Sunagakure Elite Squad

To be honest.

Shiraha was somewhat moved.

His two teammates usually spoke very little. Other than carrying out missions, they barely interacted at all.

But at critical moments, they had always protected him.

Although Medical Ninja were to be protected as a priority, there was no one else nearby. Without knowing Shiraha's true strength, being able to do this much when facing powerful enemies was already quite admirable.

Naturally, Shiraha would not leave.

These two Iwa Chunin were not weak. Uchiha Chiho might not be able to hold on until he returned from the outpost with reinforcements.

"I'll help you!" Shiraha joined the battle, helping Uchiha Chiho hold back one of the Iwa Chunin.

With Shiraha joining in, Uchiha Chiho's pressure greatly eased, and she quickly regained the upper hand.

After all, when the gap in strength was not significant, an Uchiha with her Sharingan activated held an absolute advantage.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

After exchanging blows with the Iwa Chunin for a while, Uchiha Chiho took advantage of her retreat to throw two Shuriken from each hand.

The Iwa Ninja shifted to the side and dodged the Kunai, but his expression suddenly changed. Wire ropes were tied to the rings of two of the Kunai, and they were impossible to see clearly unless at close range.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

At that moment, the four Kunai struck each other in pairs beside the Iwa Chunin, crossing and changing direction.

Uchiha Chiho pulled with both hands, and the wire ropes wrapped around the Iwa Chunin. She had also finished forming hand seals. Puffing out her cheeks, she spat out a mass of scorching Fire Style Chakra.

Fire Style: Dragon Fire Technique!

Boom!

The powerful flames raced in a straight line along the wire ropes, instantly striking the Iwa Chunin.

"Argh!"

The successive deaths of his two teammates threw the Iwa Chunin fighting Shiraha into a panic.

This Uchiha Genin was absurdly strong!

And the strongest among the three of them had actually been taken down by this brat who looked like a Medical Ninja.

After dealing with her opponent, Uchiha Chiho swiftly came to help Shiraha handle the last one.

Having lost his will to fight, that Iwa Chunin was quickly killed by the two of them working together.

"Let's go!"

Shiraha reminded her. His "Sixth Sense" was highly sensitive to all kinds of energy, but his Mental Power was not strong enough yet, and his sensing range was not broad enough to locate Hyuga Hideto. He could only hope for the best.

What a shame. If Kushina had been here, Shiraha would have turned back and fought directly.

With her current Chakra alone, she could casually create dozens of Shadow Clones. Forget Jōnin—dealing with seven or eight Chunin would definitely have been easy.

"Mm." Uchiha Chiho nodded.

The two swiftly leaped onto the tree trunks and hurried toward the outpost, roughly six or seven kilometers away.

At the center of the dense forest was a vast clearing, where a large watchtower more than ten meters tall stood.

This was one of Konoha's strongholds along the Northern Border of the Land of Fire, as well as an open outpost.

Several kilometers away from the watchtower, there was also a hidden underground outpost.

Of course, during peacetime, the hidden outpost was generally staffed by personnel transferred from the watchtower.

Now that they were at war, extra personnel had been assigned to the hidden outpost to prevent the enemy from suddenly sending small elite units across the border.

At the moment, both the open and hidden outposts had one Jōnin each, respectively leading fifteen Chunin in defense.

The outposts had mainly been established for reconnaissance and early warning.

As soon as one outpost discovered the enemy, it could quickly relay the intelligence.

One open and one hidden outpost, with two Jōnin and thirty Chunin, was an exceptionally lavish lineup.

During the war in the Land of Rain a few years ago, Konoha had lost more than a thousand ninja, including dozens of Jōnin. The war against Sunagakure on the western border had been even more devastating.

Across the entire Northern Border, ten watchtowers served as open outposts, while ten hidden outposts operated alongside them. A total of twenty Jōnin and three hundred Chunin formed the first line of defense in the north.

Most of the ninja stationed here had to remain at the border for two or three years at a time before being rotated out. During peacetime, this was a relatively leisurely assignment, but during war, it was extremely dangerous.

The watchtower guards worked in three shifts, keeping watch around the clock.

It was currently time for the late-night shift change.

"Brrr... Standing guard on winter nights is freezing!"

The watchtower doors were pushed open, and five Chunin coming to relieve the watch stepped out. The cold wind blowing head-on made the ninja, who had just left their warm beds, shiver. They could not help complaining, but could only hunch their necks to keep the cold wind from blowing down their collars.

However, upon seeing their companions standing ramrod straight in the cold wind, they immediately shut their mouths.

The five approached their companions. One of them patted a companion on the shoulder, but the other person kept his head lowered and said nothing.

"Hey! Shift change! How can you fall asleep at a time like this?"

The young man whose shoulder had been patted raised his head.

Yet his neck was twisted at an unnatural angle. His face still bore an expression of agony and terror, and his movements were extremely stiff.

"Not good!"

"Damn it!"

The five relieving guards were startled, but before they could act, the "companions" right beside them slit their throats with Kunai. Their mouths were clamped shut by icy hands like iron pincers. Other than the faint sound of blood spurting from their necks, there was almost no noise at all.

The five died in despair and terror.

After killing the five, the other five standing guard also fell stiffly to the ground. Chakra Threads could be seen instantly withdrawing from their bodies.

At that moment, six ninja clad in fitted combat uniforms emerged from underground—five men and one woman, all Sunagakure Jōnin.

"Lord Akayu, Lady Hakusa, we've taken out ten. One Jōnin and five Chunin remain. What do we do now?"

"Attack directly. End this quickly. Guard the outside and stop anyone from escaping."

"Yes!"

The leading man and woman threw out scrolls, and ten puppets of varying forms appeared at the watchtower entrance.

The other four retreated and surrounded all four sides of the watchtower.

Boom!

A fierce wind swept purple poisonous smoke into the watchtower.

By then, the Konoha Ninja inside the watchtower had no time to retreat.

Due to the difference in raw strength, the remaining six Konoha Ninja were quickly wiped out.

The sole Jōnin only held out for a few minutes longer.

"So this is the White Secret Technique: Chikamatsu Ten Puppets? It really is powerful! As expected of Lord Akayu and Lady Hakusa. They're only a few years older than me, yet they can each control five puppets at once." Kosuke, the only Sensor Ninja in the team, sighed in admiration.

He had only recently been promoted to Special Jonin. This was his first time watching Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law use Puppet Technique at close range. They truly were powerful.

No wonder they were popular candidates for Fourth Kazekage.

"Hurry up. You'll have plenty more chances to be surprised later!" Another Sunagakure Jōnin patted Kosuke on the head.

The group did not clean up the battlefield and instead headed for the other hidden outpost.