In the current shinobi world, there are no clearly defined "national borders" between different spheres of influence. The so-called great nations of later eras remain in a fragmented state.
According to the geographical divisions of the "one country, one village" era, this is the northern region of the Land of Fire.
A ninja wearing an unmarked forehead protector, his face covered by a black cloth leaving only his eyes exposed, arrived unhurriedly in this region.
"Quite a few busybodies around..."
Sensing the intermittent gazes around him—some even brazenly sizing him up—the masked ninja merely smiled, unbothered.
After walking further ahead, the ruins of a village appeared before him.
The traces of fire damage were clearly visible. The masked ninja circled the village once, then stepped directly into it.
Strolling leisurely through the village like taking a walk in a courtyard, after carefully assessing the extent of destruction here, he couldn't help but shake his head... This "half-cooked" burning left quite a few traces, indicating that whoever destroyed this place wasn't particularly skilled.
The masked ninja saw more than just the surface.
"The invading force was aggressive, while the defenders barely mounted any effective counterattack. Was it... fear? What exactly happened in this village before the war broke out?"
"Brief resistance, then at some point... scattered in all directions? Was some important figure killed?"
"But the enemy... didn't seem to commit many combat forces initially?"
"It appears the attacking side had several individuals with exceptional abilities."
He kept muttering to himself. Once the masked ninja felt he had gathered sufficient information, he immediately turned and left without looking back.
Two days later, he appeared in a town further north.
After searching around the town, he approached two people squatting in an alley corner with considerable confidence.
These two were covered in grime, dressed in tattered clothes, looking like beggars.
When the masked ninja approached them, even though he was close enough, the two remained vacant-eyed, as if they hadn't seen the newcomer.
Or perhaps they had seen him but simply didn't care.
From the masked ninja's actions, it was obvious he was an "intelligence investigator."
He placed several small koban coins in front of the two, which finally brought a slight spark of life to their dull faces.
"If I'm not mistaken, you should be ninjas from the Tsugawa Clan, correct?"
The masked ninja smiled, seemingly trying to display some friendliness, but with his face completely hidden, he could only display loneliness.
One of the two ninjas squatting by the wall mechanically reached out to take the money. After hearing the inquiry, he hesitated briefly before finally nodding silently.
Having lost their ninja clan meant losing everything—at this point, they had nothing left to deny.
"What exactly did you experience? Would you mind telling me about it?"
This question sent the two Tsugawa ninjas into painful memories, with anguish appearing in their eyes.
One person's throat moved several times before finally speaking in a hoarse, dry, and extremely low voice:
"There was an enemy who infiltrated our village..."
"From beginning to end, we never discovered his whereabouts. He first blew up our supply reserves, then systematically assassinated our elders and captains..."
"Later... after everything ended, we called him the 'Hidden Wolf.'"
"When the main enemy force openly invaded our village, we had already fallen into a state of command paralysis, combined with the panic spreading throughout the village..."
"When an enemy directly killed our clan leader, most of our ninjas completely lost their will to fight..."
The masked ninja could hear from the speaker's fluctuating tone that compared to the ninja who defeated their clan leader, they feared more the one who had silently infiltrated their village.
Well, the Tsugawa ninjas naturally couldn't confirm that the supposed two people were actually one person.
"So this 'Hidden Wolf' is extremely skilled at infiltration and assassination?"
The Tsugawa ninja nodded silently, then after thinking, added: "He might also be very skilled at disguise and transformation."
He then briefly explained the situation where the clan's elders and captains had killed each other.
This was very important intelligence, and the masked ninja nodded as he recorded it.
Yūshin lacked the ability to completely annihilate the Tsugawa Clan, so some degree of intelligence leakage was unavoidable—there was no helping it.
But if he knew they would give him such a codename, he definitely wouldn't acknowledge it, much less accept it.
It wasn't about whether it sounded good or bad—mainly because anyone hearing such a codename would immediately know it referred to someone treacherous, sinister, vicious, and even cunning to the extreme.
This didn't match Yūshin's image and temperament. He considered himself an upright person who would never let evil words contaminate his pure character.
After chatting casually for a few more sentences, the masked ninja chose to leave. Despite having corresponding abilities, he couldn't bring himself to rob back the money he'd given out.
This wasn't just intelligence fees—it could actually be considered hush money.
The masked ninja had already gathered sufficient intelligence. Not far from leaving the town, he used a flying summoning beast to send this intelligence out.
...
On Yūshin's side, he was doing something very much like a "folk horror story."
Since the Ashes organization had accepted a mission from Kikyō Castle's daimyo, he needed to bring "results" to the daimyo.
But considering the daimyo's obvious ill intentions, Yūshin subjectively very much didn't want to complete this mission... Even based purely on rebellious psychology, he couldn't possibly behave like a loyal dog.
So he decided to fake completing this mission and bring evidence back to Kikyō Castle.
Therefore, he came alone to Reitō Castle.
The city layout and defensive capabilities weren't worth mentioning—not much different from Kikyō Castle. Yūshin could freely enter and exit without encountering any real resistance.
The daimyo's location was also easy to find.
As everyone knows, daimyo as creatures share certain characteristics with ladybugs—even if they're just living on a stick, they must climb to the higher, more elevated end.
Yūshin wasted no words and headed straight for Reitō Castle's keep.
After making a simple circuit of the keep and performing quite a few wall-phasing magic tricks, he found the daimyo's location.
By this time, it was already deep into the night. In a room with considerable three-dimensional space, this daimyo had fallen into deep sleep.
Reitō Castle's daimyo was a young man in his twenties, lying alone on a large bed, his sleeping posture appearing quite "peaceful."
Yūshin carefully explored the surroundings and discovered at least four hidden ninjas—obviously these ninjas were the daimyo's "bodyguards."
However, they were completely unaware of Yūshin's infiltration.
The deep night was extremely quiet. Yūshin quietly hung upside down from the ceiling beams, his back pressed against the ceiling... This was a VIP observation position where Yūshin could clearly see the daimyo's appearance.
He silently pulled out a scroll, and after forming hand seals to unseal it, a pale human head appeared in his hands.
This head had once belonged to a Tsugawa ninja. Yūshin looked at it for a few moments and found he had no impression of it.
Next, using the faint light, he carefully observed the daimyo's facial features below. After watching for a while, his hands holding the head began channeling chakra toward the center.
Under the stimulation of special chakra, the skull, flesh, and facial features of this head began changing bit by bit. Gradually, the head's face and shape became increasingly similar to the daimyo below... This kind of performance technique was a certain alternative application of White Zetsu's transformation technique.
The daimyo wasn't a ninja and had no chakra, but fortunately Yūshin didn't need to instantly transform into his appearance—he just needed to gradually adjust the material in his hands.
After all, the night was still long; there was plenty of time.
While making detailed adjustments, Yūshin suddenly had a certain thought that almost made him laugh out loud... Wasn't this a kind of true "face sculpting"?
After spending about half an hour, Yūshin compared the head in his hands with the daimyo's face—they were almost identical.
Kikyō's daimyo had clearly sent him to kill someone, yet here he was doing portrait work—pure handcrafted 3D precision carving.
Yūshin nodded with satisfaction, then tucked the head under his arm—mission complete, time to retreat.
A maid guarding the door was dozing off, but for some unknown reason she suddenly woke with a start, then instinctively began observing her surroundings.
The sky outside the window was low and dark.
Inside the winding palace corridors, shadows loomed everywhere.
A chill that seemed to invade from nowhere made her shiver uncontrollably.
She instinctively shrank her neck. Whether it was an illusion or not, she felt that tonight the wind was particularly cold and eerie.
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