The Truth Behind the Clan Massacre! (Please Follow, Please Vote)

"Do you really think us Konoha ninja would believe such nonsense?"

Nara Shikano shot back.

"A villain who slaughtered his own kin, yet claims he did it to earn money and support his family."

"All right, I know that explanation does sound rather absurd."

Homura Oyashiro fell silent for a moment, then spread his hands helplessly.

"But if you truly search through my memories, you'll know that I haven't concealed anything or lied."

The Old Clan Head gave a noncommittal hum, then raised his right hand.

Inoichi Yamanaka understood at once. He stepped forward, raised his palm, and prepared to press it against Homura Oyashiro's forehead to search his memories.

"W-Wait!"

With the moment upon him, Homura Oyashiro finally showed a trace of panic.

"I want to know—after searching my memories, how do you plan to deal with me?"

Nara Shikano replied calmly, "That depends on what your true intentions are."

Under normal circumstances.

If Nara Shikano and the others discovered a dangerous jonin like Homura Oyashiro, who had defected from another country and deliberately concealed his identity.

They would have killed him on the spot without a second word.

The fact that Nara Shikano had not immediately taken his life was already out of consideration for his status as the "mission employer."

"I said it already! I came to the Land of Fire with no other intentions!"

Homura Oyashiro looked extremely agitated, but in the end, he abandoned that meaningless outburst of emotion.

"No matter what you plan to do to me—execute me outright, or dig out my eyes...

"I hope you can spare my daughter, Chiyo. She isn't even old enough to remember things yet. Please, don't tell her about her clan or her origins. I'm begging you..."

Nara Shikano frowned but gave no response.

Inoichi Yamanaka silently stepped forward and began examining the other man's memories.

Yet as the investigation delved deeper, Inoichi Yamanaka's expression gradually turned uglier.

After a long while.

Inoichi Yamanaka withdrew his hand, returned to Nara Shikano's side, and spoke in a complicated tone.

"Uncle Shikano, what this man just said... was true.

"He truly has no plans to destroy the Land of Fire or threaten Konoha."

Nara Shikano glanced sideways.

"Are you sure you weren't caught in the Ketsuryūgan's genjutsu—forget it, that was a stupid question."

Homura Oyashiro had already taken Chakra-suppressing medicine specially developed by the Nara Clan.

At this point, he could not even gather Chakra. How could he possibly cast genjutsu?

Not to mention deceive an Elite Jonin like Inoichi Yamanaka, who specialized in Yin Release!

Nara Shikano stared intently at Homura Oyashiro.

The latter was clutching his head with both hands, looking as though his skull were splitting from the pain.

The Yamanaka Clan's spiritual secret techniques could indeed peer into another person's memories.

But correspondingly, they also inflicted considerable damage upon the mind of the person being examined.

If used on a corpse, the target naturally would not display any signs of pain.

But for the living, having their memories forcibly rifled through was no different from suffering excruciating agony akin to being flayed and stripped to the bone!

Nara Shikano asked, "Is the intelligence that the Chinoike Clan was exterminated true?"

"Yes."

Inoichi Yamanaka replied.

"And it was indeed him who slaughtered the entire clan, leaving behind only one child—the daughter Chiyo he just mentioned."

Nara Shikano's tightly furrowed brow relaxed slightly.

As long as it was confirmed that this man was an inhuman bastard who had massacred his own clan.

Then even if they executed him on the spot, there would be no psychological or moral burden.

"However, there were some extenuating circumstances behind the clan massacre."

Inoichi Yamanaka said hesitantly.

"He slaughtered the entire clan to avenge his wife..."

Nara Shikano's brow furrowed again as he quietly listened to Inoichi Yamanaka's account.

The story was not complicated.

The Valley of Hell in the Land of Hot Water was an exceedingly barren and dangerous region, thick with poisonous miasma.

Ever since the Daimyo of the Land of Lightning had ordered them exiled to the Valley of Hell, the Chinoike Clan's living resources had been severely limited.

After several decades, the already scarce material resources of the Valley of Hell had been depleted to the brink of nothingness.

Under such circumstances, the solution the Chinoike Clan came up with was to reduce the number of clan members.

The old, weak, sick, disabled, and young—the vulnerable groups—were naturally the first people abandoned by the clan's upper ranks.

And Homura Oyashiro's wife had been driven to death by her own clansmen under those circumstances...

Nara Shikano's brow, which had only just relaxed, knitted tightly once more.

Homura Oyashiro's situation was completely different from what he had imagined!

As the head of the Nara Clan, Nara Shikano naturally detested the heinous act of "clan extermination."

But Homura Oyashiro had not wiped out the Chinoike Clan for selfish desires, nor for some inexplicable greater good or lofty cause. He had done it solely for revenge—and perhaps even to protect someone!

Nara Shikano thought of Homura Oyashiro's daughter, and a trace of sweat seeped into his palm.

If Homura Oyashiro had done nothing, the next person driven to death by the Chinoike Clan's upper ranks would have been his daughter...

Nara Kaikei watched the silent, downcast Homura Oyashiro, and he too was deeply affected.

Over the thousands of years of shinobi history, who knew how many ninja clans had vanished into the river of time, many of them exterminated by others.

But clans wiped out by their own people.

Aside from the Chinoike Clan before him, the only one Nara Kaikei could think of was the future Uchiha Clan.

Nara Kaikei had no intention of comparing Uchiha Itachi's extermination of the Uchiha Clan with Homura Oyashiro's extermination of the Chinoike Clan to determine which was more heinous or which deserved more sympathy.

What he felt at this moment was only a powerful sense of revulsion.

This time, it really was all the world's fault!

"I'm very sorry, Mr. Homura Oyashiro."

Nara Shikano took a deep breath.

"I don't know how to judge your actions, but...

"We will continue carrying out this escort mission until we deliver you safely to Kyoto."

"You're not planning to do anything else to me?"

Homura Oyashiro struggled to lift his head. His eyes were bloodshot—not as a sign of the Ketsuryūgan awakening, but because of the intense pain he had just endured.

"The Chinoike Clan's Kekkei Genkai, the Ketsuryūgan, is extremely valuable."

Homura Oyashiro had expected that the best solution Pig Deer Butterfly would offer was recruiting him into Konoha and having him serve the village.

The next best option would be digging out his eyes and executing him on the spot.

Or taking him back to Konoha for human experimentation.

Or using him as a breeding machine.

Yet unexpectedly...

Nara Shikano suppressed the complicated emotions on his face and answered blandly, "Konoha has better options."

"How blunt..."

Homura Oyashiro relaxed completely and lay down directly on the ground. His eyes were tightly shut, and his voice was weak.

"You Konoha ninja are completely different from the Kirigakure ninja I've encountered...

"It's hard to imagine why there is such a vast difference between ninja villages...

"Perhaps in the future, cooperation between us may not be impossible..."

By the end, Homura Oyashiro's voice had become so soft it was nearly inaudible.

With the hidden threat removed, Nara Kaikei and the others lowered their guard and returned to the normal rhythm of the mission.

Inoichi Yamanaka and Choza Akimichi continued standing watch.

Nara Kaikei and the clan head returned to rest.

The night passed without incident.

The next morning.

The merchant caravan prepared to depart and continued toward the capital of the Land of Fire.

Nara Kaikei and the others' actions the previous night had not caused much of a stir.

During breakfast, Homura Oyashiro even specifically came over to greet Nara Shikano, though his complexion did not look very healthy.

Although Homura Oyashiro still had yesterday night's events on his mind.

It had to be said that Nara Shikano and the others had acted entirely out of duty.

Putting himself in their shoes.

If it had been Homura Oyashiro, he would not have easily ignored a ruthless man who had slaughtered his own kin traveling beside him without taking any action.

In response to Homura Oyashiro's greeting, the Old Clan Head's attitude was neither warm nor cold.

He could understand Homura Oyashiro's act of revenge.

But that did not mean he was willing to coexist peacefully with him.

Homura Oyashiro was rebuffed, but he was not disappointed.

Merchants were not creatures who cared much about saving face.

Besides.

What Homura Oyashiro valued was not Nara Shikano himself, but the medicinal resources possessed by the Nara Clan behind him.

Rather than pretend not to see a living, breathing Nara Shikano.

It was better to use last night's conflict to deepen his ties with the Nara Clan.

The deer carriage rolled onward.

Half a day passed.

After once again repelling a group of Bounty Hunters and a small band of refugees, the caravan finally arrived in Kyoto.

At Kyoto's city gates.

The three led by Might Guy, who had accepted the B-Rank Mission [Merchant Caravan Guard], left together with the caravan.

Meanwhile, the three led by Asuma Sarutobi, who had accepted the B-Rank Mission [Bounty Hunter], followed behind Nara Shikano and the others toward the Daimyo's Mansion.

The Daimyo's Mansion was located in the center of Kyoto, and its buildings were far more luxurious and exquisite than those around it.

Led by Nara Shikano, Nara Kaikei and the others entered the Daimyo's Mansion without obstruction.

The Daimyo had long since received word of the Konoha ninja's arrival.

Not only that, the Daimyo also knew why the Konoha ninja had come to Kyoto.

It could be summed up in two words—asking for money!

Without putting on airs, the Daimyo summoned the Konoha ninja directly after receiving a report from the palace attendants.

After some polite negotiations, the Daimyo of the Land of Fire readily agreed to Konoha's request for support and sent palace maids to politely escort the Konoha ninja out of the palace.

"The Daimyo is more reasonable than I imagined!"

Choza Akimichi rubbed his belly and laughed heartily.

"The mission was completed so quickly. Looks like we can enjoy a good meal in Kyoto!"

The moment he finished speaking, a very rude shout rang out.

"You lot are the ninja from Konoha?"

A group of people marched aggressively toward them, each with a triangular piece of cloth bearing the character "Fire" tied around their waists.

"Just as expected, you're nothing but a bunch of country bumpkins!"

As for Homura Oyashiro's family circumstances, the original anime only mentioned that "his wife was driven to death by fellow clan members, and he slaughtered the entire clan to avenge her."

The reason his wife was driven to death was the author's own addition.

In other words, secondary setting.