Hatred

The night air was cool like water.

The girl's forceful response didn't cause even the slightest change in Ye Zi's expression. He was like a cold stone, quiet and indifferent. Thus, the girl also fell silent. She silently watched Ye Zi, her eyes stubborn, firmly believing that Ye Zi would need her help, if not now, then in the future.

"My name is Shimura Nanako." After leaving her name, the girl turned and left, leaving behind a faint scent of fragrance.

Ye Zi finally turned his gaze to Nanako's retreating back. A hint of mockery flickered in his cold eyes. "Root, Shimura, Corpse Collection Unit. Heh, you want to help me?"

A large dark cloud swept by, slowly obscuring the moon. He watched the darkness rapidly approach from afar, watched Nanako being swallowed by the darkness, and let out a low, cold laugh.

It was as if he saw through everything, rejecting all kindness with self-importance.

Even if Nanako's intentions were purely kind, within Root, bearing the Shimura surname, Ye Zi could only see that kindness as a false pretense. There were many reasons for this. For instance, she had always been the one treating him, and now she even knew about the special nature of his body. Such a body would undoubtedly be a very precious existence to many people, and that certainly included Shimura Danzo.

Ye Zi thought coldly. He was a member of Root, but not the kind who would always hide in the darkness. Therefore, he had been summoned for this war. However, his attending physician had accompanied him in the capacity of the Corpse Collection Unit.

"Just in case, you want to collect my corpse?"

The dark clouds moved away, and the silvery moonlight once again fell upon the earth. At this moment, the silver light landed on Ye Zi's face and in his eyes, appearing exceptionally cold.

The next day, the great battle was imminent.

Stone ninja and Konoha deployed their forces, facing each other across the expanse.

Between the two armies lay a large area of earth, the dividing line between the Ash ninja and Grass ninja.

In this war, the Ash ninja and Grass ninja, as their respective allied forces, had also joined the conflict, though their troop deployment was merely a symbolic gesture of support.

Neither Stone ninja nor Konoha expected much from these allied forces in terms of combat power. All they desired were transit passes through the territories of the Ash and Grass ninja. After all, during wartime, no one appreciated trouble brewing right under their noses.

The battle lines were stretched long, appearing from a distance like a black dragon lying horizontally on the horizon. This was the front, the open display. Neither side knew what hidden cards they still held up their sleeves.

In a war, schemes were secondary. The key to victory lay in the disparity of strength, as any scheme required strength to be effective.

The Stone ninja's troop numbers were clearly superior to Konoha's. While Konoha had fewer troops, their individual strength far surpassed that of the Stone ninja. This time, both sides seemed to have placed all their forces on the front lines, intending to intimidate the other. In reality, both sides had secretly deployed a contingent of troops.

On the Stone ninja side.

The leader was a middle-aged man with a grim expression, named Ishihō Fūdo. He was a highly renowned figure among the Stone ninja, comparable in status to Orochimaru in Konoha. This time, he led the army not only to weaken Konoha's strength but also to avenge his son.

During a mission to protect the Daimyo of the Land of Ash, his son had died at the hands of Ye Zi of Konoha. Upon hearing the news, he couldn't believe it, as Tsuchiya Sanzo was leading the mission. After enduring his grief and anger and carefully reading the battle report, all his rage was directed at the strange name, Ye Zi.

(Note: In the same mission where Bei Xingye died, the Daiyan killed by Ye Zi was indeed the one. The other, Dick, was also the offspring of a Stone ninja high-ranking official, but unlike Ishihō Fūdo, it wasn't his only son.)

This was the man who killed his only son.

He had spent his life in military service and had a son in his middle age. His son, living up to his expectations, had become a rising star of the new generation, only to die on a mission he considered merely a way to gain experience.

He was filled with both grief and rage. That grief and rage were enough to extinguish all reason.

So, he had come, standing here, gazing at Konoha's army. He intended to use all his strength to severely cripple Konoha's forces and, at the same time, kill all of Konoha's dazzling new generation. For this purpose, he dared to defy the Tsuchikage's orders, as he was prepared to lay down his own life at this moment.

Compared to the obsession that surpassed his own life, the Tsuchikage's orders were naturally not as important.

"Orochimaru."

Though just a small dot in his vision, it was clearly reflected before his eyes. Fūdo's expression was as cold as ice, his gaze filled with a grim ferocity as if he wanted to flay the man alive.

The Tsuchikage's objective was to weaken Konoha's strength through this incident. Even with intelligence from spies, he was unwilling to strike at Konoha's new generation. However, he prioritized killing Ye Zi. If possible, it would be best to also kill Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki.

Therefore, during the war council, he expressed his support and agreement for dispatching troops to infiltrate Konoha's rear and cut off their supply lines. Only then could he deploy his own assassination unit, with the help of the camouflage unit, to search for Ye Zi and the others.

He firmly believed that if they could find Ye Zi and the others, they would surely be able to kill them, as this assassination unit was no ordinary Jonin...

Of course, it would be best if the targets were not in the rear. Once Ye Zi displayed his brilliance on the battlefield, he would stop at nothing, pouring all his efforts into killing him. No one could stop him.

On Konoha's side, Orochimaru was unaware that Ishihō Fūdo had privately made killing Ye Zi his primary objective. Even if he knew that Daiyan was Ishihō Fūdo's son, he could hardly imagine that in such a large-scale war, a powerful individual would be influenced by personal affections for his children.

Precisely because he couldn't imagine it, his arrangement of Ye Zi as part of the interception force played right into Ishihō Fūdo's hands.

With Ishihō Fūdo's influence, the strength of the Stone ninja's dispatched supply-cutting force actually exceeded the estimations of Konoha's decision-makers. No one could have foreseen that Ishihō Fūdo would be willing to weaken his visible forces, making them comparable to Konoha's fighting strength, in order to bolster his hidden forces, all to ensure the certainty of killing Ye Zi.

Whether it was the Stone ninja or Konoha, anyone who grasped this point would only offer this man a heartfelt evaluation: This is a hopelessly incorrigible old bastard.

This large-scale war could not be decided in a single engagement, so the open clashes were merely a test. The true deciding factor for the initial victory lay in the hidden confrontations.

Konoha's arranged interception force numbered around a hundred individuals, with less than twenty Jonin among them, mostly Chunin. Unfortunately, the dazzling existences of the new generation were all included, such as Ye Zi, Kushina, Minato Namikaze, Ino-Shika-Cho, and even relatively promising new generation members from the Uchiha and Hyuga clans.

Undoubtedly, led by a portion of Jonin and with the presence of the dazzling new generation, this interception force was already quite powerful. However, Ishihō Fūdo's unconventional move meant that this interception force would face the most dangerous situation of the war, and at the same time, it would be a crucial trial.