The next afternoon.
Land of Fire, somewhere in the forest.
Members of the search team centered on the town where the incident occurred and spread their inspections to all surrounding areas.
For the sake of efficiency, Kakashi divided everyone into several groups.
The first group, Kakashi, Yamato, Sai, is responsible for the northern area of the town.
The second group, Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, is responsible for the southern area of the town.
The third group, Shino, Neji, is responsible for the eastern area of the town.
Before setting off, Kakashi channeled Pakkun and several other Ninja Dog, and used the remaining breath of Kakuzu's corpse as an aid in the search.
Pakkun squatted on the ground, sniffed the pieces of clothing extracted from Kakuzu's body, and nodded.
"The smell... is a bit bland, but it's definitely not in this area."
"Really?"
Kakashi raised his head and looked at the continuous mountain forest to the east, frowning slightly.
"Everyone, please search outside and pay attention."
"Understood."
The moment the order was given, each team immediately led a Ninja Dog and dispersed in the direction of their respective responsibility.
Pakkun stayed with Kakashi and headed towards the northern area with Kakashi, Yamato and Sai.
Naruto, Sakura and Hinata were in a group of three, walking south along a winding mountain road.
The dog sniffed the residual smell in the air and barked lowly from time to time to remind him of the direction.
Along the way, Naruto walked in a hurry.
He would stop almost every few minutes and look around, as if he was looking for something.
"Naruto-kun, did you discover something?"
Hinata noticed something strange about him and asked softly.
"I can't tell..." Naruto scratched his head and frowned.
"I always feel like... there's something over there."
He raised his hand and pointed to the depths of the dense forest in the southeast direction.
The trees there are dense and the light is dim, and it looks no different from the surrounding mountain forests.
But Naruto just felt that there was something attracting him in that direction.
"Let's search this area."
Naruto said, already taking steps towards that direction.
Sakura and Hinata looked at each other and followed quickly.
After walking for about ten minutes, the surrounding trees became denser and denser, and the light became darker and darker.
The chirping of birds that could still be heard disappeared at some point, leaving only the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves.
Just when Naruto was about to stop and confirm the direction--
"Naruto."
A familiar, cold voice suddenly came from not far ahead.
Naruto's footsteps suddenly stopped.
That was the voice of Sasuke, and he would never admit it.
"Sasuke--!"
Naruto suddenly raised his head and rushed towards the direction of the sound.
The shadows of the trees quickly retreated on both sides, and the branches and leaves scratched his cheeks and arms, leaving small scratches, but he didn't care about them.
"Sasuke! Where are you?!"
He shouted as he ran, his voice echoing in the forest, but he received no response.
Just as he was walking through a thick bush--
fog.
The white fog, so thick that he could barely see three steps ahead, surged out from nowhere and enveloped him in an instant.
Naruto's footsteps stopped suddenly.
He looked around cautiously, and his right hand was already touching Ninja Tool Pouch at his waist.
"Sakura! Hinata! Can you hear me?"
No response.
The path behind him has been completely engulfed in white mist, and the scene is the same before and on the left and right.
Just as he was preparing Hand Seals--
A red figure walked slowly from the depths of the mist.
Long black hair, scarlet Sharingan, and a red cloud robe are looming in the mist.
Uchiha Itachi.
Naruto's pupils shrank suddenly, and his body tensed instantly.
He wanted to move, but found that his body seemed to be nailed to the same spot.
Sharingan's illusion was activated at some point.
Itachi walked up to him and stopped.
Those scarlet eyes looked at him calmly, as if examining him, and as if confirming something.
"Naruto."
His voice was very soft, but it reached his ears clearly.
"Are you still continuing to pursue Sasuke?"
Naruto gritted his teeth and refused to look into his eyes, desperately trying to break free from the shackles of the illusion, but found that he could not even move a finger.
Finally, he looked directly into Itachi's eyes and squeezed out the answer word by word through his teeth.
"I... will definitely bring Sasuke back!"
Itachi looked at him and was silent for a moment.
Then, he laughed.
The smile was very light and faint, as if he had seen something that made him relieved, and it also seemed like some kind of confirmation.
"Very good."
As soon as he finished speaking, Itachi raised his hand.
A completely black Crow flew out of his sleeve and landed on his fingertips.
Crow's eyes are scarlet, exactly the same as Itachi's Sharingan.
"I hope you can transfer him to Sasuke."
Itachi's voice was still calm, and then he handed the Crow to Naruto.
Naruto had a premonition that something was not good. He wanted to struggle and retreat, but he couldn't do anything.
Crow slowly opened his mouth, screamed, and then without warning, got in from Naruto's open mouth!
The cold feeling passed through the throat and went straight into the abdomen.
Naruto's eyes widened, and he froze in place. He made a "gurgling" sound in his throat, but could not make any sound.
Then, except Genjutsu: Release.
The dense fog dissipated at a speed visible to the naked eye, the sun shone down again, and the outline of the trees became clear again.
Itachi's figure has disappeared.
He came and left again, as if he had never appeared.
"Naruto-kun!"
Two figures rushed out from behind and stumbled towards Naruto.
Sakura ran to him first, grabbed his shoulders, and looked him up and down.
"Are you okay? We just saw fog, why did you come here?!"
Hinata followed her, looking at Naruto with a worried look, but was slightly startled when he saw Naruto.
Naruto's face was very pale, there were fine beads of sweat on his forehead, and his lips were trembling slightly.
His hand unconsciously pressed against his throat, as if he wanted to spit something out, but nothing came out.
"That bastard... he..."
Naruto gritted his teeth and clenched his fists loudly.
"He stuffed a Crow in my mouth..."
Sakura "... Huh?"
At the same time, the eastern area of the town.
Ya and Shino moved to the left and right, advancing rapidly along the ridgeline.
Akamaru leads the way, stopping from time to time to smell the ground, and then continues forward.
Neji walked at the back, walking at a leisurely pace.
His Byakugan is always on, and his field of vision penetrates layers of trees and rocks, taking in everything within a radius of several hundred meters.
Most areas are normal.
Ordinary animals, ordinary Chakra, nothing abnormal.
When he was about to look back.
At the edge of Byakugan's field of vision, several Chakra belonging to ninjas suddenly appeared in his Byakugan.
But that's not the most important thing. What's important is that he saw some familiar figures among that group of people.
His heartbeat suddenly accelerated at this moment.
The blood seemed to rush to the top of his head in an instant, making him freeze in place.
"Neji? What's wrong?"
Ya noticed that the person behind him stopped and turned around to ask.
"It's okay." Neji's voice was a little tight, "You continue to search forward, I'll go over there and take a look."
He didn't wait for Ya to respond. He exerted force on his feet and his body swept sideways and disappeared into the forest.
Ya and Shino looked at each other and saw the confusion in each other's eyes, but neither one asked any more questions.
Neji was walking through the forest, getting faster and faster.
His Byakugan was always locked on that figure, fearing that the other person would suddenly disappear.
The distance is getting closer.
Then, he stopped on the branch of a big tree and looked down at the open space in front of him.
There, several figures were packing their bags.
Sasuke, Suigetsu, Karin, Jugo... and the white-haired figure who was facing away from him and putting the scroll in his arms.
Neji's breathing started to become heavy.
Among the Byakugan, the figure's Chakra flow is clearly visible.
Although there are slight differences in appearance and body, the way Chakra flows in the body, the subtle features that only Byakugan can see, are exactly the same as the person in memory.
At this moment, the figure's movements suddenly stopped.
Ning Xue stood there, a familiar feeling welling up in his heart.
He slowly turned his head and looked in the direction of Neji with his black eyes covered by contact lenses.
Then, he turned on Byakugan.
Two Byakugan lines of sight collided silently in the air.
Neji's heart beat violently at this moment.
He's really not dead...
He is really alive...