Escaping the Mist Ninja starts with backstabbing your teacher.

The desert sky was crystal clear, without a single cloud, and filled with countless stars.

But this starry sky was unfamiliar to Izumi, and he withdrew his search for familiar stars, looking instead at the distant desert.

The Sand Village had already appeared on the edge of the sky, but it was still just a black dot.

"Byakugan, activate!"

Izumi whispered to himself, his right eye bulging with veins. With his kilometer-level farsightedness, he zoomed in and magnified the black dot, revealing the appearance of Sunagakure.

Resembling a giant urn, the entire structure is a massive war fortress, with towering walls that minimize the impact of wind and sand on the village.

The buildings are arranged like rows of earthenware pots, as if they were about to be baked in an oven.

The poverty of Sunagakure has made them adept at using local materials, such as sand, as building materials, which is why the village has an overall earthy yellow color.

"What a desolate village! Couldn't you have found an oasis to build your village?"

Izumi turned to Yekura and asked, finding it difficult to understand the aesthetics and choices of the Sand Ninja.

It's already a desert, so no one would even look at it, let alone attack or occupy it. Even if it were given to someone else, they wouldn't want it.

If we find an oasis and build a village, at least we won't live so repressively, and we'll have some resources.

Ye Cang gently shook his head at this: "I don't know. That was the location chosen by the First Kazekage; perhaps they had their reasons!"

Having lived there since childhood, she didn't find anything strange about Sunagakure before leaving the village and seeing the world.

But after looking at the world, she realized how poor Sunagakure was and just how harsh its environment was.

Even though they are all rocky mountain ninja, they still have some weeds and are not bothered by sandstorms.

After all, it was the place where she was born and raised. Yecang stared blankly at the approaching Sand Village.

There are many beautiful memories, but now there is more of a burning anger in my heart, which is destroying those beautiful memories.

Or perhaps, the more beautiful the past was, the more these precious fuels will fuel the flames of hatred to burn even more fiercely.

Izumikawa didn't intend to continue the topic, so he asked a question.

"The Grass Village and the Leaf Village are bustling with people, not just merchants, but also ordinary residents. But the Sand Village... how do we get in?"

Although the words were not fully stated, their impact was considerable, as very few people from Sunagakure came, except for a few regular merchant guilds that came to sell and buy.

Normally, no ordinary people would cross the desert to come to Sunagakure.

The residents inside are not mentally unstable and will not leave Sunagakure to venture into the sandstorms, where they might even get lost.

Ye Cang's face stiffened, and he opened his mouth slightly a few times, but ultimately he still couldn't find a solution.

There is indeed very little movement of people in Sunagakure, except for ninjas on missions or occasional visits from curious people.

Most people came with the Chamber of Commerce, because the desert is not like other places. Once there is no food or water, and there is the possibility of getting lost, there is no way to survive.

Ye Cang took a deep breath, looked at the skeletal bird beneath his feet, seemed to remember something, and then said, "Since we can fly, we can just sneak in."

"The Sand Village is located in the desert. Although there is a barrier protecting the village, its main function is to isolate it from the sandstorm."

"It's not surprising that there are occasionally some places that are damaged by wind and sand erosion."

"We only need to destroy one spot, then we can go straight in."

"However, we still need to enter quickly, because the personnel repairing the barrier will arrive in about five minutes."

After listening to what Yekura said, Izumi nodded slightly. It was indeed difficult to infiltrate a village like Sunagakure, which was quite isolated.

Their main gate, in particular, is so narrow that the passage is long enough for the gatekeepers to react and for those behind them to intercept them.

……

In the still of the night, the desert was empty except for the gentle breeze that made the sand grains roll, and the scorching heat of the sand had dissipated.

Izumikawa, using his Byakugan to observe the barrier enveloping Sunagakure, a semi-circular dome, asked in a deep voice, "Which point in your memory is the most frequently damaged node?"

Yekura instantly understood what Izumikawa was thinking, so she immediately pointed out a few locations and whispered, "I've done related missions before."

"She even took the lead and personally oversaw the repair of that barrier."

Following the direction Yekura pointed, Izumi's Byakugan pierced through the scene, revealing that there didn't seem to be many people around, which was a good thing for them.

The sparse population meant that their infiltration operation would likely not encounter any major problems.

However, it also has its drawbacks, namely that its own traces are easily left behind and easily discovered.

Fortunately, Izumi was well-prepared and had the Yin Seal, which allowed him to conceal the traces of his chakra.

Under the cover of night, the skeletal bird swept across the sky, and two figures dressed in cloaks silently descended, crashing into the desert.

There's no need to worry too much about the desert; with the movement of the sand and wind, footprints and other traces will be completely covered in just a moment.

quickly!

Izumikawa then led Yekura to the top of the wall of Sunagakure.

His Byakugan, veins bulging, peered into the opponent's barrier. At the same time, he activated his Sage Mode, condensing chakra into an arm to grab the sand below.

The next moment, countless grains of sand, as if blown by a gale, struck the barrier node directly, destroying it.

Instantly, the Sand Ninja responsible for maintaining the barrier sensed the anomaly and immediately issued a repair order.

As a former damaged node, their attitude was very casual, because hardly anyone would choose to infiltrate Sunagakure for no reason.

It's highly likely that the wind and sand caused that node to malfunction; someone going to check and repair it would be sufficient.

Two figures swept past the node, glancing at the Sand Ninja with such thoughts, before passing each other.

……

Meanwhile, inside Sunagakure, Rasa looked at the intelligence from Konoha with a look of deep regret.

"The Nine-Tails has gone berserk, Tsunade has gone missing, what a great opportunity this is, but we Sand Village ninja are unable to seize it."

"It's impossible to do it without funding, manpower, or even a valid reason."

Rasa didn't care about Konoha; he was only annoyed by Sunagakure. Having lost Maki, he didn't have much power left to use.

As a Jinchūriki, Gaara couldn't rest easy either, as if he were carrying a bomb, which drained his energy.

In this way, the only way to maintain the status quo of Sunagakure and help Konoha resist the covetous eyes of other villages is to let him take charge of Konoha now.