Once he had made his decision, Qian no longer hesitated. He immediately returned to his previous state and sprinted forward at top speed.
As expected, that eagle caught up again.
Qian ignored it and kept moving forward until he reached a dense forest. Only after confirming that the line of sight above him had been blocked did he stop.
Then he crossed his hands and used the Shadow Clone Technique, creating a shadow clone.
Qian looked at it and nodded. The shadow clone said nothing, merely nodded as well, then ran straight ahead.
Qian then flickered away, hid beside the road, and at the same time suppressed his entire presence, waiting for the pursuers behind him to arrive.
Time trickled by, second by second.
In the blink of an eye, more than ten minutes had passed.
The enemies he had expected still had not appeared, which made Qian wonder whether there had been a flaw in his guess.
But in the end, he kept his patience and continued waiting.
A few more minutes passed.
Along with a faint sound of footsteps, two figures appeared on the forest path.
They wore black robes and masks, dressed exactly the same as the two people that earlier shadow clone had encountered. Clearly, they were also Anbu ninja from Iwagakure.
Seeing the two of them, Qian could not help letting out a long breath in his heart.
As the saying went, it wasn't the thief stealing from you that was terrifying, but the thief setting his sights on you.
Knowing full well that enemies had targeted him, yet never being able to find them—that was the truly tormenting part.
But since they had already appeared, there was nothing left to fear.
In the Ninja World, when all was said and done, fists did