After concluding that there might be an intervention of a third party, every one of Team-11 except for Kuroto became a little worried.

They were worried both about the intentions of the third party as well as the safety of Uchiha Shinichi, if Shinichi were to fall into the hands of that third party, then things could get worse. ​​

After all, it's not difficult to estimate the true value of Mangekyou Sharingan, and it's still possible to transplant those eyes to others, with Kakashi being the best example.

Now, considering that the power of the Mangekyou Sharingan might fall into the hands of people outside Konoha, Shisui quickly asked Pakkun, "Can we continue tracking him?"

Pakkun went around the tree cave and said, "It's hard to say, the smell is mostly concentrated inside the tree hole, and the smell outside is very weak…"

Kakashi still asked Pakkun, "Please try it."

Pakkun nodded and instantly the eight Ninken spread in and around the tree cave to search for any trail they could find that is left by Uchiha Shinichi.

And not long after one of the Ninken raised its paw and said, "Found it."

Pakkun immediately hurried over to the side and nodded after carefully sniffing, "Well, it's the trail he left behind."

Since Shinichi's tracks were again discovered, Team-11 didn't delay any longer and immediately followed after Pakkun.

The day passed quickly as Team-11 took a short break.

At the temporary camp.

Kakashi, Shisui, Kuroto, and Guy sat together and carefully studying the route they took on a map.

"From the escape route Shinichi has followed up to now, he seems to be going in the direction of the Land of Lightning, so the possible location he might escape to are, The Land of Hot Water, The Land of Frost, The Land of Moon, and finally The Land of Lightning."

Kakashi's words made everyone fall into silence.

The four members of Team-11 are still a little familiar with this territory because of completing the mission of destroying Cloud Village's secret warehouse as well as disturbing Cloud Village's transportation line in the Land of Hot Water, so they more or less understand just what could this territory mean.

If Shinichi's intention is to hide in The Land of Hot Water, the Land of Moon, or the Land of Frost, then it is still not too worrisome but if he is going into the territory of the Land of Lightning, then this matter would get way too troublesome.

As a Special Jonin, Shinichi has much access to many secrets of the Village, additionally being a Shinobi of the Uchiha Clan, Shinichi also has secret intelligence about the Uchiha Clan and Konoha Police, and most of all, he is perfectly aware of the rift between the Hokage Faction and Uchiha Clan!

In other words, even if his Mangekyou is not counted, the intelligence he holds with him is still very important. If such secret information falls into the hands of the Cloud Village, then it would be too detrimental for Konoha.

With a sigh, Shisui muttered helplessly, "He must not be allowed to cross the territory of the Land of Fire."

Guy also nodded in agreement, "Well, we can't allow him to make mistakes again and again…"

Kakashi also stated, "I will send a message to Jiraiya-Sama at the border camp, so they will be prepared to intercept him…"

While they were all discussing these things, Kuroto was silent and thought silently to himself, 'Does he want to defect to the Cloud Village? But the more important question is, will the Cloud Village give shelter to Shinichi? Will Cloud Village even trust Shinichi?'

If Cloud Village did give refugee to Uchiha Shinichi, then the ongoing peace talks will all become meaningless, and the relationship between Konoha and Cloud will again return to the previous state of war, and this time, Konoha would not have any other option but to fight Cloud Village until the end.

However, considering just how cheeky Raikage is, they might just secretly give refugee to Shinichi but on the surface, they wouldn't reveal anything and simply say that they don't know anything about it.

After all, they did dare do such a thing twice in the original series, when they attempted to steal children from Konoha Village, therefore, another village might not do such a thing because of their pride but Cloud will definitely do such a thing.

And it wouldn't even be strange if Shinichi is used to breed another Uchiha Clan in the Cloud Village!

Although Kuroto doesn't believe that Shinichi would agree to such a thing…

…

Next Day.

After taking the short break, Team-11 continued chasing again for the entire night and the following day.

Initially thought that it was just a simple task of hunting a missing-nin, but now there are signs of involvement of the mysterious third party, and the fact that Shinichi's goal might actually be the Cloud Village, this simple mission has become way too complicated until everything clarifies.

All four already understood that if Shinichi is allowed to defect to the Cloud Village then the matter would definitely escalate to another Shinobi War, and they can't have that.

But all that aside, one thing has started to bug everyone now.

After chasing for continuously 2 days, Kuroto was the first one to speak with a frown, "This is too strange."

Guy also said from the side, "Yes, if Uchiha Shinichi is seriously injured then how could he travel without any rest, not to mention his speed is too fast? This is totally unreasonable!"

Shisui said with an impatient tone, "We can't control this, for now, keep Chasing."

It's not really the time to worry about these things, once they caught up with Shinichi, everything will be cleared.

With that thought, all four increased their speed.

In the evening, when the Sun gradually sunk, leaving a warm glow on the horizon, the Ninken Pakkun who had been leading them for the whole day suddenly said, "The smell is increasing, the target is not too far ahead."

As soon as Pakkun stated, all four of the Team-11 immediately became alert and raised their guard.

Although they are indeed happy that they caught-up with Shinichi within the territory of the Land of Fire, this interception also means that a big battle is up ahead, and considering that there might also be the presence of the mysterious third-party force, Team-11 had no expression of excitement.

However, this still didn't slow them down and they increased their speed again.

After traveling for another short while, Kuroto suddenly shouted, "Everyone, scatter."

Boom… Boom… Boom…

As soon as Kuroto's words fell, all four instantly separated in four different directions, and immediately after that, a series of explosions covered the area they were at.

Kuroto who landed on a tree safely; observed everything with the Byakugan.

The explosion just now was obviously an Ambush, but what's surprising is that the detonation Charm used for designing this Ambush had definitely undergone a special treatment that decreased their chakra emission readily.

If It was any Hyuga ninja other than Kuroto, they would have definitely suffered…

But this also gave him a piece of intelligence and that is the fact that whoever set up this ambush seems to be aware of the presence of a Hyuga in the team chasing after them.

And it's not too strange either, after all, Hyugas are some of the best trackers in Konoha Village, so the enemy preparing a trap with the thought in mind that a Hyuga Shinobi might be part of the chasing team just shows that he has good analysis ability.

And since that's the case, 'Then this is definitely a targeted ambush."

In just a moment Kuroto reached this conclusion.

At this time, the smoke and dust produced by the explosion of the detonation charms had not yet disappeared.

Because of Kuroto's warning, Kakashi, Shisui, and Guy did avoid the explosion, but the four of them still scattered in four different directions.

And Kuroto is also able to perceive many live chakra reactions surrounding all four of them, but that's not it, each and every shinobi surrounding them is at least a Chunin Rank, with several Special Jonin and Jonin are also part of the fray.

Immediately noticing this, Kuroto's expression shrank, it's not that he was worried about himself, but he was worried about the other three and hurriedly shouted towards the other them, "Be careful everyone, there are a lot of ninjas on the other side, and they are all chunin or higher."

As soon as Kuroto's voice came out, there was a sound of something coming towards him.

Based on the sound alone, Kuroto judged that several Kunais were coming towards him, and based on the fact that there was such an Ambush here, these Kunai must have detonation charm tied to them.

Without waiting for even a second to pass, as soon as he noticed this, Kuroto flickered away, easily avoiding the Kunai; and retreated to relatively open space.

At this time, the silhouette of the person responsible for all this trouble came into view, and Kuroto was a little surprised seeing this person because it was none other than Shinichi that calmly walked towards him, whom Team-11 was chasing after.

Getting out of surprise that was only a momentarily one, Kuroto said with a smirk, "Showing up here all alone? You wouldn't happen to want to single out with me, do you? Because if that's the case, then all this trouble you caused was unnecessary, you could have just let me know and I would have accepted the challenge, after all, I have been itching to step-up on another Uchiha for a while now."

Shinichi calmly pulled out the short sword at his back, and said with a contemptuous tone while ignoring the last part of Kuroto's sentence, "Yes, defeating you was my goal for training from the beginning, so I want to get done with it before I finally cut all ties with the Uchiha and Konoha! But you needn't worry, after defeating you, I'll leave you be by sparing your life; because in a way, I am grateful to you for breaking my arrogance…"

Read up to Chapter - 258 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. : p-atreon.com/Milta_translations