Counter-Hunt Trap

Shinichi had crouched in the camphor tree for the third night.

The tracking team had been active in this area for several days. Every night, Dog Face appeared on schedule at different locations near the narrow alley by the drainage ditch, using the same Sensory Tracking Technique each time to scan the residual chakra traces on the ground. Crow Face was responsible for setting traps around the area. He had laid tripwires at both ends of the alley, tied trigger-activated explosive tags to the roots of the old camphor tree at the entrance, and even hidden a canister of colorless, odorless paralytic gas on the iron framework atop the water tower. Snake Face handled communications from the center. At midnight every night, he flashed signals from the top of the old water tower, then withdrew to the substation below it to compile and report the scattered chakra residue the tracking team had found that day.

On the surface, this was a standard Root tracking procedure—carpet-search the area, gradually narrow the range, and sooner or later, they would find their prey.

But Shinichi had noticed a pattern. Each location where Dog Face used his tracking technique had gradually shifted in the same direction—not deeper into the drainage ditch, but toward the abandoned freight warehouse to the south. Crow Face's traps had also changed in style. Instead of tying trigger-activated explosive tags to conspicuous tree roots as he had the day before, he hid them amid a pile of rusted wire coils on the warehouse's south side, exactly where someone would instinctively slip in through the side door. As for Snake Face, the duration of his signals had increased by a few seconds each day. When communications shinobi extended the duration of a signal, it was usually to give nearby teammates on standby a more precise distance reference.

They had deliberately left clues. Those three idiots were putting on an act.

More precisely, every day they used more obvious methods than the day before to tell their prey, "We're here," while casually drawing the prey's attention toward the warehouse. Crow Face's traps grew cruder, Dog Face's sensing moved ever closer to the same location, and Snake Face's signals lasted longer and longer—all these "flaws" were far too deliberate. Deliberate enough that an opponent who had silently taken out multiple outer Root members in succession should never have failed to notice them.

They thought their prey would follow their fake flaws into the warehouse and trigger the ambush already prepared inside. The warehouse was deserted at night, an enclosed space with every escape route blocked. The three of them would close the net together—this tactic might have worked against an ordinary jonin. But Shinichi had spent several nights crouched in the gap between the ventilation shafts connecting the substation and the warehouse, recording Dog Face's Earth Pattern scanning-wave frequencies, Snake Face's signal durations, and Crow Face's trap-setting sequence on paper for analysis. He had already figured out every move these people would make.

The real prey was the tracking team itself. They had already gone from hunters to prey.

Just after midnight, Snake Face's chakra signal lit up on the water tower as scheduled. Its flashing frequency increased, and it lasted a few seconds longer than the night before. After the signal ended, the three trackers dispersed along their predetermined routes—Crow Face entered the west side of the warehouse first, Dog Face stood on its east side and continued using his sensory technique to create false scanning trails, while Snake Face guarded the substation entrance and covered their retreat. Shinichi did not approach from the ground. He had planned an aerial route beforehand, from the steel platform directly above the water tower to the warehouse rooftop vent. With Silent Steps active, swirling air currents calibrated by his Sharingan wound around the soles of his feet. Every step landed in blind spots between vents and the side edges of skylights, places where Crow Face had not attached any touch-triggered mechanisms. He slid into the warehouse through the vent, suppressing his presence so completely that even his breathing nearly stopped.

Crow Face crouched in the shadows beside the pile of wire coils at the center of the warehouse, his back to the vent. He was waiting, waiting for the prey to sneak in through the side door. He did not know that the prey had been watching him from the steel beam above for quite some time.

A shuriken descended from an angle Crow Face had never expected—not at him, but at the pile of rusted wire coils by his feet. Wind-nature chakra clinging to the shuriken's blade severed the explosive tag fuse tied inside the coils, then continued sliding along the wire's texture before precisely piercing Crow Face's right heel. Crow Face's body stiffened violently. His right hand instinctively reached for the kunai at his waist, but Shinichi had already dropped silently from the steel beam and pressed a hand against the back of his neck.

Devouring activated. Crow Face's body crumpled like a machine whose power had been cut. A scorching stream of chakra surged into Shinichi's body, far more intense than the warmth he had felt when devouring wind-nature chakra before—fire nature. Not ordinary fire nature, but the embryonic form of a dual-nature bloodline limit already partially fused with earth nature: Explosion Release. At the same time, a vast amount of trap-setting experience poured in—what kind of tripwire was easiest to overlook, what kind of explosive tag could blow up the enemy before they triggered it, what kind of false trap could lure an enemy into the true corridor of death. It all carved itself into his muscle memory. In the final moment, the cracks in Crow Face's mask reflected the faint red glow of Shinichi's Sharingan before going completely dark.

Dog Face was second. He stood on the east side of the warehouse with his hands forming the seals for the Sensory Tracking Technique, though his attention was not entirely on tracking. He was counting the time—Crow Face should already be in position, and Snake Face's signal was close. This time, Shinichi did not take the assassination route. He walked straight out through the warehouse's front entrance. Moonlight stretched his shadow across the packed earth, clear and calm.

Dog Face's pupils contracted sharply. The prey had not emerged from the trap. The prey had come from the hunters' direction. He immediately canceled his sensory technique and formed hand seals. Fire-nature chakra surged from his lower abdomen into his chest, a dark-red glow lighting the depths of his throat. In one breath, he spat out three fireballs in a triangular formation, sealing off the path ahead—Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique. Chakra flowed back through his right arm as his fingers formed another set of fire seals, ready to launch a second wave at any moment. Rather than retreat, Shinichi advanced. Wind-nature chakra formed a barrier before him, deflecting the fireballs' currents to either side. The fireballs skimmed past his ears and singed several strands of hair, but he had already closed to within three steps of Dog Face. Dog Face staggered back in panic, his heel catching on the pile of debris Crow Face had left against the wall. His upper body instinctively leaned back as he tried to flip out an explosive tag, his right hand just reaching into his ninja tool pouch.

A kunai was already pressed to his throat. Shinichi turned his left hand, the blade tight against Dog Face's skin, its tip gleaming coldly under the moonlight.

"Your traps were too deliberate." Shinichi's voice was very soft. Dog Face stared at him with wide eyes, his mouth opening as if he wanted to say something. Devouring activated. A torrent of fire-nature chakra rushed into Shinichi's body. Unlike Crow Face's mixed-nature embryonic Explosion Release, Dog Face possessed pure Fire Release approaching bloodline-limit grade. The heat of flames spread through his chakra pathways as the system's information stream updated in sync: acquired skills Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique, Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique, and Chakra Sensory Technique: Earth Pattern. The fire nature and his existing earth nature began to fuse spontaneously within his lower abdomen—not a simple addition, but an automatic bloodline synthesis initiated by the system after matching the chakra traits of Crow Face and Dog Face.

A moment later, the system notification lit up again. The new bloodline limit, "Scorch Release," had been generated. Its basic effects were high-temperature steam and chakra erosion, and it could be combined with wind nature for directed release.

Shinichi closed his eyes slightly, sensing the scorching current gathering in his palm, then casually laid Dog Face down on the ground. Beneath the distant water tower, Snake Face had clearly heard the brief sounds of Fire Release from the warehouse and was turning to retreat swiftly toward the alley entrance. A communications shinobi's greatest value was bringing intelligence back, and he had indeed judged the situation quickly. Neither Crow Face nor Dog Face had responded. Two tracking positions had become blank spaces in the communication sequence.

A kunai wrapped in wind-nature chakra flew in from the side, slicing across Snake Face's left shoulder and shattering the signal device strapped to his arm. Fragments and several drops of blood splattered onto the ground together. Snake Face staggered forward two steps, clutched his left arm, and fell to his knees. When he looked up, a hand was already pressed above his mask. The next second, his consciousness cut out. After Devouring was complete, Shinichi stood silently where he was for a moment. Fragments of the intelligence shinobi's memories flooded into his mind—countless communication codes, the distribution of bases, Root's internal personnel structure, and one name that appeared again and again: Elephant Face.

He gently propped Snake Face against the wall, organized his own ninja tool pouch, and began clearing the scene. The entire process was so smooth that it barely resembled a battle. It was more like a technician performing routine maintenance in the dead of night. Every trap was dismantled, the explosive tags tucked into his clothes, drag marks filled in and restored with Earth Release, and finally, he used the Scorch Release he had just acquired. A dry, faintly hot current rose from his palm and swept over the ground and walls at low power, baking away the residual chakra traces along with the droplets condensed on the metal sheets by the previous night's mist, turning them into a pale haze that dispersed into the air.

When he returned to the orphanage, Little Fatty's teeth grinding was sounding right on schedule, while the leaves of the old locust tree in the courtyard rustled softly in the night wind. He climbed in through the window and lay down, spreading the newly acquired fire-and-earth-nature fusion panel open in his mind. In his notebook, he lightly wrote a line—"Scorch Release: high-temperature steam generated. Can be used for secondary trace removal after tracking and area denial. Intelligence network has traced upward to Elephant Face—Danzo's direct communication chain."

The counter-hunt was over. The gains had far exceeded expectations.