Thud!
When Chiba Ran appeared, Shimura Ken could no longer hold himself up. His knees gave way, and he crashed to the ground.
Behind him, hundreds of Shimura clansmen fell to their knees in unison, burying their heads deep in the dust.
Among the crowd, a young mother clamped a hand tightly over her child's mouth, terrified that the child might make even the slightest sound.
Tears streamed down her face soundlessly as her body trembled uncontrollably.
Beside her, a newly adult ninja clenched his fists so tightly that his nails pierced his palms. Blood flowed, yet he did not feel it at all.
The face that should have brimmed with youthful vigor held nothing but humiliation and despair.
No one dared raise their head.
No one dared make a sound.
The entire Training Ground was deathly silent, save for the wind's mournful howl.
Chiba Ran slowly descended from the platform, his boots crunching over gravel.
He stopped before Shimura Ken.
He looked down at the old man prostrating himself on the ground.
"Shimura Ken."
"This sinner is here!"
"Raise your head."
Shimura Ken did not dare disobey. He slowly lifted his face, filled with despair and terror.
Yet he still did not dare meet the other man's eyes.
"Does your Shimura Clan know its crime?" Chiba Ran asked flatly.
Shimura Ken's lips trembled. Every word came with immense difficulty. "This sinner... knows his crime! Danzō committed monstrous treason and deserves ten thousand deaths. Our Shimura Clan failed to discipline him properly; our crimes are unforgivable! Please, Lord Daimyō... pass judgment upon us!"
After speaking, he closed his eyes and awaited his sentence of death.
Chiba Ran's gaze passed over him and slowly swept across the ashen-faced members of the Shimura Clan.
"The crime belongs to Shimura Danzō alone."
He spoke slowly, his voice not loud, yet every person heard it clearly.
What?!
Every kneeling body jolted violently. Countless people instinctively raised their heads, disbelief written across their faces.
What did that mean? Could it be... could they still have a way to live?
"But the shame belongs to your entire clan."
That turn of phrase pierced the sliver of hope that had just risen within them.
"From this day onward, the surname Shimura will no longer be an honor. It will be a joke."
"A mark of shame branded upon every one of you, and upon your descendants for generations to come."
"It will remind everyone that your clan produced a traitor to the nation."
"Tell me, how do you intend to live while bearing such shame?"
There was not the slightest mockery in Chiba Ran's tone, yet his words cut deeper than any insult.
Calmly, he pronounced their social death sentence.
"My lord!"
Shimura Ken suddenly let out a hoarse roar. He slammed his forehead into the ground with a dull thud, and blood immediately began to flow.
"We... we are willing to become slaves! Servants!"
"We are willing to serve my lord like beasts of burden, reclaim wasteland, build city walls! We only beg my lord... only beg my lord to leave the children a way to live!"
He cried and howled like a desperate old dog.
At this moment, dignity no longer meant anything.
All they had left were their humble bodies and that faint desire to continue their bloodline.
"A way to live?"
Chiba Ran looked at him. "Is what you seek merely to live like livestock?"
"I thought ninjas had stronger bones."
He shook his head, a trace of disappointment entering his voice.
Just as everyone believed their hope had been shattered, Chiba Ran's voice suddenly rose, shaking the entire Training Ground!
"I will give you a choice."
The entire venue fell silent. At that instant, everyone seemed to stop breathing.
"The first path: I strip you of your status as ninjas, reduce you to commoners, and exile you to the frontier."
"You may live, but the shame brought by the Shimura name will follow you for generation after generation, until your bloodline ends."
"The second path..."
He paused, his sharp gaze sweeping across every person.
"Bury your past. Forget your names."
"I will grant you new identities and a new mission."
"You will infiltrate the darkness and become the sharpest claws of the Land of Fire."
"You will carry out the filthiest missions. Your names will never be recorded in history, and no one will ever know your achievements."
"You will live for me and die for me. Your lives and souls will belong to me alone!"
Those words were drenched in blood and cruelty, yet a glimmer of light rekindled in the eyes of some young ninjas.
Rather than die in disgrace, they would rather perish in battle!
"As recompense..."
Chiba Ran's gaze fell upon the children sheltered behind their parents.
"Your children will no longer have to bear this shame."
"They will enter the finest ninja academies in the Land of Fire under new identities. They will receive the best teachers, the richest resources, and the strongest—and harshest—training."
"They will become the sharpest swords in my hand. They will win glory of their own, and their names will resound throughout the Shinobi World!"
"Now, make your choice."
Chiba Ran's voice returned to calmness, yet it contained irresistible authority.
"Will you scrape by in humiliation, forever unable to rise again?"
"Or will you burn yourselves away in darkness, trading your lives for a bright future for your descendants?"
Silence.
Within the Training Ground, even a falling needle could have been heard.
Everyone had been left dazed by those words, their hearts pounding wildly.
They... still had a choice?
And one of those choices was actually to secure a future for their descendants?
The mother holding her child suddenly raised her head, tears filling her eyes.
The young ninja with clenched fists began to tremble uncontrollably—not from fear, but from an indescribable excitement!
Overwhelming ecstasy swept away everyone's reason!
This was not a judgment!
It was a gift!
It was salvation!
It was this great ruler granting them, in their darkest hour, a sliver of hope—a path of atonement paved with blood and life!
"Your subordinate!!"
Shimura Ken was the first to react. He was so excited that he could barely form coherent words, as though life had returned to his entire body.
"Your subordinate chooses the second path! Your subordinate is willing to die for my lord!!"
His roar ignited the entire crowd!
"We are willing to die for my lord!!!"
A thunderous cry erupted from hundreds of mouths.
The young mother set her child down beside her and kowtowed heavily, blood staining her forehead!
The young ninja dropped to both knees and cried out, his voice hoarse yet filled with unprecedented fervor!
The shouts converged into a fevered wave of sound that surged into the sky, making the entire Training Ground hum!
Fear and despair were gone. All that remained was endless fervor, gratitude, and longing for the future!
Chiba Ran watched it all with satisfaction.
What he wanted was precisely a group of warriors willing to offer everything for hope.
"Very good."
"From this day onward, there will be no more Shimura Clan in this world."
"You shall be called the Black Wind Clan!"
At that moment.
A ninja clan that had endured for centuries, along with its glory and sins, was thoroughly buried.
In its place stood a newly born ninja clan hidden in the shadows, always ready to draw its blade for its ruler.
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