For most of shinobi history, succession struggles among a daimyō's children were not actually that intense.
Because of the existence of primogeniture, under normal circumstances a daimyō, for the sake of the country's stability, would establish an heir early on—namely, the young lord.
As for the other sons, if they had ability, they could seek an official post; if they did not, they would become idle nobles and muddle along, eating and waiting for death.
Whether the established young lord was capable or not was not important. It was best if he was incapable. The ministers below liked this kind of obedient daimyō the most.
What they feared was a young lord who acted outrageously, had a tyrannical temperament, and was moody and unpredictable. At such times, the officials under him would bring their tradition of the lower overthrowing the higher into play, finding a way to kill the future ruler and replace him with a more suitable heir.
Based on the intelligence he had gathered, Makoto knew that the current young lord of the Land of Hot Water had a mild personality and treated others kindly, and that the ministers below were all quite satisfied with him.
At a time like this, if another of the daimyō's children still jumped out to fight for the position, then he was definitely receiving the support and instigation of outside forces.
The power struggles and wars of the shinobi world did not really involve any profound strategies of forming vertical and horizontal alliances either. Perhaps because the people of this world were under chakra's subtle influence, they tended to act in a rough and direct manner.
Physically eliminating the opponent was the simplest and most effective method. After all, here, ninja were the most efficient assassins, the ones best suited for this kind of work.
Therefore, assassinating ministers was only meant to disperse Yugakure's protective forces. The second son of the daimyō's ultimate objective was definitely still to kill his own elder brother.
Because he did not have much time left. Once the old daimyō lying in bed breathed his last, and the young lord became the true ruler of the country, then even Kumogakure, which was backing him from behind, would find it difficult to make a move against a nation's daimyō.
Without Kumogakure's support, the old daimyō's second son would be unable to stir up any waves.
This was the bottom line of cooperation between the daimyō of the shinobi world and the hidden villages.
Proper hidden-village ninja would only receive commissions to protect the daimyō of a certain country; they would not receive missions to assassinate a daimyō. That was the kind of thing only rogue ninja or wandering ninja would do.
If that bottom line were gone, and ninja were allowed to act recklessly, then no daimyō would be able to sleep peacefully at night.
The other side's final objective was definitely to assassinate the young lord, which was why Makoto had led his team in hiding inside the daimyō's palace, because the young lord lived here, attending at the old daimyō's side and seeing him off on his final journey.
As long as the old daimyō died and he himself became the new daimyō, then everything would be settled.
If this old fellow had been willing to pass on the position earlier, so many twists and turns would never have happened. But the old daimyō of the Land of Hot Water had an extremely strong desire for power, and had always clung tightly to his position. Even on the verge of death, he refused to let go of authority.
This caused some dissatisfaction among the Land of Hot Water's ministers.
So now, although everyone appeared to be concerned about the old daimyō's health, all of them were waiting for him to die, and even hoping he would die sooner. That aligned with the interests of most of the people below.
For their own safety, those important ministers had also all gathered inside the daimyō's palace, because this was where the guard force was strongest, and the time left for that second son trying to usurp the position was running short.
Nothing happened through the night. Makoto led his team in quietly lying in wait in a corner of the palace, patiently waiting.
The following night, deep into the night.
Explosions suddenly rang out inside the palace, and then an uproar broke out on all sides. The final battle between both sides had begun.
Makoto, Hayate, Yūgao, and Yamato stood atop a distant building, silently watching the fierce battle inside the palace.
The attacking side had roughly around thirty people. Their equipment and dress were of all kinds. Many of them looked like wandering ninja, but although some had disguised themselves, from the ninjutsu they used and the movements of their taijutsu, traces of Kumogakure ninja could still be seen.
No matter where these people came from, their strength was all quite good.
Among those guarding the daimyō's palace were not only Yugakure's ninja, but also four Konoha teams that had accepted the commission, and one of those teams was an old acquaintance of Makoto and the others.
The four-man-and-one-dog reconnaissance team led by jōnin Sarutobi Hiyoma.
Under normal circumstances, most ninja battles people experienced or encountered took place in the wild, where little stood out. But when battle broke out inside a palace packed with buildings, the destructive power of ninja immediately became apparent.
Buildings in the palace that looked tall and sturdy collapsed after being bombarded by ninjutsu a few times. Fire Release burned, Water Release obstructed, and mist filled the battlefield.
Those ordinary maidservants or soldiers who had not managed to flee in time died casually under the spillover of the ninja battle.
Even if they were hit by just a single kunai or shuriken, they would either be severely wounded or die. If they were struck by ninjutsu, it would be hard even to leave behind an intact corpse.
Any method used by ninja was fatal to ordinary people.
Looking at the fierce battle not far away, Yūgao asked, "Captain, do we not need to go help?"
Makoto said, "Not for now. The Yugakure ninja and our people have the advantage, so there should not be any problem. Let's watch a little longer first."
"But if the young lord of the Land of Hot Water is killed, won't the situation be unfavorable to Konoha?"
"It won't, Yūgao. You have to understand one thing: what matters is not who becomes the daimyō of the Land of Hot Water. What matters is that our Konoha is the strongest."
"So even if that second son of the daimyō becomes the new ruler, he will still have to ally with the Land of Fire. On the contrary, if Konoha declines and Kumogakure grows strong, then even if the current young lord takes the throne, he will change his stance and grow close to the Land of Lightning."
"So that's how it is?"
Hayate said, "That's how the shinobi world has always been. The survival strategy of small countries is to ally themselves with the strongest force to protect themselves. It has always been like this for all these years."
So who became the daimyō of the Land of Hot Water was not important. What mattered was that Konoha could remain strong. As the strongest hidden village, Konoha's greatest enemy was never the second-strongest Kumogakure—it had always been itself.
The most powerful forces always began to rot from within.
Ninja battles happened very quickly. Before long, as casualties increased among the attacking group of wandering ninja, signs of defeat began to appear.
On the battlefield, most of the surrounding buildings had collapsed, but at a moment of desperate fighting like this, no one cared about the damage to the daimyō's palace.
After working together to eliminate the enemy in front of them, the Sarutobi Hiyoma team paused. The husky Rocky twitched his nose.
"I think I smell a familiar scent."
Inuzuka Meko asked, "Who is it?"
"Some bastard."
Hyūga Tokuma said, "Ignore it for now. Let's drive this group back first."
Seeing that success in this operation was hopeless, someone among the attackers gave the signal to retreat. The survivors quickly regrouped together, pulling out explosive tags, smoke bombs, interference bombs, and other ninja tools. After a round of indiscriminate bombardment, they seized the chance to withdraw from the battlefield.
Their movements were extremely fast. By the time the Yugakure and Konoha ninja rushed out, the attackers were already nowhere to be seen.
They did not even know which direction the enemy had fled—or rather, they could not distinguish it.
It should be known that among the Konoha teams that had accepted the commission to protect the young lord, aside from Hyūga Tokuma, another squad also had a Hyūga branch-family ninja.
Yet now, they seemed to have become blind.
Hiyoma asked, "Tokuma, is it the same as last time?"
Tokuma nodded. "Yes. There are too many targets. I can't tell which ones are the real enemies at all."
"Muta, Meko, what about you two?"
Aburame Muta did not answer and only shook his head. Inuzuka Meko said, "The specially made interference bombs mixed up the scents. I can't track them anymore. Sensei, what should we do next?"
Hiyoma said, "Leave it alone. Hand it over to the Anbu. It's enough for us to protect the young lord."
Makoto, who had been watching the battle all along, kept his perception active.
Seeing that the victors were not pursuing the enemy, Hayate asked curiously, "Don't they have the Hyūga's Byakugan? Why does it feel like Tokuma and the others lost the targets?"
Makoto said, "No. There are too many targets. The enemy used special methods to deceive the Byakugan and conceal their real movements."
Yūgao asked, "You can do that?"
"It's normal. There are plenty of strange methods in the shinobi world. Don't worry—they can't escape. Come with me."
The Byakugan was not omnipotent. Certain advanced barriers could restrain their line of sight.
But when retreating, the enemy obviously could not have set up barriers along the route, so the conclusion was obvious: among the enemies there was a Red Eyes bloodline ninja from the Land of Water.
And this person was very likely on Kumogakure's side.
After all, those black barbarians had a long criminal record—their ancestral skill was looting everywhere.
If one day they got extremely lucky and snatched a Red Eyes child from the Land of Water, it would not be surprising at all.
In the future, they would even try to snatch a Byakugan child from Konoha.
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