By the ti the three of them arrived, it was nearly afternoon.
The scene was a disaster.
Several trees had been split apart by Lightning Style; their trunks were charred black, the break-points jagged and uneven. Three deep grooves were carved into the ground, earth upturned with shards of rock scattered along the edges. A few kunai lay forgotten in the grass, one of them snapped in two.
Terumi i ca to a halt.
Her gaze swept from the roots of the trees to the edges of the ravines, finally landing on the trampled grass. There was no blood on the ground, and no bodies.
Kitahara Kaede was not here.
Her fingertips twitched slightly before she clenched them into fists. The absence of a result was far more unsettling than seeing one.
Midori had already crouched down. He brushed aside the grass to examine the footprints and picked up a snapped dry twig. There were two distinct sets of movent patterns in the soil—crossing, pulling apart, and then drawing close again.
"The clash didn't last long."
Hearing this, Terumi i's fingers relaxed slightly.
If the fight had been brief, it was a good sign. Kitahara Kaede had once broken down the fighting style of the masked Lightning Style user for her. If he had actually encountered that man, he shouldn't have been completely powerless.
But the site was too clean. It was so clean that there wasn't a single shred of evidence to prove he was still alive. The breath she had just started to release caught in her throat again.
Ao activated his Byakugan. The veins around his right eye bulged as his vision swept across the entire battlefield. After a mont, he withdrew his gaze.
"There are only traces of two people fighting here."
"Direction," Terumi i asked imdiately.
Ao raised a hand, pointing toward the depths of the southeastern forest. "They went that way."
Terumi i nodded and bolted into the woods.
Ao and Midori exchanged a glance.
"Is it really alright for Genji to let her co?" Midori asked in a low voice.
Ao watched Terumi i's retreating back for a heartbeat before speaking. "Since Genji gave the nod, he must have his reasons." He shifted his gaze back to the path. "Keep up."
The three maintained their original formation: Terumi i in the lead, Ao in the center, and Midori bringing up the rear.
Her speed continued to increase. Every ti she nearly broke formation, she would consciously pull back half a step. She wanted to catch up as quickly as possible, but she hadn't forgotten that this was a mission.
Suddenly, the leaves ahead shimred.
"Up ahead," Ao cautioned.
Terumi i imdiately lowered her stance, her eyes scanning the canopy on both sides. Midori drew a kunai and pressed himself against a tree trunk. Ao's Byakugan locked onto a high point in the distance.
Through the mist, a masked figure blurred across the branches, revealing only half of a profile. Terumi i's expression tightened. She had rembered that silhouette for many years.
"It's him."
As soon as she spoke, the figure didn't linger. With a single leap, he vanished deeper into the woods. Terumi i gritted her teeth and gave chase instantly. Ao and Midori didn't ask questions and plunged into the mist after her.
Another question weighed heavily on her heart: *Where is Kaede?*
High in the branches, Kitahara Kaede scanned behind him with his peripheral vision.
*Finally, they're here.*
He looked away, neither accelerating to shake them nor slowing down enough to arouse suspicion. He kept the distance perfectly calibrated—close enough for the three to follow, but far enough that they couldn't form a pincer movent.
After a while, Ao spoke up. "He's leading us."
"I noticed too," Midori replied, glancing ahead. "It's just one person. We'll pursue for now, but we retreat if anything feels off." He added, "The question is, where did Kitahara Kaede go?"
Terumi i didn't look back. "We'll find out when we catch him."
Her voice sounded steady, but only she could feel the tightness in her throat.
The terrain began to change. The rock walls on either side rose and fell in uneven tiers, and the path gradually grew narrow and long. Mist flowed along the ground, and the stone walls sliced their field of vision into fragnts.
Ao frowned. This was not an ideal place for a pursuit. While the Byakugan could see through the rock walls, it couldn't help three people navigate these narrow corners simultaneously.
The masked man stopped at the entrance of a canyon, his back turned to them. Ao imdiately scanned the surroundings.
"No other chakra signatures." He checked the walls and the ground. "No large-scale Explosive Tag arrays either."
Midori tightened his grip on his kunai. "No backup? Then let's grab him."
Terumi i nodded, her pace a half-step faster than Ao and Midori's.
Kitahara Kaede turned around, his gaze sweeping across the three of them. Terumi i had already crossed the threshold of the canyon entrance. Ao and Midori were still half a body's length behind.
That was enough.
Kitahara Kaede raised his right hand. Lightning erupted in his palm, and the piercing shriek of a thousand birds filled the canyon. The Chidori Sharp Spear didn't target any of them; instead, it shot straight up into the overhead rock layer.
The rock wall was sliced open by the lightning. Massive boulders plumted, crashing violently into the passage.
Terumi i leaped back half a step, but the falling debris had already sealed the exit behind her.
Outside the canyon, Midori's expression shifted, and he imdiately began forming hand signs. Ao grabbed his wrist.
"Don't move yet."
Through the fallen rocks, the Byakugan could see the two figures inside the canyon. Terumi i was standing, and the masked man was opposite her. There was still a gap between them.
"She's fine for now."
Midori looked at him. "Break the rocks and get in."
Ao shook his head. "No." he turned toward a side mountain path. "We'll flank them from the other side."
Midori paused for only a second before stowing his kunai. "Let's go."
The two diverted to the mountain path.
Inside the canyon, Terumi i glanced at the rocks behind her, then looked straight ahead. She didn't rush to attack.
"Where's the other Kirigakure ninja?"
The masked man didn't answer. He reached into his cloak and pulled out a Kirigakure headband, holding it up for her to see. Then, he tossed it forward.
The headband landed at Terumi i's feet.
Looking down at the headband, a surge of fury erupted in her chest. She looked up at the masked man. He remained silent.
He was forcing her hand. He wanted her to believe that Kitahara Kaede was gone. He wanted her to panic.
Terumi i clenched her fists, her voice turning cold. "You want to think he's dead?"
The masked man remained silent.
Terumi i stared at him. She didn't believe Kitahara Kaede would die so easily. But the headband was right there. He was gone. And this man was standing right in front of her.
Reason could restrain her hands, but it couldn't suppress the fire in her heart. She ford a hand sign.
"Boil Release: Skillful Mist Technique!"
White mist exhaled from her mouth, spreading forward. The canyon was already narrow, and the mist quickly filled the space between them.
Kitahara Kaede moved. Lightning flared in his right hand as he lunged forward, skimming the ground.
Terumi i didn't retreat. She spat out a torrent of Lava Style, the scalding liquid hitting the ground in front of her to block his approach. Simultaneously, she pushed the Boil Release mist to both sides, compressing his movent space.
She didn't throw her jutsu blindly. First, she blocked the path, then she constricted his position. Once the opponent closed in, she would shift her center of gravity to defend against a Lightning Style strike that could pierce her line.
These were all things Kitahara Kaede had taught her.
Kitahara Kaede pivoted to avoid the Lava Style. Through the mask, he watched her. She wasn't wasting chakra, and her anger wasn't disrupting her rhythm. She dared to press the engagent rather than hiding behind long-range ninjutsu.
That last move had even disrupted his own attacking tempo.
*She's learned well,* he thought.
Kitahara Kaede began to pull his punches. The montum of the battle shifted slightly toward Terumi i.
The second round of engagent was even faster. The Lightning Style lunges remained fierce, but Terumi i spotted a gap in his right-side defense. It was a montary pause—extrely brief.
She didn't rush in imdiately. Kitahara Kaede had scolded her for this in the past: *If an enemy reveals a flaw, you think you can trust it? You're a ninja, not a gambler.*
She had kept those words engraved in her mind.
First, she used Boil Release to constrain his breathing, then used Lava Style to force him into a fixed position.
She wasn't in a rush.
She wanted to see it a second ti.
Kitahara Kaede left the sa opening once again.
The margin was smaller this ti, and the positioning was more natural.
This ti, Terumi i moved.
She drew a kunai from her tool pouch and lunged forward, closing the distance in an instant. She angled her strike to bypass the defensive line of his ribs.
It was an angle Kitahara Kaede had corrected her on many tis.
*If you truly intend to kill, do not hesitate.*
With the right angle, a single strike was all it took.
*Thuck.*
The kunai sank deep into his chest and abdon.
Blood surged along the blade, splashing onto her hand. Terumi i gripped the hilt, her eyes locked on the masked man.
'It's over.'
The thought had barely ford before her hand froze.
The masked man didn't counterattack. He didn't even retreat.
He simply looked down at the wound, as if he had been waiting for this strike all along.
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