Princess of the Land of Birds

Hashirama consolidated all the major ninja clans of the Land of Fire into an absolute military collective, directly monopolizing the Land of Fire's military power.

From that day on, the daimyo became nothing more than stray dogs by the roadside. They had to grovel before Hashirama just to maintain a decent life.

Once the ninjas of the Five Great Nations caught on, they all followed suit.

From then on, the Five Kage Summit could determine policy relations between nations, and diplomacy was monopolized by the village leaders as well.

During the Second Hokage's era, the Second Shinobi World War was still being fought, and the daimyo could still barely survive.

During the Third Hokage's reign, even the Guardian Shinobi Twelve, the Land of Fire daimyo's core military force, split into two factions: the Hokage Faction and the Radical Faction.

The Radical Faction believed that real authority over the ninjas should be returned to the daimyo, and that the Hokage was unnecessary.

The conflict between the Hokage and the daimyo reached its peak.

In the end, five members of the Radical Faction died, the Guardian Shinobi Twelve were disbanded, Asuma Sarutobi left the Guardian Shinobi and returned to Hidden Leaf Village, while Chiriku went back to the Fire Temple to continue being a monk.

Who won was obvious.

If the Third Shinobi World War had not broken out at just the right time, Hidden Leaf Village might have gained a second benevolent father of the daimyo during the Third Hokage's administration.

Once Lin Chongshu understood this, everything became clear.

It was not that Orochimaru and Danzo's intelligence was accurate. It was simply a matter of who had paid protection money. They could read the names straight off a list.

If the daimyo and nobles wanted to do anything, they first had to pay protection money equivalent to an S-rank mission. Otherwise, they could just wait to die!

This world was one gigantic Hidden Sand Village.

Orochimaru had not been at the base lately. He had teamed up with Sasori of the Red Sand to carry out a mission assigned by Akatsuki.

Since this was not one of Orochimaru's main hideouts, there were no secret techniques or treasures stored here. While waiting for the experiment results, Lin Chongshu idly flipped through the assassination list Danzo had given him, along with some useless intelligence.

With Orochimaru gone, he was not quite as motivated. These people were neither necessary nor unnecessary to kill.

He had originally held to the mindset of being here anyway. When carrying out assassinations, he had planned to conveniently abduct a princess or noblewoman to massage his waist and knead his legs, just for the thrill of her status.

But the daimyo all claimed to be descendants of Amaterasu. To preserve the purity of their bloodlines, they often married close relatives, which meant the daughters of daimyo families were not particularly beautiful. The few who were passable were only barely passable.

After killing for so long, Lin Chongshu had always wanted to be a good person, but unfortunately, none had caught his eye.

He flipped through the intelligence and suddenly saw news that the son of the Land of Birds' daimyo would be going out to perform a ritual three days later.

Because he had always planned to build a Giant Bird Hidden Village in the Land of Birds someday and become its local emperor, he had kept an eye on the country.

There had also been a storyline about the Land of Birds in the anime: the daimyo of the Land of Birds had twin children, Sagi and Toki. Toki usually dressed as a man and posed as her brother.

A group of rogue ninjas killed her father and brother, intending to seize the position of daimyo of the Land of Birds. In the end, they sought help from Hidden Leaf Village, and Team Kakashi went there to resolve the matter.

It was a pathetic regime that could not even handle a few rogue ninjas. Perhaps because it had previously become the main battlefield of the Second and Third Shinobi World Wars, all the capable people in the country had long since been killed.

But even Kakashi had called Princess Toki a great beauty in the anime, and she ranked twenty-first on the must-have list for Naruto transmigrators.

So he had to get her!

Lin Chongshu set off at full speed with five chunin, following the route marked in the intelligence.

Princess Toki's route remained within the Land of Birds, still some distance from the border between the Land of Rain and the Land of Wind where Orochimaru was located.

At dusk on the third day, a ritual procession finally entered their sight.

More than twenty guards marched in two columns. A simply decorated carriage traveled between them, with no daimyo family crest banners and guards in half-new, half-old armor. It looked like an inconspicuous medium-sized merchant caravan.

As the night deepened, the guards began setting up camp.

The bonfires were lit. Most of them sat around the flames eating, while a few sentries lay scattered around the outer perimeter of the camp.

Lin Chongshu crouched in the shadows of a distant tree and made a gesture to the five chunin.

Five dark figures silently dispersed in different directions, slipping into the shadows around the camp's edge.

He pressed one hand to the ground, and sand flowed from his palm, silently gliding through the grass into the camp.

The bonfire flickered. The three guards sitting around it yawned at the same time, and then sand wrapped around their necks.

The instant the sand tightened, even the sound of cracking bones was muffled within it. The three heads tilted aside, and before their bodies could fall, the sand supported them and gently lowered them to the ground, as though they had been exhausted enough to collapse into sleep.

On the other side of the camp, the five chunin moved at once.

Kunai reflected moonlight as they cut through the air. Blades rose and fell, and several muffled groans ended before they could turn into screams.

The whole process took less than three minutes. All twenty-some guards had been dealt with.

Lin Chongshu was becoming increasingly practiced at killing.

He had once felt nauseated when he saw test subjects explode into bloody water in the laboratory. Now, he knew to bring an umbrella before standing at the dissection table.

After all, blood was hard to wash off his face.

Lin Chongshu stepped out of the tree's shadow, walked around the corpses strewn across the ground, and boldly lifted the curtain of the carriage.

A simple mattress lay inside the carriage. Princess Toki rested on her side upon it, breathing softly.

She had not yet removed her male disguise. Only her long black hair, cut with princess bangs, spilled over her shoulders.

She was only twenty now, not yet as old as she had been in the anime, but her features had already taken shape.

Her brows were slender, her nose refined and high, her lips slightly pursed, and her skin so pale it was nearly translucent. She truly was a great beauty.

This time, I came to the right place. I can be kind now.

"Hey!"

Lin Chongshu's voice startled her awake.

She groggily opened her eyes, confusion filling those large eyes.

Before she could see who stood before her, she habitually asked, "Are we leaving already?"

Lin Chongshu crouched down and asked, "Why is your country so stingy? You do not even hire a ninja when traveling?"

Princess Toki frowned and rubbed her eyes. "What would we hire ninjas for?"

Lin Chongshu chuckled. "If you had hired ninjas, wouldn't you have avoided being taken away by me?"

Princess Toki stared at the unfamiliar man before her and instantly woke up.

She suddenly shrank backward, her back hitting the carriage wall. She clutched the blanket to her chest, her voice trembling. "You... who are you?"

Lin Chongshu lifted the curtain, letting moonlight fall across his face, and showed her a gentle smile. "I came to take you back to serve me."

Princess Toki froze.

She looked at Lin Chongshu's expression. The smile on his face was indeed gentle—so gentle that when he said, "Take you back to serve me," it sounded as if he were saying, "Please come have dinner."

She suspected she had misheard him. Her lips moved twice before she found her voice. "This... this is the Land of Birds?"

"I know."

"I... I am the princess of the Land of Birds." Her voice rose half a pitch.

Lin Chongshu sat down beside the bed and nodded. "I know. If you were not a princess, I would not be abducting you."