The battle between the Twelve-Family Alliance and the Uchiha clan was still ongoing. They attempted to attack Xin City a few more times, but after being repelled by Uchiha Dou each time, they settled down a bit.
After all, their losses that night were not small either. Killing six Uchiha Peak Jonin-level combatants naturally required paying a heavy price. Out of their nine Peak Jonin, they had lost four. Originally, only three had died, but due to Ninja One's mutual-destruction technique, the Peak Jonin who had fallen unconscious ultimately couldn't be saved.
Their Elite Jonin losses were even greater. Just during the siege against Uchiha Dou alone, he had personally cut down three of them, not to mention their overall losses. In total, they lost eleven Elite Jonin.
With the deaths of so many experts, some of whom were even clan heads, the various families naturally needed to undergo transitions of power. Even their original balance of power was broken.
For example, among the dead Peak Jonin was a man named Baishi Tong, who was the head of the Baishi family. After his death, his younger brother took over, but he only had the strength of an Elite Jonin, causing the family's influence to plummet.
Besides them, the head of the Jiangkou clan, also a Peak Jonin, died in the siege. Additionally, the Guiming and Zhuhuo families each lost one Peak Jonin. Only the Chiyu family currently possessed two Peak Jonin powerhouses.
However, none of this had anything to do with Uchiha Xuan. His primary objective right now was to prevent Uchiha Tajima from coming to the North. But given Uchiha Tajima's personality, his arrival here was almost a certainty. Under these circumstances, only one thing could keep him too occupied to leave.
Going to war with the Senju clan...
On this day, under the setting sun at dusk, Xuan had just walked out from a combat meeting. In the recent meetings, he had offered several suggestions that directly hit the crux of the matters, causing the many Elite Jonin of the North to look at him in a new light. No one dared to look down on him due to his age anymore.
Returning to his room, he yawned and looked out the window. Under the afterglow, leaves danced in the wind. In the weeds, the chirping of insects began to rise and fall. Colorful birds fluttered about, carrying unlucky bugs in their beaks as they flapped their wings to return and feed their young. It was a scene full of vibrant vitality.
After having dinner, at around nine o'clock in the evening, Xuan vigilantly inspected his room. He was always cautious. Forming hand seals, a poof sounded as an identical Shadow Clone appeared. Meanwhile, the Three-Tomoe Sharingan in his real body's left eye spun, and amidst spatial ripples, he vanished from the room.
Subsequently, Xuan's Shadow Clone left the room with a smile to go chat and shoot the breeze with those idle Jonin. It was always good to be cautious. While the mysterious "Owl" was out sowing discord, it was best for him to appear in front of people. Even if it was an unnecessary precaution, it couldn't hurt.
Meanwhile, an unknown distance away from the Uchiha's Northern territory, in the central-eastern region of the Land of Fire...
Here lay vast, dense jungles stretching as far as the eye could see, large tracts of fertile land, and the largest ninja clan of them all.
Upon a vast plain, massive clusters of buildings stood tall, with numerous flags fluttering above them. The flags bore the unique emblem of the Senju clan, reminding everyone who the master of this territory was.
The nights of the Warring States period were silent. Aside from the ninjas on routine patrol, no clansmen would casually walk outside at night.
Within the Senju clan compound, in a certain room, candlelight was still flickering. Senju Butsuma was holding a stack of documents, flipping through them. An evening breeze blew through the window, bringing a trace of chill and causing the lamp flame on the desk to sway.
Suddenly, Senju Butsuma's gaze focused. He looked up at the empty space in front of him. Spatial ripples appeared, transforming into an inverted vortex. A human silhouette gradually manifested within it before condensing into a physical entity.
The person who appeared was entirely shrouded in a black cloak. Their head was concealed by a large, loose hood. Only by the faint candlelight could one barely make out the chin area—it was a mask bearing spiral patterns.
Senju Butsuma secretly gathered his Chakra, but didn't strike first. Instead, he asked in a deep voice, "Who are you?"
The cloaked figure spoke. The voice had clearly been altered by Chakra, making it impossible to discern any useful information. "Clan Head Senju, you may call me 'Owl'. I bear no ill will toward your clan."
Owl? Senju Butsuma pondered, racking his brain to recall the powerhouses in the Land of Fire he could name, but no one matched this description.
"State your purpose," Senju Butsuma said, cutting straight to the point.
The Warring States period was a world where strength was revered. The reason Senju Butsuma didn't attack immediately was exactly because of the mystery the cloaked figure displayed. Regardless of the method used, being able to bypass the heavy patrols of Senju ninjas completely undetected and appear directly in front of him was, in itself, a testament to their strength.
"Straightforward. I like talking to straightforward people like the Clan Head," the cloaked figure let out a bizarre laugh. The Chakra-altered voice was truly unpleasant to the ears, causing Senju Butsuma to frown heavily.
"The twelve mid-tier families in the Uchiha's Northern territory have formed an alliance. Uchiha Tajima dispatched five Secret Ninjas over, and along with a Peak Jonin under Uchiha Dou, they have all been killed in action..."
As the cloaked figure's flat voice echoed, a cold breeze blew past, and a bone-piercing chill rose from the bottom of one's heart. The room was so silent you could hear a pin drop.
"How do you know this?" Senju Butsuma forcefully suppressed the shock in his heart, trying his best to keep his tone calm.
"How I know is not something Clan Head Senju needs to worry about. You only need to know that the intelligence is authentic. We will meet again. Consider this a meeting gift."
The cloaked figure's bizarre voice rang out as spatial ripples began to form around his body.
"Sever, Demon, God!"
Suddenly letting out an explosive shout, Senju Butsuma seemed to ignore the distance of space entirely. The longsword that had been hanging on the wall was somehow already tightly gripped in his hand. Three flashes of cold light simultaneously slashed toward the cloaked figure's eyes, throat, and waist, as Senju Butsuma dashed past him.
The Uchiha clan inspired awe and terror throughout the Warring States period. Back in their most brutal era, they had once wiped out three clans in a single day, terrifying the various clans of the ninja world into calling them the "Demon God Clan".
The Senju Clan Head of that era had used this title to create an S-Rank Taijutsu Secret Technique: Demon-God Severing Strike, meant specifically to slaughter the Uchiha clan.
Senju Butsuma swung his sword with incredible flair and said coldly, "Sneaky, cowardly scoundrel. We of the Senju despise people like you the most. We'll accept your intelligence, but leave your life behind as well."
He had absolute confidence in this strike. With his sudden, explosive attack, even an expert of the same tier would perish without warning, let alone this mysterious person who didn't even dare to show their true face.
"Heh heh, you Senju truly are a bunch of hypocrites. The 'Senju of Love,' I've experienced it. I hope the Clan Head learns to be a bit smarter the next time we meet."
Under Senju Butsuma's shocked gaze, the cloaked figure's completely unchanged voice echoed out as his body was sucked into the spatial vortex, thoroughly disappearing from sight.
"Demon-God Severing Strike was actually useless?" Senju Butsuma looked at the longsword in his hand, then shook his head. "No, it didn't hit at all. Are physical attacks ineffective?"
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