"Whether I can stop you or not, we'll only know after trying."
Heidan raised both hands, and dozens of thin blue-glowing needles sealed off every possible dodge route around Chizumi.
"Lightning Release: Earth Flow!"
Kakashi pressed one hand to the ground. Lightning spread rapidly through the damp soil. The thin needles were pulled off course by the electromagnetic field in midair and stabbed into a nearby dirt pit.
"Go!" Kakashi shouted.
Chizumi didn't hesitate. His body shot upward, and he kicked off a tree trunk, sweeping diagonally backward.
Heidan was just about to give chase when a ring of shadow suddenly burst open beneath his feet.
"Shadow Sewing Jutsu!"
Black shadow spikes shot out from the mud. Heidan twisted midair, narrowly avoiding them. By the ti he landed and looked again, there was no trace of the Konoha ninja left in the thick mist.
He looked back toward Bamboo Village.
By now, the whole village was packed with Allied troops. The Land of Earth's ninja were pushing down the burned walls of the village houses, starting to build temporary defensive works. The Land of Lightning's flag was flying high beside the half-charred osmanthus tree.
"We took it, but at this price…"
Heidan looked at the corpses scattered across the ground and the emptied supply crates, his face frighteningly cold.
…
Inside the Land of Fire, at a temporary outpost three kiloters from the border.
The sky had already begun to brighten. Campfires were still burning in the outpost. Chizumi's squad sat in scattered groups on the ground, busy sorting through the spoils from this battle.
"Hiss, heavy."
Shikamaru threw the two large packs off his back onto the grass, and they landed with the clatter of tal striking tal. He opened one. It was packed full of refined steel wire and bundles of kunai.
"The balance on these kunai is really stable." Kiba picked one up and spun it around his finger, clicking his tongue in amazent. "And the edges have anti-chakra material mixed in. Their conductivity is way better than our standard gear."
Shizune was counting the box of soldier pills. As she counted and recorded, her expression gradually relaxed.
"Three thousand six hundred high-purity soldier pills in total, plus twenty-two bottles of quick-recovery dicine." She looked at Chizumi. "That ans even if all our small teams in this forest lose logistics support for the next half month, they won't go hungry."
Tenzō was leading several Anbu in relabeling captured explosive tags with Konoha markings and repacking them.
"Eight hundred and fifty in total. All high-powered Lightning Burst Tags." Tenzō wiped sweat from his forehead. "If all of these had gone off earlier, that forest really would have been flattened."
Kakashi leaned against a tree trunk, holding an exquisite Sunagakure bracer. He turned it over and pointed at the miniature launcher hidden inside.
"There are three poisoned senbon concealed underneath. High-end goods." He tossed the bracer to a young Anbu. "Take it. For self-defense."
Chizumi sat beside the campfire, holding a skewer of heated cured at. It had been found on an Allied logistics officer.
"How's it taste?" Shikamaru walked over, sat down, and took a piece to chew.
"A little salty." Chizumi lowered his head, looking at the supply deploynt map he had found on a corpse.
"Stop looking at that. Eat first," Shikamaru said vaguely while chewing. "Even though Bamboo Village is full of their people now, we got these boxes of dicine and hundreds of blades back. This fight wasn't wasted. Didn't you see how the brothers at the outpost were looking at us earlier? Like we were gods of wealth."
Chizumi stuffed the last piece of at into his mouth and patted the ash off his hands.
"Bamboo Village has beco their death zone now." He pointed to that spot on the map. "Lady Tsunade's follow-up orders should arrive soon, right?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a ssenger hawk dove from the sky and landed on Kakashi's shoulder.
Kakashi untied the bamboo tube and took out a slip of paper. After glancing at it, he handed it to Chizumi.
On the paper was written:
Supplies have arrived. All personnel are to rest and reorganize. A sensory net has been laid around Bamboo Village. Phase one of the plan to lure the enemy into the village is complete. —Tsunade
"Lure the enemy into the village?" Shizune froze. "So that village…"
"The village was bait from the beginning." Chizumi stood and looked toward the gradually rising sun in the distance. "The explosives we buried in the village were only the appetizer. The real gift is what they'll discover after they settle in."
The outpost grew busy.
dical ninja began distributing the newly seized soldier pills to the wounded. The ninja tool team distributed the Land of Lightning's steel wire. Even breakfast was more plentiful than usual—all thanks to the captured military rations.
"Chizumi, what do you think they're doing in the village right now?" Kiba asked indistinctly while gnawing on dried at.
Chizumi looked into the distance, his gaze calm.
"Counting corpses, and mourning those supply crates we emptied." He said lightly, "Then sitting inside that hollow shell full of hidden sentries and traps, thinking they're as stable as Mount Tai."
A wind blew in from the forest, carrying the fresh scent of grass and trees.
"Rest for two hours." Chizumi turned to look at everyone. "In two hours, we'll head to the small road south of Bamboo Village and pull out the sentry points they just nailed down, one by one."
"I knew we wouldn't actually get to rest," Shikamaru muttered, though he still stood up and tucked a newly issued bundle of refined-steel kunai into his tool pouch.
Everyone silently checked their equipnt. Ninja tools bearing the marks of the Land of Lightning, Sunagakure, and Iwagakure were now hanging from the bodies of Fire Country ninja, flashing with cold tallic light under the morning sun.
When the wounded were carried down from the horses, the wooden stretchers dragged long, thin marks through the mud.
The outpost was filled with a thick sll of dicinal herbs, mixed with the aroma of freshly boiled at soup. Shizune was moving between several large tents with the dical team, holding a tray filled with hemostatic powder.
Chizumi took the scrolls off his back and dropped them heavily onto the long table in the command post. Sealed inside the scrolls were over a thousand Lightning Burst Tags seized from the Allied Forces. The impact made a dull thud against the wooden table.
"Distribute them." Chizumi said to the supply officer beside him, his voice sounding slightly hoarse. "The Land of Lightning's craftsmanship is steadier than ours. Have the ninja tool team re-equip the brothers hiding on the front line first."
The supply officer nodded hurriedly and called several people over to carry the scrolls away.
Shikamaru sat on the threshold, undoing the leggings around his calf. A Sunagakure dry ration cake soaked with sweat fell out. He looked at it, casually tossed it into his mouth, chewed twice, and imdiately frowned. "So hard."
"It's already good that we managed to bring this much back." Kakashi leaned by the window, wiping blood off his fingers with alcohol-soaked cotton. "The Allied main force should have filled Bamboo Village by now. Soone like Heidan won't leave any gaps we can use."
Chizumi didn't answer. He walked to the map and traced several red lines around Bamboo Village with his fingertip. Those red lines extended toward several passes deeper inside the Land of Fire.
"Aren't you going to sleep?" Tsunade's voice ca from the entrance.
She strode into the tent, still carrying the lingering scent of gunpowder. She swept a glance over the remaining spoils on the table, pausing for a second on the high-purity soldier pills.
"The dicine you brought back this ti is enough to support the front line for a month." Tsunade looked at Chizumi. "But that doesn't an you can treat yourself like you're made of iron. Shizune just complained to that you didn't even let her clean your wounds."
"Minor injuries. They've already closed." Chizumi's finger stopped on a valley on the map. "After the Allied Forces took Bamboo Village, they haven't made any major follow-up moves. Logically, for soone like Heidan, after taking a bridgehead, the first thing he should do is send light cavalry to harass the surrounding supply lines. But he hasn't moved."
Tsunade walked to his side and braced both hands against the table. "He's waiting for the supplies to be rearranged. The box you seized was core supply. It disrupted his rhythm."
"Not just supplies." Chizumi shook his head. "I feel like he's holding back sothing bigger. Bamboo Village's terrain is good, but its rear route can be cut off easily. If he dares to cram his main force in there, he must have so other reliance. I need to go personally."
"Now?" Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "You fought your way out of there less than six hours ago."
"Now is when they're most alert, and also when they have the most openings." Chizumi turned to look at her. "Once they turn the fortifications into an iron barrel, I'll only be able to stare at the outer wall. I need to know whether they plan to attack the southern pass next, or detour by water."
Tsunade was silent for a mont, staring at the faint bloodshot look in Chizumi's eyes. She took three files from her coat and slapped them onto the table.
"I knew I couldn't talk you out of it." Tsunade spread the files open. "You can go, but not alone. Those people under you are all wounded. I picked three new candidates for you. Choose one to bring."
Chizumi lowered his head and scanned the three photos.
The first file showed a young man with round sunglasses and a high collar pulled up almost to his face.
"Abura Shino." Tsunade tapped the table with her knuckles. "His kikaichū are top-tier in stealth reconnaissance. In a densely built area like Bamboo Village, he can slip bugs under Heidan's bedboards without leaving any chakra fluctuations. Most importantly, his bugs can use temperature differences to distinguish which Allied personnel are genjutsu clones and which are real people."
Chizumi looked at Shino's photo. In his mind, he pictured those swarms of insects slipping through every crack. In complex alley fighting and stronghold reconnaissance, Shino really was the safest choice.
"The second." Chizumi pointed at the next file.
The file showed a pale, painting-like face without any expression.
"Sai," Tsunade said flatly. "Forr Root. Infiltration reconnaissance and mapping are his specialty. He can use Super Beast Imitating Drawing for aerial overviews and sketch every new hidden sentry point the Allied Forces build in the village within half an hour. His ink techniques are almost transparent during night reconnaissance, and his withdrawal speed is extrely fast."
Shikamaru cut in from the side. "If it's Sai, he really can save us a lot of marking ti. His maps are much more accurate than anything we draw by hand."
Chizumi turned to the last file. It showed a middle-aged ninja with a senbon in his mouth and a sowhat lazy expression.
"Shiranui Genma," Tsunade said. "A veteran among special jōnin. He used to be one of the Fourth Hokage's guards. His strength is 'sensory counterasures.' The Allied Forces have definitely spread a sensory net around the village now. Genma can identify blind spots in the enemy's sensory formation through the tiny vibrations of his kunai. He doesn't need to fly overhead or use insects. The route he takes you through will definitely be the deadest corner in their sensory net."
Chizumi looked at the three files. The wind outside the tent slapped the curtain with soft thuds.
"Shino's bugs are easily countered by Fire Release, and the Allied Forces now have torches everywhere." Chizumi analyzed quietly. "Sai's target is too large. The sensory-type ninja Heidan brought aren't pushovers, and having a giant bird swaying around in the sky would draw too much attention."
Tsunade looked at him. "So you're leaning toward Genma?"
Chizumi didn't answer imdiately. He reviewed Shino's file again, then Genma's.
"Genma can take in, but Shino can let hear what Heidan is saying." Chizumi's finger moved between the three files. "And Sai… if the Allied Forces are really building a large-scale jutsu formation, only his aerial perspective can reveal the full picture."
"Choose one," Tsunade urged. "Ti doesn't wait. The Allied engineering teams are reinforcing the walls."
Chizumi looked up at Tsunade, his palm resting on the edge of the map.
"Call Shino over." Chizumi said in a low voice. "I need to get into the center of the village. I don't just want to see their defenses. I want to know what Heidan's next target is."
"Decided?" Tsunade asked.
"Mm. The upper limit of intelligence gathering from insects is higher than the other two. As long as we can get inside, I can take out their command center."
"Go to logistics and pick up two new concealnt scrolls." Tsunade pointed outside. "Shino has been waiting outside for half an hour already. He told earlier that his bugs have slled the charred scent from Bamboo Village, and they're restless."
Chizumi nodded, grabbed his long sword, and headed out.
"Wait." Tsunade called him back.
Chizumi turned.
"Eat two of those captured pills before you leave." Tsunade pointed at the porcelain bottle on the table. "Don't die in front of the spoils you brought back yourself."
Chizumi said nothing. He poured two brown pills from the bottle and stuffed them into his mouth. The bitter dicinal taste exploded across his tongue. He tightened his forehead protector and strode out of the tent.
The morning fog outside the outpost had not yet dispersed. Shino stood quietly under a large tree. The wind brushed past his wide collar, making a faint rustling sound.
"Shino." Chizumi walked over.
"I was waiting too." Shino pushed up his sunglasses, his voice steady without the slightest ripple. "Because compared to recovering here, my insects prefer collecting tense chakra signatures inside enemy tents."
"Let's go." Chizumi wasted no words. His figure flickered, and he took the lead into the thick fog.
The morning fog pressed low.
The forests around the Land of Fire's border already carried a faint bitter burnt scent from the great fire two days ago. Now, mixed with dampness left from the night, it slled like rain-soaked charcoal and bitter dicinal herbs shut together in a cloth bag. Occasionally, water droplets slid from the treetops and landed on charred bark with a soft sound.
Chizumi didn't walk quickly.
Not because he was worried about the ground underfoot, but because they were now too close to Bamboo Village. One step too fast or too slow could lead them into soone's line of sight. The scrolls on his shoulder had been replaced. The outer wrapping was dark gray, and even his sword sheath had been wrapped in an old light-absorbing cloth. In the morning fog, he looked like a shadow so faint it was almost invisible.
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