The Ninja Clan

Takigakure is small, but though small, it is fully equipped. Everything a normal ninja village should have, it possesses—training grounds, bases, hot springs, prisons, and more—all developed over the past three years of territorial expansion.

These facilities are not located in the main area of the village; rather, they are built in relatively hidden limestone caves scattered underground, connected by a network of tunnels that make them difficult for outsiders to find.

Although she has stayed in the village for three years, strictly speaking, Yura is still an outsider.

The Warring States period was an era of ninja clans, resulting in a multitude of clans of varying sizes. However, after the dawn of the ninja village era, in just over 60 years, many of these clans would quietly vanish one after another.

In the land of Takigakure, disputes between ninja families have basically revolved around the God Tree. Among them, the ninja clan that first occupied the God Tree of Takigakure is known as the Hero Clan. This stems from the Hero Water they possess; those who drink the Hero Water immediately gain immense power, often allowing them to act like heroes, exert decisive influence on the battlefield, and achieve victory.

Ninja clans outside the Land of Waterfalls were exceptionally greedy for this power. Since the Warring States period, they had been fighting tooth and nail. Later, under the pressure exerted by the God of Shinobi, Senju Hashirama, the ninja clans of the Land of Waterfalls were forced to form an alliance and establish Takigakure to resist the annexation attempts of the Land of Fire, with the Hero Clan of the village serving as the leaders.

The strongest ninja clans are the Hero, Qian Gui, Uji, and Kusanagi clans. Beneath them are various smaller clans that gathered here, including a branch of the Fuma Clan—descendants who fled from the Land of Fire after their previous leader, Fuma Kotaro, was defeated and his forces broken by the God of Shinobi, Senju Hashirama.

Yura belongs to the Kusanagi Clan. Her clan specializes in training large numbers of genin as cannon fodder and possesses exquisite swordsmanship; they are the most populous clan in the village. It is rumored that they are a samurai clan tasked with guarding the Kusanagi Sword, one of the three divine treasures. However, as far as Yura knows, the Kusanagi Clan has been wandering the ninja world without a fixed home for a long time, their primary goal being to gather intelligence on and recover the Kusanagi Sword.

Currently, they are mainly responsible for the village's security. Yura knows their patrol routes, shift change times, and sentry posts like the back of her hand, as that was the work she used to do.

As for the Uji Clan, if the Uchiha Clan is known for Fire Release, the Uji Clan is known for Water Release. Their ancestors likely had no blood relation to the Uchiha, nor do they possess any messy eyes; they are also known as the Bridge Clan.

Although they excel at Water Release, they are even better at utilizing underground water veins to tunnel through the earth. They are a clan that lives underground, and because they can build bridges connecting the surface world to the underground, they earned the name Bridge Clan.

According to rumors in the village, it is said that their clan possesses a very terrifying and sinister forbidden jutsu, though Yura has never witnessed it herself.

But when it comes to being sinister and terrifying, the one recognized by the village is another clan: the Qian Gui Clan.

What they possess is the famous forbidden jutsu, Earth Grudge Fear.

Like Yura, this clan can use their hair to fight through chakra. Consequently, they appear to have extremely thick body hair, especially their nose hair. The men of the clan are ugly to the point of being unforgettable, while the women are the other extreme—beautiful to the point of being unforgettable.

Because of their ninja style of using body hair to fight, they are named after the legendary monster, the Hair Demon.

This monster evolved from the legend of a woman who murdered virgins and bathed in their blood to maintain her beauty, as recorded in the ninja world folklore book, Night Parade of One Hundred Demons. It is said that after death, it takes the form of a body made of long hair. Legend has it that the Hair Demon has no body, only a head with long, dense hair, and beneath the hair hide the faces of countless young girls; whenever it sees a beautiful girl, it steals her face and hides it under its hair.

The records describe it in a way that is not much different from how Earth Grudge Fear steals hearts and turns them into masks hidden within a monster body resembling hair.

Yura cannot rule out the possibility that there are other ninjas in the village who have mastered the forbidden jutsu Earth Grudge Fear, and this forbidden jutsu is something Yura is determined to obtain.

Beyond these four major ninja clans, there is another special presence in the village.

Due to the arrival of the ninja village era, various lone rogue ninjas have been attracted to the village, most of whom maintain a neutral stance.

Among them, besides the typical case of Kakuzu, there is no lack of experts. The one Yura is most concerned about is the only survivor of the leading family of the Fifty-three Families of Koga, Mochizuki Gen.

It is rumored that during the Warring States period, the fifty-three families split into two factions and fought internally. Due to disputes over certain ideologies, they were defeated by Sarutobi Sasuke, who had brought in the powerful reinforcements of the Senju Clan, and the entire clan was wiped out by the Sarutobi Clan.

In the village, this man's attitude has always been strange; he remains a cold bystander. Yura only saw him once before her mission to assassinate Senju Hashirama, and the way he looked at a group of dead people at that time left a deep impression on her.

What is certain is that this man is very strong—likely the strongest in the village. He serves as the village physician and is highly respected. As long as you don't provoke him, he won't take any special actions, basically existing in a state of extreme decadence and apathy.

Probably...

Compared to him, Kakuzu is quite pitiful. Not only was he sent out on a suicide mission, but after failing the mission and barely managing to save his life to return to the village, he still had to face the village's reckoning. This has everything to do with the fact that Kakuzu's own strength was not enough, and he had no backers to protect him.

The historical hatred left over from the Warring States period has led to increasingly frequent friction and strife between factions in the village. Kakuzu was merely swept up in it; thinking that joining a ninja village could end the survival state of the Warring States chaos was simply too naive.

There is a term that explains Kakuzu's behavior well: "convert zeal," referring to how new converts participate in church activities more actively than the original believers.

Kakuzu might truly love the village and be willing to die for the organization, but the ninja clans are not necessarily the same.

This is the prison of Takigakure, dim and gloomy, located in a limestone cave underground. The flickering firelight casts hideous black shadows on the walls. Deep within the prison, in a solitary cell, the young Kakuzu is bound by his limbs, fixed and hanging on a cross.

He is a mess, his naked upper body covered in gruesome, upturned flesh wounds; clearly, he had just undergone a brutal interrogation not long ago.

Beaten three times a day, Kakuzu, his vision hazy, hangs his head, blood mixed with sweat dripping from his chin.

He cannot understand why things turned out this way.

He simply failed a mission, and it wasn't even an opponent he could have defeated; that shouldn't be his fault.

So, why!?

Kakuzu thought for a long, long time.

But just a moment ago, he suddenly realized: this was absolutely not his fault!

The one at fault is the village! What village, what peace—they are all false appearances. All of this is nothing but lies, nothing but reasons to make him risk his life!

If that is the case, what reason is there for the village to take the mission commission out of his hands!?

From now on, no one will ever be able to take a single cent from me!

Intense hatred and killing intent churned in his heart. These wonderful emotional scents attracted the monsters lurking in the darkness. In the shadows of the corner of the cell, a butterfly flapped its wings slightly, and a large number of invisible threads surged out rapidly, forming a pitch-black humanoid figure in mid-air.

Black Secret Technique: Shadow Thread Puppet.

The entire body is composed of Yura's demonic hair threads, invisible to ordinary people.

But by covering it with a layer of chakra and performing the Transformation Jutsu, it becomes visible to the naked eye.

"I advise you, it is best not to attempt a prison break at this time."

Stepping out from the shadows, Yura said.

Hearing this, Kakuzu looked up. He had just been trying to gather chakra to break the seal within his body, and seeing a pair of scarlet eyes, he couldn't help but be stunned.

"It's you..." His eyes widened, and he said with some surprise: "You're still alive?"

What was her name again?

Kakuzu searched his memory, but couldn't quite recall it; he only remembered that the person seemed to have been impaled by a wooden pillar.

"Were you also captured by the village?"

Yura looked at Kakuzu with an indescribable expression, unable to even gauge the simple situation; could he have been beaten stupid by the village?

"You don't actually think everyone is as foolish as you, Kakuzu-senpai." Yura chuckled mockingly. "You ran away fast enough when you saw things going south during the assassination attempt on Senju Hashirama. You didn't seem stupid then, so why would you dare return to the village after a failed mission? Failure must be punished, or how else would the village maintain order? As an experienced veteran ninja, did you really think the village was some charity organization run by saints, senpai~?"

"Shut up, brat!" Kakuzu stared at Yura with his eerie green eyes.

Yura closed her mouth with a grin, her scarlet eyes fixed on Kakuzu.

After a long silence...

"Are you here to rescue me?" Kakuzu asked unrealistically, still harboring a sliver of hope—what if?

"Are we that close, senpai?" Yura replied.

Only money can give me any warmth, it seems.

Kakuzu quickly cooled down, and after a while, he said, "Then, you intend to become a rogue ninja."

"It seems you aren't beyond saving, senpai." Yura nodded with a faint smile. "What 'rogue ninja' or whatever—that sounds unpleasant. I never joined Takigakure in the first place. If you don't want me to silence you, you'd best not mention my existence to anyone."

"What are you planning?" Kakuzu asked.

"I just intend to take a little revenge on the village and take a few things," Yura said. "I need you to step up and take the fall for all these crimes."

Since she planned to jump ship to another ninja village, a clean employment record was absolutely essential.

Kakuzu closed his eyes in contemplation. Betraying the village had been a spur-of-the-moment fit of anger; he had no detailed plan, and he had no confidence in whether he could actually pull off a revenge plot against an entire village.

"I agree." Kakuzu opened his eyes and looked at Yura solemnly. "But we split the loot!"

Although she looked like a brat on the outside, no one knew better than him the weight of having escaped from the hands of the God of Shinobi, Senju Hashirama.

The village was truly full of hidden talents; it was a good thing he hadn't acted on impulse and tried to break out blindly.

"No problem." Yura smiled faintly. "If you manage to survive, senpai, we shall naturally divide the spoils properly then."

"You..." Kakuzu narrowed his eyes, studying Yura, then nodded. "Fine, it's a deal."

"Then, wait for my signal before you act." With those words, Yura's figure vanished abruptly.

Watching this display of coming and going as she pleased, appearing and disappearing like a ghost, Kakuzu's pupils constricted slightly. A moment later, the chakra he had gathered within his body settled back down.