Naruto: We Agreed on a Simulation, But They Actually Came to Life? Chapter 21 21: Something is Wrong

At dawn, the four of them reached the outskirts of their target village.

The village was smaller than described in the mission briefing. Roughly twenty wooden houses were lined up along the valley, backed against a cliff face, with only a single path leading in and out.

Murakami Takuya led them around to the eastern highlands, finding a thicket of shrubs that provided a commanding view of the entire settlent.

"Get down. Not a sound."

The four of them pressed themselves into the brush. Tsunade was to Kitahara Kaede's left, and Jiraiya was to his right.

The early morning sun had just crested the ridge, illuminating the rooftops below. The village was eerily quiet.

Tsunade was the first to speak, her voice barely a whisper. "The cooking smoke... it's not right."

Kitahara Kaede followed her gaze. Out of the twenty-odd houses, only three or four were emitting smoke.

"Even in a poor village, people have to cook when it's light out," Tsunade said, her brow furrowed. Her powers of observation had always been keen, though they were often overshadowed by her temper.

Kitahara Kaede didn't respond, shifting his focus from the roofs to the road. Everyone moving about was a man in his pri. There were no won, no elderly, no children. Not a single one.

Jiraiya, crouching to the right, craned his neck and squinted at the scene for a long mont. Suddenly, he tapped Kitahara Kaede's arm. "Over there—the one carrying the crates. Look at how he walks."

At the westernmost end of the village, near the cliff, stood a large warehouse with its doors wide open. Two n were hauling wooden crates inside; the boxes were heavy, requiring two people to carry one, their footsteps heavy and deliberate.

"His center of gravity is on the balls of his feet," Jiraiya muttered. "I think I vaguely rember the teacher ntioning this back when I was dozing off in class... That's not a posture for manual labor. That's the stance of soone ready to strike at any mont."

Tsunade froze, scanning the villagers again. Her expression shifted.

"All of them."

Kitahara Kaede had already counted. Fourteen n, all with the sa stance, the sa gait.

Murakami Takuya, lying at the very front, swept his gaze across the village three tis before his expression darkened. "Do you sll anything?"

Tsunade took a deep breath. Then, she stiffened.

She had studied the basics of dical ninjutsu for over a year and was familiar with various chemical odors from her pharmacy classes. One scent stood out vividly: li.

According to battlefield disposal protocols, spreading li on a large scale had only one purpose: to mask the sll of decaying corpses.

She didn't say it aloud, but her fingers instinctively clenched the grass beneath her.

"There's the scent of blood, too," Kitahara Kaede whispered. "The li covers most of it, but not all."

A heavy silence fell over them for three seconds.

"Where are the villagers?" Tsunade's voice was low, phrased as a question, but it sounded as if she already knew the answer.

"The mission brief said ronin had occupied the village, harassing the locals and stealing their wealth," Kitahara Kaede said tonelessly. "But there are no ronin down there, and there are no locals being harassed."

He paused. "The original villagers are gone."

Tsunade's grip tightened and loosened.

"This isn't a village," Kitahara Kaede continued. "It's a stronghold disguised as one. They slaughtered everyone to silence them and replaced them with their own people. Those crates are military supplies, and the li is covering a mass grave."

Jiraiya turned pale. His mouth opened and closed, his adam's apple bobbing, but no words ca out. His hand instinctively drifted toward his tool pouch.

Murakami Takuya turned to look at Kitahara Kaede. His gaze was steady, devoid of surprise.

"I had confird it before you spoke," he said grimly. "But your reasoning is faster than I expected."

"The four n from last night—" Kitahara Kaede didn't stop, "They were carrying standard-issue Military Pills from a hidden village. They weren't ronin; they were the outer periter sentries for this base. Their arrival at our camp wasn't a coincidence; it was a fixed patrol route."

Murakami Takuya nodded. "They should have returned to relieve the next shift before dawn."

The four of them fell silent simultaneously.

They weren't coming back. Those four n were lying dead beside the camp, and they would never return.

And now, it was morning.

Tsunade was the first to react. "If the relief team didn't return, they'll—"

"Send scouts to investigate, or imdiately raise the alert," Murakami Takuya interrupted, his voice low and his pace quickening. "Listen up, the nature of this mission has changed. This isn't a C-rank; it's at least an A-rank. The request to drive out ronin was just a cover—"

He stopped himself. "Withdraw. We retreat now. Go back the way we ca and report this to the Hidden Leaf."

Tsunade bit her lip. She looked down at the quiet village below.

Twenty wooden houses, a few wisps of smoke, and fourteen "villagers" who walked like shinobi. The people buried under the li might have once lit those fires and cooked in those houses. Perhaps there were elders basking in the sun at the door and children running through the streets.

Her fists clenched. An impulse to charge down there flared up, but she suppressed it with a surge of logic.

She pulled her gaze away. "Let's go."

Jiraiya didn't say a word; he had already begun backing away.

Kitahara Kaede took one last look toward the warehouse. A bald man stood at the entrance, arms crossed, his gaze constantly scanning the outskirts of the village. He wasn't watching the laborers; he was waiting for the n who should have returned.

The four of them backed out of the brush, crouching as they retreated along the edge of the woods. They stepped carefully over fallen leaves, suppressing every sound.

Kitahara Kaede trailed at the rear, glancing back every few steps. Tsunade walked ahead of him, her pace quick and steady, remaining silent.

They had retreated about two hundred ters when Murakami Takuya stopped.

Kitahara Kaede braked almost instantly.

A chakra fluctuation. It was faint, emanating from deep within the woods to their left—a sensor type. Soone was scanning the area.

Kitahara Kaede looked at Murakami Takuya.

Takuya's hand was already on the hilt of his sword, his face grim. "We've been spotted."

Tsunade's body tensed instantly.

Before the words had even fully landed, the canopy to their left exploded. Three kunai, trailing explosive tags, tore through the air toward them.

"Scatter!"

Murakami Takuya slamd both palms onto the ground. "Earth-Style Wall!"

A wall of earth surged from the ground, shielding the three children.

*Boom!*

The explosion left their ears ringing. The blast wave poured in from the sides of the wall, showering them with debris and leaves.

Kitahara Kaede grabbed Tsunade and rolled to the right, positioning his own body as a shield against the blast. The mont Tsunade hit the ground, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him toward her—not out of fear, but because she didn't want him shielding her again.

Jiraiya dove to the left, his movents far more agile than they had been the previous night.

The second wave followed imdiately. Shuriken flew from three directions simultaneously, their angles crossing to cover all paths of retreat.

Murakami Takuya drew his blade, deflecting a wave from the front, sparks flying into his face.

"There's soone to the north too!" Jiraiya shouted. His voice trembled, but the kunai in his hand remained steady.

Footsteps began surging from the direction of the village. It wasn't just one or two people—it was a squad. The "villagers" who had been moving crates were now closing in for the encirclent.

Kitahara Kaede let go of Tsunade and scanned the path they had co from. Figures were flickering between the shadows of the trees, cutting off their rear.

The retreat was sealed.

He quickly assessed the terrain: to the north were woods—dense but short, no way to escape; to the south was a slope—open, but they'd be exposed. The east was their original path, which was already blocked.

The only opening was in the southwest corner, a gap between two fallen logs, though it was uncertain if anyone was waiting there.

"Get close! Everyone, get close!"

Murakami Takuya's voice was strained—it was the first ti Kitahara Kaede had heard that tone from him.

Kitahara Kaede pulled Tsunade and charged toward the earth wall. As she ran, Tsunade whipped out two shuriken, forcing back the shadow attempting to intercept them from the right.

None

Jiraiya rolled in from the other side, a shuriken embedded in his right shoulder. Blood stread down his sleeve, dripping onto the grass. He gritted his teeth, refusing to make a sound, and didn't let the injury slow his movents.

The four of them huddled behind an earthen wall that was already beginning to crack. Kitahara Kaede peered through one of the crevices.

At least twenty people were closing in from three directions. So were still dressed in the coarse cloth of laborers, but they had swapped their tools for kunai, tachi, and explosive tags, with ninja tool pouches tied around their waists.

A bald man led the group, walking right in the center with a smirk on his face. He looked toward the earthen wall and spoke. His voice wasn't loud, but it echoed clearly through the valley.

"Where did these little rats co from? No wonder the patrol hasn't returned yet."

His gaze swept across the top of the wall, landing on the young faces peering through the gap, and his smile widened. "From the Hidden Leaf? And just brats... coming here to throw their lives away?"

Tsunade's teeth ground together. Jiraiya pressed his right hand against the wound in his shoulder, his left hand gripping a kunai.

Kitahara Kaede watched the twenty-so figures closing in. He rotated the kunai in his hand, shifting from a standard grip to a reverse grip.