Kirito's good mood did not last long, and it ended just as breakfast was finished.
The reason was that Tsunade said to him and Nawaki, "Nawaki, Kirito, come with me to visit grandma later."
Kirito and Nawaki's smiles quickly faded when they heard this, and their faces became a bit heavy.
In the past year, Mito's physical condition has been deteriorating rapidly.
Worried that Mito would lose control of the nine-tailed fox, she had been secretly relocated to a secret villa outside the village for some time now, protected by a large number of ANBU ninjas on a daily basis and constantly changing her place of residence.
Kirito now had difficulty even seeing his teacher Mito, and needed to apply in advance to Sandaime. Some time ago, he could still see her once a week after applying to Sandaime, but in the past two months, his applications had been rejected, and Nawaki was in a similar situation.
Among the Senju clan, only Momo, the Hokage's advisor, can see Mito on a daily basis.
Nawaki is already nine years old, and due to the incident two years ago when he wanted to graduate early, he was put through rigorous training as the head of the household early. He is personally more mature than many of his peers, and understands what death is.
In recent times, every time he returns from seeing Mito, he has grown a little.
Now Nawaki no longer skips class. Although he still has a hard time understanding the theoretical lessons taught in class, he still listens attentively and patiently. The same goes for his daily seal arts studies. He no longer shows any impatience, and his grades in theoretical lessons and seal arts have both improved considerably. These are the biggest bragging rights Nawaki has when he visits Mito.
As for training in ninjutsu and taijutsu, it's even crazier than before. Every day, he creates more than 30 shadow clones to assist in his training.
Nawaki's training is so crazy. Even though he is a fool, he has always been down-to-earth and has made progress one step at a time. Over time, he will be richly rewarded.
Like Rock Lee, Nawaki is a hard-working genius.
In the past year, Nawaki's strength has grown very quickly.
Although his chakra manipulation is still only so-so, he has relied on a large number of shadow clones to continuously use ninjutsu and improve proficiency, so that practice makes perfect. Many ninjutsu can already be done with simplified seals.
For example, Nawaki can now release the most commonly used Multiple Shadow Clone Technique without having to form seals.
However, just completing this seal-less release of the jutsu has increased Nawaki's strength by at least 20-30%.
Because Nawaki, who possesses large chakra, relies on this jutsu to execute many of his tactics and jutsu, the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique definitely belongs to Nawaki's core jutsu.
In terms of ninjutsu, Nawaki has learned ten good ninjutsu techniques each for Water Release and Earth Release, and can release them proficiently. Under Kirito's tutelage, he has also learned to use Shadow Clones in conjunction with Rasengan, just like Naruto.
Finally, he has recently successfully mastered the nature of Yang Release Chakra and begun to practice the improved Akamichi Secret Technique that Kirito taught him.
In terms of taijutsu, Nawaki has exceptional talent.
Two years ago, he became a disciple of Master Chen, a famous physical education expert from Konoha, and learned a powerful kicking technique. Recently, he has begun to practice Chen's taijutsu, Leaf Dragon God.
If Nawaki were not so young, Kirito would like him to learn the art of the Eight Gates.
Nawaki is not even worth mentioning when it comes to illusions.
In terms of overall strength, Kirito believes that Nawaki already has the strength of a special jōnin. As long as he doesn't encounter an illusion-type jōnin, Nawaki will be able to fight back. If he has teammates to coordinate with, he might even be able to win.
...
"What? You two don't want to visit your grandmother? You don't have to go if you don't want to."
Tsunade saw the expressions on Kirito and Nawaki's faces and said with a stern face on purpose.
"That's not true, of course I want to go,"
Nawaki immediately retorted loudly.
"I haven't been able to see my teacher for a long time, so I definitely want to go."
Kirito shook his head.
"Then let's go together. You guys wait for me for a bit."
Tsunade smiled contentedly upon hearing the two's replies.
After that, she quickly walked back to her room and carefully freshened up.
Half an hour later, the three finally set off from home.
At this time, an ANBU ninja was already waiting by the door.
"Tsunade-sama, please follow me,"
the ANBU ninja said respectfully to Tsunade.
"Then please lead the way,"
Tsunade nodded.
Where is Mito now? This information is top secret in Konoha right now, and even Tsunade doesn't know. She can only let the ANBU ninja sent by Sandaime lead the way to find her grandmother.
Relying on spiritual perception, Kirito was able to accurately know Mito's location, but it was extremely difficult to infiltrate.
I don't know if it was Mito's doing, but a special barrier that prevents spiritual entities from entering has been added to the outside of Mito's residence.
Sealing technique · Spirit Sealing!
It is this enchantment that has formed a barrier that makes it difficult for him to sneak in as a spiritual entity.
There really is no such thing as an impenetrable wall in this world. He successfully learned the important information of the Spirit Transormation Technique, but I don't know which bastard leaked it. This piece of information has now been included in the reward notice at the underground gold exchange.
His current bounty was even higher than Nawaki's, at 80 million.
It was no surprise that once he left Konoha, he would immediately attract a large group of bounty hunters with ulterior motives.
Led by the ANBU ninja, the three of them secretly left the village using a transformation technique and then headed deep into the depths of the Dead Forest.
Along the way, Kirito sensed with his natural energy that there were more than ten successive jōnin-level chakra around him.
He also used spiritual perception to discover many ninjas from the Hyuga, Aburame, and Inuzuka clans, each of whom were at least chunin. These perceptive ninjas were scattered all over the Death Forest, constantly on patrol, covering almost the entire forest.
It was clear that Konoha had invested a lot of protective power to protect Mito. With so many ninjas protecting it, even a shadow-level strong would not fare well if they came to attack.
Soon, the three arrived at a secret villa deep in the Death Forest.
Here, a total of ten jōnin were guarding the perimeter of the villa.
The ninjas on guard had received orders in advance and knew that Kirito and the others were visiting, so they did not stop them.
One of the Hyūga jōnin on guard at the door used Byakugan to confirm that the three of them were not someone else using a transformation technique, and let them enter the villa.
Inside the villa, Kirito saw Kushina, whom he had not seen for a long time, and she was working hard to learn sealing techniques.
Tsunade's reaction to seeing Kushina was even more enthusiastic than when she saw him, and she also attacked Kushina with a powerful washing face technique. Kuzunai was not as good at holding her breath as Kirito, and she passed out directly due to suffocation. Fortunately, Tsunade's medical ninjutsu was superb, and she was saved in no time.
Subsequently, under Kushina's guidance, the three of them saw Mito and Momo, who was taking care of her, in the depths of the villa.
At this time, Mito's mental state was not bad, but her figure was becoming more and more emaciated, her hair had completely turned gray, and the seal mark of the Yin in the center of her brow had faded considerably.
Weak, incredibly weak.
This was the feeling that Mito gave Kirito and the others.
With the help of Momo, Mito got up from the ground and said to Kirito and the others with a smile, "I'm here, come over and let me take a good look at you, my eyes haven't been working very well lately."
Kirito's nose twitched at this, and his heart suddenly felt empty, realizing that the thing he least wanted to see was finally about to happen.
Using soul perception, he had already discovered that Mito's soul fire was already so weak that it could extinguish at any time.
He didn't go up first, but instead let Nawaki and Tsunade, who were already crying, go up first.
He just stood there, guarding them.
"Kirito, what are you still standing there for, come here quickly,"
suddenly came Mito's voice.
Kirito heard Mito's voice and his body immediately subconsciously quickened its pace. He took Mito's outstretched hand with both hands and laughed with a hint of a sob, "Sensei, I'm here."
"Good, very good, you three are back, it's good that you're back."
Mito hugged the three of them and smiled with relief, finally feeling at ease after being anxious and relaxing both body and mind.
On the other side, in a pitch black space deep within Mito's body, a pair of red eyes full of hatred suddenly opened, emitting a bright red light.
The next moment, the sound of a large number of chains breaking could be heard, and blood-red chakra quickly spread out in the darkness, accompanied by the roar of a giant beast.
At the same time, a look of pain appeared on Mito's face, and an evil and violent red chakra suddenly burst out from her body, sending the three of Kirito flying.
This red chakra quickly gathered above Mito's head, forming a hideous fox head.
As the fox head appeared, an extremely cold voice rang in Kirito and the others' ears: "Mito, these people are your loved ones, aren't they? Just you wait, when I get out of here, I'm going to kill them all, hahaha~!"