Naruto: Chronicles of a Fire Ninja-Chapter 366 - 361: Hunt

Yomi was running toward the direction Kaida had come from. Even though all of her being wanted nothing more than to go and help Kaida, she knew that she would not be able to do anything in her chakra-depleted state other than becoming a liability in the fight, so she did the most logical thing and ran away.

While she was running in the direction of the next outpost, she suddenly became alert. Someone appeared very near to her, which should have been impossible to do so.

Even though she was just a chunin, in the department of sensing she was not even a tad bit weaker than any Jonin, and even though she was low on chakra, she had maintained her field.

For someone to appear behind her even with all this, it was certain that person was not someone she could go against.

"Don't worry, I am from Konoha," Jiraiya said, sensing Yomi going tense and reaching for her kunai.

"Jiraiya-sama?" Yomi asked, turning slowly.

"Yes, you are Kaida's friend, right? Did you meet him?" he asked.

"Yes, Jiraiya-sama. He went in that direction to save our friend Ryota, who stayed behind to stop the enemies and let me run away."

"Don't worry, and keep going. You will reach the sea outpost soon. Ask them to send you back to Konoha—tell them it is an order from me," Jiraiya said.

"Sir, please save my friends," Yomi said as tears continued to flow from her eyes.

Jiraiya nodded and then left in the direction Yomi had indicated. He went for just 10 minutes before a scene of carnage appeared in front of him—bloody bits spread all around while bodies of lifeless ninja lay around. Jiraiya just gave it a glance before moving on, following the tracks he was sure belonged to a dog.

When he reached the next location, he saw two lifeless bodies laying in front of him, their limbs and heads sliced away from their bodies, and expressions of pain still visible on their faces. Jiraiya stopped this time.

Even though he was still not in sage mode, that didn't mean he was oblivious to the nature energy around him. From the training he had undergone for Sage mode, he was one of the best sensors in the world, and due to that, he could easily sense the chakra in the surroundings.

He was sure it belonged to Kaida, but there was something different about it, like it had become a little dark. Not paying any more attention to that, he decided to find Kaida first, only to come to the third location where nine bodies were waiting for him. This time, Jiraiya was very much stunned.

All nine ninja were still standing, with their heads separated from their bodies and lying on the ground. Even Minato, the fastest ninja in the world, couldn't do something like this, and there was no doubt in Jiraiya's mind that it was Kaida who did this.

With Ryota's tracks stopping at a place with lots of blood around, it was not hard for him to guess his fate.

And that meant Kaida must have seen his friend's death or his dead body, and it was not unheard of for an Uchiha to evolve his dojutsu in the face of huge emotional stimulus.

'Did he awaken Mangekyo Sharingan as well?' Jiraiya thought, but he couldn't find Kaida's traces after this fight. With time running low and having no other option, he made a series of hand signs and—

poof

"What's up, Jiraiya boy? Why did you summon me here? I was about to have dinner cooked by Ma, you know," Fukasaku asked, appearing on the desert ground all of a sudden.

This content is taken from fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm.

"We don't have time for this, Pa. This is an emergency—Kaida is missing. Find him and bring him to Mount Myoboku even if you have to use force. I will handle some other business in the meantime," Jiraiya said, pointing toward the dead bodies.

Seeing the seriousness of the situation, Fukasaku just nodded and focused on Kaida's chakra, and within a second, he found Kaida's location.

It has to be noted that in the Pain arc, Pain was among the strongest people in the world and was actively trying to hide his location with the help of Konan, another S-rank ninja.

Still, Naruto was able to find his location in sage mode. Now compared to him, Pa had multiple times more experience in Sage jutsu; for him, finding someone whose chakra signature he already knew was not difficult at all.

After finding him, he swiftly went in his direction while Jiraiya now made his way toward the outpost...

"Huh, they really want to start a war, huh?" Jiraiya mused out loud because there was no one present there to listen to his rambling—almost no one.

Jiraiya swiftly made hand signs and went inside the ground.

Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Jutsu

And then came up with an unconscious Nara in his hand.

splash

"Where am I?" Shinji woke up in shock from a splash of water on his face.

"On the ruins of the outpost you were once commander of," Jiraiya said, still searching the surroundings.

"Jiraiya-sama, thank you for saving me," Shinji said.

"No problem. I guess you are the only one here who is alive?" Jiraiya asked.

"I ordered everyone to retreat. If we are lucky, some of our Jonin may have survived, but I will not keep my hopes high about that. Those fuckers had us surrounded," Shinji said.

"I don't need a report. Here, there are these five trails going from this outpost, an obvious attempt to stop any pursuers. Can you guess which one they took?" Jiraiya asked, since he was the only one here and couldn't check all five paths alone.

"None. Aside from these, there must be some hidden trail, I guess," but Jiraiya just shook his head.

"If not, then that means all of these routes are correct and they will join at the end. If we took any one of them, the forces there act as decoy to let the main force run away—a classic tactic of the Third Ninja War.

Sadly, there is no way to counter it if we don't have sufficient numbers," Shinji analyzed in a heartbeat, showing why Nara ninja were considered the best strategists.

"So that means they have divided their force in five parts, right?" Jiraiya asked.

"Most likely."

"Then let's give some of them a chance to sacrifice themselves for their village," Jiraiya said and was about to make his way toward one of the paths when Shinji said:

"The most you will be doing is killing a few, at most 4-5 ninjas, because if my guess is correct, they will divide once again, so there is not much benefit in doing all this, Lord Jiraiya, unless you are planning on following each trail."

"Well, that will not be possible, I guess," Jiraiya said.

"Yes, they will try to create as much distance between them as possible, so please don't take it to heart if you couldn't find many," Shinji said.

"Fine, but since I am here, there is no way I'm not going to give them a return gift, so take some rest and then go to the outpost in the east. They will handle the rest," Jiraiya said and went toward the trail in the center.

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