Konoha: The Absolute Justice of the Uchiha.

Konoha: Uchiha's Absolute Justice Chapter 490

"Although your bodies are sore, the hot water soak just now has initially relieved the spasms in your deep fascia," Chi Quan calmly instructed. "The target is small in size, extremely fast, highly stealthy, and extremely familiar with complex terrain."

Now, I'm presenting this incident to you as a simulated emergency mountain tracking drill.

Lu's eyes lit up, and he immediately puffed out his chest and raised his head: "Mission accomplished! Catching this pervert is my duty!"

"Remember three things." Chi Quan held up three fingers. "First, don't disrupt the chain of traces along the way."

Second, use the terrain to encircle from three points, and avoid blindly pursuing in a straight line.

Third, pay attention to the physiological characteristics of the target and don't be misled by habitual thinking.

Go ahead.

"yes!!"

The three responded in unison.

The bamboo forest on the back mountain is so dense that it blocks out the sun. Thick green bamboos rise up from the ground in dense clusters, and sunlight can only filter through the gaps in the bamboo leaves to cast dappled light spots.

The air was filled with the fresh scent of humus and bamboo leaves, and the ground was covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves, which felt soft and spongy underfoot.

"The target direction is northwest by north, going up the mountain ridge."

Black Crow took the lead, running at the very front of the group.

Although he was wearing a loose yukata and wooden clogs, his footwork was exceptionally light and agile when he ran, making almost no extra sound.

His gaze was fixed on the crushed, dry bamboo leaves on the ground, and the occasional pink fabric fibers hanging on the bamboo branches.

"The marks are fresh, the sap from the broken bamboo leaves hasn't fully oxidized yet, and it's no more than two hundred meters away from us!" Black Crow reported in a low voice as he ran, within communication range.

"Whoosh—whoosh—what is this thing? It runs faster than a rabbit!"

Lu followed behind, panting, carrying the bathrobe.

Although soaking in the hot spring made me feel much better, the soreness in my thighs started to throb again after running at full speed: "And I specifically chose this place where the bamboo is so dense that you can't even squeeze through! My yukata already has two holes torn in it!"

"Shut up, focus on the search!" Huimei followed beside Riku, still holding the long bamboo pole, her eyes blazing with fury. "If I don't tear that bastard who stole my clothes to pieces today, I, Takahashi Huimei, will change my name!"

"Look up!"

Black Crow suddenly lowered his voice and abruptly stopped behind a bamboo stalk as thick as a bowl, while raising his hand to signal the two to take cover.

Lu Hehui immediately stopped and looked up in the direction Black Crow was pointing.

About thirty meters ahead, on a towering bamboo tree, a dark figure was leaping and weaving nimbly among the bamboo branches!

The bamboo stalk was bent sharply under the pressure, then suddenly sprang up. Using the rebound force of the bamboo branch, the dark figure lightly leaped to the top of another bamboo stalk, its movements as light as a feather!

In its embrace, a colorful wad of fabric was tightly wrapped, with a long pink bath towel fluttering in the air like a ribbon, extremely eye-catching!

"Found him! It's that bastard!" Lu growled through gritted teeth. "He can even use the bamboo tips to jump; he's definitely a professionally trained special agent!"

Huimei gripped the bamboo pole tightly: "Black Crow, can you shoot it down?"

"The distance is too far, the bamboo forest is too dense, and I don't have any kunai in my hand," Black Crow calmly judged. "Throwing stones would be easily blocked by bamboo branches."

It's heading towards the abandoned quarry at the mountaintop, where the terrain is open. Once it squeezes into the gaps in the rubble, tracking it will become exponentially more difficult.

"Leave it to me!"

Lu's brain raced in that instant, and his tactical instincts once again took over.

He glanced at the surrounding terrain and pointed to a relatively gentle, rocky slope on the left: "Huimei, you go around to the left and use your long bamboo pole to block that grove of trees, cutting off its fall route! Black Crow, you're the fastest, use the bamboo stalks on the right to cut diagonally up and drive it towards the open space in the center! I'll intercept it from the front!"

"clear!"

Without exchanging any words, the two instantly split into two afterimages, flanking from the left and right respectively.

"Hey! You perverted freak in front! You're surrounded by Chi Quan's class! Take off your underwear and surrender!!"

Lu screamed in his hoarse voice, running wildly across the ground while pulling out several hard pebbles he had picked up on the road and hurling them at the dark figure in mid-air with a stone-throwing technique!

"Whoosh! Whoosh!"

The sound of something cutting through the air rang out.

Although the stone did not hit the dark figure, it slammed into the bamboo stalk at its feet, making a crisp cracking sound.

The dark figure was clearly startled by the sudden shout and flying stones. It stumbled in mid-air, the bamboo branches beneath its feet swayed violently, and the person—no, the entire figure—fell directly off the bamboo tip!

"It fell down! Well done, Lu!" Huimei's voice came from the left.

However, the dark shape displayed incredible flexibility in mid-air.

It didn't even mobilize any chakra. It simply twisted its waist and abdomen in mid-air with extreme naturalness, stretched out its limbs, and landed steadily on a horizontal dead tree like a black parachute. Then, it landed on all fours and dashed forward like a black lightning bolt!

"Four legs on the ground?!" Lu's eyes widened. "Even his running posture is faked so thoroughly?! He's a complete madman!"

"Earth Release: Light Ground Wave!"

Huimei has arrived at the designated location.

She forcefully planted the long bamboo pole in her hand into the soil. Although she didn't have a ninja tool pouch, the earth-style chakra circulating within her body flowed directly through the bamboo pole.

Inject it underground!

"Rumble—"

Suddenly, the soil directly in front of the dark figure surged upwards, forming a half-meter-high earthen wall that directly blocked its original straight-line sprint route!

The dark figure let out a short, strange cry and had to brake suddenly. Its front paws scratched deep marks in the wet mud before it turned and darted to the right.

"This road is blocked!"

A cold voice, like a ghost, rang out from the right.

The silhouette of a black crow emerged from behind a thick, ancient tree.

He held the broom horizontally in front of his chest, his whole body in a perfect defensive and counter-attack stance, his eyes sharp as a hawk, the broom making a low whistling sound as it precisely blocked all the shadow's evasive angles!

The shadowy figure was cornered.

Black crows were in front of him, Huimei was behind him, an earthen wall was on his left, and Lu, holding a large pebble and grinning maliciously, was approaching from his right.

"Run! You try running again!" Lu gasped for breath, wiping the sweat from his face with the back of his hand. He glared fiercely at the dark figure forced into the shadows beneath a fallen tree trunk. "Stealing a girl's things in broad daylight! If I don't hand you over to Lord Ibiki at the Konoha Interrogation Department today, I'll change my name!"

Hui Mei, wielding a bamboo pole, approached, her pretty face frosty: "Hand over my bath towel!"

Black Crow remained silent, its legs slightly lowered, the tip of its broom always locked onto the shadowy figure's heart, guarding against any possible dying counterattack.

Surrounded by the three people, the bulging wad of floral fabric beneath the collapsed tree trunk trembled slightly.

The atmosphere around them became extremely tense in that instant.

The wind rustled through the bamboo forest, and the fallen leaves whispered in the breeze.

"Surrender!" Lu shouted, took a step forward, grabbed the exposed pink bath towel, and pulled it outward with force!

"Splash!"

Thick bath towels and several colorful bathrobes were torn off in an instant.

However, the vicious dwarf spy or the wretched-looking wandering ninja that was expected did not appear.

In the very center of the torn clothing, a particularly plump, short-haired tabby cat with black and white stripes and a small chipped patch on its right ear, was crouching, its fur standing on end. Its large, round, emerald-green eyes were fixed on Lu, and a sharp, menacing growl escaped its throat: "Ha—!!"

Behind it, amidst the pile of soft bathrobes and cotton towels it had stolen, lay three newborn kittens whose eyes were not yet fully open.

The kittens, no bigger than a palm, were huddled in the warm, dry cotton fabric, making extremely faint meowing sounds.

The air seemed to freeze completely at that moment.

The wind stopped.

The fallen leaves landed silently on the soil.

Lu gripped the pink bath towel in his hand, frozen in place, maintaining a fierce forward-grabbing posture, his mouth agape enough to fit an egg.

Hui Mei's long bamboo pole froze in mid-air, her anger turning into astonishment in an instant, and then into indescribable bewilderment.

Black Crow's grip on the broom loosened slightly, and a rare, almost blank, confusion appeared in his usually cold and wary eyes.

"This—this is—" Lu stammered, looking at the large tabby cat on the ground, then turning to look at Huimei, "This is—the one you were talking about—the one with extremely strong physical abilities, skilled in infiltration, and with ruthless methods—the perverted spy?"

The mother cat was clearly terrified by the three menacing-looking humans in front of her.

Although it was trembling all over, it still stood firmly in front of the three kittens, its back arched, its two front paws digging tightly into the mud, and it hissed even more piercingly at the ground: "Haaaah! Meow!!"

"Meow—" A small black and white kitten behind it seemed to sense its mother's tension, closed its eyes, nestled in the soft fabric, and let out a tender meow.

Hui Mei's bamboo pole fell to the ground with a "thud".

The murderous aura on her face melted away completely in a second, and even a faint blush appeared.

She nervously twisted the sash of her bathrobe, stammering, "I—I only saw a dark shadow in the mist—and it moved so fast—who knew—who knew it would be a cat!"

"puff."

Black Crow turned his head, took a deep breath, and tried to keep his beak straight.

Lu Ze completely deflated, collapsing to the ground and wailing while clutching his hair: "A cat! The three of us, esteemed Konoha genin, used tactical encirclement and earth-style interception, even brooms and pebbles, and after chasing for so long, the culprit turned out to be a newborn cat?!"

"Tap, tap, tap."

The steady, gentle tapping of a walking stick on the ground came from the bamboo path not far away.

The three of them turned to look.

Chi Quan was walking slowly through the bamboo forest towards them.

His light gray kimono was spotless, and he rested his cane steadily in front of him, looking as calm as if he were simply taking a stroll in his own backyard.

His gaze swept across the messy ground, finally settling on the wary tabby cat and three kittens under the fallen tree trunk.

"It seems the tracking exercise has come to a successful conclusion." Chi Quan's tone was calm, even carrying a faint smile.

Lu looked up at Chi Quan with a resentful expression: "Teacher—did you know from the beginning that the culprit was a cat?"

"Only the keratin layer of a feline could leave scratches on the wooden board." Chi Quan walked to the tree trunk, squatted down, and pushed up his glasses. "Moreover, judging from the depth of the claw marks in the soil and the stride, he was on all fours and weighed about four kilograms."

Aside from stray cats, I can't think of any dwarf spies weighing around four kilograms around Konoha Village.

Huimei blushed deeply, wishing she could disappear into the ground: "Teacher! Since you knew, why didn't you tell us sooner! We were made to chase after you like idiots halfway up the mountain!"

"Because this is an excellent practical training exercise in tracking," Chi Quan said calmly. "On a real battlefield, you will often encounter various illusions and distracting information."

If you start your search with the preconceived notion that this is a person, you will often overlook the most basic physical clues.

Black Crow made the correct physical judgment in front of the wooden plank, but you were all swayed by your emotions.

Black Crow lowered his head: "I'm sorry, teacher, I didn't stick to my own judgment."

"No need for apologies." Chi Quan extended his hand, his palm slowly opening forward, without any aggressive movements. His breathing remained at a very low frequency. "It is correct to maintain a moderate level of vigilance when facing an unknown target."

The female cat, which had initially appeared ferocious, gradually relaxed its tense back after sensing the calm and harmless aura emanating from Chi Quan.

It sniffed at Chi Quan's fingers with its nose, the hissing in its throat gradually subsided, and finally it cautiously rubbed its head against Chi Quan's palm, making a soft "meow" sound.

"The wild short-haired tabby cat's body temperature regulation mechanism has not fully recovered after giving birth." Chi Quan gently rubbed the mother cat's ears, his gaze falling on the stolen soft clothing. "The temperature difference between day and night in the mountains is large in late autumn, and the damp soil can cause the kittens to have low body temperature and develop pneumonia."

In order to build a nest for its young, instinct drives it to seek out dry, thick, and warm fabric.

Chi Quan glanced at Hui Mei: "The pure cotton bath towels on the changing racks of the hot spring inn are probably the most perfect insulation material in the entire back mountain, in its opinion."

Looking at the three kittens curled up in her beloved bath towel, Huimei's anger had long since dissipated.

She couldn't resist crouching down, extending a finger, and gently touching the fluffy ear of one of the kittens.

Feeling the warmth, the kitten immediately rubbed its pink little nose against Huimei's finger, making soft, delicate meows.