LRAB Chapter 202 Discovering the Watcher
Chapter 202 Discovering the Watcher
Is that bustling village in the distance the target I'm meant to destroy?
Are those villagers who work through the night to survive the people I'm going to kill?
I really don't want to do this.
No wonder Lord Oniichiro specifically taught us to control our emotions.
With something on his mind, Itakura Ko's expression changed, which was noticed by his two teammates beside him.
"For safety, the two of us will take the lead in the attack. Itakura Ko, you will stay hidden in the shadows. If there are strong enemies here, you will cover our retreat."
The one who spoke was a female ninja with wheat-colored skin, probably in her thirties, named Shizurumaru, a former rogue ninja from the Mist Village.
She had met Terumi Mei several times before her defection and they had developed a certain friendship.
Before leaving, Terumi Mei asked her to take care of Itakura Ko.
Since she had decided to return to Kirigakure, she needed to think about the future and hoped to befriend Mei Terumi, who came from a noble family, so she agreed.
As a seasoned ninja, she could tell what was going on in his mind just by glancing at Ko Itakura's expression.
He's just a naive newbie, all affected and pretentious. Let him stay and share the credit.
If there are no strong enemies here, the two of them can handle it.
If faced with a strong enemy, they will retreat immediately and will not engage in a direct confrontation.
Whether this kid is there or not doesn't really matter.
In Shizuru Maru's mind, Itakura Ko was just a person who gained merit through connections, or a tool for others to gain merit.
Upon hearing this, Itakura Ko felt no anger at being slighted, nor did he consider using murder to demonstrate his fearlessness. Instead, he calmly nodded in agreement.
In his heart, he didn't feel that this was his mission, so why should he kill for the benefit of the Mist Ninja?
He was focused on finding a chance to escape, but the two people beside him, though seemingly indifferent, were always subtly watching him, and he couldn't find an opportunity along the way.
Besides Itakura Ko and Shizuru Maru, there was another person named Juri, a bounty hunter who specialized in hunting down rogue ninja.
He watched the whole thing without saying a word.
They quickly devised a plan and immediately got to work.
Shizuru and Juri openly charged toward the village, while Ko Itakura concealed himself and silently followed.
At this moment, Oniichiro finally found this place.
"That kid Itakura Ko is really fast; I almost lost him."
Kiichiro stood in the dense reeds, watching the two men rush into the village, preparing to find an opportunity to kill them and take Itakura Ko away.
Soon, the sounds of fighting filled the village, and flames ignited buildings one after another.
"Hmm, it seems there are no Konoha ambush here. I can make my move now."
After observing for a few minutes and confirming that there were no other dangers around, Oniichiro created five shadow clones to launch an attack. Suddenly, he saw a lone bird take flight from the woods north of the village, flapping its wings and flying into the distant night sky.
Kiichiro lay in wait again, his eyes filled with vigilance.
"A lone bird flying far away in the dead of night; there might be something wrong in that forest!"
For his own safety, Oniichiro sent his shadow clone to check.
If it's just a false alarm, then go back to what you were doing.
If there is indeed a problem, then we'll do another calculation.
Five shadow clones scattered and moved forward through various shadows, trying not to be illuminated by the moonlight, and entered the forest from different directions.
Before long, one of the shadow clones spotted a ninja.
However, this ninja did not have any headbands from any ninja village, so it was impossible to tell what kind of clone he was. He was simply squatting on a tree branch, gazing at the distant village.
"There's definitely something going on. Let's send the information back to the main body first."
Soon, Kiichiro received information about the shadow clones and immediately entered the forest.
After confirming that there were no other enemies around, Oniichiro launched a sneak attack, plunging a poisoned kunai into the man's back.
Kiichiro was somewhat surprised, thinking that this person's strength was not that great. If he hadn't been far enough away from the village, he might have been discovered by Itakura Ko and the others.
"Don't resist, or I'll pierce your heart with one forceful thrust!"
The man felt the kunai piercing his body, let out a painful groan, but still nodded forcefully.
Seeing this, one of the shadow clones went up and tied up the other party, and Kiichiro began the interrogation.
"Who are you?"
The man opened his mouth and made a series of hoarse, low sounds, making it impossible to understand what he was saying.
Kiichiro frowned and stared for a while, then reached out and dislocated the other person's jaw, only to find that there was no tongue in the other person's mouth.
"If you can't speak, then write!"
Unexpectedly, the other party was also illiterate. Oniichiro was not angry at this, after all, the other party was not dead, and as long as he was alive, he could obtain information.
“Interesting. But since you can understand me, I'll say this: nod if I'm right, shake your head if I'm wrong, understand?”
The man nodded immediately.
Are you from this village?
Shake head.
Are you from Konoha?
Shake head.
Are you from the Land of Fire?
nod.
"Were you only sent here to monitor the village a few days ago?"
nod.
……
After questioning, Kiichiro learned that the other party only knew that he was from the Land of Fire, and that he had been adopted and raised by the leader since childhood, and then assigned various tasks.
As for the leader's true identity and which faction he represented, he had no idea.
Moreover, there were more than a dozen people like him who had been assigned a few days ago to monitor the village and release the carrier pigeons if the village was attacked.
"Although his strength isn't that great, just at the level of an ordinary Chunin, training a dozen or so Chunin from a young age would require considerable resources, indicating that the other side is also a sizable force."
"The other side had just been monitoring this place when it was attacked by the Mist Ninja. This is clearly not a coincidence, and we don't know what kind of conspiracy is behind it."
"Removing their tongue, preventing them from reading, and withholding their true identity indicates that the other party is concerned about certain people, but has no better means to keep the secret."
After comparing Danzo's methods of controlling his subordinates, Kiichiro thought that this faction's methods of keeping secrets were really low-level.
Of course, Danzo had the backing of Konoha, and possessed an unimaginable number of ninjutsu, far surpassing ordinary forces.
After pretending to be a detective for a while, Oniichiro got bored and killed his opponent with a single slash.
"In this conspiracy, I don't know who the unlucky ones are being schemed against. Anyway, it has nothing to do with me. I just need to take Itakura Ko with me."
The village in the distance was completely engulfed in flames. Kiichiro felt that Itakura Ko's battle was almost over, so he moved towards the village, intending to kill Itakura Ko's two teammates.
In the village, Shizuru jumped off the burning ship, wiped the wound on his face with his right thumb, and then put his thumb in his mouth to taste it.
"We've killed everyone and burned down the entire village. The mission was completed perfectly. Let's meet up with them and prepare to evacuate."
At the beginning of the battle, Shizuru and Juri were a little worried, so they stayed together.
However, after fighting for a while, they discovered that there were no strong individuals here, only a few Chunin and some Genin, who posed no threat to them.
So they gradually drifted apart, and now she's all alone.
"Everything has gone too smoothly since we entered the Land of Fire. We've been able to attack Konoha's weak points every time. Did the Mist Ninja get information about Konoha? No wonder Ao is so confident."