The Mystery of the Land of Swamps

Since he had contracted Umibozu as his summoning beast, Touma no longer needed to go through Ryūchi Cave just to reach the mainland.

At Umibozu's speed using Body Flicker underwater, it could carry him from the islands of the Land of Islands to the interior in less than three hours.

That was an instinct Umibozu had been born with, and its key means of avoiding capture by ninjas.

Especially with Touma deliberately guiding it, Umibozu's underwater Body Flicker kept getting faster, creating a vast number of supersonic cavitation bubbles in front of them.

Within the Water Release system, underwater Body Flicker techniques could broadly be divided into two types. One was surface flicker, which originated with the Water Walking Technique; the other was underwater flicker, which originated with the Water Flicker Technique.

The Water Walking Technique later gave rise to a series of flicker techniques with different specialties, such as Water Surface Slash, Water Chaos Step, and Sea Walking. These techniques weren't especially difficult, and most ninjas who specialized in Water Release knew a few.

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By contrast, techniques developed from the Water Flicker Technique, such as Wave Riding Strike, Hidden Serpent Technique, Hidden Dragon Technique, and Water Burst Flash Technique, not only required talent in Water Release but also imposed strict physical demands because of the unusual conditions in which they were used.

The faster one moved underwater, the greater the water pressure one had to endure. Once it exceeded a ninja's limits, they could die without warning from the pressure while using an underwater flicker technique.

The Water Release ninjas from Kairan Village, for instance, mostly suffered from decompression sickness. They used flicker techniques underwater at high intensity for extended periods, then failed to decompress their bodies gradually afterward, which led to various illnesses.

Fortunately, Touma didn't need to worry about this problem while using Umibozu's underwater flicker. The pressure he would have had to endure was transferred to Umibozu. He could even dive hundreds or thousands of meters down without any specialized diving equipment.

As Touma neared the mainland, the Xiao-Destroying Bugs in the bug jar he carried finally reacted, beginning to buzz. Shibi was broadcasting a message to all the Digestion Bugs that had absorbed his chakra.

Earlier, the distance had been too great for the Xiao-Destroying Bugs to detect the signal, whether Touma was at that unnamed sacred land or on the deserted island in the Land of Islands. So he hadn't received the broadcast.

Now that he was closer to the mainland, nearby Digestion Bugs could relay the message indirectly, allowing it to reach Touma.

Without hesitation, Touma stimulated the Xiao-Destroying Bugs with his chakra and sent his location back along the same route.

Judging by the climate, the place where he was about to come ashore should be on the Land of Lightning side of Hell Valley.

Although Hell Valley was shared by the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning, the cold, dry coastal region belonged to the Land of Lightning, while the warmer, more humid inland region belonged to the Land of Fire.

The Land of Fire had not claimed the coastal part of Hell Valley. This was one of the terms agreed upon by the two countries after repeated negotiations following the First Shinobi World War.

Most of the Land of Lightning's coastline was blocked off by mountains, leaving it without any ports capable of handling large-scale cargo shipments. For a country that depended on foreign trade to meet its people's basic needs, this was a serious problem.

That was why, during the First Shinobi World War, the main point of contention between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning had been the ownership of Hell Valley's several large ports.

The Land of Fire didn't really need those ports, but it was out of the question to simply take them from the Yuan Clan. If the Yuan Clan had been that easy to deal with, they wouldn't have seized power from the daimyō's court at the end of the Warring States period.

So, with tacit approval from both daimyō's courts, war between Konoha and Kumogakure became inevitable. The ninja forces led by the villages' respective Second Hokage began a war that lasted nearly ten years.

However, neither Senju Tobirama nor Second A was blindly loyal. They kept the fighting at a relatively low intensity throughout.

The war only escalated after the Mei Clan, the Land of Lightning's daimyō family, secretly contacted the Kinkaku and Ginkaku brothers, asked them to stir up trouble, and promised one of them the position of next Raikage.

Truthfully, the rank-and-file ninjas of both Konoha and Kumogakure were easy to sway. After Kinkaku and Ginkaku successfully ambushed Second A, they took control of a large number of the village's middle- and lower-ranking ninjas without much effort.

Many of Kumogakure's senior figures opposed them, but with the brothers having stirred up the rank-and-file ninjas, there was nothing they could do. After all, they couldn't very well attack their own fellow villagers.

So even after Konoha realized the war had intensified, Senju Tobirama couldn't gather enough forces to send support in time. He could only hold the front line himself, burning through the last of his strength!

Although Third A later emerged ahead of schedule with his AB Brothers, killed Kinkaku and Ginkaku, and reclaimed power in Kumogakure, the conflict between the two villages had already taken root. Even now, if a Konoha ninja appeared in the Land of Lightning's territory in Hell Valley, the local garrison would react fiercely.

To avoid a pointless fight, Touma had no choice but to disguise himself and sneak aboard a merchant ship passing through.

Touma's message arrived a little too late. The force Sarutobi Hiruzen had sent to search for him had already made its way into the Land of Swamps.

Interestingly, the person leading the force was none other than Shimura Danzō, who had just resumed working with Root after his period of house arrest.

He had volunteered for the mission not only because he was interested in Touma, but also because he was intensely curious about the Land of Swamps itself.

As mentioned earlier, the Land of Swamps was a den of iniquity in the Shinobi World. The reason it had survived and grown to this day was the extremely mysterious daimyō family behind it.

The prevailing theory was that the Land of Swamps' daimyō family might be descended from the imperial family of the Land of Ancestors. It was believed that they had inherited part of the imperial family's legacy, which gave them such great power.

On the surface, most of the Land of Swamps' Secret Ninja had been converted from missing-nin and wandering ninja. In reality, the intelligence services of most great nations knew that these missing-nin and wandering ninja had become noticeably stronger after joining the Hidden Secret Village.

That was why the Bounty Exchange never accepted contracts on Secret Ninja. Their abilities were difficult to assess. A wandering ninja who had originally been no stronger than a Genin might be able to fight at Chunin or even Jōnin level after being recruited by the Hidden Secret Village.

If the bounty contract failed, that was one thing. But if it succeeded and the bounty hunter claimed their target had been stronger than expected, the Bounty Exchange had no way to verify whether that was true. The increased payout would be a minor concern; the real problem would be the damage to its reputation. The Bounty Exchange had survived for so many years thanks to its widely recognized business integrity.

Shimura Danzō had also repeatedly arranged for Root to infiltrate the Land of Swamps and uncover information about it. But the many agents he had sent in had disappeared without a trace, like stones sinking into the sea.

Now, with the Hokage's support, things were different. In addition to Danzō, who was at Kage Level, the force included three Jōnin from the Jonin Squad, six Jōnin from Anbu, and three Root combat squads accompanying Danzō. Their average strength was above Special Jōnin.

With a force like this, they could easily take down even some of the smaller ninja villages. Danzō had every confidence in the mission.

However, as soon as they entered the barrier at the Land of Swamps' border, the formidable force ran into trouble. Whether it was the country's miasma or the barrier's effect, they somehow got lost inside the Land of Swamps—and everyone was separated!