The First Drop of Blood

Chapter 9: The First Drop of Blood

Uchiha Shin arrived at the entrance of the briefing room, greeted the clansman guarding it, and presented his mission scroll.

With the guard's permission, Uchiha Shin pushed open the heavy doors and stepped inside.

One must understand that this so-called briefing room was, in reality, the place where the Uchiha Clan stored and collected intelligence.

It was not a place that just anyone could enter at will.

One had to possess either a direct order from the clan head or a scroll authorizing a mission from within the clan.

Furthermore, one could only enter to consult the collected intelligence files after the guard had verified their credentials and granted access.

After all, the intelligence files within were gathered by the clan's scouts, who risked their lives to obtain them.

Thus, the importance of the briefing room went without saying.

Of course, the briefing room was not unique to the Uchiha Clan; other ninja clans in the ninja world all maintained their own versions.

Inside the room, Uchiha Shin walked quickly to the shelves containing intelligence on the Hagoromo Clan and the Uzuki Clan, pulling down the relevant records for both.

Carrying the files, Uchiha Shin sat at a desk placed to the side of the room, opened the documents, and began to read carefully.

There was quite a lot of information regarding the Hagoromo Clan, and it took an hour before Uchiha Shin finally finished reviewing all the data on both them and the Uzuki Clan.

The Uzuki Clan was not worth mentioning; they were merely a minor ninja clan with no special bloodline limits, nor any signature secret techniques or ninjutsu.

The Uzuki Clan had a small population, a tiny territory, and mediocre overall strength; they had no standout ninjas and generally dared not provoke powerful clans.

The Hagoromo Clan, however, was far more powerful than the Uzuki; their bloodline limit was unknown, and their overall strength was second only to the Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan.

The Hagoromo Clan could be considered one of the powerful ninja clans in the Land of Fire.

In particular, according to the records, the strength of the Hagoromo clan head was not inferior to Uchiha Tajima or Senju Butsuma.

However, the good news for Uchiha Shin was that the current Hagoromo Clan and the Uchiha Clan were not hostile; on the contrary, they were enemies with the Senju Clan.

Moreover, according to the intelligence, it was possible that the Hagoromo Clan, like the Senju and Uchiha, were also descendants of the Sage of Six Paths.

It seemed this Hagoromo Clan also had a prestigious lineage.

When Uchiha Shin read this, he couldn't help but think of the demons in Journey to the West—those with a background received internal training, while the wild ones without connections were all slaughtered. Haha.

Regardless, based on this intelligence, it was definitely good news for Uchiha Shin.

After all, Uchiha Shin had been worried that while wiping out the bandits would be easy, he feared running into patrols from these two clans along the way and triggering unnecessary combat.

As the saying goes, only magic can defeat magic; by the same logic, only a ninja can defeat a ninja.

Not to mention that Uchiha Shin was still a rookie who had just stepped into the ninja world and hadn't even earned the title of Genin yet.

So, the situation was that the Uzuki Clan dared not provoke the Uchiha, and the Hagoromo were not hostile, meaning this clan trial mission shouldn't face any major issues.

Still, Uchiha Shin knew he had to remain cautious; after all, one must always be on guard against others.

Having learned what he needed, Uchiha Shin left the briefing room and headed home.

Since he had to depart early the next morning, he needed to prepare his ninja tools, equipment, dry rations, water, and other necessities.

By the time Uchiha Shin finished packing his gear, the sky had completely darkened.

Shortly after, Uchiha Tajima and Uchiha Aoi returned together.

The family enjoyed a fairly rich dinner together, chatted happily for a while, and then Uchiha Shin went to bed early.

However, to be safe, before sleeping, Uchiha Shin specifically soaked his prepared kunai, shuriken, and short blade in poison.

That's right, Uchiha Shin intended to coat all his weapons in toxin.

In the Warring States period of the ninja world, animal-based toxins were difficult to extract, scarce, hard to preserve, and prone to degradation.

Furthermore, since the Uchiha Clan was not known for using poison, they lacked the methods and technology to extract or preserve animal toxins.

Therefore, the poison Uchiha Shin used was a common plant-based toxin of the era, which was simple to extract and easy to store.

Almost every ninja clan in the Warring States period kept a daily supply of it.

After all, ninjas would stop at nothing to achieve their goals; wasn't that a matter of course?

They weren't like samurai, who insisted on head-on confrontations.

Time passed quickly, and the night soon ended.

As the morning sun broke, Uchiha Shin took his prepared gear and set off quietly, following the route recorded on the map.

The territory of the Uchiha Clan bordered that of the Hagoromo and Uzuki clans.

Around noon, Uchiha Shin finally crossed out of the Uchiha Clan's territory and reached the border line shared with the Hagoromo and Uzuki clans.

To be honest, the ninja world was not as small as everyone thought.

One must realize that a ninja's travel speed was naturally much faster than that of an ordinary person.

Uchiha Shin estimated his own walking speed at about forty kilometers per hour; after all, his current strength was at most at the peak of a Genin.

If Uchiha Shin's current travel speed reached nearly forty kilometers per hour, then the speed of Chunin and Jonin would be even more incredible.

Uchiha Shin had departed from the Uchiha compound around five in the morning and didn't reach the border of the Uchiha territory until twelve noon.

If the location of the Uchiha Clan compound were situated at the very center of the Uchiha Clan's territory.

And if the path Uchiha Shin traveled this morning was a straight line, then the diameter of the Uchiha Clan's territory would be equal to 40 kilometers × 7 × 2, which equals 560 kilometers.

Then, according to the formula for the area of a circle, π × radius squared, the Uchiha Clan's territory would span over 240,000 square kilometers.

This area is almost equivalent to half the size of an average province from Uchiha Shin's past life.

If calculated this way, Uchiha Shin felt that it was much more reasonable.

After all, in the Warring States period of Naruto, powerful ninja clans like the Uchiha Clan would certainly have many commoners living within their sphere of influence.

Otherwise, since ninja clans in the Warring States period did not farm, where would they get the food to survive and multiply?

Furthermore, agricultural technology during the Warring States period in Naruto was relatively backward, lacking relevant agricultural machinery and equipment, relying basically on manual labor for cultivation.

Therefore, the territory controlled by the Uchiha Clan would naturally be quite large.

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