From beginning to end, these red-eyed people had never intended to leave the Land of Rivers.
Gennosuke had underestimated the mistrust between groups. Trust was like love: giving someone your heart didn't mean you'd get anything in return.
The Red Eyes, whose strength surpassed that of the Daimyo's soldiers, believed they could make a good living on their own. They didn't need anyone else's help.
But that depended on driving away the people who were running amok on the land where they lived.
In their eyes, the Sunagakure Ninja and Gennosuke's group were birds of a feather. Before they arrived, the Red Eyes had lived just fine. They were poor, but things hadn't been this chaotic.
The seemingly friendly Gennosuke was merely the easiest to fool among the bastards who had thrown their country into turmoil.
Compared with the four or five thousand Sunagakure Ninja, Gennosuke's group of a few dozen seemed easier to bully. Gennosuke himself also seemed more easygoing.
The old and weak continued to surround Gennosuke, shouting,
"For Lord Gennosuke!"
They hoped that this would muddy the waters and make the few dozen people teaching them how to fight as ninja hesitate. In the Red Eyes' minds, Gennosuke was a very important figure, a noble benefactor everyone would surely fear seeing harmed.
Meanwhile, the young and able-bodied men who had gathered around them had shed their hypocritical masks. They didn't even bother to hide their intentions anymore. Armed with farm tools as though they were ninja weapons, they charged at Koshiro.
"Kill them all! Take everything we can carry!"
At least they had a frightening amount of momentum.
Koshiro and his group grew tense as well. They were away from home and had yet to be strengthened by demons or empowered by Fear Armor.
But that didn't