Meanwhile, Qingye and the others continued toward Kannabi Bridge with Nohara Rin in tow.
The journey was uneventful.
Now this was more like it!
With Hyuga Himon's Byakugan scouting ahead, they were basically impossible to detect—unless they happened to run into an exceptionally gifted Sensory Ninja who could detect the Byakugan's surveillance.
What had happened earlier—first running into the Ino-Shika-Cho squad while they were being hunted, then finding Nohara Rin captured by an Iwagakure jonin—had been the rare exception!
Now that their bad luck was behind them, everything was going smoothly.
"We're less than ten miles away."
Himon stopped, having pushed the Byakugan's range to its limit.
He could almost see the mist hanging over the great river in the distance!
There was only one last Iwagakure outpost along the road ahead.
"There aren't many people here, fewer than ten, and none of them have especially strong Chakra signatures."
Himon observed the area carefully and confirmed there were no traps set inside or around the outpost.
Then all three of them looked at Qingye.
What should they do next?
Whoosh!
Without a word, Qingye vanished. Only a blurred afterimage lingered in the air as he drifted into the outpost ahead.
Not a single cry of alarm or scream rang out.
Less than half a minute later, Qingye walked out through the outpost's front gate and beckoned to the three of them.
"Th-that's it? You took care of them already?"
Nohara Rin stammered.
There were fewer than ten of them, and they probably didn't even have a jonin.
But that was way too efficient!
Yūhi Kurenai and Himon, on the other hand, were already used to this. They relaxed, showing no concern that there might still be danger ahead, and went to join Qingye.
"Himon, take a rest and recover your Chakra as quickly as you can."
"I've temporarily trapped those people in Genjutsu. Kurenai, come interrogate them with me."
Himon immediately found a place to sit, took out a soldier pill, and began recovering his Chakra.
He'd been activating his Byakugan frequently to scout the way, and had already used up more than half his Chakra.
Kurenai and Qingye split up, each taking responsibility for interrogating a few of the prisoners.
Nohara Rin hurried to catch up and watched them, at a loss for what to do.
It seemed like they didn't need her at all.
Was Qingye's team really this in sync?
By contrast, on her own team, Kakashi and Obito were doing well if they managed not to argue every day...
About ten minutes passed.
Qingye and Kurenai finished their interrogations.
They also did the Iwagakure Ninja still trapped in Genjutsu the favor of a painless death.
"There are at least a hundred Iwagakure Ninja ahead, near Kannabi Bridge. At least two of them are jonin."
"As for the Iwagakure Ninja to our left and right, most of them have been assigned to attack the main battlefield. They probably won't send many reinforcements."
"However, the Iwagakure Ninja transporting supplies across the bridge might send reinforcements from the other side."
Qingye and Kurenai compared notes.
After hearing them, Rin's breathing grew quick. "What should we do?"
There were really that many people here?
Even if they could sneak in as quickly as possible and blow up Kannabi Bridge, they would probably have a hard time escaping afterward.
By now, Himon had recovered most of his Chakra. After thinking it over, he suggested, "Should I make two Shadow Clones to draw some of the enemies away?"
Qingye was their main fighter, so he couldn't afford to waste Chakra.
Kurenai, meanwhile, didn't have much Chakra, and she hadn't mastered the Shadow Clone Technique.
"I haven't learned the Shadow Clone Technique..." Rin said quietly, feeling even more helpless.
She wanted to be useful, too.
But Qingye shook his head. "No. Two Shadow Clones wouldn't draw away many people. You'd just be wasting your Chakra, Himon."
They were already right next to Kannabi Bridge.
There was no need to keep sneaking around!
They'd been infiltrating the area to avoid drawing the attention of too many Iwagakure Ninja. That would have been a serious nuisance for Qingye, too.
But now...
They could just cut their way through!
Everyone knew that mowing down enemies in a one-man rampage was the best way to infiltrate!
"Isn't that too risky?"
When Qingye explained his plan, Kurenai's breath caught, her face full of worry.
No matter how strong Qingye was, he shouldn't take such a risk!
"Should we set off a signal flare here to draw the Iwagakure Ninja ahead over to help?"
Himon made another suggestion.
Either way, letting Qingye charge in alone and kill his way through was just absurd!
Qingye dismissed the idea outright.
"That'll most likely bring reinforcements from the other directions. Not many people will come from Kannabi Bridge."
"All right, enough talk! We'll do it my way. We'll blow up the bridge as quickly as possible and retreat immediately!"
Kurenai and Himon could only reluctantly agree.
During the final stretch, they were no longer as relaxed as before. Unease began to gnaw at them.
Every so often, they reached for their ninja tool pouches. Only the feel of all those Explosive Tags inside could calm them a little.
They hadn't walked far before Kannabi Bridge was right in front of them.
Before they could rush out of the woods, an angry shout rang out ahead.
"Who's there?! Get out here!"
Sensory Ninja are such a pain!
Qingye cursed inwardly.
"Protect yourselves."
"Himon, keep an eye out for anyone trying to ambush me from below!"
With that, Qingye leaped straight off a giant tree dozens of meters tall, calling out to the system at the same time.
"System, defer my loan repayment!"
[Chakra restriction lifted.]
As the system's icy electronic voice sounded, Qingye's suppressed physical and spiritual energies instantly returned. The emptiness he'd felt with more than half his Chakra spent disappeared, and his Chakra reserves surged from one card to ten!
Feeling the vast power within him, Qingye was still in midair, yet he'd already finished forming the Hand Seals. His chest swelled as he roared:
"Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!"
A wall of fire swept toward the Iwagakure camp ahead.
The Iwagakure Sensory Ninja who had just shouted was the first to perish in the flames. The immense blaze engulfed every Iwagakure tent on this side of Kannabi Bridge!
"Enemy attack!"
"Call for reinforcements!"
"Get the defenses up!"
The wide-area attack immediately alerted every Iwagakure Ninja. One earthen wall after another sprang up from the ground.
It was September of Year 46 of Konoha. The heat of summer had yet to fade. As the surging waves of fire collided with the mist rising over the great river, the air in the entire area instantly became unbearably, terrifyingly hot!
"Damn it, who's here using Fire Style at that level?"
The Iwagakure Ninja cursed from behind the earthen walls.
Suddenly, a crack rang out!
The earthen wall shattered!
Before they could even react, a fierce fire dragon smashed right through the wall. Its savage face was reflected in the eyes of the Iwagakure Ninja at the front, the last thing they saw before consciousness faded.
The fluttering of paper was barely audible amid the chaos of battle.
But when the Iwagakure Ninja saw the at least hundreds of Explosive Tags burning as they fluttered through the air, their expressions changed dramatically.
Boom!
A succession of explosions engulfed the entire Iwagakure camp.
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