The Land of Whirlpools was located between the Land of Fire and the Land of Water.
It was a small country that once had its own ninja village.
The Uzumaki clan, skilled in sealing techniques, had established Uzushiogakure here and maintained a good alliance with the Senju clan, who founded Konoha…
But all of that was already passing smoke.
Uzushiogakure had vanished under the combined assault of many countries and ninja clans that feared the Uzumaki clan's sealing techniques.
The descendants of the Uzumaki clan had no choice but to hide their names and scatter in all directions.
The Land of Whirlpools had also fallen directly from an orderly small nation into a chaotic land where wandering ninja ran rampant, and ordinary people lived in deep suffering.
Even if Rei Kaguya thought with his toes, he knew that Kirigakure's secret interference was definitely involved in the chaos here.
He even felt that Uzushiogakure's destruction back then had a considerable chance of being the result of Kirigakure's ninja secretly allying and maneuvering behind the scenes.
After all, Uzushiogakure had been so close to Konohagakure, and the Uzumaki clan was also skilled in sealing techniques that were difficult to counter.
If they were not eliminated first, Kirigakure's external expansion plan would inevitably face considerable obstruction.
Though that plan had never really shown much progress or result even now.
Back to the point.
After disguising himself, Rei Kaguya pretended to be a wandering ninja from a distant place and hurriedly entered a small city that could barely be considered somewhat prosperous.
"Hey! You bastard, don't you watch where you're walking? You bumped into this uncle's shoulder, you know?"
"Eek! Eek… M-Mercy, Lord Ninja. I-I didn't mean to. I'll compensate you. I'll pay…"
Looking at the wandering ninja who arrogantly grabbed a passing civilian's clothes, his whole body reeking of ruffian energy and alcohol, Rei Kaguya could not help sighing.
He had not entered the city for long, yet he had already seen more than one wandering ninja causing trouble everywhere.
From the bored and numb eyes of the passersby, it was clear that incidents like the trash ninja before him deliberately causing trouble and extorting people had happened countless times already.
So many times that they no longer showed even the slightest emotional reaction.
From their bodies, Rei Kaguya could not see the thing called hope that humans required.
There was only numbness.
Only emptiness.
The ordinary people living on this land had already fallen, within this long darkness they could not resist, into walking corpses who were unwilling to think and whose hearts had turned to ash.
"It's one thing for Kirigakure to want the Land of Whirlpools, a buffer between two countries, to stay chaotic. But why has Konoha also done nothing about the situation here?
"And they still signed an alliance agreement promising generations of friendship between the two nations and printed the Uzumaki clan crest on their jonin vests?
"Peh. Disgusting. Truly disgusting…"
"But since the wandering ninja here are this arrogant, as long as I investigate recent incidents where wandering ninja died, I should be able to find traces of those guys, right?"
Although the four defected Kirigakure Anbu had been scared out of their wits by Obito Uchiha, they were still elites born from Kirigakure.
Compared with these wandering ninja from small countries whose names he had never even heard of, and who might not have learned even one C-rank ninjutsu outside the Three Basic Techniques, the difference between them was like heaven and earth.
When facing the enraged Obito Uchiha and Kirigakure's pursuit force, they might tremble in fear and act timidly.
But if the wandering ninja entrenched in the Land of Whirlpools dared show them even the slightest disrespect, those Kirigakure missing-nin would absolutely not mind using their lives to vent the fear and panic overflowing inside their hearts.
"Lord Ninja, please have mercy. Please have mercy. We really can't pay any more…"
Just as Rei Kaguya was thinking about how to begin his investigation, an extremely humble middle-aged man's pleading voice came from a store by the street that seemed decently decorated.
"I already offered more than half of my family's wealth to four passing Lord Ninja the night before last. This shop is my only remaining property. I truly don't have any more money to offer you. Please, please give me a little more time. Half a month. Just half a month…"
"Huh? Why should I care that you were just looted by other ninja? I only care whether I can get the money I want!
"If you can't pay, then use your daughter to repay the debt. Although she's a little young, she should still sell for some money… Get lost, you lowly thing!"
The savage voice approached the store entrance.
Then the door was kicked flying out. A tall, rough-looking man walked out of the store with arrogant steps, carrying a white-clothed little girl under his arm.
The girl was so frightened she had even forgotten to cry.
Behind him, a middle-aged man with a clear shoeprint on his face lay on the ground, his mouth full of blood, struggling to stand.
Rei Kaguya silently stood in the wandering ninja's path.
"Move. Do you want to die too?"
Perhaps because he had been tyrannical for too long and had never encountered real trouble, the tall man kicked at Rei Kaguya, who was much shorter than him, the moment he spoke.
He wanted to kick him until he coughed blood and knelt on the ground, just like the middle-aged shop owner.
Crack.
No one saw exactly what Rei Kaguya did.
They only saw the tall man's flying right leg twist in the blink of an eye into a bloody spiral of flesh bent upward by more than one hundred and twenty degrees.
"Ahhhhh! My leg! My leg!"
The tall man screamed and fell backward. He rolled on the ground and howled like an enormous maggot.
The white-clothed little girl who had been tucked under his arm was rescued by Rei Kaguya and casually tossed to the shop owner, who had just stood up.
"Boss Iwasaka!? Damn it, everyone, attack together! Avenge Boss Iwasaka!"
"Cut him into a human stick and hang him at the town entrance! Let everyone coming and going see what happens to those who resist us!"
The wandering ninja who had originally scattered in front of various shops on the street collecting protection money saw their leader knocked to the ground.
They immediately widened their bloodshot eyes and charged toward Rei Kaguya with strange cries.
For ordinary unarmed civilians, the sight of more than a dozen people who may or may not have been able to become genin in Kirigakure charging with all kinds of weapons still carried no small amount of pressure.
But in Rei Kaguya's eyes, what was rushing toward him was nothing more than a dozen rotting chunks of meat wrapped in human skin that could charge Dark Harvest.
"Tch. I originally planned to find Kirigakure's intelligence personnel and secretly investigate recent incidents involving the deaths of wandering ninja, then follow the clues to locate those guys…
"I didn't expect to encounter someone here who might know something."
"Then I'll use your lives as payment to exchange for that intelligence from him."
As Rei Kaguya thought this, he took out a kunai he had not used in a long time from the ninja tool pouch he wore for disguise.
Then he grinned at the wandering ninja closing in around him.
"Die, garbage."