Yuhara could only feel the heavy tension that weighed down the battlefield, while the Konoha ninjas at the front lines were already drenched in blood.
Just a short while earlier, when the enemy first stepped onto the field, a Konoha ninja had already moved to intercept them.
There were no words exchanged—just two enemy shinobi hurtling toward each other at high speed. In the blink of an eye, the Konoha ninja lost an arm.
The clash ended just as quickly as it began, with both sides briefly separating. The Konoha ninja gritted his teeth, ignoring the gaping wound on his shoulder. With his non-dominant hand, he pulled out a kunai and, without hesitation, charged at the clearly stronger opponent.
None of his teammates moved to assist. They simply watched in silence.
This was his mission.
A pale bolt of lightning danced across the enemy's body, and in the next moment, a hole the size of a fist was punched through the Konoha ninja's chest.
He crumpled to the ground, motionless. There was no chance he'd get up again.
Almost immediately, one of the observing Konoha shinobi blew on a hidden whistle tucked in his mouth. The high-pitched chirp mimicked birdsong and echoed across the battlefield.
"Target confirmed. Operation to lure the enemy is underway."
That so-called reckless attacker wasn't being foolish—he was carrying out a specific reconnaissance mission: identify the enemy. Strictly speaking, he wasn't even a full-fledged Konoha ninja. At most, he was an affiliated operative, a "Konoha-aligned" shinobi.
Once the enemy's identity had been exposed, Konoha's vanguard appeared to break formation in panic and retreat to the rear lines.
As expected, the enemy gave chase without hesitation.
And during that chaotic retreat, several Konoha shinobi sacrificed their lives, all in the name of luring the enemy deeper into the forest.
There were no flashy jutsu or impressive feats of taijutsu—just blades clashing and bodies falling. For most ordinary ninja, this was what battle looked like: you charged, you swung your weapon, and if you weren't strong enough... you died.
Soon, Konoha confirmed a critical detail: the enemy team wasn't composed of two shinobi, but four.
But by then, it was too late to back out. The battle had already begun, and the enemy had no intention of letting anyone escape alive.
At the rear, Yuhara stood frozen.
He knew he couldn't keep standing around, paralyzed. He had to act.
He reached for his equipment pouch, pulling out several kunai, shuriken, and a bundle of detonating tags. His hands moved quickly, clumsily tying the tags to each kunai one by one.
Nobuyoshi, standing nearby, casually shifted a step away from him.
It was the sort of reaction any sane person would have when someone inexperienced started handling explosives.
But to Yuhara, the detonating tag was the most powerful weapon in his arsenal. The more explosive the device, the more secure he felt.
Once his improvised weapons were ready, Yuhara forced himself to breathe deeply, calming his nerves.
In the distance, the forest suddenly came alive with noise. The next second, a deafening explosion shattered the calm, the shockwave rumbling through the ground beneath his feet.
That must have been Konoha's trap going off.
Dust billowed through the trees, casting the woods into a murky twilight. As the explosion faded, birdsong sounded again.
Yuhara snapped his head toward Nobuyoshi. His sharp gaze made the other man flinch slightly.
But Nobuyoshi didn't hesitate. "The trap failed!"
There was no longer a need for secret signals. No one was left to hear Saku's message anyway.
"They're coming!" Saku shouted.
Yuhara's heart lurched. He felt it too—something fast, approaching their position.
The enemy had pinpointed them.
In the blink of an eye, a Kumogakure ninja burst through the foliage.
He was tall, broad-shouldered, with dark skin and two deep scars etched across his face. Yuhara's eyes instinctively scanned the man from head to toe—but they stopped abruptly at what he held in his hand.
The man noticed Yuhara's stare and casually swung his arm.
The object he was dragging landed just a few feet in front of Yuhara and Nobuyoshi.
It was Captain Hinoki's body.
Or rather, what was left of it.
Yuhara hadn't known the captain well—just a passing acquaintance, really—but seeing him like this… It was hard to swallow.
A man who had been alive just hours ago was now nothing more than a bloodied corpse.
So this... was war.
When the trap had failed, the operation was effectively over. How could ordinary Genin or even Chunin stand up to an elite Jonin?
Tactics and plans were meaningless if the difference in strength was too vast.
While Yuhara struggled to organize his thoughts, Nobuyoshi suddenly darted forward—not toward the enemy, but toward the captain's body.
Before he could reach it, a blade swung at him, forcing him to veer off at the last second. The cut still landed—his left arm was sliced open, deep and clean like a scallion under a kitchen knife.
"Nobuyoshi! Yuhara! Contain him! Leave the rest to me!" Kirikou's voice rang out.
A fireball roared past Yuhara as Kirikou launched her jutsu.
The Kumogakure ninja dodged with ease, moving with terrifying speed despite his size.
Nobuyoshi and Yuhara flanked him from opposite sides.
With his arm injured, Nobuyoshi couldn't use any jutsu. That left Yuhara as the main attacker—except for one problem.
He didn't know any jutsu.
Yuhara didn't hesitate. He yanked out his kunai—each tied with detonating tags—and hurled them at the enemy.
It was a reckless move.
At this range, if the tags exploded, they'd hit friend and foe alike.
The Kumogakure ninja's expression tightened. He dove aside, thinking he was facing a Konoha fanatic willing to blow himself up.
But then… nothing happened.
The kunai clattered harmlessly to the ground.
"…"
Huh?
"Um… how do you activate these things?" Yuhara asked sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.
Both sides froze for a second. The enemy's expression twisted—he'd braced himself for a suicide bombing, only to find a fool with explosives he didn't know how to use.
He'd been wrong.
This wasn't a fanatic.
This was an idiot.
Just as he dismissed Yuhara with a sneer, one of the kunai on the ground sprang to life.
It launched into the air, trailing its still-attached tag, now glowing a fierce red.
Boom!
A massive explosion erupted, engulfing the area in orange-red flames.
At the same time, Kirikou had reached her fallen brother.
Yuhara, still dazed, thought she was trying to retrieve the body.
He was wrong.
Without hesitation, Kirikou raised her kunai and drove it through her brother's eye socket, straight into the brain.
Yuhara, catching a glimpse from the corner of his eye, froze.
He didn't understand. Not at first.
But the answer soon became clear.
It was the right thing to do.
From small tactical missions to large-scale war strategies, a captain-level shinobi carried sensitive information—battle plans, personnel compositions, and more.
If the brain was left intact, even a dead man could be interrogated by the enemy.
That's why Nobuyoshi had rushed to the body earlier.
And Kirikou, lacking the strength to protect her brother or carry him to safety, had done the only thing she could as a Konoha shinobi—
—ensure that her brother died a Konoha ninja.
So when the time comes…
Don't hesitate.