Chapter 23: Transparent Barrier
There is a narrow strait between the Land of Waves and the Land of Fire, so narrow that building a bridge would allow passage.
Although clearly closer to the Land of Fire, the Land of Waves’ mission quota has always belonged to Hidden Whirlpool Village.
Crossing the strait and entering the Land of Fire, Kiiroinu Captain ordered people to find Yoru.
Kiiroinu Captain looked Yoru up and down, then said: “Brown Bear Squad only has you left. Your strength isn’t yet sufficient to serve as Squad Leader. Assign you to Kurozaru Squad instead.”
Yoru nodded. He observed Kurozaru Squad Leader—tall and unusually burly, clearly very strong in taijutsu. He wondered what abilities he could draw from Kurozaru Squad Leader.
He had drawn Shadow Clone Jutsu from Antelope Captain and Body Flicker Technique from Brown Bear Squad Leader. Anbu were full of good stuff.
Arriving at Kurozaru Squad, Kurozaru Squad Leader first had Yoru act alone.
Yoru was a Squad Leader, not easy to assign to other squads. The other squads were suffering heavy casualties at the time and unwilling to give team members to Yoru.
The team continued forward.
As they walked, the surrounding water mist grew denser and denser.
“Kurozaru Captain, is this naturally occurring bank fog, or…”
“This is the Land of Fire. Even if Mist Ninja come, we have absolute confidence to defeat them.”
Yoru turned to look at the defeated remnants around him, wondering where Kurozaru Squad Leader got his confidence.
Yuka Uzumaki summoned a large Long Spear Egret, ready at any moment to have it take Kushina Uzumaki away.
The atmosphere grew increasingly oppressive.
In the thick fog, visibility was only two or three meters.
Yoru adjusted his mask, freeing his vision from the mask’s eye holes.
He could see a tree two meters away. Beyond that, it was a vast white expanse.
The damp water mist made his whole body uncomfortable.
Suddenly, a whooshing sound came from behind his head!
His occiput tingled. Yoru dove forward instinctively.
A kunai grazed his hair and nailed into the tree trunk opposite.
Yoru quickly adjusted his posture on the ground and turned to stare into the fog behind him.
However, he couldn’t see anything in the thick fog.
This time, the Mist Ninja didn’t use Silent Killing to close in for battle but harassed from a distance with kunai.
With visibility at two or three meters, dodging kunai after seeing them was completely impossible.
Compared to relying on eyes, it was better to rely on hearing.
Screams rang out around him—Whirlpool Ninja crying out in pain after being hit by kunai.
Compared to Whirlpool Ninja, Konoha Anbu had higher discipline, very tight-lipped. Even if turned into a pincushion, they didn’t make a sound.
Boom!
This was no longer about being tight-lipped. The Mist Ninja started using exploding tags!
Mist Village, mainly composed of Water Style ninja, brought out their precious exploding tags. They were desperate.
In the explosion of an exploding tag, an Anbu Ninja was engulfed by fire and thick smoke, collapsing in front of Yoru.
He died miserably—everything below the thigh blown away, the stump exposing bone shards.
At that moment, Yoru suddenly felt a chill.
It was a chill brought by the wind.
Immediately after! Terrifying wind pressure!
Yoru ignored everything else, turning and pressing tightly against the big tree behind him.
The tree opposite wasn’t sturdy enough and was snapped by the wind, about to crash toward him.
Yoru hurriedly formed hand seals and sank into the ground.
When he resurfaced from the ground, the surrounding thick fog had already completely dissipated.
A single Wind Release had scattered hundreds of meters of thick fog?
All the trees around that weren’t sturdy enough had been blown down by the gale.
Yoru looked into the distance and saw Danzo Shimura, who had just lowered his hand seals.
Danzo brought two assistants to provide support.
Oh god.
Danzo Shimura actually gave him such a strong sense of security.
Danzo’s four Byakugan eyes had small pupils, staring at a group of Mist Ninja in the distance.
Juzo Biwa and Suikazan Fuguki of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen saw that Danzo had arrived and left without looking back.
Danzo glanced at the two Anbu Battalions that had suffered over half casualties and were in dire straits, but did not order pursuit.
The Anbu jumped up one after another from the messy tree stumps and gathered behind Danzo.
Kiiroinu and Blue Sparrow, the two Captains, stood behind Danzo, awaiting his interrogation.
The Whirlpool Ninja also hurried over.
The Sealing Squad Leader looked relieved: “Danzo Minister, I didn’t expect you to come to the rescue personally. In all of Konoha Village, only you can deal with the large-scale thick fog set up by Mist Ninja joining forces.”
Danzo nodded and looked at Kushina Uzumaki: “Whirlpool Princess… this doesn’t look like a jinchuriki. Failed?”
The Sealing Squad Leader nodded: “Around the wild Three-Tails, there were many Mist Ninja hidden sentries. We sacrificed many people but still couldn’t seal the Three-Tails.”
Yoru stood at the back of the Anbu Ninja, pretending to rest, half-squatting on the ground.
Through the crowd, he saw Danzo’s clenched fist, knuckles white.
It seemed Danzo wasn’t as calm inside as he appeared on the surface—he was very angry.
He always had a deadpan face, emotions not showing, impossible to detect before he erupted.
If Kushina Uzumaki became the Three-Tails jinchuriki, all of Konoha Village’s arrangements regarding the Nine-Tails would fall through.
The Nine-Tails was one of Konoha Village’s foundations. A covert action by Hidden Whirlpool Village had nearly caught Konoha off guard.
Within a few seconds, Danzo remained silent.
No one dared to speak.
The young Kushina hid behind Yuka. She felt this gloomy middle-aged man was too terrifying.
Danzo said slowly: “The remnants of the two Anbu Battalions, continue escorting the Whirlpool Princess back to Hidden Whirlpool Village.”
With that, Danzo turned and left with his assistants.
Yoru was somewhat puzzled. Konoha was determined to get Kushina Uzumaki—why not capture her now?
Was it to make Kushina Uzumaki willingly enter Konoha?
The two Anbu Battalions continued forward, escorting the Whirlpool Princess to the Land of Whirlpools peninsula.
Along the way, Yuka Uzumaki kept observing the Anbu, accurately spotting the Fox every time.
She would quickly look away to avoid being noticed by the Anbu.
The Fox was well hidden, inconspicuous among the Anbu Ninja.
If the two battalions’ Anbu Ninja weren’t down to just over 40 people, the Fox would have hidden even better.
The Senju Clan’s selected spy had very high quality.
When the team arrived near Hidden Whirlpool Village, Yatagarasu flew out from Hidden Whirlpool Village.
The massive Yatagarasu roared overhead, scaring the little Long Spear Egret on Yuka Uzumaki’s shoulder into shrinking its neck.
“Don’t be afraid. That’s our village-protecting summoning beast. It won’t hurt you.”
After escorting the Whirlpool Ninja to the village entrance, the Anbu Ninja did not enter, simply bid farewell and left.
Yoru breathed a sigh of relief.
This trip had been too long. He wanted to return to the village, preferably never to leave again.
The outside world was too dangerous. He wanted to go home.
Leaving Hidden Whirlpool Village, Yoru realized the direction was wrong.
Kiiroinu Captain led the Anbu to a high mountain near Hidden Whirlpool Village.
Four Anbu Squad Leaders used Barrier Technique.
A transparent barrier enveloped the mountaintop.
From outside, it still looked like a mountaintop, but the four Squad Leaders had vanished, hidden.
The Anbu Ninja entered the barrier, disappearing one by one behind it.
Hidden barrier?
Yoru also entered the barrier.
Kiiroinu Captain began assigning tasks to the Squad Leaders. Kurozaru Squad Leader then gathered his three Squad Leaders under him, including Yoru.
“Three shifts. Use telescopes from inside the hidden barrier to watch Hidden Whirlpool Village!”
Yoru was assigned to the first shift.
Lying behind a stone, Yoru used a telescope to observe the nearby Hidden Whirlpool Village.
—
The full moon was like a silver plate, moonlight like white frost.
Yoru awaited the full moon night.
Three days later, Danzo Advisor brought a full-strength Anbu Battalion into the hidden barrier.
Danzo Advisor stayed in the barrier for several days, unusually patient, sitting quietly on a stone, neither hurried nor anxious, waiting for something.
All the Anbu in the barrier were under Danzo’s watchful eye, and everyone grew increasingly tense.
The great calamity of the Uzumaki Clan seemed inevitable.
