(Continuing chapter 95)
Mabui's Heavenly Transfer Technique had activated in a flash, and Kakashi, still wearing the kitsune mask streaked with blood and holding his bleeding arm, vanished from the battlefield. The air warped where he had stood, and the ripple of space snapped shut. He had been sent roughly a mile away toward Konoha territory, far enough to buy moments.
However, those moments were everything for them.
Yushiro still scoffed at Kaien, his irritation was poorly masked behind his arrogance. He looked at the boy who had just screamed in terror and muttered under his breath as if asking what could possibly justify such fear. To him, the battle is over and they have won. The taijutsu prodigy had fallen and the masked lightning user had been neutralized and hurled away. The threat seemed extinguished.
Sayami, however, had been watching Kaien carefully. She saw something in his eyes that did not resemble childish panic, it resembled he was under crushing dread of what was about to come.
"Let's go back to the boy and hear him out," Sayami said quietly.
They flickered through the trees and arrived where Darui stood beside Kaien, barely two hundred meters behind the former battlefield. What they saw unsettled them.
Darui was kneeling beside Kaien, one hand on his shoulder, speaking in a low, steady voice meant to reassure. Kaien's hands were clenched at his ears as if trying to block out a sound no one else could hear. His breathing was erratic, his pupils were dilated and unfocused, he seems to muttering something.
"Pathetic," Yushiro said reflexively, though that was not his intention. "Just a moment ago you were giving orders like a commander. Now you are squealing like a frightened child. Well, you are a child though. Do not worry... we took care of all the enemies. You do not need to cry anymore."
The words did not reach Kaien.
His mind was racing elsewhere. If Minato Namikaze arrived here, no formation present would survive. Not Renga, not Darui, not the Chinoike elites, not even himself. Without Killer Bee or Ay nearby or Granny Benihime present, this group would be annihilated.
He knew too much and indirectly did too much to konoha.
He knew he was the cause of Kushina's captivity and Hiruzen's death. He knew future events that should not exist in this timeline. If Minato discovered even a fraction of that knowledge, Kaien would not die quickly. Worse, if he were captured and handed to the Yamanaka clan, they would tear through his mind until every secret bled out.
All the knowledge that they are in some story called "Naruto", any and all events would be seen through him.
Yushiro stepped forward impatiently and grabbed Kaien by the shoulders, shaking him roughly. The jolt snapped Kaien back to the present like cold water thrown across his face.
Kaien looked up slowly.
Everyone was here and alive. He wiped the tears from the corner of his eyes, forced his breathing into rhythm, and spoke with terrifying resolution as if he was about to face death.
"I will be quick," Kaien said, voice steady despite the tremor in his chest. "The kunai that the kitsune boy used belongs to the Yellow Flash of Konoha. He can teleport directly to that kunai."
"Mabui-san," he continued, turning to her immediately, "your quick thinking bought us time. How far did you send him?"
Mabui, pale and drenched in sweat from chakra exhaustion, answered between breaths. "Approximately one mile. I could not send him farther as I am still not well versed in the technique."
Kaien nodded sharply. "It is not enough distance to guarantee safety. However, that boy will be critically injured. The Yellow Flash will not abandon his comrade. He may stop to stabilize him first, which should give us time but that is still not guaranteed."
Darui's expression hardened as realization hit him, he knew about Yellow flash but nothing about its powers.
"We need to split," Kaien said immediately. "We run in different directions. Whoever he finds first will die. There is no question of possibility they will DIE."
Silence settled over the group at imminent death they are about to face. "Run as if your life depends on it," Kaien finished quietly. "Because it does."
Yushiro felt shame crawl through him. Moments ago he had mocked this child, now that same child was calmly calculating who among them would be sacrificed to maximize survival probability.
Sayami felt a surge of reluctant respect. Samui, who had initially believed Kaien to be sheltered and strategically protected from true battlefield trauma, realized that he is just as them prepared to die.
Mabui remembered stories her father told of the "Little One's" wartime insights, finally understood why her father spoke of him with respect.
Kaien continued without hesitation.
"We cannot rely on transformation techniques. The Yellow Flash is a sensor, even if he does not know our faces, he may detect unusual chakra signatures and come to us. We must enter populated territory in Hot water immediately. Out running him is meaningless."
He pointed toward the distant settlement.
"We merge with civilians and maintain the same chakra flow as that region is already flooded with ninja it will not raise suspicion."
Yushiro asked quietly, "What about pursuit?"
Kaien answered instantly. "He cannot chase all of us and he doesn't know our chakra signatures. That is our only advantage."
They divided quickly.
Team A consisted of Yushiro, Kaien, and Darui.
Team B consisted of Sayami, Samui, and Mabui.
The group split into two separate directions through the dense border forest, heading toward the Land of Hot Water's outer villages. Their movements no longer synchronized like trained squads but staggered and irregular to overthrow Yellow Flash as they don't have time to clear up the mess of the battle and leaving behind obvious marks.
Kaien forced himself not to look back.
Behind them, a mile away, Minato Namikaze would soon arrive at a bloodstained student with a severed arm. If he traced the chakra correctly, he would know. This is still not enough.
Team A reached the outskirts of the village first. The village ahead bustled with steam rising from hot springs, traders moving goods, children running through muddy streets. The chaos was a blessing.
"Drop all your tense posture," Kaien ordered quietly. "Walk normally like you are going on a mission."
Yushiro, still armored in pride, forced his shoulders to relax and put down kaien who he had been carrying as he was slow.
They entered the village without drawing immediate attention.
Far to their left, Team B entered from another angle. Sayami removed visible blood traces. Samui concealed her weapons under a merchant's cloak stolen from an abandoned cart.
Kaien kept thinking. If Minato chose immediate pursuit over Kakashi's medical treatment, he would search for high-speed fleeing signatures. Therefore, they could not run openly beyond this point. If he chose Kakashi's treatment first, they perhaps had one to two minutes before he tracked them.
Yushiro leaned closer and whispered, "What if he senses us anyway?"
Kaien did not look at him when he answered. "We can only pray."
Darui glanced at the rooftops nervously. "What is the worst-case scenario?"
Kaien's jaw tightened. "If he arrives here and begins investigation, we must scatter individually."
Yushiro finally asked the question weighing on everyone. "And you? What if you are caught."
Kaien's voice was eerily calm. "It is possible, that kitsune boy should have heard my shout to retreat. So there is a possibility that the boy might pass on information about me as they would think I am of high level official based on my demeanor."
Is this the end? Is this where my streak finally stops?
Maybe I should have listened to Mother and stayed behind. Maybe I was never meant to stand on the front lines yet.
I'm sorry, Mother… Because this time, I might not come back.
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