Chapter 146: The Hiding Place
Seeing Hayaji take his last breath, Kaito withdrew his sword and said, "He was incredibly tough to beat!"
Hodaka and Mieko also stopped their attacks and nodded. Hayaji's body fell to the ground. Hodaka said, "Yeah, we fought for so long, and even though he took so many hits, he never let me strike his tenketsu!"
Mieko nodded. She was about to speak, but her gaze fell on Kaito. She immediately became irritated and asked, "Why do you always pretend to run away and then ambush?"
Kaito shrugged and said, "Because it works."
Hodaka and Mieko's faces instantly darkened.
Renjiro's shadow clone also appeared beside them using the Body Flicker Technique. He looked proudly at his three students and praised, "Well done! Although he was already worn down from fighting me, the three of you still managed to take down a full-fledged jonin!"
The three of them looked at him. Hodaka asked, "Should we go help Sensei?"
Before the shadow clone could answer, a voice came from behind them, "No need."
The three immediately turned around and saw Renjiro. He had finally succeeded in killing his opponent. After sealing his opponent's body, he was about to help his shadow clone when the three of them finished off Hayaji.
Renjiro dispelled the shadow clone and absorbed all its memories.
He looked at his students and said, "Well done. Have you sealed their bodies?"
His students shook their heads. Renjiro said, "Seal their bodies and store them in scrolls. Regroup within two minutes. Kaito, bring Hoka as well. Also, don't take their belongings. For missions that specifically require eliminating certain ninja, leave their items alone—the village needs to examine them, and they might contain traps."
The three nodded and used the Body Flicker Technique to leave. They went to their respective battlefields and sealed the bodies in scrolls.
Kaito used the Body Flicker Technique to reach Hoka's side and looked at him. Both he and his ninken were wrapped in multiple bandages.
Hoka looked at Kaito and asked, "Is it over?"
Kaito nodded. "All the enemies are dead."
Hoka was surprised. He thought, "They actually eliminated an entire Hidden Mist squad in thirty minutes—one that we couldn't catch for days!"
While Inuzuka Hoka was lost in thought, Kaito sealed Hayaji's body in a scroll. He asked, "Can you move?"
Hoka stood up and said, "Yeah, my injuries aren't serious."
Kaito nodded and said, "Good. Sensei wants us to regroup. Come with me."
Within a few minutes, everyone had gathered where Renjiro was waiting. Renjiro had already sealed the other jonin's body.
Renjiro glanced at everyone and said, "Status report."
Mieko replied, "No injuries, about fifteen percent chakra remaining."
Hodaka said, "No injuries, about twenty-five percent chakra remaining."
Kaito said, "No injuries, about forty percent chakra remaining."
Inuzuka Hoka didn't know Renjiro Squad's protocols. However, hearing the three chunin, he understood and replied, "Minor injuries, about thirty-five percent chakra remaining."
Renjiro nodded and said, "Prepare yourselves. We're moving to attack the second Hidden Mist squad."
The three were all surprised. Kaito asked, "Sensei, shouldn't we rest first and recover our chakra?"
Mieko and Hodaka both agreed with Kaito but said nothing.
Renjiro replied, "Normally, yes. But our enemies will flee if we wait. We're in the Land of Fire, so our reinforcements will arrive soon. However, we can't afford to wait for them."
Renjiro didn't elaborate further and used the Body Flicker Technique to leave. His students immediately followed him.
Hoka was stunned again—they had suddenly disappeared! He immediately followed their scent trail.
Renjiro arrived at the pond where the Hidden Mist ninja were supposedly hiding. Kaito, Mieko, and Hodaka followed closely behind.
Hoka was the last to arrive. They stood at the far end of the pond.
Mieko asked, "Sensei, why are we back here?"
Renjiro smiled and asked, "When multiple enemies are pursuing you, where do you think is the best place to hide?"
The four fell into thought. Hoka had some ideas, but he didn't answer since he assumed the question was directed at Renjiro's students.
After a moment, Mieko replied, "Somewhere no one would expect you to go."
Kaito and Hodaka gave her deadpan expressions. Hodaka scoffed, "Isn't that just stating the obvious?"
Renjiro laughed. "Well, she's right. In this situation, where they're being pursued by a stronger squad, and that squad is being hunted by multiple other squads, the best hiding place is near the first squad pursuing them."
Hearing this, the three students' eyes widened. They immediately activated their sensory abilities.
However, they didn't detect anyone nearby.
Renjiro continued, "It's truly clever. Those pursuing them would never imagine they're so close. And since this is their hiding place, they must be very confident they won't be discovered here, which means they're hidden extremely well."
"Even if the hiding place of those pursuing them is exposed, the attackers will focus on them and won't think there's another squad hidden here."
Kaito asked, "Sensei, how did you sense them?"
Renjiro chuckled and said, "I'm very sensitive to Earth and Water Release chakra. When I used the Mud Wall jutsu, I detected another underground cavern that was perfect for hiding. Since the patrol didn't find them, it was easy to guess who was hiding there."
Renjiro began forming hand seals, but Kaito said, "Wait, Sensei. I'm detecting some chakra signatures to our left."
Hodaka activated his Byakugan. Renjiro stopped and asked, "How many?"
Kaito replied, "Four chunin-level... Three more just arrived, so seven total—all chunin-level."
Hodaka added, "They're all members of our patrol."
Renjiro waited. Soon, seven chunin arrived beside them. Upon arrival, one of them said, "We heard a lot of commotion from this area, so we came to provide backup."
Renjiro nodded and replied, "One of the Hidden Mist squads has been eliminated. We're now going after the other one. Three of you wait here, and the remaining four go hide yourselves. Hoka, go with them."
They nodded. The four members of the first patrol dispersed in different directions to conceal themselves. Hoka did the same. The remaining three waited with Team Renjiro, wondering what he was planning.
Renjiro formed several hand seals, pressed his hands to the ground, and said quietly, "Earth Release: Earth Spike Jutsu."
Half an hour earlier:
Inside the underground cavern where Sakai and the others were hiding, a sudden tremor was felt!
Unlike Hayaji's squad, the members of this squad were younger. Only their leader, a woman in her thirties, was experienced. The other three members were all teenagers.
The leader looked at her squad members and said, "It seems Hayaji and his squad have been discovered by Konoha ninja. Try to sense what's happening."
Her squad nodded. One of them, a Special Jonin, asked, "Wouldn't it be better if we helped those Konoha ninja? That way, we could eliminate that squad from the Mizukage's faction."
Another member, a chunin, added, "This might even help us establish a relationship with Konoha. With those people dead and by becoming friendly with Konoha, we could return home safely."
But the leader shook her head. She said, "We don't know if the Konoha team is strong enough to kill them. If they aren't, and Hayaji's squad eventually escapes, then we'll be in serious trouble."
"That's not even considering that the Konoha ninja might view us as enemies too, and we might end up helping Hayaji's squad escape. Our situation would become even worse."
The Special Jonin said softly, "But didn't one of our clan members recently participate in the Konoha Chunin Exams? I heard she even made it to the finals. Could we use this to negotiate with Konoha?"
The leader replied, "I thought about that, but in the end, Konoha didn't agree to help us. Even if I mentioned it, I'm afraid Konoha would demand our surrender and treat us as prisoners. They might release us for that reason, but then things wouldn't be under our control anymore."
Hearing their leader's words, everyone's expressions became serious.
After some time, their last chunin member said, "What if we use this opportunity to escape?"
The leader replied, "If they can find Hayaji's squad, who were so well hidden, we'd be exposed the moment we leave this hiding place. Don't worry too much. I don't think they'll find our location. We'll look for an opportunity to leave in a few days."
With no other option, they could only wait in their hiding place.
After the first tremor, no other disturbances were felt in the cavern, so they concluded that the battle had moved elsewhere.
[500 Power Stones → +1 Bonus Chapter]
[10 Reviews → +1 Bonus Chapter]
Enjoyed the chapter? A review helps a lot.
P2treon: DarkFoxx (30+ advance chapters)