Mizukage's Pokémon Ninja Scroll

Chapter 462 Puppet Army

The blazing midday sun seemed to have only slightly dispelled the mist within Kirigakure.

The ninjas on guard duty stood idly atop the tower, chatting and joking amongst themselves.

After all, this is the main base of Kirigakure, one of the five great ninja villages.

Thanks to the excellent geographical location surrounding Kirigakure, the village has basically not suffered any significant attacks since its successful establishment.

Furthermore, there are many standing watchtowers in the outer areas surrounding Kirigakure, so if there is any danger, the watchtowers more than ten kilometers away will issue an early warning.

Therefore, the guards near the gates of Kirigakure are more concerned with preventing disturbances than with actually preventing enemy attacks.

If it weren't for the fact that the village had suffered a wave of tailed beast attacks from the Hidden Cloud Village during the war a few years ago...

The Hidden Mist ninjas currently responsible for guarding the area are probably even more lax in their attitude.

A middle-aged Mist Ninja looked at the two young people chatting happily beside him, and with some annoyance, he leaned on the tower railing with both hands and sighed.

"Sigh, lately the village's missions haven't even seen a drop of blood. I should have signed up to be an examiner for the Chunin Exams; maybe I could have seen those kids from other villages fighting each other."

On the other side, a slightly chubby ninja chuckled and teased.

"You talk like you can get selected just because you sign up. Those bastards from the Air Force took up almost half the spots this time. And they want to be examiners? I bet if you went, you'd be destined for outer perimeter defense!"

"You little brat, you're asking for trouble, aren't you? Daring to tease a senior like me? Come here, let me bleed you out!"

Just as the two were laughing and joking, another member of the team frowned and looked into the distance with some confusion.

Amidst the mist, there seemed to be a faint, slight vibration, but it didn't sound like the kind of scale a typical caravan that came to Kirigakure to issue a mission.

The fog surrounding Kirigakure serves both to protect the village and to obstruct the vision of the guarding ninjas.

"Nishimae! Come here, use sensory ninjutsu!"

"Captain? What's going on?"

"Stop talking nonsense! Sensory ninjutsu!!!"

Hearing the captain's unusually stern tone, the sensory ninja named Nishimae Tadahisa dared not delay any longer and immediately formed hand seals to unleash his sensory ninjutsu.

But just as the sensory fluctuations of the ninjutsu had spread out, Nishimae Tadahisa's face instantly turned deathly pale.

However, out of a ninja's instinct, he immediately reported to his captain.

"Chakra fluctuations, on the scale of thousands! And there are even more beyond the range of perception! Jonin-level fluctuations exceed twenty, and more..."

In Nishimae Tadahisa's perception, the chakra fluctuations of those twenty-odd Jonin-level individuals seemed to be filled with a strange and evil aura.

However, he was unsure how to explain something that was merely a feeling.

However, at this moment, the captain no longer had time to listen to his nonsense.

The first half of the sentence alone—a ninja force of over a thousand men and more than twenty Jonin—was enough to make his expression change drastically.

"Enemy attack! Sound the alarm! Flare!"

After roaring out the order, he didn't care whether his squad members could react in time.

He first took out three top-level signal flares from his pocket, detonated them, and flung them into the air.

A ninja force of this size approached the outskirts of Kirigakure without prior notice from higher-ups, and without any warning from the sentry posts more than ten kilometers away.

Then he would have to treat it as a hostile enemy attack.

After dropping the signal flare, and with the enemy attack alarms already sounding in his ears, the garrison captain stared intently at the distant fog.

The footsteps that had been faintly heard before seemed to be getting louder and louder.

"Captain, the amount of chakra fluctuation in that direction is almost breaking two thousand."

Tadahisa Nishimae, who had been maintaining his sensory ninjutsu, looked even paler now.

However, the garrison captain ignored his state and instead looked at the ordinary people below who were still queuing to enter the village with some disgust, before giving the order again.

"Xingji! Go and inform Elder Yuanshi of the situation here! Miyata! Take your squad and go down below to evacuate the people! Send all the ordinary people near the village entrance to emergency shelters!"

Xingji, who was called out first, immediately put away his kunai and ran quickly toward the village.

Then, a squad leader named Miyata looked at the guard captain with a surprised expression.

"Captain Kondo, are you crazy?! What do you mean by 'ordinary people' now? Get these poor people out of here and close the gates! That's the most important thing!"

However, his words were met with a ferocious expression from the guard captain.

Captain Kondo yelled at him directly.

"Stop talking nonsense! Do you want to disobey the Mizukage's will?! Execute orders!!"

Seeing the highest-ranking official here lose his temper, despite their anger and confusion, everyone immediately began to take action.

In fact, Captain Kondo himself was aware of this.

Evacuating the public at such a time could not only delay defense work, but could also lead to enemy spies infiltrating among them and causing damage due to negligence in the process.

However, as a Jonin, he knew better than his subordinates that since taking office, the Mizukage had actually been pushing for a change in the atmosphere of Kirigakure.

If we leave these people unattended, or even allow the merchants who came to issue the orders to be locked up outside and sent to their deaths...

This could render all of the Mizukage's efforts futile.

However, he chose to ignore the fact that some of the ninjas below, who were evacuating civilians, were using excessive force against civilians who disobeyed orders.

Just then, dozens of ANBU ninjas arrived at the gate of Kirigakure. The leader ignored the situation and directly asked Kondo a question.

"Kondo, what's going on here?!"

However, Kondo didn't need to answer; the synchronized footsteps had already turned into a thunderous roar that shook the earth.

The sound of footsteps, which was clearly not what one would expect from ninjas marching, made everyone present even more suspicious and uncertain.

"All Wind Release ninjas! Combined ninjutsu! Dispel the fog ahead!"

The ANBU squad leader who led the team didn't bother to leisurely inquire about the situation and immediately ordered the ninjas present to clear the fog.

Immediately afterwards, more than a dozen ninjas stepped out from the crowd and lined up in a row outside the gate of Kirigakure.

They then simultaneously began forming hand seals.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough"

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough"

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough" xN

A dozen or so wind-blown missiles, some large and some small, were fired simultaneously.

The natural fog ahead was instantly blown away, and the scene immediately became clear.

However, after the fog dissipated, everyone stared in shock at the scene before them.

The seemingly endless army of clay puppets, with their uniform steps, slowly and mechanically surged towards Kirigakure.

"Go, go, go and invite Lord Qing over!"

(End of this chapter)