Yuji had judged before engaging that Yagura, not yet a Jinchuriki, did not possess the conditions to threaten his life.
With the Reverse Cursed Technique behind him, he could fight this battle without that particular weight on his mind.
What he hadn't expected was Yagura cutting and running this quickly.
It was the right call, objectively. Both sides still had things they hadn't shown. But after one round of real exchange, the shape of the situation had become clear enough. Dragging it out further was disadvantageous for Yagura and his companion specifically because this was Sunagakure's operational zone.
If reinforcements arrived while they were still committed to the engagement, withdrawal would stop being an option. Yagura had read that correctly and acted on it without hesitation.
Decisive and intelligent. Also somewhat deflating.
For Yuji it was unsatisfying. The fight had barely gotten interesting.
He ran through what the exchange had produced. Yagura's Water Release was genuinely refined, and that ability to reflect incoming Ninjutsu back at the attacker had presented a real problem during the engagement. He had also been hoping to see the Water Mirror Technique specifically.
It never appeared.
He turned that over while he moved. Perhaps it required preparation time. Perhaps it had some limitation when the target used Kekkei Genkai abilities, making replication harder or impossible.
He kept a token pursuit going for a short distance, no real intention behind it, just enough to ensure Yagura and his companion cleared the border area completely.
His chakra consumption from maintaining multiple Kekkei Genkai abilities simultaneously had been noticeable throughout. Not critical, but present.
The battle had accomplished what it needed to, at minimum. The Hidden Mist would not move casually against Sunagakure's coast again in the near term. The two Hidden Mist ninja who had died at his hands had both been Jonin level, and the one he had initially caught in the threads had been dealt with as well.
He had also kept Kazuma's people alive, which was the original reason he had been called here.
He stopped when he was satisfied Yagura was gone and waited.
Sunagakure ninja arrived shortly after.
"Captain Yuji. Where are the enemies?"
Three of them, reading his face for information.
"They ran."
Yuji shrugged with a slight smile.
"Ran?"
"Yes."
The three Sunagakure ninja looked at each other.
They had received word that Yuji was engaging Yagura Karatachi's squad alone and the situation was bad. They had come expecting to find something considerably worse than this.
On the other side, Yagura and his remaining subordinate pushed hard until the confirmation came back that Yuji had stopped pursuing them. Only then did the pace slow.
Neither of them said anything for a moment.
Before leaving the village, the squad's objective had been clean and confident. Deliver a significant blow to Sunagakure's coastal operations.
Demonstrate the Hidden Mist Village's reach. And eliminate Blood Doctor Yuji, one of Sunagakure's Twin Stars, while they were at it. He was twelve years old. He had built a name, yes, but a name and actual capability were different things.
Some of them had even entertained the possibility that Yuji might not appear at all, that simply hearing Yagura's name would be enough to keep him out of the engagement. Villages tended to protect their promising young talent before it had fully matured.
Instead Yuji had appeared, fought, and the strength he had shown had exceeded every estimate they had brought with them. Without Yagura holding him in the close-range exchange, the last Jonin would not have walked away.
The whole engagement from first contact to withdrawal had been only a few minutes. Against capable opponents that was normal. A brief exchange was usually enough to establish the shape of what you were dealing with.
"His speed resembles certain Lightning Release techniques from Kumogakure, but it's not quite at that extreme. And he didn't use several of the techniques the intelligence had on him. He probably wasn't operating at full capacity."
Yagura looked ahead while he moved, his expression still carrying the weight of the calculation.
"His Taijutsu is superb and his combat experience is real. The village needs to completely revise its assessment of Yuji as a threat.
And Sasori of the Red Sand alongside him. If Blood Doctor Yuji has this kind of strength at this age, Sasori is probably not far behind."
"We need more people. Elites, not a single squad."
Yagura said it plainly, without elaboration.
His remaining subordinate said nothing in response.
He didn't have words for it. Sunagakure had produced two shinobi like this, both still young, both still growing. As they developed further, their presence in the ninja world would only become harder to account for.
Perhaps impossible to account for, eventually. To say he felt no envy would have been dishonest. The Hidden Mist had its own talented people, but talent existed on a spectrum, and at this age, operating at this level, still active in the field, they had no one comparable.
"Let's go."
Yagura picked up the pace, his voice settling back into its usual flatness.
The mission had been aimed at Yuji from the start, serving as both a strike and a reconnaissance effort. The outcome looked like a defeat, and an embarrassing one by surface metrics.
Yagura felt no particular emotional weight from it. The strategic value of what they had learned outweighed whatever could be said about the result in terms of face or competitive pride.
He understood now that the Hidden Mist's harassment campaign along the Land of Wind coast was finished. Not stalled. Finished.
Unless the village was prepared to commit to actual war with Sunagakure, the current approach had no viable continuation.
Half a month later, after confirming no further Hidden Mist infiltrations along the border, Yuji brought his four students back to Sunagakure.
The mission was over.
News of the engagement with Yagura had already moved through the entire war zone before they returned. It had caused considerable stir, and the village had heard about it as well.
In the minds of his students, Pakura included, whatever image of Yuji they had carried before had grown noticeably larger. Sakamoto described seeing his teacher as surrounded by a faint glow at all times, which he appeared to mean sincerely.
Kazuma, who had been present for the beginning of the engagement before Yuji sent them away, wanted to know what had happened after they left. There had been no witnesses.
Yagura Karatachi was not an ordinary opponent. The whole thing was difficult to account for without more information.
Yuji gave a version of events that was technically accurate and strategically incomplete. He had tried his best to delay, he said.
The situation had been genuinely dangerous. The enemy, aware that Sunagakure reinforcements were en route and unwilling to risk being caught in the zone, had chosen not to fight to a conclusion and retreated.
He kept his own role modest, made the outcome feel contingent and reasonable, and left the impression of a close and uncomfortable situation that had resolved through caution and good timing rather than anything more decisive.
It was enough. People accepted it.
A few days after returning, the mission was formally submitted and closed. The temporary squad disbanded. Pakura, Sakamoto, and Fukushima Taki returned to their respective team leaders, seconded back as they had been seconded out. Yashamaru was the only one who had not come from another class.
By any measure, Yuji had delivered a complete answer to everything the Kazekage had asked of him. The assignment accepted, the mission finished, the students developed, the situation on the coast resolved.
A farewell dinner had been proposed, but Yuji had other things to attend to and pushed it back to another time.
He returned to the village, handled the administrative matters that needed handling, and went to find Sasori.