“Shouldn’t we wait for reinforcements?” Daisuke asked as he followed her, having less problem following her now.

“No, while it’s true that those guys were bait, they do have an objective in mind.” Pakura said, shaking her head. “It seems like they’re not the first ones to intrude into the Land of Wind, they’re actually carrying supplies to their temporal hideout.”

“Huh? But why would they do that?”

“Carrying supplies?” Pakura asked, glancing at him over her shoulder.

Daisuke shook his head. “No. Let themselves be seen. They’re carrying supplies, for god’s sake. Shouldn’t they be like totally hidden?”

“They should.” Pakura nodded. “Which is why we need to intercept them. Something’s not right here. I get that they were quite conceited to send just a few jonin to stop whatever unit would try to intercept the supposedly supply squad, but that’s what it’s more confusing… That ambush wasn’t that much of a true ambush. At least not for them. Iwagakure has quite the story with ambushing powerful shinobi with thousands of troops.”

“Right…” Daisuke nodded. “I still think we should have waited for reinforcements from the village. Heck, now I’m more sure than ever of that.”

“Don’t worry too much.” Pakura shook her head with a smirk. “I’m here, remember?”

“Sensei, you shouldn’t be too conceited either. Iwagakure lost three jonin because of that.” Daisuke said, giving her a deadpan.

“Tch. Stupid brat. You can’t even recognize the power of your beautiful sensei.” Pakura shook her head.

“...Right.” Daisuke decided to ignore her, letting out a sigh. “I swear that I’ll haunt you if something happens to me.”

“Hahaha… You’re like a freaking cockroach! If one of us dies on this sudden mission, it won’t be you, brat.” Pakura laughed. “You and that stupid constitution of yours are totally abnormal.”

“You’re the abnormal here, Bakura!” Daisuke shouted at her, a tick forming on his forehead.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you said, brat.” Pakura laughed. They kept rushing, to the intercepting point, hoping to make it in time, and luckily for them, the supply squad was still far enough for Pakura and Daisuke to be the first to get on the supposed route that the Iwa squad should be moving through.

“Are you sure they’re moving through here?” Daisuke asked as he looked down from the tree, trying to hide as best as he could.

“They have to.” Pakura said, standing on the tree next to Daisuke’s one. “This is the only way towards Shack City if they come directly from the border with the Key Country, at least if they don’t want to face the harsh desert.”

“Still, this forest is quite big, they could easily traverse through other spaces.”

“Not quite. We’re almost at the end of the forest, behind us is the last road leading to Shack City, after that point, they will be out of the forest, and in clear view. They can’t risk it too much by announcing their presence too bluntly by making the actual distance they need to move through longer. They’ll surely pick the shortest way, which is this one. We have the Bear Country at our left, and the shortest route to Shack City behind, if they don’t move through this path, they’ll either be too stupid or are directly taunting us.”

Daisuke nodded as he put all his senses to work.

“By the way, brat.” Pakura suddenly said while looking towards him. “Don’t hold back. I’ll take care of the jonins myself, and might give you a hand from time to time, but you’ll be by yourself against the chunins. So you better give it your all.”

“Ha… You are just a freaking drill sergeant…” Daisuke sighs. “Who sends a child to fight with a group of chunins alone!”

“Come on, brat, you have it easy! This is nothing compared to the damn war we just went through.” She snorted. “Besides, I’ve trained you for almost 2 years now, I know well what you’re capable of.” She finished with a shrug.

“Tch. You are just saying that to push me towards a bunch of chunin.” Daisuke rolled his eyes.

“Of course not.” Pakura sighed. “Listen to me stupid brat. Just go there and fight to the best of your abilities. You might die if you don’t, after all.” She chuckled.

Daisuke clicked his tongue, but his face turned serious. “They’re here.” He said in a really low voice, hiding more behind the trunk.

Pakura nodded as she too prepared. “I’ll take the jonin away.” She said. “But before that, as soon as they show up, we use that combo we used before to clean the bandit camp a few weeks ago.”

Daisuke nodded. Soon, the jumping figures of 10 shinobi showed through the dense forest as they moved jumped from tree to tree. Pakura and Daisuke exchanged glances, and after a nod, both of them started their hand seals.

With a jump, Pakura stood in view range of the Iwa-nins, finishing her hand seals, as Daisuke followed through. “Fire Release: Fire Dragon Blast!” Like an overpowered flamethrower, Pakura exhaled a wide wall of powerful fire that rushed towards the shinobi, but before these could act, “Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!” Daisuke exhaled a torrential stream of wind that greatly surpassed what he did before, mixing it with Pakura’s Fire Dragon Blast, the end result was an infernal wave of fire that burned and broke everything it came in contact with.

The instant increase in size and speed of the combined attack, caused the Iwa-nin to get a nice surprise, one that cost the lives of three chunins, while heavily injuring two more. Only the jonins and two more chunins managed to escape the fire in time to be out of harm.

“Shit!” One of the jonin cursed as he looked at the harm caused by the sudden attack, but he quickly made a quick sign, at which the other two jonins nodded. The three jonins quickly started shooting kunais and shurikens towards the duo, only to be stopped by Daisuke’s spewing a strong current of air that quickly deflected the projectiles.

“Good job, brat!” Pakura smirked as she finished her hand seals, with four flares forming around her. With a quick wave of her hand, three of the four flares shot towards the three jonin, keeping one close, hovering around her. ”Let’s see what you blockheads have to offer!” With a laugh she also jumped towards the closest jonin, fighting them as she slowly moved away from the rest.

Meanwhile, Daisuke evaded a few projectiles shot by the standing chunins, before jumping towards the two already hurt ones, jumping towards a tree before pushing himself towards the hurt ones.

“Earth Release: Earth Dragon Blast!” the other two remaining chunins shouted and two mudstone-made dragon faces appeared from the tree's surface before they started shooting earth mud cannon balls towards Daisuke and a little bit further on his path.

“Shit.” Daisuke clicked his tongue as he stopped on a tree branch, before jumping away to avoid the incoming cannon balls.

“Water Release: Heavenly Weeping!” One of the injured chunin took the chance to wave hand seals and spew a few water senbons at great speed towards Daisuke who was currently mid-air.

‘Fast.’ Daisuke thought, before taking his sword and cutting the senbons that were the most dangerous while trying to reduce his hit area by bending his body. “Gr…” Unfortunately, two senbons hit him on the leg and shoulder. And just as he was falling, a new mud cannon ball shot towards him. ‘The other one is trying to mold his chakra for something big…’ He thought while stepping on the trunk of a tree, before once again evading the incoming cannons.

While the three chunins were focusing their attacks on Daisuke, the remaining injured Iwa-nin was currently focusing on gathering and molding his chakra.

‘Can’t keep like this.’ With a sigh, Daisuke landed on another branch, with the enemies in front of him.

“What? Too tired already, brat!?” One of them smirked at Daisuke while forming new hand seals, while another one keep Daisuke occupied by shooting some explosive kunais. After finishing his hand seals, the chunin immediately jumped down, and once he reached the ground, he palmed it down. “Earth Release: Moving Earth Core!” 

With the activation of the jutsu, the earth below rose highly, reaching the height they were fighting at, jumping back to a branch while his other colleague shot forward kicking the earth that recently rose. “Earth Release: Flying Thrown Stones!” After the kick impacted, the top-most part of the platform broke into hundreds of stones, all of them shooting towards Daisuke who just evaded the explosion from a kunai.

‘If I die, I swear I’ll haunt Bakura!’ Daisuke thought in alarm as he quickly formed hand seals in the air, and once he reached a trunk, he quickly inhaled, before exhaling once again. “Water Release: Water Formation Wall!” A water jet came out of his mouth, impacting the frontmost stone before it opened up like an umbrella of high-pressured water, quickly deviating from the stones coming his way.

“That’s not enough!” From above came, another Iwa-nin, both arms covered in stone as he raised them high while falling towards Daisuke.

Clicking his tongue, Daisuke turned towards the falling Iwa-nin, and jump down, now both of them falling to the ground. Quickly forming hand seals with one hand, he strongly gripped his sword that quickly covered with. “HA!” With a shout, he swung his sword towards the falling Iwa-nin, shooting a barrage of gales of cutting wind blades that the chunin defended against using his rock-covered arms.

“It’s useless!” The Iwa-nin shouted while covering himself with his arms. Daisuke, in response, formed another set of one-handed seals ending by pointing a half-ram seal towards the guy's legs, which were cut clean. “ARGH! BASTARD!”

Reaching the ground, Daisuke quickly jumped away, evading more water senbons, while the newly-injured shinobi fell back-first on the ground, spitting blood, both missing legs falling not far from him.

“Ishigi!” The other shinobi came down close to their fallen comrade. “Dammit!” An enraged chunin quickly formed a few hand seals. “Earth Release: Earth Style Wall!” As he palmed the ground, a thick wall rose in front of them, stopping the Great Breakthrough that Daisuke sent toward them. “You’ll pay for this! You damn sand bastard!” The chunin said as he signaled to the injured one that has been gathering chakra. “NOW!” He shouted as he grabbed the heavily injured Ishigi, all three Iwa-nin jumping behind the shinobi who had started forming hand seals.

“EARTH RELEASE: EARTH-TURNING FISSURE FIST!” The shinobi shouted and instead of palming he punched the ground, and the earth in front of him broke as if a giant had fallen on the ground. Fissures started forming across the upturning earth, and an earthquake seemed to be attacking the trees, some of which were even uprooted by the attack.

‘Holy fuck!’ Daisuke thought as he jumped through the falling trees, wanting to be as far as possible from the ground. ‘That shit has to be an A-Rank jutsu at the very least!’ Sweat could be seen dripping down his forehead.

After a while, the tremor seemed to stop, and what remained was only a devastated place, with uprooted and fallen trees, and great fissures all around.

“Ha… Ha… I… can’t keep up… no more…” The Iwa-nin was trying to recover his breath.

“Is the bastard dead?” The other injured one said as he gulped down, looking all around. “He has to be, right? He’s a fucking brat!”

“Don’t underestimate him because he’s a kid.” The one that seemed to be acting as the temporary leader frowned as he looked around. “But… I don’t think he can’t survive this amount of destruction… no matter what kind of genius he is…”

“Right… Ha… Ha…” The one behind the grand-scaled attack said while gasping for air, his reserves of chakra being lower than he would ever want them to be.

“We should probably go help the others.” The other remaining active force said as he looked around, not finding even a corpse.

“Yes, you’re right-” The temporary leader was about to nod, but the sound of a flowing and tumultuous river could be heard coming. “...What’s that?”

“O-Oi!” Shocked, one of the initially injured ones called them, while signaling towards the destroyed land, where a great amount of water was blasting through the broken earth, flooding everywhere it passes.

“Fuck! Jump!” Two of them jumped back and attached themselves to the threes, one of them holding the passed-out Ishigi. The exhausted one tried to, but given his low chakra and exhaustion, he could only hold himself by stabbing a kunai on the trunk. A second later, the water flooded where they were moments before. “Where the hell did all this water come from!? Are you okay there, Kotaka!?”

“Just need… a moment…” Kotaka answered, stabbing another kunai on the trunk, before trying to slowly climb up with both kunais, not noticing that from under the water a figure slowly formed, shooting up towards him.

“Kotaka, behind you!” The one carrying Ishigi shouted while the other one tried to shoot more water senbons, but it was quite late.

“Damn it!” Kotaka shouted as he tried to parry the incoming sword of Daisuke, who quickly parried the kunai away before sliding on the tree trunk with his chakra-covered hand, evading the senbons, and turning around to jump from the tree back into the water, not before waving his wind covered sword to cut through the trunk, and through the Iwa-nin’s waist.

“FUCK!” The injured shinobi that kept shooting senbons, took what he had left of explosive kunais and threw them all to the water, trying to blast Daisuke away.

“HOW IS THIS BASTARD A KID!?” Shouted the one holding Ishigi.

“We need to report back to the village!” After throwing all his explosive tools into the water, he turned towards their leader. “Take Ishigi and escape back!”

“What!? We can with this kid!”

“You are useless with this whole place submerged in water!” The injured one shouted back. “And-Below!” As he tried to explain, Daisuke jumped from the water below the tree where the temporary leader and Ishigi were standing. He quickly formed one-hand seals and his sword once again was covered in wind, which he used to cut the tree.

“Fuck you!” The leader jumped to another tree, throwing shurikens towards Daisuke, who parried them with his sword, before sliding on the water, and after a half-ram seal, he shoot multiple water bullets towards the other Iwa-nin who was also jumping from tree to tree, evading Daisuke’s bullets.

“Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!” After forming a few hand seals, the other Iwa-nin sent a water dragon toward Daisuke.

“Wind Release: Wind Torpedo!” With one-hand seals, he quickly exhaled air, before blowing it toward the dragon, forming an almost invisible air torpedo that exploded after impacting the dragon, destroying it. “Wind Release: Tornado Trap!” After blowing the water dragon, he created a wide tornado surrounding the passed-out Ishigi, the temporary leader, and even the tree they were currently holding onto.

“Fuck! This kid is a monster!” The other one quickly jumped on the water, forming hand seals while falling. “Water Release: Hail!” As he palmed the water, the water shot up, creating small orb-shaped clumps of water, before shooting towards Daisuke, who then disappeared underwater. “Tch.” The Iwa-nin looked at the tornado that had been by now covered in water and was trapping the other two in it. “Water Release.” With the next set of hand seals, he inhaled water. “Water-Wah!?” From under him, the water reformed into a hand that grabbed his feet, before pulling him down.

Taking a kunai out, he slashed around trying to cut Daisuke but was quickly met with a sword piercing through his chest from the back.

“Fuck!” The remaining conscious Iwa-nin was looking through his stash until he finally found a kunai with an explosion tag, but just as he threw it towards the tornado, Daisuke shot from his left, and with a swing of his sword, the tree was cut, and the Iwa-nin decapitated.

After everything calmed out, Daisuke let out a deep sigh. “I swear that I’ll get back at Bakura for this…” He shook his head, before walking over the now receding water towards Ishigi, who was almost dead with all the blood he lost. Without much thought, Daisuke decapitated him, before rushing to where Pakura was still fighting.