Chapter 68: Tryst With Yekura
Yakura certainly wouldn’t be restrained by the life or death of those commoners.
But as a ninja from a Great Ninja Village, avoiding involving commoners in war is their basic code of conduct.
Even in wars between Great Nations, they try to avoid involving ordinary people as much as possible.
During the Second Great Ninja War, on the Land of Rain battlefield, amid the melee of several forces, two Konoha ninjas entered Nagato’s home searching for food and mistakenly took Nagato’s family hiding in the shadows as enemy ninjas, killing Nagato’s parents. Only after discovering they were just ordinary commoners did they suddenly realize and deeply regret it.
They didn’t even intend to kill Nagato to silence him completely, instead crouching down to apologize to him.
This shows that for most ninjas, especially those from Great Ninja Villages, attacking ordinary commoners is a despised act.
Only those ninjas who have fallen to become wandering ninjas and rogue ninjas would slaughter ordinary people casually to gain distorted pleasure and a sense of superiority.
But at this moment, what puzzled Yakura even more was that the mastermind behind the dramatic change in the Land of Bears and the rebellion in Hoshigakure had found her so easily and didn’t seem to intend to act immediately.
‘What is he exactly…’ Yakura’s deep brown pupils were filled with deep vigilance.
Menma, sitting beside Yakura, was also looking at this tall Sand Village female ninja with great interest.
Originally, when he was recruiting organization members, he thought Yakura was already dead, killed in the Third Great Ninja War.
She was betrayed and sold out by Sand Village’s high-level officials as a condition to cease war with Kirigakure.
But it seems this timeline is not.
If Yakura didn’t die in the Third Great Ninja War.
Then she died at Bishamon’s hands.
Menma vaguely remembered that Yakura’s first appearance was in a theatrical version where Bishamon was the villain boss, though he couldn’t remember the name.
The general plot was that Bishamon collected bloodline limit ninjas from the Five Great Shinobi Villages and used the Oni-Roga Technique to incorporate them into his own body, thereby gaining their respective bloodline limits.
Among the bloodline limit ninjas captured by Bishamon were Hoshigakure’s “Explosion Release” ninja “Kari”; Sand Village’s “Scorching Release” ninja “Yakura”; Kirigakure’s “Dark Release” ninja “Nakaji”; Cloud Village’s “Magnetic Release” ninja “Troy”.
Finally, Bishamon planned to capture Kakashi to obtain Kakashi’s Sharingan, but was then chased and defeated by Naruto Uzumaki.
‘Kishimoto, that old guy…’ Menma couldn’t help but inwardly complain: ‘Forcing theatrical version characters into the manga, messing up the timeline, and assigning them different bloodline limit ninjutsu.’
‘If Yakura is still alive, that means they were probably captured and killed by Bishamon later, incorporated into the Oni-Roga.’ Menma had almost forgotten where that guy Bishamon was hiding.
His sensory ability detected ninjas from the Land of Wind and Land of Earth entering the Land of Bears, so he paid special attention to Yakura and took this opportunity to mark her chakra.
If possible, he could follow Yakura to find Bishamon.
“Customer, your sake.” The izakaya boss timely brought the sake.
“Give it to this lady.” Menma doesn’t drink alcohol.
“Alright, please enjoy, miss.” The boss tactfully set down the wine gourd but also placed the sake cup nearby.
Yakura looked at this spiky hair boy, her face full of questions, completely unable to figure out what this guy’s purpose was.
“You controlled Hoshigakure to slaughter the daimyo, what exactly is your purpose?!” After the boss left, Yakura picked up the wine gourd, poured a small cup, and took a shallow sip.
For a Sand Village ninja skilled in poison, Yakura was also involved in poison and medical fields. As a Sand Village jonin, she always carried Chiyo Granny’s specially made universal antidote, a strategic supply.
So whether this cup of sake was poisoned, she knew after a shallow taste.
“Just to get rid of some bloodsucking parasites.” Menma lazily propped his chin.
“Doing this will only plunge this country into chaos! Countless people will die because of it!” Yakura sharply retorted.
She tasted that this cup was just ordinary sake, not poisoned, so the boy’s goodwill puzzled her even more.
Menma just smiled slightly and raised his head, gesturing for Yakura to look outside: “But look, after these bloodsucking parasites are cleared out, everyone is cheering.”
Outside the izakaya was a bustling marketplace, with the din of voices occasionally carrying laughter into the izakaya, leaving Yakura speechless for a moment.
“In any case, I’ll find a way to stop you. If you’re willing to stop here, Sand Village can offer you protection.” Yakura suddenly changed her tone, unexpectedly trying to recruit the mysterious boy in front of her.
“Hahahaha!” Hearing Yakura represent Sand Village to recruit him, Menma couldn’t help but let out a hearty laugh.
A Yakura who was betrayed and sold out by Sand Village high-level officials in another timeline was now recruiting other ninjas for Sand Village.
“Then, we’ll have to settle this with real combat.” Yakura downed the sake in her cup and stood up to leave.
Menma called over the boss, left some silver taels, and followed Yakura out.
“Good luck~ young man!” A slightly tipsy customer raised his sake cup and gave Menma sincere well-wishes.
The other customers joined in the cheering.
Even the boss smiled as he watched the two youngsters leave.
Menma followed Yakura out of the city, speeding quickly one after the other through the forest.
When they reached a river valley, Yakura stopped on the opposite bank, slightly turned, and looked at the spiky hair boy who had followed her and stopped on the other side of the river.
Yakura took a kunai from her ninja tool pouch and gripped it tightly: “Sand Village, Yakura.”
This kind of mutual name-reporting duel had a certain sense of ceremony.
Menma, however, casually clasped his hands behind his head: “You can call me ‘Shura’.”
When she heard the name ‘Shura’, Yakura’s breath hitched.
Her pupils also contracted slightly, and her gaze toward the spiky hair boy across from her carried even more dread!
“You’re that ‘Shura’ who caused chaos in Konohagakure and Cloud Village, with a bounty of seventy million taels?” Yakura hadn’t expected Shura to be so young, young like a fifteen-year-old boy.
This year’s major event shaking the ninja world, besides Orochimaru’s defection from Konoha, was this mysterious ninja simultaneously provoking two Great Ninja Villages.
Konoha and Cloud Village, originally at war, actually shook hands and made peace because they were attacked by the same mysterious ninja—truly ironic.
As for the Kusanagi Village incident, Kusanagi had sealed off the intelligence. Although the major ninja villages obtained some news, they didn’t spread it widely. Sand Village was the weakest among the Five Great Nations, with military funds cut every year and limited intelligence gathering. Even an ordinary jonin like Yakura would find it hard to know such intelligence.
“So, how does Miss Yakura plan to stop me?” Menma’s mouth curved slightly, his aura suddenly changing.
The air immediately filled with a tense, sword-drawn atmosphere!
