Chapter 137: It Doesn't Make Sense
"What a terrifying genjutsu!"
Most people couldn't even see genjutsu chakra, much less sense it. But in his spirit form, Dan Kato's soul perception was razor sharp. He saw Li Yao's genjutsu chakra invade Damoya Noji's brain from 500 meters away in an instant — and render him completely helpless.
To cast such a long-range genjutsu and still effortlessly disable a jōnin...
"Terrifying!"
"This must be the secret technique Senior Ayase mentioned — the one that instantly incapacitated four jōnin. I didn't expect it to be such a powerful genjutsu."
A deep wariness flashed through Dan Kato's eyes. He saw clearly — the jōnin had clearly prepared for Li Yao's genjutsu, but his countermeasures were utterly ineffective.
Li Yao's genjutsu was far too dangerous.
Which meant… killing him had just gotten exponentially harder.
Thinking about all the abilities Li Yao had shown so far, Dan Kato couldn't help but feel overwhelmed.
A defensive jutsu strong enough to block a five-kilometer-radius explosion.
A terrifying sealing technique like Vajra Chains, capable of sealing even a Tailed Beast.
In terms of ninjutsu, his Lightning and Wind Releases were top-tier.
Only in taijutsu had Li Yao yet to show anything extraordinary.
But now, with a genjutsu that could render jōnin helpless, even that potential weakness was covered.
On top of that, he had wide-range chakra sensing up to five kilometers, and blazingly fast airborne movement techniques.
"How the hell do you kill someone like Li Yao?"
Dan Kato frowned deeply. The more he thought, the more frustrated he became. At the moment, he couldn't think of any method they could use to kill Li Yao.
Unless he directly possessed Li Yao and attacked his soul...
But... even that wasn't guaranteed.
His soul attacks weren't omnipotent. The higher the chakra quality inside a person, the less effective his spiritual attack became.
And... Li Yao's Vajra Chains were extremely dangerous to his spirit form.
Those chains could seal the Nine-Tails — a being formed from concentrated hatred — so naturally, they had powerful soul-sealing properties too.
With the strength of Li Yao's chains, Dan Kato would only get one chance. He'd have to attack when Li Yao was completely off guard.
If he failed, Li Yao would never let him get close again.
As Dan Kato weighed the risks, Li Yao, having drained and killed Damoya Noji, didn't immediately leave. Instead, he remained floating in the air, frowning and seemingly focused on something.
"What's he doing?" Dan Kato stopped thinking and observed curiously.
"Wait… where's Konoha?"
Ten minutes passed. Li Yao looked around, brows furrowed — he sensed no one nearby. There wasn't the faintest trace of chakra. Even the ink hawks he'd sent out spotted neither enemies on the ground nor Ayase's ink bird in the sky.
"This doesn't make sense!"
Li Yao rubbed his forehead, looking puzzled.
He didn't know how he had been found, but if only Iwa had shown up, fine — but Kumo had found him too, and from a different direction no less.
Now both Iwa and Kumo knew his location.
If two major villages had this intel, then clearly it wasn't classified.
That meant Konoha must know as well.
In fact, the information might have originated from Konoha — and then been leaked.
So if Iwa and Kumo both sent men after him and were killed...
Why hadn't anyone from Konoha appeared?
Li Yao didn't believe for a second that, after seeing Sarutobi Tenchu turned into a cripple and Ayase humiliated, Hiruzen Sarutobi would just sit back and do nothing.
So… why hadn't Konoha shown up?
Suddenly, Li Yao's expression changed. With a flick of his fingers, he created nine shadow clones. Each mounted an ink eagle and shot off in different directions.
He realized now — his ink hawks couldn't detect well-hidden enemies.
It was obvious. Konoha's people were likely hidden and using some unknown long-range sensory technique to track him.
To flush out the Konoha ninja, he'd need to rely on his chakra sensory ability.
Li Yao believed firmly — no one could escape his chakra sensing.
Unless they were deep in the cold ocean or underground — the seawater might block his sense enough to miss them.
Otherwise, no one could get within five kilometers without being detected.
His nine shadow clones split up, flying low — only about 100 meters above the icy surface — to better detect chakra signatures below.
At that range, even with thick ice in the way, his clones could sense chakra 20 meters beneath the surface.
At that depth, in this bitter cold, no one but an Ice Release user could survive for more than a minute. Not even someone with an exceptionally strong body.
"This is bad."
As soon as the shadow clones took off, Dan Kato realized the problem — Li Yao was getting suspicious after the simultaneous appearance of Iwa and Kumo ninja. Now he was assuming Konoha had come too, and was deploying shadow clones to find them.
Dan Kato immediately returned to his body.
Soon, he woke up.
"What's going on?" Biwako asked the moment he opened his eyes. But he didn't answer — instead, he said urgently, "Lady Biwako, follow me. Li Yao has sensed our presence. His clones are looking for us. We can't let him find us now."
"Understood." Biwako nodded and followed him, with Inuzuka Akira close behind.
Since Li Yao had chakra sensing, if any of his clones came within five kilometers, their invisibility technique would be useless.
According to the intel Tenchu had gathered, Li Yao's chakra sensing was sharp enough to detect residual chakra lingering in the air — meaning he could confirm their presence just from that.
None of the three held any illusions. To avoid detection, they moved out of range — ten kilometers beyond the reach of Li Yao's clones.
And with Dan Kato able to sense souls from hundreds of kilometers away, even the subtle spiritual energy simulated by Li Yao's clones was easily detected.
Li Yao's clones spread thirty kilometers out from his position, weaving patterns in the air as they searched.
But it was useless — Dan Kato and the others had already retreated to a distance of one hundred kilometers.
An hour later…
Li Yao started doubting himself.
"Did Konoha really not come?"
There was no way someone could've evaded his chakra sensory.
To Li Yao, his most trusted ability was his unique sensory skill — able to detect and analyze even chakra nature transformations.
He didn't believe anyone in the shinobi world could evade it.
Not even White Zetsu, as long as it had chakra, could avoid his detection — he was certain of it.
Even though he hadn't found any Konoha shinobi, he refused to believe it was because his sensing was flawed.
"Either Konoha really didn't come..."
"Or... the one they sent can sense me from a hundred kilometers away."
"Only those two possibilities exist. There is no third."
Li Yao concluded.
Either way, staying here served no purpose now.
With that thought, Li Yao recalled all his shadow clones and flew off on his ink eagle, heading back toward the Sea of War.
(END CHAPTER)
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