Something felt off to Renjiro.
Unlike the previous two encounters in empty halls, this time, even after waiting in the chamber for ten full minutes, no battle had broken out. Even his sensory techniques picked up nothing — as if the entire enemy base had gone silent, like a ghost town.
But Renjiro knew better. There was no way it was truly empty. He suspected the enemy had used some kind of Jutsu to hide themselves and were now silently watching him from the shadows.
Still, their lack of action worked in his favor. It gave him some time to rest and recover.
---
Roughly five minutes later, Meri came out of one of the tunnels.
The moment Renjiro saw her, his heart tightened. He could already tell she wasn't in good shape. Her whole body was bruised, her face was as pale as snow, and her chakra and stamina were clearly drained.
"Are you alright, Meri?" Renjiro rushed to her side without hesitation and gently supported her.
"…I'm fine." She murmured in a weak voice.
Renjiro helped her walk to the wall and sat her down to rest while he stood guard beside her, keeping watch for anything suspicious.
Meri didn't argue. This was enemy territory. Recovering quickly would help everyone — herself and her teammates.
A few more minutes went by.
Then, Maemon came out from another tunnel — and Renjiro's heart sank again.
His condition was even worse than Meri's. Small cuts and scratches covered his body, but the most noticeable were the big, deep wounds on his right shoulder and thigh. He could barely walk.
"Are you okay?" Renjiro quickly went to him and helped him over to sit next to Meri.
"Maemon, what happened?" Meri asked with worry.
Maemon sat down and said in a tired voice: "Don't worry. Nothing important was hit. But in my current state... I'm afraid I'll slow you down."
"It's alright, you don't need to worry." Renjiro said calmly: "Tsugami and Domaru should be here soon. And you've still got me. We'll handle it."
Maemon rolled his eyes: "We've got you? You damn cocky bastard."
Sure enough, just as Renjiro said, Tsugami and Domaru came out from the final tunnel after a few minutes.
However, compared to Meri and Maemon, their condition seemed much better — no obvious injuries at first glance. But a closer look showed that Tsugami's face was ghostly pale — clear signs of chakra exhaustion.
Yet, despite his own fatigue, the moment Tsugami saw his teammates' condition, he swallowed a handful of soldier pills and immediately began healing them.
"Let me help you guys." Without caring about his own condition, Tsugami began to assist his teammates.
Such was the mission — and the duty — of a medical ninja.
Renjiro didn't stop him. Although it would drain Tsugami's chakra even more, at this point, they didn't have many options.
"Thank you, Tsugami." Maemon said in a serious, grateful voice.
But the enemy didn't plan to give them much time to recover…
---
While Tsugami continued treating Meri and Maemon, Renjiro and Domaru took defensive positions, guarding the group.
"Woof!"
Suddenly, Domaru's nose twitched.
"Woof! Woof!"
His expression turned fierce in an instant, and he began to growl.
They had spent enough time with Domaru to understand his signals. Whenever he growled like that, it meant only one thing: enemies were close.
Mind Net! Time Bullet!
Renjiro instantly activated his sensory abilities at full strength — and this time, he sensed something.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Without delay, he pulled three shuriken from his pouch and threw them forward.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The metallic sound of steel clashing echoed in the chamber. Renjiro's shuriken bounced off something and fell to the floor — and at last, the enemies revealed themselves.
"Damn it!"
Everyone on Team Renjiro tensed.
The enemy force was far bigger than they had expected — eight shinobi stood before them. And judging by the pressure each of them gave off, none of them were ordinary ninjas.
"Tsugami, take care of Meri and Maemon. I'll block them." Renjiro said firmly, without turning back, as he slowly drew his blade and stepped in front of his teammates to protect them.
"Woof!"
Domaru crouched beside him and growled loudly, as if to say, count me in.
Yet, the enemies didn't attack right away. Instead, one Iwa-nin stepped forward from the group. He stared directly at Renjiro and said in a cold voice: "Team Renjiro… at last, we meet face to face."
"When did I become so famous?" Renjiro asked himself inwardly, though his eyes were sharp and alert.
A cold, chilling smile appeared on the man's face as he said: "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Akagawa, commander of this operation."
"Operation?" Renjiro narrowed his eyes: "What kind of operation?"
Akagawa chuckled and lowered his gaze for a moment. When he looked up again, his eyes burned with clear killing intent: "The operation is, of course, to annihilate — Team Renjiro."
"What?!"
Akagawa's words hit like a thunderclap in Renjiro and his teammates' ears. They were stunned to the core.
From the moment Renjiro realized that this hidden base could block even his sensory techniques, he had grown suspicious — because his fighting strength relied heavily on those techniques and Arkain's support.
But for Iwagakure to set up a trap just to eliminate them? That shocked him completely. He hadn't even considered that possibility.
"You look surprised." Akagawa sneered: "In fact, you should feel honored. You must understand your value… to realize how deeply we've planned to eliminate you and your team. My comrades who gave their lives — their sacrifices — will only mean something if we succeed!"
In fact, the reason Akagawa designed this dungeon-like trap was to make it look like this place had weak security.
He feared Renjiro would escape the moment he sensed real danger, even abandoning his teammates behind. After all, in life-or-death situations, many would choose to save their own skin.
Renjiro's sensory abilities were exceptional, and the fact that no one from Iwagakure had managed to ambush them before proved it.
They only learned about Renjiro and his abilities after extracting information from one of Konoha's squad captains. Otherwise, they wouldn't have even known Renjiro existed. His team moved like ghosts — striking targets and vanishing before anyone could catch them.
So even if they wiped out the entire team, if Renjiro escaped, the mission would be a failure.
Renjiro was the main target!
They couldn't risk him running away. That's why Akagawa willingly sacrificed his own men — because only this way could he believe Renjiro wouldn't escape.
He feared that if Renjiro sensed their true strength, he would abandon his team to save his own life.
"This guy… is insane." Renjiro frowned.
"Your damned team… has ruined a lot of our important missions, sabotaged our plans, and escaped our deadliest traps like cursed ghosts!" Akagawa said, his cold eyes full of killing intent.
"You've become a threat to our entire cause. And for that… you must die. No price is too great. No sacrifice too heavy."
The Iwagakure shinobi standing behind Akagawa shared the same conviction. Their eyes gleamed with bloodlust as they stared at Renjiro.
"A bunch of lunatics… this is a planned trap to kill us. This is bad!" Renjiro muttered, his brows furrowed even more.
These weren't just ordinary enemies. They had come with a full plan — and had led them straight into a deadly trap.
Renjiro glanced subtly behind him. Tsugami was still focused on healing.
Sensing his gaze, Tsugami gave a small shake of his head, as if to say: We're not ready yet.
Renjiro's grip tightened around his blade, and he whispered to himself: "So be it."
Even if his teammates couldn't fight yet — he would hold the line. Just one more minute… every second mattered.
"I have to say, you guys..." Renjiro said in a serious tone: "You must've gone through a lot of trouble to lure us here. You even leaked the Iwagakure troop deployment map."
"So what?!" Akagawa shouted, wearing a crazed smile: "As long as we kill you here, everything will be worth it! We spared no effort to make sure you took the bait — even if it meant using a real map!"
Renjiro honestly couldn't understand their obsession with eliminating his team.
Of course, only the Iwa-nin themselves could truly feel the depth of that hatred. Over the past ten days, Renjiro had utterly humiliated them.
With his remarkable sensory skills, he led his squad like wolves among sheep — wiping out vulnerable targets and slipping past those they couldn't beat.
Despite being just a small unit, their effectiveness rivaled an entire Iwagakure platoon.
Instead of wasting their strength on frontal attacks, they followed Shikaku's strategy — dismantling smaller enemy squads, disrupting supply lines and communications, then vanishing before reinforcements arrived.
They were the definition of battlefield predators — efficient, ruthless, and impossible to track.
When tougher fights came, Renjiro led from behind — striking at key objectives and ruining Iwagakure's major operations again and again.
By now, their names were etched in the enemy's blood-stained reports. Hatred had slowly fermented into full-blown obsession.
"Once your team is gone, Konoha's silent assassination squad will be crippled in the Land of Waterfall." Akagawa declared, his voice cold and chilling: "Without your interference, we'll march unopposed. For that, every sacrifice I've made will be worth it!"
"Ahh…"
Renjiro slowly let out a breath.
Now, he fully understood the depth of Iwagakure's resolve. They had no intention of retreating. Not unless they achieved total annihilation.
"Why didn't you strike us all at once from the beginning?" Renjiro asked curiously.
He truly wanted to know, as the question had bothered him since the start — and it helped him buy some time: "You had the numbers. If you'd swarmed us, we wouldn't have stood a chance."
Akagawa, confident in his approaching victory, answered without hesitation: "Because we wanted certainty. Even with all the intel we gathered on you, there were still too many unknowns. We couldn't risk you escaping. Your teammates might not be as important as you, but we couldn't let any of you get away."
"Our plan worked perfectly." Akagawa added with mockery in his tone: "Look at you. Your teammates can barely move. And you — the so-called heart of Team Renjiro — how much strength do you really have left? Half?
Or maybe just a third?"
He clicked his tongue and continued: "You surprised us, Takane Renjiro. Our files didn't say anything about you knowing Genjutsu…
Or that absurd defense — taking a Rock Fist to the chest and walking away like nothing happened!"
His voice dropped — now cold and merciless: "But it ends here."
Beside him, the other seven Iwa-nin thought of the comrades they had lost to make this plan work. Their eyes burned with madness and killing intent.
"Fuck!" Renjiro cursed inwardly as a chill ran down his spine.
This enemy was terrifying — ruthless and determined to kill them, no matter the cost.
Renjiro glanced back. Though still injured, his teammates were already rising, pushing themselves to stand by his side.
"They're underestimating us." Tsugami said, stepping forward: "You are dead wrong if you think we'll go down just because we're injured."
"Woof!"
Growled Domaru at Renjiro's feet.
"This so-called 'flawless' plan of theirs? Full of holes." Grunted Maemon as he adjusted his bandages.
"Enough talk." Said Meri as she pulled her blade: "Let's fight."
"No amount of bravery will save you." Akagawa sneered: "Against overwhelming force, you will all die here."
Then, he raised a hand.
Swish! Swish!
All at once, the seven Iwa-nin stepped forward and drew their weapons.
The final battle—was about to begin.
---
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