Flaw?

"Wait. There seems to be a flaw in your logic. That time window you mentioned was calculated based on our speed, the time we set out, and the distance from our starting point to the trap, right?"

After Chiba finished speaking, Hirohiko, who had been nodding, suddenly froze as though he had realized something. He turned to Chiba and spoke.

"Yes."

Chiba nodded in confirmation.

"Then, he could infer our speed from the standard speed of shinobi and our previous combat performance. There might be some margin for error, but it would not be too far off. After all, no matter how fast a shinobi is, there is a limit. There is no problem with the distance between the trap and our starting point either. But how could he confirm when we set out? When we were fighting that old Kumogakure shinobi, he had already escaped. There was no way he could know when we defeated the old Kumogakure shinobi and left!"

Hirohiko slowly raised two fingers, his brow slightly furrowed as he spoke.

"That... I told you before about the old Kumogakure shinobi's Secret Medicine, right?"

In response to Hirohiko's question, Chiba merely smiled slightly.

"Yes."

Hirohiko maintained his running posture with two fingers raised, silently counting down in his heart. Hearing Chiba's words, he nodded instinctively, his brow furrowing slightly.

Secret Medicine?

That was something concerning that old Kumogakure shinobi...

As he split his focus, this simple thought surfaced in his mind.

"That Secret Medicine could pull the dying old Kumogakure shinobi back to his peak condition. Its effect was nothing short of miraculous. But as we discussed earlier, its side effect was that it burned the body, burning the energy of every last cell. Once it was used, death was certain. As a fellow Kumogakure shinobi and