Chasing and Killing

The pitch-black night, accompanied by thunder and rain, jagged lightning connecting the sky to the ground, the downpour in the dense forest shrouding the entire mountain in a blurry haze—vaguely, it seemed someone was still moving through the woods. In such weather, this was an abnormal thing.

"Huff... huff..." Heavy, ragged breathing.

He ran, leaping between the trees, rain and sweat sliding slowly down his body. Exhaustion had long since filled every part of him, yet he dared not stop for even a moment. To stop was to die. Behind him were pursuers intent on killing him; only by fleeing without pause, escaping the Land of Fire, could there be any hope of survival.

His Chakra was depleted, his physical strength severely drained. If he were caught by the Konoha ANBU now, he wouldn't even have the power to fight. He still wanted to go home, he missed his parents, missed his soon-to-be-born child.

So he couldn't stop. He had to persevere, hold on until the person sent to meet him appeared. He absolutely could not die in the Land of Fire.

"This road is blocked!" A masked Konoha ANBU appeared on the path ahead of him.

"How is this possible?"

Staring at the Konoha ANBU who had appeared in front of him, he panicked. He had been rushing nonstop at top speed—why was the ANBU chasing him now ahead of him? This defied all logic.

"Esteemed ninja-sama, are you looking for me?"

Pretending to be a bewildered wandering ninja who had run into a ninja from a major village, he cowered on a tree branch, not daring to meet the other's eyes.

He threw all his disguising skills into the act, hoping to fool this ANBU.

"Stop pretending. Your comrade has already confessed. Iwagakure spy, surrender without a fight!" The ANBU ignored all his pretenses, activated the Body Flicker Technique, and in a flash of black shadow, appeared right before him.

"Esteemed ninja-sama, you must be mistaken, I... die." He crushed the Explosive Tag hidden behind his back, intending to take the ANBU down with him.

Only like this could he keep the secret, protect the intelligence of his comrades still undercover in Konoha. At this moment, the last remnants in his mind were nothing but his wife's smiling face, the home he had left long ago, and that child yet to be born.

"Goodbye, Deidara. I'm sorry, Dad never got to see you born. I really wanted to watch you grow up."

He had braced himself for the searing pain, for being engulfed by flames, but after closing his eyes and waiting for a long time, nothing happened. When he opened his eyes again, he was still crouched on the branch, the ANBU still standing in the distance, as if nothing had occurred.

"This is genjutsu. When did I fall into genjutsu?"

The doubt in his heart made him choose not to trigger the Explosive Tag again.

"From the moment you first looked at me, you were already caught in my genjutsu. Don't struggle pointlessly. Surrender, and you might still have a chance to return to Iwagakure."

For captured spy-ninjas like this, if they cooperated well, the Yamanaka Clan would use their secret technique to probe their memories, copy all the intelligence, and then they'd be locked up in Konoha's prison. When prisoner exchanges happened, they might be sent back to their original village.

"Haha, don't dream. Is Konoha ANBU this naive? This lord would rather die than betray his village." Unable to confirm whether he was still trapped in genjutsu, he didn't dare use the mutual destruction method. If he couldn't destroy his own corpse, Konoha might extract the intelligence they wanted from it.

So, despite his exhaustion, he still chose to fight. Only by fighting could he find an opportunity to completely obliterate his own body.

Throwing a kunai with an Explosive Tag attached, he turned and ran to the left. At this point, he couldn't get any closer to the person sent to meet him. Since the Konoha ANBU had already caught up, he absolutely couldn't let them encounter the ninja from Iwagakure.

A spy was, after all, a spy—someone who couldn't be exposed. He couldn't let the village come into open conflict with Konoha.

From the moment he heard that his handler had been taken away by Konoha ANBU, he had been fleeing the Land of Fire. From that moment, he had already accepted death. He just couldn't accept it—he had been so close, so damn close.

"Where do you think you're going?" A kick flew out from the darkness, sending him tumbling back to his original spot. Another Konoha ANBU appeared, blocking his path to the left.

"You have no way out. Still want to resist?" Two more Konoha ANBU emerged from the left and behind, completely sealing off his escape routes.

If they hadn't wanted to take him alive, they had plenty of ways to kill the ninja before them. A living spy was worth the most.

"Ha... haha..."

His eyes were filled with madness. Staring at the four Konoha ANBU surrounding him, his body radiated an increasingly dangerous aura. His eyes turned bloodshot, as if his Sharingan were about to awaken.

"Not good, stop him!" The ANBU captain was the first to notice something wrong and shouted urgently, but his warning came a little too late.

"Hahaha, die with this lord! Explode! [Secret Technique: Self-Destruct]" His body turned translucent, visible Chakra flow rippling across his skin.

"It's Explosion Release! Fall back!" The experienced captain recognized the bloodline limit of this spy-ninja at a glance. He understood that the man, knowing he had no way out, planned to self-destruct and completely destroy his own body.

The self-destruction of an Explosion Release ninja could easily level a small mountain. If they didn't want to die, they had to run now—maybe they'd still make it.

"Shun, move!" The ANBU with the Bear Mask grabbed the still-dazed other ANBU, activated the Body Flicker Technique, leaving a trail of afterimages and a whistling wind as they rushed toward the foot of the mountain.

A thunderous roar erupted behind them. Violent energy swept through the entire forest, and for a moment, even the raindrops in the sky couldn't fall.

Crouching precariously in a corner of the cliff, watching the half-destroyed mountain, waiting for the explosion's aftermath to fade, Kaede finally let out a sigh of relief.

"Senior, I..." Shun hesitated, speaking haltingly. If he had just used genjutsu to control that man from the start, none of this would have happened.

"Shun, you're a gentle, kind kid. But you shouldn't direct that gentleness at your enemies. If you can't learn to distinguish how to treat comrades versus enemies, you might bring the threat of death to your real comrades—just like now. This lesson might take you a long time to truly understand, but I hope you remember what I'm saying today. While keeping your kind nature, learn to recognize your enemies!"

Kaede had no choice but to lecture Shisui. He only needed to use his own genjutsu to control the enemy, but this naive flower had voluntarily released the genjutsu. It was a lack of combat experience—not knowing how crazy a spy with a death wish could get.

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

Shun lowered his head, silent. He deeply regretted it now, wondering if the captain and the others were okay.

"Save that explanation for the captain. This was supposed to be a great chance for our squad to earn merits, and now it's all gone."

Kaede hadn't expected Iwagakure to send an Explosion Release bloodline ninja to lurk around Konoha and make contact with spies inside the village. Did they think Explosion Release was safer?

If they couldn't win, just self-destruct and take everyone down with them.