Cry All You Want-the Clock's Still Ticking!

"Remember to keep up appearances. Unless it's necessary, your two families should avoid using the Hydrification Technique and Ice Release," Xuanye instructed.

Avoid using them unless necessary. In other words, they could use them, as long as they cleaned up the scene and left no evidence behind.

The nobles' households weren't entirely without guards. Some might even have hired ninja or samurai. Xuanye hadn't ordered them to keep their identities hidden even at the cost of their lives.

Still, none of those present took the guards seriously.

Ninja and samurai hired by nobles? How could they compare to professionally trained ninja like them?

Hozuki Longchuan, however, was deeply moved.

That one instruction told him Uchiha Genya had never intended to treat them as expendable. He genuinely wanted them to become part of Konoha.

Unfortunately, they had fought Konoha in several Ninja World Wars, and there was blood between the two sides.

Even the Konoha villagers, though firmly kept in check by the Security Division, still harbored resentment toward them. They simply no longer dared to harass them in the streets.

This mission, however, was a perfect chance to strengthen their bonds as comrades.

Xuanye had previously used his own authority to suppress opposition in the village. After fighting side by side this time, they would surely find it easier to fit in.

Over the following month, rogue ninja began causing havoc across the Land of Fire.

Noble households throughout the land were slaughtered overnight. The rogue ninja were powerful, and anyone who dared resist was killed without mercy.

The nobles and administrators in charge were all secretly taken to Konoha, where the Interrogation Division had its instruments of torture waiting.

Those captured nobles were ordinary people. How could they withstand interrogation by Konoha's Anbu?

Morino Ibiki hadn't even started