A while back,
@Inferno Vulpix made this suggestion:
Is there any chance we could just... out-distance them? Naruto's list of hotspots are all locations on the map, in the known world. If Hidan spins in a circle and walks northish and eventually finds himself on the far side of Snow Country, at some point he probably shrugs and figures he missed us. The way to never let Hidan get within 50km of us is to estimate how far he'll track us on a Jashin-given whim and go 100km farther than that.
Or, heck, 200 km farther than that, 500 km farther. Realistically, nothing stops us from going to the other end of the world entirely. We have the supplies, there's nobody we need to come in contact with, and we can still relatively easily make the return trip once we're done.
I'd like to signal-boost it. Akatsuki is certainly capable of pursuing us beyond the known world, but even if they manage to figure out the direction we went in, they're probably pretty unlikely to actually do it. There are only six of them left: Sasori's researching the rift, so he can't go; Konan's governing Rain and seems very unlikely to want to leave for the length of time required to track us down. That leaves Itachi, Kisame, Hidan, and Deidara. If they send Itachi or Kisame (plus one of Hidan/Deidara), they're losing a third of their combat power; if they
don't send Itachi or Kisame, then they have no way of communicating with the away group. Plus, regardless of who they send, they have no clue how long it would take to find us, and they're committing to a significant delay in getting back if something happens suddenly.
On top of that, if we just leave the EN, a good chunk of Akatsuki may conclude that we've decided to get out while the getting's good, and so they may not even think we pose a threat. (Itachi is already the only one who really sees us as a threat, if my impression is correct.)
If they do send a pair, the mobile options they have are:
- Itachi:
- Crow mounts (?) for fast travel - however, probably doesn't have the chakra to sustain these for too long.
- Crow scouts (?) for searching areas.
- The most invested in hunting us down.
- However, likely the most powerful member of Akatsuki, so probably won't want to leave for weeks/months on end.
- Kisame:
- Shark summons likely efficient for crossing ocean, but no known fast travel or efficient search abilities on land.
- Seemed relatively positively inclined towards us; unlikely to want to sink huge amounts of effort in hunting us down.
- Also, no point in sending both him and Itachi, and the advantage of having Itachi in the EN over Kisame is probably not huge; if Itachi is willing to send Kisame, he's likely willing to go himself.
- Hidan:
- Can potentially hunt us down via Jashin-knowledge, but this is likely highly inefficient over wide areas. Would need to be paired with a fast mover to have a hope, I think, meaning Deidara or Itachi.
- Not particularly patient, fairly unlikely to want to leave his cultists for extended times, very unlikely to want to spend extended time away from easily accessible sacrifices.
- Deidara:
- Clay dragons for fast movement, plus personal flight. The only mobile member of Akatsuki who is likely to possess indefinitely-usable strategic movement capabilities (do Deidara's constructs cost chakra to move or maintain?).
- Wide-area assaults for destroying any area they suspect may conceal us.
They won't send more than a pair, because doing that would mean being unable to protect the rift site from Leaf. If they don't send Deidara, they have no good sustainable fast movement options (at least, none that we can't match, i.e. skywalkers). If they don't send Hidan, they probably don't have any good methods for finding us - even Crow scouts can only cover a limited area. If they send Deidara + Hidan, the rest of Akatsuki can't communicate with them to e.g. tell them to come back because Sasori suceeded in opening the rift; furthermore, Deidara and Hidan is the pair we're most likely to be able to kill, and if Itachi is consdering us to be enough of a threat to send a pair after us beyond the EN, he likely also considers us to be enough of a threat that we might be able to beat a pair of weaker Akatsuki members.
In summary, I think leaving the known world - getting to the ocean, picking a direction, and running that way until we hit land - might actually be a good tactic. The main failure mode is that we don't find land for weeks, in which case we've basically lost those weeks plus extra weeks to get back afterwards, but skywalkers have no height limit and all we need for research is an island (albeit that would make it easier to find us than being in a random place on another continent).
Because I'm worried the Toad Sages will refuse to continue teaching Noburi if they think he betrayed Leaf, and having evidence that he didn't actually betray Leaf may be important for changing their minds.
