Lightning Armor, Chidori Sharp Spear

"What about you? Did you find anything?"

Kakashi looked up at Mirai. Even Naruto and the others, who had been idling around, turned to look at him.

"Yes! And it's serious!"

Mirai said with rare solemnity.

Everyone froze at his words.

Curious about what Mirai had discovered, Kakashi hurriedly asked, "What did you find?"

"I ran into one of the strange people you mentioned too. I followed him to a house!"

"And then?"

When Mirai suddenly stopped, everyone stared at him eagerly.

"I secretly slipped inside and found a basement!"

"And in that basement, guess what I saw?"

Kakashi and the other three were clearly intrigued by Mirai's words.

The impulsive and impatient Naruto immediately asked, "What did you see?"

Mirai swept his gaze over everyone before saying, "I saw Ishikawa Kazuo and Xiong Jing!"

Shock!

Utter shock!

What was going on?!

Everyone looked completely dumbfounded, with no idea what this meant.

"Th-This... what is going on? What are those two doing?"

Kakashi frowned deeply, clearly not expecting such a development.

"The two of them were conducting human experiments in that house's basement!"

"And the epidemic in this village was also planned by those two!"

Those two pieces of information exploded in Kakashi and the others' hearts like back-to-back bombs.

"H-How could that be...?!"

Kakashi could hardly believe it.

"Mirai, are you sure you didn't get it wrong? The village chief is such a kind old man. He wouldn't do something like that..."

Naruto, who had always been a little simple-minded, immediately spoke up in defense of Village Chief Xiong Jing.

"Naruto..."

Sakura believed Naruto, but she felt that Mirai was even more trustworthy.

"What's their objective?"

Kakashi suddenly thought of a question: why were they doing this?

What purpose could there be behind something like this?

They could not possibly have carried out such a plan for no reason.

"I'm not entirely sure either. I only heard them mention humanoid weapons and poisoned humans used for poisoning."

Mirai frowned and voiced his speculation.

"I suspect their goal in poisoning the village was to strip the villagers of their ability to act, while also providing cover for their human experiments."

"After all, during an epidemic, if one or two people disappeared, they only needed to announce that they had died."

"At the same time, it would prevent the truth from getting out and stop anyone from fleeing the village to expose them."

Kakashi's face was filled with gravity.

Although this was only Mirai's speculation, based on Kakashi's years of experience, it was obvious that Mirai had guessed the truth.

By now, Naruto no longer had any doubts.

"I'm going to ask the village chief what exactly made him do this!"

Naruto shouted excitedly and immediately dashed off.

"This is bad! Hurry and bring Naruto back!"

Seeing Naruto like this, Kakashi knew something was about to go wrong.

He rushed out first, clearly intending to catch Naruto as quickly as possible.

Sakura and Sasuke said nothing, but they ran out as well.

The two of them might not have been very strong, but they were not idiots.

Where were they?

This was Kihara Village, and Kihara Village people were everywhere.

Once the truth came out, they would have to face the armed force of an entire village.

They did not believe that just the few of them could still leave the village unscathed.

So the most urgent thing now was to find Naruto and leave as quickly as possible.

Just as Mirai left the inn to search for Naruto.

A hidden door on the inn bed creaked open eerily.

A figure darted out from within. It was Ishikawa Kazuo.

"Since you already know, then enjoy the results of my experiment!"

His sinister voice echoed through the room, followed by a string of laughter.

Outside the village chief's house!

"Village Chief, why did you poison the people of Kihara Village? Why did you use them for human experiments? Why?"

Naruto was extremely agitated, his entire body swaying along with his words.

The once-friendly Village Chief Xiong Jing suddenly seemed like a different person.

He stared gravely at Naruto and said in a deep voice, "You know."

"Why? Why did you do this?!"

Seeing the village chief admit it, Naruto became even more agitated.

Clearly, he could not understand why the village would do such a thing.

"Brat, you wouldn't understand. And you won't have the chance to."

"You could have lived, but now that's obviously impossible!"

The cane in Village Chief Xiong Jing's hand suddenly stabbed toward Naruto.

The distraught Naruto never expected the village chief to attack without warning. Before he could react, the cane struck him in the abdomen.

Bang!

The tremendous force sent Naruto flying backward, skidding across the ground.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Supporting himself as he rose from the ground, Naruto coughed violently.

Xiong Jing twisted his cane, then drew a long blade from it.

As the blade left its sheath, it rang out with a sharp clang.

"Just wait obediently for your friends to come find you!"

Xiong Jing thrust his sword at Naruto, clearly intending to kill him in one blow.

Clang!

At the critical moment, Kakashi used a kunai to deflect Xiong Jing's thrust.

"Kakashi of Konoha!"

Seeing Kakashi appear, Xiong Jing seemed to understand that everyone from Konoha must already know.

He gave a sinister chuckle. "Looks like I can only send all of you on your way together!"

Though Xiong Jing was old, his strength was far from weak.

He swung his blade and charged Kakashi. For a time, the sound of clashing steel rang out nonstop.

The commotion caught the attention of three Kihara Village ninja.

The moment the Kihara Village ninja appeared, the village chief hurriedly said, "Kill the Konoha ninja! They're going to destroy the village!"

Hearing the village chief's words, the three ninja gripped their kunai and rushed toward Naruto.

Clearly, they intended to kill him.

Naruto's body had yet to recover. Facing the ninja charging at him, he could only evade in a panic.

Just as one of the ninja seized an opening and prepared to kill Naruto in one strike.

With a whoosh, a kunai flew through the air toward the ninja about to kill Naruto.

Seeing the kunai, the ninja swiftly retreated to evade it.

The kunai that saved Naruto had been thrown by Sasuke, who had just arrived.

Sasuke and Sakura had arrived in time.

"Naruto, are you okay?!"

Sakura glanced at Naruto's pale face, then focused her attention on the Kihara Village ninja.

Sasuke, meanwhile, kept his eyes fixed on the Kihara Village ninja, preventing them from launching a sudden attack.

"Kill them quickly! We absolutely cannot let them escape, or Kihara Village will be finished!"

Although the village chief of Kihara Village was fighting Kakashi, he was still worried that Naruto might escape.

In a pure swordsmanship contest, Kakashi was clearly no match for Village Chief Xiong Jing.