CH_44

Boom! Before Neru could even descend from the branch to warn the others, an explosion came from the ground!

That made sense—Iwa's raids were usually coordinated to hit multiple locations simultaneously at the same time, with a few spots serving as diversions.

Distracted by the distant blast, genin like Tōji and Neru simply couldn't perceive or detect the approach of jōnin or elite chūnin.

Tōji and Neru exchanged a glance and nodded, then silently dropped to a lower branch to observe the ground situation first.

『Good.』 Landing on a branch about three meters above the ground, Tōji quickly got a read on the situation.

The six Konoha shinobi who'd been setting up the temporary camp had initially been spread out, but the moment the attack hit, they'd already gathered together.

They were facing seven Iwa-nin, forming a fan-shaped formation.

Iwa had two jōnin and five chūnin.

From the earlier explosion, Konoha had suffered no casualties. But just from the look of things, Konoha seemed to be at a disadvantage.

Tōji and Neru landed one after the other behind Rawari, standing beside Natchi.

The Iwa-nin across from them immediately recognized that the Konoha forces here consisted of two full squads. And conveniently, they too had one full four-man squad on their side…

"Our squad will take on one of theirs. Your squad takes the other—make it quick." A tall, short-haired Iwa jōnin who looked to be in his forties said to a younger, stockier Iwa jōnin.

The meaning was clear: two evenly matched squads—each one jōnin plus three chūnin—would face off. Then the remaining Iwa squad of one jōnin and two chūnin would quickly eliminate Rawari's squad.

Previously, Iwa's raid squads had usually been four-man teams targeting isolated Konoha squads. But the results hadn't been ideal.

Now they were sending two squads together, taking the fight as long as they had a clear advantage… Looks like Iwa was changing its tactics too.

There was nothing Tōji and his side could do about it—once the Iwa-nin decided on this arrangement, that was how it was going to be.

The two Iwa jōnin had clearly worked together before. Almost simultaneously, they unleashed a Fire Release and a Wind Release jutsu—not aimed at anyone in particular, but directly at the center of the Konoha group, right between the two squads.

Naturally, the Konoha shinobi split by squad, leaping quickly to either side.

The younger, stockier Iwa jōnin—the Wind Release user—had already locked his eyes on Rawari. Both of them were the short-and-sturdy type…

"Don't take too long, you two. Those three are just trash genin anyway." The Wind Release jōnin probably wasn't being careless—he was baiting them.

After all, in a raid, you couldn't drag things out. And the fight between two Iwa chūnin and three Konoha genin was the most obvious weak link. The other matchups, with roughly equal strength, wouldn't be decided nearly as fast.

"Don't worry, sensei. I could handle three genin by myself." The youngest of them—a short-haired female chūnin—said to the Wind Release jōnin, her tone carrying a hint of pride.

"Don't get cocky, Ishimin." Another young male Iwa chūnin scanned the three Konoha genin as he reminded his female teammate.

The Wind Release jōnin didn't say much more—just a "Neither of you get careless" before he engaged Rawari.

Rawari had no choice but to meet him head-on, leaving only a quiet word for Tōji and the others: "Don't go head-to-head. Just stall as long as you can."

On the other side, the two four-man squads had been facing off. But the moment Rawari and the Iwa jōnin moved, those eight also sprang into action.

All at once, the sounds of clang-clang and ping-pong filled the air from all directions.