"The Aburame clan's secret technique! Damn it, that brat from the Uchiha clan risked his life just to kill Honda to give you a chance to launch a surprise attack?" The Mist Ninja captain glared at the lightning-style ninja being devoured by the kikaichū bugs.
Shibi Aburame didn't respond. He raised both hands, and countless kikaichū bugs flew out from his sleeves, charging toward the Mist Ninja captain.
Seeing this, the captain quickly formed hand seals. He spat out a massive waterfall-like amount of water, forming a rotating circular water wall. The water wall spun around him in a circular pattern, forming a defense with no blind spots. The swarm of bugs couldn't break through immediately.
"Asana, use your Byakugan to find the weak spot in the Water Formation Wall!" Shibi turned and shouted to Hyuga Asana.
Hyuga Asana immediately activated her Byakugan upon hearing this. She quickly spotted the weakest chakra point in the water wall.
"Sensei Shibi, the chakra is thinnest at the top of his Water Formation Wall!"
"Got it. Kikaichū: Hail!"
At Shibi's command, some of the bugs circling in the air formed a small high-speed moving bug sphere, which dropped from above and smashed through the water wall's defense.
Then, a giant ball of kikaichū bugs pressed down toward the Mist Ninja captain.
The Mist captain's expression changed drastically. In his haste, he couldn't care about anything else. He quickly formed hand seals, and a water dragon rose up to bite the giant bug ball.
The water dragon opened its mouth and crushed the kikaichū ball.
However, before the Mist captain could breathe a sigh of relief, he realized that countless kikaichū had passed through the water dragon and were already in contact with his body.
Under Shibi's control, the bugs frantically began absorbing the Mist captain's chakra.
A few minutes later, all of the Mist captain's chakra had been consumed. Shibi Aburame waved his hand and recalled the swarm.
He was a Mist Jonin—there should be some valuable intel on him.
"Trying to... capture me alive?" the Mist captain asked as he looked at Shibi Aburame.
Shibi didn't hold back and answered directly, "That's right. If you want to die, go ahead—I'll give you the chance. If you don't want to die, then come with us obediently."
"Heh! You really look down on me!" With that, the Mist captain pulled out a kunai and stabbed it into his own heart.
"Sensei Shibi, he just…"
Shibi was also taken aback. He scratched his head and said, "Didn't expect he'd actually kill himself."
Hyuga Asana rolled her eyes when she heard that. What were these two thinking?
Mist Ninjas were all lunatics. How could they possibly cooperate obediently?
As if sensing Asana's thoughts, Shibi said flatly, "People who appear mad are often the most afraid of death—especially when all their comrades are dead. The chances of a Mist Ninja surrendering are much higher then."
"They surrender once all their comrades are dead? What kind of logic is that?" Asana asked, confused.
"Because Mist Ninja comrades are more for mutual surveillance. For traitors, the Mist Village shows no mercy. As long as one comrade escapes, and the village hears of the betrayal, they'll stop at nothing to eliminate the traitor.
But if no one is left alive, then there's no one to report back, and there's no fear of retaliation or pursuit. In such cases, some will choose to surrender."
"So that's how it is… then why did this guy…"
"Maybe he truly loved the Mist Village. There are quite a few like him," said Shibi Aburame.
Hyuga Asana nodded and didn't ask more. She didn't involve herself with body clean-up or battlefield cleaning. Instead, she ran back to check on Uchiha Yuan.
"Yuan, how are you doing?" Asana asked.
"I'm okay. Mist Ninjas aren't like Sand Ninjas—they don't usually coat their kunai with poison. Once we're back at camp and get help from a medical ninja, it should be fine."
Asana slowly raised her hand upon hearing that.
A soft green light appeared in her palm. Uchiha Yuan felt a tingling sensation in his shoulder, and soon the bleeding stopped.
"No need to look for a medical ninja. If the kunai isn't poisoned, I can handle this kind of minor injury," Asana said, pulling some gauze and medicine from her sealing scroll. She quickly bandaged Yuan's wound.
"That should do it."
Uchiha Yuan tried moving his arm and smiled. "Feels good. Thanks, Asana."
After Asana treated his injury, the two returned to the site of the battle with the Mist Ninja.
Soon, the Mist Ninja's body had been handled by Shibi Aburame.
"Sensei Shibi, should we keep moving?" Yamanaka Kagetsu asked after seeing the bandage on Yuan's shoulder.
"We're still about a day from the camp. We won't make it today. Let's move forward a bit more and find a place to rest for the night," Shibi replied.
"It's still that far? Then why did we run into Mist Ninjas here?" Asana asked.
"They probably used some method to bypass the front-line defenses, specifically to ambush recon squads from the village," Shibi explained.
"Ambushing recon squads?"
"That's right. Right now, things aren't looking good for us on the frontlines. Mist Ninja understand how important recon squads are for the battlefield situation.
That's why they sent out members of the bloodline clans—even the Seven Ninja Swordsmen—to specifically target our recon squads.
Those Mist Ninjas that slipped past the frontlines and entered the Land of Fire are most likely here for that reason. We just don't know how they got through the defenses. That's why I wanted to keep that Jonin alive to get information—but he killed himself."
After hearing Shibi's words, the three—Uchiha Yuan, Asana, and Kagetsu—fell silent.
Recon missions were even more dangerous than they had thought.
By dusk, they found a cave. The group tidied it up a bit and settled in for the night.
Since Uchiha Yuan was injured, tasks like cleaning the cave, gathering firewood, and preparing food were all handled by the other three.
After dinner, Yuan leaned against the rock wall and slowly closed his eyes.
Unknowingly, they had already been on the battlefield for two days. These two days had been full of travel, with daily training sessions lasting over three hours.
Unfortunately, no matter how much he trained, he didn't get extra roulette spins.
Including the three days spent in the village preparing for deployment and learning Shadow Clone, he had spun the roulette five times and each time only got one attribute point.
By now, Uchiha Yuan had mostly figured out the roulette's rules. Of the seven days a week, five days gave a guaranteed 1-point reward. Then, there would be one big reward day and one variable day, which could either be two points or a jackpot.
He originally planned to play today's word game too. But when he went to spin the roulette, he suddenly discovered his attribute bar had six points.
"Wait, that's not right! I should only have five points. Why do I have six?" Yuan thought to himself.
(To Be Continued...)