Safety

"Even so, while this explains their origins, it doesn't explain their motives. After all, the other party was just a group of commoners; there was no need for them to take action," Clan Head Nagata said, still somewhat skeptical.

The clan elder Nagata Ietsugu wore a look of disdain. "What else could it be? Those so-called samurai are used to throwing their weight around under the Daimyo's name. It is highly likely those three disguised themselves as commoners or some other identity. As long as they weren't wearing obvious ninja attire, isn't it obvious how the Daimyo's servants would behave? Whether it was a slip of the tongue or some other reason, that doesn't matter. The key is that their subsequent actions align. To quickly grasp the situation, those members of the Yamanaka Clan read the merchant's memories and learned that the group was directly under the Daimyo. To avoid trouble, they disguised themselves as bandits..."

The Clan Head nodded in approval. "Indeed, indeed. Haha, you always see things so clearly, Elder. The key now is how we report this to the Daimyo. There is no need for the Daimyo to offend those three clans for the sake of a few commoners, especially since there are some things that cannot be clearly explained. Since that is the case, there is no need for us to offend the geniuses of those three great clans."

Elder Nagata Ietsugu agreed wholeheartedly. "At the banquet later, we shall say that someone was indeed framed, but that the perpetrators were ninjas, and that critical evidence at the scene was intentionally destroyed. This way, we demonstrate our competence without offending the Ino-Shika-Cho."

The Clan Head was somewhat hesitant. "If foreign ninjas are running amok in the Land of Iron and even intercepted the Daimyo's guards, doesn't that make us ninja clans look incompetent? How can we do that!"

The Elder, however, was unconcerned. "We were already severely crippled by the Hagoromo Clan, and we had to use the Daimyo's influence to scout for healers; these things cannot be hidden. It is better to take this opportunity to admit our lack of capacity and ask the Daimyo for some benefits to develop ourselves."

The trade-off between substance and face was a dilemma the Clan Head had to resolve himself. After the report was finished, the Elder took his leave.

Three months have passed since then. Without the assistance of ninjas, the samurai under the Daimyo searched for three months without finding a trace of the enemy. Instead, they discovered quite a few wildlings and bandits within the Land of Fields that had been overlooked, which actually brought in a bit of extra revenue for the Daimyo.

After three months of chaos, the Daimyo finally gave up on the search. He was merely making a final struggle now, shifting the problem onto his subordinates to save a bit of face. In truth, the Nagata family had actually conducted searches during these three months—not to curry favor with the Daimyo, but to use these so-called ninja geniuses to build connections with the Ino-Shika-Cho. After all, the ninja clans of the entire Land of Fields had been severely crippled by the Hagoromo Clan and were currently in a period of weakness. If they could find a powerful backer, they wouldn't have to worry about the threat of annihilation for the time being.

However, that so-called young genius was merely a product of their own imagination, and Bai Sui had not left the small village during this time. Thus, while the ninja families of the Land of Fields did find some foreign ninjas, they were never the ones they were looking for. Today's banquet at the Daimyo Mansion represents not only the Daimyo's surrender but also the surrender of the ninja clans. After all, such large-scale operations are costly, and for something so trivial, it's like using a cannon to kill a mosquito—only to miss and end up losing more than one bargained for.

And so, without anyone in the small village knowing, this crisis was completely extinguished. The peace in the village naturally led people to believe that Bai Sui had been making a mountain out of a molehill, completely forgetting—or perhaps choosing to forget—that Bai Sui and Kubota Noriyuki had killed over a dozen people for this very reason. Coupled with Bai Sui's deliberate distancing, talk of him in the village gradually faded. Furthermore, as Bai Sui began letting his apprentice take over the work of treating villagers, his influence began to wane.

Nowadays, the only ones who still frequently interact with Bai Sui are his apprentice and the samurai, Kubota Noriyuki. Kubota Noriyuki even specifically came to talk to Bai Sui, intending to offer some comfort. Yet, Bai Sui seemed completely indifferent, even continuing to discuss the topic of opportunity with him.

"In my view, a person's achievements are the result of many factors combined. They are composed of the degree of success, the scale of the matter, the efficiency of the matter, the duration of time, and the opportunities of the era. Take farming, the most obvious example: if a person is just an ordinary farmer, their farming level is average. I won't go into the scale of farming compared to other jobs, but as for efficiency, that depends on the grade of the land being farmed. As for time, the longer one does something, the better, naturally. And the opportunities of the era are like the impact of war and peace on cultivation."

Kubota Noriyuki was a bit puzzled; while everything said was true, what did it have to do with opportunity?

"But have you noticed that, aside from the degree of success and the scale of the matter, which an individual can choose, the rest cannot be chosen? Efficiency, as I mentioned before, depends on the land you can find, which is also not up to the individual. The opportunities of the era go without saying—they are completely beyond personal control. The degree of success depends on personal effort and talent, while the scale of the undertaking depends on the personal opportunity I mentioned earlier. This must be distinguished from the opportunities of the era, as the former can be changed by the individual. You see, if all external influences are unfavorable, how powerful must one be to succeed?"

Kubota Noriyuki thought for a moment and said, "That is correct, everything you say is true, but what does this have to do with the current matter?"

Bai Sui shook his head. "No, that is because you haven't thought it through. You must apply these concepts flexibly. What I spoke of was achievement, but it can also be replaced with safety. Think carefully: what is the village's safety composed of? The village's own defensive strength, the scale of the village's defensive strength relative to the overall armed forces, the efficiency with which the village is discovered, and the opportunities of the era."

This time, Bai Sui didn't just speak; he wrote it down on paper. His apprentice, Iwai Yasuharu, who had entered the room, did not interrupt but stood to the side, deep in thought. Bai Sui glanced at Iwai Yasuharu, saw his furrowed brows as if something remained unclear, and said, "Yasuharu, why don't you give it a try?"