Chapter 51 (C51)
A cool breeze wafted through the woods; the morning mist hadn't completely dissipated, like a thin veil soaked in water, hovering around the waists of the oak and birch trees. The sunlight was slanted, filtered by the higher branches and leaves into pale golden wisps, silently sprinkling onto the ground covered with moss and fallen leaves.
In the stillness, the silhouette of a stag cut into the beam of light.
Its hooves trod on the thick layer of decaying leaves, making an extremely soft, almost silent "rustling" sound. It stopped, its neck slightly raised, its moist black nose trembling slightly, as if sensing an unfamiliar presence, its eyes filled with alertness.
But soon, it recognized another familiar scent, and finally, as if confirming that this land had not been invaded, it took a few long, slender but powerful steps and silently disappeared into the deeper shadows of the trees.
A person emerged from the shadows of the woods.
"What's the rush?" Kana glanced around and wondered why he would risk being held accountable by the Fifth Hokage to send a signal to intercept her midway. He had even brought her to the Nara clan's dense forest to avoid being seen.
"Neji..." Shikatori's half-body was still hidden in the thick shadows of the trees, making it impossible for Kana to see his expression.
The voice, seemingly strained to seep from a crack in the soul, said, "...couldn't come back."
In that instant, Tsunade's strange command, Izumo's forced smile, and Kotetsu's constantly shifty eyes all became clear.
Why are you telling me this?
There was no trembling, no sobbing; her tone was as flat as an endless gray horizon, as if the person's death had nothing to do with her.
Shikatoshi's heart sank even deeper and colder in an instant.
This is the worst possible outcome.
More furious than anger, more desperate than despair.
"Because the Kana I know would rather suffer than be deceived."
Shikatori understood that the Fifth Boss was worried that she would be blinded by hatred and rashly go to her death, and even more afraid that she would repeat the mistakes of those who sought revenge, becoming so lost after killing her enemies that she lost all reason to live.
However, emotions that are not allowed to be vented will never disappear; they are simply swallowed alive, find a new habitat in the body, and continue to exist in a more stubborn way.
Either it will burst out of the body in a more grotesque way one day, or it will devour the entire person from the inside out.
As a pillar of the intelligence analysis organization in the dark side, Shikatoshi is skilled at extracting seemingly insignificant clues from massive amounts of information, building a framework for them, and deducing the possibility that is closest to the truth.
“Based on the traces found at the scene, Neji and his group encountered more than one small team.” Akatsuki usually teams up in pairs, and the Anbu has always kept intelligence files on them. “This is my guess, the person most likely to have attacked them at the time.”
“It’s against the rules to access the secret service files without authorization.” Kana did not take the scroll of documents.
“Strictly speaking, this is copied from my head.” He made an unsuccessful joke, because even he couldn’t come up with a laugh.
Kana still didn't answer.
But it doesn't matter; he remembers all the ninjutsu those people have shown and their potential weaknesses.
Shikato glanced southwest in the dense forest, fully able to imagine the chaos and turmoil within the Hokage's headquarters. "Our time is running out."
us?
She took half a step back, creating some distance between them. "This is my business. It's none of your concern."
“They killed the people who mattered to you,” he said, fed up with the perpetual arm’s length distance between them. He leaned in, their intertwined shadows swallowing the distance, gripping her hand tightly. “They also killed the family of the people who mattered to me. How can you say I have nothing to do with it?!”
You don't need to do that.
"You think I'd let you go alone?!" A brutal force tightened in his abdomen, surged upwards, violently forced open his clenched teeth, and tore apart his vocal cords. It wasn't words; it was more like the roar of a long-imprisoned beast, a mixture of pain and rage as it was released from its cage.
"As minister, I order you to go back."
"Then I'll resign from the department."
He didn't join the Anbu for any grand or glorious reason, like protecting Konoha.
His gaze was intense, and deep within his pupils surged an almost pleading persistence. Shikaku tried to find a crack, a trace of wavering, in her calm eyes, but all he found was his own reflection—a shadow that looked somewhat disheveled from exertion.
He saw Kana frown slightly, and perhaps let out a barely audible sigh.
"Shikatori."
Shikato was prepared for all rejections and determined to go with her—even if it meant death, dying together was better than being left alone.
He would never be fooled by any of her words.
The wind blew through the gaps in the trees, lifting a few stray strands of hair from her cheek.
Without warning, she leaned in close to his ear, her warm breath brushing against it like a feather. The delicate scent of iris filled the air, lingering around his nose.
Thank you.
Shikatori's eyes widened as the fragments of memory connected to [Hyuga Kana] fluttered erratically like pieces of paper caught in a whirlwind. He tried to reach out and grab them, but they slipped through his fingers like water.
Don't go.
—Don't leave me.
The two intertwined consciousnesses gradually dimmed, along with the shadows that stretched out from beneath his feet as if trying to hold onto something, disappearing into the quiet, vast chaos.
In the last moment before losing consciousness, Shikatori vaguely heard a soft, dreamlike promise.
—I promise you, I won't die like this.
.
Tsunade did not wait for Kana.
Genma brought Shikatori, who had been under a spell and was unconscious, back from the deer forest in Nara.
Rather than holding him accountable for leaking information, what's more important now is, "How many people did you give information to Kana?"
“Four.” Shikatori rubbed his still-dizzy head. The intelligence scroll in his backpack had already been taken away. “Sasori, Deidara, Kakuzu, Hidan.”
The traces and chakra left at the scene only confirm that they belonged to Deidara and Kakuzu, but the Akatsuki's team members are always fixed, meaning that Sasori and Hidan were also likely present. From another perspective, if they were seeking revenge, they would inevitably face the other two, so additional intelligence is also necessary.
Tsunade frowned when she heard the first two names. Why these two people? Why these two people that Kakashi and the others were chasing? Naruto still doesn't know about Neji.
She recalled the message from Jiraiya: Naruto's Nine-Tails seal had been loosened, and if it got out of control, Naruto would become a vessel to bear the Nine-Tails' resentment.
"Summon Tianzang."
“I’ll go too.” Shikatori stood up, supporting himself.
"You've been poisoned; your chakra won't function properly for the next two days."
“But you can resolve it.” The hand gripping the corner of the table was so tight that the veins on the back of the hand bulged, betraying the calm that the owner did not show on his face at this moment.
Tsunade scoffed, "Even I would need some time to study the new poison that your department head has developed."
She glanced at him. "I don't have time for that."
Tsunade was telling the truth. As the Hokage, facing imminent threats and political struggles from various factions, she had no time to waste on an ordinary Jonin.
Moreover, Kana, while performing illusion magic, also gave him a poison that only restricted his chakra for two days without harming his body. Her meaning was quite clear—she didn't want Nara Shikatori to get involved in this matter.
"If you believe she will come back, then hold this position for her."
Tsunade reached out and stopped Shikatori from finishing his sentence. The Nara family members were clever; they wouldn't budge unless she listened.
If the advisory group, which has been hoping to replace Kana with a formal head of the Dark Division, finds out about her actions, she might even be accused of "betraying the village."
"I believe she will come back, so I want you to guard the Dark Guard for her."
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