Chapter 57: The Ninja Who Always Forms Hand Seals Seriously
The Land of Water is isolated overseas. Its closed geographical environment also makes the people living there reject the outside world, and the Land of Water has thus gradually become isolated by other countries. Especially since the Fourth Mizukage took office, he dispatched a large number of ninjas to expel outsiders, and fewer and fewer merchants have been going to the Land of Water.
The Land of Water is almost so isolated from the world that it uses Hidden Mist Village ANBU to spy on the Land of Fire's daily necessities... Of course, it's just incidental when they're spying on Konoha's intelligence.
But the sheer volume of this type of intelligence is overwhelming...
From the end of the Third Shinobi World War until now, Konoha has paid a considerable price to obtain information from Mist ninjas about the daily lives and routines of Land of Fire civilians...
Everyone in Konoha, from top to bottom, believed this was the Mist ninjas' way of concealing the whereabouts of real intelligence. What if some important intelligence truly slipped through the net? Therefore, subordinate outposts were ordered not to let go of any intelligence, big or small. This made the ninjas stationed at the border miserable.
After all, the coast is almost a natural battlefield for Mist ninjas. It's already good if they can send out a distress signal in time after a Mist ninja infiltration... Over these years, Konoha and the Hidden Mist Village have thus entered a strange state of no war, no peace.
They neither launch large-scale wars nor send envoys to Konoha for communication and negotiation. They irregularly dispatch Mist ninjas to infiltrate the Land of Fire for raids. While Konoha ninjas are certainly tormented, Hidden Mist ninjas also live like hyenas.
Evening, the fiery clouds burned the sky red.
A team of Mist ninjas hurried through the forest. More than half of them were dressed like civilian staff; they were from the Hidden Mist Village's Cipher Division, primarily responsible for transmitting decrypted codes to various units infiltrating the Land of Fire. They had barely stopped since disembarking and landing.
From these personnel, it was clear that many Mist ninja squads had infiltrated the Land of Fire this time, and their quality was somewhat uneven. After all, Jonin from various ninja villages generally knew some basic marching codes; Cipher Division members were only used in special missions.
"Hey, Kisame Hoshigaki, let's rest up ahead!"
Finally, someone couldn't stand the whole day's journey, landed on the ground, and shouted to the ninja responsible for protecting them at the rear.
The shark-faced young ninja at the tail of the team glanced at the panting female ninja beside him. Perhaps feeling that today had been too strenuous, he responded, "Suit yourselves. My mission is to escort you there as quickly as possible."
The group chattered for a while. Seemingly sensing that the ninja behind them wouldn't excessively push them to advance, they finally decided to take a temporary break and prepare to continue after dinner.
They usually only worked in the Hidden Mist Village. It was a rare opportunity to come to the Land of Fire. They complained that if the mission weren't urgent, they could have enjoyed a perfect vacation in the Land of Fire.
The shark-faced young man only felt that these colleagues' lives must be very troublesome. Was the rain in the Hidden Mist Village not heavy enough, or was the appearance of the Water Dragon Bullet not cool enough... The Land of Fire was so dangerous, Konoha ninjas could pop out to attack and assassinate at any time. How comfortable it was to watch the sea in the Hidden Mist Village.
Kisame Hoshigaki, as the ANBU guard ninja of this team, began to set up warning traps outside while the others sat on the ground. The female ninja beside him accompanied him, "Brother Kisame, thank you for earlier..."
"That's my mission duty, no need to say more." Kisame's frightening shark-like face was indifferent... Because of the Hoshigaki clan's features, no woman had ever been willing to approach him voluntarily since he was young. After becoming a ninja and joining ANBU, his hands were even more stained with blood...
Not to mention whether anyone was willing to be friendly to him, he couldn't even find anyone willing to interact with him... The ninja sword in his hand was his only friend.
He didn't know what expression he should wear. He remembered the last time he smiled, he seemed to have scared someone to tears, so it was probably better to remain expressionless at this time...
The female ninja didn't mind. Seeing him pulling thin threads, she said, "Do these white threads need to be strung very far? Let me help you!"
"No need..." Kisame Hoshigaki shook his head, threading the silk through several kunai, and rarely explained, "The threads you string definitely won't be taut enough, and you don't know the placement of the kunai for the warning system, so it won't have any effect at all..."
"..."
It would have been better not to explain!
A little boy beside them asked, "Is setting up warnings in the wild always this troublesome?"
"The denser the kunai are arranged, the easier it is to detect... Who's there!" Kisame Hoshigaki nodded and continued speaking... Then he suddenly reacted; there were no children in their team!
The kunai in his hand shot towards the child. Kisame Hoshigaki pulled the female ninja behind him with one hand, drew the ninja sword from his back, and looked at the swirl-patterned headband on the little boy's head, "Konoha ninja..."
The female staff member of the Cipher Division clicked her tongue, looking at the suddenly appearing little boy in surprise, "How could Konoha send such a young child to be a ninja..."
"Quickly, inform them to leave immediately!" Kisame Hoshigaki didn't dare to be careless. Last time, a group of Mist ANBU underestimated a Konoha youth and ended up dead without a complete corpse... And this little brat was simply too young!
The younger he was, the more it meant he must have some extraordinary abilities...
Kisame Hoshigaki stared at the little boy's calm face, his sharp teeth clenching, "Konoha's geniuses really are endless! But my favorite thing is to kill so-called genius ninjas..."
"Caw!"
The crow on the little boy's shoulder suddenly cawed, startling Kisame into quickly scanning his surroundings. He thought it was some kind of attack signal... But there seemed to be no movement around.
The little boy patted the crow on his shoulder and asked doubtfully, "Eh? Why do I have to form hand seals seriously when fighting him? What does an honest and straightforward ninja mean?"
"Hey! Kid, what are you doing?"
Kisame Hoshigaki watched the little boy seemingly communicating with his crow. Getting distracted when facing an enemy was a major taboo for ninjas... He wouldn't waste this opportunity!
A sharp slash cut through the air!
The gleaming ninja sword seemed to want to split the little boy in two with one blow!
Kisame Hoshigaki was a ninja, just a ninja focused on carrying out missions. As for whether he felt guilty killing such a young ninja, that was something to consider after the battle!
Clang!
The little boy drew a short sword and blocked it above his head. Unfortunately, when clashing with the sturdy Kisame, his strength was really insufficient, and he was wretchedly knocked back by the sword blow!
Kisame Hoshigaki used this opportunity to rush in front of the little boy, continuously swinging the ninja sword in his hand! The crisp sound of metal clashing echoed pleasantly in the forest...
"Such great strength!"
The little boy took a few steps back, dodging Kisame's next slash, and rubbed his aching wrist, "If I knew this guy was so troublesome, I shouldn't have listened to Kitahara. I can never greet enemies head-on again..."
"Kid, there aren't that many opportunities to talk on the battlefield!" Kisame gained the upper hand in the sword fight, subconsciously assessing the little boy's strength, and sighed in relief inwardly... Perhaps the little fellow before him really was just a newly graduated ninja!
"Thank you for the guidance!" the little boy said, casually sheathing his ninja sword and forming hand seals, "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
"Such fast hand seal speed! Great Fireball Jutsu... Is he actually from the Uchiha clan?" After his surprise, Kisame Hoshigaki's eyes instantly narrowed. Konoha's Uchiha clan... that was a clan never to be underestimated!
Kisame's sturdy figure leaped high, his hands rapidly forming seals. A thin, solid stream of water shot out from his mouth, colliding head-on with the giant fireball, "Water Style: Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
(End of this chapter)