Jungle Battle

"Phew, phew." Five-year-old Kyosuke leaned against a huge boulder, gasping heavily.

He took the chance to recover his nearly depleted strength while cautiously observing his surroundings.

Whoosh!

A sharp whistle suddenly came from directly ahead. Startled, Kyosuke threw himself forward with all his strength.

The instant he left his original position, a Kunai flew past right before his eyes, drawing blood as it slammed viciously into the rock behind him.

"Kids these days really are arrogant." A gloomy-looking young man stepped out from behind a tree. As he watched Kyosuke flee frantically, he chuckled to his companion. "He dared transport goods to Takigakure at such a young age. He really doesn't know how to spell death."

The young man's companion slowly emerged from behind another tree, though he was far more cautious than the first.

He ignored his companion's mockery and instead scanned the surroundings vigilantly. Only after finding nothing unusual did he let out a breath. "Don't let your guard down. We should finish him quickly, take the goods, and meet up with Third and the others."

Upon hearing that, the gloomy young man immediately wiped the frivolous expression off his face. After nodding, he and his companion followed the trail Kyosuke had left behind and gave chase.

Kyosuke lay hidden in the grass, wrapping his chest wound with his clothes as he carefully watched the two approaching men.

There was nothing noteworthy about their appearances. They both had utterly ordinary faces, but the forehead protectors they wore were rather strange.

They bore an unsealed arrow-shaped symbol, somewhat like a road sign. In any case, they were not the common forehead protectors of the Five Great Nations.

A child his age might not have recognized their identities, but Kyosuke, who knew the "original story" well, immediately recognized what the symbol represented: Waterfall Ninja.

And they were two Missing-nin from Takigakure.

Unlike the ninja villages belonging to the Five Great Nations, Takigakure was a ninja village concealed behind an enormous waterfall.

Though it was surrounded by four countries, its unique location had kept Takigakure from ever being invaded by other nations. Akatsuki's Kakuzu had come from this village.

Kyosuke's mission this time had been to transport a batch of unknown goods to this ninja village.

However, during the transport, he had unexpectedly been robbed by these Missing-nin. After exchanging blows, Kyosuke had been outmatched and forced to flee, leading to the earlier scene.

Although the title of Missing-nin sounded impressive, these two were Genin at best. Because of their lack of resources, they were far inferior even to Genin who had graduated from the Konoha Ninja Academy.

That was obvious from the fact that, from the start of the fight until now, they had relied entirely on Kunai and taijutsu.

But to five-year-old Kyosuke, these two were already powerful opponents he could not face head-on.

Even if they could not use Ninjutsu and their Kunai Throwing Technique was mediocre, Naruto, even before learning the Shadow Clone Technique, could probably have beaten them senseless.

But the problem was that Kyosuke was no better at those things.

If he had to say, their use of Kunai was roughly on the same level as Kyosuke's. They were all hopelessly bad.

The only reason they could suppress Kyosuke was because, as adults, they had superior physical abilities.

Since fighting them head-on would not work, Kyosuke had to think of another way.

"Boss, look." As they walked, the gloomy young man suddenly nudged his companion with his shoulder and jerked his chin toward a patch of grass.

His companion nodded slightly, then quietly moved closer to that patch of grass.

Several minutes later, the two pretended to search openly for Kyosuke, but they had already surrounded the grass from both front and back, waiting for the moment to deliver the killing blow.

"Hehe, kid, remember to be smarter in your next life." The gloomy young man, whose back had been facing Kyosuke, suddenly turned around. With a strange laugh, he prepared to throw the Kunai in his hand.

His companion made the same move. For a moment, Kyosuke seemed to have nowhere left to run.

But just then, the sound of a rope snapping suddenly came from the grass.

Then, the air around the two Missing-nin was filled with continuous whooshing sounds.

It turned out that when Kyosuke had fled here, he had hurriedly set up a simple trap.

Though it was only a basic trigger trap, it was more than enough to deal with the two of them.

The sound of a sharp blade cutting through flesh suddenly rang beside Kyosuke's ear. At the same time, he sprang up from the ground and charged toward the gloomy young man.

"Courting death." Seeing Kyosuke, whom he had already considered dead, daring to charge at him after being injured, the enraged Missing-nin nearly went mad with fury.

But what happened next made him feel as though he had swallowed a fly.

In his rage, every attack he launched was easily dodged by the little brat before him.

"5." Kyosuke silently counted down.

"Damn it, you—" Just as the Missing-nin was about to say something, the sight before him made him freeze in place.

They were a pair of eyes radiating an ominous glow. Within their scarlet pupils, a black tomoe slowly rotated.

Even in this dim forest, the young man could clearly see those eyes—and the faint yet utterly resolute killing intent emanating from them.

"4." With his Sharingan activated, Kyosuke expressionlessly plunged his Kunai into his enemy's heart, still silently counting.

"Damn it!" Seeing one of their side killed first, the young man's companion could no longer maintain his composure. In his panic and fury, he sent several Kunai and Shuriken flying toward Kyosuke.

But with his throwing technique, those attacks no longer posed any threat to Kyosuke.

Although Kyosuke's Sharingan had only one tomoe, he had gained rudimentary dynamic vision, making these attacks easy to evade.

The paths of the Kunai and Shuriken unfolded clearly before his eyes. Smiling slightly, he made only a few simple movements to dodge them, taking the chance to close in on his enemy.

Before these eyes of mine, all your techniques are useless. Kyosuke suddenly recalled the famous words of the Uchiha Sasuke brothers.

Of course, even with all sorts of random thoughts running through his mind, his hands did not slow in the slightest.

After closing in, Kyosuke swept aside the enemy's stabbing Kunai. Then he shifted slightly, using the strength in his waist to drive his entire body as he kicked the enemy squarely in the chest, exposed after his failed attack.

Afterward, he threw the last Kunai in his hand with all his strength.

Though the enemy desperately tried to dodge, Kyosuke had already seen through his movements.

In the end, the enemy still could not escape death.

"1."

Seeing his enemy fall, Kyosuke smiled slightly and deactivated his Sharingan.

At the same time, his body swayed involuntarily. He slowly slid down the tree trunk beside him before finally landing on the ground with a thud.

Though the Sharingan was a powerful weapon, with the small amount of Chakra he possessed now, he could only maintain it for around five seconds. Any longer, and simply collapsing from exhaustion would have been the least of his problems.

"Strange." Kyosuke clutched his throbbing head as he looked around with an odd expression.

Suddenly, the whistle of another blade cutting through the air came from afar.

This time, Kyosuke, already drained of strength, could not react at all.

A spray of glaring blood scattered through the air before splattering across the tree trunk behind him, like a gruesome oil painting.

Kyosuke lay on the ground, convulsing violently. Covering his fatal wound with one hand, he struggled to raise his head and see who had killed him.

But such an injury was simply too fatal for a five-year-old child.

Thus, even until his death, he never achieved his goal.

Just like that, after forcefully killing two Missing-nin with his Sharingan, Kyosuke was killed by an unexpectedly appearing third person.

He was five years old.

Recommended: "Players in the Demon King's Castle," an otherworldly dog-planner type novel.