Chapter 45: Range Not Enough? Just Lower the Resolution!

Chapter 45: Range Not Wide Enough? Just Lower the Image Quality!

Kakashi took the clothing fragment, bit his finger to draw a blood seal, and quickly formed hand seals.

Summoning Technique!

A dog wearing a forehead protector appeared in the middle of the seal.

"What is the mission this time?"

"Pakkun, help me find him."

Kakashi handed over the piece of cloth.

"I could smell it from far away."

Pakkun wore a look of disgust.

The stench of blood was far too heavy!

It was reeking of blood. Without even needing to get close, it sniffed the air and bolted in a certain direction.

"Follow."

"As expected of Lord Kakashi."

Kiyota Shin quickly followed, his eyes burning with a trace of excitement.

Tenten stayed by his side, guarding his safety, but Chiba quietly lingered a bit behind.

"Chiba-kun."

A figure emerged from beside a tree.

"Azusa, help me use the Transformation Technique. Let's swap identities."

"But you don't know the Transformation Technique. What about your voice?"

"I've read a few books on it, it's not that hard."

"Did you discover something?"

Azusa transformed into Chiba's appearance, and then used the Transformation Technique to make Chiba look like her.

During this period, her chakra control had improved significantly, making her Transformation Technique even more flawless. Ordinary jounin would likely fail to spot the flaw.

Furthermore.

As a samurai, Kiyota Shin was not skilled in perception and investigation.

"Not yet, but this guy is a bit off," Chiba said. "I have a feeling his target isn't the enemy named Yuuichi, but Teacher Kakashi."

"Then what should we do?"

Azusa's expression changed.

Daring to target a jounin like Kakashi meant the other party undoubtedly had a backup plan prepared.

"Teacher Kakashi and I are both prepared. Although I don't know what Teacher Kakashi's plan is, it doesn't stop me from swapping identities with you."

"Alright."

Azusa did not hesitate. "Then I'll keep up so he doesn't suspect anything."

"Mm."

Chiba nodded gently, then walked into Azusa's previous position, using the jungle to conceal his location while masking his own presence.

Kiyota Shin saw "Chiba" return to the formation, but noticed that one person's presence had vanished, prompting him to frown and ask, "Lord Kakashi, is your team missing a member? Could she have been attacked by Yuuichi?"

"No, she is skilled in stealth and has hidden herself."

Kakashi explained.

He had guessed that Chiba might have swapped identities with Azusa, so he covered for them.

Kiyota Shin said worriedly, "But after all, she's only a genin. Will she be alright?"

"I'm still here."

A voice sounded.

Then, the leaves above rustled slightly.

Azusa was secretly shocked.

When Chiba imitated her speech, his voice sounded almost identical, and if he hadn't spoken just now, she wouldn't have discovered his location at all.

She was able to perfectly conceal her presence because of her bloodline limit.

What about him?

And furthermore.

She remembered that Chiba's Transformation Technique was terrible, almost to the point of being unable to use it. How could he still imitate her voice so accurately?

Tenten was just as shocked as her, but quickly reasoned it away.

For a genius like Chiba, besides things he truly lacked the talent to master, he probably didn't need much time for anything else.

Imitating a voice or something could be done without ninjutsu anyway.

The gap between a genius and an ordinary person...

She sighed inwardly.

"I see, then I'm relieved. The enemy is extremely cunning; my two comrades were ambushed by him using traps and poison while they were separated."

"Let's go, pursuing the target is paramount."

Kakashi took over the conversation, cutting off Kiyota Shin's rambling justifications.

They chased out of the town and headed all the way north.

This direction...

"Is the enemy running toward the Land of Iron?"

"What a cunning bastard! If not for you, I never would have imagined he'd dare return to the Land of Iron!"

Kiyota Shin feigned appropriate anger.

Chiba observed his surroundings from the treetops, while simultaneously pushing his sensory range to the maximum. However, he quickly realized that even at maximum capacity, it seemed impossible to sense any enemies.

Damn it!

Is the range too short?

Chiba walked while deep in thought.

His sensory ability came from the feedback of the Bodhi Seed, yielding extraordinary results and providing great convenience for creating ninjutsu. Yet it had one flaw—

The precision was very high, but the range wasn't large. Even with his spiritual power having increased considerably recently, it only stretched for a mile or two.

Hmm?

Was there any way to increase the range?

Chiba began brainstorming on his own.

As long as your thinking doesn't stagnate, there are always more solutions than problems.

He quickly thought of a possibility.

Based on experience from playing video games in his past life, what should you do when the hardware can't handle the game?

Lower the image quality!

Turn down the pixels, graphics, and special effects, and what couldn't run smoothly before will start running.

Sensory range...

Could it be treated the same way?

Chiba decided to give it a try.

Sensory ability wasn't overly complex. In his understanding, aside from non-scientific products of bloodline limits like the Byakugan, a normal person's sensory ability was essentially a manifestation of spiritual power utilization.

Therefore.

People strong in illusions often had decent sensory abilities because they knew how to wield them.

Chiba couldn't learn illusions, but thanks to the Third Hokage's vast library, he had studied spiritual power for a while, even though he failed to create any ninjutsu with it...

Still, micro-adjusting his perception through spiritual power was something he could barely manage.

Soon, his attempt succeeded.

His sensory range instantly doubled. The trade-off, however, was that the information he perceived became much fuzzier.

Before, he could at least perceive specific locations and details, but now, even Kakashi and the others appeared as mere blurred balls of chakra presence in his perception.

It was as if the pixels had been smeared, turning the whole thing into a mosaic.

"Phew, although it's in this state, I don't need too much precision. I just need to know if there are enemies around. This level is already enough for me to use."

Chiba let out a slow breath.

Then, his expression turned complicated.

Because after expanding his sensory range, he discovered five clusters of chakra presence.

Aside from Kakashi's group, there were four other parties. One was trailing them from about four kilometers behind. Although their exact situation was unknown, based on their route, they were likely Kakashi's backup.

What about the other three parties?

One should be the Yuuichi whom Kiyota Shin mentioned, but what about the other two groups?

The information was far too vague.

However, one thing was clear: the positions of those three chakra clusters were quite far apart from one another, so they hadn't merged into a single mass.

Could this be...

The mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of theoriole behind?

Get closer, then adjust the range to see if more information can be perceived.

Chiba silently accelerated.

Kakashi looked up.

The sound from above had a very subtle anomaly, likely caused by Chiba increasing his speed.

Did this kid notice something?

"Pakkun."

"Still tracking. This guy is cunning; he used some kind of medicine to mask his scent."

"Never mind that. Being able to smell the medicine means our direction is still correct. Keep chasing!"

"Hah? Fine, you're the boss."

Pakkun picked up the pace.

Kiyota Shin didn't suspect a thing, because...

That faint level of sound earlier hadn't even been heard by Azusa; she hadn't noticed that Chiba had already moved far ahead.