Mizukage's Pokémon Ninja Scroll

Chapter 272 Traitorous Ninja!

The title "Kage of a Village" carries a heavy burden for ordinary ninjas.

Although many ninjas had arrogantly and ignorantly said things like "I want to become the X-Kage in the future" when they were young.

But once you grow up, you'll realize that some achievements aren't something you can achieve simply by wanting to or trying.

Now, Tachibana Kanagawa is actually suspecting that this shadow is being controlled by someone in such an inexplicable way?

Furthermore, because there are many things that Tachibana Kenkawa cannot disclose the source of information for, he can only express them vaguely using words such as "guess" and "suspicion".

This makes it even harder for people to believe such a thing.

"Everyone, at least the fact that the Cloud Village had been lying in wait there beforehand, the replaced 'Tailed Beast Zero' vessel, and the Wood Release ninja who rushed out later are all suspicious."

"I urge you all to join me in investigating the truth."

Jianchuan Ju doesn't really need these people to do anything, but given the current situation, it's not appropriate to let them leave the group and return directly to Kirigakure.

Ultimately, it was Chunyu who made the decision: the six-person team would be temporarily placed under the command of Jianchuan Ju until what Jianchuan Ju said was confirmed or disproven.

Although this was certainly due to the fact that Tachibana Kenkawa displayed great prowess on the battlefield earlier, intercepting the Cloud Village members and indirectly saving everyone's lives.

However, the fact that he was able to disobey the village's orders based solely on his own words and some guesses made Tachibana Kenkawa feel the weight of that trust.

After identifying the target, Jianchuan Ju immediately wrote down a short intelligence scroll and handed it to Lanzi.

The main purpose was to arrange a meeting with Qingyue, who was still at the front-line camp.

The situation in the village is unclear, so the group plans to keep in touch with Qing secretly to avoid revealing their whereabouts by showing up at the front camp, which would leave no room for reversal.

Fortunately, Jianchuan Ju left in a hurry before this mission, and Lanzai's spirit scroll was still with Qing. He only needed to dispel the spirit spell to quickly transmit the message.

After a brief communication with Ao via summoning magic, the group continued their journey towards Uzushima Island.

However, perhaps aware of the gravity of the situation, everyone maintained a serious expression throughout the journey, and there was no further communication.

One day later.

The bright moon hangs high in the sky. Unlike the perpetually foggy and terrible weather of Kirigakure, the climate near Uzushima Island is more similar to that of the Land of Fire.

Even in the dead of night, under the moonlight, Tachibana and the others could still see the island's outline from afar.

Under the cover of night, the group rowed their ice boat to a secluded coastline on the north side of Whirlpool Island.

Perhaps because of the unpleasant memories of their last landing, everyone remained extremely vigilant even after arriving at their own frontline camp.

Just as Jianchuan Ju and the others jumped to the shore, a figure dressed as an ANBU member swiftly appeared from a distance and stood in front of them.

The men were so frightened that they immediately drew their weapons and became defensive.

It was Jianchuan Ju who reacted first and spoke up.

"Teacher Qing!?"

Qing nodded upon hearing this and raised her hand to remove the mask from her face.

Kanakawa Tachibana noticed the veins at the corner of Qingyan's eye had just faded, indicating that she had activated her Byakugan earlier. She must have arrived nearby long ago, used her Byakugan to observe and determine everyone's location, and then rushed over.

Combined with Qing's disguised dark-skinned attire, Tachibana Kanagawa immediately had some bad thoughts.

"Teacher Qing, what's wrong?"

"We'll talk about that later, come with me first!"

After saying that, Qing turned around and ran towards a low hill.

Seeing this, the group looked at each other in bewilderment, but still quickly followed.

After thinking for a moment, Jianchuan Ju turned back and shattered the ice boat that everyone was riding in before chasing after them.

Only after everyone had entered a cave at the foot of a low hill did Qing stop and turn around to cast some kind of seal at the cave entrance.

"This is?"

Chunyu looked at Qing's series of actions with some suspicion.

On the other hand, because of her guesses and her trust in Qing, Jianchuan Ju did not say anything to stop the other party's actions.

"A temporary anti-perception barrier, which I set up here before."

After Qing finished speaking, she turned to look at Jianchuan Ju and the others, and asked with a solemn expression.

"What exactly was your mission?"

"Do you even realize that the village has now labeled you rogue ninja?!"

"ah??"

Everyone was shocked to hear the news, except for Jianchuan Ju, who didn't react much because of her vague guess earlier, but she still clenched her fists with gritted teeth.

Jianchuan Ju looked up and stared directly at Qing, asking the question directly.

"Teacher Qing, when was the notification about the rogue ninja issued?!"

Qing clearly understood why Jianchuan Ju asked that question, and directly tossed an information scroll to Jianchuan Ju.

When Jianchuan Ju took the scroll and opened it, the date on it was clearly yesterday noon!

"Ha, yesterday!" Jianchuan Ju sneered.

"That's right." Aoya nodded in confirmation.

"It was not long after you sent me the message yesterday that this order to pursue the rogue ninja was issued."

"Impossible! We had only just left the border of the Land of Lightning at that time. According to normal mission procedures, we would probably have only just arrived near Kumogakure and hadn't even officially started the mission yet!"

It was Hozuki Shingetsu who spoke.

These past two days, due to the death of Tamura Yuka, Hozuki Shingetsu has fallen into a depressed state, basically remaining silent and drifting along with the crowd.

This is understandable, as the atmosphere within Ken's team had always been very good. However, after Ken died at the hands of the Fourth Hokage, Azusa, he quickly gave up and hid in the village as a support staff member, essentially abandoning his identity as a ninja.

Now, even Tamura Yuka, who had always stood by him through thick and thin, has died at the hands of Kumogakure. Hozuki Shingetsu has been able to silently follow the group these past two days, thanks to the fact that these people in the ninja world have seen too much life and death and have a relatively good mentality.

But what did they hear now? They were directly labeled as rogue ninjas by the village!

The most crucial thing is not his status as a rogue ninja.

After completing their mission, the group did not return immediately but instead took a detour to the front-line camp, already prepared to be punished.

However, the timing of the village's order is the most crucial factor.

Based on the time it took for the intelligence to reach the front lines, it's possible that Tachibana and his group had just escaped after their battle with the Cloud Village forces when the village labeled them as rogue ninjas.

The others clearly realized the problem as well, and their expressions all turned grim. They also thought of the "guess" that Tachibana Kenkawa had mentioned earlier.

Seeing this, Qing added another explanation.

"The village's explanation is that you stole important technology from the village and defected as a group, and asked the front line to cooperate in the search and arrest."

"If necessary, kill them on the spot!"

(End of this chapter)