Chapter 347: Secret Meeting

Chapter 347: Chapter 347: Secret Meeting

After quietly taking Karin’s mother’s body out of Kusagakure, Hyuga Kagami chose a scenic spot and, together with Karin, laid her mother to rest.

Standing before the grave, the frail Karin desperately tried to suppress her emotions, silently sobbing.

Beside her, Hyuga Kagami gently patted her shoulder and said softly, "If you want to cry, then cry."

Karin choked back her tears as she said, "Mama wouldn’t let me cry. She said if I cried, I wouldn’t be able to become a ninja."

In Karin’s mother’s eyes, as survivors of the fallen Land of Whirlpools, they had no way to survive in the shinobi world unless they became ninja. That was why she had never allowed Karin to cry.

Hyuga Kagami shook his head. "It’s okay today."

Weakness was indeed a ninja’s greatest enemy, but crying was not always a sign of weakness—especially for a six-year-old girl who had just lost her only family.

With Hyuga Kagami’s permission, Karin finally let herself cry her heart out before her mother’s grave, releasing all the grief and anguish she had kept bottled up inside.

Afterward, she followed Hyuga Kagami to the flying fortress.

Karin’s arrival came as a pleasant surprise to Gaara.

In Sunagakure, Gaara’s situation was somewhat similar to Naruto’s. Both of them longed to play with children their own age, but the other children were unwilling to stay around them.

Karin naturally held no such prejudice. She stared curiously at Gaara, seemingly more interested in the character "love" on his forehead than in Gaara himself.

After putting all the daily necessities he had purchased on this trip into the storeroom, Hyuga Kagami kept an eye on the two children while pondering how he should train these two promising seedlings.

As the One-Tail’s jinchūriki, coupled with the protection of his mother Karura’s spirit, Gaara’s starting point could be said to rank just below Naruto and Sasuke among those of his generation. Even if Gaara received no formal ninja training whatsoever, as long as he grew up safely, his strength would naturally reach the level of a jōnin, or even an elite jōnin.

But after Hyuga Kagami had gone through so much trouble, a mere jōnin obviously wasn’t enough to satisfy him.

Hyuga Kagami needed Gaara to become stronger than he had been in the original timeline—to grow into a powerful figure capable of standing on his own, someone who could hold off Kage-level enemies for him when the need arose.

Considering Gaara’s fighting style, Hyuga Kagami didn’t devise any overly elaborate training plan. Instead, he decided to begin with the most fundamental skill of all: taijutsu.

Setting aside the innate abilities granted by one’s bloodline, there were, when all was said and done, only two factors that determined a ninja’s strength.

The first was battle intelligence.

Not everyone was capable of bringing out the full extent of their own strength.

Hiruko, who had fused five Kekkei Genkai—including the Sharingan—only to be defeated by the Third Hokage in a single move, was the perfect example of what not to do.

By contrast, the Fourth Hokage, who skillfully utilized space-time ninjutsu and the Rasengan to almost single-handedly reverse Konoha’s declining fortunes during the Third Shinobi World War, was the perfect example to follow.

The second was the refinement, application, and precise control of one’s own chakra.

Chakra was the very foundation of a ninja’s supernatural abilities. Therefore, learning how to refine and utilize chakra was of paramount importance to every ninja—a mandatory lesson before one could even begin practicing ninjutsu.

However, because Gaara had been overwhelmingly powerful from a young age and had rarely experienced hard-fought battles against evenly matched opponents, his battle intelligence was not among the very best of his generation.

In the original timeline, during the Chūnin Exams, when faced with Sasuke’s increased speed, Gaara had practically no ability to fight back. He was easily wounded by Sasuke’s Chidori and pushed to the brink of losing control.

It was precisely to address this weakness that Hyuga Kagami arranged a taijutsu training regimen for Gaara.

At close quarters, where every punch and kick landed directly against the opponent, taijutsu was the best way to sharpen a ninja’s battle intelligence. Once someone became accustomed to such fierce combat—where they had to learn to anticipate their opponent’s moves, could never hesitate, and were allowed no mistakes—their combat experience would grow at an astonishing rate.

As for Karin, Hyuga Kagami had no intention of arranging any training for her just yet.

It wasn’t because he hadn’t figured out a suitable training plan. Rather, Karin had lived an extremely harsh life in Kusagakure. Her body was frail and her vitality depleted, so she needed a proper period of rest and recovery before she could endure the grueling training of a ninja. Otherwise, even with the Uzumaki Clan’s extraordinary constitution, her body could still be left with lasting damage.

And Hyuga Kagami had already decided how he would train Karin once she recovered.

With Karin’s talent, Hyuga Kagami naturally wasn’t satisfied with merely turning her into a rear-line support ninja. What he needed was a powerful ninja capable of assisting Gaara—and even restraining him if Gaara ever lost control.

Therefore, in addition to taijutsu training that would take full advantage of the Uzumaki Clan’s exceptional physique, Karin’s training plan would also include courses in sealing techniques and the Clone Technique.

If Karin happened to possess an aptitude for scientific research, Hyuga Kagami wouldn’t mind training her to become his laboratory assistant as well.

After all, he could already foresee that his future research workload would only become heavier and heavier. A qualified laboratory assistant would eventually become indispensable to him.

Seeing that the two children had already sat down together and begun quietly talking, Hyuga Kagami smiled faintly.

For this attempt at cultivating subordinates, Hyuga Kagami had adopted an approach similar to Orochimaru’s. He had chosen to intervene when his targets were at their most emotionally vulnerable and when their circumstances were at their most desperate, saving their lives and changing their fates while presenting himself as an overwhelmingly powerful savior.

Because of this, Hyuga Kagami believed that as long as he gave them enough care in the days to come and did not mistreat them, their loyalty toward him should be reasonably secure.

......

Konoha, Hokage’s Office.

Kakashi and Guy were reporting to the Third Hokage about what had happened during their trip to Kumogakure.

Just as Hyuga Kagami had expected, after the hot-tempered Fourth Raikage learned the purpose of Kakashi and Guy’s visit, he immediately agreed to participate in the upcoming surprise attack against the Akatsuki.

After hearing their report, the Third Hokage nodded and instructed, "For this secret meeting, Team 11 will accompany me as my personal guard."

The Third Hokage attached tremendous importance to this surprise attack against the Akatsuki. Because of that, even within Konoha itself, he was doing everything possible to restrict the number of people who knew about the operation.

After all, according to the intelligence they currently possessed on the Akatsuki, members such as Hiruko, Orochimaru, and Uchiha Shinichi were all rogue ninja who had originated from Konoha, and every single one of them was a dangerous individual capable of threatening the village’s safety. The Third Hokage had no choice but to take the matter seriously.

In fact, if Nagato and Konan, who were Jiraiya’s students, as well as the defected Obito were included, then the entire Akatsuki could practically be considered an organization that had splintered off from Konoha.

Kakashi immediately replied, "Yes!"

A few days later, the Third Hokage quietly left the village with ANBU Team 11 and Jiraiya, heading toward the location agreed upon for the secret meeting with the Kazekage and Raikage.

And this time, the Hyuga Kagami accompanying the Third Hokage was already his true body...