Seeing that the mission target had finally been sealed, the Sand Village ninja present all let out a collective sigh of relief.
Don't be fooled by the fact that there were no casualties among them—this was the result of extre ntal focus and precise coordination.
After a single battle, the chakra expenditure might not have been too great, but the ntal strain was anything but small.
"Clean up the battlefield. Seal away and bring back anything of value."
The burly man wearing sunglasses issued the order loudly, and the others imdiately got to work.
Even though this sunglasses-wearing brute hadn't made many flashy moves during the fight, every one of his movents had been perfectly tid—plugging gaps in the encirclent, every strike yielding results, either saving an ally or killing an enemy.
He was like a stabilizing pillar. As long as he remained in the fight, as long as that deep, steady voice echoed in everyone's ears, it filled them with confidence.
It was obvious that he was highly respected by the others.
Even Maki, who was also a jōnin, treated this senior mber of the sealing squad with great respect.
And it was said that, in recognition of his years of contribution to the village, a stretch of desert wasteland within the Land of Wind had even been nad after him.
"Good work, Maki."
Carrying a massive bundle of cloth on her back, Maki quickly shook her head. "You're the one who worked hardest, Reki. The reason we were able to complete the capture so smoothly this ti was all thanks to your advance investigation and command."
"There's no need for the two of us to flatter each other here. Everyone can see your strength. Otherwise, the higher-ups wouldn't have approved your promotion to jōnin so quickly."
Reki, wearing his sunglasses, patted Maki on the shoulder with a palm the size of a fan—nearly knocking her flat.
Seeing this, the others imdiately started joking.
"Reki, take it easy! If you break her, you won't be able to afford the compensation."
"Even if I can't afford it, it's fine. Co join our puppet corps. The whole Sand Village knows that the puppet corps has the best reputation—after that, it's the sealing squad's turn."
"Oh, get lost! Trying to poach soone right in front of her boss—have you no sha?"
"I don't know about sha, but I do know that after those two slaps just now, soone's definitely feeling heartache~"
"What are you looking at for? Get lost, get lost!"
"Hahaha, this kid's actually blushing!"
The Sand ninja joked and laughed, but at the sa ti ticulously searched and cleaned up the site, not even sparing fragnts of corpses.
But at that very mont, an unexpected change disrupted everything.
No one noticed that the special cloth bindings restraining the mummy curse spirit had already begun to show faint signs of tearing—and sothing inside was still struggling!
Suddenly—
Riiip!
Using its claws and brute force, the mummy curse spirit forcibly tore apart the cloth-based sealing technique binding its body.
Just as the Sand ninja had previously used puppets to counter its claws and poison, Maki's pride—the cloth-binding seal—had now t its natural nesis.
Because this mummy curse spirit itself existed by being wrapped in special cloth, it possessed an extrely high resistance to cloth-based sealing techniques—perhaps it had even grown accustod to them.
The mummy curse spirit breaking free imdiately caught everyone off guard.
Before anyone else could react, it lunged straight toward Maki—the one who had sealed it monts ago.
It wanted revenge!
Because Maki had her back to the mummy curse spirit, by the ti she sensed the danger, it was already too late.
Fortunately, Reki's angle of vision caught the scene perfectly. Without hesitation, he shoved Maki aside, then steadied himself—crossing his arms in front of his chest, stamping hard against the ground, and leaping diagonally backward.
Slash!
The mummy curse spirit's claw ca down, leaving several long, bloody gashes across Reki's arms.
But that was all.
Realizing that if it didn't escape now, it would have no chance at all, the mummy curse spirit didn't attempt to kill Reki or Maki again. Instead, it shot bandages from its body, wrapping them around a distant pillar and pulling itself toward it.
It had tried this thod before, but no one had ever given it the opportunity.
Unlike now—when everyone was a step too slow.
"Damn it! It's trying to escape!"
"Stop it! That way leads to where the villagers are sheltering!"
"Shit, it's too fast! We can't catch up!"
"Find a way to knock it down—or cut the bandages it fired out!"
Easy to say—but no one there could actually do it.
At this mont, the weakness of the puppet corps beca painfully obvious: their mobility was severely lacking. Aside from their puppets, they had almost no other ans.
Just as everyone thought the mission was about to fail completely—and might even implicate innocent villagers—
A red crescent moon sliced through the sky!
Accompanied by a sharp whistling sound, it precisely severed the bandages the mummy curse spirit was using for rapid movent, sending it plumting toward the ground.
Then—
A figure was already waiting below, as if he had been there all along.
A massive, chilling greatsword of exaggerated length was tightly gripped in his hands.
Beheading.
Execution!
Shinji swung the Executioner's Blade with full force, precisely slicing through the mummy curse spirit's neck.
Thud.
The headless body crashed to the ground, while the round head rolled far, far away.
"Earth Sealing Technique: Tea Kettle Seal!"
Rushing over at full speed, Reki ignored the injuries on his arms and imdiately unleashed a sealing technique. Vast amounts of earth surged forth, wrapping around the mummy curse spirit's still-twitching body, finally transforming into a brown tea kettle and successfully sealing it away.
Arriving just after him, Maki didn't dare relax. She flung out the long cloth in her hands, wrapping the head that had rolled to her feet layer after layer, sealing it up tight.
This ti, it should truly be foolproof.
The Sand ninja present felt as if they'd just ridden a roller coaster—ups and downs that nearly gave them heart attacks.
Fortunately, no major disaster had occurred in the end.
And of course, all of this was thanks to the two people who stepped in at the critical mont.
"It's you?!"
"Didn't we tell you to leave imdiately? How dare you sneak in here on your own!"
The two gate guards from earlier—the dumb-and-dumber duo—instantly recognized Shinji and Hidan. Their appearances were simply too eye-catching; once you saw them, it was hard to forget.
"Watch your mouth!"
"What exactly is going on here?"
Reki frowned slightly.
"These two are just wandering ninja passing by. We stopped them outside earlier. Who knew that when we weren't paying attention, they'd take the opportunity to sneak in."
"That's right. They were acting all sneaky—definitely up to sothing. Their 'wandering ninja' identity might even be fake. They could be spies sent by another hidden village."
"That's enough!"
Reki barked coldly.
"No matter what, these two young n just helped us trendously. Not only do you fail to show gratitude, you even hurl accusations at them?"
"B-But we—"
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