Dodai's Strategy

"What is it?"

Stepping onto a branch farther back, Chiba carefully stopped beside Hirohiko and asked again.

"Wait, Chiba. Let me take another look..."

At this moment, Hirohiko frowned deeply and reached out to stroke the unusually thick branch several times, seeming to hold his breath.

Something must have happened!

There was no need to think about it. Hirohiko had definitely discovered something. They were in the middle of a pursuit, and if he had found something that made them stop—something that required him to halt and examine it carefully—it had to be related to their current target, Dodai.

Clearly, the traces Dodai had left behind had changed.

And judging from Hirohiko's grave expression, this was probably not a good change.

Could the trail have vanished?

Watching Hirohiko rub at the branch, Chiba's eyes narrowed sharply as he thought of a possibility he absolutely did not want to see.

They did not know Dodai's destination or his exact direction, and they were in a vast forest where it was easy to lose one's bearings. He could easily change direction and shake them off. If they lost his trail and could no longer track him, the number of uncertainties involved in finding him would multiply, and their chances of successfully hunting him down would plummet.

They would probably have no choice but to abandon the pursuit, signal Yukina, find a place to regroup, and continue carrying out the Fate Alteration Plan while risking the possibility that Kumogakure would learn their intelligence, creating even more uncertainties.

That meant all the effort they had spent—from intervening in the battle between Iwa and Kumogakure's forces at the very beginning until now—would have been for nothing. They would have wasted their stamina and Chakra, even suffering some rather serious injuries in the process.

In other