"S-Sato Captain?" Chiba stared at the ninja standing in front of him, momentarily stunned, his face clearly showing surprise.
Sato?
At that moment, the four Anbu were also rather startled. They slowly lowered their swords, ninja tools, and hand seals. During that instant of hesitation, this man had suddenly flashed over, and they had almost attacked on instinct.
Fortunately, they recognized his voice and stopped themselves.
"Wait... wait!"
In front of Chiba, Sato Hide stood with his arms spread wide, trembling slightly and panting heavily. After shouting those words, he nearly felt drained of all strength. His back was already soaked through. In the instant he had stepped in front of Chiba, his mind had gone almost blank, containing only one word: death.
To him, the killing intent the four Anbu had released in that instant had nearly left him unable to move. Even now, he found it unbelievable that he had managed to shout those words.
"Sato Captain, what are you doing?!"
The next second, Chiba spoke from behind him, his voice already tinged with anger.
"Sato, what are you doing?!"
At the same time, one of the four Anbu, seemingly their captain, barked out a reprimand as well.
"Captain Tazuka, Chiba, I... I..."
Hearing those two scolding voices, the not-yet-recovered Sato Hide looked ahead, then behind him, utterly at a loss for a moment.
"You almost died! Do you know that?!"
Seeing Sato Hide's appearance, Chiba grew anxious as well, speaking in a sharply reproachful tone.
He felt surprise, alarm, and lingering fear all at once. He was surprised that Sato Hide had disregarded everything to stand before him. He was alarmed because, in that instant, if these four Anbu had not been elites capable of restraining their instinctive attack, Sato Hide might already have been split in