Chapter 29: The Truth of the Clan Massacre!
"Do you think we Konoha ninja would believe such nonsense?" Nara Shikano retorted. "An evildoer who massacred his own kin talks about earning money to support his family."
"Alright, I know that sounds a bit bizarre," Oyakata En said with a helpless shrug after a moment of silence. "But if you really search my memories, you'll know that I haven't hidden anything or lied."
The old clan head grunted noncommittally and then raised his right hand.
Yamanaka Inoichi, understanding the signal, stepped forward and raised his palm, preparing to press it against Oyakata En's forehead to search his memories.
"W-Wait!"
With the moment upon him, Oyakata En finally showed a hint of panic. "I want to know, after you've searched my memories, how do you plan to deal with me?"
Nara Shikano said calmly, "That will depend on what your true purpose is."
Under normal circumstances, if Nara Shikano and his team discovered a dangerous Jonin like Oyakata En who had defected from another country and deliberately hidden his identity, they would have killed him on the spot without a second thought. The fact that Shikano hadn't taken his life already was only out of consideration for his status as their "mission client."
"I told you! I have no other intentions for coming to the Land of Fire!" Oyakata En seemed extremely agitated, but he eventually gave up on this pointless emotional outburst. "No matter what you plan to do to me, execute me directly, or dig out my eyes... I hope you can let my daughter, Chino, go. She isn't old enough to remember things yet. Please, don't ever tell her about her family and her past. I'm begging you..."
Nara Shikano frowned but did not respond. Yamanaka Inoichi stepped forward in silence and began to probe the other's memories.
But as the probing process went deeper, Inoichi's expression gradually grew grim.
After a long while, Yamanaka Inoichi withdrew his hand and returned to Nara Shikano's side, his tone complex. "Uncle Shikano, what this man just said... it's true. He really doesn't have any plans to destroy the Land of Fire or threaten Konoha."
Nara Shikano's eyes darted over. "Are you sure you weren't caught in the Ketsuryūgan's genjutsu—forget it, I asked a stupid question."
Having taken the chakra-suppressing drug specially developed by the Nara clan, Oyakata En couldn't even mold chakra right now, let alone cast a genjutsu. To say nothing of deceiving an elite Jonin like Yamanaka Inoichi, who specialized in Yin Release!
Nara Shikano stared intently at Oyakata En. The latter was currently holding his head in his hands, looking as if his head were splitting open in agony. The Yamanaka clan's spiritual secret techniques could indeed probe others' memories, but correspondingly, they also caused considerable damage to the subject's brain. If used on a dead person, the subject naturally wouldn't show any pain. But for a living person, having one's memories forcibly scoured was no different from undergoing the excruciating pain of having one's flesh scraped from their bones!
Nara Shikano asked, "Is the intelligence about the Chinoike clan being wiped out true?"
"Yes," Yamanaka Inoichi responded. "And it was indeed him who slaughtered the entire clan, leaving only a single child, the daughter he just mentioned, Chino."
Nara Shikano's brow relaxed slightly. As long as it was confirmed that the other party was an inhuman villain who had massacred his clan, then even executing him on the spot would not create any psychological or moral pressure.
"However, there are some hidden circumstances regarding the clan massacre," Yamanaka Inoichi said with some hesitation. "He slaughtered the entire clan to avenge his wife..."
Nara Shikano's brow furrowed once more as he quietly listened to Inoichi's account.
The story wasn't complicated. The Valley of Hell in the Land of Hot Water was an extremely barren and treacherous region, rife with miasma. Since being exiled there by order of the Land of Lightning's Daimyo, the Chinoike clan's resources had become extremely limited. Decades passed, and the already scarce resources of the Valley of Hell were consumed to the point of near depletion. Under these circumstances, the solution the Chinoike clan came up with was to reduce the number of clansmen. The weak, such as the old, sick, and young, were naturally the first to be abandoned by the clan's upper echelon. And Oyakata En's wife, under this premise, was forced to her death by her own kin...
Nara Shikano's brow, which had just relaxed, furrowed tightly once again. Oyakata En's situation was completely different from what he had imagined! As the head of the Nara clan, Shikano was naturally repulsed by a heinous act like "clan annihilation." But Oyakata En had massacred the Chinoike clan not for his own selfish desires, nor for some inexplicable greater good, but purely for revenge, and perhaps even for protection!
Nara Shikano thought of Oyakata En's daughter, and a bead of sweat formed in his palm. If Oyakata En hadn't taken any action, the next one to be forced to death by the Chinoike clan's leaders would have been his daughter...
Nara Keisuke stared at the silent, head-bowed Oyakata En, feeling a great emotional impact as well. In the thousand-year history of the ninja world, countless clans had disappeared into the river of time, many of which were annihilated by others. But a clan that was wiped out by its own people... Besides the Chinoike clan before him, the only other one Keisuke could think of was the future Uchiha clan.
Nara Keisuke had no intention of comparing "Uchiha Itachi's annihilation of the Uchiha clan" and "Oyakata En's annihilation of the Chinoike clan" to see whose crimes were more heinous, or who was more deserving of sympathy. What he felt at this moment was simply a strong sense of revulsion.
'This time, it really is the world's fault!'
"My deepest apologies, Mr. Oyakata En," Nara Shikano said, taking a deep breath. "I don't know how to judge your actions, but... we will continue to carry out this escort mission until you are delivered safely to Kyoto."
"You're not planning to do anything more to me?" Oyakata En raised his head with difficulty, his eyes filled with bloodshot veins, not as a sign of the Ketsuryūgan, but due to the intense pain he had just endured. "The Chinoike clan's bloodline limit, the Ketsuryūgan, is very precious, you know."
In Oyakata En's expectation, the best course of action for the Ino-Shika-Chō would be to recruit him into Konoha Village and have him serve Konoha. The next best would be to gouge out his eyes and execute him on the spot. Or take him back to Konoha for human experimentation. Or use him as a breeding machine.
But he never expected...
Nara Shikano composed the complex emotions on his face and replied coolly, "We in Konoha have better options."
"That's certainly blunt..." Oyakata En's entire body went limp, and he collapsed onto the ground, his eyes shut tight, his voice faint. "You Konoha ninja are completely different from the Kiri ninja I've met... It's hard to imagine why there's such a big difference between ninja villages... Perhaps in the future, it's not impossible that we could cooperate..."
Towards the end, Oyakata En's voice became nearly inaudible.
With the hidden threat neutralized, Nara Keisuke and the others let down their guard and returned to the normal rhythm of the mission. Yamanaka Inoichi and Akimichi Chōza continued their night watch duties. Nara Keisuke and the clan head went back to rest.
The night passed without incident.
The next morning, the caravan prepared to set off, continuing its journey toward the capital of the Land of Fire. The actions of Nara Keisuke's group last night hadn't caused much of a stir. During breakfast, Oyakata En even came over to greet Nara Shikano, though his complexion wasn't very healthy. Although Oyakata En still remembered what happened last night, he had to admit that Nara Shikano's actions were entirely out of a sense of duty. Putting himself in their shoes, if he were in their position, he wouldn't have so easily ignored a ruthless man who had slaughtered his own kin traveling alongside him without taking any action.
Faced with Oyakata En's greeting, the old clan head's attitude was lukewarm. He could understand En's act of revenge, but that didn't mean he was willing to be on friendly terms with him.
Oyakata En was rebuffed but not disheartened. Merchants were not creatures who cared about face. Besides, it wasn't Nara Shikano himself that Oyakata En was interested in, but the medicinal resources of the Nara clan behind him. Rather than ignoring a valuable connection like Nara Shikano, it was better to use last night's conflict to deepen his ties with the Nara clan.
The deer cart ambled forward. After half a day, having repelled another group of bounty hunters and a small band of vagrants, the caravan finally arrived in Kyoto.
At the city gate of Kyoto, Might Guy's trio, who had accepted the B-rank mission [Caravan Guard], departed with the caravan. Sarutobi Asuma's trio, who had taken the B-rank mission [Bounty Hunter], followed behind Nara Shikano's group, heading together to the Daimyo's Residence.
The Daimyo's Residence was located in the central area of Kyoto, its architecture far more magnificent and exquisite than its surroundings. Led by Nara Shikano, Keisuke and the others entered the Daimyo's Residence unimpeded. The Daimyo had already been informed of the Konoha ninjas' arrival. Not only that, but the Daimyo was also aware of the reason for their visit. Summarized in two words—asking for money!
Without any deliberate posturing, the Daimyo summoned the Konoha ninja immediately after receiving the report from his chamberlain. After a round of polite negotiations, the Land of Fire's Daimyo readily agreed to Konoha's request for support and dispatched a court lady to politely escort the ninja out of the palace.
"The Daimyo is much more reasonable than I imagined!" Akimichi Chōza rubbed his stomach and laughed heartily. "We finished the mission so quickly. It looks like we can have a good meal in Kyoto!"
Just as his voice fell, a very rude shout came from nearby. "Are you guys the ninja from Konoha?"
A group of people strode towards them menacingly. Around their waists, they all wore a triangular cloth embroidered with the character for "Fire" (火).
"Just as I thought, a bunch of country bumpkins!"
(End of Chapter)