Another Group of People
In the middle of the night, Bai Ye stirred in his sleep, confused. He vaguely felt someone nudging his shoulder. Instinctively alert, he awoke immediately and shifted into a guarded stance.
"Shh—"
Before he could speak, he caught sight of Kazuhiko beside him, gesturing for silence and motioning for him to follow.
Bai Ye, who had honed his awareness over the past few months, immediately swallowed his questions. Without making a sound, he reached for the Zanpakutō strapped to his back, quieted his steps, and trailed Kazuhiko out of the shelter.
"…Tch. This is all your fault, Kushi. You were supposed to be on watch. Now our ship's been swallowed by the whirlpool before we could react."
After following Kazuhiko for roughly a minute, Bai Ye noticed a group of four walking through the ruins ahead, heading in their direction.
They were still a fair distance away. Kazuhiko, sensing them early, had led Bai Ye to a shadowed corner shrouded in darkness.
The group didn't appear to notice they were being observed. They continued on, chatting casually, without the slightest hint of caution.
"Don't blame me. I stood guard last night back in the Land of Iron. It's not my shift tonight," the thinner man—presumably Kushi—grumbled.
"Both of you, shut it. The ship's gone. Let's find shelter for the night—we're moving out early tomorrow," the oldest of them snapped, clearly irritated. He carried himself like their leader.
"Uncle Dafu, is it true you participated in the destruction of Uzushiogakure?" asked one of the younger shinobi, feigning admiration while trying to flatter him.
"Hahaha, even you've heard about that?" Dafu clapped the younger man on the shoulder. "Then allow me to tell you about the legend I left behind."
As he began boasting, Dafu unknowingly wandered closer to where Bai Ye and Kazuhiko were hidden.
Noticing this, Bai Ye made a beheading gesture to Kazuhiko, proposing a silent takedown.
But the moment he saw their forehead protectors, he froze—these men were from Sunagakure. The symbol stirred a familiar bitterness in Bai Ye, reminding him of the ambush he'd survived over six months ago.
Ordinarily, Bai Ye wouldn't have tried to kill another ninja without cause. But after months of carrying out assassinations under Orochimaru's orders, his sense of restraint had dulled. Life and death felt arbitrary now. His mind leaned more and more toward ruthless pragmatism.
However, just as he was about to act, Kazuhiko held him back with a firm hand, silently shaking his head.
The opportunity passed. Bai Ye could only watch as the Sand ninja moved further away.
"Wait."
Kazuhiko didn't speak, but instead released a cluster of kikaichū (destruction bugs), arranging them to form the word in front of Bai Ye. A simple message: Be patient.
Kazuhiko's choice wasn't out of mercy. As a member of the Aburame clan, and a seasoned ninja, he understood that the world was already at war in everything but name. The Five Great Nations were not truly at peace. Bloody incidents were common. Whether strangers or acquaintances, any opportunity to eliminate another village's shinobi was usually taken.
Because if you didn't kill your enemies today, they might kill you—or your comrades—tomorrow.
Sure enough, as the group continued onward, Bai Ye finally understood Kazuhiko's intent.
The path the Sand ninja followed would soon bring them directly past the ancestral hall ahead—one that Bai Ye and Kazuhiko had investigated earlier. A powerful spatial distortion remained there, warping the air unnaturally.
Kazuhiko wanted to use the enemy as test subjects to explore the anomaly without risking their own lives.
"Uncle Dafu, there are signs of recent activity here. Some fruit cores scattered on the ground," one of the men observed near the hall's entrance.
Earlier, Kazuhiko had deliberately placed some leftover fruit cores there, using his kikaichū to move them into plain sight—bait.
"You're overthinking it. Judging by the weathering on those cores, they were left here years ago," Dafu responded dismissively.
In reality, Kazuhiko had carefully altered the fruit cores' appearance to seem aged.
"This is the old territory of the Uzumaki clan. Could be that a survivor came back to pay respects."
That suggestion prompted Dafu to scan the surrounding ruins. He sounded confident, but clearly, he was on edge.
"Uncle Dafu, over there. Has it always looked like that?" someone asked suddenly, pointing toward the warped area behind the ancestral hall.
"…What is that?" Dafu muttered, narrowing his eyes. The space shimmered like heat waves in summer—an unnatural, silent distortion.
"Let's get a closer look," he ordered, his voice tinged with anticipation. He clearly suspected there was something hidden here. During the war, Sunagakure had participated in Uzushiogakure's destruction, but they'd been stationed too far to claim any of the clan's famed sealing techniques.
To this day, their village still struggled to control the One-Tail. They envied Konoha's sealing methods.
Whoosh!
Reaching the backyard, the four shinobi stood before the twisted rock formation. Dafu tossed a shuriken into the warped space—it vanished the instant it made contact, without a trace.
"…Gone?" he muttered. "Shuji, send your puppet through. Let's see what we're dealing with."
The silent man known as Shuji, who had a puppet strapped to his back, gave no verbal response. He simply removed the bandages from his arms and began manipulating the puppet with chakra threads.
The puppet raised its right hand, still holding a kunai. It gently extended the blade into the distortion. A moment passed—then it retracted the kunai. Nothing appeared different.
Next, Shuji moved the puppet's entire right arm into the anomaly. When still nothing happened, he slowly guided the puppet to step fully inside.
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