Chapter 874

"New deal: I'll kill every person chasing you, then hand her over to me. What do you think?" Xiao Mei showed no reaction whatsoever, and gave no sign of answering Zainazan's question.

Jiraiya occasionally stole glances; with Water Moon Mei—a weapon of this era—especially one that countered the Mist ninja, his heart finally felt a little lighter. At least the numerical gap was no longer so extreme, and in terms of strength, they held a slight edge; it would take the Mist ninja a long time to organize their next attack.

"We're almost there. The next safehouse…"

The young Yuanzi, who had just been "punished" for asking a bizarre question, had been downcast all along the way. But upon hearing Jiraiya's words, he perked up slightly—yet the chilling aura still emanating from Lin Cheng crushed any notion he'd had of stirring up trouble.

Really, she's from the Hyuga clan—how come her aura feels even colder than those two from the Water Moon clan?

On the third day after Jiraiya's team left Konoha—the day after the ambush—this chapter ended with the Mist ninja pursuit unit "completely annihilated." At the emergency hideout, Jiraiya finally met the Konoha Leaf Anbu.

"I've never wished so much to see you standing before me." Yet the first words out of his mouth upon greeting them made it clear he deserved a good beating—even though, to ordinary civilians and rank-and-file ninja, the Leaf Anbu were never a popular group.

"My lord Jiraiya, the Hokage has been fully informed of your prior report. We arrived immediately as ordered to provide support."

The apparent leader of the Leaf Anbu, upon seeing Jiraiya, stepped forward along with the other two Anbu.

"I am 'Shun,' direct subordinate of the Fourth Hokage. These two are my squad partners: 'Gen,' and 'Yu,' sent by Lord Danzo."

It was obvious at a glance the difference between the Hokage's direct Anbu and Root: though both were Leaf Anbu, their attire differed significantly. For instance, the Hokage's direct Anbu wore mostly animal masks, while Root wore patterned or demon masks. Both were issued straight swords, but Root's swords were all broken midway—Danzo called this the unwavering resolve to win at any cost.

Lord Danzo immediately conducted a purge within the village. Though he identified several individuals clearly not responsible for the leak, he assigned the Anbu codenamed "Yu" to join Jiraiya on this mission. Since the traitor had already been narrowed down, uncovering the enemy spy became critical—those who had carried out the cleanup were now under unrelenting surveillance by Danzo's Root.

Even though they hadn't said it outright, Jiraiya knew that even he, as the direct executor of the mission, had been placed on Root's list of suspects.

Danzo: "Given what happened, none of you are exempt—you're all on the purge list!"

"I'm sorry, my lord Mei, but right now I only wish to follow in Mr. Zainazan's footsteps. I have no intention of leaving yet."

Xiao Mei's "direct" refusal made it clear that, during this time, she had placed immense pressure on Zainazan.