The Tale Splits

Touma recovered his upper body from the mist, his hands weaving through a series of hand seals as he unleashed over a dozen Divine Wind Swords at the giant salamander beneath the ship.

Although the speed of the Divine Wind Swords was significantly dampened upon entering the swamp, the extreme cutting power of the wind-natured transformation still managed to slice through the creature's tough, leathery hide.

Blue flesh was exposed beneath the purplish-red skin, and the intense, tearing pain drove the salamander into a frenzy, causing it to thrash violently within the mud.

The massive ship carried upon the salamander's back could not withstand such immense force; within a few breaths, pitch-black cracks began to spiderweb across the hull, looking as if the vessel would disintegrate at any second.

Seizing the opportunity, Touma slipped through one of these fissures into the cargo hold. Once he manifested his physical form, he immediately performed the hand seals to cast the Ten Thousand Snake Array.

The Ten Thousand Snake Array is essentially a variant of the Summoning Technique, capable of calling forth a vast number of snakes and pythons from the holy land of Ryūchi Cave to swarm a target. However, this ninjutsu does not belong to the Orochimaru-style ninjutsu, but rather to the ancient heritage of Ryūchi Cave itself.

After signing the summoning contract with Ryūchi Cave, this was the first technique Touma learned. This was primarily because the jutsu possessed an extended application: by using the massive number of summoned snakes, one could utilize a "Coordinated Reverse Summoning" to transport large objects back into Ryūchi Cave.

Fortunately, Touma's affinity with the native snakes of Ryūchi Cave was not poor. The serpents summoned via the Ten Thousand Snake Array did not clash with him, and following his instructions, they located the three members of the Lin Clan and the caravan merchants one by one.

Immediately, Touma consumed two Chakra Pills and performed the reverse hand seals to dispel the summoning of the snakes on the ship, allowing them to carry their entangled targets back to Ryūchi Cave via "Coordinated Summoning."

To be honest, the chakra consumption required to repeatedly cast and dispel the Ten Thousand Snake Array was staggering, forcing him to voluntarily drop his Heavenly Storm Sky Dance state.

Yet, just as he exited his elemental state, the salamander beneath the ship began to spray toxic mist wildly toward the deck. Caught off guard, Touma inhaled a massive lungful.

With that single breath of poison, he instantly lost the ability to sense the chakra within his body, followed by a sensation as if his internal organs were being corroded, a searing, indescribable pain spreading throughout his entire being.

Fortunately, Touma's consciousness remained clear. He hurriedly pulled a small respirator from his ninja tool pouch, inserted the mini oxygen tube, and leaped headlong into the swamp.

Meanwhile, Shibi and Zhao, who were responsible for meeting Touma on the outskirts of Hidden Leaf Hill, waited in vain for his arrival before heading directly to find their teacher, Shin.

After their repeated attempts to make contact via ninja hawks and tracking with the Tracking Bug failed, they had no choice but to report the situation to the Hokage's office.

Upon hearing the news, Sarutobi Hiruzen did not dare to delay. He dispatched Anbu to follow the mission route Touma had previously reported, eventually discovering the traces of battle and the corpses of the rogue ninjas from the Zhe Hidden Village in the Lost Butterfly Forest outside the capital.

These Anbu were highly experienced in mission protocols; in less than an hour, they reconstructed the battle and uncovered the fact that Touma had fallen for a diversionary tactic.

However, because the heads of the Zhe Hidden Village corpses were missing, preventing them from seeing the slashed forehead protectors, the Anbu naturally did not realize the rogue status of those ninjas.

After receiving the Anbu's analysis, Sarutobi Hiruzen immediately summoned the ambassador of the Land of Woods, who was active in the capital of the Land of Fire. In an extremely stern tone, he demanded to know why ninjas from the Land of Woods had secretly entered the Land of Fire to attack a local caravan, directly leading to the merchants' disappearance.

Under normal circumstances, such aggressive diplomatic language would not be something the conciliatory Sarutobi Hiruzen would utter, but because the matter involved Touma, he could not suppress his temper.

It must be known that the relationship between Touma and Orochimaru was no secret among the village's upper echelons, and Orochimaru was the disciple Sarutobi Hiruzen valued most.

In his heart, Orochimaru was his preferred candidate for the Fourth Hokage, and based on the talent Touma had displayed, he was also a strong contender for the position of the Fifth Hokage.

In other words, any matter involving Touma was equivalent to the succession of the Hokage position in Konoha. The Land of Woods muddying the waters in this affair was undoubtedly shaking the very foundations of Konoha.

While larger nations might have had room for explanation, the Land of Woods—a small nation that relied entirely on the Land of Fire for survival—could not produce a convincing excuse.

The ambassador of the Land of Woods fled in a panic from the capital of the Land of Fire to Konoha, and without even a drop of water to drink, he set off again with his guards, rushing back to the Land of Woods without a moment's rest.

Along the way, the ambassador complained incessantly.

After all, I just spent all my effort negotiating a decent aid package with the new Daimyo of the Land of Fire, and the Land of Woods is counting on this plan to boost our economy!

The ambassador thought viciously, I am working myself to the bone here, yet you lot at the Zhe Hidden Village, who are supposed to be responsible for guarding the national border, are secretly dragging me down. When I get back, I will certainly petition the Daimyo to cut your budget for next year and let you grave-robbing bastards rot in the dirt!

The government of the Land of Woods reacted quickly. After the ambassador reported the relevant details, they immediately halted the second-half budget for the Zhe Hidden Village, leaving the leader of the Zhe Hidden Village completely bewildered.

The ambassador deliberately left the leader of the Zhe Hidden Village hanging, forcing the usually arrogant man to personally travel to the capital to pay a visit.

After hearing the ins and outs of the story, the leader of the Zhe Hidden Village formed a rough judgment: this incident in the Land of Fire was likely the work of several rogue ninjas who had defected the year before.

Those rogue ninjas were the result of the Zhe Hidden Village's painstaking efforts; the village had invested resources without regard for cost to build this "Dead Men Corps," only for them to defect collectively over a minor dispute regarding mission pay.

To avoid being mocked by the Daimyo's court, the leader of the Zhe Hidden Village had delayed reporting it, hoping that if he dragged it out long enough, the village would eventually forget about them.

However, based on what he knew, these people had likely been absorbed into the Land of Swamps, changing their identities to become secret ninjas of the Hidden Secret Village. The fact that they had suddenly used their Zhe Hidden Village identities was clearly an attempt to dump the blame on the Land of Woods.

As for why the Zhe Hidden Village did not hunt down these rogue ninjas, it was not that they didn't want to; it was because the only ninja with any real strength in their village was the leader himself. The other ninjas were simply no match for those rogues.

And this leader did not necessarily possess the strength to fight multiple opponents at once. He could happily accept the flattery of his villagers, but he had not inflated his ego to the point of self-delusion.

Moreover, these rogues had been recruited by the Land of Swamps shortly after their defection. Since even the Five Great Nations could do nothing about the Land of Swamps, a small, insignificant country like the Land of Woods had even less recourse.

Unless they sent the Imperial Guard of the Land of Woods to annihilate the Land of Swamps—though it was unlikely the generals of the Land of Woods would waste their military strength testing the true power of the Land of Swamps for the sake of a few unrelated rogue ninjas.

Of course, Sarutobi Hiruzen did not believe that the Land of Woods or the Zhe Hidden Village had the guts. His previous stern diplomatic rhetoric was, on one hand, to pressure the ambassador to quickly investigate the masterminds behind these rogues, and on the other, to vent the pent-up frustration in his chest.

These days, while the situation on the front lines of Sunny City and Kikyo City was stable, back in the village, the upper echelons of Konoha were nearly tearing each other apart over petty gains.

Especially Shimura Danzō, who had just been reinstated after his period of reflection; he refused to listen to reason and insisted on sending Root to Sunny City to take over Jiraiya's work. He actually believed that Jiraiya's unauthorized handling of war spoils was a grave error and wanted to bring him back to the village to punish his crimes!

What an absolute farce!