Catching the Big and Letting Go of the Small

Deep within the Forest of Death, Darui's squad began from the East Two Entrance, relying on Shi's sensory ninjutsu to closely tail behind Nara Tsukimi.

They had postponed their original plan to rendezvous at the tower solely to thoroughly figure out Tsukimi's combat habits and specific abilities.

Heading all the way west and tracking for five hours already, the sights witnessed along the way made the three grow increasingly solemn. A faint smell of blood lingered along the entire advancing route.

"This is already the fifth squad!" Shi's voice dropped extremely low.

He slowly squatted down, his fingers gently touching the ground.

The patch of woodland beneath his feet had just experienced a fierce battle, and a faint lingering chakra aura still remained upon it, belonging to Kirigakure's Water Release Ninjutsu.

"Judging from the traces at the scene, it's still a one-sided slaughter without the slightest hesitation."

Saying this, the bewilderment in the depths of Shi's eyes grew even more intense.

The teams that had died at Nara Tsukimi's hands throughout their tracking had already reached as many as eleven! Yet for some reason, no trace of Nara Tsukimi's chakra was ever found.

Or could it be that that fellow Nara Tsukimi hadn't used ninjutsu from start to finish?

That would be a bit too terrifying!

"Did you spot a problem?"

Darui's gaze swept across the entire battlefield as he slowly spoke.

"The squads Nara Tsukimi wiped out along the way were all Genin from the Four Great Nations—Stone, Cloud, Mist, and Sand, without a single exception."

Along the entire advancing route, it was impossible not to encounter squads from the small shinobi villages, yet until now, they hadn't found any corpses of ninja from small shinobi villages.

This bizarre phenomenon caused the three men's hearts to leap violently, a