At dawn, darkness still shrouded a modestly-sized village.
On the eastern side of the village's circular outer wall, a gate slowly opened. A three-ninja squad emerged together, and after leaving through this entrance, they quickly turned southward.
Clearly, their basic skills were solid—they could maintain high-speed movement while staying appropriately vigilant.
They traveled in silence, heads down and focused, until near noon when they finally decided to stop for a brief rest.
To conceal their tracks, protect their safety, and ensure their current mission could proceed normally, they obviously couldn't just sit by the roadside like strolling elderly men.
The three found a dense forest, conducted a simple reconnaissance outside, then plunged in.
The forest was an ideal resting place, offering considerable concealment while providing enough reaction time if any unexpected situations arose.
However, when these three Tsugawa Clan ninjas entered the forest, a figure instantly dropped down inverted from a large tree in front of them.
"Who... are... you..."
The three ninjas instinctively reached for their waist ninja pouches, but when their six eyes simultaneously looked toward the suddenly appearing "enemy," everything was already too late.
Before they could make any effective response, those scarlet three-tomoe Sharingan reflected in their pupils.
Later generations would summarize tactics for dealing with the Sharingan—simply put, righteous two-on-one combat: one person attracts attention in front, another launches a sneak attack from behind.
Whether these three recognized the Sharingan or understood methods to counter it was unclear, but obviously they had no opportunity to execute such tactics.
So they were instantly "eliminated"—the expressions of vigilance and killing intent on their faces immediately became incredibly wooden.
"Tell me the basic situation of your clan leader, elders, and other high-ranking members, including residences, daily activity patterns, clan organizational structure..."
"Yes..."
This person was naturally Shichimi Uchiha.
While conducting interrogation, she simultaneously attempted to directly extract valuable information from their minds.
Seeing Shichimi Uchiha had controlled the enemies, the hidden Yūshin and Gorō Fūma also emerged.
To avoid prematurely arousing the Tsugawa Clan's suspicion, Yūshin's team acted very cautiously, choosing an attack location very far from that village.
Moreover, after obtaining some intelligence, they didn't plan to directly eliminate these three ninjas. Instead, they had Shichimi Uchiha erase genjutsu traces and let the three continue their external mission.
Under Shichimi Uchiha's mental control, these three wouldn't remember being attacked or controlled by genjutsu. They would rest in the forest for an hour according to their original plan, then depart again.
They felt nothing abnormal.
Instead, Gorō Fūma was shocked beyond measure by Shichimi Uchiha's eyes, nearly forgetting to record the intelligence he heard.
"You, you are... Uchiha..."
When the emotionless three-tomoe Sharingan turned toward him, Gorō Fūma immediately shut up and instinctively lowered his head... Seriously, what normal person dares make eye contact with the Sharingan?
Yūshin had indeed mentioned that Ashes included ninjas from major clans, but Gorō Fūma hadn't expected "major" to reach Uchiha levels.
During combat missions, some topics weren't suitable for deep discussion, but the shock brought by the Sharingan still caused changes in Gorō Fūma's mindset.
"Continue?" Shichimi Uchiha asked Yūshin.
"Of course, everything proceeds according to plan."
The three immediately left this location.
That evening, they again caught up with a squad of Tsugawa ninjas heading out. The process was almost identical to before—Shichimi Uchiha again used genjutsu to extract intelligence.
Then a third time.
After cross-verifying and integrating the intelligence obtained from these three encounters, Yūshin's team understood the Tsugawa Clan's high-level composition in a relatively complete manner.
"One clan leader, two elders, five combat captains... They have five combat squads of about twenty people each. In other words, this ninja clan's organizational structure is flat and monotonous. As long as we eliminate these key ninjas, it's equivalent to destroying the Tsugawa Clan's brain," Yūshin summarized.
Gorō Fūma nodded. With clear intelligence support, he felt the possibility of completing the mission had greatly increased.
Well, actually it wasn't the intelligence that gave Gorō Fūma confidence, but rather another companion who brought him confidence... The Uchiha name was still very useful.
"Yes, next I'll launch infiltration operations, systematically eliminating high-level members except the clan leader, pressing step by step to create panic emotions. After panic spreads... In any case, I hope their tolerance won't be too strong."
Yūshin began calculating his targets... One village committee director would be temporarily spared, while the remaining two deputy directors and five production team captains needed to be eliminated as much as possible.
It sounded somewhat like small-scale mischief. If Yūshin's combat plan needed a name, it would probably be something like "Village Committee Collapse Plan."
"Phase one of the combat plan is perfectly complete. After obtaining sufficient intelligence, we'll launch phase two operations. Yūshin will handle infiltration, while we remain outside the village," Shichimi Uchiha said.
Of course, the two weren't just waiting outside—to coordinate with Yūshin's actions, they could now freely hunt Tsugawa ninjas who ventured out.
However, before phase two began...
Shichimi Uchiha first handed Yūshin a small blood vial, then used Summoning Jutsu, calling forth a white fox half as tall as a person.
"I've synchronized my senses with my summoning beast, so it can help you identify primary targets... Um, its name is Xiao Qi," she said, pointing at the white fox.
Shichimi Uchiha had used genjutsu to invade Tsugawa ninjas' minds—she could directly recognize the Tsugawa Clan's high-level members. However, she believed Yūshin could resist her genjutsu, so she naturally concluded she couldn't synchronize this appearance information to Yūshin through genjutsu.
Therefore, she decided to use her summoning beast to help Yūshin complete the infiltration plan.
Relying on a fox to find targets? Yūshin looked toward the white fox—it seemed reasonable enough, since foxes were also canines.
He didn't correct Shichimi Uchiha's assessment of him, nor would he explain that his genjutsu resistance wasn't a passive skill but an active one... Any normal person wouldn't want others messing with their brain.
Yūshin accepted the blood vial, thinking: Because it's Shichimi's summoning beast, it's called Xiao Qi? What a simple naming convention.
"Not necessarily useful, but I'll take it first."
The white fox seemed like an elegant creature, but when Yūshin observed Shichimi Uchiha's summoning beast carefully, he discovered it had somewhat chubby cheeks, making it appear quite adorably dopey.
Nothing to worry about. Yūshin subsequently infiltrated that shadow-shrouded village.
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