socalfunplaces Chapter 344 Dispersed Deployment
Chapter 344 Dispersed Deployment
Chapter 344 Dispersed Deployment
Shino followed two steps behind him.
His collar was still high, his sunglasses were covered with a very thin layer of condensation, and occasionally a very faint fluttering sound could be heard from his wide sleeves, like the wind gently brushing past the fabric.
The two of them didn't speak a word the whole way.
Only after passing through the first scorched forest belt, and the terrain gradually leveling out, with the outlines of the old osmanthus trees on the outskirts of Osmanthus Village becoming faintly visible, did Chi Quan stop and turn his head slightly.
"From here, you set the distance."
Shino's voice was low: "Within seventy paces, the parasitic insects can spread out; within forty paces, I can hear most of the conversations inside the tents; within twenty paces, I can tell who carries a persistent special medicine and toxin."
"Won't we be discovered if we get too close?"
"It depends on who you're dealing with." Shino pushed up his sunglasses. "Ordinary sensory ninjas can't detect me. If Helian had someone specifically tasked with detecting insects, a bunch of my insects would be the first to die."
Looking at the village entrance, faintly visible through the mist, Chi Quan asked, "Do you think he will?"
"If it were before yesterday, I would say maybe. But now—" Shino paused, "you burned them like this, he probably wants to clean up every last bit of chakra, down to the last ant's leg."
Chi Quan hummed in agreement.
"Then let's not go to the center of the village yet, let's check the outer outposts and supply lines first."
"Can."
Chi Quan turned around and squatted down, quickly drawing several lines on the wet soil with his dagger.
"The main road north of the village is definitely blocked by heavily armed guards and sentries. The east side is a gentle slope with open terrain, not suitable for getting close. The south side is close to the abandoned medicinal herb fields, which is open and easy to walk at night, but easy to be seen during the day. The west side is the slope where we left our marks last night, and they will be watching it even more closely."
Shino looked at the lines he had drawn and said in a steady voice, "So we'll take the southwest corner, brush past the edge of the burned forest belt, and use the charred wood and collapsed walls to cover our way in."
"Hmm." Chi Quan glanced at him. "You remember the terrain pretty quickly."
Shino said, "I remember it once the insect passes by."
Chi Quan put the dagger away and stood up.
"Walk."
The two pressed forward again.
The closer you get to the village, the more mixed the smells become. The original herbal and woody scents of Osmanthus Village have faded considerably, overwhelmed by layers of smoke, blood, damp mud, horse hides, torch grease, boiling military rations, and the cold metallic tang of weapons. In the distance, you can still hear the muffled thuds of heavy objects being moved, occasionally punctuated by a command or two.
When the outline of the village was finally clear, it was pasted to the edge of the first burned strip of trees.
The once quiet and deserted Osmanthus Village now looks like it's been forcibly stuffed with a skeleton that doesn't belong there. The old wooden sign at the village entrance is still crooked, but two makeshift barricades have been erected beneath it. Three houses in the first row on the north side have been half-collapsed, and rough wooden frames have been erected along the broken walls, with several Earth Country ninjas bent over moving stones and wooden stakes to plug the gaps. A little further in, the once widest main alley has been cleared to create a passage wide enough for four people to walk side by side, with broken wood and tiles roughly piled up on both sides, revealing a newly trodden mud path.
The old osmanthus tree in the village still stands, but half of its branches and leaves have turned black. A tall flagpole has been erected under the tree, and the flag of the Land of Thunder flaps loudly in the damp wind.
Chi Quan lay hidden behind a piece of charred wood, watched for a few moments, and whispered, "Faster than expected."
Shino stopped beside him, and with a slight movement of his sleeve, several tiny insects, almost invisible to the naked eye, slid down the bark and disappeared into the damp soil and ash.
"They didn't sleep much at night," he said.
"I can tell."
"There are two layers of security eight yards outside the north entrance, with four visible sentries and at least three hidden ones. There is a perception-type in the collapsed house on the left, not very strong, but it keeps maintaining the spell. There are patrols in the main alley, with shifts changing about once an incense stick can burn."
Chi Quan didn't immediately ask, "How do you know?", but instead stared at the village: "The insects are gone?"
"The first batch is over," Shino said flatly. "The second batch is still looking for a spot."
"How deep can it go?"
"Don't rush."
Chi Quan glanced at him sideways.
Shino seemed to sense this and added casually, "Everyone's on edge right now. Especially in situations like this, we can't afford to appear too relaxed. Let them get busy first, then let the bugs in; it'll seem much more natural."
Chi Quan chuckled softly, very faintly.
"That sounds like something Shikamaru would say."
Shino remained silent for two breaths.
"I'm not as afraid of trouble as he is."
"You just don't like to appear to be using your brain."
"That saves you from spitting out words."
Chi Quan fell silent.
Not far away, a short argument suddenly broke out at the village entrance. The two men looked up at the same time.
Three allied ninjas were escorting a person inside.
The man was young, his clothes were worn, his trousers and shoes were covered in mud, his face was covered in dust, and his left wrist was tied with a rope.
He staggered in, as if he had been pushed in, muttering something under his breath. We were too far away to hear him clearly, but we could see the panic and fear in his expression.
Chi Quan frowned.
"Villagers?"
Before Shino could reply, he first looked at the man's feet and the hem of his clothes.
"picture."
"Wasn't it all taken down completely?"
"They might have gotten separated on the way, or they might have been captured from other villages to learn the terrain," Shino said, her tone unchanged. "The Allied Forces have now occupied the village, and what they lack most isn't bricks and wood, but people who 'know which alley leads to which place.'"
Chi Quan's eyes turned cold.
Over there, a tall ninja from the Land of Lightning grabbed the young man by the back of his collar and shoved him against the half-burnt cassia tree at the village entrance, as if interrogating him. The young man shook his head repeatedly, his lips moving rapidly, trembling so much he could barely stand. Another ninja from the Land of Earth impatiently raised his foot, seemingly about to kick him.
Chi Quan tapped his knee lightly with his fingers.
Shino suddenly spoke up: "Don't move."
"I know."
"You were thinking of going over there just now."
"No." Chi Quan stared in that direction. "I was just thinking about how to cut it faster."
Shino remained silent for a moment.
"That's what it means to want to go back to the past."
Chi Quan did not deny it.
He knew, of course, that he couldn't move now. The two of them had come in to observe, not to act rashly. Right now, there were sentries, both visible and hidden, at the village entrance. Let alone rescuing anyone, even if one of the sentries just turned around and glanced back, it could raise the alert level for the entire southwest corner.
But "cannot move" and "looks pleasing to the eye" are never the same thing.
Chi Quan stared in that direction and asked, "Can the insects hear us?"
Shino closed his eyes.
After a few breaths, he said, "The young man said he was just delivering medicinal herbs to the village and wasn't from there. He was stopped on the road last night and hid in an abandoned shed to the south. He was dragged out by the patrol this morning."
"What are they asking?"
"Ask which cellars in the village are the deepest, which households used to store medicine powder and wine, and whether there are any tunnels in the west of the village where soldiers were hidden."
Chi Quan's eyes grew even colder after hearing this.
Does he know?
"The first two know a little, but the last one doesn't." Shino paused. "He's still begging them, saying he's just a small business owner and doesn't want to die."
At the village entrance, the ninjas who were escorting the young man seemed to have lost their patience. The tall lightning ninja grabbed the young man's hair and forced him to look up; the man next to him held a short sword to his ribs.
Chi Quan's voice was very soft: "Could you make some noise and move the people away from the village entrance?"
"Yes, but any movement will cause the patrols to reposition," Shino said. "Right now, they've just taken the village, and everyone's on edge, like they've just woken up with a knife to their throat. Any extra movement will be interpreted as 'Konoha is attacking again.'"
"Then let's go."
"and then?"
Chi Quan looked at him.
Shino's voice remained flat: "Then they strengthened patrols in the southwest corner, and we came here for nothing. Are you going to lead another force to fight again?"
""
Chi Quan didn't answer.
At the village entrance, the young man was still shaking his head desperately, his expression shifting from pleading to a blank, almost collapsing look. The tall lightning ninja, having overheard someone say something, suddenly sheathed his sword, turned, and beckoned inside.
Soon, a middle-aged man wearing gray-white armor came out.
The man was short, thin-faced, with a faint old scar under his right eye. He walked slowly, yet possessed a cold, hard quality that instinctively made people not want to look at him a second time. He walked up to the young man, didn't speak at first, but simply looked him over for a couple of breaths before raising his hand and placing it on the young man's head.
Chi Quan whispered, "Illusionary interrogation?"
Shino, with his eyes closed, said, "It's not a standard genjutsu. It's more like a forced memory technique with chakra stimulation."
The young man's body tensed up suddenly, as if his entire spine had been tightened, and an uncontrollable groan escaped his throat.
The two ninjas holding him down pressed him to his knees on the ground.
Chi Quan's knuckles turned slightly white.
Shino suddenly said, "Remember that face."
"Um."
"He is not Helian."
"I know."
"But he's not a low-ranking official. Just now, when he came out, all three sentries at the village entrance subconsciously shifted their gaze."
Chi Quan asked, "Can you tell which country it's from?"
"The people from the Land of Lightning will be more relaxed around him, while the Land of Earth's attitude is more like cooperation than subordination. He might be a temporary interrogation or perception leader hastily put together by the allied forces."
Chi Quan nodded, memorizing that face.
The situation at the village entrance didn't linger for long. The young man struggled a few times before collapsing, his head drooping limply. The middle-aged man in gray-white armor withdrew his hand, took the cloth handed to him by someone nearby, and slowly wiped his palms as if they were dirty.
He lowered his head and said something.
The tall Lei Ren immediately nodded and dragged the young man, who could barely stand, toward the east of the village.
Chi Quan frowned: "Still haven't killed them?"
Shino said, "Keep him here to lead the way. That man was just forced to reveal the locations of two medicine storage cellars."
"Where?"
"One household in the second row on the east side, and one household at the end of the south alley."
Chi Quan's eyes flickered slightly.
The two places, East Second Row and South Alley End 1, are near the courtyard complex they previously heavily bombed, and the area around the back wall. The fact that the Allied forces are asking about these places now shows that they are not only repairing defenses, but also rediscovering every usable space in the village.
"They're going to be stationed here permanently," Chi Quan said.
"And it won't just be a few days," Shino said. "A temporary outpost won't be asking about the cellar and medicine storage location so quickly."
Chi Quan's gaze remained fixed on the village entrance.
"Where is Helian?"
"We haven't touched it yet." Shino flicked his sleeve slightly. "The first batch of insects that went in were only enough to see the outer perimeter and the village entrance within thirty paces. To go any further in, I'll need to borrow their own people to bring them in."
"How long will it take?"
"Let's see who sits down first."
Chi Quan understood.
The insects would attach themselves more naturally if someone in the village stopped to rest, eat, remove their armor, or flip the scroll. Now, everyone is walking, repairing, and shouting, making it harder for them to stick.
The two remained prone.
As the sky gradually rose, the fog thinned a bit. The commotion in Osmanthus Village became even more chaotic than before. People from the Land of Earth were moving stones, the heavy armored team from the Land of Lightning carried two large crates into the main alley of the village, while several people from the Sand Village ran around the rooftops, re-anchoring observation flags to several high points.
Chi Quan observed very carefully.
"At the main gate on the north side of the village, there are sentries on the first floor and archers on the second; there are patrol lines on the gentle slope to the east; there are no sentries on the west side, but the eyes on the rooftops are always scanning that way; there are at least two patrol teams on rotation along the main lane of the village. Look at that flagpole under the tree, isn't there a newly drawn circle on the ground?"
Shino didn't open her eyes, only saying, "I saw it."
"Like the starting point of the perception array."
"It's not the starting point, it's the confluence point. The real core of the formation isn't there."
97
"Where?"
"We still need to probe deeper."
Chi Quan looked at it for a while longer, then suddenly said, "That one."
Shino tilted her head slightly in response to his words.
A young Allied Ninja wearing a headband was walking out of the village, carrying a bundle of blackened wooden planks on his back and a water bag hanging from his waist. He walked quickly, but his shoulders were a little crooked, clearly indicating that he had not yet recovered from the shock he had suffered the night before.
"What's wrong?"
"Can I borrow him to carry the insects?"
Shino's sleeve fell silent for a moment, as if the swarm of insects inside had paused simultaneously.
"Sure," he said, "but there's a slight risk."
"What?"
"If he changes his armor or washes his face halfway through, the insect will have to move to a different place."
"Then stick on a few more."
"They've already gone."
Chi Quan smiled.
"You act faster than you talk."
"That saves me the trouble of explaining," Shino said calmly. "Besides, you'll probably be urging me to hurry up."
"Do I look like I'm good at rushing people?"
"picture."
"oh."
The young ninja quickly returned to the village.
Shino didn't speak again, just stood there, like a black branch stuck behind scorched wood. If Izumi hadn't been standing close, it would have been almost impossible to notice the extremely subtle undulations in his cuffs and collar.
About half an hour later.
Shino suddenly said, "We've found a new sensory line."
"explain."
"At the third fork in the main alley south of the village, there is a pharmacy with half of its roof collapsed. The back wall of the pharmacy has been demolished, and now it's not filled with medicine, but with talisman boards. Four people guard it, two inside carving formations, and two taking turns outside."
Chi Quan's eyes gradually darkened.
"How many talisman plates are there?"
"At least twenty pieces. Each piece is small, like they were scattered around."
"They really want to weave the whole village together."
"Yes." Shino paused. "And it's not just about preventing infiltration. It's more like preparing to determine the flow of chakra, so that we can coordinate which techniques to use at the same time."
Chi Quan whispered, "A large-scale coordinated spell."
"Possibly."
"Can you hear what the people inside are saying?"
Shino remained silent for a few moments.