Chapter 39: This Dog Doesn’t Know How, What to Do Now
Wind Country, Desert Zone.
Yellow sand raged violently as Su Xiao and his group of five had already left the Sand Hidden Village area.
The reason there were five was because the team now included one prisoner and one Sand Shinobi. The Sand Shinobi was Yura, a spy for Scorpion.
At this moment, Bubu Wang was carrying the half-dead Gaara. Gaara’s breathing grew weaker and weaker, and the Shukaku inside him was also listless and sluggish.
“This guy isn’t going to die, is he?”
Deidara reached out his hand to probe Gaara’s neck, checking if Gaara still had a pulse.
“You hit too hard, Bai Ye.”
Scorpion also felt Gaara was about to kick the bucket.
Su Xiao signaled Bubu Wang to stop. To be honest, he also felt Gaara would die on the road. The Devouring Core was simply too violent.
After hesitating for a moment, Su Xiao took out a bottle of low-grade Alchemy Secret Medicine. This thing was cheap to make and restored a small amount of Health Points.
He didn’t know if the potion certified by Reincarnation Paradise would work on plot characters. Now he could only give it a try.
Opening the bottle of low-grade Alchemy Secret Medicine, Su Xiao took out a syringe, drew the liquid into it, and then performed an intravenous injection on Gaara. Since Gaara couldn’t drink medicine in his current state, this was the only option.
As the potion was injected into Gaara’s body, Gaara’s body suddenly twitched. Su Xiao immediately grabbed Gaara’s throat.
After more than ten seconds, Gaara’s breathing stabilized a bit, no longer as faint as before.
“That should keep him from dying for now.”
Su Xiao tossed aside the used syringe. The experiment proved that potions certified by Paradise were effective on plot characters.
“You know medical ninjutsu too?”
Deidara was somewhat surprised.
“A little.”
After the injection, Gaara, who had been in a coma, slowly woke up. He was tightly bound by Realm Severing Thread, and with his current weakened body, he couldn’t resist.
Ignoring Gaara, Su Xiao walked over to Yura, patted Yura on the shoulder, and said with a smile:
“You helped a lot when we infiltrated the Sand Hidden Village earlier.”
Hearing Su Xiao’s praise, Yura gave a polite smile.
“You flatter me, Lord Bai Ye. It was my duty.”
“Mm, good work.”
As he spoke, a dagger slid out of Su Xiao’s sleeve, and a flash of white light passed before Yura’s eyes.
Pfft!
Blood splattered onto the yellow sand. Yura’s eyes bulged wide, and a deep cut appeared on his throat.
Yura covered his throat with both hands, blood spurting through his fingers. His body staggered, and a gurgling sound came from the wound.
“Why… why?”
Yura didn’t understand. He was clearly Scorpion’s subordinate, yet this man had slit his throat.
Yura stumbled back two steps and looked to Scorpion for help.
“Lord Scorpion… save me.”
But when Yura saw Scorpion, he was utterly despairing. The Hiruko remained motionless.
“What tenacious vitality.”
Noticing that Yura wouldn’t die anytime soon, Su Xiao stepped forward and slashed at Yura’s neck again. This time, Yura fell face-first to the ground, kicked his legs once, and croaked~
Su Xiao took out a white cloth to wipe the blood from his hands.
One thing was strange: killing Yura didn’t trigger a kill notification. This wasn’t the first time this had happened. When he killed Sand Shinobi earlier, there was also no kill notification.
Not only was there no kill notification, but killing enemies also didn’t reward World Source.
Su Xiao immediately consulted Reincarnation Paradise, and Reincarnation Paradise gave an explanation.
[Hunter is participating in a large-scale plot event (One-Tail Capture Battle). Rewards will be distributed uniformly after the event concludes.]
Su Xiao understood what was going on. It turned out that capturing the One-Tail was a plot event. He didn’t expect to run into such good fortune.
Plot events were very rare and could rival war missions. Rewards were calculated and distributed at the end.
Su Xiao asked when the plot event would end. He had already successfully captured the One-Tail. Reincarnation Paradise’s reply was: shake off all pursuers.
Now Su Xiao had a clear goal. He had thought that just capturing the Jinchuriki would be enough, but it seemed capturing the Jinchuriki was only the beginning.
If it were Su Xiao before capturing the Jinchuriki, he might not have been able to handle the current situation. But now it was different. Lv.20 Azure Steel Shadow had undergone a qualitative change! Even if he fought against Kakashi or Chiyo, he would have a fighting chance. The new ability unlocked at Lv.20 Azure Steel Shadow perfectly compensated for one of his weaknesses.
Gaara had witnessed Su Xiao killing Yura from start to finish. At this moment, Gaara clearly realized that his life was about to end. Such a ruthless enemy wouldn’t give him any chance.
“The Jinchuriki is awake.”
Deidara glanced lazily at Gaara. The previous battle had tired him out, and besides, he was injured.
“Cut off his limbs. As long as he doesn’t die, it’s fine.”
Scorpion controlled Hiruko to step forward.
“Wait. Cutting off his limbs would probably kill him.”
Su Xiao stopped Scorpion. Gaara secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Although he wasn’t afraid of death, he didn’t want his limbs cut off either.
Just as Gaara relaxed, he felt a slight sting in his spine, followed by a warm sensation, and finally numbness.
“That should do it.”
Su Xiao tossed aside the syringe in his hand. Gaara had been injected with an anesthetic—enough anesthetic to knock out a rhinoceros.
“Where’s our destination?”
Among the three, only Scorpion knew the rendezvous point.
“River Country, Kawarazu Valley…”
Scorpion stopped mid-sentence and turned to look behind him. Su Xiao and Deidara did the same.
“Oh~, they still have the strength to pursue after taking the Eighteen Arts?”
Deidara scoffed lightly. He hadn’t expected the Sand Shinobi to be so tenacious.
“Leave it to me. We’ll meet up in River Country later.”
Scorpion stood still. Su Xiao and Deidara turned and walked out of the desert. By now, they had reached the edge of the desert.
Su Xiao and the other were responsible for capturing the Jinchuriki, while Scorpion would hold the rear. This had been agreed upon earlier.
……
Su Xiao and Deidara traveled on foot. A day later, they arrived in River Country and waited at a temporary hideout of the Akatsuki there.
To call it a temporary hideout was generous; it was just a few large rocks.
“Brother Scorpion is a bit slow. That’s rare. Could it be…”
Deidara suspected Scorpion was already dead. Su Xiao sat on a large rock, smoking, and said nothing.
Click, crack. The sound of hard wood rubbing came.
“The pursuers are dealt with? Looks like the Sand Hidden Village sent quite a few people.”
Su Xiao flicked away the cigarette butt between his fingers. Scorpion had arrived.
At this moment, the Hiruko was covered in scars, and the Akatsuki cloak was somewhat tattered.
“The Sand Hidden Village mobilized almost everyone.”
Su Xiao wasn’t surprised by this result. After what happened, it would be strange if the Sand Hidden Village wasn’t provoked.
“They’ll keep chasing us. We need to hurry.”
The three continued on their way. Before long, a swift river blocked their path.
On both sides of the river were dark red rock walls. On the opposite rock wall was a frame made of red rocks, and behind the frame, the rock wall bore the character ‘Forbidden.’
Deidara and Scorpion jumped down from the rock wall and stepped onto the water’s surface. On the riverbank, Su Xiao and Bubu Wang exchanged a glance.
Bubu Wang’s look clearly said: ‘Master, what do we do? This dog knows how to swim, but walking on water is impossible. Would swimming across be a bit embarrassing?’
Su Xiao also didn’t know how to walk on water. If he jumped into the water now, he’d be exposed. He simply didn’t have chakra energy in his body.
Reincarnation Paradise could disguise his abilities, that was true, but overly obvious things couldn’t be erased. He had to figure it out himself.
A ‘ninja’ capable of capturing the One-Tail not knowing how to walk on water was simply absurd.
Rumble.
The rock wall on the opposite side of the river opened, revealing a pitch-black cave entrance.
Su Xiao and Bubu Wang leaped at the same time, clearing the river and landing on the flat ground in front of the cave. Scorpion and Deidara didn’t notice anything unusual.