Ninja War: Entering Means Being Buried

Yuhara merely sensed the tense atmosphere spreading across the battlefield, while the Konoha Ninja farther ahead were already drenched in blood.

A little earlier, just as the enemy entered the battlefield, a Konoha Ninja had already gone to meet them.

There was no need for any exchange. The two enemy ninjas closed in at high speed, and in a single clash, the Konoha Ninja lost an arm.

After that strike, the two sides opened up some distance. The Konoha Ninja clenched his teeth, but he did not even look at his wound. He simply drew a kunai with his other, non-dominant hand, then charged at the enemy who was far stronger than him without the slightest hesitation.

At that moment, his other teammates merely watched him act, showing no intention of providing support at all... because this was precisely the mission he had been assigned.

As pale lightning lit up across the enemy's body, the Konoha Ninja's chest was effortlessly blasted open.

Then he lay there on the ground, with no possibility of standing up again.

After seeing the enemy's technique, another Konoha Ninja watching the battle immediately began transmitting information. He blew the special whistle hidden in his mouth, and a birdcall instantly rang out:

"Target identity confirmed. Begin the enemy-luring operation."

The Konoha Ninja who had seemingly charged out recklessly to fight and then died had actually only been carrying out the task of probing the enemy and confirming their identity. Strictly speaking, he was not a Konoha Ninja either—at most, he was merely a "ninja serving Konoha's forces."

The Konoha vanguard then immediately began retreating toward the rear, as if frightened by the enemy's strength.

The enemy launched pursuit without hesitation, and as Konoha lured them forward, several more people paid the price with their lives.

There were no flashy ninjutsu or outstanding physical abilities. For many ordinary ninjas, so-called combat simply meant charging forward and clashing blades with the enemy. If they could not win, they died.

Konoha then realized that the enemy was not a two-man squad, but a four-man squad.

But the battle had already begun. There was no way to stop the operation at this point, and the enemy would never easily allow the Konoha Ninjas to break contact.

At the very rear, Yuhara knew he could not remain tense forever. He had to do something... With that thought, he reached toward the Ninja Tool Bag behind him, then pulled out several shuriken and kunai, along with the stack of Explosive Tags.

He began tying the Explosive Tags to the kunai one by one.

Seeing what he was doing, Xinliang silently moved a little farther away... When someone who knew nothing began fiddling with explosives, this was the reaction any normal person would have.

But to Yuhara, Explosive Tags were absolutely the most powerful things in his hands. At that moment, the more potent the explosives, the safer they made him feel.

After completing this insignificant preparation, he quieted down again.

Gradually, the sounds of the forest grew noisier. Suddenly, a violent explosion came from ahead. Even from far away, Yuhara could feel the ground trembling.

It was probably a trap set by Konoha that had been triggered.

A great cloud of dust rose through the forest and lingered among the trees, making the surrounding light even dimmer.

Once the sound of the explosion faded, a birdcall rang out around Yuhara.

Yuhara swiftly turned to look at Xinliang. His sharp gaze made the other man tremble slightly.

But Xinliang did not hesitate at all. He quickly said, "The trap failed!"

At this point, there was no need to transmit information using code anymore, because no one could respond to Tigo's signal.

"They're here!"

Tigo was the one who shouted this time.

The moment her voice fell, Yuhara sensed something approaching at high speed.

Their position had been exposed! The enemy knew where Yuhara and the others were. Almost in the blink of an eye, a Cloud Hidden Ninja arrived in front of them.

He was tall and powerfully built, with darkish skin and two deep scars across his face. Yuhara examined the enemy from head to toe, but when his gaze shifted slightly downward, his eyes instantly froze.

The enemy was dragging something in his hand.

Apparently noticing Yuhara's gaze, the man casually swung his arm, and the thing in his hand immediately rolled to a spot not far in front of Yuhara and Xinliang...

It was Captain Rindou—or more precisely, Captain Rindou's corpse.

Although Yuhara could not be said to be familiar with the captain and merely knew him, seeing a living person suddenly turn into a corpse was, honestly, not something easy to accept.

For a moment, Yuhara did not know how to describe what he was feeling. But then he came to a realization... So this was war.

In fact, when Konoha's trap failed, this operation could already be declared a complete failure. How could ordinary Chunin- and Genin-level ninjas possibly stand against an Elite Jonin?

No matter how ingenious the tactics and plans were, if they could not offset the gap in hard power, they would all be meaningless.

While Yuhara was having all sorts of muddled thoughts, Xinliang suddenly moved beside him... He was not foolishly trying to attack the enemy, but was charging toward Rindou's corpse.

However, just as Xinliang was about to retrieve the corpse, a short sword came slashing toward his face. He could only brake abruptly and change direction, barely avoiding a fatal wound.

The enemy's weapon slashed down along Xinliang's left arm, leaving a long, deep wound in it... like a scallion split open by a kitchen knife.

"Xinliang, Yuhara, keep him occupied. Leave this side to me!"

As Jian Dong's voice rang out, a blazing fireball had already surged toward the enemy.

Awakened by the squad leader's voice, Yuhara gritted his teeth and could only charge forward together with Xinliang.

Although the Cloud Hidden enemy was huge, his speed was equally impressive. He easily dodged Jian Dong's Fire Release, and by then Xinliang and Yuhara had already surrounded him from both sides.

With one arm injured, Xinliang could no longer perform techniques. In practice, Yuhara, whose condition was still complete, became the main attacker. The problem was...

He did not know a single technique.

Yuhara simply pulled out the prepared kunai without hesitation, then hurled them all at the enemy in a wild barrage.

At such close range, if the Explosive Tags detonated, the attack would definitely affect friend and foe alike.

When the enemy saw a whole heap of Explosive Tags raining down on him, he could not help raising his eyebrows. He had no choice but to quickly retreat.

At that moment, he thought he had encountered a Konoha fanatic willing to launch a suicide bombing attack.

However, the kunai carrying the Explosive Tags did not explode. After flying a certain distance, they all clanged as they fell to the ground.

"..."

Huh?

"Sorry, how do you detonate these things again?" Yuhara asked, rubbing the back of his head with an awkward look.

Just now, everyone's emotions had been perfectly in place. The tall enemy had been wary and swift, and his face still held a mixture of cunning and disdain... If the Explosive Tags had detonated, his expression would have been perfectly fitting. But the problem was that the Explosive Tags had not exploded.

He had wasted everyone's emotional investment.

The Cloud Hidden Ninja's gaze locked onto Yuhara. He had misunderstood just now. The person before him was not some die-hard fanatic, but a brain-damaged idiot.

Just as he was thinking this, a kunai lying on the ground suddenly sprang up like a rabbit bursting from the grass. It shot toward the enemy with incredible speed, and the Explosive Tag trailing behind it began to glow red. Then...

Boom!

With a tremendous explosion, orange-red flames instantly engulfed the enemy.

At the same time, Jian Dong had already reached Rindou.

Since the one who had died in battle was her biological older brother, Yuhara assumed Jian Dong intended to reclaim his corpse and take it away. But that was not the case.

Jian Dong held a kunai in her hand. Although her fingertips trembled slightly, in the next instant she still drove the kunai through her brother's eye socket without hesitation.

Then she exerted force with her arm and plunged the kunai deep into Rindou's brain.

"..." Yuhara caught sight of this from the corner of his eye and was somewhat unable to understand what had happened.

Yet this was the absolutely correct way to handle a fallen comrade.

From a small-scale battle plan to a strategy for an entire campaign, from the detailed composition of personnel abilities to the broad contraction and expansion of a nation's front lines... A squad leader-level ninja's mind held all kinds of intelligence, and such intelligence absolutely could not be allowed to fall into enemy hands.

As long as the brain remained intact, the enemy might be able to obtain that information from the corpse's brain, even if the person was already dead.

That was why Xinliang had rushed toward the squad leader's corpse at the first opportunity.

Jian Dong had neither the strength to protect her brother's life nor the ability to carry away his corpse. As a Konoha Ninja, the only thing she could do was help her dead brother protect his position as a Konoha Ninja.

So...

If that was how things were, then she could not hesitate when striking.