Land of Rivers

"I hope he isn't planning to make himself the new Jinchuriki."

Kakashi held his forehead and sighed as if he had a headache. "Once a Tailed Beast leaves a Jinchuriki, the latter will lose his life."

"Although Hyuga Chiba attacked the Hokage, stole the Scroll of Sealing, and killed several Root ninjas, he still has a chance to turn back."

"But if he really does that for the Tailed Beast's Chakra, then there will truly be no turning back for him."

Kakashi had spent all these years in the Anbu. There were some dark sides to the village that he simply never mentioned, but that did not mean he knew nothing about them.

Some of Hyuga Chiba's earlier sarcastic remarks toward Sarutobi Hiruzen had, at the very least, struck a chord with him.

If possible, Kakashi truly did not want to see Hyuga Chiba completely fall into darkness.

"Since this may involve the Land of Rivers, the Land of Wind, and even a Jinchuriki, this is not something we can act on without authorization."

After thinking for a moment, Nara Shikaku proposed, "Kakashi, you and this Branch Family Jonin of the Hyuga Clan, Hyuga Nozomu, will continue tracking Hyuga Chiba, but do not act rashly."

"Choza and I will return to report to the Hokage!"

Hearing that, Kakashi nodded lightly. "Mm. This is the only thing we can do for now."

"I have no objections," Hyuga Nozomu replied coldly.

In truth, as a member of the Branch Family, he certainly did not want anything to happen to Hyuga Chiba.

But with the Caged Bird Curse Mark on him, he could not disobey orders from the Main Family.

"Perhaps this pursuit of Hyuga Chiba is also an opportunity for me." A sliver of new hope arose in Hyuga Nozomu's heart. "As long as I can meet Hyuga Chiba, I may be able to ask him to help remove the Caged Bird Curse Mark."

"No matter what price I have to pay!"

Nara Shikaku glanced at Hyuga Nozomu. Without saying anything else, he began returning to Konoha with Akimichi Choza.

"Let's get going too."

Kakashi said to Hyuga Nozomu, "The Anbu and I will consider the effects between nations, but Danzo and his Root may not."

"Even if it is unwise for us to act rashly, we should not let those Root ninjas find Hyuga Chiba first."

Naturally, Hyuga Nozomu had no objection. He immediately continued tracking Hyuga Chiba alongside Kakashi.

Meanwhile!

"Is that the Land of Rivers ahead?"

With his Chakra mostly recovered, Chiba rapidly weaved through the forest.

Ahead of him, denser forests gradually came into view, along with mountains of varying heights.

"The original story did not mention much about the Land of Rivers."

"I only vaguely remember that it has Yugakure, a village known for its hot springs."

"Hidan, the Evil God Cult follower in the Akatsuki who possessed an Immortal Body, also came from Yugakure."

"Oh, right. There seemed to be a hidden Akatsuki base in the Land of Rivers too? At the beginning of Shippuden, the Akatsuki extracted the One-Tail Shukaku from Gaara's body there."

As he recalled those scattered bits of information about the Land of Rivers, Chiba officially crossed into its territory.

At the moment, he had little interest in the Land of Rivers, Yugakure, or the Akatsuki's secret base.

He only wanted to pass straight through the Land of Rivers and head for Sunagakure in the Land of Wind.

"The Tenseigan can absorb Chakra from a target's body. As long as I don't drain Shukaku out of Gaara completely, he probably won't die, right?"

At the same time, Chiba pondered this in his heart.

Clearly, unlike some of Kakashi's guesses, he had never considered becoming a Jinchuriki.

After all, once a Tailed Beast left its Jinchuriki, the Jinchuriki would die. That side effect was rather troublesome.

Chiba also had no interest in trying to understand a Tailed Beast like Uzumaki Naruto had in the original story.

He only needed the Chakra of these Tailed Beasts. They could serve as power banks for him.

Time passed. Through his flawless Byakugan, far superior to those of other Hyuga, Chiba identified his direction and avoided straying off course or getting lost.

He raced toward the Land of Wind on the other side of the Land of Rivers along an almost perfectly straight route.

Whenever he encountered particularly complicated terrain or terrain that required a long detour, he would simply activate the Tenseigan and fly over it directly.

Along the way, Chiba also did not forget to occasionally create a Shadow Clone, having them continue practicing ninjutsu and intercept any possible pursuers behind him.

"Almost there!"

Perhaps because Chiba was fast enough, or perhaps because he had been traveling without rest, when the morning sunlight gradually fell over him, his Byakugan had already spotted a vast desert in the distance.

That was unmistakably the border of the Land of Wind.

"Come to think of it, the geography of this Hokage World is pretty strange."

"Whether it's the Land of Rivers or the Land of Rain, they have so much water they are practically flooding, yet the neighboring Land of Wind suffers from a severe water shortage."

"What's even more absurd is that Sunagakure wasn't built near the water sources at the borders with the Land of Rivers or Land of Rain, but right in the center of this enormous desert in the Land of Wind?"

Chiba casually grumbled, but his pace gradually slowed.

Because... he was hungry!

"From when I awakened the Tenseigan yesterday until now, I haven't eaten anything or had a single drop of water."

"After entering the Land of Wind and Sunagakure, I might end up fighting the Fourth Kazekage Rasa, Shukaku inside Gaara, or even Orochimaru, who may be there."

"How can I not fill my stomach beforehand?"

With that in mind, Chiba prepared to randomly find a few "lucky" wild boars, rabbits, or something similar for the first outdoor cookout of both his past and present lives.

"Hmm?"

Suddenly, Chiba's expression shifted slightly.

A faint smell of blood drifted over on the wind from some distance away.

Chiba's Byakugan clearly saw a group of people being pursued by several black-robed figures dressed alike. They were heading directly toward him.

Farther away, a small village was being subjected to an inhuman massacre by another group of similarly dressed black-robed figures.

Incidentally, unlike the white vision of other Hyuga Byakugan, the scene Chiba saw through his Byakugan was still in color, just like normal sight.

"Sacrifice, Evil God..."

Although Chiba had never learned lip-reading, through the extreme range and penetrating vision of his Byakugan, he clearly saw the movements of those black-robed figures' mouths and vaguely made out those two words.

"Could those black-robed people be Evil God Cult followers like Hidan?"

Chiba frowned slightly.

The Evil God Cult itself had not appeared much in the original story, yet Hidan's existence had made it well known to the audience.

The Evil God Cult's doctrine was to indiscriminately slaughter those around them and sacrifice them to the so-called Evil God through some kind of ritual.

The crucial point was that this Evil God might actually exist.

After all, Hidan had gained an Immortal Body through Evil God Cult experiments and the Evil God's power, as well as the bizarre ability to kill a target with only a single drop of their blood.