'Now that's a familiar chakra signature.' Shiki thought, killing intent beginning to emanate from his body, chilling everyone around him as they looked at the boy with shock.
"What's wrong?" Mei quickly asked.
"That rubber jutsu guy from Kumo. He's at the edge of my sensory range right now." Shiki replied.
The bespectacled girl's eyes flared with ominous red, three tomoe spinning into being as her Sharingan involuntarily activated.
For her two, that day, that clash with Kumo, marked a shifting point.
"Are they here for us?" The Uchiha inquired with killing intent.
Her dojutsu's chakra sent shivers down the spines of those surrounding them.
"I don't think so. There are only four of them and besides the rubber guy and one particularly strong fellow, the other two seem to be regular chunin level, young too, If I had to guess-" Shiki started his response but Mei concluded it for him.
"An Elite Jonin sensei with his three students, one of them being particularly outstanding with the other two being just above average, talented depending on their age."
The boy nodded in agreement.
"Should we go say hello?" Mei inquired and truly, Shiki was tempted, even if it was the wrong course of action considering their mission.
The boy mulled it over, trying to figure out whether it was worth risking it.
"That guy is a sensory shinobi like me. I outrange him but as a sensor, he probably noticed he was detected. All he has to do is move in our direction for a bit and we will be sensed." Shiki informed.
"I don't know if he'll go for us though." He added.
"Better safe than sorry. If he goes for us it will be hard to protect this many people while fighting. We should do a preemptive attack." Mei suggested.
"Needless provoking the enemy is not the right call, regardless of our personal preference." Shiki responded.
"But you are right, we can't afford to be drawn into battle with a full squad with this many people under our protection at a close distance." The boy continued.
Said people were confused, tense and some of them were even slightly afraid so after a bit of pondering Shiki came up with a plan.
"Alright. Here's what's going to happen . . ." The boy started, turning towards the escortees.
He first created three shadow clones and then proceeded to lay out his general plan.
"We passed by a couple of rocky areas good enough to hide. My clone will lead you all to one further back and set up an anti-sensing barrier."
With Shiki's fuinjutsu where he had been focusing his study before this mission, such a barrier was easy to set up with a few specialized paper tags he carried on his person.
"Mei." After seeding the "non-combatants" way, he then turned towards his bespectacled teammate.
"You'll set up an ambush with another of my clones on another rocky area closer to our current position."
The Uchiha nodded without complaint.
"What's the battleplan?" She inquired.
"You and my second clone will not hide your chakra signatures but I will hide mine and approach the Kumo group." Shiki started.
"If they show signs of heading towards you and the clone, it will pop itself to return my chakra and I'll ambush them right away, dealing the most damage I can before retreating towards you." The boy continued.
"If they wise up and retreat after that, good. But if not, I'll retreat in your direction for a second ambush. They will know what's coming but in case they want us, they should walk into it anyway."
"My third clone will run back to the city to warn Inori-sensei for backup in case we need it." He concluded.
Mei nodded in agreement and they both set off, the Uchiha heading towards the ambush point with Shiki's clone, making no effort to hide their chakra signature while Shiki perfectly hid his with the Chakra Camouflage Jutsu and headed towards the Kumo squad.
*
On the opposing side, Dodai, Lava Style shinobi, trusted aide of the Third Raikage and leader of his squad, felt someone sense him from a distance beyond his own range.
"Hold." He signaled to his squad.
"What is sensei?" A young but somewhat gravely voice questioned with intensity.
"An unknown sensory shinobi detected us from beyond my range." Dodai replied.
"From beyond sensei's range?" A much more regular and excited voice came from another squad member, shocked that a skilled sensor like their sensei was being outclassed in one of his areas of expertise.
"Let's go check it out!" The intense voice from before sounded out again.
"You must temper that rash nature if you're going to succeed your father one day, Ay." Dodai lectured.
The teenage boy, older than he looked, tall, muscular and tanned with slicked back blonde air, was not having it.
"I'm raring for some action!" Ay argued.
"We should at least investigate who it was from a distance, sensei." The final member of the squad, bespectacled boy, spoke up with a more reasonable and calm take.
"I suppose we should at least make sure we know who's in the area of our mission." Dodai agreed.
"Nicely done, Furui." Ay whispered.
"I heard that." Dodai scolded but the rough teenager just sheepishly laughed without any guilt on his face, making sensei shake his head while his teammates conspiratorily smiled.
"This way then." The Kumo jonin led the squad in the direction he felt the sensor was.
Even if he couldn't tell the exact location or identity, Shiki's snooping had revealed his direction to Dodai.
After travelling a bit . . .
'They must have moved, no way their range is that much bigger than mine so they reacted with caution and retreated.' Dodai assumed.
And although retreat was not what was in Shiki and Mei's minds, the latter had certainly moved back further while only the very well hidden former actually approached.
'Sure enough.' The Kumo jonin thought.
Only a bit later, two unknown chakra signatures entered his range.
'No! Not unknown at all.' He immediately realized, his expression becoming graver.
"I found them." Dodai announced his team giving them the signal to stop.
By this time, Shiki had already crept quite close under the ground with his Hiding in Surface Jutsu.
"Does sensei recognize the other side?" Furui asked.
A brief moment of silence later, Dodai elected to be honest about even if the information was likely to trigger Ay.
"The capture target that Zee, Dogan and I failed to capture."
"What!?" Ay was predictably shocked . . . At what he perceived to be a stroke of unbelievable luck.
"Then we should go after him immediately!" He quickly declared.
"Zee-sama, Dogan-senpai and Dodai-sensei did not manage to catch him despite more favorable circumstances though." Furui argued, his temperament was a bit more balanced.
Even if he did not like it, Ay was not oblivious to that truth.
"But we have more information about their abilities now, don't we?" The brash teenager still argued.
"I guess you have a point." Furui replied.
"Is he together with his entire team?" Moroi, the last member of the squad, suddenly asked a pertinent question.
The young shinobi all had gleams in their eyes as they looked towards their sensei.
Dodai shook his head.
"I can only sense him and one of his teammates, the Uchiha girl." He responded.
"Then what are we waiting for!?" Ay questioned with some outrage.
"Because the rest may just be hiding their chakra signature in preparation for our arrival. This might just be bait." Dodai replied.
"We should risk it!" Ay insisted.
"In case there are more of them in hiding, sensei and I can hold them back while Furui and Doroi retreat, with my speed and sensei's Lava Style rubber traps to delay them, escaping shouldn't be a problem." He showed a flash of tactical thought but he was still inexperienced.
Dodai knew that if it was a trap, perhaps he and Ay could escape but the other two certainly couldn't.
But this was a chance for him to make up for his previous failure and lessen Zee's punishment.
He had technically tagged along as assistance but Zee was "officially" the mission commander. It was meant as a way to pad out her record with an important mission leading troops but it ended with her bearing the brunt of the punishment instead.
'Despite the risks, this isn't a chance that will come often Dodai pondered.
He would not get the chance to arrive at a conclusion himself . . .
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -