Chapter 893

"Mm… I've arrived at the place, pausing communication for now…" As she spoke, Minazuki had already pressed deep ahead of her; across the sea lay the archipelago hidden within layers upon layers of fog.

The Hidden Mist Village, known as the 'Village of Bloody Mist.'

Taking out the mask she often wore when carrying out classified missions and severing the mental link with Yamanaka Inoichi, Minazuki carefully inspected her equipment. As she toyed with the special cursed-tag kunai in her hand, she squinted and studied closely the mysterious island before her that never welcomed outsiders.

Immediately after, apart from a single kunai whose lower half had suddenly sunk deep into the ground, Namikaze Minato's figure had, at some unknown moment, vanished without a trace. Her speed — or rather, her space-time ninjutsu — had already completely surpassed her Water-version counterpart in the original work.

Compared to Minazuki's infiltration game, of course Jiraiya's squad's side was considerably more relaxed. The Hidden Mist assassination unit had not shown up again at all — in Zabuza's words, it was as if they had already wiped them all out, and would never come to bother them again.

A blunt enough way of putting it, showing just how much Zabuza detested these companions from the same village. Thanks to this, after probing a few times and indeed confirming the Hidden Mist assassination unit did not appear, Zabuza became the Vanguard Commander of the entire team, walking at the very front.

In the eyes of ordinary folk or bandits, a fellow who could lift such a massive Executioner's Blade and still stride as if flying was surely a monster they could not defeat. So obviously, since along the way there were no opponents capable of putting up even a momentary resistance to harass them, Jiraiya and the others' pace noticeably quickened.

"There are three very faint chakra signatures ahead — they're coming!"

Following the secret codes left by Konoha's Leaf Anbu at various contact points, Jiraiya's group arrived safely before the Water Country Daimyo's safehouse. At this moment, Lin Cheng's Byakugan detected several faint signals, and he hurriedly issued a warning.

The moment everyone had finished preparing for battle, three figures landed before them. After clearly seeing their attire, they immediately recognized them as the Hokage's direct Anbu.

"Lord Jiraiya, we are the reinforcement Anbu sent by the Fourth Hokage."

The other party immediately stated their identity, confirming his judgment, so everyone stood down from alert.

"Seeing you means we're not far from our destination, right?" Because the Hidden Mist assassination unit had vanished after the Tailed One's failed strike, the latter half of the journey was truly too boring. And as long as little Zetsu was delivered to this safehouse protected by numerous elite ninja to stay with the Water Country Daimyo, then his escort mission this time would be considered complete.

"Yes, but before that, some people can no longer travel with you." Even though these few Anbu were all wearing masks, their gazes still expressed it very clearly.

"Mm~ someone's not welcome here. If I were him, I would very sensibly leave on my own without anyone telling me."

Xiaomei stared at Zabuza — this was actually not hard to guess. Now no Hidden Mist ninja could approach the Water Country Daimyo, and Zabuza, as a fugitive rogue ninja, was even less likely to have that qualification.

"Haku, let's go." Zabuza had no desire to deal with Xiaomei at all. Moreover, he had long wanted to take Haku far away from Xiaomei, and now was the perfect opportunity.

"Yes, Mr. Zabuza." Haku obediently nodded and followed behind Zabuza, intending to leave.

This was a bit off from what Xiaomei had intended. Her original purpose was only to drive Zabuza away, but Haku's degree of obedience gave her such a headache. Xiaomei had not forgotten why she had come.

"Hey, who allowed you to take Haku too! I'm telling you, that's impossible!" And so… everyone silently watched the three of them leave.

"When I saw them, it was already like this. Don't ask me — I don't know anything." Jiraiya spread his hands, explaining to the three Anbu before him.

"I always thought the place where the Water Country Daimyo lived would at least be on the scale of a Daimyo's mansion. This courtyard is actually not even as good as a branch family's side courtyard of the Hyuga clan. Oh right, speaking of Hyuga — where did Lin Cheng go?"

After following the Anbu through several fake safehouses and defensive lines, Jiraiya's group was led to the Water Country Daimyo's true current residence. Compared to the Fire Capital's Daimyo mansion, it was hard to believe that such an extremely low-key building was where the ruler of one of the Five Great Nations had lived for several years.

"I-I'm here, just now actually…"

Ever since losing the harassment of enemies, Lin Cheng had maintained a very low-key style of conduct. Unless there was something special, he rarely took part in everyone's discussions.

So for the rest of the journey, apart from Young Yuanzi occasionally chatting with her, and little Zetsu now and then sticking by her side, Jiraiya and those few Anbu rarely thought of her on their own initiative.

"Hmph, no need to tell him." Young Yuanzi made a face at Jiraiya, conveniently cutting off Lin Cheng's explanation.

"Don't ask about things you shouldn't know, perverted sage."