CH_31

Tōji knew his behavior was shameful—but at least he was still alive!

Natchi, however, had clearly had enough… This was letting teammates pay with their lives to pave his way out!

What exactly was this Iwa-nin's mission anyway—just to slaughter a few dozen rookie shinobi? By now, the Iwa-nin was killing anyone he could reach; it didn't matter who anymore. This was a wolf among sheep.

Because the genin on the field could at most throw out a D-rank jutsu or a few shuriken… Against a jōnin who specialized in nin-taijutsu, they really were just lambs to the slaughter.

"There you two are." A breathless Jakkō had also made his way to Tōji and Natchi's side.

"Mm. We're waiting for the right moment." Tōji said it without a hint of shame—after all, it was technically true.

"At this rate, all our people are going to be killed!" Natchi was getting anxious.

Tōji didn't stop him. "Then you go ahead. My taijutsu isn't great, but I know a few jutsu—I'll do what I can to support you."

Jakkō shot a glance at Tōji. He clearly didn't buy the "my taijutsu isn't great" line. But he didn't say anything—he had no proof, and even if Lawyer Zhang time-traveled over, he couldn't win that argument.

"I'll go with you. I still have some chakra left." Jakkō, the fake "schemer," suddenly made Tōji look bad by comparison.

Natchi gave a nod and started up his cat-boy transformation jutsu again…

About ten seconds later, Natchi and Jakkō attacked the Iwa-nin from front and back.

"Good luck out there. See you on the other side!" Tōji muttered something strange under his breath. But he'd already pulled out two kunai, ready to back up Natchi and the others.

Coming from above, with a bit of gravity assist, Natchi and Jakkō's leap toward the Iwa-nin was especially fast.

Tōji had already thrown his two kunai down as cover for his teammates.

"Shing shing!" "Clang clang!"

Against a prepared Iwa-nin, ordinary ambushes were useless—a single swing of his "Rock Fist" deflected all the projectiles and weak jutsu.

Then the Iwa-nin swung both "Rock Fists" at once—one swept aside Jakkō's twin swords, the other batted away Natchi's claw strike.

Seeing that two more had dared to engage the Iwa-nin in close combat, the genin who had been retreating while throwing projectiles and low-level jutsu all stopped. Some kept backing away, but others were itching to join the melee.

Only about ten Konoha shinobi were left. Where else could they retreat to? A genin was dying every ten seconds or so—more efficient than harvesting vegetables. There was no chance of holding out until reinforcements arrived.

They didn't even have any signal flares left to call for help!

So when there was nowhere left to retreat, even some of the cowards started fighting for their lives.

"Charge!" The fearful ones, when they finally fought, wouldn't go alone—they'd drag others along with them!

So a few people stopped retreating and charged forward with a display of bravery.

Natchi had plenty of physical strength, but against a jōnin, it didn't mean much—so he could only fight hit-and-run. The one holding the line head-on was still Jakkō!

Jakkō was in a tough spot too—he was the only chūnin left. If even one genin pointed out that he, as a chūnin, had been avoiding the fight or playing deserter, he'd be finished.

He wasn't skilled at channeling chakra into his weapons—but he did his best anyway. Otherwise, those two short swords would've been wrecked long ago. And that was where most of his chakra was going.

"Sigh… fine. Where else am I going to find teammates this good?" Tōji's resolve softened. He decided to take a risk.

He'd tentatively concluded that Natchi could be trusted, and that Jakkō wasn't really a schemer after all. Tōji didn't want to keep switching teammates. Besides, the whole "becoming a Konoha civil servant" thing was still uncertain.

Tōji began forming hand seals as he jumped down from the back of the "wagon"… 『If I'm going to do it, I might as well go big…』