More "Challenges"!

"Don't panic."

Kawaki Aoba kept his voice low, his gaze sweeping over Iwabe Yuino's tense profile. "

First, sense the Chakra around us.

Whoever spoke just now has hidden his Chakra well, but he's definitely still nearby."

Iwabe Yuino took a deep breath and rapidly formed Hand Seals, a vein bulging slightly on his forehead.

His sensing ability was no match for a ninja who specialized in Sensory Ninjutsu, but with Kawaki Aoba's warning, he barely caught a trace of unusual Chakra. It seemed to blend into Sunagakure's night wind, flickering in and out—now behind a broken wall to the east, now drifting toward the ruins of a tower to the west. He couldn't pin down its location at all.

"I can't do it, Aoba."

An edge of anxiety entered Iwabe Yuino's voice. Sweat had beaded in his palms by the time he lowered his hands. "

His Chakra is too strange. It's like he's circling us on purpose. I can't get a fix on him."

Kawaki Aoba said nothing. He slowly closed his eyes.

He spread his Chakra outward like a fine net, gently covering everything within a hundred meters.

Unlike Iwabe Yuino's direct method, his Chakra sensing was more like "listening"

—listening to the flow of Chakra, to the tremor of energy beneath every inch of ground.

He soon noticed something wrong: beneath the collapsed council hall thirty meters to the northwest, one thread of Chakra flowed unusually slowly. It even seemed to have "stopped,"

as though it were deliberately imitating the stillness of stone to hide its presence.

"Northwest. The council hall ruins."

Kawaki Aoba's eyes snapped open. He flung three Kunai in that direction, thin Chakra Threads wrapped around their tips. "

Iwabe Yuino, use Earth Release to cut off his escape!"

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