Chapter 60: The Crow Is Surprisingly Considerate Today!
Kisame Hoshigaki's words dealt a huge shock to Uchiha Itachi and Shisui. Killing all of one's peers, isn't this kind of graduation exam a bit too... cruel?
But behind this incident, the Hidden Mist Village's graduation assessment method of mutual slaughter came to an end. The Fourth Mizukage, under the pressure that the event might be repeated, would be forced to change the Ninja Academy's graduation exam.
It's estimated that if the crow hadn't been asleep, it might have thought they were overreacting. That Hidden Mist graduate's future resume was far more outstanding than what he had done during his graduation in the Mist...
Uchiha Shisui and Itachi exchanged a glance, believing Kisame Hoshigaki's tall tale. However, Shisui still sternly warned Kisame that it was best not to have any other ideas.
If they encountered Mist ninjas wanting to kill captives from their own village, they, as the victors, would provide aid as much as they could. As for whether these captives would escape if they had the chance... Shisui didn't discuss this useless topic.
Everyone had temporarily reached a tacit understanding. The three combat ninjas present knew very well that their actions would be determined by who they encountered next.
"Caw..."
Early in the morning, the crow crawled out from its blanket, preening its own feathers with its beak.
Its crimson eyes scanned the Mist ninjas sleeping scattered all over. Kisame Hoshigaki was also closing his eyes, lightly dozing to preserve his energy. These captives were quite self-aware...
Uchiha Itachi, on guard, lowered his head. Seeing the crow's actions, he couldn't help but chuckle softly, shifting his body to help Kitahara straighten its wings, "Good morning, Kitahara. I'll go prepare breakfast for you..."
"Caw!"
The cub's face was etched with unconcealable fatigue; they had to remain vigilant all night... Kitahara didn't urge him as usual, but instead pecked Itachi's hand, telling him and Shisui to take a nap first.
Its strength was credible to Uchiha Itachi, but its daily lazy attitude made Shisui's trust in it plummet, "Letting Kitahara be in charge of guarding and vigilance, is that really okay?"
"It should be fine, right?" Uchiha Itachi scratched his little face, but still nodded, "Things Kitahara personally takes on are still very reliable..."
Uchiha Shisui had no choice but to agree. He leaned against a large tree and closed his eyes. In any case, they were only taking a short nap to recuperate and hadn't completely let down their guard. If anything happened, they could immediately jump into battle.
Kisame Hoshigaki heard their exchange and quietly opened his eyes, seeing a crow yawning and the two guards resting.
"Hmph..."
After a cold snort, Kisame acted very honestly. Because even if he escaped at this time, it would be easy for Uchiha Shisui to stop him, and his mission was not yet complete.
The faint sound of a branch breaking came from the forest, almost inaudible... But the warning threads Shisui had set up didn't move at all. It seemed to be the movement of some small animals in the forest.
The crow's eyes instantly turned, looking into the shadows of the forest, "Caw..."
The chakra in Kitahara's body gradually began to gather. My cub is finally getting some sleep, he can't be disturbed by irrelevant people... But its actions didn't seem to take this into account...
A Tailed Beast Bomb fiercely shot towards the depths of the forest. The trembling ground and the huge roar woke everyone up!
The pained cries of the intruders in the forest gradually disappeared. The crow, sensing that all the intruders had lost their breath, nodded in satisfaction. Its Tailed Beast Bomb had hit the target.
However, the awakened captives cried out in panic and huddled together...
"Is it an earthquake? Get up quickly!"
"Enemy attack, enemy attack!"
"Idiot! It must be ninjas from our village coming to rescue us!"
Kisame Hoshigaki didn't think about these pig-like teammates. His small shark-like eyes stared at the crow on the branch, his whole person dumbfounded, "..."
But, this kind of technique shouldn't have enough chakra to be used continuously, right? After all, it wasn't any known Tailed Beast. Perhaps it was just a kind of innate talent.
After being startled awake, Uchiha Itachi instantly leaped onto a tree, "Kitahara, what's going on?"
"Caw~"
The crow cawed proudly. It had sensed someone approaching just now, and now it had used a Tailed Beast Bomb to ambush them, solving all the enemies... Cub, you guys can go back to sleep now.
"In this state... how can anyone still sleep!" Itachi looked at the chaotic mess of captives and looked at Uchiha Shisui for help, "What should we do now?"
Shisui made a decisive decision, "We've definitely been exposed. We must change our location immediately!"
Not long after, footsteps were heard again in the woods. The Mist ninjas approaching them were not just one squad; it was as if they were being directed to surround them.
After the sudden attack, those Hidden Mist squads already knew the enemy had discovered their tracks. They simply stopped hiding their movements and blocked their path from all directions in an encirclement...
They exchanged intelligence and, like Kisame, believed that the attack that had wiped out one squad was a powerful technique that couldn't be used continuously in a short time. The enemy might be weakened after one strike, and attacking now was the best choice.
Powerful techniques consume a huge amount of chakra; this was common sense in the ninja world... The figures of the Mist ninjas appeared vaguely in Shisui and Itachi's sight. Some of the Mist ninjas even wore masks, meaning there might be a Mist ANBU squad among them.
Uchiha Shisui rubbed his forehead, "It looks like we're surrounded..."
Even a crow could see their predicament. A rough look revealed at least several dozen Mist ninjas had appeared... This number was clearly a bit excessive.
Finally, one Mist ninja revealed himself, followed by a dense crowd of Mist ninjas filling their vision. Among them, besides ordinary ninja squads and Mist ANBU squads, there was even a medical unit, totaling over a hundred people.
The captives from the Cipher Division were the first to recognize the origin of these Mist ninjas, "It's Lord Ao's support troops! Weren't they supposed to be on the ship?"
"An infiltration of this scale..." Although the cold winter wind was still blowing, sweat had already appeared on Shisui's forehead, "This can already be called an invasion that could trigger a war between two countries, right?"
"The war never seemed to stop, did it..." Kisame Hoshigaki said sarcastically, "The Hidden Mist Village has never signed any peace treaty with Konoha."
If not for the Hidden Mist Village suffering tragic losses under the Konoha army led by Minato Namikaze at the end of the Third Shinobi World War, even losing the Three-Tails, they wouldn't have given up the opportunity to invade the Land of Fire.
The Hidden Mist Village had already reclaimed the Three-Tails and had repeatedly landed to scout Konoha's intelligence, including the Nine-Tails rampage, the death of the Fourth Hokage, and the defection of Orochimaru and a certain Flying Thunder God user. These were things that couldn't be hidden.
But the Hidden Mist Village didn't have enough confidence to launch a war either. They just wanted to use this opportunity to re-establish the Land of Water's great nation status. If Konoha was truly weakened, they wouldn't pass up the unexpected joy of taking a bite out of the Land of Fire.
"Itachi, I'll create an opportunity for you to break out later!" Shisui grabbed Itachi's shoulder and put some of his paper bombs and shuriken into the little boy's ninja tool pouch, "Deliver the intelligence here to the village!"
"Shisui, you..." Uchiha Itachi was about to object but was silenced by Shisui covering his mouth.
"Itachi, you must get out alive!" Seeing the surrounding Mist ninja troops, Shisui had already resolved to die. Facing over a hundred well-prepared Mist ninjas, the possibility of both of them escaping was minimal. What he had to do was pass on the flame.
"And the most important thing..." Shisui looked seriously into the little boy's eyes, "Itachi, if I am sacrificed, what becomes of the future of the Uchiha clan and the village... I'm leaving it all to you!"
(End of this chapter)