Chapter 200: Sabotage, The One Behind the Scenes
At this point, in Sunagakure's rear lines, any unit traveling between the village and the front-line camps—unless they had a special mission or exceptional confidence in their strength—was required to move in formations of at least a full company.
It was a forced adaptation.
Taichi's constant harassment had made smaller teams too vulnerable. Though this slowed logistics and strained supplies, it was still safer than risking repeated losses.
Compared to efficiency, Sunagakure's leadership chose survival.
Right now, Taichi lay hidden, his chakra perception locked onto a distant supply convoy.
After so many encounters, Sunagakure had a rough understanding of his abilities—especially his sensing range, about two kilometers. The closer something was, the clearer his perception became… but the easier it was for other sensory ninjas to detect him in return.
So now, Taichi no longer dared to release his perception freely.
He carefully controlled its range and intensity, adjusting it like a finely tuned instrument. One mistake, and he'd be exposed.
As the convoy brushed the edge of his sensing range, he sharpened his focus, moving ahead of their path while gradually weakening his detection output.
Once they entered visual range, he shut down his sensing entirely, relying only on peripheral vision.
Nearly a hundred escorting shinobi.
A long caravan of camels carrying supplies.
A tight formation—front, center, rear, and both flanks guarded.
And most troublesome of all…
Their movement pattern.
A zigzag route.
It lengthened their travel time but made ambushes far more difficult—specifically designed to counter Taichi's tactics of hiding beneath the sand or using pre-planted Flying Thunder God markers.
But if they had their strategies—
So did he.
From the sand, a small desert lizard—barely thirty centimeters long—scurried forward, a Flying Thunder God formula tied around its waist.
This was one of Taichi's recent innovations.
Using genjutsu to implant simple commands into animals, guiding them along predetermined paths.
Ironically, controlling low-intelligence creatures like reptiles was harder than controlling humans. It had taken him multiple failed attempts to refine this method.
Genjutsu: Intent-Guided Movement.
And today was its first successful field test.
The lizard crept forward.
40 meters.
Taichi tracked every movement.
30 meters.
His gaze subtly shifted toward its path.
20 meters.
He rose slowly, drawing his short blade.
10 meters—
A kunai whistled through the air and pinned the lizard's head to the sand, killing it instantly.
"Chiya, check that out," a voice ordered. "That lizard ran straight at us from far away. Something's off."
"Understood, Captain."
Taichi narrowed his eyes.
Sharp.
Even such a minor anomaly had triggered suspicion. His technique still needed refinement.
But…
This distance was already enough.
Chiya approached the corpse. The moment he saw the formula tied to its body, his pupils shrank. He opened his mouth to shout a warning—
Too late.
A short blade pierced straight through his chest.
A gentle push—
He fell backward, lifeless.
"Enemy attack!"
The shout rang across the formation.
At the same time, Taichi completed his hand seals.
A massive, golden fire dragon erupted from his mouth, surging into the convoy like a living thing. It twisted violently, sweeping across the formation.
Chaos exploded instantly.
Shinobi stumbled, formations broke—but to their relief, casualties were minimal. Most had escaped serious harm.
"Idiots! The supplies—put out the fire!"
Watching from afar, Taichi almost laughed.
That was the real target.
And he had no intention of letting them save it so easily.
In a flash, he was among them.
Blade blazing with golden flames, he cut left and right. Against mostly chūnin-level opponents, resistance was meaningless. Without chakra-enhanced weapons, their defenses shattered—some split cleanly in two, others left maimed.
Within seconds, no one dared approach him.
Until a jōnin stepped in.
Even then, the man could barely hold on.
"You fools! Use ranged ninjutsu!" the jōnin shouted.
"Oh? Still talking?" Taichi smirked, his attacks quickening.
The jōnin fell silent instantly, forced to focus entirely on survival.
Wind bullets, wind blades—ranged attacks began pouring in. They were careful not to hit their ally, but the pressure increased.
Taichi glanced around, unimpressed.
"Child's play."
With one hand seal, fireballs formed around him, intercepting the incoming attacks. Explosions flared, scattering brilliant golden flames across the battlefield.
These weren't ordinary flames.
Even on bare sand, they burned fiercely until their chakra was spent.
For the jōnin facing him, it was a nightmare.
Already outmatched, now his movement space shrank drastically. Every step risked landing in those deadly flames.
Damn it… are they helping or killing me? the man cursed inwardly.
But defense only delays defeat.
After enduring more than ten strikes, he finally slipped—
His foot landed in the golden flames.
"AAAH—!"
His scream tore through the air as he staggered.
Taichi didn't hesitate.
His blade slipped past the guard—
And pierced the man's throat.
Silence fell.
The entire exchange had lasted barely twenty seconds.
By the time reinforcements arrived, it was already over.
They stared at the young man standing amidst blazing fire, blade in hand.
Hatred burned in their eyes.
Because over these past days—
Taichi had become a nightmare they could neither catch… nor stop.
Fewer enemies, they couldn't beat him. More enemies, and he would simply slip away—like an unshakable parasite, clinging to them no matter how hard they tried to get rid of him. It was maddening, the kind of frustration that bordered on despair.
Just like now.
Even though they had completely surrounded Taichi, the leading Sunagakure ninja could only sigh inwardly.
Another meaningless battle.
Sure enough, before they could act, Taichi casually flicked his blade, shaking off the blood. Then he raised it and pointed it at the encircling sand ninjas, sweeping his gaze across them with blatant arrogance.
"I'll be back."
And right before their eyes—
He vanished.
Only a group of furious yet helpless Sunagakure shinobi remained.
There was nothing they could do. This wasn't the first time they'd faced him. Against such a shameless, hit-and-run fighting style, they had no effective counter.
All they could do was deploy enough manpower to drive him off before the damage escalated—minimizing losses as much as possible.
Compared to their frustration, Taichi was in an excellent mood.
This raid had burned nearly half of the enemy's supplies and even taken down a jōnin—an exceptional haul.
After all, jōnin weren't cabbages you could harvest at will. Even the weakest among them couldn't normally be killed in just a few exchanges. Usually, before Taichi could finish one off, reinforcements would arrive.
This time, it was pure luck—the enemy's mistake had created an opening. Had that jōnin held on just a little longer, Taichi would have been forced to retreat.
If he'd been fully surrounded, even with the Flying Thunder God technique, escape might not have been guaranteed.
Still, the results spoke for themselves.
Reappearing, Taichi found himself in one of his pre-prepared underground hideouts. After cleaning the blood from his body, he used Earth Release to leave the area.
During this period, he hadn't focused solely on attacking Sunagakure forces. His shadow clones had been active everywhere, effectively mapping the entire Land of Wind. Across the desert, he had established multiple hidden underground bases, each marked with Flying Thunder God seals.
These served two purposes.
First, as emergency retreat points—short-range teleportation consumed far less chakra.
Second, as a rapid deployment network, allowing him to appear anywhere in the Land of Wind at a moment's notice.
This particular hideout was the closest to the battlefield.
After a brief rest to recover his stamina and chakra, Taichi used Flying Thunder God again, returning near the previous battleground.
By then, it had already been cleaned up.
Only scorched sand, shattered terrain, and the charred corpses of camels remained—along with ruined supplies that could no longer be salvaged.
Above, vultures circled lower and lower, testing whether it was safe to descend.
Activating his chakra perception, Taichi quickly confirmed that the supply convoy had moved beyond his range. Following the residual traces, he gave chase.
Five minutes later—
He found them.
The convoy was now on high alert. Almost immediately after Taichi located them, the entire formation reacted.
The stretched-out line compressed rapidly. Their speed slowed. One of them—clearly a sensory ninja—pointed in Taichi's direction, speaking urgently to his companions.
So they've already found me.
Taichi narrowed his eyes.
This sensory ninja was good—very good. He hadn't even felt the probing, yet they had already pinpointed his position.
In a pursuit scenario, that would be dangerous. Losing the initiative meant falling a step behind in everything.
I need to improve my sensing technique.
Right now, its fluctuations were still too obvious. Against highly perceptive opponents, it was easy to detect.
He had learned that the hard way—many promising ambushes had been ruined because Sunagakure detected him in advance.
Just like now.
Taichi knew this target was no longer viable.
A fully alert force of a hundred wasn't something he could break alone—especially this close to the border. Once they crossed into the Land of Rivers, they would fall under the protection of Sunagakure's frontline forces.
He tried probing from several angles—
Each time, the sensory ninja reacted.
Finally, Taichi gave up.
There would be other opportunities. No need to take unnecessary risks for a single target.
Leaving the area, he headed deeper into the Land of Wind.
Now confident in his abilities, he moved openly through the raging desert sands, unafraid of being discovered.
In fact—
He almost hoped to be found.
It would save him the trouble of hunting.
Far away, near the border of the Land of Earth, in a hidden underground facility—
Deep within a vast chamber, a frail old man sat upon a massive throne formed from a withered tree stump.
Behind him, three fleshy tubes connected his body to a giant, unopened flower bud. The tubes pulsed faintly, continuously feeding some unknown substance into him.
This man—
Once known as the Asura of the Shinobi World—
was Madara Uchiha.
The chamber was silent, save for his faint breathing. He sat there motionless, like a corpse that had long since lost its vitality.
Then—
Not far before the throne, the ground began to bulge. Soil rose, forming a mound, and a figure slowly emerged.
Half black. Half white.
It was Black Zetsu—the one who had investigated Taichi's battlefield earlier.
"Lord Madara… I've returned."