Initial Training for the Crow

Seeing that her disciple believed her, Kushina breathed a sigh of relief. At last, she had explained everything clearly.

Then she boldly pointed at the two ANBU and said to Chiga, "Hmph, what the Third Hokage doesn't know is that these two were recruited by me long ago. They're my people now!"

Come to think of it, it was strange. These two hadn't originally been assigned to protect her; they had suddenly been replaced a few months ago.

As soon as she noticed the change, she went over to get close to them.

Unexpectedly, the two were incredibly easy to buy off, and Kushina had won them over in just a month.

Chiga: "..."

So she's playing some kind of undercover game with Hiruzen Sarutobi.

In Konoha, was there anything this teacher didn't dare to do?

Also, you announced so loudly that these two ANBU were your people. Does Senior Minato know about this?

Chiga felt that he had truly found the right teacher. Following Kushina and causing trouble would definitely earn him plenty of Emotion Points in the future.

"All right, let me introduce you. The one wearing the fox mask is Heiha, and the one with the dog mask is Kazuma. The ANBU have rules against using their real names, so just call them by their codenames."

Heiha and Kazuma wore identical outfits and had similar builds. The only way to tell them apart was by their masks.

After introducing the two ANBU, Kushina quietly leaned close to Chiga's ear and whispered, "Come to think of it, these two were my classmates. Back then, they bullied me by relying on their age, but I beat them up later!"

"Kushina, let's not bring up the past."

Heiha interrupted Kushina and continued, "Just tell us what's going on."

Hearing this, Kushina told them the conclusions she and Chiga had reached. Afterward, she said proudly, "My disciple figured all this out!"

Seeing Kushina looking like she was waiting to be praised, Heiha helplessly humored her. "Really? As expected of your disciple!"

Kazuma also nodded in agreement. "Yes, yes."

Only then was Kushina satisfied. "All right, enough nonsense. I estimate that the Rock Shinobi spy in Konoha will arrive here soon, so we not only have to keep this group of Rock Shinobi here, we also have to capture the spy in Konoha."

The two ANBU exchanged glances, seemingly wondering whether this counted as an emergency. But just as Chiga had analyzed, their opponent's strength really wasn't anything special—at least not before the three of them, all elite jonin.

Kazuma asked, "Do you have a specific plan?"

"We're this strong. Do we still need a plan?"

Kushina retorted. The two ANBU protecting her were elite jonin, and with her added in, their side had three ninja of elite-jonin level. If they couldn't deal with one group of Rock Shinobi, what would that say about them?

"Anyway, one each. I'll take the short end of the stick and deal with the intelligence agent too. Chiga, you deal with the ninja who summoned the Red Rock Boar."

"Teacher Kushina, shouldn't we discuss it first?"

Chiga was very cautious about his first battle, deeply afraid that something might go wrong.

"You're opposing me too?"

Seeing that even Chiga had taken the opposite side, Kushina immediately pinched his cheek and said irritably, "No matter what, you should stand on my side, even if I'm wrong!"

"A ninja can't let their guard down because of a mission's rank, much less underestimate their opponent because they're powerful. Teacher Kushina, you taught me that yourself!"

Chiga groaned inwardly. The strength in Kushina's hand was truly terrifying.

"Did I?" Hearing Chiga say that, Kushina thought for a moment before starting to knead his cheek again. "No, I never said that second part!"

To avoid suffering further at Kushina's hands, Chiga had no choice but to say, "Teacher Kushina, in any case, let's first determine how many Rock Shinobi are actually in the mountains. Everything before this was only our own analysis. What if there are two groups?"

Hearing this, Kushina finally released him and said, "But with the Red Rock Boar there, we can't get close!"

"A crow? Are you serious?"

"Let's give it a try! Besides, a group of crows lives in these mountains. The Rock Shinobi probably won't pay any attention to them."

Chiga spoke casually, then began training the crow.

First, Chiga attracted the crow's attention. Then he pointed at Kushina, picked up a small pebble from the ground, and placed it in front of himself.

This was merely common sense to Chiga. If the crow could truly understand what he meant and determine how many Rock Shinobi there were, he decided he would raise it.

As Chiga repeatedly indicated that each pebble represented one person,

the crow looked at the stones, then at the two ANBU, before picking up two pebbles and placing them in front of Chiga.

"It's quite clever!"

Kushina couldn't help exclaiming in surprise at the sight.

"In that case, let's give it a try!"

Under Chiga's direction, the crow spread its wings and flew toward the mountains.

At that moment, Heiha said, "Kazuma and I will wait for the intelligence agent on the road into the village. In the meantime, Kushina, don't go into the mountains!"

Kushina nodded and waved impatiently. "I know! Honestly, I'm the captain of this team!"

At the same time, on the mountainside outside the village, giant trees stood everywhere, their lush branches reaching toward the sky.

Four figures wrapped in black robes stood silently on the trees, talking.

One of them asked in a hoarse voice, "Captain Sida, hasn't the person in Konoha arrived yet? We've been here for five days."

As soon as he finished speaking, a short, thin figure beside him chimed in, "Yeah. This is deep in the Land of Fire, after all. If we're discovered, we won't have any chance of escaping!"

The short figure's words failed to draw the Rock Shinobi captain named Sida's attention. Instead, a tall ninja said coldly, "Hmph. If you hadn't lost control of your Summoning Beast and let it kill those villagers, we wouldn't be in such a hurry!"

After saying that, he slapped the giant tree hard and continued complaining, "Damn it. If our previous sensory ninja hadn't died on the battlefield, who would want a rookie like you who just graduated from the Ninja Academy?"

The short figure replied timidly, "I'm sorry, Senior Yosuke."

Instead of easing Yosuke's anger, the short figure's apology only made it worse. A hint of killing intent appeared on his fierce face. "If Konoha's ninja discover us, I'll kill you first!"

At this moment, Captain Sida suddenly spoke. "That's enough, Yosuke. Give up your hostility toward your teammate. Without his Summoning Beast, we might not have been able to get here."

"Understood, Captain!"

Under Sida's gaze, Yosuke settled down as well.

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