bookbashuk Chapter 363 Is Chiquan in Konoha?
Chapter 363 Is Chiquan in Konoha?
Chapter 363 Is Chiquan in Konoha?
Is there a pattern?
"Yes," Chi Quan said. "It gets cold before it rains. It gets cold when there are festivals in the village, when there are many people, and when chakra is mixed. It also gets cold when someone is too close to me or has an abnormally high body temperature."
Ya frowned: "This doesn't seem like tracking, it's more like sensing."
“Yes,” Chi Quan said, “that’s why I suspect the anchor in Helian’s hand isn’t just a positioning tool. It might be something living, reactive. Not dead blood, but living fluid.”
My teeth shuddered.
What do you mean by "alive"?
"Like an insect. Like the insects of the Aburame clan. They have their own lives, their own senses, and are not entirely controlled by the host."
Ya remained silent for a long time.
Akamaru, tired from playing, lay back down on the edge of the bed, resting his chin on the corner of Ikezumi's blanket, his eyes half-closed.
"Chiquan."
"Um."
"Does Shikamaru know what you're talking about?"
"I didn't know before today."
"So when do you plan to tell him everything?"
Chi Quan thought for a moment.
"It's all done."
Ya stared at his face for five seconds.
Are you sure?
"Sure."
Ya slowly leaned back in her chair and let out a long breath.
"Fine. Then I won't worry about it. It's pointless anyway. You guys are all smarter than me, I'll just be responsible for hitting people and getting yelled at."
Chi Quan's lips twitched again.
"You smiled," Ya said, pointing at him.
"no."
"You definitely smiled this time. I saw it."
Chi Quan turned her face to the window, refusing to look at him.
Ya chuckled twice, then picked up Akamaru from the corner of the blanket and placed him on his lap.
"Fine, don't admit it then. Anyway, I've remembered it. You laughed twice. When you're fully recovered, I'll use this to trade you for a mission."
"What kind of mission?"
"Let's find something easier. I don't want everyone to be covered in blood every time we go out."
Chi Quan thought for a moment.
I will try my best.
"You're talking nonsense," Tooth said. "You always say 'try your best,' and you're always the fiercest one."
Chi Quan did not refute.
The door opened, and Shikamaru came in carrying a bowl of porridge. The porridge was still steaming, with a few strands of egg and minced ginger floating on top, but no scallions. He placed the porridge on the bedside table and glanced at his teeth.
"Your expression doesn't look right."
Ya immediately put on an innocent face.
"There's nothing wrong with me. I'm perfectly normal."
Shikamaru glanced at him suspiciously, then turned to look at Ikezumi.
Chi Quan picked up the bowl of porridge and stirred it with a spoon.
He didn't say anything.
Shikamaru's gaze swept back and forth between the two of them.
"Did you two collude to give a false testimony?"
Tooth: "No."
Chi Quan: "No."
Shikamaru squinted.
"Too neat. That makes it suspicious."
Kiba picked up Akamaru and stood up.
"I'll go feed Akamaru first. You guys chat." He walked to the door, glanced back at Chi Quan, and mouthed two words without uttering a sound. Chi Quan understood. Ya was saying "Take care."
After the door closed, the ward fell silent. Shikamaru sat down in a chair and watched Izumi eat her porridge spoonful by spoonful. Izumi ate very slowly, pausing after each sip, as if giving her stomach room to adjust.
"Is it good?" Shikamaru asked.
"Just the right amount of salt."
"I asked if it tastes good or not, not whether it's salty or bland."
Chi Quan took another sip.
"good."
Shikamaru sighed.
"It's alright, but it doesn't taste good. If you don't like it, just say so, and I'll try a different place next time."
"No need to change," Chi Quan said. "This one is fine."
"Stubborn to the end."
"Really, you don't need to."
Shikamaru leaned back in his chair, watching Ikezumi finish her porridge. After the bowl was empty, Ikezumi placed it on the cabinet, rinsed her mouth with the water from the bedside table, and spat the water into the bedside spittoon. Her movements were neither fast nor slow, each step performed meticulously, like an obedient patient.
Shikamaru suddenly felt that something was wrong.
He couldn't explain it.
Chi Quan was incredibly cooperative. From the moment he woke up, he didn't complain about getting out of bed, didn't insist on going on missions, and didn't say, "I can't lie here." He sat on the windowsill enjoying the breeze, but then he came back. He placed the knife on the cabinet, but didn't hold it. He obediently drank the porridge, took his medicine, and underwent the examination.
Like a wild beast trapped in a cage, not yet planning to break free.
Shikamaru suppressed his unease.
"Kagura will come this afternoon to reinforce the seal. She said it will at least silence Rō for three days."
Chi Quan nodded.
"What about Hisai's matter?"
"Lady Tsunade is already making arrangements. It should arrive as early as the day after tomorrow."
Chi Quan nodded again.
Shikamaru hesitated for a moment.
"Chiquan."
"Um.
""
"Is there anything you said to Ya that you didn't tell me?"
Chi Quan looked up and saw that his expression remained unchanged.
"That's all."
Shikamaru stared at him for a long time.
"OK."
The door to the ward was knocked on at exactly 2 p.m.
Kagura arrived on time, followed not by the two assistants from yesterday, but by a tall man Shikamaru had never seen before.
The man was in his early thirties, wearing black-rimmed glasses and the dark blue uniform of the Sealing Squad. He had a badge on his chest that Shikamaru had never seen before—three water droplets surrounding an eye.
"Lord Shikamaru." Kagura nodded as she entered. "This is Hisai."
Shikamaru stood up from his chair, raising his eyebrows.
"Didn't they say the earliest would be the day after tomorrow?"
Hisai pushed his glasses up. His voice was low, like an echo coming from the bottom of a well.
"I was already on my way back to Konoha. By the time Kagura-san's messenger bird found me, I was already in the Land of Fire."
"You've come to Konoha on business?"
Hisai glanced at Kagura. Kagura nodded slightly.
"Someone sent a package to the Northeast Frontier Research Institute," Hisai said. "Inside was a vial of blood. It was signed Helian." There was no letter, no message, just a vial of blood and a label with one word written on it—"Chiquan."
""
It felt as if a layer of air had been sucked out of the ward.
Shikamaru felt a layer of cold sweat instantly cling to his back.
"When did you receive it?"
Five days ago.
"Sent to the research institute? Not to you personally?"
"It was sent to the research institute, a public mail collection point," Hisai said. "So the entire institute saw it. Someone took photos and it circulated among several outposts along the border. I tried to suppress it for three days, but I couldn't."
Shikamaru gritted his teeth.
"Helian wants you to know that Chi Quan's blood is on his hands."
"Not only that." Hisai walked to Izumi's bedside and looked down at Izumi's face. Izumi wasn't asleep; his eyes were half-open, and he calmly met his gaze. Hisai looked at him for a while, then suddenly said something that surprised everyone.
"You're not a pure-blooded descendant of Hamura, are you?"
Chi Quan's expression changed.
It wasn't panic, it was alertness. Like a knife being half-drawn from its sheath.
"How did you figure that out?"
"That vial of blood," Hisai said, "I did a quick test. Your blood has the mark of the Hamura family's bloodline, very faint, almost undetectable. But there's another mark I don't recognize. It's not a bloodline mark from any family in the Land of Fire, nor is it a bloodline limit registered by any of the Four Great Ninja Villages."
Shikamaru took a step forward.
"What do you mean?"
Hisai turned around and looked at him.
"That means Ikezumi's bloodline isn't singular. He might be a hybrid of two bloodlines. The Hamura family's Ensui is only half of it, the other half—"
'
"The other half what?" Shikamaru pressed.
Hisai shook his head.
"I told you, I don't recognize it. But the shape of that mark is very similar to Yanshui. It's not water, it's another kind of fluid. Thicker. Slower. Like—"
'
"Like what?"
Hisai remained silent for a long time, so long that Shikamaru thought he wouldn't answer.
"Like blood in its last moments before it congeals."
No one spoke in the ward.
Chi Quan leaned against the pillows, his expression unchanged. But his right index finger gently tapped the sheet under the covers—
This was the first time Shikamaru had seen him display any signs of unease in his body language since he had known him. It was subtle, barely perceptible, almost negligible. But Shikamaru noticed it.
Kagura cleared her throat.
"Hisai, you look at the branding first."
Hisai nodded and walked behind Ikezumi. Ikezumi lowered her head slightly, revealing the back of her neck. Hisai didn't touch it with her hand, but instead took out a thin, transparent film from her pocket and stuck it on the burn mark. The moment the film was applied, its color changed—it turned into a murky grayish-blue, like the surface of water on a cloudy day.
Hisai stared at that thin film for a full minute.
"Kagura-san, your triple seal is very well done." He said this first, then changed the subject, "but this brand doesn't need to be pressed."
Kagura frowned.
"unnecessary?"
"It's half dead." Hisai peeled off the membrane and looked at it against the light. "The drop of blood that was nailed into the back of Chiquan's neck is causing the caster's vital signs to weaken. Not slowly, but rapidly. At this rate, in two months at most, this drop of blood will completely lose its activity. At that time, the brand will disappear automatically, without even needing to be removed."
Shikamaru blurted out, "The caster isn't dead?"
"He's not dead," Hisai said, "but soon. I can read the caster's condition from the 'water phase' of this drop of blood. He must have a chronic illness, or he's suffered a severe, incurable injury. His blood is slowly drying up. Once his blood has drained away, the needle pinned to Ikezumi's body will rust and break."
Kagura walked to the window and crossed her arms.
"So Helian was in a hurry to act, not because he was ready, but because he was running out of time."
7
Shikamaru immediately chimed in, "He's trying to do something with the branding before the caster dies."
Hisai folded the film and put it in his pocket.
"That's one possibility. Another possibility is that what he wanted wasn't the brand itself, but the moment before it disappeared."
What is meant by "the moment before the brand disappears"?
"The tracking mark of Yanshui, at the moment of its demise, will produce a violent resonance. Like a string that makes a final sound before it snaps. That sound is much louder than usual. If Helian could somehow capture that resonance at that moment, he could not only locate the pool, but also..."
Hisai paused for a moment.
Shikamaru pressed, "What else could it be?"
"It can also send his own blood into Chi Quan's body through the resonance channel."
Chi Quan suddenly spoke.
"Blood transfusion".
Everyone looked at him.
Chi Quan's face was a little paler than before, but his voice remained steady.
"He doesn't want to kill me. He wants a blood transfusion. To replace the caster's dying drop of blood with his Helian blood. The new blood, with new conditions, will be re-injected into my meridians. At that time, the brand will not only not disappear, but will become stronger, and he will have complete control over it."
Hisai's gaze towards Ikezumi changed, now carrying the seriousness one only a professional would show when meeting another professional.
How did you know?
"I'm guessing," Izumi said. "I started guessing when Hamura said he wanted me to remember. He said 'remember,' not 'pay with my life,' not 'die.' He didn't want me to die; he wanted me to remember certain things. And the prerequisite for remembering certain things is—I have to become certain people first."
Shikamaru felt an even greater chill down his spine.
"He wants you to become a member of the Hamura family."
"Not entirely," Izumi said. "He wanted me to become someone who has both Hamura's blood and another kind of blood. The mixture might be what he really wanted."
Hisai suddenly chuckled. It was short, like a sigh.
"Interesting. I've been studying the Yan River for twelve years, and this is the first time I've encountered someone who isn't a researcher, and they pushed the same spot that took me three years to reach."
Shikamaru wasn't interested in listening to any of this.
"The problem now isn't theory. It's how to cut off this passage before Helian makes a move."
Hisai looked at Kagura.
Kagura walked over from the window.
"There are two ways to cut off the passage. First, actively remove it before the brand disappears—but this requires the caster's blood, which we don't have. Second, intercept it halfway when Helian tries to send the blood in."
Shikamaru frowned: "How do we intercept it?"
"Use blood from the same source as bait," Kagura said. "Helian's blood needs to flow along the Yanshui Channel, which is made of water. If we create a fork in the channel and set up a fake endpoint, his blood will flow into the trap instead of into the pool."
Hisai added, "This requires a large quantity of high-purity distilled blood samples. Not from Ikezumi, but from the Hamura family. And they must be taken from living people."
The ward fell silent for a moment.
Chi Quan said, "Hamura is lonely."
Shikamaru turned to look at him.
"He was seriously injured, but he didn't die. He's still within the Land of Fire. He has the blood of the Hamura family flowing through his veins, and it's pure enough."
Shikamaru's mind started racing.
"You're going to use Hamura Sakuya as bait?"
"It's not as bait," Chi Quan said. "It's his blood as bait. We don't need to catch him alive—blood is enough."
Hisai glanced at Ikezumi.
"When you kill someone, the blood loses some of its activity within minutes. To retain maximum activity, it must be taken alive."
Shikamaru immediately understood what Ikezumi meant.
"So you need to capture them alive."
Chi Quan nodded.
Shikamaru took a couple of steps in the hospital room and then suddenly stopped.
"No, that's a diversionary tactic.
Everyone was looking at him.
Shikamaru turned around.
"Helian sent Chi Quan's blood to the Border Research Institute to lure Jiu Jing back to Konoha. He needs Jiu Jing in Konoha because Jiu Jing is the only one who can decipher the blood sample of Yan Shui. He wants to gather all the Yan Shui experts around Chi Quan—and then what?"
Then he can determine the location of the pool?
Hisai's glasses reflected light.
"You mean, Helian wants to confirm that Chi Quan is in Konoha?"