Amegakure.
A man's figure stood atop a tall building.
He wore a black robe with red sleeves, and black metal rods were embedded across the bridge of his nose.
"Is a child worth your concern?"
The blue-haired girl stepped out through the door behind him.
"That's no ordinary child..."
"Mangekyō Sharingan..."
"I could feel that immense power..."
Chuan Yu carried Karin as he raced through the forest.
Because of the rain, the Flying Thunder God mark had somehow been blocked and rendered useless.
If his guess was right, there was only one person who could use this technique...
Pain.
Given the situation...
Chuan Yu had no reason to invite trouble by provoking him.
After all, he still wasn't strong enough.
Mangekyō against Rinnegan...
The odds weren't good...
"Let me go..."
"I won't let him kill me..."
"I'll bring him back..."
With that, Konan transformed into a mass of white paper and drifted toward the distant forest.
They were about a kilometer from Amegakure's border.
Karin suddenly looked frightened in Chuan Yu's arms.
"Behind us!"
"He's coming! He's close! Right behind us!"
Chuan Yu glanced back.
He saw two pairs of paper wings beating rapidly on Konan's back.
She was moving far too fast.
She was about to catch up with them.
"Stop..."
"Don't make me hurt you..."
Konan spoke without expression.
Compared with the colors of the sky...
Konan looked more like a white angel beneath an overcast sky.
Her soaring form completely blocked the two of them from view.
It seemed they couldn't escape her grasp.
Since it wasn't Pain, Chuan Yu had no reason to worry.
But he was afraid of being held up.
If Pain showed up then...
He could still get away, but he'd have to pay a price...
There was only one way...
Chuan Yu suddenly shut his left eye.
Ever since he had acquired his Mangekyō...
He had never used its ability.
Today, though, it might come in handy...
Unlike Shisui's...
His Mangekyō's ability was naturally based on genjutsu.
But it affected his target starting from his own surroundings.
Unlike an ordinary genjutsu...
Which merely trapped someone within the domain of the eye...
This Mangekyō...
Could create a genjutsu that formed a tangible world within its domain!
"Absolute Illusionary Domain..."
"Dianli Dongxiang!"
His left eye snapped open.
Fresh blood ran from the corner of his eye.
Konan, pursuing them from behind, noticed nothing unusual.
Centered on Chuan Yu...
Everything within a five-kilometer radius was locked in place.
Konan lost patience.
After her attempts to persuade them failed, she transformed the paper in her hand into a sharp blade and sent it flying at them.
It was about to hit them...
But it suddenly flew toward the branches of a nearby tree.
At last, Konan sensed that something was wrong.
She carefully examined her surroundings.
But nothing seemed different.
The two figures in front of her were still running away.
She launched another attack, but it veered off course again.
"I clearly had them in my sights..."
"Why is this happening?"
Nothing around her had changed, either.
She had just kept flying the entire time.
But at this speed, she should have already left the forest.
Konan stopped pursuing them.
Then she landed safely on a treetop.
The world before her suddenly warped.
The flowers and grass on the ground seemed to shift deliberately.
She raised her head and looked up at the sky.
The clouds overhead kept changing shape.
Konan knew it had something to do with the passage of time.
But there was no reason she couldn't hit them.
A small bird suddenly flew out.
Konan threw a kunai straight at it.
"I... I hit it?"
Konan's eyes widened in alarm.
Could it be that eye...
She hurried after them again.
Chuan Yu, carrying Karin, soon appeared in front of her.
But even then, she couldn't catch up or land a hit.
She was still flying through the same forest.
On a distant mountain ridge...
Chuan Yu looked toward the forest and smiled faintly.
If Shisui's Kotoamatsukami could change another person's will...
Then the unique ability of his own eye...
Was to lock someone's objective within its domain...
Until they gave up...
Only then would they escape from Dianli Dongxiang...
In truth, Konan was still in the same place.
Within her distorted awareness, the area within a five-kilometer radius kept rotating in place.
It seemed almost alive.
As long as Konan's objective was to capture the two of them...
She would keep wandering within that rotating five-kilometer area.
And the ability's rules made it impossible for her to target them with an attack.
In truth, as the environment rotated, it distorted the images before her eyes.
In other words...
Within Chuan Yu's Dianli Dongxiang...
Anyone caught in the technique couldn't hurt him at all.
Within this domain, Chuan Yu could even change anything inside it.
It all depended on the target's objective.
He couldn't change their will.
Even during a fight...
Because the person caught in the technique and the one casting it saw entirely different things!
That discrepancy was the key to victory!
The technique could only be dispelled once the target gave up their objective.
Its cooldown was short.
It was also more practical.
But it was far too damaging.
Until he had the Eternal Mangekyō, he had to use it sparingly...
Chuan Yu suddenly clutched his left eye in pain.
The ability of his left eye had consumed a great deal of chakra.
It had also taken a toll on his body.
Karin hurried over to Chuan Yu and knelt in front of him.
Then she swept up her hair, revealing her alluring neck.
"Bite me and you'll feel better!"
"Get away!"
Chuan Yu shoved Karin aside.
The map of Ryūchi Cave in his arms was knocked to the side.
He knew how powerful that healing ability was.
But he didn't want to become an addict like those shinobi from the Land of Grass.
Desire only grew stronger without limit.
Restraint wasn't the only solution.
Chuan Yu lowered the hand covering his left eye.
He slowly opened his eyes.
His vision suddenly blurred a little.
He knew that was the price of using the Sharingan.
His Mangekyō had only just evolved.
He was still adjusting to it.
It would take some time before he got used to it.
Then he could replace it with Shisui's Mangekyō...
The Eternal Mangekyō was getting closer and closer...
"This place..."
"I feel like I've seen it somewhere before..."
Karin picked up the map from the ground and studied it thoughtfully.
"Are you sure?"
Chuan Yu suddenly perked up.
He was grateful that he had rescued Karin earlier.
Otherwise, he had no idea how long it would have taken him to find the place.
"Mm..."
"I remember passing through a place called the Land of Stone when I fled the Land of Whirlpools with my mother..."
"That region's mountain totems looked very much like the snake pattern on your map..."
Chuan Yu nodded.
It seemed likely that some of the locals knew about the Ryuchi Cave Sage's tracks...
They only needed to find the place closest to Ryūchi Cave.
Then Karin should be able to sense it with her Mind's Eye of the Kagura.
"Let's not waste any time. We'll set out now."
Karin nodded, and the two of them turned and hurried toward the Land of Stone.
Trapped in Dianli Dongxiang, Konan finally gave up on her plan to capture the two of them.
The jungle's surroundings suddenly changed.
Only then did Konan realize she'd been in the same place from the very beginning.
And she still was.
"Interesting..."
"If she could become part of Akatsuki, Nagato would probably be very happy..."
With a flap of her wings, Konan turned and flew toward Amegakure...
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