Chapter 82 — Life-or-Death Battle
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
Taichi dropped low instantly, sliding beneath the blazing inferno. The fireball skimmed across his face, its heat scorching his skin like an oven door swung open. As he slipped past the caster, he spun around sharply:
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
Fire feeds on wind — wind fuels fire.
A roaring inferno surged into the narrow tunnel behind him. Agonized screams echoed almost immediately from within.
The moment the jutsu finished, Taichi grabbed Yōhei — who was still trying to peek back — and bolted without hesitation.
A few seconds later—
"Wind Release: Turbulent Airflow!"
A violent gale blasted out of the passage, carrying with it lingering flames and waves of blistering heat.
Four figures emerged first, followed by the remaining shinobi one after another. Each bore the same look — shaken and pale.
That damn kid was vicious. He'd planted a Fire-Release shinobi right at the entrance and combined it with Wind Release in that suffocating terrain. It was a perfect death trap.
Hijikata, the jōnin, glanced back inside the tunnel and felt a pang in his chest. In just that one moment, eight chūnin collapsed — and judging by their states, they weren't getting back up.
"I'm going to kill him."
Takagi — the green-haired shinobi — didn't wait for orders. He sprinted after Taichi immediately, and as he dashed off, he shouted:
"Santai! Hurry up and come earn your redemption!"
"Y-yes sir!"
Santai, trembling moments earlier, suddenly brightened and chased after him. He had long understood the truth — the two kids had followed him there.
Watching the pair run off, Hijikata still didn't feel reassured.
"Four more. I'll pay extra."
Four more silhouettes launched out of the cave.
—
At the front, Taichi ran with his heart pounding. He breathlessly relayed everything he'd learned inside the cavern to Yōhei while simultaneously pulling kunai, detonation tags, and iron wire from his pouch. With each step he fired them into nearby trees, leaving a trail of improvised traps.
When Yōhei heard that there were more than thirty enemy shinobi — and several jōnin among them — his composure shattered. He immediately began copying Taichi, setting traps wherever he could while they ran.
From here on, it was a race with death.
—
It didn't take long before explosions erupted behind them — boom, boom, boom — the sound of triggered traps. Taichi hoped with all his heart that they would slow the pursuit.
But reality was cruel. Despite throwing out so many tags, only five detonation traps had actually gone off. They might have slowed the enemy a little — but only a little.
As time passed, Taichi noticed Yōhei's breathing becoming harsher and heavier. At this speed, his stamina was dangerously close to its limit.
"Yōhei… did you memorize all the intel I told you?"
Taichi's voice echoed beside him.
"Mm—"
Yōhei could hardly speak. His body and mind were almost drained.
"If we just keep running like this, neither of us will get away. One of the pursuers is definitely the jōnin whose brother I killed — his first target will always be me."
Taichi spoke slowly and clearly, ensuring every word sank into Yōhei's mind.
"I'll stay behind and delay them… maybe even lure them away. You head back to the outpost and deliver the intel."
The words hit Yōhei so hard that he nearly fell from the branches — Taichi barely caught him.
"Don't talk," Taichi murmured. "Save your strength. If you run first, then I'll have a chance to escape later. Otherwise, we both die."
Yōhei looked at Taichi — younger, smaller, but with eyes that burned with unwavering determination — and hot tears rolled silently down his cheeks.
Taichi was right. Yōhei was a burden now. He had never hated himself more — for slacking in training, for his weakness, for being useless when it mattered most.
But he was helpless. And that reality crushed him.
Finally, under Taichi's encouraging gaze, he nodded — hard.
Taichi smiled in relief, then skidded to a stop, watching Yōhei sprint farther and farther ahead.
When Yōhei disappeared from sight, Taichi's hands flashed through seals.
Fire Release: Dragon Flame Bullet!
A torrent of fire swept across the path Yōhei had taken, erasing every trace of his departure beneath a wall of flames.
Then Taichi turned around to face the direction of the incoming enemies.
A cold, fierce smile touched his lips.
"Alright… now let's have some fun."
"Shadow Clone Technique."
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three clones appeared in bursts of white smoke around him. They exchanged a quick glance — no words needed — and each slipped behind a different tree, lying in wait for the approaching enemies.
About ten minutes later, Taichi finally saw the pursuers clearly.
Just as expected — the green-haired shinobi whose brother he had killed, and with him five chūnin.
What an honor, Taichi thought wryly. They really think highly of me.
"But good thing it's only this many. If the whole cave had come chasing, I'd be dead for sure."
The five chūnin moved into a pentagonal formation, each keeping a wide distance to avoid being taken out by a single large-scale jutsu. Sensible — but against a close-combat expert like Taichi, spacing that wide was an opening.
Upon reaching the burned forest, the group halted. The green-haired Takagi looked at the scorched terrain with disdain.
"Did he really think a fire like this could hide their tracks? Keep dreaming."
"You four circle left. Santai with me on the right. Send a signal the moment you find anything."
He stepped forward — but before the group could split, two kunai flew toward the outermost chūnin — followed immediately by Taichi and Yōhei themselves.
The targeted chūnin didn't understand the danger. Instead of dodging, he roared and charged directly into the attack.
"Boss! They didn't run! They're trying to ambush us!" Santai yelled proudly from the side.
"Shut up and attack!" Takagi snapped. Something felt wrong, and he knew it.
In the blink of an eye, the chūnin clashed with Taichi and Yōhei. He was weaker than Taichi to begin with — and now that Taichi had planned this from the start, the result was decided instantly.
Taichi rushed forward first, ignoring the kunai stabbing toward him. He didn't dodge — didn't defend — trading blow for blow and driving his short sword deep into the enemy's abdomen as he took the stab himself.
"You're insane!" the chūnin roared when he felt the blade enter him.
But before he could finish shouting, the Taichi he stabbed burst into smoke — a shadow clone.
He didn't even have time to react before Yōhei's sword swept in from the flank and took his head clean off.
"The kid's swordsmanship is dangerous! Pair up!"
The warning finally came — too late. The chūnin it was meant for would never hear it.
The remaining four chūnin split into two-man teams immediately, determined not to get tricked by clones again.
After the kill, Yōhei lunged at another chūnin pair, forcing them into a melee. But the green-haired jōnin was already charging toward him — Yōhei wouldn't last a second once he got there.
Just then, another Taichi burst from the side, bringing his blade down in a savage overhead strike aimed at the green-haired jōnin.
A jōnin was a jōnin — even ambushed, he didn't panic. The man raised his kunai to block and launched a vicious flying kick at Taichi's torso.
Taichi wasn't about to take that quietly. He kicked forward at the same time, trying to counter the strike.
But in the heat of combat, he forgot one crucial thing — this Taichi was also a clone. Trading blows worked against equal strength — but raw force? A clone could never match a jōnin.
His clone was blasted off balance by the kick, body twisting mid-air.
But the clone didn't hesitate — didn't even try to defend itself.
Instead, it turned with the momentum and — using every last bit of its remaining strength — swung its blade in a decisive arc at the back of a nearby chūnin.