After landing, Flower Deer said excitedly:
"Squad Leader! The paraglider you made is incredibly useful! With the ability to fly in the strong desert winds, the Hidden Sand can't hit us or catch us at all!"
Yagami basked in the admiration and praise.
Knowledge from his previous life was helping him in strange and unexpected ways.
Yagami said, "Flower Deer, you and Teal Duck practice controlling the paraglider well. This is our life-saving tool for this mission."
The next day, Yagami returned to Crescent Lake to inspect the results of the poisoning.
The special toxin developed by the Anbu had contaminated the entire small lake.
The Hidden Sand unit had evacuated the oasis.
It was a pity that such a small, beautiful oasis was ruined like this.
The surface of the water had turned purple, with the corpses of insects and small fish floating upon it.
It was unknown how long it would take for the groundwater to dilute the toxin and bring life back to this place.
Using the map to find the second oasis, Yagami used the same tactic: throwing the poison gourd into the water source and successfully escaping via paraglider.
The third oasis, however, was not as smooth.
This oasis was larger and surrounded by a vast number of Hidden Sand ninja.
At a rough glance, at least three Hidden Sand units were stationed here.
During the day, many transport squads entered the oasis, filled containers with fresh water, and sent them to the front lines.
After observing for several days, Yagami discovered that this oasis served as a rest-and-rotation station for the Hidden Sand.
Hidden Sand units retreating from the front lines would recuperate here, replenish their personnel, train, and then head back to the front.
There were anywhere from three to four Hidden Sand units in the oasis at any given time.
Yagami watched for days but could not find an opening to strike.
In the dark of night, Yagami lay far from the oasis, buried in the sand.
It was tricky.
Three Hidden Sand units were not something he could attack head-on.
Unable to think of a plan, Yagami turned over and lay on his back in the sand.
The sand covering him slid off.
In the night sky, moonlight shone upon the floating clouds, turning them an ashy white.
The clouds were so high and leisurely—unlike Yagami, whose energy was being drained by this mission.
Suddenly, a thought struck Yagami.
He would go for it!
He summoned the Flower Deer squad and said, "Let's go. We finish the mission tonight!"
Not knowing what tactic the Squad leader had in mind, the Flower Deer squad followed.
They moved far away from the oasis.
Yagami said, "Leaf Monkey, you are a Wind Style ninja. You fly the paraglider and take me up."
Flower Deer couldn't help but ask, " Leader, what about Teal Duck and me?"
"You two provide backup. If things go smoothly, Leaf Monkey and I will be enough to finish the mission."
The paraglider took off and flew high into the sky.
"Leaf Monkey, fly as high as you can! We'll take turns using Wind Style: Great Breakthrough to provide power to the paraglider."
With the help of Wind Style, the paraglider flew higher and higher until it was level with the clouds.
At an altitude of over a thousand meters, people on the ground would see the paraglider as nothing more than a large bird.
In his previous life, Yagami had seen a news report about a person who flew a paraglider to an altitude of over eight thousand meters. A pilot who saw him thought he was hallucinating.
The paraglider adjusted its direction and arrived directly above the target oasis.
Yagami stood with his back to Leaf Monkey. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, the Sharingan was active.
Do not underestimate a single-tomoe Sharingan.
He then used a Shadow Clone and had the clone hold the poison gourd.
At this moment, the Shadow Clone, like Yagami, also had the Sharingan active.
Gripping the Shadow Clone's shoulder tightly, Yagami threw the clone downward.
"Go! Shadow Clone!"
Shadow Clone clutched the poison gourd and fell straight down.
While in mid-air, the Shadow Clone used faint pulses of Wind Style to adjust its trajectory.
Inside the oasis, a Hidden Sand ninja was leaning against a pillar, slacking off.
He gazed up at the moon, complaining in his heart, wondering when the war would end and when he could return to the village.
The Hidden Leaf ninja were too terrifying.
Fire Style countered Wind Style; before a powerful fireball, the air would churn with rising steam, making it impossible for Wind Style to maintain its power.
While he was lost in thought staring at the moonlight, he saw a black dot appear in the night sky.
The dot was falling rapidly.
At first, he thought it was a peregrine falcon tucking its wings for a dive. It was an interesting falcon—why was it heading straight for him?
A dozen seconds later, he scrambled up from the pillar, screaming shrilly, "Enemy attack!"
The cry echoed through the night.
Several duty squads rushed out of the oasis to secure the perimeter.
The squad leaders thought they had reacted quickly, but once they reached the edge of the oasis, they saw no one.
"Above us!"
A squad leader finally realized that he had instinctively searched the surroundings upon hearing the alarm, never imagining the enemy was coming from directly overhead.
Three unit commanders stepped out of their tents and looked up at the black shadow plummeting through the air.
"Stop him!"
Ninjutsu, kunai, shuriken, and puppets flew toward the sky.
The Shadow Clone, relying on its doubled reaction speed and the observation power of the Sharingan, twisted its body in the air to dodge every attack.
The three Hidden Sand unit commanders below used a combination ninjutsu.
Three tornadoes moved across the oasis water. Anything above would be swept away by the winds.
Yagami's Shadow Clone opened the lid of the poison gourd and turned it over, poking a hole in the bottom.
He pressed his mouth to the hole in the gourd.
"Water Style: Water Severing Wave!"
A high-speed jet of water, carrying the venom from the gourd, formed a high-velocity stream of poison aimed straight for the oasis.
The jet of poison pierced through the turbulent air between the tornadoes.
The three Hidden Sand unit commanders watched helplessly as the poison shot into the lake.
That purple line of water looked like a dark laser of death under the moonlight.
"Kill him! We must kill him!"
The Shadow Clone continued to fall, only being dispelled by the tornadoes once it reached their attack range.
High in the sky, Yagami received the memories sent back by the Shadow Clone.
When it came to dangerous missions, Shadow Clones were indeed useful.
Success!
"Retreat! Do not lose altitude! Keep flying!"
The Hidden Sand searched desperately on the ground, but Leaf Monkey found several cloud layers and successfully used them to obscure their vision, disappearing from sight.
Yagami looked at the canopy of the paraglider. The canopy was mainly composed of an upper and lower wing surface. The two surfaces had different curvatures, providing lift through the difference in air velocity.
The paraglider he had experimented with worked well.
By the early morning of the next day, Yagami and Leaf Monkey finally landed.
They had lost contact with Flower Deer and Teal Duck.
Yagami said:
"The oasis we destroyed last night was extremely important. If we head toward the Land of Rivers now, we will likely run into a furious search party. Let's hide for a few days while waiting for Flower Deer and Teal Duck."
Leaf Monkey asked, "Squad Leader, where should we hide?"
"The most dangerous place is the safest place," Yagami said.
"We'll go back to the first oasis we destroyed, Crescent Lake. The Hidden Sand would never expect us to appear by that useless little lake. Leave secret marks along the way. Perhaps Flower Deer will see them and catch up to us."
Returning to Crescent Lake, Yagami found that there were actually people there.
Looking closely, he sighed in relief—it wasn't the Hidden Sand, but a few civilians: a young girl with three children.
The girl had gradient hair, cyan at the top and yellow at the tips.
In the next moment, Yagami grew tense. The girl and the three children were actually holding jars and basins, walking toward Crescent Lake!
The water was already purple—couldn't they see that?
Yagami had Leaf Monkey stay on lookout outside the oasis while he put on his desert traveler disguise and hurried toward the lake.
"Wait! You can't drink that lake water!"