Conflict

"Hmph, those two bastards finally got what was coming to them. They almost killed us last time," Ryōta said gleefully from the sidelines.

Shinichi watched the two sides fight with a grave expression. Last time, Fire Fly had easily blocked his Senbon Rain.

He had spent the past week reflecting on it and looking for a way around that defense.

"Captain, what should we do?"

"Make a salad."

Aoki Tsuki shook his head. There was no need for them to get involved in this situation. "Gather intelligence, then wait patiently for reinforcements."

Strange, why hasn't Satō Ichirō arrived yet? Did he run into trouble?

Under the current circumstances, Sunagakure and Iwagakure were at war. They wouldn't care about the feelings of a little village like Amegakure.

Kurokawa Squad had probably been dealt with in passing. In the ninja world, weakness was the original sin.

They waited patiently for a while, but help still didn't arrive.

"Let's retreat."

"What?" Mieko and the other two thought they had misheard.

But Aoki Tsuki said, "This situation is beyond us. Something must have happened to Jonin Satō. He needs our strength."

True, Kurokawa was probably holed up somewhere, waiting for their help.

But his superior might need his help too.

"Brother Kurokawa, sorry. I still want to get ahead. Good luck."

Aoki Tsuki waved his hand and quietly led his team away.

What did a fight between Sunagakure and Iwagakure have to do with him?

Meanwhile, in the pool beneath the waterfall, Kurokawa was hiding underwater, trembling as he wore a mask with a breathing tube.

Before leaving the village, he had worried about running into a puppet master, so he had bought the mask for protection against poison and for diving. He hadn't expected it to save his life at a critical moment.

"Judging by the time, Jonin Satō should be bringing people here soon."

As for Aoki Tsuki, Kurokawa didn't think he would come. Otherwise, he would have arrived long ago.

Only after the commotion on the ground had ended did Kurokawa come up. He found the place a complete mess, but there wasn't a soul in sight.

"Where did everyone go?"

Elsewhere, Aoki Tsuki led his squad to the Mount Rishiri area, only to find nothing there either. Not a single person was around.

So they searched their way toward the Mount Tanzawa area.

Sure enough, they heard the sounds of fighting in a mountain hollow. When they got closer, they saw that the place had become a small battlefield.

The two Jonin, Satō Ichirō and Tomohisa, were leading a group of Rain Ninja in a fierce battle against people from Sunagakure, and they were at a disadvantage.

Several Rain Ninja corpses lay on the ground.

"Has Sunagakure gone to war with us?" Mieko exclaimed.

"Don't jump to conclusions. Get ready to fight."

They couldn't keep hiding now, or they would definitely be held accountable afterward.

Aoki Tsuki surveyed the Sunagakure Ninja in the fight and quickly picked out a target worth the effort.

He didn't dare join the Jonin's fight, while Genin weren't worth much and wouldn't demonstrate his importance.

Umatsu was swinging his Kunai, struggling to fend off a Sunagakure Ninja's long sword. Several wounds crisscrossed his body.

He could feel his life ebbing away.

I can't fall here. Asami is still waiting for me to come home.

He thought of his beautiful wife at home. If he died in battle, another man would have her.

He couldn't stand that!

A fresh surge of strength welled up in Umatsu, and he decided to use his last Explosive Tag.

He had already used two during the fight, and his opponent was on guard against them, but he had no other, stronger means of attack now.

At least the Explosive Tag could buy him a moment to catch his breath.

He quickly seized the opening after driving his enemy back and threw the Explosive Tag at him.

Boom...

"Body Flicker Technique!"

As expected, the Sunagakure Ninja used the Body Flicker Technique to dodge, but a deadly threat was already lying in wait nearby.

Aoki Tsuki lay hidden in the grass under cover of the hazy drizzle, his breathing barely perceptible as he blended into his surroundings.

The moment the Sunagakure Ninja's feet touched the ground, the body that had been waiting for this moment sprang into action.

"Misty Rain Breathing: Cutting Rain!"

His figure became an afterimage as he closed in an instant.

He drew his sword and slashed horizontally.

The slash carved a vacuum-like ripple through the curtain of rain.

The Sunagakure Ninja's face filled with horror. Almost instinctively, he shifted his body and raised his sword vertically to block.

Crack!

The long sword broke.

Then his left arm fell off, a gash tore open along his left ribs, and blood sprayed out.

He staggered backward, forcing himself to bear the pain. Before he could recover, his enemy attacked again.

Seeing that his strike had worked, Aoki Tsuki took a deep breath, greatly increasing the oxygen in his lungs to gain strength.

"Continuous Rain Breathing: Pursuing Dragon!"

He slashed without pause. After each stroke, he used the momentum to spin once and build power for the next, delivering ten consecutive strikes.

He looked like a rapidly spinning tornado, sweeping his enemy into it.

The strikes were powerful and swift, coming one after another without end.

He gave his enemy no chance to catch his breath.

Clang, clang, clang...

In an instant, the two exchanged more than a dozen moves. Then, at one point, they both stopped.

The Sunagakure Ninja looked at the half of his broken sword in his hand, its edge full of notches, and said, "Nice swordsmanship."

Then he fell to the ground, his blood spreading through the rainwater.

"Pah! With a sword that slow, you deserved to get killed off!"

Aoki Tsuki spat and cursed to cover up the fear in his heart. He had relied entirely on a moment's courage to trade blows, and now the muscles throughout his body were trembling.

He instinctively crouched down, pinched open the corpse's mouth, and looked inside, seemingly checking whether his opponent was dead.

Even so, he could feel several gazes turn toward him at once.

He sensed danger.

Aoki Tsuki stood up as if nothing had happened and walked over to Umatsu.

Under the other man's grateful gaze, he said, "Brother Umatsu, don't just stand there. Let's team up and kill the enemy."

"Oh, right, team up."

Umatsu was still dazed. He didn't think much about it and simply nodded instinctively.

He was glad to have escaped with his life, and at the same time shocked by Aoki Tsuki's strength.

I'd heard this guy was strong, but I didn't expect him to be a little stronger than the rumors said.

As the thought flashed through his mind, Umatsu felt an inexplicable sense of reassurance.

As a partner, the stronger he was, the better, of course.

Meanwhile, Ryōta, Shinichi, and Mieko were working together. To make absolutely sure nothing went wrong this time, Shinichi used two umbrellas at once.

He controlled the Senbon, firing them from both the left and right at the same time. The enemy couldn't dodge them at all.

They caught an enemy off guard and killed him.

Aoki Tsuki Squad entered the battlefield and successfully killed two Sunagakure Ninja, greatly boosting the Rain Ninja's morale.

Afterward, Amegakure's patrol squads from other areas also arrived one after another.

Although Amegakure's ninja were individually weaker than their opponents, their numbers were not to be ignored once they gathered.

With Umatsu's cooperation, Aoki Tsuki killed another Sunagakure Ninja who had been trying to kill him.

Seeing that the situation was turning against them, the Sunagakure Ninja gave the signal to retreat and quickly left. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at the sight, having finally kept their lives.

Jonin Tomohisa said to Satō Ichirō, "Your subordinate is pretty good, haha..."

Clearly, he had also seen Aoki Tsuki kill the enemy just now.

Satō Ichirō strode over to Aoki Tsuki and said, "Well done!"

This was the first time he had praised Aoki Tsuki in public.

"Well... this was all thanks to everyone working together. Even without me, I believe everyone would have driven the enemy back," Aoki Tsuki hurriedly replied.

As he spoke, he reached up and scratched his head to match his words. It was a gesture teenagers liked to make to appear honest and guileless.

Even he praised his own acting in his heart.

"Mm."

Satō Ichirō nodded slightly at Aoki Tsuki's tact, then asked, "What's the situation over at Chōkai Peak?"

Clearly, he had also received Kurokawa Squad's distress signal.

"Yes, I was just about to report that."

Aoki Tsuki's expression turned serious, and he hurriedly said:

"After receiving the call for help, I immediately rushed over with my squad. By the time we arrived, we saw only the bodies of three members of Kurokawa Squad.

We found no sign of Chunin Kurokawa. Then, not far away, we saw Iwagakure Ninja and Sunagakure Ninja fighting.

Considering that reinforcements hadn't arrived from here for so long, we guessed something might have gone wrong with the main force, so we came over."

This was in case Kurokawa was still alive and came back to speak ill of him.

He had to lay the groundwork in advance.

As he spoke, he handed Satō Ichirō the scroll containing the sealed corpses.

Satō Ichirō accepted the scroll, very satisfied with Aoki Tsuki's performance. His intelligence analysis, tactical decisions, and ability to carry them out were all up to standard.

This kid has the makings of a Jonin.

Then he asked quietly, "Did you notice anything just now?"

"Hm?"

Aoki Tsuki was startled. He hadn't expected his superior to have already seen his little action.

He hurriedly explained, "Last time I went on a mission to Bishui Town near the Land of Fire, I encountered a ninja with a Cursed Seal on his tongue.

The way that group fought just now was very similar, so I took a look."

After hearing him out, Satō Ichirō didn't seem surprised. Instead, he cautioned him, "Just keep this to yourself."

"I understand."

Konoha was stirring up trouble everywhere along the Land of Rain's border and sowing discord. Aoki Tsuki didn't believe Amegakure was completely unaware of it.

As long as the flames of war didn't reach Amegakure, Amegakure would play the ostrich too.

They disguised themselves as Sunagakure Ninja to attack Amegakure, and as people from Iwagakure to attack Sunagakure, constantly creating friction.

The reason they didn't disguise themselves as people from Amegakure was that Amegakure's ninja were too weak, and their ninjutsu was rather distinctive and hard to imitate.

Amegakure had already seen through Konoha's scheme and was unwilling to fall for it.

"Clean up the battlefield and return to camp to rest and regroup."

"Yes."

Everyone began collecting weapons and their companions' corpses.

In this battle, Amegakure had lost around ten ninja, while the other side had lost only five, a ratio of two to one.

And this was only border patrol. On a proper battlefield, they really couldn't win.

After returning to camp, they began treating the wounded. This time, Mieko needed no instruction and went to help on her own.

By now, she was acquainted with the camp's medical ninja.

Once they were close enough, they naturally wouldn't mind giving her a few pointers, and she could become a full-time medical ninja in the future.

Especially in a small village like Amegakure, even someone who knew only one basic Medical Ninjutsu was valuable.

When Kurokawa sneaked into camp, Aoki Tsuki caught him in the act. He had been hiding nearby, waiting for him. People who had done something shameful all thought alike.

"Brother Kurokawa, congratulations."

"Congratulations for what? You bastard, I spent ages waiting in that pool," Kurokawa said angrily.

"So you were hiding beneath the waterfall. No wonder I couldn't find you."

Realization dawned on Aoki Tsuki. "Iwagakure and Sunagakure were fighting fiercely at the time. I took a huge risk sneaking onto the battlefield, but I couldn't find you. I thought you...

Then the main force was attacked, so I turned around and rushed to support them."

"You... you really went looking for me?"

Now it was Kurokawa's turn to be shocked. He had only been complaining just now.

"What else? I was the one who brought back the bodies of your squad members."

Aoki Tsuki shrugged. This was magnanimity.

"So that's what happened. It seems I misunderstood you. I'm very sorry," Kurokawa said hurriedly.

Whatever he thought in his heart, he had to keep up appearances.

He had just heard that Aoki Tsuki had rendered another meritorious service.