The trees stood like silent sentinels as the group huddled in the dark. For over three hours of relentless chase, they had pushed their limits until the forest became a blur of pain and cold sweat.
They finally halted behind a massive cedar, collapsing into the shadows. Their chests heaved in the damp air, yet their vigilance stood still as they watched the trail they had left behind.
Tsunade leaned against the rough bark, her eyes closed. The Qi Blood Pills had saved her from collapse, but her muscles still twitched from the strain of her techniques. Her skin was a sickly gray, and she looked at her trembling, soot-stained hands with glazed eyes.
"We can't keep this pace," she whispered, her voice barely a ragged breath. "The pills mend my energy, but the fatigue in my marrow is heavy. My body is totally exhausted."
"Those Jōnin are relentless," Jiraiya muttered, his head lolling. "They have adult stamina. My legs feel like they're burning from the inside."
Orochimaru gripped a kunai with white knuckles, his pale skin almost translucent. "They are elites. Their reserves are deep. We are fighting a war of attrition we cannot win in this state."
Torifu looked at his trainees, his bloodshot eyes full of a grim decision. He tightened his grip on his staff and stood up, his massive frame shaking slightly.
"I will stay behind," Torifu said, his voice deep and final. "I can expand my body to block the narrow pass and buy you the time you need to reach the border. As your commander, it is my—"
"I'll go," Yoichi interrupted, cutting Torifu's sentence short.
The group fell silent as Yoichi's remark resounded right through their ears. He reached into his embrace, securing a bottle of Qi Blood Pills and the vial of Slow-Acting Poison. With a rational, steady motion, he handed his Space Pouch into Tsunade's palms.
"No matter what happens here... Tell my clan to release it," Yoichi said. "They will know what to do once Kohaku-sama hears the word. Moreover, notify Mito-sama to quell the anger in my clan's unruliness."
"What are you saying?! No! I don't approve of this plan!" Tsunade went alarmed, her tired hands clutching the pouch as she tried to reach for him. "Return to us, I'll take a no for an answer!"
"This is our only last resort," Yoichi reassured her, stepping forward to pull her into a brief, firm hug. The warmth of his embrace was a sharp contrast to the cold logic in his voice. "Their main mission is to capture me. Their optional task was to kill you all. If I serve as the bait, you can all escape from this."
Even with the use of Military Ration Pills or Qi Blood Pills, it was impossible to outrun twenty Jōnin without using their fullest efforts to escape. Yoichi knew this was a gamble, but his mind calculated the odds with cold precision. He stepped back, his body beginning to flicker as he prepared his movement technique.
"Yoichi, wait!" Tsunade screamed, her voice cracking with desperation as she reached out to grab his sleeve, only to catch empty air. "Don't you dare leave us behind! Come back!"
Yoichi did not stop.
I am the prize they want, he thought, his rationality overriding the sting of her cry. By separating myself, I become the only target that matters. I will force them to choose between a pursuit of the Uchiha or a futile kill of a retreating squad. They will choose me every time.
He vanished into the thicket, leaving the group behind in the heavy silence of the ancient woods.
The heavy silence Yoichi left behind was shattered by Tsunade's fist striking the cedar trunk. Bark splintered under her knuckles, but the impact lacked her usual bone-crushing force. She slumped against the tree, the Space Pouch clutched so tightly to her chest that her knuckles turned white.
"We can't just let him go," she hissed, her voice trembling with a mix of fury and fear.
"Torifu-sensei, do something! We are a team! We don't leave people behind!"
Torifu didn't move, his eyes fixed on the spot where Yoichi had vanished. His large hand gripped his staff until the wood groaned. "He's right, Tsunade. My sacrifice would have been a stalling tactic. His sacrifice is a diversion. There is a difference in the strategic outcome."
"Strategic outcome?" Jiraiya snapped, pushing himself up from the root with a groan of pain. "He's a kid! We're all kids! You're the Jōnin here, Sensei! You're supposed to be the one protecting us, not the other way around!"
Orochimaru remained leaning against the wood, his breathing still shallow. He looked at the pouch in Tsunade's lap with a hollow gaze. "Be quiet, Jiraiya. Your sentimentality is useless. Yoichi calculated the variables. He saw that we are dead weight in our current condition. He chose the only path that results in a survival rate higher than zero."
"Shut up, Orochimaru!" Tsunade turned on him, her eyes red. "He isn't a variable! He's our friend! He even left a message for Mito-sama because he doesn't think he's coming back!"
"Exactly," Orochimaru countered, his voice cold and clinical. "He has already accepted his death or capture. If we follow him now, we waste the opening he is giving us. We would be spitting on his resolve."
Torifu finally turned to face them, his expression etched with a deep, sorrowful maturity. He realized the gravity of Yoichi's final request regarding the Uchiha clan's unruliness. This was no longer just a border mission; it was a race against a political catastrophe.
"We aren't going to the border," Torifu commanded, his voice regaining its steel.
"The border is too far and too exposed. We head straight for Konoha. We need to deliver that message and get reinforcements back here immediately. If the Uchiha believe Yoichi was abandoned, the village will burn from the inside."
Tsunade looked down at the pouch, her tears carving tracks through the soot on her face. She felt the weight of Yoichi's trust and the terrifying reality of his words. She stood up, her legs shaking but her resolve hardening.
"Then we run," she whispered, looking toward the village direction. "We run until our lungs burst. We have to tell them."
The group turned their backs on the chase, pushing their exhausted bodies into a desperate sprint toward the hidden leaf. Every step felt like a betrayal of the boy who stayed behind, but they knew it was the only way to save the peace he was currently dying to protect.
...
...
...
Yoichi moved like a ghost through the underbrush, his feet barely touching the soil. The removal of his weights made the world feel slow, but the fire in his lungs reminded him he was still human. He looked back once, sensing the distant presence of his team moving toward Konoha.
Peace? Fool... Yoichi thought, his lips curling into a thin, bitter line. I'm doing this for my friends, not for the sake of that goddamn village.
The high-minded ideals of the Hokage meant nothing to him in the face of the exhaustion he had seen in Tsunade's eyes. He wasn't a martyr for a flag; he was a shield for his peers who struggled and shared meals with him.
His rationality remained sharp, even as his blood surged with the raw intent to kill. He came to a halt in a small clearing where the moonlight struggled to pierce the canopy.
A whistling sound cut through the air. A kunai thudded into the tree beside his head, followed by the heavy landing of three Jōnin. Within seconds, seventeen more filled the branches and the forest floor, twenty elite shinobi surrounding a single boy.
"The Uchiha brat stopped running," the Kumo leader said, his lightning-flickering eyes scanning for a trap. "Where are the others? Where is the Senju girl?"
"They're gone," Yoichi said, his voice flat. "And you aren't going after them."
The Mist commander laughed, a wet, rasping sound. "You think you can hold twenty of us? Your body's flagging back. You're a cub facing a pack of wolves."
Yoichi didn't respond with words. He took a deep, steadying breath, his internal gates groaning under the sudden pressure.
"Gate of Opening... Gate of Healing... Gate of Life... Open!"
A violent, green aura erupted from his skin, the grass beneath his feet disintegrating from the sheer pressure of his surging life force. His skin turned a deep, heated red as his heart hammered against his ribs. He snapped his eyes open, the twin tomoe of his Sharingan spinning with lethal precision. He dropped into the Heavenly Demon Posture, his presence radiating a cold, demonic pressure that forced the nearest Jōnin to take a step back.
"I don't need to defeat you," Yoichi whispered, the world slowing down as his eyes tracked every muscle twitch of the twenty men. "I just need to make sure none of you leave this forest alive."
The twenty shinobi moved as one, a storm of steel and elemental chakra. Yoichi exploded into motion, his speed surpassing the limits of human sight.
The clearing became a chaotic theater of clashing blades. With the Sharingan predicting every strike and the Eight Gates providing the explosive power, he wove through their ranks like a dark reaper, his fists striking with the weight of falling mountains.
The Kumo leader snarled, coughing up blood as he forced himself back to his feet. He surged with lightning, using a high-level Body Flicker to keep pace with the boy's blurring form.
The remaining Jōnin realized they could not win alone; they moved into a defensive hexagon, their chakra weaving a sensory net that tracked Yoichi's every heartbeat.
Water Release: Wild Water Wave!
Three Mist shinobi slammed their palms into the forest floor. A massive surge of pressurized water erupted, flooding the clearing instantly. The ground turned into a thick, clinging swamp that dragged at Yoichi's heels. He was forced to leap into the air, his speed hindered as he lost the traction needed for his peak movement.
Lightning Spear Thrust!
While mid-air, a Kumo tracker intercepted him with a desperate lunging strike. Yoichi twisted his frame, his fingers stiffening into a lethal, focused point. He struck the man's armored shoulder with a fast and lethal penetration. The force pierced the metal and bone, but the Jōnin was an elite; he ignored the pain and grabbed Yoichi's wrist, pinning him in mid-air for the others to strike.
"Now! Kill him!" the tracker roared, his face twisted in agony.
Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!
Four Jōnin below unleashed a synchronized volley. A massive wall of roaring flame ascended toward Yoichi, the heat singeing his clothes and hair as he struggled to break the tracker's iron grip. The oxygen in the clearing began to vanish, replaced by the suffocating pressure of the blaze.
Mountain Crushing Fist!
With a guttural growl, Yoichi funneled his doubled force into his free arm. He struck the air itself, the blunt force shockwave creating a vacuum that snuffed out the heart of the flames. The sheer pressure sent the remnants of the fire spiraling back at the casters, forcing the Jōnin to break their formation to avoid being burned by their own jutsu.
Lightning Style: Black Panther!
The Kumo leader stood at the edge of the clearing, his hands finishing a complex series of signs. Black lightning crackled around him, taking the shape of a predatory beast. The air grew heavy with ozone, and the water on the ground began to hiss and hum.
Yoichi ripped his arm free from the dying tracker and landed back in the mud, his breath coming in ragged gasps. The Eight Inner Gates were screaming, his muscles beginning to fray under the relentless output. These elites were rotating their positions with mechanical precision. Every time he struck one down, two more stepped in to cover the gap.
They are rotating their defenders, Yoichi analyzed, his Sharingan tracking the black panther as it prepared to pounce. If I don't break this cycle now, my body will collapse before they do.
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Thanks to Snowwwww, Daemonic_Dragon, Belloni, and doomslayer24 for Power Stones! Thank you so much, Senior Brothers and Sisters!