Chapter 51: Ending the Mission

Looking at the Sand Ninja who had surrounded him with a solemn air, Uchiha Feiyu chuckled lightly:

"To deploy such a cautious formation against me, it seems your resolve this time is quite significant!"

"However, I apologize for putting you all to such trouble; if my true body were here, there might actually be a bit of danger!"

As soon as the words fell, with a 'bang', the Uchiha Feiyu standing in the center transformed into a puff of blue smoke and vanished.

The group of Sand Ninja who had originally surrounded Uchiha Feiyu froze instantly, never expecting that their painstaking, elaborate plan had ultimately only surrounded a Shadow Clone Jutsu?

Pakura's orange eyes looked toward the Sand Ninja who had been in control at the start, and she spoke with an annoyed expression:

"Hongsha! What on earth is going on? Did you call us all here without even being able to distinguish between a Shadow Clone Jutsu and the real body?"

The ninja named Hongsha was also stunned, but quickly reacted:

"That's not right... we only went through one round of combat just now; he had no chance to use a Shadow Clone Jutsu to replace his true body!"

"Unless... unless this guy used a Shadow Clone Jutsu for his probing and fighting from the very beginning!"

Three kilometers away, a sand dune that appeared unremarkable had been completely hollowed out in the middle, and the structure had been reinforced with Earth Release to prevent it from collapsing.

In the cool cave, Uchiha Feiyu was sitting cross-legged in the center, and suddenly, he opened his eyes:

"The raid on the supply squad failed this time; the Sand Ninja were prepared, not only setting traps but also sending out true experts!"

"So what should we do next? Continue the mission?"

After hearing his words, Uchiha Feiyu's three subordinates did not have the slightest doubt, and Hyuga Ichiro was the first to ask.

For the past two months or so, the three had followed behind Uchiha Feiyu, helping him handle many trivial matters, such as pinpointing the location of enemy squads, digging and building temporary bases for rest, and even... chatting to pass the time?

In any case, they hadn't done a single thing related to combat, and even Ito Ryoma's Medical Ninjutsu hadn't been put to use; Uchiha Feiyu was so cautious he didn't seem like a young ninja at all, but rather like an old fox of seventy or eighty, always sending a Shadow Clone Jutsu to do the work.

However, even though Uchiha Feiyu was determined to sit in the base and assign a Shadow Clone Jutsu to appear, for a high-speed ninja capable of stealth like him, even a Shadow Clone Jutsu was something ordinary ninja squads had no ability to resist.

The biggest problem with a Shadow Clone Jutsu is that it is fragile, but the key is that under the conditions of stealth and high speed, without a ninja of elite Jonin level or a sensory ninja, there is basically no possibility of even harming the Shadow Clone Jutsu, so until now, this move of his had never been seen through.

"Execute the mission, my foot. It's been over two months, and I've taken out nearly a hundred Sand Ninja; you could say this mission is basically complete. If we don't run now, are we really planning to fight those Sand Ninja to the death?"

Regardless, the Land of Wind is the Sand Ninja's territory; if the other side truly made up their minds and sent a large number of people to search, it would be very difficult for Uchiha Feiyu and the others to stay hidden.

This kind of thing is nothing more than a question of cost; if Uchiha Feiyu kept intercepting and killing like this, even if pulling people away for a large-scale search had a major impact on the front-line war, the other side would definitely be desperate to surround and kill them.

"Are we retreating directly? Lord Orochimaru hasn't sent word yet; if we retreat directly, won't we be held accountable?"

Ito Ryoma was an ordinary civilian ninja, and after hearing Uchiha Feiyu's words, he hesitated a bit.

"If you want to wait for word, then go ahead! I'm retreating first anyway!"

"If Orochimaru wants to hold someone accountable, then that's his business... although I don't think he would do something so stupid."

After speaking, Uchiha Feiyu began to pack his things, preparing to retreat and leave; Yamanaka Cheng and Hyuga Ichiro, the two clan ninjas, didn't say a word and began to pack their things in sync.

Seeing the current situation, Ito Ryoma also swallowed hard; staying in the Land of Wind by himself to execute the mission? Wasn't that just asking for death?

No matter how important the mission was, could it be more important than his own life? Thinking of this, Ito Ryoma also hurriedly ran over to help pack.

During this time, Uchiha Feiyu had intercepted a large number of Sand Ninja supply transport squads, and the various supply Scroll items obtained alone could be piled into a small mountain.

It was just that most of the ordinary supply Scroll items had already been sent by Uchiha Feiyu to Ryuchi Cave using the Summoning Technique, and only some high-demand supplies like Explosive Tags, Soldier Pills, and various secret medicines were kept.

The ones sent to Ryuchi Cave would naturally be retrieved by Orochimaru when the time came, counting as Konoha's public account, while these high-demand supplies were the private gains of Uchiha Feiyu and the others.

This kind of behavior of pocketing spoils of war was considered an unspoken rule in the Ninja World; as long as a powerful ninja had the mind for it, they were basically never poor.

After walking out of the cave, Uchiha Feiyu added a Light-Weight Rock Technique to himself and the three others, and then the four of them retreated in the direction of the Land of Rivers.

Furthermore, after the failure of this plan, the Sunagakure did not just give up; Pakura led her subordinates to constantly run and search along the routes of the supply squads, but after spending more than a month, they didn't find a single hair.

Not only that, for over a month, there had been no more incidents of supply squads being attacked, which resulted in the search squad members being almost ready to explode with anger by the time the search ended.

"Damn Konoha brat, he's just like a turtle! To shrink back so easily! Is he even a man at all?!"

At the Sunagakure's camp command post, Pakura slammed her hand onto the table in hatred, so angry she was almost ready to curse out loud.

Rasa, sitting in the main seat, frowned and said in a low voice:

"Alright, if it failed, it failed! Since the other side has retreated, at least our rear supply transport routes won't have any more problems."

"But what if the other side intercepts our rear supply transport lines again? If we don't take that person out, our supply transport will always be under threat!"

Pakura's words made the expression on Rasa's face even darker; this woman made it sound simple, but if there really were a chance to take out that Konoha Ghost, would he still be sitting here?

The other side was probably already back at the Konoha main camp by now; should they attack the Konoha camp just for this?

It is always easy to raise questions from below, but wanting to solve the problem is harder than ascending to heaven!

"Alright, that Konoha Ghost is indeed very cunning, and now is not the best time to deal with him. In the short term, we can only focus on the more important side first."

Ebizo jumped out at this moment to smooth things over, finally making Rasa's expression look slightly better; Pakura opened her mouth, but in the end, she didn't say anything more.

(End of chapter)