It was the last of their three days of free time. The air in the northern mountains of the Land of Rivers seemed colder and damper than anywhere else.
Towering ancient trees blocked out the sky, and a thick layer of rotting leaves covered the ground. They felt soft underfoot, squelching with each step, while a mixture of earth, mold, and a faint, fishy odor hung in the air.
Occasional strange birdcalls, sharp and brief, only made the forest feel more sinister.
Uchiha Makoto led the way with light steps, as though this eerie forest were his own backyard.
Nako, Shun, and Entetsu followed close behind, watching their surroundings warily, their hands instinctively resting on their Ninja Tool Pouches.
Even if they had learned nothing else from their recent special training, their vigilance had certainly been honed to the limit.
"Lord Makoto, is that abandoned shrine... really somewhere around here?"
Nako asked quietly, her voice unusually clear in the silent forest.
She kept feeling as though something were watching them from behind the indistinct tree trunks.
"Probably. The old herb gatherer pointed us this way yesterday. We shouldn't be too far off."
Uchiha Makoto did not look back. His senses spread outward like an invisible spiderweb, with him at its center, picking up faint chakra fluctuations, signs of life, and anything out of place in the surroundings.
This was a unique sensory method he had developed by combining the Sharingan's perception, his own mental strength, and Life Return's sensitivity to life energy. It offered both considerable range and high precision.
Suddenly, he stopped, raising an eyebrow slightly.
"Found it."
He spoke softly, pointing ahead and to the left.
"Over there. There are some 'traces' that differ from natural chakra. They're faint, but they're definitely there. Probably remnants of a barrier