Chapter 48: Distance Dislocation
"Attacking so boldly on the border of the Land of Fire—do you hold Konoha in such contempt?"
The voice came from above.
The Cloud shinobi looked up just as a giant toad dropped from the canopy.
"Scatter!" their captain ordered.
He canceled Swift Lightning Arrow and sprang away with the others. The summoned creature struck the road hard enough to throw dust across the caravan. It stood nearly three meters tall, broad-backed and mottled, with Tonbo balanced on its head.
"First step," Tonbo said, smiling. "Separate the enemy. Successful."
The attackers had not survived this long by staring at spectacles. Even while retreating, they watched Tonbo, the surrounding trees, and every patch of ground that might conceal a trap.
One of them saw Hayama emerge—and then dissolve into falling leaves.
Steel flashed behind the enemy captain.
Hayama's katana swept toward his neck, but the man turned in time and intercepted it with his own blade. The collision rang through the trees.
"Wind Release: Breakthrough."
Hayama completed a seal with his free hand. Compressed wind struck at close range, slicing cloth and opening thin red lines across the captain's body. The man used the impact to retreat toward the forest.
His eyes settled on Hayama's forehead protector.
"Konoha."
He disappeared among the trees, forcing Hayama to pursue him into terrain suited to a mobile fight.
Hayama followed without rushing. The cuts had taught the enemy to respect his reach, and that caution would slow every counterattack. Behind them, the noise of the caravan faded into a pattern of separate engagements. Their initial intervention had achieved exactly what Tonbo intended: the attackers could no longer concentrate all their strength against the remaining guards.
Another Cloud shinobi fled in the opposite direction. A quiet voice reached him from behind.
"Tree Binding Death."
He glanced back and met Itachi's red eyes. Bark seemed to climb around his legs. A tree rose against his spine, branches coiling over his arms and chest until he could no longer move.
Genjutsu.
He forced chakra toward the disruption point, but Anko gave him no time to break free. A huge serpent shot from her sleeve and closed its jaws around his head. Blood arced across the leaves as the body collapsed.
"Good combination, Uchiha brat."
Anko released the technique and let the severed head fall.
The remaining Cloud shinobi saw their comrade die. Anger sharpened their formation, but did not destroy it. Instead of allowing Anko and Itachi to isolate another target, they converged from several angles at once.
Itachi stepped toward Anko rather than away from the encirclement. The tighter spacing limited the directions they needed to defend, while his Sharingan read the first tension in shoulders and wrists before each strike. Anko guarded the openings his smaller body could not cover. Neither mistook cooperation for safety; every blocked weapon made room for the next attacker.
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Blades collided. Lightning cracked through the undergrowth. Explosive tags shook loose branches overhead.
One of the two enemy leaders started toward that battle.
Tonbo's toad landed in his path.
"Your opponent is me."
The man was dark-skinned, black-haired, and marked by a scar across one cheek. Twin swords rested over his shoulders, though no forehead protector identified him. His attention moved between Tonbo, the creature beneath him, and the distant battles.
"You chose the wrong man," he said.
Kawasuke formed seals and expelled a spear of lightning.
"Impatient, aren't you?"
Tonbo's hands blurred.
"Wind Release: Breakthrough."
The gale tore the spear apart and continued toward Kawasuke. He had already moved. Lightning flooded his muscles, driving him forward with explosive speed as both swords came free of their sheaths.
Wind Release placed him at a disadvantage from a distance. Closing the gap was the obvious answer, though the toad remained an unknown threat.
Tonbo formed another sequence of seals.
Another wind technique, Kawasuke assumed. If Tonbo spent even a moment launching it, the swords would reach him first.
Kawasuke arrived and slashed.
His blade missed the toad by an inch.
He adjusted and struck again. The edge stopped an inch short.
A third attack failed by precisely the same distance, although he could have sworn his arms followed the correct path.
Kawasuke did not waste a fourth attempt.
"Lightning Body Rush."
Electrical chakra surged through his network, disrupting its flow. The toad and Tonbo snapped backward as if the world itself had shifted. Kawasuke had advanced only two steps. Ten meters still separated them.
His pupils narrowed.
"Genjutsu."
"Well done," Tonbo called. "My first field test of a visual-displacement genjutsu, and you broke it almost immediately."
The illusion had consumed little chakra and performed better than Tonbo expected. It distorted the victim's sense of distance without needing to fabricate an entire false world.
Its weakness was equally clear. An experienced shinobi could recognize the repeated discrepancy and disrupt his chakra before Tonbo converted the confusion into a decisive blow. That did not make the technique a failure. A few stolen seconds, used at the correct moment, could determine an entire battle.
The toad was no true summoning creature. Tonbo had woven it after studying memories of Jiraiya's summons, shaping an imitation large enough to mislead an enemy about its capabilities.
"Again," Tonbo said.
Kawasuke answered with lightning. Tonbo's creation lunged, and the clearing dissolved into clashing steel, violent gusts, and shattered earth.
Elsewhere, Itachi leaned back as a sword passed close enough to cut several strands of hair. Kunai left both hands. They struck each other in flight and changed direction, attacking from angles intended to bypass the enemy's guard.
The Cloud shinobi deflected both.
Their taijutsu and swordsmanship supported one another with drilled precision. Even the Sharingan could not turn an eight-year-old body into something fast enough to dominate so many experienced opponents.
Itachi searched for another opening.
Anko fought several paces away, her clothing torn and shallow burns spreading around her wounds. Her snake techniques kept the lightning blades from paralyzing her outright, but the pressure continued to increase.
There were not six enemies anymore. Five infiltrators from the caravan had joined the battle, raising the number opposing Anko and Itachi to eleven before the first casualty reduced it to ten.
That explained why their position had deteriorated so quickly.
"Hidden Shadow Many Snakes Hand!"
Serpents burst from Anko's sleeves and forced the nearest attackers back. She met Itachi's eyes for an instant. No words were necessary. They began withdrawing into the forest, matching their pace to the rhythm of the fight and drawing their pursuers toward the traps prepared earlier.
Kunai, shuriken, and arcs of lightning followed them beneath the trees.
At the road, the surviving caravan guards watched the Konoha shinobi lead the attackers away.
"My lord," one guard asked the bearded noble, "should we assist them? If Konoha loses, the enemy will return for us."
The noble looked across broken wagons, dead servants, and scattered ore. Relief at being rescued could not overcome the cost of the attack.
"No. We have suffered enough losses. Hold this position."
The others agreed at once. They had no desire to risk their lives in a battle between shinobi, and their resentment fell upon the lone guard who had suggested it.
The noble tightened his hand around his katana. In his mind, Konoha should have arrived sooner.