Still Alive

....

After entering the cave I quickly head down the familiar path and when I finally arrive I see Rai and Sayuki calmly walking towards the houses.

"Hey-" Before I can finish my sentence an explosion appears below the ground where Rai and Sayuki were walking.

*boom* *boom*

*smoke* *smoke* *smoke* *smoke*

"What..." A large curtain of dust in the form of smoke is dispersing.

Doubting how I hadn't noticed those exploding papers inside the ground, I'm a little slow.

"What do I do now?" Although I wasn't very close with those two, it's still going to be difficult for me to explain this to the village because the real problem will be how Satsuki will get when she finds out that his only brother (not a traitor) is dead.

'I can already imagine her with an extra cross on her sharingan (or maybe not)'

"Well I guess I'll retire, later I'll bring you flowers..." So while I finished saying those last words my haki warned me of some presences beyond me.

Following their presence one of them spoke.

"We're not dead yet so we don't need your flowers" Rai who appreciates hearing my words from that distance speaks with a little annoyance.

"Oh, they were still alive..." I say with a bit of confusion.

'I'm sure I saw them inside the explosion but I guess they were just clones'

"It seems that you are disappointed that we are still alive"

"Oh no no, I was just puzzled, how can you think that of me, I love my teammates very much"

"Hmp" He just snorted at my words, apparently not wanting to hear the words of hypocrisy.

Also losing interest I turn forward to look at the explosion site but not before taking a look at the place where I had previously found a paper bomb while using my tracking technique.

'I had completely forgotten about this'

He observed on the floor a small hole in the ground.

"Well, it was obvious that they had to realize it and they were able to do it with those in front who didn't even notice me so this must have been very easy"

With the smoke dispersed he watched the whole scene a bit surprised.

'I seem to remember that the explosion only happened in the place where Rai and Sayuki's clones were standing but why the hell is everything destroyed?'

Houses, land, and even some of the walls have been destroyed.

When I'm about to ask my questions, Sayuki speaks with a bit of annoyance.

"Hmp, react fast huh" She continued with a fixed gaze ahead.

Curiously, she also looked in her direction and in the middle of the destroyed houses I see a man come out of the rubble while he coughs slightly.

"Damn, I didn't expect him to fall into a trap-*cough slightly*"

The man fully stands up and shows the appearance of him.

His clothes are torn but it is shown that he was wearing armor inside of it so he has no injuries.

"If I didn't react in that last second, maybe I'd be like them but unfortunately I'm especially strong fighting ground style"

"I see that you have too many words to brag about, eh, I would be begging forgiveness in your place, after all, it's all over for you"

"Hehehe, what do you mean, can't you see that I'm safe and sound, I'm enough to kill all of you" The man completely composes himself as he smiles.

"Don't you see that all your helpers are already out for the count?"

"Hahahaha, you don't need to worry about it, you'll be surprised how many ninjas are willing to serve for some gold but enough talk, you guys will die here anyway *pull out katana*, before you were able to destroy my men because they were stupid and they were fooled by a bunch of brats but that won't work with me *points the tip of the katana in our direction*"

"Then you are also stupid, not only did you fall into a childish trap before, but now you have fallen into another trap as well, now!"

Then around the man appear small insects that seem to have come out from under the earth.

"That won't work again" Then the man quickly swings his katana around him spreading a dark powder on him.

*crackling* *electricity spreading*

An aura of illuminated electricity appears from him, destroying any insect that gets in his way.

I just smiled seeing this.

"Idiot, that was just a distraction" I move to the side letting Rai see that he was holding a seal while he had a bulging mouth.

He moves from his original spot by running forward.

He runs a few meters and releases the fire he was holding.

*big ball of fire*

A ball-shaped flare shoots forward.

Seeing the teamwork so synchronized gives me a wry smile.

This isn't the first time we synchronized like this, it's happened before but I don't remember how it happened, I just know that this cooperation started with me distracting the enemy somehow followed by Sayuki ambushing the enemy and finally ending with Rai delivering the finisher. or coup de grace.

The moment I started conversing with the enemy boss was a kind of signal for Sayuki to follow him accordingly.

A simple but effective combination.

"Hey, I knew my (distraction) tactics were going to work" I say complacently after seeing that the enemy is finished.

"You didn't do anything" Rai speaks from the front, cutting me off from complacency.

'Well, on second thought you're right about that but I'm not a person willing to admit that'

Just when I'm about to fight, the voice of the person who is supposed to be defeated is heard.

"Hehehe, they talk a lot, I didn't even feel tickled" The man gets up from his half-kneeling state as he smirks.