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The focus of this operation was the three of them—Yuzhen and the others—but regardless of whether the remaining people would participate in the battle, Yuzhen could not leave them within Kikyo Castle's sphere of influence.

He had no trust in Kikyo Castle whatsoever. What if, while their main fighting force was away, the other side hired more ninja and wiped out everyone left behind?

The risk was small, but it was not impossible.

In any case, caution was the surest way to avoid disaster.

After roughly settling on their battle plan, Yuzhen decided to rest here for one more night and set out the following day.

"Thank you very much. If you hadn't been willing to help, then relying on me alone... I mean, relying on our strength alone, we couldn't have completed a battle where the few overcame the many."

After the others had dispersed, Yuzhen spoke to Uchiha Nanami.

The most important part of their preparations for this operation was getting Uchiha Nanami's combat strength for free. Without the Sharingan, Yuzhen would have had to spend a great deal of time gathering intelligence on the enemy.

The difficulty of the mission would have increased exponentially as well.

"You don't have to thank me. After all, if you hadn't helped me before, I might already be dead." Uchiha Nanami shook her head.

Her worldview was surprisingly normal.

Seeing that her attitude did not seem feigned, Yuzhen smiled and said nothing more.

The two sides then parted and rested separately.

During this time, Uchiha Nanami had been silently observing Yuzhen while secretly constructing a profile of his personality in her mind.

Overall, she felt that Yuzhen carried a certain sense of disunity.

On the one hand, Yuzhen looked very young, but he often seemed lacking in sharp edges, as if he were always rational and gentle.

Yet she felt that this was merely a façade. Though he could not exactly be called "utterly evil beneath a righteous appearance," there seemed to be an extreme way of doing things hidden beneath his gentleness.

On the other hand, Yuzhen had brought together a wandering ninja organization and seemed to have an overall plan for its development. Yet plans were one thing; once he truly began acting, he was extremely "random" and wanton.

At times, Uchiha Nanami felt that Yuzhen stood in some lofty position, arrogantly looking down upon the cruel shinobi world. That detached gaze made her feel that he existed outside the world, like a bystander.

Faced with the harsh environment of the shinobi world, he had not put down roots in it, as if he disdained to do certain things. Yet he could not step outside it either, because he did not possess the strength to do so.

This feeling of "floating on the surface" made Uchiha Nanami sense a certain "detachment" in Yuzhen.

No, not detachment. Perhaps it was the feeling of wanting to transcend it all but being unable to...

Much of the time, Yuzhen was somewhat like a marionette. Only by peeling away the threads tugging at him one by one could one occasionally glimpse his truest, most essential side.

Of course, these were merely Uchiha Nanami's entirely subjective and intuitive thoughts. She could not determine whether her impressions were right or wrong. But regardless, if Yuzhen had come from an ordinary background, then the qualities he occasionally revealed would have seemed highly abnormal.

One had to admit, the Sharingan truly was the Sharingan. She was quite accurate when it came to reading people and situations.

The fundamental reason was that Yuzhen was not Hagane Zhen. He was merely playing the role of Hagane Zhen.

When Hagane Zhen encountered danger, this so-called Clan Leader would step forward.

When a distress letter arrived from the survivors of Hagane, he would travel a great distance to rescue them.

When he felt that he had gained a certain level of strength, he would go seek revenge.

If one asked what Yuzhen truly wanted, did he really have to do any of these things?

Although he had been in the shinobi world for more than a year, he had not been assimilated by the locals.

He was not emotionless. If asked whether he held a positive or negative attitude toward the Tsugawa Clan, the answer would certainly be negative. But would he therefore regard them as enemies who had to be annihilated?

It seemed he had not reached that point.

In short, although Yuzhen had founded the Ashes organization, he had yet to find his place in the shinobi world.

Uchiha Nanami had only vaguely sensed these contradictory thoughts within him.

The next day, Yuzhen led everyone out of Kikyo Castle's sphere of influence and began moving north.

Although everything seemed somewhat rushed, after their discussion the previous night, everyone was mentally prepared for battle.

As for supplies, they were barely sufficient. On the one hand, they had benefited from the Sarutobi Clan's selfless assistance. On the other, the Fuma Clan was not lacking in basic weapons and supplies.

In any case, they brought along everything they might need, whether it was useful or not.

Two days after leaving Kikyo Castle, Yuzhen found a border area suitable for concealment and left most of the people there.

According to the plan, Yuzhen and the other two would set out first, while the remaining main force would follow in their footsteps five days later... As for the location of the Tsugawa Clan's village, he believed that quite a few people would never forget it.

They split up for two reasons. First, to prevent their side from suffering heavy losses. Second, Yuzhen needed to borrow everyone's strength, and after borrowing it, he naturally had to leave them time to recover.

Then, when everyone understood what Yuzhen was doing, they were all so shocked that they could scarcely believe it.

Uchiha Nanami was the most shocked of all.

When she saw Yuzhen draw chakra from one organization member after another and make it his own, the corners of her eyes began twitching uncontrollably. She even nearly activated her Sharingan directly after losing control of her emotions.

Fortunately, Yuzhen was busy collecting chakra and did not notice the expression of Uchiha Nanami, who was not among the collection targets. Otherwise, he would certainly have become suspicious.

After harvesting this batch of chakra, Yuzhen kept two-thirds for himself and distributed the remaining third to Fūma Kotarō, leaving the man utterly flustered.

Fūma Kotarō felt that he had never been this powerful before.

As for Uchiha Nanami, she presumably did not need this little bit of chakra. Yuzhen was not being unfair in his distribution; he was simply judging people by their surname and background, catering to each according to their status.

Only after finishing all this did he notice that Uchiha Nanami's expression seemed slightly unnatural.

"What's wrong? Is there a problem?" he asked.

Uchiha Nanami came back to herself and immediately shook her head. "It's nothing. I... I just didn't expect you to have an ability like this, so I was a little surprised."

Absorbing other people's chakra, converting it into one's own, and even distributing it to others—such an ability was indeed extremely rare.

However, Uchiha Nanami happened to know of a similar ability. The one she knew relied on the Sharingan to activate and was far more powerful and effective overall than what Yuzhen had displayed.

Yuzhen withdrew his gaze from Uchiha Nanami and offered no further explanation.

Then he saw Fūma Kotarō, who had temporarily left after receiving the chakra and had now returned to his side. Yuzhen almost failed to keep his expression under control.

"You... why did you bring so much equipment?"

At this moment, Fūma Kotarō was armed to the teeth. Various shuriken of different sizes hung from him, along with an assortment of blades of varying lengths. His Ninja Tool Bag was stuffed with Explosive Tags, steel wire of different gauges, gunpowder, oil, scrolls...

Fūma Kotarō's voice was muffled as he said, "It can't be helped. This is how we Fuma ninja fight."

Uh...

What could Yuzhen say? He could hardly tell the man that poor students simply had too much stationery.

"We're leaving. The operation begins now."

The three of them set out at once. Uchiha Nanami followed behind Yuzhen, staring absently at his back. Her lips seemed to move as she silently mouthed three words:

"Yachihoko..."