Hyuga Yuto stood on a thin branch high in a tree. Within the Byakugan's field of vision, there was nothing unusual.
He quickly left the area and raced onward. Every kilometer or so, he lightly scored a tree trunk with a kunai coated in special paint.
The main force behind him would see the signal and know that this route was safe—at least, free of large-scale ninja ambushes.
This was the third day since the advance unit had left the village.
Given Hyuga Yuto's speed, he could have crossed the Land of Fire back and forth several times in that span. Yet now, the branch family youth could only just make out the distant border of the Land of Fire.
War between nations and hidden villages was not like carrying out a ninja mission. Recklessly pushing speed to the limit was simply courting death.
The Hidden Leaf Village's advance unit was led by Minato Namikaze and consisted of two parts: reconnaissance and tactical surprise attacks.
There were not many of them in total, around four hundred, but they were packed with elites.
The strategically vital Byakugan, the Sharingan with its outstanding individual combat power, the Aburame clan with their most bizarre and unpredictable attack methods, the Inuzuka Clan skilled in tracking, and civilian ninjas who had mastered unusual techniques...
The Hyuga clan alone had sent three jonin into the advance unit, including Hyuga Yuto.
Though the Hyuga clan had committed even more strength to the main force led by Orochimaru, proportionally speaking, the advance unit's ninjas were far more elite. Genin were almost nowhere to be seen.
After all, the advance unit's mission was to gather intelligence and pull out enemy outposts. They would inevitably clash with the enemy's elites. If something went wrong on Minato Namikaze's side, Orochimaru's main