After successfully dealing with two chūnin, Ning Feng quickly calculated the remaining rations he had and quietly let out a sigh of relief.
The last remaining chūnin, though also a member of Root, posed nowhere near the same level of difficulty as the previous two.
"So this is how sneaky Root is?" Ning Feng said with a chuckle, deliberately raising his voice. "Impersonating ANBU operatives—aren't you afraid Minato will find out?"
The remaining chūnin ignored him and instead bared his teeth in a grin. "Kid, your strength really is impressive. To be able to join ANBU at such a young age—you clearly have some skill."
"But unfortunately, this is as far as you go!"
"Ninjutsu: Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"
As soon as the words fell, the chūnin's arms transformed into several pale white snakes that shot straight toward Ning Feng at blinding speed.
"Hm?"
Relying on the overwhelming power of his Sharingan, Ning Feng could clearly sense that these lunging white snakes possessed a frightening degree of intelligence.
Even so—so what!?
A sharp glint flashed across his kunai. With the terrifying perceptive ability of the Sharingan, Ning Feng dodged every single white snake released by the chūnin.
Psh!
Just as his kunai pierced straight through the opponent, the chūnin suddenly turned into a cloud of mist and vanished without a trace.
Immediately after, three figures identical to the chūnin rushed toward Ning Feng, frantically throwing explosive tags from their hands.
All of this unfolded in the blink of an eye, fully displaying the terrifying combat strength of this chūnin from Root's reserve forces.
Yet even so, every one of these movements was clearly seen by Ning Feng.
As he retreated, his hands rapidly formed seals.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A massive fireball instantly engulfed the area ahead. The charging shadow clones were swallowed by the flames and vanished in a shower of light.
The barrage of explosive tags was also evaded by Ning Feng in an instant.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Amid the deafening explosions, the chūnin lay in ambush in the shadows, preparing to deliver a final strike—completely unaware that a streak of lightning had already descended from the sky!
Psh!
A razor-sharp flash illuminated the darkened sky as bright as day. Only at the instant it was about to strike did the Chidori emit its terrifying hissing sound, enough to make one's scalp crawl.
In the next moment, just like his companions, the chūnin exploded into countless particles of light, dropping equipment, materials, and gold coins.
"Hah…"
Ning Feng exhaled deeply. Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, he quickly picked up all the equipment, materials, and coins scattered on the ground.
"Congratulations! You have obtained Soldier Pills!"
"Congratulations! You have obtained [Hidden Shadow Ninja Armor] (Legendary)!"
"[Hidden Shadow Ninja Armor]: A top-tier piece of equipment specially forged for infiltration, assassination, and intelligence gathering. It can automatically change color based on the environment. The wearer becomes difficult to see: Transparency +20%, Chakra presence reduced by 20%."
"Congratulations! You have obtained [Hidden Shadow Belt] (Legendary)!"
"[Hidden Shadow Belt]: A top-tier belt specially forged for infiltration, assassination, and intelligence gathering… Transparency +10%, Chakra presence reduced by 10%."
"Congratulations! You have obtained [Hidden Shadow Ninja Boots] (Legendary)!"
"[Hidden Shadow Ninja Boots]: A top-tier piece of equipment specially forged for infiltration, assassination, and intelligence gathering… Transparency +20%, Chakra presence reduced by 20%."
"Congratulations! You have obtained [Ninjutsu: Hidden Shadow Snake Hands]!"
"Congratulations! You have obtained [Technique of Seeing Hell] (Genjutsu)!"
"Congratulations! You have leveled up! You are now level 24!"
A series of crisp, pleasant system notifications rang out. Especially upon seeing several Legendary-grade items drop on the ground, Ning Feng could hardly contain his excitement.
Just from the stats alone, it was obvious how absurdly powerful these items were—particularly the transparency bonuses, which were perfectly suited for his upcoming missions.
But compared to all of that, what made Ning Feng feel that this trip had truly been worth it was the genjutsu scroll [Technique of Seeing Hell].
In the original story, this technique was Orochimaru's signature genjutsu, one that terrified Sakura to the point of completely robbing her of her ability to fight.
At present, Ning Feng already possessed armor-piercing ninjutsu, large-scale offensive techniques, as well as defensive and confusion-based abilities. The one thing he lacked was genjutsu.
The Technique of Seeing Hell perfectly filled that gap.
What's more, the Sharingan itself excelled at casting genjutsu. Although Ning Feng's Sharingan didn't provide an exceptionally strong boost in this area, it was still immensely powerful.
Without any hesitation, Ning Feng clicked to equip all of the items.
In an instant, after donning the Hidden Shadow set, Ning Feng seemed to merge with his surroundings. His body even became faintly transparent, and the small animals nearby showed no awareness of his presence whatsoever.
"As expected of the Hidden Shadow set."
Ning Feng noticed that the set appeared to absorb the wearer's chakra, using it to achieve transparency and suppress chakra presence.
Shinobi with weak perceptive abilities would be completely unable to detect him.
"Danzo, that old schemer—actually impersonating ANBU to try and kille kill me!"
"But what he never would have expected is that I'd end up becoming much stronger because of it."
Ning Feng really wanted to see the look on Danzo's face right now.
But he also knew that Danzo had been doing things like this for a long time.
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and the others likely already knew about Danzo's filthy, underhanded deeds. Yet instead of purging him, they tolerated it.
Most likely, Hiruzen had always treated Danzo as a blade for political struggle, using that blade to accomplish many things under the table.
In the original story, the night of the Uchiha clan's annihilation probably had much to do with Hiruzen as well.
After all, within the Hidden Leaf Village, the Uchiha clan was the only family that did not obey Hiruzen. Such a clan would naturally become a thorn in the eye, a splinter in the flesh.
The more he thought about it, the more Ning Feng understood—he had to grow stronger, and fast!
Just as these thoughts were running through his mind, shua shua shua—three figures landed nearby.
The leading figure wore an ANBU mask, but above his head was clearly written: "ANBU Squad Captain — Kakashi."
As for the other two, one was "Uchiha Itachi," and the other was "Inuzuka Hana."
"Inuzuka Hana? Kiba Inuzuka's older sister?"
Ning Feng paused, then quickly understood. In an ANBU squad, Inuzuka Hana likely served in a support role.
After all, the Inuzuka clan possessed extraordinarily keen senses of smell, allowing them to pinpoint enemy locations almost instantly.
In the original story, whenever Akamaru—the ninja hound of Konoha's Twelve, Inuzuka Kiba—was injured, he would often be brought to his sister Inuzuka Hana for treatment.
🌟 The story is already written… waiting to be unleashed.
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