"Even though the Second Shinobi World War was drawing to a close, it was still wartime."
The thought surfaced in Yubi's mind with startling clarity, cold and hard as the canyon stone beneath his sandals. In times like these, a ninja's every breath carried a different weight. Even the air seemed tighter, sharpened by tension, as though danger had teeth and was always waiting just beyond sight.
The patrol missions assigned along the border usually lasted for months. Compared to the front line, this place was already considered relatively safe, practically the lowest-risk zone they could be sent to. On paper, it was no more than a C-rank mission.
But that ranking meant very little to children who had only just stepped out of the Ninja Academy.
In extraordinary times, even low-risk assignments could swallow people whole.
Chunin Endo stood at the mouth of the cave, shoulders squared, his eyes fixed on the darkness outside. His caution was obvious now. There was no trace of the smirking, malicious amusement he'd shown earlier. Every line in his body had gone taut.
Beside Yubi, the other two genin were getting more and more nervous.
The silence made time stretch unbearably. Each second seemed to drag into the next until the cave felt smaller and smaller, the dark beyond its entrance growing heavier by the moment.
Then, after a while, Endo's expression changed.
He stooped, picked up a stone, and scratched a special mark into the wall inside the cave. After that, he turned sharply toward the three children and barked, "Pack your things. We're moving to another location."
The instant the order left his mouth, Yubi moved.
He was the first to help the injured Chunin to his feet, slipping an arm under the man's shoulder with practiced efficiency. The wounded shinobi was still weak, his breathing shallow, but he could walk if supported.
"Hurry up!"
The other two genin were still frozen for half a beat, and Endo's harsh shout snapped them back to themselves. They scrambled to pick up their packs and equipment, hands shaking so badly they nearly dropped them.
Too much time had passed.
The Chunin who had gone out to look for Shimada should have returned by now. The one sent to support him should have come back as well. Neither had shown up.
That alone was enough to tell Endo the truth.
Something had happened.
No one knew exactly what, but on the battlefield, uncertainty was itself a warning. If you couldn't confirm the best possibility, you prepared for the worst.
After the children were ready, Endo quickly erased every trace of the cave base. Marks were scraped away. Supplies were shifted. Signs of recent use disappeared beneath deliberate destruction. Nothing was left behind that might guide an enemy to the unit's movements.
Then they left.
The injured Chunin staggered, but he could still move under Yubi's support. Endo took the lead, and the five of them raced through the canyon under cover of darkness.
"To stay alive on the battlefield, you have to stay alert at all times," Endo said without looking back.
Yubi's gaze fixed on the Chunin's retreating figure, but his mind was already moving somewhere else.
If the Chunin who had gone to search for his comrades had run into the enemy, then there was a real chance their hideout had already been exposed.
But that wasn't the most frightening possibility.
The truly dangerous part was what that exposure implied.
If enemy shinobi had managed to infiltrate this deep into the canyon, then the forward border scouts and patrol teams had already been breached. And since no warning had reached them beforehand, that meant the infiltrators were probably few in number.
But strong.
Extremely strong.
Yubi's thoughts sharpened with terrible speed.
Judging by the timing, Nomura had most likely run into the enemy as well. If this was an enemy spearhead unit and the intelligence had failed to spread, then everyone in the second-line defense zone was still unaware of their presence.
That was the worst outcome of all.
By then, night had fully fallen. The wind sweeping through the canyon dragged sand with it, making the valley even darker and murkier than the open desert above. Visibility was poor, the cliffs looming like jagged black teeth around them.
Still, under Endo's lead, their speed never faltered. He knew the terrain too well to be slowed by darkness.
Then—
Whoosh!
Yubi's ears twitched.
A faint tearing sound sliced through the wind.
"Careful!"
He shouted the warning the instant he heard it.
A kunai came flying from somewhere in the dark, aimed at the two slower genin lagging behind. A burning explosive tag fluttered from its ring, its edge already lit.
Boom!
Yubi had warned them in time, but both of his classmates were too tense, their movements stiff and delayed. The explosive blast erupted in a flash of fire and smoke, swallowing the path behind them.
Yubi landed on a nearby boulder, one sleeve pressed over his nose against the dust and smoke. Through the ringing in his ears, he heard the sound he had expected.
A scream.
Someone was hurt.
Without hesitation, Yubi's hand flashed to the pouch at his waist.
What he drew was not a kunai.
It was a scalpel.
The thin blade caught the faint light with a cold, silver glint. One hand covered his mouth and nose, the other lowered into a guarded stance. His eyes swept across the canyon, sharp and unblinking.
"Ahhh—!"
Roughly a dozen meters away, one of the injured boys had fallen to the ground, writhing and crying out in pain.
He's still conscious, Yubi judged instantly. Which means it's not fatal. Not yet.
His medical instincts made the assessment before thought could catch up. But his attention did not stay on the wounded boy.
Not for even a second.
"Wow. You reacted pretty fast."
The enemy arrived almost immediately after the ambush.
A voice rang out from above Yubi's head.
He looked up and saw a shinobi from Amegakure descending onto the canyon wall. The man wore the fitted white combat gear of Rain's elite, slick and close to the body like a pale waterproof hide. His forehead protector bore the symbol of the Rain Village, marked by the familiar vertical slashes.
He stood on the vertical rock face as easily as if it were level ground, body angled at ninety degrees to the earth below. Calm. Balanced. Relaxed.
And smiling.
Like a cheetah preparing to toy with prey.
The playful look on the man's face made Yubi's heart sink.
This is bad, he thought.
The enemy's identity alone was already enough to raise alarms. A ninja from the Rain Village was one thing. But going by the clothing, this one was part of Amegakure's elite forces.
A subordinate personally trained under Hanzo of the Salamander.
A direct disciple of the man feared across the shinobi world as a demigod.
"The worst possibility really did happen," Yubi thought.
The Rain shinobi moved the instant the thought flashed through his mind.
A streak of white dropped from above like a strip of silk slashing down through the dark.
Clang!
Kunai and scalpel struck together, scattering sparks as the two figures crossed.
"Huh?"
The Rain ninja's expression flickered with surprise. The kid had blocked him.
Not only blocked him—timed it perfectly.
The man's eyes narrowed.
This brat has skill.
But surprise lasted only a heartbeat. The next instant, a second copy of him appeared in front of Yubi while the first shifted positions behind him.
"Still too inexperienced," the Rain ninja sneered.
The clone rushed head-on, drawing Yubi's attention. At the same time, the real body slipped in from behind, silent and vicious, driving a kunai straight toward the boy's neck.
A textbook combination.
Use a clone to seize the eyes. Let the real body strike the killing blow.
The man's lips curled.
This should finish it.
But what happened next made his confidence falter.
Yubi turned as if he had known all along.
The moment the real body entered striking distance, the scalpel in Yubi's hand flashed with a freezing gleam and cut backward in one ruthless arc.
The Rain ninja's pupils constricted. He forcibly aborted his attack and sprang away.
He was fast enough.
Barely.
If he'd been a fraction slower, the strange little blade would have opened his throat.
He landed ten meters away, one hand lifting to his cheek. A shallow line of blood marked the skin there, bright even in the dark.
The clone at Yubi's side dispersed almost at once, cut down in the same exchange. In the space of seconds, Yubi had not only forced back the enemy's real body, he had also eliminated the distraction meant to pin him in place.
The Rain shinobi stared at him, shock still lingering in his face.
Around them, battle sounds echoed through the canyon. Metal striking metal. Feet scraping rock. Sudden bursts of movement from different directions.
"There should only be three or four of them," Yubi concluded, listening while keeping his eyes fixed on the man in front of him. "They can hold on a little longer."
"Not bad," the Rain shinobi said, and this time he even clapped once, slow and mocking. "You've got combat experience. And your taijutsu is excellent for a kid your age. No wonder you were trained in one of the great ninja villages."
His tone was light.
His eyes were not.
The killing intent in them had deepened into something unmistakable.
"Water clone," Yubi thought calmly. "Water-nature chakra. He's a ninja who specializes in Water Release."
"Water Release: Iron Water Bullet!"
The enemy formed hand seals in a flash.
Then several fist-sized bubbles shot from his mouth in rapid succession, bursting through the air like projectiles from a machine gun.
It wasn't a Water Release technique Yubi recognized by name, but the form felt familiar. It resembled the Hozuki clan's water gun style to some extent, though the speed and penetrating force were clearly inferior.
At this distance, Yubi could still evade it.
The moment the barrage came, he moved.
Stone exploded beneath his feet as he shifted with nimble, compact steps, his small body weaving through the incoming shots. The bullets smashed into rock and shattered it into sprays of grit.
For a moment, it looked like he had escaped cleanly.
Then hidden among the visible barrage, several thin senbon-like needles shot toward him from the front.
Too sudden.
Too concealed.
Bang!
The needles struck his body dead-on.
The Rain ninja's mouth curved in satisfaction.
But instead of blood, Yubi's body exploded into a cloud of white smoke.
"Mm?"
The man's expression changed again.
A clone?
When?
He whirled—and found a short figure already at his flank, appearing exactly the way he himself had tried to attack moments earlier.
Eye for an eye.
The enemy's own trick had been returned to him without warning.
"A clone?" the Rain shinobi blurted, a chill running through him. "When did he—"
Yubi's face was expressionless.
Cold.
Steady.
As if the fear and chaos of the battlefield had never touched him at all.
His lips moved, and in a voice so soft it was almost lost beneath the wind, he murmured, "Data collection complete. Model established. Beginning counter-kill."