Wind fuels fire, fire rides the wind.
The Great Fireball Technique slammed straight into the enemy ninja who had been forming hand seals. In that same instant, Fox's Vacuum Bullet tore through the blaze behind it. Kazuki felt his Shadow Imitation Technique catch something.
The enemy was still alive.
Kazuki didn't hesitate—he immediately launched into a twisted, ritualistic Shadow Possession Dance.
He'd barely completed the first movement when the enemy broke free.
"Watch out for that Konoha brat! He uses genjutsu!" the man shouted to his allies.
But Kazuki wasn't done. His shadow surged again—but this time, it shot backward.
Kazuki's pupils narrowed.
That direction... someone was behind him!
He didn't second-guess it.
"Behind us!" he shouted, forming seals at top speed.
The moment he turned, he saw it—a blade, headed straight for his eye. Fast. Almost too fast.
At the instant of impact, Kazuki activated Shadow Flow Master. His shadow clone vanished—and Kazuki reappeared on the canopy of a tree.
"...Whew." He let out a long breath.
Another shadow clone formed, nodded at Kazuki, and darted back toward the fight.
"Thank god I chose that upgrade." Kazuki took a second to calm himself. He hadn't expected an ambush from behind. But thinking about it... six enemy shinobi to stop a full Konoha detachment? That seemed too light.
So this was their backup—an ambush team tailing the ambush team.
They just hadn't realized Fox and Kazuki were tailing them.
"What is this, matryoshka-level tactics?" Kazuki muttered, then zeroed in on the battlefield and bolted.
He stopped just at the edge of combat.
Four new enemy shinobi had entered the fray. Fox was engaged with two of them. One was the bastard who tried to stab Kazuki—he was fast, sword flashing.
"The tides have turned," Kazuki murmured, forming hand seals at lightning speed. His shadow crept out like a serpent.
Another roaring Great Fireball ripped through the battlefield, searing toward the swordsman. The man's body stiffened—he instinctively scrambled his chakra, a known method to resist genjutsu.
He heard phantom voices.
Then the shadow caught him.
Kazuki didn't hesitate this time. He danced.
At the same moment, Fox took his shot—ignoring the searing heat that melted half his ANBU mask, he unleashed a Wind Blade aimed precisely at the enemy's neck.
The swordman's head dropped silently.
Kazuki released the jutsu, spun, and struck down a flying kunai aimed at him.
"Fox!" he called, spotting his team leader. But the sight stopped him for half a second.
The fire had melted the mask—revealing golden hair, sky-blue eyes, and a delicate, strikingly feminine face.
Kazuki blinked—then dove right back into combat.
Because kills were far more seductive than pretty faces.
With Kazuki's sudden assault, the tide turned fast. Six enemy corpses were left behind. Four others fled at speed—some ANBU jonin gave chase, though whether they'd catch them was another matter.
"Captain, which village were these guys from?" Kazuki asked.
Fox had swapped to a new mask, but Kazuki couldn't unsee the face beneath. There was no way she'd used a Transformation Jutsu during battle. That'd be insane.
"Looks like Kumogakure," Fox said, plunging a blade into one of the corpses. The ninja was obviously dead—but protocol demanded destroying the heart, just in case.
They'd found some Cloud headbands, and items typical of Kumogakure. It all felt a little too on-the-nose.
"Suspiciously obvious," Kazuki muttered.
He'd gotten two confirmed kills—that was solid. But what bugged him was the gear. Too convenient.
Fox nodded. The headbands were almost planted. While some of them used Kumogakure-style taijutsu, that wasn't restricted knowledge. Any village could copy the moves with enough training.
"Captain," Kakashi approached, blood on his gear—not his own.
The fight had ended quickly. Once they were spotted, the attackers lost their ambush advantage.
"Akaka—what do you think?" Fox asked Kazuki.
Kazuki rubbed his chin.
It wasn't Sunagakure. No reason for them to sabotage a prisoner exchange. Kumogakure? Maybe. But still unlikely. Staging an attack this far away just to delay an exchange? That'd be straight-up incitement to war.
"I think it's probably Iwagakure," Kazuki said.
"Oh? Why?" A voice asked behind them.
A ninja stepped forward—no mask.
Kazuki squinted. He looked familiar.
"I'm Inoichi Yamanaka—I'm overseeing the prisoner exchange," the man said with a friendly nod. He also gave Fox a curious glance.
Kazuki immediately stood a little straighter.