HSU: Ch. 294

Muzo stood outside the village, watching the tide of Edo Tensei corps flood in, and knew the battle was already decided. Even without intelligence support from the village, the Edo Tensei soldiers were themselves a source of information, so he was largely aware of the Iwa ninja army's movements.

Before erasing the consciousness of the latest batch of Edo Tensei soldiers, Muzo had already learned of Iwa's newest strategic decisions.

Since arriving in the Land of Earth, Muzo had razed villages and scorched lands, turning the once-prosperous eastern region into utter chaos. Not only had he completely destroyed Iwa's original war strategy, but he had also incited turmoil across the entire nation.

Now, in the Land of Earth, food prices had skyrocketed, and the daimyō were pressuring Iwa to swiftly resolve the crisis, specifically, to eliminate Muzo and his reanimated army.

The relationship between ninjas and nobility had deteriorated to the point where, by the time of the Fourth Great Ninja War, it was almost impossible to maintain even a façade of harmony. Everyone had desires. Though the roles might be divided, adults wanted everything.

In the era of nations and villages, it was the ninja who held military power. And to control military power was, in essence, to control the nation. That was why it was called the ninja era.

During the First Great Ninja War, the villages fought indiscriminately, completely disregarding the authority of the states. Many ninjas from the Warring States period didn't care about nations at all, and most of them perished in that war. The surviving ninjas, recognizing the growing rift between themselves and the nobility, and prompted by the formation of the Five Kage system, handed the authority to declare war back to the daimyō.

By the Second Ninja War, conflicts became purely acts of state.

But in the Third War, Kumo broke that unspoken rule first. It was obvious even without thinking that the Raikage had no interest in the Land of Wind. Kumo's aggression stirred the ambitions of other nations, leading to a war initiated by ninjas but conducted under the guise of state missions.

This current war, however, like the First Great Ninja War, was completely outside national control. It was purely the act of ninja villages.

Muzo had once again ripped away the thin veil the nobles had worked so hard to maintain.

Hashirama had wanted to elevate the status of ninjas while avoiding widespread chaos and suffering. His solution was the era of nations and villages.

Whether Tobirama truly agreed with this or not is unknown, but he certainly worked to uphold Hashirama's ideals.

Muzo, on the other hand, couldn't care less. He had no particular desire to prove that ninjas were superior to nobles, but if the nobles were going to support his enemies, then he had no sympathy to spare.

Strictly speaking, Muzo was, deep down, no different from Madara. He didn't care about states or nobility. It was just that Hashirama liked the idea, so he went along with it.

Now, the nobility of the Land of Earth had officially taken a stance against him.

Openly, the nobles of the Land of Earth, in an unprecedented show of unity, were supporting Iwa.

Iwa had now gathered over ten thousand ninjas and planned to deal with Muzo in the same way they had once fought the Third Raikage, or rather, not kill him, but seal him and his Edo Tensei army. They had even decided to let everyone in the occupied zones die.

Edo Tensei required sacrifices. By killing those who could be used as potential sacrifices ahead of time, they hoped to cut off the source for future reanimations. And all the blame, would be placed on Konoha. Such a heartless plan was, in essence, no different from Muzo's own actions.

Naturally, not all ninjas agreed with this. The "reinforcements" he encountered outside the port were those who didn't.

At this thought, he smiled.

It seemed he shouldn't rely solely on Iwa ninjas to fight Iwa ninjas. He should let the people of the Land of Earth fight the Land of Earth itself. After all, to the upper echelons of the nation, the civilians in the occupied zones were not people, they were resources aiding the enemy. There was no longer a need to continue destroying villages and lands. These people would now become his allies.

The reanimated soldiers would probably raise hell in the Land of Lightning, and as for him, he'd try what it was like for one man to destroy an entire nation.

He had wanted to try this for a long time.

"Torune, Fū," Muzo said. "Call the others. Follow me into the village."

"Yes." The two responded, turning to signal the ANBU behind them to follow.

The ANBU were radiating killing intent, they were mentally prepared for a massacre. After following Muzo all this way, these people had started to become wild. And you couldn't entirely blame them. What had they been doing all this time?

They followed Muzo and charged forward.

In short, if they weren't cutting people down, they were running. And when they weren't doing either, they were eating or sleeping, and even that was on a tight schedule.

When they slept, it was while being carried by reanimated soldiers. The team never stopped moving.

Eventually, the ANBU just became numb, because they realized, he didn't really need them at all.

Need intel? Find two enemies, kill one, reanimate the other.

Combat? What was more efficient than Edo Tensei? Its margin for error was practically infinite.

If anything, it was them slowing down his operational speed.

They followed him toward the large village ahead.

But after only a few steps, they noticed something strange, the tide of reanimated soldiers that had surged into the village… was now retreating.

This had never happened before. Even when they were only mid-to-low level ninjas in their past lives, and their strength had been nerfed after being reanimated, in large numbers these mass-produced Edo Tensei soldiers were still terrifying. The ANBU had seen it firsthand on this march.

Not to mention those who had been jonin in life. No matter how sloppy the reanimation process, their foundations were still solid.

It was like dealing with a disaster. If it weren't for the fact that these Edo Tensei had a shelf life, after which they would collapse and need constant replenishment, the ANBU would've had their worldview shattered.

Was Konoha really just going backward all these years?

"Is there a powerful enemy in the village?" Fū was the first to ask.

"Don't be ridiculous. Look at the situation. How could there still be a strong enemy?" Muzo replied. "Celebrate, the people in this region are now our allies."

Everyone once again mentally typed out question marks.

They had burned down homes and fields, killed countless people, and even indirectly caused civilian casualties. And now… they were allies?

Fū and Torune, who had done their share of dirty work before, wondered if Muzo was pulling a "hurt them to the extreme, then offer kindness" routine. Due to the fast pace of operations, he hadn't had time to share all the intel with the ANBU, so they had no idea about the plan that the Land of Earth and Iwa had already started executing.

These ANBU were already considered among the most ruthless in Konoha, but even they had never thought along these lines.

He knew they wouldn't.

Compared to the era he came from, this truly was a good time.

Other me, you'd better hurry up, or I'm going to take first blood in this battle!

From the port village where Muzo was located, heading west across the sea led directly to a vast mountain range.

Unlike the Land of Earth, which was currently in the heat of battle, the Land of Hot Water, where Konoha had first launched large-scale military operations, appeared increasingly peaceful on the surface. After arriving at the southern border village, the initially aggressive Konoha ninja army had gone quiet. It seemed that, for the time being, Konoha was content to keep the Kumo ninja forces pinned here.

For Hizashi, who was temporarily acting as commander, this was a period of considerable strain. They were still waiting on word from Masashi.

At that moment, the Konoha army camp resembled a beast suppressing its bloodthirsty instincts. All probing attempts by the Kumo forces would simply vanish once they got too close.

To the Kumo ninjas and other surrounding factions, Masashi hadn't been seen in quite some time.

Several days had passed since he led the foreign mercenary corps into the mountains.

---

Deep within the dark, dense mountain range, this place belonged to no man. Mountain peaks rose and fell like waves, endlessly stacked upon one another, cliffs standing tall as if carved by blades and axes.

In the early morning light, the ridgelines flickered in and out of view.

Here, the four thousand-strong foreign mercenary corps, driven by the riches of Kumo and Masashi's might, were like starving wolves: greedy, alert, and bloodthirsty.

The Poison Route wasn't easy to find.

Its far end connected to the plains of the Land of Lightning. But on the side of the Land of Hot Water, the entrance was hidden deep in the mountains. Since the path had long been abandoned, nature had reclaimed it. The once-clear mountain trail and all identifying markers had long since vanished. Fortunately, most ninjas were excellent trackers. Thanks to the efforts of thousands of these professional military contractors, there were finally some leads.

The best evidence? They had begun encountering Kumo ninjas.

These weren't Kumo ninjas coming from the seaside route, which confirmed his analysis was correct, Kumo really was using the Poison Route.

As the only Konoha ninja in the area, Masashi didn't feel like a guest in a foreign land. On the contrary, being surrounded by hired mercenaries who cared only for money, and whose lives he didn't need to worry about, gave him a rare sense of freedom. To be clear, he wasn't a psychopath who needed to kill a few people to sleep at night. It was simply that without responsibility, there was no pressure.

He was a normal person now, not a demon anymore.

He had no intention of going back on any promises either. Whether people got what they wanted depended on their own fate. Orochimaru's share, he would make sure to reserve. But as for these Oto ninjas, he had no obligation to guarantee them anything. He paid, Orochimaru provided the manpower, a perfectly fair deal.

It was just that the money wasn't in his hands; the Oto ninjas would have to retrieve it themselves.

"Something's happening up ahead," said an Oto ninja emerging from the forest.

These foreign ninjas had been having a tough time lately. The environment here was just too rich, practically a paradise for all forms of life. If not for their chakra, this so-called paradise would've been unbearable.

A single mosquito bite could swell into a fist-sized, bright red lump.

But Masashi had warned them in advance to bring enough insect repellent, so they couldn't blame him for their misfortune.

"Did you encounter the enemy?" Masashi asked.

"Yes, and we may have found an old path," the Oto ninja replied. "We've discovered a Kumo ninja outpost."

"They didn't notice you?" Masashi's gaze sharpened as he looked at the man.

The ninja still bore an expression of excitement, but when he met Masashi's cold, faintly hostile eyes, a chill ran down his spine and he sobered up immediately.

His sense returned.

"Everyone was very cautious..." the Oto ninja lowered his head.

Masashi stared at him for a long moment, then decided against using the Sharingan to check whether he'd been bribed.

After all, even if it was a trap, he wasn't afraid.

He'd been cautious before because he had no choice, back then, he was surrounded by a bunch of Konoha comrades, too many familiar faces. Just among his own relatives, there were so many that he couldn't afford to act recklessly.

Commander? No, he was more like a babysitter.

But now, things were different. Why the hell should he still be cautious?

"How big is the outpost? Can you tell how long it's been there?"

"Looks like it was built only a few days ago, probably around the time we set out."

"Mm." Masashi waved his hand, signaling that the man could leave.

That confirmed it: the Kumo ninjas didn't have an easy time getting through the Poison Route either. They were probably repairing it as they went along.

How considerate of them, fixing the road for him.

He had only paused to think for about a second when a whole crowd of people had already gathered around him.

They were the leaders of the foreign mercenary corps who had followed him in search of the One Piece, no wait, wrong story... who had followed him to make a fortune.

But none of them rushed him with something like, "C'mon, stop overthinking, let's just go kill them."

They simply stared at him with big, expectant eyes.

Masashi looked at their eager expressions and couldn't help but laugh.

A bunch of bloodthirsty criminals, and now they were pretending to be all sweet and obedient in front of him.

Still, he could kind of understand. After spending days trekking through forests, dealing with birds, beasts, and biting insects, finally running into a few Kumo ninjas wasn't enough to go around. Now that they'd found an actual outpost, if he weren't here, they'd probably be foaming at the mouth like starving wolves.

They say merchants are boldy as long as there's money to be made, they're afraid of nothing.

Kumo didn't scare these people either.

"All right, quit staring at me. We're definitely taking that outpost. But I need to confirm whether it's really part of the Poison Route or just a decoy the Kumo ninjas set up." Masashi looked around at the mercenaries whose heads were filled with nothing but money. "Don't forget, although we haven't killed many Kumo ninjas along the way, it's been enough for them to realize they're not the only ones in these mountains."

Not that he cared about these guys' lives.

It was just that... waste was a shame, after all.

"Don't worry, we get it. You don't need to worry. We might not be that strong, but we can definitely handle the mid-to-low-level Kumo ninjas."

Masashi looked at the guy's giant, pancake-like face and said, "Mm. The fact that we've all come this far together means we share a kind of fate. I hope we all get rich and stay safe."

Fine, let them scout ahead.

The Kumo ninjas were crafty. Surely, they had considered the possibility that Konoha might use the Poison Route too. What if it was a trap?

Out of 4,000 troops, they'd already lost a few dozen. Losing a few dozen more? That still fell within acceptable combat losses.

It had taken this long already. It was about time he started seeing some returns. Things in the Land of Earth had probably already broken out into full-blown war by now.

Surely he couldn't be underperforming compared to his past self?