Chapter 8: Extremely Vengeful
After Su Xiao blasted a taijutsu-specialist jonin to death with one shot, the ninjas pursuing him instinctively slowed their pace and quickly spread out.
Shifting the gun barrel, Su Xiao's second target was Ao. With that guy's Byakugan, there was no way he could escape.
Bang.
The bullet left the barrel, flying toward Ao at high speed.
Ao stopped chasing at that moment. His Byakugan detected that Su Xiao had aimed at him. Though he didn't know what kind of weapon it was, he knew it was dangerous.
Ao dove straight to the ground. The bullet grazed just over his head, carving a groove into his spiky hairstyle.
Lying on the ground, Ao swallowed hard. He had nearly had his skull shattered just now. He immediately realized that continuing this pursuit wouldn't work.
"Stop."
Bang.
Another shot rang out, still aimed at Ao.
By now, Bubu Wang was sprinting at high speed, having already put some distance between himself and Ao. Plus, since Su Xiao was using iron sights, this bullet only grazed past Ao's arm.
Bang, bang, bang…
Su Xiao didn't care about wasting bullets. He had to kill Ao.
After firing seven consecutive shots, Ao, who had been dodging frantically, finally got hit. One of his legs exploded.
Just as Su Xiao had guessed, the physical durability of strong individuals in the Naruto world wasn't high, especially for Ao, a jonin who was also a sensory type.
With Ao's leg broken, Bubu Wang had already run over a hundred meters away.
At that distance, hitting an enemy with iron sights was impossible. Su Xiao decisively activated the "Optical Infrared Detection Scope 8x (Active)."
Click, click, whirr~
The Optical Infrared Detection Scope extended from the Spider Queen's gun body. Su Xiao aligned the crosshairs with Ao, who was lying on the ground in the distance. Because Bubu Wang was running at high speed, the scope was a bit shaky.
He pulled the trigger. Bang.
Through the scope, Su Xiao saw dirt splash up beside Ao. The bullet had hit the ground.
Ao now had one leg broken, severed at the knee with a jagged fracture. With an injury like that, dodging bullets was impossible.
The ninjas pursuing Su Xiao were stunned by the gunfire. They had never seen firearms before.
Bang, bang.
Su Xiao locked onto Ao. Earlier, Terumi Mei had been using him all along—it would be too much of a loss not to leave her a little "gift."
After firing five more shots, Ao's head burst open like a watermelon through the scope. A tattered Byakugan fell to the ground.
[You have killed Kirigakure Jonin · Ao]
[Ao was a Kirigakure Jonin. Obtained World Source 3.2%. Total World Source obtained: 5.3%.]
…
A smile appeared on Su Xiao's face. The Terumi Mei he had seen was the real Terumi Mei—a woman capable of bearing the title of Mizukage. What he had seen from the anime was only the tip of the iceberg of her personality.
Any ninja who could be called a Kage had a complicated mind.
First, understand what a ninja village is. A ninja village is the military force of a major nation. The Kage is the leader of the village, meaning someone who controls a nation's military power. Would such a person be simple-minded?
A simple-minded person couldn't become a Kage. The other ninjas in the village wouldn't allow it, nor would the rulers of the major nations.
Of course, there were exceptions. If someone possessed overwhelming power and also had an equally strong best friend, becoming a Kage was something no one could object to.
The pursuit continued, but after Su Xiao killed two people in a row, the Kirigakure ninjas behind him noticeably slowed down. They all realized that chasing like this wasn't working.
"Notify the assassination squad."
One jonin's suggestion was accepted by the other ninjas. They all stopped.
They weren't giving up the chase; they were letting a unit more skilled in tracking take over the pursuit of Su Xiao.
The Kirigakure ninjas gave up, but Su Xiao didn't stop shooting.
Aiming at a Kirigakure ninja's head, Su Xiao pulled the trigger.
Bang.
That ninja's head exploded. He was a chunin, probably too weak to yield any World Source.
Ninjas were hard to deal with at mid-range. Most jutsu were released at close to mid-range. During the pursuit, these ninjas had used at least dozens of jutsu. If Bubu Wang hadn't been fast enough, Su Xiao would have been caught.
The enemies behind him gradually disappeared from sight. Su Xiao put away the Spider Queen. Blood dripped down his arm. A long needle had pierced through it—something called a senbon in this world.
His head felt dizzy. No need to guess—the senbon was poisoned.
After Bubu Wang ran wildly for half an hour, he stopped in a sparse forest.
Jumping off Bubu Wang's back, Su Xiao took off his shirt and cleaned the wound as quickly as possible. As for the poison in his body, it had already been devoured by the Azure Steel Shadow energy.
Though he had escaped Kirigakure, Su Xiao was badly injured. The earlier close-range detonation of the alchemy bomb had damaged his internal organs, and then the Kirigakure ninjas had chased him.
He might have been a bit battered, but he had escaped Kirigakure.
Keep running? Of course not. Being chased this badly, it would be too much of a loss not to leave something behind for Kirigakure. Besides, running like this would get him hunted to death. He needed to mislead the Kirigakure ninjas' judgment.
After treating the wound, Su Xiao cleaned up the bloodstains on the ground.
"Go back."
Hearing Su Xiao's words, Bubu Wang was a bit surprised. Shouldn't they be fleeing immediately in this situation?
That wasn't the case. Although Su Xiao had escaped Kirigakure, the village would definitely send people to continue hunting him.
Instead of waiting to be hunted, Su Xiao would take the initiative. He would hit Kirigakure with a counterattack, making them unsure whether he had fled or was still lurking near the village.
Though going against an entire ninja village alone was somewhat insane, he had one thing that ninjas couldn't match: the ability to kill from ultra-long range.
The purple-quality sniper rifle, Spider Queen, had a maximum effective range of 2.36 kilometers. Su Xiao's sniping skills weren't great, but the Spider Queen was very advanced. It could automatically calculate wind speed, air humidity, and so on. Su Xiao could reliably kill enemies from 1.5 kilometers away.
That distance was exaggerated, but that was the power of a purple-quality piece of equipment.
Mounting Bubu Wang, Su Xiao moved closer to Kirigakure.
The outskirts of Kirigakure had guards. Based on Su Xiao's observations, the guards around the village were only a few hundred meters away from it. He could bypass these guards and snipe people inside the village.
…
A few hours later, Bubu Wang arrived at a position one kilometer from Kirigakure. During that time, he had evaded many ninja patrols.
Su Xiao rode Bubu Wang in circles around Kirigakure, looking for advantageous terrain.
Inside Kirigakure, they were dealing with the buildings Su Xiao had blown up and handling the aftermath.
Terumi Mei directed things methodically, while also laying out plans for what came next, including sending people to hunt down Su Xiao.
Though her expression was calm, Terumi Mei's fists were clenched inside her sleeves. Her most capable assistant, Ao, was dead. It made her heart bleed with grief, but she didn't show it.
In all of Kirigakure, Ao's reconnaissance abilities were top-notch. Moreover, Ao was loyal to Terumi Mei, and loyalty was something that couldn't be bought with anything.
"Elder Keisuke, I'll handle the aftermath of this matter. The security around the village is your responsibility."
Hearing Terumi Mei's words, an elderly ninja was stunned. He was a core figure of the hawk faction, in an "adversarial" relationship with Terumi Mei.
"This…"
Elder Keisuke couldn't understand. Terumi Mei was willing to hand over such an important post?
"We are all Kirigakure ninjas. Now that a villain is trying to destroy the village, internal conflicts should be set aside for now."
"Hmm, well said."
Elder Keisuke led several ninjas behind him and quickly walked toward the village's edge. After taking just two steps, the sensory-type ninja beside him tackled him to the ground.
With a crack, a fist-sized crater exploded in the dirt.
"Enemy attack!"
The surrounding ninjas immediately assumed combat stances, but after a long period of vigilance, everything was dead silent. They didn't even know where the enemy was.