[send power stones please]
"What is it, Captain?"
In the forest, Kakashi watched Hikaru frown toward the distance and couldn't help asking.
"Someone's coming," Hikaru said evenly. "They're being hunted. Still some distance from us."
But his expression was… strange.
Because he could clearly sense it—among the people being chased were several chakra signatures he recognized.
Which meant only one thing:
The ones fleeing were people he'd met before.
And their chakra didn't match the feel of his old classmates at all. The difference was subtle, but unmistakable. Hikaru was almost certain—
They were ANBU.
What left him unsettled was this: who would dare hunt Konoha ANBU inside the Land of Fire?
Could it be another "Kakuzu crime scene"?
"Hm?"
A moment later, something even more unsettling entered his perception.
An extremely abnormal chakra signature.
The quality of it was frightening—this wasn't Kakuzu's chakra, but it didn't lose to Kakuzu in the slightest.
A shadow-level powerhouse chasing a group of ANBU?
Did they somehow drag the Kazekage into this?
…No.
Hikaru hadn't met the Fourth Kazekage, but at the very least that man was human.
This chakra, though—
It felt wrong.
So wrong that Hikaru had the bizarre sensation that its owner shouldn't even qualify as a human being.
Ever since he discovered his perception talent and developed it to this point, Hikaru had sensed countless living things. He could distinguish the texture of human chakra from animals, from summons, from stranger lifeforms.
This presence was eerie.
It had traces of humanity… but far more of it felt like a puppet.
"A puppet-like monster…" Hikaru thought. "Could it be Chiyo?"
The ANBU's escape route clearly came from the Land of Rivers.
And beyond the Land of Rivers was the Land of Wind.
If he followed that logic, there was only one Kage-level puppet master in Sunagakure that everyone knew—
The old woman Chiyo.
Of course… there was another name.
A far worse one.
The man who, in a real sense, lit the fuse for the Third Great Ninja War:
Sasori.
Sunagakure's push into war wasn't only about the Third Kazekage's disappearance.
The Land of Wind was harsh—sand and storm, poor terrain, bad water sources, little mineral wealth, not even a major trade route. For Suna to grow, it had one path: expand outward.
The Land of Rivers was a tempting target.
But it sat between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind—a perfect buffer zone.
If Rasa wanted Suna's reach to extend into that land, he would have to clash with Konoha.
Hidden villages might look like military arms under the daimyō on paper, but in reality, the stronger a village was, the more it dictated terms. Danzo could silence the Fire Daimyō with a single look—people like that proved who truly held power.
Rasa didn't want to be controlled either.
And he had another reason to gamble on war.
Suna had been weak for years. Unable to be self-sufficient, they were economically strangled by their own daimyō. And because the Third Kazekage vanished, Rasa's rise came with instability—his position resembled Minato's in some ways.
Except no previous Kazekage stood above him.
Still, his foundation was thin—nearly nonexistent.
A man desperate to prove himself wouldn't miss a chance like this.
In his eyes, the kakashi's death and Tsunade's departure were proof that Konoha was weakening.
He'd underestimated Konoha—badly.
But one thing couldn't be denied:
He seized this moment and successfully dragged Konoha back into the mud of war.
And the person who handed him that "moment"—
The one who assassinated the Third Kazekage—
Was none other than Sasori, once Sunagakure's pride.
"If it's really him…" Hikaru's eyes narrowed. "Then this is going to be a problem."
He didn't want to interfere.
Not even a little.
But the ANBU were running straight toward Shouqi City—straight toward this forest.
And Hikaru and Kakashi were already outside Shouqi City.
They were close.
If Hikaru did nothing, it wouldn't just be "someone else's problem." It would explode right in their faces.
Even if they turned and ran now, the hunter would reach them in under a minute.
If Hikaru were alone, he could simply flee.
But with Kakashi beside him?
Running immediately would destroy the image he'd built—and worse, it would be abandoning comrades in front of his own eyes.
"Let's go." Hikaru's expression hardened. "If we don't move, they won't last long."
"Sounds like a serious mess." Kakashi didn't argue.
He pulled out a soldier pill, yanked down his mask, and swallowed it in one motion—then pulled his mask and ANBU face-cover back into place.
He'd just been testing a new technique. The chakra expenditure wasn't catastrophic, but it wasn't small either.
If he didn't top himself up now, he wouldn't be much help when it mattered.
Kakashi wasn't the type to drag a teammate down.
His standards for himself were always brutal.
The two moved fast—within moments, they were nearly at the edge of the conflict.
Then Hikaru's expression shifted again.
Because the ANBU had already been caught.
And the Kage-level monster was about to strike.
"Kakashi, I'm going ahead," Hikaru said quickly. "Speed up. This is bad, understand?"
"I understand, Captain." Kakashi nodded immediately. He could feel that strange chakra trembling through the trees as well.
Hikaru adjusted his breathing.
Then—
His speed suddenly exploded.
He became a streak of light tearing through the forest.
Kakashi had seen Hikaru's speed before, so he wasn't surprised—but even so, he couldn't help sighing.
Too fast.
Fast enough to make it hard to follow with the eye.
He couldn't help wondering—
Why was Hikaru so fast?
Was it…
…for running away?
Kakashi didn't dare let his mind wander further. Up ahead was a real crisis. If he arrived late, it would be a disaster.
Hikaru sprinted like a gale.
He'd already entered Sage Mode mid-run. Against an enemy like this, he couldn't afford even the smallest gamble.
In the blink of an eye, he reached the outskirts of the battlefield.
And immediately, he saw the hunched figure—so bent it looked like it crawled.
"That's Sasori!"
Hikaru recognized him instantly.
And at that very moment, Sasori attacked.
A storm of poisoned senbon erupted like they were free—completely blanketing the ANBU's entire space of movement.
Hikaru didn't hesitate.
He formed seals in a flash. Chakra surged violently through him.
"Sage Art—Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
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