Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_389

The vortex drenched Takuma as he struggled to run on the turbulent water. He looked up at the ROOT agent floating down toward the other riverbank in frustration. The unstable flow of water forced him to constantly adjust the flow of chakra in the soles of his feet just to remain afloat. He wouldn't drown, but he couldn't cover the distance quickly either. It was faster to cover the distance with long jumps, but that option was closed by the powerful vortex in the middle of the river. Even on the outer edge, he felt the vortex's pull, which would only get stronger if he moved closer to the core. He was bound to get sucked in and trapped inside the spinning rapids.

He considered avoiding the area with the strong pull by moving around the vortex, and the plan seemed viable until he heard his name pierce through the deafening noise of the river.

"Ratel!" Krait waved his hands over his head. Behind him, Duroc was trying to get the curious civilians moving away from the edge. "Come back! It's dangerous! It's going to—" A wave of water hit him and drowned out the end of it.,

Takuma was reluctant and turned around to look at the agent in the air, and was surprised to find him looking back. He made up his mind and began running around the vortex. Their efforts would be diminished if one of the agents managed to escape. Capture or death were the only two acceptable outcomes. As long as there was a non-zero chance that he could reach the agent, he would try.

"Ratel!"

As he neared the centre of the river, the pull suddenly weakened. Takuma immediately quickened his pace because sprinting was easier, but simultaneously, his instincts told him something was wrong. Krait's call echoed in his mind. His mind told him to move forward, but his heart told him to turn back. The two opposing thoughts made him indecisive, and he stopped in the middle of the river.

He looked at the vortex that looked no different, then turned his eye to the agent who landed on the other side. His target was getting away—with those thoughts in mind, he moved forward only to feel a pulse of energy from deep within the river hit his feet. It was unexpected that his legs sank into the water to his elbow.

Something was wrong. He immediately turned back, but a second pulse a moment later almost made him trip. There was a split second of silence before the river exploded and threw him back with such force that when he crashed on the water surface, he bounced on it like a skipping stone before sinking.

He didn't have the opportunity to hold his breath, and he felt and swallowed brackish water. When he held his breath, it felt like drowning. He tried to swim up, but the movement of the waves underwater pushed him down. He had no control of his body as a seemingly insurmountable force pushed him around, and he was entirely at the mercy of the river.

It felt like he was fighting nature itself.

Every second he remained underneath, it got difficult to hold his breath. His body was screaming for air while he desperately tried to keep the water out. Panic threatened to rise as he pushed it back down. His eyes burned as he tried to look around with his blurred vision until he recognised that her was heading toward the riverbank. He knew if he hit the bank, he would be pinned to the bank by the waves, unable to rise to the surface for air.

A determined look flashed on his face as a spark ignited in his mind. He quickly weaved hand seals while doing his best to mould chakra quickly, while his body revolted against him for more air.

Earth Release: Subterranean Voyage.

It was the second iteration of the ninjutsu experiment. The first iteration was the four Earth Release spike ninjutsu, while the second iteration was three underground traversals similar to Takuma's D-rank, Earth Release: Hiding in the Rock Jutsu.

Subterranean Voyage was a C-rank ninjutsu that turned the ground into a fluid, allowing the user to close in on the enemy with high speeds by swimming underground.

He needed to be in contact with the ground to activate the jutsu and turn the ground into fluid. He was only confident doing so with his hands—but he was not comfortable with colliding with the riverbank with his hands first because that risked snapping his wrists if he timed it wrong. So, he was going to take some punishment before activating the jutsu.

With great difficulty, Takuma turned his back to the riverbank a moment before he collided. He couldn't keep his mouth and nose shut, swallowing more water, some of which went into his lungs, bringing up a suffocating feeling that made things worse with the pain from the collision. He almost lost control of his chakra, but managed to slam one of his hands on the steep banks.

The hard, rocky earth behind him turned into gooey fluid as he sank into the wall. However, the work wasn't over because he had to hold his breath underground, which meant he had to get to the surface as soon as possible.

Fortunately, he only needed to go straight up to get.

The few seconds it took to reach the surface were possibly the longest seconds of his life. And yet, his problems weren't over because there was water in his lungs that he coughed out, which was agonising before air came to him.

"Are you alright?" Krait ran to him and knelt beside him. He pulled his mask halfway through so his mouth and nose weren't behind his mask.

"Y-Yeah," Takuma coughed.

Even though he wasn't bleeding anywhere, there were aches in his body, and the water had sapped energy from his body, leaving him cold. As much as he wanted to continue chasing after the ROOT agent, he knew they had lost him, which brought a sense of defeat that drained his motivation to keep going.

He looked around and saw chaos everywhere. Everyone and everything were soaking and drenched. People were running away to safety, but some recognised the danger was over and didn't participate in stroking the chaos. There was a lot of shock and surprise. Many stalls and shops set up next to the street had suffered damage from being hit with water.

"Ah, shit," Krait whispered.

Takuma followed his eyes and saw a group of local shinobi dressed in standard Leaf gear arrive. They hadn't informed the local administration about their mission, which was a problem when they raided an inconspicuous mill and then went on a chase around the city, causing property damage and danger to the residents. To the local shinobi, they had no reason to treat them as dangerous elements who needed to be contained or eliminated.

He quickly pulled his mask down and got up, ready for a confrontation.

"Should we escape?" Duroc asked.

They looked at Krait, who was in charge. The Aburame gazed as the local shinobi worked to get the civilians away from them while closing in on them. They didn't know how the rest were doing, so they couldn't match their decision with theirs. If they had cooperated with the local shinobi, and they didn't, the result could be hostility towards them—which could lead to a worst-case scenario where

"We should—"

He paused when another shinobi appeared on top of a building. He was a man in his thirties with long black hair that reached the small of his back. He wore an intricate red kimono with long sleeves and white hakama with a heavy black obi belt around his waist. He was dressed for a social function, and his clothes didn't look comfortable moving around, much less jumping around buildings.

All three operatives felt their muscles tense as the man stared down at them. If one wasn't a sensory-nin, there wasn't one sure-fire way to tell if a person was a shinobi or a shinobi was a genin or jōnin. However, intuition fueled by subconscious observation sometimes allowed people to gauge things about the person before them. Their intuitions screamed that they didn't want to offend or anger the man.

"He's the jōnin," Duroc whispered. His body language struggled between being defensive to protect himself in the face of an overwhelming threat and not making any sudden moves that might tick off the man on the building.

"When he asks, we—"

Krait tried to speak, but trailed off when a voice whispered into their ears with chakra.

"Surrender yourself willingly."

And that nulled anything Krait was about, the suggestion.

———
.

Rui ran and continued to run until he didn't see or smell the shadow of an ANBU-nin anywhere near him for several minutes. Once he was sure he had lost the tail, he patched himself up using the medical kit sealed in his emergency pack and robbed a small pharmacy to supplement what he lacked.

His body was bruised blue from getting smashed into walls and getting by with ninjutsu. He suffered minor burns that stung from the Aburame's Fire Release ninjutsu, and his back was throbbing in agony from getting hit by Badger ANBU's Water Release ninjutsu. Ideally, he wanted to rest for the night and recover before leaving the city, but he couldn't take the risk with his teammates captured by ANBU. They all knew the same information regarding exit plans, routes, and hidden caches. If that information was extracted quickly, ANBU could be on his tail again. By leaving quickly, he would be ahead of them and thus safer. He didn't think his teammates would fess up any information because of their training, but assuming the worst-case scenario had served him well.

Within an hour, he had left the city. He flipped coins to choose which routes to add randomness and eliminate any bias. It delayed him from reporting the ANBU raid, but it kept him safe, which increased the chances of getting the information across.

After a few hours of travelling on foot, he got on a civilian caravan by offering some money and finally got to rest. As he sat in a cart, the fatigue finally set in as he leaned against the side.

He contemplated the day, and his thoughts took him to the Badger ANBU.

"He was young..."

Despite the mask and full-sleeved clothes, he could tell that the operative who had hounded him the most was fairly young, younger than eighteen or even sixteen, which was rare for ANBU, as they didn't recruit young, which meant they saw something valuable in the kid.

He had noticed the gear of the operatives who had chased after him and saw how only the Boar ANBU had gear worn by assault operatives. From that, he could safely deduce that the other two were from another unit.

He guessed that the Aburame and Badger ANBU were the ones who had found the lab in the Taiheiyo Evergreen Forest, captured their youngest when he was visiting, and extracted information from him. Seeing that their youngest member was only late by a day, it was highly likely that a Yamanaka was involved in information extraction.

"A kid, Aburame, and Yamanaka," Rui spoke to himself. If he assumed that the Yamanaka was part of the team, he had information on three out of five members of a standard ANBU squad.

He groaned in pain as his injuries began to ache. He got himself comfortable in the carriage and closed his eyes to take a small nap.

"I'll just report it and let others worry about it," he groaned.

He had escaped an ANBU assault squad.

He had done enough for the day.