“So, you’ve decided to lead the mission yourself?”
Senju Tobirama narrowed his eyes, his crimson pupils fixed on Uchiha Ming in front of him, a mix of doubt and puzzlement on his face.
“Yes, Lord Tobirama!” Uchiha Ming stroked the inch-long beard on his chin, a smile spreading across his lips, and said happily, “The Earth Spider Clan. Since they chose to attack a Konoha clan, and even disregarded the honor of our Konoha Ninja Village, they must be punished.”
“Although we did issue the mission, the fact that they actually dared to accept it proves they have no respect for the authority of our Konoha Ninja Village. Not to mention, their mission failed, which prevented my carefully arranged plan from succeeding and kept the Uchiha Clan from integrating with the Village.”
“This truly disrupted our Konoha Ninja Village’s century-long grand strategy! Therefore, to make them understand the might of our Konoha Ninja Village, I will personally lead the team to reclaim this honor for Konoha and for the Uchiha Clan!”
Uchiha Ming patted his chest, promising under Senju Tobirama’s gaze, as if seeking commendation.
“...”
Senju Tobirama was speechless inwardly, wishing he could point at Uchiha Ming’s head and curse him out. The reason he had pitted the Uchiha Clan against the Earth Spider Clan was merely to temporarily divert the Earth Spider Clan’s attention and to make the Uchiha Clan and the Earth Spider Clan sworn enemies.
After all, as early as when the Earth Spider Clan threatened him with a Forbidden Technique, he had secretly sent elite Ninja to infiltrate their clan to deal with them and to steal their clan’s hidden secret techniques. He had even stolen some corpses of their deceased ancestors and elders.
Through the Forbidden Technique he had developed and researched, the still imperfect Edo Tensei, he quietly uncovered some of their secrets. Even though these were the corpses of peripheral members of the Earth Spider, he still understood how their secret technique worked.
He also learned that the Earth Spider Clan possessed this Forbidden Technique, which, while powerful in terms of attack range, also had significant limitations.
That is, each time the Ninjutsu is used, a clan member with naturally strong talent must be sacrificed.
Sacrificing a talented clan member who could have grown into a strong individual in one go was a complete pitfall.
Not to mention, this attack mode is indiscriminate, a large-scale area-of-effect attack that clears all life.
Therefore, each time they use the attack, they can only send one person to use it. If their own people are also within the range, it’s equivalent to leading their own people to death.
This was the most important reason why the Earth Spider Clan remained hidden and did not emerge; it could not be used in large-scale clan warfare involving their own members.
And upon learning this, Senju Tobirama also understood that although the other party had the ability to perish together, they would have to pay a heavy price. It was an ultimate trump card that would only be used when the entire clan’s survival was at stake.
And facing his pressure.
The other party only threatened verbally, not daring to act.
From this, it was clear.
Unless he was determined to eradicate the Earth Spider Clan, the other party would only make harsh threats and would not bother to fight him to the death!
Therefore, the discovery of this Forbidden Technique’s secret actually brought Senju Tobirama a satisfying sense of peace.
This proved that the other party could not defeat him.
But they also had the ability to perish together.
Now that he had uncovered this, he could verbally endure their threats for now, and then offer a small amount of benefit to win them over, while secretly leaking their information to the Uchiha Clan and suppressing them in various ways.
When they suffered a certain amount of damage and sought his help, he would then seize the opportunity to manipulate them and make them an asset to his Senju Clan.
This could be described as killing four birds with one stone.
He avenged his loss of face, the Uchiha provoked a powerful enemy, the Senju Clan gained loyal subordinates, and Konoha didn't have to worry about the Earth Spider Clan with their Forbidden Technique joining another country.
Everyone had a good ending.
Senju Tobirama thought about all this with satisfaction.
Logically, under Senju Tobirama’s meticulous scheme, the entire matter was quite perfect.
And he wasn't afraid that the Earth Spider Clan would discover anything.
After all, on the surface, Senju Tobirama had shown fear of their Forbidden Technique, agreed to their request, and offered greater benefits to buy them off.
The Uchiha Clan might discover it because the Uchiha Clan itself was a powerful clan with a thousand-year heritage, and might possess information in this area.
Even if it was exposed.
It would be their own fault for not keeping the secret well.
And Senju Tobirama himself had helped them when they were in danger, protecting them from being wiped out by the Uchiha.
Not to mention that they didn't discover the scheme; even if they did, they would probably just have to grit their teeth and accept reality.
But now.
Senju Tobirama was dumbfounded.
Because none of his plans had succeeded.
“This Uchiha Ming actually personally accepted the plan I set. According to my plan, the Uchiha Clan’s first move was supposed to result in heavy losses, with most of their fighting force being wiped out by the Earth Spider Clan. But now this pig is acting himself. Does he intend to sacrifice himself?”
“Am I going to have to abandon Uchiha Ming?” Senju Tobirama’s mind was a mess as he pondered.
“No, absolutely not!” Senju Tobirama thought to himself. He had gone through so much trouble to gradually promote Uchiha Ming to the highest elder position in the Uchiha Clan.
It would be a pity to let Uchiha Ming die in vain.
But the other party.
Had indeed accepted this mission.
Could it be that the Uchiha Clan discovered Uchiha Ming’s problem? No, impossible. With the brains of those in the Uchiha Clan, how could they discover what he had done!
Senju Tobirama thought confidently, reviewing the entire process. And through Uchiha Ming’s narration, he clearly confirmed that the spy he had planted had no chance of being exposed, so he completely relaxed.
“Very well, you can delay some time under the pretext of intelligence gathering! Then, you alone, plus some people I send with you, can go out and lie low for a few months before returning, saying that the enemy has withdrawn and the mission failed!”
Senju Tobirama gave the order.
“Yes! Then the Earth Spider Clan will get off easy!”
Uchiha Ming said unwillingly.
“Hmph, we’ll let them off for now.” A cold glint appeared in Senju Tobirama’s eyes, and thinking of his Edo Tensei Ninjutsu, he couldn't help but have an evil thought.
...
Meanwhile, the Shadow Clone of Uchiha Tenxiu that had been left in Harvest City could no longer hold on.
Because Uchiha Tenxiu’s Shadow Clone had been in Harvest City for a long time, about ten days.
In reality.
A normal Shadow Clone couldn't last for several days, let alone.
Even one or two days was impossible.
As a Ninjutsu developed by Senju Tobirama, the Shadow Clone Technique had various advantages: it could transfer training experience, evenly distribute Chakra, and make it impossible for people’s vision to distinguish the true body. Even the Sharingan couldn't distinguish it 100%, requiring increased Dojutsu to see through it.
But essentially, the Shadow Clone was a short-term, highly efficient Ninjutsu specifically developed for combat.
Uchiha Tenxiu, however, specifically targeted this point and developed it relentlessly, eventually creating three different variations of the Shadow Clone — Modified.
Among them was Shadow Clone Modified One Technique. It completely abandoned the Shadow Clone’s combat mode to gain a longer Shadow Clone maintenance time. It could not release Ninjutsu, nor Genjutsu, nor would it inherit training experience.
It was just a Chakra thought-body, acting according to its prior programming, with normal human intelligence.
It was thanks to this improvement of the Shadow Clone that, while the main body had long since reached the Land of Rain, the clone in Harvest City maintained the original order. The city, which had been sealed off, was now unsealed. There were still many samurai patrolling, and those who were originally outer city samurai were promoted and moved into the inner city. Everything seemed to be as usual, and the explanation given for the disappearance of inner city residents was that they had colluded with bandits and were all executed.
No one suspected anything.
After all, colluding with thieves to burn down the Ōtomo’s Tianshou Pavilion and granary, and having their entire family executed, was a perfectly normal consequence.