Six years passed in the blink of an eye.
Land of Fire, Tanzaku Quarter.
The afternoons here were always raucous.
The shouts of gamblers, the crisp clatter of dice against bowls, and the aroma of rice wine drifting from taverns blended with the warm breeze of early summer, filling this street renowned throughout the Land of Fire for its entertainment.
On the second floor of a ninja tool shop bearing a wooden sign that read “Yamadaya,” a boy by the window tapped his fingers lightly on the desk.
12-year-old Kaguya Shiro, who now called himself Yamada Souji, carried himself with a calm demeanor far beyond his years.
His silver-white hair was neatly trimmed, glinting with an almost metallic coldness in the sunlight.
The softness of childhood had long faded from his facial features, replaced by handsome, well-defined features.
Most striking were his eyes, tightly wrapped in black cloth tied in a simple knot at the back of his head.
It gave him an air of mystery and aloofness.
Beneath the black cloth, the Six Eyes remained active at minimal output.
Even closed, even covered, these eyes from another world never stopped working.
The subtle trembling of the dealer’s fingers in the gambling hall across the street, the chakra fluctuations on a rooftop 300 meters away, the trajectory of water droplets leaking from a pipe 3 meters underground, all of it flooded into Shiro’s mind like a torrent.
The first activation had been cushioned by the system, so he hadn’t felt any discomfort.
But the second time he activated the Six Eyes, he nearly went mad from the endless torrent of information.
His brain had felt like it was about to explode, every second burning with the pain of overload.
An old doctor with the caravan had taught him to use herbal sedatives.
Countless life-or-death battles had taught him control.
It wasn’t until three years ago that he finally mastered the technique of filtering information.
But completely shutting it off?
He still couldn’t.
The Six Eyes were like an organ fused to his soul, forever open, forever watching.
The black cloth only helped a little.
Shiro tilted his head slightly.
The Six Eyes’ perception pierced through the wall instantly, catching the conversation in the shop below.
“…the steel on this batch of kunai is indeed good, but could the price be…” “Sorry, these are premium direct from the Land of Iron.
The cost alone is…” A clerk was haggling with a purchasing representative from some minor ninja clan.
He never interfered in business matters, leaving everything to the manager Tsubaki had trained.
After the rogue ninja attack six years ago, Tsubaki’s caravan had taken him in, and he had repaid that kindness with strength and cunning.
He had single-handedly dismantled several ambushes against the caravan.
Seven new trade routes had been carved out through his own strength.
Three years ago, he had proposed relocating their base to Tanzaku Quarter in the Land of Fire.
His reasoning was solid: in the current shinobi world, the Land of Fire was the wealthiest and most peaceful, and Tanzaku Quarter was the largest entertainment hub within it.
High foot traffic, information traveled quickly, and naturally, faster profits.
But there was a deeper reason he kept to himself: this was one of Tsunade’s usual haunts, and the starting point for many future events.
Tap.
His fingers stopped.
Shiro summoned the pale blue panel that only he could see in the depths of his consciousness.
[Cursed Technique System · Personal Panel] Name: Kaguya Shiro Age: 12 Status: Early symptoms of a mild Kekkei Genkai disease.
Bone regeneration slowed, accompanied by occasional neuralgia.
Comprehensive Combat Rating: Special Jonin – Elite Jonin (fluctuating) [Core Ability Systems] Total Chakra: Jonin-level [Six years of extreme training.
Both the quality and quantity have reached the average level of jonin from the Five Great Nations.] Chakra Nature Transformation: Wind (Mastered), Water (Proficient), Earth (Beginner) Kekkei Genkai: Dead Bone Pulse (Mastered) [Rating Scale: Beginner, Proficient, Mastered, Grandmaster, Legendary] Standard Techniques: Ten-Finger Drilling Bullets (Maximum velocity: 368 m/s, effective range: 500 m) Willow Dance, Camellia Dance, Pine Dance (taijutsu battle forms) Iron Flower Dance (offensive-defensive integrated technique) Bracken Dance (wide-area attack covering a 150-meter radius) Dead Bone Pulse Secret Technique · Hollow Bone Oscillation (self-created; utilizes high-frequency bone oscillations to unleash devastating destructive power at close and mid-range) Special Applications: Subdermal Bone Armor (automatic defense, full-body coverage) Bone Marrow Activation (temporarily and greatly enhances physical capabilities, but accelerates Kekkei Genkai disease) Total Cursed Energy: 8473/10000 (Grade 2 level) Six Eyes Effect: Omnidirectional vision, energy vision, cursed technique and ninjutsu analysis, ultra-long-range perception, prediction of micro-movements and energy flow.
Side Effect: Continuous information overload (manageable through training) Innate Technique : Ice Formation Cursed Technique Effect: Converts cursed energy into absolute cold that can freeze physical matter, energy flow, and even conceptual entities.
Black Flash Effect: When cursed energy, chakra, and a physical strike occur within 0.000001 seconds of each other, the resulting impact unleashes destructive power amplified to the fifth power.
Activation Condition: Stable, but requires entering Six Eyes Overclock mode.
The panel faded.
Shiro picked up the cooling herbal tea at his side and took a sip.
873.
He remembered that number clearly.
Rogue ninja, missing-nin, bandits, guards from hostile caravans, the shinobi who had died by his hands over six years.
Every kill increased his cursed energy to varying degrees.
The system had no emotion.
It coldly recorded, accumulated, and whenever his cursed energy reached a breakthrough threshold, granted power from the jujutsu world through draws.
The first reward came four years ago, when he faced a thirteen-man squad of rogue ninja from the Hidden Grass Village.
He received [Black Flash].
The black lightning from that punch distorted the surrounding space itself, tearing the leader, an elite chunin, along with dozens of trees, each requiring three men to encircle, into shreds.
The second came two years ago, on the border of the Land of Iron, when he encountered a pursuit squad from the Hidden Mist Village.
It wasn’t difficult for a great nation’s intelligence agents to track down a Kaguya clan orphan.
He killed seven Mist ANBU in that battle.
When his cursed energy broke through, the draw granted him [Innate Technique · Ice Formation Cursed Technique].
After freezing three of the bodies, he slipped away.
Currently, his strength was considerable.
At twelve, he had reached Elite Jonin level, a genius among geniuses in any ninja village.
But for Kaguya Shiro, it still wasn’t enough.
His fingers pressed lightly against his lower left ribs.
The Six Eyes’ internal X-ray vision let him clearly see the microstructure of his bones.
The tiny cracks.
The lattice misalignments during regeneration.
The diseased regions slowly eroding the very foundation of his life.
Only he could perceive them.
The Dead Bone Pulse Kekkei Genkai disease.
The curse that no Kaguya could escape.
Even a prodigy like Kimimaro had begun showing symptoms around age fifteen and eventually died with no cure.
Judging by the time that had passed, that boy taken by Orochimaru should be showing early symptoms by now.
But Shiro was luckier than Kimimaro.
He had the Six Eyes to detect lesions early, and cursed energy, an energy system from another world, to slow the disease’s progression.
A complete cure?
He couldn’t achieve that yet.
And in the entire shinobi world, there was only one person who might be able to solve this problem.
“Tsunade…” Shiro murmured the name.
Settling in Tanzaku Quarter three years ago had been outwardly for the caravan’s development, but in truth, he was waiting for her.
The legendary Sannin.
The pinnacle of medical ninjutsu.
The developer of the Creation Rebirth Technique.
If even she couldn’t cure a Kekkei Genkai disease, then no one in this world could.
But Tsunade was erratic, a compulsive gambler, and haunted by the deaths of her brother and lover.
She had developed severe hemophobia and had long since withdrawn from medical practice.
Approaching her directly?
Unlikely.
But he could wait.
He only needed an opportunity, a chance to get close to her, earn her trust, and persuade her to help.