Heading to the Land of Grass

"Xiaojin, if only you could talk. Then we could chat," Hyuga Gen murmured to himself from behind Xiaojin.

They were flying toward the Land of Grass. Hyuga Gen had gotten the hang of it by now. Just like walking on water, as long as he gathered chakra in the soles of his feet, he wouldn't fall off easily.

Looking down at the scenery, he saw a vast expanse of lush greenery. This world had largely escaped widespread destruction by humans, so vegetation covered a huge area. Everywhere he looked, there was green.

The Land of Grass bordered the Land of Waterfalls, and both were small countries with relatively little territory. Before long, Xiaojin carried Hyuga Gen across the border into the Land of Grass.

Standing on Xiaojin's back, Hyuga Gen activated his Byakugan and began scanning the area. Finding Karin and her mother didn't seem too difficult. From what he remembered of Shippuden, they were bound to be in the Grass Ninja medical division. So he only needed to keep an eye on the movements of injured Grass Ninja to find them.

Xiaojin flew high above the ground, far out of sight. Hyuga Gen had given that instruction mainly to keep people below from spotting them.

Luckily, Hyuga Gen had the Byakugan. Otherwise, flying this high would have made it impossible to see what was happening on the ground.

"Didn't they say there were often wars in the Land of Grass? Why is it so peaceful?" After flying for a while without seeing anything unusual, Hyuga Gen muttered to himself. This wasn't a good sign for him.

Without a war, no one would get hurt, and if no one got hurt, there would be few opportunities for Karin's mother to appear. That would make them harder to find.

As far as Hyuga Gen could tell, the Grass Ninja relied heavily on Karin and her mother. Whenever anything happened, they would want to go up and bite them to recover.

He remembered that during the Chunin Ninja Exams in Shippuden, Karin's teammate hadn't even been badly injured, yet he still went straight for a bite—just to recover his chakra. What a waste.

Hyuga Gen thought that if Karin and her mother weren't with the Grass Ninja, they would probably be in even worse shape. They might even be wiped out, in which case the Land of Grass would cease to exist.

"What should I do? Should I go search Kusagakure?" Hyuga Gen couldn't help frowning.

Even with Xiaojin, Hyuga Gen knew that infiltrating Kusagakure with his current strength would be risky. It was still a ninja village, after all.

He might be able to handle one jonin, but if there were two or three, he'd be in danger. No matter how useless the Grass Ninja were, they had to have at least two or three jonin, right?

With such a valuable medic, Hyuga Gen didn't believe the Grass Ninja would fail to assign people to protect and monitor her closely. That would make it even easier for him to be discovered. If something unexpected happened and he got held up, he'd definitely be surrounded. Then all that awaited him would be death, so it was better to play it safe.

Forget it. He'd find somewhere to rest, have lunch, and think of another plan.

Hyuga Gen looked around for somewhere to land, preferably a place where others wouldn't spot him.

Meanwhile, in the Land of Waterfalls, Might Guy and the others searched the area but found no sign of Hyuga Gen. Might Guy had also searched beneath the rapids, but they were dark and complicated, and he hadn't found anything.

As for why they hadn't searched yesterday, it was partly because Might Guy had used up a lot of energy during the battle, and partly because it was already evening and night was about to fall. So he hadn't gone down to look.

That was why he'd gone down to search first thing that morning. Unfortunately, he hadn't found much, and there were no traces of Hyuga Gen nearby. The group knew that the chances of him surviving were slim.

The results of their morning search extinguished the faint glimmer of hope they had left. They had long understood that this might be the outcome, but they were still overcome with grief.

The mission was complete, and Might Guy knew it was time to return to Konoha and report in. There was little point in staying here. He'd also asked Bu Qianfan to keep an eye out and send word to Konoha if he heard anything about Hyuga Gen, whether he was dead or alive.

After giving his instructions, the group set off for home. There had been five of them on the way here, but only three were returning.

They barely spoke along the way, running toward Konoha in silence, their hearts heavy.

Meanwhile, Hyuga Gen woke from his midday nap. He and Xiaojin were in a cave on a fairly tall mountain. Luckily, Xiaojin was there; otherwise, climbing up would have been difficult.

After reaching the cave, he'd enjoyed a good meal and then settled down for a nap. He hadn't slept long the night before, so he'd wanted to get some rest.

Of course, before dozing off, he'd checked the surroundings. There hadn't been anyone within five kilometers, and Xiaojin was keeping watch nearby, so he'd slept soundly.

If there's no war, why not start one? Hyuga Gen began to ponder.

The Land of Grass was fairly capable diplomatically and maintained good relations with Konoha. When the Land of Earth had invaded the Land of Grass, Konoha had even sent troops to help.

The Five Great Nations didn't share borders directly; several small countries lay between them. The Five Great Nations had probably made sure those small countries remained there for a reason.

Those countries served as buffer zones, allowing the Five Great Nations to keep the fighting from reaching their own territories and causing unnecessary losses.

Looking at the wars that had taken place over the years, it was easy to see that most battles happened on the lands of these small countries. They had it rough, but there was nothing to be done. The law of the jungle applied everywhere.

Still, for all their suffering, they hadn't been wiped off the map, had they? The Land of Grass knew how to pit one side against another. When it couldn't win on its own, it asked Konoha for help, and Konoha naturally wouldn't ignore it. After all, Konoha didn't want the fighting to spread to its own territory.

So the Land of Grass had a decent grasp of diplomacy and politics. Otherwise, it wouldn't have survived this long. Hyuga Gen remembered that Grass Ninja had participated in the Chunin Ninja Exams, which showed that Konoha and the Grass Ninja had a very friendly relationship.

So if he wanted to start a war, he'd have to consider the other countries bordering the Land of Grass: the Land of Waterfalls, the Land of Rain, and the Land of Earth.

The Land of Waterfalls was out of the question. There was no way to start a conflict there. Given its location, there weren't even any defenses along its border, so provoking a war would be difficult.

As for the Land of Earth, Hyuga Gen didn't plan to consider it either. It was quite powerful, and if the Land of Grass provoked it, the entire army might come marching in. That would be trouble.

That left the Land of Rain. The two countries were fairly evenly matched—of course, that was assuming the Akatsuki didn't get involved. If Pain showed up, ten Kusagakure wouldn't be enough to stop him from wiping them out.

But Hyuga Gen figured the Akatsuki wouldn't appear along the border. At this point, they were slowly building their strength and wouldn't expose themselves easily.

Uchiha Itachi hadn't yet defected and joined the Akatsuki, while Deidara was still a child. The Akatsuki probably didn't have many members yet, so they wouldn't show themselves lightly. The risk shouldn't be too great.

Besides, if the Land of Rain and the Land of Grass went to war, the Land of Fire probably wouldn't rush to help. The Land of Rain wasn't as great a threat as the Land of Earth. Even if it wiped out the Land of Grass, the Konoha High Command might not think it mattered much.

So the best option for now was to provoke a conflict between the Land of Rain and the Land of Grass. If he secretly pulled something at the border, then got away from the Land of Rain as fast as possible, it should be fine, right?

Having made up his mind, Hyuga Gen decided to give it a try that very night.