Ambushed

What is the shortest route from one country to another?

Naturally, it is a straight line. The ministers of the Land of Waves chose a straight-line route for their Feudal Lord to reach the Land of Tea, but the only straight path from the Land of Waves to the Land of Tea is by sea.

Upon hearing that the mission route would be by water, Sakura Mangetsu's fighting spirit vanished entirely; she was someone who suffered from seasickness.

However, this was a mission requirement that Sakura Mangetsu could not change. As a qualified Konoha Chunin, she had no choice but to grit her teeth and overcome her seasickness.

Genma also found this somewhat headache-inducing. With Mangetsu inevitably suffering from some degree of seasickness on the water, no matter how she tried to overcome it, there would always be an impact, and their team's combat effectiveness would inevitably drop significantly.

According to what the accompanying minister of the Land of Waves told Genma, if everything went smoothly, the journey by water to the capital of the Land of Tea, Oolong City, would take about four to five days one way.

Today was the third day of the Land of Waves' large ship sailing on the sea. The previous two days of the journey had been normal, but by noon on the third day, just after the members of Genma Team had finished the lunch prepared by the ship's cook, they intended to go up to the deck to soak up some sun.

However, as soon as they reached the deck, they discovered that the fog, which had previously dispersed, had gathered around the ship again, with visibility reduced to less than twenty meters.

As ninjas, every member of Genma Team reacted immediately upon seeing such a strange environment.

The fastest to act was, of course, the veteran Genma. He rushed to the Feudal Lord of the Land of Waves first, and after confirming that the Feudal Lord was safe, he took charge of protecting him.

Almost at the same time Genma reached the Feudal Lord, Kamizuki activated his Byakugan to survey the surrounding environment.

Following him, Kato Taichi and Sakura Mangetsu came to Kamizuki's side, taking up positions on his left and right to stand guard, waiting for Kamizuki's instructions at any moment.

Because in such foggy conditions, only Kamizuki's Byakugan could clearly see the surrounding environment and the movements of the enemy.

Under the Byakugan's vision, Kamizuki scanned a one-kilometer radius around the ship and finally spotted three to four people lurking in the water beneath the hull, with one more person standing motionless on the surface of the water quite a distance away from their ship.

After Kamizuki informed the two people beside him of the enemies' approximate locations, they also reacted, guarding more cautiously in the direction of the enemies.

Since they had absolutely no intelligence on the enemy, the three of them could only defend passively, waiting for the enemy to strike so they could adapt accordingly.

Just as they finished their defensive preparations, the four enemies hiding beneath the ship launched their attack simultaneously.

The four split into two groups, jumping out from the left and right sides respectively. With great coordination, both groups landed on the gunwales at the same time, and as soon as they stood firm, they each threw four kunai.

Just as the enemies jumped, Kamizuki shouted to Taichi and Mangetsu: "They're here! Be careful, two enemies on each side!"

Due to the fog obstructing their vision, Taichi and Mangetsu could only see the kunai when they were nearly upon them. Fortunately, because Kamizuki had warned them in advance, as the kunai appeared, Taichi and Mangetsu each deflected the four kunai onto the deck at the bow of the ship.

Just as Taichi and Mangetsu prepared to counterattack, Kamizuki saw clearly that the kunai they had just deflected were each attached with an explosive tag.

Seeing the explosive tags, Kamizuki knew there was no time to warn his teammates. He stepped forward, shielding Taichi and Mangetsu behind him, and whispered: "Eight Trigrams Palms: Heavenly Spin." With that soft shout, Kamizuki began to rotate like a spinning top.

Just as Kamizuki began to spin, the explosive tags on the four kunai detonated simultaneously, producing four "bang, bang, bang, bang" explosions.

Following the four explosions, the entire ship began to sway and rock.

The four enemies had not expected to injure their opponents with the kunai alone, so as the explosions rang out, they dispersed. One enemy engaged Kato Taichi, another faced Sakura Mangetsu, and the remaining two targeted Kamizuki, attacking him from the left and right.

The group was thus divided into three separate skirmishes by these four enemies.