Maybe it was because the Nine-Tails lived inside him, but Naruto's sense of smell was a little sharper than Sasuke's. The faint scent of blood did not escape his nose.
He called Sasuke to a stop, and the two searched the area.
With Sasuke's Sharingan, they found bloodstains on the rocks by the riverbank.
"It shouldn't be far from here!"
Naruto shot forward on impulse. "It must be injured prey!"
"Hey!!"
Sasuke called after him, warning him to be careful and not let his guard down.
"Don't worry, don't worry!" Naruto answered. By then, he had already heard faint panting coming from the bushes. "It's probably some small herbivore. Once I catch it..." I'll hand it over to Rin and Sakura so they can treat it.
Naruto never got to finish the rest.
The instant Sasuke instinctively widened his eyes and activated his Sharingan, time seemed to slow in his vision.
A cold flash appeared in the grass!
It was the sharp glint of a weapon catching the sunlight!
The crimson Sharingan spun rapidly in Sasuke's eyes. Shuriken flew toward both that flash and the enemy hidden in the grass!
Naruto did not have the Sharingan, but his speed and reflexes were no worse.
He had already drawn his kunai, and could have used it to block the blade coming straight at him. But Sasuke's shuriken knocked the flash aside, and in that instant, Naruto saw that the person holding the short sword was actually a child, smaller than Konohamaru!
Without time to think, Naruto instinctively reached out and blocked Sasuke's shuriken with his hand, shielding that little child!
"Naruto!!"
Sasuke never imagined Naruto would reach out to block the shuriken he had thrown!
What if he had added Blaze Release: Kagutsuchi in that instant?!
Even if he used his ocular power to take back the Amaterasu flames, that hand would probably have been ruined!!
Just thinking about it made Sasuke so furious he wanted to leap over and jab Naruto's forehead as hard as his older brother always did.
"You massive idiot, this..."
"There's a little kid here, dattebayo!"
Naruto sounded a little anxious.
Sasuke leaped to Naruto's side.
It was a child covered in wounds.
He was younger than Konohamaru, with thin limbs and flushed cheeks. His clothes were in tatters, clearly torn by sharp weapons.
The exposed wounds on his body had not been properly bandaged.
"The wounds show signs of being soaked in water for a long time, so the smell of blood by the river was very faint," Sasuke said, his expression turning more serious.
"Either he drifted here from upstream, or he hid underwater to avoid whoever was chasing him."
Naruto hummed in acknowledgment and touched the child's head. "He's burning up."
It was obvious the child still wanted to resist. He even tried to bite Naruto's outstretched hand.
But his will was stronger than his body. His fever was so high he could barely breathe, and the moment he bit down, he had to let go and gasp desperately for air.
"He's lost too much blood, and his wounds are inflamed from being soaked in water for so long." Sasuke looked at the child's skinny arms and legs. "Even before he was injured, his body was already severely depleted."
Maybe the enemy had not been in a hurry to kill him and had deliberately tormented him for a while.
Naruto looked at the ninja blade that Sasuke's shuriken had knocked aside. One glance was enough to tell that the child was a young ninja, carrying out a mission with a blade whose hilt probably required both hands for him to hold.
They had been born in a time of peace. Even if they had been rejected and isolated because of their backgrounds, at least their lives had never truly been in danger. Now, seeing this child on the brink of death, they could not help comparing him to the young-master-like Konohamaru in their memories.
Whether this was part of their mission in this parallel world or not, how could Naruto and Sasuke possibly leave him to die after seeing something like this?
"Whether he fell from upstream or hid in the water to avoid his enemies, it proves this place isn't safe." Sasuke took out the Flying Thunder God Technique kunai given to him by Minato Namikaze. "We should return to camp immediately."
Naruto did not answer. Instead, he stared gravely upstream.
Sasuke knew what he was thinking without him saying a word.
"This kid won't last much longer! We need to get him back to Sakura and Rin for treatment!" he said. "And the ninjas of the Warring States Period are even more vicious than the Missing-nin from our era!"
After shouting, Sasuke calmed himself a little and said to Naruto, "If you want to go upstream and see whether this kid has any other companions, then fire a signal and wait for Kakashi and Minato-sama to come handle it."
"True..."
When Naruto said that, Sasuke thought he had listened.
Then Naruto continued, "The kid needs to be handed over to Sakura and Rin as soon as possible so they can bandage his wounds. They have medicine and military rations pills that can help him hang on."
Sasuke was about to say they should leave a signal and use the Flying Thunder God Technique kunai to hurry back.
But knowing Naruto, he knew Naruto was not finished. And there was definitely going to be a turn he could not agree with.
Sure enough.
"Sasuke, you take him back. I'll go check upstream."
Seriously, if anyone could drive the Uchiha clan's second young master into completely losing his composure, it could only be Naruto Uzumaki, that dead-last super idiot!
Sasuke was so angry he nearly stopped breathing, almost flashing his Mangekyō Sharingan on the spot.
"Who do you think you are? The Seventh Hokage? Without making peace with the Nine-Tails, what are you going to use to fight ninjas from the Warring States Period?! It'd be better for me to stay than you! At least I have the Sharingan..."
Forget it. There was no point saying any of that to the idiot in front of him.
"Send the signal first. Give him the emergency medicine in our ninja gear pouch to help him hold on."
The medicine was made from a formula Sakura had learned from Tsunade earlier. She had quickly made some together with Rin and packed a few pills for each of them.
Naruto agreed with that plan. "We're not far. Dad and the others will get here soon. With the Flying Thunder God Technique mark, he can take us to Sakura and Rin at any time. Besides, Obito and Kakashi-sensei should be even closer to us, so they can come support us whenever needed."
"Mm."
As they spoke, Sasuke had already taken out a pill and fed it to the child in his arms.
When the child was fed the medicine, his eyes opened slightly. Whether he was calling to Sasuke or Naruto, he murmured, "Big brother," then fell into a peaceful sleep.
That made the weight in Sasuke and Naruto's chests feel even heavier.
Naruto created two shadow clones and found a hidden spot for them to look after the child.
Sasuke placed Genjutsu over the area, then fired a signal in the opposite direction.
After that, the two moved upstream, already well beyond the maximum distance of five thousand meters that Minato Namikaze had set for them.
After carefully advancing nearly another kilometer, they could faintly hear movement.
It was the sound of blades and kunai clashing. It was not intense, only an occasional ring or two. The cause was probably that one side had fewer people while the other had more. The smaller side had no intention of fighting and was trying with all its strength to escape, while the larger side clearly wanted to take advantage of their weakness and finish them off. That was why the battle line had been stretched out.
As a result, the sounds they heard were only the occasional two or three clashes of weapons.
Naruto and Sasuke immediately rushed toward the sound!
Standing in the trees, they saw four or five adult ninjas pursuing one young ninja and one child ninja!
The young ninja looked a little older than Konohamaru, but younger than Naruto and Sasuke, probably around eight or nine.
The child ninja was about the same age as the child they had just saved, likely five or six at most.
The latter looked terrible. Just like the child Naruto and Sasuke had saved earlier, he had far too many knife wounds on his body.
The young ninja was probably trying to protect the two younger children. His injuries were even worse than theirs, but because he was slightly older, he could still hold on through sheer willpower.
"Whish..."
A kunai cut through the air with a faint sound and sliced into the child ninja's calf.
The child let out a pained groan and collapsed to the ground, unable to support himself.
"Kurohi!"
The young ninja turned back to check on his younger brother, calling his name anxiously.
A mistake!
The adult ninja opposite him seized the gap in his defense. A kunai flew toward the young ninja's body. He did everything he could to dodge, but it still cut across his waist.
Blood instantly darkened a patch of his clothing.
"That's enough. Finish them."
One of the adult ninjas spoke.
The leading adult ninja drew his sword and raised it overhead.
"If you want to hate something, hate your surname, brat."
The blade came down with the man's motion.
At that critical moment.
"Rasengan!!!"
The blond boy blocked the blade, the blue sphere of chakra in his hand crashing into the sword's edge.
They could feel the powerful force contained in that blue chakra sphere in the boy's hand. Something was surging inside the "sphere."
"Crack..."
The battle sword he had carried for years developed a severe crack.
Then, before he could react.
"Snap!!"
The broken blade flew dozens of meters away, stabbed into a tree trunk, and sank at least six or seven inches deep!!
"What?!!"
The five adult ninjas were utterly shocked!
After confirming it again and again, they realized the boy in front of them had broken their sword using only chakra!!
But no matter how shocked they were, they were adults born in the chaos of the dangerous Warring States Period, and they immediately recovered. The others swung their swords at the blond boy!
The boy was struck, and a hint of surprise flashed across his face.
The adult ninjas of the Warring States Period thought their attack had landed.
"Poof..."
A cloud of white smoke.
"Sasuke! Now! Use the Sharingan!!"
"!!!!"
Hearing that, the five adult Senju ninjas immediately jumped back!
They were afraid of being attacked inside the white mist.
The Uchiha's Sharingan would not be affected by the mist, so as Senju, they had no choice but to be on high alert.
However...
When the white mist cleared and the five of them saw that there was nothing in front of them, they realized they had been tricked! No next wave of attacks came at all! There was no Sharingan either!
The blond boy from earlier, along with the two Uchiha kids they had almost killed, were gone!
They looked at one another. Only then did it sink in.
"We were tricked by that blond kid!!"
"Damn it!! Those sneaky, cunning Uchiha!! As expected, you can't underestimate even a little brat!"
"We were careless! As long as they're enemies, even babies can't be taken lightly."
"That blond kid used the Sharingan to trick us into thinking there was an ambush, then bluffed his way out and escaped. He must not have any reinforcements, or he wouldn't have resorted to this. This place is the same distance from the Uchiha clan territory as it is from our own. The chances of the Uchiha finding someone to come support them are very small."
"Yeah, keep searching! We have to kill those two brats too! Otherwise, once they grow up and awaken the Sharingan, they'll be hard to deal with!"
"And that blond kid who tricked us! We can't let him go either!!"
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