At dusk, deep within an unremarkable alley in the nameless village where the Tsugawa Clan resided.
The quiet environment brought a sense of temporal stagnation. When night fell and human activity temporarily went dormant, it paradoxically revealed the most natural harmony.
Unfortunately, all this "peace" was merely surface appearance. This village was about to witness a performance of "the evening here is quietly still."
Though everyone could be classified as working cattle in sociological terms, cattle differ from one another—some have the habit of rising early and sleeping late.
This building, appearing ordinary and inconspicuous within the village, together with the underground space hidden beneath it, constituted the Tsugawa Clan's vital storage center and logistics hub.
Based on intelligence extracted by Shichimi Uchiha, Yūshin quickly located this place after infiltrating the village.
Shichimi Uchiha could not only find the enemy's supply depot but even extract information about the types and quantities of stored materials.
Actually, the Tsugawa Clan's village was tight inside but loose outside. Though there were quite a few sentries posted within, even without intelligence support, these ninjas would find it extremely difficult to detect Yūshin's traces given his extraordinary infiltration abilities.
Yūshin used the Mayfly Technique to directly penetrate the wall, silently infiltrating the warehouse without rushing into action.
His body almost merged with the surrounding walls, using only his eyes to observe the situation in the warehouse courtyard.
One, two, three, four—there were four ninjas total, with one "supervisor" directing the other three in material inventory and logistics.
Compared to enemy leaders, Yūshin prioritized destroying this place... In warfare, you must strike enemy logistics nodes as the top priority—a principle Yūshin naturally understood.
He displayed remarkable patience. These people were currently gathered together, but they would eventually disperse and become isolated.
Yūshin thoroughly understood working people—warehouse workers couldn't possibly stay clustered together constantly.
More than ten minutes later, one ninja entered a side building to inventory materials inside.
Yūshin followed at nearly light speed.
After entering the room, he found the ninja standing with his back to the wall, facing a shelf and counting something. This position was already quite good, but he was too close to the door, so Yūshin temporarily suppressed his urge to act.
After the target finished counting this shelf and walked several steps deeper into the warehouse, his figure could no longer be observed from the doorway.
So Yūshin seized the opportunity and struck without hesitation.
He suddenly extended both hands from the wall—left hand firmly covering the target's mouth and nose, pressing the back of his head tightly against the wall surface, while his right-hand kunai pierced into his waist from behind.
Intense pain caused this ninja's torso to arch forward uncontrollably. He instinctively hunched his waist and abdomen, seemingly trying to escape the blade penetrating his body. However, such a vicious "kidney strike" destroyed his physical response capability—strength and chakra rapidly left his body along with the cold, stabbing sensation in his back.
Even if Yūshin hadn't sealed his mouth and nose, he could barely make any sound.
Yūshin gently rotated his right wrist, the kunai piercing the enemy's body practically shredding his organs. This unfortunate ninja's body began convulsing unconsciously.
At this moment, Yūshin's hand covering the enemy's mouth and nose moved downward, his arm's elbow hooking around the enemy's neck, then suddenly exerting force.
Crushing internal organs below, nearly breaking neck bones above—truly a case where one plus one exceeded two. This ninja silently lost his life.
Then Yūshin repeated the process—the second and third ninjas died by almost identical methods.
Subsequently, with only the supervisor ninja remaining, he directly appeared soundlessly behind the target. The kunai's blade gave him a "throat slash" while the target remained completely unaware.
"Cough... heh..."
Thud.
His brief breathing struggles and the sound of his body falling uncontrollably to the ground were practically the only noises from Yūshin's infiltration assassination operation.
The underground warehouse entrance was probably equipped with barriers to guard against external enemy invasion. However, Yūshin didn't need to find any entrance—he simply used the Mayfly Technique, diving his entire body underground and entering the subterranean space without obstruction.
Yūshin was indeed skilled at adapting to circumstances. If he were currently invading the Uzumaki Clan's village, he definitely wouldn't directly kill that supervisor but would take him hostage, attempting to force him to remove the barrier through threats and coercion.
But in the Tsugawa Clan's village, such trouble was unnecessary.
As mentioned before, current ninja villages were nothing more than makeshift operations. Villages composed of single ninja clan settlements couldn't possibly have so many versatile talents—large-scale, powerful sealing barriers weren't something ordinary ninja clans could master.
If Yūshin chose to force his way through the underground space entrance barrier, it probably couldn't stop him anyway.
After entering the underground space, Yūshin found that just like the intelligence indicated, everything stored here was indeed war materials.
He quickly rummaged through boxes and crates, soon finding large quantities of explosive tags in several dry-sealed, cushion-packed containers.
"Extremely helpful."
Yūshin took out almost all the explosive tags. He used the majority of them, plastering the warehouse at maximum speed, then set up several highly concealed trigger traps at the entrance.
Then he didn't use the Mayfly Technique but instead openly passed through that barrier with little restrictive capability.
The enemy's reaction was very timely—almost simultaneously with Yūshin triggering the barrier, they realized that outsiders or external enemies had entered the important supply warehouse.
Several minutes later, five Tsugawa ninjas rapidly rushed toward this location.
"They're all dead..."
Soon, someone discovered that everyone here had been assassinated.
"The important war materials in the warehouse... this is bad..."
Since their own people had been assassinated, it meant this place had suffered external enemy invasion. He panicked and rushed toward the underground warehouse entrance.
"Wait, be careful..."
Someone tried to stop and warn him, but the impetuous young ninja had already entered the underground space first.
Then...
"BOOM!"
A muffled, oppressive explosion suddenly rang out, simultaneously awakening the still-sleeping village and sending the ninjas who came here for support spiraling skyward.
After the explosion, thick smoke rose from the village.
Facts proved that no matter how fast ninjas were, they couldn't be faster than explosion speed.
This village wasn't large, so this explosion startled almost everyone. Five minutes later, more ninjas arrived at the scene.
What appeared before them now were only burning ruins and rubble.
Jagged cracks appeared on the originally flat ground, with flames and thick smoke billowing from the fissures...
The Tsugawa Clan was relatively skilled in Water Release, so they united their efforts and immediately launched firefighting operations, trying their best to salvage some materials.
Simultaneously, another group of ninjas began searching on-site, attempting to find the infiltrator who caused the destruction.
However, when the entire village's attention was attracted here, not far away, several more explosion sounds rang out, followed by towering flames appearing in the night.
The ninjas all turned around in shock, looking toward the direction where flames erupted.
The warehouse they were currently trying to salvage stored war materials, with a large portion being iron weapons, so the fire wasn't severe after the explosion.
But the subsequent explosions and fires targeted civilian supply warehouses—many things including food were highly flammable, so the gloomy midnight sky was illuminated by massive flames.
Simply and elegantly, Yūshin executed a feint, fully demonstrating his artistic cultivation and achieving excellent results.
The destruction of these materials certainly wouldn't cause the Tsugawa Clan to collapse immediately, but it would inevitably create certain panic, accelerating the clan's fate toward an unknowable future.
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