Crossing the Battlefield

Qian's thoughts regarding these two were simple: eliminate them.

The two had witnessed tonight's battle. Even if he erased their memories of the past few minutes and Genji suppressed the matter, there was no guarantee that seeing the devastation at the scene wouldn't arouse some suspicions in them.

Especially since he would still need to manipulate Genji into acting on his behalf in the future.

As Genji's trusted aides, the two necessarily knew him quite well. It was possible that Qian would reveal a flaw at some point, causing them to connect it to tonight's unusual events.

When that happened, trouble would be unavoidable.

Since that was the case, it was better to eliminate them directly and be done with it.

As for controlling them the same way he had controlled Genji—

Qian had never considered that option.

First, the two were merely Special Jonin. Controlling them would require a great deal of effort, making it completely uneconomical.

Second, people controlled in this manner could not stray too far from the Shadow Clone. Once they went too far away, if the Genjutsu failed to keep up in time, they might lose control.

That ruled out sending them out on missions.

This further reduced the usefulness of controlling them.

Finally, and most importantly, there was the Shadow Clone's limit.

A Shadow Clone was ultimately only a Shadow Clone. Although it could activate the Mangekyō Sharingan just like Qian's true body, the results were still inferior to those of Qian's true body.

Combined with the Shadow Clone's inherent fragility, it simply could not withstand the pressure of controlling three people over an extended period.

If he insisted on controlling them, he could only increase the frequency with which he replaced his Shadow Clones or increase the number of Shadow Clones left inside