.
Kiyoshi sat on the edge of the bed and signaled for Natsu to take the only stool by the table.
"I don't have any tea to offer you here."
"It's fine, really." Natsu waved her hands frantically. They were in a war zone; there was no need for such formalities.
"Once again, Natsu-san comes alone. Is Lady Ginka looking down on me?" Kiyoshi looked at her with a half-smile.
Hearing this, a flash of panic appeared on Natsu's small face as she explained, "No, it's just that Lady Ginka's status makes it inconvenient for her to visit."
Her relationship with Kiyoshi was that of classmates, so it was normal for them to visit each other. Ginka Hyuga, however, had no direct connection to Kiyoshi; a sudden meeting would draw unwanted attention.
"Heh..." Kiyoshi chuckled.
'When she was running her mouth back then, why didn't she think about her status being inconvenient?'
He would hold onto that secret for a lifetime. Of course, relying solely on that to deepen his connection with Ginka was insufficient. He needed more leverage. Fortunately, that opportunity was not far off.
"Kiyoshi, what I said is true." Seeing Kiyoshi remain silent and only continue to chuckle, Natsu felt a sense of dread. If things fell through here, Ginka would surely punish her. Moreover, if Ginka's scandal was exposed, the clan would view Natsu as an accomplice.
From the moment she became a servant to Ginka Hyuga, Natsu lost the right to choose. Her entire upbringing had been an education on how to be a proper Branch House member.
"Kiyoshi-kun, I really am different this time."
"Different, huh..." Kiyoshi emphasized the word intentionally.
The way Natsu was dressed was indeed different from before. It made him... feel something.
Natsu felt Kiyoshi's gaze and instinctively reached out to cover the hem of her skirt at her knees. Halfway through the motion, she suddenly stopped. Her eyelashes trembled slightly as she forced herself to stand upright and formal.
The Hyuga clan had taught her the etiquette of standing—shoulders back, chest out, stomach in, eyes forward. However, the standards of this etiquette only served to make Natsu feel more ashamed in her current attire.
To an outsider, it was just a simple short skirt, but in the Hyuga clan, it was like the sky was falling. Only in recent years had the clan's conservative dress code begun to lean toward the outside world; to wear a skirt freely in the clan would take decades of slow conceptual change.
If the clan elders saw this skirt now, they would surely curse her until her head spun, calling her shameless.
"Natsu-san, I'm not that kind of person." Kiyoshi shook his head.
Natsu's eyes widened. 'Not that kind of person, yet you're still enjoying the view?'
"Actually, there's no need for you to do this."
Kiyoshi slowly approached her. Seeing him reach out his hand, Natsu instinctively bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut. However, after waiting for a moment, nothing happened.
Natsu opened a tiny slit of an eye to peek at him. She saw that Kiyoshi's hand had reached behind her head and removed her ninja headband.
"You're only doing this because of Lady Ginka's orders, aren't you?" Kiyoshi said tonelessly.
Looking at the ugly pattern of the curse seal, Kiyoshi lightly touched it. Natsu's heart tightened—did Kiyoshi have some sort of fetish for this?
A faint black glow appeared at Kiyoshi's fingertips—[Dark Medical Ninjutsu].
A cooling sensation entered Natsu's forehead. Immediately after, she felt an invisible force from the curse seal binding her brain and eyes. When the [Caged Bird Curse Seal] is triggered, it instantly destroys the person's brain and eyeballs.
In the next instant, Natsu's eyes snapped wide open!
She felt her mind suddenly become incredibly clear, yet the curse seal vibrated, followed by a sharp, stabbing pain.
'The curse seal... has been triggered!'
Natsu couldn't understand why Kiyoshi would want to kill her. But once the [Caged Bird Curse Seal] activated, without exception, the victim died!
Natsu waited, trembling, for her fate. One breath, two breaths, three breaths...
After waiting for quite a while, aside from the initial stabbing pain in her brain, there was no further reaction.
"A so-called curse seal is, in essence, just a special type of formula." Kiyoshi lowered his hand.
Currently, he didn't have the ability to directly remove the [Caged Bird Curse Seal]. What he had just done was use Natsu's life force as a price to temporarily boost the recovery rate of her brain cells to an extreme level. Simultaneously, using his precise chakra control and the sealing arts he had learned, he isolated a small section and provoked a part of the curse seal.
That part of the curse seal had directly destroyed those specific brain cells. Had it not been for the boosted recovery, she likely would have died on the spot. This was an application of Moryo's power combined with [Dark Medical Ninjutsu].
Since it was difficult to unbind, he would simply let the seal trigger. It was destruction anyway; he would just repair as it destroyed. Once the energy of that portion of the seal was exhausted, it would naturally vanish—a roundabout way of removing the [Caged Bird Curse Seal].
"You... you... just now, you did something to my [Caged Bird Curse Seal]..." Natsu was so shocked she could barely speak. The supposedly absolute [Caged Bird Curse Seal] had actually loosened for a moment.
"Surprised?" Kiyoshi smiled.
Life force is linked to one's lifespan. When you're paying with your life, how could the effect be poor? However, if he continued, even if the seal were broken, Natsu would die from having her life force drained. He would need further refinements later.
"If I said I could grant you your freedom, what would you do then?"
Kiyoshi looked at Natsu intently.