Chapter 26: Mistakes Were Made

Though it would ordinarily take around 3-4 days to travel from Konoha to the Land of Sound, traveling at a modest pace, Wu managed to reach the borders in just under two and a half hours.

Before having its name changed, the region Wu was venturing into was known as the Land of Rice Paddies. As such, rice fields, lush greenery, and small mountains dotted the landscape, stretching to the horizon.

Perching himself atop one of the taller mountains in the region, Wu took a moment to appreciate the splendor of the Land of Sound. It was quite the sight to behold, and, thanks to his rather unique set of eyes, he could see upwards of ten kilometers. Further, if he really strained himself.

Since only the Five Great Shinobi Nations had endured long enough to have their locations become fairly common knowledge, Wu had no idea where Otogakure was. He could try tracking down the Sound Daimyo or one of his officials, but that probably wasn't the brightest idea. Instead, he pulled out a few strands of his hair, whispering, "Go, my children..." as dozens of identical copies of himself appeared, spreading out through the region.

Unlike the Clone Jutsu taught at the Academy, which produced no sound and had no physical form, Wu's 'Hair Clone Jutsu' created real, tangible copies of himself. The only downsides were that they only lasted an hour and that he was limited by the number of hairs on his head. They also couldn't recover Chakra, so while they shared Wu's strength, speed, and even his equipment, they would burn themselves out fairly quickly in a direct encounter with enemy Shinobi. Of course, with more than 100,000 hairs on his head, even if he limited his clones to using Taijutsu, Wu could potentially wipe out an unprepared village before they expired. One of the many reasons Hiruzen trusted him to venture into enemy territory.

With each of his clones dispersing an hour later, a wave of purely visual information came rushing into Wu's mind. However, as none of his clones had dispelled themselves prematurely, he didn't bother perusing through it as they would have done so if they found anything interesting. After all, Wu didn't play second fiddle to anyone, not even himself.

Since his first initial had failed, Wu rose to his feet and began making his way toward the coast a few hundred kilometers to the North. The Land of Sound was bordered by the Lands of Fire, Hot Water, and one of the most dangerous regions of the Continent, a peninsula colloquially known as the Land of No Return. This limited their options when it came to trade, so Wu deduced that the best places to gather information would be the nation's capital and the ports along the coast. However, the former was a little too high profile, so Wu decided upon the more discreet option. At least, that was his intent...

Shortly after Wu began his leisurely stroll, a volley of pale green, Chakra-infused arrows attempted to knock him out of the sky. He caught the one that would have hit his eye but allowed the rest to crash against his body, shattering on impact.

"Hooo~? It hasn't been but a few hours since I left the village. I wasn't expecting someone to volunteer as my first victim..."

Charging toward the group of stunned archers, a rare profession in the World of Shinobi, Wu's body traced a golden trail through the sky. When he impacted the ground between him, a faint ripple spread out from his feet before an area roughly 50m in diameter 'erupted' into a pillar of dust and stone debris extending as far as 300m above the treeline.

Though his attack would fodder a group of Genin, Wu could tell by the Chakra contained within the arrows that his would-be opponents weren't completely inept. Of the six, only one was seriously injured, while the rest escaped with minor injuries or protected themselves with a barrier.

Seeing the pyramid-shaped barrier protecting three of his attackers, Wu's brows raised as he remarked, "That's a neat little trick."

Staring back at Wu, the presumed leader of the group, was a tall man with bronzed skin, sharp black eyes, and long black hair that extended past his lower back. He had a red bandana covering his forehead that had feathers protruding from the sides, and his attire consisted of a skin-tight blue top that seemed designed to specifically show off his muscles, black pants, a red waist cloth, and a series of belts containing numerous tools, including a large, machete-sized knife. The rest of his companions wore attire more suitable to a Shinobi, the only exception being the female member of the group, a purple-haired woman wearing a black tube-top, a camo skirt, and fishnet stockings.

Realizing they may have just provoked a wayward dragon, the long-haired man placed his rather sizeable longbow on the ground and declared, "We surrender..." in a somber, gravelly tone.

With his right hand supporting the staff on his shoulder, Wu waggled his left index finger, responding with a taunting, "Ah, ah, ah. You don't get to attack someone unprovoked and then get to surrender just because you realize how fucked you are. Unless you provide me with the information I require, don't expect to be walking away from this fateful encounter with a pep in your step."

Swallowing hard, the raven-haired man suppressed the urge to order his allies to attack, asking, "What do you want to know?" with a fair amount of trepidation.

Narrowing his eyes in amusement, Wu remarked, "Smart. Unfortunately, I'm not a fucking idiot..."

Noticing the almost imperceptibly thin threads extending from the fingers of one of his attackers, Wu's figure briefly disappeared from view before a loud crashing sound, accompanied by the thunderous splintering of wood, echoed through the area. By the time the remaining members reacted, Wu was perched where their former comrade once stood, the latter nowhere to be seen. However, based on the trail of destruction extending into the nearby forest, it was easy to imagine what had transpired...

Assuming her comrade had been killed, the purple-haired woman's eyes went red as she screamed, "You bastard! You killed Jango...!"

Before the black-haired leader of the group could even think to stop her from attacking, the purple-haired woman manipulated what appeared to be a swarm of Teru Teru Bozu, ghost-like dolls that were typically used by farmers to ward off bad weather. They were incredibly swift, even faster than thrown shuriken, but Wu just swung his staff in a relaxed manner, creating a fierce wind that tore apart both the Teru Teru Bozu and strings.

Since the woman had made the mistake of attacking him, Wu surprised both her and the rest of the group by leaning forward slightly and glaring. His previously golden eyes immediately gained a fiery red hue as narrow, laser-like beams of intense light shot from his pupils.

Though the beam only persisted for a moment, Wu only needed to turn his head slightly to cut through the woman's legs and the ground behind her. The heat produced by his eyes was enough to melt through a B-Rank Earth Jutsu in less than five seconds, so the average human had no hope of resisting the nigh-instantaneous attack.

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As the ear-piercing scream of their companion echoed through the area, the rest of the group was left with 'no choice' but to attack. In reality, Wu would have only given them a 'light' beating if they surrendered, but only he knew that. As far as the group of vagrant Shinobi was concerned, Wu was a ruthless, seemingly indestructible monster...

Catching the leader of the group's machete with his bare hand, Wu gave it a light squeeze, shattering it like glass. Then, as another man released an arrow at him from behind, his body abruptly vanished, resulting in not-so-friendly fire. Luckily, the man didn't have to lament shooting his leader in the abdomen as his head was promptly snapped backward, the opposite direction his body was facing.

Unbothered by the fear in the man's eyes, Wu maintained a toothy grin as he said, "Well, hello there." in a teasing tone. Unfortunately, the man was unable to return his greeting as his body slumped forward, the light fading from his eyes.

Clicking his tongue, Wu remarked, "Rude..." while simultaneously catching a javelin-sized arrow fired at him by the youngest member of the group, a boy with similar features to the presumed leader.

With panic in his eyes, the raven-haired man shouted, "No, Kotaru! Run away...!" as he extended his hand to generate a pale green, pyramid-like barrier around Wu's body. It attempted to crush him by rapidly shrinking in size, but Wu shattered it with a swing of his staff before immediately vanishing. When he next appeared, he was standing right in front of the startled 'Kotaru,' a friendly smile on his face as he asked, "How old are you?"

Ostensibly traumatized and fearful for his life, the youthful-looking boy shook like a wet dog in winter as he replied, "F-Fifteen..."

"Hmmm..."

As the drinking age in Konoha was twenty, something Wu found fairly ridiculous, considering Shinobi were legally considered adults and tasked with killing people, he elected to regard the quivering Kotaru as a child. Thus, instead of smashing the boy's head in, Wu placed his hand on Kotaru's shoulder and said, "Then let's end things here. Give me the info I require, and I'll leave you and your daddy alone. Scouts honor."

With his father bleeding out and exhausted nearby, Kotaru swallowed the sizeable knot that had formed in his throat, asking, "W-What do you want to know?"

Narrowing his eyes and smiling from ear to ear, Wu said, "I was asked to deliver a message to Otogakure, but for the life of me, I can't seem to find the damned place. Be a champ and point me in the right direction?"

Catching Wu a little by surprise, Kotaru 'did' actually know the location of Oto, his voice trembling as he provided fairly detailed directions. This put Wu in a pretty good mood, so instead of shattering the boy's kneecaps and mending them just enough that he would be walking with a limp for the rest of his life, Wu gave him an ointment to put on his father's wounds, wished him the best, and bounded back into the sky...

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Located near the base of a massive tree, the entrance to Otogakure, or, more accurate, the entrance to their headquarters in the Land of Sound, resembled the opening of a storehouse used to preserve rice. If not for the fact it was located deep in the heart of a forest infested with fierce Chakra beasts, animals that had been mutated into monsters, Wu would have thought he was in the wrong location.

Voicing his thoughts aloud, Wu questioned, "What kind of Hidden Village is this? Even if it expands underground, it's a single fucking compound..."

Though his only experience with Hidden Villages was Konoha, Wu had reviewed the information Hiruzen had on the other villages. In exchange for allowing the R&D Department to analyze his various skills and abilities, he had been given limited access to Hirzuen's private library, containing a plethora of information that was 'supposed' to be for the Hokage's eyes only.

With his photographic memory and ostensibly perfect recall, Wu had a decent understanding of how Hidden Villages were supposed to be laid out. They were military fortifications meant to fend off enemy attacks, so finding an underground bunker, Wu got the impression he had stumbled across someone's secret hideout rather than a proper village...

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