Preparing for War

After subduing them, Nakamura and Shikaki finally saw the Forehead Protector on their heads.

"Yugakure Ninja? Do you want to start a war?" Nakamura said, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"I advise you not to meddle in our affairs. This is an internal matter of our village. Otherwise, you will not have a good end!"

At this moment, Shikaki walked over and said, "But you have already interfered with our mission. Besides, even if we clash, so what? Don't forget, we were invited by your Yugakure Ninja."

"Why don't you tell us what this place used to be? Maybe you can make amends."

"Snort!"

"Alright, Shikaki, give up. Even if he doesn't say anything, nothing will happen. This won't scare him. After all, he's a Jonin, and his status in Yugakure is extraordinary."

"What should we do? Letting them go back now will affect our mission."

"I'll have my Shadow Clone Technique keep watch on them for now, and we'll see if there's anything we can do when Shiro return."

"That's all we can do," Shikaki said helplessly.

Then they continued searching the area, hoping to find some clues they had left behind, though the chances were slim.

Meanwhile, as darkness fell, Shiro made some adjustments and then stealthily made his way towards the stronghold.

After a day of observation, Shiro has preliminarily confirmed that this is a bandit gang, but further verification is still needed.

After arriving quietly, Shiro Projection Invisible Cloak and then carefully slipped inside.

Because the Invisible Cloak is only an E-rank Noble Phantasm and doesn't have a very strong invisibility effect, Shiro was very careful throughout the journey.

In the end, Shiro confirmed that it was just an ordinary bandit stronghold and had nothing to do with the Jashin Cult.

However, Shiro still memorized the information here, planning to take advantage of it after the mission was over. After all, this wasn't the Land of Fire, so he didn't have to follow that rule.

After that, Shiro returned, since the intelligence had been confirmed and there was no point in staying any longer.

On the way, Shiro saw the coded message left by Shikaki. He first walked into a corner without making a sound, and when he came out again, he had become a different person.

Following the coded message, Shiro made his way to the place where Shikaki and his group had scouted during the day. When he arrived, he found that Taichi and his two groups were also waiting there.

It turned out that Shikaki and the others had left a Shadow Clone Technique here to keep watch before returning, but they hadn't seen Shiro return for a long time, so just in case, Shikaki and the others came over first.

After learning the whole story, Shiro said, "What should we do with them? Why not just kill them? The snakes of Ryūchi Cave are quite adept at cleaning up corpses."

"No, thank you. Shikaki and I didn't really hide our actions today. They can easily find out. If we die, it'll be troublesome."

"I see. Then leave it to me. I recently learned a minor Genjutsu that can make people subconsciously ignore certain information, but it's not very effective for ninjas. We need to choose a good location for its placement."

"You're really becoming more and more versatile; you seem to be good at everything."

"Well, it's alright." Then, Shiro turned to Shikaki and said, "So, Shikaki, did you find the location?"

"No, this place is too close to the Yugakure. Moving here rashly would make us easily discovered. Can you enhance the effect?"

"It's possible, but it won't last long. To fool the ninjas, it would only take a day at most, and only against Genin, and those who aren't sensory ninjas."

The Shiro is going to use is Human Repelling Magecraft. It has no destructive power and was originally created to drive away ordinary people and prevent them from discovering the Magecraft, thereby reducing the mystery of the Magecraft.

Therefore, this Magecraft is neither outstanding in terms of effect nor in terms of lethality. Of course, there are more effective ones, but Shiro doesn't know how to do them.

Therefore, even with Medea's Magecraft knowledge as an aid, Shiro could only barely deceive the Genin.

"It's alright, that's enough. There aren't many ninjas in Yugakure, and most of them are Genin; they might not even have sensory ninjas."

"Alright, I'll start setting it up."

To enhance the effect of the exorcism Magecraft set up by Shiro, Shiro would need to come over every day to recharge and maintain it, which is very inconvenient.

However, Shiro and his men only need to hold the enemy captive for a day or two; it's not a big problem.

After making the arrangements, Shiro and the others took the opportunity to discuss the intelligence gathered that day.

First, there was Taichi and his group. "That location was occupied by a group of ordinary mountain bandits, not any ninjas, but their expressions were a bit off."

"Is something wrong?" Shikaki asked, frowning.

"I can't quite put my finger on it, but my insects told me something. It's just a very strange feeling, not like that of an ordinary mountain bandit."

"And what about you? Yue, Toyota?"

"There are many ninjas there, and the strongest one's Chakra reaction is even more intense than that of Jonin!"

"Real?"

Hearing Toyota's words, everyone's expressions became somewhat solemn. Although Chakra reaction does not represent combat power, it is one of its important indicators.

It's unlikely to be that weak.

"Really, I'm sure!"

"Hiss~ Huff~" Shikaki took a deep breath, then said, "This is really troublesome, Shiro, do you have any good news?"

"Yes, those people were just ordinary bandits. I sneaked in and checked them out last night."

"At night? What do you do during the day?"

"Watch them from the hilltop opposite them; there's nothing suspicious about them."

"Your eyesight is really good."

"Ha, of course, it's my family's secret technique, how could it be weak?"

"Alright, stop joking around, Shikaki, tell me your plan."

"Yes, Mr. Nakamura. I think our mission this time might not be so simple; we may have been tricked by some people from the Yugakure Ninja."

"You mean this guy's accomplice?" Upon hearing Shikaki's guess, Shiro pointed Jonin the Jonin and asked.

"That's right. I know the current leader of the Yugakure Ninja. He wouldn't do something so short-sighted. He's too busy trying to curry favor with Konoha, so why would he send a Jonin and Chunin to sabotage our mission?"

"But there's nothing we can do about them. We can't afford to provoke a war between two countries. Let's leave their messes alone, complete our mission and leave."

"One thing is certain: the Jashin Cult and the Yugakure are connected! Because both their intelligence and the locations of their activities have been handled extremely thoroughly!"

"Therefore, what was found in that report was just a cover-up. I have a clue about the real target, but I'm still missing something crucial."

"So, we'll cooperate with them and put on a show. Tomorrow, we'll split into two teams and wipe out those two strongholds!"

"Shiro, Tsuki, and Taichi, you three are the strongest. You'll be in charge of the location with the most ninjas."

Sorry, I had an upset stomach yesterday. This chapter is late, I apologize. ▄██●