Just as Qian and Han were matching wits, Hyuga Linghuo sprinted all the way back and finally returned to the main force.
However, the moment he came back, he noticed something was wrong.
At this point, the column had already stopped. Everyone stood in place, seemingly on guard against something, and that gave him a bad feeling.
Still, he did not think too much about it. Qian still had no idea how long he could hold out, and there was no extra time for him to waste.
So the first thing he did after returning to the main force was find Nara Sishui.
By now, the other man was discussing something with several Leaf Village Jonin, and the expression on every face was extremely grave.
Clearly, the matter they were discussing was very troublesome.
But Hyuga Linghuo did not want to wait and walked straight over.
Seeing him approach, Nara Sishui and the others stopped talking.
Then Hyuga Aoyama, who was from the same clan as him, spoke. "Linghuo, weren't you scouting the path ahead? Why are you back now?"
"Something happened!"
Hyuga Linghuo stopped in his tracks and said, panting heavily.
Hearing those three words, everyone present felt their hearts skip a beat, and they hurriedly asked, "What happened?"
"Huff... huff..."
Hyuga Linghuo gasped for breath a few times, then spoke rapidly. "A few minutes ago, while Jonin Qian and I were scouting ahead, we discovered a Rock Ninja squad."
"A Rock Ninja squad?"
The others exchanged glances and asked, "How many people? How strong are they?"
"Seven. All of them are jonin. Four are somewhat weaker, two are stronger, and the last one is the Five-Tails Jinchuriki—Han!"
Hyuga Linghuo answered decisively.
"What?"
At that, the reactions of the people present were exactly the same as Qian's had been