Walking slowly out of the Temple of Fire's mountain gate—which should have been ancient and solemn but which Hii Kōri, in his current state of mind, found rather difficult to take seriously—Araya Shūren turned and gave a final, formal bow.
Regardless of his original intentions for this exchange, he had benefited greatly from this visit.
Whether in terms of spiritual and mental liberation, or the quite substantial bundle now in his hands, filled with copies of various scriptures, he had gained much. Somewhat to his surprise, he had also easily obtained a basic training manual for the Gift of the Sage Clan.
But upon reflection, it made sense. The core principle of this technique system was "tempering the spirit." For those without the inclination, possessing the manual was useless.
Ninety-nine percent of people would be filtered out by the learning conditions alone. Such a thing hardly needed to be kept secret.
The setting sun dyed the sky a warm orange-red, as if softening the winter chill. Carrying his bundle, Hii Kōri returned to the inn with noticeably lighter steps.
Pushing open the door, Pakura and Karura—who had finished their sightseeing and were resting in the room—both turned their heads. When their eyes fell on him, both women paused briefly.
Hii Kōri still wore the somber monk's disguise of Araya Shūren, yet the atmosphere surrounding him seemed subtly different from when they had parted.
The deliberate gloominess had faded, replaced by an indescribable lightness and liberation.
"Hmm... you seem a bit different?"
Pakura, who had been reading a novel at the table, tilted her head, her bright eyes filled with curiosity.
With Bunpuku—an old monk himself—as a constant presence in their household, Pakura could somewhat understand how one's mindset and demeanor might change after conversing with a revered master. But for Hii Kōri, the effect seemed remarkably pronounced.
Karura gently added, "You look much more relaxed. Did something good happen at the temple?"
Hii Kōri casually placed his hat and bundle on a nearby cabinet, and even his disguised, somber face seemed to soften. In response to his lovers' questions, he merely shook his head without directly answering.
"Hmm... good? I suppose you could say so."
Reverting to his original, calm, clear voice, Hii Kōri walked to the window and pushed it open. Cold, fresh air rushed into the room.
Outside, the small town was bathed in the golden-red light of the setting sun. Distant mountains were capped with snow; closer by, rooftops wore a layer of white that reflected the evening glow. Everything was peaceful.
His gaze drifted over the snowscape, which seemed to soften his mood. He exhaled a puff of white mist, then leaned down and scooped up a handful of snow from the windowsill.
Pakura and Karura drew closer, curious about what he intended to do.
"Ucchuṣma… Hundred Transformations Sealed Method."
Hii Kōri clasped his hands together, murmuring the name of the technique. A thread of cursed energy quickly gathered in his palms.
The jujutsu from his previous life—which had remained difficult to manifest due to his shifted mindset and differing constitution—now reveals itself fully, embodying the essence of Hii Kōri's nearly boundless ambition.
At this moment, his talent blossomed.
He slowly opened his hands. The compressed snowball that should have been in his palms was nowhere to be seen.
In its place, several butterflies rose gracefully.
They fluttered lightly from Hii Kōri's palms, their crystalline wings refracting warm halos in the sunset's glow. With each wingbeat, they scattered fine, diamond-dust-like ice crystals.
The ice butterflies circled before Pakura and Karura, whose faces showed astonishment. Then they traced graceful arcs through the air, fluttered out the open window, and flew into the sunset-reddened sky. Their figures grew smaller and smaller until they melted into the twilight and distant mountains, disappearing from view.
Time passed in the blink of an eye amid the silence.
"Is... is this Ice Release?"
Pakura was the first to regain her composure. As a Scorch Release user, she was more sensitive than ordinary ninja to the chakra of other elemental kekkei genkai, but she detected no familiar fluctuation.
That could be explained by Hii Kōri's Kagura Mind's Eye, but…
"No… even Ice Release creations couldn't move this fluidly. They're just like real butterflies…"
Karura more directly grabbed his hand, examining his palm with great interest. "How did you do that? Could it be that you've actually created life?"
"Creation of life? Not quite that."
Seeing their surprise, Hii Kōri's disguised face broke into a simple smile. He gently patted Karura's head and began explaining with relaxed satisfaction:
"If I had to put a name to it, this is my own unique kekkei genkai."
Calling it a kekkei genkai was a convenient explanation. In truth, the concept of "Innate Technique" was quite similar to the physical-variation kekkei genkai that required hereditary inheritance.
It was easy to understand, and at the same time, it conveniently preempted any requests to "teach it to me."
"Anything these hands touch, I can strip away its original 'properties.' Fire no longer burns. Ice no longer chills. Toughness, hardness, length, color—any imaginable 'property' can be erased."
"Then, after removing its properties, a blank space remains, allowing me to add new ones. Just now, I added the concept of 'butterfly' to the snow."
"But fundamentally, those butterflies are still just ordinary snow and ice. They'll evaporate, melt, and soon disappear back into ordinary water vapor."
Within the jujutsu system of Shugendō, there were six ultimate techniques named after the Six Supernatural Powers derived from Buddhist foundations.
Jinsoku Tsū—Divine Foot Power: instantly enhances all bodily functions, allowing one to surpass any limit.
Tenni Tsū—Divine Ear Power: hearing the sounds and rhythms of all things.
Tengen Tsū—Divine Eye Power: gaining distant vision, even seeing through the cycle of life and death.
Tashin Tsū—Mind-Reading Power: essentially telepathy.
Shukumei Tsū—Knowledge of Past Lives: knowing one's own previous incarnations.
Rojin Tsū—Extinction of All Defilements: knowing the destinations of oneself and others.
That said, among the Yamabushi Hii Kōri knew, none had reached these realms. The closest was the elusive "Great Tengu."
But even that Great Tengu, by his own account, had not fully mastered the Divine Foot Power—he could not yet appear anywhere at will.
For these powers that even generations of Yamabushi struggled to grasp, Hii Kōri had not forced the issue in the past.
But after coming to this world and conversing with two esteemed monks, he had gained some unexpected insights.
As a reincarnated person, he naturally knew his "past life." Wasn't that essentially the Knowledge of Past Lives?
Everyone could foresee their own inevitable death—the unchangeable, unstoppable end. Recognizing that one must die was a unique form of future vision unique to humanity.
Could that be considered a rudimentary form of Extinction of All Defilements?
The body techniques that allowed freedom of movement could be considered the foundation of Divine Foot Power. And the ability to read memories from nature, gained through his contract with the Dragon Veins—how was that not a form of Divine Ear Power?
Things he had never actively pursued had now naturally fallen into his hands. Such serendipity was truly marvelous.
Of course, Hii Kōri knew there was much forced interpretation in these comparisons.
But so what?
There were many things in this world that followed their own logic. Sometimes, one didn't need to understand everything perfectly—as long as it worked and one could accept it, that was enough.
The lightness of his spirit had allowed Hii Kōri to let go of some things he had previously clung to.
That was why he had chosen this moment to show his technique to his lovers.
And, of course, to discuss how to handle Tsunade.
"A kekkei genkai..." Pakura murmured, unsurprised.
Karura, however, smiled gently. "Oh, that's wonderful. Since it's your kekkei genkai, Hii Kōri, our children might inherit it someday."
Words spoken without thought, but heard with meaning.
When the word "children" left Karura's lips, the smile on Hii Kōri's face froze almost imperceptibly for an instant, and his breath hitched for the briefest moment.
Fortunately, he was still wearing Araya Shūren's weathered, middle-aged face—one that naturally appeared stiff and numb—so this tiny lapse went unnoticed by his lovers.
Or so he hoped.
Hii Kōri casually rubbed his face, beginning to remove his disguise while deftly changing the subject: "Speaking of which, do you two want to stay here a bit longer? Or should we head to the Land of Hot Water tomorrow for the hot springs?"
As expected, Karura's attention shifted. She nodded happily. "Oh… tomorrow? Maybe we should wait one more day? I think there's another sight around here we could see. Right, Pakura-chan?"
But Pakura, standing nearby, narrowed her eyes almost imperceptibly.
Unlike Karura, who seemed like a "yes-bot" where Hii Kōri was concerned, Pakura—as a combat-oriented ninja active on the battlefield—had keener instincts.
She had no proof, but she had definitely sensed a moment of subtle "hesitation" from Hii Kōri earlier.
She said nothing, however, tucking her suspicion quietly away.
"Pakura-chan?"
"… Huh? Oh, yes."
Only when called again did she snap back to attention, allowing Karura to wrap her arms around her waist with a teasing grin.
That night, the moon was bright, the stars were sparse.
The room's heater radiated a drowsy warmth. Karura had already succumbed to Hii Kōri's "annihilation-level defeat" in their earlier battle and
drifted into a sweet sleep.
On the other side of the bed, Pakura nestled against Hii Kōri's shoulder—his disguise fully removed, his true face revealed. Her long hair, a blend of dark green and birch brown, spread across the pillow.
"Kōri."
In the silence lit only by moonlight, she spoke softly.
"Hmm?" Hii Kōri responded, his fingers idly twirling a strand of her hair near her temple.
"This afternoon… when children came up, you seemed to hesitate… Is it that you don't want children?"
"… Normally you're a bit slow, but your intuition turns out to be sharper."
Hii Kōri sighed helplessly, then pulled her closer. He rested his chin atop her head and told her—as simply as possible—about meeting his "future son" in the Dragon Veins, and about Tsunade possibly carrying his child.
Pakura listened quietly, her expression unchanged throughout. Even after Hii Kōri finished explaining, she didn't respond immediately.
The only sound in the room was Karura's steady breathing.
After a while, Pakura sat up, straddling him and propping herself up to meet his eyes.
In the dim moonlight, the skin of her shoulders seemed almost translucent. And those eyes—the ones Hii Kōri found so captivating—glowed like flowing magma.
"So…" Her voice was soft, as if afraid to wake the exhausted Karura. "What do you plan to do about Tsunade?"
"Hmm… leave her be, or deal with her after she gives birth… That wouldn't work, would it?"
Hii Kōri wrapped an arm around her slender waist and spoke with a hint of self-deprecation: "If I did that, you'd end up hating me, wouldn't you?"
"At this point, I can't just abandon it. Now that I know what kind of future that would lead to… even just for the child's sake, I can't ignore her…"
His voice paused briefly before continuing: "After we come back from the Land of Hot Water, after we capture the Konoha ninja, you and Karura can take the 'materials' and the scriptures back to the village. I… need to deal with Tsunade alone."
The Red Hot Sand Guild had visibly slowed its expansion in recent months. It seemed Akane had finished her coordination with Ahaha-kun and was now handling the accumulated workload.
But even so, the already-established intelligence network could still function. For someone as famous as Tsunade, tracking her whereabouts wouldn't be too difficult.
Pakura listened, then simply nodded. She said nothing more, lowering her face to bury it in the warm hollow of Hii Kōri's neck, inhaling deeply—as if confirming his existence.
"Upset?"
Hii Kōri asked softly, feeling her slightly rapid breath against his skin.
"A little."
Pakura's muffled voice came from his embrace.
Then Hii Kōri felt a light but sharp pain at the side of his neck.
She had bitten him—not hard, but enough to leave a shallow mark.
Hii Kōri smiled wryly, stroking her back. "And now?"
Pakura didn't answer. She lifted her head, lips pressed together. Even in the dim room, Hii Kōri could feel the heat of her gaze.
Then the Scorch Release kunoichi—as fiery outside as within—wrapped herself around him with something almost like a child's petulance, as if trying to leave her own mark on him with her body, her scent.
After all these years, she and Karura had been the ones sharing Hii Kōri's bed. And yet, the first to bear his child turned out to be Tsunade—with whom he had only been together twice during her captivity.
It was only natural that this reality would stir feelings of frustration.
And so, the jealousy she couldn't bring herself to voice could only be channeled into a tighter embrace. Into a single, breathless, fervent request:
"Hold me."
As for what happened the next morning—when Karura, having learned the whole story from Pakura, ignored her own lingering fatigue, puffed up her cheeks, and let out a loud "Wah!" before unleashing a "Fierce Train Fist" combo on Hii Kōri—that was another matter entirely.
***
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