Saving the Uchiha clan starts with becoming the clan leader.

"what happened?"

Kamanosuke emerged from underground.

They had only just caught up. Kaminosuke's Earth Movement Technique wasn't actually faster than Tenmoku's. In fact, most Earth Movement Techniques weren't very fast. The strength of Earth Movement Technique lay in its stealth, not its speed.

Before he could catch up with Di Lu and the others, he heard Tian Mu's shout.

"There are many ninjas ahead. I don't have time to count them all, but there are at least thirty or so."

"Konoha ninja?"

Kamanosuke's expression changed drastically.

More than thirty Konoha ninja? What bad luck they've had! Why are there so many Konoha ninja here? Just as Kamanosuke was pondering which way to run and whether to inform Kazuma, Tenmoku gave him a completely unexpected answer with a strange expression.

"No, look at their headbands and clothing... they look a bit like Kirigakure ninja!"

Tianmu said.

"What did you say? Mist Ninja?"

Kamanosuke was stunned.

Good guy!

What's the situation?

More than thirty Mist Ninja... Why would Mist Ninja appear in a place like this? This should still be the Land of Fire, right? Could it be that they were unknowingly affected by a space-time jutsu during their pursuit and were transported to the Land of Water?

Kamanosuke, who looks very simple and looks like an old farmer at a young age, is not the kind of ascetic who works all year round. His greatest pleasure in his spare time is reading, not works like the recently popular "Make-Out Paradise", but fantasy works that tend to be mythological.

His imagination is quite wild!

"Kamanosuke, should we continue chasing?" Tenmoku asked, looking at the stunned Kamanosuke. "Kogitsunemaru and Unko have already charged forward."

"What?! These two idiots!"

Kamanosuke snapped out of his daze, looking at Kogitsunemaru and Unko's retreating figures, and cursed angrily. But then he gritted his teeth and said, "Fine, Tenmoku, let's go up and take a look. As for the Mist Ninja... although I heard that Konoha and the Mist Ninja have formed an alliance, they may not necessarily help Konoha. Besides, Jiraiya and the others aren't Konoha ninjas. If we act quickly, we should have a chance to deal with Jiraiya and the others."

"All right!"

Tianmu shrugged and agreed nonchalantly.

Anyway, with Kogitsunemaru and Unko leading the charge, if things really get bad... retreating isn't out of the question. Besides, even if we take a step back, from the day they chose to 'defect' with Kazuma, they had already disregarded their own lives.

of course,

If you're alive, there's no need to actively seek death!

[Chapter 282. What business do you have with the Konoha ninjas?]

If you were to ask why the Mist Ninja are here?

The answer is actually quite simple.

They were just passing through. The shortest route from the port where they landed to Konoha happened to pass through this location, which wasn't too far from the Daimyo's residence. The sun was extremely scorching today. To be honest, the Mist Ninja had never experienced such a bright sun in the Land of Water. By noon, they had no desire to continue their journey under the scorching sunlight.

I simply chose to rest.

In fact, they had been walking and stopping like this for the past two days, which seriously slowed down their journey. Otherwise, with their stamina, even if they weren't running at full speed, they should have arrived in Konoha and were sitting in the Hokage's office or in the Hokage's room having tea, instead of enjoying the shade of this forest.

"It's so hot!"

With a pained expression, Hozuki Suigetsu squatted under the tree, clutching his water bottle and sucking hard until the poor bottle was instantly drained.

Around them, the Mist Ninjas were hiding in twos and threes under the shade of the trees, some squatting, some leaning, some sitting. No one dared to lie down sprawled out. After all, they were in the wild, and they couldn't lose their vigilance. Being ready for battle at any time was the quality of an excellent ninja.

"Shuiyue, shut up. It's hot enough already. Be quiet and give my ears some peace and quiet."

Hozuki Mangetsu weakly scolded his younger brother.

He looked exhausted, leaning listlessly against the tree trunk, shaking the empty water bottle in his hand. His expression grew even more weary, giving the impression that he might melt away into a puddle of water at any moment. This was not an illusion.

In fact, it was indeed very hot that day.

However, most of the Mist Ninja are actually fine. As long as they are not exposed to the sun, they can tolerate it under the shade of trees. The key is that the brothers Mangetsu and Suigetsu are from the Hozuki clan. Their clan's secret techniques are indeed very strong, but the problem is that they also have unavoidable weaknesses.

For example, it can be countered by Lightning Release.

And they're afraid of the heat!

That's right, the Hozuki clan members are very afraid of heat. High temperatures cause a lot of water in their bodies to evaporate, and in severe cases, it's not impossible for them to die as a result. Before the Hozuki clan crossed the ocean to the Land of Water during the Warring States period, they had a cruel punishment called "Sun Exposure Punishment".

The specific method involved locking members of the clan who had made mistakes in transparent, heat-absorbing containers and exposing them to the sun. To be honest, even a normal person would peel off a layer of skin after being exposed to the sun for a long time, and some members of the Hozuki clan, who were already afraid of the heat, were actually burned to death.

"This Land of Fire is so hot! Brother, you never said the weather in the Land of Fire was this unbearable."

"Ha! I didn't force you to come, so it's none of my business."

"What? Big brother, what kind of attitude is this? I'm your own brother." Hozuki Suigetsu was very dissatisfied with his older brother's terrible attitude towards him. He glared at him angrily. It wasn't that he didn't dare to throw a punch at his older brother, but it was too hot and he didn't want to move.

"so what?"

Hozuki Mangetsu's attitude became increasingly hostile.

If it weren't so hot, he would have grabbed this rascal and given him a good beating right now, to teach him what it means to be the eldest brother and a father.

"Big brother, do you have any more water?"

After muttering a bunch of nonsense under his breath, Hozuki Suigetsu felt like his throat was about to burst into flames, so he had to temporarily cease hostilities and shamelessly ask for a drink of water.

"See for yourself."

Hozuki Mangetsu shook the empty kettle in his hand.

all of a sudden,

Hozuki Suigetsu's expression fell. He rolled his eyes, preparing to check if the others around him still had water... Just then, the sensory ninja who was on lookout in the tree suddenly spoke up, "Lord Mangetsu, there is a very strong chakra rushing towards us from the seven o'clock direction, and it is moving very fast."

"what's the situation?"

It wasn't Hozuki Mangetsu who got all flustered first.

Instead, it was the four Konoha ninjas responsible for escorting the Mist Ninjas. The Shirakumo Hayama squad from the Eastern Border Defense Force was in an uproar. Captain Shirakumo Hayama jumped to his feet and strode to the large tree where the sensory ninja was crouching. He looked up and asked, "Can you confirm their identities? Are they Konoha ninjas? Or... someone else?"

Hayama Shirokumo earned his promotion to Jonin last year for his meritorious service in the war against the Cloud Ninja. After the war, he served in the northeastern border defense force for three months before being transferred to the eastern border defense force, where he has been serving ever since. This time, he was entrusted by his superiors with the mission of escorting this group of Mist Ninja to Konoha.

It was supposed to be an escort,

In reality, their main tasks were twofold: first, to guide the way and prevent the Mist Ninja from wandering around the country. Although they weren't worried about the Mist Ninja gathering any important intelligence, they still needed to maintain a proper attitude; second, to ensure that the Mist Ninja wouldn't have any unnecessary conflicts with their domestic comrades on the road, lest someone be unaware of the Mist Ninja envoy's arrival and clash with the Mist Ninja, which would not look good.

In general,

No one thought the Mist Ninja would encounter any accidents on the way.

They were not worried that the Mist Ninjas harbored ulterior motives.

Therefore, only the small team from Shirayuki and Hayama was assigned to escort these thirty-odd Mist Ninja. In fact, there wasn't a single professional sensory ninja in their team. Even in Konoha, to be honest, it's impossible to equip every team with a sensory ninja.

after all,

Konoha has many sensory ninjas, such as those from the Hyuga, Yamanaka, Aburame, and Inuzuka clans, all of whom can be considered top-tier sensory ninjas. However, Konoha also has a large number of ninjas, especially with the rise of commoner ninjas. With so many ninja teams, it's inevitable that some teams will lack sensory ninjas.

Baiyun Yeshan just happened to be such an unlucky guy.

It wasn't that I was being targeted maliciously; it was just bad luck.

He was transferred from the northeastern border defense force to the eastern border defense force, but he was delayed by some family matters and arrived about a week late. When he arrived, he found that most of the squads in the eastern border defense force had already been formed. The sought-after talents such as sensory ninjas and medical ninjas had long been snapped up, leaving him with a group of rough men who had no other skills besides fighting.

So that

He can only ask the sensory ninjas of the Mist Village about the situation.

"Just tell me what you've discovered."

Hozuki Mangetsu walked up to Shirakumo Hayama.

The sensory ninja perched in the tree twitched. He could ignore Hayama's question and pretend he was deaf, but if he pretended not to hear Hozuki Mangetsu's words, that would be like an old man hanging himself—wanting to die. Kirigakure was the village least afraid of killing its own people among the five great ninja villages.

If he dares to do something reckless at this moment, Hozuki Mangetsu will make him a real dead man!

"There are three people here... but only one of them is a master. One of the other two should be a child with very little chakra. As for the third one... he's not weak, but not as powerful as the first one... As for their identities, please forgive my incompetence. I don't have any eye techniques like the Byakugan; I can only sense the chakra of those who approach, so I can't determine their identities." The sensory ninja perched in the tree quickly reported all his findings.

"child?"

Hearing this answer, Shirakumo Yesan was somewhat confused, and at the same time, his serious expression relaxed a little.

He was confused by the appearance of the children, but relaxed because no matter why they were there, it probably wasn't some clueless individual deliberately trying to cause trouble for the Mist Ninja... As long as it didn't interfere with his mission, he didn't really care what was going on here.

Just as Baiyun Yeshan was beginning to feel a little relieved,

"No, that's not right... There are more people behind us. One, two, three, four—four incredibly powerful chakra streams. They must all be Jonin-level experts. This is... they're chasing the three people in front!"

This Mist Ninja perched in the tree was only a Special Jonin. To be honest, his sensory abilities were superior to those of Chirai. He became a Special Jonin by relying on his sensory techniques, which were above the Chunin level. However, compared to geniuses like Tenmoku who mastered secret ninjutsu and were selected as members of the Twelve Guardian Ninjas, he was far inferior.

Therefore,

He didn't discover Kamanosuke and Tenmoku behind them at the same time as he discovered Jiraiya and the others.

By the time he noticed Kamanosuke and the others,

Standing in the tree, one could already see Jiraiya and Dunbei rushing towards them with the naked eye.

"A monk, an old man, and a child, no Konoha ninja... Judging from this, it's probably a conflict between those ninja villages and clans. Ambassador Hozuki, we don't need to interfere in their conflict."

Shirakumo Hayama turned to Hozuki Mangetsu and said.

"As long as they don't provoke me, I won't deliberately cause trouble in the Land of Fire."

Hozuki Mangetsu has a very upright attitude, meticulously adhering to the eight-character mantra of "I will not offend others unless they offend me".

Before setting off for the Land of Fire, Master Yuan had a special talk with him, telling him not to act recklessly. Kirigakure was currently in a low period, while Konoha was like the rising sun after the darkest night.

It's not that we're at the mercy of others, but it's absolutely something we must avoid if we become enemies with Konoha.

Hozuki Mangetsu understood this principle. Although he was not very satisfied with Genji treating him like a child and giving him lectures, he still respected Genji very much. He kept Genji's admonitions firmly in mind and would often reflect on them, reminding himself not to let his emotions sway his judgment.

The Mist Ninjas had all been summoned and were now in a defensive formation.

Hearing Hozuki Mangetsu's reply and seeing the defensive stance of the Kirigakure ninja under the tree, Shirakumo Hayama breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, this prodigy from Kirigakure was reasonable and not as difficult to deal with as he had imagined. Now that he had communicated with Hozuki Mangetsu, the next step was to deal with the trouble that had come knocking.

His thoughts raced through his mind, one idea after another appearing and disappearing as he pondered how to say something that would make the 'trouble' leave on its own.

Just as he opened his mouth to speak,

The monk rushing towards them shouted first, "Gentlemen of the Mist, are you allies of Konoha?"