After obtaining the method to train with Multiple Shadow Clones, Rorin practiced for quite a while. His current limit was 360 Shadow Clones—though it couldn't compare to Naruto's numbers, it was already more than enough. Every day, Rorin would create 24 Shadow Clones and divide the audio files from Chōjūrō—recorded the day before—into 24 segments, assigning each clone an hour to analyze in hopes of extracting useful information.
After returning to the Hidden Leaf Village, Rorin also learned that Uzumaki Naruto had already left with Jiraiya to train. Honestly, he felt a bit regretful—after arriving in the Hidden Leaf Village, he hadn't even had the chance to get to know Naruto. The next time they met would probably be three years later.
After more than four months of intense training, Rorin could now open the sixth gate of the Eight Gates, the Gate of View. He was just one step away from opening the seventh gate, the Gate of Wonder. As for the eighth gate, he had no plans to train it for now—he had no interest in a taijutsu technique that required sacrificing his life.
It was also worth mentioning that the weight he carried had increased to 2000 kg. In addition to the 1000 kg of weights attached to his limbs, he had also asked Tenten's family and Might Guy to help craft a 1000 kg weighted vest.
After this period of training, Rorin was extremely satisfied with his taijutsu. His ninjutsu had also seen promising results. Building upon Kakashi's Lightning Cutter, he improved the Chidori, compensating for its weaknesses. To distinguish it from Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke, he gave the improved technique a new name.
Meanwhile, after completing the mission in the Land of Mountain Streams, Tsunade did not assign Rorin any further missions. However, as someone who understood gratitude, Rorin still occasionally took time to complete low-level tasks.
Everything was proceeding steadily, and just as Rorin was about to continue training the Eight Gates, a message from one of his Shadow Clones filled him with overwhelming joy.
Ao, who had been staying in the Village Hidden in the Mist for a long time, was finally leaving. The reason was that the Six-Tails jinchūriki, Utakata, had betrayed the village after killing his master. As one of the Hidden Mist's top sensory ninja, Ao had joined the pursuit mission.
Upon receiving this news, Rorin immediately went to the mission office to process the paperwork to leave the village. After going through all the procedures, he was finally granted permission to depart.
Originally, he had planned to wait until he could open the Gate of Wonder before taking action. But recent developments made him anxious—if he missed this opportunity, who knew whether Ao would leave the Village Hidden in the Mist again?
So even without complete confidence, he had no choice but to set out.
After leaving the Hidden Leaf Village, Rorin headed toward the Village Hidden in the Mist. However, he soon ran into a problem—Chōjūrō was not involved in this mission. Instead, the Hidden Mist had dispatched an ANBU squad to accompany Ao in tracking down Utakata.
This meant Rorin had lost track of their movements—it was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
When in doubt, ask the system!
"System, do you have any way to track Ao's location?"
[Host, since we previously scanned Byakugan data, this system can locate Byakugan users.]
"Nice!"
A map immediately appeared before Rorin—visible only to him. A green dot represented his position, while the red dots marked Byakugan users. There were many red dots, but most were within the Hidden Leaf Village.
There were three red dots in or near the Land of Water, which made Rorin frown.
"System, can't you directly mark Ao's location? There are three spots—I can't tell which one is him. Wait, Ao has only one Byakugan, while the others should have two. Can you filter them out for me?"
[Sorry, Host. That is not possible.]
…Well, no choice but to check them one by one. Fortunately, there weren't many—one-third odds. With luck, he might hit the right one on the first try!
Without hesitation, Rorin selected the closest of the three red dots and dashed toward it.
...
Land of Water.
A squad of Hidden Mist ANBU ninja, wearing their masks, followed a middle-aged man with a black eyepatch over one eye and sealing tags hanging from his ears.
This man was Ao of the Hidden Mist.
At that moment, Ao was fully activating his Byakugan, searching for Utakata's whereabouts.
"Found him!" Ao exclaimed in delight—then immediately frowned.
Utakata was heading toward the Land of Fire. If a battle broke out there, it could attract the attention of the Hidden Leaf Village. After all, Utakata wasn't just any rogue ninja—he was a jinchūriki.
They had to capture him before he left the Land of Water.
After explaining the situation to the team, they increased their speed. But at that moment, Ao suddenly felt a sense of unease.
...
After a full day of travel, Rorin arrived near his target—but to his disappointment, it turned out to be a Hyūga clan ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village.
Without wasting time, he immediately headed toward the second location, silently praying for success.
Fortunately, the new direction wasn't far—just half a day's journey—and even better, the target was moving toward him.
After four hours of travel, Rorin noticed that the target had stopped moving and was now very close. Excitement surged within him—his instincts told him this time he had found the right one.
Ten minutes later, Rorin arrived at the scene. Seeing what lay ahead, he was thrilled.
In the distance, the Hidden Mist squad was engaged in a fierce battle with Utakata. Two members of the ANBU squad were already injured. The pursuit force consisted of six ANBU ninja along with Ao, making a team of seven.
Because the higher-ups had ordered them to capture Utakata alive, the task became far more difficult. Defeating him was already challenging—capturing him without killing him was even harder.
Meanwhile, to evade capture, Utakata had entered a partial tailed-beast transformation and was fighting in that state.
From within the battlefield, Ao detected Rorin's presence using his Byakugan. However, since Rorin had removed his Hidden Leaf forehead protector before setting out, Ao couldn't determine his identity.
"If he's not here to interfere, we'll leave him be. Otherwise… we'll deal with him as well," Ao muttered.
After informing his teammates, one of the Hidden Mist ANBU scoffed,
"Whoever he is, if he tries to interfere, kill him on the spot. But now's not the time to worry about some nobody—the priority is defeating Utakata and bringing him back."
The others nodded solemnly. Ao stopped paying attention to Rorin and focused fully on fighting Utakata.
Meanwhile, Rorin leaned against a tree, quietly observing the battle.
This was truly a golden opportunity—he could strike when both sides were weakened and seize Ao's Byakugan.