Chapter 123: Fake Prisoner Exchange
In ninja village wars, the vast majority of ninjas would rather use exploding tags to commit suicide than be captured.
After being captured, they face cruel torture.
Every village has a Torture Department, where Torture Department ninjas make prisoners experience what sadism really is.
Anbu use dark methods, dark mission targets, and the Torture Department itself is dark.
Konoha has Yamanaka Clan torture ninjas who directly read information from corpses, which seems gentler by comparison.
Other ninja villages rarely have such methods; their torture lacks technology and relies entirely on brute strength.
The Torture Department squeezes out the prisoners’ last drop of blood and spirit, either extracting the information from the prisoners’ brains or extracting the prisoners’ brains themselves.
Compared to being captured, suicide is far more straightforward.
Four Sand Ninja prisoners have already been handed over to Orochimaru.
Exchanging prisoners is impossible.
Yet Anbu demands that Fox Squad rescue one Shimura Clan chunin from among the prisoners.
This is truly tricky.
Yoru first went to the front line Torture Department and obtained information on the four Sand Ninja prisoners: their heights, builds, hair colors, and so on.
The Torture Department doesn’t know where the prisoners were taken, only that Anbu took them away.
Yoru mentally went over the plan several times in his mind, decided it was feasible, and then gathered the three squads of the squad.
“Konoha and Hidden Sand Village have been at war for over half a month, and the two sides will hold their first prisoner exchange.
The Sand Ninja prisoners were sent to the Land of Earth by Anbu, and we have no prisoners to exchange.
Hanashika, select four people from the squad with suitable builds. Don’t use Transformation Jutsu; use makeup and disguise to pose as prisoners tortured into inhuman shapes by the Torture Department.
Transformation Jutsu might be detected by Sand Ninja, which isn’t safe.
Purple Cat, you lead three people to pose as an ordinary Konoha squad executing a prisoner exchange mission.
To show sincerity and avoid escalating into a major battle, both sides send one escort squad for each prisoner exchange.
Aries, you take the rest of the people and disguise as Rain Ninja with me to ambush the Sand Ninja and Purple Cat Squad at the exchange, rescuing the target chunin.
Konoha Village still has some face to save.
We can’t produce prisoners ourselves, and killing the Sand Ninja exchange squad would be something Konoha wouldn’t do.
But Rain Ninja watching from the sidelines, driving the tiger to devour the wolf, sabotaging the prisoner exchange between the two villages in hopes they fight even more fiercely—that makes sense.”
Posing as ninjas from other villages to carry out covert missions is something people from every village are doing.
The three squad leaders all understood their tasks and went off to prepare.
Hanashika’s preliminary work is the most important; he has to select four people to pose as barely alive prisoners tortured by the Torture Department.
They can’t use Transformation Jutsu to avoid Sand Ninja detecting anything unusual.
When setting out, Hanashika shaved his own head bald, with a total of fifteen crisscrossing cuts on his scalp.
Some cuts were bleeding, others had been treated by medical ninjas and formed pink scars.
Yoru asked: “Does it hurt?”
“It doesn’t hurt. Yagura broke his own arm, and it’s still twisted outward against the joint—that’s pain.”
Yoru’s heart tightened.
Ordinary civilian ninjas have no talent, but they are serious and desperate.
Yoru said: “After completing this mission, I’ll apply for a ninjutsu for each of you.”
“Thank you, Squad Leader!”
Purple Cat led a squad, posing as ordinary ninjas wearing headbands, each carrying a prisoner on their shoulder, heading south to the rendezvous point with the Sand Ninja.
Beside a certain river in the northern Land of Rivers.
Purple Cat spotted the Sand Ninja on the opposite side of the gorge from afar.
Five Sand Ninja, each with a Konoha prisoner at their feet.
These prisoners weren’t much better off than the Sand Ninja prisoners Purple Cat’s group was carrying; they were covered in wounds and extremely miserable.
The wounds on their bodies were swollen and bruised purple, with the poison not yet neutralized.
Sand Ninja torture ninjas particularly like using poison, various neurotoxins.
After reaching the other side of the gorge, Purple Cat and the others also set down their ‘prisoners’.
The Sand Ninja squad leader said: “Konoha people, let’s exchange prisoners.”
But Purple Cat said:
“Not so fast! The wounds on the prisoners at your feet are oozing pus, with black and purple discoloration around them.
Are you playing tricks? Are you trying to let these prisoners die of poison en route?”
The Sand Ninja squad leader said: “We Sand Ninja excel at poison; of course torture tools are coated with poison. What, do you want me to detoxify them too?”
“Of course you need to detoxify them.” Purple Cat emphasized: “We must bring back living prisoners.”
“Impossible!” The Sand Ninja squad leader said:
“If I detoxify them now, won’t you take the serum back and develop an antidote?
Don’t be so stupid and naive. Either run faster, or have your medical ninjas step it up.
I’m here to exchange prisoners, not to give charity.”
To buy time, Purple Cat took out a syringe: “In that case, either you run faster, or your medical ninjas step it up.”
With that, Purple Cat injected poison into the ‘Sand Ninja prisoner’ beneath her.
“You!”
Purple Cat successfully muddied the waters, diverting the Sand Ninja’s attention elsewhere, so they wouldn’t scrutinize the prisoners’ authenticity.
Yagura took a syringe to the face, which quickly turned purple and red, making it impossible to tell if he was a Sand Ninja prisoner.
Purple Cat had bought Yoru enough time.
From the raging river in the gorge, four figures suddenly burst out!
These people wore Rain Ninja gas masks and tossed gas bombs right away.
Purple salamander poisonous fog quickly spread along both sides of the gorge.
These were Konoha Anbu props disguised as Rain Ninja; Anbu had captured some salamanders and extracted their venom.
In the thick poisonous fog, Yoru charged straight for the Shimura ninja from the intel.
Using the fog for cover, Yoru secretly formed a seal.
The Karma Seal of Retribution appeared, binding the Sand Ninja squad leader.
A ninja sword pierced from the back of the head and out through the forehead.
This way, no one would know Yoru had used Sealing Jutsu.
The nearest Sand Ninja to Yoru was kicked far away by Yoru’s foot.
The kick looked heavy but didn’t fracture any bones.
The Sand Ninja flew out of the poisonous fog and saw Konoha ninjas on the opposite shore fiercely fighting Rain Ninja.
The Sand Ninja scrambled up and fled the battle.
Yoru deliberately let that Sand Ninja go to spread the news of the Rain Ninja ambush.
Konoha wants it both ways and more, truly making it hard for executing ninjas like Yoru.
They want to get the prisoners back, but don’t want other villages to know Konoha experimented on prisoners, and don’t want to bear the infamy of sabotaging the exchange.
After the battle, the ground had four more Sand Ninja corpses.
Two Sand Ninja were extremely fierce, disregarding their own lives and killing the Konoha prisoners at their feet before dying.
There was no helping that.
They rescued three prisoners, mainly the Shimura Clan one; their mission was overfulfilled.
Yoru said: “Let’s go! Get him to the front line medical post before the Shimura ninja’s poison acts up!”
Discarding the Rain Ninja disguises, Yoru put on his Root mask and rushed toward the camp.
The three prisoners, plus Yagura with his leg bone fractured and flipped outward—these four were carried along.
Yoru said to Kurozaru about Yagura on his shoulder: “Yagura, you’re too reckless.”
To complete the mission, Yagura really went hard on himself.
