Chapter 59: Already Formed a Habit
Su Xiao turned his head to look at Bai Jue, his expression blank as he stared at the white figure.
"The enemy is chasing us."
Bai Jue wiped the smirk off his face, feeling somewhat indignant. He had come to inform Su Xiao.
"Wipe that gloating look off your face. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be hunted like this."
Su Xiao's gaze was calm as he looked at Bai Jue. Right now, he felt like killing this pig teammate of his.
"What does that have to do with me?"
Bai Jue was clearly displeased.
"Does it have... nothing to do with you?"
Su Xiao stood up.
"In the underground prison, it wasn't Huang Tu. It was the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki."
"..."
Bai Jue let out a laugh.
"So what? Even if it were Huang Tu, you couldn't have dealt with him quickly."
"True. Even if it were Huang Tu in that underground prison, I couldn't have finished him off quickly. But I also wouldn't have had to tank the Dust Release head-on."
"Cough, just a small mistake. No need to be so bothered."
Bai Jue stopped looking at Su Xiao. He actually knew that providing such severely wrong intel meant that even if Su Xiao chopped up his clone right now, Obito would have to turn a blind eye.
"This is actually a minor issue. There's always risk in battle."
Su Xiao's words surprised Bai Jue. He had thought Su Xiao would interrogate him over this. Bai Jue simply didn't understand Su Xiao—this kind of mistake, Su Xiao didn't really care about.
"In the plan, you were supposed to hold off the Hidden Stone Village for three minutes. That's not long, is it?"
"N-Not long."
Bai Jue finally realized what Su Xiao was getting at.
"From the moment I and Madara attacked the Vertical Rock Village to rescuing Deidara, it took 6 minutes and 47 seconds. Including the time I charged from inside the Vertical Rock Village up the cliff wall, it was about 7 minutes total.
In those 7 minutes, the main force of the Hidden Stone Village had already reinforced the Vertical Rock Village. Tell me, how long did you actually hold them off? Or did you do what you did during the Five Kage Summit—send a clone into the Stone Ninja office?"
Su Xiao exhaled a puff of smoke. The reason he was being relentlessly pursued by the Hidden Stone Village's main force was that Bai Jue probably hadn't held them off for even 30 seconds.
This time, Bai Jue had nothing to say. That was exactly what happened. His clone really did appear in the Stone Ninja office. Su Xiao had specifically told him before the operation to be mysterious at first, to create chaos—set fires or something.
But Bai Jue's mind wasn't mature. He was a product Madara created from Hashirama's cells. Aside from his powerful reconnaissance abilities and numerical advantage, his combat intelligence was terrible.
It was easy to imagine: Bai Jue appearing directly in the Stone Ninja office was essentially a signal to the Hidden Stone Village that Su Xiao and his group really were coming to rescue someone. So Huang Tu immediately sent reinforcements to the Vertical Rock Village, which nearly got Su Xiao caught in a pincer attack.
"So don't gloat in front of me. Do you think I'm Uchiha Sasuke?"
Su Xiao dropped the cigarette in his hand. By now, Bai Jue had indeed stopped grinning.
"The enemy will catch up in at most ten minutes. The Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, is leading the charge."
After leaving this remark, the pitcher plant around Bai Jue began to close, slowly sinking into the ground. He also understood how big a mistake he had made in the rescue plan.
"Tell Madara that there are ninjas in the Hidden Stone Village skilled in long-distance tracking. Find a chance to deal with them."
Bai Jue, sinking into the ground, paused, then seemed to realize something. Su Xiao's meaning was clear: as long as he stopped grinning at Su Xiao, his previous dereliction of duty would be forgiven.
"Mm. The person you're looking for appeared near the Land of Water, but disappeared quickly."
Bai Jue sank into the ground. Su Xiao nodded. Bai Jue had understood his meaning.
Obito still didn't know about Bai Jue turning into a pig teammate. At the time, Obito was inside the Vertical Rock Village and hadn't seen Su Xiao nearly get surrounded from both sides. As long as Su Xiao didn't mention it, Obito was unlikely to find out.
Bai Jue's meaning was obvious: as long as Su Xiao didn't bring up his sudden transformation into a pig teammate, he would do his best to help Su Xiao find the whereabouts of that outsider.
Holding Bai Jue accountable for his mistake wouldn't benefit Su Xiao. Besides, before rescuing Deidara, he already knew Bai Jue was unreliable. Even the old schemer Obito was dozens of times more reliable than him.
Overall assessment of Bai Jue: this guy was stupid. You could tell from how his original body died—he was burned to death by Amaterasu in a sneak attack from Sasuke.
Actually, Bai Jue didn't have just one original body; there were two. The Bai Jue who showed up now could be called Stupid Bai Jue. This Bai Jue's intelligence wasn't great.
As for the second original Bai Jue body, that had to do with A Fei. Speaking of A Fei, Su Xiao immediately thought of Obito in disguise.
But after leaving the Naruto World for the first time, based on the situation at the time and by consulting information, he learned that the Akatsuki member A Fei back then wasn't exactly Obito.
Or rather, A Fei was impersonated by Obito, but at that time, Obito was wrapped in a layer of Bai Jue's outer shell. Those goofy remarks were all said by that Bai Jue shell.
This Bai Jue shell was Bai Jue's other original body, which could be called Goofy Bai Jue.
Stupid Bai Jue and Goofy Bai Jue were both Bai Jue, with 100% structural similarity, but they were two different personalities.
Stupid Bai Jue liked to grin and often did stupid things without realizing it. You could say he was childlike. Goofy Bai Jue was different—though goofy, his intelligence was much higher than Stupid Bai Jue's.
Su Xiao could tell from their tones. Compared to Goofy Bai Jue, Stupid Bai Jue was clearly easier to bribe. A simple promise of secrecy was enough to buy him off.
Su Xiao and his group continued traveling quickly. He didn't believe the Hidden Stone Village would dare chase them into the Land of Fire. Not only that, once Deidara woke up, they would also have flight capability.
The escape continued. Onoki, chasing from behind, had a very ugly expression. He floated in the air, flying, while below him were several jonin running at high speed.
Onoki had already set everything up beforehand. This was evident from the defense of the Vertical Rock Village and the speed of the Hidden Stone Village's mobilization.
But Onoki had calculated that Su Xiao would break into the underground prison, that Obito would come, and even arranged troops to face Kisame. What he never expected was that someone could rescue Deidara right under his nose, throwing all his plans into chaos.
Even now, Onoki couldn't figure out how Deidara had been taken away. And the other party had left behind the words "This dog was here," which was practically a provocation.
Thinking of this, Onoki's blood pressure rose as he flew in midair. He was furious. Having someone taken was one thing, but not even knowing how it happened was inexcusable.
"Hurry, we must not let them escape into the Land of Fire."
Onoki knew that if Su Xiao and his group really fled into the Land of Fire, he couldn't continue pursuing with his men. Bringing so many Stone Ninja into the Land of Fire was almost a declaration of war against Konoha.
...
Two days later, in a forest.
Su Xiao stood shirtless by a small stream, looking somewhat tired. Deidara was lying in the stream, a string of bubbles rising.
"Still not waking up. Forget it, we've already reached the Land of Fire border."
Su Xiao pulled Deidara out of the stream. Over the past two days, he had tried many ways to wake Deidara, but all failed.
"Are those Stone Ninja dogs or what? Chasing so relentlessly."
Su Xiao had been chased before, but being pursued continuously for two days and two nights was a first.
Su Xiao walked over to Karin. This girl was leaning against a tree trunk, fast asleep, drool dripping from her mouth.
"Let's go. Keep moving."
Half-asleep Karin was woken by Su Xiao. She looked at him dazedly for a moment, then pulled down her top, exposing her shoulder. She thought Su Xiao wanted to recover stamina.
"We've reached the Land of Fire border. It's unlikely the Stone Ninja will keep chasing us here."
Hearing this, the groggy Karin sobered up a bit. She slowly pulled her clothes back up. Her experiences over the past two days had made her stop caring about exposing her upper body to Su Xiao. She was used to it.
"It's finally over. I thought I was going to die."
Karin looked utterly hopeless. Even more hopeless was Bubu Wang. This goof had been running for two days and two nights and was now panting heavily.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
A series of dry coughs came. Su Xiao turned to look. It was Deidara, lying on the ground, who had woken up.
Deidara looked around in confusion. The surroundings only made him more bewildered. Wasn't he in the underground prison? How did he end up here after sleeping?
Soon, Deidara saw Su Xiao. He couldn't believe it. After blinking a few times, he confirmed this wasn't a dream.
"Genjutsu?"
Deidara was cautious enough. Although he had insurance measures in his mind, they weren't foolproof.
Deidara closed his eyes and sensed the chakra fluctuations in his body. Soon, he confirmed he wasn't in a genjutsu.
"So, you came to rescue me."
Deidara grinned, but a sharp pain on his face made his expression twist. He touched his face, and the stinging sensation made him squint.
"Is my face swollen?"
Normally, Deidara was definitely a handsome guy with yellow hair in a ponytail, his bangs hanging to his neck covering the left side of his face. But now, Deidara's hair had a few dry weeds stuck in it, and his entire face was swollen like a pig's head. This was from getting slapped a dozen times by Su Xiao earlier.
"Not at all."
Su Xiao's voice was calm. Karin, beside him, turned her head, her expression stiff. Her thought now was: don't laugh. This was a bomb maniac. If she laughed, she'd be killed.
"Hohoho."
Amu laughed loudly, deafening. Bubu Wang even took out a camera and started clicking away, taking pictures of Deidara.
Deidara's mouth began to twitch violently...