After a short while, Uchiha Shinji left the alley, feeling quite satisfied.
To contract Coalball, he had to pay a one-time fee of 500,000 ryō and a high single-use summoning cost of 5,000 ryō.
Of course.
He also laid out several conditions.
For instance, Coalball was not allowed to disclose any information about him to anyone else—not even to other ninnekos.
Also, as long as he remained alive, Coalball was forbidden from signing a summoning contract with any other shinobi and had to serve only him.
After securing the contract with Coalball, Shinji didn't leave Cat Fortress immediately. Instead, he went to meet One-Eyed Dragon and Three-Leaf and then returned to the tabby cat that sold information.
This time, he held 1,000 ryō in his hand: "I've seen the ones you mentioned, and none of them satisfy me. If you want to earn this money, introduce me to a truly strong one!"
The tabby cat stared longingly at the money in Shinji's hand. "What? Even One-Eyed Dragon didn't satisfy you? That guy fought in the Third Great Shinobi War and faced off against a Jonin from Hidden Stone!"
"Too ugly!"
The tabby cat reluctantly tore its gaze from the money in Shinji's hand and thought for a moment before saying, "Princess Fūhime!"
Shinji asked curiously, "Princess?"
"She specializes in Wind Release!" The tabby cat gave him a knowing look.
Shinji paused for a moment before realizing.
The Uchiha clan was known for their proficiency in Fire Release and weapon throwing, so a ninneko specializing in Wind Release would be the best match for them.
As they say, wind enhances fire. If the coordination between the two was good enough, they could easily unleash powerful combination jutsu, greatly amplifying the strength of their ninjutsu.
For an Uchiha shinobi, a ninneko skilled in Wind Release was highly sought after.
While Shinji was lost in thought, the tabby cat jumped up, grabbed the money from his hand, and threw a poster from its bag toward him.
Shinji picked up the poster and saw that it featured a graceful white cat with a dignified air.
The more he looked at it, the more familiar the white cat seemed. He suddenly realized that this was the same white cat he had seen in the poster at the hair salon earlier.
She's the princess of Cat Fortress?
After saying this, Shinji looked up only to find that the tabby cat had already disappeared.
"Ran off?" He frowned and muttered, "I've never heard of a princess in Cat Fortress."
Coalball worked in the shadows and couldn't be seen publicly.
To cover that up, he needed to contract another ninneko. So, without overthinking it, he followed the address on the poster and found Princess Fūhime filming a commercial.
When Fūhime saw Shinji approaching with her poster in hand, she said gracefully, "Here for another autograph? Ah, being pursued by admirers like this is truly exhausting!"
With that, she strutted forward elegantly, moving like a runway model.
She opened an ink pad, pressed her dainty paw into it, and then stamped the poster in Shinji's hand.
Looking at the faint paw print on the poster, Shinji had a strange expression: "I'm not here for an autograph!"
Fūhime said with displeasure, "If you're here for a photo, I suggest you give up that disrespectful idea!"
Shinji, tired of the small talk, said, "Are you really the princess of Cat Fortress?"
Fūhime responded with pride, "Other than me, is there another ninneko as perfect in all of Cat Fortress?"
Shinji thought to himself, "Her status isn't ordinary. Contracting her might not be easy."
Then, another thought occurred to him—contracting a well-known ninneko like Fūhime would be a great way to cover up Coalball's existence.
Thud.
With that, he tossed the contract scroll toward her: "I want to sign a contract with you. Name your price! Set your terms!"
Fūhime, who had been walking away, stopped in her tracks and elegantly approached the contract scroll.
After securing the contract with Princess Fūhime, Shinji put away the contract scroll and sighed to himself: "From now on, I'm the last Uchiha with a ninneko in the entire shinobi world—no, wait, I'm the last Uchiha cat servant!"
Itachi had a contract with crows, making him the representative of the Uchiha Crow Style.
Sasuke would likely play with either snakes or hawks in the future.
So Shinji truly was the last Uchiha in the shinobi world using a ninneko!
Having completed his business, Shinji didn't linger in Cat Fortress any longer. He didn't visit the Cat Elder either. He just restocked his ninja tools and explosive tags before heading back to the Hidden Leaf at full speed.
This trip was to contract a ninneko and to test whether Danzo would make a move on him, not to defect. The longer he stayed outside the village, the more dangerous it became.
After sprinting non-stop, he finally saw the walls of the Hidden Leaf by dusk.
Huff... huff... huff...
Bending over and resting his hands on his knees, Shinji breathed heavily.
He wasn't sure if it was because of his chakra, but even though he had just started learning the Breathing Technique, his stamina was several times greater than those swordsmen in the memory fragments.
As expected, the stronger the body of a practitioner, the higher the potential of the Breathing Technique.
After calming down, he walked toward the village gate.
The gatekeeper shinobi were surprised to see Shinji return.
Though Cat Fortress wasn't far from the village, for an academy student like Shinji, the fastest return would have been by tomorrow.
They hadn't expected him to make it back before nightfall today.
After canceling his temporary travel pass at the registration desk by the gate, Shinji headed straight back to his apartment.
As he walked, he pondered: The shinobi assigned to monitor me is dead, yet Danzo hasn't made any moves. That's not like him. Could something else have happened last night that distracted the higher-ups, leaving them no time to deal with me?
Just thinking about the chaos of the previous night gave him a headache.
So many unexpected incidents had occurred in rapid succession that, even after going over them several times today, he couldn't be sure if he had unknowingly left any clues behind.
Upon returning to his apartment, he immediately bumped into Iruka, accompanied by two ANBU, who were escorting Haku downstairs.
Haku's been arrested!?
Shinji tensed up, his body ready to react.
Iruka, seeing Shinji return, looked surprised: "Shinji, weren't you out of the village?"
Shinji eyed Iruka and the others, noticing they didn't seem hostile toward him, so he responded: "Iruka-sensei, I just got back. By the way, what's going on?"
Iruka didn't answer Shinji right away. Instead, he nodded to the ANBU and patted Haku on the shoulder: "Don't worry. Everything will be fine."
Haku calmly replied, "I understand."
Soon, the two ANBU took Haku away.
As the trio disappeared into the distance, Shinji turned to Iruka and asked, "Iruka-sensei, why was Haku taken by the village's ANBU?"
After hesitating for a moment, Iruka said, "Today, the village received a protest from Hidden Mist. They're demanding we hand over Haku."
"What?"
Shinji was momentarily stunned.
After some thought, Iruka continued, "Actually... Haku's family doesn't originate from the Hidden Leaf."
Shinji remained silent, his puzzled gaze still fixed on Iruka.
Sighing, Iruka explained: "Haku comes from the Yuki clan, a Bloodline Limit family from Hidden Mist. For certain reasons, the Yuki clan was wiped out by Hidden Mist, so the village took Haku in as a survivor."
Shinji's expression darkened: "So Hidden Mist protested and is demanding we hand Haku over?"
Iruka, thinking Shinji was relating Haku's situation to his own past, reassured him: "Don't worry. The village won't hand Haku over. The ANBU you just saw were sent by the Hokage to escort Haku to a safe house."