Chapter 68: Planning for the Future

After one of the most exhausting bathing experiences of his life, Nobu was lying face-down in his room with a listless expression as Kazue demonstrated the Ashiatsu Technique for Nariko.

Ashiatsu, meaning foot pressure, was a type of massage where the practitioner removed their foot coverings in order to walk barefoot on the client's back. It was a deep tissue massage that helped relieve stress by targeting the joints.

In the hands, or, more specifically, the feet of an inexperienced practitioner, ashiatsu was a dangerous technique that could cause permanent harm.

Kazue, despite dropping out of the kunoichi program, had shown considerable promise in the therapeutic arts when she was still just a trainee. Now, while she might not be able to compete with a genuine medical kunoichi, she could still demonstrate a reasonable degree of mastery in the basics.

After having his back and body thoroughly cleansed by Midori and Sachiko, Nobu had lost all motivation. He didn't even feel like talking right now, so, when Kazue suggested giving him a massage, he just nodded his head and allowed her to do whatever she wanted.

"You have to carefully consider how you distribute your weight. If you put too much pressure on a single spot, you could end up cracking a rib or making it difficult to breathe."

"I understand, Kazue-nee. Can I try?"

Though she appreciated Nariko's eagerness to learn, a tired sigh escaped Kazue's lips as she said, "Not today. Our Lord is clearly fatigued after a long day. We'll try-"

"Just let her..."

Hearing Nobu's remark, Kazue quickly stepped from his back, asking, "Are you sure? I-"

"And go back to the way you used to talk. This formal crap doesn't suit you..."

Smiling wryly in response to Nobu's words, Kazue did her best not to take his comment personally. She had made a concerted effort to clean herself up after the absolute failure of their first meeting. Hearing him say formalities didn't suit her was surprisingly painful...

"Well, you heard 'em, brat. Try not to screw it up."

Thumping her virtually non-existent chest, Nariko replied, "Just leave it to me! My cultivation base might not be that great, but I'm a lot smarter than most other girls my age. I'll master ashiatsu in an instant...!"

Though her words sounded like bravado, Kazue was pleasantly surprised to see Nariko emulate her exact same procedure without any discernible difficulty. This made her believe she might have been better suited for Kumiko's training. Fortunately, memorization was equally important if you wanted to be a skilled medical kunoichi.

"Not bad..."

Since there was a drastic difference between Kazue's and Nariko's weight, Nobu felt that having the latter walk on his back was marginally more comfortable than the former. She also managed to hit a lot of the same spots so he couldn't help offering a comment.

Smiling enthusiastically in response to her Lord's words, Nariko attempted to dig her toes into one of the nerve clusters near his shoulder. She managed to find it without any particular difficulty, but, in the process, she ended up shifting most of her weight to her left foot.

"Kuh..."

The moment she heard Nobu groan, Kazue moved to support Nariko's body so that she wouldn't lose her balance and make an even greater mistake. The latter's small size allowed her to stand with her feet flanking Nobu's sides, supporting Nariko's body as she patiently advised, "Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. Even if you're treating a hemorrhage, it is most important to stay calm..."

Smiling apologetically in turn, Nariko became uncharacteristically meek as she said, "Sorry..." in a slightly nervous tone of voice.

Instead of responding to the young girl's words, Nobu just closed his eyes as if it wasn't a big deal. If anything, he was more surprised by the sudden pressure on his lung than anything else. It wasn't like he was upset. Rather, it was unsurprisingly pleasant to receive a prologue massage...

Interpreting Nobu's silence as consent, Kazue walked Nariko through the rest of the procedure by guiding and supporting the young girl's body directly. This reduced a lot of the risks as she could, quite literally, just pick Nariko up whenever it looked like she was about to make a mistake. It didn't happen often, but it was better to be safe than sorry...

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After nearly two hours of massaging, Nobu was feeling a lot better. Thus, after rising to a seated position, he looked around the room to see that Yui had gathered nearly everyone. The only person absent, excluding the people he had yet to meet, was Kiku. She had been guarding him throughout most of the day so she was currently resting in preparation for her next shift.

"Good. I'm glad everyone could come. Now that we have our own place, there are a few things we needed to discuss. First and foremost is the personnel issue..."

Though most of the details would need to be sorted out by Kumiko and Yui, Nobu had spent a fair amount of time thinking about Hitomi's advice. She suggested having 2-3 people in charge of each room so they could rotate duties and keep each other from slacking off. If he went with this advice, he would need, at the very least, 34 people in charge of maintaining the main house.

This was where the main issue arose, as, even if they did accept the dregs of the Yosthisune Clan, it would take years to fill their quota. Each generation had between 1-3 useless members who would either die during the training or be filtered out around the time of their graduation. This meant they could only recruit between 2-6 people per year. To further complicate things, the people they would be recruiting were children.

Simply put, even though there were dangers involved with doing so, they had little choice but to recruit fully-fledged kunoichi. More specifically, they needed to recruit those like Rukia, people who were fully indoctrinated into the system but desired something 'more' for the kunoichi they were in charge of training.

Hitomi had mentioned that Suzune was going to help him pick and choose retired kunoichi to help look after the children. Unfortunately, even though the penultimate decision was his to make, this implied that Nobu would be surrounding himself with people who owed Suzune a favor. Even the thought of this made Nobu's skin crawl, so, before screening any additional candidates, he wanted to know if the girls had anyone in mind for recruitment.

Unsurprisingly, most of the girls recommended the mentors who had assisted in their training. The problem with this was that most of their instructors had a relatively high status within the Clan. The odds of them actually accepting were slim.

"Why not recruit Shizune and Rynka? They were originally from your younger brother's generation, but they ended up being separated from the original group. You might not like her, but Shizune is being reared as the next Information Elder. As for Rynka, she is on pretty thin ice after getting into a spat with the Young Lord when they were around 8-9. She's been pretty stressed out thinking she is going to be disposed of so I'm sure both she and Chikako would be at ease if you recruited her."

Though Yuriko was the one to make the suggestion, Nobu shifted his gaze to the taciturn Chikako to hear what she thought on the matter. Unsurprisingly, the half-naked kunoichi simply nodded her head in response, saying, "I'll look after her..." in a cool monotone.

Since his impression of Rynka was infinitely better than his impression of Shizune, Nobu didn't mind scouting her. The bigger issue was the hypocritical pinkette that had tried to assault him. He didn't want to have anything to do with her, but, at the same time, he understood the benefits associated with scouting a future Elder.

Shaking his head, Nobu said, "We'll go ahead and scout Rynka. As for Shizune, she can go impale herself on a rocky outcrop for all I care. I don't want that psycho bitch anywhere near me until my cultivation base has exceeded hers."

Though she probably shouldn't have, Yuriko found herself chuckling at Shizune's expense. This earned her an accusatory stare from Nobu, but, rather than shying away or apologizing, she just poked her tongue out at him and said, "I'm laughing at Shizune's misfortune. Once she finds out about your Heavenly Treasure, that brat is going to be pulling her hair out in frustration."

"Hmmm..."

Imagining the scene of Shizune begging for forgiveness as she secretly plotted to benefit from him, an ostensibly sadistic smile developed across Nobu's face. He wasn't an actual sadist. Hell, he even felt a little bad for the pink-haired psycho after forcing her to walk around on her hands and knees like an animal. In spite of this, he still felt it was some kind of karmic justice that a bitch like Shizune be made to experience a bit of suffering. She, sure as hell, deserved it...

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After communing with her Goddess for the better part of eight hours, most of Inami's hair had temporarily turned white as she writhed about, naked, atop an altar.

Ever since the end of the Age of Gods, the conditions for a God to manifest in the lower world had become increasingly complex with the passage of time. Inami was more than six-thousand-years-old, nearly as old as the alliance between the Yoshitsune and Oda Clans. She was among the first to bear Inari Okami's curse, and, as a result, she was one of only three people who could tolerate the infamously envious Goddess's possession.

"The child of Oda Senken...the child of prophecy...bring him to us..."

Though the words came from her own lips, Inami could scarcely believe what her Goddess was asking her to do. The pact with the Oda Clan forbade them from taking any action that would potentially endanger their main-line descendants. If she brought Nobu to meet with Inari, there were only two possible outcomes. He would either die or she would end up being impregnated when Inari Okami possessed her body.

"Lady Inari...the covenant between our families..."

"We don't care...if that man is truly meant to unify Nian...we cannot allow him to escape our grasp..."

With a fiery heat spreading through her body, Inami couldn't help curling up into a ball with her six inordinately fluffy tails coiling around her. She felt like her insides were on fire, and, if she were to look closely, a strange pattern had manifested itself above the location of her womb. At the same time, her eyes glowed with a carmine light as she desperately resisted the urge to charge down the mountain and spirit Nobu away.

"Please...be patient...if we move too early...everything we have worked for over the last six thousand years will be jeopardized..."

"Hmmm...it's rare for you to be this obstinate..."

"I cannot break my vow...I must protect the Yoshitsune Clan...you promised..."

"..."

Though she wasn't fond of Inami calling her out, Inari couldn't refute the former's words. She would need to pay a pretty steep price if she wanted to force the not-so-young kitsune to obey, so, after a moment of consideration, she used Inami's mouth to say, "Very well. We will give you the chance to seduce him using your own charms. If he sires a child with someone else, the entire Yoshitsune Clan will pay the price. Do not fail us..."

Realizing that Inami's body was on the verge of breaking down, Inari gradually eased her hold over the petite kitsune. Inami was her most durable vessel in the modern era so she didn't want to break her before she had fulfilled her purpose. She just needed Inami to persevere for an additional three thousand years, the time taken to produce three more tails. After that, Inami would be a single step away from Divinity, a perfect vessel.

Inami was well aware of what fate had in store for her, but, for the sake of her clan, she tolerated becoming Inari's puppet in order to protect the future generations of her family. There was very little she wouldn't do to ensure their survival, so, after breathing heavily atop the altar for twenty minutes, she raised her tired body, muttering, "I won't fail..." in a resolute tone...

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(A/N: O - O...)