With decent pacing it didn't take Team Hokage that much time to reach the marked location where Mana's target was last seen by Team Dunyazad. While initially there was little holding back the trio's speed of movement, after they got a bit closer to the location the speed had to be diminished. One couldn't track their opponent moving at a breakneck place and thrashing the forest around them as they moved. Ninja could move at unbelievable speeds in combat but moving at anywhere near those speeds while travelling or tracking raised too many problems.

"We should've asked Tiwul when exactly they've spoken to Team Cirrus. Measuring time is important when tracking…" Mana mumbled out while observing the environment around her for clues.

"There are sensors in our clan. They're able to track people by the residual chakra signature leading them to the actual chakra signature far outside their range. Maybe you should try it?" Kiyomi shrugged. Her tone was strict yet not as strict as her eyes when she looked at Mana. Then again, the magician knew where she was going into when making the decision she made.

After a brief pause of hesitation the girl knelt down and closed her eyes. She placed her hands calmly on her thighs so that neither her feet nor her arms went numb in the lengthy process of calling for her sensory to surface. Sometimes accessing her natural gift came easier, sometimes it was incredibly difficult.

A good twenty minutes later the magician opened her eyes and stood back up, rubbing her tense shoulders and ankles she shook her head with sadness and disappointment.

"There aren't even actual chakra signatures within my range." She uttered.

"Oh well, you tried…" Meiko shrugged.

"Well…" upon Kiyomi's mouth opening Mana expected something offensive or edgy thrown her direction as there was no way that something as controversial as relaying intelligence on a Konohagakure's team would've been let go soon. "It's way too tough to tell time in here anyways. Even if we did ask Team Dunyazad about it we'd have received nothing exact. Then we'd only have that approximate to compare to our own approximate measurements. We'll need to fly a little blind with this tracking quest of ours." the blonde surprised Mana with her composure from being overly confrontational about how the information came into their hands to begin with.

Kiyomi had plenty of reasons to despise Mana's decision. Her own brother, the only person to look at her like something more than a delicate Yamanaka heiress, a soft and tender crimson rose surrounded by walls of thorns of much more poisonous and defensive plants, was killed by bandits. Those very same rogues had to obtain information about her brother, it was more than likely that Mana's sellout of Kouta's team ringed too close to whoever sold out her brother.

"Well… Let's go in a straight line, filter the surroundings, observe several branch layers. Watch for traces on the moss, as subtly and quietly as they went, we should pick up some tracks if they got too tempted to dash around at breakneck speeds at any point." Meiko suggested. Mana nodded in agreement submissively.

"I'll watch the upper layers, Meiko can watch the middle layers, Mana watch the bottom layer." Kiyomi shrugged before disappearing in a single leap up. There was an area of around five kilometers to observe for the smallest traces or damage on the tree bark or the moss that vegetated on the old as the Leaf Village itself branches of the Forest of Death.

Meiko and Mana scattered as well. The magician allowed herself to immerse in the plunging down, she knew that with proper balance she could've stopped herself by vaulting off one of the thicker lower branches anyways. The air whizzing by refreshingly by her cheeks and fondling her hair just felt too tempting in her greatly stressed state. A feat such as stopping herself close to the ground, as inhuman as it sounded, would've required no chakra augmentation from her part at all.

The Forest of Death was utterly magnificent. Deadly, primal yet magnificent. It was especially beautiful and beloved to those who were looking to track someone located inside it. All around the year the conditions barely changed, no rain, no snowfall or other kinds of unnatural weather conditions to disturb the natural traces. Someone from the mountainous regions like the Kumogakure wouldn't know how to move on such a delicate mossy environment. Maybe Team Cirrus could hop around fast and free on the rocky surface of the Land of Lightning's rocky wastelands and deserts but they'd leave plenty of marks on the local moss or damp forest soil.

Whatever rainfall that fell over the Konohagakure got absorbed through the leaves of the tall and widespread plants. Then all that humidity got filtered and transferred straight to the soil through the plant itself and through its roots watering the soil and benefiting every smaller plant that was less lucky to break through. The vines that wrapped around the tall and thick trees sapped that water straight from the barks of the trees without bothering to wait for their share below. They were the corner cutters of the forest.

Carefully so that she didn't leave too many traces of her own, those that could then be confused with traces of Team Cirrus, Mana leaped from one lower part of a tree to another, scanning the soil and lower branches like an owl. More so – her vision as a capable young ninja was thousandfold that of the hunter bird. A single scratch on the overgrown with moss bark would've never slipped past her quick and accurate sight.

"Nothing…" Mana sadly sighed before quickly making her way back to where the search started and scaling her way back to where Team Hokage split from.

"I've got tracks – those are man's tracks, the guy walks like an elephant and the space between the several tracks I've found is too wide for it to be female's tracks." Meiko grinned with a thumb up.

"Yeah, I've got several too. One man, one female. Judging by the spaces between the separate same person's tracks one is of average height where the female is much shorter. They were moving to the north-west from here." Kiyomi nodded before looking at the direction she predicted the team to have gone.

"I found no footprints…" Mana looked away.

"No surprise, they'd not have moved on the ground level…" the Yamanaka shrugged.

"I found a bunch of these though…" Mana showed the team a plastic bag of instant noodle packs and cups left behind.

"Okay, so we got something… Still, can't say for sure if those tracks are Team Cirrus' without templates to compare them with." Meiko shrugged.

"We may." Mana interrupted. "All of those cups are single brand. That means that whoever took them with them either bought them in bulk or they prefer this brand. As someone who recently purchased a bulk of instant ramen, such as those Meiko devoured while recovering from her injury, I've never seen this brand of noodles in the local stores."

"Okay, so we have a reason to suspect that whoever left the trash behind liked instant noodles and was a foreigner." Kiyomi closed her eyes deeply in thought.

"It was a single person that left the noodles behind. There were multiple packs scattered in highly consistent distances and matching numbers, just about enough in quantity to feed a single person with a relatively small appetite." Mana added.

"Are you saying that these were found in multiple locations and were eaten over separate occasions? Then yeah… I suppose Mana has a point, I'd have eaten that much as an appetizer all at once!" Meiko smiled before shyly rubbing her nose.

"Except these aren't ramen cups, they're instant noodles of spaghetti." Kiyomi noted after examining one cup and one pack separately, noticing that both of them matched in their content and even taste. "Marinated tomato flavor too… Ewww."

"Instant spaghetti are most popular in Kumogakure. Instant ramen is more common in Land of Fire, fish burgers are more common in Kumogakure and the Archipelago whereas Land of Snow is proud of their tomato and chili soups, Land of Wind with their desserts and sweets and Land of Earth with their baked goods. Any cheese, non-ramen noodle or non-soup tomato or chili snacks would be most likely bought by a Kumogakure villager." Mana recounted her short acquaintance with various cuisines back in old man Aporius' library.

"Still, we can't be sure it's not someone with specific taste in Kumogakure cuisine or someone wanting to confuse everyone by making themselves seem like a Kumo ninja, for whatever reason." Meiko bellowed while scratching her chin. "Plus no one's that much of an idiot to just dump their food in the open like that, that's how you get attacked by giant bears."

"We got attacked by giant bears…" Kiyomi looked at Meiko ironically.

"That's how we found out how you get attacked by giant bears." Meiko shrugged.

"Either way, we don't need to sit here and try to find out for sure – all we need is a reason to believe that the tracks belong to Team Cirrus which, I'd say, we've got. Let's move after those tracks north-west, slow and steady." Kiyomi ordered before leaping off and disappearing in the vast dark green of the forest.

"Well, she didn't wait long before appointing herself as leader…" Meiko grinned before dashing off to follow the blonde.

Mana looked back and rubbed her elbow uncomfortably before following her teammates. Maybe it was for the best that Kiyomi started calling the shots. Mana has been the de facto leader of the squad that went off after the Box of Ultimate Bliss and because of that experience Meiko fully trusted the magician's calls. That sort of made her leadership on the battlefield more efficient even though the matter was never fully discussed between the girls. Given the recent events, Mana had no problem with relinquishing any chances of ever calling the shots in the team. Team Hokage needed someone more reliable and more experienced anyways.

The trio moved slowly and with their eyes and ears open, Mana tried reaching out for any chakra signatures whenever they took short breaks or whenever Kiyomi felt like the great forest beyond needed a little scoping out. It didn't take more than thirty five kilometers to run into seven chakra signatures a full hundred meters ahead.

Carefully so that they weren't found the girls positioned themselves on top of the trees to observe the thick and messy bush field below. It was a less than ideal fighting plane, usually one would've preferred finding a small grassland opening or a larger crater where there was hope of seeing the Sun break through the thick layers of the leafage of the colossal tree structures laying one over the other, competing for light and rainwater.

The hectic field of battle below had various different combatants. Mana's eye excitedly caught a glimpse of her target, the girl she almost instantly recognized from the file but there were simply too many other factors involved. The fight appeared to be four on three, stacked against Team Cirrus' favor.

"Do we watch or do we get involved?" Meiko looked at Mana before receiving her answer from the other side making her turn fast and feeling like she just got scolding boiled water thrown on her from Kiyomi's side.

"We watch, the four of the enemy of our enemy may reveal their abilities to us which will be useful in the future. Not all teams in here are our friends and Mana only has one boyfriend she can sell out – we need information like this for potential bargaining in the future." Kiyomi whispered quietly.

Her friend's words really did sting deep, not because Mana was misunderstood or because Kiyomi was somehow wrong with her statements. The magician did sell out her boyfriend's team because when the choice of giving up on her ideals or her love came to be she made a choice. Even now she still thought it was the right choice, granted, she still hadn't seen all of the fallout to come from this decision.

The trio of Team Cirrus were just like Tiwul described them: one blond haired beanie wearing young man, one swordsman with typical Kumogakure uniform and a casually dressed young lady – Mana's target. The pale skinned beanie wearing young man stuck out from the bunch almost the same as Mana did among Konoha peers. Just like Mana looked to be of more far off northern Kumogakure descent of darker skinned people, this youngster looked pale enough to be more of the cloudy and murky Kirigakure, instead of scorching hot Kumogakure.

Junipu-R, Mana's target girl, looked almost like a civilian. She wore casual clothing that'd have completely blended her in somewhere in her native country where her skin color didn't stick her out like a sore thumb. As someone several shades darker than most people around her, Mana could relate to sticking out in that way. Being called adjectives like "rare" and "exotic" by people who wanted to note her difference without offending her.

The swordsman to whom Tiwul referred to as Quill-B previously was a more typical looking Kumogakure shinobi. Dark skin, typical Kumogakure native features. Strict looking face and orange hair that really scratched at the beholder's eye. Tiwul's intel was wrong, however, the young man didn't just wear two swords – he wore four shorter ones. It was a simple mistake to make if she didn't observe the man's back carefully. He only had two long cross shaped sheathes but short swords were located diagonally on both his upper and lower back. Judging from how he handled himself, he wielded them with great skill as well, switching in between them on the fly effortlessly. Flowing like a river and striking precisely and lethally like a viper.

Finally what appeared to be a hectic clash of swords, fists and feet, was slightly brightened up by a show off of one of the enemy kunoichi abilities. A tall and bulky built young lady from the team of four confronting Team Cirrus bit her thumb as she was blown back by beanie wearing Inaba's overhead kick which missed her head but landed on her shoulder and chest. The enemy kunoichi wore round plates on her chest and around her shoulders and wore her long blond hair in a slithering braid that had a sharp steel weight attached to it, likely to turn something most long haired girls considered a nuisance into a controlled battlefield tool.

After the braided kunoichi completed her set of hand seals a strange looking blue skinned equestrian being charged from the cloud of smoke. It looked like a combination of a nasty amphibian and a horse as it had fin-like features around where horse's ears would've been. The rampaging amphibian equestrian continued to tackle, kick and bite at Inaba throwing him around like a ragdoll. That was when another one of the enemy ninja appeared behind the beanie boy and tried cutting him down. The teammate of the braided kunoichi was a strong looking brawler of blond hair and verily similar features when compared to his teammate. Yet he wielded a signature weapon of sorts – a blade of black obsidian-like alloy, when it set ablaze shortly before it'd have cut poor Inaba open Meiko almost screeched in joy, only due to Mana and Kiyomi's quick thinking they managed to keep themselves concealed and cover up the redhead's ecstasy.

Luckily for the short beanie boy, his injury was prevented when the four blades wielding swordsman he had for a teammate blocked the blazing sword with a cross shaped block of two of his own blades. It looked like the blaze that came off of the enemy swordsman's blade was an intense fire blast that radiated with considerable force of its own as the young Kumogakure swordsman struggled to maintain his perfectly timed block in place against the immense force of the opponent's blade. Luckily enough, before the beam of blasting flames engulfed and incinerated him the blade's fire went out and the two swordsmen pushed each other away.

Quill-B only slid back right into the relentless physical offensive of the other two ninja. A tall and bulky brown haired and long faced stud that continued to strike at the overwhelmed swordsman with elbow jabs and knee strikes relentlessly and a much smaller and more frail looking young man with bland grey colored hair and poor rags for an attire. Mana noticed how the second frailer young man held his hands, she could tell that while the frail shinobi could fight hand to hand he kept his hands in the ready for impromptu hand seals and any quick ninjutsu combinations he could perform.

"Is this enough observation?" Mana asked.

"Not really, we still only know the abilities of two of the enemy combatants. Plus, what do you care if Junipu-R's team is taken out? She's your target, the enemy is doing your job for you." Kiyomi looked strictly back at Mana.

"Those four are clearly an alliance of teams, likely they both lost one member and decided to pool their efforts together. Such alliances are too dangerous for us and we'd be wise to work with other teams to break them before they grow and come after us." Mana noted.

Kiyomi opened her mouth to speak but she noticed that Meiko was already out of hiding and leaping down with her kunai in hand shrieking in joy.

"Yahoo! We're fighting an enemy alliance!" she cheered like a little brat.

"OK, what the actual shit? We need a tipping factor but this ain't exactly it…" Inaba the beanie guy remarked watching Meiko land less than graciously and dash to his aid.

"Well, Steinck, it seems you may need to use your ability after all!" the frail enemy ninja of the alliance grinned after the relentlessly striking teammate of his got pushed back by Junipu-R's lightning bolt ninjutsu technique and hit a tree. Junipu's technique didn't appear to be strong enough to have left any lasting damage however.

After the tall enemy alliance striker, to whom his ally referred to as Steinck, observed Mana and Kiyomi quickly leaping out from hiding to join Team Cirrus in their defense he indifferently glanced back at the amphibian horse summoner and her burning sword wielding ally.

"Corot, Hafred. Don't bail on our alliance now. We see this to the end! I won't tolerate you two bailing when we've found my target!" he angrily warned his own alliance.

"Don't worry, for the medical help your friend gave our friend Vespiga, this alliance won't shake even when the odds are against us!" the summoner Corot replied confidently.

"If it weren't for your medical ninja friend, we'd have died. What's elimination compared to that? Our alliance stands!" her teammate Hafred affirmed.

Something about the fact that the alliance of four wasn't scared off by Team Hokage leaping in to the Team Cirrus' aid felt off to Mana. Either way, an alliance of genin sounded dangerous and needed to be stopped, if that meant teaming up with her target's team temporarily – so be it.