"Whoosh!"

  ko 13 made the first move, sending a kunai flying from his sleeve with incredible speed, the sharp whistle of air following in its wake, heading straight for the first Konoha ninja that appeared.

  The Konoha ninja tilted his head slightly, easily dodging the kunai, which could have easily killed a low-ranked ninja. In response, he threw two shuriken with a swift motion.

  ko 13 leapt to the side, pulling Lin Quannai along with him to avoid the shuriken, but another ninja rushed in from behind, aiming to strike.

  Without hesitation, ko 13 executed a swift sidekick, only to pass through the ninja's form—this was just a clone.

  The real ninja had already begun forming hand seals on ko 13’s left.

  The tiger seal—Fire Style, ko 13 thought, and immediately lunged forward, charging at the Konoha ninja who had started the attack.

  The Konoha ninja drew two more kunai and threw them at ko 13. "Clink, clink," the short sword crossed in front of him, blocking the incoming kunai. At the same time, the ninja behind him had successfully completed his hand seals.

  "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" A massive fireball, nearly two meters in diameter, shot towards ko 13.

  ko 13 slid sideways, narrowly avoiding the fireball, which continued its trajectory towards the Konoha ninja ahead. He quickly followed it, closing in behind.

  "Ma, watch out! He's hiding behind the fireball!" The Konoha ninja who had unleashed the fireball shouted.

  Ma quickly evaded the fireball, ready to block ko 13’s short sword, while the ninja behind came up, throwing kunai at ko 13’s back.

  At that moment, ko 13’s body twisted into a strange angle, his legs staying in pce while the rest of him turned almost 180 degrees to avoid the kunai. He swung his short sword.

  "Whoosh!" The sword light fshed, and the ninja using Fire Style had his right hand severed cleanly.

  "Ahhh!" The ninja screamed in pain.

  "Long!" Ma shouted, blocking ko 13’s next strike, only to be sent flying by a powerful kick.

  "I'm fine! Quickly fire a fre! We need backup from Jōnin!" Long yelled, clutching his wrist. "He's not just any ninja! He’s holding a child in his left arm and isn’t even using his full power!"

  "Jōnin?" Upon hearing this, ko 13’s expression darkened. He gently set Lin Quannai down, "Stay safe." With that, he exploded into a burst of speed, twice as fast as before, and charged at Ma.

  Ma grabbed a fre and, seeing ko 13 charging toward him, cursed, "Damn it," before forming hand seals. "Earth Style: Earth..."

  ko 13 pced his left index and middle fingers to his lips. A gust of wind suddenly whipped up, and he used the wind’s momentum to increase his speed even further. In the blink of an eye, he was in front of Ma and sshed his sword.

  Ma’s head was sent flying, his stunned and disbelieving expression frozen in the air.

  "Ma!" Long screamed in agony but didn’t slow down as he rushed toward Lin Quannai.

  Lin Quannai wasn’t about to sit still and let himself be captured. However, he wasn’t foolish enough to resist recklessly, so he dashed straight toward ko 13.

  ko 13 intercepted, blocking Long’s path and standing in front of Lin Quannai.

  Long stopped, gring at ko 13. "You killed Ma. You’ll regret this! You’ll die for this!"

  ko 13 said nothing, his short sword fshing once more to end Long’s life.

  The moment they had ignored any expnation and tried to ambush Lin Quannai, they had already been dead in ko 13’s eyes.

  "It’s over now," ko 13 said softly, looking at Lin Quannai.

  "I’m not scared," Lin Quannai replied, feeling uncomfortable with the tone ko 13 had used, as though comforting a child.

  ko 13 nodded, saying no more. He picked Lin Quannai up and started running.

  "Most ninja squads are composed of three members. While there are exceptions, it's rare to see anything else unless they're on an important mission. The st member of their team is usually a Jōnin, so they should be close."

  "Can you beat Konoha's Jōnin?" Lin Quannai asked, immediately regretting the question. From earlier, it was clear that ko 13 had reservations about elite ninjas from major countries, which meant the Hidden Earth organization wasn’t a match for them. As such, it seemed unlikely that ko 13, even as a Jōnin, could defeat a Konoha Jōnin.

  ko 13 was silent for three seconds before responding, "I can." And then, he fell into silence again.

  ...

  After running for quite some distance, ko 13 finally stopped and set Lin Quannai down.

  Along the way, he had cleared any traces of their presence. The Konoha Jōnin, unless they were from the Inuzuka cn, would have no chance of finding them here.

  And if they were from the Inuzuka cn, there was no point in running. They couldn’t escape. The only option was to fight.

  Moreover, the Inuzuka cn had no need to hide their surname during a mission. Long had referred to the Jōnin as "Gojō Jōnin."

  "Gojō" wasn’t a secret cn of Konoha, nor a bloodline family.

  After expining his reasoning and how he had dealt with the traces, ko 13 looked at Lin Quannai and asked, "What do you think after watching the battle between ninjas?"

  "Well, neither side used too many jutsu," Lin Quannai responded. This was his only takeaway. The battle had unfolded so quickly that, as someone who wasn’t a ninja, he had trouble making sense of it.

  He only noticed that there had been only three jutsu used in the entire fight—or three and a half: the Clone Technique, Fire Style: Fireball, ko 13’s wind-based jutsu, and Ma’s failed Earth Style.

  "Exactly. That’s one point," ko 13 nodded. "Ninjas use chakra, a type of energy, to perform jutsu. I’ll let someone expin it to you in detail ter, so I won’t go into it. But chakra is limited, so ninjas will try to avoid wasting it and won’t use jutsu unless necessary."

  Then, ko 13 didn’t discuss more details about the previous battle. Without firsthand experience, Lin Quannai would have difficulty understanding the finer points.

  "It’s raining, but there are so many bugs," Lin Quannai remarked, brushing his arm. A small flying insect had just nded on him.

  ko 13’s expression shifted. He tore off his mask and leaned in close to Lin Quannai, sniffing him.

  "What’s wrong?" Lin Quannai suddenly felt something was amiss.

  "It’s insect-attracting powder. That Konoha ninja sprinkled it on you when he tried to capture you," ko 13 said.

  With his mask gone, ko 13’s true appearance was revealed. His face was lean and angur, his features sharp, and his gray-bck hair and gray eyes accentuated his good looks.

  But now wasn’t the time to admire his face!

  "Insect-attracting powder? Is that Konoha Jōnin from the Yōnō family?" Lin Quannai asked nervously. The Yōnō cn was one of Konoha’s secret cns, known for their calm, clear-headed combat style and their use of intricate traps to kill powerful enemies.

  "Not necessarily. He might’ve just bought tracking bugs from the Yōnō cn. The Yōnō cn doesn’t hide their surname during missions; their style of combat is hard to conceal."

  "Rain won’t wash away the insect powder. You should take off your outer clothes," ko 13 gnced behind them. "Though it might be too te."

  He then handed Lin Quannai a small purple pill the size of a fingernail. "Put this in your mouth. Don’t swallow it. Move it around with your tongue, then swallow the saliva."

  "Whoosh!" A figure appeared on a tree using the Body Flicker Technique.

  "So it’s you!? How dare you... how dare you kill my comrades!!!" The Jōnin’s face was flushed with rage, and it was clear he had spared no effort in using the Body Flicker Technique to catch up.

  "Gojō Jōnin?" ko 13 drew his short sword from his sleeve, a killing intent radiating from him once again.

  Taking a deep breath, the Jōnin’s voice, still trembling with anger, echoed, "You’ll regret this. If you think I’m just any regur Jōnin, you’re terribly mistaken."

  ko 13 tilted his head slightly, his gaze growing sharper, like a hawk zeroing in on its prey. "Funny, I think I’m a bit different from your average Jōnin, too."

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