Chapter 183
2-in-1-chapter
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The aerial clash erupted so quickly that Juri and Kamimizu Kabachi threw themselves into the fight with everything they had—one bringing forth countless birds and insects through Super Beast Imitating Drawing, the other unleashing every species of bee he had bred. The result was evenly matched.
Juri was formidable; being captured by Rēn in the past did not mean she was weak. Against a monster like Susanoo, only a handful across the shinobi world could even stand and fight. In fact, as a master of the Super Beast Imitating Drawing secret art, Juri had long been among the top operatives in what used to be Root and was now the ANBU.
As for Kamimizu Kabachi, the last lingering ember of the Kamimizu clan, his strength could not be underestimated. The fact that Bun'ya had chosen him at all was already proof of the power that made him worth trusting.
Between the two of them, neither had yet seized the advantage. With no one else interfering, this battle would likely drag on for quite some time before a victor emerged. The combatants themselves sensed this, and so did the onlookers around them.
Iwa-nin began to move.
Among them was a shinobi who had mastered the Ninja Art: Hiding with Camouflage. Strictly speaking, this technique had already moved beyond the five basic natures of Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Lightning; it was an application of Yang Release and counted among the category of secret arts.
In Iwagakure, only a very few possessed it.
During the Third Shinobi World War, Hatake Kakashi had run into an Iwa-nin who used this very technique and had his eye injured. Even then, when Kakashi was already a Jōnin—though far from his peak—it showed how troublesome Iwa's techniques could be.
Now, one such user of Hiding with Camouflage moved quietly into action, intent on locating Juri and helping Kamimizu Kabachi seize the initiative.
At least that was his intention.
"Where do you think you're going?"
A blade wreathed in wind edges swept across, nearly slicing open the camouflaged Iwa-nin's throat. The cold, razor chill that grazed the skin of his neck sent sweat running down his back. It had been close—so close that a heartbeat slower and his throat would have been cut.
Only his reflexes, just quick enough, had saved him.
"Uchiha?"
Catching sight of those scarlet eyes, the Iwa-nin recalled his teacher's warnings through his fear. Hiding with Camouflage was powerful; even against sensory shinobi it held up, because nine out of ten sensory types needed to remain still while sensing.
That was why Hiding with Camouflage was so effective in real combat.
But there was a caveat: the two great clans of Konoha countered it brutally. The Uchiha's Sharingan and the Hyūga's Byakugan could both pierce the technique entirely. If encountered on the battlefield, it was best to abandon the camouflage and conserve chakra for a straightforward fight; the odds of victory would actually be higher.
As those cautions replayed in his mind, he forgot one iron rule.
Beware the Sharingan.
Do not hold eye contact with an Uchiha.
He looked straight into Uchiha Chihaya's eyes and failed to break away at once. Instead, a flicker of memory snagged him for the briefest instant—and in that instant's opening, Uchiha Chihaya struck precisely.
Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes!
Do not let her Wind Style and kenjutsu make you forget her surname. She was an Uchiha with a three-tomoe Sharingan, and for a three-tomoe Sharingan user, casting genjutsu was no harder than breathing or drinking water. It was as natural as a born reflex.
By the time the camouflaged Iwa-nin reacted, massive metal stakes had already pinned his limbs, and his field of vision was flooded in crimson. He tried to disrupt his chakra flow to break the illusion, but the method that usually dispelled genjutsu failed utterly before the Sharingan's dōjutsu.
"How boring. I thought you would be stronger."
A disappointed sigh echoed by his ears, and then an indescribable pain tore through his neck. The illusionary world shattered, and the real scene returned—the setting sun dropping behind gray stone hills, the blood-wet edge of Uchiha Chihaya's blade, and a headless body collapsing to the ground.
He was already dead.
His last scraps of consciousness were swallowed by darkness as his round head spun across the dirt.
"How could this be…"
The Iwa-nin froze.
It ended far too quickly.
This team was not a fixed unit, but as comrades from the same village, they knew each other well enough. Aside from a few hidden tricks, they had a solid sense of one another's strength.
And yet the comrade who wielded Hiding with Camouflage had been cut down by a Leaf shinobi in an instant—cleanly and decisively.
The speed chilled them to the core.
It was not that they were unprepared, but Konoha's internal strife had sent most of the Uchiha to the eastern front to fight Kirigakure during the Third War. Only a few, like Uchiha Obito, had crossed paths with Iwa directly. The younger generation of Iwa-nin had learned of the Sharingan's terror only by word of mouth from their seniors. They had never truly experienced it—until now, when Uchiha Chihaya stood before them and they finally witnessed the Uchiha's prowess.
Konoha's foremost clan did not earn its name on boasts. To speak bluntly, the ones who could bring down the Uchiha, beyond the Senju, were the Uchiha themselves.
"Damn it!"
Bun'ya's expression changed drastically.
A man tempered on real battlefields, he knew how quickly the tide could turn and how uncertain an outcome remained until the very end. Even so, the power Uchiha Chihaya had just displayed pressed on him like a weight.
After all, Konoha's reinforcements had been on the field for not even a minute, and already two Iwa Jōnin lay dead, with another Jōnin missing an arm and effectively out of the fight. Rinba's duty was to protect Kurotsuchi. Counting carefully, that left them—with Bun'ya included—with only four Jōnin still able to act.
One was Kabachi locked in a brutal exchange with the Konoha shinobi hiding, and the two were evenly matched with neither gaining the upper hand, while another Jōnin struggled beneath Ringo Ameyuri's relentless, tide-like assault and suffered badly from that piercing Lightning Release technique, looking perilously close to collapse; the remaining Jōnin was being singled out by Uchiha Chihaya.
As for Bun'ya himself, Kakashi Hatake stood before him.
The situation had deteriorated so quickly that Bun'ya found himself unable to steady his temper. Just a moment ago there had been a genuine chance to capture Doctor Shiso alive; in the blink of an eye that opportunity had evaporated, and now there were only four Chūnin left to call on as a mobile force.
What use were Chūnin at a time like this? Even a wounded Medic-nin like Shiso was not something a few Chūnin could be expected to snatch up, and taking her alive had become an impossibility.
"Everyone, make killing the spy Shiso your primary objective."
Bun'ya's order pulsed through each shinobi's ear transmitter. If capturing her was impossible, then kill her. He gave no finer instructions because he had no time to waste. Kakashi lunged like a wolf, his blade wrapped in crackling lightning that made even Bun'ya hesitate.
At this point there was nothing to do but let the subordinates fight with everything they had.
Beneath the sunset's last light, the two groups clashed violently in the valley between the mountains. The Iwa shinobi abandoned the attempt to capture and instead tried to kill Shiso, while the Leaf reinforcements were too few to withdraw with the Medic-nin and could only hope to turn the tide by counterattacking.
Iwa had the numerical advantage, but Konoha's combat power was clearly superior. Uchiha Chihaya and Ringo Ameyuri both held the field; it seemed only a matter of time before they dispatched their opponents.
Bun'ya realized with growing unease that he had no reliable way to fight off Kakashi. Kakashi's strength matched his own.
The fight between Kabachi Kamimizu and Juri still showed no clear winner, while the four Chūnin were now surrounding Yakushi Nonō. Nonō refused to fight them head-on; she kept moving through the valley, using the terrain to delay and buy time.
Her chakra was almost exhausted. If she spent the last of it now, she would be left helpless.
She saw that Konoha's side had the better odds. Barring outside interference, Iwa would most likely lose.
There was no point in stubbornness at that moment; survival was the priority.
"Rinba!" a voice cried out.
"No," came the reply.
"I haven't finished speaking!"
"Miss Kurotsuchi, please retreat with me."
Rinba said it in a low voice.
"What are you saying, Rinba? Are you asking me to be a deserter? If you strike now, you could kill Doctor Shiso, couldn't you?" The girl spoke of killing with no hint of discomfort; if anything, she sounded resolute.
Shiso's earlier words had clarified Kurotsuchi's role and responsibility—she was here to capture a spy, and private feelings should not interfere.