The heavy sound of the patrol team’s boots finally stopped at the entrance of the alley.
Yuya lay sprawled out on the dilapidated wooden veranda, just waiting for the “light of righteousness” to make its grand entrance.
But the next second, his scalp nearly exploded.
That Root assassin who should have fled actually hadn’t left!
On top of the courtyard wall, that dark figure paused for only half a second before forcibly turning back.
Damn (a type of plant).
Ten thousand alpacas stampeded through Yuya’s mind.
This guy had changed his mind!
The death order to “leave no survivors” had ultimately outweighed the risk of exposure.
The assassin drifted back to the wooden veranda like a weightless rag, holding his short blade in a reverse grip.
This time, there was no interrogation, no probing, and he even skipped the villainous monologue that usually leads to death by talking too much.
The tip of the blade plunged straight toward his throat.
It was too fast!
His brain didn’t even have time to curse!
[Ding!
Passive Body Replacement Technique · Pre-judgment triggered!] Bang—!
A sonic boom exploded in the dead of night.
The chipped old wooden bucket in front of Yuya instantly swapped places with him in a grand magic trick.
The sharp short blade viciously pierced through the wooden bucket.
Crack!
The bucket shattered on the spot.
Splinters, dirty water, and broken wooden slats flew everywhere, and the veranda instantly became a complete mess.
As for Yuya himself?
He had perfectly timed a flash to the side of the water vat three meters away.
But this landing was an absolute epic disaster.
His body rolled sideways, half his face buried in the wet mud, his hands still clutching his head for dear life.
It wasn’t his acting skills exploding; it was purely because the Body Replacement Technique’s random landing point was too cursed, and he had slammed his head right onto the base of the water vat.
This impact made his physiological tears shoot right out.
However, it was precisely this embarrassing posture that, by a stroke of luck, saved his life.
The assassin looked up sharply amidst the flying wood chips, staring fixedly at Yuya by the water vat.
Three meters.
A pure-blooded loser who couldn’t even spit out a spark for the Great Fireball Technique had actually flashed three meters in a life-or-death moment?
Newton’s coffin lid was about to burst open!
But the wreckage before his eyes provided the most absurd yet reasonable explanation.
The commotion of the bucket exploding was too great; the water vat lid had been flipped, and the tattered coat on the clothesline had been pulled down.
It looked exactly as if this unlucky guy had been blasted away by the shockwave.
The best part was Yuya’s current performance, which could practically be used as a certified template for a “pure-blooded loser.” He was huddled behind the water vat, soaked to the bone, with half a rotten wooden board on his head, looking like a screaming chicken that had just had its toe stepped on.
“Ahhhhhh—help me!” His voice cracked on the spot, filled with a thick, tearful tone.
“Don’t kill me…
I don’t know anything, don’t kill me…” The cowardice was authentic; even the system would have to call him a pro.
A trace of doubt flashed in the assassin’s eyes.
If this kid really knew the Body Replacement Technique, he would have already run away during the chaos; what was the point of crying for his parents here?
Without further hesitation, the assassin retracted his short blade and changed tactics.
His left hand reached toward a hidden pouch at his waist, his fingertips pulling out a poison needle as thin as an ox hair.
Delayed-action poison.
It would take effect six to eight hours after being struck, with symptoms roughly equivalent to a sudden heart attack—designed for a “natural death” that even the gods couldn’t find fault with.
His wrist flicked violently.
The poison needle flew out silently, hidden by the night!
In the same second, Yuya moved too.
Like a stray dog completely terrified out of its wits, he scrambled on all fours in the mud, and by sheer blind luck, grabbed the tattered coat from the ground and pulled it tightly over his head!
It was the ultimate ostrich tactic: “As long as I can’t see you, you can’t kill me.” However, it was precisely this bottom-of-the-barrel, blind operation.
The poison needle pierced accurately into the sleeve of the old coat, but its force was forcibly dissipated by the rough, layered, cheap cotton fabric.
True physical armor stacking!
In the end, the tip of the needle got stuck in the third layer of fabric.
It was less than two millimeters away from Yuya’s arm!
Through the clothes, cold sweat poured down Yuya’s back like a waterfall.
Good grief, was this an assassination?
This was basically playing extreme bungee jumping on the King of Hell’s ledger of life and death!
At this moment, outside the alley, the footsteps of the patrol team were rapidly approaching.
“What was that noise?” “It seems to be coming from that deadbeat’s courtyard, go check it out!” He couldn’t delay any longer.
The assassin decisively retreated, his figure springing up from the ground and drifting lightly toward the roof.
The moment he used the outermost roof tile for leverage.
Crack.
Half an aged and brittle roof tile was snapped, falling precisely into the drainage ditch outside the wall.
Three seconds later, the dangerous killing intent completely vanished.
Bang, bang, bang!
The courtyard gate was pounded thunderously.
“Hey!
What are you doing in there?
What happened?” Yuya lay in the muddy water, tearing off the tattered clothes covering his face, his whole body shaking like a high-frequency Parkinson’s patient.
He wasn’t acting; this time he was really shaking like hell!
If that poison needle had gone just two more millimeters, this book could have ended and celebrated early!
But he stubbornly refused to open the door.
“I…
I fell!” He shouted through the door panel, his voice wavering.
“I smashed a bucket…
I’m sorry, brothers, I disturbed you…” “I’m fine…
I’m really fine, don’t come in…” Outside the door, the patrol members looked at each other, rolling their eyes to the heavens.
“What kind of crazy stuff is he pulling in the middle of the night?
Bad luck!” They cursed and walked away, their footsteps fading into the distance.
However, before leaving, one of the members peered through the gap in the door with extreme disdain.
The scattered broken wooden pieces, the overturned water vat, and Yuya shivering in the corner like a drowned dog were all in full view.
That look was a success!
“Suspicious noise at night” would definitely be written into tonight’s patrol log without missing a word.
This ultimate micro-operation was textbook perfection!
After confirming they had gone far away, Yuya slowly climbed up from the mud pit.
His knees were scraped raw, there was a huge bump on the back of his head, and the shallow wound on his neck had just scabbed over.
On top of that, he was soaked through, and as the night wind blew, he looked so miserable that even his own mother wouldn’t recognize him.
But he bared his teeth and smiled silently.
The more he smiled, the wider his mouth stretched, looking exactly like an outlaw whose conspiracy had succeeded.
In his mind, the system’s notification sound was even more pleasant than the sound of gold coins dropping.
[System Prompt: Mission progress surged!] [Key observers have recorded the scene—both the Anbu surveillance point and the patrol team have noticed the anomaly.] Although the settlement interface hadn’t popped up yet, this game was already completely locked in.
Yuya rubbed his frozen hands, admiring his “perfect answer sheet” by the moonlight.
In the mud pit, there was a footprint of standard-issue ninja boots that didn’t belong to an Uchiha.
At the crack in the wooden veranda, there was a hard-to-detect fine black fiber.
In the sleeve of the tattered coat, there was a poison-tipped needle meant to send someone to their grave.
On the edge of the eaves, there was a missing, freshly snapped roof tile.
The four major pieces of physical evidence were all set.
With these things put together, even a fool could piece together the bloody script of “a professional expert breaking in at night with poison to commit murder.” Yuya calmly picked up the coat and hung it back on the clothesline exactly as it was, with the needle hole exposed.
Footprints?
Don’t touch them.
Broken tile?
Ignore it.
Fabric fiber?
Don’t even glance at it.
Just kidding, how could a pure-blooded loser who was scared to the point of incontinence possibly understand high-level operations like criminal investigation and evidence collection?
He would only scramble back into his dog kennel and wrap himself in a quilt to wallow in isolation.
Yuya reached back and pulled the shoji door shut, then slid into the cold quilt and wrapped himself up tightly.
Although his body was still trembling, the abacus in his brain was already sparking.
That old schemer Danzo thought he could crush an ant without even needing to file a case report?
Sorry, buddy, this dilapidated courtyard of mine is now your officially certified crime scene!
[Mission remaining time: 9 hours and 31 minutes.] Yuya closed his eyes peacefully, waiting for dawn.
The stage for the good show was set; he was just waiting for the audience in the front row to have their tickets checked and enter.
…
At the same time.
Three hundred meters outside the clan territory, on top of an abandoned water tower.
The retreating assassin crouched down, checking his equipment according to protocol.
But when his fingers brushed over his left trouser leg, his movements suddenly froze.
The texture was wrong!
There was a ragged tear there.
A piece of specially made fiber fabric, two fingers wide, had vanished into thin air.
When did it get torn off, and how had he not felt even the slightest warning?
The assassin’s hand hung in mid-air, as if a pause button had been pressed.
Underneath that mask, which was usually devoid of emotion, cold sweat poured down, and only one thought remained in his mind.
This kid…
this could absolutely not be an accident!