As the four walked on, Bieshu Feifan and Shimura Daio gradually fell behind the other two.
"Feifan, my friend, what do you have in mind?"
Shimura Daio was the first to lose his composure.
It was clear that he, too, was very reluctant to undertake this almost certainly fatal mission.
Bieshu Feifan had no foolproof ideas either, so he asked in return:
"Daio, with your experience, what should we do?"
Shimura Daio clenched his fists, drew a deep breath, and leaned closer.
"Become rogue ninja."
When he said this, Bieshu Feifan could sense very little fluctuation in Shimura Daio's emotions.
He was serious, and he had thought it through.
Bieshu Feifan had considered it too.
But no, that would not work.
Even if becoming a rogue ninja kept him alive now, he had no ability to evade Konoha's pursuit after the war ended.
Besides, he, Bieshu Feifan, still had a wonderful life ahead of him. He absolutely could not become a rogue ninja just like that.
At least, he could not become a rogue ninja before the Uchiha Clan Massacre.
"That's a last resort. Are there any other options?"
Shimura Daio thought for a moment and offered another idea.
"Keep our distance, throw the Explosive Tags, and run. But that's very dangerous. We're only Genin. Escaping pursuit by Chunin would be hard. If Jōnin come after us, we basically have no chance of surviving."
Bieshu Feifan nodded.
"Daio, how far can you throw with all your strength?"
"About twenty meters. Not far enough."
"I don't mean Kunai. I mean spears, the kind we made before. Accuracy doesn't matter, as long as they go in the right direction."
Bieshu Feifan was thinking of tying Explosive Tags to javelins. With a Shinobi's physique, the throwing distance would certainly be considerable.
Shimura Daio fell silent for a while before giving his maximum range.
"Two hundred meters, but I couldn't hit anyone, and they'd have no power at all when they landed."
Two hundred meters. That distance already exceeded Bieshu Feifan's expectations.
Just then, the other two cannon-fodder Genin came over too.
"What are you discussing?"
The speaker was a youth with scruffy stubble.
His face still looked young and boyish, yet it was covered in stubble that he did not even trim.
The other cannon fodder approached from the other side too.
"Do you have any ideas about this mission?"
Shimura Daio asked in return:
"What ideas do you have? Tell us, and we'll see whether they're feasible."
The stubbly youth chuckled and said:
"Give it our all and complete the mission, of course. What, are you two thinking of slacking off? Heh, how shameful. As long as we can defeat Iwagakure, even sacrificing ourselves would be glorious. Konoha will remember our names."
Neither Bieshu Feifan nor Shimura Daio said anything as they looked at this hot-blooded youth.
The other cannon fodder, who looked a little older, said nothing either.
"What, are you really unwilling to sacrifice yourselves for Konoha? Heh."
When all three remained silent, the stubbly youth finally looked disappointed and shook his head.
"I, Sarutobi Jiububang, am ashamed to be in your company."
With that, the stubbly youth began sneaking toward the Iwagakure camp, where firelight was faintly visible, and soon vanished into the darkness.
Shimura Daio and the other cannon fodder wore grim expressions, their thoughts unknown.
However, Bieshu Feifan quietly activated his Byakugan, and the corner of his mouth immediately twitched.
After leaving the three of them, Sarutobi Jiububang looked back with every step.
Then, roughly three hundred meters ahead, he turned and ran off.
Bieshu Feifan immediately came up with a plan and looked at Shimura Daio, whose silence was certainly not out of shame.
"I have an idea. That Sarutobi Jiububang is a spy."
Shimura Daio and the other cannon fodder immediately rolled their eyes at Bieshu Feifan.
"Feifan, he's a Sarutobi."
"It's precisely because he's a Sarutobi that he can be the reason we failed the mission."
Shimura Daio's eyes lit up at those words. Many thoughts flashed through his mind, and that really did seem to make sense.
The other cannon fodder remained silent, seemingly weighing the pros and cons.
"Feifan, tell me your plan in detail."
Shimura Daio had now worked out the crucial point too. A Sarutobi-what a rare scapegoat.
Most importantly, his surname was Sarutobi.
Bieshu Feifan smiled.
"I already have a plan, but..."
As he spoke, Bieshu Feifan and Shimura Daio both looked at the cannon fodder neither of them knew.
The cannon fodder hurriedly waved his hands.
"I feel the same way you do. I want to live too."
"Good."
Then, as Bieshu Feifan explained their story, he activated his Sharingan and quietly began hypnotizing his two teammates.
Meanwhile, at the place where everyone had briefly rested earlier, all the Genin had been sent out, leaving only one Jōnin and ten Chunin.
The eleven waited silently, like venomous snakes lurking in the night, staring fixedly toward Iwagakure.
As long as those twenty-odd cannon-fodder Genin caused a disturbance, no matter how Iwagakure responded, the number of Shinobi guarding the central area would decrease.
That would be the moment for their Vanguard Squad to strike.
But they waited and waited, and there was still no sign of activity.
The distance was only a little over a thousand meters, yet several minutes passed without any movement.
One Chunin gradually grew impatient. Sitting on a rock with his arms folded, he kept bouncing his right foot.
"This batch of Genin is truly awful. Doesn't the village do any quality control?"
"Watch your words. Just wait patiently."
Just as all eleven were growing impatient, to the east,
Boom! Boom!
Several Explosive Tags detonated, lighting up a small patch of the night sky.
At the same time, a signal flare rose from the Iwagakure camp.
"Damn it, what is the eastern team doing?"
The explosions were at least several hundred meters from the outermost Iwagakure position they had scouted. One Chunin could not help cursing.
"Chunin Koizumi, your Genin were responsible for the east, weren't they?"
The Chunin named Koizumi wore a grim expression as he stared darkly at the fading firelight to the east. His fingernails nearly dug into his palms, and he said nothing.
Not long after the explosions in the east, explosions also erupted on the hilltop to the west.
Everyone's vision went dark. The western group was even more outrageous: their explosions were in the exact opposite direction from the Iwagakure camp.
As the one Jōnin and ten Chunin stood in grim silence, the cannon-fodder Genin from the east returned.
Hearing the hurried footsteps, the Aburame Chunin said:
"They're Chunin Koizumi's men. Only three."
Bieshu Feifan and the other two came running back in a sorry state, looking terrified.
The moment they approached the resting spot, three Chunin seized them separately and pinned them to the ground.
"We're on your side! It's me, a Genin from the team sent east!"
The other cannon fodder hurriedly identified himself the instant he was pinned down.
Bieshu Feifan and Shimura Daio hurriedly spoke up too.
But the three Chunin kept them firmly pinned and did not let go.
The Jōnin leading the team walked over with a grim expression, crouched down, and looked at Bieshu Feifan and the other two.
"Explain."
That single, brief word carried a dangerous warning. If anything was even slightly wrong with their answers, the three would have nothing but death awaiting them.
Shimura Daio and the other cannon fodder swallowed, not daring to answer.
Bieshu Feifan was afraid too, but he could still speak.
"The bearded one, Sarutobi Jiububang, betrayed us. Or perhaps he was an Iwagakure spy all along. Just now, when we were approaching the Iwagakure camp, he snatched the Explosive Tags we were holding and threw them at us."
Silence. A stretch of silence.
Only after a long while did Chunin Koizumi speak slowly.
"His name isn't Sarutobi Jiububang. It's Koshino Naka."
Just then, Uchiha Ji suddenly stepped forward and hauled Bieshu Feifan up. Red light flashed in his eyes, the two Tomoe in them fixed on Bieshu Feifan.
Without saying a single word, he immediately cast a genjutsu.
Bieshu Feifan had anticipated this. He exerted the full ocular power of his Sharingan, not to resist, but to hypnotize himself.
Thud.
A short while later, Bieshu Feifan was thrown to the ground.
"He wasn't lying."
The Uchiha reached his conclusion.
The raiding Shinobi fell into an even deeper silence, then all looked at the Jōnin leading them.
The Jōnin hesitated for a moment, then suddenly clenched his fist, his expression grave and solemn.
"We'll continue the attack."
"Then we'll be forcing our way in."
"Yes, we'll force our way in."
The Jōnin was resolute.
"Take them along too. See whether they can be of any use."
The Jōnin pointed at Bieshu Feifan and the other two.
But Bieshu Feifan lay on the ground, his entire body convulsing, his mind muddled.
Uchiha Ji smiled.
"He's under my genjutsu. He won't recover anytime soon."
As he spoke, Uchiha Kun also placed two Explosive Tags on Bieshu Feifan's body. If anyone disturbed them, they would explode.
Then the one Jōnin and ten Chunin swiftly left, taking Shimura Daio, whose face had grown even darker, and the other cannon fodder with them.
The instant everyone had left, clarity returned to Bieshu Feifan's eyes.
Before you continue