NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 208: Chapter 208: The Beginning of the "Dawn" War
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Chapter 208: The Beginning of the "Dawn" War
On the road from the Land of Wind to the Land of Rain, in a narrow, inconspicuous valley.
A ninja unit wearing earth-gray vests and Sunagakure Village forehead protectors is hiding here. The Sunagakure Village ninjas who are good at earth-style ninjutsu have built simple fortifications in this place, with arched earthen bunkers standing in the valley.
It was now around 3:00 Am. Everyone in the Sunagakure Village in the valley was already fast asleep, and the only sound that could be heard was the sound of the brazier burning.
But at the only entrance and exit of the valley, the biting wind wrapped in rain blew into the sentry post through the windows on all four sides, making the two Sand Ninjas on guard feel like they were on a frozen tundra.
"Ah…A-choo!"
One of the Sunagakure Village kunoichi sneezed, shivered, and moved closer to the brazier, complaining, "This damn weather in the Land of Rain is so annoying!"
Another male Sand Ninja with good physique also unconsciously tightened his robe and sighed: "After all, the southern part of the Land of Rain is now so poor that there is no oil or water."
"We are going to enter the northern part of the Land of Rain without Konoha's knowledge and try to plunder the resources there before Konoha does. The operation must be kept secret."
"What a hassle." The Sunagakure Village female kunoichi crossed her arms and complained to herself, "Why choose a good time to launch a counterattack in winter? I feel like the cold wind is penetrating into my bones."
In some places in the Land of Wind, the highest average temperature in summer can reach 70 degrees, but once the sun sets, the temperature will drop sharply, and the lowest average temperature at night can reach below zero.
After winter comes, the lowest temperature can reach more than -20 degrees, which is much lower than the winter temperature in the Land of Rain.
However, the cold in the Land of Rain is different from the cold in the Land of Wind.
The air humidity in the Land of Rain is so high that no matter how thick your clothes are, people will still feel freezing cold.
"If we counterattack later, when the temperature drops, there will be even less money to be made in the Land of Rain."
Another Sunagakure Village ninja smiled bitterly and consoled him: "The top brass probably didn't expect the temperature in the Land of Rain to change so much."
The two chatted intermittently like this, and they started to miss home before they met the enemy.
This valley is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Unless someone can fly in from above, they can only attack from this small path which is only five meters wide.
There had been no unexpected situations before, and the two of them had relaxed unknowingly.
"Sigh, I don't know when Lord Domu will give the order to leave..."
The female ninja was just speaking, but at this moment, a cold wind blew by, and another Sand Ninja subconsciously looked outside the sentry post.
Seeing this, the female ninja immediately closed her mouth, straightened her expression, and followed his gaze, but she only saw a slanting black rain curtain and countless raindrops hitting the ground splashing up hazy mist.
"What's wrong?"
After a moment, she turned to look at her companion and asked with a frown.
The Sand Ninja's eyes flickered slightly, and he looked outside and said hesitantly: "Did you hear anything?"
Hearing this, the woman turned her head and looked out the window again. After listening attentively for a while, she shook her head and said, "No, I can only hear the sound of rain. Are you too nervous that you are hearing it wrong?"
As she spoke, it seemed as if raindrops fell on her cheek. She subconsciously raised her hand to wipe them away, but felt a sticky touch.
"Enemy..."
The female ninja's pupils shrink instantly, and without turning her head, she opens her mouth without hesitation, ready to warn.
Phew!
A blade pierced through her forehead, stopping her scream abruptly. The blood splashed onto the window, making a slight sound.
The dim, almost invisible moonlight outside the window poured into the sentry post, reflecting two shadows behind the two Sand Ninja corpses, as well as the faces of the two men.
"Too slow."
Nagato pulled out the short sword that had pierced the male Sand Ninja, looked at Yahiko in front of him and said sarcastically with an expressionless face: "You are so slow in killing a female ninja, I really don't understand why my brother let you hold me back."
Pulling out the sword from the corpse, Yahiko casually swung it to shake off the steaming blood on the blade, and said with some dissatisfaction: "I'm not good at assassination. Every profession has its own specialty. Didn't the boss teach you that?"
Having said that, Yahiko did not deny Nagato's words.
The male Sand Ninja was a perception ninja after all. The moment he noticed something unusual, Nagato crushed his throat and stabbed his brain with a short sword, crushing it. He couldn't even make a sound the whole time.
His moves were indeed fast and accurate, and Yahiko admitted that he was better than him in this aspect.
Seeing Yahiko admit it so bluntly, Nagato felt a little bored. He cast his gaze towards the innermost end of the valley and said in a cold voice: "I thought the people of Konoha were divided into two groups, but it turned out that the idiots from Sunagakure wanted to interfere."
"We haven't even gone to settle accounts with them yet, but they're coming after us again. They really think we're a soft persimmon that anyone can bully!"
Yahiko sheathed his sword and asked in an annoyed tone, "From what these two people said just now, there may be a big fish here. Do you want to go check it out?"
After a blood pigeon from the Intelligence Department discovered something unusual here, the two people who had originally planned to face Jiraiya's troops decided to come here and take a look.
After arriving, they found that there was indeed a very tight defense outside the valley. Even though they were quite far away from the valley, there was a guard post every ten steps and a sentry every five steps.
It took a lot of effort for Nagato and the other two to come here without alerting anyone.
"Although it's a bit unexpected that Sunagakure is here, with such strict guards, led by Chiyo's Son, who knows what they will do? We can't just let them go, right?"
Yahiko continued to add fuel to the fire, "Doesn't Jiraiya still have Uncle Yoru? Uncle Yoru has now been promoted to Upper Rank Four. Even if the two of us are not there, he shouldn't have much trouble fighting Jiraiya on his own."
Nagato ignored Yahiko and instead sensed the military strength in the valley, his brows furrowing ever tighter.
There are at least 600 Sand Ninjas hidden in the entire valley.
Jiraiya led a group of people to ambush near the river, ready to intercept the Amegakure Village troops after their defeat, and also to guard against sudden intervention by "City of Dawn". They had known about this matter a long time ago.
But when Sunagakure Village and Konohagakure Village were planning to work together to defeat the Amegakure Village forces, the Third Kazekage actually secretly dispatched such a force to cross the river to the northern part of the Land of Rain, which really surprised Nagato.
Is it really to get ahead of Konohagakure Village and plunder the resources of the northern part of the Land of Rain?
That's not right. When Ōnoki hired bounty ninjas to test City of Dawn, he was slapped in the face by them. The Third Kazekage should be well aware of this. Why would he take risks at this time...
"Are you planning to let the fisherman take advantage of the conflict between the two?"
Nagato was puzzled, but Yahiko suddenly spoke up, raised an eyebrow and said, "Is it possible that the real target of this Sunagakure Village army is not us, but the Konohagakure Village blocking force led by Jiraiya?"
Hearing this, Nagato had a flash of enlightenment in his mind and glanced at Yahiko beside him.
The real purpose of the Third Kazekage was not to plunder the northern part of the Land of Rain as these Sand Ninjas thought, but to let this Sand Ninja army ambush behind Jiraiya's Konoha army in advance.
Wait until Jiraiya jumps out to intercept the defeated Amegakure troops in front, and then let the Sunagakure Village troops jump out from behind to form a double-sided situation with those defeated Amegakure troops to surround Jiraiya.
In one fell swoop, it swallowed up the remnants of the Amegakure troops and the Konoha troops led by Jiraiya.
The Sunagakure and Konohagakure are still working together to deal with Hanzo and the Amegakure Village, but the Third Kazekage has already set his sights on Jiraiya?
"These big countries are really uglier than each other."
Thinking of this, Nagato sneered and whispered: "In their eyes, the so-called covenant is just a piece of paper that can be torn up at any time, and the so-called allies are just characters that can be betrayed at any time."
Sure enough, to deal with these guys, you have to beat them into submission, beat them painfully, and beat them to death, so that they will remember the fear and pain, which is more effective than the so-called covenant.
"So, are we going to take action?"
Seeing that Nagato remained silent, Yahiko asked impatiently.
"Don't underestimate Jiraiya. Yoru may not be able to handle him alone."
Having his thoughts interrupted, Nagato retorted coldly and then looked up at the distant sky.
A moment later, a pigeon with a completely black body and purple metallic feathers on its head, back and waist, gently flapped its wings and landed on Nagato's shoulder.
The black dove blinked its scarlet eyes and tilted its head to look at Nagato's face.
Under the envious gaze of Yahiko, Nagato raised his finger which was oozing with blood and handed it to the black pigeon, which sucked it into its beak.
"This is Nagato. Yahiko and I have now left the team and arrived at the target valley." Nagato spoke first.
The next moment, in the silent sentry post, Yahiko suddenly heard a familiar human voice coming from the black pigeon's mouth, and his expression instantly became interesting.
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At the same time, in the aerial fortress above the Land of Rain.
The control room in the center of the fortress was brightly lit and filled with trivial discussions, and in the center of the control room was a huge projection of the ninja world map.
In the huge projection screen there are many red dots scattering outward from City of Dawn, many of which are flashing and moving.
This is a technique developed by combining the Uzumaki clan's sealing and barrier techniques, the Land of Sky's Zero Tail technique, and Shinnō's blood demon art.
The Blood Demon Art that Shinnō possesses is not of the combat type, but more of an auxiliary type. It allows him to use "blood" as a possession and communicate with the outside world over long distances with the assistance of "Zero Tail" and barrier technique.
Although he couldn't forcibly read the thoughts of the person given blood and communicate with him mentally like Kumokawa who possessed the "Blood Curse", he could still sense that person's approximate direction and position.
Although Shinnō cannot control the humans who have been bestowed with blood, he can now control the pigeons that have been bestowed with blood.
In this projection of the ninja world, each red dot represents a blood pigeon, and each blood pigeon represents a team.
Shinnō was not fully aware of what had happened in each team, and he was only in direct contact with the blood pigeons, which meant that the command center could only wait for them to contact him proactively to obtain their intelligence.
"This is Nagato. Yahiko and I have now separated from the team and have reached the target valley."
Shinnō stood in front of the projection, and heard Nagato's voice in his ears. He looked at the projection in front of him, and finally fixed on the position where Nagato was, and said: "The command center has received it, what's the situation?"
"At least six hundred Sunagakure ninjas are hiding in this valley. The leader is Chiyo's son, Domu, and there may be Domu's wife as well."
Nagato described the forces in the valley, explained the speculation raised by Yahiko, and continued: "Yahiko and I will go to behead them, and you will need to send the air force to deal with the other Sand Ninjas."
"Also, Upper Rank Four: Yoru needs help. It's not safe for him to fight Jiraiya alone."
Hearing this, Shinnō looked up at the projection and saw the Upper Rank Four temporarily staying in place.
After a brief pause, he heard a familiar gentle voice and nodded, saying, "Lord Kumokawa told you to adapt to circumstances. I'll send someone to your place now. I'll also send Kakuzu to Upper Rank Four."
After the voice fell, Nagato said nothing and quickly disconnected the call.
Shinnō knew that this was his character, so he didn't care and turned to look at the other sky ninja who was in charge of the contact.
"An air force of one hundred men has been dispatched."
After a moment, the sky ninja looked up and said bluntly: "they will reach the target within 30 minutes at the latest..."
"Fifteen minutes." Before he could finish his words, Shinnō interrupted him and said coldly, "They are not the main force of the Sunagakure Village. There is no need to conserve their energy. Let them reach the target location within fifteen minutes!"
After saying that, he ignored the sky ninja who was hesitant to speak and used his Blood Demon Art once again.
At the same time, in the Finance Ministry office of City of Dawn.
"Wow, there are so many account books. When will we be able to sort them all out?"
Faint sobbing sounds were heard, and the sorrow and grief in the words made those who heard it sad and those who listened to it cried.
The account books on the table in front of Kakuzu had already piled up into a small mountain. Seeing the account books in front of Kazuto that were wet with tears, he immediately frowned and said in a deep voice: "Don't cry, the account books are all wet with your tears."
After saying that, he looked at the other table, but didn't see anyone there. He then looked under the table skillfully, and finally couldn't help but sighed, "Hantengu, that's enough!"
Dodo…dodo…
The table was shaking rhythmically, but not because of the earthquake, but because of the person under the table.
"Well, that's terrible, the original body is angry."
The face that was 90% similar to Kakuzu's was now pale and thin, full of fear and timidity. He was hiding under the table, holding the blue jar and trembling.
"Oh! Poor Hantengu."
Kazuto hurried over, held it in his arms, and said with a sad and pitying tone, "Original Body, look how scared Hantengu is."
Looking at his two weird clones, Kakuzu felt like his head was about to explode.
He felt that he should be angry now, but he didn't feel angry at the moment. He just felt that he was really miserable. This feeling was really uncomfortable...
Just then, a crisp sound came from outside the window.
Boom! Boom!
Kakuzu subconsciously turned his head and saw a pigeon outside the window pecking at the window glass with its beak.
"Coo! Coo!"
Seeing this, Kakuzu narrowed his eyes and sighed, "Jiraiya, I don't think it's easy to deal with... But, a clone with a fire attribute heart shouldn't be too annoying."
(End of this chapter)