The so-called Dark Ninja Cat World was a huge cat-shaped castle. Its shape was hidden by a barrier. If no one led the way or if one wasn't familiar with the road, they couldn't find this Ninja Cat Castle at all.
Naraku arrived at the entrance of the Ninja Cat Castle in an instant. Then, dozens of guards landed one after another.
At the castle gate, two ninja cats pointed their spears at Naraku and shouted:
"Who are you? Humans are not welcome here!"
"You stay hidden outside," Naraku ordered the followers behind him.
Then, Naraku activated his scarlet Sharingan and walked in. He simply ignored the two nameless kittens.
The two noisy ninja cats were now stunned, obviously trapped in an illusion.
Naraku entered the hall of the Ninja Cat Castle, where dozens of Ninja Cats were singing and dancing, looking very happy.
Several ninja cats noticed Naraku, the uninvited guest.
"Hey, Naraku-sama, nya."
The ninja cat Kozumaru was also there and was a little surprised to see Naraku arriving.
Kozumaru carried two ninja swords on his back and was nearly one meter tall, which made him quite large among ninja cats.
"Naraku-sama, meow, why are you here at the Ninja Castle, meow?"
"Oh, Kozumaru, you are here too. I came to visit the King of Ninja Cats, the Twin-Tailed Cat. Can I have your permission?"
Naraku remained very calm. Except for a few Ninja Cats, most of them were weak and posed no threat to him.
"Oh! Sure, meow. Lord Naraku, please wait a moment, meow. I'll go and inform you, meow."
Kozumaru quickly turned around and went to inform the Ninja Cat King, the Twin-Tailed Cat.
Naraku crossed his arms and closed his eyes.
"What Granny Cat said was right. This Ninja Cat King had kidnapped many of the Ninja Cats we raised in Uchiha."
Naraku recognized many familiar Ninja Cats. The Summoning Beast Ninja Cats had a different way of thinking from ninjas. These cats believed they could survive anywhere and could sign Summoning contracts.
But for the breeder, they did not want unexpected situations to occur, especially during battle. A disabled ninja cat or a mishap during combat could be almost fatal to a ninja's brief engagements.
After entering, Naraku thought that this Ninja Cat Castle was a good place—very suitable for raising intelligent Ninja Cats.
However, Granny Cat had to remain the number one keeper of the Uchiha family's ninja cats, and that situation couldn't change.
Moreover, some ninja cats were needed to spread out in the ninja world to gather intelligence for Uchiha. If they all stayed in the castle, Uchiha's intelligence system would be in trouble.
"Nyan, Lord Naraku, please follow me."
Kozumaru soon returned to the hall and summoned Naraku.
Naraku followed Kozumaru's footsteps and walked deeper into the castle.
There were dozens of ninja cats in the hall, some as big as tigers, and some as small as ordinary house cats. Most of them wore short shirts, and many of them carried weapons.
Ninja cats had the same intelligence as humans. Uchiha's evaluation of ninja cats was that they were excellent intelligence scouts and good at physical skills.
The rest was nothing special.
Most of the Ninja Cats there fit the Uchiha description, but there were always some with rare abilities.
Just like Kozumaru, whom Naraku liked to summon—Kozumaru was good at perception ninjutsu and was very helpful to Naraku. He was Naraku's most frequently summoned ninja cat.
Naraku followed Kozumaru for nearly twenty minutes, moving at a fairly fast pace, passing through several stairs and branch courtyards.
Finally, they arrived at the castle tower.
"Nyan, Naraku-sama, Nekomata-sama is inside, meow." (In this book, the two-tailed beast was called Matatabi, and the ninja cat was called Nekomata)
"Okay, thank you for your hard work, Kozumaru."
Naraku threw some of Kozumaru's favorite dried fish to him and walked into the castle tower.
After going up the stairs, he reached the resting place of the two-tailed cat.
In the pavilion, a huge curtain obscured the figure of the two-tailed cat. From the shadow, one could only judge that its figure was enormous.
"Uchiha leader, what brings you here?"
A muffled voice came from behind the curtain.
"Mr. Nekomata, I'm sorry to bother you. I heard that many of the ninja cats I raised in Uchiha came to your castle. Thank you for taking care of them, so I came to visit you."
"Is that all?"
"Yes, this is the gift list, please check it."
Naraku took out a gift list and fired it like a kunai toward the gap in the curtains.
Then he took out a storage scroll and made a seal. Smoke appeared from the scroll and several boxes materialized.
"As expected of the leader of Uchiha. I only did a trivial thing, but I am sorry to have cost you so much."
After seeing the list again, the cat glimpsed the boxes Naraku had summoned through the curtain, and his tone became more polite.
"This is just a greeting gift, you're welcome, Mr. Nekomata."
"If possible, I hope to sign a Summoning Contract with Mr. Nekomata. Your Ninja Castle is very suitable for Ninja Cats to live in. I, Uchiha, have raised many Ninja Cats and hope to send them here as well."
Naraku gave gifts, exchanged pleasantries, and finally stated his true purpose—to sign a contract with the ninja cat.
"I see..."
The ninja cat's voice was low, and Naraku saw the ninja cat making hand seals through the shadow of the curtain.
The scene in the castle tower changed. The tower, which originally had a night view, turned into a basement with yellow lights flickering on the walls.
A woman in a kimono, with her back to Naraku, licked an oil lamp.
"Illusion: Mirror of Heaven and Earth"
Naraku saw the ninja cat making hand seals and naturally didn't fall into the illusion. He activated the Uchiha family illusion and combined it with the Sharingan's Mirror Heaven and Earth Rotation to rebound the illusion.
The basement environment dissipated, and after a flash of black light, they returned to the castle tower.
The cat was hit by his own illusion and was breathing heavily. He was a little panicked. Being a kind of cat demon, it had taken a lot to gain intelligence and practice well.
At this moment, the cat realized it had run into a tough opponent.
The Nekomata was well aware that the Uchiha leader before him was a powerful man, not someone it could handle.
Its usual method of controlling people with illusions and then eating them clearly wouldn't work here.
And judging from the way the Uchiha leader had easily broken and rebounded the ninjutsu, if he didn't agree today, he would likely suffer serious consequences.
Naraku chuckled and said calmly, "I wonder if Mr. Nekomata liked the gift I gave you. What do you think of my proposal?"
Through the brief clash, Naraku roughly gauged the strength of this Nekomata—Jōnin elite level—and no match for the Uchiha Three Tomoe Sharingan.
The strength of a Jōnin elite was already quite good. A Genin or Chūnin with such a Summoning beast wouldn't fear a Jōnin at all.
The roller blind was slowly pulled up, and Naraku finally saw the two-tailed cat clearly.
It was as tall as a two-story building, all white, with a long tail that split at the end like two tails. It was indeed a cat demon.
"Lord Naraku, I liked the gift you gave me. Let's sign the contract."
The white cat even changed the way it addressed Naraku. Naraku's mouth curled up. This kind of sudden politeness only meant one thing—it feared him.
There was no such thing as gaining something so easily. Naraku's trip had merely been a formality before using force.
The cat realized the situation was stronger than the individual and was open-minded enough to accept it.
The gift list included five hundred dried fish, fifty bottles of red wine, and some crystal wine glasses.
Before coming, Naraku had already done his homework on the white cat's hobbies from Granny Cat.
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