"My lord, we're at the border of the Land of Fire."
Kidomaru reported from up ahead, where he had been scouting the road.
On their way back to Konoha, Shisui had brought only the Five with him.
It wasn't because Shisui had no one else he could use.
In fact, as the man in control of an entire village, he had plenty of people at his disposal. They simply weren't particularly loyal.
Unlike those "mercenaries," Shisui valued the Five's potential and wanted to cultivate their loyalty.
With Shisui's current strength, scouting was hardly necessary. The chances of encountering an enemy in the wilderness who could match him were far too low.
He did have a one-time-use item like the Will of Root, with two uses remaining. It could guarantee the absolute loyalty of his subordinates, but the result would be puppets who merely followed orders mechanically. That wasn't what Shisui wanted.
Even before they left Kirigakure, Shimura Danzō had specifically asked whether he should use the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal on the Five to strengthen his control over them. Shisui had rejected the idea.
That choice didn't mean Shisui was especially noble. His deeds in Kirigakure during this period—such as controlling the Fourth Mizukage and attacking the Kaguya Clan to seize their bloodline—were already every bit as ruthless as Shimura Danzō had been in his previous life.
Just before Shisui left Kirigakure, he had even ordered every surviving member of the Kaguya Clan to be kept captive.
What if some of them later proved to be valuable "material" with a high degree of bloodline development?
Even if they proved useless and failed to meet Shisui's needs, what about their descendants?
At the very least, they could be formed into a suicide squad and sent to the battlefield.
You could question