"Why did you come out? Get back inside!"
Being a Ninja after all, Amane didn't deliberately suppress her footsteps, so it was naturally easy for someone to sense her approach.
Amane smiled, a very sweet smile—so sweet that she felt if Ringo Yuriko were here, she would definitely vomit at how fake it was.
"Uncles, standing guard is hard work. Please have some water," Amane said as she handed over two cups of water.
"..."
The two guards looked at each other, momentarily unsure how to respond to this scene.
Before, Karin and her mother wouldn't have dared to come and provoke them; they would have been secretly happy as long as no one went looking for them. Who would have thought this newcomer would be so bold!
[Hey, hey, hey, no way. In this situation, shouldn't they first be wondering why the people who just went up to grab us didn't come back down with me?]
Amane had planned to act guilty on purpose when asked, to lead them into suspicion.
Then, while their attention was drawn, her other two Shadow Clones would use exquisite force to incapacitate them, but only to the extent that they could still send out a signal.
But these two were so dull they didn't follow the script at all.
In that case!
"The water I boiled... even the uncles who came by just now said it was good after drinking it."
Now that Karin and her mother had been rescued, Amane had no more worries. No matter what, she wanted things to follow her predetermined script.
She would shift their attention completely now. When they began to press her further out of suspicion, that would be the moment for Amane and her two clones to strike simultaneously.
This way, Amane would fit the persona of an 8-year-old girl, and Karin and her mother would fit the persona of completely untrained civilians.
When the time came, even if the scene were reconstructed through time-reversal, there wouldn't be a single flaw.
Perfect!
"Hmph! Do you think this little bit of flattery will help you avoid going to the front lines? This is why kids are so annoying. Get lost and go back!"
But the Grass Ninja seemed to have other thoughts. They didn't prioritize noticing that their comrades had gone up and hadn't made a sound for over an hour.
"I guess this is just the unpredictability of life."
Saying this, Amane's expression turned cold. She splashed the two cups of water directly onto the faces of the two Grass Ninja, moving so fast they couldn't react at all.
At the same time, both felt a sharp pain in their waists and nearly fainted, collapsing to the ground.
"Go!"
The figures of Amane, Momohime, and Karin appeared simultaneously. Only then did the two Grass Ninja realize something was wrong—the comrades who went up earlier must have met with an accident!
Enduring the sharp pain in their waists, they immediately fired their signal flares, which bloomed into the logo of the Hidden Grass Village in the sky.
By the time they finished, the three figures were already gone.
[You won't escape. When we catch you later, I'm going to bite off a chunk of your flesh.]
Severe waist injury? As long as the 'pills' were still there, this was nothing but a temporary pain.
Thinking of the texture of the flesh and the warm Chakra that would melt into their hearts and lungs, the two Grass Ninja felt the pain in their waists fade, replaced by a sense of numbness.
When the others from the Hidden Grass Village arrived, all they saw were two stiff corpses and an empty shack.
In an instant, the alarm bells of the Hidden Grass Village rang out loudly.
"The plan failed, didn't it?"
The Shadow Clone transformed into Momohime looked quite gleeful. Sometimes Amane really wondered if she and her Shadow Clones were actually different people.
However, she put herself in that position. If the one leading the action just now had been the Shadow Clone... well, she would have found it funny too.
Mainly, the key point she wanted those two Grass Ninja to notice was completely missed, which was very awkward.
"It doesn't matter. The Grass Shadow still hasn't moved. It seems we need to make a bigger scene."
"Or we can just let their Sensing Ninja realize we're about to leave the village. I wonder if that Grass Shadow will be able to sit still then."
Amane's sensing level was now worlds apart from a year ago. Although the range and effect of Kagura Minds Eye hadn't changed, the consumption to maintain the original work's strongest sensing Ninjutsu had dropped by more than one level, and more importantly, she had [Anti-Sensing].
Now, to sense Amane, one would need to be at an expert level.
Except for the Byakugan.
For instance, Amane had already encountered three different sensing Ninjutsu sweeping over her. One of them seemed to connect with plants, which was truly a local specialty and quite ingenious.
"Then let's leave the village, but we'll let them sense us intermittently along the way."
Said the Shadow Clone transformed into Karin.
The three moved immediately. Then, the Main Body Amane blew out a Hiding in Mist Technique in one direction, while another clone immediately used Wind Release to blow the mist further away without dispersing it.
This created the appearance of attempting a breakthrough using the mist as cover.
However, many Grass Ninja sneered upon seeing this move.
Who were they? They were famous experts at countering Ninjutsu in the Ninja World. As the signature move of the Hidden Mist Village, how could the Hiding in Mist Technique, with its high profile, possibly escape their countermeasures?
Instantly, several Grass Ninja completed their preparations to counter it.
The thick mist began to dissipate, but not from being blown away by wind; rather, the mist was forcibly condensed into water droplets that fell to the ground.
[That's a truly interesting way to counter it. Not using Wind Release, but condensing mist into water. Their reputation for being good at countering other nations' Ninjutsu isn't for nothing.]
Amane was quite inspired, but at the same time, she felt this method of countering wasn't very cost-effective.
When the mist cleared, Amane's group of three was surrounded by over a dozen Ninja, each wearing a disgusting smile, looking at them as if they were meat on a platter.
Momohime and Karin immediately got into character, hugging each other and starting to tremble.
Amane began to form Hand Seals the moment the mist was broken, intending to use Ninjutsu to recover from the disadvantage of being surrounded.
However, the Ninja of the Hidden Grass Village weren't all useless. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to maintain a significant presence outside of the Five Great Nations.
The moment Amane formed the seals, a Kunai pierced through her hand.
"Kid, let me teach you something. At close range, it's better to... Water Clone! Sensing Ninja, what are you doing!"
This Grass Ninja immediately went on alert while looking at the Sensing Ninja in their team.
But a thick mist appeared, obscuring everyone's vision.
"Again, but it won't... Ugh!"
He immediately formed seals to counter it, but a Kunai flew out from nowhere and pierced right through his hand.
This was the power of the Hiding in Mist Technique.
As long as our side has sensing abilities and yours doesn't, then sorry, you'll have to take a beating from a disadvantageous position.
And even if you have a countermeasure, as long as it isn't an instant-cast like the Byakugan, you'll always have to spend time forming seals to use it, right?
That provided window after window of opportunity to attack.
The thick mist quickly dissipated again. This time, more than half of the dozen or so people who had previously surrounded them were now corpses, though this didn't include the Grass Ninja whose hand had been pierced.
He was an expert, truly worthy of the rank of Chunin. After instantly pulling the Kunai from his palm and dodging an attack, he had also dispelled the Hiding in Mist Technique.
It was thanks to this that many of his Grass Ninja comrades survived.
"Damn it! Aim to kill their Sensing Ninja! This kid is definitely not simple. It seems we need to mobilize more manpower."
The Grass Ninja bandaged his wound as he walked, reporting the intelligence to the Grass Shadow as quickly as possible.
"I see. It seems we've been played. What about the corpse of that person named Yakushi Kabuto?"
The Grass Shadow's face was grim. The current situation was very clear; who would have thought a child would have this level of combat power?
They must be using some kind of Transformation Jutsu to disguise themselves!
"I should have been more cautious back then," the Grass Shadow muttered.
The Uzumaki Clan's constitution had created immense value for the Hidden Grass Village; this was what it meant to be blinded by greed.
"Grass Shadow-sama, the corpse of that person named Kabuto is still there."
A Ninja suddenly entered to report. This news basically confirmed it: the true core of this incident was that person named 'Kanon'.
Boom!
An explosion occurred less than ten kilometers from the village entrance. A Grass Ninja nearby, maintaining a seal and connected to a device, immediately began reporting the battle situation.
Where the explosion just happened, they had lost several more Ninja with the rank of Chunin, as well as over a dozen Genin. Currently, Uzumaki Tian Yin and her two companions were still completely unharmed.
"It seems I'll have to take action personally. They chose a truly good time."
The Land of Grass was a relatively powerful small nation. Although the village was also divided into ranks from Shadow to Genin, very few actually had the combat power to match those titles.
Looking at the intelligence from the front lines, those below Chunin were basically just going to their deaths—deaths that achieved nothing.
It wasn't that the Hidden Grass Village didn't have Jonin, but they knew their own situation. The one whose hand was just pierced was the closest Jonin nearby. Most of the other Jonin were currently fighting on the front lines and couldn't be redeployed at the moment.
After the Grass Shadow gave the order, almost all the Grass Ninja currently in the office building were mobilized.
The news just now said Amane's group was already within ten kilometers of the village entrance. If there was even a moment's hesitation, the Hidden Grass Village would suffer a massive loss!
Not long after the Grass Shadow left, the Grass Ninja who had previously reported that Yakushi Kabuto's corpse was still there had a gleam of success in his eyes.
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