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"North..." Sarutobi Tenjū frowned.
North of Konoha was the direction of the Land of Grass and other smaller countries. In this direction, Konoha had the fewest ninjas stationed at the border.
Most of the ninjas were on the northwest border with the Land of Rain and the northeast border, facing off against a few smaller countries and one of the Five Great Nations, the Land of Lightning.
"Did someone provide Kenshi with information about Konoha's ninja deployment?"
Sarutobi Tenjū was puzzled. As he was pondering why Kenshi had gone north, Hyuga Sika followed up, "Captain, I also saw traces of Kenshi's black Chakra chains landing on the ground one kilometer south, going straight south."
Sarutobi Tenjū: "..."
Sarutobi Tenjū took a deep breath and looked deeply at Hyuga Sika.
Hyuga Sika shrunk his head. It wasn't his fault. It was just that the captain's mind was turning too fast, and he was thinking too much.
As it turned out, Kenshi didn't have any intelligence. He was simply splitting his paths randomly.
But now, the problem was.
Two directions, north and south, going in opposite directions. Which one was Kenshi's real body, and which one was his shadow clone?
Or... were they both shadow clones?
Thinking about this, Sarutobi Tenjū immediately said, "Ayase, Sika, you two expand your search area to ten kilometers. You must determine how many shadow clones Kenshi has created."
"Understood."
Sarutobi Ayase and Hyuga Sika expanded their search range again.
The four of them didn't want to repeat their previous mistake of wasting time with a shadow clone.
Ten minutes later.
Sarutobi Ayase and Hyuga Sika returned, both shaking their heads at Sarutobi Tenjū. There were no other traces within a ten-kilometer radius.
Kenshi and his shadow clone had gone in two directions, north and south.
"Should we split up?" Echizen Ryōma, who had been rather inconspicuous, suddenly asked. Sarutobi Ayase and Hyuga Sika looked at their captain, Sarutobi Tenjū.
Sarutobi Tenjū frowned slightly. The words of his father, the Third Hokage, echoed in his ears.
"Don't underestimate Kenshi. He's not the child he appears to be. Besides the powerful sealing jutsu and Shadow Clone Technique he's revealed, we don't know what other abilities he has."
"But one thing we can be sure of is that Kenshi is at least immune to genjutsu below the level of the Mangekyo Sharingan."
"You must be careful of his genjutsu abilities."
People with strong resistance to genjutsu usually have strong genjutsu talents, like the Uchiha clan.
And how terrifying ninjas with terrifying genjutsu abilities are can be seen from the powerful individuals within the Uchiha clan.
Sarutobi Tenjū knew very well how to deal with a ninja who had powerful genjutsu abilities. The more people the better.
On the contrary, the fewer people facing a genjutsu ninja, the more dangerous it is.
"But... does Kenshi really have strong genjutsu?"
Sarutobi Tenjū was a little skeptical. When he heard his father say that Kenshi knew the Shadow Clone Technique, he was very surprised. He wondered if Kenshi had some special ability that allowed him to easily copy other people's jutsu.
Otherwise, how could this outsider, Kenshi, know the Shadow Clone Technique, which only Konoha possessed?
You know, the Shadow Clone Technique isn't an easy jutsu to learn. Even among Konoha jōnin, very few people know it.
In their squad of four, only he knew the Shadow Clone Technique.
This shows the difficulty of the Shadow Clone Technique.
At that time, Sarutobi Tenjū was afraid that Kenshi had used his special ability to copy the Dark Walking Technique. He even asked his father if Kenshi knew the Dark Walking Technique.
If he did, then it would be very troublesome.
Sarutobi Tenjū knew very well how powerful the Dark Walking Technique was.
Unlike other genjutsu, once you fall victim to it, you will be trapped in the illusion, unable to move.
People who are hit by the Dark Walking Technique only have their vision blocked. Their other senses are still intact, and they can even release jutsu.
This means that the usual method of disrupting your own Chakra flow to break out of genjutsu doesn't work.
Because you can mobilize your own Chakra to release jutsu, which is already a form of disrupting your Chakra flow.
But this level of Chakra disruption obviously wouldn't be enough to break the Dark Walking Technique.
It was because of its difficulty to break that the Dark Walking Technique was developed by the Second Hokage to specifically counter the Uchiha clan's Sharingan genjutsu.
After all, the Second Hokage's goal was to counter the Mangekyo Sharingan, so it couldn't be easily broken by conventional means.
In fact, until now, there were only two ways to break the Dark Walking Technique: either kill the caster or stay far away from the caster.
Other methods wouldn't work on the Dark Walking Technique.
If Kenshi also possessed the Dark Walking Technique, coupled with his unparalleled resistance to jutsu and taijutsu, and his Black Chakra Chain sealing jutsu, which could confine and seal the Chakra inside others' bodies.
Then... Sarutobi Tenjū could only say that he was too tricky.
Fortunately, his father said that Kenshi's Shadow Clone Technique was because he had read Akemiya Takuya's jutsu research notes, from beginning to end, and remembered the original hand seals of the Shadow Clone Technique, so he learned it.
The hand seals of the Dark Walking Technique were simplified. Even if Kenshi saw the Third Hokage forming hand seals and using the Dark Walking Technique, he wouldn't be able to learn it.
Many powerful exclusive jutsu hand seals were simplified, just to prevent people from copying the corresponding jutsu through the hand seal gestures and sequences.
This could be said to be specifically designed to counter the Uchiha clan's Sharingan's ability to copy jutsu.
When the Second Hokage developed the Dark Walking Technique, he took this into account. He even simplified the original Dark Walking Technique, which required hundreds of hand seals, to an insane degree, requiring only one hand seal to perform.
This way, even the Uchiha clan's Sharingan couldn't copy it.
Kenshi wouldn't be able to either.
Kenshi couldn't use the Dark Walking Technique, Sarutobi Tenjū was sure of that. But could he use other genjutsu? He was skeptical.
Especially when facing Kenshi's shadow clone, Kenshi didn't use genjutsu immediately. He didn't even think about using genjutsu at a critical moment.
Generally speaking, ninjas with strong genjutsu would use genjutsu first when facing an enemy, and then use other jutsu to attack.
Kenshi's shadow clone's subconscious jutsu choices in battle didn't look like someone who knew powerful genjutsu.
Of course, it was also possible that Kenshi was deliberately hiding it.
The best way was actually to not separate.
The four of them together, with both long-range and close-range attacks, could deal with even if Kenshi had powerful genjutsu.
But if they split into two teams, with only two people each, once they were hit by genjutsu, and the other person was attacked, with Kenshi's powerful sealing jutsu, the two of them would easily be controlled.
But... if they didn't separate, they could only gamble that the direction they were going was the direction Kenshi's real body was going.
If they gambled wrong, then they would most likely lose track of Kenshi.
At this time, the Third Hokage's words echoed in Sarutobi Tenjū's ears again.
"Make tracking Kenshi's whereabouts your top priority. Don't pursue killing him."
The Third Hokage was still wary of Kenshi directly using the Spiritualization Technique to leave and possess someone else. He didn't require his son, Sarutobi Tenjū, to necessarily kill Kenshi.
Of course, if he could kill him, that would be best.
If he couldn't kill him, that was fine too. As long as they could keep track of Kenshi, there would be strong individuals who were greedy for the Eternal Life Technique to come after him.
They were only responsible for providing Kenshi's location.
Thinking about this, Sarutobi Tenjū sighed and finally put aside his pride, deciding to follow his old father's instructions.
"Let's split up."
"Ayase and I will go north, Sika and Ryōma, you two go south."
Sarutobi Tenjū instructed Ryōma and Sika, "Remember, this mission only requires you to follow Kenshi from afar, don't engage in combat with him."
After being tricked by Kenshi's shadow clone, Sarutobi Tenjū had realized that Kenshi was not easy to deal with. He had many tricks up his sleeve.
And their tactical methods had already been discovered.
Before they figured out Kenshi's abilities, engaging in combat with him again would only expose more tactics. It wasn't worth it.
"Understood, Captain." Echizen Ryōma and Hyuga Sika nodded.
(ShixT9: ow)
Then, the four split into two pairs, each heading towards the direction where Kenshi's two shadow clones had gone.
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