Hidejin and Orochi spoke for a while. Seeing that it was almost time, they began the journey.
As the daughter of the main family being married off, Hyūga Kichō sat inside the carriage at the center of the procession. Led by the escort, the group advanced at an unhurried pace.
Around them, ninja and samurai guarded the formation together, providing tight and seamless protection.
Hidejin looked at the ninja and samurai sent by the Land of Night and gave a slight nod.
These guards had already become a complete unit. Setting strength aside, the fact that they could swiftly and effectively form such a tight formation showed that these ninja and samurai had definitely undergone hard training in ordinary times. They were not empty showpieces that would shatter at the first touch.
Although in Hidejin's eyes, this force could still be crushed head-on.
When the gap in strength was too great, no formation had any meaning.
The only one among them who somewhat caught Hidejin's eye was probably Kakuzu, their leader.
He was very young, and even if placed within the Hyūga clan, his strength could not be considered weak. He would be qualified to hold a relatively important position.
It seems the country is not maintained by one person's deterrence alone.
Hidejin silently gave the Land of Night a positive evaluation in his heart.
The procession traveled for several days.
At dusk, they finally reached the border of the Land of Fire.
After crossing the wide wilderness ahead, they would arrive in the Land of Night.
At that moment, under the afterglow of the setting sun, a bone-chilling cold descended together with the night.
Hidejin sighed.
The instant he sighed, a series of whooshing sounds rang out.
More than a dozen black shadows leapt from the surrounding patches of darkness, their target pointed straight at the carriage in the center of the procession.
Clearly, the target of their assassination was very precise.
Hyūga Kichō, the future wife of the Shogun of the Land of Night.
"Rotation!"
Hidejin responded to the attackers a beat late.
Calling it a beat late was not quite accurate. Hidejin had already prepared to act in advance. He had simply been secretly gathering strength.
After all, trying to launch a sneak attack under the eyes of the Byakugan was far too foolish.
Hidejin leapt up to meet them. His body spun in midair as a vast amount of chakra erupted through his body, transforming into blue streams of air.
In the blink of an eye, a chakra sphere more than ten meters in diameter formed around Hidejin's rotating body and directly swept those dozen attackers into it.
Screams rang out endlessly.
The fierce storm caused by the rotating chakra sphere violently tore at the attackers' bodies.
Blood sprayed everywhere.
Hidejin stopped spinning.
More than a dozen mangled bodies lay scattered across the ground, their auras completely gone.
This powerful elder of the Hyūga clan had killed more than a dozen fairly capable assassins with a single move.
Boom!
A sudden explosion rang out behind him, startling everyone present.
The carriage at the center of the procession was suddenly blown apart by some unknown attack.
Kichō, dressed in a white furisode kimono, seemed to have sensed something in advance. Without the slightest hesitation, she leapt sideways into the air from the smoke and shattered wood of the explosion.
From within the bursting smoke and splintered wood, a ninja-dressed figure swung a ninja blade toward Kichō's chest.
The sharpened ninja blade had already cut open part of the sleeve on Kichō's right arm during the previous attack.
Kichō, holding the spiritual blade Spider-Cutter in her hand, had already drawn the sword by the time the ninja chased after her.
Clang!
The ring of metal echoed through the air.
Using that force, Kichō's body drifted backward lightly like willow fluff.
The surrounding ninja and samurai from the Land of Night all reacted, surrounding and attacking the assailant.
"He avoided the detection of both the Byakugan and the insects. This ability to conceal his aura and chakra, is it a special secret technique, or an unknown kekkei genkai?"
A cold light flashed beneath Orochi's sunglasses.
The fact that the attacker could bypass the Hyūga's Byakugan and the Aburame's insects to strike an important target was unexpected, but after thinking carefully, it was not impossible.
In the chaos of the Warring States era, the world had no shortage of strange jutsus and unusual kekkei genkai.
"His body has great research value."
"Mm."
Hidejin nodded, agreeing with Orochi's judgment.
"Move aside."
Orochi spoke.
The ninja and samurai surrounding the attacker quickly scattered.
Orochi stretched his arm forward, and the black sleeve opened.
Rumble!
What emerged was not a swarm of insects covering the sky.
It was an enormous centipede, blood-red from head to tail, covered in countless hooked claws, like a massive red dragon.
It first crawled along the ground, then shot into the air, circling through the sky before suddenly charging at the attacker with a huge, bloody maw torn open.
Its body was more than two meters wide, making its size frighteningly massive.
This bastard is still as sinister as ever. He specially engraved a summoning jutsu inside his sleeve...
Hidejin grew wary of Orochi's method of attack.
When they had fought in the past, he had almost been caught by this trick. If the Byakugan had not seen the abnormal chakra fluctuation in advance, there was a high chance he would have been seriously injured in one blow.
"Ah!"
The attacker had no time to dodge.
The red dragon-like centipede tore off one of his bloody arms.
"Damn it!"
The attacking ninja's face turned deathly pale as he looked at the enormous red centipede, which was almost the size of a small hill. He could not believe this was also part of the Aburame clan's insect-controlling technique.
This was on a completely different level from the Aburame ninja he had faced in the past.
Too dangerous.
This man who controlled centipedes was far too dangerous.
He glared fiercely at Orochi in the distance, as if trying to remember today's humiliation, then turned and fled without looking back.
But after only a few steps, his body stiffened.
Then he fell straight to the ground.
The instant he fell, he saw it.
At some point, the wound where his right arm had been torn off had become covered in dense black insects.
They silently squeezed into his torn wound, continuously injecting toxins that numbed his nerves.
"When? Was it that centipede...?"
The attacking ninja suddenly realized something.
But it was already too late.
A powerful drowsiness surged over him. Unable to resist, he closed his eyes and fell into a deep coma.
"You left a large number of insects on the centipede's body, then used the centipede's attack to leave the insects inside the wound... Your methods are still as underhanded as ever."
Hidejin felt his scalp tingle slightly.
No matter when he saw the Aburame clan's jutsus, he found them difficult to adapt to.
They were practically impossible to guard against.
The only things capable of defending against the Aburame clan's secret jutsus in advance were the Hyūga clan's Byakugan and certain special sensory secret jutsus.
"This way is more efficient."
Orochi calmly accepted Hidejin's comment as praise.
"Release!"
Then he formed hand signs.
The huge red centipede, which had remained on the ground, wriggling and crawling while leaving behind a deep sunken trail, disappeared in a burst of white smoke.
"Kichō, are you all right?"
Hidejin walked toward his daughter.
"I am fine, Father. The clothes will simply need a little repair later."
Kichō pointed at the torn part of her sleeve. The cut was not large, and if one did not look carefully, it would be hard to notice.
Hidejin nodded.
"As expected of my daughter. Even in that situation, you were still able to dodge calmly."
Hidejin's words affirmed Kichō's strength and alertness.
Being able to avoid danger through instinct alone when the Byakugan had failed to work clearly meant she had inherited the essence of his teachings.
"After all, it was you who taught me not to rely too much on the Byakugan in battle, Father."
Kichō lowered her head and smiled faintly, as if a little embarrassed.
Hidejin also smiled, finally feeling reassured.
On the other side, Kakuzu had people bind the unconscious attacking ninja and ordered the medical ninja in the procession to stop his bleeding, so he would not die before the interrogation.
After finishing that, Kakuzu walked over.
"It seems we need to hurry from here. My apologies, Kichō-hime. We allowed you to be startled."
"No, not at all. After all, no one expected the enemy to avoid both the Byakugan and the Aburame clan's secret detection techniques."
Kichō smiled understandingly. Speaking with the tone of the future wife of the shogun, she did not place blame on anyone.
Because the carriage had been destroyed, there was no time to make a new one nearby.
Moreover, no one knew whether there would be a second wave of attackers.
So from this point on, everything would be kept simple. They needed to head to the capital, Yomi Castle, as quickly as possible.
Ninja were beings who prioritized efficiency to begin with. In fact, after leaving that slow-moving palanquin behind, Kichō's mood improved quite a bit.
She had not liked that sluggish way of traveling from the start.
The journey after that went very smoothly.
They made it all the way to Yomi Castle without encountering a second wave of attacks.
Either there were no more attackers, or the person behind the scenes had judged the matter impossible and decided not to waste further effort.
Whichever it was, everyone who safely arrived at Yomi Castle quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
Traveling for a long time while keeping the body tense like that wore down one's patience.
"So this is Yomi Castle..."
Looking at the tall, heavy city before her, where everything seemed orderly and stable, even Kichō, who had seen much of the world, was slightly dazed.
It was not that she had never been to a great city. She had visited the capital of the Land of Fire more than once.
However, the flat roads, the clean streets, the healthy-looking pedestrians and children, and the many strange new goods sold in the shops, things she had never seen before, were all things she had not encountered in the Land of Fire's capital.
Although the capital of the Land of Fire was more majestic and its commerce was relatively developed, because of the fires of war, its people could only be said to be barely managing to live.
Even so, compared to the capitals of the other great nations, the Land of Fire's capital was still far ahead.
But compared to Yomi Castle, it seemed to be lacking something.
"Yes. In the past few years, Yayoi-sama pacified the chaos across the country one region at a time. In addition, this place is not located at the center of the continent. War... in this country, that is already something from many years ago."
Kakuzu spoke with some emotion.
He was one of the oldest retainers who had followed Yayoi. He had watched step by step as this newly born country entered the right track.
It had been difficult at the beginning as well, but Yayoi had led by example, facing the hardest problems and difficulties at the front line again and again, personally taking the lead in solving all kinds of issues.
Under the influence of such an atmosphere, the entire country naturally developed a powerful sense of unity, opening a path forward without fearing hardship or danger.
Sometimes, inspiring people and mobilizing their enthusiasm did not require many rewards.
Creating a fair platform where they could receive the returns they deserved was enough to make talented people rush forward willingly.
"Next, everyone should settle down at the State Guest House first. The specific wedding arrangements still require some preparation."
After bringing everyone to the State Guest House, Kakuzu had the Hyūga clan's people stay there peacefully.
"Thank you for the trouble."
Hidejin nodded and let Kakuzu make the arrangements.
Kakuzu left.
The Aburame clan head, Orochi, also followed Kakuzu, intending to formally visit his future superior.
Although the Aburame clan had already smoothly migrated away from the Land of Fire, these matters were not being personally handled by him, the clan head. Since he had happened to be present for the Hyūga clan's wedding escort, he had remained in the Land of Fire and returned with Kakuzu.
"Yayoi-sama is a very mild-tempered person. As long as you do not intentionally offend him, he will not take many things to heart."
On the way to the Shogun's Residence in Yomi Castle, Kakuzu began explaining to Orochi some points to keep in mind when meeting Yayoi.
Although Yayoi had very few taboos, Kakuzu did not know Orochi well. He was worried that Orochi might accidentally touch Yayoi's bottom line somewhere.
After all, Yayoi's gentleness was one side of him, but Kakuzu also deeply understood his other side, his cold ruthlessness.
He was the Shogun of the Land of Night, someone who would show no mercy when exterminating enemies.
Orochi would be a future colleague. Kakuzu did not want their relationship to become stiff.
Orochi listened silently, roughly understanding how he should interact with this shogun named Yayoi.
After entering the Shogun's Residence, they stepped into a completely militarized area.
Tall walls surrounded the place, cutting off the inside from the outside world. Patrolling ninja and samurai came and went without pause. Tall towers and pavilions rose one after another.
But Orochi could tell that many of these buildings had not been constructed for enjoyment at all. They were military structures. Only a small portion were living and entertainment buildings, meant to ease the pressure accumulated by the ninja and samurai in ordinary times.
Clearly, that shogun, Oda Yayoi, had turned his residence into a sealed military fortress.
They passed through the outer court and headed toward the inner court.
What surprised Orochi was that the defenses here were much weaker than in the previous area.
Did he not value his own safety?
No, perhaps it came from confidence.
Someone who possessed great power simply did not need such things.
The strongest force in the Land of Night was the shogun himself. If even the shogun could not solve a problem, then no matter how many people came, they would only become meaningless sacrifices.
Therefore, only the necessary messengers and miscellaneous staff needed to remain here.
They arrived at the tenshu pavilion, the only building in the inner court that faced the outer court.
It was an eighty-meter-tall tower.
From here, one could see the entire layout of the Shogun's Residence at a glance.
After bringing Orochi to the highest floor, Kakuzu turned and left.
"Please enter."
A voice came from inside.
Orochi took a deep breath and stepped in.
It was an open space about seven meters high and several hundred square meters in area.
He casually swept his gaze over the furnishings and layout. They did not seem particularly elaborate. There were very few flashy but useless decorations. Everything seemed arranged for convenience. Because of that, most of the things placed here had practical use.
Then he quickly shifted his gaze forward, looking at the black-haired young man seated behind a broad desk.
The young man had refined features and did not look like a shogun who controlled the military and politics of an entire country.
He wore loose gray-blue casual clothing, and the way he worked made him look more like a writer holding a pen.
But from the fact that his body could support those loose clothes, it was clear that the seemingly slender frame was actually filled with terrifying explosive power.
In terms of taijutsu, he was probably also a rather frightening person.
The insects are uneasy.
Orochi's hand, hidden inside his sleeve, clenched slightly, then slowly relaxed.
After that, Orochi imperceptibly glanced at the blue-kimono girl standing to the side.
She was very young, looking around sixteen or seventeen. Her flawless, beautiful face was so delicate that it felt unreal, giving off a dreamlike sensation, as though she had been carved by human hands.
She looked very gentle, but the icy, bone-piercing aura that occasionally flowed from her purple eyes made Orochi's nerves tighten instinctively.
The insects are telling me they cannot sense anything from this girl, but she is extremely dangerous... If I move carelessly, I may be crushed instantly.
These thoughts flashed through Orochi's mind in an instant, but his face still showed almost no emotion. Without changing expression, he bowed to Yayoi.
"It is an honor to meet you for the first time, Shogun-sama. I am the clan head of the Aburame clan, Aburame Orochi."