After confirming his identity, Mahiru quickly went over to check Ryotaro's injuries. After examining him, he found that he had only exhausted himself.
Frowning deeply, he asked, "What happened?
Weren't you with Higashi Shito's team? How did you end up here?"
Ryotaro didn't dare conceal anything. He briefly explained what had happened: "While we were carrying out our mission,
a man in white suddenly appeared. He called himself Luo... Luo... Luo Yongxin and claimed this area belonged to his organization, Celestial.
After negotiations failed, he simply raised a hand and killed three Chunins in an instant. Captain Higashi Shito knew he was outmatched and stayed behind to cover our retreat.
He said only an elite Jonin might be able to hold him off for a few dozen seconds, giving me enough time to get the information to you and Captain Gari."
Hiss~
The others sucked in a dozen sharp breaths, one apiece, doing their part to contribute to global warming. Even the campfire seemed to waver.
In a direct fight, he'd killed three Chunins just by raising a hand. Even allowing for carelessness on their part, that was no feat an ordinary elite Jonin could manage.
Even in Iwagakure, only a handful could pull off something like that: Lord Tsuchikage and the two Jinchūriki.
Whether Luo Yongxin was stronger or weaker than those three was beside the point. Based on that one display, he posed a deadly threat to the special operations squad.
"Tell me in detail about his abilities," Mahiru asked, lowering his head. In truth, shinobi didn't have many choices.
Take their situation now. Even knowing their enemy was tremendously powerful, abandoning the mission would still bring punishment. At the very least, Mahiru couldn't dodge the blame; he was the one in charge of the special operations squad.
So he still wanted to take a chance.
"He's very young and skilled in long-range Lightning Release. He can send lightning flying with a wave of his hand. It flashes by so quickly you barely notice it, but it does tremendous damage to the body.
"Unfortunately, Captain Higashi Shito saw that things were going badly and told me to escape and deliver the information. I didn't get to see anything else."
As he spoke, Ryotaro looked even more grief-stricken. Unless something unexpected had happened, Captain Higashi Shito had probably died in the line of duty.
Mahiru clenched his fist in anger, the veins on the back of his hand bulging. Strictly speaking, the special operations squad's mission counted as an invasion. To the Land of Wind, they were the aggressors.
A person's position shaped his perspective. Mahiru didn't want to think about who was in the right. All he knew was that his teammate was dead, and an entire squad had been nearly wiped out.
So what could he do?
They hadn't gathered a single piece of intelligence. They'd barely entered the Land of Wind when a mysterious organization had suddenly appeared and destroyed one of their squads.
Then he could flee back to the village, terrified, and report to Lord Tsuchikage that the enemy was too strong, that fate had doomed them and it wasn't their fault.
He would become a laughingstock throughout the village, a name on everyone's lips. Even Genin would point at him and say, "Look, that's the legendary useless shinobi who was so scared of a mysterious man that he abandoned a special mission."
What was a special mission? A mission entrusted by Lord Tsuchikage that could affect the fate of the entire village—that was a special mission.
The fact that they'd been sent to gather intelligence on the Land of Wind spoke for itself.
I won't allow myself to become a burden to the village!
Having made up his mind, Mahiru molded his chakra into a wave of sand that smothered the campfire. Then he drew his sword and pointed ahead. "Everyone, stay alert and prepare for battle.
"We'll join up with the squad led by Gari as quickly as possible. Splitting up any further is too dangerous!"
"Captain Mahiru, do you want to avenge Captain Higashi Shito?"
Ryotaro asked hopefully. The thought that Captain Higashi Shito had died because of his own incompetence filled Ryotaro with guilt.
If only he'd been a little stronger, maybe everyone could have escaped.
A trace of awkwardness flickered across Mahiru's eyes. After a moment of silence, he replied apologetically, "I'm sorry, but I'm not trying to avenge Higashi Shito.
"Our mission is to gather intelligence related to the disturbances in the Land of Wind. Once we join up, we'll leave this area at once and avoid a direct confrontation.
"Of course, if we get the chance, we'll also gather information on the Celestial Organization, so Higashi Shito's death won't be in vain."
Once the squads joined up, they'd have two elite Jonin and more than twenty Chunin. No Kage Level fighter could afford to ignore that kind of force.
At the very least, if they all focused on escaping, even an ordinary Kage Level fighter couldn't wipe them out in an instant.
"I understand."
Ryotaro's expression darkened. Shinobi were always at the mercy of circumstances.
The group smothered the campfire, erased all traces that anyone had stayed there, and set out under cover of night.
The full moon hung overhead.
A few minutes later, Rasa came walking across the yellow sand from afar. Scorpions crawled noisily out of the ground, but whenever they tried to approach him, currents of electricity appeared from nowhere and struck them down.
He glanced toward the place where the campfire had been buried, shook his head slightly, and sighed. "Pointless.
"They're not heading toward the Land of Earth. Good. Run, regroup—this isn't the time to close the net."
Any object warmer than absolute zero emitted electromagnetic waves. The Iwagakure Ninja could bury the campfire, but they couldn't bring the temperature of its embers in line with their surroundings.
In Rasa's perception, there was nowhere they could hide.
He hadn't attacked them right away because he wanted to see whether they would regroup, return directly to the Land of Earth, or continue with their original plan.
Fortunately, Mahiru hadn't disappointed him.
The night was long, and sleep was nowhere to be found.
After several hours of forced marching, Mahiru finally reached the other squad's location. The terrain here was not as favorable as theirs had been.
Hearing the commotion, the captain, Gari, whose hairstyle resembled a Saiyan's, jolted awake. He sprang up and shot out of his tent.
He warily faced the direction of the noise and shouted, waking all his subordinates at the same time. "Who's there?"
"It's me, Mahiru."
Mahiru looked flustered. Behind him stood more than a dozen shinobi, all looking exhausted.
After confirming their identities, Gari glanced at Mahiru in confusion. "What happened?
"Weren't we supposed to split up and improve our efficiency at gathering intelligence? Why have we regrouped?"
"Whatever the case, we need to leave this area immediately. There's a Kage Level fighter nearby, claiming this territory belongs to his organization.
"Only by giving his life to hold him off was Higashi Shito able to get the information out."
Mahiru gave him a rough account of what had happened, then started directing everyone to reposition. Now that the squads were together, he was the Captain-General, outranking even Gari.
Ryotaro suddenly froze. His entire body trembled as he gripped the Kunai in his hand and stared past Mahiru, his expression complicated.
"What is it?"
Mahiru turned around. He too froze for a moment, then realized what had happened and bitterly regretted it.
Damn it. After spending his life hunting wild geese, he'd finally had one peck out his eye. Hearing that Higashi Shito had died had rattled him. He'd checked Ryotaro's identity, but failed to check whether anyone was following him.
A young man with slicked-back hair and gold-rimmed glasses, wearing a white lab coat, walked slowly toward them beneath the moonlight.
Before you continue