However, just as Kankuro led the Sand shinobi through the cleanup, tallying supplies that had not been crushed by the collapse…
Teizawa walked alone toward the canyon's southeast side, into a section of rocky ground that had remained relatively intact.
His pace was unhurried, like a moonlit stroll.
But the expression on his face was distinctly amused.
That Iwagakure jōnin's near-suicidal burst just now…
Teizawa had seen it perfectly clearly.
If you called it a dying man's struggle, that was not quite right.
It was more like…
"Too deliberate."
Teizawa murmured to himself, the corner of his mouth lifting into a faintly playful curve.
An experienced elite jōnin, cornered like that, should prioritize concealment and escape first.
Not make a spectacle of himself, loudly creating chaos.
That final move had practically been him shouting at someone:
"I'm here! Chase me!"
Unless…
His death was meant to cover something more important getting away.
Teizawa's gaze swept over the wrecked battlefield, his mind filtering information at speed…
The size of this Iwa strike team. Their tactical style.
And the faces of the few survivors who had crawled out of the rubble only to be cut down moments later…
Then he remembered a pair of long, shapely legs held tight together.
Meaning…
Kurotsuchi.
Onoki's granddaughter, Iwagakure's standout of the new generation.
The future "Leg Kage."
If she had been in this unit…
Then the jōnin who died to cover someone had only one possible target.
"Trading his life so she can slip out?"
Teizawa chuckled softly. "Loyal… and unbelievably naive."
He stopped, closed his eyes.
Chakra spread outward from his body in silence.
But it was not a normal sensory technique.
It was resonance with the surrounding magnetic field.
In Teizawa's perception, the world took on an entirely different shape:
Every stone carried a faint geomagnetic imprint. Every layer of earth recorded the most recent chakra disturbances that had passed through it.
Even the air still held ripples of magnetism left behind by exploding ninjutsu…
And then he "saw" it.
About three hundred meters to the southeast.
Fifteen meters below the surface.
A chakra signature, unusually active, moving slowly…
Like a startled marmot.
Digging east in a panic.
That chakra's waveform was distinctive.
Heavy with Iwa's particular density, but purer than an ordinary shinobi's…
"Found you."
Teizawa opened his eyes. In the moonlight, a cold glint flashed through his dark pupils.
He stopped strolling.
And headed straight for that direction.
…
At the same time.
Fifteen meters underground, inside a narrow tunnel carved in haste…
Kurotsuchi was fighting for her life.
She was curled into a burrow barely wide enough for one person.
Her hands formed seals without pause.
Chakra seeped from her palms, making the rock and soil ahead soften like butter, get pushed aside, then harden again behind her.
It was painstaking work that devoured chakra…
She had to maintain speed while controlling vibration and noise.
Adjust her direction at any moment to avoid dense, stubborn bedrock.
Sweat and sand caked her face. Her short, dark-brown hair stuck to her forehead and the side of her neck.
Her combat uniform was torn in several places.
Across her left shoulder ran a wound deep enough to show bone…
A flying rock had ripped it open during the collapse.
Every movement sent stabbing pain through her.
But she could not stop.
She could not even spare chakra to treat it.
Because every last thread of chakra was a precious chip she could spend on escaping.
"Damn it… damn it…"
She gritted her teeth, a strangled sound forced out of her throat.
Not sobbing.
The noise of anger and frustration being crushed too tightly inside her.
Her mind replayed the scene again and again…
Mountains flipping.
The world turning over.
Bunmatsu's final roar.
And that figure standing atop the ridge like a god or a demon…
Fear had wrapped around her completely.
She had grown up at the Third Tsuchikage's side.
She had seen Jinton: Genkai Hakuri no Jutsu (Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique) and the terror of matter being reduced to atoms.
She had seen Onoki fight outnumbered and still impose his will.
She had seen countless Iwa powerhouses.
But she had never felt anything like this.
It was not a gap of strength.
It was a dimension of existence.
Like an ant unable to understand why a human foot could crush its nest into nothing.
She could not understand it either.
How could someone toy with mountains as if they were props?
"That man… is terrifying…"
The words leaked out from between her teeth without permission.
She remembered Teizawa standing in the center of the camp.
He had known an ambush was waiting, and still looked completely at ease.
That amused look in his eyes when he glanced toward them…
Back then she had not understood what it meant.
Now she did.
He had never seen them as people.
Only as… toys.
"Monster."
Kurotsuchi cursed through clenched teeth.
Onoki had always felt "powerful and imposing."
Teizawa felt… unfathomable.
Then, suddenly, the tunnel ahead struck an unusually hard layer of rock.
Kurotsuchi's heart tightened.
She had no choice but to change angle, digging diagonally downward.
That tiny detour burned precious chakra.
And made her already overstrained nerves feel even closer to snapping.
"Bunmatsu…"
She pictured that scarred face.
The subtle nod he had given toward where she was hiding.
He had done it on purpose.
He had drawn every gaze in the most dramatic way possible.
Buying her even one more second of time.
"I'm getting out…"
Kurotsuchi's eyes went red. Her fingernails split from forcing seal after seal.
Blood mixed with chakra and soaked into the earth.
"I'm getting back… alive…"
And then, revenge.
That thought sprouted like poison weed inside her.
"Teizawa… Sunagakure's Kazekage…"
As she dug, she whispered curses so quiet they were almost nothing:
"Just you wait… I'll remember today's humiliation, Teizawa…"
"One day, I'll put you under my heel."
"I'll make you watch as Sunagakure is ground flat under Iwagakure's iron tread. I'll make you taste a despair a hundred times deeper than mine today…"
The threats came easier and easier.
As if saying them out loud could push away the cold knot of terror.
But the moment she paused to catch her breath…
A chill crawled up her spine, like something dreadful was staring straight at her.
Was it her imagination?
Or…
She jerked her head once, shaking off the omen.
Then wrung out what little chakra she had left.
"Doton: Iwa Senryū (Earth Release: Rock Diving Current)!"
Chakra surged, the soil ahead softening again.
Kurotsuchi moved like a wounded worm.
Dragging herself deeper, farther, forcing her way through the earth.
She did not know…
That directly above her, twelve meters up on the surface,
Teizawa was standing atop what looked like an ordinary pile of broken stone.
Looking down at the tiny flicker of light underground that was fleeing for its life.
His face held a cold smile that was almost pity.
"Dig."
He spoke softly, like he was enjoying a performance.
"Let me see how far you can run."
(End of Chapter)
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