"The emissaries from the Land of Wind and the Hidden Sand Village were attacked?"
The Daimyo of the Land of Rivers was incredulous upon hearing this news. Just a few days ago, those people were arrogantly warning him that he, as Daimyo, might be attacked. However, it was they who ended up in trouble first.
"N-not a single survivor?"
"None, and the corpses left behind were all from the Daimyo's Mansion of the Land of Wind. Not a single body from the Hidden Sand Village was left behind..."
The Inner Official of the Daimyo Mansion spoke up.
Ninja corpses can reveal a lot of information, so after Hatake Sakumo killed the remaining people, he took all the ninja corpses away.
"Quick, quickly inform the Land of Wind and the Hidden Sand Village of this incident! Increase the defenses of the Daimyo's Mansion strictly; no mistakes should be made during this period!"
The Daimyo of the Land of Rivers was truly terrified. Even the ninjas from the Hidden Sand Village were dead, so would it be his turn next?
He really wanted to sneak away now but feared that Konoha's people might be monitoring the Daimyo's Mansion at all times.
After pondering for a moment, the Daimyo of the Land of Rivers gritted his teeth and ordered the Inner Official of the Daimyo's Mansion: "Tell the people from the Hidden Sand Village to come over earlier, send more people; everything they said can be negotiated, but the premise is to send more people!"
"Yes, Lord Daimyo."
Upon hearing this, the Inner Official of the Daimyo Mansion hurriedly went down to make arrangements while further tightening patrols around the Daimyo Mansion, aiming for a level of security where not even a bird could fly in.
The order for strict patrol really affected Uchiha Yoichi. The task that had been light these past couple of days suddenly became busy; usually, he would let his Shadow Clone handle the guarding while he and Kakashi went off to gather intelligence.
There was no time for leisure now; every place was under alert, leaving nowhere to wander.
Initially, Kakashi had some moral principles, but under Uchiha Yoichi's persuasion and guidance, those principles were completely suppressed.
With prolonged guarding duties, even his resting place had other samurai patrolling.
Yet, these past two days had yielded no results; he had twice stealthily siphoned Spiritual Energy from the Daimyo's Mansion guards in the Land of Rivers.
This time, the stolen Spiritual Energy was different from the Chakra he had previously taken from Uzumaki Minami; the current Spiritual Energy fully merged into Uchiha Yoichi's soul, causing his Spiritual Energy to soar significantly.
With his Spiritual Energy strengthened, using the Sharingan became even more intuitive.
Uchiha Yoichi had only recently evolved into the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, and after stealing Spiritual Energy twice, he felt casting Illusion Techniques was easier and much more powerful.
Using Sharingan Genjutsu, he hypnotized a samurai guard from the Land of Iron without the other's awareness. Even after waking up later, the guard wouldn't remember being hypnotized by Sharingan Genjutsu.
Moreover, for ease of contact when employing Stealing, Uchiha Yoichi maintained a quite favorable relationship with the Daimyo's guards.
While on patrol, Kakashi suddenly asked in a low voice: "Captain, why have the defenses suddenly been tightened? Is someone really going to assassinate the Daimyo?"
"It's definitely out of fear that defenses were tightened; as for the source of fear, I am unsure. Haven't gone out to gather information recently..."
Uchiha Yoichi shook his head. Just finding the location of the Daimyo Mansion's treasury took considerable time, and it's not easy to infiltrate.
In the following days, Uchiha Yoichi and Kakashi were caught up in long hours of guarding duties.
However, Uchiha Yoichi would still find opportunities each day to Stealing from those samurai. Apart from twice pilfering clothes and a Samurai Sword, three other times were all Physical Energy.
Following Stealing, the samurai they siphoned from would collapse lazily to the ground, while Uchiha Yoichi felt significantly lighter, as if gaining extra strength out of thin air.
After stealing Physical Energy three times, Uchiha Yoichi's body had grown somewhat stronger.
The ability was quite abnormal, and Uchiha Yoichi even contemplated finding those powerful ninjas to Stealing from them; maybe with luck, he could steal a Kekkeigenkai.
Though Stealing could be somewhat dangerous.
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"Captain, the defenses at the Daimyo Mansion seem to be a bit lax today. Apart from the usual guards, some appear to be resting."
Yamanaka Ryosuke scrutinized the Daimyo Mansion map for a long while before confirming this intelligence.
This was aided by the absence of Perception ninjas at the Daimyo Mansion of the Land of Rivers, allowing Yamanaka Ryosuke to freely use Perception Ninjutsu to ascertain the movements of the samurai who trained in Chakra.
Another ninja from the squad queried: "Why did they relax the vigilance today? Could it be a trap..."
Yamanaka Ryosuke rubbed his chin and said: "That's possible, but it might also be because the previous days' vigilance was too intense, causing too many people not to rest well. The person I possessed through Mind Body Transfer Jutsu showed no signs of traps. Captain, what should we do?"
He was just providing the collected intelligence; Hatake Sakumo was to make the decision on what to specifically do.
"..... This is an opportunity."
Hatake Sakumo pondered for a while before saying solemnly: "Although how the Hidden Sand Village knew about this mission is unknown, those people have lost contact with the Hidden Sand Village for five days already, and the Daimyo's Mansion of the Land of Rivers must have informed the Hidden Sand Village....."
"The longer we drag it out, the fewer opportunities we have, so we act tonight!"
Although they twice intercepted personnel sent by the Daimyo's Mansion to notify the Land of Wind, five days without a message would surely have alerted the Hidden Sand Village of something amiss with their people.
"Prepare according to the previously established plan, let's move!"
"Yes, Captain."
The others responded and immediately started preparing.
Hatake Sakumo looked at the sky; he'd executed dangerously numerous times before, but previously in the Land of Wind's hinterlands, it felt nothing like today's anxiety.
Hatake Sakumo then shook his head, stopping further thoughts; after completing this task, he'd take a long vacation upon returning to the village to accompany Kakashi properly.
The night was as dark as ink, with the moon hidden by clouds.
Only lanterns and electric lights provided illumination within the Daimyo Mansion; without them, the darkness of the night would make guard duties considerably more challenging.
Suddenly, Uchiha Yoichi sensed a Chakra fluctuation not far outside; after strengthening his Spiritual Energy, he seemed to become sensitive to Chakra.
The next moment, explosions rang out from outside.
These explosions sounded like signals, instantly awakening the sleeping Daimyo Mansion.
Kakashi immediately reached for the short blade at his waist, but Uchiha Yoichi spoke: "Don't rush; there's usually no one at the Tenshu Pavilion at night; just follow mission orders."
Despite speaking thus, Uchiha Yoichi did not relax his vigilance. Just from the shouting, he knew tonight would be eventful; it was fortunate they were not guarding the Daimyo sheet, lest they might clash head-on with the enemy.
At that moment, a figure suddenly jumped down from the wall and hurried towards the Tenshu Pavilion.
Uchiha Yoichi thought in his mind of the unlucky timing, but he took out ten shurikens and threw them three-three-four.
After colliding in the air and rebounding, the shuriken seemed to fill the sky, assaulting the intruding enemy. Some shurikens even came from strange angles toward the enemy.
'Uchiha Style Throwing Technique?'
Hatake Sakumo felt immensely familiar upon seeing this Shuriken Throwing. He took out his short blade, knocking down the flying shurikens, while the other guardian of the Tenshu Pavilion suddenly unsheathed his blade and charged at him.
Clang!
Short blades, wind blades, and the faint flicker of lightning across the body, all incredibly familiar to Hatake Sakumo.
This was his White Fang Blade Technique!