The new "Ryusei", slowly getting a better hang of the body and its chakra, braced himself even more.
He started pushing chakra into his steps, adding a slight burst of speed and vitality, closing in on Kanae's position while leaving the pursuers a little farther behind.
Even if his fighting strength had dropped from the original body's perhaps high chūnin level to the very bottom of genin level, his physicality was still there.
That part came from the secret bloodline of a prominent lineage from the great clan this body belonged to, and it was enough to keep his running speed sharp.
That was why he'd managed that first explosive sprint when he broke away earlier.
The ones chasing him were all high-level genin, but still genin.
They only had genin physiques, low resources, and no bloodline to back them up.
Their underworld experience didn't matter against the inherited advantages of one of the two strongest shinobi clans in the history of the world, maybe even the strongest.
It was exactly that lack of bloodline, clan resources, and passed-down jutsu knowledge that kept them stuck as genin.
The only way for someone like them to become chūnin was to have a much stronger physical essence, like that chūnin Ryusei had already killed earlier, and none of these five had it.
In his first outburst back there, using two B-rank jutsu, Ryusei had killed one of them outright and injured three more badly enough that they stayed behind to guard the depot.
That left only five chasing him now, and they were already tired and not in peak condition.
However, they were still not someone Ryusei could take down right at this moment due to all the injuries and the temporary inaccessibility of procedural memory belonging to this body.
That is why he needed to reach Kanae fast and reach a tacit understanding with her next.
And he finally did come face-to-face with her soon.
She had slowed down, almost like she was deliberately letting him close the gap.
Her posture was steady, unmoving, Byakugan fully active, veins bulging at her temples, pupils focused and sharp.
A slight frown marked her face, not of anger but of deep scrutiny.
Unlike Ryusei, who was dressed in plain black combat gear with a pseudo-Konoha green flak vest, the official uniform worn by operatives not ranked as chūnin or jōnin yet, but who didn't want to wear more custom uniforms, Kanae wore a customized Hyūga-style female combat uniform.
It was clearly designed for mobility and precision strikes, close-fitting without restricting movement.
Her long black hair, with a faint dark-blue sheen, swayed gently behind her.
It wasn't entirely straight; there was a subtle, natural wave to it, and a few bangs fell across her forehead protector, hiding the cursed Side Branch seal beneath.
Her face was striking: almond-shaped, cat-like eyes framed by dark lashes, a small nose, full lips, and a delicately proportioned jawline.
Even at her young age, her figure hinted at the beginnings of something that would only become more defined as she matured.
In Ryusei's eyes, she was an ideal example of the refined, oriental beauty he had imagined in his past life, though her pale eyes, framed by the Byakugan's strange clarity, gave her a faintly otherworldly, almost alien touch.
Even the cold frown and calculating gaze didn't detract from that beauty; if anything, it sharpened it.
Kanae, meanwhile, was studying him just as closely, her Byakugan scanning his body in full detail.
She had already noticed that he was covered in both major and minor injuries, all somehow temporarily stabilized by an unfamiliar dark-orange chakra.
The way he had run toward her moments ago only confirmed her suspicion; it had been raw, brute force at the expense of the body, not the measured efficiency of a trained shinobi of Ryusei's usual level.
That alone was strange. But what truly caught her attention was what she saw when she traced his chakra flow toward his head.
It was… chaotic.
His entire chakra pathway system seemed disordered, almost confused, like it didn't know how to process the signals it was getting.
Near his brain, the chakra was even stranger, a dense, swirling vortex that looked like it clashed against itself.
The disturbance was so abnormal that Kanae's frown deepened almost unconsciously.
It was the first time in her life she had ever seen anything like it.
Ryusei, seeing that he couldn't read much from her expression beyond the obvious mix of confusion and scrutiny, decided to speak first and cut through the awkward silence.
"I was suddenly hit by a very strange and powerful genjutsu there...", He said, his voice low but steady.
"Either from an enemy directly or some hidden accomplice. I had to abandon my task and pull back. I was trying to stabilize myself, maybe meditate, calming my brain and chakra, before going back. Otherwise, I'd have lost both my life and the mission."
Kanae's frown eased slightly, but only slightly. Her pale eyes sharpened, thoughts turning inward.
'Could this mission really include someone that strong? Or was it someone else entirely? I can't say for certain…'
Still, her priorities stayed clear. 'Anyway, my hidden assignment hasn't changed. No new orders. Which means, for now, I should focus on completing our official mission first.'
Her gaze finally settled directly on his face, scanning for any tells he hadn't given away with words.
She noticed something almost without meaning to, the usual counterfeit, 'overly-gentle' and 'warm' mask he always wore was gone.
His eyes were still artificially narrowed for reasons she couldn't ever place, but his frown looked genuine.
His skin was pale, streaked with dirt and sweat, and his expression carried the weight of lingering great pain.
"That's when I need your help," Ryusei said, forcing his voice into the tone he'd heard the original owner use countless times.
"Right now, there's no way I can face all five of them alone. And if I keep running, I'll burn out first eventually, and I can't make it to Sensei and Renjiro in time, so I came toward you first."
As he spoke, he watched her closely. Her expression didn't change much, but her Byakugan still hadn't closed, the veins at her temples faintly pulsing. She was studying every twitch, every breath.
"I'll erase my presence and hide somewhere nearby," he continued, "give myself time to meditate to calm my mind, suppress my injuries, and recover enough to fight again. Then I'll head back, finish my task, destroy their intelligence cache, and join you. You'll be pretending to engage them shortly, throwing a bait, and then leading them away toward Sensei and Renjiro by then. But, don't worry—" he let a faint breath escape as if calming himself, "—I've already worn them down a bit. You might not be able to defeat them outright, but you can bait them toward them. Those two look like they're having no trouble with their targets."
While the words came out smooth, his mind was far from calm. Every movement of hers told him she was weighing his story against something else... orders, maybe.
And in that silent pressure between them, he inadvertently confirmed the suspicion that had gnawed at him back inside the old Ryusei's subconscious.
His team had been working against him from the start. Not out of any irrational personal grudges, but this was orchestrated.
Orders from Konoha's higher-ups. Hiruzen's fingerprints, probably through ANBU. Official shinobi didn't belong to ROOT, after all, but ANBU? That was another matter.
Still, this was his advantage now. While hiding in the old Ryusei's mind, he'd studied how the boy spoke, the way he phrased things, how he held himself.
Even now, part of him still clung to the original brain's verbal memory centers, letting him mimic tone and cadence almost perfectly.
Add to that the obvious shock of his injuries, and she had no reason to suspect a complete change of soul, at least at this point.
Kanae's pale eyes didn't blink as he finished.
The Byakugan remained active, tracing the strange vortex of chakra in his head and the odd rhythm in his pathways.
She didn't answer right away, but the fact that she hadn't rejected his proposal outright was enough for him to be optimistic.
If she agreed, even reluctantly, it meant one thing - he'd just bought himself a lifeline.
Kanae shifted her focus from Ryusei to the distance, Byakugan tracking the five pursuers as they pushed through the trees.
She read their pace, their chakra flow, their condition, and weighed it against her own limits.
'Defeating them head-on… impossible. Engaging for too long... dangerous...,' She thought, eyes narrowing.
'But if I draw them in, keep them close enough, then break away toward Sensei's position… that I can do.'
Her pale gaze flicked briefly toward the distant clash where Okabe and Renjiro were cutting through their own opponents without much trouble.
After a moment's calculation, she looked back at him and gave a short nod.
"Fine. Go," she said coldly.
Ryusei let out a slow, quiet breath, more so in his mind than through his lips.
Relief settled in, though it came laced with a faint amusement.
That same cold, indifferent tone… exactly as he'd seen in the old Ryusei's memories, back when he'd been trapped inside.
Three months of this same treatment since their team's formation, never once softening.
The original owner had always played the warm, polite gentleman in front of her and the others, but inside, he'd been a storm of resentment and petty dislike.
For a boy in the middle of his youth, having the prettiest girl he knew treat him like this, no matter that he had no actual plans to pursue her, was a constant sting.
The result had been a tangled mess of feelings: anger, disgust… and something less noble.
A desire to 'conquer' her in the basest sense.
The new Ryusei found that mix of emotions oddly funny.
Still, when he thought about it more, he noticed something the original never truly questioned:
Kanae was cold, indifferent, and perfunctory to everyone, yes, but toward him, she seemed sharper, even more dismissive than usual.
Was it because she had seen through the old Ryusei's exaggerated politeness and overplayed warmth, catching a glimpse of the more spiteful heart he kept hidden?
He didn't have the answer, and now wasn't the time to dig for it.
So he simply gave a polite response, exactly how the original owner would have, and moved off toward a nearby cluster of rocks and low shrubs that would serve as a decent hiding spot.
His presence bled away step by step, until only the faint sound of disturbed leaves remained.
Yet the immediate danger was far from over, and he knew it.
Somewhere out there, still unseen, lurked someone capable of launching a genjutsu so potent that it had struck someone of Ryusei's original level without him even sensing it.
That meant they were still watching, still waiting.
And back at the depot, the three injured mercenary genin were no trivial matter either for him now.
In his current state, he couldn't hope to defeat even them unless he regained way more of his fighting ability through better injury suppression and pushing the soul fusion to a further stage.
That reality kept his expression grim, and he was nowhere near celebrating prematurely.