CH_45

"Let's go—whoever gets them gets them!" The Iwa female chūnin—whom the young male chūnin had called Ishimin—said arrogantly.

She wore hemp-yellow leather gloves and clenched her fists… "【Earth Release: Hardening Technique】!" With that, she charged straight into the middle of Tōji and the others.

"Guess I've got no choice." The young male chūnin following her hurried to keep up.

"Tōji—can you hold off the male one?" Neru asked, holding a kunai in each hand.

Beside them, Natchi had already activated the Izuno clan's secret technique, clearly about to take on Ishimin head-on.

Neru's meaning was clear—she and Natchi would handle Ishimin together.

"Sigh—even if I can't, I'll have to try." Tōji sighed, his eyes fixed on the male chūnin's movements, making no move to strike first.

Hearing Tōji's answer, Neru stopped worrying about him and focused on Ishimin with Natchi.

Neru was also a taijutsu fighter—but her style was agility and technique-based. Natchi relied mainly on raw strength, though the Izuno clan's beast-imitation technique seemed more geared toward speed enhancement.

But the two of them together could hold off Ishimin's attacks. Ishimin had probably only been promoted to chūnin right before being sent to the front—a wartime necessity.

After a quick assessment, Tōji felt confident enough to leave his teammates to it.

Tōji still had to worry about himself. His opponent was also a very young chūnin—around fourteen or fifteen.

The male chūnin realized his female counterpart wasn't gaining the upper hand, so he decided to pick up the pace.

"【Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique】!" …Of course. Anyone who knew Fire Release opened with a Great Fireball, right?

If you could dodge a jutsu, using another jutsu to counter it was just wasting chakra. Tōji chose to leap sideways and back with Body Flicker instead.

『Since he's a fire user, that makes things easier.』 Tōji thought to himself.

The moment he landed, he immediately used Body Flicker again to close in on the Iwa chūnin. A chūnin who opened with a ninjutsu against a genin probably had better ninjutsu than taijutsu.

And Fire Release jutsu were generally best at mid-to-long range.

So even though Tōji's taijutsu was mediocre, he was willing to fight up close.

As he closed in, Tōji pulled out several shuriken and threw them without much finesse—clearly not trying to score a hit, just using them as cover.

"【Fire Release: Phoenix Fire Technique】!" The male chūnin was no slouch—he used that scattering-fireball move to shoot down all the shuriken, and still had enough left to counterattack Tōji.

But Tōji was already close. His hands had already formed the seals for 【Substitution Technique】.

Thwip thwip thwip! Several of the 【Phoenix Fire】's small fireballs hit nothing but a Substitution Log.

Thunk! The sound of a blade piercing flesh. The young Iwa-nin had been backstabbed!

"A genin's Body Flicker can be that fast?" The Iwa-nin was still young—even though the stab wasn't deep, he still had the presence of mind to be surprised by Tōji's speed.

Tōji certainly wasn't going to tell him that the technique he'd trained hardest in was this ordinary D-rank Body Flicker. As for actual killing moves—he hadn't put nearly as much effort into those.

The young Iwa-nin had only suffered a light wound because he'd managed to dodge in time.

"【Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique】!" From less than a meter away, the Iwa-nin was committed—he quickly formed seals and unleashed a massive fireball.

Tōji had already prepared a follow-up when he made the backstab, and now his seals were complete…

Whoosh! With a roar of flames, a burst of firelight engulfed Tōji's position.

Crack! The Iwa-nin's foot was suddenly grabbed by a hand emerging from the ground!

Tōji's heart leaped with joy—『This move never fails!』