Infiltration

The moment they closed and reopened their eyes, they were somewhere else.

Mo Jingxian slowly opened his eyes, his mind completely blank.

Like a computer that had just booted up, he needed to load everything all over again.

Images began flooding back in.

So this is what it feels like to experience the Flying Thunder God Technique for the first time.

Minato patted his shoulder reassuringly.

Mo Jingxian dodged on reflex.

Minato didn't mind. The kid was handling the aftereffects much better than most.

"Stay safe on the road."

Mo Jingxian's eyes refocused, and he nodded to Minato.

He took the package Minato handed him and vanished with the Body Flicker Technique.

This mission was simpler than he'd imagined. All he had to do was meet Konoha's spy in the Land of Grass and bring back a sealed document.

The important thing was not to reveal his identity, and, more importantly, not to leave behind any traces that could expose the spy.

Under normal circumstances, a simple mission like this wouldn't have required Minato to go to such lengths.

But these were wartime conditions.

Konoha and the Rock Ninja had stationed their forces in the Land of Grass.

The meeting place was crawling with spies from both sides, and Grass Ninja were mixed in among them as well.

It was easy to imagine how chaotic things were, with two great nations choosing this land as their battlefield.

With the situation so complicated, a young face was less likely to attract attention.

[Orochimaru's reputation +10]

Mo Jingxian, on the road, froze in surprise. The reputation points had come from nowhere.

He wanted to get closer to Orochimaru, but the best way was to gradually draw his attention.

Sudden attention wasn't a good thing. He didn't yet have the strength to fend off any malice.

He had no idea why this had happened, but Mo Jingxian quickly accepted it.

There was no point overthinking it. Nobody knew what Orochimaru was thinking.

So he wouldn't jump to conclusions just yet.

Iwayacho Town, Land of Grass.

This was the location of Mo Jingxian's mission.

He had changed into tattered clothes, with a few smudges of dirt on his face. He looked no different from the locals on the street.

Rows of wooden houses lined both sides of the road. Fish streamers fluttered in the breeze above five or six rooftops.

The exposed wood of the houses looked pitch-black. Here and there, fresh breaks revealed splinters of pale wood.

Mo Jingxian walked from one end of the street to the other.

The street wasn't long, only about two hundred meters. At the far end stood the only two-story building on the street.

He had no idea what it was used for.

Seeing nothing unusual, he pretended to be an idle passerby and casually circled back.

He passed a modest inn and stepped over the threshold.

There weren't many people inside. Behind the counter facing the entrance, the owner leaned on his elbows and dozed.

Four tables were scattered around the room. Two were occupied by travelers having a meal.

Mo Jingxian glanced around from the corner of his eye.

One table had four people, the other two.

They looked like travelers passing through, judging by their clothes and appearance. But the two at one table had been watching him ever since he entered.

They hid it well, but he had still noticed.

Mo Jingxian pretended not to know and walked straight to the counter.

"Boss, do you have any rooms left?"

The drowsy owner opened his eyes and looked him over.

"Twenty taels for a room."

"Uh, do you have anything cheaper? How about ten taels?"

The owner withdrew his gaze in annoyance and went back to dozing.

The boy looked a little embarrassed as he fished out some bills from his ragged clothes.

He searched two other places and pulled out the money he had hidden there, scraping together sixty taels.

Mo Jingxian pushed the money across the counter. "I'll stay for three days."

The owner yawned and swept the money into a drawer with a flyswatter.

He lit an oil lamp and came out from behind the counter.

"Come with me."

Mo Jingxian followed the owner toward the back courtyard.

He noticed that the gazes on him had disappeared.

He glanced back as if by chance. The two travelers were busy eating the natto in front of them, with most of the food still left on their plates.

Those two were suspicious.

He just couldn't tell which side they belonged to.

For now, they didn't seem to be after him. Better to leave them alone so he wouldn't alert them.

They passed through a dim corridor squeezed between two houses.

The two of them reached the back courtyard.

Two rows of houses had been crammed into the yard. The owner slid open the wooden door of one.

As soon as Mo Jingxian stepped inside, a musty smell hit him. A ventilation hole, barely a foot square, had been cut into the wall.

The owner set the oil lamp on the table.

"Five taels to refill the lamp. Meals cost extra."

When Mo Jingxian didn't respond, the owner lost interest and left.

This was a good enough place to stay while on a mission. He wasn't picky.

The journey had left him a little tired.

He sat cross-legged on the bed, ready to carefully consider whether he had overlooked anything.

This was the meeting place.

According to the plan, all he had to do was wait here for the spy to deliver the intelligence.

He didn't know the spy's name, their identity, or anything else about them.

He activated Mist of Vitality.

It spread over the entire inn, and Mo Jingxian settled in to wait.

He waited for three days.

No. The meeting time had already passed.

Mo Jingxian knew something had gone wrong. For a spy, missing an appointment could only mean one thing.

There were only two choices in front of him.

One: leave immediately and return. The mission would be a failure.

He recalled the grave look on Minato's face when they parted. This sealed document must be extremely important.

It had probably taken countless lives to obtain that vital intelligence.

Besides, without realizing it, he had already incurred a considerable debt to Minato. If Minato hadn't helped him, his situation would have been far more dangerous than it was now.

So he decided to stay and investigate further.

He knew too little about the spy to know where to start.

The only thing he was sure of was that the spy would be able to find him.

From that, he reasoned that the spy must know the area very well, and could probably recognize any unfamiliar face at a glance.

A local villager.

That made sense. It was the only identity that wouldn't attract the attention of anyone watching.

And it would give the spy a legitimate reason to come and go from the inn.

Mo Jingxian had spent three days observing the place. The small inn had only one employee: the owner. It clearly wasn't him.

What other identity would give someone a legitimate reason to visit the inn?

A trader.

Someone who regularly did business with the inn would have every reason to come and go.

Grain, vegetables, coal, and other goods could all fit the bill.

He couldn't work out which one it was.

But it didn't matter. The town was small. If he kept searching, he'd eventually find a clue.

Mo Jingxian left the inn and headed east.

He remembered an open-air market not far from there, a place the villagers had organized themselves.

Most of the goods sold there were food and other daily necessities.

It didn't take long.

By the time he arrived, the open-air market was at its busiest.

A narrow alley intersected the town's main street at a right angle.

Most vendors spread their goods directly on the ground. The more particular ones put a piece of rag underneath.

The road was mostly blocked, with just enough space for one person to pass through.

The vendors were locals, and the shoppers who came by were mostly locals too.

The market was short, and Mo Jingxian finished walking through it in no time.

To his surprise, he actually found a clue.

There was an empty patch of ground where someone had clearly set up a stall before.

Mo Jingxian wandered over to a nearby stall and squatted down, pretending to inspect the goods.

"Fine-quality grain, ten taels a pound. A real bargain."

The boy picked up a handful of grain and held it up to the sunlight. The kernels slipped between his fingers.

"Looks good. I was planning to buy some, but I also need to get some rice. Do you know where I can find any?"

He had walked around the market and hadn't seen anyone selling rice, so he asked.

The stall owner was an elderly woman who enjoyed chatting with people.

"You're a kid and you want to buy rice? That's something you can only get at Hozuki Castle."

"Oh, I remember buying some here before."

"It's not always available. Someone sells it every now and then."

Mo Jingxian looked disappointed. "All right, then. Weigh me two pounds of grain."

The old woman was happy to have a customer. She weighed out the grain for him and even took the trouble to wrap it up.

After taking the goods, he casually pointed to the empty patch beside them.

"Ma'am, was that the stall that sold rice? Why isn't the owner here today?"

"You mean Kangfu? He doesn't sell rice. He sells lotus beans."

As he stood up, the old woman muttered under her breath,

"Strange. Kangfu hasn't set up his stall in four or five days. I wonder if something happened at home."

Mo Jingxian had gotten the information he wanted, so he didn't linger.

He learned where Kangfu lived from a child in exchange for a piece of candy, then pretended to be passing by as he took a few discreet looks.

Kangfu was very likely the spy he was supposed to meet.

Now that Kangfu had disappeared, whoever had captured him would have left someone watching to lure in the next person.

So—

Where would be the best place to keep watch?

Mo Jingxian disguised himself as a passerby and sat down in a roadside teahouse.

He ordered a pot of tea to quench his thirst, and kept secretly observing his surroundings as he drank.

The teahouse stood diagonally across from Kangfu's home. Farther west down the street was the two-story building.

Wait!

Mo Jingxian set down his teacup, his eyes narrowing slightly.

There probably wasn't a better place to watch the area than that building.

After asking around, he learned that the two-story building was the town's only administrative office, and two ninja were stationed there most of the time.

Ordinary villagers wouldn't dare go near it.

The spy, the intelligence, the Grass Ninja—and what if the Rock Ninja were involved too?

Gradually,

Mo Jingxian began to untangle one strand from the mess.

Based on this theory, it really was possible.

There was no point thinking about it any longer. He'd know once he checked tonight.

The sun set and the moon rose. A dark cloud slowly covered the moonlight.

In the darkness, a shadow darted between the houses and soon reached the two-story wooden building.

Mo Jingxian quieted his breathing and sent Mist of Vitality ahead to investigate.

The structure of the building gradually became clear to his senses, along with the ninja stationed inside.

Three people.

One of the two was eating and drinking, completely unaware that the enemy had already reached the floor below.

The other was locked alone in a room. From what Satori could sense, he wasn't in very good shape.

In a room on the second floor, two Grass Ninja sat facing each other, drinking.

Compared with the villagers, who barely had enough to eat, the food on the table before them was much more lavish.

"Come on, let's drain this cup. We've earned ourselves a merit, so it shouldn't be long before we're transferred back to Hozuki Castle."

"Let's drink it all! Luck's finally turned for us brothers. We're about to leave this godforsaken place."

They exchanged a smile, a strange excitement flickering in their eyes.

Ever since they'd come here, the place had put them through the wringer.

There wasn't a scrap of fat to be had, and every day they lived on tenterhooks.

They feared that if the two great powers of the Ninja World ever went to war, even the shockwaves would reduce them to dust.

"Clink!"

Their cups met.

The wine rippled in their cups, as if already reflecting a bright future.

Hm?

The wine in one cup stirred its drinker's wariness.

He wasn't seeing things. The wine really was spinning.

Before either man could react, the wine turned into a strange serpent and suddenly shot down both their throats...