Sunagakure Stronghold Incident

"Sorry, Sen, can you let him go? He's just a bit arrogant and cocky," the Jonin from the Shimura clan said, compromising. "We brought him to this war to try and change his temper."

Sen applied a little more force under his foot before slowly lifting it. He looked down at Shimura Saburo and said coldly:

"Remember, weakness and ignorance are not obstacles to survival; arrogance is." Sen looked at Shimura Saburo with icy eyes. "If you dare put any of my comrades in danger during a mission, I guarantee I'll make your life worse than death!"

Sen truly detested Shimura Saburo from the bottom of his heart.

This aversion wasn't just because of the Shimura clan's mark on him, but because of his disregard for his surrounding comrades. A fool like him might get himself killed, but if they weren't careful, he could drag the entire squad down with him.

"Opened the Three Tomoe Sharingan at ten years old, not bad," Hatake Sakumo said at the opportune moment, lending his endorsement to Sen's strength. "It seems there will be no objections to you serving as captain."

The remaining eight people remained silent, tacitly accepting Sen's leadership.

After all, the other party's strength was evident. Even the Jonin from the Shimura clan dared not step forward to stop him, so they certainly wouldn't object.

Of course, only Shimura Saburo remained on the ground, glaring at Sen with venomous eyes.

"Senior Sakumo, what mission are we undertaking by infiltrating the Land of Wind this time?" Minato interjected, deciding it was better to confirm the mission details and prepare rather than pay attention to the fool Shimura Saburo.

Hatake Sakumo nodded. "Asking that question, you must be Namikaze Minato? The records show you have great ninja talent and seem to be skilled in the Body Flicker Technique.

Since you're asking about the mission, come into the tent, and I'll explain it clearly to you newcomers."

A little over an hour later, everyone emerged from the tent.

Their mission was to harass and scout a nearby Sunagakure outpost.

The biggest difficulty of the mission lay in the Sand Ninja's specialties: poison and Puppet Jutsu.

Once poisoned, if not treated promptly at the medical bay, death within three days was highly likely.

Their squad's mission was to jointly attack a Sunagakure outpost. It was less of an attack and more of a harassment, as the enemy outpost had thirty to forty ninja.

"This is really urgent, we don't even have time to rest and have to start the mission as soon as we arrive," Minato said grimly, looking at the mission scroll.

"This mission is to gather intelligence. The village has a limited supply of antidotes, so it's best not to get injured."

"Isn't there any way to analyze their poisons and create specialized antidotes?" Kushina frowned.

After all, the difficulty of this mission lay in the poison. If this problem could be solved, Konoha ninja could largely advance deep into Sunagakure.

"It's useless," Minato shook his head. "The formulas for Sunagakure's poisons are ever-changing. Even a medical expert like Lady Tsunade would probably need years."

Sen added, "Of course, we could also capture a key figure, like the Kazekage, and directly interrogate them."

The two men gave wry smiles. That was even harder than cracking the poison, something only said when bragging.

Konoha and Sunagakure had been fighting for so many years, and such core secrets had never been obtained.

Sen looked at the sky, which was darkening, and said to the other team members:

"The enemy clashed with our village's comrades a few days ago, and their outpost has strengthened its defenses. This mission is reconnaissance. I have no requirements for you, just don't die.

Remember, the mission is to gather intelligence and return to the base to pave the way for future missions."

He looked at Shimura Saburo's four-person team and said in a low voice, "Don't be reckless and get your teammates killed!"

"You!"

Shimura Saburo's face turned red. His thoughts had been completely exposed by those words.

He had originally thought that with an additional Jonin on his side, if he found an opportunity, he could even kill several Sand Ninja and return to claim credit!

"Hmph, I won't waste my breath arguing with you! You'll know how capable I am when the time comes!" Shimura Saburo still had the antidote given to him by Shimura Danzō, which was his source of confidence.

"That's 'wasting breath'!, not 'wasting breath arguing'... idiot," Kushina directly cursed.

"Alright, stop arguing. We'll start dinner now. The mission will commence in two hours. Their outpost is like a large earth castle. Your two teams, a total of 7 people, will be responsible for intelligence at the southeast checkpoints. We will go collect intelligence on the west side of the outpost."

Sen simply assigned the tasks and did not assign the Jonin to his side, as he was from the Shimura clan.

Two hours later, after dinner, Sen led his team to begin the mission.

The night was pitch black.

After more than three hours of cautious movement, the lights of the Sunagakure outpost finally appeared at the end of their vision.

The outpost was a small castle built from wood and sand, situated above a bridge intersection. It had three floors, allowing it to protect the bridge and screen passing personnel, killing two birds with one stone.

Confirming the target, Minato crouched down, covered the light with a cloth, and pointed at the map. "The bridge is two hundred meters long, confirmed to be here. It's a shame the river below is too large to intercept. If we could, it would be a fatal blow to the water-scarce Sunagakure."

Kushina poked her head out and observed. "Forget cutting off water, there are at least seven or eight Sand Ninja patrolling openly. Our group isn't enough to handle them, let's just focus on gathering intelligence."

Sen and the other nodded, then headed downwards.

Most of the Land of Wind was yellow sand, making it difficult to hide. Reconnaissance work like this could only be carried out at night.

The three arrived within four hundred meters of the patrolling Sand Ninja and were about to get closer to observe further.

Sen activated his Sharingan and observed carefully for a moment, then suddenly stopped the two who were preparing to move forward.

"Wait, something's not right."

The two immediately stopped and crawled on the ground.

They had always trusted Sen and believed he wouldn't act without reason.

A moment later, Sen said in a deep voice, "The ground... is covered in chakra threads. If we had taken a few more steps forward, we would have walked right into their trap. Moreover, four of the eight people on duty at the main entrance have no chakra flow within their bodies..."

"It's a puppet!" Minato reacted immediately. "They're bluffing! They must have suffered heavy losses in the last battle!"

"That's possible," Sen nodded. "Want to grab one for interrogation?"

"No, the risk is too high," Minato immediately rejected. "This is open terrain, and the desert doesn't allow for large-scale use of the Hiding in Mist Technique. If we're discovered, we won't even have a place to hide."

"Then let's first record their defensive deployment..."

Before Sen could finish speaking, a huge explosion suddenly sounded from another direction of the stronghold.

"BOOM--!"

Flames soared into the sky, illuminating half the night sky as bright as day!

The Sand Ninja within the stronghold were thrown into instant chaos!

"Those Konoha bastards are back! We don't know their numbers, hurry up and use signal flares!"