Chapter 88: Chapter 88: Searching for the missing duo

To read up to 15 chapters ahead: https://www.patréon.com/SlyOW

-------------

[Shisui's POV]

After separating from Sukaina, I quickly sped towards the mountains.

A part of me couldn't help but worry about Sukaina, even though I knew that if someone could do her mission, then it was her.

After all, as the one who trained her, I was perfectly aware of how perverse her abilities could be. I remember that back when we first started, she tried to copy some of my techniques, including the unique way I used the Body Flicker.

I had told her it was impossible to replicate, that I could only barely follow my own movements thanks to my Sharingan and experience, but she continued trying nonetheless.

And that girl actually took less than a year of training to actually manage to master the technique, now able to pull it off every time.

It seemed that everytime she put her mind onto something, she somehow manages to get it done. So I did my best to ignore the danger she was putting herself in, focusing on Itachi instead.

I started sweeping through the mountains, going as fast as I could, ignoring my rapidly depleting chakra.

This was a race, not a marathon. Although Sukaina said I had three days, unexpected things were bound to happen, so I would rather find Itachi as fast as possible, rather than use all three days and end up finding the fortress destroyed.

Unfortunately, by the time my chakra reserves started getting dangerously low, I still hadn't found any trace of Itachi and Cat.

A few hours later, and my chakra back to full, I continued my search. However, it was getting hard to locate myself between the mountains, they all looked the same to me. Moreover, with each passing second, the worry of Itachi and Cat simply not being able to locate me grew, gnawing on my mind.

So I did not know who to thank for other than luck as after slightly more than a day and a half of searching through those damned mountains, I finally picked up on some tracks. I followed them for a while, until I found myself in front of a cave.

What worried me though, was what I saw at the entrance of the cave. Several bodies, some cut in half, were strewn all over the ground, with one of them even smashed into the rocks.

Those corpses were all Kumo ninjas, meaning I had probably found my target. I cautiously stepped into the cave, and as I moved deeper into it I found more bodies.

More surprisingly though, was the body of not a man, but a giant bear. Most probably a strong chakra beast, seeing the number of men it had taken to kill it. It also explained the ferocity of the kills in front of the cave.

And behind the large bear's corpse, were two people. Itachi and Cat, or should I say Yugao. They both looked unconscious, and pale, so I sped to their side, and was relieved to find them both breathing, although faintly.

I quickly looked at their injuries, and although things did not look very good, at least I somewhat knew what happened, and that they should live if brought to medical attention soon enough.

Itachi was the more injured of the two, with a deep gash in his chest that revealed his cracked rib cage, as well as his lungs. The wound was cauterized too, most certainly by the one who attacked, the Raikage. He had also obviously received some medical attention, his lungs looked like they had been pierced through by his broken ribs during the fight, but it had been taken care of by Yugao.

As for Yugao, her injuries were lesser. She had many cuts, and burns, as well as quite a few bruises and probably some broken bones.

All in all, if I don't hurry up, both will die, although Itachi quicker than Yugao. Even if I bring them, their survival is not assured. With the incoming battle many medics may die, and by the time others come as reinforcements it may be too late…

"P-Pills."

I whipped my head towards Yugao, whose eyes I found to be barely open as she worded out a word. I quickly searched through her bag and found five pills. Soldier Pills.

They were highly concentrated nutrients and all kinds of things I couldn't pin point out, but what I knew was that it replenished chakra, and helped the body go on for a little longer.

You are reading story Naruto: Tango with Death at novel35.com

I quickly fed them both a pill each, and saw Itachi's complexion turn somewhat better, although he remained unconscious. However, Yugao was now fully awake, and getting on her feet.

After a painful grunt, Yugao asked, "Any medics?"

I shook my head and replied, "It's war. We need to hurry back to the Arehateta Fortress. Only there will we find medics."

Yugao frowned and said, "Kumo started a war?"

I replied, "Kumo, Iwa and Suna. Kiri would have, if our little owl hadn't stopped that."

Yugao's hand glowed green as she lightly healed some of her wounds, while saying, "Kumo isn't any weaker than us. How are we defending against them and two other nations?"

I shrugged and replied, "War has only started, we've yet to see how it will go on. But in any case, we need to go back to the Arehateta Fortress, preferably before Kumo assaults it. I don't fancy our chances to regain the Land of Fire if the Fortress is lost."

Yugao frowned and asked, "When will it be attacked?"

I pulled Itachi to my shoulder, and said, "If they haven't been slowed down? The Fortress is already down. If they were slowed down… then we should still have some time."

Yugao stretched her legs as she asked, "How many men were sent to slow them down? And how many are in that army?"

I sighed and replied, "One owl against 5000 men."

Yugao froze, before saying, "You're joking."

I replied, "Out of her own initiative, if you must ask. So let's hurry."

Yugao was frowning, but after a moment of silence she decided not to say anything. It wouldn't really matter anyway, what was done was done, and wasting time would only be ruining Sukaina's efforts.

And so with Itachi on my back, and Yugao following behind me, we left for the Arehateta Fortress. Thankfully, we weren't too far from the fortress itself, so even though Yugao was injured and slowed down, it would only take us a couple of hours to get to the Fortress.

However, neither of us expected what we would see. I found the two in the Land of Lightning, so we had to cross the entire Land of Frost to get to the Fortress. This was only a matter of an hour, the land was small, but to go as fast as possible, we had to pass by the Hidden Village, as well as the only forest in the land.

And the forest… had a surprise, to say the least. We were greeted by a vision of horror as even a battle hardened Yugao and I stopped, in awe and shock.

The forest itself had been ravaged by a large battle. But what remained of the forest was terrifying. Each tree had several people hung to them by metal wires, which cut deep into their flesh, bleeding them out.

Even as we entered, we heard some low, painful moans, meaning some of them were still not dead. And for those who weren't hung to the trees, they laid on the ground, with most of the corpses looking like they had exploded apart.

There was more red than green and brown in this forest, for it had been painted in blood. And all the blood belonged to a single force, the Land of Lightning.

What was worrying though, was a huge crater at the end of the forest, one too big to have been made by any regular jutsu. I had only seen this level of devastation once in the past, and it was when the Kyuubi attacked the village.

We couldn't stay in this forest for long though, so we quickly sped toward the Fortress, and as we passed by the Hidden Village I realized that Sukaina had done her job, although I didn't know of her fate. That is because I could see Kumo's army was still in the Hidden Village.

So it was without a hitch that we reached the Arehateta Fortress, although Sukaina's well being plagued my mind.

You can find story with these keywords: Naruto: Tango with Death, Read Naruto: Tango with Death, Naruto: Tango with Death novel, Naruto: Tango with Death book, Naruto: Tango with Death story, Naruto: Tango with Death full, Naruto: Tango with Death Latest Chapter