chapter 33: Destruction
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"Sting."
The Kirigakure ANBU in front of him weakly uttered a word.
"Sting?"
Bai Shi frowned slightly and replied in a cold tone, "I asked for your name, not a code name."
There was another moment of silence.
Seeing the other party's hesitation, Bai Shi snorted coldly and exerted control over the vines within his body once again.
"Ah~"
A scream escaped Hase Yuto's mouth. After a few breaths, he finally shouted with all his strength, "Hase Yuto, ah~, my name is Hase Yuto~"
"Identity?"
"The Hidden Mist Village, assassination tactics special forces, member of the second team of the third squad."
"So, he is from the Kirigakure Anbu!"
Bai Shi had already anticipated the identities of these people, so he was not too surprised. What he cared about was their mission.
He asked again, "What is your mission this time?"
Hearing the word "mission," Hase Yuto suddenly became more alert. He actually endured the pain and hesitated to speak.
However, he was not one of the "eliminated" tools of the Root Organization. Although he had gone through a cruel selection process, he was still a normal person after all.
Thus, in this situation where there was no hope of survival and no way to die, he finally surrendered.
Seeing that Hase Yuto had surrendered, Bai Shi stopped torturing him and coldly repeated, "Tell me, what is your mission this time?"
"Clear, clear the obstacles," Hase Yuto replied.
"Is this really a similar mission?"
Coming from the Root organization, Bai Shi had suspected something when the Kirigakure Anbu had begun massacring civilians. Hase Yuto's answer now only confirmed his suspicions.
"Human life is indeed worthless!"
After an inexplicable sigh, Bai Shi asked directly, "Is there a large army behind you?"
"Um."
Hase Yuto nodded with difficulty.
"How many people?"
"Five hundred."
"What is your goal this time?"
"A surprise attack on the Hidden Sand Village."
Just like that, the two of them asked and answered each other, appearing to have a cordial exchange. Well, it could be perceived that way if one ignored Hase Yuto's miserable condition.
About half an hour later, Bai Shi stopped asking questions.
With a wave of his hand, the vines wrapped around Hase Yuto's neck tightened instantly. Accompanied by the sound of bones cracking, the other party was completely dead.
Afterward, the wooden cross slowly sank, and with it, all traces of Hase Yuto vanished from the scene.
Standing quietly, Bai Shi's thoughts raced as he rapidly integrated the information he had just obtained from Hase Yuto.
Although the other party was an Anbu ninja, he was not a professional spy, so much of the relatively non-confidential information lacked memory seals, providing Bai Shi with a wealth of useful information.
Bai Shi had already pieced together the entire story behind this incident.
It turned out that the Third Mizukage saw that the Sand Village was leaderless and had recently been attacked by the Cloud Village. He wanted to take advantage of the situation to gain a foothold and thus formulated a plan for a sneak attack across the sea.
However, fighting away from home meant that the manpower they could mobilize was quite limited. To achieve their objective, they had to rely on catching the Sand Village off guard.
The most important factor to maintain secrecy about their whereabouts resulted in the Anbu's cleanup mission. As luck would have it, they ran into Bai Shi, who happened to be here for training, leading to a series of battles.
It goes without saying that the Kirigakure Anbu must be feeling confused at this moment. If they could not determine Bai Shi's identity, they wouldn't be able to ascertain whether their movements had been exposed.
Bai Shi's act of capturing Hase Yuto would only increase their concerns further.
However, based on Bai Shi's understanding of the Hidden Mist Village, it was likely that, rather than withdrawing, the Anbu would accelerate their advance.
After all, the Third Mizukage had been preparing for this war long before and would not easily abandon this opportunity.
Moreover, given the abilities Bai Shi had demonstrated thus far, the probability of him being a Konoha ninja was much higher than that of a Sand ninja.
In this case, it was totally worth taking a gamble.
Though the Hidden Leaf Village and Sunagakure Village were allies, once war broke out, the so-called alliance contract would become merely a piece of waste paper.
In this scenario, the likelihood of Bai Shi, the Konoha ninja, voluntarily revealing information to the Sand Village was low. The Mist Village merely needed to be cautious not to let Konoha take advantage of them.
This line of thinking made some sense, but Bai Shi was not a Konoha ninja. He was deeply unsettled by the other party's massacre of civilians and felt compelled to take action, regardless of the consequences.
However, before doing so, he had to first adjust his own condition; otherwise, he would be putting his own life at risk.
Even if more innocent people would suffer at the hands of the Mist Ninjas during this time, he had no intention of engaging in selfless acts.
After casually setting up a few nearby teleportation points, Bai Shi fell asleep.
After the fierce battles from the previous night, several hours of running, and the torture session just now, Bai Shi was utterly exhausted and began to snore softly shortly after drifting off.
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The sun set, and the moon rose.
In the blink of an eye, night had fallen.
**Kingdom of Wind, Western Border.**
In a palm-sized oasis, hundreds of Mist Ninjas were setting up camp.
Unlike other oases, this one was not only small but also severely eroded by the desert, making it uninhabitable.
At the same time, this was the limits of how stealthily the Mist Ninjas could move. If they ventured any further, they would surely be discovered by the Sand Village.
Thus, they planned to rest here for the night, recharge their energy, and then rush straight to the Sand Village early the following morning to catch the enemy off guard.
This scenario indicates that the sneak attack on the Sand Village was not a rash decision made by the Third Mizukage, but rather based on detailed reconnaissance. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to find such a suitable hiding place.
Unfortunately for them, they had crossed paths with Bai Shi, making their plan doomed to fail.
Of course, based on memories from his previous life, even if he had not intervened, the Hidden Mist Village's operation would not have achieved the results they expected. It was actually the Scorch Release ninja of the Hidden Sand Village, Pakura, who caused them substantial losses.
For this reason, at the peace talks a few years later, the Hidden Mist Village explicitly requested to use Pakura as a bargaining chip, demonstrating how deeply they loathed him.
However, this time, the target of the Hidden Mist Village's enmity would undoubtedly become Bai Shi.
There was no other reason; it was simply because Bai Shi had taken action against them.
In a dark corner, Bai Shi avoided the patrol team of the Hidden Mist Village and approached a layer of perception barriers. After a moment's hesitation, he formed a few secret code spells and attempted to sneak into the camp.
However, as soon as he passed through the barrier, a loud shout rang out from the Kirigakure camp: "Who is it?"
At the same time, several figures rushed toward him.
Seeing this, Bai Shi murmured to himself with a hint of regret, "The code has indeed been changed."
The secret code he had just performed was obtained from Hase Yuto, and he hadn't expected it to be useful.
After all, it was unlikely that the other party knew Hase Yuto had been captured by him, yet they still left such a glaring loophole.
If that were true, he might need to reconsider whether this was a trap.
It was for this reason that Bai Shi did not panic upon the exposure of his whereabouts; instead, he felt a sense of relief.
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