Hidden Rain Enemy Attack

Xuanhui, dressed in black, crouched on a shadowy tree branch.

The tree looked to be fifty or sixty years old. Its slightly higher branches were just enough for him to get a foothold on.

Diagonally below lay Hidden Rain's encampment, and from his position, he could see everything happening within it.

His broad sensory range enveloped the entire hill, allowing him to detect any abnormal chakra movements.

Sitting on the branch, he pondered something.

How to make the adults treat him like an adult.

Having lived two lives, his mental age was already over thirty, and he had his own considerations when handling matters.

But being treated like a child really made many things inconvenient!

His parents did not feel at ease letting him travel far from home, while his seniors did not believe he could handle difficult missions.

There was nothing to be done about that. The only way to resolve this predicament was to produce solid achievements.

First, he should do the basic duties well. He needed to save some energy, since he still had research to continue during the day.

Xuanhui yawned. Leaning wearily against the trunk, he narrowed his eyes and entered a light sleep.

Orochimaru had taught him this. It allowed his mind and body to get brief rest while remaining alert.

The effect was only about half as good as actual sleep, but it was enough for him.

He only needed to spend a quarter of his daytime sleeping. That was hardly difficult.

When dawn arrived and sunlight had already spilled across the earth, Xuanhui sensed the Hidden Rain ninja coming out to patrol.

He coated the soles of his feet with chakra, lightly stepping across the branches as he slipped toward Konoha's encampment.

When he returned, Orochimaru had just gotten up. It was almost time for him and Jiraiya to take their shift.

"Yo! You're back!"

Orochimaru ruffled Xuanhui's hair and pointed at the tent behind him.

"If you have nowhere to stay, go to my place.

You can use my experimental equipment, but don't touch the data and samples on the right."

After saying that, he stretched with a series of cracking sounds, then turned to find Jiraiya.

"Mm... all right, let me take a look."

Unable to help himself, he yawned again. It seemed he still could not wake up early in the morning.

There was no helping it. He could not exactly conduct experiments with dark circles under his eyes. If he accidentally set the lab bench on fire, he might end up being fed to that old bastard Manda.

"I want a steady happiness~~"

Humming a little tune, Xuanhui's head touched the pillow, and he immediately fell unconscious on the bed.

Lost in his dreams, he trampled Madara beneath his feet, beat Kaguya Ōtsutsuki with his hands, became the most famous man in the ninja world, and received love letters from beautiful girls in every ninja village.

What a wonderful life!

But dreams had to end eventually. When Orochimaru woke him with a look of disgust, his drool had already soaked half the pillow.

"What wonderful dream were you having, kid? Get up! Look what you did to my bed!"

"Mm?"

The moment Xuanhui opened his eyes, Orochimaru hauled him up, picked him up, and rushed outside.

His steps were exceptionally hurried, growing faster and faster.

"What happened?"

The instant Xuanhui asked, he sensed that something was wrong. A force of roughly several dozen people was approaching Konoha's encampment.

"Our intelligence ninja in the southeast has been killed. They took the chance to sneak in!

Get up and prepare to fight!"

Xuanhui's mind was forcibly jolted awake. He leaped from Orochimaru's arms and followed him up the camp wall.

"Xuanhui, how many are there?"

Jiraiya and Tsunade were standing nearby as well, their eyes fixed intently on the silent forest.

Xuanhui closed his eyes, brought his fingers together, and formed a special hand seal.

Suddenly, Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru's gazes instantly sharpened!

Using the Mind Transmission Technique, Xuanhui shared the distribution of the ninja he had sensed with the three of them.

"Forty-three people!

Jiraiya, take care of the eighteen on the left flank! I'll handle the fourteen on the right!

Leave the rest to you, Tsunade."

After making the simple arrangements, Orochimaru turned to Xuanhui.

"You stay here as the mobile unit and send our people the enemy's positions."

The three exchanged looks, then vanished from the spot, each taking the initiative to intercept the enemy from a different direction.

Inside the camp, the ninja hastily organizing themselves suddenly received intelligence in their minds.

"This is... the enemy's formation?"

"Reinforcements! The Yamanaka Clan is here!"

"Great! We're saved! Brothers! Prepare to attack!"

The tense atmosphere instantly scattered like smoke.

People were uneasy because they feared the unknown.

Now that they had intelligence, the side with the initiative immediately became the Konoha ninja.

Most of the ninja left the camp and followed behind Jiraiya's group of three as they charged out.

The enemy jōnin leading the group was weaving through the forest. The drizzling rain concealed their footsteps.

They were confident that this large-scale surprise attack would make Konoha suffer greatly.

"Captain! Someone ahead!"

"Mm?"

Before the jōnin could react, a beautiful figure had already flashed before him.

"Die, bastard!"

Tsunade's heavy punch surged forward with tremendous momentum. The man only felt as though his ribs had shattered into more than forty pieces, while his entire body bent like a shrimp.

He spat out a mouthful of blood. Before he could even see who had attacked him, the scenery before his eyes began rushing past.

He had been sent flying.

He lay on the ground, his fate unknown.

"Captain!"

"You're not getting away either!"

Much of Tsunade's forward momentum had been spent in that blow, allowing her to step lightly off the ground and leap into the air.

Her body spun twice in midair, then her right foot descended from above, carrying terrifying force!

The ground instantly cracked apart. The surrounding Hidden Rain ninja all lost their balance and sank into the shattered earth.

On the other two sides, the Hidden Rain ninja who heard the massive noise slowed down, hesitantly looking toward their captain.

But in that moment of hesitation!

Earth Release: Yellow Springs Swamp!

Their steps instantly became unsteady, their legs plunging straight into the mud. No matter how they struggled, they could not pull themselves free.

Jiraiya trapped everyone before him in the muddy ground.

Wind Release: Sky-Splitting Palm!

On Orochimaru's side, the raging wind release instantly tore through several people's formation, opening dense wounds across their bodies.

The injured ninja were powerless to continue fighting and all fell beneath Orochimaru's sword.

"A few got away!"

The Konoha ninja noticed on the map in their minds that several chakra signatures were moving in the opposite direction, fleeing away from Konoha's encampment.

Suddenly, the image in their minds vanished.

They looked toward the raised platform and discovered that Xuanhui had long since disappeared.

He was rapidly heading toward the destination of the escaped fish—the Hidden Rain Village's Number Eight encampment.