"My lord, we've arrived."
A week later, outside the entrance to Yugakure, Sparrowhawk-Senju Kenichi-spoke quietly to Xia Yan.
The four Senju Clan members under Xia Yan were Sparrowhawk-Senju Kenichi, Red Hawk-Senju Kaishō, Goshawk-Senju Keita, and Snow Eagle-Senju Yo.
Xia Yan had brought only those four on this operation. It was not that he trusted them completely, but aside from them, there were far too few people in the Third Battalion he could trust.
Regardless of how Xia Yan treated these four, at least they were all members of the Senju Clan. Besides, Snow Eagle, Senju Yo, could already be counted as someone who had fully sided with Xia Yan.
Senju Yo had once been one of Senju Ryōta's men, and his circumstances were somewhat similar to Senju Renka's. After Xia Yan had forced Senju Ryōta out through intimidation, he had, to some extent, been freed as well.
Although he had never truly thanked Xia Yan, his attitude had already said something, regardless.
Besides, Xia Yan had never been someone who cared about what people said. He preferred to see how they acted.
After all, no matter how eloquently someone spoke, if what they showed deep down was completely different, or they even harbored malicious intentions, all those words were useless.
He had seen plenty of people like that. The most typical example was himself...
He was that sort of person himself, so how could he readily believe anyone else's nonsense?
"Let's go."
Xia Yan surveyed the surroundings of Yugakure, then gently shook his head and spoke.
"This village has practically no defenses. No wonder they asked for help.
"And I suspect they asked not only us in Konoha, but possibly people from Kumogakure too.
"So let's not waste time. We'll go straight to their Head Ninja."
"Yes, my lord."
The