Chapter 203: Barrier
The brand-new Fox Squad first entered the Land of Grass, then headed north into the Land of Waterfalls. It took more than ten days for Fox Squad to reach the northeastern border of the Land of Earth.
Hidden Stone Village and Hidden Cloud Village had signed a ceasefire agreement before the New Year. At this time, there were still many scars left by the war along the Land of Earth’s border.
For example, abandoned villages, deserted terraced fields, and a sparse number of animals.
During the war, ninjas would catch all nearby edible animals to supplement protein.
Yoru had the four squads spread out to search for the large craters blasted out by the Tailed Beast Ball.
Each of the four squad leaders was someone Yoru valued the most, and all were full of fighting spirit.
Soon, Aries Squad was the first to find the target.
Aries was very proud; in terms of reconnaissance, his Parasitic Insects were still slightly superior.
Yoru stood by the deep pit and instructed Purple Cat to record.
“Explosion core area, about 200 meters in diameter, about 3 meters deep.
Explosion impact area, about 800 meters in diameter; big trees and stones were destroyed by the shockwave.
With such a chakra scale, suspected to be a Tailed Beast Ball released by a complete Tailed Beast.
The Tailed Beast Chakra amount is extremely exaggerated, at least ten times that of a normal jonin.”
Yoru said with lingering fear, “If hit by such a Tailed Beast Ball, wouldn’t it leave you bruised black and blue?”
Purple Cat looked up in confusion: “Huh? Bruised black and blue? Should I record this too?”
“Don’t record this sentence.”
If they only obtained data on the Tailed Beast Ball’s explosion range, it would definitely disappoint the high-ranking officials.
With the entire Fox Squad mobilized, discovering only one explosion range was far from enough.
Yoru said, “Everyone change into Sand Ninja Anbu equipment. We need to obtain more intelligence from the Stone Ninjas and capture Stone Ninja prisoners.
Changing into Sand Ninja equipment is to use gliders to escape in emergencies.
As everyone knows, Sand Ninjas replicated gliders. Whether they believe it or not, it at least gives Konoha a denial excuse.”
After changing into Sand Ninja equipment, Yoru looked at the map.
Along the Land of Earth border, there was a Hidden Stone Village stronghold fortress every 30 kilometers.
Each stronghold fortress housed at least one company of Stone Ninjas.
These stronghold fortresses formed the outermost defense of the Land of Earth.
Stone Ninja genin wouldn’t know much key intelligence; the valuable ones were Stone Ninja jonin.
The stronghold fortresses were equipped with sensor ninjas and barrier ninjas. Silently infiltrating to capture the jonin in charge would be too difficult.
Yoru looked at two stronghold fortresses and steeled his determination.
He said to his team members, “This is the first major mission since our squad was formed; we must complete it perfectly.
My tactic is to feign an attack in the east while striking in the west.
Aries, Hanashika, Hippopotamus, Yak—you four squads are responsible for the diversionary attack on Stronghold Fortress A.
Make a huge commotion to force the nearby Stronghold Fortresses B and C to send reinforcements.
I’ll exploit the gap to infiltrate Stronghold Fortress B, capture or kill their captain, and obtain the corpse.
In this tactic, your four squads will face great danger.
Be careful; with Stone Ninja reinforcements, you’ll face several Stone Ninja squads.
You need to fight spectacularly while also being able to escape.
Hanashika, bring out our gliders; they’ll have a miraculous effect. Stone Ninjas have never seen this high-end ninja tool.”
Aries and Hanashika were both very excited.
For such a dangerous mission, if successful, capturing a Stone Ninja jonin and obtaining key intelligence—this mission seemed a bit like an S-rank one.
Promotion to special jonin—wouldn’t that be possible?
Aries said, “Captain, rest assured. It’s not like we’re strong-attacking a Hidden Stone Village stronghold fortress. A diversionary attack followed by escape—I think we can accomplish it.”
Hanashika also said, “We can definitely complete it!”
Yoru thought to himself, I know you can complete it; the problem is how many can survive.
He didn’t want the newly formed squad to suffer heavy casualties on its first mission.
Yoru said, “This mission is very dangerous; we must prepare contingency plans and rehearsals. For the next few days, we’ll hide in the Land of Waterfalls, find a similar terrain, and secretly rehearse.”
The border area between the Land of Earth and the Land of Waterfalls had terrain similar to the yellow earth plateau of his previous life.
Under erosion from rainwater, the plateau was crisscrossed with gullies and had many mountain ravines.
The four squads practiced using the ravines for quick escape and then using gliders in the latter half to rapidly disengage from battle.
—
The full moon was like a silver plate.
Yoru waited again for the new full moon.
That afternoon on the 20th, Yoru separated from his four squads.
He must have had too leisurely and comfortable a New Year; Yoru actually felt soft-hearted.
He wanted both Aries and Hanashika to become special jonin, but feared casualties in the squad.
No, he needed to adjust his mindset. These four squads were consumables for completing his missions.
Yes, consumables.
He couldn’t worry too much about his subordinates; completing the mission came first.
Yoru spent half a day arriving near Stronghold Fortress B.
He lurked in the yellow earth, watching the fortress from afar.
Thick rammed earth bricks were built into a circular multi-layered fortress.
The fortress had many small round windows observing the outside.
A Hyuga Clan jonin’s reconnaissance range reached an exaggerated 3 kilometers. Besides them, most sensor ninjas were like Aries, with sensing ranges from a few hundred meters to 1 kilometer.
Hiding 1 kilometer away, Yoru thought it would be great if he could get Byakugan to make up for his reconnaissance shortcomings.
In the latter half of the night, Yoru saw two communication sparrows fly into the stronghold fortress one after another.
Aries and the others’ action had taken effect; the stronghold fortress under diversionary attack had sent a request for aid to this fortress.
Not long after the communication sparrows entered the fortress, two flew toward Hidden Stone Village to report the news of the stronghold fortress being attacked.
The two communication sparrows flew in different directions, adding an extra layer of insurance to increase the success rate of intelligence transmission.
The stronghold fortress’s heavy gate opened, and two squads of ninjas left the fortress.
It seemed the Stone Ninja captain judged that two squads were needed for reinforcements.
After the two squads went far, Yoru began infiltrating.
The initial infiltration went very smoothly; he entered 300 meters into the stronghold fortress without being detected.
When he reached 200 meters outside the stronghold fortress, Yoru suddenly sensed an unusual chakra fluctuation.
Barrier!
The stronghold’s barrier was activated!
A sharp alarm sounded inside the stronghold fortress.
Infiltration failed…
Yoru pondered whether to strong-attack this stronghold fortress.
Strong-attacking a stronghold fortress would definitely prompt Hidden Stone Village to send massive pursuit forces.
This place was more than ten days’ journey from Konoha; with Hidden Stone Village’s strength, escape might be impossible.
In this full moon cycle, he still had a resurrection opportunity.
Yoru thought, this life was mainly for probing intelligence; dying proactively in the fortress, then formulating a perfect infiltration plan in the next life.
After deciding, Yoru rushed forward while forming hand seals with both hands, unleashing Water Severing Wave at full power.
A stream of water shot out, instantly piercing over a hundred meters and breaking the highest round window.
Water Clone!
In the next instant, Yoru had followed the Water Severing Wave with Body Flicker into the highest room.
The Stone Ninja captain was stunned; a Sand Ninja suddenly appeared before him?
