A Much-Needed Reason! (4/4)

But... I still needed a reason to take the route that would get us to Kakashi in three and a half days...

After all, our current mission was to follow this route and destroy Kannabi Bridge. Although Hirohiko and Yukina did not say anything, they surely knew that the Third Hokage had arranged it this way so that we could "cover each other and serve as each other's backup." Yet now I was telling them that we had to reach Kakashi's route in three and a half days, possibly even passing extremely close to Kumogakure's rear positions and part of Iwa's rear positions. It really felt like "taking the long way around" and "heading straight into danger."

Without a reasonable explanation, they would definitely become suspicious. And once they became suspicious, if I had no reasonable explanation... then that explanation would inevitably involve...

Tch! I'm still stuck either way! After making up his mind, Chiba began to fret again. He suddenly realized that although he had considered so many possibilities over the years, encompassing nearly everything that could happen, perhaps there had simply been too many possibilities. When it came to the details, he had not thought things through properly.

For example, he had never considered a situation like this.

He had never spared even a thought for the possibility that his momentary impatience would cause him to make a mistake! That was right. The current situation was one caused by his own mistake. He should not have calculated all this in front of them—talking about three and a half days, even marking their destination outright. Even if Hirohiko and Yukina had not carefully considered Chiba's words, they still knew what he had just said. If he could not give them a convincing reason, they would naturally connect it to