Chương 173: Tracking the Grass Ninja

In the end, Tsunade still left. She departed with lingering doubts in her heart, yet she had no intention of returning to Konoha to investigate the origins of the Dongye bloodline. True, Dongye Zhen's overwhelming chakra reserves and terrifying vitality did resemble certain traits of the Senju Clan. But so what if they did? And what if they didn't? The Senju Clan had long vanished from the public stage of the shinobi world. Even Tsunade herself had never once used the ancient surname openly.

Back in the inn room, Dongye Zhen and the others split the money they had won from the casino and stored it away inside their respective sealing scrolls. In the shinobi world, possessing decent space-time talent alongside advanced sealing techniques was absurdly convenient. At the very least, it turned you into a walking storage unit. No need to lug around bags and baggage everywhere you went. Back when Dongye Zhen first started, his aptitude for space-time techniques had only been around Genma's level.

But as the white natural energy continuously refined his body, every aspect of his talent kept growing rapidly with age. Iwashi, being the painfully honest type, still looked uneasy.

"I hope the Hokage-sama doesn't develop some strange opinion about us after learning about this…" Genma waved dismissively.

"Relax, Iwashi. This kind of thing's completely normal. Haven't you ever encountered unexpected valuables during missions before?" Iwashi hesitated.

"Now that you mention it… I guess not." Genma grinned.

"Then Captain'll help you get used to it eventually. And if you're really worried, you can always hand your share over to me. I'll shoulder the burden of your suffering." Iwashi stared at him flatly.

"Genma… do I look stupid to you?"

"Heh. You act all concerned, but your honesty ends where money begins." Raidō, meanwhile, looked utterly unconcerned.

"Captain, does this conclude the mission? Are we heading back to the village next?" Dongye Zhen shook his head.

"Not yet. We've only ruled out the possibility that Tsunade-sama is assisting Kusagakure. We still don't know who's providing them with advanced medical support—or whether it has ties to Konoha." His gaze sharpened.

"So the investigation continues."

"Yes, sir!" ×3 Naturally, none of them objected. Mahoro Town wasn't far from the Land of Grass. By evening, after following several leads, Dongye Zhen's squad arrived outside a small border town between the Land of Grass and the Land of Waterfalls. The town itself was pitifully small. Economic decline and hardship hung over the place like a fog. Many buildings still bore visible scars left behind by ninjutsu. After sweeping the area with his senses, Dongye Zhen discovered only a handful of residents remained.

Their life forces were weak—mostly elderly people unwilling to abandon their homes and orphaned children left behind. As for the able-bodied adults? Most had likely fled already. This region sat directly on the frontlines of the conflict between Kusagakure and Takigakure. Battles between ninja frequently spilled into nearby villages and towns. The larger hidden villages at least maintained a shred of decorum during wartime. Unless absolutely necessary, they generally avoided targeting civilians.

Smaller villages, however, were far less restrained. To them, civilian lives meant next to nothing. The massive graveyard near Dongye Zhen's position made that painfully obvious. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Many of the graves were freshly dug. Recent victims. Kusagakure was currently the most restless and ambitious among all the hidden villages of the smaller nations. Weak in strength. Huge in ambition. They dreamed of becoming the Sixth Great Ninja Village.

Kusagakure specialized in imitating the ninjutsu of the Five Great Villages. Most of their copied techniques ended up as inferior knockoffs with mediocre power, but over time they had managed to develop several unique variants of their own. As a result, the village had cultivated quite a few capable ninja. Politically, Kusagakure behaved exactly like its name suggested: Grass bending whichever way the wind blew.

Though officially allied with Konoha, they also maintained close ties with Iwagakure behind the scenes, constantly maneuvering between the two great powers in hopes of profiting from both sides. After the Great Ninja War ended and the Five Great Nations weakened, Kusagakure sensed opportunity. At first, they attempted to extend their influence into the Land of Rain. Unfortunately for them, Hanzo of the Salamander was merely old—not dead.

Amegakure, the former challenger to the old shinobi order, still vastly surpassed Kusagakure in military strength. After getting brutally beaten by the Rain ninja, Kusagakure shifted its attention elsewhere. Takigakure. In the era before the previous generation, Takigakure had once stood as the strongest hidden village beneath the Five Great Villages. Decades ago, they had even been entrusted with a Tailed Beast, making them the only minor village to possess a Jinchūriki. But that was then. This was now.

Takigakure had declined severely over the years, its strength shrinking dramatically. And Kusagakure, sly as ever, had begun coveting the Tailed Beast itself. A Jinchūriki was an extraordinary asset. Naturally, such treasures belonged to those with "virtue." And Kusagakure currently believed its own virtue was immense. At present, the two sides were tearing into each other along the border on a near-daily basis.

After leaving the ruined town behind, Dongye Zhen's squad headed toward the Land of Earth side of the border, searching for traces of Grass ninja activity along the frontier between the Land of Grass and the Land of Waterfalls. Their original plan had been simple: Capture an isolated Kusagakure squad and extract the location of their command headquarters through interrogation. Reality, however, had other ideas. There were simply too many enemy ninja around.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, Dongye Zhen suddenly sensed a massive cluster of chakra signatures.

"Ninja are approaching from the Land of Waterfalls," he said quietly.

"There are a lot of them. Hide yourselves first." Not long afterward, a force of roughly fifty to sixty Kusagakure ninja crossed the border near their concealed position and headed back toward the Land of Grass. The group looked as though they had just survived a brutal battle. Many were heavily wounded. Several carried corpses on their backs. Judging by the forehead protectors, most of the bodies belonged to their own comrades, with only a handful originating from Takigakure.

Ninja corpses possessed considerable value. From them, one could analyze secret medicine compositions, identify traces of specific jutsu, and reverse-engineer techniques. Many of Kusagakure's copied ninjutsu had been acquired through precisely this method. Unlike Konoha, smaller villages lacked strong sealing arts traditions. Talented sealing specialists were exceedingly rare, and they certainly didn't have enough sealing scrolls to conveniently transport bodies. So they carried them manually.

It looked miserably shabby. The Kusagakure ninja moved in obvious haste and never noticed the four hidden observers nearby. After they passed, Dongye Zhen's squad concealed their chakra fluctuations using natural energy and silently tailed them all the way to Kusagakure's frontline encampment. Outside the camp, Dongye Zhen closed his eyes and extended his senses carefully, searching for any chakra signature that stood out.

Members of the Uzumaki Clan naturally possessed far greater chakra reserves than ordinary ninja. And someone like Karin's mother—a pureblood Uzumaki with special abilities—would possess chakra utterly distinct from normal shinobi. After several moments, Dongye Zhen opened his eyes again. Genma immediately asked, "Captain, find anything?"

"No." Dongye Zhen's expression remained calm.

"I'm infiltrating the camp personally. Stay here and avoid the Grass ninja patrols. Don't engage in pointless conflict."

"Yes, sir!" ×3 A short while later, Dongye Zhen slipped silently into Kusagakure's frontline base. Inside the temporary field hospital, many of the wounded ninja who had recently returned from battle were undergoing treatment. But the medical care was painfully primitive. Simple cleaning. Disinfection. Bandaging. Very few medical ninja were actually present. Compared to Konoha's medical infrastructure, the difference was like heaven and earth. Which was entirely normal.

Among the logistics and medical personnel, Dongye Zhen saw no women with vivid red hair. Every chakra signature present appeared completely ordinary. He already knew Karin and her mother were somewhere within Kusagakure. He simply didn't know whether they were stationed at the frontlines or hidden inside the village itself. Now the answer seemed obvious. Kusagakure wasn't stupid enough to place someone with such a special constitution on the battlefield carelessly. No.

They were keeping her hidden within the village itself—strictly controlled and reserved as a concealed trump card. A while later, Dongye Zhen entered the hospital's corpse processing area. There, he watched several ninja seal enemy corpses into storage scrolls before handing them over to a middle-aged shinobi with considerable strength. The man himself had sustained serious injuries, yet had only received basic treatment. He clearly hadn't recovered enough to fight again.

Soon afterward, the middle-aged ninja departed the camp alongside seven similarly wounded companions, traveling through the night toward Kusagakure itself. Among the buffer nations separating the great powers, the Land of Grass possessed relatively little territory. Kusagakure wasn't especially far from the frontline camp. Judging from their actions, they were clearly returning to the village for treatment.

With Karin's mother acting as a living super-battery, they could be fully healed overnight and sent back to the battlefield by morning. That was the secret behind Takigakure's reports— Why Kusagakure's strongest fighters always seemed to recover from severe injuries with unnatural speed. After confirming this, Dongye Zhen activated the Flying Thunder God Technique and instantly returned to Genma's group.

"Move out," he said calmly.

"There's nothing special here. We're heading to Kusagakure." Watching Dongye Zhen use the Flying Thunder God Technique so fluently filled Genma, Raidō, and Iwashi with naked envy. Unfortunately, none of them could learn it. At present, much like Hayate's squad, they could only settle for the lesser alternative: the Flying Thunder Formation Technique specially developed by Minato Namikaze for team usage. Even so, their progress was painfully slow. To this day, they still couldn't execute it successfully.

Without sufficient talent, mastering certain specialized techniques was simply that difficult.