"Hey, stop right there. The officers are carrying out a mission ahead!"
Two men dressed like soldiers pointed their naginata at the two girls walking toward them.
Behind the soldiers, thick smoke rose from the village, and faint flames flickered on the rooftops.
The Land of Fields was a country without a shinobi village; the daimyo's soldiers were the strongest force it possessed.
"Oh? What's happening over there?"
The girl with short black hair walking in front stopped on her own. Her face, hidden beneath her hood, looked especially refined.
However, the voice carried a distinctly androgynous tone.
"Just a group of rebels. Leave quickly. Someone like you shouldn't be here."
Though the two soldiers didn't know who the girl was, her clothing and demeanor made it obvious—she wasn't an ordinary civilian.
So their tone unconsciously became more respectful.
"I see. But I heard the ones causing trouble are just ordinary people who couldn't endure unreasonable taxes."
The girl's words left the two soldiers speechless for a moment.
The incident began when the Shinobi Alliance started investigating an Ōtsutsuki ruin discovered within the Land of Fields.
The Land of Fields had no shinobi village, and its daimyos had always despised shinobi.
In their eyes, Hashirama's proposal of 'one nation, one village' was essentially the shinobi organizations rebelling against the ruling class, trying to seize some of the daimyo's authority.
Thus, the Land of Fields never formed a real shinobi village.
Not long ago, when those detestable shinobi declared they would enter to investigate the newly discovered Ōtsutsuki ruins, the daimyo wanted to refuse—but he was facing the Shinobi Alliance formed by the Five Great Villages.
For a nation that relied only on samurai and soldiers, a single Kage would be enough to wipe them out.
So the daimyo begrudgingly allowed them to enter.
But he still needed to vent his frustration. Thus, he announced a grand, completely unreasonable banquet—and the citizens were ordered to donate their goods to provide for the daimyo and nobles.
For many commoners who had just paid taxes, this was impossible. It began with complaints, then shoving, and finally escalated into bloodshed.
But just as the daimyo didn't dare oppose the shinobi, the commoners didn't dare oppose the daimyo. The unrest was eventually confined to several villages, and under the daimyo's orders, the soldiers began a bloody suppression.
After a brief silence, the soldiers raised their naginata toward the two: "Once they raise their weapons and rebel against the daimyo, they are no longer civilians—they're traitors!"
"Oh, really."
The girl ahead turned around without another word.
"Go on, young lady, don't stay here."
Seeing her turn back, the soldiers sighed in relief.
"Hm?"
The girl suddenly snapped her head back, eyes sharp and vicious.
Before they could react, two invisible blows struck their stomachs. A mixture of drool, stomach acid, and bile spurted from their mouths as they collapsed with rolled-up eyes.
"Who are you calling a young lady? I'm a guy. A guy."
After kicking the two unfortunate men hard, the "girl" lifted the hood—revealing the face of the Fifth Hokage, Takeshi.
"Hmph. Didn't you say I should use my Sharingan to deal with these two? Young. La-dy."
Uchiha Hikari mocked him, the provocation on her face impossible to hide.
"Tch."
Takeshi ignored Hikari's sarcasm and shifted his gaze from the unlucky soldiers to the burning village.
"Enough talking. Let's go see what's happening ahead."
They had just left Ryūchi Cave not long ago, and the two had arrived in the Land of Fields.
Supposedly, this place should have been full of pastoral charm.
But the moment they stepped foot in the country, all they saw were malnourished civilians forced to labor under the whips of noble retainers.
Most were tenant farmers without land.
Even those who owned small plots of land lived little better.
Aside from mandatory offerings, officials frequently visited to extort endless miscellaneous taxes.
Today was the daimyo's birthday. Tomorrow was his concubine's birthday. The day after that—ridiculously—was when the daimyo's divine canine general would take a new mate...
Yes, the "divine canine general" was, literally, a dog.
It couldn't speak, couldn't fight, wasn't even as cute as Pakkun—just a normal dog.
"P-please... save me..."
After Takeshi knocked out several soldiers who were about to swing their butcher knives, a woman with a stab wound in her abdomen struggled at his feet, pleading faintly.
"All right, it's fine. Your injury will heal."
For Takeshi, this level of wound was easy to handle.
"Summoning Technique."
A slug appeared.
"My, my, little Takeshi, we finally meet again."
The moment she appeared, the slug eagerly hopped toward him.
This time, her size was already comparable to an adult man, so she couldn't jump onto Takeshi's shoulder.
"Lady Katsuyu, please heal the civilians here. As for the soldiers, leave them to me."
...
Even so, the number of surviving civilians was far fewer than the corpses scattered on the ground.
"All right, I understand. But Takeshi, you've really grown... to think you can control natural energy to this extent..."
After a brief greeting, Katsuyu began her work—while also noticing the changes inside Takeshi's body.
"I still can't handle this power skillfully. So I'll use these soldiers as test subjects."
Takeshi had already sensed that twenty-one soldiers remained in the village.
As his figure vanished from Katsuyu's and Hikari's sight, one swaggering soldier after another fell unconscious, their vision going black.
In a very short time, without using Flying Thunder God or any space-time jutsu, purely relying on speed, Takeshi knocked them out one by one.
"You damned bastard... quit stalling and swing your blade. Or do you, who slaughtered so many innocent villagers, want to—"
A foot had been cut off, blood gushing from the wound. Tayuya lay on the ground, hurling every curse she could think of at the samurai commander with the katana.
Her crude words ignited the samurai's fury. Before she finished speaking, he swung down the blade he had prepared.
Blood splattered, spraying onto Tayuya's face.
"You..."
Except—it was the samurai's blood.
"I told you... this new power is kind of hard to hold back. Uh... my bad."
Takeshi looked at the headless samurai, apologizing for failing to restrain himself.
"Uh, Lady Katsuyu... can this one still be saved?"
The moment the headless body fell, a Katsuyu clone arrived beside Tayuya.
"Uh..."
Looking at the scraps of tissue still clinging to the neck, Katsuyu pondered for a moment, then slowly crawled onto Tayuya's wound—showing with her actions that the samurai was beyond saving.
"I figured. Hey, don't move. I'll reattach your foot."
Takeshi crouched down. The last enemy in the village was the one at his feet. The entire village was now clear.
"I..."
Tayuya had no idea what to say, staring blankly at Takeshi's side profile.
Soon, with Katsuyu's help, even the wound Tayuya herself believed hopeless healed completely.
Seeing this, Takeshi didn't stay; he stood and prepared to regroup with Hikari.
"Um, you... no, may I ask who you are...?"
Rude by nature, Tayuya worked hard to adjust her tone and speech patterns—terrified she might accidentally say something unacceptable.
"Well... I'll explain everything once all the injured villagers are gathered."
Takeshi tugged the corner of his mouth. Only now did he notice Tayuya's appearance.
Pink hair. Strange. She looked a bit like someone from the Sound Four. What was her name again?
Characters without major highlights didn't make it into Takeshi's bloodline collection list, so while he accepted Tayuya's gratitude, he didn't respond much.
"There are only thirteen survivors left in the whole village."
He didn't need to check—Takeshi could simply sense it.
"What do you plan to do?"
Looking at the devastated village, Uchiha Hikari felt memories of the Warring States era surge up again.
"Send them to Konoha."
The Land of Fields bordered the Land of Fire—it wouldn't be difficult.
Takeshi turned to glance at the bound soldiers.
They were still unconscious. Maybe he had used too much force.
At least their heads were intact. They shouldn't die.
"What about these guys? Two of the disobedient ones, I've already killed."
Noticing Takeshi's gaze, Hikari asked for his opinion.
"Kill them all and it'll spark retaliation from the nation. Can you put them under genjutsu and change their memories? Mm... make them think they ran into Ōnoki, and that their injuries—and their dead comrades—were all caused by Ōno..."
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