The maple leaves in late autumn were as red as congealed blood. In the palace of the daimyo of the Land of Fire, the benzoin burning in the bronze incense burner mingled with the pungent smell of Yakumi. The daimyo's withered fingers gripped the brocade quilt tightly, his throat emitting gasps like broken bellows. His cloudy eyes rolled in their sunken sockets as he stared at his seven sons vying for power before him, filled with endless disappointment and despair.
"Get out of here, all of you..." He suddenly roared, his voice tearing through the silent hall. The seven noble sons filed out, but the third son paused, his gaze sweeping over his brothers' tense backs, a cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
"I'm afraid Father won't make it through the night." The eldest son raised his hand to straighten the cloud pattern on his cuff, his seemingly casual words causing the air to freeze instantly.
The fourth young master toyed with the short sword at his waist, the ruby on the scabbard reflecting his scarlet eyes. "The position of daimyo can't remain vacant; it should be given to the most capable."
The Third Young Master looked at the Fourth Young Master and said with a sinister smile, "Fourth Brother, it seems you think you've already won!"
The fourth young master laughed and said, "Isn't it obvious? Most of the ministers support me. What do you have to compare?"
The Fifth and Sixth Young Masters laughed heartily, "We all support Fourth Brother! Brothers, let's accept our fate! Let's support Fourth Brother together to avoid damaging the harmony among brothers."
The second son chimed in, "We're all brothers, why fight so bitterly for the position of daimyo? Father has decided to make our eldest brother daimyo, and according to filial piety and ancestral rules, we should all support his decision!"
The Seventh Prince sneered, "Second Brother, you're such an honest man, you should just go home and stay there quietly. Third Brother is the most outstanding among us brothers, skilled in Land of Fire. The others, apart from having better backgrounds, are all utterly useless."
The seven brothers parted on bad terms, seemingly determined to fight to the death.
Undercurrents surged in the night. The next morning, the Fifth Prince's personal guards found their master dead in the bath, blood flowing from his seven orifices. There were no signs of a struggle at the scene, only half a piece of pastry, stained with purplish-black liquid. That night, white banners were also raised at the Sixth Prince's residence. Anbu intelligence indicated that his tea had been poisoned, and the poison took effect precisely at the same time as the Fifth Prince's death.
"It's the Second Young Master's men! A mysterious ninja force has appeared at his residence." The Third Young Master slammed the secret report onto the table, the candlelight casting a distorted Kageko. "That guy appears gentle and refined on the surface, but he's ruthless to the core! Immediately report this to Konoha; ninjas from another country are interfering in the Land of Fire. Let's see how the Second and First Young Masters die." His advisors sat around the sand table, whispering as they discussed how to persuade ninjas and assassins from other villages to join them.
In the Second Young Master's study, the ANBU ninja knelt on one knee. "Sir, the fifth and sixth young masters have been dealt with, and the third young master is contacting the ninjas of Sunagakure Village." The second young master rubbed the folding fan in his hand, and the word "Benevolence" on the fan was dimmed by the candlelight. "Send someone to inform Shimura and the others, saying that if the third brother's life can be taken, the Fire Country is willing to open all trade to them."
As time went on, the assassination methods became increasingly bloody. When the Fourth Prince learned that his brother who supported him had died, he personally led 30,000 private soldiers to launch a night raid on the Third Prince's villa, but was ambushed on the way, and arrows rained down. In the Kakkō, the Fourth Prince's screams mingled with the clang of metal, and he died without ever seeing the faces of his ambush attackers—until the next day, when someone found arrows from the Seventh Prince's mansion in his chest.
The Seventh Young Master was playing with his falcons in his courtyard when he heard the news. He merely chuckled, "That fool thinks he can kill Third Brother with just a few tens of thousands of men?" Before he finished speaking, the roof tiles rattled, and three ninjas wearing straw hats burst through the window. The Seventh Young Master reacted swiftly, drawing his sword with a flash of light. But his opponents were clearly prepared; one of them threw a smoke bomb, the pungent smell stinging his eyes. In the ensuing melee, a poisoned Kunai grazed his neck. Though he escaped by sheer luck, he was severely poisoned and bedridden.
The eldest prince appeared calm, but in reality, he was already panicking. His supporter, the old nobleman who controlled most of the Land of Fire's grain fields, was suddenly accused of treason. Overnight, soldiers raided the mansion, and the old nobleman's entire family was slaughtered. When the eldest prince heard the news, he nearly fainted and rallied his warrior army.
The news of the Third Prince's death came in the most dramatic way. He had gone to the border with his trusted men to meet the assassins he had hired, but they were attacked by unknown ninjas in the Yamanaka. When his body was discovered, it was covered with lightning-attribute Kunai —clearly a way to frame the ninjas of the Land of Lightning. Some say that the Second Prince deliberately leaked the information, using the Land of Lightning to eliminate a major threat.
Finally, only the second and eldest sons remained facing off. The eldest son gathered his last forces and arrayed them on the outskirts of the city. The second son, however, remained calm; he had already bribed the generals in the eldest son's army. When the war drums sounded, the eldest son's soldiers suddenly turned against him. The eldest son looked at the faces that had once sworn allegiance to him, and in despair, he gripped his sword tightly. A flash of light, and his head was severed, hanging high above the city gate. All the powerful daimyo who had once supported him switched their allegiance to the second son.
At this moment, the daimyo, with Kagura's help, clung to life. The second son, dressed in magnificent robes, slowly ascended to the Hokage Position. He gazed at the crowd bowing in submission below, a barely perceptible ruthlessness flashing in his eyes. This power struggle, which had lasted for months, had finally come to an end, with only the final document of succession remaining. But on the land of the Land of Fire, the still-wet blood of his brothers would forever tell the story of this cruel power struggle.
The late autumn rain, mixed with icy shards, pounded against the glazed tiles of the Daming mansion. The second son's hand, gripping the dagger, trembled. The blade pressed against the eldest son's sunken Adam's apple. The old man's cloudy eyes reflected his son's distorted face. The second son sneered, "You only have me as your son. Hand over the edict of succession!"
Suddenly, the sound of shattering porcelain echoed outside the bedchamber. The second young master whirled around, and a crimson figure emerged from behind a gilded screen— Tian Flying Swallow walked across the shards of celadon porcelain, her pearl-embellished skirt sweeping across the blood-stained floor tiles. This princess of the Land of Fire, who had married the Lord Hokage, removed her straw hat, water droplets sliding down her black hair. "Second brother, are you about to commit patricide?"
"This is a man's game, why did you come back!" The second young master's pupils shrank, and he turned his short sword towards Tian Flying Swallow. "Back then, when Father sent you to Konoha for a marriage alliance, he was clearly thinking you were dead!" The veins on his neck bulged as he recalled the legend of Konoha Tian Flying Swallow over the years—the powerful woman who managed the affairs of Konoha and became a household name as the charity princess in the Land of Fire, who was now standing five steps away.
The eldest son suddenly coughed violently, black blood seeping from between his fingers. " Yan'er..." The old man reached out his hand, trembling, and Tian Flying Swallow immediately supported his hunched back. Touching her father's bony shoulder blades, she remembered that a few years ago, when she got married, her father was still full of vigor, chatting and laughing with dignitaries and lords from various countries. How could he have become like this in just one year?
She still remembered when she was ten years old, when she was stuffed into a carved carriage. It was this powerful father, who had personally established the system of one country and one village, who stubbornly sent her to the Konoha for a Ten Family alliance.
"Seven sons, five died in fratricide." The eldest son's name was barely a whisper, his withered fingers gripping Tian Flying Swallow's sleeve tightly. "The rest... one wanted to kill me, one is paralyzed in bed waiting to die..." He coughed up a mouthful of black blood, splattering it onto Tian Flying Swallow's snow-white clothes. " Yan'er, only you can..."
"Shut up!" The second young master swung his knife, but Tian Flying Swallow dodged it, drawing her own sword. In the instant their blades clashed, she saw that her unfamiliar second brother's eyes were bloodshot—he probably hadn't slept well these past few days, his mind filled with thoughts of killing, scheming, and seizing the throne.