At this time, Uchiha Retsu wasn't paying the slightest attention to Inuyasha's group.
Quite a while had passed since he and Kikyo left the Demon Slayer Village. During this period, they had been traveling back and forth through the surrounding regions.
Most of the time, Kikyo focused on collecting Shikon Jewel shards while carefully searching for any traces of Naraku.
As for Retsu, he wasn't particularly enthusiastic about hunting Naraku down.
If he truly wanted to find him, he could simply use Shadow Clones and enter Sage Mode to conduct a carpet-style search. He was confident he could track Naraku down without much trouble.
After all, in this world, aside from Naraku, there was no villain powerful enough to destroy the world—certainly nothing like that alien who tried to hang everyone on trees back in the ninja world.
So most of the time, he simply followed quietly by Kikyo's side, watching her work tirelessly toward her goals.
Occasionally, he would lend a hand with minor troubles—such as dealing with wandering samurai who developed wicked intentions after seeing Kikyo's beauty, or bandits who tried to block the road and rob travelers.
Like now, for example.
He had been sent deep into the forest to gather medicinal herbs at Kikyo's request.
Back in Konoha, as a transmigrator, Retsu had been fascinated by all kinds of supernatural abilities. In his spare time, he had even studied some basic medical ninjutsu.
However, in the ninja world, herbs were rarely important.
Ordinary injuries could be healed quickly with healing techniques and chakra palm. When medicine was truly needed, it was usually special concoctions influenced by chakra, with strange effects.
As for ordinary herbs, he honestly didn't recognize many of them.
Now that he had come to another world, where even the names and types of herbs were completely different, he felt even more lost.
But Kikyo wanted to use her identity as a priestess to interact with nearby villagers, gather information about the Shikon Jewel and Naraku, and help people along the way.
Besides exorcising demons, one of a priestess's main duties was treating the sick and wounded.
Naturally, gathering common herbs fell to Retsu.
"Let's see what I'm supposed to find…"
He took out the list Kikyo had given him and glanced over it.
"Hmm… Spirit-Recovery Flowers for healing, Purifying Grass for dispelling evil energy…"
All kinds of strange plants he had never seen before, either in his past life or in the ninja world.
Fortunately, Kikyo had written down their general habitats and even sketched their shapes. Otherwise, he probably would have come back empty-handed.
"Alright, time to get to work."
After memorizing the list, Retsu quickly formed hand seals.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
With a puff of smoke, three identical clones appeared behind him.
"Let's move!"
With his command, Retsu and his clones vanished in an instant.
An hour later, Retsu returned to their temporary residence with a basket full of herbs.
He walked straight up to Kikyo.
"Kikyo, can you check if these are right?"
"Good. You've worked hard."
Kikyo, who was grinding dried herbs, took the basket from him and carefully examined its contents.
Retsu sat down on the ground without caring about the dirt and quietly watched her work.
With chakra, cleaning himself was easy anyway.
They were currently staying at a small temple outside a town.
Recently, evil energy in the area had increased suddenly. Kikyo suspected Naraku was behind it, so she decided to stay here for a while, helping locals with healing and exorcisms.
The temple was small, with only one elderly monk living there.
Retsu had easily persuaded him to let them stay by offering a heavy bag of copper coins.
"These herbs are fine. After I finish processing them, help me dry them on the rack," Kikyo said after checking.
"No problem. Just call me when you're done," Retsu replied.
He was already familiar with this kind of work.
At first, he had wanted to help process the herbs too. But Kikyo told him that herbs with special effects needed to be treated with priestess spiritual power to work properly.
Out of curiosity, he had asked whether spiritual power could be cultivated.
Her answer had crushed his hopes.
A priestess's spiritual power was innate.
If a girl had the potential to become a priestess, her soul would be born with spiritual power, which would grow with age.
Someone as gifted as Kikyo would naturally become extremely powerful while still young.
As for ordinary priestesses like Kaede, their power wasn't outstanding, but it was enough to protect a village.
Men with spiritual power became monks—also something determined at birth.
In other words, there was no way to train it later.
This was completely different from what he remembered about shrine maidens in his previous life.
Back then, priestesses were religious servants who worshipped gods.
But Kikyo didn't worship any deity. Her power was purely innate, with no other cultivation method.
After hearing this, Retsu gave up on the idea of learning spiritual power.
It fit perfectly with this world's obsession with bloodline and natural talent.
"Alright, you can take these out to dry now."
Kikyo's voice pulled him back to reality.
He looked up and saw that she had finished processing the herbs and was handing him a small bamboo basket.
"Got it."
He took it and walked toward the corner of the temple, where drying racks had been set up. Several batches of herbs from previous days were already hanging there.
He skillfully spread out the fresh herbs, then gathered the dried ones and casually tossed them into his Kamui space.
Since coming to this world, Kamui—granted by Kakashi's Sharingan—had been used mainly as portable storage.
The demons he had encountered so far were too weak to be worth attacking with it.
Just as he finished storing the herbs, noisy shouts suddenly came from outside the temple.
Mixed with painful groans, a strong smell of blood drifted in on the wind.
"Priestess! Please save us!"
"Miss Priestess, please help me! I don't want to die!"
Retsu's eyes narrowed.
He immediately stood up and walked out.
Outside, he saw a group of wounded, ragged ashigaru soldiers crowding around Kikyo, surrounding her and begging desperately.
He stepped forward and calmly positioned himself in front of her, shielding her with his body.
His sharp gaze swept over the group.
They wore tattered armor, looked thin and exhausted, and most of their "weapons" were farming tools like hoes and woodcutters.
Clearly, they were peasants hastily conscripted into battle—barely even soldiers.
Judging from their wounds and miserable state, they were likely defeated stragglers fleeing from a battlefield.
They didn't seem very threatening.
Still, Retsu didn't relax.
He asked coldly, "Who are you? What do you want?"
Seeing his refined clothing and the katana at his waist, the ashigaru instinctively retreated several steps, fear filling their eyes.
This man might be a noble.
Or he might be a bold impostor.
Either way, he wasn't someone lowly conscripts like them could afford to provoke.
"Retsu, don't worry."
Kikyo stepped out from behind him, her voice gentle.
"They're just injured and seeking treatment. Leave it to me. You can watch from the side."
Retsu nodded and said nothing.
But his gaze remained cold and vigilant.
He knew that even conscripted farmers could turn into bandits when driven into desperation.
And although he was certain that, in front of Kikyo, these men were weaker than the lowest demons…
To avoid unnecessary trouble, he chose to stay nearby and quietly deter them.
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