Explosive Tags

The route through the neutral zone followed a dry riverbed.

The banks on either side provided natural cover, and smooth, water-worn pebbles covered the riverbed.

Toshihi had chosen this route because the riverbed lay below ground level, making the group difficult to spot from the forests on either side.

But that also meant that if anyone trapped them in the riverbed from higher ground, they would have nowhere to escape.

Under Toshihi's lead, the children's scattered footsteps echoed between the banks.

Although the sun bleached the pebbles white, the atmosphere grew increasingly tense.

Kagami Uchiha walked two steps ahead of Setsuna. He was so nervous that Setsuna could see beads of sweat on the back of his neck, dripping one by one from the ends of his curls into his collar.

Toshihi, at the front, suddenly raised his right hand, and the entire group stopped dead.

Every child stood rooted to the spot, even holding their breath.

He crouched and lightly swept his fingers across the riverbed. An almost invisible thread caught a faint glint of sunlight.

It seemed they had already entered a field of traps.

He was just about to warn the children to watch their step when he saw an eight-year-old child step on an Explosive Tag.

"Don't-"

He only managed that single word.

Boom!

The ground in the middle of the group erupted. Flames, shattered stone, and scorching shock waves filled the entire riverbed in an instant.

A triggered trap like this was powerful enough to severely injure an adult. For a child, it was fatal.

The child's flesh and shattered bones exploded in every direction, splattering the pebbles, the banks, and the other children's clothes and faces.

Reacting instantly, Toshihi flung the rope in his hand toward another child whom the blast had knocked onto a second trap, then hauled it back-dragging the child clear of the blast radius.

Just then, a giant Shuriken spun down from the right bank. Its target was not the child, but the rope connecting the child to Toshihi!

As the child was about to meet the same fate as the first, stepping on an Explosive Tag and becoming a bloody cloud, Kagami Uchiha, who was closest, hurled himself forward without a second thought.

At the last possible moment, the impact of his body knocked his companion away from where he would have landed. They rolled away together, barely clearing the blast radius of the Explosive Tag they had triggered.

A bang rang out-stone and dirt rained down, but the two children escaped with nothing worse than scrapes.

It was a stroke of luck amid disaster.

Toshihi drew his sword and looked up. The three tomoe in his irises spun rapidly as his gaze swept the woods on both banks, assessing the enemy in a single second.

Six enemies surrounded them!

Three on the east bank, three on the west.

Setsuna recognized at a glance that the throwing motion used for the Shuriken was one favored by the Fuma Clan.

The Fuma Clan was a medium-sized ninja clan based in the eastern Land of Fire, renowned for Wind Release and giant Shuriken throwing techniques.

They had likely discovered that the Uchiha were supporting the Hagoromo Clan and laid an ambush in this nominally neutral territory, which was actually a strategic buffer zone, hoping to gain something from it.

Toshihi held his sword across his body and ordered his partner without looking back, "Tetsukawa, take the children and go. I'll cover the rear."

The taciturn jonin bringing up the rear-Tetsukawa-nodded in understanding and formed hand seals with one hand-

"Phoenix Flower Claw Crimson!"

He coated dozens of Shuriken in Fire Release chakra and sent them hurtling toward the treetops on the east bank.

The burning Shuriken plunged into the woods like a flock of startled firebirds, trailing long tails of flame.

As Phoenix Flower Claw Crimson launched, Toshihi finished the hand seals for another Fire Release technique.

"Fire Dragon Bullet!"

A thick pillar of flame erupted from his mouth and exploded in the middle of the riverbed, tearing a gap through the crossfire between the east and west banks.

"Go!"

Tetsukawa cut down a Fuma ninja whom the Fire Dragon Bullet's shock wave had blown out of cover. The enemy's body split in two before he could even scream.

"Follow my footsteps! Don't step on any traps!"

Tetsukawa charged ahead, with the children close behind.

Fourteen children ran for their lives through the riverbed in single file.

A giant Shuriken coated in Wind Release chakra spun down from the west bank. Wind chakra formed rapidly spinning blades of air along its edges, emitting a piercing buzz as it cut off the group's retreat!

It sliced a boulder in the middle of the riverbed cleanly in two. Stone fragments flew everywhere, and the shock wave knocked several children at the back of the group to the ground.

Kagami Uchiha was among them.

The blast slammed him into the ground, snapping his backpack straps and spilling the Soldier Pills packed inside all over the ground.

He struggled to get up, but a Fuma ninja had already leaped down from the west bank and landed between him and the retreating group.

"Kagami!"

Setsuna turned and tried to rush back, but Toshihi grabbed him by the backpack and continued retreating with the others without looking back.

Toshihi raised his sword and severed the arm of a pursuing Fuma ninja, then twisted his wrist and drove the blade backward into the ninja's neck.

Within a few breaths, Setsuna, still being dragged along by Toshihi, could no longer see Kagami.

"Put me down!" Setsuna roared. "He'll die!"

"Don't throw your life away." Toshihi's voice turned cold.

"You said you'd do everything you could to save us!" Setsuna accused him defiantly.

"I can only go back to search for him once everyone else is safe!" Toshihi growled. "Go back now, and you'll die, he'll die-everyone could die!"

Setsuna bit into his lower lip, and the taste of blood spread across his tongue.

He made his decision in an instant. He unfastened his backpack's chest buckle and waist belt, slipping free of the dangling pack. His five-and-a-half-year-old body slid from Toshihi's grip like an eel, and he shot away like an arrow loosed from a bow.

The system sounded a clear chime in his mind: rebellion points +3.

But he had no attention to spare for what it said. His will frantically hammered at that number-Ten rebellion points. Put them all into stamina.

He needed strength-the strength to carry the injured Kagami on his back and escape!

Ten rebellion points were consumed, and the stamina icon changed from "level 1" to "level 2."

Warmth surged through his limbs and body, as though something were burning between his muscles and bones, pumping strength into every fiber.

Still holding the backpack, Toshihi watched that five-and-a-half-year-old figure dart dozens of meters away in mere seconds.

As Tetsukawa cut down his last opponent, he looked at Toshihi. "What do we do? He's a child from the clan leader's line."

Toshihi gritted his teeth and tossed the backpack to Tetsukawa. "Get the supplies to the designated location first."

Tetsukawa silently caught the backpack, gathered the remaining children as quickly as possible, and continued toward the Hagoromo Clan's territory.

Toshihi turned and chased after Setsuna in the direction he had disappeared.