At dawn, Yūshin awoke from his sleep, the accumulated fatigue of recent days swept away by sufficient rest.
When one has no psychological pressure, they can indeed enjoy baby-like sleep. Previously, Yūshin had been very disciplined—unless during wartime, his routine was always regular—but today he had even overslept a bit.
Black Zetsu was still worth being vigilant about, but since Yūshin possessed the ability for "reciprocal retaliation," during this period it shouldn't target the Fireflies organization again. Because once it failed to kill Yūshin, it would theoretically soon become a lone commander.
If it lost even its last cat tower, Black Zetsu couldn't accept such a situation.
Yūshin had entered Black Zetsu's field of vision, delved deep into Black Zetsu's view, then faded from Black Zetsu's sight—after these three steps, both sides should be able to coexist peacefully for quite some time.
So let Black Zetsu go properly deal with Madara Uchiha. Madara Uchiha deserved the human world.
After all, its last operation had only obtained a pair of Mangekyō Sharingan. Without another closely related pair of Mangekyō, these eyes weren't very useful in its hands.
Black Zetsu's previous schemes had only confirmed one fact: everything still depended on Madara Uchiha. Everything else was a wrong path—without Madara, Black Zetsu and White Zetsu were nothing.
In short, this was "damage transfer." Next it was Madara Uchiha's turn to suffer, leaving Yūshin out of it.
There are always so many good people and even bad people in the world willing to sacrifice their small selves for others' benefit, and Madara was naturally born for this role.
The slight, dense sounds reaching his ears were still hypnotic. After lying in bed spacing out for five minutes, Yūshin finally became fully alert.
He walked to the window, pushed it open, and found the weather quite overcast with light rain falling outside.
"Good weather."
Fine spring rain could indeed be considered good weather.
Yūshin occasionally paid attention to agricultural seasons, but when he said "good weather," it actually had nothing to do with these matters. Based on his personality, compared to blazing sunshine, he indeed preferred this feeling of continuous drizzle.
Getting up, simply tidying himself, checking his ninja tool pouch and hanging it on his body, Yūshin then went to the "cafeteria" to have some breakfast.
Based on current circumstances, for ninja currently on duty or holding public positions, Fireflies Village adopted a collective meal system—this arrangement was very reasonable at this stage.
Family cooking certainly wasn't forbidden. After all, with Lord Shimizu's support, the village's supplies were very abundant, but...
Want family cooking? At minimum, you need to have a family, right?
Yūshin chose to eat communal meals. Anyway, someone like him couldn't taste any bitter flavors.
After eating unhurriedly, Yūshin came to the plaza in front of the Fireflies office building. However, today he didn't need to bury himself in paperwork—he was going out to execute the important mission he'd mentioned previously.
When he appeared here, twenty ninja rushed out from nearby guard buildings and quickly assembled before him.
Besides Yūshin, leading this team was Aburame Atsushi, clan leader of the Aburame Clan.
The ninja's morale needn't be mentioned—on one hand, the village was thriving; on the other, some ninja who considered themselves capable of becoming Jōnin but hadn't yet received recognition were full of desire to prove themselves.
Yūshin stopped, then gave a brief mission explanation:
"After several months, having faced failure and destroyed powerful enemies, we will once again set foot in the former territory of Lord Takahashi—not for anything else, only to reclaim what rightfully belongs to us..."
"Move out!"
Several months ago, the Fireflies organization was unknown and insignificant. But what about the current Fireflies organization? Internally cultivating strength, externally allying with the Senju, maintaining good relationships with the Sarutobi, Uzumaki, and Koizumi—circumstances were incomparable to yesterday.
Additionally, their fierce reputation intimidated those forces with insufficient strength and ill intentions... The greatest "credit" for the Hagoromo Clan's destruction definitely belonged to the Senju, but for those with the heart to gather intelligence, they naturally knew the Fireflies organization had participated.
More famous than the Fireflies was their leader Yūshin, precisely because his actions in actively guiding the Nine-Tails had made him renowned... Though not a good reputation, many ninja, especially high-ranking ninja from great clans, directly identified him as a madman who acted without regard for consequences.
Yes, appearing very rational but actually completely mad. In short, Tailed Beasts had terrible reputations, and people associated with Tailed Beasts would also have terrible reputations.
Twenty-one people left Fireflies Village in the light rain, soon arriving at the former territory of Lord Takahashi—now a lawless area where large numbers of wandering ninja appeared.
The reason no major forces had seized the gold mine was that, although the Hagoromo Clan had temporarily withdrawn from here due to some minor "setbacks," since they had boldly acted, the great ninja clans tacitly accepted this as Hagoromo territory.
This didn't mean they would allow the Hagoromo Clan to harvest such wealth, but rather that if they wanted to act, they needed thorough planning and preparation for war with the Hagoromo.
Who could have imagined that in the blink of an eye the Hagoromo Clan was gone, and among the participants in the clan's destruction was precisely the Fireflies organization beside the gold mine? Under these circumstances, they still couldn't act recklessly.
These factors combined meant that when the Fireflies organization reclaimed the gold mine, there was no need for any hard battles—simple clearing would suffice.
The organization's most capable ninja cooperated with increasing proficiency. Letting them handle the ninja in this area, Yūshin held an umbrella and walked somewhat leisurely into the mine.
"Good. Now I can barely say I'm getting back up where I fell."
After standing on the mine for quite a while, Yūshin finally said quietly.
After most of the day, Aburame Atsushi came to Yūshin's side and said:
"Lord Yūshin, the core area is mostly cleared. Some people were eliminated by us, while more took the opportunity to flee."
"Normal. We have limited numbers. Let those wandering ninja escape—we just need to maintain control over the core area."
Yūshin thought briefly, then continued:
"Since we've obtained the mine, mining operations are a priority. This matter should naturally be handled by the daimyō, but... aren't there some kids in the village who don't train seriously? Select twenty people monthly and send them here to mine."
Ninja production efficiency was much stronger than ordinary people's—they could fully play the role of workhorses in the mining area.
"Lord Yūshin, our ninja all train very seriously..."
Aburame Atsushi immediately expressed disagreement. Making ninja mine? What kind of propriety was this? Such work had never been within ninja business scope.
"There are always relatively less serious ones. Just do as I say."
Maybe some ninja didn't like wielding weapons but preferred production activities.
"Also, have the Fūma Clan increase Explosive Tag production."
"Ah? Use Explosive Tags for mining? Isn't that too... extravagant?"
Using Explosive Tags to blast ore? Would the Explosive Tags themselves be willing? You should know that at peak value, 1 Explosive Tag = 1 Senju. So how much ore could equal 1 Senju?
Yūshin completely disagreed. In his mind, anything that could explode was excellent for mining.
Not being active about mining gold? That was the real problem. With the mine here, not exploiting it completely would be letting it down.
"Continue executing clearing missions, then temporarily remain stationed, awaiting the arrival of garrison ninja teams... I need to inform the daimyō about the situation here."
"Yes, Lord Yūshin."
Yūshin left this place and soon came to Reitō Castle to meet Lord Shimizu Kiyosuke.
"The mine is reclaimed? Good, good news."
Compared to the ninja's somewhat indifferent attitude toward the gold mine, the daimyō now showed genuine emotion.
"My lord, I'm thinking this way: after the mined ore is smelted into gold, plus gold obtained through trade with the Koizumi Clan, once we have a certain precious metal reserve, we should recast another specification of 'one-ryō' gold koban."
Speaking thus, Yūshin produced a "sample."
The daimyō took it, weighed it, then said:
"Larger than ordinary gold koban by one circle, heavier by one-tenth—is this for immediate circulation?"
"No, store it for future use."
Lord Shimizu's eyes lit up. If you mentioned ninja clan wars, he'd be timid, but discussing this aspect, he struck with heavy punches.
His mind turned quickly—in an instant he guessed Yūshin's intention:
"You want to crush the Enichi Clan at a critical moment?"
"My lord, what do you think?"
Shimizu Kiyosuke was Yūshin's good friend. Yūshin was sincerely helping him, as the other was truly a "first-class daimyō."
There was no need to consider inferior versus superior currency issues here. As long as the Land of the River Source's gold coins had higher gold content at the same face value, no one could resist them during initial use.
Hmph, no one understood economics and tariffs better than him. Just watch whether it becomes popular later.
Yūshin spoke quietly beside the daimyō:
"Purge ten thousand li, unite the eight directions, capture hearts and minds, unify the world."
Eh, his handsome face somehow suddenly became hawk-eyed and wolf-like. Wasn't this the setting for a "Tower Strategy Meeting"?
Actually, Shimizu Kiyosuke hadn't realized that, skilled at surrender as he was, over time he somehow considered surrender less and less.
...
In the following period, the Land of the River Source worked hard at mining while Fireflies Village quietly developed.
Fireflies Village's current scale already possessed a siphon effect. Combined with its "embracing all rivers" principle, more and more small and medium ninja clans came to serve.
Generally, as long as they passed strict examination confirming these ninja clans had no conflicts or hostility with the Fireflies organization and truly wanted to become organization members, the organization would accept them. After several months of probation, as long as no major problems arose, they'd be considered completely converted.
This expansion method naturally brought some problems—for instance, there would definitely be "interested parties" infiltrating the organization, but these were controllable. Compared to organizational combat strength expansion, what did a few spies matter?
If pursuing 100% "purity," the organization might as well not develop at all. Where wouldn't there be spies? You should know that even villages composed of single ninja clans had spies—ninja betraying their birth clans weren't uncommon.
Simply put, to avoid "mixed quality" phenomena in the general atmosphere, Yūshin was already trying to control Fireflies Village's scale. However, by the time Sarutobi Hiruzen was born in the second year, he could already deploy over two hundred ninja for large-scale warfare.
No choice—the multi-ninja clan united ninja village format had such attraction in this era. There were many ninja clans like the former Hagūgen Clan in the Shinobi World. If you placed the opportunity to join a powerful force before such ninja clans, would they refuse?
Impossible to refuse. Ninja clan honor and history? What were those—could you eat them?
You should know that Fireflies Village's acceptance of ninja was genuine acceptance, never treating new members as cannon fodder, but instead cultivating everyone equally... As long as they didn't commit "village betrayal," the most severe punishment was merely mining.
With such universally praised conduct, for ordinary ninja clans and ninja, Fireflies Village wasn't just some shelter—it was clearly a sun-like faith.
Once they experienced the organization's atmosphere of equality, truly countless ninja were willing to dedicate their lives to the organization, village, and leader. This wasn't a joke.
Ninja always had to die. Since they had to die, why not die more gloriously and meaningfully?
Sacrificing for ideals wasn't empty words in Fireflies Village.
Over the year, there were even incidents of spies being moved to confess—this was completely unreasonable.
After all, this era was different from the later ninja village era. Everything feared comparison. Compared to other rotten potatoes and bad eggs in the Shinobi World, the Fireflies were the world's only light.
Even if Fireflies Village had many imperfections, one thing was certain: it wasn't narrow-minded at all and wouldn't be constrained by the two words "ninja clan."
A year ago, perhaps some ninja clans would still arrogantly despise Fireflies Village, but now, even if they still despised it, the Fireflies organization's ideology, scale, and expansion speed were enough to easily pry open their eyelids.
The Fireflies organization's combat power seemed just so-so, but don't forget—it had only developed for one year. If allowed to continue expanding...
Honestly speaking, even the neighboring Koizumi Clan had to watch their neighbor with more vigilant eyes.
Actually, this expansion effect exceeded Yūshin's expectations, because he felt he hadn't done anything outrageous. Even the organization's conduct policies hadn't changed from when he led the Hagūgen away from the forest. But who could have imagined that after gaining basic scale, the organization's expansion speed would be so exaggerated?
This was probably the so-called "standing at the wind's mouth."
The Fireflies organization's current state was a forcing factor for those great ninja clans occupying high positions in the Shinobi World's ecological hierarchy.
Either learn from Fireflies Village and begin "embracing all rivers," or...
North of the continent, in an unremarkable place, lived a ninja family surnamed "Earth Grudge Fear."
Six ninja were gathered together, apparently discussing some important matter.
The leader spoke first:
"Everyone, we've received a lucrative mission... assassinate Fireflies organization leader Yūshin."
"Hey, lucrative pay—what about mission difficulty?"
"But we've always only looked at pay, not difficulty, haven't we?"
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