For the next few hours, Sena kept stealing glances in my direction while I tried to suppress the stupid grin threatening to split my face. My excitement ran too deep. I nearly summoned the puppet on the spot just to examine it, but even I knew that would be an incredibly dumb move. Instead, I pulled out my medical jutsu book and buried myself in it, pretending to read while very deliberately avoiding Sena's eyes. She was getting uncomfortably close to reading my mind at that point.
The moment Kaen woke up, I dove straight into my sleeping bag and covered my face. Sena sighed softly and scanned the horizon as dawn crept closer, pale light beginning to stretch across the land. With it came Kaen's turn to shine. I woke properly a while later to find both of them ready to move. I packed quickly, sealing my things into a regular storage tag, and we set off, following the river as it led us toward the oasis.
After a long stretch of walking, Sena stopped suddenly and raised a hand. I had not sensed anything yet. Kaen moved closer to her. "Is someone nearby?"
She nodded. "One person. A bit ahead. He's alone, probably scouting for his team." A faint smile touched her lips. "Let's take this one. Plan seven."
Kaen and I nodded without a word and fell in behind her.
As we closed the distance, it became clear just how well hidden the genin was. He was watching the area carefully, positioned with cover and elevation. If it were not for my chakra sensing, I might have missed him entirely, and Kaen only caught him thanks to his Sharingan. We glanced back at Sena. She took a slow breath and nodded once.
I burst forward first, snapping my arm and sending a kunai flying straight at him. He spotted it instantly and dipped under the blade as his hands blurred through seals. "Earth Release: Burial Snare." The ground split beneath me, stone and dirt surging upward to clamp around my legs, but I jumped clear at the last moment. I barely had time to register the feint before a hardened clump of mud screamed toward my face. He had chained the second jutsu flawlessly. I crossed my arms and took the hit head-on, the impact slamming me backward and tearing breath from my lungs. Pain flared, sharp and heavy, but nothing that would slow me down.
I shook out my arms and grinned at the Hidden Stone genin. He grinned back for half a second before his expression twisted into alarm as Sena stepped up behind me, already weaving through hand seals. He reacted fast, slamming both palms into the ground. "Earth Release: Swamp Patch." The terrain between us turned into thick, sucking mud, designed to slow or trap us if we pushed forward.
He spun to retreat, only to find Kaen closing in. Despair flashed across his face as Kaen's two-tomoe Sharingan locked onto him. His movements faltered, vision warping as genjutsu took hold. He disrupted his chakra and broke free, but Kaen was already there, driving a powerful uppercut toward his jaw. The genin barely tilted his head in time and threw a desperate punch in return, but Kaen saw it coming from a mile away and hopped back cleanly.
The genin snapped his gaze back toward us to reassess, but it was already too late. Sena completed her hand seals. His body seized, muscles locking and twitching as he struggled against her control. It was pointless. She had him. I stepped in immediately, steadying her as the strain set in. Kaen was there a moment later, supporting her from the other side, and I moved past them, slapping a chakra suppression seal onto the genin's chest and activating it with a quick hand seal.
The resistance vanished. Sena released the jutsu a moment later. The genin sagged, eyes unfocused, breath uneven. Before he could gather himself or scream, I dropped him with a clean strike. I searched him quickly, already expecting the result. No medallion. I clicked my tongue under my breath, cursing my luck.
Sena approached first, Kaen staying close enough to support her if needed. She stabilized quickly, eyes scanning the stone around us. "I will track his steps and find his team," she said. "Let's take our soldier pills. This is as good a time as any to push ourselves." We all nodded and swallowed the bitter pills. They never got easier, but by now I was used to them. We moved slowly behind Sena as she studied the ground, following scuffed gravel, displaced dust, and small chips along the rock where someone had brushed past in a hurry. At narrow gaps between pillars, she paused to examine scratched stone and disturbed moss, adjusting our path without hesitation.
She smiled faintly. "A shinobi should be good at hiding their tracks. He was moving fast and careless before he camped where we found him." I shrugged. "Not everyone is as good a tracker as you." A moment later she sensed something, beating me to it. Her range had grown far beyond mine. "Two genin," she said quietly. "Most likely his teammates. They are close, between those narrow corridors ahead." She pointed forward. I let out a slow breath. Kaen frowned. "Are they moving?" Sena shook her head. "No." I clicked my tongue. "Two Earth Style users in terrain like this will be tricky."
I studied the area where they were holding position for a long moment before a smile crept onto my face. "Looks like luck is on our side for once." Sena glanced at me. "Did you find something?" I nodded. "There is probably a seal trap near their location. I cannot confirm it from here, but the placement feels right." I looked between them. "I will move in while masking my chakra and confirm it. If it is a trap, you track them immediately when they scatter. Kaen, stay close to her." He scowled at the order but nodded anyway. He understood this was not about authority.
I took a slow breath and suppressed my chakra as I moved forward, every step deliberate, avoiding loose stone and anything that might carry sound. Once I was close enough, I coated my eyes with chakra. The two genin noticed the shift almost immediately, but by then I had confirmed it. The seal array was there. I grinned and flew through hand seals. "Lightning Release: Thunderclap Lance." Lightning wrapped around my arm, forming a spear of condensed force. I hurled it with everything I had, lightning reinforcing the throw and accelerating it like a rail. The spear screamed through the air, and both genin reacted at once, hands snapping into seals, before freezing mid-motion as they realized it was not aimed at them. It struck high above, slamming directly into the etched seal on the stone.
The array ignited instantly. Ominous light crawled across the pillars as electricity surged through the formation. A heartbeat later, the stone exploded outward. Massive chunks sheared free and collapsed toward the center. The two genin cursed and reacted on pure instinct, their hands flashing through seals faster than they ever had in their lives. "Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique." They dove underground just before the stone came down, the earth barely yielding as they forced their way through mostly solid rock mixed with sand, burning an enormous amount of chakra to survive such unfavorable terrain.
They did not flee in a straight line. Instead, they shifted sideways beneath the pillars, burning more chakra to evade and moving far from the expected exit, a tactic that would usually work if it were not for the opposing team having two sensors. Dust and debris prevented me from following them recklessly. Sena, however, was in an optimal position. She moved immediately, tracking them with full focus and adjusting her path with precision that left no room for escape.