bookbashuk Chapter 353 A Branch of the Yanshui Family
Chapter 353 A Branch of the Yanshui Family
Chapter 353 A Branch of the Yanshui Family
"It wasn't expected." Helian pulled a wooden peg representing Konoha from the sand table, twirled it between his fingers, and said, "It was a gamble. A gamble on whether he would go in person. A gamble on whether he would still be the same as before, always rushing to the front whenever the sword was pointed at Konoha."
"You guessed right."
"Um.
""
Middle-aged people, however, did not become more relaxed as a result.
"Even if we win the gamble and Yun Jun and the others all die, so what? We know Izumi is on Konoha's side, but isn't that something we could have guessed?"
Helian finally looked up at him.
That one glance made the middle-aged man stop the second half of his sentence.
"Guessing is not the same as locking," Helian said.
The middle-aged man's brow twitched.
Helian didn't beat around the bush anymore.
"Bring me the records of the Yanshui clan."
The middle-aged man was stunned.
"General, you mean—"
'
"Go get it," Helian said.
The middle-aged man asked no more questions and turned to leave the tent.
The messenger on the ground was still kneeling, his legs beginning to go numb. Helian, however, seemed to have completely forgotten about him, still looking down at the sand table, only occasionally moving a flag half an inch to the side, or changing the position of two small nails representing patrol lines.
Not long after, the middle-aged man returned, carrying a long, narrow wooden box.
The box was black, with badly worn edges, as if it hadn't been touched much in many years. There was no national emblem or military seal on the box, only a very faint old line—like two intertwined water ripples, or like a crack that had been taken apart and then sewn back together.
When Helian saw the pattern, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
"open."
The middle-aged man placed the box on the table and opened the lid.
Inside was a yellowed old book, several sheets of thin, almost translucent parchment, and a very small black jade box. The black jade box was no bigger than half a palm, and all four sides were covered with densely packed ancient characters, like ants crawling in circles.
The tent fell even quieter.
When the middle-aged man picked up the box, his movements were much more cautious than before.
"Do you want to get tested now?"
"Of course," Helian said, "What are we waiting for?"
"But this thing—" The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment, "The Yan Shui clan is almost all dead. The 'mark' bloodline limit is inherently strange and unorthodox. Will it really be able to..."
"Yes," Helian interrupted him.
How can you be so sure?
Helian raised his hand, took the black jade box, and ran his thumb along the edge of the lid as if touching a familiar old object.
"Because I saw it with my own eyes back then," he said.
A hint of surprise flashed in the middle-aged man's eyes.
"You've seen it before?"
"I saw him once," Helian said calmly. "A member of the Yanshui clan, chased to the riverbank by Sunagakure. Half his body was almost gone, but before he died, he still managed to leave a mark on his target. Three days later, two other clan members followed that water mark and found him across half the border."
The middle-aged man frowned.
"Isn't it said that this bloodline connection requires a life as the medium?"
"More or less," Helian said. "Most people who leave a mark don't survive. But once it's successful, even if it's only half successful, the mark will remain in the bone."
As he said this, he slammed the black jade box onto the table, and the lid popped open with a "click".
There was a drop of something inside.
It looks like water.
But the "water" neither flowed nor dispersed; it condensed into a tiny, dark blue bead within the box. Occasionally, extremely fine white threads would flash within the bead, as if someone had tightly wound shiny threads inside.
The middle-aged man instinctively held his breath.
"Is this it?"
"It's not the main body," Helian said. "It's just the catalyst."
He opened the old booklet and turned to a page near the back of the middle. That page was older than the others, with even burn marks on the edges, but the writing was exceptionally clear. Several strange veins were drawn on it, like human meridians, but deeper and crooked, and in some places they looked like fissures crawling up bones.
The middle-aged man glanced at the page and muttered a few words: "Yan Shui — The Method of Severing Veins and Leaving Brands —"
Helian hummed in agreement.
"The Yanshui clan's ancestors were known for their pursuit and elimination. Their bloodline doesn't employ grand, sweeping killing techniques; their most ruthless methods are 'targeting' and 'pursuit.' Members of this branch possess a 'branding' ability within their chakra. If they risk their lives to strike an enemy, they can leave an invisible brand on their body. Normally, it's undetectable, indelible, and untraceable. However, if a member of the clan uses a trigger, they can discern the enemy's direction, distance, speed, and even..."
He paused for a moment, then lightly tapped the edge of a footnote on a page.
"You can even tell whether he's traveling alone or with a large group of people."
The middle-aged man felt a chill run down his spine.
"But weren't the Ke Yan Shui family almost wiped out in the previous battles?"
"The main branch is completely wiped out," Helian said. "The collateral branches still have a few. That's enough."
"You mean, one in the Cloud Falcon team?"
"It's not a cloud falcon," Helian said.
The middle-aged man was stunned.
"Not a cloud falcon?"
Helian took the blue bead out of the black jade box and placed it in his palm. As soon as the bead left the box, the white threads on its surface seemed to come alive and trembled slightly.
"Yun Jun only forced Chi Quan out," Helian said. "The one who actually did the work is that nameless guy at the back of the line."
The middle-aged man quickly went through the list of the raiding team from last night in his mind.
The Cloud Falcon of the Land of Lightning, the Needle Hand of the Sand Village, the Explosive Earth Ninja of the Land of Earth, plus two secondary attackers, and one other unremarkable young man from a Sand Village vassal family whose roster only lists him as "Yanshui Branch".
The man's presence was so weak it was almost as if he was deliberately hiding. He didn't reveal any special skills along the way, and Yun Jun didn't even put him in the lead, only letting him follow at the very back to finish things off.
The middle-aged man's breath caught in his throat.
"He wasn't going to finish off the enemy?"
"No," Helian said, "he went there to his death."
The brazier inside the tent crackled.
The middle-aged man stared at the blue bead in Helian's hand and finally understood why this person would laugh when he saw the news that "the surprise attack failed and the Jonin squad was wiped out".
"That person—did they run into Chi Quan?"
Helian chuckled softly.
"I found it," he said. "Otherwise, this catalyst wouldn't have come to life."
The middle-aged man's Adam's apple bobbed.
"When?"
Helian recalled the phrase "night battle on the ridge" from the note, and then thought of the composition of Yun Jun's team. A colder layer seemed to press down on his eyes.
"In the most chaotic moments," he said, "someone like Chi Quan wouldn't focus on the seemingly harmless last character. As long as the distance is close enough, as long as there's a trace of blood or chakra, the Yan Shui family's mark can be used."
The middle-aged man wanted to ask more questions, but Helian had already placed the blue bead on the old book.
He clasped his hands together, forming a very rare mudra.
It wasn't from the Land of Lightning, nor did it resemble the wind seal commonly used by Sunagakure, nor the heavy earth seal of the Land of Earth. This seal was very fine and slow, like someone closing their finger bones layer by layer underwater.
The green pearl moved.
At first, it only shone slightly.
Then, the strands of white silk in the pearl began to creep outwards along the edges of the pages, like extremely fine watermarks, seeping out inch by inch. The patterns on the old book were gradually illuminated by them, and the originally lifeless lines seemed to come alive on the paper, slowly veering in a certain direction.
The middle-aged man held his breath, not blinking.
The white silk stopped flowing not long afterward.
All the light focused on a tiny red dot in the bottom right corner of the page. The red dot wasn't drawn beforehand; it had just emerged from the paper, its color very pale, like blood soaked in water.
Helian looked down at that point, and finally a truly delightful expression appeared in his eyes.
"Found it."
The middle-aged people lowered their voices.
"Can it really be found?"
"Yes," Helian said.
He raised his hand, his fingertip hovering over the red dot, and gently traced it. Immediately, several fainter lines appeared around the red dot, spreading outwards like ripples.
"See that?" Helian said. "These aren't death marks, they're life marks. That means Chi Quan isn't dead, and he's been moving these past two days. He hasn't moved far, and the speed varies, proving that he's spent most of his time in areas with outposts or villages, only occasionally suddenly increasing his speed."
The middle-aged man blurted out: "Between the outer perimeter of Konoha and the border."
"Yes," Helian said.
"Could you be more precise? For example, where are we right now?"
Helian stared at the layers of water ripples and remained silent for a few moments.
"Not now," he said. "The bait is too weak, and the enemy is too far away. The Yan Shui family's 'brand' wasn't meant for you to stand in your tent and watch someone wash their face. It's for tracking direction, seizing opportunities, and setting ambushes."
The middle-aged man nodded, then frowned.
"Even if we know that Ichi Izumi is still in Konoha, and that he will make a move later, what can we do? As long as he stays in Konoha or behind a heavily fortified line, we can't just rush in and kill him."
This time, Helian genuinely smiled.
He put the green beads back into the box, closed the lid, but the smile remained in his eyes.
"Who said we were going to rush in and kill?"
The middle-aged man looked at him.
Helian turned around and walked back to the sand table.
"The most troublesome thing about someone like Chi Quan isn't his strength or speed," Helian said slowly. "It's that he'll never stand in a safe place and watch when someone raises their sword. As long as you're striking where Konoha truly hurts, he'll definitely come out."
The middle-aged man said in a low voice, "But it was already used at Qingniao Ridge."
"That wasn't used," Helian said, "that was just to make him show himself." "Now it's different. Now he has a brand on him."
"As long as he leaves Konoha's heavily fortified defenses again, we'll know where he's going, how far away he is, and when it's the right time to close in."
The middle-aged man looked at the dense array of flags and nails on the sand table and slowly said, "So your next step is not to attack Konoha, but to wait."
"Yes," Helian said, "Wait for Chi Quan to come out on his own."
"Go out and put out the fire?"
"Go out and cover the rear, go and rescue people, go and chase scouts, go and clear out the ambush, go and save whichever supply line, go and find whichever sentry post you want." Helian picked up a small flag and planted it a little south of the sand table. "As long as he comes out, as long as he leaves Konoha's main village, as long as the number of people around him is reduced to a certain extent," he pressed his fingertip, and the small flag was deeply inserted into the wooden plate.
"Let's shut up."
The middle-aged man fell silent.
Because he knew very well that Helian was right.
Chi Quan is the kind of person who won't back down.
Even if the gates of Konoha were right behind him, even if Tsunade slapped an order in his face, even if Shizune hit him on the head with medicine, as long as there was a place on the front lines that really hurt, he would still go there himself.
That's why this person is annoying, hateful, and why this war has been targeted by certain people from the very beginning.
After a moment of silence in the tent, the middle-aged man asked in a low voice, "General, you said before that one of the reasons for this battle was 'killing Chi Quan.' I originally thought that was just an excuse to appease certain people."
Helian did not answer immediately.
He raised his hand and pushed the flag representing Guihua Village on the sand table forward by half an inch.
"That's not an excuse," he said.
"That was one."
"It's a true story."
The middle-aged man looked at him.
Helian, however, seemed not to be looking at him at all. His gaze was fixed on a small open space at the very edge of the sand table, as if he were looking at something from long ago.
"Do you know why I'm willing to sacrifice so many lives to push the battle line towards the Land of Fire?" he asked calmly.
The middle-aged man didn't dare to answer.
Helian continued speaking to himself.
"Konoha's borders are strong, and their logistics are solid. If we had followed the normal tactics, even if we took a place like Osmanthus Village, we might not have been able to get a proper bite out of them. People like Cloud Falcon and Wind Priest are becoming increasingly rare. But I still attacked, and even sent more troops in." He paused, "Because someone above wanted this result."
"Up there?" The middle-aged man's heart skipped a beat. "Isn't it the Allied Council?"
Helian's lips twitched.
"The parliament?" He said as if he'd heard something insignificant. "The parliament only cares about map colors. The ones who really want to kill Chi Quan are a different group."
The middle-aged man lowered his voice: "Who?"
Helian looked at him and suddenly asked, "Do you know about the old case involving the Hamura family?"
The middle-aged man's expression changed slightly.
"Is it that—the ancient race that was wiped out within the Land of Fire?"
"Yes," Helian said, "to be precise, not annihilated," but wiped out. Many years ago, they made a deal with Konoha, but the deal fell apart, and most of their clan died. Those who survived hated Konoha to the core."
The middle-aged man frowned.
"But what does this have to do with Chi Quan?"
Helian said, "Some members of the Hamura family believe that the final blow was done by someone from the Ikezumi lineage. It wasn't done by the current Ikezumi himself, but by their sword-wielding ninjas much earlier, who completely severed the Hamura family's roots."
"So they're going to pin the blame on Chi Quan?"
"Yes," Helian said, "It's not just about reporting. As long as Chi Quan lives, they won't be able to swallow this insult. Not to mention..."
He paused, and the smile in his eyes grew even colder.
"Chi Quan is more valuable than the people before him in his lineage."
The middle-aged man asked, puzzled, "Why?"
"Because he stood out enough," Helian said. "He was conspicuous enough, a capable fighter enough, and someone Konoha couldn't bear to lose. His death wasn't just the death of a Jonin; it was a wound inflicted on Konoha."
The tent fell silent again.
It took the middle-aged man a moment to process the information before he could string the whole thing together.
The remnants of the Hamura family plotted to kill Ikezumi.
Helian wanted to attack the border of Konoha and was willing to use this hatred as a driving force.
Guihua Village is the nail, Yun Jun is the knife, Feng Jisi is the smoke, and the branch of the Yanshui family is the "eye".