The moment Kakashi gave the warning, Ren's mind snapped back from the System.
The playful thoughts of gambling with the Super Strength Technique disappeared in an instant. His expression sharpened, and battle instinct took over.
Without hesitation, he formed a hand seal.
Two Water Clones appeared beside him with soft splashes, their bodies shimmering faintly under the forest light. Through their shared vision, Ren's field of awareness expanded in every direction.
Front.
Left.
Right.
Behind.
Above.
Below.
No blind spot could be ignored on a battlefield.
His right hand reached over his shoulder and gripped the hilt of the sword strapped across his back, fingers tightening around the familiar handle.
Beside him, Rin silently reached for her ninja tool pouch.
Kakashi had already lowered his center of gravity, his cold eyes fixed on the trees ahead. His short sword was half-drawn, the polished blade catching a thin line of light.
The three of them formed a defensive triangle almost naturally.
No words were needed.
After months of war, teamwork had become instinct.
Then—
Rustle.
Rustle.
Rustle.
Strange noises came from the mountain forest ahead.
Branches trembled.
Leaves shook.
A moment later, four figures slowly stepped out from between the trees.
Three men.
One woman.
All wearing Konoha forehead protectors.
At first glance, they looked like allies.
But Ren did not relax.
The girl at the front had short orange hair and pale skin. Her face and body were wrapped in blood-stained bandages, and several fresh wounds still leaked red through the cloth. For some reason, Ren felt she looked familiar.
Not familiar enough to immediately recognize.
But familiar enough to make his instincts stir.
Beside her stood three others.
One had black spiky hair and a reckless look that vaguely resembled Obito.
Another wore a dark cloak that covered most of his body.
The last was a bald man with a thick neck and a rough, hardened face.
They all looked as though they had just survived a brutal battle. The orange-haired girl and the bald man were clearly injured, their bandages soaked with blood.
The spiky-haired man raised one hand and grinned.
"What luck. Didn't expect to run into allies here."
Then he looked at Kakashi.
"Whose team are you?"
Kakashi did not answer.
His eyes narrowed.
"That's what I should be asking."
His voice was cold.
"I know every patrol team assigned to this area. I've never seen you before."
"Where did you come from?"
The spiky-haired man clicked his tongue, but his expression remained easygoing.
"We came from the Dragonmoon City outpost."
"We have urgent intelligence about Sunagakure and need to report to Lord Jiraiya at the Wildfire City outpost."
He spread his hands.
"So cooperate with us, alright?"
Kakashi stared at him for a few seconds.
Then said,
"The code."
The spiky-haired man replied immediately.
"Daba shei xiu ha, keke you ni."
The forest became quiet again.
Kakashi's eyes shifted slightly.
The code was correct.
But he still didn't relax completely.
Instead, he asked several more questions about the situation at Dragonmoon City: troop movements, recent supply routes, known patrol patterns, and the name of the outpost commander.
The spiky-haired man answered fluently.
No hesitation.
No mistake.
Only then did Kakashi's posture loosen a little.
"Your injuries are serious."
He glanced at Rin.
"We have a medical ninja. Do you need treatment?"
The orange-haired girl's eyes lit up with relief.
"Really?"
"Thank you."
She took a weak step forward, one hand pressed against her waist.
Rin immediately softened.
She had always been like that.
Careful.
Kind.
Unable to ignore an injured comrade.
She stepped forward and said gently,
"You were hurt fighting Sunagakure, right?"
"Sit down first."
"Ren and I will treat you."
Ren still did not move.
His fingers remained on his sword.
His eyes stayed on the four supposed Konoha shinobi.
Something was wrong.
Everything checked out.
The code.
The answers.
The wounds.
The forehead protectors.
But the feeling in his chest only grew heavier.
Then the orange-haired girl began unwrapping the bandage around her waist, as if allowing Rin to examine the wound.
And in that instant—
Ren's unease exploded into certainty.
His pupils contracted.
"Rin!"
His voice cut through the forest like a blade.
"Don't get close!"
Rin froze.
She turned her head.
That half-second was enough.
The cloaked man and the orange-haired girl exchanged a glance.
Their disguises broke at the same time.
The cloaked man threw open his cloak.
Underneath it was not a wounded body.
It was a hidden arsenal.
Kunai.
Shuriken.
Explosive Tags.
Dozens of weapons flashed in the sunlight before being launched all at once.
They screamed toward Rin like a steel storm.
Rin's eyes widened.
But months of war had sharpened her reactions.
The moment she saw Ren and Kakashi move, she leapt backward. Her hand snapped to her pouch, drawing a kunai in a blur.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Metal rang violently.
Rin deflected several incoming weapons in front of her chest and throat, each strike desperate and precise.
But the problem was not the blades.
It was what hung from them.
Explosive Tags fluttered behind the kunai and shuriken.
Their seals were already burning.
They were about to detonate.
Kakashi's expression changed.
Rin's breath caught.
Then—
Ren vanished.
No.
Not vanished.
His body blurred.
In the same instant, Rin's figure appeared where Ren had been standing, while Ren appeared in the center of the incoming explosions.
The switch happened so quickly that the naked eye could barely track it.
It was as if the world had skipped a frame.
Substitution Jutsu: Simulated Realm Instantaneous Transfer.
The next second—
BOOM!
The forest erupted.
A deafening explosion tore through the clearing.
Flames surged upward.
Heat rolled outward like a wave.
Smoke swallowed the ground.
The place where Ren stood disappeared beneath fire, dust, and shattered stone.
"Ren!"
Kakashi shouted.
For the first time in a long while, raw panic cracked through his usual cold expression. His dead-fish eyes widened, and his grip on the White Fang short sword tightened until his knuckles turned pale.
He took one step toward the fire.
Then another.
Rin stood frozen behind him.
She had never seen Ren use that technique before.
She had no idea he could swap positions with someone like that.
For one terrible second, she could only stare at the flames.
Her lips trembled.
"Ren..."
Her voice was almost a whisper.
But the attackers reacted faster.
"Do it!"
The orange-haired girl shouted.
In an instant, she and the spiky-haired man lunged forward like arrows released from a bow.
Their earlier injured weakness vanished completely.
The orange-haired girl shot toward Kakashi.
The spiky-haired man rushed at Rin.
Their killing intent was naked and vicious.
Kakashi forced himself to turn away from the fire.
He couldn't check on Ren.
Not now.
If he lost focus, Rin would die.
His short sword flashed.
The White Fang blade met the orange-haired girl's weapon in midair.
Clang!
A shrill metallic cry tore through the clearing.
The force behind her strike shocked him.
Kakashi's arm went numb.
His feet slid half a step back across the dirt.
His eyes sharpened.
Strong.
Far stronger than he expected.
Across from him, the orange-haired girl grinned coldly and pressed forward, her blade moving faster and faster. Each slash targeted joints, tendons, throat, eyes, and ribs.
No wasted motion.
No hesitation.
She was not fighting like a wounded messenger.
She was fighting like an assassin.
Kakashi gritted his teeth and parried again.
Clang!
Sparks flew.
On the other side, Rin was already being driven back.
The spiky-haired man laughed cruelly as he attacked.
"Haha!"
"Die!"
"Just die already!"
His kunai rained down like a storm.
Rin blocked desperately, but taijutsu had never been her strongest area. She was a medic, not a frontline bruiser.
Her wrist trembled with every impact.
Her breathing grew unstable.
Step by step, she was pushed backward.
Her heel struck a root.
She nearly stumbled.
The enemy's grin widened.
Kakashi saw it from the corner of his eye.
His heart tightened.
He wanted to help.
But the orange-haired girl immediately intensified her assault.
Her blade came at him from a sharp angle, forcing him to block.
Then another strike.
And another.
Kakashi found himself trapped.
The girl's swordsmanship was clean, ruthless, and terrifyingly fast.
Who is she?
His thoughts raced.
She didn't look much older than them.
She couldn't possibly be a jonin.
And yet...
Aside from Ren, Kakashi had never met anyone his age who could pressure him this much in kenjutsu.
The thought of Ren made his eyes flick instinctively toward the fading smoke.
Rin, still struggling, also looked that way with tears gathering in her eyes.
The explosion site slowly became visible.
The ground was blackened.
Trees were scorched.
Rocks had been shattered and thrown in every direction.
The center of the blast had become a smoking crater.
But—
It was empty.
There was no body.
No blood.
No burned remains.
Nothing.
The bald man's expression changed.
"What?"
The cloaked man reacted even faster.
He seemed to possess some kind of sensory ability. His head snapped upward slightly, and his fingers tightened around a kunai.
He sensed something.
But he was too late.
A whisper of wind came from above.
Then came the blade.
Shing!
A brilliant arc of steel split the smoke from the sky.
Like lightning tearing through a storm cloud, a sword light flashed downward without warning.
Behind that light was a white-haired boy descending from above.
Ren's cloak snapped in the wind.
His eyes were cold.
His sword was already mid-swing.
The cloaked man's pupils shrank.
He raised his kunai desperately.
Too slow.
Ren's blade crashed down.
Clang!
The impact drove the cloaked man's knees into the dirt.
Before he could recover, Ren twisted in midair and kicked him hard in the chest.
The cloaked man flew backward, smashing through a bush and rolling across the ground.
The bald man roared and charged.
Ren landed lightly.
Then turned.
The bald man's fist came crashing toward his face.
Ren ducked under it, stepped inside the man's guard, and drove his elbow into the bald man's ribs.
Crack.
The bald man's breath burst from his mouth.
Ren followed with a spinning slash, forcing him to retreat.
Only then did everyone realize what had happened.
Ren had not taken the explosion head-on.
The moment he swapped places with Rin, he had used the blast smoke as cover, leapt upward with chakra-enhanced footwork, and hidden himself above the battlefield.
The enemy had thought he was dead.
Instead, he had become the blade hanging over their heads.
Kakashi's eyes flashed.
Rin's despair turned into relief so powerful her knees nearly weakened.
"Ren..."
But the battle wasn't over.
The orange-haired girl clicked her tongue.
"So you survived."
Ren smiled faintly.
"Disappointed?"
She narrowed her eyes.
"Very."
The spiky-haired man who had been attacking Rin glanced between Ren and the others, his grin fading.
Their ambush had failed.
Worse—
The prey was no longer acting like prey.
Ren rolled his shoulder and raised his sword.
Kakashi stepped back beside him, White Fang short sword ready.
Rin took a shaky breath, then gripped her kunai with renewed determination.
The three young Konoha shinobi stood together once more.
Smoke drifted around them.
Leaves fell through the air.
The fake Konoha squad slowly spread out, their killing intent thickening.
Ren's eyes moved from the cloaked man to the bald man, then finally to the orange-haired girl.
That faint sense of familiarity still bothered him.
He knew that face.
Or at least, he knew something connected to it.
But there was no time to think.
The orange-haired girl lifted her blade.
Kakashi's expression darkened.
Rin steadied herself.
Ren smiled.
Cold.
Sharp.
Dangerous.
"Kakashi, protect Rin."
"I'll handle the ones who like sneak attacks."
The forest wind stirred.
The next instant, both sides moved.
And the quiet patrol mission turned into a deadly clash beneath the trees.
----------------------------------------------
Extra chapters available in Patreon
[Www.patreon.com/Samurai492 ]"
__________________________________