novelnext Chapter 383 This is an order
Chapter 383 This is an order
Chapter 383 This is an order
He has been standing in the same spot for almost an hour.
The morning breeze carried the scent of earth and dew, along with a hint of smoke. People on the west side of the village were up early, cooking. The smoke from the chimneys was blown away by the wind and mixed with the mist, making the entire Hidden Leaf Village look like it was being submerged in a large vat of pale gray water, blurry and indistinct.
Neji opened his eyes.
Neji activated his Byakugan for three seconds, then deactivated it. He was observing the chakra flow around the village. In the past few days, the chakra field around the village had changed—not a major change, but a very small, almost negligible one, like the water level of a river slowly dropping slightly; you wouldn't notice it without measuring it. But Neji could sense it. He didn't need a ruler; his Byakugan was the ruler.
A person was walking towards the training field. His steps were light but fast, not running, but walking at a very fast pace, his heels barely touching the ground, and he would leap forward a long distance with a light touch of his toes.
Neji did not turn back.
Neji.
"Um."
"Li is missing."
It was Tiantian who spoke. She was wearing a gray jacket, the zipper not fully zipped up, revealing a white turtleneck underneath. Her hair was a little messy, not unkempt, but rather disheveled. She was clutching a crumpled piece of paper in her hand, the kind of crumpled paper that looks like it had been soaked in sweat and then dried.
Neji turned around and looked at her.
"When?"
"I don't know. I went to his room twenty minutes ago, but there was no one in bed. The blankets and bandages were folded and neatly placed next to the pillow. There was only this note on the table." Tiantian handed over the note.
Neji took the note and unfolded it.
There was only one line of text, written crookedly, like the handwriting of a child learning to write, but the strokes were steady, and the hand didn't tremble. It read: "Come find me. I'll take you to the White Zetsu's home."
There was no signature, no date, and no salutation.
Neji flipped the note over and looked at it; there was nothing on the back. He brought the note closer and smelled it. There was a very faint smell on the paper, not the smell of ink, but a bitter one. It was like the bitterness left after some plant sap had been applied to paper and dried. The bitterness of grass, but not grass; it was more astringent and sticky, like the feeling left in your mouth after biting into an unripe persimmon.
"This piece of paper doesn't belong to Lee," Neji said.
Tian Tian was stunned for a moment.
"What do you mean?"
"Li wouldn't use this kind of paper. He always tears paper from my notebooks. My notebooks are made of beige woodfree paper with torn edges. This paper is white, very white, like the kind used in hospitals. The edges are cut, not torn. And—" Neji held the paper strip to his nose and smelled it again, "The scent on it isn't Li's. Li doesn't use perfume, hairspray, or anything. This scent must have been applied by someone else."
Tenten took the note back from Neji and smelled it herself.
"I didn't smell anything."
Neji looked at her. The morning light was just beginning to emerge from behind the eastern ridge, and it was still very weak, so weak that it could only outline a person's silhouette, with all the details hidden in the shadows. Half of Neji's face was in light, and the other half was in shadow. His eye in the shadows looked much deeper than usual, like a bottomless well.
"Someone went into Li's room, but Li wasn't there. Then this person wrote this note and put it on the table. It wasn't written by Li for us; it was written by someone else."
Tian Tian's breathing paused for a moment.
"You mean—Li didn't leave on his own? He was forced," Neji said, "I don't know. But Li wouldn't run off to find White Zetsu before his bandages were even removed. He's not an impulsive person. He's passionate, but not impulsive. Passion and impulsiveness are two different things."
Every day, she would clutch the note tightly in her hand, squeezing it into a ball, then slowly unfolding it, flattening it, and pressing the wrinkles back in place one by one with her fingers. Her movements were slow, as if she were doing some very delicate handicraft.
"I'm going to find Teacher Kai," Tian Tian said.
"I'm going to find Ikezumi," Neji said.
The two turned around at the same time and ran in different directions. Tenten headed towards Guy's dormitory, on the third floor of the ninja apartment building on the west side of the village, with windows facing east, where the first rays of sunlight would shine on his alarm clock every morning. Neji headed towards the temporary residence on the north side of the village, where Izumi lived, a very old two-story building with large patches of paint peeling off the exterior walls, revealing the cement and bricks underneath.
When Neji reached the small building, it was already half-dawn. The eastern sky had changed from deep blue to light blue, then from light blue to grayish-white, with a hint of pale gold showing through, as if someone in the sky was slowly, very slowly drawing back a huge curtain.
The window of the small building was open. Second floor, the second window from the left.
Neji didn't shout, but simply climbed onto the second-floor balcony. The balcony railing was made of iron, covered in rust, and creaked when pressed, like rocking an old rocking chair. He climbed over, stood on the balcony, and saw someone inside through the window.
Chi Quan sat on the bed.
He wasn't asleep. Or rather, he was asleep but awake. He was wearing a dark blue T-shirt, the collar faded from washing, hanging loosely over his shoulders. A blanket covered his legs, and on the blanket lay a knife, not long, its blade appearing black in the morning light—not a reflection, but the very color of the blade itself, like the black of a knife that had been heated and then quenched.
Chi Quan raised her head and looked at Neji outside the window.
His left hand was still wrapped in bandages, from the base of his thumb to his wrist. The bandages were clean and without any bloodstains. There was a fresh scar on the base of his right thumb, its color still pink, unlike the surrounding skin. When he looked at Neji, his eyes didn't move, nor did his head; only his eyes darted around, scanning Neji from head to toe.
"Something's happened to Lee," Neji said.
Chi Quan picked up the knife from his leg and placed it next to the pillow. He threw off the blanket, got out of bed, and stepped barefoot onto the floor. The floor was made of wood, very old, and each step made a low "creak" sound, like a sigh.
"explain."
Neji recounted the entire story, from the note, the paper, the smell, and how Lee's bandage was neatly folded and placed next to his pillow. He didn't embellish or use emotional language; he read like a report, listing the time, place, people, events, and points of doubt one by one, cleanly and concisely.
After listening, Chi Quan remained silent for three seconds.
Then he did something Neji hadn't expected.
He smiled.
It wasn't a happy laugh, nor a cold laugh, nor a mocking laugh; it was a brief laugh that came after confirming something.
It was a smile that could almost be described as "reassuring." The corners of her mouth turned up slightly, then fell back down, the whole process taking less than a second.
"It finally moved," Chi Quan said.
Neji frowned.
"You knew this day would come?"
Chi Quan didn't answer. He bent down and pulled a pair of shoes from under the bed. They were black, and the laces were already tied, so he could just slip his feet in without having to bend down to tie them. He stood up and stomped on the floor twice, the heels making a thumping sound.
"Let's go find Kai," Chi Quan said. "Kai will organize people to chase after us. I'll go with you."
"You've been to the Land of Rice Fields," Neji said. "You know where Kabuto's base is, right?"
Chi Quan walked to the window and opened it as wide as possible, letting in the morning breeze that made his hair flutter backward. He looked at the increasingly bright eastern sky, squinting slightly, not because the light was too dazzling, but because he saw something—in the distance, towards the north gate of Konoha Village, a figure was moving rapidly, so fast that it appeared as a blurry line in the morning light. The figure was heading straight north, towards the outside of the village.
Chi Quan stared at the figure for two seconds.
That's not Li.
Neji walked to the window and followed Izumi's gaze. His Byakugan clearly showed that the figure's chakra reaction was different from Lee's, completely different. Lee's chakra was intense, scalding hot, like boiling water bubbling out, but this figure's chakra was cold, silent, without making a sound, like a snake coiled motionless in the dark.
"It's bait," Neji said.
"Yes." Chi Quan picked up a pebble from the windowsill, weighed it in his hand, and said, "Someone is trying to lure us out."
Lee was just an excuse. His real target wasn't Lee, but to transfer Konoha's elite troops out of the village, disperse them, and then eliminate them one by one.
He didn't finish speaking. He didn't need to finish. Neji already understood.
The two people tumbled down from the second floor, landing in the alley behind the building. The alley was narrow, the walls blocking out the morning light, leaving only a sliver of sky overhead, blindingly bright, creating an almost violent contrast with the darkness of the alley. Chi Quan walked ahead, taking large strides but landing lightly, like a cat walking in the night, his soles touching the ground first, then his toes, and finally his heels, each movement broken down into the smallest fragment, without a sound.
Neji followed behind him, less than three steps away.
The two walked through the alley, turned two corners, and arrived at Kai's dormitory building. There were already people standing downstairs, including Lee's other two students, one named Yamato and the other Sakura. No, they were Lee's students, not Sakura; Sakura was Tsunade's apprentice. They were Lee's other two teammates, one named Hyuga Hanabi and the other—
Forget it, it doesn't matter.
The important thing is that Kai came downstairs.
Kai was wearing a green bodysuit, yes, the kind you see. He zipped it all the way up, so tight that the veins on his neck bulged. His hair was unkempt, sticking out in a messy, frizzy mess, like a bird's nest blown inside out by the wind. His eyes were bloodshot, not from crying, but from anxiety, so anxious that his veins seemed to burst. He was holding a pair of red leg warmers, one already on, the other still clutched in his hand, trying to put them on as he ran, almost tripping over the stair railing.
"Teacher Kai!" I ran up to him every day.
Kai raised his hand, gesturing for silence. He put on his leg guards, dusted them off, took a deep breath, and exhaled. The breath was long, so long that Neji felt he had to empty his lungs completely. After exhaling, his face was no longer red, his eyes were still bloodshot, but his expression was no longer anxious. He became very calm, unusually calm.
"Give me the note," Kai said.
Kai handed over the note every day. He glanced at it, folded it, and put it in the pocket on the chest of his bodysuit.
"Li doesn't know how to write the word 'hometown'. He would say 'nest' or 'source', but not 'hometown'."
This isn't his wording. "Kay zipped up his pocket. "This note was written by someone else. Lee didn't go voluntarily."
Everyone fell silent.
The morning light had already bathed the entire Hidden Leaf Village. Golden rays spread from the east, like a basin of water splashed on the ground, gradually engulfing the darkness from east to west. Shadows shortened, the mist dissipated, and the village awoke. Some were opening doors, some were pouring water, some were coughing, and some were scolding children. All sorts of sounds surged in from all directions, like a tide, slowly filling the morning Hidden Leaf.
But the small courtyard where Kai and the others were standing was very quiet.
It was as quiet as another world.
"I'll go after them," Kai said. "Don't follow me."
"No," Neji said.
"No," Tian Tian said.
"No," Hanabi said.
"No way." That guy—never mind—said too.
Kai looked at them, his lips moved as if he wanted to say, "This is an order," but he didn't say it. He knew it would be useless. Li was his student, and also their comrade. Orders are like paper walls in front of comrades; they look convincing, but collapse at the slightest push.
Chi Quan walked out of the alley and stood at the gate of the courtyard.
"I know where they might have taken Li," Izumi said. "In the Land of Fields, about forty miles northeast of Chiba Valley, there's an underground facility. Orochimaru used to use it, and Kabuto later expanded it. I went there once, looked at it from the outside, but didn't go in. That place is about eighty meters underground, with three exits: one to the north, one to the south, and one to the east. There's no exit to the west; the geology there is bad—it's loose sandstone, and digging there would cause it to collapse."
Kai turned around and looked at him.
How do you know all this?
"Because I was injured around there," Izumi said calmly, as if she were talking about someone else. "About two weeks ago, I went to the Land of Fields and found that place. I didn't go in, I just looked around from the outside. But I was discovered."
It wasn't Kabuto who discovered it, but the White Zetsu he released. Three White Zetsu—two emerged from underground, and one jumped down from a tree. I killed two and ran. The wound on my hand is from that incident.
He raised his right hand, and the pink scar on the web of his hand was clearly visible in the morning light.
"Kabuto knows I've been there," Izumi said. "He knows I'm looking for his base. He's been waiting for me to come back. But he's not just waiting for me; he's waiting for people from Konoha. The more the better. He'd love for Konoha to send a small team, three to five people, not a large force."