It's a Pity You Lied to Me

"I didn't expect the road on the other side to be this terrible..."

The Son of the Daimyo lifted the curtain and lazily poked half his head out. He used his folding fan to shield his eyes from the glaring sunlight, squinting as he compared the two roads divided by the border line.

One road, while slightly bumpy, was otherwise well-maintained and largely intact.

The other, however, was incredibly muddy, with puddles scattered everywhere. It didn't look like a main road maintained by the state at all, but rather like a long-abandoned country path.

"Tsk, tsk."

The Son of the Daimyo shook his head, and his folding fan snapped shut with a click.

"This Land of Hot Water is truly outrageous."

Hyuga Qinglan was walking at the very front and his expression remained unchanged upon hearing this.

For a country like the Land of Hot Water, which cherished peace and valued stability, a road like this was actually considered quite good.

Ever since Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara ended the Warring States period and founded the ninja villages, road construction had become an unavoidable issue.

Roads connected trade routes, trade routes connected wealth, and wealth connected the fate of a nation.

Once a country tasted the convenience brought by road construction, it would naturally accept policies to build official highways.

Small nations followed in the footsteps of the great powers, carrying out reforms and construction in succession, attempting to get a slice of the pie within this increasingly dense road network.

In times of peace, these roads would only get better, more people would travel them, and the post stations along the way would become more bustling.

However, war was inevitable.

Once the flames of war ignited, these border roads were the first to be abandoned.

"Your Highness, once we cross the border, it won't be as calm and peaceful as it is in the Land of Fire."

Hyuga Qinglan spoke in a deep voice, turning to look at the Son of the Daimyo in the palanquin.

"Is that so?"

The Son of the Daimyo poked out a small folding fan.

"I'm not worried about that. How much longer until we arrive? I don't want to spend too much time on this muddy road."

"At full speed, about three days."

Hyuga Qinglan took the map handed over by a Nara Ninja nearby and whispered a word of thanks.

He then spread out the parchment, his finger tracing a winding route on the map as he made his calculations.

"At our current speed, it will take about five days..."

He paused, looked up, and his gaze swept across the mist-shrouded mountain forest ahead.

"And that is assuming we don't encounter any mountain bandits..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Hyuga Qinglan suddenly assumed a Gentle Fist stance, and a chakra shockwave erupted from his palm, shooting toward the bushes.

"Ahhhhh--"

A shrill, miserable wail came from the grass, followed by the sound of snapping branches and a body tumbling to the ground.

But before the wailing could last long, the Konoha ninjas behind Hyuga Qinglan moved in to finish the job.

"For example, bandits like these."

Hyuga Qinglan retracted his palm and gave a slight nod toward the palanquin.

"Oh, oh..."

The Son of the Daimyo, looking out through the curtain, nodded blankly, his folding fan frozen in mid-air, forgotten.

But he quickly composed himself; the pride of a noble allowed him to suppress that flicker of fear, replacing it with a surge of excitement.

"Then let's set off at full speed!"

"Yes!"

The samurai and servants carrying the palanquin shouted in unison, following Hyuga Qinglan's lead as they pressed forward.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

Over these three days, Hyuga Qinglan had cleared out two groups of bandits and one group of horse thieves using the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm.

Basically, they encountered a group every day, and each time, the attackers were different.

The crowds included all sorts of people, and even...

Even a black man had shown up.

"Are you sure you're from the Land of Fire?"

Hyuga Qinglan crouched down, raising an eyebrow as he looked at the burly black man before him, whose limbs he had just broken and who was now sobbing uncontrollably.

"I just have dark skin... I'm not a ninja from Kumogakure..."

"Ninja-sama, I really am a villager from the Land of Fire... please spare my life, I beg of you."

The man wailed loudly, his voice sounding as if he had suffered the greatest injustice in the world.

His body writhed in the mud, trying to crawl forward, trying to reach the hem of Hyuga Qinglan's trousers.

"I beg you, I have an eighty-year-old mother at home, and three children waiting for me to return..."

The dark-skinned man continued to wail, his voice growing louder and more wretched: "I was just confused for a moment, blinded by greed..."

"Captain Qinglan,"

Yamanaka Santian flashed to Hyuga Qinglan's side. He paused for a moment upon seeing the teary-eyed man, but quickly averted his gaze and finished his report swiftly.

"His Highness says to hurry it up, he wants you to finish this quickly so we can depart; after all, we are almost at Yugakure."

"I really am from the Land of Fire."

The dark-skinned man wept bitterly, prostrate in the mire. Noticing that Hyuga Qinglan had not moved, his heart leaped with joy. Just as he was about to shift his body, a faint voice drifted down.

"I also wish you were a ninja from the Land of Fire..."

"Unfortunately, you lied to me."

The man's heart jolted. He jerked his head up, only to see a fierce palm strike sweeping toward him.

Crack.

The sound of bone fracturing was very light. The dark-skinned face didn't even have time to register an expression before the voice came to an abrupt end.

"..."

Hyuga Qinglan withdrew his palm, looked at the marks all over the man's body, and then sighed softly.

Those were the side effects caused by practicing the Lightning Release Chakra Mode.

"Let's go,"

Hyuga Qinglan stood up, watching expressionlessly as the Ino-Shika-Cho trio dragged the various bandits lying helter-skelter across the clearing into a pile.

With a simple Fire Release, they were reduced to dust.

He turned and walked back toward the sedan chair of the Son of the Daimyo.

"Qinglan, is it handled?"

The curtain of the sedan chair was lifted, and the Son of the Daimyo finally poked his head out, allowing Hyuga Qinglan to see his face clearly for the first time.

Young, noble.

But these nobles all shared a common ailment—superficiality.

There was an indelible weariness between his brows... clearly the result of excessive indulgence.

"It is handled, Your Highness."

Hyuga Qinglan shifted his gaze to the map in his hand, "Your Highness, let us rest by the stream ahead before continuing our journey."

"After all, the others are quite exhausted."

The Son of the Daimyo followed Hyuga Qinglan's suggestion and looked at the servants and guards beneath the sedan chair.

Without exception, they were all panting, yet still forcing themselves to hold on.

"Hmm, good, I'll listen to you."

The Son of the Daimyo waved his hand, pulled a silk handkerchief from his sleeve, and wiped the cold sweat that had seeped onto his face from the scene just moments ago.

"Yes..."

Late at night.

Among the crisscrossing branches not far from Yugakure, two or three dark shadows flashed by.

The snakes, insects, and wild rabbits deep in the forest were startled, emitting faint rustling sounds.

In a clearing in the distance, figures of various skin tones gathered quietly.

"Captain Shazii, the trail Temai left behind ends here."

A sturdy man with dark skin stopped beside a woman with skin as white as snow and lowered his voice: "According to the last intelligence he sent back, the second son of the Land of Fire Daimyo is traveling to Yugakure with Konoha ninjas, though the specific reason is unknown."

"If my guess is correct... Temai is already dead, and not even his body remains."

"...Damn Konoha ninjas."

The calm woman leading them rubbed her shoulder, her eyes suddenly turning sharp.

"As an intelligence officer, Temai did as well as he could."

"Accelerate."

"If we can capture the Son of the Daimyo according to the Raikage's plan."

"Then we will be able to exchange him for a batch of military supplies to provide some security for our brothers on the front lines."

"As for the remaining Konoha ninjas..."

"Leave none alive!"