Tracking

Early the next morning, while the sky was still barely light, Lin Chongshu woke up.

The woman was still curled up in the corner, asleep with the child in her arms, breathing softly.

Without making a sound, he climbed down from the bed and tied his ninja tool pouch around his waist.

Shan Tianzhu was also asleep against the stove outside. After taking his wallet, Lin Chongshu walked out of the courtyard.

The Third Shinobi World War had ended only recently. The Five Great Nations appeared to have made peace on the surface, but behind the scenes, they guarded against one another more fiercely than anyone.

Major nations like the Land of Fire were especially strict about people entering their borders. Other than large official events like the Chunin Exams, ordinary people found it difficult to enter through normal channels.

Sunagakure's identity could no longer be used.

He had provoked Rasa enough to trigger the system. There might already be wanted posters for him posted throughout the Land of Fire. Walking brazenly through Konoha's front gates would be no different from handing the Hidden Leaf Village's Anbu an easy achievement.

But small nations were different. Their identity systems were far looser than those of major nations.

Even Orochimaru, an S-rank rogue ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village, had been able to establish Otogakure by bribing the daimyo of the Land of Rice Fields.

Of course, the daimyo of the Land of Rice Fields had also needed a strong figure to guard the country. Both sides had gotten what they wanted.

For small nations, which normally survived at the mercy of major powers, so-called "internal affairs" had long ceased to matter. Money and powerful people who could help them were what mattered most.

So Lin Chongshu's plan was clear: if he wanted to enter Konoha through normal means, he first needed to obtain a legal identity from a small nation, then find an opportunity to slip in as a "law-abiding citizen of a small nation."

This border village in the Land of Rain was located in an ungoverned zone where oversight was lax, making it the perfect place for gray-market dealings to thrive.

Fake identities, fake travel permits, black-market intelligence—places like this always had channels for such things.

Lin Chongshu began wandering around the village.

The village was much livelier during the day than it had been at night.

Several women squatted beside a puddle at the village entrance, washing clothes. Their wooden basins held coarse linen garments, and they chatted as they scrubbed.

An old man sat on the threshold of a mud-brick house by the roadside, weaving straw sandals.

He followed the village's only main road, inspecting the shops along the way one by one.

There were shops selling dry rations, shops selling cloth, and a teahouse with a crooked sign hanging outside. Inside, several traveling merchants sat drinking tea and loudly discussing something.

He leaned against the teahouse entrance and listened for a moment. The merchants were discussing the recent situation in the Land of Rain:

Hanzo had executed another batch of spies, while more and more people had begun worshipping gods and spending money to hire gods to protect them.

By noon, Lin Chongshu found a noodle stall near the village entrance.

Calling it a noodle stall was generous. It was really just a household that had set up a crooked-legged table and two long benches outside its door.

He ordered a bowl of plain noodles, topped with a few bits of scallion and a layer of chili oil.

Leaning against the bench, a thought suddenly surfaced in his mind: Otsutsuki Ichiraku's ramen.

One of the must-eat foods for transmigrators in Konoha, ranked only behind Tsunade, Kurenai, Hinata, Anko, Shizune, Ino, and the rest... Once he got into Konoha, he definitely had to try it.

He set his chopsticks in the empty bowl, stood up, placed a banknote on the table, and headed toward the village entrance.

After passing through around two alleys, his pace did not stop, but his expression changed slightly.

Someone was following him.

He did not look back. He merely slowed down a little, turned into a side street, then turned into another.

Every time he turned a corner, a small pinch of sand scattered from the Quicksand Bracelet on his wrist and drifted to the ground.

After walking a few dozen steps, he was certain that someone had their eye on him.

The grains of sand stuck to the other person's soles maintained a fixed distance from him, neither too close nor too far. They followed steadily.

Lin Chongshu suddenly quickened his pace.

The person behind him hesitated for a moment, then stopped concealing himself and accelerated as well.

Lin Chongshu felt that he had already reached the fastest speed an ordinary person could manage, yet the footsteps behind him were still closing in, growing nearer and nearer.

Not an ordinary person. A pursuer from Sunagakure?

He spun around and slipped into a dark dead-end alley.

The person behind him stopped at the alley entrance.

The alley was narrow, and the mud-brick walls on either side blocked the sunlight until only a thin slit remained overhead.

From the shadows at the end of the alley, Lin Chongshu saw the other man's face clearly.

He was a young man with stubble. The forehead protector on his head bore the symbol of Kirigakure, slashed through with a horizontal line.

A rogue ninja. A rogue ninja from Kirigakure.

Lin Chongshu was puzzled. Why would a rogue ninja from Kirigakure be watching me? Even if there was a bounty on me, regular ninja should be the ones coming after me.

He was already a rogue ninja, yet he still wanted to capture me for the reward? Wasn't he afraid someone would just collect two bounties at once?

Could it have been yesterday? When I took out gold coins to buy rice balls at the village entrance, did this rogue ninja spot me?

The man's gaze dropped to the ground. Three palm-sized gold ingots lay side by side there, with a small note tucked beneath them. Three crooked words were written on it: "Money to buy my life."

The man looked down at the gold ingots, the corner of his mouth twitching, but he did not bend down to pick them up.

Lin Chongshu's voice rang out. "Sir, please show mercy. If it's money you want, I can give you as much as you need."

The rogue ninja from Kirigakure smiled. He was not looking at the gold ingots on the ground, and he continued walking deeper into the alley.

"That isn't nearly enough."

A streak of gold flashed through the dim alley.

The rogue ninja from Kirigakure raised a hand and caught it. Another gold ingot landed heavily in his palm.

He glanced down at it, flipped the gold ingot over between his fingers, and the smile on his face deepened.

"Kid, you've got quite a bit of money."

His eyes remained fixed from beginning to end on the thin black silhouette at the end of the alley.

"Is this enough..." Lin Chongshu's voice sounded again.

Before Lin Chongshu could finish speaking, the rogue ninja from Kirigakure moved. He drew his blade, charged forward, and slashed down.

He swung his kunai at the figure in the darkness. "Die!"

The kunai cut into the black figure's neck.

Something was wrong with the feeling! There was no resistance from bone—this did not feel like cutting a person!

The blade passed through the black figure and smashed into the mud wall, sending fine sand scattering.

"Sand?" He stared at the gash he had cut open. What filled it was not flesh and blood, but sand trickling down with a rustle.

The sand person before him rapidly collapsed. Starting from the head, its entire outline quickly melted into a pool of flowing sand, then lunged at him as if it were alive.

He reacted quickly and immediately retreated.

The sand struck nothing and formed a whirlpool where he had been standing moments before.

At the same time, his eyes swept both sides of the alley, searching for Lin Chongshu's true body. He had watched the kid enter; Lin Chongshu had to still be in here.

But in that brief instant of distraction, a sharp pain shot through his palm.

He lowered his head and saw that the gold ingot he had just held in his palm was changing shape.

The edges of the ingot stretched as though melting, lengthening into a spike. Its tip drilled into his palm, and blood ran down the golden spike before dripping onto the ground.

He violently shook his hand, flinging the golden spike and the remaining blood from his palm onto the ground. The instant it landed, the spike scattered back into Gold Sand.

And in the gap created by that single motion, the sand before him had already gathered again and lunged forward, wrapping around his ankle.

But he did not panic. Instead, he spun sharply, slashing the kunai in his hand behind him at a tricky angle.

With a clang, the crisp sound of metal striking metal exploded through the narrow alley.

His kunai struck the Gold Sand spike that had shot at him from behind.

The other two gold ingots Lin Chongshu had left on the ground had somehow silently moved behind him. They had transformed into two spikes as thick as chopsticks, but he had blocked them in anticipation.

Magnet Release Kekkei Genkai?!