bookbashuk Chapter 341 You want to change seats?
Chapter 341 You want to change seats?
Chapter 341 You want to change seats?
There was no movement on the first night.
The next day, Chi Quan didn't let anyone relax.
They took turns resting and watching over the village, even eating in hushed tones. During the day, Jingyin took a break to go to the southern rendezvous point to confirm that the villagers were all settled. When she returned, she brought news that although the villagers were still shaken, at least they were alive and their food and lodging were temporarily stable.
As dusk approached and the sky began to turn red, Neji suddenly opened his Byakugan and whispered, "Someone's here."
Everyone looked up at the same time.
"How many people?" Chi Quan asked.
"Seven people outside the forest to the north. They're not villagers, and their chakra aura doesn't seem to belong to Konoha." Neji's gaze was fixed on the distance. "They're looking at a village. We won't go in."
Kakashi's eyes narrowed slightly: "Send a scout ahead."
Everyone immediately fell silent.
Neji continued to stare: "They're spread out, two in the trees, three on the ground, and two more piling up behind. They stopped—looking at the village entrance."
Shikamaru slowly sat up straight.
"They've arrived."
Silently, she gripped the notepad tightly in her hand.
In the distance, nothing was actually visible; only the treeline to the north of Guihua Village seemed darker than usual. But everyone here knew that someone in those shadows was already watching this deserted village.
Neji added, "They looked around for a while, but didn't go in. It was like they were memorizing the location."
Chi Quan said calmly, "Let them see."
"Hmm." Neji said after a while, "They retreated. They didn't get close."
Shikamaru let out a sigh of relief.
"More cautious than expected."
Chi Quan said: "Normal."
That night, the Allied forces' advance scouts did not approach again.
The next morning, a second wave arrived.
This time there were even more, twelve people.
Neji looked into the distance, his brows furrowing even more deeply.
"They have sensory abilities. And one with very stable chakra, like a Jonin."
Kakashi whispered, "This time it'll go in a little better."
Sure enough, not long after, Neji said, "They've made a move. The two of them went ahead and stopped at the village entrance—to look at those two houses."
Shikamaru's lips twitched slightly.
"I can see the fake traces."
Neji continued, "One person went into the room on the left, while another stood guard at the door. The person inside squatted down—he was removing the talisman."
Shizune couldn't help but hold her breath.
"Can it be dismantled?"
"It can be dismantled," Neji said. "That's not difficult at all."
Shikamaru said lazily, "Of course we have to let him take it down, otherwise how can this show continue?"
Neji's eyes remained unchanged.
"Another one has entered the house on the right. It's also being demolished."
The distance was eerily quiet.
There were no explosions, no fires, and nothing unusual. The advance squad of the allied forces seemed more at ease. After a while, Neji whispered, "Three more people have entered the village. One is watching the alley, one is watching the well, and one is directing from outside."
The pond remained still.
Kakashi glanced at him sideways: "Aren't you going to seduce him?"
"No rush."
Neji continued to watch: "They're pushing in. Four more have come in, splitting into two groups. Two went through the main alley, and two went outside the West Well Courtyard."
The silence rose higher and higher.
Shikamaru's voice was low: "Almost there."
"What's missing?" a young ANBU member next to him couldn't help but ask.
"We're just missing that one opportune moment when they feel they've pretty much understood."
Sure enough, after a while, Neji suddenly whispered, "That Jonin-looking guy has also entered. He's standing at the entrance to the main alley in the village, as if he's observing."
Shikamaru's eyes flickered.
"That's about it."
Chi Quan remained unmoved, only asking, "How many are in the well courtyard?"
"Two outside the courtyard, three inside. One went to the well."
Chi Quan looked up at the excessively quiet village in the distance.
A breeze blew by, and the old osmanthus tree's branches and leaves swayed gently.
"Wait three more breaths."
"
Silently, she felt even her breathing slow down.
Neji reported in a low voice: "The man by the well has squatted down—as if he's looking at the stone embankment. The other one is looking at the woodshed. The man at the main alley entrance has taken a step forward—"
Chi Quan's fingers landed on the remote spell in his palm.
"Now."
The next instant, he pressed down with his finger.
The distant Osmanthus Village fell silent for a moment.
Immediately afterwards, a short white light suddenly appeared in the house on the left side of the village entrance, where the fake talisman had just been removed. The light didn't come from the doorway or the corner of the wall, but rather from a sudden flash deep within the foundation. Before the Allied Forces ninja inside could react, the entire floor of the house seemed to have been ripped up from underneath.
boom!
The first explosion wasn't the loudest, but it was enough to startle anyone's heart.
Planks, dirt, stones, and pieces of window paper were violently blown outwards. The person at the door didn't even have time to back away; he was thrown out by the impact and crashed into the courtyard wall.
Almost immediately after the first sound, a second light came on in the main alley.
Not at the same time, but almost consecutive.
boom-!
This time it's heavier.
The seemingly ordinary courtyard wall at the alley entrance was blasted open from the base, with half of the wall, along with debris and mud, flying outwards and crashing into the two scout ninjas who were just about to retreat. The alley was already narrow, and the smoke and rubble completely blocked their view.
Immediately, someone in the distance shouted angrily, "Back off! Get out of there!"
But just as they shouted, a third loud bang suddenly erupted from the well in the West Well Courtyard.
boom!!!
The stone edge shattered completely, and the heavy medicine hidden beneath the well wall and ground rose almost vertically from below. The person crouching by the well was the first to be hit, half of his body being thrown off by the impact and debris. The two people beside him didn't have time to pull him up. At that moment, the delayed medicine packets in the woodshed also exploded, sending firewood and sparks mixed with medicine dust flying into the air. The entire courtyard felt as if it had been slapped hard by an invisible hand.
"There's an ambush!!"
"It's not an explosive tag! It's not a regular explosive tag!"
"Retreat! Retreat first!!"
The sounds were a chaotic mess in the deserted village.
But that's not all.
At the other end of the main alley, the beam of an unremarkable outbuilding suddenly snapped, and half of the roof collapsed with a crash, landing right in front of two Allied ninjas who were retreating hastily, completely blocking the way. On the other side, in the courtyard of the second row on the east side, the second-floor medicine station, which had only been slightly delayed, was also affected, blowing open the courtyard gate and half of the wall with a loud bang, sending mud and dust billowing into the sky.
The entire Osmanthus Village seemed to come alive in that instant.
It's not the life of the living.
It was a malice that had been hiding teeth everywhere, suddenly opening its mouth all at once.
Even from a distance, those behind the western slope could feel the tremors from the series of heavy explosions. The soil beneath the grass roots trembled slightly, and all they could hear were muffled thuds and the distant shouts and curses of the Allied vanguard in disarray.
Jingyin subconsciously closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again, the village in the distance was already filled with smoke and dust.
"This...this time..."
Kakashi looked at the chaotic scene in the village, his eyes curving slightly.
"That's enough to give them a good drink."
Neji, his eyes wide open, reported in a low, rapid voice: "Two people are down at the village entrance. The person in the left house is still alive, but can't get up. All three in the main alley are scattered, one with a broken leg. The situation is worst in the well courtyard; the one squatting by the well has very weak chakra, and two people outside are dragging people out—"
The Jonin behind him was retreating; he was searching for the source of the explosion.
Shikamaru stared at the cloud of smoke and clicked his tongue.
"They really went quite deep."
Chi Quan's fingers remained pressed on the induction, his expression calm.
"Wait until they take two more steps back."
Neji immediately said, "They're retreating. That Jonin is directing the remaining people out of the village. Someone tried to climb over the back wall—stop, there are medicine stations by the wall."
Almost immediately after he finished speaking, the wall at the end of the south alley exploded.
It wasn't the largest, but it just happened to force the two people who wanted to escape by using the back wall to stumble back into the alley, looking so disheveled that they almost looked like they were being chased.
Shikamaru felt sorry for them.
"This is truly embarrassing."
The commands from the Allied forces' side completely changed.
Previously, it could be discerned that they were cautiously probing, but now it was a complete mess of "get the people out first" mentality. The Jonin who was holding the line clearly still had some skill, forcibly stabilizing the few uninjured people, and while retreating, he raised his hand and released a wind release, forcefully blowing away the smoke and dust in the alley ahead.
But the smoke dissipated quickly, and what was revealed was even more unsettling.
Empty houses, empty courtyards, empty wells, with splinters of wood and dust floating in the wind. Overturned people and twisted door panels lie on the ground. Behind the walls, inside the houses, and in the alley corners, no one can say for sure if there will be another one.
The Jonin gritted his teeth and shouted, "Everyone evacuate the village! Leave no one alive!"
This time, they really withdrew.
Neji stared intently, his voice steady.
"There are six who can move, and three others are being dragged along. Two more couldn't be pulled out—they're probably dead."
Silently tighten your fingers.
She wasn't unfamiliar with dead people or battlefield wounds, but seeing an empty village like this, as if it had suddenly bitten her, felt quite different.
The advance team in the distance finally retreated from the village in a sorry state, only stopping when they reached the edge of the North Forest Line.
No one dared to set foot in the village again.
But they didn't leave immediately. Instead, they circled the empty village, cursing and looking around, as if unwilling to accept it, trying to figure out exactly what they had stepped on.
Shikamaru gazed at the shadows that had stopped in the distance and let out a soft breath.
"Alright, you've completely lost face this time."
Kakashi smiled.
"And you can only pick them up yourself."
Chi Quan didn't laugh; he just looked at the village in the distance, which had returned to quiet, his eyes calm to the point of being indifferent.
"This is just the first pot."
Shizune turned to look at him: "Are you planning to come again?"
"They won't give up on Osmanthus Village just because this team suffered a loss."
"But they already know—"
"Knowing there's a trap and not using that spot are two different things," Chi Quan said. "They'll only become more cautious and more eager to take over this place."
Shikamaru chimed in from the side, "And the more you want to bite, the more you need to get rid of this feeling first. That's how people are, especially when they've just lost face."
Neji was still staring into the distance.
"More than a dozen people came after them. They didn't go in; they just stayed outside to assist the wounded."
Kakashi said, "The message will be relayed back soon."
"Let them pass it on," Chi Quan said.
In the forest belt behind the western slope, the wind pressure is very low.
The vanguard of the allied forces outside Guihua Village in the distance had not yet fully dispersed. Several people ran back and forth on the outer edge, as if checking whether there was any further pursuit or a second wave of attacks. Some knelt on the ground to bandage their comrades, while others stood on the outer edge, occasionally looking back at the village, their expressions still showing the shock and anger of having just crawled out of a trap.
Shikamaru squinted for a moment, then suddenly spoke up: "They won't just let this go."
Kakashi placed the book on his lap and gave a soft "hmm".
"That team was just testing the waters," Shikamaru said. "If they suffer a loss, even more people will come later."
Shizune frowned: "But they already know there's something wrong with the village, will they still force their way in?"
"Yes," Chi Quan said.
His voice wasn't loud, but he spoke with certainty.
Neji, still with his Byakugan activated, kept his gaze fixed on the treeline to the north: "Another group has arrived—this time there are more, about twenty."
"The wounded should retreat first, then a new batch will take their place," Kakashi said softly. "We'll move quickly."
Shikamaru sat up straighter, his tone gradually becoming more serious: "It's not a simple replacement, it's an encirclement."
Shizune was taken aback: "Surround?"
Neji nodded: "Hmm—they didn't go directly into the village anymore. Some went around to the east, and another group pressed south."
Shikamaru clicked his tongue: "As expected."
Chi Quan didn't speak, but just looked at the open space outside the village where more and more people were gradually appearing.
In the distance, the Jonin-like man who had been the first to retreat had already rejoined the group that had arrived later. He stood on a slightly higher embankment, his gestures quick, as if he were redistributing manpower.
"They're spreading out," Neji whispered. "There are people on the north, east, and south sides—the west side is empty for now."
Shikamaru chuckled. "The west side is our side, so of course we're not in a hurry to crash into it."
Kakashi looked at Izumi: "Is it about time to move?"
Chi Quan shook his head: "Not enough."
Shizune couldn't help but ask, "Do we have to wait?"
"Wait until they get into full formation," Chi Quan said. "Right now, it's just a probing siege."
Shikamaru's eyes flickered slightly after hearing this: "You want them to think they've already secured their position before making any moves?"
Chi Quan did not deny it.
Time passed little by little.
Before darkness completely fell, the area outside Osmanthus Village was no longer just a few scattered groups of people, but had formed a loose encirclement. No one dared to enter the village again, but no one retreated either.
From a distance, it looked like a wounded beast, panting heavily around the empty village, yet reluctant to leave.
"They're waiting for orders," Kakashi said in a low voice.
As if to confirm this statement, not long after, an even more orderly team suddenly appeared outside the treeline on the north side.
Neji lowered his voice: "An even stronger one has arrived—their chakra is very stable, and there's more than one."
Shikamaru's eyes cleared completely: "The people above have left the stage."
The newly arrived team didn't approach the village directly, but stopped on the outskirts. Several people walked to the center, seemingly listening to a report.
Even from this distance, I could feel that the atmosphere over there was even more oppressive than before.
"They must be furious," Jingyin said softly.
Shikamaru chuckled lightly: "I'd go crazy too."
Chi Quan watched for a while, then suddenly turned around.
"Evacuate half the people," he said.
Everyone was taken aback.
Silently, she asked, "Should we retreat now?"
"Okay," Chi Quan said. "Those who stay behind to observe, the rest of you split into two groups and retreat deeper into the northwest forest belt."
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow: "You want to change seats?"
"It's not about changing, it's about leading."
Kakashi glanced at him, as if he already understood: "Do you think they'll chase after us?"
"Yes," Chi Quan said, "but not all of them."
"