Chapter 243:
"What's wrong, Naruto?"
Hearing the voice from behind, Naruto turned his head and said, "Oh, it's you, Sasuke. Actually, this is intel sent back by Master Jiraiya."
Naruto handed a slip of paper to Sasuke. Beside Naruto's feet squatted a small frog.
"…S.H.I.E.L.D.'s objective is probably to cut off our hope of requesting reinforcements from other villages."
Just one glance, and Sasuke immediately deduced the conclusion.
Directly across from Naruto's temporary base—forming a pincer attack on Konoha with his position—were Kankuro from the Land of Wind, Kitsuchi from the Land of Earth, and Killer Bee from the Land of Lightning.
"Konoha is just ahead. Let's start searching for Naruto's tracks from here. Everyone, stay alert."
Kankuro spoke sternly to Kitsuchi and Killer Bee beside him.
After receiving the mission intel, Kankuro had already prepared himself for the possibility of failure—or even the likelihood of not making it back alive.
After all, they were dealing with S.H.I.E.L.D., an organization powerful enough to force Naruto to voluntarily abandon his village. Operating near Konoha, now under full S.H.I.E.L.D. control, was an extremely dangerous move.
"Mm."
The large, clumsy-faced Kitsuchi squinted and nodded.
"Dangerous Konoha Village, people dying nearby—but even so, no matter what, Uzumaki Naruto, I'll protect you, yeah!"
Killer Bee waved his fingers, rapping horribly.
Neither Kitsuchi nor Killer Bee showed any trace of tension on their faces.
"Kitsuchi, how was my rap just now?"
Killer Bee asked Kitsuchi.
"It was great, really catchy," Kitsuchi replied with a smile.
"Was it?! I knew it! I'm a rap genius! Oh yeah!"
Kankuro, walking in front, glanced back at the two behind him, his face full of despair as he muttered, "Gaara… I might not make it back…"
Konoha Village.
Unlike the other ninjas who were restrained with chakra-monitoring collars, Rock Lee was the only ninja in Konoha who still retained combat capabilities. To limit him, the method used by Clone Gray Wolf was to assign a liquid robot that followed him at all times. If Rock Lee ever left its line of sight, a Konoha villager would be executed.
"So this is… Konoha?"
Walking along the street, Rock Lee noted that it had been exactly one week since S.H.I.E.L.D. had officially taken over the village. During this time, under the command of Clone Gray Wolf, Konoha had been completely automated.
Robots were working everywhere.
The current Eighth Hokage of Konoha was not Clone Gray Wolf, nor Jiraiya using Red Wolf's body, and certainly not Tsunade, who had become a prisoner. It was the artificial intelligence known as Skynet.
Using blueprints provided by Shunhi, Clone Gray Wolf developed Skynet—an AI not only capable of handling administrative tasks with extreme efficiency but also able to monitor every corner of Konoha 24/7 and continuously produce liquid robots on an automated assembly line.
With that done, Clone Gray Wolf finally had some rare free time to spend with his wife.
Sitting on the lawn with Red Wolf, Clone Gray Wolf watched the lively, hopping Little Gray with contentment.
Though he had set it up to mimic their actual child, Clone Gray Wolf knew well—this wasn't really their son. It was merely a tool he created to help Red Wolf recover her memory.
He did worry a bit about how the real Little Gray was faring without them, but Clone Gray Wolf believed the Sheep Village would take good care of him. All he hoped was that when he and Red Wolf returned, Little Gray hadn't turned fully into a sheep.
That's right—Clone Gray Wolf still longed to return to the Green Grassland, to their Wolf Castle, and to Pleasant Goat.
Even though he could eat lamb whenever he wanted here, the Grassland was still his home. But every time he saw Red Wolf happily enjoying her meat, he couldn't bear to ask her to go back to a life of eating frogs.
Moreover, although Red Wolf's attitude toward him had improved and she'd accepted she was his wife, she hadn't yet remembered their life on the Grassland.
"What's wrong?"
Jiraiya, who had been quietly observing Clone Gray Wolf in hopes of stealing more intel, suddenly asked.
"It's nothing, honey…" Clone Gray Wolf shook his head, then hesitated as he looked at Red Wolf beside him. "Honey, do you like the current life of eating lamb every day?"
Jiraiya looked at Clone Gray Wolf. Though he couldn't figure out the real reason for this question, he nodded and replied straightforwardly, "Yeah, I like it. Why?"
"That's good… as long as you're happy. Actually, I like this life too—being able to eat lamb every day…"
Clone Gray Wolf lay back on the lawn, gazing up at the sky.
...
Outside Konoha.
Naruto's temporary base.
"Sasuke, how many does that make?"
Naruto asked.
"The thirty-third one…"
Sasuke wiped the sweat from his forehead as he looked down at Minato Namikaze's body, which was gradually revealing its true liquid robot form.
"It feels like the number of liquid robots searching for us has increased lately."
Shikamaru commented from the side.
In the past week, the number of liquid robots had clearly surged. As Jiraiya's intel described, all of them were disguised as people familiar to the group.
Some were even long deceased—Minato Namikaze, Kushina Uzumaki, Jiraiya, Itachi Uchiha, and others.
"At this rate, it's only a matter of time before this location is discovered."
Chōjūrō walked out of the cave and said.
"Yeah, it looks like we have to accelerate the plan to take back Konoha."
Shikamaru agreed.
"But before that, we have to find the Konoha villagers imprisoned by S.H.I.E.L.D.," Naruto added. "We can rebuild the village if it's destroyed, but if the villagers are gone… then it's truly over."
"But Naruto, we can't guarantee that none of them are liquid robots."
Shikamaru voiced his concern. If, after barely overcoming this crisis, they accidentally brought a liquid robot back into their midst and handed Konoha back to S.H.I.E.L.D., Shikamaru's mental state would completely collapse.
"Well…"
Naruto faltered.
Previously, they could distinguish between real people and liquid robots by checking if they could use ninjutsu. But with Little Gray now capable of using ninjutsu, that method no longer worked.