The Stone Ninja Invasion!

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Flying Thunder God Kunai were scattered like stars across the land, forming a large barrier.

Minato had implanted sensory formulas in the barrier, allowing him to detect and lock onto Chakra fluctuations within its space.

"The detection radius is ten kilometers, but I'm sorry, I'm not very good at Sensory Techniques. There may be a considerable margin of error in the accuracy."

"Ten kilometers when you're not even good at it..." Shunren couldn't help feeling ashamed. The greatest range he could currently sense was only one kilometer. A tenfold difference was as vast as the gulf between heaven and earth.

"You inherited Inoichi's Mind's Eye, so your sensory precision is better than mine. You're a remarkable kid." Minato was as sunny and gentle as ever, and his cheerful smile made people like him without even trying.

Although Shunren knew Minato was only saying that to humor a child, he still couldn't help feeling pleased. Minato really did have a knack for inspiring people. No wonder he would later beat Orochimaru to the position of Fourth Hokage. The Third had supported him, but he had also enjoyed strong support from the populace.

Hearing this, Kakashi, who stood nearby, couldn't help glancing at Shunren a few times. Aloof and proud, he had only ever respected Minato, so he clearly cared a great deal that Shunren had earned Minato's praise. On top of that, Shunren's earlier plan to attack the Stone Ninja could be called both brave and resourceful.

Minato was very pleased with Kakashi's reaction. Young people needed competition to grow. "Shunren, you and the others head east. Kakashi is a Chunin, so he'll command the team. Any objections?"

Shunren and Shizune both nodded to indicate they had none.

This took Kakashi slightly by surprise. At their age, who wasn't young and headstrong? His teammate Obito, for one, had never accepted him as captain.

Seeing that Shunren and Shizune had no objections put Minato at ease. Teamwork was important, and that was one reason he had reassigned Obito this time.

"All right, there's no need to be nervous. I'll keep an eye on enemies to the west and north by myself. Under normal circumstances, the Stone Ninja will only enter the Land of Fire from those two directions," Minato said calmly. "That's all. Dismissed!"

The temporary team of Kakashi, Shunren, and Shizune set out under orders, with Kakashi as captain.

As they set out, Kakashi assigned them their defensive duties.

He tossed Shunren and Shizune a map of the terrain each.

Shunren opened his and clearly saw a river marked on it, running from west to east and south to north.

Kakashi explained, "As you can see, the place we're guarding this time is a river. Shunren, go to the hill south of the riverbank. With your clear view and your Sensory Technique, handle the early warning. Shizune, set traps along the riverbank. I'll confront the enemy head-on atop the river."

Shizune voiced her concern. "Kakashi, can you really face the enemy head-on by yourself?"

"That's an order." Kakashi wore his usual dead-fish-eyed look.

"But..."

"Listen to him," Shunren said, shaking his head. Kakashi looked like his father had died. No, wait, his father apparently really had died. He clung to the rules to the point of rigid stubbornness and was extremely abnormal psychologically. To put it bluntly, he was just a contrary kid, and there was no need to butt heads with him. In short, Shunren would obey Kakashi on the surface, and if anything happened, he would handle it as he saw fit.

"..." Shizune gave him a puzzled look.

That was because Shunren had also conveyed his thoughts to Shizune through the Mind Transmission Technique.

What Shunren didn't know, however, was that his attitude made Kakashi take a great liking to him. Seeing him abide by the rules, Kakashi thought he had found a kindred spirit. He had no idea that Shunren was outwardly complying while secretly doing as he pleased.

The Stone Ninja Armored Corps

had reached the border of the Land of Fire. It consisted of five Jonin, eight Special Jōnin, and twelve Chunin, twenty-five people in all. Most of the team were Kekkei Genkai ninja!

"Captain Kurogane, this mission came up rather suddenly."

"Crossing the border to fight is a huge deal. How come we didn't hear even a whisper about it beforehand?"

Kurogane remained expressionless and showed no intention of explaining further. He simply said, "These are Lord Tsuchikage's orders. It's an A-rank, top-secret mission."

"All right, I understand."

"Hmph! Those damned Konoha Ninja. I heard they used underhanded tricks to surround and kill one of our Explosion Corps units. We have to avenge them!"

"Yeah, I never thought an expert like Senior Gari would meet with disaster too."

An unusual red light flashed through Kurogane's grayish-brown eyes, seemingly tinged with a faint trace of struggle. His voice was slightly hoarse as he said, "Sensory ninja... scout ahead!"

"Yes, Captain!"

Three sensory ninja stepped out of the team and formed Hand Seals.

A moment later.

"Report! One kilometer ahead, the enemy has deployed a large-scale sensory barrier."

"The sensory method is Space-Time Ninjutsu. The formula can't be reflected back, but the three of us can just barely shield against it together. We should be able to infiltrate it for some distance!"

Expressionless, Kurogane forced two words through his stiff lips. "Move... out!"

Someone seemed to notice that something was wrong with Kurogane, but with battle imminent, they could hardly say anything.

"We've infiltrated six kilometers. Sorry, Captain, but our sensory shielding has reached its limit." The shielding had already failed, so there was no longer any need to conceal their presence. The Stone Ninja immediately sped forward!

"Gurgle~"

The fluctuations caused by multiple Chakra signatures within the space were transmitted to Minato's brain through the information network of the space-time formula.

"They managed to penetrate this far without a sound. Looks like they have some excellent sensory ninja too." Minato, who had been resting in the treetops, slowly opened his eyes, picked up a withered twig that had fallen on his clothes, and tossed it lightly into the air.

"That's far enough. Even if the enemy notices us, they definitely won't have time to react over the remaining distance!"

"The enemy's Chakra signature belongs to a single person!"

"One person? Is this Konoha Ninja looking for death?"

"Target distance, four kilometers. Target location, behind us...?!"

"Behind us? What kind of joke is that? Didn't you say he was four kilometers away? How could he be behind us?" One Stone Ninja couldn't help cursing when he heard the sensory ninja's contradictory report.

"Uh... Could I have made a mistake in my sensory calculations?" The sensory ninja who had been cursed at scratched his head and spoke sheepishly.

A tactical intelligence error was no laughing matter, but fortunately, their team had three sensory ninja!

However, the other two sensory ninja exchanged glances, their faces full of bewilderment. "Uh... well, it looks like we calculated wrong too. The location we detected was also behind us... Huh? Now he's directly above us."

"Above my fucking ass! In the blink of an eye, the enemy ran right over our heads?" The Stone Ninja raised his head as he spoke, and then-

Blond hair, blue eyes, and a Forehead Protector bearing the spiral leaf symbol on his forehead. A Konoha Ninja!

The Stone Ninja were instantly dumbfounded.