The Land of Fields, the Land of Fire, the Land of Rain – ninjas frequently ging their location of battle or mission was a rather on occurrehe ninja world itself was just a small world, and ninjas in wartime were highly mobile and had a wide range of activity.

  To this p, ninjas were nothing more than hyperactive is.

  In the Land of Rain, the amount of time the try was clear in a year was parable to the amount of time it rained in the Land of Wind.

  Habara hid in a rge tree. He quietly pulled back the hood that covered his head, and the warm, humid air that had accumuted around him immediately escaped through his colr. This, bined with the fine, scattered cold rain hitting his face, instantly made him feel refreshed.

  "This damher."

  Habara took a few deep breaths, and still couldn't help but utter this pint.

  The reaissance squad's progress was very slow. The enviro of the Land of Rain was unfamiliar and dangerous, and uhese circumstances, it was crucial to ehat their own team moved covertly. Secrecy meant safety.

  And the intelligence Habara and the others were trying to gather wasn't some "Hanzo's little secret" that required them to infiltrate Amegakure itself. In fact, they only o firm some general, broad matters, such as where Amegakure's main forces were currently deployed, and whether this deployment had ged pared to before.

  It might seem like this kind of intelligence wouldn't be difficult to obtain, but for Habara's team, obtaining sutelligence was still extremely dangerous.

  In this unging forest, even ninjas could get lost. What if they actally ran inte Amegakure force...? The forests of the Land of Rain were a treasured pce; the deposition rate of corpses articurly high.

  At this point, the squad had checked the surrounding enviro. They hadn't found any traces of enemy activity, which meant they had temporarily cleared a safe zohus, some of the ninjas could take the opportunity to rest for a while... This was a long-term mission, and if everyone remained stantly tense, problems would arise.

  After a while, Habara's hair was pletely soaked. In this world full of war and chaos, no one could expect Habara, a (formerly) responsible adult male, to put any effort into his appeara was already endable that he maintained his personal hygiene every day.

  The time the inal owner spent locked in the dungeon, the time Habara himself spent locked in the dungeon, and the time since Habara had seen the light of day – after so long, Habara hadn't thought to get a haircut anywhere. So now, his gray hair looked very cool, like a haystack.

  At this moment, Izayo came to Habara's side and stuffed something into his hand. "Here, use this."

  A hair tie?

  Habara looked at the thing in his hand, then somewhat clumsily tied up the hair at the back of his head. Then he grinned silently, because he remembered something funny.

  A low ponytail at the bottom was a standard hairstyle for strong characters in this world. It ity that Habara had gray hair instead of white.

  Currently, the civil u in Amegakure hadn't ended. On the trary, because of the events of three years ago, Amegakure was in an even more chaotic state.

  Three years ago, because of the plot by Amegakure's Hanzo and a certain sistently self-procimed intelligent, but iy, always brain-dead person from Konoha, the leader of "Akatsuki," Yahiko, died. This caused this anization, full of justice, to undergo a plete qualitative ge, and the only hope of Amegakure was thus extinguished.

  Although Hanzo was still alive now, to be ho, from the day Nagato went berserk, Hanzo was destio die. The only difference was whether it would be sooner or ter... A demigod was just a demigod, after all, no match fod.

  So what was the current state of Amegakure's fractured situation? Naturally, Habara couldn't know. He just hoped he wouldn't run into someone as abnormally strong as Nagato.

  After taking turing, the twelve-man squad tio advance.

  About two days ter, an Amegakure forward camp appeared in the Konoha reaissance squad's field of vision.

  Izayo took out a map and recorded the relevant information.

  "The location hasn't ged much from before. This camp is still used to defend against Konoha..."

  "But the scale of the camp has expanded. Judging roughly from the number of tents, there are at least fifty pert more ninjas here than before."

  "A targeted deployment? Targeted at what? Amegakure should only be able to defend passively; they shouldn't have the strength to un active attack."

  The Konoha team was the Amegakure camp from a distance using telescopes. Doing so was ineffit in gathering intelligence, and the accuracy of the intelligence was limited; everything could only be judged roughly. However, this team would absolutely not get any closer to that camp... Konoha's strength naturally far surpassed Amegakure's, but that didn't mean a small squad could run wild in the Land of Rain.

  In fact, the surrounding major powers were somewhat wary of the Land of Rain. Although Hanzo's Amegakure couldn't truly tend with a major power, ialemate among the major powers, Amegakure's movements could, to some extent, influehe dire of the war.

  What Amegakure actually wao do was not for Habara and the others to worry about. Their mission was to obtain intelligend bring it back. Judging Amegakure's as was the job of Konoha's higher-ups.

  But after obtaining the corresponding intelligence, could the Konoha infiltration squad successfully retreat from the depths of the Land of Rain?

  The answer was no.

  With the sound of a whistle, it was indicated that the Konoha squad no longer o hide themselves furtively.

  "Retreat! Full speed retreat! Our operation has been exposed!"

  The slightly dispersed Konoha squad quickly regrouped, and then began to move at high speed in a southwesterly dire.

  "The enemy appeared suddenly. Several squads surrounded us from all dires!" Daigo expined while the team was retreating at high speed.

  "Is there any possibility that they were routirol squads?" someone asked.

  "Almost impossible. The enemy from all dires acted in unison. Their verging point was right here... Their target was very clear."

  "Why were we suddenly exposed..."

  The ao this question was self-evident, because the enemy had superior reaissaninjas, with far stronger reaissance capabilities than Daigo.

  Habara couldn't help but look up at the curtain of rain in the sky.

  "It 't be..."

  Was a jinx not only forbidden from speaking carelessly, but even forbidden from thinking carelessly in his heart?

  "Be prepared for the possibility that we won't be able to shake off the enemy's pursuit..." Habara remihem.

  "The enemy's encirclement is very tight. Now is not the time to sider shaking off the enemy's reaissaninjas... Prepare to ehe enemy ahead!"

  Very soon...

  Habara would meet another kind of ninja.