Luring the Enemy

The battle was over, and the stench of blood hung in the damp air.

After a life-or-death night raid, an unspoken bond had formed among the squad members.

Inuzuka Go was still excitedly checking the enemies on the ground. Hyuga Aya had already quietly relaxed her stance, her pure white eyes sweeping across the battlefield to confirm there were no hidden threats.

"Captain, what should we do with these guys?"

Inuzuka Go nudged the enemy whom Yusuke had stabbed through the brain with his foot and asked.

"Search them. See if they have any valuable information."

As he spoke, Yusuke walked over to the badly wounded enemy captain and the other prisoner, whom Hyuga Aya had subdued with a pressure-point strike.

He crouched down, his hands glowing with a faint chakra light.

"What... what are you going to do?" The enemy captain trembled from blood loss and fear.

"Relax. The dizziness is normal."

Yusuke's gaze was cold as he pressed a hand to the man's forehead.

"Ninja Art: Mind Reading Technique!"

Fragments of broken memories flooded into Yusuke's mind.

A damp camp, Kumogakure Forehead Protectors, crude defensive fortifications.

A moment later, Yusuke withdrew his hand. The enemy captain's eyes had rolled back, and he'd passed out. It seemed he wouldn't survive this ordeal.

Yusuke went to the other prisoner and repeated the process.

"How did it go?" Hyuga Aya asked. Though she disliked using this method, she knew it was the fastest way to gather information.

"I got the locations of a few possible strongholds."

Yusuke stood and took out a field map, quickly marking several spots on it. "But we'll need to verify them."

Inuzuka Go leaned in to take a look. "They're all pretty close. Should we head there now?"

"Yeah. The fight wasn't too loud, but someone might still have noticed." Yusuke nodded.

"Cover our tracks. We leave in two and a half minutes."

After covering their tracks, the three-person squad slipped back into the forest like phantoms.

For the rest of the day, they cautiously investigated three locations based on the coordinates Yusuke had obtained.

One was empty, with only traces of an abandoned campfire. The other two were small outposts, each guarded by around ten shinobi.

Their Forehead Protectors were a mismatched assortment, as if the troops had been thrown together at the last minute.

Hyuga Aya's Byakugan ensured they could observe from a safe distance.

"Two strongholds and one abandoned site."

"The information was partly accurate."

Yusuke marked the locations on the map.

"Captain, should we head back and report, or keep going?" Inuzuka Go asked, rubbing his hands together eagerly.

Yusuke didn't answer right away. His senses remained on high alert.

Ever since they'd left Konoha's border, he'd felt as though someone was watching them. That vague sense of being observed had never gone away.

Before, the distance had made the feeling indistinct. Now, it was growing clearer.

Considering their actions and the position of Yusuke's squad, he began to understand. They'd been waiting all along for the right place to make their move.

Now they were neither too close to nor too far from the first enemy stronghold they'd verified. It was the perfect place to frame someone.

A cold smile tugged at Yusuke's lips. "They think I'm easy prey they can get rid of? They don't realize that the best hunters come disguised as prey."

"We're not going back."

Yusuke put away the map and looked at his two teammates. "We're being watched."

Inuzuka Go and Hyuga Aya instantly went on alert. Hyuga Aya immediately activated her Byakugan and looked behind them.

"What do you see?" Yusuke asked.

"There are three people, two kilometers away."

"Their chakra pathways are very active. They're moving fast, coming straight toward us."

Hyuga Aya answered a little faster than usual. "They're skilled at stealth, almost blending into their surroundings."

"Are they enemies? When did they start following us?" Inuzuka Go asked in a lowered voice.

"They've been following us since we left the Land of Fire," Yusuke said coldly.

He watched their reactions closely. Inuzuka Go looked furious, while Hyuga Aya remained impassive, just as she always did.

"What do we do, then? Try to lose them by speeding up?" Inuzuka Go asked.

"We can't lose them. They're professional trackers, and they're already close."

Yusuke shook his head, a calculating glint in his eyes.

He quickly gave his orders. "Listen. Since they want to use someone else to do their dirty work, we'll muddy the waters."

"If they can use this stronghold as cover, then we can turn the stronghold against them."

"Captain, are you..." Hyuga Aya seemed to have guessed what Yusuke was thinking.

"Go, you're in charge of laying a false trail. Make it look like we circled the stronghold to observe it and gather intelligence."

"Aya, keep reporting the distance between them and the stronghold."

"And I'll prepare a little present for them."

"A very warm 'welcome gift.'"

Yusuke took an Explosive Tag from his ninja tool pouch, his eyes cold.

He looked toward the enemy stronghold and calculated the distance and terrain.

"Move toward the stronghold. Stop in that rocky area."

"But don't go too fast, or they'll get suspicious."

Yusuke pointed to a spot on the map.

"We're going to fight them there?" Inuzuka Go asked excitedly, clearly unaware of Yusuke's plan.

With a head full of muscle, all he could think about was charging in and fighting.

"Not exactly."

"We'll strike quickly and retreat. The goal is to alert the enemies at the stronghold."

As Yusuke picked a spot for the trap, he kept a close eye on his teammates' reactions.

If either of them did anything even slightly suspicious and left a signal, he wouldn't hesitate to kill them on the spot.

"Alert the enemies?" Inuzuka Go was even more confused.

"Right." Yusuke deftly tucked an Explosive Tag into a crack in the rocks and connected it with a hair-thin Chakra Thread.

"They want to disguise themselves as enemies and attack us, don't they? We'll help them out and draw the real enemies over."

"Get them to fight each other?" Inuzuka Go finally understood Yusuke's plan.

Only Haimaru barked in dissatisfaction, voicing his protest.

Yusuke moved quickly. The traps included Explosive Tags aimed at the ground and genjutsu nodes concealed in the rocks' shadows.

The setup was crude, but it would be enough to mislead someone for an instant during a high-speed pursuit.

"They've sped up. They're one kilometer away," Hyuga Aya reported in real time.

"Then we'll 'speed up,' too."

Yusuke finished setting the last trap and dusted off his hands. "Let's go! Keep our distance and let them get just close enough to bite our tails."

The three-person squad set off again, feigning a retreat toward the stronghold while carefully controlling their speed.

The pursuers behind them followed like shadows, steadily closing the gap.

Eight hundred meters, five hundred meters, three hundred meters...

Yusuke could clearly sense the three streams of cold chakra, each carrying undisguised killing intent.

The leader's chakra was especially powerful. His strength had already reached the elite jonin level.

"One hundred meters. We're entering the rocky area," Hyuga Aya said sharply.

They had already circled around the enemy stronghold, leaving it between Yusuke's squad and the Root squad.

"Take cover. Hide your presence!" Yusuke ordered. His hands moved quickly through Hand Seals as he let out a low, cold laugh.

"You filthy bugs crawling in the gutters, ready to receive my little gift?"