CH_151

『I knew these Konoha spies weren't professionals!』 Tōji sighed inwardly and undid the 【Chakra Suppression Seal】 on himself.

"Goodbye, Sweet Potato!" The moment his chakra returned, Tōji jumped off the boat and dove underwater!

Only an idiot would wait for the enemy to make the first move!

Tōji had no desire to test whether he could still muddle through and keep lying low… That was clearly impossible now. There was no useful intel waiting for him back there anyway—running was the right call!

Tōji's 【Water Release: Instant Water】 was a modified version too. Other people's 【Instant Water】 came with follow-up attacks—his new version kept only the ultra-fast underwater movement function.

No matter what kind of monster was behind him, Tōji focused only on moving forward—charging southwest was the way to go!

Because to the west was the Land of Seas, and there were Kiri-nin there too—he had to avoid them all.

Of course, Body Flicker couldn't be sustained for long.

Tōji focused solely on running, not caring how his pursuers were chasing—he just fled in a straight line for his life.

But behind him, there was constant movement!

『They can't catch up! They're probably not jōnin…』 Tōji slowed down a bit—otherwise he'd soon run out of steam.

『So… these Kiri-nin already had my information and knew I was only a chūnin?』 If that was the case, Tōji felt a lot better.

With that thought, Tōji stopped fleeing blindly and turned his head to observe his pursuers.

『One… two…』 The pursuers behind him really couldn't catch up, but they didn't slow down either.

『Only two chūnin, probably both Water Release users—they can use the seawater to maintain their underwater swimming speed…』 These things were easy enough to analyze.

Considering they came prepared, as long as they were in the sea, plus with Soldier Pills or similar long-lasting chakra recovery items…

『I won't be able to shake them off before I run out of chakra!』 Tōji didn't have a single Soldier Pill on him—not even a shuriken!

So… 『I'll have to fight it out! Hopefully there aren't more pursuers behind them…』

Tōji made a beeline for a small reef he was familiar with, burst out of the water, and planted his feet on the rocks… gaining just a tiny bit of high ground!

Calculating the distance to the two Kiri chūnin in his head, he readied his attack…

【Earth Release: Rock Cannon Technique】!

If he was going to strike, it had to be an Earth Release jutsu that countered Water Release—even if the chakra cost was higher.

Tōji spat out a rapid stream of rock pellets formed from Earth-nature chakra, fierce as dense bullets!

The two chūnin had just emerged from underwater, one after the other. The first one only had time to raise his arms to shield his head…

Thunk thunk thunk! Hit by several Rock Cannon shots, the Kiri-nin only let out a faint grunt of pain, but!

But his partner behind him had no sense of honor—he yanked his already lightly wounded teammate in front of himself as a human shield!

"Raimei, you…" The betrayed Kiri-nin glanced back at his partner.

"…" Even Tōji thought Kirigakure's culture was rotten—selling out a teammate right at the start.

But the Kiri-nin called Raimei had avoided getting hurt at the start because of it.

"What don't you understand? Did you really think we were partners?" Raimei flung aside his teammate, who was already hit by multiple Rock Cannon shots…

Though Raimei's teammate wasn't dead—with a medical-nin's treatment, those so-called "serious injuries" wouldn't be hard for a shinobi to recover from.

But Tōji had no doubt that if Raimei ended up winning, he'd still send his teammate to the afterlife.

『This is fine—one-on-one, who's afraid!』 Tōji silently encouraged himself. After all, his opponent wore a hand claw… and had a ninja tool pouch strapped to his leg.

And Tōji had no tools or medicine at all…

At least his opponent wasn't a swordsman—otherwise it would've been even harder.