Escape From Konoha

Figures were about to move in the forest under the dark night. Countless ninjas gathered in the forest, running quickly on the snow and concentrating towards a certain point.

Among them were not only the ninjas on patrol, but also the ANBU who had finally made it to the front line from Konoha Village.

Because they were trapped by Asami Masumi in the Four Purple Flame Formation in Konoha Village and lost the best time to pursue, the ANBU were late in arriving until this moment.

But both the Anbu and the ninjas on patrol were confident about the next manhunt.

From the previous pursuit, we know that the target is in a very bad situation at this time. Although the forbidden drug has temporarily enhanced the strength, the strengthening time of this drug will not last long, and after the drug strengthening time expires, it will There will be a period of weakness.

There are many similar forms of this forbidden drug in Konoha.

For example, the three-color pills used by the Akimichi family.

All in all, the situation is developing in Konoha's favor.

Regarding this matter, both the Hokage and the other senior elders of Konoha expressed great importance.

So far, they know very little about the situation inside the Kingdom of Ghosts, and it is precisely because of the lack of understanding that this poorly prepared war will end in failure.

They urgently need a ‘goal’ to break this dilemma.

In the target of Asami Masumi, there must be intelligence information that Konoha is eager to obtain to create new powerful conditions for Konoha.

Therefore, the ANBU responsible for the pursuit and the ninjas on patrol used all their strength to pursue and hold on to the target.

"..."

White gas kept spitting out from his mouth, even though he had taken the secret medicine, which forced his physical strength and chakra to recover, and even relieved his mental fatigue. However, due to the amplifying effect brought by the secret medicine, this state cannot be maintained for a long time.

Once you get entangled, you will still become very dangerous.

Asami Masumi couldn't help but feel irritated by the Konoha ninja who was clinging to her behind.

Even if he knew that the place not far ahead was his unforgettable destination, he still couldn't be too arrogant about completely getting rid of the Konoha ninjas.

After all, it was not one or two ninjas who were chasing him, but a pursuit force composed of at least hundreds of ninjas.

For ninjas, this configuration is already quite a luxurious lineup.

As it rushed forward quickly, the trees on both sides began to decrease.

As if entering a new environment, the surrounding temperature seems to have dropped further.

The white gas exhaled from the mouth becomes more and more intense in color.

Subconsciously, Asami Masumi slowed down her progress.

Whizzing!

Two ninjas suddenly jumped out from the side, one on the left and one on the right. They cooperated very well and attacked Asami Masumi who was slowing down.

Asami Masumi had anticipated this, and calmly waved the chakra scalpel in her hand. She only heard the sound of steel colliding. The chakra scalpel collided with the kunai, and sparks were ejected, killing the two men. The Konoha ninja who attacked her were successfully repelled.

The sneak attack failed, and the two Konoha ninjas were not surprised. Their figures blended into the night and quickly disappeared from Asami Masumi's sight, as if they had never existed.

If he didn't possess the sensory ninjutsu, facing such an assassination combination, even if he could save his life, he would not be able to survive such a sudden attack unscathed.

After the first attack failed, he decisively hid himself and waited for the next opportunity for a sneak attack. These two assassination-type ninjas are very calm and do not rush into anything greedy for success.

It is probably unrealistic to deliberately expose flaws and lure them into being fooled.

What's more, the large group of Konoha ninjas behind them are getting closer and closer. These two assassins are obviously here to delay time.

After repelling them, Asami Masumi continued to move forward at a low speed.

The atmosphere ahead was terrifyingly silent, with fewer and fewer trees, and a cliff stretched across the land ahead without warning.

Asami Masumi, who kept moving at a low speed, slowed down further when she saw this, stopped running, switched to walking, took a few steps forward quickly, and reached the edge of the cliff.

I saw that the surface of the cliff was filled with cold fog, and the bottom was pitch black and bottomless. It was like an ancient murderer tearing open a huge mouth that devoured people, which made people feel chilling.

The distance between the two sides of the cliff is at least hundreds of meters, and there is no connecting tool such as a bridge. Even if the ninja has amazing jumping ability,... a distance of one hundred meters is an almost impossible task for a Jonin. .

However, Asami Masumi’s purpose was not to pass through this cliff. She specifically chose this direction to reach the famous ‘Great Rift Valley’ in the Land of Fire.

There were too many Konoha ninjas chasing her, and it was impossible to escape the encirclement and suppression of Konoha's pursuing troops using normal escape methods.

The final result will be that he will be captured back to Konoha, and after interrogation, Konoha will obtain information.

Therefore, in this case, a sufficiently complex environment must be used to escape the pursuit of Konoha ninjas.

The complex terrain of the Great Rift Valley in the Country of Fire can be exploited.

Most importantly, there is an abandoned stronghold here.

In other words, it is an experimental base.

It was Shiraishi who stayed here when he was still in Konoha.

In view of the fact that some experiments are relatively noisy and are not convenient for research in Konoha Village, it is necessary to choose a place outside to build a research base.

She had been here several times in the past under Shiraishi's leadership.

I just didn't expect that I would use this long-abandoned stronghold at this time.

As we approached the edge of the cliff, the sound of footsteps approaching from behind became clearer.

Without hesitation, Asami Masumi jumped up, her figure was wrapped in the thick cold mist, and the traces were lost in the blink of an eye.

About a few seconds after she jumped off the cliff, figures quickly flashed to the front of the cliff and stopped.

The leader was Tsunade, the Hokage, followed by ANBU and patrolling ninjas.

"Hokage-sama, the opponent has jumped off the cliff, do you want to continue the pursuit?"

Although this Great Rift Valley is the territory of the Kingdom of Fire, no one usually deliberately passes through such a dangerous place.

Therefore, even Konoha ninjas are mostly unfamiliar with the terrain here.

Risky pursuit in such a complex terrain environment inherently carries certain risks.

"Of course, we have already pursued you to a place like this, how can we give up so easily? Come down with me."

"yes!"

Following Tsunade's order, all the Konoha ninjas who followed followed Tsunade, followed Asami Masumi's trail, and jumped towards the Great Rift Valley ahead.

——Asami Masumi gasped, her body feeling increasingly weak, and her intuition told her that things could not be delayed any longer.

Konoha's pursuers must be thrown away as soon as possible.

She groped for the road in the darkness very smoothly. This road was dug out manually. Although she had only been here a few times, Asami Masumi was very familiar with the terrain here, so she moved very quickly along the way.

In this familiar and complex terrain, her movement speed was obviously higher than that of Konoha ninjas.

I don’t know how much time has passed, but we have almost reached the end of the road.

Looking at the winding terrain, you can only see extremely blurred dark cliffs.

At the end of the road, they came to a huge, flat rock. It seemed like a dead end. Asami Masumi didn't pay attention to this and started to form seals.

"untie!"

After he finished speaking, there was a rumble of moving stones in the darkness. The flat stones moved sideways, opening a faintly shiny cave entrance.

Bright yellow lights shined from the cave, even a section of the road outside was illuminated.

But this bright yellow light seemed extremely dim.

A device similar to a sensor light was used, and the deeper parts of the cave were still pitch black.

Looking at the junction of bright yellow light and darkness, light and shadow merge into one. If you were not familiar with this place, you would think it was a haunted house.

Asami Masumi stepped in.

The rumbling sound of rocks moving behind him sounded again, blocking the entrance behind him. It looked like it was just an ordinary stone, used to hide people's eyes and ears.

As we go deeper, the sensor lights also light up one by one, but the lights are still dim, showing a state of insufficient power.

Asami Masumi didn't pay attention to this. She walked quickly in this labyrinth-like experimental base very familiarly. In front of a secret room, she kicked open the stone door and walked into the secret room.

It's a storage room.

She took some medical bandages from it, but otherwise left the rest untouched.

After she walked out of the storage room, she wrapped a medical bandage around the more seriously injured parts of her body to relieve pain.

While wearing a medical bandage, he continued to move forward.

On the other side, Tsunade and others came to the end of the winding road, frowning and looking at the surrounding environment.

The portable flashlight illuminated the surroundings as bright as daylight, and all the terrain was in full view without any reservation.

"Hokage-sama, this is where the opponent's chakra disappears."

An ANBU ninja in charge of perception said.

Tsunade touched her chin and began to think deeply.

"Hokage-sama, do you need to find the mechanism here?"

The ANBU ninja continued to ask questions.

"No, you guys stay back and I'll do it myself."

Tsunade told the remaining Konoha ninja to stay back.

After retreating to a certain distance, Tsunade blew into her fist, then without hesitation aimed at the wall next to her and knocked hard.

The seemingly random knocks caused the surrounding cliffs to be impacted like an earthquake.

The originally hard cliff had cracks visible to the naked eye due to Tsunade's violent destruction, and even the road dug out by the population under the feet also had exaggerated cracks.

The sound of the earthquake disappeared, and the surrounding cliffs collapsed. Only a huge boulder in front survived without a single crack.

"Here?"

Tsunade walked in front of the rock, raised her arm, and struck the rock hard.

Boom!

Stronger impacts shook the surrounding cliffs, further widening the cracks in the cliffs, and several boulders even fell from above.

Looking at the stone that only had cracks but was not immediately destroyed, Tsunade smiled with interest, feeling a little happy for a moment.

As a result, the physical chakra visible to the naked eye gathered in her fist, like clouds and mist, entangled in her fist.

boom!

The fierce impact made the rock finally unable to withstand the pressure, and it collapsed directly into a hole, revealing a road shrouded in bright yellow lights.

The other Konoha ninjas gathered around, poured into this passage, and began to explore the path ahead with Tsunade.

Asami Masumi's chakra, which had lost its senses, once again appeared within the perception range of ANBU ninjas.

"Where is Asami?"

After turning a few corners, Tsunade knew that the terrain here was complicated, so she asked the accompanying sentient ninja.

"In this direction."

The ANBU answered pointing to a wall.

"Step aside."

This time, the Konoha ninja who followed became behaving well and immediately dispersed around, leaving Tsunade alone.

Tsunade swung her fist mercilessly and smashed the wall pointed by the ANBU with one punch, revealing the passage on the other side of the wall.

Boom!

Boom!

Such noises continued to reverberate in various locations in this stronghold, causing the ground and walls to tremble continuously. The lights seemed to have a poor contact reaction under such impact, flickering and extinguishing, which was very scary.

"This Hokage-sama is really messing around. However, it's too late to catch up now."

Asami Masumi, who came to the deep area of ​​the stronghold, also felt an extremely huge chakra, which was violently agitating. Being able to use such a huge chakra and cause such a huge shock, there was no other suspect besides Tsunade. .

The place where she is at this time is the rest area of ​​this stronghold.

Most of the items in the experimental area and warehouse area have been moved away, and what is left behind is basically some sundries of low value.

So is the seating area.

But when Shiraishi built this stronghold, he also considered what to do if this stronghold was discovered by someone just in case.

Therefore, when this stronghold was built, Shiraishi reserved an emergency escape passage for himself so that he could use this place to escape when his life was in danger.

"found it."

At the door of the bedroom in the deepest part of the rest area, there was a house plate with the word "Shiraishi" posted next to it. Asami Masumi opened the door and entered the bedroom.

Except for a single double bed sitting in the corner, all other items had been swept away.

Asami Masumi walked straight to the corner where the double bed was, gently raised her leg and kicked the double bed hard. With a vibrating sound, the double bed stood up from the ground, shook for a while, and then stabilized, sticking to the bed. The walls didn't fall.

In the original position of the double bed, a black iron door was fixed to the floor, looking extremely heavy.

Asami Masumi knelt down, pressed her palm on the door handle of the iron door, and dragged it upwards. The heavy door made a heart-breaking grinding sound, then hit the floor with a clang, kicking up dust.

A staircase sloping downward appears in front of you, and the bright yellow sensor light automatically turns on, illuminating the staircase below.

Asami Masumi took a breath, then quickly stepped on the steps of the walkway diagonally downward, and left along the slope.

When her body was completely swallowed up by the parallel lines of the floor, the iron door closed with force without any warning and with a clanging sound, sealing the secret passage.

Buzz——

It was obviously not the loud sound of a fist smashing through the wall.

After smashing a wall with strange force, Tsunade and the accompanying Konoha ninja stopped their movements and listened in all directions.

A slight shaking sensation emerged from the ground, causing the Konoha ninjas standing in the passage to feel their bodies vibrating slightly.

"Be careful, unfold the barrier!"

Tsunade seemed to suddenly understand something and shouted an order to a group of ANBU.

"yes!"

The group of four Anbu immediately placed the scrolls and began to form seals. The transparent wall, like a white glass cover, quickly expanded and enveloped Tsunade and the surrounding Konoha ninjas.

And the barrier they generated immediately came into use——

boom!

The slight vibration disappeared, and what followed was a shock that was a hundred times more terrifying than before.

A roaring sound erupted from the ground, and the surrounding walls and ceilings shattered piece by piece, making an unsettling cracking sound.

The bright yellow light pole hanging from the ceiling also cracked under the shock and impact.

Suddenly, the ceiling began to collapse, and countless large pieces of rubble were thrown down from above. They began to smash against the white glass-like barrier, trying to bury dozens of Konoha ninjas alive underground.

Boom!

Boom!

The sound of the earthquake continued, and the sound of the building cracking continued to echo in the space, as if it would not stop until all the living people here were buried.

Finally, after a minute, the pounding of the earthquake stopped.

Under the protection of the barrier, although the Konoha ninjas inside the barrier looked panicked, they did not suffer any losses.

But... Tsunade suddenly had a headache when she saw that her surroundings were blocked by countless rocks.

Although she can use her strange strength to dig out these boulders, by the time she digs a passage, Asami Masumi, her target, may have already gone far.

She didn't think that Asami Masumi would destroy this secret stronghold without any way out, and she would be caught in the trap as well.

"The communication team keeps in contact with the people outside and asks them to continue the search. The other party is likely to run outside. The rest of the people dig a passage with me and continue the pursuit from the hidden secret passage."

Tsunade simply assigned orders, asking some to contact the patrol forces outside and order them to continue the mission of chasing Asami Masumi, while the other group dug a passage with herself and found a hidden passage buried under the rubble.

As long as Asami Masumi has not left the Country of Fire, there is still a chance to capture her.

…

Tsunade waited for the Konoha ninja's chakra to stop moving.

After sensing this, Asami Masumi finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Although the time when he was being hunted only lasted a few hours, Asami Masumi felt that centuries had passed.

She sat on the ground and gasped for breath. The side effects of the secret medicine began to occur, making her brain feel groggy and not very awake.

However, there is no time to breathe now, the danger is only temporarily gone.

If you continue to stay here, danger will still come.

Holding on to the wall, he walked forward slowly.

Although the artificially dug secret tunnel is neat and stable, the air is also extremely humid, and because it has not been cleaned for a long time, the air is not only damp and cold, but also has a pungent smell.

Trying to slow down her breathing and avoid smelling the smell in the air, Asami Masumi kept a slow pace and walked forward step by step.

Ten minutes, half an hour, an hour, I don’t know how long I walked, Asami Masumi slowly raised her head, and there was an upward slope staircase in front of her.

This upward passage leads directly to the northern forest of the Great Rift Valley of the Country of Fire.

For a short time, her life was safe.

But as long as we don't leave the Country of Fire, crisis will come sooner or later.

While thinking in distress, Asami Masumi walked up the slope.

If she had known this, she would have simply used Haruno Zhao and his group as bait and given up.

It was really a thankless job.

Being able to see the top platform of the stairs, Asami Masumi's breathing became even more labored.

His consciousness seemed to be falling into a deep sleep, and every step he took required a lot of energy.

Suddenly, footsteps sounded.

Making her body stiff.

She looked up.

The exit door to the top platform was opened.

The white moonlight shone in, and a figure stood there, staring over with eyes with a faint smile.

"It's really embarrassing, Asami-san. It seems that Konoha's pursuit has caused you a lot of trouble, and you even used the stronghold I abandoned at the beginning."

"Who do you think made it like this?"

A voice of resentment came out of Asami Masumi's mouth.

She glared at Shiraishi on the platform.

Shiraishi just smiled lightly and said: "You should be glad that this stronghold is not a face-saving project. After more than ten years, the self-destruct mechanism here can still be activated. Otherwise, I will personally go to Konoha's prison to fish you out. .”

"That's nice to say..." Asami Masumi walked to the platform. Her body seemed to have reached its limit. Her breathing became smaller and smaller. Her eyes were sore and she opened them with force. She sneered at Shiraishi and asked, "So, are you here to fulfill the agreement? Complete the deal... or did you come here specifically to kill people and silence them? After all, I am no longer of use to you after leaving Konoha, and I will never work for you again. I have no interest in your ambitions."

She looked directly at Shiraishi without fear.

"Konoha...has not been destroyed yet, are you sure you want to quit?"

Shiraishi asked.

Asami Masumi smiled to herself.

"I have been trapped in the psychology of hatred and revenge these years. However, no matter what I do, what is lost is lost. There is no point in destroying Konoha a hundred times... Kakashi said that Yes, after revenge, all you get are boring things."

"Really? I didn't expect you to have such a feeling. You clearly hated Konoha and the Sandaime like that in the past..."

"Returning to the topic just now, are you here to complete the deal, or are you here to kill people and silence them? I have agreed in advance that even if the opponent is you, I will not sit still and wait for death."

Asami Masumi condensed the chakra scalpel in one hand, and quickly took out an emerald green pill from the ninja bag with the other hand, put it in her mouth, and stared at Shiraishi with vigilant eyes.

Obviously, she and Shiraishi are no longer collaborators at this time.

The so-called agreement is meant to be broken and has no binding force at all.

Especially for someone in such power.

Chiba Shiraishi during the Konoha period and Chiba Shiraishi who now holds the military and political power of a country are not the same person at all, and the two cannot be confused.

He is now both a ninja and the politician he hates the most, just like the dead Sandaime Hokage!

Hypocrisy and deception are words tailor-made for people like them.

Shiraishi didn't speak, but continued to look at Asami Masumi with smiling eyes.

Wordless silence surrounded the two of them.