"Haori? And Might Guy and Aoba?"
The murder of crows still circled through the forest, though they had spread out a little under Yamashiro Aoba's control.
Although the iconic fighting style they had seen earlier had given Kakashi and Rin some idea of who was coming,
they didn't finally breathe a sigh of relief until they saw the newcomers' faces.
"Are you all okay?"
Haori saw that Guy and Aoba had arrived with Nohara Rin and asked quietly.
"Haori, we're all right, but..."
Rin turned to look at the collapsed cave not far away. Her eyes reddened, and she couldn't bring herself to say more.
Kakashi silently got to his feet, arcs of electricity appearing in his hand once more. Only then did he speak.
"I'm fine. I'll hold them off. Take Rin and get out of here!"
"Now isn't the time to go looking for death. Try to recover as quickly as you can."
Haori shook his head. He could still guess what Kakashi was thinking.
After taking so many emotional blows, Kakashi was probably intent on getting himself killed.
"It's you?!"
The sudden appearance of Haori and the other two caught the Iwa ninja off guard for a moment, but they were well-trained shinobi and quickly recovered.
But when the Iwa ninja got a good look at the trio, their delight was matched by a flood of fury!
They were delighted that the three had walked right into their trap, but furious that they had dared to show up and help the others instead of fearing capture.
"Surprised?"
Though Haori was extremely cautious inside, he still wore a faint smile.
"I wonder if you enjoyed last night's explosion."
Explosion?
Kakashi and Rin both froze at his words. They immediately thought of the huge blast from the night before.
They'd never imagined Haori and his companions were the ones behind it!
"Attack! Watch that brat's eyes!"
Perhaps out of sheer mortification, the Iwa captain shouted and rapidly formed hand seals.
"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Spear!"
"Scatter! Aoba, Guy, cover them!"
At the sight, Haori leaped into the air and issued his command.
The Iwa ninja had already started using ninjutsu, which meant they no longer intended to hold back.
"Die!"
The moment Haori landed after dodging the earthen spikes, two Iwa ninja rushed up behind him, their kunai stabbing straight for his back.
But as their kunai pierced Haori's back, they immediately realized something was wrong!
Poof—
Haori's body instantly turned into a mass of lightning. The current spread rapidly over the two men, leaving them numb all over.
"Lightning Clone? When did he—?"
The two Iwa ninja's expressions changed drastically. Their bodies wouldn't move, and Haori burst out of the shadows at that very moment.
The Ninja Sword in his hand flashed like a streak of cold light, slicing across both men's throats.
But he had barely sheathed his sword when he had to leap again, as another Iwa ninja appeared behind him.
"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet!"
The enraged Iwa ninja had no intention of letting him escape. When Haori leaped, the Iwa captain immediately formed hand seals again.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
With no room to dodge in midair, Haori could only hurl his Ninja Sword at one of the Iwa ninja below.
At the same time, his hands flashed through hand seals. In an instant, a huge fireball burst from his mouth.
Boom—
The fireball and Earth Dragon Bullet collided in midair with a muffled crash. As soon as Haori landed, the Iwa captain and several other ninja had already surrounded him.
Clang, clang, clang!
Haori immediately drew his kunai. A string of piercing metallic clashes rang through the forest!
A Taijutsu exchange was by no means a bad thing for Haori. The Iwa ninja weren't fools, and they knew what to do when facing an Uchiha.
They kept Haori occupied from the front, while someone was always ready to attack him from behind.
That strategy wouldn't have been bad against an ordinary Uchiha, even one with Three Tomoe.
But against Haori, it only made the fight considerably more dangerous. It still wouldn't be enough to kill him!
He'd been forced to develop in every direction from the start, so he'd dabbled in all kinds of abilities.
More importantly, his Sharingan hadn't improved through emotional trauma. It had improved thanks to the passive ability Zhuo Er Bu Fan.
That passive ability did more than just enhance his Sharingan. It had also slightly strengthened his bloodline!
"But the Iwa ninja's fighting spirit is incredible."
Watching the ninja launch one attack after another under their captain's command, Haori couldn't help frowning.
This fight was proving much tougher than he'd expected.
Even though several Iwa ninja had already fallen to him in the few minutes they'd been fighting, these guys kept coming at him like madmen.
Was it really their "Will of Stone," or had he simply infuriated them that much?
And apart from Haori, the others were in pretty bad shape.
Guy was struggling desperately. He was still bursting with energy, but his body was covered in more and more wounds.
Kakashi had recovered a little and rejoined the fight, but he was in especially bad shape. He could no longer maintain Chidori.
Aoba was still using the crows for cover and protecting Nohara Rin, but he'd already spent a great deal of chakra, and his condition was far from good.
"Looks like I can't count on Namikaze Minato to bail us out. What on earth is he doing? Why hasn't he shown up yet?"
Haori frowned even more deeply. In the original story, it hadn't been stated outright, but Kakashi had clearly been at his limit when he launched his final attack.
He'd probably passed out soon afterward, and by the time he woke up, Namikaze Minato had already rescued him and the battle was over.
Now, with Haori there, Kakashi could clearly hold out longer, but that didn't explain why Namikaze Minato was late.
Was this "late by design"?
"Looks like I can't rely on him. I'll have to come up with something myself."
Haori had planned to keep the Iwa ninja occupied until Namikaze Minato arrived to end the fight, but now he had to do something himself.
His gaze settled on the Iwa captain. He knew one thing—
To catch the bandits, first catch their leader!
"Sorry, but I have to go!"
On the front lines, Namikaze Minato looked extremely anxious.
He'd sensed a chakra response from the kunai he'd left with Kakashi a while ago, but he couldn't leave immediately.
According to the reports, there seemed to have been a massive explosion at one of Iwagakure's bases.
No one knew how much damage the blast had caused, but it would certainly have some impact on Iwagakure.
And events had proved that to be true. Perhaps because they knew they were in trouble in the rear, the Iwa ninja had launched an especially ferocious attack that day.
This had put Konoha's defenders under tremendous pressure. But once Konoha held the line and inflicted heavy casualties on Iwagakure,
the Iwa ninja's morale plummeted. Konoha's commanders saw their chance and began pressing their advantage.
Namikaze Minato had to join the battle, too. Though Iwagakure's morale had collapsed, some of their ninja were still fighting to the death.
With Namikaze Minato there, those holdouts would be easier to take down, and Iwagakure's morale would suffer another blow.
But the battle had taken up too much of his time. He was deeply worried about Kakashi and the others.
The moment the fighting was finally over, he gave a quick greeting to the ninja nearby who were cheering for him, then immediately used the Flying Thunder God Technique.
"Kakashi, Obito, Rin, I'm sorry I'm late. You have to hold on..."
Namikaze Minato silently repeated the words to himself. But as space shifted and everything around him changed,
his expression turned strange. Among a group of Iwa ninja, he saw a young Uchiha holding a kunai,
lightly slash it across an Iwa ninja's throat, while the surrounding Iwa ninja shouted, "Captain!"
A strange thought came to him—
Had he... really come too late?