Chapter 46

Chapter 46: Entering the Heat

"That was really close!"

The kunai fell, severing the head of the Mist Chunin.

Holding the head of the Mist Chunin, Koshino panted heavily, not just from the exhaustion of the previous rounds of combat, but from the tension of hovering on the brink of life and death! 

Undoubtedly, if you were to compare Koshino's true strength, he was about on par with that Mist Chunin.

In fact, if Koshino had really gone all out, taking down that Mist Chunin would have been a matter of seconds, especially since the Mist Chunin was unaware of Koshino's many secret techniques.

Using those secret techniques, Koshino could have potentially instantly killed the Mist Chunin.

However, Koshino's shortcoming lay in his lack of combat experience.

Clearly, the Mist Chunin had far more combat experience than Koshino, turning what could have been a perfect score battle for Koshino into a barely passing one.

Yet, it was precisely this encounter with the Mist Chunin that made Koshino truly understand the harshness of the battlefield.

On the battlefield, regardless of exhaustion or severe injury, as long as you can kill the enemy and survive, that's a victory. 

Moreover, when fighting on the battlefield, you must find ways to kill the enemy quickly, preferably before they can use their trump card, and cut off their head—that's the best combat method.

Like Koshino, who first probed with shuriken, then pressed with the Leaf Whirlwind, what was the result?

Didn't he still almost fall to the ruthless tactics of the Mist Chunin, facing the danger of nearly dying?

So, after using the Shadow Clone Technique as a trump card to barely win, Koshino, having successfully claimed the Mist Chunin's head, slowly closed his eyes, reflecting on the previous battle.

Analyzing every detail of the fight, even if there was no improvement in strength, Koshino felt he had become much stronger with the gained combat experience.

However, just as Koshino was contemplating his progress, stepping over several puddles and preparing to return to see what situation Kakashi and the others were facing, he suddenly let out a cold laugh, his hands swiftly forming seals together!

"Just a kid like me, and you Mist Village people are really cautious, huh?"

"If I'm not mistaken, that Chunin just now was your captain, right?"

"Since your captain died by my hands, what can you three mere Genin do?"

"Die!"

"Shadow Sewing Technique!"

"Swish!"

"Swish!"

"Swish!"

As his hands formed seals, the black shadow beneath Koshino spread out, targeting the direction of the three puddles behind him.

And as Koshino let out a cold snort, the Mist Genin hidden in the puddles clearly realized something was wrong.

However, if these three Mist ninjas were of Chunin level, they might have been able to evade Koshino's Shadow Sewing Technique.

With Koshino having seen through their plans early on, how could mere Genin-level ninjas possibly evade Koshino's rapid hand seals?

So, before the three Mist Genin could react, the shadow beneath Koshino's feet connected with the shadows of the three Mist Genin behind them. 

Using the Shadow Sewing Technique, he directly immobilized the three. Lacking interrogation skills and to avoid any complications, Koshino didn't even bother with questioning them, instead, he changed his hand seals directly!

"Shadow Neck Binding Technique!"

"Crack!"

"Crack!"

"Crack!"

The hands formed by the condensed shadows climbed up, and with Koshino's Shadow Neck Binding Technique, the necks of the three Mist Genin snapped instantly, dying a gruesome death in front of Koshino.

Then, while using the Shadow Hand to search the ninja tool pouches of the Mist ninjas, Koshino found a peculiar scroll in the pouch of a Mist Chunin. He quickly controlled the Shadow Hand to place the scroll into an empty ninja tool pouch.

But in the next second, looking at the four Mist ninja corpses around him, Koshino realized he didn't even have time to clean up the battlefield. He dashed swiftly towards Kakashi and the others!

"Even to deal with a kid like me, the Mist would send a ninja squad. What kind of ambush are Kakashi and the others facing?"

"Damn it!"

"It seems like the moment we left the village, these Mist ninjas already knew our information!"

"Kakashi said it was to eliminate a group of bandits? This is no bandit; it's clearly Mist spies infiltrating the Land of Fire!"

Thinking silently to himself, Koshino burst with chakra under his feet, accelerating once more.

Moreover, as Koshino rushed towards Kakashi's location, the conspiracy behind the Mist ambush gradually unraveled in his reasoning, revealing a truth!

The defense of the Land of Fire's borders is undeniably strong.

Especially during the ninja war period, if the Konoha village ninjas couldn't even guard the borders of the Land of Fire, could Konoha have won the Third Great Ninja War?

Now, not only has a squad of Mist ninjas infiltrated the Land of Fire, but they are lurking within a dozen miles around Konoha village. 

This is certainly an unusual situation in the well-guarded Land of Fire. Thus, Koshino quickly deduced that there must be a spy or traitor within Konoha village communicating with the Mist.

Otherwise, how could the Mist ambush come so quickly?

Be so successfully arranged?

And as Koshino uncovered the secret behind the Mist ambush, he was faced with two choices!

The first was to return to Konoha village as quickly as possible to report this matter to the Fourth Hokage.

This choice was undoubtedly safer, at least for Koshino.

Unfortunately, this safe choice only flashed through Koshino's mind briefly.

Because Koshino knew that if he chose to return to Konoha village, then Kakashi, Guy, and the others would face a life-and-death crisis!

As mentioned earlier, the Mist sent a ninja squad just to deal with a kid like Koshino. So, when dealing with others, especially someone like Kakashi who is a Jonin, the Mist would likely send a Jonin squad or a squad several times stronger than Kakashi and the others to quickly eliminate them!

Perhaps Koshino and Kakashi weren't very close.

But in that squad, there was Guy who had helped Koshino, and familiar faces like Lighningdō Namiashi, Iwashi Tatami, and Genma Shiranui. Not for Kakashi, but for these people he was familiar with, people he had bonds with, Koshino took a deep breath and resolved to reach Kakashi and the others' battlefield as quickly as possible before the Mist could kill them.

However, upon arriving at Kakashi and the others' battlefield, Koshino was utterly unprepared for the dire situation they were facing!

Hidden in the nearby woods, as Koshino reached the battlefield and secretly glanced towards Kakashi and the others, he discovered that the Anbu squad led by Kakashi, except for Kakashi himself, had no one left with combat capability!

"Kakashi, what exactly did you encounter?"

Some power stones :D