"Slow down! Teacher!"
Yahiko's scream mingled with the engine's roar and the howling wind, but was in turn drowned out by Hii Kōri's hearty laughter.
Konan tightly pursed her lips, her hands gripping the seatbelt so hard they turned white. Nagato instinctively removed his still-oversized glasses and serenely closed his eyes.
Sasori sat expressionlessly in his seat, appearing calm but actually having lost focus in his eyes.
Amidst everyone's varied reactions, the off-road vehicle traced a somewhat wild arc through the air, crashing heavily onto the other side of the dune, kicking up a sky-wide sandstorm. Although the powerful shock absorption system and the dune absorbed most of the impact, everyone inside was still jolted senseless.
As ninjas, they experienced far more intense undulations when moving through rugged terrain. But wasn't there that phenomenon—people who got carsick were fine when driving themselves?
"Hahaha! Sorry, sorry! Got carried away!"
Hii Kōri's laughter came through with a strong sense of liberation, making one seriously suspect that some kind of second personality had emerged.
The smile beneath his turban was radiant, even carrying a hint of the glee of a successful prank, but the flame burning in the depths of his gray eyes hadn't extinguished—instead, it burned even more fiercely.
This momentary release seemed to vent the dullness and disgust accumulated in his heart, along with the reignited, almost arrogant ambition—all at once.
At this moment, his thinking was clearer than ever before.
The Dragon Vein buried deep underground was indeed difficult to perceive, but he had already contacted its true form through his Spirit Thread Nerves and recorded the traces of that flow.
Though faint and distant, if he activated Kagura Mind's Eye to the maximum extent, he could barely capture the fluctuations of the Dragon Vein's flow.
This subtle guidance, combined with his knowledge of Kanyu Studies, was enough for Hii Kōri to sketch a rough travel route.
The only problem was that while fully casting Kagura Mind's Eye, he needed to close his eyes to eliminate the "interference" of vision with perception.
And right now, Hii Kōri was driving...
So what if he was driving? The desert was spacious, wasn't it! Was he going to hit someone here?
"...Teacher, why did you put on sunglasses?"
"This is flash defense. We might be facing the sun directly soon—dazzling."
Blocking his eyes with fully covered sunglasses, Hii Kōri fabricate a lie without changing expression, then unhesitatingly closed his eyes, wholeheartedly sensing the Dragon Vein's fluctuations.
Meanwhile, the Spirit Thread Nerves wrapped in his turban slid out along his sleeve, resting on the steering wheel. Using another thought circuit, they recorded the route and terrain depicted by the Spirit Thread Nerves and maneuvered the vehicle to prevent rollovers.
"Lesson Five!"
Involuntarily shouting words no one could understand, Hii Kōri almost floored the accelerator.
The engine roared, the wide tires churned up the yellow sand, and the steel beast surged through the sea of sand like a lone rider.
Speed itself brought intense stimulation. After brief panic, the four children adapted to this mode of travel. What they found even more novel was clearly sensing the wonderful aura emanating from their teacher—completely different from the leisurely exploration of before, a blend of concentration and excitement.
Even Sasori, already accustomed to Hii Kōri's excitement when passionate about a certain field, was soaked by this atmosphere, becoming somewhat more elevated.
After racing along the Dragon Vein's guidance in this atmosphere for over a week, Hii Kōri could clearly feel the Dragon Vein's fluctuations becoming more distinct—even if only from 0.01 to 0.03, any subtle boost, against a sufficiently tiny baseline, appeared very noticeable.
And on this day, while concentrating on sensing the Dragon Vein's fluctuations, Hii Kōri suddenly noticed a strange sense of dissonance.
He subconsciously slowed the vehicle and looked to the side.
What came into view was that expanse of golden sand dunes, heat shimmering under the scorching sun, seemingly unchanging since ancient times—no different from what he'd seen over the past days.
Yet Hii Kōri distinctly felt that the gradually rising Dragon Vein fluctuations had "interrupted" in that direction. And without realizing it, he himself had deviated far in another direction.
"Ah... a barrier? Quite an interest..."
Keeping out was a fairly common requirement in various occult schools that needed to maintain "secrecy" within a certain scope.
Before action, jujutsu sorcerers would lower a barrier called "Curtain"—invisible to ordinary people—to ensure non-sorcerers' mentality and draw out all curses in advance.
Effects that drive away idlers—like making people feel an inexplicable reluctance to approach, making them subconsciously ignore this area—were also commonly applied in Curtains and other types of barriers.
At this moment, on the dunes at the edge of Hii Kōri's sight, signals like "this road is blocked," "detour," "turn back" were continuously emanating.
Not forced mind control, but more imperceptible suggestion—causing life approaching this place to retreat before even generating the thought of exploring deeper, taking a detour of its own accord.
The advantage of this kind of suggestion acting on the subconscious was natural that it was almost impossible to detect. But once the dissonance was noticed, such means became useless.
Seeing Hii Kōri suddenly stop the vehicle, the four children also became alert. Hii Kōri clapped his hands, gathering their attention, comforting them before gathering them together with the off-road vehicle into his shadow.
Then he pulled out a cloak and draped it over himself, and buckled on that pitch-black Perception Obstruction Mask.
After making these preparations, he walked slowly toward the starting point of that sense of dissonance.
Hii Kōri stepped onto those dunes, bent down, and grabbed a handful of gravel from beneath his feet, grinding them in his palm.
Feeling the tangible rough texture, Hii Kōri could conclude that he was absolutely not immersed in genjutsu.
The Perception Obstruction Mask's effect was built on dual disruption of chakra and information, so it naturally possessed the function of genjutsu. And moreover...
Technique: Palm Hatching.
A flash of light passed, and the gravel in Hii Kōri's palm transformed into a faint thread of Dragon Vein power, scattering.
"Not purely genjutsu, but a more purely 'covering' of another layer of reality... No wonder Rōran only has scattered casual sightings, like a mirage."
Although when he first felt that mental suggestion, he thought some expert had set up a barrier over the entire Rōlan. But the "barrier" he now faced had not a trace of the lingering craftsmanship of "technique"—that intense purposefulness.
From logic to principle, this "barrier" had no connection to any barrier theory he knew.
Hii Kōri could instead confirm that this barrier, more than a "technique," resembled some kind of "natural phenomenon" formed after the power penetration from the Dragon Vein was roughly guided.
Principle? Method? Such things didn't matter at all. The Dragon Vein, as star blood, simply "wanted to do this," so it could achieve this effect.
In Shinto, children possessed by gods were called "Kamiko"—divine children.
Precisely because they lived pure lives, untainted by the world's defilement and complexity, pure and innocent children could, as vessels for the gods, obtain power beyond imagination.
Because they were pure, they were powerful.
No need for any redundant thinking, no need for adults' boring "logic"—just wanting was enough to achieve.
The star soul was no different from Kamiko.
Hii Kōri withdrew from this "barrier," standing at the boundary of the dunes, stroking his chin with interest, thinking about how to break the barrier.
Since he could realize to this barrier's existence, with his technique he might be able to directly break an opening in it.
But this plan was filled with uncertainty—whether he could actually breach the barrier, whether it would collapse entirely or just open a passage, whether it would alarm the people inside... these were all unknowns.
He enjoyed uncertain subjects, not adding some randomness to the outcome of his own actions.
Moreover...
"Natural phenomena" should be dealt with using "natural phenomena."
Flicking his index finger against his chin for the third time, Hii Kōri revealed a pleased smile.
Wind Release chakra and Water Release chakra slowly flowed through his spread hands, swirling and blending in his palms, gradually transforming into another wonderful chakra.
Absorption, conversion, flow, circulation had always been the foundation of Hii Kōri's abilities. And harmony and transformation included this.
Ever since learning Magnet Release from Shukaku and Scorch Release from Pakura, Hii Kōri had been blending chakra natures as a pastime.
To this day, he still hadn't found the Ice Release chakra ratio of the Yuki clan. But following the direction he was more skilled in, he had found the eyebrow of another nature transformation technique more suited to himself.
So-called weather phenomena refer to various natural phenomena occurring in the atmosphere—the comprehensive manifestation of various meteorological elements within a certain space at a given instant. And meteorological elements are mostly related to atmospheric flow changes, as well as suspended microscopic particles and water vapor in the atmosphere.
What Hii Kōri had pioneered was exactly this—emphasizing the flow, circulation, and change of wind and water to the extreme, capable of simulating meteorological elements as a kekkei genkai, named after the most intriguing celestial phenomenon, the rainbow—"Rainbow Release."
Not bad. It had a romantic beauty while carrying a hint of the cunning unique to ninjas.
The name "Rainbow Release"—at first hearing, one might think it was some technique to manipulate light. To people of this era, principles like water droplets in the air decomposing white light forming rainbows were completely incomprehensible.
"Slowly... slowly..."
If he wanted to conjure storms or bring down heavy rain, his manipulation could naturally be more uninhibited. But to blend into this heaven-made barrier, he needed nuanced handling.
After simulating Rainbow Release chakra to a frequency close to natural energy, Hii Kōri then applied his technique to the layer of Rainbow Release chakra on his palms.
Although under normal circumstances, applying Palm Hatching to chakra would only yield source-less life force and spiritual energy, now that he had confirmed the existence of natural energy, Hii Kōri had more operational space.
The Dragon Vein was an accumulation of natural energy, the same star blood. And humans were life born on this planet. Although the cultivation method for chakra came from invaders from beyond the heavens, its origin still lay in vitality and spiritual energy extracted from the human body.
Then, reasoning forward, as part of the natural cycle, human power could be considered homologous with natural energy.
Though it sounded like sophistry, this kind of 114514-style swampland numerical argument was also part of occult. Techniques, ninjutsu—no difference.
Theoretical verification like higher mathematics was necessary; imaginative whimsy like artistic creation was also necessary. Only thus could it be called sound.
"Could this move also be considered Sage Art? Continuing like this, I might develop my own Sage Mode..."
Habitually divergent thinking, Hii Kōri reached out and gently touched the "barrier."
The tactile sensation from his palm was very subtle.
No expected resistance, but not particularly smooth either. The feeling was like slowly pushing one's hand into a box filled with space sand.
The pseudo-natural energy on his hands ripples slightly, spreading to his entire body. Then, his figure—like a drop of water merging into a lake, a gentle breeze brushing through gauze—naturally, without stirring a single ripple, stepped into the barrier.
Moments later, that Yin-Yang face slowly emerged from the sand dune.
Probably extremely ill-adapted to the desert environment as a "plant creature," the usually vibrant half of White Zetsu's face was now rolling its eyes, a withered appearance, seemingly about to shrivel into a dried potato that had been sitting in a cabinet for months.
Water! Where's the water!
That withered face was covered with such an expression.
And Black Zetsu knew perfectly well that White Zetsu—a creation his mother had made as an army to fight other Ōtsutsuki—couldn't possibly be this fragile. It was normal for White Zetsu to be unfit after wandering the desert for over a month, but absolutely impossible for him to be dehydrated to this extent.
This appearance was just pure showmanship.
Ignore him!
Besides, Black Zetsu truly had no thoughts to focus on his "other half" right now.
He had already gained a clear cognition of Hii Kōri's perceptual abilities back in the Country of Rain. After that sparring with Hanzō, he dared even less to underestimate his Yin Release.
Still frightened from this, Black Zetsu had only dared to hang far behind Hii Kōri over these past months, relying on Spore Technique and his own sentience to track him.
And just now, Hii Kōri's existence had suddenly vanished from Black Zetsu's perception.
"...Where did he go?"
Blankly scanning the empty sea of yellow sand, with only two tire tracks remaining, Black Zetsu's monotonous, expressionless face emerges as a tinge of "genuine simpleton" for the first time in ages.
***
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