Two hours into the sector sweep, Sukuna had already reached his limit for the day, and they hadn't even found anything yet.
"You're doing that on purpose," Kiyomi said, for what felt like the fifth time, glaring at Neji's back as he moved a few paces ahead of them.
"Doing what," Neji said, not bothering to turn around. "Walking correctly? Something you clearly struggle with?"
"Walking like your opinion matters."
"It does. Considerably more than yours."
"Both of you," Sukuna said, flatly, not even bothering to raise his voice anymore. "Shut up. We're trying to track enemy movement, not announce our position to every Kumo scout within three miles."
That earned him a brief, blessed silence, which lasted almost ten full minutes before Kiyomi broke it again with a comment about Neji's footwork being loud enough to wake the dead, which Neji answered with something about her existing at all being louder than any footstep could manage.
Sukuna tuned most of it out, his focus narrowed instead on the terrain, on the subtle disturbances in the undergrowth that most people would have walked straight past without a second glance.
Unlike the two of them, he was quite used to tracking from his bounty-seeking days. He had made quite a bit of money by going after bounties in his free time, using Kamui to get in and out of the village whenever he pleased. However, if there was one thing he had benefited from even more than that, then it had to be the diverse shinobi skillset he developed, which could only be earned in the field and not on the training grounds.
So when he saw it, his Sharingan found the trace near the shallow creek bed almost instantly — broken twigs, a faint boot impression pressed into softened mud, disturbed leaf litter arranged just slightly too deliberately to be natural.
"Quiet," he said, and this time both of them actually listened.
He crouched, studying the trail more carefully. Four sets of prints, so faint that he doubted it would have been possible to even notice them without a Dōjutsu or a Ninken's nose. They were moving in a loose diamond formation, boots consistent with Kumo standard-issue gear. How he knew that was because he had studied the gear of the Raikage and his small party after killing them. This was Kumo-style movement and gear; he was sure of it.
And they were recent. Within the last hour, judging by how slowly the mud had started reclaiming the impressions.
"Kumo scouts," he said. "Four of them, moving northeast. We follow, quietly, until we have a clean read on their position."
Neji's Byakugan flared to life without needing to be told twice, veins bulging faintly at his temples as his vision extended outward. By now, he had become as good as the original Neji at using his Byakugan.
"I have them," he said after a moment, his tone dropping into something far more focused than his usual condescension. "Half a mile out. Moving in formation, weapons ready. Standard patrol spacing."
"Numbers match the tracks?" Sukuna asked.
"Four. Confirmed."
Kiyomi's Sharingan spun to life as well, three tomoe settling into place, her posture shifting from irritation into something considerably more predatory. "I can set something up ahead of their path. Give us the advantage before they even know we're here. Though I'd rather just face them head-on if we can give up on being ninja for a minute or two."
Neji scoffed. "You still need a minute for trash like them. I can handle them in seconds."
Kiyomi's eyes glared, a retort and a comeback already on her mouth when Sukuna slightly flared his cursed energy to remind them that this wasn't the time to bicker, especially when they had a mission to do.
He turned to Kiyomi and stated, "Do it," Sukuna said.
She moved without further comment, cursed energy flooding into the ground around a narrow stretch of trail the Kumo team's current heading would carry them directly through. Wire threaded itself through the underbrush at ankle height, nearly invisible in the low light, anchored to a handful of constructed spikes angled to trigger the moment tension broke. Too refined and far more inefficient, not to mention boring by her current standards; however, as a ninja, this was still a better approach than going head-to-head against the enemy.
"Positions," Sukuna said once she'd finished, and the three of them split without argument for the first time all day.
For what it's worth, Sukuna could have handled the entire thing by himself; it really might have taken him seconds. He only didn't act alone since the fight would have been too boring for him to act. A single flick from his finger would end the match. What fun was there in that?
Instead, he'd rather have the other two fight and observe them. And he didn't even have to explain it to them; they understood hierarchy far better due to either being born in a powerful clan or having seen an ancient era which revolved around hierarchy.
The Kumo scouts walked directly into the trap four minutes later.
The lead shinobi hit the wire first, and the trap did exactly what it was built to do — spikes driving up from concealed angles, catching him across the thigh before he even registered the trigger. He went down with a sharp cry, and that single sound was all the opening the rest of the ambush needed.
Neji moved first, closing the distance in a blur of Projection Sorcery layered under Gentle Fist footwork, appearing directly in the second scout's blind spot before the man had time to draw a weapon or even register that the enemy was upon him. Two precise strikes, tenketsu sealed with surgical accuracy, and the scout collapsed mid-motion, his chakra network shut down before he understood what had hit him.
"Huh... boring," Neji muttered, already turning toward the third target.
The third scout had better instincts, spinning to meet the threat with a kunai raised — directly into a length of wire Kiyomi yanked taut from her position in the treeline, the blade catching and redirecting just enough for her to close the gap herself, a constructed blade forming in her free hand mid-sprint. She drove it through his shoulder with brutal efficiency, not lethal, simply disabling him, and followed with a knee that put him flat on his back, gasping.
"On that, even I can't argue..." she echoed back at Neji, mockingly. "Hey, darling... can't we do something more fun than this? Why don't we go to the Kumo front-line camp and kill some of this useless trash? At least it would be a better pastime."
The fourth scout, the only one still upright and armed, heard this and panicked. He was just a normal chūnin; he couldn't control himself when all of his party members were down before he even realized what was happening, and thus he made the mistake of trying to retreat toward open ground.
Sukuna was already there.
He didn't bother with anything elaborate. No Shrine, no cutting techniques worth the name, nothing that would leave a mess someone would need to explain later. Just speed and close-quarters skill, closing the distance before the scout's retreat had covered ten feet, a single strike to the side of the neck dropping him instantly. He killed him, but didn't use even an ounce of cursed energy.
The whole engagement had taken under a minute.
Sukuna surveyed the aftermath — three scouts down hard. Two killed by Kiyomi, one by himself, and the only one alive was the one Neji used Gentle Fist on.
"Now what?" Kiyomi asked.
"Now we wait..."
"Wait? For what?"
"You'll know. Just wait."
Kiyomi grumbled, but being the fangirl she was, she obediently waited.
Neji, meanwhile, crouched over one of the unconscious scouts, checking vitals with the same clinical detachment he brought to everything.
"You sure we need this one alive?"
"Yes... just wait until he wakes up."
"And the dead bodies?"
"Prop them up. I have something I wish to test."
That drew both curious and confused glances from them, but they did what he asked nonetheless.
They dragged the surviving scout to a clearing a short distance off the trail, propping him against a tree while he blinked back into full consciousness, pain and fear both plainly visible once he registered exactly who was standing over him.
"Talk," Sukuna said, crouching to his level, his voice level and utterly without warmth. "Troop numbers. Scouting routes. Supply lines. Command structure. Whatever you know."
"I don't—" the scout started, and Neji's Byakugan flared pointedly in his direction, the silent threat more than enough to finish that sentence for him.
"Wrong answer," Kiyomi said, twirling a constructed blade between her fingers with entirely too much enjoyment.
The scout swallowed hard, his resolve crumbling fast in the face of three shinobi who very clearly outmatched him in every conceivable way.
Still, he tried to keep his mouth shut.
"Should we kill him?" Kiyomi asked in annoyance.
"There are other ways to make him talk... after that, if you wish, you can kill him," he said, looking right into the shinobi's eyes.
Sharingan Genjutsu flared up inside the mind of the Kumo shinobi as he lost all will to fight almost instantly.
"Border force is larger than standard patrol numbers suggest," he said quickly. "We're not just scouting. Command's been mapping choke points along three separate approach routes. Supply caravans have already been moving up for the better part of a week. That's all I know."
He let the man go, still under Sukuna's genjutsu. He fell straight down to the ground while Sukuna thought...
"That's not a probing patrol's mission profile," Sukuna said, eyes narrowing. "That's staging."
Sukuna exchanged a brief look with both Neji and Kiyomi. Both had the same face, saying, 'Let's go and have some fun...'
"We might as well see what Kumo is up to..."
And that brought a grin to both of their faces, though neither of them would agree, but this kind of ninja work was so very boring for front-line fighters like them. And that was the ideology they always had: why should the strong bow and hide like the weak?
"However... as I said, I have something to observe with those dead bodies... so we'll wait until then."
That earned him annoyed grunts from both of them. They were more in sync than they would ever agree upon until they died.
"And what about this one?" Kiyomi pointed at the downed chūnin.
"Kill him if you want..." Sukuna shrugged, earning a grin from the girl. However, that grin turned into confusion when Sukuna asked....
"Do it, however, only use your cursed energy to do it. I have something to test..."
xXx
A/N: Why even bother playing ninja when he can pretty much go and slaughter anything on his sight, yes its very much understandable. I too can see that. But there is no need. And I guess that is the entire change which separates him from original Ryomen Sukuna, besides him being actually kind.
He try to achieve things rarely by pure force, instead, he rather see if other more softer and more tactical methods might work which save him both energy and exposure.
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