Root Ninja

Starting from the entrance of Konoha Village at noon, it will take at least ten hours to travel to the frontline battlefield of the Fire Nation.

In the evening, Shiraishi and his group found a piece of terrain that was easy to defend and difficult to attack and rested overnight, preparing to start again in the early morning of the next day, and then by the evening of the next day, they should be able to reach the front-line Konoha camp.

This time, the ninja war between Sand village and Konoha, its border line is at the border between the Kingdom of Rivers and the Kingdom of Fire.

This is a small country living between the two major kingdoms, the Fire Country and the Wind Country. The north is adjacent to the Rain Country. There are certain ninja forces in the country, but the organized ninja villages are too weak and have no reputation in the ninja world.

Therefore, in this war, the ninja power of Land of Rivers is almost negligible.

The six people are resting in the open space, but the desire to communicate with each other is not very strong.

After half a day of traveling, everyone was already exhausted, and they all hoped to have a good rest.

Secondly, the two teams are not very familiar with each other.

Maybe Jiraiya and Sakumo have a good relationship, but there is no connection between Shiraishi and Minato.

Even if they know each other, they just hear the other person's name by chance, and they can be regarded as nodding acquaintances, not even ordinary friends.

"His strength is very strong."

Shiraishi, who was leaning against a big tree, was frowning and meditating on natural energy, when Ruri next to him suddenly said this.

"What?"

Shiraishi stopped thinking, and raised his head subconsciously.

"This guy has no flaws in his whole body. Even when he was resting, he chose a terrain that is easy to defend but difficult to attack. He judged it immediately, which shows that his analytical ability is also top-notch. When facing Sakumo-Sensei, he did not appear arrogant or impetuous. He was not overwhelmed by Sakumo-Sensei's aura. He is very confident in his own strength."

Shiraishi understood Ruri was referring to Namikaze Minato on the other side.

Regarding Ruri's evaluation, Shiraishi nodded in agreement.

How can a ninja who can be brought by Sannin be so simple?

What's more, when he was in the ninja school, the other party had already emerged, and he was a well-known genius.

According to Shiraishi's estimation, Minato's current strength may have reached the level of a jounin.

"But compared to you, his strength should be worse."

Ayane said with a smile at this time.

Ruri's strength in Sakumo's team is second only to the captain Sakumo, plus the Uchiha clan's excellent blood-staining ability, it is generally difficult for ninja to get benefits from Ruri.

"You can only know this kind of thing after a fight."

Although Ruri is proud, she feels that Minato, who can follow Sannin, is not comparable to ordinary Jonin.

However, Ruri is also very confident in her own strength, especially after mastering the natural energy, the physical ability alone will make the elite Jounin feel an extreme headache.

What's more, in the battle, you must always pay attention to her Sharingan.

On the whole, if a battle really takes place, Ruri doesn't think it's possible for her to lose.

But it is also true that the opponent is strong.

If the situation permits, I really want to try it out. At this time, in this kind of place, it is better to exercise a little restraint.

"Okay, it's almost time for patrol."

At this moment, Shiraishi stood up and ended the topic of Minato.

Even if the last mission wiped out an elite army of Sand village, there has been no news of any damage in the Land of Fire recently, but we cannot relax because of this.

As long as you leave the village to perform tasks, you must pay 200% attention to prevent accidents.

The patrol tasks of the Sakumo team have always been in teams of two.

Shiraishi and Ayane are in charge of the first half of the night, and Ruri and Sakumo are in charge of the second half.

Now that the sky is almost dark, Shiraishi and Ayane also started their patrol work in the first half of the night, patrolling around to see if there are any enemies lurking.

Nodding to Ruri, Shiraishi and Ayane disappeared from the spot and started patrol work.

Ruri glanced at the backs of the two of them, but said nothing.

The task of patrolling is relatively simple for Shiraishi's group. After all, with Ayane's Byakugan, within a radius of five kilometers, as long as there are enemies approaching here, they will appear in the Byakugan without hiding.

Although it can't compare with the perception ninja in terms of range, perception ninjutsu can only determine the distance, direction and number of targets, while Byakugan's all-round surveillance ability can know what moves the enemy is using to attack Them, and what means he needs to use to control the enemy and quickly suppress the enemy's morale.

Because of Byakugan's credit, Konoha can avoid the enemy's well-designed traps in every battle, making any enemy's conspiracy ineffective.

"It's almost here."

In another forest, Shiraishi stopped.

Ayane has rolled her eyes, as long as anyone approaches this place, she will be noticed.

Next, they only need to make a regular turn around to complete the patrol mission in the first half of the night.

Shiraishi took out a note from the ninja bag and put it in Ayane's hand.

Ayane tilted her head incomprehensibly, but still held it in her hand, looked left and right, and found nothing unusual before opening the note.

It says—Are there any toads around?

"..."

Toad?

Ayane didn't quite understand why Shiraishi asked such a question, so she just shook her head slightly.

There are quite a few bugs around, but the nearest toad is more than a hundred meters away, and it is still in the river.

"It seems that there are no toads."

"Yes, there are no traces of toads around. But, why does Shiraishi-kun care about toads so much?"

Ayane blinked her eyes and asked the doubt in her heart.

"That's because a lot of toads have suddenly appeared in konoha Village recently. I'm worried that someone is setting eyes and ears."

"Arranging eyes and ears with toads?"

"Well, the one who did this is probably Jiraiya , one of the three Sannin. I heard that he signed a Summoning contract with the toad of Mount Myōboku.

This is the reason why Ruri raised cats, and it cannot be ruled out that someone is using toads to gather information.

"Are you looking for something?"

Ayane showed a pensive expression.

"It's not very clear, maybe it's monitoring something. Anyway, the matter of the toad has nothing to do with us. At most, we should pay attention to it when exchanging information in the future."

"I see, indeed."

Ayane nodded understandingly.

There is no abnormal situation happening around them, and there is no secret department to monitor, which means that the secret between them has not been exposed.

Excessive actions will add to the liking and attract unnecessary attention.

Even if something unexpected happens at this time, just keep the usual rhythm.

"By the way, there is one more troublesome thing to explain to you."

Shiraishi scratched his head, sighed helplessly, and didn't know how to speak for a while.

"trouble?"

"Ah, it has something to do with Ruri."

Shiraishi glanced away unnaturally.

Ayane thought of a possibility.

"Could it be..."

"Just as you think, our affairs have been exposed. So when the three of us act in the future, I don't need to deliberately hide my strength, and I will fight with all my strength."

Shiraishi continued to scratch his head, feeling that things were getting more and more troublesome.

Because of Ruri's specific attitude towards this matter, he couldn't guess any useful information at all.

But this is also good, when he acts in groups of three in the future, he doesn't need to hide his strength to cover up anything.

This may be better for completing the task.

In the future, as long as the credit is pushed to Ruri and Ayane, he will continue to be an inconspicuous little transparent.

After all, safety comes first.

"I see."

Ayane lowered her head slightly so that no one could see her expression.

Did not ask why it was exposed, because this kind of question has become meaningless.

So then you just need to relax and get along with each other.

But when I think about it this way, I feel a little bit unwilling.

It should be me who first came into contact with Shiraishi-kun's real secret, right? Ayane thought with some distress.

"Well, are you okay?"

Seeing Ayane lowering her head, Shiraishi was a little worried that she would be thinking wildly.

"No, it's nothing. Actually, I also think Shiraishi-kun should have told Ruri earlier."

Ayane raised her head and smiled, she had packed up her disappointment and didn't show it on her face. As for what was going on in her heart, only she knew.

Shiraishi can't read anything from Ayane's smiling face, compared to before, she has grown a lot.

So, it is better to end this topic as soon as possible.

I always feel that continuing this kind of topic and talking about another woman in front of one woman will make things extremely scary.

Afterwards, Shiraishi gave Ayane the practice method of natural energy, as well as auxiliary medicines.

Let her also use the natural energy freely as soon as possible.

To be honest, among the three of them, it is very likely that Ayane is the one who will receive the most benefit from natural energy.

Because the main fighting method of the Hyuga Clan is Taijutsu, which is the soft fist method used in conjunction with Byakugan.

Shiraishi couldn't guess to what extent Ayane could increase the power of Soft Fist after mastering the natural energy, but the benefits she will receive after receiving the natural energy will definitely be greater than him and Ruri.

Shiraishi is looking forward to what level Ayane's strength will rise by using natural energy and soft fists.

Ayane got the things, and didn't immediately start practicing here, but started patrolling around with Shiraishi.

No problems were found during the patrol in the first half of the night, but since the Jiraiya team also intervened in the patrol team, the patrol period was divided into three periods at night.

So Shiraishi and Ayane finished their patrol two hours earlier than usual and returned to the camp to rest.

The night passed and nothing happened.

In the early morning of the next day, a group of six people set off again.

They had been on their way during the day, and They finally arrived at the border area between the Kingdom of Fire and the Kingdom of Wind until it was almost evening.

The general base of Konoha's anti-sand troops is stationed here.

There are more than 2,000 Konoha ninjas here, and the commander is Orochimaru and Tsunade is the deputy commander, she is assisting Orochimaru in his work.

Even so, the situation on the front line is still not optimistic.

After strict review, Konoha Ninja, who guards the large camp, began to release.

After entering the camp, Shiraishi felt a depressive atmosphere completely different from that of Konoha Village.

Nursing staff carrying the wounded into the tent on a stretcher.

Gathered in twos and threes next to the tent, ninjas holding simple hot food in their hands, with a numb and thin face, ate the food in their hands dryly.

Then I don't know whether it was because they couldn't eat it or the food was too unpalatable. Many ninjas vomited directly, beat their chests and began to gulp water.

Passing through the medical area, you can still hear the howls of pain like ghosts coming from the tent.

Everyone's nerves were tense to the extreme, and there was only one detonation device that could detonate the negative emotions that had been suppressed in their hearts for a long time, and they collapsed on the spot.

This is war.

Sakumo and Jiraiya need to meet with Commander Orochimaru, and Shiraishi and Minato need to wait outside the camp.

The waiting time was not long. About a few minutes later, Sakumo came out of the tent, holding an extra scroll in his hand, which recorded the tasks that Sakumo's team had to complete.

"let's go."

"yes."

Time was running out, Sakumo was going to explain the mission content to Shiraishi and the other three while he was on his way.

"Then, we'll see you next time, Minato."

"Okay, goodbye. Please be careful."

Facing Shiraishi's kind farewell, Minato also smiled slightly, and watched Sakumo's team leave the camp with four people.

•••

"Next, we will split into two groups. The task is to cut off the supply of Sand village."

Wasting no time, about a few kilometers away from Konoha Camp, Sakumo stopped in a river valley area, and briefly described the content of the mission.

"Is it just our team?"

Shiraishi and others were slightly taken aback.

"Anbu will assist on the way. Another point is that this mission is of great importance, and no whereabouts can be revealed. Therefore, once you encounter someone who is not your own on the way... kill them all!"

Sakumo had a grim face, while Shiraishi and the other had awe-inspiring hearts.

It is impossible for the supply line of Hidden Sand Village to be placed within the territory of the Land of Fire. They can only cut off the supply line of Hidden Sand when they enter the Land of Land of Rivers.

That is to say... even if you encounter ordinary people in the country of Land of Rivers, you must clean up every single one to prevent their whereabouts from being leaked.

"From this direction, about fifteen kilometers away, there will be a team of Anbu to respond."

Sakumo pointed to the southwest direction.

Shiraishi and others looked in the direction that Sakumo pointed, and further ahead was the land of the river, which was not within the scope of the land of fire.

"If you understand, let's start to act."

After Sakumo finished speaking, he disappeared from another direction.

Shiraishi and others looked at each other, and they could see the seriousness in each other's eyes.

Not only issued a cruel order to wipe out all witnesses, but the goal of the mission was to cut off the supplies of Sand Hidden. This is an extremely difficult S-rank mission no matter how you look at it.

Even with Anbu's assistance, this mission is fraught with danger.

Shiraishi breathed out and said, "Don't worry too much. Since the higher-ups have given me such a task, it means that it is possible to complete this task. The most important thing now is to join the Anbu personnel."

Indeed, although Sakumo gave the three of them a mission, the specific steps of the mission were not given.

It can be understood that Sakumo has his own mission, and he only knows so much.

Shiraishi and others need to meet up with Anbu personnel to know how to proceed with the next mission and cooperate with Anbu.

Ruri and Ayane had no objection, so they acted immediately.

The distance of 15 kilometers to the southwest took more than ten minutes to arrive.

There, as Sakumo said, Konoha Anbu was dormant here, and there were four people in total.

But there is one thing that is strange, that is, the masks worn by these Anbu's faces are slightly different from the masks worn by Anbu ninjas that Shiraishi has seen before.

The mask patterns on the faces of these Anbu ninjas give people a feeling of depression and coldness.

Especially the eyes behind the mask, cold and heartless, without any emotional fluctuations, just like a group of machines.

"You are…"

"We are the ninjas of Anbu's root, and we will cooperate with you in this task of cutting off the supplies of Sand village."

The leader among them came out and said indifferently to the three of them.

"root?"

Regarding the doubts of the three them, the leading ninja did not explain anything, and continued to say in an indifferent tone: "The three of you will be responsible for the feint attack in the subsequent actions to attract the attention of the enemy, and we will be responsible for the destruction."

As he spoke, the leading ninja lifted his shirt, and his body was covered with 'explosive' character paper.

The three ninjas behind him did the same. They lifted their shirts, and their skins were densely covered with Explosive tags.

"..."

"So, once the feint attack plan is successful, you must find a way to get out of the battlefield as soon as possible and escape from it. Because we are all wearing special Explosive tags, which are very powerful. Don't blame us for not reminding you if you accidentally die."

"..."

It seems that in this mission, compared with the sand ninja, I should be the one who should be most vigilant.

Normal people, who would plaster themselves with Explosive tags that can explode at any time?

A group of lunatics! The three of them felt pain in their heads.

The three of them suddenly had the urge to pull away from these lunatics immediately, lest one of these people operate improperly, perform an unprepared

explosion art, and send all of them to heaven( kill them ).