Ninja Elders

Lucy, or rather, the girl Lucy killed and stole her identity was originally part of the Shiro lineage. Shiro lineage ninjas wear white clothes and are usually record keepers, clerks, poets, etc.

The ninja village even has poets! They are usually responsible for writing letters to high-ranking government officials.

The building philosophy of the ninja village is self-sufficiency; it doesn't mean that they must build everything inside the village, but it does mean that they cannot be reliant on outside forces for essential products such as food in a way that it can be used against them.

The ideology of self-sufficiency can be very damaging to a country; after all, some countries are better at one thing while lacking the infrastructure to produce another; it would be much more economical to produce what they are good at and buy things they have a hard time producing.

But a ninja village is not a country after all; at the end of the day, the biggest source of income for the village is missions, not trade; it doesn't have any exports.

Until now, self-sufficiency ideology has helped them remain hidden and immune to most external pressures. Basically, aside from those like Kampaku, nobody else could force ninjas to do anything.

This village is also allied with a few other ninja villages, and if things get too serious, it's possible to seek help. Even Kampaku doesn't want to be enemies with all ninja villages, so he most likely wouldn't go all out and wouldn't cross the red lines. Just as he prefers to keep the samurai on his side, he also doesn't want to alienate ninjas too much.

...

Looking at her new dorm, Lucy sighed; her plan worked after all. Now, she has a flawless identity in the ninja village and comes from a good lineage; after all, Shiro ninjas stay in the village, rarely leave, and have access to many important buildings.

After getting settled, she started acting quickly. By now, Kuro is probably healed; if she delays further, it may be too late.

...

In the ninja council, 13 people were sitting; these were ninja elders.

All had different costumes; among them was Kuro. He said, "Our biggest obstacle is Kampaku, but we are no match; there is no choice but to cooperate with him."

After the previous failure, Kampaku sent a letter mocking them for their failure; it outraged Kuro, but still, he had no other choice. The ninja village, though strong, is no match against the army. Kampaku already knows their location, so it would be easy for him to destroy the entire village.

Of course, ninjas can leave everything and run, but even finding a new hidden village location and creating it from scratch is no easy task; also, there is no guarantee that their new village's location remains a secret.

An elder in white clothes said, "I agree, but we should have backup plans in case he goes too far."

The ninja village in blue-pink clothes said, "We are already negotiating with other ninja villages to agree on terms; if Kampaku goes too far, all ninjas strike together to maximize the chance of winning."

Others nodded.

"What about the matter with those missing ninjas a few weeks ago?" asked the ninja in the yellow dress.

"We have investigated it, but they are nowhere to be found. They are most likely dead," said the ninja in green clothes.

"This is very suspicious; I feel like too many people know our location! We should start building a new village and relocate, even if Kampaku leaves us alone. With so many people knowing our location, it's dangerous to stay here," said the ninja in white clothes.

A few years ago, after a conflict with another ninja village, both sides leaked each other's secrets; as a result, the location of these two ninja villages became public knowledge among the high-ranking forces.

"This is long overdue," Kuro nodded. Because of financial problems, the matter of building a new ninja village has been put aside. Their financial issues were because of Kampaku, who restricted their ability to accept tasks freely.

But now, with severe security issues, changing the village's location is a must.

Other elders nodded; they finally decided to provide money from whatever source possible to build the new village.

"The next issue is the matter with the samurai in Red Flower City," said the ninja in pink clothes.

The noble in charge of Red Flower City, Akai Hana, is the son of a samurai. Despite being the son of a samurai, he is not a samurai and has conflicts with them.

The samurai usually do whatever they want in the city and cause problems; it can be said that most lords hate samurai deep down. City lords cannot directly arrest the samurai, but they can and will usually ask dark forces, such as ninjas, to deal with the real troublemaker samurais.

Ninjas do whatever they are asked of, even if it involves killing and punishing samurais.

But the matter with Akai Hana got more complicated than it needed to be. Because Akai Hana's father was a samurai, this conflict was technically a conflict between samurais, something ninja villages agreed long ago to stay away from.

In the case of Akai Hana, ninjas argued that his father being a samurai wouldn't make the conflict with the son an internal samurai conflict. Still, samurais argued that the first son would inherit the father's belongings, including the father's samurainess.

It was actually a big deal.

In the past, ninjas and samurais fought a lot because they had no rules among themselves, but these days, they have clear rules; basically, ninjas can accept tasks even those involving killing samurais, and samurais cannot blame ninjas. Instead, they treat ninjas as a sword; they won't attack the sword, they attack the one who wields the sword.

In this case, when it was revealed that it was Akai Hana who hired ninjas, samurais would not attack other ninjas but would attack Akai Hana.

But, according to samurais, Akai Hana is a samurai, so other samurais are also prohibited from attacking him, and only the samurai court can arrest him. To make it more complicated, the last emperor also granted Akai Hana a noble title, so it's doubtful whether the samurai court could even arrest him without the approval of Kampaku.

Maybe that was one reason Akai Hana was so careful in dealing with Kampaku; he needed Kampaku's support to stop the samurai who wanted to take him to their court.

To prevent these complications from happening long ago, samurais negotiated a deal with ninjas, which stated that ninjas wouldn't get involved in samurai issues, and if ninjas discovered any among them breaking the deal, they have to report it to the samurai court.

This time, not only did the ninja village not report it, but it also accepted and fulfilled Akai Hana's task. Of course, that was because the ninja village didn't consider Akai Hana to be a samurai, but that was only the ninja's view. Samurais believe differently.

"What are the results of the negotiation?" asked Kuro.

The ninja in pink said, "We agreed not to assist anyone who is the first son of a samurai if samurais close their eyes to the matter with Akai Hana."

"That is too much! Many are sons of samurais but have nothing to do with them! Samurai is not a hereditary title, so why treat it like it is?" said the red-clothed ninja.

"I would have agreed with you if we weren't in this situation! The last thing we want is a conflict with the samurais. Let's agree with the deal and close this case," said Kuro.

Seeing their chief executive officer agree, most other ninja elders also agree, therefore ratifying the deal that was negotiated.

The red-clothed ninja was the next. "This round of the final exams was a huge success! 132 new ninjas have joined various departments!"

"This round's tests went a bit too far!" said the ninja with white clothes; he heard that the trainees were forced to cut off pieces of their bodies. He wasn't a fan of these sorts of examinations because they leave marks on the body, making it easier to identify ninjas.

Of course, not all ninjas went through this exact test, so one cannot recognize ninjas by looking at their little toes. In fact, among the elders, all had intact little toes.

"I was responsible for this round, so I decided the content of the test," said the red-clothed ninja with a flat tone; he didn't seem to have a good relationship with the Shiro ninja chief, who wore white clothes.

Shaking his head, the ninja in white clothes put the matter aside. Seeing nobody say any words of praise, the red-clothed ninja was a bit disappointed and didn't talk anymore.

After him, the green-clothed ninja said, "We are struggling to fill the missing spots left by the last incident. This time, we lost over 50 ninjas; now, we have only around 900 ready-to-dispatch green-clothed ninjas left!" He said with a pained sigh.

He knew all the green-clothed ninjas because he trained them himself; it was painful to see them die for nothing; even ruthless ninjas get sad about the death of colleagues.

"Only 900 free ninjas?" Kuro was startled.

"Yes! Not counting village guards and those sent to various outposts throughout the country, we can only dispatch 900 without cutting back on other areas," he said.

"How many in total do we have?" asked the red-clothed ninja. He was supposed to know this but wasn't paying close attention, so he asked.

"2000 are village guards, while 1500 are on various missions outside; 1000 are in our outposts, and 600 more are on justified vacation time; in total, we have 6000 green-clothed ninjas," he said.

"We should expand our vision for the new village so we can accommodate more," said the yellow-clothed ninja.

Their village is already full, so they cannot add more.

"Still, usually, we had 2000 ready to dispatch! Why are there 1000 in the outposts? Why 1500 on tasks? Cut back on those and bring them back!" said Kuro.

"But, this is because of Kampaku! He gave us hard tasks that require a lot of ninjas; on the other hand, we increased security in our outposts," said the green-clothed ninja.

"I want a detailed plan about increasing our available ninjas," said Kuro.

The green-clothed ninjas nodded.

...

After talking for about an hour more, the meeting ended. After returning to his room, Kuro noticed a letter was placed on his desk.