Naruto: Kushina's Redemption, My Revenge

Through the information fed back by his summoned snake, Chinya learned that at approximately forty meters away, a three-man scout team was conducting reconnaissance.

Chinya silently approached and located the trio.

One of them was a Sensor Ninja, eyes closed while performing sensory detection. The other two were guarding around him.

"Yajima, how is it? Did you sense anything?"

"I did, but something feels off."

"Off? How so?"

"I roughly sensed over two hundred Konoha ninja, but more than half of them feel really strange."

"Hmph! Over two hundred? How many reinforcements has Konoha sent to the Land of Hot Water?"

"It seems like Konoha plans to counterattack—they even brought in Orochimaru, the Sannin."

"Shouldn't we retreat and report this immediately?"

"Just wait a little longer. Let me try sensing again—the energy from those one hundred feels too odd."

Suddenly, Yajima shouted, "Watch out! Someone's approaching us!"

"You didn't notice me until I was this close? Your skills as a Sensor Ninja aren't impressive, Yajima."

Chinya appeared behind the three Cloud Ninja, hands flashing through seals rapidly.

[Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!]

Several snakes shot out from Chinya's sleeves, ambushing the Cloud Ninja. Their sharp fangs latched tightly onto the men's necks, injecting venom.

The poison took effect, paralyzing the three Cloud Ninja.

Chinya flipped his hand, grabbing a kunai and slitting each of their throats swiftly.

...

The Konoha force pressed forward with their advance.

They came under sporadic attack during their advance.

But Orochimaru and Jiraiya quickly dealt with the threats using their summoned beasts.

If a few got through, Orochimaru or Jiraiya took care of them before the enemy noticed anything unusual.

Meanwhile, Chinya remained active near the team, using summoned beasts to relay gathered intelligence directly to Orochimaru.

Orochimaru also intentionally allowed a few enemy ninja to escape, letting them carry false reports back.

As the front line moved forward, the Cloud Ninja stepped up their recon and harassment, growing bolder with each attempt.

However, as previously expected, the Cloud's actions focused entirely on scouting Konoha forces rather than engaging in direct confrontation.

After all, over two hundred Konoha shinobi were advancing openly.

If Cloud wanted a full-scale battle, they'd need to gather at least three hundred ninja.

And a battle involving hundreds would escalate into a small-scale war.

Cloud wasn't ready for an open war with Konoha, so launching a large-scale operation was out of the question.

Therefore, Cloud's current approach stayed cautious—relying mostly on scouting missions with light harassment to test Konoha's true strength.

As for Konoha's advancing frontline, Cloud paid it little attention.

Previously, they had driven Jiraiya's initial force of about 150 ninja back to defensive positions along the border. Confidently, they believed they could push this new group of two hundred back the same way.

They were certain that once the Konoha ninjas completed their frontline advance, they would split up to carry out separate missions. They couldn't stay clustered together forever.

Once the Konoha forces scattered, it would be the Cloud Ninjas' chance to strike.

...

The Konoha ninja advanced smoothly along the front line. Although the progress slowed as the distance increased, they kept moving forward steadily.

Night had already fallen.

Chinya had just assassinated a squad of Cloud Ninjas when a Ryuchi Cave snake found him.

"Lord Chinya, Lord Orochimaru has instructed you to regroup with the main force."

"I understand."

After delivering its message, the Ryuchi Cave snake vanished in a puff of smoke, returning to Ryuchi Cave.

Chinya wiped the blood off his ninja blade against the clean part of a dead enemy's shirt before sheathing it.

If Orochimaru wanted him to regroup with the main force, that meant the front line had successfully advanced ten kilometers.

Chinya immediately headed back to meet with the main force.

When Chinya rejoined them, Orochimaru gave him a slight nod.

The smooth advancement of the front line owed much to Chinya's efforts.

By constantly relaying intelligence from the battlefield, Chinya had allowed Orochimaru to avoid areas with high concentrations of Cloud Ninjas and take detours accordingly.

Orochimaru looked at the more than two hundred ninjas before him and said, "Half of you will continue using Shadow Clones, and the other half should dismiss your Bunshin to rest and recover chakra. We'll switch roles in two hours.

Additionally, ninjas dismissing their Bunshin must each receive a summoning scroll containing wire strings and explosive tags from myself or Jiraiya, then set traps around the perimeter!"

Half the ninjas dismissed their Bunshin, then collected scrolls from Orochimaru and Jiraiya before starting to lay traps around the area.

Chinya also took some scrolls, but instead of setting traps, he sat by a tree to rest.

After all, he had been carrying out independent missions since the front line began advancing—fighting continuously until now—so such tasks weren't his responsibility anymore.

He'd taken the scrolls simply because he was running low on explosive tags, so he wanted to stock up.

Orochimaru specially gave Chinya extra provisions—three scrolls filled with explosive tags.

Each scroll held one hundred explosive tags, totaling three hundred across all three.

After finishing his task assignments, Orochimaru walked over to Chinya and said, "Good work."

Chinya glanced at Orochimaru and replied, "Not a big deal. Nothing too tough. The enemy scouts weren't particularly strong. I'm glad our plan is proceeding so smoothly."

Orochimaru nodded, "Things should get somewhat easier from now on. Although the Cloud Ninja will eventually sense something amiss and certainly organize forces to attack us, they won't dare engage directly without knowing our true strength.

From now on, we'll rely mainly on these traps, fight while retreating cautiously, and wait for reinforcements from Konoha to arrive. Just stick with the main group for now and get some rest."

Chinya nodded and answered, "Understood, Teacher Orochimaru."

"You should rest well. We might be staying here for several days."

After saying that, Orochimaru turned around and left to discuss the upcoming strategy with Jiraiya.

After setting traps around the area, they built many tents as well.

After all, they needed to act the part completely; 200 ninjas couldn't possibly live in only a few tents.

The longer it took for the Cloud Ninja to sense something wrong, the better it would be for them.

Once the tents were set up, Chinya chose one and went straight in. He sat down on the ground, leaning back against the tent pole to rest, waiting for the morning to come.

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