Danger and opportunity coexist. The Fūma Clan, this wandering ninja group, instantly became the pillar of support for Kikyō Castle's new ruler after the local ninja "rebelled."
This group entering Kikyō Castle certainly wasn't just for disaster relief. In fact, the moment they entered the city, they were granted an area to serve as their temporary encampment.
The place was currently filled with tents, but one could imagine that once the city's problems were resolved and peace returned, Yūshin and his people would engage in major construction here, dedicating themselves wholeheartedly to infrastructure development.
Below the keep, over a dozen ninja were attempting to clear the surrounding construction debris.
"These falling objects from above..."
A ninja from the Fūma Clan first looked up at the half-destroyed keep above, then at the broken stones and tiles scattered on the ground. All the ornate architectural elements had been simply destroyed by gravity.
"The keep needs rebuilding, right?"
"Of course... at least the upper half needs reconstruction."
"This construction debris isn't easy to handle. Who knows how long it'll take to clear this place out."
"But it still needs to be cleared."
Ninja must treat falling objects cautiously, not just because such things violate public order and morality, but more importantly because they contain profound "historical lessons."
Here's a "promote civilization and establish new customs" story.
Once there was a ninja—well, possibly an Uchiha ninja—who while flying in the sky, casually threw down some important historical artifacts as garbage. Then unfortunately, the falling objects struck a ninja in green spandex with a watermelon haircut.
Later, ah, later this Uchiha ninja also suffered great misfortune...
He was nearly kicked to death by that watermelon-haired ninja.
...
Most ninja in the camp had been dispatched, and with the city bustling about, this place carried a sense of finding tranquility amid chaos.
Yūshin, having returned from battle, was half-reclining on a simple wooden cot, his back weakly leaning against the headboard, wrapped up like a rice dumpling.
And that wasn't all—beside him, Shichimi Uchiha was still performing "3D additive processing" with bandages.
Round after round, layer after layer.
When Yūshin reappeared before everyone last night, his wretched state left them all dumbfounded.
It was just an infiltration mission—shouldn't Yūshin have returned unharmed? After all, assassination was hardly difficult for him.
As they say, "those who often stand by the river will get their shoes wet"—who could have expected Yūshin to kick an iron plate this time?
The current Yūshin couldn't even conceal the traces of White Zetsu transformation on his body, because he suspected that if he did so, he'd soon be running into a life phase called "final radiance before death."
He was deathly pale now, his skin color like undried lime plaster.
"This is..."
Shichimi Uchiha looked at Yūshin's left arm with severe burn marks, feeling somewhat troubled... From shoulder to palm, the carbonization marks on the entire arm were becoming increasingly severe.
Under normal circumstances, there was often a fixed, simple, and effective treatment method for such injuries—amputation.
"I was directly hit by the enemy's Lightning Release," Yūshin simply said.
Although he had chosen to catch the Lightning Release with his hand at the time, the result wasn't much different from being directly struck.
"Do you think... this arm can still be saved?" Shichimi Uchiha tactfully suggested a treatment plan.
"I think we can still try to save it... just bandage it up directly."
Shichimi Uchiha could sense that Yūshin's severely injured body was repairing itself at a speed far exceeding normal people—he rapidly concentrated chakra, then rapidly consumed it.
This vitality made Shichimi Uchiha feel somewhat familiar.
She said nothing more, first doing her best to clean away the charred parts on Yūshin's arm. After thinking briefly, she used the Summoning Technique to call forth that fox.
After the summoning beast Little Seven appeared, it wrinkled its nose and sniffed around, couldn't help but sneeze, then circled twice in place before lying down at Shichimi Uchiha's feet.
Shichimi reached into the fox's fur and somehow produced a bottle of medicine, which she then used to apply to Yūshin's arm.
In every sense, this wasn't particularly special care, but rather a kind of "do what you can, leave the rest to fate."
Was this some secret medicine? But Yūshin had no particular feeling about it, only grumbling internally—shouldn't burn patients be kept in sterile environments? How could she summon a furry creature here?
"Perhaps I should have acted with you last night."
Seeing Yūshin's miserable state, plus the destroyed keep, one could imagine how intense last night's battle was and how powerful the enemy was.
"I hadn't anticipated there being such an overwhelmingly powerful ninja here, but although the process was somewhat convoluted, the result was good and the objective was achieved."
"Is it my imagination? I feel like you're in quite a good mood?"
Shichimi Uchiha couldn't understand Yūshin's mindset—how could he look so pleased after being beaten half to death?
"Defeating a powerful enemy in battle, I also gained something."
Yūshin had gained tremendously and no longer considered such a difficult battle a bad thing.
If his physical condition weren't so terrible, Yūshin would want to immediately dive into developing his newly acquired Kekkei Genkai.
"What was that enemy's situation?"
Yūshin thought for a moment and decided to explain briefly: "Have you heard of a secret technique called Earth Grudge Fear?"
Her background meant Shichimi Uchiha was quite knowledgeable and familiar with many secrets and techniques of the ninja world, yet she had never heard of this secret technique.
After Yūshin briefly explained what Earth Grudge Fear was about, Shichimi Uchiha was no longer surprised at why Yūshin looked so wretched—she began to be amazed at how he could survive.
"This... I know asking this is somewhat overstepping bounds, but I still want to know how you defeated him."
Yūshin showed an unprecedented brilliant smile:
"You might not believe it, but I won through punches and kicks."
"..."
This sounded somewhat false, but was actually truer than pure gold.
"Ahem, back to the main topic."
"The people in our organization, despite different origins, have basically all experienced being stray dogs. But now I can say that after months of struggle, we've finally gained a foothold in the ninja world once again."
"I've thought it over and decided to change our organization's name from 'Ashes' to 'The Fireflies.' Before, we could only consider whether our weak flame might be extinguished, but now we can consider how we should burn next."
Precisely because everyone had once been stray dogs, they could appreciate the preciousness of this moment. Therefore, changing the organization's name was appropriate—a manifestation of new atmosphere and new tone.
The imagery of "Ashes" obviously carried certain negativity, while "The Fireflies" was quite the opposite.
...
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