I founded the "Bragging Cult" in Naruto.

Chapter 196 Even the most mature man, when he sees cow dung, still wants to blow it up with a cannon.

Tatsuma detected a total of eight chakra points, which should correspond to eight ninjas. After a brief communication with Hiruzen Sarutobi, Tatsuma sensed the situation there again.

Finding that the eight people over there hadn't moved, Tatsuma made a few hand gestures and then headed in that direction. Hiruzen Sarutobi followed behind Tatsuma, a slight smile on his face.

That smile wasn't one of satisfaction or relief, but rather the smile of a child on their way to the amusement park, or an older child on their way to the hotel.

Every few hundred meters closer, Tatsuma would stop sensing, until he was only about 500 meters away. He stopped because he was certain that the eight people opposite him either did not have any sensory ninjas or the sensory ninjas were sleeping.

Tatsuma's sensory range is wider than that of ordinary sensory ninjas. Five kilometers is just a habitual sensory distance. He can perceive much farther, but the chakra and mental energy consumed would not be proportional to the gains.

After all, with oneself as the center, the more one expands outward, even if the radius increases by the same, the amount of information the brain needs to process and the chakra consumed to cover the area all increase linearly.

Five kilometers is a reasonable and manageable range for Tatsuma now. His brain can process it effortlessly, and his chakra won't be consumed too much. At the same time, this distance can ensure safety and make responses.

It's quite common for other ninjas not to be able to sense what's happening five kilometers away. Even three kilometers or two kilometers is very difficult for many ninjas with sensory abilities but no secret techniques or bloodline limits.

However, if you get any closer, even to a distance of 500 meters, and still can't sense it, then you wouldn't be worthy of the title of a sensory ninja.

Now that Tatsuma and the others have approached within 500 meters, the eight people there still haven't made any moves or even changed their chakra levels, which means they haven't noticed Tatsuma and the others at all.

As for why we stopped getting closer, it was because the distance of 500 meters was such that even a non-sensory ninja could easily detect the change in the quiet forest, so we needed to adjust our approach.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had been following Tatsuma, asked, "Can you confirm if they are enemies?"

"It's not certain yet, but judging from the amount of chakra, it should be two teams of Jonin and Chunin. This kind of arrangement is relatively rare after the large-scale reorganization of our Konoha ninja teams."

Tatsuma shared his speculation: if it were before the war, a team of one Jonin leading three Chunin was quite common in Konoha.

However, Konoha had just experienced nearly two years of war. When the troops were reorganized after the war, the village intentionally prioritized having Jonin train the Genin who had graduated early but had not yet been assigned to classes.

After all, there are no large-scale wars now, so the most important thing is to help the lower-ranking ninjas grow up and fill the gaps in the mid-level forces lost in the war.

While it's possible to have Chunin lead Genin, it's less efficient. Therefore, when Konoha organizes its teams, Chunin are usually formed into teams of three, with one ninja chosen to lead the team.

Judging from their chakra levels alone, none of the eight ninjas on the other side were genin. This team composition doesn't quite fit Konoha's current team formation model in the short term.

Upon hearing this, Hiruzen Sarutobi's smile deepened. He said in a teasing tone, "Tatsuyasha, if you're sure they're enemies later, remember to leave the Jonin to me. Don't take them out on the first try."

Tatsuma was surprised that Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had been in his forties for several years, still had such thoughts. He nodded on the surface, but was speechless inside.

He wants to take down a Jonin, but he needs the strength to support him. Although if he launches a sneak attack and succeeds, most Jonin can be dealt with by a kunai or a Rasengan.

A Jonin wouldn't easily succeed in a sneak attack, so Hiruzen Sarutobi was probably joking.

Tatsuma gave a few more hand signals and then began to sneak towards that direction. The training in the Anbu was quite useful; at least Tatsuma's ability to move stealthily had improved considerably.

As he got closer, Tatsuma became increasingly cautious until he spotted his target.

There were eight people on the other side. Six were resting, and two were patrolling. However, their reconnaissance methods relied entirely on external forces. In addition to the binoculars in his hand, Chenma also discovered many small traps left in the forest.

However, Tatsuma and the others bypassed these, and Tatsuma and Hiruzen Sarutobi began to examine the ninjas over there. They were not wearing any ninja attire, but rather coarse cloth short clothes.

The bamboo baskets and carrying poles beside them made them look very much like hawkers, or small merchants or peddlers. They did not wear ninja tool bags, but each of them was very close to their bamboo baskets.

Two of them even kept their hands inside the bamboo baskets, leading Tatsuma to speculate that they might have hidden ninja tools or something similar inside.

At this point, Tatsuma was absolutely certain that these were not Konoha ninjas. After all, they had come from the opposite direction from these people and there was no place where a ninja team with this configuration would be needed for a mission.

Moreover, even if Konoha ninjas need to disguise themselves, they do so only after getting close to the mission target. Who would they disguise themselves for in the deep mountains and forests?

Therefore, it can be determined that the people in front of us are ninjas from another country, but we do not yet know which country they are from.

Tatsuma thought for a moment, made a few hand gestures, and then looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi. Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded, and Tatsuma quickly waved his hand to signal that the order should be carried out.

His battle plan was simple: since Hiruzen Sarutobi wanted to play around, they had no choice but to play along. As soon as he gave the order, his body shot out instantly, landing on the ninja who was patrolling sixty or seventy meters away.

At the same time, Xiao suddenly appeared in the forest and rushed towards another patrolling ninja, covering a distance of sixty or seventy meters in an instant.

The ninja seemed to have noticed, but when he turned around, Tatsuma was already behind him, his kunai slicing across the ninja's throat.

Although he received a sharper chakra dagger from Sakumo Hatake, Tatsuma still couldn't get used to it, especially for this kind of sneak attack. He preferred kunai, and using kunai also reduced his personal characteristics.

Having landed a successful blow, Chenma instantly moved away from his original spot, and the next second, a clay spear suddenly shot up from where he had been standing.

The two Jonin were now looking at Tatsuma and Xiao with wary expressions.

"Konoha's Anbu!"

One of the Jonin spoke up. He knew that since they were being targeted by Konoha's Anbu, their disguise was meaningless. Therefore, he didn't ask any questions and instead went into combat mode.

At this moment, two other members of the Anbu also appeared, forming a four-corner formation with Tatsuma and Xiao. The last member of the Anbu replaced Tatsuma and appeared beside Hiruzen Sarutobi.

The Jonin surrounded in the middle observed Tatsuma and his group of four before speaking, "Two class representatives, but only two class members?"

"There are no signs of combat, so it doesn't seem like we've lost any members. That short guy isn't a Jonin; he might just be trying to trick us."

Another Jonin quickly spoke up, stating his guess. Upon hearing himself called a short man, Tatsuma's face darkened behind his mask, but he quickly suppressed his anger and immediately said:

"Iwa ninja, please state your purpose in coming to the Land of Fire."

Upon hearing the child's voice, the four were visibly taken aback. Then, the Jonin facing Tatsuma showed surprise and doubt in his eyes. Seeing his reaction, Tatsuma realized that he had successfully tricked him.

These two squads are the Iwa ninja teams.

Tatsuma wasn't just guessing. After all, sending such "luxurious" teams deep into another country wasn't something a small country could do. And of the remaining five great nations, these people in front of him were clearly not Konoha ninjas.

The Land of Water is far from here, and the direction they are heading is wrong, so it is highly likely that they are not from the Mist Village. The same logic applies to the Cloud Village. Moreover, the people of the Land of Lightning mostly have very distinct physical characteristics, and their habits, cultivated by their lifestyle and social atmosphere, are very difficult to change.

As for the remaining Iwa ninja and Sunagakure ninja, it's just a choice between two. And in this two-choice situation, whether Tatsuma guesses right or wrong, he is confident that he will be able to detect it.

The Iwa ninja opposite them did not answer Tatsuma's question, but instead said, "You alone cannot stop us, or are you still expecting reinforcements to arrive?"

"It's not that we're expecting it, it's that we already have foreign aid."

Tatsuma noticed that Hiruzen Sarutobi had appeared sometime in front of him, behind the Iwa ninja, and his tone became flippant.

Hearing Tatsuma say this, the Iwa ninja weren't sure if he was telling the truth, but their expressions turned serious. However, his companion said, "So what if there's outside help? Even if a Jonin comes, we're not afraid!"

"Really? How come I didn't know the ninjas of Iwagakure were this powerful?"

The sudden sound of a voice that did not belong to any of the people they were watching made the Iwa ninja tense up. Just as they looked around, Hiruzen Sarutobi, wearing the Hokage robe and Hokage hat, appeared openly.

"The Third Hokage?!"

The moment they saw Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Iwa ninjas' expressions turned extremely ugly. They also understood why the Konoha ANBU ninjas had chosen to appear in such a "high-profile" manner.

The way Tatsuma and his group appeared wasn't particularly ostentatious, but considering their status as Anbu members, it became somewhat brazen. Now, the Iwa ninja finally understood what gave these Konoha Anbu members the right to act so recklessly.

The Kage of the five great nations' ninja villages are among the strongest in the ninja world. Although the five Kage are all Jonin, no one would really think that the combat power of a Jonin can be compared with that of a Kage.

Once they confirmed that the person in front of them, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was the real person, their first reaction was to run away. Even if this would cause them to fail their original mission, a piece of information about the Hokage's movements would be enough to make up for the failure of their mission!

Seeing that the group turned in different directions, clearly intending to escape separately, Tatsuma, Xiao, and the other two Anbu members were about to stop them, but Hiruzen Sarutobi gently shook his head.

As the group took a step, Hiruzen Sarutobi whispered, "Enma."

"It's been so long since we fought side by side, Hiruzen! But next time, pick me a tougher opponent!"

A powerful figure crashed through several large trees and charged into the middle of the Iwa ninja. His speed was so fast that even the Iwa ninja who were preparing to leave in a flash could not keep up.

Standing amidst the six Iwa ninja, the Monkey King Enma roared, "Transformation! Vajra Barrier!"

"Bang bang bang!"

The moment the smoke appeared, a cage formed by overlapping Vajra staffs transformed from the Monkey King appeared, trapping several Iwa ninja. Hiruzen Sarutobi also took the opportunity to complete the hand seals, took a deep breath, and exhaled towards the cage.

"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique!"

Meanwhile, Tatsuma, who was "on guard duty," widened his eyes slightly, appreciating the scene that he both loved and hated in his past life.

(End of this chapter)