Rōran

Fujii Kusaka won the first match too easily, so she has to send out a real expert for the second match.

Kenosuke gritted his teeth and gave a wink to a guard dressed as a samurai.

The samurai nodded slightly. He had just realized that Fujii Kusaka's actual strength was only at the level of Chunin. The reason he defeated a ninja of the same level in one move was because the flames were too strange.

As the samurai entered the arena, he pondered his next move. His speed was a perfect advantage against a ninja with agile Ninjutsu.

At the start of the second match, the samurai immediately launched a strong attack, while Fujii Kusaka retreated quickly while using Fire Release.

However, this time her C-rank Fire Style Jutsu was no match for the samurai. Before the flames could even get close, the samurai had already dodged.

Yichen nodded. The strength this samurai displayed was no less than that of a normal Jonin.

Fujii Kusaka remained calm in the face of this situation, as she had anticipated it, and immediately sped up her Hand Seals.

As Fujii Kusaka Hand Seals, the number of Fire Release increased, eventually resulting in seven Fire Release flying around randomly in the not-so-large area.

The samurai was initially able to close the distance between them, but soon he could only dodge and had no time to attack.

Moreover, what appeared to others as wildly flying flames were, in his eyes, perfectly coordinated, like a well-trained army of warriors.

Gradually, the samurai's room to maneuver became smaller and smaller. Fujii Kusaka's flames could ignore his physical attacks, and he had no way to deal with them.

From beginning to end, all he could do was dodge.

Finally, seeing no way to escape, the samurai gritted his teeth and decided to take the risk, forcing his way through the flames.

But the moment he rushed into the flames, he felt a sharp pain in his head.

Disrupted by the sudden stinging pain, his speed faltered, and the next moment, he was engulfed by a large amount of flames.

However, this time Fujii Kusaka did not use excessive force, but controlled the flames in time to prevent further damage to the samurai.

Knowing that Fujii Kusaka had shown mercy, the samurai quickly bowed to her, admitting defeat and thanking her.

After the samurai withdrew, Kenosuke said to the daimyo, "Daimyo-sama, please allow me to fight."

There was no other way; among the daimyo's many guards, only Kenosuke could consistently outmaneuver the samurai. The other strong guards were evenly matched with this samurai.

Yichen waved his hand, stopping Kenosuke, the leader of the daimyo's guards, from personally participating in the match.

Yichen said, "Your Excellency, let's end the competition here. Kusaka will be your bodyguard sooner or later."

"I brought her here today simply to introduce her to everyone. I've heard some people think it's not worthwhile for the Daimyo to spend so much money training Guardian Ninja, so I'm here to clarify."

Yichen wasn't specifically trying to save face for the daimyo; it was mainly because Fujii Kusaka's strength was just so-so.

This Kenosuke is equivalent to Elite Jonin Iwa ninja; Fujii Kusaka is no match for him.

Especially now that Kenosuke is on guard against Fujii Kusaka's eerie flames, Fujii Kusaka's chances of winning are slim.

Since that's the case, it's better to stop while we're ahead and leave everyone with endless speculation about the Fujii Kusaka.

Upon hearing Yichen's words, the Daimyo quickly replied, "What are you saying, Lord Tsuchikage? That's not true at all."

After stating his name, he glanced at the other officials present.

Officials from the Daimyo's Daimyo's Mansion, having received a hint from the Daimyo, also spoke up, "Lord Tsuchikage, don't listen to those rumors; no one has ever said that."

"Yes, yes, we believe in the Lord Tsuchikage's ability to teach his disciples, and we also believe in the Iwagakure's ability to train ninjas."

"That's right. I believe that once Fujii Kusaka grows up, the Daimyo's Mansion's guard force will definitely surpass that of the Daimyo of the Land of Fire."

Yichen laughed and said, "I suppose I misheard. In that case, let's not talk about it anymore."

"Your Excellency, I still need to take these disciples on a mission to broaden their horizons. This trip is convenient, so I won't take up any more of your time."

The daimyo nodded, smiling broadly, and said, "The Tsuchikage can go about his business. I will allocate another sum of military funds to Iwagakure later. I'll trouble the Tsuchikage to personally train the Guardian Ninja for me."

Yichen said, "Your Excellency is too kind. I also care very much about your safety. This is just my humble attempt to help."

After exchanging a few words, Yichen left the capital with a happy expression.

The reason I've come to see the daimyo is to demonstrate the results of my teaching of Fujii Kusaka over the past year.

The emperor was indeed sensible and generously allocated a large sum of military funds.

Within Iwagakure, the research on the Little White Ball requested by Yichen has begun, and the scale of the research is expanding, with the village's expenditure on it constantly increasing.

Although Iwagakure currently has a surplus of funds due to the benefits of previous wars, this may not be the case in the future.

Therefore, Yichen had to come up with more unconventional methods to secure research funding.

After the group of four left the capital of the Land of Earth, Yichen led three of them to the location of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.

It's been a long time since I've been here. After Obito Uchiha, the importance of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path in Yichen's heart diminished considerably.

Furthermore, as Yichen's Light Release began to merge into his body, he could no longer utilize Yichen Madara Uchiha's insights for a short period of time, so Yichen simply forgot about it.

It was only when he was passing by that Yichen finally remembered.

Although Obito Uchiha is dead, the rent that should be collected still cannot be reduced.

Yichen arrived above the base and shouted down, "A-Tu, A-Tu, your old friend has come to see you! Come out quickly!"

A short while later, under the watchful eyes of Yichen and his three disciples on the Porcelain Platform, a White Zetsu clone emerged from the ground.

Upon seeing this, Yichen asked, "A-Tu, is that you? Long time no see."

I've been so busy lately and haven't had a chance to come see you. I'm so sorry.

A-Tu:...

"Lord Tsuchikage, what brings you here?" A-Tu didn't want to waste time arguing with this shameless fellow.

Yichen said, "A-Tu- Tu, Obito Uchiha is dead. I killed him with my own hands."

"Why don't you come with me from now on? You don't even have a master right now, what future do you have?"

A-Tu didn't reply, but calmly continued, "Lord Tsuchikage, please just say what it is."

Yichen touched his chin, sensing that A-Tu's behavior was off.

He thought to himself, "I've dealt with this A-Tu before. He's not very smart. He said that Obito Uchiha dead and he's lost his master. He shouldn't be reacting like this."

After thinking for a moment, Yichen said, "A-Tu, have you found a new master?"

Upon hearing Yichen's words, A-Tu panicked, and his eyes instinctively darted away.

Upon seeing this, Yichen's eyes widened, and he immediately exclaimed in surprise, "You, you, you, you really found a new master so quickly?"

"How can you do this to Obito Uchiha? A-Tu, don't trust any of the Great Ninja Village other than our Iwagakure. They are all untrustworthy."

"They're just using you, and once they're done, they'll kick you aside."

Yichen seemed somewhat excited, and spoke very quickly.

After hearing A-Tu, Atu showed a dismissive expression.

Yichen's gaze sharpened, his playful expression vanishing, and he said slowly and seriously, "Not one of the Six Great Ninja Villages?"

"There aren't many powerful forces in the Ninja World. Excluding the Six Great Ninja Villages, the only ones you can still pledge allegiance to are either Nagato's Dark Akatsuki Apocalypse or Orochimaru."

A-Tu didn't react much when he heard about Dark Akatsuki, but his expression became somewhat blank when he heard about Orochimaru.

Yichen's heart skipped a beat. Was it really Orochimaru? Did that mean his previous deal with Orochimaru constituted aiding the enemy?

After breaking the Caged Bird Seal and returning to the village, Yichen also gave Orochimaru parts of the corpses of the Three Kage-level he wanted.

This is truly a case of shooting oneself in the foot; Orochimaru and a bunch of Reanimated Body...

Yichen felt a terrible headache.

Shaking his head, Yichen looked at A-Tu and said, "A-Tu, thank you for telling me such important information. The fact that you have already sided with Orochimaru is very important to me."

A-Tu thought to himself, "Who wants your thanks? No, who told you we've sided with Orochimaru?"

Yichen ignored A-Tu's inner monologue and said, "A-Tu, the main reason I came here is to catch up with you and have a chat, and secondly, to collect the rent."

"Obito Uchiha dead, but the rent still has to be paid."

"However, since Obito Uchiha dead, the rent we originally agreed on is no longer valid. I've decided to raise the rent."

A-Tu: "Lord Tsuchikage, your logic seems flawed, doesn't it? Obito died at your hands, how dare you come to collect rent?"

"Besides, Obito is dead, and his children are gone too. With fewer people living there, they should lower the rent, right?"

Yichen waved his hand and said, "A-Tu, your thinking is wrong. You don't understand human thinking."

"First of all, Obito Uchiha's death had nothing to do with collecting rent."

"Your renting of my Land of Earth's territory has not affected our hostile relationship, and similarly, my killing him and collecting rent are not contradictory."

"But Obito Uchiha died, and that in itself will affect the rent."

"Without Obito Uchiha. Whatever price I set is the price."

"Unless you summon your new master, Orochimaru, and let him speak with me personally, we can discuss a completely new price."

A-Tu thought about it and it seemed to make sense. He said, "I can't possibly call Lord Orochimaru. No, we have absolutely no connection with Orochimaru."

Yichen replied dismissively, "Alright, alright, I understand. You haven't sided with Orochimaru, so you're not in a position to negotiate with me, right?"

A-Tu subconsciously said, "That's right."

Yichen nodded in satisfaction and said, "I want ten scrolls. Pay up."

A-Tu glared and said, "Lord Tsuchikage, you've gone too far!"

Yichen's eyes widened as well. He slapped the Porcelain Platform hard to bolster his aura and said, "Didn't I say? You have no right to negotiate. Whatever I say is what I mean."

"You agreed to it. Stop talking nonsense and pay up."

A-Tu got anxious and said, "I don't have that much Wood Style Experience."

Yichen said, "If you don't have Wood Style Experience, that means you have other insights, anything is fine, ten of them, hurry up."

A-Tu:...

"No, Obito said he can't give you anything except the Wood Style Experience." A-Tu was still making a last-ditch effort.

Yichen angrily said, "A-Tu, are you stupid? Obito Uchiha is dead, why are you still listening to him? Hurry up and get the things."

Left with no other choice, A-Tu sank into the ground.

After a while, A-Tu emerged from underground again and threw ten scrolls into the air.

After inspecting the materials, Yichen nodded in satisfaction. There were six Wood Style Experience here, and the rest were various bloodline limits that were not found in Iwagakure.

These were probably insights that Obito Uchiha had selected that were useless against the Iwa ninja.

Yichen accepted all the gifts offered and collected them all. Then, his satisfied smile vanished, and he glared at A-Tu once more.

Yichen said, "A-Tu, why are there only ten? I haven't collected rent for two months, and I'm still short ten."

A-Tu was dumbfounded. He shouted, "Lord Tsuchikage, Obito was still alive last month. Even if he wanted to collect rent, it would only be two scrolls."

Yichen slammed his fist on the Porcelain Platform, saying, "A-Tu, I'll say it again, Obito Uchiha is dead. Don't mention him anymore."

"Besides, you have no right to negotiate with me. Pay up now."

After hesitating for a long time, A-Tu sank back underground. When he reappeared, he had taken out three more scrolls.

"These are the last three scrolls. I've given you all the scrolls Obito gave me," A-Tu said, tossing the three scrolls to Yichen.

Looking at A-Tu's expression, which didn't seem like he was lying, Yichen said, "Fine, fine, I'll compromise. You can owe me this month's rent for now."

"Consider these three scrolls as interest. I'll collect rent again when your new owner brings you new and better things."

A-Tu listened in stunned silence.

The three disciples beside Yichen had similar expressions. When they heard Yichen say "let it go" or "take a step back," they thought Yichen really meant it.

Who knew Yichen could be so shameless? The three of them felt so ashamed that they quickly pulled their heads back from the edge of the Porcelain Platform.

After putting away all the scrolls, Yichen said, "A-Tu, I had a very pleasant chat today, but I have something to attend to, so I'll be leaving now. See you next time."

"Oh, and don't forget to tell Orochimaru to prepare the rent."

A-Tu wanted to say: Orochimaru is not my new master. But Yichen had already taken the three of them and flown far away.

A-Tu silently returned to the basement where the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was located; he needed to report to the White Zetsu main body.

Meanwhile, Yichen, who was flying towards the Land of Wind, was not as smug as A-Tu had imagined.

Yichen is currently contemplating the consequences of Black Zetsu joining forces with Orochimaru.

Black Zetsu possesses the information Orochimaru needs most, Orochimaru has the research ability to turn this information into power.

When the two of them are together, the sum of their parts is far greater than the sum of their parts.

"If I had known, I wouldn't have killed Obito Uchiha," Yichen sighed inwardly.

Obito Uchiha's intelligence was just so-so. Although he often did things that others couldn't understand, Yichen could generally understand the logic behind his behavior.

But Orochimaru is different. Yichen doesn't understand his expertise in scientific research, nor does he understand his thought process.

In addition, Orochimaru's arms were crippled when he first appeared in the original work, and when he reappeared at his peak, he was relegated to the background of the two main characters.

Therefore, Yichen's understanding of Orochimaru was far less thorough than his Obito Uchiha.

"Both Black Zetsu and Orochimaru are very goal-oriented people. Now that they have reached an agreement, it will be impossible to sow discord between them."

"So, how should we suppress Orochimaru? At the very least, we need to limit the speed of his research."

"Don't let Orochimaru start the final battle earlier than Obito Uchiha in the original story because of Black Zetsu."

As he flew, Yichen pondered intently.

The three people beside Yichen could also tell that Yichen had something on his mind since leaving the place where A-Tu was, so the three of them obediently chose to remain silent.

The four of them silently entered the Land of Wind, and then Yichen, avoiding the gaze of the Sunagakure, arrived at the southernmost part of the Land of Wind.

Rōran is located in the southernmost region of the Land of Wind. Rōran is a country completely surrounded by the Land of Wind. Yichen does not know the historical reasons for the formation of Rōran, nor does he care.

Upon approaching Rōran, Yichen using Mind's Eye to sense the area and quickly grasped the general distribution of the Sunagakure within Rōran.

"There are only Sunagakure, not the Puppet Army from the original story. It seems my butterfly effect is quite significant," Yichen thought to himself.

Come to think of it, the Sunagakure in the original story and the current Sand shinobi are completely different things.

As a small country within the Land of Wind, it's normal for Rōran to be affected.

Yichen descended with his three disciples and said, "Bai, Kusaka, Tsuruhime, your mission is to kill or drive away all the Sunagakure in Country of Roran."

The three looked at each other in silence for a long while before Bai finally asked, "Teacher Yichen, how many Sunagakure are there in this Country of Roran?"

Yichen said, "All intelligence needs to be gathered by you."

"All I can do is sever all connections between Rōran and the outside world, preventing the Sunagakure from having any chance to call for help."

"However, you only have five days. If you still can't do it after five days, then the mission will fail. From now on, just do C-rank mission with me and stop complaining."

Yichen glanced at the sky and said, "Alright, start the timer."

After saying that, before the three could speak, Yichen vanished in a Body Flicker Technique.

The three of them exchanged glances, and then, Kamizuru Tsuruhime asked timidly, "Haku, Kusaka, have you ever heard of the country of Rōran before?"

Bai shook his head and looked at Fujii Kusaka. Fujii Kusaka was also on the verge of tears, and said, "I don't know either. I think this must be part of the mission."

The three of them were silent for a while, looking at each other, all somewhat nervous.

Then Bai said, "Let's make a simple plan first. We'll conduct reconnaissance first, and not rush into action. We'll make a plan after we have a detailed understanding of Rōran."

Both Fujii Kusaka and Kamizuru Tsuruhime nodded.

Kamizuru Tsuruhime said, "Leave the reconnaissance to me. Little Bee are a great reconnaissance tool. Our Kamizuru Clan hasn't shown itself in public for a long time, so no one will pay attention to the Little Bee."

Both Shiro and Fujii Kusaka agreed.

Bai said, "Let's find a temporary hiding place first."

With a clear direction, the three little ones finally began to settle down and proceed with the task step by step.

Yichen was using Camouflage Jutsu to fly in the air, carefully observing the reactions of his three disciples with his using Mind's Eye.

Seeing that the three of them had quickly calmed down, Yichen nodded, worried that they might rush into Rōran without thinking and try to force their way in.

Fortunately, none of the three were as simple-minded as Sokai and Uzumaki Riori.

Yichen didn't sit idle; he created five clones, each representing a different direction from Rōran.

Then, the five clones combined their powers to create a very rudimentary barrier to block perception.

As far as Yichen knew, the Sunagakure did not Space-Time Ninjutsu or any famous Summoning Beast; a barrier that shielded their senses was sufficient to block most of Sunagakure means of communication with the outside world.

If the Sunagakure Sunagakure had sent ninjas directly to ask for help, Yichen would have already left with his three disciples by the time they returned.

By the time Yichen finished setting up the barrier, Bai and his team had completed their initial reconnaissance of the entire Rōran.

Kamizuru Tsuruhime reported to the two, "Shiro, Kusaka, we've figured it out. Rōran is this nearby oasis plus the surrounding desert."

"The oasis isn't very big, not much bigger than our village. There's practically no one in the desert, so we can ignore it."

"Rōran has now been taken over by the Sunagakure. The exact number of Sunagakure is unknown, but based on their distribution density, there are probably around fifty of them."

"But I cannot judge the strength of these fifty people."

Fujii Kusaka said, "I recently learned Sensory Ninjutsu, so I can try it out once I get close. However, I haven't used my Sensory Ninjutsu in actual combat yet, so I don't know how effective it will be."

Bai said, "Let's ambush them here first, take out the patrolling Sunagakure, and then move closer to this area in northern Rōran."

"Whether to choose a direct attack or a clever strategy will depend on the results of Kusaka's Sensory Ninjutsu."

No one objected, and with the help of the Little Bee, the three of them slowly began to approach the area Bai had indicated.

Before long, the three of them met a four-man patrol team of Sunagakure at the designated location.

With a wave of Bai's hand, the three immediately took action.

Kamizuru Tsuruhime summoned a large number of Little Bee to entangle two Sunagakure, Fujii Kusaka attacked one with Fire Release, and Haku dealt with the Sunagakure squad leader alone.

The first attack went very smoothly. Fujii Kusaka killed the Sunagakure with just a C-rank Fire Style Jutsu. She then cooperated with Haku to kill the Sunagakure squad leader, who was also the only Jonin.

The two moved very quickly, while the other two Sunagakure were still entangled with the Little Bee of the Kamizuru Tsuruhime.

After Haku and Fujii Kusaka joined the fight, the two Sunagakure were quickly dealt with.

The three of them then quickly cleaned up the battlefield.

Bai looked at the two of them and asked, "How are you feeling? Can you fight again?"

Fujii Kusaka nodded and said, "My energy expenditure wasn't high, no problem."

Kamizuru Tsuruhime hesitated for a moment and said, "Many of my Little Bee have died, and raising new Little Bee requires a lot of Chakra and time. I may not be able to engage in high-intensity combat."

Bai thought for a moment and said, "Continue to scout the northern region of Rōran as planned, but Tsuruhime, don't rush into battle. Your main task is to guard the surrounding area."

The two girls nodded, and then the three of them officially entered Rōran City.

Happy New Year, fellow book lovers!