At a glance, a group of people were racing across the endless grassland. It would take ordinary people several minutes to slowly cover the distance, but this group zipped across it in no time. By a conservative estimate, they were moving faster than some vehicles.
Seen from a distance, they really did look like a dashing, impressive bunch. Unfortunately, four incongruous figures marred the group's overall image.
There was a stretcher, carried by two people, one at each end. A fellow who looked half-dead lay on it, while three other unfortunate souls, trussed up like dumplings, were slung over people's shoulders...
No matter how you looked at it, it seemed like a gang of traffickers transporting their merchandise...
Actually, they were Sunagakure Ninja. The person lying on the stretcher was Qi, and the three unfortunate souls trussed up like dumplings were Kakashi, Obito, and Ling...
Qi was lucky to be alive. Tsang Yeh hadn't planned to kill him in the first place. Though he looked as if he'd been beaten half to death, his internal injuries were actually minor. On top of that, he had a freakish ability to recover. Aside from still feeling a little weak all over, he was already mostly fine.
But he didn't want anyone else to notice, so from the outside, he still looked like he was clinging to life by a thread...
"Kakashi, are you dead yet?"
On the stretcher, Qi watched Kakashi's head bobbing back and forth beside him. Suddenly, he let out a sarcastic snort.
"If you're not dead, then I'm not dead!"
Kakashi was already dizzy from being carried and jostled around. Qi's comment nearly made him slam his head into him.
He really couldn't understand how this guy could still find the energy to tease him in this condition...
Kakashi's treatment was anything but good. After he'd been disarmed, the White Fang Short Blade had naturally fallen into the Sunagakure Ninja's hands. If there was even the slightest chance that the other Sunagakure Ninja didn't recognize it, Tsang Yeh knew that blade better than he knew his own parents...
White Fang had stabbed him with that very blade. If the strike hadn't veered slightly off course, Tsang Yeh would have been underground, having tea with his predecessors by now...
Still, Tsang Yeh was an elite Jonin, after all. What did that mean? Out of the hundreds of thousands of ninja in the Shinobi World, there were only a hundred or so monsters of his caliber! So why would he stoop to quarreling with a junior?
But the other guy was White Fang's son, after all. He still had to put on a show, or he'd be letting down all the Sunagakure Ninja who'd been killed by White Fang!
And so, beneath Tsang Yeh's warm, sunny smile, a group of Sunagakure Ninja gave Kakashi a sound beating and turned him into a punching bag...
That meant Kakashi was now in about as bad a shape as Qi. Obito and Ling were merely dizzy from being jostled around, but every inch of Kakashi's body hurt like hell. Damn it, those bastards had really laid into him...
"Dead? Good thing I'm not. If even you're still alive, then the rest of us are definitely going to make it."
Qi grinned brightly, but karma caught up with him in no time. His smile tugged at his wounds, making him bare his teeth in pain... Damn it, that old bastard Tsang Yeh hadn't gone easy on him either...
"Are you looking for a fight?"
Kakashi was furious. He nearly forgot he was tied up like a dumpling. All he wanted now was to drag Qi off the stretcher and beat him to a pulp...
What did he mean, good thing Kakashi was still alive? Who talked like that!?
"Shut up!"
The Sunagakure Ninja carrying Kakashi turned his head and snapped,
"Want a beating?"
"My mouth's mine. What's it to you?"
Qi sneered.
"Don't think I'm afraid to be honest. I'm barely a few pounds of flesh right now, and I can't take a beating. Be careful not to accidentally kill me. I'm pretty sure we're useful to you; otherwise, you'd have killed us already. So why are you still running your mouth?"
"Damn it!"
The Sunagakure Ninja instantly flew into a rage. Qi had been babbling the whole way, and he was about to lose his mind...
"I'll kill you, you little bastard!"
"Stop! We can't kill them yet!"
Seeing the Sunagakure Ninja about to swing at Qi in a fury, one of his companions quickly stopped him.
"Look at him. He can barely breathe, let alone take a punch. If the Yellow Flash goes on a rampage, we'll be the ones who suffer."
"You're lucky, brat!"
The Sunagakure Ninja looked as if he'd swallowed a fly, but he knew his companion had a point. Otherwise, why would they be dragging such dead weight along?
He glared at Qi several times, then reluctantly lowered his hand and pointed at him.
"Watch your mouth, brat. Otherwise, I guarantee you won't like what happens!"
"Dumbass!"
Qi wasn't about to take that kind of threat. To the stunned, apoplectic Sunagakure Ninja, he actually raised his middle finger with a show of "weakness."
"Do I look happy to you? Are your eyes where your ass is? And I'm dying of thirst. Bring me some water!"
"Damn it... which one of us is the captive here?"
The Sunagakure Ninja were seething, but they couldn't help exchanging glances. They'd been ninja for a long time, and this was the first time they'd seen a captive act so arrogantly...
They really wanted to pour water down his throat until he drowned. The bastard hadn't shut up once the entire trip. If he didn't look like he had one foot in the grave, they would've already beaten the hell out of him!
And so, apart from Tsang Yeh and the other ordinary Jonin, who had no interest in dealing with this, the other elite Chunin from Sunagakure all had veins bulging on their foreheads and breathed heavily. They endured Qi's relentless noise pollution as they doggedly pressed on.
They were thoroughly fed up, but they couldn't lay a hand on him. They couldn't exactly start bickering with him like a shrew, could they? Better to stop listening and keep their minds at peace. They'd just pretend he was a pile of shit!
This wasn't capturing hostages. They'd practically brought a lord along for the ride! What rotten luck!!!
Once they stopped responding, Qi naturally couldn't be bothered to entertain them anymore. What was the point of yammering when no one reacted?
He knew exactly what these people planned to do with them. All he could do was curse them for being idiots.
Elite Jonin were monsters who stood at the pinnacle of the Shinobi World, but even monsters came in different ranks. Freaks like Namikaze Minato and Orochimaru could dominate even among elite Jonin. Konoha was always the strongest because its top fighters were the best, wasn't it?
Just from listening to their conversation, he could tell that, aside from Tsang Yeh, none of these Sunagakure Ninja had ever faced monsters like them. Taking them hostage was a fine idea, but Minato's greatest feat was killing fifty Rock Ninja in an instant. These people probably wouldn't even have time to put their hostages down before most of them were dead!
People really were terrifying when they were ignorant..."
Qi secretly sneered as his ill-intentioned gaze roamed over the Sunagakure Ninja.
"Think I'm useless now, do you? I can't handle the Jonin, but you Chunin just wait. By then, I should have recovered enough."
Before Minato left, he'd patted Qi on the shoulder. That pat hadn't been for nothing... Just wait. These people were in for trouble...