NOVEL NEXT Chapter 152: The Most Dangerous Game
"This beetle flies so slowly," Sakura complained. "At this rate, I'll be an old lady by the time we catch up with Neji…"
Sakura, Karin and Shino had been following the Bikōchū beetle through the forest surrounding the Hidden Leaf for a few hours already, but with the number of breaks the insect was taking, Sakura was beginning to wonder if this mission was even possible to complete.
"Please be patient with Bikō-chan," said Shino calmly. "Her metamorphosis into her adult form left her weakened, so she needs plenty of food and rest."
Rhinoceros beetles and scarabs weren't the fastest of flying insects to begin with, since they were basically the insect world's equivalent of a heavy tank. If only the Bikōchū hadn't been a beetle, but a dragonfly instead…
"Bikō-chan?" said Karin incredulously. "You gave it a name?"
Sakura rolled her eyes— this was going nowhere fast.
Bikō-chan the Bikōchū was leading them westwards as it followed the faint scent trail left behind by Neji's toes, which meant that Orochimaru wasn't behind Neji's seemingly random defection— the Land of Rice Paddies was directly to the north of the Land of Fire.
"It would appear that Neji is heading for the Land of Rain," said Shino impassively. "Bikō-chan won't be able to track him if his scent gets washed away…"
If possible, Sakura wanted nothing to do with that dreary place.
The Land of Rain had been taken over by the Akatsuki, a band of S-rank mercenaries and madmen. Their leader, Pain, cherished peace more than anything else in the world— and he didn't care how many shinobi, civilians, men, women and children he had to kill in order to achieve world peace!
"Couldn't we, like, you know, carry Bikō-chan for a while?" Sakura proposed. "We'll cover a few kilometres, and then we'll let her out of her cage to reacquire the scent trail so that we can correct our course."
"Onee-sama," Karin suddenly spoke up. "Two chakra signatures have just entered my sensing range. Twelve kilometres from here— bearing one o'clock— one Kage-level, and one Elite Jōnin-level. If the beetle continues west, we'll run straight into them."
Beyond your run-of-the-mill Genin, Chūnin and Jōnin titles, there was also the Kage-level unofficial classification adopted by sensor-nin; to communicate that an unknown enemy's threat level was on the level of a shinobi village's leader.
Naturally, one's chakra pool wasn't a perfect indicator of one's strength, but there was an indirect correlation between chakra levels and power levels— having potent stamina reserves meant that one could fire off powerful Jutsu more often, which correlated positively with one's ability to win fights.
Still, stamina wasn't everything.
While Sakura had Kage-level stamina reserves stored in her chest, she could at most be considered on the level of a Special Jōnin due to her Genjutsu proficiency. Kakashi, who was rather average when it came to chakra capacity, was considered an Elite Jōnin, thanks to his versatility, combat tactics, experience, Jutsu, etc.
"Shino," said Sakura decisively. "Put the bug back in its cage— we're going the long way around."
They were about a day's length of ninja running away from the Hidden Rain, but that was already way too close for comfort, in Sakura's opinion. There weren't many shinobi on the level of the Gokage, who were already known as the five strongest men and women on the continent, and the Akatsuki's members constituted a good portion of the world's Kage-level population, so there was a good chance that the mysterious pair were part of that mercenary group.
And so, the trio took a detour southward, giving the Bikōchū some well-deserved rest as they pretended to head towards the Land of Wind. Just a few minutes later, Karin gave the all-clear, meaning that they had successfully avoided the Akatsuki (?) members, but Sakura preferred not to take any chances.
"Okay, you can let the Bikōchū out of its cage," said Sakura, after having run for another ten minutes. "We've wasted enough time already."
"Go on, girl," said Shino, gently coaxing the beetle out of its plastic prison. "Show us the way…"
The Bikōchū lifted its armoured wing covers and lazily unfolded the translucent wings hidden beneath, before finally deigning to take flight. Amazingly, it had not lost Neji's scent, even though Sakura had taken it a bit off course.
"It looks like we're heading north-west," said Karin, squinting her eyes to gaze at the shiny bug flying into the sunset. "It doesn't seem like Neji's changed course…"
Sakura had a bad feeling about all this…
"We should be somewhere around here," said Shino, as he unfurled a map of the region and tapped their current location with his index. "The closest inhabited settlement in that direction is a small trading outpost, but according to the map, it's actually a cover for the black market…"
The Hidden Leaf Village was well aware of the existence of the many branches of the black market on the Land of Fire's territory, but the higher-ups knew better than to interfere with society's underbelly. If they had Leaf shinobi crush a black market outpost, two more would take its place, and then they'd have to track down their new locations all over again.
No, unless the black market's organisers committed something egregiously bad against the Leaf's interests, it was better to let the black market be and simply keep an eye on them. While it was true that the black market often indirectly aided and abetted the murders of many Leaf shinobi and Land of Fire V.I.P.'s by selling state secrets and by managing bounties, the black market's intel network also provided vital information on other countries' affairs and allowed the Leaf to put a price on their rivals' heads!
"The black market, huh?" Sakura asked nervously. "I suppose it would make sense for a defector to stop by to buy a few supplies before leaving the country…"
Sakura now had a terrible feeling about all this!
"I've identified Neji's chakra signature!" Karin suddenly shouted, as they were running towards the outpost. "The two chakra signatures that I sensed earlier are right next to him! They're all moulding chakra— it looks like they're about to fight!"