A few days later, Shinji and Hidan successfully entered the territory of the Land of Wind.
The Land of Wind could be said to be the largest of the Five Great Nations in terms of land area, but the vast majority of it was covered by desert. Annual rainfall was scarce, and the people built their villages around oases scattered throughout the sands, living off these precious patches of green.
Ninja raised in such a harsh environnt of endless sandstorms naturally possessed exceptionally tough wills and aggressive temperants. It could be said that the local customs were fierce and unyielding.
"Peh, peh…"
"This damn sandstorm is really pissing off!"
Hidan spat sand out of his mouth as he complained.
"If you keep your mouth shut, sand won't blow into it. If you keep dragging your feet, we won't reach the nearest village before nightfall," Shinji said, lowering the brim of his hat, his expression equally helpless.
There was no helping it—the environnt of the Land of Wind was simply too brutal.
They had been walking for so long, and all that surrounded them was desert upon desert.
Oh, right—there were also the occasional sand scorpions that liked to bring unpleasant surprises.
Feeling the vibration beneath his feet, Shinji sighed, pulled the Executioner's Blade from his back, and imdiately leapt to the side.
At the instant he jumped, a massive sand scorpion burst out from the ground beneath him, its two coldly gleaming pincers lunging straight for Shinji.
But Shinji was already faster than it.
The Executioner's Blade chopped straight down. Before the pincers could clamp onto him, the sand scorpion had already been split cleanly in two. Green fluid quickly seeped into the sand, and it wouldn't take long before the remains were completely swallowed by the desert.
"Another one of these things!"
Hidan kicked away the drooping pincer hanging in front of him, his face full of disdain.
He had completely forgotten how, the first ti he was ambushed by a sand scorpion after entering the desert, he had nearly been dragged underground in a thoroughly embarrassing scene.
"Move it. These sand scorpions live in groups. If we linger, they'll just keep coming and waste ti," Shinji said, flicking the green liquid off the Executioner's Blade before slinging it back onto his back and quickly heading off in the right direction.
Hidan clicked his tongue but didn't argue, imdiately following after him.
He was starting to hate this place more and more.
Not long after they left, a group of sand scorpions crawled over, began tearing into the corpse of their fallen kind, and soon vanished without a trace.
When the wind swept past, everything returned to normal, as if nothing had happened at all.
As the sun gradually sank, Shinji and Hidan finally reached the nearest village before nightfall.
The village was built around a small oasis, a sight that inspired awe—such a miracle existing in the middle of the desert.
"Who are you?"
The mont they reached the village entrance, two Sand Village ninja with their heads wrapped in cloth blocked their way, faces full of vigilance.
Mainly because Shinji and Hidan looked far too intimidating—one carried a blade taller than a person, while the other wielded a terrifying, ferocious triple-bladed scythe. Even though Shinji had already made Hidan put away his missing-nin forehead protector, the two of them still didn't look like good people by any stretch.
"We're wandering ninja. Things haven't been peaceful lately, so we're seeing if there's any work here to earn so paynt," Shinji said.
His words didn't completely dispel their wariness, but upon hearing that they were wandering ninja, the two Sand ninja instinctively showed looks of contempt and disdain.
That was only natural. After all, wandering ninja were usually those who couldn't survive in a ninja village—or whose village had been wiped out entirely.
What real ability could people like that possibly have?
At best, they bullied ordinary civilians or served as hired muscle and bodyguards for wealthy elites—despicable and looked down upon.
"Move along, move along. There's no work for you here."
"Wandering ninja should go to small countries and act as lapdogs for those uncultured upstarts!"
"Do you even know where this is? This is the Land of Wind! Our Sand Village doesn't need help from outsiders."
The two spoke over each other, their attitude lofty and arrogant.
Hidan's gaze turned dangerous as he turned his head and asked, "Can I kill them?"
Shinji glanced around. "Too many people here. Hard to clean up. Wait for now."
More importantly, he hadn't found that cursed spirit yet, and he didn't want to make a big scene just yet.
"Hey! What are you two whispering about? Get lost already!"
Just as Shinji was considering whether to lure the two away and kill them sowhere else, a commotion suddenly erupted from inside the village.
"The monster's been found!"
"Run!"
"Mom! I want my mom!"
"Everyone, listen! Don't panic—evacuate to a safe area first. Leave the rest to us!"
"Maki, get ready to seal it!"
"Yes!"
At this point, the two Sand ninja guarding the entrance no longer had the ti to drive Shinji and Hidan away. They imdiately rushed toward the source of the noise.
Clearly, their appearance in this small village was no coincidence. Since the Sand Village had shifted toward an elite-focused approach, they didn't have that many ninja stationed everywhere.
They had received reports of people going missing here, which was why they had co to investigate and capture the culprit.
"Let's go. We'll take a look too," Shinji said.
With no one stopping them this ti, Shinji and Hidan quickly arrived at the site of the battle.
"Move! Don't let a single monster escape!"
"Try to capture it alive—create an opening for Maki!"
"Watch out for the monster's claws. They're coated with deadly poison!"
A towering, muscular man nearly two ters tall, his head wrapped in cloth and wearing dark sunglasses, was shouting commands. A mixed team of seven or eight chūnin and genin manipulated puppets to form an encirclent.
Up on higher ground stood a similarly dressed woman, holding a scroll of cloth in her arms, waiting for the right mont.
Surrounded by the Sand ninja was a cursed spirit that looked eerily like a mummy. Its entire body was wrapped in gray-white bandages, leaving only a pair of lifeless eyes exposed. Its hands had transford into beast-like claws.
If there were only this single cursed spirit, such a large operation wouldn't have been necessary.
But within the encirclent, one mummy after another stiffly erged from the houses.
All the missing villagers had been turned into a mummy army, becoming its subordinates.
A rough count showed at least twenty of them!
If given enough ti to continue multiplying endlessly, it was possible that the entire Land of Wind could fall.
Fortunately, it had been discovered early.
And these newly created mummies were clearly far weaker than the original body, which eased everyone's nerves sowhat.
The battle itself was relatively uneventful.
The true terror of the mummy cursed spirit lay in its ability to mass-produce minions and in its claws, which carried a highly toxic curse.
Even a jōnin, if scratched and not treated in ti, could very well lose their life.
However, the puppets used by the Sand ninja perfectly countered this ability.
No matter how deadly the poison or curse, it was useless against lifeless puppets.
Thus, one mummy soldier after another was dismbered and destroyed, until only the mastermind remained.
"Maki!"
The woman who had been ready all along imdiately flung out the long cloth in her hands.
"Cloth Binding Technique!"
The long, wide white cloth instantly wrapped the mummy cursed spirit tightly within.
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20 Power Stones= 1 additional chapters.
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