The weasels' appearance was similar to mustelids from old folktales, though smaller and more refined. Some had black-and-white fur, while others were yellow and white. Most stood upright on two legs and wore short shirts or mandarin jackets, looking oddly human.
Among them were a few larger weasels holding scythes taller than their own bodies, the cold blades gleaming sharply. Their glowing eyes were carefully examining the two intruders.
"Hu… mans?"
The weasel at the front spoke. Its voice was somewhat shrill and halting, as if it was not very familiar with human language yet.
"Who… are you? Why have you entered… the home of the Kamatari Clan?"
"Huh?"
Yuu raised an eyebrow.
So these little things can actually speak human language?
In the Naruto world, ninja beasts usually had fairly high intelligence because they possessed chakra. Many species could communicate and cooperate with humans in battle. But those that could directly speak human language were still a minority.
For example, the Inuzuka clan's ninja dogs and the Aburame clan's insects were already considered highly intelligent, yet they still could not directly converse with humans. The lizard Yuu had previously subdued, Little Green, was the same. Aside from Kakashi's ninja dog Pakkun, nearly all speaking ninja beasts were named, notable experts.
Yuu had originally thought the weasels might only possess some basic intelligence. He had not expected them to speak human language. This would make things much more convenient.
"We came looking for the Kamatari Clan," Yuu said. "We hope to sign a summoning contract with you."
"Contract?"
The weasel tilted its head in confusion.
"That's right. Like the one Sharan-senpai signed forty years ago. You should know that name," Pakura explained.
"…"
The weasels fell silent for a few seconds. Then they gathered together and began communicating rapidly in sharp, crisp squeaks and chirps, occasionally waving their claws and gesturing wildly, as if in intense discussion.
A moment later,
the weasel at the front, the one with a tuft of gray fur on its forehead, turned back. Its soybean-sized eyes lingered on Yuu and Pakura for a moment before it nodded.
"Humans, follow me. The matter of a contract… must be decided by the Great Elder."
With that, the weasels lightly jumped down from the rock and headed deeper into the tunnel.
Yuu and Pakura followed. Guided by the weasels, they moved through the maze. These little creatures were clearly extremely familiar with the terrain, and their movements were astonishingly fast. If Yuu had not kept close, they probably would have been shaken off halfway.
A few minutes later,
the two were brought to a relatively open stone cavern hall.
There, on a huge, relatively flat stone "bed," sat an enormous creature.
It was also a weasel, but much larger, with an estimated body length of over two meters. Its entire body was covered in thicker, silver-white long fur, as if it were draped in a luxurious pelt. With its size and restrained dignity, it was clearly the Great Elder of the Kamatari Clan.
"A Konoha ninja and a Sunagakure ninja… what a peculiar combination."
The giant weasel's gaze swept over Yuu and Pakura in turn, showing curiosity. Then it looked at Pakura for a moment longer.
"How is that little one called Sharan doing now? It seems I have not heard news of him for a very long time."
"…Sharan-senpai died in a conflict with Iwa ninja. That was five or six years ago," Pakura replied after a brief silence.
Hearing this,
the giant weasel froze in surprise. Then it let out a low sigh, its voice echoing faintly through the cavern.
"The wind and sand of time are always merciless, burying all things. Another contractor has returned to dust."
After a pause, the giant weasel lifted its head and once again looked at Yuu and Pakura.
"Then, you two humans who have come from afar wish to inherit the power of that contract and become new partners of our Kamatari Clan?"
"Not inherit. Sign a new one."
"…Understood."
The giant weasel nodded. "In that case, I ask that you two first undergo a trial. According to the rules set by the ancestors of our Kamatari Clan, only those who pass the trial and prove themselves are qualified to receive our clan's trust. This is the only path."
The so-called "trial" was not complicated in form. Simply put, one of Yuu and Pakura would fight three elite warriors selected by the Kamatari Clan—Tarōmaru, Jirōmaru, and Saburōmaru. As long as they won, they would prove themselves qualified for a contract.
The only slight issue was the battlefield.
According to the rules, Yuu and Pakura had to fight the weasels inside the raging sand formation. Although the weasels chose a place where the wind was relatively mild, it was still a little too intense for the two of them. Even standing outside the area, they could feel the sand and dust hitting their bodies with a faint sting.
The weasels, however, seemed to possess some kind of talent that let them turn their bodies elemental. They could merge themselves, and even the scythes they carried, into the wind and sand, remaining completely unaffected. They could also use the wind to make their movement even sharper.
"Who will go first?"
The Great Elder looked back and asked.
"…I'll do it."
Pakura said.
As she spoke, she had already raised her hands and removed her outer cloak, revealing the dark sleeveless combat outfit underneath. The tight fabric outlined her agile figure, and her wheat-colored back, bare enough to tattoo with the words "loyalty to the nation," was exposed. Her shoulder blades opened slightly, giving her a sharp, beautiful presence.
As expected of the "back view" ranked alongside the "leg kage," Kurotsuchi.
"Be careful," Yuu reminded her.
"Hmph."
Pakura gave a light snort, counting it as a reply. Then she took a few steps forward and walked into the violent wind. Her tied-up orange-red hair was blown wildly in all directions. Her eyes grew serious as she tightened her grip on her kunai.
The battle erupted instantly.
Individually, the three weasel brothers were not especially outstanding.
But when the three joined hands, combined with this natural wind formation, the nature of the fight became completely different.
From an observer's perspective, only several blurry black-and-white shadows could be seen, dancing like ghosts through the violent currents. Their speed had already exceeded the limits of ordinary human vision, and their attack trajectories were extremely tricky.
Hiss—!
A fine wind blade suddenly burst out, grazing close past Pakura's waist.
Pakura's reaction was not slow. The instant she sensed danger, she twisted and swung her kunai. With a sharp metallic clash, a spark burst in the air and was instantly swallowed by the gale.
But the second and third attacks followed immediately.
Pakura flashed aside in a hurry, avoiding the second slash aimed at her shoulder, but she failed to dodge the third. With a soft rip, her left sleeve split open, and a line of blood instantly appeared on her fair skin.
"So fast!"
Yuu's eyes sharpened.
An amateur watched excitement. An expert saw the technique.
Although Yuu himself was not a Wind Release ninja, the principles of ninjutsu were similar: nature transformation and shape transformation of different attributes.
With his eyesight, it was not hard to tell that the weasels' method was clearly an extremely refined Wind Release nin-taijutsu, somewhat similar to the "Wind Release enchantment" method Shimura Danzō used against Sasuke.
Compared with Shimura Danzō, these weasels used wind even more delicately, like spirits born from the wind itself. They exploited the power of wind to the extreme, moving with ghostly speed and swinging vacuum blades with frightening cutting power, making them extremely difficult to defend against.
Pakura also quickly realized something was wrong. Her expression became serious as she rapidly dodged through the wind and sand, her kunai turning into a sheet of silver light to protect her vital areas.
But under the coordinated assault of three weasels that had merged into the storm and attacked from every direction, every block she made was dangerous, and several dodges missed death by only a hair.
Soon…
Rip! Rip!
Two more sounds of tearing cloth rang out.
One cut opened the outer side of Pakura's firm thigh, and blood quickly stained the dark fabric red. The other grazed beneath her chest, slicing open a wound about an inch long. Her wheat-colored skin and the full curve of her chest became faintly visible at the torn edge of her clothes.
Of course…
Pakura seemed to have wrapped a layer of bandages around her chest, and the bandages had not been completely sliced through by the wind blade, so she was not fully exposed. However, because several bandages had been cut, from an observer's perspective, the movement of her chest seemed slightly more noticeable than before.
After a few more exchanges,
Pakura blocked several attacks, but two more wounds appeared on her body.
"…No choice."
Realizing her limits, Pakura gave up on fighting the weasels in close combat within this violent wind. She opened the hand not holding the kunai, and several orange-red fireballs radiating terrifying heat condensed around her.
"Scorch Release: Linked Stars!"
Fire countered wind.
As soon as these Scorch Release fireballs appeared, the surrounding air began to crackle as if it had been ignited.
When Pakura consciously pushed both hands forward,
there was a boom. The fireballs circling around her suddenly erupted. The high-temperature flames were no longer condensed spheres. Instead, like fuel completely ignited by the gale, they violently spread outward, forming a fire wave several meters high that covered everything within several meters around her.
This was clearly a plus version of Great Fire Wall. It seemed that the scrolls Yuu had previously given Pakura had given her some inspiration.
"Squeak—!"
"Wah—!"
Several shrill cries came from within the raging wind.
It was Tarōmaru. While trying to get close to Pakura, he slammed into this wall of fire. Jirōmaru and Saburōmaru behind him had puffed up their cheeks and spat out air cannons, trying to help their big brother blow away the flames. Instead, they caused the fire wave to flare up, suddenly surging seven or eight meters high and nearly roasting Tarōmaru alive.
"Stop! Stop quickly!"
Tarōmaru appeared in a sorry state, waving his claws and shrieking in terror, orange flames flickering across his body.
At the critical moment, Yuu formed seals with both hands and spat out Water Wave from seven or eight meters away.
Because they were in a completely dry desert area, all Water Release techniques were suppressed to the greatest extent. Even though Yuu's Water Wave could reduce chakra consumption by half, the stream of water he spat out still looked rather thin. Fortunately, it was enough to put out the flames on the three weasel brothers.
On the other side, Pakura was also consciously suppressing the flames. It was just that the surrounding gale was too fierce, making the process of restraining the fire somewhat difficult.
Fortunately, as a Scorch Release user, Pakura's control over Fire Release was decent. She finally gathered the towering fire wave back together, turning it into several re-condensed Scorch Release fireballs floating beside her before quietly dispersing them.
The outcome was decided.
After the Weasel Great Elder nodded and acknowledged the result,
Pakura turned and walked back to Yuu's side, wiping sweat from her forehead.
At this moment, she looked somewhat disheveled. Several wounds cut by the weasels' wind blades were slowly bleeding, and part of her clothing had been soaked with blood. Under the dim light, several alarming cuts could faintly be seen.
"Need help treating those?"
Yuu asked, raising his right hand. The soft green glow of Mystical Palm Technique appeared at his fingertips.
"…You know medical ninjutsu too?"
Pakura raised an eyebrow slightly.
In their previous encounters, Yuu had indeed never used medical ninjutsu in front of her.
Pakura originally wanted to refuse, but several of the wounds on her body were truly not shallow. The wound below her chest, in particular, burned with sharp pain like a maggot clinging to bone.
Helpless, Pakura could only pretend to be calm and nod.
"Sorry to trouble you."
"No trouble."
At once,
Pakura found a stone platform and sat down.
Yuu stood beside her, opened both hands, and gathered denser emerald-green chakra in his palms, gently covering her wounds.
Left arm, thigh, ribs…
Under Yuu's treatment, Pakura's bleeding quickly stopped. The muscle tissue at the edges of her wounds also began slowly squirming and healing under the nourishment of the warm life energy.
This change made Pakura faintly let out a breath of relief, and her tense body relaxed slightly. But even more doubts rose in her heart.
No, wait… how is this white-haired brat also this good at medical ninjutsu?
With this level of medical skill, even if he wasn't a medical jōnin, he should be close, right?
Swordsmanship, Fire Release, medical ninjutsu, and even Water Release in a place with no water…
For an ordinary ninja at this age, having even one ability reach this level would already make them a genius. Yet this guy before her was proficient in everything. Wasn't this talent basically cheating?
If such a talent had appeared in Sunagakure…
Taking it one step further, if this brat were a couple years older, about the same age as her, then she…
"Cough, cough."
Yuu coughed lightly.
Pakura snapped out of her wandering thoughts and looked at Yuu in confusion. Then she followed his gaze and looked at her own chest.
"The other wounds are more or less treated. Only this one is left," Yuu explained.
~~~
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