Meanwhile, after traveling nonstop, the Aizen clone finally arrived at the capital of the Land of Fire.
He had only one goal.
To kill Sarutobi Asuma, one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja.
After all, he was Hiruzen Sarutobi's son.
"The Twelve Guardian Ninja, huh? That won't be easy to deal with. With my current strength, even if I use the Mangekyo Sharingan, I still wouldn't be able to kill all twelve of them. But if my goal is only to kill Sarutobi Asuma, then things become much simpler."
In an instant, countless schemes flashed through the Aizen clone's mind.
The Twelve Guardian Ninja were not united in the slightest.
They were split into two factions.
The moment he thought of that, the Aizen clone already knew how he would kill Sarutobi Asuma.
Force Sarutobi Asuma to return to Konoha, then ambush him on the road.
In a one-on-one fight, even without exposing the Mangekyo Sharingan, the Aizen clone was confident he could kill Sarutobi Asuma.
Besides, there were still many years left before the Shippuden timeline.
The current Sarutobi Asuma was not yet as strong as he would later become.
"But if I stay here this long just to kill Sarutobi Asuma, that would be a waste. The techniques of the Fire Temple are impressive. If I remember correctly, Chiriku, the head monk of the Fire Temple, was someone who could beat Kakuzu and Hidan down badly. If he had known Hidan's ability, then even in a one-against-two fight, the one who would have won for certain would have been him."
If the Aizen clone remembered correctly, Chiriku had also once been one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja. It was only after the group disbanded that he returned to the Fire Temple and became its head.
The Aizen clone entered the capital of the Land of Fire openly and without concealment.
He did not do anything obvious.
He merely investigated the identities of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, quietly approached them, and did nothing more than amplify their desires.
Neither the Aizen clone nor even Uchiha Fujie himself only knew two members of the Twelve Guardian Ninja for certain—Chiriku and Sarutobi Asuma.
The others were nobodies, little more than background figures, so investigation was necessary.
"Now all I have to do is wait for time to ferment everything. The Guardian Ninja are already full of contradictions. No, the very meaning of their existence is laughable. Are they loyal to the daimyo, or loyal to the Hokage? How ridiculous."
The Aizen clone sat quietly, sipping tea.
A few days later, the Twelve Guardian Ninja had split into three separate groups, each gathering in a different place.
The factional divide was even worse than the Aizen clone had expected.
"Everyone knows about the recent small-scale border conflict. Although there's a ceasefire now, how long can this peace really last? The Land of Fire possesses great power, but that power cannot be brought together as one. That is pathetic. So we need to kill the useless daimyo."
Yamamoto spoke with a cold expression.
The faction he led believed the daimyo should die.
The Land of Fire did not need two leaders.
The Hokage alone should hold supreme authority.
"That's right. The daimyo is in the way."
"Kill the daimyo, unite the Land of Fire's power, and bring the ninja world under one rule."
Yamamoto had four companions.
That meant five of the Twelve Guardian Ninja wanted to kill the daimyo.
That was nearly half of them.
Then again, how many ninja would truly be willing to bow to a daimyo who possessed no strength at all?
The only reason the Five Kage tolerated such arrangements was because they understood that not everything could be solved by force alone.
Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that the current Kage did not possess the kind of overwhelming power that could crush everything.
On Sarutobi Asuma's side, there were four people.
Sarutobi Asuma sat there puffing on a cigarette.
He had left Konoha because he was dissatisfied with his father taking up the Hokage seat again.
But after coming here, he had discovered that the political scheming around the daimyo was just as ugly.
There were even members of Root among the Twelve Guardian Ninja.
That person really had stretched his hand a long way.
Yes, two people in Yamamoto's faction belonged to Root.
Danzo Shimura's courage and ambition were enormous.
Perhaps it was that one moment of hesitation in the past that had cost him the Hokage position.
From then on, he had grown more extreme and much bolder.
He had even dared to send assassins after Hiruzen Sarutobi.
"Ahem… Yamamoto and the others have been acting strangely lately. What should we do?"
Chiriku asked.
He disliked smoke, but Sarutobi Asuma loved smoking, so Chiriku hurried to speak and interrupt him.
Otherwise, the smoke would be unbearable.
Sarutobi Asuma's expression sharpened.
"No matter what happens, nothing can be allowed to happen to the daimyo. I just hope Yamamoto and the others won't do anything stupid. They should understand how important the daimyo is."
Sarutobi Asuma had already sent word of the situation back to Konoha.
Anything involving the daimyo was no small matter.
It could not be treated carelessly.
The remaining three Guardian Ninja were loyalists to the daimyo.
After discussing things, they decided to inform the daimyo so that he could be prepared.
Otherwise, if Yamamoto's faction suddenly attacked him, they might not be able to stop it.
Still, there was no such thing as guarding against a thief for a thousand days.
Because of that, the three of them developed killing intent.
They wanted to obtain the daimyo's approval and then ambush Yamamoto's group of five and kill them.
How tragic.
The Twelve Guardian Ninja existed to protect the daimyo, yet only three of them were completely loyal to him.
As for why Sarutobi Asuma and the others knew Yamamoto's five were radicals, that was not hard to understand.
They had worked together for years and completed many missions together.
Naturally, they all knew each other's general way of thinking.
Whether it was radicals like Yamamoto or the comparatively weaker royalist faction, both sides had repeatedly tried to recruit neutral members like Sarutobi Asuma.
In fact, in the beginning, the royalist faction had only consisted of a single person.
A few more days passed.
Then, the Twelve Guardian Ninja's civil war began.
Yamamoto's group of five was surrounded by the seven Guardian Ninja on Sarutobi Asuma's side, along with several ninja recruited by the daimyo.
This civil war among the Guardian Ninja had begun ahead of time.
Yes, ahead of time.
Even without the Aizen clone, the Twelve Guardian Ninja would still have descended into civil war a few years later.
Their conflict came from differences in ideals.
The Aizen clone had merely amplified their desires and given them a light push, causing it to happen earlier.
From the moment the battle began, Yamamoto's five were at an absolute disadvantage.
The Twelve Guardian Ninja were not all equal in strength.
Without question, the strongest among them was Chiriku, the monk from the Fire Temple.
Even Sarutobi Asuma, the son of the Third Hokage, was still inferior to him by a notch.
In truth, Chiriku alone could contend against all five of Yamamoto's group.
"Welcoming Approach: Thousand-Armed Murder."
Yamamoto's group fought back like madmen, and Sarutobi Asuma ended up wounded.
At that point, Chiriku stopped hiding his strength.
A massive Buddha statue more than ten meters tall appeared behind him.
He had only just mastered this technique.
This was a monk technique.
It formed a Thousand-Armed Kannon out of chakra, which could also transform into the wrathful aspect of a Wisdom King. It possessed absolute defense and could attack enemies with a storm of chakra-forged fists at overwhelming speed.
It could be considered a lower-grade, weakened version of the True Several Thousand Hands.
Chiriku had only recently mastered it, so it was far less terrifying than it would later become in Shippuden.
Even so, it was still extraordinary.
A sky-filling storm of fists descended upon Yamamoto and the other radicals.
"Damn it… why did it turn out like this?"
A moment later, Yamamoto slammed into the ground, completely unwilling to accept what had happened.
Aside from the Aizen clone, no one had known that Chiriku possessed such terrifying strength.
"My chakra is almost exhausted. The rest is up to you."
Chiriku swayed slightly on his feet.
For the current him, using this technique was still too much of a burden.
The truth was, Chiriku could have killed them.
But he had shown mercy.
Because they were his comrades.
And in the original story, it was precisely this kind of softness that led to his death.
If he had killed Kakuzu and Hidan quickly, they would never have managed to turn the tables and kill him.
The Guardian Ninja like Chiriku hesitated to kill their own.
The others did not.
As the ninja sent by the daimyo unleashed their techniques, Yamamoto's five returned to the Pure Land.