Day 185. Twenty kilometers from the Nakayama family sanctuary.
A young woman in black pants and a green vest raced forward at tremendous speed, leaping from tree to tree, constantly changing position to evade pursuit.
Six sturdy men pursued her relentlessly, repeatedly trying to corner her and, at convenient moments, throwing shuriken and kunai at her, deliberately staying no closer than fifteen meters.
Once again, the second after the girl pushed off a tree with her feet, a kunai with an attached explosive seal flew to where she had just been.
A loud explosion rang out, and the tree trunk was literally torn apart. Splinters flew in all directions, the large tree slowly tilted and fell, raising a pillar of dust and yellowed leaves. The girl miraculously escaped the blast wave. She was lucky to instantly get behind the next tree, which took the full impact.
With excellent analytical skills, she instantly seized the moment and threw two shuriken and a kunai at the three nearest pursuers.
Two enemies immediately reacted to the attack and deflected the two shuriken the girl threw without issue. The third man also prepared to deflect the kunai, seeing no explosive seal on it, and at the moment when the kunai was two meters away, a shout came from the commander behind him.
"Idiot! Don't deflect, dodge!"
But it was too late, and the unlucky shinobi spotted the thin wire tied to the kunai at the last second. He had nowhere to go, so he deflected the enemy kunai anyway and heard the girl's satisfied shout.
"Shadow Imitation Jutsu!" The girl shouted, forming the seal. She had perfectly calculated the timing of the kunai's collision and the attached wire, which extended her own shadow, with the enemy's shadow.
The allies of the controlled shinobi made a belated attempt to leap aside, but it was too late. The shadow imitation-controlled rogue shinobi perfectly mimicked the girl's movements as she reached for the pockets on her vest containing kunai with explosive seals, and the enemy shinobi instantly threw two kunai at his allies.
The girl immediately broke control and fled, ignoring the result of her cunning attack. She timed it perfectly, because the second after control ended, the shinobi's head was severed by the enraged commander.
Of the two explosive-seal kunai, only one hit its mark successfully. From the blast wave, with its epicenter just meters from the body, the unlucky rogue's eardrums burst, his internal organs shook, and a lung ruptured from the excessive pressure.
A Chunin-level shinobi's body had great durability and wasn't torn apart, but he couldn't avoid damage entirely, and without a medical ninja's help, he might not live to see the next morning.
The group leader knew full well his unlucky subordinate was done for, so without hesitation he cut off his head and ordered everyone to resume the chase. He had no intention of leaving a wounded comrade in the forest, fearing Konoha shinobi would find and thoroughly interrogate him.
The black-haired kunoichi raced ahead at full speed, changing position, hoping the commotion behind would distract the enemies and let her escape. But after three hundred meters, the forest abruptly ended, revealing green meadows for kilometers ahead, with huge, impassable mountains visible in the distance for an ordinary person.
Cursing irritably to herself, realizing she had nowhere to go, she bolted forward, aiming for the mountains and planning to use her tactical skills for survival.
The moment the group of four rogue shinobi burst from the forest, the black-haired kunoichi was three hundred meters ahead, but the rogue leader was very fast and steadily closed the distance, intending to kill the pesky kunoichi.
When a kilometer remained to the mountains, he got very close and threw several shuriken at her, blocking possible dodge paths.
The girl was very smart, so she easily avoided injury and kept running, throwing an explosive-seal kunai at the enemy—not hoping to hit, just to buy time to the precious mountains, which would multiply her survival chances.
The rogue leader caught up to the sly kunoichi several more times and threw shuriken at her, and each time she skillfully dodged, but the last time one shuriken sliced her forearm muscles. The girl didn't panic, clenched her teeth, and silently fled, checking her wounds on the run.
Finding the tendons intact, she sighed in relief and popped a healing pill into her mouth to ignore the wound temporarily and stay combat-ready.
Five hundred meters to the mountains remained, and the rogue commander made another attempt to attack the slippery kunoichi, this time hitting her left thigh. The black-haired girl cried out in pain and instantly regrouped mid-jump, landing on all fours in a suicidal attack stance.
The rogue commander leaped back at the last moment, unwilling to take the mad kunoichi's attack head-on, and began attacking from afar, throwing shuriken and kunai at her.
The girl easily deflected all incoming shuriken, and by the time they ran out, the enemy shinobi was forced to use his techniques to stall her until reinforcements arrived. He formed the seals in a second, slammed his palm to the ground, and shouted:
"Doton: Arid Jigoku no Jutsu!" Quicksand appeared under the black-haired kunoichi's feet, trying to suck her in. But with her excellent intellect, she anticipated the enemy's technique and leaped away just in time, avoiding the danger.
She immediately charged the enemy, wanting to close the distance and destroy him with her shadows. Her enemy reacted instantly, formed more seals, and shouted:
"Doton: Gan Churo no Jutsu!" Thick stone pillars erupted from the ground before the girl, nearly trapping her in a solid prison, but once again she demonstrated her tactical prowess and easily avoided the trap, closing in on the enemy.
"Shadow Needle Jutsu!" The kunoichi shouted, and thin strips separated from her shadow, racing across the ground toward the enemy's shadow.