HSU: Ch. 295

News of the discovery of Kumo's fortress quickly spread throughout the foreign legion.

The foreign ninjas, who had originally joined out of a desire to choose the lesser of two evils, suddenly became highly motivated. The gloom and weariness from days of fruitless crawling through the forest were instantly swept away, and morale soared.

If circumstances had allowed, the leaders wouldn't have settled the matter with dice, they would've fought over who got to go.

Masashi didn't bother interfering in that regard.

Now that the cannon fodder was motivated, it made no sense for him, the one benefitting, to suppress them. The selection results were revealed quickly.

The Oto ninjas were the most numerous, but while their leaders were on Tsunade's level when it came to dice-throwing skills, they lacked her foresight.

Still, technically speaking, their abilities did match the setting of being under one of the Legendary Sannin.

The winners were the leaders of several small organizations.

This was exactly what Masashi had hoped for.

The Oto ninjas were the majority, and all part of the same system, wasting them here was unnecessary.

Smaller-scale operations should be handled by the smaller groups. But not everyone saw it that way, because on that night, everyone had witnessed it:

A Susanoo nearly a hundred meters tall swaggering through the fortress as if it were out for a spring stroll.

Masashi had yet to fully unleash Susanoo in its most complete form. For now, a form a few dozen meters tall was more than enough for his needs. But in this world, very few people had any real understanding of Susanoo. For these foreign ninjas, a Susanoo that stood several dozen meters tall was already invincible.

So when it came to the high-risk mission arranged by Masashi, no one refused. Having seen his god-like power, everyone believed that as long as they followed closely behind him, they would be victorious.

Killing Kumo ninjas and destroying a Kumo fortress? Nothing to be afraid of.

More than two hundred foreign ninjas, under the command of their respective leaders, broke away from the main force and stealthily moved toward the Kumo fortress discovered by the Oto ninjas.

Masashi, meanwhile, ordered the main army to halt and spread out in a defensive formation.

In both timelines, he needed patience.

Storing up Edo Tensei sacrifices required patience. Pulling enemies in, too, required patience.

The Kiri ninjas who died in Konoha could testify, he was a very patient man.

Dozens of minutes later, shadows began to reappear in the forest.

The foreign ninjas sent to attack the Kumo ninjas had returned. Compared to when they set out, their numbers had significantly decreased, and most were wounded.

But they brought good news.

The fortress they attacked turned out to be an access point to Poison Route, a route they had finally located.

There was bad news as well.

There had been more than a hundred Kumo ninjas in the fortress. They failed to completely wipe them out, nearly half escaped.

The Kumo ninjas responded to the attack with decisiveness. From the very beginning, they initiated a retreat, not bothering to engage in drawn-out skirmishes just to rack up kills.

This behavior revealed that the forces stationed there were elites.

"Not bad, not bad," Masashi said, clearly pleased as he listened to the reports from the returning unit leaders. "All elites, huh?"

The reporting leaders fell silent, feeling rather embarrassed. No matter how you looked at it, something just felt off.

"Stop dawdling, move out," Masashi said, having taken note of all their expressions. "Only elites are worth fighting."

The legion, which had already spent too much time here, finally set off again, surging like a tide toward the path that could determine the course of the entire war.

With a force of around 4,000 ninjas gathered together, the visual impact was impressive. Even the least experienced among these mercenaries had spent over a year on the battlefield, and they had more than enough adaptability to survive it. They were ruthless fighters to the core. When they came together and no longer bothered to hide their presence, their momentum felt truly formidable.

The killing intent they exuded made all the birds and beasts in the forest flee in fear.

Soon, the now fully evacuated Kumo ninjas outpost appeared before them. The foreign ninjas swarmed forward and quickly turned the entire camp upside down.

Due to the limited space, most of the foreign ninjas couldn't enter and had to wait outside.

After all, the Kumo ninjas had retreated suddenly. They left behind some items in the camp, small amounts of equipment, rations, and medicine. Maybe they really had to leave in a hurry, because all these supplies were left neatly intact.

It seemed they had truly anticipated the possibility of being pursued.

The foreign ninjas noticed this too, but they weren't afraid.

While the mercenaries were looting the spoils, Masashi stepped into the path behind the outpost, one that had been forgotten for decades.

Whether it was Poison Route or Riverside Route, neither of these routes was man-made.

The Riverside Route was a long, narrow stretch of flatland. After governance by the Lands of Lightning and Frost, it had become a livable area. But the Poison Route was a winding river valley deep within the mountains.

Completely unmanageable, so it had been abandoned. But in fact, it was a treasure trove. According to records, this area was home to hundreds of rare and valuable medicinal plants rarely seen across the continent.

Strange peaks and rugged rocks unfolded before Masashi as he entered the crisscrossing valley. Towering trees shaded the path, lush and green, their twisting roots and branches reaching across the river or clinging to the mountainsides, some even clung precariously to cliffsides.

A bird swooped through the forest canopy, wary of landing because of the humans below. Still, its flight stirred up a swarm of insects and buzzing creatures, the very source of the path's name.

The Poison Route wasn't just a passable trail. It was a strange and wild primeval forest, filled with diverse animal life, all hidden within its complex maze of flora.

He turned around to see the mercenary leaders, who had up to now all carried a "stop my money and I'll cut you down" attitude, now avoiding his gaze.

They clearly hadn't expected the Poison Route to look like this.

Meeting the Kumo ninjas here would be a true life-or-death struggle, with no room for error.

In this place, even a slight familiarity with the terrain would make one side gods and the other side doomed. Every blade of grass, every tree in this valley could be a killer.

"Scared?" Masashi asked.

The Oto ninja leader didn't miss the flash of killing intent in Masashi's eyes.

Oto ninjas were good at this sort of thing, after all, they served someone whose moods were impossible to read.

"Please allow us to lead the charge," the Oto ninja leader volunteered.

The murderous aura in Masashi's heart dispersed. He knew he wouldn't need to kill to assert dominance. Managing these mercenaries was actually simple, feed them money, and if they misbehave, cut them down on the spot.

After all, they loved money and feared the strong while bullying the weak.

"Very well. Don't worry, I'll be leading the way alongside you," Masashi said. "I'll show you how to get through this place. Take out the insect-repellent medicine I told you to prepare earlier. If it's not enough, gather more here. Once you're ready, we'll head into the valley."

The foreign legion was faced with a choice.

Either they went through this path, which looked stunning but could easily claim their lives at any moment, and followed Masashi to enjoy a good looting, Or they'd become fertilizer for this primeval forest at the hands of the very same generous-yet-deadly White Ghost.

They chose the first option.

And Masashi seemed to know the path very well, which gave them some small comfort.

Following his instructions, they prepared the necessary medicine and protective gear, then began to force their way into the valley. They hadn't been inside the valley for more than a few minutes when trouble began.

A cliff overgrown with plants, possibly destabilized by the aggressive root systems, suddenly became unstable as large numbers of ninjas passed beneath it. Part of the rock wall collapsed.

This type of danger, at least, was something Masashi would still intervene in.

Golden sand erupted from the ground, forming a dome-like shield that caught the falling rocks. The foreign ninjas made it through with a fright but no casualties.

But that was just an appetizer.

For instance, giant centipedes suddenly crawling out of trees nearby, these weren't dangerous to ninjas, as such creatures were common even in the Konoha Forest. A single kunai could pin them down.

They were flashy but ineffective, all bark, no bite.

Not all creatures were like that, though.

Take the green anaconda, for example. In the shinobi world, leaving aside creatures raised on natural energy like those in Ryūchi Cave, this was still one of the largest regular snakes. A genin caught off guard by one of these could easily be killed.

Tasks involving the elimination of wild beasts were usually assigned to lower-ranked ninjas precisely because, for them, it counted as real combat. But the real danger was the poisonous bugs.

If he hadn't specifically studied the area and concocted medicines to neutralize most of the common toxins here, half the foreign legion would already be dead, instead of just suffering ongoing pain, dizziness, and numbness.

Still, no one fell behind. Not out of fear of Masashi, but out of fear of the forest itself. And that fear was justified. If anyone wanted to rest, Masashi wouldn't stop them, but he also wouldn't stop the march for them.

Resting here? You'd have to be asking to die.

Five kilometers into the path, the first fatality was unavoidable.

By rank, it was a chunin. At that level, he should have been able to walk on water. But when he stepped into a patch of leaves that looked harmless, he suddenly fell in with a splash. Before he could escape, he was dragged under by something inside.

Angered and panicked, the ninja unleashed a barrage of jutsu, forcing the attacker into view.

They had no idea what the thing was, but the chunin was already half-eaten. It was like a switch had been flipped, from that point on, casualties began to appear one after another.

In this kind of environment, the foreign ninjas' hostility was fully ignited. By this point, no one spoke of turning back. Besides, it wasn't like Masashi was doing nothing.

For obvious poison insect nests, he would clear the path with fire. And when the bugs inside were roasted to death by his fire jutsu, the foreign ninjas all showed unrestrained satisfaction and cruelty in their eyes.

Once the Totsuka Sword was drawn, no living thing remained.

Even though he could use parts of Susanoo to defend himself, he was hoping to get out of this forest as quickly as possible.

For someone with trypophobia, this place was unbearable.

Everyone had put on the masks they'd prepared earlier. Standard masks weren't good enough, the gaps were too big, and they were afraid insects might fly in unhindered.

Besides using jutsu to clear the way, Masashi also summoned some old friends from Ryūchi Cave, a rare move for him.

The Oto ninjas were no strangers to Ryūchi Cave's snakes. But when they saw the giant snakes, who usually disobeyed even Orochimaru, being completely docile and obedient before Masashi, their respect and fear for him deepened even further. However, from the start, the foreign legion's enemies weren't the wild animals and bugs.

After traveling 150 km, the environment began to change. Signs of human clearing started to appear.

He had already activated his Sharingan, and if necessary, he would enter Sage Mode.

As for curse mark or tailed beast chakra, no need for that.

Not yet.

After all, this wasn't Valley of Clouds and Lightning.

Suddenly, in his eyes, a large number of chakra reactions appeared. In the Sharingan's vision, their "true forms" were revealed.

Explosive tags.

He raised a hand to signal a halt. The messenger ninja beside him instantly relayed the command.

The foreign ninjas communicated using the calls of various birds and beasts, crude but effective for marching orders.

The foreign legion came to a stop. Killing intent began to spread. Everyone understood what this meant.

Masashi then looked down at the ground, and saw landmines, the kind only Iwa would use.

Those two old enemies, so united when it came to fighting Konoha. He wondered whether they'd considered the possibility that this time, Konoha might fight all the way to their doorsteps. Years of patience had ground him down, and after the outbreak of the Fourth Great Ninja War, he had little left.

Truth be told, from the very beginning, he'd never respected the so-called "Five Kage." Putting himself on the same pedestal as Hashirama?

You get to be called Kage just because you manage a bunch of people? What a joke!

He crouched down and pressed his hand into the soil.

Blue lightning illuminated his face.

The ground here, rich in moisture and minerals, was an excellent conductor for lightning. What was normally a simple jutsu meant to attack enemies from below, in his hands, became something entirely different.

Sparks and jolts erupted from the ground. Stones and dirt exploded as if branches were sprouting from the earth, the overflow of lightning chakra breaking through the surface.

Finally, the lightning surged like ocean waves, one after another, washing over the terrain ahead. All the "landmines" were destroyed as a matter of course, reduced to nothing more than ordinary dirt.

Masashi stood up, brushed off his hands, and used his Sharingan once more to confirm the explosive tag formations hidden in the forest.

Wind Release: Infinite Sand Cloud - Great Breakthrough.

This wasn't a jutsu he had invented, it was Gaara's. But Gaara had to rely on Shukaku's power to perform it.

For Masashi, that wasn't necessary.

This technique was a fusion of sand jutsu with the Great Breakthrough.

A fierce wind howled, lifting the sand and forming a blinding sandstorm that blotted out the sky.

The airborne sand, propelled by the violent wind, was no less lethal than bullets. Trees in his path were shattered by the storm and became part of the swirling torrent. The explosive tags hidden among them were destroyed before they could even detonate.

The overwhelming sandstorm rampaged forward, tearing through everything in its path. It spread wider and wider, devouring the forest.

Only the sun in the sky struggled to stay visible.