The Demigod Arrives

At the same time, Hanzo of the Salamander arrived at the crater where the two had previously stayed.

A dark combat uniform lay beneath the light armor unique to the leader of the Hidden Rain Village. His face was covered by his signature gas mask, a long sword hung at his waist, and a chain sickle was slung across his back. Raindrops were repelled by his chakra as they fell, each one shattering into finer mist several inches from his body.

"Is this where the trail ends?"

"A whole day, and you still haven't found the slightest trace?"

"Useless trash!"

Several jonin trembled at the side. After days of fruitless searching, Hanzo of the Salamander had already executed two special jonin.

After observing the area for a while, Hanzo of the Salamander leaped away, clearly following the direction Bai Ye and Sakumo had gone as he pursued them.

If Bai Ye had been beside him now, he would likely have been dumbfounded. Hanzo of the Salamander's tracking route was exactly the same as the route he and Sakumo had taken while escaping under Sakumo's command. Hatake Sakumo was a veteran of countless battlefields, having completed hundreds of missions of all sizes. His skill in tracking and countertracking was nearly at the pinnacle of the shinobi world. It was under his command that the Hidden Rain Village's search parties lost Bai Ye and Sakumo's trail. Moreover, the two had not fled in a straight line. Sakumo had led Bai Ye through countless twists and turns, changing their route more than a hundred times...

Bai Ye carried Sakumo to a canyon leading toward Konoha. At the end of the canyon was a checkpoint along a supply route. To bypass it, they would need to travel for another full day.

Two stone watchtowers stood on either side of the canyon's narrowest point, with a heavy gate of iron and wood between them. The gate was open only wide enough for one person to pass through. Two supply wagons stood behind it, piled high with sealed metal crates.

There were more guards than Bai Ye had expected. Two sentries watched from the top level of each tower, while at least a company-sized force rested and rotated shifts inside the checkpoint buildings on both sides of the gate. Their combat strength... was unclear.

Bai Ye set Sakumo down in the shadow of a rock outside the gate and placed the short sword beside his hand.

"Master, this is the final checkpoint. Once we get through here and cross the war zone, we'll be in Konoha-controlled territory."

"You can't break through alone." Sakumo's voice was very soft.

"Help me up. Give me the last dose of the special painkiller."

Bai Ye understood that he could not take this checkpoint by himself, so he helped Sakumo up from behind the rock and injected him with the special painkiller.

"Place me at the gate. You'll cut in through the southern watchtower. After taking out the sentries at the top, throw shuriken at the other tower and force their commander to send the main force over there. I'll break in through the front gate and open it. Once it's open, jump down from the tower into the alley inside the gate. I'll wait for you at the alley's exit."

Bai Ye ran through Sakumo's plan in his mind.

"Can your body hold up?"

"Even if it can't, it has to. This is the final checkpoint."

Bai Ye helped Sakumo behind some shrubs not far from the front of the gate. He pulled out his last three shuriken from his ninja tool pouch and held them in his left hand, while his right rested on the hilt of his chakra-conducting blade. Lightning-nature chakra covered the blade, and a pale blue film of light flickered through the rain.

Blue Steel Shadow! Activate!

Sharingan! Activate!

"Go."

Bai Ye neither nodded nor looked back. He sprang out from behind the shrubs, lightning from Flash Step exploding beneath his feet and blasting a brief blank space through the curtain of rain.

At the top of the southern watchtower, two sentries were speaking quietly. Bai Ye's chakra-conducting blade swept across the back of one man's neck. The sound of the high-frequency vibrating blade cutting through flesh and spine was swallowed by the rain. The second man spun around in an instant, his hand already reaching for a kunai, but Bai Ye's second strike was faster.

"Enem—!"

Before he could fully cry out the warning, Bai Ye's blade slashed upward, sending his voice and blood into the rain together.

Chaos erupted at the gate.

"The south gate has fallen!"

"It's Konoha shinobi!"

"More than one! They're attacking from both directions!"

Sakumo rose from behind the shrubs. The moment he stood, his right leg failed to support him and his knee buckled. He braced himself with the short sword against the ground in front of him, steadied his body, then took a deep breath and stepped forward.

The distance from the shrubs to the gate was only a few dozen steps, yet Sakumo took twice his usual time to cross it. Every step landed in his own blood. Wounds all over his body seeped blood at once, crimson water running down through every tear in his combat uniform. But the painkiller began to take effect, and Sakumo's steps grew steadier and faster.

Two guards rushed out from inside the gate, kunai raised as they lunged at Sakumo. Sakumo did not slow. He held the short sword horizontally before him, then accelerated the instant they reached him and closed in on one of them. His blade swept from left to right, then he turned sideways and drove it straight into the other man's throat. The two dropped to their knees in the mud at the same time, clutching their throats as blood poured through their fingers.

Bai Ye jumped directly from the top of the watchtower into the alley inside the gate. Five guards stood there, having just rushed out of the rest area to reinforce the defense. Their combat uniforms were not fully on yet, but kunai and ninja blades were already in their hands.

He still opened with Flash Step. His first slash cut from the collarbone to the chest of the first man on the left. Before he could turn, the second strike drove backward into the abdomen of the first man on the right. The third man grabbed Bai Ye's arms from behind. Bai Ye tried to break free, but the man was far stronger than him. In that instant, the fourth man thrust a kunai at him from the front. Bai Ye's Sharingan caught the kunai's trajectory. Before it struck him, he slammed his head hard into the nose of the guard holding him. The man's grip loosened, and Bai Ye lunged one step forward through that opening. The fourth man's kunai sliced across his back, cutting open his combat uniform and leaving a superficial wound.

He flashed to the fourth man's side, turned the blade, and cut across his throat. By then, the fifth man had already retreated to the end of the alley.

He turned and ran. His fighting spirit had collapsed.

And Sakumo had also walked in from the gate.

Bai Ye stood at one end of the alley, water still streaming down his body.

Sakumo stood at the other end, blood streaming down his body.

An entire alley separated them. So did the rain, their combat uniforms caked with blood and mud beyond recognition, and the five fallen Hidden Rain Village guards and the one still fleeing.

Hatake Sakumo glanced at Bai Ye.

"Good work."