The two groups raced toward the dense forest to the north, one fleeing and the other pursuing.
The chase lasted nearly half an hour.
The distance between them gradually closed to a dangerous range.
Xuandou's breathing remained steady, but he had already begun weighing whether to use his Sharingan to force a counterattack.
Just then, breathless voices came from the pursuers behind him:
"Captain, aren't we chasing them too far? The mission site..."
"Yeah, what if something goes wrong..."
For ninja, putting the mission first was a creed etched into their minds.
If chasing an unrelated target caused the mission to fail, none of them could bear the consequences.
Another ninja spoke hesitantly:
"Judging by their clothes, they look like they're from Iwagakure... As long as they're not from Konoha, it should be fine. Why don't we head back now and avoid any complications..."
The bald ninja leading them wore an uncertain expression.
He looked at Kurenai in Xuandou's arms, deeply reluctant to give her up.
After spending so long on this mission, stuck in this godforsaken forest in the middle of nowhere, he had long since grown tired of getting himself off.
Now that a top-quality kunoichi had practically delivered herself to him, he could not bear to let her go.
After struggling for several seconds, he finally gritted his teeth and ordered:
"You four, return to the mission site immediately. Help the wounded and tighten security. I'll pursue them a little farther on my own!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he sharply increased the chakra flowing into his legs. His speed surged, and he charged ahead alone.
In his eyes, the man ahead was merely a medical ninja with somewhat accurate aim. With an injured female companion in his arms, his stamina should already have reached its limit.
He alone would be enough to deal with them.
The four team members exchanged glances. Not daring to disobey, they turned back.
Up ahead, Xuandou caught sight of the four leaving out of the corner of his eye and felt slightly reassured.
After running a little farther, he estimated that those four were far away and deliberately slowed his pace.
The bald ninja was delighted at the sight. Just as I thought, he's exhausted. He sped up and shouted:
"Can't run anymore? I'll send you on your way!"
He was somewhat puzzled as to why this medical ninja had better stamina than he did as a jonin, managing to run so far while carrying a teammate.
But none of that mattered anymore.
He was about to kill the man and thoroughly ravage the kunoichi in his arms.
With that thought, he closed in on Xuandou and Kurenai.
His hands rapidly formed hand seals, and Wind Release chakra condensed into a blade in his palm.
Just as the wind blade was about to leave his hand, Xuandou abruptly looked back.
A pair of scarlet eyes appeared before him.
"Sharingan? No! You're not from Iwagakure! You're Konoha ninja!"
The bald ninja's pupils contracted sharply.
Years of battlefield experience had taught him many terrifying rumors about the Sharingan.
All his will to fight vanished. He hastily hurled the wind blade, then turned and fled without even looking at the result.
I have to survive and get this information back!
Konoha has discovered our plan. Sunagakure has to act early!
Yet he had only taken two steps.
Squelch!
A cold, piercing pain came from his chest.
He looked down blankly. At some point, a kunai had sunk into his heart.
Xuandou stood before him like a ghost.
"Im... possible... When... did you..."
What the bald ninja did not know was that the instant his eyes met Xuandou's Sharingan, he had already fallen under Xuandou's genjutsu.
Even though Xuandou had never learned any genjutsu-related ninjutsu, he could still use genjutsu to affect his opponent through the Sharingan.
Xuandou had used the instant his opponent lost focus upon meeting the Sharingan's gaze to magnify the fear in his heart, successfully disrupting his perception.
From Kurenai's perspective, the bald ninja's body stiffened slightly the moment he saw the Sharingan.
Then he threw the wind blade in his hand toward an empty patch of ground and ran straight into Xuandou's kunai himself.
"The Uchiha's ocular techniques... What an enviable kekkei genkai."
Kurenai sighed softly.
"Ordinary genjutsu needs assistance from sound, light, the surroundings, and so much else, yet you can do it with nothing but a pair of Sharingan."
After killing the man, Xuandou had already begun forming hand seals.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
Flames swept over the corpse, swiftly swallowing it.
Xuandou said with some regret:
"What a shame. He was a jonin captain. If we had enough time, we could have interrogated him for more information..."
Once the flames died out, Xuandou turned to Kurenai.
"Let's leave as soon as possible. I'll find somewhere safe to treat your injuries first."
"Mmh~"
Kurenai was about to speak when her legs suddenly gave way, and a moan escaped her lips.
Thinking that her injuries were simply acting up, Xuandou immediately picked her up and said:
"Hang in there. Let's find somewhere safe to treat the poison first."
Smelling the masculine scent coming from Xuandou, Kurenai's cheeks flushed almost imperceptibly, and she merely nodded.
Meanwhile, the Sunagakure ninja waited a long time without seeing their captain return, and someone immediately realized something had gone wrong.
However, the ninja sent to search found only a patch of ashes in the northern part of the forest.
Not daring to conceal anything, the ninja ultimately reported the matter to Ebizo, an elder of Sunagakure.
"Are you certain they were wearing Iwagakure ninja clothing?"
Faced with Ebizo's question, none of them dared be negligent, and they immediately recounted everything in detail.
"Besides, those two retreated north as well. They should be Iwagakure ninja."
After hearing their explanation, Ebizo let out a long breath.
"Whew~ Good thing they weren't Konoha ninja."
An hour later, near the border between the two countries, Xuandou found a hidden cave.
After carefully sensing the area and confirming that no one else was nearby, he said quietly to Kurenai:
"Bear with it a little longer. We'll be inside the cave soon."
By then, Kurenai's face was flushed, and her breathing was slightly rapid.
Clearly, the Sand Desire Flower Poison had already begun spreading through her body.
He entered the cave.
He took a blanket out of his Storage Scroll.
"Where are the wounds? Lie down on this first. I'll treat them."
"On... on my chest..."
Xuandou immediately felt a little awkward.
Was the enemy's throwing technique really that tricky?
I'm really not trying to take advantage of her vulnerability.
"Well... you'll need to take your clothes off before I can treat your wounds..."
"And we have to treat them as soon as possible, or the poison will spread through your body."
Kurenai hesitated at his words.
But out of trust in Xuandou, she unfastened her clothes with slightly trembling fingers.
Her outer garment slipped off, revealing a large expanse of snow-white skin.
She closed her eyes, her ears already scarlet.
Although Xuandou had enjoyed plenty of adult actresses' work in his previous life, he could not help blushing at the sight of such an enticing scene in person.
He quickly took a deep breath to compose himself, then began treating her wounds.
Xuandou pressed his hand against her snow-white skin.
"This might hurt a little. Bear with me."
Kurenai nodded.
Then the Chakra Scalpel gently cut open the wound, revealing a small section of a thin needle.
"Hiss!"
Kurenai cried out.
A bloodstained senbon was then extracted from her body.
Xuandou steadied his movements and continued treating the next wound.
A short while later, all three slender, bloodstained senbon had finally been removed intact.
Xuandou quickly disinfected the wounds, applied medicinal herbs, and carefully bandaged them.
Xuandou watched reluctantly as Kurenai put her clothes back on.
"The poisoned needles are all out. Next, we need to neutralize the poison."
As he spoke, Xuandou handed Kurenai a standard-issue Antidote Pill distributed by Konoha, thoughtfully offering her a cup of water as well.
Kurenai quickly swallowed the pill and waited for it to take effect.
Five minutes... ten minutes... twenty minutes...
Soon, thirty minutes had passed.
Seeing that Kurenai had not improved at all after taking the Antidote Pill, and that her face had instead grown increasingly flushed, Xuandou immediately realized the Antidote Pill was useless.
"How do you feel now?"
"Xuandou~ I..."
"The poison seems to still be acting up~"