I'll Carry You Home

As early as five days ago, when he learned that the munitions depot had been destroyed, Hanzo had already known that the Land of Rain had lost this war. Even if he could withstand the siege of the other villages on the main battlefield, the Land of Rain no longer had the resources to gather another stockpile of supplies on such a massive scale. Besides, the war's consumption was staggering. Their remaining supplies would be exhausted within a month. Even if they had the funds to procure more, there was no time.

So, to vent his fury, he decided to hunt down Hatake Sakumo at any cost. He first placed the entire Land of Rain under martial law, sealed the passes leading to the border of the Land of Fire, and redeployed a quarter of the jonin from the main battlefield back to the interior. At the same time, he launched a carpet search throughout the country and even issued three consecutive kill orders.

"Anyone who retreats without fighting or fails to send a signal, kill them!"

"Anyone who searches poorly and lets him escape, kill them!"

"Anyone who shelters enemy invaders or conceals them without reporting it, kill them!"

But Hanzo had not expected that, after four straight days and countless ninja casualties, they still failed to capture Hatake Sakumo. After settling matters on the battlefield, he himself headed to the place where Hatake Sakumo had last vanished.

But someone else arrived before him.

Bai Ye had paused in the woods for a long time. Hiding and slipping around all the way, he had finally reached these hills through sheer luck.

The rain was still falling, hard enough to wash away every footprint, scent, and bloodstain. Bai Ye's nose was no match for a ninja hound's, but he had the Sharingan. Its tomoe slowly turned within his blood-red pupils.

After five years as master and disciple, he knew everything: which way Sakumo tended to turn during battle, which direction he would instinctively seek cover after being wounded, and what kind of terrain he would prioritize once his stamina and chakra fell below a certain point.

Beyond a dense forest stood a steep rock wall, its surface covered in moss and vines. Rain and wind had eroded a shallow hollow into the base of the cliff. It was not large, just enough for one person to curl up inside.

Bai Ye found him in that hollow beneath the rock wall.

Hatake Sakumo leaned against the cliff, his body tilted to the left. The wound on his left shoulder had smeared a dark-red streak of blood across the rock's rough surface. His eyes were closed, and his breathing was shallow and slow. He still clutched a short blade in his right hand, the handle cord completely soaked in blood, yet his fingers remained locked around it. A large dark-red wet patch spread across the chest of his combat uniform.

Bai Ye crouched and placed his fingers against Sakumo's neck. A faint pulse beat against his fingertips.

Weak, but unbroken.

He was alive.

Bai Ye's hands began to tremble. From finding the first signs of battle to entering the forest and locating this cliff, his body had been operating at its limit. His chakra, stamina, and mental strength all hung over the edge of a precipice. If he stopped now, if that breath of tension loosened, his whole body might fall apart.

But this was not the time to collapse.

He pulled out bandages and hemostatic powder from his ninja tool pouch. He unrolled a section of a bandage that looked like a clump of dried kelp and sprinkled the powder over Sakumo's deepest wound.

Sakumo's body jerked the instant the powder touched the wound. His eyelids twitched, his brow furrowed, and his lips moved, but no sound came out.

"Master. Master."

Bai Ye patted Sakumo's uninjured shoulder.

Sakumo's eyes slowly opened. It took a moment for those eyes to shift from unfocused to clear, then recognize Bai Ye's face.

His lips moved again. This time, a voice emerged.

"You... brat..."

Bai Ye's eyes reddened.

"You... you fucking..."

The movement pulled at Sakumo's wound, and his voice cut off for a moment. When he recovered, he no longer had the strength to finish the curse. He could only glare at Bai Ye with exhausted eyes full of anxiety, anger, helplessness, and a trace of relief.

His body had reached its limit. For five days, Hatake Sakumo had made the name "White Fang of the Leaf" resound through Hanzo's pursuit and blockade. He had pinned every force Hanzo could mobilize firmly onto himself, reducing the pressure on the southern route to its lowest point. He just had not expected Bai Ye to choose to come back for him, even when he himself was trapped in an encirclement.

"Master, it's your turn to listen to me."

Sakumo said nothing and did not move.

Bai Ye gave several of Sakumo's deepest wounds the necessary bleeding control and compression bandaging. He did not waste time treating the shallower wounds, nor did he try to remove the foreign objects embedded in them. He did not have the conditions for that now. He only needed to stop the external bleeding, keep the internal injuries from worsening, and make sure Sakumo survived until they reached a place where they could truly rest.

"Master, I'll carry you home."

The moment Bai Ye spoke, he moved. He pulled the short robe on his body, tattered beyond repair, over his head. He threaded it through the gap between Sakumo's arm and shoulder, tied a knot across Sakumo's chest, placed Sakumo's uninjured arm over his right shoulder, then wrapped his left hand around Sakumo's back and gripped the belt at Sakumo's left waist. He shifted most of Sakumo's weight onto his own spine and left shoulder, took a deep breath, and stood.

The two moved through the heartland of the Land of Rain at an agonizingly slow pace.

"Go left. Pass between those pine trees."

Bai Ye did not ask why. He followed the instruction and turned onto the path to the left, which barely looked like a path at all.

"Remember this. There's moss on the ground here, and it only grows on the north side of the tree roots. That means the north is much wetter than the south. There should be surface water nearby to the north. It's damp there, so footprints won't hold."

"Look to your front left. That row of shrubs, do you see it? Their tops have been shaved flat, cut very neatly. Not by a blade—it was swept by the wings of ninja hawks. Ninja hawks circled low over this area, which means Hidden Rain Village's ANBU are using them for wide-range searches. Remember this: if a ninja hawk flies below a certain height, its view will be blocked by the canopy... so we need to move through the gaps between the treetops... From above, they'll only see the tops of the canopy. They won't see anyone in the gaps."

"Riverbeds... walking in a riverbed won't leave footprints, because the stones are too hard... But don't walk along either side of the riverbed. The soil there is too soft... Step on it, and the marks will remain for a long time... Remember, sensory ninja don't track footprints. They track the chakra left in those footprints... Every ninja leaves traces of chakra beneath their feet as they walk. That chakra seeps into the soil, gravel, and tree roots... It takes at least half a day, sometimes several days, to disperse. Sensory ninja don't need to see your footprints. They only need to sense the lingering chakra to find your direction..."

"Watch carefully. At the bottom of that rock wall ahead... there's a groove carved out by wind erosion... It's shallow, enough to hide at most half a person... But if you crouch inside and light a fire, the rock wall will block the firelight. Nothing can be seen from outside... There are no stars or moon in the Land of Rain. If they can't even see a fire, a sensory ninja's detection range will be reduced... Staying soaked in rain for too long weakens their senses... Their chakra is being drained too."

This time, they truly were fleeing for their lives. Hatake Sakumo constantly drew on his battlefield experience, doing everything he could to erase the traces of their escape. As he directed Bai Ye along their route, he explained every detail carefully. He did not know how much farther they could go. He only hoped that, during the time they had left, he could teach this child as much as possible—things he might use one day when facing danger alone.