Kurotsuchi blinked her bright eyes, looking utterly confused.
Only after a long while did she finally react.
"You're not an Iwagakure shinobi!"
"Who are you? What do you want?!"
Kurotsuchi hurriedly shouted her questions, trying to hide the panic in her heart.
After all, she was only an eight-year-old girl.
Natsume smiled faintly.
When he'd arrived, he'd seen the future Leg Shadow groping around on the ground for something.
That had piqued his interest, and he couldn't resist popping out to tease her.
He'd just been messing with her.
Don't worry, he wasn't so depraved that he'd go after little girls.
Besides, he'd have to wait a few more years for her to grow up!
"Don't get worked up. I'm not here to kill anyone today."
"Relax."
Just then,
Deidara seemed to hear the commotion outside the Vault Attic.
"Hey, junior! What's that noise? Who are you talking to?"
"Big brother! There's an enemy! Come out, quick!..."
Kurotsuchi jumped up.
She backed away while shouting.
But before she could finish, the figure in front of her suddenly blurred and vanished.
Then,
she felt a tingling at the back of her neck and promptly passed out.
Clearly, the girl was quite capable.
But to Natsume, she was still far too weak.
She wasn't even at Chunin level, so of course one move was enough to knock her out.
The next moment,
Natsume laid Kurotsuchi on the ground.
Inside the vault, the anxious Deidara rushed out as well.
But before he could see what was happening outside,
his vision was swallowed by a pair of scarlet Mangekyō Sharingan.
Time grew confused, space shifted, and consciousness sank...
Before he knew it, Deidara had been caught in the Sharingan genjutsu and fallen into a deep sleep without even getting his Clay Bombs out.
"This kid really is hopeless against genjutsu!"
"Plotting to rob his own village's vault at such a young age—now that's talent!"
Looking at Deidara, unconscious on the ground, Natsume sighed.
Then he excitedly strode into Iwagakure's vault.
He planned to take home a few souvenirs while he was at it.
As soon as he entered the vault, the scent of money washed over him.
It made his breathing easier and his heart burn with excitement.
Though Iwagakure was isolated and poor at trade, and its vault reserves couldn't compare to Konoha's,
it was still one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, with a respectable amount of silver.
At a glance,
there had to be nearly a hundred million ryō!
Looks like he was about to make another fortune!
The next moment,
without a word, Natsume pulled out several Space Scrolls he'd prepared earlier.
He began sweeping up the silver that filled both floors.
Now that he thought about it, those Space Scrolls he'd won in the system's lottery were quite useful.
A single medium-grade scroll could hold twenty million ryō.
They were light and easy to carry, far more convenient than running off with several huge bags of silver.
Soon, Natsume had filled two medium-grade and six low-grade Space Scrolls.
He'd taken nearly half the silver in the vault—a full seventy million ryō.
He'd left Iwagakure with just over twenty million.
He wondered if Ōnoki would be furious enough to drop dead when he found out.
Well, that wasn't his problem.
At least he'd left Iwagakure something.
That wasn't too unreasonable, right?
After organizing the scrolls, Natsume was ready to leave with his haul.
Then he suddenly remembered something.
He quickly took out a Kunai and marked it with his Flying Thunder God Technique.
Then he leaped lightly and hid the Kunai behind a crossbeam above the vault.
Since he'd come all this way, he ought to leave them a little gift.
If the marked Kunai was discovered, no big deal.
But if it wasn't,
he could always teleport back and drop by whenever he had time.
Surely the "warm and hospitable" Iwagakure wouldn't reject a friendly visit?
With that, he left the marker and didn't linger. He activated the Flying Thunder God Technique and teleported away, following the marker he'd left earlier.
In an instant, he vanished from the vault as if he'd never been there.
Except for the fact that nearly half the vault had been emptied.
At that moment,
it had been barely more than five minutes since Ōnoki received the message.
Yet the anxious Third Tsuchikage had already flown at top speed for a journey that would normally take over ten minutes, arriving at the place where Natsume and Kitsuchi had fought.
Sure enough, a figure wearing a mask and a red-cloud cloak was waiting there.
The next moment,
seeing his son battered and unconscious on the ground,
the furious Ōnoki didn't waste a single word.
He attacked at once.
He went straight for Natsume's clone.
Earth Release techniques surged out in a torrent, covering the sky and shaking the earth.
No wonder he was an old monster who'd survived since the Warring States era. Though his Mountain Earth Jutsu wasn't as powerful as Kitsuchi's,
overall,
Ōnoki's control over ninjutsu, casting speed, flexibility, and everything else far surpassed Kitsuchi's.
Even without counting his Dust Release, known as the Strongest Spear,
his overall strength ranked in the upper-middle range among the Kage of the Five Great Shinobi Villages!
One Earth Release technique after another came in such a dizzying torrent that it was hard to keep up.
On top of that, he could fly.
He hovered high in the air, constantly bombarding Natsume's clone with ninjutsu.
Against him, ordinary shinobi without long-range attacks had almost no chance.
It made Ōnoki seem practically invincible!
Of course,
that was mainly because Natsume's clone had just fought a fierce battle against Kitsuchi and had little chakra left—barely over two cards' worth.
On top of that, his real body had taken the Kunwu Blade.
He also couldn't use any of the techniques or abilities that could easily reveal his identity.
That was why he was forced to fight with one hand tied behind his back, under Ōnoki's relentless pressure.
Otherwise, if Natsume's real body had been here, he could have activated Susanoo and wielded the Divine Blade.
Then Ōnoki would probably have been the one getting chased and beaten...
"Damn you! You're just a rogue shinobi from Akatsuki, yet you dare to oppose Iwagakure!"
"You're asking for death!"
Ōnoki roared, his eyes burning with fury.
He formed Hand Seals even faster, and his attacks grew fiercer.
At this point, the Five Great Shinobi Villages didn't pay much attention to rogue groups like Akatsuki.
Of course, as the Third Tsuchikage,
Ōnoki had lived through three Shinobi World Wars and had plenty of experience. His anger hadn't blinded him.
Instead, as he attacked, he searched for his enemy's weakness and openings.
He wanted to kill his foe with one strike!
After all, the enemy in front of him was genuinely powerful.
They'd already fought dozens of rounds, and he'd only managed to gain a slight advantage.
This man's strength was definitely no less than that of the Five Kage!
Across the entire Ninja World,
Ōnoki had never heard of any village producing such a powerful rogue shinobi!
What was more, the enemy still hadn't used his signature Kekkei Genkai, the Sharingan.
That made Ōnoki even more wary, keeping his guard up.
They continued to fight for a while.
Natsume's clone, having nearly exhausted its remaining chakra, judged that the time was right.
The next moment,
to Ōnoki's astonishment, it suddenly stopped resisting.
It let the many rock spears that erupted from the ground pierce it through.
"How could this be?"
"Why did he stop resisting?"
"Did he really run out of chakra?"
Seeing the enemy impaled, Ōnoki was startled and couldn't believe his eyes.
But in the next instant,
the enemy's figure burst into a cloud of white smoke and vanished.
"That's the Shadow Clone Technique?!"
Ōnoki cried out.
He stared into the distance, eyes wide, nearly popping out of his head.
He'd seen Konoha's Shadow Clone Technique many times. It was indeed ingenious and difficult to distinguish from the real thing.
But he'd never expected
that the enemy he'd fought so fiercely for so long was only a Shadow Clone!
This... this was infuriating!
But if the clone was already this strong, how terrifying must the real body be?
"Wait..."
"If he left only a clone here to hold me up, then his real body..."
"No! I've been tricked!"
"The enemy's target is our village!"
Only then did Ōnoki realize what had happened. His heart lurched, and regret flooded him.
He bore the title Two Heavens Scale and was the most senior of the current Five Kage, yet he hadn't seen through such a simple trick!
He'd been so desperate to save someone that his judgment had been clouded!
"Damn it! I hope the village is all right!"
Ōnoki cursed angrily, grabbed Kitsuchi off the ground, and hurried to return to the village.
But just then,
beside an inconspicuous Kunai stuck in a crack in the rocks,
a figure suddenly appeared.
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