Sudden Change! The Mad Takigakure! (Thanks to Alex Mercer for the tip!)
"Mind's Eye of the Kagura is indeed very useful." Kazuki pretended not to know what Shiro was talking about and calmly replied to Shiro.
After all these years on the run, she had long since developed a calm and composed mindset, especially when facing her biggest secret.
"Heh, think what you want. All you need to know is that someone in Konoha can protect you." Shiro wasn't surprised by Kazuki's denial. Someone who could escape for so many years was certainly no mere pretty face.
"By the way, do you know Ninjutsu?"
"I can't do anything except senses."
"Tsk, that's troublesome. Here's what we'll do: you first sense the area to see if anyone's nearby, within the maximum range. Let's take care of the enemy first."
"There isn't a squad of ninjas a kilometer away." Originally, Kazuki didn't want to cooperate with Shiro, but after thinking about it, she told him anyway.
Since Shiro hasn't done anything suspicious to her yet, she can only trust him.
"Team One? Which direction?"
"There!"
"Okay, I understand, just a moment."
After saying that, Shiro looked around and found an open space to summon Bird No. 2.
"Come on up, let's go from the sky."
"Captain, let's split up and search. This is too inefficient."
A kilometer away, a group of Takigakure Ninja were heading towards Shiro and his group. One of the Takigakure Ninja complained to his captain.
"Alright, that's enough. We've already found traces of the target. Besides, don't forget what Cunxia and the others a couple of days ago. Do you want to get killed too?!"
"But we haven't heard from him in the last two days, which means he was probably just passing by. We've already found intelligence on our target, so we should speed things up."
Cunxia was one of the three captains of the Takigakure Ninja who were assassinated by Shiro, but that happened two days ago. In the past two days, Shiro has been focused on finding Kazuki, so he hasn't paid much attention to them.
This led some Takigakure Ninja to believe that Shiro had already left, and he was clearly one of them.
However, as the team leader, he naturally wouldn't be so careless, and immediately said, "Alright, let's be careful and not cause any trouble. We... um?!"
"Earth Release · Earth Style: Earth Wall!"
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
The three Takigakure Ninja were sweating profusely as they watched the sharp swords piercing the earthen wall. They were almost dead, but thankfully their captain reacted quickly.
But what they didn't know was that Shiro always planned for the worst, so this was just the beginning.
"Collapse!"
Shiro didn't look back, maneuvering the Flying Bird towards the camp. Although he had dealt with the enemy, the commotion was a bit too great, and he still needed to leave the battlefield as soon as possible.
Kazuki stared blankly at the rising smoke. The three Chakra reactions within it had disappeared, meaning they were all dead.
The people they had been avoiding all these years, even the one who cost her mother her life, were now being killed so casually by Shiro. She was still a little taken aback.
However, she should be saved, right?
Thinking of this, Kazuki's lips curved into a smile, and her mood was no longer as heavy as before.
When Shiro caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eye, he immediately felt relieved. The fact that she was smiling meant that she trusted Shiro somewhat, which was a good start.
Shiro certainly didn't kill those Takigakure Ninja ninja just to show off; one of his purposes was to demonstrate his stance and strength, hoping to put Kazuki at ease.
Being able to better cooperate with Shiro and the others' arrangements will be beneficial to the progress of the mission.
Another reason was that those few Takigakure Ninja must have discovered some intelligence, and to prevent them from finding anything they could track, Shiro simply killed them all to end the matter once and for all.
At the same time, the Broken Phantasm can also create more interference information, giving Shiro and his group more time to act.
And so, Shiro led Kazuki to the camp. However, because Shiro sent a message to Nakamura and the others after finding Kazuki, and he paused for a moment, they arrived before Shiro, who was riding the Flying Bird.
After all, Shiro didn't show himself as soon as he found him. Instead, he observed from the sidelines for a while and waited for the right moment to appear.
Because Shiro didn't know her attitude towards Konoha. After all, no matter what, Konoha had wronged them in the first place. Fortunately, although she had some opinions about Konoha, she was generally biased towards the village.
So Shiro appeared in front of her; otherwise, Shiro would have had to knock her unconscious to complete the mission.
"Shiro, is this the mission objective?"
"Yes, Captain, her name is Uzumaki Xiangyue, and she's our target for this mission."
"Hello, I'm Nakamura, Jonin Konoha. I was sent by the village to rescue you. Sorry to keep you waiting."
"It's nothing, I should be thanking you. Captain Nakamura, when do we set off?"
"The sooner the better, we're all unprepared, what about you?"
Kazuki shook her head and said, "I don't have any either, but I'd like to remind you that Takigakure has sent people to block them at the border between the two countries."
"Don't worry about that. We'll be flying over from the sky; they can't stop us. Besides, it's just a small Takigakure. They wouldn't dare linger on the border of our Land of Fire!"
Kazuki stared at them blankly, a strange look in her eyes. Over the years, she had never seen anyone with such confidence when talking about their country.
This Nakamura and the others had encountered such a situation, and therefore, it was also the first time she had felt curious about the unjust village her mother had spoken of. She wanted to know what kind of village it was that was so powerful, giving them such confidence.
"Shikaki, do you have any plans?"
"Mr. Nakamura, we don't have much intelligence. Don't forget, we didn't pass through there on our way here. But we still need to be prepared for battle. They should have a general idea that it's us."
"Therefore, there should be some monitoring of the sky."
"Alright then, Shiro, get the Flying Bird ready, let's set off."
"Yes!"
Afterwards, Shiro and his men cleaned up the campsite, disguised it, and set up several decoy traces before boarding the Giant Bird No. 2 to return home.
"Um, Shiro, right?" On the way, Kazuki called out to Shiro softly.
"What's wrong? Are you not used to this speed?"
"No, this speed is quite good. I just wanted to ask, who are my clansmen in Konoha that you mentioned?"
"Hmm? Oh right, I haven't told you yet. The one in Konoha is Uzumaki Kushina, your clan leader's daughter. She was sent to Konoha for some reason before the battle in the Land of Whirlpools even started."
"Soon after, news came that the Land of Whirlpools had been destroyed. Alas, she is still very lonely in the village. If you have time in the future, you can go and keep her company more often."
"After all, what is this?!"
Halfway through his sentence, Shiro stopped, looking in shock at the distance. Nakamura and the others did the same, while Kazuki, who had the most acute senses, was already cowering in fear!
I'm currently owing yesterday's update, which I'll make up for tonight. As usual, please vote! (^ω^)