The Nara Household's Brains Were Damn Good

Itsuki Ishikawa shot forward before he even finished speaking.

Jin Uchiha: "..."

Kazama Nara: "..."

The two stared in the direction Itsuki Ishikawa had charged, frozen in disbelief.

Holy shit!

They knew he was useless, but who knew he could be this useless?

Jin was seething.

He had known all along that the bastard was good for nothing except causing trouble.

But now that it had actually happened...

He still couldn't stop himself from slapping his forehead and swearing aloud.

"Useless idiot!"

"Did a donkey kick Itsuki Ishikawa in the head?"

Kazama Nara shook his head with a bitter smile too.

With a freak like that for a teammate, what could he say? He was speechless.

Still...

The Nara Household might not have had much in the way of skills, but their brains never let them down.

He drew a deep breath, suppressed his anger, and spoke.

"Even if we both want to chop him up, we still have to save him."

Jin froze for a moment, then blurted out, "Why?"

"Because the three of us are on the same team!" Kazama Nara glanced toward Shin Kudo and lowered his voice to explain. "What if Itsuki Ishikawa survives and reports this to the village?"

"Even if he dies, our captain is still alive."

"This lousy team was thrown together on the fly. We don't have a shred of trust in each other."

"You and I are both involved, and our interests are tied together, so we can trust each other somewhat. But can you guarantee Shin Kudo won't rat us out?"

"He's drained his Chakra right now, so he can't hear what's happening outside while he recovers."

"But if he writes this up and submits a report, that's a solid achievement for him."

"Our captain comes from a civilian background."

"With free credit sitting right in front of him, are you sure he won't throw us both under the bus?"

A chill shot up Jin's back as he listened.

When he looked at Kazama Nara again, his gaze had changed.

Damn!

He'd always heard the Nara were sharp, but this was ridiculous.

He hadn't spotted those pitfalls even after living two lives, yet the other man had worked through every last one in a single breath, without leaving a single loose end.

Kazama Nara was only from a branch family.

If a minor character who hadn't even earned a name in the original story was this sharp, what about the Nara Household head and Jonin Commander, Shikaku Nara?

Just thinking about it made the back of his neck tighten.

Still...

This wasn't the time to dwell on that. A scream erupted from the thick mist outside.

It was Itsuki Ishikawa.

But how long had it even been?

Jin slapped his forehead, his face full of irritation.

"That useless idiot!"

"He can't do anything right, but he sure knows how to screw things up."

"Fine. Let's take them out."

With his mind made up, Jin Uchiha didn't waste any more time.

He charged straight out, his hands forming seals so fast they left afterimages.

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

He opened his mouth, and a massive fireball roared forth, bearing down on the direction of the scream.

Kazama Nara didn't hesitate.

"Wind Release: Tornado Hurricane!"

As his hands finished the seals, a tornado surged up from the ground.

The wind carried the fire, and the fire fed the wind.

Enveloped by the hurricane, the Great Fireball Technique doubled in ferocity, tearing the surrounding Hidden Mist Technique apart.

The three ninja attacking Itsuki fared even worse. In the blink of an eye, the wind and fire jutsu shredded them.

Jin Uchiha's heart skipped a beat at the sight.

That was B-Rank Wind Release. This teammate of his had been hiding some serious strength.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

The Hidden Mist ninja made their move.

One group hurled kunai with all they had, while another rushed straight toward the supply carts.

"I'll handle these guys," Jin said. "Kazama, hold them off at the supplies!"

Kazama Nara nodded.

Without another word, he turned and sprinted toward the supply carts.

Jin drew a kunai, casually deflected the few flying toward him, then pushed his speed to the limit and plunged straight into the Hidden Mist ninja.

He was absurdly fast.

Even without ninjutsu or the Six Powers, his taijutsu alone could crush ordinary ninja.

With just a few basic moves, he left not a single Hidden Mist ninja in front of him able to last even one exchange.

Each time he passed one, he took a life.

"H-how is this happening?"

"Three Hidden Leaf ninja who can use ninjutsu! This is an elite Hidden Leaf squad!"

"The intel was wrong! Retreat!"

The two Hidden Mist ninja leading the attack shouted at the sight, then didn't linger for even half a second.

They turned and ran!

As for the Hidden Mist ninja who had died, no one cared.

Elsewhere...

Kazama Nara had only just killed one when the remaining Hidden Mist ninja took to their heels.

He hurried back and asked Jin Uchiha,

"Do we chase them?"

Jin Uchiha rolled his eyes.

He honestly didn't know where to begin with this teammate.

Now he finally understood.

Kazama Nara was definitely no ordinary ninja. That Wind Release alone was more than enough to get him into the elite Class A.

Yet even after exposing his strength, the guy still acted as though Jin were the one calling the shots.

Still...

Thinking of how the other members of the Nara Household behaved, this seemed to be an old habit passed down through the family.

So he might as well let him.

Jin Uchiha shook his head and spoke.

"Chase them, my ass."

"Our mission is to deliver the supplies. Don't go looking for complications."

Kazama Nara nodded.

For the first time, he felt that working with Jin Uchiha was pretty comfortable.

Especially that way of thinking—it suited the Nara perfectly.

Wait, something's wrong here!

Wasn't this guy an Uchiha?

Nothing about the way he handled things was remotely Uchiha-like, was it?

Whatever, though.

What did that have to do with him? As a Nara, trouble was what he hated most.

As long as it didn't affect him, that was fine.

At that thought, he yawned, then looked down at Itsuki Ishikawa, who lay unconscious at his feet.

Then his head began to ache.

The bastard really was tough to kill. Even that hadn't finished him off.

Clearly...

Kazama Nara didn't have the slightest fondness for this reckless idiot.

But after sighing, he could only speak with a helpless expression.

"Fine. I guess that's a good thing."

"Itsuki Ishikawa's still breathing. We should at least patch him up a little."

Jin Uchiha frowned.

Still, he nodded. As annoying as the guy was, they couldn't just kill him, could they?

Once they agreed, the two lifted Itsuki Ishikawa onto the wagon.

They slapped on some medicinal herbs, shoved a Soldier Pill into his mouth, then couldn't be bothered to worry about whether he lived or died.

That was right.

Their team had no Medical Ninjutsu anyway, and neither of them cared whether he could hold on.

Doing what they could was enough. They couldn't be bothered to put in more effort.

As for what happened next, that depended entirely on how hard he was to kill.

There were Hidden Leaf medical ninja at the frontline camp. If he lasted until they got there, he would live.

If he didn't, he could just die.

The two stepped down from the wagon, and Kazama Nara's eyes shifted.

"Jin, what do we tell him later?" Kazama Nara asked in a low voice.

Jin Uchiha narrowed his eyes.

Keeping his expression neutral, he offered a probing reply. "The truth. What else are we supposed to do, make up some elaborate story?"

Kazama Nara gave him an exasperated look.

He felt that Jin Uchiha was just playing dumb.

After how he'd handled things earlier, how could he not have thought of this little issue?

But there was nothing he could do!

He had brought it up himself, so however exasperated he was, he had to keep talking.

"Once we reveal our strength, the missions we get afterward will be a lot tougher."

"I figure we're the same kind of people. We both hate trouble."

"So can we stop beating around the bush?"

With the other man putting it that plainly, Jin Uchiha couldn't keep playing dumb.

He hated trouble too.

As for the little bit of credit the village might give him, he didn't care about it at all.

His eyes shifted, and he asked quietly, "What do you have in mind?"

Kazama Nara wasn't stupid.

Of course he could tell Jin Uchiha was still testing him, but with Shin Kudo liable to wake up at any moment, he wasn't going to keep wasting time.

Without hesitation, he laid his cards on the table.

"The captain's still recovering his chakra. He can't sense what's happening outside."

"Itsuki Ishikawa's unconscious too, and all those civilians from earlier are dead."

"Of the three cartloads of supplies, we take one each. If you don't have a Storage Scroll, Jin, I'll give you one."

"As for the dead Hidden Mist ninja, we'll seal them in scrolls for now and find a chance to dispose of them later."

"When the captain wakes up, we'll say we were too weak and barely managed to protect one cartload of supplies. The Hidden Mist took the other two."

"Itsuki Ishikawa brought it on himself. He wouldn't listen to us and insisted on charging in to fight the Hidden Mist to the death."

"But he was so lousy that the Hidden Mist crippled him."

"We risked our lives to drag him out of the pile of corpses."