A few days later, Gekko Chizan looked at the castle in front of him, a trace of surprise flashing in his eyes.
"This has only been a few years? Is this still the original Daimyo's residence???"
The original Daimyo's residence had been exquisite. At a glance, anyone could tell it was the most authoritative place in the Land of Fire.
But now?
It wasn't that the Daimyo's residence had become shabby.
It had become too exaggerated.
First of all, the area was far larger than before.
Had the castle been expanded?
And the number of patrol personnel was also far too many.
"Tsk tsk, worthy of the Daimyo's residence. Truly rich."
"Hiring so many shinobi… how much must the annual expense be?"
After Gekko Chizan finished sighing with emotion, he quickly thought it through and relaxed.
After all, the shinobi forces of the Daimyo's residence were now also taking missions.
Escort missions, protection missions, and the like.
Those alone were enough to earn money to support these shinobi.
As for where he found so many people, that was even easier to explain.
After the Third Great War, if anything had increased, it wasn't anything else.
It was wandering shinobi.
Most of them were people escaping from war.
As long as the money was enough, getting this group to come and sell their lives was the easiest thing in the world.
"Hey, Tagitsuhime, have you been resting well recently?"
"Do you want to come help out?"
Standing on the hilltop, Gekko Chizan sensed the connection of the Snake Coiling Technique and communicated with Tagitsuhime.
"No, not going. That bastard last time caused my chakra to be heavily devoured."
"Right now, I just want to sleep."
"If it really doesn't work, go find the other two."
"Spare me. Let me sleep peacefully for a few years."
In the previous battle against Nagato, the chakra dragon that devoured chakra and vitality had caused very serious damage to Tagitsuhime.
Even though she was a Snake Princess and her entire body possessed senjutsu chakra, she had still been severely harmed.
After returning to Ryūchi Cave, Tagitsuhime immediately entered a deep sleep that would last several years to repair the damage to her body.
"Aiya, those two are now completely lost in enjoyment."
"One is following the Dōnin, the other is following the Senka. Their lives are more comfortable than mine every day."
"Sigh, this is terrible. Clearly I'm the one who signed the contract with you."
Without Tagitsuhime's help, Gekko Chizan could only handle things himself.
Transparent Release activated.
He walked straight toward the Daimyo's residence castle.
"Have you heard? The Twelve Guardian Ninja have already been confirmed."
"Really? Those are the twelve strongest people in our entire force."
"Of course it's real."
The Twelve Guardian Ninja?
Walking along the outer perimeter of the castle, Gekko Chizan listened to the idle chatter of the patrolling shinobi.
The twelve strongest people.
Tsk tsk.
Kazuma, Asuma, Chiriku, and those people like Mohiru from before?
How strong could they be?
At most, they would only survive a single exchange.
Entering the castle of the Daimyo's residence, the outer area was entirely the stationed camps of shinobi.
Meanwhile, the interior still looked the same as the original Daimyo's residence.
It seemed the expansion had only been done to accommodate more shinobi.
Once again.
Truly rich.
Gekko Chizan headed directly toward the central castle where the Daimyo was located.
Since he wanted to gather information, starting from the source was the most correct method.
...
Daimyo's residence castle.
The Daimyo sat in his seat.
Below him, three people were seated.
"Kazuma, has the list of the Twelve Guardian Ninja already been finalized?"
"Yes, Daimyo-sama. It has been confirmed."
Kazuma looked far more composed than before.
After all, age and experience did make a difference.
Beside him sat two others.
One was Asuma.
The other was a monk.
Chiriku from the Fire Temple.
"Hehehe. So Asuma and Chiriku are both included, right?"
"Yes. Whether it is Asuma or Chiriku, their strength is sufficient to take a position among the Twelve."
Kazuma's tone was very calm, as if these matters caused no emotional fluctuations for him at all.
The Daimyo nodded in satisfaction.
Gekko Chizan observed all of this silently.
Then he gave Asuma a particularly deep look.
After leaving, he muttered to himself unconsciously.
"For such an idiot to actually be entrusted with an important position?"
"What exactly is Kazuma thinking?"
Gekko Chizan held absolutely no optimism toward the shinobi forces of the Daimyo's residence.
In front of truly high-end combat power, these cannon fodder were completely worthless.
Even the Twelve Guardian Ninja were not impressive in his eyes.
In fact, the members of this organization were not even as capable as his own disciples.
However, for some reason, he kept feeling that there was something strange about the Daimyo's residence.
"Chōmei, can you control some insects to infiltrate?"
"Hm? I can. But the number of insects around here is very small."
Gekko Chizan frowned.
Even the insects were scarce?
Was that man-made, or was it naturally like this?
Left with no choice, Gekko Chizan could only change his method of infiltration.
The strength of a single person was very limited.
He needed helpers.
Inside the Daimyo's residence, he found a relatively hidden place.
"Summoning Technique..."
A large number of snakes appeared before him.
"Wow. At times like this, I still have to rely on my snake army."
"Go, everyone. Infiltrate the Daimyo's residence."
"Report everything you see and hear to me."
Possessing the senjutsu of Ryūchi Cave, Gekko Chizan could understand the language of snakes.
Using snakes to gather intelligence was far faster than acting personally.
After finishing all of this, Gekko Chizan headed toward higher ground.
He still had the Insect Eyes technique active, so he needed to occupy the highest point.
Only then could he see farther.
The investigation continued for three days.
During these three days, countless snakes slithered through every street and house of the Daimyo's residence.
Meanwhile, Gekko Chizan himself stood high above, observing everything.
When he got hungry, he simply used the Transformation Technique to go eat inside the Daimyo's residence.
Or he used Flying Thunder God to go outside and eat.
Until one afternoon, when his snakes reported an interesting piece of information.
"Hm? A familiar face?"
"No... a familiar mask?"
Gekko Chizan was a little confused when he received this report.
Masks?
Those were things only seen on ANBU members.
The shinobi forces of the Daimyo's residence did not have the habit of wearing masks.
Then where did these masked people come from?
For a moment, it seemed like some clues appeared in Gekko Chizan's mind.
But they were very vague.
"No way…"
"Could it be that this bastard brought Root and hid inside the Daimyo's residence?"
"If that's the case..."
"Then everything makes sense..."
Masks.
ANBU.
Gekko Chizan truly had no way to avoid connecting this with that old bastard Shimura Danzo, who had been missing for a long time.
After all, it wasn't just Danzo who had left Konoha back then.
His personal force had gone with him.
Root.
"Tsk tsk tsk, you old bastard Danzo."
"No wonder I could never find you."
"I never expected you to hide inside the Daimyo's residence."
"It seems you had a hand in the schemes against the village..."
"I wonder… if that old bastard Hiruzen found out what you've been doing, would he die of anger?"