Chapter 180
2-in-1-chapter
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"Huff—huff—"
Yakushi Nonō felt drained.
She stopped to rest when the bowl-shaped peak that had been their rendezvous came within six or seven kilometers. She planned to catch her breath and, in a better state, check whether reinforcements were actually coming, while worrying all the same whether those reinforcements would be there to save her or to silence her.
Having served in Root for many years, she knew how dirty the underside of the ninja world could be. Killing to silence someone was not unheard of. Although she had not been subjected to Danzo's cursed seal, Danzo had found another, more devastating leverage to threaten her: the children at the orphanage.
So before meeting anyone, she intended to prepare more carefully.
She had not expected Iwagakure's shinobi to catch up so quickly, though it was hardly surprising. If the Iwagakure forces could not have tracked her down, then their skill would be too poor to be called Iwagakure. It was only the timing that bothered her.
Whoosh whoosh!
Shuriken from behind forced Yakushi Nonō to turn and bat them away, slowing her forward progress. She looked at the two Iwagakure shinobi trailing her and at the faint, hidden killing intent around them.
A pincer attack, then.
She stayed calm. She stopped on a dime, closed her eyes, and flipped a flashbang behind her.
A blinding glare made the Iwagakure shinobi blink and forced them to halt. They shifted position to avoid being singled out, but they did not hear the sound of shuriken cutting through the air. Instead, they heard something fall to the ground.
Not another flashbang.
With eyes still shut they could feel that the intense light was already quickly fading. When they opened their eyes, a milky-white smoke had filled the area.
"Smoke bomb? That trick won't let her escape," one Iwa shinobi snorted, speaking tough but refusing to rush into the cloud. Someone was watching; they would not let Yakushi Nonō get away. A smoke bomb's coverage was limited, and while it might confuse an opponent one-on-one, they now had numbers on their side.
"No, that's not ordinary smoke. It's a toxic haze."
The other man's nose twitched as he smelled something off. His face drained. Without thinking he kicked off and staggered back, but before he had taken two steps his limbs went weak, his head swam, and the world flipped. In the moment before he hit the ground he saw his comrade already collapsed.
What was this poison smoke? So strong.
Choking on this thought, the second Iwa shinobi went down as well.
Only two of them fell for her trap.
Yakushi Nonō stepped calmly out of the smoke and glanced at the two unconscious men. A trace of annoyance crossed her features. After throwing the flashbang she had also tossed two altered smoke bombs. She had not filled them with lethal gas but with a soporific she had synthesized herself.
Through repeated missions she had learned that developing instant-kill gases was difficult and risky. Researching sedatives that induced sleep was simpler and allowed for safer countermeasures. As long as someone was down, they were neutralized. Even if the enemy forced them awake, the aftereffects—weak limbs, exhaustion—would prevent immediate combat readiness.
The downside was that this drug persisted only briefly and its spread was limited; it was useful only to catch an enemy off guard. Once the same trick was used a second time against prepared foes it seldom worked. She had prepared only five of these enhanced smoke bombs; a ninja pouch held limited space, and while she could use scrolls, retrieving tools from them was cumbersome.
She was not skilled at scroll-based ninjutsu deployment.
"You cannot escape, Doctor Shiso."
A voice whose source she could not pinpoint echoed through the area. "Surrender now. If you give yourself up, we may treat you with some leniency. Answer our questions honestly and I guarantee you will not suffer excessively. If you resist, we will be forced to use rougher methods, and then… it will be painful."
Yakushi Nonō said nothing. She scanned her surroundings but could not find the voice's origin. The speaker seemed to be moving, which reminded her of Iwagakure concealment technique—that made them transparent and hard to locate.
This was bad.
She sighed inwardly.
Then, in the next instant, Yakushi Nonō saw Bun'ya and his men step into view. The calm she had maintained vanished as seriousness settled across her face. Her heart dropped into an abyss at the sight of Bun'ya leading the pursuit.
During her years undercover in Iwagakure she had learned who the village's overt experts were, and Bun'ya was one of them. Among Iwagakure's known strongmen he was a hulking presence, like a great bear, and likely ranked among their top fighters. He was exactly the sort of enemy Yakushi Nonō least wanted to meet.
Though she had a reputation as a legendary spy and was adept at medical ninjutsu, her combat prowess had slipped from its peak after years in hiding. She could still handle ordinary Jōnin by means and trickery, but not a master like Bun'ya.
This was a serious problem.
"Doctor Shiso."
"...Kurotsuchi?"
Yakushi Nonō froze, her attention locked on Bun'ya. She had not noticed the slender girl who had called her name. When Kurotsuchi shouted, Nonō finally registered her presence and the words slipped out instinctively: "What are you doing here?"
"I am an Iwa shinobi. Isn't it natural for me to be here?" Kurotsuchi restrained the urge to shout more aggressively and forced a calm voice as she pressed, "Doctor Shiso, who are you really? Were the things you told me lies?"
Yakushi Nonō remained silent.
She did not feel she had done anything wrong. As a Konoha shinobi, even if she had been coerced by Danzo into performing these distasteful tasks, she understood that if not her, someone else would have been used. For Konoha's peace, someone had to make sacrifices.
Still, when she looked at Kurotsuchi she could not help thinking of the orphanage children. That softness in her heart made it hard to harm this girl.
"Doctor Shiso, answer me. Who are you? They say you are Konoha's spy, some sort of walking shrine maiden. Is that true? Answer me, Sister Shiso!" Kurotsuchi's voice rose as Nonō remained silent.
Bun'ya chose to watch coldly. He did not take advantage of the moment to strike; instead he made a hand signal for his subordinates to spread out and form a net, encircling Yakushi Nonou.
They now held the absolute advantage. Bun'ya knew that killing her would be easy enough with their strength. The difficult task was capturing her alive. The Tsuchikage's orders were clear: whenever possible, prioritize taking the target alive.
A living spy was far more valuable than a cold corpse.
Even if secrets could be extracted from a corpse, the intelligence that could be recovered depended heavily on luck. With good fortune, one might pull out critical secrets; with bad luck, only trivial thoughts and memories would surface.
"…I am a shinobi of Konoha."
Looking at Kurotsuchi's familiar face, Yakushi Nonō felt a pang of sorrow. She had lived in Iwagakure for several years, and even though she knew perfectly well that she was a spy and should never form attachments within the village, she could never harden her heart when it came to children.
As soon as the words left her mouth, a helpless, bitter smile touched her lips. Her fondness for children was a weakness she had never been able to overcome.
"Why? Sister Shiso, I trusted you so much… why did you…"
"Because I am a shinobi of Konoha, Kurotsuchi. Just as you are a kunoichi of Iwagakure, all I can tell you is that I belong to Konoha. I came here to gather intelligence, to protect my village from your invasions. Don't ask why—this is the duty both you and I carry."
Yakushi Nonō drew in a deep breath, clearing her mind of hesitation and forcing herself to grow cold.
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