Sand Shinobi's Trap

The night has given me a pair of black eyes, but I use them for mischief. Turning into a ghost in the darkness, I carefully evade the enemy's hidden sentries.

I am Uchiha Kaede, a shinobi. About to become the fastest man in the Shinobi World, I am now carrying out a secret infiltration mission. It's dangerous—failure could mean being pierced by a thousand arrows—but I'm not afraid at all, because I know Flying Thunder God. The enemy will only see the back of my head.

On the other side, Konoha shinobi took advantage of the night to launch a surprise attack on the Sand Shinobi's forward position, drawing most of their attention. Kaede, traveling light, climbed over from the cliff on the upstream side, just slipping past the first wave of Sand Shinobi's hidden ambush posts.

Now lying flat in a clump of weeds by the riverbank, he doesn't dare move a muscle. Right beside him, two Sand Shinobi are relieving themselves. Kaede can even clearly see their faces and hear their conversation. If he were off by just a little, he'd get sprayed.

This is an infiltration with a smell to it. But as a qualified Anbu shinobi, stealth and assassination are required courses. Even though he's not particularly good at stealth, he still has the basic fundamentals.

Still, he's already memorized the faces of those two shinobi. "Don't let me run into you again. If I do, I swear I'll chop you into pieces and feed you to the dogs."

After the two shinobi leave, Kaede waits a good while before slowly rising, like a pile of mud taking human shape. This is a transformation ninjutsu, one of the Anbu's unique techniques.

"Two little bastards. Good thing I didn't get sprayed, or that would be the greatest shame of This Humble One's life." Kaede mutters curses under his breath, but his attention is fixed on the map in his mind. He's memorized the detailed terrain of this area. According to Orochimaru's guess, the Sand Shinobi's main camp should be near a large lake not far away—a crucial water source.

The Land of Wind suffers from water shortages. The Sand Shinobi's combat habit is to ensure they have ample water supplies. This has always been the purpose behind their invasions of Konoha.

Push back Konoha's defensive line, shrink the Land of Fire's borders, and without Konoha's restraint, they can seize the water-rich territory of the Land of Rivers. Unfortunately, the Sand Shinobi's strategic goals have always failed. Konoha will never allow them to grow too strong.

From here to the large lake, the straight-line distance isn't far. If Kaede moved at full speed, it would only take ten-odd minutes. But the problem is, he can't go full speed at all.

This is enemy territory. To infiltrate the heavily guarded Sand Shinobi camp, he can't afford to expose himself from now on, or they'll tighten security.

Even though the Sannin are drawing away most of the Sand Shinobi's forces on the other side, successfully infiltrating and obtaining enemy intelligence is no simple task.

"Haah~" Taking a deep breath, Kaede lies down in the river water, gradually fading the color of his body. To the eye, the river surface looks completely empty.

He plans to drift downstream with the current, bypassing most of the Sand Shinobi's ground sentries, then cut across horizontally, entering the lake sideways to sneak into the Sand Shinobi camp.

This is a moment that truly tests Chakra control. Since his entire body is lying on the water's surface, to achieve a convincing illusion, he lets his body float slightly above the water—enough to breathe easily without drawing attention.

At this point, the Chakra in his body must be kept precisely at the level needed to maintain the transformation. Even a tiny leak of Chakra could easily be detected by shinobi with sensory abilities.

Fortunately, the Sand Shinobi don't have the Byakugan's x-ray vision to observe Chakra. Otherwise, no matter how perfect the disguise, it would be useless. With the Byakugan activated, they'd see at a glance whether you're human or ghost.

He entered the Sand Shinobi's territory just as night fell. By the time the moon hung high in the sky, he emerged from the river. This spot is still three kilometers from the Sand Shinobi camp, already inside their high-security zone.

Kaede becomes even more cautious. The Sand Shinobi's strongest bloodline is Magnet Release, their strongest techniques are puppetry and poison. Sand Shinobi puppeteers excel at fighting with puppets and toxins, so an area that looks empty and deserted to your eyes might be packed with their trap setups.

Tsunade's adorable little brother was apparently blown to pieces by a Sand Shinobi puppeteer's trap—and Orochimaru was accompanying him at the time.

Even Orochimaru didn't spot the trap. From this, you can see how formidable the Sand Shinobi are at traps and assassinations. Their strength doesn't lie on the frontlines of battle, which actually fits Kaede's image of what a shinobi should be.

In contrast, Konoha and Cloud are the least shinobi-like. The strong from both villages love head-on confrontations, showing no respect for the shinobi profession at all.

Stealthing this far is where the real difficulty of this mission begins. How to avoid the Sand Shinobi's numerous traps and enter the camp without being discovered?

Kaede has no confidence at all. Jiraiya-sensei warned him: if he's not sure, retreat now. If he falls into a trap and doesn't have time to use Flying Thunder God, he really could die.

Explosive Tags have a detonation time of seven to eight seconds. But steel needles and senbon shot from mechanisms fly at close range far faster than the tag's detonation time.

Kaede can activate Flying Thunder God within three seconds—that's his current limit. Under normal circumstances, he doesn't have Minato's neural reflex speed.

If he's hit by a continuous barrage of ninja tools, he'll be too busy defending to find enough time to activate Flying Thunder God. That means he could be pierced by a thousand arrows, turned into a pincushion by Kunai.

"Your Grandpa Kaede's showtime has arrived. Too bad there's no one here to watch it with me."

In the darkness, he can't use the Lightning Release cloak that emits bright light. But he still has a simplified version—by activating Lightning Release inside his body, he can greatly boost his speed.

In the shadows, a faint thread of lightning flickers across Kaede's skin. This is unavoidable when using Lightning Release.

That tiny flash of light catches the attention of a Sand Shinobi sentry. The moment Kaede Shunshins away, a Sand Shinobi arrives at the spot where he was just lying to investigate.

The newcomer first checks for traces of a person, then senses for any residual Chakra, and finally presses a hand to the ground to feel for lingering body heat. "Must have been a wildcat. That flash was probably light reflecting off its eyes. There are even a few cat hairs here."

They're Sand Shinobi Anbu.

"Search carefully. We can't afford to let our guard down at a time like this." The Sand Shinobi have been active in this area; wild animals should have sensed the danger and left by now.

"Yes, Captain."

They begin a more thorough inspection.

What they don't know is that while they're still fixated on that disguised rest point, Kaede has already streaked through countless traps like a bolt of lightning in the night.

Traps are set based on the average human build. Whether pressure-activated or trigger-activated, they account for human weight and size.

But Kaede, relying on high-speed movement and his Sharingan's vision, can step right on a trap without the sensing mechanism having time to react before he's already gone.

The Sharingan lets him easily spot the hidden trigger wires even at high speed.

"First time doing this, and my heart's about to jump out of my chest." Having safely passed through a stretch of traps, Kaede clutches his chest in lingering fear.

This really felt like dancing on the edge of death.