"Damn brats!"
Hearing his captain shout for retreat, Kawaji wasted no time and immediately turned to flee.
Glancing back at the two kids chasing him, he cursed under his breath, but his mind raced as he calculated his next move.
Kawaji and his team were members of Iwagakure's scouting unit. After a fierce battle with Konoha's ANBU forces on the front lines, their squads were scattered, and they had been forced to retreat.
His group of five was hastily formed from the remnants of those scattered teams. Their original plan had been to escape back to their own forces, but Konoha's ANBU blocked the path, and breaking through with their current strength was impossible.
Faced with imminent death, Kawaji's captain made a bold decision.
They would break out in the opposite direction.
Instead of heading toward their own forces, they decided to evade Konoha's main forces by cutting diagonally through enemy territory and into the heart of the Land of Fire.
To be honest, it was a desperate gamble—a suicidal one, at that. With only five members, none of them highly ranked, they had no chance of receiving reinforcements deep within enemy territory.
Moreover, Konoha would never allow enemy shinobi to roam freely in their homeland. They would surely face relentless pursuit.
But at that moment, it was their only option to avoid immediate death. To their surprise, despite being chased multiple times, they had managed to survive each encounter and slip away.
It was almost as if fate had been on their side, allowing them to miraculously enter the Land of Fire's heartland.
Their group of five couldn't quite believe their luck.
Yet they knew the danger wasn't over. If anything, they were now in even more peril. The heartland of the Land of Fire meant every corner could hold Konoha shinobi, and there was no way they could expect reinforcements.
Unless Iwagakure emerged victorious on the front lines and managed to push deep into Konoha's territory, they were entirely alone.
Their captain, though, had a wild idea. Since their only hope for survival lay in Iwagakure defeating Konoha, why not do something to help that cause?
It was an insane plan, but the captain set his sights on Konoha's supply lines. And so, while dodging Konoha patrols, they scouted for a route that could disrupt Konoha's operations. After much effort, they finally found one—a supply convoy to the rear forces.
Thus, today's ambush was set.
It didn't seem logical, nor did it make sense that a ragtag group of five—one jonin, three elite chunin, and one regular chunin—could achieve what even elite squads from Iwagakure couldn't. But then again, neither Kawaji nor his teammates knew that every step of their retreat had been orchestrated by none other than the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju.
From the moment Tobirama noticed their retreat, their fate had been sealed. Their escape route had been subtly guided, their discovery of Konoha's supply line arranged, and even the encounter with their foes had been predetermined.
When they targeted the convoy, they had no idea that Squad Four of the ANBU, including Mochizuki Hui, had been assigned to guard it. Every move they had made led to this confrontation, all part of Tobirama's plan for Mochizuki Hui's growth.
Kawaji's squad was meant to die by Mochizuki Hui's hands.
Though Hui was a prodigious talent, he was still a shinobi—and shinobi were required to kill. The experience of taking a life was crucial for a ninja's development. Who they killed, why, and how could shape a shinobi's heart.
And so, these enemy shinobi, who had attacked Konoha's comrades, were handpicked by Tobirama to serve as Hui's stepping stone.
Of course, Kawaji and his squad were unaware of this, and so was Hui.
Whoosh, whoosh!
The sound of kunai slicing through the air made Kawaji's heart skip a beat. He leaped to the next tree branch just as the kunai struck the branch he had been standing on with a thunk.
Landing on a higher branch, Kawaji stopped and turned around. He had witnessed the death of his teammate, the regular chunin, earlier. The skill with which the small ANBU shinobi wielded his kunai had left an indelible mark on Kawaji's mind.
Though his immediate priority was to flee, he and his captain had scattered in different directions. Kawaji noticed that the tall ANBU and the chunin in the Konoha flak jacket had gone after the captain.
Meanwhile, the ANBU with purple hair and the black-haired one were chasing the other two elite chunin.
That meant the only ones pursuing him were this small ANBU brat and the white-haired kid.
The two other young Konoha ninjas with them were irrelevant. They posed no real threat.
With his escape route decided, Kawaji's thoughts shifted to a new plan. His captain's bold decision to flee into enemy territory had kept them alive until now, so perhaps killing these two brats before escaping would increase his own chances of survival.
"Two kids really think they can take me down? They must be tired of living!" Kawaji crouched on the tree branch, his eyes cold and murderous as he sized up his two young pursuers with a smirk.
"It seems he wants to kill us before he makes his escape," remarked the white-haired boy. He was Mantian's teammate, and of the three genin, he was the only one who had managed to regain his composure and fight back after the ambush.
"Yeah… Looks like he's underestimating us," Hui responded calmly. Even though this was his first real life-or-death battle, he felt an unusual sense of tranquillity. Instead of fear, his mind was clear, and his heart was calm.
Perhaps Hui was one of those people—a natural-born shinobi, with a strong heart capable of facing any storm.