_________ POV Narration_________

It didn't take long for Yuichi to get word of what had happened, Mifune could feel the rage radiating off of him, it was clear that someone was going to get executed.

Yue was after all only a 12-year-old girl, she had not even gotten any training when it came to fighting, as Yuichi had wanted her to stay away from that world as much as possible.

It seemed that had been a mistake on his part though... In truth, there wouldn't have been much for a 12-year-old girl to do against 5 grown men, but at the very least she could've tried to escape on her own and call the guards.

Mifune was quite mad that the kidnappers had also somehow infiltrated their forces. Such a thing was unacceptable.

He immediately launched an internal investigation, and all of the corpses were recovered and were to be identified.

The guards were perturbed when coming across the bodies, more specifically the two that had been strung up for display in the alleyway.

Yuichi was immediately worried about his daughter's mental state when hearing about the state of the bodies.

It was certainly the work of a bloodthirsty maniac, but it seemed that the bloodthirsty maniac was the one to save his daughter's life...

Yuichi wanted to seek out the man and recruit him at first, but then his daughter told him his name, as well as the fact that they were apparently associates.

'The Red Dot...'

It wasn't surprising that Ken would be capable of such brutality. He had already gone on record ruthlessly hunting down bandits and even attacking a hidden village.

The more important thing was the fact that now Yuichi owed him a favour...

'... I think my plans to acquire the Dark Brotherhood will have to be postponed for now...'

He was still going to take the opportunity if it arose, but now Yuichi needed to look into different ways to integrate the organization into their systems.

Mifune was off to inspect the bodies and to personally question the one survivor whose head had been embedded into the ground.

While all of that was happening, Yue was having a rather tiring time, as she was now stuck in her room for a while.

She had done her best to tell everyone what had happened and went into detail to describe how the samurai that had protected her fought valiantly, deserving of his title.

Yuichi was dissatisfied that the man had failed, but the odds were stacked against him, so he decided to reward him for his efforts anyway, as his daughter was safe thanks to him.

However, she also described Ken in a concerningly positive light. She seemed excited to explain how he had easily dispatched the three remaining kidnappers before she could even react.

Yuichi was a bit concerned by her enthusiasm...

Yue herself, for some reason, was a lot less bothered by the mutilated corpses than the patrolling guards that had found the scene.

She was actually found staring at them from reports. Though they did claim that she seemed petrified.

Out of boredom, she started playing with some kitchen knives, throwing them at the wall with a smile on her face.

In her mind, she imagined metallic wires connected to all knives, as she continued playing around.

The little princess had found a new passion! It was debatable whether it was cute or morbid though.

She had somewhat steeled herself.

'I'll ask dad to let Ken teach me... He said they were associates, and dad did seem to know him...'

Needless to say, Yuichi was going to have quite the headache to handle in the future.

Ken wasn't thinking about any of that though. He didn't bother to consider how his actions would affect the young impressionable mind of the princess, nor did he care.

He instead started making his way home after dodging the patrolling guards.

He left the city easily despite the lockdown, blending into the surroundings and even transforming himself into a spider and crawling on the city walls and above them.

The transformation jutsu became a whole lot more useful to him after Tosho taught him a few tricks, like the fact that he could transform into inanimate objects and animals.

That part was something that hadn't been covered in the small booklet that one of his dads had gotten for him.

Ken hadn't gotten around to using it often, it did have one rather obvious downside.

To use the transformation he'd have to continuously channel his chakra, which would make him easier to detect to sensory type shinobi.

Fortunately, it seemed that the Land of Iron didn't have many sensors at the part of the wall that Ken picked.

Not that it would've mattered. It wasn't like Ken was at war with the Land of Iron, he was just testing their defences and preparing for the future.

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'I can expect them to be a lot more on guard if they do start fighting me in the future... Especially Yuichi, he'll likely start using body doubles as long as I'm around.'

It wasn't uncommon for lords to use body doubles. Ken was aware of it as well, in his mind, he already had made a plan to kill everyone he had met in that room.

Whether or not he would need to make use of his plans... Well, that was entirely up to them.

To him, it was just something he was used to.

'Have a plan to kill everyone you meet...' Although it sounded a bit silly, it was a core rule for an assassin. Be it ally or foe, you must be prepared to kill them under any circumstance.

That was also how Ken had managed to kill all of the allies that had betrayed him before being caught by the police because he was alert at all times, prepared to kill them at any moment.

He always made sure to study the weaknesses of each and every person that he worked with or against. And he would always fight and form his plans around said weaknesses.

Alas, he was still a human back then. He may have out skilled them, but he was still outnumbered and injured badly.

Thankfully, he was no longer just any human... Now he was something more akin to a freak of nature, someone that far surpassed the strength, speed and dexterity of regular humans.

Now, he could carry out his plans much easier.

'The Seven Swordsmen of the Mist...' Ken had already pinpointed their whereabouts, he could exact his revenge at any point he wanted if he aimed to simply kill them.

But simply killing them was not going to be enjoyable enough.

Maybe at first, he would've been satisfied with spilling their guts on the ground with his bare hands, but now he had other plans for them.

Alas, said plans required the wave of recruits to be trained for at the very least two more years.

They were to play a part in his plan after all. The Swordsmen would just have to wait for their turn to die.

Ken also had a few plans for revenge on the Lord of the Land that put bounties on the heads of his family members.

But he decided not to kill him at all, his family members were criminals, and that much was undeniable. Deserters were treated harshly in the Land of Iron, so Ken couldn't fully blame only the Daimyō.

He would decide what to do with them after taking care of the Swordsmen of the Mist.

After all, revenge was a dish best served cold.

Ken had always been a patient man. He felt no need for momentary satisfaction.

The Blind Swordsman dashed through the woods with a smile underneath his mask. He wondered for a second, whether to return to his base or go on a bit of a hike and hunt down a few bounties on his own.

After a little bit of deliberation, Ken decided that he would first go home, get Tosho to prepare a few bounties for him to hunt down, and then leave on a mission.

There was no need for him to stay at his base at all times after all. Tosho and Saburo were both more than capable of training the young recruits and Akira.

In a twisted sort of way, Saburo had already become the Jonin teacher that Akira had never had. As the Strawman had a wealth of experience, and Akira was somewhat akin to a blank book.

The situation was only somewhat twisted because Saburo had initially tried to kill Akira relentlessly. But the former thief turned assassin didn't hold it against him, so all was fine.

Saburo had already managed to befriend Akira, but Tosho didn't seem to trust him one bit. Having more experience in life, he could tell that Saburo was as fake as a person could get.

A man that would say anything and everything to make you feel better about yourself and to raise your opinion of them.

Saburo clearly followed some hidden agenda, which was why Tosho simply couldn't allow himself to be comfortable around him.

Ken was also well aware of that. But he knew that Saburo wasn't stupid enough to betray him.

As long as their interests aligned, then everything would be fine. And if there happened to come the day when Saburo would act out, then Ken was confident he'd be able to put him in his place.

It didn't matter how much he tried to hide his original body, the Blind Swordsman would always be able to find it.

Ken didn't take more than two days to arrive back at his home. He stepped into the village with a smile on his face.

Saburo's clones that guarded the entrance to the village simply nodded at him.

Upon entering, Ken noticed that half of the recruits were busy being trained in the caves, while the others were in the field still training their bodies.

'... Tosho really did pick children with potential... I guess he just got lucky, not like he was selective, he accepted anyone that wanted to join, even children that were missing a limb...'

Among the recruits, Ken was able to sense two children that were missing an arm, one of them seemed to be blind in one eye.

And another was surprisingly missing a leg.

War orphans weren't always left unharmed by the war after all.

Now, the child without the leg was a special case. Ken was going to make sure he received rigorous training, but he didn't plan on sending that particular child on any missions unless he managed to prove himself despite his disability.

Ken didn't want the orphans he took in to end up dying in his care.

It simply felt weird for him to just treat them all like resources whenever they always stopped their training to greet him. Many of them called him 'Father'.

Ken had never had children of his own, well, none that he knew of. But in general, he was a loner for all of his first life, and his only family were his fathers in his second life.

Still, his time with them had shaped him into the person that he became, Which was also why he wanted to avenge them even more.

'One step at a time... No need to rush into things, let all the pieces fall into place.'

Ken sat down in his office, taking off his mask and placing it to the side.

His bangs now covered the part of his face where his eyes should've been. They weren't close enough to cover the two noseless nostrils that were standing a bit above his mouth.

'I think I'm due for a haircut...'

"Saburo... Tell Tosho to come here for a bit." Ken spoke out as he shook his head and crossed his legs.

Saburo wasn't in the room, but his clones at the door could hear him. He could feel one of the clones nod, but neither of them moved.

Tosho arrived a bit later, with a bit of dust on his clothes, having just come out of the caves from training the children.

"Master, I'm glad you're back so soon, I hope everything went well..." Tosho took a knee immediately upon entering the room and closing the door, his masked face staring at Ken's expressionless 'face'.

"Everything went smoothly, a lot better than expected even. We are now allies, of sorts, with the Land of Iron." Ken nodded as he spoke.

"I find it difficult to believe that the Land of Iron would become allies with a stray organization..." Another voice joined in on the conversation, and Saburo entered the room with a curious look in his eyes.

"You can find it difficult to believe, but it did happen. Be it through intimidation or charisma, it seems that at the very least the nobles think we are worth keeping around more than otherwise."

Ken wasn't bothered by Saburo's presence, he had expected him to show up as well. Akira was likely still training in the caves though.

"... I see. I'd love to hear more about what happened in detail." Saburo nodded a bit, Tosho didn't say anything, but Ken could feel that he was also curious.

"I will go into detail at a later date. For now, I am feeling like taking a stroll. Collecting a bounty or two in the process."

Tosho nodded as he finally stood up, dusting himself off and walking to his leader's side.

"I will select a few interesting targets for you, sir... I actually had my eyes on one myself."

Ken turned his head towards Tosho, smiling a bit as his curiosity rose a bit.

"Hmm? You found something interesting among the bounty posters?" Saburo also seemed a bit curious about what his associate had found.

"Not among the bounty posters... But I did find a personal request directed at us... Asking us to investigate something called, the Cult of Jashin." Tosho took out a small unsealed letter and placed it on the table.

"... Cult of Jashin?"