Time went back to ten minutes earlier.
On the other side.
After the Mist Ninja party walked out of the forest, the valley was almost in sight.
Suddenly, among the crowd, a Mist Village Jonin stopped and asked a Mist Village Chunin beside him, "How long has it been since the scout team ahead sent back word?"
Hearing this, the Mist Village Chunin clearly froze for a moment. After checking the time, he finally replied, "About seventeen minutes."
As he said this, his expression changed several times.
There was no other reason. According to regulations, a team sent ahead to scout had to send back a report every fifteen minutes. If the situation was urgent, the frequency could even be increased.
However, no matter what, the frequency could not be reduced.
And now, two minutes had already passed since the prescribed communication time.
Setting aside the almost impossible low-level mistake of remembering the time wrong, there was only one reason the message had still not come.
That was, they had run into trouble.
And in the current situation, what kind of trouble could they run into?
In an instant, whether it was the Mist Village Jonin who had asked the question or the Mist Village Chunin who had answered, both cast their gazes toward the sky.
Faintly, the two saw a black dot that seemed to be circling in the sky above their heads.
But both of them knew that it was not some black dot, but the Leaf Village Jonin known as "Ghost Sword"—Uchiha Qian.
All along the way, they had been watched by him.
Now that the scout team ahead had lost contact, the greatest possibility was that the Leaf had played some trick.
With that thought, the Mist Village Jonin who had spoken earlier did not hesitate