Naruto: Hyuga Warlord

In short, Hyuga Soushu's strategy was to lure enemies from afar, using the already nervous watchpost guards as bait. It wasn't a particularly clever tactic, and it even went against the Will of Fire by putting friendly forces at risk.

Yet everyone, including Maruboshi Kosuke, had no objections—because this seemingly ordinary plan was actually the only viable option under current circumstances.

Previously, elite Jonin like Shirakawa Namiko and Yechame Hamako had considered similar luring tactics. However, due to limited sensor range among their reconnaissance ninja, they'd been forced to set up ambushes closer to enemy territory. And in order to maintain full coverage, they spread too many watchposts around the camp perimeter, making it impossible to monitor them all simultaneously.

As a result, the ambush failed—not only that, but redirecting personnel left one sector dangerously exposed. The enemy seized this opportunity for a counterattack, destroying seven watchposts in one night.

After this incident, Shirakawa Namiko realized these mysterious enemies—whoever they were—possessed extremely strong reconnaissance and counter-surveillance capabilities. Relying solely on the Western Border Force's intelligence network wouldn't be enough to detect such elusive foes.

As for replacing the watchpost guards with Jonin, aside from whether there were even enough Jonin to do so, those unidentified infiltrators weren't foolish either—they'd never approached the more heavily guarded posts in the first place.

But now, with most outer watchposts already eliminated, combined with Hyuga Soushu's Byakugan providing just the right observation distance—not too close to risk discovery, nor too far to prevent timely response—replacing a group of cowardly recruits as bait would allow Soushu to track enemies remotely in layers, just like a surveillance chain.

Inside the main camp, Yechame Hamako personally led an elite strike force—including Yamanaka Toshimichi and Mitotou Takahiro—for immediate deployment once Hyuga Soushu confirmed enemy positions.

Whether the enemies sensed something off about the camp or not remains unknown. But on the very first night Soushu and Uchiha Mahiru left camp to lie in wait, the Western Border Force headquarters suffered its first attack at dawn!

It was nothing more than several kunai with explosive tags thrown from an unknown direction, yet it threw the entire camp into chaos overnight.

Fortunately, the experienced Shirakawa Namiko quickly regained control of the situation without rashly deploying the strike force. After calming the commotion within the camp, he merely borrowed a few Jonin from other squads for a token patrol before returning to reinforce the base.

Additionally, Shirakawa Namiko intentionally released several ninja hawks flying toward Konoha's direction, deliberately giving the impression that the camp had run out of ideas and was now begging for reinforcements.

Meanwhile, though hearing the noise coming from the camp while hiding inside the preset ice cellar, Hyuga Soushu remained completely unmoved. Still embracing Uchiha Mahiru to share body warmth, he activated his [Byakugan] every three hours to monitor the decoy watchposts and spot the slightest movement in the surrounding area.

The reason he activated his Byakugan every three hours was because the Watchtower Totem accessory attached to Soushu Hyuga's Weapon Master System interface had also been placed around the decoy watchpost to provide vision. According to his current hero level, the Watchtower Totem lasted one hour after manifestation, had a two-hour cooldown period, and allowed a maximum of two at any given time. Therefore, the one-hour gap between placements forced Soushu Hyuga to keep his Byakugan active for surveillance.

He and Mahiru Uchiha had incredible patience, especially when using boring bait tactics—waiting quietly until their target took the lure.

It was not until late into the night that Soushu Hyuga, growing slightly drowsy, took out an anti-fatigue secret medicinal potion from his ninja tool pouch and swallowed it. He also popped a Military Rations Pill into Mahiru Uchiha's mouth who was already dozing off.

To avoid detection, the pair didn't light a fire or use chakra to stay warm—they relied solely on each other's body heat to fight off the cold everywhere around them. Thus, when Soushu Hyuga's fingers touched the girl's lips, he felt how familiar fiery lips once felt icy cold now.

"Hmm!"

The sudden temperature shift of Soushu's fingertips instantly woke up drowsy Mahiru Uchiha while the foreign object—the Military Rations Pill—triggered an automatic reaction in her throat, causing her lips to instinctively close around Soushu Hyuga's finger.

"Ewwww!"

Yet once fully awake, Mahiru Uchiha's cheeks flushed crimson as she spat out the finger repeatedly with "eww!" sounds before weakly pounding Soushu Hyuga's chest in embarrassment. Though no longer possessing the strength to smash rocks or crack iron.

Though they'd silently become a couple without officially setting any boundaries—and hadn't crossed that final line yet, mostly because they kept getting sent out on missions—their relationship had already broken plenty of other limits long before that.

Naturally, such unintentional intimacy caused Mahiru Uchiha's thoughts to run wild momentarily.

"Soushu-kun..."

Mahiru's voice became seductive and sticky.

Admittedly, theoretically speaking, the icy snowy environment wasn't exactly suitable for intimate moments—but people sometimes get spontaneous urges that come out of nowhere anyway.

Moreover, Mahiru Uchiha, having experienced these pleasures intimately, was still in the honeymoon phase of new love and occasionally interested in experimenting with fresh experiences.

"Shh!"

A sudden movement caught Soushu Hyuga's eye within the scope provided by his Watchtower Totem.

[Byakugan!]

Instantly, he activated his Byakugan to scan and identify what he had just seen!

Understanding his signal immediately, Mahiru Uchiha gripped the hilt at her waist tightly and swiftly cleared her mind, adjusting her breathing rhythm.

"It should be puppets."

Through his Byakugan, Soushu confirmed spotting a snake-shaped construct creeping slowly toward the direction of the watchpost—it emitted no heat signature. Although his telescope-like Byakugan could not penetrate the construct's outer shell to verify if it was truly a puppet, tracing the chakra threads connected to and extending from its body led him to discover three ninja hiding about one kilometer away within the snow near the watchpost.

Although they wore nothing identifiable like forehead protectors to reveal their affiliations, from the mere application of Puppet Technique alone, it was clear enough: this must be Sand's infiltration unit!

"Get ready."

Hyuga Soushu patted Mahiru Uchiha's shoulder and completed his crouch-to-stand motion as the girl rose. Together, they carefully made their way out of the ice cellar, guided by the Byakugan toward the hiding spot of three Sunagakure ninja.

"Hisss!"

Under the control of the Sunagakure ninja, the serpentine puppet began spraying a colorless, odorless gas toward the watchpost.

Inside the watchpost, Konoha ninja were nervously observing the outside situation without apparent awareness. But from Soushu's Byakugan perspective, their mental condition visibly deteriorated at an alarming rate.

Yet these stationed Konoha ninja seemed oblivious to their own conditions, even though they could clearly see each other.

Perhaps because of this gas characteristic, so many watchposts had been silently eliminated.

"Take them down now!"

Unable to identify the type of gas being released due to his lack of expertise in toxins or pharmacology, Soushu decided it was best to act quickly—closing within five hundred meters before standing straight and activating the Shifting Body Technique to strike toward the Suna ninja position.

Mahiru Uchiha followed closely behind, already pulling out a flare gun and holding it ready for emergencies.

Unexpectedly, whether because the three Suna ninja were too focused or not, they only noticed Soushu when he closed within five hundred meters.

"Intruder attack!"

The Suna ninja immediately abandoned controlling their serpentine puppet, scrambling to climb out from the snow.

Meanwhile, watchpost guards finally noticed the nearby anomaly, shooting a signal flare skyward before abandoning their post and fleeing desperately toward the main camp.

Although the Suna ninja responded by now, it was already too late.

[Counter Storm!]

[Jumping Slash!]

Activated with skill enhancements, Soushu erupted like thunderclap into the Suna positions. With a powerful leap and swirling wind current, he executed Jumping Slash on the first enemy ninja—instantly obliterating his head. He then swept sideways, sending the second flying, before delivering a powerful kick to the chest of the third opponent and driving him to the ground!

"Not good!"

Though successfully killing enemies, Soushu's expression suddenly changed dramatically!

Through his vision, he clearly saw something resembling an electrical wire extending from beneath that decapitated enemy's foot into underground.

Additionally, despite scattered flesh and blood after elimination, closer observation revealed these fragments lacked living body temperature. More importantly, his System template showed no reaction whatsoever!

"It's a setup!"

Without hesitation, Soushu turned and wrapped his arm around Mahiru's waist while activating summoner skill:

[Flash!]

Almost simultaneously with skill activation, the three fallen bodies suddenly expanded and exploded.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The violent explosion formed a small mushroom cloud. The powerful shockwave even staggered Soushu who barely escaped the explosion center, nearly knocking him off his feet.

Without the Flash skill, that single blast could have easily killed him or left him severely injured.

Such a massive commotion meant the main camp knew something had happened, even without receiving the designated signal.

Soon after, a group of ninjas instantly flickered out from the main camp, rushing toward the explosion site.

Hyuga Soushu, somewhat disheveled, turned his head and focused his gaze, only to notice two figures darting up from the opposite side of the blast zone, fleeing northward.

"Now that's intriguing!"

Soushu's mind quickly pieced things together.

These two must have been using Physical Threads to control three puppets, which in turn manipulated the frontline serpentine puppet with nearly invisible chakra threads. At the same time, Explosive Tags or similar detonation devices had been installed on the puppets controlled by the Physical Threads. This layered, nested approach was extremely complex and demanded extraordinary skill from the puppet master. It effectively closed the distance while catching unawares any ninja who detected the puppets' presence—an intricate and thoughtful approach indeed!

It was like the difference between wired guidance and wireless guidance back in another life. Although wired guidance had many disadvantages, it still held certain comparative advantages in precision and resistance to interference.

Moreover, when Soushu previously used the Byakugan's long-range vision to monitor the watchpost area, because of the great distance, he could only detect the existence of these wire-controlled puppets but couldn't see through their shells to observe the internal chakra circulation. Hence, a small margin of error unexpectedly slipped through.

However, the two people now fleeing the explosion site appeared to include someone with red hair.

"Pursue them!"

Mahiru Uchiha was the first to activate her Shifting Body Technique, chasing after them.

"They must be eliminated!"

Any hesitation that remained within Soushu vanished immediately.

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