bookbashuk Chapter 334 Not That Stupid
Chapter 334 Not That Stupid
Chapter 334 Not That Stupid
"Still pursuing them?"
No one responded.
A Jonin from the Land of Lightning gritted his teeth and formed hand seals.
"Lightning Release: Gratitude Wave!"
Several bolts of lightning shot along the woodland, heading straight for the foot of the pool, clearly intending to force him to move so that he could be attacked from both sides.
But Chi Quan didn't retreat at all.
He stomped his foot, and his chakra exploded instantly, flattening the entire ground as if it had been forcibly compressed. The lightning that had just shot forward was momentarily stunned. The next moment, a white light even more dazzling than lightning release burst forth from his palm.
It's not Chidori.
It's more like lightning and fire compressed into a single line.
The lightning ninja in the front row felt a white light before his eyes, and he was blasted away as if he had been pierced through from the front. The two people behind him were also overturned by the aftershock.
"withdraw!"
I don't know who shouted it first.
The remaining people finally realized that if they continued to chase after them, not only would they not be able to hold off the enemy, but they themselves would also be in trouble if they didn't make it back alive.
But once they retreated, Chi Quan stopped pursuing them.
He simply turned around, and with a flicker of his figure, he completely disappeared into the depths of the forest.
By the time the pursuers realized what was happening and tried to sense anything or look for any traces, there was nothing left ahead.
The tree is still a tree, and the wind is still the wind.
It was as if that person had never appeared.
Where are they?!
"The chakra reaction has disappeared!"
"How could they disappear so quickly!"
"The sensory class! Where's the sensory class?!"
"It's impossible to lock it in! The surrounding area is full of residual chakra and explosion marks; it's impossible to tell which path is the real one!"
Amidst the chaos, someone gasped for breath and looked up at the still-burning valley in the distance, their eyes filled with a mixture of anger and fear.
Meanwhile, the Konoha members had already reunited at a more distant point outside the treeline, following the pre-arranged route.
The moonlight was already setting in the west.
The group gradually landed in a secluded mountain hollow and took turns reporting their numbers.
"Shikamaru, it's alright."
"Kiba and Akamaru are both here."
"Shino, it's intact.
Neji, it's alright.
"Tenzo, your chakra consumption is high, but it doesn't affect your movements."
"Genma, alive."
"Likely to have been found alive, and also brought back two new kunai."
Kakashi landed last, lazily raising his hand: "I'm alive too."
All eyes naturally fell on the last position.
Almost immediately, the spring water gently cascaded down from the shadows of the trees above.
There was blood on his body.
But it's not his.
"Everyone's here," he said.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Tooth couldn't help but suppress his excitement and exclaimed, "That was awesome! Those guys' faces turned green!"
Shikamaru sat down on a rock and let out a long breath: "You'd better save your energy for now. They're definitely going to be looking for us like crazy."
"Let's look for it then."
"The problem is, we're not just going to bomb this one place, are we?"
As Shikamaru said this, he looked at Ikezumi.
Everyone else looked up as well.
Chi Quan glanced at everyone, his voice as calm as if he were talking about what to eat after dawn.
"Um."
"This is just the first one."
That short sentence silenced everyone who had just relaxed for a moment.
Kakashi laughed.
"I knew it."
His eyes widened: "Again?"
"Of course we'll do it again." Shikamaru rubbed his temples. "What's the point of doing this? Blowing up just one warehouse will hurt them enough, but it won't bring the whole plan to a standstill."
Chi Quan nodded.
"One warehouse, at most it will cause them chaos."
"It will take two or three to make them really stop."
Neji looked up: "When will we move on to the next location?"
"Stay put until dawn."
Chi Quan looked at the eastern horizon, which was just beginning to lighten, and said, "Let the message get out first."
Kakashi leaned against a tree trunk: "Let them spread the panic themselves?"
"right."
"That saves trouble."
Shikamaru couldn't help but chuckle when he heard this.
"I'm starting to feel a little sorry for those three big names."
Tooth looked at him strangely: "You actually sympathize with them?"
"It's not that I pity them as people," Shikamaru yawned, "it's that I pity their brains. They've already put together such a huge force, and before they even enter the Land of Fire, they've already lost a leg. If word gets out about this, what will those under their command, who aren't exactly obedient to begin with, think?"
Shino calmly replied, "I wonder if my own food supplies will be blown up any minute now."
Tianzang said in a low voice, "He'll wonder if he's just throwing his life away for someone else."
Neji said, "If Konoha has already infiltrated their rear, are there any larger ambushes ahead of the Land of Fire's border?"
As the crowd continued speaking, they realized that the significance of this night went far beyond simply blowing up a warehouse.
What was destroyed was the grain and fodder.
But what was truly ignited was the underlying tension within the Allied forces.
And that is indeed the case.
As dawn broke, the first group of escaping ninjas and officials had already spread the news to several nearby Allied forces outposts.
At first, some people didn't believe it.
"The grain silo was bombed? Are you kidding me!"
"Weren't there over two hundred people guarding the area last night?"
"The people from Konoha have gotten here? Are you crazy or am I?!"
But as wave after wave of people carrying cigarette ash and the smell of blood fled back, as more red signals rose one after another from the direction of the rear warehouse area, and as the people who were actually sent to investigate returned on ninja dogs with their sensory squad, everyone had to accept a fact.
The granary is really gone.
And it's not a small loss.
It was almost completely destroyed.
As the message was relayed further up the chain of command, the air in the temporary command camp where the three daimyo were located seemed to suddenly become scorching hot.
The daimyo of the Land of Lightning smashed the teacup in his hand on the ground.
"Say it again!"
The messenger ninja kneeling on the ground had sweat on his forehead and his voice trembled.
"The western front's supply depots were attacked by Konoha ninja last night. The main warehouse, troop supply warehouse, medicine warehouse, and ninja tool warehouse all caught fire and exploded. Currently, only a very small amount of remaining food has been salvaged."
"Where are they?! Have they caught the attackers?!"
"The pursuers have been deployed, but the enemy has already dispersed and retreated—"
boom!
The table shook violently when it was slammed down.
The daimyo of the Land of Wind had a frighteningly grim expression: "A bunch of useless idiots! They managed to defend a granary like this, and yet they managed to let them escape unscathed?!"
The daimyo of the Land of Earth was twitching, his voice filled with barely suppressed anxiety.
"That batch of grain was originally intended for the advance before next month! Without it, how will the reinforcements be provided? How will the people gathered at the front eat?"
Several officials in charge of coordinating supplies knelt on the ground, barely daring to breathe.
An older scribe said in a trembling voice, "Daimyo—if it were just food, perhaps it could be urgently transported from the rear. But we've lost a lot of rations, ninja tools, and medicine. Especially the several miscellaneous units that had already moved forward ahead, they relied on this relay point for supplies—if we proceed as planned now, I'm afraid, I'm afraid there will be trouble on the way."
The Daimyo of the Land of Lightning suddenly turned his head.
"You mean, we can't move forward anymore?"
The clerk lowered his head even further: "At least—in the short term, it is not advisable to force it forward."
"Not advisable?"
The daimyo of the Land of Lightning almost laughed in anger. "We've mobilized so many people for our three-nation alliance, and we've already made a big show of it. Now you're telling me it's not advisable to advance?!"
No one dared to respond.
Because everyone knows that the biggest problem now is not saving face, but having enough to eat.
With more people, the grain becomes heavier.
In particular, this coalition force was not a truly disciplined and well-supplied army.
There are too many miscellaneous troops inside, and their minds are too complicated. Many of them were only recruited because they thought they could "go in to the Land of Fire and get some meat." Once their food supplies run out, their medicine runs out, and their rations run out, the first to panic will not be the elite troops of the Three Kingdoms headquarters, but the hastily assembled troops on the periphery.
They will steal, run away, complain, and doubt.
They might even shift blame onto each other, saying who failed to guard the warehouse properly, who leaked information, or who deliberately tricked whom.
The daimyo of the Land of Wind gritted his teeth, his face extremely pale.
"Are you sure there's only one small team from Konoha?"
The ninja gave the order and bowed his head, saying, "Judging from the traces at the scene and the reports from the pursuit, the number of people was indeed small. Between a dozen and twenty."
"A dozen or so people —"
The daimyo of the Land of Lightning repeated it to himself, then his expression turned even worse.
A dozen or so people dared to sneak in, blow up their entire grain warehouse to ruins, and still manage to escape unscathed.
Once this gets out, what will those who are already not very stable think?
They wouldn't think, "The other side only sent a dozen or so people."
They'll just think, "If Ichiko-no-Hana can attack our rear like this, will there be a second or third one? What if we wake up one morning to find our supply wagons blown up? What if our supplies are cut off as we head towards the Land of Fire?"
This is the truly deadly part.
The daimyo of the Land of Earth, his face ashen, finally managed to squeeze out a sentence through gritted teeth.
"Pass down the order."
"————The plan to attack the Land of Fire, originally scheduled for one month later, is postponed."
When those words were spoken, the tent became so quiet it was almost suffocating.
Even the sound of the wind seemed to pause for a moment.
The Daimyo of the Land of Lightning whirled around: "What did you say?!"
"I said, postpone it!"
The daimyo of the Land of Earth was also enraged. "Do you want 30,000 men to march on empty stomachs? Or do you want them to enter the Land of Fire without even having enough rations, only to fall into chaos halfway there?!"
The daimyo of the Land of Wind closed his eyes and whispered, "We can't move now. At least—we have to wait for the supplies to be replenished from the rear and for the warehouses along the route to be re-established."
The daimyo of the Land of Lightning's chest heaved several times, but in the end, he couldn't refute it any further.
Even if he was unwilling, he knew that what he said was true.
The plan has been halted.
While the daimyo of the three kingdoms were gritting their teeth and forced to press pause, the news had already spread like wildfire through various camps and outposts of smaller states.
"Did you hear? The granary behind the building was blown up by Konoha last night!"
"Really? That's a long way from the Land of Fire!"
"How could it not be true! My cousin was there escorting the trucks, and he said the whole valley was burning red, and when people chased after it, they couldn't even catch a glimpse of it!"
'
"Damn it, do we still have enough food here?"
"Who knows! All I know is that the originally agreed-upon date will most likely be postponed."
"Drag? Why drag it out?"
"Are you out of your mind? We've run out of food, what are you doing pushing things around for if you're not going to drag it out?"
"Wasn't it said that only a dozen or so people from Konoha sent this time?"
"If a dozen or so people can take down a large warehouse, what about next time? Can you guarantee that a dozen or so won't come to the camp next to where you sleep?"
"----Depend on."
The discussion, which started as whispers, quickly escalated into widespread commotion.
The ninjas and mercenary samurai from those small countries, in particular, looked increasingly grim when they heard that the "plan was postponed."
They were lured here by the high price and the promises made.
The war hasn't even started yet, the rear has already been bombed, we don't even know if we have enough food, and the plans have been delayed again. How can anyone feel at ease?
Between the tents, complaints and curses lingered from daytime until evening.
The person who caused all of this had already disappeared without a trace.
The mountain wind, at its coldest time before dawn, swept through the treeline on the north side of the Land of Fire, making the treetops tremble.
The returning group did not take the official road, nor did they go straight through the densest line of border outposts. Instead, they followed the route that Chi Quan had planned in advance, circling back between two groves of tall trees and a dry riverbed. It was not yet truly dawn; only a faint gray-white light shone in the forest. Birdsong occasionally drifted from afar, but nearby it was so quiet that only the soft rustling of footsteps on fallen leaves and branches could be heard.
Ya sneezed and rubbed his nose.
"This awful weather! It's so hot at night that I'm sweating, but then it gets so cold it feels like it's going to snow just before dawn."
Akamaru perched on his shoulder, his ears twitched, and he let out a low hum.
Shikamaru walked beside him, looking visibly tired, barely able to raise his voice.
"The fact that you still have the energy to complain means you weren't tired enough last night."
"Who said I wasn't tired enough?" Ya glared at him. "I took down several guys last night."
"It doesn't matter how many you take down," Shikamaru said, clearing a thin branch from his path. "The important thing is that you don't come back to the village shouting at the Hokage Building that I took down several last night," or Shizune will kick you out first.
Ya was stunned for a moment, then his face darkened.
"I'm not that stupid."
Kakashi, who was in front, heard this and smiled with his eyes crinkling.
"That's hard to say."
Just as Kiba was about to retort, Neji had already gently landed on a branch in front of him.
"Two miles ahead, the Konoha ANBU are patrolling."
Chi Quan looked up: "You recognized me?"
"Yes, they're one of our own."
"Then let's skip the detour and go straight there."
The group pressed forward a little further, and sure enough, they soon saw two figures wearing animal masks descending from above. They instinctively assumed a wary stance, but their movements paused slightly when they saw who the person in front was.
One of them whispered, "Lord Chi Quan."
Chi Quan nodded: "How's the village now?"
The ANBU member quickly replied, "Order is normal. Starting late last night, the Hokage received news of a fire on the western front, and the intelligence team has been verifying it overnight. What about you—"
—
He paused for a moment, his gaze sweeping over Shikamaru, Kiba, Neji, Shino, and Kakashi.
"They're all back?"
"They're all back," Kakashi replied lazily. "Alive."
Another member of the secret service visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
"The Hokage instructed us to keep an eye on these areas and report back immediately once you return."
Chi Quan said, "Go and report it."
"yes.
"The two secret agents vanished in a flash, and the forest quickly returned to its original state of activity."
Further on, the outline of Konoha finally began to emerge. Tall walls, rooftops hidden behind the sea of trees, the thin mist that had not yet completely dissipated in the early morning, and the calm, silent lines of the Hokage Rock in the dim daylight.
His teeth couldn't help but grimace.