"Infiltration isn't a performance. It's blending in. You stand out too much, ninja."
Sasuke's casually spoken words drove into Tengen Uzui's heart like countless poisoned steel needles.
He stood rooted to the spot, staring blankly as the wealthy young gentleman Sasuke had become blended perfectly into Yoshiwara's night without drawing anyone's attention. That retreating figure seemed to have belonged to this world of decadent luxury from the very beginning.
Ninja?
Some brat had lectured him using the word "ninja"?
Tengen Uzui came from an illustrious ninja family, had undergone the harshest training since childhood, and considered himself the pinnacle of ninja, the flamboyant God of Festivals. Yet today, before this newly appointed Thunder Hashira, the infiltration skills he took such pride in had seemed so clumsy, so laughable.
That was no disguise, no performance.
It was a kind of "sorcery" that transformed someone completely into another person, down to their bones, down to their very soul!
"Damn it..."
Tengen Uzui gritted his teeth in frustration, veins bulging on his forehead. For the first time, his dignity as a "god" had been trampled underfoot and crushed to pieces.
"Hey! Hey! You! What are you standing around for?!" He turned his anger, which had nowhere else to go, on Tanjiro and his two companions.
"What are you staring at?! My plan is flamboyant too! You three, get to those three houses right now! If you don't find information on my wives, I'll flamboyantly bury all three of you alive!"
With that, he roughly grabbed the three "ugly women" wearing horrifying makeup and, following his original plan, delivered them to Tokito House, Ogimoto House, and Kyogoku House respectively.
A chaotic and inefficient intelligence-gathering operation began.
Meanwhile.
In an inconspicuous rooftop corner in the Yoshiwara Pleasure District.
Sasuke, in the guise of a wealthy