Heavy Encirclement

In the Land of Rice, the Land of Fire, and the Land of Rain, it was quite normal for ninja to frequently change the locations where they fought or carried out missions. The shinobi world itself was only a small one, but the ninja active in wartime possessed tremendous mobility and ranged over vast areas.

To this planet, ninja were nothing more than a swarm of hyperactive insects.

In the Land of Rain, the amount of time this country spent under clear skies in a year could rival the amount of time it rained in the Land of Wind.

Yuhara was hiding in a large tree. He quietly pulled open the hood covering his head, and the humid heat that had built up around him immediately drifted out through his collar. On top of that, the fine, cold rain pattered against his face, instantly leaving him feeling refreshed.

"What shitty weather."

Yuhara took several deep breaths, but in the end, he still had to voice that thought.

The reconnaissance squad advanced very slowly. The environment of the Land of Rain was unfamiliar and dangerous. Under such circumstances, ensuring that their own team could move in secret was crucial. Stealth meant safety.

Besides, the intelligence Yuhara and the others needed to uncover was not some "little secret of Hanzo" that required infiltrating Amegakure to obtain. In fact, they only needed to confirm some general information, such as where Amegakure's main forces were currently deployed and whether those deployments had changed compared to before.

It seemed that such intelligence would not be difficult to obtain, but for the team Yuhara belonged to, acquiring it was no less extraordinarily dangerous.

In this unchanging jungle, even ninja could lose their way. If they accidentally ran into a large Amegakure force... the jungles of the Land of Rain were a blessed land for decomposition. Corpses broke down especially quickly there.

By then, the squad had already checked the surrounding area. They had found no signs of enemy activity, which meant they had temporarily cleared out a safe zone. Some of the ninja could take the opportunity to rest for a little while... This was a long-term mission. If everyone stayed tense the entire time, something would go wrong.

After a while, Yuhara's hair was completely soaked. In this war-torn world, no one could expect a reliable adult man like Yuhara to spend any effort on his appearance. The fact that he maintained his personal hygiene every day was already worthy of praise.

The time the original owner had spent locked in a dungeon, the time Yuhara had spent locked in a dungeon, and the time since Yuhara had seen daylight again—after all this time, Yuhara had never once gone anywhere to get a haircut. As a result, his gray hair now looked extremely cool, like a haystack.

Jian Dong came to Yuhara's side and stuffed something into his hand. "Take this and use it."

A hair tie? A scrunchie?

Yuhara looked at the item in his hand, then somewhat clumsily tied up the hair at the back of his head. After that, he stretched his mouth into a silent grin, because he had remembered something that made him happy.

A low ponytail at the back of the head was the standard hairstyle of the strong in this world. Unfortunately, Yuhara had gray hair instead of white hair.

At that moment, Amegakure's internal strife had not ended. On the contrary, because of the events three years ago, Amegakure was now in an even more chaotic state.

Three years ago, due to the schemes of Amegakure's Hanzo and a certain person from Konoha who always thought he was clever but was actually brain-dead, Yahiko, the leader of Akatsuki, died. This caused the righteous organization to undergo a complete transformation, and Amegakure's only hope was lost as well.

Although Hanzo was still alive now, in all honesty, from the day Nagato went berserk, Hanzo had already been doomed to die. The only difference was whether it would happen sooner or later... The demigod was only a demigod, after all. He would ultimately be no match for a true god.

So what was the current situation of Amegakure's division? Yuhara naturally could not know. He only hoped he would not run into someone as monstrously powerful as Nagato.

After taking turns resting, the twelve-person team continued forward.

About two days later, a forward camp belonging to Amegakure appeared within the Konoha reconnaissance team's line of sight.

Jian Dong pulled out a map and recorded the relevant information.

"The location hasn't changed much. This camp is still being used to guard against Konoha..."

"But the camp has expanded. Judging roughly from the number of tents, there are at least fifty percent more ninja here than before."

"A targeted deployment? Targeting what? Amegakure should only be capable of passive defense. It shouldn't have any strength left for an active attack."

The Konoha team was observing the Amegakure camp from far away through binoculars. This made their intelligence-gathering inefficient and its accuracy limited; they could only make rough judgments. However, this team would never move any closer to the camp... Konoha's strength was naturally far greater than Amegakure's, but that did not mean a small team could run wild in the Land of Rain.

In fact, the surrounding great nations were all somewhat wary of the Land of Rain. Although the Amegakure under Hanzo could not truly contend with a great nation, while the great nations remained locked in stalemate, Amegakure's movements could influence the direction of the war to some extent.

What Amegakure wanted to do was not something Yuhara and the others needed to worry about. Their mission was to obtain intelligence and bring it back. Determining what Amegakure's actions meant was the Konoha higher-ups' responsibility.

But after obtaining the relevant intelligence, could Konoha's infiltration team successfully withdraw from the heart of the Land of Rain?

The answer was no.

As a whistle rang out, it signaled that the Konoha team no longer needed to conceal themselves furtively.

"Retreat! Full speed ahead! Our operation has been exposed!"

The somewhat scattered Konoha team quickly regrouped, then began moving rapidly in a direction slightly west of south.

"The enemy appeared suddenly. Several teams are closing in on us from every direction!"

As the team fled at high speed, Tigo explained the situation.

"Is it possible that they're merely routine patrols?"

Someone asked that question.

"Almost impossible. The enemies in every direction are moving in unison, and the point where their advance converges is right here... Their target is extremely clear."

"Why were we suddenly exposed..."

The answer to that question was obvious. The enemy possessed a more capable reconnaissance ninja, whose sensory abilities far surpassed Tigo's.

Yuhara involuntarily raised his head and looked toward the curtain of rain in the sky.

"That can't be..."

Could one really not only speak carelessly as a jinx, but even think carelessly in one's heart?

"We'd better prepare ourselves for the possibility that we won't be able to shake off the enemy's pursuit..." Yuhara offered that warning.

"The enemy's encirclement is extremely tight. Right now, this isn't the time to think about shaking off their reconnaissance ninja... Prepare to engage the enemy ahead!"

Very soon...

Yuhara would meet another kind of ninja.