naaapseattle #150 - Chapter 150 Illusion
#150 - Chapter 150 Illusion
Under the pitch-black night sky, above the buildings.
Maki, as the head of the Anbu, stood tall, with five Sand Village Anbu members wearing masks behind him.
Their gazes were fixed on two locations within the Sand Village.
Those were the places where the Sand Village was accommodating guests from the Cloud Village and the Rock Village.
Tonight, while the Sand Village was hosting a banquet for guests from the Land of Demons, some disturbances unexpectedly occurred in these two locations.
Two Anbu ninjas appeared before Maki in a flash, kneeling on one knee as they reported.
"Lord Maki, the Cloud Village ninja, Samui, used the excuse of wanting to drink to start a conflict with the Anbu guarding there!"
"The same goes for the Rock Village; the Rock Village ninja named Magma also used the excuse of wanting to drink and has already caused a ruckus."
Hearing this, Maki scoffed with disdain.
"Hmph, they couldn't even bother to make up a better excuse? What about the others?"
"Our people stationed inside the buildings haven't detected any unusual movements, but we suspect..."
The Anbu member hesitated before continuing.
"That those remaining in the rooms are merely clones."
Maki understood his subordinate's meaning, a hint of displeasure in his eyes as he said.
"Go probe them!"
"Yes!"
The two ninjas immediately disappeared in a flash, and at the same time, Maki addressed the five ninjas behind him.
"Have everyone be on alert and strictly monitor every movement within the village!"
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Due to the festival, there was no curfew in the Sand Village tonight.
Sara and Maki happily carried the prepared gifts, ready to visit Konmi's home.
However, as soon as they passed through the bustling crowd and arrived at the street outside the Sand Clan's residence, the silence there startled Sara.
She could still hear the joyful laughter from the nearby streets, but the street in front of them was deserted, with only a huge circle of walls, as if separating two worlds.
Maki, as a native who had grown up in the Sand Village, saw Sara's appearance and whispered an explanation.
"It's always like this here, because behind the walls is the Sand Clan's residence in the village.
Ordinary civilians don't come here, so it's relatively quiet here."
"Mm, mm!"
Sara also expressed her understanding; as a former princess, the vicinity of Roran's palace was also so quiet.
Therefore, without much thought, she and Maki happily walked into the alley.
What the two of them didn't notice was that the street behind them was slowly disappearing.
A dark figure emerged from the shadows, forming hand seals.
"Illusion Technique · This Place is Not What It Seems!"
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Sara and Maki quickly passed through the quiet street.
Sure enough, they saw a simple and ancient gate appearing in front of them.
Konmi happily stood at the door to greet them.
The two sides immediately exchanged greetings, and Konmi warmly invited them inside.
However, Sara felt that something was wrong, but she didn't know what it was.
Konmi and Maki on the side both looked strange and asked.
"What's wrong?"
Sara wanted to voice the doubts in her heart, but strangely, there seemed to be a voice in her head telling her not to overthink it, that she was just distracted.
Sara thought about it and was still persuaded by the voice, saying.
"N-nothing..."
Then, everyone happily chatted.
However, the more Sara chatted, the stranger she felt.
Firstly, she felt that the surrounding world was too quiet, so quiet that it was like a painting, with only Konmi's voice, and she couldn't even hear Maki's voice clearly.
Secondly, Konmi was acting too strangely.
In her impression, Konmi was a shy boy who was always silent, but now he was always talking, and the questions he asked were very strange, all about her mother.
She really felt that something was wrong, but the voice in her head kept persuading her.
Just then, she finally noticed something was wrong.
That was, the gifts that she and Maki had prepared for this visit were gone.
"Eh!?"
Sara felt even stranger now.
She wanted to recall where the gifts had gone, but she found that no matter how hard she tried to remember, she couldn't remember how she got here, how she entered the room.
It was all like she was dreaming when she went to bed at night.
"Wait! A dream!!!"
This keyword suddenly reminded Sara of the common sense about ninjutsu that she had learned in ninja school in the past six months.
The teacher had told her that the feeling of being caught in an illusion was like dreaming.
Sara suddenly woke up.
In other words, was she caught in an illusion!?
Why?
Sara's heart became nervous, but her reaction was also very quick.
The most urgent task was to break the illusion.
Although the first grade of the ninja school did not teach ninjutsu and chakra, as the daughter of the shrine, Sara also enjoyed some rights to start first.
Since arriving at the Sand Village, she had been learning ninjutsu with her mother.
Accompanied by Sara clasping her hands together and mobilizing the chakra in her body.
"Release!"
Instantly, the scene of Konmi's home in front of her disappeared.
Sara opened her eyes and saw that she was still standing outside the Sand Clan's residence, in the secluded alley, and beside her, Maki looked dazed, standing blankly beside her.
After being released from the illusion, Maki was obviously a little unable to react, looking around blankly.
Sara quickly explained, while vigilantly looking around.
"Maki, we were just caught in an illusion!!!"
"!!!"
Maki was startled.
Only eight years old and never having left the village, she couldn't understand the seriousness of what Sara said, but soon, she understood, because a low, hurried voice suddenly sounded in the quiet alley.
"What's going on?! How did this brat break free from the illusion?!"
"I...I don't know!"
"!!!"
The two girls were both startled and looked in the direction of the voice, only to see two burly men standing in the dark corner, their clothes obviously not characteristic of the Sand Village, their skin exposed.
Maki noticed the headbands on the foreheads of the two men at a glance, her face full of fear.
"They are... they are ninjas from the Cloud Village!"
"Damn it!"
Seeing that their tracks were exposed, the two ninjas looked gloomy.
As jonin, they couldn't understand how this little girl, who wasn't even a genin, could break the illusion, but their movements were not slow at all, and they quickly attacked the two of them.
At this moment, Sara and Maki's pupils shrank, and their bodies were trembling.
Although they didn't understand why the Cloud Village ninjas would appear here and cast illusions on them, they understood one thing: they were in danger now!
The four words 'kill and silence' immediately flashed into their minds!
Just then, a dark sand iron whip grabbed the waists of the two and pulled them back rapidly.
At the same time, a small figure brushed past them, and a familiar voice rang in their ears.
"Go find someone to ask for help!!!"