"Who's there?!"
Taiseki's heart lurched.
He'd just checked the surroundings—there shouldn't have been any Konoha ninja left.
Unless someone had slipped away before he swept the area.
And that would only be possible…for a sensor.
"A sensor, huh?"
His gaze moved between Kiyohara, Kurenai, and Genma, trying to pick out which one it was.
"Kiyohara…"
Kakashi glanced back at him and felt a small wave of relief.
Compared to dead-last Obito, Kiyohara was a lot more reliable.
"So that's all it is—two chūnin and a genin?"
Taiseki formed a one-handed seal, refining chakra to keep himself invisible.
Hiding with Camouflage Technique.
The dust outlining his body vanished again, his form dissolving into the air.
"No, Kiyohara—your chakra reserves aren't as big as his," Kakashi said, gripping his short blade, brows tightly knit.
Even if Kiyohara could blow Taiseki's outline out with Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, he wouldn't be able to maintain it for long. Taiseki could just keep recasting his jutsu—and he could do it more times than Kiyohara could throw wind.
"Heh. The White Fang's kid, huh? Not the White Fang himself—nothing to be afraid of, then."
Taiseki smiled viciously at Kakashi.
Konoha's White Fang had killed plenty of his comrades. Killing the son would be a decent sort of payback.
But…before that.
His eyes turned to Kiyohara.
Right now, Kiyohara was the bigger threat.
Watching their formation, Taiseki noticed Kurenai and Genma both stood half a step behind Kiyohara.
That meant Kiyohara had the most authority—likely the squad leader.
With that kind of leadership, the outstanding sensory ability had to be his too.
In fact, it was probably because he had such sensing skills that he was qualified to lead.
Taiseki's mind raced, rapidly breaking down Kiyohara's profile.
A faint brushing sound in the air—
Taiseki moved.
"He's completely erased his scent. All we've got left to track him with is air movement and tiny sounds," Kakashi muttered, face tight.
Suddenly he shouted, "Behind you, Kiyohara!"
Clang!
At the same moment, kunai met kunai, steel sparking.
"Oh?"
Taiseki raised a brow.
Sensors usually leaned toward support; he hadn't expected Kiyohara to actually catch his surprise attack.
His first strike failed; Taiseki stepped back and melted into the darkness again.
"You guys go save Rin. Leave him to me," Kiyohara said.
In some ways, Taiseki was trickier than the other Iwa jōnin, Kakko.
Invisibility was a very annoying ability to deal with.
"Kiyohara…"
Kurenai wanted to say something, but he shook his head, telling her not to worry about him.
"Alright. Be careful," she said, still anxious.
She and Genma headed deeper into the tunnel.
Kakashi and Obito followed.
One way or another, they needed to reduce enemy numbers first. Kill one, and they could focus on the other. The weight on the scales of victory now depended on which side cut down a member first.
"Heh, letting your comrades pass, huh?"
Taiseki found himself respecting Kiyohara's resolve.
Enemy or not, the kid was a real shinobi.
Unfortunately, Taiseki wasn't worried about the rear.
In ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu, Kakko was exceptionally strong—a jōnin among jōnin. A few snot-nosed brats weren't going to bring him down.
The thought almost made him laugh.
He held it in. Laughing would give away his position.
"Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder!"
Kiyohara's hands flashed through seals and arcs of lightning crawled along the ground.
Taiseki jumped up, twisting to plant himself upside down on the cave ceiling, neatly avoiding the ground-level lightning.
"This brat's ninjutsu are no joke," he thought, frowning.
Kiyohara looked like a genin, but his jutsu execution was smooth and practiced—well beyond that level.
It made Taiseki drop his contempt and watch him seriously.
"So you dodged it. Invisibility's great and all, but rely on it too much and you'll die to it…"
Kiyohara grabbed a big handful of powder from his tool pouch.
"Ninja Art…!"
He shouted, like he was about to launch something big.
Taiseki's eyes sharpened.
Kiyohara's Great Breakthrough and Electromagnetic Murder had both been impressive—clearly, the kid had talent for ninjutsu.
Seeing him prepping a new technique, Taiseki's guard shot up.
He stared, trying to read Kiyohara's hand seals and infer what he was about to use.
It was a standard high-level habit—predict the enemy's jutsu from their seals and prep a counter. It demanded a broad knowledge base to connect a seal pattern to a likely technique.
Kiyohara stacked his hands together, palms overlapping, the powder trapped between them. His hands looked like they were covering each other.
The Monkey seal.
Taiseki recognized it immediately—one of the twelve basic hand signs.
"Water Release: Snake's Mouth? Or something else?"
In an instant, dozens of Monkey-opening jutsu flashed through his mind, most of them Water Release.
But with just one seal to go on, there were too many possibilities.
He narrowed his eyes further, trying to see more.
"Lime Scatter Technique!"
Kiyohara first hurled the lime powder into the air—then followed it with a Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, shouting the name as he did.
"Ah!"
The wind blasted the lime straight into Taiseki's face.
Even with his quick reflexes, he'd been caught off guard. The powder still got into his eyes. White-hot pain burned in his sockets, turning his vision into a blur.
He had never imagined Kiyohara would be this dirty.
One second he was risking himself to let his comrades go help Rin—soloing a jōnin to buy time.
The next, he was pulling something this cheap.
"Damn brat, you—!"
Taiseki coughed angrily and tried to form an Earth Release.
The moment he opened his mouth, Kiyohara tossed another handful of lime—straight into his open mouth.
"Cough—cough, cough, cough—!"
His eyes burned, his throat burned.
"Do you even have a ninja's spirit?!" Taiseki rasped.
"Sorry, I'm an old-school ninja," Kiyohara said with a grin.
The guy was funny—an invisible ambusher lecturing him about ninja pride.
"Alright then. I'm invisible now too. Let's have a fair fight."
Kiyohara's voice was calm.
If Taiseki's eyes couldn't see him, didn't that mean he was "invisible" as well?
~~~
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