Facing the Suna shinobi who had formed a solemn encirclement around him, Uchiha Feiyu couldn't help a soft chuckle.
"So serious," he said. "You really went all out for me. Looks like you're very determined this time."
He shrugged.
"But sorry to disappoint you. If my real body were here, I might actually be in a bit of danger."
The moment the words fell—
Poof.
The Feiyu standing in the center burst into a puff of bluish smoke and vanished.
The surrounding Suna ninjas froze.
All this preparation, all this effort, and in the end… they'd surrounded a shadow clone?
Pakura's orange eyes snapped toward the sand-user who'd called them here, her expression turning frosty.
"Red Sand," she said coldly. "What is going on? You couldn't even tell a clone from the real body before summoning us?"
The shinobi addressed as Red Sand still wore a stunned look, but realization dawned quickly.
"No… something's wrong," he muttered. "We only exchanged a single round of blows. He never had a chance to switch the real body with a shadow clone."
He sucked in a sharp breath.
"Unless… from the very beginning, it was a shadow clone testing us."
—
Three kilometers away, a seemingly ordinary sand dune stood under the scorching sun.
Inside, it was hollow.
The middle had been completely dug out, the structure reinforced with Earth Release to keep the dune from collapsing. In the cool, shaded chamber, Uchiha Feiyu sat cross-legged.
His eyes opened.
"That convoy raid failed," he said. "Suna was ready. Not only was it a trap, they brought real top-tier combatants."
"What do we do now?" Hyūga Ichirō asked immediately. "Continue the mission?"
None of the three doubted Feiyu's words.
Over the past two months, they had followed closely behind him—handling all the tedious tasks: finding enemy squads, digging and reinforcing temporary bases like this one, and… keeping him company so he didn't die of boredom.
Everything except actual fighting.
Yamanaka Seiichi handled scouting and communications. Ichirō and Itō Ryōma helped with logistics, but when it came to combat, they'd basically done nothing. Itō's medical ninjutsu hadn't even seen proper use.
Feiyu, cautious to the point of paranoia, never left the base in person.
He sent shadow clones. Every. Single. Time.
But for an invisible high-speed assassin, even a shadow clone was overkill against ordinary convoys. Regular Chunin squads had absolutely no way to stop him.
The greatest flaw of shadow clones was how fragile they were—but when the user was invisible and blindingly fast, it became almost impossible for anyone below elite jōnin or sensor level to even touch the clone, let alone dispel it.
So up until now, no one had managed to expose this trick.
"Continue the mission my ass," Feiyu snorted. "It's been over two months. I've taken out close to a hundred Suna shinobi. I'd say the job's more or less done. If we don't bail now, what, you want me to actually duke it out with them head-on?"
Whatever else, the Land of Wind was Suna's home turf.
If Suna truly got serious and decided to divert manpower for a large-scale search, it would be hard for Feiyu's team to stay hidden.
It all came down to cost.
If he kept massacring supply convoys, then no matter how much it hurt their front-line war, Suna would eventually bite the bullet and mobilize a massive hunt to wipe him out.
"Just retreat?" Itō Ryōma hesitated. "But Orochimaru-sama hasn't sent any orders yet. If we just withdraw on our own, won't we be held responsible?"
He was a civilian-born shinobi, and it showed. Responsibility, orders, and rules weighed heavily in his mind.
Feiyu rolled his eyes.
"If you want to wait for orders, be my guest," he said. "I'm leaving."
"If Orochimaru wants to hold someone accountable, he can knock himself out… though I don't think he's that stupid."
With that, Feiyu began casually packing up.
Yamanaka Seiichi and Hyūga Ichirō, both clan shinobi, didn't hesitate at all and started packing as well.
Seeing this, Ryōma swallowed hard.
Stay in the Land of Wind alone and keep running this mission?
That was suicide.
No matter how important the mission was, could it be more important than his own life?
The answer was obvious.
He rushed over and started helping pack supplies.
Over these two months, Feiyu had hit a ridiculous number of Suna supply teams. The loot alone—scrolls full of rations, tools, medicines—could form a small mountain.
Most of the standard supply scrolls had already been sent to Ryūchi Cave via summoning as they went. Only high-value items—explosive tags, soldier pills, rare medicines—had been kept.
Whatever they sent to Ryūchi Cave, Orochimaru would retrieve later as "official war spoils" for Konoha.
The rest?
Private Gains.
This kind of skimming was an open secret in the ninja world. If you had the strength, you didn't have to be poor.
—
After exiting the dune, Feiyu cast Light-Weight Rock Technique on himself and each of the three men.
"Let's go," he said. "We're heading back toward River Country."
The four of them set off, feet barely touching the sand as they left the Land of Wind behind.
—
Meanwhile, on Suna's side, they weren't ready to let it go.
After the failed operation, Pakura led her squad up and down the main supply routes for over a month, tirelessly searching for any sign of the "ghost of Konoha."
They found nothing.
Not one ambush.
Not one shredded convoy.
Not even a rumor.
And during that entire month, no more supply teams were attacked.
By the time the search was finally called off, the shinobi in the search unit were ready to explode from sheer frustration.
"Damn that Konoha brat!" Pakura slammed her fist on the table in Suna's command tent. "He's like a turtle hiding in a shell! He gave up that easily? Is he even a man?!"
Rasa, seated at the head of the table, frowned.
"Enough," he said quietly. "We failed—so be it. Since the enemy has retreated, at least our supply route is secure for now."
"And what if he comes back?" Pakura shot back. "If we don't eliminate him, our logistics will always be at risk!"
Her words made Rasa's expression grow even darker.
Easy for you to say.
If there were a clean shot to kill that "ghost," did she really think he'd just be sitting here?
By now, the enemy had probably already made it back to Konoha's main camp. What did she expect him to do?
March on Konoha's front-line base just to settle this one grudge?
It was always easy to point out problems from below.
Solving them was another matter entirely.
Ebizō cleared his throat and stepped in to smooth things over.
"All right," he said. "That Konoha ghost is indeed cunning, and now is not the best time to deal with him. For the moment, we should focus on what matters most."
Rasa's expression eased a fraction.
Pakura opened her mouth as if to argue again, then finally closed it without a word.
She knew he was right.
But knowing didn't make swallowing it any easier.
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