I founded the "Bragging Cult" in Naruto.

Chapter 363 A good actor must be able to change his face when playing a role.

For the next few days, Tatsuma rarely appeared in front of people because his disguise was not perfect. The reactions of Yekura and others proved that people who knew him could easily recognize him.

Of course, most people in Kirigakure do not know "Sakamoto Tatsuma", so the probability of him being exposed is not high. However, on Zhuping's side, there are quite a few people operating overseas.

As early as two years ago, Zhuping Group already had photos of Tatsuma, but those were earlier photos of Tatsuma. The changes in appearance during puberty are significant, and in the photos that Zhuping Group has, Tatsuma even has some baby fat on his face.

He is now extremely thin, with slightly sunken cheeks and protruding eyes, looking somewhat sinister and fierce, completely different from Tatsuma back then, who was full of collagen and even looked a bit like a young boy.

However, the fact that the Land of Water cannot obtain information about Tatsuma's updates does not mean that the Hidden Cloud Village cannot. What Tatsuma is worried about now is that the rogue ninja who have contacted the Hidden Cloud Village, as well as the Hidden Cloud Village ninja who came with him, will recognize his identity.

Over the past few days, Chenma has been working on improving his disguise. Human-to-human recognition is different from machine-to-human recognition; machines rely solely on facial features for identification.

However, subjective impressions play a significant role in how people perceive each other. These include eye contact, facial expressions, clothing, micro-gestures, and the overall demeanor that these elements combine to create a certain quality. These factors can easily mislead one person's perception and judgment of another.

In the past few days, Chenma has been adjusting his image in the eyes of others. He doesn't appear in public often, but he always chooses times when there are many people around. In just a few days, his face has become thinner and thinner.

His cheeks became increasingly sunken, and his eyes became increasingly bulging, making him look somewhat sickly. His hair was meticulously styled, and he gradually applied face paint to his face. He applied mud to his cheeks to narrow the width of his face in the eyes of others, and then painted face paint on his chin to lengthen his entire face.

He also used some unnoticed makeup materials to reshape the shadows around his mouth and nose, making his nose appear "flatter." The changes were subtle, and no one suspected anything. However, the visual impression he gave off was completely different from what it had been a few days earlier.

Simply put, Chenma is a bit ugly, but for the sake of the mission, he can temporarily give up his outstanding looks. Once the mission is over, he can come back after drinking more water and eating more desserts.

Five days later, Zhu Ping's invitation arrived again. Ships transporting supplies were about to arrive at Beihai Harbor, and the various alliance groups were asked to set off and assemble.

Chenma and the others lived in the same city as Zhuping, so after receiving the invitation, they didn't need to rush to meet up. They simply appeared outside the city at the agreed time.

"you"

After a few days apart, Yekura found that Tatsuma was like a completely different person. She was first startled by Tatsuma's sickly thinness, but then Yekura quickly realized Tatsuma's intention.

Instantly, a look of anxiety appeared on her face. Unlike Tatsuma, she had only risen to fame in the last year or so. In other words, the investigations conducted by various organizations on her, such as the photos, were all recent.

If she weren't disguised, it would be easy to spot that she had been operating on the southern coast. The ninjas and civilians there had never left the Land of Water in their entire lives and had no access to outside information, so they couldn't identify her.

Gradually, she forgot about it, but now, a group of rogue ninja from the Land of Lightning are about to arrive, accompanied by the Cloud Ninja forces.

Over the past year, Ye Cangke has also been registered with the Cloud Ninja, so the possibility of them recognizing her is quite high.

Tatsuma shook his head at her surprised expression. She was still too young. Although she was only sixteen or seventeen, she was already a Jonin of Sunagakure. She must have been involved in many missions during her training in the Anbu.

However, ANBU missions are actually monotonous and have a uniform template. Pakura only served as a regular ninja for a short year, and for the first half of that time, she didn't need to disguise herself at all.

She had no experience in handling this situation, which was different from the disguise and secrecy of the Dark Division. As members of the Dark Division, they could complete their disguise by simply putting on a mask and covering their faces with a hood, but this kind of role-playing was not an option.

Tatsuma took out his clay, glanced at Yokura, and then tossed it over. Yokura caught it nervously, his body ready to throw it back at any moment.

But when Yekura saw that the object in his hand was actually sludge, he was stunned for a moment. Tatsuma gestured to his eyes. As someone who couldn't "act," his eyes would reveal more than any other part of his body.

Therefore, changing one's eyes is the easiest way to change one's image. However, looking at Yekura's unique hair color, Tatsuma reached behind his head and made a gesture of tying his hair up in the air.

Yekura understood and nodded with gratitude, but only for a second before her expression froze. She then glared at Tatsuma, turned her face away, opened the clay jar, and began to apply makeup to herself.

Before long, Yekura applied an extremely flamboyant eyeshadow to herself, then tied up her hair, tucking the colored ends of her hair into her hair, similar to how Tatsuma straightened his hair by tying it up.

Although it was only two small changes, it completely altered the impression Yekura gave people. She quickly spread the little bit of oil and dirt on her hands and applied it to her exposed skin, slightly changing her skin tone.

After finishing, she looked back at Tatsuma, and with a strange expression, threw the sludge back to him. Tatsuma caught it, casually put it away, and continued talking to Minato, as if he had just helped with a trivial little favor.

"Thanks."

Yekura forced out her thanks, but Tatsuma kept his head turned to communicate with Minato, as if he hadn't heard her. Yekura gritted her teeth, took two steps closer to Tatsuma, and said again, "I said thank you."

"Um."

Disturbed, Tatsuma straightened up and made a perfunctory nasal sound. Yekura glared at him and also made a nasal sound.

"Um?!"

"Um?"

"snort!"

"Heh~"

The spies from Konoha or Sunagakure standing beside and behind the two all wore strange expressions; this was truly...unusual.

Tatsuma rolled his eyes and continued chatting with Minato. Yekura didn't return to her original spot either; she was almost standing in Konoha's formation by now. She also caught Tatsuma and Minato's whispered conversation.

"I bet five minutes."

After Tatsuma finished speaking, Minato shook his head and said, "It won't be that fast. They'll probably regroup when they get close, maybe in eight minutes?"

Shrugging, Tatsuma didn't continue the bet, but changed the subject, saying, "It seems there's a spy from Kirigakure's higher-ups in Zhuping's team. No wonder the previous attacks were so accurate."

"Not only are there spies from Kirigakure, but also from Konoha, Sunagakure, and Kumogakure will be sending people soon. I wonder if Iwagakure has taken any action? But they are the furthest away and the journey is the most inconvenient, so they probably won't come."

"Heh~ That old geezer Onoki, I don't believe he can't sense the movements of the Land of Water. But I also agree with your opinion. The Iwa ninja are not taking any action. They'll just scare others like they did during the previous war and sit back and watch the tigers fight."

Minato nodded with a smile, his tone even carrying a hint of schadenfreude, and said, "But after this, Kirigakure's isolation policy will become a complete joke."

Tatsuma shook his head, his tone not optimistic, and said, "Actually, the Land of Water's closed policy is actually a good thing for the other four countries."

After all, they weren't focused on development; instead, they were constantly scrambling for resources. If other major ninja villages were given decades of peaceful development, they might have undergone a complete transformation. Of course, Sunagakure is an exception; they'll only get poorer and poorer.

"you!"

Yekura glared at them, interrupting their whispered conversation. "Why are you dragging Sunagakure into this?! Sunagakure is so poor because of Konoha's oppression!"

The Second Shinobi World War was not only a defeat, but also extremely devastating. The daimyo lost their trust and funding, and many orders from small countries and multinational caravans were lost as a result.

Two years ago, the massive flood caused by Tatsuma led Sunagakure to become the first village in the region to be in debt, and the debt was owed to the daimyo. Last year's and this year's military expenses were used to offset the debt.

As for next year, that depends on whether Yekura can fulfill her mission this time and satisfy the daimyo.

The cause of all this is Konoha, and this annoying Sakamoto Tatsuma! How dare he mock us? It's infuriating!

Tatsuma didn't care that Yokura was eavesdropping on his conversation with Minato. If he had cared, he wouldn't have chatted in this situation.

He turned to Ye Cang, his tone increasingly sarcastic, and asked, "I heard that the Third Kazekage and his disciples have been mining every day to generate income for the village. Is that true?"

"Nonsense!"

Yekura gritted her teeth. She shouldn't have used Tatsuma's mud to change her skin color, because her face was now both blue and red, which was much better than the dyeing effect of the mud.

Tatsuma revealed a wicked smile, which, combined with his emaciated and sickly face, made him look like a pervert.

"ew~"

Yekura took a large step back, distancing herself from Tatsuma, looking disgusted by him. Tatsuma, however, didn't seem to care and simply said, "Almost there."

A few seconds later, a sharp alarm rang out in the camp. Tatsuma and Minato were betting on when the Kirigakure troops would arrive. Although they hadn't even reached the shortest time Tatsuma had set—five minutes—it wasn't that they had both lost.

Because Zhu Ping's side also had sensory ninjas. Although Tatsuma and Minato did not report the discovery of the enemy, others still did.

In other words, there is still a short period of time between the discovery of the Kirigakure forces and their actual arrival and attack; the battle between Tatsuma and Minato is not yet over.

Just then, Zhu Ping rushed over and, facing the alliance of various rogue ninja organizations, said, "Supplies and reinforcements are about to arrive. Please hold off the Kirigakure forces for a moment!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the faces of many other members of the alliance darkened. Many of them had agreed to form an alliance simply to get on board with the Zhu Ping Group and see if they could benefit from it.

But now, is Zhu Ping's intention to let them exhaust themselves first, while the Zhu Ping Group observes the situation?

Just as everyone's faces darkened and someone was about to object, Tatsuma stepped forward and said, "It seems no one is competing with me for the prey. Consider the advance force of three hundred elite ninjas as my appetizer."

"Lord Takasugi Shinsuke."

Zhu Ping looked at Chen Ma with excitement and gratitude, then solemnly said, "Then I'll leave it to you, Lord Takasugi Shinsuke. We will make the handover with the overseas fleet as soon as possible and provide assistance to you at the fastest speed."

"No need for support, just be my audience when the time comes."

After finishing his sentence, Tatsuma turned around and looked towards the advance force of Kirigakure. Yekura glanced at the port, then at Tatsuma, and gritted her teeth, saying, "We're going too!"

As soon as she finished speaking, she ran to Tatsuma's side. Seeing that the moisture in Tatsuma's hand seals had become incredibly abundant, and that even his breathing felt damp and sticky, she revealed a "malicious" smile.

You like Water Release, don't you? I won't give you the chance to show your strength in front of me! Heh~ So what if it's Tobirama? If you can't use Water Release, how strong can you be?

With this thought in mind, Yekura's chakra surged, the surroundings became hot, and then the air became extremely dry. She glanced triumphantly at Tatsuma, who had lowered his hands.

"As expected of a scorching ninja, to be able to change the climate of such a vast area is truly remarkable."

Looking at the approaching advance force of the Mist Ninja, Tatsuma said, "How about we have a contest to see who can kill more of these elite Mist Ninja?"

"OK!"

Yekura nodded decisively, while Minato, standing next to Tatsuma, sighed.

The feelings had faded, and Tatsuma-kun no longer challenged him to matches.

(End of this chapter)