Near the Tenchi Bridge, by the Border between Kusagakure and the Land of Fire

  “What’s going on here? We’ve come so far; we’re practically in Kusagakure territory.”

  Inuzuka Kiba compined.

  Recently, several civilians had gone missing from towns along the border, and these towns collectively pooled their funds to request a mission from Konoha.

  Because they were ordinary civilians disappearing near the border, the mission wasn’t rated very high. However, there was a suspicion that ninja might be involved, so it was cssified as B-rank and given to Team 8, which specialized in reconnaissance.

  Following the scent trail led them all the way to the border.

  Could it be Kusagakure...? Kurenai Yūhi maintained a calm expression and said, “Hinata, use your Byakugan to stay on guard.”

  Kusagakure was notorious for being fickle—always siding with whichever major vilge seemed strongest, even though they had signed an alliance treaty with Konoha.

  If Kusagakure was involved in abducting civilians, this could escate to a conflict at the national or vilge level. Having pursued the clues all the way out here, they risked walking into an ambush.

  Upon hearing her teacher, Hyūga Hinata activated her Byakugan, scanning the surroundings.

  “Woof woof woof!” Akamaru suddenly arched his back, growling at a white spider on a nearby tree.

  “That spider has chakra—it’s some kind of jutsu creation…” Hinata’s face grew tense. “I can sense two very strong chakra signatures rapidly approaching.”

  “One of them is really strange—its chakra only shows up in the chest area.”

  “Let’s run,” Aburame Shino said, sweat forming on his forehead. “My insects are telling me these newcomers are powerful, stronger than Sensei...”

  “Grr…” Akamaru pressed himself against Kiba, whimpering anxiously.

  As a reconnaissance team, all of them had solid detection abilities—but facing a formidable enemy only amplified their psychological pressure.

  Kurenai Yūhi drew a kunai, eyes fixed on the bizarre bird getting closer in the sky. Standing atop it were two figures in bck cloaks with red clouds. Her expression turned grave as she said, “I’ll cover you. Send a distress signal to the vilge, then—”

  “Run.”

  Akatsuki, huh? What terrifying chakra… How in the world did Link manage to drive away monsters like these…? Cold sweat began to bead on her forehead.

  “How lucky—we’ve run into more Konoha ninja,” a voice called out as they drew closer. “There’s even a precious Byakugan among them. I wonder if it’s from the main family or a branch family… Hmm...”

  “Never expected that tracking Orochimaru might bring us such an extra surprise: an Aburame, an Inuzuka, and a Hyūga…”

  Now donning a newly crafted puppet shell, Sasori observed Hyūga Hinata below through its eye slots, his gaze quiet. “Let’s take them alive. I happen to need a few more human puppets for temporary use.”

  …

  Nighttime, at a Hotel

  “Fp, fp—”

  Link opened his eyes to see a messenger hawk perched on the windowsill. He signaled his shadow to open the window.

  But the hawk seemed wary—it kept shifting its feet on the windowsill, scanning all the shadows inside the room. Trained specifically for messaging, it was highly attuned to danger. After sensing the presence of multiple shadows, it hesitated to enter.

  “Chirp!” It gave a short cry before one of Link’s shadows scooped it up.

  Link removed the message attached to the hawk’s leg. After reading it and comparing the code, he transted the contents:

  [Kusagakure, Tenchi Bridge, Team 8, request for backup…]

  “Creak—” The room door opened via sand manipution.

  His three subordinates, already in full gear, reported in. As shinobi, they were well-trained: hearing the hawk’s cry, they arrived immediately with no wasted time.

  “We’re temporarily suspending our current mission. Our target is the Tenchi Bridge in Kusagakure.” Link briefly outlined the sudden assignment. He leapt to the windowsill and released the hawk that was still trembling.

  One by one, the shadows in the hotel merged into the darkness beneath his feet. With a slight push off the floor, he was already on a distant rooftop.

  Watching numerous bck shadows flow and merge under her teacher’s feet, Temari felt her scalp tingle. As she followed, she asked, “Those things aren’t in my room too, right…?”

  She found the thought a bit horrifying—knowing the pce she stayed could be covered with autonomous shadows, watching her around the clock.

  She was a ninja, but she was still a girl, after all.

  The Land of Grass… Tenchi Bridge… That’s right by the Land of Fire border. I recall Orochimaru had a base there.

  Link contempted as he left Tanzaku Town’s busy streets behind, molding his chakra and forming hand signs—

  “Roar!”

  A long-absent earth dragon materialized from the ground with a roar. Link took out a specially formuted soldier pill and swallowed it.

  A burning sensation spread in his stomach. This was a powerful, body-straining soldier pill he’d developed after consulting with Mokusa and several medical specialists.

  Once consumed, it gradually replenished almost all of his chakra. The price: it overtaxed his body’s meridians, causing slight damage. Repeated use inflicted permanent harm, and taking multiple pills in a short time could be fatal.

  Basically, it was a forbidden drug.

  Once the product was completed, Mokusa warned him that such potent formus had been developed before, often paired with certain secret arts or unique constitutions. For an ordinary ninja, the side effects were too severe, outweighing any benefit.

  So, the advice was not to use it.

  But for Link, he wasn’t too concerned.

  Hopping onto the earth dragon’s back, he motioned for his three subordinates to join him. Then he instantly cast Delicate Illness Extraction on himself, relieving the sharp internal pains caused by the drug’s stimution of his meridians.

  “Hah…”

  Once the Suna trio had steadied themselves, the earth dragon spread its wings and flew in the direction of Tenchi Bridge.

  “Prepare for combat. There’s a high chance the enemy is Orochimaru,” Link said calmly.

  Given Yūhi Kurenai’s level, even if she did run into Orochimaru, she could probably hold out for a short while. Aside from slightly cking in brute strength and chakra reserves, her overall aptitude in ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu was quite good—she wasn’t weak by jōnin standards.

  Combined with three teammates who had strong scouting abilities, they might manage to hold him at bay, unless Orochimaru resorted to Edo Tensei just to fight one jōnin team. The chance of them being instantly wiped out was low.

  The messenger hawk traveling from Konoha to Tanzaku Town took at least a dozen minutes—

  Hmm, the chances of them surviving are still slim, unless some unexpected turn of events occurs.

  After all, sending a reply back to the vilge and then waiting for further reinforcements…that time gap might be enough for Orochimaru to sughter Team 8 multiple times over. The power difference was just too great.

  Especially considering Kurenai’s biggest weakness—poor stamina (low chakra). Once she’s dragged into an endurance battle, she’ll quickly lose the ability to fight back.

  Then again, this all assumes the enemy is indeed Orochimaru. If it’s ninja from Iwagakure, for instance, they might still be locked in battle by the time help arrives.

  Bleam