Seeing Uchiha Kagami's expression, the ordinary samurai were momentarily touched. Frankly speaking, the Konoha Ninja Village had been their comrades in arms in the past and had always been free of misconduct. Although there were some bad rumors, once they saw it with their own eyes, they would understand that rumors were, in the end, just rumors.
Uchiha Kagami waved to the back, ordering his men to release the samurai trapped in the forest by the traps. While waiting, he said to the ordinary samurai, "Gentlemen, we are all compatriots of the Land of Fire. We should all be fighting to protect the country, but now, because of certain traitors, do you think this is good? Our Konoha Ninja Village has not betrayed this country, yet we have been branded as traitors by the other side. I think you must have heard about it, but do you think it's true?"
The older, lower-ranking officers among the samurai frowned slightly and shook their heads. They didn't believe that Konoha Ninja Village had any motive to betray the country. Before, they had only heard what the Daimyo's mansion said. Now, the Daimyo's mansion's poor performance, in stark contrast to the friendly demeanor of Konoha Ninja Village, gradually made them lean towards Konoha Ninja Village.
"These guys must have done something bad to your territory. Just now, they even inexplicably attacked you. Do you really think the Daimyo's mansion's orders are correct?" Uchiha Kagami kicked the charred corpse of a Chakra Samurai and said to everyone.
As soon as this was mentioned, the samurai's eyes revealed anger and disgust. Previously, due to the need for supervision, the Chakra Samurai's actions were somewhat violent, which was barely understandable. But just now, they had no idea why the Chakra Samurai attacked them. Most of them were not particularly highly educated, but they at least understood some principles: who was good to them and who was bad to them—this was very clear.
"You are Lord Kagami of Konoha Ninja Village, aren't you?" One of the lower-ranking officers stepped forward. He was older and had deeper seniority in the army. With the mid-to-high-ranking officers all dead, he was the only one who could represent the samurai.
"Yes," Uchiha Kagami nodded slightly and said.
"According to you, your Konoha Ninja Village is only targeting the person named Tobi in the Daimyo's mansion, is that right?" the junior officer asked.
"Of course, we suspect this person is controlling the Daimyo-sama with genjutsu to achieve his ulterior motives. For this, he has even branded us with the crime of treason, leading you to war and causing us to kill each other." Uchiha Kagami expressed indignantly, "As long as this person is captured, I believe Daimyo-sama will soon wake up. It's just that many people have been deceived by Tobi in the Daimyo's name. I really don't want to engage in such a civil war. I don't ask you to fight with us, just to remain neutral."
The junior officer quickly processed the information. He undoubtedly disliked the Daimyo's mansion, which had never given him a good impression from start to finish.
And Konoha Ninja Village's performance was not like the rumors; they truly appeared honorable. It seemed that following Lord Kagami's suggestion was the more correct path.
"Is Daimyo-sama really being controlled by genjutsu?" the junior officer asked.
"It's very possible! Otherwise, how could Daimyo-sama make such moves? Ever since Tobi came to Daimyo-sama's side, he has repeatedly incited discord in our relationship. After our investigation, this person has deep ties with the Jashinists and is likely their leader," Uchiha Kagami said.
"Ah, I think I've heard such rumors," the junior officer thought for a moment and suddenly remembered having heard them in the past, during the propaganda war between the Daimyo's mansion and Konoha Ninja Village. Lower-ranking officers like him occasionally had access to such information.
"Just like these Chakra Samurai, according to the intelligence we've gathered, their physical state is very similar to that of Jashinists. I'm afraid Tobi used certain drugs to modify and control them, gradually turning them into this state." Uchiha Kagami looked at the Chakra Samurai with a hint of pity, "Presumably, they were initially unaware and thus became Tobi's puppets. Honestly, I truly feel sorry for them."
The junior officer suddenly looked at the corpses of the Chakra Samurai. Everyone had witnessed the Chakra Samurai's behavior, which was completely unlike ordinary people. Although the junior officer had never seen the so-called Jashinists, he felt that these Chakra Samurai were definitely not normal, aligning well with the rumors about Jashinists.
Now, the junior officer already largely believed Konoha Ninja Village's claims that the Daimyo's mansion might truly be controlled by Tobi. If that were the case, he and his men had no need to fight Konoha Ninja Village. Konoha Ninja Village was not betraying the country; instead, they were upholding justice and eliminating treacherous officials!
This matter made sense logically, and the junior officer had a good impression of the Konoha ninjas, feeling that agreeing to Uchiha Kagami's suggestion was fine.
At this moment, the junior officer saw the samurai comrades who had entered the forest emerge. Aside from some minor injuries, it seemed no one had actually died. He also learned from the old officer that indeed no one had been killed.
The junior officer and the old officer discussed quietly for a moment, and the old officer quickly stated, "What is there to hesitate about? There's clearly something wrong with the Daimyo's mansion. I think Daimyo-sama is indeed being controlled by that Tobi. I heard from my superior before that this Tobi is not a good person, and I'm not surprised at all that he would do such things!"
Immediately, some samurai dressed differently came over. These were samurai who had previously joined Konoha Ninja Village's combat units. They had all trained in chakra and learned how to use new tools, making them very powerful in combat. They had accompanied Uchiha Kagami's unit here on this mission.
However, what was needed here was not their combat strength, but their identity. In the past, they were also members of the ordinary samurai, and although they had now joined Konoha Ninja Village, they were more likely to be recognized by the ordinary samurai than the ninjas, who belonged to a different branch of military service.
They discussed with the officers of these ordinary samurai armies. With the negative impression of the Chakra Samurai representing the Daimyo's mansion, and the image of Konoha Ninja Village they had seen with their own eyes and heard from others, they basically reached a consensus—they would no longer fight for the Daimyo's mansion!
The samurai from Konoha Ninja Village returned to report the outcome to Uchiha Kagami. Uchiha Kagami breathed a slight sigh of relief, glad that the enemies on this path had been resolved smoothly. Because of the actions of the Chakra Samurai, these ordinary samurai even decided not to remain neutral, but to join Konoha Ninja Village's national protection efforts.
Uchiha Kagami praised their attitude, stating that the Land of Fire would surely remember their decision at this moment to bring peace back to the country.
Even so, reorganizing these samurai armies was no easy task. Uchiha Kagami assigned tasks one by one, thinking it would still take some time. So, he began to wonder about the other battlefields. The central route should not have met yet, and it was likely that only Shimura Danzo's side was engaged in combat.
Uchiha Kagami's side had a relatively simple composition; none of them had been with the Daimyo's mansion early on, so convincing them was easier—they were forced to come anyway—but it wasn't the same for the central route and Shimura Danzo's side. There were both forced samurai like these, and also lords who had initially sided with the Daimyo's mansion and had a very poor relationship with Konoha Ninja Village. These lords might have seen the problems with the Daimyo's mansion, but were willing to use it to deal with Konoha Ninja Village.
Shimura Danzo was not a gentle person. He was a member of the Anbu during the Second Hokage's era. Although he shifted his focus to intelligence gathering in the mid-period of Kazamori Masahiko's rule and his temperament became somewhat milder, he remained ruthless when dealing with enemies.
Since the enemies Shimura Danzo faced would not be like those on his side, it was conceivable that there would be casualties. Uchiha Kagami thought that with Shimura Danzo's tactics, he might even eliminate many people before being able to subdue the others.
Just as Uchiha Kagami had predicted, the main force of the Daimyo's mansion on the central route was slowly advancing, using towns as strongholds. On Shimura Danzo's side, due to the terrain, they had already begun to engage. Shimura Danzo never intended to treat these people gently. He understood that without using thunderous methods to suppress those with ulterior motives, others would not be able to remain stable and could easily be incited.
And Shimura Danzo's troops had indeed limited frontal combat capabilities. So, he chose the same combat method as Uchiha Kagami, using the terrain to ambush and eliminate the samurai army. But unlike Uchiha Kagami's restraint, Shimura Danzo demanded that as many people as possible be eliminated.
Of course, Shimura Danzo was also able to distinguish who could not be won over and who could be. He mainly targeted the Chakra Samurai and those who had a bad relationship with Konoha Ninja Village and were causing trouble because of it.
As the head of the intelligence department, Shimura Danzo had long known about the existence of these individuals. They were all people who, in past commercial or political activities of Konoha Ninja Village, had been insatiably greedy or suffered losses. Among them were not a few who had grudges from the purge of obstructionist nobles after the Second Shinobi World War.
In Shimura Danzo's mind, these people were already on a blacklist. It was only due to past circumstances that Konoha Ninja Village couldn't openly move against them, at most only secretly suppressing them. Now, however, leveraging Uchiha Kageyama's actions, these people were happy to attack Konoha Ninja Village.
Shimura Danzo let out a cold smile, thinking: If you had behaved, you could at least have survived in the future, as the village needs to stabilize the national environment, and even if people are killed, there must be a legitimate reason. But you just handed over the reason, so don't blame me for being ruthless.
The traps set by Uchiha Kagami were mainly for confinement, while those set by Shimura Danzo were more for killing. Some samurai would walk and suddenly slide down a slope, breaking their necks; some samurai would be fine, then suddenly scream and act like a madman, either attacking their comrades or slitting their own throats; and some samurai would suddenly be assassinated by ninjas, losing their lives inexplicably.
These samurai armies also suffered from the same drawbacks as those on Uchiha Kagami's side. The Chakra Samurai, who served as overseers, had weak combat awareness and fought in a straightforward manner, failing to fully utilize the samurai army's combat power. Sometimes, they even directly led people into the traps set by Shimura Danzo.
Shimura Danzo secretly chuckled. These Chakra Samurai were truly foolish. Although their frontal combat capabilities were decent, without someone to command them, their combat awareness was even worse than that of experienced lower-ranking officers. It wasn't that no one offered suggestions, but they were directly eliminated by the Chakra Samurai. Such infighting, Shimura Danzo had never seen in all his years.
He wondered what Uchiha Kageyama's purpose was in training these Chakra Samurai. If it was to act as combat power, then there was naturally no problem, but in this state, did he dare to let them lead expeditions themselves?
Shimura Danzo thought for a moment and then stopped considering these things. They were all enemies anyway; he just needed to eliminate them. Because he had other goals, the death rate of the Chakra Samurai was slower than on Uchiha Kagami's side, but it would eventually reach a critical point. As Uchiha Kageyama's command was activated, these Chakra Samurai began to pounce on their comrades.
Shimura Danzo, seeing this scene, was equally unable to comprehend it, but he couldn't just stand by and watch. So, he concentrated his forces to eliminate the Chakra Samurai. Because he lacked powerful dōjutsu like Uchiha Kagami's, he often caused unnecessary casualties in the process of eliminating the Chakra Samurai.
However, Shimura Danzo had originally intended to eliminate some unstable elements within the samurai army. His Wind Release techniques were naturally merciless towards enemies. If there were extra casualties, then so be it. These deaths would be beneficial for integrating these samurai units.
In short, after Shimura Danzo eliminated all the Chakra Samurai, more than half of the unstable elements in the samurai army also disappeared. Next, to prevent any accidents, Shimura Danzo used various reasons to clear out some more people. Any unstable elements within his perception were all eliminated.
Using this method, Shimura Danzo completed the integration of this route's samurai army. Although many of them intended to remain neutral, he didn't care. He believed that Uchiha Kagami's side should have also taken control of their army, leaving only Hiruzen Sarutobi and Torifu Akimichi's side.
However, what they encountered would not be as smooth as what he and his people experienced. The central route had many towns to rely on, so it would surely be a tough battle.
While his subordinates were integrating, Shimura Danzo silently pondered. With Hiruzen Sarutobi's strength, he should be able to control the army. This time, it was also the time for the airborne combat units to shine, allowing them to truly witness the power of three-dimensional warfare.
He just didn't know when Uchiha Kageyama would start to act. This person was the main target; once he was dealt with, this civil war could be declared over.