Chapter 16: 14: Flares that Scatter Sparks

The sun began to peek out from behind the heavy cloud cover, but it was still very dim in the wilderness by the roadside. In the cover of these shadows, Kana made a ragged sight as she darted among the treetops, her cloak stained with mud, ash, and blood.

Given how mismatched her gear was, she looked more akin to a scavenger or a refugee than a shinobi. It was the truth even, for she had scavenged everything she wore, whether from Mt. Shumisen or from corpses. She may know some ninjutsu, but did that make one a shinobi? Did killing make you a soldier?
Regardless though, this appearance could work out to be an advantage.

In Kana's wily estimation, it was better to be underestimated as a helpless refugee or dingy scavenger rather than be recognized as someone able to single-handedly fight and kill four armed men.

Kana didn't believe she was all that clever, but she could at least try to turn as many things to her advantage as possible. To use all she had to her best ability.

Her situation called for decisiveness as well, but decisions were not coming easily. In the end, Kana resolved to think on her feet, to keep her wits about her and respond as the situation changed.

For now, she wanted to get away from the battlegrounds of the ruined inn as soon as possible. Given the smoke on the southern horizon, it seemed counterintuitive, but it appeared that the forefront of conflict was soon to be in the north. And there was no telling who would show up.

Her current course therefore took her backtracking towards the south, nearing the intersection where she'd first encountered the main road.

Consulting with the war documents she'd pilfered had revealed more insight about her recent battle. She now roughly knew of troop locations and patrol routes all over the border region between Ame, Kusa, and Iwa. And if the annotation marks were to be believed, Iwa planned to surreptitiously scorch everything around. Ostensibly to drive Kusa shinobi out of the region and remove a faction from the fight.

If there was nothing and no one to defend, then why station troops this far south? It would be better to protect the major villages and cities in the north of Kusagakure instead. Theoretically it seemed, anyway.

The brutality was frankly appalling, but it wasn't out of proportion with what she'd seen already. It was either cold cunning or pure insanity. Or perhaps, a bit of both. Regardless, Kana endeavored to keep a calm head. Panicking would do no good.

Kana wasn't sure what to believe, save that numerous combatants were currently to her immediate south and planned on heading northward. That, and the fact that several locations had been crossed out... led her to believe these plans were already in motion.

It was purely intuitive speculation, but the maps had detailed many targets of interest along Ame's border with Kusa. Kana wanted to avoid them all, if possible. If the combatants weren't interested in assaulting those targets, then why would they bother gathering the info?

Combine that with what she'd overheard eavesdropping, and it painted a pretty grim picture.

If she had it right, anyone alive in this region was slated to be killed in cold blood, death and utter destruction wrought upon all. And that made Kana feel very... strange.

The maps also made it clear that Iwa's troops were stationed to the west and were headed north, whereas Ame and Konoha had forces to the south and east respectively. She could hardly have chosen a worse place to end up, trapped between all three.

And thus Kana was faced with her main dilemma. Where to go?

Soon enough, she had arrived back at the intersection. Now was the time to choose.

Returning to Mt. Shumisen would be way too dangerous at this point, even if she took an oblique route. Iwa shinobi would be crawling all over the mountain range by now. It was somewhat regretful, but ultimately Kana's goals would take her away from that temple and indeed outside of this whole region anyway. She was not here to get bogged down in the fights of others. She barely had time anymore to figure out what she was here for.

New developments required her to constantly reassess her priorities, yet again. Everything was so chaotic out here, it almost made her yearn for isolation again. Kana would have to... meditate on those feelings, sooner or later.

Still, this chaos presented a multitude of opportunities, though few seemed promising.

Once again Kana was struggling for lack of information.

Without what she'd gleaned from the scrolls and maps, she would be totally in the dark. She could hardly say it would be better to remain ignorant of the danger she was in, but having only limited knowledge was frustratingly stressful.

It was like being faced with a locked door, and then given a picture of the key she needed. Rather than fortune smiling upon her, finding that scroll was more like fortune baring its fangs at her. 'Good luck finding the way out!' her fortunes seemed to say.

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Clearing her head of the fruitless thoughts, Kana's lips curled into a grimace. She needed practical action.

Somehow, at some point, she would have to get past at least one of the shinobi frontlines. Then would come fleeing as far from the battlefield as possible, hopefully to a nation at peace.

Fortunately, a variety of ninjutsu and powerful kekkei genkai were at her disposal now, and she was well equipped to diversify her skills and abilities. If she could muster the time to practice, she might even be able to pull off some sort of disguising jutsu.

With that and some careful planning, Kana could hopefully slip right past border guards undetected.

Should all else fail, Kana was confident she could at least put up a decent fight. If the enemy she encountered was sufficiently weak, it might honestly be better to just break through with force. Hiding her identity with the mask too, it might—

Slight rumblings shook the ground, causing her to glance up.

It seemed a battle had broken out nearby, perhaps somewhere northwest? Her rather sharp hearing detected a lot of rustling and bird calls echoing from that direction. Some of the marked targets on her maps were over that way, too.

She really couldn't afford to delay much longer.

Trying to break through dozens of kilometers of Iwa-patrolled territory ruled out the option of heading west. And those forces were heading north by the second, so heading north was now out as well. If she hadn't obtained those scroll, Kana would doubtless have run into even more battles by continuing northward. Or been ambushed on her return to Mt. Shumisen.

Kana shuddered at even considering the thought, but she held herself together nonetheless. She was glad to have such firm willpower in times like these.

The options now were down to south and east. Going too far south would bring her to Amegakure, which was probably the worst possible place to be, at the center of the war.

That left east, potentially into the Konoha's territory, one of the major combatants. Kana was apprehensive at best about the idea, but thanks to the larger map brought from Mt. Shumisen she knew of other nations further to the east that were presumably not involved in the war. It was at least something, a target destination to aim for.

And Kana would rather aim high at the moment, hoping for the best.

Also, even if she'd had a relatively safe way to head west, the only nations that lie in that direction were Suna and Iwa, both major combatants. So Kana supposed the that best option really was to head through the Land of Fire, and perforce the Konoha shinobi guarding its borders.

The only problem was, there weren't any good routes leading east unless she went even further north or south. Sticking to roads might be dangerous, but roads were no doubt the fastest method at her disposal. And speed was going to be a decisive factor in her predicament. Forces and the favor of battle was constantly shifting around her.

Kana didn't fancy her luck enough to try her hand in safely navigating hundreds of kilometers of wilderness either. It might be possible, but carried untold risks of its own.

At the moment, the best route looked to be a detour south-southeast to at least approach the road routes into the Land of Fire. With any luck, most of the shinobi that might've gotten in her way had already moved on.

Kana would have to see the situation with her own eyes to plan any further... even then, things don't always go according to plan.

A silent sigh warped her body. She needed, had to be ready for anything.

With that in mind, she straightened her shoulders and flickered away.