"It would take at least a day to fully recover my chakra," Neji muttered with exhaustion as he leaned against a rock.
Kimimaro gave a nod, his posture was normal despite the strain on his own body. "I am also down to roughly fifty percent. Pushing forward now would be a suicide. We will rest here while Shino's swarm maintains the trail on Kakuzu and Konan." He paused as his eyes swept over the battered squad. "We need every scrap of intelligence we can gather before we even think about launching another assault. If their accomplices reinforce them now, we are dead. For the time being, we treat this strictly as a reconnaissance mission."
Shino gave a nod in understanding but his mind was entirely focused on the insect swarm as he watched through the eyes of his kikaichu... the ravenous tracking insects currently dozens of miles ahead, trailing the Akatsuki duo.
~~
Konan suddenly came to a halt as she narrowed her eyes. Her finely tuned sensory perception picked up the faint chakra signatures of a tiny organisms hovering just out of her sight.
"Kakuzu," Konan said in calm voice. With a fluid flick of her wrist, several sheets of paper peeled away from her cloak, as they spiraled through the air, folding seamlessly around the insects and trapping them in a suffocating paper cocoon. "That Aburame brat from the Leaf is using bugs to track us."
Kakuzu stopped, he had been angry since the last clash. He had lost two of his precious hearts in the last encounter against Neji Hyuga... his lightning and his original earth heart and this setback was infuriating.
"Sloppy," Kakuzu growled. He didn't have the patience for clever tricks or subtle evasions. Turning toward the treeline where another set of normal insects had been hovering, his hands rapidly weaved through a sequence of hand signs.
"Fire Style: Falling Flames!"
He exhaled a massive, roaring torrent of fire that rained down upon the landscape. The intense heat incinerated the brush, the trees, and every living organism within a hundred-yard radius, reducing the vibrant forest to a scorched wasteland.
"There... that should it." Kakuzu said as he turned back.
~~
Back at the resting point, Shino flinched, his hand instinctively twitching toward his jacket.
"Damn it," Shino murmured with his usual composure. "Kakuzu just burned the entire tracking swarm."
Shikamaru let out a long weary sigh, rubbing the back of his neck as he leaned against a tree trunk. "They sure are careful. I guess we shouldn't have expected anything less from high-level rogue ninjas."
Kimimaro's eyes narrowed. "Then this is the end of the mission."
"Not so fast," Shino interrupted. "They expect insects to be following them, which is exactly why I allowed them to follow and get detected. However, I made sure to place a special male insect directly onto Kakuzu's cloak when he caught me by the throat during our close-quarters exchange."
Shikamaru's eyes widened slightly as the memory clicked. "Oh... that time. Right when we were both tangled up. Clever. They'll completely let their guard down now, assuming they killed everything that was tracking them."
Shino nodded. "Precisely. This specific male species does not emit a detectable chakra signature to track. Instead, it secretes a highly specialized pheromone... an odor entirely imperceptible to humans, which can only be picked up and tracked by my another special female insect."
Listening intently, Kimimaro silently committed the piece of information to his memory. "I was not wrong, the Aburame clan are truly formidable trackers," he thought with deep respect at the utility of the technique."If I ever have to face him as an enemy, I will need to be meticulous."
"But keep in mind, there is still no absolute guarantee," Shino added, tempering their expectations. "If the enemy possesses a highly skilled sensor, even a physical pheromone trait might get detected."
Kimimaro pulled a small storage scroll from his flak jacket along with a brush. He quickly penned a condensed breakdown of their current mission report, and the Akatsuki duo's projected path. Tossing the finished scroll to Shino, he said, "Have your swiftest messenger bugs fly this back to Hokage Tsunade immediately. She needs to know we are transitioning to a stakeout."
~~
Three hours crawled by in a stretch of silence. Suddenly, the female insect on Shino's outstretched index finger vibrated its wings in a series of high-frequency hums.
Shino closed his eyes, translating the messages. "The duo has stopped," he informed the group. "They appear to have entered a hidden subterranean outpost within the Land of Rivers. I could potentially establish a deeper connection to gather direct visual and audio feedback, but doing so forces me to channel my chakra into the network, which will increase the probability that the enemy might pick it up."
Kimimaro, who was currently lying flat on his back along a thick tree branch, aimlessly tossing small pebbles into a nearby stagnant lake, let out a loud groan.
"What a complete waste of time..." Kimimaro grumbled in boredom. He flipped over, letting his legs dangle off the branch. "Let's just go after them and break them down."
Neji stared at him with a deadpan look. "Heeh... weren't you the one who said we needed information before launching another attack, or we would just die if their accomplices joined them?"
Kimimaro blinked lazily, staring up at the lake as he threw another pebble. "Did I say that? I don't remember... must have been someone else."
Neji rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
"Hey, Shino," Kimimaro called out, his voice taking on a funny, dragging tone from the restlessness. "What did Hokage Tsunade say?"
Shino didn't look up from his insect. "It takes a considerable amount of time and energy for the swarm to transport a heavy storage scroll across entire territories. They have yet to even cross the borders of Konoha. Be patient."
~~
Pain stood completely still, initiating his signature Magic Body Lantern Technique, which allowed the Akatsuki members to send out "thought waves" and convert into chakra. These thought waves are then picked up by him, acting as a kind of control tower that he amplifies and broadcasts them to a specific location through illusionary bodies. The illusionary bodies differ from being mere reflections. While Pain is relaying the members' thoughts, they can have conversation and use varying techniques.
"You both are incredibly slow," Sasori's hollow voice echoed angrily through the empty cavern. His illusionary form flickered with impatience as he glared at Konan and Kakuzu. "I absolutely despise being kept waiting."
Konan remained entirely unbothered by Sasori's temper. With a dull thud, she dropped the battered, unconscious body of Fuu... the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki... onto the ground. "We were ambushed by a squad from the Hidden Leaf," Konan stated flatly. "It took extra time to neutralize them and cleanly break away their tracking."
Deidara leaned forward from his designated finger on the Gedo Statue, with a smirk as he looked over at the money maker of Akatsuki. "Yo... Kakuzu-no-danna, you look miserable. Did the Leaf brats give you a rough time?"
"Watch your tongue, boy," Kakuzu snarled, his eyes flashing with a murderous intent.
"Enough," Pain interjected as the piercing gaze of his Rinnegan swept across the Akatsuki phantoms. "The extraction process has already been severely delayed. We shall deal with any outside complications after our objective is secured."
Pain raised his hands, his fingers forming a hand seal. "For now... Sealing Technique: Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals!"
Instantly, the towering grotesque form of the Gedo Statue behind him rumbled to life, its massive jaws parting as the Akatsuki members took their places upon its outstretched fingers, beginning the grueling, three day process of ripping the Seven-Tails from its host.
~~
A/N: Shino has his own tricks, this was the technique (male and female insect combo) he used to track kankuro in Naruto.
[QUOTE="aizenDuchiha0, post: 13004631, member: 183054"] @Ch17
Before either chunin could react, Kakuzu arrived directly in front of them. His arms detached at the joints, held together only by squirming black threads that extended his reach instantly. His massive hands clamped around the necks of both Shikamaru and Shino, lifting them off the ground effortlessly, choking the air from their lungs.
[/QUOTE]
This was the instance, Shino placed his male insect on Kakuzu's cloak
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