CH_153

"Buddy, can you just stop chasing me…" Tōji was speechless.

Raimei had been chasing Tōji for half the night and still hadn't stopped.

At one point, Tōji's chakra had bottomed out, so he'd risked opening the scavenged tool pouch and dug out a Soldier Pill to replenish himself…

Fortunately, Raimei's speed was clearly much lower than Tōji's from the start—he could only manage to not lose track of him. Even when Tōji slowed down, Raimei still couldn't catch up.

After that, it became a pure chase—both of them just swimming on physical stamina and willpower alone…

"If I can't complete the mission, going back to Kirigakure won't end well for me either. Can I afford not to chase you? Unless you leave your head behind." Raimei wasn't wrong—he couldn't go back without completing his mission.

Even the ones sent to eliminate Konoha's jōnin spies were all Kiri-nin that Obito didn't like—many of them from major Kiri clans, or those who opposed the "Bloody Mist policy."

Raimei wasn't one of those. He'd just happened to be assigned to patrol the Lanxi Town area… and now, by coincidence, Kirigakure had discovered a Konoha spy of chūnin level operating here.

"You can't catch me anyway, so what's the point! Why not become a missing-nin instead? Way safer than going back to Kirigakure." Tōji knew exactly what kind of hellhole Kirigakure was—he was speaking from the heart, trying to persuade his pursuer.

"…" Raimei said nothing.

He just kept swimming after Tōji with relentless persistence.

Actually, it wasn't that Raimei had no chakra left—he'd just noticed that whenever he sped up, the Konoha chūnin sped up too. And when he slowed down, the other would slow down as well.

It was like… the other guy didn't have much chakra, but would never let himself be caught.

He'd already figured it out—he probably couldn't catch Tōji. The final outcome would be very, very bad for him.

Not just death—but a long, drawn-out terror before it!

And part of the blame for this situation was his own "contribution." If his teammate hadn't died, their "prey" wouldn't have been able to escape.

If this kept up—maybe ten days, maybe eight—as long as neither of them died of exhaustion or starvation, they'd get closer and closer to the Land of Fire…

"How about you go to the Land of Waves!" Seeing no response from Raimei, Tōji threw out another "pointless" suggestion.

"The Land of Waves? Isn't that under Konoha's control?" Raimei had never imagined the words "Land of Waves" would come out of this Konoha chūnin's mouth.

But Tōji knew that Konoha wasn't watching the Land of Waves the way Kirigakure was. Konoha's main focus there was just taking on all the mission contracts.

"Anyway, I'm not lying to you—there are no Konoha shinobi in the Land of Waves. As long as you keep a low profile, you could probably hide there till the end of time." Tōji was exaggerating, sure…

But Kirigakure really wouldn't have the capacity to bother with the outside world for a few years. And Konoha didn't control the Land of Waves now—and wouldn't be able to for a long time to come.

So any shinobi who defected to the Land of Waves, as long as they were willing to live under a false name and keep their head down, could mostly survive for a decade or so.

Raimei didn't want to die such a pathetic death.

And from his own perspective, Tōji was the villain, the enemy—a foreign spy who deserved to die.

He, Raimei, was just an ordinary, normal Kiri-nin. Completing this mission would earn him a small merit.

Being persuaded by a villain to defect felt like a fall from grace. But at this point, he was utterly helpless—because if he failed this mission, he might die miserably.

He knew exactly how terrifying Kirigakure had become. So as a chūnin of common birth, he'd tried not to take sides, just quietly doing his job as a low-key shinobi until the political situation stabilized…

But in the end, he'd still been unlucky enough to be pushed out on this thankless mission. And now, it looked like he was going to fail.

Normally, failure was fine. But this time was different!