Chapter 40: There and Back
Natsume took a shuriken and placed it on the sealing pattern. After inserting chakra, the shuriken vanished with a puff. It also returned without issue when she activated the scroll once more. This was the simplest form of storage scroll that existed in the world. The function was to store a set quantity of objects in an independent space. The quantity was limited to how the scroll was written. The more objects you wanted to store, the more costly it was for the user to place or release the seal.
Simply put, someone with low chakra reserves couldn't have scrolls filled with thousands of weapons. It took precise chakra control and fuinjutsu knowledge since the base formula was optimized for efficiency. That efficiency started to rapidly fall off the higher you went in storage capacity, so a new formula would be needed eventually. This was Natsume's next step. Adapting and innovating fuinjutsu was very complicated and took a lot of time.
Every day consisted of training, teaching, playing, and experimenting. A week of trial and error left Natsume a bit disappointed. She decided to step away from fuinjutsu and gather some ninjutsu knowledge. Her jutsu repertoire was a bit lacking for someone that wished to compete with the powerhouses in the future. The only issue was that the archives contained hundreds of jutsu scrolls.
After sifting through the low to high rank jutsu for a day, Natsume realized a startling fact. They were practically useless to the Uchiha. Most of the jutsu here were looted from the enemy, and the ones that were made by Uchiha were either incomplete, or just an altered version of an already existing jutsu. The ones looted did hold some research value, but there were very few fire and earth release jutsu among them.
Therefore, after a day of skimming hundreds of scrolls, Natsume only found a few that were beneficial to her. She decided to move on to the top-ranked jutsu once she had finished memorizing and mastering the ones she picked out. There were many core Uchiha fire techniques as well as some foreign fire and earth release techniques that were not cost effective but she decided to learn anyway for overall mastery.
Like that, time passed, and it was already early February. Natsume's days were simple and peaceful. However, the days were getting warmer, and the peace was just the calm before the storm.
"It's been almost a week since it last snowed… and the ground is already clear." Kono said to Natsume as she stared at the clear sky. There was a bird high in the sky heading her way.
"En, it looks like winter is ending." Natsume replied, her eyes still tracking the lone bird in the sky. Madara woke up at that moment and was reaching out for Natsume. She gave him a sidelong glace and smiled. Once she took him in her arms, he started giggling. The bird finally descended and landed on a nearby branch. She took the message tied to its leg and read the short note. 'It's time.'
Kono knew what the note was without seeing it and went to retrieve Madara. He was clingy and didn't want to let go, but ultimately, he couldn't overpower the adults. "Say goodbye to your ne-san, Madara-kun." She tried to play with him to calm him down but he seemed to have a sixth sense that something was happening. He started crying. At first his sounds were the usual, but he figured out how to form a word for the first time.
"Nene!" Natsume's heart melted when she heard that. She never expected the three-month-old Madara to say his first words, let alone them to be calling for her. She squeezed his nose lightly and kissed his chubby arm.
"I'll be back soon, Madara. When I come back, I'll teach you lots of things!"
Natsume returned to her room and grabbed her gear. She wore the standard dark grey cloak without chest armor. The armor was too bulky to be used for a mission that prioritized speed and stealth. Although she hadn't fully mastered the new jutsu she had been studying, they were enough to be used and may even be very helpful in certain situations.
On the way out, she ran into Sahiro. He was dressed identically to her and they simply nodded toward each other and made their way to the headquarters on the border of the land of fire. They couldn't move at full speed since they still had to be careful with having their movements revealed to the enemy. It was uncertain to what extent the fire Daimyo went to trick his competitors. After a week of carefully traveling through the Land of Fire and taking many detours, they arrived at the headquarters.
"Tajima-dono, Natsume-sama and Sahiro-sama have arrived." One of the Uchiha guards came to Tajima's tent and roused him awake. It was the middle of the night when the two arrived. He left his tent and met them outside.
"I hope you gained a lot of knowledge. You will definitely need it." He had a solemn and tired look on his face. It went beyond just the tiredness of a few sleepless nights. "We returned from scouting not too long ago… there are five clans set up in the Land of Rice Fields with a secure perimeter. Although the overall number of shinobi is lower than us, if any of them send out a message we will be flanked from all sides."
Natsume frowned at his words. This was the worst-case scenario. It seems that they predicted something like this would happen. Given the circumstances, their best method of attack would be launching guerrilla warfare and blocking supply routes. If they could prevent messages from leaking it would be ideal, but if not, then intercepting the reinforcements enroute would be the best move.
"Natsume, you seem to have an idea?" Tajima had been paying close attention to Natsume and whenever she was thinking she would make the same expression.
"… I do have some thoughts, Tajima-sama…"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Pengincognito
Pengincognito Sorry guys I was in the hospital... I'm okay now. I'll try to catch up ASAP, thanks for sticking around <3
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone