Evading the Suna-nin, Yōkō, and Purple Cat quickly moved outside the town to reunite with their squadron.
White Sheep released his Parasitic Destruction Insects, while the others used binoculars to observe the distance.
A moderate rain fell from the sky, the dense water mist making for poor visibility.
"Squad Leader! It's Sunagakure's Elite Jonin, Matsu!"
The Anbu had intelligence on important figures from other villages. Matsu was a noteworthy Jonin from Sunagakure, famous for his Wind Release ninjutsu.
He had bandages wrapped around his head to protect against wind and sand, a relatively distinctive feature.
They had unexpectedly encountered an Elite Jonin from Sunagakure.
In the distance, Matsu led over a hundred Suna-nin charging towards the town.
Yōkō quickly said to White Sheep, "White Sheep! Take your squad to find Battalion Commander Yellow Dog and report the situation here! I'll continue reconnaissance!"
"Yes!"
White Sheep left with his squad.
The Fox Squadron's mission was reconnaissance; facing a large force of Suna-nin led by an Elite Jonin was impossible.
Yōkō thought Matsu would lead the Suna-nin to charge into Tsutamidani Town. However, Matsu turned midway and charged towards the river embankment.
Upon reaching the embankment, the hundred-plus Suna-nin, organized into two battalions, began placing explosive tags on the ground.
They weren't just placing them on the surface; they first used Earth Release to bore holes, then buried the explosive tags deep within.
This section of the embankment was over fifty meters thick and more than ten meters high, very sturdy.
The Suna-nin formed hand seals simultaneously.
A continuous series of explosions sounded, some on the surface, some deep within the embankment.
After the explosions, the soil expanded and softened.
The Suna-nin rushed forward and used Earth Release to completely breach the embankment.
To the side of the embankment, the River Patrol Uncle was tied up like a zongzi and trampled under a Suna-nin's foot.
He was shouting something in agony, powerless to do anything.
The Yoshimizu River was nearly a hundred meters wide. After the embankment was blown, the great flood surged down, rushing towards Tsutamidani Town.
The destructive power of the ninja was too great. Building such an embankment required years of effort from the ancestors of Tsutamidani Town, but destroying it only took the ninja half an hour.
Outside the ninja villages, all civilians feared and despised ninja.
The river water rushed into Tsutamidani Town, instantly submerging it to the height of a single story.
The small town was thrown into chaos.
Screams could be heard faintly from the town.
The screams rose and fell with the floodwaters, then were swallowed by the deluge.
"Squad Leader! The Suna-nin have spotted us!"
"Retreat first!"
The two squads of the Fox Squadron were no match for the Suna-nin.
Yōkō led the two squads to retreat further away; the Suna-nin did not pursue.
The Suna-nin gathered around the breach, widening the gap.
Some Suna-nin followed the flood crest downstream.
Yōkō said, "Let's go, see what the Suna-nin aim to achieve by breaching the embankment."
The Yoshimizu River was a major river in the southern part of the Land of Rain. Because it was too close to the Yoshioka Mountains, there wasn't much room for development nearby, so the population was sparse, and there were few valuable targets.
Were they only trying to flood one small town and over a dozen villages?
Why bother? With two battalions of Suna-nin, killing people directly with kunai would be faster.
Following the flood for two or three kilometers, Yōkō saw even more Suna-nin.
These Suna-nin stood in two rows, forming hand seals one after another.
The ground between the two rows of Suna-nin sank, forming a channel.
The floodwaters no longer rushed aimlessly but flowed into the channel planned by the Suna-nin.
Following the direction of the channel from a distance, the Fox Squadron arrived at the base of the Yoshioka Mountains.
The Yoshioka Mountains were hard stone mountains, their soil cover long since washed clean by the rain.
The rock faces were steep, abruptly rising hundreds of meters from the flat ground.
At the base of the Yoshioka Mountains, Yōkō saw the Suna-nin's handiwork.
It was a massive cave entrance.
A continuous torrent of floodwater poured into the entrance.
What exactly were the Suna-nin trying to do? Did they want to use the flood to collapse the Yoshioka Mountains?
Yōkō said, "The rest of you, fall back and wait for Battalion Commander Yellow Dog. Purple Cat, come with me to get closer and capture a prisoner for questioning."
The floodwater disappeared underground. The closer they got to the channel, the clearer the roar of the water became.
The Suna-nin watched the channel, each looking exhilarated, as if they had accomplished something incredible.
Yōkō and Purple Cat lurked in the shadows, approaching the outermost Suna-nin.
Purple Cat used the Mind Body Switch Technique to control one Suna-nin.
That Suna-nin slowly retreated. When the distance was close enough, Purple Cat released the Mind Body Switch Technique, and Yōkō instantly killed the Suna-nin and took the body away.
Three minutes later, Purple Cat had obtained the intelligence.
After hearing it, Yōkō thought, Matsu truly lives up to being an Elite Jonin from Sunagakure; he's a talented individual.
The Yoshioka Mountains separated the desert of the Land of Wind from the rainy basin of the Land of Rain.
Matsu had led the Suna-nin to scout the Yoshioka Mountains for several months and found several underground limestone caves.
The Land of Wind lacked water.
Matsu conceived a plan. He carefully selected several caves, connected them, creating a passage that precisely ran through the Yoshioka Mountains.
By diverting the water from the Yoshimizu River to fill the caves, it would flow out from the Gobi Desert on the southern side of the Yoshioka Mountains, creating a fertile green area in the north of the Land of Wind.
Purple Cat suddenly alerted him: "Squad Leader, the residents of Tsutamidani Town have been swept here by the flood crest! Squad Leader! It's Kon!"
Pieces of wood floated on the turbulent floodwaters. On one piece sat a little girl, her body curled into a ball, tightly clutching a broken umbrella.
Crucially, there were several hands around the wooden plank.
Several people in the floodwater were strenuously lifting the plank.
Yōkō recognized one of the hands; it belonged to the shoe-selling uncle he had met days before, identified by a distinctive thimble on his finger.
There were many such wooden planks, each carrying one or two children.
Some were children of residents, others were orphans.
However, they didn't know that their desperate efforts were meaningless.
The flood would carry them into the seemingly bottomless underground limestone cave.
It was unknown how long it would take to fill the underground caves, and they couldn't float out from the other end of the mountain range.
"Squad Leader..."
Purple Cat murmured.
Even though she was an Anbu, seeing a little girl like Kon, who was trying so hard to survive, about to perish in the flood, was hard for Purple Cat to accept.
Yōkō assessed the strength of the Suna-nin at the cave entrance. Perhaps he couldn't save many people, but he could at least save Kon.
He said, "Wait for me. I'm going to the cave entrance."
Yōkō Body Flickered towards the cave entrance.
After killing two Suna-nin, Yōkō leaped up, jumping over the cave entrance.
The cave entrance was like a dark, gaping maw, with rough waves, the sound of water dull, as if no amount of floodwater could fill it.
While in mid-air, Yōkō flung out a steel wire attached to an iron ball.
The iron ball wrapped around Kon's waist once and pulled her up.
Kon struggled in the air: "Uncle! Auntie! There's a big hole ahead!"
The cave entrance swallowed the wooden plank, along with several Tsutamidani Town residents beneath it.
They tumbled in fear in the waterfall-like torrent, completely disappearing into the bottomless darkness below.
At that moment, Elite Jonin Matsu suddenly appeared.
"Wind Release: Wind Cutter!"
Countless wind blades shot forth, severing Yōkō's steel wire.
"Kon!"
Kon, who had just escaped danger, fell into the dark opening of the limestone cave.
Her broken umbrella slipped from her grasp, and she, along with it, was slammed away by the floodwaters.
Yōkō himself was also cut by the wind blades, impacted by the strong wind, and slammed against the rock face above the cave.
Hanging onto the rock face with a kunai, Yōkō heard the people falling into the cave entrance emit dull, successive screams.
"Kon!"
Yōkō flung the wire and iron ball again, trying to entangle Kon.
Kon reached out, trying to grab the iron ball. But, missing by just one meter, Kon was engulfed by the crashing floodwaters.
Yōkō hung stiffly from the kunai. A thought suddenly arose in his heart.
This was the first time he actively wanted to die.
He wanted to change Kon's fate.
Yōkō raised his head and stared at Matsu.
Suna-nin, even if you want to divert water into the Land of Wind, you don't have to be so despicable about it.
***
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(Chapter End)