Bold Bluff

Nothing happened that night, of course.

Yet in the calm before the storm, after a night of brewing, almost all the Tsugawa Ninjas grew increasingly tense mentally while their bodies became ever more exhausted.

After all, the more urgent the situation one encountered, the faster one's energy was depleted.

At dawn, "Elder Xiu Ping" began pacing around the office restlessly. After a while, he finally seemed unable to contain himself and said to the Clan Leader:

"Clan Leader, I'm going to inspect the village."

Clan Leader Tsugawa Taishi thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

Following Yuzhen's earlier suggestion, before leaving this place, two ninjas followed behind him. The three of them moved as a group to guard against the "unknown enemy's" unpredictable sneak attacks.

Yuzhen silently observed the ninjas beside him and found that the two looked somewhat listless, while also appearing extremely nervous.

After the three of them left, Yuzhen led them to a place where one of the combat squads had gathered.

He had participated in arranging the current positions of the ninjas in this Ninja Village, so Yuzhen knew the distribution of the ninjas like the back of his hand.

When they arrived at the combat squad's gathering place, Yuzhen and the others naturally weren't stopped. He soon met the squad's captain.

"Captain Keihisa, how is everyone doing? Now that a night has passed, have you noticed anything unusual?"

"Everything is normal, Elder Xiu Ping, but... we do hope those cowardly rats hiding their heads will show themselves. Fighting defensively like this isn't our style," the captain said.

Yuzhen nodded. "It's fine as long as nothing's wrong... This enemy is somewhat unusual. We have to remain patient."

After confirming that there were no problems here and encouraging everyone a few more times, "Elder Xiu Ping" seemed ready to leave.

However, just as he turned around and took a step outside, his entire body suddenly froze.

Then, as if the wise elder had suddenly discovered something, a sharp glint flashed through his eyes. He stared at Tsugawa Keihisa with an utterly horrified expression and shouted:

"That's not right! You're not Captain Keihisa. Who are you?"

The ninjas here had been on alert all night, and most of them were more or less exhausted. Now that Yuzhen's thunderous voice rang out, quite a few of them were stunned.

While they displayed confused and disbelieving expressions, Elder Xiu Ping had already driven a blade into Captain Keihisa's chest.

Most people found it difficult to react when a kindly senior official who had come to offer condolences suddenly did a complete about-face.

Tsugawa Keihisa stared wide-eyed at the elder, then lowered his head to look at his chest. His mind seemed rusted shut, unable to think. He had no idea what had happened.

Am I... am I not Tsugawa Keihisa? Then who am I?

Faced with a conflict between their direct superior and a high-ranking member of the clan, the others also found it difficult to react in time. They couldn't determine whom they should believe.

"Everyone, don't move! Block the entrance and don't let this impostor escape! He's been disguised by the enemy."

Yuzhen had come prepared, so he naturally began shouting "Catch the thief!" while being the thief himself.

After hearing the word "escape," Captain Keihisa finally reacted to Yuzhen's well-intentioned reminder... Regardless of what was happening, if he didn't want to die, he had to get out of there.

Thus, he covered his chest with one hand and immediately turned to run.

Yuzhen had clearly ordered everyone not to move, but after the captain escaped without obstruction, he instead stomped his foot angrily and said:

"Why didn't you stop him... Forget it. Don't move. I'll chase him myself."

Under everyone's bewildered gazes, Elder Xiu Ping began pursuing the half-crippled Captain Keihisa.

Soon, the sound of battle came from the distance, and the scouting ninjas stationed nearby also noticed the disturbance.

The battle seemed to be extremely brief. Two or three minutes later, Captain Keihisa, covered in blood, staggered into an alley. He concealed himself as he made his way toward another combat squad's station.

The people there seemed to have noticed that a disturbance had broken out in the village, but before they could react, Captain Keihisa had already rushed inside.

"Captain Keihisa, you... What happened?"

This captain was Tsugawa Morita. When he saw that Tsugawa Keihisa was severely wounded, covered in blood, and barely able to stand, he immediately rushed over to support him.

Well, actually, what these captains were called didn't matter at all.

Captain Keihisa looked utterly miserable. He spoke with more breath going out than coming in:

"It was Elder Xiu Ping... Elder Tsugawa Xiu Ping has gone mad. He's an enemy informant! Just now, while inspecting the village at dawn, he suddenly attacked me."

"I barely escaped, but... Hurry, hurry and tell the Clan Leader. I probably won't make it."

His voice seemed to be squeezed out of his throat with great difficulty, as though he were delivering his last words.

In theory, people often chose to believe the final words of someone on the verge of death. However, just as Captain Keihisa began rolling his eyes and his body started convulsing from excessive blood loss...

His right hand had already firmly thrust a kunai into Captain Morita's chest.

The dying Captain Keihisa seemed to have received a sudden burst of life. He abruptly opened his eyes and shouted:

"That's not right! You're an informant too!"

Yuzhen finally experienced the feeling of White Zetsu moving unhindered among the Allied Shinobi Forces. The weaker side could actually stir up the situation, giving him the illusion that he was the strong one.

Fortunately, Yuzhen was a rational person and wouldn't be misled by this illusion.

It had nothing to do with his strength. It was simply because the enemy had no way to defend themselves. Since they were voluntarily exposing their soft underbellies, what else could Yuzhen do?

Just plunge his knife in without hesitation.

It was clear that Yuzhen had adopted a different attack strategy starting today. He no longer sneakily stabbed people in the back like he had yesterday. Instead, he had directly chosen to make a "bold bluff."

The reason was simple: this would make the enemy even more confused and afraid.

"You... You..."

Captain Morita was so shocked that he couldn't speak at all. This time, Yuzhen had accurately pierced his heart.

"Hello?"

Yuzhen thought the man was greeting him politely, so he replied in a courteous yet friendly manner:

"Hello to you too."

Tsugawa Morita was certainly not doing well. The sharp blade still stuck in his chest made him feel as if flames were scorching the area around the wound, while his rapid blood loss left his entire body ice-cold.

However, his vitality was tenacious, and in theory, he could still hold on for a few minutes. Yet after hearing Yuzhen's sincere greeting, perhaps because he had felt the final trace of beauty in this world, he immediately died.

Yuzhen felt that this young man had a bit of a temper. Once his goal was accomplished, he stopped pretending and turned around to run.

The scene that had just unfolded was so far beyond everyone's imagination that no one went after him in time.

That morning, countless people in the village witnessed the astonishing sight of an elder killing a captain, and a captain killing another captain.

It was simply incomprehensible, enough to make people lose all rational thought.