CH_54

Before Tōji and the others could retreat to a safe enough distance, the two water dragons collided!

The two dragons looked roughly the same size—and now they were both exploding from the heads upward into massive, churning masses of water…

『Oh crap!』 Just as Tōji realized something, the two battling jōnin stirred up even more chaos…

Another two torrents of water, like flash floods, materialized out of nowhere and slammed into each other!

Tōji couldn't even hear the deafening crash of the water colliding. The violent surge knocked him off balance, making it impossible to stand on the river's surface. Neru and Natchi—whatever they'd been shouting just a moment ago—were now swept away by the current along with him!

In the chaos, Tōji reached out to grab Natchi. But another hand reached out and grabbed his… Tōji didn't care whether it was Natchi or Neru—as long as he could hold on to one teammate, it was better than all three of them getting scattered.

The water, still laced with the chakra of the two jōnin, was nothing like ordinary river water! Tōji was submerged and nearly out of breath before the first wave began to subside…

But just as he thought things were "returning to normal," the surface surged again—wave after wave of turbulence!

『Holy crap—give a Water Release jōnin the terrain advantage, and they really can raise hell!』

He had no idea how far the two Water Release jōnin's currents had carried them. The river's flow was completely unnatural now.

Just as Tōji was about to curse under his breath, he spotted something in the distance—someone else approaching!

In an instant, he dove back into the raging water, planning to let the fierce current carry him away from those unidentified figures…

It was only then that he realized the hand he'd grabbed belonged to Neru. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her under!

At first, Neru had no idea what Tōji was doing and started to struggle. Fortunately, Tōji's signal came quickly enough—she held her breath and rapidly suppressed her chakra.

As the river swept them along, Neru tried to pry Tōji's arm off her waist with her free hand…

"Glub glub glub…" But Neru had been holding that breath since she'd first gone under. She couldn't keep it up any longer!

Tōji didn't care about that—avoiding the enemy was more important! He held her waist from behind, keeping her from surfacing!

Neru understood his intent perfectly, but her survival instinct was taking over. She couldn't help herself.

Tōji insisted on keeping them submerged just a little longer—playing it safe!

She struggled frantically!

Within moments, mild oxygen deprivation had started to weaken Neru. Her attempts to break free grew feeble.

Then, Neru grabbed Tōji's shoulder from behind and yanked hard, trying to turn around.

Tōji had no idea what she was doing—and then he saw her turn. And then—he saw her moving her mouth toward his!

He almost froze!

『Can you show a little shinobi composure?! A little water in your lungs won't kill you!』 Tōji shoved her face away with one hand, screaming internally.

Unable to steal the air from Tōji's mouth, Neru flailed and pounded on him with both hands—but Tōji still wouldn't let go.

Knowing she couldn't break free, Neru instead wrapped her legs around Tōji's waist.

She was truly at her limit! Desperate and reckless, she bit down hard on Tōji's shoulder—

!!! "Ow!" Tōji winced in pain!

Finally, Tōji's grip on Neru loosened. She shot up to the surface like a cork.

『What a useless teammate—panicking at the first sign of danger. How did she ever become a shinobi?!』

Annoyed but with no choice, Tōji followed her up to the surface.

He needed to catch his breath too—and with Neru completely unsteady, he had to quickly scan their surroundings.

『Hopefully no enemies nearby!』 Tōji scouted the area while already preparing to bolt again…