Yuzuru's innate chakra nature was Fire Release, but his grasp of it was pitifully poor, so he made Wind Release ninjutsu his first target. As for how to obtain Wind Release techniques...
Just like last time, he could only act boldly inside the instance.
The Nine-Tails' Rampage instance had a limited duration—at most one night—so Yuzuru needed to plan carefully how to make the most of his next visit.
Meanwhile, although Doto, the Iwagakure jōnin who had taken a direct hit from the Rasengan, hadn't died on the spot, he ultimately couldn't escape death. After being carried back to Iwagakure's forward camp, he went through the usual struggles and resuscitation attempts before finally succumbing.
His vitality had been impressive, but even the most tenacious person couldn't survive losing several vital organs.
He had taken a direct hit from the Rasengan. Under those circumstances, the technique could churn a person's innards into a uniform pulp.
"What kind of ninjutsu is this?"
Inside the Iwagakure camp, a medical and autopsy ninja dressed in white asked Hanzō.
Doto's injuries were unlike anything the medical ninja had seen before. He wanted to figure out what kind of technique had caused them... The battlefield changed in an instant, and intelligence was often delayed, but every side in a war wanted the most detailed information possible about the enemy.
"I was fighting a Konoha Akimichi at the time, so I didn't see how Doto went down. But the Konoha ninja who attacked him was probably a novice." Hanzō folded his arms and watched the medical ninja dissect the body with a cold gaze.
"A novice?"
"That's right. His aim was a little off. He didn't hit Doto's heart directly. Otherwise, Doto would've died on the spot. There'd have been no chance of him making it back to camp." Hanzō offered an explanation.
If he'd been an experienced ninja, could he really have failed to locate his opponent's heart?
"A novice can use a technique like that? I suppose that's Konoha for you."
Hanzō let out a derisive laugh, then shook his head.
"There's no need to take Konoha too seriously. Since the war began, every hidden village has realized one thing: Konoha is no longer the village it was under the First and Second Hokage."
"Konoha has become an ordinary village. Can it defeat us, Iwagakure? No. That's impossible."
As Hanzō spoke, there was a hint of disappointment and regret in his voice, as if he were asking why Konoha had become this way.
He wasn't looking down on them. Konoha really had lost its unstoppable, undefeated momentum. Instead, it had become rather ordinary... To put it simply, Konoha's battles lacked sharpness. They dragged on and on.
By comparison, Iwagakure and Kumogakure were more aggressive, proactive, and warlike.
The medical ninja didn't reply, but inwardly, he agreed with Hanzō's assessment. Facts spoke louder than words. Since the war began, Konoha really hadn't gained much ground in its battles against Iwagakure... Back in the day, Uchiha Madara alone had been enough to leave the Second Tsuchikage and Ōnoki gasping for air.
As for Konoha now, there was no point in boasting about past glory.
At that moment, the medical ninja casually tossed the scalpel in his hand onto a tray. It clinked softly.
"Did you find anything?"
"Yes. I've more or less confirmed it. Something like a high-density chakra sphere spinning at tremendous speed was driven into Doto's chest. It shredded some of his internal organs."
"A chakra... sphere?"
Could chakra be kneaded into a sphere? Could a pure energy form change shape like that? And even if chakra could take that form, how precise would the user's control have to be?
"It seems this battlefield novice from Konoha is actually an expert at chakra manipulation... We can't give him room to grow. If we run into him again, we'll have to eliminate him immediately."
Without Yuzuru knowing, he had already been placed on Iwagakure's watch list.
"Don't worry. Those few have ventured deep into our territory. It won't be so easy for them to get back."
Unfortunately, after clashing with Iwagakure's ninjas and revealing their whereabouts, the Konoha squad didn't choose to withdraw immediately. Nor did they take the most obvious route back, as the Iwagakure ninjas had expected.
They went into hiding right under the Iwagakure ninjas' noses, and even continued with their original mission.
Three days later, Torifu Akimichi and Kairi Omori finished reconnoitering another forward outpost and retrieved another set of intelligence. They didn't alert the enemy during this reconnaissance, which was a stroke of luck.
After completing the mission, the two returned to the underground hideout to rest.
"The second outpost showed signs of a surprise attack. Our ninjas stationed there fought fiercely against the Iwagakure ninjas, but they were ultimately outnumbered... Judging by the traces left at the scene and the time of our ninjas' deaths, it's quite likely that both outposts were attacked at the same time." Torifu briefly updated the two who had stayed behind.
The locations of Konoha's reconnaissance outposts were far too dangerous, so of course they could have been discovered. But for both outposts to be exposed and wiped out in surprise attacks at the same time? That was too much of a coincidence... After investigating both outposts, the possibility of a spy in Konoha's forward camp seemed much more likely.
"Captain, in that case, do we still need to scout the last outpost?" Hazuki Uchiha asked.
Torifu nodded. "We do."
In fact, it was all the more necessary, given that a spy might be involved.
So the two jōnin rested briefly, spent the night recovering their strength and replenishing their chakra, then left the outpost again.
But this time, they didn't return on time.
The captain's failure to return promptly made Yuzuru instinctively uneasy. He had to consider the worst-case scenario: what if the captain couldn't come back? Without his two teammates, could he cross the battlefield on his own?
Well, surrendering to Iwagakure seemed more realistic. But what good would surrender do him? Ninjas had all sorts of ways to deal with prisoners.
Whatever happened, Yuzuru needed to get stronger.
The Nine-Tails' Rampage instance had finished cooling down. Entering it in these circumstances was dangerous, but Yuzuru had no choice but to take the risk.
"Hazuki, I'll keep watch during the day. How about you take over after nightfall?"
"Okay."
Hazuki Uchiha didn't say much. She agreed outright.
The heavy rain outside hadn't let up, so there wasn't much difference between keeping watch during the day or at night. Right now, Hazuki Uchiha could only hope their two teammates would return soon. In a few more days, they'd reach the agreed-upon deadline. If her teammates still hadn't returned by then, she would automatically become acting captain and lead Yuzuru out on her own.
Time passed slowly. After night fell, Yuzuru curled up in a corner of the underground hideout and closed his eyes to rest. Hazuki Uchiha glanced at him, then realized he was sleeping unusually deeply.
It wasn't an ordinary deep sleep. By then, Yuzuru's consciousness had already descended into the Nine-Tails' Rampage instance.
When Yuzuru opened his eyes again, he found himself in Konoha once more, standing in the same place where he'd appeared last time.
When he'd decided to obtain ninjutsu inside the instance, he'd suddenly realized something: each time he entered, a map loaded, and he could see that map while inside the instance. It was incredibly valuable, since it could guide him to the places he needed to go... like Konoha's Secret Technique archives.
This time, Yuzuru had planned his route. He decided to look for ninjutsu in those places first, then visit the Fourth Hokage and his wife if there was enough time.
After Yuzuru had checked the map, the Nine-Tails suddenly appeared in Konoha. He dodged its attacks as he rushed toward the Hokage's office.
Boom! Boom!
As the Nine-Tails rampaged, buildings throughout Konoha crumbled. The night was filled with its roars and the wails of the ninjas.
But as he ran, Yuzuru suddenly stopped.
He'd heard a child crying, and spotted a somewhat familiar figure nearby... There was another teammate here, too.
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