Chapter 104: Yellow Flash Capturing Mist Ninja to Research Forbidden Techniques?
Konoha Village.
Time had entered autumn. Tree leaves were beginning to turn yellow. With gusts of cold wind blowing through, they could always sweep up patches of not-yet-fully-yellowed leaves swaying and falling. The desolate mood of autumn came rushing forth.
Rin Nohara's mood lately resembled these falling leaves—unconsciously sinking into low spirits.
"Kushina-sensei, controlling a Tailed Beast is truly so difficult!"
Rin murmured softly. She sat on a bench beside the training ground, looking at the empty, deserted field before her, her heart full of loneliness.
This training ground originally had many people. Located in the village's central area, nearby ninja academy students would come here to play or train after school or during holidays.
But ever since she moved into Minato-sensei's house nearby, this once bustling training ground instantly became deserted—you could catch sparrows at the door. Even quite a few neighbors near Minato-sensei's house simply moved away directly. Clearly the village's central district, yet it was as cold and quiet as the outskirts.
This naturally wasn't because they feared Kushina-sensei as the Nine-Tails jinchuriki. If that were the reason, the surrounding neighbors would have fled long ago. It could only be because they worried about her as the Three-Tails jinchuriki who obviously lacked self-control ability!
"Rin, don't be impatient. You only became a jinchuriki a few days ago? Even I took several years back then to barely master controlling the Nine-Tails' power. You have absolutely no need to rush—just take it slowly."
Kushina sat beside Rin, lovingly stroking the girl's head.
Her heart was also full of helpless frustration at being unable to help.
Rin could notice the changes around their home, so naturally she wouldn't fail to notice them. But even noticing, she had no solution. Not just her—even when Minato returned, there was no solution.
They couldn't possibly tie up all the neighbors and forbid them from moving, right?
Even though she had complete confidence in instantly subduing Rin if she lost control and went berserk, she truly couldn't guarantee no accidental harm to surrounding neighbors in the process. Temporarily relocating was actually the correct choice. They had absolutely no reason to prevent surrounding neighbors from leaving.
Rin pursed her lips without speaking.
She lacked confidence in herself. Even Kushina-sensei as a member of the Uzumaki Clan needed several years of effort to barely control the Nine-Tails' power. How could she, with no bloodline background whatsoever, only lucky enough to become Minato-sensei's student by chance, possibly control the Three-Tails' power?
Her future was pitch dark—she couldn't see any way out at all!
"Rin, don't let your thoughts run wild."
Kushina could tell the girl's heart was heavy. She could only try to comfort and resolve it as much as possible. "Your teacher and I will both think of solutions for you. At the same time, your will must be strong, because if you yourself lack fighting spirit, the Tailed Beast will easily exploit that opening!"
"Also, don't forget your friends have never given up on you either."
Speaking, she pointed into the distance. "Look quick—your two good friends came to find you!"
At the training ground's entrance, two girls in their youth approached side by side. One was energetic like a little tiger, the other had picturesque features like a little fox.
"Rin! We came to play with you!"
Hyuga Akiba waved vigorously in greeting, her face full of smiles, her mood quite cheerful. She was a bright splash of color on this desolate autumn day. Watching her, Rin's depressed emotions dissipated by more than half, her face unconsciously showing a hint of smile.
This made Kushina breathe a slight sigh of relief in her heart. Sure enough, there was already a generational gap between herself and these young girls! To help Rin untie her mental knots and resolve her worries, she still needed these friends of Rin's to work hard.
She stood up and said to Rin: "Rin, go play with your friends! I'll head back first. Oh, should I prepare dinner for you all?"
"No need, Kushina-nee. Before leaving home, I already told my mom I'd bring Rin and Aika to my house for dinner. Oh right, can Rin stay overnight at my house tonight?"
Akiba looked at Kushina with puppy-dog eyes.
"I have no objections..." Kushina's smile was somewhat forced. Though Rin had been living with her these days, outside her door, ANBU were still keeping watch.
To put it bluntly, wherever Rin went, she couldn't avoid ANBU surveillance and following. She could live with Kushina because Kushina had the ability to suppress a rampaging Tailed Beast, plus Minato was Teacher Jiraiya's student, and with his own outstanding military achievements, might possibly become the Fourth Hokage...
But staying overnight at the Hyuga Clan compound—that was highly problematic.
"Kushina-sensei, I'll return after dinner. Staying overnight would be too much trouble."
Rin proactively helped resolve the situation.
"What trouble is it? It's just me and my mom at home." Akiba hadn't thought that much, muttering.
"Akiba, shut up."
Uchiha Aika timely stopped Akiha. "Rin already decided. What more is there to say?"
Kushina watched several young girls bicker and play around, smiling as she left. However, those ANBU hidden in the dark responsible for monitoring Rin remained motionless, keeping close watch on her at all times.
"Rin, unhappy?"
Walking up to Rin, Aika asked with a smile.
She had a completely different personality from the lively, cheerful Akiha. Though both girls liked smiling, Akiha's smile was as brilliant as the sun, warming people's hearts. But when Aika smiled, she gave the feeling of a mischievous little fox who liked teasing people—making you feel that as soon as you opened your mouth to chat, you'd be teased!
"Not exactly unhappy, just feeling a bit uncomfortable!"
Rin answered quietly.
Ever since experiencing that life-or-death crisis at the front lines, their relationship had warmed at extreme speed, changing from ordinary temporarily assembled teammates into good friends who talked about almost everything.
Before Aika and Akiha, she wouldn't hide her discomfort.
"You! Care more about yourself and stop paying so much attention to others' opinions of you. Those cowards who don't dare approach you—let them get lost. As long as you yourself are happy, that's enough."
"But I don't want everyone to see me and—"
"There are no so many 'buts.'"
Aika reached out and embraced Rin, earnestly brainwashing the girl: "As the saying goes, cats and mice can't sleep together. Those cowardly people weren't on the same path as us to begin with. You truly have no need to wrong yourself to accommodate them. We only need to do our best, act with clear conscience—that's enough. Right, Akiba?"
"Right! What Aika said is correct. Ritsu-nii also told me—before loving others, you must first learn to love yourself. People who sacrifice themselves to accommodate others are both most pitiful and most hateful. If such people appear around you, for those who truly care about them, it's undoubtedly torture!"
Akiba said very seriously.
"I understand all this. I'm mainly just truly lacking confidence in controlling the Three-Tails." Rin showed a bitter smile.
The reason she felt uncomfortable was because she felt she was currently an unstable factor who might lose control anytime and bring disaster and harm to surrounding people.
So she felt guilty and uneasy, even though she hadn't yet actually harmed anyone because of herself.
"That is indeed quite difficult to handle!"
Aika furrowed her brow slightly.
Controlling Tailed Beasts was never simple, especially controlling a Tailed Beast from a position of weakness—extremely difficult. Like Rin, who had no powerful bloodline, no Kekkei Genkai, no hereditary secret techniques...
"Wait until Ritsu-nii returns, I'll ask him. He definitely has a solution."
Akiba interjected.
Aika couldn't help rolling her eyes, saying irritably: "Akiba, though White Yaksha is indeed very powerful and made the Mist ninja flow with blood, this kind of matter can't be solved just by knowing how to kill people!"
"But it's still a line of thinking, isn't it? Otherwise, even if you and Rin wrinkle up a dozen wrinkles on your heads, it's useless! Since we have no solutions, why not try finding other more capable people to help!"
These words made both Aika and Rin simultaneously widen their eyes.
"Akiba, you really dare say anything!"
"Right, right! How could there be so many wrinkles? Akiba, you're not allowed to talk nonsense."
The girls laughed and played together in a group. Clear laughter transmitted outside the training ground.
The white-haired youth standing behind the tree listened to the cheerful voices carried on the wind. After standing silently for a moment, he turned and walked toward Kushina.
"Kakashi, aren't you going to see Rin?"
Kushina, who hadn't gone far, looked at the approaching white-haired youth and asked.
"No need, Kushina-sensei. Rin has friends accompanying her. If I went over, they'd feel uncomfortable instead. Meeting tomorrow or the day after when there's time is all the same."
Looking at the youth with dark circles under his eyes and undisguisable exhaustion, Kushina also felt somewhat heartbroken and helpless. She said gently: "Kakashi, don't push yourself too hard. Minato and I are both thinking of solutions for Rin's matter. Sooner or later we'll find a way."
"Kushina-sensei, I'm fine."
Kakashi's voice was somewhat hoarse, sounding completely unlike someone who was fine.
However, clearly the stubborn youth didn't plan to give up searching for methods to let Rin escape the Three-Tails or completely control it.
After bidding farewell to Kushina, Kakashi came to Konoha Village's library.
Because of Rin's matter, his squad was currently completely at a standstill with no missions assigned for them to execute. Fortunately, their freedom of movement wasn't restricted either—as long as they didn't leave the village, they could go to normal places.
These days, Kakashi had been working hard to find methods for Rin to escape the Three-Tails or completely control it. To this end, he first went through all the books at home, then searched everywhere for possibilities.
These past two days, he'd been soaking in Konoha Village's library.
The book collection here was abundant. Though it didn't include specific ninjutsu manuals, there were quite a few ancient books from distant eras. He figured he might find some inspiration from them.
Of course, he knew how naive this idea was.
But this naive idea was already the only thing he could do. Besides this, he truly couldn't think of any other way to help Rin.
Beyond this, he had no other methods.
Coming to Konoha's library again, the five-story building reportedly stored over a hundred thousand books. Kakashi directly came to the area storing history books, standing before the bookshelves examining the books on them, searching for ones containing tiny possibilities.
Just then, he heard fragmented whispered voices coming from the other side of the bookshelf.
If it were before, he'd let such noise go in one ear and out the other, neither processing nor caring. But this time he couldn't help caring, because he heard content that made it impossible not to care.
"...Yellow Flash capturing Mist ninja to research forbidden techniques? What kind of gossip is this? Way too absurd, right?"
"What? You haven't heard? Recently many people are talking about this!"
"What's going on exactly? Explain in detail."
"A while back, didn't people say our war with the Mist ninja started because a master-disciple pair in the village captured Mist ninja to research forbidden techniques, thus enraging the Mist ninja? You definitely heard about that, right?"
"Of course. Though I think such things are complete nonsense. Just think about how far apart Konoha and the Mist ninja are. Who has the ability to run to Water Country's Hidden Mist Village to capture Mist ninja? Yet there really are many idiots who believe it, constantly guessing which master-disciple pair it is. Haha, absolutely hilarious."
"Don't laugh yet. Though I previously had the same view as you, thinking this was just a rumor made up by some idiot—but what if someone really can ignore distance and freely travel between Konoha and Hidden Mist Village?"
"How could that be pos— Hmm? Really? You can't say such things carelessly! Yellow Flash is the village's hero!"
"Just say whether this makes sense or not?"
"Mm... theoretically there's no problem, but there's too much speculation. I still think it's unreliable. In any case, better not casually spread this around."
"I know, I'm not stupid. But lately there seem to be quite a lot of various rumors and stories in the village. Besides this, now people are saying White Fang didn't actually commit suicide back then—more accurately, he was forced to commit suicide!"
"Really? Wasn't White Fang's suicide already investigated clearly?"
"Having the people who forced White Fang to death investigate White Fang's cause of death—what else could it be besides suicide, murder? And supposedly the Mist ninja revealed this matter!"
Standing before the bookshelf, Kakashi was thunderstruck.
On the other side of the bookshelf, two long-tongued men were still chattering endlessly with gossip, saying things like White Fang back then had achievements threatening his lord and had to die, if he didn't commit suicide not only could he not survive but his son couldn't survive either, and so on.
The two men's voices gradually quieted. They seemed unable to find the books they wanted and disappointedly left. Kakashi froze for several seconds before pulling his legs to chase after them. His movements made somewhat loud noises, immediately drawing many dissatisfied looks.
Kakashi couldn't care about those ice-cold piercing gazes.
He closely pursued those two gossiping men to the library's entrance, but outside people came and went. He hadn't clearly seen what those two looked like. They wore utterly unremarkable clothes, their height and builds also completely ordinary. Once they dove into the crowd, it was like water drops merging into the ocean—he'd completely lost track of them.
But those words were like a curse lingering in his heart.
Though autumn sun remained warm above, Kakashi's heart was ice-cold and bone-piercing.
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