At the edge of the battlefield where the fighting had just erupted, ten Kumo shinobi of varying ages stared down at the horrific deaths of their comrades below. Their fury was so intense that even dark and pale faces began to twist.
Those damned Konoha bastards—this was simply too shameless.
A fair-skinned young Kumo shinobi who had been acquainted with the deceased murmured, "Even Jōnin Boroi was defeated that quickly? He had mastered Lightning Release Chakra Mode and was even praised by the Third-sama… and even his adorable student—"
The one in command was a burly, dark-skinned, blond Kumo shinobi. He slammed a fist into a nearby tree, blasting out a crater, and snarled in rage, "It looks like something happened to the other team as well. Slishi, hurry up and find those damn Konoha bastards for me."
The fair-skinned, blond young shinobi who had just been lamenting his companion's death reined in his grief at the words. He closed his eyes to sense, then after a few seconds said, "There are no chakra fluctuations nearby. They've already left."
"Hmph! Those bastards got lucky—ran off fast like rats. Clean up, and we continue the mission."
After receiving the order, the Kumo shinobi began carefully gathering their comrades' remains.
However, just behind several large trees not far from them, the very Konoha bastards the Kumo shinobi were cursing were gathered together, discussing tactics.
Makoto said quietly, "The enemy is confirmed to be ten people. Two have intense chakra reactions—jōnin-level. Another four have chūnin-level chakra reserves. The remaining four are genin-level."
He was measuring so-called chakra reserves by the standard of ordinary shinobi in the ninja world. Most of the time, it matched up, except in special cases.
What counted as a special case? For example, someone might have relatively little chakra, but an extremely high battle IQ, and be able to erupt with jōnin-level combat power in a short time—only their endurance was lacking.
On the other hand, the most typical example was Naruto. From childhood, his chakra reserves were enough to make jōnin envy him to the point of crying in the toilet, but in the early stage, could you say he had jōnin combat power?
Before he learned Multiple Shadow Clone, even a chūnin could beat him to death.
Mizuki: "..."
Kumomi immediately laid out the tactics: "I'll deal with the two jōnin. You quickly take out the others, then come support me."
But Makoto disagreed: "I'll do it. Sensei, you all go deal with the other eight."
After analyzing the power comparison between both sides in his mind, Kumomi agreed: "That works too. Makoto, be careful—just hold them off. Wait for my support."
Yūgao said worriedly, "Makoto-nii, are you sure? We should stick to Sensei's plan."
"Don't worry. Nothing will happen to me. You two, on the other hand—stay close to Sensei. Don't charge in recklessly and disrupt the plan."
Kumomi: "No more talk. Trust Makoto. The time is about right—the sound of the gift is the signal to start the battle."
Iga and his two teammates felt that this ninja world was so unfamiliar. Was this the world of geniuses spoken of in legends—having the confidence, at such a young age, to hold off two jōnin?
Were all these years of meals they had eaten for nothing?
...
In the ninja world, whether it was an enemy's corpse or a comrade's corpse, one had to be careful when handling it, because it might explode.
The Kumo shinobi naturally knew this as well, so they were all extremely cautious when touching the bodies.
Makoto and the others never expected that a simple explosive-tag trap could actually kill anyone. Only an idiot would fall for that. It was merely a means to make the enemy lose focus for an instant.
Sure enough, when a Kumo shinobi lifted the corpse of the jōnin named Boroi, he suddenly released his grip and leapt backward. Immediately after, with a loud boom, Boroi was blown to pieces.
Mm—Makoto was not short on money, so he burned a bit more paper money for the Kumo shinobi who had died by his hand.
The moment the explosion sounded, Makoto charged out from the left. Seizing the instant when the Kumo shinobi were distracted by shock and rage, his target was the sensory ninja named Slishi.
He was one of the two jōnin. He had always been confident that the sensory ninjutsu he mastered would not make mistakes, yet right now he was panicking badly.
No—this couldn't be right. I already sensed everything. Where did you jump out from? Are Konoha shinobi really this unbelievable now?
Beside him, a dark-skinned Kumo shinobi about the same age as Makoto saw that the one charging out was a peer, and immediately rushed in to kill him, his face filled with hatred and cruelty.
Let me weigh the strength of a Konoha genin.
Slishi immediately chased after him, shouting, "Don't—"
But it was already too late. Makoto casually sent out a small wind blade with a single slash, striking his opponent in the chest. Amid his look of disbelief, Makoto followed up with a kick, sending him flying toward the Slishi who was rushing in to help.
Slishi had not even finished forming the hand seals for his ninjutsu when his companion's body slammed straight into him. That was why, if your strength was insufficient, you should not charge in blindly—you would only become a liability to your teammates.
While Makoto charged out to draw the enemy's attention, Kumomi and the other six also rushed out from the right, beginning to cut down the remaining Kumo shinobi.
The burly leader standing on the tree took one look at the situation and made a decision instantly. Gritting his teeth, he chose to rescue Slishi. Comparatively speaking, a special jōnin with sensory abilities was far more important to the village than the others.
Reality was that cruel. Even among comrades, their value differed enormously.
He only had time to use the Body Flicker to flash to the side with Slishi, barely avoiding the lethal wind blade, while allowing the severely injured junior companion to be cut in two.
At this moment, there was no need for any extra words. Only by killing the Konoha shinobi before him could he avenge his comrades.
After being rescued, Slishi quickly formed hand seals, brilliant Lightning Release chakra gathering in both hands.
The chakra in his left and right hands transformed into dozens of small lightning spheres, each trailing a bright tail as they shot toward Makoto, determined to shock that detestable Konoha brat into charcoal.
Makoto slashed repeatedly with his short blade. Shadowless Sword triggered an equal number of wind blades, blasting apart the lightning spheres that shot toward him. At that moment, the burly, dark-skinned Kumo shinobi charged in.
The longsword, saturated with Lightning Release chakra, came crashing down from above with the brute's leaping strike, its speed carrying savage force.
He couldn't take it head-on. Even if Wind Release countered Lightning Release, the enemy's overwhelming strength was not something his small body could withstand.
Makoto quickly leapt aside to evade, but the burly Kumo shinobi flipped the blade upward and struck his short sword. The tremendous force sent both the weapon and his body flying straight into the air.
Big, powerful brutes—Kumo shinobi really were a bunch who loved building muscle.
"Die, brat!"
While Makoto was locked in a clash with the burly shinobi, Slishi suddenly sprang down from a nearby tree to his rear and slashed horizontally at Makoto's neck.
Knocked into the air and stripped of mobility—let's see how you dodge this, unless you can fly like that old Tsuchikage.
Then he watched with his own eyes as the figure before him suddenly vanished. Immediately after, a chill swept across the back of his neck, and his consciousness began to fade.
As he fell, staring at the figure hovering in midair, Slishi's final thought was: You really can fly? Why didn't you say so earlier?
The burly Kumo shinobi had been watching this Konoha prodigy—overwhelmingly strong to an absurd degree—about to die by a comrade's blade. Then, in an instant, the situation underwent a shocking reversal.
The opponent could move freely and rapidly in the air? Clearly, just like that detestable Tsuchikage, he was a shinobi who could fly. How was this even supposed to be fought?
There was no way to fight— the enemy had air superiority.
Throughout the history of the ninja world, there had been very few means to deal with flying ninjutsu, unless one used Dust Release.
But the person who could use Dust Release also happened to be able to fly.
He reined in his anger and turned to flee, extremely decisively. Today's mission was undoubtedly a failure. No matter what, he at least had to bring back intelligence on this brat.
However, before he could run more than a few steps, he was forced back by a slash from Kumomi, whose blade was wrapped in Wind Release chakra. Immediately afterward, Makoto struck the back of his neck with a Wind Finger Gun, causing him to lose his ability to move.
...
The blazing sun hung high overhead; it was close to noon.
In the forest, Kumo shinobi corpses lay everywhere. The Konoha shinobi, every one of them wounded, sat leaning together to rest.
From the moment they discovered the Kumo shinobi's trail and rushed at full speed to provide support, to wiping out ten Kumo shinobi and then counter-encircling another twenty, the nonstop fighting had exhausted everyone.
Even Makoto was no exception. One had to remember that earlier he had gone all out with a dense barrage of Shadowless Sword— it looked impressive, but the consumption was enormous.
At the time, six Kumo shinobi had fled. There was no time to chase them down one by one, so while they were still not too spread out, he had used a large-scale area-clearing ninjutsu to take them all out in a single wave.
After that, he had kept his sensory ninjutsu active at all times and continued fighting up to now. Even an iron man would not be able to endure that.
If not for his massive chakra reserves, he would never have lasted this long.
Just look at his two teammates and the three members of Iga's squad— they were in even worse shape than Makoto. Only Kumomi was doing slightly better.
From this perspective, Makoto was still a fairly standard shinobi for now— he had not yet crossed into the non-human tier.
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