Chapter 25 C25
Lucky people are always lucky, and unlucky people are always unlucky.
When Kana was forced by her family to sign up for the triennial unified selection of the Anbu, she vowed to Itachi, "No rest all year round, high intensity and high risk. The Anbu is a black-hearted department that seriously violates labor contract law. I would rather jump off the Naka River, become sworn brothers with Shikatori, and eat canned herring than go there."
On the day he received his acceptance letter, Itachi asked Kana with clear, innocent, and sincere eyes, "Want some more canned herring?"
Fortunately, his attention was only on the last item. Kana was guzzling mint to get rid of the smell, used up the remaining half bottle of shower gel, soaked herself in the water and changed the water seven times, and washed herself for a long time until her skin was wrinkled like a lily before she got up.
She performed so inconspicuously during the selection competition. What kind of eyes did the person who chose her have? This lousy secret service is doomed.
Kana later learned that the one she drew on the back of her hand was the most difficult trial mission. Even though she barely completed it on time, it was still a pretty good score after adjusting for the difficulty level.
Even worse than joining the ANBU, where human rights are nonexistent, is that her direct superior is Kakashi, the white-haired guy she had previously clashed with and who doesn't like her.
Their small squad, led by Kakashi, became the youngest in the history of the Anbu, but the difficulty of the mission was not reduced because of their age.
The wind howled in her ears, each gust scraping against her delicate eardrums and slashing against her thin back. The ribbon binding her hair was snapped in the wind, and her waist-length hair flew wildly, like resilient seaweed in the deep sea, silently wrapping around her body and then pulling her deeper without hesitation.
Kana's gaze fell on her fingertips, and for a fleeting moment they seemed to hover in mid-air, so close to the outstretched hand, almost within reach, yet the next second they felt as far away as the ends of the earth.
Through the gap between her index and middle fingers, she saw Itachi Uchiha being caught in time by his teammates who had caught up from behind, and Kakashi dragging most of his body back down the cliff. In the eyes of the rabbit, whom she described as "easily turning red when excited," something finally burst forth as if it could no longer be restrained. Dark, sticky vines twisted and intertwined, eventually forming the shape of three tomoe.
The wind howled, growing ever stronger with distance.
Kana couldn't really make out what Itachi said. With her exceptional eyesight, she felt that the way Itachi opened his mouth wide, restrained by his teammates, was almost like the roar of a wild beast before its head was cut off. It was somewhat out of character with his usual handsome and calm demeanor. In other world terms, it was out of character.
Behind him was a circle of bright white moon, hanging high in the curtain of night divided by the gaps between the towering cliffs, gradually condensing into a grain of rice, until it was swallowed up by the ever-thickening darkness at the bottom of the hundred-foot cliff.
Why did the white moonlight later turn into a grain of white rice? That's how it is. Kana suddenly realized at that moment.
The abyss and the deep sea have many things in common.
For example, darkness, cold, and the lingering, addictive fatigue.
Kana closed her eyes.
She remembered the bungee jumping she had once done.
The feeling of being lifted off the ground by speed, where the soul moves faster than the body, is almost addictive, so she stopped going.
The system, detecting a life-threatening situation, frantically sounded alarms in her mind almost the instant she closed her eyes, even forcibly disabling the pain blocker. The pain from the wound on her left arm forced her to open her eyes again.
The wind near the bottom of the cliff, carrying the chill of the rushing water, grew even colder and sharper. The red rope that had been tied around her waist snapped abruptly, and the communication scroll was scattered by the wind with a whoosh, fluttering in the air like light silk. Kana, who had undergone years of ninja training, didn't even have time to think about why her body moved instinctively. She reached out and grabbed the end, and the words that hadn't been erased yet came into view. She suddenly remembered that someone still owed her a meal, and it would be a shame not to eat it back.
"You promised Hyuga Yuko that you would let Hyuga Neji live past eighteen!"
Oh yeah, I impulsively agreed to Yuko's request—and now I regret it, I really regret it.
But if I don't go back, the abandoned puppy will cry, just like she did when she was abandoned.
Hai-Xu-You-Shen-Wei.
This is the hand seal for psychic magic.
If we add another "子" (zi), then it becomes...
"System, use [Tyka's Kiss] once."
The blood from her arm stained her palm, and the hand seals rapidly changed in her hand. Kana spread her five fingers wide, "Ninja Art: Reverse Summoning Technique".
When I opened my eyes again, I was greeted by a bright, almost melting sunlight.
If sunlight could be personified, it would be like the tide at sunset, its shimmering waters attempting to drown everyone caught in its waves. Kana sat up from the knee-high rushes that formed a vast expanse of water, surging to the surface for air. She reached out and brushed aside the blue bellflowers that drooped down to touch her face. The dahlias passing by were tall and robust, bursting with full, round buds, their yellow, red, and purple petals bursting forth. In the distance, almost every branch and leaf of the beech trees seemed to be ablaze, their leaves, soaked in sunlight, glowing with a warm, soft, vibrant fire, radiating a dim, fiery red. White birds hid behind clusters of leaves, their dark, round eyes observing an uninvited guest.
These plants, which shouldn't be lush at the same time of year, are defying convention yet genuinely thriving under the same sunlight.
The wound on his arm had stopped bleeding and was even beginning to grow a thin layer of pink new flesh, with the breath of life nourishing his body.
Kana tried to lower her body, accumulating enough acceleration, and lightly leaped high in the wind like a leaf, drifting across the fragrant fields with a passing breeze, finally landing on the branches of a tall beech tree.
The toes touched the tip of the robe, and the sleeves of the robe, which billowed up and then fell down, resembled bird feathers, slowly folding their wings.
The white bird, with its long, thin tail and a ring of emerald feathers around its neck, wasn't scared away by the strange leaf. Instead, out of curiosity, it tilted its head and hopped twice in her direction.
A faint smile appeared on her face. "I've found you."
Silence fell. Even the wind seemed to stop breathing.
Just moments ago, it was diligently playing the role of an ordinary little bird when it suddenly spoke in human language: "It has been twenty-one years." For twenty-one years, no one from the Hyuga clan has successfully signed a contract with the Qingluan clan, and for thirty years, no one has come to Qishan.
"My name is Kana."
It knows.
The scroll, deemed "worthless" due to the lack of response, was unearthed after many years, gathering dust at the bottom of a box. No matter how many times it failed, it still meticulously wrote its name in the contractor's column, stroke by stroke.
It was so familiar with the character that it could accurately write the word "kana" on the mud with its paws, and it even remembered her habit of making a slight hook at the end of the stroke.
"Do you want to sign a contract with me?" She had clearly sensed the hesitant probing of the spirit scroll countless times, but it always fell silent at the last moment.
"No."
"Because I'm not strong enough?"
It shook its head.
Her precise control over chakra and the amount of chakra she possesses prove that she is definitely one of the best among her peers.
"Then why?"
"Because it's meaningless."
Those eyes inevitably made it yearn for that person, as free and easy as a gentle breeze. Birds are born to love freedom, spending their entire lives flying beneath the clouds, regardless of scorching sun or torrential rain. They are born on earth and die in the sky.
It formed a bond with him because, even as an infant, it vaguely recognized him as one of its own kind—a partner with whom it could fly together—based solely on his scent.
However, now, there are no longer any people in the Hyuga clan who can fly.
Some people use their humanity and kindness as a price to transform themselves from living beings into lifeless but powerful and cold cages, thinking they can live forever, unaware that their lower bodies have long been buried in the mire of desire, and one day, their withered bones and corpses will engulf them.
Many more are like crippled birds whose wings have been forcibly torn off, unable to fly. Their wounds reveal bare bones, repeatedly scabbing over and festering, never truly healing.
A bird that loses its freedom loses everything.
Their entire lives were nothing more than waiting for a long and silent decay.
"The life force here will be beneficial to your healing. Go back after you're healed."
Light traces golden lines along the edges of the layers of leaves, like veins winding through a vast green canopy, yet upon closer inspection, they resemble the spiderweb-like cracks in a canopy on the verge of collapse. The wind that passes through them makes a low, mournful sound.
Kana's beaded cord was removed from her forehead and wrapped around her wrist many times. A gust of wind blew up the hair on her forehead, revealing ugly blue curse marks, like the endless blue sky shedding tears of pity.
It suddenly couldn't bear to look anymore and turned its head away.
"I don't accept this kind of boring fate."
Kana brushed her hair aside, brought her index and middle fingers together, and ran her fingertips across her forehead. The continuous blue curse mark suddenly disappeared.
In that instant, it seemed to hear the sound of heavy chains snapping in mid-air, and its pupils dilated in shock, "You..."
"Are you willing to sign a contract with me?" Kana asked it once again.
Together with her, let's break free from the cage of fate, break free from the shackles of absurdity, and let the birds that belong to the sky and the clouds regain their own wings.
It has lived for many years. It deeply feels the fickleness and ruthlessness of humankind, and understands that language is light and illusory, and the more pleasant the words are, the more likely they are to be false.
But at this moment, it still hoped that she could give it the answer it wanted.
Do you want to break free of this caged bird?
"yes."
It thought it must have been lonely for too long to be reminiscing about a deceased friend through a little girl, and to be so easily deceived by human sweet talk.
"One last question before the contract is signed—back then, why didn't you use psychic magic but instead used reverse psychic magic?"
Whether it's a psychic spell or a reverse psychic spell, it still requires the other's consent to be successfully performed.
In such a critical moment, if it responds to her psychic summons, the contract is formed automatically, and she doesn't need to do anything else.
He could have used [Tika's Kiss] to achieve freedom of summoning much sooner, yet he persisted with the hand seals for two years; despite the equal probability of successfully casting a summoning spell and a reverse summoning spell in that situation, he still chose the latter; knowing full well that it had been watching him and was unlikely to abandon him in his death...
So why is that?
Why waste time?
Why take the long detour?
Perhaps... "I just didn't want you to feel like I was threatening you with my life."
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