The Shinobi Clans

Takigakure was small, but it had everything a normal shinobi village needed. Over the past three years of developing its territory, not a single essential facility had been left out: training grounds, bases, hot springs, prisons, and so on.

These facilities weren't in the village's main area. Instead, they had been built in hidden caves scattered underground, connected by a network of passageways that ran in every direction. Outsiders would have a hard time finding them.

Although Yura had lived in the village for three years, strictly speaking, she was still an outsider.

The Warring States era had been an age of Shinobi Clans, and there had been countless clans both large and small. Yet in the brief sixty-odd years since the era of shinobi villages began, numerous Shinobi Clans would quietly disappear, one after another.

In the Land of Waterfalls, disputes between shinobi families revolved largely around the God Tree. The earliest Shinobi Clan to occupy the God Tree at Takigakure was known as the Hero Clan, a name derived from their possession of Hero Water. Those who drank it immediately gained tremendous power, often allowing them to perform like heroes on the battlefield, turn the tide, and win the day.

Other Shinobi Clans beyond the Land of Waterfalls were especially envious of this power. Since the Warring States era, they had fought over it so fiercely that the ground was littered with the dead. Later, under the pressure of Senju Hashirama, the God of Shinobi, the Shinobi Clans of the Land of Waterfalls had no choice but to form an alliance and establish Takigakure to resist the Land of Fire's attempts to annex them. The Hero Clan became the village's leading clan.

The strongest Shinobi Clans were the Hero Clan, the Qian-Gui Clan, the Uji Clan, and the Kusanagi Clan. Beneath them were smaller Shinobi Clans that had gathered in the village, including a branch of the Fuma Clan. They were descendants of those who had fled the Land of Fire after their previous leader, Fuma Kotaro, was defeated and their clan was crushed by Senju Hashirama, the God of Shinobi.

Yura belonged to the Kusanagi Clan. Her clan specialized in training large numbers of Genin as cannon fodder, and its members were skilled swordsmen. It was the village's largest clan. Rumor had it that they were a samurai clan charged with guarding the Three Sacred Treasures, including the Kusanagi Sword. But as far back as Yura knew, the Kusanagi Clan had wandered the Shinobi World without a fixed home, mainly to gather information on the Kusanagi Swords and retrieve them.

Nowadays, the clan was mainly responsible for guarding the village. Yura knew their patrol routes, shift changes, and sentry posts by heart. After all, it had once been her job.

As for the Uji Clan, if the Uchiha Clan specialized in Fire Release, then the Uji Clan specialized in Water Release. Their ancestors probably weren't related, and they didn't have any strange eyes, either. They were also known as the Bridge Clan.

Though skilled in Water Release, they were even better at making use of underground waterways and digging tunnels. They lived underground, and were called the Bridge Clan because they could build bridges connecting the surface world to the world below.

According to village gossip, the clan possessed a terrifying and sinister forbidden technique. Yura had never witnessed it herself.

But when it came to sinister and terrifying, the clan everyone in the village agreed on was the Qian-Gui Clan.

They possessed the infamous forbidden technique, Earth Grudge Fear.

Like Yura, the clan could use chakra to fight with their hair and body hair. As a result, they had extremely abundant body hair, especially the men, whose nose hair was so bushy that their ugliness was unforgettable. The women were the exact opposite: their beauty was equally unforgettable.

Their ninjutsu style, which used their body hair in battle, had earned them the name of a legendary monster: the Hair Demon.

The monster originated in a legend about a woman who murdered virgins and bathed in their blood to preserve her beauty. It was described in the Shinobi World's collection of folk tales, the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons. After death, it became a creature whose body was made of long hair. The Hair Demon supposedly had no body, only a head, with long, thick hair concealing countless young girls' faces beneath it. Whenever it found a beautiful girl, it stole her face and hid it in its hair.

The description was strikingly similar to Earth Grudge Fear: after taking a heart, the technique transformed it into a mask and hid it inside the body of a hair-like monster.

Yura couldn't rule out the possibility that other shinobi in the village knew Earth Grudge Fear. Either way, she was determined to obtain the forbidden technique.

Besides the four powerful Shinobi Clan forces, there was another, unusual group in the village.

The arrival of the shinobi-village era had drawn many independent rogue shinobi to the village. Most of them remained neutral.

Besides Kakuzu, the most typical example, there were plenty of other strong fighters among them. The one Yura was most interested in was Mochizuki Gen, a former Koga Ninja Clan shinobi and the sole survivor of the leading family among the Fifty-three Families of Koga.

Rumor had it that during the Warring States era, the Fifty-three Families had split into two factions and fought among themselves. After a clash over their different beliefs, they were defeated by Sarutobi Sasuke, who had brought in the Senju Clan as powerful reinforcements. The entire clan was then wiped out by the Sarutobi Clan.

That man had always been strange in the village, keeping himself apart as a detached observer. Yura had only met him once, before the mission to assassinate Senju Hashirama. She still vividly remembered the way he had looked at a group of corpses.

One thing was clear: the man was powerful, probably the strongest in the village. He served as the village's doctor and was widely respected. As long as no one provoked him, he took no particular action and spent most of his time in a deeply apathetic state, doing nothing.

Probably...

By comparison, Kakuzu was rather pitiful. Not only had he been sent on a mission he was expected to die on, but after failing and barely making it back to the village alive, he'd been punished by the village. That had a lot to do with his own lack of strength and the fact that he had no powerful backer to protect him.

Old grudges left over from the Warring States era had made factional infighting and friction in the village increasingly frequent. Kakuzu had merely been caught up in it. He'd thought joining a shinobi village would put an end to the struggle to survive that defined the Warring States era, but he'd been far too naive.

There was a word that described Kakuzu's behavior perfectly: convert's zeal. It referred to new converts who took part in church activities more eagerly than the original believers.

Kakuzu might genuinely love the village and be willing to risk his life for the organization, but the Shinobi Clans didn't necessarily feel the same.

This was the prison at Takigakure. Dark and gloomy, it was hidden in an underground cave. Torchlight flickered, casting sinister shadows on the walls. In a solitary cell deep within the prison, the young Kakuzu was shackled by his limbs and suspended on a cross.

He was in a terrible state. His upper body was bare, and the wounds there gaped open, flesh torn and ragged. It was obvious he had just endured a brutal beating.

After being beaten three times a day, Kakuzu's vision swam. His head drooped, and blood mixed with sweat dripped from his cheeks and chin.

He couldn't understand how things had come to this.

He had only failed to complete a mission, and his opponent hadn't been someone he could defeat in the first place. Surely that couldn't be his fault.

So why!?

Kakuzu thought about it for a long, long time.

But just now, he'd suddenly figured it out. This definitely wasn't his fault!

The village was the one at fault. The village, the peace—it was all a false front. Everything was a lie, just an excuse to make him risk his life!

If that was the case, why should he let the village take the mission pay out of his hands!?

From now on, no one would ever take a single cent from him again!

Seething hatred and murderous intent churned in his heart. The intoxicating scents of these emotions drew a demon lurking in the darkness. In a corner of the cell, a butterfly's wings trembled. Countless invisible threads shot out and formed a pitch-black humanoid shape in midair.

Black Secret Technique: Shadow Thread Puppet

Its entire body was made of threads spun from Yura's demonic power, invisible to ordinary people.

But if she covered it in chakra and used the Transformation Technique, it could be seen with the naked eye.

"I'd advise you not to try escaping right now."

Yura stepped out of the shadows and spoke.

At the sound of her voice, Kakuzu looked up. He had just been trying to gather chakra to break the seal inside him. Seeing a pair of scarlet eyes, he couldn't help but freeze.

"So it's you..." His eyes widened in surprise. "You're still alive?"

What was her name again?

Kakuzu tried to remember, but couldn't quite manage it. He only recalled that she seemed to have been run through by a wooden stake.

"Did the village capture you too?"

Yura gave Kakuzu a look that said she didn't know where to begin. He couldn't even assess a simple situation anymore. Had the village beaten him stupid?

"You don't think everyone's as foolish as you, do you, Senior Kakuzu?" Yura said with a faint smile, mocking him. "You ran pretty fast when things went south during the assassination attempt on Senju Hashirama. You didn't seem stupid then. So why did you dare come back to the village after failing the mission? Failure to carry out your duties deserves punishment, or how else can the village maintain its authority? As a veteran shinobi, do you really think the village is some charitable organization run by a bunch of good Samaritans, Senior?"

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

Yura smiled and fell silent, her scarlet eyes fixed on Kakuzu.

After a long pause...

"You're here to rescue me?" Kakuzu asked hopefully, though it was a far-fetched idea. Still, there was a part of him that hoped it might be true.

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

Looks like money's the only thing that can give me a little warmth.

Kakuzu's face flushed with anger. After a while, he said, "Then you're planning to become a rogue shinobi."

"Looks like you're not quite beyond saving, Senior." Yura smiled and nodded. "Rogue shinobi sounds unpleasant. I've never joined Takigakure in the first place. If you don't want me to silence you, you'd better not tell anyone I exist."

"What are you planning to do?" Kakuzu asked.

"I'm just going to take a little revenge on the village and make off with a few things," Yura said. "I need you to take the blame for all of it."

If she planned to switch to another shinobi village, she would need a clean record.

Kakuzu closed his eyes and thought it over. He'd decided to leave the village in a fit of anger, without any detailed plan. He had no idea if he could get his revenge, especially against an entire shinobi village.

"I agree." Kakuzu opened his eyes and looked at Yura solemnly. "But I want a share of the loot!"

She might look like a kid, but she'd escaped from Senju Hashirama, the God of Shinobi. No one understood better than Kakuzu just how impressive that was.

The village really was full of hidden talent. Good thing he hadn't tried to escape in a fit of blind impulse.

"No problem." Yura smiled. "If you survive, we can split the spoils properly afterward."

"You..." Kakuzu narrowed his eyes at Yura, studied her, then nodded. "All right. It's a deal."

"Then wait for my signal before you make your move." With that, Yura's figure vanished without a trace.

Watching her come and go freely, appearing and disappearing like a ghost, Kakuzu's pupils contracted slightly. A moment later, the chakra he'd gathered inside him subsided.