Fujin was surprised by the information. He wondered, 'Hidan is in the Land of Frost? Makes sense that he escaped there, but why is he fighting Kumo ninjas? Is that crazy guy trying to sacrifice everyone he meets? He isn't that crazy, right?'
Tokuhei said, "I will leave some men here to complete the work here and lead the remaining forces to hunt him down. What will you be doing?"
Fujin acted like he was thinking for a few seconds and answered, "Well, our mission statement also included hunting him down if we meet him. Give me the location, we will move ahead first."
Tokuhei nodded and informed Fujin about the location where Hidan and Kumogakure ninjas fought. Fujin's squad left immediately. A few minutes later, Tokuhei also followed them with 3 squads.
Around the same time, in Shimogakure, 2 squads stood in front of a person. He looked at them and informed them about the fight between Hidan and Kumo.
He instructed, "Considering that the rogue ninja was winning, it is safe to say that Kumogakure will take some actions to eliminate him. From reports, he seems to have killed many Yugakure ninjas as well. So they might cooperate with Kumo ninjas to eliminate him.
You don't need to fight him. In fact, if you do meet him, escape without fighting. If you meet Kumo or Yugakure ninjas, feel free to help them out with intelligence, but don't fight for them. Just observe what happens with the rogue ninja and try to ensure the safety of common people if you can without risking your life."
The leader of the 2 squads nodded his head. He and the remaining ninjas left Shimogakure and moved towards the location of the fight. They didn't want to get involved, but since the fighting was happening in their country, they had the responsibility of monitoring the battle and ensuring that commoners didn't become needless casualties once again.
As a result, the forces from four villages, that is, Konohagakure, Kumogakure, Shimogakure and Yugakure, began moving to find Hidan in the Land of Frost. Kumogakure were unaware of the movements of the other forces, while Fujin and Tokuhei were the most clear about which villages would be involved. However, even they weren't aware of another force that was about to get involved.
In the Land of Rain, a white & black figure appeared from the ground and looked at Nagato's Deva Path and Konan! Black Zetsu said, "I have found an interesting person. I believe he will be the perfect partner for Kakuzu."
Nagato and Konan were surprised. Konan asked, "You mean you found someone stronger than Kakuzu? Who is it?"
White Zetsu answered, "It is a rogue ninja from Yugakure. He killed 18 ninjas and went rogue a few weeks ago. We saw him fighting Kumogakure Jounins a few hours ago. He isn't stronger than Kakuzu, but it looks like his body is immortal."
His words surprised the two. Nagato asked, "What do you mean by Immortal?"
Black Zetsu answered, "He can't be killed by physical injuries. In his fight against Kumo, his heart was stabbed several times. At times, he did it himself. Yet, he kept moving around and fighting as if nothing was wrong. Elemental jutsus doesn't seem to have much effect on him either. His offensive abilities are very peculiar as well."
Zetsu informed the two about what they had witnessed during the battle. Konan was quite surprised and impressed by Hidan's abilities. Nagato said, "Alright, let's recruit him. Konan, I will leave this matter to you. Take Kakuzu and Itachi with you to test and recruit him."
Konan nodded. She was about to leave when White Zetsu said, "You should hurry up. Darui from Kumogakure was close to where the fight happened. And a few Yugakure and Shimogakure ninjas spotted him as well. Though I doubt he will die, he could be in trouble if he gets heavily outnumbered."
Nagato nodded. His Animal Path body appeared, weaved hand seals and slammed his palm on the ground.
'Summoning Jutsu'
A giant bird with a long and massive beak appeared. Nagato said, "You can use it to fly over to the Land of Frost."
Konan nodded. She immediately left along with the bird, while picking up Itachi and Kakuzu on the way.
Hidan, the one who was at the center of all this action, was completely clueless about the five forces coming for him and their intentions. One of the forces just wanted to observe and limit the destruction. Two Forces wanted revenge and justice and were coming for his head. One just wanted to capture him and read his memories. And the last one wanted to recruit him.
Darui's team was the first one to reach the spot as they were the closest to it. They followed the bloody trail left by the dead Kumo ninja while he made his way to them. The expressions of the Kumo ninjas became grim as they saw the gore in front of them.
C cursed, "To kill our ninjas so brazenly! That bastard doesn't want to live!"
Everyone agreed with him. The dead bodies of the Kumo ninjas were too pitiful to watch. Their blood was boiling in rage at the sight. They stored the dead bodies properly and began looking for Hidan's trail. Unfortunately, it wasn't easy.
They could follow the bloody trail to find the location where Hidan and the Kumo ninjas had clashed. However, trailing Hidan from there onwards wasn't easy. Yet, they had no intention of giving up and continued looking.
Around three hours later, Fujin's squad reached the place. Shiro looked in surprise and said, "So much blood! It looks like their reports were correct. A huge battle took place here."
Fujin nodded. Hyuga Hisao added, "There is no one nearby. They should have already left. Fortunately, they left a trail behind."
Fujin instructed, "Shiro, investigate the scents you can find in this place and see how many tracks you can find. Ken, help him. Hisao, come with me."
Fujin and Hisao moved and found the bloody trail left behind by the Kumo ninja who had escaped temporarily. Hisao pointed out some footprints that were mixed with blood which Fujin observed and analyzed, 'It looks like someone managed to escape. But, considering the amount of blood that person lost, there is no way he would survive against Hidan even if he ran away.
And for that very reason, it is unlikely that Hidan would bother chasing him. That said, why did the Kumo ninja escape towards the Land of Hot Water instead of escaping towards the Land of Lightning? Was any Kumo squad in that direction?'
Fujin was confused. He could understand there being some Kumo ninjas in the Land of Frost considering that they were neighbors. But his movement made Fujin a bit suspicious. He and Hisao returned to where Shiro and Ken were.
Shiro noticed Fujin and reported, "Captain, I can sense 17 scents that were lingering here some time ago. One of them belongs to Hidan but I can't identify the rest of them."
Fujin fell into deep thought. He analyzed, '17? It looks like the ninja who escaped went to find reinforcements. He should have succeeded in finding them. That's weird. Why didn't Hidan kill him? Can he not lick the blood that has fallen to the ground or is there any time limit for how long the blood should have left the target's body?
No, that shouldn't be it. After all, Kakashi had taken Kakuzu's blood and Shikamaru took his own sweet time to use it. Could it be that he just disdains licking the blood that has fallen to the ground?'
Fujin couldn't be sure but he felt that was the case. He asked, "Can you track where the 17 who were here have gone? Or rather, can you track Hidan?"
Shiro nodded and said, "Yes. I can track his scent. The issue is that there are multiple paths. I'm afraid that he left behind some pieces of cloth which were taken by others. As a result, there are two tracks."
Fujin was surprised once again. He thought, 'That's weird. He hid his tracks so well in the Land of Hot Water. No matter what we did, we couldn't track him. How did he become so careless all of a sudden?
Regardless, if I assume that the ones who took the pieces of his clothes were reinforcements from Kumo, then they might be trying to hunt him down right now. It will create an opportunity for me. I should move quickly.'
[A/N : Bonus chapter on next Sunday if the fic gets 1000 Power Stones. Bonus chapter on next week's Saturday if the fic gets 2000 Power Stones.]
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