Pursuit

On a pitch-black night, amid thunder and rain, jagged lightning linked the sky to the ground. Torrential rain shrouded the dense forest in a hazy veil. Through the downpour, someone could be seen moving through the woods—a strange sight in weather like this.

"Haah... haah..." His breathing was ragged.

He ran, leaping from tree to tree as rainwater mingled with sweat and trickled down his body. Exhaustion had overtaken him, but he didn't dare stop. Stopping meant death. The pursuers behind him were out to kill him. His only hope of survival was to keep running until he escaped the Land of Fire.

The Chakra in his body was depleted, and his strength was nearly spent. If Konoha's Anbu caught up with him now, he wouldn't even have the strength to fight. He wanted to go home. He wanted to see his parents, and the child who was about to be born.

So he couldn't stop. He had to keep going until he met the person coming to help him. He absolutely could not die in the Land of Fire.

"Your way is blocked!" A masked Konoha Anbu appeared in his path.

"How is this possible?"

Seeing the Konoha Anbu in front of him, he panicked. He'd been rushing forward at full speed without stopping. Why had the Anbu pursuing him appeared ahead of him? It made no sense.

"Sir, were you looking for me?"

He pretended to be a helpless wandering ninja who had run into a ninja from a great village. Cowering on a tree branch, he didn't dare look the other person in the eye.

He used every disguise trick he had, hoping he could fool this Anbu.

"Stop pretending. Your accomplice has already confessed. You're a spy from Iwagakure. Surrender!" The Anbu ignored his disguise and activated the Body Flicker Technique. In a flash, he turned into a shadow and appeared in front of him.

"Sir, there's been some mistake. I..." He crushed the Explosive Tag hidden behind his back, intending to die with the Anbu.

Only this way could he protect his secret and the information about his fellow spy in Konoha. At that moment, the only things left in his mind were his wife's face and voice, the home he had left long ago, and the child who was about to be born.

"Goodbye, Deidara. I'm sorry, son. I won't get to see you come into the world. I really wanted to watch you grow up."

He braced himself for the agony, ready to be consumed by flames. But after waiting with his eyes shut for a long time, nothing happened. When he opened them again, he was still crouched on the branch, and the Anbu still stood at a distance, as though nothing had happened.

"This is Genjutsu. When did I fall under it?"

The question nagging at him stopped him from triggering the Explosive Tag again.

"The moment you first looked at me, you were already caught in my Genjutsu. Stop struggling in vain and surrender. You might still get the chance to return to Iwagakure."

When captured spies cooperated, the Yamanaka Clan only needed to use their secret technique to probe the spy's memories and copy all the intelligence. The spy would then be locked up in Konoha Prison. If the villages exchanged prisoners, he might even be sent back to his home village.

"Haha, don't make me laugh. Are Konoha's Anbu really this naive? I'd rather die than betray my village." Unable to tell whether he was still caught in Genjutsu, he didn't dare try to die with the Anbu. If he failed to destroy his own body, Konoha might be able to extract the information it wanted from his corpse.

So even though he was exhausted, he chose to fight. Only by fighting could he find a chance to completely destroy his body.

He hurled a Kunai with an Explosive Tag attached and ran to the left. He couldn't head toward the person waiting to help him now. Since Konoha's Anbu had caught up, he absolutely couldn't let them encounter the Iwagakure ninja.

A spy was still a spy, someone who had to stay out of sight. He couldn't let his village openly clash with Konoha.

He'd been trying to escape the Land of Fire ever since he heard that Konoha's Anbu had taken away his handler. From that moment, he'd accepted that he might die. But he couldn't accept it—not when he was so close.

"Where do you think you're going?" A kick flew out of the darkness and sent him tumbling back to where he'd been. Another Konoha Anbu had appeared, blocking his path to the left.

"You have nowhere left to go. Are you still going to resist?" Two more Konoha Anbu appeared to his left and behind him, completely sealing off his escape routes.

If they didn't want him alive, they had plenty of ways to kill him. A living spy was worth far more.

"Ha... haha..."

His eyes were wild. As he stared at the four Konoha Anbu surrounding him, a growing sense of danger radiated from him. His eyes turned bloodshot, as though his Sharingan were about to awaken.

"Not good! Stop him, quickly!" The Anbu Captain was the first to realize something was wrong and shouted a warning, but he was too late.

"Hahaha! Die with me, you bastards! Explode! Secret Technique: Self-Destruct!" His body turned transparent, clear streams of Chakra visible beneath his skin.

"It's Explosion Release! Fall back!" The experienced Captain recognized the spy's bloodline ability at a glance. The man knew he had no way out and intended to self-destruct, completely destroying his body.

A self-destructing Explosion Release ninja could easily level a small mountain. If they didn't want to die, they had to run now. They might still make it.

"Shun, move!" Bear Mask grabbed the other Anbu, who was still dazed, and took off with the Body Flicker Technique. Leaving afterimages in his wake and the wind whistling around them, he raced toward the foot of the mountain.

A tremendous boom rang out behind them. Violent energy swept through the entire forest, and for a moment, even the rain seemed unable to fall from the sky.

Huddled with difficulty in a corner of the cliff, Kaede watched as more than half the mountainside was destroyed. When the shock waves finally faded, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Senior, I..." Shun trailed off. If he'd controlled the man with Genjutsu right away, none of this would have happened.

"Shun, you're a kind and gentle boy. But you shouldn't show that kindness to your enemies. If you can't tell the difference between how to treat your comrades and how to treat your enemies, you could endanger the lives of the people who truly are your comrades—just like what happened today.

"It may take you a long time to understand this, but I hope you'll remember what I said. Hold on to your kind nature, but learn to recognize your enemies."

Kaede couldn't help lecturing Shisui. He only needed to use his specialty, Genjutsu, to control the enemy. But the little white flower had actually dispelled the Genjutsu. He still lacked experience in battle and didn't understand how crazy a spy could become when he was ready to die.

"Yes, Senior. It won't happen again."

Shun lowered his head and fell silent. He regretted it now and wondered if the Captain and the others were all right.

"You'd better save that explanation for the Captain. This was supposed to be a great opportunity for our squad to earn credit. Now it's all gone."

Kaede hadn't expected Iwagakure to send an Explosion Release ninja to lurk near Konoha and meet with a spy inside the village. Had they thought Explosion Release was especially secure?

If things went badly, he could just blow himself up and take everyone with him.