'Shit!' Gari shouted in his mind as he made hand seals to form a huge wall of earth and stop the rain of fireballs half a meter in diameter that were heading towards them.
Although those fireballs were only half a meter in diameter, there were too many of them traveling at high speed, and Gari felt a great threat from each one.
¡BOOOOOOOOOM!
And to confirm their suspicion, the rain of fireballs struck their earthen wall, destroying it in seconds and generating a large amount of dust and debris.
Just like Gari's attack against the Leaf ninjas, the surrounding area was filled with high-temperature molten stone beneath all that dust.
In comparison to a few moments ago, the Leaf ninjas suddenly realized that the situation was now favorable for them.
Clenching his teeth, Gari surveyed the situation and realized it didn't look so favorable.
He could choose to press on and try to kill the child, risking being caught by the Leaf ninjas, or he could direct his team to ignore the child and retreat immediately.
And because of the Jutsu that child launched, it seemed that they would have to choose the second option.
Although he was an elite Jonin and confident in his power, he lacked the certainty to change the situation quickly enough and complete the mission before the Hidden Leaf ninjas returned to protect their medical team.
And seeing the reason for this, the Jonin could not believe that the child standing behind the dust cloud caused the Hidden Rock to suffer such losses.
To carry out an attack like this, the Hidden Rock village used most of the spies within the Hidden Blade to go unnoticed until the attack and leave the medical camp unprotected.
These spies managed to go undetected by the sensors on the rear of the blade and took care of the guards at the medical camp.
After this mission, the blade will discover them, and it would be a huge loss if the attack is not successful.
As an elite Jonin, he thought he was strong enough to finish the mission on his own and escape quickly.
But Kitsuchi insisted on bringing a team with him.
Although he thought it was unnecessary, he agreed because he didn't want to argue with the Tsuchikage's son.
Of course, he has now shown that the team he brought was a hindrance.
If he were alone, he could choose to take a few seconds to complete the mission.
But since he had his team with him, he had to choose to withdraw.
After all, after many years of working together, he didn't want to risk his friends.
And the worst part of all?
The fact that the child's murder was a requirement for this mission was the reason he lacked confidence to finish the mission quickly and escape with his team unharmed.
Cursing the Hidden Blade for hiding a genius as a mere doctor, he also didn't forget to curse the ANBU of the Rock for not uncovering such important information.
Anyway, Gari shrugged because it wasn't his fault that there was a mistake in the information provided by the village.
More shouts were heard from behind and a retreat was quickly ordered.
"Let's go," Gari said, and his team followed him as they avoided the area where the medical tent was located and headed towards the cliff.
Like ninjas, they could stick to surfaces and were not afraid of falling into the ravine.
As they jumped, Gari turned around to look one last time at the culprit of his failed mission and opened his eyes in surprise when he saw him fall to his knees completely exhausted.
Smiling, Gari knew he had been tricked.
Anyway, he didn't have time to retreat because Nara Shikaze arrived with more Leaf ninjas behind him.
With a Nara, it was dangerous to approach because of their shadow jutsus.
Even if they are only caught for a second, it is enough to be killed in a ninja battle.
Seeing the backs of Gari and the rest of the Rock ninjas, Nara Shikase quickly approached Natsuo without thinking about ordering them to follow.
Just as Gari was wary of him because of his clan jutsu, he was also wary of Gari because of his explosive jutsu and explosive clay used by the demolition team of the Rock Village.
Unless they're fast and have a high-level ninja like their uncle Torifu, it's risky to follow those guys.
"Are you OK?"
"How are the others?" Nara Shikaze asked worriedly.
The loss of these medical ninjas was disastrous for them, but at least the young man in front of him is okay.
After launching such a powerful fire jutsu, it's normal to have a mild case of chakra exhaustion.
Seeing the result of that rain of fireballs, Nara Shikaze was jealous of the Uchiha clan for having such a genius.
To perform a high-level jutsu, you need more than just learning the hand seals. That only applies to low-level jutsu.
Even a Jonin takes time to learn and quickly launch an A-rank Jutsu, and this young man in front of him can already launch an A-rank jutsu at the age of 13.
"Hahh... I'm... fine... Hahh," Natsuo said, panting as he knelt on the ground.
"How are the others?" asked Nara Shikaze.
Although he was happy that the village had a genius like Natsuo, his mind was now preoccupied with the loss of all the medical ninjas in the camp.
"...They went that way...and that way..." Natsuo said as he straightened his spine and pointed to his left and then to his right.
???
Nara Shikaze didn't understand what Natsuo said, but when he looked to his right his eyes widened in surprise as the ground opened and a group of people emerged.
And turning to his left, in the distance he also saw another hole open and several people come out.
"You…" Turning to look at the young man in front of him, Nara Shikaze understood that he had sacrificed himself so that the others could escape.
.
.
.
"Those Rock bastards!" shouted Torifu after learning of the attack on the Rock ninjas' rear and quickly tried to return to the camp.
Several days ago, several explosions occurred at the camp, destroying several warehouses with resources, and shortly afterwards, scouts reported seeing several ninja teams leaving the rock camp.
Although Torifu caught the spy or traitor inside the camp who caused these explosions, he had to leave his nephew and his team while he led several teams to intercept the ninjas from the Village Hidden in the Rocks.
With the Rock ninjas having the advantage of time, he had to hurry.
At the camp, he left Shikaze, Choka, and Inoshin to protect the camp and be on the lookout for spies or traitors.
When the scouts said that the Rock ninjas had stopped, Torifu sighed in relief because he had time to organize the army for the next battle.
But although he initially thought the Rock ninjas wanted a direct battle, he began to suspect that the Rock ninjas were up to something when they started to retreat as they approached.
Sensing that something was wrong, Torifu wanted to return to the camp, but the Rock ninjas prevented this by stopping his retreat and returning.
Cursing again, Torifu knew he had to attack head-on and end this quickly if he wanted to return to camp to support his nephew.
Ordering a swift retreat, he gave secret orders to a few ninjas before silently going to the rear.
And when the Rock ninjas got too close, he jumped and took them by surprise by using his family's secret jutsu to increase his size.
Since they couldn't launch powerful Jutsus without harming their companions, Kitsuchi appeared to confront Torifu, and their battle lasted half an hour before Kitsuchi ordered a retreat.
Of course he could continue fighting, but the purpose of this exchange was to gauge the power of the blade in this camp before attacking with all his might.
His father had informed him that they had agreed to a temporary ceasefire with the Sand Village in order to deal with the Leaf Village first, so he would soon have more ninjas in his camp and they would fight Torifu with all their might.
Seeing the Rock ninjas retreat, Torifu wanted to follow them, but Kitsuchi scoffed, saying they had secretly attacked his medical ninjas.
Although he didn't want to believe him, Torifu quickly ordered the Leaf ninjas to withdraw.
And as he feared, Kitsuchi did not lie and his medical ninjas were attacked.
In addition to a group of traitors who murdered the explorers and sensors, there was a traitor within the medical team's guards.