Chapter 53: Kato Dan’s Life Or Death Doesn’t Matter
One order after another was passed down.
Yoru heard the arrangement for himself and let out a long sigh of relief.
The Kiiroinu Battalion had lost two squads, with its strength greatly reduced, so the high-ranking officials arranged for the Kiiroinu Battalion to guard Kato Dan.
Not directly engaging in frontal combat—this was great.
Within the mountain body of Ushi-ga Mountain, there was a dug-out cave.
Kato Dan, two Senju ninjas, and Kiiroinu entered the cave.
Yoru and Purple Cat were responsible for guarding the cave entrance.
Outside the cave entrance, there were Anbu Squads on both the left and right, while the Kiiroinu Captain provided close protection to Kato Dan.
When Kato Dan used the Spiritualization Technique, he himself could not move.
The high-ranking officials believed that Kato Dan using forbidden jutsu without restraint was more useful than an old-brand Anbu Jonin like Kiiroinu participating in battle.
No wonder Kato Dan was qualified to participate in the Fourth Hokage selection—his strength and prestige were surprisingly high.
A wave of perfume scent wafted over.
Tsunade entered the cave, inspecting Kato Dan’s guards.
Tsunade had modulated herbal-scented perfume, the fragrance of flowers and plants making one’s senses feel refreshed.
Yoru searched his memories—Tsunade was four years older than the original body, and the original body had seen Tsunade at the Ninja Academy.
At that time, Second Hokage Tobirama was not yet dead, and Tsunade was the true favored daughter of heaven.
As she passed by Yoru, Tsunade stopped and said, “Fox, right? Your intelligence was very timely.”
Yoru replied, “This is what I should do, Princess Tsunade.”
Tsunade was not a coy person; she wore loose low-cut clothing, her bosom magnificent.
After nodding to the Fox, Tsunade continued walking deeper into the cave.
When Grandpa Tobirama II was around, Anbu was equivalent to Tobirama’s arm, and Tsunade had always maintained a friendly feeling toward Anbu.
Unfortunately, after Anbu fell into Hiruzen Sarutobi’s hands, it changed flavor.
Danzo was now Hiruzen Sarutobi’s thug, commanding Anbu to do dirty work.
Even if ninjas in the village had opinions, Hiruzen Sarutobi would intervene as the arbiter.
Today, hearing that an Anbu squad had only two survivors who brought back key intelligence made Tsunade feel that Anbu still carried the legacy of her great-uncle.
Looking at Tsunade and Kato Dan chatting inside the cave entrance, Yoru felt some sympathy for these two.
Kato Dan should be dying soon, right?
Nawaki and Kato Dan both died successively in the Second Ninja War.
After Tsunade left, Yoru picked up the telescope and looked into the distance.
In the dark night sky, a small black dot appeared.
The black dot grew closer and closer, revealing a dwarf-like human figure.
That person was wearing the Tsuchikage Hat—it was Oonoki!
The battle reached its peak the moment it erupted.
Oonoki directly used Dust Release!
Dazzling light appeared in his hand, the Dust Release barrier suddenly expanded, and a beam of light shot straight toward Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Not only that, from the Stone Ninja direction, a surge of red chakra appeared.
The Steam Ninja Han did not probe; he entered Tailed Beast Chakra Cloak mode and directly burst out with three tails.
Deep in the heartland of the Land of Fire, the Stone Ninjas had to fight quickly and decisively, or else when a large number of Konoha Village ninjas arrived, even Oonoki would suffer a big loss.
Facing the aggressive Stone Ninjas, the Konoha side responded swiftly.
Hiruzen Sarutobi agilely dodged the Dust Release, summoned Enma, held the Adamantine Staff, extended the staff, and smashed toward Oonoki in the air.
Han of the Three-Tails began condensing a Tailed Beast Ball in front of his head.
At that moment, a Jonin behind him suddenly moved.
This Jonin lunged toward Han, took out an exploding tag, and actually intended to perish together with Han.
“It’s Konoha’s Spiritualization Technique!”
An Elite Jonin used Earth Release to block the controlled Jonin.
The explosion caused chaos among the Stone Ninjas.
The Elite Jonin immediately said, “I’ll take people to find Kato Dan!”
Kato Dan’s frontal combat power was not as good as Hiruzen Sarutobi’s three disciples, but his deterrence on the battlefield was greater.
His reputation made all enemy village commanders headache.
As soon as the Spiritualization Technique appeared, their side would inevitably fall into chaos.
Few sensory ninjutsu could see souls, so the Spiritualization Technique could not be resisted head-on; they could only try to find Kato Dan’s main body.
Yoru looked up at the faint barrier glow on the cave wall, wondering if these barriers could block the Stone Ninjas’ reconnaissance.
The Elite Jonin led two sensory ninja squads, detached from the main Stone Ninja force, circled to the side, focused on searching for Kato Dan.
Not needing to go to the front battlefield, Yoru still could not escape a battle.
While observing the Stone Ninjas’ movements, Yoru asked the Purple Cat beside him:
“Purple Cat, the Yamanaka Clan secret jutsu can control others, and Jonin Kato Dan’s Spiritualization Technique can also control others. Are these two techniques somehow related?”
Purple Cat said:
“Yes. The Yamanaka Clan secret jutsu and the Spiritualization Technique are both Yin Release secret jutsu specialized in mental control.
The Spiritualization Technique is a forbidden jutsu, with a casting range much farther than the Yamanaka Clan secret jutsu.
The Yamanaka Clan doesn’t know why the Spiritualization Technique is so strong. The Spiritualization Technique is the Senju Clan’s secret jutsu, passed down within the Senju Clan and affiliated small ninja clans.
The Senju Clan and Uchiha Clan fought for hundreds of years in the Warring States Period; the Senju Clan united many affiliated ninja clans to counter the Uchiha Clan.
For example, the Kurama Clan whose genjutsu rivals the Uchiha Clan, and the Kato Clan that inherits the Spiritualization Technique.
These small ninja clans were targeted heavily by the Uchiha Clan, so their scale has always been small.”
Yoru thought to himself that the arrogant Uchiha Clan didn’t understand uniting others’ strength; the Senju Clan had marital ties with the Uzumaki Clan, plus secret jutsu small ninja clans like Kurama and Kato as support, growing stronger the more they fought.
The distant great battle became noisy background noise.
Outside the cave, it was peaceful.
Yoru formed the seals for the Earth Style: Fish in Water Reflection Jutsu and pressed his hand to the ground.
The ground rippled like water waves.
Chakra spread underground, searching for possible Stone Ninjas appearing below ground.
Skilled Stone Ninjas were like mice, constantly hiding in the earth, making full use of ground combat.
After searching for a few minutes, Yoru suddenly looked up.
“2 o’clock direction! 80 meters away! Two Stone Ninjas are using Earth Submergence!”
Upon hearing this, Kiiroinu immediately shouted, “On guard!”
He would stay glued to Kato Dan’s side without leaving an inch.
One Anbu Squad outside the cave had already rushed toward the direction Yoru indicated.
Cold sweat beaded on Yoru’s forehead.
What he had just detected might not be just two people.
There was another vague figure underground, not entirely certain of its location.
He couldn’t pinpoint it accurately—either his sensing was wrong, or the opponent’s strength was far superior to his own.
The win or loss of the battlefield battle didn’t matter, nor did Kato Dan’s life or death; his own little life was the most important.
Encountering an Elite Jonin now, even if Purple Cat died ten times, she couldn’t help Yoru defeat an Elite Jonin.
Black Bull and Antelope were both dead; Purple Cat was his only subordinate left—treasure her a bit.
He couldn’t stay here; if exposed, it was too dangerous next to Kato Dan.
Yoru shouted, “2 o’clock direction, large number of enemies spotted! One squad can’t handle them. Captain, I request to go support them!”
Kiiroinu said:
“Go! Hurry! Position exposed—others must buy more time for Kato Dan!”
Yoru and Purple Cat rushed toward the 2 o’clock direction.
An unusual chakra fluctuation came from underground; the Elite Jonin didn’t tangle with Yoru and infiltrated into the cave.
Damn it, deleted over a hundred words of mine, causing a half-hour delay in updating. Wanting to drive a car is so hard—where exactly is the limit?
