Chương 278: Chapter 134
"Forward post ahead; the road further deviates from our direction."
The four signs explained the situation, and I merely shrugged — it was bound to happen sooner or later. We had managed to cover a huge distance in nearly three hours. I wouldn't be surprised if the commander in charge of this area had decided to pull all his available forces to the alert signal just in case. He would have succeeded, if not for the damned weather. However, if it weren't for the strong rain outside, no one would have noticed us with my barriers.
"Another half an hour and we'll be there."
"Understood."
And much earlier than we had anticipated during the planning of the operation. The courier might appear not this evening but tomorrow. Considering that the route for delivering documents and orders for shinobi usually passes through posts, we have some certainty about the location for the ambush. Although such posts are typically located at considerable distances from each other within the heart of the territory, the chance of encountering a patrol precisely when capturing the prisoner could impact both the success of the mission and the survival of the team members.
It will be Hizashi's task to determine the point where we'll set up our ambush while waiting for our target. This is a challenging task even with the dojutsu capable of seeing kilometers around. Unfortunately, the broken prisoner did not provide exact coordinates down to the meter, and we would have to rely more on luck than on the available information.
Then, we would need to quickly escape before the disappearance was discovered, and the guards who didn't wait for the courier raised the alarm and mobilized all available forces for a sweep, bringing in truly formidable opponents.
Moving predominantly across rocky ground or sparse trees (so even the most experienced tracker wouldn't detect that someone had passed through), occasionally encountering small groves on our path, we reached the designated point Hizashi had chosen, which turned out to be a small hill. We then began setting up a shelter where the team would spend the next couple of days.
Well, when I say "began," I mean that the Jonin stood on guard as if he didn't have the necessary skills, while I used earth manipulation to create a burrow that resembled a small earthen shelter where four shinobi could stay with some comfort, without the danger of flooding from the still-persistent rain outside. Naturally, I didn't forget to set up a barrier to dampen the use of significant amounts of chakra.
Despite my weak affinity with this element, even a novice can create and reinforce cavities in the earth to a stony state by channeling chakra into the area. This is how even a single Doton user of Jonin caliber can dig an entire network of tunnels and bunkers if given enough time and ensuring stealth from sensors. Still, such an approach will "show up" for kilometers around if the created cavities are close to the surface.
After reinforcing the walls and ceiling to ensure the small hill wouldn't collapse on us, I pushed aside the layer of earth with grass and, wiping my wet hands on a similarly damp cloak, sighed with relief. Even with my chakra reserves, controlling such a stubborn (at the moment) element is quite costly and difficult.
"Taicho, everything is ready," I informed Hizashi.
Having worked with several Hyugas in a team, I long ago understood some of the nuances of their dojutsu, aside from the well-known "blind spot" in their circular vision. Although the white-eyed prideful claim that when the Byakugan is activated, they see the entire field of view up to the individual limits of its capabilities, this is not entirely true.
A Hyuga must focus on a specific area in their field of vision to get a clear picture of the terrain and the objects within it. Meanwhile, in other areas, they might miss objects that do not stand out from the background or overlook something right under their nose when focusing on the distance.
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