Uchiha Yuan naturally understood these principles, so upon hearing Aburame Shiwei's orders, he immediately split off a shadow clone and moved together with his main body toward the direction where the enemy had been discovered in the left front sector.
Uchiha Yuan approached cautiously and, along the way, formed another set of hand seals to create a Water Clone.
After cautiously advancing over 400 meters, Uchiha Yuan finally spotted signs of the enemy.
Judging by their attire, these five individuals were undoubtedly Mist ninja.
Activating his Sharingan and observed the chakra pathways, confirming the chakra levels of the five.
Among them, two had less chakra than him, one had about the same, and the other two had more.
Judging a ninja's strength by chakra levels alone was unreliable, so Uchiha Yuan decided to leave the shadow clone behind while he controlled the water clone to move ahead.
Since water clones can't stray too far from the original body, Uchiha Yuan followed the water clone for a short distance, then maintained a typical ninja's running stance as he directed the clone to leap through the treetops.
After a few leaps, the water clone arrived at the Mist ninja's position.
After observing in secret for a few seconds, Uchiha Yuan confirmed that the two with less chakra appeared to be around his age—probably genin level at most. The one with chakra similar to his was slightly older, while the remaining two were middle-aged.
"Who's there?" The Mist ninja with chakra on par with Uchiha Yuan suddenly stood and threw a kunai toward where the water clone was hiding.
"A sensory ninja?" the water clone thought.
The water clone then pretended to panic and turned to flee.
Naturally, this movement caught the Mist ninja's attention.
The Mist team leader glanced at the flustered water clone and said, "Looks like a greenhorn who just graduated from the academy."
"Captain, we can't let our guard down. It might just be a scouting shadow clone," said the sensory ninja who had detected Uchiha Yuan.
"We'll know if it's a clone soon enough." With that, the Mist captain leapt into action, using two Body Flickers to catch up with the fleeing water clone. Just as the clone turned to resist, the Mist captain slashed its throat with a kunai.
Splish! The water clone dissolved into a splash of water and fell from midair.
Sensing the water clone dissipate, Uchiha Yuan quickly used two Body Flickers to increase the distance between himself and the enemy.
The Mist captain muttered to himself after taking down the water clone, "A water clone? Then the real one must be nearby."
He jumped up, and sure enough, spotted Uchiha Yuan's shadow clone fleeing.
"Found you!" the Mist captain sneered cruelly and charged toward the clone.
The shadow clone bowed his head and quietly activated the Sharingan. Just as the Mist captain approached, the clone turned around.
Genjutsu: Naraka Sight Technique!
The Mist captain's movements froze. Seizing the chance, the shadow clone threw a kunai that struck his throat.
Splish! The captain, too, dissolved into water.
A second later, a voice rang out behind Uchiha Yuan's clone: "Kid, you didn't think you were the only one who could use water clones, did you?"
The shadow clone's face darkened.
"There aren't many in the Uchiha clan who awaken the Sharingan at your age. I didn't expect you to be a genius. Too bad you ran into me." The Mist captain didn't give him a chance to respond. Drawing the short sword from his back, he slashed off the clone's head.
Poof! The shadow clone vanished into a puff of smoke.
The memory of the encounter—and the searing pain of decapitation—returned to Uchiha Yuan's main body.
"Hiss…" Uchiha Yuan sucked in a sharp breath from the pain, doing his part for global warming.
Rubbing his neck, he muttered, "That guy's most likely a jōnin. He took down both my clones with just taijutsu and Body Flicker… not going to be easy to handle!"
He swallowed a soldier pill to recover some chakra, then sped back to Aburame Shiwei and reported everything he had discovered.
After a moment of thought, Aburame Shiwei replied, "If it's just a jōnin, we should be able to deal with him. The problem is, we don't know the details about the other four."
"Didn't Yuan say two of them had less chakra than him, one was about the same, and another had more? Based on chakra levels alone, only the one with more chakra and the captain seem worth worrying about," Yamanaka Kagetsu said.
"Kagetsu, we can't judge strength solely by chakra levels. If that were the case, I wouldn't have needed to go to such trouble just now," Uchiha Yuan said.
"Chakra level is important," Aburame Shiwei added, "but not a reliable measure of a ninja's strength."
"So what should we do?"
"We still need to figure out their actual strength." With that, Aburame Shiwei patted the jar on his back, and a swarm of insects flew out, heading toward the Mist ninja.
"Let's follow—but not too closely. Just close enough for the Byakugan to clearly observe them," Aburame Shiwei said.
"Then we'll need to stop about 300 meters away. Yuan just said they have a sensory ninja, and if we get detected at that range, it'll be hard to escape," said Hyuga Asana.
"We shouldn't be discovered. My water clone earlier only got within 100 meters before it was detected. They didn't spot my main body or shadow clone, so their sensory range is likely within 100 meters.
Besides, if it comes to a fight, I'm confident I can instantly take out the two genin with less chakra. I might also have a chance to kill the sensory ninja.
Even if the remaining two are both jōnin, with our combined efforts, we still have a shot."
After hearing Uchiha Yuan's words, Aburame Shiwei thought for a moment and said, "We'll eliminate the sensory ninja first. The two genin don't matter."
With that, he advanced along with the insect swarm, and the other three quickly followed.
The swarm flew at high speed toward the Mist ninja's area.
The Mist captain was in the middle of telling his comrades about the earlier encounter with Uchiha Yuan.
"Shadow clone and water clone? Captain, this guy was probably probing our strength," said the sensory ninja.
"I know, but we didn't find his real body, so we can only... huh? What's that!" The Mist captain's words were cut short as he spotted the swarm of insects approaching from the distance.
(To Be Continued...)