Gen’nosuke carried his friend’s corpse as he walked away.
The sky had cleared, and the darkness had receded. There was no longer a single living member of the Red-Eye Clan standing on the battlefield. They had all died at the hands of their own people.
Gen’nosuke had also returned to normal, the countless eyes covering his body disappearing.
He wanted to give Benmaru a proper burial.
But before Gen’nosuke could get very far, the thickset and seemingly simple-minded Kasumi Gyōbu suddenly burst out of the ground and snatched Benmaru’s corpse away.
"Kasumi Gyōbu, what are you doing?!" Gen’nosuke was furious.
But Gen’nosuke’s anger was not enough to control Gyōbu. They were both members of the Kōga Group, but Gen’nosuke had brought shame upon the Kōga, and Gyōbu had no intention of indulging him.
"Gen’nosuke, for the sake of Lord Hōma, you can take the corpse. But the eyes stay."
With that, Kasumi Gyōbu gouged out Benmaru’s eyes without paying the slightest attention to Gen’nosuke’s reaction.
"Why, Gyōbu? He’s already dead. Can’t you at least leave him alone now?"
Of course Gyōbu had no intention of letting him off.
Lord Kei had said that rewards would be distributed according to the number of eyes collected. That was the information Gyōbu had just received from Mr. Azukisai, and there was no way he was going to let Gen’nosuke take advantage of it.
Gen’nosuke was now in the position of a man trying to atone for his crimes through meritorious service. Even if he collected the eyes, they would only count toward reducing his punishment.
It would be much better to keep them for himself, present them as an achievement to Lord Kei, and perhaps earn the Lord’s praise. Then he might even be allowed to remain at Lord Kei’s side and continue learning from him.
"Gen’nosuke, you’ve always been far too compassionate. I’m grateful for that compassion, too—it was because of it that I became who I am today. But you need to understand something. We’re working for Lord Kei now."
As he spoke, Gyōbu looked at the pair of red eyes in his hand, delighting in them like a monkey that had just plucked a ripe peach.
"Gen’nosuke, every one of these Red-Eyes belongs to Lord Kei, whether they’re alive or dead. Giving you a corpse is already showing Lord Danjō a great deal of respect."
Gen’nosuke sighed.
Right. Whether dead or alive, the Red-Eyes were Lord Kei’s private property, just like the supplies he had wasted before. They all belonged to Lord Kei.
He had already made that mistake once. He couldn’t make it a second time.
Gen’nosuke felt somewhat dejected, and seeing Gyōbu looking so pleased only made him feel worse.
He had actually been surpassed by an idiot.
Sigh...
He wondered whether his actions during this operation had dragged the others down with him.
"Gyōbu... am I really that much of a failure?"
Gen’nosuke hoped that this companion, who had grown up alongside him, might offer him some consolation.
Unfortunately, Kasumi Gyōbu was not the sort of person who was particularly perceptive or considerate of other people’s feelings.
"Yeah. Pretty much."
That was Gyōbu’s unequivocal judgment.
"You think so too?!"
Gen’nosuke stared at him in disbelief.
Am I such an idiot that even an idiot thinks I’m an idiot?
"Yes."
After putting the eyes away, Gyōbu spoke with great solemnity.
"Gen’nosuke, if you truly wanted what was best for your friend, you should have killed him the moment he started spouting all that nonsense. You shouldn’t have let him finish that speech!"
"Don’t worry, Gyōbu. The Uchiha won’t be swayed by what he said!"
Gen’nosuke thought Gyōbu was worried that Benmaru’s words might incite their own people.
Benmaru’s speech had indeed greatly raised the morale of the people of the Land of Rivers while damaging the morale of their enemies.
But Gyōbu was completely unconcerned.
"I know that. Our loyalty to Lord Kei is something outsiders could never understand."
Gyōbu was extremely satisfied with what they had gained this time. These eyes from Benmaru were far superior to the several pairs he had extracted earlier.
So Red-Eyes could evolve, too.
The eyes he had just taken from Benmaru had actually awakened Two-Tomoe.
(Originally, the Uchiha should have had 巴紋, while the Red-Eyes should have had 勾玉. 巴紋 has no hole in the middle, while 勾玉 does. Since everyone kept insisting that 巴紋 was incorrect and that it should be 勾玉, I can only write it this way here to distinguish the Red-Eyes from the Sharingan.)
The evolved Red-Eyes were beginning to look more and more like the Sharingan.
And blind Uncle Hōma had actually created a visual technique that did not require eyes. It was a technique that could be learned, and Gen’nosuke was one of the people Hōma had taught.
If the Red-Eyes had been willing to cooperate, a pseudo-Sharingan clan could have been established right here.
Unfortunately, those eyes could now only benefit the Uchiha’s fanatical followers.
They were the people whose lives had improved because of the Uchiha, and according to what Mr. Azukisai had said, they were extremely satisfied with their lives in the Uchiha Clan’s newly established settlement.
In an effort to gain the Uchiha’s attention, they had become even more radical than the Uchiha themselves.
Those were the people who deserved the Uchiha’s recognition.
Looking at the perpetually emotional Gen’nosuke, Kasumi Gyōbu suddenly felt that perhaps he wasn’t so stupid after all.
At the very least, he was wiser than this fool.
"Gen’nosuke, you know something? Before the boy in your arms gave that speech, Mr. Azukisai had still allowed children of the Red-Eye Clan under the age of three to survive."
"But after he said those things, even three-year-old children couldn’t be allowed to live."
"Why?!"
"Because once a people have a spiritual symbol to rally around, there will always be a desire to rebel. The Red-Eyes produced someone like Benmaru. If they aren’t wiped out completely, Lord Kei will never be able to rest easy."
"How did things get to this point...?"
Gen’nosuke had even hoped to adopt a Red-Eye child and raise him as Benmaru’s successor.
He had already thought of a name, too.
Lanmaru.
But Kasumi Gyōbu was the very embodiment of a straightforward man. How could someone like him possibly understand another person’s feelings?
"Haha, what’s wrong with that? The Red-Eyes may be wiped out, but their spirit will be inherited."
"They’ll be used to inspire the lower classes living under Uchiha rule, encouraging them to share both hardship and prosperity with the Uchiha. Those who perform well will even be rewarded with a pair of red eyes—a badge of honor."
"Gen’nosuke, don’t you think that’s a good thing?"
"Think about it. Lord Kei cares far too much about losing subordinates like us, who are supposed to be his tools. Whenever a mission carries even a slight risk, Lord Kei doesn’t want us deployed."
"But those people who depend on the Uchiha for their livelihoods—if they adopt the spirit of the Red-Eyes and bind their fates to the Uchiha, just think of how many useful soldiers we’ll have to throw into the vanguard!"
"And those Red-Eyes will also become a symbol of their acceptance into the Uchiha."
"Wait... the Red-Eyes’ story can be spread, too?"
Gen’nosuke was somewhat worried. After all, the Red-Eyes had preached conflict between the poor and the nobility, advocating cooperation with the nobles while maintaining separation from them.
Kasumi Gyōbu had clearly received guidance from some expert. He had obviously come prepared.
"Of course. But the story will have to be changed."
"The story that gets spread will be this: the noble Red-Eye Clan, a branch family of the Uchiha, sacrificed themselves to protect the great Uchiha bloodline and Lord Gen’nosuke. They fought the Sand Shinobi to the death, shedding every last drop of their blood."
"They proved their loyalty through their sacrifice before the gods. Although their lives have come to an end, their spirit shall live forever."
"Though lowly in station, they never forgot their duty to their clan. That is the mission of the Uchiha branch family."
"It will become the creed that every person who joins the Uchiha Clan in the future must swear to uphold."
"Of course, these Red-Eyes that can be deployed immediately will also be fitted with sealing techniques, lest they become targets coveted by the various hidden villages."
"I really don’t understand what those Hyūga branch-family members have to complain about. If not for the protection of the Caged Bird seal, even I, an Uchiha, would want to dig out a few Byakugan and give them to my own ninja beasts."
Kasumi Gyōbu’s endless rambling left Gen’nosuke stunned.
"...This works too?"
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