—— Kirito Kyudo's POV ——
Infiltrating a country was easy and difficult.
A bit of both for a shinobi.
Moving between cities and towns? Easy. Slip through the side roads, follow merchant trails, avoid bandits when you can—or clean them out when you can't. Just like I did when the Kyudo clan was wiped out and I moved the surviving kids under the cover of moonlight. With a bit of stealth and preparation, it was doable.
But slipping into towns or cities? That was the real headache.
Why?
One word: sensors.
That's right, Shinobi like me.
In villages and rural spots, it wasn't much of a concern. But in tight-knit communities, where monks, mercenaries, samurai, and shinobi lived together? Everyone passively kept tabs on each other's chakra signatures. Even an unusual pulse of chakra could raise a red flag.
The solution for this was crude but effective—drain yourself until your chakra reserves dipped just low enough to perform one henge. Post-henge, your reserves pass off for a civilian. Once inside, blend in.
Which is exactly what I did.
Henge on.
Poof
In a second, I stood dressed in a cotton robes tied around with a rope sash. With a cloak on me, I walked out of the dark corners of the abandoned street and entered the market area.
Now, the full burst of paranoia and weakness I felt, made me understood the majority of shinobi. Why no one wanted to be a infiltrator. The low chakra reserves itself made twitchy enough to throw the hidden exploding tag in my sleeves, just from the random shouts of the street dogs.
So, I did my usual therapy to calm myself and also blend in.
Flute out.
As my mouth started on the music, I thought back to my entire attire and gave myself a mental pat on the back.
I looked like a traveling musician scraping by on cracked notes and local food. I played the flute while moving through the crowd. It wasn't pretty. In fact, I got more curses than coins for the noise I made. But it served the purpose. The more I played, the better I got.
Unfortunately, music was not easy. It was an art. I would be no master musician but I could aim to be a competent novice.
[AI Analysis – Learning Curve Optimization]
Adjust breath control: 0.2-second delay between note transitions.
Shift rhythm to 3:4 for market crowd resonance.
Reduce hand tension by 4.8% for smoother flow.
It took most of my second life to follow through with the Ai's suggestion. Even now, I couldn't follow them accurately. For example, the breath control suggestion.
I think it was inhuman to control the breathing in 0.2 seconds. But, as far as I know top shinobi like the future itachi, could make multiple hand seals in a single second.
"Hey! I think he is getting good."
"Like he can get any worse. When you are the bottom, the only way is the way up."
The passing by comments made me think about my current progress.
Having two minds working at once—mine and the AI's—meant I learned fast. Once more, my mind went to the new hypothesis about the AI. Each day, I leaned towards it more.
Thankfully, The AI didn't have sentience. It was a tool, reacting to my prompts and feeding back data. But... sometimes I wondered.
Was it be shaped like this because of me? After all, I realized it's existence rather early in my life and started abusing it like a machine. I though that it was cheat.
I wondered if I didn't find it's existence, what if it grew on it's own? The same way a mind grew from the various experiences to sentience. It was an unsettling thought. Like Kurama clan's Ido personality, born of their kekkei genkai—a sentient second mind that thrived in illusion but also hungered for the main body.
Thankfully, it didn't.
I don't think my sanity would hold if such was the case.
Shaking off the thought, I focused back on the job.
The moment was broken by a flutter of movement from my pouch. Feeling the invisible chameleon summon's, I opened the pouch for the reply I was expecting.
A small scroll had unfurled after I unlocked the seal with the known sequence. Ironic that the lock seal was more advanced and difficult to make than a storage scroll. Yep, it was and it still surprised me.
[Letter from Momosuke Kyudo
Mission success. The Kurama clan accepted the proposal. solution you included impressed their elders. We secured support but they seemed to want to contact you regarding the contents of the offer you gave them.
Also, Everyone's safe. — M.K.]
I allowed myself a small nod. Of course they succeeded. With the right bait, even prideful clans like the Kurama would bite. My need for this clan was more out of personal benefit than for the hidden village. You see, it was a foregone conclusion that the hidden village I built would be focused on researching ways to strengthen my body for the Jinchuriki sealing. Considering my latest revelations or rather acceptance of old revelations regarding my AI, I needed to do research on that topic too.
Step-4 : Research the AI, to find the damned answer regarding it's existence.
One more step was added to my so called 'lifelong plan'. This one was to keep myself sane.
I was just about to pack up from the roadside spot I was staying, when the guards swarmed in around me.
CLANG CLANG CLANG
Thankfully, for my paranoid mind, they didn't do it with steel, but with ceremony. The armoured guards stood in two lines, separating the crowd, so that their master could pass through.
At the center was a short, fat noble with a dough-ball of a topknot and the nose of a man who hadn't heard a "no" in his life. His silk robes puffed as he approached, eyes immediately locking onto my flute.
Not that flute down there, but the flute I was playing right now. Though, rather crudely.
"You! Peasant musician! That's a fine instrument you're holding. Too fine for a musician."
As much as I wanted to give him the middle finger, I couldn't. I need to hold my disguise or I risk the rumours spreading of unknown shinobi walking around in Henge.
I bowed, knees to stone. "Forgive me, m-my l-lord. I am but a humble traveller."
He barely acknowledged my greeting and shoved his index finger at my nose and roared out with spit flying, "Traveller, you say? Since when traveller started carrying a music flute crafted from Red sandalwood from the distant land of demons. Speak, who are you?"
I immediately started crying and forced my nose to produce snot with a hint of chakra. Thankfully that task was minute, and my skill was overwhelming to hide this from the samurai guards beside him. He couldn't know. I was right in going though such minute preparations.
It was well known advice, rather first warning to any wannabe infiltrator- Anyone could be a sensor.
Knocking away the voice of the old clan leader, I focused on my act.
"My L-lord, I really am a vagabond. After my village, a few kms from here, got razed, I started travelling. This f-flute was an ancestral heirloom."
The lord immediately asked his samurai guard, "Tell me, my samurai. Do you think this fool might be lying? I think he is a spy from foreign country. Perhaps, from the detested land of hot springs who dared to throw fault at our Daimyo. He is a spy, isn't he?"
I would have laughed if it wasn't for my disguise. I mean he got the right answer from wrong process. It din't take long for the opposite to happen.
Especially when the samurai overlooked the lord's pointed looks and bluntly said, "No, my lord. I think he is saying the truth. There are reports that there was big bandit group who razed down an entire village in the outskirts. Survivors are flooding everywhere."
His knowledge was impressive and all, but the noble didn't want that answer. He wanted the samurai to arrest me for lying or theft, so that my Flute could be procured for 'safe storage'.
Unfortunately, the fatso got the hint that the samurai won't cooperate. He chuckled and nodded like a sage, "I see. I am sorry peasant. It seems I was mistaken. Such a exquisite flute in the hands of such dirty hands and incompetent mouth, was really suspicious. Isn't it peasant?"
"Y-Yes my lord."
"I shall relieve you of this burden," he said with mock generosity, flipping a single copper coin at me—barely worth ten ryo, maybe less in some cities. The same kind of coin being phased out by the Ryo papers from the Shogunate of land of iron.
I handed over the flute with the right mix of fear and gratitude. "T-thank you, noble sir. It is an honor."
The noble strutted away, his guards parting the crowd. As expected, people gathered to gossip. Loudly.
—"He's stealing things again. Bastard couldn't lift a sword if his life depended on it."
—"Still hasn't sent even ten men for training. Whole village knows. How would the frontlines hold with men like this on them."
—"Goes to the frontlines? Please. He won't even go near the supply depot."
My ears picked up every word. The AI silently archived it all.
[AI Log – Public Opinion Subroutine: Entry #213
Location: Western River Town (Land of Rice)
Topics: Noble cowardice, hoarded supplies, lack of war contributions
Status: Confirmed dissatisfaction in regional leadership
Recommended action: Sabotage potential; consider noble as leverage point.]
I slipped away from the crowd slowly, unnoticeably, and ducked behind a stall and another. In a few minutes I was in a secluded broken house in the slums.
One seal later, a poof of smoke. Shirino clung to the ceiling like a shadow, tongue flicking.
"Another one planted," I whispered.
"Good," Shirino said, blinking sideways. "He stinks, though. Do Shimino really have to accompany him for days?"
"He'll live."
He grumbled something about 'chameleon abuse.'
The flute the noble took was no ordinary instrument. It was a transformed chameleon—his cousin, specifically. Same plan as the merchant's ink brush two towns back. And the ring I gave to that shrill widow running a sake chain. My infiltration wasn't solo. The chameleon clan's specialty wasn't power like most summoning clans—it was infiltration.
They could perfectly hide their chakra when transformed into inanimate objects. And in that form, their chakra drain slowed to a crawl. A transformed chameleon could sit unnoticed in a noble's house for a month, silently recording everything.
I really envy Koga's luck in managing to secure a contract with this clan.
"Next one's prepped," Shirino said, his voice muffled through his half-masked face. "It's the scroll case this time. For the daimyo's cousin's steward."
I nodded. "Prepare it. We'll rotate them once a month."
He vanished in another poof.
With each town, each noble, each merchant—I laid the groundwork. A spy network built of living objects, chameleons hidden in plain sight.
And on top of that, I had the streets. The voices of common folk. The market whispers.
My AI chewed through it all.
Analysis. Pattern prediction. Strategic threat detection.
It wasn't built for emotion. It wasn't sentient. But trained as it was—shaped by me over years—it became what I needed most. I just didn't think, it was a --*Smack*.
A self-slap knocked that kind of sad thinking out of my mind. Now, Now, this was not the time to think about the possible origins of AI now. This new mindset was binging a problem and almost pushing me towards depression.
I was making progress in all of my goals in Step-2, from 2.1 to 2.3. While 2.4 was researching tailed beast seal on to me.
But, I felt it was time start closing them one by one. The most important of them being the first
one-2.1
-Step 2.1: Recruit loyal shinobi into the Kyudo clan.
-Step 2.2: Form alliances with multiple clans, serving as a base for Hidden Village recruitment.
-Step 2.3: Muster the rights, wealth, and influence needed to establish the Hidden Village.
-Step 2.4: Acquire the resources required to research a way to strengthen normal humans to be capable of hosting a Tailed Beast.
If it succeeds, at least Kyudo clan could stand on it's own feet even if I failed in establishing a hidden village. For 2.1 to succeed, the village at the foot of the mountains was the most important.
The same village which looked like the medieval example of an Japanese village. Even from a distance I noticed the rice fields being tended by men and women alike. Dressed in cotton robes with abundant patches.
Even the village was made of huts made up of stones and wood gathered together.
For the sake of recruiting this village, I entered in a completely honest and upright manner.
No henge, no hiding of my chakra reserves. In fact, I felt that showing even a hint of hostility was not good and removed all of my weapons and seals.
The speciality of this village revealed itself rather easily when people started gathering around me as soon I entered it. Unlike most of the places I travelled in my lifetime, this was the first time some rural villagers instantly recognised me as a shinobi. Their wary looks, whispers and complete social distancing told me as much.
Their talks and daily life stopped, instead of lively commotion, they showed complete silence as they stared at me.
There was not even a hint of doubt about what they thought of me. There was anxiety, doubts and a few of them even showed confusion as if they were puzzled by me.
It was as I was watching a drama in a theatre, considering how much they showed their expressions and emotions on their faces. The gritted teeth, the flickering eyebrows and wrinkled nose.
Soon, an old man with complete white hair stepped forward, contrasting with the orange hair of the villagers. He was dressed in a long robe that was completely oversized. He was about 5 '7' and his robes dragged behind him as he made his way towards me.
Behind him came a woman, in her late twenties or early thirties. It was the reactions that villagers gave her, intrigued me. They were of complete fear and terror despite her looking at them gently. Hell, The villagers rather preferred standing behind me, than stand near me.
Wow!
I didn't think it was because of her character. I mean, she was no pyscho considering how gently she was smiling. In fact, birds chirped as they flew around with a playful chirp. She genuinely seemed to love the birds and looked sad while feeling the hostile gazes.
Like I said, the people in this village seemed to directly show their thoughts and feelings on their faces like theatre artists.
Ironically, she was also dressed in oversized single piece robe, but it didn't manage to hide her D-cups, thin waist and large butt.
You might think I was unbelievable for staring at a beautiful woman, but it was rare.
In this era, sunked eyes, sunken cheeks and bony bodies were common. Even the rare Kunoichi who were capable of maintaining their natural beauty, showed half-dead expression due to the horrors they seen.
Hence, a beauty like her was a rarity. Especially one who had a pleasant personality.
I think I found my target- the holder of the Kekkai Genkai.
That's right, I was half sure this woman holds the Kekkai Genkai that dragged me from all around the world.
And these villagers hold the same blood as her.
Thankfully, it made thinks much easier for me.
As if sensing my greed, the women defensively took a step back behind the old man. Oh! She definitely possess the Kekkai Genkai.
The old man as if knowing something shouted at me, "Shinobi, why are you here?"
I greeted the question with a smile and said, "Nice to meet you, elder. I am Kyudo Kirito, the acting head of Kyudo clan."
The elder remarked with complete irritation as if I would go berserk, "I don't need to know who you are shinobi. I am asking you- why are you here? If you came with evil intentions, you would regret it."
Rather than me going berserk, it looked like the old man was the on the verge of going berserk. But, it was quite something for the old man to dare say something like that. After all, I might be a weakling in the grand scheme of things, but I was a strong when compared to average shinobi.
As if sensing my intentions, the women beside him said in a pacifying way, "We meant no disrespect shinobi. It's just the elder said with good intentions, out of concern for your safety."
At the last point she grimaced while her eyes blackened briefly before becoming normal.
Hmm! It seems I hit the jackpot.
I answered the elder's question, "I came with good intentions too. And I believe we can help each other. No, it better be said I need your help and your power. Please consider my offer."
Not willing to risk the proceeding by lying, I said the truth, "I am fully genuine with my offer. If you reject it-"
Everyone tensed up while I exhaled loudly, "-I would be back with different offer. Hopefully, it would be much better than the rejected offer. If it's get rejected again, I would be back with one more. Unfortunately, I can't take no for an answer. But, I swear that I hold no intentions of forcing you guys."
The elder immediately looked towards the women who nodded, but she looked at me with complete shock. As if sensing my desperation and genuine honesty.
It was true because this village had far too much for me to risk losing through petty squabbles or tyranny. I need their 100% effort.
The village was in a secluded spot, suitable for the initial few years of Hidden village establishment. Keeping the existence of the Hidden village a secret while I built the forces and infrastructure to the point we could force the Daimyo to accept its existence.
Hopefully, the Daimyo would be Koza by then.
And most importantly, I plan to pull the entire village into Kyudo clan.
Insane, madness and a hint of dreaming, made me think about this idea. Pull them all, the native villagers directly into the Kyudo clan. For achieving that I was ready to sacrifice myself. I was ready to even give up my virginity and get married.
I might as well truthful, after looking at the women with the Kekkai Genkai, my own resistance with this part of the plan reduced considerably.
You might be thinking I was joking but even if the Kekkai Genkai holder was ugly, I would have married her. If she was too young, I would have tied her to Momosuke. No matter what, I needed that kekkai genkai.
The worst possibility was for me was the kekkai genkai holder to be an old crone or man. It was impossible to bring them into the clan directly. Thankfully, my long term plans made for such scenario were no longer needed now because the woman was near my age. Her beauty was a added bonus.
It was a difficult ridiculous decision for me who had the memories of modern world where marriage for love was common. But, my time in this world shown the sheer number of benefits it yielded. The biggest benefit was forming trust that fostered from being each other's family. In this era where shinobi clans were the norm, which were essentially large extended family. The feeling of family was important to them.
Not friendship, not nationality and not even mutual gains-losses.
And the villagers of this village were worth the effort and even familial relations.
Why?
It's simple, they were the cursed village which turn in to rage filled monster in one second and turn into the most peace-loving pacifists in the next second.
The villagers all share the same blood and hence possessed the capacity to naturally attract natural energy into themselves
.
That's right, this village which looked like any normal village, would soon give birth to a single canon character but the amount of importance he held to the story was incredible.
Jugo.
A natural born user of natural energy, similar to summoning clans. Unlike them, his ability was tailored for humans.
Orochimaru made ridiculous amounts of cursed seals from his research on Jugo alone. To the extent that I even think that this village and the mountains was the reason that Orochimaru choose the land of rice for the establishment of sound village.
The only downside of this plan was the possible resistance from the original Kyudo clan.
Of course, all of that would come after I tackled the difficulty in convincing the village filled with potential for sage transformation.
Unfotunately, the woman who I looked forward to marry, both out of greed and logic, seemed to sense my emotions.
Her eyes turned complely black while her pupils turned yellowish, her voice grew more animalistic while the people around her started running away, "You are not a good man."
It was at this point I released that my hardened restraint from pure logic had failed to keep the thoughts of lust away from my mind. Well, the same logic told me that she needed to bind this village to me. So, the little loss of control in my mind was explainable.
Unfortuantely, this woman can sense that brief instant.
Two horns grew from her head and her fair skin turned reddish black. But, it was the claws that grew out of her hand that drew my attention.
Why?
Simply because the clawed hand was inches away from tearing my head off.
"Fuck!"
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Author's note: Sorry everyone ! I though this chapter was also on the chapter schedule release. I only saw this now. It was stupid of me. Especially when you consider the fact that this chapter was written when the chapter 1 was released.
Sorry about that.
All right!
Everyone. This ends the volume one.
I will back with the entire volume 2 after I completed it. You can expect the war, some revenge for Kyudo Clan and the hidden village establishment in the next volume. So, Be ready for the mass chapter shedule for volume two.
{ P.s : I am almost done with the rough draft of the next 10 chapters.}