Burst

What was blasted out of the Explosive Tag's blast radius was neither a living person nor a corpse, but a section of wood covered in specks of scorched marks and almost completely carbonized... a wooden post used to release the Substitution Technique.

That was only natural. It was hard to imagine a Cloud Hidden Jonin being killed by a single Explosive Tag. Although Yuhara's "ambush" had come at an incredibly opportune moment, a cheap trick was still just a cheap trick.

After ensuring that Konoha's crucial intelligence would not be lost, the Konoha Ninjas whose mission had failed now only needed to consider one thing: how to escape the battlefield.

"Mission failed! Withdraw separately and regroup at the forward camp!" Jian Dong released the kunai in her hand and spoke after getting to her feet. Whether she could not bear to do it or felt guilty, she simply could not bring herself to look at her brother again.

However, separate retreats did not mean that the Konoha Ninjas would scatter like frightened birds and beasts and flee in disarray. To retreat without collapsing, they had to maintain their squad formation.

Escaping alone would only get them killed easily by the enemy. Only by acting as a squad, collectively, would they have even the slightest chance of escaping... though that chance was extremely low.

Rindou was already dead, so Jian Dong had automatically taken over command of the squad. Thus, Tigo, who had been hiding behind them, relayed her order immediately without much hesitation.

The commander's death did not mean that the forward squad had been wiped out. Otherwise, the people appearing before Yuhara and the others now would not have been facing one enemy, but four. The struggle ahead was still continuing, but unfortunately, Konoha's side could not receive any support at all.

If they won, they would profit immensely; if they were wiped out, they would lose nothing. From the start, the mission assigned by Konoha's higher-ups had carried the meaning of, "If we tell you to die, then you die."

After relaying the order to withdraw, Tigo was the first to move backward. Yuhara, Xinliang, and Jian Dong took turns covering one another as they retreated together, remaining highly alert and cautious.

Would the enemy pursue them?

Without a doubt, he definitely would.

After retreating a certain distance, Jian Dong and Xinliang would each stuff an Explosive Tag into the shallow soil. Once they were out of range of the explosion and had carefully changed their direction of retreat, they would detonate the Explosive Tags, seemingly trying to use the noise and smoke from the blasts to conceal their trail.

During this tense escape, Yuhara began thinking about another problem: should he take this opportunity to flee Konoha... Although the risk was considerable right now, this truly was an opportunity.

But since they were on a battlefield and at an absolute disadvantage, the enemy would never give Yuhara time to weigh the risks and benefits.

With a buzzing sound slicing through the air, several shuriken pierced the smoke and flew toward Yuhara.

Yuhara instinctively swung the kunai in his hand and knocked the shuriken away. But at that moment, the Cloud Hidden Ninja suddenly burst out of the forest. He then swept past Yuhara at an almost absurd speed, yet did not attack him.

Ignoring him? No—the enemy's first target was not him. In an instant, Yuhara understood what the enemy wanted to do.

Although Konoha's primary commander was already dead and, after issuing their final order, their command system had become practically useless, even acting purely on a ninja's instincts and habits formed through years of combat, the enemy would still prioritize severing Konoha's chain of command.

The critical intelligence node among the Konoha Ninja squad was not Rindou, but the Sensory Type Ninja Tigo.

Yuhara could do nothing but watch as the enemy passed him and charged toward Tigo farther ahead.

A deep sense of powerlessness welled up within him. Immediately afterward, that powerlessness further triggered his "PTSD from watching death descend while being helpless to do anything." So the question was: having been granted a new life, how exactly should one live anew?

The answer was self-evident.

Born human, one should be kind when kindness was called for and selfish when selfishness was called for; resolute when resoluteness was needed and ruthless when ruthlessness was needed; persevere when perseverance was needed and give up when giving up was needed...

Now was definitely not the time to give up.

Even if the scope of what one could do had changed after being reborn as a human, the standard distinguishing right from wrong would not change.

Even if Yuhara intended to flee Konoha, he should not flee Konoha now.

In short, run.

In fact, the body was often more honest than the mind. While Yuhara's mind was still running wild, his body had already turned around and begun sprinting!

The enemy tore through the insignificant obstacles as easily as a heavy tank. After charging to Tigo's side, he brought his blade down without hesitation.

Tigo was somewhat dazed. At this moment, she had no time to dodge.

But just as the enemy's blade was about to pierce her chest, a figure as elusive as a ghost appeared beside her. One palm clamped around the enemy's wrist like an iron vise, preventing him from advancing even an inch.

Yuhara had actually caught up.

His right hand clamped tightly around the other man's wrist, while his sharp gaze locked onto the enemy's eyes. Although there was a huge gap between them in terms of ninja training, the two of them seemed evenly matched in terms of presence.

No—it should be said that Yuhara had the upper hand!

"Friend, harming, abusing, or even killing children is a serious crime."

Yes, Yuhara had seized the moral high ground, and even the legal high ground while he was at it. His sudden burst of speed, which was clearly no weaker than the enemy's, was the victory of humanity and values.

"Run!"

After saying something pointless, Yuhara first reminded Tigo to keep moving and not stop. Then he released the hand gripping the enemy's wrist... By then, a large tangled mass of thin metal wires had already wrapped around the enemy's wrist.

The thin wires immediately tightened. Their other end was tied around a large tree to the side, so the enemy was temporarily tethered like a dog.

The toughness of this special metal wire was quite impressive, but it could not restrain the enemy for long.

The Cloud Hidden Ninja glanced at the thin wires cutting into his skin. Blood flowed from the shallow wounds. In response to Yuhara's earlier nonsense, he said, "The weak can neither protect their own lives nor choose the manner of their deaths."

Yuhara's judgment was extremely rational. He absolutely did not believe he had any chance of defeating a Cloud Hidden Jonin, so from beginning to end, all he had been considering was how to escape. Thus, after briefly hindering the enemy's movements, he began sprinting wildly without even looking back.

As it turned out, this was an incomparably correct judgment, because the moment Yuhara left the enemy's side, an intense, pale lightning suddenly erupted from the man's body.

If Yuhara had acted arrogantly and approached recklessly just now, he would have gained a thorough understanding of what it felt like to quit an internet addiction.

"Cloud Hidden Jonin, Storm Release Ninja Koto. He's our target for this mission," Jian Dong said after seeing the lightning on the other man's body.

That explanation came a little too late. A bolt of lightning came from behind, moving at high speed and with nimble "footwork," then pierced straight through Yuhara's right shoulder.

The intense pain made Yuhara stumble and nearly fall flat on his face. Fortunately, none of his vital organs had been struck, so he did not immediately lose the ability to move. Unfortunately, he began bleeding heavily.

Seeing his condition, Tigo quickly came to his side and supported his shoulder. She seemed to want to help, but their retreat speed dropped sharply as a result.

Seeing this, Xinliang suddenly stopped.

It was impossible for the entire squad to retreat. He decided to stay behind and buy them time.

"Xinliang!"

Jian Dong shouted.

"Go!"

Xinliang had already made up his mind.

What else could anyone say at a time like this?

Yuhara even felt his breathing becoming increasingly rapid. His heart began beating powerfully and irregularly. His bodily functions started falling out of balance, and something normally suppressed by his Chakra began growing rapidly... Or rather, because he had suffered severe injuries, some uncontrolled emergency mechanism had activated within him.

Xinliang was of course no match for the enemy. What was more, his right arm had long since lost the ability to move. In truth, he could not even delay the enemy's pursuit.

In only one exchange, Xinliang was injured again. But just as the enemy was about to end his life, his movements suddenly stopped.

The Cloud Hidden Ninja's gaze shifted toward the dense forest ahead. Something seemed to have suddenly appeared there.

"What's with this Chakra intensity? Konoha reinforcements?"

Whoosh!

"Wh..."

A figure burst out from ahead like a bolt of lightning. His rapidly moving body even dragged the surrounding air into faint vortices around him.

The Cloud Hidden Ninja had no time to react. In the blink of an eye, the figure had leaped high over Xinliang's head. A sweeping leg blocked the Cloud Hidden Ninja's eyes, immediately followed by a sudden, ferocious impact!

Boom!

The tremendous force bent the Cloud Hidden Ninja's neck to one side at an eerie angle. Then, pulled along by his head, his upright body instantly went ninety degrees off-kilter, and his entire person crashed to the ground.

Unfortunately, there was no soft soil beneath his feet, but a hard rocky base. His head therefore suffered a brutal second impact, like a watermelon falling from a height.

Xinliang, who had just been waiting to die, stared at the scene before him in disbelief. After the Cloud Hidden Ninja fell face-first, he instinctively turned his gaze toward the person who had knocked the enemy down...

Was it Yuhara?

But compared with moments ago, Yuhara's condition was clearly different. His skin was covered in long, thin, dark-red markings, as if the patterns had crawled across his entire body.

Performance art? A special tattoo?

No. They were the traces of Nature Energy's erosion.