Looking at the completely paralyzed squad of five, Gekko Senzan slowly dropped his cloaking.
Still, playing it safe, he double-checked with his partner.
‘Chomei, you’re absolutely sure they can’t see me right now?’ ‘I’m positive.
Don’t worry about it.
If you’re that paranoid, just test it yourself.’
Senzan crouched in front of one of the Cloud ninja and waved a hand in front of his face.
Hmm, no reaction.
But a second later, a realization hit him.
“Wait a minute, Chomei.
They’re so paralyzed right now that even if they could see me, they wouldn’t be able to react anyway!”
A brief, awkward silence stretched between them.
Whatever.
Senzan decided to just trust his partner.
Wasting no more time, he immediately began looting the incapacitated ninja.
Money?
Taken!
Ninja tools?
Swiped!
Hmm?
What was this?
He suddenly pulled a scroll from one of the men’s pouches.
“A mission scroll, maybe?
Let’s see what we have here…” Senzan popped the seal and unrolled the parchment.
Oh, interesting.
It turned out that Kumogakure’s infiltration of the Land of Hot Water wasn’t just to farm outsourced missions to pad their own village’s treasury.
They were actively headhunting.
They were poaching all the highly aggressive, militant ninja who used to belong to the Hidden Steam Village and recruiting them straight into the Cloud.
The scroll clearly stated that this particular squad had already roped in eight Steam ninja.
‘Tsk, tsk.
I have to admit, that’s a brilliant move.’
The Land of Hot Water actually had a sizable population of shinobi.
But ever since the Daimyo severely slashed their military budget to focus on tourism, those ninja had been struggling to make ends meet.
The Hidden Cloud swooping in to offer them a new home and steady pay was undoubtedly an irresistible opportunity.
Stuffing his newfound loot away, Senzan left the five men sprawled in the dirt.
It would take over a day for the paralysis to wear off anyway; he’d just leave them to their fate.
He immediately triggered his Flying Thunder God Jutsu, teleporting back to the marker he had left near his squad’s position before quickly jogging the rest of the way in.
Seeing Senzan return, a flash of relief crossed Heiichi Yamanaka’s eyes.
He quickly stepped forward.
“Senzan!
How did it go?
Did you get any useful intel?”
Without a word, Senzan handed over the scroll he had just confiscated. This chapter was copied from novelping.com without permission.
As the three Anbu read it, their expressions darkened dramatically.
Mizuno and Yoshimori, who had been harboring deep doubts and openly looking down on Senzan, were particularly shocked.
In just a short trip, he had successfully extracted high-level intel and returned without a scratch.
Their perception of the teenager instantly shifted.
“Those damn Cloud bastards,” Heiichi cursed, his face pale as he finished reading.
“To think they were plotting something this massive.”
“What is it, Captain?” Mizuno asked.
“Read it yourselves.”
The moment Mizuno and Yoshimori scanned the contents, they were absolutely livid.
“Calm down, you three.
And remember, that was just one squad,” Senzan said casually, having already processed the shock.
“I guarantee you, the number of Kumogakure ninja operating inside the Land of Hot Water right now is staggering.
Hell, there might even be Cloud elites stationed here.”
Senzan’s only real concern at this point was whether they could pack up and go home now.
“If that’s the case, we pull out immediately,” Mizuno stated urgently.
“We need to get this intel to Lord Hokage as fast as possible.”
But before he could even finish his sentence, Heiichi’s face drained of color.
“Move!
We’ve been compromised!”
As a sensor ninja of the Yamanaka clan, he had suddenly detected a massive influx of chakra signatures rapidly closing in on their position from all sides.
‘Damn it, how did they find us?!’
Hearing Heiichi’s warning, Mizuno and Yoshimori instantly glared at Senzan.
“It’s you!
You must have led them right to us!”
Senzan rolled his eyes.
He had absolute confidence in his Transparency Jutsu; there was zero chance he had been tracked.
“Are we really going to stand here and argue?!” Senzan snapped.
“Run!”
Snapped back to reality, the three Anbu shut their mouths and sprinted back the way they came.
“Where do you think you’re going?!” “Leaf rats!”
Several silhouettes suddenly burst from the trees, launching a coordinated assault.
“Fire Style: Flame Bullet!” “Lightning Style: Ground Flash!”
A barrage of fireballs and crackling electricity instantly sealed off all their escape routes.
“Damn it, they’re too fast!” Heiichi cursed in shock.
Still, as a veteran Anbu, his reaction time was impeccable.
He spun around, hurling a spread of shuriken toward their attackers to cover their flank.
Mizuno and Yoshimori dodged the incoming jutsu and immediately launched their counterattack.
“Wind Style: Wind Cutter Jutsu!” Mizuno cast his wind jutsu, sending razor-sharp blades of air slicing through the brush.
Meanwhile, Yoshimori drew his kunai and charged straight at the enemy frontline.
‘Senzan, you need to get out of here right now,’ Chomei warned urgently from within.
‘I’m sensing an unbelievably powerful chakra signature in the group behind us.
This guy is bad news.’
Even without the Tailed Beast’s warning, Senzan knew they were in deep trouble.
The strike team ambushing them was operating on a completely different level of combat prowess.
They were lightyears ahead of the Chunin squad he had just robbed.
If Senzan wanted to bail, it would be trivially easy.
He had already activated his Transparency Jutsu, completely vanishing from sight.
Not even top-tier sensor ninja could track him down.
But what about Heiichi and the others?
He couldn’t care less about Mizuno and Yoshimori, but Heiichi was his friend.
‘Ah, damn it.
Looks like I’m going to have to show my hand.’
But just as he was about to trigger his Flying Thunder God formula, a blood-curdling scream pierced the air.
“Mizuno!”
Heiichi and Yoshimori whipped their heads around.
A hulking brute of a man, his entire body crackling with intense lightning chakra, was currently holding Mizuno high in the air by his skull with a single hand.
“Just three little Leaf rats?” the man rumbled, his deep, gravelly voice echoing through the clearing.
He sounded almost bored.
“Adayi, didn’t you say there were four of them?
Where’s the last one?”
Beside the behemoth stood another ninja.
The man’s eyes were tightly shut—or rather, they couldn’t open at all, completely ruined by a horizontal scar slashed across his face.
He was clearly blind, but given how the brute addressed him, he was undoubtedly a highly skilled sensor type.
“My apologies, Lord A,” the blind ninja replied calmly.
“The fourth signature simply vanished.
Either he was instantly vaporized, or he escaped hundreds of meters outside my sensory range.”
The towering monster was none other than the son of the Third Raikage—A.
He possessed the same terrifyingly muscular physique and the same overwhelming, monstrous chakra reserves as his father.
Just standing there, the sheer pressure radiating off him was enough to suffocate Heiichi and Yoshimori.
‘Damn it…
they actually sent the Raikage’s son…’ A bitter, resigned smile touched Heiichi’s lips.
‘I guess this is where it ends.’
Beside him, Yoshimori remained completely silent.
Gripping a kunai in each hand, his eyes locked onto the giant.
“I don’t care who you are—let Mizuno go!”
Roaring in fury, Yoshimori recklessly charged straight at A.
“Hmph.
Pathetic Leaf trash.”
BOOM!
Clad in his Lightning Release Chakra Mode, A didn’t even bother looking at him.
He simply threw a casual punch, blasting Yoshimori backward with explosive force.
Blood sprayed wildly from the Anbu’s mouth mid-air, mixed with sickening, unidentifiable chunks.
That single, effortless blow had completely shattered his internal organs.