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The focus of this operation was on Yūshin's trio, but regardless of whether the others would participate in battle, Yūshin couldn't possibly leave them within Kikyō Castle's sphere of influence.
Are you kidding? He had zero trust in Kikyō Castle. What if they took advantage of his main fighting force being away to hire other ninjas and wipe out the remaining people in one fell swoop?
The risk was small, but not impossible.
Better safe than sorry.
After roughly settling the battle plan through discussion, Yūshin decided to continue resting here for one more night and depart the next day.
"Thank you very much. If you weren't willing to provide help, relying on just myself alone... I mean, relying on just our strength, we couldn't complete a battle where the few defeat the many."
After the others had dispersed, Yūshin said to Shichimi Uchiha.
The most important part of their preparations was freeloading Shichimi Uchiha's combat power. Without the Sharingan, if Yūshin wanted to collect enemy intelligence, he'd definitely have to invest considerable time.
The mission's difficulty would increase exponentially.
"No need to thank me. After all, if you hadn't provided aid earlier, perhaps I'd already be dead," Shichimi Uchiha shook her head.
Her moral compass was surprisingly normal.
Seeing her attitude didn't seem false, Yūshin smiled and said nothing more.
Then both parties separated to rest.
During this period, Shichimi Uchiha had been quietly observing Yūshin while secretly constructing his psychological profile in her mind.
Overall, she felt Yūshin carried a certain sense of fragmentation.
On one hand, Yūshin looked very young, but often displayed no rough edges, always appearing rational and gentle.
But she felt this was superficial. Though she couldn't say he was "great evil disguised as righteousness," beneath the gentleness seemed to hide an extreme way of doing things.
On the other hand, Yūshin had unified a wandering ninja organization and seemed to show overall planning for the organization's development. However, plans were plans—when actually beginning to act, he became very "random" and willful.
Sometimes, Shichimi Uchiha felt Yūshin seemed to stand in some lofty position, arrogantly looking down on the cruel Shinobi World. This detached gaze made her feel this person seemed to exist outside the world, like an observer.
Facing the Shinobi World's harsh environment, he neither took root within it—seeming to disdain certain things—nor could he jump outside it, because he lacked that kind of strength.
This "floating on the surface" feeling made Shichimi Uchiha sense a certain "alienation" about Yūshin.
No, not alienation—perhaps a feeling of wanting to transcend but being unable to...
Many times, Yūshin was somewhat like a marionette, and only by peeling away the strings pulling at him could one occasionally discover his most authentic, essential side.
Of course, these were just Shichimi Uchiha's completely subjective, emotional thoughts. She couldn't determine whether her feelings were right or wrong, but regardless, if Yūshin were an ordinary ninja, the temperament he occasionally displayed would seem very abnormal.
It had to be said, the Sharingan lived up to its reputation—her insight into people and situations was quite accurate.
The fundamental reason was that Yūshin wasn't "Shin Hagūgen"—he was merely playing the role of "Shin Hagūgen."
When Shin Hagūgen encountered crisis, he as the so-called clan leader would step forward.
When survivors of the Hagūgen sent rescue letters, he would travel far to save them.
When he felt he had sufficient strength, he would seek revenge.
If you asked Yūshin's true feelings—did he really have to do these things?
Though he'd been in the Shinobi World for over a year, he hadn't been assimilated by the locals.
He wasn't an emotionless person. If asked whether he held positive or negative attitudes toward the Tsugawa Clan, it would definitely be negative, but would he therefore view them as enemies that must be annihilated?
It seemed not quite to that degree.
Simply put, though Yūshin had founded the Ashes organization, he actually hadn't found his position in the Shinobi World so far.
Regarding these contradictory thoughts about him, Shichimi Uchiha only had vague perceptions.
...
The next day, Yūshin led everyone away from Kikyō Castle's sphere of influence, beginning to move northward.
Though everything seemed somewhat hasty, after last night's discussion, everyone had mentally prepared for battle.
As for material preparations, they were basically barely adequate—partly thanks to the Sarutobi Clan's earlier selfless aid, partly because the Fūma Clan didn't lack basic weaponry resources.
In any case, they'd bring everything useful and useless.
Two days after leaving Kikyō Castle, Yūshin found a suitable hiding spot on the periphery and left most people there.
According to the plan, Yūshin's trio would depart first, while the remaining main force would follow their pace five days later... Regarding the Tsugawa Clan village's location, quite a few people would never forget it.
The reason for separate action was partly to avoid major losses on their side, partly because Yūshin needed to borrow everyone's strength—after borrowing, he naturally had to give them recovery time.
Subsequently, when everyone understood what Yūshin was doing, they were all shocked beyond measure.
Shichimi Uchiha was especially affected.
When she saw Yūshin extracting chakra from organization members and absorbing it as his own, her eyelids began twitching involuntarily—she nearly activated her Sharingan directly due to emotional loss of control.
Fortunately, Yūshin was busy collecting chakra and didn't notice the non-collection target Shichimi Uchiha's expression, otherwise he'd definitely have been puzzled.
After harvesting this batch of chakra, Yūshin kept two-thirds for himself and allocated the remaining third to Gorō Fūma, startling the latter.
Gorō Fūma felt he'd never been so powerful.
As for Shichimi Uchiha, she presumably didn't need this chakra support. Yūshin wasn't being unfair in distribution—he was judging by surname and background.
After finishing these tasks, he noticed Shichimi Uchiha's expression looked somewhat unnatural.
"What's wrong? Is there a problem?" he asked.
Shichimi Uchiha snapped back to attention. She immediately shook her head, saying: "Nothing, I... just didn't expect you to have such ability, so I was a bit surprised."
Absorbing others' chakra, then converting it into one's own chakra, even being able to distribute it—such ability was indeed rare.
However, Shichimi Uchiha happened to know of a similar ability, except the one she knew relied on the Sharingan to activate and was overall much more powerful and effective than what Yūshin displayed.
Yūshin withdrew his gaze from Shichimi Uchiha without further explanation.
Then he saw Gorō Fūma, who after receiving chakra had temporarily left and returned to his side. Yūshin nearly couldn't maintain his expression:
"You... why are you carrying so much equipment?"
At this moment, Gorō Fūma was fully armed, carrying various sized shuriken, different colored blades of varying lengths, ninja pouches stuffed with explosive tags, steel wires of different specifications, gunpowder and oil scrolls...
Gorō Fūma's voice was muffled as he said: "Can't help it, this is how we Fūma ninjas fight."
Uh...
What could Yūshin say? He couldn't exactly call him a "poor student with too many supplies."
"Let's depart. Combat operation begins."
The three immediately set out. Shichimi Uchiha followed behind Yūshin, somewhat absent-mindedly watching his back. She seemed to open her mouth, silently mouthing three words:
"Eight Thousand Spears..."
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