Enemy Trail

"Do we have any more specific intelligence? Which ninja village are they from?" Kakashi asked Asuma as they hurried along.

At the moment, only Asuma knew some of the details. Before they got there, they could learn a little more.

Asuma shook his head. "Yei's Byakugan found some traces they left behind, probably from about a day ago. This time, they took precautions, so Yei didn't uncover much useful information. The clones are still pursuing them."

Just as Kakashi was about to say something else, his expression changed slightly. "Damn it, they ran into a trap!"

Seeing Kakashi's expression, Asuma seemed to realize something. His face darkened as he asked, "What happened?"

Yei and Shisui were also puzzled. They had not received any memories from their shadow clones, which meant their clones had not yet been dispelled.

Kakashi said grimly, "The clones were ambushed. It was an Exploding Tag trap. Yei warned us in advance, but I was too close and got caught in it. My clone was dispelled!"

In the memories sent back by his clone, Yei's Byakugan had discovered the Exploding Tags the enemy had planted one step ahead of time. However, because Kakashi's clone had been too close, it was caught in the blast and dispelled!

"Damn it! What happened?" Asuma cursed under his breath.

"Pick up the pace. We have to get there as soon as possible!" Kakashi looked extremely grim.

Shisui and Yei exchanged a glance, then accelerated toward that location!

Meanwhile, in another direction, with the clones.

As the Exploding Tags went off, Kakashi's clone, being too close, was caught in the blast. With a poof, it was dispelled.

Kakashi's Ninja Hounds were also injured in the Exploding Tag explosion, turning into white smoke and vanishing...

Yei was the first to notice it. The instant the Exploding Tags exploded, he instinctively used Rotation, deflecting the shockwave of the blast away.

At the critical moment, dark green flames suddenly ignited around Shisui. A phantom resembling a skeletal arm abruptly appeared, followed by a dark green skeletal frame that firmly protected his body within it, allowing him to withstand the Exploding Tag attack as well!

Through his Byakugan vision, Yei saw the change in Shisui. His eyes narrowed slightly as he silently thought, As expected. Then he flashed in front of Shisui. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." The change around Shisui abruptly disappeared, though a bloody tear streamed down from his right eye.

"That's good." Yei glanced at Shisui but said nothing more. He merely looked toward an area ahead and said calmly, "Let's continue the pursuit. Since they set a trap here, we should not be far from them. We need to hurry. Kakashi's Ninja Hounds are gone, so we can only rely on ourselves now!"

Shisui froze for a moment. "Senior Yei, you..."

Shisui was a little younger than Yei and the others, having attended the Academy one class after them. Thus, when addressing graduates of Yei's batch, he called them seniors.

Yei seemed to guess what Shisui meant and simply waved his hand. "Everyone has their own Secret Technique. You don't need to explain anything to me. Everyone has secrets, as long as they don't harm the village."

Yei patted Shisui on the shoulder, then flashed forward again.

"Is that so? This power isn't evil. As long as it is used to protect the village, it is a power that can be used!" Shisui murmured to himself, unable to help recalling the moment he had obtained this power.

Back then, after awakening his eyes, he had become like a demon god, his body radiating sinister, icy Chakra. With just a casual lift of his hand, he had easily killed the enemies surrounding him.

The enemy's ninjutsu had not even been able to break through the skeletal phantom around his body!

It was precisely because of that overwhelming strength that the enemies of that time had called him a monster!

An evil monster!

Even though some time had passed, whenever he recalled the fear and panic in those enemies' eyes—the expressions they wore as though they had seen a true monster—his heart still trembled!

He did not know whether this power should exist, nor whether his evil eyes were truly permitted to exist.

He had been lost...

So from that point onward, he had instinctively rejected his eyes and never used that power again!

Until just now, when faced with the Exploding Tag blast sweeping toward him, he had instinctively activated his own Mangekyo Sharingan and used Susanoo to block the shockwave!

It prevented his clone from being destroyed.

However, because it had all happened too suddenly, his instinctive action had exposed the power he had been hiding!

He had expected to see his companion looking at him in fear, as though looking at a monster. Yet he had never expected Yei to say those words...

"Power itself is neither evil nor good. As long as it can be used to protect the village, then... it is the right kind of power!" Shisui's eyes grew resolute. With a flash, he caught up to Yei!

The two left clues along the way as they advanced in one direction.

Perhaps because they were getting closer, even without the Ninja Hounds, Yei could still pick up some subtle traces. Following them, he arrived at a certain place.

They were in a dense forest. Not far to their right lay a massive lake, water mist rising from its surface and blurring the surrounding view.

However, none of it could escape Yei's eyes. Near that huge lake, Yei spotted several figures!

Yei narrowed his eyes and waved a hand. "Stop first."

Shisui halted and looked at Yei. "Senior, did you find something?"

Yei's vision could extend farther, and combined with his Observation Haki, his range of perception exceeded Shisui's. Pointing in one direction, he said, "Found them. They're right ahead!"

"Can you tell who they are?" Shisui quickly asked.

Yei shook his head. "They're too far away. I can sense their Chakra fluctuations, but I can't make out who they are. We need to get closer."

The two exchanged a glance, slightly concealing their presence as they carefully approached.

As they drew nearer, Shisui's keen perception also detected the several people over there. His brow furrowed as he whispered, "Their Chakra fluctuations are powerful. At least Jonin level!"

However, because they were still some distance away, he could only sense a rough estimate.

"There are six of them. Three of them have Jonin-level Chakra fluctuations..." With his Observation Haki, Yei's perception was even stronger than Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan.

Although they had yet to see those people clearly, the feedback from the Chakra fluctuations told them that three of them possessed Jonin-level Chakra!

"Should we make a move, senpai?" Shisui looked at Yei. Yei's earlier words had greatly shaken him, and he was beginning to unconsciously regard Yei as the leader.

"Wait for now. There are only two of us, so we don't have the numbers. Let's wait until the original bodies arrive before deciding," Yei said with a wave of his hand.

The enemy was not weak. With only the two of them here, unless their original bodies were present, their chances of winning a fight were not very high.

A shadow clone's Chakra was limited; it could not fight for long...

As had been mentioned before, Yei's physical talent was poor, and his Chakra reserves had always been his weakness. On top of that, he had used Rotation once just now, so he could only barely maintain his shadow clone without it dispersing.

Although Shisui was even younger than Yei, his talents in all areas were quite good. Even though he had briefly activated Susanoo earlier, the Chakra in his body was still relatively abundant...