Chapter 87: Guardians and Invaders
Border of the Land of Rain, Boundary Stone No. 7.
This was a death marsh filled with toxic miasma.
A moss-covered stone tablet stood crookedly by the roadside, with a line of large characters violently painted over in bright red: [Ahead lies Amegakure, a Neutral Special Zone. Those fully armed who cross the line will die.]
The handwriting was wild and cursive, exuding an unreasonable sense of dominance.
"Neutral Special Zone? Cross the line and die?"
A sneer broke the dead silence of the rainy night.
Several ghostly dark shadows passed silently through the boundary stone. They wore the animal masks of Konoha's Anbu, followed by two Sunagakure Puppeteers wrapped in cloaks.
The elite scout squad of the Fire-Wind Allied Forces had a simple and crude mission: infiltrate, poison, and create chaos.
"Political asylum, armed neutrality... it's just a bunch of stray dogs putting gold on their own faces."
The Konoha captain glanced at a flyer soaked by the rain on the stone tablet and spat disdainfully, "Taking in trash like Orochimaru and still preaching about 'reform'? They're really trying to have it both ways."
"Enough talk."
The Sunagakure Puppeteer behind him urged gloomily, "Intelligence shows the main Amegakure forces are in the north guarding against Iwa ninjas; this place is just an empty shell. Get to work, Lord Rasa is still waiting for news."
As elites of great nations, they had enough confidence to look down on everything. In their eyes, how could a small place like Amegakure Village handle a pincer attack from two major nations at once?
Chakra surged beneath the group's feet as they flew across the marsh at high speed, without even splashing the water.
However.
Less than five hundred meters deep into the national border.
Click.
An extremely light clicking sound rang out abruptly ahead, like the sound of some mechanism engaging.
"Stop!"
Everyone stopped instantly, Kunai and Puppet strings were drawn in a flash, and Killing Intent filled the air.
The mist slowly dispersed.
Under a withered tree ahead, an eerie figure lay quietly.
It was a hunchbacked, humanoid Puppet on all fours. The scorpion-like steel tail spine on its back was raised high, shimmering with a scalp-numbing, ghostly green cold light in the rainy night.
At this moment, the monster was holding a flyer blown in by the wind, seemingly reading it with great interest.
"Amegakure Village is willing to provide sanctuary for all Souls pursuing the truth; there is no prejudice here, only eternal art and peace..."
A cold voice came from the Puppet's abdomen, carrying a hint of mockery, as if reciting a eulogy.
"The writing is quite good."
The figure slowly raised its head, revealing a wooden face without any expression, and looked at the invaders before it.
"That fellow Yahiko always manages to make these boring political games sound so pleasant."
"That is..."
The moment the two Sunagakure Puppeteers clearly saw the crouching Puppet, their voices changed pitch, like roosters being strangled: "hiruko?! Sasori of the Red Sand! You're actually here!"
A person's name is like the shadow of a tree.
As the most Genius and craziest rogue ninja in the history of Sunagakure, the name Sasori was a nightmare in itself.
"It seems I don't need to introduce myself."
Sasori casually folded the flyer neatly and tucked it into a hidden compartment of hiruko, his tone lazy and tinged with dissatisfaction.
"Although I have no interest in these high-sounding slogans, since I've taken the funds from that miser Kakuzu and accepted the leader's so-called'security mission'..."
Clack, clack, clack.
hiruko's tail spine suddenly shot out, so fast it left a shrill afterimage in the air.
"As the head of Amegakure Village's border security, I have an obligation to maintain the... rigor of this declaration."
"Retreat!! Retreat quickly!!"
The Konoha captain had no desire to fight at all; he turned and ran, his voice cracking from shouting.
Are you kidding me! An S-Rank Rogue Ninja! This wasn't a monster scouts like them could even touch! This was a max-level account camping the entrance of the starter village!
"Running?"
Sasori's fingers moved slightly, as if plucking harp strings.
Swish, swish, swish, swish—!!
Countless poisoned Senbon sprayed from hiruko's mouth like a storm of pear blossoms, instantly sealing off all space.
"Aaaaah!!"
Screams rose and fell in the rainy night, only to come to an abrupt halt within a few short seconds.
One minute later.
Seven corpses lay scattered in the mud, blood staining the marsh red before being quickly diluted by the rain.
hiruko walked slowly to the boundary stone.
His steel tail spine danced flexibly, picking up the corpses one by one, his movements so practiced it was as if he had just finished skewering a few kebabs.
Then, he neatly stacked the corpses under the stone tablet that read "Cross the line and die," even adjusting the orientation of the bodies with a meticulousness that was hair-raising.
"This looks much better; it has a very artistic feel."
Sasori looked at his masterpiece and nodded with satisfaction.
He pulled a brand new flyer from his robes and casually flicked a Senbon, pinning it firmly to the Anbu captain's forehead.
The rain soaked the paper, and the large characters for "Peace and Inclusion" pressed tightly against the face of the corpse that died with its eyes open, appearing incredibly ironic.
"So-called neutrality..."
Sasori turned, and hiruko's massive body faded into the darkness, leaving only that cold whisper echoing in the rain.
"...is for guests."
"As for uninvited thieves... dying on the border is the best'sanctuary' Amegakure Village can give you."
Konoha vanguard camp, logistics department.
The atmosphere at the supply distribution point, which should have been orderly, was currently more volatile than a powder keg; just a single spark could blow the roof off.
Slam!
A dull-colored food pill, its surface even somewhat crumbly, was slammed onto the table, bouncing twice on the hard wood grain with a crisp sound like stones colliding.
"This is what you're giving the vanguard troops to eat?"
Uchiha Yashiro pointed at the pile of pills emitting a stale, musty smell, his eyes wide. His crimson Three-Tomoe Sharingan spun uncontrollably, his Killing Intent pressing directly against the logistics Chunin opposite him: "Even ninja dogs eat fresher than this!"
The Chunin in charge of logistics was forced back two steps by this pressure. He wiped the cold sweat mixed with rain from his face and said with a forced smile, "Lord Yashiro, this... this is the latest 'Type-C Generic Rations,' the standard for the entire army. We really aren't targeting the Uchiha..."
"Bullshit!"
Yashiro kicked a wooden crate full of supplies. The box overturned with a crash, and all that rolled out were these low-quality goods.
"What did the Hokage promise before we left? Top-grade supplies! Refined exploding tags! We're going to fight S-Rank Rogue Ninjas, not suppress bandits in the countryside!"
Yashiro grabbed a handful of exploding tags that had rolled into the muddy water. With a slight squeeze of his fingertips, the damp paper crumbled into scraps. "Can this trash even make a sound if you throw it? The Chakra conductivity isn't even thirty percent; do you want us to go to our deaths with this?"
More and more Uchiha clansmen gathered around.
They wore deep blue high-collared clan outfits, the fan crest on their backs particularly striking in the rain. Every face was written with four words—'Don't mess with me.'
In the Uchiha's view, as Konoha's sharpest blade, enjoying top-tier maintenance was only natural.
Now, before the blade was even drawn, the one holding it was being fed a mouthful of shit.
Yashiro turned abruptly and roared at the clansmen, "The higher-ups are treating us as cannon fodder! Fighting the Akatsuki with this junk? Whoever wants to be the vanguard can do it; I'm not serving anymore!"
"Let the Clan Chief come!"
"If we don't get an explanation, don't even think about this camp moving out today!"
The clamor grew louder, and several hot-tempered clansmen already had their hands on their sword hilts. The fluctuations of Chakra made the air feel scorched.
Just as the scene was about to spiral out of control, a heavy, mountain-like pressure suddenly swept over from the direction of the main tent.
The curtain of rain was pushed aside by the invisible aura. Uchiha Fugaku, draped in a wide black cloak, walked over with a face as grim as water. He didn't say a word, only scanning the area with his cold eyes. The originally restless crowd instantly became like strangled ducks, falling silent and automatically parting to make a path.
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