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Chapter 217 "Hero?", Jinchūriki
Chapter 217 "Hero?", Jinchūriki
In the Land of Wind, in front of Sandstorm Castle, four Sand Village squads were running frantically to rescue their comrades who were being attacked by two enemy ninjas not far ahead.
At this moment, in their eyes, their companion from Sunagakure was in a pitiful state. His body was covered with wounds of all sizes, and blood was splattering everywhere, constantly reminding them that their companion was at his last gasp.
"Where did these thieves come from? Stop right now!" The leader of the Sand Village captain shouted, hoping to make the two men hesitate and abandon their pursuit of their comrade.
On Taiyi's side, seeing the Sunagakure "reinforcements" about to arrive, he was also happy. Damn, it hurt so much. He had never suffered so many injuries in all the time he had been a ninja.
Although it wasn't his own body, the pain was real. If reinforcements didn't arrive soon, he wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. Even though the injury wasn't fatal, the blood loss alone was almost killing him.
Seeing that the "reinforcements" were only a hundred meters away, and that the two Cloud Village ninjas seemed to be planning to retreat, Taiichi immediately unleashed his ultimate attack.
"They are the Cloud Ninja, seeking revenge for me!"
The shouts pierced the sky, and the Sand Ninja who rushed to the front heard their comrade's dying cry.
After Taiyi shouted these words, his spirit quickly left the broken body.
The intense pain immediately awakened his body's original soul, but what awaited him was a kunai piercing his throat.
With his hands weakly pawing at the enemy's palms, a gurgling sound came from his throat, and his body twitched weakly twice. Even at this point, the original owner of the body still didn't understand what was going on.
He just went out to a brothel for one night, did he die from exhaustion?
"Don't delay, get out of here!"
With time running out, the other Cloud Ninja didn't hesitate and immediately unleashed his most skilled lightning net, slightly hindering the pursuing Sand Ninja. The two then fled the scene without looking back.
"Giss, your squad stays behind, the rest of you follow me!"
Upon passing their comrade's corpse, the leading Sand Ninja gave the order. The group split into two: three squads continued pursuing the Cloud Ninja, while the remaining squad stayed behind to assess the situation.
"Captain, does he look like Shinji?" a team member examining the body said doubtfully.
"Shinji, that lecherous worm?" The captain thought he had misheard. That lecherous worm had the courage to fight two enemy experts until they arrived and finished delivering the information before finally collapsing and dying.
The ninja carefully examined the corpse's face and finally confirmed, "That's him. I drank with him. He had a mole in his right eyebrow. It's him, no doubt about it!"
"I never expected that Shinji would actually be such a man. I misjudged him before. Considering his loyalty to the village, his personal issues are just minor matters."
The captain was filled with awe. They had witnessed firsthand how badly Shinji had fared. He had thirty or forty wounds all over his body, yet he persisted in delivering the intelligence before being killed. Truly a role model for them!
"Yes, I've decided that I won't ask his wife for the money he owes me," a team member said sadly.
While the Sunagakure squad was still reminiscing, Taiichi's spirit had already returned to his body.
The moment the pain entered his body, he jumped up with a start, because the pain in his spiritual body was being reflected in his physical body, and it was really too painful.
It took Taiyi two or three minutes to catch his breath. It seems that he should be more careful with the use of this spiritification technique in the future, as the aftereffects are indeed unpleasant.
Once he recovered, Taiyi arrived on the ground and immediately activated his chakra perception. Soon, everything from the battle site appeared in his perception.
While they were still mourning Shinji, Taichi found it amusing. He never expected that the "pervert" would end up being given the title of "hero." It really is unpredictable how things turn out.
About half an hour later, the three teams of ninjas who had been chasing them returned. However, judging from their grumpy faces, Taiichi knew that they had definitely come up empty-handed.
Sure enough, their subsequent conversation confirmed Taiyi's guess.
"Sir, how is it? Have you caught the man?" the captain of the garrison asked directly.
The leading ninja's face darkened, and he glared fiercely at the captain who was left behind. He really knew how to rub salt in the wound; couldn't he see that they all looked unhappy?
"No, they were too fast. They disappeared from sight in no time. We couldn't stay away from the city for too long, so we all came back."
The team leader realized he had asked a stupid question and quickly changed the subject, recounting his discovery.
You know what, Shinji is quite a celebrity among the ninjas stationed in Sand City. Even the top ninja, who is a Jonin, knows him.
When they learned that it was Shinji who had been persistently passing on information to them, they couldn't help but sigh and marvel that appearances can be deceiving, and even the worst person has their shining qualities.
After cleaning up the scene, everyone returned to Sand Village. Shortly afterward, a communication eagle soared into the sky from the city and flew towards Sunagakure Village to report the sudden incident.
Taiichi withdrew his chakra perception, and that was the end of it. As for what would happen next, he could guess. He just didn't know if the Sand Village's higher-ups would be caught off guard by the Cloud Village again, just like in the original story.
If they can be distracted by strengthening their domestic defenses, the pressure on Konoha on the battlefield in the Land of Rivers will naturally decrease accordingly, making Taiichi's efforts here worthwhile.
He glanced at Shaming City from afar. He knew he couldn't stay here any longer. With such a spy incident, the city must be under martial law. There was no point in staying any longer; it was better to leave.
Time flew by and it was already mid-October of 46th year. Taiyi had been wandering around for more than half a month, leaving his footprints all over the Land of Wind except for Sunagakure.
It's safe to say that most of the Sand Village ninjas don't even have his understanding of the Land of Wind. And when it comes to mobility, if he claims to be number one in the Land of Wind, no one would dare to say they're number two.
This is because he has already set up the Flying Thunder God coordinates in every city and every oasis of the Land of Wind.
Thus, his intelligence-gathering ability is self-evident. He uses the Flying Thunder God Technique every day to shuttle back and forth between important locations. Upon arriving at a place, he uses his chakra perception to survey the surroundings. If there is no movement, he immediately moves on to the next location.
In this way, Taiyi can inspect the Land of Wind in about half a day. The only drawback is that the large desert area cannot be monitored, and this method is too energy-consuming.
Even with a chakra reserve like Etaichi's, this round will deplete most of his chakra.
Just recently, during his patrol, Taiichi discovered that Sunagakure had suddenly increased the intensity of its internal patrols. Not only were the supply teams traveling between the village and the front lines increasing in frequency and manpower, but the border patrols had also increased in number.
This anomaly immediately caught Taiyi's attention, as the saying goes: there must be something fishy going on when things are out of the ordinary.
Why would they suddenly strengthen their defenses for no reason? Therefore, Taiyi has been extra careful these past two days. He no longer attacks any slightly larger groups, for fear of falling into a trap set by Sunagakure and getting himself caught in it.
Two more days passed, and a large supply convoy set off from Sunagakure, its destination naturally the front-line camp in the Land of Rivers.
In the past, supply teams of this size have been organized before. Every 10 days or so, Sunagakure would organize a supply team of this size to deliver supplies to the front line.
This time, however, the situation was slightly different. In addition to the normal supply of materials, the huge supply team could be seen from the air to be centered around a small five-person squad.
The rest, whether supplies or personnel, surrounded it in layers, making the formation resemble a long, narrow eye, with the five people being the pupils within that eye.
Upon closer inspection, the five people in the middle were standing in a cross formation, while the four on the outer perimeter each held a chain engraved with runes. The other end of the chain was wrapped around the neck of a thin boy in the center.
Anyone with even a basic understanding of sealing techniques would easily guess that this is an enhanced sealing ritual, and the fact that Sunagakure would go to such lengths is naturally due to their trump card—the One-Tailed Jinchuriki.
The first Jinchuriki of the One-Tailed Beast in Sunagakure was an old monk named Bunpuku. He became the Jinchuriki of the One-Tailed Beast at a young age and was imprisoned for his entire life, but his heart was never invaded by hatred and resentment, and he always maintained the clarity of his mind.
He is someone who can gain Shukaku's approval simply by having good intentions in his heart.
During the time Bunpuku was the Jinchūriki, the Sunagakure village never experienced a Tailed Beast going berserk. However, this didn't last long; even though Bunpuku lived a long life, he eventually died.
After the Sunagakure clan's attempt to recruit Jinchuriki, the village tried several more, but none of them met a good end. They either died from mental instability at the hands of their fellow villagers or from being killed by the Tailed Beasts.
For example, the current Jinchūriki is already in a very unstable state. It's fine if he stays in the village normally, as there is a specific barrier suppressing him, and Shukaku inside the Jinchūriki can be a little more well-behaved.
Now, the difficulty of transferring Jinchūriki to the front lines is unimaginable.
I've never seen such a large-scale operation before; it's all just to ensure the safe and smooth transfer of the human jinchūriki.
"Lord Kazekage, the situation is currently good. The Jinchuriki is emotionally stable and shows no signs of distress!"
A Jonin quickly rushed from the center of the group to the front, reporting the latest situation to the Fourth Kazekage.
"Very good. Keep a close eye on the condition of the Jinchuriki and report any abnormalities immediately. If we can hold on for two more days, we will reach the camp."
Rasa smiled easily. If it weren't for the fact that a great victory was truly needed at the front, he would never have wanted to transfer the Jinchūriki. It was far too dangerous. Even he, the Fourth Kazekage, had to personally escort them to prevent the Tailed Beasts from going berserk during the transfer.
"yes!"
Just as the Jonin was about to leave, before he had even turned halfway around, Rasa's voice rang out again.
"Wait, go and notify the ninjas on guard around the area and tell them to increase the area of surveillance. The next day's journey is the most vulnerable to attack, so we can't miss any suspicious activity."
Rasa was also helpless. They still had no good solutions for Minato Namikaze and Taichi Matsushita of Konoha, which led to Sunagakure's current passive situation in the rear.
Minato and Taichi single-handedly forced Sunagakure to expend more than twice the manpower to successfully complete the transport and supply operation.
This is also why Jiraiya and Shikaku wouldn't contact them unless there was a special mission, simply because they did an excellent job of sabotaging enemy lines, saving Konoha a lot of manpower.
Such a large supply team naturally could not escape Taiyi's search. Usually, Taiyi would not bother with such supply teams, mainly because he couldn't defeat them even if he wanted to, so he didn't bother.
Each time it's just a routine reconnaissance, and the situation is reported to the command center after the day's work. This is also to make it easier for the command center to keep track of the Sand Village's material dynamics in real time.
This time was no different. When Taiyi found this supply unit in the vast desert, they were only half a day away from crossing the border, which would then be outside Taiyi's usual range of activities.
Hiding behind a sand dune, Taiyi's chakra perception gradually extended towards the distant group. After counting the number of people and sand camels in the group, Taiyi, as usual, was about to leave.
However, having learned the Spirit Transformation Technique, he further developed the special ninjutsu of Soul Vision.
So during this time, Taiyi would always use his soul vision to look around, firstly to collect data for future research, and secondly because his soul vision was so useful that he could often discover things that were not visible in normal vision.
Just now, as Taiichi's blue-glowing eyes swept over the Sand Village's supply troops, a massive ball of soul light, the first of its kind Taiichi had ever seen before, appeared in his field of vision.
He was so eye-catching that it was impossible not to notice him. Compared to him, the other soul orbs around him were like fireflies compared to the bright moon.
Now, Taiyi was in no hurry to leave. Such an interesting matter was not worth the trust placed in him by the command headquarters if he didn't stay and investigate it thoroughly.
Taiyi was full of confidence, like a cat that had spotted its prey, kicking its paws and wiggling its butt, its expression filled with excitement to find out what was going on.
Just as Taiichi was eager to try, a completely different scene unfolded in the Sunagakure supply team.
When his chakra senses covered the area, an inconspicuous ninja next to the Fourth Kazekage immediately reacted.
He was the sensory ninja specially selected by the Kazekage for this mission. Sunagakure is one of the five great ninja villages, and there are naturally many ninjas in the village who are good at sensory perception.
Given the importance of this relocation mission, and knowing that there were ninjas like Taichi and Minato in the country, the Kazekage naturally had to ensure that everything went perfectly and plug any loopholes that could be plugged.
"Lord Kazekage, someone is spying on us!" the sensory ninja said calmly, clearly having been instructed beforehand not to make a sound.
Luo Sha's expression changed, and a look of disappointment appeared in his eyes. He still couldn't dodge it!
"Can you find out where the reconnaissance came from?"
"Hold on!"
The sensory ninja began to concentrate. His perception was divided into two types: passive perception and passive perception. Just like before, when Taiichi's chakra perception covered him, he immediately reacted.
Another method is active probing. He transforms his chakra into a special kind of wave, which scans the surroundings around him like a radar.
In just a moment, he found the unusual thing.
"Two kilometers to the northeast, there's someone hiding there!"
Two kilometers. Upon hearing this distance, Luo Sha knew without even guessing that the person investigating him must be Matsushita Taichi.
Only he would launch a reconnaissance mission at this distance.
Just as they feared most, the people Rasa least wanted to run into were Matsushita Taichi and Namikaze Minato, but they were indeed greeted by one of those two.
A series of hand gestures were made in the shadows, and the team silently completed the transmission of information. Everyone knew that they were being watched.
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