Malphegor
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HSU: Ch. 222
🕑 Added 2025-03-12 19:30:41 +0000 UTCBlack Zetsu had always found the "empathy" concept that Masashi once mentioned to be quite interesting.
Since he and Daigo were both farmers in a sense, they were bound to get along.
The base over in the Land of Iron had been entrusted to the main body of White Zetsu. Enough digging had been done—though excavation was no longer necessary, cultivation work continued. However, Black Zetsu still found that place uncomfortable to look at.
Opening a branch base felt like a much better idea.
Once his branch base was up and running, he planned to organize a dedicated White Zetsu squad to help Daigo deal with those so-called bandits, ensuring that Daigo's domain became a true paradise in the shinobi world.
No need to thank him—this was simply the mutual understanding between farmers.
Black Zetsu could slip through the earth with extreme ease and remarkable speed.
He didn't even need to surface—just following the moisture within the soil was enough to move around.
Even under these conditions, he could still clearly perceive everything happening on the surface. The land and the forest served as his eyes.
Then, he sensed something.
Ninjas.
Black Zetsu halted his subterranean movement and began to rise.
A sufficient number of ninjas were both a foundation for the great being's return to this world and an obstacle.
He didn't target any specific ninja or organization. Within this nursery, he hoped for healthy, strong saplings to grow and nourish the towering tree. However, weeds that interfered with the tree's growth had to be eliminated.
Soon, within a dense forest on the surface, an eye opened on the trunk of a tree.
He observed the group of ninjas it had sensed.
The scale was not small—there were dozens of them.
---
Night had already fallen. The sky was dotted with stars, and since the trees here weren't particularly tall, the starlight illuminated the area, glowing upon the ninjas resting around a campfire.
By the fire, one ninja asked, "Are we really going to rob a lord? He's a noble, after all. If we do this, they might hire a ninja to come after us."
"How's a dead man supposed to hire anyone?" the leader replied coldly. "Plenty of nobles have died in this country already."
"That's not the point. This time, we're talking about Konoha and Suna."
"We'll just disguise ourselves as Konoha ninjas. I'd love to see if those nobles dare to mess with Konoha."
"But if they find out, our group will cease to exist."
"Doesn't Konoha claim to have all sorts of jutsu? This is the Land of Rivers. If a lord dies by Fire Release, Konoha will be the prime suspect. Even if Konoha denies it, what good will that do?"
"What's the point of all this?"
"Revenge for our fallen comrades and families. It's only right. Danzō may be dead, but Konoha still stands."
Hiding within the tree, Black Zetsu understood.
These were ninjas with a grudge against Konoha.
But damn it, why did people like this always show up wherever he tried to set up a base?
Attracting Konoha ninjas was bad enough, but what if Masashi showed up?
He still didn't know how Masashi had discovered the underground base it and Madara had built in the Land of Grass, but it was enough to make it wary of his detection abilities.
This group had to be eliminated.
He sank back underground, waiting for the right moment.
From his observations, this group was still highly vigilant—not the best time to strike.
As expected, the ninjas stayed the entire night without giving him an opportunity.
He regretted not bringing another White Zetsu along. That way, he could have used Wood Release.
For now, he simply trailed the group as they moved toward Daigo's domain.
---
At the same time, within Daigo's domain, Team 7 had officially begun their protection mission.
For the ninjas of this world, as long as they weren't facing other ninjas in battle, mission difficulty was relatively low—even for a C-rank protection mission.
Genin were initially assigned only to missions where injury was unlikely, not because they were too weak, but to help them develop teamwork.
Even catching a cat could train tactical skills.
In terms of combat ability, a genin could generally handle an elite samurai with little issue.
In fact, elite samurai posed less of a threat to genin than large wild beasts. When dangerous beasts became mission targets, it signified real danger. Desperate animals were far more ferocious than samurai fighting for money or status.
In the original timeline, Naruto had easily taken down two of Gato's elite samurai in the Land of Waves.
In this timeline, they were far stronger than in the original. Having grown up playing together and causing trouble all over Konoha, their teamwork was excellent.
Although Hinata didn't share the same level of synergy, she was making an effort to keep up with the other two.
As a result, the trio handled their first protection mission quite well.
Seeing their teamwork improve at a noticeable pace, Masashi was quite satisfied.
But peaceful times never last long.
One day, Daigo received an urgent report from his retainers—an unidentified group of ninjas had appeared within his territory.
Not only were they unknown, but they were also ruthless, heading straight for his town while raiding multiple villages along the way.
Clearly, they had bad intentions.
The terrifying image of ninjas dashing across rooftops and beheading people in the Land of Rivers resurfaced in Daigo's memory, and he was scared out of his wits.
Without hesitation, he sent someone to summon Masashi for a discussion.
The moment he saw Masashi, his first words were, "I'm increasing your pay!"
"Daigo-sama, has something happened?" Masashi looked at his client, who seemed as if he had just been injected with adrenaline. It was obvious that something had changed.
"Yes, a large group of missing-nin has entered my territory and is now heading straight for my city."
"That bold?" Masashi was surprised.
There was always a tacit understanding between ninjas and nobles—money did all the talking.
Even missing-nin, despite their strength, typically wouldn't target nobles.
After all, the underground exchange market was funded by the nobility.
Killing nobles was easy, but nobles were necessary to maintain stable societal production.
Ninjas weren't samurai; they specialized in combat and didn't waste time learning diverse skills.
Even the leaders of ninja villages relied on their personal strength to manage their subordinates.
If missing-nin started attacking nobles, the ninja villages would eliminate them—sometimes even free of charge.
"I'm not doubting your words, but please think carefully—have you made any enemies recently?"
"No, Masashi-sama!" Daigo felt like the whole world had gone mad. "I'm just a small countryside lord—who could I possibly offend?"
"Don't worry. As long as we're here, you and your family will be safe," Masashi reassured him. "My team and I will not leave your side for the time being."
If these ninjas were really here just to rob the place, then they must be absolutely desperate.
Ignoring the unspoken rules that everyone followed? Were they trying to get themselves wiped out from the shinobi world?
How deep was this grudge…?
After spending some time calming Daigo down, Masashi created a shadow clone to guard him, then left the room and stepped into the courtyard. There, he fired a signal flare into the sky.
Before long, Sasuke, Naruto, and Hinata arrived, each bringing along one of their assigned protectees—Daigo's wife, son, and daughter.
"Madam, please stay with Daigo-sama and the children for now. The situation has changed slightly, and we need to adjust our strategy."
"Understood. I'll leave it to you, Masashi-sama." The noblewoman from the Land of Rivers didn't show any signs of panic. However, she held her children's hands tightly before leading them into Daigo's room.
Once the doors closed, Masashi turned to the three young ninjas and explained the situation.
"What do we do next?" Naruto asked eagerly.
Sasuke didn't say a word, but his arms were crossed in a cocky manner, exuding the vibe of "My grand entrance is long overdue."
Let's hope he kept that energy when he had to take a life for the first time, Masashi thought.
Hinata was the only one reacting normally.
"The most important part of a protection mission is eliminating potential threats," Masashi continued. "This mission has now been upgraded to B-rank, so the way we protect our client must also change."
Considering this was the protagonist squad, it was perfectly normal for their first mission to jump from C-rank to B-rank.
No surprises there.
After casually upgrading their mission, he began briefing the trio on their new objectives.
---
On Earth, the ancient Roman strategy of "forward defense" along the Rhine and Danube rivers had proven both brilliant and fatal—creating buffer zones that kept enemies at bay, but eventually stretching their military so thin that barbarian incursions became inevitable.
But in the world of Naruto, this was exactly how the ninjas of the Five Great Nations fought their wars—establishing perimeters far beyond village walls and engaging threats before they could approach.
For this mission, Masashi was doing a protection mission, and he followed the same principle.
The first time he didn't, the result was disastrous—because the enemy got too excited upon spotting the target client, immediately called for reinforcements, and the client got killed on the spot.
That mission was a total loss for him—not only did he fail, but he even had to cover the expenses himself.
After that, he solidified his core combat philosophy: shadow clones should stay close to protect the client, while his real body took the offensive. If someone tried to flank them, he would use Flying Thunder God to counter.
Since then, he never lost money on a protection mission again.
Looking at Team 7's setup, where every member was all about strong offense, he felt they fit perfectly into this strategy.
But before that, they had to get their hands dirty.
After all, none of the three kids had actually seen blood before, while the enemy had dozens of people.
And it was up to him, their guiding jonin, to properly arrange their initiation.
After explaining the new combat strategy to the three kids, Masashi left the manor of the local lord alone.
His first task—capturing a few live targets.
The territory wasn't that big, and with a general idea of where to go, finding a group of reckless missing-nin wasn't difficult.
It didn't take him long to track them down.
After all, the pillaged villages pointed directly to their location.
By the time he found them, the missing-nin were in the middle of raiding another village.
The village was burning, with thick black smoke rising into the sky like a dragon.
These people were pure evil.
They weren't just missing-nin anymore—missing-nin did rob, but not like this.
He didn't charge in immediately. With the fire already out of control, the village would have to be rebuilt no matter what.
The villagers were pitiful, but it wasn't his job to pity them. Even if he wanted to, they wouldn't necessarily appreciate it.
From within the burning village, dozens of chakra signatures were clearly visible. The enemies were still there.
Masashi first pulled out his "shinobi world outfit collection."
Back in Kiri, he had once made the mistake of wearing an outdated Kiri ANBU uniform when meeting Yagura. He never repeated such a rookie mistake again. His outfit collection was now always up-to-date.
He created two shadow clones and pulled out the uniforms of an Ame ninja and a Suna ANBU.
The two clones changed into them. Masks on, emotions off.
Once dressed, the two clones took off running, one leading, one following, charging straight into the burning village.
Meanwhile, Masashi himself sank into the ground and stealthily tunneled forward.
---
The flames spread rapidly—before one house could collapse, the surrounding buildings were already ablaze.
Corpses of slain villagers littered the streets.
One missing-nin was using a fire jutsu to intensify the flames.
Masashi didn't know why these lunatics were attacking defenseless civilians, but they made perfect training dummies.
If he weren't afraid of scaring them off, he wouldn't have bothered with such roundabout tactics—he would've just grabbed them directly.
The sudden arrival of the Ame ninja and Suna ninja instantly caught the attention of the missing-nin.
Fresh from slaughtering a village, their bloodlust was high. The moment they saw intruders, they attacked.
The two shadow clones, originally thinking about how to put on a convincing act, were delighted by how "enthusiastic" their opponents were.
The Ame ninja clone raised a water wall to block the incoming ninja tools and fire techniques. Then, pretending to flee, he ran forward and smacked one of the missing-nin unconscious before tossing him backward.
The Suna ninja clone played along perfectly. When the first missing-nin was thrown back, he used a wind jutsu to send the body flying even farther.
Through a mix of pursuit and retreat, they managed to "accidentally" separate three missing-nin from the group and whisk them away—right into Masashi's hands.
By the time the rest of the missing-nin realized what was happening, the Ame ninja and Suna ninja had already disappeared.
This snapped them out of their bloodthirsty frenzy, but by the time they searched in the direction their comrades had been sent flying, there was no trace of them.
Masashi had already dragged the three unconscious prisoners back.
He also left behind traces that made it seem like the kidnappers were from Kiri.
For a man with an uutfit collection, this was basic stuff.
---
All of this was witnessed by Black Zetsu.
Though he didn't actually have eyes, the two eye-like features on his face widened in shock.
He had already adjusted his original plan.
He was going to wait for the missing-nin to attack the lord's manor, then show up as a "savior" to win the noble's trust and establish a secret base with their help.
But who did he just see!?
What the hell!? Why was Masashi here!?
He instantly lost all interest in the missing-nin and started secretly following Masashi instead.
Unaware of his presence, Masashi hauled the three frozen prisoners back to the manor.
When the three students arrived and saw them, they were dumbfounded.
"What are these?" As always, Naruto was the first to speak up.
"Isn't it obvious?" Masashi replied as he unfroze the three missing-nin.
Since the Ice Release had only frozen them for a short time, they remained intact.
After a moment, they groggily regained consciousness.
Then, they saw three kids staring at them—and a man standing nearby.
They instinctively jumped up, forming a back-to-back defensive stance.
"That reaction… You guys are organized?" Masashi raised an eyebrow.
Missing-nin generally didn't trust each other. If they instinctively covered each other's backs, it meant they had formal training.
Upon spotting the Konoha forehead protectors on the three kids and recognizing Masashi, the three prisoners immediately realized their predicament.
They were screwed.
This man—wasn't he one of the people who nearly wiped out the Hannya Black Ops years ago?
And now, he was even stronger.
Seeing that they weren't talking, Masashi didn't force them.
His Sharingan flashed as he locked eyes with one of them.
In an instant, he dug through the man's memories.
"Oh, Hannya Black Ops? You guys are still alive?" Masashi was surprised but didn't bother commenting on their revenge plans.
Such small-scale revenge attempts were just proof of their incompetence.
"Sasuke." Masashi called Sasuke's name, then reached forward and activated his Magnet Release.
Golden sand erupted from the ground, wrapping around the other two Hannya Black Ops ninjas and tossing them aside, leaving only one standing alone in the middle, looking completely lost.
"The first test of being a ninja is to kill. Now go and kill him."
