NOVEL NEXT Chapter 9: Ambush: Facing the Overwhelming Bloodthirst
It was 10:45 in the morning when the storm subsided. And, only after two in the afternoon did it weaken enough for them to resume sailing.
- [You gained 1 STR for doing Push-ups continuously]
Tanaka sighed briefly with a 'fuu' as he finished doing push-ups. This was the third time the notification appeared.
After resting a bit, when he was about to start doing sit-ups, he was stopped by Shiori.
He looked at her while sitting on the ground.
"You're quite dedicated," she said. Unbothered by the rain, she stood before him holding her halberd. "I'm just worried if you'll be able to sense if we're ambushed again."
"Don't worry," Tanaka replied with his hands on his knees. "I can sense the slightest amount of bloodlust directed at me. As long as I stay on the boat and someone gets close enough with the intention to ambush us, I will know."
There was another reason, which was the map he kept open at all times, but he couldn't tell her about that.
"I understand, just don't tire yourself out too much," she said before walking away casually.
Tanaka understood her concern, especially with him being the most capable of spotting enemies.
Although he didn't think he needed to take her words too seriously, he still took extended breaks every time he gained a point of VIT while doing sit-ups.
When he gained a total of 3 points, he began doing squats after a pause.
- HP: [3,930/3,930]
Just looking at his HP, which almost reached 4,000, made him think it was worth the effort.
Understanding that killing earned EXP, which in turn earned levels and attribute points to distribute, didn't make him want to relax.
Some time later...
The Skipper shouted, "Land ahoy!"
When he heard this, Tanaka could only lament as he stopped training, gaining only 2 points of DEX this time.
When he stood up, Umiko approached him and simply handed him a towel before walking away.
Taking it, he wanted to thank her, but she had already left.
Drying his sweat and then adjusting his mask, he headed to the cabin.
"Fuu, so refreshing!"
After drinking an entire glass of water, the refreshing feeling made him sigh with relief.
Although he had the body of a player, he was grateful for not becoming a robot without emotions. The simple satisfaction of drinking water after exercising was one of the things he didn't want to lose, along with the pleasure of eating and other things.
After leaving the cabin, going to the bow of the boat, and joining the others, he could see even without binoculars that they were approaching the eastern coast of the Land of Fire.
Looking at the map, not spotting any red dots so far; while he felt disappointed, he also felt relieved.
At the same time, from the east, a hawk cried out as it approached.
Shiori extended her arm, and the hawk landed on it with its talons. On the hawk's left leg, there was a small scroll tied.
After taking it, she made the hawk wait while she opened the scroll. She then performed several hand seals before placing her hand on the seal, breaking it.
In the center of the scroll, a second, larger scroll appeared. She took it, opened it, and repeated the process.
"Poof!"
When the seal was broken, a letter and a package the size of a five-kilogram rice sack appeared on top.
Taking the letter first, she read it slowly.
"Sigh, it seems we've been betrayed by someone from Konoha," she said.
Even behind her mask, the dangerous gleam in her eyes was hard to hide.
Umiko, Takashi, and Hisashi showed surprise in their eyes.
Tanaka, on the other hand, found this quite normal. Although he had his suspicions, he knew how corrupt Konoha was. Even among themselves, they were constantly fighting. It's no wonder it's said that if Konoha didn't have so many internal conflicts, they would have easily won the war.
"Who?" Takashi asked, clenching his fists.
"It hasn't been discovered yet, but..." Shiori's voice was calm and composed, but it also carried a subtly murderous intent. "If I find out, I will personally execute them."
The sound of Takashi gulping echoed. Perhaps because he was the one receiving her murderous glare, he averted his eyes.
"Will we continue with the mission, or?" Umiko asked.
"We will continue, but keeping in mind that this might be classified as an S-Rank mission," she said.
"Yes!" Hearing this, they nodded firmly.
After that, Shiori took the package and went to the cabin.
A few minutes later, she returned. Approaching the hawk, she tied a scroll to its leg and made it fly towards Uzushiogakure.
"Yūgi, did you sense anything?" Shiori asked him.
"For now, everything is fine," Tanaka replied.
"Let me know if you discover anything," Shiori said. "I know you acted as you deemed necessary before, but I will trust you, so you also need to trust my leadership and inform me if you discover anything, okay?"
Nodding, he agreed. "I will do that."
Minutes later, the boat reached the shore.
When they disembarked, Tanaka didn't see any enemy forms nearby.
The Skipper from inside the boat: "Guys, have a safe journey, I will wait for you here."
- [You are being targeted by an overwhelming amount of bloodlust!]
Seeing this and noticing the increasing number of red dots on the map, Tanaka said in a grave tone, "We're surrounded!"
"I know." With so much murderous intent directed at them, even Shiori noticed.
The rest also went on high alert.
In an instant, the number of red dots on Tanaka's map surpassed 50.
"Someone really wants to see us dead," Shiori murmured with a controlled voice, but her eyes did not hide her murderous intent.
After all, no one would be happy to be ambushed by a group of ninjas in such a flashy manner, either for underestimating them too much or for coming in such a large group that it seemed they didn't want to give them any chance to escape.
"Kakaka!" One of them who got closer was wearing the standard ninja outfit of Sunagakure (Hidden Sand Village). Laughing, he said: "You are surrounded, surrender now or face certain death!"
"Hahaha, what are you saying, Taro?" Another one let out a malicious chuckle: "Surrender is not an option!"
"You're not wrong~!"
On another tree, another ninja appeared and asked mockingly: "Kekeke. Have you chosen your gravestone yet? Because we've already chosen where you'll be buried!"
Another one appeared next to this ninja, saying: "Are you already trembling? We haven't even started yet!"
"How about we start the countdown to your deaths?"
"Who will be the first to fall? Any volunteers?"
More and more ninjas were within less than 20 meters of them.
"What lovely targets you are! It will be a pleasure to take you down one by one."
"Haha, this will be the last day of your miserable lives!"
"Hmm... I will love to see the look of despair on your faces as you fall."
"Hehe... You should have stayed home, but since you're here, let's have some fun!"
"You bastards, keep saying whatever you want, but let's see whose burial it will really be, you motherfuckers!" Shiori spat in contempt.
"Wow, what a scary girl!" One of the Sunagakure ninjas pretended to tremble in fear and said mockingly: "Not really~ Let's end this quickly!"
"They are in great numbers..." Hisashi murmured.
"Do we still have a chance?" Takashi asked no one in particular.
Tanaka's eyes opened and closed. On the map, he saw 63 red dots and didn't know if there were even more at a distance.
'Do we still have a chance to survive?' He wondered.
Among them, the weakest was at the Chunin level, and there were several Jonin-level ones whose levels he couldn't see through.
- [You have gained 1 level in bloodlust detection.]
The range of bloodlust detection increased to 70 meters from his location.
- [You have gained 1 level in bloodlust detection.]
It didn't take long to increase to 80, but this didn't make him happy, it was like a constant reminder that he was being targeted by many ninjas at once.
If not for the mind of a gamer, he might be a little scared now, but even now, he was incredibly calm and rational.
"Stay behind me!" He shouted, not having time to explain. He simply murmured in his mind, making just the last hand seal of the 'Earth Style Wall', slamming his palm to the ground.
Sounds of stone walls rising echoed as a thin curtain of dust rose in the process.
The stone columns were raised to over 4 meters in height.
"Beng! Beng! Beng! ..."
Metallic sounds of kunai and shuriken echoed not long after.
"Very well, Yūgi." Shiori said while holding her halberd tightly: "Now, I'll go kill some of these motherfuckers, try not to die!"
||- Note -||