Chapter 449: Taking the Stairs
Meanwhile, inside the Hidden Mist Village, in a block near the Mizukage Building, on the third floor of an unremarkable inn.
A figure stood quietly in front of a window with half-drawn curtains.
He wore a wide-brimmed bamboo hat and a black robe, concealing his form and face within the shadows.
Only the occasional light filtering through the gap in the curtains illuminated the hard lines of the lower half of his face and his tightly pursed lips, which held a trace of a cold curve.
It was Uchiha Sasuke.
His gaze, sharp as a hawk's, pierced through the gaps in the hat, firmly locking onto the distant Mizukage Building, the symbol of the Hidden Mist Village's highest authority.
"Uchiha Itachi... is right there?"
Sasuke's voice was low and calm, devoid of much emotion, but the icy killing intent contained within it seemed to cause the temperature in the room to drop several degrees.
Not far behind him, another figure stood in the shadows—Shino Aburame.
He was also dressed in dark clothing suitable for concealment and wore sunglasses; his entire being seemed to merge with the dimness of the room.
"My bugs tell me he is there." Shino's voice was steady as always, lacking inflection, yet carrying a convincing certainty.
"The presence is very faint, but it is definitely him.
The bugs I've raised do not make mistakes."
Sasuke's hat moved slightly, as if he were nodding. He fell silent for a moment before speaking again:
"Are we going to infiltrate, Shino?"
This wasn't a question, but a confirmation of the next step.
Shino adjusted his sunglasses, his gaze behind the lenses seemingly scanning the security layout and Chakra flow of the Mizukage Building outside. He remained silent for a moment, as if calculating and assessing the risks.
"If you wish."
He finally replied succinctly, without any hesitation. "I will cover you. I can use my bugs to create blind spots and distract the guards. But once we enter the core area, it will mainly depend on you."
"That's enough."
Sasuke responded briefly.
He took one last look at the Mizukage Building and then slowly drew the curtains, completely shutting out the light and noise of the outside world.
The two of them began their move.
"The people from Hidden Leaf Village have already started moving..."
Black Zetsu, possessing Itachi's body, paced within the Mizukage's office.
Gen'sui had already been replaced by White Zetsu; now, the Hidden Mist Village had once again returned to being under Black Zetsu's control.
Moreover, Ao's Byakugan was gone, so Black Zetsu didn't have to worry about being detected by its insight.
After thinking for a long time, Black Zetsu looked at the chapter on the desk titled 'Guan Yunchang Scrapes the Bone to Treat Poison, Lu Ziming Crosses the River in White'.
"Right, since Lu Meng Ziming could cross the river in white...
Then... can I also follow suit? I could have White Zetsu disguise themselves as traveling merchants, refugees, or... Hidden Leaf Village's wounded soldiers to infiltrate Hidden Leaf Village's positions, and then... use them as human bombs?"
Once this thought emerged, it spread wildly in Black Zetsu's heart like a poisonous vine.
The White Zetsu were numerous, and once implanted with explosive Talismanic Incantations or self-destruction Ninjutsu, they could become the most difficult suicide attack units to defend against.
If they could successfully infiltrate the Hidden Leaf Village front lines or even the rear supply lines and detonate at a critical moment, the resulting chaos and casualties would be devastating.
A large part of war lies in logistics.
It would be enough to disrupt Hidden Leaf Village's offensive rhythm and even trigger large-scale panic!
"Yes... the more I think about it, the more feasible it becomes!"
A twisted smile, a mix of excitement and cruelty, appeared on Black Zetsu's face.
He could already see the scene of Hidden Leaf Village's positions engulfed in flames and chaos.
However, Black Zetsu forgot that while the books he had been reading recently and wars of the past indeed relied heavily on supplies, modern warfare wasn't as dependent on them as before.
This was because the Hidden Leaf Village side possessed combat power sufficient to crush the Hidden Mist.
Black Zetsu no longer hesitated and prepared to immediately use special means to contact the White Zetsu scattered inside and outside the Hidden Mist Village to issue this sinister command.
However, the moment he turned around.
His movements, along with the expression on his face, suddenly froze.
Because, after he turned around, within his line of sight, the door to the Mizukage's office had silently opened a crack at some unknown point.
And right at the junction of shadow and light within the doorway, a figure stood there like a statue, seemingly having been there for quite a while.
The person wore a cream-white high-collared jacket and black pants, with a pair of sunglasses on his face. His eyes behind the lenses could not be seen, but his entire presence was steady and frighteningly quiet, as if he had merged with the surrounding shadows, even his breathing being nearly inaudible.
It was Shino Aburame.
"You really... aren't Uchiha Itachi, are you?"
Shino spoke, his voice steady as always, lacking any obvious inflection, as if stating an objective fact. He pushed up the sunglasses on the bridge of his nose with a composed manner, 'looking' at Black Zetsu expressionlessly.
What Shino saw was an extremely bizarre existence.
Half of the body and face had the appearance of Uchiha Itachi—pale and handsome, yet lifeless; while the other half was a writhing, distorted, bottomless pitch-black.
It was as if countless amounts of malice and darkness were seeping out from that half of the body, forcibly melded with Itachi's image to form a nauseating monster!
"You... how did you get in?!"
Black Zetsu was greatly shocked and subconsciously took half a step back.
This was the Mizukage's office. The corridor outside was guarded by elite Hidden Mist Anbu, and multiple Sensory Barriers and alarm mechanisms were set up both inside and outside the building.
Even a top-tier infiltration expert shouldn't have been able to sneak in here silently without triggering any alarms.
Let alone a person of this size appearing directly at the door.
His voice became somewhat shrill due to shock and anger, completely losing the low, raspy tone he used when imitating Itachi.
Faced with Black Zetsu's startled question, Shino seemed to find the question a bit... redundant.
He tilted his head slightly and then pointed his right thumb in the direction he had come from.
"I took the stairs."
His answer was simple to the extreme, and also matter-of-fact to the extreme.
In fact, Shino had indeed walked up quite openly. According to the plan he had agreed upon with Sasuke, he had intended to first create some chaos on the periphery to draw attention and create an opportunity for Sasuke to infiltrate. But he soon found that it didn't seem necessary.
When he came in, the guards at the door continued to look straight ahead as if they hadn't even seen him.
The patrol teams inside the building also turned a blind eye to him. The so-called defenses were practically non-existent.
He even had the leisure to observe the internal structure and personnel distribution of the Hidden Mist Building.
He had originally intended to be a bit more 'professional' and cause some commotion, but seeing as he had walked all the way to the Mizukage's office door without any obstruction, as if entering an uninhabited place, and still no one had discovered him...
Shino simply gave up on the 'drawing attention' step and came directly before his final target.
Loving Book So Far? Check Out 30+ Advanced Chapters At PA Treon
patreon.com/FictionOP