Chapter 92: The Three Pits of Hidden Rock

“By order of the Third Earth Shadow, Special Advisor Whitewood will take over command of the next mission as team captain, and Demon Leech will assist him. No objections are permitted.” Loess had never lied in his life, let alone forged an order from the Earth Shadow, and he was so nervous that he almost crushed the scroll in his hands.

“Loess... you seem a little tense?” Demon Leech looked at the pillar of the Hidden Stone Village with suspicion, as though asking, If you’ve been taken hostage, blink twice.

“Tense? No, no. I just drank a little sweat, that’s all. It made me a bit tipsy.” Loess’s forehead was slick with water as though someone had blasted him square in the face with a great waterfall technique. Who would have thought that a man as solid as the earth itself also had a talent for water release?

“Fine... since there’s a mission scroll... though this scroll smells like radish?” Demon Leech took the scroll and sniffed it.

“We had some radishes with our drinks!” Whitewood hurriedly covered for him. “If there’s nothing else, Brother Loess, hurry after the main force. Try to be the first one to charge into the Leaf Village.”

“Then... I’m off.” Loess fled at once, his movements absurdly stiff and awkward, as though he were running for his life.

“Heh heh heh... he just wanted to make a name for himself.” Whitewood gave a dry laugh. The man truly was incapable of telling a lie.

Demon Leech, Fireglow, and Great Stone all carried an indistinct, ever-present killing intent. Their sharply different temperaments made it obvious at a glance that they were veteran elite jonin. They stared blankly at Whitewood, this captain who had fallen from the sky, and no one knew what they were thinking.

“Hello, I’m Whitewood, a special advisor hired by the Third Earth Shadow. I’ve been ordered to lead you in defending Kannabi Bridge. I look forward to working with you.” Whitewood extended one hand with considerable courtesy.

“Demon Leech, jonin. Swordsmanship is my specialty.” Demon Leech hugged a long sword to his chest, eyes half closed. He did not shake hands, nor did he question the Earth Shadow’s order. He seemed very composed.

“Mm! You can tell at a glance that he’s very swordlike!” Whitewood nodded.

“Fireglow, jonin. I’m good at ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu all alike, to a degree you little brat will never even touch in your lifetime.” Fireglow turned slightly to the side in a smug, haughty pose, not even giving Whitewood a straight look.

“Fireglow, huh... I suspect you’ve been colluding with the Leaf Village. Even your name still longs for the will of your homeland. Please come with me to the Internal Security Squad.” Whitewood shot him a sidelong glance as well.

“You—! You’re talking nonsense! You’re slandering me... What will of fire, what blaze among the leaves, what burning oneself to light others, I’ve never heard any of that once in my life! I’m going to sue you for defamation! I challenge you to a duel!” Fireglow’s face flushed crimson, and he rolled up his sleeves like he was ready to fight to the death.

“All right, all right, it was just a joke. Why so tense?” Whitewood grinned foolishly and waved a hand, then turned to the last man, a brutish, flat-faced brute.

“My name is Great Stone. I’m skilled at...” Great Stone, ugly and dim-looking, began to introduce himself.

“Skilled at invisibility, right?” Whitewood remembered that there should indeed be a Hidden Stone ninja here who could vanish from sight. He was also the key to Obito awakening the Sharingan.

“How did you know that?” Great Stone frowned, the folds of his ugly face bunching together and making him look even uglier.

“With a face that ugly, if you couldn’t disappear, you’d be frightening people the moment you stepped outside.” Whitewood showed no mercy. After all, in the original story this ugly bastard had kidnapped the adorable little Rin angel.

“You—you—Demon Leech, he called me ugly! I want to duel him!” Great Stone roared in fury, pointing at Whitewood.

“Turn your head away and stop yelling at me. You’re ugly enough already. Getting angry only makes you uglier.” Demon Leech used the hilt of his sword to push Great Stone’s face aside.

“If you’re curious, go look it up sometime and see just how ugly Great Stone was. Of course, I’m making fun of him here. He was ugly, yes, but he was also an ugly yet reliable ninja.”

“A duel! I’m dueling you!!” Great Stone shouted himself hoarse at Whitewood.

“No need for a duel. We’re on the eve of battle, and I happen to be good at stealth too. Let’s compare invisibility techniques.” Whitewood replied.

“Fine! How do you want to do it?” Great Stone snapped.

“See that forest beside us? We’ll both hide in it at the same time. Whoever finds the other first wins.” Whitewood pointed toward the mushroom forest nearby.

“Fine! But the loser has to apologize!” Great Stone said sternly.

“An apology is too mild. Why not wear women’s clothes instead?” Whitewood fished a white-lace lolita dress out of Tobi’s mouth. That way, nobody loses.

“Fine! Women’s clothes it is!” Great Stone was going all in.

The two of them walked together to the entrance of the mushroom forest.

“Begin. I’m off first!” Whitewood formed a random hand sign.

Illusory Trickery activated.

Whitewood leaped into the forest and vanished without a trace.

“Incredible... such exquisite stealth, and no warning at all...” Great Stone was startled, but for a man’s pride he could not lose. He swiftly formed hand signs.

“Ninja Art: Camouflage Concealment.”

A ripple passed through Great Stone’s body as he gradually blended into the surrounding environment, achieving perfect invisibility. He immediately followed Whitewood into the mushroom forest and began carefully searching for his trail.

A minute later, Whitewood clapped his hands and emerged from the other side of the mushroom forest, leaving Great Stone to search to his heart’s content. At the very least, the world had been purified a little.

Returning to Demon Leech and Fireglow, Whitewood got down to business. “How many men did the Earth Shadow assign here?”

“Over two hundred. They’ve been sent to patrol the surrounding area. A little farther away there’s also a twenty-man engineering reserve led by Sumas, though they’re not for combat. They only handle construction and bridge repairs.” Demon Leech did not object just because his position had been seized from him.

“Mm... it seems the Earth Shadow really does value this place.” Whitewood nodded, then looked at Fireglow. “Go and call over all of Sumas’s engineering ninja.”

“Me?” Fireglow pointed at himself, eyes widening.

“What, you don’t want to? Internal Security Squad, hello? There’s a guy named Fireglow here...” Whitewood said lazily, arms folded.

“I’ll go! I’ll go right now!” In that wretched place, even if you dragged in a bear, it would come out admitting it was a rabbit.

“Mm, that’s more like it.” Whitewood nodded. The prickly ones under his command needed proper discipline.

Before long, Sumas arrived with a group of filthy, miserable engineering ninja. They always did the dirtiest, hardest work and never got a shred of the credit.

“This is Whitewood, the new captain assigned by the Earth Shadow,” Fireglow introduced.

“Special jonin Sumas, temporarily in charge of the engineering ninja unit. Greetings, sir!” Sumas was an especially energetic young man. Though still young, he had already risen to special jonin, which marked him as a promising talent. Unfortunately, his mind was not on fortifications; he wanted the true battlefield.

“Good! Full of spirit! Young people should temper their wills properly!” Whitewood gave Sumas’s shoulder a heavy pat. He liked subordinates like this.

“Yes, sir! What are your orders?” Sumas straightened his back.

“I have a feeling someone will come to attack Kannabi Bridge. Have your men reinforce the bridge structure a bit.” Whitewood ordered.

“Ah... Kannabi Bridge was completed only five years ago, and it was built for military use from the very beginning. It’s extremely sturdy already. There’s really no need to reinforce it.” Sumas blinked.

“No matter how sturdy it is, it can’t withstand explosive tags being hurled at it over and over, can it? Do as I said. Reinforce the bridge.”

“Lord Whitewood may not understand this, since you haven’t studied civil engineering. A bridge isn’t something you can just reinforce at will... If you make it too heavy, you may instead increase the burden on the structure.” Sumas rubbed his forehead, already feeling a headache coming on. These layman leaders loved to point fingers from above and toss out a breezy little order like “reinforce it,” as though they cared at all how long it would take to plan.

“Stupid! Who said to reinforce the whole thing? Don’t you have something like a weak point? Just reinforce that weak point.” Whitewood displayed the half-baked knowledge he had just learned from Explosive Release Retsu.

“...All right. We’ll do our best.” Sumas scratched his head, thinking he might just slap a couple of clods of mud onto it and fob off this amateur. A weak point, indeed. Learn two terms and start using them recklessly.

“I don’t want your best! I want you to put your lives on the line! Do you not understand how important Kannabi Bridge is? The fate of the entire Hidden Stone Village rests on your shoulders. Do you understand me!” Whitewood barked at him in fury.

“...Yes!!” Sumas was completely whipped into shape. He unfolded the bridge blueprints he had prepared long ago and began searching for a point that could be reinforced without affecting the whole.