Chapter 105: Sand Ninja’s Lava Cavern
Avoiding the Sand Ninja, Yoru and Purple Cat quickly arrived outside the town and rendezvoused with their squad.
Aries released Parasitic Insects, while the others used telescopes to look into the distance.
It was moderate rain falling from the sky, with thick water mist and poor visibility.
“Squad Leader! It’s Hidden Sand Village Elite Jonin Mache!”
Anbu had intelligence on important figures from other villages; Mache was a Jonin from Hidden Sand Village worth paying attention to, famous for his Wind Release Ninjutsu.
He had bandages wrapped around his head to guard against wind and sand, making his traits quite distinctive.
Unexpectedly, they had encountered an Elite Jonin from Hidden Sand Village.
In the distance, Mache led over a hundred Sand Ninja charging toward the town.
Yoru hurriedly said to Aries, “Aries! Take your squad to find Kiiroinu Captain and report the situation here! I’ll continue reconnaissance!”
“Yes!”
Aries led the squad away.
The Fox Squad’s mission was reconnaissance; it was impossible to deal with a large number of Sand Ninja led by an Elite Jonin.
Yoru thought Mache would lead the Sand Ninja to charge into Di Gu Town, but instead, Mache turned midway and charged toward the river embankment.
After arriving at the river embankment, over a hundred Sand Ninja from two battalions were setting up Exploding Tags on the ground.
They weren’t sticking the Exploding Tags to the surface, but first using Earth Release to drill holes, then burying the Exploding Tags deep inside.
This section of river embankment was over fifty meters thick and over ten meters high, extremely sturdy.
The Sand Ninja simultaneously formed hand seals.
Continuous explosions rang out, some on the surface, some deep within the river embankment.
After the explosions, the soil swelled and softened.
The Sand Ninja rushed up and used Earth Release to completely breach the river embankment.
On the side of the river embankment, River Patrol Uncle was tied up like a dumpling with rope and trampled underfoot by a Sand Ninja.
He shouted in pain, but was powerless to do anything.
Jishui River was nearly a hundred meters wide; after the river embankment was blasted, massive floodwaters surged down toward Di Gu Town.
Ninja had overwhelming destructive power; building such a river embankment required years of effort from Di Gu Town’s predecessors, but destroying it took the ninja only half an hour.
Outside ninja villages, all civilians feared and despised ninja.
The river water rushed into Di Gu Town, instantly submerging to the height of a one-story building.
The small town was thrown into chaos.
Screams could be heard from afar in the town.
The screams rose and fell with the floodwaters, swallowed by the flood.
“Captain! The Sand Ninja have spotted us!”
“Withdraw first!”
Fox Squad’s two squads were no match for the Sand Ninja.
Yoru led the two squads to retreat farther away; the Sand Ninja did not pursue.
The Sand Ninja gathered at the breach, widening the gap.
Some Sand Ninja followed the flood peak downstream.
Yoru said, “Let’s go see what the Sand Ninja are up to with the embankment breach.”
Jishui River was a major river in the south of Land of Rain; because it was too close to Ji Gang Mountain Range, there was little development space around it, so it wasn’t heavily populated and had few valuable targets.
Were they just trying to flood a small town and a dozen villages?
Why bother; two battalions of Sand Ninja could kill people faster with kunai.
Following the flood forward two or three kilometers, Yoru saw more Sand Ninja.
These Sand Ninja stood in two rows, forming hand seals one after another.
The ground between the two rows of Sand Ninja sank, forming a trench.
The floodwaters no longer rushed aimlessly but flowed into the trench planned by the Sand Ninja.
Following the trench’s direction from afar, Fox Squad arrived below Ji Gang Mountain Range.
Ji Gang Mountain Range consisted of hard stone mountains, with all covering soil long since washed clean by rainwater.
The stone walls were sheer, rising abruptly several hundred meters from the flat ground.
Below Ji Gang Mountain Range, Yoru saw the Sand Ninja’s handiwork.
It was a massive cave opening.
Endless floodwaters poured into the cave mouth.
What on earth were the Sand Ninja doing? Did they want to use the floodwaters to wash away Ji Gang Mountain Range?
Yoru said, “Everyone else, fall back and wait for Kiiroinu Captain. Purple Cat, come with me to get closer and capture a prisoner for questioning.”
The floodwaters disappeared underground; the closer they got to the channel, the louder the roar of the floodwaters could be heard.
The Sand Ninja watched the channel, each one full of energy, as if they had accomplished something monumental.
Yoru and Purple Cat stealthily approached the outermost Sand Ninja.
Purple Cat used Mind Body Switch Technique to control a Sand Ninja.
That Sand Ninja slowly retreated backward; once at a sufficient distance, Purple Cat canceled the Mind Body Switch Technique, and Yoru used Body Flicker to kill that Sand Ninja and carry him away.
Three minutes later, Purple Cat obtained the intelligence.
After hearing it, Yoru thought to himself that Mache was indeed worthy of being Hidden Sand Village’s Elite Jonin; he was talented.
Ji Gang Mountain Range separated the desert of Land of Wind from the rainy basin of Land of Rain.
Mache had led Sand Ninja on reconnaissance in Ji Gang Mountain Range for months, discovering several underground caves.
Land of Wind lacked water.
Mache came up with a scheme: he carefully selected several caves and connected the underground caves, perfectly piercing through Ji Gang Mountain Range.
By diverting Jishui River water to fill the caves, it could flow out onto the Gobi Desert on the southern side of Ji Gang Mountain Range, creating a fertile green land in northern Land of Wind.
Purple Cat suddenly warned, “Captain, Di Gu Town’s residents are being swept here by the flood peak! Captain! It’s Xiao Lan!”
Atop the surging floodwaters floated pieces of wooden boards; on one of them sat a little girl, her body curled up, tightly holding a broken umbrella.
The key was that there were several hands around the wooden board.
Several people in the floodwaters were desperately supporting the wooden board.
Yoru recognized one of the hands as belonging to the shoe-selling uncle he had seen a few days ago; he had a distinctive thimble on his finger.
There were many such wooden boards, each carrying one or two children.
Some were residents’ children, others orphans.
But what they didn’t know was that their desperate efforts were meaningless.
The floodwaters would carry them into the bottomless underground caves like an endless abyss.
Filling the underground caves would take an unknown amount of time, and it was impossible for them to drift out the other side of the mountain range.
“Captain…”
Purple Cat murmured.
Although they were Anbu, seeing the determined little girl Xiao Lan about to be buried in the floodwaters was hard for Purple Cat to accept.
Yoru assessed the strength of the Sand Ninja at the cave mouth; he might not be able to save many people, but at least he could save Xiao Lan.
He said, “Wait for me; I’ll go to the cave mouth.”
Yoru used Body Flicker toward the cave mouth.
After killing two Sand Ninja, Yoru leaped up, jumping over the cave mouth.
The cave mouth was like a dark maw, with surging waves and muffled water sounds, as if no amount of floodwater could fill it.
Mid-air, Yoru flung out steel wire connected to an iron ball.
The iron ball looped around Xiao Lan’s waist, pulling her up.
Xiao Lan struggled in mid-air: “Uncle! Aunt! There’s a huge cave ahead!”
The cave mouth swallowed the wooden board and the several Di Gu Town residents beneath it.
They tumbled in terror amid the waterfall-like water flow, completely vanishing into the endless darkness at the bottom.
At that moment, Elite Jonin Mache suddenly appeared.
“Wind Release: Wind Slash!”
Countless wind blades rushed in, severing Yoru’s steel wire.
“Xiao Lan!”
Xiao Lan, who had just escaped danger, fell into the pitch-black cave mouth.
Her broken umbrella slipped from her hand, and together with her, she was swept away by the floodwaters.
Yoru himself was cut by the wind blades and blasted by the gale, crashing onto the stone wall above the cave.
Yoru hung on the stone wall with a kunai and heard the people falling into the cave mouth let out muffled screams one after another.
“Xiao Lan!”
Yoru flung out the steel wire and iron ball again, trying to wrap around Xiao Lan.
Xiao Lan reached out to grab the iron ball, but just one meter short, she was engulfed by the crashing floodwaters.
Yoru hung rigidly on the kunai; a thought suddenly rose in his mind.
This was the first time he actively wanted to die.
He wanted to change Xiao Lan’s fate.
Yoru looked up at Mache.
Sand Ninja, even if you want to divert water into Land of Wind, you don’t have to be so ruthless.
