Izumi tasted the feeling of social death once again, her slender eyebrows drooping, and the dark, tear-mole-accented eyes wide and sparkling, brimming with grievance.
At this rate.
She was really going to become the team's directional guide, the multiple-choice elimination device for wrong answers.
"Sigh..."
Izumi let out a long inner sigh, depressed for a moment, before she followed Tamao's example and adopted a novel perspective on the problem.
Thinking about it the other way around, Izumi's eyes suddenly lit up; she seemed able to accept this special talent of hers after all.
At least she was a useful person, and she could help Captain Ingetsu and her clansmen.
In this regard, Izumi felt she had won over Uchiha Mikoto by a landslide.
Thinking this, Izumi swept away her grievance, glared with her pretty dark eyes, and looked at Mikoto.
Mikoto was stunned; suddenly being stared at so bluntly by this girl, she panicked somewhat, her thoughts running wild.
Could it be that her desire to seek death had been seen through by this girl?
That shouldn't be...
Mikoto put on a calm and gentle composure, reined in her thoughts, smoothed out the expression on her face, and then gazed softly at Ingetsu.
The Uchihas also reined in their urge to tease Izumi and turned back to look at their captain.
"Izumi stays; Tamao and Nanfeng will take the rest of the clansmen and completely annihilate the enemies lurking on the other two mountain paths, leaving not a single one alive.
We'll continue forward with the caravan.
Come rendezvous with us once you've finished!"
Ingetsu distributed the tasks, gazing at the Uchihas before him whose killing intent had not yet faded.
"Understood—"
Tamao and Nanfeng wore joyful expressions, fretting that they hadn't had enough fun; each of them took along a member of Izumi's patrol squad and dispersed to the left and right.
Kurenai Yuhi and Nonō were not called upon, but the two of them weren't worried that these Uchiha clan ninja would run into trouble.
Just moments ago, they had witnessed the strength of Ingetsu's subordinates.
Without ninja of Yamanaka Fu and Aburame Torune's caliber in the Root Organization team, they wouldn't have been able to wipe out a four-person Uchiha squad by sheer numbers alone.
After the battle ended.
The valley was filled with a thick stench of blood, which before long attracted a flock of crows from the mountain.
Flap—
Numerous crows spread their wings and landed around the corpses, drinking the warm blood and pecking at the flesh as if no one else was there.
A few unlucky crows happened to fly right next to Yamanaka Fu's corpse.
Unluckily inhaling the nano-toxic insects in the nearby air, their eyes bulged, their legs and claws twitched twice, and they collapsed to the ground in agony, never moving again.
A few crows nearby noticed the anomaly, stretched their necks, tilted their heads, and glanced at their fallen companion.
Without giving it much thought, these crows resumed greedily sucking the blood from the corpses.
Ingetsu walked through the middle of the corpses, startling countless crows into flying away from the vicinity, and arrived before Sōsen, saying indifferently: "Organize the caravan, let's move out!"
"O-Okay, okay, okay..."
Sōsen stammered, sweat beading on his forehead, utterly failing to see a trace of emotion on the other's calm face.
It was as if everything that had happened before never occurred.
Then Sōsen quickly sprang into action, driving away the crows with a powerful survival instinct and dragging the corpses blocking the valley off to the roadside.
"Dead... they're all dead..."
"These are Konoha Anbu, the elite of the elite among ninja, yet not a single survivor was left."
"Stop yapping and get to work!"
The Tsuchigumo caravan members whispered among themselves, looking at the corpses they had previously pinned their hopes on, as a lingering fear rose deep within them and their backs grew chilled.
Cleaning the valley floor.
Rumble—
Wheels rolled.
The Tsuchigumo clan's caravan set off forward again, and following the recent event, the atmosphere within the team grew utterly dead silent.
Ingetsu led Mikoto, Kurenai, Nonō, Izumi, and Hotaru, sitting in the cargo bed at the back of the first wagon as it slowly moved forward.
Before setting off this time, Ingetsu split into two shadow clones to act as scouts and pave the way ahead, which would reduce the risk of being ambushed again.
Everyone remained silent.
The battle over, the boiling blood within Izumi, who had participated in the fight, gradually cooled.
She suddenly thought of an interesting question, and after pondering it, decided to ask Ingetsu anyway.
She couldn't always be the only one making a fool of herself!
"Captain, when you killed someone for the first time, did you feel scared?" Izumi stared with her pretty eyes at Ingetsu's profile, asking with curiosity.
At this question, the women and maidens on the wagon all looked toward Ingetsu; clearly, they were very eager to know the answer.
Uchiha Mikoto's gaze rippled; she felt that such a cold man shouldn't feel scared even when killing someone for the first time.
Kurenai Yuhi and Nonō, however, couldn't quite gauge it.
They asked themselves.
Even after becoming a ninja, when killing someone for the first time, their hearts were a jumble of mixed emotions, and as for fear, it stemmed from morality and various other aspects.
Therefore, they were very interested in the inner feelings of someone like Ingetsu.
Ingetsu didn't dodge the question; he looked straight at Izumi, thought for a moment, and replied earnestly:
"When I killed someone for the first time, the person being killed should have felt scared. However, my blade was fast, so I didn't let him stay scared for too long."
"Uh, didn't let him stay scared for too long... Captain, then... you're actually a pretty nice guy." Izumi's mouth twitched.
She always felt the angle from which the captain answered questions was very tricky, and carried a strong sense of déjà vu.
As expected of the person who raised Tamao.
Having spoken, Ingetsu lapsed back into silence.
The other women wore odd expressions as they stared at him, not knowing what to say, each inwardly slandering:
We asked if you were scared of killing people, and you say your blade was fast??
What was that supposed to mean?
The second wagon of the caravan.
A guard occasionally turned his head to pretend to look at the forest, while actually enviously and stealthily peeking at Ingetsu, who was surrounded by a bevy of beautiful women and maidens.
If one day.
He could also be surrounded by a group of beauties like that, his life would probably be complete!
Sōsen noticed the anomaly, and with a displeased expression, kicked this useless guard, scolding him in a low voice: "What are you looking at? Is a big shot like that someone you can just stare at?"
Taking a kick, the guard looked aggrieved, lowered his head, and grumbled bitterly: "Weren't you green with envy yourself..."
Sōsen instantly flared up, gave the other a smack on the head, and cursed, "What the hell do you know? I was observing the big shot's expression!"
About ten minutes passed.
The caravan drew closer and closer to the Earth Spider Clan Land.
A task completion prompt popped up in Ingetsu's mind.
[Side Quest]: Annihilate the Root Organization pursuit team. [Options]: 1, Annihilate the Root Organization team lurking on Mount Katsuragi. Task completed! [Rewards]: Forbidden Technique Replication Scroll!
Tamao and Nanfeng's team completed the mission, and Ingetsu turned back to look at Sōsen on the second wagon, signaling him to have the caravan slow its pace.
The wagon's movement gradually slowed down.
Ingetsu focused his attention on his storage space, where a pitch-black scroll had appeared in the corner.
He flipped his right hand, and space trembled.
The Forbidden Technique Replication Scroll appeared out of thin air in his palm, and just by touching it, he perceived its usage.
He only needed to hold it in his hand and look at the target he wished to copy to replicate the forbidden techniques known to that target. If the target knew too many forbidden techniques, the scroll would randomly replicate one.
Right in front of everyone, Ingetsu made the scroll disappear back into his storage space like a magic trick.
The young girl Hotaru, future heiress of the Tsuchigumo clan, wore a look of wonder; she truly envied Ingetsu's ability to conjure objects out of thin air.
Just as she anticipated what Ingetsu's next move would be, she was startled to discover that his dark, bright eyes were now calmly gazing right at her.
"..."
Hotaru hurriedly lowered her head, terrified of provoking the S-Rank Rogue Ninja.
Ingetsu moved his gaze away from Hotaru's petite form. Originally, he hadn't planned on going to the Earth Spider Clan Land.
Yet with the "Forbidden Technique Replication Scroll," this trip to the Earth Spider Clan Land seemed unavoidable after all.
Besides, it was just on the way.
It wouldn't delay his escape either.
Forbidden Technique: Wrath of Heaven... with a destructive power spanning hundreds of li, a large-scale destructive forbidden technique of this caliber was enough to swing the balance of victory in a great battle.
Before you continue