Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Chapter 488 Discovery
About an hour later.

It's getting dark.

Qingming finally returned to the vicinity of the Black Stone stronghold.

At this point, it would be inappropriate to fly further.

Although he has now completed the operation and no longer cares whether others find out that he has secretly left the base, it is better to avoid some trouble.

What's more, there are quite a few Mist Hidden Teams roaming outside the base now, and his chakra is at an absolute low level, so there is really no need to create unnecessary trouble.

However, just because Qingming doesn't want to cause trouble doesn't mean trouble won't find him.

Just as he was cautiously approaching the Black Stone stronghold, a team of Mist Ninjas suddenly stopped about a kilometer behind him.

One of them squatted down, looked at the ninja dog next to him that was not even as tall as his calf, and said, "Happy, did you find anything?"

This ninja dog named Happy is the summoned beast of this special jonin of Kirigakure.

It has a sense of smell far superior to that of ordinary dogs and can detect even the slightest smell in the air.

At this moment, it shrugged its nose, sniffed carefully around, then raised its head and said, "Long, we may be in trouble."

Its voice was deep and serious, far less youthful than its size would suggest.

And its words made the four people present a little nervous.

Inoue Ryu knew that Happy would not speak without a purpose, so he quickly asked, "What's going on?"

Hearing this, Happy did not speak immediately, but sniffed the air around him again before continuing: "I smell a familiar smell."

"who?"

Inoue Ryu asked.

"Uchiha Qingming."

Happy replied.

"what?"

"Ghost Sword Qingming?"

"how is this possible?"

After hearing Happy's answer, before Inoue Ryu could say anything more, the other three members of the team screamed in surprise, and some even drew out their kunai, ready to deal with any possible attack at any time.

It’s not their fault that they are so nervous, but their strength does not allow them to be careless.

Unlike Inoue Ryu, a special jonin, they only have the strength of a chuunin. With such strength, it would be almost a head-on encounter with Qingming.

This has been fully demonstrated in the battles of the past week.

The key is that Qingming is not like other Konoha's Jonin who are unwilling to attack them. As long as he encounters Chunin like them, he will take decisive action.

This makes them very nervous.

In this regard, Qingming could only say, who made him lack chakra?

Otherwise, how could he maintain steady progress in his various skills in the fierce battle.

You know, when his 'Instant Sword Technique' and some other skills are promoted to the perfect level, if they are used again, it will only consume chakra, but will not increase any proficiency.

In order to make up for his losses in battle, he could only hunt these most cost-effective Chunins.

In addition, treating the wounded also consumes a lot of chakra, and this hole also needs to be filled by someone.

And the Kirigakure Chunin is undoubtedly the best candidate.

Because of this, these Mist Village Chunins were very afraid whenever they mentioned him.

However, at this moment, Happy said again: "The other party's current state seems to be a little bit wrong."

"what happened?"

Hearing this, Inoue Long's eyes lit up slightly, and he quickly asked, "What did you find?"

As he spoke, he raised his head and secretly looked in the direction that Happy had just sniffed, as if looking for Qingming's trace.

Seeing this, Happy said speechlessly: "Don't look for him, he's not in the sky."

Hearing this, Inoue Ryu retracted his gaze, and Happy continued, "My nose tells me that he is now in the forest ahead, and seems to be preparing to return to the Black Stone Base."

"In the woods?"

After hearing this, not only Inoue Ryu, a special jonin who is good at intelligence gathering and analysis, but also the other three Kirigakure Chunins found something wrong. It was because Qingming had been flying around every time he traveled in the past half month. How could he hide his head and show his tail like he did now?

That’s right, Qingming is not flying in the sky, which in their view means he is hiding his head and showing his tail.

Combined with Happy's information about his weakening breath, the four of them couldn't help but wonder if Qingming had been injured while carrying out some mission, and now had to return to the base.

It has to be said that people are always good at deceiving themselves, especially when it comes to their own interests.

They always think about things in the direction they want, and come up with a lot of reasons for it, and finally take risks.

Just like now, the four of them only thought about the benefits that could be brought by killing or assisting in killing Qingming, and inevitably associated Qingming's weakening breath and injury together.

They never thought that Qingming had simply consumed too much chakra for some other reasons.

However, it seems that there is not much difference.

The breathing of several people became heavier.

In the end, it was Ryu Inoue who calmed down first.

He thought for a moment, confirmed with Happy again that Qingming's aura was indeed much weaker than before, and after cautiously approaching the Black Stone stronghold, he finally made up his mind.

He looked at one of the Kirigakure Chunins and said, "Yingming, you return to the base immediately and tell Captain Ozawa what happened here and ask him to send people to support us immediately."

"Yes, Captain!"

When Ito Hideaki heard what Inoue Ryu said, he felt a little disappointed, but also unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

Although following Inoue Ryu may bring greater merit, the dangers faced will also increase exponentially.

In this case, it’s better to drink some soup!

That’s the Demon Sword Qingming, one of the Gemini Stars of Konoha!

Not to mention the reward price on the black market, even the reward from the village was enough to make him jealous. Even if it was just a sip of soup, it would be good for him.

After Ito Hideaki left, Inoue Ryu looked at the ninja dog at his feet and said in a deep voice: "Happy, find him!"

"Ah."

Happy simply responded before sniffing the air and running in one direction.

In the back, Inoue Ryu glanced at the two team members beside him and immediately said, "Follow me."

As he spoke, he took the lead and ran forward.

Seeing this, the two Kirigakure Chunins behind tightened the kunai in their hands and hurriedly followed.

······
the other side.

Qingming was moving forward cautiously in the forest.

Suddenly, he stopped and looked back.

For some reason, he suddenly felt like someone was watching him.

"Illusion?"

Qing Ming muttered to himself and sensed carefully for a moment, but still found nothing.

Shaking his head, he was about to take a step forward, but suddenly he paused and ultimately the kick did not land.

Qing Ming still has great faith in his intuition, especially in this world of extraordinary powers, intuition is sometimes more reliable than feelings.

Because this may be your subconscious mind summarizing various details that you have overlooked, and then coming to a conclusion that you understand clearly.

So, Qingming decided to investigate.

It just so happened that he had just had his Byakugan transplanted and had this ability.

However, before doing that, make sure there is no one around.

As soon as he thought of this, Qingming suddenly opened his Sharingan and scanned the surroundings.

Nothing unusual was found within visual range.

Then he leaped onto the tree trunk.

Then, he closed his Sharingan, raised his hand to unlock the 'protective seal' on his forehead, and then concentrated his mind to activate the Byakugan between his eyebrows.

In an instant, his white eyes penetrated the forehead protector and saw everything within a kilometer radius.

(End of this chapter)