The first to move was a young woman holding a child.
She didn't ask any more questions. She simply turned around with the child in her arms and ran ho. Imdiately afterward, an old man slapped his thigh hard and turned around, shouting, "What are you all standing around for? Pack!"
The chaotic crowd finally began to split apart.
So people rushed ho. So helped the elderly out. So hurried to lead out their cattle. So ran out crying while carrying bamboo baskets full of dicinal herbs. The whole village suddenly ca alive. Footsteps, shouts, animal noises, and the sound of wooden doors opening and closing all mixed together.
Shizune quickly spread out the docunts and started registering households with a few literate young people from the village chief's family.
"That family, five people, one elder, two children… line up over there first!"
"Those with difficulty walking, go to the left!"
"Tie the livestock into one group. Don't let them scatter!"
"Bring only what you need first! Stop carrying cooking pots! Konoha will compensate you for pots later!"
One woman's eyes were red from crying. "My dowry…"
Shizune grabbed her hand. "Stay alive first. We'll figure out the rest later, all right? Stay alive first."
Elsewhere, Chizumi had already led Kakashi, Shikamaru, Tenzō, and several Anbu deeper into the village.
As Shikamaru walked, he looked up at the houses and alleys.
"The village is even denser than I thought."
"Mm."
"It'll be easy to bury things here, but it'll also be easy for the fire to spread too early."
"So we're not blowing up everything."
Chizumi didn't stop walking, but his eyes swept over every roof beam, courtyard corner, woodshed, well, and turning alley.
Most of the houses in the village were built with a mix of wood and stone. Their foundations were shallow, but there were quite a few cellars and storage pits inside. The gaps between courtyard walls were also narrow. So houses had dicinal herbs drying out front, so had firewood and miscellaneous items piled behind their doors, and a few small workshops still carried the bitter sll of herbs and powders.
Kakashi asked lazily, "How do you plan to set it up?"
Chizumi pointed at several places.
"Here. The first row of empty houses at the village entrance won't get heavy explosives. Only tags and light charges, to bait them into scouting first."
Shikamaru understood imdiately. "Light in front, heavy behind."
"Correct."
"Make them think Konoha only buried a few small tricks at the entrance."
Chizumi pointed again toward several intersecting alleys deeper in the village.
"The real heavy ones go here. The second layer of houses, around the wells, at corners, and in courtyards that look best suited for resting or temporary assembly."
Tenzō looked at those spots and said quietly, "If they send a scout team in, the first round will probably bypass the village entrance and check the wells and larger courtyards first."
"That's why the wells must be rigged."
Chizumi stopped in front of a slightly larger courtyard near the village center. There was a well in the yard, chopped firewood piled beside it, three main rooms, two side rooms, and a courtyard wall taller than those of the neighboring hos. It was obviously suited to be used as a temporary position.
"This is one of the core points."
Kakashi looked it over. "It does look like a place they'd choose."
Shikamaru squatted down, touched the ground, then looked at the beams and doorfras. His mind was already automatically sketching movent routes.
"If a ten-to-fifteen-man advance team enters first, the most cautious approach would be three checking the house, two checking the well, two watching the rear wall, and the rest scattered outside the courtyard and at the alley entrances as guards."
Chizumi looked at him. "Then we make sure both inside and outside the courtyard are covered."
"Explosives, not pure tags?"
"Pure tags won't hit hard enough," Chizumi said. "What I want is that once they step in, even if they don't die on the spot, they'll still be blasted covered in dirt and blood, unable to stand properly."
Kakashi's eye curved. "Sounds like you're in a good mood."
Chizumi said flatly, "It's acceptable."
Shikamaru's mouth twitched.
"Your definition of 'acceptable' is getting more dangerous by the day."
The setup began quickly.
The ninja tool team spread out several scrolls. Inside weren't ordinary explosive tags, but wrapped black explosive blocks and slender tal fuse lines. The sealing team handled the remote-detonation talismans, pressing formulas into thin wooden boards, brick cracks, and beam joints, then laying hidden lines with chakra threads.
Tenzō was best suited for camouflage.
Wherever he placed his hand along walls and ground, tiny roots or wood fragnts would grow just enough to cover the buried charges and line openings. They looked almost no different from the original foundations and wooden seams.
Kakashi crouched at the door of a woodshed and watched soone from the ninja tool team stuff explosive packs deep into the firewood pile.
"You're putting them here too?"
"Mm," Chizumi said. "If they're cautious, they'll check the woodshed and storage rooms first, fearing an ambush."
"But if the woodshed explodes first, won't that scare them away from going deeper?"
"That's why this woodshed has a delay. It detonates together with the well in the courtyard behind it."
Kakashi glanced up at him.
"You even calculated whether they'd stop after being startled."
Chizumi said, "I want them unable to stop."
Shikamaru had just finished drawing the movent routes for another alley. Hearing that, he clicked his tongue.
"That's seriously nasty."
Chizumi looked at him. "Aren't you helping?"
"I'm being forced to be nasty with you." Shikamaru stood up and patted dust off his hands. "The two courtyards in the second row on the east side need to be rigged too. Those two look the most like places temporary command personnel would stay. The houses are high, the view is good, and the walls are thick."
"Go do it."
"Got it."
Ti passed little by little.
By the ti the sun rose higher, Bamboo Village's evacuation had entered its most chaotic phase.
Crying, shouting, donkey carts, and the lowing of cattle all mixed together, and dust at the village entrance was trampled into the air. The first batch of elderly and children had already been led toward the southern reception point. A few people with difficulty walking were carried on hastily made stretchers, followed by their families carrying luggage and grain sacks.
Shizune's voice was already hoarse from shouting.
"Don't look back! Keep moving!"
"Aunt, please stop trying to catch your chicken! Chickens can run on their own!"
"Is there anyone still inside?!"
The village chief's face and neck were red as he held up the na register and roared, "The Wang family! Where are the Wang family? One person is still missing!"
A boy in his early teens rushed out of an alley, actually carrying a piglet in his arms, sweat covering his forehead.
"I'm here, I'm here!"
The village chief almost slapped him. "What ti do you think this is? Why are you still carrying a pig?!"
The boy shrank back from the yelling but clutched the pig tightly and refused to let go.
Shizune glanced at him, then finally waved her hand. "Forget it. Bring it with you. Hurry and join the group!"
Behind them, a few more households started crying because they couldn't bear to leave behind the herbs in their fields and the grain they had just set out to dry. But when they saw Konoha's people handing out box after box of money, vouchers, and resettlent docunts, and then saw the people ahead already leaving, they ultimately gritted their teeth and moved.
Before noon, more than half the villagers had already left.
More and more houses were empty now. The warmth and noise of human life gradually faded, leaving only wind passing through empty courtyards and the occasional loose doorboard tapping softly.
Shizune stood beneath the old osmanthus tree in the village center, watching group after group of villagers leave. Her heart suddenly felt hollow in a way she couldn't quite describe.
"It really feels like we're neatly hollowing out an entire village."
She said it quietly.
The dical ninja beside her gave a soft hum.
"I hope they can co back later."
Shizune pressed her lips together and didn't answer.
anwhile, Chizumi and the others were setting up deeper and deeper into the village.
The first layer of fake traces was very deliberate.
So houses even had ordinary explosive tags in obviously Konoha-style placents, not fully hidden, as though they had been hastily placed without ti for deeper concealnt. Similar traces were left behind doors, in wall corners, and beside stoves in two houses near the village entrance.
Shikamaru shook his head as he looked.
"This really screams, 'Look, there's a trap here.'"
Kakashi smiled.
"That's the point. Let them dismantle sothing smoothly first."
The real heavy explosives were slowly embedded deeper in the house clusters and alley nodes.
The stone rim beneath the well was hollowed out in a ring, with explosive packs hidden along the well wall. The base of the courtyard walls was dug open and then filled back in with dirt, with heavier explosive scrolls buried inside. At several roof beam joints, remote detonation talismans were nailed in. Once detonated, not only would the lower area explode, the beams would also snap and the roof would collapse with them.
Tenzō stood behind one house, watching the sealing team press talismans into the cracks of a wall. He asked quietly, "At this distance, will remote detonation work in ti?"
Chizumi said, "It will. We won't be waiting inside the village."
"Outside the village?"
"The low slope behind the western forest belt."
Shikamaru followed up, "From there, you can see the village entrance and half the village center. That's enough."
Kakashi rubbed his chin while looking at the map. "But to clearly see how far they enter, it'd be best to have Byakugan."
Chizumi nodded. "Neji will co."
Shizune had been helping with the evacuation in the village center. Hearing that, she turned her head. "Neji? Isn't he back in the village helping with the Chain Explosive Tag tests—"
"I called him over," Chizumi said. "We need eyes more here."
Shizune looked at him for a while before saying, "From the mont you received the intelligence, did you already plan out this whole chain of events?"
Chizumi didn't answer. He rely bent down and lightly smoothed over a patch of freshly covered soil again, as if checking for exposed traces.
Seeing that he wouldn't answer, Shizune didn't bother pressing.
By afternoon, the last batch of villagers had finally left.
Only crooked cart tracks and muddy hoofprints remained at the village entrance. When the wind blew, the usual scent of cooking smoke and human life in the village seed much fainter. The paper windows of empty houses trembled softly, and the remaining water buckets, drying poles, and a few old belongings that hadn't been taken stood out even more sharply.
The village chief was the last to leave.
Before leaving, he stood at the village entrance for a long ti, leaning on his cane and looking at the place where he had lived for half his life. His lips trembled several tis before he finally looked back at Chizumi.
"Konoha… will protect it, right?"
Chizumi looked at him. "We will."
The old man nodded. His eyes were red, but he said nothing more and turned to follow the group.
When even the last villager's figure disappeared down the southern path, Bamboo Village finally beca completely silent.
It wasn't the silence of villagers sleeping at night.
It was emptiness.
Over a hundred hos stood empty. Chicken coops were half-open. Water buckets still leaned crookedly against the stone rim of the well. In so stoves, the firewood had not fully burned down. When wind passed through the alleys, it carried an empty echo.
The middle-aged man from the ninja tool team stood in the main village alley and couldn't help shivering.
"This place really does feel kind of creepy now."
Kakashi said lazily, "When the Allied Forces enter first, it'll be even creepier."
The man thought about it, and his back felt even colder.
As evening slowly pressed down, the second round of setup was completed.
Chizumi led the group through the entire village again from beginning to end.
The fake traces at the village entrance, first-layer light blast points, second-layer heavy explosive courtyards, well-side main blasts, alley chain points, roof-beam collapse points, and rear-slope withdrawal line were all confird again.
Neji arrived around evening.
The mont he landed, he activated his Byakugan and scanned every buried talisman and explosive point in the village, faint veins bulging near his temples.
"Two light points at the village entrance, three heavy explosive points along the central lane, one core point at the western well courtyard, two in the second-row eastern courtyards, and pressure-wall points at the end of the southern lane."
After saying that, even he fell silent for a mont.
"…This is no longer the scale of one or two explosions."
Sitting on the threshold of an empty house, Shikamaru yawned.
"Welco to Chizumi's 'acceptable.'"
Neji looked at him. "You were awake all last night, then spent all day doing this?"
"More or less."
"And you can still laugh."
Shikamaru spread his hands. "We'd have to do it whether I laughed or not."
Chizumi walked over from the other side and asked Neji, "From the western slope, can you clearly see how deep the first group enters?"
Neji lifted his eyes and answered directly, "Yes. As long as they don't all hide inside houses, I can see the village entrance, the main lane, and the well courtyard."
"That's enough."
Neji hesitated, but still asked, "When do you plan to trigger it?"
Chizumi looked at the now-empty village.
"Depends where they step."
"If only two or three enter?"
"We don't move."
"If a scouting team enters?"
"Detonate the first layer and one well courtyard."
"If they suspect a trap, dismantle the light points at the entrance, then turn around and try to withdraw?"
"Then we move at the mont they think they've understood everything."
Neji was silent for a mont, then nodded lightly.
"Understood."
When night fell, Bamboo Village lit no lamps.
Everyone withdrew to the low slope behind the forest belt west of the village. The grass there was deep, the tree shadows dense. Through a few gaps, one could see the village entrance and half the houses, while still not being close enough to risk exposure. Tenzō had casually used Wood Release and leaves to add so concealnt, making it extrely difficult to see anyone hiding there from outside.
Shizune finally had ti to catch her breath. She sat against a tree root, her hands still numb.
Looking at the empty village sitting motionless in the night not far away, she whispered, "They really will co, won't they?"
Kakashi sat nearby, casually placing a book on his knee without reading it, and smiled.
"They will."
"How are you so sure?"
"Because this place is too convenient." Kakashi looked at the dark rooftops in the distance. "And because right now, they really want to pick their pride back up."
Shikamaru lay on the grassy slope with his arms behind his head, his eyes half-closed.
"Konoha just burned their big warehouses. What they're most afraid of now isn't danger. It's looking like idiots. With a point like Bamboo Village sitting right here, even if they know it's dangerous, if they don't enter, the units behind them will start doubting them. If they do enter, at least it shows they still dare to step forward."
Shizune sighed.
"Do n all care that much about this ridiculous thing called face?"
Shikamaru said with his eyes closed, "Not n. Armies. If you let a big group of people who just got their grain burned stop dead at the border without daring to take one step forward, then that army is finished."
The wind passed little by little over the slope, pressing the tips of the grass low.
When the sky went completely dark, Bamboo Village was reduced to a black silhouette in the distance. The rooftops looked like layers of crouching shadows. Occasionally, a doorboard would be lifted slightly by the wind, then slowly return to silence.
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