The third warning came even faster than Luna expected.
Only three days had passed since the last appearance of an Iwagakure Ninja.
That early morning, before Luna had even opened her eyes, that familiar red light flashed in her mind:
[Destiny Warning!]
[Quantity: 1]
[Combat Power Assessment: Genin level.]
[Estimated Contact Time: About 15 minutes.]
Only one person.
Luna rolled over and sat up, just about to call out to wake the others, when she suddenly stopped.
A thought flashed through her mind: if they could only hide every time a Ninja came, they would forever be forced to flee passively.
They needed Ninjutsu, they needed weapons, they needed things that could protect themselves.
And a lone Genin…
Luna’s heartbeat accelerated.
This idea was too crazy.
The other side was a real Ninja, and they were just four children who didn’t even know how to use Chakra—no, wait, she actually knew how to use Chakra now, but the other three still didn’t.
Yahiko had once said that the best opportunities are often accompanied by the greatest risks.
Luna clenched her teeth and woke Yahiko up.
…
“Are you crazy?”
After listening to Luna’s words, Yahiko’s very first reaction was this.
His expression looked as if he had seen something unbelievable; Luna actually proposed that they go steal things from a Ninja.
“Listen to me finish.” Luna lowered her voice, speaking quickly, “I had that feeling again just now, but this time there’s only one person, and they’re coming in our direction. There’s a high probability they’ll pass near the shrine. If we set up traps in advance…”
“Traps?” Yahiko interrupted her, “But none of us know how to make them.”
“I do,” Luna said.
This sentence wasn’t nonsense.
Just a moment ago, she had spent a fraction of a second quickly scanning the exchange list in the system.
She couldn’t afford most things on the list, but there was a lowest-tier option that happened to be within her budget.
[Basic Trap Placement Essentials (Torn Page)]
Effect: Gain basic trap knowledge, including simple nooses, falling rock traps, and camouflage concealment.
Cost: 50 points.
Remaining points: 100.
Enough to use.
Yahiko stared at her for quite a while.
Finally, he took a deep breath and asked, “How confident are you?”
Luna thought about it: “…Fifty percent.”
“You dare to do it with fifty percent?”
“Isn’t fifty percent enough?”
“If we don’t do it, we can only hide forever,” Luna said, “What we need isn’t to hide once or twice; what we need are things that can let us survive in this world. Ninjutsu, weapons, intelligence—these things won’t deliver themselves to our doorstep.”
Yahiko fell silent.
He lowered his head to look at the unrepaired broken knife in his hand, then looked into Luna’s earnest eyes.
Then he raised his head and grinned:
“…Alright, let’s do it.”
Luna confirmed the exchange in the system with her consciousness.
At that instant, an unfamiliar stream of information poured into her mind; the knot-tying methods for nooses, the selection of support points, the combination of camouflage materials…
were directly crammed into her brain.
She shook her head, digested that information, and then began directing:
“Nagato, go cut a few thumb-thick branches; make sure they’re flexible and not too brittle. Konan, go find vines; the sturdier, the better. Yahiko, come with me; I need your help digging a shallow pit.” This story is hosted at g.com.
The four of them quickly took action.
Luna selected a path on the west side of the shrine.
That was the most natural route from the woods to the shrine; if that Ninja came from this direction, there was a high probability they would pass through here.
She selected a lushly foliated large tree on the path and fixed a simple noose mechanism at the fork of the trunk.
The noose was woven from vines, and the other end was fixed to a branch.
As long as someone stepped on the trigger mechanism on the ground, the noose would tighten and hang the person up.
This wasn’t any clever trap; a real Ninja could easily break free.
But Luna’s purpose wasn’t to capture him, but to create a momentary chaos.
She only needed that single instant.
After the traps were set up, the four of them hid in the bushes on both sides of the path.
Luna squatted in the bushes on the left, tightly gripping the Kunai in her hand.
Her heartbeat was fast, and her palms were full of sweat, but she forced herself to calm down.
She opened the system panel and glanced at the mission progress:
[Basic Chakra Proficiency: LV1 (31 / 100)]
Not enough yet.
She still needed more time to grow stronger.
But before that, she would use this method to win more capital for their survival.
Time passed second by second.
Then, the sound of footsteps came over.
One person.
Walking from the depths of the woods, the pace was steady, neither fast nor slow.
Through the gaps in the bushes, Luna saw that person’s figure—a man wearing gray clothes, with Iwagakure’s forehead protector on his head, a bulging Ninja tool pouch hanging at his waist, and a short blade strapped to his back.
He walked along the path with his gaze fixed straight ahead, not looking particularly vigilant, probably because he felt that such a remote place wouldn’t have any danger.
He walked to the trap’s trigger point.
Luna held her breath.
The man suddenly stopped less than a step away from the trap’s trigger point.
He lowered his head to look at the ground, his gaze landing on a patch of turned-up soil.
Although Luna had tried her best to make the camouflage look natural, to an experienced Ninja, the age of that soil was obviously different from the surroundings.
Luna’s heart suddenly sank.
Discovered.
The man didn’t act immediately.
He stood in place, slowly scanning the surrounding woods, his right hand already pressing against the short blade at his waist.
Then, he spoke, his voice hoarse and low:
“Come out.”
No one moved.
“I know you’re nearby,” the man’s voice carried a hint of impatience, “A bunch of brats, thinking you can ambush me by setting up a crappy trap? Come out, I don’t kill kids.”
Luna’s brain worked at high speed.
He was bluffing them.
If he had truly confirmed their location, he wouldn’t be standing there motionless; he would have attacked directly.
He was just testing the waters.
But the problem was, if they didn’t come out, what would he do?
He would search this area, and as long as he searched carefully, they would be discovered sooner or later.
Luna clenched her teeth.
She turned her head and made a gesture to Yahiko opposite her—that was the signal they had previously agreed upon: I’ll attract attention, you attack from behind.
Seeing that gesture, Yahiko shook his head frantically.
Luna ignored him.
She took a deep breath, then stood up from the bushes.
Seeing that the one walking out from the bushes was merely a seven or eight-year-old red-haired little girl, a trace of surprise flashed in his eyes, but his hand movements didn’t relax.
“Just you alone?”
Luna didn’t answer.
She stood there, her hands hanging at her sides, her palms full of sweat.
The man frowned and took two steps towards her.
At the exact instant he took his second step, the branches behind him violently sprang back!
Yahiko leaped out from behind the tree, holding a thick wooden stick, and smashed it fiercely toward the back of the man’s head!
But the man’s reaction speed far exceeded their imagination; without even turning his head, he slightly tilted his body and dodged Yahiko’s sneak attack, while simultaneously grabbing back with a backhand, precisely locking onto Yahiko’s wrist!
“Brat, you’re courting death!”
Before he finished speaking, he suddenly felt his ankle wrapped around by something.
He lowered his head to look—a noose woven from vines had somehow been set in the fallen leaves under his feet.
When he dodged sideways just now, he had happened to step right into the noose.
It was the second trap laid by Luna.
She never expected the first trap to succeed.
That open trap was meant to attract attention.
The real trap was hidden beneath his feet.
The man froze for a second, and in that split second of distraction, Yahiko broke free from his grip and smashed a stick onto his shoulder!
Although the force wasn’t great, it was enough to make him lose his balance.
Luna seized this opportunity, pulled the Kunai out from her bosom, and charged toward the man.
She didn’t aim for his vital points, but instead aimed for the strap of the Ninja tool pouch at his waist.
A blade slashed past.
The strap broke, and the Ninja tool pouch dropped to the ground.
“Let’s go!” Luna shouted loudly.
Yahiko immediately let go of the stick, grabbed the Ninja tool pouch on the ground, and turned to run.
Luna didn’t hesitate either as she followed him, plunging headfirst into the dense forest.
The man steadied his footing and wanted to pursue, but found that the noose on his ankle was tightening more and more, and he couldn’t untie it for a moment.
He cursed softly, drew his short blade, and cut the vines.
But when he raised his head, the two brats had already disappeared into the depths of the dense forest.
He stood in place, remained silent for a few seconds, looked at the broken vines on the ground, and then looked at the direction where the two brats had disappeared, suddenly letting out an inexplicable chuckle:
“…A bit interesting.”
Then he bent down to pick up the cut strap fragments and turned to leave.
…
Luna and Yahiko ran for who knows how long in one breath, until they couldn’t run anymore, before collapsing under a large tree.
Both of them were panting heavily.
Yahiko lifted the Ninja tool pouch in his hand, waving it in front of Luna, his face carrying a wild joy of surviving a disaster:
“We did it! We really did it!”
Luna leaned against the tree trunk, her heart still pounding wildly, but the corners of her mouth couldn’t help curling up.
The two opened the Ninja tool pouch; the items inside were richer than imagined: three Kunai, a dozen or so shuriken, a small roll of bandages, two military ration pills, and a folded, yellowed old map.
Luna picked up that map and unfolded it to take a look; it depicted the terrain of the Land of Rain and its surrounding areas, marked with some symbols and texts she couldn’t understand.
She couldn’t understand all of it, but she noticed that a few locations were marked with red circles on the map.
One of them was not far from their current location.
This map was even more valuable than those Ninja tools.
That night, on the pillar at the entrance of the shrine, there was one more charcoal mark.
Drawn by Yahiko.
“The second time,” he said.
Then he looked at the three charcoal marks—the first time was a wandering Ninja, the second time was the Iwagakure trio, the third time was today’s lone Iwagakure, and couldn’t help laughing:
“It’s only been a little over a month, and we’ve already drawn three marks.”
Luna sat by the bonfire, holding the old map captured from the Ninja tool pouch in her hand, her gaze falling on that red circle without speaking.