Infiltration

At dusk, deep in an unremarkable alley in an unnamed village where the Tsugawa Clan lived.

The silent surroundings created a sense that time had ground to a halt. When night fell and human activity here temporarily lay dormant, the place instead displayed a kind of natural harmony at its finest.

Unfortunately, all that "peace" was merely a façade. This village was about to stage a scene of "a quiet evening here."

Although everyone could be considered livestock in the sociological sense, not all livestock were the same. For instance, some were in the habit of rising early and going to bed late.

This utterly ordinary, inconspicuous building, together with the underground space hidden beneath it, formed an important storage center and logistical hub for the Tsugawa Clan.

According to the intelligence Uchiha Nanami had dug up, Yuzhen had quickly found this place after infiltrating the village.

Uchiha Nanami could not only locate the enemy's supply depot; she could even dig up information on the types and quantities of some of the supplies.

In truth, the Tsugawa Clan's village was tightly guarded on the inside but lax on the outside. There were quite a few sentries stationed within it. Yet even without intelligence to support him, Yuzhen's absurd infiltration ability made it difficult for these ninjas to detect his movements.

Yuzhen used the Mayfly Technique to pass directly through the wall. After silently infiltrating the warehouse, he did not rush to act.

His body was almost merged with the surrounding wall, and he observed the situation in the warehouse courtyard with only a pair of eyes exposed.

One, two, three, four. There were four ninjas here in total. One of them was the "supervisor," directing the other three as they recorded the movement of supplies in and out.

Compared with the enemy's major and minor leaders, Yuzhen needed to destroy this place first... In war, one had to prioritize attacking the enemy's logistical nodes whenever possible. This was a principle Yuzhen understood instinctively.

He was extremely patient at that moment. The four men were gathered together for now, but there would always be times when they split up and were left alone.

Yuzhen understood laborers very well. How could warehouse workers possibly stay together all the time?

More than ten minutes later, one of the ninjas entered a building on the side, preparing to count the supplies inside.

Yuzhen followed almost at the speed of light.

After following him into the room, he saw that the ninja had his back to the wall and was counting something on a shelf. This was already a very good position, but he was too close to the door, so Yuzhen temporarily held back his urge to strike.

After the man finished counting that shelf and walked a few steps deeper into the warehouse, there was no longer any way for anyone outside the door to see him.

Yuzhen seized the opportunity and struck without hesitation.

He suddenly thrust both hands out of the wall. His left hand clamped over the man's mouth and nose, pressing the back of his head hard against the wall, while the kunai in his right hand stabbed into his waist from behind.

The violent pain made the ninja's torso bend forward uncontrollably. He instinctively thrust his waist and abdomen forward, as if trying to escape the blade buried in his body. However, such a vicious "kidney strike" destroyed his body's ability to respond. His strength and chakra rapidly left his body along with the icy pain stabbing through his back.

Even if Yuzhen had not covered his mouth and nose, he would have been almost unable to make a sound.

Yuzhen lightly twisted his right wrist. The kunai embedded in the enemy's body nearly shredded his organs, and the unlucky ninja's body began to twitch involuntarily.

At that moment, Yuzhen's hand slid down from the enemy's mouth and nose. He locked the man's neck in the crook of his arm, then suddenly exerted force.

With his internal organs crushed below and his cervical bones nearly snapped above, the combined effect was more than twice as deadly. The ninja silently lost his life.

Yuzhen then repeated the same method. The second and third ninjas died in almost exactly the same way.

With only the final supervisor left, Yuzhen appeared silently behind him. Without the man noticing anything, the edge of his kunai gave him a "throat-slitting."

"Cough... hhk..."

Thud.

His brief struggle to breathe and the sound of his uncontrolled fall to the ground were almost the only noises produced by Yuzhen's infiltration and assassination operation.

The entrance to the underground warehouse was probably protected by a barrier meant to detect invading enemies. However, Yuzhen had no need to search for the entrance at all. He merely used the Mayfly Technique, plunged straight into the ground, and entered the underground space without hindrance.

Yuzhen was indeed good at adapting his approach to the situation. If he had infiltrated the Uzumaki Clan's village, he definitely would not have killed the supervisor outright. Instead, he would have taken him hostage and tried to force him to deactivate the barrier through threats and coercion.

But in the Tsugawa Clan's village, there was no need for such trouble.

As mentioned before, the ninja villages of this era were little more than hastily assembled operations. Villages formed by a single ninja clan living together could never possess that many versatile specialists. Large, powerful sealing barriers were not something an ordinary ninja clan could master.

If Yuzhen chose to force his way through the barrier at the entrance to the underground space, it probably could not stop him anyway.

After entering the underground space, Yuzhen found that, just as the intelligence had indicated, everything stored here was war materiel.

He quickly rummaged through the boxes and cabinets. Before long, he found a large number of Explosive Tags in several dry, sealed crates with cushioning material.

"This is a huge help."

Yuzhen took out nearly all the Explosive Tags. He used most of them to cover the warehouse as quickly as possible, then set several extremely well-hidden triggering traps at the entrance.

Then, instead of using the Mayfly Technique, he openly walked straight through the barely restrictive detection barrier.

The enemy reacted very quickly. Almost as soon as Yuzhen triggered the barrier, they realized that an outsider or enemy had entered the important supply warehouse.

A few minutes later, five Tsugawa Ninja came sprinting toward the area.

"They're all dead..."

Someone soon discovered that everyone here had been assassinated.

"The warehouse's important war supplies... This is bad..."

Since their own people had been assassinated, it meant that an outside enemy had invaded. In a panic, he rushed toward the entrance to the underground warehouse.

"Wait! Be careful..."

Someone tried to stop and warn him, but the reckless young ninja had already entered the underground space first.

And then...

Boom!

A deep, stifled explosion suddenly rang out. It woke the village, which was still asleep, while sending the ninjas who had come to provide support straight into the sky.

After the explosion, a column of thick smoke rose from the village.

It turned out that no matter how fast a ninja was, he could never outrun an explosion.

The village was not large, so the explosion startled nearly everyone. Five minutes later, even more ninjas arrived at the scene.

What appeared before them then was nothing but burning ruins and shattered walls.

The once-level ground was riddled with crisscrossing cracks, from which flames and thick smoke belched...

The Tsugawa Clan was relatively skilled in Water Release, so they united their efforts and immediately began extinguishing the fire, trying their best to salvage some of the supplies.

At the same time, another group of ninjas began searching the area, attempting to find the intruder responsible for the destruction.

However, just as the entire village's attention had been drawn there, several more explosions rang out in the distance. Moments later, towering firelight appeared in the night.

The ninjas turned around in horror, all looking toward the direction where the flames had risen.

The warehouse they were trying to save stored war materiel. A large portion of it consisted of metal weapons, so the fire was not particularly intense after the explosion.

But the warehouses hit by the subsequent explosions held everyday supplies. Much of what they contained, including grain, was highly flammable. As a result, the huge flames illuminated even the gloomy midnight sky.

With a simple diversionary tactic, Yuzhen had drawn the enemy east while attacking west, fully displaying his artistic refinement and achieving excellent results.

The destruction of these supplies was, of course, not enough to bring the Tsugawa Clan down on the spot. But it would inevitably cause a degree of panic, accelerating the clan's fate as it slid toward an unknowable future.

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