Habara y in the mud, and even though he was covered in muddy water, it couldn't stop the heat radiating from his body. No one kneell-done his right arm was.

  The intense impact almost knocked Habara unscious. The burniion from the fmes amplified his sense of pain to the extreme. After instinctively struggling for a bit, he finally mao prop himself up.

  As if through a curtain of water, the surrounding sounds of rain, fighting, and shouting reached Habara's ears in an incredibly distorted way... Who am I, where am I, what exactly happened?

  Okay, it wasn't that dramatic. Habara was just a little fused as to why the enemy had unched a suicide attack without hesitation, and why the target of the attack was him.

  The battle had only just begun. Why would a perfectly fine person just blow himself up? Even ninjas shouldn't disregard their own lives to this extent, should they?

  However, the enemy hadn't just randomly chosen someoo perform a "mutual destru teique" on. Judging from the bat power Habara had dispyed sihe beginning of the battle, the enemy judged that a one-for-orade with him was worth it.

  The enemy sidered Habara a strong oppo.

  This battle situation was quite simir to when Habara first stepped onto the battlefield. The absurd part was that this time, Habara and the others were in the position of the "Cloud's powerful enemies," while the Amegakure ninjas were more like "Z Squad."

  For the weak to challehe strong, they iably had to make sacrifices beyond imagination. Every Amegakure ninja who went to the battlefield repared to die, and sihey could accept the fact of death, they wouldn't hesitate to choose the path leading to it.

  Of course, such Amegakure ninjas could be said to have incredibly strong wills, or they could be said to have been maliciously brainwashed... Regardless, the world was what it was.

  "Hiss..."

  Habara exhaled a long breath, then took a deep breath and held it. Iron barriers gradually covered his right arm, repg the severely burned skin to protect his body tissues.

  The enemy who attacked him naturally had a worse oute. In a spiritual sehat person could be called heroic, but in a real sense, he had just bee a pile of Indian curry.

  The explosion of dozens of detonating tags detonating together hadn't killed Habara, which was somewhat ued. But when the sole remaining enemy of that four-man squad noticed Habara getting up from the mud, he immediately unched atack.

  As the enemy quickly flipped his wrists and then stopped, a huge fireball flew straight towards Habara.

  Currently, Habara wasn't actually good at dealing with area-of-effect skills like Fire Release. But the moment, his figure disappeared from his inal spot. The curtain of rain lit vertically in a straight line, and the burning fireball was cut in half horizontally. The sound of rushing wind began, and the sound of rushing wind stopped. Then the enemy discovered that a silver longsword had already pierced his heart.

  A bone-chilling ess spread from his chest. With almost no pain, his bodily funs ceased.

  "I admire your ce iing the enemy. I don't uand the meaning of this war, but I at least uand that the powerful nations' undisguised aggression against the small nations is wrong. However... I'm sorry, I don't io die here."

  Habara dispelled the silver sword in his hand, and then two bow arms extended from his left wrist. He then straightened his arm, and the string of that bow automatically drew back. A bck "ribboended from behind him, and its front end attached to the bow, instantly f an iron arrow... Even without usiher of his hands, he could plete the a of drawing the bow.

  He climbed to a higher position and began to support his other teammates.

  "Retreat! Don't stop, retreat through the gap Habara opened!"

  Izayo instantly grasped the ges itlefield situation and shouted orders to her subordinates.

  By now, the number of Amegakure ninjas who had arrived far exceeded the number of Konoha ninjas. Stopping to fight at this point was meaningless; it was tantamount to slow suicide.

  Running was the only way to have a sliver of hope.

  Izayo's order naturally had a positive effect, but it also meant she revealed her identity to the enemy. sequently, most of the enemies immediately charged towards her.

  Faced with that number of enemies, Habara's one-arrow-at-a-time support was rgely meaningless, so he could only throw out another "Mercury Lamp"... Now was not the time to be stingy with chakra ption.

  Silver light fshed, and the Konoha ninjas burst out from the gap in the enemy's encirclement that Habara had opened. bined with the Mercury Lamp's instant killing and hindering power, the Konoha side actually briefly broke tact with the enemy.

  Not all twelve of them escaped.

  But Habara and the others didn't o wait for or assist those who didn't escape.

  Habara and the others were focused on esg, so some finger-width "bck lines" began to climb up Habara's torso and limbs. Then, lightning began to flow along the predetermiracks.

  "Self-Inflicted Curse Binding Chidori Current," Habara's inal (pirated + spliced) Lightning Release ninjutsu body teique. This method of using Lightning Release was desigo both retairengthening effect of Lightning Release on the body and suppress chakra ption to the minimum... However, strictly speaking, this teique was less like Chidori Current and more like aernally powered exoskeleton.

  But the enemy couldn't be shaken off so easily. After being deyed for just a moment, they pursued again.

  The Konoha ninjas fought as they retreated, their numbers gradually dwindling, and those who were still alive were all injured.

  Habara's chakra was also gradually running out. But as he fought, he suddenly noticed something strange... The abnormality was in the enemies' headbands. inally, they naturally wore Amegakure headbands, but now the Amegakure symbol on the headbands often had a horizontal lihrough it.

  Rogue ninjas?

  In other words, the etag Habara and the others had gradually ged from Amegakure ninjas to "Akatsuki" ninjas.

  And at this moment, the Konoha ninjas behind them suddenly stopped.

  "The enemy is pursuing us very closely. It's impossible to expect everyoo escape. Habara, we see your strength. With your abilities, you should be able to protect the captain and Daigo and reach the Konoha camp... We'll stop the enemy." The leading ninja said.

  "Kujo..."

  For teams like Z Squad, because of their position, the retionships between members were retively cold. Apart from Daigo and Izayo, Habara only khe others by name, so he hadn't expected these people to willingly stay behind to hold off the enemy.

  Everyone knew what staying behi.

  "Rather than being wiped out entirely, it's better to let those who survive, survive. In Konoha, there aren't many people who are willing to treat us as equals, so... go quickly, before we ge our minds."

  It could only be said that both sides had true badasses.

  Only...

  Tough guys meeting their end otlefield, whether good or bad, was the "fate" siime immemorial.