CH_55

Tōji poked his head above the water. He had no time to worry about Neru beside him—he took deep breaths while scanning as far as he could for any sign of enemies.

"Huff… huff… huff… I think we're safe…" Tōji turned to look at Neru.

Neru was glaring at him with obvious anger.

"Come on, you know there were unidentified shinobi nearby just now. I had to act fast—at least I managed to pull you down with me in time." Tōji reflected that he might have been a bit too hasty, but he wasn't about to show it.

"I nearly drowned! You didn't even get a clear look before dragging me under! But I'm not in the mood to argue right now!" Knowing Tōji had a point, Neru quickly calmed down—though her tone remained icy.

"There was no time to identify them slowly. By the time we confirmed they were enemies, neither of us would've had a chance to escape." Tōji argued as he checked his shoulder to see if her bite had drawn blood.

"I said I'm done arguing—drop it!" Neru's expression suggested she truly had let it go.

She then suggested, "Let's get to shore."

After all, they were in the same boat now. Without another word, they headed for the riverbank.

"I wonder how Natchi is doing. Captain Kenji should be fine—even if he can't win, he can retreat." As they wrung out their outer clothes, Tōji spoke quietly to Neru while pulling his jacket back on.

Tap, tap, tap-tap-tap… To their surprise, it started drizzling.

There were still about two hours until dark.

"It's raining." Neru glanced up at the sky, which had turned gray without them noticing.

At this time of year, with this kind of weather, it would probably be a steady spring drizzle.

As for rescue missions—forget it. Both medical-nin of their rescue squad were right here.

"The fight between the captain and the Iwa jōnin might not be too far from here, but we could run into enemies along the way." Tōji laid out his thoughts directly. "We need to regroup as soon as possible—it's too dangerous to stay separated."

Two genin "stranded" on a battlefield crawling with hundreds of Iwa jōnin and chūnin—that was basically handing over free kills.

"Going around could run into other enemies too. How about we head upstream?" Neru needed to cooperate with Tōji on a plan.

Neither of them had a map, but they'd studied the simple sketch of the area multiple times while with Kenji. Tōji still remembered it.

He thought it over—further along, this river split into two branches. The wider one joined up with another river farther on… and that was the area around Kannabi Bridge.

They couldn't go anywhere near that direction. That left two options: either follow the riverbank upstream and dive into the water if they spotted enemies, or cut into the woods along the river and use the forest as cover to circle back.

But running into enemies in the woods was more likely—neither Konoha nor Iwa shinobi preferred operating in open areas.

That said, Tōji and Neru weren't great at holding their breath. If they could just dive underwater whenever danger appeared, that would be the safest option.

After a moment's consideration, Tōji said, "Let's go through the woods over there—less visible."

Both routes had their pros and cons. Tōji just happened to know two more Earth Release escape techniques than Water Release ones…

Neru had no objection. Using her hair-based secret technique required a bit more chakra when it was wet anyway.

With their plan quickly settled, the two of them set off cautiously under the overcast sky…

They had no idea whether Natchi, after being swept away by the battle's aftermath, had run into any enemies himself.