Chapter 149: I’ll Die With You
Following Nara Baika is quite relaxed, as Nara Baika will arrange all matters properly.
Tracking the camel caravan went very smoothly, and the camel caravan did not discover Yoru and the others.
Nara Baika occasionally looked down, her expression growing increasingly grave.
“This direction… is the direction of Sand Wave Port.”
Yoru asked: “Sand Wave Port? Wasn’t Sand Wave Port sabotaged? What are they sending puppet materials to Sand Wave Port for?”
After thinking, Nara Baika said:
“We just achieved a great victory at Sand Wave Port. I heard the Daimyo of the Land of Wind was furious that the Sand Ninja failed to protect his more than twenty large ships.
With Sand Wave Port destroyed, the Konoha side will inevitably relax their vigilance in the direction of Sand Wave Port.
If the Sand Ninja set out to sea from the direction of Sand Wave Port and go upstream from the rivers of the Land of Rivers…
This is a sneak attack route with an extremely high success rate.
The Sand Ninja delay from the front, while elites sneak attack from behind. Konoha is very likely to suffer a devastating defeat.
For now, everything is speculation. At least follow for another day; we must see accurate intelligence.”
One day later at night, Yoru saw a group of people in the distance through the telescope.
The team was very long and disorganized, with most people carrying long strips wrapped in white cloth.
Inside the mummy-like white cloth were all puppets.
Some puppet masters had three or five walking puppets beside them.
Those puppets had special joints, like people but not quite, giving a terrifying uncanny valley effect similar to driving corpses.
No one knew how she calculated it, but after observing hundreds of black shadows, Nara Baika said:
“About 200 puppet masters, heading toward Sand Wave Port!
The one leading at the front is Tora, the elite jonin son of Chiyo, advisor of Hidden Sand Village!”
Chiyo’s son, Scorpion’s parents. Yoru thought to himself, it seems Scorpion’s parents are about to die.
Yoru thought about it; the full moon was coming up soon. Would he die at the hands of Scorpion’s parents?
He had no need for puppet technique at all.
Yoru said: “Retreat. We have enough intelligence.”
The group quickly left.
After moving away from the Sand Ninja puppet masters, Yoru looked up at the moon.
The moon at this time was already very bright, with just one or two days until the full moon.
Walking in the sand, Yoru asked: “Baika jonin, it seems you know a lot about puppet technique.”
“Before entering the Land of Rivers Battlefield, I deliberately paid attention to intelligence on puppet technique.”
“Then, Baika jonin, have you heard of shadow puppet jutsu?”
Sakumo Hatake wouldn’t easily let Xinming’s murder slide, so Yoru asked as if casually, carefully watching Nara Baika’s expression.
Nara Baika didn’t stop walking, her eyes flickered slightly, then she said: “No, perhaps it’s new intelligence gathered by Anbu on Sand Ninja puppet technique.”
Nara Baika wanted to turn her head but suddenly found she couldn’t move.
The curse mark had silently crept over her entire body from the ground.
Yoru stood in place, signaling to Aries to have him and the squad stay alert at a distance and not approach him and Nara Baika.
Aries and the others body flickered back, retreating to a distance.
Aries thought to himself, Anbu really issued an order to execute Nara Baika.
Anbu is an assassination special forces unit; what would rescuing look like?
Aries felt that coming to execute Nara Baika was the normal thing.
But what was that secret jutsu of the captain’s? He’d never seen it before.
Yoru prepared to die once for a gacha pull, so he didn’t care about exposing the Karma Seal of Retribution. Holding a kunai, he came before Nara Baika.
“Recently, some ninja accidental death incidents have occurred at the front line.
In the end, only one person escaped from each squad. Coincidentally, the ones who escaped back were all Nara ninja from the squads.
Baika jonin, as an elite of the Nara Clan, you’re so skilled at gathering and analyzing intelligence. I think you know more than I do.
I’ve sent the team members away. Here, it’s just the two of us. I hope you can talk openly with me.”
Looking closely at Nara Baika, there was no cold sweat on her forehead, her eyes were calm, and she wasn’t even straining against Yoru’s Karma Seal of Retribution.
Her eyes shifted slightly, and instead she asked:
“Is Anbu investigating certain abnormal death incidents involving Nara ninja?
But why do you possess such exquisite sealing jutsu?
If I didn’t see wrong, this is the clan-annihilating Uzumaki Clan secret jutsu, Karma Seal of Retribution.
This jutsu, in the entire Konoha, only the elites of the Senju Clan and Princess Kushina Uzumaki can use.
How do you explain that? Whose person are you exactly?”
Yoru knew Nara Baika was tough to deal with, but he didn’t expect her to go straight for his sore spot. He said:
“My affairs don’t need Baika jonin worrying. Let’s talk about you first. You were forced into the Land of Wind but chose to stay decently at an inn.
If I use some interrogation methods next, it won’t be so decent.”
Nara Baika’s eyes turned hostile:
“You’re willing to use interrogation methods on a fellow village jonin; this absolutely isn’t the intensity appropriate for investigating a few Leaf ninja accidental deaths. What is your real purpose?”
Yoru scratched his head; dealing with smart women was really troublesome. Who was interrogating whom, exactly.
“Nara Baika, my patience is limited. You’re a smart person; you should see I’m not joking with you.” Yoru said:
“Shadow manipulation secret jutsu is your Nara Clan’s signature ability.
The stronger the ability, the easier it is to lose control.
Anbu discovered that a small portion of the Nara Clan actually, when teammates weren’t paying attention, used shadows to treat teammates as human puppets, manipulating teammates to fight enemies.
Every ninja wants to maximize their abilities, but they can’t go to extremes.
Where is conscience? Where is morality? Where is the Will of Fire?
Since I’ve found you, it proves I already have enough evidence on hand.
Nara Baika, I’ll give you 5 more seconds to think.
Will you work with me to cut out the rotten flesh in the Nara Clan and be an example of the Nara Clan correcting their mistakes, or resist to the end.”
Nara Baika’s expression grew increasingly downcast. She said:
“If Anbu has investigated this far, how could our Nara Clan not know.
I was already handling this matter, just hadn’t announced it temporarily, fearing a scandal.
Since Anbu has traced it to me, it proves your investigation is already very thorough.
I’m willing to hand over some intelligence to Anbu. Come over; I’ll tell you quietly. Don’t let too many people know.”
Yoru walked over and stood beside her.
Nara Baika said:
“According to my investigation, there’s a small group in the Nara Clan, about 5 people.
These 5 believe that for success, whether mission success or personal success, any means are justified.
They researched shadow secret jutsu and developed the vile usage of using the secret jutsu to manipulate teammates.”
Yoru asked: “Who are those 5?”
Nara Baika named five people.
Yoru heard the name Nara El among them and knew Nara Baika wasn’t hiding anything.
Nara Baika said: “I have an investigation scroll you can look at.”
Yoru thought to himself, no wonder Nara Shikaku asked Anbu to rescue Nara Baika; he knew there was already a preliminary investigation report scroll and feared the scandal leaking.
“Where’s the scroll? I’ll find it myself; I can’t unseal you temporarily.”
“The scroll isn’t in the ninja tool bag; it’s on the inner side of my left thigh under the skirt.”
Yoru suddenly thought of Yuka Uzumaki; she also hid the Adamantine Sealing Chains sealed scroll on the inner side of her thigh.
Do women all like hiding things this way? Do they think it’s very secretive?
Yoru lifted Nara Baika’s skirt and reached under it, indeed touching a scroll.
However, his hand couldn’t be pulled out no matter what.
The shadow under the skirt bound Yoru’s hand! And finally bound Yoru’s body!
Nara Baika hid the scroll under her skirt because there was a shadow under the skirt, with a special secret jutsu mechanism!
Yoru was just like Nara Baika, unable to move.
Nara Baika’s eyes were full of apology:
“I can’t betray the clan, nor do I want to betray the village.
I’ll die with you. No one will know the Nara Clan’s scandal, and I’ll use my life to atone for my actions…”
The shadow climbed up Yoru’s throat, piercing his throat.
Yoru thought to himself, extracting quite a bit of intelligence; it’s worth it.
At that moment, two puppets suddenly emerged from underground.
The Sand Ninja puppet master had caught up!
The puppets also pierced Nara Baika’s heart.
The two fell down together.
【Host death detected. Moon Arc System is starting up…】
