Fierce battle

"Back to the cave, quick!"

Ryuto grabbed the still slightly dazed Yamano Tarō and ran back.

The cave was already in chaos.

They had heard the fighting outside clearly, fireballs, explosions, and all. Several children were bawling in fright, the elderly huddled trembling in the corners, and Third Grandpa's walking stick kept clacking against the ground.

"What's happening outside? Are they attacking us?"

"Ryuto, are you all right?"

"Are we going to die here?"

Everyone talked over one another, their voices full of panic.

Ryuto stood in the middle of the cave and raised his voice. "Everyone, quiet!"

The cave instantly fell silent.

"Listen," Ryuto said, looking around. "Some shinobi passed through and got into a fight. I drove them off. But we can't stay here anymore. All that noise is bound to draw more shinobi."

Yamano Tarō came to his senses too. "Right, we have to go! Deeper into the mountains!"

No one dared dawdle anymore.

In less than five minutes, the twenty-odd people stumbled out of the cave again and plunged into the ever-darkening woods.

Ryuto led the way, with Yamano Tarō bringing up the rear.

At first, things were fine apart from a few elderly people moving slowly. But the deeper they went into the mountains, the more uneasy Ryuto grew.

The energy fluctuations he sensed were growing denser and closer.

It was as though two packs of crazed beasts were hurtling toward them.

"Move faster!" Ryuto shouted over his shoulder.

He had barely finished speaking.

Boom!!!

A pillar of fire several meters across shot into the sky from the woods on their left, turning half the sky red.

Immediately afterward, with a great rushing crash on their right, a massive water dragon came smashing toward them, sweeping up trees and broken rocks.

"Get down!" Ryuto roared.

The villagers all dropped to the ground.

The water dragon and pillar of fire collided less than fifty meters ahead of them. With a deafening hiss, white steam instantly billowed everywhere, hot enough to sting their skin.

"It's the Senju and the Uchiha..." Yamano Tarō's face was white as paper. "Their main forces have clashed! Right in front of us!"

"Go around!" Ryuto decided at once. "To the right..."

"They're on the right too!" a sharp-eyed villager screamed.

Ryuto turned his head. Figures darted through the woods on the right, kunai and shuriken whistling through the air. Every so often, a fireball or a patch of earthen spikes erupted.

They were completely surrounded.

"Go back..." Yamano Tarō had barely spoken when explosions sounded behind them too.

Their retreat was cut off as well.

"Fucking hell," Ryuto cursed. This really was a hell-difficulty start. "Follow me! We'll break through!"

He was the first to dart forward.

He had barely covered a dozen meters when a Senju shinobi leaped down from a tree, thrusting a kunai straight at his face.

Ryuto sidestepped and threw a punch.

The shinobi reacted extremely quickly, forming hand seals with one hand. "Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"

An earthen wall rose with a rumble.

Ryuto's fist smashed a crater into the wall, but it did not fall.

"What a pain." Ryuto frowned. Just as he was about to strike again, several shuriken whizzed in from the side, thrown by another shinobi, an Uchiha.

Attacked from front and rear.

Ryuto pushed off the ground, ki jetting from the soles of his feet.

Whoosh!

His entire body instantly shifted three meters sideways, fast enough to leave an afterimage.

"What?" Both shinobi froze.

In that brief moment, Ryuto had already charged up to the Senju shinobi. This time, instead of punching, he spread the fingers of his right hand and aimed his palm.

"Break... through!"

Pale golden ki gathered frantically in his palm, then blasted out with a boom as a straight beam of golden light!

Bam!!!

The blast punched a huge hole straight through the Earth-Style Wall. The force remaining flung the Senju shinobi behind it into a tree, knocking him unconscious.

Ryuto himself was stunned too.

This move... was way more powerful than a ki bullet! Straight, fast, and highly penetrating!

I'll call it Ki Blast!

"Watch out!" Yamano Tarō shouted from behind.

The Uchiha shinobi had already finished his hand seals. "Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!"

A stream of fire shot toward him.

This time, Ryuto did not panic. He poured ki into his feet.

"Flash!"

His figure blurred as he slid away almost flush with the ground. The stream of fire grazed his back, scorching a section of his clothes.

He was even faster than before!

"A move that covers my whole body in ki to accelerate?" Ryuto was ecstatic. High-speed movement combined with strikes-wasn't it called "Flash Strike" in the original?

Taking advantage of the moment before the Uchiha shinobi could recover from his last attack, he flashed right up to him and fired a Ki Blast into his face at point-blank range.

Bam!

The second one was dealt with.

But in that brief time, more ninjutsu came crashing toward them.

Fireballs, water bullets, wind blades, earthen spikes... they rained down on them.

"Aah!" A flying rock struck a villager in the thigh, and he fell with a scream.

"Ergou!" Yamano Tarō tried to pull him up, only to be driven back by a wind blade.

Ryuto's eyes reddened.

"Everyone, get behind me!"

He swept both hands repeatedly, spraying Ki Blasts like machine-gun fire and blowing the incoming ninjutsu apart in midair.

The shock waves from the explosions battered him relentlessly, but he did not retreat a single step.

His ki was draining at a frantic rate, yet his perception kept growing clearer.

Within five hundred meters, he knew exactly where people were and where energy was gathering.

He could even sense himself consciously suppressing the fluctuations of ki radiating from his body, making them harder to discern.

"Go! Keep moving!" Ryuto roared as he cleared the way.

His eyes red, Yamano Tarō dragged the wounded villager and led the others, desperately charging after Ryuto.

This bloody path was blasted open by sheer force with Ki Blasts.

There was no telling how long he kept firing, or how many waves of attacks he repelled.

At last, the ninjutsu ahead grew sparse, and the cries of battle gradually fell behind them.

Ryuto stopped, panting heavily. He looked back, and his heart sank.

Of the twenty-odd people who had come out with them, only a dozen or so remained, every one of them injured. Yamano Tarō also had a gash across his back, and blood had soaked through his clothes.

"Rest... let's rest a while." Yamano Tarō dropped onto the ground, his voice terribly hoarse.

Ryuto did not sit. He stood looking back the way they had come.

Those woods were still burning, the firelight staining the sky red.

"Where... do we go?" a villager asked in a tearful voice.

No one answered.

Yamano Tarō looked at Ryuto.

Ryuto gazed at that distant sea of flames, his hands slowly clenching.

Where else could they go?

In this Shinobi World, where was there anywhere safe?