Escaping the Land of Rain sounded like an impossible task. The entire country lay beneath the Rain Tiger at Will Technique, Pain's perception reached everywhere, and the borders were bound to be heavily guarded, especially now that the Ryūmyaku had run wild and "God Defilers" had escaped.
Ling sat leaning against the rock wall, rain dripping from the ends of his hair. Pain in his left arm and exhaustion washed over him in waves, but his mind raced, the Jōgan's power devoted to analysis and deduction rather than sight.
Force our way straight through the border? In my current condition, that would undoubtedly be suicide. Find a hidden trail? With the rain's perception everywhere, any energy disturbance along an unnatural route could expose our whereabouts. Wait for rescue from Konoha? Leaving aside whether Fox and Azure Phoenix are even alive, getting a signal out is a problem in itself. We can't afford to wait.
Every conventional route seemed blocked.
"Rain... perception..." Ling murmured, his gaze sweeping over everything around him that the rain had soaked. Rocks, soil, plants... everything, saturated with rain, gave off a faint chakra signature belonging to Pain. They were like fish inside an enormous tank filled with thick liquid, where the slightest movement would send ripples through the fluid.
Wait... liquid? Ripples?
An extraordinarily bold, even downright insane idea suddenly lit up Ling's mind like lightning flashing through the dark.
Since we can't eliminate the "ripples" entirely, could we... disguise ourselves as the "ripples" themselves? Or rather, blend into this vast body of "liquid"?
Reverse thinking!
The most dangerous place is the safest! The core of Pain's perception lies in identifying "anomalies," so what if we could imitate the "normal" chakra fluctuations in the rain as closely as possible?
He thought of the Fragment tucked against his chest. It could resonate with the Ryūmyaku, and its energy shared the same origin as the Ryūmyaku to some extent. The Ryūmyaku's power was one of the fundamental energies sustaining the Rain Tiger at Will Technique! Although Pain had twisted it, the underlying properties of that energy might still share similarities!
Moreover, the Fragment had previously absorbed and filtered chaotic natural energy. Could it also absorb and imitate Pain's chakra signature in the surrounding rain?
"I have an idea," Ling said, looking at the worried Xi beside him, his voice slightly hoarse with excitement. "Maybe we don't need to escape the rain."
Xi raised her head in confusion.
"We try... blending into it," Ling explained, taking the pitch-black Fragment from against his chest. It gave off a soft luster in his palm, faintly resonating with the energy in the surrounding rain.
"You mean..." A flicker of astonishment crossed Xi's dark red eyes, as though she had understood something.
"I need your help." Ling stared at the Fragment. "You're the Uzumaki Clan's Miko. Your ability to sense and control energy far exceeds an ordinary person's. I need you to guide me in using this Fragment's power to imitate the chakra fluctuations in the surrounding rain as closely as possible, creating a faint layer of camouflage over both of us. It doesn't need to be identical. As long as it confuses the perception enough for the Rain Tiger at Will Technique's scans to classify us as 'background noise,' that will do."
It was an extraordinarily delicate and risky operation. If the imitation failed, or their control over the energy wavered, they would immediately stand out like a beacon in the night.
Xi looked at the Fragment in Ling's hand, which gave her an inexplicable sense of familiarity and made her heart flutter, then at his eyes, burning with resolve. She nodded firmly. "I... I'll try!"
She struggled to sit upright and extended her slightly trembling hands, holding them just above the Fragment. Closing her eyes, she concentrated what little mental strength she had left, striving to draw on her bloodline's innate affinity with natural energy.
Ling cooperated with all his strength, focusing the Jōgan's power on the Fragment and guiding the yin release energy within it. He began making extremely subtle adjustments to its properties, trying to bring it into sync with the cold, viscous sensory chakra in the surrounding rain.
The process was slow and arduous. The Fragment's energy was unruly, while the rain's chakra signature carried Pain's uniquely indifferent will. Several times, the imitation nearly failed, and the energy clashes caused tiny ripples that left both Ling and Xi drenched in cold sweat.
Time ticked by, the rain alternating between torrents and fine showers. The pain in Ling's left arm worsened as he continued channeling chakra, and Xi's face grew steadily paler.
Finally, after dozens of failed attempts, an extremely faint, almost imperceptible film of energy, carrying fluctuations of the same origin as the surrounding rain, slowly enveloped Ling and Xi like a transparent bubble.
It worked!
Ling could feel that, as the film formed, the lingering sensation of being watched, which had clung to them like a disease eating into their bones, weakened noticeably! Although it had not vanished entirely-perhaps because the Ryūmyaku's rampage had destabilized the barrier, or perhaps because their imitation was imperfect-it was at least no longer as distinct or oppressive as before!
"It's working!" Xi said weakly, a tired smile of relief appearing on her face.
"Hold on," Ling said quietly, helping Xi up. "Let's go. We're heading not for the border, but... the area near Amegakure!"
"What?" Xi was startled. "Wouldn't going there be walking straight into their trap?"
"The blind spot right under his nose," Ling explained, his gaze sharp. "Pain's attention must be focused on stabilizing the Ryūmyaku and searching for the escaped 'God Defilers' right now. He'll assume we're desperate to flee the Land of Rain, so the borders and remote areas will inevitably be the focus of the search. But the area around Amegakure is his home base. A blind spot in his thinking might actually leave it relatively lightly guarded. Besides, the closer we get to Amegakure, the denser the chakra signature in the rain will be, and the better our camouflage might work!"
More importantly, Ling remembered the route they had taken here. Near Amegakure was a river tributary that flowed past the Land of Fire's border. If they could slip into it and follow the current, they might find a chance to leave. That would be somewhat easier than crossing the heavily guarded land border.
It was a bold gamble based on conjecture about Pain's thinking. If they won, the world would open before them; if they lost, they would be doomed beyond salvation.
There was no better choice. Xi gritted her teeth and nodded in agreement.
Supporting each other, the two left the foot of the cliff and plunged into the boundless curtain of rain. They no longer deliberately avoided the rain. Instead, they walked across open ground, pushing that thin layer of energy camouflage to its limit.
The rain struck their bodies, cold enough to pierce bone. Every step felt like treading on knife points, their minds stretched taut as they constantly worked to keep their camouflage stable.
The Jōgan continually scanned their surroundings, avoiding the occasional Amegakure patrol and areas with obvious barrier fluctuations. Like two ghosts wandering beneath an enormous surveillance network, they threaded their way cautiously under the enemy's very nose.
They headed straight toward that oppressive forest of steel shrouded in an endless curtain of rain-Amegakure.
Before you continue