"What happened? What's going on inside?"
The two ninja guards at the stone chamber entrance heard the students cry out from within and turned to question Mingyou.
Mingyou shook his head nonchalantly. "I don't know. It seems Iruka suddenly fell ill and passed out."
"Is that so?" The two ninja exchanged a glance. Seeing nothing unusual, they pushed open the chamber's iron door and rushed inside.
Mingyou swaggered through the shelter's corridor, then hurried down the stone steps along one side of Hokage Rock.
"Whoosh~~"
"Whoosh~~"
The moment he was out of those Konoha ninja's sight, Mingyou turned into a series of afterimages and raced toward the Lord's Manor.
As Mingyou passed through the central plaza, he found that all the ninja gathered there earlier had vanished.
It seemed Hiruzen Sarutobi and his two disciples had already led those ninja to the battlefield.
That worked out perfectly. When Mingyou captured the Nine-Tails later, Jiraiya, Tsunade, and the others would not be around to interfere.
Mingyou considered himself powerful, but facing Sage Jiraiya while surrounded by countless ninja would definitely be exhausting.
There were even fewer ninja left in Konoha than when Mingyou had first infiltrated it.
With almost no trouble at all, Mingyou smoothly approached the outside of the Lord's Manor.
The Lord's Manor's defenses appeared extremely tight.
Along the outer walls, an Anbu ninja stood guard every few meters.
"Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Technique!"
Mingyou ran to a corner and rapidly formed a series of hand seals.
The water vapor before him began to churn violently. Within mere seconds, mist had shrouded the entire Lord's Manor.
"What's going on?"
"An enemy has infiltrated! All squads, stay alert and prepare for battle!!"
The two Anbu captains were the first to notice something unusual about the mist.
The other Anbu members