From behind the bushes emerged a Sunagakure jōnin of about thirty years old. He called himself Daro.
"Captain Daro?!" The wounded Sunagakure ninja was visibly shocked. Wasn't Captain Daro's unit supposed to be on the western front of the Land of Fire?
Why was he here?!
"Your teammate said you were badly injured. I brought medicine to speed up wound healing," Daro said as he approached, holding a small bottle.
"Wait, Captain Daro, weren't you—"
"Don't move! Kui told me your injury is serious—you mustn't move carelessly," Daro quickly stopped him from getting up. "Look, the wound on your right arm has reopened. Are you trying to ruin your career as a shinobi?"
"Ah? Oh!" The Sunagakure ninja glanced at his white bandages, already stained red with fresh blood, and hurriedly leaned back. "Was there fighting over by Kui just now? I thought I heard combat."
"Yes. We encountered new enemies… but it's fine now. They've all been dealt with."
Daro gently lifted the man's right arm, preparing to apply the medicine.
Even at that moment, the injured ninja still hadn't loosened his grip on the signal flare in his hand.
Under the pitch-black night sky, brilliant blue lightning suddenly burst forth, and the shrill cries of a thousand birds shattered the silence.
Lightning Release: LightningBlade Slash!
"AHHH!"
A piercing scream rang out.
Blood sprayed wildly, a long crimson arc splashing across the tree trunk.
The Sunagakure ninja stared in horror as "Captain Daro" used a Lightning Release technique he had never seen before to sever his right arm in a single strike.
How could such a technique exist?!
There hadn't even been any hand seals!
"You—"
But no other words followed.
A black kunai pierced straight into his heart. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
As his life ebbed away, the ninja reached out his remaining left hand, trying to grab his killer's collar to see who had ended him. In the hazy moonlight, he caught only a glimpse of a silhouette
He died without ever understanding what had happened. His vision faded into darkness.
"Captain Daro" withdrew the kunai, then picked up the signal flare that had fallen from the severed arm, examining it briefly.
The injured ninja had been leaning against the tree the entire time, making a rear attack impossible. A frontal assault would have been even riskier—just the slightest twitch of his right hand, and the flare would have shot into the sky.
"Good thing I didn't recklessly use the Body Flicker to close in," "Daro" muttered inwardly.
In Shimizu's memory, the ninja named Dust had addressed him exactly like that—Captain Daro.
One of the survivors of his S-rank Water Release technique, Water Severing Wave—the Sunagakure jōnin Daro. In truth, the Sunagakure captain who left the deepest impression on Shimizu was Dust, though he had severed one of the man's arms. Who knew how he was now?
Using Transformation Technique rashly could have been exposed immediately.
And Shimizu hadn't known the name of the ninja who had just left. What if that name had been a test?
He would have been revealed on the spot.
So he chose Daro—the Sunagakure jōnin—as his transformation target.
The sound of multiple figures cutting through the air signaled the arrival of the others.
Body Flicker Technique!
Team 6 and Mercury arrived at the scene.
"All taken care of?" Shimizu asked.
"Yes. The body in the bushes has been handled as well," replied Rakusui, captain of Team 6.
"Deal with this corpse too." Shimizu tucked the signal flare into his robe.
"Yes."
"No abnormalities?" Shimizu asked Mercury.
Mercury answered confidently, "No issues within range…"
Indeed, her Byakugan was highly developed and trustworthy.
Biu!
Suddenly, a white firework blossomed in the northern sky, glaringly bright against the dark night. Everyone looked up at the flare, which signaled an emergency.
Mercury immediately added, "The area within 1.5 kilometers is clear, but that..."
"That's about three kilometers away," Shimizu noted. "A flare like that can be seen for at least ten kilometers. It's a Sunagakure communication signal."
Konoha's signal flares were usually red or green.
Which meant this white flare likely indicated that Sunagakure ninja had discovered Konoha shinobi—but couldn't overpower them head-on—so they were calling nearby comrades to encircle and annihilate the target.
The 9th Division?
"Move out at maximum speed," Shimizu ordered. "The enemy strength isn't overwhelming yet. Let's wipe them out before help arrives!"
Three kilometers was a distance that even speed-oriented shinobi would take nearly two minutes to cover. But Shimizu, pushing his speed to its absolute limit, arrived on the scene in just one minute.
…
...
......
Staring at the white-hot flare glowing in the sky not far away, Bunshi, captain of the Ninth Division of the First ANBU Corps, felt his heart sink.
Things had become complicated.
From the moment the survivors of the Third Division informed him of a massive Sunagakure force, he knew the enemy had come prepared. The Sunagakure had used a legion's overwhelming numbers to crush the Third Division before splitting their forces to hunt down his unit and Shimizu's Seventh Division.
They were aiming for a total wipeout of the Konoha forces in the area.
After assessing the grim situation, Bunshi had planned to withdraw into the Land of Rivers to temporarily avoid Sunagakure's edge.
Given the disparity in strength, there was no reason to clash head-on.
In his view, Sunagakure had only achieved a tactical success.
The distress team he had dispatched had already entered the Land of Rivers ahead of them. With luck, they would soon return to the Land of Fire and bring reinforcements.
Then they could reclaim this canyon.
But now, the exit had been blocked.
And the enemy had called for reinforcements via signal flare…
Time was running out.
Bunshi clenched his teeth.
There was no choice but to fight.
They had to break through before Sunagakure's reinforcements arrived!
"We must take it down! This is our only way out!"
Konoha's ninja had both the strength—and the resolve to face death.
But in mere minutes, to crush a Sunagakure force of nearly equal size that was entrenched in pure defense…
There was only one way.
Bet their lives on it.
Thirty-two Konoha ninja launched a ferocious assault on the Sunagakure position. No probing. No feints. From the very start—it was their fiercest attack.
Dozens of kunai and shuriken crossed through the air, weaving a vast net of death.
More than ten Fire Release and Wind Release techniques lit up the sky in a dazzling yet deadly display.
In less than a minute, Konoha's aggressive push bore fruit—the left flank of the Sunagakure formation cracked open.
Eager to capitalize and seize the position outright, nearly twenty Konoha ninja surged forward at once.
What awaited them—
Wind Release: Wind Killing Formation.
Multiple Sunagakure ninja cast the technique simultaneously.
Wind Killing Formation was a hybrid offensive-defense jutsu. The casters infused chakra into the wind to create violent vacuum currents, enveloping enemies in relentless, indiscriminate blade-like slicing attacks that lasted a considerable duration.
The gale also whipped up sand, destabilizing footing and obscuring vision. It could even create vacuum effects that nullified Fire Release, sound-based techniques, explosives, and more.
When two full squads of Sunagakure ninja unleashed it together, the resulting tempest was enough to swallow everything.
Konoha's momentum halted instantly.
Nearly twenty Konoha ninja were pinned in place by crushing wind pressure and a storm of blinding sand, unable to move.
At the same time, four Sunagakure ninja began forming hand seals.
It was a large-scale cooperative technique unique to Sunagakure.
Any Konoha ninja who had faced Sunagakure's main forces during the Second Great Ninja War would recognize it instantly…
"That is…?"
Bunshi's heart dropped to the bottom.
...
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