Mizukage's Pokémon Ninja Scroll

Chapter 32 Mission Complete

Qing returned empty-handed to the island, where he was greeted by this scene.

A group of about twenty children, some big and some small, sat in a circle, with three slightly older kids in the middle, chattering away about something.

It gives the impression of children taking a nap on a typical kindergarten playground.

However, the chaotic battlefield in the distance, with its blood, weapons, and pirate corpses lying haphazardly on the ground, brought the scene back to the reality of the ninja world.

In a flash, Qing appeared abruptly in the middle of the crowd.

The sudden appearance of an adult dressed as a ninja caused a commotion, with many children pulling out weapons they had just hidden and glaring at Qing with hostility.

It wasn't until Mei Terumi spoke first that all the children relaxed their guard a little.

"Teacher Qing, you're finally back!"

"Um."

Qing nodded subconsciously in response, then called the three aside to find out what was going on.

However, as they walked, he still looked at Jianchuan Ju with a puzzled expression.

As soon as Ao teleported over, he saw Zabuza and instinctively looked towards his location.

On the contrary, Tachibana Kenkawa, who he had always thought had keen senses and might have great sensory ninja talent, was completely unaware of his arrival.

Tachibana Kanagawa also noticed Ao's strange gaze, but seeing that Ao's hands were empty and his expression was odd, he guessed that Ao had not found out the result he wanted, so he did not say anything more.

However, coincidentally, there was one guy in the Jianchuan Ju team who never cared about others' opinions.

"Captain Qing, how's the tracking going on your end?"

With the epic mouth-swapping Zabuza making his appearance, Ao didn't dwell too much on the level of perception.

He said, his face looking rather grim.

"I lost track of them. Once they got to the sea, they kept using Water Release ninjutsu to increase the speed of their boat. They were clearly aware that I was tracking them and were on guard."

After tracking the two at sea for some time, Qing realized he couldn't close the distance. Also worried about his three disciples, he decided to abandon the pursuit and return.

Upon approaching the island and noticing the pirate ship, fearing something might have happened, they immediately sped up and rushed over.

However, after they reunited, Qing was still somewhat surprised by the pirate corpses scattered on the beach and the many children that the three little ones had rescued.

After looking at Zabuza, who was covered in bandages, he decided to ask directly.

"Let's not talk about that. What happened here? How did you get so badly injured, Zabuza?"

The three of them were momentarily stunned, looking at each other blankly.

Well, Mei Terumi only injured her left calf, and after treatment and bandaging, it didn't look serious.

Because the injury was to her chest, the bandage was mostly covered by her outer clothing. Only the scratches on her clothes and bloodstains of unknown origin indicated that she had been injured.

Only Zabuza, with his multiple minor wounds bandaged and his face and neck already wrapped in bandages, looked as if he had been hacked to pieces.

Mei Terumi was the first to break the silence.

"Teacher Qing, after you left..."

Mei Terumi, acting as the team leader, recounted in detail everything that happened to the three of them on the island that night.

During this time, Ao did not interrupt Mei Terumi's narration, but at the end, Ao still glanced at the three of them and said in a somewhat serious voice.

"Why didn't you fire a signal flare to call for help?"

Qing's words immediately stunned the three children for two seconds, leaving them truly embarrassed.

Zabuza, unusually, spoke up in a low voice to defend himself.

"I don't have any signal flares on me."

Tachibana Kanagawa didn't have any signal flares either, but it was indeed difficult to bring up the matter. If he also tried to shift the blame, then the responsibility would fall entirely on Mei Terumi, who was acting as the team leader.

However, the reason they attacked the camp at the beginning was that the three of them thought it was unnecessary to interrupt Qing's investigation when dealing with a group of ordinary pirates.

Later, after the attack on the pirate ship, when they realized that their opponents were not easy to deal with, all three of them focused on the battle at hand and completely forgot about the need to call for help.

Terumi realized that perhaps it was because she, as the acting captain, had not considered things comprehensively enough that her teammates were injured, and she apologized with a somewhat downcast mood.

"Teacher Qing, yes."

Ao's expression softened, and she interrupted Mei Terumi.

"Judging from the results, you did a good job. This mission was quite complex, and the difficulty far exceeded the capabilities of a genin. I will give a detailed report to the village after we return."

The three of them breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.

He immediately handed over some information he had previously gathered from the camp and the pirate ship to Qing, but none of it was particularly crucial.

Ao then examined the bodies of the two Chunin, Yuki and Yuya, and surprisingly discovered something that none of the three had noticed.

Holding two teeth covered in strange incantations in his hand, Qing examined them carefully in the sunlight.

"A very rudimentary sealing technique; nowadays, very few forces use this method to control assassins."

Upon learning this information, the team members' expressions became even more serious.

After all, it was known beforehand that what these pirates were doing was definitely not simple.

However, the strength of Fish Demon and Fish Fang is evident to all three.

Being able to hire pirates with such strength to work for you and being able to train such ninjas as assassins and even order them to become pirates are two completely different things.

The latter behavior is something even small ninja villages wouldn't be willing to waste their fighting strength on.

Ultimately, it was Ao, being a Jonin, who was more composed and spoke first.

"Let's take these children back to Apple Village and complete our mission first."

"Yes" x3

Now that Ao had given the instructions, Tachibana Kanagawa was the first to relax. She immediately ran to the harbor to organize the children to board the ship.

If the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up. I'm just a newly promoted genin. The important thing is to think about how to improve my own strength.

However, we should also thank these pirates for bringing their flagship back; otherwise, with so many children, the four of them would have had to use the small boats in the harbor to take them back to the Land of Water.

Although this unnamed island is not far from the coastline of the Land of Water, it is still quite difficult to control a ship at sea using water-based techniques.

For ninjas like them who were not skilled at operating boats, it would have been more convenient to simply run across the sea.

Needless to say.

The Blue Squad gradually sent all the kidnapped children to the pirate ship, and also stuffed the corpses of the two Chunin into the sealing scroll.

Although there are sealing spells on their teeth, the village's intelligence analysis team will most likely be unable to extract any information from their heads.

However, corpses can sometimes provide information, and Qing plans to leave such matters to professionals.

Finally, Tachibana Kanagawa helped the somewhat dazed red-haired girl onto the deck, and looked back at the nameless island one last time.

"I'd say we've exceeded expectations for this task, right? Hopefully, there won't be any further problems."

(End of this chapter)