Ishikawa Itsuki shouted and bolted into the fog.
Uchiha Jin: "…"
Nara Kazama: "…"
They stared, stunned.
Good grief.
They knew Itsuki was useless, but not this useless.
Jin slapped his forehead.
"Idiot."
"Is his brain broken."
Kazama could only give a helpless smile.
With a teammate like this, words failed him.
As a Nara, his strength was average, but his head worked fine.
"We have to save him, even if we want to wring his neck," he said, drawing a breath.
"Why," Jin asked.
"Because we are a squad," Kazama murmured, cutting a glance at Kudo. "If he lives and files a report, what then."
"Even if he dies, we still have a leader."
"This squad is stitched together. There is no trust."
"You and I have shared stakes, but can you be sure Kudo will not sell us out."
"His chakra is drained now, so he cannot hear us."
"But a report is a merit."
"Our leader is a civilian."
"For that one bit of credit, can you swear he would not throw us under the cart."
Jin sucked in a breath.
He looked at Kazama with new eyes.
The Nara reputation for brains was well earned, but this was something else. Even with two lives' worth of caution, he had not played it through this cleanly.
Kazama was only a side branch. If even he thought like this, what about Nara Shikaku.
A scream cut through the mist.
Itsuki's voice.
So fast.
Jin scowled.
"Dead weight."
"Fine. Move."
Resolved, he flashed into the fog and ran through seals.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique."
He exhaled a booming sphere that roared toward the scream.
Kazama did not hesitate.
"Wind Style: Tornado Tempest."
His hands blurred, spinning a towering funnel of wind.
Wind fed fire, fire drove wind.
The Great Fireball swelled into a raging blaze and punched holes through the Hidden Mist. The three shinobi attacking Itsuki were torn apart in a heartbeat by the twin jutsu.
Jin blinked.
A B rank wind technique. So this teammate was not as simple as he had looked.
SWISH, SWISH, SWISH!
Kunai rippled out of the thinning fog as the Mist moved. One squad pelted them with steel. The other sprinted for the wagons.
"I will handle this group," Jin said. "Kazama, guard the supplies."
Kazama nodded and broke for the carts.
Jin drew a kunai, batted aside the incoming points, then pushed his speed to the edge and fell upon the Mist shinobi.
He was fast.
Even without ninjutsu or the Navy Six, his taijutsu eclipsed the average fighter.
With basic forms alone he felled one in a blink.
"How."
"Three Konoha shinobi with real jutsu. This is an elite team."
"Bad intel. Retreat."
The two Mist leaders shouted once and turned on their heels.
No one spared a glance at the dead.
Kazama, having just dropped one attacker, watched the rest scatter and ran back to Jin.
"Pursue," he asked.
Jin rolled his eyes.
This teammate was something. A B rank wind user with a mind like a Nara's, yet looking to him for the call. Then again, that might simply be the Nara way.
"No need," he said. "Our job is to move supplies."
"No extra branches."
"Got it."
Kazama found partnering with Jin surprisingly easy. Their thinking aligned.
Wait. He is Uchiha.
This did not feel like an Uchiha at all.
Whatever. Trouble was trouble, and he hated it.
He glanced at the ground, where Itsuki lay unconscious, and grimaced.
Still alive. How stubborn could one life be.
He disliked the man, but sighed anyway.
"Fine."
"Since he is breathing, treat him."
Jin frowned, then nodded. He did not like the guy either, but killing him was a line.
They lifted Itsuki onto a wagon, smeared basic salve, and fed him a ration pill. That was as far as they would go.
No med nin in the team. They would not lose sleep over his fate.
If he made it to the forward camp's medics, he would live. If not, he would not.
They climbed down. Kazama's eyes turned.
"Jin, how do we report this," he whispered.
Jin's gaze sharpened.
"Tell the truth, right. What else."
Kazama sighed.
This Uchiha was pretending ignorance.
With how he had moved just now, there was no way he had not thought of the aftermath.
But Kazama had raised it first. He could only continue.
"Now that we have shown our hand, the missions will get messy."
"I think we are the same type, the kind that hates trouble."
"So be frank."
Jin shelved the act. He hated hassle too. Village merits did not interest him.
"What do you propose."
Kazama was no fool. He saw the test, but Kudo could wake at any time. No point wasting minutes.
"Leader is in recovery and cannot sense outside."
"Itsuki is out cold. The civilians are all dead."
"Three wagons. We each take one. If you lack a storage scroll, I will lend you one."
"As for dead Mist shinobi, we seal them for now and deal with them later."
"When the leader wakes, we say our strength was limited. We barely saved one wagon. The other two were taken."
"Itsuki charged ahead, ignored us, and got cut down."
"We risked ourselves to drag him back."