Rain hammered the black rocks of Lightning Cloud Ravine.
Tobirama Senju slid down against a dead pine. Blood poured from the gaping wound in his waist, running down his leg armor into a muddy puddle.
The smell of iron instantly overwhelmed the earthy scent of mud.
He coughed up a mouthful of bloody foam, his chest heaving like a broken bellows.
"We're surrounded." Tobirama looked up, rain washing over his deathly pale face. "Kinkaku and Ginkaku's elite force: twenty S-rank sensory ninja."
A deathly silence fell over the cave.
The six members of the Kage Guard stood in a circle, with only the crisp sound of rain striking their ninja tools.
Tobirama scooped up a handful of mud and pressed it hard against the wound in his waist. Blood still seeped through his fingers.
"In our current condition, none of us will escape." Tobirama looked around at the young people. "Someone has to stay behind."
The atmosphere in the cave dropped to freezing.
"Stay behind as bait, and buy the main force time to retreat." Tobirama's voice was hoarse, thick with the smell of blood.
Who would cover the rear?
That was the same as asking who would go to their death.
Hiruzen Sarutobi's Adam's apple bobbed frantically. He gripped the Kunai in his hand so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
He opened his mouth, but his tongue seemed glued to the roof of it.
I should go.
The thought roared in his head, but his feet were rooted in the mud, and he could not take a single step. Cold sweat mixed with rainwater ran into his eyes, stinging fiercely.
Beside him, Shimura Danzō stood with his arms folded. His teeth chattered uncontrollably with a faint clicking sound.
He quietly took half a step back. His military boot landed in the muddy water with a wet, muffled squelch.
Danzo's back hit the cold rock wall, and he stopped moving altogether.
No one spoke. Even the wind stopped.
A hand pushed Danzo's shoulder aside.
Shu Shiraishi stepped out of the shadows.
He raised a hand and wiped the rain from his face. A buckle was missing from his standard-issue flak jacket, and the section over his left shoulder sat slightly askew.
"I'll do it."
His voice was steady, without much of a tremor.
Hiruzen Sarutobi jerked his head up. His grip loosened, and his Kunai dropped into the muddy water with a plop.
Danzo stopped trembling and stared fixedly at Shu Shiraishi's back.
Tobirama frowned.
"You're just a civilian ninja." Tobirama looked at the young man who usually went unnoticed in the squad. "You'll die."
Shu Shiraishi did not answer. He reached back and gripped the hilt of the Ninja Blade on his back.
The blade scraped roughly against its sheath. There was a small nick near the tip as he drew it.
"We'll see whether I die or not." Shu Shiraishi flicked the droplets from his blade. "You go on your way."
Tobirama stared at him for two seconds. There was no time left to argue.
He braced himself against the rock and stood, grabbing Hiruzen Sarutobi's arm.
"Retreat."
Five dark figures darted into the downpour and vanished deep into the forest.
Hiruzen glanced back. Shu Shiraishi stood alone in the mud, his figure soon swallowed by the curtain of rain.
Only Shu Shiraishi remained in front of the cave.
The rain grew heavier.
A soft, mechanically synthesized sound came from deep within his mind.
[Desperate situation condition met.] [Limiter removed.] [Current status: max-level combat instinct.]
Shu Shiraishi let out a long breath. White mist dispersed in the rain.
The bones throughout his body began to crack loudly. His spine gave a series of sharp pops like bursting beans.
Muscle fibers tore beneath his skin and instantly reformed, becoming extraordinarily dense. He twisted his neck, and his expanding back muscles snapped the straps of his flak jacket.
A jumble of footsteps approached, splashing through standing water.
Lightning split the night sky.
Twenty Kumogakure ninja landed in the clearing. All of them wore white flak jackets.
Kinkaku stood at the front, chewing a piece of dried meat.
Ginkaku carried the Benihisago, his gaze sweeping across the empty camp.
"They only left one rat?" Kinkaku spat out the dried meat.
Shu Shiraishi said nothing. He took a step forward.
His military boot landed in a puddle. Muddy water splashed up.
Before the spray hit the ground, Shu Shiraishi vanished.
The Kumogakure Jonin in the front row blinked hard.
Shu Shiraishi was already right in his face. He made no Hand Seals.
He swung the nicked Ninja Blade straight across.
The blade cut through flesh and lodged hard in the man's cervical vertebrae.
Shu Shiraishi put strength into his wrist and forced the blade through the bone.
A head flew into the air. A fountain of blood spurted two meters high.
"Kill him!" Ginkaku roared.
Three Kumogakure ninja charged with short swords wreathed in Lightning Release.
Shu Shiraishi ducked under a horizontal slash. His right elbow shot upward, smashing into one ninja's chin.
Bone cracked. The man's head snapped backward at a grotesque right angle.
Shu Shiraishi turned with the motion, grabbed the second man's wrist with a backhand grip, and twisted hard.
The scream had barely begun when Shu Shiraishi snatched away the Lightning Release short sword and stabbed it backhanded into the third man's heart.
The whole exchange took less than five seconds. Four bodies lay in the mud.
Kinkaku flew into a rage. Dark red Chakra seeped from his pores.
The Nine-Tails' Chakra. Rain struck the red cloak and instantly evaporated into white smoke.
A massive Chakra tail grew from his back, and he lunged like a beast.
The ground fractured over a wide area beneath Kinkaku's feet. A huge claw swept down with a rush of wind.
Shu Shiraishi dropped the Ninja Blade in his hand.
He clenched his right fist. His knuckles cracked sharply.
Without dodging or flinching, he met the huge red claw with a punch.
Fist and claw collided.
A shock wave burst outward in a ring, forcibly flattening the surrounding curtain of rain.
The dark red Chakra Cloak suddenly caved in, then cracked like glass.
Kinkaku's eyes bulged.
Shu Shiraishi's fist did not stop. It smashed through the Chakra defense and slammed into Kinkaku's face.
The bridge of Kinkaku's nose caved in completely. Several bloody teeth flew from his mouth.
His massive body flew backward, snapping three dead pines in succession.
Ginkaku panicked. He swung the Bashōsen fiercely, sending a towering sea of flames rolling forward.
Shu Shiraishi stepped sideways. The flames grazed his left arm, instantly reducing his sleeve to ash.
He appeared at Ginkaku's side.
He raised a leg and drove his military boot into the back of Ginkaku's knee.
Crack. Ginkaku screamed and fell to his knees in the mud.
Shu Shiraishi seized Ginkaku by the hair and forced his head back.
With his other hand, he drew the Kunai from the holster strapped to his thigh and plunged it straight into Ginkaku's throat.
Ginkaku's mouth hung open as bloody foam welled up from his windpipe. He could not make a sound.
Amid the wreckage, Kinkaku struggled to his feet. His face was covered in blood, and the red Chakra flickered intermittently.
"You... what the hell are you..."
Shu Shiraishi walked over. He seized Kinkaku by the neck with one hand and lifted him off the ground.
He tightened his grip. The cartilage in Kinkaku's neck made an unpleasant crunch.
Kinkaku kicked his legs wildly and clawed at Shu Shiraishi's fingers with both hands, but even breaking his nails did nothing.
Shu Shiraishi squeezed harder.
His neck bone snapped with a crisp crack.
Kinkaku's hands fell limp.
The dozen or so remaining Kumogakure elites backed away again and again. The hands holding their Kunai shook like sieves.
Shu Shiraishi picked up the Ninja Blade with its rolled edge from the muddy water.
He walked toward them.
Ten minutes later.
Only the sound of rain remained in Lightning Cloud Ravine.
Black blood gathered into a stream and flowed into a low-lying hollow.
Severed limbs covered the clearing.
Shu Shiraishi stood amid the pile of corpses. His chest heaved.
His flak jacket had been torn to strips. A three-inch cut on his cheek was seeping beads of blood.
He looked down at Kinkaku and Ginkaku at his feet.
Shu Shiraishi bent down and tore a strip from the hem of a dead Kumogakure ninja's clothing.
He tied Kinkaku and Ginkaku's hair tightly together and secured it with a firm knot.
Then he slung the two heads over his shoulder. Bloody water ran down his back.
Shu Shiraishi turned and walked through the mud, out of the ravine.
Konoha's front-line camp.
The main command tent was a sturdy building newly made with Wood Release.
Tobirama Senju lay on a straw mat. Three medical-nin, their heads drenched in sweat and their hands glowing green, pressed firmly against his waist.
The bleeding simply would not stop. The wooden floor was covered in thick red liquid.
Hiruzen Sarutobi knelt beside the mat, his face in his hands and his shoulders jerking.
Shimura Danzō stood against the corner, biting hard on his thumbnail.
"Don't waste any more Chakra." Tobirama's voice was faint. He weakly pushed the medical-nin's hands away.
"Lord Tobirama, please don't speak!" the head of the medical team cried, his voice cracking.
Tobirama ignored him and turned to Hiruzen.
"Hiruzen... the village's future..." Tobirama coughed up a mouthful of blood, preparing to convey his final decision.
The sound of wind and rain outside suddenly grew louder.
Heavy footsteps sounded on the wooden steps outside the tent.
One step after another. Treading through puddles.
The medical-nin stopped. Hiruzen dropped his hands and pulled a Kunai from his thigh in one swift motion.
Danzo pressed his back tightly against the wooden wall, his breathing completely erratic.
"Bang!"
The thick wooden door was kicked to splinters. Shards of wood flew into the room.
Cold wind and rain rushed in, blowing out the oil lamp on the table.
Lightning shone in through the doorway.
Shu Shiraishi stood at the entrance.
There was not a clean spot on him, as though he had just been pulled from a pool of blood.
Bloody water dripped from his chin onto the threshold.
He stepped inside. His military boots left bloody footprints across the clean wooden floor.
Everyone froze. Hiruzen even forgot to breathe.
Shu Shiraishi walked to the center of the room.
He raised his left hand and tossed the thing on his shoulder forward.
The heavy bundle hit the floor with a grating, muffled thud.
The strip of cloth tied around it came loose.
Two round objects rolled across the floor, leaving two long trails of blood in the lightning from outside.
At last, they stopped beside Tobirama Senju's straw mat.
Kinkaku. Ginkaku.
Both men's eyes were wide open, staring fixedly at the roof of the tent.
A deathly silence filled the tent.