Decision!

A rain of dirt, debris, and charred wood poured down. Only after five minutes did it finally stop falling.

Smack!

With a crisp thud, the last half-charred splinter fell into the densest part of the explosion smoke. It shattered into pieces, breaking into seven or eight smaller fragments that rolled or bounced away before finally landing on the ground, becoming just another ordinary piece of debris in this area where countless trees had been blown crooked and toppled by the blast wave.

Cough! Cough cough!

At that moment, pained coughing rang out across the area, coming from a pale yellow sphere embedded between a fallen tree and the ground, its surface covered in Kunai and Shuriken.

Screech!

The next second, the blade of a Kunai suddenly pierced out from the upper middle of the pale yellow sphere and slowly cut downward.

Pop!

With a sound like something tightly fused together cracking apart, the pale yellow sphere split in two along the Kunai's cut. The halves were pushed open, one wedged in the gap between the tree and the ground, the other leaning crookedly to one side and swaying a few times.

Cough! Cough cough cough!

As soon as that half of the pale yellow sphere stopped moving, a series of coughs, like someone who had held their breath for too long and had finally inhaled fresh air, came from the half wedged against the tree.

Thud!

Then, two ninja—one of ordinary build and the other sturdily built—tumbled out of the half of the pale yellow sphere caught in the angle between the tree and the ground, landing face-down.

"Senior Maki... are... are you all right?"

After taking a deep breath, Dodai lay sprawled on the ground, coughing and struggling to breathe as he looked beside him and spoke.

"Cough cough!