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Three days later.
The purple-haired female shinobi had finally found the target given to her by the Angel.
Her name was Ajisai. Not long ago, she had gone to participate in the Chunin Exams held jointly between the Leaf Village and the Hidden Sand Village, and had successfully become a Chunin.
After returning, both of her teammates had immediately been assigned S-rank missions. Only Ajisai herself had not been assigned any mission whatsoever.
At first, Ajisai had thought she was simply too useless to be of help to the Angel. Who would have guessed that not long after, the Angel would directly summon her alone and give her an S-rank mission to carry out by herself?
This inevitably stirred a surge of excitement within Ajisai. Right after becoming a Chunin, she could immediately undertake an S-rank mission—and a solo S-rank mission at that! What tremendous recognition was this?!
She absolutely could not let down the Angel's trust.
That was what Ajisai thought.
Thus, throughout the entire journey, Ajisai had been tracking her target with the utmost caution. He was a young man, seemingly a year or two older than herself, dressed in black clothing and possessing a face that could be called handsome. By his side were two females—one a slightly petite, black-haired girl, and the other a somewhat more mature redhead wearing a pair of black-framed glasses.
Ajisai had followed this group for two full hours now, and they still didn't seem to have detected her presence. This put Ajisai somewhat more at ease.
The direction this group was traveling seemed to be toward the Hidden Sand Village. Ajisai had already transmitted this information back to the Hidden Rain Village. But to prevent the intelligence from being incorrect, she decided to continue tracking them for a while longer.
The process of traveling was tedious and dull. Fortunately, Ajisai's abilities were related to "summoning," somewhat similar to Tenten's. She could summon items she had prepared beforehand from the paper scrolls she carried on her person. So Ajisai didn't need to search for food and water along the way; she only needed to focus on tracking.
"Three people. Two aren't wearing forehead protectors. One is wearing a Hidden Mist forehead protector. So... are they from the Hidden Mist Village?"
Ajisai carefully observed the three figures in the distance, muttering to herself in her heart.
'As expected, people from the great nations. The Angel sent me to ascertain their direction of travel. Could it be that the great nations are once again planning to inflict suffering upon us minor nations? Their direction isn't necessarily the Hidden Sand... it could also be our Hidden Rain! But why are there only three of them? Have the great nations grown so confident that they believe dealing with a minor nation requires only three shinobi?'
Ajisai's mind raced with continuous thoughts.
This was an S-rank mission. It was destined to be anything but simple. Therefore, Ajisai subconsciously tended to overcomplicate the mission in her thoughts.
There was one more thing: among Kagaya's group of three, Kagaya himself and Karin no longer wore any forehead protectors. Haku, however, still wore the Hidden Mist forehead protector and hadn't carved a scratch across it. At a normal glance, Haku looked exactly like a Hidden Mist shinobi.
Kagaya didn't know what Haku was thinking. Perhaps he still held some lingering attachment to the Hidden Mist? After all, it had been his home. Or perhaps he simply wanted to wear that forehead protector? Kagaya wasn't sure, but he couldn't be bothered to interfere. Wearing it or not—what difference did it make?
Ajisai pondered as she tracked Kagaya's group with painstaking caution.
*******
One day later.
Kagaya's group still showed absolutely no reaction to Ajisai's tracking and continued advancing in the direction of the Hidden Sand Village.
Three days later.
Ajisai discovered that this S-rank mission seemed exceptionally easy. She had been tracking her targets for a full three days now, and they still hadn't noticed her at all?
This was far too simple!
Ten days later.
Ajisai furrowed her brow. She began to suspect—could her tracking targets be idiots? How had they not discovered her after all this time? It wasn't that Ajisai wanted to be discovered, but the fact that there had been no reaction for so long made Ajisai feel that something was slightly off.
One month later.
Ajisai fully recognized that something was amiss. It had already been a month! Yet, she had been following her targets as they traveled and traveled and traveled, and why hadn't they reached the Hidden Sand Village yet? This wasn't logical!
Something was definitely wrong!
Three months later.
Ajisai was utterly despairing. Something was wrong. Absolutely wrong. Three whole months. She had tracked her targets and run for three whole months, yet they still hadn't reached the Hidden Sand Village, and the targets still hadn't discovered her.
The most terrifying part was that whenever Ajisai wanted to catch up to the targets and confront them directly, she would find that no matter how much she accelerated, she simply couldn't catch up to them or confront them!
"This is..."
Ajisai swallowed a mouthful of saliva, staring at those three figures ahead that she could never seem to catch. Waves of chill surged within her heart.
"Genjutsu."
Ajisai understood now. She had, in all likelihood, fallen under a genjutsu. The most important thing was, she didn't even know when she had been caught, or how. Everything had felt completely normal—until she discovered the abnormalities within the genjutsu and realized she might be trapped in one.
How much time had passed outside? Where had she been when the genjutsu was cast? Who had cast it on her? Her target?
Damn it...
Ajisai began piercing her own skin with a kunai, using the most crude yet most effective method to break the genjutsu.
The principle was that when she inflicted pain on herself, her chakra would be disrupted and she would feel the sensation of pain. The disruption of chakra limited the genjutsu's persistence—after all, ordinary genjutsu relied on invading one's chakra to imperceptibly distort one's perception. Meanwhile, a momentary spike of pain would also override the illusion, providing a second disruption to the genjutsu's hold.
It could be said that the method of harming oneself to break genjutsu was invincible against the vast majority of genjutsu. It was the most crude, but also the most effective.
Unfortunately, the genjutsu that this method could break... did not include ocular jutsu.
Pain transmitted to Ajisai's brain. She could also clearly feel that her chakra had been disrupted. Yet, the surrounding scenery remained completely unchanged!
"It's not a genjutsu?"
Ajisai was startled. But immediately after, looking at the three figures still running up ahead, she reacted again.
"No... it's that I haven't broken the genjutsu!"
Biting her lip, fear appeared for the first time on Ajisai's beautiful face. As a shinobi who had only recently been promoted from Genin to Chunin, this was the first time she had ever encountered such a helpless situation. She didn't know when she had fallen under the genjutsu. She didn't know who the enemy was. She didn't know where she had been when it was cast. And she couldn't break it.
Up to this point, Ajisai only knew one thing for certain: she was under a genjutsu. Beyond that, Ajisai knew nothing. She could do nothing.
That profound sense of powerlessness slowly allowed feelings named despair and fear to well up within her.
No good... I have to keep going!
Ajisai began trying to break the genjutsu.
Yet...
Useless! Useless! Useless!
She tried countless methods. All of them were useless!
This even made Ajisai begin to doubt whether she was actually under a genjutsu at all. Was the world before her eyes the real world?
An unbreakable genjutsu had already begun to disrupt Ajisai's ability to distinguish between reality and illusion.
"I..."
Her breathing gradually grew heavy. The shadow called despair rose from beneath Ajisai's feet and slowly coiled around her body.
"I... I should..."
Flick!
A faint, tiny sound rang out. An extremely subtle, minute pain came from Ajisai's forehead. Immediately after, the surrounding scenery began rapidly transforming.
By the time Ajisai came back to her senses, she found herself leaning against a tree by a riverbank. Before her, a handsome face was staring at her. It was this person—it seemed he had just flicked her forehead.
"I... I broke the genjutsu?"
Ajisai could scarcely believe it.
Kagaya nodded and handed Ajisai a grilled fish he was holding.
"Just consider it as you breaking it. Now, can you tell me the purpose of you coming to find me? Oh, right. Here. Want some fish?"
Ajisai stared blankly at Kagaya's face for several seconds, then jolted in sudden realization—this was her mission target?!
She reflexively pressed her body tightly against the tree behind her, distancing herself from the person before her. "Wh-when... when did you cast the genjutsu on me?"
Kagaya lifted his head and glanced at the sun.
"Mm... should've been this morning. I forget the exact time."
That morning, Karin had detected Ajisai from far away. After determining that Ajisai was heading specifically for them, Kagaya had casually made a move and imperceptibly placed Ajisai under a genjutsu. Then he had taken Karin and the others to catch fish and grill them to eat.
Although Kagaya's genjutsu had never been particularly strong, the gap in strength between him and Ajisai was simply far too vast. Even Kagaya's relatively mediocre genjutsu, when used on Ajisai, was akin to the might of heaven itself—impossible to resist, impossible to defy.
Ajisai touched the paper scrolls concealed at her waist, and her expression changed drastically. She hadn't even sent the intelligence back to the Angel!
Ajisai had thought earlier that she had already reported the intelligence to the Angel. Now she realized—that, too, had been an event within the genjutsu!
For peace!
A flash of ruthlessness flickered through Ajisai's eyes. She swiftly bit her finger to draw blood, then slammed her hand onto the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
A cloud of white smoke billowed up. Then, a panda roughly two meters tall appeared before Kagaya.
Ajisai shouted at the panda.
"You, hold him off!"
With that, Ajisai slammed her hand onto the ground once more.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
A small bird appeared in Ajisai's hand. With practiced, fluid skill, she tied a piece of paper to the bird's leg using a string.
"Go!"
The bird spread its wings and soared high into the sky, quickly vanishing from Kagaya's field of vision.
The entire process was smooth and seamless, without the slightest hesitation or fumbling.
Kagaya watched this scene, somewhat speechless. He didn't stop her, nor could he be bothered to. He had simply wanted to ask Ajisai why she had come to track him. Was such a huge production really necessary?
As for the Akatsuki obtaining intelligence on Kagaya? It didn't matter at all. With Kagaya's current strength, even if he honestly and thoroughly disclosed all his capabilities to the Akatsuki, there was still nothing they could do to him.
It was akin to the Warring States era. Tobirama had been largely aware of Madara's abilities. Yet, in that entire era, only Hashirama could contend with Madara.
Once the disparity in strength reached a certain point, it could no longer be compensated for by intelligence.
Intelligence could only play a decisive role when both sides were evenly matched. The greater the disparity in strength, the less value intelligence held.
A golden arm materialized. With a single sweeping palm strike, it directly swatted the giant panda into white smoke, making it vanish.
"Um... purple-haired kunoichi. Are you done yet? Also, don't have your summon beasts attack me. If you want to transmit a message, just go ahead and transmit it."
Ajisai's eyes flew wide open.
"You—!"
When a summon beast suffered severe injury, it would be forcibly dispelled, just like a shadow clone. However, summon beasts generally had far greater damage tolerance and strength than shadow clones.
From childhood to now, this was the first time Ajisai had ever witnessed someone casually defeating her main combat summon, the panda, with a single, effortless move.
What kind of person was this?!
His strength was absurdly beyond comprehension. At the very least, it far exceeded Ajisai's understanding.
S-rank mission!
Now, Ajisai understood why this was an S-rank mission!
If this man before her wanted to kill her...
She would die! There was absolutely no chance of survival!
Kagaya retracted his Susanoo and raised the fish in his hand.
"If you don't want it, forget it. I'm going to eat."
Saying this, Kagaya began eating the fish. As he ate, he asked,
"Hey, you still haven't answered my question. Why were you tracking me?"
Toward this person before him, Kagaya had initially intended to just kill her outright upon seeing the Hidden Rain forehead protector. A Hidden Rain shinobi coming to find him—it absolutely couldn't be anything good. After all, the Hidden Rain was the home base of Pain and Obito.
But just as Kagaya was about to make his move, he realized that this person before him... seemed somewhat familiar?
She must have appeared in the original story, and not just as some random background character.
With that thought, Kagaya refrained from delivering a killing blow.
After all, to be perfectly honest, toward strangers, Kagaya naturally didn't care. But toward people he recognized—people who had appeared in the original story with a decent amount of screen time—Kagaya was actually quite interested when he encountered them. Even if he was going to kill them, he'd want to confirm their identity first.
Ajisai spoke coldly.
"I have nothing to say. As a shinobi, I have already prepared myself for death. Make your move, shinobi of the great nations."
Kagaya continued studying Ajisai's face.
"Fine. Then can you at least tell me your name?"
Kagaya was absolutely certain that he recognized this person before him. He just couldn't recall who she was for the moment. It seemed... it seemed there was something distinctive missing from her face.
No, it wasn't just that something was missing. There was another sense of incongruity. What was it?
Ajisai spoke succinctly.
"Ajisai. Let me ask you—do you great nation shinobi always ask your victims' names before killing them?"
Kagaya furrowed his brow and didn't speak. He was still trying to figure out this person's identity.
Ajisai's face couldn't help but flush a faint red. Being stared at continuously by Kagaya made her feel slightly embarrassed.
Meanwhile, Kagaya was racking his brain nonstop.
Mm... this face that seems so familiar... and that panda... Right! The panda! How did I overlook that panda just now? Let me think... this face, the summoning beasts, that panda just now... Wait...
Kagaya suddenly smacked his own head and spoke reflexively.
"Right! Why is your face missing the black chakra receivers? And why has your hair color changed?"
Kagaya finally remembered. The person before him was none other than the Animal Path from the original story—the one Pain used during the invasion of the Leaf Village!
The only difference was, the Animal Path back then had black chakra receivers embedded in her face, which the person before him lacked. And the Animal Path back then had orange hair, while the person before him had purple hair.
Ajisai's head was filled with question marks. She didn't quite understand what Kagaya was talking about. Because of Kagaya's overwhelming strength, Ajisai didn't think he was an idiot. So, Ajisai simply assumed Kagaya was speaking about some profound matters beyond her comprehension.
Kagaya breathed a sigh of relief.
"Alright, I've finally recognized you. Didn't expect it to be you. Well then, now that I've got nothing else... I'll just kill you! I'll make it quick. Consider it a meeting gift."