Kakashi, Obito, and Rin were now locked in a fierce battle.
All three of them had sustained various injuries.
Among them, Kakashi was the most severely injured.
Deep cuts covered his left arm and back, blood oozing steadily.
Panting heavily, Kakashi shouted at Obito and Rin, "You two need to fall back—now!"
"Kakashi!"
Obito and Rin shouted his name in unison, clearly neither willing to abandon Kakashi.
Kakashi's voice turned serious. "If we keep this up, we'll all die here. You two scatter and run. At least one of you must survive!"
Without giving Obito and Rin time to hesitate, Kakashi hurled two smoke bombs toward them.
Smoke enveloped Obito and Rin.
Three Cloud Ninja stood before them—one rushed directly at Kakashi while the other two attempted to chase after Obito and Rin through the smoke.
Kakashi threw several kunai at the two Cloud Ninjas heading into the smoke, then raised his short blade to counterattack the ninja charging at him.
Suddenly, all three Cloud Ninjas leaped backward.
Several kunai struck the ground where they had just stood. If not for their quick retreat, those kunai would have hit them.
Kakashi and the three Cloud Ninjas simultaneously turned their gazes toward the smoke.
Because those kunai had been launched from inside the smoke.
Kakashi furrowed his brow.
Could it be that Obito and Rin hadn't actually left?
This was absurd!
He had risked his life specifically to create an escape opportunity for them.
When the smoke cleared, two new figures emerged—one tall and one small.
Their faces couldn't be seen clearly.
This was because both had cloth wrapped around their faces. Only the younger one had cut two holes for the eyes, while the taller figure had simply covered his entire face with a piece of black cloth.
However, their identities were obvious nonetheless.
It was Shindai and his puppet, Kannazuki.
This was Shindai's idea—by hiding his face, no one would recognize him.
"Shindai!"
Obito called out excitedly.
Shindai's scalp prickled as he looked at Obito in disbelief. "No way… You recognized me already?!"
Obito asked confusedly, "It's pretty obvious. Your face aside, everything else about you hasn't changed. By the way, why did you cover your face?"
Shindai gave Obito an exasperated eye-roll. "Obito, you're making this really hard for me."
Shindai hadn't expected that his supposedly flawless disguise would be so easily seen through by Obito.
When Kakashi saw Shindai return, he immediately felt a wave of relief—if Shindai joined the fight, they were safe.
But Shindai hesitated again. Should he reveal his strength in front of Kakashi, Obito and Rin?
That wouldn't be good. If Kakashi talks about this, we might end up getting stuck with dangerous combat missions later.
Seeing Shindai's conflicted expression, Kakashi guessed that Shindai was probably thinking about whether or not to expose his true abilities.
It would've been better if Obito had acted like he didn't recognize Shindai earlier.
Kakashi called out to Shindai, "Shindai, we can't see a thing right now!"
Obito looked at Kakashi confused, "I can see clearly. Rin, you can see too, right?"
Rin Nohara had already caught on to Kakashi's intention and quickly agreed, "Right, I can't see anything at all now. Obito, you mustn't see anything either!"
Obito felt somewhat lost. What was going on here?
When both Kakashi and Rin Nohara stared intensely at him, Obito could only respond helplessly, "Um... I also can't see anything."
Upon hearing what Kakashi, Obito and Rin had said, Shindai couldn't help but lift an eyebrow slightly.
Listening to Kakashi talk like that... was he actually trying to cover for him?
Otherwise why would Kakashi say "we can't see anything"? Obviously those were words meant to hide his abilities.
He hadn't even shown any real moves yet. Kakashi and the others still didn't know his true strength—so why say something like that?
Could it be... that Kakashi had already sensed the aura of a powerful expert from him?
That must be it!
There's an old saying, right? Strong souls instantly recognize one another just by sensing each other's presence.
Because he himself was strong, Kakashi had sensed it.
Shindai nodded with satisfaction, "Kakashi, you get me. It's best if you can't see anything, otherwise I'd have bolted."
Kakashi exhaled softly in relief.
Thank goodness he'd thought fast under pressure just now. Otherwise, if Shindai ran off again, the three of them would've been in deep trouble.
Still, Kakashi hadn't expected the cowardly and trouble-avoiding Shindai to actually come back.
Just as Shindai was about to brag a bit more, three Cloud Ninjas suddenly came charging at them unexpectedly.
Two targeted Kannazuki while one rushed toward Shindai's opponent.
Because Kannazuki's clone appeared extremely lifelike, the enemy ninja didn't carefully detect its nature and assumed it was a real person.
And since Kannazuki's clone had the appearance of a full-grown adult, they naturally prioritized attacking it first.
[Kannazuki – Needle Barrage!]
The chest cavity of Kannazuki suddenly opened, shooting out many rapid, densely-packed senbon needles.
The two Cloud Ninjas charging toward Kannazuki were shocked when they saw its chest open. As soon as they saw large numbers of needles firing toward them, they immediately attempted evasive maneuvers.
However, because the attack came far too suddenly, one of the Cloud Ninjas dodged a little too slowly and got several senbon needles embedded into his body.
Needless to say, Shindai's senbon were naturally laced with poison.
The poison worked fast. The Cloud Ninja pierced by the Senbon needles soon felt his body begin to go numb.
However, this poison wasn't particularly strong—it wasn't lethal, and its effects would fade after a short while, causing only temporary paralysis.
Unfortunately, Shindai didn't study poisons much himself. These toxins were obtained for him by Pakura.
Since Shindai stayed at home alone all day, Pakura worried that if he accidentally ingested something or got a cut, no one might notice in time—so she dared not give him any potent poisons.
The Cloud Ninja charging toward Shindai was Rumoda, now within striking distance and preparing to slash.
Shindai twisted his right arm sharply.
Kannazuki darted back in front of Shindai in an instant.
Under Shindai's control, Kannazuki's right arm ejected a ninja sword, blocking Rumoda's slash.
[Kannazuki: Blade Whirlpool!]
Blades sprang forth from all of Kannazuki's joints.
With Shindai's hands moving swiftly, Kannazuki twisted and turned under his manipulation, striking impossible—or at least unnatural—poses, blades whirling like a vortex around his joints as they rushed toward Rumoda.
At first, Rumoda attempted to block the incoming attacks.
However, faced with Kannazuki's relentless assault and unpredictable angles of attack, Rumoda realized after a brief attempt that defense was hopeless—and quickly retreated.
Seeing that Shindai wasn't struggling against the Cloud Ninja, Rin Nohara immediately ran over to Kakashi, who had the most severe injuries, to provide emergency treatment.
As for Obito… he just stood there watching. Honestly, there wasn't much he could do anyway.
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