Yūshin's diplomatic activities proved highly effective. Beyond the alignment of both sides' interests, this success must be credited to Kojii Retto's cooperation.
After all, Retto was no ordinary ninja. Besides being able to fight, he was a person skilled at thinking... From The Fireflies organization, he saw the future developmental trends of the shinobi world.
His attention to The Fireflies organization began much earlier than Yūshin had imagined.
In Retto's vision, as soon as conditions matured, he would immediately conduct "micro-innovative" imitation of The Fireflies organization's basic framework.
As for the current stage, The Fireflies organization was undoubtedly an excellent observation sample—it was novel, not large in scale, posed insufficient threat, and had extremely strong reference value.
The development of things follows inherent laws. Though Retto couldn't articulate the phrase "spiral ascent," he understood this principle very well... The first to jump out and reform generally doesn't meet a good end, but leaves precious experiential wealth for those who come after.
So what was wrong with maintaining friendly relations with The Fireflies organization and letting them blaze the trail ahead?
For Yūshin, who was pioneering and opening up the wilderness, Retto even felt great respect... Not respecting such self-sacrificing people—wouldn't that be too brainless?
It could only be said that those who could become Kage indeed had different levels of thinking.
In various senses, this person was a notch higher than the likes of Uchiha Tajima and Senju Butsuma in terms of thinking.
Due to age and experience, he was even more mature than Senju Tobirama.
Therefore, after agreeing on matters of mutual cooperation and good neighborly relations, Retto even pulled Yūshin into a long exchange about how to construct and manage ninja alliances.
Yūshin had absolutely no need to conceal these matters. From institutional establishment to medical, educational, and internal management systems, even involving extremely detailed and crucially important departmental arrangements like "ANBU," Yūshin spoke eloquently.
Although these were management function divisions gradually explored after ninja villages were established, revealing them would greatly reduce a ninja village's trial-and-error costs—but so what?
At this current stage, the difficulty wasn't how to manage a ninja village, but how to form one.
After this exchange, Retto nearly regarded Yūshin as a kindred spirit.
If—if The Fireflies organization could exist until he established his ninja alliance, Retto would even be very willing to absorb this organization and grant Yūshin high positions like elder or advisor, letting him participate in alliance management.
Well, his thinking was good, with some sense of repaying kindness. However, Yūshin definitely had no such thoughts.
First, Yūshin hadn't yet determined whether he'd be someone's subordinate when the time came. Second, even if he became a subordinate, shouldn't he choose the strongest boss?
Retto was excellent, just not excellent enough—because he wasn't strong enough, while someone was bound to become the strongest.
But that the relationship between both sides became extremely harmonious after the exchange was certain. Yūshin's group even rested overnight in the Kojii Clan's village, only choosing to leave the next day... For two forces meeting for the first time, such overnight accommodation behavior could be called miraculous.
With worries about the rear resolved, after Yūshin returned to Kikyō Castle, he began preparing conquest plans for surrounding regions. However, before this, Nara Hideyuki and Fūma Gorō came to report an important matter.
"Hmm? You're saying people from the Earth Grudge Fear clan came to our place to purchase the Cursed Grudge Fear secret technique?"
Was something wrong here? Their secret technique had leaked—shouldn't they directly snatch it back?
Yūshin glanced at Nara Hideyuki. Alright, someone must have intimidated that guest.
After thinking for a while, he said: "Is there a possibility that even for this secret technique's place of origin, successfully cultivating it is extremely difficult? And we happen to provide a shortcut..."
What kind of genetically modified soybean story was this?
But you know what, you really know what—this possibility wasn't just there, but very likely.
Although Yūshin had just called the Earth Grudge Fear users a ninja clan, their members were very few and small in scale, not having developed to the degree of a ninja clan at all. What constrained their development? It should be the cultivation difficulty of the Earth Grudge Fear secret technique.
"This is somewhat absurd. Are you saying we've actually become their hope for further development?"
Fūma Gorō's expression was strange. What else could he say? The vast world has all kinds of wonders—he'd truly opened his eyes.
"Returning things to their original owner is fine—I actually don't mind. But... what price did the other party pay?"
Nara Hideyuki seemed to already understand that Yūshin cared more about the transaction content, so he handed over those two scrolls.
"Medical ninjutsu from the Kuromoku Clan?"
Yūshin looked at the medical ninjutsu recorded on the scroll. The content seemed very advanced, but this was only strengthening his existing "skills"—even if it was major strengthening, it was still just strengthening, not a breakthrough... Of course, its value was still very high.
Next, Yūshin picked up the other scroll.
"Ishikawa Clan's Earth Release... hmm?"
This scroll only recorded two ninjutsu. They looked ordinary, but one was called Light-Weight Rock Technique, and one was called Added-Weight Rock Technique.
Holy shit!
Light-Weight Rock Technique could turn a ninja from a ground unit into a flying unit. As everyone knows, high ground beats low ground—it's broken.
Added-Weight Rock Technique could be used in combination with Boil Release—this could let Yūshin punch with Tsunade's fifty years of accumulated power.
Earth Release looked unremarkable at first glance, but was really too practical.
The Earth Grudge Fear ninja were indeed very devious—they must have secretly assassinated members of quite a few major ninja clans, right?
Yūshin placed both scrolls to one side. He interlaced his ten fingers, propped his elbows on the desk, and pressed his knuckles against his nose tip, saying:
"Will the Earth Grudge Fear ninja continue trading secret technique transplants with us... Do you think they might become our workers?"
If they wanted tissue buds, they'd have to exchange other valuable ninjutsu for them. Where would they get high-value ninjutsu?
Of course, by going out to collect them.
"Isn't this... a bit—I'm just saying a bit—too ruthless?"
Nara Hideyuki could barely maintain his composure. Where was he the clever one—Yūshin was the truly clever one.
"Don't overthink it. At times like this, you should naturally choose to believe in human nature... Regardless of the outcome, everything is nature's choice."
Alright, it was precisely because everyone believed too much in human nature that they felt Yūshin's words, though somewhat terrible, carried a prophetic quality.
After ending the exchange with the two, Yūshin didn't rush to cultivate the newly acquired ninjutsu. He went to Reitō Castle again to explain the results of this trip to the daimyo, and clarify that The Fireflies organization would soon launch large-scale active attacks.
Three days later, all necessary war preparations were complete. Yūshin summoned all combat squad leaders and began war deployment.
"This operation's target is the Bei V Clan northwest of the Land of Rivers. This clan specializes in Fire Release—enemy ninja have relatively ordinary individual strength but are very skilled at squad coordination.
"I won't elaborate on the enemy's specific combat methods—everyone understands, since we've frequently suffered harassment from this clan before.
"For this combat operation, we're deploying thirty-five ninja. For the organization, this can be considered deploying all our elite, which will inevitably leave our headquarters vulnerable—therefore our speed must be fast.
"Quick departure, quick battle, quick resolution of enemies, then quick return.
"With our current strength, plus blitzkrieg-style combat methods, we can definitely stun the enemy with one blow, then crush this ninja clan.
"Don't worry about results—everyone mainly focus on coordination issues, since this is our first time conducting this type of warfare.
"Any other questions?
"If there are no problems, we'll launch operations tomorrow night on schedule."
Everyone stood collectively, then said in unison with full, vigorous voices: "Yes, Lord Yūshin!"
There were naturally no problems with combat aspects. Actually, Yūshin was still using the method from when he attacked the Tsugawa Clan—he would first infiltrate alone, assassinate enemy key targets, create large-scale chaos under cover of night, and after the enemy fell into disarray, the main force would attack opportunistically.
But when attacking the Tsugawa Clan, his main force had mediocre combat power, so they only played a participatory role.
But this time was different—this time, the thirty-plus ninja would all engage in combat one hundred percent.
The battle process needn't be elaborated. Though Yūshin's side had fewer numbers, their combat power was outstanding... Cursed Grudge Fear ninja and the Akimichi Clan were the backbone of squad combat... Like a hammer, while the enemy had greater numbers, they were just shells—in this situation, it was simply one strike, one silent victim.
The battle began at night. The enemy was almost instantly thrown into complete disarray by the sudden attack. High-intensity fighting lasted less than an hour—by this time, victory and defeat were already decided.
However, all fighting continued until the afternoon of the next day. Except for a small portion of ninja who fled with civilians, the Bei V Clan no longer existed.
Such combat intensity posed little pressure for Yūshin, whether in terms of strength or psychology... There was no need to discuss moral issues—this was an era where if you didn't kill people, people would kill you.
Yūshin even used combat as training, experimenting with Earth Release ninjutsu during battle.
After ending one campaign, the attack force returned to Kikyō Castle to rest for two days, then set out again.
After consecutively resolving three ninja clans, some of the surrounding perceptive ninja clans, seeing The Fireflies organization's unstoppable military edge, actually had ninja clans collectively submit, choosing to flee without fighting.
Yūshin was happy to see this happen. After all, his purpose was to clear surrounding forces and win larger, more stable development space for the Land of the River Source—whether enemies died or fled made little difference.
Some ninja clans also tried to surrender to The Fireflies organization, but Yūshin didn't accept.
These surrounding forces had almost all had small-scale conflicts with the organization—both sides had deep contradictions. Yūshin couldn't possibly accept such surrenders. He only gave the other parties time to withdraw from surrounding areas—this was already extremely benevolent.
As for remaining forces unwilling to withdraw, they could only be fought.
However, during the period of frequent battles, something happened at Kikyō Castle.
To ensure headquarters safety, a capable ninja still needed to remain behind. Considering Lan's situation, she naturally became the one to stay.
This day, she was stationed at The Fireflies office building when her head suddenly turned toward a certain direction.
The building layout remaining in her mind indicated there was only a wall there, but for some reason, she always felt something else seemed to exist there...
Something else, something bad.
What exactly was it? Vague and elusive, making one very concerned and uncomfortable. She didn't know if this produced an illusion, but Lan felt a gaze was staring intently at her from that direction.
Under psychological influence, Lan became increasingly uneasy. She instantly drew her sword and instinctively swung it.
With a "whoosh" sound, a wind blade pierced through that wall, and that feeling finally disappeared.
"Lady Lan, what happened?"
This commotion brought the ninja guarding outside hurrying to Lan's side.
Lan was dazed for a moment before shaking her head and saying: "There seemed to be an intruder, but I can't be certain."
She couldn't be certain, but the next moment, that strange feeling appeared again for an instant—but this time it didn't persist, appearing and disappearing instantly.
Yes, just now a White Zetsu had been foolishly hiding in the wall watching Lan. After she made a clear turning motion, it still didn't restrain its gaze, so it didn't dodge her wind blade... because this thing didn't dodge at all.
Its death wasn't unjust.
As for the anomaly that subsequently appeared in Lan's perception, that was because another White Zetsu hurriedly retrieved its comrade's corpse.
White Zetsu's existence was indeed difficult to detect, but they could be discovered through "malice sensing"—this was precisely why Uzumaki Naruto could distinguish White Zetsu in "Nine-Tails Chakra Mode."
It's said that the Nine-Tails' power source is hatred and malice—perhaps this sensing ability was some kind of reverse application.
And if we're talking about intense emotions like hatred, certain ninja of the Uchiha Clan weren't much inferior to the Nine-Tails. In any case, Lan had been submerged by such emotions countless times.
After losing her Sharingan, her sensing abilities received comprehensive enhancement, so she faintly perceived White Zetsu's malice.
At this time, because they were planning big moves, White Zetsu was gathering large numbers of individuals to Kikyō Castle. However, this unexpected situation made them immediately halt their assembly behavior.
Several White Zetsu were even scared enough to temporarily leave Kikyō Castle. They gathered somewhere outside the city, each looking like they had lumps all over their heads.
They'd been careless—thinking their invincible concealment ability had been seen through.
"That Uchiha nobody—clearly having lost her Sharingan, why can she still discover us?"
"Maybe it's precisely because she lost her Sharingan that she can sense us?"
"Regardless of why we can be sensed, we must change combat strategy. There's no need to summon too many individuals here."
"Don't approach her—absolutely don't approach her."
"Can't we secretly eliminate her? After losing her Sharingan, she's completely lost value."
"How do you eliminate someone who can perceive us?"
"Hmm... there should be a way, right?"
"Fine, why don't you try?"
"..."
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