In Kikyō Castle, the news that Nameless could sense White Zetsu's presence was quickly relayed to the main body.
At this time, White Zetsu's main body and the Black Zetsu attached to him were leaving the Uchiha Clan; their next destination was the Hagoromo Clan.
No one knew why Black Zetsu and White Zetsu's main body continued lingering in this area after the minor conflict between these two clans ended and large numbers of White Zetsu individuals withdrew from the Uchiha Clan.
However, one thing was certain: these two generals showing up in person definitely harbored no good intentions.
"What should we do? That Nameless can perceive us—this has never happened before. At least within Kikyō Castle's range, she'll make us unable to move an inch... That great objective hasn't been achieved yet; we can't afford the risk of exposure," White Zetsu's main body said.
Black Zetsu was the brain, while other White Zetsu were merely hands and feet. White Zetsu's main body was at most equivalent to a cat climbing frame, so at times like this, only Black Zetsu could make decisions.
"This is indeed unprecedented, but..."
"That Nameless really is a ninja with potential. Who would have thought that after losing her Sharingan, she could still cause us such trouble."
Black Zetsu also hadn't anticipated such a slip-up at this crucial stage of plan implementation.
"We need to find a way to eliminate her."
He made a very ordinary decision, but the problem was how to eliminate her.
"How exactly should we do it? Even without her Sharingan, she's still a very strong ninja. Without the opportunity for assassination, it's impossible for us to eliminate her with our own strength alone."
White Zetsu's main body was quite clear-headed. You must know that their kind, with such weak strength, had survived from Kaguya's era until now simply by being extremely cautious and hiding in the shadows, never operating openly. They could occasionally conduct assassinations, but launch frontal assaults against ninja? Forget about it.
"Let me think. According to reports from White Zetsu who arrived at Kikyō Castle first, although that Nameless can vaguely sense White Zetsu's existence, her sensing range seems quite limited..."
"As long as we're careful about surveillance positions and don't step into her sensing range, we can actually temporarily ignore her."
"Right, don't put the cart before the horse. As long as the plan can be implemented, she'll naturally find it difficult to survive on the battlefield."
Black Zetsu wasn't stupid either. He couldn't possibly force an attack on Lan. More importantly, he suddenly realized that compared to his own plan, Lan's matter was just minor details—he couldn't let her interfere with the overall plan.
Before the plan begins, there's no need to mind her; after the plan begins, there's even less need to mind her.
"That ninja organization in Kikyō Castle is clearing surrounding forces, right? Look, even they are silently cooperating with our actions."
"Yes, among ninja forces in remote areas, they're among the capable ones."
"Very good. After they resolve the Takenaka Clan in the northeast and the Takahashi daimyo forces behind them, bypass that Nameless's sensing range and assassinate that organization's leader."
Ah, Lord Black Zetsu's wisdom was truly unparalleled. Worthy of being consciousness fragments separated at the last moment by a mother who could turn against her own son and then be sealed by that son—his plan-making ability was very unique.
Black Zetsu didn't think there was anything wrong with his idea. Come on, White Zetsu being vaguely detected by a Uchiha genius was already quite a coincidental event. Could there possibly be a second person within a small organization who could sense White Zetsu?
This possibility absolutely~ does~ not~ exist~!
"In any case, have White Zetsu temporarily avoid entering Kikyō Castle, while closely monitoring that ninja organization's movements. Once predetermined conditions are met, immediately look for opportunities to eliminate their leader. We... continue toward the Hagoromo Clan."
"I understand."
The white-and-black pair wrapped in aloe leaves walked alone through the forest, soon completely hidden in the shadows of trees.
...
"You feel someone infiltrated Kikyō Castle and is conducting surveillance on the organization?"
After ending combat operations, Yūshin returned to Kikyō Castle, then heard Lan mention this matter.
"I can't confirm the existence of an infiltrator, because I didn't clearly sense the other party. But... at that time, there was a vague yet persistent intuition in my heart telling me I was being subjected to some kind of surveillance."
Having sensed something she'd never encountered before, Lan couldn't confirm the authenticity of this sensing, so her description was quite ambiguous.
Yūshin fell into contemplation. After a while, he nodded and said:
"Your sensing should be correct. In uncertain times like this, you should trust your intuition even more. The organization should indeed have encountered intrusion. The shinobi world is vast—there are always people skilled in various stealth abilities. You don't need to pay special attention. If you sense them again, don't hesitate—just continue attacking."
"Alright, I understand."
Lan nodded. She didn't overthink it. Yūshin told her to attack directly after detecting intruders, so she would obediently start attacking.
If his guess was correct, what Lan sensed was White Zetsu.
Who would have thought that losing her Sharingan would bring such an unexpected gain—truly losing in the east and gaining in the west... Honestly, Yūshin felt that if Lan could sense White Zetsu when she still had her Mangekyō Sharingan, he would have been very shocked.
But for her to sense White Zetsu in her current condition—for some reason, Yūshin actually didn't find it particularly strange.
The reason Yūshin believed Lan sensed White Zetsu was because at this very moment, there were still several White Zetsu crouching not far from Kikyō Castle... Though his sensing ability and range were far inferior to Lan's, mutual sensing among White Zetsu didn't rely on ordinary sensing abilities—it was a biological instinct.
White Zetsu had indeed come here. Their target would no longer be Lan, who had lost her Sharingan—it should be Shichimi... Yūshin's previous bad speculation had come true.
However, this time Yūshin didn't rush to clear out those few White Zetsu outside, because he felt these things would likely appear one after another for a while.
To prevent endless situations, he decided to give White Zetsu something big, so they'd stop coveting this place.
Frankly speaking, Lan being able to sense White Zetsu was an unexpected joy—not because she could help solve White Zetsu, but because some things that happen once can happen twice.
When the White Zetsu group knew someone could sense their existence, having a second such person wouldn't be a big deal.
After the "unbreakable golden body" was broken, others could freely come and go.
Lan could sense White Zetsu, so Yūshin could too—this was very reasonable. White Zetsu would think he was in the same situation as Lan, rather than guessing toward the truth.
Good, truly excellent—Yūshin could openly cause trouble for White Zetsu now.
No, he could both secretly and openly cause trouble for White Zetsu—double win, winning twice.
At this time, Yūshin didn't yet know Black Zetsu had already put him on the assassination list, but it didn't matter. Anyway, all assassination attempts would eventually become "open killings."
White Zetsu executing assassination missions could fight one against a hundred; White Zetsu executing "open killing" missions had combat power inferior to maggots.
White Zetsu approaching Yūshin with a knife was equivalent to a 500-watt light bulb approaching Yūshin at night—he had no reason not to notice.
The only problem now was that once combat plans began, they couldn't easily stop before completing predetermined objectives.
Fighting external wars while being careful of White Zetsu's secret surveillance—both open spears and hidden arrows pointing at the small Fireflies organization made its strength somewhat inadequate.
But there was no choice—the fighting had to continue, just with constant attention to defending Kikyō Castle.
Subsequently, Yūshin discovered those White Zetsu seemed intimidated by Lan's sensing ability. The number of White Zetsu in Kikyō Castle didn't increase, and the few existing ones just stayed honestly outside the city.
They neither fought nor retreated—were White Zetsu here to defecate at this feng shui treasure land?
Yūshin felt White Zetsu's mission was probably still the old routine of surveillance, just like they monitored Uchiha Madara, so he normally did his own things.
Five days later, they once again cleared a ninja clan force from the surrounding area.
Then, when Yūshin returned to Kikyō Castle that day, he discovered White Zetsu had finally begun taking action.
One White Zetsu carefully entered Kikyō Castle. It was extremely cautious, almost walking around Lan... But what use was this? It could avoid Lan's sensing but couldn't avoid Yūshin's sight.
After wandering around the city for several circles, it seemed to unilaterally contact certain ninja without their knowledge.
Then, it found a corner and quietly crouched down.
By evening, Lan got off work on time.
Yūshin stayed in his office at The Fireflies headquarters, discussing the gains and losses of this combat operation with several ninja.
At this moment, he discovered that White Zetsu had begun moving again. It came directly to the street, then swaggered toward the office building.
"Lord Yūshin? What happened?"
Nara Hideyuki, seeing Yūshin somewhat distracted, reminded him... He was a very serious person—since they were in a meeting, even the leader shouldn't be distracted.
Yūshin turned back. He smiled slightly, skipping over what everyone was discussing, and said:
"You've all heard Lan mention that there might be intruders within the organization, right?"
"Yes, but I haven't detected anything," Yamanaka Keiya said.
"Don't worry. In a moment, don't speak—there will be a good show."
After a few minutes, "Fūma Gorō" pushed open the office door. He looked hurried, with an anxious expression on his face.
"This is bad, Lord Yūshin—something terrible has happened..."
While speaking, he quickly walked toward Yūshin... Well, if an important figure within this organization suddenly attacked and assassinated the leader, what kind of chaos would that create?
But Yūshin suddenly stood up. In a flash, he pressed the other's shoulder with his left hand and said:
"Don't worry. I also have something important to tell you. It's like this..."
Before he finished speaking, Yūshin's right hand formed a blade and instantly pierced "Fūma Gorō's" chest.
"You..."
"You think your disguise is very good?"
"I..."
"Where did I reveal a flaw?"
"..."
I'm about to die here—can you let me finish speaking?
White Zetsu's disguise was quickly stripped away. "Fūma Gorō's" disguise faded, revealing a pale body.
Yūshin took the opportunity to extract this White Zetsu's chakra, then couldn't help frowning.
Guess what? Damn, earth attribute.
What kind of gacha luck was this—either nothing comes out, or it floods out? Whatever, store it for now.
"Still peeping? Finished watching?"
Yūshin deliberately called out, then stepped toward a wall.
The White Zetsu hidden within, observing the situation, was so startled it ran away. It was panicking not because the assassination failed, but because it left behind a White Zetsu corpse.
"What exactly is this thing..."
"Doesn't look like a human."
"Special puppets cultivated by certain forces? Is this retaliation against us?" Don't say—Nara Hideyuki really guessed correctly.
He just didn't know that the "certain forces" he mentioned had origins far beyond imagination.
"Very strong mimicry ability. I really thought it was Clan Leader Fūma."
They had just seen Yūshin suddenly attack Fūma Gorō violently and thought the leader had detected that Fūma Gorō was a spy from some force.
Yūshin deliberately let the other White Zetsu escape to carry the message back, warning them not to easily set foot in Kikyō Castle's sphere of influence.
"Go confirm Fūma Gorō's situation... Can no one identify this thing's origin?"
A ninja at the door went to find Fūma Gorō according to orders.
Facing Yūshin's question, people in the office shook their heads—how could they possibly have seen White Zetsu?
Seeing no response from everyone, Yūshin took out a scroll and sealed White Zetsu inside.
His heart wasn't at ease. White Zetsu's sneak attack wasn't much, but White Zetsu choosing to attack him meant those things wanted to do something big... Yūshin's attempt to warn the White Zetsu group might not have any effect.
The other party's certain plans should already be in the implementation process.
The guard ninja soon brought news about Fūma Gorō—he was resting at home with no incidents... It seemed White Zetsu had just unknowingly stolen part of his chakra.
Tonight's matter was temporarily left unresolved. Yūshin thought all night but couldn't figure out what White Zetsu actually wanted to do.
For Shichimi's Sharingan? But was it necessary to assassinate him?
But Black Zetsu's plan was layered—though the assassination failed, it wouldn't affect the next step of the plan.
The next day, Yūshin received major news.
The ninja responsible for final cleanup work in yesterday's battle returned to the organization, bringing back shocking good news.
"Lord Yūshin, after we defeated the Takenaka Clan and expelled Takahashi daimyo, we discovered from materials they left behind that within Takahashi daimyo's sphere of influence, there's a gold mine... They had been secretly mining it all along, and the news never leaked at all."
This ninja was quite happy—nonsense, who wouldn't be happy about finding a gold mine for free?
However, Yūshin was so shocked he suddenly stood up.
Logically speaking, a gold mine—such "worldly possessions"—had nothing to do with ninja forces. But you could think about this problem from another angle.
Who knew how large this gold mine was? With support from such worldly things as gold mines, Shimizu daimyo's purchasing power and economic strength might soon expand to the level of Ōji daimyo.
But did The Fireflies organization have strength comparable to the Senju Clan?
Previously, the gold mine was under secret mining, but now? After local forces scattered and fled, guess whether they would help Yūshin keep the secret?
This sweet fruit was too big—easy to choke on.
"Withdraw," Yūshin immediately said.
"What?"
"I mean withdraw our people from Takahashi's sphere of influence."
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