The faint whisper of the wind rustled through the bamboo leaves.
Kakashi, Obito, and Rin advanced in a straight-line "snake" formation, moving at a steady, deliberate pace—nowhere near the headlong rush they'd kept up right after parting from Minato-sensei.
At the very front: Kakashi.
Obito took the middle.
Rin brought up the rear.
The arrangement was far from random. Kakashi wasn't in the lead solely because he was the team captain and needed to set the example—though that was part of it. More importantly, he possessed a razor-sharp battle sense, able to detect an enemy ambush before it sprang.
Earlier,
he had picked up on the presence of Koeda Kyoichi and Moguchi lying in wait.
Obito's position in the center allowed him to provide immediate support once Kakashi engaged the enemy, aiming to take them down as quickly as possible. And as for Rin, their medical-nin—naturally, she was placed in the rear, as far from danger as possible.
If someone were to ask what they would do should an enemy bypass the front line and go straight for Rin…
Well—if an opponent could slip past Kakashi and Obito's senses to appear behind them, then putting Rin in the middle wouldn't help much.
Against that sort of enemy,
no formation would matter.
Unfortunately for them,
today,
one of the foes they were about to face was precisely that kind of infiltration specialist.
When Kakashi's squad stepped lightly onto the mirror-smooth surface of the lake, Enkō and Dani, hidden behind a high blue-gray boulder on the far shore, were watching their every move.
"Oi… Magari and Kyoichi went out scouting yesterday and never came back. Don't tell me they got taken out by those brats?" Enkō leaned out from behind the rock, his face full of puzzlement and disbelief.
If Magari or Kyoichi had been acting alone, he might not have ruled out the chance of them screwing up and getting killed.
In that case,
he would simply laugh at their weakness and incompetence.
But Magari and Kyoichi had gone together. Yes, Kyoichi was on the younger side for a jōnin, but if he'd passed the village's exam, his strength was unquestionable. Combined with Magari's exceptional swordsmanship and speed…
There was no way three Konoha kids could have taken them out.
What—
Were all three of these kids secretly Konoha jōnin?
That would be absurd.
"You can't guess the truth of something like this. More often than not, the truth is beyond anything we can imagine. Instead of wasting time speculating, it'd be simpler to just ask them directly."
As Dani spoke, he finished forming hand seals.
The next instant—
right before Enkō's eyes, his body turned transparent, vanishing completely from sight.
"Well… Magari and Kyoichi may really have been taken out. No harm in being careful. But you're right—guessing back and forth is a pain. Let's just capture these brats and make them talk…"
Still—
there was no denying these three "brats" seemed to have some bite.
"They've spotted us?"
Enkō narrowed his eyes.
Below,
Kakashi's footsteps came to a sudden halt on the lake's surface. Raising his right hand, he gave a signal to Obito behind him. He had sensed danger—the faintest trace of human presence in the air. In this deserted war zone, there was no way it was just some random passerby.
The moment he saw Kakashi's signal,
Obito's nerves went taut.
Beneath his goggles,
his eyes flushed red, and the black double tomoe of his Sharingan spun furiously.
Then—
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Without hesitation, Obito unleashed his most iconic Fire Release technique toward the empty water to their right. A blazing sphere roared across the lake's surface. A heavy splash followed—something weighty had plunged into the water.
And at the same moment—
"Shff! Shff! Shff!!"
From above,
bamboo stalks—cut so sharp they could skewer a wild boar—came raining down like a deadly storm toward the trio.
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"
Kakashi's reaction was instant. Even though Obito hadn't followed their prearranged plan of intercepting the enemy's first attack to give Kakashi a counterstrike opening, Kakashi didn't miss a beat. His hands blurred through five seals—Tiger → Snake → Rat → Snake → Tiger.
The water beneath their feet surged upward,
a torrent rising to form a flowing wall that swept aside the sharpened bamboo.
No matter how keenly they'd been cut, bamboo was still light—no match for the sheer force of a water wall.
"Obito, what's going on?" Kakashi barked.
"I saw chakra," Obito replied curtly.
That alone was enough for Kakashi, the so-called prodigy.
"Invisible enemy, huh? That guy's probably still alive—my guess is he dove into the water to dodge your attack. Keep your Sharingan on him. I'll take the other one!"
The water wall crashed down—
and Kakashi's gaze locked onto Enkō, who was lunging at him with two slender, snow-white blades sprouting from the backs of his hands, like a crane swooping in for the kill.
Kakashi drew the short blade of the White Fang from his back and met Enkō head-on, their clash erupting into a fierce, point-blank exchange of steel.
Within just a few breaths,
the air rang with harsh, rapid clangs of metal on metal.
Gravity soon forced both combatants apart—
Kakashi landing lightly back on the lake, Enkō perching atop a jagged rock in midstream.
"Dani—what the hell are you doing?" Enkō's face darkened.
It wasn't frustration at failing to get the upper hand against Kakashi. Rather, it was irritation that Dani hadn't taken advantage of his distraction to capture the girl at the back of the formation. His voice rose, sharp with annoyance.
"Sharingan!"
Dani emerged from the water, his expression equally grim.
That Great Fireball had almost roasted him alive—if he hadn't cut off the chakra at his feet and let gravity drag him under in the nick of time, he wouldn't be here to answer.
Even now, he didn't dare meet Obito's eyes.
His gaze stayed fixed below the boy's neck.
"Uchiha…"
At that name, Enkō's face twisted into something that could only be described as—
stepping in dog crap,
and immediately having bird droppings splatter across your head.