"Hm?"
Before long, Arai, still running, immediately sensed something was wrong.
The enemy... had actually caught up!
"Only two..."
Arai glanced back and saw two figures charging up from behind.
"No... neither of these two is the one who locked onto us and sensed us."
Arai narrowed his eyes without slowing down and immediately told Yubi and Sasori, "Their squad must have split up, letting these two strongest members speed up without restraint and tie us down first. There should still be an unknown number of enemies behind them..."
Jonin?
Too fast...
Hearing this, Yubi glanced over.
In the time it took for that single glance, the two Konoha Jonin who had been chasing behind them just seconds earlier were already running alongside their squad, one on either side.
At first glance, the five of them looked like a single team.
But the pair's combat uniforms were clearly different from those of the three, as were their forehead protectors.
"It's you... Arai!"
The two Konoha Jonin did not attack immediately. After catching up, they kept their distance and looked Yubi and Sasori over.
One of them had a long scar across his cheek and seemed to know Arai, calling him by name.
"Ryosuke."
Arai remained expressionless.
"Instead of staying by the Kazekage's side, you're out here protecting these two brats on a mission in the Land of Grass... heh heh, are they promising youngsters Sunagakure is focusing on training? Or... descendants of some big shot or clan in your village?"
Ryosuke curled his lips into a nasty smile.
A vicious gleam began to surface in his eyes as he fixed them on Yubi and Sasori.
"New faces... never saw these two brats when our villages were fighting so fiercely before... they don't look very old, either. Fresh out of the Ninja Academy?"
The Konoha Jonin on the other side chimed in as well, deliberately putting them under psychological pressure.
Arai betrayed nothing. His gaze moved between the two before he said quietly, "You two go ahead."
His meaning could not have been clearer.
He would hold off the two Konoha ninja and give Yubi and Sasori a chance to escape.
"Don't even think about running... planning to sacrifice yourself to protect these two brats?"
But no sooner had he spoken...
Ryosuke leaped ahead in an instant, blocking the three of them.
Then he rapidly formed hand seals and slammed his palms onto the ground.
"Earth Release: Tearing Earth Turning Palm!"
With that sharp cry, the three had barely stopped before the earth beneath their feet burst apart, rocks and soil churning.
The rapidly widening fissure resembled the pitch-black maw of an abyss, ready to swallow Yubi and Sasori.
The same ninja art, performed by people of different strengths, could produce effects and power as different as heaven and earth.
It was not just the amount of chakra released... but also control over the ninja art's form and its transformations.
The moment this Jonin attacked, Yubi and Sasori felt as though they were facing a natural disaster, enduring nature's fury.
The dust and dirt bursting upward left them no room to dodge.
Even so, Yubi and Sasori instinctively leaped up to escape the Earth Release's range... only for two kunai bearing explosive tags to shoot precisely toward them the moment they jumped.
The timing was perfect.
Their evasive paths and positions had been anticipated.
Clang, clang... with two crisp rings, Arai knocked the flying kunai away.
Then he formed hand seals and unleashed a ferocious Wind Release.
A violent curtain of wind rose, sweeping away all the airborne dust and the soil churning nearby.
Grabbing the unsteady Yubi and Sasori as they fell from the air, he flickered away and landed somewhere safe.
He set them down.
"I'll keep him busy. You deal with those two brats... he seems very concerned about their safety," Ryosuke told his companion upon seeing this.
Neither had expected to kill Yubi and Sasori in one stroke.
Not with Arai there.
He was, after all, one of Sunagakure's Kazekage guards, an Elite Jōnin.
They've targeted us... to them, Arai is no longer the primary target. The ones in danger... are Sasori and me instead. Under these circumstances, even if Sasori and I run, our chances aren't good... besides, if Arai were on his own, dealing with these two wouldn't put him under so much pressure. But in this particular situation, Sasori and I have become his burdens instead... as long as the enemy uses us to affect Arai or hold him back, his fighting strength will inevitably be "weakened."
Yubi's expression was cold.
This prolonged chase had already drained a considerable amount of his and Sasori's stamina.
What's even more troublesome... is that my data observation works... very poorly on Jonin, Yubi thought.
In the less than a minute between their appearance and their attack, he had already tried to "create data," but... both targets' templates were blank.
Even the various attributes of their outwardly displayed physical capabilities were vague and impossible to assess.
Sasori turned a scroll in his hands.
Then, as he unsealed the scroll and assumed a fighting stance, he released chakra threads from both hands... taking control of several puppets.
"A puppeteer... heh."
Ryosuke sneered at the sight.
Without another word, he immediately charged at Arai.
The battle erupted at once!
Arai also moved to meet his opponent, leaving Yubi and Sasori's side.
Naturally, Arai understood the problems Yubi could foresee.
Rather than fighting while being held back by the enemy, the best solution was to focus on killing one first... deliberately ignoring Sasori and Yubi's presence.
Even though doing so might put Yubi and Sasori in mortal danger.
It was still the best way to resolve the problem.
At a time like this, deliberately protecting the two might land the squad in even greater trouble.
As for Yubi and Sasori, they could only rely on their own abilities.
They had to try to stay alive until he finished off one enemy...
What concerned Arai even more was not just these two Konoha Jonin, but the reinforcements hurrying up behind them.
Their numbers were unknown.
They had to end this quickly, or... once they were tied down, the consequences would be unthinkable.
Bang, bang, bang.
The two Jonin, Arai and Ryosuke, were instantly locked in a deadly close-quarters struggle.
Meanwhile, the other Konoha Jonin, like a hungry wolf that had set its sights on a lamb, appeared behind Yubi like a ghost.
It's not that I can't track him... it's... that I can't see him.
Yubi's eyelid twitched.
The Body Flicker Technique... a burst of taijutsu that used chakra to move at high speed.
Terrifyingly fast!
This was the gap...
To a Jonin... ordinary Chunin and Genin could practically be killed in an instant.
Yubi could already feel a cold, sharp point piercing his body from behind, over his heart...
"Hm?"
The pupils of Otani, the Konoha Jonin, contracted.
He, too, had thought this strike would kill the boy.
He knew even more clearly that the boy before him... had no way to react to his attack.
Yet, interestingly... faced with approaching death, this boy remained extraordinarily calm.
Though his movements lagged, he had neither frozen in terror nor lost his will to fight.
Instead, while turning slightly sideways, he forcefully crossed and drew in his hands, his back still toward Otani... pulling the threads at his fingertips.
At the same time, a fierce gust swept in from the side.
A puppet with a wooden human head, inset with three eyeballs and bearing multiple arms, "opened" its mouth, shooting venom-coated spikes toward him.
These two brats...
Otani's heart tightened.
Although... both boys' reactions were a fraction slow, there was no doubt... that they had both barely kept up with the "rhythm" of the battle.
Judging by their ages... and the abilities they had displayed in that instant...
Both boys possessed immeasurable potential as ninja.
They had definitely entered the ranks of geniuses.
So...
I must... kill them here!
Otani's gaze was icy.