Okabe was the first to break the strange silence. He kept his gaze steady on Ryusei for a few seconds longer than necessary before speaking, his voice calm but edged with curiosity.
"So," he said, "Kanae told me something about a genjutsu. What happened back there?"
Ryusei forced a small shrug, the same kind the original would've given, and went through the story again, minus a few inconvenient truths.
"Yeah, got hit with something strange mid-fight. Knocked me around for a bit, but I pushed through. Halfway recovered now. Nothing lingering upstairs, but…"
He tapped his side lightly as he made a final summary.
"My injuries are still serious. Once my healing technique wears off, I won't be moving much for a while, perhaps a few weeks from now, starting perhaps from a few minutes from now."
He kept his tone casual, as if it was just another field report, while tossing in that little truth about the Yang Palm's side effects to explain why he might be out of commission soon.
Kanae, who'd been standing off to the side, didn't say a word, her Byakugan still brazenly activated from before, since their battle.
Her eyes narrowed even further as if she were peering through every layer of muscle, bone, and chakra.
Ryusei felt the chakra pulse of her scan brushing against his own and mentally groaned.
She didn't blink, didn't waver, just kept dissecting him with her eyes.
He sweat-dropped and face-palmed internally.
'How did the original idiot never put this together? They all practically scream ANBU or at least ANBU-adjacent in the case of these two previous younger 'classmates' of mine.'
'Even before my memories got fully sorted, I was seventy to eighty percent sure they were connected somehow. Now? Ninety-nine.'
On the outside, he simply smiled faintly, letting her finish her little inspection without a word.
Maybe in the past, nothing this unusual had ever happened, and since this was their first B-rank mission, Kanae had never acted quite like this before in her 'observation'.
Still, that didn't excuse the original owner's complete lack of caution and deductive skills, his inability to connect two and two when it came to their identities.
This time, though, Kanae seemed to also realize she'd gone a bit too far.
Maybe she'd remembered that the guy in front of her had a decent sensing ability.
Her tone shifted, not exactly warm, but a notch softer than usual.
Still cold, but it carried a weird, artificial edge to it, like she was forcing herself to sound less hostile.
"I was still injured trying to cover for you," she said, the words oddly stiff. "So I'm checking whether you were truly in such a desperate state or exaggerating. Good. It turns out you weren't lying."
Her voice was almost robotic, completely different from how she usually spoke to him.
Ryusei nearly laughed out loud.
'So the original owner wasn't the only socially inept one here, huh? What an idiotic excuse… but I guess it's the only possible cover she could use right now.'
'After all, she can't exactly say she cares about me and is checking on my injuries, not after the way she's treated me since day one.'
'Thankfully, I've mostly calmed my chakra network by now. The real cause of my current weakness is the major injuries combined with the… mental incompleteness. She probably can't see that directly; souls are too mysterious. I mean, I spent months as a soul watching another soul, and now I'm literally devouring one. Compared to that, I know infinitely more about hiding and shaping my spiritual state than some girl like her, or most so-called genjutsu experts and even Yamanaka specialists.'
'At most, she might sense something odd but not pinpoint it exactly, just like I wanted. Those original owner's remaining soul fragments, that are still waiting to be devoured, are now buried and covered deep under my own current soul mass, hidden neatly; she can't see them. Also, no more obvious soul clashes and forceful motions for her to pick up, like when she scanned me earlier. Perfectly in line with the explanation I gave her back then and the current explanation I gave to Okabe about my 'perfect' spiritual and low physical recovery.'
Meanwhile, Okabe's gaze flicked toward Kanae for just a moment, quick enough that most wouldn't notice.
Then the man turned back to him, tone measured, voice carrying that captain's authority that made his words sound final.
"I've seen stranger things in my career," Okabe said. "Don't think too much about it. Maybe they had a hidden specialist somewhere, reinforcing their line. After all, they're connected to… You know who."
"But, it's pretty commendable that you managed to complete your mission despite all the obstacles, and still kept your head clear enough to find Kanae and the way out," Okabe continued. "I think Hokage-sama will reward you personally when we return to the village."
He smiled as he said it, the kind of polite, approving smile that looked good on the surface but didn't reveal anything underneath.
Only Okabe knew what that smile really meant.
Ryusei blinked slowly, letting the words hang in the air for a moment as if processing them, before putting on that same "gentle" smile again.
"If the Hokage's reward is a few months of mission-free rest, I'll accept it in advance," he said lightly, tone carrying just enough humor to make it sound like a harmless joke.
Ryusei already knew exactly who "you know who" referred to.
There was no way some ragtag mercenary band just decided on their own to spy on the Land of Fire's border defenses.
Someone had hired them, and it definitely wasn't Takigakure or Kusagakure. Those two minor villages wouldn't have the guts in ten lifetimes to pull something like this against Konoha.
No, the real mastermind was almost certainly Iwagakure, sitting further northwest beyond those two.
And if Iwa was already poking at Konoha's borders through shadow contracts, it only reinforced his estimate that the Third Shinobi World War wasn't far off.
Moves like this, half-hidden but bold, only happened in the final stretch before war, right before the knives came out in the open.
'So they're going to pin my "situation" on them, huh. Well, it's a pretty straightforward and logical explanation,' Ryusei thought,
'But that's only if you ignore my real identity. Then the Third and my own 'dear' village become far more likely suspects. Of course, the average shinobi in Konoha has no clue about any of that, so this little pinning will probably look perfectly reasonable and a done deal in their eyes if they are curious.'
"If only it worked like that..."
Meanwhile, Okabe also responded light-heartedly and a bit meaningfully first to Ryusei's previous comment, while starting forward without breaking his watch on the treeline.
"We should move. This whole stretch has turned into one big proxy battlefield, and the longer we stay, the more chances we give to all the wrong kinds of people."
He glanced back once, making sure everyone was following.
"Other Konoha squads are tearing down similar cells right now. That means shifting patrols, mixed loyalties, and enemies who might be desperate enough to lash out at anything that moves. Before something unpredictable happens, we head home, hand in the report, and let the Hokage hear about the mission… and your 'experience', Ryusei."
However, Ryusei suddenly let out a sharp groan and dropped to one knee, then the other, before collapsing onto the cold ground.
His voice came out weak, but still carried that same measured tone he always used.
"I wasn't joking earlier. The backlash from the Yang Palm is about to hit me hard. I can probably stay conscious until we reach Konoha, maybe keep working on myself with the regular Mystic Palm to recover slowly… but walking there on my own for the next few days? That's not happening."
He gave a strained half-smile, as if trying to soften the request. "Someone's going to have to carry me."