He had never expected his advantage to be ruined by an eight- or nine-year-old Konoha brat. He glared viciously at Kōki, his anger making him want to charge over and tear Kōki to pieces.
But what reason he had left told him that continuing to fight would mean throwing his life away for nothing.
"You don't think you've already won, do you?" With that, he charged toward the Anbu lying on the ground. Having regained his reason, he knew his task now was to recover the intelligence leaked from the village. There was no need to fight these Konoha ninjas head-on.
If he could not bring the intelligence back, he would destroy it on the spot. He had already steeled himself for that.
"Even if I die, I can't let the intelligence fall into Konoha's hands."
Seeing the Sunagakure captain's move, Kōki and Mamoru Uehara immediately realized that he wanted to retrieve the intelligence he had lost.
Kōki immediately accelerated and charged toward the Sunagakure captain, while Mamoru Uehara formed hand seals behind him. "Earth Release: Earth Flow River!"
The hard ground in the Sunagakure captain's path softened, immediately turning into a swamp that spread toward him. The captain reacted swiftly as well. He had already been prepared for Kōki and the others to stop him.
His hands began forming seals, and three identical Shadow Clones appeared with several pops. After weaving past one another a few times, the clones and the original circled around the Earth Release technique ahead and charged toward the Anbu's corpse.
The sudden appearance of the Shadow Clones disrupted the rhythm of Kōki's attack as he charged toward the Sunagakure ninja. He did not know which one to attack.
But to stop the Sunagakure ninja from approaching the corpse, he also unleashed a Ninjutsu. "Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet!"
The dragon's head formed from chakra spat out high-speed streams of earth at the Sunagakure captain. The streams shot forward so quickly that they were behind the captain and his Shadow Clones in the blink of an eye.
Faced with this Earth Release attack, the Sunagakure captain had no intention of taking it head-on. He pivoted and twisted his body aside, dodging it.
His Shadow Clones, however, did not react as quickly. The Earth Release attack struck them directly, destroying them one after another.
Seeing Kōki and Mamoru Uehara thwart his plans several times, Taku, the Sunagakure captain, grew anxious. No, if this keeps up, the mission will definitely fail.
He knew that with his current strength, he was no match at all for Kōki and the others.
He had already seen that, apart from those two pale-faced brats, neither the Konoha Jonin nor the brat named Kōki was easy to deal with.
The brat named Kōki in particular reminded him of Konoha's Princess Tsunade with the Taijutsu he had used to ambush Jun. The brat's Taijutsu moves were exactly like the ones he had seen Tsunade use before.
Just as he was at his wits' end, a series of sounds cut through the air in the nearby woods. With several whooshes, numerous figures soon appeared on the branches of the surrounding trees. He looked up, and delight immediately welled up inside him. A smile instantly replaced the misery on his face.
"Taku, you're far too slow. Lord Rasa will definitely punish you when we get back."
"Shinji, you came just in time. Any later, and you'd only have found my corpse," Taku, the Sunagakure captain, said happily to the man in the tree. As for being punished by Lord Rasa, that was a trivial matter to him. Making it back alive would be good enough.
Meanwhile, Kōki and the others felt that things were going badly when they saw the Sunagakure ninjas suddenly appear around them. There were more than a dozen Sunagakure Jonin, a lineup that put them under immense pressure. They had never expected a Sunagakure force to appear deep within the Land of Fire, near Konoha.
In the Hokage's office in Konoha, Hiruzen Sarutobi was concentrating on official business when he suddenly heard hurried footsteps outside his door.
Moments later, he heard someone forcefully knock his office door open. He looked up and saw a ninja from the Intelligence Division. The man's breathless, anxious appearance gave Hiruzen Sarutobi a bad feeling about what he was about to say.
"Lord Hokage, word has come from the border. An hour ago, a Sunagakure unit made up of elite ninjas secretly infiltrated the Land of Fire. Their objective is unknown, but judging by the direction they entered from, they will encounter our Anbu squad."
"Anbu squad?" Hiruzen Sarutobi's unease intensified.
"The Anbu squad that previously reported obtaining inside information on Sunagakure."
"What?" At this news, Hiruzen Sarutobi froze in his seat as though struck by a sudden bolt of lightning.
He remembered that he had just sent Mamoru Uehara's team to provide support. Given how much time had passed, they would have met up long ago.
And now, the Sunagakure force that had suddenly appeared would pose a deadly threat to their team.
He immediately pulled himself together. This was no time for shock. He had to send help at once. Kōki, in particular, could not die.
With a bang, Hiruzen Sarutobi slammed his hand down on the desk and abruptly stood up.
"Notify Minato, Akimichi Chōza, and the others. Have them go support Team Uehara immediately. Make sure they stay alive."
"Yes!"
Having received his orders, the ninja immediately turned and left.
"Kōki, you have to hold on." Hiruzen Sarutobi looked out the window, wishing he could appear on the battlefield immediately and rescue Kōki. Now he could only place his hopes in Minato and hope he would hurry.
The scene returned to Kōki and the others. They, too, were startled by the Sunagakure ninjas' sudden appearance.
So many Sunagakure ninjas had appeared within the Land of Fire, yet they had received no word at all. As their thoughts stirred, the Sunagakure ninjas surrounding them seemed in no hurry to kill them.
"Shinji, why are you here?"
"Because Lord Rasa thought you were working too slowly, so he sent us to support you."
The Sunagakure ninja named Shinji answered Taku's question, but he did not reveal the deeper reason.
That was that Lord Rasa believed the current standoff between Sunagakure and Konoha needed to change.
So he had ordered them to infiltrate the Land of Fire and carry out some sabotage within its borders, drawing Konoha's attention and giving Sunagakure an advantage on the front lines. Ideally, they would make Konoha start the war first.
Because the mission was dangerous, everyone selected for the infiltration squad was a Jonin. They also had several sensory ninjas and medical-nin with them.
Taku, the Sunagakure captain, likewise knew the rules of confidentiality during a mission. Seeing that Shinji was holding something back in his answer, he gave a quiet nod.
He looked at Kōki and the others. Surrounded by so many elite Sunagakure ninjas, the Konoha ninjas before him had absolutely no chance of leaving alive. Still, the mission had to remain confidential. There could well be techniques that allowed someone to pass on information even after death.
"Where's the intelligence?"
"Still on the Konoha Anbu's corpse over there on the ground. I've been watching it the whole time. It hasn't been taken."