Chapter 73: Pursuit and Interception

Chapter 73: Chapter 73: Pursuit and Interception

Across the entire shinobi world, there were perhaps quite a few people who could defeat Hyuga Kagami.

But those who were fast enough to take out one of his shadow clones before it could even react were few and far between.

And if the scope was narrowed specifically to Kumogakure, the number could practically be counted on one hand.

"Could it be the Fourth Raikage?"

Hyuga Kagami idly speculated as he slid Kusanagimaru back into its sheath.

Judging from Kumogakure’s current reaction, Team 11’s plan had undoubtedly succeeded.

If things really were as Kagami suspected, and even the Fourth Raikage himself had been drawn out, then that was even stronger proof that Team 11 had succeeded in slowing Kumogakure’s offensive.

And considering that the Fourth Raikage might have personally joined the hunt for him, Kagami decided to temporarily suspend his attacks on Kumogakure’s supply lines.

The Fourth Raikage was no ordinary shinobi.

His speed was so incredible that there were scarcely any in the entire shinobi world who could match him.

Even the Fourth Hokage, famed throughout the shinobi world as the "Yellow Flash," would probably be a step slower than the Fourth Raikage in terms of raw movement speed if he didn’t use the Flying Thunder God Technique.

Against an opponent of that caliber, a single moment of carelessness—

meant death.

Team 11’s plan was to harass the supply lines behind Kumogakure’s invading force, so there was absolutely no reason for Hyuga Kagami to risk his life fighting someone who might very well be the Fourth Raikage.

As long as he stayed alive and well, that alone was essentially a victory.

Before long, Kagami returned to the small mountain cave where Team 11 was hiding.

Shisui, who had also only recently returned, asked, "Senpai, how did things go on your end?"

Kagami smiled. "Took out three small transport teams. What about you?"

Shisui replied, "As expected of you, Senpai. I’ve been running around for days, and I only managed to intercept one."

Shisui lacked Kagami’s long-range reconnaissance capabilities, so when it came to locating Kumogakure’s transport teams, his efficiency was far lower than Kagami’s. On top of that, he had recently overused his ocular power, so he was extremely cautious when choosing targets to ambush.

Guy, who had been recuperating inside the cave, muttered quietly, "Next time, let me come with you guys."

Since their injuries had yet to fully heal, neither Guy nor Kakashi had gone out to harass Kumogakure’s supply lines. Just as before, they had spent the past few days recovering inside the cave.

But Guy had never been the type who could sit still. The moment he heard Kagami and Shisui discussing the results of their attacks on Kumogakure, he immediately started itching to get back into action.

"You’d better stay right where you are!" Kagami shook his head, then brought up how his shadow clone had been killed instantly. "I suspect the Fourth Raikage might be in the Land of Hot Water as well."

Shisui’s eyes widened in alarm.

"Senpai... you didn’t do anything to the Raikage, did you?"

Shisui was genuinely worried that Hyuga Kagami might have done something to the Fourth Raikage.

From Shisui’s perspective, Kagami was strong enough to go toe-to-toe with the Fourth Raikage and actually fight him on even terms.

And if anything happened to the Raikage, the conflict between Konoha and Kumogakure could very well escalate into an all-out war.

Guy and Kakashi, meanwhile, looked completely dumbfounded.

After a long moment, Kakashi finally asked hesitantly, "Uh... if Kagami ran into the Raikage, shouldn’t the person we’re worried about be Kagami?"

Guy hurriedly nodded in agreement. "Exactly! The Raikage isn’t someone we can handle at all!"

Kagami himself looked equally helpless. He glanced at Shisui and silently grumbled to himself,

"Shisui... don’t you have some kind of misunderstanding about how strong I am?"

Unlike the somewhat arrogant, almost recklessly headstrong Fourth Raikage of the future, the current Fourth Raikage had only recently been outmatched by the Fourth Hokage during the Third Shinobi World War.

Because of that, he was far more cautious now than he would be in the future.

And once a shinobi with that kind of speed started fighting cautiously, he was practically impossible to exploit.

If Kagami had the support of the Giant Tenseigan on the moon, he wouldn’t fear the Fourth Raikage.

But without the Giant Tenseigan backing him up, relying solely on his own chakra, there was only one thing Kagami could do if he encountered the Fourth Raikage—

turn around and run.

Besides, the Fourth Raikage was bound to be surrounded by a large number of Kumogakure’s elite shinobi.

Going out of his way to pick a fight with the Fourth Raikage under those circumstances would be the sort of thing only someone with something seriously wrong with their head would do.

After weighing the current situation, Hyuga Kagami said to the rest of Team 11, "We’ve already gone well beyond what the mission required. Staying in the Land of Hot Water any longer is simply too risky, so I suggest we return to Konoha immediately."

Shisui said, "I agree."

Kakashi thought it over for a moment, then nodded as well.

Far away.

Yugito stood atop a high cliff, her expression grim.

At that moment, a Kumogakure jonin emerged from a crevice in the cliff and said, "This should be where the Konoha shinobi who attacked our transport teams was hiding."

Yugito immediately asked, "Did you find any clues inside?"

The Kumogakure jonin replied, "There weren’t any real clues, but he left behind his scent. That’s enough."

With that, the Kumogakure jonin walked to the edge of the cliff and whistled toward the distance.

Before long, a skylark covered from head to tail in silver feathers followed the sound of the whistle and flew toward the cliff. After circling overhead a few times, it landed steadily on the Kumogakure jonin’s shoulder.

The jonin had the skylark smell the scent lingering within the crevice. Then he tossed it high into the air.

The skylark spread its wings and soared upward, circling a few times before locking onto a direction and flying off into the distance.

The Kumogakure jonin said to Yugito, "Found them. That direction."

Yugito uttered a single word.

"Chase!"

In an instant, the dozen or so Kumogakure shinobi atop the cliff blurred into streaks of afterimages, racing after the skylark.

After tracking them for some time, the Kumogakure shinobi came to a stop outside a rocky cave.

One of the Kumogakure jonin who specialized in sensory techniques pressed two fingers against the ground and closed his eyes, sensing for a moment before saying to his companions, "They’re inside the cave ahead. One... two... three. Three people in total, and all of them have jonin-level chakra reserves. It should be Konoha’s ANBU Team 11."

Yugito stared fixedly at the entrance of the cave and asked, "Any traps nearby?"

The sensory jonin concentrated again for a moment before shaking his head. "There don’t seem to be any traps outside, but I’m picking up quite a few faint chakra signatures inside the cave. I can’t determine exactly what they are. They could be some kind of technological formula... or they could be explosive tags!"

An older Kumogakure jonin frowned.

"Could this be a trap?"

Yugito gritted her teeth.

"They’ve toyed with us for long enough. Even if it is a trap, I’ll smash straight through it!"

The mere thought that the surprise offensive Kumogakure had spent so long preparing had been thrown into complete chaos by a single Konoha ANBU team was enough to make Yugito’s blood boil.

Before long, under Yugito’s lead, the Kumogakure shinobi stormed into the rocky cave.

When she saw the three members of Team 11 inside, in the middle of packing up their belongings, Yugito gave a vicious grin.

"Hmph. Finally caught you little rats!"

As the Two-Tails’ jinchuriki, Yugito favored enclosed, confined environments more than anything.

In terrain like this, not only could she make full use of the Two-Tails Matatabi’s agility, she could also make sure that her enemies had nowhere to run...