Chapter 242: The Phantom Thief on the Battlefield
A blade's gleam, brilliant as a meteor, flashed and vanished. Sakumo, who was originally in front of Shikaku, instantly appeared behind him, slowly sheathing his sword.
Shikaku didn't panic at all; instead, he frowned deeply and looked at Sakumo.
"Jonin Hatake, was someone just here?"
Sakumo nodded solemnly. "I felt a sensation of being spied upon."
Inside the space, Masahiko had black lines on his face. He really didn't expect Sakumo to be able to sense his Space Ninjutsu.
"Was it a gaze, or something else?" Masahiko shook his head. Even with his sensory abilities, he couldn't develop this kind of acute "sense of smell."
Seeing Sakumo still on high alert, Masahiko shook his head. "I'd better leave."
But before he could leave, Shikaku spoke solemnly, "The battle plan has been leaked. Jonin Hatake, mission canceled."
Masahiko didn't know whether to laugh or cry. This was really...
"Sakumo, tell him what you felt just now was an illusion." Masahiko's voice echoed in Sakumo's ears.
Sakumo's face stiffened. After a long moment, he turned to Shikaku. "It was my illusion just now. No need to draft a new plan."
Shikaku frowned, feeling it was a bit strange. After a while, he smiled and shook his head. His mouth moved without making a sound, but he mouthed four words: "Elder Masahiko?"
"What are you playing charades for!" Since he had already been discovered, Masahiko simply jumped out of the space.
"Elder Masahiko, you're finally here," Sakumo said.
"What difference does it make if I'm here or not? Victory is right before your eyes; you don't need me at all."
Masahiko had just read through the entire battle plan. Using the entire Land of Rain as a battlefield, pushing horizontally, they had already reached the "high ground," almost reaching Hanzo's hometown. He estimated the Sand Village would soon be unable to hold on. The Land of Rain suffered even heavier losses, and Hanzo was truly wronged; he had to participate in the war even if he didn't want to.
Shikaku shook his head. "We still need to guard against the Rock Village; they've also made their move."
Masahiko glared at him. "So what if you have a high IQ? It's impossible for you to be unprepared. You probably contacted Kakuzu a long time ago."
Ignoring their reactions, after saying this, Masahiko directly flashed away. From the previous combat mission roster, he had already found the approximate locations of his four disciples.
Although the Land of Rain was a small country, it was still a country. When the entire Land of Rain became a battlefield, it was hard to encounter large groups of ninjas.
Konoha had about two thousand ninjas on the battlefield, divided into small squads ranging from three to thirty people, fighting a "guerrilla war."
Masahiko's four disciples formed one such squad. They had no specific mission, only responsible for "sweeping" the Rain Village ninjas.
When Masahiko found them, a battle had just begun.
Nanako and Kento didn't make a move. Facing three times their number, Nagato and Konan finished the battle in half a minute.
Masahiko looked pleasantly surprised. He could tell that Nagato had a "breakthrough."
It wasn't about opening some meridian or suddenly becoming an innate master, but his entire aura was somewhat different.
In the Naruto world, there really was such a thing as aura. The most common was murderous intent, usually possessed by S-class ninjas or some of the best Jonin.
War truly honed people. Nagato, who had just turned fifteen, had become an S-class ninja under the baptism of war. This was treatment only Naruto and Sasuke usually received.
"Aura and such... have no affinity with me."
Masahiko let out a long sigh. Watching the group begin to clean up the battlefield, he stopped hiding and revealed himself.
"Yo! Teacher! You're finally here."
Nagato spoke first. Masahiko originally had a smile on his face, but it instantly turned dark.
"Nagato, why did you start 'Yo-ing' again?"
Nagato smiled sheepishly. He felt talking like that was very cool...
"Teacher." The other three also walked over, greeted him, and then hesitated to speak, clearly full of questions.
"Want to know where I went?"
The group nodded repeatedly.
"I'm not telling you." Masahiko also didn't know how to explain his previous whereabouts. Should he say, "My Gentle Fist reached grandmaster level, shattered the void, and went to another world"?
"Hmm? That explanation actually sounds pretty good."
"Then we won't ask." His disciples didn't cooperate at all.
Masahiko paused. "You guys... forget it."
Shaking his head, he spoke up, "Nagato has improved a lot and can start trying to learn Dust Release. You guys head back to the camp and wait for me first. I'm going to take care of the Sand Village."
The group looked surprised, especially Nanako and Kento. Masahiko rarely interfered in Konoha's wars before, let alone saying he would personally take care of the enemy this time.
"Then we'll be leaving, Teacher." Nanako was the first to speak. She didn't ask Masahiko for the reason; Masahiko wouldn't tell them anyway...
Masahiko smiled. It was indeed inconvenient for him to fight right now, but in order to gain more Witness Points during the Third Great Ninja War, he had to do something.
"Isn't Space Ninjutsu the best way to ambush people?"
Of course, he didn't plan to deal with them one by one; that would take too much time. He directly flashed away, heading towards the Sand Village camp.
He saw several battles along the way, but Masahiko didn't stop. However, the Sand Village ninjas fighting suddenly found their kunai missing, or even their puppets vanishing...
Flashing all the way, various things appeared in the Bagua Space, and the fat cat had a great time playing... Fortunately, Masahiko had stacked all the sharp and spiky things at the bottom.
Taking a little over half an hour, Masahiko crossed the entire Land of Rain, "harvesting" countless items and encountering many acquaintances.
"You guys fight; I seem to have struck it rich."
Masahiko took inventory of what he had gained in the space. There were over five hundred kunai. Calculating at two to three per person, he had "ambushed" over 200 people. But of course, it wasn't that many, only about twenty or so. The rest were mostly obtained from traps, and some might even belong to Konoha...
The Sand Village camp was right in front of him, but Masahiko hesitated. He thought about going back to "stroll around" a bit more.
"Forget it, there should be more things inside the Sand Village camp." Masahiko laughed secretly. The feeling of stealing was very satisfying.
"What stealing? I am a phantom thief walking on the battlefield!"
Masahiko began squirming through the space again, checking the tents one by one.
Like Konoha, the largest tent was the hospital. Masahiko quietly "took" some bandages and medicine without anyone noticing.
The second largest tent held the Sand Village's supplies. There were two guards at the door, one of whom looked somewhat familiar.
"Isn't this child the one who brought me into the Kazekage Building back then? Sorry about this..." Masahiko muttered silently and began "taking" things.
Besides large quantities of weapons, food, and spare puppets, Masahiko also discovered many familiar boxes. They were explosive tags sold by the Land of Whirlpools.
"Hmm, I'll take them back and sell them again." A perfectly good Space Ninjutsu was being used by him as a burglary tool. The Obito in the original story was still too naive. If he had done this earlier, would Akatsuki have needed to extort money?
The tent became completely empty, and Masahiko smiled with a hint of "embarrassment."
"This should count as participating in and changing the course of the war, right?"
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