Shino followed two steps behind him.
His collar was still high, and a thin layer of moisture covered his sunglasses. From time to time, extremely faint wingbeats came from within his wide sleeves, like wind lightly brushing through cloth.
Neither of them spoke along the way.
Only after they passed through the first burned forest belt and the terrain ahead gradually leveled out, with the vague outlines of the old osmanthus trees outside Bamboo Village visible ahead, did Chizumi stop and turn his head slightly.
"From here on, you decide the distance."
Shino's voice was very low. "Within seventy steps, I can spread my kikaichū. Within forty steps, I can hear most conversations inside the tents. Within twenty steps, I can distinguish who is carrying persistent special medicines or toxins."
"Will we be discovered if we get too close?"
"Depends on the person." Shino pushed up his sunglasses. "Ordinary sensory ninja won't notice. If there's someone near Heidan who specializes in detecting insects, my insects will die in the first batch."
Chizumi looked toward the village entrance, half-hidden in the fog, and asked, "Do you think he has someone like that?"
"If this were before yesterday, I'd say maybe not. But now—" Shino paused. "You burned them that badly. He probably wants to check even the chakra on an ant's leg."
Chizumi gave a quiet hum.
"Then don't touch the village center yet. Probe the outer sentries and supply lines first."
"Understood."
Chizumi turned and crouched, quickly drawing several lines in the wet soil with a dagger.
"The northern main road into the village is definitely blocked by heavy troops and visible sentries now. The east side is a gentle slope, open terrain—not suitable for getting close. The south is close to the abandoned herb fields, open and easy to cross at night, but easy to spot during the day. The west is the slope where we left traces last night. They'll be watching that even more closely."
Shino looked at the lines he had drawn and said evenly, "So we go through the southwest corner, skim along the edge of the burned forest belt, and use the charred trees and collapsed walls as cover to get in."
"Mm." Chizumi glanced at him. "You remember terrain quickly."
Shino said, "Once my insects pass through it, I remember it too."
Chizumi put the dagger away and stood.
"Let's go."
The two pressed forward again.
The closer they got to the village, the more mixed the smell in the air became. The faint medicinal scent and woody smell that once belonged to Bamboo Village had almost disappeared, buried beneath layers of smoke, blood, wet mud, horsehide, torch oil, boiled military rations, and the cold iron scent of weapons. From far away came the dull sound of heavy objects being moved, occasionally mixed with one or two shouted orders.
When they reached the edge of the first burned tree belt, the village outline finally became clear.
The once quiet and empty Bamboo Village now looked as if a foreign skeleton had been forced into it. The old wooden sign at the village entrance still hung crookedly, but two hastily carved chevaux-de-frise had been set up beneath it. Three houses in the first northern row had half-collapsed from the explosions, and crude wooden frames had been erected beside the broken walls. Several Earth Country ninja were lowering their heads to move stones and logs, sealing up the gaps. Farther inside, the widest main alley had been cleared into a path that allowed four people to walk side by side. Broken wood and shattered tiles on the ground had been roughly piled to both sides, revealing a freshly trampled mud path.
The old osmanthus tree in the village center was still standing, though half its branches and leaves had blackened. Beneath it stood a tall flagpole, and the Land of Lightning's flag snapped loudly in the damp wind.
Chizumi crouched behind a charred log and watched for several breaths before saying quietly, "Faster than expected."
Shino stopped beside him. His sleeve shifted slightly, and several tiny insects almost invisible to the naked eye slid down the bark, disappearing into the wet soil and ash.
"They didn't sleep much last night," he said.
"That much is obvious."
"There are two layers of sentries eight paces outside the northern entrance. Four visible sentries and at least three hidden ones. Inside the collapsed house on the left, there is one sensory type. Not strong, but he's maintaining a technique constantly. There are patrols in the main alley. Shift rotation is about the time it takes an incense stick to burn."
Chizumi didn't immediately ask, "How do you know?" He only kept staring into the village. "Your insects are already in?"
"The first batch is in," Shino said flatly. "The second batch is still looking for openings."
"How deep can they go?"
"Don't rush."
Chizumi glanced sideways at him.
Shino seemed to notice and added calmly, "Everyone is tense right now. The more it's like this, the less 'too smooth' things should appear. Let them get busy first. Then the insects can cling on more naturally."
Chizumi gave a very faint laugh.
"You sound like Shikamaru."
Shino was silent for two breaths.
"I am not as afraid of trouble as he is."
"You just don't like appearing as if you're thinking."
"That saves saliva."
Chizumi stopped talking.
Not far away, a short argument suddenly broke out at the village entrance. Both of them looked up at the same time.
Three Allied ninja were escorting someone inside.
The person wasn't very old. His clothes were half-worn, his trouser cuffs and shoes were muddy, and his face was dust-streaked. His left wrist was bound with rope. He stumbled as he walked, as though being shoved forward, and he kept saying something. They were too far away to hear clearly, but his expression carried panic, fear, and confusion.
Chizumi's brow tightened.
"A villager?"
Shino's insects hadn't relayed an answer yet, so he first watched the man's feet and hem for a moment.
"Seems like it."
"Didn't we evacuate everyone?"
"He may have gotten separated on the road. Or he may be from another village and was captured to identify the terrain." Shino's tone did not change. "Now that the Allied Forces occupy the village, what they lack most isn't bricks and wood. It's 'someone who knows which alley originally led where.'"
Chizumi's eyes grew colder.
Over there, a tall Lightning ninja grabbed the young man by the back of his collar and pressed him in front of the half-charred osmanthus tree near the village entrance, seemingly interrogating him. The young man kept shaking his head. His lips moved quickly, and he trembled so badly he could barely stand. Another Earth Country ninja nearby impatiently raised a foot, as if about to kick him.
Chizumi's finger tapped lightly beside his knee.
Shino suddenly said, "Don't move."
"I know."
"You wanted to go just now."
"No." Chizumi stared at that side. "I was just thinking about how to cut faster."
Shino was silent for a moment.
"That means you wanted to go."
Chizumi didn't deny it.
Of course he knew he couldn't move now. The two of them had come in to observe, not to satisfy a moment's urge for quick action. There were visible and hidden sentries at the village entrance right now. Forget saving someone—even making one sentry turn back and look a little more closely could cause the entire southwest corner's security to rise.
But "can't move" and "can look at it calmly" had never been the same thing.
Chizumi stared over there and asked, "Can your insects hear them?"
Shino closed his eyes.
After a few breaths, he said, "The young man says he's only here to deliver medicinal herbs to the village, not a resident. The road was cut off last night, so he hid in an abandoned shed to the south and was dragged out by patrols this morning."
"What are they asking?"
"They're asking which cellars in the village are deepest, which households used to store medicinal powder and alcohol, and whether there are any tunnels west of the village where troops could hide."
Chizumi's gaze grew even colder.
"Does he know?"
"He knows a little about the first two. He doesn't know the last one." Shino paused. "He's still begging them, saying he's just a small trader and doesn't want to die."
At the village entrance, the ninja escorting him seemed to have lost patience. The tall Lightning ninja grabbed the young man's hair and forced his head up. Another pressed a short blade against his ribs.
Chizumi's voice was very soft. "Can you create a disturbance and move him away from the village entrance?"
"Yes, but once I move, patrols will reposition," Shino said. "They only just took the village. Everyone is acting like they woke up with a blade at their throat. Any extra movement will be interpreted as 'Konoha is here again.'"
"Then let it be interpreted that way."
"And then?" Shino asked.
Chizumi looked at him.
Shino's voice remained level. "Then they strengthen patrols in the southwest corner, and we came here today for nothing. Are you going to bring people and force another attack?"
Chizumi did not answer.
At the village entrance, the young man was still desperately shaking his head. His expression had already shifted from pleading into a kind of blankness close to collapse. The tall Lightning ninja seemed to hear something from someone, then suddenly withdrew the blade and turned to beckon inside.
Soon, a middle-aged man in gray-white armor walked out.
He wasn't tall. His face was thin, and there was a faint old scar under his right eye. His steps were unhurried, but he carried a cold hardness that instinctively made people not want to look at him a second time. He walked up to the young man and didn't speak at first. He only looked him over for two breaths, then raised a hand and pressed it onto the man's head.
Chizumi whispered, "Genjutsu interrogation?"
Shino had his eyes closed. "Not standard genjutsu. More like a forced memory technique with chakra stimulation."
The young man's body suddenly stiffened, as if his entire spine had been pulled taut. A suppressed groan escaped from his throat. The two ninja holding him immediately pushed him to his knees.
Chizumi's knuckles slowly whitened.
Shino suddenly said, "Remember that face."
"Mm."
"He's not Heidan."
"I know."
"But his status isn't low. When he came out just now, the three sentry positions at the village entrance all unconsciously shifted their eyes."
Chizumi asked, "Can you tell which nation he's from?"
"The Land of Lightning people are more relaxed around him. The Earth Country people act like collaborators, not subordinates. He may be a temporary interrogation or sensory chief assembled by the Allied Forces."
Chizumi nodded once and memorized that face.
The village entrance didn't take much longer. After struggling only a few times, the young man went limp, his head hanging powerlessly. The middle-aged man in gray-white armor withdrew his hand, took a cloth someone handed him, and unhurriedly wiped his palm as if he found it filthy.
He lowered his head and said something.
The tall Lightning ninja immediately nodded and dragged the young man, who could barely stand, toward the east side of the village.
Chizumi frowned. "They didn't kill him?"
Shino said, "They're keeping him to lead the way. That man just had the locations of two medicinal storage cellars forced out of him."
"Where?"
"One household in the second row east. One household at the end of the southern lane."
Chizumi's eyes shifted slightly.
The second row east and the end of the southern lane—one was near the courtyard cluster they had heavily bombed before, and the other was in the rear wall pressure-point area. The fact that the Allied Forces were asking about those places meant they weren't just repairing defenses. They were reexamining every usable space in the village.
"They intend to stay long-term," Chizumi said.
"And not just for a few days," Shino said. "A temporary outpost wouldn't ask about cellars and medicinal storage places this quickly."
Chizumi's gaze still didn't leave the village entrance.
"Where do you think Heidan is?"
"Haven't reached him yet." Shino's sleeve trembled gently. "The first batch of insects can only cover the outer perimeter and thirty steps inside the village entrance. To go deeper, I need to borrow their own people to carry them in."
"How long?"
"Depends who sits down first."
Chizumi understood.
As long as someone in the village stopped to rest, eat, remove armor, or open scrolls, the insects could attach themselves more naturally. Right now, everyone was moving, repairing, and shouting, which actually made it harder to cling on.
The two of them continued lying low.
The sky slowly brightened, and the fog thinned a little. The movement inside Bamboo Village became even more mixed. The Earth Country people were moving wall stones, the Land of Lightning heavy troops carried two large boxes into the village's main lane, and several Suna ninja ran along the rooftops, nailing observation flags onto several high points.
Chizumi watched closely.
"One layer of visible sentries at the northern gate, second layer archer positions; patrol line on the eastern slope; no visible sentries on the west side, but rooftop sightlines have been sweeping there constantly; at least two rotation patrols in the village's main lane. Look under that flagpole by the tree. Is there a new circle drawn on the ground?"
Shino didn't open his eyes and only said, "I see it."
"Looks like the starting point of a sensory array."
"Not the starting point. A convergence point. The true array core isn't there."
"Where is it?"
"We still need to probe deeper."
Chizumi watched a while longer, then suddenly said, "That one."
Shino tilted his head slightly in the direction of his words.
A young Allied ninja with a forehead protector was walking out from the village entrance, carrying a bundle of smoke-blackened wooden boards on his back. A water pouch hung at his waist. His steps were hurried, but one shoulder was crooked, clearly not yet recovered from last night's shock.
"What about him?"
"He can carry insects in."
Shino's sleeve went silent for an instant, as though the insect swarm inside had all paused at once.
"Possible," he said. "But there is some risk."
"What risk?"
"If he changes armor or washes his face halfway, the insects will need to change positions."
"Then attach more."
"They've already gone."
Chizumi smiled.
"You move faster than you talk."
"That saves explanation." Shino's voice remained even. "And you would probably urge me anyway."
"Do I look like someone who urges people?"
"Yes."
"Oh."
The young ninja quickly returned to the village.
Shino said nothing more. He stood there like a black branch planted behind the charred wood. If Chizumi hadn't been close, it would have been almost impossible to notice the faint movement at his sleeves and collar.
Another quarter hour or so passed.
Shino suddenly said, "Found a new sensory line."
"Speak."
"From the village's main lane, third fork south. There is a medicinal shop with half its roof collapsed. The back wall of the shop has been torn open. It isn't storing medicine now—it is storing talisman boards. Four people are guarding it. Two are carving arrays inside, two rotate outside."
Chizumi's eyes slowly darkened.
"How many talisman boards?"
"At least twenty. Each is small, likely meant for dispersed placement."
"They really are going to weave the whole village together."
"Yes." Shino paused. "And it's not only to guard against infiltration. It looks more like they are setting fixed routes for chakra flow, making it convenient to uniformly activate some technique later."
Chizumi whispered, "A large-scale linked technique."
"Possible."
"Can you hear what the people inside are saying?"
Shino was quiet for several breaths.