White breath like an arrow, Otonashi seemed to have a furnace inside his body radiating high-temperature steam. His entire aura was rapidly shrinking downwards.
The time for the Eight Gates Release was up. This type of potential-bursting ninjutsu couldn't last too long; otherwise, Otonashi wouldn't have risked injury to set up the trick.
His back was scorched black, his ninja vest was gone, and even his full head of white hair had turned panda-colored.
'Indeed, the trump cards of these elite Jonin are very powerful. Even a 'Kage' could be killed if they were slightly careless.'
The coverage area was too large. If he hadn't burrowed into the ground, even with the Eight Gates Release, he wouldn't have been able to escape.
"But the one who's alive is me!"
Taking a breath, Otonashi pulled out his sword and looked behind him. At the edge of the destroyed clearing, a similarly blackened tall figure was watching him.
Zabuza Momochi was indeed one of the numbered geniuses of the Hidden Mist Village. The point-blank explosion of explosive tags actually failed to kill him.
The two equally injured figures looked at each other, but it was Otonashi who took the first step.
"You want my head? Come take it." The teenager held his long sword horizontally, his face filled with a gentle smile, which, paired with his torn and battered body, resembled that of a demon.
When he took three steps, Zabuza actually took a slight step back.
"What? You don't want my head?"
"Leave it on your neck for now. I don't want to waste my life for those idiots." A wooden and cold voice sounded, the assassin speaking his first words of the day.
He slowly retreated, a wisp of white mist rose, and the ninja gradually disappeared into the forest.
If you can't win, you can't win. There's nothing to hide.
Instead, Otonashi, who had been holding back his energy, relaxed. His body swayed twice and leaned against a tree.
Zabuza was scared away. With all the killing methods he had just displayed, even if he lay motionless on the ground, this Mist assassin would have been suspicious.
But then again, if Zabuza had dared to come, he was fully confident he could take his head!
"Sharp intuition. No wonder he could survive until after the war."
Taking another breath, Otonashi's hands glowed green, and he immediately began self-healing.
The trembling muscles were calming down, the sword wound on his back stopped bleeding. He threw a handful of pills and dry rations into his mouth and chewed, then used a Water Release jutsu to douse himself.
Rushing hundreds of miles, killing over a dozen people.
Under the moon, the teenager who should have rested long ago stood up proudly,甩干shook the water from his hair, tore open his clothes, gripped the sword in his hand, glanced at the silent corpse behind him, and plunged south into the forest.
Tonight was far from over!
........
"This time, we've really been screwed over by Otonashi and the others."
In a forest clearing, Obito, standing on the right side of the triangular formation, sighed.
Kannabi Bridge was just a few miles ahead. They could even hear the roar of the river during the spring flood. But Team 7 could no longer advance.
Over a dozen ninjas had surrounded them here, and there were no less than five Jonin!
"Stop complaining, Obito. This scale is already beyond their tolerance range. It's not the responsibility of the decoy team." Kakashi gripped his kunai tightly, but swallowed the second half of his sentence.
Looking at these Iwa-nin, they clearly just came from a fight. I'm afraid Otonashi and the others have already died in the line of duty.
"So, are we still blowing up the bridge or not?" Obito asked, back-to-back with Kakashi, already knowing the answer in his heart.
Kakashi wasn't an idiot either, and immediately replied, "The mission is already impossible to complete. Let's find a way to break out."
Actually, he found it strange. The opponent clearly had overwhelming numbers and combat power advantages, yet they seemed overly cautious. In just a moment, he had made a decision.
"North!"
Boom—
The sound of exploding tags and the ninjas' charge erupted simultaneously. Rin and Obito were responsible for suppressing with kunai and explosive tags, but found those Iwa-nin dodging frantically, as if overestimating the power of the explosive tags.
"Chance!" Kakashi saw the opponent's formation momentarily disorganized and formed seals without hesitation.
Chidori!!
Azure lightning chirped like a thousand birds. His speed suddenly increased, and he charged up a tree trunk at a vertical angle. The Iwa-nin who was dodging explosive tags saw another white-haired teenager charging like lightning, his heart trembled, and he crossed his kunai in front of his chest.
Kill one first!
Just like a high-pitched bird cry, the Chidori in his hand shot out directly, piercing a hole through this Iwa-nin, along with his crossed arms. Kakashi's hand trembled, the Chidori tore through the corpse and remained bright, immediately rushing towards the second person.
"Straightforward! This brat isn't him!" Taiseki, the sturdy man in front, stopped for some reason. Reaching into his pouch, three kunai forced Kakashi to dodge diagonally. The teenager's feet ground out two trails of smoke on the tree, still charging rapidly.
Naive!
The Jonin grinned ferociously. The speed was indeed fast, but the opponent couldn't aim accurately at all.
Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!
Boom!
With a loud bang, the Chidori directly blasted a large hole through the Earth Flow Wall. However, Kakashi, emerging through the shattered remnants, saw his pupils shrink sharply because he couldn't see the enemy's figure at all.
Where!?
His eyes darted around. His peripheral vision caught a black afterimage coming from the side, and he slashed without thinking.
Shua—
The lightning chakra of the Chidori was difficult to block, but the feeling of not hitting a corpse still made Kakashi's eyes widen.
It's not him!
Under the Chidori was a thin man holding two strange blades. The latter slid under the Chidori, passing over his head, a contemptuous smile on his face. And the sturdy Iwa-nin from before had disappeared into thin air.
Pfft!
Before the uncertain emotions could fully rise, pain pulled him back to reality.
Blood spurted wildly from his chest, as if hit by something invisible. But looking at the blood in the air, Kakashi recognized what it was.
Invisibility ninjutsu!?
Before he could think further, the thin man who had slid past leaped up suddenly, raising his blades to strike at his head.
Clang—
At this moment, a pair of crossed kunai blocked the sharp blades. The remaining force still struck his head, causing blood to flow like a stream and stars to appear before his eyes, but Kakashi forcefully stabilized his body and lay prone on the ground.
A foot stepped over his back. Obito rushed over, and his other foot kicked fiercely at the thin man's chest, sending the opponent sliding far away.
This Jonin didn't dare to stop, performing several consecutive backflips to jump away. Kunai thrown by a girl from above riddled the spot where he had just paused.
"Kakashi, are you okay?"
Obito and Rin covered him from front and back, not daring to pursue.
"I'm fine." The white hair stained red, the teenager let out a long sigh. Looking up, he saw his companion's eyes had turned red, with two tomoe slowly spinning within.
"Obito, your eyes..."
"Huh?" Uchiha Obito paused, then suddenly realized his vision was different.
The air, the earth, the trees all presented a strange color, and the high-speed movements of those Iwa-nin had also slowed down. But just as joy surged in his heart, his kunai stabbed towards Rin behind him.
Clang!
A spark bloomed beside the girl's neck. Obito saw a figure that blended into the background like a chameleon flying backward. It was the same person who had just severely injured Kakashi.
When he looked up again, seeing the dozen or so enemies spread out in a ring on the trees, the joy in his heart instantly vanished.
Surrounded and killed by over a dozen strong enemies, awakening the eyes was meaningless!
"What do we do?" Obito felt his lips dry, silently asking backward.
Kakashi was speechless. He had just been promoted to Jonin, and there were no less than three opponents of the same rank. Even if Obito had awakened the Sharingan, what could they do? He couldn't help but bite his lip.
"You take Rin and go first. I'll use shadow clones to buy time."
"Don't even think about it!"
"I won't leave!"
Unexpectedly, his proposal was instantly rejected by both of them. This immediately gave him a headache, not even having time to educate them about what orders meant.
Fortunately, those Iwa-nin didn't attack immediately, seemingly wanting to capture them alive for some reason.
"Then let's hold our ground and wait for reinforcements!" Biting his lip again, Kakashi, seeing something, whispered, "There's a stone cave over there. We should be able to hold out for a while."
Not far to their left, there was a stone cave in the forest. The entrance was less than two meters wide, truly a place where one man could hold off ten thousand. But everyone knew that once inside, there was no chance of breaking out again.
If reinforcements didn't come, they would be trapped and killed inside.
"Okay! Let's go!" Obito said without hesitation, clearly intending to live or die together.
However, Kakashi regretted it as soon as he charged towards it. Forget a bloody battle, those Iwa-nin simply opened a path, as if escorting them inside.
But the momentum was set, and it was too late to turn back.
"These brats really hid inside."
Watching Kakashi and the others jump into the cave entrance, several Jonin simultaneously showed contemptuous smiles.
What a bunch of idiots. If they had desperately tried to break out, maybe one or two could have escaped. Now they're trapped like turtles in a jar.
"What now? Still capture them alive?" Taiseki, the Jonin who was invisible earlier, reappeared. Killing Kakashi and the others was simple; just use Earth Release to collapse the cave.
"Of course, we have to capture them. There's so much commotion to the north. Regardless of the outcome, we need to secure hostages first." Kakkō, the thin man, was extremely cautious. He snapped his fingers and ordered:
"Use Water Release to force them out!"
No one was a fool. They had already thought of a plan when they decided to let the Konoha ninjas enter the cave.
The Iwa-nin immediately split into three teams. One team prepared to use Water Release jointly, one team ambushed at the cave entrance ready to capture people, and the last team stood guard on the perimeter.
The division of labor was clear; not even a fly could escape. But they didn't notice the direction behind them—
Another pale white head suddenly poked out from the forest.