CH_26

"Which squads are at full strength and have no genin?" Hizashi seemed to have made his decision.

"Lord Hizashi!" The two Hyūga chūnin spoke up first, trying to stop him.

After all, even if someone else took the blame for falsely relaying orders, Hizashi would still be held accountable for poor judgment.

"My lord…" The three jōnin who had a closer rapport with Hizashi also signaled their intent to dissuade him.

Hizashi swept his gaze across their expressions and subtle gestures. He closed his eyes. "Say no more. We follow the orders of the overall commander. Eligible squads, form up immediately. The rest of you, hold your positions and stay alert for enemy attack."

In less than two minutes, fifteen people had followed the young Konoha chūnin messenger, heading toward the front-line battle.

That was right… only fifteen could be spared to support the "original support squad." The remaining forty-two consisted of only a handful of chūnin—the rest were all genin.

In fact, across this entire battlefield, this was the weakest outfit around. And right beside them sat a highly visible pile of military supplies!

Tōji thought to himself, 『If any Iwa-nin are still keeping an eye on this spot—even just two jōnin—these dozens of Konoha shinobi would probably be wiped out.』

"Lord Hizashi and the others should be fine, right…" Natchi murmured quietly to Tōji.

"I can't speak for the others, but Lord Hizashi won't die." Tōji, of course, knew Hyūga Hizashi's fate.

『His death is five years away!』

"But we're leaderless now, heh." Natchi gave a bitter laugh.

Tōji couldn't recall the original plot details, so he didn't respond to Natchi.

With the jōnin gone, the group of several dozen began murmuring among themselves—a faint restlessness was already creeping in.

"Tōji-kun doesn't seem nervous at all." Jakkō, still wearing a smile, tried to make small talk with Tōji.

『Worry about yourself! If any Iwa-nin actually show up, my survival skills are probably way better than yours!』

"Senior is joking. I'm just so nervous I've forgotten how to show it." Tōji really wanted to laugh Jakkō off. He had no patience to deal with this guy he'd always found off-putting—and now of all times, he had to chime in.

He glanced at Natchi…

『If shit really hits the fan, don't blame me if I can't take you with me—we're not that close yet.』

"The Iwa-nin's goal is to attack our main forces, not to loot our supplies, right?" Natchi, oblivious as ever, asked that kind of question at a time like this.

"Hard to say~" Jakkō's tone was a bit sardonic.

『You actually want us to be attacked? That's not just dark humor anymore!』

"It seems like whatever you fear really does come true!" Jakkō's previously relaxed expression suddenly turned serious.

!!!

Hearing that, Tōji knew he wasn't joking—and immediately sensed two figures rapidly approaching!

"Everyone, watch out!" Another chūnin was the first to shout a warning, "Someone's approaching—fast!"

All murmuring stopped instantly. Everyone quickly readied themselves, gripping their weapons tightly.

The more nervous genin were already sweating, their legs trembling slightly.

Tōji instinctively took half a step back toward the center of the crowd.

"Shing shing shing shing!" "Ah!" "Ah!" "Ah!"

Before the enemies were even visible, an unknown number of shuriken rained down.

A few rookie genin who couldn't dodge in time proved on the spot that they lacked either skill or luck.

"Here they come! Everyone coordinate—the enemy is strong!" That same chūnin was still acting as temporary commander.

"Time to avenge our fallen brothers!" The two Iwa-nin, clearly in no hurry against this bunch of rookies, announced their arrival with that declaration.

They were two from the earlier raiding party.

『Revenge on the spot, huh…』