“Move the trees over there.”
“All the grain and vegetables have been transported to the warehouse and carefully stored.” “Remove the bloody carcasses from the dead beasts as quickly as possible.
The hides must be completely stripped.”
A middle-aged man approaching forty calmly and steadily directed the camp’s tribespeople in their systematic work.
He did not need to do the work himself, but commanding such a large force to complete the camp was no easy task.
Eventually, sweat ran down his face.
He picked up his water flask and took a large gulp to quench his thirst.
He was none other than the current head of the Kusanagi clan — Kusanagi Seiryu.
More than three hundred ninjas and ordinary people lived here, all members of the Kusanagi clan.
At this moment, under the clan leader’s command, ninjas and ordinary tribespeople were each carrying out their assigned tasks.
Even the elderly and children could not remain completely indifferent if they were agile and their workload was reduced.
They had to focus on their own work.
The Kusanagi clan had established a base by the river and was expanding the surrounding land, building houses and wooden fences to begin forming a small village.
Nearly a month had passed, and this forest region had clearly become the new territory of the Kusanagi clan.
To ensure the safety of this new territory, the ninjas of the Kusanagi clan had set numerous traps around the camp.
First, to protect against wild beasts in the forest.
Second, to create a strategic buffer zone that could ambush enemies and issue warnings, preventing the flames of war from spreading directly to the camp.
“Next, let’s scout the terrain farther away.
The Night Kingdom will not easily overlook this.
They will soon send ninjas and samurai here…”
After observing the family’s base, Clan Leader Kusanagi Seiryu nodded lightly.
With this, the clan could finally settle here.
Then, as if remembering something, a vigilant expression appeared on his face.
However, although his expression was serious, there was no worry in his eyes.
Clearly, his own power — or rather, the legendary relic passed down through generations of the Kusanagi clan — the Kusanagi Sword — had given him sufficient confidence.
In the past, the Kusanagi clan had relied on this divine weapon to make a name for themselves in the Land of Grass.
Even when forced into exile, he had relied on this divine weapon, lost several tribespeople, but safely withdrawn from the Land of Grass and prevented the remaining ninja clans from recklessly pursuing them.
He believed that with his own abilities and the power of the artifact, he could accomplish great things even in the Night Kingdom.
Many people said that the Night Kingdom was one of the few military powers under the great nations, but whether it was strong or not, the custom in the ninja world was to fight first and decide later.
At present, the Night Kingdom had not given him as strong an impression as he had imagined.
The border forces had been quickly repelled with only a small number of troops and had no room to resist.
“If I could also become a Shogun…”
A strong ambition and desire flickered in Kusanagi Seiryu’s dark eyes.
He also desired the position of ruler of a country.
If that happened, the Kusanagi clan would once again become great in his hands!
Just as he was imagining a beautiful future, BOOM——
A thunderous sound suddenly shattered the silence of the camp.
Immediately afterward, several more thunderous sounds rang out—
Houses exploded in flames, shockwaves spread in all directions, and a chorus of screams rose.
Even ninjas, along with ordinary people, lost their lives in the flames of the explosions.
It was the sound of exploding tags detonating.
Ninja attack!
That thought flashed through Kusanagi Seiryu’s mind in an instant.
“Impossible.
The traps outside should not have been triggered yet.
How could this——”
Kusanagi Seiryu’s eyes widened in shock.
Someone had passed through the heavily guarded perimeter of the camp without making a sound.
Even if one wanted to break through the outer traps, one would have to wear through several layers of skin.
However, Kusanagi Seiryu reacted quickly.
In any case, the enemy had already reached the center of the camp, and they had to be driven away quickly to minimize losses.
“Enemy attack!”
“Enemy attack!”
The other ninjas of the Kusanagi clan also shouted loudly and searched everywhere for the enemy.
“Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!”
A low voice came from nowhere, turning part of the land into a swamp, trapping several ninjas and more than a dozen ordinary members of the Kusanagi clan, leaving them helpless as they watched themselves being swallowed into the bottomless swamp, unable to escape.
“Damn it!
Stop right there!”
Kusanagi Seiryu wanted to intervene and help, find the attackers, and stop the Earth Release ninjutsu.
They were the future of the Kusanagi clan.
They could not die here.
“Eight Trigrams Palm: Air Palm!”
Accompanied by a cold female voice, Kichou, dressed in light purple ninja attire, quickly emerged from the shadows of the dense forest nearby.
She thrust her right palm forward violently, fingers bent into a tiger-like stance.
A powerful torrent of chakra concentrated in the center of the curled tiger palm and was instantly released.
The air trembled, and an explosive sound struck Kusanagi Seiryu’s body directly.
BOOM!
Kusanagi Seiryu’s expression changed dramatically as he leaped backward.
The gentle fist force struck from afar, creating a shocking hole in the stone wall.
Stones collapsed, and countless fragments scattered in all directions.
“This is…
Byakugan!?” Find the original chapter at g.com.
Seeing Kichou charging with cold killing intent, especially those strange eyes emitting high-purity white light, Kusanagi Seiryu shouted in shock.
He suddenly understood what he could not understand before.
If the Byakugan had helped, then the traps he had set around the camp were indeed meaningless.
“I heard that the Shogun of the Night Kingdom married into the Hyuga clan.
I thought it was a false rumor, but I never expected…”
Cold sweat seeped onto Kusanagi Seiryu’s face, and his usual calm expression finally collapsed.
He had not thought that the renowned Hyuga clan would actually form a marriage alliance with the Night Kingdom.
That was why it was no wonder he had thought the rumor was false.
Thinking about it carefully, it was actually something hard to believe.
The Hyuga clan was a long-standing noble family, while the Shogun of the Night Kingdom had an almost commoner background as a wandering orphan.
In the past, he had hidden like a rat in the underground black market, aiming for money.
Even after becoming Shogun, many people secretly despised his background, thinking he was just a lucky low-class commoner.
But unexpectedly, the Hyuga clan had actually gone through with the marriage.
For a ninja claiming to come from such a prestigious clan, shouldn’t their status be the most important thing?
Kusanagi Seiryu could not understand it, but he knew that things had completely exploded.
He had not expected the Night Kingdom’s revenge to be so swift and fierce.
Kichou ignored Kusanagi Seiryu’s words and pushed her feet against the ground, propelling her body forward.
The sleeves of her ninja suit were wider and looser than those of a standard ninja suit, making them attractive without hindering movement.
Therefore, when Kichou leaped or dashed, she looked like a dancing butterfly.
Not only was her speed astonishing, but the fluttering sleeves also had the effect of confusing the enemy.
“How beautiful…”
Kichou fluttered gracefully like a goddess descending to earth, pure and inviolable.
Just as this thought crossed Kusanagi Seiryu’s mind, he suddenly snapped awake.
No, this was an illusion!
“Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven!”
Seeing Kusanagi Seiryu stepping into the Gentle Fist domain, Kichou swung her arms, and a flow of chakra was instantly released from her palms.
Her body began to spin and dance.
The swirling chakra flow instantly formed a massive chakra sphere, rotating at high speed around Kichou and returning to the center.
The powerful airflow generated by the high-speed rotation created a strong suction force, violently pulling Kusanagi Seiryu toward the rotating chakra sphere.
Once involved, the body would be covered in wounds and suffer severe injuries.
Moreover, Gentle Fist possessed the dangerous power to seal the chakra system, making it extremely effective against any ninja.
Kichou’s graceful yet murderous dance stopped spinning, her jet-black long hair also stopped moving in time with her steps and slowly fell.
Her white eyes narrowed slightly, and instead of being torn by the reversal, she calmly looked at the departing Kusanagi Seiryu.
At some point, Kusanagi Seiryu was holding a samurai sword with a thin red hilt and a straight blade in his palm.
The blade was thinner than a standard samurai sword and shorter than a standard katana.
Judging from the style, it seemed like a weapon suitable for women.
Now, held in the palm of the tall man Kusanagi Seiryu, it felt somewhat out of place.
“It seems the chakra that was circulating just now suddenly disappeared…”
Kichou’s mind raced quickly and immediately identified Kusanagi Seiryu’s background.
As expected, the samurai sword in Kusanagi Seiryu’s hand should be the Kusanagi Sword passed down through generations of the Kusanagi clan.
…
“What a dangerous ability!
Not only does it use genjutsu tricks in movement, but it also has a lethal technique afterward…
Without this Kusanagi Sword, I would probably have died instantly.
Is this the power of a Bloodline Limit?
It’s truly chilling.”
Kusanagi Seiryu forced a smile and spoke in a tone filled with jealousy and envy.
Bloodline Limit…
What a beautiful yet terrifying ability.
For the sake of such existences, these small clans would never attract attention and would never become the stage for disputes between great clans.
Although he did not think his own power was weaker than Kichou’s, in reality, he had almost been defeated in a single encounter.
That made his inner self feel extremely unstable.
“Compared to that, the Kusanagi Sword in your hand is actually unfamiliar.
It ate chakra, didn’t it?”
Kichou harbored doubts, but the meaning behind her words was very certain.
Although she was only seventeen, she was a genius of the Hyuga clan and an elite who had crawled out of mountains of corpses many times.
Moreover, because she possessed the Byakugan, if something was not too strange, she could make an accurate judgment with just a single glance or touch.
“You saw it with your white eyes?
Yes, this Kusanagi Sword has a special ability to consume chakra.
As long as this sword is drawn, no ninja can defeat me.
In other words, your Gentle Fist is powerless against me.”
Kusanagi Seiryu feared the power of the Byakugan, but he was not afraid.
In his eyes, Kichou was like the enemies he had encountered before — strong, but quickly defeated by the Kusanagi Sword.
This ancestral relic might bridge the gap between him and Bloodline Limit ninjas, allowing him to surpass ninjas who only flaunted their power through Bloodline Limits.
Kichou remained silent.
If that was the case, the effectiveness of Gentle Fist would indeed be greatly reduced.
This was because even ninja taijutsu required chakra to enhance its power.
No, the more skilled a ninja was in taijutsu, the higher their chakra requirement became.
“You’re right, but…”
Just as Kusanagi Seiryu was about to ask, his body suddenly stiffened and became unable to move.
A cold aura suddenly connected from behind his body through the surface of his skin directly to his chakra system.
“It’s over, Clan Leader.”
“Wait, I——”
Before Kusanagi Seiryu could finish speaking, Kichou’s elegant returning figure, fluttering like a butterfly, had already landed gracefully in front of him.
A gentle breeze blew through, and Kichou’s slender palm touched his chest.
Bang.
A faint clapping sound echoed in the air.
“Ugh!”
Kusanagi Seiryu’s face turned deathly pale, and he could not suppress a cough as blood spurted from his mouth.
It felt as if his heart had been pierced by a knife, violently torn apart and crushed.
The muscles in his face spasmed even more, bringing unbearable pain.
Above all, he could not mobilize all his chakra — his chakra system had been completely sealed by Kichou’s Gentle Fist.
Since the heart was the core of the chakra system, if the chakra system of the heart was severed, a ninja could not mobilize or refine chakra.
Kichou’s single Gentle Fist strike had directly caused him to lose the chance for a final counterattack using the Kusanagi Sword.
“Damn it, I still haven’t used the hidden power of the Kusanagi Sword…
Consciousness…
must…”
No matter how much hatred and unwillingness filled his heart, Kusanagi Seiryu’s eyes darkened, he could not close them, his head drooped, and he departed without vitality.
However, although Kusanagi Seiryu’s body had lost its breath, it did not fall.
Instead, it was supported by another force and remained standing.
Behind Kusanagi Seiryu, five chakra threads were connected for some reason.
Like a puppet, Kusanagi Seiryu slowly swayed his body and gripped the Kusanagi Sword, as if he had come back to life and was ready to continue fighting the enemy.
On a sturdy tree branch nearby, Yayoi quietly landed on the tree.
Her right hand was spread open, and five chakra threads were connected to Kusanagi Seiryu’s back, controlling his body.
“Husband.”
Kichou smiled broadly, recalling the flow of the previous battle — it had been almost perfect.
The moment Yayoi used chakra threads to control Kusanagi Seiryu, she had quickly seized this important opportunity.
Without wasting words and without hesitation, she charged at full speed toward Kusanagi Seiryu and delivered a fatal blow with Gentle Fist.
After a series of actions, it was nothing more than a flash of lightning.
Kusanagi Seiryu probably had no time to react, and Yayoi might not have even noticed her presence before she killed him.
“Hmm, I didn’t expect Puppet Art to proceed so smoothly.
This man’s caution was entirely directed at you, Kichou.”
Yayoi was not surprised by this result.
His power was already far greater than Kusanagi Seiryu’s, and thanks to the surprise attack and Kichou’s coordination, it was only natural for Kusanagi Seiryu to die instantly without even noticing the two of them, even if he wielded the Kusanagi Sword.
The Puppet Art he mentioned was a puppet ninjutsu that produced special chakra to control living people.
Furthermore, this technique used chakra threads to disrupt the target’s chakra system and gain a certain degree of control.
That was why when Kusanagi Seiryu was hit by his Puppet Art, his body stiffened and became unable to move.
This was because his chakra system had been disrupted by the chakra threads, which also affected his body’s movements.
“He was too concerned about my Byakugan and Gentle Fist.
Even after death, he probably thought I was the commander of the operation in the Night Kingdom.”
Kichou summarized the reason for Kusanagi Seiryu’s failure.
“That way, we can end this smoothly.”
Yayoi jumped down from the branch and released the chakra threads from his fingers.
They moved vividly like flower ropes.
Under Yayoi’s control, the bodies of Kusanagi Seiryu and the others showed no difference from when they were alive.
Their physical agility had not declined — rather, it had become even more agile.
Holding the Kusanagi Sword, Kusanagi Seiryu quickly leaped forward and charged into the distant crowd to launch a final sweep of the remaining Kusanagi clan members.
Approximately ten minutes later, the Kusanagi clan’s base was already engulfed in flames.
Including the clan leader Kusanagi Seiryu, there were a total of forty-seven ninjas and more than two hundred ordinary clan members.
All of their bodies had been burned in the flames.
“There shouldn’t be any oversights, right?”
Yayoi turned his face and asked.
Whether elderly or children, as long as they were enemies, they had to be completely wiped out without exception.
This was the lesson he had learned in the Warring States era and the greatest respect for enemies.
Kakuzu was holding a female corpse — it was none other than another Jonin-level combatant from the Kusanagi clan and the clan leader’s wife.
Kakuzu threw the corpses into the fire as well.
The blazing flames illuminated his mask-covered face, and his eerie green eyes were frozen.
“There are no more.
All have been eliminated.”
Kakuzu’s tone was completely unwavering.
Having followed Yayoi for many years, he understood very well Yayoi’s ruthless methods toward enemies.
Yayoi and Kichou were responsible for dealing with the clan leader Kusanagi Seiryu, while Kakuzu was responsible for dealing with the other Jonin-level ninja.
Aburame Haruto was responsible for the remaining ninjas of the Kusanagi clan.
Being able to control insects allowed him to quickly eliminate small enemies.
Through this joint operation, Aburame Haruto gained a deeper understanding of Yayoi’s character and how he handled matters as the Shogun of the Night Kingdom.
As long as there were enemies, even if they were elderly or children, he intended to deal with them mercilessly.
Aburame Haruto suspected that the reason the Night Kingdom was stable was because Yayoi had mercilessly executed rebels and relatives who opposed him as soon as they appeared.
Even information about the rebels and their past was completely blocked, fundamentally erasing their history and making discussion meaningless.
The next step was very simple: pack up all the items collected from the Kusanagi clan and leave the final delivery to the border forces.
The Kusanagi Sword, passed down through generations, was kept by Yayoi himself.