Chapter 50: Secrets and Silencing

Chapter 50: Chapter 50: Secrets and Silencing

Inside a cave somewhere in the Land of Birds.

The four members of Team Eleven sat around a campfire, eating while casually chatting among themselves.

It had already been three full days since they were ambushed in the forests of the Land of Bears. Aside from Shisui, everyone on the team had been injured, so Kakashi decided that they would temporarily stop in the Land of Birds to rest and recover.

As for that final battle in the forest, Shisui and Guy had arrived in time and joined forces with Hyuga Kagami to eliminate all the remaining enemies.

After regrouping and comparing what each of them had encountered, the four discovered that the forces involved in the ambush consisted not only of the four-man squad from Iwagakure’s Beheading Unit, but also twenty-four wandering ninja from the Land of Bears.

The captain of the Beheading Unit, Iwamata, had personally gone after Hyuga Kagami. Meanwhile, each of the remaining three members of the Beheading Unit had led eight wandering ninja from the Land of Bears to intercept and kill one of the other three members of Team Eleven.

There was no doubt that Iwamata was an elite jōnin. The other three members of the Beheading Unit were all jōnin-level ninja as well, and on top of that, there were twenty-four wandering ninja from the Land of Bears whose strength approached the chūnin level.

Gathered together, they constituted a force that could by no means be considered small.

Moreover, the battle had broken out under the circumstances of an ambush. For Team Eleven to completely wipe out the enemy without losing a single member was an exceptionally impressive achievement.

Among the four of them, Shisui had undoubtedly had the easiest time.

With the boost provided by his Mangekyō Sharingan, even the ordinary genjutsu he cast possessed terrifying power. Even a jōnin could fall victim to it if they let their guard down for even a moment.

The member of the Beheading Unit sent to deal with Shisui had fallen directly into his genjutsu. He hadn’t even gotten the chance to use any of his own ninjutsu before dying without ever really understanding what had happened.

And once the jōnin leading them was gone, the remaining eight wandering ninja were little more than vegetables waiting to be chopped as far as Shisui was concerned. He disposed of them with ridiculous ease, and hearing just how effortlessly he’d done it left the other three members of Team Eleven thoroughly depressed.

Kakashi’s performance was only slightly inferior to Shisui’s.

Because his body had to bear the burden of a Sharingan that wasn’t truly his own, the extraordinarily talented Kakashi didn’t possess that much more chakra than others his age. On top of that, an A-rank ninjutsu like Chidori consumed a great deal of chakra, so it was only natural that he had been left somewhat exhausted after such a fierce battle.

Guy’s performance could be considered normal.

After all, his body had yet to fully mature. Without using the Eight Gates, he still couldn’t quite reach the level of a true jōnin. Being surrounded and attacked by a jōnin together with eight wandering ninja whose strength approached the chūnin level, simply managing to survive was already an impressive feat.

As for Hyuga Kagami’s own performance, he considered it neither particularly good nor particularly bad.

The main problem had been that final exchange. Iwamata had completely deceived him, causing him to suddenly fall into a perilous situation. In particular, Iwamata’s final self-destruction still sent a chill through Kagami whenever he thought about it.

Kakashi shook his head and said frankly, "There aren’t many people in the entire village with a battle record like yours!"

Hyuga Kagami asked curiously, "What, is this Iwamata guy famous or something?"

"Of course!" Kakashi nodded before continuing, "As far as I know, Iwagakure only has seven Beheading Units in total. One of them was surrounded by more than a hundred ninja from our village in the Land of Grass, and the battle nearly ended with both sides wiping each other out!"

Guy stared at him in disbelief. "More than a hundred of our ninja surrounded four of them, and they still almost wiped each other out!?"

Kakashi’s expression was grave. "Yeah. That battle was extremely brutal. We managed to eliminate them, but I heard only six or seven people on our side survived."

Shisui said gloomily, "Several elite jōnin from the Uchiha Clan were killed by Iwagakure’s Beheading Units."

Guy looked somewhat dumbfounded. "Then didn’t we just accomplish something incredible? Wait, counting the unit we just wiped out, doesn’t that mean Iwagakure only has five Beheading Units left?"

Kakashi shook his head. "No. They only have three left. Two more were annihilated by the Fourth Hokage!"

Hyuga Kagami was momentarily speechless before muttering, "No wonder Iwamata held such a grudge against the Fourth."

During their fight, Iwamata had brought up the Fourth Hokage several times. Only now did Hyuga Kagami finally understand where that deep resentment toward the Fourth had come from.

Of the three Beheading Units Iwagakure had lost before this, aside from the one surrounded and destroyed in the Land of Grass, the other two had both been wiped out by the Fourth Hokage single-handedly.

Anyone in their position would have hated the Fourth Hokage to the bone.

Kakashi said worriedly, "I’m afraid Iwagakure might use this incident as an excuse to make trouble."

Having eaten his fill, Hyuga Kagami leaned back against the side of the cave. "What’s there to worry about? We were acting in self-defense. It’s not like we could just surrender and let them slaughter us."

Guy scratched his head. "Speaking of which, why did they attack us in the first place?"

Kakashi and Shisui both turned to look at Hyuga Kagami.

Hyuga Kagami shrugged. "Don’t look at me. I’m not entirely sure either."

Perhaps Iwamata possessed some special ability that had allowed him to vaguely sense something. That might have been why he’d been so determined to eliminate Hyuga Kagami for Iwagakure—to prevent him from becoming Konoha’s second ’Yellow Flash.’

But there was no way Hyuga Kagami could spread something like that around.

Once word got out, not only would it attract Iwagakure’s attention and hostility, it would be even more likely to arouse needless suspicion among Konoha’s higher-ups.

After all, Hyuga Kagami had only been promoted from a wartime chūnin to a special jōnin a little over a month ago. The speed at which his strength had grown had already attracted the attention of many people. If word now spread that even the captain of an Iwagakure Beheading Unit had feared him so much that he wanted him dead at all costs, then concealing the secret of his Tenseigan would become much more difficult.

Even now, after learning just how much weight the Beheading Units carried within Iwagakure, Hyuga Kagami was already starting to get a headache.

He didn’t even know how he was supposed to explain to the village that he had killed Iwamata. Under normal circumstances, a newly promoted special jōnin should have had absolutely no chance of defeating an elite jōnin on the level of a Beheading Unit captain.

After everyone finished eating, Shisui volunteered, "I’ll take the night watch tonight."

Hyuga Kagami naturally had no objections. Of everyone on the team, he was the one who had suffered the most serious injuries.

Guy grinned. "How about you take the first half of the night, and I’ll take the second?"

After resting for another few days in the Land of Birds, Team Eleven once again set out on their journey back to Konoha.

This time, everything went smoothly. They encountered no trouble whatsoever along the way and returned safely to the village.

Since they were ANBU directly under the Hokage, Team Eleven headed straight to the Hokage’s office after returning to the village and gave the Third Hokage a detailed report on their mission in the Land of Demons.

Upon hearing that the demon Moryo possessed power comparable to that of a tailed beast, the Third Hokage was greatly surprised. But when he learned that Team Eleven had been ambushed by an Iwagakure Beheading Unit in the Land of Bears, he fell completely silent.

After pondering the matter for a long time, the Third Hokage classified Team Eleven’s mission to the Land of Demons as confidential and sealed the records away in a classified archive that only the Hokage was permitted to access.

At the same time, he issued a gag order to every member of Team Eleven.

Any information concerning the demon Moryo or the ambush in the Land of Bears was to remain strictly confidential.

None of it was to be disclosed to anyone...