The night had given me a pair of black eyes, and I was using them to do bad things. I was a ghost in the darkness, carefully avoiding the enemy's hidden sentries.
I was Uchiha Kaede, a ninja. I was about to become the fastest man in the Shinobi World, and right now I was carrying out a secret infiltration mission. It was dangerous; if I failed, I could end up pierced by a hundred arrows. But I wasn't afraid at all, because I had the Flying Thunder God. All the enemy would see was the back of my head.
On the other side, the Konoha Ninja had launched a nighttime raid on the Sand Shinobi's forward position, drawing most of their attention. Traveling light, Kaede had climbed over from a cliff upstream and just managed to get around the first wave of hidden Sand Shinobi sentries.
At that moment, I was lying perfectly still in a clump of weeds by the riverbank. Two Sand Shinobi were relieving themselves right beside me. I could even clearly see what they looked like and hear their conversation. If I'd shifted even a little, I would've gotten splashed.
This was a particularly pungent infiltration, but stealth and assassination were required skills for a proper Anbu Ninja. I wasn't good at sneaking around, but I did have the most basic stealth skills.
Still, I'd memorized what the two ninjas looked like. "Don't let me run into you again. If I do, I'll chop you into pieces and feed you to the dogs."
After the two ninjas left, Kaede waited a while before slowly getting up. He looked like a puddle of mud taking human shape. It was a transformation technique, one of the Anbu's unique techniques.
"Those two little bastards. Good thing I didn't get splashed, or it'd be the greatest disgrace of my life." Kaede cursed under his breath, but his attention was on the map in his mind. He'd memorized the detailed terrain around here. According to Orochimaru's estimate, the Sand Shinobi's main camp should be beside a large lake not far away. It was an important source of water.
Water was scarce in the Land of Wind, so the Sand Shinobi made sure they had an ample supply during campaigns. That had always been the reason they invaded Konoha.
By breaking through Konoha's defenses and forcing the border of the Land of Fire to retreat, they could take advantage of Konoha's absence and seize the water-rich territory of the Land of Rivers. Unfortunately, the Sand Shinobi's strategic goals had always failed. Konoha would never let them grow stronger.
The lake wasn't far in a straight line. At full speed, Kaede could get there in just over ten minutes, but the problem was that he couldn't possibly go all out.
This was enemy territory. If he wanted to infiltrate the heavily guarded Sand Shinobi camp, he couldn't let himself be spotted from this point on—or the Sand Shinobi would tighten their defenses.
Though the Sannin were drawing most of the Sand Shinobi away on the other side, infiltrating the camp and obtaining enemy intelligence was no easy task.
"Phew." After taking a deep breath, Kaede lay down in the river, and his body gradually blended into the water until nothing seemed to be on its surface.
He planned to drift downstream, avoiding most of the Sand Shinobi sentries on the ground, then cut across and enter the lake, making his way into the Sand Shinobi camp.
This was an intense test of Chakra control. His whole body was floating on the water's surface, and to make the disguise convincing, he had to let himself rise just slightly above the water. That made it easier to breathe without drawing attention.
At that moment, he had to keep his Chakra output precisely at the level needed to sustain the transformation. Even the slightest excess could be detected by a ninja with sensory abilities.
Fortunately, the Sand Shinobi didn't have Byakugan, eyes that could see through things and observe Chakra. Otherwise, even the most perfect disguise would be useless. With Byakugan activated, you could tell at a glance whether someone was human or a ghost.
It had been just after nightfall when Kaede first infiltrated the Sand Shinobi's territory. By the time he emerged from the river, the moon was high overhead. He was three kilometers from the Sand Shinobi camp and had already entered a zone under strict surveillance.
Kaede grew even more cautious. The Sand Shinobi's strongest bloodline limit was Magnet Release, and their most powerful techniques were Puppetry and poison. Sand Shinobi Puppet Masters specialized in fighting with puppets and poison, so an area that looked empty to you might actually be full of their traps.
Tsunade's cute little brother had apparently been blown to pieces by a Sand Shinobi Puppet Master's trap. Orochimaru had been with him at the time.
Even Orochimaru hadn't noticed the trap. That alone showed how skilled the Sand Shinobi were at traps and assassination. They weren't good at fighting on the front lines, which suited the image of a ninja in Kaede's mind.
By contrast, Konoha and Kumogakure were the least ninja-like villages. The strong fighters from both villages loved facing their opponents head-on, showing no respect at all for the ninja profession.
Reaching this point was where the real difficulty of the mission began: how could he get past the Sand Shinobi's many traps and enter their camp without being discovered?
Kaede wasn't confident at all. Teacher Jiraiya had warned him that if he wasn't sure, he should turn back here. If he fell into a trap and couldn't use the Flying Thunder God in time, he could really die.
Explosive Tags took seven to eight seconds to detonate, but steel needles and Senbon launched by mechanisms flew at close range far faster than that.
Kaede could activate the Flying Thunder God in three seconds, which was his current limit. Under normal circumstances, his reflexes were nowhere near Minato's.
If he was hit by a continuous barrage of ninja tools, he'd only be able to fend them off. He wouldn't have enough time to use the Flying Thunder God, which meant he could end up pierced by a hundred arrows or shot full of holes by Kunai.
"Your man Kaede's performance is about to begin. Too bad there's no one here to appreciate it."
He couldn't use Lightning Armor in the dark, since it gave off a bright light, but he could use a simplified version. By activating Lightning Release inside his body, he could greatly increase his speed.
In the darkness, a thin spark of lightning flickered across Kaede's skin. That was unavoidable when using Lightning Release.
That tiny spark caught the attention of a Sand Shinobi sentry. Kaede had just used the Body Flicker Technique to leave when a Sand Shinobi came over to inspect the spot where he'd been lying.
First, the newcomer checked for signs that anyone had been there. Then he sensed the area for any lingering Chakra. Finally, he placed a hand on the ground, feeling for the warmth of a body. "Must've been a wildcat. The flash was probably its eyes reflecting the light. There are a few cat hairs here, too."
They were Anbu from the Sand Shinobi.
"Check everything carefully. We can't let our guard down right now." The Sand Shinobi were constantly active around here, and the wild animals should've sensed the danger and left.
"Yes, Captain."
They resumed their painstaking search.
What they didn't know was that while they were still fixated on the disguised resting spot, Kaede was already streaking through the darkness like a bolt of lightning, passing through trap after trap.
The traps had been designed around the average human body. Whether pressure-triggered or motion-triggered, they took a person's weight and build into account.
But at that moment, Kaede was moving so fast, and his Sharingan gave him such sharp eyesight, that even if he stepped on a trap, he'd be gone before its sensor could react.
The Sharingan let him easily spot the concealed tripwires that triggered the traps, even while he was moving at high speed.
"That was the first time I'd ever done something like that. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest." After crossing a section of traps safely, Kaede patted his chest, still shaken.
It really did feel like he'd been dancing on the edge of death.
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