With the treaty approved by both sides, they began acting according to their temporary plan.
The temporary plan was decided on by Junior Kuru and Mike; it was basically a two-part plan, not very detailed, but only a placeholder for the main plan which was to be negotiated between the village chief and Kuro. The first part was for the ninjas to spy on the area around Jack and his group and give them a heads-up whenever Kampaku's troops arrived; that way, Jack could run away when KAmpaku's troops came.
It is a sure thing that Kampaku would attack, no doubt about it; he was trying to kill Jack in secret before, but now, it's no longer needed. Because Jack moves around the country and gathers an army, Kampaku can kill him without outraging the samurai.
Even if the samurais like Jack, they understand that he cannot gather an army. In fact, Kampaku already sent a few thousand, but Jack managed to maneuver around and avoid them until now.
With only 500 people in light armor, along with Mike, the village chief's wisdom, and Jack, who knows the entire world map in detail, it was possible to outrun Kampaku.
But that has its limit; if Kampaku sends his main army, which includes musketeers, it would no longer be as easy to run away. After all, with an overwhelming numerical advantage, it would be possible for them to surround Jack completely.
This is where ninjas come into play; they can keep track of all Kampaku's troops, helping Jack avoid an encirclement.
The second part of the temporary plan was for ninjas to negotiate with other ninja villages, and see if they would join.
It is a long shot, but it would bring great benefits if successful.
...
Pinku Ninja was sitting in his room, reading a letter from Kampaku.
"The last mission given to you by the emperor ended in failure; to make up for it, assist imperial forces in capturing traitor Jack." It was a brief letter, yet it had both stick and carrot.
It must be noted that failure in fulfilling imperial orders is punishable by at least dismemberment; Kampaku reminding them was a threat. Then, he wrote they could make up for it if they helped capture Jack. It was basically saying if you help sufficiently to capture Jack, you would not be punished. Otherwise, you would be severely punished.
Pinku sighed, yet his expression was firm; as someone well-versed in foreign relations, he knew that Kampaku would only allow them to stay here if they surrendered their independence and became subordinates to him. There is no other scenario in which Kampaku would allow them to stay this close to the capital; it's just that he is busy with Jack, so he is trying to use them to solve Jack.
Only after Jack is dealt with can Kampaku truly suppress ninja villages. It can be said that Jack's mere existence is buying all the ninjas more time.
"Such a pity other villages don’t understand this simple truth," Pinku sighed. There are times to compromise and fight; this is the time to fight.
Thinking of this, Pinku wrote a report to the council; letters from Kampaku must be handed over to the council. Still, along with the text of the letter, Pinku also wrote his own analysis of the letter, trying to help the council members understand that no matter what they do, once Kampaku is done with Jack, ninjas will be next in line.
...
In the next meeting of the ninja council, all ninja chiefs unanimously voted to help Jack avoid Kampaku. They had already decided and allied with Jack; now, trying to act two-sided would be very dumb, as it could alienate Jack and, at the same time, would not be enough to win the favor of Kampaku.
...
After a week, Kampaku sent another letter. "Your failure to deliver a timely response to the letter of His Majesty's Kampaku is unjustifiable; as such, His Majesty has ordered the suspension of all your businesses in all cities ruled by the empire." It was brief, as always, but very heavy-handed.
Ninjas rely on both tasks and outside businesses to fund themselves, now Kampaku shut down their outside businesses.
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Seeing this, the ninja council didn’t react; they were waiting on a plan negotiated by the village chief and Kuro.
...
After another week, the plan was finalized.
It was decided that Lucy, along with the best ninjas from all departments, would group together and try to assassinate Kampaku.
Assassinating the leader, Kampaku, is the easiest way of ending the war. Once Kampaku dies, his allies will fight for the successor; their unity now is because of Kampaku.
Human societies are like this; one leader may be more valuable than a hundred thousand troops. In this case, Kampaku is keeping people from all sides united: some samurai chiefs, some ninja villages, local lords, some royal family members, military generals, criminal gangs, etc.
They can be allied because of Kampaku's skill at keeping everyone sufficiently satisfied. Once dead, it's very unlikely anyone else can win the trust of everyone; samurais likely argue for a samurai as successor, local lords argue for a noble as successor, royals argue for a royal member as successor, and so on.
Presently, nobody but Kampaku is there who can unite them.
That is no accident; Kampaku has been killing anyone who can replace him.
The most important job security for those in top jobs is the lack of a viable replacement. As long as there are viable replacements, Kampaku's power could be in danger, but if there is no one, everyone would stick to him.
It can be said that part of his insistence on killing Jack is partially because Jack could be a viable alternative to him, someone who could win the support of ninjas, samurai, military generals, and nobles. Of course, at the moment, Jack is hated by nobles, and ninjas, at best, are divided, so he cannot unite the country for the moment.
Their first part of the plan was assassinating Kampaku; the second was expanding Jack's army.
Ninjas have a massive collection of weapons and food supplies; Jack loaned money from ninjas and bought food and weapons. With food and weapons, he could hire many more troops and actually start besieging cities.
Until now, the best he could do was only temporarily take small villages; as for big cities, all of which are led by nobles with professional armies, he didn’t even try. Mike is powerful but still human; even Mike would only die in the face of thousands of trained soldiers.
...
Jack did as expected; he moved from small village to small village and hired as many people as possible.
Setting up temporary camps in secret places that ninjas found, he managed to train over 10,000 villages in only 2 months. Of course, 2 months is not enough for elite soldiers to be trained, but they were no longer newbies who could barely hold swords.
With 10,000 troops, Jack began looking over cities to take.
Unfortunately for Jack, Kampaku was not just waiting. As the threat of Jack got more serious, Kampaku also gathered troops, 200,000 of them.
He gathered troops from all lords throughout the kingdom and formed that army. Just as Jack formed his 10,000 army, Kampaku also sent his 200,000 army. But, it wasn’t all at once. Kampaku divided his troops into twenty small armies and sent them in all directions, intending to close all retreat routes for Jack.
Seeing this, Jack became hopeless. Sure, he has Lucy and Mike, but it's impossible to resist in the face of such an army.
Seeing this crisis, the ninja village and Jack decided to activate their spies and assassins in the palace.
...
Lucy bowed in front of the old woman in front of her.
The old lady was chief of the palace's female guards.
She had looked for ways to infiltrate Kampaku's personal quarters, but until now, she had failed.
It's not her fault.
Kampaku, as the person ruling the biggest country in the world, has access to the largest pool of talent imaginable. He has over 100 personal bodyguards, all peak humans who never leave him. And by never, it means never.
Even in the bathroom, and when Kampaku meets his lovers, they stand and watch. There is no loophole; at least 10 peak humans always guard him.
Peak humans are strong; Lucy cannot just kill them as she did with green ninjas.
There are two peaks in this world. One is peak skill, the other is peak human.
Peak skill means one is a master 1 in a million; there are less than 300 peak humans in the country. It should be noted that the country has 300 million people.
Peak humans are those whose bodies are the best they can humanly reach; their reaction speed, strength, etc., are all the best. One in 200,000 people can reach peak physicality.
That means there are over 1000 peak humans in the country, and for Kampaku, it's not difficult to hire them.
Lucy could have killed even peak humans if they didn’t know swordsmanship and martial arts skills. The problem is that even though peak humans aren’t peak skills, they aren’t bad in martial arts either. Sure, they aren’t the best one can reach in skill, but coupled with their powerful physique, defeating them in a short time is tricky.
Still, Lucy could defeat up to 10 by herself; the issue is that it would take a long time.
Kampaku's chambers are in the middle of the imperial palace, which has a standing guard army of 100,000, along with over 330 peak humans in the palace, Kampaku's bodyguards, and the surroundings. If she tries and fails, she will have an extremely hard job running away.
After all, the ninja village only had a few peak humans; maybe only ninja lineage chiefs were peak humans. But here, with hundreds of peak humans, her life would be in danger.
All of that doesn’t mean she won't try, though. There are already a few ninja spies around Kampaku's bed; with their help, it's possible to reach his chambers.
After reaching there, she is on her own; Ninjas haven’t managed actually to place a spy among Kampaku's bodyguards.
She originally wanted to wait longer to find a concrete plan, but after receiving a letter from Jack-sama, she put those thoughts aside. She would assassinate Kampaku tonight, even if it cost her her life!