Chapter 87 Hidden Hands and Attacks

After waiting for about half an hour, when everyone was present, a Konoha Jonin stepped forward.

Qingming knew this person. He was the examiner of their second round of the Chunin Exam a month ago - Tanigawa Maki.

This person was their captain on this trip, leading them back to the battlefield of the Rain Country.

Bang bang bang~
Maki Tanigawa clapped his hands.

After attracting everyone's attention, he said, "Some of you are coming from the battlefield of Rain Country, and some of you are going to the battlefield of Rain Country for the first time, but..."

At this point, he glanced around the room, his voice suddenly became extremely serious, and he said, "But, whether it's the former or the latter, I hope you will absolutely obey my orders in the next few days."

"have you understood?"

Everyone looked at each other, and then responded in unison: "Understood!"

On this trip, apart from Tanigawa Maki, a true jonin, the only high-end combat forces in the team are three special jonin, and the rest are either chunins or genins.

The other party asked to obey his orders, so naturally no one would jump out to refute.

What's more, the other party was the captain appointed by the village, and they should obey.

However, Qingming inexplicably felt that something was wrong.

It seemed that something happened secretly that he didn't know about, causing Konoha to be a little vigilant, otherwise Tanigawa Maki would not have been so serious.

In fact, it is true.

In the past half month, the teams departing from Konoha Village and heading to various battlefields have been ambushed and attacked several times.

Normally, when something like this happens, the village should send more people, or temporarily suspend support, and continue after the hidden dangers are eliminated.

But as the battle has been going on for so long, Konoha is a little short of manpower, but the front lines cannot be short of people, so they have no choice but to go ahead.

That's why Maki Tanigawa is so serious.

Seeing that no one objected, Tanigawa Maki nodded, and then said: "Okay, let's go!"

After saying that, he took the lead and ran out of the village.

Seeing this, the others immediately followed behind.

Soon, the group left the village.

······
at the same time.

The headquarters base of the root.

Inside Danzo's office.

A knock on the door suddenly sounded.

"Boom boom boom!"

Hearing the voice, Danzo said without even looking up: "Come in!"

crunch~
The door was pushed open, and a Root ninja walked in, knelt on one knee and said: "Sir, Uchiha Qingming and Uchiha Shisui have set off."

"Oh~"

Hearing this, Danzo finally put down the documents in his hand, raised his head and asked, "Are there any Uchiha jonin accompanying you?"

"No, sir!"

The Root ninja below replied affirmatively.

"Is this so"

Danzo murmured upon hearing this, tapping the tabletop with his index finger.

After a moment, he decisively ordered: "Notify the Weeping Rain Squad to take action immediately. Everything must be carried out strictly according to the plan. No mistakes are allowed."

"Yes, Lord Danzo!"

After responding, the Root Ninja below disappeared.

Looking at the other party's disappearing back, Danzo snorted coldly and muttered to himself: "Uchiha hum."

······
Realizing that the journey might not be peaceful this time, Qing Ming reduced his practice time along the way and always maintained strong energy so that he could be ready to respond to emergencies at any time.

As it turns out, his caution was right.

When we left the village and were still in the territory of the Fire Country a few days ago, everything was normal.

But when they stepped into the territory of the Rain Country, they were attacked before they had gone far.

The ones who attacked them were none other than a group of Iwagakure ninjas. Although the whole process seemed to be just an accidental encounter, Qingming keenly saw the smug look of "there are indeed people here" in the eyes of the leading Iwagakure jonin.

Looking at their well-planned actions, it was obvious that they were well prepared and knew that someone would pass by here.

So the question is, the route they took this time was different from the previous times and was very remote, so how did the enemy know?
"There's a traitor!"

A thought suddenly popped up in his mind, and Qingming immediately had a bad feeling.

If there really is a traitor, then the traitor is either among them or has obtained the relevant information from the village’s top leaders.

But either way, it means that the enemy knows them far better than they know the enemy.

The asymmetry in intelligence will inevitably put them in an extremely disadvantageous situation.

In fact, it is true.

After only a few minutes of fighting, they were already at a disadvantage, with several people injured and some Genin even sacrificed.

Of course, this was not only because of the asymmetric intelligence, but also because the enemy set up an ambush first.

In terms of true strength, this group of Rock Ninjas are not necessarily much stronger than them.

After all, although this place is not Konoha's core defense circle, it is still within Konoha's defense zone, and the Iwagakure can mobilize limited manpower.

Therefore, the current situation is caused more because they were caught off guard, otherwise they would not be so passive.

In the chaos, Tanigawa Maki shouted to Qingming and Uchiha Shisui: "Qingming, you defend the left wing, Shisui, keep an eye on the enemy on the right."

After saying that, without waiting for the two to respond, he shouted loudly: "Everyone, follow me to break through!"

Qingming originally wanted to paddle a little and see the situation first.

I never thought that I would be assigned such a difficult task by Tanigawa Maki.

After a slight hesitation, Qing Ming finally chose to obey the other party's orders.

Anyway, he had already seen that although the Iwagakure ninjas present were quite strong, they were still far inferior to him.

This level does not pose much threat to him.

So, there's nothing wrong with contributing a little.

The only thing you need to be wary of is the possible existence of a traitor, so when you take action later, you should focus on defense and cover.

With this thought, Qing Ming instantly broke away from the opponent in front of him, and with a "telekinesis", he came to the left wing of the team.

Then, he quickly formed hand seals with both hands and performed the ninjutsu - Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu.

He spewed out a large amount of flames, which then quickly differentiated and condensed into dense balls of fire.

He controlled these fireballs and scattered them towards the group of Rock Ninjas.

At the front, an Iwagakure shinobi turned his head to avoid the attack of the fireball, and felt the scorching heat coming from it, and immediately shouted loudly: "Everyone be careful!"

When the others heard this, they were all startled and quickly dodged the flying fireball.

Fireballs like Impatiens seeds were flying all over the sky, instantly disrupting the Iwagakure's attack rhythm.

The situation on Qingming's side was not much different from that on Uchiha Shisui's side.

He was seen holding a short sword and performing instant body movements one after another. Like a ghost, he rushed into the Rock Ninja team, disrupting their formation.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Maki Tanigawa led the team to break through while resisting the attacks of the enemy's jonin.

About half an hour later, Qingming and his group finally escaped from the siege of the Rock Ninjas. Although they had not yet completely gotten rid of their pursuit, they were no longer as passive as before.

After a short rest, Maki Tanigawa counted the casualties and, after confirming that they could not defeat the enemy, he rearranged the entire team.

He let a special jonin lead the team to move forward, while he and two other special jonin and eight chuunin stayed behind to stop the enemy.

Not surprisingly, Qingming and Uchiha Shisui were among these eight people.

Having witnessed the final battle of Qingming and Uchiha Shisui in the Chunin Exam, Tanigawa Maki was very aware of their strength. He knew that their combat power far exceeded that of ordinary Chunin, so naturally he wanted to keep them.

Qingming and Uchiha Shisui had nothing to say about this.

It just so happened that Qingming also wanted to figure out where the enemy got their route from.

For some reason, Qingming had a vague feeling that this matter was not as simple as he had expected.

If he doesn't figure this out, he won't be able to sleep well.

(End of this chapter)