The frequency of clashes between ninjas was extremely high; everything happened in the blink of an eye.
After being kicked flying, the Konohagakure rogue ninja endured the sharp pain in his arm, quickly scrambled to his feet, and ran right after the Takigakure undercover agent in the distance.
At the same time, his shout threw the remaining enemies into confusion. They recognized that the voice came from one of the leaders of this operation—a fellow originally from Konohagakure.
Sure enough, there was a reason he had still kept the forehead protector of one of the Five Great Ninja Villages even after defecting. It was like a diploma from a prestigious academy: when walking outside, it naturally placed one above one's peers.
A man's name casts a shadow like a tree.
When rogue ninjas and wandering ninjas like them moved about in the shinobi world, the ones they feared encountering most were the ANBU of the Five Great Powers. Those people could kill you without needing any reason at all.
Now, the enemies who were still alive completely lost the courage to fight and turned around to flee.
At this moment, things like the Hero Water, or pulling off one big job to make a fortune and go home to marry a wife—none of it was more important than their own lives.
Most people kept their heads clear and fled toward the passage they had come through. A few who were frightened out of their wits dashed into other caves like headless flies.
Although there were many underground tunnels beneath Takigakure, there were only a few exits. The rest were dead ends.
Makoto charged at the front. As usual, after sending two unfamiliar fellows flying, he no longer held back and chased after them, cutting them down all the way.
Suien, the jōnin, quickly ordered several of his subordinates to stay behind and take care of the wounded. Then he personally led the rest of his companions to follow beside Makoto's squad and join the pursuit.
At this time, the fleeing enemies, desperate to survive, activated the explosive tag array traps they had set in the tunnels, attempting to collapse the passage.
Even if it could not bury the pursuers alive, it could at least delay their pursuit.
But Makoto had his perception active. The instant the explosive tags were triggered, he swung his short blade repeatedly. The wind blades he unleashed precisely disabled every single explosive tag.
At that moment, one of the ninjas running in front looked at the few remaining subordinates beside him and, for some reason, recalled a battle from two years ago.
Back then, he had still been a ninja of Iwagakure. At the time, he had also been fighting Konohagakure ninjas, and then a single platoon of more than thirty of his comrades had been harvested like leeks by an elite squad from Konohagakure.
He alone had escaped by sheer luck.
After that, he never returned. In any case, there were no relatives left in the village, and having crawled back from the gates of the Pure Land, he no longer wanted to serve Iwagakure.
During the time he had wandered the shinobi world, relying on the advantage of being from one of the Five Great Ninja Villages, he had gathered seven or eight fairly reliable subordinates and had lived quite comfortably.
Could it be that today he would repeat the same fate?
No. He could not tolerate losing everything again—not for those subordinates he had little attachment to, but for himself, who had once been harvested like wild grass.
He could no longer flee for his life like a stray dog.
He stopped running and began forming hand seals. Then he turned back and slammed both hands onto the ground.
Earth Release: Rock Lodging Destruction!
"Die, you bastards from Konohagakure!"
His subordinates were deeply moved. They had not expected their usually cold boss to stop and save them. Every one of them swore that once they got out, they would become even more loyal.
Here, it was not a spacious cave chamber, but a rocky passage. The Rock Lodging Destruction technique was the most suitable ninjutsu at this moment—enough to bury the pursuers alive.
However, nothing happened. Not a single rock fell.
While running, after sensing the fluctuations of the ninjutsu, Makoto thrust his left hand forward and quickly unfolded a barrier. An earth-yellow chakra shield pressed firmly against the cave, preventing it from collapsing.
The current Earth Release: One-Horn Great Wall technique—after being reinforced by fūinjutsu—had defensive power far greater than before.
After stopping the cave from collapsing, his right hand immediately slapped against the cave wall.
Earth Release: Hardening Technique!
After he hardened it, the cave that would have collapsed no longer had any risk of falling apart.
Creations simulated with the five-element ninjutsu would slowly disappear after the ninjutsu ended. But this time, both sides were using chakra to alter the properties and structure of natural rock, so the effects of the ninjutsu would not disappear.
When the Iwagakure rogue ninja saw that distinctive chakra shield, he seemed to realize something.
He gave a self-mocking laugh. "Great. It's the 'Shield of Konohagakure.' We're done for."
That was the downside of being famous in the shinobi world: once you used your signature ninjutsu, you would be recognized immediately, and the mask on your face would become meaningless.
Just like when everyone saw a white-haired man in a mask holding a mass of lightning charging at the enemy, they would instantly understand: oh, so it's Hatake Kakashi of Konohagakure.
Give me back my sense of mystery, you bastard!
Fortunately, that bastard was right—they were done for.
A huge half-moon-shaped wind blade swept through the passage. All of the remaining people were cut in two and collapsed to the ground, unmoving.
The scene was extremely bloody.
Makoto did not want it to be like this. Seeing too much of it was bad for mental health. But to prevent this fellow from using ninjutsu again and causing trouble, it was better to harvest them all with a single big move.
As everyone knows, a person who is cut in half at the waist will not die immediately.
The Iwagakure rogue ninja looked at Makoto as he came to his side and gave a miserable smile. "I didn't expect that in the end, I'd still die at the hands of a Konohagakure ninja. Damn it!"
"What difference does it make? You'll die at someone's hands sooner or later. That's the shinobi world. Go on your way in peace."
Makoto ended his suffering with a single slash.
The few who had fled earlier were already nowhere to be seen. Suien did not care either; in any case, the village's danger had safely passed this time.
After learning who the Konohagakure ANBU in front of him was, his attitude became extremely respectful. "Sir, thank you for your help. Takigakure will not fail its allies' agreement."
"It's just a mission. Leave the rest to you. If anything comes up, send someone to find me again."
"Yes!"
The oppressive atmosphere that had hung over Takigakure had already dissipated. It seemed they had successfully transferred the jinchūriki. This meant the previous generation's jinchūriki had already died, and the new jinchūriki had taken on that ominous fate.
As one of the village's core secrets, even if ordinary people did not know about such matters, the ninjas guarding the jinchūriki and those who had once been familiar with the jinchūriki could always guess.
Their gazes were the source of the discrimination the jinchūriki suffered.
Regardless of whether a tailed beast had ever rampaged in the village, no one liked living beside a ticking time bomb.
Someone like Gaara, who frequently went berserk, lived year after year under the fearful and disgusted gazes of everyone.
It could only be said that Sunagakure's sealing techniques were far too weak—now it seemed they were not even as good as Takigakure's.
The fact that he and Naruto did not slaughter the entire village after growing up could only be attributed to the blessings of the Sage of Six Paths.
Besides completing Takigakure's commissioned mission and pursuing rogue ninjas, one of Makoto's objectives this time was also to investigate the symbiotic relationship between the jinchūriki and the tailed beast.
Naturally, this was preparation for the Night of the Nine-Tails.
If the Nine-Tails was not released when the time came, that would naturally be the best outcome for everyone. But anything could happen, and he had to prepare for the worst.
It could only be said that the Kamui dōjutsu awakened after that fool Obito's descent into darkness was far too overpowered—almost impossible to guard against.
But now it seemed that Takigakure had resolved the problem themselves. Makoto was not disappointed by this; he also had contingency preparations for such a situation.
Now, they only had to wait for Takigakure to confirm the mission's completion, and then they could leave.
However, the course of events exceeded his expectations.
At around ten-thirty at night, Chief Hisen, looking exhausted, came to the residence where the three of them were staying. As usual, he bowed and said, "I've already heard from Suien about what happened. Thank you for your help. Otherwise, we would probably have suffered heavy losses this time."
"Chief, completing missions is a ninja's duty. There's no need to be polite. If the matter has already been resolved, please fill out the receipt as soon as possible. We need to return to the village immediately to report."
"Huh? So urgent? At least stay for one night."
"No. We're all ninjas—efficiency comes first."
"That's naturally no problem. I'll have someone stamp it right away. It's just that…"
Makoto asked in confusion, "Chief, is there something else?"
"Well, Captain Forest Owl, could you come outside with me for a moment?"
"Of course."
Makoto discreetly signaled to his teammates, telling them to stay alert.
After arriving outside, Chief Hisen said, "I believe you must have guessed why we requested Konohagakure to send a sealing expert this time. So, I still need to trouble you to come with me and check the condition of the jinchūriki."
As he spoke, he took out a document.
It was a confidentiality agreement. The content roughly stated that Makoto could not disclose any of the information he saw. Of course, they were willing to take this risk because they trusted the conduct of their ally, Konohagakure.
If it had been someone from any of the other four great ninja villages, they would never have made such a decision even if they were beaten to death.
Beware of fire, beware of thieves—beware of Kumogakure and Iwagakure…
It could only be said that the advantage of Konohagakure caring about its reputation lay precisely here: when something happened, everyone was more willing to trust you.
Makoto was stunned—there was such a good thing?
Without hesitation, he signed with his ANBU codename and followed Chief Hisen into a secret room.
The outside was heavily guarded. Inside stood six ninjas of considerable age, both men and women.
Most importantly, there were two altars in the room engraved with sealing runes.
On one of them lay an elderly man who had already died. It seemed he was Takigakure's previous jinchūriki.
Makoto asked, "Chief, may I take a look at him?"
"Yes."
The tailed beast had already been transferred, and the seal on the old ninja's abdomen had already been removed, but traces still remained that could be examined.
After looking it over once, Makoto immediately understood why Takigakure had taken the risk of involving Konohagakure.
Damn it—this old ninja's sealing method was a pure Four Symbols Seal, absolutely the handiwork of Konohagakure. It turned out that back then they had not possessed the sealing capability at all; they had relied on Konohagakure's help to get it done.
The First Hokage truly had been a good man—not only selling tailed beasts, but even thoughtfully providing a complete packaging service.
No wonder he was revered by everyone as the God of Shinobi.
Makoto then came to the altar of the new jinchūriki.
This was a little girl with blue-green hair and dark skin. She looked only about one or two years old—still very small. She must be the future Seven-Tails jinchūriki, Fū.
But this skin… Takigakure, are you sure you didn't abduct someone from the Land of Lightning?
At this moment, the little girl had already awakened and was looking at the mysterious masked ninja with her innocent orange eyes, completely unaware of the enormous change that had occurred to her.
Makoto examined her seal. There were obvious traces of imitation of the Four Symbols Seal. It seemed that although Takigakure had declined over the decades, they had never abandoned their research into fūinjutsu and had produced something with roughly similar effects.
But they clearly did not fully trust the imitation product created by their own people, so they had no choice but to invite a ninja from Konohagakure to confirm it.
Saving face was a small matter. If the tailed beast escaped, that would be a big problem.
After confirming it, Makoto said to the others, "The seal is basically fine, but the runes at the two corresponding nodes cannot couple. That will cause spatial instability and affect the chakra link."
After speaking, he placed his hand on Fū's stomach, helping to complete this imitation seal while also taking the opportunity to probe the symbiotic relationship between the jinchūriki and the tailed beast.
The six sealing ninjas of Takigakure did not underestimate Makoto because of his young age. Once they heard him point out the problem, they immediately committed it to memory.
Chief Hisen also let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, they had invited someone from Konohagakure to check it—otherwise it would have caused trouble in the future.
Sometimes he felt helpless. The gap between small ninja villages like theirs and the Five Great Ninja Villages was truly despair-inducing.
A single ANBU casually sent by them could overwhelm the results they had researched for decades.
Unfortunately, during the incident of the Uzushiogakure Village back then, they had not even qualified to participate. They had only learned about it after the village had already been destroyed.
If they had been able to obtain even a little information from the Uzumaki Clan back then, they would not have had to beg others today.
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