Uzumaki Ashina truly lived up to being the man who would one day become the daimyo of the Land of Whirlpools.
He was about the same age as Jing Xiu and Tobirama.
Though he looked a little adorably clueless and was none too bright, his sheer presence at this point was every bit the equal of the future Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju.
Mito Uzumaki cautiously led the others into the small fishing village.
At the sight of bodies strewn everywhere and streets stained with dried blood, Uzumaki Ashina could not hold back and vomited.
"Jing Taro, keep watch over the surroundings with Jiro. Lia, protect Ashina!"
Mito's voice was hushed, as though she feared waking the "villagers" from their peaceful sleep.
After assigning the team their tasks, she began carefully examining every body she encountered.
Before long, her brow relaxed. She called to her teammates, "These people were probably all spy shinobi from the Land of Water."
She pointed at a small courtyard. "The ones here were likely samurai from the Land of Iron."
Mito breathed a sigh of relief, but something still felt strange.
"Did the shinobi from the Land of Lightning stumble into this village full of spies while fleeing?"
"That would be far too much of a coincidence!"
But before she could consider it further, her Mind's Eye of the Kagura detected faint signs of life in the southeastern corner of the fishing village.
She hurried there with the others, arriving at the entrance to a cellar.
Just as Mito was about to lift the iron hatch, Jing Taro caught her hand. "Captain, let me do it!"
"If there's an ambush, you can still get everyone out."
"If you're hurt, our whole team could die here!"
Mito might have been a woman, but she was not one to let misplaced compassion cloud her judgment.
She nodded to Jing Taro, then led the others back to the edge of the courtyard to stand guard.
When Jing Taro lifted the cellar hatch, a thick stench of decay hit him in the face. Apart from that, he noticed nothing amiss.
After waiting a little longer, he jumped into the cellar.
"Qingzhi!"
Jing Taro was overjoyed. He had never expected to find the long-missing Uzumaki Qingzhi here.
He hurriedly made several gestures in the air, producing subtle fluctuations in his chakra as he moved. This was the signal he and Mito had agreed upon.
With her Mind's Eye of the Kagura focused on him, she quickly understood his message.
She turned to Ashina, a lovely smile appearing on her lips. "Ashina, some good news!"
Seeing his sister react like that, Uzumaki Ashina grew curious about what had happened. "Sister, what's the good news?"
"Did you find the person who massacred the village?"
Mito Uzumaki shook her head, placed a hand on Ashina's shoulder, and reached Jing Taro's cellar in a few bounds.
But when she saw the scene inside, her brow knitted tightly.
"Jing Taro, this is what you meant by everything being all right?"
Looking at Uzumaki Qingzhi's rotting, foul-smelling body, she did not know what to say.
"Sob! Sob! Sob!"
Low sobs filled the cramped cellar.
Uzumaki Ashina still could not believe that the cousin who had doted on him most lay dead before him.
"Who did this? I'll find the killer and avenge you!"
"Cough, cough!"
A girl's pained groan drew the attention of everyone in the cellar.
The moment the three Uzumaki clansmen entered, Uzumaki Qingzhi's corpse had claimed all their attention.
Overwhelmed by grief, they had failed to notice Kurama Natsuki, a living person.
Only now did the three realize there was still a girl alive in the cellar.
Mito Uzumaki also sensed the faint signs of life coming from Kurama Natsuki.
"Quick, save her!"
As soon as he noticed Kurama Natsuki, Jing Taro moved to carry her on his back. After all, he was the only grown man present; everyone else was either a woman or a child.
But when Mito saw the red hair clutched in Kurama Natsuki's hand, she seemed to understand something.
She stepped forward herself and picked Natsuki up. "We're both girls. It would be easier for me to carry her!"
She offered that explanation only because she did not want Jing Taro to take it personally.
In Jing Xiu's separate residence in the Land of Crafts.
Qingming took out a katana and tossed it to Ryuichi. "This is the long blade I modified."
"I named it Arc Light. Though I still think you're weak, I hope this blade will one day be renowned throughout the shinobi world!"
After receiving Arc Light, Ryuichi casually spun it through a few flourishes. He could feel how smoothly his Lightning Release chakra flowed through it.
It even provided a slight boost to its power.
Power did not appear out of nowhere. A deep blue "gem" was set into Arc Light's hilt.
This "gem" was a chakra-storing ore obtained through the Land of Crafts' years of collecting.
Jing Xiu had engraved a Five Thunder Talisman and a Spirit-Absorbing Talisman within it.
When the blade was not in use, it absorbed natural chakra from the world around it, converted it into Lightning Release chakra through the Five Thunder Talisman, and stored it inside the "gem."
If someone had practiced the chakra extraction method optimized by Jing Xiu-
The trace of natural energy within their chakra would resonate with the Spirit-Absorbing Talisman inside the "gem." As their chakra passed through it, it would absorb some natural chakra and blend it into itself.
But if the wielder's own chakra contained no natural chakra, using the blade would feel sluggish and laborious.
Ten parts of chakra would yield only seven parts of power.
Qingming also intended to ask Jing Xiu how exactly that "gem" had been refined.
But after seeing Ryuichi's cold, dangerous gaze, he shrugged and chose to leave.
As Jing Xiu read the secret letter in his hand, he broke into a cold sweat for his own sake.
He had gone to great lengths to send Kurama Natsuki into Uzushio Village, originally hoping to uncover what had happened to the Uzumaki Clan.
But Natsuki's latest message reported that Tobirama Senju had secretly arrived in Uzushio Village and joined forces with the Uzumaki Clan, planning to eliminate Uchiha Izuna while he was on a diplomatic mission to the Land of Hot Water.
Though Izuna was still only a genin, under Jing Xiu and Madara's tutelage, he was fully capable of taking on an ordinary chunin.
But Tobirama Senju was a genius as well, and he had the support of the Uzumaki Clan, with their immense chakra reserves and tenacious vitality.
Izuna's chances of escaping alive were almost zero.
He looked north, toward the Uchiha Clan Compound by the Naka River.
Uchiha Tajima, is this your plan to create a god?
After a moment's thought, a cold smile curled Jing Xiu's lips. "Looks like my earlier arrangements happened to hit the mark!"
He created a Shadow Clone, which continued cultivating cross-legged.
His real body concealed itself and vanished from the Land of Crafts. Even Hatake Ryuichi, whom Jing Xiu trusted most, knew nothing of his movements on this journey.
The tallest building in the Land of Hot Water was none other than the five-story Tenshu Pavilion where the daimyo resided.
With its abundance of hot springs and pleasures, the country offered relaxation and peace to the tightly wound shinobi of other nations.
For that very reason, the great nations rarely made the Land of Hot Water their battlefield.
The daimyo of the Land of Hot Water, utterly lacking a sense of security, stayed holed up on the fifth floor of the Tenshu Pavilion year-round.
Contrary to what people imagined, the fourth floor of the Tenshu Pavilion was neither heavily guarded nor bristling with blades.
Only a single shinobi guarded the passage everyone had to take from the fourth floor to the fifth.
His hair was tousled and unruly, and beneath that black hair, his eye sockets were a ghastly white.