Chapter 191: As Expected Of The Shrine Maiden
Back to the beach where the battle had just taken place, Suikazan Fuguya had already disappeared.
Yakushi Nonou had been knocked flying by the great sword Samehada and crashed into a stone, which had been washed far away by Water Style.
Yoru carefully examined the stone, searching for clues.
A strip of cloth!
In the crevice of the stone, he found a bit of fabric scraped off by the stone.
Yoru used a kunai to pick up the fabric and placed it in his ninja tool bag to avoid contaminating it with his own scent.
He hurried to find Aries.
Outside a woods, Yoru found the code of the Fox Squad and followed the code to the hidden Aries.
“Aries, this is cloth from a Mist Ninja spy’s clothes. Use the parasitic insects to find the spy!”
“Okay!”
Parasitic insects can distinguish scents, not as sensitive as the Inuzuka Clan, but sufficient for most missions.
The parasitic insects gnawed on the fabric, memorized the scent, and then dispersed.
Soon, Aries found a clue.
Yoru and Aries followed the scent relentlessly, chasing for half a day until the afternoon of the second day, finally arriving at a desolate stone wall.
On the stone wall, there were only bird nests one after another.
Yoru suddenly had a bad premonition.
A cluster of parasitic insects killed a seabird and brought it down.
Aries untied a strip of cloth tied to the bird’s leg and said, “Captain, we’ve been tricked!”
Yoru thought to himself, as expected of the Walking Witch; she had even set up false clues before escaping, wasting Yoru half a day.
“Let’s go, we’ll head back.”
On the way back, Yoru was deeply worried.
Although Yi was dead, Yakushi Nonou knew the truth. If Yakushi Nonou shared intelligence with Root, he could still be exposed.
As Aries was walking, she suddenly noticed the squad leader had stopped and quietly waited.
Yoru suddenly said, “Go! Let’s hurry back to the camp!”
He thought of Zhen Li. Zhen Li was an orphan from the Konoha Orphanage; perhaps she had clues about Yakushi Nonou.
Yoru quickly returned to the camp. He found out the whereabouts of chunin Zhen Li and discovered that Zhen Li’s squad had taken a mission to head to a certain coast.
Yoru left the camp alone again and rushed nonstop to the location where Zhen Li’s squad was carrying out the mission.
Coastline.
Zhen Li was leading three genin on a routine patrol mission.
Zhen Li noticed that when they left the camp today, the ninjas up and down the camp had all become lax.
There was talk that Konoha’s Anbu Battalion had achieved a great victory, dealing a heavy blow to the Mist Ninja, which might bring victory in the war.
There was also talk that Lord Orochimaru might come to the Land of Whirlpools Front Line.
All these rumors indicated that the war might be ending.
A genin nearly 2 meters tall came to the side of Zhen Li, who was 5 meters tall.
“Captain, can we head back early today? I’m sick of eating ration pills; I want to go back to the camp, even if it’s just to drink a bowl of clear soup.”
This tall guy’s stomach was already growling.
“Of course not!” Zhen Li said. “Eat a ration pill now; don’t fight the Mist Ninja on an empty stomach!”
The two had a huge height difference, yet the tall genin had to listen to Zhen Li.
The tall genin’s expression showed grievance as he took out a ration pill, hesitated again and again, and swallowed it.
Zhen Li thought to herself, if only the war could really end.
The squad continued forward and saw a fishing village.
The war had ravaged the coastline of the Land of Whirlpools, yet here was a village with people.
Most of the houses in the village were empty, but smoke was rising from two houses.
“Someone’s cooking!”
The tall genin shouted, then carefully watched Captain Zhen Li.
Zhen Li said, “Don’t think about food. It’s abnormal for this village to have people. Let’s investigate.
It could be villagers who fled returning home, or it could be Mist Ninja bait.”
Zhen Li led the squad, using bushes, overturned fishing boats, and other cover to enter the fishing village.
“Fish soup, it’s the smell of fish soup…”
As soon as the tall genin finished speaking, his vision blurred, and he slowly fell down.
Zhen Li shouted, “There’s poison in the fish soup smell!”
Medical chakra appeared in Zhen Li’s hand as she quickly detoxified herself.
Using scent poisoning in an open area with such exquisite poisoning technique made Zhen Li suspect that her squad had encountered a Mist Ninja jonin.
Her three team members all fell down one after another.
From three houses, three identical people emerged.
Shadow clones!
Two shadow clones burst open, leaving only one person.
The enemy thought one house with cooking smoke was too fake, so he used shadow clones to create multiple illusions.
“Zhen Li, it’s me. Don’t be nervous.”
Zhen Li rubbed her eyes and looked at the middle-aged woman in front of her.
She didn’t recognize this person, but she would never forget this voice.
“It’s me, Zhen Li. I used the Disguise Secret Jutsu.”
“Is it really the Director?”
The middle-aged woman said, “It’s really me. The orphanage was very poor. You were malnourished as a child and never grew tall; that’s what I regret most.”
Zhen Li was now certain that the middle-aged woman in front of her was really the Director.
Yakushi Nonou took out a scroll. “This is the money I’ve saved this year, and ninjutsu. Take it back to the orphanage.”
“Director, what about you? Aren’t you coming back to the orphanage? Don’t you always return to the orphanage for one or two months at the end of every year?”
“Me…” Yakushi Nonou’s expression fell. “I can’t go back for now.”
She had to work for Danzo; otherwise, Danzo would take all the orphanage children into Root.
The weak ones for experiments, the talented ones trained as Danzo’s personal subordinates.
Especially this year, the mission failure led to Kiiroinu gaining huge war merits; Danzo wouldn’t let her go.
That orphanage was her last obsession.
“Director! We’ve all become ninjas; we can earn money to support the orphanage. Please come back; we all miss you so much.”
Like when she was little, Zhen Li rushed toward Yakushi Nonou.
Yakushi Nonou stroked Zhen Li’s head, just like when she was little.
Even though Zhen Li had grown up, she could still hold Zhen Li in her arms. Poor Zhen Li, forever unable to grow tall.
“Zhen Li, you’ve grown up. Take good care of the younger ones. I still have a mission; I can’t return to the village.”
Zhen Li lifted her head and looked at the Director. The Director had disguised herself as someone she didn’t recognize, but this voice was so warm; it was still the Director in her memory.
While Zhen Li was enjoying the reunion, the Director suddenly pushed her away forcefully.
A figure suddenly emerged from the ground and burrowed between Zhen Li and the Director.
Zhen Li instinctively thrust her kunai, wanting to kill the suddenly appearing enemy.
The kunai struck the enemy’s back but felt like it hit an iron plate, the blade tip snapping off.
This ability?
The Karma Seal of Retribution controlled Yakushi Nonou.
Yoru looked at Yakushi Nonou:
“As expected of the Walking Witch. Not only did you leave misleading clues, but you also disguised yourself as another person. If it weren’t for Zhen Li, even if you stood in front of me, I wouldn’t know who you are.”
Yoru’s fist turned red copper color, raised high.
Zhen Li cried out miserably, “No! Fox Captain!”
