Chapter 72: Holiday Goals

Once he got permission from the Dragon, Tekku instantly rushed towards his apartment and completed all the preparations he would need for this trip. Since he had been planning it for a while already, he had most of the things he needed already packed up. The rest was always on his body, anyway, as he didn't let his important things lay around.

A short trip to Yamanaka Flower's later, to give a brief update that he wouldn't be in the Village for at least a few weeks. After all, he didn't want to return to an angry Ino. He walked towards the Main Gate of Konohagakure after registering at the gate, heading westwards out of the village.

The goal for this trip was obviously not a Summoning Contract. Well, if he got one out of it, all the better, but it wasn't his main target; it was just an excuse to leave the Village. With the historical records of the Uchiha Clan in his hands and his own search for years during his missions, in the Konoha Archives, and the historical sites around the Village, he discovered a few interesting locations.

Potential Otsutsuki ruins left by Kaguya and Isshiki a thousand years ago when they arrived on Earth for the first time, and even locations that were possibly left behind by Shiba Otsutsuki far earlier than that. Of course, he would have to be careful when checking them out on his way, as some of them could be possible hideouts of Jigen, maybe even early members of Kara. He absolutely wasn't strong enough to survive an encounter with the current Vessel of Isshiki Otsutsuki, especially not if he went all out. Tekku had no idea how strong the man could be right now, but his Vessel, Jigen, should be healthier than during the Boruto timeline, even if not by much, since a thousand years are a long time and 20 years more or less don't make much of a difference.

Also, he didn't have enough time to check all of the sites out as they were spread all over the Elemental Nations. After all, his main goal was completely different; the Otsutsuki were just a side stop. What he truly aimed for was to learn more about Senjutsu, and there were only three places in the Elemental Nations where he knew for sure they were teaching it: Mount Myōboku, Shikkotsu Forest, and the Ryūchi Cave. They are called the "Big Three" Sage regions. Although the term "Big Three" implies that there may be smaller ones, he had only found signs of one, and that one was far away on the other end of Iwagakure. Son Gokū, the four-tailed Bijuu, introduced himself as the King of the Sage Monkeys, another location for Monkey Summonings besides the one located in the Land of Fire, contracted to the Sarutobi Clan, currently under the leadership of the Monkey King Enma.

And Tekku could indeed confirm the existence of Monkey Sages in the past thousand years when he checked different historical records. But as much as he would love to check out the Water Screen Cave where these Monkeys were living, traveling through Iwa was simply not an option right now, and the connection to the Yonbi was simply too risky for him. No, Tekku decided to play it as safe as possible and choose the location he knew most about after Mount Myōboku, where the Toads were living. He considered the Toads, of course, but their training method took too long, their Sage mode didn't sound as cool as the one he chose, and their connection to Jiraiya was simply too troublesome.

Instead, he decided to head towards the Ryūchi Cave, where the White Snake Sage was living. Learning the Sage Arts with them was pretty simple, although far riskier. Pass some trials, get bitten by an ancient White Snake, and survive the Senjutsu Chakra. Easy, right? And it was just a few days away from Konoha in the western swamps. So if everything went well, it would take no more than 10 days and then he'd have over two months to explore the Elemental Nations. Amazing, right?

But first, there was another small thing to take care of. This unexpected but easy-to-handle detour: "Does Danzo have a spy in the ANBU? Or in the Hokage's office where my official request landed? I wasn't followed before, so he must be interested in what I am planning to do outside of the Village."

A Root agent was following him. Tekku was familiar with the Chakra Signature of all ANBU and many Jonin in the Village. Just outside the range of his sensory abilities that he officially specified in the Village during his reports, there was an unfamiliar Chakra Signature following him, directly from the Village. If the Shinobi tracking him was sent by the Hokage, it would have been an ANBU, and Tekku would have recognized the signature. But it was unknown to him. However, this Shinobi knew the supposed limit of his sensory range, which he wrote down in the official mission reports.

Of course, Tekku was a Shinobi, and deception was something he normally did for good reasons. In the reports, he always downplayed his own abilities. His current Sensory Range was double what he had written down, and even with that expectation, Tekku had still downplayed his skills, so his stalker was still within his range of perception.

" How should I handle this? Well, Root is officially disbanded. So nobody would miss a Root Agent." He smirked as he kept traveling westwards. It didn't matter if the Root agent knew the direction he was traveling; there were so many possible targets there that he couldn't send any meaningful intel to Danzo. After all, the Ryūchi Cave was well hidden; even Orochimaru only discovered it after leaving Konoha.

For now, he didn't show that he knew he was being shadowed. After all, he had gained enough experience in the ANBU to know how to handle this situation. There was no real reason for the Root agent to wait for a chance to ambush and kill him; it simply wouldn't make sense. He had never had anything to do with Danzo besides one meeting. This was probably Danzo's standard behavior for Shinobi leaving the Village. Maybe he was looking for blackmail or something of that kind.

If Tekku shook off the Root agent, he would know that he was secretive about something and would pay more attention in the future. But if he killed the agent, it would still raise Danzo's suspicion. However, there could be other reasons for his death besides Tekku. There could have been an ambush or a trap at the location Tekku was heading to.

Of course, Tekku would imply something like this in his official report once he returned. But for now, he had to find a way to kill his shadow. After all, he wasn't planning to assassinate Tekku; he just wanted to spy on him, so there was no reason for the agent to come any closer.

"Troublesome," Tekku sighed in his mind, channeling his inner Nara.

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