Torifu then looked at Koharu and Homura. "Koharu and Homura are different. I suggest the two of you act together. Leave the remaining prince to me."
Koharu and Homura nodded. This was a matter of their safety, so there was no reason not to listen.
"Alright, a little show of force won't stop us. Let's keep going."
With that, Torifu dashed toward the small island, and his companions quickly followed. This mission was definitely not as simple as an internal conflict between the princes. Other forces must have infiltrated the island. But who were they?
Although they were not sure yet, they had already taken on this troublesome task and had landed on the island. They could only take it one step at a time to reveal the truth. The distance of a few hundred meters was less than a minute's work for them. With a few Body Flicker and leaps, they reached the shore. The sand on the beach felt very soft, but it also gave them a great sense of security.
"Huh, is it just me? Why does it feel like it's raining?"
When Naori said this, everyone looked up at the sky, but they didn't see a single cloud. However, they all felt raindrops on their faces. Torifu reached out and caught a drop of rain, feeling it. He found that it was just an ordinary drop of rain, and it was possible for it to rain on a clear day. But he still made a mental note of it, as it was strange to encounter something like this right after they landed. It didn't feel very ordinary.
"It's nothing. Just normal rain."
Everyone nodded. Since Torifu said it was fine, no one else paid too much attention to it.
"Then let's go. It's still early in the morning, so they probably haven't woken up yet."
Hiruzen had a point. Those princes lived a life of luxury and pleasure every day, so there was no way they would wake up this early. Furthermore, they didn't notify the princes when they left. They simply rented a boat and came on their own.
Torifu nodded. "Let's first check out the situation on the island."
He then waved his hand, and a cloud of mist turned into four or five small cloud birds that flew toward the island. Their vision was shared with Torifu's, and the entire terrain of the Land of Whirlpools was now visible to Torifu from the sky. After a while, Torifu opened his eyes. "If we walk about three to four thousand meters, there's a village. That might be Uzushiogakure."
Hiruzen put his hand on Torifu's shoulder. "What are we waiting for? Let's just enter the village and each find our prince."
Danzō looked at Hiruzen's foolishness with a sense of helplessness. "We should split up and find our princes secretly. Do you really want to swagger into the village?"
"Are you afraid the entire Land of Whirlpools won't know that the Hidden Leaf has assigned a shinobi to each of the princes?"
Hiruzen scratched his head awkwardly. "Oh, you're right. I didn't think that through."
Kagami laughed. "Monkey, you didn't just not think it through, you didn't think at all." He then continued, "Which prince are you all going to be in charge of? Since Torifu is going to handle three on his own, I'll go find the Fourth Prince."
Danzō said calmly with his arms crossed, "The Fifth Prince."
Koharu and Naori said they would be responsible for the Sixth and Seventh Princes, respectively. That left Hiruzen with no choice but to take the youngest, the Ninth Prince.
He didn't mind, though. It was all the same since he didn't know any of them, and he wasn't there to make friends with them. The goal was to extract information from the princes, find the culprit who murdered the Eighth Prince, and the one who truly wanted to start the rebellion. As for Uzumaki Ashina, there was no need to rush. If the Land of Whirlpools was safe, he would naturally no longer be in hiding.
Torifu suddenly remembered something. "I almost forgot to mention this, Naori. The Seventh Prince you're looking for is Kushina's father. You can focus on talking about Kushina's life in the Hidden Leaf to get closer to him faster."
Naori responded. "Okay, I understand." This information would undoubtedly reduce the difficulty of starting the conversation for Naori. Talking to a father about his daughter was the fastest way to get to know each other, but she also had to be careful not to overdo it, or it could backfire. However, this was a simple task for an elite shinobi like Naori.
"Alright, since everyone has chosen the person they're responsible for, let's go find them and accomplish our goal as quickly as possible."
His companions nodded and instantly disappeared in the blink of an eye. Only Torifu and Naori were left on the beach.
"You're taking on three by yourself. Please be careful."
Torifu looked at Naori with a smile. "Don't worry. I'm the future Third Hokage."
With that, Naori also instantly disappeared from Torifu's sight.
Torifu stretched and began to walk along the beach. The sand here was very soft, and it didn't feel grainy even when he was barefoot. However, he didn't have the luxury of walking on the sand right now. It was impossible for him to handle three princes by himself, but Torifu wasn't alone. The golden mark on his arm glowed faintly, and then ten streaks of light appeared from it. Ten puppets stood neatly in front of Torifu, their heads bowed.
"Uzumaki, Dust Release, Sharingan, Byakugan, Scorch Release, Ketsuryūgan, Lava Release, Gale Release, Wood Release, and Boil Release. We'll use these ten puppets for now."
With that, Torifu left the beach and entered the forest. The Wood Release and Boil Release puppets also left Torifu's team, teleported through the forest, and then disappeared.
"Giving them a certain level of autonomy really saves me a lot of trouble."
For the past ten years, Torifu had been studying these puppets. With them, Torifu was an army of one. But if he tried to control too many puppets at the same time, it wouldn't be enough even with his Kage-level strength.
After all, this was different from puppetry jutsu, which used chakra threads to control the puppets. Each of Torifu's puppets was a person with no thoughts. If he fully invested his thoughts into them, Torifu could even directly replace their bodies! Thankfully, after a long period of research and development, he was finally able to give them a partial degree of autonomous thought.
As long as he gave them an order, they would execute it perfectly. However, they were still essentially puppets. Torifu wouldn't let them have complete thoughts, or they might end up backfiring on him. When he didn't give them an order, the puppets would just obediently follow him, saving Torifu the trouble of having to split his thoughts to control them himself.
And so, one person and eight puppets advanced toward Uzushiogakure in the depths of the forest. The things they encountered along the way made Torifu even more curious about this small island.