Chapter 71: Seal Simplification
"North…" Sarutobi Tenchu frowned slightly.
To the north of Konoha lay smaller nations like the Land of Grass. Konoha's border patrols in that direction were sparse.
Most shinobi were stationed in the northwest toward the Land of Rain and along the northeast borders where they monitored the Land of Lightning across multiple small countries.
"Could someone have provided Li Yao with intel on Konoha's deployment?"
Tenchu couldn't make sense of it. Just as he was pondering why Li Yao would go north, Hyūga Shika added, "Captain, I also saw signs of Li Yao's black chakra chains one kilometer south of here, headed in a straight line."
"…"
Tenchu inhaled deeply and shot Shika a long look.
Hyūga Shika shrank slightly—this wasn't his fault. It was just that Tenchu's mind turned too quickly and overanalyzed the situation.
Clearly, Li Yao had no intelligence—he had just split up his paths randomly.
Now, they faced a problem.
Two paths: north and south. Which one held Li Yao's real body? Which was a shadow clone?
Or… were they both clones?
Tenchu immediately gave orders: "Ayase, Shika, expand the search radius to ten kilometers. We must confirm how many shadow clones Li Yao deployed."
"Understood."
Ayase and Shika expanded their search.
None of them wanted to waste time again chasing a shadow clone.
Ten minutes later, Ayase and Shika returned and shook their heads—no other signs were found within the extended radius.
Only two trails: one north, one south.
"Do we split up?" asked Echizen Ryoma, who had stayed mostly silent.
Ayase and Shika turned to their captain for a decision.
Tenchu hesitated. His father's warning echoed in his ears:
"Never underestimate Li Yao. He's not the child he appears to be. Beyond his powerful sealing techniques and Shadow Clone Jutsu, we don't know what else he's capable of. What we do know is that he's immune to genjutsu below Mangekyō Sharingan level. Be very cautious of his genjutsu."
Those who could resist powerful genjutsu often had talent for it—just like the Uchiha.
And shinobi with strong genjutsu were among the most dangerous.
Tenchu knew: when fighting such enemies, numbers mattered.
The fewer people who faced a genjutsu user, the greater the danger.
"But… does Li Yao really have strong genjutsu?"
Tenchu was unsure. When he heard from his father that Li Yao knew Shadow Clone Technique, he was shocked. He suspected Li Yao had a special ability to copy techniques.
After all, why else would an outsider like Li Yao know Konoha's exclusive Shadow Clone Jutsu?
It was notoriously difficult—even many jōnin couldn't master it. Of their four-man squad, only Tenchu himself could use it.
That alone proved how advanced the technique was.
He'd even asked his father if Li Yao had learned Darkness Illusion Technique.
If he had, that would've been a nightmare.
Tenchu knew how powerful it was.
Unlike regular genjutsu, which rendered a victim immobile within an illusion, the Darkness Illusion Technique only disabled vision—leaving other senses intact and allowing jutsu to be used.
This meant the usual method of disrupting chakra flow to escape genjutsu wouldn't work.
Since the user could still release jutsu, they were already disrupting their chakra. But that level of disturbance wasn't enough to break this illusion.
That's what made Darkness Illusion so difficult to counter. It was designed by the Second Hokage to suppress the Uchiha's Sharingan genjutsu.
After all, his goal was to counter Mangekyō-level illusions—it couldn't be easy to break.
To this day, only two methods existed: kill the caster or escape their range.
No other methods worked.
If Li Yao could use this technique—paired with his sealing chains that blocked both ninjutsu and taijutsu—it would be nearly impossible to handle him.
Thankfully, Tenchu's father clarified that Li Yao had learned Shadow Clone Jutsu by studying Kimura Takuya's jutsu research notes. He had memorized the original hand seals and reverse-engineered the jutsu from scratch.
As for the Darkness Illusion Technique, the simplified version used by the Third Hokage wouldn't help Li Yao. Even if he saw the seals, he couldn't replicate the jutsu.
Many advanced and exclusive techniques used simplified hand seals precisely to avoid being copied—especially by the Uchiha's Sharingan.
When the Second Hokage developed Darkness Illusion, he considered this too—he condensed a jutsu that originally required over a hundred seals into one.
This made it impossible to replicate, even with the Sharingan.
Let alone someone like Li Yao.
Tenchu was confident that Li Yao didn't know Darkness Illusion—but was still unsure if he could use other genjutsu.
Especially during the fight with the shadow clone, Li Yao hadn't used any illusions. Even in moments of danger, he hadn't shown signs of turning to genjutsu.
Usually, genjutsu masters start with illusions and follow up with ninjutsu or taijutsu.
But Li Yao's clone relied entirely on sealing techniques.
That didn't match the profile of a genjutsu user.
Of course… he might just be hiding it.
Still, the safest option was to stay together.
With all four of them, they had range, melee, and backup. Even if Li Yao used powerful genjutsu, they could counter him.
But if they split up, a pair could easily be wiped out—especially if one got caught in an illusion while the other was sealed.
That said… staying together meant gambling on which direction the real Li Yao had taken.
If they guessed wrong, they might lose him altogether.
At that moment, his father's last instruction returned to Tenchu's mind:
"Prioritize tracking Li Yao. Killing him is not necessary."
They feared he would use Spirit Transformation Technique to abandon his body.
The Third Hokage didn't demand Li Yao's death—just that he be tracked.
If they could kill him, great. If not, it was fine—so long as they always knew where he was.
That way, eventually, someone greedy for the immortality technique would come for him.
All they had to do was provide the location.
Tenchu sighed, setting aside his pride, and decided to follow his father's advice.
"We split up."
"Ayase, you're with me—we'll head north. Shika and Ryoma, you two go south."
He turned to them and added, "Remember: just follow him from a distance. Don't engage."
After being fooled by a shadow clone, Tenchu realized Li Yao wasn't an easy target—he was hiding a lot.
Their tactics had already been partially exposed.
Any further confrontation would only reveal more of their strategy—best to avoid that.
"Understood, Captain," Ryoma and Hyūga Shika said.
The team split in two, each heading in the direction of a different clone.
(END CHAPTER)
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