After sending Minato and Shizune away, Tsunade spent several days in a state of high tension—waging war against the air itself—before finally receiving word from Konoha's intel that Huiye Lian had already left.
Her resulting helpless fury and mental collapse aside—
Konoha's upper ranks were genuinely shaken by the news Minato brought back.
They weren't truly worried about the Mist's overall strength.
Sure, Kirigakure looked aggressive on the surface, and their no-prisoners brutality terrified frontline troops…
But when both sides recovered bodies, the truth was obvious.
Mist casualties vastly exceeded Konoha's.
Konoha's leadership relaxed.
The Land of Water had the smallest population and shinobi count among the Five Great Nations. Even after back-to-back wars with Stone and Cloud, Konoha still had more shinobi than the Mist.
With a numbers disadvantage and a worse attrition ratio, the Mist should never win—
Unless they had one variable capable of overturning the board.
Huiye Lian.
In Konoha's eyes, he was the only factor that could change the war's outcome.
And now—
That dangerous man had abandoned responsibility on the front and entered the Land of Fire's core region alone.
Decapitation tactics.
He must be executing decapitation tactics!
Under the Third Hokage's orders, ANBU mobilized in full force, scouring the Land of Fire for targets suspected to be Huiye Lian.
Minato—despite medical warnings—forced his injured body into the search teams as well, constantly sensing the Flying Thunder God formula on Huiye Lian to prevent him from slipping into Konoha unnoticed.
But what confused Konoha's shinobi—
Was Huiye Lian's route.
There was no sign he was heading toward Konoha.
Instead, he marched north… toward the Land of Fire's northern border.
"Heh… so that's it."
"So that's what this route means…"
"Orochimaru," Shimura Danzo said coldly, rapping his cane against the ground. "I didn't share Hiruzen's intel so you could speak in riddles."
"Don't rush, Danzo," Orochimaru chuckled. "I only realized his true goal after mapping his path these past few days."
He tapped the map Root had provided and circled a region in red, his narrow eyes turning into a slit.
"The Land of Rice Fields."
"Huiye Lian's destination… is most likely this area."
"Why are you so certain?" Danzo demanded.
"That," Orochimaru smiled, "is my personal secret."
"But if you're willing to send Root's best with me… to hunt down our dear Mist friend…"
"I could consider sharing it."
Danzo's cane hit the floor with a heavy thunk as he decided.
"Fine. Root will send its finest."
"But once the target is captured, I want all your research materials."
"From your previous human experiments… to everything you study from Huiye Lian's cells afterward."
"All of it."
"Greedy," Orochimaru purred.
"But fine."
"I'll accept your terms."
"On one condition."
"You come with me personally."
"If you agree, I'll hand over a portion of the human experiment data you don't have—up front, as a deposit."
Danzo fell silent.
Then he nodded, voice like frost.
"…Very well."
"I'll accompany you, Orochimaru."
…
Five days later.
At the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rice Fields—
Standing before the Valley of the End's roaring waterfall, gazing up at the colossal statues of Uchiha Madara and the First Hokage—
Huiye Lian pressed his hands together and offered silent respect.
One of them died and returned, fooled by a laughable lie, a lifetime of schemes ultimately becoming someone else's wedding dress.
The other died and still couldn't rest, his cells carved up and used as cheat codes, his will warped by incompetent successors.
Yet they were still pioneers who reshaped the shinobi world and dragged it into a new era.
Huiye Lian—who intended to bring transformation and unification to the world himself—owed them that much respect.
After paying his respects to this sacred ground—the stage of so many final battles—he leapt down from Hashirama's statue and continued toward the Land of Rice Fields.
Minutes later, several nearly invisible insects landed in the palm of a masked man several kilometers away, relaying what they'd seen.
"It seems Orochimaru was right," the man murmured. "Huiye Lian truly is heading toward a destination somewhere in the Land of Rice Fields…"
"Inform Danzo-sama."
"The target has been sighted."
"We can begin drawing in the net."
A web scattered across the border between Fire and Rice Fields began to tighten.
And the prey already caught within it—
Still knew nothing.
Thunk.
Huiye Lian looked at the snake he'd casually pinned to a tree with a single Ten-Finger Piercing Bullet.
A playful smile slowly formed on his lips.
"Heh… looks like tonight's extra dish is going to be pretty generous."
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