Malphegor
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IUTT: Ch. 79
🕑 Added 2025-05-20 20:18:14 +0000 UTC"Lady Tsunade, please don't take it personally," Ryo quickly tried to smooth things over when he saw the silence in the room. "This guy is just…"
Tsunade shook her head and interrupted, "The truth will reveal itself. Meeting adjourned. Await further intelligence!"
Not wanting to argue further with these people, she directly issued the order. Though she understood their doubts, she still felt frustrated.
But in the end, this wasn't Konoha. In the eyes of the Uzushio villagers, she was just an inexperienced outsider.
After the meeting ended, she immediately contacted a clone of Shin via radio to report the situation.
Shin assured her that the situation would turn around within a day at most. Not only that, but Ashina would personally assist her on the frontlines, and all the interference and doubt would vanish.
---
In the temporary camp of Kiri, an ANBU ninja suddenly arrived at the camp and knelt on one knee to report.
"Genji-sama, Suiten has returned."
"Good," Genji was delighted by the news. "I knew it. Even if everyone else died, this guy wouldn't. Bring him here immediately."
"Yes!"
Suiten wasn't part of the group Genji had just sent out to gather intel. He was from an earlier group, he had departed as early as yesterday. Being out longer meant he had likely gathered more information. Genji believed Suiten would definitely return with what he needed.
"He actually survived." A tall kunoichi nearby said coldly. "People like him don't deserve to be ninjas."
Genji frowned and said with displeasure, "Yumi, I don't care how bad your relationship with your own clan member is. But we're at war. You need to drop that attitude."
Yumi was silent.
Seeing this, Genji sighed in relief.
These heirs from noble clans were always difficult. Even though he was an elder, he still had to show them respect. That applied to both Yumi and Suiten.
In fact, Suiten wasn't even supposed to participate in this war.
Genji had specifically borrowed him from the Hōzuki clan as a precaution.
Though Suiten wasn't strong in combat, his scouting ability was second to none, even among the Hōzuki clan. Combined with his unbelievably cautious, even overly self-preserving personality, he was unlikely to die, no matter who else did. With his help, intel gathering would be far easier.
At first, he had flat-out refused to participate, saying he wasn't strong enough and needed more training.
But Genji offered the Hōzuki clan terms they couldn't refuse, and promised to ensure his safety. That was how Suiten ended up being "sold off."
He was forced into the war.
And just as Genji predicted, while all the other scouts were wiped out, Suiten returned alive and well. If it hadn't been for bad luck—being targeted by Shin, Suiten would probably survive until the end of the war. Because his personality was just that cautious, he treasured his life too much to ever put himself in danger.
Moreover, his status was special, he reported directly to Genji, giving him easy access to top-secret intelligence firsthand.
That was why, among the crowd, Shin immediately singled him out.
Now, not only had he taken Suiten's place, but he had also used a soul-reading technique, developed with inspiration from Nagato, to extract all of Suiten's memories.
After uncovering quite a few unexpected surprises, he was very pleased. It meant his upcoming plans could now proceed with even greater ease.
After an hour of swift travel, Shin, no, now Suiten, finally arrived outside Genji's tent.
Seeing Suiten's resentful expression, Genji ignored it and exclaimed excitedly, "I knew you'd be fine!"
"Can you please stop sending me on these missions? I almost died!" Suiten complained.
Genji just gave a faint smile, clearly not taking it seriously.
"Almost died" was Suiten's catchphrase.
"Where are your teammates?" Yumi, standing nearby, frowned and asked.
"What's with the frown?" Suiten immediately responded with annoyance. "What, you think I abandoned my teammates?"
"Didn't you?"
"You know nothing. I was prioritizing the mission, do you even understand what a mission is? I warned them of the danger and told them to retreat. Not a single one listened. To carry out the mission more effectively, I had to separate from them temporarily. And in the end, I was right again, wasn't I the only one who completed the mission?"
As he said this, Suiten even looked smug, which made Yumi grind her teeth in fury.
"You abandoned your teammates and you're proud of it?"
"How did I abandon them? When we split up, I had no idea they were going to run into danger. We were just covering more ground. If they were dumb enough to fall into the enemy's trap and get wiped out, how is that my fault?"
"How do you know they were all wiped out?" Yumi asked pointedly.
"I saw it with my own eyes."
"And it never occurred to you to try to save them?" Yumi asked in disbelief.
"By the time I thought about saving them, it was already too late. Besides, the mission takes priority. The mission takes priority. The mission takes priority. Don't you understand that?" Suiten stressed again. "I felt deep sorrow at the time, of course I did. But if I had died too, who would've brought the intel back? So don't give me attitude. Not only am I blameless, I've done a great service. Is this how you speak to someone who's accomplished something?"
"Suiten—"
"That's enough!" Genji finally called out. He couldn't stand it anymore, this was hardly the time for pointless arguing. Just during their argument, three more minutes had slipped by. If these two hadn't been people he borrowed, he would've already lost his temper.
Letting them bicker for three minutes was more than generous, but neither of them seemed ready to stop.
Suiten turned his head away with a smug expression, almost pushing Yumi to the brink of exploding on the spot.
"Alright, that's enough out of you," Genji reprimanded again, though his tone wasn't harsh. Even he had a headache dealing with this jinx.
If it weren't for Suiten's truly invaluable reconnaissance skills, he would never have gone to the trouble of acquiring such a self-centered coward.
"Alright, tell me, what did you see on the way?" he gave Yumi a warning glance before turning to Suiten. He was desperate to hear all the intel Suiten had gathered.
