Right now—dawn.
Outside Kumogakure in the Land of Lightning.
Two figures were secretly lurking.
Shimoku glanced toward Kumogakure, then turned to Riyō beside him and warned:
"Remember, I'll go in first to take the bones."
"You wait outside."
"Once I go in, come into Kumo with your Byakugan activated."
"Make sure to ask exactly as we discussed. Not one bit less!"
"They'll definitely agree to it if they want the Byakugan."
"Also, if anyone threatens you—"
"Don't back down! Don't fear them—just stand your ground!"
"I've got your back!"
Shimoku gave Riyō an encouraging pat on the shoulder.
After all, unless the entire Kumo leadership has completely lost their minds,
They probably wouldn't dare try to make a move by force.
And if they actually did attack...
Even better.
Once they gave him an excuse, Shimoku could immediately go over and destroy the entire Hidden Cloud Village!
"Understood!"
Riyō nodded firmly, his expression serious.
Although facing the entire Hidden Cloud Village alone was quite stressful,
As the Young Master said,
The enemy probably wouldn't dare try to make a move by force.
After all, their opponent had the Young Master's combat strength backing him up!
If they wanted to make a move, they'd better have the power to do so!
...
With that, Shimoku vanished from sight with a sudden 'whoosh!'
Activating the [Flying Thunder God Technique], he instantly teleported into Kumo's Cemetery.
The next moment,
Near the graves of Kinkaku and Ginkaku in Kumo's Cemetery,
A figure suddenly burst up from the ground.
"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Ugh!"
Shimoku spat out a mouthful of dirt.
Of course, burying kunai marked with the Flying Thunder God seal underground hadn't been the best choice.
After teleporting, he found himself buried underground too...
But naturally, this was just a minor inconvenience.
Soon after confirming no bystanders were nearby,
Shimoku sprang into action.
A surge of chakra roared forth, forming into two massive chakra hands that plunged into the earth, tearing through the entire gravesite of Kinkaku and Ginkaku, and smashing open several coffins inside!
Then with a quick motion of his hand,
He sealed all the remains within the coffins into a Spatial Scroll.
The entire process didn't even take twenty seconds.
So brutal! So reckless!
After all, as long as his identity remained hidden and he successfully grabbed the bones,
He didn't feel like wasting time digging carefully.
As for whether desecrating someone's grave was immoral?
Who cares about that?
One use of the [Impure World Reincarnation] technique and the dead would come back to work for you anyway—what could be more immoral than that?
...
Thus, the disturbance at the cemetery quickly caught Kumo's attention.
Within half a minute, someone immediately arrived at the scene.
Unfortunately, the "grave robber" had long disappeared.
Leaving only a tomb turned to ruins...
Before long, news of the theft at Kinkaku and Ginkaku's burial site reached the ears of Kumo's upper echelons.
After a week of rest, Raikage A, the Fourth, had nearly recovered from his injuries.
One couldn't help but admire his robust physique!
Upon learning about the incident, Raikage A also felt furious.
After all, even though Kinkaku and Ginkaku were despicable and deserved punishment,
they were still ninjas of Kumogakure, one of the founding elders who helped establish Kumogakure.
Now that they were dead, their graves had been robbed.
Wasn't this slapping Kumogakure in the face?
Could he just let this slide?
Moreover,
the grave robber vanished without a trace within just half a minute.
Plus, the village's great barrier showed no signs of being triggered.
There was no way someone could have fled the village so quickly—they must still be hiding inside.
Whoever it was must have been intimately familiar with Kumo's terrain.
This indicated that the culprit might very likely be a traitor from within the village!
The moment Raikage A heard there could be a traitor among them, he completely lost any sleepiness.
Soon afterward, a large-scale manhunt erupted throughout the village,
determined to capture that cursed 'grave robber' and rip him apart.
Of course, that wouldn't actually happen.
Because that wicked 'grave robber' had already returned to his own village thousands of miles away, enjoying some early-morning 'company.'
...
Several hours passed hunting through the village, yet they caught nobody.
Instead, the entire Kumogakure had become chaotic, the whole village turned upside down in chaos.
This only made Raikage A even more furious.
By noon, his secretary Mabui suddenly reported:
"Lord Raikage, someone from Homuragakure has arrived outside the village seeking an audience!"
"Homuragakure?"
"Why now? It isn't time for our next scheduled shipment!"
"What kind of mischief is that brat Shimoku Uchiha up to this time?"
Raikage A frowned suspiciously.
In his mind, that ten-year-old kid had already become synonymous with 'cunning.'
If they sent another envoy, they certainly meant no good.
Still, Raikage A didn't suspect Homuragakure of being behind the grave theft.
After all, they hadn't even been in the village at the time—how could it possibly be them?
"They say they have something urgent—directly for Lord Raikage! Something about a trade deal."
Hearing the word 'trade,' Raikage A involuntarily felt his scalp tingling.
Unfortunately, the previous 'deal' had been too brutal.
It almost left psychological scars on Kumogakure's side.
"Fine, let them in."
"Might as well see what new tricks that brat can pull out."
Raikage A gritted his teeth, deciding finally to grant an audience.
As long as he kept his temper in check and held tightly onto his wallet,
he still didn't think Homura Hidden Village had another trick up their sleeve.
...
Meanwhile,
after returning to his own village, Shimoku stayed busy instead of resting.
He immediately began studying the two sealing techniques he'd stolen from Konoha's Forbidden Archive.
Wishing to master them soon, perform the Tailed Beast Sealing early, and thus add several Kage-level experts for his own village.
[The Tailed Beast Sealing]
Of all the ninja techniques, the Tailed Beast Sealing was particularly hard to master.
It wasn't quite as complex as space-time ninjutsu, but make no mistake—it was far from easy.
Especially techniques like [Four Symbols Seal] and [Five Elements Seal], the pinnacle of all sealing arts.
Under normal circumstances,
with Shimoku's barely passable talent, it would take at least ten days to half a month just to grasp the basics.
To master it thoroughly and use it flexibly would require several more months of practice.
But then again...
whenever hesitation arose, the System came into play.
With the completed Kinjutsu scroll available, Shimoku instantly learned the entire [Four Symbols Seal] after spending merely 100 coins,
and simultaneously grasped its natural progression—the [Eight Trigrams Sealing Style].
Later,
he fully mastered both the [Four Symbols Seal] and the [Eight Trigrams Sealing Style] in under half a day.
As for the even more challenging [Five Elements Seal], Shimoku didn't rush into learning it right away.
He planned to study it gradually later at his leisure.
After all, every coin saved counts.
Anyway, just sealing Tailed Beast chakra—[Four Symbols Seal] was already more than sufficient.
Thus,
late that night, Shimoku hurriedly knocked on Yueji Uchiha's door.
He took the tall and elegant Yueji by the hand and darted out of the village with her, vanishing into the pitch-black night.
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