"Hero?", Jinchuriki

In the Land of Wind, in front of Shaming City, four Sunagakure squads were running frantically to rescue their comrades who were being attacked by two enemy ninjas not far ahead.

At this moment, in their eyes, their Sunagakure companion was in a pitiful state. His body was covered with wounds of all sizes, and blood was splattering everywhere, constantly reminding them that their companion was at his last gasp.

"Where did these thieves come from? Stop right now!" The Sunagakure Captain shouted, hoping to deter the two men from pursuing their comrade.

On Taiichi's side, seeing the Sunagakure's "reinforcements" about to arrive, he was also happy. Damn, it really hurt too much. He had never suffered so many injuries in all the time he had been a ninja.

Although it wasn't his own body, the pain was very real. If reinforcements didn't arrive soon, he wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. Even though the injury wasn't fatal, the blood loss alone was almost killing him.

Seeing that the "reinforcements" were only a hundred meters away, and that the two Cloud Village ninjas seemed to be planning to retreat, Taiichi unleashed his ultimate attack.

"Avenge me! They are the Cloud Ninja!"

The shouts pierced the sky, and the Sunagakure Ninja who rushed to the front heard their comrade's dying cry.

After Taiichi shouted these words, his spirit quickly left the broken body.

The intense pain immediately awakened his body's original soul, but what awaited him was a Kunai piercing his throat.

His hands weakly pried at the enemy's palms, a gurgling sound came from his throat, and his body twitched weakly twice. Even at this point, the original owner of the body still did not understand what was going on.

So what if he went out to a brothel for one night? Did he die from exhaustion?!

"Don't delay, get out of here immediately!"

With time running out, the other Cloud Ninja didn't hesitate and immediately unleashed his most skilled Lightning Net, slightly hindering the pursuing Sunagakure Ninja. The two then fled the scene without looking back.

"Gisu, your squad stays behind, the rest of you follow me!"

Upon passing their comrade's corpse, the leading Sunagakure Ninja immediately gave the order. The group split into two: three squads continued to pursue the Cloud Ninja, while the remaining squad stayed behind to assess the situation.

"Captain, does he look like Shinji?" a team member examining the body said doubtfully.

"Shinji, that lecherous worm?" The Captain thought he had misheard. That lecherous worm had the courage to fight two enemy experts until they arrived and he finished delivering the information before finally succumbing to his injuries.

The ninja who examined the body carefully cleaned its face and finally said with certainty, "That's him. I drank with him. He had a black mole in his right eyebrow. It's him, no doubt about it!"

"I never expected Shinji to be such a man. I misjudged him before. Just look at his loyalty to the village; his personal issues are nothing compared to that."

The Captain was filled with awe. They had witnessed firsthand how badly Shinji had been injured. He had thirty or forty wounds all over his body, yet he still insisted on finishing his report before being killed. He was truly a role model for them!

"Yes, I've decided that I won't ask his wife for the money he owes me," a team member said sadly.

While the Sunagakure Village team was still reflecting on this, Taiichi's spirit had already returned to his body.

The moment the pain entered his body, he jolted and jumped up, the pain in his spirit body reflecting onto his physical body, it was truly excruciating.

It took Taiichi two or three minutes to catch his breath. It seemed that he should be more careful with the use of this Spirit Transformation Technique in the future, as the aftereffects were indeed unpleasant.

Once he recovered, Taiichi arrived on the ground and immediately activated his Chakra Perception. Soon, everything from the battle site appeared in his perception.

While they were still mourning Shinji, Taiichi found it amusing. He never expected that the "pervert" would end up with the title of "hero." How unpredictable life is!

About half an hour later, the three teams of ninjas who had been chasing them returned. However, judging from their grumpy faces, Taiichi knew that they had definitely come up empty-handed.

Sure enough, their subsequent conversation confirmed Taiichi's guess.

"Sir, how is it? Have you caught the man?" the garrison Captain asked directly.

The leading ninja's face darkened, and he glared fiercely at the Captain left behind. He really knew how to rub salt in the wound; couldn't he see how grumpy they all looked?

"No, they were too fast. They disappeared from sight in no time. We couldn't stay away from the city for too long, so we all came back."

The team Captain realized he had asked a stupid question and quickly changed the subject, recounting his discovery.

You know what, Shinji is quite a celebrity among the ninjas stationed in Shaming City. Even the top ninja, who is a Jonin, knows him.

When they learned that it was Shinji who had been persistently passing on information to them, they couldn't help but sigh and marvel that appearances can be deceiving, and even the worst person has their shining qualities.

After cleaning up the scene, everyone returned to Shaming City. Shortly afterward, a Communication Hawk soared into the sky from the city and flew towards Sunagakure to report the sudden incident.

Taiichi withdrew his Chakra Perception, and that was the end of it. As for what would happen next, he could guess. He just didn't know if the Sunagakure's higher-ups would be caught off guard like in the original story, and be caught off guard by the Cloud Village.

If they can be distracted by strengthening their domestic defenses, the pressure on Konoha on the battlefield in the Land of Rivers will naturally decrease accordingly, making Taiichi's efforts here worthwhile.

He glanced at Shaming City from afar. He knew he couldn't stay here any longer. With such a spy incident, the city must be under martial law. There was no point in staying any longer; it was better to leave.

Time flew by and it was already mid-October of the 46th year. Taiichi had been wandering around for more than half a month, leaving his footprints all over the Land of Wind except for Sunagakure.

It's safe to say that most of the Sunagakure Ninja don't even have his understanding of the Land of Wind. And when it comes to mobility, if he claims to be number one in the Land of Wind, no one would dare to say they're number two.

This is because he has already set up the Flying Thunder God coordinates in every city and every oasis of the Land of Wind.

Thus, his intelligence-gathering ability is self-evident. Every day, he uses the Flying Thunder God to shuttle back and forth between important locations. Upon arriving at a new place, he uses his Chakra Perception to survey the surrounding area. If there is no disturbance, he immediately moves on to the next location.

In this way, Taiichi can basically inspect the Land of Wind in half a day. The only drawbacks are that the large desert area cannot be monitored, and this method is too energy-consuming.

Even with Taiichi Chakra reserve like Etaichi's, this round will deplete most of his Chakra.

Just recently, during his patrol, Taiichi discovered that Sunagakure had suddenly increased the intensity of its internal patrols. Not only were Resupply teams traveling between the village and the front lines increasing in frequency and manpower, but border patrols had also increased.

This anomaly immediately caught Taiichi's attention, for as the saying goes, "Where there is an anomaly, there must be something fishy going on."

Why would they suddenly strengthen their defenses for no reason? Therefore, Taiichi has been extra careful these past two days. He no longer attacks any slightly larger groups, for fear of falling into a trap set by Sunagakure and getting himself killed.

Two more days passed, and a large Resupply convoy set off from Sunagakure, its destination naturally the front-line Camp in the Land of Rivers.

In the past, Resupply teams of this size have been organized before. Every 10 days or so, Sunagakure would organize a Resupply team of this size to deliver supplies to the front line.

This time, however, the situation was slightly different. In addition to the normal Resupply of materials, the huge Resupply team, if viewed from above, would be found to be centered around a small five-person squad.

The rest of the Resupply and personnel surrounded it in layers, making the formation resemble a long, narrow eye, with the five people being the pupils within that eye.

Upon closer inspection, the five people in the middle were standing in a cross formation, while the four on the outer perimeter each held a chain engraved with runes. The other end of the chain was wrapped around the neck of a thin boy in the center.

Anyone with even a basic understanding of Sealing Jutsu would easily guess that this is a Reinforced Sealing Ritual, and the fact that Sunagakure would go to such lengths is naturally due to their trump card— the One-Tail Jinchuriki.

The First Hokage One-Tail Jinchuriki in Sunagakure was an old monk named Bunpuku. He became the One-Tail Jinchuriki at a young age and was imprisoned for his entire life, but his heart was never invaded by hatred and resentment, and he always maintained the clarity of his mind.

He is someone who can gain Shukaku's approval simply by having good intentions.

During the time Bunpuku was the Bunpuku, the Sunagakure Jinchuriki experienced Tailed Beast going berserk. However, this didn't last long, and even though Bunpuku lived a long life, he eventually died.

After the Sunagakure clan's attempt to Bunpuku Jinchuriki, the Jinchuriki tried several more, but none of them met a good end. They either died from mental instability at the hands of their fellow villagers or from being killed by Tailed Beast going berserk.

For example, the current Jinchuriki is already in a very unstable state. It's fine if he stays in the village normally, as there is a specific Barrier suppressing him, Shukaku inside the Jinchuriki can be a little more well-behaved.

Now, the difficulty of transferring the Jinchuriki to the front lines is unimaginable.

I've never seen such a large-scale operation before; it's all just to safely and smoothly transfer the Jinchuriki.

"Lord Kazekage, the situation is currently good. The Jinchuriki is emotionally stable and there are no signs of anything amiss!"

Jonin quickly rushed from the center of the group to the front, reporting the latest situation to the Fourth Kazekage.

"Very good. Keep a close eye on the condition of the Jinchuriki, and report any abnormalities immediately. If we can hold on for two more days, we'll reach the Camp."

Rasa smiled easily. If it weren't for the fact that a great victory was truly needed at the front, he would never have wanted to transfer the Jinchuriki. It was far too dangerous. Even he, the Fourth Kazekage, had to personally escort them to prevent the Tailed Beast from going berserk during the transfer.

"Yes!"

Just as the Jonin finished speaking and was about to leave, before he had even turned halfway around, Rasa's voice rang out again.

"Wait, go and notify the ninjas on guard duty in the surrounding area. Tell them to increase the area under surveillance. The next day's journey is the most vulnerable to attack, so we can't miss any suspicious activity."

Rasa was also helpless; they still had no good solutions for Minato Namikaze and Taichi Matsushita of Konoha, which led to Sunagakure's current passive situation in the rear.

Minato and Taiichi single-handedly forced Sunagakure to expend more than twice the manpower to successfully complete the transport Resupply.

This is also why Jiraiya and Shikaku wouldn't contact them unless there was a special mission; it's because they did an excellent job of sabotaging enemy lines, saving Konoha a lot of manpower.

Such a large Resupply team naturally could not escape Taiichi's search. Usually, Taiichi would not bother with such Resupply teams, mainly because he couldn't defeat them even if he wanted to, so he didn't bother.

Each reconnaissance is just a routine Scout, and the situation is reported to the command center after the day's work. This is also to make it easier for the command center to keep track of the Sunagakure's supplies in real time.

This time was no different. When Taiichi found this Resupply troop in the vast desert, they were only half a day's journey away from crossing the border, which would then be outside Taiichi's usual range of activities.

Hiding behind a sand dune, Taiichi's Chakra Perception gradually extended towards the distant group. After counting the number of people and sand camels in the group, Taiichi, as usual, was about to leave.

However, having learned the Spirit Transformation Technique, he further developed the unique Ninjutsu of Soul Vision.

So during this time, Taiichi would always use his Soul Vision to look around, firstly to collect data for future research, and secondly because his Soul Vision was so useful that he could often discover things that were invisible in normal vision.

Just now, as Taiichi's blue-glowing eyes swept over the Sunagakure's Resupply troops, a massive ball of soul light, the Taiichi had ever seen before, suddenly appeared in Taiichi field of vision.

He was so conspicuous that it was impossible not to notice him. Compared to him, the other soul orbs around him were like Fire Fly compared to the bright moon.

Now, Taiichi wasn't in a hurry to leave. Such an interesting matter shouldn't be left Scout; it would be a disservice to the command's trust in him.

Taiichi was full of confidence, like a cat spotting its prey, kicking its paws and wiggling its rear, its expression filled with excitement to find out what was going on.

Just as Taiichi was eager to try, a completely different scene unfolded in the Sunagakure Resupply team.

When his Chakra Perception covered the area, an inconspicuous ninja next to the Fourth Kazekage immediately reacted.

He was the sensory ninja specially selected by the Kazekage for this mission. Sunagakure is one of the Five Great Ninja Villages, and naturally there are many ninjas in the village who are skilled in sensory perception.

Given the importance of this relocation mission, and knowing that there were ninjas like Taiichi and Minato in the country, the Kazekage naturally had to ensure that everything went perfectly and plug any loopholes that could be plugged.

"Lord Kazekage, someone is Scout us!" the Sensor Ninja said calmly, clearly having been instructed beforehand not to make a sound.

Rasa's expression changed, and a look of disappointment appeared in his eyes. He still couldn't dodge it!

"Can you find out where the Scout came from?"

"Hold on!"

The Sensor Ninja began to concentrate. His perception was divided into two types: passive perception and passive perception. Just like before, when Taiichi's Chakra Perception covered him, he reacted immediately.

Another method is active Scout. He transforms his Chakra into a special kind of wave, which scans the surroundings around him like a radar.

In just a moment, he found what was unusual.

"Two kilometers to the Northern Front, there's someone hiding there!"

Two kilometers. Upon hearing this distance, Rasa knew without even guessing that the person Scout him was Taichi Matsushita.

Only he would conduct Scout against them at this distance.

Just as they feared most, the people Rasa least wanted to run into were Taichi Matsushita and Minato Namikaze, but they were indeed greeted by one of those two.

A series of hand gestures were made in the shadows, and the team silently completed the transmission of information. Everyone knew that they were being watched.