Enemy Attack

"Madam, why do you only have one maid accompanying you on your journey? With so many treasures, why didn't you hire more warriors?"

Jingchuan couldn't hold back his curiosity. It seemed perfectly normal for a child to be curious, right?

The noblewoman froze. She clearly hadn't expected a child to notice this loophole, especially when so many Senju ninja outside hadn't noticed anything amiss.

She thought for a moment, then explained:

"It's precisely because we're worried that we hired so many esteemed ninja. I believe the Senju ninja will safely escort us to the Land of Lightning."

"Then why show off the treasures? Wouldn't that easily attract bandits?" Senju Kyogawa continued.

The noblewoman's smile stiffened. This time, she didn't answer.

She handed Senju Kyogawa an exquisite pastry and said, "Why don't you guess, Kyogawa?"

The noblewoman's guilty reaction only convinced Jingchuan further that something was wrong with this escort mission.

Senju Kyogawa was staring at the pastry in his hand, thinking, when the noblewoman suddenly asked:

"Why don't you try it, Kyogawa?"

Senju Kyogawa thought, There's no way I'd dare eat food you gave me.

Senju Kyogawa was just about to say, "I've never seen such an exquisite pastry before. I was planning to take it home and share it with my brothers."

Suddenly, Xiao Xi, who had been quietly playing with a grasshopper made of grass, dropped it and glared viciously at Senju Kyogawa.

Then Xiao Xi snatched the pastry from Jingchuan's hand and shoved it into his mouth.

His movements were so rough that Senju Kyogawa didn't even have time to react.

Xiao Xi chewed the pastry and swallowed it, his expression half laughing, half crying as he shouted:

"Mother, I love this pastry the most! Don't give it to him!"

He wailed, spraying crumbs from his mouth that fell onto the carriage floor.

Seeing Xiao Xi acting like a madman, Senju Kyogawa couldn't help shuddering.

What on earth is wrong with this kid?

Seeing that Xiao Xi was about to start wailing again, the noblewoman immediately grabbed another pastry and stuffed it into his mouth, coaxing him:

"Don't cry, don't cry. All right, all the pastries are yours."

But Xiao Xi was clearly harder to soothe this time. The word "pastry" was like a blade popping a balloon, making his frustration burst all at once.

The noblewoman held Xiao Xi in her arms, but he still flailed his hands and kicked wildly, leaving marks all over her neat twelve-layered robe.

He kicked wildly and wailed. Tears streamed down his face as if they cost nothing, mixing with snot and smearing all over him.

Even as he cried, he remembered to rub his face against the noblewoman's sleeve.

The noblewoman's expression stiffened at once, but with Senju Kyogawa there, she couldn't show her anger.

She took a deep breath and continued soothing Xiao Xi in a firm voice:

"Xiao Xi, stop crying and making a fuss. Your father won't be happy if he finds out you've been naughty again."

At those words, Xiao Xi stopped crying for a moment, but the next second he began shoving the noblewoman:

"No! No! I don't want him here! I hate him!"

Senju Kyogawa had seen enough of this farce. Knowing things would get awkward if he stayed any longer, he got off the carriage with the noblewoman's permission.

Not long after Senju Kyogawa climbed down, Xiao Xi's voice gradually quieted. It sounded like he'd given in.

The maid who had been accompanying them beside the carriage climbed aboard. She was probably going to help the noblewoman straighten her clothes.

Senju Kyogawa deliberately slowed his pace, gradually falling back from the front of the party to the middle-rear of the convoy, where the carts carrying those few chests of jewels were.

Only when he got closer did Senju Kyogawa notice the strange design printed on the chests.

It looked like a sickle extended from the bottom of a swastika symbol.

Senju Kyogawa looked up.

It was just past noon, and the sun was blazing. Its rays fell on the exposed jewels and refracted into dazzling light.

It's so glaring, Senju Kyogawa thought. Wouldn't this attract bandits to rob them?

Seeing a Senju ninja nearby, Jingchuan asked:

"Do nobles always like to leave their jewels exposed? Aren't they afraid they'll be stolen?"

The dark-skinned Senju ninja smiled and said:

"Some nobles would rather wrap their jewels up tightly, afraid the ninja escorting them might find out about them. But others like to show off their jewels, and often end up attracting bandits and thieves."

He thought for a moment, then added, "But since they hired us to escort them, the ninja who accepted the mission have to protect these jewels no matter what."

Senju Kyogawa nodded thoughtfully. It sounded like these nobles were simply confident that nothing could happen to them.

Still, Jingchuan felt there was something suspicious about this.

He leaned closer to the chest of jewels and discovered that it wasn't actually black. It was a very dark shade of crimson, and a strange fragrance wafted from it.

After taking a few sniffs, Senju Kyogawa started feeling dizzy, so he quickly moved farther away from the chest.

The smell faded when he was a little farther away, but it still lingered in Jingchuan's nostrils, making him uncomfortable.

"Have you smelled anything while standing beside this chest?" Jingchuan looked up and asked the dark-skinned Senju ninja.

The Senju ninja leaned close to the chest and took several deep breaths, then answered in confusion:

"No. Why?"

Senju Kyogawa shook his head, even more puzzled. Why was he the only one who could smell it?

Next, Jingchuan tried the same thing with the other chests, but he couldn't smell anything like it on them.

Could it be a coincidence?

But when Senju Kyogawa asked a few Senju ninja to smell the first chest, they all said they couldn't smell anything.

When Senju Kyogawa returned to the first chest, he could still smell that strange fragrance, only it had faded quite a bit.

Senju Kyogawa found Senju Chenghe and told him about all the strange things along the way. Senju Chenghe merely froze, then asked in confusion whether he might be imagining things.

Senju Chenghe was a sensory-type ninja, so he should have noticed something unusual, but he really hadn't detected anything.

Seeing Senju Chenghe's reaction, Jingchuan knew there would be no point asking the other ninja, either. He had no choice but to give up and return to the first chest.

As he walked, he reached a winding mountain road strewn with rocks of all sizes. Perhaps the road was too bumpy and the chest was packed too full, because a jade pendant fell from the top.

Senju Kyogawa picked up the white jade pendant. The front was carved with beautiful clouds, while the back bore a blood-red design—the same one as the design on the jewel chests.

Without drawing attention to himself, he clenched the pendant in his hand and quietly put it into his system space.

System, what does this design mean? And what's this strange fragrance?

[Host, this is something you need to investigate. Do not rely on the system. This matter may involve a hidden mission, so please investigate it yourself.]

Senju Kyogawa's mouth twitched. Great, this involved a hidden mission, too.

This damn system. What was the point of giving him this system when he transmigrated? Was it just to make his cheat abilities seem plausible? But weren't all his abilities half-baked anyway?

Forget it. I'll have to rely on myself for all of this.

When they reached halfway up the mountain, Senju Chenghe suddenly ordered the convoy to stop and shouted urgently, "Enemy attack!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, several massive rocks came tumbling down from the mountain. The Senju ninja at the front quickly used Earth Release to block them, sending the rocks plunging off the cliff.

Immediately afterward, countless flaming arrows shot toward the convoy.

The Senju ninja protected the convoy while dodging the arrows.

Two arrows broke through and shot toward Senju Kyogawa.

"Clang! Clang!" Two kunai knocked the arrows down.

Senju Kyogawa looked up and saw Senju Chenghe. He ran over to Jingchuan and told him to stay hidden.

Since Senju Kyogawa only knew Taijutsu, he naturally stayed out of the way.

Then the enemies who had run out of hidden arrows charged forward to fight the Senju ninja.

Senju Kyogawa held a kunai and fought several bandits.

The bandits were so skilled that they seemed like ninja, and Jingchuan was struggling. Fortunately, Senju Chenghe helped take some of them on.

"Ah—" A scream came from inside the carriage where the noblewoman was.