Division of Spoils

As he pulled one enemy into the earth, Chiba Shun appeared on the surface as well.

His hands flashed as he drew his blades, slashing left and right at the two shinobi who were about to use ninjutsu.

With two sharp clangs, the startled ninjutsu specialists immediately abandoned their techniques and swiftly drew kunai to block Chiba Shun's twin blades.

But just as they breathed a sigh of relief, Chiba Shun swung one leg in a strange motion, producing a third blade that slashed at one of them.

At the same time, he tilted his head, flinging the long blade clenched in his mouth straight at the other.

Two wet thuds rang out.

One of them had an arm cut off by Chiba Shun.

The other avoided a fatal blow because Chiba Shun was still unfamiliar with his fourth blade, suffering only a slash across the chest.

Terrified, the two of them retreated in opposite directions.

Chiba Shun did not pursue. He sheathed his blades, took a step forward, then thrust a sword directly behind him.

At the instant he struck, the taijutsu shinobi he had trapped underground had just forcibly broken free of the chakra he had left in the soil and burst from beneath the earth.

But the moment he emerged, before he could make sense of what was happening, Chiba Shun's backstab pierced straight through him.

Chiba Shun viciously twisted the blade embedded in the taijutsu shinobi's body, snuffing out his life at once.

The sudden turn of events made both sides, who had been locked in fierce combat, pause for a moment.

Even the Kumogakure shinobi had not expected Chiba Shun to give them such a huge surprise.

With his first move, he killed one man, severely wounded another, and lightly injured a third.

However, Chiba Shun's luck ended there.

One shinobi who had been suppressing a Kumogakure shinobi Jonin suddenly abandoned his opponent and launched ninjutsu at Chiba Shun.

At that moment, the Kumogakure shinobi side made a mistake.

The Jonin who had been freed up did not go and tie down his opponent. He chose to support the others.

In his view, Chiba Shun had wiped out a three-Chunin squad the moment he entered the battle, so he was clearly no weakling. Even if he could not defeat that Jonin, he should not be killed immediately.

Meanwhile, the others were already in grave danger.

No, several of them had already died.

So he did not support Chiba Shun, instead leaving him alone to face a Jonin.

Chiba Shun nearly cursed out loud.

But at that moment, several water spheres were already hurtling toward him.

Chiba Shun could only dodge while retreating away from the main battle.

He had just completed a flanking maneuver and was now separated from A and the others. Rejoining them meant crossing several enemies, which was simply unrealistic.

That Jonin had never expected a C-rank Jutsu to finish Chiba Shun off.

He merely did not want Chiba Shun to continue attacking the others.

After Chiba Shun escaped the water sphere assault, the Jonin immediately began forming hand seals. This time, he used quite a few seals. He was clearly preparing a major technique.

Seeing this, Chiba Shun's mouth twitched as he began forming seals as well.

Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!

Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!

The Jonin finished his seals first. By the time a water dragon appeared, Chiba Shun had only just completed his own seals.

Clearly, his opponent formed seals faster than Chiba Shun.

Although he had formed seals first, his opponent was using an A-rank ninjutsu, while Chiba Shun was using only a C-rank one.

Seeing Chiba Shun's Earth-Style Wall, strengthened though it was but still pitifully small, the Jonin sneered inwardly.

Did he think an Earth-Style Wall of that caliber could stop his Water Dragon Bullet?

Of course, Chiba Shun did not expect the Earth-Style Wall to block the Water Dragon Bullet.

In fact, the Earth-Style Wall did not even last a second.

The water dragon blasted Chiba Shun's Earth-Style Wall away.

But... what was this?

The Jonin was somewhat stunned. He had never seen anyone deal with a water dragon attack this way.

A normal Earth-Style Wall was firmly rooted in the ground. Otherwise, it would fall over with a single shove, so what use would it be?

But Chiba Shun had done the opposite. His Earth-Style Wall was not connected to the ground at all.

When the water dragon struck it, it was sent flying immediately.

At this point, the Earth-Style Wall no longer resembled a wall. It looked more like a thick slab of earth.

The water dragon pushed the slab along, while Chiba Shun hid behind it.

The three of them shot rapidly into the distance like that.

The earthen slab had cracked, but it did not collapse outright. It had clearly absorbed most of the impact for Chiba Shun.

The Jonin finally reacted. His lips curled, and in the next instant, the water dragon changed direction. It first carried the slab and Chiba Shun up into the air, then plunged straight down toward the ground.

But before the water dragon smashed into the ground, Chiba Shun pushed off the earthen slab and leaped away.

Boom! The water dragon smashed into the ground, blasting out a huge crater. The earthen slab formed from the Earth-Style Wall shattered into fragments that sprayed everywhere, striking Chiba Shun nearby and making him grimace in pain.

But such injuries were nothing. Chiba Shun had finally endured the attack.

The Jonin's expression changed slightly because he saw that Chiba Shun's hands had been forming seals the entire time!

Not good!

He quickly formed seals and unleashed another Water Dragon Bullet!

It seemed this B-rank Jutsu, the Water Dragon Bullet, was his best technique.

But he was still too late.

Chiba Shun had finished forming seals the moment the Jonin began, and sank into the ground before the Water Dragon Bullet could hit him.

Underground Movement was a technique Chiba Shun was very unfamiliar with, requiring twenty-five hand seals.

Under normal circumstances, Chiba Shun could not possibly use it in battle.

But while Chiba Shun had been carried around by the water dragon, he had been forming seals, so he still got ahead of the Jonin.

"Dammit!" Seeing the Water Dragon Bullet blast a huge crater into the ground without revealing Chiba Shun, the Jonin cursed.

He then turned to look at the people still fighting fiercely, then glanced at the ground.

In the end, he gritted his teeth and said, "Retreat!"

They still held the advantage, but Chiba Shun would certainly attack from underground.

He had succeeded in one sneak attack. No one could say whether he might succeed a second or third time.

Chiba Shun's performance had made it clear that he was a shinobi skilled in tactics. Shinobi who played with tactics were the most irritating!

He could not predict what Chiba Shun would do next.

Moreover, Chiba Shun was one of the targets of this operation, and likely the primary target.

If he escaped directly, then even if they killed everyone else, the mission would still be a failure.

Since that was the case, there was no need to continue taking losses.

The next moment, the group began an orderly retreat.

They held the advantage in battle, so they withdrew calmly.

The Chunin withdrew first, while the three Jonin slowly backed away under the pressure of A and the others.

Finally, the two ninjutsu-specialist Jonin withdrew first, while the taijutsu Jonin who had been fighting A stayed behind to cover the retreat.

Only after confirming that A and the others could not catch up to the rest did he break away from A and begin retreating.

A was unwilling to let him leave and immediately gave chase.

The taijutsu Jonin chuckled, feinted, then leaped swiftly into the distance.

But just then, an earthen wall suddenly rose from the ground in his path.

Both the taijutsu Jonin and A saw it.

A had originally intended to give up, but his eyes lit up at the sight, and he charged forward again.

Meanwhile, the taijutsu Jonin was completely dumbfounded.

Though he reacted quickly, the Earth-Style Wall still blocked him for a moment, freezing his body in midair for an instant.

Boom!

A did not waste the opportunity Chiba Shun had created for him. With a savage charge, he slammed into the taijutsu Jonin, and the two of them crashed into the Earth-Style Wall together, smashing it down completely.

Not far from the Earth-Style Wall, Chiba Shun poked out half his head from the ground. Seeing this, Chiba Shun sucked in a breath on behalf of the taijutsu Jonin, whose fate was unknown.

This scene horrified the ambushers, who had already retreated some distance.

They had not expected the strongest among them to fall like that!

They involuntarily halted, and some immediately suggested counterattacking.

But the Jonin who had attacked Chiba Shun with Water Dragon Bullet shook his head and said, "Retreat! We have no chance!"

At that moment, the other surviving Kumogakure shinobi, who had not intended to pursue, quickly gathered around A.

After several breaths of confrontation, the ambushers ultimately retreated.

On the Kumogakure shinobi's side, two more people immediately collapsed to the ground after confirming that the enemy had left.

Chiba Shun emerged from underground as well.

A nodded at Chiba Shun.

He was extremely surprised by Chiba Shun's performance.

In his mind, shinobi like Chiba Shun belonged in administrative work and could not be relied on in battle.

When he had seen Chiba Shun hide inside the Earth-Style Wall earlier, he had thought Chiba Shun did not intend to come back out.

That would have been fine too. It would have saved them the trouble of dividing their attention to protect Chiba Shun and the two children.

He had not expected Chiba Shun's performance to be so outstanding. In this First Shinobi World War, Chiba Shun's contribution was no less than that of another Jonin.

At a crucial moment, Chiba Shun had restrained a Jonin and forced him to retreat voluntarily, then worked with A at the end to kill the enemy's strongest fighter.

Seeing that everyone was injured, with even A covered in wounds, Chiba Shun proactively began cleaning up the battlefield.

A short while later, Chiba Shun gathered up the spoils. The body of the taijutsu Jonin who had died at A's hands was also collected.

The bodies of the other fallen ambushers had already been taken away by their companions, so this was the only enemy corpse left.

Most of the bodies were their own people, and the corpses of the twenty-two children were especially glaring.

However, this Jonin had quite a few valuable items on him.

There were several hundred thousand ryo in cash, as well as a C-rank Water Release ninjutsu scroll.

Furthermore, the long blade this man used was far better than Chiba Shun's own.

This blade could channel chakra to a certain degree, much like the prized item Chiba Shun had seen in the Kumogakure shinobi village's ninja tool shop.

Chiba Shun remembered that long blade being priced at three hundred thousand ryo.

Chiba Shun handed the spoils to A and said, "It's confirmed. These people were undoubtedly Kirigakure shinobi."

In fact, during the earlier battle, everyone had already roughly guessed the identities of this group from their ninjutsu.

But ninjutsu and the like could be faked.

Based on the items carried by the enemy's strongest fighter, along with the information contained within the corpse, Chiba Shun made a definite judgment.