Chapter 143: A Misunderstanding… Might Not Be So Bad
The red-haired woman was already in tears. She scooped up her daughter and ran toward the place where the golden chains converged.
There was only one kind of person in the entire shinobi world who could use golden chakra chains.
Undoubtedly, they were members of the Uzumaki clan.
And someone who could unleash such a massive-scale Adamantine Sealing Chains technique had to be a powerful Uzumaki.
She didn't know who that person was — but one thing was certain: they were here to save her and her daughter.
The Grass camp wasn't large — about two kilometers in diameter.
Li Yao's genjutsu had a range of 500 meters. That meant with five shadow clones, he could blanket the entire camp in illusion.
At the center of the camp, Li Yao pressed both hands against a massive scroll laid open on the ground.
Countless golden chakra chains shot from the scroll, piercing the bodies of the Grass shinobi whose senses had already been stripped away by his Perception Severance Technique, absorbing their chakra.
"Mom… What's that?"
The girl, Yuzu , finally sensed something from the golden chakra chains. But she feared it was only a dream. Holding back the rush of relief and joy, she looked at her mother with cautious hope.
The red-haired woman nodded vigorously. "Yuzu , it's our clan. They've come to save us. It's really them!"
As they ran through the camp, the golden chakra chains continued draining chakra from the immobilized Grass shinobi.
But they didn't react to the mother and daughter passing by.
Clearly, the clan had recognized them and was here to rescue them.
"That's great, Mom!"
"Waaah... Mom, you'll never have to let those awful people bite you again, never again…"
Yuzu finally broke. Her joy and relief poured out in uncontrollable sobs — but this time, her tears weren't dry.
"Mm, never again."
The red-haired woman ran as she held her daughter's thin hand tightly. "And Yuzu , you won't have to go hungry anymore."
Boom boom boom... Just as the mother and daughter reached the center of the camp, a sound like watermelons bursting echoed around them.
In an instant, a blood-red mist spread through the air.
Under the moonlight, the camp fell deathly silent, enveloped in a crimson haze like a barrier.
"Who's there?"
Suddenly, Li Yao looked sharply to the air above and to his left — about a hundred meters up. But… there was nothing there.
"A hallucination?"
His brow furrowed. Just now, he had clearly sensed a flicker — a nearly invisible humanoid chakra flame in that exact spot. And then it was gone.
Could it really have been a mistake?
No.
No, that was impossible.
Recalling the moment when he had shattered the skulls of every Grass shinobi after draining their chakra with the chains, he realized the timing coincided exactly with when he'd sensed that figure.
Someone really had been there — likely observing him from a great distance using some unknown technique.
That person must've lost emotional control at the sight of so much carnage, causing instability in their jutsu — which briefly exposed them to his perception.
It had to be that.
His chakra sensing didn't make mistakes.
"But still… there's really a technique that can avoid my chakra perception?!"
Li Yao was shaken.
This wasn't someone hiding underground — it was someone in the air, close by, using a jutsu that allowed them to observe without being detected.
If not for that momentary lapse in control, he might never have known he was being watched.
"Who was it?"
"Konoha? Probably Konoha."
He had already encountered Iwa and Kumo shinobi — that only left Konoha. And only Konoha would leak his location while choosing not to attack directly.
They were likely trying the same tactic the Sarutobi couple had used — wait for others to wear him down, then strike when he was weakened, like after his battle with the Third Raikage.
If Sarutobi Tenchu and Ayase hadn't succumbed to his genjutsu, he might have fallen back then.
This time, Konoha was surely prepared with countermeasures.
But… heh.
Li Yao let out a cold laugh, retracted all the Adamantine Sealing Chains back into the massive scroll, then stored the scroll in his black water space.
He wasn't the same person he had been a year ago.
In a shinobi world where Nagato hadn't yet risen and Madara remained hidden, his strength now had no match.
Even his chakra deficit — once his greatest weakness — was no longer fatal, thanks to the sealing scroll.
"Come then. I'll kill however many show up!"
Li Yao's eyes burned. He would not flee like he had from the Third Raikage. This time, he would strike back — and hard.
Even if it was Ōnoki with Dust Release…
Well… okay, that one he'd still have to run from.
Li Yao stifled his frustration.
As things stood, only the Third Tsuchikage posed a real threat to him.
He remembered Ōnoki's "Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique" during the Fourth Great Ninja War — it had wiped out 25 incomplete Susanoo in a single blast.
With that kind of range and destructive power, no matter how fast he was, Li Yao wouldn't be able to evade it.
But Ōnoki wouldn't start with a move like that.
If he could copy the Dust Release chakra before then, he would truly become invincible in the current era.
Of course, Dust Release wasn't like other jutsu — even touching it was lethal.
Li Yao figured he might have to sacrifice a finger or an arm to copy it. But it would be worth it.
With Wood Release, he could regenerate a limb if he burned enough chakra.
The thought lifted his mood. He actually started to hope Ōnoki would show up.
For now though, his priority was learning sealing techniques.
After all, nothing beat having the Devouring Seal Array carved directly into his body — much more convenient than the massive scroll.
Li Yao turned toward his target — the Uzumaki woman.
She was indeed a woman — a tall, beautiful one… with a small… stick-like child.
He glanced briefly at the little girl's bright, cautious face, then looked back to the red-haired woman and walked over.
The mother and daughter stepped through the blood-red mist without hesitation, heading straight for him.
"Hey, you two—"
Just as he opened his mouth to greet them, the red-haired woman suddenly lunged forward and hugged him.
Li Yao instinctively frowned and almost stopped her — but ultimately, he didn't move. He let her wrap her arms around him tightly.
The girl also wrapped her twig-like arms around him and her mother.
A mother and daughter, having lost their homeland and endured endless despair in a foreign land, were finally rescued by someone from their clan. Their overwhelming joy was impossible to contain.
They could only express their gratitude through this embrace.
Li Yao slowly raised his arms, hesitated several times, and finally rested his hands gently on their heads.
In truth, he had found them earlier that day.
Having once sensed the life-infused chakra unique to Mito and Kushina, it had been easy to locate the Uzumaki in a crowd of hundreds.
But ever cautious, he had observed from the sky first.
He had watched as the red-haired woman was marked again and again by the bite marks of Grass shinobi, and how she returned to her cabin, hollow-eyed, to sit quietly with her daughter, staring out the window.
Wanting to die — but unable to.
Wishing to live — but with no reason to.
Pain and despair had them completely surrounded, without a single gap for escape.
Li Yao knew that feeling well.
During those six months of torture under the Third Hokage, he had felt the same.
He couldn't die — suicide wasn't an option.
The mother couldn't die — because she didn't want to leave her daughter. So she endured.
They both knew that once they were no longer useful, they would still be killed.
Maybe that's why he resonated so deeply with their pain.
Maybe that's why he didn't push them away.
He realized now — they had mistaken him for a fellow Uzumaki, the user of the Adamantine Sealing Chains.
And that was why they were so emotional.
But a misunderstanding… could be useful.
(END CHAPTER)
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