Chapter 98

So that's what 'familiar territory' means!

Emerging from behind the cover of a low boulder, I threw a couple of gifts towards the ninja who had been lurking there, and as soon as he changed position, I sent a fan of specially reserved poisoned senbons in his direction, sincerely hoping that this bastard wouldn't notice a couple in the darkness and would gift me an easy victory.

Despite the work of Chikatsu Saisei no Jutsu and decent regeneration, I need to treat my wound as soon as possible, and especially avoid jumping across rocks, straining already damaged muscles. For now, we're in a deadlock—he has no weapons but some chakra left for jutsu, while I have little chakra but enough throwing weapons for long-range combat.

Ah, and we're both sensors, forced to stay not far from each other so the enemy doesn't go to help his partner, but also unable to engage in close combat. Well, I'm hesitant to engage, and he's cautious, remembering my hizutsu.

However, amidst our own considerations, we somehow overlooked the state of affairs in the main camp, and most likely simultaneously noticed the approach of a dozen sources of chakra from that side, as well as the overall diminishing sounds of battle. Focusing, I identified some of the jonin who possessed the most vivid elemental affinity with fire, clearly indicating a couple of Uchihas.

So our side won and they've come to assist. It seems the wielder of Kekkei Genkai came to similar conclusions and, no longer paying attention to me, turned around and began to dash straight in the opposite direction at full speed.

Sighing with relief, I leaned my shoulder against the cold stone and wiped the sweat from my brow. Screw it, golden fish, the main thing is I'm alive and relatively intact; there was a pretty big chance of losing to this clan shinobi and ending up as a charred corpse right here.

Of course, I still have a couple of aces up my sleeve, but even a large amount of chakra won't help if you're buried under a thick layer of lava. And the years of accumulation in the seal on my forehead should be saved for stronger opponents than some Iwa clan fighter.

Unfortunately, my elements aren't much help against such Kekkei Genkai, unlike Doton. As soon as I return to the village, I'll work on setting up good defensive barriers based on chakra chains, as a universal defense against all kinds of mixed elements, for which Suiton and Raiton won't suffice.

'Nara-san, are you alright?'

The shinobi who landed next to me recognized me almost immediately.

'Not great, but I'll be soon,' I grimaced, returning feeling to my back and creating a clone that immediately began to heal it, 'the wounded are under a barrier, but I won't be of much use in the next few hours, so the sooner you get to my clones, the more chakra they'll have left to aid the injured.'

'Understood,' the jonin immediately used his radio to pass on the received information to the others.

Well, another sortie has ended for me, albeit on a somewhat larger scale than usual. I can't say I'm satisfied with the outcome—let's just say, the first serious injury with a burn dangerous even for a shinobi—but considering that facing a dozen opponents with just one partner, I'm still alive, it's a worthy result. Waiting until the shadow clone of the Kage exhausts all its chakra and patches me up a bit, I headed towards the devastated Iwa camp under the guard of an unfamiliar jonin.

Just another episode in the war. How many more will there be? This time we were lucky to catch the enemy camp off guard. However, no one guarantees that after some time, Iwagakure shinobi won't set a trap on another raid, simply burying our troops in one of the canyons with a landslide. It's happened before. Unlike the Land of Fire, the Land of Stone is much better suited for unexpected attacks and ambushes, and the enemy here has a significant advantage, despite the qualitative superiority of our fighters.

I've got more interesting stuff on patreon (up to 180 chapter)

patreon.com/Chill76