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Yami could now see through the eyes of plenty of bats which was nothing new to him but trying to find a suitable place like that was going to be complicated. Unlike humans, bats can't see colors, so Yami had to take the assistance of the sonar. He couldn't use it for long as someone at the base could detect the vibrations.
After searching for a while, he found a couple of tents that had small heaps of soil. Yami didn't know what it was for nor why it was even there. He had one of the small bats round the tunnel a few times and saw 2 shinobis come out of the tent with dirty clothes and buckets full of wet mud in both hands.
'Are they digging inside the tent? Is there something underground? Yami had the bat sneak inside the tent and saw a hole in the center of it with a ladder attached on the side. Before the bat could sneak outside, the two men came back inside the tent after emptying the bucket.
One of the shinobis immediately saw the bat and said "Where did this little one come from?" to which the other one just ignored and said "We are digging into an old cave, what's surprising about a bat popping out from it?"
"You seem cranky. Is it because of the guard duty? I also wish we could kill bloodline shinobis rather than doing this." the first shinobi said as he started descending the ladder into the hole.
"Man, those stone bastards can do it faster than us then why are we stuck with his job? Lord Moji seems to have lost his touch and now those bastards from other lands treat us like their servants." the other shinobi said as he also started descending into the hole.
A smile appeared on Yami's face as he heard the entire conversation. He instructed the small bat to sneak inside the hole and slowly find a remote corner. Yami also had a few other bats also sneak inside the tent one by one. He had the bigger ones keep an eye out if anyone is coming toward the tent.
Around 10-15 minutes later, all the bats that Yami had disintegrated in, had flown down into the hole. He saw that they were digging in a single direction which made it hard to find an isolated place but only 2 shinobis being down here meant that the chances of Yami being spotted were low.
Yami had the bats hang up from the damp ceiling till the shinobis filled their buckets with mud and started climbing up to dump it out. As soon as they were out of his line of sight, the bats all flew into each other forming Yami again.
As soon as Yami materialized back, he used a transformation jutsu to turn himself into Ron. He then climbed up the hole to the tent. He could hear the two shinobis talking outside while dumping the sand from the buckets.
Yami disguised as Ron opened the tent and stepped outside. He could clearly smell the blood in the air which told him that Priest Ji was up to nothing good.
"Are you two the ones tasked with digging the hole?" Yami asked in a little bossy voice. The two shinobis didn't expect someone to come here at this time and definitely not stand behind them without even making a sound. They immediately stepped back and then looked at Ron's face and the mist headband he had on him.
"Who the hell are you?" the 1st shinobi asked as he looked at Yami and then at the tent behind him.
"Yes, and where did you come from?" the 2nd one asked.
Yami glanced at the two of them and said "I was sent to see how much of the digging work has been done. How is it going?"
"Who sent you?" The 2nd shinobi asked in a suspicious voice to which Yami made an ugly face and said "Hmph...those stone shinobis...who else. They have started bossing us all around. I don't care enough to remember those assholes' names."
Hearing that the man in front of them had the same amount of hatred they had for the stone shinobis the 2 shinobis let down their guard.
The 1st shinobi looked at the other one and said "He is right, you know. Whose going to remember their names anyways." he shrugged as he spread his hands.
The 2nd shinobi nodded and said "Alright...I was just a little spooked seeing you standing right behind us without us noticing. As for the digging, can't they send more people to work with us? I don't even know what we are even finding. Captain just pointed in a direction and told us to keep digging."
This statement from the 2nd shinobi got Yami thinking. 'Is this the tunnel for the higher-ups to escape? Maybe Ji plans to sacrifice everyone here and escape from here why give only 2 people to do such an important task' There were a lot of questions that Yami had but he knew that the 2 in front of him were in the dark.
"Alright, keep doing what you are doing but I wouldn't trust those stone bastards if I were you." Yami said.
"What do you mean by that? What can small fries like us even do?" the 2nd shinobi asked to which Yami walked over to the two of them and kept both his hands on their shoulders and said "That I don't know but what's stopping them from dealing with us after they get what they want? We aren't even told anything but they expect us to follow each and every command of theirs blindly."
The 1st shinobi who was quiet up until now looked at Yami with determination and said "You are right. I am not going to let those shinobis from other villages tell me what to do. If we are in fact being used to make an escape route for them, I'd rather prepare some provisions that they can't leave us back." he said with an evil smirk on his face.
"W-What are you planning to do? I don't like that smile of yours." the 2nd shinobi said with hesitation.
"Stop behaving like a scaredy cat and come with me." the 1st shinobi said as he held the 2nd one's hand and guided him toward the tent. He looked back at Yami and said "You can tell them that we have dug 20 meters in the direction that they told us. And as for you, feel free to come visit us."
Yami smiled at him as he said that and nodded at the man. He then turned toward the other tents and looked at his hands. What he had done just now wasn't just normal talk. When he put his hands on the shoulders of the two shinobis, he sent wisps of his chakra to their body. Like before he didn't have to touch the person's chest directly to change the rhythm of their heartbeat. This time he did that just by his touch. He was able to make them agreeable and do something that they had never thought of.
Yami did this as an experiment so he didn't suggest anything too radical like setting up the tunnel supports in such a way that they collapse with a trigger or even more radical like paper bombs hidden in the walls of the tunnel.
The scroll did say that the person must have some tiny amount of doubt in his mind for you to turn him completely. That's why Yami convinced the two of them to act against the stone shinobis but the same couldn't be said if the ones escaping are mist shinobis.
Yami looked at the main tent where the security was even tighter. He started walking in that direction but before he could even get into the vicinity, he was stopped by 2 stone shinobis.
"Where do you think you are going?" the stone shinobi said to which Yami stepped toward him and said "You think you can block me from roaming in my own land?"
Seeing Yami provoke him, the stone shinobi was really surprised but before he could give an appropriate answer to it, he heard a shout from behind him.
"RONNNN" Yami and the 2 shinobi looked in that direction and saw a bearded man with a scar on his chin come toward them.
"Where the hell have you been? Sho has been searching for you since morning. I am your captain and you dare not even tell me?
"I was given a different task when I was coming to report to you." Yami said as he glanced at the 2 stone shinobis and clicked his tongue. The captain understood that the task given to Ron was by a stone shinobi.
"Alright...alright...come on in...go and help Sho with the bodies." the captain said pointing in the direction of a tent that wasn't blue like the others, but black with drawings made on them in red color.
'That tent seems to be the source of the bloody smell. What did he mean by taking care of the bodies?' Yami thought as he headed toward the black tent.