novelnext Chapter 385 Not a Normal Person
Chapter 385 Not a Normal Person
Chapter 385 Not a Normal Person
"Your right leg," Kai said, his voice low, only Chi Quan could hear.
Chi Quan did not turn his head.
"fine."
"When you came back last time, you had a knife wound on your thigh. You stabbed yourself."
"right."
"Not ready yet."
"Soon."
Kai didn't ask any more questions. He knew that Izumi wouldn't lie, but she wouldn't tell the whole truth either. "Soon" was a very vague word; "soon" could mean three days, three hours, or three weeks. In ninja language, "soon" meant "I can handle it myself, don't worry about it."
The four of them walked quietly for an hour in the morning light. They reached the end of the wasteland and entered a sparse grove. The trees in the grove weren't tall or thick, but they were very close together, requiring them to weave between the trunks, which was quite tiring. The ground was covered with fallen leaves, ranging in color from golden yellow to dark brown. The sound of their footsteps wasn't a "rustling" sound, but a "hissing" sound, like someone slowly tearing a large piece of paper in your ear.
Neji walked at the back of the group, occasionally activating his Byakugan to scan the area behind him and make sure no one was following. He only activated his Byakugan for two or three seconds at a time, then deactivated it, only to reopen it a minute or two later. When not using it, his eyes were closed, not because he was tired, but because he was conserving chakra. Although he had developed a method to maintain his vision without consuming chakra, continuous use of the Byakugan still put a strain on him, albeit much less than before. He remained cautious, almost neurotically so. This was a common trait of the Hyuga clan—they were too observant, always believing that what they couldn't see was the most dangerous.
Tenten walked ahead of Neji, making her the third in the group. Her hands were always in her ninja tool pouch at her waist, not rummaging through things, but simply resting there, ready to draw kunai or shuriken at any moment. Her pouch always contained at least three thousand shuriken, two thousand kunai, three smoke bombs, two flashbangs, a roll of wire, a small pair of pliers, a roll of bandages, and a small bottle of styptic powder. She arranged these items in a specific order; each item had its designated place, accessible simply by reaching in. Just as a pianist can play precise notes without looking at the keys, Tenten could draw the item she needed without even looking at her pouch.
Another hour passed. Daylight broke through the tree canopy, casting countless irregular, blurred patches of light on the forest floor. These patches swayed with the wind and the shadows of the trees, like a swarm of golden butterflies crawling across the ground, sometimes gathering, sometimes scattering, sometimes bright, sometimes dim.
Chi Quan suddenly stopped, raised his right hand, and clenched his fist.
Everyone stopped at the same time, maintaining their original distance, and no one spoke or made any unnecessary noise.
Chi Quan squatted down, pressed his hands to the ground, and closed his eyes.
About five seconds later, he opened his eyes.
"There are people ahead. Three. They're moving, heading in the same direction as us, north-southeast. About 800 meters away. They're not moving fast, like they're looking for something." Chi Quan's voice was very low, almost a breath squeezed out from the depths of his throat, but in the silent forest, every word was clear.
Neji activated his Byakugan and looked in a north-northeast direction for three seconds.
"Not human. They're White Zetsu. Three White Zetsu, their chakra reactions are completely identical, their size, shape, and density are all the same. They maintain a fixed distance between them, like an equilateral triangle, moving in sync." Neji turned off his Byakugan, his brow furrowing slightly. "They're searching. They're not wandering aimlessly; they're carrying out a search mission. The search area, direction, and spacing are all calculated precisely, leaving no blind spots."
Kai's lips twitched down slightly.
"Kabuto knew we were coming. He's already started keeping watch along the way."
Chi Quan stood up and brushed the dirt off his hands.
"They might not be waiting for us. They could be waiting for any team that Konoha sends. They don't know who we'll send, or which route we'll take, but they know we'll definitely come. So they've deployed search teams along all the routes. Three White Zetsu per team, each team responsible for a section, with some overlap between sections, to ensure there are no blind spots."
"Then what do we do?" Tian Tian asked.
Chi Quan didn't answer immediately. He looked around at the trees, the slope of the ground, the thickness of the fallen leaves, the wind direction, and the light. Then he pointed to the east.
"Go two hundred meters east, and you'll find a dry stream. The streambed is lower than the banks, so you won't be seen walking in it unless someone looks down from directly above. Let's follow the stream north, bypassing the search area of those three White Zetsu."
The four silently turned east and walked two hundred meters, where they indeed saw a dried-up stream. The streambed was dry, covered with pebbles of all sizes, each covered with a thin, slippery layer of moss. It was very slippery to walk on, requiring great care to avoid making a sound. Chi Quan walked in front, each step carefully placed on a stone, but not randomly. He chose those stones that had been dried by the sun and were free of moss, making only a faint sound as if one pebble had gently bumped against another.
After walking for about fifteen minutes, the chakra reactions of the three White Zetsu disappeared from Neji's Byakugan vision. They headed west, forming an angle of about sixty degrees with the direction of Izumi and the others, and gradually drifted further and further apart.
Neji breathed a sigh of relief, but didn't say anything.
After walking for another half hour, they reached the end of the woods and came to a field. It wasn't a grain field, but a tobacco field. The tobacco leaves had already been harvested, leaving only bare tobacco stalks, standing upright at varying heights, like a vast expanse of withered bamboo shoots. The soil was loose; each step left a deep footprint. Chi Quan frowned—the footprints would reveal their path, but there was no other way. To the left was a cliff, and to the right was a river. There was no bridge, and the water was cold in winter; swimming would be too strenuous.
The four men quickened their pace as they crossed the tobacco field. Chi Quan led the way, trying to step on the clearings between the tobacco stalks to minimize the number of footprints. However, not every clearing was suitable; some were too soft, causing his feet to sink in deeper. He chose areas that appeared firmer, such as tracks left by wheels or exposed stones.
When Yantian had walked about halfway, Neji suddenly said, "Wait a minute."
Everyone stopped.
Neji's Byakugan opened. He looked north for a while, then west for a while, then east for a while.
"There are White Zetsu in three directions. Two to the north, three to the west, and two to the east. They didn't just happen to be passing by; they've laid a net between us and Konoha. This net was probably set up last night, and it's not specifically targeting us, but anyone coming from the direction of Konoha."
Kai's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. His lips were a little dry; he licked his upper lip, then his lower lip.
"Can we go around it?"
Neji watched for a while longer.
"There's a gap between the two White Zetsu to the north, about 300 meters wide. If we go through that gap, they won't see us. But a 300-meter gap looks big, but it's actually very small because White Zetsu's eyes are different from ours. Their field of vision is wider than humans', and they can see behind them without turning their heads. A 300-meter gap is equivalent to two objects less than 100 meters apart in human vision. If we go through the gap, there's at least a 70% chance that one of them will see us."
"Seventy percent." Tian Tian repeated this number.
"Yes. Seventy percent. Not one hundred percent, but very high."
Chi Quan reached his right hand into his pocket and felt something—perhaps the pebble from before, or something else he hadn't taken out. His fingers moved inside his pocket, as if he were pinching something. He pinched it a couple of times, then stopped, pulled his hand out, and found it empty.
"Thirty percent is enough," Chi Quan said. "Let's go."
"What?" Neji thought he had misheard.
"A 30% success rate is enough. A ninja mission can be completed with a 30% success rate. There's a 70% chance of being discovered, but a 30% chance of not. We'll gamble on that 30%."
Kai looked at Chi Quan without saying a word.
Chi Quan looked at Kai but didn't say anything.
The two looked at each other for about two seconds, and then Kai nodded.
"Walk."
Four people burst out of the tobacco field and rushed towards the gap between the two White Zetsu to the north. Izumi was in the front, Guy was on the right, Tenten was on the left, and Neji was at the back. The four of them formed a diamond formation, with no more than ten meters between each person. Each person could see the other three, and their eyes were constantly moving, scanning every direction around them with their peripheral vision.
The crack was in a meadow north of the tobacco field. The meadow was flat, the grass short, as if it had been gnawed or cut by something; the tips of the grass were even, not naturally grown. Chi Quan stepped onto the grass, feeling a strange sensation—the grass was soft, but the soil beneath it was hard, as hard as concrete. He looked down and noticed that the soil beneath the grass wasn't black, but grayish-white, a different color from the surrounding soil. He squatted down, touched the grayish-white soil with his hand, and then smelled it.
lime.
Someone spread lime on this lawn. It wasn't recently; the lime has mixed with the soil and faded in color, but the smell is still there—a pungent, dry smell, like the lingering smell of a freshly painted room.
Chi Quan wiped the lime on his trousers and stood up.
"Speed up. The guy scattered lime on this grass, not to repel insects, but to make it easier for the white zells to track our footprints. Lime is white, so when we step on it, the soles of our shoes will get covered in lime, leaving a white footprint with every step. White zells are extremely sensitive to white things—because they are grayish-white themselves, and they rely on their sensitivity to grayish-white tones to recognize their own kind. The lime on the soles of our shoes will be as clear as a lantern in the dark to the white zells."
Kai looked down at the soles of his shoes. A thin layer of white dust covered the green soles, which shimmered in the sunlight, like salt had been sprinkled on them.
The four quickened their pace. Chi Quan led them off course, no longer heading north, but running northeast. He tried to use the wind to disperse the smell of lime, but this was difficult because lime had no distinct odor; the pungent smell was too faint, so faint that you could only smell it by putting your nose very close, and the wind couldn't disperse it.
After running for fifteen minutes, Neji's Byakugan opened again.
"The two White Zetsu to the north have spotted us. They're turning, very fast, and heading this way."
"Distance?" Chi Quan asked.
"The 800-meter mark is getting shorter. They run very fast, faster than us."
"What about the three to the west?"
"They're also turning. They're 1,200 meters apart, and moving at the same speed. The two to the east are also moving."
Kai gritted his back teeth, making his cheeks puff out.
"We are surrounded."
"No," Izumi said, "It's not an encirclement. It's a trap. Kabuto never intended to capture us with just three, five, or seven White Zetsu. He just wanted us to reveal our location. The White Zetsu aren't here to fight; they're here to observe. They'll see us and relay our location, direction, speed, and formation back to Kabuto. Kabuto will then set up something real along our path—not White Zetsu, but something else."
"What else?"
"I don't know," Chi Quan said, "but it won't be easier to deal with than White Zetsu."
The four of them ran for another ten minutes. Neji's Byakugan remained active, monitoring the movements of the seven White Zetsu in real time. Their trajectory wasn't directly towards Izumi and the others, but rather an arc, like a slowly closing fan, driving them from three directions towards one—north. They weren't chasing; they were herding. Like a shepherd driving his flock back to the pen, the shepherd didn't need to run faster than the sheep; he only needed to make them feel that only that direction was safe.
Chi Quan also realized this.
"Go west," Chi Quan suddenly said.
Neji was taken aback.
"There are three white monsters to the west, less than 600 meters away."
"West," Chi Quan repeated. "The north is where Kabuto wants us to go, not the west. The three White Zetsu in the west are just a decoy; they won't really stop us. Their purpose is to make us think that we can't go west, and that we can only go north. It's psychological warfare. Kabuto is betting that we'll choose the direction with the fewest people. There are only two White Zetsu in the north, which seems to have the fewest and is the safest. But that 'seems' is part of Kabuto's design."
Kai did not hesitate.
"Westward."
The four of them abruptly turned west. Neji's Byakugan saw the three White Zetsu to the west pause—they clearly hadn't anticipated the turn. They were following Kabuto's instructions: what should they do when someone rushes towards them? This might not have been part of Kabuto's instructions. Because Kabuto didn't believe anyone would run towards the direction with more White Zetsu. A normal person would choose the direction with fewer people. But Izumi wasn't normal. Neji wasn't normal either. Tenten wasn't normal either.