CH_49

Tōji had only met Kokubō Kenji earlier that evening, just before dark.

The guy's most notable feature was his burly build—and the thick steel plate he carried on his back… maybe a shield?

But what proper shinobi used a shield in battle? And one that was sixty centimeters long, forty centimeters wide, and five or six centimeters thick at that…

And throughout the entire fight, he'd never once taken that steel plate off his back. It stayed there the whole time, functioning pretty much like a turtle shell.

But the moment Kenji went over to help Rawari, the Iwa jōnin was quickly defeated. Kenji didn't kill him, though—looked like they wanted to take an enemy jōnin prisoner.

Tōji stopped observing this square-jawed, turtle-shelled jōnin and went to check on Rawari's injuries first.

"No need to look. Jōnin Rawari won't die anytime soon, but he needs to be sent back immediately. Basic medical ninjutsu can't handle internal injuries this severe." Kenji's deep, powerful voice stated the fact with little emotion.

Then he walked over to where the earlier fighting had taken place to check on his three chūnin subordinates… two dead, one out of commission.

The chūnin who'd lost his arm had already received emergency treatment from Neru, but his face was pale as paper—he'd definitely be withdrawn from the front lines.

Tōji didn't look at the two fallen Konoha comrades. The kind of comrades you'd exchanged a few words with moments ago, and who'd never speak again—Tōji didn't even bother learning their names.

Kenji fired a signal flare and then gathered the bodies of his two subordinates.

Only Tōji, Neru, and Kenji were left with combat capability. The three of them had to stay on high alert.

It had happened before—Iwa-nin who'd completed a raid would move on to the next location for cleanup duty. They had to be prepared.

Rawari and the one-armed Konoha chūnin lay on the ground, waiting for another rescue squad.

As for Natchi, his injuries weren't too severe—he wouldn't need to be sent back. But waking him up now wouldn't do any good. If a more advanced medical-nin could attend to him, he might recover his combat ability after a night's rest.

It took over twenty minutes for two squads to arrive—one combat support squad, and one all-medical squad with at least chūnin-level members.

And these people had probably been running around all night—exhaustion was written all over their faces.

The more senior medical-nin immediately began examining and treating the patients.

Afterward, Kenji handed Rawari and the one-armed chūnin over to the two support squads for evacuation. The captured Iwa jōnin was also taken away.

Since no reassignment orders had come through, Kenji decided to form a new squad with Tōji, Neru, and Natchi—he'd take Rawari's place. His original squad had been assigned to protect Rawari's squad anyway, so their mission hadn't actually changed.

Tōji and the others had no objections. At least Kenji was stronger than Rawari—a full-fledged Konoha jōnin. From what they'd seen of his fighting style, he was a defensive combatant who'd mastered both Water Release and Earth Release.

Hmm… his chakra nature was actually the same as Tōji's. But Tōji guessed Kenji had developed his Water Release later on.

The biggest advantage of following a squad leader with the same chakra nature was that you might occasionally learn some useful jutsu.

The sounds of fighting across the area gradually died down.

Whether there'd be another ambush was anyone's guess…

And so, another sleepless night passed…

Tōji and the others had lost a proven reliable captain in Rawari, and gained a stronger temporary one—the turtle-shell guy… while Natchi probably wouldn't be combat-ready until tomorrow.

Hopefully, command would send another "protection squad" soon. Two would be even better, of course… Who knew if Iwa would escalate their raids even further?