Assassination, Schemes, the Ninja World (3K)

Chapter 234: Assassination, Schemes, the Ninja World (3K+)

Main Mission 1: Prevent Konoha's top-secret intelligence from being leaked and stop the outbreak of war.

The woman codenamed Catherine maintained a defensive posture while continuously calling out the coordinates of the ninjas trying to use the darkness to conceal themselves.

Ran fired wildly, and this formation quickly made the two of them the enemies’ primary targets.

But Catherine paid little heed to the shuriken and kunai being thrown at her. As a Bing-level Upper reincarnator, while she did not have the confidence to fight a monster like Mercenary Tao, against these Plot Characters without even names, it was…

"A piece of cake!"

Catherine suddenly turned around. The optical telescope in her hand floated automatically before her, freeing up her left hand to shove toward the outside of the room.

Boom!

A violent impact erupted instantly. The wooden wall exploded into countless fine splinters that shot into the darkness.

Two ninjas who had silently crept closer were blasted away in an instant. The one in front was immediately pierced through by the wooden fragments, while the one behind exploded into a cloud of smoke.

But Catherine lowered her eyelids and said coldly,

"Eleven o’clock."

Bang bang bang bang…

A terrifying mechanical storm swept forth instantly. As Ran held down the trigger and crazily poured out bullets, the adrenaline-rushing thrill made him lose control of his expression. His mouth hung open, his pupils dilated, and he laughed mindlessly.

"Die, die, die! The times have changed, ninjas!"

The ninja in dark attire used the Substitution Technique to evade the wooden fragments, only to find a torrent of ammunition like a flood of steel already pouring toward him. Instinctively, he formed hand seals with both hands, and his body hardened in an instant.

Earth Release: Hardening Jutsu!

Bang bang bang, pfft pfft pfft…

The first few shots were indeed blocked, but such overwhelming firepower, capable of firing nearly a hundred bullets per second, was not something a ninjutsu that made the body as hard as rock could withstand. His defense was quickly broken, and his body was blasted apart in midair.

Seeing the kill notification, Ran turned his firepower back toward the streets.

But in the next moment, the ground shook violently. The streets began cracking apart over a wide area. Catherine put away her optical telescope, maintained the defense outside the window with one hand, then swiftly moved behind Ran and smacked him hard on the head.

"Someone’s using high-level ninjutsu. We’re retreating first!"

The two of them then pushed off hard and flew backward. The wall behind them had long since been destroyed by their attacks.

The reincarnators in the other rooms also used their own methods. Since this was a team mission, they all knew that the ninjas lurking in the darkness had most likely been sent by the other Four Great Ninja Villages.

The reincarnators had been assigned to Konoha’s side. Their task was to recover the stolen intelligence, intelligence that would trigger a new war.

Before the house collapsed, a reincarnator with a golden ponytail leaped down lightly. He turned in midair, blue Transmutation Circles glowing continuously on the white gloves covering his hands.

The next moment, he brought his hands together, and an enormous Transmutation Circle appeared.

Buzz!

Terrifying wind pressure exploded forth. The stone slabs cracked by the Earth Release ninjutsu were instantly swept up like scraps of paper. Standing amid the raging wind, the man wore an unrestrained expression as he raised one hand. The gale wrapped around stone slabs, house debris, and corpses, sending them whirling through the air.

In only a moment, he locked onto his target: thirty meters away, an Earth Release ninja with one hand pressed to the ground. He was clearly a high-level ninja, capable of unleashing a jutsu that shook an entire stretch of street dozens of meters long by himself.

The man pointed his right hand in that direction.

Boom!

A bluish-white tornado wrapped in bricks, wood splinters, and flesh plowed a massive trench nearly a hundred meters long through the street.

At the end of the trench, only a mangled corpse remained.

The man landed on the ground, air currents still coiling around his hands.

Catherine and Ran, who had just emerged from behind the street, recognized him from that move.

"So it’s Wind Lord. Tsk, our side really is packed with talent this time. I’m getting more and more curious. What kind of intelligence could require all of us reincarnators to stand on Konoha’s side from the Space’s perspective…?"

When Catherine saw Wind Lord make his move, she grabbed Ran, who wanted to approach the Plot Character. She sensed that something was off. Rather than fight over some reputation rewards, she was willing to let Wind Lord take the first share.

Ran sniffed the air, looked toward the other side, and frowned.

"A reincarnator died."

He possessed a special sense of smell—or rather, a special sensory ability. Everyone had a distinct scent in his perception: strong, weak, and, with even greater detail, their combat style could be smelled as well.

For example, Mercenary Tao. Merely one glance, merely catching the faintest trace of his scent, had nearly made Ran’s insides churn from that dense smell of blood.

And now, the person giving off an aura of decay and death carried the scent of gunpowder.

He was probably a reincarnator specializing in firearms, killed beneath the collapsed house.

Following the direction Ran pointed out, Catherine focused her senses for a moment and nodded.

"Mm. His heart and throat were both pierced. He was probably assassinated by a ninja."

Ran had not expected casualties on their side during the very first step of the Main Mission.

"What a disappointment. Our side is clearly full of talent, yet someone died already."

Though his words were flippant, his expression had turned serious. Catherine was the same. Both were veteran reincarnators who had survived more than ten missions. To have lived this long, both their complementary personalities and their innate caution had been indispensable.

Without exchanging a word, the two had already positioned themselves back-to-back.

Catherine spread her hands, and an invisible barrier unfolded.

Ran’s expression grew solemn as the fur on his body began visibly lengthening.

Unlike Ran and Catherine, Wind Lord remained calm. The wind could tell him the positions of every enemy.

He was a true lucky man. His initial trial world had been the Fullmetal Alchemist Derivative World. As one of the worlds where abilities were easiest to acquire, and one with systematic paths for learning such abilities, he had smoothly obtained the relevant specialization and powers.

He had then steadily invested resources into them, successfully becoming a powerful alchemist. By his own estimate, if he were in the Fullmetal Alchemist World, he might even qualify as a State Alchemist.

Moreover, compared with Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist, he believed the Storm Alchemy he controlled was superior.

"Hey, it’s fine now. I’m with Konoha. I was sent to meet up with you."

He casually swept his gaze around. He discovered that after his previous attack, the nearest enemies had all retreated over a hundred meters away. In this silent town, there was most likely no one capable of matching him under such circumstances.

Well, except for that lunatic, Mercenary Tao.

As Wind Lord spoke, he had already arrived beside the wooden house. But at that moment, he suddenly noticed something strange.

Before they had acted, so many people had died in this town. The Iwagakure ninja who had attacked earlier clearly knew high-level ninjutsu capable of destroying terrain over a wide area. How could he have allowed a ninja and a woman to hide in that room for so long?

A chill suddenly ran through him. At that exact moment, he saw the woman looking at him through the window with terror in her eyes, shaking her head in warning.

Damn it, the enemy was—

The ninja in black night attire, who had been standing outside the window all along and whom Wind Lord had just shielded behind him, had already aimed his kunai at Wind Lord’s back and stabbed down with all his strength.

Crack~

He put tremendous force into it, but it was still blocked by an invisible shield. Wind Lord narrowly escaped death. His heart pounded violently as he roared and brought his hands together.

A powerful gale erupted between him and the ninja.

Boom~

"Ah!"

The woman’s terrified scream rang out. With his back facing the window behind him, Wind Lord instantly leaped backward. The string of sudden changes left him with no time to consider anything else. He was already preparing to take the woman and retreat first.

Bang~

The black-clad ninja swept up by the gale exploded into smoke. At the same time, a cold laugh sounded behind Wind Lord.

Only then did this reincarnator with decent enhancements realize the truth. He barely managed to turn his head, bringing his hands together again, but the crackling lightning behind him pierced through his body in an instant.

Screech~

Lightning Release: False Darkness

Lightning like a massive spear pierced through Wind Lord’s body and swept toward Catherine and Ran in the distance. But the two were extremely alert. The instant the attack erupted, they had already pulled away and retreated toward the collapsed house.

Rumble~

A massive cloud of smoke accompanied the explosion. As the dust dispersed, a tall Kumogakure ninja with slightly dark skin stood in the street, holding a charred corpse in his hand.

"Be careful. Three more got away."

Someone answered from the darkness on the other side.

"Don’t worry. They can’t get away. We’ve surrounded this place. Neither that woman nor those Konoha bastards can escape."

The Kumogakure jonin ignored those words. While people from several different ninja villages could temporarily join forces against Konoha’s reinforcements, the intelligence rumored to be capable of shaking Konoha’s foundations absolutely could not fall into anyone else’s hands.

He immediately used the Body Flicker Jutsu to reach the roof of an intact shop. They had nearly killed everyone in this small town. Konoha’s squad had already been wiped out, and this mysterious support force had been lured out by the intelligence and surrounded for extermination.

But that woman had disappeared without a trace.

His eyes swept continuously over the surroundings. Suddenly, his eyelids twitched.

On the battlefield that should have been silent, a remarkably tall man was lifting a female corpse from the pile of bodies. He gave her a shake, and the woman let out a pained groan.

At that moment, Ayai understood where the woman had been hiding. She had actually disguised herself as a corpse and, taking advantage of the darkness, lain among the bodies the entire time.

Because so many people had died and the situation was chaotic, they truly had not had time to verify the identities and vital signs of every corpse.

This woman…

No, now was not the time to care about that. That man should have been one of Konoha’s reinforcements attacked by Explosive Tags earlier. Why would he do this…

He had actually found the woman himself…

After lifting the woman up and confirming that she had not suffered any fatal injuries, Bai Cangshu set her back down.

The reason he had sought her out was naturally because he feared that while she was pretending to be a corpse, she might be caught in the splash damage from attacks by reincarnators or those ninjas. His Special Trial mission was not necessarily entirely identical to those reincarnators’ Main Mission.

It would be rather absurd if the trial failed because of something like that.

Therefore, after using the Transparent World to find the woman, he immediately checked her condition. If necessary, he would even use his last Please Don’t Die on this Plot Character.

"All right, keep lying down."

Hiranaka Hana glared furiously at Bai Cangshu, feeling only that these ninjas sent by Konoha were utterly idiotic.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~

Successive sounds of air splitting rang out. Two figures instantly appeared at Bai Cangshu’s sides, while two kunai flew simultaneously toward his heart and throat.

Bai Cangshu seemed not to have reacted at all, standing motionless where he was. Ayai, who had already prepared for the other party to evade, watched in astonishment as both kunai struck accurately. He and his clone stabbed their kunai toward Bai Cangshu’s vital points at the same time.

Clang clang!

The sound of metal striking metal rang out. As Ayai’s palm split open, his body instantly exploded into smoke. He immediately used the Substitution Technique to pull back once more.

But the other party still stood there without moving.

Bai Cangshu rolled his neck and looked somewhat disappointed.

"Ninjas, don’t charge straight in like that. Keep using those strange calculations of yours."

"Come on. Try everything you can to kill me."