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"Thump!"
When Shin's figure appeared before them, Shimura Ken could no longer support himself. His knees buckled, and he fell heavily to the ground.
Behind him, hundreds of Shimura clansmen knelt in unison, burying their heads deep in the dirt.
Among the crowd, young mothers desperately covered their children's mouths, fearing they might make even the slightest sound.
One woman wept silently, her body trembling uncontrollably.
Beside her, a freshly adult shinobi clenched his fists. His fingernails pierced his palms, but he was oblivious to the blood flowing out.
That face, which should have been full of youthful vigor, was now filled only with humiliation and despair.
No one dared to look up.
No one dared to speak.
The entire training ground was deathly silent, with only the wailing of the wind.
Shin slowly walked down from the high platform. His boots crunched on the gravel with each step.
He stopped directly in front of Shimura Ken.
He looked down from above at the old man prostrate on the ground.
"Shimura Ken."
"The sinner is here!"
"Raise your head."
Shimura Ken dared not disobey. He slowly raised his face, which was filled with despair and fear.
But he still dared not look directly at the man before him.
"Does your Shimura clan know its crime?" Shin asked indifferently.
Shimura Ken's lips trembled. Each word was incredibly difficult to utter. "The sinner... knows his crime! Danzo was treasonous and deserves death ten thousand times over. My Shimura clan failed in its discipline and is unforgivable! Please, my lord... mete out punishment!"
After speaking, he closed his eyes tightly, awaiting the death sentence.
Shin's gaze passed over him. It slowly swept across the ashen-faced Shimura clansmen.
"The crime is Danzo Shimura's alone," he spoke slowly. His voice was not loud, yet it clearly reached everyone's ears.
What?!
All the prostrate bodies trembled violently. Countless people instinctively raised their heads, their faces showing disbelief.
What did this mean? Could it be... could they still have a way to live?
"But the shame is your entire clan's."
This turning point, however, shattered the glimmer of hope that had just risen within them.
"The Shimura surname, from today onwards, will no longer be an honor, but a joke."
"A brand of shame etched on each of you, and even on your descendants."
"It will remind everyone that your clan produced a traitor to the Land of Fire."
"Tell me, bearing such shame, how do you intend to live on?"
Shin's tone held no trace of mockery, yet it was more heart-wrenching than any insult.
He calmly pronounced their social death.
"My lord!" Shimura Ken suddenly roared, slamming his head against the ground with a dull thud. Blood instantly began flowing.
"We... we are willing to be slaves! To be servants!"
"We are willing to toil like oxen and horses for you, my lord, to reclaim barren land, to build city walls! We only ask, my lord... we only ask that you grant the children a path to survival!"
He cried out desperately, like a cornered old dog.
At this moment, dignity had no meaning whatsoever.
All they had left was this humble body and that tiny glimmer of hope to continue their bloodline.
"A path to survival?" Shin looked at him. "Do you only wish to live like livestock?"
"I thought a shinobi's bones would be harder than this."
He shook his head slowly, a hint of disappointment in his voice.
Just as everyone thought all hope was completely lost, Shin's voice suddenly rose, reverberating throughout the entire venue!
"I give you a choice."
The entire place fell silent. Everyone's breathing paused at that moment.
"The first path is this. I revoke your status as shinobi, demote you to commoners, and exile you to the frontier."
"You can live, but the shame brought by the Shimura name will accompany you for generations, until your bloodline is severed."
"The second path..."
He paused deliberately. His sharp gaze swept over everyone present.
"Bury your past. Forget your names."
"I will grant you a new identity, a new mission."
"You will delve into the darkness, becoming the sharpest claws of the Land of Fire."
"You will execute the dirtiest missions. Your names will never be recorded in history. Your achievements will remain unknown to the world."
"You will live for me, die for me. Your lives, your souls, belong only to me!"
These words were filled with blood and cruelty, yet they rekindled a faint light in the eyes of some young shinobi.
Rather than die in shame, better to perish in battle!
"In return..." Shin's gaze fell upon the children protected behind their parents.
"Your children will no longer have to bear this shame."
"They will, with new identities, enter the best shinobi schools in the Land of Fire. They will receive the most excellent teachers, the most abundant resources, and the strongest yet harshest training."
"They will become the sharpest swords in my hand, to earn their own glory, and let their names resound throughout the shinobi world!"
"Now, make your choice."
Shin's voice returned to calm, yet it contained an irresistible power.
"To cling to life in shame, never to rise again?"
"Or to burn yourselves out in the darkness, to exchange for a bright future for your descendants?"
Complete silence followed.
Within the training ground, a pin drop could be heard.
Everyone was stunned by these words. Their hearts pounded wildly.
They... still had a choice?
And one of the options was to exchange for a future for their descendants?
The mother holding her child suddenly looked up. Her eyes were brimming with tears.
The young shinobi who had clenched his fists began to tremble uncontrollably. Not from fear, but from an unspeakable excitement!
Immense euphoria overwhelmed everyone's reason!
This was not a judgment!
This was a gift!
It was salvation!
It was this great monarch, in their most desperate hour, granting them a glimmer of hope. A path of atonement paved with blood and life!
"My lord!!" Shimura Ken was the first to react. He was incoherent with excitement. His entire being came back to life.
"I choose the second path! I am willing to die for you, my lord!!"
His roar ignited the entire venue!
"Willing to die for my lord!!!"
A shout like a mountain and a tsunami erupted from hundreds of mouths.
The young mother placed her child carefully beside her, bowing deeply. Her forehead left a bloody mark on the ground!
The young shinobi knelt, shouting with all his might. His voice was hoarse, but with an unprecedented fervor!
The shouts converged into a fervent wave of sound, soaring into the sky, making the entire training ground hum!
There was no more fear or despair. Only endless fervor, gratitude, and a desperate yearning for the future!
Shin watched all of this with satisfaction.
What he wanted was precisely a group of warriors willing to sacrifice everything for hope.
"Very good."
"From this day forward, there is no more Shimura clan in the world."
"You shall be called the Kurokaze clan!"
At this moment, a shinobi clan that had existed for hundreds of years, along with its glory and its sins, was completely buried.
In its place was a new shinobi clan, hidden in the shadows, ready at any moment to draw its blade for its monarch.