Seeing the letter, Kuro was startled; ninjas would never communicate with him like this.
Furthermore, everyone has personal space; after all, they are still ninjas, so once in a personal room, no matter how tiny, it's personal, with only the owner allowed in.
Of course, the owner can permit others to enter, but Kuro has never let anyone else enter his room.
This letter on his table means that someone, most likely a spy, broke into his room, which is unprecedented in the village's history.
Until now, even the door wasn't locked, as nobody would enter each other's personal rooms; for ninjas, this is a very serious matter. Entering another ninja's room is worse than slapping them in the face, and it is punishable by Aka ninjas.
Putting on gloves, Kuro carefully opened the letter and started reading.
"Those having common enemies are natural allies; instead of fighting among ourselves, we must unite against our common enemy;" Under that, an address was written, along with a date and time.
It didn't take a genius to guess who the letter was from; it was from Jack.
In the last few weeks, Kuro thought a lot about that day and concluded that Jack didn't want to kill him. There were a few clues.
First, when Kuro was running, Jack didn't chase after him; Kuro saw how fast and strong Jack was and how quickly he was killing the ninjas; if he had been chasing, Kuro couldn't have run away.
Second, Mike always missed his shot by a hair; whether it was the neck graze, the groin shot, or the shoulder one, all were very close to hitting critical areas, yet somehow, none did.
Third, when he shot the second Flare, Jack and his crew could have gotten there much faster than the ninjas because they were much closer, yet they didn't even try.
Fourth, when Kuro attacked, Jack was ready, meaning he knew of the impending attack; if he wanted, he could have set up things to kill Kuro, like ordering that archer to shoot him when he didn't pay attention. Kuro couldn't imagine being able to dodge a shot from that archer if the archer shot in stealth.
There were other minor reasons, but these four were the main ones.
So, why didn't they want to kill him, and if they didn't want to kill him, why did they injure him?
Kuro has some ideas.
First, Kuro guesses that it was their plan to try to turn him away from Kampaku. Somehow, Jack knew the exact situation of the world and rightfully chose ninjas as possible allies. This displays that Jack has very detailed information about everything in the country.
Samurais never rebel unless Kampaku really threatens their core interests; as for local lords, they are too cowardly to do it.
Kampaku himself mostly controls the many regional bandits and criminal gangs, so that's out of the question.
The ordinary people, many of whom are Jack's fans have no power, so Jack has no way of asking for help from them either.
The only force who could possibly rebel against Kampaku was the ninjas, who were forced to endure unpleasant conditions.
As for why they injured him? It was a show of power. It worked; Kuro fears that archer now and doesn't want to have such an enemy.
As a peak human ninja, he can always run away even if the worst happens; Kampaku can catch him. The only thing that can really threaten his life is being cornered in a trap or a very strong enemy like Mike and Jack.
The threat of those two to his personal life is no less than Kampaku. Of course, Kuro doesn't care only about personal life but also about the village.
Kuro discovered the letter was from Jack because he was the one Kuro fought against. in addition, Jack and Kuro were both enemies of Kampaku, and it was Jack who could have killed him and didn't; in addition, it was only someone like Jack who had powerful enough subordinates to infiltrate the village.
Kuro was not 100% sure, but he was +70% sure; of course, if he wanted to really go there at the location at the stated time, he would remain as cautious as ever.
"We may have a shot at killing Kampaku," Kuro thought. It's possible they can really kill Kampaku.
"But the risks are too high!" thought Kuro, tearing the letter and burning it. He won't take risks with the village on the line.
The most important matter at the moment is the spy. A few missing ninjas a few weeks ago, along with this letter ...
"Jack sent someone to kill our ninjas and somehow infiltrated the village; there is a spy in the village! We must catch him as soon as possible!" he thought resolutely.
Even if he accepts Jack's offer, the priority is to catch the spy. A spy is intolerable, especially for a secretive group like ninjas.
Thinking of this, he left the room and went straight to the Midori Ninja's headquarters.
Midori ninjas are responsible for general security. He didn't send a subordinate to deliver the news because it was too important.
The Midori Ninja headquarters was very well guarded.
The ninja system in this village was a bit unique in one regard: in how departments and lineages worked together.
In the Midori Ninja headquarters, for example, there were many Shiro ninjas, a few Aka ninjas, and Senmon ninjas; ninjas other than Midori ninjas were not part of Midori Ninja per se, but they were assigned to its headquarters. In fact, Midori ninjas are also like this; they stand guard in other lineages' headquarters.
That was because of specialization.
Shiro ninjas, for example, didn't have separate 'Shiro ninja guards'; throughout the village, Midori ninjas did all general protection and patrol, and Shiro ninjas handled all recordkeeping and clerk tasks.
The ninja village values self-sufficiency, but within it, ninja departments are very specialized and reliant on each other.
For this reason, Midori Ninja headquarters, which was the de facto police headquarters of the village, was populated by ninjas of all lineages.
The chief of Midori ninja headquarters was of course, the Midori ninja, but aside from him, the top leadership of the Midori ninja headquarters was completely dominated by Senmon and Kuro ninjas.
Senmon ninjas were specialized; for example, those talented in analyzing things were Senmon ninjas.
Kuro ninjas were good at leadership.
In fact, in most departments of the village, Kuro ninjas and Senmon ninjas usually occupy the top leadership positions. This is not that the village is biased toward Kuro and Senmon ninjas; it's just that the smartest and most talented are usually sent to Kuro and Senmon lineages, so it's natural that they have better results.
On the other hand, green ninjas are mostly foot soldiers and at the bottom; again, it's not that everyone discriminates against them; it's just that those with no particular talent are dumped into green ninjas.
...
The building was a big, concrete castle, one of the few buildings built to act as a last-measure castle. It had massive gates, food reserves, and a few underground routes leading out of the village.
It was basically a castle within the village.
However, the gates were wide open; ninjas were moving in and out; it was quite a busy building.
This is because Midori ninja headquarters is where they must visit to accept lineage-specific tasks. Lineage-specific tasks for Midori ninjas involve patrolling some areas, protecting VIPs when they visit the village, helping other departments with protection, invading foreign forces, etc.
Lineage-specific tasks are a duty of all ninjas and are unpaid.
General tasks are issued at the Pinku Ninja headquarters. General tasks are issued by forces throughout the world, and are verified and checked through Pinku ninjas and Mienai ninjas. The village takes a 33% cut, and the ninjas receive the rest of the commission.
Money has its uses, even in ninja villages; they can buy better food, better weapons, clothes, etc.
Even ninjas have dreams; even if ruthless, they are not robots.
Of course, most male ninjas are castrated before the age of majority, so their dreams usually wouldn't involve forming a family, etc.
As for female ninjas, there have been cases of them falling in love, but those were rare and far in between, and never caused an issue. In this village, they only castrate most male ninjas and leave female ninjas alone.
The base reason they do this is to prevent love affairs within the village. To achieve this, only castrating one gender is enough. Picking one over the other, it's simply easier done with male ninjas. There are, again, physical differences that make one more practical than the other.
In any case, most talented male ninjas would always be kept intact; only less talented ninjas, which cover most of the male population, would be castrated. Nearly none of Kuro ninjas, for example, are castrated.
This system has major flaws, but it was the best way this ninja village found to accommodate both male and female ninjas. No matter how they train them, in a crowded environment with thousands of people, keeping both genders in most ninja elders' options can cause trouble. Unwanted pregnancy, etc.
It doesn't mean this ninja village is right to do it, or it doesn't even mean their method works. For example, other ninja villages work quite fine while not doing any of this.
in any case, This ninja village decided to do it this way long ago; they only imported new children and trained them, and they would not allow their ninjas to have children.
They are all evil anyway and have no issue doing these.
After entering the headquarters, Kuro went on and reached the chief's room.
The chief of Green ninjas used to be a Kuro ninja. That's right; the chief of green ninjas is usually chosen among the Kuro ninjas; this is another reason Kuro is so influential; some of the current lineage chiefs are his former subordinates.
Even though they are equals, the fact that they used to be his subordinates would still have some effect.
"Kuro! You finally visited me!" the Midori ninja stood up laughing; he was genuinely happy seeing Kuro come. Even though they usually see each other, Kuro has not visited him in his headquarters for a decade.
Closing the door, Kuro said, "We have a spy!" he said with a grave face.
"Spy?" Midori ninja looked with a very serious face; a ninja in the village is a shame on him, who is responsible for security.
Kuro told the whole story.
"Kuro, are you going to accept it? Are we going to fight with Kampaku?" he asked.
"This matter is big, so I can't decide by myself; in the next emergency meeting, we will take a vote," he said.
Kuro already sent someone to call for an emergency meeting.
Midori ninja nodded and said, "I will find the spy as soon as possible!" he assured Kuro.
Hearing this, Kuro nodded and left.