Thunderous Kill

At this moment, inside a cave not far from Kyosuke.

Several figures stood motionless against the rock wall, while a pair of very young children were tied up at their feet.

This group was the very shinobi who had infiltrated the Daimyo Estate and abducted the Daimyo's children.

Yet they now resembled statues. If not for the faint rise and fall of their chests, they would have seemed dead.

Suddenly, all of them raised their heads high in perfect unison.

"Hehehe, the fish has taken the bait."

They repeated the same sentence with identical expressions and tones.

Fortunately, the two children had already been knocked unconscious. Otherwise, the sight alone might have scared them into fainting.

At this moment, Kyosuke and the others had arrived outside the cave.

However, since the enemy had hostages, they did not rush in recklessly. Instead, they first observed the situation from outside.

"Lin, can you confirm the enemy's situation?" Ankoku asked without turning his head.

"Yes." After replying, Lin formed hand seals and held them before her chest.

In an instant, a strange Chakra fluctuation emerged from her body.

That fluctuation was far too familiar to Kyosuke, because he had fought enemies like this before.

Lin was from the Hyuga Clan.

However, Kyosuke had no mind to consider any other nonsense right now. The mission came first.

Like everyone else, Kyosuke waited for Lin's report.

Her observation continued for quite some time before finally ending.

"Five people, all inside the cave." Lin described everything she had seen in detail.

"What about the hostages?" Nightshade asked doubtfully.

Lin shook her head helplessly before saying, "There is one area that even my Byakugan cannot see through. The hostages should be there."

After hearing this, Ankoku silently nodded. Following a brief discussion, everyone prepared to begin the rescue operation.

From another direction not far from the cave, a group of shinobi was rapidly approaching.

"How much longer?" Rasa, the leader, asked.

"Probably not much longer." The one who answered was a female shinobi carrying a long blade on her back, with beautiful dark green hair.

Her hair was rather unusual. Two locks before her forehead had been dyed orange-red, a style still quite rare in the current Shinobi World.

"Good." After muttering that, Rasa suddenly accelerated once more and rushed ahead.

The others exchanged glances, then could only hurriedly follow him.

It seemed Rasa truly cared about this mission.

The same thought surfaced in all their minds.

Inside the cave, those shinobi still maintained their blank standing postures without changing at all.

Suddenly, a series of sharp "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh" sounds tore through the silence in the cave, waking those shinobi at the same time.

By the time they looked up, a barrage of Kunai and Shuriken had already reached them.

Moreover, those concealed weapons abruptly changed trajectory as they collided with one another, rendering all their blocks and evasions useless.

As sprays of blood burst forth, four figures suddenly emerged from the distance.

The one who had thrown those Shuriken was a slightly shorter figure.

"Snake, nicely done." Seeing the injured enemies, Ankoku praised Kyosuke. Then he turned and shouted to the other two, "Lin, Nightshade!"

"Understood," Nightshade replied.

"Got it," Lin answered.

With that, the two charged toward the enemies at high speed.

At the same time, Ankoku rapidly formed hand seals, successfully casting his Ninjutsu before the two could reach them.

Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave.

A B-Rank Ninjutsu was effortlessly unleashed from his hands.

Like the Great Fireball Technique, this move released a massive amount of water from the user's mouth and sent it surging swiftly toward the enemy.

Of course, injuring the enemy was only secondary. Its main purpose was to create an environment favorable for Water Release shinobi to cast their techniques.

Kyosuke did not remain idle either. Though his speed might not have allowed him to keep up with those two, he could still provide support with Shuriken or Ninjutsu.

Thus, in merely a few short breaths, the squad unleashed a storm-like offensive.

The first to achieve results was Nightshade, who had already thrust himself before the enemy. His true strength left Kyosuke utterly stunned.

His figure seemed like a leaf dancing on the wind, abruptly twisting, scattering, and vanishing before everyone's eyes.

Yet that astonishing killing intent remained locked onto those enemies.

This feeling... Genjutsu?! Genjutsu combined with swordsmanship? Kyosuke widened his eyes and pushed his Two-Tomoe Sharingan to its limit, hoping to glimpse a trace of the mysteries behind this Phantom Body Technique.

Suddenly, a flash of snow-bright blade light appeared behind those enemies.

Only after the blade light had passed through their bodies did Nightshade's figure reappear, slowly sheathing his beloved sword.

In an instant, blood sprayed wildly from their bodies, and they collapsed to the ground.

Several enemies no weaker than jonin were all killed in less than a single exchange before the fully unleashed Nightshade.

That slash was utterly breathtaking!

While marveling inwardly, Kyosuke turned and attacked the remaining two enemies.

Bang! With a dull impact, one enemy was sent flying into the air by Lin's attack and happened to crash directly into Kyosuke's incoming Kunai.

Another enemy killed.

Seeing that things were going badly, the final enemy hastily cast a defensive Ninjutsu, then spun around and prepared to flee.

At that moment, a huge and ferocious water dragon shattered his defensive Ninjutsu in one stroke before slamming viciously into his body.

This Water Dragon Bullet Technique was the powerful Ninjutsu Ankoku had unleashed after gathering all the water inside the cave.

With the technique's impact, every bone in the final enemy's body had shattered. After falling to the ground, he twitched twice and lay still.

With that, the battle ended.

Other than throwing a handful of Shuriken at the start and finishing off an enemy afterward, Kyosuke had made little contribution throughout the fight.

He could not be blamed for that. These teammates were simply far stronger than he had expected.

But Kyosuke had no mind to focus on that now, because all his attention had been drawn to that System Prompt.