Right now.
At the entrance of Homura Hidden Village, a worn-out caravan has come to a halt here.
Unlike normal ninja village delegations,
this caravan clearly contains few ninjas.
However, the majority are ordinary people.
They also brought numerous crates packed with all kinds of modern equipment.
"Miss, we've arrived."
An old man dismounted first and respectfully reported to the carriage.
Soon, a figure pulled aside the curtain and stepped out.
She was a girl around eleven or twelve years old, with deep blue long hair, wearing a dark green long dress. Her sapphire-blue eyes gleamed with a quiet intensity. Her face was delicate, her demeanor outstanding.
Yet, her gaze carried obvious signs of world-weariness and sorrow.
Clearly, this wasn't a lively young girl.
Xiaoxue Fenghua: Publicly a well-known child actress; secretly, she's the exiled princess from the Snow Country.
She is now accepting a commission from Homura Hidden Village together with her entourage troupe to film a new movie here.
"Homura Hidden Village? A ninja village?"
Xiaoxue Fenghua looked up slightly, somewhat confused.
"Yes."
The old man—Sandayu Asama, as Xiaoxue's agent, responded immediately.
"I thought our troupe tries not to accept commissions from ninja villages? These ninjas stand above commoners and are extremely difficult to serve..."
Xiaoxue Fenghua pouted slightly, asking discontentedly.
Obviously, she didn't hold ninjas in high regard.
"This..."
"Miss, they're paying very generously!"
"And besides, their influence is enormous—we don't have the luxury of saying no..."
Sandayu Asama carefully explained.
"Their influence? I've never even heard of this ninja village before. Probably some newly established minor village under the Land of Rice Fields. Where did their so-called massive influence come from?"
"They're backed by the former Gato Company, now known as Four Seas Maritime Trade Group. Such a giant corporation is completely beyond what our merchant association could possibly offend..."
Sandayu continued cautiously.
After all, they were merely one artistic troupe among many under the Shangfeng Merchant Association.
It was only due to Xiaoxue Fenghua's exceptional beauty and remarkable acting skills that they had managed to build even a modest reputation in the entertainment world.
To be honest, it would be like comparing someone like Shimoku's past obscurity to the entire Hollywood industry.
Moreover, during these past six months,
since its renaming, the former Gato Company had rapidly expanded through countless mergers and acquisitions.
Even gaining strong support from the Land of Water—one of the Five Great Nations.
It had become a booming mega-corporation on the rise, gaining power with each passing day.
Therefore, facing this commission request issued by the Four Seas Maritime Trade Group, they simply had no choice but to accept!
Xiaoxue Fenghua remained silent for a moment.
Eventually, she just nodded:
"I understand. We'll go along with it."
"What kind of movie are we filming this time?"
Sandayu wiped sweat carefully from his forehead:
"We don't know yet—the client hasn't specified. They said they would talk details after meeting face-to-face."
"Is it really that mysterious? Then why haven't they come out to greet us yet?"
"Miss, please be patient. After all, they're a major ninja village. It's unwise to provoke conflicts with these villages."
"If we're lucky, this mission might even help us get closer to them."
"In the future, when we rise against the traitors to take back our homeland, we might just need their help!"
Sandayu Asama whispered with excitement.
As the former minister of Snow Country, he had never abandoned his hope of restoring their homeland.
That's why he was fully committed to being Xiaoxue Fenghua's agent.
Preparing to shoot movies, build up popularity, and raise funds — all to quietly gather strength.
So that one day in the future,
They could strike back into the [Snow Country], eliminate the traitorous rebels, and assist Princess Xiaoxue Fenghua to ascend the throne!
In his eyes, cooperating with the [Homura Hidden Village] might just be a great opportunity!
Hearing this, Xiaoxue Fenghua pursed her lips but didn't object.
Obviously, she wasn't particularly enthusiastic about restoring the kingdom.
Compared to those distant, hard-to-achieve ideals,
She had become far more curious about this ninja village instead.
Not long after,
The gates opened.
"Shua shua shua—"
Several sharp whistling sounds rang out.
In an instant, everyone's vision blurred slightly, and several [Homuragakure] ninjas appeared before them.
Startling the Fuji Performing Troupe.
Even the most basic 'Shifting Body Technique' looked like magical teleportation to ordinary eyes.
However, upon closer observation,
Xiaoxue Fenghua and others felt a faint sense of suspicion.
Because their welcoming party was actually led by just a teenage boy.
Judging from his appearance, this boy seemed about the same age as Xiaoxue Fenghua herself.
Was [Homuragakure] really treating this so lightly?
Sending such a young brat to receive them?
"Greetings everyone. I'm Shimoku Uchiha. I suppose you can call me the leader of this village."
"We warmly welcome all of you here!"
Xiaoxue blinked in surprise, instinctively exclaiming:
"You? A leader? So young?"
"No… Excuse me, that was rude of me!"
Shimoku merely shrugged without offense.
"No worries."
"Riyō, treat these tools… these guests according to standard protocol."
"I'll take Miss Xiaoxue first to discuss the script matters."
Shimoku gave instructions to Riyō beside him.
Riyō nodded at once.
The next moment, Shimoku moved, forming hand seals.
[Shadow Mirror Body Changing Method] — activated.
[Flying Thunder God Technique] — activated.
Instantly,
A sleek black shadow shot out from under Shimoku's feet, stretching over twenty meters in an instant and locking onto Xiaoxue Fenghua in the distance.
"Xiū——"
Before Xiaoxue could react,
She and Shimoku both vanished from that very spot,
Teleporting deep within the village.
This sudden action made Sandayu Asama and his group jump in shock, panicking greatly.
However, they were quickly calmed down by Riyō and others.
And then began the normal process of entering and settling into the village.
...
When you've mastered enough ninjutsu techniques, creative applications just come naturally.
Of course, the difficulty of simultaneously performing two ninja techniques was extremely high.
Even Lord Madara himself couldn't manage to execute two hand-seal-dependent techniques at once without using a Susano'o clone.
Fortunately, the Flying Thunder God technique didn't require any hand seals for activation.
This allowed Shimoku to use it in combination with other techniques.
The 'Flying Thunder God' and 'Shadow Mirror Body Changing Method' formed one such effective combination.
It enabled anything touched by his shadow to move along with him.
Shimoku was currently working on mastering this technique step by step.
Don't look down on combining techniques like this.
If executed properly,
the next time he encountered Black Zetsu,
even if it tried to hide, even from a greater distance, he could silently approach using his shadow techniques and snatch it away immediately,
leaving absolutely no chance for escape.
Truly a divine skill for ambushes and kidnappings!
Naturally, ordinary ninja would never indulge in such luxury—
combining an S-ranked Kinjutsu with a family secret technique just for kidnapping...
At this moment, Shimoku directly brought Princess Xiaoxue into the room,
intending to have a private conversation first.
After all, this was the very first movie production attempt, involving many secrets.
Before finalizing everything, it wasn't appropriate to widely publicize it.
The reason why Shimoku specially invited Princess Xiaoxue and her troupe to join the film project
was to utilize their reputation and technical expertise.
Despite having superior equipment and realistic genjutsu and transformation techniques on his side,
to produce a great film, he still needed guidance from an experienced team—with skilled photographers, directors, editors, and more.
Everyone has their own field of expertise.
Such experience couldn't simply be cultivated overnight by grabbing a couple of clan members randomly.
Directly hiring a professional team was much more convenient and efficient.
Moreover, when releasing the movie later, they could also benefit from the popularity of current celebrities for better promotional effects.
That's why Shimoku decided to bring them on board.
[Instant Transmission!]
"Ah!"
"Where... is this?"
The instant movement startled Princess Xiaoxue so much that she couldn't help but cry out loudly.
She immediately tightened her grip on her collar, took several steps back, and cowered into a corner.
Her eyes remained fixed on Shimoku with evident wariness and fear.
A bizarre situation, dim lighting, being alone with a man...
She had seen far too many tragedies like this before.
Even if the perpetrator was only a teenage boy, it still caused considerable anxiety.
"Don't panic," said Shimoku. "It's just a ninja technique."
"I won't do anything to you."
"Also, I've already set up a barrier; no matter how hard you scream, nobody outside can hear it."
Xiaoxue: Σ(っ°Д°;)っ
That's supposed to be comforting?
That's basically a full-on threat!
What kind of reassurance is that about losing your voice pointlessly while no one can hear you anyway?
Essentially a direct threat!!
...
Several minutes later,
Xiaoxue gradually calmed down.
She became convinced that this young man harbored no ill intentions toward her.
Otherwise, wouldn't he have already done something by now?
"Have some water, and then we can talk at our leisure..."
"This time around, we're actually planning to commission you to star in some films."
"These are the scripts for the two films we'll be shooting. You can take a look first."
Shimoku handed over a glass of iced water and two scripts.
With that, they dove right into business.
Xiaoxue Fenghua accepted the scripts and started reading through them carefully.
She was totally baffled the moment she laid eyes on the script titles.
"This Uchiha Is Not Too Cool? Dark-Cloaked Madara vs. Divine Hashirama?"
What the heck is this?
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