On the other side, after Uchiha Madara left Kikyō Castle, Yūshin finally breathed a slight sigh of relief.
He first comforted the innocent civilians who had been lightly affected by the earlier minor conflict, speaking in his capacity as "ninja leader," then arranged for people to repair the street.
Afterward, Yūshin returned to the camp, but his mood remained anxious.
Because Yūshin had been raided before and had raided others' bases himself. After experiencing this several times, he naturally understood the dangers of base raids and the helplessness of being raided...
Moreover, if the person doing the raiding was called Uchiha Madara, the consequences would be unimaginable.
But worrying was pointless—things beyond his capabilities simply couldn't be done.
Fortunately, Yūshin had Uchiha Madara's "guardian" here. He had seen Shichimi scold Madara before, so he knew that unless absolutely necessary, Madara definitely wouldn't act recklessly.
But rational judgment was rational judgment, and worry was worry. As everyone knows, the three characters "Uchiha" have never been associated with rationality—more often, they're synonymous with "extremism."
If everyone could maintain rationality, what use would Black Zetsu have?
After being anxious for most of the day, that evening, the white fox swaggered into Yūshin's tent. After reaching his side, it gently placed down a slip of paper it had been carrying in its mouth.
Yūshin picked up the paper slip and saw the simple four characters "already gone" written on it, finally relaxing completely.
He crouched down and gently scratched the fox's chin with just the right strength and rhythm, making this canine involuntarily narrow its slender eyes.
"Ali, do you prefer jerky, dried meat, or fresh meat? I have all of them here."
"For fresh meat, there's pork, mutton, and venison—which is most delicious?"
The answer was: all of them, all delicious.
The summoning beast Xiao Qi kept its head down without speaking, just focused on devouring food.
After eating until its belly was round, it then walked away with a swagger that acknowledged no relatives, departing leisurely.
It was quite magnanimous—from beginning to end, it never minded that Yūshin called it by the wrong name.
Well, after all, every cat is Mimi, every dog is Wangcai, and every fox is Ali.
"Really nice... at least not picky about food."
Yūshin watched as the white fox's belly nearly scraped the ground, thinking fortunately all the organization's supplies were provided by Kikyō Castle, so he didn't feel bad about wasting them.
...
The small episode brought by Uchiha Madara quickly passed.
Yūshin could only treat this as a chance occurrence—after all, as ninja, they operated on different levels, and it was best if they didn't intersect at all.
After several more days, the ninja finally finished building several houses.
These first completed buildings would all serve public functions, including mission reception and dispatch locations, guard and duty centers, supply storage, the Fūma Clan's ninja tool sales office, and so on.
Yūshin selected one to serve as a secret laboratory.
As for where everyone lived, that was last in the construction plan. Currently, most people still lived in tents. Though winter was a bit cold, ninja were more cold-resistant than ordinary people.
The place Yūshin selected was called a laboratory, but it was actually just a square indoor space like a warehouse. In the very center sat only a stone table—nothing else. It was as crude as could be.
Currently, Yūshin was using the table as a morgue slab, with a corpse lying on it at this moment.
Yūshin led Uchiha Shichimi toward this area, and the two had some discussion about Uchiha Madara's earlier appearance along the way.
"You seem to know Uchiha Madara? Or rather, not just know him—you even have some familiarity with him?"
Uchiha Shichimi's question seemed pointed. Even if Yūshin had witnessed her contact with Madara, the targeting Yūshin showed toward Madara didn't seem like choices made without intelligence support.
This Yūshin person appeared ordinary, but the more you interacted with him, the more you felt he was hiding quite a few secrets.
"Just heard of him. Uchiha Madara is a name known throughout the entire shinobi world. After actual contact, the pressure he gives is indeed extraordinary... truly lives up to his reputation."
What could Yūshin say? He could only gloss over this topic.
"Fine, but your strength growth rate recently seems very unusual. I didn't know you were a Kekkei Genkai ninja before." Shichimi said this way.
At least when attacking the Tsugawa Clan's village, Yūshin's fighting style had never shown any signs of Kekkei Genkai. Yet after a brief period, his strength had advanced by leaps and bounds—the improvement comparable to going from an ordinary Uchiha to an Uchiha who had awakened the three-tomoe Sharingan.
"It's just that my relative strength increased quite a bit—that's because my previous strength was too poor... As for Kekkei Genkai, it was just a sudden enlightenment during a life-or-death battle."
"At that time, I faced two choices: either die or evolve... From the results, I was quite fortunate."
Yūshin gave a selective explanation of the facts. Uchiha Shichimi didn't fully believe it, but couldn't find any flaws either.
Because the situation Yūshin described wasn't rare—the more talented a ninja is, the more obvious their progress after experiencing life-and-death battles. This was undeniable.
But was Yūshin this kind of talented ninja? He didn't seem like it.
More importantly, even for those talented "enlightenments" or "evolutions," there were traceable patterns—like Uchiha ninja awakening their eyes. But surely an Uchiha wouldn't learn Wood Release when about to be beaten to death?
Moreover, Yūshin described learning Kekkei Genkai too simply—like unclogging a toilet—which was hard for people to accept immediately.
Seeing Shichimi's gaze still carried doubt and curiosity, Yūshin could only change the subject.
"We're here. I hope your Sharingan can still be effective this time."
This was a change brought about after Shichimi formally joined the organization. Previously, Yūshin had no way to so easily request the Sharingan's help.
Now the situation was different—after all, Shichimi had become one of their own. One's own people helping one's own people—what was there to say? It was perfectly justified.
Here, one more thing must be mentioned: although Shichimi actively joined the organization, Yūshin's treatment of her joining was completely different from his treatment of the Fūma Clan's joining. He had never hinted to Shichimi that once she came, she couldn't leave.
Cough, this wasn't double standards—after all, people are different. Yūshin was merely implementing the "Fireflies organization's high-tech talent introduction and settlement policy." The possessor of Mangekyō Sharingan naturally deserved preferential treatment.
After the two entered the laboratory, Yūshin tightly closed the door again, and then Shichimi saw the huge corpse on the morgue slab.
Shichimi instinctively frowned. She seemed somewhat dissatisfied with the current environment and this kind of thing, but it was clearly visible that this dissatisfaction wasn't directed at Yūshin and The Fireflies organization.
"This is that Earth Grudge Fear secret technique user?"
The two came beside the morgue slab. After Shichimi generally examined the corpse, she asked Yūshin.
"Yes." Yūshin nodded calmly.
Shichimi's gaze shifted to Yūshin, her eyes carrying undisguisable astonishment.
"Is there a problem?" Yūshin asked back.
"I'm starting to understand what you meant by 'either die or evolve'—I feel this person's combat power is even stronger than mine."
Although Shichimi had heard Yūshin describe what Earth Grudge Fear was like, only after actually seeing this corpse did she realize her imagination had been somewhat lacking.
Yūshin thought to himself that on the surface he might be stronger than you, but who knows what you'd pull out of your eye pupils in a real fight?
"Can you invade his brain and obtain this secret technique?" Yūshin went straight to the point.
Shichimi looked at this corpse that resembled a scarecrow soaked in strong acid, not directly responding to Yūshin's words... It felt like Yūshin treated the Sharingan as an omnipotent magical tool.
She took out a kunai and used its tip to gently pry open the corpse's eyelid, discovering that one of the opponent's eyes had already been corroded by strong acid. The corrosion marks went deep into the eye socket, penetrating into the cranial cavity.
"First, my genjutsu can only invade the consciousness and thoughts of living people, not the brain organs of dead people."
Simply put, her genjutsu could control only the "operating system," not the hardware.
"Second, this person's brain is half destroyed..."
She could also influence hardware through the "operating system," but the problem was that this hardware was also damaged.
"Which means?"
"Which means I'm powerless."
"..."
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