After they dealt with the village chief, several more dark figures leaped in from outside. They were the Uchiha clansmen responsible for dealing with the other samurai throughout the village.
"All fifteen samurai in the village have been dealt with. No survivors. All the bodies have been taken outside the village and burned..." The leading Uchiha clansman with the Three-Tomoe Sharingan stepped forward slowly and reported.
Uchiha Takashi nodded, then said, "From now on, the Uchiha Clan calls the shots in this village. This will be the Uchiha's second base."
The other Uchiha nodded. According to the plan, this place would be placed directly under the Uchiha Clan's rule.
It was not far away anyway. A ninja could make the round trip in just two hours, making it convenient to govern.
At that moment, the people in the village still had no idea that their home had changed hands.
The next morning, as the eastern sky grew pale, the villagers began getting up one after another and heading out to work.
A villager with a keen nose soon caught the faint smell of blood lingering in the air. "Why does something smell off? Did someone slaughter a pig?"
"Why does it smell like someone slaughtered a pig over at the village chief's house?" one villager said uncertainly. Another villager immediately stepped forward and covered his mouth.
"Keep your voice down! Don't let the samurai hear you. If they do, you'll get a beating!" The villager glanced around, only letting out a long sigh of relief after making sure no one had heard.
The villager whose mouth had been covered patted his chest, while the one who had covered it asked in confusion, "Huh? There are always guards at the gate in the wall at this time of day. Where are the samurai today?"
"Who knows? It's better with no one here. We won't have to pay to go out..." the villager said bitterly.
It was not just those two discussing it. Every villager passing through was talking about it.
While they were all talking, a figure suddenly appeared nearby, startling the villagers.
Uchiha Takashi slowly approached with the Uchiha clansmen. "Are you residents of this village?"
The villagers looked at one another until one finally worked up the courage to step forward. "May I ask what orders you have for us, Lord Ninja?"
During the Warring States Period, ninja status was not yet that low, though it was not that high either. Still, they stood well above a mere villager.
The villagers were not blind. From the way this group was dressed, they were unmistakably ninja.
Uchiha Takashi said expressionlessly, "From now on, we call the shots in this village. You will be civilians of our village, and this place will henceforth be called Uchiha Village."
"Huh? Uchiha?" The villager froze for a moment, seemingly unfamiliar with the name.
But not everyone in the crowd was unfamiliar with it. Quite a few had heard of the Uchiha.
"Uchiha? Could they be the Uchiha, the number one clan in the Shinobi World?" Quite a few villagers began talking.
"What? Oo-chee-what?"
"Uchiha! The strongest of all the ninja clans!"
"Oh, them! What are they here to do?"
"Sounds like they're going to be our new village chief. They'll be calling the shots here from now on."
"What about the old chief?" "Oh, forget him. Who cares?"
"Hey, do you think that means we count as Uchiha now too?"
Watching the villagers talking among themselves, Uchiha Takashi coughed twice, and they immediately quieted down.
"Your former village chief is dead. Bandits killed him. We happened to pass through and wiped out those bandits.
"From now on, this place will be a base for our Uchiha Clan. You will be under the Uchiha Clan's protection."
At those words, the villagers' eyes lit up. "What? That old village chief is dead? That's great!"
"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey... Oh, Chief, how could you just die like that? I simply must set off some firecrackers to mourn you!" one villager said, unable to hide his smile.
Meanwhile, two villagers approached and asked, "Um, Lord Uchiha, how do you intend to treat us from now on?"
An Uchiha clansman with the Three-Tomoe Sharingan folded his arms and said disdainfully, "You're nothing but a bunch of civilians. Our Uchiha Clan will rule over you!
"Starting today, you must work in the fields every single day! All your farmland belongs to our Uchiha Clan!
"You must hand over thirty percent of the grain you grow to our Uchiha Clan! You may keep only seventy percent! Furthermore, our Uchiha Clan will provide you with only one set of farming tools!
"If they break, our Uchiha Clan will not repair them!
"Furthermore, the Uchiha Clan will repair your houses only once! If we need you to perform construction work, the Uchiha Clan will pay you a salary of only 3,000 in banknotes a month!
"Furthermore, the Uchiha Clan will establish harsh laws. If you dare break them, the Uchiha Clan will throw you in prison and put you to work without pay!
"Hahaha! That is the price of the Uchiha Clan's protection!"
The moment he finished, the village entrance fell silent. The Uchiha clansman with the Three-Tomoe Sharingan thought his words had frightened these civilian villagers, and he was looking at them disdainfully when-
The villagers suddenly threw their hands into the air, tears filling their eyes as they cheered wildly. "Our lord! Our honest, upright lord! Heavens above, the Sage of Six Paths has manifested!"
The Uchiha clansman was dumbfounded. He stared at the villagers in bewilderment. "Did you hear me wrong? How can you still smile under such cruel rule?"
"Cruel? You call this cruel? My lord! With the Uchiha Clan here, we finally have justice!" A villager clung to the Uchiha clansman's leg, his face streaming with tears and snot. "You must keep your word!"
The Uchiha clansman with the Three-Tomoe Sharingan tried tugging his leg free, but it would not budge. He turned to Uchiha Takashi. "Lord Third Elder, these people are even more terrifying than I imagined!"
Uchiha Takashi: "..." Honestly, he felt that if he introduced these measures in Konoha, he would be torn to shreds by criticism.
Although this was the Warring States Period, he had thought this would still count as fairly harsh rule. Yet looking at things now, who would have thought he had apparently been a little too restrained?
It seemed Uchiha Takashi had still underestimated how dark the Warring States Period was. Or perhaps this was not about the so-called darkness of the Warring States Period at all. This was the fucking darkness of the Shinobi World!
Sure enough, Madara Uchiha, Infinite Tsukuyomi was right!
Only after listening to the villagers' tearful complaints did the Uchiha Clan finally learn how miserable their lives had been.
Under the law, all land belonged to the Daimyo of the Land of Fire in the first place. They had to hand over the grain they grew, keeping only twenty percent for themselves.
And they still had to give part of that grain to the village chief. On top of that, the chief frequently sent people to steal the banknotes they had saved at home.
And farming tools? What were farming tools? Were the people themselves not the greatest farming tools? Want the chief to hand them out for free? Dream on. Buy them yourselves. They could buy from the chief too-5,000 in banknotes!
Furthermore, the chief paid absolutely no attention to the village's thugs. Even when villagers encountered murderers and arsonists, he did not care at all, leaving the village in utter chaos.
The population dwindled further. In the end, no one repaired the broken walls, and every household's home was dilapidated, leaving the village in this sorry state.
After learning what had happened, the Uchiha Clan ☄ฺ(◣д◢)☄: Damn it, we let that village chief die too quickly. We should have tortured him before killing him!
Was this something a damn human being could do?! Even the Uchiha Clan couldn't do something like this! They were just a bunch of civilians. The Uchiha Clan would never stoop to that!