If You Don't Fight for Your Life, You'll Lose It

"This is not how a samurai behaves, you have no martial honor..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Ogawa Uemon's head lolled to the side, and he breathed his last.

Hatake Jiangyi let out a cold snort, "Do you lot, who resort to sneak attacks, even deserve to speak of honor? You wanted to play the 'no ninjutsu, sword-only' game with me? I am no samurai; I am a ninja!"

Jiangyi raised his blade and delivered a finishing blow to the man's neck.

Clean and decisive, he severed Ogawa Uemon's head with a single stroke.

Hatake Jiangyi looked at his enemy with satisfaction and silently thought, In your next life, make sure you never provoke a Konoha genin!

He kept the teachings of Lord Fucheng firmly in mind.

"Always deliver a finishing blow after battle; never give the enemy a chance for a final struggle."

Jiangyi shook the blood from his blade, whistled for his two ninja hounds, and hurried toward the direction where "Moon Sister" was currently fighting three opponents.

He made up his mind, This ground trap is too sturdy. I'll join forces to kill the three mud-men first, then let Moon Sister figure out a way out.

At the moment Hatake Jiangyi killed Ogawa Uemon, Uchiha Fucheng unexpectedly received a reward notification.

[Altered the fate trajectory of Ogawa Rijiao (General Mifune's guard)]

[Reward: Ogawa Rijiao's Fate Dice]

Fucheng was somewhat surprised.

"What? A reward falling from the sky?"

He didn't know what kind of special reward such a minor character could provide, so he tossed 10 Recognition Points into it.

[Obtained Land of Iron swordsmanship ability; obtained chakra-imbued weapon ability.]

Uchiha Fucheng realized it in an instant.

It must have been the occupation zone mission he issued that created some sort of ripple in fate involving this Land of Iron samurai, Ogawa Rijiao.

"Mikoto, was there any special feedback just now? Regarding the squad missions?" Fucheng asked Mikoto.

Mikoto immediately recalled the intelligence report 0015 had just filed.

"Yes! It's about Hezi and the others!"

Mikoto flipped through the records, "They just discovered Nagashima Ryosuke in Sweet Water Town, the Land of Rain merchant who was hoarding a large quantity of Military Ration Pills."

This information made Fucheng realize that 0015 must have encountered the enemy!

An enemy capable of earning him a reward couldn't be weak, and he didn't want to miss out on this.

"Let's go! Hezi and the others might be in trouble."

Fucheng signaled to Mikoto and rushed toward the location of the last report.

Inside the karst cave at this moment.

0015 was still locked in combat with the mud-covered samurai.

Although the samurai had used the mud to hide and launch a sneak attack on 0015, as an individual of the Misaka Network with high regenerative capabilities, Moon Sister's combat strength had not been significantly diminished.

0015's combat power was not particularly high.

Her chakra was only at the level of a chunin, but her taijutsu ability was clearly superior to that of an average Misaka Sister.

When she engaged the three samurai, she relied mostly on her regenerative power—which rivaled that of a White Zetsu—to force an exchange of injuries.

"Come on, slash me! Slash me head-on! In the name of the moon, I'll finish you off!"

By the time Hatake Jiangyi finished his battle and killed the samurai leader, Ogawa Uemon, 0015 had already beaten the three samurai guards into a state of "one dead, two wounded."

It was only because 0015 didn't want to give them a chance to act out of desperation that the stalemate had persisted.

In the next level of the karst cave.

Kai Muyu, who had been lying in ambush beside the trap, saw Uchiha Hezi and Yakushi Nonō fall through.

He launched a sneak attack immediately.

Yakushi Nonō was still dizzy from the fall when she became the first to be struck!

The intense neurotoxin needles, refined from the colorless and odorless Salamander, flowed through her wounds and began to paralyze her body.

Even after consuming an antidote, Yakushi Nonō could not stop the spread of the toxin.

Damn it! The erosion speed of this toxin is too fast; I'm going to die! Nonō did not panic; instead, she quickly thought of an emergency solution.

Despite her young age, Nonō possessed high combat intelligence and was exceptionally decisive in battlefield emergencies.

Without a moment's hesitation, Nonō sliced off her own left forearm.

By sacrificing her left arm, she managed to temporarily stave off the risk of the neurotoxin flowing back toward her heart.

Watching Yakushi Nonō with only one arm remaining, Uchiha Hezi nearly went berserk, her eyes wide with fury as she glared at the opponent.

The moment Hezi had fallen, she used the kinetic vision of her Sharingan to dodge the opponent's poisonous senbon by a hair's breadth.

She then unleashed two shots of Fire Release: Fire Dragon Bullet toward the direction where the enemy was hiding.

She also hurled ten explosive tags bound to a kunai.

In this moment, Uchiha Hezi felt her hand-seal speed was countless times faster than it usually was.

The battlefield was truly the best place to ignite one's combat potential.

The firelight illuminated the cavern.

The middle-aged ninja wearing an Amegakure forehead protector was thus exposed before the two of them.

"Good chance!"

Uchiha Hezi intended to risk it all.

First, she would use Sharingan genjutsu to control him, then incinerate the cave with a powerful Fire Release!

Performing beyond her limits, Uchiha Hezi instantly ignited the toxic smoke within the cave.

Hezi successfully used Fire Release to eliminate the risk of the Salamander toxin spreading.

The intensity of the flames caused the oxygen in the enclosed space to deplete rapidly.

Uchiha Hezi's hair, shoulders, and arms were scorched by the high-temperature air currents inside the cave.

"How are such young Konoha ninjas this formidable?"

Having underestimated Uchiha Hezi, Kai Muyu was severely wounded and stumbled into a narrow cave passage.

Yakushi Nonō could not afford to join the fight; she was busy trying to extract the toxin. The composed Nonō did everything she could to treat her left upper arm, which had turned pale from blood loss.

Without her left hand, Nonō was unable to perform the hand seals for many of her ninjutsu.

Having finished her Fire Release, Uchiha Hezi immediately wanted to land a vicious blow on the Rain Ninja who had released the toxin.

But before she could take two steps, a large hand descended from the sky!

The enemy gripped her throat tightly!

"There's another enemy!"

Hezi exclaimed in her heart as a somewhat grotesque face abruptly appeared before her.

This enemy had to be the Mist Ninja with a multi-million ryo bounty who had yet to show himself.

He wore a peculiar hairstyle and a savage, manic expression, appearing before Hezi and Nonō while hanging upside down from the cave ceiling.

This man's hairstyle was truly bizarre!

His sideburns featured four protrusions resembling hair buns, giving him an odd, ancient appearance.

His two short eyebrows were shaved thin, with oval-shaped marks drawn on them like "courtier brows."

His face was fleshy, his mouth split wide, and he was foaming at the mouth from the toxic state.

"This guy, is he sick in the head?" Uchiha Hezi was too angry for words.

"He endured the toxin just to hide on the ceiling of the karst cave to ambush me?"

Choked by the grip on her throat, Hezi couldn't catch her breath.

"Just to ambush me? But by hiding in the toxic mist like this, he'll be poisoned by the Salamander toxin."

Yakushi Nonō threw a kunai with one hand, hoping to draw the opponent's attention so Hezi could break free.

One-armed, Nonō could not perform hand seals and had to rely on a non-seal ninjutsu, forcibly manifesting a Chakra Scalpel.

She intended to cut the opponent's wrist to help Hezi escape.

Ignoring the blood spraying from her left arm, Nonō approached the enemy at maximum speed, driving the Chakra Scalpel hard against his wrist.

Screech!

The Chakra Scalpel was exceptionally sharp, but it proved completely ineffective against the opponent's wrist.

It left only a white mark!

Nonō realized with despair that the kunai she had just thrown had also been deflected by the opponent's sheer physical resistance.

"It's bone?!"

Yakushi Nonō was astonished.

"Bone Release, Dance of the Clematis: Vine!"

Kaguya Eita laughed maniacally.

He pulled a bone from his body, shaping it into a bone rope covered in vicious barbs.

The bone rope coiled around Yakushi Nonō like a giant serpent. The spikes pierced into her back, and blood stained her petite frame red.

Taking advantage of Kaguya Eita's distraction.

Uchiha Hezi's Sharingan genjutsu successfully disrupted the opponent.

A kunai held in Hezi's hand whistled through the air, thrusting toward the opponent's eye socket.

"Bone Release, Dance of the Clematis: Flower!"

Hardened bone, like a rapidly sprouting sharp spear, struck first despite being launched later, piercing straight through Hezi's right shoulder!

The opponent's violent and frenzied assault knocked both Uchiha Hezi and Yakushi Nonō to the ground in less than two exchanges, leaving them completely devoid of the ability to resist.

Hideous bones covered the cavern.

The two girls wailed as they were impaled through the flesh by the opponent, becoming Kaguya Eita's captives of Bone Release torture.