Following Shin'un's instructions, Shiina Kō reached a patch of high ground that offered a good view of the surroundings.
"This is the spot."
Shiina Kō scanned left and right, picking out a relatively concealed treetop that still offered a broad view.
Leaping up, Shiina Kō adjusted her position in the canopy and slowly lay down along a branch. Looking out over the wide stretch of dense forest she could observe from here, she smiled in satisfaction.
There was just one small flaw.
The branch beneath her had a layer of rough, cracked bark. Even someone with thick calluses on their hands would find touching bark like this uncomfortable after a long time.
And though Shiina Kō, who was on her first mission, regularly trained at high intensity, her skin was still very delicate, never having endured hardship away from home.
Before long, Shiina Kō felt a slight pain in her chest. Pulling her collar open to look inside, she saw red marks already streaking the once-fair skin there.
Shiina Kō could easily ignore the slight pain in her chest, but after turning her gaze back toward the distant forest to keep watch, another question suddenly occurred to her.
"It's already completely flat. If I keep pressing it down like this... will it never grow?"
Suddenly, Shiina Kō recalled the female ninja in the village with their unremarkable figures and extremely fierce personalities, like men in women's bodies.
Imagining herself looking just like those female ninja in the future, Shiina Kō shuddered, as though the pain in her chest had grown worse.
Shiina Kō quickly shook her head, stopping her wandering thoughts.
This was the best observation point in the area, after all, and she could not move elsewhere. She was better off settling down and watching the dense forest ahead.
"Boom!"
About ten minutes later, a deafening explosion roared from the Stone Ninja outpost.
Shiina Kō, who had been watching intently for any movement nearby, instinctively turned to look back, guessing that her teacher, who had infiltrated the Stone Ninja outpost, must have been discovered.
Sure enough, after the explosion, the sounds of fighting from the Stone Ninja outpost gradually intensified.
Shiina Kō stopped paying attention to the commotion at the Stone Ninja outpost. She trusted her teacher and those older men with their wealth of combat experience to complete their mission.
She, on the other hand, had her own concerns. That explosion had been deafening. Even with dense woods all around, it could carry several kilometers. If there were any Stone Ninja nearby, they would very likely come here to provide support after hearing it.
So rather than worrying about her teacher in the Stone Ninja outpost, she should do her own job first.
With that thought, Shiina Kō turned her attention back to the surrounding forest.
"Hmm? Is the wind picking up?"
A faint breeze brushed Shiina Kō's face, and she keenly noticed it.
Looking up, she could tell from the dark, gloomy sky that a downpour was coming.
"Rustle... rustle..."
The wind began to strengthen, making the sea of trees before Shiina Kō ripple.
"What's that?"
The unusual swaying of a distant clump of trees caught Shiina Kō's attention.
Watching those trees sway in a different direction from the others, Shiina Kō's heart lurched, and she had a bad feeling.
"My luck can't be that good, can it?"
Driven by her intuition, Shiina Kō raised her head and began focusing on that abnormal clump of trees.
Immediately afterward, once Shiina Kō raised her head to observe it, the clump of trees suddenly went still.
Two seconds later, the swaying suddenly intensified, spreading along a path and moving rapidly toward the treetop where Shiina Kō was hiding.
"I've been spotted! How did they find me?"
Shiina Kō was now certain that the unusual movement was caused by people, and that they were very likely enemies.
At this crucial moment, Shiina Kō did her best to stay calm, remaining motionless on the branch as she tried to catch sight of the enemies themselves.
"Found them!"
Between some large trees without thick foliage to conceal them, Shiina Kō managed to catch several figures flashing past.
Though it had only been a glimpse, Shiina Kō had already picked out the key information she needed.
"They're Stone Ninja! It's that other patrol squad!"
Unable to worry about hiding any longer, Shiina Kō threw up her camouflage of leaves and leaped to the highest point of the treetop, exposing herself directly to the Stone Ninja squad.
Pulling a packet of signal flares from the ninja tool pouch behind her, Shiina Kō took one out, raised it overhead, and pulled the cord.
"Screee!"
Watching the white signal flare shoot into the sky with a piercing shriek, Shiina Kō slowly exhaled. Whatever happened when she faced the Stone Ninja next, she had at least fulfilled her duty.
Turning her head, Shiina Kō looked toward the Stone Ninja squad.
Seeing the flare Shiina Kō had launched, the Stone Ninja approached even faster. The distance between them was already under a hundred meters, and Shiina Kō could now occasionally glimpse the three Stone Ninja between the trees.
Narrowing her eyes slightly, Shiina Kō took a deep breath and hurriedly jumped down from the treetop, slipping into the dense forest to flee for her life.
She landed firmly on a thick branch and was just about to move when her keen ninja senses picked up a rush of air behind her.
Instinctively, Shiina Kō hastily leaped away.
Several kunai followed close behind, missing her one after another and striking the tree trunk where she had just been.
"Ngh..." A groan escaped her.
Dodging the attack in such a hurry caused Shiina Kō to fall from the canopy, gravity dragging her down to slam into the ground.
Fortunately, a deep layer of dead leaves covered the forest floor, cushioning most of the force of her fall.
Not daring to stop, Shiina Kō scrambled to her feet despite the difficulty breathing caused by the impact to her chest.
The thick, rotting layer of dead leaves offered poor footing and was clearly not the best choice for fleeing. Shiina Kō leaped back into the canopy.
The three Stone Ninja were already extremely close. Shiina Kō could even hear the sounds they made as they ran and leaped behind her.
"Whoosh... whoosh..."
After gathering for some time, the dark clouds overhead finally began to release rain.
There was no gradual buildup. It was a torrential downpour from the start.
Shiina Kō's clothes were soon soaked through, and her tied ponytail hung wetly against the side of her face, leaving her looking utterly bedraggled.
"Water Release: Water Line!"
A thick jet of water unleashed by a Stone Ninja struck Shiina Kō in the back, its powerful impact knocking her out of the canopy once again.
In a familiar scene, she fell to the ground again, but this time there was no thick layer of dead leaves to cushion her fall.
At that instant, Shiina Kō vaguely seemed to hear a dull sound from inside her body.
Before she could react, intense pain surged over her like a tide.
Feeling the excruciating pain in her leg, Shiina Kō gritted her teeth and clutched her thigh, trying to keep herself from screaming.
Enduring the pain, Shiina Kō examined her injury and saw a stark white shard of bone protruding through her thigh.
At the sight, Shiina Kō immediately gave up examining the injury any further.
Even if an injury like this would not kill her immediately, she could not possibly survive pursuit by three Stone Ninja now that she could no longer move.
With her head hanging low, Shiina Kō suddenly saw two feet enter her field of vision.
Following those feet upward, Shiina Kō raised her head. It was one of the three Stone Ninja pursuing her.
The Stone Ninja looked at the girl before him, drenched in rain, her hair disheveled and bone jutting from her thigh, taking in her exceptionally young face, which still held a trace of childishness, and her height, which did not even reach his chest.
The Stone Ninja concluded that the girl before him was thirteen at most.
Seeing the owner of that young face looking at him, the Stone Ninja swallowed. Then, without another word, he raised his kunai in one clean, decisive motion and thrust it toward the eye socket of Shiina Kō, who lay on the ground.