Whoosh.
A slight dizziness washed over Shinji, and everything around him changed.
He was no longer in the Rain Country, where a steady drizzle fell. Instead, he stood on an endless expanse of snow-white icefield.
There was no doubt about it. He had just used Yakumo's Blood Clone, the "Red Dragon," to cross several countries in an instant, arriving on the icefield at the northernmost edge of the Land of Iron.
That was why Shinji always kept one of Yakumo's Blood Clones with him.
With the "Red Dragon"'s teleportation, as long as he had the coordinates, he could reach any corner of the Shinobi World in an instant.
As his gaze swept over the area, Shinji spotted two small black dots on the snowfield in the distance. They were clearly two figures, and not just anyone—they were Haku and the Akatsuki Organization's Shinnō, who had been fighting on the icefield earlier.
Soon, Shinji led Yakumo toward them at a leisurely pace.
When Haku saw Shinji, he hurried over. "My lord, I'm sorry. To keep him from interfering with 'X' and Moryo's battle, I had no choice but to hold him here."
"Mm!"
Shinji nodded.
The "X" Haku had mentioned was, of course, Shion.
Shion's struggle against Moryo was a battle between the good and evil sides of the Miko. Anyone else could only get in the way; they couldn't help. So Haku had done well to keep Shinnō occupied and stop him from disrupting Shion's attempt to fuse with Moryo.
Shinji shifted his gaze to Shinnō.
Shinnō was covered in sword wounds, and his breath was weak. If he hadn't been skilled in Dark Medical Ninjutsu and modified his body, those horrifying injuries would likely have killed him.
There was no doubt about it.
Haku had won their one-on-one battle.