Orochimaru Was Completely Taken In

Qian Ye's legs had gone completely numb.

He was moving forward purely on the will to survive.

His lungs burned, and every breath carried a thick taste of blood.

Fortunately, the rocket's explosion had been so loud that it intimidated the pursuers behind him.

Not a single Sunagakure ninja caught up to him along the way.

Just as Qian Ye felt he was about to drop dead in the forest,

the trees ahead finally began to thin out.

A massive wooden fortress appeared in his sight.

Several Hidden Leaf ninja in green vests patrolled back and forth atop the towering watchtowers.

He had reached No. 3 Outpost!

Qian Ye was practically in tears.

This was his fucking hope of survival!

Using the last of his strength, he stumbled out of the forest and sprinted toward the outpost gates.

"Who goes there? Stop!"

The guards in the watchtower immediately spotted the blood-covered stranger.

Two Hidden Leaf Chunin leaped down from above, their kunai aimed directly at Qian Ye's throat.

"Don't attack! I'm one of you!"

Qian Ye dropped to his knees with a thud and raised both hands high.

"I'm from the Third Logistics Supply Battalion! Something happened at the front!"

Qian Ye shouted desperately through his hoarse, broken voice, terrified the two guards would slit his throat with one careless twitch.

The two guards exchanged looks. One of them stepped forward to inspect Qian Ye's forehead protector and identification.

"Qian Ye? A civilian Genin?"

The guard looked at Qian Ye's deathly pale face and questioned him sharply.

"Wasn't the supply battalion supposed to be on its way to Kikyo Pass? How did you end up looking like this?"

Qian Ye panted heavily and pointed toward the forest behind him.

"It's all over! The supply line was cut off by Sunagakure's elite forces!"

"Rasa was leading them! Captain Jiro and the others all died covering me so I could deliver the intelligence!"

The moment Rasa's name was mentioned, the two guards' expressions changed instantly.

Although Hidden Leaf and Sunagakure had been clashing constantly along the border, full-scale war had not yet officially broken out.

Both sides were still locked in a tense standoff.

Yet now, Sunagakure's rising star, Rasa, had personally led a force to cut off the supply line.

This was undoubtedly a signal that all-out war was beginning!

"Quick! Take him to the command post!"

One guard grabbed the exhausted Qian Ye and rushed toward the outpost's interior.

The atmosphere inside No. 3 Outpost was extremely oppressive.

Ninja hurried everywhere, while crates of Explosive Tags and medical supplies were carried up onto the walls.

The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder.

Supported by the guards, Qian Ye passed through checkpoint after checkpoint until he arrived before the largest tent at the center of the outpost.

The guard loudly reported the situation from outside the tent.

"Bring him in."

A hoarse yet piercing voice came from within.

Qian Ye was pushed inside.

The tent was spacious, with an enormous sand table in the center.

A tall, slender man stood before it.

He wore a Hidden Leaf Jonin vest, and his skin was pale enough to seem sickly.

Long black hair draped over his shoulders.

Most striking of all were his golden, vertical pupils, which studied Qian Ye coldly.

Orochimaru!

Qian Ye sucked in a sharp breath inwardly.

This was the ultimate monster who conducted human experiments without batting an eye, though he probably had not yet developed his twisted obsession with immortality.

Orochimaru walked around the sand table and slowly approached Qian Ye.

"You said Rasa attacked your supply convoy?"

Orochimaru's voice was soft, yet it carried a pressure that made Qian Ye's scalp tingle.

Qian Ye hurriedly nodded and quickly recounted what had happened during the encounter.

Naturally, he concealed the fact that he had killed a Sunagakure Chunin and blasted the pursuers apart with a rocket launcher.

"Captain Jiro used the Great Fireball Technique to burn open a gap and told me to run back with the warning."

"I was the farthest away. I didn't even dare look back and ran straight to the outpost."

Qian Ye spoke with deep emotion and even forced out two tears.

Orochimaru listened in silence, his golden pupils sweeping back and forth over Qian Ye's body.

"A team of more than ten people, and even the Chunin died."

Orochimaru suddenly chuckled.

"And Rasa's elite subordinates let a civilian Genin who had just graduated get away?"

Cold sweat instantly drenched Qian Ye's back.

He knew such a clumsy lie would not fool Orochimaru.

This was one of Hidden Leaf's sharpest minds.

"I... I don't know either."

Qian Ye simply played dumb.

"One Sunagakure ninja was chasing me, but he stepped on an Explosive Tag trap that someone had buried along the way."

"He was blown straight into the air. That was the only reason I managed to survive."

Qian Ye forcibly pinned the rocket explosion on a nonexistent trap.

There was no evidence left anyway. He could make up whatever he wanted.

Orochimaru stared at Qian Ye for a full ten seconds.

The air inside the tent was so silent it was suffocating.

Just as Qian Ye thought he was about to be dragged away for dissection, Orochimaru looked away.

"Luck is also part of strength."

Orochimaru turned around and issued an order to the adjutant outside the tent.

"Pass the order: No. 3 Outpost is to enter maximum alert across the entire line!"

"Inform the Kikyo Pass front line that the supply route has been cut off. Tell them to prepare for Sunagakure's main force!"

The adjutant immediately left to carry out the orders.

Orochimaru waved a hand, signaling for the guards to take Qian Ye away.

"Take him to the Medical Team and treat his wounds."

Meanwhile, in the dense forest outside Kikyo Pass,

night had completely fallen, and the forest was deathly silent.

Rasa stood steadily in midair atop a Gold Dust Disc, his arms crossed over his chest.

His expression was extremely grim.

A full two hours had passed since the supply convoy had been wiped out.

The elite subordinate responsible for pursuing that Hidden Leaf Genin still had not returned to report.

A Sunagakure Jonin in an earth-yellow vest leaped several times before landing on a branch beneath Rasa.

"Lord Rasa, we searched the surrounding ten miles, but found no trace of him."

The Jonin knelt on one knee, his voice carrying a hint of unease.

Rasa gave a cold snort, and the temperature around them seemed to plunge to freezing.

"An hour has passed?"

The surrounding Sunagakure ninja all lowered their heads, not daring to speak.

This was indeed far too strange.

No matter how fast that Hidden Leaf Genin had run, he should not have been able to shake off an elite tracker completely.

Unless the tracker was already dead.

Rasa controlled the Gold Dust Disc as it slowly descended.

"Lead the way. Let's check the direction he was pursuing."

The group moved swiftly through the forest and soon arrived at the place where Qian Ye had fired the rocket.

The sight before them made every Sunagakure ninja suck in a breath.

A massive charred crater over ten meters wide lay across the middle of the forest.

More than a dozen towering trees around it had been snapped in half, their broken surfaces blackened by fire.

The earth had been blasted up in several layers, and an intensely pungent smell of smoke filled the air.

Rasa walked to the edge of the crater, crouched down, and grabbed a handful of charred soil.

Mixed into it were fragments of flesh and shattered pieces of a forehead protector's metal plate.

These were the only traces left of the elite pursuer.

"Lord Rasa, is this... an Explosive Tag trap?"

The Jonin beside him was trembling as he spoke.

Rasa rose to his feet, dusted the soil from his hands, and his gaze became incredibly sharp.

"This was not an Explosive Tag. Explosive Tags do not leave behind this smell, nor can they cause such concentrated destruction."

"Hidden Leaf either planted a large force here in ambush, or used some new ninja tool we know nothing about."

Rasa rapidly replayed the entire incident in his mind.

That Hidden Leaf Genin had deliberately exposed his tracks, luring his subordinate into pursuit.

Then he had launched a fatal strike here.

Not even a corpse remained, which meant the attack's power had been absurdly great.

Most importantly, that Genin had definitely already delivered the intelligence to Konoha's Third Outpost.

"Orochimaru must already know that the supply line has been cut off."

Rasa turned toward Kikyo Pass.

The original plan had been to cut off supplies tonight, then launch a surprise attack on the Kikyo Pass defenses at dawn tomorrow.

They would catch Hidden Leaf off guard and tear straight through its defensive line.

But now that the intelligence had leaked and Hidden Leaf was prepared, the surprise attack had lost all meaning.

If they continued to wait, Orochimaru would certainly deploy more forces to reinforce the front line.

Then Sunagakure's army would be dragged into a hard battle and might even be surrounded in turn.

"We cannot wait any longer."

Rasa's voice carried through the night, filled with resolute killing intent.

"Pass the order to the entire army! Abandon the concealed formation!"

"All combat units are to assemble immediately and launch a full-scale assault on Hidden Leaf's defenses at Kikyo Pass!"

Several Sunagakure Jonin immediately accepted the order and vanished into the forest as dark shadows.

Rasa stepped back onto the Gold Dust Disc and rose into the air.

A massive amount of Gold Dust surged from the gourd behind him, swirling through the night sky.

"Orochimaru, so what if you are prepared?"

"Before absolute power, Hidden Leaf's defenses are destined to be buried beneath the yellow sands."

A fierce wind suddenly rose, and endless yellow sand swept toward Kikyo Pass with a chilling aura of slaughter.