Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode.

Chapter 50 The Shrine Maiden

One week later, at night, in an inconspicuous house in the residential area of ​​Konoha.

An ordinary-looking middle-aged ninja pushed open the door and came out. His name was Akasa. He was 35 years old and an unremarkable Chunin in Konoha. He was currently a teacher at the Ninja Academy.

As an older single man, Chi Sha's nightlife was dull. To relieve his loneliness, he went to a nearby bar for a few drinks, just like he always did.

Chisha arrived at the tavern, ordered a few bottles of cheap rice wine and some snacks from the familiar signboard girl, and then sat alone in a corner, drinking by himself.

Before long, he was already quite drunk, his face flushed, his eyes glazed over, and he began to utter incoherent ramblings that no one else could understand.

Not long after, he slumped onto the table, drunk.

Chisha passed out drunk, and the other drinkers around him paid no attention to him, because there were too many people like Chisha who drowned their sorrows in alcohol, and he was not a big deal.

The patrons didn't care, but the shopkeeper couldn't ignore it. He quickly instructed his staff to move Chisha to an empty room at the back of the shop to rest, so that new customers could come in and spend money.

Not long after Chisha was taken away, a new guest arrived—a middle-aged samurai who looked extremely poor.

The shopkeeper didn't recognize the middle-aged samurai, who was clearly not a regular customer. However, she didn't lose her enthusiasm just because he looked poor. She still warmly invited him to come in and sit down, in the very spot where Akasa had just been sitting.

The samurai ordered a few bottles of cheap sake, drank them, and then drunkenly paid the bill and left.

An insignificant Chunin came to a tavern to drown his sorrows in alcohol. After getting drunk, he was dragged away. Soon after, a down-on-his-luck samurai came in to take the place of the ordinary Chunin. He also drowned his sorrows in alcohol and eventually left drunk.

Everything seemed so ordinary that it didn't attract the attention of anyone in the store.

The samurai finally staggered back to his lodgings, a dilapidated house. As soon as he entered the cheaply rented room, he collapsed on the floor and fell fast asleep, snoring loudly.

The woman of the house covered the samurai with a blanket with a look of disgust and left the room.

As the mistress's footsteps faded into the distance, the samurai suddenly opened his eyes, continued snoring, and threw something out of the open window with one hand.

The next moment, a long tongue suddenly appeared, wrapped around the object, and then disappeared into thin air.

After the samurai finished throwing his things away, he closed his eyes again and continued to snore loudly.

At that moment, a small snake hidden in the corner silently left.

Soon after, in an underground space in the forest outside Konoha Village, a candle stuck to a wooden table was lit, and the surrounding darkness was immediately dispelled.

Before the candle, a man with long eyebrows was looking at a piece of paper, his face showing deep solemnity.

The note didn't contain much information, only saying that a new transfer student named Uzumaki Kushina had arrived at the Ninja Academy today, and that she had red hair.

"Mito Uzumaki's clansmen, huh? In that case, it's time to replace Konoha's Jinchūriki, or rather, it has already been replaced."

Ebizo placed the piece of paper in his hand on the candle flame, watched it turn to ashes, and pondered.

This intelligence is undoubtedly very valuable.

As a high-ranking member of the Sand Village, Ebizo understood the meaning of Jinchuriki and what it meant when a Jinchuriki was replaced.

"Konoha has some impressive methods. They managed to replace the Jinchuriki without anyone noticing. If that's the case, then the Senju clan's defenses aren't as strong as the previous intelligence suggested. Perhaps we should consider making a plan."

Ebizo slowly tapped the table with his index finger. After a long while, a strange light flashed in his eyes.

A gust of wind blew out the candlelight in the room, and everything returned to darkness.

. . .

Late at night, in the basement of the Nawaki family's residence in the Senju clan's territory, where a large number of scrolls were stored.

Kirito sat cross-legged on a tatami mat, closed his eyes, and assumed a meditation posture.

Around him, four black incense sticks were stuck in the four directions. Each stick was as thick as a thumb and emitted bluish smoke when lit.

The wisps of green smoke emanating from the four black incense sticks were in a very strange state. Instead of spreading outwards, they transformed into four thin streams of green, flowing in straight lines and into Kirito's body at the center.

Smoke is an unconscious substance and does not move on its own.

Clearly, the reason it was moving at this moment was that Kirito, who was at the center of the four black incense sticks, was inhaling the blue smoke into his body in an unknown way.

Soul Incense—that is the name of the four black incense sticks. They are precious items recorded in the art of spirit transformation, used to assist in the cultivation of spirit transformation techniques. They originate from the distant land of demons and are said to have been made by priestesses to feed demons.

Kirito was unaware of the true value of the Soul Incense, but the black incense he was currently using was made by the shrine maiden Miroku herself and was of the highest quality, premium grade.

Who is the priestess Miroku? She is the current guardian priestess of the Land of Demons, a powerful priestess with the ability to suppress demons and monsters, and her status is equivalent to that of a daimyo in various countries.

Kirito was able to obtain such high-quality Soul Incense entirely thanks to the help of the Senju clan. With the help of this top-grade Soul Incense, his Spirit Transformation Technique progressed very smoothly, almost like making rapid progress.

He has been practicing the art of spiritual transformation for three weeks. During this time, his soul has become increasingly powerful. The time his soul can leave his body has increased from a few minutes at the beginning to an hour before he feels tired. The range of his soul perception has also expanded to one kilometer.

Within a kilometer, no living being can escape his soul perception.

After about two hours, all the incense sticks had burned out, and Kirito's spiritualization technique training for the day came to an end.

Suddenly, a white, transparent Kirito emerged from Kirito's body and then stretched.

Soul out of the body.

Kirito once again emerged from his body in spirit form.

The next moment, Kirito's spirit body rapidly became more and more transparent, until it was impossible for ordinary people to see it with the naked eye.

Invisibility is one of the innate abilities of spirits.

However, Kirito still possesses chakra even in his spirit form. Therefore, bloodline limit eyes like the Byakugan and Sharingan can still see Kirito, but they only see a mass of chakra and cannot see his true form at all.

Kirito, of course, had a way to deal with the weakness of his spirit body. He decisively mobilized the chakra within his body and laid down a large number of sealing techniques on the surface of his spirit body, temporarily giving the spirit body a layer of sealing barrier, temporarily shielding the chakra within the spirit body, so that it could not be seen by the outside world.

Kirito's method at this time is to use a sealing barrier to block external perception.

Konoha has the Byakugan's bloodline limit, so naturally some people are worried about the secret being leaked and have developed sealing barrier techniques to counter the Byakugan's eye techniques.

Among the sealing techniques that Mito taught him were several sealing barrier techniques that could seal off the Byakugan's abilities.

The sealing barrier technique he is currently using is called Nightfall Seal, which is also the sealing barrier technique currently used by Root Headquarters.

After Kirito patched up the loophole in the spirit, he began to control the spirit to fly upwards in the air, ignoring any obstacles, and arrived above the Nawaki family's house in no time.

"Let's have a pleasant night out tonight!"

Kirito felt the night breeze, looked at the bright moon in the night sky, and smiled.

It's tough for a new author to get ahead, so I hope all my fellow readers will visit often to increase the readership. After you finish reading, I hope you'll vote for this book and invest in it. If you could give me some monthly tickets and rewards, I would be extremely grateful. It's so hard for a new author and a new book.

(End of this chapter)