Fire continued spreading throughout the village.
The sound of flames crackling, water rushing, distant turmoil and clamor—all had become irrelevant background noise in the night.
Time seemed to stand still. The surrounding Tsugawa ninjas momentarily forgot to resist, as if war itself had become unimportant.
Because these Tsugawa ninjas had witnessed a tragedy with their own eyes—this shocking scene had crashed their minds, leaving them unable to process what it truly meant.
Taishi Tsugawa's mouth continued making incoherent "cough, cough" sounds, like a fish being prepared in the kitchen—though its mouth still opened and closed in a desperate attempt to survive, the outcome wouldn't change due to its "subjective efforts."
Massive amounts of blood poured from the oval wound in Taishi's torso, dyeing the water below a ghastly dark red.
Within just ten to twenty seconds, he had lost most of his blood.
Only the remaining portion continued seeping from his body, gathering from his lower abdomen into a thin line of blood that dripped steadily downward.
Drip, drip, drip.
Thud.
Yūshin knew the man was dead, so he released his grip, letting the upper half of the body fall onto the water's surface.
This sudden sound startled the shocked Tsugawa ninjas back to awareness. After finally realizing what had just occurred, their gazes instinctively turned to Taishi's lower half, which was continuously sinking beneath the water.
The clan leader was dead—a very simple fact, yet particularly difficult to accept.
Something that had always supported these Tsugawa ninjas from within seemed to suddenly collapse with ease.
The fear that had been accumulating from these days of strange experiences finally erupted completely due to the clan leader's death.
Looking at Yūshin's unperturbed eyes, these Tsugawa ninjas instinctively retreated, then...
Turned and fled.
They had lost all will to fight.
Seeing this situation, Gorō Fūma, hidden in the darkness nearby, seized the opportunity and fired a signal flare into the sky.
With a sharp whistle, the dark red flare exploded violently in mid-air.
The Tsugawa ninjas instinctively looked up at the night sky, their spirits further shaken by this explosive sound.
The Ashes ninjas who had arrived at the village outskirts according to the planned schedule saw this signal flare and charged toward the village while generating tremendous noise.
They maintained tight formation—from their arrangement, they didn't seem to prioritize maximum enemy casualties... This formation was actually for self-preservation, as Yūshin worried that in the final moments, the enemy might launch desperate counterattacks, causing unexpected casualties to his own forces.
Facts proved he was overthinking it.
When the Tsugawa ninjas saw the enemy's numerous "fresh troops," their collapse accelerated dramatically. Those who had merely been wavering were swept along in the exodus.
After charging into the village, Ashes organization's main force drove the ninjas and civilians in different directions according to plan.
This task wasn't difficult to complete. Though the enemy knew they should concentrate their forces for a breakout, they had become startled birds—in their panic, they lacked rational action.
No one attempted to attack Yūshin, who simply stood there quietly.
The sounds of chaos grew louder and louder. Yūshin observed the surrounding situation, knowing his objective was finally achieved—from now on, the Tsugawa Clan could never pose any threat again.
Successful revenge was certainly cause for joy, but what Yūshin felt more at this moment was a more profound, understated sense of clarity.
Though Yūshin's previous life had been merely somewhere between lying flat and giving up, he had lived in an incredibly peaceful environment, not in a war-torn region.
Coming to this chaotic world, living a precarious existence, the emotions Yūshin had bottled up over this year and more...
In any case, with the Tsugawa Clan's destruction, he could finally breathe a long sigh of relief.
However, with only one step remaining before final success, Yūshin wouldn't allow any complacency.
"Herding ducks" is also a technical skill.
The work of dispersing the Tsugawa Clan continued from that night until the morning of the third day, finally scattering this ninja clan like "stars across the sky."
Based on the Fūma Clan's magical experience of having every Tom, Dick, and Harry come slap them once they showed weakness, after the Tsugawa Clan scattered, it wouldn't take long before the entire shinobi world would unhurriedly erase this ninja clan's name.
In a certain sense, this pattern could be considered "the constancy of natural law."
...
On the third morning, the Ashes ninjas had no time to rest. After finishing the "duck herding," they immediately began collecting spoils throughout the village.
Yūshin sat on a collapsed stone pillar broken into sections, asking Chihori, who approached him:
"Do we have results from our casualty statistics?"
What he worried about most was heavy casualties on his own side. Though a glance showed things wouldn't be that bad, he still felt uneasy without hearing specific numbers.
Chihori knew what Yūshin wanted to hear, so she deliberately spoke in circles: "We stuck together during our operation, and we weren't really executing true combat missions. Plus, most enemies had lost their fighting spirit..."
This rambling made Yūshin's eye twitch, but since Chihori was in the mood to joke, the situation must be quite good.
She stopped at the right moment, a smile unconsciously appearing on her face:
"Currently, no personnel deaths... one person severely injured, but now out of life-threatening danger; six have varying degrees of minor to moderate injuries, but nothing causing physical disability; additionally, one person nearly contributed a death..."
"Nearly? What happened?" Yūshin asked with some curiosity.
Chihori glanced around, then moved closer to Yūshin before whispering: "Because the enemy was the Tsugawa Clan, one guy got a bit carried away and nearly tried to take out a bunch of enemies with explosive tags..."
Yūshin: "..."
So basically a "hot-headed youth" plus "suicide bomber," huh? Considering the Hagūgen Clan's experiences over the past six months, Yūshin could understand this "guy's" impulsive behavior.
Well, understandable, but not supported.
"Regardless, as long as no one died," Yūshin said.
Theoretically speaking, executing such a task of the weak attacking the strong while seeking zero casualties was somewhat overly idealistic. However, the main force had only performed cleanup work—most of the difficult tasks were handled by Yūshin and his two companions.
Gorō Fūma aside, Yūshin truly had to thank Shichimi Uchiha for the assistance provided.
But since Shichimi was currently helping with search tasks, words of gratitude could wait...
Originally, Yūshin's group couldn't use basic scroll sealing techniques. Though simple and practical, these were still space-time ninjutsu.
But with the Fūma Clan and Shichimi Uchiha, the organization had mastered this technology, allowing them to "package" discovered supplies.
Due to Yūshin's time constraints, they couldn't search too thoroughly, but this place held a ninja clan's long-term accumulations—regardless, Ashes organization would obtain a large batch of valuable supplies.
Though Yūshin had previously blown up several supply warehouses...
The kind-hearted Tsugawa Clan, after rescuing some supplies, had even reorganized them.
Yūshin's subordinates often just needed to relocate these items.
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