Kanin used every trick he had, and finally managed to lure them to the designated location.
This place was already far from the village. All that surrounded them now was endless yellow sand.
It was obvious that leading Shinji and Hidan here was done with ill intent.
Especially when Shinji saw several corpses lying on the ground, along with scattered cargo, he imdiately fell into thought, as if he had already guessed the other party's plan.
At this point, Kanin stopped pretending altogether. He turned around and shouted angrily:
"You're not wandering ninjas at all! You're spies from Iwagakure! I caught you just now exchanging intelligence with your accomplices who were disguised as a rchant caravan!"
"Now the evidence is irrefutable—caught red-handed. What else do you have to say for yourselves?!"
Hidan tilted his head, his face full of question marks. What kind of nonsense was this?
Shinji, on the other hand, clicked his tongue in amazent. Today, they had really run into a pair of 'geniuses.'
To think they would co up with a sche like this to fra them—and even go so far as to 'generously' sacrifice an entire rchant caravan.
Shinji was certain that the corpses lying on the ground were all from Iwagakure. Their presence here was an undeniable fact.
This was like getting mud splashed onto your pants—no way to explain it cleanly.
If it were anyone else, they'd probably be furious to death.
But right now, Shinji only wanted to laugh.
"What are you laughing at? If you surrender now, you might still have a chance to live."
At this mont, Kanin felt a faint sense of unease rising in his heart.
Because he realized that the reactions of these two were far too calm—those eyes were like… like they were watching clowns performing in a circus.
Shouldn't a normal person feel fear or anger when faced with sothing like this?
Before he could figure out the source of his unease, Kazane arrived as planned, bringing two more people with him.
"What happened here?"
Even though Kanin felt uneasy, there was no turning back now. With the arrow already on the bowstring, he had no choice but to press on, imdiately spinning the story they had prepared in advance.
"…I secretly followed them all the way here, and then saw them exchanging intelligence. They discovered , and to conceal the truth, they imdiately killed the others to silence them. They even tried to kill … Then, during the standoff, you arrived."
A story riddled with holes—but under the current 'caught red-handed' circumstances, it was hard not to believe.
Kazane flew into a rage and pointed at Shinji and Hidan, shouting:
"As expected! I knew you had ulterior motives. Thankfully Lord Reki saw through your disguise long ago and ordered us to monitor you in secret. Otherwise, you would have succeeded!"
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Shinji couldn't help but applaud.
"What a brilliant reversal of black and white—murder and framing in one go. But I only have one question now… you only have four people?"
The unease in Kanin's heart surged violently, but it was already too late. Kazane shouted for them to attack, leading the charge himself.
Seeing this, Kanin naturally couldn't retreat at the last mont. Gritting his teeth, he joined in as well.
Four puppets of different shapes rushed toward Shinji and Hidan from different directions. Their weapons glimred with a faint blue light—clearly coated with poison in advance.
Shinji had no interest whatsoever in dealing with small fry like this, so he said to Hidan beside him:
"Don't play too hard. We still have serious business to attend to later."
"Yeah."
Hidan, who had already been holding back his impatience, casually replied. With a ferocious grin, he pulled out the Triple-Bladed Scythe!
A few minutes later, the puppets lay shattered all over the ground.
Hidan was fully focused on drawing the ritual array, preparing for the sacrifice.
At the center of the ritual were several mangled corpses that couldn't even be pieced together, along with Kanin, barely alive, his eyes filled with despair.
He could never have imagined that the gap in strength between them would be this vast.
Even more unimaginable was the fact that the other side truly dared to kill them!
Weren't they afraid of being hunted down and put on wanted list?!
"You… who… are you…?"
"We? Didn't we tell you from the very beginning? We really are just ordinary wandering ninjas. It's just that you insisted on courting death."
"Suna… won't let this go—"
Thud!
Hidan pinned him to the ground with a single strike.
"Yap yap yap, so damn annoying!"
Shinji glanced at him and thought to himself, And you have the nerve to complain about others?
When they chose to use innocent civilians to fra soone else, they should've been prepared for this day to co.
After Hidan finished the sacrifice ritual, Shinji spoke up:
"Let's head sowhere else. We don't have much ti left."
Although what happened here wouldn't be discovered imdiately, they still needed to move quickly.
As for these corpses, they would soon be buried beneath the shifting sands—nothing to worry about.
...
Dozens of kiloters away from the village Shinji and Hidan had left, Maki's group was resting and reorganizing.
If it were only traces of the 'Sand Spirit,' they would have been nearly impossible to find. After all, it possessed a special ability to rge into the sand itself. If it wanted to hide, then in this boundless desert, it would be virtually untraceable.
However, when the 'Sand Spirit' revealed itself to save a group of its 'kind,' it left behind clues instead.
Through investigation, tracking, and the use of bait, Maki had finally managed to latch onto its trail.
Now, the only remaining question was how to carry out the Kazekage's orders.
The power and strangeness of the 'Sand Spirit' were well known to everyone present. The sacrifice of those two jōnin earlier was a sobering lesson.
They continued their journey the next day.
After traveling for about half a day, a distant figure appeared, staggering toward them—only to collapse face-first after a few steps.
Maki imdiately led people over to check and discovered it was soone from their own village.
"Mak…i? Is that you…?"
"We were… attacked. Save us…"
Maki's expression turned grim, his brows tightly knit.
When Juan finally regained consciousness, Maki learned what had happened.
It turned out that Reki's group, who had been traveling through the night, had been targeted by the 'Sand Spirit.' Or rather, the cursed spirits they had been capturing and sealing over the past few days had drawn danger to them.
After a brutal battle, everyone else had died. Using his last reserves of chakra, Reki sent Juan away. He himself was exhausted and captured—his fate unknown.
"Do you know which direction the 'Sand Spirit' went?"
Juan shook her head, then quickly said:
"Big Brother Reki has a piece of cloth I left on him. If we use sand bees, we might be able to track him."
Sand bees were a unique species in Sunagakure, capable of sensing chakra and often used for tracking.
This ti, Maki's team happened to be carrying sand bees, so they imdiately released them.
Juan took out a small piece of cloth from her chest. These specially made fabrics were all infused with her chakra—completely unique.
Once the sand bees sensed this familiar fluctuation, they imdiately flew off in a certain direction.
---
20 Power Stones= 1 additional chapters.
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