Chapter 15 – Blood in the Valley
The masked shinobi lunged through the haze, their movements sharp and disciplined. These weren't desperate bandits scavenging scraps—they were trained, dangerous, and organized.
Ayaka reacted instantly. "Formation B! Don't let them separate us!"
Kai slammed his palms into the ground. Stone spikes jutted up, intercepting a pair of incoming kunai, while Renji darted forward with reckless speed, his blade flashing. Suki's tags detonated at the edge of the ravine, forcing the enemy into predictable lanes.
The first clash came fast. Kai met a masked enemy head-on, his stone gauntlet clashing against the man's kunai. Sparks flew. The force rattled Kai's arm, but he gritted his teeth and pressed back.
This isn't training. This is survival.
The enemy shifted, weaving signs too quick for comfort—Fire Release. Flames roared across the narrow ravine, heat searing the air.
Kai's instincts screamed. He slammed his hands down, raising a thick wall of stone. The fire struck, cracks spider-webbing through the barrier, but it held. Smoke curled around him as he pushed out with a burst of chakra, shattering the wall into fragments that sprayed forward like shrapnel. The enemy staggered, giving Renji the opening to strike him down.
"Nice one!" Renji shouted, but there was no time to celebrate. Two more masked shinobi dropped from the cliffs above, their weapons glinting.
Ayaka moved like lightning, kunai in each hand. She intercepted the first, steel clashing in a deadly rhythm, her strikes precise and unrelenting. "Stay sharp!" she barked, forcing the genin to keep pace.
Kai's chest burned with the weight of chakra expenditure. His heartbeat thundered, but a fire ignited within him too—a realization. I can do this. I'm not just holding back the storm. I am part of it.
As he rose, earth chakra surging, he felt it: the Stone answering him.
The battle had only just begun.