Kurenai Yuhi's Ambition

"Finally, finished cleaning them up." Manipulating his puppet to blast apart the last of Yuhi Shinku's clones, Sasori of the Red Sand arrived at the edge of Dahu City with a gloomy expression.

As expected, footprints were everywhere in every direction; that squad hadn't bothered to hide their tracks at all, nor did they need to.

Without the slightest intention of gambling on his luck, Sasori of the Red Sand turned back the way he came. If he remembered correctly, there was still a companion of those Konoha ninja lying over there.

Wasn't it said that Konoha ninja valued their comrades? It seemed that was nothing more than talk.

Walking up to the immobilized Konoha spy, Sasori of the Red Sand ended his life with a single strike. Collecting materials while he was at it served as a way to vent his frustration. As for probing the information in the man's mind, while he was capable of it, he had no interest in doing so.

Starting a war for the sake of hatred or other such things was simply too boring.

Storing the two corpses away, Sasori of the Red Sand prepared to return to the underground hideout he had been staying in to pack his things and leave.

After all, with such a commotion caused here, there was certainly no way he could stay any longer.

However, halfway there, Sasori of the Red Sand was drawn to a cluster of iron sand and stopped in his tracks.

It was a neodymium magnet, wrapped in countless grains of iron sand into a sphere.

Was this the magnet that countered the Third Kazekage's Magnet Release? This magnetic force was indeed quite special.

Sasori of the Red Sand thought for a moment and simply decided to pack up these neodymium magnets that Kawaki Aoba had thrown everywhere as well.

On the other side, under the cover of night, two figures—one large and one small—each carried a person as they hurried through the desert.

Although it was unlikely that Sasori of the Red Sand would pursue them and find the right direction under those circumstances, they weren't about to gamble their lives on it.

It wasn't until dawn, after they had successfully escaped into the Land of Rivers, that the two dared to stop and rest.

"This mission was truly thrilling, Shinku-sensei. But to have seen Sasori of the Red Sand and gathered such important intelligence, we haven't made this trip in vain," Kawaki Aoba said with a sigh.

But opposite him, Yuhi Shinku's face turned dark, and he said in an unfriendly tone, "Just how long do you intend to keep holding Kurenai, you brat?"

"Oh, sorry, sorry. I was just so nervous before." After offering an excuse, he reluctantly set down the blushing Yuhi Kurenai from his arms.

Kawaki Aoba's Observation Haki had a range of over 20 kilometers. He had known that Sasori of the Red Sand had given up the chase the previous night, but in order to hold her a little longer... pfft.

But to get out of danger as quickly as possible, he chose to keep that information to himself.

Furthermore, the death of that spy brother had been "seen" by him quite clearly.

In truth, that guy had a chance to survive. After all, with both him and Shinku-sensei having created so many Shadow Clone Techniques the previous night, taking one more person along wouldn't have been difficult. But because that guy had exposed too much the night before, and having been betrayed by a temporary teammate once already, Kawaki Aoba didn't want to make the same mistake a second time.

Interestingly, Yuhi Shinku hadn't saved him either, and the implications of that were worth pondering.

Little did he know, Yuhi Shinku, who already viewed him as a son-in-law, could never have allowed him to be placed in danger again.

Moreover, given the nature of those Konoha elders, he really wasn't sure if they would do something disgusting once Kawaki Aoba exposed that mysterious potion.

Yuhi Shinku clearly remembered a classmate of his from a small clan whose family possessed a secret technique that could turn ink drawings into reality.

During the Second Shinobi World War, their entire clan seemed to have collectively defected to Elder Shimura Danzo, and then, that clan was wiped out. The secret technique they possessed naturally became one of the collections of Danzo's Root.

Although he didn't know the specific details of what happened back then, witnessing that outcome made it impossible for him not to be cautious when dealing with those higher-ups.

Besides, Yuhi Shinku had his own ambitions as well.

Aoba was all alone and possessed such high talent. Once he grew up, he and his daughter might very well be able to start a small clan. By then, wouldn't everything this kid possessed become the foundation for their family?

He just wondered if the kid had a lot of that potion.

If it could be obtained easily, Yuhi Shinku had a bold idea.

He had seen the Tailed Beast Cloak, a powerful ability that only a jinchuriki could unleash, with his own eyes on the battlefield. The state Aoba was in after drinking the potion—unable to control his chakra as it surged outward—was so similar to the Tailed Beast Cloak that it was hard not to draw a connection.

Perhaps, after returning to the village, he should find time to discuss it properly with Aoba. If there really was enough of that potion, he felt that with his own talent, he might be able to develop a secret technique similar to the Tailed Beast Cloak as the foundation for their family's future.

Yuhi Shinku was quite confident in his own talent. After all, as a civilian ninja without any backing, he had relied on his own efforts to modify and create many powerful genjutsu, achieving far more than his peers from back then.

Cough, although his performance in the battle against Sasori of the Red Sand had been unsightly, that was only because the opponent countered him so thoroughly.

Besides, hadn't he seen that Sasori of the Red Sand didn't dare let him get close enough to cast powerful genjutsu?

As for why he didn't use long-range genjutsu, it wasn't that Yuhi Shinku hadn't tried, but that level of genjutsu was easily dispelled by Sasori of the Red Sand. Coupled with those puppets that had the strength of jonin, he simply had no opportunity to make a follow-up move.

While the squad was resting, Yuhi Kurenai had no idea that her father was already preparing to accumulate a foundation for the family she would eventually start with Kawaki Aoba.

What Yuhi Kurenai was thinking about now was her concern for another matter.

Looking at her father and then glancing at Kawaki Aoba, she gathered her courage and asked, "Father, did we just leave a companion behind? And he seemed to be our mission target for this time. In that case, has our mission failed?"

This was the first time their squad had failed a mission, and it was hard for her not to be bothered by it.

On the other side, Asuma, who had been silent ever since they escaped, also raised his head.

Prompted by Yuhi Kurenai, he finally remembered the spy companion they had abandoned.

At the same time, he was reminded of the father of a genius classmate from his days at the Ninja Academy.