Chương 8: Ninja Clan

Takigakure is small, but it has everything a normal ninja village should have. In the past three years of territorial development, it has acquired all of these, including training grounds, bases, hot springs, and prisons.

These facilities are not located in the main area of the village, but are relatively hidden in various underground caves, connected by a network of underground passages, making them difficult for outsiders to find.

Although he had lived in the village for three years, strictly speaking, Jieluo was still an outsider.

The Warring States period was the era of ninja clans, and thus there were many ninja clans of varying sizes. However, after the ninja village era, in just over 60 years, many ninja clans would disappear one after another without a sound.

In the Land of Waterfalls, the conflicts between ninja clans are basically all centered around the Divine Tree. The ninja clan that first occupied the Divine Tree of Takigakure is known as the Hero Clan. This name comes from the Hero's Water they possess. Those who drink the Hero's Water immediately gain great power and are often able to play a decisive role in the battle and achieve victory, just like heroes.

Other ninja clans outside of the Land of Waterfall were extremely envious of this power, and they fought each other relentlessly since the Warring States period. Later, under the influence of the ninja god Hashirama Senju, the ninja clans of the Land of Waterfall had no choice but to form an alliance to form the Hidden Takigakure village to resist the Land of Fire's attempt to annex them, with the village's hero clan as their leader.

The strongest ninja clans are the Heroes, Senki, Uji, and Kusanagi clans. Below them are some smaller ninja clans that have gathered together. Among them is a branch of the Fuma clan, whose members fled from the Land of Fire after their previous leader, Fuma Kotaro, was defeated and the Land of Fire was conquered by the God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju.

Yura belongs to the Kusanagi clan, which is skilled at training large numbers of low-ranking ninja as cannon fodder. They are also highly skilled in swordsmanship and are the largest clan in the village. Rumor has it that they are a samurai clan that guards the Kusanagi sword, one of the Three Sacred Treasures. However, as far as Yura knows, the Kusanagi clan has been wandering the ninja world for a long time, with no fixed abode.

Their main purpose is to collect information about the Kusanagi sword and retrieve it.

Now she mainly takes on the task of guarding the village. She knows the patrol routes, shift changes, and sentry posts like the back of her hand, since it's the job she used to do.

The Uji clan, while the Uchiha clan is known for its Fire Release techniques, is known for its Water Release techniques. Their ancestors were not related, and they did not have any strange eyes. They are also known as the Bridge Clan.

Although they are skilled in water escape techniques, they are even more adept at utilizing underground water veins to dig tunnels underground. They are a clan that lives underground and are known as the Bridge Clan because they can build bridges connecting the surface world to the underground world.

According to rumors circulating in the village, their clan possesses a terrifying and sinister forbidden technique, which Jie Luo has never witnessed.

But when it comes to being evil and terrifying, the village generally agrees that it is another clan, the Thousand Ghosts Clan.

He possesses the infamous forbidden technique, Earthly Wrath.

Like the Yura clan, this clan can fight using chakra and their hair, resulting in extremely abundant body hair, especially nose hair. The men in the clan are so ugly that they are unforgettable, while the women are at the other extreme, so beautiful that they are unforgettable.

It is named after the legendary monster, Hair Demon, because of its ninjutsu style of fighting using body hair.

This demon evolved from the legend of a woman who killed virgins to maintain her beauty and bathed in their blood. It is recorded in the folk novel "Hyakki Yagyō" (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons) in the ninja world. After death, it will transform into a form with a body made of long hair. Legend has it that the hair demon has no body, only a head with very long and thick hair. Countless girls' faces are hidden under the hair. When it sees a beautiful girl, it will steal her face and hide it under its hair.

The records describe how, after taking the heart of the Earth Demon, it transformed into a mask and hid inside the body of a monster resembling hair.

Jieluo cannot rule out the possibility that there are other ninjas in the village who have mastered the forbidden technique, Earth Grudge, and Jieluo is determined to obtain this forbidden technique.

Besides these four ninja clans, there is another special entity in the village.

With the arrival of the ninja village era, various lone rogue ninjas were attracted to the village, and most of them maintained a neutral stance.

Besides Kakuzu, there are many other skilled fighters among them. What interests Jieluo the most is Mochizuki Gen, the only survivor of the former Koga-ryu ninja and the head of the Koga Fifty-Three Families.

Legend has it that during the Warring States period, fifty-three families were divided into two factions and fought each other. Due to some ideological disputes, they were defeated by Sarutobi Sasuke, who brought in powerful allies from the Senju clan. The entire Senju clan was wiped out by the Sarutobi clan.

The man's attitude in the village was always strange; he remained a cold bystander. Jieluo had only met this man once before the mission to assassinate Senju Hashirama. The way he looked at a group of dead people at that time left a deep impression on Jieluo.

What we know is that this man is very strong, probably the strongest in the village. He holds the position of village doctor and is highly respected. As long as you don't provoke him, he won't do anything special and is basically in a state of extreme decadence and lying down.

perhaps...

In comparison, Kakuzu is rather pitiful. Not only was he sent out on a mission where he was certain to die, but after the mission failed and he barely escaped with his life, he was still purged by the village. This is not unrelated to the fact that Kakuzu himself was not strong enough and did not have any powerful backers to protect him.

The historical hatred left over from the Warring States period led to increasingly frequent conflicts and frictions between factions in the village. Kakuzu was merely caught up in it, and he was too naive to think that joining the ninja village would end his life during the chaotic Warring States period.

There's a term that perfectly explains Kakuzu's behavior: convert fanaticism, which refers to the fact that newly converted believers participate in church activities more actively than the original believers.

Kakuzu might truly love the village and be willing to risk his life for the organization, but the ninja clan might not be so.

This is the prison of Dragon Hidden Village, dark and gloomy, located in a cave underground. The flickering firelight casts a hideous black shadow on the wall. Deep within the prison, in a solitary cell, the young Kakuzu is bound by his limbs and fixed to a cross.

His body was a mess, and his bare upper body had gaping, gruesome wounds, clearly indicating that he had recently been subjected to severe torture.

Having been beaten three times a day, Kakuzu's vision was blurry. He hung his head, blood and sweat dripping from his cheeks and chin.

He couldn't understand why things had turned out this way.

It's just that I didn't complete the mission, and that opponent was simply not someone I could defeat, so it shouldn't be my fault.

So, why!?

Kakuzu thought about it for a very, very long time.

But just now, he suddenly realized that this was definitely not his fault!

The village is the one in the wrong. What village, what peace? It's all a facade, nothing but lies, just excuses to make people work for them!

If that's the case, what reason is there for the village to take away the commission from the mission?

From now on, no one will be able to take a single penny from me!

Intense hatred and murderous intent churned within him. These wonderful emotions attracted the monsters lurking in the darkness. In the shadows of a corner of the cell, a butterfly fluttered its wings slightly, and a large number of invisible threads rapidly emerged, forming a pitch-black humanoid shape in mid-air.

Dark Technique: Shadow Puppet Her entire body is composed of the demonic energy threads of Yura, which are invisible to ordinary people.

However, if a layer of chakra is applied to perform a transformation technique, it can be detected by the naked eye.

"I advise you not to try to escape at this time."

"Step out of the shadows," Jieluo said.

Upon hearing this, Kakuzu looked up. He had just been trying to break the seal within his body by gathering chakra, and was taken aback when he saw a pair of scarlet eyes.

"It's you..." Her eyes widened in surprise.

"You're still alive?"

What was her name again?

Kakuzu recalled, but couldn't quite remember, only that the other person seemed to have been stabbed to death by a wooden pillar.

"You were arrested by the village too?"

Yura looked at Kakuzu with a complicated expression, unable to even assess the simple situation. Had he been driven mad by the village's attack?

"You don't think everyone's as stupid as you, do you, Kakuzu-senpai?" Yura chuckled mockingly.

"You ran away pretty fast when you saw things were going wrong during the assassination attempt on Hashirama Senju, so you don't seem stupid. How could you dare to return to the village after the mission failed? You should be punished for failing, otherwise how can the village maintain its authority? As an experienced old ninja, do you really think the village is some kind of charitable organization formed by kind-hearted men and women, senpai?"

"Shut up, brat!" Kakuzu stared at Yura with his eerie green eyes.

Yura smiled and shut her mouth, her scarlet eyes fixed on Kakuzu.

After a while...

"Did you come here to save me?" Kakuzu asked unrealistically, but deep down he still had a glimmer of hope, just in case.

"Are we that close, senior?" Jieluo asked.

It turns out that only money can give me a little warmth.

Kakuzu's face flushed red, and after a while, he said, "So, you're planning to become a rogue ninja."

"It seems you're not completely hopeless, senior." Jieluo nodded with a slight smile and said, "What 'traitor' talk? It doesn't sound nice. I've never joined Takigakure. If you don't want me to silence you, you'd better not mention my existence to anyone."

"What do you want to do?" Kakuzu asked.

"I just intend to take a small revenge on the village and take a few things," Jieluo said.

"I need your senior to take the blame for these crimes."

Since you plan to switch to another ninja village, a clean work resume is essential.

Kakuzu closed his eyes and pondered. His betrayal of the village was just an act of anger, without any detailed plan. He was unsure whether he could achieve his revenge, after all, he was facing an entire ninja village.

"I agree." Kakuzu opened his eyes and looked at Yura seriously, saying, "But I have to share the spoils!"

Although the other party looks like a kid, no one knows better than him how much skill it takes to escape from the clutches of the God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju.

The village was indeed full of hidden talents; thankfully, I didn't impulsively attempt a reckless prison break.

"No problem." Jie Luo smiled lightly, "If you survive, we'll naturally have to divide the spoils properly."

"You bastard—" Kakuzu squinted at Yura, then nodded and said, "Alright, it's settled then."

"Then wait for my message before you act." With that, Jie Luo's figure suddenly disappeared.

Seeing this scene of free movement and unpredictable appearance, Kakuzu's pupils narrowed slightly, and after a moment, the chakra he had gathered within his body subsided.