Trail Discovered

The first day of farming, Natsume turned out to be a natural. Her Earth Release affinity made her move through the mud like she was an eel. Lee was surprised at her talent but just assumed she had experience farming. It wasn't rare for kids to help their parents as soon as they were able. After working for a whole day in the sun, Natsume was only able to plant an eighth of the field. She realized just how big the fields were. It was no wonder that Lee made so much, the yield must be astronomical.

Lee had done about twice as much as her, and Saya had just been preparing the seeds for planting. Seeing how diligent Natsume was, the duo was quite satisfied. Saya decided to make a big dinner tonight for the two hard workers. Some neighbors had come by occasionally and saw the speed Natsume was working and were also shocked. It was like finding an ugly duckling only to discover it was actually a golden goose!

They enviously left back to their own duties. The family of three was unbothered by these jealous neighbors and continued their day-to-day activities. The family environment was always happy and joyful. It gave Natsume an experience she never had before. While she worked the fields, she sensed herself come closer to nature.

In her memories, no one had ever been able to master senjutsu in the Uchiha's history except for the last Indra reincarnation—Sasuke. However, his mastery over senjutsu was more artificially created through experimentation. Based on her experience so far, Natsume wondered if the nature of Uchiha being shinobi by birth prevented them from ever integrating with nature. Since Senju Hashirama was a wood release user, his proximity to nature was at the peak.

It took the family a week to completely plant and flood the rice fields so that they could begin growing. However, the process wasn't finished because weeds and pests would invade the paddies that needed to be dealt with daily. Lee was very meticulous in examining each corner of the fields and digging out the eels that grew too big to serve up for dinner. After another few days passed, Natsume had another opportunity to scout the territory.

"Are you sure you don't need me to come?" Saya was nervous, looking at Natsume and Lee. The day before, one of their neighbors had come to them in a panic. All of their seeds had failed to germinate, and the head of the household got sick. They begged Lee for help, and he thought this would be a good opportunity to pay them back for covering for them, so he agreed.

"Aunty, I want to see the other village! We will be fine." Natsume gave her a bright smile. When she moved her head around her long pigtails would dance around cutely. She didn't bother changing her hairstyle since Saya liked it so much except when she was working the field. After some more convincing, they were able to leave together. The journey took the whole day so they would stay the night. Fortunately, Lee was a regular costumer and had a place to stay in the village.

After four hours of silence, Lee finally spoke up. "Tsume, good work."

Natsume almost burst out in laughter. He was really bad with his words, but she understood his sincerity. He was really awkward and when someone pointed out his feelings, he got shy. She reached out and patted him on the head. He coughed and turned away. She couldn't hold back her giggling. When she was with this family, Natsume felt like a simple farmer instead of a killing machine. However, she would easily become a demon if it meant preserving her clan.

A little bit of killing intent slipped out but she stifled it before it effected Lee. Fortunately, his friend in the next town had an extra room for Natsume to stay in so she had some privacy. Once she closed the door, she took out her gear and quickly slipped into the night. Unfortunately, she still didn't discover anything. However, she noticed another checkpoint going further south and wondered if that was a potential direction to explore.

She returned before the sun rose and in the morning helped Lee purchase some more germinated rice seeds. However, they encountered a problem, which turned into an opportunity.

"I'm sorry Lee, I sold all of my stock already. You'll have to go to the next town." Lee looked over at Natsume and considered it carefully. She looked up at him and gave him a signal. He seemed to understand her gesture and then nodded at the man.

"It's okay. Thank you." They got back on the cart and continued south. Fortunately, he carried his register with him incase they were randomly searched. This made crossing the checkpoint much easier. The journey to the next town took the rest of the day but they didn't have a place to stay this time. When they got into town, Lee asked around for accommodation and was able to secure two rooms in an old empty home owned by an old couple next door.

Natsume repeated her nighttime scouting and finally managed to get a lead. There were many shinobi coming in and out of a old mining facility that was said to be completely depleted. However, when Natsume investigated the mine, she discovered that it was a tunnel that led to an opening in the mountains. There was a huge gathering of shinobi with a camp set up. Natsume realized something at that point that was bad news for the Uchiha.

'Aburame, Inuzuka, and Hyuuga… Why do they only have sensory clans? This is bad!' She quickly escaped before anyone caught her. When she made it back to her temporary abode, she wrote a message to Tajima. However, when her Mangekyou was activated, she sensed a small chakra source under her clothes. 'Dammit!'

She quickly escaped out into the rice paddies and used the subterranean travel jutsu to hide underground. The insect couldn't survive long underground and was quickly smothered to death. Natsume sensed hundreds of chakra signatures above her. She quietly held her breath and tried to enter a selfless state to decrease her presence.

======

8 owed chapters left!