Ideas for Change and Assassination Operations

Under the framework Qing Si had proposed, the four of them carefully refined every detail they could think of, determined to succeed in a single stroke.

After all, failure this time would likely mean their Hidden Mist identities being exposed, bringing enormous political resistance down on them.

He was merely an ordinary man, albeit a general who commanded a vast number of troops within a nation. For several Hidden Mist elites to go to such lengths to assassinate him, he could at least be said to have died for a reason.

Over the following days, the weather was excellent—several consecutive days of brilliant sunshine. That was rare in the Land of Water, a country shrouded in clouds and mist year-round, with overcast skies being common. It was as though the Sage of Six Paths wished to see this general off as well, letting him enjoy his final few days of sunlight.

At first, Qing Si, Yagura, and Qian Nai still had the mood to experience life on the streets every day. With Yagura, a natural extrovert and chatterbox, beside them, the two boys quickly grew familiar with Qian Nai, who was four years their senior.

Their relationship gradually shifted from being merely teammates to becoming friends.

However, after waiting so long without a single rainy day, Qing Si and the others could not help growing restless. Their mission deadline was only one month, and half of that time had already passed. Though they did not know the precise cause of the recent conflict between the daimyo and the general, the Daimyo's Office had given them one month with no possibility of extension. That meant that once the deadline passed, even if they eliminated the target, it would no longer be of any use to the daimyo—and the mission would still be considered a failure.

But impatience could not affect the weather in the Land of Water, so they could only suppress their anxiety and continue waiting patiently.

During the wait, they continued gathering intelligence every day, fleshing out a profile of the target's personality in pursuit of a flawless plan. Qing Si and the others came to understand the man they were meant to assassinate more and more clearly.

As a great noble beneath the daimyo of the Land of Water, the general was far from a good man.

No, it could even be said that there were hardly any good people in the entire noble class. If every noble in the Land of Water were dragged out and beheaded, perhaps a small number would be wronged—but if they randomly picked nine out of every ten and killed them, there would definitely still be some who slipped through the net.

Enslaving commoners, treating them as worthless grass, imposing harsh taxes, and indulging in decadent, corrupt lives—those were merely everyday occurrences.

Acting like thugs, abducting women by force, being utterly inhuman, cruel, and ruthless, casually killing people over the slightest dissatisfaction—the noble class committed every evil imaginable.

They seized land by any means necessary and killed for amusement.

They abused public power without restraint, sacrificing the public good for private gain.

They wallowed in corruption and depravity as they pleased, committing every manner of wrongdoing.

This was the true face of most nobles throughout the Shinobi World. As the rulers of the world, they stood above everyone else. Whether it was the samurai of old or the ninjas of today, they were nothing more than tools in the nobles' eyes...!

Qing Si had only just begun his career as a Hidden Mist ninja, and his first mission was to assassinate a stranger with whom he had never had any connection.

Ninjas were mercenaries who existed to carry out commissioned missions, but this mission continued to challenge the still-unformed moral boundaries of Qing Si, who retained memories of living in a peaceful era in his previous life.

Until then, Qing Si had merely endured the discomfort in his heart while carrying out his duties as a Hidden Mist ninja and an ANBU elite.

But as he continued gathering intelligence on the general and learning more about what the noble class had done, Qing Si gradually became at ease with the mission of assassinating such filth.

Even the faint respect Qing Si had once held for the daimyo, the ruler of this nation, was gradually fading away.

He had received an education beneath the red flag in his previous life, yet had never undergone a proper ninja education in this one. Though Qing Si had been born into a ninja clan, he had grown up in an isolated, remote village.

After awakening the memories of his previous life, Qing Si gradually developed his own thoughts. He did not believe the Shinobi World had to be this way.

Though Qing Si did not fully understand every political system from his previous life on Blue Star, the distorted system of one country, one village in the Shinobi World felt profoundly wrong to him.

A ninja village, when stripped down to its essence, was simply a gathering place eventually formed by a collection of mercenary organizations. Yet it was the largest instrument of violence in a nation, and that instrument was actually economically constrained by a daimyo, an ordinary person. It was utterly absurd.

And the ninjas who wielded the Shinobi World's high-end power were actually subject to the leadership of nobles. Qing Si found that somewhat laughable.

Qing Si had experienced the flourishing society of his previous life, and he had also witnessed the earliest era of Ninshū from a thousand years ago through his memories. Although he did not agree with Hagoromo Otsutsuki's somewhat naive idea of making everyone reach mutual understanding, he could not deny that the original Ninshū truly possessed a certain kind of beauty.

The essence of chakra in the Shinobi World was, in truth, the Otsutsuki Clan family's love, hatred, and grudges. Though some native sage-art creatures had also been involved, that did not matter much.

The essence of conflict in the Shinobi World was the struggle for interests. Conflict was merely another continuation of politics. When the benefits one sought could not be obtained through peaceful means such as negotiation or exchange, the seeking side would likely resort to force—war.

Having long seen through these underlying truths in his memories, Qing Si gradually began forming some ideas.

Why couldn't ninja villages, and ninjas themselves, become the rulers...?

Did daimyo and nobles who only knew how to enjoy themselves and served no other purpose truly have to exist...?

Another five days passed quickly. Just as Qing Si and the others had fallen into despair and were about to helplessly admit mission failure in a few days, a long-awaited downpour suddenly arrived.

The weather was like the Sage of Six Paths' mood, changing without warning. One moment, the sun was still high in the sky beneath clearing clouds; the next, dark clouds swept in, and torrential rain caught the Land of Water completely off guard.

Time gradually reached the evening, and darkness enveloped the entire city.

As the night entered its latter half, the time when people were most exhausted, even energetic ninjas had gradually lost their vigilance after nearly a month of intense guard duty.

The rain continued without pause. Perhaps because it had not rained for half a month, the downpour showed no sign of weakening. Beneath the night sky, rain poured down in sheets, as though a curtain of water had been hung between heaven and earth. The endless rainfall blurred one's vision, making it seem as if the entire world had been swallowed by rain.

It was time to act!

Qing Si and the other four put on the disguises they had long prepared to conceal their identities. Though they were confident they would not be discovered, they still chose to change their appearance to ensure nothing could go wrong.

Relying on Qing Si's exceptional sensory abilities, they reached the outskirts of the main courtyard without alerting anyone in the front yard.

"Water Release: Hidden Mist Technique!"

As the captain and a specialist in Water Release, Feng naturally took charge. He carefully mobilized his chakra, preventing any overly obvious fluctuations from spreading.

Under Feng's control, thick mist slowly spread from the perimeter toward the target location. The rain was already heavy enough to obstruct vision, and the mist drifting in gradually did not arouse the suspicions of the guard ninjas in the slightest.

In the courtyard before the target's residence, five ninjas had gathered beneath a tree, sheltering from the rain while chatting idly.

"We'll be done with this mission soon! Big Brother, once we get paid in a few days, let's go have some real fun. I've been bored to death guarding this place without leaving for over half a month. We shouldn't have accepted this protection job just because of the huge reward!" complained one of the short rogue ninjas.

"Bear with it, Fourth. I can't help it either. That old bastard was willing to pay. Zzzzz, five million ryo to protect him for one month—that's worth more than robbing people ten times over. Those damned nobles really are rich!" the tall, muscular eldest brother among the five rogue ninjas explained with a faintly emotional tone.

As rogue ninjas, they often robbed merchant caravans. Yet because of beliefs passed down for generations, they had never entertained any thoughts of targeting nobles despite being ninjas themselves.

That was why, after the general guessed that the daimyo might try to kill him, he had hired the infamous Five Rogue Ninja Brothers to protect him for the month.

As for why he had not posted the mission at Hidden Mist Village, on one hand, he did not trust Hidden Mist Village, which nominally belonged to the daimyo of the Land of Water. On the other hand, being greedy for money, he did not want to pay the enormous price required to commission one of the Five Great Ninja Villages.

The money he paid to hire the five brothers for one month would likely cost him double, or even triple, if he wanted to hire ninjas of roughly equal strength from Hidden Mist Village.

But the general, who knew nothing about ninjas, did not understand the difference in strength between ninjas from major ninja villages and those from minor villages or rogue ninjas. Even among Jonin, a Jonin from a major ninja village could completely crush a rogue Jonin. Not to mention that most rogue ninjas were ordinary ninjas, while major ninja villages possessed not only all kinds of strange secret techniques, but also the extremely mysterious Bloodline Limits.

About ten minutes passed. The thick mist had completely enveloped the general's residence and the small courtyard in front of it. Qian Nai, who had approached the five rogue ninjas along with the rainwater flowing across the ground, her Water Clones, and the duplicate created by Yagura's Water Mirror Technique, were ready to attack.

From a distance, Qing Si, his nerves taut, stared intently at the five men, prepared to strike at any moment to finish them off.

"Move!" Feng sent a pulse of chakra through the mist.

Though the eldest of the five was a Jonin, he had only attained Jonin-level strength because he had accidentally eaten a strange plant in his early years, giving him an unusually muscular body, immense strength, and tremendously powerful taijutsu. The second brother had only recently become an ordinary ninjutsu-type Jonin, while the remaining three were merely the most ordinary rogue ninjas.

A sense of danger flashed through their hearts. The two with Jonin-level strength noticed something amiss, their attention instantly drawn to the chakra fluctuations in the air. Before they could warn the others or react, Qian Nai and Yagura's attacks had already arrived. Yagura was responsible for killing the short man who had complained first, while Qian Nai and her three Water Clones handled the rest.

The five rogue ninjas, who possessed no sensory abilities, were utterly incapable of resisting the operation Qing Si's group of four had planned down to the finest detail.

In an instant, the three men with Elite Chunin-level strength had their throats slit and died. Although the Jonin-level eldest and second brothers reacted by dodging, evading Qian Nai's fatal strikes, Qing Si—who had kept them locked in his sights from afar—sent a Ten-Finger Bullet straight through their hearts.

Qian Nai, her Water Clones, and Yagura at her side caught the five bodies. At the same time, they tightly covered their mouths, preventing them from letting out death throes.

The rain fell even harder, as though it too was cooperating with their operation. The sound of raindrops striking the ground perfectly concealed the faint noises of their attack.

Seeing the three succeed, Feng quickly dispersed the chakra maintaining the Hidden Mist Technique. Wind Release chakra swirled around him as he rushed into the house.

The general was still asleep, completely unaware that the Five Rogue Ninja Brothers he had hired at great expense had all gone to meet the Sage of Six Paths.

Tiger—Rabbit—Dog—Sheep—Dragon. The five hand seals were completed in an instant.

"Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique!"

Without hesitation, Feng used the Wind Cutter Technique to slice across the general's neck. Extremely condensed wind-nature chakra gathered into an exceptionally sharp wind blade. The blade passed through effortlessly, without raising even a trace of blood. The general who commanded most of the Land of Water's military forces died silently in his own home.

After confirming the target's death once more, Qing Si and the other four erased every trace of their presence. They used scrolls to take away the corpses of the Five Rogue Ninja Brothers, then returned to the inn beneath the dense darkness of night.