"So, this was the memory they passed back?"
After murmuring softly, Shadow Clone Chiba stared at the dark mass of Iwagakure Ninja ahead, their forehead protectors sweeping in like the wind and gleaming blood-red beneath the setting sun. His face darkened as he took a deep breath and asked.
"Yes..."
At this, Chiba, wearing the same expression, shifted his eyes slightly as if glancing at the Shadow Clone beside him, then nodded.
The reason he had so urgently used Yukina as an "excuse" to send Hirohiko away was certainly not because "they had only spotted a small Iwa squad, with perhaps fewer but stronger troops behind them," nor because "Yukina would become an unstable factor in this battle, and if all three stayed, what should have been a victory would become a defeat."
It was because his two Shadow Clones had dispelled themselves not because they had encountered "a relatively strong Iwa squad," but because, before they could even engage the Iwa they had discovered, they realized that this squad was merely scouting ahead. Behind them followed an Iwa army numbering in the thousands. His Shadow Clones had been so frightened that they had practically dispelled themselves on the spot.
"So that was why you sent Hirohiko and Yukina away so quickly?"
After hearing this, the Shadow Clone, still staring intently at the dark mass ahead, asked again.
"Of course..."
Chiba nodded, slowly reaching into the Ninja Tool Pouch on his back.
An Iwa army numbering in the thousands, an unconscious Yukina, and Hirohiko, who could not activate his Sharingan and could only protect himself—this was not a matter of choice at all.
Naturally, the only thing he could do was send Hirohiko and Yukina away.
And he could not let Hirohiko know that thousands of ninja would be coming.