Theoretically, under normal circumstances, Habara should have been riddled with holes by the trag shuriken. But because they were "colleagues," both being Mag Release users, Habara had actually blocked all those attacks – something the enemy never expected. He could even have, if he'd wanted, rehe enemy's magization pletely useless.

  But he hadn't dohat, precisely to create the impression that he was both weak and already injured.

  The enemy wasn't actually being careless. Even though Habara was supposedly "injured," Toroi had still been watg his hand movements closely, preventing a sudden terattack. But who could have guessed that this guy wouldn't use hand seals at all?

  "Stop him!" a Cloud ninja shouted.

  The sudden shift itle had thrown them off bance.

  At that moment, Habara reached behind his back with his right hand and smoothly pulled out a rge bow. He switched hands, holding the bow with his left and nog an arrow with his right, an iron arrow instantly f.

  The moment, Habara started running sideways, because the Lightning Release enemy had already closed in. And while running, he still held the bow with both hands, steadily aiming the arrowhead in one dire:

  Secret Teique: Binding Mistletoe God.

  Driven by the stored potential energy in the bow and the magic force Habara had accumuted, the thumb-thick iron arrow moved so fast it seemed to pierce space itself, an instant strike that directly hit Toroi's forehead. tless spikes then spread out in a e, instantly turning the other man's head into a piece of postmodern art... This teique was clearly imitating the Wood Style: Cutting Teique.

  This follow-up attack might seem redundant, but in Habara's experience, some ninjas were surprisingly hard to kill. Therefore, a follow-up was always necessary.

  Even though the enemy's entire right half had been shattered on the ground, wasn't there a biological cept called mitosis? Looking at this se, there were threads (mitosis), and someone had split (division), indig the possibility of the enemy surviving and tinuing. mito = thread.

  Without time to check the results of the previous attack, the Lightning Release enemy was already upon him!

  A lightning-charged side kick smmed into Habara's left abdomen, causing him to stagger, nearly falling to the ground. He took a rge step to the right with his right leg, instantly supp his body and brag against the attack with brute force.

  At the same time, a rge amount of blood flowed out... from the enemy's right leg.

  Secret Teique: Thornbird.

  Several sharp iron spikes that protruded from Habara's side, bined with the force of the enemy's attack, easily pierced the oppo's right leg.

  Under his clothes, Habara could form a yer of metal armor at any time for defense. And because of the ges he could make to its metallic properties, this armor's strength and defensive capabilities were incredibly high.

  The Lightning Release made his body slightly numb, but it was pletely bearable.

  Although Habara's taijutsu oor, he didn't dislike close bat now. On the trary, he rather enjoyed situations where the enemy actively closed the distance. As a ninja, Habara currently had only two insignifit advantages: his defense was extremely strong, and his attack power was exceptionally high.

  Two long swords extended from his palms. One was silver, thin as a cicada's wing, and surrounded by a chilling aura; the other was bck, but with a certain crimson light within:

  Secret Teique: Thornbird - Cold Plume, Burniher.

  Habara swung a sword with each hand, then quickly retreated, seeming pletely uned with the effect of his attacks. After that, Habara paused briefly, but looked at the remaining two enemies.

  After staring at them for a moment, Habara simply started retreating at his top speed.

  The Lightning Release user's right arm had been severed at the shoulder, but not a single drop of blood flowed from the wound. Instead, the cut surface showed signs of having been cauterized by high heat.

  "Hey, your arm..."

  The other enemy came to the Lightning Release ninja's side. Seeing that his teammate seemed unfazed by the severed arm, he gently pushed him. Then, something rolled onto the ground with a thud.

  Blood finally spurted out...

  A geyser.

  Uhe st time, when he had merely kicked the enemy, this time Habara had personally elimiwo enemies. He had to admit a fact: pared to the enviro ging people, situations where people ged the enviro were few and far between.

  Sining to this world, Habara had participated in several battles and seen all kinds of corpses. Uhese circumstances, he had bee slightly numb, naturally leading to a higher psychological threshold and a lower moral standard.

  It was kill or be killed. Thinking too mu this situation was just asking for trouble.

  And as long as one's ambushing skills were high enough, even a jonin could be killed by a in or even a genin.

  Having elimiwo enemies and exposed all his trump cards, making it difficult to unother surprise attack, Habara decisively ran away again... It could only be said that he had a rather clear uanding of his own abilities.

  The remaining two enemies were nothing to worry about. They specialized ih and Fire Release, and cked pursuit capabilities, a situation Habara had observed from the very beginning.

  Meanwhile, at the Konoha camp.

  Minato Namikaze, having received the call for reinforts, had already arrived at the front lines from Konoha.

  After learning the details of the current situation, he said, "From the looks of it, the Cloud is actually assuming a defensive posture. It's like they were suddenly stimuted by something. At this point, we 't be sure if they'll actually un all-out attack... We o be fully prepared, but we shouldn't take any rash as for now. I'll go scout the Cloud's situation. It would be best to determine what exactly happened over there."

  Orochimaru nodded. "How reliable, Minato. We'll do as you say."

  "Then I'll leave things here to you, Lord Orochimaru." Minato Namikaze nodded, and then his figure instantly disappeared.

  Well, with Minato Namikaze on the front lines, everything was ing full circle... If the truth of what was happening came to light one day, who knew hoeople would have their blood pressure skyrocket.

  Habara rushed towards the Konoha camp. He didn't enter any Cloud ninjas in the Cloud-trolled area, and he didn't enter any Konoha ninjas in the Konoha-trolled area either... This finally made him realize that something was amiss.

  And this time, he was stopped by Konoha ninjas even further out from the camp.

  "Halt, who goes there?"

  "Genin Habara, returning from a special mission. Top secret code: SJMS0054," Habara said.

  Although the genin rank and a secret mission that could only be referred to by code were pletely ingruous, after verifying the relevant information and finding no issues with Habara's identity, the ninja had no choice but to lead him towards the camp.

  "May I ask what's going on here? I haven't been away from the camp for very long, but the atmosphere seems to have ged drastically..." Habara tried to ask this ninja what was happening.

  The ninja g him and then expined, "We're preparing for a major battle with the Cloud. This might be the final battle between Konoha and the Cloud in this Ninja War."

  This news stunned Habara. He found it somewhat unbelievable.

  "A major battle? There were absolutely no signs of that before... War is truly an uable and rapidly ging thing..."

  In Habara's view, even if the war wouldn't end soon, its scale should have been gradually decreasing. How could it suddee?

  It didn't quite make sense...