Sleepless Night

"Welcome to our ranks, Clan Head Yuroketsu. I had intended to greet you personally, but things here have simply been too busy. I hope you can forgive me."

Yayoi received Yuroketsu with a degree of warmth and led him to sit facing him nearby.

A map of the Land of Night lay on the table between them, covered in numerous markings.

Irori brewed the tea and placed cups beside Yayoi and Yuroketsu, then took her place behind Yayoi like a loyal guard.

"I will not waste too much time on pleasantries. There will be plenty of time to get acquainted later. Let us discuss what concerns you most right now, Clan Head Yuroketsu."

Yayoi went straight to the point.

Yuroketsu took a sip of tea and nodded.

Just as Kakuzu had said, Yayoi was someone who liked to get straight to the point and disliked dragging out important matters.

That was good. He liked superiors like that too. The clearer the orders and boundaries, the better. It prevented hidden dangers from being left behind and unnecessary disputes from arising later.

"This is Black Steel Forest."

Yayoi pressed a finger to a section of the map in the western Land of Night.

That region was where Black Steel Forest was located, an area comparable in size to some remote nations.

The forest contained abundant raw resources, as well as many new species of insects. Those were merely what had already been explored; much of it remained unknown and uncharted.

After all, if the Aburame Clan had not arrived, he might not have made this forest a key development target even within the next ten years.

At most, he would have stationed a unit there and waited until the more distant future to develop it.

"This is an untouched primeval forest. As the head of the Aburame Clan, I am sure you understand its value. The Aburame Clan's main force must be stationed in Nightview City and placed under management. You cannot act freely. However, you may establish a second base in this forest. Whether you cultivate new insects here or do anything else, it will be at the Aburame Clan's discretion."

At that point, Yayoi paused before continuing, "But let me make one thing clear first. In the future, the state will develop this forest as well. Otherwise, the resources within would go to waste. Before then, the Aburame Clan should mark out a core territory to serve as your foundation."

"That is acceptable."

Yuroketsu nodded in satisfaction.

Just as they had agreed from the start, Black Steel Forest would be led by the Aburame Clan for a period of time in the future.

That was already enough. This vast forest was more than twenty times the size of the territory the Aburame Clan had occupied in the Land of Fire.

It was impossible for a single clan to claim all of it, and the Aburame Clan was not powerful enough to do so anyway.

Not to mention that aside from Black Steel Forest, the Land of Night had many other primeval mountains and forests suitable for cultivating insects.

For the Aburame Clan, this would be a new beginning.

Abandoning their ancestral land hurt, but leaving it behind would open a far broader world for them, would it not?

"Besides that, I hope Clan Head Yuroketsu can take up the position of director of the Intelligence Division. The Aburame Clan's secret techniques are highly suitable for infiltration, investigation, espionage, and similar work. If I remember correctly, Clan Head Yuroketsu, you are also a rather rare sensory-type ninja."

"I understand."

Brief and direct, Yuroketsu agreed without a second thought.

After all, gathering intelligence and tracking targets were things the Aburame Clan excelled at.

At Yayoi's glance, Irori then took out a sealed file.

"These are the ninja I intend to incorporate into the Intelligence Division later. Take it back and look through it. Decide which ones you need and which ones you do not."

Yayoi left professional matters to professionals. He was not worried that delegating authority would create a power too large to control.

A single Aburame Clan was not enough to make him wary.

Irori's Ice Release, capable of confronting even Tailed Beasts head-on, was exceptionally effective against the Aburame Clan's insects.

Moreover, he had already formed an idea for the self-regulating puppet he planned to create next.

Once the Seven-Tails recovered its chakra, he only needed to make it suffer a little longer to complete it.

When that time came, his strength would surge again, and his rule would become even more secure.

Yuroketsu silently accepted the file, his expression revealing none of his thoughts.

Yayoi then discussed some further details, including the proportion of annual funding to be allocated to the Aburame Clan.

"Do you have any other questions, Clan Head Yuroketsu?"

After speaking, Yayoi took a sip of tea to moisten his throat.

"No, none. I am very satisfied with this outcome, General."

Yuroketsu shook his head as he spoke.

After leaving the Land of Fire, the Aburame Clan had lost much, but what Yayoi offered far exceeded what they had lost there.

"Good. Let the Aburame Clan gradually integrate into the Military Bureau through the Intelligence Division. Everything requires an adjustment period. Just make your preparations and arrange your personnel properly."

Yayoi's words calmed Yuroketsu's previously uneasy heart.

Yayoi had arranged everything for the Aburame Clan down to the smallest detail. Whether it concerned the present or the future, preventive measures had already been prepared in advance.

All the Aburame Clan needed to do next was send out their people and integrate into this new nation.

Once the discussion was settled, Yuroketsu chatted for a while before hurrying away.

The Aburame Clan had only just settled into their new country. Many clan matters required his personal handling and oversight to prevent trouble.

Yayoi did not try to keep him and watched him leave.

"Lord Yayoi, Clan Head Yuroketsu is someone soft-hearted, though not good at expressing it."

After Yuroketsu left, Irori smiled and offered her assessment.

Though she was an artificial being, Irori possessed her own independent personality and wisdom. She had her own judgments, preferences, and temperament when it came to people and things.

"Yes. When the Aburame Clan faced a crisis before, he was the first to stand at the front and resist."

Yayoi had gathered quite a bit of intelligence on Yuroketsu.

After their contact just now, he could roughly tell what kind of person Yuroketsu was.

Instinctively, he thought of Shino Aburame from the original story. He seemed to have been much the same type.

The Aburame Clan were generally sensitive at heart but poor at putting their feelings into words. They merely protected in silence all that they cherished.

Getting along with a ninja clan like that would mean far fewer troubles in the future.

If they were like the Uchiha, acting as though heaven came first and they came second, constantly throwing the Sharingan around in conversation, that would be utterly maddening.

Afterward, Yayoi did not continue handling official business and returned to the Inner Court to rest.

The wedding would be held soon. It was impossible not to feel nervous.

Having lived two lives, this was his first marriage. Though it was not for love and he had never met the woman before, he still felt an inexplicable anticipation.

What kind of person would his future wife be?

Would she be virtuous? Lively? Or perhaps rigid and stern? Or would she be emotionally fragile, crying at the slightest provocation?

Standing in a corridor of the courtyard, he stared blankly at the lonely moon in the night sky.

Yayoi could not sleep.

She was probably someone who followed old customs in everything, rigid and methodical, wasn't she?

Inside a clean guest room at the state guesthouse, Hyuga Kicho—the daughter of the Hyuga main family who would marry in as the general's wife—stood by the window. Looking up at the moon hanging in the night sky, she pondered absentmindedly.

Like Yayoi, Hyuga Kicho, his future wife, also found it difficult to sleep.

She came from the ancient and prestigious Hyuga Clan, a bloodline that carried the power known as a Kekkei Genkai. They were nobility among ninja.

Though they had not produced a powerful ninja like Hashirama Senju or Madara Uchiha in recent years, they remained one of the few formidable clans beneath those two.

The power of the Byakugan allowed them to ignore every enemy scheme, trap, and ambush on the battlefield.

Yet in Kicho's eyes, this ancient and illustrious clan was filled with suffocating repression and rigid conventions.

And even within such a rigid ninja clan, her own family was among the most rigid and coldest of all.

There had originally been seven children in the family. As the eldest daughter with exceptional talent, she had naturally been designated as part of the main family.

Every remaining younger brother and sister had been branded with the Caged Bird and made part of the branch family, expected to shed their last drop of blood for the main family.

Two of her younger brothers and one younger sister had died protecting her in battle.

She had been eleven at the time, while the siblings who died for her had only been seven and five.

Her father, Hideto, classified those children into different grades based on their talent, treating them as tools.

Those with high talent were heavily cultivated and trained into excellent weapons of war.

When it came to those with poor talent, his eyes held not a trace of emotion. As though looking at something else entirely, he treated his own flesh and blood as cannon fodder to draw enemy attention, set traps, and secure victory on the battlefield.

Three had died for her. Two had become cannon fodder for her father Hideto, drawing enemy fire until not even their bodies remained. The youngest of them had only been four.

She had been born into such a family.

Militant clansmen, younger brothers and sisters dying one after another.

Her father had several women at home, but in Hideto's eyes, they were not women he ought to cherish and protect. They were merely breeding tools for producing weapons.

When she left, two of the women in the household were pregnant again.

It was easy to predict that if the war did not end, the children of those two women... would either become weapons for her father Hideto or cannon fodder sent to the front lines, leaving no bodies behind.

So, if she left her old family and entered a new one—

Would her future change?

She knew.

This marriage alliance should originally have sent another daughter of the main family to wed, but her father had firmly insisted that she be chosen instead to marry the general of the Land of Night.

So this time, she would once again become a weapon for her father to attack his enemies with, traveling to this unfamiliar nation to marry a man she did not know at all.

Then she would seek an opportunity and wait until he lost his usefulness... before killing him, allowing the Hyuga Clan to seize even greater benefits.

"Looking closely, the moonlight tonight really is beautiful. I hope I will be able to admire it in the days to come as well..."

Her slender, pale fingers gently caressed the windowsill, and a pure, captivating smile bloomed across the Byakugan girl's face.

As she gazed at the moonlight beyond the window, she silently tightened her grip around the hilt of the blade in her hand.

It was as though this was the only thing that could give her a sense of security, both now and in the future.