Hokage: Ryo's Path

Chapter 212: A Moth into the Flame

Ryo wasn’t in much hurry to locate the Nanabi, for he thought he could locate it at will; such Chakra wasn’t exactly going to blend in with that of other Chakras around.

However, when Ryo tried to locate it with his spiritual energy, the beast was nowhere to be found.

“He’s very fast!” Ryo whispered, and then entered Sage Mode immediately. To his surprise, he still couldn’t locate the Nanabi!

After all, Sage Mode enhanced Ryo’s perception to great heights, making him able to locate Chakra’s within the perimeters of a small country.

There were no traces of the Nanabi within half the country, leaving only two possibilities: The beast was just that incredibly fast, or it had the ability to hide its Chakra!

Ryo’s face turned heavy, for either of the two possibilities meant that his task had become too troublesome!

Searching nearby; he found no trace of the beast, se he couldn’t help but return to the Waterfall Village.

The hill where Ryo fought the Nanabi was not that far from where the villagers were evacuated to. They all witnessed the battle clearly.

Seeing the young man from Konoha suppressing the beast made them all very excited, but they all felt it was a shame that the Nanabi still managed to flee.

However, they were still not worried. To them, with a man as strong as Ryo around, the winged beast was no threat!

Ryo returned to the village itself, where there was only Shisui. When the latter saw him, he rushed at him quickly.

“Sensei, are you okay? Have you been hurt?” Shisui didn’t care much about the Nanabi, asking immediately about his Sensei’s state.

Ryo smiled and said: “I’m fine. It’s just a shame that the Nanabi managed to run away!”

Hearing that, Shisui was finally relieved! With his encounter with the Nanabi’s Chakra, he started worrying that Ryo couldn’t handle the beast. Now, it seemed that his worries were mostly for nothing.

“Sensei, that shouldn’t matter much! After all, you can just sense the Nanabi’s Chakra, and he should be able to escape your perception!”

Ryo sighed and said: “That Nanabi seems to have a Chakra hiding ability. With that, this mission doesn’t seem so simple anymore.”

Shisui’s face became gloomy, and the two helplessly just had to start searching around the village and underground.

For two days, the two searched relentlessly, and still couldn’t locate the Biju. This annoyed Ryo greatly. The Nanabi had made his mind: as long as Ryo was still in the village, he would never show up!

“Sensei, this is not the way to find it! Scanning the entire country will take too much time, and we have no guarantee that it hadn’t already moved to a place that we have already searched!” Shisui was frustrated.

Ryo sighed and said: “I know I know! But hey, we have no other choice; we can only keep searching!”

“If only it would just fly to us on its own!” Shisui said helplessly.

His words made Ryo’s eyes brighter! Indeed, if they couldn’t just find the beast, the beast should find them!

“Shisui, I have a solution! I’ll leave for a while. In case the Nanabi gets out, just make sure you stay safe.” As Ryo said that, he disappeared in front of Shisui.

After using the Teleportation Barrier several times consecutively, he arrived at Pakura’s place!

Pakura was having a long-awaited one day vacation from her duties as councilor on that day, and enjoying a lunch with Shi.

Ryo’s sudden appearance startled the two sisters, and Pakura said helplessly: “Please Ryo, can’t just go through the door next time? Don’t just pop-up like this!”

“Sorry, sorry!” Ryo immediately bowed his head and briefly apologized.

Shi was different from Pakura, and was very enthusiastic. She asked Ryo to join their meal.

In the past few days, Ryo was living off of M.R.Ps, along with the majority of the evacuated Waterfall Village. There was no way he could refuse a free good meal!

The “angry” Pakura looked at the feasting Ryo, and she couldn’t help but smile.

After lunch, Ryo told her of his mission.

Hearing him, she couldn’t figure out his purpose, and answered casually: “I shouldn’t be of assistance in such a mission. I’m no Sensor Ninja, and I have no special method that could locate him. Why did you come for me?”

“Don’t bother thinking about that now, let’s go!” Ryo touched Pakura’s arm as he was talking and the two disappeared.

In the Waterfall Village, Shisui was hiding in the woods, looked vigilantly around him when suddenly, Ryo and Pakura popped out of nowhere!

Shisui, for the first time in a good while, was actually startled by Ryo’s appearance; “Sensei, do you want me give me a heart attack?”

Ryo ignored his complaints, and moved with Pakura to the hill where he had fought the Biju a few days ealier.

“Pakura, you can control the temperature of your Scorch Release. Can you make a large Orb that’s particularly bright, but that also doesn’t emit much heat?”

“I can do that. I should be able to make one with those characteristics that’s around three meters in diameter.” As Pakura spoke, she condensed an orb for Ryo to see.

“Well, that’s just perfect. I want you to make one like this at night, and believe me; you’ll be in for a good show!”

A few hours later, darkness fell, and Ryo took his distance as Pakura condensed the orb. The light it emitted illuminated the entirety of the hill.

Ryo, Pakura and Shisui all took hid in the nearby woods.

Ryo opened his Sharingan and observed the situation around.

The heat and light emitted by the orb attracted countless small insects in the night, flying one after another into the orb, eventually turning into ashes.

As soon as Pakura saw that, she understood Ryo’s idea.

“Ryo, are you sure this would get us to the Nanabi?”

“Trust me; no creature could resist their innermost instincts. The Nanabi’s body is that of an insect; it will go for the light and heat.”

“Come on, the Nanabi is a Biju! It’s a smart being! It would be as stupid as a common insect!” Pakura said helplessly.

“Just wait and see! Just like moths go into the flame, knowing of their demise, the Nanabi will fall for this. Even though he would probably realize it’s an ambush, it won’t resist it.” Ryo said with great confidence.

“Oh I’ll be waiting; I have no other thing to do; being that I was just forcefully taken to a different country!” Pakura answer with disdain in her tone.

After a good while, the orb has swallowed up the lives of countless little bugs, but the Nanabi never appeared! As Pakura was about to tease Ryo about his failure, she saw a massive insect in midair, desperately rushing to the orb!

“No! That didn’t just happen!” Pakura looked at the Nanabi in shock!